Dargah Hazrat Inayat Khan Delhi India
Visalat Day, February 1969
Sound recording arrest Sufi pilgrims at the dargah and at the police station;
Almost literal rapport of the discussions as far as understandable;
Recordings by Alim Vosteen, 24-01-1969, rapport June 2009, tracks also on CD now.
V: =Vilayat; F: = Fazal; Po: = Police Officer;
In the morning of Friday 24th January 1969, coming out of the Dargah where we have held for ca. 2,5 hours our prayers and silence without any disturbance, the police force called in by Pir Vilayat and many bystanders were waiting us pilgrims to take us to the police station.
The first parts are recordings on the way walking along to the police station nearby, the second parts are recording fragments taken at the police station itself.
The recording lasts about 20 minutes out of more than 2 hours waiting and arguing.
The recording ends by running out of tape.
First part of the recorded fragments: ……..
…Man in black is explaining the Police……..
(most likely (Bapul?), an authoritative official from the Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah)……
V: They can come, they can come as they wish, but they must apply to the rules....
F: This is the first time I am in India and this is the first time that the Sufi Movement will organise this program of pilgrimage….
Po: now you have opened this lock and now you gave him….
F: we have come here for silence and prayer just as we came here last time
And then what I was … to tell you when we were here for silence and prayer than this man who is an impostor and who has nothing to do with our group, he came in and interfere and said I am in charge and you do what I say, and he started to give prayers and interfere with our silence and prayers, so we asked him, please let me finish, not to interfere, and he said, no I am in charge and you listen to my rules, there are no rules that I know anything about;
so we asked him will you please do not interfere or we put you out, and he continued to interfere and we pushed him to the door…
V: do not lie
F: and finally he said I will not …
V: do not lie, he do not push me to the door, he pushed me out of the door
F: and we never did anything to him, he was quiet, we had our prayers we had our silence,
and we left of it, an important thing is that we do not want to interfere by impostors, you see this man here whatever he is for, we are normal respected people from all countries of the world and we don’t like to be bothered with all these kind of impostors that like to have money and cheating and to make rules that have nothing to do with the sacredness of this grave.
I think that I represent a sufficiently large enough.. organisation to have some sort of status with impostor who has no claim here at all except that he has a few people here who he has probably bribed and who are telling you a lot of nonsense …
V: I am bribing nothing..
Po: there is no question of bribing…….. Man in Black: he is blaming this people..
V: listen to me, I am the Sashada Nasheen, you know the laws of ….
Po: if you are… if you have any documents properly you write to their Wakaf,
RIA only represent 100 percent of law, they will xxxx no break of peace ….
V: listen to me, as Sashada Nasheen I must say my prayers, I can pass over the ceremony to them afterwards and I shut them out, that is my position.
I have to act as Sashada Nasheen, after that they can say their prayers to God.
I don’t interfere with their prayers but I must first say my prayers;
……..Some Urdu talk on the rights then by the Man in Black and Police………………
Man in Black: the Sashaha Nasheen knows the rules and everything and he can allow anybody to worship….…so the Sashada Nasheen knows all the rules and abolitions……
V: I am the eldest son, according to the Indian Law the eldest son is the Sashada Nasheen, I am the eldest son, so I have to exercise my function as Sashada Nasheen, I will not interfere with them but when they come, I am the host and I say the first prayer and they can come to the meeting, I must be present, after the meeting I say my prayer and they can leave and I can stay, all right? So are the rules! …..
F: What is the name of this gentlemen if I may ask?
Po: This man? F: yes; ( meant is the name of the Man in Black, )
MB: Who are you to ask my name?
F: should I say: may ask?
MB: no it is not necessary
…. Urdu talk….
F: I do not know the credentials of this gentlemen… all talking through each other..
MB: I do not know why you ask my name ………
F: what is your name…..
