Indian English Novels of Partition: An Introduction

Abstract

Partition has evoked a significant body of work, be it literature, art, or films. Historians, political analysts, and social scientists have since put forward heart-rendering and mind-boggling chronological accounts of the tragedy's when, why, what, and how. There is no shortage of authentic documents or records available on the subject, written at different times. History, however, becomes an inadequate medium for reading partition: there is no need for fiction. The literature, therefore, lays aside history and tries to interrogate the entire issue differently. They are more concerned with ‘what's out of it’ and ‘what's after it’. They seek to foreground “another” history- the history of untold suffering, misery before and after partition, and human agonies and traumas that accompanied partition. The present paper is an attempt to reflect the image of Partition and to find out the socio-religious and psychological circumstances and effects of the partition event as recorded in the literary narratives. By examining specially Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956), Balchandra Rajan's The Dark Dancer (1958), Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), A Bend in the Ganges (1964) by Manohar Malgaonkar, Raj Gill’s The Rape (1974), Chaman Nahal’s Azadi (1975). The study shows that the selected novels can be read as potential sources of exploitation of women during the partition.  The novels are analyzed concerning their use of different voices through the novelists’ emphasis on the necessary condition of women and their identity as sexual objects in the partition. These novels belong to the significant genre of partition literature. These novels effectively and realistically depict the "vulnerability of human understanding and life, caused by the throes of Partition which relentlessly divided friends," as Novy Kapadia observes. She opines that fanatics and ideologies pushed to the emotional brink of daring their lives have taken the plunge throughout history, which has triggered a chain reaction of rigid mental fixations and attitudes.