Between the Conundrum of Mystique
and Mayhem: A Reading of M.G.Vassanji’s The
Assassin’s Song
Mirza Sariful Hassan,
Ph.D. Research Scholar,
Vidyasagar University,
West Bengal, India.
Abstract: Once the colonial regime got dismantled, the native
people are often found to exert their vague grievance against their fellow
countrymen. It happens due to numbers of reasons ranging from unrequited
expectation, unfulfilled ambition, rampant corruption among the leaders and
last but not least the religious bigotry mostly occasioned by the racial
polarization engineered by the failed politicians. Such gradual and continuous
hate mongering, underpinned by the religious fanaticism has produced the recent
mayhem of Gujrat in 2002 which has surpassed all the previous records in terms
of its vividness and heinous brutality. This singular incident has
unprecedentedly jeopardized the social fabric and questions residual faith of
mutual respect and reciprocal amity. Literature being what Hubert Zapf terms as
a “cultural-critical metadiscourse” (102), sometimes critically engages with
such cataclysm. And Vassanji’s The Assassin’s Song (2007) can be conceived as
one of the representative texts of this line which juxtaposes the religious
parochialism as well as religious tolerance in close proximity. And this paper
explicates how the novel The Assassin’s Song (2007) upholds the banal syncretic
tradition of non-European society, so as to envision a peaceful world order through
mutual acceptance of the “other”.
Keywords: Postcolonialism, mysticism, communalism,
identity, cultural syncreticism.
A vibrant voice
from postcolonial geopolitical reality, M. G. Vassanji is one of the few most
celebrated figures best known for their politico-cultural commitment. Born in
Kenya, educated in the USA, living in Canada with an Indian ancestral legacy
and frequenting in the sub continent, Vassanji views the scheme of things
objectively as a distant onlooker. He is seen to indict the various happenings
of the three major continents of the globe—Asia, Africa and America. The
present paper studies The Assassin’s Song
which mainly documents the historical transience of Indian political culture
from 13th century to the 21st century; from the antique
amity to the present exclusivism. Though
this novel provides occasional snapshots of the USA, it predominantly focuses
on the political upheavals of Indian society with incredible authenticity. The
communal rivalry particularly between the Hindus and Muslims in post
independent India has unfortunately been a bitter reality and got its momentum
in Gujrat Riot of 2002; and the novel
under discussion here mainly upholds the tolerance of Sufism as a panacea to
the hatred and mutual distrust that has been troubling Indian society for long,
particularly once the colonial rule gets over. This paper explicates how the
novel The Assassin’s Song (2007)
upholds the banal syncretic tradition of Indian society, so as to envision a
peaceful world order through mutual acceptance of the “other”.
The novel The Assassin’s Song maps the sweep of
history which has to a greater extent been tainted by the communal hatreds,
mutual distrust and religious bigotry. The story of the novel begins in the 13th
century when a Muslim exile, Nur Fazal being persecuted in Near East at the hand of Mongols invaders
took refuge in Patan, (present Gujrat) under the patronage of the king Vishal
Dev. On setting his foot on the land of Patan he experienced a sting of brahminic
persecution “You Mleccha, impure Muslim?”(8).Coincidentally, when Hulagu Khan
led Mongol invasion transpired in Near East, India was under the rule of Muslim
Sultanate. Eventually, Nur Fazal was suspected to be the spy of the Sultan in
the Hindu kingdom of Patan. So, the religious rivalry between Hindus and Muslim
was there in 13th century and continued till the date; but this rivalry was
more political in nature than religious in spirit. However, after primordial
awkwardness, that Nur Fazal faced, he subsequently becomes Pir Bawa of the
Pirbaag shrine located in Haripir. Gradually, he has been revered by the people
of every walk. With this historical anecdote, the novelist proceeds to focus on
the recent history of India particularly the Hindu-Muslim rivalry in post
independent India. Thus the novel is fore grounded against the “sub text” of
this historical reality. To be précised, the plot of the novel treats the
politico-cultural reality of Gujrat province as a microscopic representation of
India as a whole—the momentum of which is explicated through the mayhem of
Gujrat riot of 2002. Therefore, this novel substantiates what Louis Montrose
terms as “the Historicity of Texts and Textuality of History”. It not only
reflects the history, rather in a way typical to New Historicism, explains the
history itself. Therefore, this novel justifies Hubert Zapf’s formulation of
literature as a “cultural-critical metadiscourse” (102), that tends to
represent “typical deficits, blind spots, imbalances, deformations, and
contradictions within the dominant systems of civilisatory power” (102-108)
It is often, if
not always, seen that once the colonized countries achieve independence, the
indigenous people began to excrete rage against their fellow countrymen. As
substantiated by Frantz Fanon— “The native’s muscular tension finds outlet
regularly in bloodthirsty explosions—in tribal warfare, in feuds between septs
and in quarrels between individuals” (42). It happens due to numbers of reasons
ranging from unrequited expectation, unfulfilled ambition, rampant corruption
among the leaders and last but not least the religious bigotry mostly
occasioned by the racial polarization engineered by the failed politicians.
