.. Dr Mir Baiz Khan
In 1969, my vision widened when I moved out of my village and was admitted to the State High School Chitral as a grade nine student. One of my best memories of that time is playing on the two parade grounds stretching from the school to the road passing in front of the Chitral Royal Fort and Royal Masjid. On one side were chinar trees lined up beneath them flowing water and on the other side were green agricultural fields, and a traditionally structured white building stood out closer to the fort. This was known as mīzān and today it is called Judicial Office. The building today is not visible due to the construction of poorly planed buildings around it on its premises.
It was my dream to visit mīzān one day and to go through its records to get a feel of Chitral’s history, its cultures, languages, how people lived, what changed and what hasn’t changed. I fantasized about the judicial building and what it contained. My changing career, and, for years, of living in different countries and traveling across the continents, I didn’t have the opportunity to visit this heritage building and experience its treasure.
Fortunately, this time my visit to Chitral was relatively longer than earlier visits, I was able to finally visit the Judicial Office and spent three days in it. I am grateful for the permission granted to me by the district authorities. As I reached the gate of the building, what I saw shook the earth under my feet. My dream began to be shattered instantly. I felt embarrassed what if I had a non-Chitrali academic researcher with me what would I have told him? As I entered the office, I found myself in a dark dungeon-like room with no ventilation, filled with bundles of old dusty dark papers looking like a garbage dumping place ready to be burned or recycled.
Wherever I have been, I always introduced myself as a proud Chitrali, alas! this time I deeply felt ashamed of myself as a Chitrali. As I looked around, sprayed mosquito repellant, and opened the dusty leaves of historical records, my mind could not be focused. I constantly reflected on this unbelievably humiliating scenario. Where is the Chitrali educated community, I asked myself, and why is this place in this condition? Have the local researchers ever visited this space? Their own cultural and historical records are in shamble, and they look elsewhere to write their history, culture, and the conditions in which their ancestors lived.
There have been three international conferences organized in Chitral by local organizations. I participated in those conferences enthusiastically without knowing that the Chitral’s past was on the way to the dustbin of history, with nothing to remain for the new generations to refer to and be aware of their past. With due respect, what is locally being produced is unfortunately stories of views based on personal whims and wishes and denominational prejudices. There is nothing that can be referred to as scholarly research work. In the last conference, in my presentation, I tried to highlight one of the works of a local historian, a real one, who is the only one to initiate writing about the history of Chitral in the early twentieth century. I admired him not because I agreed with him on everything that he wrote, but because he was the one who initiated the process of research on the history of Chitral. When I was working on my paper and had translated a substantial part of the historical work, I came to know that it was being discussed on social media and the comments indicated to me that these individuals were more interested in theological and ritualistic issues not in the history and cultures of Chitral and its people in the past and the future. I stopped working on the project.
After my experience in the Judicial Office, I think the Chitrali-educated community is afraid of facing its past and ready to lose it. Yet, I hope there will be individuals who would like to preserve the historical heritage and not be afraid to see the past as it had been regardless of how good or bad things might have happened. There are no nations, tribes, or ethnic groups who can find their past to be all good or all bad. For people of courage and vision, their history is a learning curve for them and an opportunity to make right the wrongs of the past. This happens when one’s past is studied detachedly with an independent mind so as not to be either fixed in the past or rejecting the past or rather analyzing the conditions that produced history as it is and learning some lessons to improve the present and future.
In the Judicial Council Records, there are facts relating to all facets of the life of people, governance, legal, social systems, ethnic and religious communities, cultural practices, inter and intra-communal relations, relations between the rulers and the subjects and transition from indigenous historical rulership to rulership under the colonial power and so on. This rich heritage of Chitral and Chitralis is an endangered asset; it is now on the brink of extinction.
The educated Chitralis can save a substantial part of this dying heritage provided they have the will and courage to make it happen. In this endeavor, help can be sought from the district administration, development agencies such as AKRSP and SRSP, other local institutions, and generous individuals. I was grateful to the Deputy Commissioner for finding time to listen to my experience in the Judicial Council space and my impressions in sifting through some of its historical records. I remain hopeful for the best to happen. .. Dr Mir Baiz Khan, 17 sep 2024.