Dastan-e-Sedition

Duration: 00:50:00; Aspect Ratio: 1.250:1; Hue: 30.920; Saturation: 0.137; Lightness: 0.174; Volume: 0.376; Cuts per Minute: 0.120; Words per Minute: 147.139

Dastangoi is an ancient art of oral narration in Urdu popular in India from the 17th to early 20th century when it died out, and has now been revived in the current day by modern practitioners Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain since 2006. Traditional dastans or fables are stories of fantasy, adventure, intrigue, romance and seduction, in a broad battle of the good against the evil.

Dastan-e-Sedition or the tale of sedition, also known as Dastan of the Judum Judum was conceived in response to the continued and unjust incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen who has been working among the tribal and rural poor in the state of Chattisgarh for over two decades. Citing his proximity to a particular jailed Naxal leader, he was charged with carrying the leader’s letters under the very serious charge of ‘sedition against the state’. There was much public outcry against Dr. Sen’s imprisonment and trial, and this dastan was created and first presented in 2008 as a short, 15-minute performance when Dr Sen was first placed in jail. It was expanded in a very short span and performed in its current, full-fledged form in early April 2011 as part of the 'Free Binayak Sen' campaign held in New Delhi. Dr. Sen was subsequently released on bail in the same month.

The detailed annotation with commentaries and translation are by Shruti Parthasarathy, a writer and dastango who has trained with Farooqui and Husain.

Dastangoi is an ancient art of oral narration in Urdu popular in India from the 17th to early 20th century when it died out, and has now been revived in the current day by modern practitioners Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain since 2006.
Traditional dastans or fables are stories of fantasy, adventure, intrigue, romance and seduction, in a broad battle of the good and the evil.

Mahmood: Haazreen - honoured guests/audience-, it's okay for us, we're performers, it is what we do in a manner but for Dr Binayak Sen and Ileana [his wife], it is a bit of an imposition that they first underwent some experiences in life and then watched a performance of it in Delhi once and now watch one again – we begin our performance with apologies to them

Woman in audience, possibly Ileana Sen: We watch the performance, and so are able to to enjoy it [the experience]

Those of you who’ve watched our Dastangoi performances know what a Tilism is, and those that haven’t had better watch one at the earliest to learn what a tilism is. When we narrate traditional dastans that were narrated by the old Dastangos [dastan narrators], we describe the Tilism. A Tilism is a magical realm or place that is brought into existence by sorcerers with their powerful magic.
Satire, wit, doublespeak and innuendo are a standard trope of dastan language. Poetry is an important element of the telling of these tales, and the traditional dastangos or narrators wove into their narrations a complex and wide range of poetry in Persian, Urdu and Hindi/khadi boli, from high poetry to folk ditties [although there is no singing in dastangoi] and sayings, and much satire and irony, switching effortlessly not only between languages, forms and styles - but also between fantasy, action, philosophical soliloquies, political allegories and romance - a combination of sophisticated as well as popular entertainment. Dastans were titillating and transgressive by nature, featuring much seduction and cross-dressing, as well as a constant upstaging of hierarchies.

Saahir is a ‘sorcerer/magician’ and sahar means ‘magic’
So the sorcerers create worlds through the force of sorcery or magic that are different and unlike this world – what happens in that world is often unseen, and what can be seen often does not exist or is not real.

Tilisms are of many kinds – there are those that are just made of mirrors, there are some like the Tilism-e-Firangi or the ‘Realm of the Foreigner’, which causes those entering it to automatically start speaking in English
~audience laughter~

In the modern day:

As part of the revival of this form, the two dastangos or narrators narrate traditional dastans, mainly from the Tilism-e-Hoshruba - the large, interwoven and complex set of dastans created by Indian dastangos - but they have taken the tradition forward by creating their own, contemporary dastans set in the recent past and present that are placed broadly within the traditional format of narration and utilise its set tropes and devices.

So these are all the worlds and places made up by our traditional dastangos or storytellers, through their fan – skill or dexterity – over oral narration. And so rich and fecund was their narration [within the oral tradition, of being passed on from dastango to dastango] that the traditional dastan of Amir Hamza, the hero of the adventures in Dastan-e-Amir Hamza [the subject of traditional dastangoi], grew to a mammoth 46 volumes by the time it came to be printed in Lucknow [in late 19th century ] – this incredible output that expanded from just the oral telling of the tale.

The tales they have created, on topics from the current day or recent history - such as Partition, on the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto, as well as incorporating regional oral narration traditions such as the Rajasthani tale of Chouboli - all present the contemporary narratives within the format of traditional dastangoi, with its invocation, use of poetry, and declamatory style of oratory.
Context for this dastan:

So, ordinarily, the Tilisms contain sorcerers and Amir Hamza and his companions fight them. Amir Hamza’s childhood friend is Amar Ayyar, the Shahenshah – Emperor of ayyars or tricksters. The ayyars use disguise, trickery, deceit and cheating, any underhanded means possible to defeat the biggest of sorcerers. If Ayyars existed in today’s world, they would, decidedly, be [political] rulers.
~audience laughter~

Dastan-e-Sedition or the tale of sedition, also known as Dastan of the Judum Judum was conceived in response to the continued and unjust incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen who has been working among the tribal and rural poor in the state of Chattisgarh for over two decades. Citing his proximity to a particular jailed Naxal leader, he was charged with carrying the leader’s letters under the very serious charge of ‘sedition against the state’. There was much public outcry against Dr. Sen’s imprisonment and trial, and this dastan was created and first presented in 2008 as a short, 15-minute performance when Dr Sen was first placed in jail. It was expanded in a very short span and performed in its current, full-fledged form in early April 2011 as part of the 'Free Binayak Sen' campaign held in New Delhi. Dr. Sen was subsequently released on bail in the same month.

.

Janab – sirs – the ayyars battle/take on the sorcerers in the traditional dastans and the tale we narrate today is set in the Tilism–e-Kohistan. It is a strange land inhabited by kohis, and this is a dastan of kohistan. This dastan saw its beginning four years ago when Dr. Binayak Sen was imprisoned and friends in Delhi had organised an event, where we [Mahmood and Danish] had recited a part of this tale, one that we have now expanded.

This video and transcript are from a performance in Mumbai in May 2011.

The dastan is set in the fictional tilism or realm of Kohistan, an allegory for the not specifically geographically placed or otherwise named, mountainous, forested and mineral-rich lands in central India that have been the traditional home of various tribes for millennia. Kohis, its denizens, refer to the tribals, who find themselves in a state of siege, trapped between armed Maoist rebels and the government of India’s forces in a violent confrontation as part of the Indian government's contentious, armed campaign against the Naxals called Operation Greenhunt.

So, in today’s dastan, there is Amar Ayyar on one side, there is the realm Tilism-e-Kohistan whose ruler is Afrasiyab. Amar has broken through and defeated the biggest [trickiest] of tilisms and magical realms but the Tilism-e-Kohistan is the first such tilism he has had to encounter. Now, what ayyari or trickery he manages to pull off here is what we will present in this dastan.

