CHAPTER II Pre Modern History (a) Tughlaq (b) The Dreams of Tipu Sultan (c) Tale - Danda
CHAPTER II PRE MODERN HISTORY History is necessary to the living man in three different ways: in relation to his action and struggle, his conservatism and reverence, his suffering and his desire for deliverance. These three relations answer to three kinds of history...so far as they can be distinguished the monumental, the antiquarian and the critical. 1 Karnad has revolutionized the Indian drama by writing first in the regional language, then translating the same into English to make it popular world wide. He takes up historical subject and gives it symbolical reshaping to reinforce the contemporary issues in such an accomplished and artistic way that it becomes an absolute pleasure to go through his historical works in modern perspectives. Mahesh Dattani comments, He has a historic vision but a contemporary voice 2, which makes his plays universal. Karnad reveals the secret behind the selection of historic and folkloric source materials for his plays in an interview: Basically I don t know how to write a story and I draw from the repository of mythology, folklore and history. It is such a rich source material that some of the origin or the stories in the western world could be traced to India. Besides they have contemporary relevance. They infuse life into drama. 3 Past helps to comprehend the present. History enables us to uncover the dark recesses of human psychology. When we pass through the time of dead we realize that they were not sheer ideologies of a particular historical moment, but are relevant substitutes that still left their impact in various disguising syntheses on us. That is why, in the words of Karnad, One must know history, it always helps. It brings depth to whatever one does. 4 We can easily compare the historical characters with the people we meet in our day to day life. Their motives, attitudes, ambitions are same; just their names and faces differ. 30
The adoption of history is not a new thing for the artists. From the Greek and Roman writers onwards history has been exploited by litterateurs for literary expressions, to name a few Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Walter Scott, T.S. Eliot, Robert Bolt, Osborne and various Indian writers have used history. Karnad says, It is a fact that for the Hindu mind history is itihasa or myth. History was used as a positive concept to analyse life and society by the Muslim historians. So, I thought, why not give history a try as a tool to interpret our life and times? I started some research; read some history. 5 Dramatic imagination plays a substantial role in the creation of a historical play. A playwright has to set his mind in the particular location of that period. Aparna Dharwadkar writes: The history plays draw extensively on printed sources, combine real life individuals with fictional characters, and recreate particular places at particular moments in time. More than any of his contemporaries, Karnad therefore possesses a dramatic imagination that ranges widely in time and space, and allows him to speak through a remarkably diverse cast of characters. 6 Karnad has traversed a vast and wide range of history. The intricate heterodoxy of political cultural formations rendered him the awareness of the cunning passages of history. Various Muslims historians like Ziyauddin Barani, Amir Khusrau, Abul Fazl, Abdul Hamid Lahori and Khafi Khan, Hasan Nizami, Abdul Qadir Badaoni and others introduced history as a positive concept in Indian thought. The only genuine methodology for analyzing history was developed by the Muslims historians in India. Karnad very splendidly fills the vacuum of magnificent historical plays in Indian literature by composing the three brilliant masterpieces. The line of history plays move 31
from Tughlaq (1964) to Tale Danda (Death by Decapitation, 1990) and The Dreams of Tipu Sultan (1997). 7 References: 1. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History, New York: Cosimo, Inc., 2010, p.12. 2. Deepa Ganesh, Friday Review Bangalore: Taking it forward, The Hindu, June 30, 2006. 3. Girish Karnad interviewed by M. Madan Mohan, Face to Face with a committed playwright, The Hindu, November 12, 1999. 4. Girish Karnad interviewed by Rana Siddiqui, Man for all seasons, The Hindu, June 26, 2004. 5. Girish Karnad interviewed by Tutun Mukherjee In His Own Voice: A Conversation with Girish Karnad, Girish Karnad s Plays: Performance and Critical Perspectives, (ed.) Tutun Mukherjee, Delhi: Pencraft International, 2006, p.35. 6. Introduction by Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Collected Plays, Vol. 1, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006, p.xi. 7. Ibid. p.ix. 32
(a) TUGHLAQ Tughlaq is Karnad s second play. It is now widely recognized as a piece of class. In its canvas and treatment Tughlaq is huge and contemporary. The play has an interesting story, an intricate plot and a scope for spectacle. It freely uses dramatic conventions like the comic pair Aziz and Azam. Tughlaq is Karnad s first successful experiment and after it he applied his artistic skill in translating and narrating history on the dramatic pages of Tale Danda and The Dreams of Tipu Sultan. Tughlaq is a fine contemporary history play, which at once catapulted Karnad to the first rank of Indo Anglican playwrights. Contemporary in the sense that one can see the flashes of Tughlaqui attitude callous, yet well meaningful in contemporary political structure and which also has now become a proverb in Hindi. U.R. Ananthamurthy, an eminent Kannada novelist, comments: Karnad is the poet of drama. The use of history and mythology to tackle contemporary themes give him the psychological distance to comment on our time. 1 Tughlaq presents the life of an eponymous hero in relation to his subjects in his kingdom. It is a tale of the crumbling to the ashes of the dreams and aspirations of an over ambitious, yet considerably virtuous king in Indian history. The play was an immediate success on the stage. It was received like a hot cake by the national and international readers and audiences. Tughlaq first appeared in print in Kannada in 1964 and later on translated into English by the playwright himself at the request of Alyque Padamsee. It has been translated into various languages across the world including Hungarian and German. The play was first produced in Kannada in1965. It was also staged about the same time in Hindi by the National School of Drama, and in 33
