The Begum

by Deepa Agarwal

  To this day in our country, mixed marriages evoke hostility. In those far more conservative times, only a woman who possessed extraordinary courage could dare to flout convention. Perhaps, Irene had something of her grandfather, Taradutt Pant, in her. Like him, she refused to be shackled by her past, stepped fearlessly out of her comfort zone and embraced a new way of life with zest.

  They were indeed a couple far above the ordinary. Liaquat Ali had been born into an extremely wealthy and aristocratic family and could have led a life of leisure. But instead he chose to shoulder the task of wresting freedom for the country from a powerful colonial ruler besides working tirelessly for the rights of his community.

  In the interview quoted above, when asked ‘What did you love best about him?’ Begum Ra’ana replied, ‘His simplicity and honesty.’5 Ra’ana cherished the sincerity of the man she had chosen as a life partner because she was also a person who would never abandon the ideals precious to her. Public service was one. Her motto was to contribute whatever she could to improve the lot of the less privileged. From her childhood, Ra’ana’s heart had gone out to the deprived and suffering. As her nephew Captain Jitendra Pant stated in his tribute at her funeral, ‘ . . . as a small girl of ten she was her mother’s constant companion when both mother and daughter walked great distances visiting the sick, the jail inmates, patients in hospital, writing letters, settling family disputes. She trudged with her mother carrying food for the two and a lantern, and the food always got distributed to the needy children. She was called the little nightingale (Bulbul) and an angel by the hill folks.’6

  This did not mean, however, that the newly-weds lived like ascetics, rejecting the pleasures life had to offer. And the fledgling city of New Delhi had many possibilities for a young couple.

  When the Emperor George V graced the Delhi Durbar in December 1911, along with his consort Queen Mary, he laid the foundation stone of a grand new city. The British had decided to shift their capital from Calcutta to Delhi, which had been the seat of many empires from ancient times. Its location in the north made it more suitable as a centre for administration. Planned by leading British architects Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the city would spread out in a wide, open vista, very unlike the old city with its narrow winding lanes that led to massive, enclosed havelis and congested bazaars.

  The city of New Delhi was formally inaugurated in 1931, just two years before Ra’ana and Liaquat Ali got married. The royalty and aristocracy had begun to construct mansions on the wide tree-lined streets of Lutyens’ Delhi, the centre of the city and the seat of power. Liaquat Ali built a lovely house for his bride on Hardinge Avenue—number 8B (now Tilak Marg) and named it Gul-i-Ra’ana after her. They made it a happy place, full of laughter and music, but it was also a hub of intense political activity. They often entertained—their hospitality was legendary, in fact. Liaquat Ali had studied music—he was a good singer and played the piano and the tabla. Ra’ana too played the piano and the guitar which meant that their guests were regaled not only by soulful ghazals but also popular English songs at their dinner parties. Both husband and wife liked to play bridge. He was fond of chess too and Ra’ana was a whizz at Scrabble as well, it has been mentioned.

  Most of their time, however, was taken up by the hectic political activity that was an essential part of Liaquat’s life and had now become a part of Ra’ana’s too.

  Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a frequent guest at their house. Jinnah was by then a veteran of the freedom movement and had been participating in the struggle for self-rule for a long time. He had been an active player along with Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak when they set up the All India Home Rule League in 1916. Jinnah was a member of both the Congress and the Muslim League, though he joined the League in 1913, several years after he joined the Congress. He played a crucial role in the framing of the Lucknow Pact as the leader of Muslims, when both parties met in Lucknow to discuss putting pressure on the British to allow Indians a more decisive role in governing their own country. This was an agreement made between the Congress and the League regarding the composition of the legislatures and the quantum of representation to be allowed to the two communities. The agreement was confirmed by both the Congress and the League in their annual sessions held at Lucknow on 29 and 31 December 1916.

