Here is my translation of Premchand's short story "Baasi Bhaat Mein Khuda Ka Sajjha" Here Premchand seems to be hobnobbing with atheism, imagining a world in which God plays no part.
In the evening when Dinanath returned home and told Gauri
that he had got a job with a salary of fifty rupees her heart burst with joy.
Her faith in gods became still stronger. For the last one year things had been
very difficult. No work, no job. The few ornaments they had had been sold. They
had still to pay the rent for the house. He had borrowed money from all his
friends. The year-old baby was starving for milk. If they were able to eat once
they had to worry for the next meal. Poor Dinanath found it difficult to go out
for fear of the creditors. The moment he went out he was mobbed by angry
voices: Wah babuji, you promised to pay in two days and you were not seen for
two months. Bhai sahib, this is not
fair. You are bothered only about your needs and don’t care about others.
That’s why people say that one may give a loan to an enemy but never to a
friend. These words hurt Dinanath like an arrow. And he felt like committing
suicide. But he held himself back thinking of his un-protesting wife and
innocent child. However, today God had taken pity on him and the days of
distress were over.
Gauri said in a
happy mood, ‘I used to say God takes care of all and would one day take care of
us too, but you never believed me. Tell me, aren’t you convinced of God’s
compassion now?’
Dinanath said, unyielding,
‘This is the result of my efforts. Not because of God’s compassion. I’ll
believe in Him if a treasure comes down to us crashing through the roof.’
But whatever he might say, faith in God had
taken root in his heart.
****
Dinanath’s boss was very cold and distant in behavior but
very meticulous in work. He was about fifty and didn’t enjoy good health but he
was the hardest worker in his office. No worker dared to come to late even by a
minute or leave office a minute before time. The workers were allowed a fifteen
minute break in between, which the workers could use for eating a paan, or
smoking a cigarette or eating something. Beyond this they were not allowed even
a minute’s break. Salary was paid on the first of the month. The office was closed
on festival days and no one was asked to work after office hours. All the
employees were given bonus and there was provision for provident fund too. Even
then no worker was happy. No one complained about work or working hours. They
were unhappy about the boss’s behavior. They might work hard or put all their
heart and soul into the work but there was never a word of appreciation.
The workers may or
may not have been happy with the boss, Dinanath had no grudge against him. He
would have worked as hard as now even after getting rebukes and reprimands from
the master. In one year he had paid off his debts and even saved something. He
was among those who remain contented even with little if it came to him
regularly. Even when the couple had to spend just one rupee, it was done after
debating and discussion for many hours. If the bill came from Gauri it was
scrutinized by Dinanath. If it came from Dinanath it was examined by Gauri. The
bill was passed only after forceful pleading. There was no third person to
certify the bill.
And Dinanath had
become a confirmed theist. He had no doubts now about God’s compassion and
justness. He prayed regularly and recited the Gita every day. One day when one
of his atheist friends criticized God he said, ‘Bhai, it has not been
established till today whether or not God exists. Both the sides have steel
solid arguments, but in my view it is better to be a theist than an atheist. If
God does exist then the atheists have nowhere to go except hell. A theist is on
a safe ground in both the situations. If God exists then he is on the right
side and if God does not exist he loses nothing. He loses only a few minutes a
day.’ His friend went away making a wry face at Dinanath’s doublespeak.
****
One day when Dinanath was about to leave for home after the
day’s work his boss called him to his room, asked him with great courtesy to be
seated on a chair and said, ‘How long have you been working in my office? It
must be nearly a year?’
Dinanath replied
politely, ‘Yes, sir. This is the thirteenth month.’
‘Be relaxed. Do you
take any refreshments on reaching home?’
‘No sir. I’m not in
the habit of eating anything then.’
‘You might be
eating paan etc. Being young, how do you exercise such self-control?’
Saying this, the
boss rang a bell and asked the orderly to bring paan and some sweets.
Dinanath became
suspicious: Why was he being treated with such hospitality? In the past he did
not even respond to his greeting, and today paan and sweets were being offered.
He thought the boss was happy with his work. This gave some confidence to
Dinanath. He remembered God. Surely God was omniscient and just, otherwise who
cared for him.
The orderly brought
paan and sweets and Dinanath had to eat them after repeated prodding.
