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Fiction The Tiger Claw It is not just the central character in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s latest novel - The Tiger Claw - that has an Indian connection but Shauna herself also has a strong Indian association. Hailing from a well-known Sikh family, she at present lives in Milwaukee, USA. The novel is inspired by the life of Noor Inayat Khan in the backdrop of World War II. The writer traces Noor’s Indian connections and she mentions that the first non-fiction biography of Noor was written in 1952 by Jean Overton Fuller and, later, William Stevenson summarised this account in The Man Called Intrepid. Baldwin writes that she has taken it upon herself to find the missing links, to fill in the gaps and to unearth and find answers to the many questions that have kept cropping up. The questions about Noor that nagged Baldwin before she’d begun to write this tale were like: Who was the piano student Noor was reportedly engaged to for five years before they parted when the Germans invaded? Why did she need a stomach operation in the 30s? What did it mean to be the daughter of a man like Hazrat Inayat Khan who brought his version of Sufism to the West? And in a time when India was struggling for independence, how did Noor, who came from so Indian a family, justify working for the Raj?" Whilst unearthing the so many whys, Baldwin links the turmoil of the 1940s to today’s changing world. Getting to the basic question of the times — who is a terrorist and understanding how people can slide into Fascism. "After the World Trade Center tragedy in 2001, people I knew began polarising into pro- and anti-Bush factions…, with Bush supporters acquiescing under the excuse of ‘Security’ to amazing violations of international law, the law of the land, as well as civil and human rights. "Just as the French said in the 1940s ‘they must be black marketers and terrorists’ many Americans in my day are saying the same of the 1100 nameless people rounded up after 9/11/01, and of 3000 people mentioned in Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union speech. I understand Fascism now — it is that time when the worst in us is glorified and rewarded by our leaders…," observes Baldwin. It’s a very strong tale that Baldwin has weaved around her central character Noor. And there’s one particular query about the central character that strikes one hard, hard enough to make one think — "Was she a terrorist or a valiant member of the resistance…. And like that illusion flipping in and out of view, the picture is both — Noor is a terrorist in the eyes of the Germans and a formidable member of the French resistance in the eyes of the Allies…." Baldwin seems engrossed in Noor’s character and, therefore, it is not surprising that for the novel’s research she went to France, England and Germany — where Noor had been — and to her ancestral home in Baroda. Truly an amazing tale. It
seems true that years could pass by with nothing really changing. Human
beings carry the same fabric for years and years and none of us can be
sure what destiny has in store for us. Noor was a young woman who went
through the most unbelievable twists and turns in the backdrop of World
War II. Read this novel in the backdrop of today’s world order and you
may get haunted by many a reality. |
