A Turkish Alberuni

Inside India by Halide Edib, introduction and notes by Mushirul Hasan; Oxford University Press; pages 272, Rs.395.

"YOU know what a great world figure she is and whether you look on her as a Turkish feminist leader, as a world renowned authority on education or as a great writer, she is one of those rare personalities whose visit is a matter of great moment to us," Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, President of the Indian National Congress in 1927 and of its Parliamentary Board in 1934, wrote to a friend in October 1934. He was referring to Halide Edib. She arrived in India on January 9, 1935 and left on March 15, 1935.

It is only a small exaggeration to say that she took India by storm. She delivered eight lectures at the Jamia Millia Islamia (National Muslim University) in Delhi. "Eight personalities have presided over my lectures at Jamia. Four of them were Hindus and four Muslims. Brief sketches of them may throw light on the Indian scene. Of Sarojini Naidu I have already spoken. Of Mahatma Gandhi I will speak again, for his presence at Jamia on that memorable evening stands out very vividly in my mind.

"Mahatma Gandhi sat on a cushion, surrounded with charcoal braziers, for the night was cold. Eyes from the packed crowd in the hall and eyes from the packed crowd on the spacious platform were riveted on him. The atmosphere vibrated with a mixture of profound affection and mystic fervour. And the fragile figure was more like Buddha than ever. Though I was delivering a speech on a historic phase of a distant country, I was conscious of a distinct line of thought which had nothing to do with what I was saying. I was thinking about the quality of Mahatma Gandhi's greatness," Halide Edib wrote in her book Inside India.

Yet, as Mushirul Hasan ruefully notes in his Introduction, "Surprisingly, there is virtually no reference to Inside India in standard accounts of Indian nationalism. The neglect of so important a work is largely due to our dependence on intellectual resources from the West, our anxiety to adopt their frameworks and models, and in some cases, to assiduously nurture the Orientalist vision and representation of India. Presumably, the reflections of Halide Edib are ignored simply because she asks disturbing questions - questions that do not fit into established historical canons. There is this imposing figure, imposing through a passion and amazing power over a language that grips the reader's attention and which is so intimately connected with her personality. There is passion in her writings and anger against colonialism and colonial exploitation. There is commitment in her description of India's nationalist movement and its leaders, and a desire to see their efforts reach fruition during her lifetime. And there is concern at the rise of fissiparous tendencies that could, as she knew from her experience in Turkey before and after the establishment of the Kemalist Republic, destroy the worthy ideal of creating a plural nationhood. I use 'nationhood' because Halide Edib preferred this expression. Nationhood, she said in one of her Jamia lectures, harmonised inner forces in all their variety from a utilitarian and aesthetic point of view, while nationalism caused disintegration and created conflict with surrounding people." This is a succinct summation of the significance and contents of her book (The Jamia lectures were published under the title Conflict of East and West in Turkey.)

Mushirul Hasan has done more than retrieve Inside India from oblivion. He has painstakingly written an Introduction which surveys its author's life and work, and places both in the context of the times. Halide Edib and her husband Dr. Adnan Adivar fought for Turkey's survival and freedom under the leadership of the great founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal. But they soon discovered the darker side of the national hero. Both went on exile from the country in 1926.

Halide Edib returned to Turkey only after Kemal's death. Years before she died in 1964, her fame had spread across Europe and to the United States. She wrote 20 novels, translated George Orwell's Animal Farm, directed the translation of four plays by Shakespeare. Ten unpublished theses on her are available in libraries in Istanbul and Ankara.

Inside India catches the political flavour of the times and reveals its author's gifts of acute perception. It makes sad reading today. Three men she admired most were Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru of whom she wrote: "The writer in her talks found out that the Muslim youth were more inclined to Jawaharlal Nehru, the Socialist leader, than to any other in the political field. Jawaharlal Nehru's hold over the Muslim youth, since he has been tested as a leader, has increased, according to the latest news. And it is evident that Socialism has gained ground among the youth and the student organisations. There are a large number of young Muslims in the Congress Party; the Punjab Socialist Party consists mostly of Muslims, and the Frontier Socialist Party has the largest membership in all India. This Socialist tendency on the Frontiers is specially significant because of the clearness and the forcefulness of the people there. Therefore, one can say that the type of Democracy Dr. Ansari advocated, and the type of Socialism Abdul Gaffar Khan represents, are in favour of the ideal of a common Indian nationhood for men of all faiths."

The book has by far the most detailed account of the Jamia. She travelled through Aligarh, Lahore, Peshawar, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Her pen portraits are arresting - especially one of Sarojini Naidu who was known for her penchant for malicious gossip.

In 1935 the Muslim League was committed to a united India. Halide Edib drew on Chaudhry Rahmat Ali for an understanding of the concept of Pakistan of which he was commonly regarded the author, at least in its most extreme form. When he went to Pakistan shortly after it was born, the government expelled him. Even in 1935 Halide Edib could foresee the havoc the two-nation theory could wreak.