Introduction
Polygyny was the site of much contestation and debate during the colonial period. Late-colonial discussions on polygyny raised the question about the sanctity and uniqueness of the conjugal bond. But polygyny went beyond the husband-wife relationship and cast its vexing shadow on issues of child rearing, property inheritances and relationships within the extended family. A perusal of colonial missionary records reveals that polygyny was often identified as a specific feature of Muslim societies.Footnote 2 But Muslims also engaged in this question, under the broad rubric of marital reform, with a degree of intensity that has not been remarked upon or analyzed in sufficient detail in the historiography of family and gender in colonial South Asia.Footnote 3 This paper is an attempt in that direction and hopes to add to the multiple histories of the reformist agenda in South Asia.
How did polygyny come to be constituted as a problem in the consciousness of modern Muslims? What were some of the central tenets of the argument when it was criticized or defended? How did women writers engage with the patriarchal ideology that upheld polygyny? What were the anxieties and dilemmas that co-existed with polygyny in the ‘reformed’ consciousness? To answer these questions, I will analyze some of the literary and theological discourses on polygyny within the ashraf Muslim community of North India.Footnote 4 Principal focus will be on Urdu literature of the early twentieth century. In order to contextualize the literature, I have also included an overview of the opinions expressed in the late nineteenth century by prominent religious reformers.
The early debate: polygyny as a problem in Islam
In the last two decades, there have been numerous historical and political studies devoted to discussions about the public sphere and the formation of public opinion largely due to the influence of Jurgen Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. There have been feminist critiques as well as evaluation from scholars working on non-European societies.Footnote 5 These studies point out that the colonial period in India witnessed the rise of a dynamic religious public sphere where the contest for appropriation of sacred symbols and legitimization of religious authority amongst different groups was intense.Footnote 6 Amongst Muslims, the participants in the public discourse included the ulema of different doctrinal orientations such as the Firangi Mahalli, the Deobandis, the Barelwis and the Ahl-i-Hadith, independent Muslim scholars like Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1819–1898)Footnote 7 or Syed Ameer Ali (1849–1928)Footnote 8 as well as numerous other historical actors who responded to the challenges of colonial rule. The plurality of the movements and responses associated with colonial rule demonstrates the multiple imaginations of Islam, Islamic values and of being Muslim in this period.Footnote 9 The increasingly open contexts over the authoritative use of symbolic language of Islam also gave rise to a distinct religious public sphere that existed at the intersection of the intellectual, political and social life of Muslims. Religious pamphlets written by prominent reformers like Sayyid Ahmad Khan (Sayyid Ahmad) or Syed Ameer Ali (Ameer Ali) during the late nineteenth century addressed questions of polygyny, divorce, education and the status of women in society.
Historically, in the colonial period, polygyny was subjected to severe scrutiny and drew strong opinions from Muslims. Like their Hindu brethren, Muslims too witnessed contestation and debate of their familial and social relationships and addressed a range of issues from veiling, to women's education, to polygyny. These issues posed questions about the equality of the sexes, the role of women in the household and intimacy between husband and wife. Even though polygyny was also practiced amongst the Hindus, the issue acquired a particular salience for the Muslim community.Footnote 10 The perception that it is allowed in Islam and has a Quranic sanction made it a marker of Muslim identity and provided a distinctiveness that it otherwise would not have had. Under conditions of colonialism, polygyny came to be inextricably linked to the social identity of Muslims. Colonial officials, especially those associated with Christian evangelism, contributed to the ‘Islamic’ particularity of polygyny. William Muir, Secretary to the government of the North-Western Provinces, wrote a four volume text on Islam, published in 1861, called Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira. Along with divorce and slavery,Footnote 11 Muir mentioned polygyny as one of the ‘radical evils’ stemming from the Quran ‘striking as they do at the root of public morals, poisoning domestic life and disorganizing society’.Footnote 12 He further noted that polygyny in Islam ‘creates an irreconcilable divergence from Christianity’.Footnote 13
The debate on polygyny thus came to be associated with the question of Muslim identity and distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims. Furthermore, many stereotypes of Muslims, both in the past and in contemporary times, have stemmed from or revolved around polygynous marriages. It thus becomes significant that we understand this issue historically and document how Muslims themselves approached it and discussed it, for they were not sealed off from outside influences and constantly responded to and transformed their social relations. In the light of this argument, this essay historicizes the discourse of polygyny to underscore that it underwent continuous mutations and differing interpretations.
Of critical importance for our purpose are the movements of revivalism and reform which sought to resuscitate ‘Islam’ and uplift Muslims after their loss of political power in the subcontinent. The challenge of colonial rule was not simply the loss of Muslim political power and subsequent European domination but an urgent need to present new alternatives that did not sever continuity with the past in a world that was becoming increasingly unfamiliar. The construction of Muslim identity was accomplished in part through a debate on knowledge about sexual difference, women's bodies and reproduction. Marriage, in particular, was the site where many of the urgent concerns of the present and the past were being articulated.Footnote 14
It would, however, be false to situate the debate on polygyny entirely in the crucible of ‘identity politics’ where political defeat and social fragmentation effected criticism amongst disillusioned Muslims. Participants in these discourses were often teachers, scholars and writers, men and women of learning, who were sensitive to social problems. Their intellectual engagement with the issues reflects their support for and faith in rational reform and in open discussion of practices, customs and beliefs. In sketching a brief trajectory of this debate, I also hope to highlight concerns and anxieties about being a ‘modern’ Muslim, and illustrate the dynamism and richness of Muslim modernism in South Asia.
The initial rejoinders by Muslim modernists to colonial criticism, including the writings of Sayyid Ahmad and Ameer Ali, were published in the 1870s and were mostly directed towards an English-speaking audience. The religious thoughts of Sayyid Ahmad and Ameer Ali constitute a significant contribution to ‘sacred authority’.Footnote 15 Eickelman and Piscatori argue that the discussion of Islam and politics, based on the assumption that Islam makes no distinction between religious and political realms, is not very useful in the understanding of Muslim politics. Rather, they view politics as the context over the interpretation of symbols that acquire religious meaning when appropriated by authority. This authority does not imply an ‘Islamic state’ but is invested in individuals and institutions who become legitimate bearers of authority because they embody cherished values and gradually transform themselves into ‘natural’ leaders through the manipulation of symbols and the invocation of tradition. These symbols are subject to widely different interpretations and it is not only the ulema who speak for Islam but a wide range of social and political actors differently positioned in society, resulting in a ‘fragmentation of authority’.Footnote 16
Sayyid Ahmad and Ameer Ali have contributed to what has come to be called a ‘rationalist’ interpretation of religious faith, practice and experience and the revision of Islamic theology to make it more consonant with the empirical sciences. The inclusion of their discourse will illustrate how polygyny was informed by ideas associated with ‘modernity’. I have considered here in particular their two major works: first is A Series of Essays on the Life of Muhammad and Subjects Subsidiary Thereto by Sayyid Ahmad published in 1870, and the second is The Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Muhammad by Ameer Ali published in 1873. The Urdu version of Sayyid Ahmad's A Series of Essays was published in 1887 as Al-Khutbat al-Ahmadiya fi al-Arab wa al-sirat al-Muhammadiya. Footnote 17 Sayyid Ahmad's Essays contains commentaries on the Quran, theological literature on the Prophet Muhammad and disputation on Islamic practices and institutions such as polygyny, divorce and slavery, while Ameer Ali's Critical Examination of Muhammad is an erudite and exhaustive account of the history of Islam, its principles and its relation to other monotheistic faiths. Both Sayyid Ahmad and Ameer Ali join issues with European scholars of Islam, critiquing the works of Sprenger, William Muir, Weil, and Thomas Carlyle, amongst others. On the question of polygyny, Sayyid Ahmad employed his framework of ‘natural theology’ while Ameer Ali scrutinized it through the idea of historical variability.
