AZADI. Chaman Nahal s best novel. In 1977, it won for him Sahitya Academy. inspired to write this novel from his personal experience of having lived

Transcription

1 AZADI Azadi, one of the novels of Gandhi Quartet, is considered Chaman Nahal s best novel. In 1977, it won for him Sahitya Academy Award and also The Federation of Indian Publisher Award. Nahal was inspired to write this novel from his personal experience of having lived in Sialkot at the time of Partition. He himself acknowledges the autobiographical nature of Azadi by calling it a hymn to one s land of birth, rather than a realistic novel of the Partition. (Nahal, 10) Like Khushwant Singh, he himself witnessed the atrocities committed on the minorities after the announcement of the Partition. The novel is based on the horrors of the Partition and the holocaust created by the communal frenzy and it also gives an intensive picture of the effect of Partition on the lives of the people living in the border town of Sialkot. Nahal s Azadi begins with the announcement of the Partition and this is where Manohar Malgonkar s A Bend in the Ganges (1962) ends. So it appears that Nahal has picked up the thread of Partition from where Manohar Malgonkar has left it. Nahal s Azadi deals with the dawn of freedom, the tragedy of Partition and its aftermath---the mass migration and the massacre and also the arrival of large numbers of people as refugees to both India as well as Pakistan. Azadi not only reflects the savagery and atrocities of the Partition, but also probes into the variables that caused the tragedy. It 133

2 portrays the dilemmas of innocent victims by some forces beyond their control as in Khushwant Singh s Train to Pakistan. If Khushwant Singh deals with the situation prevailing in India in his Train to Pakistan (1956), Chaman Nahal deals with the situation prevailing in Pakistan in his Azadi (1975). In the words of Ramamurthy, Nahal s concerns in Azadi are not only the socio-economic and humanistic implications of the tragic exodus of suffering millions from the lands of their birth but also the deep psychic disturbances and emotional transformation brought about by that traumatic experience in the inner lives of individual men and women. (Ramamurthy 131) While writing Azadi, Nahal strongly felt that the Partition of India was unfortunate, politically motivated and full of forced exile. Recalling those desperate days, he has wrote.. I had been personally exposed to Gandhiji during the last few months of his life after 1947, he made Birla House in New Delhi his home. Our family by then had migrated from Pakistant to Delhi, (Nahal was born in 1927 at Sialkot, now in Pakistan) and it was possible for me to attend Gandhi s prayer meetings on most evenings. And what caught my eyes was the immense humility of the man. Many of us amongst his listeners were angry young men who had lost everything in Pakistan, including the dear ones who were assassinated in the riots. And we asked Gandhi angry questions. To which he never gave an answer without 134

3 making us feel that our pain was his pain too. I also saw how plain and ordinary Gandhi was to look at: short-statured, thin, with rather common features. (Nahal 39) That Nahal was not at all happy with the Partition of India and how deep his anguish and anger were, are vividly expressed in the novel, Azadi. His purpose in this novel is to present the most comprehensive account of the Partition. Lakhmir Singh rightly observes that Nahal s purpose is not to depict history but to describe the impact of the historical tragedy of the Partition on ordinary people. Azadi is, infact, the story of millions of people uprooted from their homes for no fault of their own and this story is symbolized in the person of Lala Kanshi Ram and his family and the pain that they go through during the process of this upheaval in their lives and their alienation from their own home-land. (Singh, 226) Azadi, a Hindi word, which means freedom, takes into account the various events leading to the Partition, the actual event itself and its aftermath. Nahal s another novel, The Triumph of the Tricolour, one of the Gandhi Quartet raises serious doubts about the triumph of Indian freedom and Independence. Azadi even more gravely questions the meaning and significance of the kind of freedom that India wins and the price paid for it. 135

4 The setting of Azadi is in Sialkot in the West Punjab which is now in Pakistan and it covers a period of about eight months from June 3, 1947 to the death of Mahatma Gandhi s on 30 th January, Nahal s Sialkot is not like Khushwant Singh s imaginary village called Mano Majra, because in Mano Majra various communities co-exist, whereas Nahal s Sialkot is dominated by the Muslim community. While Khushwant Singh s characters do not have any deep attachment to the place where they lived, Nahal s Kanshi Ram has seen many generations live and die in the same place, which accounts for his great attachment to the place. That is why he feels such deep anguish and alienation when he is uprooted from the motherland, which has nurtured and nourished him for generations together. Christopher Ricks comments that the novel, encompasses a vast world of geographical and historical and cultural consideration yet it is strictly economical in a way that embodies a sense of disciplined order in heartfelt opposition to the violent disorder which it has to contemplate. This simple difficult economy protects it from the prurience when it tells of appalling atrocities. (Ricks, 1977) The action of the novel centers around Lala Kanshi Ram, a wholesale grain merchant in Sialkot and his family and how they are affected by Partition. In the words of Bijay Kumar Das, Though Nahal 136

