The Loss of Hindustan:The Invention of India-by Manan Ahmed Asif, Book review by Ajay Singha Raconteur Indica

The title announces a subject of deep concern to the people of the Indian subcontinent in present times. This is not a chronological narration of history, but a premise, which states that the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh share a common political ancestry. A people who liked to describe themselves, at least in the past, as Hindustani. The book examines the very philosophy of understanding and narrating history especially as propagated by colonial historians. It seeks to explain what exactly was this idea of Hindustan? How did it evolve and come about? What made it persist for over a thousand years? What caused the eventual loss of Hindustan and why did it run out of steam? And finally how did it get replaced by the invention of India?

FIRISHTA 17th century Scholar-Historian

The author, Manan Ahmed Asif was born in Pakistan and went to school during the dictatorial regime of General Zia, where he was taught that his country’s history went back only as far as the advent of Islam. He went overseas for further studies and now teaches history at Columbia University. The abstract philosophies of history composed by Voltaire, Hume and Kant led the author on a wider search to examine their critical original sources. Discarding the interpretations of the ‘soldier-scribes’ whose writings dominated the region’s colonial and post-colonial historiography, the author hinges his research on pre-colonial sources, particularly Firishta, a 17th century scholar historian, located in the Deccan, outside the Mughal domains. The author believes that historians had relied on Firishta as a common source of information but deployed his writings to strengthen their own viewpoints.

Up until the 18th century, ‘Hindustan’ was regularly embossed on maps, travelogues and histories relating to the sub-continent, printed anywhere in the world. Operas and magic shows in Europe would use the term to describe and depict the sub-continent. The Mughals did not create the concept of ‘Hindustan’. It already existed as an area of territorial integrity where diverse communities of believers lived harmoniously. In Sanskrit, Prakrit, Arabic, Persian and later Urdu the idea of Hindustan persists.

The British ‘soldier-scribe’ historians constructed India’s past as a golden period of five thousand years which was disrupted by the invasion of outsiders who threw India into a dark age of tyranny and stagnation. British rule rescued India from this plight, putting it on the track of universally accepted modernity. Elaborating on the history of the sub-continent, James Mill set the ball rolling by describing the ancient ‘glorious’ period followed by the ‘dark’ medieval Muslim despotism and finally the fair and just British rule. By carving out selective information from historical sources these ‘soldier-scribes’ as the author calls them, greatly distorted the understanding of subsequent generations of writers and historians. Manan asserts that the colonial episteme worked to erase the idea of Hindustan, supplanting it with the concept of India. The “Loss of Hindustan” as a colonial project commenced in the early 18th century and their ideas had jelled by the early 20th century, finding final fruition in 1947. The Sarnath capital, as the excavation came to be known, established the visual vocabulary for an “ancient” and triumphant “Golden Age” before the Muslim conquests and the “decay” that came after. It gave ancient India a geography, an ethics of awareness, nonviolence, and tolerance as opposed to the darkly violent Muslim kings. Ashoka, the ‘chakravartin’ who conquered the four quarters of the world came at the beginning and after him, was the decline. With the discovery of Ashoka and the Arthasastra, ancient Indian history finally had a pronounced teleology outside of Muslim conquest.

In contrast, the entire history of Muslims, in the European imagination, came to be understood as one of “conquest” epitomized in the motif of the “sword of Islam.” In 1897, Zakaʾullah a late Mughal period historian produced the ‘Tarikh-i Hindustan’ perhaps the last great document to bear the title “History of Hindustan.” Though critical of European scholars, the author asserts that Zaka too was conceptually not too different from Elphinstone who had framed history as a corrective to the popular accounts of James Mill. He points out Sayyid Ahmad Khan, a historian who offered a lived history of his contemporaries in Delhi in which the houses and households gave testimony to the richness of the past two hundred years. A good hundred years after the battle at Plassey, during the 1857 rebellion, people spoke of getting ‘Hindustan’ free and getting rid of the firangi rule. But then quite suddenly the term began to fade from colonial archives and after 1857 ‘British India’ replaced the idea of ‘Hindustan’.