August 1970 there was an English production of it in Bombay by a Theatre Group at the Bhulabhai Desai Auditorium. The play cross examines the psycho political study of a legendary personality his historicity, motives, visions and struggle to assert himself as a Sultan and how he takes his own downfall. Taking inspiration from the comments of a noted Kannada critic Kirtinath Kurtkoti, that there were only costume plays and no historical plays in Kannada which could appeal to modern sensibility, Karnad set his mind to write a chronicle play during his stay at Oxford University. For this purpose, he delved deep into several historical records relating the life of Tughlaq like Zia ud din Barani s Tarik i Fieruz Shahi, Al Marshi s The Maslike al absar, Ibn i Batutah s Travels, Badoni s Tarikh i-mubarak Shashi, Ishwari Prasad, commercial theatres, etc. The stagecraft of the play is modeled on the Parsi theatre, which demands a mechanical succession of alternating shallow and deep scenes. The shallow scenes are played in the foreground of the stage with a painted curtain usually displaying a street view as the backdrop. The deep scenes show interiors of places, royal parks and such other visually opulent sets; while the set change keeps going on. In the shallow scene we have comical characters. In the play Karnad gives expression to two historical events dealing with the life of Tughlaq, that are related with the period of 1327 AD in Delhi and that of the period of 1332 AD at Daultabad. Other historical incidents of the period of Sultan have been reported through the conversation of various characters. Hence the play offers a comprehensive study of the period under review. 34
On turning the pages of history we come to know that Ghazi Malik aka Ghiyas ud din Tughlaq was the real founder of Tughlaq Empire in Delhi. Muhammad ascended the throne after killing his father and brother, Muhammad Khan at the prayer time in February, 1325 AD. Tughlaq asserted the fact; I killed them yes for an ideal. The Sultan was thus an offender of patricide and fratricide. He is also known as Prince Fakhr Malik, Jauna Khan and Ulugh Khan in the record of history. The play is divided into thirteen scenes and has twelve characters. Tughlaq, Imammuddin, Najib and Barani are the major characters; whereas Aziz, Azam, Shihab, Ratan Singh, the step mother and Ghiyasuddin are the minor characters. The story of the play revolves around Tughlaq, who because of his over ambitious and faulty judgment invites troubles for his subjects. It is too late when he comes to realize his faults. But the readers perceive a great transformation in his character towards the end, when he craves for heaven s mercy and wishes to sanctify his kingdom with the shower of prayers and religious rites. The play bagged Karnad the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. About the subject matter Karnad writes, My subject was the life of Muhammad Tughlaq, fourteenth-century Sultan of Delhi, certainly the most brilliant individual ever to ascend the throne of Delhi and also one of the biggest failures..in a sense, the play reflected the slow disillusionment my generation felt with the new politics of independent India: the gradual erosion of the ethical norms that had guided the movement for independence, and the coming to terms with cynicism and realpolitik. 2 Despite his foolish decision to shift the capital from Delhi to Daultabad to centralize administration, despite making copper coins equal in worth to silver dinars, despite 35
hatching a conspiracy to kill his father and brother at prayer hour what is remarkable and unknown is his willingness to work for his issues and the courage to take initiatives in the direction of communal equality. The play is an attempt to examine all the disappointment and frustration leading to Tughlaq s madness in the end, when he is not understood by his people and followers. Karnad captures it beautifully. The conflict in the play arises out of the persistent tussle between personal ideology and existing ground reality, between personal and social, between individual and royal, between generous and cruel, and between a religious and an atheist. The whole play is structured on his multifaceted personality. In his desire to be an ideal secular humanist he begins to manipulate, treats people as pawn in his political game. He resorts to cruelty and bloodshed and ends up as a frustrated and lost person. History declares him the wisest fool and Ratan Singh calls him an honest scoundrel. The first seven scenes of the play portray the idealistic approach of Tughlaq. The later six scenes have the Sultan looking back in regret. The conflict is between the visionary and the ruler, and to achieve a synthesis between the two. K.S. Ramamurthi comments as, He is at once an idealist and crafty politician, a humanist and a tyrant, a man who has murdered sleep and yet not a Macbeth haunted by supernatural solicitations, a man who thinks and broods too much and yet not a Hamlet incapable of action or guilty of delay. 3 Tughlaq is at war with himself. On one hand, he is impersonated as a cruel and misunderstood emperor to the world; on the other hand, he is portrayed as an avant-garde Muslim ruler who desires to make his state a utopia. Tughlaq as a modern monarch is much ahead of his time in implementing his plans, visions and projects, to establish a permanent port of justice, equality, harmony, peace and prosperity in his reign. He is an 36