Danish: Today, haazreen, honourable gathered audience, Urdu and Hindi are going to rain down on you. ~laughter from audience~The state- hukumat has been bombarding you with Hindi for sixty years and for six years, we’ve been bombarding you with Urdu. ~ audience laughter~ So please do not worry or be afraid, a handout was passed around which you must have decidedly not read. But if there is some thing floating on the air that pleases you, if there is something you catch [the meaning of] and like, and you find yourself floating two to four feet in the air, then please do not applaud with claps, like the English, because Urdu has a saying:
Agar kissi ki taali pit gayi, to uski izzat utar gayi
~audience laughter~

The Judum Judum in the tale is a reference to the Salwa Judum (mentioned in the trial at one point), an army raised by the state government recruiting members from the tribal communities for the protection of the tribals. Ironically, this army went on to become instruments of harassment, torture and killings against the tribal people themselves.
The subtext in this narrative is the hunt for resources in this mineral-rich land in the form of tree-felling and mining, a grave and already substantial threat to the ecosystem as well as the lives of the native tribals - a reference made in the dastan.

Translation:
If someone receives a lot of claps, his honour is lost
so if there is something that you do like and it pleases you, then Hindustani has two words for you to express your admiration with - you’d say –
Audience: Wah! Wah!
Danish: I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a seditious audience!
- We present to you this dastan –

Compared to other contemporary dastans created by the modern dastangos, this dastan, in both form and content, comes very close to a traditional dastan. The setting is a tilism ruled by Afrasiyab, the legendary sorcerer-ruler of Hoshruba, and the enemy of Amir Hamza and Amar Ayyar. Amar Ayyar enters this tilism, a baffling and frightening place whose rulers he has to battle and outwit in order to help/free its citizens.

Mahmood: You all have left your ears at home, as it is. People who [have] shut their ears would not be at this gathering today, in any case.
So, sirs, without any further ado, presented is -

Danish: The Dastan of the Judum Judum and Amar Ayyar’s journey in the Tilism-e-Kohistan

In terms of form, this dastan replicates the traditional dastan structure - opening with a saqinama, using a rich language full of poetry, witticisms, puns, irony and allegory and is narrated in the traditional declamatory style, featuring adventure, fantasy, intrigue and the pitting of good against evil. Rarely for a dastan, Amar does not emerge victorious from this tilism but admits to needing to come up with more complex trickery to beat this system - reflecting the current state of the real conflict, awaiting an effective means of resolution for the people

Mahmood: Ordinarily, a dastan is begun with [the invocation of] a saqinama or an ode to the cupbearer. As this is a different sort of tilism, the saqinama we recite too is going to be of a different kind.
Presented is the saqinama:

Saqinama
Kahan to tay tha chiragh har ek ghar ke liye
Kahan chiragh mayyassar nahin shahar ke liye

Yahaan darakhton ke saaye me dhoop lagti hai
Chalo yahaan se chalein, aur umr bhar ke liye

Translation: Where a lamp had been a [promised] certainty for each home
It is now not enough even for the city

It is sunny here in the shade of trees [they give no shade]
Let us go from here, for life

As the narrators say, the Saqinama in this tale is considerably altered and different from the standard ode to the cupbearer and lays the ground for the tale to come.
The nazm or poem used here as Saqinama is by Hindi poet Dushyant Kumar. Its tone of disillusionment with the promise of a better life for the people, and the struggle of the ordinary person to survive in a repressive regime make it an apt opening invocation for this dastan

Na ho kameez to paon se pet dhak lenge
Ye log kitne munasib hain is safar ke liye

Khuda nahin, na sahi, aadmi ka khaab sahi
koi haseen nazaara to hai nazar ke liye

Translation:

If there is no shirt, [they] will cover their stomachs with their legs
How suited these people are, to this journey

There is no god? No matter, let it [only] be a dream of man
[Let it be] a beautiful view atleast for the eye

Woh mutmayeen hain ke pathar pighal nahin sakta
Main beqaraar hun awaz mein asar ke liye

Tera nizam hai, sil de zabaan shaayar ki
yeh ehteyat zaroori hai, is behar ke liye

Translation:
They lie content that stone cannot melt
I, am restless for weight in my voice

It is your rule - [will] sew-seal the poet's tongue
This metre calls for this safeguard

kahan to tay tha charaghan hare ek ghar ke liye
Kahan chiragh mayyassar nahin shahar ke liye

Translation:
Where a lamp had been a certainty for each home
It is now not enough even for the city

Tho gulguna kashan-e- aariz-e-shaahid-e-bayaan is tarah farmaate hain
Translation:
So the narrator who's taken the rosy colour off the cheeks of the witnesses to this tale, narrates it thus -

This opening declaration about the narrator of the tale is taken from traditional dastans
Glossary:
gulguna: rosy
gulguna-kashan: taking/pulling the rosy colour off
aariz: cheeks
shaahid: witness
bayaan: to state

That Tilism-e-Kohistan is the name of the tilism whose baadshah, Emperor, is Afrasiyab, under whom prosper 60,000 nations of male and female magicians and sorcerers. That all the rulers of those lands plead allegiance to Afrasiyab. And such is the spell cast by Afrasiyab that all the inhabitants of those 60,000 lands have forgotten their individual nationalities and only consider themselves denizens of Tilism-e-Kohistan. They salute his flag and banner morning and night, sing paeans to him, and are constantly engaged in his praise.

Opening description of this realm, the Tilism-e-Kohistan - the setting of the tale. This description follows in format and content the opening description of the tilism in question in any evening's recitation of a traditional dastan. This description lists the geography and makeup of the land, with its special features and magical powers, and a mention of the sort of populace that resides there.

And that Tilism-e-kohistan has three parts and levels:
The first part of the tilism-e-kohistan is the Parda-e-Zulmat, that is, veil of darkness. But such is the sorcery [of Afrasiyab] that there is neither darkness there, nor a veil. That the biggest of thieves, bandits, looters and criminals live in this realm, all people of 'upper class', who speak constantly of progress and democracy.

Dastans are known for their sophisticated use of irony and allegory, and here the narrators present the three sections and levels of kohistan society as a brilliant allegory of modern India.
While the levels have the same names and broadly the same characteristics as in Tilism-e-Hoshruba, they point here instead to the real state of contemporary Indian society and its inner workings that are steeped in power imbalances, to cutting and hilarious effect, in the best tradition of dastans.

The second section of tilism-e-kohistan is the tilism-e-baatin, a realm hidden from the eyes, in which live people of the middle class who speak constantly of the rights of citizens. They are lost in the magical spell cast by Tilism-e-Amrika, the realm of America, and flit from one garb and channel to the next in the pursuit of [collecting] one home and another, one degree and another and one crown and another. And remain constantly busy with complaints of the arrangements of electricity, roads and water.

There are some among them who preach the lesson of 'All is well' in places of learning. There are those that praise the courts, and there are those who worship journalism, sleep in cool rooms and remain content and at peace in the spell of expressing their opinions. There are those among them as well who - by waving flags or using their pens once every two months - remain in thrall of their own politicking.
All of these [in the open] oppose the parda-e-zulmat [the rulers] but within veils [closed rooms] are eager to veil themselves.