5 concentrates on Lala s family his mind like a computer multiplies the horror into numerable folds to get at the correct picture of holocaust. (Kumar Das, 108) Nahal unequivocally states his views about Partition thus: In Azadi I was largely concerned with showing how the Partition of India in 1947 destroyed an existing harmony which had prevailed for centuries. (Nahal Introduction, xii) Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims have been living together in peace and harmony for many decades in the Punjab city of Sialkot. Partition disturbs the peaceful and complacent life of the people and the novelist explores this disturbance with profound sympathy and condemns the inhuman atrocities perpetrated on the innocent people. Kanshi Ram s world is shaken by the creation of Pakistan and he stands as a shattered individual, his cherished beliefs and values not giving him support. The account of his migration to India along with his family, in the words of M.K.Naik, is easily one of the most comprehensive fictional accounts of Partition holocaust in Indian English Literature. (Naik, 232) The novel opens on June 3, 1947 with an announcement by the then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten s declaring the division of the country into two parts India and Pakistan. K.C.Belliappa rightly observes that Chaman Nahal demonstrates very comprehensively, the havoc that Partition played on the people of the country both at the social and the individual level. (Belliappa, 67) 137

6 Events are presented through the consciousness of Lala Kanshi Ram, who becomes a spokesman of the Hindus, who are deeply disturbed by the unprecedented political event. Lala s experiences symbolize the pain and sufferings of the millions affected by the Partition. Thus Azadi is not only the story of Lala Kanshi Ram but millions of people like him. (Singh 8) Lala has brought a few acres of land in his native village and prospered there. He tries to educate his illiterate wife Prabha Rani, who takes it indulgently as one of her husband s whims. He leads a quiet life with his wife and children at Sialkot. He has a daughter, Madhubala, married off to Rajiv and a college going son, Arun. He lives in a rented house belonging to Bibi Amar Vati along with Sikh families which enhances the atmosphere of communal harmony and also maintains healthy relationships with his neighbours and friends irrespective of religion. He has no interest in politics but is deeply influenced by Arya Samaj. Lala Kanshi Ram is not highly educated.but life had rolled him around, misfortunes come and gone, and this had given an edge to his intelligence. ( Nahal 3) Limiting himself to the small circle of his own business, he also interacts happily with his family friends and neighbours. He has an ambivalent attitude towards the British Raj. While he hates the British people and their government in general, he admires their discipline and precision. As S.C. Bhatia observes, He is 138

7 on the one hand moved by the patriotic exhortations to free the country. Yet he likes the pageants and processions and the safety of the British Raj. (Bhatia 228) Lala Kanshi Ram knows that the Viceroy is to make an important announcement over the radio on the evening of 3 June, 1947 and this puts an end to all speculations. He looks tense and dreads the horrible consequence, if the English agree to give Pakistan to Jinnah. (27) He fears the division of the country and he sees in it the shrewd British plan to part Indian sub-continent after that. His faith in Gandhiji s oath of not accepting the Partition is shaken. When his wife reminds him of Gandhiji s strong stand against the Partition, he sadly replies, That s true. But what if there is no other way out? And you know these English, they would rather divide than leave behind a united India. (27) All his efforts, for over a period of more than twenty five years, in making a comfortable home, seem suddenly have gone awry. He sadly exclaims: Everything will be ruined if Pakistan is created. (27) Lala Kanshi Ram has been expressing his fear eversince the British has set a time limit for independence. The British has announced that they would leave India by June, 1948 when India would have its azadi. He does not understand why they are now in a hurry to go and is confused by their designs to hand over power to any constituted authority or authorities. 139

8 But why were they in a hurry to leave? And why this reference to freedom in the plural? Didn t that mean they were thinking of Pakistan? And the congress leaders what trust could you put in them? Didn t Gandhiji and Rajaji themselves as much as offer Pakistan to Jinnah in 1944? (27) Lala Kanshi Ram is also critical of Gandhiji-Rajaji s offer to Jinnah in 1944, which boosted Jinnah s confidence to work for the creation of Pakistan vigorously. He makes congress responsible for bringing about the Partition. The talk of giving to the Muslims a section in the East of India and a section in the West has made Jinnah to be aware of his dream. Though it speaks of a common defense and foreign policy, it gave Jinnah a vision of separate state, Until then Jinnah had talked of Pakistan, but he did not quite know what he meant by it. Gandhi, by going to him, not only gave Pakistan a name, he gave Jinnah a name too. (27) Lala Kanshi Ram is of the opinion that the announcement of the Partition of the country into two states has brought glory and popularity to Jinnah, and is rather a personal triumph for the leader of the Muslim League. He thinks, Who took Jinnah seriously before September 1944? It was doubtful if he took himself seriously, either. Ever since then he had been sharpening his teeth and becoming more and more menacing. If the congress would give this much, why not go for complete separation? (27-28) 140

