Myth, metaphor and event

More than 50 years later, this looks like a ghost town 8212; backward, impoverished and lacking in basic civic amenities. Though some havelis are still maintained and attract a handful of European tourists, the streets are strewn with rubbish. The markets, once buzzing with activity, are now deserted even on a working day. Mostpeople are unhappy with the current state of affairs; no wonder, they express their disgust with the ruling party by voting for the opposition. Nagar to marne wale hai the city is about to die, commented the 55-year old Prem Chand Aggarwal, owner of a textile shop in Bura Bazaar.

This prophesy may not come true. Farrukhnagar, a major producer of jowar, has the potential of developing into a major mandi. Some local farmers are already beginning to do well by taking their produce to Najafgarh where they fetch a higher price. Land prices are also lower than elsewhere; so rich farmers and traders, in search of a safe investment, are drawn to Farrukhnagar.

All this augurs well for the future, though the local bodies will have to redouble their efforts to create the infrastructure for growth and prosperity. On balance, however, it may take quite a while for their personnel to give up their lazy habits and their lacklustre style of functioning. The unmistakable impression one carries is that the will tomake things work is missing across the board.

At the same time, Farrukhnagar, only a few miles away from the famous bird sanctuary in Sultanpur, is not just a remote or inconsequential place dotted on the map of Haryana. Its chequered history dates back to the early 1730s when Faujdar Khan, a Baloch chief who was appointed governor by the Mughal emperor Farrukh Siyar, founded the town.

But this distant past has receded into the background in the popular consciousness. Even th-ough people live blissfully in the shadow of the sprawling Sheesh Mahal, which today houses the office of the municipal committee, they are not curious to know the name of its builder. A huge fort dominates the landscape, and yet they do not care why its walls and gates are crumbling, or, why the large octagonal well, built by the Bharatpur Jats who occupied Farrukhnagar from 1757 to 1764, is so willfully neglected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Yet some memories are selectively invoked: the freedom struggle in the area,for example, is a favourite theme for the elders to talk about. They recount and admonish their children to remember the tales they heard from their parents, tales of how the gora platoon literally, white troops did not enter Farrukhnagar for six months during the 1857 revolt for fear of public reprisals, how their nawab, Ahmad Ali Khan, offered money and ammunition to Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi, and how he was eventually humbled by the British.

They narrate, in a genre that is fast disappearing in most places, how the British troops, having defeated the last Mughal emperor, marched into Farrukhnagar through the Lal Darwaza, a structure that is still intact, killed people, plundered the town, and arrested the beleaguered nawab. To create the image of a popular hero and lend substance to the anti-colonial rhe-toric, they tell you how the nawab was handcuffed and made to walk all the way to Delhi, a distance of over 60 miles. Elements of drama, pa-thos and tragedy are an integral part in thisdescription.

The story goes on with the nawab, a victim of British the term always used is gora machinations, reaching the capital on a hot and sultry day and his execution, along with Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh and the chief of Jhajjar. The 73-year-old Daniel Masi, a Dalit Christian who has pictures of B.R. Ambedkar plastered on his wall, had tears when he described the nawab8217;s martyrdom from a Hindi text entitled, Bhule-bisre Shaheed The Forgotten Martyrs Ahmad Ali Khan.

Is Ahmad Ali Khan, then, as popular a local hero as the Rani of Jhansi in Bundel-khand, or Kunwar Singh, the father of Bhojpuris8217;? The answer is, no. People refer to his courage and patriotic fervour, but no folk songs are associated with him. Oddly enough, his memory is kept alive through the various public events where local netas Farrukhnagar is a segment of Pataudi assembly constituency dwell on the glorious past of their town and highlight its contribution to the independence struggle.

This is how the localroots of nationalism are unravelled to the students, many of whom only read about the 1857 revolt in Delhi, Meerut and Kanpur and not elsewhere. This is how they get acquainted with their own pantheon of freedom fighters. The nawab is among them. So is Rani of Jhansi. To make this point, a young graduate recited this to me:
How valiantly like a man fought she,/ the Rani of Jhansi!
On every parapet a gun she set,/ Raining fire of hell,
How well like a man fought the Rani of Jhansi,/ How valiantly and well!

Partition memories are also fresh, particularly among the surviving descendants of the 850 Punjabi migrants who had joined the trek to India from as faraway places as Dera Ghazi Khan. The families, living in well-demarcated Punjabi mohallas, prospered after independence.

Quite a few moved out of Far-rukhnagar in search of greener pastures. But the elders, who now live in the shadow of the past, nurse bitter memories of their dispossession and displacement. This is understandable. Sittingunder the shadow of a pipal tree, a 75-year old lady from Mianwali told me, 8220;Dharti ne paani chor diya.8221; An English translation can hardly convey the agony and intensity of the feelings that are summed up in these five words. Believe me, this is perhaps the most telling comment on Partition violence I have read or heard for quite a while.