The three levels of Tilism-e-Kohistan: Parda-e-Zulmaat, Tilism-e-Baatin and Tilism-e-Zaahir, are all levels that make up the Tilism-e-Hoshruba ruled over by sorcerer-emperor Afrasiyab in the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza.
By giving it the same structure and ruler, Kohistan, populated by hapless and oppressed citizens, is likened to Hoshruba, an equally beautiful realm ruled by Afrasiyab, but whose denizens need to be freed from the rule of sorcerers by Amir Hamza, and his chief soldier, the trickster, Amar Ayyar.

Glossary:
muti-o-minqaad: followers
Mutamassib tabqa: middle class
sahaafat: journalism
parastish: following/worship
mukhalifat: oppose
bas-e-parda: within veils/closed rooms
mutamandi eager

The third level oftilism-e-kohistan is the tilism-e-zaahir, that is, the realm visible to the eye, where the subjects, labourers, common folk, peasant, scheduled tribes and castes and others live. They make their homes in filth and their dwellings in sewers and drains, and have no rest in the evenings and no peace in the mornings. They labour from morning to night and the guards of parda-e-zulmaat keep shunting them about from place to place, so they are thousands of miles away from their homes and jungles and native lands, building bridges, roads, highways and dams for the inhabitants of zulmaat and baatin to travel on.

na aaram shab ko na raahat saveray
ghilazat mein ghar naliyo'n mein baseray

ghilazat: filth
Here, the narrators weave these two lines from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous Urdu poem Kutte or Dogs into their narrative, although in reverse order, on the plight of street dogs - who live in filth and have no rest morning or night.
By doing so, they liken the fate and plight of the commoner – residents of tilism-e-zaahir to that of the dogs on the street - who face censure, neglect and constant abuse.

In the manner of a traditional dastan, this tale incorporates and references a great deal of poety, and from a range of sources. It uses Urdu and Hindi poetry from contemporary, political voices, such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Dushyant Kumar, traditional marsiyas sung at Muharram, poetry from the Tilism-e-Hoshruba as well as much playing on English. This is the first use of Faiz's verse here, and the narrators invoke the power of his poetry at different points in their dastan

The allegorical reference here, is to the often coerced, suspect and unethical land acquisition from farmers under the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) act of the Indian State under which large tracts of fertile, cultivable land have been acquired by members of industry with the active state assistance across the country to build factories, manufacturing plants or real estate for urban people under the ostensible purpose of 'public good' projects and promising local employment. These projects continue to be controversial in the face of forcible land acquisition, low or delayed compensation and lack of rehabilitation, amid strong local protest against these projects.

There are some kohis whose rich, fertile lands, that legendarily spewed gold and pearl. have been grabbed by the denizens of zulmaat in the name of commerce.
And Afrasiyab and his friends, the buildings and edifices built by whom reign everywhere in the tilism, travel and survey through these in chariots of air and make documentaries on the well-being of the land of kohistan.

Danish: So, haazreen, when into this Afrasiyab-built tilism-e-kohistan, entered Trickster Unrivalled, Master of Invention, Nourisher of Talent, Khwaja Amar, and four of his disciples, they made their faces up as sorcerers and began walking about the four corners of the tilism. They witnessed frightening sorcery here, came across a terrifying desert there; on the other side were high boulders, and mountains of these rocks, and smoke coming out of those mountains. The sorcerers would practice their magic and fire and stones would rain down from the skies.

Glossary:
Ayyar-e-benazir: The most incomparable of tricksters
Waala tadbeer: Master of invention
Hunar parvar: Nourisher of talent
Muqqaish: Silver brocade or fine silver thread

This episode when Amar comes across a forest of silver where fine silver thread grows instead of grass appears in the Dastan-e-Mahtab Jadoo from the Tilism-e-Hoshruba. Just as he has begun cutting the grass, a sorcerer comes upon him and to escape from him, Amar produces the 'hen-sized pearl' which explodes and renders the sorcerer unconscious, allowing Amar to kill him and make his escape. This episode of the pearl appears later in this present dastan when Amar uses the same trick to escape from the kohi guard.

Zambil: Zambil is a bag owned by Amar Ayyar that can hold all manner of things within its cavernous interiors. It has whole kingdoms and people and priceless treasures from around the world, pocketed by the greedy Amar. Objects only enter the zambil but rarely leave it.

The ayyars took in all these happenings as they wandered by themselves in the tilism, when Amar reached a place where he came across a strange magic. He found himself in a jungle of silver, fine silver thread grew in the place of grass. Amar is especially greedy by nature – when he came across this, he said to himself from the depths of his heart, ‘Alas! If only it were possible, I’d put this entire jungle into my zambil.’ And then he thought, let me get my sickle out of the zambil and cut as much of this [silver] grass as possible. He began to cut the grass and had only cut a little when he heard a heart-stopping sound. Amar looked up towards the sound and saw a clearing facing the jungle in which thousands of kohis, bound to each other, and calling out in despair, walked towards him looking lost and dishevelled.

The sound made by these kohis when they move is Judum Judum Judum Judum Judum Judum. When Amar saw all this, he made himself up to look like a kohi: he shortened his height, blackened his body, flattened his nose and joined the group of kohis in that clearing. He spotted a crying kohi child within that army, picked it up and cooed to it. He looked up to see the incredible sight of sorcerers flying about in their flying machines, each sorcerer guarded by four kohis bound together and all the kohi men who stood at the edge of this ragtag army – old men, children and little boys – stand bearing arms, while the young are nowhere to be seen. Finding himself the only young man in that crowd, Amar realised it would be wise to make a getaway. Hiding his face in the child’s chest and cooing to it, he slipped out of there.

He went ahead a little and was wracked by thirst. Wanting to quench his thirst, he threw a vessel tied to a rope into a well. He found no water but instead saw four kohis, their mouths gagged and bound with cloth, their arms pinned behind them and bound, looking up at the sky. Amar then went to another well, and there too he found no water but four kohis, bound and gagged and looking up at the sky. Every well that Amar then goes to has no water but only imprisoned kohis. Tired and helpless, Amar came to a place and took a little sip of water from his zambil but as soon as he did, he found his thirst increasing instead of being quenched. ‘What is this place,’ thought a surprised Amar, ‘where the zambil has lost its powers?' And far into the distance, he spotted a lone banyan tree and thought to himself to go and rest in the tree’s shade for a little while.