Sayyid Ahmad addressed the issue of polygyny in one of the essays, entitled ‘On the question whether Islam has been Beneficial or Injurious to Human Society in General, and to the Mosaic and Christian Dispensations’.Footnote 18 His ideas were developed in relation to the scientific discoveries that he felt were challenging Islam. The test of religious truth, according to Sayyid Ahmad, is conformity with the norms of natural reason and his attempt at ‘rationalization’ of religion has been called ‘natural theology’. He defines religion, as
that true principle to which all the ideas and actions of man should be conformable (sic), so long as he retains the use of his physical and intellectual powers. . . and that true principle, as far as man's intellectual powers enable him to discover, is no other than Nature.Footnote 19
He writes that ‘as nature is true and perfect, this principle must necessarily be true and perfect, and this true and perfect principle is what we call true religion’.Footnote 20 For Sayyid Ahmad, the test, therefore, of the truth or falsity of various religions is to ascertain whether or not they accord with ‘natural principles’.
Sayyid Ahmad's Islam does not encourage the practice of polygyny but it falls short of total denunciation of the practice. The use of permission to marry more than one wife, he argued, was a privilege and
reserved for such as for physical reasons may stand in need of it, but in the absence of such an excuse the indulgence in it is wholly contrary to the virtues and morality taught by Islam.Footnote 21
For Sayyid Ahmad, recourse to polygyny was ‘justified’ only by ‘real necessity’. This ‘necessity’ was ‘perpetuation of one's kind or children’. He argued that ‘when, from whatever cause, this helpmate (woman in marriage) fails to perform her natural duty, some remedy must surely have been appointed by the Creator to meet this exigency and that remedy is polygamy’.Footnote 22 Sayyid Ahmad endorsed childbearing as one genuine and rightful cause for polygyny to be practiced, which we shall also observe later in the novel Iqbal Dulhan by Bashiruddin Ahmad. What is crucial to note here is that fertility of a woman and reproduction were indispensable to the definition of marriage. Concepts of fertility and reproduction had social and religious implications, and practices and traditions of marriage and familial relationships were woven around sexuality and childbearing. Related to this understanding of marriage are notions of wifehood and motherhood. Only those women with reproductive capacity could belong to a monogamous marriage.
In explaining his position, Sayyid Ahmad defined marriage as a practice that counters loneliness of man where God made in woman a helpmate for man ‘who is destined to share with him the cares and the amenities, the sorrows and the pleasures of life’.Footnote 23 Moreover, whatever weakened individual and social happiness of man must be regarded as serious evil.Footnote 24 For Sayyid Ahmad, the practice of polygyny was ‘not an unrestrained gratification of animal appetites’ but permissible with restraints such ‘as perfect equality of rights and privileges, love and affection among all wives etc’, and that:
these restrictions and regulations materially serve to prevent truly pious and religious persons from indulging in polygamy, for they almost immediately discover that the availing themselves of this privilege, without fulfilling its conditions and observing its regulations, which are so strict as to be extremely difficult to be complied with. . .[sic]Footnote 25
In summary, one could argue that Sayyid Ahmad was critical of polygyny but also believed that it could be permitted for childbearing. This ambiguity, however, did not desensitize him to the question of rights and sentiments in marriage, and he further contended that polygyny must maintain equality of rights. It must be noted that this argument published in English in 1871 is not an isolated piece by Sayyid Ahmad on the ‘woman's question’ and he had also written an article on women's rights in his journal Tahzib al-Akhlaq in 1871. Entitled Auraton ke Huqooq (Rights of Women), he argued that ‘till date no civilized country has bestowed on women the rights Islam gave them’. To illustrate his point, he emphasized that in England no married women could enter into any contract on their own, that their property and other possessions came into the control of their husbands and that they could not buy anything without their husband's permission. Contrasting this to Islamic law, he pointed out that Islam allows a woman to independently choose her spouse, own property, sign a contract with a man as the initiator and buy, sell, gift or endow her property to whosoever she wishes.Footnote 26
Sayyid Ahmad also addressed polygyny in his Urdu writings where he conversed primarily with the ulema instead of the British officials. In a full-length article on polygyny, he argued for a principle of gender difference between men and women due to ‘natural’ reasons, and then engaged in exegesis of a hadith that Muslim theologians used to support polygyny. He doubted the correctness of the hadith and contended that it was picked up, twisted and exaggerated by the missionaries and Western critics of Islam. He concluded the article by saying that:
The command in Qur'an is for monogamy. Polygyny is allowed only in those special circumstances when reason and ethics in response to the fulfillment of the requirements of human nature and culture legitimize its practice, and when there is no fear of violation of the rule of justice.Footnote 27
Sayyid Ahmad retained his ambiguous position in his Urdu writings although there is a stronger emphasis on monogamy. He remained perturbed by the missionary critique of Islam and amongst his last writings is an incomplete article on the Prophet's wives.Footnote 28
The other important English commentary on Islam was Syed Ameer Ali's Critical Examination of Muhammad published in 1873.Footnote 29 In his discussion of polygyny, Ameer Ali acknowledged the ‘conditional clause’ implicit in the Quranic injunction on Islam. But his critique of polygyny differs from Sayyid Ahmad's in its strong emphasis on history instead of ‘natural theology’ as a basis of explanation. He first presents an overview of the practice of polygyny in different cultures ranging among Persians, Spartans, Romans, Babylonians, Athenians and Romans, at different historical periods to establish that ‘history, proves conclusively that, until very recent times, polygamy was not considered so reprehensible as it is now’.Footnote 30 Underscoring a historical perspective, he adds that:
the fact must be borne in mind that the existence of polygamy depends on circumstances. Certain times, certain conditions of society make its practice absolutely needful. . . . But with the progress of thought, with the change of conditions ever going on in this world, the necessity for polygamy, or more properly polygyny, disappears, and its practice is tacitly abandoned or expressly forbidden.Footnote 31
Following this contention, Ameer Ali argues that in countries where the means for women to help themselves exist, this practice has come to be regarded as evil while in those societies where such circumstances are non-existent ‘where the means, which in civilized communities enable women to help themselves, are absent or wanting, polygamy must necessarily continue to exist’.Footnote 32
Ameer Ali's approach to the issue of polygyny also reflects his judgment of unfair customs or practices that would become a target for reformers. For him, evil was a relative term contingent upon how people view morals in their societies and that ‘progress of ideas and changes in the conditions of a people may make it evil in its tendency and in process of time it may be made by the state, illegal’.Footnote 33 Invoking a sort of historical relativism, he maintains that the ethical judgment of usages and customs hinges on ‘the circumstances, or as they are or are not in accordance with the conscience—“the spirit”—of the time, is a fact much ignored by superficial thinkers’.Footnote 34
Besides Ameer Ali, other Western-educated Muslims from Bengal had also begun to condemn polygyny.Footnote 35 Dilawar Husain Ahmad Mirza, the first Muslim graduate from Calcutta University, appointed Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector in the Provincial Executive Service in 1861, wrote ‘The Causes of the Decline of Mohammadan Civilization’ between 1869 and 1879. In this tract, he argued that polygyny is one ‘. . .of those peculiarities of Mohammadan society which is sure to keep us in a backward state of civilization so long as the prevailing ideas on the subject should not be modified’. He also maintains that polygyny directed men's minds towards sensuality and ‘the sensual pleasures enervate both the body and the mind—and to this enervation must be ascribed the large proportion of incompetent sovereigns amongst Mohammadan communities’.Footnote 36
Ameer Ali criticized polygyny from a very different perspective to that of Sayyid Ahmad. For him, history passed the verdict on traditions that needed to be ‘reformed’ and while polygyny was appropriate for the Prophet's time, it must disappear in communities where women had acquired education and rights. It must be added that Ameer Ali agreed with Sayyid Ahmad on the conditional clause requiring justice to all partners in polygyny and believed that this condition ‘may be considered as prohibitive of a plurality of wives’.Footnote 37 Others, like Dilawar Husain Mirza, believed that polygyny was one of the chief causes not only for the ‘decline’ and ‘backwardness’ of Muslims but also for ‘incompetent sovereigns’.
