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With the contribution of Parsi poets, novelists and playwrights consistently underplayed, Gujarati language scholars have dismissed Parsi-Gujarati as a debased dialect. For instance, in his book Gujarat and its Literature: from early times to 1852, leading novelist and critic Kanhaiyalal Munshi dismissed the dialect as an inaccurate variety of Gujarati. Politician Mohandas Gandhi was more scathing in the foreword to the tome: "It is unfortunate that there is Parsi-Gujarati. It is confined to novels and stories of the shilling shocker style. They are meant merely for passing the idle hour. The language is tortured out of shape,” quoted translator, researcher, author and historian Tulsi Vatsal. 

Vatsal and co-translator Aban Mukherji were speaking on "Two Cultures, One Language: Four 19th Century Gujarati Texts” organized by the Literary Club of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai on October 3, 2023. The selected texts: Dukhi Dadiba and the Irony of Fate (2023); Gujarat’s Last Rajput King Karan Ghelo (2015); Chapter 10 of Travels to Iran (to be published); Relating to Dahigauri. The lecture was interspersed with passages from the translated books read out by the duo. Vatsal has written on corporate history, rural education, Indian textile history and history textbooks for schools, among other material. Mukherji, a former pre-primary school teacher, is a freelance writer, translator and occasional contributor to Parsiana. 

Dadi Taraporewala, who wrote Dukhi Daadibaa Athavaa Pareenno Pastavo which the two translated into English as Dukhi Dadiba and the Irony of Fate (see "Broken promises,” Books, Parsiana, August 7-20, 2023), is  unknown despite having written 18 books, Vatsal rued. "We felt that a translation of the novel would be a valuable addition to the neglected history of Parsi-Gujarati literature… It would throw light on Parsi upper class society in late 19th century Bombay, their class prejudices, and the dilemmas and uncertainties they faced at a time when they were becoming increasingly westernized.” 

Vatsal read three extracts from Dukhi Dadiba: the first, a conversation between the heroine Pareen and her parents in which she fights for her right to choose her own husband; the second, a dialog between the heroine and her inebriated and somewhat greedy maid Lucy; the third, a dialog between Pareen and her husband Jehangir replete with coarse language not normally associated with an upper class family ("I will smash your head in… I am warning you, think before you speak”). 

Taraporewala is no full supporter of women’s rights. "He did not want women to go too far,” Mukherji told Parsiana after the talk. In the book, he warns that Parsi girls have overstepped their boundaries in the embrace of Western ways. "This has brought our respected community into disrepute. You should not carry your progressive views to such an extent that they condone unfaithfulness and the breaking of promises.” 

If Taraporewala was intolerant of women speaking their mind, the next author, Kavasji Dinshawji Keasna, whose Travels in Iran was published in 1882, made "unfavorable comparisons” between the Iranian Zoroastrians and their better off but, according to him, decadent Indian cousins. 

He describes in meticulous detail what he observed in Iran: historical sites, facilities in caravanserais while travelling, architecture, et al. Marriage customs, religious traditions and language, occupations, clothing, food habits, rites of passage and condition of women, all come in for comment. The book reads like a Lonely Planet guide and "we felt that as it was of more interest to art historians and archeologists, we would not translate it.” 

Taraporewala describes in moving detail the poverty of Zoroastrians in Iran and the pitiable conditions in which they lived; how they were oppressed, reviled and subjected to many indignities, stated Mukherji. The duo translated only one chapter that dealt with the plight of Iranian Zoroastrians "as it is not only fascinating for the general reader, but also because, as a first-hand, eye-witness account… (it is) an invaluable resource for scholars of Zoroastrianism.” 

A passage about a pilgrimage to a Zoroastrian shrine may strike a chord with today’s Parsis. There is a lot of eating and drinking and merrymaking. "Four or five bottles (of wine) were emptied; faces glowed red and eyes glistened… We joined a number of men, women and children sheltering under the shade of trees in a state of happy intoxication.” But here he gets all moralistic: "Although the tipplers managed to hold their liquor, I am of the opinion that to drink at an inappropriate time, and that too, to excess, is to be deplored.”  

Keasna is scathing about Parsis in general. In fact most things about Parsis fall short in his perception, as compared to the Iranians. "Indian Parsi women dress similarly to Hindu women, but these days they have started adding Western elements to their clothing… This is not unacceptable, but can one be sure that they are not just trying to show off?... Do these women imagine that by spending recklessly on clothes they will rise in people’s estimation, while reducing their husbands, whether rich or poor, to indebtedness and ruin?... Look at the Irani women! They are satisfied with whatever clothing their husbands give them.” Mukherji told us later that he even made a plea for dasturs to get together and develop a dress code for Indian Parsi women! 

