All India Radio’s  Bokhari Brothers…  The Kashmir Connection

(By Kanwal Krishan Lidhoo)

Who were the famous Bokhari brothers? And what was their connection to Kashmir? These questions can interest only those who have a love for modern broadcasting which inter alia means a love of languages and content creation, an eye for detail and nuances of the human condition and an indomitable will to deal with pressures of all kinds.

Since broadcasting was not initially perceived to be built as a career, governments all over the world recognized its potential to influence public opinion. Resources were invested in it and elaborate hierarchical and bureaucratic structures were created which eventually stifled their creativity. Many an intellectual who rushed to become part of All India Radio, the then latest and premium agency of broadcasting, soon got disillusioned and quickly resigned. The Bokhari Brothers were an exception. They continued to be part of this government structure and curiously were able to turn the tide in favour of nationalist sentiment and supported the freedom movement in disguise when in the majority of the programmes of All India Radio nationalist leaders were invited to present their viewpoint albeit differently. All this was taking place under the watchful eyes of government agencies.

Bokhari Brothers  and  Baramulla

Bokhari Brothers were born into a family of Peers (Sufi mystics) in Peshawar. Their forefathers had, however, moved to Peshawar from Baramulla town of Jammu and Kashmir. Both had managed to occupy the top posts in All India Radio and were considered the blue-eyed boys of Lionel Fielden, India’s  First Controller of Broadcasting. Despite occupying top posts in India, the Bokhari Brothers preferred to be part of the Pakistani establishment  after the partition of the sub-continent

Patras Bokhari

The Elder One– Syed Ahmad Shah Bukhari commonly known as (Patras Bukhari (01-11-1898 to 05-12-1958 was a highly popular Pakistani humorist, writer broadcaster and later a diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations. At the time of his death, he was still serving as a Pakistani diplomat but had to be buried in Valhalla Cemetery, New York.

Bokhari Brothers’ connection to Kashmir was through their father’s family while their mother belonged to Hindkowan ethnicity.  They tried to remain connected with Kashmir. (Patras Bokhari had also a  Kashmiri wife— Zubaida Wanchoo)

 The elder brother’s tryst with life finally lead him to United Kingdom where he received his Tripos degree from Cambridge University. In 1927, he returned to Lahore to teach English at Government College Lahore. During pre partition days he got groomed to be part of Muslim intelligentsia of South Asia which spearheaded the movement for Pakistan. During this period he also headed All India Radio and when Pakistan got created he became the country’s envoy to United Nations up to 1958. The legendary urdu poets Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid and Kanhaya Lal Kapoor were among his students. Bokharis were peers ( Sufi mystics). Peer Syed Ahmad Shah Bukhari wrote with the pen name of Patras Bukhari, a name he lifted from his teacher Peter Watkins who taught him English. Peter could not pronounce the name Pir, instead called the elder brother as“Pierre “ a French word which in Greek is known as Patras. The translation of Peter into Greek “Patras” was thus adopted by him as his pen name.

Younger Bokhari

The younger brother Zulfikar Ali Bukhari (06 -07 1904 to 12-07-1975) was a prolific broadcaster first with  All India Radio and later with Radio Pakistan.  Like his elder brother, he was also a writer, poet and musician and was later made the first Director General of Radio Pakistan.  He later addressed himself as “Controller of Broadcasting’’ of Radio Pakistan. He had a profound knowledge of English, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Pashto and Punjabi.

In Undivided India, the British government had got wind of his expertise and appointed him initially a teacher and later promoted him as head of the Bureau of Translation to train British officers. His professional services were eventually sought to head as a full-fledged Director (Broadcaster) at Delhi station of All India Radio and later became Director of All India Radio Bombay.  But at the time of partition, he chose to head Radio Pakistan.

Disillusionment of the Elder Bokhari

Patras Bukhari was an internationalist. The energies of the Bokhari Brothers got stifled in a country that they had pursued to be a harbinger of change in the Muslim world. Soon their disillusionment with whatever was happening in Pakistan became clear to them. Pakistan appeared as a nation to safeguard the power, pelf and privileges of the elite only who apprehended that all these would be snatched away from them in united India and such an establishment was not interested in ameliorating the condition of the common populace of Pakistan. This is a fact that the liberals of Pakistan are grudgingly accepting these days.