Today is our topic of discussion Abdullah Analysis Of Novels .
Abdullah Analysis Of Novels
Novels, in general, are fictional works but some novels are based on the historical and political background of a particular time. Some are biographical novels and some are autobiographical, which are comparatively more revealing of the time. Attempts have been made by scholars like, Najma Jasmin Chowdhury to study novels in the context of political events in Bengal during the years roughly from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
Anisuzzaman has also analysed the literary works of Muslim authors of Bengal in the nineteenth and early twentieth century to depict the trends of thought of the Muslims in Bengal.2 Both Asim Roy 3 and Rafiuddin Ahmed have used literary works like puthis and biographies of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries to signify the two contradictory trends of syncretism and Islamization respectively in the Bengal Muslim society. Novels like Shei Shomoy (1981 and 1982) by Shunil Gangapadhyay depicts the Hindu society in Bengal in the first half of the nineteenth century.
The novel exposes the conservativeness of the Hindu society in Bengal and at the same time reflects on how the English – educated Hindu youths challenged the established ideas and beliefs of their society. They shocked the Hindu conservative society by publicly eating beef which is prohibited by their religion.
They pressed for the abolition of Sati (wife accompanying her dead husband in the pyre) and campaigned for widow remarriage. Similar reflections on the Bengali Muslim society in the first half of the present century have been made by Abu Jafar Shamsuddin (1911-1988) in his novel Padma Meghna Jamuna (published in 1974).
He has depicted the hopes and aspirations, the response of the educated Muslim youths to political trends in the period and the contradictions and frustrations of the rising Muslim middle class in Bengal. Other novels like Shangshaptak? by Shahidullah Kaiser and Prem Nei 8 by Gour Kishore Ghose (Published in 1965 and 1981 respectively) are worthmentioning for the study of social and political trends of the Bengali Muslim society in the first half of the present century.
Abdullah is novel, more realistic, in the sense that it was written by an author who lived in the period he wrote on. The novel was written between 1918 and 1926 which was published in thirty series in the monthly literary journal, the Moslem Bharat.
The author could not complete the novel since he died in 1926 but left manuscript for two chapters and sketch for the rest of the novel. Kazi Anwarul Qadir completed the novel which was published in 1933 from the Musalman Press, Calcutta,
Abdullah has been considered a classic work on the conditions of Bengali Muslims at the turn of the century. Abdullah represents the transformations taking place in the Bengali Muslim society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Backwardness in education, economic distress, religious and social orthodoxy had led the Muslims of Bengal to a state of paralysis.
Various complexities as a result of these drawbacks contributed to worsening of relation between Hindus and Muslims. The author depicts the existing tensions and complexities within the Muslim community in Bengal and at the same time reflects on a parallel development of commnal hatred among the Muslims and Hindus which was to take a serious turn in a few decades.
The central character of the novel was Abdullah, the son of a professional Pir. His father’s profession was in decline. Abdullah received English education and was about to take his Bachelor’s examination when his father died.
Abdullah refused to follow his ancestral profession of pirism or to be maulvi (priest). Abdullah learnt English because his father had realized the practical importance of learning the language and had wanted his son to learn English though not without fear that English education would ruin his Islamic manners. There was a common belief among the older generation of Muslims that the younger generation was losing Islamic values by learning English.
The older generation believed that their sons should keep away from learning English because it was the language of the Christians, that is, the non-Muslims. Learning English meant that those youths came in contact with western ideas of liberalism and rationalism and began to question the orthodox views of their parents.
Abdullah wanted to take up teaching as a job and thought of studying Law after saving some money in a few years time. He was married to a family which prided in its social status as ashraf.
His father- in law, Syed Abdul Quddus symbolized the older generation of Muslims who were puritan and orthodox in their social views. Syed Shaheb, as he was popularly known, was an ashraf with a decaying financial condition but retaining a pride of his carlier social and economic position of superiority 12 He disliked the idea that his son-in-law, Abdullah would give up the profession of pirism and take up a job in the secular field.
He had disowned his own son, Abul Kader for taking up job of a sub-registrar. Syed Shaheb did not support that Muslim youth should learn English. He believed that the Sharifs, i.e. the ashrafs must remain in the path of Islam. To him, learning English and taking up jobs meant losing faith in religion.
His view was that Abdullah’s father had wasted money by giving his son English education. It would have been wiser if Abdullah had continued his father’s profession of pirism and would have earned enough if he had managed to collect a number of murids (disciples).
Losing social power and prestige on the one hand and keeping away from English education on the other, the ashrafs in rural Bengal in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century remained engrossed in religion. They turned to religion not so much for spritual upliftment but for refuge and comfort in distress.
This tendency was marked among the older generation of the Muslims. To them learning English was equal to be nastik (an atheist). Abdullah tried to convince his wife and father-in-law that the economic condition of the ashrafs was in an extremely bad shape and therefore, learning English had become vital for their survival.
They had no other alternative than to learn English and take up jobs. Abdul Kader, son of Syed Shaheb in the novel, went to see The novel exposes a significant phenomenon existing in the Muslim society in Bengal and that was pirism. Abdullah’s mother also persuaded her son to continue his father’s profession of pirism.
But Abdullah pointed out that pirism was prohibited in Islam. Islam prohibits worship of saints, dead or alive. Pir is a mystic, a spiritual guide, worshipped by both the masses and the élites in Bengal. In fact, pirs played a dominant role in rural Bengal. But, with the Islamic revivalist movements in the mid-nineteenth century onwards this trend was strongly challenged.
