Ibn-ul-Waqt by Nazir Ahmad: Summary and Themes

1857. Ibn-ul-Waqt, steward to a Mughal princess and a scholar of Arabic and Persian, finds a wounded Englishman, Mr Noble, during the uprising and hides him at great risk. When the British retake Delhi, Noble sees that his rescuer is rewarded with land and a government post.

Turning English. Encouraged by Noble, who wants to make him a model reformer, Ibn-ul-Waqt throws himself into English life: a bungalow, dinners with knives and forks, English dress, a hat, a dog, and a growing conviction that the rulers are superior in every way. He gives speeches, plans reforms and offends almost everyone: his own community, who think him a renegade, and the English officials, who think him presumptuous.

The fall. When Noble sails for England, Ibn-ul-Waqt loses his protector. He quarrels with the new Collector, runs into debt and finds himself at home in neither world. His family sends for his cousin, Hujjat-ul-Islam, whose long debates with him on reason, religion, destiny and politics bring the novel to its close.

Imitation and reform. The decades after 1857 saw a fierce argument among Indian Muslims about how far to adopt English education and manners, an argument led by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Many readers have seen Ibn-ul-Waqt as a satire on Sir Syed's circle, though Nazir Ahmad himself was a supporter of modern education. The novel mocks not reform but surface imitation.

Comedy of manners. The scenes at the dinner table, the after-dinner speech and the change of dress are among the funniest pages in Urdu prose.

Argument as drama. The closing debates read like a philosophical dialogue, and they show Nazir Ahmad's real interest: how to be modern without losing oneself.