Such religious atrocities accomplished by the sycophant zealots is nothing more
than a purgation of economic and cultural frustration channelized towards ill
dimension: “Economical; the past
atrocities of Muslims armies; manipulation and instigation by the
colonizing power, Britain; ditto by cynical Indian politician; etc” (Assassin’s Song 308). The same has been
substantiated by Fox in the following words: “failure of India’s bureaucratic
rationality, of its capitalist productivity and of its secular progress to
overcome the hyper enchantment that they also create” (Fox 257). He construes
the communal mistrust to be the byproduct of anxiety developed by modern
situation— “Much of the fanaticism and violence associated with religion comes
today from the sense of defeat of believers, from their feelings of impotency,
and from their free-floating anger and self-hatred while facing a world which
is increasingly secular and desacralized” (Nandy 332). Likewise, in India, the
recently independent people of the land suffer the same fate. Immediately after
the independence the partition hype brought a Himalayan
catastrophes—displacement, dislocation, psychic trauma etc have substantially
put the two communities at a binary opposition— “riots and massacres continued
whenever the two communities had lived together; there were hate killing, in
Ahmedabad, Bombay, Baroda, Kalol, even our neighbor Goshala”(Assassin’s Song 52). Muslim leaders also
retorted in a very undesired manner, tried to encash the religious fervor to
polarize the Muslims in favour of Pakistan— “They altered their name to sound
more Arabic and prepared to go to Pakistan”(52).
Though our
revered mother land is blessed with communal amity since the time immemorial,
the fire of communal tension always lurks behind it and peeps through every now
and then in hard times: “Cease blasphemous cow and idol worship, said the
Muslims; abandoned carnality and return to the basics of the ancient Vedas, retorted the Hindus”(Assassin’s Song 52). If such communally
loaded propagations against the fellow citizens are typical of the
nationalistic hype underpinned by jingoism in pre-independent India, its
consequent trenchant is visible in stigmatizing the particular community as
“anti-national” in post- independent era. During the war torn phase with China
and Pakistan, the relationship between the two communities gets worsen. The smell of suspicion looms large and the
fellow Muslims neighbors are stigmatized as Pakistanis: “They are Pakistanis
themselves only. All their relations live in Pakistan” (Assassin’s Song 90). It is ironical enough that the descendants of
Pir Baag are being suspected as Pakistani, though their forefathers stood by
with Gandhiji and did not endorse the clarion of “two nation theory” expounded
by Jinnah, the staunch ideologue of Muslim Homeland.
