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Urdu Short Stories

After the partition and emergence of India and Pakistan, Urdu became the national

language of Pakistan It became a symbol of the Pakistani identity and national

integration .It was the language of the people of the United Provinces. It is believed

that it was the bourgeois feudal class of United Provinces who voraciously supported

the two nation theory. This elite class had interest in power sharing. After 1937, the

Muslim league started expanding its base .By the end of 1937 the United Provinces

alone had ninety branches all over India and they had recruited one lakh members. It

was a great leap for them and a great turn around. They improved upon their

performance considerably and thus consolidated their base. Aligarh Muslim

University played a great role in the Indian politics. Its importance can be gauged

from the fact that five out of the eleven sessions of Muslim league were hosted here.

The institution established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan with sole purpose of educating

the Muslim youth on the western lines became the nerve centre and think tank of the

processes and strategies to be evolved by the Muslim League Intelligentsia.

Volunteers from far and wide thrashed out the politics at the meetings and the

opinions arrived at were disseminated at their places. Ordinary people too got pulled

in its vortex as new developments taking place came to be known. Congress could not

hold on to its stronghold because of the deluge of the hysterical religious propaganda

by the Muslim League, giving the slogan "Islam in Danger".

The Lahore resolution on March 1940 proved to be a great impetus to the growth of

, Muslim League, where Jinnah asked for a separate homeland for the Muslims. Jinnah

and Liaquat AH lectured extensively during the summer of 1940. After the Lahore

resolution they were successfijl in weaning away Muslim middle class and working
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class away from Congress and thus polarising the political climate. Pipur and Sharif

reports which lacked authenticity and were highly exaggerated, were extensively

used to whip up communal passions and frenzy. Maulana Azad toured the areas and

refuted those facts. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had voiced his fears that Hindu majority

would steam roll the Muslim minority and thus Muslim interests would be trampled

down by the democratic institutions as well, Muslims will not have any say in the

governance. Muslim League galvanized the fears of Urdu speaking bourgeois that

they would be perpetually in competition with tightly knit, conspiratorial Baniya class

Muslim League secretly entered into a pact with landed gentry that they would not

enact land reforms in Muslim controlled areas. People were promised a Utopia a true

Islamic state where everyone would be equal and have a say. The virtues of Muslim

state and governance were extolled. Pirs, Ullemas along with Aligarh Muslim

University students fanned to the countryside to propagate the ideals of Islamic state.

They were successful at drumming up anti Hindu hysteria among the masses, which

could only be solved by Muslim secession from India and creating a state meant for

the Muslims. With changing scenario after World Wars and changed circumstances,

with the help of the British support Muslim League established itself as the sole

spokesman for the Indian Muslims. It was the vision of ideal Islamic states that

swayed large sections of Indian Muslims in its favour and accept the Two Nation

Theory and clamour for the idea of Pakistan. This forged the Muslim solidarity and

the religious card played by the Muslim League turned the tables on Congress. The

rift had widened in fact between the Congress and the League earlier when league was

rebuffed on the issues of coalition. 1945-46 election was a great success for the

Muslim League. The roping of big landlords, Pirs and Ullemas, public display of

religious symbols, enrolment of new members paid dividends.

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The progressive writers association, a secular organization which comprised of Hindu,

MusHm and Sikhs writing in Urdu, came into being in 1930's, its first president being

Munshi Premchand. They propagated sociaHstic values. It transcended, Hnguistic

rehgious and regional barriers. With the Partition Urdu became its first casualty as it

was thought to be associated with the Muslims. Nevertheless, the writers of the

progressive group kept on writing in Urdu with the same passion and intensity. They

enriched Urdu literature with their unmatched brilliant stories. Most of the writers

remained unbiased. Very few started toeing the line of the state. With the emergence

of a new nation they were trying to shrug off cultural civilizational personality. This

fi-agmentation led to fi-agmented personalities, disruption in its civilizational rhythm

and unity. The migration was equated to "hijrat" which had deep religious

connotations in Muslim history. The writers who were pro Pakistan justified India's

division and emergence of Pakistan. They believed that it gave the Muslims of the

Indian subcontinent a sense of direction and purpose. One of the most established

Urdu writer of Pakistan Intizar Russian once during the interview to Muhammed

Umar Menon said, "It was then feeling that in the process of the Partition, we had

suddenly almost by accident regained a lost experience namely the experience of

migration, hijrat which has a place of all its own in the history of the Muslims and

that it will give us a lot. I feel the great expectations we had of making something out

of it at creative level and of exploiting it in developing a new consciousness and

sensibility that bright expectation has now faded and gone." (377)

The writers who had migrated from United Provinces, Bihar and other central

provinces were in dilemma, regarding their identity that what was more important to

them; their religion, cultural identity, their language or their regional identity. This

identity crisis made them to introspect that whether they would be able to strike a
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symbiotic balance between their contending identities. Many writers who migrated

from Central heartland could not sever their ties from their "Bastis" their villages,

their birthplaces so they kept writing literature which was rooted and embedded in the

history and culture of their past. They consciously strove to bring out meaning to life

of those who were trying to resettle and re-emerge with their new identities. Along

with this they were bringing out literary history of political developments. Urdu short

stories writers have captured varied perspectives of the cataclysmic event .Varied

styles and techniques and forms have been made use of Some are straight forward

sentimental narratives where as others have layers of meanings, others are imbued

with irony and satire. Some stories seem opaque, oblique and abstract in content.

Others have straight forward neat flowing style. Some have made use of fantasy.

Majority of the writers were saddened and grieved at the breakdown of community

ties which had led to communal violence and bloodshed, hatred, animosity,

widespread rioting, looting, arson, kidnappings, abductions and killings. This became

the most representative aspect of the partition literature. Fragmentation and

splintering of familial ties is the other subject that writers have written about. Division

of the families, gave rise to multiple problems, this too has been dealt with by the

writers. The disillusionment with the promised Utopia and nostalgic remembrance of

ancestral homes and hearths, trauma of uprootment, struggle through arduous

journeys and squalid life of camps, rife with corruption, insensitive bureaucracy and

politicians, resettlement in alien lands minus their communities and above all identity

crisis are the main themes dealt by the writers.

Writers like Ibne Insha seem to question the validity of and logic of creating another

nation. In his brilliant vignette 'Our Country' he lashes out at the futility of such an

exercise. He makes use of the most biting and sharp satire

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Who lives in Iran?

The Iranians live in Iran

Who lives in England?

The English live in England

Who lives in France?

The French live in France

What country is this?

This is Pakistan.

The Pakistanis don't live here.

The Sindhis live here,

The Punjabis live here.

This community lives here, that community lives there.

But Punjabis also live in Hindustan why was another country created?

