In seventh-century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussain,sacrificed his life and his family members and companions in the desert ofKarbala, Iraq, to resist the debauched ruler Yazid. In twentieth-century India,when the communal conflict was at its peak, Premchand wrote a play about thispivotal 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 revealsPremchand's profound understanding of the communal conflict in earlytwentieth-century India and his unique way of imagining the nation, in tunewith Gandhian principles of communal harmony and co-existence of religions.
