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Bayan
by:
Musharraf Alam Zauqui
E-mail : zauqui2005@gmail.com





























































































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Friday, November 24, 2006
Bayaan: An Urdu novel on Hindu-Muslim relations during the turbulent period
around Babri Masjid demolition

Musharraf Alam Zauqi's 'Bayaan' is the most important novel that captures the anxieties and fears
of both Hindus and Muslims in the turbulent years from 1986 to1992--an era when the right wing
BJP grew from strength to strength and ultimately the Ram Mandir movement led to the
demolition of Babri Masjid.

I had heard so much about the novel but surprisingly I hadn't met anybody who had even read this
novel. Agreed, Urdu has seen a decline in readership in India but it took me nearly a decade to get
the book and when I held it, I had to finish it in one sitting.

The story revolves around elderly Balmukund Sharma 'Josh', a retired official and Urdu poet as his
'takhallus' suggests, his friend Barkat Husain and their families.

Balmukund Sharma believes in the culture which developed with the interaction of Hindus &
Muslims in the country over centuries. He is an epitome of 'wazadari' and puts principles above
everything.

One of his son, Narendera, a doctor, is fiercely anti-Muslim and is member of a right wing party
(of course, BJP) while the other son is a trader and a small-time Congress worker. The sons don't
understand their father's love for a language 'that is spoken by Muslims and the script which looks
strange to them'.

They don't understand why their father goes to 'mushaira' and spends time with his Muslim friends
and poets.
His friend Barkat Husain's son, Munna, is a clerk at the electricity office. He is tired of hearing the
taunts of being a 'Pakistani at heart'.

The fathers helplessly watch their sons who turn even more communal than the generation that had
seen the horrors of partition. The demolition of Babri Masjid comes as a big setback for Indian
Muslims and causes irreparable damage to their psyche.

Munna gets restless and decides to join the anti-Muslim party. 'If we treat them as untouchable and
it comes to power, how will we deal with the situation, after all, we have to live and die here', he
feels. He starts going to the party meetings and in turn becomes a pariah in his community. No
body understands his dilemma, not even his father who could never understand his introvert son.

Meanwhile, Balmukund Sharma Josh has serious differences with his elder son. At a mushaira
Josh is mocked at by some unemployed Muslim youths who tell him that his own son is a
BJP-wala but Josh enjoys the best of both worlds, as an Urdu poet getting acclaim amongst
Muslims.

Josh is sick of his sons who hate everything about him and his culture. Even his grand-daughter
asks him, 'Are you Muslim dada-ji, but Muslims are bad'. He decides to deprive his communal sons
of any share in the property.

Now his sons try every bit to please him. Meanwhile, his granddaughter gets ill and Munna and his
wife gets the kid admitted in hospital and treated when Narendra was away to a party convention.
Narendra's wife, a strict Brahmin who never ate at anybody's place discovers a postive side to
Muslims and fights her husband. Munna is her brother now.

But Munna feels that he is a misfit in the right-wing party and begins to distance himself from the
outfit that badly needed a few Muslim showboys. The local party leaders feel he might reveal their
secrets. A man wearing a skull-cap (Muslim topi) is entrusted by a hard-core party leader to kill
Munna and give the impression that Muslims killed the traitor of their community.

Shaken by the grief at the blood and gore, communal riots and the destruction of composite culture
in India, Balmukund Sharma Josh is fast getting insane and decides to write a 'bayaan' [a statement,
a will or a confession]. His sons are worried what is in store for them...what is going to be this
bayaan?

It is undoubtely a magnum opus. It was the story of every Indian town in that era. The curfews,
riots, clashes, angry rhetorics against muslims, the steady lumpenisation of the middle-class that
was fuelled by politicians and Hindi newspapers in North India, which had threatened the entire
social fabric of the country.

The novelist manages to capture it with perfection. Zauqi is a master story-teller and is not only the
leading Urdu writer of his generation but also acclaimed Hindi writer, who is published in Hans
and other prestigious literary magazines.

Lots of lessons from the novel. Surprisingly, there are so many major works about partition,
Bayaan is the probably the only Urdu novel that focuses on the inter-religious relationships and the
communalisation that affected both communities in this era.
Has this generation even lost its voice
 A Letter to Zauqui
Abid Surti

My dear Zauqui,
Last night I completed your bookd 'Byan". First, let me tell you that 'Bayan" is one of the finest
books of the decade. After years I have read an Urdu book that runs like juicy fiction. It is a rare
achievement for work of literature in any language. The characters of Bal Mukund and Munna are
unforgetatable. In fact they are so true to life that one can easily identify them. For example, in my
friend Mr. Jagmohan Mattu here in Bombay, I can see your Bal Mukund alive and kicking (From
tomorrow he is going to begin leading your book). Your style of writing reminds me of Henry
Miller, the controversial authour of 'Tropic of Cancer' and 'Tropic of Capricom'. Your short, terse
sentences sprinkled with a satirical humor penetrate deep into the reader's heart. Here are a few
lines which felt inllustrated this point admirably.
1- og tho fdlh canwd dh xksyh dh rjg iSnk gksrs gh ftLe esa nkx nh tkrh FkhA
2- vka[kksa esa 'kk;n chrs bfrgkl ds dkaVs pqHk x;s gSA
3- rUgk dejk--- [kkeks'k dejk] dHkh&dHkh dejk cksyrk gS---
This entire paragraph was touching.
There is so much to say Iwish I was in Delhi and in front of you. By chance if you happen to visit
Bombay do inform me. I wish you all the success, all the way.