  Jinnah had been confirmed as the permanent president of the Muslim League at the sessions of 1927 and 1928, though as a champion of Hindu–Muslim unity, he continued to attend the Congress sessions. After Gandhi’s influence began to grow, however, Jinnah and he diverged on several issues. This eventually led to Jinnah’s withdrawal from the Congress.

  Gandhi’s support to the Khilafat Movement was one such issue. Subsequent to World War I, this initiative to provide support to the Ottoman emperor had become a common cause against the British. This movement managed to maintain Hindu–Muslim unity for some years. While Gandhi backed it, a staunchly secular Jinnah was against it. He also opposed the satyagraha movement which he termed ‘political anarchy’. This led to growing hostility against Jinnah and he was shouted down at the 1920 Nagpur session of the Congress, though he did not leave the party immediately.

  In 1928, when both the Congress and the Muslim League decided to oppose the Simon Commission, some members of the League did not support Jinnah and made a plan to welcome it instead. Liaquat Ali was one of those who stood by the leader. The same year, when the secretary of state, Lord Frederick Smith Birkenhead, challenged the Indians to frame their own proposals for constitutional reform, the Congress came up with the Nehru Report. It was prepared by a committee of the All Parties Conference chaired by Motilal Nehru, with his son Jawaharlal Nehru acting as the secretary. There were nine other members in this committee, including two Muslims. The final report was signed by Motilal Nehru, Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, M.S. Aney, Mangal Singh, Shoaib Qureshi, Subhash Chandra Bose and G.R. Pradhan. Shoaib Qureshi disagreed with some of the recommendations, and most of the leaders of the League rejected the Nehru Report because its proposals contradicted the Lucknow Pact which had given acceptable electoral weightage to the Muslims. This was when Jinnah made his final break with the Congress and countered with his Fourteen Points in 1929; these became the main conditions for Muslim support to an independent united India.

  The British had all along exploited the differences between the two communities. Now the freedom struggle was getting bogged down in the three-pronged conflict between the Congress, Muslim League and the British. Within the League itself, the personal and class interests of the leading members were weakening the party. For this reason, Jinnah was becoming more and more disillusioned with the cause for independence. The death of his beautiful young wife Ruttie in February 1929 came as a devastating shock. But he set his personal tragedy aside to prepare for the Muslim League meeting in Delhi in early March where he presented his Fourteen Points. However, the session ended in chaotic argument without any decision being reached. There was further disappointment when the first two Round Table Conferences, proposed by the new Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald and held in England, did not produce any tangible results. Jinnah went into voluntary exile in the UK from 1930 onwards, pursuing a successful legal practice there and living with his younger sister Fatima Jinnah, while his daughter Dina was admitted to boarding school.

  When Jinnah withdrew, disenchanted, Sir Muhammad Iqbal took hold of the reins of the League. He was the one who put forward the Two Nation Theory in 1930 at the All India Muslim League Annual Session, though he did not actually advocate a separate state, only suggested that Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan be amalgamated into a single Muslim state within India. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim state seemed to be the best option for the Muslims, at least of north-west India. In 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali proposed the name ‘Pakistan’ for this Muslim state, in a pamphlet. He explained that ‘Pakistan’ was both a Persian and
an Urdu word and was composed of letters taken from the names of all our South Asia homelands; that is, Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. It meant ‘the land of the pure’.

  This was fuelled by the apprehension among some leaders of the Muslim community that they would not receive fair treatment in a united India. However, they acutely felt the absence of a strong and charismatic leader, who would be able to unite the disparate elements in the party and bring their cause to fruition. Jinnah was still the titular head of the League, and the only person who could fill this role effectively. But since he had chosen to move to distant England, he could hardly play any decisive role in its affairs.

  In 1933, Liaquat Ali Khan had to give testimony before the Joint Statutory Commission in London.7 Since this was shortly after his wedding, he decided to take his bride to England on a honeymoon. Some of his Muslim League colleagues suggested that he meet Jinnah and try to persuade him to return.

