Subject: Bahadur
Shah,his grandsons,Etheem Shah&Haatheem Shah--Ealur Dargah.
Respected Kamaruddin sir! Namaskarams.
Krishnaswamy from Coimbatore.
As I had phoned you up,sir,on the detail of a family of
Bahadur Shah,his grandsons Etheem
Shah&Haatheem Shah having become martyrs in their war for Tipu Sultan
against the British East India Company;I had the opportunity to visit the Ealur
village in Kuttagam panchayat of Avanashi taluk in Coimbatore district,a couple
of times and found the Bahadur Shah Waliullah Dargah Sharief,Ealur quite
old;with an Idgah Palli 1 km away in a
fascinating backdrop!
In a direction indicator to the remote village and the
Dargah,a wall-hanger reads,in Tamil,
"Mahan Hazrat Syed Malangusha Bava Mahan Hazrat Syed Insha
Inayatullah"- Way to Dargah...
I, along with a correspondent of THE HINDU newsmagazine are
working on an article on the Tipu connection the ancestors of the Maulvi Abdul
Gani would have had. In fact, tracing the generations past of his,Maulvi Abdul
Gani's father,Abdul Hameed, Adam Shah, Roshan Ali Shah and their relatives all
lived here in 7 bastis.And covering an area of 3 sq km, agricultural lands were
endowed with the 100-odd Muslim
families in Ealur,in the past.They are Sunni Muslims for sure.Maulvi Abdul Gani
has in his possession a talwar,about 2.5 feet in length,with a clean
hilt,seemingly a cavalryman's,but the sword is rusted,broken at the tip and any
insignia seems to be either covered by rust or is not there.
Can you,sir,try and find out if the 3 Shahids,Bahadur
Shah,Etheem Shah,Haatheem Shah are recorded in any records/archives/family
history?
And smaller cenotaphs or samadhis of Mohammad Shah(possibly
a local commandant,they say),Hassein Shah and a certain Dr.Nooruddin Shah are
also present inside the Dargah premises. Rabiathul Basiriamma,Mariam
Beeviamma,Kulsum Beeviamma, Noorani Beeviamma also have
their cenotaphs or samadhis there.This Dargah is possibly inspired by the
Erwady Dargah even as the
Maulvi claims their family antecedents to Erwady. They are
Deccani Sunni by classification,he says.
Is there any chance that these families would have had
allegiance to the reformist/revivalist Shah Waliulah of mid-18th century fame
from Avadh/UP?
And would they be the families related to Ahmedullah Shah
whose forefathers had come down South with Shah Wallajalah to fight for Tipu
against the British?
This probable connection(however remote) of a family going
South for Tipu's sake is found in Amaresh Misra's 'Fire of Grace' published
1998.
I'm sure,sir,you can provide me with positive answers to the
3 queries,so that I along with THE HINDU correspondent could do a feature story
and publish the
same in all authenticity?
That way, I'm sure I'd do justice to the consuming memories
of our Shahid Tipu Sultan.
Yours faithfully,
S R Krishnaswamy (srkrishnaswamy@yahoo.com)