Sorry it was a mistake, we shall never repeat it again. (400-401)

Absurdity of Pakistan bothers the writer he seems to be hinting at the devastating

experience of rupture fi-om a secure past. Displacement of people does not make any

sense to the writer. He is saddened by the futility of such an action, he seems to jolt

his readers from their reverie by highlighting the hannonious cohesive intermingling

and shared living of various communities. Ibne Insha seems to convey the message

that narrow definitions limit us and only a secular state can accommodate the

diversity and plurality bereft of religious, provincial, or linguistic categories. When

these communities were living amicably for centuries together where was the need to

create another country. He puts the blame on the politicians who were interested and

seeking their own benefits.

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In the story "The land of memories" by Asif Farrukhi, the protagonist remembers the

relationship enjoyed by Hindus and Muslims. He says "The relationship between the

Hindus and the Muslims of his town were so harmonious that even your certificate

would not have sufficed. Each community whether in their day to day interactions

with each other or during their festivals, respected the customs of each other...each

one respected the individuality, the feeling of faith of each other." (624) People led a

life of mutual interdependence respecting the faith of each other.

Intizar Hussain in an interview with Alok Bhalla remembered his Basti. "As is often

the case in small bastis our terrace merged with the terrace of other houses inhabited

by Hindus. I could always walk across from the terrace of our own house to those of

our Hindu neighbours. During Diwali, for instance, it was difficult to tell if the diyas

were lit on the parapet of our house or on that of our Hindu neighbours. As a child I

would climb on to the terrace of our house and gather as many diyas as I could." (79)

People respected the faith of each other. Their sole goal was to win the freedom.

The story "Jamun Ka Per" by Gulzar is a story of a Jamun tree which is the most

important landmark of the area, where people of different faiths converge and discuss

politics and other affairs. Here irrespective of caste and creed everyone in one voice

opines that they want freedom. One of the characters voices his concern "The main

thing Vaidji is that we have to throw gora (British) out first. Other things can be taken

care of afterwards. After all we are brothers, we can set the things amongst ourselves,

even if we quarrel." (158)

With the announcement of Mountbatten plan and Radcliffe Award the destinies of

millions were for a drastic change. People were swept by the winds of change. They

were to be ripped apart from their social and cultural moorings. The colonial powers

often divide people and territories for their gains, especially in ascendancy and also
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when they are retreating or relinquishing power to prove their supremacy. Many

writers seem to lay the blame of partition on the British who were after their imperial

and colonial objectives and while leaving for the British shores adhered to their

reprehensible policy of'Divide and Rule'.

FikrTaunsvi in the story "The Book of Divine Knowledge" makes abundant use of

irony and satire to bring out the agony and pathos of ordinary simple people, facing

the tragedy of partition. The writer very sensitively captures the faceless humanity

who did not have any say in the tragedy which was the making of the British and the

national leaders. He divides this story under many subheadings highlighting the varied

aspects of this cataclysmic event. He talks about the genesis, displacement of the

masses, their arduous journeys, hardships faced at the camps, exploitation by the

bureaucracy and the process of their rehabilitation. They not only face the vagaries of

nature but are pained by the brutal and callous behaviour of their fellow human

beings, the bureaucracy and the politicians. Taunsvi too lays the blame of the partition

on the British who played the card of communalism to divide the people "The English

said part, so the partition took place" (102) In the same story in the same vein he

writes. They commanded the people "You go to the country of Hindus and you go to

that of Muslims. It is only fit that you behave like sheep. We will drive you .So those

sheep came to be called refijgees. They followed the orders of God, fled from their

homes and became refugees" (102) In the story "Art Ka Pul" written by Fahim Azmi,

the credulous nature of the politicians is exposed. The narrator points to the British

hand in the division although he cloaks it in symbolism. He says that "The whole area

was one, when a nullah was dug for industrial expansion and it divided the place into

two parts." Reference is to the economic and industrial expansion of the British

Empire. Politicians instead of thinking about the welfare of the people, think about
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their economic gains. They have their own axe to grind in any given situation. In this

story when people keen to reach out to the people on the other end think of making a

boat, he cautions them saying "People will start moving in boat. Look at your lands,

the swaying fields. Won't your harvest and fruit start going to the other side? We are

so happy now. What will you do? Whom will you stop? If we give our bread to them

what would we eat? What can be more important than sustenance?" (279) Nand

Kishore Vikram in the story "Sarhad Par" (Across the Border), through Salim the

protagonist of the story, lays bare the hypocrisy and greed in the leaders of India who

are least bothered about the milling suffering humanity, they are concerned only about

their own selfish ends.

In this story "Jarein" (Roots) by Ismat Chugtai the blame of partition is laid on the

British. "The English had left and while leaving they inflicted such a deadly wound

that it would fester for years to come India was operated upon by such clumsy hands

and blunt knives that thousands of arteries were left open .Rivers of blood flowed and

no one had the strength left to stitch the wounds." (279)

In Fikr Taunsvi's story "The Wagah Canal" the narrator feels that the division of the

country has turned it into a waste land. He blames the 'Elite' who were seen

safeguarding their own interest and had the attitude of "twain will not be allowed to

meet" (249) He seems to question these politicians .He paints a realistic but a grim

picture of moving humanity to the other side of the border. He says "Wagah crossed

by over ninety lakh people during the last few days in the name of safeguarding their

religion." (250) Religion which propagates love, compassion fellow feeling became a

tool in the hands of leaders to bifiircate the nation. In the same story the narrator says

"Actually the real cause of the war was the clash of interests between the elites,

otherwise how else one explain that when the commoners are virtually tearing each
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other apart like wolves, the elites over flowing with love and affection for each other,

sit together in cosy comfort over tea, rub their snouts with each other like goats and

work out how to bear the crushing burden of millions raked in as profit, under the new

industrial policy." (250) The writers lay bare the political ambitions of the mighty

few, who hankered after the "division of spoils" and had utter disregard for the

suffering millions. Even in this dark phase of history their concern seemed only to

make profit at the cost of the common man, who was the worst sufferer in this terrible

genocide. Rising mutual suspicion led to heightened communal passions, which in

turn smothered the finer sensibilities of man. Irrationality, unprecedented brutality and

savagery ruled the roost. Rational thinking and sanity gave way to insanity. People

were taken unawares by the suddenness of attacks. They were unprepared for such an

eventuality. They had not ever thought that they would have to leave their fields, their

homes and hearths behind, never to return.