idealist who loves chess, rose garden and enjoys the poems of Sadi and very much aware of the Greek in him. He declares to find a new world, a world he has not found in Arabs or even the Koran. He is constantly talking about tomorrow and a new future. His lofty ideals are like the visions, which lead Zarathustra or the Buddha. He feels that he has something to give, something to teach, which may open the eyes of history. He can not effort to crawl; he has to gallop as he has a long way to go. Scene Two unfolds his poetic and full of grandiose ideals when he says, Come, my people, I am waiting for you. Confide in me your worries. Let me share your joys. Let s laugh and cry together and then, let s pray History is ours to play with ours now! Let s be the light and cover the earth with greenery. Come! I am waiting to embrace you all! 4 Tughlaq is responsible for the construction of Grand Trunk Road, the widest road in the world. He also build an immemorial fort in Daultabad which had a long passage, a winding tunnel, coiled like an enormous hollow python inside the belly of the fort. No army could take this. Thus we discover Tughlaq as a true nationalist. Karnad wants to explore the modernist strains in the play relevant to our time that still affect us. Tughlaq desires to cultivate a true vision of justice without any consideration of mighty or weak and religion or creed. In the play he grants a Brahmin, the said Vishnu Prasad a post in the Civil Service to ensure him a regular and adequate income. He also grants him an amount of five hundred silver dinars, as compensation against his confiscated land by the authorities. Abolition of the obnoxious system of Jizia tax and keeping Hindus exempted from it was another radical and most modern decision of Tughlaq. Jizia was the tax paid by an unbeliever in an Islamic state for the permission to live. It means substitute money, that is, the price of indulgence. 5 37
Tughlaq s decision regarding the shifting his capital from Delhi to Daultabad sounds reasonable. His farsightedness demands to set a new possibility and confirm the security of his empire from the outside assaults. Moreover, he wants to bridge a rapport of brotherhood and fraternity between Hindu and Muslim. He makes an announcement in this regards My empire is large now and embraces the South and I need a capital which is at its heart. Delhi is too near the border and, as you well know, its peace is never free from the fear of invaders.daultabad is a city of the Hindus and as the capital, it will symbolize the bond between Muslims and Hindus which I wish to develop and strengthen in my kingdom. 6 Tughlaq in his mission to build a modern India with his innovative thoughts rejects the interference of religious leaders like Sheikh Imam ud din, Sheikh Haider Ali ; Sheikh Hood ; Amirs ; Ulemas and Sayyids in politics, to segregate religion from political practices. His words carry the note of his idealist mission when he says, I have never denied the word of God because it s my bread and drink. But why should I call on God to clean up the dirt deposited by men? 7 His visions for life trails the principles set by Sukrat, Aflatoon, Zarathustra, Buddha and Greek philosophers. They open a new world of possibilities which he has found nowhere. In scene three he confesses that he is alone in life. Unfortunately he is misunderstood by his own issues and never receives their support. The play brilliantly captures the mood and treatment relevant to all the era and the circumstances of India. Tughlaq aims at projecting the secularism and politics together; but both can not together, and in a multi-lingual country like India this concept is much ahead of the time. Karnad shows that communities marked by political intolerance and 38
religious differences breath through negative equilibrium. Karnad, very ironically undercuts the idealistic notion of secularism. Any one who attempts to disturb this balance invites wrath and suspicion, instead of becoming a liberating force. The greatest fault of Tughlaq was that he placed humanism above religion. Despite his all endeavours to unite people Muslims declare Hindus as infidel and Ungrateful wretch while; Hindus suspect Muslims, the fact is evident when a Hindu says, Look, when a Sultan kicks me in the teeth and says, Pay up, you Hindu dog, I m happy. I know I m safe. But the moment a man comes along and says, I know you are a Hindu, but you are also a human being well, that makes me nerves. 8 People in India are vulnerable and easily swayed by emotions. The audience went wild and burnt down half of Kanpur after the fiery speech of Sheikh- -Imam-ud-din against the Sultan. Similarly in the present scenario people get violated and wild, without the least consideration of the law and national properties to pressurize government, after the provocation of just a few leaders who are never bothered for the society. Tughlaq witnesses the same atmosphere of anarchy and bloodshed. The state finds itself in the fist of an utter mess. There is an uprising in the Deccan. In Malabar Ehsanshah declares himself independent. Bahal ul ud din Gashtasp collects army against him. The drought in Doab spreads all-around. The vision of Tughlaq to make India as a democratic, assimilative, tolerant, multiform political entity was similar to the dream of the nationalists including Gandhiji, Pt. Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and others during 1920s and 1930s. The humility, introspection, non violence, humanistic approach towards all and the power of confessing one s own errors were some of the fundamental political practices of these idealists, that can be easily seen 39
in Tughlaq political agendas too. The demand of a separate nation i.e. Pakistan undercut this idea tragically and led to the trauma of partition in 1947. Gandhiji candidly mentions in his, The Story of My Experiments with Truths that there was no genuine friendship between the Hindus and the Musulmans. [and] it would be on the question of Hindu Muslim unity that my ahimsa [non violence] would be put to its severest test. 9 It is a dilemma for our nation that the mistrust among various religious communities is still prevailed among masses. Religion preaches morals, and expects morality from the people, whereas, on the other hand, politics thrives on craftiness, insidiousness, intrigue and deceit. Purity and wickedness can not work together. Gandhiji was murdered by a Hindu fanatic. After the 9/11 attack on USA, Muslims have been looked down upon with suspicion all across the world. Even the Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan was questioned for two hours at New Jersey s Newark airport over his surname. He was freed only after Indian diplomats intervened. We have witnessed the tragic incidents of Hindu Sikh riots in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, followed by the tragic Hindu Muslim riots over a holy shrine in Ayodhya in 1990s, and the communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in the Godhara district of Gujarat, are some of the various burning illustrations of communal distrust India has recently witnessed. Tughlaq s unflinching confidence in his subject and his pre-occupation with idealized notions never allow him to foresee and take necessary precautions against the possibility of counterfeiting when he introduces copper coins along with silver dinars. He is defeated by his own people. The idealism of Tughlaq bears a close resemblance of our late PM Pandit Nehru. Striking parallels may be drawn between the two ages. The political 40
