Dastan-e-Ghadar- The Tale of the Mutiny; Zahir Dehlvi; Translated from the Urdu by Rana Safvi; Penguin Classics; pp 327; INR 399 (India).
MELBOURNE: Around the mid-70s, I lived with my parents in a big first floor home at Nicholson Road, Kashmiri Gate, with the road dividing us and an medieval wall connected to the Kashmiri Gate, used by defending British forces, to prevent mutineers (Indians) of 1857 who captured Delhi on 11 May, 1857. Historians have called it the ‘First War of Independence’ and the British called it the ‘Mutiny’, later suppressed by British forces led by Brigadier General John Nicholson, wounded while leading the attacking column at Kashmiri Gate and died shortly thereafter.
Little did I know, I was living at a place with such historical importance. And, now having read the ‘Dastan-e-Ghadar’ (The Tale of the Mutiny), a memoir of the 1857 historical events by Zahir Dehlvi, an official in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s court and a poet, makes me nostalgic. He fled to Hyderabad, where he breathed his last.
Rana Salvi, Delhi’s historian has translated ‘Dastan-e-Ghadar’ from Urdu, with passion putting on record in English eye-witness accounts from an insider in the Mogul Court. It reveals new facts and adds a new perspective to the already existing material on the subject, oft from the colonial angle.
The independence spark of 1857, which though violently suppressed by the British with superior armaments and a big army including natives, remains a potent subject of history steeped in India’s colonial past. Rana Salvi, has laid bare before us many unknown and suppressed happenings that continue to haunt the Indian psyche. A historical memoir in Urdu (seeing a tragic decline now), translated into English is a treat.
Zahir Dehlvi, was a courtier poet and 22 years old when the events that trounced the Mogul Empire happened. He describes the incidents starting from day one of the revolt (when the mutineers enter Delhi) and chaos he and his close associates faced as the mutineers ousted the British for a few months. He was quite subjective as a lifestyle was under challenge and blamed the ‘purbias’ (among the mutineers) for the violence and disruption of civil life and the general situation in Shahjahanabad (Delhi or old Delhi). The squeezed Mogul empire was already under British tutelage and the Bahadur Shah Zafar was surviving with British pension.
In the introduction, Rana Safi, gives a preview of Zahir Dehlvi’s ‘Dastan-e-Gadart’, a mirror of stuff to come in the subsequent pages. The fact that in 1857, the East India Company (called probably the first multinational company in the world by historian William Dyrampal), was already in control of the area is reflected in his pro Emperor psyche, and not sympathetic to the mutineers. He calls them ‘rebels’.
While the book details (as written by Zahir Dehlvi) his escape from Delhi and the problems faced in different places he stayed laced with the ground situation and who all helped him across many places including Jhajjar, Panipat, Bareilly, Moradabad, Rampur, and his return to Delhi, describing the destruction and loss of life. He says the people of Delhi faced tyranny and thousands of innocents were hanged, without any investigation,
He says, ” In Delhi, thousands of innocents were hung to death. The emperor was imprisoned and sent to Rangoon along with Zeenat Mahal, Jawan Bakht, Shah Abbas, and many others. He was placed under house arrest there”. Rangoon is now known as Yangon, capital of Myanmar (Burma).
The narration is long and tragic. Bahadur Shah Zafar had shifted from the Red Fort to the Nizamuddin Dargah and later to the Humayun’s Tomb, where he was taken away after trial to Rangoon.
Zahir describes how the triumphant British sepoys (soldiers) rancaked city houses, plundered and vandalized them and put thousands of men and women to the sword. The princes , including the Badshah’s sons, grandsons, and son-in-laws were murdered outside the walls of Delhi. Their heads were sent to the emperor.
The writer finally ended up in Hyderabad, which he calls a rich place, with nobleman having European education and British in every aspect. This chapter is called – Arrival in Hyderabad, Deccan. What next is a tragic comment – ” Hyderabad turned out to be a empty dream. I now spend my time in prayer, waiting for my end.”
The chapters ‘Timeline of the Ghadar in Delhi’, ‘Historical Notes of some key figures’, Maps of ‘Siege of Delhi’ & ‘Qila-e-Moalla’ explained in ‘ Plan of the Qila-e-Moalla and Shahjanabad’ make passionate reading. For me, many names of places are familiar. It makes me nostalgic amid the narration of the tragic and heroic events of 1857. It depends on which side of the fence one is.
Least but not, the Notes from pages 307-327, are a goldmine of historical information. For example, about the admin divisions and the composition of the soldiers of the East India Company (Bombay, Madras and Bengal) and the ones who rebelled. The revealing facts come from Manimugdha S. Sharma (quoted) about the composition of the rebels or mutineers or freedom fighters.
The soldiers who rebelled were mainly from the Bengal Army, with hardly any Bengali soldiers. So, it was the Third Bengal Light Cavalry posted in Meerut started the ‘Gadar’ and marched to Delhi. Pages 312, 313, 314 has all the details. The majority was upper caste Hindus (Brahmins, Rajputs and Bhumihars) Nad Muslims from the regions of Bihar and East UP (now). Many were from Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s army, disbanded after the annexation of Awadh. That is why they were called the ‘purbias’. In fact there is much more.
This review is not a summary of the book, nor a comment on the events of 1857, which ended the East India Company’s rule, 1757 to 1858, when the British Crown took direct control of India, establishing the British Raj, that ended on the midnight of August 14 – 15, 1947. I have tried to mention what I could grasp for readers. My mind is stirred, as I grapple with the fact that the subcontinent was ruled for around 200 years by the British colonists, who looted and maimed our land, scattered with the blood of our martyrs.
My bias is evident and I have tried to minimise it. I call the events of 1857 in Delhi, as the first war of India’s independence.
I commend Rana Safvi for giving us ‘Dastan-e-Gadar’, translated into English from Urdu. As I am from Delhi, the place of my birth, growing up, education, struggles, employment and what not, this piece of history revives in me my Delhi.
Now so far away in Australia, I repeat what Mirza Ghalib said , ” Kaun Jaye Dilli Ki Galliyan Chod Ke” (Who can leave the lanes of Delhi’.). I could not, what to talk of history.
