cRmgUlSG PAR1TIlON NAARllnvES
35
CRITIQUING PARTITION NARRATIVES:
IN SEARCH OF TOOLS AND LENSES
THE LAST VEW YEARS have seen a substantial focusing on
Parlition literature. But the critical paradigms required for
the study of this massive body of fiction has not received
adequate attention from lilerary cril1cs in India. While
enough number of Ph.D. dissertations are being wrillen
on this literature. there has not been much effort at evolving
an indigenous critical framework to examine the creation
of a convincing Interface between facl and fiction.
imagination and history. and memory and myth In Partition
literalure. Partition had triggered a cultural crisis causing
a definite tum in the flow of history of the subcontinent.
Both the geographical as well as the cultural context of
the phenomenon determined the nature of the experience.
Indeed, the creative expression of the same too was fillered
through a consciousness that cherished the values,
traditions and myths, beliefs and failhs rooted in this
region. The writer discovered his/her own mode of
expression. tropes and metaphors, and a fresh Idiom to
give shape to the raw experience that entailed the division
of the country. In the light of the need for theoretical
wherewithal for the study of Partition literature. this paper
argues for a concerted effort to not only consolidate the
dispersed critical perceptions but also to examine the
uncharted range and variety of Partition experience. This
will help evolve an auUlentic critical position native to the
literature of its study.
Of late, in their efforts to understand the rupture caused
by Partition in the history of the Indian subcontinent,
historians and social scientists have been using l1terature
to access the varied experiences of people in 1947. Official
history has stored statistics of numbers of migrants/
refugees, rapes, murders, etc. Also, there are records of
political debates and positions of leaders regarding the
Partition of the country. At the level of the masses, the
intensity of the experience was so deep and strong that easy
articulaUon of the same was not possible. In fact, there
seemed to have been a deliberate effort at pushing the gory
reaUty of those experiences into the subconscious. to be
anmesiac about them. From where would the refugee or
the victim of rape or even the one who may have killed his
neighbours have mustered that extraordinary fortitude to
be able to confront the gruesome past, speCially when the
present urgently reqUired their full energy to construct not
only new homes but also a new identity. Amnesia served as
a SUrvival strategy. Memory as a site then acqUires a very
critical importance. as It enables an alternative
interpretation of history. Millions of people traumatlsed into
silence found voice In the writer's use of memory that
negotiated tbe present in the light of Ole past. The revived
past In Mohan Rakesh's short story, ~Malbe ka Malik" (MHls
Heap of Rubble"). for instance, Is regenerative because it
brings the protagonist to tenns with the present. Manifested
in literature, such fragments of memory, in the words of
the well-known Pakistani writer. Bapsi Sidhwa. sought a
poetic license. MLahore would keep burning" fol- an inordinate
length of time in memory. Sidhwa said, till it Is confronted
squarely. In order to reconstruct the event. a fresh
configuration of memory is bound to take place when filtered
through the present. The devices used by the writer may be
u,at of Interrogation, introspection, or even a faithful and
clinical depiction of evcots of the past.

