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Unit 8: A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond-Detailed Study

circle, especially those belonging to your rivals, anti-social elements and rebels, because who Notes
else will have a better knowledge of them.
Another interesting point is the way a lot of the Indian rebels or freedom fighters of 1847
believed that they could wipe out the Firangis off the face of India, typical of misplaced
optimism created by misinformation and emotion over intelligence. Some may say they tried
at least but I wonder if any good came out of it. I suspect it only worsened the situation and
eventually led to partition.

‘Only yesterday the fakir was saying that the Firangis had been wiped off the face of the land’.
‘I am not so sure of that,‘ Remarked Hafizullah.
‘Nor I, ‘ said Qamran. ‘The fact is, we do not get much news here.’
‘Though my uncle did boast the other day that there were no Firangis left, I overheard him
whispering to Sarfaraz Khan that they were not yet totally extinct. The hills are full of them.’
‘It is foolish to expect that the Firangis will be victorious. Have I not seen a score of them
running for their lives pursued by one of our soldiers?’
People start coming back to senses after the news of Delhi being taken over by Firangis reach
Shahjahanpur.

‘Javed Khan will look quite small now, won’t he?’ said Kothiwali merrily. Apparently the
news did not affect her one way or the other: she dealt in individuals, not in communities.
‘And so much for the rebellion,’ said Sarfaraz Khan philosophically. ‘The city of Delhi was a
garden of flowers, and now it is a ruined country; the stranger is not my enemy, nor is anyone
my friend…’
The Notes section of the story had interesting references to the records and accounts
of that time and later. Some of the enlightening ones were:

“Pathans formed thirty per cent of the Muslim population of Shahjahanpur (Muslims forming
twenty-three per cent of the entire population) according to the 1901 census. Most were cultivators
although many were landed proprietors of the district. (True Pathans are descendents of
Afghan immigrants.) “Their attitude during the Mutiny cost them dear, as many estates were
forfeited for rebellion.” (Gazetteer)
“The number of Muslims whose services (to the British) were recognized are extremely small,
as, apart from the two men who sheltered their Eutopoean kinsman, Mr Maclean, in pargana
Tilhar, the only persons recognized were Nasir Khan and Amir Ali of Shahjahanpur, who
buried the bodies of the Englishmen murdered on the occasion of the outbreak and Ghulam
Husain, who saved the commissariat buildings from destruction and for some time protected
several Hindis on the district staff.” (Gazetteer, 1900)

Did u know? A Flight of Pigeons is a novella by Indian author, Ruskin Bond. The story is
set in 1857, and is about Ruth Labadoor and her family (who are British)
who take help of Hindus and Muslims to reach their relatives when their
father is killed in a church by the Indian rebels. The novella is a mix of
fiction and non fiction and was made into a film in 1978 called Junoon by
Shyam Benegal, starring Shashi Kapoor, Nafisa Ali, and Jennifer Kendal.

I am ending the review in a romantic note, the whole truth of which only Ruth Labadoor
knows:

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