Brahmins presenting sacred Hindu texts to Britannia

The author introduces Firishta or Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah, a scholar of Persian descent. His patron Ibrahim Adil Shah II, who ruled the Deccan, gave him the mandate to produce a comprehensive history of Hindustan. Firishta proceeded to compile an archive spread across nearly nine centuries, covering themes ranging from politics and culture to geography. Written mostly in Arabic and Persian, he also included texts from the Mahabharat and Shahnama giving it his own novel interpretations. His account is not a chronology of empires and kings but a historical geography and his idea of Hindustan was thus beyond and even greater than the Mughal court. He writes that Hindustan was always a melting pot of multiple cultures, languages, religions and people within a geographically defined sub-continent. He saw Hindustan as an eminently hospitable space, with political structures that were accommodating to a diverse population.

Sultan Adil Shah II - Patron of FIRISHTA
With over a thousand folio pages, the writings by Firishta offer an elaborate account, becoming foundational to European historical thought in the century that followed. He writes that before the dawn of Islam, Maldeo was the last ruler of Hindustan who could unite its various regions under his rule and after his death, there were no more kings of consequence, as he puts it. Firishta’s history is the first serious attempt at describing Hindustan as a concept, an idea, and a place that contains multitudes of faiths and polities. Firishta starts his observations with the polities in the Northwest, moves to the sub-continent’s southern centre, travels up to the eastern shores and returns again to the South by the sea route. He expresses his love for this geography in the conclusion, titled “An Account of Conditions of the Heaven-Representing Hindustan.” Manan, the author of this book writes that “Not one community, nor people, are described in terms of ‘otherness’ nor does he remark that one faith supersedes another”. Firishta ends his treatise with the advent of the Portuguese and the English in Malabar and the arrival of the Jews and Christians to Hindustan. His words predict the coming apocalypse, for he understood the inherent dichotomy of the Europeans, who outwardly appeared at war with each other, but remained united in their intent to subjugate the sub-continent.

The colonial episteme has been regularly challenged from the nineteenth century onwards to the present times, prominent historians who have done so include Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib. Manan’s singular effort in interpreting Firishta’s treatise and drawing attention to his work will re-introduce Firishta as a reliable source in contemporary scholarship. Scholarly works delve deep into the subject to conduct their research and quote multiple references to support their thesis. With a third of its contents dedicated to notes, bibliography and index, this book is no exception. Those not conversant with the history of this sub-continent may therefore find the going a bit tough and may leave with more questions than answers. Then there is the question of the sources and texts on which Firishta built his own narrative. Perhaps these need to be examined and assessed more rigorously before building an authoritative voice, signalling a sort of finality in opinion. The central theme of the book ‘The Loss of Hindustan’ is replaced by the invention of India. But this begets the question, what exactly did ‘Hindustan’ replace in the first place? To retain focus on the subject under review the entire narrative centres around a few centuries of India’s history. This is understandable because a certain period of history is under scrutiny, but purely from a lay reader’s point of view, this deep dive does get a bit tiresome.

The author explains the position and interpretation of the Hindu ideologue Savarkar on this subject and the fine distinction in accepting the nomenclature with an additional ‘h’ calling it “Hindusthan” the place where Hindus reside rather than the land, east of the Indus. The book concludes with an appeal, perhaps to the people of the sub-continent, that we confront a terrible crisis emerging from the past. The author offers two insights: The acceptance that History can impact real lives as the narratives of separation gain momentum. More importantly, he suggests that we should not accept the past as a certainty or seek to romanticise what is lost. He suggests reimagining the past in order to rearticulate our extant understanding of the region’s history. This approach may certainly help us breathe easy, as the battle about writing history in the present is also the battle about the future of the sub-continent.

Dr. Malashri Lal in conversation with Ajay Singha on “Finding Radha: The Quest for Love” Penguin

Namita Gokhale and Dr. Malashri Lal have curated an anthology of essays, poems and songs offering various perspectives, explaining the mystique of Radha as it has evolved over time. Radha remains one of the most enigmatic figures in India’s vast religio-cultural landscape, attracting writers across centuries to share their own interpretation and understanding. Our desire to understand Radha’s stellar role in the pantheon of Indian deities is heightened by the lack of direct textual references to her persona even in the Mahabharata.
Renowned scholars who have penned these accounts and whose writings are referred to in the book provide an interesting kaleidoscope of commentary on the legend of Radha. An exquisite aura surrounds the eternal play of ‘Raas Leela’ and the story of her unwavering love, sometimes earthly and sometimes divine, is elaborated in this book.