9 Like an average Indian, Lala Kanshi Ram is worried about the division of the country and of the brutal violence that might follow it. Partition is the only subject discussed that day in each home and in each street corner. Lala is disturbed to think of the horrible consequences of the proposed Partition the fate of the four hundred million people. He tells Prabha Rani: If Pakistan is created, we ll have to leave. That is, if the Muslims spare our lives. (28) He knows that if Muslims come to power, there would be a lot of killing at the Partition. Since the whole business is in the hands of the Hindus, the Muslims may not be able to dispense with them easily. But it is also possible that the Muslims want only the wealth of the Hindus and not the community itself. Lala with others like Lala Radhey Shyam, Lala Banarsi Das and Lala Shamsher Bahadur, is hopeful that Gandhiji would save them with his Shakti, while some others seek assurance in the British who all along had spoken about united India. However, Muslims merchants like Abdual Ghani know pretty well that Pakistan is a certainty. Lala, along with his family and his neighbouring families, listens to the radio announcement, and is shocked and disturbed to listen to Lord Mountabatten, the Viceroy of India announcing the government decision on Partition of the country into India and Pakistan. The viceroy spoke in a clipped, sharp accent and even this non-english speaking audience could sense the emotion behind what he was saying. He was soon finished and all eyes turned first towards Suraj Prakash since he was older of 141

10 the two, who knew some English and when he threw up his hands in despair and shook his head Arun had understood it all only too well, and in a shaken voice he said, Paritition! and made a gesture with his hands of chopping a thing in two. Partition! many voices shouted out loud and the mouths remained open. Yes Partition! said Arun. (48) The announcement of Partition by Mountabatten on AIR is followed by appearance of Nehru, the Prime Minister of the interim government since September, Nehru, in spite of being meek and gentle, fails to win the sympathy of the people who feel a sort of betrayal on his part whom the people have taken as a brilliant leader, a very proud leader, and whose angry words are always regarded as the pranks of a king. (49) Now his voice has lost its effect and charm: was he really Nehru? The drawl was the same, the emotion in the words was the same, the disjointed, queer Hindi syntax was his alone, but what had happened to his akal, his mind? Have partition if there is no other way, have it that way we re willing to make sacrifices. But what nonsense was this of no panic, no violence, full protection from the government, peace the main object! Had he gone mad? Didn t he know his people? Didn t he know the Muslims? And why the partition in the first place? What of your promises to us, you Pandit Nehru?. (49-50) Nahal purposefully quotes Nehru to stress that Nehru and other leaders are responsible for the Partition. People lost their faith in the 142

11 Congress leaders and they considered it a betrayal. The thought of the creation of Pakistan gives them a feeling of fear and family members of each family want to be together as a gesture of protection against the danger they looked at each other and more than regret, more than fear, on the face of each one of them was disbelief. (50) They could not believe that the Congress has agreed to this Partition. Lala hopes that it is possible for Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to continue to live peacefully in Pakistan, I suppose we ll continue here. Why can t Hindus and Sikhs live in Pakistan? why should they wish us harm? he said, without much conviction why can t we live in Pakistan? They certainly would like to have us, have our business. Their whole economy will be ruined if they drive us out. (51) Lala s adolescent consciousness views Azadi as bloodless transfer of power. He has lurking fear that this freedom may invoke severe communal tensions. Yet he assures himself by reasserting his faith in the national leaders. A thousand thoughts cross Lala Kanshi Ram s mind. What have the leaders done? Have they not thought of the security of millions? Lala Kanshi Ram is disturbed to think of the horrible consequences of the proposed Partition. The creation of Pakistan gives a lot of joy to the Muslim population. They celebrate their happiness in conducting processions and especially in the mohallas 143

12 of Hindus and insist them to open the gates. Since Sialkot is a Muslim majority city, many Hindu mohallas have installed gates to protect themselves. The procession came down Trunk Bazar, and stopped outside the eastern entrance to the street. It was a wild sight. The mob was in a transport which exceeded pain or hysteria. As far as you could see, the bazaar was a sea of heads. They were split into many small groups, and before each group here were two or three drummers. Many of them were dancing the Bhangra, the Punjab dance of Victory. And together they shouted, Pakistan Zindabad! Long live Pakistan. (55-56) Inayat-Ullah Khan, the Muslim City-Inspector, who supports the Muslims, orders Hindus to open the gates even by force. He is stopped from forcing Kanshi Ram to open the gates by the arrival of Pran Nath Chaddha, the Hindu Deputy Commissioner, and Asghar Ali Siddique, the Muslim Superintendent of Police. Though they belong to different religions, they are true to their profession and above the politics of the day. Through the conversation of these two officers, Nahal points out that it is difficult to draw the demarcation line. Both the officers are bewildered by the contents of Partition: How do you cut a country in two, where at every level the communities were so deeply mixed? There was a Muslim in every corner of India where there was a Hindu. And then so 144

