Painting by Michael Huang
The New Constitution
Mangu the tongawala was considered as a very wise man among tongawalas at his station, or adda. Although his educational level was equal to zero and he had never seen the face of a school, despite of this he knew everything in the world. All those tongawalas at the adda who desired to know what is happing in the world were well informed by master Mangu’s extensive knowledge.
Several days ago, when master Mangu had heard from a passenger about a rumor that war was going to break out in Spain, he patted Gama Chaudhary’s broad shoulder and predicted in a prudent manner, “You will see, Chaudhary, in a few days a war is going to break out in Spain.”
And when Gama Chaudhary asked him about where Spain is located, master Mangu answered with absolute firmness, “in God’s kingdom (ولایت) or where else?”
The war in Spain broke out and when everyone got to know this, all tongawalas, while gathering and smoking hookah, were silently recognizing the greatness of master Mangu. And at that time master Mangu was driving the tonga on the glittering surface of Mall Road and exchanging opinions with his passenger on the recent Hindu-Muslim riots.
On that day, he returned to the adda shortly before the evening, and his face was unusually flushed with anger. He took a long drag on the hookah, removed the khaki turban off his head, pressed it in the armpit, and said in an anxious voice. “It is due to a holy men’s curse that Hindus and Muslims keep slaughtering each other every day. And I have heard from my elders that king Akbar once hurt a dervish’s feelings. Feeling offended, the dervish gave a curse: “Get out! In your Hindustan, riots will always keep happening. And look, ever since the end of king Akbar’s reign, riot after riot will keep happening in India.”
Having said this, he sighed deeply, took a drag on the hookah, and started saying: “The congress wants to free Hindustan. I want to say that even if these people keep bashing their heads against the ground for thousands of years, nothing will happen. At the most, the British will leave, and some Italians will come. Or I have heard things about the Russian that they are tough people, but Hindustan will always be enslaved. Yes, I have forgotten to say that the holy man also cursed that Hindustan will always be governed by foreigners.
Master Mangu hated the British very much and he used to say that the reason of this hatred is that they rule over India and impose various forms of oppression. But the biggest reason for his antipathy is that the white people or gora at the cantonment used to tease him a lot. They treated him a way that he was like a despicable dog. Besides this he disliked their complexion. He would feel nauseated whenever he saw white men’s red and white faces. He used to say: “Don’t know why having seen their red wrinkled faces I am reminded of corpses whose skin is rotting away.”
When he gets involved in disputes with a drunk gora, his mood would remain gloomy for the entire day. And in the evening after returning to the adda he would smoke Hallmark cigarette or puff at the hookah while scolding the gora ferociously.
After giving a heavy curse he used to shake his head along with the loose turban and say: “They came to borrow a light. Now they have become the owner of the house. I am fed up with these monkey’s bastards. They command us in a manner as if we are their fathers’ servants.”
Even after this his anger was not subdued as long as there was a friend sitting next to him, he would keep pouring his anger out of his chest.
“You look at him, just like a leper. With one blow, he will be dead for sure, and he kept jabbering nonsense as if he was going to kill me. I swear on you, my initial impulse was to smash the goddamn’s skull into pieces, but I withheld myself because killing this condemned person is a disgrace to me…”
While saying, he would fall into silence for a while, wipe his nose with the sleeve of the khaki shirt and start mumbling. “God is my witness, I am sick and tired of pampering these viceroys. Whenever I see their abominable faces, the blood starts raging in my veins. Some new law is needed so we will get freedom from these people. I swear on you, we would be revived.”
And one day when Master Mangu picked up two passengers on his tanga from the court, from their conversation he got to know that a new constitution is going to be implemented, so he was extremely happy.
The two Marwaris came to the court for a civil case and while going home they were discussing with each other about the new constitution or the India Act. “I heard that from August the first the new constitution will be imposed in India. Will everything change?” “Not everything will change but they say that many things will, and Indians will be freed.” “Will there any new law be passed also related to interest?” “This needs to be asked. Tomorrow we will ask some lawyer.”
The conversation between the two Marwaris was causing unspeakable joy in Master Mangu’s heart. He was used to verbally abuse his horse and whip it ferociously. But today he turned around many times to look at the Marwaris, softly caressed his long moustache with one finger, and then loosened the rein and talked to the horse with affection: “Run son, run, let's show them how fast you can go."
