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An Analysis of Social Realism in Ahmad Alis

Twilight in Delhi (1940)

M. Phil Thesis

Syed Hanif Rasool

Master of Philosophy

4512P

Department of English

Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology

Peshawar (Pakistan)

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(2013)

Supervisors Certificate

This is to certify that the work in this thesis titled, An Analysis of Social Realism in

Ahmad Alis Twilight in Delhi (1940) has been carried out in my supervision by

Syed Hanif Rasool for submission in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English Literature.

April 18, 2013

Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Khattak

Supervisor

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Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology,

Peshawar

April 18, 2013

WE HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS BY

SYED HANIF RASOOL

ENTITLED

AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL REALISM IN AHMAD ALIS TWILIGHT IN DELHI

(1940)

BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

Supervisor:

DR. MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM

KHATTAK

Co-supervisor:

DR.ABU SALMAN SHAHJAHAN

PURI

Committee of Final Examination:

External Examiner:

External Examiner:

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Dedication

I dedicate my thesis to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), a scholar par excellence,

visionary statesman, master of the literati, and above all a personification of noble ideals of

the subcontinent during the twilight in the post 1857 Delhi.

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Acknowledgements

When I started my study on Twilight in Delhi, I discovered the creative writings on

Delhi as interesting field of literary investigation. As I neared towards completion of the

thesis, my interest in and fascination with the histories and actualities of the city of Delhi

increased many times. This venture had never been possible for me without the guidance,

support, encouragements, and inspiration of the following:

First of all, I would like to thank my teacher and supervisor Prof. Dr. Muhammad

Ibrahim Khattak, Vice Chancellor, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, for his whole-hearted encouragement, scholarly support, and his remarkable

contribution to my knowledge, learning, and research skills.

I would like to thank my intellectual guide, internationally renowned scholar and

writer in the history, politics, and literature of the subcontinent: Dr. Abu Salman Shahjahan

Puri (my co-supervisor) for his constant motivation and inspiration.

I would always remember the concern and support of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kamran,

University of the Punjab, Lahore whose valuable research on Prof. Ahmad Ali and his

creative works was of great help to my thesis.

I would also like to thank my teachers Prof. Dr. Muhammad Saleem, Dean Faculty of

Social Sciences, Qurtuba University Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam Khalis, Dean Faculty of

Social Sciences, Islamia College University Peshawar, and Prof. Dr. Qadir Bakhsh Baluch,

Head Department of Management Sciences and Deputy Treasurer Islamia College University

Peshawar for their encouragement.

Finally, long live the inspiring and thought provoking companionship of my friend

Jahangir Khan.

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Table of Contents

Dedication iv

Acknowledgments v

Table of Contents vi

Abstract viii

Chapters

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Structure and Objectives of the Study 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem 2

1.3 Nature and Scope of the Study 2

1.4 Significance of the Study 3

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Delhi: The Centre of Indo-Muslim Culture 5

2.2 The Fall of Delhi in 1857 7

2.3 Social Realism and Indian English Literature 9

2.4 Emergence of All India Progressive Writers 12

Movement and Social Realism

2.5 Professor Ahmad Ali (1910 1994) and the Indian 17

Literary Scenario 2.6

Social Realism in Twilight in Delhi 22

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3 Delhi and Its People in the Mirror of Twilight in Delhi 25

4 Twilight: A Realistic Study of the Post-1857 Delhis Muslim Society 39

5 Twilight: A Realistic Study of Delhis Social Reaction to the British 55

Imperialism during the First Two Decades of the Twentieth Century

6 Conclusion 75

Work Cited 78

Appendices 81

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Abstract

Ahmad Alis Twilight in Delhi is one of the first English novels about Delhi written by a

Muslim author. It was first published in 1940 in London. Retrospecting the post-1857

massacres of Indians by Imperialist British, Twilight vividly portrays facets of Delhis life

experienced during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The subject of this study

is how realistically Ali takes Delhi for a theme and mirrors the crumbling and devastating

city, its withering ways of life, its fading Muslim culture, and its social reaction to the British

Empire. The study focuses on the argument of social realism in the novel. The mode of social

realism in the fiction from the subcontinent emerged out of All India Progressive Writers

Movement (1930s) of which Ali was an intellectual and creative component. This movement

revolutionized the entire mood of both Urdu and English literatures produced in the

subcontinent. The social, political and economic aspects of life emerged as popular themes

in the literature of that time. Ali was well aware of such concerns. Twilight in Delhi brings the

environment, actualities, jollities, niceties, beauties, festivities, rituals, and social behaviour

of the people of Delhi. The motif is Mir Nihal who claims such values, the entire whole of

which is called Delhi The study deals with main argument from three perspectives:. First,

the research explores that in Twilight the city of Delhi emerges as a protagonist of the novel

beside its main character, Mir Nihal and his household, and highlights the peculiarities of

both the city and her people. Second, the research has found the novels realistic account of

Delhis overwhelming Muslim culture which had already been fading away. Third, the study

explores the novels realistic depiction of Delhis growing social reaction against the British

rule in the subcontinent during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Besides its

literary value, the study has cultural and social significance, and it aims at contributing to the

growing field of academic studies focusing on South Asian history, culture, and politics.

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Chapter- 01

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Structure and Objectives of the Study

Ahmad Alis Twilight in Delhi is one of the first English novels about Delhi. It

was first published in 1940 in London. Twilight in Delhi is an attempt by an Indian

Muslim writer to look realistically into the life and culture of the people of Delhi

during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The novel calls for truth above

all things. It stands on reality which is more meaningful, interesting, and appealing to

the modern readers. Ali takes Delhi for a theme. Alis depiction of the Delhi of the

first two decades of the twentieth century has changed, as he says, beyond nostalgia

and recognition. Nevertheless the novel mirrors the fading social aspects of the life,

culture and people of the post 1857 Delhi (Ali x).

After 1857 the city of Delhi and its people witnessed hard times. Among the

other communities, the Muslims were singled for punishment by the British. They felt

politically vulnerable but were concerned for their existence and identity. Twilight

in Delhi is a story of the pain and anguish of such difficult times (Ahmad 14-15).

Realism as a literary influence in the Indian English literature came from the

West but romanticism was a local Indo-Persian literary trend. However, the

progressive writers of the subcontinent preferred European realism over Indian

romanantism. Twilight in Delhi is an account of the fading Indo-Muslim culture and

the city of Delhi that used to be one of the greatest centres of Muslim civilization in

India. The story of the novel is a lamenting tale of the lost treasures of Delhi. It

interlinks the events of the 1857 War of Independence to the life and times of a

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nobleman, Mir Nihal, right up to 1919, after World War I. Thus, it brings out parallels

between the private life of a family and the public life of a nation. The novel brings

the themes of both domestic and social life in a realistic manner.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

This study aims at a broad analysis of some realistic aspects of Twilight in

Delhi by taking into consideration the city and the people of Delhi, its withering

Muslim culture, and its reaction against the British Raj during the first two decades

of the twentieth century. The research explores its argument through the following

objectives;

1. To analyze the novel as a broad realistic portrayal of Delhi and its people.

2. To analyze the novel as a realistic study of the post-1857 Delhis

Muslim society.

3. To analyze the novels representation of ant-imperialist, non-

communalist, nostalgic and modernist trends prevailing in Delhi during

the early twenties of the 20th

century.

1.3. Nature and Scope of the Study

This is a qualitative research that analyses the text in the light of mode of

social realism incorporated in the novel. The study starts by giving an introduction to

the background of the novel and its author. Then, the research discusses the

significant impact of Muslims on the culture and society of Delhi. Next, the study

discusses the importance of Delhi as the centre of the Indo-Muslim civilization in

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India. In addition, the study points out the 1857 War as a watershed event in the life

and culture of the Muslims of Delhi. Furthermore, the study evaluates the impact of

Progressive Writers Movement on the creative works of Ahmad Ali and vice versa. It

is from this point that the study discusses the emergence of the Progressive Writers

Movement and her adoption of social realism as a dominant mode of writing in India.

The study is post-colonial in nature. It is with this theoretical framework and the

above mentioned background elements that set the stage for the main argument of this

research. From this point further the study analyses the contents of the novel in three

sections. Each section addresses one of the main research questions.