In the story "Ma-Beta" by Hyatullah Ansari, Momina narrates the suddenness of

attack. "It must be 9o'clock in the morning. Abba was getting hay stacked in the

house.... Father and uncle came shouting. They had grown pale and they were

attacked, guns were fired, the cries of the dying could be heard... Our courtyard was

filled with attackers who were wearing khadi caps, army people, Sadhus and known

people of our village." (393) This shows complete collapse and breakdown of

community feeling. Senseless killing and horrendous violence seemed to swallow

everything. The unprecedented violence reached menacing proportions which like a

vortex, sucked in everything. People had refused to believe in the reality of partition,

in their simplicity had resisted leaving their homes and hearths, they believed that it

was a transient phase and it would pass, but they realized later that truth was bitter for

them, they were to become exiles hereafter. They were to leave their ancestral homes
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and move to alien lands which were different culturally and linguistically. People

were usurped from their familiar ancestral moorings, which resulted in torn identities

and confused state of their minds. It snapped their social and cultural relationships.

Man became a pawn on the chessboard of power brokers.

In the story "Pimps" by Ramanand Sagar the narrator saw "The Muslims come on

boats to raid our village from the other side of the bank of the river... I did not see the

boats coming but only heard some voices 'subhanallah, what lusty maid, well the

beginning is quite auspicious.' I turned to see four hefty Muslims wielding small axes

and advancing towards me. Many were still disembarking.... A cry escaped my throat.

I called out to my husband only to find that he had started running before me and was

quite far off. Perhaps he saw them disembarking before I did and escaped with his

own life, instead of attempting to save me." (193) In such situations, people ran to

save their own lives without bothering about anybody else. .

In the story "Sarhad Par" Nand Kishore Vikram describes somewhat similar type of

raid. "Twenty to twenty five raiders attacked them with swords and pistols. They

raped Salim's sister before everyone and then killed her. They in one stroke killed

Akram and cut Nazmi in two." (181) It shows man's total disregard for human life.

Feeling of hatred and revenge had climbed the highest notches. Endless strife, loot,

plunders and loss of human lives forced the people to flee to seek shelter with their

co-religionists. Whatever was humane and civilized was swept away by the huge

currents of distrust anger and brutality. There was death of civilized norms. Khadija

Mastoor in the story "Apne Angan se Door" describes through Alia its protagonist,

about the house that was allotted to them. It was broken open. It seems to be in a state

of ready use. "In the house everything was at its proper place the table was laid out

the engravings of the utensils were now covered with a film of dust. It felt as if
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somebody would appear from behind the curtains and would sit for the meals. In the

kitchen the brass utensils were in an almirah and some were lying on the floor." (100)

This presents a scene which shows the manner in which the inhabitants of the house

would have left the house. Everything in the house gives the feeling of a lived in

experience, a state of ready use.

Long caravans began to move, the battered defeated refugees began their arduous

journeys, a journey which they had not envisioned or foreseen in their wildest dreams.

Fikr Taunsvi describes the pain and anguish of refrigees, who are forced to leave and

flee to other places of refuge in his story "The Book of Divine Knowledge". "They

longed for their homes, where their souls dwelt, grieved for the bonds which gave

meaning to their lives, pined over lasting memories, their link with the past. Now that

bond was broken. The wealth amassed during centuries of toil was looted and

plundered, confused and bewildered they wept. Mothers abandoned their children and

wives were separated from husbands. Nobody was left to take care of the old and the

aged. Young and attractive beauties, possible victims of lust were stripped as if by

choice." (105) Madness gripped the people, and they started indulging in all sorts of

horrific acts. Long caravans started moving towards the other side of the border, some

could never make it to their destination. They perished on the way. Long lines of

bullock carts, battered trucks and buses and above all trains became the means of

transport. Trains became the lifelines, transporting people to and fro. They emerged as

metaphor of life and death. Peshawar Express took one of the longest routes covered

by the Indian Railways. It started from Peshawar and crossing many states, cities,

towns and villages culminated its journey at Bombay. Krishen Chander's "Peshawar

Express" has been personified, it narrates the tale of massacre and courage on its

journey from Peshawar to Bombay. In the beginning of its journey from Peshawar,
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fleeing refugees from various parts of North-Westem front embark on journey. At

Hasan Abdal, where first guru of the Sikhs taught the gospel of love, compassion and

brotherhood, the Sikhs board a train. At Taxila, which was the great learning centre of

Buddhist studies, and gave the world the concept of nonviolence and universal love, it

was an irony that Baloch soldiers ruthlessly killed the people. The train stops at many

places like Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Gujar khan, Lala Musa and Wazirabad. At all the

stations the train becomes a witness to the barbarity and savagery of one community

on the other. The train is pained and saddened to watch this bloodshed and carnage on

its way .It is a witness to the simmering hatred and vengefulness of people. It

becomes a metaphor for the travel of fear. At Wazirabad junction, last on the Pakistan

frontier, a train coming from India stops there. People from this train massacre the

passengers of the train going to India. At Mughalpura Baluchi escorts are replaced by

Dogra and Sikh soldiers. Now it is the turn of the other community to retaliate to the

violence inflected on them, they too don't want to be left behind in the mass scale

bloodshed, abductions, rapes, loot and plunder. The train is so overawed by this

witnessing of the brutality during the journey that it wishes not to undertake any such

journey in future. The story "Amritsar" by Krishan Chander is divided into two parts,

before Independence and after Independence. The first part shows people of three

faiths Hindu, Muslim and Sikhs living harmoniously together and fighting together

against the British regime. In the second part indiscriminate killings of one

community by another vitiates the atmosphere and leads to suspicion and distrust.

Two trains ferrying passengers from India and Pakistan halt at Amritsar where very

few have survived the manslaughter. On the train coming from Pakistan is written a

message "Learn to kill from Pakistan" and the one going from India has a message on

it "And learn from India how to take revenge." (94) Even small children and infants
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were not spared the barbarity of this event. They were witness to the most horrific

events taking place. They saw their parents, relatives and friends being killed. They

were done to death in most callous and inhuman way.

In the story "Ma-Beta" Hyatullah Ansari describes the way Momina's infant daughter

is snatched from her, one of the killers gets hold of the infant from her knee and

strikes her against the floor as if it is some inanimate object, her brain comes out as

soon as she is struck on the floor. Her young children Shamas and Mehtab are done to

death and thrown into their compound well. In Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi's story "To

the Head of the State" a reftigee women comes to Najib and requests him to write a

letter to Head of the State. She states how her husband and her two sons were killed.

They lay facing each other with their intestines in between. When Najib laughs she

says "you are native of this place, aren't you? That is why, that is why the intestines

boiling out of the slit tummies appear a joke to you and ...." (121)

In the story the "Vultures of the Parsi Cemetery" by Ali Imam Naqvi shows the worry

of care takers of Parsi mortuary who are handed the dead bodies for their ultimate

disposal. But vultures don't turn up to devour the bodies of the dead, it is a matter of

concern to them and the Parsi community. They are passed information by Police

Commissioner that there have been Hindu-Muslim riots in neighbouring areas. So

vultures are having a field day there. In this story, there is no description of violence,

still its full blown impact is felt by the reader.