The mutual
distrust and animosity between the two communities in India have its genesis in
the past and have been sustained for long times. In modern times such
communalism appears to be the offshoot of Western driven nationalism, for
nationalism in a given society is tendentious to offer communalism—
“communalism is a form of nationalism, where a common religion is the basis of
group identity” (Veer 22). The religion to them no longer remains a “faith”,
rather it becomes an “ideology” that the fundamentalist thinkers and extremists
in both sides capitalize for their sycophant obsession. Therefore, Ashis Nandy
in his celebrated essay “The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of
Religious Tolerance” substantiates “what passes as fundamentalism, fanaticism,
or revivalism is often only another form of Westernization becoming popular
among the psychologically uprooted middle classes in South Asia” (335). Thus, whereas
the person like narrator’s uncle Rajpal abandons the banal tie with the Sufi
tradition and assume the new name Iqbal to be more conformed in institutional
religion; person like Pradhan Shastri, a doyen of hate monger, propagates the notion of cultural chauvinism
and pines “to bring back the Golden Age of the
Vedas”. If throwing a piece of meat to the Kali shrine of Damanis family is
instrumental in whirling the communal tension in Haripir region, the
organization like National Patriotic Youth Party (NAPYP) is extremist right
wing platform involved in vicious activities. This is much akin to Hindutva organization
like Rashtriyo Sayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Pradhan Shastri is modeled upon a
typical Sayamsevak who in disguise of patriotism trains up the youth for a
paramilitary martial troop. Though he got endorsement from the Saheb of
Pirbaag, his activities begin with obeisance to Hunuman, “giver of strength and
virility, deity of the martial arts” (Assassin’s
Song 112). Even the attire of the activists of such organization is
indicative enough. The novelist is supercilious in choosing the uniform: “Khaki
shorts, white shirts, red beret, and black shoes” (Assassin’s Song 111). The same uniform is maintained by the cadres
of RSS. Though the chief of this regiment Pradhan Shastri recruits the narrator
but teases him so far his (narrator’s) non-Hindu lineage is concerned. The
hidden desire of Hindutva motif gets exposed through his parochial treatment
towards the narrator—“Musalman nu naam laage’ chhe, sounds Muslim, he said,
distaste all over his face” (Assassin’s
Song 114). Even he physically assaulted him under the pretext of wrestling
training. And such hidden Hindutva agenda and their anti Gandhi-Nehru stands
become conspicuous when their organization came up with a propaganda pamphlet
entitled “Hindu Pride”, one of the
issues of which proclaims the following words: “Gandhi had apparently appease
the Muslims, almost given the away to them; and Nehru had denied the Hindu
nature of our country, opting instead for a secular nation at independence” (Assassin’s Song 126). Allegation of
appeasement and complaint of deprivation of Hindus like “Hindu Khatra Mein
Hain” are the signature mark of Hindutva propaganda. Unfortunately an army
captain addressing a street corner meeting said that he is looking forward to
recruit the youth army of NAPYP to the Indian army. It is a grave reminder of
RSS recruits in the state machinery; may it be in administrative, executive and
judiciary. The recent issue Hindu Pride
publishes an article that criminalizes the Madrassa in Godhra; two American
missionaries’ teachers including David sir who embraces Christianity from Islam
has also been targeted by them. It is pertinent to say that the great ideologue
of Hindutva, M.S Golwalkar in his seminal text Bunch of Thoughts identifies three internal threats for India:
these are Muslims, Christian and communist. Regarding Muslims, he opines
“Within the country, there are so many Muslim pockets, i.e., so many ‘miniature
Pakistans’” (Golwalkar 164) and regarding Christians he says “Their activities
are not merely irreligious, they are also anti national” (Golwalkar 167). And
the vindication in Hindu Pride is
inevitable consequence of such theorization. But one should keep in mind that
such communal tension is much underpinned by the political interest, rather
than religious ones. On being asked “why Hindus and Muslims hate each other?”
the Sahib of the Pirbaag answers—“they don’t hate each other. They are only
sometimes afraid of each other . . . and there are those among them who exploit
that fear” (Assassin’s Song 93). So
communalism has nothing to do with religion; it is a business of fear
maneuvered by the politicians to materialize their vested interest.
Against this
prognostication of gradual and continuous hate mongering, the recent mayhem of
Gujrat takes place which has surpassed all the previous records in terms of its
vividness and heinous brutality. This singular incident has unprecedentedly
jeopardized the social fabric and questions residual faith of mutual respect
and reciprocal amity. The entire cohorts of this mayhem engulfs the Pirbaag Shrine1
and sweeps away the age old syncretic tradition of Pir Bawa— that eventually
turns it into a necropolis. The
vividness of heinous riot could be
sensed in these words— “But how to explain slicing a child body into two with a
sword; inserting a rod up a woman’s vagina; removing an eight month foetus from
a mother and killing it before her eyes; electrocuting an entire family inside
a room?”(Assassin’s Song 308).