NARRA11"G PAR11110N
36
Even though etched in collective consciousness. Partition
experiences remained unartlculated and buried in the
wasteland of memories. It needed several decades for society
to bring to the conscious levcl what lay submerged in the
minds of people for so long. The creation of Partition literature
led to a revival and. to borrow Foucault's words. a resurgence
of hidden suppressed histortes that deslabiHse and challenge
the official ones. The nightmarish past had to be exorcised. It
had been a time when humanity seemed to have surrendered
to bestiality completely. whether through victlmhood or by
indulgence in an act of vioLence. The archives of memory
collected in literature speak abundantly for the subaltern
expertence which has been overshadowed by official history,
Khushwant Singh's A Train to Pakistan, Bhisham Sahni"s
Tamas. Joglnder Paul's SLeepwalkers, Intizar Husain's BasLi
and many other novels recalled the past as a rupture that
has been followed by continual reenactments of the same
phenomenon. The project of an engineered ~forgetling."
whether conducted by the individual, the society or the state.
came under scrutiny with the production of powerful literary
texts that reveal the different colours of Partition. it
questioned both the censoring as well as the denial of
) experience.
The numbness in the psyche of those affected by partition
had been like the lull after a devastating storm or an
earthquake. It was a sense of beWilderment. a
dumbfoundedness. a stony sllence as also a sense of
helplessness. On the other hand, the country had just
acqUired the long sought after freedom. Hundreds of people
had become martyrs in the struggle for independence and
there were counUess numbers of scil1ess, idealistic freedom
fighters. The euphoria of freedom and a deep sense of angUish
over the Partltlon riots could not really be contained or
experienced Simultaneously. I\n ulter confusion followed the
contradictory nature of the circumstances. The multiple uses
of memory include the usc of nostalgia. of taking a sentimental
journey Into the beautiful past. as if to salvage humanity, or
CRmgUINC PAR11110N NARRA11VES
37
to recover moments of solidarity and connectedness. Whilc
Krishna Sobti's Zindaginama brings alive an era of perfect
co-habitation of different communities, Kamleshwar's Hindi
novel, Laute Hue Musafrr. is an example of communities coming
back together after the dispersal caused by the Partition.
These are just a couple of examples from amongst many
fictional narratives which demonstrate a vision of prioritising
communal harmony in the wake of bitter memories of the
violence of Partition riots.
There are many stories in Hindi and Urdu that explore
personal memory as a means of relocating identity. An intense
process of remembering actually becomes an act of
re-membering, of healing and putUng together the fragmented
bruised self in order to recover the dignity of human living.
Evoking the past through subjective memory and then finding
ground in the new reaJity became an effective device for the
process of reshaping identity. In Lalithambika Anthcujanam's
story. "A Le'af in the Storm." the protagonist does not need to
recall. but in effect she has to rid herself of the memory of the
brutal rape she suffered durtng Partition; only then would
the new reality of the baby in her womb get any space In her
psyche. It is the direct physical consciousness of the
movement of the baby in her body that connects her with her
new identity, Memories can be like shadows, haunting and
oppressing an IndiVidual till death.
Memory can indeed become a burden. There are many
characters in Partition fiction who feel doomed because they
cannot forget, or they want to cling to their sweet memories
of the pre-Partition past. if only to escape from the reality of
the angst generated by the cruel present. In the Urdu story
by Joglnder Paul. ~Dariyaon Pyaas" ("Thirst of Rivers"). the
old woman does not part with the bunch of keys of the haveli
that she and her family had to abandon when they migrated
across the border. She actually believes that she will be able
lo open the locks of her son's new house with those keys.
She cannot forget and remains stuck to her past.
It took the sensitivity. keen observation and the
 NARRATINQ PAR'TTTlON
38
extraordinary objectivity of a creative writer to witness. identify
and articulate the plurality of the experiences of Partition.
The writers captured moments of compassion and love from
within the scenario of the brutality of degenerate humanity.
And If there was a representation of bizarre violence. It was
portrayed In such a manner that It aroused disgust through
the ~aesthetics of the ugly." What is noteworthy Is that a large
body of good fiction was written In PunJabi. Urdu. Hindi.
English. Sindhi and BangIa, not with any avowed didacticism
or melodrama. but to confront the truth of the felt experience.
This process held up a mirror to the society. a mirror that
offered a closer look at both. the warts as well as the blossoms
of humanity.
An aesthetic rendering of the incidents of Partition. be it
that of migration or rape or murder. and an excavation of the
deeply wounded psyche of the victim as also of the agent of
violence. continued to be of deep concern to creative writers.
specialiy to those who experienced the trauma of Partition
themselves. It was the writer who had the courage to face
such experiences with acute alertness and explore the
working of the human mind at the collective as well as the
individual level. Even if the action was not a pre-meditated
/ one. there was a compelling need to figure out the makings of
a mind that could so easily indulge In barbarism. What is
pertinent to note here Is that literature Is not created either
to document sociology. or to provide any historical evidence.
It is not written to prove any political viewpoint either. What
Is paramount Is the writer's commitment to search for truth
through a non-partisan narration of life-experience. without
compromising essential human values such as social justice.
compassion and love. In an atmosphere of combative feelings.
hurt. vengefulness and repugnance. the writer felt the need
to nostalgically recall the value of the earlier sense of
community and connectedness with the neighbour. which
had transcended any kind of communalism. Krishna Sobti's
Hindi story. ~Slkka Badal Gaya" and Abdullah Husseln's
Udaas Naslein come to one's mind in this context.
CRmQUlHa PAR1TI10N NARRAnv&S
39
From subjective. individual memory to collective memory.
and moving on to connect with a non-linear cultural
mythology. Partition narratives churned up symbols that
corresponded with notions and myths sanctioned by the
society. The point of reference for the symbols used is then
that of the memory lying in the storehouse of culture. For
instance. the Urdu writer Intizar Husain used the notion of
~hijrat" to describe migration and exile. In a llterature that
dwells so much on cultural rootedness. critical appreciation
has to develop SUitable tools and resources for the formulation
of a relevant critical theory.
"What place do you come from?" This is a question asked
of each other after the initial greetings even today when
former refugees - now a very senior generation of people _
meet. both in India and in Pakistan. This highlights the
compelling desire to reestablish some contact. If not with
the place. at least wHh someone who may have come from
the same town or city as themselves. The strong sense of
place In Manto's story, "Toba Tek Singh" gets further
accentuated when it is revealed that ~Toba Tek Singh."
beSides being the protagonist's name. is also the name of
the town to which he belonged - an instance of complete
identification of the person with the place of his origin.
ParUtion severed this strong relationship physically. bUl
perhaps that is the very reason that psychologically it
became even stronger. ~This is Lucknow" - thus begins
JOginder Paul's Urdu novella. Sleepwalkers. It is actually a
statement made about KarachI. because the mohajlrs had
Carried their Lucknow in their minds to Pakistan. This sense
of territoriality holds within itself also a sense of specific
ancestry. norms. moral order and a special <!Ultural meaning.
The massive migration of people In 1947 meant many a story
emerging from the experience of exile. Critical theory alien
to thls culture would not hold good for an adequate reading
of these narratives.
The exodus ofkafllas (large groups ofpeoplel had no defined
destination. it was a journey to exile and homelessness. To