Having taken the Marwaris to their shelter, he drank half seer of curd’s lassi at Dino’s sweetmeat shop in Anarkali, burped loudly, pressed down his moustache into the mouth, and while sucking his moustache, said in a loud voice: “Damn your courage.”
When he returned to the adda in the evening, unusually he could not meet anyone familiar there. Having seen this, there was an extraordinary storm raised in his chest. Today he was going to tell a piece of great news to his friends – such great news, he was compelled to get this news out of himself. However, there was no one there.
For half an hour, with a whip pressed under the arm, he kept strolling back and forth restlessly under the iron ceiling of station’s adda. Great and fabulous ideas were coming into his mind. The news of the enforcement of a new constitution brought him in front of a new world. He turned on every thought in his mind and kept contemplating on the implications of this new constitution, which was going to be implemented in India on April the first. The Marwari had one anxiety: “Will there be a law passed related to interest?” It was again and again echoing in his head and a wave of joy kept running through his entire body. For several times he laughed under his thick moustache and cursed the Marwaris: “……for those bugs that are eating up the poor’s khutya the new constitution will be like boiled up water.”
He was extremely delighted. In particular, at this time his heart had already been very satisfied when he was thinking that goras – white rats’ faces (he used to remember them by this name) will be disappeared in holes forever as soon as the new constitution comes.
When bald Nathu entered the adda with a turban being pressed under his arm, master Mangu came forward to meet him and while grabbing his hand in his own he started saying in a loud voice: “Give me your hand … Listen to this news that would make you happy and your bald head would start growing hair.”
And having said this master Mangu, with immense pleasure, started telling his friend about the new constitution. During the conversation he clapped on bald Nathu’s hand forcefully with his own hand several times and said: “so wait and look, what is becoming. This Russian king will definitely do something and rule forever.” Master Mangu heard much about the economic activities of the current Soviet system, and he liked the new laws and other new things there very much. Just because of this he associated “Russian king” with the “India Act,” the new constitution, and on April the first there were going to be new changes within the system. He understood these as a result of “Russian king’s” influence.
In Peshawar and other cities, the Red Shirt Movement was going on for several years. In his mind in terms of this movement, Master Mangu again confused “Russian king” with the new constitution. Besides this whenever he heard from someone that in some city so many explosive weapons have been confiscated or somewhere so many people have been charged with insurrection allegation, so he understood all of these as harbingers of the new constitution, and in his heart, he was so happy.
One day in his rickshaw sat two barristers who kept criticizing the new constitution harshly, and he was listening to their conversation silently. One of them was saying to the other: “Until now I have not figured out the second section of the new constitution, which is about the federation. In world’s history to this date this kind of federation has not been heard or seen. Also, with regard to political ideology this federation is absolutely wrong. Rather one should say that this is surely not a federation!”
The conversation that happened between these barristers was mostly conducted in English. Master Mangu only understood parts of the sentence and he thought that these people think badly about the coming of the new constitution in India and do not want their country to be free. Therefore, under the influence this thought, he looked at these two barristers with glances of contempt and said to himself: “Son of toady!”
Whenever he would say “son of toady” to someone in a low voice, he felt immensely happy in heart that he has used this name in a right place, and he has the ability to distinguish a “son of toady” from a noble man.
On the third day after this event, he picked up three students from Government College and was on the way to Mozang. He heard these three boys’ conversation to one another. “The new constitution has raised my hopes. If Mr. …become a member of the assembly, then I will certainly get a job in a governmental office.”
“Otherwise, there will be a lot of positions released. Perhaps in such chaos something would also come in our hands.” “Right, why not.”
“There will be less unemployed aimlessly wandering graduates.” This conversation also raised the importance of the new constitution in master Mangu’s heart and he started thinking that this “thing” is glittering. And he in a day would think many times that “New constitution…? Meaning some new things!” And every time this thought would remind him of his horse’s new bridle that two years ago he bought from Choudhary Khuda Bakhash after careful examination. When the bridle was new, on which everywhere the iron nickel plated nails were glimmering, and wherever was made of brass shone like gold. In this regard, the “new constitution” had to be glimmering and glowing as well.
Until April the first master Mangu had heard a lot of things that were either for or against the new constitution, but in his mind he had already established a conception that could not be altered. He thought that as soon as the new constitution comes all affairs will be cleared on April the first, and he believed that the things that will appear on the arrival of the constitution will surely satisfy his eyes.