Unfortunately, these are not any fictional account of warfare, rather factual
details of historical incident we experienced recently bitterly. The wild
zealots ravage every corner of the society and Pirbaag is no exception. Even
the Saheb of Pirbaag who is always been revered by the people of all faith got
killed by the fanatic—“the thin long sword flash and went straight through him.
He fell and they cut him” (Assassin’s
Song 359). The nomenclature of characters and places in the novel is very
much significant ones. The name of the village ‘Haripir’ is significant enough
so far the theme of the novel is concerned. Haripir is composed of two terms—
“Hari” and “pir”: while the former signifies the Hinduism, the later indicates
the Muslim society. Thus the place Haripir epitomizes the syncretic tradition
of Indian society where Hindus and Muslims beautifully blend together to be
perfectly harmonious and impeccably peaceful.
The mayhem
happens during the time when the narrator was at Cambridge University, when he
comes back, the catastrophe crosses its climax and he is only to witness the
terrible devastation ravages his once familiar landscape. The great fanfare is
over now and “the shrine lies in ruins, victim of the violence that so gripped
our state recently, an orgy of murder and destruction of the kind we
euphemistically call riots” (Assassin’s Song
3). Interestingly, after the onslaught of mayhem “Haripir” becomes “Haripur” as
if it is now deprived of “Pir” and his long cherished lineage of love and
friendship. Therefore, though once he renounced such role and went to Cambridge to get rid of from such numbo jumbo of all
these archaic ethos, now it is imperative for the narrator to take over the
charge of Pirbaag stoically to guide the disciples of Pir Bawa —“This role
which I once spurned, I must now assume. I, the last lord of shrine of Pirbaag,
must pick up the pieces of my truest and tell its story” (Assassin’s Song 4).
In postcolonial
literary oeuvre; the indigenous morality, values, knowledge system which once
was relegated in colonial regime, recuperates to falsify the assumed
predominance of the western hegemony. The mobilizing power of pre-colonial
tradition and images are evoked as resistance to imperial orthodoxy and to
envision alternate notion of humanity; as Edward Said has aptly said—“potentially
revises visions of the past tending towards a post-colonial future, as urgently
interpretable and redeployable experiences in which the formerly silent native
speaks and acts on territory reclaimed as part of a general movement of
resistance, from the colonist”(Culture
and Imperialism 271) And Sufism can be considered as one of the
postcolonial artifacts which maintains a narrative of what Mary Louise terms as “Autoethnography” that devalue colonial
chauvinistic secularism and celebrate indegenous multiculturalism. The term
Sufism has evolved from Arabic root words “suff” which connotes a person who
used to wear a coarser cloth and led an ascetic life during the time of
Prophet. Though “Sufism” initially had a purely Islamic origin, but over the
period it has absorbs different extra Islamic influences throughout the ages
and become a melting pot of different faiths. The Sufi cult doesn’t adhere to
the strict outward rituals of any particular religion; rather it welds together
the inner spirit and humanitarian aspect of every religion.
