24 November,2009 06:55 AM IST | | Aastha Atray Banan
Sultana Daku became a Robin Hoodesque figure after he was hanged by the British authorities, and left behind legendary stories that are still recalled in Uttar Pradesh. Author Sujit Saraf tries to decode the dacoit as a loving father and husband
Sultana Daku's last letter to his son was full of advice and life-altering. It told him that a man could store coins, rings and small knives in the three hollow spaces of his mouth one on either side, between the cheek and upper lip and a third, deep inside the throat. The fourth hiding place in one's body is not in the mouth, but at the other end, only to be used to keep silver trinkets and never gold. It also informed him that by the age of seven-and-a-half, he would be expected to engage a shopkeeper in conversation while he stole his grain, and squeeze through a passage so narrow that it would scratch the sides of a snake. Wise words of wisdom, considering that the legendary daku's son, would soon follow in his father's footsteps. It is this Bhantu daku of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), who within two years of his father's death transformed from a dreaded plunderer to a Robin Hoodesque figure this storyu00a0 fascinated author Sujit Saraf enough to write a book about him.
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The Confession of Sultana Daku is the daku's kahani, usiki zubaani, as an Englishman listens, the night before the dacoit is scheduled to be hanged. "I wanted to deglamourise this legend. It's what his story could have been before he became a legend," says Saraf, who put in hours of research at the British Library in London, going through the British Police records from the 1920s. "Everyone, right from a Superintendent to an Inspector General, kept a diary, and they wrote really well. So I stumbled upon a treasure trove of information about Sultana. This helped in creating a mental picture of him," says the author of the Peacock Throne.
Saraf's proud daku believes that it was his destiny to rob and kill, and derive pleasure in doing the deed. But he's also a loving father and husband, one who wants his son to flourish just as he did. "In some ways he is just like you and me. I couldn't give him the humility or the understanding that we have, and hence he is a proud murderer, but underneath it all, he's just a father, who loves his son and who's intent on preparing his son for a life as a daku," says Saraf.
But as the night ends, and the dawn approaches, indicating the nearing of his end, the daku falters, and starts questioning his life. Was it really right the way he lived his life? And then he confesses his most sinful inner feelings. "In the end, he somewhere starts wondering if his son would be better off living a respectable life, not as a daku. What if his son just became a guard, or a baniya (God forbid, he hates baniyas)? In the end, he can't but hope that there lies a better future for his son. It's ironic. He realises that he has secretly doubted his destiny all his life. And that's the hardest confession of his life."
The Confession of Sultana Daku has been published by Penguin and is available at leading bookstores for Rs 399
