Remembering the rebel poets
Baba Bulleh Shah, whose 253rd annual urs that was observed last week at Kasur, reminds us that people of the Indus Valley have always been tolerant and broad minded. They despised religious bigotry. When Mughal emperor Aurangzeb adopted harsh policies towards his non-Muslims subjects and damaged the growing interaction among various religious groups of his empire, Punjab strongly reacted against it. Baba Bulleh Shah's poetry was the embodiment of the reaction. It gave a fresh impetus to the teachings of universal love, humanism and tolerance, which had been the hallmarks of Indian Islam and Sufism.
As we now know Baba Bulleh Shah, like many other opinion-leaders and reformers of the 18th and 19th centuries, failed to stop the process of history set in motion by the Mughal emperor. But he is widely revered in Punjab and Sindh as a Sufi poet and saint.
A newspaper report says that Baba Bulleh Shah's urs this year fell victim to tight security arrangements made by the district administration. They didn't even leave room for recreational activities. As a result the devotees of the saint were greatly disappointed.http://jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2010-weekly/nos-03-10-2010/lit.htm#3
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