approaches of both are covered with idealism rather than practicality. The frailties of Tughlaq and the Indo-China war in 1964 are clear indicators of their mistakes. Nehru like Tughlaq worked harder to build a strong India on the ground of idealism, dropping out his sleep and other comforts. But all his far-fetched ideologies and impractical steps collapsed miserably. Thus it can be said that there is a strong resemblance between Tughlaq the ruler and Nehru the politician. At every step the play reflects the chaos, disillusionment and corruption that followed the Nehruvian idealism in the country. In an interview with Rajinder Paul Karnad says, What struck me absolutely about Tughlaq s history was that it was contemporary. The fact that there was the most idealistic, the most intelligent king ever to come on the throne of Delhi.and one of the greatest failures also. And within a span of twenty years this tremendously capable man had gone to pieces. This seemed to be both due to his idealism as well as the short comings within him, such as his impatience, his cruelty, his feeling that he had the only correct answer. And I felt in the early sixties India had also come very far in the same direction the twenty year period seemed to me very much a striking parallel. 10 The idealist politician is a misnomer in any age. Be the president Reagan, PM Thatcher, President Zia, PM Rajiv Gandhi, Bhutto of Pakistan, Khoomaini of Iran, Richard III, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. they are more or less idealists, hardly any way different from the monarchs of the past. They had to face challenges and could not make their ideals understood by the people, hence paid the penalty by losing their lives. Karnad exploits history only as a backdrop to point out the contemporary realities. The play deals with the existential theme of dissatisfaction search of self and alienation. Tughlaq s innovative and ultra modern schemes collapse in the absence of support of his 41
orthodox citizens, which finally led his kingdom in the state of never ending anarchy. His step mother declares his state as a kitchen of death. He notices that his own mother holds him responsible for the murder of his brother and father, his issues are not happy, even Barani and his step mother doubt him, Shiab-ud-din attempts to kill him, Ain-ul- Mulk launches a huge army against him and up roaring is all pervasive in his entire state. Dejected from life he weeps before Barani, Why must this happen, Barani? Are all those I trust condemned to go down in history as traitors? What is happening? Tell me, Barani, will my reign be nothing more than a tortured scream which will stab the night and melt away in the silence? 11 Tughlaq is a tragedy of a fallen hero. The element of betrayal heightens the absurdity of life, culminating the tragic decline of the most idealistic king of India in the manner of Macbeth, who finds the human life a tale told by an idiot; full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Edmund Fuller opines, man suffer not only from war, persecution, famine and ruin, but from inner problems. a conviction of isolation, randomness, (and) meaninglessness in his way of existence. 12 The conflict between one s expectations and the harsh realities of life push him into an utter alienation; escaping from traditions, society and individuals around him. Tughlaq is estranged from the society because he is a man ahead of his time. His frustration finds the best exemplification when he grieves, how can I spread my branches in the stars while the roots have yet to find their hold in the earth? 13 If a person attempts to reform the society and makes an effort to correct it he is ill treated and outcaste by the society itself. His suggestions and efforts are considered mere deceptions, the situation deteriorates from bad to worse and the problem remains unsolved. Irony lies in the fact that we still pine for goodness but are not ready even to 42
face it. In contemporary India, a large number of projects are set afloat because they don t get public support and cooperation, and are not well executed, they fail. 14 Similarly Tughlaq was not understood by his person that is why his visions remained sheer visions. In the words of Jacob Paul, The play now no longer remains merely the tragic history of a medieval monarch, but grows to large proportions with Tughlaq himself becoming a symbol of our times. 15 If the people fail to understand him, his persistent communication gap with people, and his inability to win their confidence also makes him a big failure. In Scene Eight when a young watchman not reacts to his philosophical soul he shouts sharply You don t understand! You don t understand! Why do you live? Why do you corrupt the air with your diseased breath? 16 He also fails to foresee the emotional attachment of his people for their land when he orders to vacant Delhi - Everyone must leave. Not a light should be seen in the windows of Delhi. Not a wisp of smoke should rise from its chimneys. Nothing but an empty graveyard of Delhi will satisfy me now. 17 This situation bears the modern relevance, when we encounter with several cases where people are forced to leave their ancestral land and properties after the forceful confiscation by the authorities, at the minimum compensation in the name of the national projects. Especially farmers and labourers are the worse suffering beings who remain unemployed for life-time thereafter. A major part of the play has a close association with the political career of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The second half of the play makes a comparison between secular and fundamentalist ideologies, in contrast to the first phase of the play. It presents cruelty, repressiveness and cunningness of Tughlaq. Aparna Dharwadkar observes: The 43
