Book Review: Hyderabad (The Partition Trilogy #2)

[I received an ARC of the book, but the views are unbiased and my own.]

When one thinks of Partition, one thinks of Punjab and perhaps of Bengal. The bloodshed on the both sides of the border. People uprooting themselves from the only home they knew. Trains pulling into stations with coachloads of slaughtered people. Refugee camps crammed with bewilderment, nostalgia and a determination to start afresh. The stories of Partition that we talk about are stories enabled by Radcliffe.

But, far away from the stories that dominate 1947, is the story of how Hyderabad came to be a part of India. It is a story that most Indians are not aware of- even many of us who live in Hyderabad do not realise that the city will officially celebrate 75 years of being a part of the Indian Union only in September 2023.

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s “Hyderabad (The Partition Trilogy #2)” looks at the many contradictory forces that were pushing against each other for months, before culminating in Operation Polo (or Police Action, depending on who you speak to) and the annexation of the state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.

The comparison with her previous book, “Lahore (The Partition Trilogy # 1)” are inevitable. There are similarities and there are differences. Like “Lahore”, “Hyderabad” is told at two levels- the high level political negotiations between the people who history books talk about, and the stories of the common people who were being pulled apart by forces beyond their control but who never surrendered their agency in dealing with them.

“Hyderabad” has many tangled webs, because the story itself has many tangled webs.

Many of the characters we met in Lahore make a reappearance- Patel, Mountbatten, Nehru, Menon. But there is also a new set of equally memorable characters.

There is the Nizam, the richest man in the world, who seeks independence- “I have written to the Viceroy”, he thunders, “I should certainly be able to remain within the family of the British Commonwealth”. An almost tragic figure, he comes under the spell of the charismatic leader of the Razakars, and ends up losing everything he fought for, including his place in history as a visionary ruler.

El Edroos, the Commander in Chief of the Hyderabad Army who finds himself increasingly sidelined by the Razakar rabble rousers. Kasim Razvi, the head of the Razakars who uses bombastic words and pompous display to get the Nizam to commit to a course he cannot later escape from. Walter Monckton, the Nizam’s legal advisor, who does his best to negotiate a favourable treaty with Delhi, but is reigned in at every stage.

There are these people who are known, and there are the unknown who bear the brunt of the uncertainty. There are the Communists who fight against the tyranny of the feudal system. Men and women who risk everything to seek rights for the peasants. If one thinks of women as the submissive gender, there are women who display unexpected physical and moral courage to do what they think is right. Women who rebel against having to serve as concubines to their masters, but who take lovers of their own. Women who were forced to abort an illegitimate child, but who rose to being poison tester and then lady in waiting to the nobility.

Running through the entire book like a fine line of embroidery is Princess Nilofeur. The exquisitely beautiful niece of the Last Khalif, who was married to the Nizam’s younger son. Forever in the shadow of her cousin who was married to the older son, in this book, Nilofeur dazzles. Her grace, her concern for others, her empathy and even her sense of humour. Nilofeur who sits in the royal car while her lady-in-waiting gets her Osmania biscuits and Irani chai from a café frequented by Communist sympathisers. Nilofeur, fresh as a rose, in the dank and dusty King Koti where the Nizam’s family resides. It is worth reading the book just for her interaction with her best friend Emily, and her lady-in-waiting.

While the narrative dwells gently on the people, the events of the last few days of the Nizam’s rule, the entry of the Indian Army, and the subsequent surrender are delivered in quick paragraphs, almost like images from a black and white documentary shot in those times.

The book leaves you wanting more. Even though you know they are fictional characters, you want to know what happened to the common people who you grew to love through the book. You also want to read more on how Hyderabad came to be a part of the Indian Union.

If you are a Hyderabadi who is aware of the history of 1947-48, you will love the book for the descriptions of the city, its cuisine and its culture, as also for the powerful stories of people who lived in those times. If you do not know much about the history of the city, learning about it is an added bonus.

Why are women held to different standards than men?

