Roads to Freedom

Title: Roads to Freedom – Prisoners in Colonial India

Author: Mushirul Hasan

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9780199458837

Pages: 276

India’s prison system was in the news recently in England. This was when the Indian government tried to extradite Vijay Mallya, who was absconding from legal proceedings related to his company’s defaulting on loans worth thousands of crores of rupees. Mallya sought the mercy of the British court, pointing out the horrible conditions in Indian jails. When the court demanded a response from Indian authorities, there were tit-for-tat comments in social media regarding the proper reply. Some keen wits remarked that we would provide a prison atmosphere for Mallya, who is neck-deep in financial impropriety, which would be far better than what the British government doled out to our national leaders including Gandhi during the freedom struggle. Evidently, prison life was harsh then, as it is now. This is what makes it a deterrent for people from indulging in crimes. But, political prisoners are a class apart from the normal customers of a prison. This book describes the saga of the freedom fighters who transformed the narrow road that led to a prison cell into a highway to freedom. It dwells upon the physical infrastructure of the penitentiary, its harsh rules and even harsher implementation; the emotional disconnect the inmates feel toward their loved ones and the strengthening of their resolve to sacrifice themselves on the quest for regaining national honour. Prison offered no deterrent to them, since they were ready to break the law again that would put them back in jail as soon as they are released. Indian literature has also somewhat got enriched by the contribution of the prisoners. Mushirul Hasan is a distinguished Indian historian who had served as the vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi and as the director general of the National Archives of India.

Hasan discerns three stages in the genesis of political prisoners in colonial India. These include the Wahhabi conspiracy, the post-1857 phase and the Gandhian era. See the effortlessness with which the Wahhabi zealots and non-violent Gandhians are put inside the same bracket! The ethos of the prisoners also varied sharply in these periods. Flogging of prisoners and applying fetters on them were common to crush their will. The worst part of it was the injunction that the inmate shall polish the iron rings round his neck. As can be imagined, this book deals only with the political prisoners. Extrapolating the argument towards the post-independent era, the author wants the status of political prisoners to the Maoists too (p.4). This is strange, coming from a person who adorned some of the highest academic and establishment positions in the country with government salary. He also raises the demand by an international committee for the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Extending the liberties to an organization bent on subverting the constitution and the nation itself is naïve and ill-advised. Hasan widens his argument with the contention that banditry and criminality are forms of protest in class-divided agrarian societies. The state coercion in Telengana is also questioned, where an armed uprising of the communists in the latter half of 1940s was firmly put down. It is intriguing to watch the revolutionary vacillations of the author whose credentials speak loudly of a career solidly rooted in Islamic orthodoxy.

The two most renowned leaders of the independence movement who had to undergo long prison sentences were Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Anecdotes and surveys from their time in prison are included in the narrative. What is strange is the author’s inclusion of the leaders of the Khilafat movement also, under the sweeping generalization of freedom movements. Khilafat was solely concerned with restoring the Turkish sultan who was deposed by the British at the end of World War I. Since he was also the Islamic caliph, Muslims in all countries came out in his defence, but the fact that it did not have anything to do with India’s struggle against the colonial masters is plain to see. If it had been the Germans who had usurped the Ottoman throne in place of the British, the Khilafat would still have taken birth and perhaps sided with the British! Hasan takes an anticipatory bail here, by claiming that the description of the tenure of Mohamed Ali, a prominent Khilafat leader, in prison is only to understand, rather than endorse, his passion and commitment. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s endorsement of the Gandhian doctrine of mingling religion and politics is notable in the path it opened for him to prison. Another point to observe in the context of Khilafat is the confluence of fundamentalists in the revolutionary fold. Hasrat Mohani, who chaired the first conference of the Communist Party of India at Kanpur in 1925, actually campaigned for a republic of Hijaz in Arabia, so that the holy cities of Mecca and Medina would not fall under British dominance. For Mohani, Islam and Communism complemented each other, and they conflicted only when their followers trespassed the limits of their fields and methods of action. This communist leader also performed the Hajj eleven times, including one overland trip that was extremely hazardous. However, to do justice to his memory, it must be remembered that Mohani also sang in praise of Hindu gods.

This book makes a focus on the influence of prison sentence in literature. Unfortunately for the readers, Hasan stops to take stock of the situation in Urdu language only. In that literature, zindan (prison), qaidkhana and dar-o-rasan (scaffold) are emblems of subjugation. Assuming inspiration from this concept, Bismil Azimabadi and Josh Malihabadi wrote motivating poems urging the people to achieve martyrdom. Maulvi Zafar Ali Khan produced a collection of poems (habsiyat) while languishing in Montgomery Jail in 1926. A shift in literary activity clearly became evident in the period. Creative writing was reassigned to be the servant of a cause, a beacon to poor humanity’s afflicted will, and not merely a display of ornamental skill. It had wide appeal. Parsi theatre in Bombay staged Urdu plays. A detailed narration of Nehru’s effort in writing such masterpieces as Glimpses of World History and Discovery of India is also given.

The temperament of various leaders who had undergone the forced stay in prison is different. Gandhi craved for isolation, reading and spinning charkha most of the time. He was unhesitant to do physical labour and deployed the symbolism of political prisoner in his crusade, and jail as a metaphor to depict India’s enslavement. Hasan again issues a disclaimer here, by marking himself not concerned with the fallacies and contradictions in Gandhi’s message, but rather of his sincerity. He even argues that the Palestinians are encouraged by the tenacity and courage with which Gandhi led the liberation struggle. The readers are left to wonder at the incongruity in equating the terrorist tactics of Hamas with Gandhian ahimsa. However, there were other leaders who could not take prison in their calm stride. M N Roy, an early communist leader, was so fed up with jail that he continuously wrote wishful notes about his desire to escape from the sentence and spend time in some of the hill stations of Europe.

The book is a good effort to portray a little known area of the independence movement. The author should have taken a little more care in selecting the subjects though. A lot of poetic couplets are given in the text, and are provided with a transliteration of the Urdu words as well. This help the reader clearly identify the rhyming pattern. This is one aspect that is totally lost in translation and Hasan’s attention to this detail is commendable. Probably because of the author’s access to the National Archives as a former director general, a lot of files of the political department of British India are examined. This makes the book quite unique.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star