HYDERABAD : Bertolt Brecht, the celebrated German playwright and poet wrote in the late 1930s: “In the dark times / Will there be singing? / Yes, there will be singing / About the dark times.”There was fire and blood all around. It was the time of the world War II. These lines have been relevant in several eras and even after eight decades is relevant in India torn with religious divide, organised police brutality and jackboot oppression by those in power. A fierce poem was written in Urdu much earlier than that of Brecht. It was a young poet and revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil, who popularised the lines “sarfaroshi ki tamanna”, written by another poet Bismil Azimabadi of Patna in 1921.
The poem was used as a warcry to join hands against the then British Raj. Unfortunately remembrance of these early freedom fighters has just become a lip-service by the state and the people. However, a poignant dastan narrates the tale of the unprecedented courage of Bismil and his bosom friend Ashfaqulla Khan. Written and narrated by author-storyteller-journalist Himanshu Bajpai of Lucknow, Dastan-E-Tamanna-E-Sarfaroshi was performed at Lamakaan on Saturday and received a standing ovation from the attendees. The two-hour long performance had Saurabh Joshi, an accomplished percussionist on tabla and Vedanth Bharadwaj, a singer-musician gifted with Manna Dey like voice took the audience back in time with vivid narrative which was almost pictorial.
The heart of the tale was the narration of famous Kakori train robbery carrying money which belonged to the then British government ruling India. The revolutionaries looted the huge box containing money on August 9, 1925. “Tay ye hua thha k jaise hii train Kakori station par rukegi, zanjeer kheench kar sarkari khazana loot liya jayega,” narrated Himanshu mixing slight humour with lines that defined the chain in the third class coach as bad as the coach itself and hence the young revolutionaries decided to board the second class coach. Along with Bismil and Ashfaq were other patriots like Roshan Singh, Rajendranath Lahiri, Sachindra Bakshi among others.
The tale has swift movements back and forth in timelines. The subtlety was remarkable as the storyteller, while narrating Ashfaq’s bravery, gently took the audience to his childhood. The young child asked his father, who was a kotwal in Shahjahanpur, to get him an iron sword from the bazaar as he grew up hearing tales of crimes from his father. The dastango came back to the narration telling the important role Ashfaq played in the robbery given his close observation of crime stories. It’s not just the similar ideologies that Bismil and Ashfaq had for Hindustan, it’s was their deep and strong friendship which defied any Hindu- Muslim difference that they are most remembered for. Himanshu added small anecdotes from the lives of the friends.
Once a sick and delirious Ashfaq kept on mumbling: “Hey, Ram!” annoying his family members till his brother understood that he was asking for his friend Ram Prasad Bismil. He was called and Ashfaq opened his eyes. Later, an imprisoned Ashfaq was asked to hire a Muslim advocate which he strongly denied and derided. Later, because of certain loopholes in the robbery, of which Ashfaq had warned Bismil earlier, most the revolutionaries except Chandra Shekhar Azad, were captured and hanged in December 1928.
Himanshu will be performing the dastan through road trips. He holds a PhD and his thesis was on the Nawal Kishore Press of Lucknow, India’s largest printing press of the 20th century which printed Hindia and Urdu classics. It is also known for publishing 46 volumes of dastans. It took him a year of research for Himanshu to finish this dastan. As of now it’s been performed 25 times and February marks its completion of one year. Himanshu signs off, “I have chosen a political protest through this dastan and will continue doing so.” — Saima Afreen saima@newindianexpress .com @Sfreen