Book Review | Colossus from the lost pages of India's chequered history!
Even as I write its review, I have about 15-20 pages of Kalpish Ratna's latest book, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat: A King in Search of a Kingdom, left to read.
I know this is unprofessional. If I'm to publish my opinion of a book to help other people choose whether to take a chance on it or not, the least I can do is read the book to the end. But I don't think I'm ever going to read the last 15-20 pages of this particular book. That's because I know what's coming. As much as Bahadur reads like an adventure novel, it's nonfiction. Pure history. So I know that in the last few pages of this book, Bahadur Shah, the sultan of Gujarat between 1526 and 1537, will be murdered by the Portuguese. And I know that if I read it, I'll be unbearably sad.
That's because the Bahadur Shah who Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, the two writers behind the pseudonym Kalpish Ratna, have created out of a bunch of historical references is a very human young man. Very much a person I might know and be inordinately fond of.
As the son and grandson of sultans, Bahadur Shah is ambitious. But a word of affection from his distant father is all that he really desires. He's cocky. He believes that if he had fought at Panipat, the Mughals might never have established themselves in India. But that's based on years of fighting on behalf of his father. He's uninterested in books, studies, and anything sedentary, preferring action at all times. But his best friend is Haridas, the bibliophile son of the court pundit. He's Muslim from his father's side, Hindu from his mother's side, but first and foremost a son of Gujarat. That's why he gives up a chance to possibly rule Hindustan for the chance to rule Gujarat instead. He's coldblooded in politics but caring of the poor and the helpless. That's why, when Humayun routs his army, the people of the sultanate provide him with a whole new army. As you turn the pages of the book, you see that all of Bahadur Shah's traits are contradictions of each other. But put together, they make a man eminently worth knowing.
This is why I was surprised to learn from the introduction of the book that Bahadur Shah of Gujarat is something of a lost king. Overlooked by history, hidden in the crevices of better-known people's stories, and often, when mentioned at all, designated as something of a villain. But when curiosity impelled the writers to dig deeply, a different person emerged, the one I have described above. So the book is both an introduction to Bahadur Shah and justice for his name. And incidentally, it's also a rip-roaring read.
I've been a fan of Kalpish Ratna ever since I read their 2010 novel The Quarantine Papers, which I still re-read every few years though some passages from it have been so impressed on my brain that I often visualise them in my mind's eye. So I might be a bit biased when I read their books, whether they're fiction or science. I go in expecting to be educated and entertained, and since my expectations have always been met, I was truly looking forward to reading about Bahadur Shah.
But I have to say, with this book Kalpish Ratna have drawn me in like never before. While the story of Bahadur from his childhood to his death is written like a novel, many other chapters are related by different narrators, allowing both Bahadur and the situation of India in the 16th century to be examined from various angles. But there's nothing dry about the writing. There's humour in plenty (the chapter titled 'The Mirror of Sikandar bin Manjhu', in which Humayun's librarian tells his son about the war between Bahadur Shah and Humayun is particularly hilarious) and the various anecdotes and stories within the book are bursting with energy.
In fact, the telling of Bahadur Shah's life is so alive that, anti-reading though he was, the young sultan might have wanted Haridas to read them to him. And what could be a better tribute than that?
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat: A King in Search of a Kingdom
By Kalpish Ratna
Simon & Schuster India
pp. 395; Rs 899
