Friends, today's episode was a continuation of the themes we saw in yesterday's episode, except for one big difference. What Jalal thought was just the case of one Adham Khan and one reluctant young girl has now snowballed into something that seems to be widely prevalent malaise in society!
Jalal conferred with his three Begums on this matter, and all of them seemed on the same side against the decisions of Maham. All three Begums seemed to opine that the plight of the girl-child in the Sultanate was abysmal and needed grass-root rectification. Jodha was the most persuasive and articulate on this point to start with, Salima then added her weight to the argument, and finally Ruqaiya took the point forward to actionability by Jalal. They arrived at the idea that Tasneem needs to be personally sounded out.
But did you all notice one more thing about this discussion: each Begum seemed to be highlighting her own story while also giving her point of view? I have dealt with this in the detailed analysis section below ...
It is to the credit of Jalal, that while he took his Begums' opinions, he also set about using his own methods to get direct knowledge of the Tasneem case. He talked personally to Tasneem and then went in disguise into Tasneem's village to get more first-hand information. His research thus exposed him to the depth to which matters had sunk in his kingdom. To add to what he had already seen, his gardener then added the last bit of garnish - that young plants yet to root and shoot would wither and die from too early transplantation! Jalal got the message loud and clear that forced marriages of young girl children to aged men had to be forbidden by the enactment of a strong law, and he needed to get the support of the praja on this.
It is was an interesting episode today because it touched on a subject of interest within the royal family - but it then took the same subject out into the folds of society where the magnitude of the problem became apparent. I am now sure that Jalal has to also consider one extra point: the example that the royal family sets in such matters then percolates down into the layers of society encouraging people to do the same! Whether it be a good example or a bad example, the royal family become role models for the praja to follow. It therefore becomes Jalal's additional responsibility to adjudicate the Adham matter carefully to ensure that examples set by his own royal family are progressive and good for all of society.
One other point: history also seems to confirm that Akbar was a master of disguises (as many kings in those days were) and he used this to good advantage to enter into the society he ruled to get a measure of how to best rule his people. Today's chudiwala disguise was one more of the instances where we can see Ekta following history reasonably closely .
Lastly,I thought the most important thing about the episode today is how it has ended. Jalal is all set to enact a new law, which Adham has overheard. He has sworn revenge. The weakest link in Jalal's situation is the fact that he himself has had a child marriage with Ruqaiaya. Will Adham be exploiting this by telling the praja that the emperor is himself an example of why the law is lopsided - one law for the king and another for the people?
And what does that precap mean? Is Ruqaiaya pushing Jalal to come clean to the public that his own child marriage to Ruqaiaya was a big mistake? Is Jalal hesitating to decry the value of his own nikah to Ruq as a reason for the need for a new law? Is Ruqaiaya then saying she will expose the issue if he won't? Is Ruq saying she will force Jalal's hand by carrying a complaint against Jalal as a victim of a child marriage herself - and thus create pressure for a change in the law? Will this ploy help counteract Adham's accusations of partiality?
I am dying to know everyone's views on what this precap meant to them! It's a bit unclear, isn't it?
Anyway let's move on to the detailed analysis ...
The Shahenshah and his Begums isolate Maham!
The scene of the discussion between the King and his Begums was splendid. It semed to give us all an insider's view of the goings-on inside the family and it was nice to see this marriage-quartet in action! For starters, Maham and Ruq arrived a bit late - after having had their catfight, I presume? Maham pressed the point that all three "khas begums" were in attendance!
Anyway, Jalal then explained that he wanted the opinions of the women particularly in this case as it pertained to a girl-child and he asked Jodha to start first as she had yesterday already showed some eagerness to say something in the sabha which Hamida had quelled. He said "There I was the Shahenshah, but here I am your husband, so feel free to speak your mind". Jodha thanked Jalal for including her in this discussion and then launched into a really good speech, I thought, on the real plight of the girl-child, not only in the Sultanate, but right across the whole country in every kingdom. Jodha said: "I am neither against Maham nor Adham, but I am against the way the girl-child is being devalued as a "vastu" by society at large. Parents themselves sell their girls mercilessly or trade them for favours. Girls are given away as gifts, as prizes for winning wars or as the price paid for losing wars. I am distraught at this state of affairs!"