NAlIRATING PAl<'lTI10l<
40
suffer an exodus of this nature, for people who otherwise
cherished the long entrenched notion of neighbourhood as
family, was in itself totally disconcerting. And to make it worse,
it was a journey through a grotesque dance of violence. 'The
child who reached safety is dead, It cannot speak. The living
chUd who could have spoken has been lost on the way"- tWs
perception, expressed in Gulzar's story, "Ravi Paar" speaks
for the quality of silence of those who became pernlanently
exiled and suffered a throttling of speech. Their journey into
their selves remained forever an "Unwritten Epic" (the title of
a story by Intizar Husain). Their disowned memories are
sklllfully retrieved by the creative writer and empathetically
given a language. In Jamila HashmJ's story, "Banished," the
acute alienation of the woman married to the man who
abducted her is projected as the story of Sita whose exile is
never going to end.
Even the "rehabUitated" woman could not regain access
to the normalcy of Interpersonal relationship. Official
rehabilitation programmes could not de-condition the
mindsets of people. of both men and women, from shedding
notions of "honour" related to "purity." "chastity" and so on.
of woman. The abducted "fallen" woman could not be
) accepted in the hearts of people even If officially there were
enough programmes to rehabilitate them. Rajinder Singh
Bedi unravels this pertinent truth in his story "Lajwanti."
After Lajwantl Is located and taken back by her husband.
there is a mutual inability on their part. with both Lajwanti
and her husband unable to ask the right questions and
resolve the strain in their relationship. It is obvious that
even Sunderlal. who raises slogans for the rehabilitation
and acceptance of abducted women. is unable to give her
normal space. An understanding of such culturally defined
norms of liVing and relationships - whether with the
neighbour or WIth one's own Wife. daughter or mother ­
needs to be built Into the critical framework required for a
closer look at Partition e>.-periences and their impact on the
re-orientations in modem India. If the sllences are identified
RmQlJlNG PARTITION NARRATIVES
41
in creative literature. lJterary criticism needs to interpret
them in the light of the worldviews upheld in Ule society
which has produced that literature. Only then can it have
credibllity.
The cultivated genocide and organised violence experienced
by the Jews in the West during the Holocaust cannot compare
with the kind of spontaneous violence experienced during
tbe Partition riots. It would not be right therefore to use the
same paradigms for critiquing the literature emerging from
the two phenomena. The survivors of Partition clearly perceive
Partition as an end of a certain kind of innocence, thc
innocence of a shared culture and the sense of togetherness
that had evolved over centuries between Hindus and Muslims.
Qurratulain Hyder's River ofFire. a post-Partition nove], traces
the history of negotiation and the process of mutual
assimilation of cultural practices of Hindus and Muslims. It
offers a vision of a gradual developing of composite culture in
India through a sharing of rHuals. languages as well as
essential worldviews. The unprecedented violence between
the two communities dUring the Partition riots came as a
shock.
In fact. the suddenness of the rioting was so mJnd-boggUng
that. as evidenced in many a fictional representation of this
violence In literature. there is greater sanity in the reaction
of characters who were actually taken to be mad. The
absurdity of the hatred. the violence and in fact the Idea of
Partition itself was perceived rather easily by the characters
Who were considered insane. such as Manto's Toba Tek Singh,
Deewane Maulavi Sahib of Sleepwalkers and JarnaJl In
Tamas. A critic who is not eqUipped with the history of the
nature of these composite cultures in India may not bc able
to comprehend the full significance of the metaphor of lunacy
Used so effectively by the writer. The Uterary works mentioned
shake one out of all complacency bccause such writing is an
act of faith and conviction. They have a sense of Immediacy
and urgency about them. and draw upon the eXistential
Contingencies of ordinary people trapped in tbe grand designs