  Liaquat agreed and gave this meeting top priority in his plans. This honeymoon trip turned out to be an important milestone in the fortunes of the Muslim League, and Liaquat’s young wife played a significant role in it.

  Ra’ana’s vivid account of their meeting with Jinnah has been extensively quoted. ‘Liaquat and I arrived in London and we met Jinnah at a reception. Liaquat immediately began his appeal to Jinnah to return. I remember his saying, “They need someone who is unpurchasable.” It was a word my husband liked. And it was true; Jinnah was unpurchasable. He listened but did not answer at first. He talked of his life in England, and of his contentment at Hampstead. But Liaquat was not to be denied. He said, “You must come back. The people need you. You alone can put new life into the League and save it.”’

  These words must have had some effect because Jinnah invited the newly-weds to dinner at his house at Hampstead.

  To quote Ra’ana again: ‘It was a lovely evening, and his big house with trees, apple trees, I seem to remember. And Miss Fatima Jinnah, attending to all his comforts. I felt that nothing could move him out of that security.

  ‘After dinner, Liaquat repeated his plea that the Muslims wanted Jinnah and needed him.’

  Young Ra’ana added her voice to her husband’s: ‘I had hero-worshipped Mr Jinnah for a long time. I chirped in, “And I will make the women work for you, and I’ll bring them back into the fold.” He smiled at me and said: “You are young, you do not know the women; you do not know the world.” But he listened to Liaquat, and in the end he said, “You go back and survey the situation, test the feelings of all parts of the country. I trust your judgement. If you say, ‘Come back’ I will give up my life here and return.”’

  These words buoyed Liaquat Ali Khan up immensely. ‘Liaquat was a very happy man as we drove back to London,’ Ra’ana shared. ‘We sailed for India, and for some months, my husband devoted every day to his journeys and inquiries. You know, he was the most thorough man I have ever known. He amassed his evidence—talked to a hundred people and only when he was convinced, he wrote to Jinnah and said, “Come.”’8

  This episode provides a deep insight not only into Ra’ana’s spontaneous and proactive temperament, but also into her commitment to her husband. Jinnah might have gently reminded her that she was young and did not know the world, but later, he too would discover that once her mind was made up, she was tenacious enough to persist till she had accomplished her goals. Not only during the freedom struggle, but her work with the refugees after Partition provides ample evidence of this ability—when she was able to persuade cloistered Muslim women to come out of their homes and contribute to the relief work.

  7

  The Long Road to Pakistan

  Jinnah returned to India in 1935 after selling his house in Hampstead in north London, and the situation changed dramatically. Liaquat began to be lauded for his noteworthy contribution to the fortunes of the League—he had persuaded the reluctant leader to come back to head the struggle.

  Jinnah too recognized that Liaquat Ali possessed immense potential as a leader of the Muslim League. With his passionate commitment, he would be an invaluable asset in steering the party to its cherished goal. The younger man began to grow closer to Jinnah and would soon be identified as his lieutenant.

  For Ra’ana, life acquired an increasingly hectic pace as the two men flung themselves into the challenging task of revitalizing the League, as well as negotiating with the Congress and the British for a better deal for the Muslim community. There were meetings, discussions and debates and a great deal of travelling, which meant that Ra’ana was on her own quite often. However, she attended to the League’s correspondence during her husband’s absence, and her old friend Kay Miles kept her company. And later, with the birth of her two sons, her routine became even more packed.

  Jinnah owned a house in Bombay but his work often required his presence in Delhi. Till he purchased one in the city, located on Aurangzeb Road (now APJ Abdul Kalam Marg), he and his sister Fatima were often guests at Gul-i-Ra’ana. Needless to say, Ra’ana, with her outgoing nature and her welcoming ways, was the perfect hostess. These qualities would go a long way in ensuring her husband’s political future. Recalling Jinnah’s tastes in food, she noted in an undated memo, quoted by Liaquat Ali’s biographer, Mohammad Reza Kazimi, ‘He was very fond of an oriental fruit called guava—he swore it purified the blood. Whenever he stayed with us, I made it a point of having guavas in the house.’1

  This consideration for others comes through in another incident shared by her nephew Jitendra Pant, when he had come to Delhi to meet her in 1978 at her sister’s, Meera Sawhney’s, place. ‘I was in the army and posted in Meerut,’ he said. ‘When I was leaving, Aunty Ra’ana insisted they pack some sandwiches for me.’