He had just sat down in the tree’s shade when he suddenly saw a hanging root of the tree take on a frightening face. He looked again and the face disappeared. As Amar sat under the banyan tree, the roots hanging around him began to swing and each root revealed the wizened face of an old kohi - hanging upside down, wrought by age, frail and emaciated, a dried up stick, his body a bundle of bones and a long flowing beard. Amar then realized that each of the banyan roots was no root but an upside down hanging, old kohi; but none of them would meet Amar's eye, and in fact avert or shut his eye as if he had no sight. From afar, it was a banyan tree, and see it up close and it was upside down hanging old kohis.
As a soft breeze blew, Amar heard this whisper waft over:

Glossary:
sin-raseeda:aged/age-wrought
lundmund: frail, emaciated

These lines of verse are from a traditional marsiya or dirge by poet Mir Anees sung traditionally at Muharram, commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husain. It speaks of the massacre of Imam Husain, the Prophet's grandson, and his family, comprising of brothers and fathers, at the historic battleground of Karbala. {From a conversation with Danish Husain}
Kisse kahen ke hum pe jo sadma guzar gaya
Khaali hua azeezon se ghar, dasht bhar gayaa

Duniya se dopahar mein mera ghar ka ghar gaya
Beta jawan qatl hua, bhai mar gaya

Translation:
Who shall we tell of the shocking calamity that befell us
Our homes emptied of loved ones, filled with dust

In the space of an afternoon, my home was lost to the world
My young son murdered, my brother dead

When Amar saw the state of this place, he thought he must leave and find shelter elsewhere. With this in mind, he got up and left and as he reached the border of the [kohi] army barracks, he was stopped by the guards:

Guard: You there, where are you going?
Amar: Brother, I’m going [to my] home
Guard: Home. What home?
Amar: To my village, the village of kohis
Guard: Arre, don’t you know kohis have no homes? They either live in the barracks or in the city or in prison. You’re from the army and don’t know this?
Amar: Brother, I was abroad and have returned after a long time. I can’t understand what I’m seeing…we had our homes here, here were our villages – there were villages upon villages, stream after stream, canals after canals – where did they all go? It used to be our rule here.

Guard: Which ancient, lost place are you speaking of from Adam’s time? Was that rule even a rule? And were those weapons any weapons? That stitching of leaves, collecting firewood and feeding yourself off the jungle – was that life even a life?
We are now ruled by saahirs, sorcerers; we have now come into the fold of history, we have progressed. Do you understand ‘progress’ or not – where have you come from?

Amar: If you have indeed ‘progressed’, why do you stand guard here with arms? Why are people in distress? Why is there no peace here?
Guard: He talks about peace and prosperity.. looks like he’s joined the other rebel non-ayyars. Speak clearly – are you an ayyar or a non-ayyar?
Amar: Sir, I am a kohi.
Guard: We are kohis - that’s why we’re joined to each other, look.

The guard made a movement which created the sound Judum Judum Judum Judum Judum Judum. Amar realized things were heating up and thinking up an ayyari, a trick, he addressed the guard.
Amar: Bhai, if you let me go, I’ll gift you such a priceless thing that you’ll send me grateful wishes all your life.

Saying this, he took out a pearl the size of a hen’s egg from his pocket and gave it to the guard. The guards saw the pearl, lost their hearts to it and said:
Guard: Arre bhai, you’ve brought a rare, priceless thing from abroad. Bring it a little closer, let’s have a proper look at it.
Amar: Huzoor, this is nothing. Bring this pearl close to your face, blow your breath on it and then see its shine and unique splendour.

The kohi guard brought the pearl close to his body and blew his breath on it, when suddenly the pearl exploded and smoke rose sharply from it like a firecracker. It went up his mouth and nostrils to his brain, and the guard fell down in a swoon on the ground, unconscious. And as the guard became unconscious, Amar took to his heels. He runs and runs, and as he does, he witnesses strange things. He finds jungles have turned into wildernesses, fields lie desolate, villages are empty and abandoned; where there were mountains, there are mountain-deep valleys now. No human or anyone from the human race, no animal, bird, large clouds of smoke billow and rise, the entire country lies dug up, mines run [colour] everywhere, strange noises fly about the air, the earth wears the colour of mourning and lament.

Chatiyal maidan, pedh sookhe
Phirte thhey darinde pyaase-bhookhe

Jalte aise wahaan ke kankar
Chingariyan theen qadam-qadam par

Translation:
Barren, rocky land, dried-up trees
Where roamed beasts, hungry and thirsty

The pebbles of that land burned thus
That sparks flew at every step

These lines of verse are taken from a traditional dastan

Jo ghas zameenein wahan ki
Sookhi kissi pyaase ki zabaan thi

Chalti thi gazab hawa-e-vehshat

Phirtha tha woh mubtila-e-vehshat

Translation:
The grass and the earth of that land
Were like the dry tongue of a parched man

Blew there incredible winds of ferocity and terror
As wandered there one stricken with horror, bewildered

Amar was covered in sweat, as he walked ahead a little he suddenly heard a loud explosion and all the trees above came falling down and Amar fell to the ground too. And all the animals and birds that were on those trees – monkey, langoor, parrot, mynah, doves, deer, snake, scorpion, crow, rabbits, mongooses – all – ant, insect, termite, bedbug, spider, purple, white, blue, black, yellow, golden – All of them fell pat-pat to the ground like crisped and burned hailstones. The sky grew barren.

The earth began to sink and Amar began to sink with it. He then recited the Ism-e-azam, reciting god’s many names when a branch emerged, and he held on to that branch and got out of the mire and ran. He came far from that place and blew the zaphil, the whistle of ayyari, hearing which his disciple Barq firangi, Barq, the foreigner, came to his master’s aid.

The zaphil is a whistle used by ayyars or tricksters, audible only to them. Amar and his fellow-tricksters often use the zaphil to call for help in traditional dastans in the Tilism-e-Hoshruba, hearing which they come to one another's aid.

Barq: Ustaad, yes?
Amar: Beta, everything seems upside down here.
Barq: Ustaad, the air has changed in Kohistan. These sorcerers have attacked Kohistan and driven the kohis out of their own lands. And they are so cunning that they do not fight themselves. They have placed arms in the hands of the kohis, and make them fight and kill one another. And they have created such an atmosphere that if anyone were to so much as utter the word ‘peace’ or ponder freedom even in their thoughts, they would be gagged, bound and thrown into a well.

In the traditional dastans, the king of tricksters, Amar Ayyar, has several disciples who enter a tilism with him and help defeat its rulers. Of these, four are his usual companions, each loyal, and with a special set of talents, who come to his aid when called by the zaphil.

Barq Firangi or Barq, the Foreigner/Frank, is one of them, who is described in the Tilism-e-Hoshruba as: 'Tall with light eyes and hair, a monkey-like red face, a hat on his head and coat on his body, and in his trouser pocket, a photograph of his wife and children living in London' - a clear reference to the long presence by then in India of the British and what the natives thought of British soldiers in general.

Amar: what happened to the physician that was sent here, to help the kohis?
Barq: The physician doesn’t fare well, Ustaad. He always treated old people, gave medical care to children, educated so many kohis and trained many of them in medical care. But these sorcerers? They declared him ‘enemy of the state’ and threw him into prison.
Arre Ustaad, his only 'crime' was he used to visit this old, infirm, non-ayyar leader in prison to enquire after his wellbeing, but he wouldn’t flatter the powers that be with slogans of ‘Long live the Sorcerers’ at the door, so they threw him in jail out of jealousy.

