Exigency of improper Diplomatic behavior!
Or memoirs of establishing a consulate in Calcutta

By: H. Hakimi
26th April 2005,
Oslo – Norway

 

I was transferred from Karachi to Calcutta in 1956 to open The Imperial Iranian Consulate General in the capital of Bengal province of India. Upon my arrival I rented the entire upper storey of a pension in one of the better districts of Calcutta till I could find proper independent premises for the Consulate.

The proprietor of the Pension was an Iranian Armenian, who along with his wife kept a quite decent, well running establishment. The resident Iranians were happy to find a Consulate General had opened in their city to look after their interests, and for good reason. The fact was that after the Indian independence, the ultra-left, who were well organized, had taken over the affairs of the newly formed independent state of India. According to the Indian constitution, the State of India is a federal state. In some of the provinces of India, such as Karalla, right from the start the communists had taken over the local administration. But in most other States if they did not outright control they were very influential, such as the province of Bengal. And as it was then (as is today) the ultra-left have their own antagonistic policy towards any nation or the Government, who do not fit into their ideology. It happened that our country, Iran, with the system of Monarchy was disliked and despised.

Therefore the local authorities not being able to do any harm to the government of Iran took it upon themselves to harass and disrespect the Iranian citizens at random. The complaints by the Iranian citizens regarding maltreatment in the hands of Indian officials got so intense that The Iranian government decided to open a Consulate General in Calcutta to safeguard the rights of her citizens.

As for the Iranian society there it comprised numerous famous and wealthy Iranian tea merchants as Calcutta is the main trading centre for tea, in addition there was a long established Iranian-Armenian boarding school, which was attended by Armenian children sent from Iran for better education in Calcutta. Therefore there were quite a number of Armenian parents or grand parents residing in or visiting Calcutta.  The seat of the famous Indo-Iranian Cultural Society was also in Calcutta, since its inception more than one hundred years before.

The Iranian community and members of the Cultural Association were joyful to see that the first Iranian consulate was being opened in Calcutta. They all came to present their appreciation to and they even prepared a gala to introduce the representative of the Iranian government to the community and some of their Indian friends.

At the same time I was busy to pay courtesy calls to the local civil as well as military offices, which is a normal diplomatic procedure. That was the time that I became quite friendly with General Tymaya who was the Chief of the military garrison in Calcutta. He later became India’s Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff, by which time I came to serve as first secretary to our Embassy in New Delhi. His friendship proved valuable to me in number of occasions.

During my rounds in Calcutta I came to know a very distinguished Iranian Gentleman, Hassan Geramiam, who was the head of Jahan Tea Company (Cha’ee Jahan) in Calcutta. One good day Hassan Gramian with his usual shyness told me, since I was a young man and all the Iranians have visited you to pay their respect, it will not be out of place that you pay a courtesy visit to a prominent Iranian old gentleman who was considered father as community, Mr. Esfahani.

Hassan Geramian was right, I could not expect that this prominent old man to come to me. Therefore I called him and made an appointment to pay him a visit. I knew the Esfahani family from my assignment in our Embassy in Karachi. They were number of brothers, some had left India for Pakistan and some remained in India. It happened that one of the brothers became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Pakistan while I was there and we had amicable relations (and another brother became Foreign Minister in India!). Therefore I was aware of the social standing of Esfahani Family in India as well as in Pakistan and did not mind it.

At the day I went to the Old Man’s auspicious mansion and was received cordially. After usual pleasantries, suddenly old Esfahini, said, “There was no need for the Iranian Government to open a consulate general, here in Calcutta. It is a waste of money.” I was completely taken aback by this sudden unexpected blunt statement. I could not understand as how somebody with his stature can come out with such a statement. It was as if the Government of Iran had to acquire the old man’s permission beforehand!? Therefore I snapped back and said “The Iranian Government knows better why and where it has to establish representatives in the world including Calcutta. We are not in a position to question the decision and wisdom of the Iranian Government”. For a while the Old Man did not utter a word, but than suddenly he made another blunder! He said “Our man Gholam Abbas Aram is also your boss”. I again snapped back and said “Mr. Esfahani, I think you have forgotten that I am a HAKIMI!” and with that I just left the room in a state of shock and anger without saying farewell.