13 soon, at such short notice? The broadcast had said nothing at all about the fate of the minorities in the two new countries. If the logic behind the creation of Pakistan was accepted, there was no place for a minority, anywhere. Pakistan wouldn t solve the problem of a minority, it was going to create new minorities minorities which would be hounded out with a vengeance. And what of the civil service to which they belonged? And what of the army? How were they going to cut up the machinery of the government? There were Hindus and Muslims at every level of that machinery! (68) The Viceroy announces, in a press conference, that the date of freedom would be advanced from January 1948 to August 1947 because the government has appointed a Boundary Commission to decide the precise boundaries of Pakistan and India. Lala hopes that Sialkot would never go to Pakistan side. The Sikhs demand the boundary line to be at the Chenab basin which would ensure a clean sweep for India right upto Gujrat, including such important cities as Lahore and Gujranwala. (73) In such a case, Sialkot would be in India. However, Arun knows that the boundary is going to be at the Ravi basin and not at the Chenab. The harmonious atmosphere and co-operation among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs which prevails in the Muslim dominated city of Sialkot is affected by the Partition. Lala recollects how Muslims helped 145

14 the Hindus in making preparations for their festivals like Dussehra when effigies were made by Muslim workmen; the crackers and the fireworks too were supplied by the Muslims. (75) While Muslims celebrate their joy about the news of Partition and creation of Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs think of how to save themselves against the impending attacks of the frenzied and fanatical mobs of Muslims. Not naturally, the division of the country on a communal basis does bring about a psychological wedge, an emotional and spiritual rift among the civil, police and military personnel of undivided India. Evertyhing looks so confused, so uncertain, so tense and grim. (Jha 37) Partition affects the relationship of Arun and Nur, the son and daughter of Kanshi Ram and Choudari Barkat Ali respectively. The long-known romance of Arun and Nur, is not acceptable to Muslim students after the Partition. Their classmates had long known of their romance, but after the announcement of Pakistan they had become suspect. He was now a Hindu by carrying on with a Muslim girl. And the Muslim boys in the college stood watching them menacingly. (73) Nur has no courage to convert herself into a Hindu, and says that...i m a girl and am defenceless and cannot force my will on my family and because you re a man, more independent than me, and I expect you to defend me and make sacrifices for me (78) That is the reason she 146

15 asks Arun to embrace Islam. For the sake of their love, Arun prepares to embrace Islam, but the old age of his father makes him to support his family at the time of Partition. Mohan Jha observes, in the flush of his youthful romance Arun could have elected to go in for Nur in preference to his parents, but the communal holocaust suddenly makes a man of him and he chooses to share the joys and sorrows of life with his parents. (Jha, 40) move: Arun knows the conspiracy of the politicians behind the whole Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan were coming into an estate; as was Nehru. Why else would they rush into Azadi at this pace an Azadi which would ruin the land and destroy its unity? For the creation of Pakistan solved nothing. One would have to go around with tweezers through all the villages to separate the Muslims from the Hindus. Arun knew this, the game of which he and Nur and million like them were only victims. But politicians gave ideas legs, even though they were the wrong kind of ideas. (78) The first riot took place in Sialkot on the twenty-fourth of June, a day after the Legislative Assembly of the Punjab formally decides in Lahore to opt for the Partition of the province. Nahal narrates the communal fire that spread the country thus: Many cities of the Punjab had been aflame for months; there were large scale killings and 147

16 lootings in Lahore, Gujart, Gujranwala, Amritsar, Ambala, Jullundur Rawalpindi, Multan, Ludhiana and Sargodha. (104) On twenty fourth of June itself, the Muslims at Sialkot kill some Hindus in their excitement and then it becomes a daily ritual. Nahal narrates the brutality of the act thus: In no case was the victim allowed to survive the attack and tell what happened; he was stabbed to death. The killing was invariably done with a knife, and often the knife, the large blade driven clean through, was left in the body of the victim. Where the victim survived the first blow, he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest and the abdomen. Faces were not disfigured, but the killers had a macabre fascination for ripping open stomachs. In each case, the intestines of the man would have spilled from the body and would be lying next to him in a pool of his blood. (105) The fires are started in the different corners of the city at night. It creates an impression that the way these fires were spread out, it looked as though some planning went behind them, for the fire engines were harassed to the limit in running from north to south and east to west. But no, the arson too at this stage was only sporadic. (106) When the first mass violence breaks out in Sialkot, the Hindus had to leave their homes and run away. The crowd of badly beaten Hindus is carried away by the police to refugee camp. 148