The primary source of the research is text of the novel. Also, criticism and

research on the novel, and the contemporary literature depicting the history, culture,

and politics of the post 1857 War Delhi are used to explore the argument. There is a

dearth of research works on this novel. Still whatever creative research on the novel is

available in books, journals, anthologies and in Urdu literature are be explored. Works

and views of writers on both the novel and author, like E. M. Forster, Carlo Coppolo,

Edwin Muir, Maurice Collins, David Anderson, Brander, Bonamy Dobree, William

Dalrymple, Khademul Islam, Tariq Rehman, Muhammad Hassan Askari, Jamil Jalabi,

Kamran, and Iqbal on both the novel and the author are incorporated in the research.

1.4. Significance of the Study

Twilight in Delhi set the foundation of modern English novel in subcontinent.

Despite a creative work of literary significance, the novel has largely been neglected

by the Pakistani critics of English literature. The study is significant for the following

reasons:

1. Criticism of works by progressive writers has been largely ignored in Pakistan.

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2. Nationalist writers of subcontinent during the first half of the 20th century

have been overlooked by Pakistani critics.

3. The novel has a great relevance with the questions of Muslim politics, culture,

and society in the subcontinent.

4. Literature is a reflection of the society in which it is produced. Twilight is the

reflection of the Delhi of the early twenties and it has to be explored as a

realistic portrait of the then Delhi.

5. The fact that English is an international language calls for research on the

works of the English writers of the subcontinent.

6. The novel has been on the syllabi of several South Asian universities. It is

important to mention that it has been on the syllabus of M.A. English at the

University of the Punjab, Lahore.

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Chapter 02

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Delhi: The Centre of Indo Muslim Culture

Muslims left indelible imprints on the culture and civilization of India. During

their long history spread over centuries, both the Muslim rulers and common folks

gave India a new civilization. It was a blend of Vedic and Buddhist cultures with Arab

and Central Asian values. During the medieval period of Indian history, the process

of reconciliation and amalgamation started with the establishment of the Sultanate of

Delhi (Turks and Afghans) and reached its zenith during the Mughal era.

This unification gave birth to new models of taste in art, literature, language

and society. Muslim transformed, and were transformed by, India. India generously

opened her treasures to the Muslims who in turn gave her what she needed most:

democratic norms and equality (Azad 101). They gave India a unique cultural and

political unity. It was predominantly the religious thoughts, political system, and

Muslim Sufism that changed the ancient Indian culture into a vibrant Indo- Muslim

culture.

The qualitative effect of this process was unity and continuity of the ancient

social and cultural life painted anew. Kabir refers to this unification as Medieval

Reconciliation, elaborating that the Indian culture is the result of a unique process of

continuity, synthesis and enrichment. In the early periods of Indian history the

reconciliation of many opposite strands was slow. With the advent of Islam in India

the process was intensified a great deal. The conflicts during medieval India,

however, were due to struggles for political power and supremacy. We hardly find

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any trace of conflicts based entirely on religion (37-65).

Delhi epitomized the splendid Muslim culture spreading over the immense

expanse of the subcontinent. It was the capital of an empire whose demographic

composition posed challenges and offered opportunities on a global scale. Delhi was

the nucleus and soul of the Medieval India. It was truly cosmopolitan both in tastes

and manners. Delhi, like a civilized human being, wore a civilized and cultured

temperament. Politeness, tolerance, mannerism, courtesy, sociability, and amiability

prevailed among its diverse populace. It was indeed the jewel of medieval India. The

very name stood as a great cultural metaphor among the Muslims of South Asia. At

that time the citys fame surpassed even that of Baghdad, Cairo, Samarqand and

Bukhara. It was lovingly called Hazrat e Dehli, meaning Delhi the Noble

(Zameer 9-10).

Ibn-e-Battuta, a great Arab scholar and traveler of the fourteenth century,

remembered Delhi as a vast and magnificent city, uniting beauty with

strengthsurrounded by a wall that has no equal in the world, and is the largest city

in India, nay rather the largest city in the entire Muslim Orient ( Singh 10).

The wealth and culture of Delhi was at its zenith during the Shah Jahan era,

probably the wealthiest man in the world of his time. He erected a new city at

Delhi; Shahjahanabad that took nine years to complete and cost 6.5 million rupees

(Singh 26). Samsam-ud-Daula, the eighteenth century historian in The Building of

Shahjehanabad quoted that one of Amir Khusros prophetic sayings that he long ago

had composed in praise of Delhi, was fulfilled: Verily if there is a Paradise on earth,

/ it is this, it is this, it is this (Singh 29).

The last phase of the Mughals was twilight in Delhi in the true sense of the

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word. The city had turned into a passage to tragic events one after the other. Nadir

Shah and Ahmad Shah on one hand and Marahattas and Jaats on the other hand ruined

the grandeur of Delhi. Meer Taqi Meer, a great Urdu poet, lived in Delhi in the mid-

eighteenth century, lamented on the fall of Delhi: There once was a fair city, among

cities of the world the first in fame; it hath been ruined and laid desolate, to that city I

belong, [and] Delhi is its name (Singh 56).

2.2. The Fall of Delhi in 1857

After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the Muslim rule in India began to derail

and finally it went off the tracks in the aftermath of the Sepoy Revolt in 1857. Of all

the other cities of Mughal India, Delhi, then still the symbolic centre of the Indo-

Persian Muslim culture and power, got the worst share of the English animosity.

Ghalib, one of the greatest Urdu poets of the nineteenth-century Delhi, was also a

witness to the fall of Delhi at the hands of the British. He saw them overrun the city in

all directions. He saw them cut and kill all whoever they found in the streets. He

found that every road in the entire city was a battlefield and the British slaughtered

the helpless and burnt their houses. They took every territory by force of arms. He

lamented at the pains, sufferings, and agonies of the people of Delhi:

At the naked spectacle of this vengeful wrath and malevolent hatred, the

colour fled from mens faces, and a vast concourse of men and women, . . took

to flight through the gates [of the city] . . .My lamenting pen, while the tears

fall from my eyelashes to mingle with the word of blood I write ( 57-58).

Thus, the Mughal Delhi was wiped out, while its culture lay out beyond the

confines of the ancient walled city and New Delhi of the British Raj with its wide

boulevards and European army uniforms, symbolic of a new order was replacing the

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old.

Delhis dominant Muslim character began to transform after the War of 1857.

Defeat of the last Mughal ruler at the hands of the British precipitated the process of

change. This British impact was alien to a great extent. The Mughals had established

balance, stability, unity and order in almost every walk of life. During their rule the

social and cultural aspects of Muslim civilization dominated in the prevailing

society. The introduction of this new element was a threat to the established Muslim

culture. The British impact was very different from all other previous cultural

interactions. The British deliberately alienated themselves from the native Indians

and clung to their own European lifestyle. Consequently the Indians as a nation could

not reconcile themselves with the British way of life for quite long after the 1857.

This absence of relation was itself a kind of relation (Kabir 78-86).

The West burst in with its growing capitalism and the development of a complex

social consciousness. Thus far-reaching changes in Indian modes of life were

inevitable. Many of these changes could be called as threats and challenges to the

established social and cultural values of Muslim society in India. The social,

economical, political and cultural institutions and values of the medieval Muslim

society were crumbling. India was literally in a melting pot. Everything from the

material conditions of life to the buttresses of tradition and faith was fading away.

The loss of Delhi was irreversible. Delhi had been devastated many a time but none

of those earlier looting and plundering was as deadly as the present one. The wound

inflicted this time went deep down to the soul of the city and its scars would be

visible for a long time to come. The face of the city would bleed for long (Kabir 78-

86).

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2.3. Social Realism and Indian English Literature

Literature is a common human phenomenon but it depicts the concerns of each

society differently. It differs from History which is the external record of human

affairs. Literature performs two fold functions; it brings us not only the internal

history of a particular age but also the external peculiarities of the peoples of that

particular age. This function of literature is performed through a comparatively vast

canvass of the novel which reflects both the society and individuals, with their

external and internal conflicts and motives. Thus the novel is the intellectual and

ideological expression of a certain nation, or a society (Kashfi 62).