No other Goddess combines the elements of ‘Bhakti’ and ‘Shringara’ quite as comprehensively as Radha. She sits distinctly apart in the line of divine, female consorts, defying conventional codes. Yet she becomes adorable for the masses through her combined attributes of the spiritual and the sensual.

Those who question the authenticity of Radha’s existence must first address the need for creating such a complex and enigmatic figure in the realm of the imagination. The book encapsulates the philosophical tradition of accepting the sacred and the erotic as pleasingly compatible and not contradictory. Dr. Malashri Lal in conversation with Ajay Singha points out some of these interesting interpretations through a wide gamut of authors who write on a distinctive subject.

Question:The 12th Century portrayal of Radha as depicted in Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda is her popular and universally acceptable image. What are the key features of this interpretation?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Jayadeva’s 12th century composition Gita Govinda is the climax to a movement which had been around but from then on gained huge popularity in much of India. Around 10th century, Prakrit literature refers to one Radha who is portrayed as Krishna’s favourite. She is the loved one, and the dominant emotion is one of longing and separation. By making the relationship somewhat clandestine, the poet heightens the emotional impact of the narrative and enhances popular interest among the people.

Question: When does the story of Radha begin?
Dr.Malashri Lal: During our research Namita Gokhale and I found the earliest reference to Radha, by name, in a 7th century poem in Sanskrit by Vidya. Sacred texts of Bhagavata Purana in the 9th century mention Radha indirectly, as a woman being singled out for special favours by Krishna. Jain scholars mention Radha around the 8th century alluding to an intimate companionship of Radha and Krishna. Later, compositions by Surdas, written in Braj Bhasha increased the outreach of the love saga but the narrative of romantic love was altered to show conjugality, a more acceptable position. Radha was largely a medieval phenomenon and barely existed in the classical world. Jawhar Sircar and Makarand Paranjape write of this complex history.

Question: Does limiting Radha to a birthplace, a geographical location or a time period constrict her persona and her outreach?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Not at all, the story of Radha being born in Vraja to Vrishabhanu only emphasises her human origins as opposed to Sita’s divine birth. The Radha-Krishna worship gained momentum in the 12th Century, and was later built into a sacred geography in Barsana and Vrindavan by the followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The film maker Madhureeta Anand recounts her journey through this landscape.

Question: What was the position of the Radha-Krishna cult during the Mughal period?
Dr. Malashri Lal: By the 16th Century Radha and Krishna became paired as inseparable and accepted as part of the Hindu tradition. Allegorically they were seen to represent the body and the soul. A movement favouring Krishna as the ‘supreme being’ was inspired by vernacular poetry and established itself in the Braj region between Agra and Delhi. The Mughals found this variety of Hinduism non-threatening enough to permit the emergence of a temple city in the midst of their power base. The much needed visual component to the Radha -Krishna story was fulfilled through romantic depictions in paintings which in turn were influenced by the Mughal style. The legend of Vrindavan was given an impetus with Radha emerging as a charming and alluring maiden.

Question: Rajasthani miniature paintings were greatly influenced by the Radha-Krishna theme, inadvertently abandoning love stories from the local tradition. Is this common perception misplaced?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Dating from the 16th to the 20th century many illustrated manuscripts of the Gita Govinda are still available. Perhaps the easy appeal of the Radha- Krishna tale lay in the lyrical depictions of love in the forest, surrounded by birds and other gentle creatures. This lent itself to pictorial depictions readily. Bani Thani of Kishangarh has often been painted as Radha but her own story deserves a research project. Themes portraying love stories of regional origin such as Dhola- Maroo showed their presence in folk lore, wall paintings and local ballads.

Question: What do Shir Ha-Shirim of the Hebrew Bible and Gita Govinda have in common?
Dr. Malashri Lal: This is based on the research conducted by Yudit Greenberg. Both the texts focus on female yearning, imagery depicting beauty and sexual desire, and the angst of physical separation of the lovers. The woman’s voice is dominating and she is seen asserting her emotions and desires. Another common feature is that the lover’s body is often described with allusions to trees, fruits, flowers and animals. But there are differences too, based on the religious context.

