“You came to my house instead of coming to the office. It must be very important business,” said Richard smiling.

The chaprasi raised the chick blinds. The members of the citizen’s deputation entered the room one by one. Richard stood by the door, motioning towards the chairs set out in the room while sharply observing each member of the deputation. Then he went and sat down behind the table and picked up a pencil. Four of the men wore turbans, one wore a fez and two wore Gandhi caps. Richard could tell from the makeup of the group that they wouldn’t be difficult to handle.

“Tell me, how can I help you?,” he asked.

The members were very pleased by the Deputy Commissioner’s courteousness. The previous Commissioner had been quite rude, and it had been difficult even to meet with him.

By now, Richard had taken stock of nearly all the members. From the police reports, he knew who was who among the political men. The frumpy man with the Gandhi cap must be Bakhshi, who had spent sixteen years in jail. And the man sitting in the corner in the fez was Hayat Bakhsh, a representative of the Muslim League. The American principal of Mission College, Mr Herbert, had also come along. “And these people have dragged Professor Raghunath along too, since he’s an acquaintance of mine,” he thought. The rest of them came from various other organisations.

A novel based on Partition, Tamas tells a story of dark times, yet with moments in which humanity triumphs above all else

“I hear there’s tension in the city,” said Richard, addressing Bakhshi.

“That’s what we’ve come to see you about,” he replied. Bakhshi felt irritable after all that had happened that morning. On his initiative, they’d first gone to the home of the League president; meeting with resistance there, he’d decided to take a deputation to the Deputy Commissioner himself. He’d gone to the homes of all the members and rounded them up to bring them here. No one had objected.

“The government needs to do something immediately to bring the situation under control. Otherwise ... otherwise, vultures will circle the city!” he asserted, repeating aloud the sentence he’d been turning over in his mind since morning.

The rest of the members were worried too, but they weren’t quite so worked up.

Professor Raghunath and Richard glanced at one another. The Professor was the only member of the group who was the type of Indian Richard socialised with a bit; both were interested in English literature and Indian history, and he’d always seemed a welleducated man to Richard. The two smiled to themselves, as though to say, “These people have dragged us into their worldly affairs, but we two live in a different universe from them.”

Richard shook his head and tapped the table with his pencil.

“The government has a bad reputation. I’m a British officer. You have no faith in the British government, why would you listen to what we have to say?”, asked Richard ironically, continuing to tap his pencil.

“But the power is in the hands of the British government, and you’re a representative of the British government. It’s your responsibility to protect the city,” said Bakhshi. As he spoke, his chin trembled and his excitable face turned ashen.

“The power at this time is in the hands of Pandit Nehru,” replied Richard softly, smiling again. Turning to Bakhshi, he said, “When you’re against the British government, everything’s our fault. When you fight amongst yourselves, it’s still our fault,” he continued, smiling evenly. But then he returned to the topic, and said, “But tell me your thoughts. We should get together and solve this problem.” He glanced over at Hayat Bakhsh.

“If the police are put on alert, nothing will happen,” said Hayat Bakhsh. “The Hindus are behind the terrible mischief of what was found in front of the mosque.”

“How can you blame that on the Hindus?,” cried the philanthropist Lakshmi Narayan, leaping up, his voice rising as he spoke.

The matter was easily resolving itself for Richard.

“There’s no use in blaming one another,” said Richard, reassuringly. “It’s clear you’ve all come to me to resolve the matter.”

“Certainly,” replied Hayat Bakhsh. “We don’t want rioting and violence in the city either.”

Lakshmi Narayan felt very much alone. He was angry at his coreligionists. If they had come along as well, he wouldn’t be forced to speak out against the Muslims right now. He’d tell the Deputy Commissioner all kinds of things, like how weapons were being amassed in the Jama Masjid; how a cow had been slaughtered. Speaking out in this group would make him look like a fool. Perhaps it would be better if a deputation of Hindus and Sikhs met with the Deputy Commissioner separately; then they could present things plainly to him, in black and white.

“If the police were to begin a patrol,” said Bakhshi, addressing Richard, “and army checkpoints were set up around the city, there wouldn’t be any rioting, and the situation would come under control.”

Richard shook his head and smiled. “I’m the Deputy Commissioner,” he said, “the command of the army is not in my hands. There is a cantonment here, but that doesn’t mean the army follows my command.”

“The cantonment belongs to the British government, and so the command also belongs to the British government,” said Bakhshi. “If you station the army in the city the matter will be under control.”

Richard shook his head again. “I don’t command the army; surely you know this. The Deputy Commissioner has no such authority.”

“If you can’t station the army, then set a curfew in the city. That will calm things down. Just set up police checkpoints.”

“Won’t the city get even more tense if a curfew is set for such a small matter? What do you think?”

Richard said these words as though he were asking Bakhshi for advice. But at the same time, he took a piece of paper from a rack and began to write something on it in pencil. Then he looked up at the clock.

“The government will do everything it can, for its part,” said Richard in a reassuring tone. “But you people are the city’s leaders. People will really listen to what you have to say. Do you want to get together and make an appeal to the people for keeping the peace?”

Two or three people immediately began nodding their heads. The sahib was right.

Richard continued, “Leaders from both the Muslim League and Congress are here. Why don’t you invite a Sikh leader and get everyone together to form a peace committee and get to work. The government will help you in every way.”

“We will do that,” said Bakhshi excitedly, “but the situation right now is very delicate. Once the killing has begun, it will be difficult to control. If just one airplane flies above the city, people will realise the government is paying attention. Just that much is enough to stop the rioting.”

Richard again shook his head and smiled as he wrote on his paper with a pencil.

“Airplanes are also not under my jurisdiction,” he replied with a smile.

“Everything is under your jurisdiction, sahib, if you want to get something done.”

“I probably shouldn’t just keep quiet,’ thought Richard, ‘otherwise, this man is going to go on and on.”

“Actually, it was wrong of you to come to me bearing a complaint. You should have gone to Pandit Nehru, or Defence Minister Baldev Singh. The running of the government is in their hands,” he said, and laughed.

Everyone else remained silent when they saw the direction the Deputy Commissioner was taking. But Bakhshi continued on excitedly, “We’ve learned that, just an hour ago, one of your English police officers, Robert Sahib, has evicted a Muslim family from their home. Because of this, tension has increased in that entire neighbourhood, since the Muslim was the tenant of a Hindu landlord. Considering the state of the city, this sort of activity should be stopped.”

Richard knew about this incident because the police officer had asked his advice before doing it. And Richard had said that acting on the court’s decision was a general daily activity, no sense in postponing it. But he didn’t let on to the members of the delegation that he knew anything about it at all. After writing some more on his paper, he responded, “I’ll look into it.” Then he looked at the clock.

At this, Herbert, who was an elderly American priest and the principal of the Theological Mission College, said in a soft voice, “The question of protecting the city is not political, it goes beyond political parties; it concerns all the people in the city, all the city dwellers. One must forget one’s own political party under the circumstances. The role of the government is also very important. We should all come together and control the situation. We should make the rounds right away and talk to people; make an appeal to them not to fight amongst themselves.”

Richard immediately agreed with that suggestion, and proposed even more forcefully, “suggest that we get a bus and put a loudspeaker on it. You can all sit in it and travel throughout the city and make your voices heard.”

The above excerpt is taken from chapter 7.

Excerpted with permission from
Tamas
By Bhisham Sahni
Translated by Daisy Rockwell
Penguin Books, India
ISBN 978-0670088058
345pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, June 5th, 2016