Realism became an important mode of literature in the subcontinent during the

first half of the twentieth century. The word realism is used in two broad senses. On

the one hand the term is used to refer to the kind of writing that expressed itself

during the 19th

century in the works of writers like George Eliot, Charles Dickens,

Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, and Honore de Balzac. In this kind of writing, authors

explore lives of the middle or working class people whose lives are shaped by forces

beyond their control.

Nevertheless the term realism is used to identify a certain mode of writing

that has recurred in various epochs throughout the history of literature. Eric Aurbach

explores the second kind of realism in his monumental work on the subject, Mimesis;

A Study of Realism in Western Literature. Indian novelists in English in general

adopted realistic mode of writing from the very birth of Indian English Literature.

Writing under the influence of the 19th

century European novelists, Indian English

novelists adapted realism to explore indigenous themes.

The British rule in India engendered Anglo-Indian literature. Broadly

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speaking, the term Anglo-Indian literature includes literature dealing with India which

is written in English. Strictly speaking, it includes literature describing mainly the life

of Englishmen in India. A beginning had been made in this literature in 1783 with

the arrival of Sir William Jones, the first Anglo-Indian poet in India, a scholar in

Oriental studies and a translator of Shakuntala 1(Sareen 19).

In spite of making its first appearance in poetry, the Anglo-Indian literature

attracted wider attention of both the public and the writers in England in 1772 with

the publication of the first Anglo-Indian novel Nabob. The following years saw

another remarkable novel, Hartley House (1789). For the next several years there is

no record of any novel about India. Then, in 1811 Lady Morgans The Missionary

was published. During the whole nineteenth century the Anglo-Indian literature

acquired bulk and quality (Sareen 19-25).

English literature in India, like the other colonial literatures, began as a

consequence of the confrontation of India with the West. However, in the beginning

it was a literature of imitation rather than that of protest. Meadow Taylor (1808-

1876), Henry Derozio (1809-1831), Kashiprosad Ghose (1809-1873), Michael

Madhusudan Dutt (1827-1873), and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894), were

among those who pioneered English creative writing in India. But this writing was

more derivative rather than creative (Rehman5).

The originality started with the emergence of Indian English Literature which

has also been documented as Indo-Anglian Literature or Indo-English Literature.

This literature began as an interesting by-product of eventful encounter in the late

eighteenth century between a vigorous and enterprising Britain and a stagnant and

1 The master piece of a great Sanskrit poet Kalidasa

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chaotic India. As a result of this encounter, original writing in English emerged in

India (Niak 1).

Following the interaction of the Indian writers with the western writing

traditions and the freedom struggle going on inside the country, fiction writers of the

subcontinent adopted social realism as a dominant mode of writing. The writings of

this period sprang from a society undergoing a more massive upheaval under the

influence of the British-Indian confrontation. It was more prominent on the cultural

grounds rather than on any other bases. In the beginning of the twentieth century the

Britains political and cultural relations with her occupied world had changed.

The First World War, like elsewhere brought enormous social, economic, and

political changes in the life and society of India. The Indian took active part in the

freedom struggle. This struggle resulted into the growth of socio-cultural

consciousness and rise of the spirit of nationalism in India which led inevitably to

freedom of the country. Following this the educated Indians studied the British liberal

thoughts that were flourishing in England. The Indian English emerged and developed

out of the socio-cultural and political consciousness, nationalism and Independence.

Thus, the overall literature of subcontinent led to production of realist literature.

The conflict between the gaiety of the past and the gloom in the post 1857

India has been one of the most dominant themes in various works of Indian literature

since the start of the 20th

century. Thus we see a growing emphasis on depiction of the

social, cultural, religious, economic, and political aspects of life. This tendency made

literature a sort of social criticism. As a result, a quick transition started from the

earlier dominant romantic traits (inherited from the Arabic, Persian and Turk

traditions) to social realism and progressiveness in literature of the subcontinent.

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2.4. Emergence of All India Progressive Writers Movement and

Social Realism

The biggest aim of literature is to infuse the passion of freedom, love for humanity,

support of the working class, and democracy in a nation. It shuns tyranny, ignorance,

and superstitions (Sajjad Zaheer 36).

In the literary history of the subcontinent, 1930s was a remarkable period. The

Progressive Writers Movement, of which Ahmad Ali was one of the most creative

components, was found in this decade. It was in the air since 1930 but a practical

move of this literary movement was made in 1935 in London. It was there that a

number of radical Indian students and intellectuals met, discussed and formulated its

original manifesto and made plans to establish the movement in India. They included

Sajjad Zaheer (1905-1975), a young Oxford graduate and Barrister and a literary and

social revolutionary, Mulk Raj Anand, Jyoti Ghosh, Promod Sen Gupta, and M.D.

Tasir. Their plan came in the form of Manifesto of the Indian Progressive Writers

Movement2. The document opens:

Radical changes are taking place in Indian society. Fixed idea and old beliefs,

social and political institutions are being challenged. Out of the present

turmoil and conflict a new society is arising. The spirit of reaction, however,

though moribund and doomed to ultimate decay, is still operative and making

desperate efforts to prolong itself.

It is the duty of Indian writers to give expression to the changes taking place in

Indian life and to assist the spirit of progress in the country. Indian literature,

2 See appendix for the adapted draft of the manifesto

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since the breakdown of classical culture, has had the fatal tendency to escape

from the actualities of life. It has tried to find a refuge from reality in

spiritualism and idealism. . . .

It is the object of our association to rescue literature and other arts from the

priestly, academic and decadent classes in whose hands they have degenerated

so long; to bring the arts into the closest touch with the people; and to make

them the vital organs which will register the actualities of life, as well as lead

us to the future.

While claiming to be the inheritors of the best traditions of Indian civilization,

we shall criticize ruthlessly, in all its political, economic, and cultural aspects,

the spirit of reaction in our country; and we shall foster through interpretative

and creative work (with both native and foreign resources) everything that will

lead our country to the new life for which it is striving (Russell 204-205).

In India the first meeting of the progressive writers was presided by a

renowned literary figure of the subcontinent, Munshi Prem Chand (1880-1936).

Sajjad Zaheer was appointed as the general secretary of the movement. In 1936 these

progressive writers formed their organization with other name; All India Progressive

Writers Association (AIPWA). Munshi Prem Chand presided this meeting of the

progressive writers in Lakhnow. The association welcomed all those writers who were

against Imperialism and who supported democracy. It was in her manifesto that every

progressive writer should support the freedom movement in the country (Zaheer 54).

As a result the leftist writers who were predominantly progressive stood

against Imperialism, Fascism, Nazism, economic exploitation, and superstitions that

were prevailing in India during the first quarter of the 20th

Century. They promoted

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Socialism and Internationalism. In fact this movement was supported by those writers

who on one hand were against the traditional literary conventions such as escapism

and art for arts sake, on the other hand they were trying to write against their imperial

masters so that literature breeds beauty, novelty, and nicety which are the assets of

such minds which are the products of social activism.

All India Progressive Writers Movement was the second most important

literary event after the Sir Syed s movement that transformed the whole thinking

patterns of the writers of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, the ant-imperialist and

revolutionary journalism of Maulana Zafar Ali Khans daily paper Zamindar (1903),

Maulana Muhammad Ali Johars English weekly paper Comrade (1910) and Urdu

daily Humderd (1912) in general, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azads Urdu weekly

paper Al-Hilal (1912) in particular had already challenged the Sir Syeds Pro-

imperialistic political stance. These papers cultivated revolutionary and progressive

traits in India during the first two decades of the twentieth century. This made such a

splendid revolutionary and literary context for the progressive writers that even those

writers who were apparently against the movement found this ideology as a bridge

between Modernism and Realism. The following words of Munshi Prem Chand at the

presidential address to the progressive writers are thought provoking.

The literature that does not enliven our real taste, does not give us spiritual and

mental peace, does not infuse in us with a force, does not inculcate in us a

resolute motive to overcome the problems of life, is useless for us now. It

cannot be called literature. Our touchstone testifies that literature as true that

contains thoughts, passion for freedom, essence of beauty, spirit of creativity,

and the light of realities of life. Such literature should instigate in us

movement and activity. It should not lull us because now to sleep further

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means to die (Siddique 19).

In the same conference Maulana Hasrat Mohani (1875-1951) added that our

literature should represent our freedom movement and it should stand against the

tyranny and Imperialism. It should support working class and all suppressed masses.