analogies with Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru thus foreground the more or less well intentioned idealism of Tughlaq Barani in the play s first half and suppress the cruelty, repressiveness, and cunning of Tughlaq Aziz in the second. The analogies with Indira Gandhi (and her political successors) reverse the emphasis and bring the two halves of the play together, because what Romesh Thaper calls her mercurial, manipulative, conspirational, brilliant style of leadership replicates the contradictions and tensions within Tughlaq to an extra ordinary extent. 18 In the record of Indian politics, according to Dharwadkar, she appears both as a demon and goddess But she is closet to Karand s protagonist in her propensity for choosing evil out of a compulsion to act for the nation and in the self destructiveness of her authoritarianism. 19 Her character is full of complexities like Tughlaq. The national emergency on June 26, 1975 declared by President Fakhurddin Ali Ahamed, after the judgment of Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court, at the petition of Raj Narain to unseat Mrs. Gandhi from Parliament and ban her from contesting any elation for an additional six years proved to be disastrous for nation. However, the reason for taking this decision might be others, but it deteriorated her public image so drastically that she lost the next Lok Sabha election with a huge margin against a lesser known politician. In the same way, Tughlaq s manipulative and impulsive decision to transfer from Delhi to Daultabad and Daultabad to Delhi again, his order to offer compulsory prayer five times a day and later on, banning the same, introducing copper currency equal in worth of silver coins resemble several ideologies of government, thereafter, their ruined failing. The lurking threat to new India for its survival, its political failure in diplomacy and several political 44
murders - like that of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi are not free from this malaise. Tughlaq not only resembles the political scenario of India in 1960s and 1970s but it also bears a strong undercurrent of modern Indian polity. Tughlaq is marked by the politics of invasion, usurpation, expediency, corruption and betrayal involved with monarchy. Aziz rightly remarks: My dear fellow, that s where our future is politics! It is a beautiful world wealth, success, position, power and yet it s full of brainless people, people with not an idea in their head. 20 Tughlaq picturizes the real image of modern India. The craftiness and meanness adopted by Sultan Tughlaq, when he traps Sheikh Imam to quell Ain-ul-Mulk and the treachery of Ratan Singh against his step brother is in no way lesser than the techniques of the modern politicians who take bribes, keep changing their parties for their profits, do not hesitate to purchase MPs, make a lot of amendments in constitution suiting their motives and even kidnap and murder, especially, at the time of elections. The Note for Vote, 2 G Spectrum, Adarsh Housing Scam and Common Wealth Scandals are some recent examples of our corrupt modern politics. In the atmosphere of mystery and suspense the sub plot in the form of two fictitious characters viz Aziz and Azam, assist the play. As a Brahmin Aziz cheats the state, as a state officer he misappropriates the state money, as a dacoit he loots people and behind the veil of Ghiyas-ud-din he befools the state. Aziz is shown asking for bribe from an old lady - I could try and bribe my senior officials, but you ll have to pay for it. 21 Karnad seems to ridicule that even for the fourth grade vacancies like the post of a peon and sweeper literacy is must, but the so called rulers of India are exempted from the age and educational criteria. People in charge of the projects take bribe as was done during 45
Tughlaq s day when people were going to shift to Daultabad. Aziz rightly speaks about crime as an assertion of power and as a mean to acquire power through the acts of violence and cruelty. He says, What s the point in raping for sheer lust? That s a mug s game. First one must have power the authority to rape! Then everything takes on meaning. 22 Aziz and Azam stand for opportunistic and unprincipled people, who take undue advantage of the liberal ideals and welfare schemes of the democratic government and suit their selfish motives, but they never receive any sort of punishment till the end of their lives. In the present scenario we also come across with various illustrations where a guilty is not punished due to the influence of power and wealth. The case of Nitish Katara, Jessica Lal, Priyadarshni get delayed for a pretty long time. This kind of political domination is also witnessed in the cases of Rathor, Kasab and Afzal Guru. Aziz and Azam minting the counterfeit coins uncover the smuggling problem of fake currency, which Indian economy is facing drastically today. Both the characters represent the young generation, who in the pursuit of glamour and fame do not hesitate to indulge in illegal activities. The suicide bombers, child militants, the young chain snatchers, the stunt performers, and etc. may be taken as examples, driven by romanticism. The romantic notion of Aziz emerges on the shore when he says, If you remain virtuous through out your life no one will say a good thing about you, because they won t need to. But start stealing and they ll say: What a nice boy he was! But he s ruined now.then kill and they will beat their breasts and say.never hurt anyone.then rape a woman and the chorus will go into hallelujahs: He was a saint, a real saint and look at him now. 23 46