Glossary:
Ahwaal pursish: to enquire of wellbeing/ state

Amar: This is then that same tale:
Nisar main teri galiyon ke, ae watan ke jahan

Chali hai rasm ke koi na sar uttha ke chale

Translation:
Bury me, oh my country, under your pavements,
Where no man now dare walk with head held high

Nisar main teri galiyon ke ae watan ke jahaan
Chali hai rasm koi na sar uttha ke chale....
This is a well-known poem by modern Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who wrote one of the most powerful political Urdu poetry in contemporary times against tryrannical systems and societies, in the context of the repression in his own country, Pakistan, apart from beautiful love poetry.

This translation is taken from Poems by Faiz, translated by V.G. Kiernan, (C) George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1971

Jo koi chahane waala tawaaf ko nikle
Nazar chura ke chale, jism-o-jaan bacha ke chale

Translation:
Where your true lovers bringing you their homage
Must go in furtive fear of life or limb

Hai ahl-e-dil ke liye ab ye nazm-e-bast-o-kushad
Ke sang-o-khisht muqaiyyad hain aur sag azaad

Translation:
For new-style law and order are in use
Good men learn, 'Stones locked up, and dogs turned loose'

Amar: We’ll have to think of some very complicated trickery now.
Barq: A trial will be conducted at the court of a big sorcerer against that physician. The sorcerers have come up with a magic so tricky, it has no match, it cannot be broken. They call this magic ‘law’. And this ‘law’ can only be fought with ‘law’.
Now, I am a foreigner, no one will stop me. Plus, nowadays, the government lets on inside secrets to please foreigners. But Ustaad, to make sure that you face no trouble, I’ve brought you this khaakhi uniform. The khaakhi uniform-wearers carry a lot of clout nowadays – you wear this and head there [to the trial] and no one will stop you.

Amar: Okay, son, we’ll leave in the morning but now you take your path and I’ll take mine. It is better we take different paths in light of the situation.
Barq: Alright, Ustaad
Saying this, Barq headed one way and Amar another. The night ended and the Sorcerer of the East travelled across the sky carrying in his sack rays of light, i.e., it was morning. And when it was morning and the sun rose from the east and this world at large was lit up, Amar and Barq met and headed toward the court.

The dastangos use here the poetic and lyrical description of sunrise taken from the Tilism-e-Hoshruba
Glossary:
Zarrar-e-shuav: rays of sunlight
Mashriq: East
Sahir-e-mashriq: sorcerer of the East
Charkh: the sky

En route, Amar said to Barq: In today’s world

Chasm-e-nam, jaan-e-shorida kaafi nahin
Tohmat-e-ishq poshida kaafi nahin
Aaj bazaar mein pa-bajaulan chalo

Translation:
Not enough the tear-stained eye, the storm-tossed life,
Not enough the secret love, suspicion's brand
Come today in fetters to the marketplace

Chasm-e-nam, jaan-e-shorida kaafi nahin....
These lines are from a revolutionary poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, written in response to his own parading through the streets on the way to jail.
Translation of the first and last verses Poems by Faiz, translated by V.G. Kiernan, (C) George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1971.
Middle verse translation mine.

Dast afshan chalo, mast-o-raksan chalo
Khaak barsar chalo, khun badaamaa'n chalo

Translation:
Go with your hands swinging, in a trance, dancing >br/>
Go with dust on your head, and blood on your sleeves

Rakht-e-dil baandh lo, dil figaaron chalo
Phir hum hi qatl ho aayen yaaron chalo

Translation:
You that know affliction, lift the heart's sad load
We it is, my friends, must once more taste the knife

Amar and Barq thus reached the court premises. They hadn’t yet stepped into the court when they a heard strange, unheard of language in a strange voice –
[THE TRIAL]

Did the accused, on date 06.05.07 or prior to that, at Railway Station Road, Raipur, or Hotel Mahendra, Raipur, or Hotel Gitanjali, Raipur, or Central Jail, Raipur, or Central Jail, Bilaspur, or Katora Talab, Raipur, work to bring to fruition the destructive activities of Naxalism or terrorism through Naxal literature, newspapers, magazines, writings, letters, cassettes, CDs, computers, CPU et cetera and through objectionable means and signs wage war on the State Government or the Indian Government, or attempted to wage war, or conspired to do so?
Or
It is instructive here to note that the farcical nature of the trial in the dastan borrows, most incredibly, from life itself - from the real life trial proceedings, in both content and language, of Dr. Binayak Sen and the two other co-accused with him tried on the extremely serious charges of sedition or treason against the nation.

Glossary:
abhiyukth: accused
vidhi-virudh sangathan: unlawful/banned organisation
tanzeem:organisation
By terming the Hindi which the eminent Urdu poets wrote in as 'the hindi of the infiltrators', the dastangos mock the language politics over Hindi/Urdu played by the Indian State since Independence which implied that the older Urdu-Hindi was a language of 'outsiders' and interlopers, of people who didn't 'belong', and hence created the 'purer' form of Hindi - ironically one so befuddling and incomprehensible as seen in the court officialspeak here, that no regular Hindi speaker can understand it

The accused, with the help of means and signs, expressed hatred or contempt or disaffection against the government established by law in India or by doing so hatched the criminal conspiracy to commit treason/sedition against the nation.

Or

Did the accused participate or receive a communication to participate in activities of such unlawful organisations which encourage terrorist and Naxalite activities and actualise the destructive activities of Naxalism or appealed to do so or did anything?

While the section on the beard is the creation of the dastangos (in response to Dr. Sen's real life tour through India post the Babri Masjid and 1993 Bombay riots), all the other parts of the trial in the performance – the charges of Dr. Sen passing the letters of the jailed naxal leader Narayan Sanyal, of deeming him a criminal from just being a member of a banned organisation, which he was not, relying on the unsubstantiated testimony of the single witness who claimed it was Dr Sen who passed the letters to the Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha, as well as the infamous 'exhibit/article 37'– the purported letter from Maoists urging Dr Sen to head a fact-finding commission to probe police atrocities in Chattisgarh – which the police claimed was found from Dr Sen's house and which 'must have got stuck to other papers' – are borrowed from the trial.

Amar heard all this and said to Barq
Amar: Beta, what is this language which the Hazrat Khizr has not taught me? It sounds like Urdu but has a lot of foreign words Barq: This is modern Hindi Amar: Then what is that Hindi in which our poets Mir, Amjad, Ghalib and others wrote their poetry in?
Barq: That was the Hindi of the infiltrators. This – Ustaad – is a clean, pure Hindi created by the sorcerers

Hazrat [Khwaja] Khizr: Kwaja Khizr is the guide to lost souls, worshipped in India by Hindus and Muslims alike. He is said to be home in all worlds, travelling over land and sea - and is depicted as the lord of fresh waters, often standing on a fish

Amar: I see. And son, what trouble is this ‘Bharat Sarkar’?
Barq: Nowadays, Sir, Hindustan is called ‘Bharat Sarkar’
Amar: So Kohistan is in the grip of Hindustan?
Barq: No, No. Kohistan is in the grip of Bharat Sarkar

Or [narration continues]
Did the accused, while being a member of the unlawful organisation, participate in meetings, seminars or activities of the said unlawful organisation, or receive communication to arrange any for the said unlawful organisation or criminally conspired to appeal to do so or provided shelter to a member of the said unlawful organisation or criminally conspired to attempt to provide shelter to a member of the said unlawful organisation?

