31st March 2012

works of ahmed ali and attia hosain

INTRODUCTION
Ahmed Ali and Attia Hosain's genre of writing may not be simulated by today's
novelists, but their powerful and creative illustration of change, `decay and
uncertainties in a given historical context undoubtedly inspire upcoming novelists.
Since their characters are real and mirrored the anxieties of a creation that face
with stark choices before and after Independence.
The author's personal dilemmas and predicament are reflected in the portrayal of
individuals and families who debate the contemporary situation, discuss their
preferences and plot their trajectory in accordance with their ideological
predilections. In the end, they have not only produce a novel or two but also
shrewd social histories.
This dissertation is an attempt to bring out the writings of Ahmed Ali and Attia
Hosain and to make a comparative study of their two novels Twilight in Delhi and
Sunlight on a Broken Column respectively. Ahmed Ali and Attia Hosain are
brought up differently, and yet they have so much in common. Both are attached
to liberal, composite and eclectic traditions, the hallmark of Delhi and Lucknow's
social and cultural life. Both are wedded to a humanistic world-view which is free
of bigotry, fanaticism and sectarianism. Both are anguished by the Partition of
the country which destroyed the civilisational unity of the subcontinent.

At heart, they belong to a generation that has lived with its spirit in pieces. And
both died in a country that is not their own. If they ever exchanged letters, they
would probably write the following to eachother:
rahi nagufta mere dil me daastan meri
na is dayar me samjha koi zabaan meri (How could I tell my tale in this strange
land ? I speak a tongue they do not understand)
The two novelists suffer similar urges, similar compulsions and similar aims. In
spite of the conspicuous difference in their style and technique, their preoccupation is one: the realistic evaluation of the Muslim life in India in the
nineteenth century as found at the Centres of Muslim Culture namely Delhi and
Lucknow in order to see the change that is gradually getting established.
The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the two
novelists Ahmed Ali and Attia Hosain who hail from ancient Muslim household in
India. Ahmed Ali is brought up in an old family of New Delhi. He has received his
education at the Muslim University, Aligarh and at the Lucknow University. He
makes a start his writing career as a short story writer and poet in Urdu. Later he
procures to translation of some of the English creative works into Urdu. This
endeavor in translation which he considers as trans-creation eventually puts him
on the path of bringing out his own thoughts on life of Indian Muslims in the
English Language. Deeply distressed at the predicament of the Muslim
community, wherein he observes the life of Muslim Nawabs and nobles and
their mistreatment at the hands of the British, he recorded it in his novel. His
novel Twilight in Delhi (1940), which is the subject of this study, records the
psychological problems of the Muslims against the context of historical changes

in British India, and also their struggle to undo the consequences of this change.
Presently Ahmed Ali lives in Pakistan as a retired civil servant.
Attia Hosain belongs to an ancient Taluqdar family of Lucknow. She has the
credit of being the first woman graduate of the taluqdar household. She is
intimate to the Progressive Writers Group of Mulk Raj Anand and Sajjad Zaheer.
The demise of her father when she is a little girl makes her brood on the
evanescence of life. And the alienation caused by her schooling in the English
language has made her grow up between the two proverbial worlds, the one not
yet quite dead and the other refusing to be born. There are traumatic contrasts of
the old myths of revolution and modernist change by which she has wished to
live.
Akin psychological torture is recorded in her autobiographical novel Sunlight on a
Broken Column. Attia too, like Ahmed Ali, has lived in an era when India striving
hard to come out of the clutches of foreign bondage. She observes, as a child,
the strong juvenile forces eager to join the national struggle, and also the
feudalistic forces trying hard to suppress the struggle. It is the struggle of the
modernist nationalist forces for supremacy, which is recorded in her novel the
only one of its kind. Attia gets married and moves over to London after the
Partition. It is likely that the nostalgia for home may have urged the novel on,
says Mulk Raj Anand in his Preface to Sunlight on a Broken Column.
The chapter II deals

absolutely with the status of Muslim woman in India.

A SHORT SURVEY [#] is made of the role and status assigned to woman in
Islam, in contrast to the role given to her by the prejudiced and ignorant Indian
Muslim society in the past. The injunctions of Islam on such controversial subjects

as the purdah, polygamy, marriage and divorce, inheritance and private

ownership are referred to. Hence, the attempt here is to gauge the difference
between what the rules of the shariat are and how they are oppressed by the
Muslims themselves.
It also deals with the writers before independence and after independence.
The chapter III reviews Ahmed Alis novel Twilight in Delhi(1940). The novel is
studied as a piece of critical realism reflecting the pressures of the time seeking
to usher change.
The chapter IV, reviews Attia Hosains novel Sunlight on a Broken Column (1960),
as another piece of critical realism reflecting the demands of the society.
The concluding chapter V , brings out the interpretation of Indian Muslim life and
the treatment of women characters in the two novels.

AHMED ALI
Ahmed Ali one of the four contributors to Angarey, (Burning Coals) , a very controversial anthology of short stories that
publiched in 1932, and some critics considered it as the first example of progressive writing in Urdu. The other contributors
of Angarey were Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jahan and Mahmuduzzaffar. The Land of Twilight is a one-act play written in
English in 1929, published in Lucknow in the year 1937 by R.R.Sreshta and eventually translated and published in Urdu. Ali
wrote a second one-act play entitled as Break the Chains. The plays were produced and directed by Ali at Lucknow
University in 1931-32. Hamari Gali (our Lane) is a collection of short stories that was translated into English and French and
published in 1936. Sholay was published in 1934 and ustad Shammu Khan appeared in Alis first collection of stories.
Ahmed Alis famour novel Twilight in Delhi was published in 1940, then most of the urdu writers were studying for their
bachelors or masters degree. Ahmed Ali was the member of The Progressive Writers Movement and considered as the

pioneer of the new literature. After the publication of the BOOK [#] discussion started and the opinions of E.M.Forster and
Edwin Muir are included on the cover of the book. Lucknow, the center of the semi-political and pseudoliterary Association,
decided that because of authors attitude towards a society was sympathetic, therefore the novel is not good while
Allahabad, people hesitated about making political assessments of literature. Some people assumedcovetous though furtive
silence at Allahabad, others raised some arguments about unimportant matters.

Ahmed Ali is known as the pioneer of English fiction and poetry among the
Muslims of India. His literary career began during British rule over India and his
significance as a writer is both historical and social. He moved from Urdu, his
mother tongue and the literary language of Indian Muslims, to English. He is the
first to get hold of modernity, social-realism and then symbolism from Western
origin among Indian Muslim writers. His revocation is chiefly for his historical
significance.

Born in Delhi in a family of theologians but his father, Syed

Shujauddin, a civil servant in British India. After attending elementary school at

Gurgaon he has been sent to a MISSIONARY SCHOOL [#] in Azamgarh. As
his father expired in 1919 he lived with his uncle (fathers brother) as a student.
He first appeared Muslim Aligarh university where he studied science. Later, he
joined Lucknow. University there he studied English. In 1931 he has become a
lecturer in English at Lucknow University and in progress producing fictional work
in both Urdu and English. He then moved to Agra, Allahabad and Calcutta in
pursuance of his pedagogic career. He has served in the diplomatic service till
1960 where he has retired and settled down in Karachi. He then visited the
University of Karachi for occasional lecture, wrote, translated and contributed to
the familys business activities.
Professor Ahmed Ali is responsible for writing debateably the greatest novel ever
written about Delhi. Born in Delhi, India, he has involved in progressive literary

movements as a young man. He has been qualified at leading Indian universities

including Lucknow and Allahabad from 1932-46 and has joined in the Bengal
Senior Educational Service as Professor and Head of the English Department at
Presidency College, Calcutta (1944-47). Professor Ahmed Ali has started his
literary career at a very young age and has become co-founder of the All-India
Progressive Writers' Movement and Association with the publication of Angare in
1932, a collection of short stories by four young friends, which has later
prescribed by the British Government of India in March of 1933.that has hitherto
been denied the opportunity to speak for itself. Before publishing his novel in
English.
Ahmed Ali and Mahmud-uz-Zaffar together has announced the formation of a
League of Progressive Authors, which later to spread out and become the AllIndia Progressive Writers Association. Ahmed Ali has presented his paper Art ka
Taraqqi-Pasand Nazariya in its inaugural Conference in 1936.
It is the first novel written by a Muslim ever to be published in English, thereby
projecting the viewpoint of a COLONIZED [#] culture and civilization, Ali
already an established writer in Urdu; however, he might have been prompted to
write in English because well-known works he already published in English by
two well-known Indian writers who were Alis contemporaries. Mulk Raj
AnandsUntouchable appeared in 1935 and Coolie appeared in 1936; and Raja
Rao, already an established writer of stories in Kannada, brought out in 1938 his
first novel Kanthapura, articulating in the foreword what has become in essence a
motto for many non-English writers whose appropriate English as a medium of
their self-expression: to convey in a language that is not ones own the spirit that

is ones own Of course, this phenomenon of belated self-representation in texts

written in European languages has become too familiar a situation that applies
not only to Alis Indian Muslims but also practically almost all colonized,third
worldists. Indeed, the first publication of the novel in war-preoccupied Britain has
a fascinating story of its own.After Ali had finished writing the novel, he traveled to
Londona taxing trip and a costly undertaking for an Indian in the late 1930sto
have the manuscript printed. However, because Alis narrative recalls highly
pronounced scenes of the 1857 revolt (referred to in colonial officialese as the
Mutiny) of the Muslims of old Delhi in opposition to the British occupation of
India, the printer found the book too politically subversive to be in circulation. Had
it not been for the intercession of E. M. Forster with the censor and had it not
been for Virginia Woolf s readiness to publish the novel in her Hogarth Press,
Twilight in Delhi might have never seen the light of day (Anderson 43940).
Ahmed Ali has achieved international reputation with his novel Twilight in Delhi
Professor Ahmed Ali's career has spanned the better-quality part of the 20th
century and he put the people of Pakistan in touch with both their past and
present. His renderings of literatures of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Far
East has customary links which are not yet known, and are remembered
reverentially. His artistic writings illustrate extensive interest and is a long-term
contribution to international letters. He has been nominated as a Founding Fellow
of the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 1979 and has been awarded the Sitara-ilmtiaz in 1980 in acknowledgment with his involvement to letters and the nation.
Professor Ahmed Ali is also BBCs Representative and Director in India during
1942-44. He has visited China in 1947 as British Council Visiting Professor of

English at the National Central University at Nanking. After the partition of India,
he has learnt Chinese and translated from Chinese poems, and gathered material
for his book Muslim China; his house considers a people attending worship of
friends and China his second home. He has joined the Pakistan Foreign Service
at the perseverance Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, and the first file he received marked as
China but it is blank. He productively has established diplomatic relations with
the Peoples Republic of China in record time and the Pakistani embassy in
Peking in 1950; and the Embassy in Morocco, in 1958. With Prime Minister
Huseyn Shaheed Surahwardy has visited China again in 1956.

Professor Ahmed Ali has been a renowned Visiting Professor of Humanities at

Michigan State University in 1975, Fulbright Visiting Professor of History at
Western Kentucy University and Fulbright Visiting Professor of English at
Southern Illinois University in 1978-79. He has been an Honorary Citizen by the
State of Nebraska in 1979 and a Visiting Professor at the University of Karachi
during 1977-79, which later bestowed on him an honorary degree of Doctor of
Literature in 1993.
Professor Ahmed Ali has distinguished himself as a gentlemen of refined taste
and manners, deep interest in travel and a zeal for Ghalib. His writings are
concerned with the decay of Muslim culture and the injustices of colonial powers.
Proficient in several languages including French, Chinese, Persian and Quranic
Arabic, he has enthralled audiences with his expressive speech and turn of
phrase. Steeped in tradition but progressive at heart, equally at home in the East

and the West. Professor Ahmed Ali have traveled far and wide, and an avid of
Chinese porcelain and paintings, Gandhara art and other antiques.
In 1929 in Lucknow, he has published his first short story in English in the
Lucknow University Journal. He also published plays in English such as Land of
Twilight and Break the Chains (Premiered in 1932). He also wrote an Urdu short
story Mahavaton ki Ek Raat (A Night of Winter Rains) published by the literary
journal Humayun. After this he has written many short stories in Urdu collected in
Sholay (Flames) (1934), Hamari Gali (Our Lane) (1944), Qaid Khana (Prison
House) (1944) and Maut Se Pahlay (Before Death) (1945). Selected stories out of
these are translated into English and has published as The Prison House (1985).
His most famous novel is Twilight in Delhi (1940). The second one Ocean of the
Night has been written after it but published in 1964. The last novel, Rats and
Diplomats has been published in 1985. Ali has written poems in English. In 1960
he has published eight poems under the title Purple Gold Mountain: Poems From
China. Later he brought the number up to sixty.
He also anthologized, as in Shahid Hosains edited collected works entitled First
Voices: Six Poets from Pakistan (1965). His interest in Urdu poetry has resulted in
several translations: The Falcon and the Hunted Bird: An Anthology of Urdu
Poetry (1950); The Bulbul and the Rose: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry (1962);
Ghalib: Selected Poems (1969) and The Golden Tradition (1973). As a translator,
besides Urdu poetry, his major work is the translation of the Quran from Arabic
to English. He calls it Al-Quran: A Contemporary Translation (1984). References
to poems from China or Indonesia, as in The Flaming Earth: Poems from

Indonesia (1949) is not clear whether he has actually translated from Chinese or
Bhasa Indonesian originals or used intermediaries.
Ahmed Alis family have in progress making the transition from tradition to
modernity. However, his uncle, puritanical has discouraged Ali from writing the
Urdu ghazal poetry which has conventionally amorous. This made Ali turn to
English but his interest in Urdu remained till the end. At Aligarh, he has met Raja
Rao (1908-), who has become famous as a novelist later. In Lucknow, he has
met Sajjad Zaheer (1905-1973) and Mahmud uz Zafar (1908-1954), both socialist
intellectuals, and minor Urdu literary figures. This friendship with radical
intellectuals brought Ali in touch with socialist and liberal ideas. He

also

contributed a story to the collection of short stories called Angare (Burning Coals)
to which the other contributors were Rashid Jahan, Sajjad Zaheer and Mahmud
uz Zafar. Zaheers short story---of a Muslim cleric who falls asleep on the prayer
mat and dreaming of an hour as ejaculation---shocked the Muslim clergy and the
middle class so much that the authors are threatened with death. The British has
banned the book and the authors responded by creating a literary organ known
as the All India Progressive Writers Association in 1936. This organization has
dominated by the Communists and Ali soon disassociated himself from it though
he kept espousing some progressive ideas.
Ahmed Ali achieved prominence for his novel Twilight in Delhi which is based
upon the city of Delhi, once the capital of the Mughal emperors, and even in those
days (the nineteen forties) one of the great centres of Muslim high culture. The
protagonist, Mir Nihal, is a successful Muslim gentleman past fifty but still robust

and healthy. He has control over his unmitigated family and loves flying pigeons
and making love to his mistress, a beautiful harlot..The rest of the novel records
slow but sure loss of power on the part of Mir Nihal. His son, Asghar, marries
without his approval. His pigeons are killed by a cat and the mistress falls ill and
dies. In the end Mir Nihal, unable to bear the trauma of a sons death, becomes
paralyzed. At the symbolic level, Mir Nihals world---the world of the Muslim feudal
gentry of north India---is coming to an end. It lies defeated at the hands of
triumphant modernity. The narrative technique is pragmatic but the illustrative
aspect is very significant. Because of the former there are pictures of the visit of
George V in 1911; the great influenza epidemic; the life of Muslim aristocratic
families in the traditional mohallas (living areas) of Delhi and so on. This makes the
novel a work of historical realism. Ali also uses the linguistic set phrase of the
Muslim gentry of Delhi so authentically that when the novel later translated into
Urdu by his wife Bilquis Jahan (Dilli ki Sham, 1963), it is considered as an Urdu
novel. Indeed, the critics said that the novel should have been written initially in
Urdu rather than in English. However, Alis use of English is very skilful. He
translates many idioms and phrases from Urdu in such a way as to create the
feeling that one has entered the sphere of a different culture). This authenticity of
enunciation and the detailed description of daily life, makes the book a valuable
sociological description of a dying culture. On the symbolic level, however, the
novel is less dominant. Alis theme is the passing away of the traditional culture of
his ancestors. Although he has the reputation of an iconoclast and a modernist, Ali
fails to go beyond the emotional attitudes of his class. His attitude to Muslim
feudal power is, in the last analysis, sentimental and nostalgic. In some of his

works he does show the cruelty of people like Mir Nihal. However, in the novel he
does not. Another novel, about the same kind of feudal family, is Attia Hosains
Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961). In this the author reveals the supremacy and
exploitation of women and working class people by the authoritative males. Ali,
however, ignores these harsh realities. Despite these shortcomings the novel very
well received by contemporary reviewers. Indeed, the novel made him famous and
it is because of this reputation that later works, which did not have the charm of
Twilight, are not completely ignored. However, later critics did show awareness of
Ahmed Alis weaknesses. Anniah Gowda, in a comparative study of Twilight and
Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart praises the latter while blaming Ali for being
fatalistic. Alistair Niven, another perceptive critic, charges Alis work with two
weaknesses: a tired vocabulary and ineffective nostalgia. Alis second novel,
Ocean of the Night, is on the theme of the ruin of aristocratic feudal families
through prostitution. The most notable works in this genre already been existed in
Urdu fiction when Ali chose to write about it. Among the best are Mirza Hadi
Ruswas (1856-1931) Umrao jan Ada (1899) and Munshi Premchands (18801936) Bazar-e-Husn (1918). While the first deals with the life of a prostitute the
second deals with the way women are degraded by patriarchy.
Ahmed Alis poetry is motivated by the tradition of the Urdu ghazal as well as the
English Romantic tradition. He has been influenced by the Chinese lyrics which
give the poems an exotic style. His major themes, in common with those of the
ghazal, are nostalgia, a sense of loss and the responsiveness of loneliness. He is
also influenced by T.S. Eliots theory of the impersonality of art which makes him
employ imagery rather than narration to impart meaning. On the whole Ali has not

written enough poetry to merit him a high place among South Asian poets who
writes in English.
Alis translations from Urdu try to be faithful to the original at the cost of being
less poetic than they could have been. However, Urdu poetry is so deeply
embedded in its historical and socio-cultural roots that it is not possible to give
literal translations which are also poetic. Under the circumstances Ali has done a
commendable job nevertheless his translations are less well known than those of
other people. In The Golden Tradition Ali has not only given translations from the
traditional poets of Urdu but has also written what amounts to a competent
history of Urdu poetry. His critical pieces on the masters of the ghazal, including
the poets Meer Taqi Meer (1723-1810) and Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (17971869) are perhaps the best pieces of literary criticism he has ever written.

Ahmed Alis most astonishing tour de force is the translation of the Quran--because of Alis reputation as a Westernized, liberal intellectual with no known
grounding in Arabic and Islamic scholarship. It is entitled Al-Quran: A
Contemporary Translation (1984). Ahmed Ali uses metrical lines to convey what
he calls the sonority and rhythmic patterns of the Quranic language (Preface).
Among the South Asian Muslims who has accomplished honour for translating
the Quran into English is Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872-1953) whose biography
Searching for Solace (1994) by M. A. Sherif is available. What is surprising is that
Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Ahmed Ali, both brought up in the colonial states secular
educational institutions, should have mastered the Arabic language so well as to

translate the Quran. However, since the present author is himself ignorant of
Arabic, no comment as to the validity of the transliteration can be ventured. It
may be mentioned, however, that no foremost scholar of Arabic or Islamic
scholarship has commented on Alis translation. On the whole Ahmed Ali is a
minor literary figure as far as world literature is concerned. His creative output is
limited but more than he cannot get away the dichotomy sandwiched between
the traditional and the modern which leads to a sentimental treatment of tradition
along with an intellectual admiration of some aspects of the modern. As a
translator his work remains to be appraised by critics competent in the original
languages from which the work has been translated. Despite these limitations Ali
remains one of the pioneers of South Asian writing in English.
Ahmed Ali, popularly known as Professor Ahmed Ali, is an epoch-making
personality. He is considered the father of modern Pakistani literature; in fact, his
work has helped to shape the twentieth century South Asian literature in both
English and Urdu Ahmed Ali truly has lived up to his credo till the very last
moments of his life.Just months before his final departure, the University of
Karachi honored itself by making him a Doctor of Literature. A few years ago
when the Government of Pakistan have conferred on him the Sitaar-e Imtiyaaz
(The Star of Distinction). He is one of the brightest stars in the firmament. His star
has come down to be with us for a bit, and is back there again, shining away.