The boss smiled and
said, ‘You must have found me a very strict kind of a person. The fact is that
people here still don’t understand their responsibility and if one becomes
lenient they start taking undue advantages; as a result the work suffers. There
are a few lucky persons who freely mix and socialize with their servants and
still the servants don’t renegade and work wholeheartedly. But I don’t know
that art. As a result I like to keep aloof from my employees, and following this
practice I have not been at a loss in anyway.
But I keep a constant watch on all my employees and keep testing them.
Now the opinion I have built about you is that you are a loyal employee and I
can trust you. That is why I wish to
assign a bigger responsibility where you won’t have to work much but only
supervise. Your salary will be raised by fifty rupees and I hope you would work
with even greater devotion than before.
Dinanath’s eyes
became tearful and the taste of sweets in his throat became a bit salty. He
felt like touching the boss’s feet and say: I am willing to give my life in
your service, and the trust you have placed in me I shall not betray. But his
voice was shaky and he merely looked at him with grateful eyes.
The seth took out a
thick ledger and said, ‘I need your help in a work on which the future of this
office depends. Among so many I have chosen you alone and hope you won’t
disappoint me. This is last year’s ledger and contains entries that show that
the company has earned a profit of many thousands; but you know we have been
incurring losses for many months. The clerk who had made these entries has handwriting
similar to yours. If your writing and his were placed side by side even an expert
would find it very difficult to see the difference. I want you to re-write one
page of this ledger and replace the page of the same number with it. I have had
the page number printed and also managed a daftri who would re-bind the ledger
during the night. No one would come to know. All I need is that you should copy
the page in your handwriting.
Dinanath expressed
his doubts, ‘If that page has only to be copied, then why replace it?’
Sethji smiled and
said, ‘Do you think you will have to copy that page exactly as it is? I shall change some figures. I assure you that
I am doing all this only for the good of the office. If this alteration is not
done then the jobs of about a hundred employees would be endangered. There’s
nothing to think about. It is only a matter of half an hour. You write very
fast.’
It was a hard test.
It was clear he was being asked to make false entries. He had no way to find
out whether sethji was doing it out of selfish motives or for the good of the
office; yet in both the cases it was a fraud, serious fraud. Will he kill his
soul? No, never.
He said, filled
with fear, ‘Please excuse me, I won’t be able to do this.’
Sethji asked with a
steady smile, ‘Why?’
‘Because this is a
fraud.’
‘What is a fraud?’
‘To make false entries.’
‘Is it a fraud if
by doing this you save the jobs of a hundred employees?’ The company’s real
value is different from its value in the records. If these figures are not
changed the company will have to pay thousands of rupees as profit; with the
result the company would become bankrupt and all its employees would have to
sit at home. I don’t want that for a handful of rich shareholders so many poor
should be sacrificed. If one has to commit a fraud for someone’s good it is not
killing one’s soul.’
Dinanath could not
refute this argument. If sethji was being truthful, then committing this fraud
was not a crime but a serious duty. And if one had to kill one’s soul to protect
the jobs of a hundred people then one should not care about it. Thus having found a moral justification he then
thought of his own safety. He said, ’If the fraud is found out I would be sent
to kalapani.’
Sethji laughed
loudly and said, ‘If the fraud is found out I would be caught, not you. You can
refuse point blank.’
‘But the writing
would be caught.’
‘How would anyone
know which page has been changed? The writing would be the same all through.’
Dinanath was
defeated. He began to copy the page there and then.
***
Even then Dinanath was feeling guilty. He could not say a
word about it to Gauri.
He was promoted
after one month. His salary was raised to hundred rupees. He got a bonus too of
two hundred rupees.
With all this the
house looked prosperous but Dinanath’s heart was burdened with a sense of
guilt. The arguments with which sethji had shut his mouth, he had not the confidence
to use them to convince Gauri.
His faith in God
constantly terrified him. He would surely receive a fearful punishment for this
crime. It was impossible to prevent it through contrition or a ritual propitiation.
May be not now, not after two-three years, or five-ten years; but greater the
delay the more fearful would the punishment be; the capital would go on
multiplying with interest. He often regretted why he had fallen prey to the
temptation offered by sethji. Why should it matter to him that the company
might become bankrupt, the employees might lose their jobs? Why did he bring
upon himself this torture? But now whatever had to happen had happened and the
punishment was sure to follow. This fear destroyed all the enthusiasm, pleasure
and sweetness of his life.
