m.g. vassanji's the assassin's song: the in-between world of karsan dargawalla

8/22/2019 M.G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song: The In-Between World Of Karsan Dargawalla

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Priyanka Singh

Research Scholar

Deptt. of English & Modern European Languages,

University of Allahabad, Allahabad.

M.G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song: The In-Between World Of

Karsan Dargawalla

A diaspora1 writer today faces demanding affiliations of languages, class race, gender

and sexuality which are manifested at emotional, cultural, ethnic, linguistic or

political levels. A condition of reality or a state of mind for him- which is always in a

flux - is often compounded by the exigencies of exile, migration, and double

migration. As a result his affiliations are always faced with a varied degree of

ambivalences. Thus the identity of a diaspora writer is challenged and ruptured by a

multiplicity of ambivalent affiliations that avail or impose themselves. He is always

confronted with a destabilizing polemical situation of "in-betweenness". Moyez

Gulam Hussein Vassanji is one of the most important Indo-Canadian diasporic

writers, whose novels constantly articulates and grapples with this polemics of "in-

betweenness" and the latest example is The Assassins Songwhich shall be the focus

of this article.

I

M.G. Vassanji, whose forefathers were migrated from India under indenture system

2

in colonial rule, was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1950. His family left for Dar es

Salaam in Tanzania at the end of the Mau Mau period.3 The United Republic of

Tanzania came into being in 1964. Those were the times of economical setback and

political unrest of the entire African continent. The indigenous Africans had a very

hostile attitude towards Indians whose situation was like a "colonial sandwich", with

the European at the top and Africans at the bottom. Amid increasing resentment of the

Africans many Indians fled to England, Europe and North America to avoid racial and


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political discriminations. Vassanji, at the age of 19, left the University of Nairobi on a

scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After earning a doctorate in

Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and working as a writer- in-residence at

the University of Iowa in the International Writing Program, he migrated to Canada

and worked at the Chalk River Power Station for some time. Finally he came to

Toronto in 1980 and accepted Canadian Citizenship in 1983. In 1989 his first novel

The Gunny Sackwas published. That year he, with his wife Nurjehan Aziz founded

and edited the first issue of The Toranto South Asian Review (TSAR). Apart from

The Gunny SackVassanji has penned five more novels; No New Land (1991), The

Book of Secrets (1994) (which won the very first Scotiabank Giller Prize), Amriika

(1999) , In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003)(which also received the Scotiabank

Giller Prize)and The Assassins Song(2007).

Vassanjis works, except the latest one, deal with diasporic Indians

living in East Africa and their further migration to other places. Vassanji is concerned

with how these migrations affect the life and identity of such dislocated lives. As a

secondary theme, members of his community of Indian Muslims of the esoteric

Shamsi sect (like himself) later undergo a second migration to Europe, Canada, or the

United States. Vassanji explores the impact of these migrations on these characters

who are installed as a buffer zone between the indigenous Africans and colonial

administration. Caught in-between an ambivalent situation the presence of the

mythical homeland India looms large. Not only for the characters but also for the

writer himself India is a spiritual issue. This issue becomes more apparent in his latest

work.

II

Vassanji's The Assassin's Song 4 explores the conflict between ancient

loyalties and Modern desires, between legacy and discovery, between filial

obligations and personal yearnings. This novel portrays the complexitiesof an individual conscience torn between responsibilities to uphold

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tradition and desire to pursue ambition. It is a shining study of one man's

painful struggle to hold the earthly desires and spirituality in balance. The

Assassin's Song conspicuously depicts the horrific real-life communal

killing in 2002 Gujarat riot, which destroys the lives of a thousand human

beings.

The Assassin's Songis the story of Karsan Dargawalla, a Khoja

(a community which is a minority within a minority) and the heir of

Pirbaag shrine worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims. Pirbaag traces

roots to an ancient Sufi Nur Fazal whose teachings are concerned with

both the mystical branches of Islaam and Hinduism. Karsan has just

returned from North America to his homeland which he has left thirty

years ago in order to choose a career in foreign Land. Here he finds that

2002 Gujrat riots killed over a thousand of people and also destroyed

Pirbaag. Karsan recalls his childhood in 1960's India and the sequence of

events ultimately led him to value intellect over faith.

Karsan is the next in line after his father (Bapuji) to assume

lordship of the shrine. He is unwilling to be "gaddi varas" because he longs

to be just ordinary; to play cricket and be a part of the ordinary world.

