At times, just the cover of a book attracts me so much that
I end up buying the book impulsively. The same happened when I saw Ian Jack’s ‘Mofussil Junction’ (India Encounters
1977-2012, Penguin 2013) recently and thanks to the online shopping I was holding
the book in my hands in no time. There are two lovely images on front and back
of the cover with gel in effortlessly with the title of the book (See image
below).I have a fascination for small towns/semi-urban areas and the this book
seemed just right up my alley. Shortly afterwards I attended the Bangalore
Literary Festival where I had the good fortune of listening to Ian Jack in person
and also managed to get my copy signed by him (He seemed a bit surprised when I
approached him for his autograph as he was sitting next to Shobha De and most
of the crowd was interested in getting books autographed by her only!!).He
looked quite old and weak (as compared to the photograph which appears on the
cover in the book) but from his
conversation during the festival I could make out that he was still mentally
very agile and was someone with a formidable intellect. (He still writes a
column for the Guardian). Let me
confess upfront that I had not heard about Ian Jack earlier but after my brief
encounter with him I would like to read more and more what he has written. I am
currently reading Mofussil Junction
(MJ) which is a ‘collection of essays, profiles and reportage of subjects,
which he encountered in more than thirty years of reporting from India’. The
book is divided into five parts starting with Places, followed by People, Dynasty,
Life and Death and Fellow Travelers. I am at part two at present and already
hooked on to the book! Part one dealt with with favourite subject-travels into
small town India (or as the British would have called-Mofussil areas (Mofussil
has its origin in the Urdu word Mufassil)). The towns he visits include
Motihari in Bihar, Serampur in West Bengal and McCluskiegunge in Jharkhand. I
do not recollect hearing about either of these small towns before I read MF and
am pretty sure that neither would any reader be familiar with these but each of
this small town has a lot of Indo-British history attached which Jack sets out
to explore. Motihari is the birthplace of George Orwell (best known in India
for his cult novels Nineteen Eighty-four and
Animal Farm). George’s father worked
for the British civil services in India
and Jack seeks to trace the bungalow where he resided. He enlists the help
of some prominent local citizens is his quest but does he succeed?
Serampur, located on the banks of the river Hoogly was first
colonized by the Danish East India Company in around 1676 and had an exotic name-
Fredricksnagore after the Danish king. Later, in 1845, the Danish sold all
their Indian colonies to the British East India Company. Ian traces the history
of Serampur through the life and times of former shoemaker turned missionary,
William Carey. In the forty odd years that Carey stayed in the area, till his
death in 1834, he was responsible for establishing a college, a hospital, a
printing press and newspapers in English and Bengali. How did a weaver’s son
and a shoemaker in Northamptonshire end up in a tiny place off the cost of West
Bengal and adopted it as his own makes for a fascinating tale.
However, the most poignant tale comes from his travel to
McCluskiegunge. We have all heard of McLeodgunge (mini Tibet and also know for
cricket matches now) and also Forbesgunj (recently in news because of communal
riots) but McCluskiegunge? I had heard of it. Maybe this is opinion is a little
biased because I reside In Delhi (which is in the North) and people in eastern
India may have heard of it. It is named after McCluskie , an Anglo-Indian who
wanted to establish a separate homeland for the Anglo-Indian community at the
site which was originally called Lapra.It was an ambitious plan (‘the most
historical move of the community, fighting for its very existence and solving
its own salvation in its darkest hour’). However it failed miserably and the
town lies in ruins now. In tracing the history of MaCuskiegunge, Ian in fact is
tracing the history of the Anglo-Indian community and the sad state in which
they find themselves. What went wrong? Read
this most interesting book and find out. Inspite of being a Britisher, Ian
writes dispassionately and I look forward to read the remaining parts of the
book.