The malaria epidemic came. His son caught the
sickness. Dinanath’s life-breath seemed to go out through his finger nails. The
instrument of punishment had arrived. What should he do? Where should he go? He
was totally out of his mind.
Gauri said, ‘Go to
some doctor and get some medicine. It is already three days.’
Dinanath replied
with apprehension, ‘Yes, I’ll go. But I am frightened.’
‘What is there to
fear? You are saying something meaningless. Who doesn’t get fever these days?’
‘Why is God so
cruel?’
‘God is cruel for
sinners. What have we done?’
‘Does God never
forgive the sinners?’
‘If the sinners are
not punished, there would be chaos in the world.’
‘But a person can
do something which may be a sin in one way and a good deed in another.’
‘I don’t
understand?’
‘Suppose I save
someone’s life by lying. Is that a sin?’
‘I think such a lie
is a virtue.’
‘So a lie which
does good to people is not a sin?’
‘what else?’
Dinanath’s fear
that something terrible was going to happen was allayed for some time. He called a doctor, the treatment began and
the boy recovered in a week.
But after a few
days he himself fell ill. This surely was God’s punishment and he won’t escape
now. It was ordinary malaria fever but Dinanath’s imagination converted it into
a deadly illness. In fever, as in the state of drunkenness, a person’s
imagination soars high. Something that was just an apprehension now took a
fearful turn. His fantasy created messengers of death, their spears and maces, and
hellfire. How could a small dose of doctor’s medicine ward off the
blow from a one-thousand maund heavy mace and the destructive power of a boiling
sea of fire? Dinanath was not a believer in myths. He had no faith in the mysterious
Puranic fictions. No, he was a rationalist and he had begun to believe in God
only after his reason had convinced him. But along with God also came his
compassion, and also came his punishment. Compassion gave him livelihood, gave
him respect. But for God’s compassion he might have starved to death, but to
die of hunger was far easier, just a joke as compared to being pushed into a
cauldron of fire. The idea of divine retribution had become an inseparable
part of his reason, of his soul as a result of generations of acculturation.
His intellect and reason rode like sea waves over these incrustations hardened
over ages but would subside after inundating them momentarily, and that
mountain stayed unshaken as it was.
He had not yet
reached the end of his life. So he recovered. He started going to office as
soon as he regained strength. One day Gauri said to him, ‘During your illness,
one day when your condition was very serious, I had said to God that I would
feed fifty brahmins if you became well. Your condition began to improve the very
next day. Had it not been for His compassion I wouldn’t have been given
anything even if I went begging. Go to the market and bring the provisions so
that I can fulfill my promise. If fifty brahmins are invited a hundred would surely
come. Five beggars, and twenty-twenty-five friends too. My estimate is for two
hundred people. I will give you the list of provisions.’
Dinanath brought
furrows on his forehead and said, ‘Do you think I became well because of God’s
compassion?’
‘How else?’
‘I became well
because the time for my death had not come.’
‘Don’t say such
things. We have to fulfill the vow.’
‘No, never. I don’t
regard God as compassionate.’
‘Is God then
cruel?’
‘No one is a crueller
than Him. A God who pushes into hellfire the toys He Himself created in order
to punish them for their follies and mistakes can’t be compassionate. If God is
compassionate, he is innumerable times far crueller, and I hate to imagine such
a God. Love has been said to be the greatest power. Wise men have regarded love
as the greatest blessing in life and the world. If not in actual practice, at
least in principle love is the greatest truth of our lives. But your God controls
the world on the principle of fear and punishment. Then where is the difference
between God and man? I don’t want to and cannot worship such a God. Those who
are rich, God might be compassionate for them because they rob the world.
People like us don’t see any compassion in God. But yes, fear stares at us at
every step. Don’t do this, or God would punish you. Don’t do that, or God would
punish you. To rule with love is humane. To rule with terror is barbarous. It
is better to have no God than to have a terrorist God. I want to throw Him out
of my heart and become free both of his compassion and fear. One harsh
punishment destroys years of love. I have loved you all these years, but if one
day I pick up a stick to beat you, you won’t like to look at my face. I don’t wish
to be obliged to God for this life filled with terror and retribution. God cannot
be given any share in the stale rice. If you insist on giving this feast I
shall commit suicide.’
Gauri kept on staring at his face with fear-stricken eyes.
---
(Baasi Bhaat Mein Khuda Ka Sajjha, in Hans, Urdu,
October 1934,)
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