It should stand by the people in their soft and hard times. It should convey their best

desires, aspirations, and wishes in such a way that their own revolutionary force is

strengthened and they are united and disciplined to succeed in their revolutionary

venture. He added that progressive writers should not follow him in poetry (for Hasrat

Mohani was a follower of the traditional school of poetry in Urdu despite the fact that

he was a revolutionary and communist) albeit he himself will support them in creating

the progressive literature. All in all the progressive movement was a reaction against

Imperialism and her allies (Siddique 19-21).

The progressive writers stood for the rights of every community to promote

her language and literature to achieve greater inter-communal social harmony. These

rights could only be achieved if the conservative and tyrannical rule be shunned.

Imperialism and her allies divide the communities and rule them unjustly. Thus, they

divided the communities to weaken them and exploit their resources. Everywhere the

interests of the working class of a particular community do not clash with those of

another community. The working class wishes to procure national and international

co-operation, peace, and prosperity. The progressive writers were interested to

germinate the seeds for such a literature and civilization that would enhance the

scientific and intellectual trends and traits of freedom loving communities of the

subcontinent. They rejected communalism, feudalism, and religious fanaticism that

were the by-products of colonialism. The progressive writers on one hand were in

favour of promoting the compassion, high-mindedness, tolerance, and candidness of

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the great civilisation of the subcontinent and on the other hand they denied her

escapism, irrationality, and passivity (Zaheer 29-30).

The progressive literature is not a monopoly of a particular age, nation, and

language. The writers in every age encouraged to promote healthy trends in society

and denounced oppression and tyranny. Progressiveness polishes the creative

tendencies in society. Literature is the intellectual creativity of life. As life changes so

change the aspects of literature. This is true of the progressive literature. The

Progressive Writers Movement was not an accident or a conspiracy. It was rather the

product of the socio-political outcomes of the First World War. There was a great

political and social activation in the country. In the post war scenario the British

exploitation of the Indian resources and people on one end and the Bolshevik

Revolution on the other end made the setting for the progressive currents in the

subcontinent (Zaheer 74-75).

The future of the world seemed gloomy after the war. There were social,

political, economic, and intellectual turbulences throughout the world. Everywhere

creative writers were greatly influenced by the global economic depression and

international conditions. That is why the literature written during the fourth decade of

the 20th

century was most remarkable. In such hard times the progressive writers

wrote about the miseries of the oppressed and dejected. These writers breathed afresh

new life in the post-war impoverished and bleak peoples. John Steinbeck, Thomas

Mann, Henry Mann, Earnest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Auden, Spender, Lois

Mac kens, Theodore Dreiser, Andre Malraux and such other writers presented

realistic pictures of their societies. (Hassan 11-13).

The progressive literary trend in the subcontinent was emerging as an abrupt

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25

historical event. The past and present of India was in need of this evolution. It was not

a foreign movement. The seeds of this new literature were in the minds and hearts of

the writers of this soil. The social environment of this country was in need of this new

cultivation. The progressive literary movement was to nourish and flourish this

literature (Zaheer 46-47).

A literature that brings social and cultural understanding, sympathy, justice,

equality, and such life-nourishing values through creative and artistic means is

progressive literature. This literature depicts realities of life and it is free of any

shackle. Its true end is the universal message of all ages; fraternity, equality, and

freedom (Zaheer 99).

Thus, a progressive writer would promote the best values of great civilizations

of the past because such values would be the product of social experiences of that

particular time and would add to them the shared cultural, intellectual, and artistic

currents of the prevailing age. This writer would conform to the truthful expression of

the true and real values of life and would deny whatever hinders the social and

cultural unity and beauty of the present time. All this was possible in a free

environment; therefore a progressive writer would, predominantly stand for the

freedom loving and democratic forces (Zaheer 130-131).

2.5. Professor Ahmad Ali (1910 1994) and the Indian Literary

Scenario

Ahmad Ali was born in Kocha Pandat in Delhi in 1910. He belonged to a

religious family of Syeds. His family tree traces back to Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani

(1077-1166) of Baghdad. They came to India in the rule of King Akbar. His family

strictly observed religious and traditional rituals. They were considered the Delhi

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26

nobles. His family, like the other nobles of Delhi, suffered during the 1857 massacre.

As the family lost their land in the riots so they joined service. His father was an extra

assistant commissioner and was posted to various cities in India. His father died when

he was ten and he came under the patronage of his uncle who himself was a

government officer (Kamran 15-17).

Ali completed his early schooling at Azamgarh in UP. In 1923 he went to

Aligarh and in 1926 he got admission in Aligarh Muslim University. It was there that

Prof. Eric C. Dickinson saw the literary spark in him and he encouraged his creative

literary potentials. Over there he was introduced to Raja Rao, who became a famous

writer at some later stage. In the same year his first English poem, The Lake of

Dreams was published in Aligarh Magazine. Then, in 1927, he joined Lakhnow

University to study English literature. There he was open to the new ideas and the

current literary and intellectual thoughts. He also met and befriended Laurence

Brander, who was a lecturer in English at Canning College Lakhnow.

In 1929, Alis first English short story, When the Funeral Was Crossing the

Bridge was published in the Journal of Lakhnow University. It was in 1931 that Ali

got his Masters in English Literature. Soon he started teaching English literature; first,

at Lakhnow University (1931-32), then, at Agra College (1933-34), after that, at Allah

Abad University (1934-36), and again at Lakhnow University (1936-41).

The period between 1931 and 1941 was most remarkable in his literary career

all such important literary events like; the publication of Angaare (Burning Coals;

1932), the organisation of All India Progressive Writers Movement, the quitting of

Ali from the Movement, and the publication of his most remarkable literary work,

Twilight in Delhi, had occurred during this time (Kamran 17-20).

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27

During the same period Sajjad Zaheer had shortly returned from England and

was living in Lakhnow where he met Ali. Sajjad Zaheer, Mahmuduzzafar (1908-

1954) and Ali Published Angaare. Two of Alis short stories were included in this

bold anthology of ten Urdu short stories. Most of the stories in this anthology were

lacking in sobriety and patience. They were against the prevailing conservativeness.

In certain places, the stories were sensual and they depicted explicit influences of

James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence (Zaheer 30).

Angaare thrilled the then socio-politico-literary environment during the first

half of the twentieth century. The book was considered offensive by both public and

the government. The writers of Angaare; Ahmad Ali, Rashid Jehan, Sajjad Zaheer,

and Mahmuduzzafar were denounced and condemned in the press and the literary

circles. Nevertheless, Angaare revolutionized the then literary setting. Referring to the

creative and progressive aspects of the book, Kamran quotes Shabana that the writers

of Angaare were aware of the realities, values, and demands of their age. They had

deep understanding of such issues. They not only reacted to the social, political, and

cultural inequalities but also discussed those dimensions of their characters which

were considered taboo. They saw the human relationship and the deeds of people in

the light of the social realities of their age. They analysed them in the political, social,

religious, and economic perspective. Their writings were bold and thought-provoking

(Kamran 24- 25).

In Angaare Alis stories were more prominent because of their picturesque

and realistic depiction of the bitter facts of life in the most artistic manner. In his

initial stories, Ali depicted the middle class Delhi women and their problems most

realistically. He was particularly interested in Delhi life and people. It was this initial

impact of Delhi on Alis writing that can be seen in his latter works (Alvi 66 -67).

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Angaare was followed by Shoole (Flames; 1933). These short stories were the

live pictures of the surroundings, streets, houses, inhabitants, beggars, hawkers,

wanderers and such others. Ali observed every movement of the characters and was

their confidant. He made his characters immortal. He revolutionized the form, style,

and contents of the then short story. His stories were innovative because he introduced

the modern psychological trends, and new economic currents and issues to this genre

in the subcontinent. All this was truly progressive and it transformed the whole

domain of fiction to a great extent. His fiction is the depiction of the ordinary

characters mostly familiar, but we have overlooked them and their idiosyncrasies. Ali

made us aware of them and that is the very essence of his art (Alvi 66-67).