Attia Hosain
Atia Hosains novel and collection of short stories are monuments of past: the
history of north India, before Partition. A monument suggests a gravestone ---grey,cold and immutable. Her books are not they are delicate and tender, like
new grass, and they stir with life and the play of sunlight and rain. To read them is
as if one had parted a curtain, or opened a door, and strayed into the past.
That is their charm and significance. To read them is like wrapping oneself up in
ones mothers wedding sari, lifting the family jewels out of a washed out box and
admiring their glitter, inhaling the musky perfume of old silks in a camphor chest.
Almost forgotten colours and scents; one wonders if one can endure them in
the light of what has come to pass. But illicitly, with a laugh, the reader cant but
confess Really? Is that how it was? It must have been ----- Glamorous?
Fascinating? Outrageous? Impossible?
Attia

Hosains

father

Shahid

Hosain

Kidwai

[http://www.harappa.com/attia/partition.html] , belongs to a Taluqdar family feudal

landholder of Gadia, District Bari Banki, United Provinces. He is one of those

people who involved in his life politically a time in the 1910s when it wasn't a
question of confronting the British that happened later when Gandhiji came on
the scene.
Her

mother

[http://www.harappa.com/attia/attiasmother.html]

belongs

to

distinguished intellectual families , a place called Kakori. At that time all those

people believed that if you owned land, it led to problems within the family, which
alas now do exist still. Her mother belongs to that kind of a family where people
proud of being learned and became judges, and professionals, that sort of life
they lead. These great big houses - you can see the ruins of them now because
most of the Kakori people seemed to have left and gone to Pakistan.
The environment in which she grew up by her mother is different. People who
behaved as if they are in salons where poets could sit - the poets being ones
own relatives because everybody felt that they had to make up poetry or be
interested in classical music or whatever thing that had to do with culture. Hence
she felt that she was fortunate that she had such a background.
Born in 1913, Attia Hosain has come from a background and a family that
equipped her with all the knowledge she has needed to write these books. Her
father a taluqdar of Oudh, a state in north India that the British known as the
United Provinces, the home of nawabs who has dazzled even the wealthy
colonists by the splendour of their courts. She belongs to the clan of Kidwais that
has created many famed and prominent men of this century. Her father studied
at Christ College, Cambridge, and the Middle Temple, and like other young men
in his circle of contemporaries, become eminent in the political and national
movements of his time.
. Attia Hosain says I learnt from her how strong women can be when faced with
tragedy and pressure. Although she has English governesses and studied at the
La Martiniere School for Girls, she has lessons in Urdu and Arabic when she has

returned home, and read the Quran, kept close to the roots of her own culture
by her mother and, before her, by her father who made sure they never lost
touch with their ancestral village. During his lifetime their house has been filled
with the political leaders and great figures of the society of the time and We
seemed to live with the cultures of the East and the West in a way that is not
disimilar from that of many Indian Families, but the daughters of the house has a
traditional upbringing nevertheless, and lived sheltered, rather secluded lives.
Their religious education is open-minded and they did not wear burqas but the
car has silk curtains at the windows!
Attia Hosain said any books I could lay my hands on and as her father has
owned an extensive library, she has been grew up--- unsupervised ---- on the
English classics. She has gone to the Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, then
the foremost college for women in India, and won scholarships. She is the first
woman from a taluqdars family to graduate --- in 1933 ---- from the University of
Lucknow. Inspite of this not insignificant triumph, she has resented the distinction
made between sons and daughters in the family and the fact that she does not
sent to Cambridge as her brother has been. Her revolt took the form of a
marriage to her cousin, against her mothers wishes. He has been educated at
Clifton and at Cambridge. Her father-in-law also a taluqdar and, like her father,
has played a prominent role in the political, civic and social life of the UP; and also
Vice-chancellor of the University of Lucknow.
The family tradition of weaving together the political and the intellectual strands
has affected Attia Hosains life and thought. She claims I was greatly influenced
in the 30s by the young friends and relations who came back from English

schools and universities as left wing activists, Communists and Congress

socialists. I was at the first Progressive Writers Conference and could be called a
fellow traveller at the time. I did not actively enter politics as I was tied and
restricted in many ways by traditional bonds of duty to the family.
As a well educated, contemplative young woman at the heart of the storm in an
India on the brink of Independence and Partition, she has written for The Pioneer,
then rephrased by Desmond Young, and for The Statesman, the leading English
language newspaper in Calcutta. She has also written short stories ---- some
published, some unpublished ---- but never believed in myself as a writer!
Inspite of her ideals and those of many other Muslims in India, Partition has
proved irrevocable at Independence and, rather than go to Pakistan, the Muslim
ideal in which she did not believe, she chose to take her children to England
country she has come to know when her husband has been posted to the Indian
High Commission, and has earned her living by broadcasting and presenting her
own womens programme to the Eastern Service of the BBC.
To read her novel and short stories is to become aware of many and wideranging threads that go to make up a rich and attention-grabbing life as well as
many doubts and struggles and contradictions it has contained. They replicate
her pride in ancestry and heredity as well as sorrow at the frequency with which
they are tarnished by some oblivious, unjust or selfish action. They present her
ardent love for all that is genial and marvelous in the aristocracy she know as well
as her awareness of the dark observe side has experienced by hapless
dependents. They show her keen sense of the two ruling concepts of Indian
behaviour Izzat/honour, and Sharam/dishonourpassionately adhering to the

former and reworking in her mind the many forms taken by the latter, not always
the traditional ones. They show her gratitude of the warmly supportiveness,
laughter and emotional richness to be found in the joint family could become a
prison and a punishment.
The many-coloured threads that go to weave the matter of the two books on
which Attia Hosains reputation is based also give a distinguishing quality to her
prose. It is as rich and highly wrought as a piece of brocade, or embroidery,
resembles

the

sari

she

describes

in

the

shortstory

Time

Is

Unredeemable;deep-red Benaras net by means of large gold flowers scattered

all over it and formalized in two rows along the rim as a border.Not for her the
stripped and bare simplicity of modern prose ---- that would not be in keeping
with the period --- which might make it difficult for the modern reader not as at
home as she with the older literary style, but it is in harmony with the material. It is
also important to bear in mind that Attia Hosain is actually reproducing, whether
consciously or not, the Persian literary style and mannerisms she has been taught
when young, and reading her prose brings one as close as it is possible, in the
English language, to the Urdu origins and the Persian inspiration. Urdu is a
language that lends itself to the ostentatious and the poetic and so on. It is a
suitable medium through which to describe the Muslim society of Lucknow and
the Persian influence in north India., although married to the local Hindi of the
Hindu population and has modified by a Western education in the English
language.
And the literary and the stylised are balanced by a certain flimsiness and
freshness as well as lightened by flashes of wit and humour. Her greatest

strength lies in her ability to draw a rich, full portrait of her society ignoring none
of its many faults and cruelties, and capable of including not only men and
women of enormous power and privilege but, to an equal extent, the poor who
laboured as their servants. Perhaps the most attractive aspect of her writing is
the tenderness she shows for those who served her family, compassion for a
class not her own.,
She published two books throughout her lifetime that provide a unique insight
into the courtly life of India's Muslim aristocracy, and the divisions and changes
which Partition brought about. Hosain began writing in a period which was mostly
dominated by male writers and is known as one of the earliest female diaspora
writers

from

the

subcontinent.

As

Lakshmi

Holmstroum;lm

[http://www.salidaa.org.uk/salidaa/docrep/docs/about/trustees_and_advisors/DSRender_
html] points out in her essay "Attia Hosain: her life and work", published on the

Indian Review of Books (Vol. 8 and 9, 1991), Hosain at last a decade older than
other South Asian women writers, such as Kamala Markandaya, who also settled
in the UK, and Nayantara Sahgal.
In her 30s, Hosain began writing for newspapers such as The Pioneer and The
Statesman which were together leading English newspapers in Calcutta. She
also affiliated with the Progressive Writers Movement, a group of socialist writers
and artists such as Dr Rashid Jahan, Mehmood Zafar, Ahmad Ali and Mulk Raj
Anand. She heavily influenced by the ethos of the organisation and attended the
first Progressive Writers' Conference. In addition, she has been encouraged by
the writer and political activist, Sarojini Naidu, to report the All-Indian Women's
Conference in Calcutta in 1933. During this period she also began publishing a

few of her short stories in various publications.

In 1947, during the Partition of India and Pakistan, Attia Hosain moved with her
husband and two children to England, where she began to write professionally
and became actively involved in broadcast journalism. She worked for the BBC
Eastern Service in 1949 and presented a variety of shows for the regional
services in Pakistan in Urdu, the Indian service in Hindi and the English regional
service which broadcast to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She presented and
participated in popular shows such as "Brains Trust", "Radio Roundabout" for
women and children, a series called "Asian Club" and also read for numerous
plays. Her radio shows dealt with various topics such as literature, health, arts
and culture and history, and include: "A Dialogue with Loneliness" (1962),
"Pakistanis in Britain - life in Britain" (1961), "Women in the World Today" (1960),
"English Writing - Caesar & Cleopatra (1959) and the "London Calling Asia". She
continued to work for the BBC until the early '70s.
In the 1950s and '60s Hosain published two books. Phoenix Fled, a collection of
short stories, published by Chatto and Windus in 1953. Her stories draw from
her own knowledge of the social structure she grew up in and walk around with
great insight themes such as poverty, power, exploitation, pride, socialism,
westernisation and tradition. As Anita Desai states in the introduction of Virago's
1998 edition of Phoenix Fled, "Her greatest strength lies in her ability to draw a
rich, full portrait of her society - ignoring none of its many faults and cruelties and
capable of including not only men and women of immense power and privilege
but, to an equal extent, the poor who laboured as their servants". A meeting with
Hosain by Uma parameswaran

Attia Hosains only novel, Sunlight on a Broken Column, first published in 1961,
presents these themes within the framework of a family living in old Lucknow, a
city appreciated by the nawabs and has renowned by the poets of its halcyon
days, now long past. Faced by a daunting list of characters that prefaces it, and
an even more baffling one of the various forms of address used in speech,
readers may doubt their ability to master the details of such a world, certainly not
todays. One has to remember that in India the nuclear family is considered
unnatural and frekish, the joint family the only proper one for man, woman and
child. Also that Attia Hosain has attempted not merely a portrait of a character or
a family but of the feudal society as it existed then, ruled by traditional concepts,
sometimes under pressure to break or to change them and so presenting us with
many aspects of this particular kaleidoscope.
To know what feudalism meant, one has to read Sunlight on a Broken Column or
Phoenix Fled and learn how it is made how the land has belonged to the
wealthy taluqdars, how the peasants worked upon it, that exacted from them
and that has, in return, done to or for them. How women has lived in a isolated
part of the house, jealously confined by their menfolk, and what powers are
theirs, or not. How deference has always to be shown to the ancestors, to the
aristocracy, to the priests, who could choose either to exploit or harass their
dependents or, if they has any nobility of spirit, protect and take care of them.
How the one unforgiveable sin is to rock this chain of command, its stability.
How no one could hurt somebody's feelings religion or the family or society by
against it and only those who has lived according to its rules could

survive.

Indian Society
Social and Cultural conditions of Muslims
Muslim society
The objective is to look at the position of woman in the Indian socio-cultural
context and to assess the status of Muslim middle-class woman in comparison
with womans status in the various cultures of India over a period of about a
century from 1850 to the 1950s.
Islam being based on the Quran and the hadith (sayings of prophet Muhammad),
these together provide the basic source of evidence for any view ascribed to
Islam. The Quran provides clear authentication that woman is completely
associated with man in the sight of God in terms of her rights and responsibilities.
It does not censure woman for Adams first sin. It says that both are jointly
responsible for their disobedience to God, unlike the Christian concept which
makes woman responsible for the original sin.
In every field of womans activity it takes into account the physiological and
psychological difference that is associated with the natural female propensity. It
emphasizes kind and just treatment of the female child and ordains upon the
Muslims to impart equal cadre for boys and girls. Amongst the sayings of Prophet
Muhammad in this regard is the one that says:
Whosoever has a daughter, and he does not bury her alive, does not insult her and does not favour his

sons over her, God will reward him paradise.

The Quran says that the objective of marriage, besides perpetuating the human
race is emotional well-being and harmony. Its foundation is mutual love and
affection.. Islamic law doesnt drive woman to marry anyone without her
approval. Moreover all the provisions to save from harm her rights at the time of
marriage, it is precisely decreed that woman has the full right to mahr, a marriage
gift, which would be payable to her by her husband according to the nuptial
convention. The concept of mahr in Islam is not an actual or symbolic price for
woman as is generally deemed; rather, it is an obligation on the husband to pay it
to the wife as a gift, symbolizing love and attachment
Marriage in Islam is a divine forfeit. Wife and Husband have equal rights and
claims over each other, except for one responsibility that of leadership. At the
same time a general rule in all social activities to bestow the responsibility of
leadership to one among many, Islam too bestows this responsibility of
leadership upon man in view of his larger field of activity. This leadership in
maintainence and protection of the family and its affairs refers to that natural
difference between the sexes which entitles the fairer sex for protection. It
suggested no supremacy or advantage before the law. Mans role of leadership
in next of kin to his family does not mean the husbands dictatorship over his
wife. Above and beyond, her basic rights as wife, the right which is emphasized
in the Quran and Hadith is the right to kind and generous treatment,. The prophet
of God is reported to have said:
The most perfect believers are the best in conduct, and the best of you are those who are best to their
wives.

As the womans right to make a decision about her marriage is recognized, so

also her right to seek an end for an unproductive marriage is considered. To

make sure and ensure the stability of the family from the evils of prompt decision
under emotional nervous tension certain steps and waiting periods are to be
observed by couples looking for separation. Like man, woman can also look for
divorce. When separation is sought by a woman it is called Qula; when it is
sought by a man it is termed talaq.
Islam contemplates the uppermost position of woman as mother and
recommends good treatment of mothers in the strongest terms. A famous saying
of the prophet is:
Paradise is at the feet of mothers.
In addition, Islam has bestowed a right on woman of which she has always
been deprived both before and after Islam even as late as this century i.e.,
the right to independent ownership. Islamic law fully acknowledges a womans
right to her money, estate or other movable and immovable property. This right
undergoes no change whether she is married or single. It is nowhere suggests in
the law that a woman is secondary because she is a female.
To look upon womans right to seek employment, it should be affirmed that
Islam regards her role in society as mother and wife as the most esteemed and
essential one. It does not back up the appointing of maids or baby-sitters to take
the mothers place as the educator of the child. However there is no decree in
Islam which interdict woman from seeking employment on every occasion there
is a obligation for it especially in positions which fit her and in which her
atonement is well thought-out necessary by the society.
Islam has given woman a place in community where she can exercise her ability,

her talents and her tactfulness without having confiscation even a part of her
crucial feminity. She stands bubble-like today with many of the advanced rights
and favorable circumstances at her discretion to procure which, woman in the
west have been waging a long-term great effort against the traditions and the
government, with very little success.
Our interest is to study the position of middle-class Muslim women in India,
hence we venture to see if these women have really been enjoying the human
rights that granted to them by Islam.
Muslims have times gone by of more than 1200 years in India. They dominated
over the subcontinent for nearly 800 years. They have

every opportunity of

imposing the shariah laws upon the community and allowing women to express
joy is their advantage. But these Muslim Kings and emperors are more
concerned to take hold of and take possession of lands and subjugating rulers
and nobles. They show little interest to see what has gone with the common
people except for a few examples of Shariat application, here and there. And
the Muslim women could never enjoy the immense and heterogeneous kinds of
rights due to them.
Parveen Shaukat Ali, a woman historian, assessing the status of woman in the
sub-continent during the Muslim rule and the British raj writes:
The status of women during the Muslim rule over the sub-continent, and later under British rule is based
mostly on customs and environment, produces by the interaction of various cultural and religious groups. It
is not, however, strictly according to religious principles.

Historically India has been very sociable to the numerous groups of immigrants
from different parts of Asia and Europe. Groups of tradesmen, missionaries and
assaulters came to India, settled , imbibed the culture and morality of the soil, left

strong engrave of their own culture and heritage, and turned the Indian social
structure into a colourful essence. The culture of each such groups undergo
enough change over the centuries to become in due course an indispensable
part of the Indian mosaic. All the great religious conviction of the world find place
in this country. These religions enjoy changeable degrees of contact with one
another. Diversification is apparent in beliefs, customs, traditions and in general
mode of day-to-day living. And unity lies in the merge of rites and rituals which is
the result of heavy borrowings from one way of life into another. This has given
reality to a common cultural environment captioned India.
The objective of this study is an examination of the changed status of the Muslim
middle class Indian woman throughout the Muslim rule to the British raj, it is
predestined to view their status as it has been during the Muslim period i.e.,
when Muslim rulers administration and Muslim conquered.
The place and position has allowed to woman in the Islamic Shariah has already
been revealed. Now it should be found out if Indian Muslim women have really
been enjoying their rights and if so, to what extent? According to the study done
by Parveen Shaoukat Ali(1960) the Muslim woman did not take pleasure in the
rights that has sanctioned by the religion. Cross-cultural trends has so
enormously affected the Muslim society that the customs of other civilizations are
fully imbibed by it. The Muslim rulers are so lacking in integrity and sincerity that
they took hardly any pains to enforce the shariah law on their laypeople. On the
contrary they have allowed themselves to be so carried away by what other
cultures did that they begin to consider their women as mere bits and pieces of
male desire. The Indian viewpoint is so thoroughly wrapped up that it comes to

be accredited in day-to-day life that a woman should be made to stay all the time
at home with piles of domestic labour and responsibilities so that her perverted
thoughts and emotions (the idea being that she is evil incarnate, a symbol of eve
the temptress) never raise their heads. The middle class Muslim men, most of
them being illiterate and therefore, ignorant of the Quranic injunctions , comes to
believe that woman is much inferior to man more impure than him, and that
woman should never be trusted in regard to her emotions and her moral
conduct.
It has been a common practice with the non-muslims in those days to desert a
woman who did not bring forth an issue for her husband; another woman is
married by the husband. It has also been common for a widow to shave her head
bald and hide her outer shell from the public. They disallowed a widow from
attending cheerful gatherings and religious functions as her presence considered
menacing.Good clothes and ornaments are denied . It is common practice to
think about unlucky even to look at so she has to hide herself, look ugly and
subject herself to a whole lot of ignominies. It has also been common for a
widow not to give your blessing to look at or touch any bride for fear of casting
her evil fate onto the new bride. A widow has been forbidden from partaking of
the marriage rituals in which the community women took part.
It is not possible to appraise the extent of education among women in the early
Indian Muslim communities.. Hardly any facts or figures are available. However it
is an established fact that girls are forbidden, any acquisition of knowledge along
with boys, Among non-Muslims too holy teaching is not allowed to them because
they are not clear enough to hard-hitting the holy books. Though the Muslim

community could not depart from its women from reading the Quran, only formal
initial knowledge of it is open to them. A large number of women are illiterate,
though has been trained in the course of oral and non-formal instructions to learn
the Arabic text of the Quran and the daily prayers. Then they are initiated into the
domestic chores. Only the girls of the upper classes and the nobility has right of
entry to formal training in reading and writing and the finer arts of poetry,
calligraphy, alchemy and embroidery etc. But the girls of ordinary households
grew up to be submissive non-entities without any access to training and
education. Such a downright dispossession from any mental training has spoilt
their inner potentialities. In the long run it get established in mens minds that
women are backward and inferior and has no intelligence at all.
Though Muslims has permit their girls to read the Quran and the hadith, they too
begin to consider the girls secondary to the boys, and, therefore, has renounced
from giving them any training in reading and writing. All that they taught is a little
of Persian and arithmatic, so that they could keep domiciliary account of laundry
and grocery. The reasoning behind this is that if the girls learnt to read and write
well, they would plead with to maintain clandestine correspondence with boyfriends. Hence it is deemed in the fitness of things to keep them away from
education as though from a forbidden tree.
From this account we learn that during these times womenhood has esteem only
in the womans role in the carry-over and preservation of the species. They
thought it is necessary for the woman to submit everything her rights and
constitutional rights, her honour and self-esteem, and her entire being to the
family without in the family way even a soft word in return. The uneducated

middle-class Muslims, having lost sight of the Quranic concept of womanhood,

consumed all sorts of misleading beliefs. The birth of a female child in the house
brought frowns to their brows. They would hide their faces as though from shame
and ignominy, when they learnt of the birth of a female.They would often make
threats to their wives with talaq (separation) if they constantly brought forth
female children without any male issue. This clearly meant that a womans
personal worth has no congenital value. And it is these difficult to deal with
pressures of the social set-up which give a despotic shape even to the
institutions of marriage and motherhood. The son comes to be thought of as an
living form of heavenly light, and the daughter of misery and darkness. The
saying of the prophet Muhammad that a girl and a boy are equal in the sight of
Allah except on grounds of piousness and righteousness, is cleaned aside for all
practical purposes.
Most of the Indian women living in an orthodox and old-fashioned family feel self-conscious
to raise their voice against aggressive dominance of the male persons of the society overdue
to their inferiority complex and rigid code of conduct has imposed on them. Their ambitions,
desires, sense and sensibility are faithfully expressed in the novels of the women novelists
of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Literature:
Literature of the period can never break away from being tinged with the widespread
sentiments. The novels laid in the 1930s and 1940s invariably touch upon the national
theme. Literature of a period is part of the historical , socio-cultural, economic and political
mileu in which it takes its origin. A novel being the one bright book of life. Its theme, point
of view and setting are all strong-minded and given direction by the socio-cultural forces

that shape the environment in which the artist lives and to which he/she responds. It would
be a hasy conclusion to argue that art is merely a reflection of the social course of action
and a work of art an expression of the writers class position.Susie Tharu rightly argues that
the relation between the creative effort and the historical situation from which it arises is
definitely more complex and nevertheless an important part of any serious study of
literature.

Postcolonial studies aimed at first at shedding light on emerging noncanonical literature, the
temptation to use it as an alternative to critique the traditional classics was irresistible; and
much of the writing in the field centers on the same old familiar Anglo-American canon. The
rise of terminology like center/periphery and hybridity continuously reinforce Eurocentrism
even while purporting to challenge it, for such terms depend upon the concept of a European
self as a starting point. In addition, while supposedly multiplying perspectives, scholars have
frequently given in to the temptation to fall back into such absurdly simplistic essentializing
terms as the postcolonial condition.
South Asian Anglophone fiction is stimulated by the awe-inspiring success of writers like
Rushdie,Roy, Mistry, and Lahiri. Brilliant new books carried on to appear by writers with
South Asian roots, making the current period the Age of South Asia in fiction, in the way that
the sixties and seventies were the heroic age of modern Latin American fiction. Whereas the
traditional Anglo-American writers dissected by cultural studies critics belong to an old canon
of whose very way of life the vast majority of modern American college students is happily illbred; these new writers have an enthusiastic following in book groups, and among legions of
individual readers who read them with the sole purpose for pleasure.

The problem facing postcolonial critics is that the authors at hand hardly ever seem
to divide up their world-view. Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan novelists, like
other novelists, tend to create works that are ambiguous rather than polemical,individualistic
rather than social, exceptional rather than typical, anddare we say it?entertaining rather
than instructive.Such a complaint may give the impression nave: isnt the very purpose of
scholarly criticism to reveal the patterns obscured by the fictional surface? But all too often
this amounts to little more than ticking off the political inadequacies of the author, reminding
me of a stereotypical Victorian book reviewer sniffing at each new novel appearing in the
market and labeling it unedifying. The scholar winds up committing the classic sin of poor
book reviewing: discussing the book the author should have written rather than the
actual text at hand. Since the political ideas involved in most postcolonial criticism are few
and thrice-familiar, the likelihood of useful and surprising insights is small.
But there are exceptions: South Asian writers who would look like to cry out for postcolonial
exegesis: Salman Rushdie being the most obvious. And indeed Jaina C. Sanga in her book
Salman Rushdies Postcolonial Metaphors: Migration, Translation,Hybridity, Blasphemy,
and Globalization, does an admirable job of arraying and discussing the themes announced
in her subtitle; yet the book is largely uncalled-for, for Rushdie famously explicates his own
themes and ideas, both within his fiction and in essays like those collected in Imaginary
Homelands, from which Jaina quotes profusely. Most of the ideas associated with the
opaque formulations of Homi Bhabha are much more lucidlyand amusinglyset forth by
Rushdie in his own essays. Scholars wanting to elucidate Rushdies political ideas are faced
with the fact that by and large he has already done their job for them.