The initial colonial debate on polygyny was limited largely to the publication of books and journal articles. By the 1890s, however, it had expanded to a much wider scale and was held in newly formed anjumans and associations. One Muhammad Abdul Ghani (Ghani) defended polygyny at a lecture given at the sixth anniversary of Anjuman Himayat-i Islam in 1891. Ghani insisted that the chief aim of marriage was ‘the propagation of the kind under most favourable conditions’ and polygyny was essential during ‘the period of women's pregnancy where the man can impregnate another woman’ driven by ‘physiology and nature’ or when the couple is unable to bear children or have only female children.Footnote 38
Thus, there was no single opinion on the question of polygyny. This diversity and range of ideas expressed itself more forcefully and vibrantly in the novels of the early twentieth century, informed by changing historical conditions.
Urdu literary cultures
Critical to an understanding of the Muslim family in North India is the Urdu public sphere that acquired greater reach and expansion with the coming of the printed word. Urdu language formed its own cultural and intellectual community through institutional spaces such as schools, the press and the publishing industry.Footnote 39 Both the elite and the masses used written media and oral communication to reinforce a culture of communication and discussion. Most Urdu newspapers and weeklies were established by the mid-nineteenth century and flourished, not just in the major cities of Lahore, Delhi and Lucknow, but also in smaller towns such as Bijnor, Banaras, Rampur and Ajmer.Footnote 40 Women's journals beginning in the early twentieth century carried opinions on marriage, divorce, education and work.Footnote 41 In addition to journalism, novels were also directly associated with social transformation and were a method in persuasion.Footnote 42 Urdu novels were crucial in raising questions about the family, and about women's status within it, from different perspectives. They portray in extensive detail glimpses of the activities of the household and the family giving specific descriptions of rituals, customs, social relationships and everyday life. Urdu literature, therefore, serves as a useful and rich resource for writing the history of the family.
Amongst Urdu novels, Gudar ka Lal: Khawateen aur Ladkiyon ke liye aik Naseehat khez Novel (The Ruby in Rags: A Novel with Advice for Women and Girls) by Akbari Begum (d. 1929)Footnote 43 published in 1907,Footnote 44 and Iqbal Dulhan (The Bride Iqbal) by Bashiruddin Ahmad (d. 1927) published in 1908, have both been analyzed here because they occupy a special position in terms of their wide impact on the community, their readership and the responses they received from the Urdu-speaking public. A particular instance is the reception of the novel Gudar ka Lal by Saliha Abid Husain (d. 1988), a notable modern Urdu writer.Footnote 45 In her autobiography, she singles out Gudar ka Lal as the most significant influence upon her married life. The novel had a special resonance for Saliha Abid Husain (Saliha Husain) because the dilemmas and situation of one of its female characters, Mehr Jabeen, held a striking resemblance to her own life. Saliha Husain was the second wife of Sayyid Abid Husain (d. 1978), (Abid Husain) himself a major modern Muslim scholar,Footnote 46 in a polygynous marriage and she, much like Mehr Jabeen in Gudar ka Lal, developed friendly and warm relations with the first wife of her husband. As a young girl, Saliha Husain was inspired by Surayya Jabeen, another prominent character in the novel. But she writes that she ‘much later realized that the character which actually influenced me the most, in fact, which I unconsciously came to regard as my ideal was Mehr Jabeen only’.Footnote 47 Moreover, the novel also acquired a legendary status amongst ashraf women, and was given in marriage as part of their dowry.Footnote 48
Iqbal Dulhan, too, received immense acclaim and attracted enthusiastic comments from Urdu literati. Reformer and Urdu novelist Nazir Ahmad wrote that:
whatever Iqbal Mirza (protagonist) did was correct and this was what he ought to have done as someone born in a sharif family. . . . He has successfully shown the circumstances of the second nikah as legitimate.Footnote 49
Zaka Ullah (1832–1911), one of the most distinguished Muslim scholars of nineteenth century North India, said that:
the reasons for the necessity of a second marriage have been given in such a manner that an Indian educated in England who commits this would not be dubbed as uncivilized even by a civilized European. The story is unprecedented in its didactic message both for men and women.Footnote 50
Similarly, Sayyid Ahmad Dehlavi (1846–1918) said that the author
has established the second marriage as praiseworthy to the extent that there is no space of criticism even by the rationalist of Europe. Whatever he has written is commendable and to be dutifully obeyed by women and men.Footnote 51
Both Gudar ka Lal and Iqbal Dulhan argue, as we shall see below, that under certain conditions polygyny was acceptable. There were, however, some female writers who refused to compromise with polygyny and rejected it completely. They not only criticized the practice in print but also acquired a certain leadership in the community due to their social activism. Nazr Sajjad Hyder (d. 1967) is one such figure. Ah-e Mazluman (Sighs of the Oppressed) by Nazr Sajjad Hyder published in 1912(?) is included to illustrate a difference of opinion on polygyny amongst Muslim women, to highlight that they were actively involved in public conversation on issues pertinent to the community and that an important section of Muslim intelligentsia was female.Footnote 52
Women engage masculinist codes of respectability and domesticity
Akbari Begum came from an illustrious Saiyid family of Muradabad, a well known city situated in the northwestern region in modern Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. Her father Mir Mazhar Ali lived in Siyalkot, a town now in Pakistan. Akbari was born here some time in the 1870s (the actual date is uncertain). She was given the name ‘Kaniz Abbas’ at the time of her birth, but was better known as Akbari Begum. She was married to Mir Fazl Ali, maternal uncle, of writer Nazr Sajjad Hyder.Footnote 53
Qurratulain Hyder mentions some crucial events in the life of Akbari Begum that inspired her to write about the world of women. Akbari Begum's family, though fully settled in Lahore in Punjab visited their ancestral home in Muradabad, Uttar Pradesh during festivals and family rituals. On one such occasion when she, along with several members of her extended family were in Muradabad, she observed keenly the rites and superstitious beliefs connected with the old social practices, which had a close bearing on women's lives. During this visit, Qurratualain Hyder reports that Akbari Begum met her eighty year old maternal aunt and observed her plight. She was believed to be possessed by a jinnFootnote 54 the very first day of her wedding and therefore was not allowed to leave for her husband's house. Constrained to stay back home, she confined herself to her prayer carpet, engaging all the time in litanies, repeating the name of Allah alone all through her life. Hyder notes that Akbari perspicaciously noted that while the women in the inner quarters of the house were afflicted with diseases like tuberculosis, hysteria and melancholia, the men outside engaged in pursuits of pleasure and were busy in gambling. These experiences influenced Akbari's ideas about gender relations in society and provided her with plenty of materials for her novels. Her first novel, Guldasta-e Muhabbat (The Bouquet of Love), was written under the pseudonym of Abbasi Murtaza.Footnote 55
‘Gudar ka Lal’, written in three volumes and described as Khawateen aur Ladkiyon ke Liye aik Naseehat Khez Novel’ (A Novel with Counsels for Women and Girls), is a dense and multilayered novel that tackles numerous questions simultaneously, such as the literacy and education of women, incompatible marriage, polygyny and other dilemmas associated with family relationships. It revolves around the fate of three children: two sisters and one brother. Zinatunnisa (Zinat) and Qamarunnisa (Qamar) are the two sisters, the brother's name is not mentioned, but sister-in-law Amirunnisa (Amir) is the head of the household. Qamar has two sons, Hamid Ali and Yusuf Raza, and a daughter, Khairunnisa. Amir has six children: three sons, Khair Ali, Hasan Raza and Shakir and three daughters, Hamida Begum, Maqbool and Surayya Jabeen. These cousins have intermarried. Khair Ali is married to Khairunnisa and Maqbool is married to Yusuf Raza.
