UNIT 1 THE WRITER AND THE PARTITION Structure 0 Objectives 1 Introduction 2 Life and Work of Bhisham Sahni 3 How the Novel Tamas Began 4 The Partition of 1947 5 Partition Novels in Hindi 6 LetUs Sum Up 7 Questions 1.0 OBJECTIVES This unit is meant to familiarize you with essential facts about partition and about the author of Tamas and about some other partition novels in Hindi ‘After reading the unit you should be able to understand the basic facts of Partition and its consequences and the treatment of Partition by Hindi writers {TRODUCTIO! Tamas (‘Darkness’) can broadly be called a novel of partition. | say “broadly” because it doesn’t deal with partition as such but with events that occurred in 1946 and the forces underlying them that prefigured partition. Originally written in Hindi in 1974, the novel was published by Vikas Publishers in an English translation by Jai Rattan in 1981 under the title Kites Will Fly. A revised English translation was published as Tamas by Penguin in 1988 with an introduction by Govind Nihalani who had made the novel into a very popular and, as it tured out, a controversial serial. The author's own translation of the novel appeared in 200. For the purpose of discussion in this Block we have referred to the Penguin 2001 edition. The novel has been translated into several Indian languages also and is now studied in many Indian universities as part of courses of study and has become a classic. ‘The novel received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975. “Tamas is considered an outstanding contribution of Hindi literature for its a control, a firm grasp of reality, excellence of characterization, and humanity and authenticity of experience,” says the Akademi citation. So closely did he come to be identified with Tamas that one TV announcer said on his death: “Tamas Bhisham is no more”. 1.2_ LIFE AND WORK OF BHISHAM SAHN Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) lived in Rawalpindi and later in Lahore before partition and the novel, Tamas, he says, is partly based on his experiences there, Here are the details of his career.Tamas Bom: Rawalpindi, 8th August, 1915. Died: 11th July, 2003, Education: M.A. (Eng) at Govt. College, Lahore, 1937; Ph.D. Career: Joined his father’s business at Rawalpindi and worked there for several years; taught at a local college in an honorary capacity. Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) After partition came to Bombay and then to Delhi and started teaching at Delhi College (later Zakir Hussain College), Delhi. First collection of short stories, Bhagya Rekha, published in 1953; second anthology, Pahla Path (1956). Worked as a translator in Moscow for about seven years from 1957, translated ‘some twenty books including Tolstoy into Hindi. Edited Nai Kahaniyan, 1965-67; third anthology of short stories, Bhatakti Raakh (1965). Tamas (1973); was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award (1975); also received the “Shiromani Lekhak Award” from the Punjab Government the same ‘year. Won the Lotus Award from the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association, 1980; won several other awards also. Nine short story collections, seven novels, six full- length plays, a book of essays, a collection of short stories for children; My Brother Balraj, a biography of his brother, Balraj Sahni and an autobiography, Aaj ke Ateet.Has been connected with IPTA and the Progressive Writers’ Association. The Writer and the Perhaps the most important thing about Bhisham Sahni is that his writing Partition springs from deep social commitment. 1.3 HOW THE NOVEL TAMAS BEGAN Tamas was written some twenty-five years after partition. In an interview with Pankaj K.Singh in 1995, Bhisham Sahni said: “It was not the Partition alone, it was the continuance of that atmosphere of separatism, charged with communal tensions which became a disturbing factor.” (Indian Literature, [167], 90) In another interview with Alok Bhalla, the writer ssas_more specific: “I wrote the novel because when I went to Bhiwandi, | suddenly remembered the Rawalpindi riots [of 1926]. 1 happened to see the riots in Bhiwandi. Some of the things | saw there were so similar to what 1 had experienced at Rawalpindi that I started writing. And then one thing suggested another...I myself figure in my novel—in scenes where I describe the activities of the Congress. I participated in prabhat pheries,’ When asked if he had actually participated in them, he said he had: *As a matter of fact, ‘when the first stone throwing took place I was there...1. mention that in m; novel....You know the Congress ameeri programme used to take us to certain localities to clean gutters... used to go along with my comrades, the Congress people. We also used to visit predominantly Muslim areas.” Later he said that ‘part of the novel is autobiographical. But the center of itis not about my own experiences. It is concerned with more general experiences’ (Pangs, Il, 90- 91). No wonder that Bhiwandi acted as a catalytic agent that made him write a novel on the theme of communalism and its disastrous consequences for a ‘multi-religious, pluralistic country like India. The novel is thus Janus-faced: it looks at the events that prefigured partition in his home town in 1946 and it is relevant for modem India where the problem of communalism threatens to disrupt the secular, democratic fabric of the country. 1.4 THE PARTITION OF 1947 A few points could be made about the partition. 1. Partition is one of the two cataclysmic events that have shaped the ‘destiny of India during the last 150 years. ‘The first was the Great Indian Uprising of 1857. India got divided into two parts. The new India became free on 15" ‘August 1947; Pakistan carved out of India came into being a day earlier. It comprised the Muslim majority provinces of erstwhile India and also the Muslim majority areas of Bengal and Punjab. ‘There were at least three major political forces at work in pre-pattition India. These were: the British rulers with their policy of and rule’, the Indian National Congress with its nationalistic secular