With a few exceptions like Zolas Germinal, novels have not proved efficient
vehicles for radical political thought. A notorious case is Untouchable by Indias most famous
Marxist novelist, Mulk Raj Anand. In the end, his portrait of the sufferings of an oppressed
latrine cleaner provides little impulsion for a world-shattering movement, but instead reflects
traditional liberal abhorrence of discrimination based on caste. His solution for the problem of
human waste management is to reject the Gandhian ideal of every individual his own
sweeper in favor of the proliferation of modern flush toilets in the subcontinent.
Postcolonial analyses can and have been done of The God of Small Things, but
most readers cannot help noticing that the central and most powerful themes of the
book deal not with the left-over influences of the British or even with the incursions of
American popular culture, but with the injustices perpetrated by traditional upper-caste
Indians in rural Kerala in the name of purity and with the failures of the Communist Party
there. Indeed, many early leftist readers assumed Roy was a conservative until she revealed
her true sympathies by abandoning fiction and turning to overt political protest writing (The
Cost of Living and War Talk, and other essays that continue to appear in prominent venues).
In this move to the true-life sphere she resembles Spivak.
As for the many fictions of intergenerational conflict among South Asian
immigrants to Western nations like Jhumpa Lahiris recent novel The Namesake, they have
less resemblance with anything properly called postcolonial than with other immigrantgroup traditions such as those of Eastern European Jews or Italians, as was suggested
recently when more than one critic punningly referred to Bend It Like Beckham as My Big
Fat Sikh Wedding.
Let us suppose for a moment that the proper subject of postcolonialism ought to

be that to which the word itself literally alludes: life in the emerging nation states of South
Asians in the wake of British imperialism with an emphasis on the damage wreaked by the
colonial power and its lingering influences. It is striking ,how little interest modern writers have
in this subject. R. K. Narayan, for instance, often excoriated for the general absence of the
British and of the Independence move violently in his works. Paul brians argue in his new
book, Modern South Asian Literature in English, that in a sense by ignoring the British he
said to them: this isnt about you. In a 1984 New York Times article he articulated this
position clearly, criticizing the view that India is interesting only in relation to the Anglo part
of it, although that relevance lasted less than 200 years in the timeless history of India
(Narayan 222). Narayan deliberately snubs the British, and the nourishment to be derived
from complaining about that fact is very thin gruel in comparison to the rich feast provided by
the Malgudi Narayan actually created for us.
Rushdie, more famously than Narayan, also famously complained about the
1980s tide of Raj fiction and film which he viewed as glamorizing the colonial period (Outside
the Whale). A generation of younger novelists has taken up the challenge implied in his
criticism by writing anti-Raj novels, going back to explore the British period from various
Indian perspectives, like David Davidars The House of Blue mangoes and Amitav Ghoshs
The Glass Palace. One would think such novels would attract intense interest from
postcolonial critics, but in fact they have been largely without being seen. They are too
nuanced, too ambivalent, to be celebrated as polemics, and too clear to need much
exegesis.
Sometimes, as mentioned above, postcolonial critics take to task authors for failing
to have a good time the great effort for independence in South Asia sufficiently. In the Indian

context there is a huge problem in the way of such a project: the dismal specter of the
massacres carried out in the wake of Partition. Almost every notable novel set during the
period, like Khushwant Singhs Train to Pakistan, Attia Hosains Sunlight on a
BrokenColumn, and Bapsi Sidhwas Cracking India, winds up dealing less with the
indisputable crimes of the British than with the inhumanity of Indians to each other.
Complaints that are lodged against the British about Partition include their unprincipled
fostering of preexisting sectarian divisions (especially their use of Sikhs and Muslims against
Hindus); and the abruptness of their going away which left the newly established states
poorly equipped to deal with the ensuing chaos. But neither of these criticismswhile fully
justifiedlends itself to particularly radical analysis, and the topic is not popular among
postcolonial critics. Raja Raos Kanthapura is the great exception among novels about the
Independence movement, having had the good fortune to have been written before Partition.
Modern political South Asian fiction is far more likely to deal with the period of
the Emergency than with Independence, and scant blame is assessed to the British for that
catastrophe in novels such as Midnights Children and A Fine Balance. Following the pattern
established by Nigerian writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, modern Indian writers,
while not for a minute doubting the criminality and inhumanity of aspects of the colonial era,
focus instead on internal causes for national chaosa focus that does not particularly lend
itself to being described from a postcolonial point of view.
Novelists like Mistry who give a picture of negatively the trade restrictions imposed by Indias
formerly left-leaning government are off an an entirely different tangent than the
antiglobilization sentiments which inform most postocolonial criticism, though one would think
it might be useful to make a close examination of what national economic controls inspired by

socialist philosophy did to India during the heyday of the Congress Party. Unsympathetic but
undeniably realistic fictional portraits of this period are an embarrassment to the
antiglobalization cause, and are rarely discussed.
In the literary partition, of those writing in the former colonial language of English,
Nehruvian India got Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and RK Narayan, while Jinnahs
Pakistan got the now little-known Ahmed Ali, whose great book of Muslim melancholy,
Twilight in Delhi, is an unmatched portrait of the life of the mixed Hindu-Muslim culture
of pre-Partition Delhi: the pigeon flyers and the poets, the alchemists and the Sufis, the
beggars and the tradesmen. Published just before the war, the book electrified the
Bloomsbury set, and at the insistence of E. M Forster and Virginia Woolf had been
published by the Hogarth Press. When the book came out, Maurice Collis wrote in
Time and Tide: "It may well be that we will not understand India until it is explained to
us by Indian novelists of the first ability, as it was that we understood nothing of Russia
before we read Tolstoy, Turgenev and the others. Ahmed Ali may well be the vanguard
of such a literary movement." Alis pre-war fame was however somewhat eclipsed by
the bombing of the Hogarth warehouse during the blitz, and Alis subsequent
disappearance from the literary scene.

Alis lot has at least happier than that of Pakistans pre-eminent Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed
Faiz, who spent most of the end of his life in Pakistani prisons, and whose two most
remarkable works, Dast-e-Saba and the Zindan-Nama were products of his period of
imprisonment and focus on his life behind bars. He died in Lahore in 1984, shortly after
receiving a nomination for the Nobel Prize.

This suspicion of writers on the part of Pakistans establishment, the pervasive

atmosphere of military censorship, and the lack of support and encouragement for the
arts had a numbing and stultifying effect on Pakistani writing. By the early 1980s India
clearly had a far more effervescent literary scene, both in different south Asian
languages-- especially Bengali, Hindi and Malayalamas well as in English. The
success of Salman Rushdies Midnights Children and its Pakistan-set successor,
Shame, highlighted the disparity: here is an Indian Muslim, some of whose family had
migrated to Pakistan, writing loving celebrations of Indias lively diversity, while satirising
Pakistan as a culturally-challenged land of mad generals and venal politicians.
The success of Midnights Children did more than liberate Indian writing in English
from its colonial straightjacket. It also gave birth to a new voice, one that was
exuberantly magical, cosmopolitan and multicultural, full of unexpected cadences, as
well as forms that were new to the English novel but which were deeply rooted in Indian
traditions of storytelling. Vikram Seths A Suitable Boy, followed four years later by
Arundhati Roys God of Small Things only added to this impression of extreme literary
inequality between the two divided countries: an artistically barren Pakistan contrasting
with Indias infinite literary fecundity. Rushdies prediction that Indians were in a
position to conquer English literature seemed about to be vindicated

Ahmed Alis Twilight in Delhi

The very title suggests cynicism and gloominess. It is the twilight in Delhi that
the author has tried to seize a time which has no allusion of freshness and life
but rather only of decline and death. This shows what the novel is going to deal
with i.e., the twilight of cultural exhaustion, the twilight of social preferentialism
and the twilight of economic backwardness. The city which has for so long
enjoyed the dawn the embellished position of prosperity cultural richness,
economic strength, religious freedom, and above all political supremacy has now
been expropriated with all its possessions. And the writer as though is going
to moan over the twilight that has descended it. The city of Delhi is personified
as a human being and the entire novel is a homage to its occupants and an
elegy as though , to sigh the loss of the citys past glory.
The title is followed by an epigraph, a verse from Bahadur Shahs poetry written
in exile:
Delhi was once a Paradise
And great were the joys that used to be here,
But they have ravished this bride of peace,
And now remain only ruins and care.

The above verse highlights the disaster that has caused by the British to the
Indian land. There is extreme piteousness and sadness in the lines. And it is these
lines which set the tone of

Ahmed Alis novel. This tone is maintained

throughout. There are ample quotations from the Urdu and Persian verses of
Khwaja Mir Dard, Mir Taqi Mir and Daagh Dehelvi which improve the pitifulness as
they give emotional expression to the grief of the situation.
Apart from being a forerunner in an emerging (now established) literary
tradition of Muslim fiction in English, the novel handles its specific historical
material on two levels. First, it depicts the life of a middle-class Muslim family in Delhi
during the first two decades of the twentieth century.Through this family, Ali projects the
political ethos of Indian Muslims in periods when Britain was still firmly clutching its crown
jewel. In his introduction to the novels second edition,Ali, who is a Muslim fourth to the
Indian big three of the 1930sRao, Narayan and Anand (King 244), articulates his
authorial intention:
My purpose was to depict a phase of our national life and the decay of a whole
culture, a particular mode of thought and living, now dead and gone already
right before our eyes. Seldom is one allowed to see a pageant of History whirl
past and partake in it too. (Twilight vii)

Toward such an end, Alis complex strategy led him to juxtapose and correlate a detailed and variegated external reality with the passionate dreams and
delusions experienced by his characters . . . [and] to overarch both fragmentary worlds,
external and internal, with the authors unifying voice of symbolic insight (Stilz 380).
Second, while blending the private with the public, the familial with the communal, the
novel interlinks the present with the past. More specifically, the reader senses the
deliberateness of these historical flashbacks when the familys wedding ceremony
coincides with the Rajs Durbar, celebrating the 1911 coronation of George V, which in
turn evokes in the mind of the protagonist, Mir Nihal, graphic memories of the British
ruthlessly quelling the 1857 revolt. From Mir Nihals perspectivebeing as it is the novels

privileged
voice, the gaudy celebration of a British monarch in Delhi has turned the city
which was once the greatest in Hindustan [the Urdu name for India] into anexhibition
ground (138):
Here in this very Delhi, Mir Nihal thought, that kings once rode
past, Indian kings, his kings, kings who have left a great and glorious name behind. But
the Farangis came from across the seven seas, and gradually established their rule. By
egging on Indian chiefs to fight each other and by giving them secret and open aid they
won concessions for themselves; and established their empire. . . .
The procession passed, one long unending line of generals and governors,
the Tommies and the native chiefs with their retinues and soldiery, like a slow
unending line of ants. In the background were the guns booming, threatening
the subdued people of Hindustan. Right on the road, lining it on either side,
and in the procession were English soldiers, to show, as it seemed to Mir Nihal,
that Delhi has been conquered with the force of arms, and at the point of guns
will she be retained. (149)

Interlocking the political with the religious, the narrative details the celebration of the
British and their lackeys as they pass by the main mosque, Jama Masjid, center and
symbol of the anti-colonialist resistance:
The procession passed by the Jama Masjid whose facade had been vulgarly decorated with a garland of golden writing containing slavish greetings from the
Indian Mussalmans to the English King, displaying the treachery of the priestly
class to their people and Islam. (150)
Interestingly, the idiosyncratic narrator of Ahmed Alis third novel, Of Rats
and Diplomats (1985), refers to the same historical incident by stating satirically that the
British [were] celebrating the death of an Edwardian king by holding a grand Durbar on

the ashes of Mughal pride in ravished Delhi (5).The historiographical rendition of

selective events recuperated from collective memory injects the narrative in Twilight in
Delhi with an emotionally charged rhetoric. The specificity of the locale, the Jama Masjid,
provides an emblematic focus that integrates nationalism with religion, anti-British
sentiments with Islam:
It was this very mosque, Mir Nihal remembered with blood in his eyes, which
the English had insisted on demolishing or turning into a church during
1857. . . . Sir Thomas Metcalf with his army had taken his stand by the Esplanade Road, and was contemplating the destruction of Jama Masjid.The Mussalmans came to know of this fact, and they talked of making an attack on
Metcalf; but they had no guns with them, only swords. One man got up and
standing on the pulpit shamed the people, saying that they would all die one day,
but it was better to die like men, fighting for their country and Islam. (15051)

This religious, anticolonialist fervor continues to the early days of the independence drive
when Gandhis non-cooperation movement evolves. On hearing about the death of a
Muslim youth who had been killed while attending the movements meeting,
Habibuddin, Mir Nihals perceptive and favorite son, declares,The English frankly say
that they fear no one but Muslims in India and that if they crush the Mussalmans they
shall rule with a care-free heart (262).
This statement is validated by numerous letters and documents published by
British officials in India. For instance, William Howard Russell wrote in the
Times in early 1858 that
the Mahomedan [sic] element in India is that which causes us most trouble and
provokes the largest share of our hostility. . . . Our antagonism to the followers
of Mahomed is far stronger than that we bear to the worshippers of Shiva and
Vishnu.They are unquestionably more dangerous to our rule. . . . If we could
eradicate the traditions and destroy the temples of Mahomad [sic] by one vig-

orous effort, it would indeed be well for the Christian faith and for the British
rule. (qtd. in Khairi 2829)

It is midnight when the novel opens. At the very outset the city is shown to be
engulfed in darkness under the spell of a restless slumber in a hot summer night.
The inhabitants of the city are not enjoying their sleep after the days hard
toil.They are only going through the torment of a sleepless night, tossing and
turning as the heat becomes more oppressive. It is not very late in the night. A
few men are still seen walking on the roads. Domestic animals can also be seen
strolling and sniffing at the gutter in search of all. Cats and dogs are seen
quarrelling over more than enough to refuse which is spread along the alleys and
by-lanes. It is a very hot night, the heat is emanating from the earth and the walls.
The gutters give out a amp stink. And men are asleep with their cots in excess of
the gutters half-naked, tired and worn-out after the sore days labour. A few
men can be seen loitering in the lanes. Some of them have jasmine garlands in
their hands probably to present to the women they are going to visit late in the
night.
It is a plain-looking middle-class locality. Mosques can be seen standing, with
their minarets pointing towards the sky as though according to the author
they are quietly alluding to the greatness and oneness of God.
Amidst all the quiet happenings of the night the city of Delhi lies in the arms of
sleep indifferent and unmindful quietly holding on to life with a tenacity and
toughness of purpose which is beyond human comprehension like an unbroke
symbol of proud histories Or an unageing priestess before whose
countenance even the hands of death get chill.
The city of Delhi once the stronghold of art, cullture, architecture and learning. Its

throne once adorned by the kings and monarchs who has been patronized
learning and encouraged fine arts. Many triumphant wars are fought on its
battlefields,.It has witnessed the rise and fall of many a great empire. It has seen
their glory as well as their adversity. There are those who beautified the city by
erecting great monuments and creating magnificent buildings. And there are
those whose only work is to invade the city, raid its fortresses, destroy the
monuments and loot the wealth. And the city of Delhi stands a witness to all
these happenings like a mute spectator. It has no reaction to show against the
damage done to its culture and civilization.The Delhi built after the renowned
battle of Mahabharata by Raja Yudhistira in the fifteenth century B.C. has
witnessed great destruction and warfare as well as high glory and splendour. So
the writer says that Delhi is the symbol of both life and death. It has seen how
glory descended upon it with the rise to power of the Guptas, the Mauryas, the
Kushanas, the Pandavvas, the Khiljis, the Sayyids and the Lodhis, and the great
Moghals. And it has also to see the dethroning of the poet-king Bahadur shah
the last of that great line of rulers, at the hands of the foreigners who come into
the country as mere traders but gradually dug their feet deep into the soil of
statecraft. With their coming a kind of silence and apathy, as of death, has
descended upon the city. Its blossoming gory begin to wither away. Ruin and
disaster becomes its fortune. However much beautifully the bards and poets of
the city might sing of the past glory and lament over its disaster, the strong
foreign yoke that has clung fast to it is never going to retire from it unless all the
chastity of its culture and language has been fully adulterated. The novelist
speaks pessimistically: gone are the poets now and gone is its culture.Only the

coils of the rope, when the rope itself has been burnt, remain to remind us of the
past splendour. The ruin that has descended is so deadly that the entire city
looks pale with grief. Very pathetically Ahmed Ali says that nothing would now be
able to restore: the light which floated on the Jamuna waters or dwelt in the
heart of the city. The city is now like a beaten dog with its tail curled between its
legs as an acknowledgement of defeat and surrender.
After such a figurative and touching reflection on the plight of the city of Delhi the
author twirl to the discussion of the real time and setting of the novel.
Along with the meticulous details of the plot and the characters, the authors own
comments and criticism also follow periodically. But the tone of the novel is not
marred by the intruding third-person narrative technique.
Ahmed Alis protagonist the sixty year old, sturdily-built, typically feudal,
manager of a shop of the lace-dealers Mir Nihal, and his household personify
the disintegrate feudal society that the novel uncovers. Mir Nihal is the head of his
middle-class Muslim household living in the area near Lal Kuan. His is a fairly
large family with two daughters four sons and a orthodox middle-class Muslim
wife in her fifties called Begum Nihal. Mir Nihal is a cringing head of the family. He
owns some property also, which keeps the household running quite soundly. And
the other monthly income which Mir Nihal makes from his services as a manger
of the lace-dealers shop, he spends on his hobbies. He is a free-lancing old man
spending much of time and income in kite and pigeon-flying and visiting the
kothas of women at night. A sexual debauch, he has a son by his maid-servant
Dilchain. He has hardly any say in the family matters and household activities are
presided by his Begum alone. But she does take his assent, though nominally, in

deciding important affairs like the alliance of her children, or the sale of property
etc.
Mir Nihal is an aristocrat in his habits an orthodox feudal gentleman. Besides
pigeon-flying he is very fond of collecting old China-ware and has also devoted
some of his time to alchemy and medicine. Every morning and evening he would
be seen flying pigeons-feeding them, or beating the roof with his shoes to drive
the pigeons away from home. At night, after dinner he usually goes out. He tells
at home that he is going to see his friend Nawab Pattan but in truth he goes to
his mistress Babban Jaan,a young and cultured dancing woman. Mir Nihal had
rented a house for her in Dareeba. She lived there and offered constant sensual
entertainment to him. She is in his employment for nearly five years till her death
which has modified Mir Nihals life and career altogether.
Once, when Mir Nihal is busy at the pigeons loft, giving water to and tying
feathers of the newly bought pigeons, Gafoor, his servant comes running to
inform that Babban Jan is critically ill. Mir Nihal immediately leaves for Babban
Jan, forgetting altogether even to close the loft door.
With the illness and following demise of Babban Jan, begins a very different
phase in the life of Mir Nihal. The death of this mistress being a gloomy occasion
many unfortunate incidents occur as a result of the unqualified disillusionment
and melancholy that has descended upon Mir Nihal following the tragedy. He
forgot to close the door of the loft and is almost mad to find that the wild cats
has a nice feast there almost to the extent of society. As it is impossible to
overcome this second shock also, he has decided in anger to do away with the
hobby itself. The remaining pigeons are sent to be sold the same day.

He finds himself weak and broken. The piling up of grief made him pessimistic.
He then decides to give up his job itself - for where is the income to be spent
now, as it is his sons are asking him not to do the job and what is there now
to protect his demeanour or position he could as well lead a life of dependence
on his children. Remarks the novelist: Now she was dead, and he did not care
what mattered if he was dependent on his sons or anybody else he decided to
give up his work, thought the man who suddenly began to feel old age
descending upon him! These incidents evoke in him a consciousness of his own
impending end. He begins to think about Death!
It is after these incidents that Mir Nihal decides to give his consent for the son
Asghars alliance with Mirza Shahbaz Baigs daughter. What if Asghar has gone
and married without his will? Why bear another burden of humiliation at this stage
of life? He thought. And he said to himself: why withhold consent? It has
mattered little whether Asghar married a low-born or a girl with blue blood in her
veins. He would not be in it anyway If Asghar has refused to see his point of
view he could go his own way and ruin himself. He did not care. Life has not
treated him well; and if a son is also lost it must be borne.
Then in idleness his old hobbies of medicine and alchemy revived. He took out
his notes and began to study about herbs and plants. A new circle of friends
begins to form. Hakims and Fakirs come to him to sit for hours comparing notes
and relating anecdotes. Moreover, he thought, the atmosphere of alchemy and
medicine is a world which was still his own where no one could disturb him or
order him about. Such is the old mans hatred for being ordered about and
being imposed upon.

Begum Nihal, a woman in her early fifties, was a dutiful wife of the easygoing
husband. She has reproached him for his careless ways. She often has to
remember him that their children Mehro and Asghar are coming of age and that
he should look for a proper affiliation for them. Begum Nihal is the only person in
the entire household who execute the religious rites with a automated regularity.
The others only did it intermittently. In the morning, after the dawn prayers, she
would sit and recite the holy Quran aloud in a rhythmic tone rhythmically moving
back and forth. She is the symbol of the self-less and calm middle-class Muslim
woman of the early twentieth century
Mir Nihal has kept her unaware of his debauchery. She never knew that he has a
concubine where he has gone to seek recreation. So when he come late in the
night she would serve up dinner to him and ate along with him, occasionally
telling him that he has promised to rejoin timely. All that she know is that her
husband is crazy after the pigeons and is spending all his income looking after
them. But she is aware that Mir Nihal is once a free-lancer in his youth and she
has suffered a heart-attack about fifteen years ago when Dilchain, her servantwoman has given birth to a child. But that is a thing of the past. And she has
come to live with it. She never even recalled it. It is her children, Begum Waheed
and Asghar who recall it later.
Asghar, the youngest of Mir Nihals sons is a tall and good-looking boy of twenty
two. His tastes and interests are of a varied nature. He has performed his
religious rites, goes to the concubine occasionally and always endeavour to
emerge fashionable with his English boots and the Turkish cap. He has a friend
called Bundoo. Bundoos sister Bilqueece is the beloved of his heart.. He used to

spend hours in the night dreaming of Bilqueece, of her voice, her figure and her
appearance.
He imagines Bilqueece appearing from the Milky Way of stars descending
down to hold in the arms of him. Prior to being caught beneath the spell of
Bilqueece, he visits Mushtari Bai, a young and cultured dancing girl. Asghars
friend Bari gives him company in visiting Mushtari Bai. As days passed Asghar
decides that he would marry Bilqueece. Though his parents are against the
alliance saying that Bilqueeces mother is not a respectable woman, Asghar
becomes unyielding about his choice. It becomes a matter of life and death for
him.
Now Asghar is a lover in distress, occasionally giving expression to his passion
through verses from urdu and Persian. He would be all by himself not talking to
anybody nor disclose to anybody because there is nobody to compassionate
with his or to understand his problems. His elder sister Begum Waheed, who
sympathized with him and has advocated his cause is far way in Bhopal. He has
a friend called Bari and once, when he met Bari on his way back from
Bilqueeces house, he tells him his problem. Bari consoles him and encourages
him to pursue the affair. They both go to spend some time at Mushtari Bais. And
when Asghar returns from there he plans the cause of things he would pursue
and feels happy.
Asghar call his sister from Bhopal and made open his heart to her. She promises
him her prop and propounded to speak to their mother. In the beginning Begum
Nihal resist to see eye to eye. But when told that Asghar might commit suicide if
not permitted to marry Bilqueece she hesitantly agrees. Later Mir Nihal also very

reluctantly and unhappily gives his consent. Consequently Asghar gets married to
Bilqueece only to get himself subjected to irrevocable blows of fate. Bilqueece
bears a child. Asghar begins to neglect her. The she dies of consumption. And
Asghar makes worthless endeavour to marry her sister Zohra.
In the background of the vicious battle of the cultures in the novel, i.e., the native
culture grapple for continued existence and the foreign culture struggling for
formation and dominance is the conforming struggle of Mir Nihals family for
survival. As the conflict between the traditional society and the outside forces that
are unapproachable it becomes intense, the problems in Mir Nihals family also
become potent. Begum Jamal angrily leaves her brother-in-laws house for ever
to live with her distant cousin; Bilqueece dies and there is nobody to look after
her child Jehan Ara. Mehro never comes to see her parents. Begum Waheed is
still in Bhopal. Mir Nihal is confined to bed and spends his day trapping the rats.
Begum Nihal is distressed of her eye-sight. Habibuddin dies of tuberculosis. His
family is left uncared for.
All of Mir Nihals children are married and settled. Whether they are happy or not
is not his worry. He himself is on the way to his end. This he has begun to
understand. And he thinks it to be certain. Similarly the beloved of the heart of
the Indians, the city of Delhi, has also got dismembered, giving birth to a New
Delhi. Though the occupants of Delhi has become enlightened the fortune of the
foreign government has begun to contend itself poignantly. In the city of Delhi
many changes are being proposed. The gutters which are deep and
underground from the times of the early Moghals to this day are being dug and
made shallow, and the dirty water has flowed very near the level of the streets

and there is stink all around. The city walls are also going to be demolished. The
residents of Delhi has resented all this physical change for their city- the city of
their dreams. They never want it to change beyond recognition.The most hateful
change for the Delhities is the disfiguring of the Chandni Chowk whose central
footpath has demolished and the peepal trees which has given shelter to the
residents from the scorching rays of the sun, are cut down. This has affected the
people more deeply than anything else. With these changes the place lost its
oriental atmosphere. It did not remain the real Chandni Chowk wit which so many
sweet memories are associated . Outside the city, far beyond the Turkoman Gate
and opposite the Kotla of Feroz Shah, the Old Fort, a new Delhi is going to be
built. Once the new town is ready the old would be abandoned and
acknowledged to fall into ruin. Apart from this, a new Delhi meant new people,
new ways, and a new world altogether. And that is too much for the old residents
of the place. A new people meant new customs and traditions. The old culture
would, therefore be in a danger to eradicate. The language on which Delhi has
once prided itself would become contaminated and impure. This the people of
Delhi were most unwilling to let happen. And here Ahmed Alis hero, Mir Nihals
personification of the society at the moment when the social fabric is being
altered, becomes clearly discernable. A proud and stable civilization is destroyed
by the infringement of an outside culture, just as a happy family is dismembered
by the modernistic trends. The traditional society, hitherto protects by the
common force of social and religious values, breaks and collapses with the arrival
of the whiteman and his ideology. Similarly the erosion of traditional values in the
family o Mir Nihal is seen as a result of the effects of the new civilization. MirNihal

tells Asghar: You are again wearing those dirty English boots; I dont like them.I
will have no aping of the farangis in my house. Throw them way. Later in the
novel when Asghars wife Bilqueece wears English shoes and attends a wedding
at the house of Mir Nihal the women in the zenana comment: She looks like a
good-as-dead farangan. The disgust seems to have passed the limits of
decency. What else could you expect from Mirza Shahbaz Baigs daughter?
They seem to have eaten some Farangis shit..
The thrust of Ahmed Alis thematics in this novel is to suggest passionately,
prophetically, but always lyrically, that Indias Muslims are falling on death-defying
times as they face the British occupation, passing on through the novels title ad
ejected premonition of the subsequent fragmentation of Muslims in the subcontinent.The novel thus functions from first to last nostalgia for the glorious era
of the Mughals and prophecy about the pending collapse of the Muslim power
and glory in India, with the ruins of Delhi becoming symbolic of the ruin of Islam
(King 244). Interestingly, in Anita Desais novel Clear Light of Day, whose title and
setting evoke Alis novel, similar, yet syncretically contexted, sentiments are expressed about Old Delhis decline in postindependence India: Bim, the novels
privileged voice, bemoans the fate of Delhi:
Old Delhi does not change. It only decays. My students tell me it is a great cemetery, every house a tomb.
Nothing but sleeping graves . . . here nothing happens at all.Whatever happened, happened [a] long time
agoin the time of the Tughlaqs, the Khiljis, the Sultanate, the Moghulsthat lot. (5)

