‘In the Time of the Others’ by Nadeem Zaman: A good documentation of the Bangladesh Liberation War

The characters are weak, but the historical analysis is worthwhile

Turbulent Indian army men outside Darsana railway station, 1971.

Even before I opened the novel, I stumbled on its name: what did it convey, this title with its unwieldy repetition of the definite article and the academic-sounding “others”? Dismissing the feeling as unwarranted fastidiousness, I started reading and was quite drawn in for the first two chapters — it is 1971 and the person who seems to be the protagonist, Imtiaz, has just reached Dhaka from his native Chittagong.

The year and the setting give us an inkling of what is to come — 1971 is, of course, the year of the Liberation War in the then East Pakistan that eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1972 following months of butchering of Bengali civilians, students, nationalists and the intelligentsia by the military junta of West Pakistan. When we step into Dhaka with Imtiaz, the curfew is already on and the air is seething with discontent against the army.

Missing inner lives

In the Time of the Others is part of Nadeem Zaman’s two-part PhD dissertation on the creation of Bangladesh after its liberation from Pakistan. Herein lies the problem: the novel remains more of a thesis than a work of fiction in its own right. And this is not because there is overmuch of history but because the characters are merely pegs holding the events in place. They are undercooked, having little or no inner lives, which could have made them reflect on history as it happened.

Imtiaz is the character linking the rest and hence comes closest to being the protagonist. And yet throughout the novel he displays just one trait — indecisiveness, which is, to give it to him, partly a result of the circumstances he gets entangled in unwittingly. The rest of the cast too is assigned specific features that they display faithfully at all times.

Imtiaz’s uncle and aunt, for instance, are the model old-world people with golden hearts who are baffled by the injustice and do their bit when the time comes; the ragtag bunch of students who make up the Mukti Bagini are, what else, rebellious, idealistic, hot-headed; the ancient servants are loyal; on the enemy camp, Captain Shaukat is the conscientious soldier while his immediate superior, Shahbaz, is the ruthless soldier; the American couple, Walter and Helen, are just that, Americans — trying to play saviours and bungling it all up.

Human folly

The only remarkable exception is Suleiman Mubarak, a Bihari Muslim judge, who is actually shown thinking through what is happening around him while the others passively role-play. Since he is Bihari, his support to the cause of Bangla nationalism is looked upon with suspicion by the freedom-fighters and the junta alike. His marginality gives him freedom to ponder the meaning of freedom, which nobody else can, caught up as they are in strong sentiments. “Country. Patriotism. Nationalism. They all amounted to mere human folly in the end. Not freedom. More shackles. Deepened fractures. Judge Mubarak covered his face for fear that his cook would re-enter [his room] and find it streaked with tears.”

Another character who gives a glimpse of a thinking self is Imtiaz’s little daughter, Tina. While her father sits like a dummy, she observes and questions, and in this, she represents the promise of the soon-to-be-free country.

Some of Zaman’s descriptions are deeply affecting too, chiefly because he keeps it to the bare minimum. The students of Dhaka University being bundled up and killed point-blank in their dormitories; mountains of bodies being thrown into freshly-dug pits; carrion birds circling over the streets of Dhaka; women being raped en masse in village huts — all this gives an idea of the horror of the war of which much remains still undocumented because of state censorship.

Unfortunately, the lucidity is not uniform. In fact, much of the time there is an opacity to the language (prefigured in the title?) which can leave you baffled. The novel could have done with a better editor, to excise strange phrases like “his neck barking spasms”.

Zaman’s dissertation has a second part (available online) where he explains the theoretical underpinnings of the historical events. It was only after I read it that things from the novel began to fall into place. It is recommended reading for anyone who wants to understand a nation whose conflicted past continues to shape its present-day politics.

anusua.m@thehindu.co.in

In the Time of the Others; Nadeem Zaman, Picador, ₹599