Tales From Birehra
(Synopsis)
"With deeply vivid storytelling that delves into the symbiotic Hindu-Muslim relationship shared across the Indian sub-continent prior to the ending of the British Raj, Tales from Birehra is a unique and truly compelling narrative.
"Birehra is a fictional microcosm of the country and times-a tiny village, shared peacefully by people of different faiths, and shaped by four hundred years of life lived close to the land and guided by the rhythms of the seasons. Could it really all be washed away by the looming tide of an evolving political climate, so far removed from their simple yet time-honoured existence? Could such a thing even be possible, when Birehra’s roots run so deep, anchoring it to the land and the heart of a people?
"With vivid scenery, and characters who seem to breathe with colourful life, Dr. Rafi Mustafa draws his readers into the culture he describes, making them treasure its simple joys and dread its looming devastation."
*****
The Sherwanis came to India as Pathan warriors in the conquering fifteenth-century Muslim army of Bahlol Lodhi – and were expelled in the mid-twentieth century for the new country of Pakistan. For the rest of his life, Azad will remember the first six years of his life in the village of Birehra as a blissful idyll.
The reader of Tales From Birehra meets a galaxy of fascinating characters. The thirteenth and only surviving child of village landowner Khansab, Azad fears the kindliest man in Birehra, the itinerant barber Chokka – who snips three-year-old Muslim foreskins as well as hair. Azad’s father was himself saved by the milk of a Hindu untouchable mother after his own mother died giving birth to him. Azad is watched over by the exclusive attention of Doctor Ali Hussain, employed by Khansab to guard the life of his only child. The villagers are impressed when the doctor orders a dose of one million units of the new miracle drug penicillin, surely enough to pay for thousands of cows, to prevent infection in the sutures holding together a man’s slashed throat.
Khansab’s rich cousin Hasan Khan carries a gold watch given him by King Saud when Hasan met him on one of his Haj pilgrimages and is considered the most-qualified man to lead prayers in the mosque. The mullah who looks after the mosque, however, devotes much of his time to chasing squirrels and making sure that the well is properly purified when animals drown in it.
Though the landowners of Birehra are traditionally the Muslim Sherwanis, who were given estates for their service to Bahlol Lodhi, by the twentieth century, most of their shrunken estates have fallen into the hands of the moneylender Lala Ishvari Lal – a man so fat he must ride an elephant when going on pilgrimage to the holy Ganges. While numerous lower-class Hindus live in Birehra and work for the Muslims, upper-caste Hindus live in the nearby colony of Nagla. The workers are not paid wages but are provided for all their needs through the year and given a share of each season’s crops. The stability of the age-old village economy is proven when water carrier Karmoo becomes bewitched by the call of the city and begins charging for services. It comes as a shock to the ambitious man when his neighbors stop giving him free meals, and Khansab lets him know that he will now have to buy his own shorts when they wear out yearly.
But change finally comes to the timeless routine of Birehra in the form of decisions made by politicians, kings and generals in Delhi and London. From his hut under the canopy of the town’s twin mango trees, village watchman Phagna begins being rebuffed by strangers passing through on mysterious errands, whose accents mark them as university students from the cities. Soon village Hindus are being beaten and warned off working for Muslims. And Khansab’s old friend Uday Lal cannot bring himself to tell Khansab that it is Lal’s own son, Amrit, who is leading the young Hindu nationalists agitating for a Muslim-free India – though they claim to wish to do so without violence.
Finally, after his three beloved horses are poisoned and his corn crop burned, Khansab sells his estate at a low cost to Lala Ishvari Lal and takes his son, wife and mother-in-law to Pakistan. Though Azad’s grandmother dies on the way, the rest of the family make it to the new country – but the displaced child will never again return to the once harmonious Hindu-Muslim village of Birehra.
Does your library have a copy?
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Title: Tales From Birehra
Author: Rafi Mustafa
Publisher: Whimsy Publications
978-1-9995631-1-0 (Hardcover)
978-1-9995631-2-7 (Paperback)
978-1-9995631-3-4 (eBook)