The dual agents of nostalgia and prophecy become further pronounced in Alis
second novel, Ocean of Night (1964), where he dramatizes the process of

degener- ation of the Muslim nobility of Lucknow toward its self-inflicted doom.
The amorality and recklessness of Nawab Chhakkan, a descendant of an old
Taluqdar (landowning) family that collaborated with the British during the 1857
uprising to be rewarded with feudal privileges, foreshadows the disintegration of a
com- munity when it loses the sense of its destiny.The Nawabs drunkenness
and de- bauchery cause his ruin, leading to his demise by a murdersuicide.As
one of the novels minor characters, the Marxist Siddiqi, puts it to a friend,We as
a nation are suffering from nostalgia. Go back to the past is your constant cry.
But how can you go back to the past? Which past? I tell you you cant (54).
The argument here is that no nation, community, family, or individual can triumph
over current misery through recalling past glory.As with the doomed fate of Delhi
in Twilight in Delhi, the prophesied decline of Lucknow in Ocean of Night
symbolizes the fragmentation of the Muslim community in India.While Ocean of
Night succeeds in evoking an ambience of decay and decline, it lacks the focus
and lyrical vi- brancy of Twilight in Delhi. Its effectiveness is also tarnished by the
preaching, es- sayistic quality of its narrator. (Indeed, one glimpses such a
tendency in Alis earlier novel too, but it is kept relatively restrained.) Moreover,
the swift, synoptic shifts of discourse and the occasional racy reversals of the
characters mood and actions
mak[e] the narrative disjointed (Raizada 19) and undermine the novels dra- matic
impact. These limitations could prompt one to consider Ocean of Night more of a
phantasy [sic] than a novel (Raizada 22) and to evaluate Ali as a one-novel novelist
(Trivedi 43). However, one could appreciate Alis strategy here as being based on
storytelling techniques derived from the oral Indian/Muslim tradition, whereby an

intrusive, often digressive, teller plays such a dominant role that it licenses him or her to
impede or redirect the narrative flow by recurrently reciting nostalgic poetry, culled from
collective memory, and injecting it (as Ali often does) into the narrative. Being a
powerfully effective mode of emotional and cultural expression, poetry operates as an
apt emblematic commentary on character and action, and because of its anciennet in
Eastern societies, it serves as a literary linkage with a nostalgic past and a repository of
its civilizational glory.
The foreign occupation of India seems to have made some of the citizens
withdraw into a world of their own. Though there are no direct references in
Ahmed Alis novel to the ravages wrought by the rule of the white man;, the novel
deals with it very subtly. Mir Nihal the protagonist adopts a leave-me-alone
attitude. When the Home Rule movement sweeps across India, he is almost
untouched. As the novelist says: His world had fallen,. Let others build their
own. Ahmed Ali betrays a note of nakedness against the ravages of time. The
sweeper woman had left off coming regularly, and when she came she always
avoided sweeping the courtyard under the henna tree..She had also begun to
neglect her master and his house. An open show of negligence from all corners
makes him even more reckless. He too begins to look forward to his end more
eagerly as it were.
Quite in consistent with this the traditional society is weakening; there are
troublemaking forces; the Muslims themselves have so many groupings between
them. Some wish to remain true to the older social values. And others want to
hold close the new culture and tradition. The white Farangis are ruthless and
efficient. They brought new knowledge and new administration to the country.

They are also introducing Christianity. The old civilization, therefore, does not
merely stay behind constant. It collapses from within and is overwhelmed from
without. Before the collapse is complete, we get a glimpse of the old ready to
yield to the new. The description of kites and pigeons flying over Delhi is lyrical.
The pigeons circled over the roof, then, seeing their masters flag pointing
towards the east where Khwaja Ashraf alis flock of rare dappled pigeons was
circling over the roof, they few in a straight line shooting like an arrow. As they
neared the Khwajas flock they took a dip and suddenly rose upwards from
below the other flock, mixed with the pigeons and took a wide detour. They
would have come home, but Mir Nihal put two fingers in his mouth and blew a
loud whistle, and the pigeons flew away in one straight line. In Ahmed Alis novel
the pigeons disappear as the WhiteMans sway gradually takes root in his Delhi,
remarks Anniah Gowda.
Ahmed Ali describes the admired sport of Pigeon flying. And this is contrasted
with the family scenes within the old house. The family tale that reaches its climax
with the marriage of Asghar and Bilqueece is set against the aerial background of
kite flying and pigeon flying. As the flying of pigeons and kites fade into the
background the family becomes the central allegory. Then the novelist subjects
the husband and wife to the inevitable blows of Fate. Aghars happy life is
covered with gloom with the death of his wife. The novelist strikes a fatalistic note
here. Who can meddle in the affairs of God?
Ahmed Ali begins his novel with a description of the night enveloping the city like
a blanket, and ends it by showing Mir Nihal, the head of the family, in a state of
coma when the sun is about to set. The twilight reigns supreme. On the another

level a phase of Indian history comes to an end.

Alis Twilight in Delhi has evolved into both a classic and a legend
(Anderson440), it has achieved such an impressive status deservedly. Indeed, its
significance to the muslim literary tradition in English is as pioneeringly pivotal as
Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart is to African literature in English. H.H.Anniah
gowda argues in a cogent comparative analysis of the two writers that
Both these novelists handle societies whose milieu was fast
Disappearing under the impact of the British rule Twilight in Delhi
And Things Fall Apart derive their strength from the
quality of their authors perception of the social forces
at work in ancient, proud but flexible civilizations and from
their admirable knowledge of human psychology shown
in the development of their central characters.(53)

Like Achebes attachment to the Igbo culture of Nigeria, Alis allegiance to the
Muslim civilization of India is committed but never uncritical. His fiction exposes
the marginalization of women, condemns the offensiveness of manipulative
politicians, and reveals the banality and lethargy of reactionaries who cling to
outmoded values of clan, class, or quasi-caste distinction and fail to respond to
the challenges of change andsocial transformation. Ali does not hesitate to show
the venality of the parasitic priestly class that collaborates with the colonizers
and resists progressive evolution. He thus succeeds in merging the office of
psalmist with the function of national bard, to associate aa religious wisdom with
an historic vision. Proud of his Islamic heritage and affiliation, Ali represents Islam
not as a set of strict theological dogmas but as a dynamic and legitimate source
of his characters spiritual,emotional, and ethnic identityan identity that refuses

and resists the colonial domination of the Farangis over India. In this sense, Alis
twice born fiction, to use Meenakshi Mukherjees term for the dual parentage of
the Indo-Anglian novel, is at once self-representative and self-critical. It also
projects a subversive, revisionary view of history that debunks for the reader in
English the official colonial description of events in the empire.(Ironically, the initial
apprehensionof the British censors concerning the subversiveness of Twilight in
Delhi may thus be justified.)Put in a historical perspective, Ali has broken new
ground by launching an altogether fascinating literary tradition of Muslim writing in
English, thereby giving the erstwhile inaudible, if not also invisible, subjects a
voice to project the other side of the story and to prove that spunky subalterns
can speak for themselves.

Attia Hosains Sunlight on a broken column

Miss Attia hosains novel Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), and her earlier
collection of short stories, Phoenix Fled (1953), gave evidence of a talent for
reminiscence and sensitive observation that doesnt seem to have been
browbeaten since to the full.The title story in the collection starts with the
description of an old woman and suddenly works up to evoke the horror of the
dividing wall when neighbours turned murderers, and villagers who had once
feared the arrival of
When the dread moment was upon
Them naked of soldiers
now dreaded their departure:
their disguising hopes,

They remembered only the urgency of

Their frenzied need to escape. Terror
Silenced the womens wails, tore their
Thoughts from possessions left behind;
It smothered the childrens whimpering
And drove all words from mens tongues
But Hurry,Hurry.

But the old woman refuses to go with the rest, merely telling them. I am old, I am
feeble.I shall slow youre your flight. It is the children you must save. The shocks
to which a bride brought up in a traditional home is exposed when she attends a
drink and dance party is the theme of The First Party, Shy little thing, isnt she,
but charming, they say, meaning thereby that she is something of a savage,
something country-bred and dull. In The street of the Moon, an elderly widower
weds a girl-wife who without delay takes her step-son as her lover; and so starts
the wantonss progress that lands her at last on the streets where one evening
her ex-husband sees her and is shocked back to sanity. In another story, a
soldier returning to his wife after many years, with a fibre suitcase full of presents,
feels nonetheless that she is like a stranger to him and walks out of their
bedroom, leaving her alone to have a cry. And so on, in story after story there is
one moment of poignant truth, and it is this that makes the fiction leap to life. The
surprise that satisfies, the unexpected that rings true! In Gossamer thread the
Simple immture wife -------- decorative enough nd submissive enough! ----acts with more resolution, humanity and courage than the progressive husband
fed on books and theories. The attachment amounting to faith that an unlettered
sweeper boy can develop for a dog is the theme of Ramu, one o f the best in the
collection. Life is placed enough, human beings are prosaic enough, yet now and

then there is a spark, a touch of poetry, a cry of pain, and these are the
inspiration behind Attia Hosains short stories.
The very qualities that gave characteristic to her short stories seem to have stood
in the way of Attia Hossains structuring a full-length novel. Cast in the
autobriographical form, Sunlight on a broken Column is a novel in four parts and
covers a period ofabout twenty years in the life of Laila the narrator-heroine.
When the novel begins she is fifteen; at the beginning of Part-II, she is almost
nineteen, and towards the end of the narrative we find her a mother and a widow,
and the second half of a century was now two years old. An orphan, Laial is
brought up by her rich relatives, and she spends the impressionable years of her
girlhood in Lucknow, keeping terms in the university, making friends, dreaming
dreams Belonging as she does to the politics of the thirities, the nationalists being
ranged against ;the alien bureauracy, and the Muslim Leaguers against the
congress. Even homes are divided, and the acerbity of politics enters the dining
table, and father and son are in opposite camps.
No one seemed to talk any more,
Everyone argued, and not in the
Graceful tradition of our city where
conversation was treated as a fine
art, words were loved as mediums.
Of artistic expressin, and verbal
Battles were enjoyed as much as
Any delicate, scintillating,sparkling
Display of pyrotechnic skill. It was
As if someone had sneaked in live
Ammunition among the fireworks.

Laila herself is more an interested observer than an active participant, and having

in the meantime fallen in love with Ameer, she marries him unmindful of the
familys disapproval of her choice. Ameer joins the Army in 1942, is taken
prisoner , and is killerd when he tries to escape. I lived and moved through an
endless tunnel with no exit; says Laila recalling that grief-stricken time, but she
has her daughter, and so she learns to fight despair and come to terms with life.
After the coming of independence, doubled with partition Laila revisits Ashiana
the home of her childhood and girlhood and finds that things are not what they
were in her time.
There were strangers living in
The rooms once so private and
Guarded,strangers who were
Names in government files balancing
Saleems name against theirs--He labeled evacuee, they
refugees. Their presence here,
and Saleems in their erstwhile
homeland,was pat of a statistical
calculation in the bargaining of
bureaucrats and politicians, in
which millions of uprooted
human beings became justnumerical
figures.The official words describing
them had no meaning in terms
of human heartache.

Of her two cousin brothers, saleem has opted for Pakistan while kamal remains
an Indian citizen. New times bring new fashions, neew fads; European and
American aesthetes and intellectuals and the smart set of Bombay and Delhi
had discovered the art and culture of ancient India simultaneously. It appeared at

times that neo-Indians wore their nationalism like fancy dress.

In the twenty years that witness Laila changing from an orphan girl of fifteen to
the widowed mother of a girl of that age, India too moves from colonialisnm to
Independence; and the old feudal order loses its property; privileges and pose,
and old-world habits and attitudes give place to the exertions and frustrations of
the post-independence era. There is valuable social and political credentials in the
novel, and Attia Hosain writes with a feeling for places, events and words.What
the novel lacks is tightness of texture, a theatrical action and non simply a
sweeping sense of drama, and the impression of inevitability in the interaction
between character and action

Sunlight on a Broken Column is one of the few deeply sensitive novels in IndianEnglish writing of the last generation, a poignant, tragic narrative full of the poetry
of remembrance with an undercurrent of stoic calm says, Mulk Raj Anand in his
introduction to the Arnold-Heinnemann edition of the novel. The novel follows the
first person singular narrative technique and is strictly autobiographical in nature.
It tells the story of prehistoric taluqdar family circle from the intimacy of felt
experience and yet maintains the distance of a retrospective style. The novel
starts with the description of a young womans personal upheaval set against the
larger historical background of the independence movement of India. The novel
often succumbs to the danger of sentimentality inherent in such reminiscent
writing. The impervious love of Laila for a university teacher called Ameer is like a
fine thread in the complex fabric of this ambitious novel. The narrator heroine is a
passive spectator as far as political actions are concerned, but central to the

drama which is enacted against the political background.

Attia Hosain portrays the political, social and cultural conversion in the Indian
Muslim society of the 1930s and 40s. The novelist employs certain charactertypes through whom the forces of change are shown to be at work. The most
prominent of these character-types are: the antagonist old landlord, i.e.,
grandfather Babajan, his ;English educated son Hamid, the obedient yet proud
aunts Abida and Majida, the young enthusiasts Zahid, Asad and Saleem, the
homely and submissive cousin Zahra, the rebellious young rebel Laila, her typical
studious friend Ameer,the passive aunt Saira the dwellers of the servant quartersNandi, Saliman and Ghulam Ali, the English governess Mrs.Martin, the distant
and poor relations, the husbands prefer for the girls all fairly accurate to the
intersection of personal and type behaviour which makes them symbolic.
Laila the narrator-protagonist is fifteen when the novel opens. Having lived a
sheltered life behind the walls of the zenana under an aristocratic family, she
gradually transforms from the lonely perplexed , introspective girl behind the
purdah into a young woman she can think independently and choose boldly.Laila
is a girl who finds herself absolutely out of place in the intellectually stifling
atmosphere of her home. She is a maverick, according to the orthodox norms of
her family. They consider her a rebel and she thinks they are a group of powerloving orthodox people whose approach to life has long been brushed aside by
the times in which they live. She is the daughter of a dead son of Babajan and in
reverence to the wishes of her father she is allowed to go to the Anglo-Indian
schools. It is her education at the hypocricy-free atmosphere of the school and
an enormous revelation to modernist thought (she was exposed to the French,

English and Latin classics from a very tender age) which make over her outlook
ad make her a contest in the midst of the moving stream of distort feudal trends.
The character of Laila does not come up as a clear-cut, straightforward
development, like that of a girl in a conventional Indian family. It is in her passive
negation of things around, that she makes herself prominent. She grows amidst
family boundaries, social constraints and authoritative set-up refusing to submit
though in a very discreet and quiet manner.
The most delightful event of the second section of the novel is the viceregal visit
to the city which co-incides with Zahras visit to Ashiana. Of course much of
the interest of the thirteen chapters of BookII springs from the satiric thrust that
the narrator brings to the description of the social set-up of which Lailas aunts
saira and Zahra have become a part. But the reception at the Baradari in honour
of the viceroy marks the tour de force of Attia Hosains skill as a satirist. One is
reminded of Popes The Rape of the Lock and Belindas pretty but artificial
world;. Much the same kind of atmosphere prevails at the Baradari reception
with one difference Pope projects Belinda the protagonist, as a victim of her
own social set-up, whereas Laila is for the most part an objective observer of the
glamour and the glitter, the shallowness and fragility of the social environment
which the decorated and illuminated hall reflects. Hosain underlines resentment
of and resistance to the British presence in India throughout her novel wile also
depicting characters who are happy to lend a hand with and try to be like their
colonial rulers. When lailas tutor, Mrs.Martin,expresses the nostalgia for the old
days before electric lights when the Muharram festivities were more colorful, the
girl reminds her that in those days the Indians needed out of the ordinary passes

issued by the British to be present at the celebration if they were not wearing
European clothes. This outspoken feedback leads Mrs.Martin to wonder if she
has become a Congress wallah a participant in the independence movement
and indeed Laila is keenly conscious of and interested in that movement. One
of the principal themes of the novel is the spread of anticolonial sentiments
among the young throughout the first half of the twentieth century.
With the death of her grandfather, Laila finds herself under the supervision of her
Uncle Mohsin, who is in some ways more liberal he believes in education for
women but who insists just as strongly as the older generation on the
responsibility of parents to make a decision on their childrens matrimonial
futures, based largely on financial considerations. Asad, for instance, is forbidden
to court Zahra, not because he is a distant relative marriages between cousins
are actually encouraged in this family but since he is poor. As he puts it, a wall
of silver rupees separates him from Laila and Zahra.
The combination of sophistication and traditional values Uncle Mohsin exhibits is
strongly reminiscent of the sort of upbringing given the author by her own
widowed mother. Under a reproduction of the popular Victorian painting of Dante
Alighieri falling in love with Beatrice (Henry Holidays The Meeting of dante with
Beatrice), he dictates the terms according to which the female cousins under his
care will marry. Romantic love such as the painting commemorates is out of the
question. Zahra cannot follow her own desires; she is the symbol of others
desires.
Zahras total ignorance of sex on the eve of her marriage illustrates an ideal that
was striven for in traditional families. The sequestration of women and powerful

taboos against the public discussion of sexuality helped preserve girls in what is
to modern readers an unnatural naivete, but it has not been so long since
European and American middle-class families strove to keep young girls in the
same state of ignorance until their wedding nights.
It is ironic that in the colonial environment, upper-class social conservatism
naturally led to contact with Western ideas that undermined their own traditions.
The educations given to these privileged young people were not intended to turn
them into radicals, but in many cases that is just what it did. Even Uncle Mohsin
is aware of this trend as he forbids Asad to go study in Delhi where he may get
involved in the political movements of the day. Asads age group turned against
not only the values of traditional India, but against their domination by the British,
abd this novel is largely concerned with these developments as India moved
toward independence.
Laila has always been outspoken, but now she is sophisticated enough to face
up to the issues squarely, defending a Muslim girl who had run off with her Hindu
lover because their families would never have tolerated an interfaith marriage.
When challenged, she cites the romantic stories of love overcoming obstacles
that made up the heart of the romantic literature dominating English-language
education in India. while for Romana, the idea of romantic love is an escapist
dream, for Laila, it is a vehicle for social criticism.
The preservation of womens purity above all does not only frustrate their
longings for love in this novel. Nandis own mother dies since the familys ideas of
shame prevent them from allowing her to be taken to a hospital during a difficult
delivery.

One of the highlights of Part Two is the glittering reception held for the imperial
viceroy, representative of the British government. But as usual Hosain is not
contented to allow in the evocative glamour of the occasion. She points out that
the elaborate Baradari(reception hall) used by the imperial government for the
party was once part of the royal palace of the local ruler, in the mid-nineteenth
century when he was sent by them into exile. Soon thereafter, the English colonial
government shaped a new local leadership trustworthy to themselves by
elevating the status of the Taluqdars, the group to which Lailas family belongs
and thereafter had a long history of close collaboration with the British. Thus
everything about this party represents the corrupt, tangled alliance that Lailas
generation is rebelling against , and a few of the young students shout the
denunciation toadiesduring the ceremonies. Collaboration they may be, but
they are not treated as equals.The palace is firmly in British hands. When Zahra
proudly points out that the Taluqdars have a traditional right to audiences with
the king of England, Laila recalls her own humiliation at school by a humble
English girl who called hernigger.
But the election has one hopeful outcome, for once more, in the Baradri where
Laila had first met Ameer, she encounters him again, and now he is at last in a
position to claim her as his own. The older generation may be consolidating its
power, but it will not have everything its way. Laila and Ameer are determined to
be in somebody's company, and they are old enough, courageous enough,and
free enough to take their destiny into their own hands.

This narrative technique is somewhat reminiscent of Virginia Woolfs in one

section of To the lighthouse, where a house evokes powerful memories of the
family that lived within it. Mulk Raj Anand claims to have introduced Hosain to
Woolf when she was a young writer, so there may indeed have been some
influence.
It is impractical to know exactly why Hosain strong-willed to end her novel in such
an unconventional fashion, but the huge, looming specter of Partition may have
had something to do with it. Any book about the movement for Indian
Independence risks collapsing in despair in an account of the mutual slaughter
that took place between Hindus and muslims in 1947. The first draft of the novel
in fact built-in an extensive account of Partition, but she was asked to remove it
by Cecil Day Lewis, her editor at Chatto and Windus, perhaps because he
thought it interfered with the deeply personal meeting point of the novel.
Whatever his reasons, both Lewis and Hosain were later quoted as having
regretted the decision.
The people in this novel are rarely purely villainous or purely heroic. Their complex
humanity makes them more involving than if they were simple caricatures. But it
is interesting to note that her final thoughts about him concern the freedom she
enjoyed after he could no longer exercise control over her destiny.
In the final chapter, Laila returns from the sunlit garden into the death-like chill of
her own room. By now we are naturally wondering what has happened to Ameer,
and this is where we learn the story of their brief happy marriage. It is clear the
story she has been telling is a lens through which she considers her conti9nuing
love for him. But having told that story in loving detail, she turns away, ready to

move on.
The women of this generation did not gain anything from the liberal education of
the men as they are denied the formal education made available to the men. The
women continues to carry out their traditionally classified roles and receive
tutoring that has perpetuated their secondary status. Aunt Saira and Zahra are
tutored in some basics in English and are later instructed to move out of purdah
as it suits their husbands professional requirements. This tutoring is aimed at
fulfilling the professional requirements of their spouses where the wives has to act
as articulate hostess in the parties arranged by their husbands. These
instructions

left

them

ill

equipped

to

have

any

kind

of

economic

independence.Laila is the only girl from this family who receives education on par
with the male members of her family and aims at gaining financial independence
as well.
Lailas friend Sita, though modern in her mannerism and education, does not
marry her lover Kemal, as he is Muslim. She agrees to marry the man selected for
her by her parents because she lacks the courage to defy tradtion for the sake of
her love. Laila finds it hard to acknowledge such an approach in love and says to
Sita, marry Kemal, Sita, marry him without thinking much about it . Lailas faith
in love is revealed as she further adds, if you believe in it enough it will be alright.
It must be . Anuradha Roy says, purdah of the mind is thus shown to be an
even more repressive force than the physical restrictions imposed..
The family disowns her after her wedding to Ameer, which takes place without
the blessings of any of her elders. Anuradha Roy says, the confrontation
provides Laila with the chance of proving to herself that her earlier rebelliousness

was not mere empty rhetoric, that she has the courage to take her convictions to
a logical conclusion. The ritual itself is condensed to a mere drill and Saleems
marriage is used as a cover up. Her seventh heaven comes to an end when
Ameer joins the Army and becomes a prisoner of war. Her married life is jolted
with the death of Ameer in the prison. As a widow, her family tries to comfort her
in her grief but Laila refuses the help of the people who did not accept Ameer in
his life. She has the choice to return home now, but decides to live alone with her
daughter.
Each of these struggles is accompanied by moments of self-doubt and she is
pained by the response of people around her. Unlike others, she also doubts the
retort of their buried ancestors towards the present

generation, which has

significantly moved away from the traditional ideals, which they have
sophisticated..
.
Hamids son Kemal and Saleem are educated at British universities. The implied
notion behind their eduation abroad is that only a real English education and not
its imitation in Indian schools could produce a wonderful blending of the best of
the East and West. When Hamid shifts over to his family home after his fathers
death, Kemal and Saleem also come to stay with their parents now and then.
Though Hamid assumes that he is providing his sons with the best probable
education and training, ironically enough, both Kemal and Saleem have strong
ideological differences with him and they donot respect his feudalistic notions at
all. Saleem has strong leanings towards the Muslim League and Kemal believes
in the secular nationalism of the Congress. Their differences become more

outstanding when Hamid constests for elections to the provincial legislature.