[First published in Women’s Web]

I was walking the dog when I heard loud voices coming from down the lane. Curiosity led me to follow the screaming. A well dressed man was banishing his car keys and yelling at a hapless youth who was literally cowering before him. The youth’s bicycle had apparently skidded and left a scratch on the man’s car which had been (illegally) parked there. He had been caught in the act, and had to face the full fury of the man’s anger. His paternity was questioned, he was accused of having carnal intercourse with his sister, comments were passed on how people from his region were barbarians who shouldn’t be allowed into polite company. All that accompanied by much waving of the car key and spluttering droplets of saliva- I worried equally about the youth’s eyes getting gorged out and him potentially contracting COVID. Finally, energy spent, the man got into the car, banged the door shut with a with a satisfying thud, and zoomed off in a spray of water which miraculously missed drenching the youth.

For the next 24 hours, I waited eagerly for a video of the incident to be forwarded to me over WA. I was looking forward to seeing an incident I witnessed going viral on social media. In my mind, I had already drafted how I would react- in a nonchalant way, I would say, “yes, I witnessed this last night while walking the dog”.

But nothing. None of the people who witnessed the incident seemed to have recorded it, and if they did, they didn’t forward it to anyone. How was that even possible? The video of the woman in Noida yelling at the security guards in her apartment complex had gone viral. Why was nobody even talking about an identical incident that I witnessed? What did the Noida incident have that the one I witnessed didn’t? Yes, you guessed right- the protagonist in that case was a woman, so it was news!

Make no mistake about it. The lady in the Noida incident was wrong. There had been a slight delay in opening the gate to let her car in because certain processes had to be followed- nothing in that warranted her losing her cool, much less in the way she did. The words she used were abusive, classist and threatening. Her body language was intimidating, and some of the gestures she used were absolutely crass. The FIR filed by the security guard was totally justified. And I am all for her being given the strongest punishment the law allows, so that it serves as a lesson to deter other entitled people from indulging in such crass and classist behaviour.

However, the point I am making is different. Why are similar complaints not lodged every time men indulge in similar behaviour. The incident I witnessed was identical to the one involving the woman from Noida. Both used similar cuss words, in both cases classist remarks were passed, and the body language was similarly threatening. Yet, that man got away, and all that the victim of his ire did was to get back on this bicycle and ride away.

Men yell at other men all the time. If both men are driving cars of a similar size, they yell at each other till they are separated by bystanders and sent their way. If one man has greater privilege than the other, he yells till he exhausts himself, then lets himself be eased away. Sometimes, the men even come to blows. But almost never is a video shot and made viral. And even less is a complaint made at the police station, unless there was physical violence.

It is because that the perpetrator was a woman that this incident made headlines. A large part of the reason why viewers who were horrified by the video was not because of the words that were spoken or the gestures that were made, but because it was a woman who was responsible for those words and gestures.

This is not the first time something similar has happened. About a year back, there was the incident where a woman customer assaulted a food delivery person. Yes, what she did was absolutely wrong but there are certainly other cases of similar behaviour by men which doesn’t’ make headlines. A few days after that, there was another incident of road rage by a female driver; road rage by male drivers occur every day, but the one time a woman loses her temper, it makes headlines.

Women are always held to different standards than men. What is ignored when a man does it, becomes absolutely unacceptable when a woman does it. Worse, when a man loses his temper, it is an individual who loses his temper. But when a women loses her temper, all women are expected to justify an act that cannot be justified.

This plays itself out in other ways too. Over the last few days, an old video where a Bollywood actress is being mansplained to on prime time television has gone viral. Many remarked on how calm Katrina Kaif remained through the entire incident, though her annoyance was quite apparent. Yes, she was remarkably calm, but that was because she knew that if she reacted in any way, she would be taken to task. People would have overlooked the actors transgressions, and focussed only on how she lost her cool. It was out of a sense of self preservation that she stayed calm.

The same male actor also passed a remark that body shamed his wife while they were promoting a movie. She was clearly taken aback by the comment, but tried to laugh it off since she didn’t want to create a scene. Netizens were quick to blame “toxic feminists” for making an issue out of “nothing”, while ignoring the fact that in all likelihood, the nervous laughter was just a way to cover up her genuine embarrassment.

The standards of “acceptable behaviour” are certainly different for men and women, and I do not see that changing anytime soon.

Justice is not Blind

[First published in Women’s Web]

Trigger Warning: Descriptions of a real life violent crime

When Nirbhaya was gang raped on a bus in a cold December winter night, I reacted as a woman. When Disha was gangraped and murdered while returning home from work, I reacted as a woman. What happened to them could have happened to any woman who was going about her business in public. Both incidents exposed exactly how vulnerable women were in public. I demanded justice for them. I demanded greater safety for women.