In the story "Amritsar" a young Muslim child is not given water just because he is a

Muslim, which shows lack of compassion and sympathy for the other. In the story

"After the Storm" by Attia Hussain a twelve year girl is brought home by the narrator

and is employed by her. When the narrator asks her about her native place her mind

refuses to fill the gap between refugee camp and her adoption. She remembers her
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mother. She tells about Chand Bibi with whom she was staying who had put a stiff

fight against the looters. She hid in the sugarcane fields and was put on train by a

good Samaritan and that is how she landed here. She is shown to be more interested in

making a garland than telling her tale of woe. She lives in her present and has

probably shoved her past aside. Young women were most vulnerable targets of the

lust of man. They were easy targets and the worst sufferers of this catastrophe. The

zealots of violence were in fact hounds masquerading as humans. Society was

dehumanised and it led to the collapsing of morals which binds a civilized society, so

the beast in man was on a prowl to hunt its victims. The callous male exploited the

female sexuality, ethics and human values were shown the door. It was brutal

deepening descent to bestiality. In the story "Ya Khuda" by Kudratullah Shahab,

Dilshad, daughter of Maulavi AH Baksh, a respectable member of the society is

repeatedly raped by the people of her own village. She ceases to be a human and

becomes an object of lust and sexual grafification for every man of the village. Men

are seen hovering around the place, where she is held captive. When her pregnancy

becomes obvious, it is time to get rid of her as women of the village feel threatened by

her presence. Quick arrangements are made to send her across to Pakistan under the

restoration of abducted women act. She is sexually exploited at every step be it police

station by Labu Ram or Inspector Duryodhan, who takes her to the camp at Ambala, a

journey which could not have taken 10-12 hours takes him 12 days. Even after

reaching the camp she is not safe. She is sexually exploited by Pritam Singh and his

men for more than two months. At last she embarks on her journey to Pakistan on a

train. During the journey she gives birth to a baby girl and is drained of her strength at

the culmination of the journey, finds herself alone in the train compartment and

manages to sit on the platform with her day old daughter. Two young men look at her
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with lustftil eyes, but eyeing an infant in her arms leave the place. Reaching the camp

the storekeeper wants to take advantage of her. This is pathetic tale of a young girl

who had a respectable place in society under the care of her father, her destiny is

changed by the turbulent winds of partition and circumstances force her into flesh

trade for survival. In this very story pimps, give a peep into the utter degradation of

the morals of the people women become commodities to be possessed and used, to

satisfy the carnal desires of men. One of them says "in one season, sixteen girls, swear

by God I have not made profit like this in my whole life." (73) Women bodies have

become marketable commodities to be sold.

In the story "They are Taking Me Away Father" by Khadija Mastoor has an echo of

'Heer'. The narrator tries to save the girl ft-om her abductors, but he is brushed aside

and threatened by a gunda. Then the gunda lifted the girl and threw it over his

shoulders as "if she was a lamb.... and the man with bloodshot eyes wrapped the girls

arm around his neck, as if in extreme pain, the girl shut her eyes." (4) In such times

women bodies are used as a vehicle of communication between the warring sides. The

scripts of victory and defeat were written on their bodies. By sexually exploiting them

and defiling them the enemy felt that they had taken sweet revenge from the other.

These poor women were often not assimilated in the family fold because of the notion

of purity in Hindu households. They felt that woman has been polluted by the

'malechs'. In the story Pimps the narrator escapes the captivity of her captors and

with great difficulty reaches her home but the reaction of her family member is not

welcoming. In fact her father-in-law is shocked to hear her name. Although she keeps

banging the door, it is not opened. She seems to question her husband who now stands

before her that instead of protecting her he ran away for his life. He reasons with her

"Didn't Lord Rama abandoned Sita for the sake of family honour? Moreover mother
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Sita was a chaste woman." (198) The word "chaste" is emphasised and family honour

is evoked. Instead of sympathising with the woman of their family, who does not have

any fault, she is turned out. Father-in-law feels that it is good that she came at an hour

when it was dark otherwise her presence would have ruined and tarnished the family

name and prestige. As abducted women were not accepted back, the unfair indignity

of being rejected by their loved ones further tormented the women, pained them,

sometimes this led them to take the extreme step of annihilating themselves by

committing suicide. While Hindus believed in religious defilement for Muslim

women assimilation in the families was not that difficult, even though they sufferctei'

due to social and cultural practices. Father-in-law talks about his revenge. He gloats

and takes pride in the fact that they carried more women of the enemy community and

they were still in possession of two women who were living in the inner part of the

house. She seems to question their morality, their notions of purity and chastity. She

feels trapped, and realises that it is the women who have to pay the price of the doings

of men. "Both the countries belonged to the men, who have ripped apart their veneer

of decency and began to dance around the naked body of women. There was no safe

haven for women. Like the land they have divided their bodies among themselves."

(199) Mumtaz Mufti's story "The Dunghills" makes use of dung hills metaphorically

and symbolically. Sarwari leads a happy life with her parents, but during partition

violence they are killed, she saves her life by hiding in the dunghill. She safely lands

in the refugee camp, where she is befriended by an old woman, she shows her true

colour when she pushes Sarwari into flesh trade. She feels men visiting her like

leeches and she being a vast heap of dung with its inevitable stench. "Wherever she

turned she saw a dunghill from which one or the other leech was trying to stick onto

her." (206) In the story "An Impenetrable Darkness" by Mumtaz Mufti, an old man is
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so desperate to save his own life that he forsakes his daughter. He begs for his life

saying "For Bhagwan's sake, you keep her. But let me go, spare my life. I am old,

what will you gain by killing me?" (210) Daughter who looks up to her father is left

to the mercy of these looters. Blood relations too have turned into water. The beautiful

daughter of the man hears this conversation with bewilderment. Relationships snap,

morality takes a nosedive. In the same story the writer shows a woman not safe even

with her co-religionists. In this season of madness, it was the body of woman that

mattered to the beast in man. A woman named Kaushalya says "What are you doing

sardarji? No! No! My name is Kaushalya. See the tattoo on my arm in Hindi." (216)

But it did not deter the Sikh, at that moment he irrespective of religion wanted to

devour the body of Kaushalya. Kaushalya sarcastically remarks that he was a Muslim

with long hair. Amar Singh is witness to a grotesque spectacle. "A woman popped her

head out of the train. Her breasts had been chopped off. A child was still hanging on

them. The woman pointed towards her breasts and said 'Amritsar'." (217) It shows

the brutality inflicted on women bodies. In the same story a small girl in her childish

prattle in all her innocence told Amar Singh about the men who came for her mother.