Neither of his sons supports him. Saleem campaigns for the Muslim League
contestant, Begum Waheed, whose daughter Nadira he later marries. Though
Kemal remains non-partisan in practice, his nationalist views hurt his
father.Hamid wants Saleem to see where his real sense of duty lay and Saleem
wants his father to comprehend his weaknesses/mistakes.
Hamid is an independent entrant representing the taluqdars from a safe
constituency which covered his and the raja of Bhimnagars estates. He believes
he is fighting for the common masses whose problems he thinks he would
represent in the provincial legislature. But Saleem charges him with fighting for
power and not for the poor peasants as he alleges. He says that his struggle was
to protect the rights and privileges given to the taluqdars by the British. He
argues: What do those privileges amount to today? They were given by the
British as a price of loyalty, and as people become more politically educated they
must question such rights. They must fight them. Hamid

tries to explain in

vain: Our rights do not conflict with the rights of the people, traditionally we have
been guardians of their rights. Hamid begins to distinguish the challenge of the
Congress and the rationalized Muslim League; the political situation takes a
serious turn with the giving way of right to vote on the basis of adult suffrage,
through the new act. He realizes that the Congress derives its strength from a
continuous over-enthusiastic struggle and forfeit for freedom; and that the Muslim
League gains strength from its request to the political and economic fears of the
Muslims as the largest minority in the country, and to their religious sentiments.
He thinks that the struggle for political power would be more trying than ever

because greater power would lie in the hands of those who would from the new
government.
These elections make confident Hamids intentions to enter politics. At first he is
content with representing the Taluqdars from their own constituency. But the
rajas of Amirpur advises him and persuades him to contest for a safe
constituency which ensures protection of his and the raja of Bhimnagars estates.
The Congress and the Muslim League decide to sink their differences when it
comes to fighting the common foe the British and the parties they support. In
view of the existing conditions contesting and winning elections become a
enormous task for Hamid.
. The protagonists of both novels are alienated individuals seeking solace in a world of
cultural confusion. Both novels aptly chronicle the stages in the loss of old value systems and
customs. In Sunlight on a Broken Column, the narrator heroine Laila reveals how the throes
of partition, destroys the fabric of; the feudal world, the hierarchy and rigid codes of her
talukdar family, compelling people to make a choice. In A House for Mr. Biswas, we also
witness the gradual disintegration of the Hindu joint family system and the world of rituals,
customs and caste.
Both Mohun Biswas and Laila have deprived childhoods. Laila, an orphan, is brought up in
the household of her grandfather Baba Jan. Mohun Biswas is branded unlucky as child and
told to stay away from water. Ironically it is his father who dies through drowning though
Biswas is indirectly responsible for it. So as a teenager, Mohun Biswas has a lonely
existence. The social role expected of both Mohun Biswas and Laila are chalked out by the
demands and pressures of their family systems.

Attia Hosain tries to eschew sentimental chauvinism and neurotic negation, and
aims to show the reintegration of an individual and as individual and a con
sequent re-evaluation of values ina muslim socio-cultural background. It depicts
Lailas attempt to synthesize conflicting systems of thought _ the pull of culture
and tradition, and the subordination of the individual on the one hand, and the
cult of individualism and the symbolic regeneration of the free spirit culled from
Western thought, on the other.

Culture is partially at least, a system of patterned symbolic interaction, which is

perpetuated from one generation to another. The self is created in this
background of communication and sharing interactive symbolic processes.
These processes are both the material and non-material aspect of the culture in
which an individual is born and grows. It is these which help us define and
interpret the growth into personhood of any individual.
Within the disciplinary traditions of modern-day behaviourial sciences, many
psychologists and sociologists have tried to arrive at a definition of the term
self.Jaya Balinga have tried to examine the complexity of the term in relation to
this novel by using the clarification of selfhood as given by M.Brewster Smith in
his article Perspectives on selfhood.
Selfhood involves being self aware or reflective, being or having a body ; somehow taking into account, the
boundaries of selfhood at birth and death and feeling a continuity and identity in between, placing oneself in
a generational sequence and network of other connected selves as forebears and descendants and
relatives; being in partial communication and communion with other contemporary selves while experiencing
an irreducible separation of experience and identity, engaging in joint and individual enterprises in the world
with some degree of forethought and after-thought guiding what one does and appraising what one has
done at least partly through reflection on ones performace; feeling responsible, at least ometimes, for ones

actions and holding others responsible for theirs;

So it is peoples own formulations and theories about themselves as personal

and social objects ought to play a large role in the conceptualization of
personality. From the vantage point of middle age, in the old house of her
childhood, which would soon be sold, she tries to hook up the changes,
distortions and revelations between the past and the present. Memories of
childhood perceptions press hard on her and she ultilmately chieves selfhood.
Her perceptions have changed and there is an emergence of a new awareness
awareness of her feelings for Asad. was it that I

resented and envied his

cohesion of thought and action, and therefore could not love him as he wished,
seeing hin still as an abstraction, not a man.
In this novel the interaction with the other participants acts a sort of objective
correlative,for the development of self and consciousness in Laila. Personhood
and autonomy of self is acquired only when one sees oneself apart from ones
social role expectations. Attia Hosain has been successful in showing not only the
status and position of women in relation to the social structures but also depicted
the tensions that occur in the self when confronted with conformity and
automony.
It is generally assumed that Lailas quest for identity or self-definition is fulfilled in
her rebellion against her family and its values at the end of Part three of the novel.
Meenakshi mukherjee, for instance, in The Twice-Born fiction thinks that the last
section of the novel is extraneous and it makes the novel structurally weak. She
observes:
The trouble lies in the confusion of purpose. Does the novelist intend to present from Lailas point of view a

picture of men and manners in a particular period of Indian history, or does she intend to present one
individuals groping towards self-realisation? If it is the former, then the case history method of the last part
has some validity; but if the novel is taken as a personal document the last chapter becomes extraneous.

In the first place, one cannot neatly compartmentalize the personal history of Laila
from the social or national history in fact what makes sunlight on a broken
Column a three-dimensional novel is the manner in which the personal, the social,
and the national issues keep interacting and reflecting on one another. Secondly,
Lailas quest does not end if it at all ever does with her marriage to Ameer. If
that were the case, the novel would have ended with the happy wedding as
most of the novels with love and courtship as their theme end. That Attia Hosain
did not choose to end with the marriage suggests that she had other plans than
writing a conventional ;love story or giving a romantic interpretation of the purdah
motif as most of the popular novels or Hindi films do. What the novel
demonstrates is that the subjecthood for a person or for a nation is a painful
process and it does not come without suffering or some sort of loss. The
disruption of a settled order, of family relationships and human feelings, is what
Attia Hosain characterizes in the last section of the novel. A similar vulnerability of
human understanding and life, caused by the throes of partition is echoed on
Bapsi Sidhwas latest novel ice-Candy Man. Set in pre-partition India, in and
around Lahore, Bapsi sidhwa also uses a narrator-heroine. The tale is told by an
adolescent English girl, Lenny, a detached observer who sees the trauma of
partion and separations it entails. The rights and wrongs of partition are debated
and argued amongst friends and colleagues of the five main communities of
Lahore, the Hindus,Muslims,Sikhs Christians and Parsees.Like in Attia Hosains
novel there are endless vituperative debates on the merits , de-merits and ethical

aspects of partition. However the denouement of Bapsi SIdhwas novel, IceCandy Man is similar to Sunlight on a Broken Column. Both women novelists
stress the unavoidable logic of partition which moves on relentlessly leading to
friends and families being separated and lost from each other. Bapsi Sidhwa
shows that the families and friends who met every evening at Queens park in
Lahore are separated forever due to partition. People of different communities,
friends and colleagues argue about the impossibility of violence against6 each
other and leaving their homeland. With a morbid sense of humour, Bapsi Sidhwa
eveals how the violence of partition has serrated the roots of people of different
communities, inspite of ideology , friendship and rational beliefs.
As a piece of social documentation says Meenakshi Mukherjee, the novel is
competently written. It is one of the few novels where the partition of India is
presented as the enormous event that it was and the narrator being a Muslim, the
issues of loyalty, idealism and experience are fraught with a special significance..

CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
we found it relevant to look at the social and political data of the times and also a
few fictional writings of the period. Therefore the study of the two novels Twilight
in Delhi (1940) and Sunlight on a Broken Colulmn (1960) has been made to
gauge the extent of change in social behavior of the two different sections of the
Indian Muslim Society which are depicted in these novels. These two novels
have been discussed in chapter III and IV respectively, are written by two

contemporary Muslim writers of India, Ahmed Ali and Attia Hosain, who had both
been part of this massive social change and political upheaval and had first hand
in succession about its impact. They had the opportunity to see from a closer
distance the magnificent past enjoyed by the Muslim Community in its heyday.
When it ruled India and also the eclipse that struck it with the advent of the
colonial master. Hence the relevance of their writings.
It is interesting to go through these novels on account of their interpretation of
Indian Muslim Life in all its dimensions. If Ahmed Ali brings alive the life of a
middle-class, uneducated yet politically aware, large household from the suburbs
of old Delhi. Attia Hosain captures the doings of an aristocratic household from
the midst of the bustle of upper-class muslim culture of Lucknow. While Ahmed
Ali scrupulously describes the rites, rituals, customs and traditions of the Muslim
way of life in the background of the stunting foreign presence, Attia Hosain lays
stress on the mental attitude of the young and the old in the wake of the
feudalistic, custom-ridden atmosphere that was with the nationalist wave. The
novels can well be placed in the category of social practicality through which
these writers wish to reshape the social institutions. The fact that the novelists are
no other than muslims themselves who had the occasion to see and share the
effects of change for themselves is to the advantage of our attempt at realistic
presentation of the trends built-in in those times.
Age-long traditions, worn-out customs and social prejudices in the Muslim
society had started losing their hold at the turn of the century. The Social
reformers and certain educated Muslim had launched a crusade against it and
were struggling hard against the social odds to enable the community to cope

with the demands of time.

This change was taking place all over the country and not just in Muslim
Community. The only difference was that while the other communities welcomes
this social change and embraced it with vigour, the Muslim Community resented
it because it found any change as sensitively repulsive if it smacked of the British.
Despite the aversion for modernist change, the Muslim community could not
avoid coming under its spell. The forces of change were so powerful that they
swept across the whole country and none could remain unaffected.
Accordingtoahmedalihimself:Destruction is in its foundations and blood is in its soil. IT has seen
the fall of many a glorious kingdom and listened to the groans of birth. It is the symbol of life and Death

Ahmed Ali has seen the lanes, by-lanes and streets of Delhi with great affection. So
Ahmad Ali has drawn a detailed picture of the life going on in these lanes and by-lanes
during the last years of the 19th and the earlier years of the 20th century. The life is the
true representation of the decaying Indian Muslim civilization during the period referred
to above.
With this novel was published in 1940 by Hogarth Press, London, a lot of reviews
appreciations about the same appeared not only in India but also in England. The novel
gained spur-of-the-moment attention of the literary critics in India and abroad. One of
the main aims of Ahmad Ali in writing this novel in English language was to acquaint the
English-speaking world about the Indian civilization and its presentation through the life
of novels characters.
In his essay entitled Some Reflections on the Novel Ahmad Ali himself
writes: The Novel is not an imitation but representation of life and its changing

shadows, reflecting their movement and directing the changing scene of human
activity in all ages and societies. For the canvas of life is too vast and can be
presented only in the moments of shattered desire or contemplation calm and rising
hopes and ambitions. In all forms it shows man and society their true semblance,
and life, its picture which, in the movement, life itself does not often understand.
So, Ahmad Ali lived a rich life and created, out of that, a rich, living and throbbing novel
as such which is Twilight in Delhi. If we care about the unity of impression and vitality of
life, we are to find it only in Twilight in Delhi. Loo-stricken life being lived/passed in the
lanes and by-lanes of Delhi right from the darkness of dejection to the radiating
hopefulness has been immortalized in its own subtle and sublime manner by Ahmad
Ali.

The treatment of woman characters in the two novels.

Both the novels Twilight in Delhi (1940) and Sunlight on a broken column(1960)
belong to the mid-twentieth century. As we have discussed in the beginning of
this chapter, the artisits creative endeavour is an attempt to retort to the
pressures of time and that the work of art is to be looked at not for what it says
but for the world-view it embodies and the universe of discourse it covers looking
for the compulsions of place and time at work in the work of art when we see
what the novels have to say about the status of woman in those days and how is
the woman question dealt with, we reach destination at the following
conclusions.
Ahmed Ali, who has chosen the middle class family of a lace-dealer living in the

by-lanes of

Delhi, symbolically portrays the socio-cultural destruction

maneuvered by the British. The women character types in the novel are Begum
Nihal, the maid servant Dilchain, Begum Shahbaz, Begum Waheed, Mehro and
Bilqueece. All theses characters symbolize types. If Begum Nihal is the type for a
submissive yet strong lady of the house, Begum Shahbaz in the type for an
apparently respectably living woman without any moral depth in her. Dilchain is a
typical maid-servamt who, in the heyday of her youth had so dominated the lady
of the house by Clandestine relationship with the masters that she even gave
birth to a son by him. Now she is old and the master is no more interested in
her. Begum Nihal is submissive she wields n o power over the affair.. Therefore
Dilchain continues to live in the house. Begum Waheed the widowed daughter of
Mir Nihal is a faithful widow living with her parents-in-law. She is also a loving
sister to her brother Asghar who calls her from Bhopal to intrude with the matchmaking which his mother was likely to settle against his choice. Begum Waheed
comes immediately and Asghars alliance with his beloved Bilqueece is settled
with her efforts. Though Begum Waheed herself and everybody, around likes her
to stay with them, she conscientiously returns to Bhopal, the place of her in-laws.
Soon after the festive gatherings of marriage are over. Mehro, the fourteen year
old daughter of Mir Nihal is nastily paired off with a forty-year old business man in
Bhopal. Mehro weeps over the decision yet submits herself. She hardly visits her
home-town after the marriage. Bilqueece, Asghars wife, is the typical Indian
partner who faces a tragic pre-mature end because of her husbands happy-golucky and torturous attitude.
There is a kind of gratification and resignation of thought and action in the woman

characters of Ahmed Ali. They are not active participants but only passive
automations. This is exactly the popular image of a Muslim Woman of the times in
which Ahmed Alis novel is set, that is , early twentieth century.
Attia Hossains Sunlight on a Broken Column (1960) is set in the Lucknow of the
1930s and narrates the story of a taluqdar family of Oudh. Many members of
this family have had their education at the British universities and are employed
with the Indian Civil Service. The major woman characters in the novel are the
narrator-protagonist Laila, her cousin Zahra, and their aunts Abida, Majida and
Saira. Among all these characters the most energetic is the character of the
orphaned girl Laila.
In the background of the movement for the countrys political freedom is the
struggle of Laila against the claustrophobic traditions of family life from which she
breaks away when she falls in love with a friend Ameer and in due course marries
him. When one goes through Attia Hossains portrayal of Laila, one realizes she is
the epitome of progress and modernity as the mid-twentieth century Indian mind
understood it. She is rationally mature and sensitively controlled. As she is an
orphan she realizes her disadvantages and does not make undue demands of
her guardians, her paternal uncle Hamid and aunt Saira. She had an English
governess and she went to an Englilsh school. She hated the attempts of her
aunts and uncles who wanted to arrange her marriage, by saying she will not be
paired off like an animal and that she cannot bear the idea of just any manShe
probably wanted to fly away and be free, but remained, by accepting promises of
liberty through marriage with the candidate of her choice in due time.
But the series of events to which she is subjected by the writer, the utter poverty

in which she lives with her husband, the death of her husband, ad her final visit to
the family home of Ashiana after fourteen years of having quitted it, her
nostalgic wanderings through the halls and corridors of the abandoned house all
show the attempt on the part of the rebel to seek refuge in the abandoned
customs, traditions and way of living.The characters of Zahra, Aunt Saira, Aunts
Abida and Majud, passive and submissive as they are in their own way also
reveal what Attia Hosain really thought and felt about the position of woman in
India.
After Purdah and polygamy, the Indian writer Attia hossain published, in 1953,a
collection of socially conscious,mimetic stories.Phoenix fled, followed in 1961 by an
impressive novel,Sinlight on a broken Column. Mulk Raj Anand, in his avuncular
introduction to the novel, describes it as one of the most sensitive novels in Indian
English writing whereby the author combines a poignant, tragic narrative with an
undercurrent of stoic calm. Through the maturing sensibility of its sympathetic heroinenarrrator, Laila, the novel registers the makeover in the life of a wealthy Muslim Taluqdar
family throughout the critical period of the preindependence/partition of the
subcontinent..Privileged yet sympathetic to the poor, confined by purdah yet seeking
freedom through education and a few daring acts, proud of her Islamic identity yet
opting not for Pakistan but for secular India, laila comprehends and contextualizes
these paradoxes in her life.Courageously andconvincingly, Laila transcends a confining
environment that puts a premium on duty rather than feeling, on family solidarity rather
than honesty, and on clan and class interest rather than anticolonialist aspirations. Attia
Hossain uses precise, lyrical language to convey the feelings of her spirited heroine,
whose cross-section of friends transcends class and communal connections;

specifically, Lailas affection ate sympathies with her feisty Hindu Aya, nandi, is one of
the novels engaging segments. While Attia Hosain who knew Mohammed Ali Jinnh,
but disagreed with him over the question of a separate homeland for Muslims and
while her two works are subsumed by a secular and progressive vision, the expresses
a deep affection for her Islamic heritage when compared with European values; as
Anita Desai aptly observes in her introduction to phoenix Fled.

Westernization is seen as destructive of the old, traditional culture. The latter may be full of cruelties and injustices,
but it is a pattern of life known and understood, therefore more acceptable and more fitting than an alien culture that
has been neither fully understood nor assimilated. Attia Hossains work is by no means an unreserved paean of
praise for the old culture but is certainly full of an inherited, instinctive love for it.

Unlike Rokeya Sakhawat Hossains and Iqbalunnissa Hussains characters that never
leave purdah life except in a dream or through superstitious acts, Attia Hosains heroine
Laila becomes purdah-free. This coincides with the anti-British pro-home rule move
violently; there is a synchronicity between Lailas awareness of her circumscribed
position as a woman and her clear commitment for a free, secular India.
The novels lucid anticolonial tone recalls Ahmed Alis in twilight in Delhi and points to
several intertextual links between the works of these two authors. Both Ali and Hosain
have been prompted to produce their works in English , instead of Urdu the language
that both loved and wrote their earlier works in inorder to project muslim sentiments
to the outside world, at the dear expense of being severed from most of their Indian
audience. In his introduction to the 1994 edition of Twilight in Delhi, Ahmed Ali explains
why he had taken the trouble of going to London to have his novel published there and

why he chose English as his medium instead of Urdu:

The cause of Indias freedom from colonialism deserved a world-wide audience.
If presented in Urdu, it would die down within a narrow belt rimmed by
Northwest India. There were many instances to show that British injustices in India were dismissed as local matters.
But if a case were brought to London, the Home government became involved, which depended on public good
faith and Was answerable to King and Parliament.

Ahmed alis and Attia Hosains novels call upon nostalgically the bygone days of
Muslim glory and splendor; the regal elegance of the mughal court in Delhi and the
refined sensuality, artistry and poetry of the kingdom of Oudh in Lucknow. That lively
radiant past makes the decaying present painful to contemplate. Like Mir Nihals Delhi,
Lailas ancestral home ashiana is undergoing its own private dying twilight in
postpartition India; in fact, the decaying ancestral home depicted in Attia Hosains novel
becomes an evocative microcosm for dying Muslim delhi in Alis novel; both settings fall
victim to the vagaries of history, symbolize disfranchisement, and foreshadow the
precious future reserved for the muslilms of India. Mushtari Bai, the charming courtesan
that appeared in Twilight in Delhi, reappears in Attia Hosains novel as a pathetic
pauper well beyond her prime.Reflecting the fate of Mir Nihals Delhi and Lailas
Ashiana,. MushtariBai gives a human face to a dying erotic past that coexisted within a
puritanical muslim milieu. Nothing escapes decay; no one escapes the negative effects
of time. And the titles of the three novels fortell the intertextual link between Ahmed Alis
Twilight in Delhi and Ocean of Night and Attia hosains Sunlight on a Broken Column.
The latter title,
Borrowed from T.S.Eliots The Hollow Men, deploys light imagery that evokes the titles

of Alis two works: light broken or dimmed in twilight to be drowned in an Ocean of

Night. With the death as a motif, the vision permeating Alis and Hosains works is
quintessentially tragic yet not macabre; doomed by destiny or fate yet precipitated by
misguided human will; permeated with sadness yet redeemed by compassion, loyalty
and love.
With the partition looming, the Muslims in Attia Hosains novel faced two agonizing
choices; either abandon all their properties and memories and depart for newly
established Pakistan, or stay in independent India as a under pressure minority
threatened by mass execution. The following fiery, yet emblematic, conversation
between Laila and her alter ego of a cousin, Zahra, who opted for Pakistan, illustrated
painful internecine debate that raged through many muslim families; Laial begins by
challenging Zahra about the carnage Muslim families faced during the partition.
Where were all their leaders?Safely across the border. The only people left to
save them were those very Hindus against whom they had ranted. Do you
know what responsibility and duty meant? To stop the murderous mob at any
cost, even if it meant shooting people of their own religion.
Zahra replied with equal anger, what is so extraordinary about that? Do
you think we did not have the same sense of duty on our side? Do you think
the same things did not happen there? You are prejudiced.

Untill today the debate is not settled about the rationale for the creation of a truncated
Pakistan in 1947, which had been a dear dream to millions of Muslims in India, and
which was so sinisterly mangled by the last viceroy Mount Battens administration.

