Rasheed Jahan
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Rasheed Jahan
The progressive feminist
By Dr Rauf Parekh
Born in Delhi on August 25, 1905, Rasheed Jahan was fortunate in the sense that although she was born in a country and times that had a pronounced gender bias against the girl child, her father, Shaikh Abdullah, a Kashmiri neo-Muslim, was an ardent supporter of education for women. He established a girls’ school at Aligarh in 1906. This very school was the forerunner of the girls’ college at Aligarh. Her mother Waheed Jahan Begum was an educated woman who contributed to the magazines brought out for women. Khatoon was one such magazine, published by Rasheed Jahan’s father.
Rasheed Jahan — the future doctor, short story writer, social worker, feminist activist and one of the founders of the Progressive Writers’ Movement in the subcontinent — got her early education at the school established by her father. She later attended Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow. And in 1924, she entered Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, to study medicine and completed her MBBS in 1929. In the same year, she joined the UP provincial medical services and was posted at Lucknow after a year or two.
The enlightened environment of her parental home and the charged political atmosphere, as it was all over the subcontinent at that time, might have sown the seeds of progressivism in her heart. But it was, perhaps, the influence of progressive writers and intellectuals like Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali and Mahmood-uz-Zafar, whom she met during her stay at Lucknow, which proved to be a decisive factor. She and these Marxist comrades of hers were the very persons who, a few years down the road, became the founders of the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA), conceiving the association’s basic idea and its manifesto.
The progressive literary movement was launched in 1936 but before that a fiery collection of ten Urdu short stories named Angare (Embers) was published. Angare was, in a way, a precursor of the movement that was to take the subcontinent’s literary and political circles by storm. Rasheed Jahan had started creative writing during her school days, trying her hand both at Urdu and English. But later on she wrote mostly in Urdu and when her Marxist friends decided to bring Angare in 1932, two of her short stories were included in it, with Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali and Mahmood-uz-Zafar contributing the rest.
True to its name, Angare created flames of wrath in the conservative society of India. It was a rebellion against the established social norms and traditional values. Adding fuel to the fire was Angare’s irreverent attitude towards religion and the clergy. Shocked especially were the orthodox and religious segments of the society who considered the publication blasphemous.
The critics’ contention that the authors of Angare were rather emotional in their comments on religion and the traditional norms holds water. Their attack on religion was not only intentional, but at times it was also unnecessary and in bad taste. They thought, perhaps, it was necessary to ridicule the rituals and symbols of religion in order to be considered progressive. Or, maybe, as some accuse, it was in line with the policy of the ‘party’ and the Soviet regime that sponsored the progressive movement.It is true that the contents of Angare do not set any high literary standard for fiction and its importance today is only historical. Without a doubt, the collection was a turning point in the history of Urdu fiction. In fact Angare provided a much-need jolt to the literary scene and encouraged other writers, whether for good or bad, to open up their hearts.
True to its name, Angare created flames of wrath in the conservative society of India. It was a rebellion against established social norms and traditional values.
Though all the stories included in Angare were considered to be highly objectionable, the ones written by Rasheed Jahan titled Parde ke peechhe (Behind the veil) and Dilli ki sair (An outing in Delhi) were deemed both controversial and shocking as the author was a female. The anthology not only discussed ‘touchy’ topics like religion and clergy, it was rather unrestrained in the treatment of the subject of sex which was hitherto deemed a taboo. Not surprisingly, Sajjad Zaheer’s stories were taken special notice of for being obscene and blasphemous. The public reaction was simple outrage. The authors received death threats but they were unrepentant and never backed out. Rasheed Jahan, too, would not be deterred. The UP government proscribed the collection; copies were burnt down publicly — which explains why the book’s first edition is so rare these days.
Being a single woman and a Muslim, it must have taken a lot of courage for Rasheed Jahan to contribute pieces to a publication like Angare. The feat is even more amazing when we consider that PWA had not been formed till then and being a Muslim woman, social worker, feminist, and a progressive — all at the same time (a deadly mixture indeed) — must have demanded mountains of resolve as in those days the majority of Muslim women observed purdah.
Later, she joined the Communist Party of India and, in 1934, married Mahmood-uz-Zafar who was vice principal at M.A.O. College, Amritsar.
In 1937, Aurat Aur Deegar Afsane (Woman and other short stories), a collection of Rasheed Jahan’s short stories, appeared. It also contained a play by her. Shaula-i-Jawwala (The Circulating Flame), she also has to her credit many plays that she wrote and produced for All India Radio.
Her approach being feminist, Rasheed Jahan blasted the hypocrisy and so-called morality that existed in society. She ruthlessly exposed the double standards and ostentatious religiosity. Male chauvinism and the unfair treatment of women outraged her. The welfare and well-being of the common people, especially women, was Rasheed Jahan’s passion as is evident from her short stories and the existence of her welfare clinic in Lucknow
What sets Rasheed Jahan apart from her contemporaries is her ability to successfully depict the problems faced by women of India, and that too in an age when even the progressive male writers could not truly portray the mental agony the women in Indian society had to go through. Being a female gynecologist and obstetrician, she understood the emotional distress and problems of ordinary women and empathised with them. Her real concern was social and economic issues, especially the ones related to women. These included poor status in a male-dominated society, early or unsuitable marriage, the veil, poverty and illiteracy.
Her other concern was the exploitation in the name of religion. She scoffs at the very idea of a religion that bisects humanity on the basis of wealth. In her short story Gharibon Ka Bhagwan (God of the poor) Rasheed Jahan portrays a poor woman Durga being scolded by a wealthy woman for coming to temple, as (in the words of the wealthy woman) a beggar cannot have a god.
Rasheed Jahan continued her relentless war on injustice and after the independence she took active part in politics. In 1949 she participated in the strike of the railway workers in UP and landed in jail where she had to spend about three months.
Later, her health deteriorated and she underwent surgical operation for cancer. She died in Moscow on July 29, 1952, where she had gone for the treatment of cancer. She was buried in a Moscow cemetery.
Rasheed Jahan inspired a lot of young writers and intellectuals; Faiz Ahmed Faiz was but one of them. In progressive circles, Rasheed Jahan is an icon of courage and nonconformity. For the lovers of Urdu fiction she is an iconoclast who paved the way for many.
