Hind 1957: expresses the state of mind of Muslims after Partition

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa | Date 18-01-2025
Tabrez and his wife - a scene from the play Hind 1957
Tabrez and his wife - a scene from the play Hind 1957

 

Avinash Kolhe

Ten years after the partition of the country, Indians of all castes and religions have the right of adult franchise and they have voted to choose their government. The plot of the play ‘Hind 1957’ is unfolding in this era.

Director Feroz Abbas Khan portrays the story of a poor Muslim family who remained in India after Partition. It's an adaptation of the play 'Fences' The story ahas been adapted beautifully in the Indian context making the audiences leave the theater with a reflective mind.

India got independence but at the cost of partition. On 24 March 1940, the Muslim League convention in Lahore demanded an 'independent Pakistan' and on 14 August 1947, Pakistan was formed. Hindus and Muslims were described as separate quom and separate nations who could not live together.

Jinnah's propaganda turned Pakistan into reality and yet it left millions of ordinary Hindus and Muslims, who had been living together for centuries in villages in India, clueless about their equation.

After the formation of Pakistan, thousands of Hindus moved to India and many Muslims to Pakistan. However, it didn't mean that there are no Hindus left in Pakistan or no Muslims in India.

A Scene from the play Hind: 1957

According to the 2023 census, in Pakistan, there are about 52 lakh Hindus. According to the 2021 data of India, there are about 20 crore Muslims in India. This data is important ion and statistics is the thought-provoking Hindi play 'Hind 1957' staged in Mumbai.

The year 1957 is a crucial time. It is ten years since the partition of India and seven years since the Constitution of the Republic of India which gave equality and conferred the right to equal opportunities for all Indians, came into force.  The Indian citizens participate in elections under the adult franchise without discriminating based on caste, religion, or language. In such an environment, the story of 'Hind 1957' comes before the audience.

Before discussing the play ‘Hind 1957’, it is necessary to understand its background. This play is based on the play Fences by African-American playwright August Wilson (1945-2005). He is regarded as a respected figure in 20th-century African-American literature. Some experts call him the "poet of African-American theater." He wrote a series of ten plays centered on the experiences of this community, called the Pittsburgh Cycle. The plays Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990) in this series won the Pulitzer Prize.

The sixth play in this series is Fences, which depicts the experiences of poverty and racial discrimination of the African-American community in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.

A Scene from the play Hind: 1957


Fences was the parallel story of a poor Muslim family living in post-Partition India, and in collaboration with Vikas Bahri, he adapted Fences to the Indian context to create a powerful and deeply thought-provoking play.

In Hind 1957, 50-year-old Tabrez Ansari is a labourer working in a bidi factory. His slightly eccentric brother is Guller. Tabrez has a 30-year-old son Latif from his first wife. He has an 18-year-old son from his second wife, Janki. Through these characters, Firoz and Bahri have presented a powerful Hindi play in two acts.

Tabrez, who stayed in India realises that this decision was wrong. The reason for this is that the police often call him for questiooning on the basis of suspicion.Troubled by this, Tabrez curses the government in front of his Hindu friend and wife.

He forces his younger son to take up a job instead of dreaming of joining the army. He says Muslims will not get equal opportunities in India. They will not progress. They will not even be allowed to join the army. This is an important thread of the play, but not the central theme.

The theme of this drama is the injustice done to the Muslim community in India, but the story takes a new turn when Tabrez tells his wife Janki that he unknowingly fell in love with a Muslim woman working in his company. He married her a few months ago, and now the woman is going to be the mother of his child. Hearing this, not only Janki but the audience is also shocked.

Till now in the drama, Tabrez was shown as a poet and a good-hearted person. Despite the problems with the police, he is seen as a person who takes care of his family, but this revelation changes his image.

A Scene from the play Hind: 1957

His younger son also does not listen to him and one day while playing hockey, he runs away from home and joins the army. The elder son and the second wife Janaki rarely speak with him. Slowly, Tabrez becomes lonely in his own house.

Then his third wife dies giving birth to a daughter. Janaki, who has raised the son of the first wife, is now ready to raise this girl. One day Tabrez has a heart attack and dies.

On the death of Tabrez, hundreds of people come to his funeral, but his younger son, who has come on leave from the army, is not ready to perform the last rites for his father. The mother convinces him, and then he joins the burial. Here ends the play, which is full of many sub-plots and emotional twists.

Feroz Khan has directed this play with sensitivity and depth. Sachin Khedekar (Tabrez Ansari) and Sonal Jha (Janaki) have brought life to their characters. Dadhi Pandey, Ankit, Ravi Chahar, and NK Pant have also performed brilliantly. Manish Sappel's stage design and costumes are very impressive. Especially the broken wall, which silently says a lot in many scenes. Amog Phadke's lighting scheme and Piyush Kanojia's music made the play even more effective. Feroz has also used Abhishek Shukla's poems very well.

This play is produced by Platform Theatre Company.  Watching it I remembered the Hindi film 'Garm Hawa' released in 1973. There is a deep similarity between the hardships faced by Mirza played by Balraj Sahni in 'Garm Hawa' and Tabrez of 'Hind 1957'.

Such plays, due to their deep impact, are remembered for a long time.

Author Prof. Avinash Kolhe is a scholar of art and culture, retired professor of political science, and novelist.)




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