Ali continued with short stories and in 1936 he wrote stories like Our Lane

and Mr. Shams-ul-Hasan, but there onwards he gradually parted with the

mainstream progressive writers who tilted to somewhat Marxist trends. In 1938 he

formally announced his dissociation with the Progressive Writers Association

(Kamran 34). Ali refused to accept the views of his other Marxist friends like Sajjad

Zaheer, Mahmuduzzafar that only (the stories which are written about) the proletariat

and peasantry are progressive. Alis approach to life, to society, is through the

creative work, not vice-versa (Rehman32).

Thus, Ali broke away from the Marxists and continued writing following his

own brand of progressive approach to life and society. After pioneering modern Urdu

short story, and writing some remarkable English short stories, Alis creative genius

called for a wider and bigger canvas and he started writing novels. Referring to this

shift, Ali writes in an autobiographical article Baqalam e Khud (Urdu) published in

Jamia:

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One can, but to a very limited extent depict the conditions of life and the

changing face of history in the short story. . .As if the short story is a segment,

and remains a segment despite its meaningfulness, of a greater body. I was in

search of a vast and bigger canvas and therefore I chose novel. You will see

that in [Twilight in Delhi] that there is history, civilization, the ups and downs

of life, the bloom and gloom of life (179).

This time he appeared with his remarkable novel Twilight in Delhi (1940). He

took it to the famous Hogarth Press in London. The editorial staff of the Press

considered some parts of the novel subversive, but later on they published it in 1940.

It found immediate favor with critics E. M. Forster, Edwin Muir, Bonamy Dobree

(1897-19740), Morris Collins (1889-1973), and several others. The novel was

published several times and was translated into Urdu and several other European

languages. Since its first publication, it has been lauded for its cultural and historical

fascination by the renowned universities in Italy, the USA, France, and the UK. Thus,

Ali established himself as a creative literary figure and got an international fame

(Kamran 41).

By and large, Twilight kept influencing Alis later literary pursuits. His short

stories worked as the apprenticeship to Twilight. In the years that followed he

brought two other anthologies of Urdu short stories; Hamari Gali (Our Lane; 1942)

and Quaid Khana (The Prison House; 1944). Some of the short stories from these

books were translated into English by Ali himself. They came with the title The

Prison House (1958). Coppolo (1977) considers these stories autobiographical and

progressive (Rehman 29-38).

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2.6. Social Realism in Twilight in Delhi

Set in the great centre of the Muslim Civilization, Delhi, Twilight in Delhi is

Ahmad Alis brilliant and vivid picture of the life and conditions of the pre-partition

Delhi. It is a nostalgic tale of a middle-class Muslim family in wake of encroaching

British colonialism in the early 20th

century. It is a lament on the fading of a particular

mode of thought and living as the writer himself refers to it. Vividly and realistically,

the novel reflects the multiple facets of the Muslim culture in Delhi. Delhi-born

Ahmad Ali was rightly familiar to Delhi s sensibilities. His portrayal of the

transforming Muslim middle-class Delhiwallah3 is realistic and authentic. Further,

he is bold and innovative in his depiction and representation of a particular outlook of

Delhi and Delhiwallahs. The novel begins with a most realistic but poetic depiction of

the city of Delhi and its people on a typical summer night;

Night envelops the city, covering it like a blanket. In the dim starlight roofs

and houses and by-lanes lie asleep, wrapped in a restless slumber, breathing

heavily as the heat becomes oppressive or shoots through the body like pain.

In the courtyards, on the roofs, in the by-lanes, on the roads, men sleep on bare

beds, half naked, tired after the sore day's labor. A few still walk on the

otherwise deserted roads, hand in hand, talking; and some have jasmine

garlands in their hands. The smell from the flowers escapes, scents a few yards

of air around them and dies smothered by the heat. Dogs go about sniffing the

gutters in search of offal; and cats slink out of the narrow by-lanes, from under

the planks jutting out of shops, and lick the earthen cups out from which men

had drunk milk and thrown away (Ali 1).

3 In Urdu the people of Delhi

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When an author writes in the mode of social realism, one should do justice to

both history and realism. The description of the characters, the setting, and the plot

should be realistic. Twilight in Delhi is a story with a historical document. First of

all it examines the Muslim civilization in Delhi. It narrates the history of British

colonialism in India at another level it challenges the existing canon of imperial

literature by providing a Muslim view of the colonial encounter. Also it depicts

nostalgia for the past glory of Mughal India in an elegy for an older Islamic order

(Ahmad 15).

Realism in the South Asia germinated out of the British Materialistic

Imperialism in 19th

Century. In the first decade of the 20th

Century the realist stood

bluntly against the British Imperialism. Earlier in the European scenario realism had

started with Madame Bovary (1857). It changed the literary trends of the 19th

Century.

The Realists lay more emphasis on the depiction of life and its social realities as they

are.

Culture is the national character of a community. It is a complete way of life.

It includes religion, creed, knowledge, behaviour, social conduct, and rites of a

particular community. It distinguishes a people from a people. A communitys culture

is influenced by both internal and external factors. The internal factors are its

geography and history. The Muslim civilization in the subcontinent owes a lot to the

external factors. After the emergence of the Muslims in the Sub-continent, the local

geography and culture had their impact on them. With the passage of time these

Muslims were frequently influenced by the Arabs, Persian, Turks, and Afghan factors.

With the arrival of the Western the Muslim society started transforming and Twilight

in Delhi is a realistic depiction of this transformation. Ali placed a mirror to the city

of Delhi and her people and observed the fading Indo- Muslim outlook of the city, her

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withering culture, its crumbling walls, her waning eccentricities and idiosyncrasies.

Maurice Collins (1889-1973) considers Ali the vanguard of the literary movement

that should make us understand India (Kamran 62).

Besides this observation, the novel depicts the impacts of the nostalgia for the

by-gone grandeur and splenduer of Delhi and the growing reaction of Delhi against

the British rule in India. The broad argument of the study starts with the point in the

next chapter that how the novel realistically portrays the city and the people of Delhi.

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Chapter-03

DELHI AND ITS PEOPLE IN THE MIRROR OF

TWILIGHT IN DELHI

Old Delhi does not change. It only decays . . . it is a great cemetery, every house a

tomb. Nothing but sleeping graves . . . and here, nothing happens at all. Whatever

happened, a happened [a] long time ago. In the time of the Tughluqs, the Khilgis, the

Sultanate, the Mughals, _that lot (Desai 5).

The city of Delhi was not built in days or years rather it took centuries to

become Delhi. It has lived through wars, calamities, massacres, and misrule. This

untenable strength and resistance of Delhi against all such odds is not a secret. The

story of Delhi is written, though dispersedly, here on its stones and rubbles, bricks and

walls, there on the faces of its dwellers. Thus the city has emerged into a character.

Hence it should not be dealt like any other city.

This chapter explores some broad social realistic aspects of the city of Delhi

and its people. Twilight in Delhi is a mirror to the social and cultural life of Delhi: Its

streets, by-lanes, narrow passages, cozy houses and kothas4, its nobles and nawabs, its

bibis5 and mistresses, its jolly youth and coy laces, its genial old-men and wise old-

women, its days and nights, its mornings and evenings, its music, dancing and poetry.

The Twilights Delhi is built on the rubles of the 1857 destruction. The novel

not only depicts the soil, stone, bricks, wall, houses, streets, and climate of the Delhi

of the first two decades of the twentieth century but also portrays the decay of a

4 Houses of prostitutes

5 Noble ladies

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whole culture, a particular mode of thought and living. Ali himself was a witness to

this when the real face of Delhi was changing rapidly before his eyes. He saw a

pageant of History whirl past and participated in it too. The culture of Delhi had been

born and nourished within the city walls and it was demolished lately (Ali x).

In Twilight Ali brings the obscure facets of the post 1857 Delhi by narrating

the life and affairs of the household of a Delhi noble Mir Nihal. The setting of the

novel is the Delhi of the first two decades of the twentieth century. The opening of the

novel outlines the city of Mir Nihal who claims its heritage. But in reality the

magnificent buildings of the Mughals are ruined. The glories of that grandeur have

gone. Ali through his nostalgic conscious mirrored the fading face of Delhi which he

witnessed by himself in Mir Nihals Delhi, for some of the remnants of those bygone

days could be found (Kamran 184).