In case of Bilkis Bano, it was different. She was chosen as a victim because of her religion. The rapists were not unknown to her- they were people from her neighbourhood, people she knew, people who chose to assault and rape her because of who she was.

However, unlike in the case of Nirbhaya and Disha, in case of Bilkis Bano, I did not react as a woman. Because what happened to Bilkis Bano was not something that could happen to any woman. What happened to Bilkis Bano was something that could only happen to a woman from a minority community.

Rape is not about sex; it is about power. But when a woman is raped during communal (or casteist or linguistic) violence, it is not just to assert power over a woman, but to tell an entire community that they are powerless to protect their women. Bilkis Bano was raped not because she was a woman, but because she was a Muslim woman.

When on the 75th Anniversary of our Independence, the 11 men who were serving a life sentence for raping Bilkis Bano were released, the overwhelming emotion I felt was revulsion and anger. Here were 11 men who were convicted of committing a most gruesome crime, being released for ‘good behaviour’.

These were men who gangraped a pregnant woman, smashed her 3 year old daughter’s head in with a stone, and killed 14 members of the family. These are men who would have killed Bilkis Bano too, and only spared her, because they presumed she was dead. These are men who were convicted after a long fight for justice. Men who knew exactly what they were doing, and did so any way.

By releasing these men on grounds of “good behaviour”, the message being sent out was clear- Justice is the preserve only of Upper Class Hindus, and anyone else should not aspire to seek Justice.

As Indians, we have been brought up to believe that as citizens of India, our life is governed by the principles of Justice, Equality, Liberty and Fraternity. As Dr. Ambedkar said, “..(the Preamble to the Constitution is).. a way of life, which recognizes liberty, equality, and fraternity as the principles of life and which cannot be divorced from each other.”

Each of us who loves the Constitution, naturally, feels betrayed by the act of releasing the 11 convicts, because it tells us that Justice is reserved only for certain communities, that all citizens cannot take equality, liberty or fraternity for granted.

I reacted as a woman to Nirbhaya and Disha. I react as an Indian to Bilkis Bano.

Dear 16 year old Self

 [I am enough of a nerd to worry that communicating with my younger self might potentially rip the fabric of space-time. However, how could I not pass on some lessons to my sixteen year old self. Written for Women’s Web.]

Dear Sixteen Year Old Natasha,

I am your future self, and I am writing to tell you enough to save you a little bit of heartache, without telling you so much that we may end up ripping the fabric of time.

As you prepare diligently for your Board Exams, I know you have your life planned in meticulous detail for the next 10 years. You know exactly which subjects you are going to study in Plus Two and University. You have decided which University/ies you are going to go to for your undergrad, post grad and doctorate. While you have not yet decided where you will do your post-doctoral research, you have a fairly good idea of where that may be. You are well on track to achieve your dreams, and you are willing to put in the effort needed to get to where you want to go.

I salute your single-minded dedication; and yet I worry. Not everything is in our control. Plans get derailed. Life throws curveballs at us. Hard work and perseverance may not always get you what you want. Sometimes, what you think you want is not the right thing for you. Be open to re-evaluating your priorities. Be willing to change your plans.

Instead attempting to chart out every detail of your life, set the general direction of where you want to go, and embrace what life throws at you. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, you may not go where you intended to go, but you will end up where you need to be.

[Speaking of Douglas Adams, do read ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’. His brand of science fiction is not the same as your beloved Issac Asimov’s, but you will certainly enjoy it.]

Not to give too much away, but do not let yourself become too comfortable doing whatever you are doing. You may convince yourself that you are deliriously happy, and do not want to change, but maybe you are just fearful of trying something new? Change is good- do not shy away from it.

Be open to taking calculated risks. If you wait till you have all the information you need before taking a decision, you may end up missing out on opportunities which let you grow. Trust your intuition. Know that if things don’t work out the way you planned, you can always start afresh.

But when you walk away, do not look back in regret. Perhaps the failure was meant to teach you something which you will only realise much later. Like they say, the past cannot be undone, but looking back can ruin a perfectly good future.

