From Mutiny to Partition

History in the form of a story, Mushirul Hasan's book celebrates the egalitarian and pluralist traditions of the Independence movement, says V. KRISHNA ANANTH.

THE struggle for independence, in the course of which the concept of Indian nationalism emerged, formed the basis of the Nationalist as well as the Marxist historiography in India. Even while scholars belonging to these two traditions continued to differ in their assessment of the character of the nationalist leadership, they agreed on the fundamentals. In other words, they all agreed on the point that the dynamics of the freedom movement or the core of Indian nationalism was constituted by such ideas as pluralism, democracy and an opposition to the idea of colonialism.

These principles that were held among scholars as truth are being questioned by a set of history teachers. And with such men having managed to occupy positions in academic councils and other fora, the attempt to redefine the basic concepts pertaining to Indian history and the idea of nationalism has gained momentum. In other words, attempts to define Indian nationalism as an expression of cultural sentiments are now gaining ground.

Mushirul Hasan, (he is one among those historians of Modern India with a clear perspective about the economic basis to Indian Nationalism), has stood up to the challenge once again. The book under review is a work of history but written in the style of a novel and could help even those who do not intend specialising in history as a discipline - one that discerns the pluralist and egalitarian traditions which formed the basis of the Indian national movement.

John Company to the Republic could be grouped in the category of such works by Salman Rushdie or Kwaja Ahmed Abbas (just to name two of the writers in this genre) whose writings present the socio-political reality of the past in a form different from that of a historian. But then, unlike Rushdie and Abbas, whose time frames are just short periods, Professor Hasan seeks to weave the story of Indian nationalism between the mutiny of 1857 and 1947. From the Sepoy Mutiny to Partition.

And in doing so, Hasan manages to convey an important fact - that the heroic struggle by the Indian princes and the sepoys in 1857 failed not because the colonial regime was backed by a superior set of weapons or because their men were better strategists than the Indian sepoys. Instead, the author brings out clearly that the concerns or interests of the princes who revolted had nothing to do with the concerns of those who lived outside the forts. The author narrates how the Red Fort and the localities around them were plundered - first by the mutineers and later on by the Queen's own army. He then goes on to add that all these did not provoke any anti-British sentiments in the immediate context.

The narrative then jumps to the atmosphere, once again around the Red Fort, some nine decades later; the celebration of independence. The author creates as the protagonists, a group of three young men who travelled all the way to Delhi from Lucknow to be there and listen to Pandit Nehru's address. They belonged to different religions but were wedded to the idea of being Indian and nationalists to the core. Their conversations, ranging from the Partition riots and the spirit of independence and the idea of freedom, are constructed in such manner that the reader gets a feel of the discourse of the times.

The author seeks to present the different strands of ideas that were there in the political discourse - there are several protagonists in the book - besides the social strata they come from and the views that find expression when the three central characters in the book (Aziz, Jagmohan and Pradip, the three friends who went to Delhi from Lucknow to witness the dawn of independence on August 15, 1947) hold their regular discussions in one of Lucknow's eating joints.

The effort, indeed, is bold and interesting. Professor Hasan succeeds in telling the social history (at least one important aspect of the social history) of about nine decades in a form different from the text-books. Add to this the scores of Urdu couplets that the author has managed to weave in to the texts (of course with English translations). John Company to the Republic is an absorbing book. It is history told in the form of a story. In times when scholarship is on the decline (thanks to the opening up of the airwaves) it makes sense to narrate history in a manner that could be of some interest to the new generation. After all, the need to inculcate a sense of history, and that too from a liberal standpoint, is all the more important today. And Professor Hasan has done a commendable job in this regard.

John Company to the Republic: A Story of Modern India, Mushirul Hasan, Roli Books, Delhi, Rs. 395.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : A hundred years of the short story
Next     : A poet from Dundee