Question: Did the divine lovers Radha and Krishna actually cross-dress? Is there any comparison to the western notion of cross-dressing?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Alka Pande has written on this subject. The cross dressing is part of the erotic play of Radha and Krishna and denotes a willingness to extend gender consciousness to the ‘other’. The cross-dressing is a beautiful and effective way of illustrating unity beyond the gender differential. According to some traditions, Radha represents physical love and Krishna is the universal soul but this can be reversed. Consequently, their coming together is the union of the aatman with the paramaatma. I don’t think this parallels the discourse of cross- dressing in the western context, which is located in the secular domain of power- play.

Question: Are there any commonalities between Gopis and their relation with Krishna as compared to Catholic nuns as brides of Christ?
Dr. Malashri Lal: This comparison in untenable as we are looking at a legend in one instance and religious practice in the other. Gopis are extensions of Radha, and stand for the eternal seekers of salvation in the love of Krishna. The famous raas leela which depicts Krishna’s absorption by each of the gopis is a beautiful metaphor for losing oneself in the ultimate union with the divine. The celibate practices of the Catholic church are based on a very different history.

Question: Can you comment on Kazi Nazrul Islam, an Islamic scholar who penned verses on the Radha-Krishna theme.
Dr.Malashri Lal: The Kazi’s mellifluous songs, exploring all the nuances of a lover’s quarrel became popular in Bengal in the 20th Century. He is remembered for writing stirring patriotic songs during India’s freedom struggle. He belonged to a syncretic tradition that brought Hindus and Muslims together in Bengal in the 19th and early twentieth century. Radha was an icon of love, the religion did not matter. The historian and singer Reba Som has written in detail on this aspect of Radha.

Question: Was there any role of the Bhakti cult in popularising this belief in the Radha-Krishna movement?
Dr. Malashri Lal: The Bhakti movement significantly propelled the romantic tale across the sub-continent. Bhakti poets addressed God in personalised vocabulary hence the narrative of Radha-Krishna was especially suited to the expression of intimacy that the devotee felt towards divinity. In the section called “Songs of Radha” there are several examples of this. Namita and I are keen to explore Bhakti literature more closely.

Question: What is the curious tale of Bhanusingh?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Bhanusingh was the pen name adopted by Rabindranath Tagore when he mischievously wrote Bhanusingher Padabali in Braj buli, pretending it was an old manuscript found mysteriously. The songs about Radha and Krishna were beautiful and led to much speculation about the identity of the author. Tagore had to finally confess to his ‘prank’.

Question: The 8th century female saint Andal, in South India, was closely associated with Krishna. Was that a reason for Radha’s acceptance beyond the Vindhyas?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Andal was found by a priest as a baby girl and grew up seeing Krishna as her husband. She is believed to have ‘merged’ into Vishnu’s massive idol in Sri Rangam. Her songs greatly influenced Sri Ramanuja and remain hugely popular up to present times. The presence of Radha in southern literature needs further study.

Question: Is the Radha-Krishna pairing purely symbolic and should it be interpreted primarily in allegorical terms.
Dr. Malashri Lal: The immortal story of Radha and Krishna should be read along the dual axis of the physical and the spiritual. The utter surrender to the beauty of form and touch raises the romantic to a transcendental plane, so the erotic holds a justifiable place in sexual experience. In parallel, this complete union and ecstasy is only possible in a spiritual epiphany where all distinctions melt. Hence, the physical and the spiritual are co-existent, a reality that few people acknowledge.

Question: Bollywood seems to have discarded the Radha-Krishna analogy and changed to something different. Why?
Dr. Malashri Lal: Bollywood has used, and continues to use, Radha as an alluring character but her visual and aural contours have changed over time. Lyrics show how the representation of Radha has altered from the delicate coquetry of ‘Mohe panghat pe Nandlal chhed gayo re’ in Mughal-e-Azam (1960), to the jealousies of competing romance in ‘Bol Radha bol sangam hoga ki nahi’in the film Sangam (1964), to the robust breaking of gender stereotypes in ‘Radha on the dance floor’, the popular number from Karan Johar’s film Student of the Year (2012).