Satish Kumar rightly says, The mind of modern man disturbed by various sensuous and worldly passions has been gradually turning into a veritable zoo inhabited by ravenous wild animals of worldly desires, sensual pleasures, and irresponsible exercise of power and utter forgetfulness of the imperishable values of life. 24 The play also highlights the problem of rising taxes when an Amir says, Look at what s happening in Delhi. Just look at it! You can t take a step without paying some tax or other. There s even a tax on gambling. How are we to live? 25 The playwright in this manner has introduced the contemporary problem of excessive burden of taxes that a common citizen has to suffer most. The play is a call for social consciousness and demands the readers attention towards the sufferings and miseries of the destitute and down-trodden. The play shares the grievances of the hungry and poor people. A person informs us that in Doab people are forced to eat barks off the trees, in Baran they have to eat burnt strips of skin, and in Daultabad they are gathered to catch the blood spurting from the slaughtered beasts and drink it, because there is no food. Food s only in the palace. 26 The issues like black marketing and the rationing of commodities are also discussed in this way. The situation in the current prospectus has not changed yet in our nation. It may be called an irony that people are eager to spend a huge amount on artificial pomp and show but hardly listen to the wails of the needy. In Scene thirteenth even royal historian Barani wants to leave the palace due to famine and riots. The situation echoes the resemblance of the partition period when there were overall chaos and disturbance prevalent both in India and Pakistan. The recent natural calamities like flood, earth quake, and drought in U.P., Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Bihar, 47
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Orissa expose the ugly realities of our social system when a major number of masses died in sheer absence of proper availability of medicines and food. The playwright also highlights the problem of farmers committing suicides duo to over debts and starvations. Ratan Singh informs us about the same, Haven t you heard about the Doab? He levied such taxes on the poor farmers that they preferred to starve. Now there s a famine there. And of course Hindus as well as Muslims are dying with absolute impartiality. 27 More than 900 farmers have committed suicide since 2001 in Maharashtra, the situation is worse in Vidarbha. According to The National Crime Records Breau (data for the year 2009) more than 216000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997. The number was 150000 in 2005 and it has even crossed the total figure of 250000, as examined by P. Sainath, the rural affair editor for, The Hindu. The movie Peepli Live also deals with such issues. The playwright wants to draw our attention towards our moral and social decline. Aziz refuses to help a mother whose child was severely ill and dying on the ground to watch out for paise over his life. He also suggests the people not to even sympathize with dead. His heartlessness is the boon of modern materialistic world, which works only for the self. Everyday we encounter with several such incidents where a needy is not rescued or assisted by anyone either due to the complicated legal formalities or the cold attitude of the society. The play very carefully picks up the neglected, but substantial points of our lives and society. Scene Seven talk about the stealing of dead bodies because people are not able to pay the authority to claim them. Even the rich are not exempted from this culprit. In the 48
present scenario, too, the poor find it hard to perform even the last rites of their loved ones. That is why they abandon even their loved ones somewhere near the road side, the railway tracks/bus stop or any religious place in the absence of money. Ironically, the wealthy too deliberately abandon their old parents to skip their duties towards them. Tughlaq also exposes the lecherous side of the society, which seems to challenge the sanctity of the nuptial bond. A man appears before us along with a woman. They are not married, yet have six kids. Liberty at the stake of moral values and social codes should not be accepted. Moreover the future of such children is dark in every country. The playwright also abhors the obscenities some mischievous practices on dead bodies, as reported in the case of Azam in Scene Nine. In our country some hypocrites superstitious do not excuse even the dead. It demands public attentions to prevent such practices. Karnad seems to ask what makes a real ruler of a country - the destiny or the ability? In Scene Six Tughlaq becomes the voice of playwright when he questions, what gives me the right to call myself a King?... Am I a king only because I am the son of a king? Or is it because I can make the people accept my laws and the army moves to my commands? 28 In the present age politics has become a safeguard for our leaders and their children. The modern politics is following the old pattern of hand over policy or to say inheritance politics, and there is no judgment criterion to assess to their qualifications. The play again attempts to solve the riddle which has been plaguing the entire mankind for years. It attempts to search the reasons behind transforming into a cheat, a hypocrite and a criminal from a simple and innocent being. The solution is received in the statement of Aziz, a dhobi by caste, There s no future in being a dhobi these days. 29 So 49
he disguises himself as a Brahmin a rank of higher class, full of wealth and respect. Casteism is questioned here before humanity. His case also proves, how corruption works in India to claim a post and reward from government when Aziz narrates his story of becoming Vishnu Prasad, he sold me the land backdating the contract. And I filed my suit. Well, here I am. Five hundred silver dinars for nothing, and a job in His Merciful Majesty s own Civil Service. 30 Ironically, it is the real descendant of Khalifa, the honourable Ghiyas-ud-din, who is forced to live as underdog and no one comes forward to help him. He laments I m a poor man. 31 He further adds, grow up in filth, live in filth. 32 Truly says, Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. (Shakespeare) The statement of Ghiyas is a sort of verbal irony when he says, It s an unfamiliar country and the people here are treacherous. The moment they know you are a foreigner they re out to rob you. 33 It lays bare the fact regarding the respect we have for our foreign guests who are looted, raped and even murdered in a country like India where guest are welcomed as god. The conversation between the young man and the old man in the opening scene represents the contrast of modernity v/s orthodoxy. The young man, representing the ambassador of advancement, perceives the foresightedness of the new law and orders while the old man, as the upholder of conventionality, is opposed to the innovative ideas, therefore, criticizes Sultan. OLD MAN: God, what s this country coming to! YOUNG MAN: What are you worried about, grandfather? The country s in perfectly safe hands safer than any you ve seen before. / / Your days are over, old man. 50