"All of them kept massaging Ammi's body." (220) Witness to such horrendous times

young children would have been scarred for life. What trauma they would have gone

emotionally and psychologically? Could they ever remain normal undergoing these

traumatic times? Mantos classic story "Khol Do" (Open It) presents the inhuman

savagery and brutality meted out to a young girl by her co-religionists, who strays

away from her father while in flight and father making frantic efforts to locate her.

Sirajuddin runs from pillar to post to have the safe custody of his daughter but is

disappointed. At last he asks for help from the Razakars (The Volunteers) to trace his

daughter. She is brought to the camp in a comatose state and is taken to the camp
 105

doctor by the helpless father. As it is very hot and humid the doctor gestures to the

father to open the window saying "open it". The Comatose inert girl moves trying to

untie the cord of her trousers to undergo the barbarity of sexual abuse. The word open

it has got so much associated with untying of her trousers that this word has ceased to

carry any other meaning for her. Probably she has undergone this torture so often that

"Khol Do" cannotes only one thing to her that is to surrender involuntarily to suffer

the grotesque, vicious brutality at the hands of so called masque6a«(tng volunteers. The

doctor stands stunned and a cold sweat covers him. He is shocked when he

comprehends the situation and trying to understand what the poor girl must have

undergone. The reaction of the father is of joy, he is delighted that his daughter is

alive.

In the story "Assignment" by Manto an old judge and his daughter are holed in

Lahore. The judge had once shown a favour to the Sikh and he in gratitude used to

send him gifts on the eve of Id. When he was on his deathbed he asked his son to

continue with the tradition. It is the savage irony of the times that attack on the house

of the judge is delayed as the son has to offer gifts to the judge as promised to his

father.

In another story by Manto "Thanda Gosht" (cold meat ) the main protagonist Ishar

Singh when he hears the tales of atrocities committed by Muslims, filming in the heat

of the moment sets out for a retaliatory action. He goes on a rampage as a part of a

charged and fi-enzied mob. He enters a Muslim household, there he kills all members

of the family except for their young daughter. He spares her life probably to satisfy

his lust for sexual gratification. With this intention in his mind he carries her on his

shoulder, but the girl has died of shock when he finds that he was going to copulate

with the corpse, he is so shocked that he is rendered impotent. It is for this reason he
 106

is unable to respond to advances of his lusty amorous wife. She in a fit of jealousy

murders him. Some critics believe that Ishar Singh's impotence is symptomatic of the

fact that voice of his conscience had not been totally smothered. In another story by

Manto "Mozail" is presented as a westernized Jew residing in the city of Bombay.

Trilochan was very much in love with her and wanted to marry her. But she never

seems to commit to him. But meanwhile Trilochan gets engaged to the girl of his

parent's choice. Riots have erupted in the area where Trilochan's fiancee resides.

Mozail takes the initiative to save her. She devises a plan, she gives her clothes to

Trilochan's fiancee and to distract the arsonists runs naked. She loses her religious

identity and becomes an object of desire. She falls, when she lays dying, Trilochan

removes his turban to cover her body. She asks him to take away that religion of his

as she regards it superficial manifestation.

Manto's "Siyah Hashiye" (Black Margins) was his first anthology on partition stories

published in Lahore in 1948. Some vignettes are as short as two lines. His incisive

biting satire hits the nail on the head. The very first story "Sweet Moment" has

Gandhi, the father of the nation, as a protagonist whose death was celebrated by

distributing sweets and news item of one sentence. "Mazdoori" (Wages) shows a poor

Kashmiri labourer running with a sack of sugar. He is shot in the leg by the police.

And the poor man, all he asks for, is his wages of four annas for carrying the sack. "In

Cooperation" the owner of the house is shown to help the looters carrying the loot. In

"Takseem" a heavy box is carried by two looters. When it is time to divide the booty

it is opened, fi-om it emerges a man with sword who cuts them into four pieces. In

"Karamat" (Miracle Man), a looter runs offwith two sacks of sugar and to evade

police falls into the well. People find the water sweet next morning and he is raised to

pedestal of a holy man. In "Munasib Karwai" (For Necessary Action) a couple is

 107

shown running for their lives, taking shelter in the house of the people for whom

killing is a sin in their religion. So the couple is handed over to the people of another

mohalla for appropriate action. Manto's scathing satire exposes the hypocrisy of

religion. Were these people really practising their religion? In the story "Kasare-

Nafsi" (Modesty) many passengers of 'other' religion are killed the remaining who

belonged to their religion are treated with halwa, fruits and milk and they profusely

apologize, for not entertaining them as lavishly as they wanted to, as the news of the

arrival of train reached them late. Manto's incisive irony is visible in "Jelly" where a

child takes ice-selling man's solidified blood as jelly. "UUanah" (Double Cross) the

writer feels cheated when the patrol he has bought is found adulterated and he is

unable to set on fire any shop. "Aaram Ki Zaroorat" (Resting Time) shows two killers

unable to kill because of their exhaustion. "Islaah" (Mistake Removed) and "sorry"

show writers having same religious identity of their victims but are done to death.

Realizing their mistake there is no regret or compunction and is taken casually. It

highlights the violation of man's masculinity. "Nigrani Me" (Due Supervision and

Precautionary Arrangement) is a telling comment on the work ethics of law and order

maintaining agencies. "Joota" (The Garland) shows rioters vandalizing the statue of

Sir Ganga Ram by beating it with shoes. And ultimately they land up in that very

hospital which is named after him for treatment. Manto's "Qismat" (Luck),

"Haiwaniyat" (Bestiality), "Khaad" (The Fool), and "Aankho Par Charbi" (Ungrateful

Lot) is bitter indictment of use of religious symbols to incite the people of other

community. "Bekhabri Ka Faida" (The Benefits of Ignorance), in this story he takes

an aim at a child, when his friends tell him that his gun does not have any bullets, he

very casually remarks that the child is not aware of it. In "Halal and Jhatka"

(Ritualistic Difference) a friend demonstrating the better method of killing the people.
 108

chops off the head of his friend. A vignette by Manto "Losing Proposition" is equally

biting and sarcastic. Two men pick up a girl from a dozen, one of them spends a night

with her and asks her name, to their horror they discover that she is their co-

religionist, they feel cheated and want their money reftinded.

Manto's stories are incisive, sharp, hard hitting, and soul stirring and often full of

pathos. He believes that the manipulative politicians by dividing the people

aggravated the situation, which once put into motion, propelled out of control. He

does not spare anyone. He aims his weapon of irony and satire on rioters, rapists,

killers, bureaucracy, politicians and administrative machinery.