NARAA11NC PAR1TT10N
42
of politics. The imaginative transcription of history in such
literature creates meta-history or meta-narration, extracted
painfully from the courageous dialectic between history and
llterature. The orthodoxy of official history is Impressively
demolished through narratives like Bapsi Sidhwa's Cracking
Indio., Abdullah Hussein's Udt;las Naslein or Manto's story
"Mozel," as each of these stories offer a different perspective
on Partition.
While journalistic writing in the immediate aftermath of
Partition thrived on descriptions of savagery and indulged
I self of the entire range of perceptions and insights already
in what came to be called "pornography of violence," creative
literature sought to work out the aesthetics of presenting
savagery with a human face. The tension of violence In
\ GuIzar's Urdu story "Khaul (Fear) and the extremely
I delicate handling of actual violence and Its psychosis by
Sa'adat Hasan Manto in such Urdu stories as "Khol Do"
(Open it) and the vignette "Siyah Hashlye" (Black MarginS)
arouse a repugnance for what happened. Here the
presentation of violence in itself acquires a therapeu tic
value. Urvashi Butalia's book. The Other Side oj Silence,
records the personal stories of many survivors of Partition
violence, many in the form of confessional chronicles of
) unacknowledged experience. Sharing is in itself
empowennent. And, notWithstanding the distortions that
may have come with the tricks that memory can pLay or
wltb the change of perception over time, recalling and
articulating the "other side" of silence provided a lot of people
with an indirect acknowledgement of their own suffering,
Fictional narratives, when Juxtaposed with subjective and
confessional sharing. reveal different dimensions of the
same experience.
Closely reviewing the status and condition of women during
Partition, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin perceptively and
systematically bring to use personal narratives. some literary
examples and official records for their research. Since the
material is all grounded in the society that actually went
through Partition. their book, Borders and Boundaries,
a<mOUINC PAR'TmON NARRATIvES
43
becomes a must for an intimate understancUng of the gender
Issue In relation to Partition experience. This book is a good
critical and conceptual intervention in charting the
complicated situation of women as victims as well as agents
for action. It delineates both, how Partition cnppled the lives
of hundreds of women, and also how it became an enabling
experience for many women who launched a confident
struggle thereafter to work out a new identity for themselves,
often through a great deal of enterprise. without feeling any
need for male support.
What is also being argued here is the need to apprise one's
derived by critics, social scientists, hlstonans, psychologists
and others for a multi-disciplinary, incUgenous critical theory
that could consolidate and make possible a fuller study of
Partition literature.
Looking at the ficllon written in all the languages
mentioned earlier in this paper, one notices that an
exhaustive body of Partition narratives bas been generated
in the five decades follOWing the independence of the country.
What are the reasons for this almost obsessive focus of so
many writers In the country? Is it the incomprehensibility of
the catastrophic event as it took place In the writer's own
personal life, or is it the bafllement with the collective tragedy?
Is it written to cogruse the degeneration of humanity. if only
to come to tenns with it? Does it have a therapeutic value? Is
It catharsis that we are after? Or then. Is it a concern with
lhe on-going communal strife sporadically flaring up into
Violent riots in various parts of the country? Didn't, for
InSlance. the 1984 communal flare-up, when the demon of
divisive forces again raised its head, take us back to 19477 Is
Partition then perceived as the soil In which the seeds of
communal diVide were sown? Do the personal. polJUcaJ.
naUonal and cultural crises come together in this large body
of Partition literature produced in the last five and a half
decades?
A timely unified aesthetic comprehension of Partition at
 NfUlRATlNG PAR1lTION
ct<mgl1lNG PARTIT10N NARRATIVES
44
4"