The novel presents several vivid scenes of the cultural and social life of the

early twentieth century Delhi. The realistic description of the city sometime

overwhelms the rest of the details to such an extent that Delhi becomes Alis

protagonist in the novel. It is, therefore, the heroic character of the city that has won it

the status of the capital during the earlier empires and the British India. The

consecutive courses of destruction and construction gave Delhi a unique

temperament.` After the several subsequent falls (seven times) of the city at the hands

of the Marahattas, Afghans, Nadir Shah, Sikhs and finally the British, there was very

little in the rubbles that could be restored. A few monuments are still present to tell its

sad story and to remind us of the glory and splenduer of Delhi that once used to be

remembered as the Jewel of the cities-a Qutub Minar or a Humayun s Tomb, the Old

Fort or the Jama Masjid.

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The details of the city and its people in the novel provide a realistic picture of

the Delhi of the first two decades of the twentieth century.Ali has not written the

story of a few individuals alone, but of a people, a city, a particular culture, a period

of history. His theme is not confined to a few characters and their biographies, but to

an entire city. This is, in reality, a collective [ijtimia] novel whose hero is the city of

Delhi. Referring to this aspect of the novel, Askari observes:

We also see the individuals of this novel. But there is another element on

which Ahmad Ali lays the same emphasis as he does on men_ that is, nature:

the days and nights of Delhi, the sunsets and dawns, the summer the rainy

season and the changing shades of the sky, the breezes, the hot wind, the dust

storms and sunshine. Ahmad Ali has given individual life to each. They have a

separate existence in themselves in the novel. And then the lanes of the city,

the gutters, dogs and cats, the flying pigeons, hawks and paper kites_ all

appear often in the novel. With these changing seasons, with the moods of

nature and all the rest, Ahmad Ali has given the city an eternal and living

identity and name (31-36).

By and large, Twilights intense preoccupation with the city is often neglected

as compare to its poetic, lyrical, and elegiac narration. Priya Joshi considers this

aspect of the novel as Alis greatest innovation in the novel. Ali staged the city as the

centre of the tragic drama and came with far older influences. According to Priya

Joshi, Harish Trivedi is perhaps the only critic who addresses the Delhi of Twilight

systematically and quite rightly points out that both the theme and tone (of the novel)

derive directly from the Urdu verse form, Shehrashob,[which is] a lament on a

misgoverned, depraved, or ruined city (216).

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The realistic portrayal of the climate of gloom and melancholy wavers

between the city and the people in the novel. The rise and fall of Delhi became so

typical that it influenced the whole life pattern of Delhiwallahs. This tragic

phenomenon appears as a collective nostalgia among the people of Delhi. Thus an

atmosphere of gloom prevails throughout the course of events in the novel. Despite

this gloom, the city is alive and life goes on with its activities and the people of Delhi

live on with their idiosyncrasies and jollities. Ali comments on this aspect in the

beginning of the novel:

The city of Delhi, built hundreds of years ago, fought for, died for, coveted

and desired, built, destroyed and rebuilt, for five and six and seven times,

mourned and sung . . . yet whole and alive . . . It was the city of kings and

monarchs, of poets and story tellers, courtiers and nobles. But no king lives

there today, and the poets are feeling the lack of patronage; and the old

inhabitants, though still alive, have lost their pride and grandeur under a

foreign yoke. Destruction is in its foundation and blood is in its soil . . . It is

the symbol of Life and Death, and revenge is its nature (Ali 1-2).

The novel opens with an explicit realistic illustration of a typical summer night

in Delhi during the early twentieth century. The description of the starlit roofs and

houses, narrow alleys and by-lanes, courtyards, masjids with their white domes and

tall minarets, deserted roads, milk-sellers and their earthen cups, tired labourers,

beggars and their miserable songs, flower vendors with their jasmine garlands,

sniffing dogs and licking cats, and intensive heat. All this make the readers feel

themselves in a sort of real situation and Delhi stands before our eyes like a full-

fledged character:

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Under the tired and dim stars the city looks deathly dark. The kerosene lamps

no doubts light its streets and roads; but they are not enough, as are not enough

the markets and the gardens, to revive the lights that floated on the waters of

the Jamuna or dwelt in the heart of the city. Like a beaten dog it has curled its

tail between its legs, and lies lifeless in the night as an acknowledgment of

defeat (Ali 3-4).

The realism in Twilight in Delhi works manifolds. The details of the

description are like a miniature portrait of the Delhi summer. For instance, in the

second chapter the description of a typical summer morning is very vivid and

penetrating. The then Delhis morning starts with a rippling voice of azaan6. The

city resounds with such golden voice[s], calling the faithful to prayers, calling them

to leave their beds and arise from sleep. The azaan brings forth a message of joy and

hope and it sounds from across the city, head forth the by-lanes and the courtyards,

echoing in the silent atmosphere. The whole atmosphere of the city is transformed in

response to the azaan. Some of the inhabitants hear this prayer call and rise. Some

wake up for a while then turn on their sides and curl once more about themselves and

fall into a fresh slumber. Even the sparrows begin to twitter in chorus. The dogs begin

their search in the refuse for their food. The day light emerges with a forward sun

peep over the world and its light colour the waters of the Jamuna. Its rays are

caught by the tall minarets of the Jama Masjid, glint across the surface of its

marble domes and floods the city with a warm and over-bearing light (Ali 16-17).

The realistic depiction in the novel runs forth from the city and its people to

their habits. For instance, the novel shows very strong liking of the Delhiwallahs for

the pigeon-flying, kite-flying, cock-fighting, and keeping birds of various species. In

6 Praying call for the Muslims

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fact these are the all- time- popular Delhi sports. Pigeon-flying has been

comparatively more common among Delhiwallahs. Among the rulers of Delhi, Sultan

Alla udin Khilgi liked pigeon-flying. He had an exotic collection of pigeons in his

aviary (Zameer15).The pigeons became a permanent tradition of the Delhi life. There

were the royal flights of pigeons when the king would come out of the Red Fort riding

on the elephant towards the Jama Masjid for Friday prayers, the royal pigeon-fliers

would fly a flight of pigeons above the kings head. These pigeons were trained and

they would rest up in the air making an umbrella on the kings cavalcade (Delhvi 38-

40).

Pigeon is a Delhi bird. The novel shows Mir Nihals interest in the pigeons

and it seems that in almost every home there are a few pairs of pigeons. These

pigeons are of various species. Each species has a specific name and a typical

characteristic and the Delhiwallahs have bet on their flights. The novel portrays a

morning sky of Delhi which is covered with the flocks of pigeons and the atmosphere

resounds with the shouts of the pigeon-fliers with their cries of Aao, Aoo, [come,

come] Koo, Haa. The ascending and descending of the pigeons from and to every

second house in Delhi is a routine morning sport (Ali 17).

The traditional jolly nature of Delhiwallahs can also be seen through their

craze for the kite-flying. Of the Delhi sports, after the pigeon-flying, kite-flying is the

most popular pass-time among the Delhi men. During the summer mornings and

evenings both pigeons and kites fill the Delhi sky. The realistic description of the

kites with their peculiar colours and designs furthers the argument of social realism in

the novel:

The sky was full of kites, black kites and white kites, purple kites and blue.

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They were green and lemon coloured, red and peacock blue and yellow, jade

and vermilion, plain or of various patterns and in different colours, black

against yellow, red against white, mauve altering with green, pink with purple,

stripped or triangular, with moons on them or stars and wings and circles in

different colours, forming such lovely and fantastic designs. . . .small kites and

big kites. . . danced . . . dipped down or rose erect with the elegance of cobras.

. .whirled and wheeled and circled, chased each other or stood static in mid air.

There was a riot of kites on the sky (Ali 28).

The description of the common men, like the parched gram vendors who

are dressed in dark and dirty rags, and beggars, with their bags slung across their

backs, with their white flowing beard, and with their caps of numerous designs,

highlights the novels social aspect. It strengthens the argument of this chapter that the

novel is a realistic mirror to the city of Delhi and its people. For instance, the novel

depicts that the Delhi beggars begin their day by singing verses for bread or pice7. The

beggars make an integral part of the social life of Delhi. They are variant but typical

in their get-up and language but they have deep and resonant voices and all look

hale and hearty. Here the beggars lament and the house doors creak, the gunny bag

curtains hanging in front of them move aside, the tender hand of some pale beauty

comes out and gives a pice or empties the contents of plate into their bowls and

dishes, and satisfies them. These beggars go away praying for the souls of those

within (Ali 17-18).