Eventually, thirty-one days in March passed and there were a few silent hours remaining in the night before the beginning of April. The weather was unusually cold, and there was a freshness in the air. On April the first master Mangu got up early in the morning, went to the stable, tied the horse to the tanga, and took it outside. Today his mood was unusually joyful. He was going to witness the new constitution.
In cold morning fog, he walked around several narrow and broad bazaars but everything looked old to him. The sky looked old, his glances today especially wanted to see new colors but besides this plume that was made of colorful feathers and fixed on the head of his horse, everything seemed ancient. He bought this new plume from Chaudhary Khuda Bakhash on 13 March for fourteen and a half anna to celebrate the new constitution.
The sound of the horse’s hooves, the black road, the lamp posts standing nearby at a regular distance, the shop signs, the jingling bell around the neck of his horse, and the wandering people in the bazaar…was there anything new in them? Obviously, nothing was new but master Mangu was not disappointed.
“Right now it’s too early. All shops are still closed.” Thinking of this he was appeased. Besides this he was also thinking that: “The High Court starts working after nine o’clock. Before this how will the new Constitution appear?”
When his tonga arrived at the gate of Government College, the clock struck nine arrogantly. Well-dressed students kept coming out of the college through the big gate. However, somehow their clothes seemed dirty to master Mangu. Perhaps the reason was that today his glances wanted to observe some dazzling spectacle.
He turned the tonga left and after a while, he found himself in Anarkali. Half of the bazaar’s shops were already open, and the coming and going of people had also become busier. A big crowd of customers formed at the sweets shop. Jewelry traders’ things that were on display in glass boxes were attracting people’s glances. On the power lines, some pigeons were quarreling with one another. But for master Mangu there was nothing interesting in all these things. He wanted to see the new constitution just as clearly as he saw his horse.
When master Mangu’s child was about to be born at home, he spent a few months in great restlessness. He believed that child will surely be born one day. But he could not spend any time waiting. He wanted to just see his child once, and after this, he could keep being born. Suddenly under the effect of unquenchable desire, he pressed his sick wife’s belly several times, and kept the ear on her belly, desiring to know something about his child. However, he kept failing. Once while waiting he became distressed to such an extent that he scolded his wife. “You lie down like a corpse all the time. Get up and then move a bit, so your body would gain a little strength. Nothing will happen from keeping being like aflat wood. Do you think that lying down like this will give birth to a child?”
Master Mangu was very inpatient in nature. Not only did he desire to see every cause’s practical formation, but also he was curious. Having seen his impatient nature, His wife, Gangawati, used to say: “You would be dying out of thirst before the well is dug.”
No matter what happens, while waiting for the new constitution, master Mangu was not as impatient as his temperament wanted him to be. Today he went outside of the home to see the new constitution, just like the way he came out to witness the procession of Gandhi or Jawaharlal.
In master Mangu’s opinion, great leaders’ style included the crowds around their procession and the flower garlands around their necks. If any leader was loaded with marigold’s garlands, from master Mangu’s perspective, he was a great man, and if in any leader’s procession due to the crowd some riots kept happening he thought that that man was also great. Now he wanted to measure the new constitution by the same scale in his mind.
Having come out of Anarkali, he was driving his tonga slowly on the shiny surface of Mall Road. Next to an auto shop he met a passenger from the cantonment. After settling the fare, he gave his horse a whip and thought in his heart: “Let’s go. This should also be good. Perhaps in the cantonment people knew something about the new constitution.”
After reaching the cantonment, master Mangu dropped off the passenger at his destination. He sat on the cushion of the back seat, took out a cigarette from the pocket, and pressed it with the last two fingers of his left hand. When master Mangu was not searching for any passenger or was thinking over some past events, instead of sitting in the back seat, he would usually sit in the front seat calmly and wrapped the rein of his horse around his right hand. On such occasions, his horse neighed a little bit and started moving very slowly. As if he has got a short break from hasty running.
The pace of the horse as well as the arrival of master Mangu’s thoughts in his mind were very slow. The way the horse was slowly making its steps was the way master Mangu was fantasizing about the new constitution in his mind.
He was pondering on the way of getting tongas’ number plates from the municipal committee under the new constitution, and he was trying to see this matter clearly that deserved consideration in the light of the new constitution. He was absorbed in this contemplation. He realized this as if some passenger had informed him of this. While looking back, he saw a gora standing next to a lamppost far away on this side of the road, who was calling him with his hand.