Question: How is chanting ‘Radhe-Radhe’ different from chanting ‘Radhe-Krishna’?
Dr. Malashri Lal: It’s hard to tell. ‘Radhe-Radhe’ is the usual greeting in Vrindavan where, traditionally, the widows see themselves in the character of Radha paying obeisance to Krishna. In general ‘Radhe-Radhe’ may be an indication of support for the ‘Radha’ quality of adopting the path of joy in the search for divine benediction. Chanting ‘Radhe-Krishna’ is widely heard from the bhakts in the Hare Krishna movement.

Question: The present socio-political thinking in India seems replete with patriarchal undertones and a regressive mindset. Against that background will Radha cease to be the pastoral Goddess and seen as the fallen seductress?
Dr. Malashri Lal: That’s too simplistic, I suggest that people read our book and develop a broader understanding of the subject. We have presented a wide collection of views which are enjoyable to read yet authoritative in content. The Radha-Krishna saga is evergreen and should be of interest to readers universally.

Namita Gokhale, renowned writer, co-founder and Director JLF in conversation with Ajay Singha in Arbit / Rashtradoot.

You grew up in the hills and then moved on to Bombay to start your writing career. Can you comment on the changes this shift brought about in your life? A1) I grew up between Nainital and Simla and New Delhi, and then spent some wonderful years in Mumbai when it was still Bombay. Jaipur means so much to me as well. Cities change and transform, and as the people who represent the city move on, it changes perspective too. Delhi has been the long constant in my life and that is in a sense the place where I feel a continued sense of family and belonging.
You are perceived as one of the torch bearers of modern contemporary Indian writing. Can you share some highlights from your literary journey? A2) I studied literature and was always deeply interested in contemporary voices in Indian language literature. I was not the editor but the publisher and owner of the film magazine ‘Super’ - I enjoyed that immensely and it left me with an abiding interest in publishing.

When it was published in 1984, Paro caused much social consternation within India. Can you share some readers’ responses over your debut novel? A3) I think the shock over my debut novel ‘Paro - Dreams of Passion’ is somewhat exaggerated with the passage of time. It amused and entertained readers, and many of them appreciated it’s literary qualities as well. They did wonder how a traditional upper middle class housewife had presumed to write it. ‘Paro’ has remained continuously in print since it was first published in 1984 and represents a sort of watershed in style and voice, especially from women writers.
Your writing reflects India’s contemporary social reality, what impact has your writing had on the patriarchal mindset and gender based issues in India? A4) I don’t claim to represent any particular ideology or gender position. I write about people who interest me, often about strong women, about the strength of women. It can be interpreted in any way. However, the book which I feel did have a long and lasting impact was the anthology ‘In Search of Sita’ which I co-edited with Malashri Lal.
You grew up surrounded by a privileged set of friends and family. How do you successfully understand and intricately sketch out the varied set of characters and personalities in your writing? A5) I’ve not been quite as privileged as you may imagine. Also, I have friends from different situations, not from just ‘people like us.’ And, like most writers, I am observant and take in a lot.

There is a tectonic shift in the process by which humans absorb information and stories nowadays. Do you think the world of books, the printed word on paper, is heading towards oblivion? A6) I certainly don’t think books are heading to oblivion. Books have always reached out to book lovers, and there are others who absorb knowledge and information and entertainment through other means, as they always have done. Those choices are equally valuable and valid.
Having founded a film magazine, you went on to author several books, can you comment on the symbiotic relationship between the written word and cinema? A7) As the publisher of a film magazine, I had respect for popular culture, which I continue to have. But I rarely watch films or television, although we do programme a lot around that at JLF.
You are a Writer, a Festival Director and a home maker, which aspect of your life do you enjoy at this point in your life? A8) These are all very different aspects of life. Being a writer involves patience, discipline and the solitary pursuit of a theme. I am a co-director ofJLF with William Dalrymple and also interact continuously with Sanjoy Roy and his colleagues at Teamwork. I am also a part of a large joint family. All these aspects of my life are important to me.
What encouraged you and your partners towards organising a Literature Festival in the first place and why did you choose Jaipur as a venue for the festival? A9) It happened by serendipity and accident and because it was meant to happen. A small literary festival at Jaipur just assumed a life and momentum of its own. Our festival belongs to the world now, and it has editions in London, Belfast, Houston, New York, Boulder Colorado, Toronto, Adelaide , Doha....Literature is a part of life and of the human situation. Yet the heart of the festival will always be Jaipur .

