Imperialism and Exile: A Marriage of Convenience

Ibn ul Vaqt' by Nazir Ahmed depicts a state of helplessness experienced by the Muslim community in India post-mutiny. For the fact that 1857 turned out to be catastrophic for the locals and equally triumphant for the colonizers, the already existing power disparity between the rulers and the ruled escalated like never before. The “one-sided” rift between the locals and colonial masters soon settled with the former resorting to a marriage of convenience with the ideals and values that the latter had decided for them. Deputy Nazir has been successful in exposing just this.

The protagonist and the society around him both demonstrate such a compromise. In the earlier chapters, Deputy Nazir presents a setting whereby the local muslims are rife with angst and grief over the imposition of an alien rule over them. He writes,

              “Angrezi zubaan, Angrezi Wiza ka orhna bichona banaya tha is gurz say kay angraizon say lagawat ho magar dekhtay tau lagawat ki awez rukawat hai aur ahtelat ki jagah nafrat. Hakim aur mehkoom mai kasheedgi hai kay barhti chali jati hai. Darya mai rehna aur magar much say ber. Dekhiyay akhir yeh oont kis karwat bethta hai.”

The sarcasm directed towards the incapacitated Muslims in this passage particularly in the last two lines portrays the lost cause of Muslim resistance against the colonial force. Deputy Nazir epitomizes this very sentiment in his plot when the British forces invade Delhi over-night. The irony however is that this attack did not yield any opposition from the locals, no condemnation of the colonial brutality as all of it was already well-anticipated and absolutely inevitable. Even more surprising was the reaction of Delhi’s “ex-owners”, Nazir Ahmed writes,

              “Ab har shakhs apni jagah aik raye lagata tha. Jitnay munh utni batain. Koi kahta tha kay bas jo kuch hona tha ho chukka. Raat ko rehay sahay baagi bhi apna munh kaala kara jaingay. Shukar hai mudaton baad neend bhar kar sona naseeb hoga… Teesra bol parta kay jee nahee aisa nahee hosakta. Shehar ko musmaar kar dain gay tau hakumat kahay par karein gay?  Dalon par? Pathron par?“

This sounds extremely tragic to me whereby the colonial masters have trumped the locals very comprehensively leaving them devoid of any rebellious streak that could ignite the possibility of freedom. Contrary to that, they are cocooning themselves within the prospect of a good night sleep even if the following day heralds the absolute supremacy of an external force. This reinforces my earlier observation of a “marriage of convenience”.

The protagonist’s story is no different. Ibn Ul Vaqt’s willing subordination to the ruler’s demands has been evident multiple times in the plot. Perhaps the most disturbing one was Ibn Ul Vaqt embracing a cigarette bestowed by Noble Saheb who himself is smoking a much classier pipe. The noble builds up the cigarette offer by first establishing that the tobacco Ibn ul Vaqt is about to smoke is easily much better than the one available locally as it is lighter and carefully refined in Rome. Earlier when Ibn ul Vaqt met Lieutenant Brew who’d come to rescue Noble Saheb, he denied a cigarette but couldn’t escape Nazir Ahmed’s blunt and pre-emptive observation. He writes,

                                “Ibn ul Vaqt ne yeh kaha tau sahee magar usko maloom na tha kay angraizon ki suhbat mai najaanay kya kya khana peena iski kismet mai likha hai”

Nazir Ahmed resolves this conundrum later when Ibn Ul Vaqt finally smokes one. He writes,
                          “Ibn ul Vaqt gur kha chukka tha tau gulgulon say kahay ka perhaiz. Diya silai sulga kar engine ki tarah bhak bhak munh say dhuwan nikalnay laga”

Overall, Nazir Ahmed has highlighted the sorry state of affairs Muslims in the subcontinent were going through. Exile is not just a physical lack of space; it is a mental experience characterized by the demise of organic values and substitution of the same by an alien code of life adopted as a tragedy of fate – all this constitutes towards a marriage of convenience as shown in Ibn ul Vaqt.