A Hindu by faith, a Quranic calligrapher by passion. For more than two decades Anil Kumar Chawhan has been getting invitations for painting walls with Quranic verses in mosques and dargahs of old city Hyderabad.
For Anil Kumar, his typical day starts with writing signboards in Urdu, Hindi, Telugu and English at his small workshop situated at Hussaini Alam, a street near Charminar.
Anil’s love for Arabic calligraphy started 25 years ago. After dropping out of a diploma course in fine arts due to financial constraints, he started painting signboards for a living. Though Anil was not familiar with the Urdu script, it was the demand for Urdu in the old city of Hyderabad that inspired him to learn it.
“At the beginning it was just copying the script but as I got more jobs to be done in Urdu, I seriously started learning it and mastered the nuances of Urdu calligraphy,” he said. This was 1995, and one of his clients, impressed by his Urdu calligraphy skills, requested him to do a wall painting in Arabic at a local mosque, Masjid-e-Noor, located at Kishan Bagh. Since then he has done about 150 paintings at mosques, dargahs and madrasas in and around Hyderabad including Jamia Nizamia, one of the prominent and oldest Islamic seminaries of higher learning in India.
“Earlier, someone objected to me, being a Hindu, writing Quranic verses. So one of my admirers approached Jamia Nizamia for a fatwa on the issue,” he said.
In response, Jamia Nizamia not only issued a statement in favour of Anil but also asked him to do a wall painting for its library with verses from ‘Surah Yaseen’, a chapter from Quran.
“During the course of my journey as a painter, I am known more as a ‘Khattath’ with an expertise in Arabic calligraphy than an artist who paints signboards of local shops. As an artist I get satisfaction in doing Arabic calligraphy,” said Chawhan.
Anil is also good at drawing other artforms; he is also approached for painting murals in Hindu temples. He has done paintings of Lord Hanuman in Kaal Bhairav Hanuman Mandir and also does artwork at Mahakali Mandir every year during the Bonalu festival. Anil also likes singing. Every Saturday he has a recital of Hanuman Chalisa at his home. During his effort to learn Urdu better he fell in love with ghazal and the artist in him took up ghazal singing as a hobby. He also tried reciting Naat, a poetry in praise of prophet Mohammed. One of his admirers, Mohammed Idrees Quadri, caretaker of Dargah Quadriya Bagdal, in Bidar district of Karnataka, has invited him to recite Naat at a majlis organised at the dargah on the 28th day of every month of the Islamic calendar.
Anil strongly believes in Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava. He says he feels at peace while working with his brush, be it in a mosque or a temple. He has been frequently visiting Muslim religious places for about 25 years. Do his family and friends accept him for who he is?
“My family, relatives and close friends are as proud as I am for my services to different religious places,” he said.
Apart from doing artwork at religious places, Anil also produces calligraphy art pieces in his free time. He has even organised two exhibitions showcasing Arabic calligraphic artworks done by him. He wants to learn further to improve his skills as an artist. Perhaps his inability to complete a diploma course inspires him to learn and try new things in his field.
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