Partition was a human catastrophe. But much like the mythical Manthan mentioned in Hindu texts, it also proved to be a social churning that brought rare gems from the bottom of the ocean to the brimming top.
Sohan Lal & Sons Ghori Wala is one of the oldest and most well-recognised ‘band baaja baraat’ outfits in Delhi today. Its founder, Sohan Lal Ahuja, along with his wife and their extended families, fled from Lahore when the 1947 riots started and murderous mobs started knocking at their doors. Terrified of the bloodshed on trains, the Ahuja family joined the huge human caravan in a long march to India. After an arduous journey, they finally crossed into India and decided to rest in Patiala in Punjab. But Patiala, at the time, was a chaotic city teeming with refugees. The Ahujas heard fleeting rumours about better arrangments at Delhi refugee camps where the government was providing ration, shelter, and compensatory landslips to those who had lost their home in Pakistan.
After much effort, the Ahuja family finally reached BK Dutt Colony — one of the smaller refugee camps in South Delhi. Groups of young men would huddle in front of makeshift tents in late evenings and anxiously discuss employment prospects to support their families. In Pakistan, the Ahuja family owned a retail business selling clothes and kirana items, but as refugees in India, they had no funds to set up shop and restart that business here.
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Ferries to ‘baggis’
While Sohan Lal looked for work, his wife Vidhyawati rented a sewing machine and started stitching garments for neighbours and nearby shopkeepers to keep the home fires burning.
“On a random visit to Qutub Minar, pitaji — my father Sohan Lal ji — saw a series of horse-driven tongas ferrying people around. That gave him an idea. My mother had managed to hide a bit of her gold in the atta ki potli or flour sack while fleeing from Pakistan. Pitaji used that money to buy one horse and an old tonga. At that time, it cost him Rs 100,” says Ashok Ahuja, the current owner of the company.
Meanwhile, the Indian government granted the Ahuja family a piece of compensatory land at BK Dutt Colony where they set up a shop on the ground floor and residence on the upper floors. Ferrying vegetables, utensils, and construction materials, Sohanlal gradually managed to save enough money to purchase a second horse and tonga. He perfected the strategy of hiring people on a 25 per cent profit-sharing basis, and, soon, there was a ragtag army of 10 tongas. With tireless zeal, he would visit various shopkeepers and offer a dedicated tonga service to them. Soon, big names such as 555 Detergent Cake and Lipton Tea and other emerging brands signed up for tonga arrangement with Sohan Lal Ahuja.
Around 1951, Ahuja was asked by a neighbour to rent out his horse for a groom’s baraat or wedding. Spurred by his entrepreneurial spirit, he rented some blingy embellishments and décor items and provided a dressed up horse for the wedding function. This marked the start of a new lucrative side business. His tongas would ferry goods and people during the day and transform into wedding horses for grooms during the night.
“The wedding business became bigger and bigger, so my father abandoned the tonga work and formally launched Sohan Lal & Sons Ghori Wale in 1955. From then on, there was no looking back. Earlier, women of the family would sing traditional folk songs at baraats. But Sohan Lal ji raised a good team of musicians, including drummers, trumpet players, and other accompanists to provide the most lively baraat musical bands in Delhi. They would play loved songs such as Mera joota hai Japani and Sir Par Topi Lal along with filmy marriage songs like Raja ki Aayegi Baraat. This became a big hit at weddings, and through word of mouth, [the] popularity of our band increased,” says Ashok.
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Actualising the dream
Sohan Lal & Sons Ghori Wale was one of the first baraat bands to hire a master musician who would conduct extensive rehearsals of every song. The result was that all junior musicians became attuned to playing lively baraat versions of popular Hindi film songs. The band created a fixed rundown list of songs and also devised a sign language that indicated to the rest of the band which song has to be shuffled or even replayed due to encore requests from the dancing baraatis.
Another innovation of Sohan Lal & Sons Ghori Wala was the extremely ornamental uniforms for horsemen, musicians, and the handa walas or the team that carried the large oil lamps to escort the baraat. Made at various textile hubs such as Jaipur, Varanasi, and Calcutta, the brightly coloured bandhgalas, pleated trousers, peaked caps, and shiny boots that members wore made them one of the most popular baraat bands of the 1960s.
As the marriage business expanded, the baraat bands became more and more and more ostentatious — with chattris or golden and velvet umbrellas, mashaals, dressed up camels, and even elephants at the functions. “We were first to introduce the concept of a horse-driven baggi. Earlier, only Rashtrapati Bhavan had one. But we created our own version with four or even six white-horses baggis for grooms. People have a certain dream for their marriage. It is our job to actualise that dream,” says Ashok with a wide smile on his face.
The wedding business in India has seen many fads and trends. Today, with destination and international theme-based weddings, Sohan Lal & Sons Ghori Wala baraats may seem like a simple slice of nostalgia. But they were pioneers of the business, and their stately horses and bands remain embedded in the memories and wedding albums of thousands of Dilli walas.
This article is a part of a series called BusinessHistories exploring iconic businesses in India that have endured tough times and changing markets. Read all articles here.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)