Behramji Malabari

Name: Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans
Author: Behramji Malabari

Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

Summary

“Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans”, published in 1882, is a work by Behramji Malabari. It explores elements such as Meer, master and Hindus.

Quotes from Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (Behramji Malabari)

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ The Meer passed his time in the zenana. He so devotedly loved his wife that he never gave her a rival. All the livelong day they were together, this infatuated pair, so absorbed in their new-born happiness. To me, an unmarried Hindu,the Meer's self-abandonment was shocking. He never left the side of his Bibi—she would not part with him. I had not the entree of the zenana, but learnt from the servants that the master and mistress were inseparable. The Meer stole out of his inner chamber once in a fortnight or so, when he had to ask me for a large sum of money, or to go to the mosque. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ I am now a rich and highly-respected merchant—so high up in the world that I cannot visit my master any longer. My lady is said to have grown gray-haired; but neither premature age nor her past sufferings, the gloomy present nor the blank future, can lessen her devotion to her husband. She seems to live for and in him. She is his sole attendant—the servants attend to minor duties. She is charitable even now, and on every Jumá (Friday) she gives what she can to the needy and suffering. I do not feel quite satisfied with myself when reviewing the past, but then, you see, a poor man must live! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ Poor men must live, and, if possible, I had determined not only to live, but to live to the best purpose, as I could see as early as now, that my master was running out of his fortune very fast. But it was not my business to advise or warn him till the worst came. This way we lived for seven years. I had already to tell my master that we had no cash left. We had to part with some ornaments, and were living upon the rents of two or three shops which we had to mortgage. One of these shops was mortgaged to myself unknown to the Meer—it stood in my uncle's name. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ Their aristocracy live without aim or ambition, men crushed by their own "pride of birth," men who would borrow rather than earn, and starve rather than beg. They are ever ready to "grasp the skirts of happy chance." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ They are pining for the "good old times," and being desperate hopers they hope away life with astounding patience; they hope and hope and still they hope for "the good times coming." Many, finding time hanging heavy on their hands, abandon themselves to low gratifications of the sense—feasting and dancing and carousing—in such "fool's paradise" they wile away time. They have a horror of honest work. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ About this time I myself married. I need not say that my master and mistress paid the expenses—about Rs. 3,000—of my marriage. They parted with their ornaments—these people seem to me to part with things as cheerfully as when they buy them—to help me. They thought very highly of my honesty and diligence; they also knew that I was very useful in 'raising the wind' and disposing of superfluities. For the Rs. 1,000 my master had to borrow I would bring him 700, part of the rest being considered interest already deducted, the remaining part going to me. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ Like their betters they despise work, but, unlike them, will beg, borrow, or steal, with the utmost pleasure in life. They live in a world of—wine and woman. Many of them sleep by day, and make the night hideous by their drunken revels. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ Most of them are in abject poverty, and to keep up some show of gentility—dearer to them than life itself—the head of a family at times acquiesces in the sacrifice which a too-loving wife or daughter feels bound to undergo. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (1882)

“ As friends and servants they are invaluable; and if you treat them kindly they will lay down life in your service. As a rule they are above that meanness, that petty intriguing spirit and want of gratitude so common among their neighbours. ”

Behramji Malabari

Summary

Quotes from Gujarát and the Gujarátis — Mahomedans (Behramji Malabari)

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