ENGLISH BOOK REVIEW

TOPIC: PINJAR, ANALYSE THE IDEA OF WOMEN’S VOICE

INTRODUCTION:

“PINJAR” is great novel written by Amrita pritam. This novel is visually rich and

very emotional. This novel mainly tells us about relation between two communities (Hindus

and Muslims) and woman and men. And this novel also describes about partition between

India and Pakistan. How brutally people behaved behalf of their communities. The women

were abducted and ranged from rape and murder. They were married to Pakistan men without

their interest and they couldn’t even raise their voice against it. They couldn’t even go back

to their homes or even cannot meet their family members. Only very few women have the

opportunity to back to their homes. Millions of people were killed and raped, millions were

looted. Many questions were to answer. People’s hopes turn to despair.

SUMMARY:

The story was mainly about girl named ‘POORO’. She was an average girl who

thinks about her prince charm and wanted to live happily. She had a younger brother and 3

sisters. But still her mother was expecting their sixth child. Pooro and her family return back

to their village named chatto to find a young man for pooro and to do her marriage.

Eventually they found a guy named ram Chand who belongs to their neighbouring village

rattoval. In exchange ram Chand’s sister ‘LAJO ‘married is fixed with pooro’s younger

brother ‘trilok’. Everything was fixed and all were suddenly an incident took place which was

unexpected and shocking to pooro and her family. She was kidnapped by a Muslim young
man named Rashid. She was kidnapped due to unresolved conflicts between their families

which pooro had to pay for it. Even their daughter was kidnapped they didn’t want to find her

because they were worried about their family reputation. Instead if they raise their voice

against it they could not let their daughter’s life to get destroyed. Later they decided pooro’s

younger sister ‘Rajjo’ to get married to ram Chand’s cousin brother. As decided earlier trilok

married to lajo. Here a voice (pooro) was unheard and doesn’t want to be heard by any one.

She was screaming for her freedom but no one was ready to hear that voice. Even her mother

didn’t want to hear her own voice or intentions about her daughter. For their pooro was

almost dead. Later Rashid married to pooro and her name was changed to ‘hamida’. Here in

this novel himida couldn’t raise her voice, even if she tried no one was ready to hear her

voice. Pooro even tried escape from Rashid before their marriage but their parents refuse to

accept her. She had no option left to return back to Rashid and marry him. Hear problem with

the women was even if they wanted to raise their voice they were supported or they were not

allowed by own family members. They treated as maids in their family. They couldn’t able to

even think about their freedom and fighting against injustice.

ANALYSE THE TOPIC:

Analysing the idea of women’s voice in this novel was quiet difficult because in this

novel every women who even tried to think of that they were told or the better word would be

too ordered to be quiet. The novel itself is very emotional in the point of view of women.

Every woman in the novel had no idea of their own thinking and their intensions. In detail

one day pooro went to fields and she was enjoying with her friends and then she saw Rashid

for the first time. She observed something weird about Rashid, the way he looks her etc. she

knew that something was wrong and something unexpected was going to happen. Though she
knew that something was unusual she didn’t try to express it, she didn’t try to listen her inner

voice in page number “9 to 11” it shows the point. Even in page number “11” her mother

voice states the love and affection she had on her daughter but when pooro return back to her

home when she tried to escape from Rashid her mother was not ready to accept her. If the

voice of her mother remained constant then pooro might not had to face all struggles. After

pooro and Rashid marriage Rashid changed her name as hamida here even pooro didn’t ask

anything to Rashid there she lost her identity. Even after that Rashid tattooed her new name

hamida on her hand that day she totally lost her identity if she at least raised her voice she

might had not lost her voice. Later hamida after a struggle gave birth to a baby boy. In the

page number “38 to 40” a mother in hamida lost her child, there was a 12 year old named

‘kammo’ she was abandoned by her parents. No one to look after kammo she was alone and

few people took advantage of her condition and result was she got pregnant and left. Later

she gave birth to a child and hamida took responsible of the child. But the major problem was

kammo was Hindu and hamida Muslim so hindu community doesn’t want hamida to look

after kammo’s child. Eventually hamida lost her child and she was helpless. In this particular

case both kammo and hamida couldn’t help their situations they were victims of society and

communities (mainly). Later lajo moved to rattoval and then India and Pakistan partition took

place. Here all hindus were supposed to move back to India or they brutally killed. Here lajo

is treated as a keep and an unpaid maid. Ram Chand pleases pooro to find lajo. Somehow

pooro and Rashid finds lajo and they asks to lajo to return back to her home but she refuses to

do so because she was in thought that after being a keep to someone her family might not

ready to accept her which was similar to pooro’s case here lajo herself was not to accept the

truth that it was not her fault, she has no idea about what she was thinking. But finally pooro

explains her and her family refuses her then she will fight for her. Here a slight change we

could see that pooro was not in the flow of communities she raised her voice against injustice
happens to lajo. Eventually trilok came for lajo and asked pooro that ram chand was still

ready to marry her but she refused saying that she wanted to live her rest of her life with her

husband. Again here she took stand for herself and for husband Rashid. we can see this in the

page numbers between ‘119 to 127’. References page numbers ( 9, 11, 38, 39,40,119-127)

SIGNIFICANCE:

The author explains about many voices in this novel. The voice of pooro, the voice of

Rashid etc. but at that time male were more dominant than women, so here the main point is

the significance of women’s voice. Due to domination of male, society and communities in

this the voice of women was unheard. They refused to hear the voice of women or at least

give the value of thoughts of women. This particular topic contributes to the overall narration.

Page number 127 shows the massive change in the story. Here pooro listens to her thoughts

and inner voice and eventually it was supported by her brother. And the way she explains lajo

and brings her back from struggle she was facing pooro’s intention and thinking contributes

the most to the narrative arc. This topic is not only important for narration of this story but

also important for us to understand women’s voice. And one of the particular incidents from

the novel is about the 12 year girl kammo, she was abandoned by her parents, and many

people took advantage of that and when she raised her at the right time she could at least take

of her child.

CONCLUSION:

The novel concludes that, it is not only about the difference between two

communities. We shouldn’t blame the communities and situations. The partition was the
major drawback for the novel. Millions of people were died and injured. And women were

used as keep and unpaid housemaids. It was a painful period for many of the Indians.

Whether one is Hindu girl or Muslim girl who ever reaches her destination pooro feels that

she carried her soul along with them. Finally I conclude that, she was victim of unresolved

conflicts between two families, she lost her parents, her family. Finally, she decided to live

her life along with her Rashid. Her voice was unheard all the time, not only her voice many

women’s voice was unheard and actually they were not ready to hear their voices. They were

not allowed to raise their voices.