In her thought-provoking 1961 essay, philosopher Hannah Arendt dealt with the “banality of evil” by engaging in conversations with German officers who worked in concentration camps and presided over the killing of Jews. She uncovered a chilling revelation: many of the perpetrators of heinous acts were ‘terrifyingly normal’ men.
In his debut book, City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh, Zeyad Masroor Khan grapples with something similar. He tries to understand the undercurrents of violence between Hindus and Muslims in his hometown of UK (do not confuse it with the United Kingdom) that is Upar Kot near Aligarh where people would bay for each other’s blood during a riot.
Zeyad, author and protagonist, provides a glimpse into the historical backdrop of Aligarh, a city formerly called ‘Kol’ and pivotal in shaping the idea of Pakistan. While Zeyad’s uncles chose migration to Pakistan, his father, Masroor Ahmad Khan, opted to stay in India, placing his faith in Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s assurance of Muslims’ safety in a Hindu-majority nation — an assertion that is gradually unravelling.
The book begins with a terrifying anecdote of a riot in their locality, highlighting the family’s concern for his eldest sister Sayema, who, pregnant at the time, navigates a precarious situation. Eventually, they manage to relocate her to a safer place.
It’s the stories of kindness, the search for small joys amid the chaos, the self-deprecating touch that make this autobiography so heartfelt. Zeyad’s penchant for comics is a recurrent theme, and he ventures into Hindu-dominated areas despite his mother’s stern warnings. This coming-of-age memoir maintains a palpable sense of impending doom in Upar Kot. Through lucid storytelling and an immersive narrative style, the book skilfully navigates the highs and lows of life in a place where communal tensions frequently escalate into devastating conflicts.
Bablu, the hero
One notable incident involves Zeyad accidentally triggering a button in his room, setting off a series of events in Upar Kot. This button, illuminating a bulb outside, serves as a warning to Muslims in Upar Kot about an impending riot. Zeyad is reprimanded for this inadvertent mischief, shedding light on the intricate mechanisms both communities employ to cope with the threat of riots.
These installations in Kolkata depict the Partition of 1947. | Photo Credit: PTI
In another incident, Zeyad is on his school bus when an unforeseen challenge arises. The bus is encircled by a Hindu mob, ensnaring all the Muslim students and a handful of teachers. In this perilous situation, Bablu, who collected the dues of students and assists on the bus, stands like a shield between the mob and the children, saving their lives. His heroic intervention exemplifies those who go above and beyond to preserve sanity amid the complexities of Hindu-Muslim relations.
After the passing of his father, Zeyad enrols for a journalism course at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia. He initially believes that the spectre of riots from Aligarh will not touch Delhi, but is proved wrong in 2020 after the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests.
In this September 1947 photo, hundreds of Muslim refugees crowd on top of a train leaving Delhi for Pakistan. The Partition sparked massive rioting that killed up to one million, while another 15 million fled their homes in one of the world’s largest ever human migrations. | Photo Credit: AP
In the final chapters of the book, Zeyad poses poignant questions that resonate deeply. Do Hindus universally harbour animosity towards Muslims? Are their experiences comparable to those of Muslims? Do they share in the spectrum of human emotions, laughing and crying, experiencing depression, and caring for loved ones? Through introspection, he arrives at a singular answer — ’Yes’. Men and women from both communities grapple with these questions, seeking understanding in a world fraught with turmoil.
The autobiography of Zeyad Masroor Khan can also be read as a biography of the Muslim community trying to navigate everyday communalism — the story of a people who made a conscious decision to stay back in India in 1947 amid the divisive call for Partition.
City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh; Zeyad Masroor Khan, HarperCollins, ₹599.
The reviewer is a critic based in Kashmir.
