He told me that Lahore was always on his mind. In Mumbai he always felt like a stranger, despite all the success that had come his way. But he did not want to return to Lahore because he thought it would be very different from the city he had lived in and loved

On December 12, 2005, the veteran Indian filmmaker, producer-director and storywriter Ramanand Sagar breathed his last in his home at Juhu, Mumbai. Born in the village Assal Guru Ke, near Lahore on December 29, 1917, he remained a theth (typical) Lahori all his life. He would have turned 88 in a few days. I met him twice — first on October 25, 1999, at the India International Centre in Delhi and again on October 18, 2001, at his residence in Juhu.

Before meeting him I knew that he had written the story of Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat and later produced a number of romantic films. He had gone on to produce the television series of the Hindu epic, Ramayan, and other serials with Hindu themes. His literary career started back in 1933 when he was 16. He also won gold medals from the Punjab University Lahore for scoring the highest marks in Persian and Sanskrit.

He published several collections of short stories and was considered a writer in the romantic-humanist tradition of Krishan Chander. He had also been the news editor of the Lahore-based, pro-Congress Urdu newspaper, Milap. Among his close friends were Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sahir Ludhianvi and other progressive writers.

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that not only was he from Lahore but from Chah Pichwara, off Lyyton Road, Mozang, which is less than 500 metres from my own ancestral house in Chowk Bhoondpura, Temple Road, Mozang. He spoke Punjabi with a broad Lahori accent, particularly reminiscent of Mozang. More than half a century in Mumbai had brought little or no change to his accent and manners.

I had wanted to meet him for many years primarily because he was a distinguished Lahori and had written a novel on the partition which for some reason I had not read despite having read the masterpieces by Krishan Chander, Saadat Hassan Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Balwant Singh, Khushwant Singh, Ashfaq Ahmad, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and others.

Aur Insaan Mar Gya (And Humanity Died) enjoys the reputation of being the most humane and politically neutral novel on the partition. I was told this by two of my close friends in Stockholm — Sheikh Jawaid who is a voracious reader and an authority on the history and legends of Lahore and Syed Siraj ul Salakeen who is perhaps the most ardent Pakistani patriot in my close circle. He acknowledged that Aur Insaan Mar Gya was a product of pure humanism in which the author had been fair to everyone.

Sagarji sent me the novel in 2001. When I read it I understood why he saw the events of 1947 as the death of humanity or of the human conscience. The novel originates in Lahore’s Walled City and some of its narrations of riots, killings and incendiarism are based on facts. In the latter half of the novel, the massacres in East Punjab are taken up and ample space is given to the suffering of the Muslims. The depictions shock human sensibilities all along, yet great moments when people were good to fellow human beings of other faiths are also presented with great feeling.

He told me that he and his family had suffered greatly when they fled from Lahore. They arrived in Delhi with nothing in their pockets. There was no money to get milk for his son Prem who was then a small boy. Aur Insaan Mar Gya is based partly on the direct experience of those days.

During my visit to his home in Juhu I frankly asked him why someone who had written a memorable secular-humanist novel on the partition should have moved on to Hindu religious themes and topics. I also pointed out that I had heard that he was a supporter of the BJP. He smiled and said:

“My TV serials are still secular and humanist. The conflict between evil and good has been going on from the beginning of time and will never cease. My interpretation of Ramayan brings out the same conflict even if the setting is religious. I have not abandoned my ideals. Rather, I have found a new medium to preach the good.

“You know, one day an old Muslim gentleman stopped me on the road and said that he was very grateful that I had produced the Ramayan. Previously his children did not care for him and rarely visited him. But after they saw the serial they changed and now they take turns visiting him and looking after him. ‘May God bless you for making such a morally-educative serial’, he said.

“As regards my links with the BJP, well I have some friends in that party who earnestly believe in peace between India and Pakistan. I would like all Punjabis to meet each other with open hearts and embrace each other as brothers. I am strictly opposed to religion being used to preach prejudice and hatred against fellow human beings.”

He told me that Lahore was always on his mind. In Mumbai he always felt like a stranger, despite all the success that had come his way. But he did not want to return to Lahore because he thought it would be very different from the city he had lived in and loved. His wife, who belonged to Shahalmi Gate, said to me, “Mulk tey sadha Lahori hi hai” (Our homeland is after all Lahore).

Later that day he took me to his studio, which was in the basement of the house. The production of another serial was underway. I met one of his senior-most technicians who happened to be a Muslim, Raashid. Ramanand Sagar said that Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians worked for his Sagar Arts. They were treated as part of an extended family.

A few months later he sent me an interview he gave to a leading Indian magazine in which he expressed the hope that in the 21st century India would be free from the curse of caste. That was something I thought all Indians should wish because nothing had damaged the Indic civilisation as badly as caste oppression.

I hope that Aur Insaan Mar Gya is published again from Lahore. It is partly a story of our city. It needs to be read along with other classics so that we can understand what happened in 1947 when humanity nearly died.

The author is an associate professor of political science at Stockholm University. He is the author of two books. His email address is Ishtiaq.Ahmed@statsvet.su.se