Page 177 - EducationWorld Oct. 2022

Books

Iconoclastic Raj JOHN LANG: WANDERER OF though he poked irreverent
fun at the military and civil
chronicler HINDOOSTAN, SLANDERER IN services of British India,
HINDOOSTANEE, LAWYER FOR
THE RANEE a lot was forgiven by his
Amit Ranjan subscribers, mostly from
MIT RANJAN’S these very services.
book ohn Lang NIYOGI BOOKS Ranjan writes a poem
J
Aposes a conundrum Rs.795 Pages 472 for John Lang and his
quite like the persona of friend Alice Richman. That
the protagonist. Who was is so Amit Ranjan, as are
John Lang? Columnist, to jest with the potentate A biography of John these lines from the poem
creative writer, lawyer, raja, which he did with not Lang, writer, lawyer about a man who lies in
rebel, alcoholic or just a a jot of remorse. Percep- and alcoholic who Camels Back cemetery in
stupendous wit, masquer- tively, just how lonely it exposed British India:
ading as all of them? would be for a raja to be at epicures who ruled …He could not become
Which country did John the mercy of sycophants, India for almost 200 Dickens/ But his poetry
Lang belong to — Austra- day in and day out! years about Jenny Dale/ And
lia, England or India? Born Unfortunately, Lang her name all around in the
in Australia; educated in didn’t have to deal with gale/ Tells a very old tale/
England and resident of an eccentric literature needs to be congratulated Of love.
India, undoubtedly. But aficionado as his ruler but for rescuing Lang from In keeping with John
his parentage in Australia a faceless government, oblivion and making him Lang’s persona, Ranjan’s
was of doubtful lineage. composed of banal men. vigorously breathe again. book though written in the
Was he the offspring of So, he spent a year in jail My favourite Lang English language, reso-
k
convicts? He was not only in Vienna for an offence, witticism was his succinct nates like a work ( riti) in
educated in England but the legitimacy of which is response to a friend’s vernacular. By vernacular
had the dubious honour of undisclosed, quite like a recital of Edgar Allan Poe’s I mean a glorious play of
being expelled by a British vidushak being jailed at a celebrated 1845 poem, The words which explores the
,
university. But expulsion whim and acquitted soon R aven. All he said was, it b hav or the nihitarth and
from a self-righteous, after. was very good Persian — captures them effectively
conservative, rules-ridden What we can’t help re- meaning thereby that it and aesthetically. To put
university is perhaps the gret is that our gora vidu - was lifted from a Persian it in English, we could
prerequisite of getting a shak was finally punished poem — a perfect example say perhaps, this work
real education. in the most illogical and of brevity saying a lot! captures the multi-layered
One could well argue cruel manner — he was A special feature of hidden meanings of words.
that he was one with the forgotten! While Kipling, Ranjan’s book is that he Ranjan is kind enough
hoary Indian tradition of who stole from him, and gives ample space to dates to offer us quotes, showing
the vidushak , or glorified Dickens, who fed off his and places to lend authen- how many of our stories
court jester-cum-philos- anonymous contributions ticity to the narrative. One told in English end with a
H
opher, essential to every to his journal ousehold can call it a throwback to punch line in Hindi, which
Sanskrit drama and real- W ords, became icons of slaving over a Ph D, but is quite untranslatable in
life courts of Indian rajas literary history, Lang was more significantly it is English. For example, a
and maharajas. The vidu - thrown on the scrap heap! because of his innate love writer in America pointed
shak was given latitude to The grand irony of of research. out how a story told to
critique and ridicule the Lang’s life, in keeping Lang’s newspaper her ended with the Hindi
G
raja in every way possible. with the whole tenor of his Mofussilite was founded in punch line — ay i b hains
Hardly ever was he told to mocking the establishment the 1840s, and his novels p aani mein. She realised
hold his tongue. On a rare is that history knows him were labelled libellous by that in English it could
occasion, due to jealous as the lawyer for the Rani British media for depicting mean at best, ‘everything
courtiers, he would be or- of Jhansi, a case he lost, the dregs of society rather got drowned’, certainly not
dered to leave the kingdom rather than as the lawyer than the glories of British a translation. The transla-
and sometimes even incar- for Lala Jotee Persaud, Raj over India. He was tion would be ‘Buffalo had
cerated. But he would soon a case he won against regarded as a dangerous gone into water,’ which
be pardoned and brought all odds and with typical radical, but still excited ev- clearly makes no sense.
back to court to continue Langian wit. Amit Ranjan eryone’s minds. Therefore, But a conundrum: Is

178 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2022