The Delhi street vendors present yet another spectacle. These vendors sell

numerous items ranging from eatables to household goods. Moving about in the by-

lanes, they bring the things that fascinate the women-folk. They move about in the

7 A penny

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streets from early morning till dusk. They emerged on the cultural scene of Delhi after

the first Durbar of the king Shahjahan in his own Delhi (Shahjehanabad). The king

ordered that the routine household items and food should be provided to the residence

of Delhi at their door-step. In fact the king wanted to facilitate the house-wives. The

Delhi women would collect the entire dowry for their daughters from the vendors. For

then (and during the setting of the novel as well) their going shopping was not thought

a decent act. These vendors were very skillful in their art of attracting the clients

(Delhvi 20-21).

The realistic description of a Delhi summer noon in the novel relives the

details. It seems as if the readers are experiencing this first-hand. A Delhi summer is

most intense and scorching. The sun blasts fire on Delhi earth. The sky becomes

bronzed and grey, dirty with the dust and sand which floats in the air.A heart

rendering monotony and a blinding glare creeps over the earth during the summer

(Ali 21).

Besides the intense heat of Delhi, the novel records the description of its

peculiar storm:

Suddenly the western horizon became coppery, and it seemed that some

hidden power was shooting tons of burning sand from below the earth towards

the sky. The sunlight fell on this sand and gave the horizon the colour of

shooting flames . . . the storm burst suddenly. Like a swarm of locusts the sand

came forward making a gyrating noise. . .The sun hid his face, and light began

to fail. . .The wind howled and moaned, sand floated in the air, and it grew

dark as the night. . .The sand got inside clothes and stuck to bodies wet with

perspiration and pierced the skin (Ali 62-64).

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The women-folk of the Twilights Delhi is more domestic and religious than

the men are. They have their own small world and they do not dare interfere into the

mens affairs. Their aloofness and graceful silence sometimes overwhelm the men and

thus at times they play the most important role in the decisions related to the family

matters. In the novel Begum Jamal (the sister-in-law of Begum Nihal) convinces her

to take the initiative in the matter of Asghars marriage with Bilqueece (which Mir

Nihal disapproves of their being Syed and Bilqueeces family being Mughal); she

suggested:

The best thing to do is to settle the thing quietly. Brother-in-law will come

round in the end. If you wait for his consent nothing will ever come off. . .

Begum Nihal seemed to agree with her sister-in-law. For, though women hold

a subordinate position in Indian life yet in certain matters they can take the law

in their hands, and marriage is one of them (Ali 72).

On the contrary, the novel realistically depicts that the Indian womens

behaviour among their own gender is more aggressive and outrageous. The domestic

intrigues are common routine matters. The novel presents an interesting silent tug

between Begum Nihal and her sister-in-law Begum Jamal. When Asghar sets his heart

on marrying Bilqueece and the family does not approve of his doing so and Begum

Nihal says to her daughter Begum Waheed with anger;

That Begum Shabaz [mother of Bilqueece] has cast some spell on my boy. I

was fearing it all the time . . . He used to go to her house every day, and she

has done something to him. Or she has given him some charm through Begum

Jamal. . . .

At this moment Begum Jamal came down from the kotha. As she heard her

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name being mentioned she asked: What are you talking about me, Sister-in-

law?

Who was talking about you? Begum Nihal said in a loud and self-conscious

voice.

I just heard you call my name. Begum Jamal replied in an angry voice.

What crime have I committed after all?

You always misconstrue things, Begum Jamal said in a reconciliatory tone,

and imagine people to be calling you bad names (Ali 60-61).

The women of Delhi are happy to involve themselves in the domestic chores.

In houses mothers and grandmothers talk of marriage and death, and look after the

family matters, whereas the young girls prepare themselves for the marriage rituals

and festivals. These preparations are, in fact, the only available recreation for the

Delhi women. For, they do not go out in public. They stay for most of their time in the

zenana8. The novel shows that Delhi women live a life almost free from any

interaction with the men except for the men of blood relations. The novel describes

how the Delhi women go out in pardah9

. Doli10

is that traditional mean of

transportation in which they go from home to home. The kahars11

would shout at the

door where the women are supposed to land. Traditionally, the host used to pay off

the kahars. The novel brings all such details vividly and realistically:

In the zenana things went on with the monotonous sameness of Indian life no

one went out anywhere. Only now and then some cousin or some other

8 The female quarters

9 The traditional Muslim womens wearing a veil

10 Small palanquin

11 A palanquin bearer

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relation came to see them. . .once a month or so during the festivals.. . .Walls

stood surrounding them on all sides, shutting the women in from the prying

eyes of men, guarding their beauty and virtue. . .The world lived and died,

things happened, events took place, but all this did not disturb the equanimity

of the zenana. . .(their) time passed mostly between eating, talking, cooking,

sewing, or doing nothing (Ali 39-40).

The novel not only captures the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of the people

of Delhi, through their pastimes such as pigeon-flying, kite flying, keeping dogs,

sparrows and other numerous species of birds but also through their fashion in

dressing, their tastes eatables, their craze for collecting rare things, and their going to

the balakhana12

for having good time with the tawaifs13

. Mir Nihal, though a middle-

class Delhiwallah, is an aristocrat in his habits and hobbies. Besides pigeon-flying

he is fond of collecting old china and he devoted some time to alchemy and

medicine. After dinning at home late night he goes to see his mistress, Babban Jan,

a young dancing girl. She is living in a house, which Mir Nihal has rented for her.

She entertains him with conversation and songs. The servant of Mir Nihal, Ghafoor,

too is a typical Delhiwallah in his way. With his Tartaric ferocious eyes, his hairy

chest, the oil trickling down his brow, and his fine white long coats smelling of strong

attar14

, he [is] a favourite with the prostitutes(Ali 58).

In the Medieval Indian society the tawaifs and their kothas used to function as

proper institutions for the learning of art and manners. The associates with this

institution were considered artists and they were looked with respect. There were

tawaifs who were good at singing, poetry, music, and dancing. There were

12

An upper storey of a traditional house, here it means a house of prostitutes 13

A prostitutes 14

Scent, perfume, essence

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ustaads15

.These masters were academies in themselves and both the aristocracy and

the common folk of Delhi showed their enthusiasm and keenness in these forms of

art. As was the fate of the other established Indo-Muslim institutions, the institution of

tawaifs also corrupted with the arrival of the British in the subcontinent. During the

first two decades of the twentieth century, going to the tawaifs (most of which were

now prostitutes) was a popular habit among the men of Delhi. However, there was

some art left with a few of them because these prostitutes were of two kinds, the

cultured ones and the whores. The cultured ones were patronized by the rich and well-

to-do (like Mir Nihal).Young men were sent to them to learn manners and the art of

polite conversation; and the older people came to enjoy their dancing, music, and their

company in general(Ali 39).

The novel captures the presence of prostitutes as an integral part of the Indian

societal life. At night men go to the Bais16

for having good time. Bari (Asghars

friend) takes him to Mushtari Bai:

They went through the Chaori Bazar17

, the quarter of ironware and brassware

merchants, second-hand dealers in lace, and prostitutes. On either side of the

narrow and noisy street sat the girls in balconies, ornamented and well

dressed, and small lamps or lanterns shed light on their tempting faces. From

all around came the sounds of song, whining of sarangis18

, muffled drums and

the tinkling of bells, as the dancing girls entertained their customers (Ali 74).

When they reach Mushtari Bai she receives them in a dignified manner. She is

one of the cultured dancing girls and does not live in the quarters of the common

15

The masters of music, dance and poetry 16

A well- reputed prostitute 17

See appendix IV 18

A musical instrument

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whores (Ali 74). Alis description of Mushtari Bai is most fascinating. Here in the

person of Mushtari Bai, Ali has set a template for the cultured tawaifs of the Medieval

Delhi whose physical charm, amiable behaviour, and etiquettes are always coupled

with her literary and scholarly temperament:

She was a beautiful woman, young and tall; and in her dark eyes there was

something piercing and poisonous. But her face was gentle, and she looked a

respectable woman. She was dressed simply but with taste, in a white tight-

fitting pajama, a muslin shirt with flowers embroidered on it in white thread,

and a pink head-cloth well starched and plaited. There was a fine nose

ornament studded on her nostril, and in her ears were gold ear-rings filled with

fresh jasmine flowers, and on her arms she wore gold bangles of a beautiful

design. The palms of her hands and the soles of her feet were dyed red with

henna (Ali 75).