the human level would perhaps help in evolving a much better

studies together and create a climate for a balanced
ethos for composite living and harmony in the country. Bu t
understanding of Inter-commUnity relationship. An aesthetic
when aesthetics is marglnalised by the mire of political
apprehension of Partition is bound to evoke sensJtivlties
interests and religious fanatlcism. then literature remains
relevant to present times; and the nostalgia for the multi­
within the conflnes of academia or an elitist readership. The
ethnic, multi-religious co-habitation should not be dismissed
society at large cannot benefit from the invaluable Insights
as sentimentalism. Why not nostalgia if it can save humanity
to be found between the covers of books. How could one not
from pathological psychic distortions and perversions?
be moved by the fate of the little child in Bhlsham Sahni's
"PaIL" a story In which the child undergoes religious
conversion twice and Is trapped in the meaninglessness of
dogmatic religious affiliations? The process of demonising the
"other" through the politics of divisiveness leaves no place
for Ashfaq Ahmad's DauJI. a character In his story "Gadana"
(lhe Shepherd"). Daujl Is a Hindu Pandlt seeped In Persian
language and culture. He Is humiliated dUring the riots. One
has to know the story of that hannonious "Ganga-Jamuni"
culture from the inside, to be able to realise the acute tragedy
of Dauji.
Thanks to new historiography and fresh epistemological
methodology. fictional as well as personal narratives now
command due recognition for the role they play in offering
Insightful perceptions. and in developing a substantial

/ knowledge-base for the study of an age. a culture. an historical

event. as also a political scenario. Even an understanding of
the nature of the writer's imagination offers insights on the
times and the social context he or she was situated In. Literary
criticism cannot exist as an isolated. autonomous activity. It
must evolve from the very literature it examines. Since
literature emerges from specific assumptions about life and
living patterns. critical theory too has to take cognizance of
not only the same vortex of bel1efs. assumptions. and
metaphysics. but also the language and Its meaning. so that
it can access the specificity of the experiences recorded in
l1terary texts.
In an age when fanaticism. communal strife and the
politics of divisiveness are on the rise. it becomes imperative
to take stock of dispersed perceptions, bring specialised