17 Sialkot turns into a riot-torn city, and the Hindu Mohallas are burnt down systematically. Punjab and Bengal are filled with the incidents of murder, arson and rape. There is fear and confusion among the Hindus in Sialkot as they are not getting help from the police and their shops are looted. The Hindu Deputy Commissioner, who controls the situation in Sialkot is murdered by his Muslim bodyguard. Violence is spread on both the sides of the border. In the words of Chaudhri Barkat Ali, everyday hundreds of refugees from India continue to arrive with tales of terror and disgust. Whatever is happening here in Sialkot, things very much like that are happening on the other side too let s make no mistake about it. It is not the collapse of Congress Hindus in India also. When refugees with stories of personal misfortunes land here, the politicians use them to their advantage to fan up further hatred. (118) Violence turns uncontrollable and completely ruins the atmosphere of trust, love and solidarity and is replaced by hatred, disgust, murder, rape, fire and arson. Trains are targeted by the violent mob. Many of them were stopped on the way and the Hindus butchered. Sialkot was connected by train with three railhead; with Jammu, with Amritsar, and with Wazarabad. 149

18 In the direction of Wazirabad there was no question of safety; it only led further into the interior of West Pakistan unless you turned south at Wazirabad and went to Lahore and then on to Amritsar. A train going to Jammu was derailed a few days back and it was still lying on the tracks; no one had bothered to clear the wreck of human flesh and blood. (119) The life of Hindus in Sialkot becomes miserable as their shops and houses are looted, men are stabbing and women are raped. They feel very insecure. Lala is deeply disturbed, when his shop is looted by some Muslims at night. Government has set up many refugee camps to provide shelter for the Hindus and Sikhs. The terms Refugee and Refugee Camp being unfamiliar and unpalatable to Lala, he is unwilling to leave Sialkot to go to the refugee camp. He expresses his anxiety for having become a landless, homeless and rootless man. He is fully aware of the fact that Muslims will not tolerate the presence of Hindus and Sikhs and that the government of Pakistan would not be able to protect them. Lala Kanshi Ram could not sleep at all that night. It became clear to him how vulnerable the minority community was and that soon he too might have to leave. It hurt him, he thought of it, and he paced his room restively. Refugee, refugee, indeed! he shouted, when he understood the word, I was born around here, this is my home how can I be a refugee in my own home?. (108) 150

19 The life of Hindus in Sialkot becomes miserable. The Hindus are forced to undergo the painful experience of displacement and migration. Despite their deep emotional attachment to their land and home, they are forced to leave them and go in search of new places for final settlement. The government has arranged many refugee camps to facilitate the process of mass migration from one country to another. Lala is reluctant to leave the place inspite of pressure from his family. When he thinks of his relocation, the future seems bleak and uncertain. But the thought of leaving his home is far more distressing to him than that of starting business anew. The inexplicable agony he suffers is the result of his deep seated emotional entanglement with his roots: No, that was not all that was nothing; that was only a small part of the whole story. The pinch was he should have to give up this land, this earth, this air. That s where the hurt lay! He breathed deep filling his lungs with the air of the town to their utmost capacity, and tears welled up in his eyes. How could he give this earth up? (110) Compelled by the insecure atmosphere, Lala, his family and his neighbours move to the Refugee Camp. Lala accepts the necessity of migration only after much persuasion from his more matured and practical minded son, Arun and his good friend, Barkat Ali. Lala has a 151

20 little hope that they may be able to return to Sialkot after the things become normal. As K.C. Belliappa observes, The human mind is known for its penchant for fantasy and he imagines his own death and begins to fantaise over it. (Belliappa 68-69) He wants to breathe his last life in Sialkot because according to the Vedas, you retained grain consciousness right till the time when the fire reached and burned up your brain at the last minute when the brain burst open and he was really gone, for his spirit to look at the Aik and the land of Sialkot from above, from the sky, or to come down and roll in the dust of its fields that would be the very pinnacle of his delight. (126) Independence brings more violence and killings. Lala s daughter Madhu and her husband Rajiv have been killed when they are in a train on their way to Sialkot to her parents in one of the train massacres. Lala, Prabha Raniand Arun are heart broken at the unexpected and premature death of Madhu and Rajiv. Dazed and completely broken, Lala decides to migrate to India as early as possible abandoning all hopes of ever returning to Sialkot. Through the character of Madhu, Nahal narrates his pain when he lost his sister, Kartar Devi, during Partition. The death of Madhu and her husband is based on Nahal s real-life experience. 152

21 During the communal riots in the wake of partition, his sister, Kartar Devi considers staying in Wazirabad is not safe and along with her husband tried to reach us in Sialkot. But the train in which they were travelling was stopped along the way by a hostile mob and they were both cruelly murdered, as were hundreds of others on the train. (Nahal xiii) The communal riots and murders do not cease inspite of the governmental effort to maintain peace in the region. He is angry with the leaders for their failure to read the whole situation correctly. He strongly believes that they should have planned much ahead the relief measures to be taken before rushing to Partition. At the Refugee Camp, Lala trusts General Rees, the Commander-in-Chief of the Punjab Boundary Force, that he would protect the minorities in Punjab. Rees has failed to maintain peace in the province. Minorities in the East and the West Punjab are slaughtered right before the eyes of the Boundary Force men. Lala feels frustrated. The two new governments were parties to the fratricidal war, and how could unarmed men and women withstand organized slaughter? (183-84) Nahal speaks of new kind of caste system that developed among the refugees. According to this no calamity is private then and the greater your sufferings and losses, the more important you become in the eyes of others: 153