I do not want to go into the details of the back ground of Gholam Abbas Aram that at those days was the Joint Secretary of Consular Affairs in the Iranian Foreign Office. The readers can refer to his biography by the contemporary historians. In brief, Aram as a young man had worked for Esfahani in Bombay for a time. Therefore he had become OUR MAN! I never met the Old Esfahani for the rest of my assignment in Calcutta.

An Ugly Episode

One day at about 11 Am, an (Iranian-) Armenian middle aged lady entered my office crying! I calmed her and enquired what had made her cry. She explained that, she was a resident of Calcutta for the last few years looking after her grandchildren who were sent from Iran to attend the Armenian school. She added that, every year she took the kids to Iran for their summer vacation. But a few days before, she had gone as she had done every year to the Bengal Immigration Office to get return visas.  But she has been treated shabbily and her return visa was also cancelled on her passport by one of the immigration officers!

 

I inspected her passport and saw that the return visa page was cancelled by Quite a big red stamp!

I realized that this is the best opportunity and the perfect excuse to teach the Bengali officials a harsh lesson of nasty diplomacy.

I took the Armenian lady along and drove to the Writers’ Building (the name of their government house), where the Immigration Office as well as many other Bengal Government offices were situated. I went in the office and asked the Armenian lady to show me the official who had cancelled her return visa.

She pointed her finger to a quite frail man. The office was full of other people and had about 15 other employees sitting behind desks. I went straight to the officer involved, taking his necktie and jacket lapel shouted on top of my voice to take me to his boss. I pushed him all the way to the second floor where he stood in front of a closed door, probably to knock at the door. But I pushed hem inside so forcefully that he somersaulted on the big desk in the middle of the room. The man who was sitting comfortably behind his desk jumped up in a fright. I did not let the other fellow go. I grabbed him again, showed the cancelled page of the Iranian passport to his boss and told him, “Who has given you the right to defile another Government’s Identity Document? Teach this idiot a good lesson that he has no right to do so”.

I added: “Why do you think the Imperial Iranian Government has opened a Consulate General in Calcutta? It is just due to your unbecoming incorrect deceitful behavior of officials such as this one towards all the Iranian Citizens residing in Bengal province of India. Moreover, what do you think that I am doing in this dirty filthy town of yours? And if this kind of ugly attitude is not changed immediately; I am going to ask my government to throw out all the Indian Subjects from Iran within a week!”

And with that I started to leave the room. But I heard the senior officer telling his subordinate that he has never seen such a diplomat! I pushed my head in the room and snapped “You will see more of me from now on if you do not behave properly with the Iranian subjects.” I ordered the junior officer to come down and issue the Armenian lady with a new return visa. As I was leaving the building I found to my amazement that the hall and all the offices were dead silent and all  looking at me as if I have come from other planet!?

Mind you that the man had the authority to cancel the return visa but I did not give them the chance to investigate that, there was within their jurisdiction! I took them by surprise, with the result that they lost their composure!

Needless to say the news of this courageous undiplomatic act spread through the town like wildfire. When I came back to my office I got numerous calls from Iranians who were thanking me for what I had just done. There was a sense of jubilation and pride all over the face of the Iranians residing in Calcutta. Suddenly I had become a hero.

I have to admit, that my action was not legally or diplomatically justified or correct, and was too harsh. But as I said earlier, it was a good pretext to show our dignity and integrity, once and for all to the officials of the Bengal Government.

The behavior of the officials towards Iranian Citizens changed so drastically that some of the more wealthy ones did not even bother to go to Writers’ Building themselves and started dispatching  their drivers in their place!

I did not report this ugly episode to my superiors, since I knew very well I would be rightfully reprimanded or be recalled back home immediately!

Peculiarities of the British Administration!

Upon my arrival to Calcutta I opened two accounts with the Lloyds Bank, one for the consulate under the name of Imperial Iranian Consulate General and the other a personal account under my own name.

