The Muslim Vanishes PDF
Preview The Muslim Vanishes
SAEED NAQVI THE MUSLIM VANISHES A Play PENGUIN BOOKS Contents Not in the Play ACT I Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V ACT II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV ACT III Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Acknowledgements Notes Follow Penguin Copyright Advance Praise for the Book ‘This book, written in the form of a play, is a stark, compelling portrait of our times. No words are minced, nor are the feelings of anguish and anger concealed. The past, the present and the future are fused into a magical and surreal timelessness in its earnest search for truth and justice. Where does it lead to? Not surprisingly, the end, logically, tragically and inevitably, proves to be dystopian’—Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Malayalam film director, scriptwriter and producer ‘I know of no one of our generation who has written about the ways, values, beliefs, arts, about the very life that we share with each other: all with knowledge as wide, feelings as deep and commitment as enduring as Saeed Naqvi’s. The Muslim Vanishes is a play we should all read and whose lesson we should let percolate into our hearts’—Arun Shourie, author, former Union minister ‘The Muslim Vanishes is staggering, inventive and even metaphoric. Loved it’—Saeed Mirza, film-maker and screenwriter ‘A fantastic fable. A deeply disturbing view of India today. A dire warning about the future if the true wisdom of the past is ignored’— Mark Tully, journalist and author ‘The Muslim Vanishes is a fable that needs to be told with alarming urgency. It is insightful (as expected from Saeed Naqvi) and provocative, with a piercing sense of humour. A stunning work of modern literature and disturbingly relevant to our polarized times’— Hansal Mehta, film-maker, actor and writer ‘This sardonic, intellectually challenging play, with sections written in verse, is a marvellous invocation of the Indic civilization, with its unimaginably plural, multicultural and multiethnic legacy, now suddenly threatened by a new form of politics of hate, suspicion and fear in a Muslim-less India. Though the author calls it a fable, the tone is that of a lighthearted farce, in which characters like Amir Khusro, Tulsidas and Kabir have roles. Yet, none can miss the underlying feeling of hurt and the sense of betrayal of a proud Indian and a proud Muslim’—Ashis Nandy, public intellectual and political psychologist ‘The Muslim Vanishes is so full of Saeed Naqvi’s vast knowledge of the Ganga–Jamuni culture that it will surprise and annoy many readers. Why will it annoy? You have to read it to find that out. It leads you, with deceptive stealth, into a fable, then jolts you with truths you are not accustomed to confronting’—Meghnad Desai, member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom ‘In my travels with Saeed Naqvi to over fifty countries, I have closely observed his eye for political currents, his passion for world cuisine and his unmatchable knowledge of poetry. But what I really learnt from him—something that I carried over to my films—was the ability to see the human story behind the politics. In The Muslim Vanishes, Saeed Naqvi does what only he can do—create what is deceptively a fable but in fact deliver a narrative that is controversial, explosive and unputdownable’—Kabir Khan, film-maker and screenwriter ‘Masterpiece. Incredible, realistically unreal: fiction in its purest, most powerful form’—A.S. Dulat, former secretary, Research and Analysis Wing ‘The Muslim Vanishes is a must for statesmen, diplomats and anyone interested in a peaceful and progressive Indian subcontinent. Its author, Saeed Naqvi, one of India’s most prominent journalists and television commentators, incisively enlightens the reader with the competing ideas that battle over national identity in the Indian mind. Though he is officially a Muslim, Naqvi’s true faith is “India”, whose rich culture and history he views as the joint creation of Hindus and Muslims throughout twelve centuries of living together’— Clinton Bailey, Israeli intellectual, historian and authority on Bedouin culture For Saba, Farah, Zeba Sara, Faizan, Shahvez Not in the Play Why would an itinerant journalist settle down to write a play? The thought occurred to me when I was in South Africa, on an assignment to cover Nelson Mandela’s inauguration in 1994. His very first appointment was Ahmed Kathrada, a Muslim South African of Gujarati origin. As Mandela’s chef-de-camp, he became the second most important man in South Africa. Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, appointed Essop Pahad (Essop is a version of Yusuf) in the same slot. It turned out that both Mandela and Mbeki had, in fact, appointed nine Muslims in their respective cabinets. There was a simple, sociological reason why this should be so. Most Indians arrived in South Africa as indentured labourers. On their heels came a handful of Muslim traders from Gujarat—men like Baba Abdullah, who engaged Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a barrister from Britain. The descendants of these traders were sent to the finest schools, outside the apartheid system. They learnt about anti-imperial struggles in liberal universities in Britain and Ireland. In the anti-apartheid struggle, these educated men and women were in leadership positions. They were obvious choices for the first cabinet of independent South Africa. This, however, was not the way a friend of mine, a mid-level Indian diplomat, saw the phenomenon of Muslim preeminence in the South African cabinet. The composition of the cabinet, according to him, was an advantage to Pakistan. Their diplomats would now have extraordinary access in a country where ‘Gandhiji once fought for our rights’. Had this response reached Mandela, he would have broken into that infectious grin of his. In fact, this would be the first time that he would see the composition of his cabinet in religious categories. He and his cabinet colleagues were tempered in the South African struggle, not in places of worship. My friend could not be blamed for his closed mind on Pakistan and, more recently, on China. He was part of the foreign office, which, for seventy years, had, on a priority basis, produced position papers after position papers to foil Pakistan. In the rough and tumble of electoral politics, Pakistan, Kashmir, Muslims, all got amalgamated. The brew became even more lethal when the global war on Islamic terror synchronized in real time with heightened Hindu–Muslim tension. The politician smacked his lips. For him it was a feast. But surely, my friend would have been better placed to guide the politician if he were equipped with the facts of Partition and Pakistan, which is the foreign office’s focus 24/7. Politics has injected prejudice into the way we think about these subjects; it filters out the details that would otherwise inform balanced judgement. This has invited reciprocity from the other side. There is a popular assumption that after the partition of India, Hindus from Pakistan came to India and Indian Muslims migrated to Pakistan. Nothing of the sort happened. The truth is much more nuanced. Only Punjab and Bengal were partitioned. Hindu Punjabis came to Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Delhi, UP and beyond. Muslims from East Punjab, and only East Punjab, crossed over to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar. Muslims in other parts of India stayed where they were. Only limited numbers went, or were sent, to the secretariat in Karachi, which was Pakistan’s first capital. That was how Karachi became the centre for refugees or ‘Mohajirs’, which is what they are called to this day. The Muslims in Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan stayed put exactly where they were. The Muslims from India went to these states only in ones and twos, negligible
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