In seventh-century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussain,
sacrificed his life and his family members and companions in the desert of
Karbala, Iraq, to resist the debauched ruler Yazid. In twentieth-century India,
when the communal conflict was at its peak, Premchand wrote a play about this
pivotal event of Islamic history and transformed it into a nationalist narrative.
This first-ever English translation of Premchand's outstanding play Karbala
(1924) is an illuminating blend of historical facts and imagination. It reveals
Premchand's profound understanding of the communal conflict in early
twentieth-century India and his unique way of imagining the nation, in tune
with Gandhian principles of communal harmony and co-existence of religions.
