Progressive146;s nostalgia

Old bells, long lost, are ringing once again. And I get back to the forties when the Progressive Writers8217; Association PWA was at its ...

Old bells, long lost, are ringing once again. And I get back to the forties when the Progressive Writers8217; Association PWA was at its peak. And India was shining as it was shining till the other day, of course, not in the places of the rich, but in the huts of the poor or on their footpaths. Writers and poets of those days were presenting a kaleidoscopic picture of what was what. Adabi Duniya Literary World, Adab-e-Latif Fine Literature, Saqi and several other magazines were treasure-troves. Krishen Chander8217;s Ann Data depicted a gala party of millionaires in Calcutta, beggars waiting outside for the left-overs. N.M. Rashid said to his beloved in a poem, as he returned home late one night, dead drunk, 8216;8216;You should be grateful that I have drunk wine only, not the blood of the poor.8217;8217;

The man who stirs emotions the most right now is not Faiz Ahmed Faiz nor Kaifi Azmi. Nor is it Sajjad Zaheer who wrote his forgotten history of the PWA from jails in Pakistan. Rather, it is Saadat Hasan Manto whose Black Margins I have just purchased. Everything that is there in the book I had gone through a long time back. Recalling old masters is forgivable. I re-read Khol Dowhere a Muslim refugee girl from India is raped by razakars in a refugee camp in Pakistan and is given up as dead.

But what holds me and provokes me is Toba Tek Singh. Two years after India and Pakistan became free countries, their rulers decided that since everything else had been divided, the lunatics on both sides should also go to where they ought to be. There is a Muslim lunatic who climbs a tree. Asked to come down, he says, 8216;8216;I want to live in neither Hindustan nor Pakistan. I would rather live on this tree.8217;8217; There is a lawyer who is to be sent to Amritsar. He refuses to go there. His practice might not click in Amritsar.

The most poignant case is that of Bishen Singh. He wants to know from an official, 8216;8216;Where is Toba Tek Singh?8217;8217; The official replies, 8216;8216;It is in Pakistan.8217;8217; 8216;8216;If it is in Pakistan,8217;8217; asks Bishen Singh, 8216;8216;then why am I being shunted to Hindustan? I belong to Toba Tek Singh and Toba Tek Singh continues to be where it was.8217;8217; He runs away, stands on a rail-track, and dies there, half his body this side, half that.

What instigates the bells to ring again? Well, it is the name of the funny conglomeration that has taken over in Delhi 8212; United Progressive Alliance. Diverse, lots of history-sheeters, some at loggerheads in the states, united in Delhi, the world Progressive is ominous. Best of luck to all concerned. One hopes they don8217;t wither away like the PWA.