UNIT 4 CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATIO! Structure 4.0 Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Some General Considerations 43 Mode of Characterization 4.4 Subalterns in the Novel 44.1 Jarnail 44.2 Murad Ali 4.4.3. Richard — The Imperial Representative 444 44.5 Dev Datt and Comrades 4.5 Some Important Episodes 4.6 Let Us Sum Up 4.7 Questions 4.0 OBJECTIVES ‘This unit focuses on Bhisham Sahni’s mode of characterization: ‘telling’ and ‘showing’. It discusses not just the major characters but several characters briefly and also gives an analysis of some important episodes that affect the poor and the exploited. 4.1 INTRODUCTION ‘There is no sacrosanct way of making an assessment of a character. However, the subtleties of characterization in terms of presentation, that is the mode of telling and showing is discussed in this chapter. You as mature students are expected to make your own observations/assessments. You might not agree with the observations made in this unit. However we request you to undertake the activities given which will help you to logically support your view point. 4.2__SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ‘A few observations about characters and characterization would be in order here: One that Bhisham Sahni’s characters and characterization have to be understood in the light of his purpose. The purpose, ostensibly, is to present a comprehensive view of a district town in a Muslim majority region on the eve of partition and give a glimpse of the communal holocaust that partition was and the forces responsible for it. Assuming that that is his overall aim, he necessarily has to introduce us to a large variety of characters, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh. Among these are: Nathu, Bakshiji, Jarnail, Shah Nawaz, Lala Lakshmi Narain, Dev Datt, Murad Ali, Harnam Singh, his son Iqbal and daughter Jasbir, and Rajo and her son Ramzan. There are numerous other 3Tamas characters also. Besides, there is an American Christian missionary and of course Richard the Deputy Commissioner and his wife Liza. Our aquaintance with them is necessarily more ot less brief, though some of these characters wwe know more intimately than the others. For instance, we know Nathu more closely than we know any other character. Richard and his wife Liza also we know rather well. But whatever the degree of our familiarity with them and their individuality, most of these characters tend 10 be representative figures also. Nathu for all his individuality represents the poor and the underprivileged, who are exploited by powerful people for their own ends. His sudden disappearance suggests how these same powerful people can have persons like him eliminated once their utility was over. Richard represents the ruling class. Haram Singh is one of those innumerable villagers who, as the text says, ‘were knocking about in search of shelter” (225). Let us also not forget that we remain with these characters for a maximum of five days. This means that the characters do not develop, cannot develop. And yet they must be alive in their presentation if they have to have any ~ meaning for us. The brief encounters thus place a great degree of constraint on the writer. He must have the ability to capture them in their most significant moments, in mid-gesture as it were without much or any commentary. When this happens, the characters get etched in our memory. This is very clear in the writer’s presentation of Bakshiji, Jamail and Shah Nawaz and even Ramzan, among others. However, these more or less brief objective glimpses of characters generally prevent the readers from getting to know them more fully and also to identity themselves with the sympathetic characters among them. This brevity tends to create a big gap between the character and the reader and makes him more of a distant spectator rather than a participant. Besides Nathu, the nearest one comes to sympathize with is perhaps Hamam Singh, but even with him we remain for not much longer than two chapters. The writer wants the readers to view each scene and each character and each speech dispassionately and critically. He is against frenzy of any kind. But this detachment robs the narrative of much of its warmth. Also, I feel that the writer in depicting characters has tried to demolis certain stereotypes that we have in our minds. After the outbreak of ‘communal frenzy the dividing lines between Hindus and Sikhs, and Muslims became sharp and clear. Mutual distrust was, rampant. Like several people, Lala Lakshmi Narain held this stereotype — that Muslims were not to be trusted. But Bhisham Sahni gives examples that suggest the opposite. The best example that comes to mind is that of Harnam Singh’s encounter with a ‘Muslim woman Rajo, her husband and their fanatic son. First, the person who ‘comes to war them to leave their home at once is a Muslim, Karim Khan. Rajo is the wife of Ehsan Ali and mother of Ramzan both of whom have gone on a looting spree but when she is presented with a situation that is entirely new, she hesitates for a moment, and then crosses the religious barrier. Her essential humanity comes out and she agrees to shelter Hamam Singh and his wife. The same drama is repeated when Rajo’s husband Ehsan Ali comes and asks them to leave and yet when they are ready to go out, he asks them to stay. But the biggest example of human compassion triumphing over religious bigotry comes when though he raises his pickaxe to strike, Ramzan just cannot bring himself to Kill the fugitive Haram Singh in his own home. WhenHaram Singh and Banto go away, Rajo escorts them part of the way and gives them back their gun and jewellery. Another person who breaks the stereotype is Shah Nawaz. He is a staunch member of the Muslim League and during the period of rioting his blue Buick is seen doing the rounds of villages ostensibly to carry arms and ammunition to Muslims in their fight against Hindus but the same person is a great friend of Raghu Nath’s and helps him when help is needed most. Moreover he retrieves his friend’s wife’s jewellery from their old house. Sheikh Nur Elahi and Lala Lakshmi Narain have been class fellows and though the narrator describes them as ‘fanatics’, Nur Elahi helps to shift his bales of cotton to a safe place during the rioting. In a well-known injunction, Henry James laid down: ‘Dramatize, dramatize.” Following him, Percy Lubbock said: “The art of fiction does not begin until the novelist thinks of his story as a matter to be shown, to be so exhibited that it will tell itself." (Italics added) Dramatizing or showing is thus of crucial importance, There are no long analyses of characters, for the novel doesn’t focus on any one individual or family. The writer depends upon both telling and showing. ‘The accent is always on showing, on dramatizing, When we meet Shah Nawaz first, he is already escorting Lala Lakshmi Narain and family to safety and the very first sentence introduces him as ‘a trusted friend among friends’. His later conduct more than confirms this trait in his character. But the kick that he gives Milkhi reveals the staunch prejudiced Muslim in him, something that the writer wants us to infer from his conduct. ‘The great merit of Bhisham Sahni is that he is happy presenting the scene or character in action and keeping his own comments or remarks to the minimum, The novel can take you in by its apparent simplicity but it places a great responsiblity, on the reader, the responsibility to read with an alert ‘mind and draw inferences and see comparisons and contrasts. Activity 1 Keeping these observations in mind can you find out how Nathu is characterized, or how the character of Vanprasthi is presented and whether the writer is making use of irony in characterization? 4.4 | SUBALTERNS IN THE NOVEL ‘The novel highlights the part played by the poor and the deprived in the communal rioting in the city and its environs and their sufferings dt communal violence. Characters and Characterization 55