Always be open to learning and growing. You have good genes. Your grandmother who never studied beyond grade 5 taught herself English and Hindi after marriage, and is, even now, teaching herself to read and write Kannada. Remember how your grandfather asked you to teach him the binary system of nomenclature- it didn’t matter to him that he was a scientist with a sting of academic papers to his name and you a mere 5th grader- you knew something he didn’t know, and he asked you to teach him. Be like your grandparents- question what you have taken for granted, engage in discussions with people you disagree with, be willing to admit that you were wrong if you are wrong. One day, what will give you greatest pleasure is having your children (yes, you will become a mother someday, though you haven’t planned that far ahead yet) teach you something you never knew.

I know you wonder why you aren’t able to make and keep friends like others your age do. While you don’t envy the popular girls, you think there is something wrong with you because you seem incapable of meaningful friendships. You think you are a misfit. A bit of a freak.

You are not!

You are just an introvert in a world designed by extroverts. Understand that you are different, that normal extrovert things are not for you. Understand that what is a joy for others may fill you will dread. You are an introvert who has learnt to fake it so convincingly that even you do not realise that many of the issues you face are simply because introverts and extroverts react differently to situations.

I know you don’t let people get too close to you, because you are worried they may end up hurting you. But that also means you miss out on friendships that may enrich you. Let people into your life. Some of them will end up hurting you, but overall, it will be worth it.

None of the things I told you till now will significantly change the course of your life- they are things you will learn sooner or later. All that I have done is reduce the heartache you might feel till you come to the decisions that you will eventually come to. But this one thing is different- it will significantly alter how you look at life and how you conduct yourself. I cannot wait for you to discover this on your own because it will take you more than three decades to get there, and we do not have the luxury of inaction- understand Feminism, and be a Feminist.

As a teenager in the late 1980s, you think it is fashionable to declare that you are not a feminist. You think that feminists are bra-burning militant creatures demanding special rights for women, while you are a person who is believes in claiming her place in the world through hard work. What you do not realise is that you have bought into the myth perpetrated by a patriarchal society.

You live in a society which expects a woman to continue to perform her traditional roles while also working in a job as demanding as a man’s. That is not right- both men and women should shoulder the burdens of caregiving, childcare and housework. Over time you will come to realise that it is not sufficient that you be as good as a man; you need to prove that you are much better than the men. You will face discrimination. You will have hurdles put in your path. The way to overcome them is not by ignoring it and working doubly hard to prove yourself worthy- you must first acknowledge the discrimination and then push for a more equitable system.

As a female professional in a predominantly male profession, you will feel the need to be “one of the boys”. You will try to buy your acceptance by laughing at misogynistic jokes and ignoring the discomfort you may feel with some of the men. Don’t! Call out those jokes. Explain why it is wrong to objectivise women. Demand that all women be treated with respect.

Educate yourself on the gender wage gap. Push for a more equitable work environment. Do not look the other way when you witness sexual harassment. Find allies for the gender equity among your male colleagues and friends.

Feminism is deeply rooted in the ideals of equity and justice. Take pride in calling yourself a feminist.

Above all, smile. Find joy in little things.

And get that dog.

Lots of love,

Your 51 year old self

Women in Academia are extremely vulnerable

[First published in Women's Web as St Xavier’s University Kolkata Allegedly Slut-Shames Woman Professor Over An Instagram Story]

A 30 year old Associate Professor at a well-known University, according to an FIR filed by her, was forced to resign because the father of one of her students complained that he found his son looking at photographs of her, which according to him were “objectionable” and “bordering on nudity”.

There are two aspects to this case, which are equally disturbing, and which together make me question where we are heading as a society.

When the father of an 18 year old finds his son looking at photographs of a lady in a swimsuit, he can do many things. What this parent does is to dash off a letter to the University which states:

“Recently, I was appalled to find my son looking at some pictures of Prof. [Guha*] where she has posed in a sexually explicit way causing deliberate public exposure. …[this] is utterly shameful for me as a parent, since I have tried to shield my son from this kind of gross indecency and objectification of the female body. It is obscene, vulgar and improper for a 18 year old student to see his professor dressed in scanty clothes exhibiting her body on a public platform.”