In the story "By God" Manto in his authorial voice seem to question the people

regarding the female sex, who have undergone the trauma of abduction and rape. For

men it was a way of dishonouring the other community and their symbolic

subjugation but women carrying the seed suffered the utmost humiliation, at the hands

of their own people when they were ostracised, as their religion was polluted and they

were defiled. How could they prove their innocence, restore their right to dignity

when all cards were dealt against them? Manto says "who is the owner of that which

lies stuffed in their bellies- India or Pakistan? And what of nine months of labour?

Who would pay the wages - India or Pakistan? Or would it all simply be put in

account of cruel nature? Isn't there a black column somewhere in ledger?" (95) In

these tempestuous times many a man's callused hands had tarnished many women. In

"Yazid" too he paints a similar picture. "The village had known several casualties.

Thousands of young and old had been killed. Many girls had disappeared. Several had

been raped in most inhuman way possible. Those who had been afflicted sat and

cried.... They cried over their misfortune and over heartless perpetrators of these

crimes." (102) In Abbas' story "Revenge" Hari Das a prosperous lawyer loses every
 109

member of his family in the partition inferno. His wife drowns herself and his

daughter is raped and murdered. He seethes and simmers with revenge and for this

purpose he wants to stab a Muslim girl in her naked breasts. With this purpose in his

mind he engages a beautiful Muslim prostitute. He asks her to undress under the

bright light of the bulb. The girl adheres to his command and when only brassier

remains she starts sobbing. This infuriates Hari Das even further and he snatches her

brassier to stab her, but he is shocked when he finds horrible scars in place of breasts.

In her eyes he reads gamut of emotions, i.e., of fear, terror, hatred, hopelessness and

above a plea for mercy. Probably her body has undergone the savage barbarity earlier

and has forced her to enter a brothel. Hari Das urge for revenge, a retaliatory action

veils his pain. He returns dejected as there are still remnants of humanity left in him.

The disfiguring and mutilation of body parts signify that woman is no more able to

reproduce which is essential part of the nation making. A message is sent to the

enemy camp that their women have become barren. In the story "Sharifan" by Manto,

Qasim is out on a looting spree, he returns home with his booty only to find that his

wife, daughter and son have been killed in his absence. He vows to take revenge and

is all set for a retaliatory action to teach the other community a lesson and begins to

sweep through the streets like a hurricane. He breaks into a house and pounces on a

fifteen years old girl, who offers no resistance, as she falls unconscious. Like a

possessed man he tears her clothes. When he is about to strangulate her, the image of

his daughter appears before his eyes. He covers her body, when man brandishing his

sword appears on the doorway and asks Qasim what he is doing there. Qasim loses

his power to answer and can only utter the words "Sharifan" (the name of his

daughter).TTie man who had appeared on the doorway seeing the naked corpse of his

daughter unsteadily walks out and sword from his hand falls down and he goes out
shouting for his daughter. This shows degradation in the morals and values of the

peoples. Women were easy targets. Even known were not spared.

In the story "Ma-Beta" by Hyatullah Ansari Momina's family members are killed

before her eyes and she and her sister are abducted and sexually abused. She

remembers "For two days there was not a chit of cloth on the fifteen or twenty women

from my village. They had to stay with hundred to two hundred males this way every

day. The men used to consume liquor and forced poor women to dance naked and

they used to make obscene gestures." (393) They were probably the women who had

not crossed their threshold, observed purdah now stood exposed to uncouth, degraded

men who were bent on shaming them in most obnoxious manner. This depicts the

gruesome violence against women. They are abducted, many atrocities are committed

on them. They have to undergo varied humiliations. The women seem to cry out

against this social abuse

Jamila Hashmi's classic story "Exile" incorporates the legend of Sita. The qualities of

Sita's character are extolled every year at Ram Lila. Sita's image has been reinforced

through metaphors and similes in everyday life. She has emerged as an ideal of

womanhood, who has singular faithfulness which cannot be disturbed by her

husband's rejection, slights and thoughtlessness. The narrator becomes the second

Sita because of her uncomplaining sacrifice for the sake of her family. She unveils her

life's journey. She belonged to a prosperous family, was separated and now had made

home with her abductor. This was the fate of many women during partition. This was

an irony that these women had to live life with those people who were sometimes the

killers of their kith and kin. Her husband while bringing her home tells his

grandmother "You won't have to put up with the insolence of maid servants anymore

.She will be your slave.... As far as I am concerned you can ask her to do anything
 Ill

you wish. I have brought you a Bahu." (52) Her fate is similar to Sita's abduction and

exile, whereas Sita's exile ended after fourteen years but her exile does not seem to

end in the near ftiture. She in her heart of hearts knows her life's journey is never

going to take her to her parents' place. Her link with her natal family is snapped

forever. With this an emotional support she seeks fi^om her natal home is quashed

forever. She sometimes thinks of her brother who might come searching for her. The

notion of being chaste disturbs her. A thought which is uppermost in her mind is who

will accept a woman who has been despoiled. When the agreement to recover

abducted women comes into force and soldiers come for the recovery of women, she

forgoes the decision as she has grown new bonds with this place in shape of children.

She balefuUy reflects that love finds new 'crutches'. Her suffering is endless. When

her daughter asks her about her brother she is unable to satisfy her query .When

Gurpal comments that women were stupid, lots of children got lost in the fair that day.

She makes a simple statement which has deeper meaning. She says "children get

separated from their mothers even outside fairs." (61) She implied that she was that

unlucky one.

Rajinder Singh Bedi's story "Lajwanti" (Touch Me Not) presents Sunder Lai as the

man protagonist of the story, who works passionately and tirelessly for the

rehabilitation of the abducted women. He is an active member of rehabilitation

committee. He too has to undergo the agony of being separated from his wife and

longs to be united with her. Lajo as she is lovingly called, after being abducted in

Pakistan is restored. After spending many months in Pakistan she arrives at Sunder

Lai's doorstep. All this time he had been saying that if given a chance he would

rehabilitate Laju in his heart. He would show people that women are hardly to blame,

as their abduction was not their choice, and felt that the people who do not accept
 112

such women are rotten. But Sunder La! himself is unable to restore Lajwanti to her

earlier place. He is unable to accept her as a wife. She is raised to the pedestal of a

Devi to be worshipped. Lajwanti feels alienated by the attitude of her husband. Her

normal life is impeded by her abduction. He no more lovingly calls her Laju or fights

with her. Life is not its earlier self The story presents an another aspect of gendered

nature of partition where the woman not only undergoes the violence inflicted on her

by the enemy camp but also undergoes the constant suffering at the hands of her own

family, who are unable to return to their normal self again in their relation with the

abducted woman. Equations change, probably the Chastity issue somewhere always

rankles in their minds. Even when Sohan Lai feels that every civilized individual

should take these women back but irony is that he does not practice what he preaches.