At the moment that Jodha talked of women being the "price paid for losing wars", she had tears streaming from her eyes, and I have no doubt she was talking of herself - and I have half-a doubt that Jalal understood this personal angle! After she finished he said "I empathise with you. But the points you raise are not simple. Women have traditionally been at the mercy of their parents' whims first and then their husband's whims. This issue needs vast re-enactments of the law!"
He then turned to Salima for her opinion. Salima in her true graceful style began by praising Maham and her point of view on law at the court. Salima then said with some resignation that matters such as these had become so much a practice of society anyway. But on the point of principles regarding the girl-child she said she was fully with Jodha. It looked to me like when Salima was talking about how hard-grained such practices had become as part of society, she was talking from her own experience. She too had been a very young girl (in her teens) married to a man many many years her senior (Bairam Khan in his fifties?). She sounded like one who had not had the strength or support at the time to swim against the tide, if she so wished, and so events had carried her away into her marriage.
Then it was Ruq's turn to speak, but it was extremely interesting that Maham butted in before Ruq could start - saying "I know Ruq will support my own position on this issue". No doubt Maham thought that the fight outside with Ruq would have blackmailed Ruq into submission. But the defiant Ruq took the entirely opposite stand and said "No, I support Jodha in this. The reason? Tasneem is the child in question and no one is asking her what she wants. Shahenshah, you have to talk to that girl directy to know what she wants. The ultimate decision has go to be the girl's and no one else!"
I thought Ruq was voicing something that may have troubled her over the years - that she herself had never had any say about her own child marriage. At an age when she was way too young, elders had snatched the decision as one to be taken by themselves, and she had no choice but to acquiese and adjust as best as she could. Whether she was happy with Jalal or not was not the question. Was it her choice, was the question. Maybe years of buried angst popped out of Ruqaiaya today?
After hearing out his three wives, Jalal seemed to give nothing away as to what was exactly on his mind. He told a dismayed Maham to get Tasneem to the Diwan-e-Khas , and that was the end of this discussion. I don't know if we'll ever see another such group discussion between Jalal and his three wives, that too with such total concordance of views.
The case of just one girl or the bane of a society?
Jalal after the meeting with his wives was deep in thought, even as Jodha was voicing her concerns to Moti that she hoped Jalal would come to a good decision as the life of a very young child was at stake. Jalal then followed a clear plan. He first met with Tasneem and asked her a very cleverly worded question. He didn't outright ask "Do you want to marry Adham?". Instead he asked "What does marriage mean to you?".
The young Tasneem brought tears even to my eyes as she said things like: "Marriage means lots of food and new clothes. A big house to stay in. And when the Qazi asks we have to say Qubool!" Jalal then asked "Do you want to get married?". The child nodded a half-yes and half-no with her head that had to be read as a "Yes"! The absolute innocence of the child - and her total unpreparedness for a life with a brute such as Adham - was so evident that I was staring at Maham to see if she had even one ounce of remorse at the way she was imprisoning this innocent into a bruising life with her animalistic son! She had no sign of feeling for the llittle girl at all! All she was doing was looking alarmed at Jalal's line of questioning!
Jalal seemed moved to tears himself, as Ruq, Salima, Jodha and even Hamida looked on. To them all it must have seemed like they were looking at a young goat kid getting readied for slaughter!
Jalal had nothing more to ask, and he dismissed the child. Next thing we knew, he was in the disguise of a chudiwala roaming the village in which Tasneem lived and overhearing the kids there referring to Tasneem's impending wedding. He was so true to his disguise that he started hawking his wares with the perfection of a professional chudiwala to the hearing of Tasneem's mother - who then called him in to get some bangles for her daughter.