The virtual JLF 2021 will be featured this month. What are your plans for the future editions of the Jaipur Literature Festival? A10) The festival lives and resides in the hearts and minds of our engaged audiences, it has been a cerebral as well as emotive experience for them. The virtual editions of the festival have managed to retain this spirit. The programme of JLF 2021 is now up, and we will be live mid February. About the future, let’s see how things evolve and where the path takes us.

Ajay Singha – Thank you for your kind responses to my questions. Once the pandemic is finally over we would like to host a talk by you in Jaipur, both as a renowned writer and a co-producer of the JLF. We do hope it takes place well before the 2022 edition of JLF.

The Jaipur Literature Festival is described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’ and the past decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon. Around 2000 speakers welcomed over a million book lovers from across India and the globe during the decade. The annual festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue. Dictated by a devastating pandemic, the world went into an unprecedented lockdown forcing the digital medium to take up the task of ensuring a continuous flow of communication.

The list of speakers for JLF 2021 (19-28 February) online edition include Albie Sachs, a distinguished lawyer, anti-apartheid activist, scholar & author; Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Carlo Rovelli, renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time; Daniel Simpson, Yoga philosopher & author of author of The Truth of Yoga, a comprehensive guide to the history of practice; John Zubrzycki, an Australian journalist, researcher and author of The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India's Most Glamorous Royal Family; Marina Wheeler, British lawyer, author, columnist and a Queen's Counsel; Michael Sandel, American political philosopher.

The list continues with Moin Mir, author of Surat: Fall of a Port, Rise of a Prince: Defeat of the East India Company in the House of Commons, which traces the annexation of Surat; Moni Mohsin, writer based in London, famous for writing long running satirical column 'The Diary of a Social Butterfly' for The Friday Times; Navtej Singh Sarna, an Indian author-columnist, diplomat and former Indian Ambassador to the United States; Oliver Craske, author of the biography Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar; Prasoon Joshi, celebrated Indian poet, writer, lyricist and screenwriter; Priya Atwal, Historian of empire, monarchy & cultural politics in Britain and India.

They will be joined by Ramachandra Guha, eminent Indian author, historian and biographer; Ranjit Hoskote, Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator; Sarbpreet Singh, author of The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia and Night of the Restless Spirits; Shylashri Shankar, author of Scaling Justice: India’s Supreme Court, Anti-Terror Laws and Social Rights; Simon Winchester, New York Times best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman; Stephen Louis Brusatte, an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, who specializes in the anatomy and evolution of dinosaurs; TCA Raghavan, former Indian diplomat. Interested participants must register online https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org

Betrayed By Hope - Gokhale and Lal - Book review by Ajay Singha

The two authors, Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal have written more than thirty books between them, but this one is different, it is a play-script based on the life and times of a man who deeply impacted and in fact changed forever, the course of Bengali literature, particularly poetry. Michael Madhusudan Dutt or MMD was a complex personality, to say the least, and therefore presents a formidable task to write about. Based on the epistolary exchange between himself, his friends and his well wishers, the authors have crafted a play-script bringing out the deep contradictions in MMD’s personality, his passion for romantic poetry and his encounters with, the then prevailing, orthodox Hindu society.

MMD, the central character of the play may be well described as the agent provocateur of Bengal’s nineteenth century renaissance, as also the ‘enfant terrible’ who descended onto the Bengali literary world in the midst of India’s great political power play in mid-nineteenth century. The reader cannot help but find MMD’s character a bit unnerving, somewhat pitiable, and would tend to agree with the Sutradhar, the principal narrator of the play, when she gets upset with his double standards and hypocrisy. The Sutradhar, with a cultivated Asian-English accent, admits to being confused, reflecting MMD’s own challenges with multiple cultural and linguistic legacies. Occasionally acknowledging each other’s presence on stage, even though they exist in different time frames, the Sutradhar reminds herself that MMD, “infuriating as he is”, is just her research subject.