IN MIDSTREAM: THE URDU SHORT STORY IN
volume, Mapping Memories (199B) capture vital dimensions
INDIA AND PAKISTAN
OVER CENTURIES IN THE subcontinent. Urdu has been chiselled
and polished as a language for fine aesthetic articulation of
the human spinL A nch repository of what is called a Ganga­
Jamunl culture flows within Its stream on the plains of India
and Pakistan. This is a culture of assimilation. negotiation
and of a coming together of a variety of ways of living and of
storytelling.
Urdu is lractitionally known for its sham, Lines from the
Urdu ghazal and nazm. whether by Ghalib. Iqbal. FLraq or
Faiz. are recited even by non-Urdu literates. But little does
the world outside the Urdu community know of the highly
developed art of the short story in thiS language. In both
Pakistan and India, writers in Urdu have created a very
significant and vibrant body of short fiction in the last fifty
years. This is really a continuation of the tradition evidenced
in pre-Partition times. The Hindu. Buddhist and IslamiC
cultures pooled themselves into dastaango~ the Indo-Persian
art of story-telling. which. coming down to the present times.
also came under the in11ucnce of western cultures with the
colonial rule and gradually evolved into jadeed afsana, Ule
modem short story.
On both sides of the borders. literature in UrdU haS
prospered through extensive publication of journals aJld
books. Unfortunately. there has not been a very easY
IN MIOST1I.EAM
141
exchange of these matenals between IndIa and Pakistan due
to the intermittent political tensions. But how can we have a
~political division of Urdu." as the eminent Hindi writer
Kamleshwar so succincUy put it.
Short stories from India and Pakistan selected for the
of the human predicament in the subcontinent. The
immedIacy wJth which the narration affects the reader's mind
speaks for the stark authentiCity of the expeIience presented.
WhiJe they are all so deeply rooted in their specific socio­
cultural contexts, the spirit of these stones belong to a realm
where human connections are easily perceived.
Both in the fabulist form and the mythopoeic content. lntl7.ar
HUSain's story. "The Pale Dog: Surendra Prakash's "Bijooka"
and Joginder Paul's ~Khodu Baba's Tomb" directly narrate the
tale of the shared cultures nOUrished by India and Pakistan.
They could have been written by writers of only India or
Pakistan. not by a writer from, say. LaUn America or from
Yen closer home. SrI Lanka. Again. Zahida Hina's story
"Mirage on Waters." Farkhanda Lod.hl's "Remains of Desire"
and Qurratulain Hyder's "Honour" delve into gender
orientations typical in our societies. They evoke stereotypical
ideas of female beauty. the cherishing of female honour in the
changing world and the new quest of women in relationships.
In Mansha Yad's "Fireflies in a Clenched Fist." the urban
woman reacts existentially to the staleness of her routine
melropolitan Bfe. This finds its match in the absurd fate of the
Incarcerated man in Salim Agha Qazilbash's ''The Unit." The
man has to choose his own punishment for a crime he did not
Commit. Another story told with a sensitive contemporary
temper, "The Man Hanging in the Chauraha" hy Anwar Qamar
snares the reader Into Its nightmarish captivity. In Syed
Mohammad Ashrafs "Aadmi," the man becomes a captive _
flat of animals, but of man. On the other hand. interestingly,
lJlltrao Tariq's "The Last Station" accords to people an equally
[Tightening freedom. Ironically. not only to become fugitives
but also to remain in that state. perhaps forever.
NARRATING PAR'IT110N

142

Both Enver SalJad's "The Cow" and Jeelanl Bano's "Joy"

are well-known stories. They delicately portray the diminishing
compassion In modem life. A qUiet message lies woven in the
narrative of Bano Qudsia's story. "The Son's Letter." The
solitary old man in the story goes on and manies his maid ...
life moves on. Life moves on even when Raffu becomes NEGOTIATING THE ORIGINAL:

prepared to stake his life to get five rupees. in Gyas Ahmed LANGUAGE/CULTURE INTERPACE IN

Gaddfs story. "The Sun that Sets." ENGLISH IN INDIA

The Urdu stories of India and Pakistan reveal a variety of

dimensions of life In the subcontinent through diverse styles,
ranging from the fable to the abstract. from the realistic to
the symbolic and the absurd. What impresses one about the
book, Mapping Memories. is how the diversity of the stories
collected in it tends to In fact suggest a commonality of IN WHICH INDIA DO the Naipauls and the Rushdies discern mimic
concerns. Boundaries collapse when fiction explores the truth men or translated men? While they have the advantage of
of living contexts In India and Pakistan. distance which may accord them an objective perspective.
the disadvantage of the same is a narrow focusIng on the
urban and over-articulate westernised Indian - just a
minuscule percentage of the millions of people existing in
the much larger and culturally rich rural and semi-urban
territories of India. Multilfngualism as well as pluralism
flOUrish when each linguiStic group can retain its identity
and yet co-exist With the other in harmony. The uniqueness
of any language. in fact. Is an expreSSion of the cultural
particularity of the people who have been using it. Jts specific
gestures and Signs evolve from the way people may relate
with nature. with the world and with each other. The
philosophy of eXistence of a people then weaves itself
inextricably into the pattern of communication practised by
Ulem. Such dynamics of relaUonship between culture and
language leads to the evolVing of suitable metapRors. idioms
and the very syntax of the language.
A one-to-one. non-hegemonic interaction between two
languages offers a boost to the churning that can give btrth
to fresh ideas and experiences. If there is movement in a
people's language. there is a movement in the culture they
Rrow into. in their approach to life. to God. A qUiet and gradual