The Assassin’s Song is spatially
set in Gujarat province of India and temporally it maps the historical
happenings from 13th century onwards when the Muslims invaders came
in India and set foot in Gujarat. But through these apparent happenings the
novel eventually delves deep into the
phenomenon of Sufism brought in along with the Muslim invaders. The plot
of the novel revolves round the fictional Pirbaag in Haripir and delineates its
entire plot through the technique of flash back and flash forward. It begins
with a rumination of the narrator Karsan residing at Indian Institute of
Advanced studies, Shimla. The narrator, in a flash back motion muses the days
spent with his father during his childhood— when his father Nur Tejpal, the
present Saheb of Pirbaag and the holy descendent of Pir Bawa said to the
narrator: “this hallowed ground was our trust; we looked after it for people of
any creed from any place to come to be blessed and comforted” (3). This initial
introduction of Pirbaag is indeed an introduction of Sufism in a nutshell. It
makes the three points clear enough to be convinced— firstly and most
importantly Sufi belief claims a trust— a complete trust to the “Pir” and his
mysterious power; the second thing is its acumen approach to the people from
all places and faith— inclusiveness not exclusivity is the punching point of
Sufism; and thirdly, the object of Sufism is nothing but to provide comfort to
all and sundry. In other words, as has been put forward by Enamul Haq ”The
quintessence of Indian Sufiism , and in a wider sense, of Sufiism outside
India, is the three fundamental things,
viz., God and Man, and the relation between them i.e. Love”(53).Thus the
binding force of Sufism is not any sacred scripture, but a Sufistic lore— a
hymn for the commoners; as the narrator is told regarding the teaching of the
founder of Sufi order concerned in this novel: “He gave us his teachings in the
form of songs he composed in our languages, Gujrati”(3).
Though Sufism
does not adhere to any particular institutionalized ritualistic cohorts; it
beautifully fuses together the inner good of different faiths. As J.N. Farquhar
has rightly puts: “It was through the teachings of Sufis that Islam found
entrance to Hindu hearts. They fraternized with Hindu ascetic and gurus; and
each learned to respect the others’ religious faith and life.”(286). Likewise,
it shares the pantheistic creed of Indian traditional belief. Muhammad Enamul
Haque’s opines “[A] strong pessimistic attitude of the Indian Sufis towards the
world is the result of the Vedantic influence on Sufiism” (130). The Indian
traditional belief, which has its germ from Upanishads
and expounded particularly by “Adwitiya” philosophy of Sankara proclaims that
every natural phenomenon is an illusion-“Maya”
because nothing is real except the existence of Brahman. According to it all
other temporal entity is nothing but the different facets of Supreme Being— the
God. In this novel, the teachings of Sufism is conveyed with the same
philosophy in following words— “there is but one truth, one Universal soul, of
which we all are manifestations and where can be approached in diverse ways” (Assassin’s Song 10). In actuality, such
belief which is termed in Islamic discourse “Wahadat al-Wajood”2 has no room in Islamic
way of belief, but Sufism adheres such latitudinarianism so far its syncretic
synchronization is concerned. The term “mystery” in the quotation is
particularly indicative one. For, in Sufi tradition, mysticism is greatly revered
and mystic experience of the effulgence of God is the desideratum of Sufi
gnosis. In this theosophical discourse, subjectivism— a trenchant subjective
experiences of the supra reality and ultimate truth is extrapolated under the
preceptorship of “Pir”. Nevertheless, viewing every creature as part and parcel
on “Universal soul” is to consider everybody with equal privilege and respect
that substantially pave a latitudinal way of life and disregards any austere,
pristine concept of orthodoxy.
The ethnic
rivalry, religious intolerance, and exertion of cultural essentialism are some
of the problems the world is now bitterly passing through. The hegemonic
majoritarian society does believe its supremacy in terms of its cultural
antiquity; religious infallibility and egalitarian outlook. On the other hand,
the cultural artifacts of the “Other” are treated with abhorrence as if it has
no access to the truth. But Sufi theosophy is free from such insular prejudice,
rather it acknowledges each and every way of life to be worthy of respect and
reverence. For the Sufism believes: “All roads lead to the same destination—
only same may be longer than other” (Assassin’s
Song 18). As the present world is full of hatred and mistrusts such order
of acceptance of diversity is really an oasis of hope for mutual existence and
reciprocity that testifies the banal multicultural temperament of Indian
society: “The essence of Indian culture is multiculturalism. India is both an
exporter as well as importer of its culture. India represents a kind of
economic, cultural, political and above all, spiritual synthesis of different
religion” (Multiculturalism, the Essence
of Indian Culture 17).
Sufism not only
believes in the equality of men, but also treats women with equal honour and status.