22 Every one has lost property. That was nothing, but if you lost a limb or if a member of your family had been killed or raped or forcibly abducted, you won a medal for yourself. Your neighbours in the camp commandant was to receive you for a personal interview and in the matter of dry rations or other physical facilities you straight away received a preferential treatment. (184) The only way to protect minorities during Partition is to devise means of migration and then shifting the minorities to the areas where they become a majority community. After the announcement of the Boundary Commission s Award on 17 th August, violence in Punjab reached an unprecedented pitch. The award pleased nobody: Both sides felt they had been shabbily treated. (186) The Sikhs are angry to lose their fertile lands in the Montgomery area and the Muslims are aggrieved over the award of sections of Gurudaspur district to India. Having performed an impossible task of cutting the country into two in just five weeks time, the chairman of the commission left the country leaving the people to fight it out among themselves. Neither of the governments knew the rights and privileges in the area of the other. To bring its refugees safe to the homeland has become the responsibility of the government. The local authorities create all kinds of impediments to prevent the other government from functioning 154

23 effectively if troops do not arrive from the other side. Arun meets his college mate, Rahmat Ulla Khan, who is appointed as the Camp Commandant of their camp. Before they can move, a tragedy overtakes them. Lala s neighbour, Niranjan Singh, prefers to lose his life rather than to get his hair cut to escape being killed by the Muslims. Rejecting the hazardous train journey, Lala and others join the foot convoy to Dera Baba Nanak, the border town on the Indian side. It is forty-seven miles from Sialkot situated just inside of what has been designated as Indian territory. The distance must be covered on foot until they cross the border where train service is available to Amritsar and Delhi. It is decided to trek to the border in daily segments of about six miles. This foot convoy faces problems of more complex and bewildering nature. The convoy moves very slowly, In each village they passed, they found the remains of parties that had been attacked and butchered. In many cases, the dismembered human limbs and skeletons were still lying there, and the stench was intolerable The Hindu population had been completely driven out or completely exterminated. Hindu and Sikh places of worship had obviously been defiled In one small village of twenty houses, every single house had been destroyed and there was not a soul in sight (248-49) 155

24 When people die of illness or exhaustion, they are cremated on the roadside or left to rot. Having fallen in Pakistan after the Partition, Nankana Sahib experiences brutal violence where all the Sikhs are massacred and the shrine is closed. The convoys are attacked by the mob on their way and only half the number of any convoy could reach the destination safely. It looks as though that the rioters were not satisfied with the Hindus leaving Pakistan and were trying to remove them from the face of the earth itself. There are starvation deaths too. The Partition throws millions of people in flight. Convoys of ten miles are not unusual, and they are common in both directions: Virtually the entire five hundred and fifty miles of the border between East and West Punjab was used by the refugees to cross from one side to the other and heading for the point nearest to their own homes. Shyam Asnani has praise for Nahal the way he describes in detail such convoys when he says Nahal succeeds admirably in recapturing vividly one of the most haunting nightmares of the blackest period in Indian history, the refugee caravan, the atrocities perpetrated on the unoffending, battered and dilapidated dregs of humanity, that Dante s moving Inferno that the refugees find themselves plunged in, exhausted but still tottering on as if towards the promised land. Their pitiable plight can move even their enemies to gesture of sympathy and compassion. (Asnani, 47-48) 156

25 When the convoy stays at Narowal, news about the parade of the naked Hindu women reached them. This brutal act brings to light the communal prejudices and moral debasement of the rioters. Nahal gives the realistic and horrible account of these acts: A number of abducted Hindu and Sikh women were in their custody. Many of the kidnapped women disappeared into private homes. A lone Muslim dragged a woman away, and kept her for his own exclusive use. Or he took her with the consent of other Muslims, converted her to Islam, and got married to her. The rest were subjected to mass rape, at times in public places and in the presence of large gatherings. The rape was followed by other atrocities, chopping off the breasts, and even death. Many of the pregnant women had their wombs torn open. The survivors were retained for repeated rapes and humiliations, until they were parceled out to decrepit wrecks the aged, the leftovers who couldn t find a wife, or those Muslims who wanted an additional wife. In the meantime more women were abducted and the cycle was repeated all over again. (258) It is obvious that the novelist clearly suggests that the rioter were deprived enough to dishonor the Hindu women folk and to subject them to beastly atrocities. The administration does not interfere in such incidents. The news of the parade of naked Hindu women by the 157