The Muslims who left in India and the Hindus who left in Pakistan faced an orgy of
slaughter. Given the price paid for the partition being between one to two millions
killed from among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs as well as the massive material damage
and given that until today the future of the muslims living in India looks unsettled,
some say bleak, one wonders by hindsight whether the partition of the subcontinent
was a wise path to pursue. As one of historys ironies, there are now more Muslims
living in India than there are in Pakistan.
Attia Hosains protagonist at the end of the novel seems to yearn for a way of life
that had been smothered by the inflow of Western ideas and changing beliefs.
The purdah had upheld the values of duty and responsibility but the new
generation had forsaken them for selfish ends. A nostalgia for the past glory and
the realization that it has become a still-life picture now, only to be revisited to
revive memories, sets the protagonist readjusting values and beliefs. Attia
Hosains novel Sunlight on a Broken Column does not therefore adopt a linear
narrative structure that traces a progression of thought but chooses a cyclical
view of history.
In contrast to this, Ahmed Alis Twilight in Delhi accepts a linearity that traces the
dissolution of the grandeur of Delhi. It is more a mans tale recording the events in
mens lives. Women characters are incidental and they are seen as possessions
rather than as individuals. The pigeons caged by Mir Nihal are almost symbolic of
the women who waste out their lives in the zenana. An Indian patriot Mir Nihal,
rages at his son for wearing dirtyEnglish boots. Representing the merchant
class mir Nihal is contrast to Babajan; and yet like the latter his authority is
unquestionable. His wife,his family and many dependents live together. Like attia

Hosain, Ahmed Ali vividly paints the activities of the womenfolk within the zenana
cooking halvas, dying dopattas, settin out tables for dinners, and gossiping.
Asgahar has to get the help of his wodowed sister Begam Waheed to get his
father to consent to his marriage with Bilqueece, who did not belong to social
class as good as that of the Nihals.
Ahmed alis vivid presentation of the two Muslim marriages in the novel deserve
commendation. As in Sunlight on a Broken Column, the writer renders a very
poetic account of the long formal procedure through which marriage is
solemnized.
Arranged marriages have always been a part of Muslim tradition. Most often
marriages of convenience were entered into. Thus Mehro Zamani, Mir Nihals
youngest daughter, is forced to marry an old and disfigured man whom she or
her family had never seen before. Mehro accepts it as her izzat and lives a dutybound existence as does Begam Waheed after her husbands death. Contrasted
to this is the heartlessness with which asgar treats the woman he has married for
love. Not much later after her death he starts an affair with her sister. Ahmed Ali
presents the duplicity of standards maintained. Women become in his world
mere possessions and passive victims.
It is ironic that this family drama of subjugation is played out against the
background of Indias struggle for freedom against the British rulers;
It was this very mosque, Mir Nihal remembered with blood in his eyes, which the
English had insisted on demolishing or turning into a church during 1857. As
Metcalf saw the people with the swords in their hands, he opened fire. Hundreds
fell down.. The Mussalmans had no guns and most of them lost their lives, the

rest cameaway(151-152)
But years later in 1911, Mir Nihal who watches the procession of the Viceroy
cannot contain his disgust of his countrymen who were chicken-hearted and
happy in their disgrace. Mir Nihal is representative of a class of Indians who had
held their heads high in repect and had not bowed their heads to anyone, even
the British.
Many Muslim festivals like Ramzan, Muharram, Bakrid and others form part of
both the novels under discussion. They create a typically regional and religious
flavour. Many superstitions and beliefs, many mendicants and ghazal singers
form part of the rich tapestry of the muslim life woven by these two writers. Thus
thesis novels create a personal history that cannot be divorced from the religious
and the national history. Although they deal with individual families thes stories
develop into a vast symbolic account of the human race. The hopes, trials failures
and successes of these people are not just personal histories but are
representative of a whole race.

Contributions of ahmed ali

Ahmed Ali one of the four contributor to Angarey Burining Coals, a very controversial
anthology of Short stories that published in 1932, and some critics considered it as the first
example o f progressive writing in Urdu. The other contributors of Angarey were Sajjad
Zaheer, Rashid Jahan and Mahmuduzzaffar. The Land of Twilight is a one-at play written in
English in 1929, published in Lucknow in the year 1937 by R.R. Sreshta and eventually
translatd and published in Urdu. Ali wrote a second one-act play entitled as Break the

Chains. The playswere produced and directed by Ali at Lucknow University in 1931-32.
Hamari Gali (Our Lane) is a collection of short stories that was translated into Enlgish and
French and published in 1936. Sholay was published in 1934 and Ustad Shammu Khan
appeared in Alis first collection of stories.
Ahmed Alis famous novel Twilight in Delhi was published in 1940, then most of the urdu
writers were studying for their bachelors or masters degree. Ahmed ali was the member of
The Progressive writers Movement and considered as the pioneer of the new literature. After
the publication of the book discussion started and the opinions of E.M.Forster and Edwin
Muir areincluded on the cover of the book.LUcknow , the center of the semi-political and
pseudoliterary Assoiation decided that because of authors attidutde towards a society was
sympathetic, therefore the novel is not good whil Allahabad, people hesitated about making
political assessments of literature. Some people assumed on covetous though furtive silence
at Allahabad, others raised some arguments about unimportant matters.
E.M.Forster said of Twilight in Delhi: it is beautifully written and very moving. The detail was
almost all of it new to me, and fascinating. It is a sort of poetical chronicle. At the end one
has a poignant feeling that poetry and daily life have got parted and will never come together
again.
The semi-political and sentimentl pieces such as The Land of Twilight which Ali published
prior to this novel personified only a temporary phase and that he hd not given up the
significant realism whose foundation he laid in sotires such as Hamari Gali and Ustad
Shammu Khan. The author described the most impressed character of Mir Nihal of Twilight in
Delhi and there is a symbolic significance of the date palm tree , there is a sadness that
deepens as the plot develops with the gradual decay of the spring of life into autumn .One
can find mans helplessness in their life. The author has beautifully described the pain of the
transcience of life and doubts about the purpose of life itself.
The author described such familiar and ordinary customs, festivals and everyday aspects of

life with detail. One can gave a good opinion on the book only if one reads the book as an
ordinary novel. If one keepsin mind the audience for which it has been written and the
authors purpose in writing it, then the details donot remain meaningless. One should give
priority to artists purpose and his intention of giving details are secondary, the main points
should be given preference. IF the details are subordinate to this purpose, and intention, then
we cannot justifiably object ot them. In any event, objecting to anything is our democrati c rith
which no one can deny or take away.
The novel has two main purposes or good intentions one is literary or creative or artistic
and the other one is essentially non-literary. It does not mean that there can be contradiction
in the book.Suppose the writer has a good talent in his writings, then non-creative purpose
does no harm to work. The actual purpose of Ahmed Ali is to write a guide to Delhi for
Englishmen according to Mohammed Hasan Askari. He called it a guide because the book
has been written for Englishmen who are unfamiliar with life in Delhi and that the author wishe
to acquaint them in this way. When asked about this point, Ahmed Ali stated that the thought
had never entered his mind. Actually his purpose was to depict life a culture, a mode of living
and thought, all of which were passing away. He did this in his own realistic manner, which
are considered the detail are essential and part of its method. He noticed that the details are
historical and Mir Nihals generatin lost the culture and forgotten them and reached to history.

The non-literary purpose has restriction on the writer that life of

delhi has to be depicted in English. The problem the author might
have faced could be to create a style in English to represent atmosphere and harmony of life
in Delhi into a foreign language or English. Ahmed Ali has been most successful in this effort
and made English a subservient to his artistic will. Edwin Muir said thatone could smell the
Jasmine flowers in the book, which in turn means that Ahmed Ali has achieved the
impossible.

The artistic purpose of the novel. Ahmed Ali mentioned in his book a different individuals,
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. It is actually a collective novel whose hero is the
city of Delhi. One can raise appoint that Muslims were not alone livd in Delhi and the author
has given importance to one particular section , as he want to see the reality through his own
eyes. The fact is Ahmed Ali knew Delhi as millions of Muslims wheter a class society or
aclasslessone, there is always a section of society, large or small, that occupies a central
place and is the source of cultural values. Delhi created a particular set of values . There is a
sense of defeat for the period with great courage and honesty. Ahmed Ali could not conceal
the fact that he loved these dying values and felt sorry for its decay.
Ahmed Ali stated that though in the course of writing he has shown sympathy for the culture,
and in doing this sympathy shows itself as a personal catharsis, his emphasis in the book is
on something larger. Life itself brings unmindful of social changes, continues and never dies.
Thus Ahmed Alis attitude did not change from its original progressivism. This definition of
progress was not understood or appreciated by many readers, especially members of the AllIndia Progressive Writers Association, who were according to Ahmed Ali,Carried away by
the panorama of passing things.
This book is considered as a collective novel. In the collective life of a whole society can be
presented through the ideas and actions of a group against the background of a
revolutionary movement or war. It is most difficult to produce events or extraordinary thing
with the art and technique . But Ahmed Ali has done it. That;s the author has taken one
family and shown its members daily life. All these are considered to be simple and
insignificant things such as eating, drinking , sleeping, festivals and fairs, marriage, birth,
death, nave love affairs, squarrles and arguments. Hence, the works of women novelists and
the incidents of the novel are more or less alike. The difference one can find in the
arrangement and selection of incidents in the novel are different and considered or believed

to have a universal significane. The details also presented the spirit of collective ife and the
values of collective unity. With the insignificant details we come to know collective life and the
soul of society, that is its subject. These details are as essential for the artistic purpose of the
book as they are for the non-artistic one.
The other method of depicting collective life, apart from incidents is through character. Their
action lasts only so long as need demand. The action of the character takes place when it is
needed. And authors of such novel donot allow their characters to continue with their action.
In contrast to this, Ali allowed his characters to live a complete life with right. Actually, each
character believed and felt significance or important of themselves and we tried to identify
them ad sometimes feel unaware of some characters.
Ahmed Ali has given two characters the dimension ofdevelopment and growth- Asghar to a
certain extent and much more than him, Mir Nihal. Asghar falls in love three times. Just like a
n average person is likely to experience. First, he flirt, courtesan out of a desire. The
courtesan falls in love with him, but he turns her down. Then he loves Bilqueece, after a
struggle to marry her, he makes his love successful. As there is a saying Familiarity breeds
contempt. He becomes indifferent to her When she becomes ill. After Bilqueeces death
Asghar falls in l ove with her younger sister, but unfortunately he cannot marry her. Thus, this
love remains unsuccessful Ahmed Ali thus depicted the emotional ups and downs of an
ordinary mans life.
Through the character of Mir NIhal Delhis culture has been produced life of Mir NIhal has
neither depth nor expanse, there is no balance and uniformity, who is culturally a mixture and
infact whose fines emotions are lacking beauty and dignity, the qualities that arouse from the
traditions of the harmonious culture. Asghar is the representative of this new man. But if once
a balance achieves stability, it becomes static and turns to death. Therefore, the character of
Mir Nihal ends in the novel. Baseless and l ack of balance signifies a compromise with life.
Asghars story does not end with the novel. At the end of the book, he does not appear

defeated he has not met his final defeat. He still likes to love again.
The remarkable character of the book is mIr NIhal. Something unique one can find in the
character of Mir Nihal. The nature is passive in him. He has two interests in life: his pigeons
and his mistress, babajan. When his courtesan or Babajan dies, he gives up flying pigeons
and also his job and take nterest in alchemy nd mysticism. His intentin is to escape the
changes that are taking place in life and to withdraw from the world. Formerly, Mir Nihal
wished to cry over the ups and downs of life, but in the end he doesnt even have the desire
to do that. Asghar comes to him wearing English clothes, but Mir Nihal doesnot even object.
Hisbody becomes paralyzed. He has no hope to survive. Already his young daughter in-law
and son have died. Mir Nihal lies on his bed and watches with open eyes, and cannot heave
a sigh. Asghar may forget his sorrows, but Mir Nihal cannot forget. All his physical and mental
strengths have decresed. But his memory is alive. The grief of theminor characters have
become the grief of Mir NIhal.
One can find at the end of the book, the iintensity becomes so strong that, life of Mir Nihal
grieve for unfulfiment, h aplessness, transicience and seems to cast basic doubts on its own
reality. Ahmed Ali s great achievement is the creation of the character Mir NIhal. One cannot
separate this character from the body of the book, because the whole book contains life in h
im. The description of Mir NIhals illness is a masterpiece in itself. We cannot compare either
with urdu novels or with western fiction.
Ahmed ali is most sympathetic to his character. Sometimes the comic elements in Ahmed ali
produce and effect of pity example After Pelican being procured with much difficulty, it is
killed and everybody comes to watchy it not onluy the children ,but also the old maid servant
Dilchain. One can judge the writers, when they produce in their work death andillness during
such situations, the writers would either become emotional or ineffective. But Ahmed Ali
managed to be good. He gave the description of deathj in detail that of Bilqueece and then of
Habibuddin with subtlety. After World War-I, Ahmed Ali gave the details of plague which was

marvelous. Ahmed Ali create the horrific atmosphere of universal death and all-around
dishonesty.
After reading his work one can say that he has used masterly artistic techniques. Ahmed Ali
has done two things with great artistry. One one hand, he presente the atmosphere of an
average Muslim Household, and on the other hand, commenced his tory. The picture of the
family which Ahmed Ali has drawn was ordinary and colorless to look at . From this point of
view Ahmed Alis task was the more difficult, forhe has created color from colorlessness.
Ahmed Ali has given individual life to each- 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 have a separate existence in
themselves in the novel. He described the lanes of the city, the gutters, dogs and cats, the
flying pigeons, hawks and paperkites all appear often in the novel With these changing
seasons, with the moods of nature and all the rest, Ali has given the city an eternal and living
identity and name. He described the summer season of Delhi with great artistry. The seasons
have a symbolic value, and the atmosphere of the whole novel is imbued with them. , the
whole story takes place in this atmosphere. In the urdu-novel there can be sensitive
appreciation of nature. Hence, we can compare the writings of ali with that of Urdu writers.
Another factor in this novel is a sense of unity and intensity: the awareness of the flight of
time. A thought of time si so intense in Ali that his imagination acquires momentum and
becomes the source of his artistic vitality. Ali has produced a few emotional sentences, but
the feelings are not sentimental and sound. Through which one could form an indea of Ali
from the character of Mir Nihal. One cannot or may not find Urdu authors equal to him.There
is an attachment and love for a whole civilization and so the sense of time does not lead to
more sadness or pessimism in him, but carries within it tragic elements.
The novel doesnot remain the story of Delhi alone, but is simultaneously the story of thelife of
mankind. The center of our tragic sense is not Delhi alone, but life itself. After reading a book,

one can ask fundamental and knotty questions about life and the human condition. Why does
beauty comes to an end? Why does life rush involuntarity towards death?IF deathis the final
gol of all things, why was life created in the first place? The difficulty in finding answers to
these questions is clear from the fact that at the close of the book nature in all its wonder and
awe overshadows man and engulfs him within itself.
This is the cumulative impress of the book. Yet thereis another aspect which remains Mir
Nihal becomes a paralysed and asks his grandsonto struggle for freedom when he reaches
to the age. Mir Nihals bones must be buried and decay, but his grandson kust dream the
dream to a new life, anew harmony, a new civilization and the way of life. Mirza the milseller
sacrificed his son in the path of independence. Hundred of such brave heroes must still be
alive from Twilight o f Delhi arose the dawn of Pakistan . Until Ahmed Ali writes the second
part of the novel, his book remains incomplete.
Where the empire went, the cannon and
The conon went too --- Robert Scholes.
A single shelf of a good European library was worth
The whole native literature of India and Arabia- Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Muslim Community of the Pre-Independence INdia

Ahmed Ali belongs to the post-world war II Indian writer in English .IT is an attempt to examine the novel interms of its
depictiion if the Indian middle class Middle society. A study of the middle class Muslim society of India in the preindependence days could have also been made through many other novels written, by the post-world war II Indian and
Anglo-Indian writers and set in that particular period which is the concern of present study.But it is not merely the social
history which is sought through this study. For that would be better sought from the sociological and historical tracts. The
concern of this study is also to see what Ahmed Ali has to say about the Muslim society of that period and what the
novel itself has to give us being an organic creation in its capacity as one bright book of life.
Twilight in Delhi is a novel where social history has been believably acknowledged. It is set in a society whose religious,
cultural and social ambiance was changing and disintegrating under the impact of the British rule. This society had a history
of hundreds of civilized years behind it.
Social values of the culture and society
Ahmed Ali derives his fictional method from the linear bourgeois familiar novel of the Victorian era. The plot of the novel is
developed in terms of the basic family unit. There is a record of a familys growth, blossoming, and finally withering away.
The reader could find Indo-Muslim life prevalent in the early decades of the twentieth century. The real strength and
genuineness of the novel come from the quality of the authors perception of the social forces at work in the decline of the
proud and ancient culture of the Muslim society of Delhi. A human psychology is shown in the development of the central
characters of the novel that leads to success as a realistic novel.
Ahmed Ali shows the movement of social forces, memories of the disaster caused by the colonial regime and its strong
impact on the thinking and behaviour of the middle class society.Delhi portraus the first decade of the20 th century,when the
British rule and its hold on the Indian political and cultural horizon was being strongly opposed. And the most glaring aspect
of Ahmed Alis style is the pessimistic tone built-up right from the outset of the novel and maintained throughout. The tone is
that a languid melancholic narration, as though the speaker is up to announce some tragic event of great magnitude.
Ahmed Alis protagonist the sixty year old, sturdily-built, typically feudal, manager of a shop of the lace-dealers- Mir Nihal ,
and his household personify the crumbling feudal society that the novel uncovers. Mir Nihal is the head of his middle-class
Muslim household living in the area near Lal Kuan. His is a fairly large family with two daughters four sons and a typical
middle-class Muslim wife in her fifties called Begum Nihal. Mir Nihal is a hen-pecked head of the family. He owns some
property also, which keeps the household running quite soundly. And the other monthly income which Mir Nihal makes from
his services as a manager of the lace-dealers shop, he spends on his hobbies. He is a free-lancing old man spending much
of time and earnings in kite and pigeon-flying Mir NIhal is an aristocrat in his habits typical feudal gentleman. Besides
pigeon-flying he was very fond of collecting old China-ware and also devoted some of his time to alchemy and medicine.
Every morning and evening he would be seen flying pigeons-feeding them, or beating the roof with his shoes to drive the
pigeons away from home.
Social relations
Once, when Mir NIhal was busy at the piegons loft, giving water to and tying feathers of the newly bought pigeons , Gafoor,
his servant comes running to inform that Babbajan is critically iIl. Mir Nihal immediately leaves for Babajan , forgetting
altogether even to close the loft door.

With the demise of Babbanjan, a very different phase in the life of Mir Nihal began. The death of this mistress being a
mournful occasion many unfortunate incidents occur as a result of the utter disillusionment and melancholy that descended
upon Mir Nihal following the tragedy. He forgets to close the door of the loft and becomes almost mad to find that wild cats
had had a nice feast there - almost to the extent of society. As it was impossible to overcome this second shock, he
decides in anger to do away with the hobby itself. He plans to sell the remaining pigeons on the same day.
He found himself weak and broken. The piling up of grief made hm pessimistic. He then decided to give up his jot itself for
where was the income to be spent now, as it is his sons were asking him not to do the job and what was there now to
protect his demeanor or position he could as well lead a life of dependence on his children. Remarks the novelist: Now
she was dead, and he did not care what mattered if he was dependent on his sons or anybody else he decided to give up
his work. Thought the man who suddenly began to feel old age descending upon him. These incidents evoke in him a
conscious ness of his own impending end. He begins to think about death.
It was after these incidents that Mir NIhal decides to give his consent for the son Asghars alliance with Mirza Shahbaz
Baigs daughter .What if Asghar went and married without his will? Why bear another burden of humiliation at this stage of
life? He thought. And he said to himself: Why withhold consent? It mattered little whether Asghar married a low-born or a
girl with blue blood in her veins. He would not be in it anyway IF Asghar refused to see his point of view he could go his
own way and ruin himself. He did not care,. Life had not treated him well, and if a son was also lost it must be borne.
Then in idleness his old hobbies of medicine and alchemy revived. He took out his n otes and began to study about herbs
and plants. A new circle of friends began to form. Hakims and Fakirs come to him to sit for hours comparing notes and
relating anecdotes. Besides, he thought, the atmosphere of alchemy and medicine was a world which was still h is own
where no one could disturb him or order him about.Such was the old mans hatred for being ordered about and being
imposed upon.
Social Values
Begum Nihal, a woman in her early fifties, was a dutiful wife of the easygoing husband. She reprimanded him for his
careless ways. She often had to remind h im that their children Mehro and Asghar were coming age and that he should
look for a proper alliance for them. Begum Nihal is the only person in the entire household who performs the religious rites
with a mechanical regularity. The others only did it occasionally. In the morning, after the dawn prayers, she would sit and
recite the holy Quran aloud in a rhythmic tone rhythmically moving back and fort. She is the symbol of the self-less and
calm middle-class Muslim Woman of th e early twentieth century.
The culture of Delhi
All of Mir Nihals children awere married and settled. Whether they were happy or not was not his worry now. He himself
was on the way to his end. This he had begun to understand. And he thought it to be certain. Similarly the beloved of the
heart of the Indians, the city of Delhi, has also got dismembered, giving birth to a New Delhi. Though the inhabitants of
Delhi had become disillusioned the fortune of the foreign government had befgun to assert itself poignantly. In the city of
Delhi many changes were being proposed. The gutters which were deep and underground from the times of the early
Mughal to this day were being dug and made shallow, and the dirty water flowed very near the level of the streets and
there awas stink all around. The city walls were also going to dbe demolished. The residents of Delhi resented all this

physical change for their city the city of their dreams. They never wanted it to change beyond recognition. The most
hateful change for the Delhities was the disfiguring of the Chandni Chowm whose central foot path was demolished and
the peepal trees which had given shelter to the residents from the scorching rays of the sun, were cut down. This affected
the people more deeply than anything else. With these changes the place lost its oriental atmosphere. It idid not remain the
real Chandni Chowk with which so many sweet memories were associated. Outside the city, far beyond the Turkoman
Gate and opposite the Kotla of Feroz Shah, the Old Fort, a new Delhi was going to be built. Once the new town was
ready the old would be neglected and allowed to fall into ruin. Apart from this, a new Delhi meant new people, new ways,
and a new world altogether. And that was too much for the old residents of the place.A new people meant new customs
and traditions. The old culture would, therefore be in a danger of annihilation. The language on which Delhi had once
prided itself would become adulterated and impure. This the people of Delhi were most unwilling to let happen. And here
Ahmed Alis hero, Mir Nihals personification of the society at the moment when the social fabric was being altered,
becomes clearly discernible. A proud and stable civilization was destroyed by the encroachment of an outside culture, just
as a happy family was dismembered by the modernistic trends. The traditional society, hitherto protected by the common
force of social and religious values, breaks and collapses with the arrival of the white man and his ideology.Similarly the
erosion of traditional values in the family of Mir Nihal is seen as a result of the effects of the new civilization. Mir Nihal tells
Asghar: You are again wearing those dirty English boots; I dont like them. I will have no aping of the farangis in my
house. Throw them away. Later in the novel when Asghars wife Bilqueece wears English shoes and attends a wedding at
the house of Mir Nihal the women in the zenana comment; she looks like a good-as-dead farangan. The disgust seems
to have passed the limits of decency. What else could you expect from Mirza Shahbaz Baigs daughter? They seem to
have eaten some Farangis shit.
The foreign occupation of India seems to have made some of the citizens withdraw into a world of their own. Though there
are no direc t references in Ahmed Alis novel to the ravages wrought by the rule of the white man, the novel deals with it
very subtly. Mir NIhal the protagonist adopts a leave-me-alone attitude. When the Home-Rule movement sweeps across
Indiam he is almost untouched. A s the novelist says: His world had fallen. Let others build their own. Ahmed Ali betrays
a note of helplessness against the ravages of time. The sweeper woman had left off coming regularly , and when she
came she always avoided sweeping the courtyard under the henna tree. She had also begun to neglect her master and
his house. An open show of negligence from all corners makes him even more reckless. He too begins to look forward
to his end more eagerly as it were.
Quite in consonance with this the traditional society is weakening; there are divisive forces; the Muslims themselves have
so many groupings between them. Some wish to remain true to the older social values. And others want to embrace the
new culture and tradition. The white Farangis are ruthless and efficient. They have brought new knowledge and new
administration to the country.They are also introducing Christianity. The old civilization, therefore, does not merely remain
static. It collapses from within and is overwhelmed from without. Before the collapse is complete, we get a glimpse of the
old ready to yield to the new. The description of kites and pigeons flying over Delhi is lyrical.
The pigeons circled over the roof, then, seeing their masters flag pointing towards the east where Khwaja Ashraf Alis flock
of rare dappled pigeons was circling over the foof, they flew in a straight line shooting like an arrow. As they neared the

