Friday, 21 February 2014

Lalun’s Salon: An Alternative Political Arrangement

Although operating at the periphery, Lalun of Kipling’s “On the City Wall”, stands as the opportunity of an alternative form of native resistance to British rule.

To anyone who is aware of her acumen, Lalun’s profound knowledge of the happenings of the city perhaps give away her potential to defy the empire. But she manages to conceal this under a sexual charm which is seductive and thus distracting.

The English narrator seems to frequent this salon (which otherwise populated by natives) by virtue of the privilege afforded to him by the colonial framework. His unquestioned presence in this native space translates into that gaze of an Englishman which tries to comprehend this place and the people in it.  

 In Lalun’s “little white room”, people of the city – “shias…sufis…Pundits…Skihs…MA’s…” – gather for gossip and amusement. While this appears to the narrator as rather harmless, he’s more intrigued by what Lalun alone is capable of.

“She will show you how much she knows of the news of the City and the Province. Lalun knows everything” says Wali Dad. And the narrator, immediately testing her, asks her: “when does the 175th Regiment go to Agra?” to which Lalun responds promptly and with sufficient certainty. But before narrator can dwell too much on it, he is occupied with Lalun’s singing of a laonee.

However, the motivations of Lalun become clear to the narrator by the end of the story. She uses him and his “white face” to safeguard Khem Singh through the city – Khem, who although eventually resigns to his failure, is an active protestor of the British Raj. Not only that, but also Lalun seems to have funded Khem Singh’s plans when she distracts the narrator, again through her seductive methods, while Nasiban hands Khem the money.

But while Khem’s plans (and through him Lalun’s) do not reach fruition, Lalun’s courtesan-ship comes off as a reasonable cover to hide her political ambitions and her abode (which is very well capable of staging an uprising) a safe place for amusement. All this while on the outside the struggles or gatherings fail to amount to something meaningful. Men like Khem Singh are too old to do much damage and those like Wali Dad too passive. Besides, the religious gatherings for Muharram, which can potentially propel native agency and pose a threat to the order, are easily suppressed by the British.

Thus Lalun deceives and seems to do politics better than most. She played her part but that Khem Singh would lose his influence was out of her hands. This isn’t a case for women power on Kipling’s part, but a one-off – a rare case of native aggression which can go unnoticed. The narrator, although content that Khem Singh couldn’t accomplish much, is fazed by Lalun’s manipulation for political gains. After all, somehow, the narrator “had become Lalun’s Vizier”.

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