V: he knows nothing of the rules and regulations here, he does not recognise me as Sashada Nasheen, and he has pushed me out of the Dargah xxxxxx
Po: now listen xxx, they came here for prayer are you obeying this will or not
V: I am obeying providing that they apply to the rules of the Dargah Shareef?, the same thing Dargah Shareef xxxxx of Nizammuddin xxxx if you apply to the rules you can come in xxx;
F: you see there is one law you represent, that is the legal law of the Government of India,
I am willing to take your interpretation of the law but I do not know who this people here are as far as I concerned they are just like any private citizens
V: I happened to be the xxxxx F: nonsense xxx
Po: xxxxx if it is not the proper right we will settle it all with you
xxxx…. Is he your uncle?
F: in fact he is my uncle
V: I thought you say you did not know me, now you say I am your uncle, before you did say that you don’t know me so you are lying xxxx
………
F: Sir I must explain to you, he has given the Sufi Movement difficulty
Po: what kind of difficulty
V: … of my father;
F: oh no no no,
V: I am nominated by my father as his successor
F: no he said that, he always said that,
xxxx….
Po: Maintenace of law, as you have pushed this fellow, and he I think he has got blatter?.
V: I have broken my rib…
Fa: we asked him not to interfere and he was not intended to stop….
Po: if he interferes you, you must go to the police station…..we are for that purpose…..that is why we came here,…we will open it for all…….
F: that is what it should be……………………….
Xxxx….. much and long time noise at the police station…………………..
A: what I don’t understand how it is working,….. that other man who was with him that man in black, ……because we thought he was of the police, because he put us questions
Po. No he is not a policeman
Second part at the police station when also the Attaché of the Dutch Embassy had arrived.
F: I do not speak Urdu..
Po: what is your name?
F: My name is Fazal Inayat Khan;
Po: Fazal Inayat Khan;
F. that is right;
Po: why you give beating to this pour? man
F: I have not given beating
Po: only he has said that he has fractures and waiting? and the ribs happened to be checked?
V: did I do the fractures myself, did I ?
Po. This old? man do complain to us he has reporting to you that you have so much beaten him in a sleep? And he got for cheque? in a hospital;
F: I think there are one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve witnesses;
There have been no beatings, we have not beaten this man;
Po: why he then has arrest? to you, what is he to you, he is your uncle I think?
Vi: as heavenly goodness, I have a witness, I have a witness, Abbas
( must be meant Abbas the caretaker of the Dargah who remained standing outside in the alley and who was helping him up the only time Vilayat was fallen down in the alley as I have watched to my shame)
Po: he is your Uncle,…. is that man you uncle?
F: That man is if I recognise him if I remember him, the last time I saw him he did not have a beard, he did have different hair, …… xxx Po: It is your uncle ….xxx…;
F: It is the first time that the Sufi Movement has organized…
Po: but this man is always there for the Sufi Movement and he is doing all .. and arrangements and he is order the chador? of place, if you enter the place without his consent by treading ? his authority then you offence India;
F: may I please correct you sir, he is not coming on behalf of the Sufi Movement, that is where he is an impostor;
Po: That grave is his father’s grave!
F: yes, that is right, but he is not coming..
Po: he is fanah his father he is holding charge of his fathers grave!
I agree he has a legal .. on his mothers and fathers..;
F: No Sir, the grave is owned by Mahmood Khan (….Bakhsh?..) and his mother and her sister
Po: everybody says that he has mentioned, every year he comes there, he stays there, ……..and he is the only …
F: I would like if you don’t mind,
Po: I only concern … the prayer….that this gentlemen whom you deny he is your uncle and sometimes you admit he is your uncle…he is holding in charge of the place, he is there, and you can’t throw him away unless you bring in a warrant of the court, only in a neal moment ? represents the law….. unless you come to the court in the ……and I am the policeman in the rule and no one can disspress? me.
In India while you have beaten him, throw him away….these poor man has …. him to the hospital..that the telephone came to the police, the police happened there
F: Sir we have to correct something, we have not beaten that man,
Po: what have you to say
V: how do you think I had to….
Po: that this boy and the other fellow who……beaten him… are you formally….
Fa: no beating, no beating
Woman(that is Mushavira): no we asked him for to pray….