Although Lajwanti is brought back home yet he is unable to restore his wife's place in

his own heart to the earlier state.

In Gulzar's story "Across the Ravi" Darshan Singh's family takes refuge in the

Gurudwara after violence. His wife gives birth to twins on Sanskranti day. They flee

Lyallpur in train to India. Babies are put in the wicker basket. The feeble mother is

accommodated in the crowded train. After a long wait of ten hours the train moves,

Darshan Singh notices that one of the twins had died and turned cold. Shahni is so

grief stricken that she becomes absolutely mute and keeps clutching the basket to her

chest. When the train is passing Ravi someone whispers in Darshan's ear to throw the

dead child into the river and he pulls the bundle, chanting the name of Almighty

throws it into Ravi. Ironically it was the living child who was mistakenly thrown as

his faint cry was heard in the darkness. Darshan Singh found his wife clutching the

dead child to her chest and they have reached Wagah.

 113

In Intizar Hussain's story "Shaher-e-Afsos" (The City of Sorrow), three fearless men

are sorrowful and guilty of the crimes committed by them. There had been such a

downfall in their morals that they had asked a young man to disrobe his sister. The

young man retaliated by repeating the action on a burqa clad woman accompanied by

her husband. In another instance the young man asked the first man to disrobe his

daughter. His father was so grieved that he told his son "If you are alive I must be

dead and he died." (381) Second man saw a dark girl with a swollen belly when she

saw the second man she recognized him and screamed, he fled in terror but could not

escape. Jasbir Jain in her article "Writing, Trauma and History: The Self in the

World" says "The queries which surface over and over again are 'where am I and who

am r . Identity location and physical existence are all uncertain and on the verge of

dissolution. There is no way they can escape, and there is no way to return, very much

like Sartre's no exit except that hell is not nearly other people; it is our own selves."

(Jain, 326)

In Suralya Qasim's story "Where Did She Belong?" shows Munni Bai a famous

prostitute of Heera Mandi fleeing along with her Ammi when rioters attack their

quarters. They escape to Delhi and take a house at G.B.Road, which was earlier

occupied by Salma, another prostitute, who has migrated to Heera Mandi in Lahore.

Munni Bai picks the thread of her business again and the rich of both communities

start flocking to the door of the fabled beauty of Heera Mandi. They spend lavishly

for one night pleasure and this sets Munni Bai thinking "who lost and who died in

partition?" (414) She makes a telling comment, on the lives of the rich and bourgeois,

who had the power and enjoyed all the privileges. It was the ordinary men who were

rendered homeless, whose entire families were wiped out in this inferno and reached

the alien lands without any kinship ties, a place which they didn't decide or desired.
 114

Ram Lai's story "A Visitor from Pakistan" presents the dilemma of Saraswati who

has to make a choice out of her two husbands. During partition she safely makes it to

India, whereas her husband is presumed dead. She is remarried and has two issues

from her second husband. It is precisely at this time her first husband comes searching

for her from Pakistan. Saraswati turns pale and is unable to face her first husband.

When mother of Saraswati comes to know the predicament of her daughter, she starts

moaning the fault of her daughter saying. "My daughter's life is ruined. Her

reputation lies in the mud. She has two husbands now. Why don't you kill yourself

Saraswati? Why the earth does not open up to swallow you? You escaped from

Pakistan with your honour intact. But now death is the only solution left." (215) Her

second husband Sunder Das had rescued her and her family members endangering his

own life. Saraswati is in a dilemma what to do? With whom to go with? She is unable

to decide when life has brought her to the cross roads yet again. She gets so

overwhelmed with the turn of events that she breaks down and is unable to make a

reply. Baldev her first husband has become a stranger with time and distance. He

returns empty handed. This story is a tale, fiill of pity and pathos, is somewhat similar

story we find in Hindi "I Shall Live" by Vishnu Prabhakar. These sorts of stories

show the predicament of such women who had to make difficult choices.

Quratullain Hyder has written many novels with partition as their backdrop. The River

of Fire is considered to be a "classic, the magnum opous." She has enriched Urdu

literature with modem relevant political consciousness. Her story "The Sound of

Falling Leaves" depicts the life journey of a young girl who is a rebel and she wants

to assert herself, her individuality through her socially unacceptable relationships. Her

relationship with Khushwant undergoes tremendous change as there has been drastic

change in the power equations of the people. Once she flowed with the currents of
 115

love but at that time she had youthful fervour but her advancing middle age turns her

love life moron, colourless and purposeless. She makes compromises at last and

marries the person out of necessity and goes about with the everyday humdrumness of

life.

The story "The Grave Turned Inside Out" by Ibrahim Jalees tells the tale of plight of

Bihari Muslims who migrated to Pakistan. They were motivated by the collective

identification with their faith but utterly dejected with the Utopia because they often

faced persecution at the hands of their co-religionists. This story is set against the

formation of Bangladesh where Bihari Muslims face double displacement. Ayesha the

main protagonist had moved from Patna to Dhaka with her husband, she had simply

followed suit. She feels that in the male dominated world a wife's nationality is

determined by her husband's. Although they had made Dhaka their home after the

partition, yet they had not been accepted there. They have to face the wrath of the

rioters, who after their stay of twenty four years on this land are still considered

outsiders. During language riots, trying to save his friends wife from a Muslim

goonda Ayesha's husband loses life. Her thirteen year old daughter is abducted. Nurul

drags Ayesha along with him with the promise of fixing a meeting with her daughter

at Karachi. She is taken from Dhaka to Calcutta to Kathmandu and finally to Karachi.

