Pioneer across the borders

By any standards, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan led a remarkable life. And it is a measure of how remarkable her life was that it takes two people, from two different countries, to tell her story in all its complexity and nuance.

Even if you boil it down to bare essentials, Begum Ra’ana’s journey was quite extraordinary. Born to a Kumaoni Brahmin family which had controversially converted to Christianity a couple of generations ago, Irene Margaret Pant — as she was known in her early life — was among the first women of her generation to get the benefit of higher education, which she went on to put to good use by becoming a college lecturer.

At a time when women were routinely married off at a young age to men that their parents chose, Irene fell in love with and wed a man of her own choice. That in itself was a bold enough move. What made it revolutionary was that Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan was much older than her, already married with a child, and a Muslim to boot. So, it was in the teeth of parental opposition that Irene converted to Islam (and was bestowed the name Gul-i-Ra’ana, later shortened to just Ra’ana) and married the man who had stolen her heart.

It was that choice that would dictate the trajectory of Ra’ana’s life from then on. Liaquat Ali Khan was a leading light of the Muslim League and a close confidant and lieutenant of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. And Ra’ana, who had always been politically inclined, soon became completely enmeshed in the freedom movement, and in the push for a separate homeland for Muslims.

This early part of her life, on our side of the border, is told by Deepa Agarwal. As a fellow Kumaoni, Ms Agarwal brings alive the childhood of Irene Pant from the perspective of an insider. We see the Pants being ostracised by polite society and, indeed, all their friends and relatives, because their grandfather, a caste Brahmin no less, converted to Christianity, and all the strains and stresses it puts on the family.

In a strange twist of fate, many decades later, Irene goes through the same experience as her grandfather, when she gives up the religion she was born into, and defies her family by embracing Islam and Liaquat Ali Khan. Not a single member of her family attends her wedding and she never ever sets foot in Kumaon again.

The Begum: A Portrait of Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s Pioneering First Lady

Deepa Agarwal, Tahmina Aziz Ayub

Penguin

Rs 599, 256 pages

But enmeshed in the political world of Delhi and bringing up her two sons, it is hard to gauge if Ra’ana ever missed the hills amidst which she grew up. Or indeed, if she missed the country she grew up in once she crossed the border to take up residence in the newly-minted state of Pakistan, of which her husband was the first Prime Minister.

From this point on in the book, the narrative is taken up by Tahmina Aziz Ayub, a Pakistani writer, who is best equipped to tell the Begum’s story as it unfolded in Pakistan. And in this recounting, Ms Ayub also gives us an insight into the birth of a country. The

Pakistan of this time is alive with hopes and dreams, and Begum Liaquat Ali Khan — who would soon earn the title of Madar-e-Pakistan — is at the forefront, ensuring that women have equal participation in the task of nation building.

It was Begum Ra’ana who encouraged young, middle-class Muslim women to come out of purdah and train as nurses and teachers so that they could contribute to their country, brushing aside the resistance she encountered in what was still a feudal and conservative society. And to set an example, she worked in refugee camps herself, providing succor to those who had been rendered homeless and penniless by Partition.

But just five years later, Ra’ana’s life imploded, when her husband was assassinated, leaving her a widow with two young sons aged 14 and 11. It is a measure of her steely determination that the Begum did not allow this tragedy to destroy her life. Instead, she went on to become a trusted advisor to different Pakistani governments, was appointed Ambassador to such capitals as Amsterdam and Rome, and soon attained the stature of a senior stateswoman in her own right.

It is intriguing to speculate how Pakistan would have developed as a nation if the two men instrumental in its creation — Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan — had not died within a few years of its formation. Would their liberal instincts, the ones that Begum Ra’ana tried to translate into her work with women, have survived and thrived? I guess we will never know. But what is clear is that this is the story of a truly remarkable woman, who straddled two religions, two countries, and two lives. A woman who lived on her own terms at a time when women could barely call their lives their own. And for that achievement alone, Begum Ra’ana deserves to live on in history.