After a while I got two envelopes from the Lloyds Bank. One was addressed to the Imperial Iranian Consulate General, but the second one was addressed to “Agha (Mr.) Hashem Hakimi”!? It puzzled me as to what the word “AGHA” was doing in English Language usage?

I called my friend Hassan Geramian and enquired about this bizarre word. He said “Mr. Mrs. Sir, Esq. or any other prefix or suffix to the names, as such is used for the westerners. To address Iranians the word AGHA is used, and for the Indians no prefix is used, since they are considered NOBODY”.

It was only then that the extent and the manner by which the British Raj had treated the Indians for over 300 hundred years dawned on me. The British plundered the Indians wealth, which is still going on despite of the independence of India making themselves super rich yet they considered and behaved as if the Inhabitants of the Indian Sub Continent were nobody. The British had named themselves “SAHEB” or Master and proprietors, and their wives “Meme Shaheb”, that meant THE LADY OWNER!? But the same British are now blowing into the false trumpet of HUMAN RIGHTS!?

Hazards of Independence!

The newly Independent Indian Nation had become extremely infatuated with their newly gained independence and mistook Independence for chaos. They thought that Independence means that each and every body had the right to do whatever they pleased.

After few months searching for suitable premises for the Consulate General I found a spacious property with a big double story building but in a suburb. It took some time to furnish the place for the residence of the Consul General on the upper floor and consulate offices on the ground floor. We erected a flag mast and hoisted the green, white and red flag with the Sun and lion emblem on top of the building as required by the International norm and convention. It was a large building and had two Iron gates as well as a big portico. The two doors were open all the time for the convenience of visitors.

One day I heard a load noise coming from the compound. I went out of my office and saw a big gathering inside the compound shouting with anger and demanding that we bring down the Iranian flag. They were saying that they had got their hard earned independence and they do not want to sea any foreign flags hoisted in India any longer!?!!

I did my best to convince them that, according to the International convention the consulate had every right to hoist the flag of its sovereign country. I emphasized that the Indian Embassy as well Consulates in Iran as well as in any other country in the world are doing exactly the same. But they were not convinced and threatened to come back in two hours and if the Iranian Flag had not been pulled down, they would pull it down.

I immediately called the chief of protocol of the Bengal Government and the Police headquarters. They assured me that they will do their best to safeguard our consulate. They also informed me that the crowd must be from a near by secondary school.

Within one hour there came two bus loads of armed police and made a cordon inside the consulates compound. Their officer in charge told me that he is proceeding to the school to have a talk with the students and give them some necessary facts about the International Diplomatic norms. But he added that, he had instructed his men to shoot down anybody who may want to force their way pass the gates of the consulate.

He also advised that one of the big Iron gates should be closed. He asked if we had any weapons. I said, “No nothing”. He said we have to arm ourselves!? I replied that I rather depend on the effectiveness of the security apparatus of the host country than arming the consulate. We were not there to fight the locals, we were there to facilitate and expand friendship. The officer then said he was going to appoint an armed guard 24 hours at the consulate and instruct him to shoot down any intruder. When he saw astonishment on my face, he just snapped back, we have so many of them, so what if some troublemakers are severely punished!? With that he left for the school leaving a Gurka as our armed guard. That incident did not occur any more. Apparently the officer had managed to convince the students that nothing was wrong with hoisting a flag on top of the building of the consulate.

Tradition

While in Calcutta, as usual I made myself very friendly with a photographic shop owner whose name was Jianti Patel. I always needed a good well stocked photo shop to peruse my favourite hobby of photography.

Jianti was as old as I was, married to a beautiful Bengali Girl. And since my Wife was also from Bengal, they too became close friends.

Our friendship became so fast that when Jaianti’s brother came to pay a visit to their parents, they threw a big party and invited my wife and I to their home. Two Moslems among all the Hindus that was never heard of!

The brother was F.R.C.S. the most prestigious ranks for any physician any where in the world. He was practising in London. They were very wealthy living in an auspicious mansion. We were received by the parents in a huge hall, but everybody was sitting on the ground Persian or Indian style.

