IT seems that, due to an increase in interference from the East India Company in the daily affairs of the Mogul court and the princely states, much of Indian society was falling apart in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Shamsur Rahman Farooqui, the prominent Urdu critic, poet and novelist has recreated this lost society in a marvelous way and his 823-page novel, “Kai Chaand The Sare Aasman” is a readers’ delight.
The novel centers on Vazir Khanum (b, 1811), the youngest daughter of Muhmmad Yusuf Sadakar, an artisan of Kashmiri origin, who, along with his wife and two other daughters, lived in Delhi in the early 19th century. At that time, Delhi had developed a culture in which dancing girls were not merely tools for entertainment but were also repositories of language and culture. The feudal class sent its teenaged sons to the city so they could learn poetry and culture. Vazir, a comparative rebel among Muhammad Yusuf’s daughters, was much influenced by the lifestyle of her dancing girl grandmother and the older woman’s philosophy about the male-dominated world they lived in. The independent-minded girl chose to live with an Englishman, Edward Marston Blake, who was the assistant political agent in Jaipur. She had two children by him, Martin Blake or Amir Mirza and Sophia or Massih Jan or Badshah Begum. They plan to marry but Blake dies in a riot in 1830 and his family takes the children. The frustrated Vazir returns to Delhi where British Resident William Fraser, as well as Nawab Shamsuddin of Loharu State, are attracted to her. She prefers Nawab Shamsuddin and they then have a son, Nawab Mirza. Her choice sows the seeds of a bitter dispute between Fraser and Shamsuddin that ends with Fraser’s murder and later the execution of Nawab Shamsuddin.
After this tragedy she marries a minor official from Rampur state who also died and after his death, she marries Mirza Fakhru, third in line to the throne of the last Mogul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Farooqui’s description of the encounter between Oriental and Western civilizations and the resulting culture shock is very interesting. The novel shows that the British, despite their many years in India, were the most hated people on Indian soil. Their rule of law was a farce and both Hindus and Muslims were afraid of the courts run by ruthless judges who had no respect for local customs. The East India Company, for its part, ran India whimsically with the help of the courts. Even the Indian feudals were unable to get justice from the courts because the interest of the British was supreme and it was upheld at any cost. Many times petitioners were unable to learn whether their petitions had reached the head of the British government in India. A wave of hate and unrest was gathering strength and would change Indian society and the Company’s rule forever.
This is not a historical novel but the characters are real and the events are in a historical sequence that highlights the actual conditions in Delhi and its residents during the last days of Mogul rule. Farooqui’s depiction of Vazir Khanum’s beauty and the many details of sexual encounters and the love scenes, reminds us of the Shakuntala of Kali Das and also of the Persian poet, Nizami Ganjawi. Farooqui has gone to great lengths in this regard. This Sanskrit and Persian tradition, sometimes though very detailed and delicate, is a special touch, because it gives a glimpse of the traditions, inclinations and decadence of the era.
Like Thomas Hardy, Farooqui presents a philosophy of matter and chance. The novel, at the very beginning, fills readers’ hearts with sorrow. The heroine Vazir Khanum faces one tragedy after another but her womanhood is praiseworthy in that not only with dignity and grace but also with great courage she accepts the divinely ordained scheme. She is of course a prisoner of her times but she is independent to some extent in comparison of other women of those times. She tries to gain her rights in this male-dominated world and wants to be in control of her destiny. A husband, for her, is revered as a breadwinner and protector but in her scheme of things, he is not her master. She does not hide her thoughts from her husband. This shows the strength of her character. She is faithful but independent. She never cheated any of her lovers or husbands. Despite what she is, she is unable to gain the sympathy of readers.
The other characters in this novel come and go. Sometimes they deliver the goods and sometimes not. Since Farooqui has adopted a Western style, the pattern of this novel is impressive but the real importance lies in the art of language. A voluminous novel, it has many characters of differing social, economic and educational backgrounds that span three centuries. British officers, Nawabs, craftsmen, nobles, poets and scholars speak different types of language. The reader gets acquainted with different provincial Urdu dialects. The influence of Braj, Awadhi, Rajasthani and Persian is impressive. Through this mastery of language, the novelist is able to put every character in his or her correct place. The novel’s whole mosaic dazzles the eyes of readers.
The meeting between Vazir Khanum and a Victorian travel writer, Fanny Parkes, shows that among the British, there were some who loved India and Indian culture. Parkes is the most famous Indophile and her accounts of colonial India are most enjoyable. She lived in Allahabad and was critical of British rule. By publishing this novel Scherzade Publications, Karachi, has performed a great service for Urdu readers.
