How the freedom struggle played out in ordinary lives

KA Abbas is easily one of the most celebrated 20th century writers in Urdu, Hindi and English. He wrote novels, stories, screenplays and dialogues for Bombay cinema. He also directed many films. Fully committed to a socialist vision, his writings are remarkably free from any kind of ideological partisanship. ‘Inquilab’, the novel he wrote in the 1940s, is essentially the story of India’s freedom struggle during the first three decades of the 20th century.

The novel has a twin focus. It tells the story of India’s struggle for Independence and its micro reflection in the lives of ordinary people. The novel revolves around the life of Anwar, a Muslim boy born in the first decade of the 20th century, who witnessed and experienced all the turmoil of the freedom struggle.

The micro life of the individual and the macro life of the nation proceed in an entangled manner. As Anwar grew up and entered adolescence, he began to observe the best and worst of human life. He noted the starkness of religious prejudices, reflected in the practice of drinking water being separated into Hindu pani and Muslim pani at the railway stations. He also witnessed what rural exploitation was. It was not simply a case of charging of high rent or revenue, but an elaborate system of duties and obligations in which the burden of social arrangements fell on the shoulders of the poor peasants.

What intrigued Anwar most was how all this was treated as something quite normal and part of the natural order of things. Since the oppression was integrated into the system, it was treated as normal by both the oppressor and the oppressed.

Anwar was also present at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, and saw innocent people being felled by the bullets ordered by General Dyer. One of his uncles, who was an army man and had got a medal for defending the life of his British officer during the First World War, was also present in the crowd. The uncle could not believe what was happening and thought all this was the result of some misunderstanding. He was convinced that the enlightened British government could not possibly kill innocent people so indiscriminately. He thought it was his duty to remove the misunderstanding and walked up to the British army officers — his officers — to tell them that they were making a mistake and that they should stop the firing immediately, so that justice may prevail in the name of the Queen. He too received a bullet and was shot dead. Anwar, however, lived to see all that. The scars of Jallianwala Bagh remained fresh on his psyche as indeed on the psyche of the Indian nation. Anwar also grew up in the midst of the Khilafat and the Non-Cooperation movements. He saw the height of Hindu-Muslim harmony and also its nadir when the harmony turned into mutual hatred. Helpless and perplexed, Anwar went to meet Mahatma Gandhi and made an appeal to him for intervention. Gandhi listened to him patiently and promised to do his best. The next day, Anwar discovered through the newspapers that Gandhi had decided to go on a fast against communal violence. His fast did help bring a semblance of normalcy and Anwar quietly patted himself on the back for having played some role in restoring communal harmony.

The two lives — of Anwar and of the Indian nation — proceeded along very similar lines. The adolescent Indian nation acquired self-reflexivity in a colonial context. This context created a diversity of ways in which people made sense of this reality. There was an alliance of the traditional and the new elite who were fully committed to the British rule. However, young people imbued with the spirit of nationalism were discontented with the alien rule and wanted to end it. Anwar’s own family included specimen of both the types: his father was opposed to the British while his uncle was fully committed to it.

The two stories are brought to a halt around 1930. The Indian nation finds itself in a state of suspension because Gandhi signs a pact with the British and places the entire struggle in suspension. Anwar too discovers that he had been living with a false identity, that he was born of a Hindu father (and mother of unknown religious identity) and brought up in a devout Muslim atmosphere. This discovery fills him with disgust, but eventually liberates him from all shackles of religion and culture. And Anwar attains true universality. This is the moment of true reflexivity for him. Can the Indian nation too find its true fulfilment in its syncretic and shared cultures?

The book is a genuine literary documentation of India’s freedom struggle. It is authentic and the various historical events really come alive. It continues to be an important book for all those who do not simply want to read about the freedom struggle, but want to experience it too.

— The reviewer is a visiting faculty at BM Munjal University, Manesar

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