Contesting Imagi-Nations of Nation and Region Through the use of Language in Saadat Hasan Manto’s Toba Tek Singh (original) (raw)
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Discourses on Nations and Identities, 2021
Since its inception, language has transcended its primary purpose (communication). From being a storehouse and transmitter of traditions, memories, ideas, and mores, it has become closely linked in the postmodern, global world to notions of identity and home, and often engulfed in discourses of power and hegemony. Consequently, language becomes imperative in engendering and sustaining "imagined communities" (Anderson), and the sense of belonging is upheld and celebrated through it. Turning to the Indian subcontinent, Partition (1947) remains the most important historical factor in the carving of the nation. Language, in such circumstances, does not simply exist to "counter violence," but becomes a means through which questions of identity are explored when the concept of "home" encounters transformation or denial. In this article, I propose to look into the "psychic aphasia" that spills out in the disturbed and disruptive expressions of Partition stories by Saadat Hasan Manto. The text itself becomes splintered, confronted by the linguistic and somatic experiences of a chaotic and dislocated time. Does language itself become a refugee in times of war and cartographical realignments? It is time to view historical, political, ideological, and postcolonial processes through the notion of "language rights" (Kymlicka) and linguistic loss in today's global world, to attempt to resolve through language the transgressions of history.
Language in India, 2023
The article attempts a comparative study of Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan and the select stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, written against the backdrop of the India-Pakistan partition of 1947 which traumatized and affected millions of people. The study looks into the fictitious nature of the brand-new identity taken up by people and the manner in which they acted under the influence of radical nationalism and extremism. It unravels the consequences of partition madness upon women and children as they became the easiest targets of the fanatics. It intends to identify the similarities and dissimilarities between both writers in respect of their portrayal of the refugee crisis, partition riots, communal madness as reflected in their works, and their reactions towards the religious division of India. The adopted method of this study is a comparative study in which textual analysis involving close reading of the select texts is utilized, taking postcolonialism and feminism into account. The analysis is further substantiated with the data taken from secondary sources.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in …
Indian Partition fiction, on the one hand, records man's bestiality and savagery and on the other, attests to the fact that man is essentially sincere, committed to upholding humanity to survive and sustain itself. The paper contends to examine the fundamental goodness of some characters, which the Indian tradition underlines. By analyzing certain characters from Chaman Nahal's Azadi, Khuswant Singh's Train to Pakistan, Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man, Bhisham Sahni's Tamas, Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories and two Indian films, Mr. and Mrs. Iyar, directed by Aparna Sen and Meghe Dhaka Tara by Ritwik Ghatak, the writer tries to bring home the truth that frenzy of insanity is not final and amidst the pall of darkness and threats of insanity, there is a ray of hope.
Re-envisioning Partition: An Alternative Analysis of Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan
The last official colonial agenda and the first step towards methodized decolonization drawn and materialized by British supremacy that cursed the lives of millions is India's partition in 1947. The event of partition made space for basically two types of literary approaches: in the first phase, writers concentrated on the depiction of overwhelming violence and incredible confusion and in the second, came a revised form of narrative, a contrapuntal mode of conceiving partition and its various receptions apart from the metanarratives. The second body of writings celebrates a subversive critical engagement concentrated on the cosmopolitan modes of diasporic existence and attempted to bridge the boundaries of transnational, cultural, and religious disparities. The partition constitutes a field of transformation and a reverse discourse that became the condition of multiple possibilities. It also created a framework for the resurgence of nationalism and a glocal positionality of Indian diaspora. The paper investigates a theoretical as well as the very personal fight and plight (along with the political hoax) of the protagonists to survive in changing realities. The protagonists in the course of this short novel evolve into more 2 compassionate beings and mature a sort of hybridity in this partition puzzle. It forges to heal the rupture and aporia and embarks on a potential resistance, intervention, and translation. The article envisions a gateway to rise from racial apartheid and reconcile towards empathetic partition possibilities.