And there is more damnation: "Parsi men have at least some idea about the correct manner of getting into a horse carriage; but their wives don’t even know that much. They make a big fuss calling out helplessly, ‘Shola, bring me a stool; Dhola, give me a hand (names of servants)’…Irani women are as intrepid as their husbands…They leap up to sit astride their animal, and ride for miles without fear of stumbling or falling. If, God forbid, the animal is injured on the road, they dismount and leading it by the reins, walk for miles without complaint. If Indian Parsi women are sometimes obliged to walk a few steps they immediately soak their feet in hot water.”

Derision for the Indian Parsi male too comes across in his writing. He states: "If an Irani is suddenly confronted by a tiger or any wild animal, he faces it fearlessly even if all he has in his hands is a stick; but at the mere sight of a lizard or a billy goat running amok, Indian Parsis cry out in panic, A snake! A tiger! A tiger! This is nothing but the outcome of body and mind weakened by lack of exertion.” And he has advice: "If Parsis want to be as fearless as their Iranian brethren, they must work hard and shed their indolent ways, and end this cycle of lethargy and debility.”

Of kings and diarists

Vatsal’s great-grandfather Nandshankar Mehta wrote what is believed to be the first full length novel in Gujarati Karan Ghelo: Gujarat’s Last Rajput King (see "Last Rajput king,” Books, Parsiana, April 21, 2016) about Karan Vaghela, the last Rajput to rule Gujarat. When Mehta wrote the tome, "Indian writers had begun to move away from traditional religious themes and began experimenting with the form of the modern novel.” The theme of the book is Karan’s loss — of his queen, daughter, and kingdom to Alauddin Khilji. Made into a film and dramas, the translators noted that the play was first staged by a Parsi theater company at the erstwhile Grant Road Theatre. "Nandshankar’s pro-reform leanings come out in many of the asides in the novel,” said Mukherji.  

Reading extracts, Mukherji appreciated that Mehta was not in favor of practices like sati or self-immolation by a Hindu widow, but "he doesn’t let his views get in the way of giving us a mesmerizing description of a sati procession and the extraordinary effect it has on the populace.” The reading brought out the sights and sounds associated with the practice when Gunsundari, a minor character, chooses to immolate herself. The expensive ornaments that were gifted away, the sounds of the various musical instruments playing and the blessings and the forgiveness that Gunsundari bestows on all came alive during the reading. 

Mehta advocates, in an aside, companionate marriages as opposed to arranged ones. "In a country where child marriages are the rule, duty triumphs over love. Where the relationship is that of worshipper and worshipped, where the woman’s role is limited to the propagation of the family…the concept of sublime, all-embracing love is rarely understood,” he notes. The translators said, "In this regard, Nandshankar’s views on women seem even more progressive than of Taraporewala who wrote three decades later than Nandshankar.”

The fourth book, Relating to Dahigauri was a diary of yet another famed Gujarati poet, essayist, critic and contemporary of Mehta, Narmadashankar Dave. "We felt that translating the book was important… It shows the reader a hitherto hidden side of Narmad’s character.” He comes across as a man who, once a leading advocate of social reform, is threatened by his wife’s refusal to conform to the role of the submissive wife. Vatsal said it "gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like to be an educated upper caste woman in 19th century Gujarat. The fact that Narmad does not feel that there is anything problematic in recording his overbearing behavior towards his wife, suggests that such patriarchal relationships were not unusual in 19th century Gujarat.” Dahigauri was Narmad’s second wife. 

When Dahigauri arrived in Bombay from Gujarat, she had to face a barrage of questions from Narmad about her virtue and her duties in the Hindu dharma. "Written in the form of a dialog, it is interspersed with Narmad’s private thoughts… What we wanted our translation to convey was the inquisitorial tone of the dialog to establish the authority which he, as a husband, feels is his right, and Dahigauri defying him every step of the way, refusing to conform to her role as a submissive wife.”

One extract was particularly noteworthy. It is about Narmad cruelly trying to get Dahigauri to kick her addiction to cannabis. "When I ordered (the packets of cannabis) to be thrown away, Dahigauri shouted, ‘How can you throw away such expensive things? I won’t let you do it.’ I flung (it) in the flame of the lamp. She slapped her forehead three or four times, got hold of me and tried to wrestle back the packet… I shoved her aside, collected every single fleck of the (substance) and threw it away. ‘Why don’t you cut off my head? Why do you torture me?’ she screamed dementedly, beating her forehead in frenzy. To end the hysteria, I slapped her twice and taking hold of her plait I flung her on the mat. But her hysterics didn’t stop…I poured water on her. She ran into another room, the boy clinging to her, howling. Finally, Harilal and his family arrived and calm was restored.”

As stated the duo in response to a question from the audience, the common thread weaving through all four tomes is the "threat posed by women exposed to westernization.” All four writers showed a degree of uneasiness with Western ideas… They supported feminism, but only to an extent… It was a fragmented sort of feminism… They wanted companionship from their wives, but the wives had to do what they wanted, Mukherji told us after the talk. 

Society vice president and chairperson of the Literary Club Prof Meenal Kshirsagar gave the welcome address; the  vote of thanks was given by officiating honorary secretary Prof Mangala Sirdeshpande.