I am the Widow: An Intellectual Biography of Behramji Malabari by Harmony Siganporia. Published in 2018 by Orient Blackswan Private Limited, 3-6-752 Himayatnagar, Hyderabad 500029; email: info@orientblackswan.com; website: www.orientblackswan.com. Pp: xxi + 280. Price: Rs 795.
Behramji Merwanji Malabari (1853-1912) was a social reformer, journalist, poet, ethnographer-anthropologist and travel writer. Two biographies of his fascinating life and career were written during his lifetime and a third, two years after his death. He then dropped 
into oblivion and was treated as an insignificant figure in the scene of Parsi as well as Indian history. Harmony Siganporia (pictured), an assistant professor in the communications area at MICA (formerly Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad) India, has written I am the Widow: An Intellectual Biography of Behramji Malabari to solve the mystery of this sudden disappearance.
Siganporia synthesizes these three biographies in the first chapter, "Setting the Stage” to provide the reader with an account of Malabari’s early life and the important influences during his childhood. The dominating influence in his life seems to be Bhikhibai, a very strong-willed and unusual mother, who left her first husband Dhanjibhai Mehta (Behramji’s father) because of "repeated ‘domestic violence.”’ She later married Malabari, an elderly gentleman and strangely, her son took the surname of his stepfather. Behramji’s love for poetry and music, instilled by Bhikhibai, was fuelled by his exposure to Firdowsi’s Shahnameh, as well as his association with the "Khiali poets,” a group of itinerant songsters and musicians. He was a prankster and could drink several cups of "Surti daru (liquor):” but his life changed when his mother suddenly died of cholera when he was 12. He then became a serious student at the Irish Presbyterian School in Surat. Siganporia is over-scrupulous in mentioning from which of the three biographies she has gleaned her information. This makes for a bit of an intrusion and breaks the momentum of what is a very interesting section of the first chapter.
The rest of the chapter deals with Malabari’s literary works. Siganporia presents a close analysis of several of the poems and highlights their poetic virtuosity and their social relevance. Malabari chose to write not in Parsi Gujarati but in Hindi Gujarati. He obviously was writing for the general Indian public and not for the few educated Indians or "for the eyes and the ears of the rulers.”
For Malabari, the purpose of travel was, as Siganporia suggests, "to know places and people intimately.” He firmly believed that to be fit for travel one should first thoroughly know where one comes from. In his own words, "when you go to Europe, ignorant of your own national life, you will miss those thousand shades of difference, those thousand beauties and blemishes that modern European civilization presents. At the best, you will look at things, not see or see through them.” Such a veteran traveller was he that he would never take the same route to and from his destination. In the course of his travels he describes the major cities as well as the villages of Gujarat and speaks about both local and British administration. The subjects of his writings range from visits to a small causes court, missionaries in mofussil areas, festivals of the state, the evils of money lending, the plight of the downtrodden. His chapter on the Parsis concentrates on the rural conservative Parsis of Gujarat who, he feels, "have fallen on evil days.” He castigates the "Shettia” class for being lazy and non-innovative with no sense of public service or duty. He is very critical of the punchayet which he believes is "a body without a soul” and one wonders what his views would have been on this subject if he were writing today.
It is only when he has had his fill of Gujarat that he ventures to England and turns "An Indian Eye on English Life.” Siganporia draws our attention to the fact that his is one of the early accounts of life in Britain to be written by an Indian in English. She compares his treatise with the writings of two earlier visitors, Mahipatram Rupram and Karsandas Mulji and notes that Malabari’s account is the result of a genuine desire for "conversation as equals on the state of two congruous civilizations which have, for better or for worse, seemingly intertwined destinies.”
However, Malabari’s most important work remains his struggle against infant marriages and enforced widowhood. He published widely against this practice and finally, his famous "Notes” resulted in the passing of the Age of Consent Bill in 1891 which raised the age of consummation for Hindu girls from 10 to 12 years. Siganporia draws our attention to the fact that around 4,000 copies of these Notes were circulated and one was even presented to Lord Ripon in 1884. These Notes were published around the time that the Dadaji versus Rukhmabai case was being argued. Malabari is very critical of child marriage and called it "matrimonial slavery.” Whereas the common argument was for the educated husband bound to an illiterate woman, Malabari shows his independence of mind by arguing that a girl-child married without her consent may educate herself subsequently and, in Malabari’s words, the "wife may outgrow the husband.” He was very reasonable in his demands and did not ask for the British to ban child marriage but, in his words, "show its disapproval of this practice indirectly.” He was hopeful that the government which had already taken steps in the right direction in the areas of compulsory vaccination, sati and infanticide would support his cause.
Once again, Siganporia shows us how passionate Malabari is on the question of enforced widowhood: "...I am the destitute and deserted Hindu widow...To you, the widow is an abstract entity; to me, she is a horrible fact.” Siganporia shows how his arguments are based on facts and figures even though he seems to be writing with passion and emotion.
The book is well researched and documented and fills an important gap in our knowledge of this pioneer. Occasionally the language is a bit convoluted and certain parts read like a PhD thesis which could have been better edited. One wonders if there were any photographs which could have been included in the book as that would have added another dimension. However, the book makes fascinating reading and Siganporia’s genuine affection and admiration for Malabari makes the book a compelling read.
FIRDAUS GANDAVIA