Gudar ka Lal follows multiple plots as it traces the stories of the children of these sisters, their education, their marriages and their other familial and non-familial relationships. Yusuf Raza's first marriage is with Maqbool, who has little education, and proves to be a total ill-match to the educated Yusuf Raza. To ‘overcome’ this discrepancy, he marries a highly educated woman, Mehr Jabeen. This constitutes his second marriage and the dynamic of relationship between Mehr Jabeen, his second wife, and Maqbool, his first wife, comprises most of the novel. This paper will concentrate on the triad between Maqbool, Mehr Jabeen and Yusuf Raza involving polygyny, leaving aside the other storylines of this complex novel.
The second novel under consideration is Iqbal Dulhan by Bashiruddin Ahmad (Ahmad), son of the Urdu writer Nazir Ahmad Dehlavi, noted above. Ahmad held a high administrative position in Nizam's service in Hyderabad, Deccan. He took early retirement and settled in his home town of Delhi, where he died in 1927. Ahmad is best known for his voluminous writings in Urdu on history. These works include Waqi'at-e Darul Hukumat Dehli, a history of Delhi in three volumes, Waqi'at-e Mamlikat-i Bijapur also in three volumes, a text on Mughal Farmans titled ‘Faramin-e Salatin’; and another on Queen Victoria called Hayat-e Malika-e Victoria, Qaisara-e Hind. Besides his historical writing, Ahmed also wrote about family and marriage including Husn-e Muasharat, Islah-e Muashiat, Lakht-e Jigar and Fughan-e Ashraf. Footnote 56 He acknowledged his literary and intellectual debt to his father, and mentioned especially the influence of Mirat al-Arus on his Iqbal Dulhan, desiring ‘to walk the same path and build on the foundation that he [Nazir Ahmad] had established’.Footnote 57
The novel Iqbal Dulhan follows the life of Iqbal Mirza who is born and raised in an ashraf family of Delhi in the early twentieth century. The plot revolves around the second marriage of Iqbal Mirza and the ordeals that the family encounter as a result of this polygynous union. Iqbal Mirza's father, Nawab Mirza, expires early in his childhood leaving behind two married daughters, Iqbal and his baby sister. Iqbal Mirza receives his primary education at Aligarh University and later studies at Cambridge. Upon his return from England, he joins the Civil Service and is appointed Assistant Commissioner in the North Indian district of Gurgaon. Well settled in a job, his mother begins her search for a suitable bride. He is married to Zaibunnisa, who is also brought up in an ashraf home and lives in the same neighbourhood as the family of Iqbal Mirza. The early conjugal life of Iqbal Mirza and Zaibunnisa is joyous and blissful. However, this happiness is short-lived since they do not bear any children. Iqbal Mirza's desire for a child leads him to contemplate a second marriage. His decision to have a second marriage is marked by dilemma and torment. The confusion and anxiety of Iqbal Mirza, and the grief and heartache of his wife over the second marriage, forms the basic plot of the story. After the birth of children from the second wife, their marital tension is eased, the relations improve and Zaibunnisa accepts Iqbal's second marriage. The co-wives live on friendly terms, and Iqbal Mirza is happy.
Sharafat and the question of ‘legitimate polygyny’
Both Iqbal Dulhan and Gudar ka Lal depict the major concerns of the ashraf community, where the protagonists are ideal characters displaying praiseworthy behaviour that is to be inculcated through education. The perfection and nobility of the protagonist in Iqbal Dulhan was centred on worries about ‘respectability’. He is a man fit to be emulated. Conscious of the death of his father at a tender age, he steadfastly and diligently completes his education at Aligarh, earning a scholarship to higher education at Cambridge. In his childhood, he remains obedient to his mother, and in adulthood he maintains a courteous relationship with her and other elders of the family. In addition to his steady relationships, he also honours religion and his cultural heritage, placing a high value on adherence to the basic principles of Islam. This ‘respectability’, observed in Iqbal Dulhan, was an ideal of kachahri culture: the Muslim milieu that determined the expectations and aspirations of Muslims under British rule.Footnote 58Sharafat or ‘respectability’ was to be acquired through education, employment and culture.Footnote 59
Similarly, the society depicted in Gudar ka Lal highlights the struggle between the ‘new’ lifestyle, on the one hand, where education and employment were new markers of ‘respectability’, and the more conventional family structure on the other, where marriage, especially of young women, occurred at an early age and education at higher levels, after adulthood was seen as a violation of filial honour and duty. The novel reflects this conflict within the same generation and between cousins. Surayya and Hasan Raza are the prototypes of the ‘respectable’ protagonist common to ashraf novels. They are astute in understanding human relationships, adjust to demanding situations and, most importantly, desire a good education to acquire greater social mobility. Both Hasan Raza and Surayya flee from their homes to Lahore to carry on their education. In contrast to Surayya, Maqbool, her sister, is not interested in education and grows up to be indifferent to the needs of her husband, Yusuf Raza, and their child. Gudar ka Lal explores the implications of this incongruity in education between Surayya and Maqbool in extensive detail. In addition to their discrepancy, it also highlights the contrast in education between Yusuf Raza and Maqbool. Yusuf Raza educates himself to become a lawyer, whereas Maqbool remains uneducated. In Gudar ka Lal, this discrepancy between husband and wife, or men and women more generally, defines the contours of an ‘incompatible marriage’. ‘Incompatible marriage’ points to a larger problem at the centre of modernity in the ashraf community in India. It turned the familial space into a domain of greater discord and dispute, where women and men were confronted with ever greater challenges involving adjustment, accommodation and compromise. Akbari Begum permits Yusuf Raza to surmount his ‘incompatible marriage’ through a polygynous marriage to an educated woman, Mehr Jabeen. In the resulting triad of co-wives and husband, she constructs a story involving the development of friendship between the co-wives.
