Book Review 6:
Dara Shikooh and Aurangzeb (Play by Akbar Ahmed translated into Sindhi by Shafkat Qadri)
Reviewed by: Dr Mubarak Lashari
It
was a more than a decade ago when I had read Akbar S Ahmed’s ‘Postmodernism and
Islam’ in which he not only, at many points, rejected postmodern values against
religion especially Islam but also pointed out enlightened elements of Islam as
a religion. Akbar S Ahmed and Ziaudin Sardar as well as Ejaz Ahmed and some
other intellectuals from Pakistan, India, Iran and other countries are there
who are on the one hand supporting positive concept of Islam but also believe
in very foundations of reinterpretation of the religion of hands of so-called
mullahs or extremist like people. May be that is the reason they are not
accepted as scholar by many of the orthodox communities in their native
countries.
Out of
certain premises, the intellectual work of these people cannot be denied at any
level but can be used as reference of liberal and just element of the religion.
In the same context one can have the play ‘Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb’ in Sindhi
from Akbar Ahmed’s play ‘The trial of Dara Shikoh and Noor’. The translator has
selected the significance of the ‘trial of Dara Shikoh’ as fitting to the
conditions of the day. In preface of the translation, Bakhsahal Thalho
described the conditions of the day in the context extremism and orthodoxy
interpretation of the religion at large. The translator in his words also shed
very good light on the knowledge structure of our higher education that can be
seen in the perspective of Steve Fuller work ‘Post-truth, knowledge as power
game’ in which he analysed the very basic foundations of knowledge in the era
of post-truth reality.
The play
‘Dara Shikoh aen Aurangzeb (mysticism and extremism) دارا شڪوهه ۽ اورنگزيب تصوف ۽
انتهاپسندي ‘ is basically the story of trial of prince Dara Shikoh,
the heir and eldest son of Shahjehan, a Mughal Emperor of India in seventeenth
century. According to the translater, that is real fact as well’ that Mughal
dynasty is full of murders of nears and dears for the sake of getting throne by
hooks or crooks. Same happened when there came a time of heirship after
Shahjehan when the emperor nominated his eldest son Dara Shikoh but that was
not accepted by his brother especially Aurangzeb who started conspiracy against
him and hanged him through court trail of so-called religious jurisprudence. There
actually happened a final battle at Samogarh in which Dara Shikoh and his force
was defeated by the royal army occupied by Aurangzeb and his younger brother. After
the defeat of the battle of Samogarh, Dara Shikoh was chained and trial started
by Qazi Fazulhaq and attorneyed by Abdullah Khan. Interestingly, the witnesses
to prove Dara Shikoh were the same who were acknowledging the position of Dara
Shikoh as a great leader and person religious harmony but it was not a really
fair trial but a formality to remove Dara from the way of Aurangzeb’s getting
to throne. The trial has proved the guilt of Dara as ‘heretic’ of religious values
orthodoxically. The verdict of the court was well known and predicted in which
Dara is not only accepting the Hindu religion is as equally respectable as
other religions and also believe that Sikhism is also bridge of Islam and Hindu
religions. He also showed the reverence of Judaism and Christianity in the
context of true spirit of Islam. The idea was not acceptable to the judiciary
or qazi of the court and he was verdicted as heretic and disbeliever of Islamic
values and traditions, thus, he was to be hanged. There were shown two sisters
of Aurangzeb i.e. Roshan Ara and Jahan Ara in which Roshan Ara is having
extremist views against the liberal thoughts of Dara and supports Aurangzeb and
suggest him to hang Dara Shikoh immediately. On the other hand, Jahan Ara is on
the side of Dara Shikoh who brings the request of forgiveness for the life of Dara
but the solicitation is rejected.
The play consists of four acts. First act is consisting
the actual trial of Dara Shikoh that is richly texted and explained in the
context of liberal ideas of Dara Shikoh and the charges levelled against him as
religious heretic. Second act is consisted of sisters having discussion with
Aurangzeb on the issues that is also very interesting. The third act is related
with the Dara Shikoh and his son Sepahar, who fights bravely in the last battle
of Samugarh. Here, both the son and the father discuss not only the background
of Mughals in India, Aurangzeb, Akbar the great but also personal loves of the
brothers disputing for the throne. Final and fourth scene or act is related
with Aurangzeb and his sister Jahan Ara meeting after 20 years in which both
are old enough to realize the past issues. In this scene, Jahan Ara reminds
Aurangzeb that it was not Islam that made you kill your father and brothes but
your greed of power and jealousy against the liberal and universal thoughts of
Dara Shikoh, where to some extent Aurangzeb accepts the reality but cunningly
avoids the past.
The play is not only the play of literary genre but it also
is eye opening work in the context of post-Zia era in Pakistan in which we have
been thrown into the bay of extremism and fundamentalism what was sown
historically in the period of Aurangzeb and General Zia we reaping the crop of
that in today’s world. This was not just the fight of two brothers but the
fight of two ideologies. We cannot learn anything today if we cannot learn it
from past. Therefore, this play translated into Sindhi by Shafkat Qadri is an
important work towards historical understanding that Islam is not what
extremists teach us. In the end, there is given a translation of Guru Gobind Singh’s
letter ZaffraNama (the message of
success) to Aurangzeb that evaluates the
actual position of emperor Aurangzeb, as a person, as a religious one etc. that
is wonderful addition to the book.
The translation is wonderful and that credit goes to
Qadri, the translator but the main credit is also for the writer Akbar Ahmed
who realized the issue and penned it down in 2008. The Sindhi translation is
magnificent but publication seems of less standardized that can be seen from
the grounds of paging of the scenes. There is great reshuffling of the pages
from forward to backward and vice versa. It can be very harmful for the readers.
But the message is magnificent and lofty. I would like to suggest young
generation to read it disseminate it for tomorrow.
Book Name: Dara Shikoh aen Aurangzeb )Taswuf
aen intehapasandi) دارا شڪوهه ۽ اورنگزيب (تصوف ۽
انتهاپسندي)
Author: Akbar Ahmed translated into Sindhi by
Shafkat Qadri
Publisher: Roshni Publication, Kandiaro
Publishing year: 2019
Pages: 81
Price: Rs 200 US $ 2.00
ISBN: 978-969-972636-1
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