For the Sufis, woman is not seen to be a subordinate to man, rather they
believe “woman could attain union with the absolute” (Assassin’s Song 20). Traditionally, Indian society keeps its
insular outlook and parochialism through the weapon called— “endogamy”. In his
seminal book Annihilation of Caste,
B.R Ambedkar suggests that it is imperative to dishevel the cult of endogamy to
have a true egalitarian society. Thus in the discourse of Sufism interfaith
marriage is acknowledged to deconstruct the pseudo supremacist penchant of
endogamous relationship. Therefore, Nur fazal, the founder of the Sufi order of
Pirbaag, the prototype of the Sufi tradition in Haripir and the present sahib
as well got married with women from another faith— Hinduism. Rupa
Devi, wife of Pir Bawa also got cremated within the cemetery of Pirbaag and
worshiped by the followers from all stands of faiths and beliefs. They show
their respect to the sahib of Pir Baag irrespective of caste, creed and
religion. Furthermore, the harmonious existence of Hindu temple with that of
Sufi shrine with their respective songs and “ginans” evokes much tolerant
co-existence of different faiths. While the British colonialism perpetuated
“the divide and rule” policy in Indian society, particularly among the
Hindu-Muslim, the communal rivalry began to emerge; as Gyanendra Pandey in his
celebrated book Construction of
Communalism in Colonial North India (2012), writes, “communalism in India
is another characteristic and paradoxical product of age of Reason (and of
Capital) which also gave us colonialism and nationalism” (5). Before the
colonial regime, the understanding of the community in Indian society was
largely underpinned by fellow feeling and affection. It is with the
introduction of community based enumeration in British India that the
consolidated sectarian community feeling got its momentum. Therefore, some
scholars find deep interface between communalism, colonialism, modernism and
secularism. Ashis Nandy has rightly opined that secularism is also liable for
communalism in contemporary times; he puts “[z]ealotry has produced many riot,
but secular politics, too, has now begun to produce its own version of
‘religious riot’” (337). Thus, communalism was as much an effect of the inner
dynamics of Indian society – both in its inter-community relationships in the
context of emerging structures of modernity, and in forging resistance against
the colonial rule – as it was the product of administrative signals intended to
create fissures in the Indian society. The Sufi spirit does counter such
colonial consignment and provide a remedy to such divisive scheme through the
recuperation of pre-colonial trope like Sufism in postcolonial spatio temporal
reality. Thus we see, the Sufi saint— Pir Bawa who came in the 13th
century in India accepted Arjun Dev as his first disciple. This seems to be a
genuine multicultural cosmopolitan outlook portrayed against the pseudo western
secularism3.
Even, just
before the independence of India, when the Pakistan movement led by Jinnah got
momentum, Dada, the then Saheb of Pirbaag and grandfather of the narrator did
not support Jinnah, rather kept trust upon Gandhiji and his non-violence
philosophy. The Sufi saints of Pirbaag
were never bothered about the Muslim identity politics and separate
nationhood— “Although Pirbaag harboured the precious memory and the grave of a Muslim Pir, the questions of Hindu
or Muslim never arisen before for its followers”( Assassin’s Song 51). For, the Saheb of Pirbaag taught his disciple
that “the path of the Pir was spiritual; it did not give importance to outward
forms of worship. Therefore, Hindus and Muslims were the same” (51). Thus the
Pir Saheb’s act of keeping faith in the political vision of Gandhi and Nehru is
a vehement retort of the Muslim sycophant who sought the support of Pir Bawa.
And this substantially dismantles the parochial divisive policy designed by the
colonial regime.
Thus for the
Pirs, enemies are not the people of other religion, rather, for them the true
enemies are—“Rulers” and “fanatics’. It is to be noted here that the rulers of
newly independent state become the enemy of common mass. They take over the
power through the independent movement of the masses, but sooner they become
puppet to the once colonial force and exploit their own people as a
representative of bourgeoisie’s interest and turn the state into a neocolonial
regime in postcolonial era. Countries having colonial history aspire to get rid
of this postcolonial menace. The enmity between the indigenous people only
subscribe to the colonial claim of native’s ineptness and undisciplined spirit
to rule themselves. In this respect Sufism with potential spiritual drilling
tries to discipline the people so as to deconstruct the colonial stigmatization
sustained through epistemic violence.