The wave of Islamic revivalist spirit had curbed pirism to some extent but in rural Bengal even in the early twentieth century pirs retained their earlier popularity although many took to pirism without religious training or spiritual dedication. During the first decades of the present century a new generation of educated youths had emerged who began to oppose the pir-murid practice. Abdullah represented this younger generation of educated youths.
The other significant feature of the Bengali Muslim society depicted in the novel was the ashraf and atrap classification which worked deep into the fabrics of the society. This phenomenon was prominent in rural Bengal compared to the urban areas where the percentage of Muslims residing was comparatively much smaller. In Calcutta, for instance, out of a total population of 900,000 there was approximately 205,000 Muslims, that is, 22.7% in 1921.
In 1931 the percentage was 26.20 A vast majority of the urban Muslims were mostly migrants and upper-class having connections with the Muslims in Northern India or with the dominant mercantile group in Bengal 21 They spoke Urdu and it became a trend among Bengali Muslims to speak Urdu to signify a mark of nobility and to prove that they were of foreign stock. 22 The ashrafs in the city took to western education and had entered profession and government services by the 1920’s.
The ashrafs considered themselves well-born and hated to mix with the atraps. It was almost an accepted fact in rural Bengal that education was only for the upper- class Muslims 24 The respectable Muslim families of Bengal were unwilling to send their children to schools in order to prevent association with children of lower social status. Nawab Abdul Latif (1826-1893) recommended that admission into the madrassah should not include children from lower class.25 The ashrafs objected to the education of lower-class Muslims. This aspect is depicted explicity in Abdullah.
When Abdullah visited the maktab (private school usually run by the ashrafs in village to teach Arabic at the primary level) at his father-in-law’s house he noticed that the maulvi (priest) was giving attention only to one group of students sitting at the front and not to those sitting at the rear. He also noticed that the two groups were learning different lessons. When Abdullah enquired about the reason the maulvi replied prudently.
“খতাড়া খি, বোজলেননি, দুলহা মিঞা? অরা অইলো গিয়া আরাগোর ফোলাফান, অৱা এইসব মিয়াগোরের হমান হুমান চলতাম কারে? অৱলো জিয়ানা সবক দেওয়া মানা আছে,
(The fact is, my dear brother-in-law, these are sons of the atraps. Can they be equal to the miahs (ashrafs)? I am not allowed to teach them more than this, )
The ashrafs never wanted the atraps to receive proper and higher education. Social discrimination by the ashrafs contributed to the backwardness of education in rural Bengal. The ashrafs intentionally kept the atraps backward in education in order to maintain their social leadership.
By the early decades of the twentieth century Muslim youths in Bengal had started receiving English education and taking up jobs. As a a result a new phenomenon emerged in Bengali society which was the worsening of relation between the Muslims and the Hindus. The Hindus, far advanced in education, were in a privileged position in respect of jobs.
In 1903, for instance, the Nabanur27 mentioned that out of 3 High Court Judges only one was a Muslim, out of 10 District and Session Judges, two were Muslims, out/62 Sub-Judges, one was a Muslim, out of 340 Munsiffs, 18 were Muslims, out of 529 Deputy Magistrate and Collectors only 76 were Muslims and out of 215 Lawyers of High Court only 11 were Muslims, Mr. Corbett, a magistrate in the novel, pointed out to Abdul Kader that the Hindus were ahead in all spheres of jobs and trades. He said,
“দেখো, হিন্দুর লেখাপড়া শিখে কেমন উন্নতি ক’রে ফেলেছে অপিসে আদালতে কি ব্যবসায়-বানিজ্যে, যেখানে সেখানে দেশীয় লোক দেখতে পাই, কেবলই হিন্দু স্বচিৎ কালে ভদ্রে একজন মুসলমান নজরে পড়ে। ক্রমে ওরাই দেশের সর্বেসর্বা হ’য়ে উঠবে, দেখতে পাবেন, আপনারা কেবল কাঠ কাটবার জন্য প’ড়ে থাকবেন। “
(See, how the Hindus have developed through education. In offices and courts, in trade and in commerce wherever we see natives, most of them are Hindus. Seldom we find a Muslim. They will gradually control over every aspect of the nation. You, the Muslims will be there only to hew wood.)
Since the Muslims had started learning English and were willing to take up jobs but lagged behind, they now sought cooperation and favour from the British government. Munshi Shahed who was with Abdul Kader, in the novel, pleaded,
The upper class Muslims in Bengal preferred to follow the culture of the Muslims of northern India which was based on the Mughal heritage. Their usual dress was Kurta and Pajama and their language was Urdu.37 The affectation of the Muslims in Bengal in dress and language was an indication of their desire to prove their foreign origin. As a result they had to face an alienation socially.
The younger generation of newly educated Muslims in Bengal realized that affectation in language and dress had contributed nothing but social and economic backwardness. They had come in contact with Hindus who dominated the society. They began to imitate the Hindus in dress wearing dhoti and panjabi to overcome that alienation. This was true to a certain section of Muslim youths in Bengal who came in touch with the Hindus in the field of education and jobs.
The novel also exposed the extravagance of the Muslims, both ashrafs and atraps. Social functions and ceremonies were arranged in grandeur. Huge sum of money was spent and in case of shortage of money, pieces of landed property were sold during events like circumcision or wedding. In the novel, Abdul Quddus, Abdullah’s father-in-law, who tried to maintain his social status even by selling land, spent huge sum of money for celebrating the opening ceremony of his newly-built mosque. Illiteracy, ignorance about health and sanitation were other shortcomings of the Bengali Muslims which have been depicted in the novel.