The mother said, "Show me the best you've got because my daughter is to shortly wed Subehdar Adham Khan." The father of the child then trumpeted the fact that Adham had promsied he would be made the in-charge of a Fort. Jalal was hearing more than he was pleased to know! When time came for the child to try on the bangles however she began ranting against the marriage, only to be landed tight slaps from her irate father and some bitter scoldings from her mother. The child betrayed to Jalal that beatings had been given even before to get her to agree to the marriage before Jalal at the court! Jalal tried to stop the parents from hurting the child, but the girl's father held Jalal by the neck and threw him out for interefering!
Just outside the house more ugliness reared its head before Jalal. A very small girl, smaller even than Tasneem, was being carried off in a marriage doli by a man old enough to look like her grandfather. Jalal was disgusted at the goings on in his kingdom. He talked to himself saying "Jodha was right, this is a rampant societal menace. Something drastic has to be done about it."
Later, sauntering in the garden at the palace, Jalal also overheard something more on this topic from his gardener who was telling another worker that very young rose bushes should never be transplanted unless they had developed strong enough roots and shoots - or they would not survive in the alien soil! That sealed it for Jalal. His mind was made up. He knew he had to act. He needed precedents to see how to go about the whole process.
That fortunately was given to him by Atga Khan who came upon the scene. Atga agreed that traditionally the miserable practice of marrying off very young girls to older men was done to get the girls better trained early into their new homes, but the practice was unjust and had to be stopped. There were precedents of law enactments to nullify unjust traditional practices by other kings before such as Alauddin Khilji and Sher Shah Suri. But the praja needed to be carried along - and they could be if they loved their king and were led by him. Jalal was just about confirming to Atga that a law should now be made pronto, when he was overheard by Adham, who immediately swore revenge!
Plans for a new law with its own repurcussions!
What the new law will bring as its repurcussions for Jalal and his family is not something we were shown today. We have to factor in the precap to make some guesses. Here's my prediction:
I think Adham will now go to the people whom Jalal is trying to carry along with him for his new law. Adham may tell the praja that Jalal is trying to bring a law that he himself has never upheld. How can there be one law for the king and one law for others? Was it not a fact that Jalal had married Ruq without consulting her wishes and under family pressure? Where was Ruqiaya's choice consulted on this nikah?
The result of all this propaganda by Adham would probably be that Jalal will be forced to tell the people: "It is because my own marriage was a mistake that I am now trying to change the law. Ruqaiaya was married to me without anyone asking for her consent. That is not to say we are not happy now, but nevertheless to have pushed her into marriage without it being her choice was wrong!"
I think Jalal will have a lot of emotional difficulty to say this to the public though,and that is when Ruqaiaya will try to push him hard to go ahead and make that statement as a King who needs to do his duty and talk of his own life as an example. Seeing Jalal recalcitrant, Ruq may resort to a dhamki at Jalal saying "Will you say it or shall I? If you don't, I will. And I will make sure I say that its my complaint against my husband that I was married to him without my consent and so I personally now demand a change in the law!"
Ruq's method will surely checkmate Adham especially if Ruq acts as a victim and complainant herself. It will nullify Adham's attempt to say "the King has one rule for himself and another for his people". But the question is whether Jalal will feel okay to let it happen like this? Or will he find another way to achieve the same ends with the public, without needing Ruq to become the victim or complainant, and without the accusations of Adham being able to do much damage?
Folks, I don't know if my reading of the precap makes sense. I am dying to know how everybody else is reading the situation. So please don't just run away after pressing the "Like" button on my post. Please add your views to this thread, okay?
And finally, in all the happenings today on the Adham-Tasneem case, there was one small scene that seemed to take the love story of Jodha and Jalal forward by a mini step. Jodha was seen wanting to talk to Moti about Jalal's choosing her as one of his Khas begums for his discussion of the case. As Moti explained to Jodha, there was nothing to talk about ... because Jalal had demonstrated his preference and his growing trust and respect for Jodha, as decisions directly from his heart!
The fact that Jodha then spent her time in reverie, going over several flashback memories of Jalal in his most endearing scenes - scenes where he especially showed her his heart - seemed to give us the feel that Jodha was also beginning to feel something inside her heart for him. Let this loop stay where it is for today ... I am sure after this Adham-Tasneem saga, there is going to be definitely some progress in the Jodha-Jalal love shown may be by next week?
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