Chapter 7
As many people come from out of town for the Durbar, many of Mir Nihal’s relatives are also arriving for Asghar’s marriage. While the adults are largely united in disapproval of the Durbar, the children are excited by all the commotion. A few of the locals, whose businesses are benefitting from the upcoming ceremony have a discussion about the Durbar and British colonialism in general. Some of them feel that they will benefit from Delhi becoming India’s capital, and thus have the British to thank for bringing them prosperity. Others feel that, while they may be prospering in the moment, they cannot trust the British in the long run, considering how they looted Delhi, and how they cast out Bahadur Shah and killed his sons. The younger people who cannot remember the Siege of Delhi in 1857, when the Mughal Empire fell, are excited to see a real king—they have only heard about kings from before their time. But those who were alive at the time, and lost relatives to the British Army, curse the invaders.
News comes that one of the royal pavilions has burned down. Mir Nihal and Habibuddin are happy to hear this, and Begam Nihal says it is God’s vengeance for how the British had treated India.
Just before the Durbar, the beggar Gul Bano comes by Mir Nihal’s house. She is one of the surviving descendants of Bahadur Shah; when the Siege occurred, she was seven, and managed to escape with her mother. Rather than begging directly, she sings poems Bahadur Shah had written in his banishment, and which were then banned by the British. Mehro asks her if the preparations for the Durbar compare to the royalty of her time. She takes offense to the comment, reminding her that though they have been made poor by the British, they still have self-respect. Mehro apologizes, telling her she genuinely wanted to know the answer. But she continues to lament the state to which she has been reduced, and begins to cry. Begam Nihal offers some food, and she accepts. She begins to sing one of Bahadur Shah’s poems about the brutality of the British and how they ruined Delhi. The women of the household all begin to cry, and Gul Bano is unable to finish the song as she begins to sob.
Mir Nihal, Habibuddin, and Kambal Shah offer different theories as to why the Mughal Empire fell to the British. Mir Nihal feels it was due to Zinat Mahal, Bahadur Shah’s second wife, who collaborated with the British in hopes of having her son ascend to the throne. Habibuddin counters that it was the fault of the princes who did not listen to Bakht Khan, Bahadur Shah’s Lord Governor, when it came to military strategy. Kambal Shah says that before all this, the elders of Bahadur Shah had made the mistake of separating Hazrat Mahboob Elahi and Hazrat Amir Khusro, whose love was so strong that Hazrat Mahboob Elahi had said they would have been buried together if Islamic law had allowed it, by burying Mohammad Shah between them. Mir Nihal and Habibuddin are moved by this explanation, and view Kambal Shah as a great divine.
Chapter 8
It is the day of the Durbar, and Mir Nihal’s sons persuade him to attend the ceremony with them, though he is reluctant. They all dress in their finest clothes, and proceed to the Jama Masjid, where many are already taking their seats. There’s a huge crowd, and the area is surrounded by policemen and British troops, or Tommies.
The King is announced by a salute of gunfire, but while the crowd gets excited, they are largely unable to distinguish between the King and other British officials. Mir Nihal is disgusted by how some of the lower Indian officials, who follow behind the King, have the accepted the reign of the foreigners, or Farangis, and reflects on how this is the same Delhi, and the same mosque, in which Indian kings once ruled.
He remembers how, in 1857 when he was ten years old, he observed thousands of Muslims gathering in the Jama Masjid, as news came that Sir Thomas Metcalfe and his army were planning an attack on the mosque. One man gave a speech rallying the others to fight back against the army; though they only had swords, while the British were armed with rifles, they were willing to die fighting for their people and their religion. They met Metcalfe’s army at the Northern Gate, and fought nobly, though outnumbered, eventually forcing a momentary retreat.
He compares the fierce spirit of resistance displayed by those men with the awed and excited masses of Delhi today, and feels saddened and enraged. Soon Habibuddin’s young son, Nasim, begins to cry, missing his mother, and Mir Nihal comforts him, telling him that one day he will be brave and fight back against the invaders of their country. Mir Nihal can no longer stand to be among the ignorant crowds any longer, and leaves. On his way home, he encounters another beggar who is a descendant of the last Mughal emperor. He offers him money, and asks if he has seen the royal procession. The beggar answers that such things are no longer for them now, since they are now poor and have no place on Earth. He begins to cry, and Mir Nihal feels that he might too before they part ways.
Analysis
These chapters, concerning the ceremonial coronation of the new British king in Delhi, at first appears to be a departure from the conflicts seen earlier in the novel, with the younger Asghar clashing with his father Mir Nihal. However, the commotion prior to the Durbar further displays the generational divide between those who were alive or born just after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and those too young to remember the brutality of the British during that time. However, age is not the only factor in determining whether a citizen of Delhi is pro or anti-British. As the discussion between the business owners shows, economics can also influence one's opinions on the Farangis. Those who feel they stand to benefit financially from the colonial rule are able to more easily dismiss concerns such as the loss of resources that the British take from them in the longterm, or less tangible but equally as significant concerns like loss of national identity.
But, if money can divide the citizens of Delhi when it comes to their opinions of the British, the colonial rule of the British can also unite Indians typically divided along class lines. The scene in which Gul Bano visits Mir Nihal's household shows how the trauma surrounding the British takeover of Delhi in 1857 brings together an upper class family and a beggar. Similarly, as he leaves the Durbar, disgusted with the crowd's awed reaction to the procession of the Farangis, Mir Nihal, a fairly wealthy man, again finds kinship with a beggar, also a descendant of Bahadur Shah. They have more in common with each other, at least on that day, than Mir Nihal does with the more well-off attendees of the Durbar, fawning at foreign royalty.
Still, even for those who hate the Farangis, and the world which they're colonization of India is bringing about, it is difficult to accept the fate which has befallen their country without resorting to superstitious or divine explanations for their plight. Mir Nihal, Habibuddin, and Kambal Shah's discussion of the fall of the Mughal Empire reveals how those in Delhi come to terms with the loss of their national identity by internalizing the actions of British and blaming the relatively insignificant actions of their own people. In all three of their explanations, one sees how they are unable to imagine how such a great empire could fall without some fatal mistake having been made, or some betrayal having occurred. This perspective ties into the themes of masculinity; if the Mughal Empire at its height is characterized by typically male attributes, namely strength, then its fall could not have simply been a matter of being overpowered by another nation. Indeed, Mir Nihal even blames a woman, Bahadur Shah's second wife, for the empire's fall, a telling sign of how he views the current state of India.
This theme of masculinity is also apparent when Mir Nihal compares the behavior of the crowds at the Durbar with the men he observed take on Metcalfe's army in 1857. He compares their strength and courage with the passiveness and submissiveness of the awed masses. It is a contrast that seems similar to the ones made between Mir Nihal and Asghar in earlier chapters, with Mir Nihal's assertive, sometimes violent nature compared to Asghar's more timid manner. Thus, one can make a connection between Mir Nihal's displeasure with his son breaking tradition and his displeasure with the reaction of the people at the Durbar. In both cases, Mir Nihal is troubled by his society and culture changing around him, with the world he grew up in disappearing while another one, influenced by British invaders, takes its place.
