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Crescent and brotherhood
Akbar's rediscovery of India
By Kumar Chellappan
The beauty of the book lies in the manner Akbar handles Prayaag?s conversion to Islam. While religious conversion by missionaries and maulvis is a sensitive topic, which sends jitters down the spine of all Hindus, Prayaag?s conversion to Islam is something that takes the readers to new levels of mother-son relationship.
While Matheson tries to belittle and humiliate everything that is Indian, Simon Hogg points out a number of things to him that prove beyond doubt that the country is a great civilisation. Matheson deviates from the topic when he fails to counter Simon?s arguments.
Akbar comes down heavily on the Naxalites and Communists for the hollowness of their ideologies. Mohammed Ismail, the Marxist leader of Telinipara, is a classic example of the modern-day politicians. Akbar?s narration of his vacation trips to Pakistan to be with his maternal uncles and aunts, description of his mother?s savings for his younger sister Arfana?s marriage, all make an interesting reading.
Blood Brothers?A Family Saga by M.J. Akbar, Roli Books, New Delhi; Price: Rs. 395
Mobashar means a bringer of good news, a name of high ambition and vaulting hopes. Mobashar Javed Akbar, or M.J. Akbar, MJ to friends and colleagues, has lived up to the name. Blood Brothers, his latest book, is yet another proof that he does everything in style.
It was Akbar who gave India its first weekly news magazine of international standard. Sunday turned out to be an instant hit and it took us to the deep interiors of rural India. Investigative journalism reached new peaks during his stewardship of Sunday. He is credited with the launching of dailies like The Telegraph and The Asian Age. Akbar?s editorship saw Deccan Chronicle taking Chennai by storm. Media pundits describe all these newspapers as ?unputdownable?.
Akbar also produced and anchored the news programme Newsline on Doordar-shan during 1985-86 and it hogged the national limelight because of his impeccable style of presentation. Newsline was the first-ever news programme commissioned by Doordarshan. I still remember people waiting with bated breath for Newsline, which was telecast by Doordarshan on the National Network on Wednesday nights. Akbar was able to rope in Jyoti Basu, N.T. Rama Rao and Ramakrishna Hegde to this programme because of the respect commanded by him. Remember, those were the days of Rajiv darshan. Anything irritating to the ?Prince Charming? was anathema to the mandarins in Mandi House. It did not take much for the babus in Mandi House to take Newsline off the air.
?Blood Brothers is an exquisitely written narrative of truth disguised in fiction and ends on a note that is deeply moving and unforgettable,? says Sunil Gangopadhyay, eminent Bengali writer, about Blood Brothers. Well, one need not add anything more to what Gangopadhyay has said about the book. But what makes Blood Brothers stand out are its scintillating vibrations. Each and every word in the book originates from the bottom of Akbar?s heart. From the opening sentence, Akbar has made his intentions quite clear. This is his attempt to discover the soul of the great country he was born into.
While reading the book, one gets the feeling that the entire events are being re-enacted in front of him. Akbar has used a wide canvas to portray Telinipara, the village where he was born. This is the story of Prayaag, the five-year-old boy who escaped from the jaws of death only because of his determination to live. Fate took him to Telinipara, a village near Kolkata. Wali Mohammed, a tea- shop owner, takes Prayaag under his wings. The evolution of Prayaag to Rahmatullah at Telinipara makes the backdrop of the saga. Sheikh Rahmatullah turns out to be the founder and foundation of Telinipara.
This is an autobiographic work which concludes with Akbar?s graduation to adulthood. The great famine, India?s freedom struggle, political dramas enacted during and after the independence movement and the most complex subject of Hindu-Muslim relations have been unveiled in this work in a hitherto untold style.
The beauty of the book lies in the manner Akbar handles Prayaag?s conversion to Islam. While religious conversion by missionaries and maulvis is a sensitive topic, which sends jitters down the spine of all Hindus, Prayaag?s conversion to Islam is something that takes the readers to new levels of mother-son relationship. ?We are Muslims, How can a Hindu boy marry a Muslim girl?? asks Diljan Bibi, Wali Mohammed?s widow. Prayaag replies, ?Mai, you are my mother. Your religion is my religion.?
