Rashida Jahan: Portrait of a Communist
By Dr Asif Javed
Williamsport, PA

 

Born in Aligarh in 1905, Rashida Jahan (RJ) was the daughter of Shiekh Abdullah who is often confused with other Shiekh Abdullah, the discredited politician from Kashmir. Born in a Kashmiri Brahmin family, this Abdullah had converted to Islam as a teenager. While studying at Aligarh, he came under the influence of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. An admirer of the great man, he did Sir Syed one better. Against widespread opposition that included Sir Syed himself and poet Akbar Allahabadi, he founded a girls only school in Aligarh that was one of the first in the Indian sub-continent. It has since become a college. Ismat Chughtai was an early alumna.

Having finished school in Aligarh, RJ joined the Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow for premed and, later, joined Lady Harding Medical School in Delhi. Following graduation, she returned to Lucknow. It was at Lucknow that she came under the influence of friends that transformed her life. Those young men, Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmad Ali and Sahibzada Mahmood Zafar, were communists. The quartet wrote short stories and got them published as a book titled Angaray. RJ was to marry Mahmood in 1934. Mahmood was from an aristocratic background, had been educated at Oxford and, while in the UK, had become a communist.

RJ specialized in gynae and established a lucrative private practice in Lucknow. Being a card-carrying communist, she was required to donate most of her income to the Communist Party while she and her husband subsisted on a meagre allowance of Rs 50 per month.

In 1950, RJ was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus and suffered ill health for the rest of her life. Several surgeries were of no help. As a last resort, she was flown to Moscow, where she y received VIP treatment. But cancer was too advanced. She died on July 29, 1952 at the age of forty-seven. Her husband was the only family member at her bedside. She was buried in Moscow. The epitaph at her grave reads: RJ-Communist, Doctor and Writer.

What is so special about RJ? For one, she became a writer back in early 1930s when there were hardly any other female writers. She wrote years before Ismat Chughtai and Quratul Ain Haider did. Although RJ did not write much, but what she did, was written with a purpose. She contributed several stories to Angaray. Her stories were provocative, and addressed social issues, especially the plight of women, and the false interpretation of religion that had become the monopoly of a particular class of Muslim scholars. Angaray created a furor in the conservative Muslim society of the time. It was banned and remains so to this day. This was almost a century before one heard of the Me Too movement.

RJ's life was unusual in several other ways too. Although she did not live long enough to write about it, there are glimpses of her remarkable life scattered here and there. An interesting one is provided by Hameed Naseem who was then a student at MAO College, Amritsar. Naseem, who later gained fame as a broadcaster, poet, critic and a musician, became close to her husband Mahmood who was a college professor. Naseem accompanied Mahmood to the couple's home one day:

As we entered, I saw a vivacious young woman of fair color busy cooking. Having heard us enter, she turned around and had a good look at me. Mahmood introduced me to her and then said, "Meet my wife RJ, a doctor and short story writer. And, by the way, don't ever cross her." She moved closer, lifted my chin with her finger, and then looked straight in my eyes for several seconds. She then smiled, a smile that had a genuineness and innocence about it...After the visit, I began to feel as if I had always known her-that Chinese doll with big bright eyes. Her gaze had an intensity that made one feel as if she could look right through one's soul....I would visit often; she would make me sit next to her. As she moved her fingers gently in my hair, she wound recount stories of injustice, oppression, inequality in society...She became like a mother to me. I started to love her like my own mother... Once as I narrated how a jeweler had cheated a customer out of his money, she was really moved. She kissed my forehead, hugged me in her husband's presence. The couple had an unusual innocence about them.

Naseem also reports on Faiz Ahmad Faiz's arrival at MAO College. Faiz would often visit RJ's house and was to write later, "It was in Amritsar that I became politically conscious, largely due to the friends I had made there-Mahmood Zafar, RJ, and later, Dr Taseer." It was rumored that Faiz was an admirer of RJ. Naseem, however, goes on to dispel the rumor of an affair between RJ and Faiz. "This was all a lie, a complete fabrication. RJ was a woman of integrity. She did not have an ounce of duplicity in her. If she wanted to leave her husband, no one could have stopped her. But, despite her progressive outlook, she did adhere to the moral and social traditions of her family."

