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PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

EPIC FICTION Jaishree Misra: ‘History is always the victor’s story’

The London-based Malayalee novelist was never a huge fan of history. “History was not my favourite subject and it was taught in a boring way like in most Indian schools.” So, for Jaishree, her epic-fiction Rani became a challenge. Jaishree looked for “an inspiring figure from history – preferably female”. Given the little material available on the Indian Joan of Arc’ Jaishree admits that with non-fiction, everything has to be authenticated. “You have to be very sure about it being that day of June and whether it was a rainy day. Rani, though it had some historical element, allowed me liberty in how I would write it.”

But why Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi? Besides hearing of the queen in poetry in school, Jaishree also came across other strong women characters when she began research for Rani. “Lakshmibai was a woman of modern sensibilities. Begum Hazratmahal of Lucknow was interesting but she was a bit of a fighter.” Jaishree feels that for a woman who lived 150 years ago, Lakshimibai had signs of a mature mind that she felt modern-day readers will identify with.

As enlightening facts about Lakshmibai began to surface, Jaishree wonders: “History books don’t suggest that there was massacre of English women and children as well – that there were atrocities committed by both sides.” She asserts, “History is always the victor’s story.” In India, historical facts took the shape of ballads and songs as they were ‘safer’.

Jaishree was curious about Lakshmibai – Jhansi was annexed in 1854 and the uprising was in 1857. “I discovered that for four years, she held dialogues and negotiations with the British and did not ‘march down in battle’ as we believe.” And Jaishree is quick to say that she did not mean to deify Lakshmibai as someone pointed out, but, “humanise” her.

By 1857, the East India Company had taken on a monarchical face where any amiable friendship between the Indians and the British was immediately thwarted, if not discouraged.

So if Hyderabad’s Khair-un-nissa’s scandalous relationship with Kirkpatrick blossomed in 18th century Deccan as shown in William Dalrymple’s White Mughals, then, by Queen Victoria’s regime any hint of such liaisons besides being unthinkable, would also create a furore. But in Rani, Jaishree develops Major Robert Ellis’ ‘admiration of the queen’ to ‘unfulfilled love’.

She remarks, “History does not leave behind these little details. And in non-fiction, you have to lay out the different possibilities.” So for Jaishree, all that was available were third person, official correspondents’ and soldiers’ accounts. “There were no personal primary source materials.”

But she came across lawyer John Lang’s description of the ‘charming’ queen who revealed that she was “a fine figure of a woman, a sari was wound tightly round her, a croaky voice and had even a pock-marked face.”

Talking about the pace of the novel, Jaishree says, “I wanted to set the pace of the first half in the stately progress of the time-period then. I want readers to be first drawn into the novel, before it picks up in the second half.”

Forty years ago, writer-activist Mahasweta Devi had also written a novel about Jhansi ki Rani, which took her to Indore where she met Rani’s adopted son Damodar’s successor. “The British spared Damodar, and he fled to Gwalior. Now his ancestors live in Jhansi valley in Indore.”

This is Jaishree’s second book that could be made into a film. “I am open enough to the idea of a film. Books mean different things to different people.”

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