Western superiority in terms of knowledge is
counter balanced here with the fathomless wisdom of the Sufi saints. During a
debate about the true nature of God, the great founder of this Sufi tradition
Nur Fazal silenced the Mullah and Pandiths through his supreme knowledge and
the king of Gujrat recognized his excellence over his Pandiths: “you are truly
one of my Pandiths. You have learned the sacred languages” (Assassin’s Song 139). The mystics are
supposed to be the possessors of highest order of wisdom; endowed with revealed
knowledge experienced through intuition.
Thus Nur Tejpal, the father of narrator reveals the conundrum of Sufi
gnosis in the following words” when the soul reaches that stage, it becomes one
with the universal Brahma” (Assassin’s
Song 151). Whereas the nomenclature—“Brahma” is meant for the supreme god
in typical Hindu belief system, in the Sufi tradition it signifies the
syncretic tradition of Sufism itself.
One of the most important aspects of Sufi thought
is the existence of God within human beings. It encompasses the teachings of
the Upanishads—Tat tvam asi— “you are
that” and it echoes the talisman of famous medieval Sufi Mansoor who said –An Al Haq— “I am the truth”.
Consequently, it tries to make the people convinced that “We are all God, parts
of the one, and therefore, the same as the one” (Assassin’s Song 320). And the task of Sufi guru is to elevate the
common folk to explore it. It also adheres, if not wholly, to the Gandhian
thought. As has been seen in the course of the novel, Gandhi, while assuring
the Saheb of Pirbaag who visited
Gandhiji amid the trenchant of partition fever , said that the independent India will be a land for all—“ will be a
God’s country— but not the God of only the Hindu or Musalman… there is only one
God. Bhagwan and Allah are the same; Rama and Rahim are the same” (Assassin’s Song 325).Thus Sufism
advocates for a benign society enriched with communal amity, mutual respect,
cultural syncreticism, and is eliminated
from the scourge of hatred, division, and binary opposition as postulated by
the metropolitan West: “the world does not divide so neatly into “we” and
“them” (79). Sufi theosophy, thus could be reckoned as retort of the indigenous
people to the metropolitan centre as Said has put in— “These people are the
inheritors of a long tradition of history, of art, and which they are probably
anxious to prolong”(Orientalism 249).
Like all other
diaspora writer, Vassanji’s characters often bear the transnational hyphenated
cultural identity and the protagonist of this novel Nur Fazal is no exception.
The motif of journey which is often considered as an inseparable part of
Diaspora literature is a recurrent theme in this novel also. The Pir Bawa of
the shrine Nur Fazal was driven out from his homeland in Near East and migrated
in India in 13th century. Later on the protagonist also undertakes
transnational migration and spent a substantial period of time in the USA. His
subsequent settlement in the British Colombia for his teaching position at
Prince Albert College in Burnaby, and returning back to India signifies his
constant sojourn through the transnational trajectories. Thus, the
idiosyncrasies, nostalgia, homing desire, cultural confluence, and identity
crisis peep out frequently during the course of the novel.
As the Sufi
order of Pirbaag maintains a non conformist stand, the question of identity
appears frequently. Mansoor, the younger brother of narrator asks “who’s “we”?”