When his father prohibits him from joining a cricket coaching by a former

cricketer R.D. Patel, he is deeply affected by the biblical story of Abraham

preparing to sacrifice his son Issac to the Almighty. He compares himself

with Issac and Bapuji with Abraham and cries in pain, The Saheb My

Father? Was I a sacrifice? 5

He thinks that his father wants to scarify him for his traditional

and spiritual obligations. Raja Singh, a truck driver always brings him

news from the outer world. Mr David, his Christian teacher has a great

impact on him during his younger days. Karsan becomes an agent of

National Patriotic Youth Party on the consent of his father.

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Karsan eventually lands a scholarship to Harvard University. He

could not resist the opportunity to go finally the country of his aspirations.

Despite his father's attempt to keep him close to the traditional ways, the

excitement to establish his new existence in America proves more

compelling. Karsan leaves his homeland and departs for Harvard

University. But before his departure his father inherits him the holy words

orbolof his forefathers.

Karsan's time at Harvard proves delightful when he is

surrounded by unlimited knowledge. He becomes so affected with newaspirations and knowledge that unwillingly he starts losing faith in

traditionality and spirituality of Pirbaag shrine. For three decades Karsan

lives freely without any filial and spiritual obligation. He becomes a

professor in British Columbia, Marries with Marge Thompson and fathers

a son and even changes his name

I changed my name to Krishna Fazal, and I

became the father of a boy, whom we named

Julian. My Happiness was complete.6

Later we find that Karsans true happiness lies in fulfilling his spiritual

calling when he decides to spread the fragrance of his shrine throughout

the world by telling the story of Pirbaag.

Unfortunately a tragedy strikes in his life when his only child

Julian died in a road accident and his wife go away to leave him alone.

One day, while reading his father's letters, he realizes that he has forged

his identity and his heart craves for his native place. Eventually when he

returns, Pirbaag is no longer standing, everything is destroyed and his

brother converts himself into a rigid form of Islaam. Seeing this brutal

violence Karsan is reminded of his role

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I . . . must pick up the pieces of my trust and tell

its storythe duty of destroyers.7

At the insertion of knowledge and faith, Karsan learns acceptance and he

keeps his tradition and ambition in balance.

The story ofThe Assassin's Song, in a great historical sweep,

takes the reader from a fictitious thirteen century village, Haripur in Gujrat

to Harvard yard of the late 1960's, the British Columbia in 1980's and then

back again to Gujrat communal riots. He shows how the riots have

changed the lives of many; how the long tradition of communal harmony

of the shrine has come to a halt.

At individual level The Assassian's Songconspicuously depicts

the in-betweenness of the protagonist Karsan Dargawalla. Karsan's in-

betweenness underlies his entire life as he is pulled between tradition of

faith and his own intellectual curiosity and adventurous spirit. He wants to

lead a common mans life but his father keeps him reminding his position:

No Karsan, think of who you are? 8 Karsan is caught between two

identities one is worldly; a cricket player who wants to pursue his career in

cricket; an agent of National Patriotic youth party; an aspirant who goes to

Harvard for higher education; a professor in a foreign land and a man with

a changed name to forge his identity. Another identity is spiritual as he is a

gaddi varas. But finally both the identities prove to be chimera for him as

the communal riots have changed every thing. Even of the riots would not

have taken place Karsan could not have chosen any stable identity. He is a

typical product of postcolonial world though something of his family

culture is deeply ingrained in his mind. Whereas his brother chooses to be

a rigid Muslim, because of the impression of the Gujarat riots, it is

impossible for Karsan to be purely one thing. He stands in a complex

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relationship with history. He corroborates what Edward Said declares at

the end ofCulture and Imperialism (1994)

No one today is purely one thing. Labels like

Indian, or woman, or Muslim, or American are

purely starting-points, which if followed into

actual experience are quickly left behind.

