An Indian revolutionary in Edinburgh

Mohammad Ali Baig will premier his play 1857: Turrebaz Khan at this year’s Fringe Festival

August 04, 2016 12:00 am | Updated 05:45 am IST

Mohammad Ali Baig in Hyderabad—File Photo

Mohammad Ali Baig in Hyderabad—File Photo

Already recognised as one of India’s best known theatre personalities and India’s youngest Padma awardee in theatre, playwright-director-actor Mohammad Ali Baig has received multiple national and global honours and awards. This time, his well-known play Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada and his new production 1857: Turrebaz Khan have been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016, and will be staged in the first week of August. While Quli… has already seen several productions across the world, Turrebaz Khan will be premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before travelling to London and returning to Hyderabad.

Tell us about your new play and its central character.

Turrebaz Khan was a heroic figure in Deccan history, known for his valour and courage. There is a slang in Hyderabad folklore, a positive one, ‘Turram Khan’. When you call someone that, you are calling him heroic. That comes from Turrebaz Khan’s name. He was a revolutionary figure and a freedom fighter who revolted against the rule of the fourth Nizam of Hyderabad and the British. He attacked the British residency, which now houses the women’s college in Koti, Hyderabad, to free his comrade who was detained on charges of treachery without a fair trial.

He was caught and detained, but even the jail he was in couldn’t hold him. After a year, he escaped, only to be caught in the forests of Toopran, near Hyderabad. The man who caught him, Qurban Ali Baig, was the talukdar there. Turrebaz Khan was kept in captivity, then shot. His body was hanged in the city centre to prevent further rebellion. That is his story.

When you read about 1857, places like Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow, Jhansi and Mysore are mentioned, but Hyderabad isn’t. This is because the Nizams were allies of the British, and there was no reason to fight. But with Turrebaz Khan, there came a brief period when Hyderabad joined the struggle, the uprising.

Does the play follow Turrebaz Khan’s life?

No. The structure of the play is very interesting, actually. It follows the last one hour of his life in captivity, and that one hour is also the duration of the play. It shows the difference between the man who has been captured, and his captor Ali Baig. They are both sons of the same soil, are of the same colour, but they stand on opposite sides. Ali Baig has allied with the British. He is a man privileged in more ways than one, and he has no problem with who his allies are: Indians, British, French. His life is about his own family and prosperity. From his point of view, Turrebaz is ‘naïve’ and immature. For Turrebaz, Ali Baig has a self-serving agenda.

How does the play deal with this clear difference?

There are two people: one placating the system, another going against it in the name of his motherland. Neither is shown as the villain. Both are victims of their situation.

The play is about discrimination and oppression, two issues that are relevant anywhere in the world. It can be discrimination of blacks by whites, of haves and have-nots, east and west. The play presents both sides of the story out by bringing out both characters.

There is very interesting wordplay between the two, philosophical debates which explore different sides of the story. At one point, Ali Baig says to Turrebaz, “You talk about leaving your home to fight for your motherland, but what about your own mother at home? What about your aging father, who needs you? Before you, there have been so many others who tried to revolt against the British Empire, and look what happened to them.”

To this, Turrebaz replies that his motherland is more important to him than his mother; that if he is killed, the world will remember him. No one will remember Qurban Ali Baig.

There are many such debates between the two characters and the play is an intense drama. I’ve used live percussion including marfa and dhol to complement the dialogues.

The research must have been challenging. Do you supplement it with a lot of fiction?

A lot of research went into this play. It is definitely a challenge, because you can’t fictionalise plays like these too much. You have to pay due respect and maintain sanctity, when you portray these historical figures, since there is no one around to correct the errors. Forget political correctness, you have the responsibility of not putting them in a light that is not morally and ethically right. You can’t sit in judgement. For this play, we have picked aspects of the story that are relevant to today’s global scenario, since it has to make sense to lot of audience everywhere.

My wife, Noor, who is also the co-playwright, has done most of the research, and a lot of it is also based on research by authorities who have written on Turrebaz.

How has the response been?

If you take Quli… , which is the legendary love story on which Hyderabad is supposed to have been founded, or Spaces , which is about the thought of sticking to your home and heritage, and about traditionalism versus modernism. Both could be about people and lives anywhere in the world. We don’t stick to judgement; we don’t say who is right and who is wrong. Our purpose is to bring out an issue, and let the audience decide.

I’ve taken these plays to English, Turkish, Romanian, Bosnian, Iranian and American audiences. Spaces moves them to tears; many of them come backstage and tell me that this is their story. Quli… too sees the audience connecting to it. When they are moved, it moves me as a playwright. It shows me that the kind of theatre I believe in is working, that despite the barrier of language and context, people can connect with these plays. I hope that 1857: Turrebaz Khan will do the same.

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