When all the guests gathered the youngest brother came over with a brass sprinkler (Golab Pash) exactly the same that we use in Iran on sacred occasions, funerals as well as religious mourning for rosewater. We wash our face and hands with rosewater as a token of sacredness.

Everybody was served from that sprinkler a sort of a white liquid which they used to also wash their hands and faces. When the younger brother reached me Jianti waved him away. Therefore I did not come to know what the contents of that SPRINKLER was.

The Older brother being F.R.C.S. also did as the others did. In spite of his qualifications as a Medical Doctor he did exactly the same way that we Persians do with rosewater (Golab). I was puzzled as what was the content that we did not receive. Later on I asked some Persian friends about it. Not only they could not believe that we were invited into an Indian Brahman home they were shocked. But they informed me that the content must have been urine of a sacred cow! That was why we were spared.

Then the same Jianti did some thing which was more daring and unheard of. He along with his wife took me and my wife by train to a town 400 km. South of Calcutta, a town called Puri in the Indian province of Orissa.

Puri is a middle size town with adequate hotel accommodation and hundreds of Hindu temples an ancient ruins. Actually it was a tourist heaven. Near Puri is another smaller town called BHUBANESHWAR which is the birth place of Lord Krishna the Hindu’s prophet.

Near this town there was a huge white doomed temple in wilderness. Intentionally there were only path ways leading to the temple, no roads of any sort. As we walked towards the temple, the closer we got, the smell of ammonia became more and more intense.

Jianti had advised us to attire ourselves as an American tourist. That was very wise of him, since a Moslem entering a Hindu sacred place is just like a Hindu entering Kaabeh? We would have been killed on the spot if they would have found out that we were Moslems.

Therefore I took all my photographic equipment as well as 16mm. cine camera around my neck with a summer reed hat and pilot eye glasses and wore a T-shirt with the American flag emblazoned on it. In this way we were let in the temple.

From far I had noticed the smell of ammonia and the nearer we got to the temple it became more intense. I was wondering if there was an ammonia factory nearby! I did not ask any question concerning the smell of ammonia from our host and eventually we entered the temple.

But the smell of ammonia was so intense that not only my nose blocked, my tears started running. Therefore, when Jianti saw what is happening to me, he took my arm and led me out fast. I only saw people worshiping Hindu style. I could not even use my cameras inside the temple, which was a pity.

The cause of the intense and overpowering smell of ammonia was due to ceremonial washing and cleaning the temple with cow urine. I could not stand it more than few minutes. And I could not go more inside. I would have fainted on the spot.

There, in that small city of Bhubaneshwar were more than 50 Hindu temples. Some ruined some yet open for worshipers. I have a number of photographs of this trip.

While in Puri, I did another idiotic thing. There is another ruined city some 150 km. south of Puri. But you could reach there only with a two open sitter small plane, vintage from WW1!? I took the plane to that ruined city which is called KONARAK. The pilot landed on a dirt strip and told me that I have to be at the same spot about 4 PM so that he can fly back and pick me up. Then he flew away.

I found myself all alone in the middle of a ruined and neglected city. But at that age it did not strike my stupid mind, that what the hell, I have no means to defend myself, if any animal or snake attacked me. Indeed this thought only came to me afterwards, not when I was roaming around in Konarak. For few hours I was in there alone making photos and films.

Today KONARAK has got paved roads, fine accommodations and a small township for the benefit of tourists.

The significance of the ruined KONARAK temple is to worship WHEELS! Yes Wheels!? It is beyond imagination that thousands of WHEELS are carved very deep in the stone walls of the ruined temples and how delicately it is done. The deep carvings and the patterns on each WHEEL are amazing. Also there are horse driven chariots carved from stone. One has to see it to believe it.

This memoir is intended for those who believe that to stick to ones customs, tradition, and history is a sign of backwardness!? Look at India and Indians today. Are they backward? Or they are among one of the advanced industrial countries of the world. Respecting, safeguarding their history, tradition and way of life has not hindered their advancement rather has made them proud.