Khwajas flock they took a dip and suddenly rose upwards from below the other flock, mixed with the peigeons and took a
wide detour. They would have come home, but Mir NIhal put two fingers in his mouth and blew a loud whistle, and the
pigeons flew away in one straight line.In Ahmed Alis novel the pigeons disappear as the White Mans sway gradually
takes root in his Delhi, remarks Anniah Gowda.
Ahmed Ali describes the popular sport of Pigeon flying. And this is contrasted with the famioy scenes within the old house.
The family tale which reaches its climax with the marriage of Asghar and Bilqueece is set against the aerial background of
kite flying and pigeon flying.As the flying of pigeons and kites fade into the background the family becomes the central
metaphor. Then the novelist subjects the husband and wife to the inevitable blows of fate. Asghars happy life is covered
with gloom with the death of his wife. The novelist strikes a fatalistic note here. who can meddle in the affairs of God?
AHmed Ali begins his novel with a description of the night enveloping the city like a blanket, and ends it by showing Mir
NIhal the head of the family, in a state of coma when the sun is about to set. The twiligt reigns supreme. On another level a
segment of Indian history comes to an end.
Cultural upheaval in the Muslim Society with the arrival of the British as depicted in Ahmed Alis Novel
Muslim ruled for centuries and there was an adaptability to and predisposition towards western educational institutions was
less positive than that of their Hindu breathern. This general repulsion or revulsion stemmed from a psychological, social
and economic discontent, and a sense of injustice. Sir William Hunter in his classic study, The Indian Musalmans (1870),
assigns the greater part of responsibility for this situation to several British administrative decisions taken inadvertently or
with a view to immediate expedience, but which had a disastrous impact on the economic resources and the cultural
foundations of the Muslims. The Muslims had been for centuries, the ruling class in India. They were psychologically
unprepared for the economic upheavals bound up with the switch from Persian to English as the language of public
instruction in 1835, through Lord Macaulays Minute of the Indian Education. The western educational system which had
replaced the Muslim educational system made no provision for their religious instruction and feeings were further
embittered by the effect of the abrogation of the waqf laws on private Muslim schools and misappropriation of funds of
these schools by British officials. Muslim reluctance to make use of the new education al facilities contributed to the
vicious circle brought about by their lack of qualificaitons for government services and so totheir inadequate
representation, in these services. Between 1835 and 1870 the proportion of Muslims to Hindus in the government servi ce
was less than one seventh. Even more disturbing to Muslim religious susceptibilities was the patronage of the Christian
missionary activities by some officials of the East India Company, and the close identification of these missions with the
British rule. British administrators of the predominantly Muslim provinces of the Punjab and Sindh, Sir Henry Lawrence and
Sir Robert Montgomery provided moral and financial backing for the missionaries, in their efforts of conversion of the
natives to Christianity. William Bentiniks legislation in Bengal provided a special safeguard for converts to Christianity from
Islam, by protecting their right of inheritance. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Christian missionaries
denunciations of other religions still continued in the mid-nineteenth century in the medieval tradition of virulence and
abuse, which was directed especially against the prophet of Islam
Darbar of the English King GeorgeV
Amidst such an atmosphere of animosity and bitterness, the English King GeogeV goes to celebrate the Coronation or the

Darbar on the Seventh of December, 1911. In Ahmed Alis portrayal of the Coronation in Twilight in Delhi, this bitterness of
the Indian people is very realistically portrayed. The coronation Darbar of the English King GeorgeV in Delhi on the 7th of
December 1911 was meant to create an impression of grandeur and pomp on the Indians. As the dates of the Darbar
were announced, grand preparations started in Delhi and its surroundings. The government offices were whitewashed,
roads were cleaned and oil was sprinkled on the mud roads of Delhi. People began to pour into the Capital from England
and other places. This event,as depicted in the novel, becomes a source of assessing peoples reactions to the British
presence. The women heard of the preparations for the Darbar, made sour faces and passed bitter remarks;
What would these beated-with-the broom Farangis do?said begum Jamal, and Begum NIhal remarked: when the
Moghal King used to go out rupees and gold mohurs were thrown to the people by the handfuls. What will these good as
dead farangis give?Dust and stones..
During the preparations for the Darbar,it was learnt that the beautiful pavilion built for the function was burnt down due to a
mysterious breaking out of fire. At nother place a petrol depot caught flames due to fire.Mir NIhal and his son Dabibuddin
felt secretly happy. Begum Nihal however ,openly cursed the English feeling happy at the news: It is Gods vengeance
falling on these good as dead farangis she said. May they be destroyed for what they have done to Hindustan. May Gods
scourge fall on them.
As the preparations for the Darbar were on their peak, discussions among men about the downfall of the Moghuls and its
causes continued. Mir Nihal, a spokesman of the older generation, said that it was the treachery of Zeenath Mahal, the
second wife of Bahadur Shah, who wanted her son jawan Bakht to sit on the throne, which led her to betray her own
people to the British who had promised to fulfill her wish.
Mir Nihals sons Habibuddin , who represented the views of the younger generation of the Indian Muslims, started
explaining why the English could win against Bahadur Shahs army. He said that the English commanded the most
strategical points in Delhi, the hill; and the MOghal soldiers were fighting from a alower level. And in contrast to the
treacherous and cunning policy of the East India Company, Bahadur Shah had absolutely no military or political sense of
judgement. He only loved to be looked upon as a martyr. So the traitor Mirzza Elahi Bakhsh who had sold himself to the
English, could easily deceive him. And the result was imprisonment, murder and banishment. After giving vent to his
feelings Habibuddin felt very sad and bitter. The listenrs heaved sighs and looked convince.d. Their feelings were that what
was done and could not now be undone.
Then came the fateful day of Coronation the 7th of December 1911. Though the people were displeased with all the
preparations for the function, they still wanted tio watch the procession of the king, just for the fun of it. People of all
religions, casts and age-goup moved towards the JamaMasjid with the break of dawn. The procession was to emerge
from the main gate of the Fort, throughwhich earlier, the Mughal Kings used to pass. The older people, who had witnessed
the grandeur of the MOghal Kings, preferred to say at home as the sight of the Farangi monarch would be very repelling
to them . Mir Nihal loathed to go and watch the procession but his sons Habibuddin and Asghar persuaded him to come.
When they all gathered at the Jama Masjid grounds Mir NIhal seemed filled with thoughts of the past of the slavishness
and treachery of the native nawabs and rajahs. He was overcome with shame and disgust. He thought that this was the

place from where the Indian Kings once rode past his own knings, the kings of Hindusan the kings who gave their lives
for the soil ,. But the Farangis came from across the seven seas as merchants and slowly established their rule. They
adopted the policy of divide the natives and thenrule them.
The procession began to emerge, The procession was a superflous show of pomp and might to generate awe among the
simple mind natives. It consisted of an unending line of general, governors, marchalls, soldiers and the native chiefs with
their retinues and soldiery and in the background were the guns and military arms, threatening as though, the subdued
people of Hindustan.
The novelist portrays the old mans psychic stream: Mir Nihal closed his eyes for a while, but painful thoughts were in his
mind. He wanted to give up thinking of the past but thoughts swarmed upon him. There was a rush of memories in his
mind and he was immersed in them . How could he really forget things which are so fresh in his memory? Right in front of
him was the Red Fort, built By ShahJehan, which was now being treampled by the ruthless alien race. Towards his right,
beyond the city wall, was the Khuni darwaza or the Bloody gate and further beyond ws the old Fort built byFeroz Shah
Tughlak many centuries ago. Further ahead stretched the remnants of the past Delhi and of the ravished splendor of the
once mightyn Hindustan a Humayuns Tomb or aQutub Minar. Mir Nihals ruminations could find no end. He kept
thinking it was there that the earlier emperors had built the early Dilli or Hastinapur, till now stood the iron pillar a
memory of Ashoka and other remnants of the golden times of India when great monarchs reigned here. As he watched the
horses prance on the road, Mir Nihal thought that it was this very Delhi which was being despoiled by a wester race who
had no sympathy for India or for her sons.
To the dismay of many sad spectators the procession passed by the Jama Masjid whose faade had been slavishly
decorated with a garland of Golden writing c0ntaining sheepish greetings from the Indians to the English King. And Mir
Nihal thought how this revealed the treachery of the leadrs to their community.
Memories of the past incidents
Then Mir Nihal couldnt resist the memories of the past incidents when the English had insisted on demolishing the Jama
Masjid during 1857. As he thought of this a very terrible spectacle flashed before his mind, that it was the fourteenth day
of September,1857, the most fateful day when Delhi fell into the hands of the English. On that day the Jama Masjid had
seen a very different sight. The novelist portrays the agitated mind of Mir Nihal.It was a Friday, Mir NIhal recalled, and
thousands of Muslims had gathered in the mosque to say their prayers. Thomas Metcalf with his army had taken stand
and was contemplating the destruction of the Jama Masjid. The Muslims heard of his plans and wanted to attack Metcalf.
But they had no proper ammunition with them only swords. Instantly one man got up and addressed the mammonth
gathering and asked them to live the life of dignity and die the death of gallantry. He told them that they were all going to
die one day but it was better to die like men fighting for their country and its values. Mir Nihal recalled his entire speech
as though the words were still ringing in his ears.
When they had heard his speech, recalled Mir NIhal, all of them had unsheathed their swords and rushed upon the enemy.
In the front stood Metcalf with his men and all around lay the corpses of the dead. A s Metcalf saw the people with
swords in their hands he opened fire again. Hundred fell down dead on the steps of the mosque and on the ground. But
with the strong resolution to embrace death in the cause of the motherland, these men made a sudden rally and even

before Metcalfs men could open fire for the second time, they began to attack the soldiers, who turned their backs and
ran for their lives The novelist dwells on the stream of consciousness, A s the scene passed before his eyes, Mir Nihal
could not contain himself and his rage burst out of bounds. There were those men o f 1857 war-like, valiant, brave and
patriotic, and here were the men of 1911, chicken-hearted and happy in their disgrace. This conclusion filled him with
pain and he sat there, on the rock, immersed in deep rage seeing the disaster of his country, The past which was his,
had gone, and there was no future for him. He was filled with shame and grief, until tears of helplessness came to his eyes
and he removed them from his cheeks.
People were busy looking at the show and the children were happy with excitement. It all seemed to be a fair and function
for them, thought Mir NIhal, but soon when they ave grown up time will show them a new and quite a different sight, and
they will understand the sorrows of subjection.
All this was too much for Mir Nihal and he felt he could not stand it any longer. He got up to go away and forget his woes.
With much difficulty he could make his way out of the crowds. We shall go home soon he said to Nasim, his grandson.
See there go the horses and the Farangis; dont you see them? Those are the people who have been our undoing and
will be uyours too.Nasim looked aat the procession, unable to understand what his grandfather was telling him.But you
will be brave my child, and will fight them one day, wont You? ssaid Mir Nihal. Yes, you will be brave and drive them out
of the country From the distance still came the hum of noise. The guns were still resounding and Mir NIhal was
reminded of those days of the slaughter of Indians when the English guns had boomed far away and the city had been
deserted. Thus has Ahmed Lai, in the entire scene of the coronation Darbar, very realistically brought out the feelings and
sentiment of the native people in reaction to the foreign presence.
IT was the dread of being culturally and socially annihilated by the foreign power which made the natives look upon the
British as their devastators. The Indian Muslims in particular were never prepared to concede any of their rights to the
foreign yoke. So much was their attachment with their grand past that they were unwilling to accept anything less in the
present. But there was one section tof the Indian Muslims which out of a matter of policy a made it their outlook to join
hands with the British in order to secure some such benefits for their community as could not be enjoyed in an atmosphere
of confrontation. The Aligarh school of Thought founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is famous for this policy of compromise
as against the policy of confrontation of the Deoband School of Muslims.
Deoband and the Aligarh
Actually there were two groups in the Muslim Community the nationalist and the loyalist corresponding to the
teachings o f the two major schools of thought of the nineteenth century namely the Deoband and the Aligarh. While the
Deoband school had aversion from everything that smacked of British culture and tradition, the Aligarh school embraced
everything British as a mark of culture and status. But it is a historical truth that the Muslim society got divided into these
two major groups at a larger stage. +Another major cause of muslim hostility towards the British was that the hardship of
the Muslims during the process of the British conquest of India took place at a rapid rate. Many of the finer arts and skilled
industries llike the metal work industry of Moradabad, the textile industry of Decca, etc., had been in the hands of the
Muslims and they were thoroughly ruined by the fiscal policy of the East India Com-pany

Falling Standards or social relations

visiting the Kothas of women at night. A sexual debauch, he had a son by his maid-servant Dilchain. He has hardly any say
in the family matters and household affairs are managed by his Begum alone. But she does take his consent, though
nominally, in deciding important affairs like the alliance of her children, or the sale of property etc.
At night, after dinner he usually went out. He informs at home that he went to seen his friend Nawab Pattan but in reality he
visits his mistress Babbajan , a young and cultured dancing woman. Mir Nihal had rented a house for her in Dareeba. She
lilved there and offered constant sensual entertainment to him.She was in his employment for nearly five years till her death
which altered Mir Nihals life and career altogether.
Mir Nihal had kept her unaware of his debauchery.
She never knew that he had a mistress where he went to seek
entertainment. SO when he came late in the night she would serve dinner to him and ate along with him, occasionally telling
him that he had promised to return early. All that she knew was that her husband was crazy after the pigeons and was
spending all his income looking after them. But she was aware that Muir Nihal was once a free lancer in his youth and she
had suffered a heart-attack about fifteen years ago when Dilchain, her servant- woman had given birth to a child. But that
was thing of the past. And she had come to live with it. She never even recalled it. It is her children, Begum Waheed and
Asghar who recall it later.
Social values or social relations
Asghar, the youngest of Mir NIhals sons was a tall and good-looking boy of twenty two. His tastes and interests were of a
varies nature. He performed his religious rites, wentto the mistress occasionally and always attempted to appear fashionable
with h is English boots and the Turkish cap. He had a friend acalled Budoo. Budoos sister Bilqueece was the beloved of his
heart. He used to spend h ours in the night dreaming of Bilqueece, of her voice, her figure and her appearance.
He used to imagine Bilqueece emerging from the Milky way of stars and descending down to embrace him. Prior to being
caught under the spell of Bilqueece, he used to visit Mushtari BAi, a young and cultured dancing girl. Asghars friend Bari
gave him company in visiting Mushtari Bai. As days passed Asghar decided that he would marry Bilqueece. Though his
parents were against the allilance saying that Bilqueeces mother was not a respectable woman, Asghar became adamant
about his choice. IT became a matter of life and death for him.
Social relations
Now Asghar was a lover in distress, occasionally giving vent to his passion through verses from Urdu and Persian. He would
be all by himself not talking to anybody nor confiding in anybody because there was nobody to sympathise with him or to
understand h is problems. His elder sister Begum Waheed, who sympathized with him and advocated his cause was far
away in Bhopal. He had a friend called Bari and once, when he met Bari on his way back from Bilqueeces house, he told
him what his problem was.Baru consoled him and encouraged him to pursue the affair. They both went to spend sometime
at Mushtari Bais. And when Asghar returned from there he had planned the cause of things he would pursue and was h
appy.

Asghar called his sister from Bhopal and made open his heart to her. She promised him her support and offered to speak to
their mother. IN the beginning Begum Nihal refused to agree. But when told that Asghar might commit suicide if n ot
permitted to marry Bilqueece she reluctantly agreed. Later Mir Nihal also ver y reluctantly and unhappily gives his consent.
Consequently Asghar gets married to Bilqueece only to get himself subjected to the inevitagble blows of fate. Bilqueece
bears a child. Asghar begins to neglect her. Then she dies of consumption. And Asghar make s abortive attempts to marry
her sister Zohra.
In the background of the fierce battle of the cultures in the novel.i.e., the native culture struggling for survival and the
foreign culture struggling for estagblishment and dominance is the corresponding struggle of Mir Nihals family for
survival. As the conflict between the traditional society and the outside forces that are threatening it becomes intens, the
problems in Mir Nihals family also become intense. Begum Jamal angrily leaves her brother-in-laws house for ever to live
with her distant cousin, Bilqueece dies and there is nobody to look after her child Jehan Ara.Mehro never comes to see her
parents . Begum Waheed is still in Bhopal. Mir Nihal is bed-ridden and spend his day trapping the rats. Begum Nihal is
deprived of her eye-sight. Habibuddin dies of tuberculosisHIs family is left uncared for.

Title: Depiction of prevailing political condition in Ahmed Alis Twilight in Delhi

Abstract
Ahmed Alis Twilight in Delhi is a masterpiece that showcased the prevailing political scenario in all its finest and intricate
details. It captured the essence of all the political actions in a delightful narration of events as played out in the predominantly
Muslim society. Delhi is presented as a metaphor for the political struggle that dominated the colonized India, especially in
the Muslim community. The novel presented the city of Delhi that was under the control of British rule as well as the
underlying conditions prevailing during the period. It presented the various aspects of the culture and civilization of colonized
period. Twilight in Delhi and Ocean of Night, as well as much of his fiction in Urdu, focus on the culture of colonial India
and broad humanistic concerns studied through the prism of the Muslim community and its destiny .This paper seeks to
focus on analysing the prevailing conditions dominating the political firmament of India ,especially Delhi in the backdrop of
the experiences of the Muslim community .The trials and tribulations of a middle class Muslim family of the protagonists, Mir
Nihal form the core of the novel.
Key words: Islam, culture and civilization, colonization, Muslim community.
Ahmed Ali-: an epoch-making personality
Ahmed Ali, popularly known as Professor Ahmed Ali, was an epoch-making personality. He was the father of modern

Pakistani literature; in fact, his work helped to shape twentieth century South Asian literature in both English and Urdu.He
was a novelist, translator, poet and a critic. Professor Ahmed Ali was an avid collector of Chinese porcelain, with
emphasison artifects of the Sung period, and of Gandhara art and other antiques.In 1930,he completed B. A.
(Honors,English), Muslim University, Aligarh. And received White Memorial Gold Medal and scholarship for securing first
class and standing first and completed M.A. (English), Lucknow University, Lucknow and achieved Jhallawar Gold Medal
Ahmed Ali started his writing career as a poet and playwright and soon found his forte in the short story and novel,
developing fast as a bilingual (English and Urdu) writer who wrote most of his short stories in Urdu, but his plays, poems and
novels in English. In fact, it can be argued that some of the characterization and symbolism in his novels Twilight in Delhi
(1940) and Ocean of Night (1964) were drawn from the sociological and structural kernel of his plays and short stories of the
1930s which ranged stylistically from the realistic and the symbolic to the autobiographical/emotional and the surrealistic.
Ahmed Alis career spanned the better part of the century and his work put us in touch with both our past and our present.
His renderings of the literatures of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Far East established links which were not yet known,
and are remembered respectfully. His creative writings still draw wide interest and are an enduring contribution to
international letters.
In 1929, in Lucknow, he has published his first short story in English in the Lucknow University Journal. He also

published plays in English such as Land of Twilight and Break the Chains (Premiered in 1932). He also wrote an
Urdu short story Mahavaton ki Ek Raat (A Night of Winter Rains) published by the literary journal Humayun. After this
he has written many short stories in Urdu collected in Sholay (Flames) (1934), Hamari Gali (Our Lane) (1944), Qaid
Khana (Prison House) (1944) and Maut Se Pahlay (Before Death) (1945). Selected stories out of these are translated
into English and has published as The Prison House (1985). His most famous novel is Twilight in Delhi (1940). The
second one Ocean of the Night has been written after it but published in 1964. The last novel, Rats and Diplomats
has been published in 1985. Ali has written poems in English. In 1960 he has published eight poems under the title
Purple Gold Mountain: Poems From China. Later he brought the number up to sixty.

Ahmed Ali- A master chronicler of muslim society:

Ahmed Ali is known as the pioneer of English fiction and poetry among the Muslims of India. His literary career began during
British rule over India and his significance as a writer is both historical and social. He moved from Urdu, his mother tongue
and the literary language of Indian Muslims, to English. He is the first to get hold of modernity, social-realism and then
symbolism from Western origin among Indian Muslim writers. His revocation is chiefly for his historical significance. Born in
Delhi in a family of theologians but his father, Syed Shujauddin, a civil servant in British India. After attending elementary

school at Gurgaon he has been sent to a missionary school in Azamgarh. As his father expired in 1919 he lived with his
uncle (fathers brother) as a student. He first appeared Muslim Aligarh university where he studied science. Later, he joined
Lucknow. University there he studied English. In 1931 he has become a lecturer in English at Lucknow University and in
progress producing fictional work in both Urdu and English. He then moved to Agra, Allahabad and Calcutta in pursuance of
his pedagogic career. He has served in the diplomatic service till 1960 where he has retired and settled down in Karachi. He
then visited the University of Karachi for occasional lecture, wrote, translated and contributed to the familys business
activities.

Ahmed Ali has involved in progressive literary movements as a young man. He has been qualified at leading Indian
universities including Lucknow and Allahabad from 1932-46 and has joined in the Bengal Senior Educational Service as
Professor and Head of the English Department at Presidency College, Calcutta (1944-47). Professor Ahmed Ali has started
his literary career at a very young age and has become co-founder of the All-India Progressive Writers' Movement and
Association with the publication of Angare in 1932, a collection of short stories by four young friends, which has later
prescribed by the British Government of India in March of 1933.that has hitherto been denied the opportunity to speak for
itself. Before publishing his novel in English.
Ahmed Ali and Mahmud-uz-Zaffar together has announced the formation of a League of Progressive Authors, which later
to spread out and become the All-India Progressive Writers Association. Ahmed Ali has presented his paper Art ka TaraqqiPasand Nazariya in its inaugural Conference in 1936.
Professor Ahmed Ali has distinguished himself as a gentlemen of refined taste and manners, deep interest in travel
and a zeal for Ghalib. His writings are concerned with the decay of Muslim culture and the injustices of colonial
powers. Proficient in several languages including French, Chinese, Persian and Quranic Arabic, he has enthralled
audiences with his expressive speech and turn of phrase. Steeped in tradition but progressive at heart, equally at
home in the East and the West. Professor Ahmed Ali have traveled far and wide, and an avid of Chinese porcelain
and paintings, Gandhara art and other antiques.
He also anthologized, as in Shahid Hosains edited collected works entitled First Voices: Six Poets from Pakistan (1965). His
interest in Urdu poetry has resulted in several translations: The Falcon and the Hunted Bird: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry
(1950); The Bulbul and the Rose: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry (1962); Ghalib: Selected Poems (1969) and The Golden
Tradition (1973). As a translator, besides Urdu poetry, his major work is the translation of the Quran from Arabic to English.
He calls it Al-Quran: A Contemporary Translation (1984). References to poems from China or Indonesia, as in The Flaming
Earth: Poems from Indonesia (1949) is not clear whether he has actually translated from Chinese or Bhasa Indonesian
originals or used intermediaries.