  While Jinnah was often described as cold and distant, his biographer, Hector Bolitho, shares an incident that demonstrates the closeness he shared with the Khans. ‘Once, at the close of a rubber of bridge, Liaquat Ali Khan dared to speak to his leader, of his [Jinnah’s] loneliness. Jinnah smiled at Begum Liaquat and said, “Yes, I might have married again, if I could have found another Ra’ana.”’2

  On the self-rule front, matters were making some progress but not to the satisfaction of the Indians. The Government of India Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1935 and though it received half-hearted support from some members of the Congress who considered it the only alternative, it was a bitter disappointment to most of the leaders. Nehru was extremely critical of the act and Jinnah rejected it outright.

  The same year, which was the silver jubilee of King George V, Ra’ana’s mother, Annie Pant, was honoured with a sanad (a certificate of recognition for meritorious services) from the governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh ‘in recognition of meritorious public service’. It was a proud moment for the family. Very few women in those times could boast of such awards. In December 1946, Annie would be presented with another certificate from the commissioner of Kumaon.

  Daniel Pant too had received the title of Rai Sahib for meritorious service in 1934, considered a great honour during the British Raj.

  Later, Ra’ana too would receive numerous awards for her contributions to different causes. Like her mother, she too responded instinctively to the need of the hour. When she was busy providing succour to those who needed it, awards and honours never crossed her mind.

  An old neighbour of the Pant family, Prema Joshi, who lived next door in Bishtakura in Almora, shared an anecdote that demonstrates Ra’ana’s compassionate side. Sometime after she got married, Kishan Singh, a very old servant of the family, who had actually fed ‘Irene baba’ as a child, approached her for help. His son had gone missing in Bombay. Ra’ana not only used her resources to trace his son but also presented Kishan Singh with a bicycle. It must have warmed her heart to provide succour to an old acquaintance, because her parents never visited her in Delhi. All the same, the fact that one of the Pant girls had married a prominent political personality kept the gossip mill churning in Ra’a
na’s home town, and there was constant speculation about whether Liaquat Ali would come to pay his respects to his parents-in-law.

  For Ra’ana, life was proceeding as smoothly as it could in those tumultuous times. She would find great satisfaction in the fact that her husband was steadily climbing the political ladder. His constant endeavour to further the aims of the League was recognized and he was chosen for a position of greater responsibility. Liaquat was appointed honorary secretary of the Muslim League in 1936. Jinnah had proposed his name and he was unanimously elected. This increased his workload further and here is where Ra’ana made an immense contribution. ‘ . . . she worked silently with him for the League, and learned to type in order to help him in his work and correspondence. The League in those days was poor, and funds were not available, or could not be spared for a regular office set-up. In point of fact, she constituted herself his secretary, and the burden of the office routine and work was managed by her husband, herself and a loyal, self-sacrificing old Leaguer, who received a purely nominal wage for his work.’3

  Every year, during summer, Liaquat Ali and Ra’ana would move to Simla or Mussoorie to escape the overpowering heat in Delhi. They were staying in Cecil Hotel in Simla when their first child Ashraf Liaquat was born on 3 October 1937. Liaquat had left for England on 22 May, after visiting Jinnah in Bombay. He was to serve on the Indo-British Trade Commission formed for the purpose of drawing up a new agreement to replace the 1932 Ottawa agreement. The discussions were to carry on till September, which meant that he was able to spend just a short time with his newborn son and wife before leaving for Lucknow to attend the All-India Muslim League session.4