India’s Hindu calligrapher whose art adorns more than 200 mosques
In a career spanning 30 years, Anil Kumar Chowhan has written Quranic verses on the walls of more than 200 mosques across India.
New Delhi, India – Self-taught calligraphy artist Anil Kumar Chowhan has written Quranic verses in Arabic on the walls of more than 200 mosques around India in a career spanning 30 years.
Based in Hyderabad, the 50-year-old’s passion for calligraphy was ignited while painting signboards for shops around the southern Indian city in Urdu to earn a modest living.
“I belonged to a very poor Hindu family and had to give up my studies after class 10th to support my family. I was good at drawing, so I thought why not leverage this skill to take up signboard painting as a career,” he says.
Chowhan says he has also painted 30 temples with images of Hindu gods and goddesses, as well as countless dargahs (mausoleums) and monasteries.
“While for over a 100 mosques, I was paid a hadiya [remuneration], I worked for free for the other 100. I felt a spiritual connect to the places which prevented me from demanding compensation,” says the artist who earns about $350 a month through his freelance assignments across the country.
Chowhan says he did not attend any formal or Islamic school to learn the Arabic script or the Urdu language.
“It was during my painting assignments that I learned to read and write Urdu. Soon people started acknowledging my talent and gave me opportunities to beautify landmark architectures around the city with the verses of the Quran,” he says.
In Hyderabad, 30 years back, says the calligrapher, it was important to write signboards in Urdu as the majority of the city’s population and shopkeepers were Muslim. So he had no choice but to become acquainted with the language.
But slowly, while writing in Urdu without understanding it, he says he fell in love with the script.
“Over time, I started recognising the words and alphabets and slowly and organically developed an interest in it. In my spare time, I started writing the Urdu script, copying words from textbooks which further helped my craft,” he says.
Chowhan says he bagged his first big assignment in the 1990s when he was asked to beautify Hyderabad’s iconic Noor Mosque with the verses of the Quran.
“I was over the moon. Bagging that big assignment was proof that not only was my talent recognised, but that I had also received the stamp of approval from the city’s elite which would open doors for me. And it did.”
But life was not without its share of challenges. Some locals opposed Chowhan’s work because he was a Hindu.