But they do not have any such compartmentalized identity—“we bow neither to
Kashi nor to Kaaba, et cetera. And we are respected for that” (93).Thus, they
typifies Bhabha’s concept of identity — “The question of identity always poised
uncertainty, tenebrously, between shadow and substance” (70). Such deracinated
identity is the prerequisite for the transnational cosmopolitan
multiculturalism. Time and again when narrator is skeptically viewed as
Pakistani spy, his nationhood is questioned which in turn questionizes his
identity and loyalty to homeland. Expatriate protagonist’s rumination and
reminiscence about his homeland, while living in the host land are common
phenomena of postcolonial Diaspora literature. Such issue is shown through
Karsan’s constant exchange of epistle with his father that worries him about
his homeland and he muses: “our homeland was far away but its news still had an
effect upon our thoughts and feelings, if not so much on our lives” (Assassin’s Song 286). In diasporic
literature , the migrant figures often, if not always, seeks a homeliness in
their land of adoption and protagonist of this novel Karsan is haunted by
a “double vision”; at times he craves
for a carefree life in host land and instantly desires to be at home among his
family members. And Rushdie’s opinion testifies this state in the following
words “Sometimes we feel that we straddle two vultures; at other times, that we
fall between two stools” (15). The question of “home” is a significant trope in
postcolonial literature. When Mansoor the younger brother of the narrator
wishes to avail a safe passage in Pakistan, he was reprimanded by his father,
the Saheb of the Pirbaag in these words: “But remember your home is here with
Pir Bawa” (Assassin’s Song 53).
Diaspora figures’ “homing desire” sometimes gets compensated with that of
“homeliness”. Here expatriate character seeks feelings of “home” away from
homeland as Karsan feels a fellow felling amid the devotees in the USA—“I was
deeply touched. These were my people” (237). The protagonist of a Diaspora novel
is often, if not always, seen to identifies her/himself with his/her mother
land and Karsan feels the same impulse:
“Am I too much of an Indian despite my three decades spent in the west?”(363).
The psychic
idiosyncrasies of the Diaspora narrator becomes conspicuous, when he suffers an
“in between” enigmatic mental dilemma between homeland and host land—“I
imagined for myself a life free of the burden and expectation of tradition…and
at the same time, in some vague illogical, and dreamlike manner, I saw myself
at ‘home’ with my family” (271). When the stakeholders of different cultures
exist in close proximity, cultural hybridity is celebrated and the same thing
happens while Karsan gets married with Marge Thompson. The home of his in-laws
is what Bhabha terms as “third space” or “contact zone” where different
cultural artifacts form a variegated mosaic. His father in-law Mr. Padhanav is
a Buddhist, mother in-law is a Christian, brother-in law is having two names—
Gautam and George, his wife is a revolutionary and Nur Karsan transforms
himself into Krishna Karsan. Such cultural hybridity and multi cultural
acknowledgement always accompany the postcolonial Diaspora literature.
The essentialist
view of culture always claims a watertight compartmentalization of cultural
terrain. It tries to see things in “binary opposition”: either Hindus or
Muslim; western or non-Western etcetera. But in postcolonial cultural
discourse, polyphonic enunciation of culture is celebrated. Not “fixity” of
essentialism, but fusing of multiculturalism is the signature mark of this
domain because “If you chose one or the other, you were compelled to lose
something of yourself” (Assassin’s Song
310). Thus exclusivism is denunciated and inclusive enunciation is celebrated
that subdue the sectarian community feeling incurred by colonial secularism and
upholds the ubiquitous indigenous value and morality. The panacea, therefore,
of the ethnic zealotry is to be conceived not in westernized secular euphoria
but in the “traditional ways of life [that] have over the centuries, developed
internal principles of tolerance, and these principles must have a play in
contemporary politics”(Nandy 336). And Sufism is postulated here as one of such
“traditional ways of life” that endorses the “theology of policentrism”.
Notes
1. In an article, “Why I Cannot be a ‘Secular Muslim’” Tabish Khair has claimed that the so called secularism produced by the West is indeed a colonial secularism. And as the colonial enterprise was greatly underpinned by Christian evangelism, so the western secularism is nothing more than an upholder of Christianity.
2. “Wahdat al-Wajood” literary means “unity of being/existence” is cornerstone of Sufi metaphysics. Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) is generally credited as the proponent of this creed. It believes that there exists nothing except the existence of God. All other things are mere manifestation of God
3. Tabish Khair in his essay “Crown of Scare” chronicles the destruction of a tomb of a17th century poet, called Vali Mohammad Vali by Hindu fanatics during anti-Muslim riot in Gujraat on 1 March 2002. Actually the miscreants mistook a tomb as mosque and therefore vandalize it. This fictional shrine of Pirbaag bears the quintessence of this real historical event.
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