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‘Sons of Babur have only two places:
the graveyard or Pakistan!’ went the bloodcurdling cry of Hindutva
fascists, seeking to whip up Hindu hatred against Muslims in the
course of their movement to destroy the Babri Masjid two decades
ago. For these venom-spewing fanatics, the Indian Muslims simply had
no place in India at all. They were, they alleged, the progeny of
foreign invaders. They linked them up with one such Muslim
invader—but, curiously, not the first, and certainly not the most
brutal of them—Zahiruddin Mohammad Babur, the founder of the Mughal
dynasty. That their claim was, historically speaking, wide off the
mark—the vast majority of Indian Muslims being descendants of local
converts—was something that they did not seem to care about in the
least.
This wonderfully-crafted play is a powerful rebuttal of Hindutva
propaganda about the Indian Muslims being ‘aliens’ or the progeny
thereof. Without sounding preachy, and not seeking to whitewash the
darker aspects of Mughal rule, Khurshid presents the complexity of
inter-communal relations under the Mughals, highlighting the fact
that, over time, the Mughals had so closely integrated themselves
into the wider Indian society that it makes no sense whatsoever to
consider them to have been aliens or foreigners. He does not shy
from dealing with the murky politics of several Mughal
potentates—their lust for power and pelf, which even led father to
kill sons or sons to plot against fathers, and the harsh policies of
some of them towards their non-Muslim subjects. Khurshid does not
condone all of this, but appeals to us to view these figures as
creatures of their times and not judge them according to
contemporary standards.
The play revolves around a group of college students at the height
of the Hindutva agitation to tear down the Babri Masjid. Confronted
with rival claims about Indianness and Indian history, in particular
the role of the Muslims in all of this, one of the students,
Rudranshu Mitra, travels in his mind all the way to Rangoon where he
has a series of extended conversations with the last Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah Zafar, who lies buried in a decrepit grave in the
Burmese capital. The Emperor takes Mitra on a series of voyages
through the past, where he meets Babur and a host of other Mughal
rulers. From them he learns of how the Mughals, who left their
desolate Central Asian home, managed, over the years, not just to
adapt to India but also help create the very idea of India as we
understand it today. Khurshid presents Bahadur Shah Zafar as
exemplifying that very idea in his own person, as a symbol that
united Hindus and Muslims against British rule.
Khurshid’s attempt to salvage the Mughals from Hindutva abuse does
serve a valuable political purpose, of course. But to present
Bahadur Shah Zafar as the herald of the idea of India seems
completely far-fetched. Were Zafar and a host of Hindu and Muslim
rulers who lent their weight to the revolt of 1857 really passionate
proto-nationalists, as Khurshid would have them be? Or, as seems
more likely, were they simply out to protect their tottering
regimes? And were they as beneficent as Khurshid projects them as?
True, they did have a role to play a role in the evolution of a sort
of Indo-Muslim cultural synthesis, but what, one must ask, did they
at all do for the oppressed masses, Hindus and Muslims alike?
Defending them from Hindutva falsehood is fine, and indeed laudable,
but to extol them as passionately committed to their subjects
(particularly the poor, on whose bruised shoulders the entire
edifice of their splendour rested) is surely a bit too much.
That said, the play makes wonderful reading. One would not have
expected an Indian politician, and a minister at that (Khurshid is
Minister of State for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs ) to be
such a gifted wordsmith.
Name of the Book:
Sons of Babur—A Play in Search of India
Author: Salman Khurshid
Publisher: Rupa & Co, New Delhi
Pages: 121
Price: Rs. 295
ISBN: 978-81-291-1315-3
Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand
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