Both Gudar ka Lal and Iqbal Dulhan argue, although differently, that under certain conditions polygyny is acceptable and even required. Ahmad first expresses his views on marriage and polygyny when a wedding proposal for Iqbal Mirza arrives from a family of orthodox Muslims where the bride's grandfather is a respectable maulavi (religious scholar) of Delhi. The proposal contains an iqrarnama or agreement that the groom's family is expected to approve if they are to proceed with the marriage. The agreement contained a clause against polygyny where a polygynous marriage by Iqbal Mirza would be unacceptable to the first wife as well as to her family. Iqbal Mirza rejects the clause and makes the classical argument defending polygyny since it is justified in the Quran. He insists that ‘the person who attaches this condition and the person who agreed to it are not Muslims, in my opinion, as this is obviously contrary to the Quranic injunction’.Footnote 60 He then puts forward the position that the conditions which the Quran imposes upon the practice of polygyny are too difficult for realization and therefore the practice cannot be sustained or supported for
a wise man with even a little sense of consequence would not undergo this trouble, and drag himself into this predicament. . . . In the Quran, God forbid, there can never be anything meaningless or bereft of the public good.Footnote 61
In spite of this reading, Ahmad does add that ‘those who take undue advantage of this conditional divine injunction, which by no means implies that it is not practiced, are culprits’.Footnote 62 Therefore, men who have a second marriage out of contempt for women, or to gratify their sexuality, are condemnable, and insult their religion. This assertion is used throughout the novel to distinguish between acceptable reasons for marriage as opposed to base ones. Those who engage in latter situations have hearts like ‘stones ensconced in human flesh. They are not human and are totally deprived of compassion and empathy’.Footnote 63 This animosity towards ‘bad polygyny’ raises the question of ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’ polygynous unions. Or more specifically, under what conditions was polygyny allowed or considered ‘legitimate?’ The notion of ‘legitimate polygyny’ cannot be understood without clarifying beliefs about an ‘ideal’ marriage. In Iqbal Dulhan, a marriage is considered ideal only when the couple can raise children and continue a familial heritage. Therefore, polygyny is permissible only when the couple cannot, for some reason, have children. As Ahmad writes, ‘the real purpose of marriage is breeding and unbroken succession of lineage. When this very purpose is lost, then this world and everything in it loses its worth and meaning’.Footnote 64 He then viscerally explains the absence of children in a person's life where ‘on his death bed, no one offers him water to drink and after his death, there is none to remember. The joy of having a child mitigates all the bitterness and ordeals of life’.Footnote 65
These sentiments on the significance of children in Iqbal Dulhan illustrate how the family was thought about and lived, and how profoundly fertility, reproduction and childbearing were the focus of that ideal. Reproduction has been acknowledged as a metaphor for survival, for linking past generations to an increasingly uncertain future. Reproduction and childbearing linger as pervasive themes in the novel. The role of reproduction in women's life opportunities, gender division of labour, dominant or subordinate gender relations and the relationship between social and economic forces has long been recognized in feminist and historical research. Studies on what has recently been called the ‘politics of reproduction’ have focused on important relations between activities such as childbirth and child-rearing and more public activities such as political debate and discourse.Footnote 66Iqbal Dulhan shows the extraordinary status of childbearing and children and of how people experienced the family. Reproduction and fertility were, therefore, essential to the common interests of the family and also of the religious community. The Quranic injunction was understood to be a ‘solution’ to the social ‘problem’ of an infertile marriage and therefore ‘in complete accord with human nature’.Footnote 67
The concept of ‘legitimate polygyny’, for different reasons, is also employed in Gudar ka Lal. Following the escape of Hasan Raza and Surayya to Lahore, the marriage of Yusuf Raza and Maqbool is arranged, much against the wishes of Yusuf, by the elders of the family, in particular by Khair Ali. Due to the lack of education of Maqbool, significant parts of the chapters of the novel are devoted to the incompetence of Maqbool in running the household efficiently, and her failure to maintain a clean and tidy house or to cook well for Yusuf and his family. She is also not very pious and does not offer her prayers regularly.Footnote 68 Moreover, she is friendly with Najaf Khanum, a woman who is the daughter of a mirasan (woman of a singing caste) and consequently not ashraf. This friendship is particularly offensive to Yusuf who insists to Maqbool that she should cease all interactions with her.Footnote 69 Maqbool, however, does not heed his advice and follows Najaf's suggestions on most crucial matters including how to maintain her marriage and other family relationships. These mannerisms of Maqbool lead to estrangement between her and Yusuf. The birth of a daughter, Sitara Jabeen, worsens the relations between Maqbool and Yusuf, and Maqbool is portrayed as a ‘bad mother’ ignorant of the baby's hygiene and diet.Footnote 70 Instead of being joyous at his daughter's birth, Yusuf Raza despairs over Maqbool's poor learning, fearing that their daughter will also be ‘ignorant, ill-mannered, loquacious and disrespectful like her mother’.Footnote 71 The character of Maqbool echoes the argument that education of women was primarily to transform them into better mothers or wives or daughters, as people subjected to instruction by men. While the critique of the new patriarchy generated by male reformist rationality in which the educated woman performs her gendered roles with efficiency is crucial, it is also important to be mindful of some vistas this opened up for women. As Afsaneh Najmabadi has argued, the gendered curriculum led to the ‘transformation of woman from house to manager of the house’ and the production of the woman of modernity provided both regulatory and emancipatory impulses.Footnote 72 Akbari Begum in Gudar ka Lal endorses this vision of women as house managers and more importantly, as mothers. One of the characteristics of the ‘new family’, expressed in Gudar ka Lal, is an increasing emphasis on motherhood and the role of women as child-rearers. Tasks that were hitherto otherwise dispersed to servants, fathers, neighbours, relatives and others, are now gathered up under the rubric of ‘maternal responsibility’. Concomitantly, reproduction, one of many activities associated with women (and not exclusively with them), becomes the defining aspect of their characters and their lives.
The ‘incompatible marriage’ between Maqbool and Yusuf, due to differences in education, becomes the grounds for a second marriage. Yusuf shares his frustration with his cousin Hasan, and asks for help in raising his daughter. In response, Hasan writes a letter to Yusuf suggesting a second marriage ‘because a home cannot be made without a woman’.Footnote 73 He also assures Yusuf that he and Surayya would continue to love him the way they have in the past but requests that he ‘make some financial arrangements for Maqbool so that she is not dependent on anyone and a similar arrangement for your daughter so that she is not damaged’.Footnote 74 After receiving this letter, Yusuf is happy and the search for a second wife begins. It is important to note that the context for a second marriage in both Iqbal Dulhan and Gudar ka Lal is related to ‘improving’ the family and the establishment of an ‘ideal’ home. For both Ahmad and Akbari Begum, they are legitimate rationale for a second polygynous marriage. In Iqbal Dulhan, child bearing is crucial to ‘complete’ the marriage, and reproduction becomes the essential act of continuity for the religious group as much as for the individual or the family, and in Gudar ka Lal, child rearing is emphasized and polygyny is presented as a ‘solution’ for an ‘incompatible marriage’ and ‘ignorant mothering’ born out of unequal educational opportunities for women.
In order to understand the family dynamics involved in polygyny, one would have to analyse historically the various constructions of parenting and marriage by men as well as women. The changes that occurred under colonial rule, such as the introduction of modern education, a bureaucratic framework and the rise of a professional class, transformed family relations often at high expense for women. The notion of an ‘incompatible marriage’ as employed in Gudar ka Lal clearly originates out of these social and cultural transformations. Gudar ka Lal shows that women were also willing to accept polygynous unions. An examination of the status of the first wife and the role of the second wife will highlight the subtle differences between Akbari Begum and Bashiruddin Ahmad on the question of polygyny.
The relationship between the first and the second wife
The resolution of animosity between the first and the second wife is the prominent plot in both Iqbal Dulhan and Gudar ka Lal. Ahmad made his case for ‘legitimate polygyny’ when discussing the iqrarnama of the first marriage proposal. Later in the novel, a similar situation is created when Iqbal Mirza and Zaibunnisa, his wife, are unable to have children. As a result, Iqbal Mirza starts thinking about a second marriage as a ‘solution’ to the problem of childlessness. This process is characterized by anxiety and torment for Iqbal Mirza. But gradually Iqbal Mirza considers the idea of polygyny more favourably. The novel depicts both Iqbal Mirza and his wife caught up in the agony which would lead to a second marriage. After experiencing considerable strain, Iqbal Mirza is persuaded to take a second marriage on the advice of a friend. Not surprisingly, the second marriage is a psychological and emotional shock for Zaibunnisa and she is taken ill for months. As news of Zaibunnisa's ill-health spreads amongst the family, her maternal grandfather visits and exhorts her to ‘adjust’ and ‘reconcile’ to the emergent situation. Interestingly, it is religion that provides the soother to ameliorate relations between Iqbal Mirza and Zaibunnisa, and most importantly a foundation for cordial settlement between Iqbal Mirza, Zaibunnisa, and the second wife. Zaibunnisa's grandfather is a noted maulavi of the city and gives her a brief sermon on religious duty and suffering. Referring to shan-e ubudiyat or ‘devotion to Allah’, he says, ‘O daughter, to take the misfortune to this extent over oneself is not commensurate with the requirements of ‘shan-e ubudiyat’. Grief neither defers affliction nor ameliorates it. You cannot avert misfortune by feeling misfortune’.Footnote 75 Exalting the glory of Allah, he explains that:
all the relations of this world are just superfluous, true love should only be for Allah. . .and whatever afflictions we face in this world are all from Allah. We have no control over them; a misfortune is a precursor to relief. We do not like it because we do not understand the secret behind it.Footnote 76
Zaibunnisa's grandfather then pacifies and alleviates her pain by comparing her grief to that of other women in the neighbourhood and the wider community. He says that her polygynous marriage is better than divorce or widowhood. Furthermore, he insists that her situation is better than that of other co-wives who live in extreme poverty. Reiterating his calls for shan-e ubudiyat, he asks his granddaughter not to express anguish over an unpleasant situation, since it is against ubudiyat and piety. He asks her to build forbearance and fortitude, to fight her circumstances and to develop detachment, for ‘just as the world is temporary, its happiness and grief are also transient’.Footnote 77 The sermon has a profound impact on Zaibunnisa and she starts contemplating her situation. She realizes her folly and the dangers of holding bitterness and distrust towards Iqbal Mirza. In letters between husband and wife, reconciliation is discussed and Zaibunnisa eventually forgives Iqbal Mirza. After the grandfather's sermon, Zaibunnisa, Iqbal Mirza and the second wife gradually develop an amiable relationship. Iqbal Mirza and his second wife have children together, and Zaibunnisa becomes almost a second mother to them. The novel ends when the tensions have been pacified between all three of them to show a tranquil home where the ‘problem’ of childlessness has been tackled through polygyny and every character is content with their marital life.