Description of Delhi in twilight :

The city of Delhi was once the vice-like grip of art, culture, architecture and learning. Its throne was adorned by the kings and
monarchs who patronized learning and encouraged fine arts. Many victorious wars were fought on its battlefields. It has seen
their glory as well as their disaster. They were those who beautified the city by erecting great monuments and creating
magnificent buildings. And whose only work was to invade the city, raid its fortresses, destroy the monuments and loot the
wealth. And the city of Delhi stands a witness to all these happenings like a mute spectator. It has no reaction to show
against the damage done to its culture and civilization.
The novelist speaks pessimistically: Gone are the poets now and gone is its culture. Only the coils of the rope, when the
rope itself has been burnt, remain to remind us of the past splendour.Delhi stands for both life and death. It has seen how
glory descended upon it with the rise to power of the Guptas, the Mauryas, the Kushans, the Pandabas, the Khiljis, the
Sayyids and the Lodhis, and the great Moghuls. And it had also seen the dethroning of the poet-king Bahadur Shah the
last of that great line of rulers, at the hands of the foreigners who came into the country as mere traders but gradually dug
their feet deep into the soil of statecraft. With their invasion a kind of silence and apathy, as of death, descended upon the
city. Its glory began to wither away. The city of Delhi is the definitive symbol of loss and Muslim sense of nostalgia.
The city, at least six or seven times in history, has been plundered and destroyed. Ali captures the image of Delhi as:
the city of Delhi, built hundreds of years ago, fought for,

d for, coveted and desired, built, destroyed and rebuilt, for

and six and seven times, mourned and sung, raped and

nquered, yet whole and alive, lies indifferent in the arms of

ep. It was the city of kings and monarchs, of poets and

ry tellers, courtiers and nobles. But no king lives there

ay, and the poets are feeling the lack of patronage; and the
inhabitants, though still alive, have lost their pride and

ndeur under a foreign yoke. (Ali 1983: 1-2)

Depiction of political orientation among middle-class Muslim families in Delhi:

The novel depicted the life of the first two decades of the twentieth century middle class Muslim family in Delhi. The novel
presented. The city of Delhi that was under the control of British ruling over it and moreover described the conditions

prevailing during the period. In the second edition of the novel, Ali who is a Muslim fourth to the Indian big three of the
1930s Raja Rao, Narayan and Anand, articulated his intention:
My purpose was to depict a phase of our national
Life and the decay of a whole culture, a particular
Mode of thought and living, now dead and gone
Already right before our eyes. Seldom is one allowed
See a pageant of History whirl past and partake
In it too. (Twilight in Delhi Vii)
In 1918,nature was rebellious and angry with people of India. Thousands were killed in the war, with the German guns.
There was inhumanity and could find Delhi became a city of the dead. People of Delhi very particular of the traditions of the
past. They made songs and sang them, and the leaflets containing them were sold for a peiece each.
How deadly this fever is,
Everyone is dying of it.
Men become lame with it
And go out in dolis
The hospitals are gay and bright,
But sorry is mens plight.

The reader could measure the mind of the protagonists, Mir NIhals memories of the ferocious British 1857 revolt. When the
familys wedding ceremony coincide with coronationof George V took place. Mir Nihals view point, the celebration of a
British monarch in Delhi turned the city which was once the greatest in Hindustan. Into an exhibition ground.
Here it was in this very Delhi, Mir Nihal

Thought, that Kings once rode past,Indian Kings

His kings, kings who have left a great and
Glorious name behind. But the Farangis came
From across the seven seas, and gradually
Established their rule. By egging on Indian
Chiefs to fight each other and by giving them
Secret and open aid they won concessions for
Themselves; and established theirempire.
Mir Nihal believes the city of Delhi once ruled by Muslim kings with glorious name became dead and decay with the
interventionofFarangis.The crowd reached at the Fort in Delhi to see the King, it only happened during the Mughal Kings.
People of Delhi could not able to distinguish the king and the officials because the English looked alike with their white faces
and similar military uniforms.
The procession passed, one long unending line of
generals and governors, the tommies and the
Native chiefs with their retinues and soldiery,
Like a slow unending line of ants. In the
Background were the guns booming, threatening
The subdued people of Hindustan. Right on the
Road, lining it on either side, and in the
Procession were English soldiers, to show , as
It seemed to Mir Nihal, that Delhi has been

conquered with the force of arms and at the

point of guns will she be retained.(pg.149)
The novel presented at a time the political activity and the religious and in detail the celebration of the British and their
servants who passed by the main mosque, Jama Masjid center and it is symbol of the anti-colonialist resistance:
The procession passed by the Jama Masjid whose
Faade had been vulgarly decorated with a
Garland of golden writing containing slavish
Greetings from the Indian Mussalmans to the
English king, dis playing the treachery of the
Priestly class to their people and Islam.(pg.150)
There is a celebration of GeorgeV in Twilight in Delhi but in his third novel, Of Rats and Diplomats, there is a criticism, of
British ruler as he flet useless to present their celebrations. By stating satirically that the British celebrating the death of an
Edwardian king by holding a grand durbar on the ashes of Mughal pride in ravished Delhi. There is an interpretation of
selective events recovered from collective memory that injects the narrative style in Twilight in Delhi with an emotional
eloquence. It has described the intention of British who likes to destroy JamaMasjid, there is anti-British sentiments with
Islam.
It was this very mosque, Mir Nihalremembered With blood in his eyes, which the English had Insisted on demolishing or
turning into a churchDuring 1857 Sir Thomas Metcalf with his Army had taken his stand by t6he Esplanade Road, and
was contemplating the destruction of Jama Masjid. The Musalmans came to know of this fact, and they talked of making an
attack on Metcalf; but they had no guns with them,only swords. One man got up and standing onthe pulpit shamed the
people, saying that theywould all die one day, but it was better to die like men, fighting for their country and Islam(150-151)
The conflict between British and Muslim as shown in Twilight :
The conflict between British and Muslim continue till Gandhis non-cooperation movement started. While attending the
movements meeting, they heard the death of mUslim youth who had been killed and then Habibuddin.MirNihals favorite
son declares,the English frankly say that they fear no one but Muslims in India and that if they crush the Mussalmans they

shall rule with a care- free heart.(262) This statement published by British officials in India. For eg. William Howard Russell
wrote in the Times in early 1858 that
The Mohammadan element in India is that Which causes us most trouble and provokes the Largest share of our hostility
our antagonism To the followers of Mohammed is far stronger than that we bear to the worshippers of Shiva and
Vishu.They are unquestionably more dangerous to our rule if we could eradicate the traditions and destroy the temples of
Mohammad by one vigorous effort, itould indeed be well for the Christian faith and for the British rule.
There was no peace for the soul of man. Azaans were called and prayers were done to stop the evil/ But is was of no use.
Death passed through towns and cities.
People of Delhi became conscious and wished to change the conditions of India. Because it was under the Britishers. Home
Rule Movement began. Of course, Mir Nihal was not affected with this. He had his own aspirations which he neither
understood nor sympathized with. He was unconcerned.
Indians started to adopt the western culture the richness of life had been looted and despoiled by the foreigners, and
vulgarity and cheapness had taken its place.
Home Rule Movement started in 1917, the streets were deserted and Indian polilcemen patrolled in the Chandni Chowk.
The government had opened fire on Indian mobs.
Rowlatt Bill
Motherland.

was passed and people began processions shouting slogans and protesting for the freedom of their

Habibuddins son Nasim recited the poem or political song written after the Balkan war had sentiments of Mussalmans
The wish for glory and martyrdom
Has begun to sway our hearts again
We shall try his skill and see
What strength is in the enemys hand
Let the time come we will show
What courage there is in us still

Why should we tell you nows what we

Have in our hearts? The power of will
But, traveler on the road of love,
Tire and weary not in the way.
The pleasure of tramping the desert is
Greater the father is the goal away(pg263)
Mir Nihals painful thoughts were in his mind. When he tried to close his eyes he could see the Red Fort that wwas built by
Shahjahan. Humayuns tomb or a QUtub Minar proved to be mighty Hindustan in those days.
Mir NIhal remembered with blood in his eyes when he was ten years of age , the English insited to demolish Mosque into a
church during 1857. On 14th September 1857 when thousands of Mussalmans gathered to do prayers, Thomas Metcalf
with his army destroyed the Jama Masjid. The Muslims when came to know of this wanted to attack on Metcalf, but hey had
no guns with them they had only swords. They were informed that if they want to save their lives they should go to the
southern gate and if they want to prove their mettle should reach to the northern gate of the mosque.There was not one soul
who went to southern gate of the mosque. Hundreds fell down dead on the steps of the mosque.
After some days the muslims made a sudden rally and threw away Metcalf men many muslims were killed because they
have no guns.
The Muslims dominated during the revolt of 1857, and so the British called it a Mohammadan rebellion and a handiwork of
the Muslims who challenged them and made as mortal enemy from the entire population of India. Many thousands of
people died and were massacred and some thousands made guilty for their deeds and sent to death. W.W.Hunter a British
civil servant, stated in 1868: After the Mutiny, the British turned upon the Mussalmans as their real enemies so that failure of
the revolt was much more disastrous to them than the Hindus.Jawaharlal Nehrus autobiography (the first Prime Minister of
India)affirms the British policy of anti-Muslim discrimination: After 1857 the heavy hand of the British fell more on the
Muslims than on the Hindus. They considered the Muslims more aggressive and militant than the Hindus, possessing
memories of recent rule in India and therefore more dangerous.

Works cited:
Ali Ahmed "Twilight in Delhi," The Hogarth Press, 1940;
Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1966;
OUP, Karachi, 1984;
Sterling Paperbacks, Delhi, 1973;
New Directions, New York, 1994;
Rupa Publications, Delhi, 2007;
Urdu translation, Akrash Press, Karachi, 1963,
JamiaMillia, Delhi, 1969;
(French) French translation, Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1989;
Spanish translation, Ediciones Martinez Roca, 1991.
Malak Amin "Muslim narratives in the discourse of English,State University of New York Press, 2005,pg no 19-24.

Ahmed Alis protagonist the sixty year old, sturdily-built, typically feudal,
manager of a shop of the lace-dealers Mir Nihal, and his household personify
the disintegrate feudal society that the novel uncovers. Mir Nihal is the head of his
middle-class Muslim household living in the area near Lal Kuan. His is a fairly
large family with two daughters four sons and a orthodox middle-class Muslim
wife in her fifties called Begum Nihal. Mir Nihal is a cringing head of the family. He
owns some property also, which keeps the household running quite soundly. And

the other monthly income which Mir Nihal makes from his services as a manger
of the lace-dealers shop, he spends on his hobbies. He is a free-lancing old man
spending much of time and income in kite and pigeon-flying and visiting the
kothas of women at night. A sexual debauch, he has a son by his maid-servant
Dilchain. He has hardly any say in the family matters and household activities are
presided by his Begum alone. But she does take his assent, though nominally, in
deciding important affairs like the alliance of her children, or the sale of property
etc.
Mir Nihal is an aristocrat in his habits an orthodox feudal gentleman. Besides
pigeon-flying he is very fond of collecting old China-ware and has also devoted
some of his time to alchemy and medicine. Every morning and evening he would
be seen flying pigeons-feeding them, or beating the roof with his shoes to drive
the pigeons away from home. At night, after dinner he usually goes out. He tells
at home that he is going to see his friend Nawab Pattan but in truth he goes to
his mistress Babban Jaan,a young and cultured dancing woman. Mir Nihal had
rented a house for her in Dareeba. She lived there and offered constant sensual
entertainment to him. She is in his employment for nearly five years till her death
which has modified Mir Nihals life and career altogether.
Once, when Mir Nihal is busy at the pigeons loft, giving water to and tying
feathers of the newly bought pigeons, Gafoor, his servant comes running to
inform that Babban Jan is critically ill. Mir Nihal immediately leaves for Babban
Jan, forgetting altogether even to close the loft door.
With the illness and following demise of Babban Jan, begins a very different
phase in the life of Mir Nihal. The death of this mistress being a gloomy occasion

many unfortunate incidents occur as a result of the unqualified disillusionment

and melancholy that has descended upon Mir Nihal following the tragedy. He
forgot to close the door of the loft and is almost mad to find that the wild cats
has a nice feast there almost to the extent of society. As it is impossible to
overcome this second shock also, he has decided in anger to do away with the
hobby itself. The remaining pigeons are sent to be sold the same day.
He finds himself weak and broken. The piling up of grief made him pessimistic.
He then decides to give up his job itself - for where is the income to be spent
now, as it is his sons are asking him not to do the job and what is there now
to protect his demeanour or position he could as well lead a life of dependence
on his children. Remarks the novelist: Now she was dead, and he did not care
what mattered if he was dependent on his sons or anybody else he decided to
give up his work, thought the man who suddenly began to feel old age
descending upon him! These incidents evoke in him a consciousness of his own
impending end. He begins to think about Death!
It is after these incidents that Mir Nihal decides to give his consent for the son
Asghars alliance with Mirza Shahbaz Baigs daughter. What if Asghar has gone
and married without his will? Why bear another burden of humiliation at this stage
of life? He thought. And he said to himself: why withhold consent? It has
mattered little whether Asghar married a low-born or a girl with blue blood in her
veins. He would not be in it anyway If Asghar has refused to see his point of
view he could go his own way and ruin himself. He did not care. Life has not
treated him well; and if a son is also lost it must be borne.
Then in idleness his old hobbies of medicine and alchemy revived. He took out

his notes and began to study about herbs and plants. A new circle of friends
begins to form. Hakims and Fakirs come to him to sit for hours comparing notes
and relating anecdotes. Moreover, he thought, the atmosphere of alchemy and
medicine is a world which was still his own where no one could disturb him or
order him about. Such is the old mans hatred for being ordered about and
being imposed upon.
Begum Nihal, a woman in her early fifties, was a dutiful wife of the easygoing
husband. She has reproached him for his careless ways. She often has to
remember him that their children Mehro and Asghar are coming of age and that
he should look for a proper affiliation for them. Begum Nihal is the only person in
the entire household who execute the religious rites with a automated regularity.
The others only did it intermittently. In the morning, after the dawn prayers, she
would sit and recite the holy Quran aloud in a rhythmic tone rhythmically moving
back and forth. She is the symbol of the self-less and calm middle-class Muslim
woman of the early twentieth century
Mir Nihal has kept her unaware of his debauchery. She never knew that he has a
concubine where he has gone to seek recreation. So when he come late in the
night she would serve up dinner to him and ate along with him, occasionally
telling him that he has promised to rejoin timely. All that she know is that her
husband is crazy after the pigeons and is spending all his income looking after
them. But she is aware that Mir Nihal is once a free-lancer in his youth and she
has suffered a heart-attack about fifteen years ago when Dilchain, her servantwoman has given birth to a child. But that is a thing of the past. And she has
come to live with it. She never even recalled it. It is her children, Begum Waheed

and Asghar who recall it later.

Asghar, the youngest of Mir Nihals sons is a tall and good-looking boy of twenty
two. His tastes and interests are of a varied nature. He has performed his
religious rites, goes to the concubine occasionally and always endeavour to
emerge fashionable with his English boots and the Turkish cap. He has a friend
called Bundoo. Bundoos sister Bilqueece is the beloved of his heart.. He used to
spend hours in the night dreaming of Bilqueece, of her voice, her figure and her
appearance.
He imagines Bilqueece appearing from the Milky Way of stars descending
down to hold in the arms of him. Prior to being caught beneath the spell of
Bilqueece, he visits Mushtari Bai, a young and cultured dancing girl. Asghars
friend Bari gives him company in visiting Mushtari Bai. As days passed Asghar
decides that he would marry Bilqueece. Though his parents are against the
alliance saying that Bilqueeces mother is not a respectable woman, Asghar
becomes unyielding about his choice. It becomes a matter of life and death for
him.
Now Asghar is a lover in distress, occasionally giving expression to his passion
through verses from urdu and Persian. He would be all by himself not talking to
anybody nor disclose to anybody because there is nobody to compassionate
with his or to understand his problems. His elder sister Begum Waheed, who
sympathized with him and has advocated his cause is far way in Bhopal. He has
a friend called Bari and once, when he met Bari on his way back from
Bilqueeces house, he tells him his problem. Bari consoles him and encourages
him to pursue the affair. They both go to spend some time at Mushtari Bais. And

when Asghar returns from there he plans the cause of things he would pursue
and feels happy.
Asghar call his sister from Bhopal and made open his heart to her. She promises
him her prop and propounded to speak to their mother. In the beginning Begum
Nihal resist to see eye to eye. But when told that Asghar might commit suicide if
not permitted to marry Bilqueece she hesitantly agrees. Later Mir Nihal also very
reluctantly and unhappily gives his consent. Consequently Asghar gets married to
Bilqueece only to get himself subjected to irrevocable blows of fate. Bilqueece
bears a child. Asghar begins to neglect her. The she dies of consumption. And
Asghar makes worthless endeavour to marry her sister Zohra.
In the background of the vicious battle of the cultures in the novel, i.e., the native
culture grapple for continued existence and the foreign culture struggling for
formation and dominance is the conforming struggle of Mir Nihals family for
survival. As the conflict between the traditional society and the outside forces that
are unapproachable it becomes intense, the problems in Mir Nihals family also
become potent. Begum Jamal angrily leaves her brother-in-laws house for ever
to live with her distant cousin; Bilqueece dies and there is nobody to look after
her child Jehan Ara. Mehro never comes to see her parents. Begum Waheed is
still in Bhopal. Mir Nihal is confined to bed and spends his day trapping the rats.
Begum Nihal is distressed of her eye-sight. Habibuddin dies of tuberculosis. His
family is left uncared for.
All of Mir Nihals children are married and settled. Whether they are happy or not
is not his worry. He himself is on the way to his end. This he has begun to
understand. And he thinks it to be certain. Similarly the beloved of the heart of

the Indians, the city of Delhi, has also got dismembered, giving birth to a New
Delhi. Though the occupants of Delhi has become enlightened the fortune of the
foreign government has begun to contend itself poignantly. In the city of Delhi
many changes are being proposed. The gutters which are deep and
underground from the times of the early Moghals to this day are being dug and
made shallow, and the dirty water has flowed very near the level of the streets
and there is stink all around. The city walls are also going to be demolished. The
residents of Delhi has resented all this physical change for their city- the city of
their dreams. They never want it to change beyond recognition.The most hateful
change for the Delhities is the disfiguring of the Chandni Chowk whose central
footpath has demolished and the peepal trees which has given shelter to the
residents from the scorching rays of the sun, are cut down. This has affected the
people more deeply than anything else. With these changes the place lost its
oriental atmosphere. It did not remain the real Chandni Chowk wit which so many
sweet memories are associated . Outside the city, far beyond the Turkoman Gate
and opposite the Kotla of Feroz Shah, the Old Fort, a new Delhi is going to be
built. Once the new town is ready the old would be abandoned and
acknowledged to fall into ruin. Apart from this, a new Delhi meant new people,
new ways, and a new world altogether. And that is too much for the old residents
of the place. A new people meant new customs and traditions. The old culture
would, therefore be in a danger to eradicate. The language on which Delhi has
once prided itself would become contaminated and impure. This the people of
Delhi were most unwilling to let happen. And here Ahmed Alis hero, Mir Nihals
personification of the society at the moment when the social fabric is being

altered, becomes clearly discernable. A proud and stable civilization is destroyed

by the infringement of an outside culture, just as a happy family is dismembered
by the modernistic trends. The traditional society, hitherto protects by the
common force of social and religious values, breaks and collapses with the arrival
of the whiteman and his ideology. Similarly the erosion of traditional values in the
family o Mir Nihal is seen as a result of the effects of the new civilization. MirNihal
tells Asghar: You are again wearing those dirty English boots; I dont like them.I
will have no aping of the farangis in my house. Throw them way. Later in the
novel when Asghars wife Bilqueece wears English shoes and attends a wedding
at the house of Mir Nihal the women in the zenana comment: She looks like a
good-as-dead farangan. The disgust seems to have passed the limits of
decency. What else could you expect from Mirza Shahbaz Baigs daughter?
They seem to have eaten some Farangis shit..
The thrust of Ahmed Alis thematics in this novel is to suggest passionately,
prophetically, but always lyrically, that Indias Muslims are falling on death-defying
times as they face the British occupation, passing on through the novels title ad
ejected premonition of the subsequent fragmentation of Muslims in the subcontinent.The novel thus functions from first to last nostalgia for the glorious era
of the Mughals and prophecy about the pending collapse of the Muslim power
and glory in India, with the ruins of Delhi becoming symbolic of the ruin of Islam
(King 244). Interestingly, in Anita Desais novel Clear Light of Day, whose title and
setting evoke Alis novel, similar, yet syncretically contexted, sentiments are expressed about Old Delhis decline in postindependence India: Bim, the novels
privileged voice, bemoans the fate of Delhi:

Old Delhi does not change. It only decays. My students tell me it is a great cemetery, every house a tomb.
Nothing but sleeping graves . . . here nothing happens at all.Whatever happened, happened [a] long time
agoin the time of the Tughlaqs, the Khiljis, the Sultanate, the Moghulsthat lot. (5)

The dual agents of nostalgia and prophecy become further pronounced in Alis
second novel, Ocean of Night (1964), where he dramatizes the process of
degener- ation of the Muslim nobility of Lucknow toward its self-inflicted doom.
The amorality and recklessness of Nawab Chhakkan, a descendant of an old
Taluqdar (landowning) family that collaborated with the British during the 1857
uprising to be rewarded with feudal privileges, foreshadows the disintegration of a
com- munity when it loses the sense of its destiny.The Nawabs drunkenness
and de- bauchery cause his ruin, leading to his demise by a murdersuicide.As
one of the novels minor characters, the Marxist Siddiqi, puts it to a friend,We as
a nation are suffering from nostalgia. Go back to the past is your constant cry.
But how can you go back to the past? Which past? I tell you you cant (54).
The argument here is that no nation, community, family, or individual can triumph
over current misery through recalling past glory.As with the doomed fate of Delhi
in Twilight in Delhi, the prophesied decline of Lucknow in Ocean of Night
symbolizes the fragmentation of the Muslim community in India.While Ocean of
Night succeeds in evoking an ambience of decay and decline, it lacks the focus
and lyrical vi- brancy of Twilight in Delhi. Its effectiveness is also tarnished by the
preaching, es- sayistic quality of its narrator. (Indeed, one glimpses such a
tendency in Alis earlier novel too, but it is kept relatively restrained.) Moreover,
the swift, synoptic shifts of discourse and the occasional racy reversals of the
characters mood and actions

Make the narrative disjointed (Raizada 19) and undermine the novels dra- matic
impact. These limitations could prompt one to consider Ocean of Night more of a
phantasy [sic] than a novel (Raizada 22) and to evaluate Ali as a one-novel novelist
(Trivedi 43). However, one could appreciate Alis strategy here as being based on
storytelling techniques derived from the oral Indian/Muslim tradition, whereby an
intrusive, often digressive, teller plays such a dominant role that it licenses him or her to
impede or redirect the narrative flow by recurrently reciting nostalgic poetry, culled from
collective memory, and injecting it (as Ali often does) into the narrative. Being a
powerfully effective mode of emotional and cultural expression, poetry operates as an
apt emblematic commentary on character and action, and because of its anciennet in
Eastern societies, it serves as a literary linkage with a nostalgic past and a repository of
its civilizational glory.

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Posted 31st March 2012 by Hafiza Jamal
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