As aforementioned, master Mangu extremely hated goras, when he saw his new customer look like a gora, hateful emotions arose in his heart. His first inclination was to pay no attention to him and just leave him. However, he later thought: “Leave his money is also foolish, fourteen and a half annas have been paid for the plume in vain, which should be recovered from his pocket. Let’s go and do it.”
He quickly turned around the tonga on the empty road, gave the horse a whip, and came to the lamppost in the blink of an eye. While dragging the reins and comfortably sitting on the front seat, he asked the gora: “Sahib Bahadur wants to go where?”
A sarcastic tone was discernable in this question. While saying Sahib Bahadur, his upper lip fully covered by a mustache was lowered, and a faded stripe on his cheek shifted from his nostril to the upper chin. With a quiver, the stripe sank deeper as if someone carved a stripe onto a dark shisham wood with a sharp knife. His entire face was smiling, but he was to consume this “gora” into ashes with the fire inside his chest. The “gora,” while seeking refuge behind the lamppost from the wind, was lighting a cigarette. When he turned around and stepped towards the footboard of the tonga, his glance met master Mangu’s, and it seemed two guns were fired at one another simultaneously. Having collided with each other, the bullets became fiery whirlwind and rose above.
Master Mangu released the rein from his left hand and got off from the tonga. He was staring at the “gora” in front of him as if he was tearing him bit by bit alive with his glance. The gora was brushing something invisible from his trousers just like he was trying to protect some parts of his body from master Mangu’s assault.
“Want to go or look for trouble again?” The gora, while puffing out the smoke, asked.
“It’s the same man.” These words rose in master Mangu's mind and then began to dance in his broad chest."
“It is the same man.” He repeated these words in his mouth, and immediately he was totally convinced that this gora who was standing right in front of him was the one with whom he fell into a quarrel last year. This noninvited quarrel was caused by the gora’s intoxicated mind, and he had to suffer it willingly or not. Master Mangu could have set his mind correctly and beat him up, but due to some extraordinary prudence, he remained silent. He knew that in this kind of fight it was always tongawalla who bore the trouble of the law.
While contemplating the quarrel that happened last year and the new constitution of the first April, master Mangu asked the gora: “Where do you want to go?” His tone was as sharp as the stroke of a whip.
The gora answered: “Heera Mandi.”
“The fare will be five rupees.” Master Mangu’s mustache trembled.
Having heard this, the gora was astonished. He screamed: “Five rupees! What …?”
“Yes, yes, five rupees.” While saying this, master Mangu right hairy hand clenched into a weighty fist. “Why, are you going or making useless talk?” Master Mangu’s tone became harsher.
The gora who had remembered last year’s incident was ready to disregard master Mangu’s full-breasted boasting. He was wondering if this man’s skull again needs some scratch. Under the effect of this spirit-lifting thought, he swaggered towards the tonga, and with his stick, he signaled master Mangu to get down from the tonga. This polished slender stick of beads touched master Mangu’s thick thigh several times. Master Mangu was standing and looking down upon the dwarf gora as if the weight of his glance would grind him into ashes. Then he rose his fist like an arrow prepared in a bow and within a blink of an eye landed on the gora’s lower chin. He shoved the gora aside, got off from his tonga, and began to beat him relentlessly.
Astonished and perplexed, the gora tried to fold his arms and limbs to save him from master Mangu’s ferocious fists. When he saw that his opponent was overtaken by madness and the fire of anger was exploding from his eyes, he started screaming wholeheartedly. This screaming and begging only made master Mangu’s arms hit faster. He was beating the gora’s stomach as hard as possible while shouting.
“Even on April the first the same snob. Even on April the first the same snob. Now it is our Raj, my son!”
People gathered around, and two policemen, with great difficulty, rescued the gora from master Mangu’s clutch. Master Mangu was standing between the two policemen. His broad chest was moving up and down because it was inflated with breath. With foams coming out of his mouth and eyes smiling, he was looking at the confounded crowd and saying in a breathless voice. “Those days are gone when Khalil Khan used to be completely free from care or concern. There is a new constitution now, guys, a new constitution.”
Like a fool, the poor gora, with his damaged face, sometimes looked at master Mangu, and sometimes at the crowd.
Master Mangu was taken to the police station by the policemen. On the way there and inside the station’s cell, he kept screaming: “The new constitution, the new constitution.” However, nobody paid any attention to him.
“The new constitution, the new constitution. What shit are you saying? It has been the same old constitution!”
Then he was locked up.
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