26 Muslims in the bazaar of Narowal in the afternoon numbed the Hindus and Sikhs in the camp. Nahal describes how naked women are paraded through streets and writes: They were all stark naked. Their heads were completely shaven; so were their armpits. The women walked awkwardly, looking only at the ground. They were all crying, though their eyes shed no tears. Their faces were formed into grimaces and they were sobbing. Their arms were free, but so badly had they been used, so wholly their spirits crushed, their morale shattered, none of them made any attempt to cover themselves with their hands. (261) He suggests that rioters are crude and low- minded enough to derive beastly pleasure out of their behavior which should have put them to shame. Commenting on Nahal s portrayal of the horrid scenes of inexplicable violence, K.K. Sharma and B.K. Joshi write : Azadi portrays vividly the horrors of the Partition, the colossal violence that still haunts the Indian psyche. (89) The refugee camp at Narowal is attacked one night. Sunanda is raped by Captain Rahmat Ulla Khan and Arun, in a frenzy, kills him. Chandni is kidnapped and Sunanda s husband, Suraj Prakesh, is stabbed to death. Lala and others leave the Narowal camp leaving behind Padmini who desires to stay back and wait for Chandni. From there they 158

27 moved to Dera Baba Nanak, There was hardly any discipline. There was not a family which had not been hit in some manner, and the refugees were totally dispirited. (282) Finally they cross the bridge of the Ravi river and enter the Indian territory. Now they realize that India is their true motherland and Lala shouts Vandematram in reverential awe. From Dera Baba Nanak, Lala s family moves swiftly to Amritsar. In Amritsar Lala gets terribly shocked to learn that there is a Hindu retaliation for the Muslim atrocities committed in Pakistan. What was being done to the Hindus in West Punjab was being done to the Muslims in East Punjab. At the railway station he is shocked to see a train with hundreds of slaughtered Muslims. Parading of Muslim women through the bazaar is such a common sight even in Amritsar. On either side of the border, minority communities are either killed or turned into refugees. The government has not done adequate preparation to meet the situation arising out of the brutal act of Partition. Whatever help that the refugees received at Amritsar has been from private and charitable trusts and not from the government. People had been pushed into the Partition, they didn t ask for it, did not sanction it in any form whatsoever. And no arrangements had been made to meet the consequences. (305) 159

28 Indian soldiers failed to protect the lives of Muslims in India just as soldiers had failed to protect the lives of the Hindus in Pakistan. They should have devised means of mass migration before rushing for Pakistan. he blames Nehru and Jinnah, but more than anyone else, Kripalani, for asking the minorities to stay where they are. Lala and his family finally reached Delhi where several problems await him. Major problem is relocation. The custodian officers are unfriendly and hungry for bribe. Tired of camp life, Lala wants to live in a rented house but the natives of Delhi refused to let out room to him on the grounds that he is a pubjabi and so naturally quarrelsome. Thus his efforts to find a private home in Delhi proved futile. Futile search for a home and the unhelpful attitude of the officers make him very sad. Finding a brick hutment in the Kingsway Camp on Alipur Road comes as nothing less than a luxury. After about four months of irregular living under canvas they found this luxury. (314) Gradually, finding Delhi relatively better than Sialkot, Lala begins to adjust himself to the life of Delhi and make a new beginning. His companions Sardar Tej Singh and Isher Kaur, find some shelter in the suburbs of Delhi. Very soon the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi comes as a jolt and he realizes that it is the end of everything. They all pay their homage to the 160

29 Mahatma by mourning his death and not eating their food. Later Lala starts a small grocery shop to earn his livelihood and even Sunanda starts tailoring work. The Partition makes Lala feel the loss of his dignity and respect. So he discards wearing the turban He had no dignity left. He now wore a forage cap, (323) or no cap at all to show to the world his humble position. Now the greatest problem Lala faces is his loss of identity and his inability to communicate with his family. One would agree with Basavaraj Naikar when he says, All of them suffer from a sort of existential loneliness. displacement, loss of land, home, roots, friends and relatives, death of his daughter and so on have awakened in him (Lala) the deep seated Hindu philosophical feeling of vairagya or detachment. Kanishi Ram experiences the essential spiritual loneliness of man (Naikar, 59) Lala is painfully conscious of the fact that freedom or Azadi has been achieved at the cost of enormous sufferings and hardships. He sees years of blankness and dislocation ahead, no doubt, yet freedom is desirable as it endows one with human dignity and creates an atmosphere in which people feel unrestricted and untrammeled. Madhusudhan Prasad comments, 161