Born into an upper class Hindu family, MMD a perennial rebel and iconoclast converted to Christianity in his nineteenth year. “Prompted not by conviction for Christian ideals but by his unapologetic worship of England and all things English” wrote the Reverend KM Banerji. Without earning his graduation degree at Bishop’s College, MMD left for Madras where he married a Scottish-Indian lady.They had four children and then all of a sudden in 1856, MMD abandoned his wife and children in Madras and returned to Calcutta. An eternal profligate and a romantic by heart, he got attached to Amelia Henrietta Sophie, a lady of French descent and they went on to have three children. During these years he wrote profusely in English, King Porus (1843), The Captive Ladie (1849), The Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu (1854), a very ornate essay full of quotations and references from European literature. None of these were truly acknowledged by the English speaking community of Calcutta and his efforts at writing in English proved futile. J.E.D. Bethune, President of the East India Company’s Council of Education at Calcutta, suggested that MMD could better “Employ his taste and talents ...... in improving the standard, and adding to the stock of the poetry of his own language” This advise was well received by MMD who commenced writing in Bangla declaring to his friend “You may take my word for it...... I shall come out like a tremendous comet and no mistake”.

His first dramatic composition Sarmista (1859) was well recieved by Bengal's literati and the following ones Padmabati (1859) and Krishna Kumari (1860) brought in the much needed recognition for the aspiring writer. He moved on, composing narrative and balladic poems, and with Meghnadbadh Kabya (the slaying of Meghnad), MMD finally arrived on Bengal’s literary scene. “The idea of Ravan elevates and kindles my imagination – what a grand fellow” he says. Emerging as a distinguished composer of a completely new style of heroic poetry, his compositions had shades of Homer and Dante but were quintessentially Indian. Introducing blank verse and the sonnet form into Bengali poetry, he was of the firm belief that blank verse would do splendidly in Bengali, and in course of time, like the Europeans, Bengalis too would surpass their classic literary insecurities. If MMD felt any guilt towards abandoning his wife and children in Madras, he turned it into dramatic art by focussing on bold and accomplished heroines in short plays and stories.

MMD was a restless soul and instead of basking in the glory of his literary success in Calcutta he shifted to London to study Law. Financial problems forced him to borrow money from all sources and while constantly in debt he somehow qualified as a barrister in 1866. Expecting financial returns from his deceased father’s estate, MMD returned to his beloved Calcutta but the lack of practical abilities required to manage worldly possessions ultimately led to his financial ruin. His literary output diminished after his return from England but in 1871 he wrote Hectorbadh, based on the Illiad and worked on a pastoral idyll, Mayakanan, The Garden of Illusion. An accomplished polyglot, MMD had mastered French, Italian, German, Latin, Greek in addition to English, Bengali and Tamil. His maverick ways disturbed prevailing views, but they helped develop a very forward-looking weltanschauung, a world view, much required in a literary tradition undergoing metamorphoses. Bengali language was undergoing a major overhaul in the nineteenth century, greatly influenced by the incoming European cultures. MMD was the forerunner of a literary tradition which would witness some of the great personalities of Bengali literature occupying centre stage in the coming decades.

In Bangabhasha, a tribute to his mother tongue, familiar to Bangla speakers the world over, his Kula-Lakshmi admonishes him “Go back you fool to where you came from” and he plunges into writing in his mother tongue. Gravely in debt, MMD died in penury in 1873, in a hospital’s general ward. With initial trepidation, the church finally gave permission to bury his remains at the Lower Circular Road cemetery. At the end of his life MMD laments “I wonder at times, Alas, what did I gain? Betrayed by Hope!" His critics saw him as a confused young man, a pretentious anglophile, and arrogant. Anyone who reads this play will love to see it on stage and discover that it is much more than a biography of a literary genius. It touches upon the eternal fault lines and social contradictions which emerge whenever the occident interacts with the orient. Michael Madhusudan Dutt MMD was truly a creature of hope and was finally betrayed by it! ajaypsingha@gmail.com