Instruments of Exile: Reform

Perhaps one of the most notable techniques Nazir Ahmed adopts in demarcating Ibn-ul-Vaqt's increasingly differing identity  from those around him, is through a depiction of the ‘reform’ that seems to become the very essence of Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s life. In a language historically typical to a colonizer, Noble Sahib articulates that the ‘essence of reform’ rested in the occurrence that “Indians should be made Englishmen in their food, dress, language, habits, ways of living and thinking”. Ironically, it is these very spheres of Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s life that become instrumental in his metamorphosis and eventually transform him into an exilic figure. He begins to slowly let go of his intrinsic cultural and religious habits; we witness a commencement of change through his act of dining with Noble Sahib. The transformation seems to be fully underway with his conference with Jan Nisar and acquisition of British clothing; in fact it seems to become a hurdle in his daily prayer routine, which itself soon becomes an ‘inconvenience’, symbolizing the growing divide between religion and lifestyle in the protagonist’s life. However, despite being “European to all appearances” he is viewed with disdain; his ‘baptism’ has not gained him favor because his is an adopted identity.  Prayer goes from being a public affair, to a private one, and then to a non-existent one in Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s life. Nazir Ahmed uses a powerful core religious value such as praying to show that indeed, the last communal tie having been broken, Ibn-ul-Vaqt becomes an almost self-exilic figure, displaced from the Muslim public sphere that had already begun to exclude him.

 Nazir Ahmed uses intricate details to show how Ibn-ul-Vaqts ‘way of living’ becomes emblematic of the British; he shifts to a house furnished in British manner (paradoxically, this house becomes the very symbol of his homelessness), follows English etiquette, and even gets his hair cut in the ‘English style’. But sadly, through all this, Ibn-ul-Vaqt no longer remains the ideal ‘reformer’ construed by Noble Sahib, i.e. belonging ‘to the community’; although he chooses not to associate with the Hindus, he struggles to place himself in the colonial hierarchy of the British and through his changing ‘habits’ quickly loses favor with those whom he had a religious and communal affinity ‘the problem was that with his English lifestyle he called himself a Muslim which irritated them’ and they began ‘detesting him because of the differences in beliefs’. Nazir Ahmed also uses instrumental characters such as Hujjat ul Islam to show the completion of Ibn-ul-Vaqts exile; through his affinity towards the rationality of the British, he loses the identity that mazhab afforded him, as both are irreconcilable elements (i.e. his way of thinking remains irreconcilable with the faith he adhered to). Despite becoming an Englishman in all aspects stated necessary by Noble Sahib, he remains an outsider. Thus, like any ‘founder of a new faith’, he remains essentially displaced and alone, exiled to the confines of his own mind, a misunderstood misfit.