Or

Did the accused manage or make any effort towards managing the affairs of the said unlawful organisation or assisted or encouraged their unlawful activities in gatherings or associated himself with the unlawful organisation in any way.

On hearing this, Amar said to Barq:
Beta Barq, what is going on? Who did What? Why does no one stop this?
Barq: Ustaad, he who can doesn’t even know this language. They are all voiceless here, all they can parrot is some foreign gibberish [English].
Amar: All those who are seated here, you mean?
Barq: Yes
Amar: Oh and there was a Hindi-speaker sent from Lucknow, what was his name Atul Tiwari...?
Barq: Yes him, his state is pretty bad. He is imprisoned in Mani Ratnam’s city [Chennai].

The language of the prosecution, as befuddling, and oftentimes building a flimsy legal case, is also from the trial itself. Based as this is on a real case, the state's trial which reads like a farce, draws the audience's attention to the grave threat to the freedom of expression and dissent in the country today.

Judge: Silence. The court is still in session.
After listening to all the charges, the court is left in no doubt that the accused is indeed guilty. But as this is a just administration, we would like the legal proceedings to be carried out to the end. I would thus like to ask the capable lawyer for the prosecution to please begin the trial.

Prosecution lawyer: Please ask him – why did he grow a beard? And if he did have one, why did he shave it?
Judge: Yes, please, why the beard?
Accused doctor: Is it a crime to wear a beard?
Judge: It isn’t a crime, but it can be the harbinger of a crime.
Prosecution lawyer: Exactly M’Lord! Absolutely. You see the thing is – that he [the accused] is neither a Muslim, nor a Sardar or a Ganja-smoking sadhu. Then why the beard and for what purposes?

Sir, it is common knowledge that those who wear beards possess a special mentality, most of whom express hatred or insult or disaffection towards the government established by law. Look around you, Sir, at the kind of people who have beards – look there, and there – the thing is made clear by itself.
I want to ask, Sir, does any cultured, loyal, patriotic, illiterate, rural Hindu ever wear a beard for without reason? Sir, an ordinary Hindu citizen only wears a beard when he is dissatisfied with his society, his country and his government. Wearing a beard means being disaffected towards society. And I say, Sir, what does it mean to be ‘discontented’ in a society with 9 percent growth? He who is unhappy today will be an anarchist tomorrow, anti-state day after, anti-national the day after that, and a Maoist after that.
The beard is the sign, beard is the identity, beard is the crime and beard is the evidence.

The accused doctor: I would like to tell the court why I wore a beard. I once read in a book that a white man dressed himself like a black man and travelled through America, to learn first-hand what it was like to live with racism. In 1991-92, going by how terrorised a particular community was at the time, I drew inspiration from this book and decided to grow a beard and tour this country, only to learn what it was like to live in the constant shadow of suspicion.

The reference here is to the destruction of the Babri masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, and the subsequent riots in Mumbai targetting Muslims post the bomb blasts, which has been followed by a long and in many ways, still ongoing period of general persecution of the Muslim community, among other minorities

Prosecution Lawyer: Look, look, Sir – what else is this man if not mischievous? Where’s America’s racism and where’s our composite, syncretic – Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, aapas mein sab bhai bhai
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian, all brothers amongst them

To be a Hindu and pretend to be Muslim, to rake and dredge up old wounds – what is this but false sympathy? He is an impostor, an anti-moral. Sir, I say – can there be a greater proof of appeasement [of Muslims] than this? And, if he did wear a beard, why did he remove it?

Judge [to the accused]: So is there an answer?
Prosecution Lawyer: No Sir, there isn’t one, how can there be? This silence, this muteness, this lack of an answer – this alone is enough to prove his crime, Sir.
Judge: No doubt, no doubt. It is sufficient. But the court doesn’t wish that there remain any possibility of innocence.
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir
Judge: So I pose this question to you – what is this man in the court’s eyes?
Prosecution Lawyer: An infamous terrorist and conspirator, Sir.

Judge: What is his crime?
Prosecution Lawyer: He used to go and meet the non-ayyar leader of the unlawful organisation in jail and passed messages and letters from him to his associates and accomplices outside.
Judge: On what basis do you allege this?
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, we arrested a merchant [businessman] on whose person were found these letters from the jailed leader. The accused must have handed them to him.

Judge: Is there any proof of this?
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, first, no one besides the accused met that old leader in jail. Second, at the time of the businessman’s arrest, a passing traveller had overheard a rumour that it was the accused who gave the letters to the businessman. Sir, you know well what faith our Emperor Afrasiyab places in rumours...
Sir, traps are placed at different places, to catch these rumours floating in the air – they keep ‘tapping’ them, Sir.

Judge: No doubt, no doubt. Emperor Afrasiyab only trusts what is caught floating in the air.
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir – baat udti hai to phir door talak jaati hai / Translation: What flies in the air goes far -
Judge: What does he [the accused] have to say in his defense?
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, he says that all his meetings with the leader in jail were always held in the presence of the jail authorities and officers, and it is impossible for anything to have been taken or exchanged with the leader under their watchful presence.

baat udti hai to phir door talak jaati hai
- A play on the original verse by Kafeel Aazer:
baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegibr/>
Translation: If word gets out, it will travel far

And Sir, the jail authorities too have testified that the meetings between the accused and the jailed leader always took place in their presence and there is no question of any material having changed hands under their watch.
To this, Sir, I say – these jail authorities are government servants, they take a salary from the government, we too are from [of] the government. How can they then side with a criminal and not the government? Please declare them as ‘hostile’ witnesses, Sir.

Judge: The court would like to declare that anyone who testifies in favour of the accused will be declared ‘hostile’ by the court. In any case, lawyer saab, your argument has strength – if no one other than the accused met that rebel non-ayyar leader, and the businessman was arrested from his city [of the accused], then, without doubt it was a Naxal postman who delivered the leader’s letters.

Also, this is the Tilism-e-Kohistan, where is the need to meet here to deliver letters? Please present your next evidence.

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, he [the accused] is a member...or could be...of a communist organisation – the point being that his beliefs and mentality are the same [as the organisation’s]. And even if the mentality is not the same, he certainly has sympathies for them, because the fact is he has never denounced them clearly or strongly. Whenever he has spoken against them it has only been on the surface, and if someone only criticises something on the surface or lightly, he must carry sympathies for them in his heart.

That proves it Sir that he is with them, and for the rest, his membership I-card etc we’ll get made in a day or two.

Judge: What does he have to say in his defence?

Prosecution lawyer: Sir, he has brought a far-reaching argument. He says that even if one assumes that he is a member of an unlawful/banned organisation the Supreme Court has decreed that being a member of such an organisation alone does not prove one to be a criminal.