Kesav Dev, wellknown writer, who ushered in refreshing changes to Malayalam literature, once remarked that a good book could be written only by persons who have learnt about life. ?To learn about life, one has to live. And to live, one has to learn living,? Dev wrote in his memoirs. Akbar has fulfilled all these basic requirements mentioned by Dev.
Blood Brothers feature the life and times of Prayaag (Rahmatullah), his son Akbar Ali and the adolescent days of Akbar. One is taken to the history of the Mughal period through the village elder Talat Mian. The Victoria Jute Mill stands a mute witness to the great events unfolding at Telinipara, which are the ramifications of the great political drama enacted at New Delhi and Kolkata by the modern day politicians. What is striking about the book is the fact that whether it be Muslims or Christians, all were safe in India. It is the evil machinations of politicians that result in communal riots.
Bauna Sardar, Girija Maharaj, Thakur Bhagwan Singh, Maulvi Taslimuddin, the Burha Deewana, Zulfiqar Khan, Syed Ashfaque Alam, Kalyan Singh, Maulana Jauhar, Kamla Pande all leave indelible marks in the reader?s mind. Mathew Horne, Simon Hogg and Victor Matheson, the British triumvirate in Telinipara come in handy for Akbar to recount the westerner?s concept about India. The author develops an intimate relation with Simon, who has high regards for India. Akbar?s farewell meeting with Simon in Bengal Club on a Poet?s Day (?) too has been described nicely.
While Matheson tries to belittle and humiliate everything that is Indian, Simon Hogg points out a number of things to him which prove beyond doubt that the country is a great civilisation. Matheson deviates from the topic when he fails to counter Simon?s arguments. The Moharram procession featuring Rahmatullah and Girija Maharaj brings in a lot of nostalgia to the minds of readers who are familiar with the good old days of bonhomie. Issues that haunted the social fabric of the country in the form of cow slaughter have been described in a touching style by Akbar. But at the end of the book, one cannot help asking whether any Muslims worth his blood will come forward like Rahmatullah to oppose cow slaughter. India has changed a lot, and that too for the worst.
The communal riots of 1950 engineered by Ram Chatterjee, a Congressman, forced the author?s father Akbar Ali and family to escape to Dacca. The portrayal of the riots brings to mind the Kurosawa movies, each an epic in distinct style. Chattrejee, a former robber who used to loot grains from railway wagons at the time of the Bengal famine, was caught by the authorities at the instance of Rahmatullah. Post-Independence Chatterjee became a Congress MLA, thanks to the degeneration set in the party. It was his action of revenge that made Akbar Ali to flee to Dacca. But he was welcomed back by the Hindus on his return with the cries of Akbarwa aa gayeee ree! (Akbar has come back) echoing all over Telinipara.
Ram Chatterjee flourished as Congress MLA and ends up as a Marxist minister and trade union leader (or is he a dealer?). There are many like Chatterjee who hit it off in the name of freedom struggle. There was a Congressman in Kerala who managed to get the freedom fighter?s pension, thanks to his clout with the ruling party. Though he was arrested and jailed for stealing coconuts from the residence of a government official, the crook escaped, because the government official was a European. And the coconuts were meant for volunteers of the Congress who were picketing foreign goods shops!
Akbar comes down heavily on the Naxalites and Communists for the hollowness of their ideologies. Mohammed Ismail, the Marxist leader of Telinipara, is a classic example of the modern-day politicians. Akbar?s narration of his vacation trips to Pakistan to be with his maternal uncles and aunts, description of his mother?s savings for his younger sister Arfana?s marriage, all make an interesting reading.
While care has been taken to incorporate all local, national and global events in the book, it looks strange that the deaths of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Syama Prasad Mookerjee (both in mysterious circumstances) do not find place in Blood Brothers. I understand that Mookerjee?s death, while in detention, was a major shock to the people of India in general and Bengal in particular. The portrayal of RSS as a mysterious organisation seems deliberate and hence objectionable. Still, I rate Blood Brothers as one of the best two books that has come out in 2006. The other, of course, is Falling Over Backwards by Arun Shourie.
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