What s the use of Sultan who didn t allow a subject within a mile s distance? This King now, he isn t afraid to be human - 34 Their argument reflects the tension between the two methodologies Karnad was confronting with at his time. He describes it, tensions between the cultural past of the country and its colonial past, between the attractions of Western modes of thought and our own traditions.. This is the historical contexts that gave rise to my plays and those of my contemporaries. 35 The ditch of generation difference floats on the surface when the young man addresses to the old man as, Your days are over, old man. The young generation full of zeal, bright aspirations and dreams is usually checked by elders to lead ahead in life, sometimes in the name of family responsibilities and sometimes due to other reasons that cause an utter meaninglessness and existential alienation in their lives. The anguish of Aazam finds expressions in the words, It s so hot I m fed up, I m fed up of life, I m fed up of the whole bloody world. /. / Why am I a thief, Aziz? Why aren t we like other people? Have a nice home, till a farm and live happily? 36 Tughlaq also pines for that rare moment he had experienced standing above the ramparts of the old fort of Daulatabad. The torch, the sky, the earth, the grass, the smoke used to melt in his blood. Everything is lost now, just the threads of fragments left. All his despairs and agonies are brought out in the images of discord the howl of wild wolves and the bay of street dogs. In his imbalanced state he finds himself ostracized from man, society and civilization. On one hand, he is a humanist; on the other hand, he is like Camus Caligula, who is haunted by supernatural solicitations. Barani describes in Tarikh-i-Firozshahi the move from Delhi to Daultabad becomes a nightmare of 51
starvation, disease and death, and even when the action resumes in Daulatabad, after a five year interval, Tughlaq s subjects are hardened to lead a life of loneliness, punishment, and Cathartic violence. Ibn Battuta describes, It is said that the cripple was put to death, while the blind man was ordered to be dragged to Daultabad with the result only one of his legs reached the new capital. 37 The Sultan seems to abhor everyone since he had none in whom he could confide his private grief. He decides to give up the method of persuasion and amity. He says, I was too soft, I can see that now. They ll only understand the whip. 38 We see Tughlaq s present degeneration in Barani appeal Your Majesty, there was a time when you believed in love, in peace, in God, What has happened to those ideals?. Why this bloodshed? Please stop it. 39 The dilemma of characters is similar to the frustration of the modern individuals; left alone they search to find solace in violence to self or others. The case of Utsav Sharma, who injured Rathore and Dr. Talwar outside the court, may be taken as an example. The play also reveals the gossipy nature of our society that assist to spread rumors and make partial judgments about any person behind his back. This aspect of our social system does not spare even the sophisticated class and treats everyone alike. Tughlaq is also aware of this fact. He says, It s not what people say, Barani, it s their crooked minds that horrify me. 40 The rumours among citizens, regarding Tughlaq s murdering his father and brother, serve the evidence. YOUNG MAN: Were you there? THIRD MAN: There were others my friends YOUNG MAN: Hang your friends! Were you there? THIRD MAN: No! 41 52
The play also seems to question, how far is it fair to accept all the religious doctrines, set by some saints or gurus, to attain salvation? In the modern time some hypocrites misuse the flexibility of some religions and take the undue advantage of the illiteracy and simplicity of people. Najib believes in present, which is the only available everlasting fact, and we must grasp it firmly. He gives up Hinduism because it talks of individual salvation, so he becomes a Muslim, but he also finds no possibility there. The so-called caretaker of Islam i.e. the Amir planned to kill the Sultan at the prayer time. Sheikh Shamsud-din-Tajuddarfim tries to intervene but to no avail. SHEIKH: You can t pollute the time of prayer. It s a sacred time. We can t stain it with the blood of a Mussulman. AMIR II: O Come, we can always make up later. Do penance for it. 42 The moral of the play lies in the generous acceptance of life. The play stresses on Karma. God does not dwell in the woods or dales. The real beauty of life is in doing hard work, not in renouncing our responsibilities towards poor, needy and our relatives. Tughlaq is a beautiful presentation of the rooted social evils of all circumstances and every nation. It discusses the problem of breaking laws by the law makers themselves. The guard misbehaves with Aziz in the guise of Vishnu Prasad, despite the fact; there is equality of all religions in the state - Complaining against the Sultan! Bloody Infidel! Get going, I m already late. 43 Karnad s presentation of males chauvinistic attitude towards women is noteworthy in context of the only female character of the play. Tughlaq s ordering to stone his stepmother to death in public and repeatedly calling her adulteress proves the biased attitude of the society towards the women. He relieves his contempt for her You are 53
