The Lighter Side of History

I am not sure if I can call it the lighter side of history, or, more appropriately, history off the beaten track, the conventional track having been well-worn by academics, noted historiographers, and mainstream pundits from various streams of study.  Whatever it is, it certainly makes for entertaining reading.  Mahbub Alam, a former career diplomat and an alumnus of Dhaka University's History department, has written just such a book, Khirki Theke Singhoduar.  Ten historical accounts are presented with care and pleasing style of writing.  As the author declares, he has endeavoured to bring to light those events that are often kept in the shadows of history, and usually as footnotes.  Interestingly, though, once one has gone through the accounts, one may have cause to ruminate over just how vital some of them might have been to the larger events that they have been a small part of.

In "Bileti Shaheb, Bangali Bibi", the author portrays a complex mix of noblesse oblige of the British Raj during Queen Victoria's reign, the number of fawning Bengalis going all out to please raj high-ups for social climbing and/or substantial material benefits, vicious character attacks by Bengalis on those Bengalis going after such largesse, the bold stand taken against the raj by a section of the print media, and the promulgation of a repressive Act by the British.  It all began with the visit of then Crown Prince Edward (since, because of her advancing years and the great distance she had to travel by sea, his mother Queen Victoria declined to pay a visit to the jewel in the crown of her empire) to India in 1875.  To partially meet the cost of this visit, the British resorted to "voluntary contribution" from the Indians in exchange for bestowing titles such as "Rai Bahadur", "Khan Bahadur", and the like.  While several educated Bengalis protested against such disguised extortion by writing to the newspaper Amritabazar Patrika, others lost no opportunity to garner titles.   

Matters came to a head when, to honour the desire of the Crown Prince to visit the interiors of a respectable Bengali household, Jagananda Mukhopaddhay, a government solicitor of Kolkata High Court, obliged.  And all hell broke loose, notably among the educated and conservative Bengalis of Kolkata.  Such reaction eloquently portrays the customs and traditions of those times that looked severely askance at the women of respectable Bengali Hindu families being presented to outsider males, particularly foreigners.  Writers, poets, newspapers like Amritabazar and the satirical Bashantak, and other people had a field day over several months mocking Jagananda, denigrating his efforts as a ploy to garner a prestigious title.  Nonetheless, Alam also brings out the double standard of these critics who, while lambasting the hapless solicitor, did not forget to extol the British raj!  An unwelcome outcome of the vitriolic reaction to Jagananda was the promulgation of the Dramatic Performance Control Act of 1876 in reaction to a number of plays that satirized, or were purported to, the British rule.  The final straw that pushed the British to take that measure was the farcical-satirical drama "Gajadananda".  Alam's verdict:  "A controversial regulatory act was promulgated around an insignificant satire, whose effects continued after the British had left this country" (loosely translated from the Bangla by this reviewer). 

The story of William Makepeace Thackeray, grandfather of the famous English novelist of the same name, is fascinating.  He was Sylhet district's (much larger then than it is at present) first collector, and is representative of the enormous wealth accumulated by a number of adventurous Englishmen, most of whom came from modest pecuniary background back home, through dishonest means in India.  In those early years of East India Company rule, not only its employees, but also judges, preachers, and military personnel had the right to engage in private business.  This they often did by crooked means, and the rot was so widespread that it reached even the highest levels of the administration.

In this age of complex computer-aided design, it is wondrous to ponder how, hundreds or thousands of years ago, people constructed massive structures of stone that have withstood the test of time.  One of the great rulers of India, Emperor Asoka, had constructed his imposing stone pillars more than two thousand years back, and more than one and a half thousand years later, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq had found two of them (one from Ambala, Rajasthan, and the other from Meerut), uprooted, and had them transported long distances over dry land and waterways to be transplanted and vertically erected in Delhi.  It must have been a massive undertaking, and, the amazing aspect of it all was that the monuments remained intact amidst the lowering, hauling, and erection.  Firoz Shah, like Asoka, carried out numerous beneficial activities for his subjects' welfare. 

"Shaheb-Dhora Bangali" portrays sycophantic Bengalis who, for social climbing purposes, slavishly attended to the whims and needs of the British.  They tried to ape the mannerisms of their colonial masters, tried to appease them whenever and wherever the opportunities presented themselves, and supported their money-making enterprises like indigo cultivation and salt importation.  However, these Anglophile toadies, in Alam's words, were neither welcomed into English society with open arms, nor could they fully integrate into the local society.  To the English, they remained "blackies" and "natives".  They learnt the English language, at times with hilarious outcomes.  Alam provides one example:  one such Bengali lawyer, who had learnt English, was arguing a "right of way" case in front of an English judge.  He wanted to say that the disputed pathway always had unrestricted access to all.  What he actually said was, "It is a case of promiscuous intercourse, my lord."  Prompt was the judge's riposte:  "You are a born idiot, babu."

There is a delightful piece on the wonderful qualities of the mango, almost revered by the Mughals, and much appreciated by the British.  Apparently, and this is subject to other opinions, the "Langra" was discovered by an Englishman, as was the "Fazlee" by another, who also named it.  Another, on the humble jackfruit, laments the relative inattention given to it in Bangladesh by scientists who, on the other hand, have devoted much time and energy to expanding on the varieties of, and improving upon, the qualities of the mango.  Another trivia of history, but, nonetheless, infinitely satisfying to the inquisitive, is a curious connection between Bengal and the United States in the early nineteenth century.  In September 1833, the American ship "Tuscany" docked in Kolkata harbour and unloaded what remained of a cargo of ice slabs, obviously meant to ease the hardship faced by the British in hot and steamy Bengal, while making a neat profit in the process.  It was the brainchild of Boston entrepreneur Frederick Tudor.  Interestingly, following tradition, for a long time, many Bengali women shunned using the "foreign" ice, fearing losing their caste, although those Bengalis educated in English lost little time in making use of its benefits. 

Interesting, too, is the piece entitled "Deen Mohammader Dhaka".  Deen Mohammad was born in Patna and had stayed in Dhaka in the late eighteenth century.  He then sailed for Ireland, got married there, and lived in Britain for 70 years.  He wrote "The Travels of Dean Mahomet" in an epistolary style, and is probably the first book published by an Indian writing in English, and certainly the first Indian work to be published in Britain.  His stated objective was to familiarize his country to the Europeans, although he never returned to the country of his birth from Britain.  Regarding Dhaka, he described its wealth, its Nawabs, industry, society, boat racing on the Buriganga river, Lalbagh fort, and the foreigners who visited, or lived in, the city.  In the book he emphasized that the Indian civilization and culture were age-old.

"Forashi Shomrater Dorbare Tipu Sultaner Teen Rashtrodoot" evokes a bygone era of pomp and peasantry, affected mannerisms, and some famous names in Indian, indeed world, history.  Tipu Sultan, who eventually lost his kingdom and life to an alliance of the British, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Marathas, himself wanted to forge an association with the French, who had just fought on the side of the Americans in their war of independence against the British.  Accordingly, he sent three ambassadors, all of high lineage, to Paris to negotiate a favourable treaty with the French.  The travails of the three from India and in France speak eloquently of the traditions, customs, and mannerisms of the ruling upper class of the day, along with the different approaches of the Indians and the French.  An interesting bit of information was that the Indians offered Bengal to the French should a proposed alliance between France and Tipu Sultan defeat the British in battle.  In the event, the French rejected such an alliance, and the French Revolution that followed removed the French monarchy, and led to the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The reviewer is an Actor and Professor and Head, Media and Communication Department, IUB.