The grandfather's sermon emphasizes the religious duty of women in marriage where they are the paragons of patience and endurance. This emphasis on the religious duties of the virtuous wife has been documented in other instances amongst the Muslim community. Ghulam Ahmad, leader of the Ahmadiyya Movement stressed the virtues of patience, acquiescence and piety, when faced with adversity, in the education of women.Footnote 78 Compared with Iqbal Dulhan, in Gudar ka Lal, religion has a lesser role in developing a friendship between the first and the second wife. To a large extent, Akbari Begum supplants religiosity by education and thus it is the role of the educated second wife who must attend to the conflicts in the home and resolve them through her insight gained by education. After consulting his cousins, Hasan and Surayya, Yusuf marries Mehr Jabeen. Unlike Maqbool, Mehr Jabeen is shown to be educated and uncommonly intelligent. As we move ahead in the story, Mehr Jabeen proves to be an ‘ideal’ second wife. She works to remedy the estranged conjugal relationship between her husband Yusuf and Maqbool. Acting as the arbiter in the marriage, she hopes to renew Yusuf's affection for Maqbool and also establish an intimate friendship herself with Maqbool.Footnote 79 In addition to improving marital ties between Maqbool and Yusuf, Mehr Jabeen also assumes the responsibility of raising and educating Sitara Jabeen. While Maqbool is incapable of taking care of her own daughter, Mehr Jabeen is exceptionally attentive to her etiquette and decorum. She subscribes to the journal Phool (Flower) for her and reads out columns from other journals like Sharif Bibi (Respectable Woman).Footnote 80 She also divides her day into a schedule and gives lessons in basic arithmetic, Urdu, Persian, the Quran and the activities of sewing, drawing and cooking.Footnote 81 In the character of Mehr Jabeen, Akbari Begum presented what she considered to be the ‘new woman’. Gudar ka Lal reconstitutes the woman of modernity as an organized and efficient mother, the educated woman who was well versed in cooking, sewing, the Quran and the languages of Urdu and Persian. What is unusual in the novel is that instead of a monogamous companionate marriage, the ‘new woman’ occupies the fragile status of a second wife aspiring for friendly relations with the first wife.
The notion of friendship advocated in Gudar ka Lal evinces direct comparison with Iqbal Dulhan. The ideal of a perfect polygynous marriage based on friendship between the first and the second wife is depicted in both novels. The range and depth of questions and issues expressed in Gudar ka Lal, however, are different and more widespread than those in Iqbal Dulhan. Iqbal Dulhan is centred entirely on child-bearing and fertility, while Gudar ka Lal introduces to the discourse of polygyny issues of education of women and their autonomy, compatibility between men and women in marriage, and the raising of children. Despite this difference, the treatment of polygyny in Iqbal Dulhan is more humane than that in Gudar ka Lal. The plot is resolved around the amelioration of suffering of the first wife, and friendship between the co-wives results from the generosity of the first wife whereas Gudar ka Lal leaves no impression of the possible distress and affliction caused to Maqbool due to polygyny. By contrast, the grief of Maqbool is expressed by the liberal consciousness of Mehr Jabeen. The words ‘haq’ (right) and ‘huqooq’ (rights) appear frequently in conversations between Mehr Jabeen and Yusuf Raza. Mehr Jabeen asserts the rights of the first wife when discussing her relationship with Maqbool:
Sir, I am a woman and very familiar with the heart of another woman. If you were to marry again, I would be bitter with envy and shame. She is the first wife and I am the cause of her grief and pain. All that I am entitled to is actually hers and she has become the outsider. Even her child is in my care. Her life is becoming increasingly bitter. Only your affection can act as a balm for her wounded heart. I would feel sorry for myself if I, as a woman, were unaware of her predicament. If I can't wish relief for a fellow woman, then I am not deserving of being a woman.
Continuing her conversation, Mehr Jabeen says:
Yusuf, wouldn't it be displeasing to God if I seize everything that you have in your possession including your relationships and your child. And I remain happy when awake and sleep at peace during the night. And in the same house, there is another woman who also has the same rights as I have. Indeed, as the first wife she has more rights than me. But neglectful of everything, she spends her nights restlessly in worried sleep and her days in agony and anguish. And there is no one to enquire about her well-being. No, no, I will never tolerate this.Footnote 82
This plea of Mehr Jabeen, clearly the voice of Akbari Begum, encapsulates multiple dilemmas that confronted women reformers when they addressed the question of polygyny. The rights of both the first and the second wife had to be balanced in a deeply polarizing situation. For Akbari Begum, a discourse of conjugal rights of both wives was the only innovative way to challenge male supremacy in a polygynous marriage, and also foster care and intimacy between the two wives. Throughout the novel, Mehr Jabeen maintains her gestures of amiability and friendliness towards Maqbool despite Maqbool's indifference and hostility to her efforts. The final reconciliation between Maqbool and Mehr Jabeen occurs at the death of Maqbool's friend, Najaf Khanum.
The character of Najaf is crucial in understanding the argument about the education and tutoring of a girl child that Akbari Begum built in Gudar ka Lal. Towards the end of the novel, Najaf is shown having been taken incurably ill. Najaf then decides to disclose to Maqbool her true feelings and to tell her about her past. She reveals that she had all along been conspiring to destroy her marriage and says that her father, even though he grew in a sharif family, was not raised well and often socialized with vagrants in the neighbourhood wasting his life to gambling. To improve his ways, he was married to a sharif woman. The marriage stabilized him but only temporarily. Soon he returned to his earlier habits, developed an illicit relationship with another ‘low born’ woman who gave birth to her and her elder sister. When Najaf was one year old, this woman started loving another man, and eloped with him. On the other hand, Najaf's father too became involved again, with a member of a mirasan, who now lived with her father, and who brought her up. As Najaf was under her care and control, she remained totally deprived of education and good tutoring. Najaf's father worked with Khair Ali and thus she had a chance to be mostly with Maqbool at her house. She became infatuated with Hasan Raza, and after being snubbed by him and her failure in her overtures, she turned to Yusuf Raza. There too she failed miserably. Meanwhile, the family arranged Maqbool's wedding to Yusuf Raza. Najaf reveals that this enraged her and she grew excessively jealous of Maqbool, and plotted to destroy their marriage. To remove any possibility of suspicion, she then feigned to be more friendly and sincere to her. Maqbool thus acted totally on her advice. At the end of her disclosure, Najaf seeks forgiveness from Maqbool and suggests her to trust Mehr Jabeen and act on her advice as she had hitherto done with her.Footnote 83
This disclosure by Najaf followed by her death shocks Maqbool and she becomes bedridden for quite some time. During her illness, Mehr Jabeen attends to her needs and takes care of her, which enhances Maqbool's appreciation for Mehr Jabeen's sincerity. Thereupon, following her recovery, both Maqbool and Mehr Jabeen live together as true sisters and friends. In Najaf's character the novelist highlights the prejudices that were integral to the reformist agenda of women's education. Education was meant to define the acceptable social space for freedom for the modern woman and this space was to include only the ashraf community, not the mean and selfish mirasans. An educated woman preserved her sharafat by self-policing her interaction and associating herself only with sharif, educated women. The ‘incompatible marriage’ in Gudar ka Lal, born out of inequities in education, thus turned marriage into a space for the contestation of the norms of sharafat. Footnote 84Sharafat thus constitutes the central aspect of the discourse of polygyny. The issue of marital incompatibility between men and women could be cracked through the second wife, an idealization of sharafat, who vociferously demands rights and education for women and also upholds polygyny by making room for the conjugal ties between her husband and his first wife. Much like the discourse on sati in colonial India, we note that contradiction and ambiguity are striking features of the debate on polygyny. Moreover the difference between Iqbal Dulhan and Gudar ka Lal demonstrates that gender roles, as propagated in early twentieth century Urdu fiction, were not the same and could by no means be considered fixed, even at the prescriptive level. Nevertheless, there was also unequivocal and categorical criticism of polygyny and one such voice was that of Nazr Sajjad Hyder.