F: and that woman knows that man for more than forty years,
V: I was thrown four times out of the grave, that is about the flour is about this high, like this,
from the ground, I climbed back up the gate,..
Po: so he is your own nephew,
V: he is my nephew, yes;
Po: he is your nephew
V: I recognise him as my nephew, I know him since he was born
Police: You know him since he was born
Fazal: he does not know me since I was born Sir, he was in England when I was born, and I was in France, … and he was not know me till France was liberated
Police: xxxxx what did you say xxxx We are asking them to xxx then between Uncle and nephew they xxx from others people right, so better to quit? xxxx
Fazal: xxx to speak also, you are speaking alone, do we have the change to speak….
I would like to explain to you something you asking first of all, why we have beaten this man, we have not beaten this man!
Vilayat: you have thrown me out of the Dargah of my Father and I have a broken rib;
That I can proof,
Fazal: secondly Sir you have asked me why you have pushed this man, now let me explain to you, with all this people here have come from all over the world have come to here to worship at the grave of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and he was there, in fact he let us in,
Vilayat: as Sashada Nasheen
F: that is all nonsense
V: That is not nonsense; the Sashada Nasheen is not nonsense in India, you have to had respect for the names of the Sashada Nasheen, first learn what it is before one can speak in the name of Sufism;
Fazal: he was there Sir, and he began to interfere with our prayers,
Vilayat: the Sashada Nasheen is supposed to … in the Dargah
Hayat: mag ik even…….xxxxxx….there is no such thing as interfering with prayers, if you pray you should not even hear it in your prayer to God.
Vilayat: you don’t push a man who is praying;
Hayat: if I am praying and I amxxxxxx I think if you are praying and you are thinking of God you even not know if another is praying too, you have heard the story of Pir-o-Murshid about the girl who xxxxxxxxxx
Police: please go on and do your prayer there!
F: that is all we want
P: and if he want to xxxxxx
F: we don’t care, we don’t care!
Po: xxxx he want to pray, you want to pray please xxxxx
V: but do you allow people to beat people up to there xxxx
Po: he said he has not beaten you xxxxxxxxxxx
V: do you allow people to cause xxxx damage to other people xxxx….
Po: that depends of the law you can xxxxx to them, we don’t object to that,
Vi: does the police does something about that
Po: Police will do only XXX regulations xxxx, if it is correct, give them the xxx documents and he will be arrested.
V: all right but it has not broken (!?)
Po: …the Doctor, sent us the rapport;
V: yes, you will receive the rapport;
Po: as when the rapport comes we do the law takes its course xxx he will be arrested xxxx
V: it will be matter of hours; ….
F: can I understand that you are the Chief of this area Police xxx ,
Po: yes please,
F: I think when I speak for this group, all the xxx Sir, is one thing, that when we like to worship at the grave, that we can get in, that we can worship there, and that we don’t have somebody there who comes to stand in front and interfere I am in charge and follow me and do what I say and start to pray for us
V: I do not say that when I was in the Dargah because I say prayer in the Dargah
Po: he only told to Bupal that he is Sashada Nasheen, he is mariel? Xxxxxx……
F: we asked him, please do not interfere, he continued, xxxxxxxxxxxx
V: when he was praying I did not interfere with his prayers; when they came in I said the prayer what is perfectly right for the Sashada Nasheen, after having said my prayer, I would like to handed over the ceremony to them, while I was still saying my prayers I was pushed out, one does not do a thing like that in a Dargah;
F: that is not right; we waited till he finished his prayers before we talk to him Sir,
Definitely for he was willing to ask him not to interfere, and I told him ho wait, we waited till he has finished his prayers and then he asked him, please do not interfere,
V: you don’t know how much prayers I have to do xxxxxx…..
Po: ….family… you have come with the same goal and pray and pray is not a bad thing
F: but we don’t want to be interfered with you, because he said he has handed the ceremony over to someone else
V: this are the rules of the order, they have to comply with the rules of the ….
End of tape at the police station.
These cassette tape recordings were put on CDs and made clear audible.
Alim Vosteen, Dargah Inayat Urs 69 Rapport