worse than an adulteress. 44 This shows that poor or mighty all possess equal disgusting contempt for women, no matter how learned you are like Tughlaq. The repeated incidents of harassment and misbehaviour against women in the modern period lay bare the patriarchal attitude of society where women are treated not better than an animal. The play also brings to light the distrust and betrayal among relationships, where a brother is against a brother (Ratan Singh and Shihab-ud-din), and a son is accused of the murder of his father, brother and mother, like Tughlaq. In our advanced society for the lure of money, fame and name we do not hesitate even to destroy human relations. The modern life style of live-in relationship and the shrinking diameter of joint family set-up in the towns and cities are the products of our gross materialistic desires. The play scores applaud of having the prayer as leitmotif. Our inner guilty self like white ants consumes the whole wooden framework within us everyday. Only true devotion to almighty is the last solution for spiritual comforts in this modern materialistic world, which is full of treachery and mischievous. Left alone Tughlaq pleads desperately God, God in Heaven, please help me. Please, don t let go of my hand. I started in Your path, Lord, why am I wandering naked in this desert now? 45 In the words of B.P. Bayapa Reddy, At the micro level, prayer symbolizes the religious idealism of Tughlaq. At the macro level, it connects man s unconscious need for divine protection and guidance in an hour of anguish. In the beginning prayer is made compulsory but later it is banned for a few years and again it is revived. It is reduced to a mockery when the Sultan s life is threatened at the time of prayer. 46 The playwright ends the play at the note of Muezzin s call for prayer which stands for purification and a dynamic transformation in the being of a new Sultan. As the 54
Muezzin s call fades away, Muhammad suddenly opens his eyes. He looks around, dazed and frightened, as though he can t comprehend where he is. 47 The word open his eyes symbolizes the new awakening, whereas the words dazed and frightened hint at man s limitations before God. The ambience of Tughlaq is charged with conspiracy and betrayal to configure the modern parables in relation to historical content. We can conclude the discussion with the remark of Veena Noble Dass - Thus Tughlaq is not only good literate but good theatre, a play in which the intellectual symbolic allegorical levels harmonize with the level of external dramatic action by a proper balancing of theatrical and literary concomitants. The play is essentially modern, may be more modern than most Indian plays written in English, despite being called a historical play. 48 References: 1. S. Kalida and Rehmat Merchant, Girish Karnad: Renaissance man, India Today, April12, 1999. 2. Girish Karnad, Collected Plays, Vol. 1, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006,p.307. 3. K. S. Ramamurthi, Some Aspects of Indian Drama in English with Special Reference to Tughlaq, Lit. Crit., 5, No. 1, 1979, p.17. 4. Tughlaq, Collected Plays, Op. cit., pp.15-16. 5. Sir Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb, Vol. III, Hyderabad: Orient and Longman, 1972, p.176. 6. Tughlaq, p.8. 7. Ibid. p.26. 8. Ibid. p.6. 9. Mohandas K. Gandhi, The story of My Experiments with truth, Trans. Mahadevi Desai, 2 nd ed., New York: Dover, 1983, p.398. 10. Girish Karnad s comments, Enact (June 1971), quoted by U.R. Anatha Murthy, Introduction, Tughlaq (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1972), p.viii. 11. Tughlaq, p.52. 12. Edmund Fuller, Man in Modern Fiction, New York: Random House, 1958, p.3. 13. Tughlaq, p.16. 14. O. P. Saxena and Manushreee Sen, Girish Karnad s Tughlaq: A Critical Study, Bareilly: Prakesh Book Depot, 2004, p.29. 15. Jacob Paul, Tughlaq, Enact, Sep. - Oct., 1975, pp.105-106. 16. Tughlaq, p.64. 17. Ibid. p.53. 55
18. Aparna Dharwadkar, Historical Fictions and Post Colonial Representation: Reading Girish Karnad s Tughlaq, PMLA, Vol. 110, No. 1, January, 1995, pp.52-53. 19. Ibid. p.53. 20. Tughlaq, p.59. 21. Ibid. p.56. 22. Ibid. p.69. 23. Ibid. pp. 68-69. 24. Satish Kumar, A Survey of Indian English Drama, Bareilly: Prakesh Book Depot, 1997,p.61. 25. Tughlaq, p.40. 26. Ibid. p.82. 27. Ibid. p.36. 28. Ibid. p.47. 29. Ibid. p.12. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid. p.72. 32. Ibid. p.73. 33. Ibid. p.71. 34. Ibid. p.5. 35. Girish Karnad, author s introduction, Three Plays: Naga-Mandala, Hayavadana, Tughlaq, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995, p.1. 36. Tughlaq, p.68. 37. Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava, The history of India, Agra: Shiva Lal Agarwala and Co. (P) Ltd., 1998, p.210. 38. Tughlaq, p.53. 39. Ibid. p.66. 40. Ibid. p.19. 41. Ibid. p.9. 42. Ibid. pp.44-45. 43. Ibid. p.10. 44. Ibid. p.79. 45. Ibid. 46. P. Bayapa Reddy: The Theatrical Representation of History: A Study of Tughlaq, The Plays of Girish Karnad: critical perspectives, (ed.) Jayadipsinh Dodiya, New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1999, p.155. 47. Tughlaq, p.99. 48. Veena Noble Dass: Use and Abuse of History in Tughlaq, Girish Karnad s Plays: Performance and Critical Perspectives, (ed.) Tutun Mukherjee, Delhi: Pencraft International, 2006, pp.94-95. 56
(b) THE DREAMS OF TIPU SULTAN Karnad in his next play once again successfully laid down before us a sumptuous feast of historical characters and incidents with the projection of socio political and cultural aspects of a particular era, which puts forward some trenchant arguments that still affect us in various disguising syntheses. Commissioned by BBC radio, Karnad wrote his first original script in English, The Dreams of Tipu Sultan, in 1996 to be broadcasted by the same on 15 th August, 1997 to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of Indian independence. He admits, The plot obviously had to deal with some aspect of Indo British relations and I immediately thought of Tipu Sultan, one of the most politically perceptive and tragic figures in modern history. 1 It was written in Kannada as Tippuvina Kanasugalu, to be first presented by Madras Players at the YMCA Amphi theatre, Chennai, on 17 February, 2000. The play is based on a secret record of dreams along with their interpretations from the inner life of this warrior, political visionary, dreamer, scholar, poet and the only one who perceived a threat to India from the British East India Company. The record of his dreams marks a gap between Tipu s vision of liberty and the reality of colonial bondage, against the historical events of 1799. Karnad says What I find fascinating is the fact that Tipu Sultan, who practically spent forty nine years of his life on horse back, recorded his dreams and kept them under his pillow. 2 The image of Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Saheb a.k.a. Tipu Saheb Tipu Sultan or better known as Tipu Sultan The Tiger of Mysore, has continued to dominate Indian and British literature for over two centuries, as the endless flow of scholarly plays, novels, ballads, folk narratives (of Mysore district and Chitradurg district of Central Karnataka in particular) sing the glory of his tempestuous life and tragic end. 57