Rejection of polygyny
Nazr Sajjad Hyder was active in the women's movement throughout her life and often expressed her concerns in prominent women's journals. In addition to Urdu journalism, she wrote numerous Urdu novels including Hirman Nasib (The Unfortunate One) in 1920, Surayya in 1930 and Janbaz (Daredevil), which was serialized in the journal Ismat in 1918–1919 and published as a book in 1935.Footnote 85 Nazr Sajjad's concern for the family enunciated a radical difference. In the preface to her novel Akhtarunnisa, she summarized some of the major problems of the family as follows:
The evils of an unplanned and purposeless second marriage, the illiterate second wife's unkind treatment of their step children, the educated girls’ forced obedience to their illiterate step-mothers, the fathers’ negligence of the needs of their children from their first wives after their second marriage, the arrangement of the marriages of their daughters in an illiterate family on their illiterate wives’ advice, the women's sufferings in an illiterate milieu, the young widows’ efforts to overcome their difficulties by struggling to get good education.Footnote 86
These were the issues which she also raised time and again in her writings in Tahzib-un Niswan. Footnote 87 She attributed her concern to the larger effect polygynous marriages created in the community, namely that: ‘hundreds, nay even thousands, of women of our community have endured these sufferings. Thousands of our helpless children who had lost their mothers were caught in troubles at the hands of these illiterate and cruel step-mothers’.Footnote 88
Ah-e-Mazluman contains two parallel stories each depicting a situation of polygyny. Neither story ends tragically but none of them close with friendship between the husband and the co-wives. The plot revolves around two households, one is that of Deputy Sahib, and the other is that of Munshi Hidayatullah. The novel opens with Deputy informing his wife, Saltanat Ara, about his transfer to the town of Rawalpindi from Ludhiana, the town of residence of Deputy and his wife. He specifically asks his wife to leave for Agra, where her family resides while he arranges basic living facilities at Rawalpindi. Meanwhile, in the second household of Munshi Hidayatullah, we are introduced to his wife Abadi Begum and her daughter-in-law Zubaida, and his son, Azmatullah. Azmatullah has two sisters and one brother, Shafiullah. Munshi Hidayatullah is the patriarch of the family. In this family, Zubaida is severely ill-treated by her mother-in-law, Abadi Begum, to the extent that she is forced to live in the small room outside the main house which is also used for storage and as a shed for animals. The stories of these two households accentuate the cruelty of husbands towards their wives and aim to intensify the exclusion and alienation experienced by the first wife.
In the family of Munshi Hidayatullah, Abadi Begum decides to arrange a second marriage for her son to her wealthy niece Khursheed Begum. This is borne out of her malice towards Zubaida and a desire to acquire a wealthier status through the son's marriage to a rich family.Footnote 89
Meanwhile in the family of Deputy, Saltanat Ara moves to live with her family in Agra. After a few days, she is distressed and reveals to her sister, Tamkenat Ara, that her husband has stopped writing letters and has ceased all contact with her. Worried, she decides to leave Agra and comes to Rawalpindi with her son Fazlur-Rahman and her two domestic helps. When she reaches Rawalpindi, she discovers that her husband has had a second marriage to a woman named Zarrin Jaan.Footnote 90 Both Saltanat Ara and Zarrin Jaan live together in the same house with much bitterness and angst amongst them. After a few days, Zarrin Jaan falls ill and insists that she live separately from Deputy's wife. Deputy manages an independent living arrangement for her in an adjacent house, and divides his time between the two wives. For the most part, his feelings are for Zarrin Jaan. While the two wives dislike each other, Saltanat Ara pretends friendship in front of everybody.
In the first household, Munshi Hidayatullah dies and the family plunges into a financial crisis. To escape penury and its stresses, Khursheed Begum and Azmatullah leave to stay at Khursheed begum's family and have a daughter together. Within a few days of childbirth, however, Khursheed suffers from severe post-delivery ailments and dies. Afterwards, Azmatullah returns to his father's house. Throughout this time, he has not kept in touch with his mother or his siblings. Faced by the strain of poverty, the health of both Abadi Begum and Azmatullah starts to wane to the extent that they become bedridden. Zubaida returns to take care of them and moved by Zubaida's compassion, Abadi Begum realizes her mistake in marrying off Azmatullah. Zubaida forgives Abadi Begum and her son, and the monogamous marriage of Zubaida and Azmatullah is restored.Footnote 91
Meanwhile, in the Deputy's house, Saltanat Ara's health also declines rapidly. Concerned for her isolation and her well-being, her brother-in-law, Rashid Malik travels to Rawalpindi and escorts her back to Agra. Saltanat Ara moves back to live with her family while Deputy is married and living with Zarrin Jaan. Meanwhile, there is a robbery at Deputy's house in which he is assaulted by the robbers. A financial crisis is created when Deputy is unable to work due to injuries incurred during the attack. In the climax of the novel, Zarrin Jaan flees the house with jewellery and money. When Saltanat Ara discovers that Deputy is in poor health and in penury, she volunteers to help. Saltanat Ara's care and generosity renews Deputy's affection and regard for her and they gradually return to their earlier married life.