Besides her graceful dressing, she is serene and plaintive. She, as most of such

tawaifs used to be, is an intellectual. She talks to Asghar and Bari of beauty and its

reality in a melancholic mood. When Bari brings her attention to her beauty, she

replies with an air of a poet;But when old age knocks at the door . . . beauty of the

body dies. Only virtue is beauty which I do not possess. Asghar philosophizes, The

beauty of the body is like a flower . . . which attracts the bulbul to itself and breaks his

heart, like a candle which tempts the moths and burns their wings. Upon this

Mushtari Bai replies in dejection;

The real beauty of the flower lies in its smell . . . But I am such an evil-

smelling flower that I repulse everyone. I am that candle which burns its own

self, shedding tears of blood, and blackens the walls of the niche with its

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smoke. . . .No one cares for me. I am like a caravan-serai where people come,

rest their tired bodies for a while and depart (Ali 75-76).

The grandeur of the city lies not only in its palaces, castles, domes, minarets,

but every Delhiwallah is the ambassador of that great civilization. The streets of the

city are the live pictures of the centuries old rich and splendid traditions woven nicely

in the cultural and religious harmony. The depiction of the people and the city of

Delhi in the novel is vivid picturesque and the Ali brings the whole scene to our

imagination;

So he [Mir Nihal] came straight down Chandni Chowk towards the Clock

Tower to go through Balli Maran, the nearest way home. As he passed the

Clock Tower He saw a number of camel carts wind their way, creaking,

groaning, [and] moving slowly like snails, from the Company Gardens to

Khari Baoli, the grain market. . . . he stopped to drink water from the sabeel19

.

Men had started going about and the shopkeepers were sprinkling water in

front of their shops (Ali 90-91).

All in all, the study finds that the city of Delhi appears as a character in the

novel. This character is bigger than the main protagonist of the novel. The tale of the

city is the tale of a people, a peculiar social system who like the city itself is typical.

The depiction of both the city and the people brings social consciousness about a

phase of our national life as Ali said in the introduction to the first edition of the

novel (Ali x). In the next chapter the main argument of the study is furthered by

exploring the realistic depiction of the overwhelming Muslim culture of Delhi.

19

A charity drinking water source

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Chapter 04

TWILIGHT IN DELHI: A REALISTIC STUDY OF THE

POST-1857 DELHIS MUSLIM SOCIETY

. . . we brought with us a great treasure and this land was also overladen with its own

untold wealth. We entrusted our wealth to this country; and India opened the

floodgates of its treasures to us. We gave to this country the most precious of our

possessions and one which was greatly needed by it. We gave to it the message of

democracy and equality.

(Abul Kalam Azad qtd in Fyzee 113) 20

The Muslim impact on the Indian soil as expressed in the above quoted lines

of Abul Kalam Azad is a historical fact. This chapter furthers the argument of social

realism by exploring the realistic depiction of the post-1857 Muslim society in

Twilight in Delhi. The massacre of Delhi in 1857 brought a complete revolution in the

life patterns of the populace of the city, the majority of which was still Muslim. This

destruction was not only the destruction of a city but also an end to a complete

civilization. The real charm of the centuries old Muslim society ended with the fall of

Delhi (Zameer, 22).

Ali narrates the twilight of a Muslim way of life that overwhelms Delhi even

after 1857. The waning facets of the Muslim way of life represent a complete order in

itself. But the British intrusion brought a chaos in this order. However, Twilight has

splendidly displayed some cultural remains of the fading Muslim society after 1857.

20

Presidential address to Ramgarh Session of the Indian National Congress 1942

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Both through the household of a Delhi noble Mir Nihal and in its wake the entire

Muslim society are depicted realistically in the novel. The novel shows people

speaking Urdu in the Delhvi dialect. In fact Urdu is the product of one of the most

remarkably inherited treasures of the grand Muslim legacy in India. Delhi used to be

its one of the nuclei besides Lakhnow and Haiderabad. Tariq Rehman elaborated this

aspect of the novel better than any other European or American critics of Ahmad Ali.

Besides the use of events to evoke the life of Muslim middle class Delhi, Ali

has also presented that life in three other ways: by reproducing the nearest

equivalent of their linguistic idiom in English; by describing their ethos

through the behavior and attitude of minor characters; by narratorial comments

(40).

All over the novel, Ali gives the exact translation of the idiomatic Urdu

phrases. Also he includes the English translation of certain very appropriate verses of

Persian and Urdu. It is mainly through the female characters of the novel that Ali uses

this technique most naturally; For instance, Ali, pointing to the pugnacious behavior

of Begum Jamal (Mir Nihals dead brothers wife) uses the expressions breasts were

beaten, and heaven and earth made one, and elsewhere, five fingers in ghee, a

fairy from Caucasus, ( qtd in Rehman 40) and when Asghar relates the news of

brother-in-laws death to his sister, he recalls that unfortunate day when that telegram

arrives; when I read it the earth seemed to slip from under my feet(Ali 48). Further,

when Begum Waheed and Begum Nihal are arguing on the issue of Asghars

marriage, what Begum Nihal says is the exact translation of Urdu idiom; Has the

boy gone mad? If your father only comes to hear of this he will eat him [Asghar] up

alive (Ali 60). And on another occasion when Asghar visits Mushtari Bai, a cultured

dancing girl of Delhi, She receives him warmly and says; You have become the

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moon of Eid. The eyes long for a sight of your face, but in vain. Now this is a plain

rendering of an Urdu idiom into English (Ali 75). There are several others occasions

in the novel where Ali puts the direct literal translations of Urdu idioms and phrases.

Alis use of these words and idioms give a foreign touch to the language of the novel

which adds to the quality of its realism (Rehman 41).

Similarly, here and there in the novel Ali writes beautiful poetic prose that

shows his skills of translating the literary imagery of Delhi poets. The popularity of

Urdu and Persian poetry and the use of poetic language in routine conversations are

usual features of the Muslim society of Delhi. For instance, when Bari (a friend of

Asghar) asks him of his love, Asghar says;

She is beautiful, Bari, very beautiful . . . She is graceful as a cypress. Her hair

is blacker than the night of separation, and her face is brighter than the hours

of love. Her eyes are like narcissi, big and beautiful. There is nectar in their

whites and poison in their blacks. Her eyebrows like two arched bows ready to

wound the hearts of men with the arrows of their lashes. Her lips are redder

than the blood of lovers, and her teeth look like pearls studded in a row. . . (Ali

32).

As the narrative moves ahead, Ali very skillfully adds the translation of Urdu

and Persian verses into English. This testifies the popularity of poetry particularly

among the Muslim populace of Delhi beside music and other forms of fine arts. These

quotations are numerous and are apt to the situation in the narrative. In the post 1857

Delhi the tradition of poetry recitation was alive and it was one of the most liked

forms of entertainment among both the young and old.

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Like poetry, qawwali21

is also another typical feature of the life of Muslim

Delhi. Such gatherings are common at night or at any time of the day in case of some

celebration or social events. The qawwals sing loudly in a chorus mystical love

poems which could be taken as addressed to God or Muhammad or some earthly

sweetheart. The repetition is the very essence of qawwali. The leader of the chorus

sings a line at the top of his voice and the others repeat the same line over and over

again. They sing in chorus and a man in frenzy raises repeated cries of Haq Allah,

Haq. The qawaal changes the line after some repetition: Cares and miseries, grief

and sorrow . . . / what is there I have not known in love and with every subsequent

note the shouts of Haq become more piercing and poignant, coming in quick

succession, and the qawwals repeat the first line. Their performance seems a

complete ceremony in itself. Ali captures a realistic picture of this important feature

of Delhis social life:

They sat in a row and behind their backs were fat bolster cushions. In front of

them sat the leader of the chorus on a carpet. In the light of lamps and lanterns

the white clothes of the listeners looked eerie; and their shadows came and

played on the wall of Mir Nihals house. A young man was beating his hands

on the floor in frenzy. He would rise