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Hazrat Mahal
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In the city of Gold and silver: The story of begum hazrat mahal
By Kenizé Mourad,
Full Circle, Rs 350
Begum Hazrat Mahal was a contemporary of the Rani of Jhansi and the wife of Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Awadh and a much-maligned figure in Indian colonial history. The nawab’s alleged misrule was the official reason offered by the British to annex his state to East India Company’s bailiwick.
However, Kenizé Mourad’s novel — translated from French by Anne Mathai in collaboration with Marie-Louise Naville — recounts a different story of the king of Awadh and Begum Mahal. It also provides a disparate account of the sepoy rebellion often touted as ‘mutiny’ by the British press. Mourad calls Begum Mahal “a dazzling meteor in Indian history” whereas the British soldiers often referred to her as “the soul of the rebellion”. Mourad’s novel is thus more of Hazrat’s story than an actual retelling of history.
Roland Barthes said in The Pleasure of the Text that “the text you write must prove to me that it desires me”. Mourad’s text indeed ‘desired’ me in the thick of the self-righteous colonial politics, in the opulence and splendour of Wajid Ali Shah’s palace, in the exhibition of his artistic refinements, in his zenana and in the city of Awadh that was ravaged after the British usurped power. But, more than anything else it has ‘desired’ me in Hazrat Mahal’s company — one can almost feel the warmth of her friendship with Mumtaz, whom she met after a gap of 12 years, of her relationship with Mammoo Khan who was her informer and protector.
While writing historical fiction authors often tend to condense hardcore facts in order to make it more compelling. Mourad’s narrative adds colour not only to the gruesome carnages and colonial intrigues but also to Hazrat’s persona to make her more appealing to the readers. When she is brought to Wajid Ali’s court as a courtesan and asked to dance by the king, she declares, “I am not a dancer, I am a poetess”. When, Begum Mahal reprimands Wajid Ali for surrendering his state to the British by saying “...he who is in power imposes his own version of history, which, within a few years, becomes the unquestionable truth”, her wisdom transcends centuries. Hazrat’s sweeping passion for Raja Jai Lal forms one of the highlights in the book. Under his spell she feels: “Unreal this war, this Court, and this government too.” It brings to mind Mark Antony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: “Let Rome in Tiber melt/…Kingdoms are clay”.
Some critics believe that a historical novel is a mix of history and fiction in which the latter predominates. However, fiction is an essential component of history, and a historical novel is a celebration of that. The sense of doom lurking in Mourad’s narrative instantly draws the reader into it, as Walter Benjamin once said, “What draws the reader to the novel is the hope of warming his shivering life with a death he reads about.”
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