Umrao Jaan Ada

Bollywood movies have a way of creating mass hysteria among the Indian media. Some would claim even 'international' media pointing to Aishwarya's appearance on Oprah and 60 minutes - its another matter that questions asked of her ranged from 'Why cant you kiss in Bollywood movies?' to 'Do you have a boyfriend?', all of which were responded to with the practised coy giggle (no words mind you) which won Ash the Miss World crown and many hearts. Having said that my sympathies are with her because of the ambassadorial role she inevitably finds herself in - often criticised for whatever replies she gives because of the way it doesnt represent the true India. Whatever that is.

Anyway, this mindless ramble was meant to be a prelude to this piece I had written two years back about Mirza Hadi Ruswa's beautifully nostalgic novel, Umrao Jaan Ada which is the subject of the new movie which is coming out in December. The trailors show a bemused Ash prancing about in a swimming pool (thankfully not in a bikini), a jarring image somewhat different to what I had in my mind after I read the book. Penning them down so you and I can later compare the movie.

Umrao Jaan Ada is the memoirs of a courtesan of the same name who, in the sunset of her life, takes a poignant look back on her extraordinary life gone by and the characters who played their parts in it. Suitably, the author adopts the same romantic style of narration, with a flavor of longing for the past seeping into the story. Bitter-sweet memories are filtered through the sepia tinted lens of nostalgia, glorifying and almost a pining for the golden epoch of Lucknow.The story begins with the abduction of the nine year old Umrao by arogue, Dilawar Khan and then her being sold to a woman, Khanum who buys her and begins the long process of refining and sophistication interms of academic, musical and cultural education required to mould her into a courtesan. Inculcated with these qualities, Umrao soonbecomes the most sought after courtesan, starting a journey on whichher paths cross with Bandits, Maulvis, Nawabs, Kings and even her mother and brother, each association being temporary but seminal.I n the midst of it all, the Mutiny of 1857 against the East IndiaCompany takes place and disrupts the idyllic and hedonistic world surrounding the courtesans, bringing the stark force of history into the narrative.

After the mutiny, when Umrao returns to her beloved Lucknow, a sea change has taken place, encompassing everything from society to culture to her own profession itself. In fact, the author describes physical changes in the urban landscape etc to convey the metaphor of change in the social landscape. This paper endeavors totake a look at each of those changes and explore their meanings in the historical context.The most prominent effect of the Mutiny was a complete loss of livelihood for the courtesans. It is not difficult to understand thecause for this development because the institution of courtesanshipwas funded by the social elites, the creme de la creme of Indian society.

This phenomenon has to be seen in light of the fact that thiswas the era when the Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar was just anominal figurehead and the dynasty itself existed in an extremely attenuated form. Due to the lack of a strong, centralized rule, small regional princely states had come into their own and local rulers who had neither the finances nor the military strength to defendthemselves from other small states depended on the British for'protection' and legitimacy. Nawabs or Rajahs were adopted titles to signify their status even though their power itself was contingent upon British power. Before and after the mutiny, when the British used policies like Doctrine of Lapse and annexed Awadh and Jhansi, thepower of such rulers eroded to a great extent. The financial wherewithal of these and other small rulers also decreased drastically due to the confiscation and in effect, the last remaining vestige oftheir power also crumbled. Once the sentinels of high culture, these patrons of courtesans now found themselves leading an existence in abject penury. Numerous such instances (Nawab Chabban being disinherited from his uncle's will) arementioned in the story, giving an idea of the strong hierarchy present in Indian society. Even though there is a great degree of fluctuation in the persons occupying rungs of the pecking order, the order remains intact. This fluidity in social mobility also gives the character ofthe courtesan a paradox; she, who is supposed to be just a slave to the affluence of a patron, manages to have affections for the fallen individuals who lose their economic and social standing.

After the Mutiny, this class falls by the wayside. Once this clientele was lost,courtesanship degenerated into a form of prostitution, similar to the sex workers of today, far removed from the paraphernalia of education and high culture which courtesans ironically were provided with. The practice moved to seedy basement of society in search of patrons and existence, albeit a wretched one.Another class of patrons which never had the social standing of Nawabsbut nevertheless were frequent visitors of courtesans was bandits (asenunciated by the character Faiz Ali, who facilitates Umrao's escapefrom her apartment). These bandits, who often looted passengers,British and Indian, found themselves at the receiving end of a major crackdown on thuggee post 1857 by a rejuvenated British administration. This ensured the loss of their livelihood and as aconsequence, loss of patronage for the courtesans. Combined with the loss in clientele among the elites, this acted as one of the primaryreasons for the decline of the institution. In spite of the loss ofthis section of clientele, there were those Indian patrons who werepart of the British administration, yet had sympathies with the subject of their affections.
This fact throws light upon the emotional churning that would have taken place in the minds of the Indian servants of the Raj in carrying out the repressive measures of the Company. The tussle between the dual identities of a British servantor soldier and an Indian 'nationality' is not restricted to thisparticular instance. At many points during the Raj, they had to arrive at temporary compromises regarding their conceptions of Self and Other. As proved by the Mutiny itself, sometimes these conclusions were even unfavorable for the British.

Umrao Jaan, inspite of being a book whose protagonist is a courtesan,does not fall prey to victimization of it's character and there is no overt sympathy or effort to justify Umrao. It is here that it achieves a different purpose: the one of humanizing a 'barbaric' institution's participants. The British had sought to do exactly the opposite. To justify the colonization of a land, a colonizer always needs todemonize and dehumanize the natives as a lower form of civilization. The British had sought to do this with their amplification of marginal customs and phenomena like Sati, Banditry and Coutesanship as symbols of India and its people. Combined with theories of racial superiority and application of classical dichotomies of the East and West, they had come up with a rationale for their actions. The abolition of Sati,crackdown on banditry and legalization of prostitution were portrayed as the acts required to rid a lower society of it's evils. What was conveniently forgotten was that these practices were never of the magnitude of 'epidemics' that they were made out to be. All in all,Umrao Jaan serves to give a panoramic view of a society and aninstitution in transition and deserves its place in the highestechelons of Urdu literature.

For those who got to the end of this monograph, here's a bonus...a clip of Umaro Jaan's 'grave' in Lucknow

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/25182/mystery-of-the-real-umrao-jaan.html