The Supreme Court ruling of February 2011 decreeing that mere membership of a banned organisation does not denote/suggest criminality.

Judge: Please do not teach us the law. The Supreme Court sits there, far away. What does it know of the ground realities here?

And in any case, according to the Twisted Law, Clause 3, Subsection 5, being a member of an unlawful organisation is a crime in itself by law. But still, lawyer sahib, as a precaution, please present some solid evidence.

Tedhe kanoon ke teesre hisse kee panchvi aayat...
Through a pun on the word TADA astedhe kanoon or 'twisted law', the reference made here is to the infamous and draconian TADA Act -Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Preventive) Act- whose clause 3, subsection 5 decrees membership to an unlawful organisation a criminal offence - the same clause is used in the trial the dastan. {From a conversation with Danish Husain}
Dastans are full of such wordplay, puns and satire to drive home a point, and the dastangos bring to this modern dastan too that element and energy

Prosecution lawyer: Sir, a letter was found at his [the accused] house – from that rebel, unlawful, hatred and contempt-spreading organisation, from one of its members – thanking him.

Judge: I see. What does he have to say to this?

Prosecution lawyer: Sir, he says that when documents were seized from his house he had signed on every paper that was taken – so this paper too should bear his signature.
But, Sir, I say- this is a tilism, here a kohi is joined to a kohi, a paper must have got stuck to another paper! That’s hardly a big thing.

Judge: Naturally, naturally. And in any case, there is no smoke without fire. And if there is smoke, there must be fire, and if there is a fire, it must be against the State, and if it’s against the state then his intent is suspect. But lawyer saab, the media people go around making accusations nowadays. So, for their sake, do present one or two more pieces of solid evidence.

Prosecution lawyer: Sir. We found from his house [the accused] two documents – one is a journal of the Awami Morcha – we found a leaf of that journal. Sir, do you understand the Awami Morcha? – People’s Front – what sort of destructive activities they must be up to.

And the other thing we recovered from his house is a pamphlet against the Salwa Judum law.

Judge: Pamphlet?!

Prosecution Lawyer: Pamphlet, Sir! A pamphlet!

Sir, as you know that over two hundred years of human history, wherever this thing called the pamphlet was found, it has been the cause of trouble and conflict.

Judge: So now that he was caught, what does the accused have to say?

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, he says that these things are commonly available. But Sir, my contention is that that which is commonly available – becomes special when found at a criminal’s house. Sir, as suspect objects have been recovered from his house, hence he is a criminal. And since he is a criminal, everything recovered from his house is suspect. Why from his house alone?

Glossary:

mashkuk: dubious/suspicious/suspect
KUCL: Kohistan Union of Civil Liberties - a play on PUCL- People's Union of Civil Liberties, the organisation whose Chattisgarh branch Dr. Binayak Sen is the head of

The reference here is to the French revolution, the first people's revolution to have powerfully used the pamphlet as a potent tool of information dissemination, communication and one feared as a political weapon by the ruling classes for its powerful reach.
The narrators here, through the exagerrated importance the state places on the pamphlet in the trial, seeing it as an indicator of criminal involvement, point to the potential power of the pamphlet feared by most ruling powers and the inherent absurdity there.

Judge: Certainly – it is quite clear. Bhai, where else will the Gita [Bhagvad Gita] be found other than at a devotee’s house? Please tell us a little about his behaviour.

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, don’t ask about that – he is insolent and arrogant. When our officers of the state attempt to forge better relations of love with the people, these people [people like the accused] come there and spread disaffection. They wave flags, lead marches, say all sorts of things and mislead the public. When, fed up of their activities, one of our senior officers said to them most politely – look, if you don’t curtail your activities, then we will ‘see’ about you and your organisation KUCL– do you know, Sir, what he said?

Judge? What did he say?

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, he looked at him with defiant eyes and said

Laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge / Translation: It follows that we too will ‘see’

Laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge
A line from Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous poem that became a call to revolution - it spoke of oppressive powers and of the belief that thrones would come falling down one day and the rule of the people would come about - to be witnessed by the people.
Its first four lines read:
Hum dekhenge
Lazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge
Wo din ke jis ka wada hai
Jo looh-e-azl pe likha hai
Hum bhi dekhenge

Ghazal singer Iqbal Bano imortalised much of Faiz's poetry through her singing, and famously sung this poem in a packed stadium in Lahore in 1985 to over 50,000 people at a time when Faiz's works were banned, a revolutionary public act that has inspired people's movements ever since.

Now, Sir, you tell me – are They to ‘see’ Us or are We to ‘see’ Them?

Judge: They think they are Emperor Afrasiyab – that they will look upon us with eyes of fury and we’ll burn to ash… [to the assembled court audience] Lower your eyes, lower your eyes, a court session is in progress.

But lawyer saab, for the solace of the upper class folks of Delhi and Mumbai, please present one or two more pieces of solid evidence.

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, his wife wrote a letter to some Walter Fernandes of ISI.

Judge: An Isaai - Christian- in ISI?? Their spirits have come this far?
Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, this actually isn’t that ISI. This is some social research organisation in Delhi…
Judge [cutting him off]: Yes, whoever it may be, whoever it may be. But I say when we’ve been taught that if you drink something with just the fragrance of alcohol, it is still forbidden – then I ask, what was the need to write to an organisation with a similar sounding name [to Pakistan’s ISI]? His crime is proven completely.

But… as we are a just administration, and a criminal ought be permitted to say something in his defense - [to the accused] – Do you have anything to say in your defence?

photo reference

Accused doctor: Sir, I would only like to repeat the statement made some ninety years ago in response to a charge similar to this and in a court similar to this.

Judge: We are not interested in someone else’s case. Whose statement is this?

Accused doctor: Sir, he was our ‘father’, of all of us.
Judge: Our father? Please stop joking.

Accused doctor: Sir, Bapu, that shaven-headed man whose photograph is hung everywhere.

Judge: So say Bapu – by calling him ‘our father’, you are misleading the court… Please go on.

-An excerpt from Mahatma Gandhi's statement in court during his trial in 1922 under the charge of 'sedition against the state' for an article he wrote in the journal Young India, along with its publisher
The law under which he was charged- section 124A of the Indian Penal Code- is the same under which Dr Sen too was charged and imprisoned

Accused doctor: The law under which I am charged, is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, but this section decrees the mere promotion of disaffection as a crime. I have studied some of the cases tried under it; I know that some of the most loved of India’s patriots have been convicted under it. I consider it a privilege, therefore, to be charged under that section.

I believe this government in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system and being opposed to such a government is an act of good. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the [such a] system.

Doob maro aise insaaf pe, aansu bahao aise qanoon par
Jo kamzor ke liye talwar kee dhar hai aur zabardast ke liye bagh-o-bahaar hai

Jo apne liye naghma-e-saaz hai aur hamaare liye maut ki awaaz hai?