Partition, Violence, Displacement and Trauma in Khushwant Singh's 'Train to Pakistan'
Autar Dei Chaudharain Research Centre (ADCRC), Mahendra Multiple Campus, Nepalgunj, Banke, Nepal, 2024
Partition of British India is an unforgettable painful experience for many people in India today. In 1947 the British government divided India into two halves: India and Pakistan before leaving India. It caused violence, separation, and displacement among people living in the contemporary harmonious community of Hindu, Muslim, Shikh, and Christian in India. It further caused traumatic feelings among them. In this context the paper attempts to study the separation, dismemberment, displacement of Muslims to Pakistan; and traumatic feelings among the people of 'Mano Majra' through the textual analysis of Khushwant Singh's novel 'Train to Pakistan'. 'Mano Majra' was a peaceful remote village with perfect harmony among
Trauma of Partition: A Study of Khushwant Singh’s “Train To Pakistan” and Chaman Nahal’s “Azadi”
Journal of emerging technologies and innovative research, 2018
Abstract: Indian writings in English, a product of the clash between Indian and the Western cultures, have evolved to a great extent in the post-colonial era. The partition of India, also known as the “Great Divide”, has been depicted by many creative minds through novels, dramas and films. “Train To Pakistan” and “Azadi” are two such novels which depict the effect of the event on the individuals. The effect was manifold and the people had to face unprecedented problems like displacement, abduction of their womenfolk, atrocities and loss of near and dear ones. As an Indian trauma, the partition has been described as a massive human tragedy by both Khushwant Singh and Chaman Nahal. In fact, the incidents which took place as a result of the partition keep on affecting the relationship of India and Pakistan even today. Both the countries are mutually suspicious and the danger of nuclear war is not out of question.
A Study of Partition Experience in the Writings of Select Writers of India and Pakistan
IJBAR (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH), 2019
Partition encompasses the division of a given territory peacefully and efficiently. The Partition of India in 1947, sordidly, led to a holocaust. The Holocaust took one million lives and an equal number being either displaced or rendered missing or refugee (Mufti 55). The Partition, ironically, has become bread and butter to politicians and capitalists on both sides of the border. Invariably these state operators are being operated by some non-state actors residing thousands of miles away from the site of strife and safe from being suspected or implicated. Surprisingly, little fiction of considerable importance and proportion on the Partition is available. The available literature is, again, not proportionate to the effects it had on the lives of people. The problem is not indecipherable though. Partition is a significant issue in the history of India and Pakistan with an ever-evolving pertinence. Now and then it rises from its ashes and claims lives. Sometimes the losses are of catastrophic proportion. There is no particular intellectual or rational constant on which a writer can delve for a long time while handling it. Emotions have always taken the upper hand while discussing Partition. The Partition and its ever-changing algorithm are comparable with the Israel-Palestine issue in the Middle-East. This paper has steered clear of such lopsided emotional discourses and focussed on the feel the universal vibes in the writings of some prominent writers of Pakistan and India who saw the dark days of Partition and subsequently ventilated their experiences in prose and verse. Through the looking glass of their writings, this paper will look-within the limited span of a research paper, of course-at the fate of humanity during a tumultuous phase in the history of two-nations, many partitions.
European Academic Research, 2016
Kushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan is considered as one of the most realistic novels of Post World War II in Indo Anglican Fiction. The present paper attempts to show how he vividly describes the realistic story of political hatred, violence and of mass destruction during the partition days. Though some writers greet independence in their works, he has expressed the negative aspects of partition and this paper aims to focus on the tragic tale of the partition of India and Pakistan and the events that followed which will be remembered as one of the blackest chapters in Indian History. The result of the partition is reflected through the people of Mano Majra and Mano Majra allegorically becomes a microcosm which represents the whole scenario of India or Pakistan. Here Singh is neutral and he does not blame any community for the partition. He very skillfully describes real situation where each community blames another community. What he tries to emphasis is the aftermath of partition and he opines-"The fact is both sides killed. Both shot and stubbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped"(Singh 9). Finally, in my paper, I would like to explore how he has employed the theme of tragic suffering of the people who are affected by the madness and communal frenzy of partition and the theme of human compassion, love and kindness as witnessed in the time of utter chaos and bewilderment.
Indialogs, 2016
Partition is a complex historical reality that continues to puzzle the minds of scholars, historians and imaginative writers. Ever since its occurrence, they have endeavored to comprehend the subtle nuances of the complex strands that shaped the making of this seminal event. Through a comparative analysis of Singh's Train to Pakistan and Sahni's Tamas, the present study attempts to examine, how the profoundly sensitive and deeply perceptive imagination of both Singh and Sahni create texts which re-enact, with sheer clarity and force, the violent happenings of partition. Thus they enable the readers to revision the complexities involved, create awareness/consciousness in them regarding those historical blunders, the consequences of which are still borne by the people, and also urge them to revise/reform their beliefs, thinking and practices so that their present as well as future is safeguarded against such catastrophic events.