Living in Rural Rampur

At the pleasant age of 87, Shabbir Khan lives a calm and peaceful life. He starts his day reading the headlines of the daily newspaper and later can be found reciting interesting novels at the library adjacent to his Los Angeles apartment complex. Reading had always been a main hobby of his, even as growing up in the rural town of Rampur, India in the 1920s. Books, he recalls, were the only source of pleasure at the time. One can only fathom at the various experiences that this great Indian army veteran had encountered dwelling in this small town. His expression is relaxed, yet his broad, upright posture retains the fitness preserved as a tough army general. As he sits there contemplating about the interesting experiences of his past, he smiles at the notion of his life’s pleasant history, radiating a sense of comfort and serenity. It was a normal life, he reminisces, in a very peaceful society.

Rampur was a small town....actually it was a state; state means we had our own ruler. Though it was a part of British India, we had our own autonomous state. 80% of the people were Muslims in that town where I lived; it was a Muslim state. But there were Hindus, and some few Christians; we didn’t have any Sikhs or other minorities that you have in India. I did not face any racial or religious discrimination because we were in the majority as Muslims; but of course, outside my town, there was friction between Hindus and Muslims.

My father died when I was young, 2 years old. I was adopted by my aunt, my father’s sister, and I lived separately with my aunt from the rest of my mother and brother in another location of the same city, away from my parents’ home. She adopted me because she didn’t have her own child. Life with her was very comfortable; she loved my like my own mother and I took her as my own mother for quite some time. She was very sweet; as sweet as any mother can. For me we were middle class people, not very poor, not rich…but living comfortable, according to those days.

Things were not very advanced at that time in India, but all the facilities were there. We were comfortable because our requirements were few; there was no dirty T.V. at that time, you see, no problem. When I was born, there was no electricity; it came afterwards when I was young enough to remember. Of course, at that time there was no pipe water, so we used to have wells in our own homes and get freshwater out of that with a bucket. We found out about important news through newspapers. For transportation, I used to go on foot. There were very few cars; tongas, horse-drawn wagons used to be there. Trains were there, but I was of your age when I first saw the airplane. We communicated through letter writing; there was no other way of communication.

Since there were no refrigerators, fresh vegetables and meat were bought from the bazaar, the market, and cooked in the house. And you should finish it or at the most you can keep it safe somehow to have it in the evening, have your dinner next morning. I was very fond of milk; the milkman used to come to the houses of everybody, and you buy it from the milkman. When I was sick, hakims were there. Hakim is a local, uh, doctor, not medical but the other, uh Indian homeopathic type of medicine system.

I don’t remember any difficulties or problems…it was an easy life in those days. On typical days, education was the main thing. I used to go at about eight in the morning and come after lunch at two or three. About a twenty-minute walk from my house. School life was very pleasant and the teachers were very considerate and kind; a good atmosphere in school. The subjects I was studying were Urdu, English, and Geography. In the school, we used to speak English; but at home, only Urdu was spoken. People among themselves generally used to speak Urdu; Urdu was the language of the people.

After school, we used to meet with friends and play hockey; field hockey was a very popular game in those days in my town. In the muhallahs [neighborhoods] people used to play a game called kabaddi, a kind of wrestling. Other uh games like chess and karam were main games of that time. We used to go swimming in the swimming pool in the compound of the college.

We also used to discuss various interesting topics of the day with friends, like what was happening, what was the government doing, what were the people doing, how the crime rate was going up or going down; these sort of general topics that, at that time were against the rule of the British. We wanted our own independence and own rule, which we got later on.

I was very fond of books from my childhood, so book reading was my main hobby. I saw my sister, my elder sister, and elder brother reading books, so I also opened my eye and got hold of the taste for books, and became member of the library when I was of your age. Books were the only the source of pleasure at that time; either you play games or read books. I was fond of history books, and private books in those days called (Urdu translated) The Travels and Stories of Aamir Hamza. I’m talking about private folk stories; otherwise the school books were different. At night I read books through lantern. There was no electricity light, so we used to go to bed early, say about eight o’clock.

The main cultural activity was Mushaheras, poets, where people get together and recite poems. Eid was the main Muslim festival after Ramadan. We would go to the prayers; as many people as the mosque can accommodate would come there, and then after eat good food. But we were very tolerant people—we never objected to Hindu Diwali’s and Holi’s [holidays]. It was a very uh cordial atmosphere in the city.

The independence of India didn’t affect us in the state because we had our own ruler; so to us, the struggle between Indians and British was something outside of our state. I was not involved in any of the various independence protests because we had our own autonomous state. But the British rule was good…I say nothing against it; actually, whatever good we have in India today, it was because of the British rule. Otherwise, India would have been a very backwards country; it was only due to the British presence and rule that all modern things from Europe and England went there. We would have been like the Native Indians here in America if the British were not there. The British rule was of great benefit to all India.

Growing up in a small town is good in a way that people know each other well. In big cities you are lost; uh you only know the people of your particular community. I think it was a very peaceful society and people were cooperative and helpful to each other; of course there were religious differences between Muslims and whatever few non-Muslims were there, but not uh, not very troublesome. In our state it was all peaceful. Our town was close together because of the same ethnicity—Pathans, we are called; we were all Pathans. Everybody knew everybody; everybody had a close relation. It was like one community; very hospitable and very welcoming to any outsider from the world to look after. Taking care of each other was the main quality of that time as far as I remember.

Interviewed by Fahad Nathani