Ghalib: The Man, the Times by Pavan K Varma

Author:Pavan K Varma [Varma, Pavan K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Biography, Entertainment, Historical, Non-Fiction, Performing Arts, Poets
ISBN: 9789351186724
Google: EAltAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2000-10-13T23:00:00+00:00

Four

The Trauma of 1857

The year 1857 marked the end of a historical phase. In its aftermath, the painstakingly built, centuries- old, socio-cultural edifice of the Mughals came crashing down. It was Ghalib’s fate to live till 1869, a forlorn and heart broken witness to the end of an age. The mature and self-assured tehzib, composite in outlook, urbane and sophisticated in form—that gave his life and work anchorage and sustenance—would never be the same again. He would live to see the Red Fort—the Qila-i-Mualla—converted into a barracks. He would live to see His Exalted Highness, the Shadow of God on Earth, exiled from the land, unsung and unheralded, never to return again. And he would live to see his beloved Delhi systematically brutalized almost beyond recognition.

The objective reasons which led to the Revolt of 1857 are well known and have been analysed in detail in several works. I will, therefore, not recapitulate them here. At the subjective level, however, there is little evidence to show that Delhi was overtly anticipating or expecting the upheaval. It is true that there was some vague unrest. But this was primarily focussed on speculation about the future of the monarchy. It was widely known that the British were planning to remove the Mughal residence from the imperial backdrop of the Red Fort to somewhere outside the city, near the Qutab Sahib, and to designate Zafar’s successor as ‘prince’, not ‘king’. There were at least some in the palace and in the city who believed that the Shahanshah of Persia or the Czar of Russia would intervene to drive the feringhees out and restore the Mughal dynasty to its earlier glory. A poster announcing that the Shah of Persia would come to the aid of his oppressed Muslim brethren had, in fact, been found pasted, for a few hours, on the walls of the Jama Masjid two months earlier. Some astrologers and soothsayers, including one within the palace, Pirzada Hasan Askari—’an attenuated prototype of the Russian Rasputin1—were also active in predicting ominous developments. But these were the normal eddies and ripples in the flow of Delhi’s gossip and rumours. Certainly, on 11 May 1857 when the Revolt started at Delhi, there was little that could have warned Ghalib that the day would so radically change the settled pace of his life.

The sepoys from Meerut were first spotted by Bahadur Shah Zafar as they came cantering across the bridge of boats. Zafar was seated in his private apartment gazing out across the Jamuna. He immediately summoned his trusted aide—Hakim Ahsanullah Khan—who was also a close friend of Ghalib’s. The time was about seven in the morning and the city, as yet, was unaware of the approaching storm. The students of Delhi College were in their classes, the paper from Calcutta had arrived as usual, the Collector’s court was in session, and Ghalib was probably getting ready to go to the Fort: Delhi had woken up to the routine pursuits of a normal summer day. The troops soon reached the ramparts of the Red Fort and beseeched Zafar to let them in.

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