The large frame may have been slightly bent and his speech slowed down a bit as a result of his advancing age, but these external changes have not affected the charm and wit that characterised this Indian poet laureate’s demeanour in his younger days.
Settled in Frankfurt, Germany, Shabahat Ali Khan, now 81 and retired from his travel-and-tourism business since early 2000, has been capturing the hearts of not only the growing Urdu- and Hindi-speaking community but also the people of other nationalities.
Khan says he wants to devote his retired life to literary work. “I deserve a little rest and should be allowed to do what I love most — reading and writing Urdu and Persian works of literature,” he told Weekend Review.
Khan’s literary talents have admirers in South Asia and other parts of the world.
When Javed Akhtar, the Bollywood lyricist, poet and writer, attended India’s “partner country” participation in the Frankfurt International Book Fair two years ago, Khan was an automatic choice to represent Germany’s Indian community and receive Akhtar and other prominent Indian literary figures.
Born in Fatehpur in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Khan completed his university education in Allahabad and subsequently worked as a teacher for two years in Fatehpur. The colonial British government offered him a job at the British Consulate in Khorramshahr, Iran, as a “reward for the meritorious services rendered by my late father Ihtishm ud Daulah Khan”.
Language link
Khan stayed in Iran for 14 years, during which time he mastered the intricacies of the Persian language and had stints as interpreter and translator with the Indian diplomatic mission in Tehran.
He became the “link” between then British India Government and the Iranian foreign ministry.
“I played a minor role in the mediation between Iran and Britain on the nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry. [Then Iranian] prime minister Dr Mossadeq honoured me by presenting me his photograph with a personal note,” Khan says, pointing to the former Iranian prime minister’s picture, which adorns the wall of his study.
Later, when he was absorbed into the foreign service of independent India — which was personally moulded by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru — Khan found opportunities to display his talents.
During a visit by the Chancellor of Ankara University in Turkey, Khan highlighted some little-known aspects of Indian Muslims. “I pointed to the Sufi traditions and the teachings of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi.
"Such minute details about India’s bilateral relations with Turkey were appreciated by the ministry of external affairs and I was soon moved to the protocol section where I handled matters concerning visits by heads and ministers of Muslim countries to India.”
Tara Chand, who was then the head of the Indian mission in Tehran and had been vice-chancellor of Allahabad University, quickly recognised the usefulness of Khan’s mastery of Urdu and Persian and asked him to edit and translate a number of Persian books written on India under Mogul rule.
“I was also associated with the translation of Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, into Persian.”
But what endears Khan to many is not just his mastery of Urdu and Persian but also his knowledge of Hindu scriptures.
This “walking-talking encyclopaedia”, as many Indians call him, attributes his deep knowledge of Vedanta and Sufism to his association with T.N. Kaul, a former high-profile Indian ambassador. Khan’s German wife, Hiltrude, too, was a scholar in her own right. She obtained a doctorate in Islamic studies, with specialisation in Persian, Arabic and Turkish; she was a “huge influence” on Khan’s career and his decision to settle in Frankfurt.
Khan first met her in Tehran, where he helped her with the local language; the acquaintance blossomed into a close relationship and culminated in their marriage in 1958. Hiltrude died in 2001.
Though Khan has been living in Germany, his heart is “still very much in India”.
“I am keen to show Germans the true face of India and dispel the Kipling-esque clichés about the country,” he says. The recently created Indo-German Forum (IGF), which unanimously elected Khan as a co-chairman, could serve as a platform to dispel such anachronistic notions of India, he feels.
Khan has collected couplets from various forms of Urdu poetry in an anthology called Yadon ke Ujale (The Light of Memories), published by Kavi Sabha (Poets’ Assembly) in Delhi. The anthology was transcribed in Devanagari script by Indu Prakash Pandey, a retired professor of Hindi at Frankfurt University.
Khan’s work has not gone unnoticed even in Pakistan. His name appears in Ek Azim wa Qadim Gahwara Fatehpur, the prestigious collection of literary works edited and published by Sitar-e-Imtiaz professor Farman Fatehpuri, a life chairman of the Urdu Dictionary Board in Karachi, whose magnum opus is an Urdu dictionary of 23 volumes.
Also, Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Urdu Pakistan, or the Society of Progress of Urdu in Pakistan, bore the costs of publishing a book edited by Khan.
“The book contains 110 letters written to me by professor Farman Fatehpuri in the past 50 years with notes and commentary,” Khan explains.
“Like music, literature and poetry know no boundaries. They can promote better understanding and harmony,” Khan says, when asked if his work could help improve relations between India and Pakistan.
Manik Mehta is a commentator on Asian affairs.