Imperialism consolidated the mixture of cultures

and identities on a global scale. But its worst and

most paradoxical gift was to allow people to

believe that they were only, mainly, exclusively,

white, or black, or Western, or Oriental. Yet just

as human beings make their history, they also

make their cultures and ethnic identities. No one

can deny the persisting continuities of long

traditions, sustained habitations, national

languages, and cultural geographies, but thereseems no reason except fear and prejudice to

keep insisting on their separation and

distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was

about. Survival is, in fact, about the connections

between things; in [T.S.] Eliot's phrase, reality

cannot be deprived of the "other echoes [that]

inhabit the garden."9

Karsan finally comes to undertake the reality that he can not dash the other

echoes. He realizes that the attempts to resolve the mysteries of past is futile

since past is never cut and dried and the in-betweenness is not just a product of

the present but of history. His existence affirms the vital need for coexistence

and understanding between individuals and peoples, in a world where to

define oneself exclusively as "one thing" may lead to a disaster. Though

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Karsan carries all the obligations from which he fled, he remembers the

bol, picks up the thread of life which he has rejected three decades ago and

does everything what his father once expected from him but he finds no

redemption yet he arrives at a possible solution

But here I stop to begin anew. For the call has

come for me, again, and as Bapu-ji would say,

this time I must bow.10

In this fictitious story, inspired by the Muslim mystics of medieval India,

Vassanji explores a great tradition of communal harmony. He unravels a

complex tradition of various beliefs and multiple affiliations; a tradition of

great flux. Fundamentalism of any kind only damages such a great

tradition. Karsan could have followed the same path which his brother has

chosen. But his global experience, despite all the ambivalences, has

inscribed a permanent impression of pluralism and tolerance on his mind

which aspire him towards a greater form of humanity and spiritualism.

Notes:

1. Robin Cohen tentatively describes diasporas as communities of

people living together in one country who "acknowledge that

"the old country" a notion often buried deep in language,

religion, customer folklore-always has some claim on their

loyalty and emotions".

Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction, 1997

(London: Routledge, 2001), p. IX.

2. Indenture was the "contract by which the emigrant agreed towork for a given employer for five years, the emigrant was free

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to re-indenture or to work elsewhere in colony; at the end of ten

years he was entitled to a subsidized return passage".

R.K. Jain, "Introduction: Overseas Emigration in the

Nineteenth Century", Indian Communities Abroad:

Themes and Literature (New Delhi: Manohar Publication's,

1993), p. 4.

The Indian indenture system started from the end of the African

slavery in 1834 and continued until 1920. By then thousands of

Indians were transported to various colonies of Europe to

provide labour for sugar plantations.

3. The Mau Mau Uprising of 1952 to 1960 was an insurgency by Kenyan

peasants against the British colonialist rule. The core of the resistance was

formed by members of the Kikuyuethnic group, along with smaller numbers

ofEmbu and Meru. The uprising failed militarily, though it hastened Kenyan

independence and motivated Africans in other countries to fight against

colonial rule. It created a rift between the white colonial community in Kenya

and the Home Office in London that set the stage for Kenyan independence in

1963. It is sometimes called the Mau Mau Rebellion or the Mau Mau Revolt,

and, in official documents, the Kenya Emergency.

The name Mau Mau for the rebel movement was not coined by the

movement itself- they called themselves Muingi ("The Movement"),

Muigwithania ("The Understanding"), Muma wa Uiguano ("The Oath of

Unity") or simply "The KCA", after the Kikuyu Central Association that

created the impetus for the insurgency. Veterans of the independence

movement referred to themselves as the "Land and Freedom Army" in

English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising

4. Quotations from The Assassin's Song are from Indian edition

(New Delhi: Penguin, 2007).

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgencyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embu_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameruhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyu_Central_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyu_Central_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgencyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embu_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameruhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyu_Central_Association


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5. Ibid., p. 103.

6. Ibid., p. 281.

7. Ibid., p. 4.

8. Ibid., p. 118.

9. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism 1993 (London: Vintage,

1994), p. 407. The T.S. Eliot quotation is from "Burnt Norton",

the first poem in Four Quartets.

10. The Assassin's Song, p. 368

References:

1. Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction, 1997

(London: Routledge, 2001).

2. Jain, R.K. "Introduction: Overseas Emigration in the Nineteenth

Century", Indian Communities Abroad: Themes and Literature

(New Delhi: Manohar Publication's, 1993).

3. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism1993 (London: Vintage,

1994)

4. Vassanji, M.G. The Gunny Sack (Canada: McClelland and

Stewart Ltd., 1989)

No New Land (Canada: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.,

1991)

The Book of Secrets (Canada: McClelland and Stewart

Ltd.,1994)

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Amriika (Canada: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1999)

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (Canada:

McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 2003)

The Assassin's Song (New Delhi: Penguin, 2007)

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m.g. vassanji's the assassin's song: the in-between world of karsan dargawalla

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