Dilip Kumar, born Mohammad Yusuf Khan, was a Pathan from Peshawar. All of India’s top actors of the past three decades have been Pathans, or have origins in Pathan-majority regions of India and Pakistan.
For those of us who remember what Bollywood was before it decided to become a raunchier, more tasteless version of late-night MTV scandal specials, Dilip Kumar represents the beginning of Indian cinema’s golden age. The 98 year old Muslim, born in an ancient city founded by Alexander the Great on its historical “Storyteller’s Row”, was known as the “first Khan” of Bollywood. The last name Khan generally denotes one’s heritage as an ethnic Pathan, and nearly all of India’s top actors for the past three decades have been Pathans (and Muslims). Moreover, Dilip’s Hindu neighbors in Peshawar, the Kapoors, grew up and were greatly influenced by Pathan culture and social pluralism before the advent of modern day Pakistan, and the resulting militarism that followed. The Kapoor family has produced successive four entire generations of India’s finest actors, actresses and producers.
Kumar’s films are legendary. His musical roles (its not Bollywood without music) gave hope and light to a broken hearted Indian people reeling from the smoking ruins of Partition in 1947. As a Muslim who left Peshawar for a chance to be on the big screen in Bombay (now Mumbai), Kumar represented an important bridge between what India was and what it could be again: accepting, pluralistic, mesmerizingly diverse, hopeful. Kumar succeeded in every way to bring that vision of India to the silver screen.
And to that end of pluralism, Dilip Kumar’s most legendary performance was in the movie Mughal-e-Azim (Persian: “The Greatest Moghul”). The film, whose title refers to Akbar the Great, is considered universally to be one of India’s greatest cinematic achievements. Kumar plays the rebellious Prince Selim (later known as “The Great Conqueror of the World”, or Jahangir in courtly Persian—India’s official language until 1858), whose love for a woman of low-birth challenges the social order and leads to a violent civil war in the Indian Empire. Akbar, the Greatest Moghul, was known for his pluralism, tolerance, and ardent desire to reconcile his Dharmic and Abrahamic subjects through dialogue, bridge building, and academic efforts. All traits Dilip Kumar would further as an actor and philanthropist in secular India. He chose to remain loyal to that country after his hometown of Peshawar was awarded to Pakistan (despite protests by Pathan leaders).
While the actual Emperor Jahangir would become known more for having enemies of his imperial court crushed to death by elephants in real life, Kumar plays the role of the-then crown prince Selim with amazing poise, and just enough idealistic flair that the audience is rooting for him the whole time. Sadly, his beguiling first love of Anarkali (who causes the civil war) is believed to have captured, and sentenced to die by being buried alive within a four-sided brick wall in the Mughal capital of Lahore (also today in Pakistan). Some scholars believe she never existed. Lahoris insist that that she did, and an entire section of the old city is named in her memory.
As noted earlier, Dilip Kumar belonged to the culturally significant Pathan ethnicity. Pathans, known more widely as Pashtuns outside of South Asia, hail from the region’s most cosmopolitan and culturally diverse areas. Medieval India’s greatest cultural triumphs, from unification to the establishment of equitable courts, the postal system and effective highways, were all products of Pathan rule in successive dynasties from Kabul, Lahore and Delhi. Pakistan’s most successful political leaders have always been Pathans, and modern India’s top poets, actors, army tank generals, cricket captains, and philanthropists often are Pathans as well. Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan, global education advocate & terror survivor Malala Yousefzai, and the youngest chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, are all Pathans. I also happen to be a Pathan.
Kumar’s acting, his charm and wittiness made him a role model for a number of Bollywood actors, and even some politicians. India’s greatest actor, Shah Rukh Khan, also a Pathan whose family has roots in Peshawar before the Pakistani Partition, credits Dilip Kumar with being one of his greatest sources of inspiration.
For myself, Dilip Kumar was one of the actors whose works I deeply admired as an impressionable teenager in a post 9/11 world. His films Raam aur Shyam, Deedar & Mughal-i-azim are required watching for those who seek a deeper meaning to Bollywood than the joke of film-noire crime sagas & purile sex-appeal dance-off films that are now the standard by which new directors set their sights. His depth of character and charismatic presentation (a product of his Pathan upbringing on Storyteller’s Row in Peshawar) made Dilip Kumar one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. His pluralistic life and willingness to make all people welcome in his heart made him an ambassador of cultural diplomacy to people next door in today’s Pakistan. His loss will be felt for years to come.
Inna Lilahi Wa Innalilahi Rajioon.