THE rebel women we see swarming our society are, in fact, the daughters of Renuka Devi. And who was Renuka Devi? Born in a respected family of Aligarh, the girl had been named Khurshid Jehan, a traditional name speaking of her Mughal descent from the maternal side. But as she grew up, she distanced herself from the black burqa which had come to stay as a hallmark of school and college-going Muslim girls in Aligarh. She went to Bombay, renamed herself as Renuka Devi, and appeared in films as a romantic heroine. Her first appearance in Himansu Rai’s film, Bhabhi, released at the start of the 1940s, came as a shock for Muslims in Aligarh. A daughter from a respected Muslim family playing a romantic role in a film was not heard of before.
But Renuka Devi was a second shock. The first had been given by her elder sister, Rasheed Jehan, who had been seen in the company of rebel writers known for their collection of writings titled Angaray. This collection of short stories created such an uproar among Indian Muslims that the government of India soon banned it. The angry young writers, including Dr Rasheed Jehan, were labelled rebels with no respect for the moral and religious values of Muslims.
So the two sisters, Rasheed Jehan and Khurshid Jehan, were among the first few females who had dared to stage a revolt against age-old customs, beliefs and ideas venerated as precious moral values by the conservative Muslims in India.
The poor father of the two sisters, Sheikh Abdullah, better known as Papa Mian, had to bear the brunt of the anger of the Muslims, more particularly of the Muslims of Aligarh. But can we really say that he had no hand in the liberated behaviour of his daughters? Should the credit or discredit for it go to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan? No, not all. After all, this female revolt came as a consequence of female education, for which Sheikh Abdullah had campaigned, little caring that Sir Syed had a different point of view in this respect.
But who was Sheikh Abdullah? Let us listen to his daughter, Khurshid Jehan, who has revealed to us that her father was a converted Muslim who first turned to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and then came under the influence of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.
Khurshid Jehan, after relinquishing her pseudonym, Renuka Devi, along with her film career opted to be known in Pakistan as a radio and TV artist under the name, Begum Khurshid Mirza. She died in 1989. During her last years, she had cared to write her autobiography which was serialized in the monthly Herald. Now being compiled by her daughter, Lubna Kazim, it has been published under the title, The Making of a Modern Muslim Woman.
The daughter in this account tells us that her father was by descent a Kashmiri Brahmin called Thahur Das. It was during his educational years that he slowly felt attracted to Islam. In the beginning, he was much under the influence of Hakeem Maulvi Nooruddin. But as he reached Aligarh and joined the MAO College, he came close to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. He cut himself off from Maulvi Nooruddin and his teachings. He had already embraced Islam and his new name was Sheikh Abdullah. With his close association with Sir Syed, he devoted himself to the cause of Muslim education as envisaged by him. But in his zeal for his cause, he went a step ahead of his mentor and started a campaign for female education. With much ado, he succeeded in establishing a girls’ school in Aligarh. Khurshid Mirza tells us that “the school commenced formally in 1906 with nine students, three of them being the daughters of Waheed Jehan (wife of Sheikh Abdullah).”
Rasheed Jehan was among the early students of this school where she “went every morning in a covered palanquin.” Khurshid Mirza has chosen to talk about this sister in detail. As is well known to the readers of Urdu fiction, Rasheed Jehan had made her appearance in Urdu fiction with an ideological stance. She may be counted among the precursors of modern short-story writers committed to social realism. She was soon followed by a host of female short-story writers who wrote on social problems with a boldness hitherto unknown in Urdu fiction.
Rasheed Jehan stuck to the last to her revolutionary faith. The case of Khursheed Mirza was a bit different. Her journey in life begins with acting in films and seems to end with milad sharif. In her later years, she was engaged in composing devotional verse meant to be recited at milad functions. And her visits to Kaliyar Sharif had now become more frequent. Hers was the case of a rebel who, at the approach of old age, retraces her steps and tries to reconcile with the norms of society.
THE rebel women we see swarming our society are, in fact, the daughters of Renuka Devi. And who was Renuka Devi? Born in a respected family of Aligarh, the girl had been named Khurshid Jehan, a traditional name speaking of her Mughal descent from the maternal side. But as she grew up, she distanced herself from the black burqa which had come to stay as a hallmark of school and college-going Muslim girls in Aligarh. She went to Bombay, renamed herself as Renuka Devi, and appeared in films as a romantic heroine. Her first appearance in Himansu Rai’s film, Bhabhi, released at the start of the 1940s, came as a shock for Muslims in Aligarh. A daughter from a respected Muslim family playing a romantic role in a film was not heard of before.
