Remembering Malan: reading representations of domestic servants in colonial Bihar

ABSTRACT

This paper will discuss the construction of the ashraf identity through the representation of servants by a nineteenth-century Urdu poet of Bihar, Shad Azimabadi (1846–1927). Shad considered exclusivity of language and the distinctiveness of the master–servant relationship as a part of the adab culture (code of conduct) and the exclusivity of the ashraf. This exclusivity, however, underwent significant change amidst the economic decline that set in motion in the late nineteenth century within ashraf families. One of the significant changes was the redefinition of the master–servant relationship along the lines of caste. The transition from adab to caste will be traced through the memoir of Shad written by his grandson, Naqi Ahmad Irshad, and texts published in an Urdu newspaper, Al Punch, that contested the very claim of exclusivity of the ashraf.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic servants
• caste
• adab and ashraf

Acknowledgement

A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the second Servants’ Pasts’ Conference, Berlin, April 11-13th 2018. I would like to thank the organizers of this conference for giving me the opportunity to present my paper and Nitin Sinha for his valuable and insightful comments. I would also like to pay my gratitude to Manjusha Madhu, Manisha Sethi and Pranjali Srivastava for their critical and perceptive comments on my paper. Special thanks to Ghazala Sikandar for helping me comprehend Urdu sources which I read and analysed for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I have translated these poems with the help of Ghazala Sikandar.

2. The incident regarding the furore created over the poem is documented in Wahab Ashrafi’s book, Shad Azimabadi Aur Unki Nasr Nigari [Shad and his prose writings]. Drawing from Shad’s autobiography, Ashrafi mentions that the Urdu newspaper, Al Punch had started in the 1880s in response to Shad’s treatise Nawa E Watan, See, Ashrafi, Shad Azimabadi aur Unki Nasr Nigari, 14–16.

3. Lelyveld, Ashraf, 6; the meanings and connotations of Asharfs changed with the changing contexts.

4. Boyk, Collaborative Wit, 90–93; and Azimabadi, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani, 84–88.

5. Sayyid along with Shiekhs, Mughals and Pathans were categorized as the upper strata amongst Muslims as opposed to the ‘other’ Muhammadans classified as ‘unspecified’ by colonial ethnographers like Hunter. See, Hunter, A Statistical Account of Bengal, 38.

6. Ashrafi, Shad Azimabadi aur Unki Nasr Nigari, 14–16.

7. For caste like social stratification amongst Muslims, see, Imtiaz, Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India; Ahmad, “Dalit Muslims”; and Falahi, Hindustan Main Zat Pat Aur Musalman.

8. Azimabadi, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani, 84–88; Azimabadi, Nawa E Watan, 1–7; and Azimabadi, Tarikh E Subah Bihar, 51.

9. Metcalf, Moral Conduct and Authority, 1–23.

10. For the lives of servants in Shad Azimabadi household I am referring to accounts of Irshad reminiscing his childhood, written in memory and honour of his grandfather. I have drawn upon Irshad, Shad Ke Ahed aur Fan; and Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad.

11. For the debate on the Indian Public Sphere see, Scott and Ingram, What is a Public?, 357–370.

12. For debates on caste amongst Muslims, see, Imtiaz, Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India; Ahmad, “Dalit Muslims”; and Falahi, Hindustan Main Zat Pat Aur Musalman.

13. For the colonial creation of caste through jati (refereed as zat, a Persianized terms in these accounts) and varna, see, Samarendra, “Census in Colonial India and Birth of Caste,” 51–58.

14. I am drawing upon the autobiography of Shad, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani. For a brief sketch of the life of the landed aristocracy, see, Azimabadi, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani, 12–13.

15. Despite his towering stature, his literary career was riven with the dilemma of belonging. As his surname, Azimabadi suggests, he was recognized as an Urdu poet from Bihar, but in his writings he distanced himself from his homeland (Bihar), given that Delhi was the heart of Urdu literary culture in the nineteenth century, and Bihar was perceived as a region of ‘rustics’ and hence did not qualify as a significant Urdu literary centre. For hierarchy of the regions in the Urdu literary circles, see, Faruqi, “Urdu Literary Culture,” 807.

16. Shad underlined these criteria in his treatise of Urdu language Nawa E Watan, see, Azimabadi, Nawa E Watan, 1–7.

17. Azimabadi, Tarikh E Subah Bihar, 51.

18. Azimabadi, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani, 12–13.

19. For etymology of these words I have referred Nayyar, Nurul ul Lughat.

20. For an account of the upkeep of servants in Mughal households, see, Moosvi “The World of Labour in Mughal India,” 343–357; and for the lives of ashrafs of Bihar see Chatterjee, Merchants, Politics and Society in Early Modern India, 205–213.

21. Shad underlined these criteria in his treatise of Urdu language Nawa E Watan, see, Azimabadi, Nawa E Watan, 1–7; and Boyk, Collaborative Wit, 90–93.

22. Boyk, Collaborative Wit, 90–93; and Azimabadi, Shad ki Kahani Shad ki Zabani, 84–88.

23. For competition in Urdu literary circles see, Pritchett, Nets of Awareness, 3–16; and for the lives of nobles in Bihar, see, Chatterjee, Merchants, Politics and Society in Early Modern India, 205–213.

24. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, 104.

