A forgotten hero of the freedom struggle

For several years I worked in a publishing house on the busy Asaf Ali Road, a street that serves as a cordon sanitaire between the squalor of Old Delhi and the (relative) order of New Delhi. Once a major commercial hub, when I started working there in the late 1980s, this long row of porticoes with a maze of tightly packed offices had an unmistakably dingy, run-down look. At the end of the road stood the statue of Asaf Ali in a dilapidated enclosure near Delhi Gate (or Dilli Gate, as the locals pronounced it). The dark statue, liberally speckled with the frighteningly white droppings of the many pigeons that frequent this area, looked forlorn, especially given the Sharvani-clothed, bespectacled figure standing with folded hands in a particularly pleading pose.

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TCA Raghavan,
Circles of Freedom: Friendship, Love and Loyalty in the National Freedom Struggle,
Juggernauts (2024)>

I must confess that in the four years that I worked on Asaf Ali Road, passing by it twice a day, morning and evening, this statue never aroused any curiosity in me and I knew practically nothing about Asaf Ali. Perhaps the name of his wife Aruna Asaf Ali seemed more familiar to me since she was still alive and active. I suspect I was not alone in this. For most people in Delhi, Asaf Ali is a forgotten footnote from long-ago history lessons, one of the many “unknown” people who were part of the national freedom struggle. If the situation is so grim in Delhi, where he lived and worked, a city that was the home of his ancestors, I suspect it can only be worse in the rest of the country.

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In written form Circles of Freedom: Friendship, Love and Loyalty in the National Freedom StruggleTCA Raghavan corrects an old injustice. For too long, the great heroes of the freedom movement have overshadowed the countless others who dedicated their entire lives to the cause of independence and the struggle against colonial rule. For too long, a handful of names have dominated the history of the years before 1947, with Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and Patel being the most frequently cited. >

OIn the last decade, as history has been rewritten by new, dominant actors, new names have been mentioned and new icons created, often with scant means. In this unseemly clamor for space and recognition, some names have almost slipped through the cracks of the popular imagination, neglected and overlooked by professional historians, or at best relegated to the bottom rung of a carefully crafted hierarchy of heroes. A park or a street named after lesser-known figures arouses neither curiosity nor interest in their lives and the role they played in shaping a young nation. Asaf Ali (1888-1953) is one such person.

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Raghavan's book is not a pure biography, however, because it is not just about Asaf (as the author calls him). Instead, he tells his story through five protagonists who are inextricably linked by friendship and solidarity: Asaf Ali, Sarojini Naidu, Syud Hossain, Syed Mahmud and Aruna Asaf Ali. While Aruna enters the story quite late, when she marries the much older Asaf, the other four meet shortly before the First World War in England, where the three men have gone to study, and Naidu, recovering from illness, is the scholarly diva, eloquent poet, ardent nationalist and a veritable magnet for impressionable young men who dream impossible dreams. >

Over the next four decades they meet, write long letters, take a keen interest in each other's lives and careers, but “what gave meaning to their lives,” as Raghavan concludes, “was the great enterprise in which they were participating.” And so it was the freedom struggle that not only formed the core of their relationship but actually shaped their lives. Had it not been for this unique, overwhelming zeal to win freedom for their country, they could well have led different lives: Naidu would have remained a soft-spoken poet, Asaf and Mahmud successful and wealthy lawyers, Hossain a journalist and Aruna a do-gooder with no special qualifications. But the exigencies of the times were such that all five were involved in the national freedom struggle in different ways and to different degrees, and this unique “great struggle” shaped their lives.>

With three extremely well-received books under his belt – The Gentlemen: Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim – Courtiers and Poets in the Mughal Empire, The People Next Door: The Strange History of India’s Relations with Pakistan And Men of History: Jadunath Sarkar, GS Sardesai, Raghivir Sinh and their search for India’s past – Raghavan, a former diplomat, is able to tell the story with the poise of a master storyteller and the meticulousness of a professional historian. Here he weaves the events of the turbulent years before independence into the lives of his five main characters, with Asaf at the centre. Through Asaf, he unravels the nuances and dilemmas of the moderate Muslims in India who were not seduced by the lures and promises of the Muslim League and remained true to their devotion to the Congress and, by extension, to Nehru. >