Translation:
Kill yourself [out of shame] at such justice, Shed tears over such a law
That is the point of the sword for the weak and a welcome spring for the mighty
Poetry and music for itself, but for us the herald of death

Legendary lines from the 1958 Hindi film Yahudi by Sohrab Modi - from a scene in a court where the hero challenges the Roman emperor about the inequalities between the rulers and the people
Dastans and Hindi cinema have an intimate and continued relationship. As the oral tradition of dastangoi began to wane in popularity with the advent of the theatre and the Urdu novel, among other changes in early twentieth century, a number of former dastangos or dastan narrators joined the then-emerging Parsi theatre in centres like Bombay as scriptwriters and playwrights and they brought their declamatory, strongly poetry-laden language and stylisations of oratory and dialogues with rhyming, puns and wit to the theatre.

Tumhaare hee liye banaye gaye hain duniya ke nazaare?

Chamakte hain tumhaare he roshni se chaand aur taare?

Tumhaara gham hai gham, auron ka gham khaab-o-kahani hai?
Tumhaara khoon hai khoon, hamara khoon paani hai?

Translation:
Have the sights of the world been created for you alone?
Do the moon and stars burn bright from your light?

Your sorrow alone is sorrow, that of the others is dream and tall-tales?
Your blood is blood, our blood water?

Prosecution Lawyer: Sir, he is trying to provoke the court with Sohrab Modi’s filmi dialogues. Please let him know that the court will not be swept by the current of emotion. The Law [and justice] is blind, Sir, and in our country, it is so more than usual.

Judge: Certainly, certainly. The court does not pronounce judgment driven by emotion. His offense has been proved completely to the court. Here, rule [state] is higher than an individual, the act is higher than the state and higher than the act is the intent behind it – and his intent is suspect. The court therefore squashes his appeal.
[to the Court Reader]: Please take out this Bapu’s file as well – his case too seems suspect.

When Amar heard this, he signalled to Barq with his eye. They both slipped out of court and Amar said to Barq –

Amar: Beta Barq, we mustn’t stay here either; our intentions too are suspect. Let us get out of here – this is a big and complex tilism. I’ve been to the tilism-jamshedi, the tilism-e-hoshruba, the tilism-e-noor afshan, but I haven’t seen a tilism as this anywhere. Defeating this tilism will take some complex and long ayyari. I can free that doctor, but they must have imprisoned a thousand more such doctors, I have found out, and there must be lakhs more with no identity at all. To battle all this and free them, we’ll have to spread a wide and complex net of trickery.

And shall I tell you another thing? I knew something like this would befall Hindustan, Jannat-nishan – India, the sign of heaven on earth.
Barq: Ustaad..how did you know?
Amar: Ask me why?
Barq: Why?
Amar: When Aadam was expelled from heaven…
Barq: Aadam…?
Amar: Adam!
Barq: Oh yes, Adam
Amar: When he was expelled from heaven, do you know where he was sent?
Barq: Where?
Amar: To Hindustan – India. And when Adam was to be born, there was no soil to help with his birth. Ask me why?
Barq: Why?

As precursors of Hindi cinema, Parsi theatre carried on this familiar tradition of wordplay and rhyme and from there, this form of language made its entry into the earliest Hindi films, whose plots of adventure, intrigue, romance and seduction, with Urdu poetry set to tune in songs, closely followed the format of the traditional dastans. Decades later, the overall broad format of the dastan sustains in Hindi cinema in its use of Urdu poetry, stock phrases and idioms, the opposites of hero and villain, good and bad, and the centrality of adventure and romance.
The complete trial proceedings and judgement text are available in the Hindi original and English translation on the internet, among other places, at the site of the Free Binayak Sen campaign at www.binayaksen.net

This tale of Adam's birth is taken from Malfuzat or Sayingsof Hazrat Nizamuddin {from a conversation with Danish Husain}
Glossary:
Aasi: Sinner/sinful
Mastujib/Mastaujib: deserving (of)
Azaab: punishment
Tahammul: Tolerance, endurance
Miskeen: poor, humble
Khak-e-pa: the dust at feet

Amar: Because the earth wasn’t yielding any soil. Ask me why?
Barq: Why?

Amar: Because thus decreed the lord of the worlds – that as the angel Gabriel travelled through the skies and came to the earth, to the place that is kaaba today, and tried to take a fistful of soil from the earth, the earth stopped him and said -
‘Gabriel, do not take soil from me as this will give birth to a Caliph [leader] whose progeny will be sinful, criminal and deserving of punishment. I, poor and humble, the dust at your feet, will not be able to bear the terrible mayhem [punishment] the children of Adam will wreak.'
Gabriel then went back and Israel came down to the earth. The earth stopped him too but he paid her no heed.

He said to her – he in whose name you stop me [God], I am here at his orders and I will leave here with the soil.
Saying this, he picked up a fistful of soil and went back up to the high skies
Amar, resuming: So beta, the forcibly-snatched soil from which were formed Adam and his progeny caused a fatal flaw in their composition, in their make up. The children of Adam will continue their mischief till such time as they are removed from the earth.

So, O son – why should there be surprise at this revolution?
It is the way of this world that jungles are cut and cities come into being. Everyone mourns when the cities turn desolate, but, dear friends, think too of the forests that were laid waste by these cities?
That patch of land had grand and tall trees where each tree was a city, each leaf a neighbourhood and each street a leaf – where did they all go?

Kaise manzar saamne aane lage hain
Gaate gaate log chillaane lage hain

Ab to is taalaab ka paani badal do

Yeh kamal ke phool kumhlaane lage hain

Translation:
What sights have begun to greet us now
While singing, people have begun to shriek

Change now the waters of this lake
These lotus flowers have begun to decay

Kaise manzar samne aane lage hain
These lines are from a ghazhal by Hindi/Urdu poet Dushyant Kumar
Glossary:
safeene: ships
tehkhaana: basement, underground vault
saleeb: crucifix
maktab: school

Ek qabristan mein ghar mil raha hai
Jisme tehkhaanon se tehkhaane lage hain

Machliyon mein khalbali hai
Ab safeene us taraf jaane se qatraane lage hain

Translation:
There is a house available in a graveyard
Where vaults adjoin vaults below ground

A tumult has broken out among the fish
The ships now fight shy of going that way

Woh saleebon ke qareeb aaye to humko

Qaayade-qanoon samjhane lage hain

Maulvi se daant khaakhar ahle-e-maktab

Phir usi aayat ko dohraane lage hain

Translation:
As they near the crucifix [as punishment for their crimes]
They have begun to preach to us the rules and laws

Upon being scolded by the teacher, the students
Have begun to repeat the same lesson

Ab nai tehzeeb ke pesh-e-nazar hum
Aadmi ko bhoon kar khaane lage hain

Kaise manzar saamne aane lage hai
Gaate gaate log chillaane lage hain
Kaise manzar saamne aane lage hai
Gaate gaate log chillaane lage hain

Translation:
To showcase this new culture
We have begun to roast and eat man

What sights have begun to greet us now
While singing, people have begun to shriek
What sights have begun to greet us now
While singing, people have begun to shriek

(Applause)

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