Page 17 of A Shimla Affair
‘Khushilalji? What’s wrong?’
‘Outside, at the front doors … I must inform Noor Sahiba …’
Charles and I looked at each other for a brief second before rushing out, leaving behind a stuttering Khushilalji. Immediately, in the lobby, we could hear something was wrong outside. We went to the windows and what I saw made my hands turn cold.
6
More than a hundred people, or it could be double that size, stood outside the hotel gates, led by Begum Jaan. At first, I couldn’t understand at all what they were doing there—the people seemed one mass, rather than individual faces. But when I looked closer, I realized Begum Jaan had gathered many Muslims from the town.
By then, the others too rushed outside, and Charles immediately went and stood by Lord Beeson, while Noor, Afreen and Khushilalji stood next to me. On the road leading up to the hotel, the crowd was chanting ‘Inquilaab Zindabaad’ before breaking into a beating rhythm of ‘Humaari maangein poori karo’announcing loudly that the revolution was here to stay and that their demands had to be met. Some of them hurled stones at the carriages parked outside the hotel.
A shiver ran through me as I watched and listened but my heart dared to think the crowd would not hurt us—as we would not hurt them. They were here to protest the English, that much was clear.
Afreen cursed under her breath, ‘It’s Begum Jaan! She got these people here without even telling us!’
Now I understood: Begum Jaan must have known that Beeson and the other officers were due to visit the hotel today, and grabbed this opportunity to stage a protest, away from town. She must have convinced people that this was a chance to present their unique Muslim demands to senior officers. I didn’t want to believe that she would betray us like this, but I remembered her words that day inside the police station.
‘You two stay inside,’ Noor said in her fiercest voice to me and Afreen. ‘Khushilalji, gather the men from among the servants!’
Before we could protest, Charles stepped forward, his gun drawn. ‘Your sister’s right, you all must stay inside.’ I wanted to protest but he wasn’t listening, and the other men too had their guns drawn by then.
Beeson, Charles and the other two officers stepped outside onto the garden. I jumped involuntarily when they fired two warning shots in the air. ‘Stay back!’ one of them yelled in a voice so loud it could be heard above the ensuing chaos.
The shots seemed to have derailed Noor and Afreen, too, as they threw themselves on the ground and looked ahead in alarm. The crowd was taken aback and paused for a second, but began shouting their slogan again, egged on by Begum Jaan.
I rushed outside and tugged on Charles’ arm, surprising him. ‘Don’t shoot at them!’ I yelled.
‘I won’t! Go back inside, you could get hurt!’
There was a loud ringing in my ears and I realized that a gun had been fired again—Charles turned, shocked, as Lord Beeson fired into the crowd, inciting wails and howls. He had hit someone.
‘Jeffrey!’ Charles bellowed, throwing off my arm entirely. ‘What the devil—have you lost your mind?!’
‘They are attacking us!’ Beeson said as he reloaded his gun, Charles moved forward to wrest it away from him. The shouting in the crowd grew louder and Noor stepped forward, attemptingto instil calm. Khushilalji and the other servants too worked to control the crowd.
Finally, the police arrived, using their lathis to brutally push people back, away from the hotel. I watched everything as if in slow motion. I feared for my life, not that I would lose it, but that it would never be the same again.
A big scuffle followed, as the crowd started fighting back and the lathis had to be used with even more force until the crowd was injured enough to be tamed.
Charles wiped his forehead on his sleeve and seemed to start towards me, but I anticipated his intention and rushed towards my sisters. We heard Lord Beeson bellowing orders as Afreen tried to seek out Begum Jaan, who was nowhere to be found.
When the situation seemed more contained, Lord Beeson ordered that the protesting people be marched down the hill through the Lower Bazaar. Charles followed them too, yet my heart noted with relief that he was as shocked as anybody else.
I was ushered back inside the hotel. I sat with my sisters; all of us still devastated by what happened. Within a minute, Beeson marched in, his thunderous footsteps announcing his arrival. He walked straight to us, eliminating any formal and courteous distance. ‘Did you betray us? How did they know we were here! Why were they putting on that show outside your hotel—’
‘What! No, it’s not true—’ Noor stepped forward.
This made him even more angry, ‘You will mind my rank, Mrs Irani!’
Noor stared coldly at him before saying, ‘Very well, Lord Beeson. Nobody here betrayed your party. Why on earth would we stage a protest outside our own hotel? We have no reason to get involved in something like this, that too at our place of business!’
Beeson appeared to be breathing heavily. ‘Exactly, Mrs Irani, you should be the last people anywhere near this. How did the Muslims know they have to protest here?’
I looked at my sisters. We all knew that Begum Jaan was obviously behind this. She had betrayed us, using the meeting with the officers for her agenda. She had taken advantage of our goodwill and put us in this vulnerable position.
‘Tell me!’ Beeson growled, and I jumped, shocked at his changed demeanour, his cruelty and, most of all, his entitlement.
‘Sir, we already said that we were not aware of any plan of protest. We keep away from such things. We just want to run our hotel.’
