LAWRENCE: (Authoritatively.) Who’s there?
(Enter Edwardes.)
EDWARDES: I’ve been looking for you, sir.
LAWRENCE: What is it?
EDWARDES: Special dak from Calcutta, sir.
LAWRENCE: (Impatiently.) Later!
EDWARDES: It’s come by special messenger, sir. From the Governor-General.
LAWRENCE: Later! Did you see Sher Singh leaving?
EDWARDES: (Puzzled.) Yes, sir. I meant to ask you. He looked upset, and he walked past me without even recognizing me.
LAWRENCE: (With an effort.) He’s leaving us. Leaving permanently.
EDWARDES: I’m sorry to hear it.
LAWRENCE: (More to himself.) But I still have the Punjab. Let them go away. I don’t need them. I don’t need the Rani; nor Sher Singh. I have the Punjab. Angrez Badshah! The new Lion is here. I am the Punjab!
EDWARDES: (Uncomfortably.) Yes, sir. The messenger is waiting.
LAWRENCE: What is it?
EDWARDES: (Producing a sealed letter.) It’s marked ‘personal and confidential,’ sir.
LAWRENCE: Open it.
(Edwardes tears the seal.)
Read it.
EDWARDES: (Delicately.) But it’s personal, sir.
LAWRENCE: Read it.
EDWARDES: (Reading.) My dear Lawrence, I regret to inform you that the Court of Directors of the Company are persuaded that the Government of India no longer requires your services in the Punjab. Mr Currie will temporarily assume charge at Lahore until a suitable successor is appointed. He will prepare grounds for the formal annexation of the Punjab. You are requested to proceed to Calcutta.’
(Long silence.)
LAWRENCE: You’d better go now, Edwardes. I’ll take off the Lion’s chogah. It’s grown too hot for me.
(Long pause. Takes off the chogah slowly. Lights fade.)
Afterword
The major characters in this play existed. Its action is based on events in the Punjab in 1846-7, and was reconstructed from documents and letters exchanged by the principal characters. The historically curious may be interested to know what subsequently became of these characters.
Henry Lawrence was transferred to Rajasthan from the Punjab: a demotion in the eyes of his contemporaries. His younger brother, John Lawrence (mentioned in Act I), succeeded him in the Punjab and rose brilliantly to become the famous Lord Lawrence, the Governor-General and Viceroy of India. Henry Lawrence flickered once more briefly into history when he died defending the Residency in Lucknow in the 1857 Mutiny. Much was made at the time of his heroism; some even said that he had saved the British Empire.
That he saved the British Empire was in a sense true, though not in the way most people believed. The British won the 1857 war mainly through the support of the Punjab troops. The loyalty of the Punjab had been won ten years before by Henry Lawrence through his ‘rule’ of justice and generosity. Even today people talk about him in many villages of the Punjab.
Rani Jindan escaped from the Sheikhupura jail. She was seized and banished from the Punjab to a fortress in Benares. Once again she escaped, this time to Nepal where the king gave her asylum. She was never allowed to return to India nor to see her son, till the very end of her life—after sixteen years—in May 1863. She died three months later. Dalip scattered her ashes from the banks of the river in Nasik because he was not allowed to enter the Punjab. She had wished them thrown into the Ravi, near Lahore.
Sher Singh, true to his word, returned to throw out the Angrez from the Punjab. He rallied a sizeable force and launched such a successful attack on the British that the frightened establishment in Calcutta had to call in British troops from all over India to fight essentially one man in what historically came to be called the Second Sikh War. Sher Singh fought gallantly, but it was an unequal contest. With his defeat the spirit of Ranjit Singh finally died in the Punjab and the British formally annexed it in 1849. However, for the Punjabis, Sher Singh had salvaged the honour they had lost in Sobraon; and they were thankful to him.
Dalip was converted to Christianity and sent to England as a young boy where the British Government gave him an annual pension and the Elvedon Estate in Sussex. He grew up a dandy—mildly ostentations, favouring black velvet jackets (he was affectionately called the ‘Black Prince’)—and was rumoured to be a great favourite of Queen Victoria for many years. He married a German Ethiopian girl, Bamba Muller, who gave him two sons and three daughters. But he lived far beyond his means and ran up large debts.
In his later years, he realized he had been cheated by the British and, reverting to Sikhism, made a ludicrous effort to enlist the help of European powers and Indian Princes to win back his kingdom. He called himself an ‘implacable foe’ of the British people. His efforts, however, did not come to much and he spent his last years frustrated and angry. He died in Paris in 1893 of paralysis, and was buried a week later at Elvedon.
MIRA
Mira was first performed at the La Mama Theater, New York, on 20 May 1970. It was directed by Martin Brenzell, with original music by David Walker, and the following cast:
Yolande Bavan
Mira
Patricia Conway
Uda
Farid Farrah
Jai
Gretchen Oehler
Jhali
Erik Robinson
Rana
Thomas Aronis
Percussion, harp and harmonium
John Littlefield
Flutes
Note: The running time of the La Mama production was 90 minutes.
The play has since been performed in Mexico City (1971), Bombay (1972), New Delhi (1973 and 1998), Ahmedabad (1973), Madras (1985) and a number of other cities. It was first published in Spanish (Mira: Rito de Krishna, translated by Enrique Hett, Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico, D.F., 1971).
Characters
ACTRESS 1
(Mira)
ACTOR 1
(Rana)
ACTOR 2
(Jai)
ACTRESS 2
(Uda)
ACTRESS 3
(Jhali)
The action of the play takes place in early sixteenth century Mewar, a princely state in North-western India.
1. The Prologue
ACTRESS 1: I am Mira. I am an ant on a matchstick lit at both ends.
ALL: (Chanting.) I sing to the hearts of men and women; I dance before him, and I wail