Nazr Sajjad's position in Ah-e-Mazluman sets her apart from Bashiruddin Ahmad and Akbari Begum, both of whom we have considered so far. The idea of polygyny as ‘Islamic’ is not entertained at all and the happiness of the home is established only when the second wife is ousted. Instead of friendship, there is bitterness and misunderstanding between the first and the second wife. Polygyny is absolutely rejected, and at the end of the novel, Nazr Sajjad makes a plea on ‘behalf’ of first wives and women. Referring to polygyny as an ‘illegitimate marriage’, she described its prevalence amongst Muslims as a ‘blizzard’ and denounced the community for not paying enough attention, for ‘there are numerous leaders and reformers in the community but nobody is concerned about its prevention’.Footnote 92 She also criticized the discourse of ‘adjustment’ that was common to the rhetoric of polygyny:
Our truthful reality is that ‘oppressor hits and does not let us wail’. The injunction for us is ‘we oppress, you endure. We hit, you do not weep nor utter a word of censure. Just combust and crush inside but don't wince. . . .’ We obedient, ill-treated ones even agree to this and do not mention our grievances and demands, which are our rights. In fact we think that it is inappropriate or disrespectable. When it becomes excruciating, then we forbear very quietly with a sigh. In such a state, what can we ourselves do? Therefore, it is a humble request of not only hundreds but thousands of heartbroken women to our honest, sincere fathers. Our true brothers! For God's sake, have mercy on us and first and foremost, before anything else, take note of us. Then we will also call you reformers. Otherwise, what does it matter to us how many reforms you bring? Our lives are getting burned, crushed and destroyed.Footnote 93
The angry rhetoric of Ah-e-Mazluman challenges the overwhelming image of Muslim women during the colonial period as passive, silenced by the nationalist discourse and the patriarchal Muslim male elite.Footnote 94 Unfortunately, South Asian historiography has almost completely ignored the strategies Muslim women employed to negotiate power in their everyday life and to resist structures of domination within their social worlds.Footnote 95 We need to recognize and grasp the dynamism and multiplicity of their subversive actions and upset their hegemonic representation of muteness and inaction. In fact, Ah-e-Mazluman can be considered representative of a large number of active Muslim women at this time. Ah-e-Mazluman was published around 1912 and the fifth All India Muslim Ladies Conference of 1918, held in Lahore, issued one of the first public declarations against polygyny. The conference was attended by almost four hundred women from a large number of cities including Lahore, Allahabad, Lucknow, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Meerut, Bhopal, Peshawar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, Rawalpindi and Jammu.Footnote 96 An address given by Jahan Ara Shahnawaz at the conference called the custom of plural marriages one of the most shameful acts of oppression in Islam and a practice that was increasing among the best educated and most influential class of young Muslims.Footnote 97 The speech was met with applause by other women at the conference and one of the attendees even called for legislation to abolish polygyny, much like sati. But Jahan Ara had to write a second address in the press explaining her position after she was accused of insulting Islam and speaking under the influence of Christian missionaries and modern education.Footnote 98 Outside the literary debate, Sultan Jahan Begum of Bhopal also engaged in the debate over women's status in Islam and believed that polygyny was acceptable under conditions of infertility of the first wife or an ‘incompatible marriage’.Footnote 99 The debates in literature therefore were not isolated from public activism but were expressions of common concerns.
The novels of Akbari Begum, Bashiruddin Ahmad and Nazr Sajjad Hyder are important for an understanding of gender history in colonial India. Their discourse of polygyny demonstrates subtle differences not only between men and women but also amongst women. These disagreements reveal to us the critical and interpretive characteristics of the commentaries and highlight the urgency of historicizing the debate on polygyny. This demonstrates that marriage, like other aspects of society, was subject to shifts in historical conditions and Muslim men and women enunciated different types of arguments to challenge and criticize their social and familial norms.
Late nineteenth century religious pamphlets and initial twentieth century novels represent two sites of discourses that reveal different types of knowledge about the family. They provide multiple lenses to examine polygyny. Religious pamphlets employed discourses based on principles of natural science and history to explain a practice sanctioned in Islam, while novels and fiction, on the other hand, reflected the anxieties and dilemmas of lived experiences and stories of men and women caught up in polygyny.
Conclusion
The political transition in India from the time of the Mughals to British colonial rule resulted in a basic religious reorientation among Indian Muslims. This reorientation involved a fundamental change in religious thought and organization as well as proclamation of various processes of reinterpretation and revival. In the nineteenth century, the issue of polygyny was argued in the context of the history and tenets of Islam, in particular, the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Social and political conditions under colonial rule further effected significant transformations in the discourse on polygyny. After the establishment of British government, Indian Muslims, especially those who had served the Mughal rulers, had to come to terms with the realities, rules and institutions of the changed political climate. As they evolved into a professional class claiming the ashraf position, one of the guarantees of ‘respectability’ and ‘Islam’ was the home and the domestic space.Footnote 100 Family lineage and descent constituted this sharafat. The concern with procreation, as seen in the writings of both Sayyid Ahmad and Bashiruddin Ahmad, and continuation of the family line, was a marker of respectability for the ashraf class. Childbearing was necessary to maintain a living memory of sharif and high parentage. Polygyny in an infertile marriage can thus be seen as a process that allowed ashraf families to preserve their status and affirm their ancestry and family heritage.
The unequal rise of education and the higher presence of educated men compared with women also affirmed polygyny. Akbari Begum believed that polygyny could resolve the dilemma of an ‘incompatible marriage’, caused by a discrepancy in education between the husband and the first wife. Marriage to an educated second wife would ensure that the house is efficiently maintained, that children are well brought up and most importantly the boundaries of sharafat are not subverted.
There was certainly a rebellion against the observation that polygyny could be helpful and constructive for familial happiness. This is best illustrated in the writings of Nazr Sajjad Hyder who refused to imagine any possibility of the establishment of an amicable home through polygyny. At the level of social action, the public declaration against polygyny at the All-India Muslim Ladies Conference of 1918 held in Lahore encapsulates the sentiment of Nazr Sajjad Hyder. In fact, she was one of the most active members at that conference, and decades later she nostalgically remembered that she had persuaded women at the conference to sign a pledge whereby they agreed that they would not arrange the marriage of their daughters to those men who were already married ‘even if they were kings’.Footnote 101
However what intrigues me is that when Saliha Abid Husain reflected back on her own life, in particular her marriage to Abid Husain in 1933, she saw her ‘ideal’ in Mehr Jabeen of Gudar ka Lal, the prototype of the educated second wife. The first marriage of Abid Husain took place in 1917 and he felt that it was ‘incompatible’ and forced onto him. His father pressured him to remarry when the first marriage produced no children. Abid Husain, however, ignored his father's demands and left for Europe to pursue higher education. Upon his return, his father again insisted on a second marriage but Abid Husain had no desire for children and considered polygyny inappropriate. Abid Husain contemplated a second marriage only when he felt deprived of all pleasures of marital life, in particular, companionship, domesticity and love.Footnote 102 When Saliha Husain received from him the offer of marriage, she deliberated as follows:
It is likely that he wants to marry on the insistence of his father to produce a child. This is my insult. Does a girl have no personality of her own? Doesn't she have a worth of her own? Doesn't she have a right to be loved by herself? Is she merely an instrument for furthering a lineage? And then, what will happen to that self of mine, who in her assessment was even now a supporter of women's rights and wanted to propagate them through her pen. Should I grab the rights of another woman! No, no, how can it be!Footnote 103
Husain's doubts and dilemmas were cleared when she furtively read Abid Husain's letters to her sister-in-law. She discovered that Abid Husain was opposed to polygyny, that he had already obtained permission for this marriage from his first wife, that he would not legally divorce his first wife, that he would take responsibility for her and that no decision would be made until Saliha Husain agreed to the marriage.Footnote 104 Abid Husain's letters gave Saliha Husain the confidence to make the decision in favour of the marriage, and later in her life, she regarded Shafat, Abid Husain's first wife, as her sister and friend. Saliha Husain writes that ‘for years, there was only one relation left between me and her: that of sisters. . .both of us had forgotten every other relation’.Footnote 105 What is of great significance in Saliha Husain's marriage and also the narrative of Gudar ka Lal is that it reveals that the mimicry of Victorian norms and the emulation of companionate marriage was not the only trajectory of ‘modern’ marriage in India, that, as Tanika Sarkar has argued, ‘the normative and moral horizons between the two cultural systems were so very different and distant that plain mimicry was plainly out of the question’.Footnote 106
One of the most salient features about the discourse on polygyny was that it was never monolithic but was characterized by constant flux and oscillation between ideas of suffering and fortitude, education and marital rights, nature and religion, history and change. The results are eclectic. Furthermore, the question was never ‘resolved’ but, as the theological and fictional works demonstrate, polygyny came to be constituted as a ‘problem’ for modern, Indian Muslims. It was often retained and made compatible with other norms and ideas that educated men and women had learnt to cherish under the new dispensation. While some openly rejected and criticized the practice, others tried to render it more humane and wrote about ways of reforming it. Polygyny thus became the umbrella under which many familial issues were brought together and discussed.
