A cocktail of history & politics

Delhi is known for its penchant for politics and what more can it ask for when it gets politics with a dose of history — Mughal history.

Pierrot’s Troupe — often called the “purveyors of the original” — recently staged Sons of Babur. A play in English, it is written by politician-writer Salman Khurshid and led and directed by Tom Alter. Originally written in Urdu, the play has been staged in Hindustani as well as in English. And the credit for this goes to Dr Sayeed Alam, the troupe’s main playwright, director and dialogue writer.

The two-hour play begins with Rudranath Sengupta, a student of history in the Delhi University, who is a great admirer of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor. He wants to visit Zafar’s grave for his research work and is trying hard to seek a grant to go to Myanmar.

While hallucinating, he meets Zafar who is living in exile in Rangoon. From here the play gathers momentum as Zafar willingly and happily takes Rudranath on a guided tour of Mughal history.

The play gives an insight into the world of Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. It shows how Mughals were driven by ambition to rule and expand their area of influence. Yet, they were benevolent rulers who gave India a sense of unity.

The play moves back and forth between past and present. So while in one scene we are in the 21st century, in other we are in the second half of the 19th century and in the next scene we are in the age of Babur — early 16th century. One of the turning points, the play emphasises, is somewhere around 1707 — the year Aurangzeb died. This marked the beginning of the end of the Mughal era in India.

Alam says, “The play is relevant as it is divided into modern era where we have a college student from DU. Then you have the period of 1860s, where Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled. And the 16th century, the beginning of Babur’s reign.”

The play features some of the prominent actors of the country. Harsh Chhabra, Vishnu Sharma, Niti Phool, Alam and Tom Alter play the roles of Jehangir, Aurangzeb, Jodha Bai, Babur and Bahadur Shah “Zafar” respectively. Alter adds finesse and flair to the character. His body of work — acting in plays like Bahadur Shah Zafar The Emperor, Lal Qile Ka Aakhri Mushaera, Maulana Azad and Ghalib — adds richness to the character of the Mughal emperor. Alter’s Zafar sits on a charpoy in Rangoon, but he is aware of his royal blood and his manners and actions depict him as a victim of circumstances.

This is also the play where Alter took to direction. “And the credit for this goes to Alam saab who ‘did most of the hard work’,” said Alter.

While most historical plays usually focus or deal with one or two well-known episodes of Mughal history, Sons of Babur gives you a glimpse of entire history. Alam says, “This is a very interesting play as it is supposedly the only play which covers the entire history of the Mughals Also, it is a heady mix of history and contemporary issues.”

After watching the play, one feels that the unity of India, which we all boast about, is in reality, a gift of the Mughals as it is they who united Hindustan. “It is the Mughal consciousness that united India. We inherited this from the Britons, who, in turn, inherited this concept from the Mughals... From Kabul to Kaveri to Kashmir to Kanyakumari, it is the Mughals that united India,” says Alam, whom the troupe fondly addresses as “saab”.

Of particular mention is the scene where Emperor Akbar is getting ready to visit a temple and he removes the turban from his head. Akbar’s minister reminds him that Akbar is a Muslim and he can keep wearing the turban. To this, Akbar replies, “I am a Muslim, but not the ruler of Muslims only.” This goes on to show how aware Akbar was as a ruler. He was conscious of ruling Hindustan and had no intentions of sowing seeds of discontentment.

The play has travelled across India and been performed in Urdu, English and Hindi. The credit for the play’s popularity goes to the actors who show rare maturity in all the three language versions. They seem effortless even when the medium changes from Urdu (which is not their mother tongue) as well as English.

“It is a challenging play as it is difficult to adapt in the English format. All the actors have worked really hard. Everything is done in an artistic way. It is difficult for most of the actors whose mother tongue is not Urdu or English. However, the credit to make the actors perform the tough job goes to Alam saab,” said Alter.

Khurshid’s play is inspiring, especially in the scenes when the politician within takes the centrestage. For example, there’s a scene in the play wherein Jehangir is taking advice from his Prime Minister Asaf ud-Daula. The Prime Minister says, “The door must not be hastily opened where a mere window would suffice.” This particular dialogue received an excited applause from the Delhi audience in view of the ongoing tussle between India and Pakistan.

Sons of Babur is clearly a political play. And Alam saab is all gung-ho about taking it to different cities. “Sons of Babur definitely has more resonance in Delhi as people of the city could identify more strongly with it. But the response from smaller cities like Bhopal, Pune and Ahmedabad is no less encouraging,” Alter said.

Point noted Mr Tom Alter!

Sons of Babur received a standing ovation from the Delhiites as such interesting stories and mature performances keep them interested in history, politics and theatres.