First, the photograph was not on a public platform. The photograph had been posted on a private account on Instagram where it was visible for 24 hours to a tightly controlled audience. The only way the son could have accessed the photographs was if he had sent the Professor a ‘follow’ request which she accepted, or by hacking into her account. If the former, he had reached out to her. If the latter, he is guilty of a cyber-crime. In either case, the Professor cannot be blamed for the fact that her student was ogling at her photographs.

Second, the father says that he has “tried to shield my son from this kind of gross indecency and objectification of the female body”. If we accept this statement at face value, then clearly the parent has failed in his stated duty, since the son had voluntarily sought out content that the parent deems objectionable. To shift the blame to the Professor is just an attempt to cover up what by his own admission is inadequate parenting.

Third, are these the only photographs of “scantily clad” women that the student has gawked at? Surely there must be other women who’s photographs have also come under scrutiny- why then single out the Professor? Don’t teachers have the right to living a personal life? As long as they are competent in their job, and adhere to the workplace code of conduct, how does it matter what clothes they wear and what photographs they post on their private Instagram account?

The reaction of the father smacks of a giant failure in parenting. The child is 18 years old, an adult. Ideally, the father should not be micro-policing what he chooses to do in his spare time. However, this is India, where even people much older are made to feel they are answerable to their parents, random family members and the entire neighbourhood!

The father has caught his child doing something he deems objectionable- instead of holding his son accountable, the father shifts the blame to someone who is not even directly involved in the incident. By writing to the University, and having the Professor removed, the father is sending out the message that his child can behave as irresponsibly as he likes, and the father will always be around to clean up the mess.

The attitude displayed by the University is equally wrong. Ideally, when a frivolous complaint like this was registered, the University should have stood by their staff, and told the father in no uncertain terms that the Professor was engaged to teach, and what she did in her personal life was nobody’s business. Even if the University has a code of conduct which does not permit its staff to put up photographs on their private Instagram accounts, knowing that the Professor had joined only two months earlier, the University should have first asked her when the photograph was uploaded before launching an investigation that ended in her dismissal. In this particular case, the photograph was put up on Instagram stories in June 2021, and the Professor joined the University only in August 2021. Since Instagram stories are visible only for 24 hours, at the time of joining, there were no photographs that could be deemed “objectionable” on the Internet, unless the account had been hacked into and photographs downloaded.

By proceeding with an investigation on photographs taken and uploaded before the Professor even joined the University, they have also set a precedent which leaves women vulnerable to blackmail. Now, any acquaintance who has photographs or videos which are even remotely compromising can threaten to use it to against women in similar positions.

The manner in which the investigation was conducted also exposes how vulnerable women are to harassment in the workplace. According to the FIR filed by the Professor, printouts of the photographs which the parent deemed objectionable were circulated among by the committee members, which included two men. When a woman posts a photograph online, particularly if it is in a tightly controlled private group, it does not mean she is giving consent to the photographs being printed and passed around in another setting. By doing so, the University was invading her privacy, and putting her in an extremely vulnerable position. As she says, “It is a mystery to me till date how the university accessed those pictures. I felt so distressed and humiliated at that moment that I couldn’t bear to examine the rest of the pictures. I was in a meeting where my private pictures were being circulated among people unknown to me, without my consent.”

The Professor also mentions in her FIR that she was repeatedly slut shamed by the members of the committee, most of whom were unknown to her. Though she was dressed in a swimsuit, the members of the committee repeatedly referred to them as “nude” photographs. She, a grown woman of 30 with two PhDs from foreign universities was infantized and asked if her parents knew about and approved of the photographs. There is a decorum to be maintained while carrying out investigations, so the dignity of the woman is maintained, but that was clearly not followed by the University.

More than anything else, this incident exposes how vulnerable women in Academia are. Students and researchers have made allegations of sexual harassment against male professors who were in a position of power over them. Yet, years later, despite those allegations not being properly investigated, those professors continue to hold their positions and are treated as respected professionals. Yes, a woman is slut shamed for sharing photographs of herself with a tightly controlled group of people for a 24 hour period, and is forced to resign because someone who shouldn’t even have access to the photographs made a complaint against her.

This case, if not properly investigated and resolved, can have wide reaching implications for Women, particularly Women in Academia, and each of us should be extremely concerned about it, and should keep raising our voice till the Professor gets justice.