25. Ibid.

26. For the description of mohallah, see, Azimabadi, Tarikh E Subah Bihar, 51.

27. Bayly, Local Control in Indian Towns, 291–292; and Yang, Bazaar India, 96.

28. For Halalkhor, see, Lee, Who is the True Halalkhor?, 10–13.

29. On the nature of the nawabi household, see articles of Oesterheld and Magsi in this volume.

30. Rizvi, Domestic Service in Mughal South Asia, 112–118.

31. Ruth Vanita’s study of Lucknow’s nawab households through rekhti (a language used inside the household by women and servants) discusses such cases of servants’ overreach within a household. Laundi, sakhni, sili or saheli were such attendants who along with being servants were also friends, care givers and companions of the female members of the household. Such associations and bonding were not restricted to women. The nawabs also shared such intimate relationships with their female servants and in some cases these liaisons were formalized into marriages, giving recognition to the female servant, see Vanita, Gender, Sex, and the City, 16–17, 98–108.

32. Shad’s accounts were similar to accounts like Shahr E Ashob, which were chronicles of lament on the declining city. See Yang, Bazaar India, 53-112: and for 1857 ‘revolt’ as Muslim conspiracy, see, Malik, ‘Mutiny’ and the Muslim World, 283–288.

33. Irshad’s memoirs of Shad were written in 1979 and published in 1982, see, Irshad, Shad ke Ahed aur Fan, preface.

34. al tamgha: the land which was given to the noble, jaagir: these were tax free lands given to a select few; mada e mash: land given to poor, hospices and temples. These were tax free lands; see, Irshad, “Jihad e Azad,” 3.

35. Irshad, Jihad e Azad, 3.

36. Irshad, Shad ke Ahed aur Fan, 244–247.

37. For details of servants described by Irshad refer to Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 1–10, 33, 34–35.

38. Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 1–10.

39. Ibid., 1–10, 33, 34–35.

40. Irshad, Shad ke Ahed aur Fan, 244–247.

41. Hunter, A Statistical Account of Bengal, 119.

42. Ahmad, Patna (Azimabad) at the Turn of the Present Century, 176; For a description of manud refer to Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 425. According to him a manud was of about 66 lb (pounds) (avdp.) at Hooghly in 1636 and ‘seer’ was a variant of small weight, 28 “pice” to the “seer”.

43. Yang, Bazaar India, 65–75.

44. Ibid., 70–82, 263–267.

45. Yang, Bazaar India, 70; and Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, 102–103.

46. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, 102–103.

47. Yang, Bazaar India, 70–82, 263–267; Robb, ‘Peasants’ Choices?,” 112–116; and Robb, “Bihar,” 231–235.

48. Hasan, Yaadgarein Rozgaar, 57–60.

49. Hunter associated service with Amanth, Dhanuk, Dhobi, Hajjam or Nai and Kahar, see Hunter, A Statistical Account of Bengal, 38.

50. Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 34–35.

51. Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, 313–320.

52. See essays by Rasten, “Beyond Work,” 262–271; and Sinha, “Servant Problem,” 314–322.

53. For details on linking theft with servants see Freitag, Crime in the Social Order of Colonial North India, 227–237; Kumar, Relationship of Caste and Crime in Colonial India, 1081–1083; and Sinha Mobility, Control and Criminality in Early Colonial India, 3–6.

54. Kumar, Relationship of Caste and Crime in Colonial India, 1081–1083.

55. Freitag, “Crime in the Social Order of Colonial North India,” 242–246.

56. Ibid., 243–247.

57. Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 4; In contrast to the Indian households, in European households ayahs, cooks, coachmen, syces, sweepers, washer men, water-earners, guards that worked for the colonial officers stayed in a compound that were a part of the residential quarter situated in the part of the town known as Bankipore, see, Gopal, Mapping Bihar from Medieval to Modern Times, 87.

58. Amongst the castes engaged in personal service were Hajjam (33.9%), Dhobi (18.5%) and Dhulia (37.3%). See, Hunter, A Statistical Account of Bengal, 38; and Buchanan lists nai as unclean caste, see, Buchana, An Account of the District of Purnea, 230.

59. Maali along with Koeri and Kurmi and others were listed as agricultural castes by Hunter and they also worked as domestic servants according to Buchanan see Hunter, A Statistical Account of Bengal, 38; and Buchanan, An Account of the District of Purnea, 227.

60. The elevation in position of the kahar caste from that of an untouchable in some parts of the Indian subcontinent was due to their work as seasonal load lifters during marriage ceremonies which involved regular interaction with the higher caste aristocracy. They managed to improve their social standing due to the nature of their work that required them to be in close proximity to their masters, see Opler and Shukla, Palanquin Symbolism, 217–220.

61. For Gokhal see Irshad, Shad ke Ahed aur Fan, 244–247; and Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 4.

62. Ibid.

63. Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 4.

64. Ibid.

65. Lelyveld, Aligarh’s First Generation, 40.

66. The idea of respect has been drawn from Dillon, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy; The contemporary Dalit movements also uses the Hindi word asmita meaning self-respect against caste based atrocities. The idea of asmita was used to organize a movement in 2016 against an incident in small town of Gujarat, Una, where seven Dalits were publicly flogged for skinning a dead cow by a local cow vigilante group. The movement was called Dalit Asmita Yatra, see Langa, “Dalit pride march ends at Una”.

67. Chandhoke, Equality for What?, 140–143.

68. Ashrafi, Shad Azimabadi aur Unki Nasar Nigari, 14–16.

69. Faruqi, Conventions of Love, Love of Conventions, 1–29.

70. Kuczkiewicz-Fraś, The Beloved and the Lover, 200–221.

71. Orsini, Love in South Asia, 68–71.

72. Mukhia, The Celebration of Failure as Dissent, 869, 879–881.

73. The Kahar caste has been explained in the earlier part of this essay.

74. For a detailed account of poetry recorded in private notebooks see Pritchett, A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, 864–67.

75. Shad underlined these criteria in his treatise of Urdu language Nawa E Watan, see Azimabadi, Nawa E Watan, 1–7.

76. Irshad, Yaadgarein Shad, 33–34.

77. On the Indian public sphere, see Scott and Ingram, What is a Public?, 357–370.