Milking India to the last drop!

The Zoo and the rhinoceros

Now that I am at it, I remembered another episode related to Urine in Calcutta. There is a vast zoo in Calcutta which looked after beasts. Among the beasts, there are few Rhinoceroses. Since I had not seen any live Rhinoceroses other than in movies or TVs, I went to the zoo to see that huge animal as well as the well known Bengal Tiger.

There were few Rhinoceroses roaming around a big surrounded compound. I saw an Indian man with a stick in one hand and a clean looking white bucket in the other, poking the animal from behind with a long thin cane stick!? I was wondering what it was all about and how was it that the fellow was not afraid to be killed by that gigantic beast. After few poking the animal started to urinate and the man immediately took the bucket under the animal’s urine, collected it and left the compound!? Indeed I was not only puzzled but shocked as well.

When the man came out I approached him and asked the purpose of doing what he just had done? He replied “I gather the urine of Rhinoceroses for ICI (Imperial Chemical Industry) of England”! I became more interested to know, what ICI was doing with that urine. The man said, “They make some medicines especially cough mixtures from Rhinoceroses urine”?!

Since then I have not taken any cough mixture!

The reader can realize that how the British milked India and Indians to the last drop of their blood, even the last drop of rhinoceros urine!?

Indo Iranian (TAGOR) cultural association

Since the dawn of history the cultural flow between Iran and Bengal was a matter of fact and pride to our National Heritage.

Indeed our most famous poet, writer (the father of Persian prose) and philosopher, “Sa’adi” of Shiraz, who said:

شکر شکن شوند همه طوطیان هند          زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود

Rough translation of the above verse:

“This sweet that drops from the beak of (sweet speech of) all the Indian parrots is from the Persian sugar that flows to Bengal”

Also it is good to remember that in 1930s for the occasion of one thousand years of the birth of Shahnameh and Ferdowsy, one of the well known literary figures of the world, Rabind Ranat Tagor, born in Bengal of India was one of the most distinguished guest of honour of the Iranian Government attending the inauguration of the Ferdowsy Monument in Touss, (Khorasan) and ceremony and conferences in Tehran.

I think after his return to Calcutta, Rabind Ranat Tagor established the Indo Iranian Cultural association in Calcutta. The association was and is a prestigious establishment nurturing Persian literature to this very date.

I have no knowledge if the Iranian Government extending any helping hand to this association. But when I opened the Consulate General in Calcutta, I paid them regular visits and got our Ministry of Culture, Tehran University and other cultural bodies of our country to contribute Books, leaflets, films etc to the Tagor association.

For the first me, I invited our Ambassador in New Delhi, Ali Asghar Hekmat, ex-minister of Education and Culture and afterwards his successor, Moshfeghe Kazemi to pay official visit to the Tagor association.

The photograph below is a souvenir of the Ambassador’s visit to the Tagor Indo Iranian association. The Tagor association members were happy to see that the Iranian Government not only cares about them but also contributes to their noble cause.

The Fate of the Imperial Iranian Consulate General in Calcutta

Upon Arrival of my successor, Kamran Doulatshahi I left Calcutta for Tehran. He kept the Consulate going well for two to three years. After Kamran, another carrier diplomat was assigned to the consulate general. He was there for four years. I am sorry that do not remember his name. But the fourth person who succeeded the three of us was Manouchehr Behnam, a career diplomat well known to all of us as a light headed fellow. He, without slightest idea or considering the grave implications and consequences of his unbecoming, idiotic act, under some unknown influence, proposed to the Imperial Iranian Foreign Ministry to close down the Consulate General!?

I do not know why the Iranian Foreign Minister agreed to close down the consulate. But that happened, with the result that all our efforts to establish a sound foot in Bengal suddenly evaporated!

I never met Manouchehr Behnam, not only to reprimand him for his idiotic act but also question him of the idea behind his head!

Till this very day I am sorry to see that our consulate general is closed down, with the result that our citizens over there, once again have become pray to maltreatment of the communist infested Bengal local government.