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Book review | Innocence meets intolerance between kites and questions in Mohsin Khan's Allah Miyan's Workshop
Written by Mohsin Khan and translated into English by Maaz Bin Bilal, Allah Miyan’s Workshop represents youthful innocence amidst familial and societal strife.
At first glance, Allah Miyan’s Workshop seems to be about 14-year-old Gibran, whose only interest lies in flying kites, running away from the burden of studying at the madrasa, giving the animals around him monikers that really fit their personality, and generally causing mischief and hullabaloo like any other teenage boy. But beneath the veil of his childlike enthusiasm lies the honey-coated knife of the human condition, piercing through the wonder with a harshness that is both heartbreakingly ruthless yet flamboyantly unattached.
Originally written in Urdu by Mohsin Khan and translated into English by Maaz Bin Bilal, the novel is set in Awadh, where Gibran lives with his sister Nusrat and deeply religious parents, simply called Ammi and Abba, who want him to join the Islamic community as a serious, contributing member, spreading the word of the prophet. But the family’s world is undone when Gibran’s father is arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist.
Gibran’s lens of innocence innocuously examines how politics and religion can subvert the very spirit of freedom and childhood rather than protecting it. The young protagonist bypasses the gravitas of the community it lives in and beautifully accepts the sheltering by overprotective adults.
The translator is careful to maintain the lyricism of the original Urdu. Through the purple prose and wondrous imagination of Gibran’s inner monologue, his questions for Allah Miyan touch topics that are far harsher than what a child should be accosted with. But it is this same honey-coated blade that leads to the answers that jaded adult readers may have sought, often without realising when they were not asked but simply accepted as the way of the weary world.
Had the story been narrated through the voice and thoughts of adults, it would have been a far darker tale, inspiring less compassion and more divisive conversations. But because it decentres the conflict by delicately tracing the harrowing narrative through Gibran, the message of Allah Miyan’s Workshop stays rooted in the seemingly ordinary human condition of resilience and hope. This innocence does not make the world around Gibran less cruel; it makes that cruelty more visible.
Title: Allah Miyan’s Workshop
Author: Mohsin Khan
Translator: Maaz Bin Bilal
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: ₹499
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