More detailed and personal information about RJ has been provided by Begum Khurshid Mirza, her younger sister, in her autobiography. Khurshid had been a successful actress in Bollywood back in the 1940s with the pseudonym Ranuka Devi. She moved to Pakistan after partition and was a popular TV actress. This is what she says of her 'Renegade Sister':

When Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar's mother visited Aligarh, fourteen years old RJ insisted on going to see her...She returned full of enthusiasm for Gandhi and Khadi and promptly declared that she would wear nothing but Khadi in future which she did for a long time, even in college...One night, RJ suddenly arrived from Delhi with a young girl. She held a secret meeting with our parents and, putting the girl in their charge, left the next morning by the early train. Years later, we were to learn that the girl had been a victim of physical and sexual abuse in her house...Independence was the essence of RJ's nature, and she wanted it for everyone. To her, the word charity meant to give of oneself without any expectations...She never used make-up and wore the simplest of clothes. She did not smoke or drink.

As far RJ's daily life, Khurshid writes:

Mahmood and RJ had no children Their house was a meeting place for leftist individuals, writers, poets, and political workers where endless meetings and intellectual gatherings were held. The couple chose a hard path of deprivation and renunciation, and had the courage to remain committed to it all their lives. RJ worked day and night and could afford only basic food on the meagre allowance that the party sanctioned her. Yet, kitchri and chutney were always available on her table for the unexpected visitor.

Haamida Zafar, RJ's sister-in-law, reports:

She felt more at home with simple people than with the upper classes...She detested insincerity and hypocrisy. She always had a rebellious spirit. Quite early in life, she had developed awareness of social injustice and inequality in society. But as a practical person, the diagnosis was not enough for her; she wanted treatment, a cure...By the time she was married, RJ had completely 'declassed' herself and, what was more remarkable, she had learnt to detach herself from material things--property, money, personal gain. Things ceased to have sentimental value for her...Her house was the living example of a commune where there were no barriers of religion or class...She had a chamar boy working in her kitchen who was asked to wash and change in to clean clothes every morning when he arrived from home. When some Hindu friends found out and objected, RJ responded, 'Well, he's cleaner than many high-caste Hindus. If you don't want to, you needn't eat in my house'.

Yet another account of RJ' lifestyle and personality is given by Rakshanda Jalil, her biographer:

She was free-spirited and beautiful in a completely natural sort of way...Her manner did not betray the slightest trace of either vanity or self-consciousness; the sheer force of her personality was her greatest asset...Her entire approach to life was unique, almost bohemian in its complete disregard for what were considered the 'proprieties'. Others have described her as an intense, driven and passionate woman. RJ fought a courageous battle against uterine cancer too. She displayed the same fighting spirit that had been her hallmark all those years. On a visit to Aligarh she told her sisters, "I have one more year to live, so let's make the most of it". On another occasion, "Well, even if they can't cure me, I don't mind if they try some experiment on me. If my body can help medical science, that would be a good thing."

RJ died seventy years ago unaware that, four decades later, her beloved communism would collapse. But there is more to her legacy than a failed communist ideology. Her literary output appears modest at first glance; she wrote 25 short stories and 15-20 plays. But let's not forget that it was back in the early 1930s. And the writers who were inspired by RJ include the who's who of Urdu literature: Ismat Chughtai, Krishan Chandar, Manto, Bedi, Hajira Masroor and Khadija Mastoor. And then there is the legacy of absolute devotion to the causes which were dear to her heart: Fight for the underprivileged, peasants, laborers and especially poor women. This is no small legacy.

RJ's life had several similarities to John Reed's. Reed was an American journalist and communist activist in 1920s. Both RJ and Reed died relatively young in Russia. But Reed was lucky in one sense: His legacy has been cemented by Warren Beatty’s Reds. Rashida Jahan was from a Third World country and had no such luck. Her dedication to communism was no less than Reed's. And yet, today she is almost forgotten.

Most of us (this scribe among them) live exclusively for ourselves. We aim for personal gains, recognition and comfort. Some do a little better and may go an extra mile, once in a while, to help others and, having done that, are satisfied. But RJ was not like most of us. She was a trail- blazer. She was among the few who are committed to the cause that they believe in. She lived for the oppressed and the deprived ones. This is a trait that one associates with saints and prophets. One may not agree with her ideology but it is hard to question her devotion and sincerity of purpose. The following verse of Ghalib may have been written just for the likes of her:

Wafadari Basharte Ustawari Asal Iman Hey

Maray Butkhaney Mein To Kabey Mein Garo Barahmin Ko

References: A Rebel and Her Cause by Rakshanda Jalil; The Making of A Modern Muslim Woman by Lubna Kazim; Namumkin Kee Justajoo by Hameed Naseem.

The writer is a physician in Williamsport, PA and may be reached at asifjaved@comcast.net