Becoming Stangers

Prior to the formal establishment of the East India Company, the Indian Subcontinent was considered to be a burgeoning cosmopolitan center, where Muslims, Hindus, and a number of other ethno-religious groups managed to co-exist.

The arrival of the British had, of course, an instrumental role to play in creating ethno-religious rifts. Noble Sahib, in Ibn-Ul-Vaqt, is the first to highlight and articulate the supposed difference between the two sets of colonial subjects. Noble Sahib insists that not only are Hindus and Muslims fundamentally different, but that the Hindus are responsible for the corruption of Muslim Indians.“Hindustan ke Musalmanon ko hinduon ki sohbat ne baray nuqsaan pohnchaye hain aur man jumla in ke aik ye bhi hai keh yahaan ke Musalmaan inhi ki tarhan shaki aur wehmi ho gaye hain” (126). What is that, if not a tool to estrange one community from the other? 

Being in exile can be both a physical and a psychological state. To use Said’s words, “exile is a solitude experienced outside the group”, a description which fits Ibn ul Vaqt remarkably well. Ibn Ul Vaqt's endeavour to emulate his British superiors goes unrewarded by both the British and his friends and family. Where does that leave him, at the end of the day? In an exile created through systematic exclusion and alienation from the Hindus, his Muslim peers, the British. Ironically enough, Ibn ul Vaqt, can never be anyone's real 'friend', let alone the 'friend of India'.