The extreme deference shown to Nehru by nationalist Muslim leaders is remarkable. Every time a Muslim leader tried to draw the “communal problem” to Nehru's attention, Nehru brushed aside these concerns by saying, “The real problem is a political problem – the conflict between a progressive organization like the Congress and a politically reactionary organization like the League.” Concerns raised by leaders like Asaf, who believed that “self-determination was preferable to a forced union,” were ignored. Raghavan is aware of the distrust that Muslim leaders within the Congress aroused among their colleagues, noting, “Because he was a Muslim, some felt that he was a fifth column of the League.” Independence did not make things easier for those Muslims who chose to stay in India. Nationalism increasingly meant thinking and living in the spirit of the Congress and not otherwise. Anyone who lived or thought differently was considered anti-national, a phenomenon that can also be observed repeatedly in the new India, i.e. in Bharat – with the difference that there the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has replaced the ideological hegemony of the Congress Party.

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Different readers are likely to take different things away from this book: the milestones of modern Indian history outlined in broad strokes, Gandhi's irresistible call to quit India, the young Aruna's unfurling of the national flag at Gowalia Tank which made her famous nationwide, the detailed portrayal of the prison life of a group of high-ranking political prisoners in Ahmadnagar Fort, a careful weaving of accounts from different sources and different perspectives resulting in a bright, colorful and highly readable patchwork of modern Indian history, and much more in this captivating book.>

I, however, was filled with an indescribable sadness, feeling that the more things change, the more they remain the same – at least for India's Muslims. Despite his many fine qualities of heart and mind, and despite his excellent legal training, Asaf made no impression either as a lawyer or as a politician. Although he seemed destined for greatness, and benefited destiny by his zealous preparation for a life of public service, Asaf never quite reached the heights he had planned. The few successes that did come his way, such as a seat in the Constituent Assembly (for Delhi) or the conduct of high-profile cases such as those of Bhagat Singh or Shaikh Abdullah, were overshadowed by controversy or a lesser share of the limelight than he felt he deserved. The mantle of statesmanship that fell to him with the death of Dr. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal Khan – both national leaders from Delhi like himself – and a place at the high table that should have been offered to him as an experienced Muslim leader was denied to him. >

When one considers the price that far greater leaders of the Congress – like C. Rajagopalachari and Bhulabhai Desai – paid for showing initiative and thereby insulting the party leadership, it becomes clear to what extent the Congress, not unlike the League, became an organisation dominated by personalities. Asaf's case was – to use a modern phrase – aggravated by optics; his timidity, his 'breakdown', his concern for his wife during his long years in prison, his marital problems, the shadow of distrust and suspicion that clung to him all his life, combined to create a personality that did not inspire confidence. >

For all his loyalty to Nehru, Asaf was never elected to the Cabinet or appointed to any important committee. Instead, he was sent as ambassador to Washington, returned to serve as Governor of Orissa, and then was sent again as ambassador to Sweden, where he died just months after taking office.

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Just as Asaf's public image was shaped by being a moderate Muslim, so was his marriage to Aruna. From a political novice, she quickly transformed into a tempestuous petrel who caused her husband great fear, consternation and, ultimately, sadness. To his credit, Raghavan steadfastly steered clear of prurient gossip and presented the changing contours of the marriage objectively: “…in fact, the relationship began to change quite early in the marriage and here Aruna's own political career was the driving factor.” Reading between the lines of Raghavan's carefully crafted text, one senses the whiff of misogyny in the upper echelons of our national leadership. Gandhi appreciated Aruna's bravery and patriotism but saw her as an “eternal rebel” and Nehru once went so far as to call her “hysterical” – something Aruna never forgot. >

Incidentally, Gandhi was a staunch opponent of interfaith marriages and had opposed his son Manilal's relationship with Fatima (a Gujarati Muslim) and Hossain's alliance with Nehru's sister Sarup Rani (later known as Vijay Lakshmi Pandit). He was in favour of Asaf's marriage to Aruna. Read Friendship circles to find out why.>