30 The initiative has now passed into the hands of the individual. No longer a passive victim, he is stitching out his own destiny. Love and creative action, these are the supreme values, which form this moving drama of hatred and violence. (Prasad, 89) Lala moves on in life but not before he learns to transcend a narrow ideal of communal harmony and his mind is now ruled by pity, compassion and love. His individual consciousness has in the end matured and developed into a national consciousness, rather a purely humanistic consciousness. (Ramamurthi, 133) Having seen both the Hindus and the Muslims resorting to crime and violence in the name of religion, Lala is convinced that both are guilty being responsible for the communal strife. Gandhiji s assiassination by a Hindu further confirms his opinion He tells his wife, I can t hate the Muslims any more what I mean is, whatever the Muslims did to us in Pakistan, we re doing it to them here! (298-99) He feels miserable and repentant and seeks to apologise all the Muslims on behalf of all the Hindus when he says we have sinned as much. We need their forgiveness!. (300) The novelist, however, demonstrates that even after Partition, some Muslims stand for communal harmony. Chaudari Barkat Ali is one such large hearted person who does not 162

31 support any anti-hindu violence. As Munideva Rajendra rightly comments, Kanshi Ram s sorrow and suffering are at last sublimated and it dawns on him that at the end of the day, it is love and forgiveness that would alone salvage the situation for the humanity caught in the coils of the unforeseen historical developments. (Rajendra 165) When Prabha Rani express her resentment of the people of Pakistan, Lala appeals to her to forgive them: That way alone can you make peace with yourself. (300) O.P. Mathur opines that Lala takes a stance which clearly demonstrates his freedom from commitment to anything except love, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness, in a word freedom of spirit and mind which alone makes political freedom meaningful. The superficial differences of religion peel off and reveal the essential humanity of man and the idiocy of the evil that seeks to raise artificial walls of hatred between one human being and another. (Mathur, 90) Thus Lala realizes that forgiveness is the only way to recover one s sanity, one s humanity and to live in peace with oneself. It is not only story of Lala but millions of people like him. Nahal stresses through the protagonist Lala Kanshi Ram the necessity of human forgiveness, laying due emphasis on the affirmation 163

32 of life to which he is committed. (Prasad, 215) J.M. Purohit endorses this view when he says, All most all his novels end with optimistic vision. (Purohit, 130) Partition resulted in the monstrous holocaust ever witnessed. There was wholesale destruction due to communal frenzy and the whole balance of human relationships is upset. Yet the novel reveals a ray of hope and regeneration before it closes. This prompts Asha Kaushik to remark that although beginning on a note of ambivalence and uncertainities of national integrity in the face of religious fanaticism, moral degradation and political fragmentation. Azadi closes with the affirmation that a nation out lives even annihilating tragedies. (Kaushik, 69) 164

33 WORKS CITED Asnani, Shyam M. the Theme of Partition in the Indo English Novel. New Dimensions of Indian English Novel. New Delhi: Boaba House, Print. Belliappa, K.C. The Elusive Classic: Khushwant Sing s Train to Pakistan and Chaman Nahal s Azadi. The Literary Criterion. Vol. 15, No. 2, Print. Bhatia, S.C. Review of Azadi. The Literary Criterion. Vol. 12, No Print. Jha, Mohan. Chaman Nahal s Azadi: A Search for Identity Three Contemporary Novelists. Ed. Dhawan, R.K. New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company, Print. Kaushik, Asha. Politics, Aesthetics and Culture: A Study of Indo- Anglican Political Novel. New Delhi: Manohra, Print. Kumar Das, Bijay. Aspects of Commonwealth Literature. New Delhi: Creative Books Print. Mathur, O.P. Chaman Nahal. Indian English Novelists Ed. Prasad, Madhusudhan. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd Print. 165

34 Nahal, Chaman. Writing a Historical Novel. Three Contemporary Novelists Ed. Dhawan, R.K. New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company Print Azadi. New Delhi: Penguin Book India, Print Three Contemporary Novelists. New Delhi : Classical Publishing Company, Print. Naik, M.K. A History of Indian English Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, Print. Naikar, Basavaraj. The Taruma of Partition in Azadi Indian English Literature. Vol.1. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, Print. Prasad, Madhusudhan. Some Post-Independence Indian English Novelists: An Overview Ed. M.K. Naik. Perspectives on Indian Fiction in English. New Delhi: Abhinava Publication Print. Purohit, J.M. Chaman Nahal: A Novelist of Optimistic Vision. New Ruminations in Indian English Literature Ed. M.F. Patel. Vol. 1, Jaipur: Sunrise Publishers & Distributors, Print. Ramamurti, K.S. Azadi-point of view as Technique. Three Contemporary Novelists. Ed. Dhawan, R.K. New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company Print. 166

35 Ricks, Christopher. The Sunday Times. London, Feb 27, Print. Sharma, K.K., Johri, B.K. Eds. The Epic and Psychological Delineation of the Theme: Chaman Nahal s Azadi. The Partition in Indian-English Novel. Ghaziabad: Vimal Prakashan Publishers, Print. Singh, Lakshmir. Chaman Nahal: Azadi. Major Indian Novelists: An Evaluation. Ed. Pradhan, N.S. New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, Print. Singh, S.C. Chaman Nahal s Azadi. An appraisal. Indian Writing in English: Perspectives. Ed. Chakra Varthy, Joyce. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, Print. 167