Nurul betrays her trust, she seeks refuge in a hovel, at a Bengali settlement at the edge

of a graveyard. She is raped by the goons who pose as officials. Her cries for help are

heard but ignored. She dies naked, to cover up this crime a rumour is spread that she

had died of snake bite. The narrator makes the most incisive comment when he says

"He was a funny snake! He wore underwear." (454) Her hut is razed and it becomes

her grave, her resting place. Once displaced she remains an outsider all her life, her

mortal frame now lies buried miles away from her land of birth and her adopfive
country, but none has a place for her, she remains an exile, an outsider. This was not

the life she desired or deserved. The narrator makes an apt comment when he says

"she was one of those millions and millions of lost, helpless, oppressed people of this

earth, who, from the moment they are gone till their last day, neither want to live nor

wish to die." (441)

The story "I Am Game" by Sultan Jamil moves in the same trajectory as the earlier

story that is Dacca, Kathmandu and Karachi. It is a poignant tale of a mother who

fiercely guards her dignity by working very hard. She maintains staunch principles

but her tragedy is that despite her best efforts she has to bow before her

circumstances. Majid the pimp has an eye on her daughter, for whom he has tagged a

price, she scolds and reprimands him. But she is so battered by her circumstances and

hunger in her belly that she does not have a choice but to offer herself for the trade

instead of her daughter. She tells Majid "The other day you opened the door of hell

for me. I am ready to enter it. Go and fix up with anyone you can find. For a fifty or a

hundred or any amount you can pin him down for." (745) The sheer desperation of the

situation is reflected through this speech of the mother. Majid thought that she was

hinting at Afroze, her daughter. But she clears his misconception when she says "I

want one for myself I'm game." (745)

"Khuda ki Kasam" (By God) by Manto narrates the tale of woe of an old woman who

has lost her daughter. A liaison officer often came to India in line of his duty for the

restoration of abducted women. At Jalandhar he came across an unkempt old mad

woman who is desperately searching for her daughter. The officer is saddened by her

fate and wants to take her to Pakistan. He reasons with her that her daughter is dead

and she should accompany him to Pakistan. The old woman is confident of her

daughter being alive, as she tells the officer that her daughter is so beautiful that
 117

nobody can raise a hand at her. At another occasion when the narrator on duty

happens to go to Amritsar he watches the same old woman on the road, she still seems

to, be searching for her daughter. When thie officer goes to her to talk a handsome

couple passes by. The face of the woman is veiled and her handsome Sikh husband is

accompanying her. He whispers in her ear that she is her mother. She lifts her veil for

a moment to see for her and then without uttering a word squeezing the arm of her

husband, she drags him from there. Mother shouts that she had a glimpse of her

daughter. The officer who had been watching the whole drama convinces her of her

daughter's death. She is unable to bear losing her daughter and falls dead in a heap on

the ground. Probably the daughter had got married and does not want to have any link

with her mother because of the unbridgeable religious difference. In the story

"Panahgah" [The Refiige] by Joginder Paul, the poor Mirasin is repeatedly raped to

teach her a lesson. She pleads with her rapist to send her to her people. They

mockingly tell her that they had already been sent to Pakistan meaning they have been

done to death. In the story "Ek Twaif Ka Khat" by Krishan Chander, a prostitute takes

under her care two girls one Hindu girl named Bela, who once belonged to noble

middle class family of Rawalpindi and the other one is Batul fi-om a Muslim Pathan

family of Jalandhar. Like Bela her father too was killed in most gruesome manner.

His eyes were gauged out, he was urinated in his mouth, and cut open from throat to

abdomen. Even Batul's married sisters were not spared the trauma of rape. Batul too

had changed many hands and at last had landed at a prostitute's doorstep. The

prostitute believes that these two girls are representatives of two great cultures and

two leaders Pandit Nehru and Jinnah must take care of them and give them better

prospects of life. Krishan Chander seems to suggest a solution here.

Men faced trials and tribulation of a different kind. Those staying at a place for

generations when resisted were massacred by the menacing mobs. They were

emotionally and physically scalded by the heat of fratricide. Men were the

breadwinners and now in alien lands there was survival of the fittest. It was not only

the loss of homes, hearths or lands but a complete breakdown of social value system.

Social and cultural relationships simply snapped with the departure of one set of

people, the character of the place changed, old architectural landmarks vanished

replaced by the new. Festivals and celebrations associated with one group of people

ceased. Breakdown of emotional association led to a great vacuum in the lives of the

people. A common man played as a proverbial pawn in the hands of sly shrewd

politicians.

Manto's story "Sahae" is semi-autobiographical in which he puts his conversation

with his friend, actor Shyam through his characters. Once Manto and Shyam came

across Sikh refugees who told them about their dreadfijl experiences. After hearing

this conversation Manto asked Shyam if he felt like murdering him, as he was a

Muslim. To this Shyam had replied that when he was listening to their tales of woe he

could have easily done him to death. This gave Manto an understanding of the

psychological background of the violence during partition. Jugal said "I'm wondering

what I would do if riots broke out in our neighbourhood. 'Yes what will you do?'

Mumtaz asked. 'I might just kill you,' Jugal said in all seriousness." (Memon 36) Like

Manto Mumtaz's morale had taken a beating, he was badly shaken by the response of

his friend. Probably this was the reason he was migrating to Karachi from Bombay.

Most of the riots occurred because of unconfirmed rumours making rounds of the

reports of killings and arson taking place in some remote or distant place. They were

exaggerated. Manto says that most of the times the action was taken in retaliatory
 119

mood. Mumtaz's decision was abruptly taken because he felt insecure even in the

company of his friends. He leaves the place with a heavy heart and anguish and pain

of dislocation is written on his face. Even his friends feel dejected at his parting.

Manto never felt comfortable in Lahore. He was emotionally attached to his land and

dual belonging bogged him down. Regarding killings Sahae tells his friend:

"Don't say one lakh Hindus and one lakh Muslims died say that... Say that

two lakh human beings died. After killing a lakh of Hindus the Muslims may

have thought that they have finished the Hinduism. But it lives and will lives

on. Likewise after a lakh of Muslims, the Hindus may have exulted that this

will have killed Islam. But the truth is before you: this hasn't managed to put

even a scratch on Islam. They are foolish who think that guns can kill religion.

Mazhab, deen, iman, faith, belief - all these are found out in our soul, not in

body. How can they be annihilated by butchers, cleavers, knives, bullets?"

(168)

The greatest of Manto's partition stories is "Toba Tek Singh" which is an

acknowledged masterpiece with the bifurcation of the subcontinent, madness gripped

the subcontinent and lunatic asylum could not be aloof to it. These voiceless

marginalized people did not have any say in the polity of the divide. The lunatics

seem to be more sane then the saner outside the asylum who are indulging in various

sorts of violence. The lunatics are more caring, tolerant, humane and have a sense of

solidarity with each other. Bishan Singh's Muslim friend comes visiting him at the

asylum, he tells him about the location of the Toba Tek Singh, his native place.

Bishan Singh is aggrieved by the dilemma where he belongs to, he wants to stay in a

place where he has roots and has a long association, where he has friends like

Fazaldin. He asks the fellow lunatic who claims to be God about the location of Toba
 120

Tek Singh. To this query he replies that he has yet not taken any decision about it.

Bishan Singh does not consider him a friend anymore, as information demanded of

him is not imparted to him. Lunatics also pose as Jinnah and Master Tara Singh.

Manto's sarcasm is at its sharpest when through these leaders he depicts that the

lunatics who are simply posing these leaders, are considered dangerous, while the real

leaders who brought about this catastrophe are eulogised. Bishan Singh is so

aggrieved and disoriented about the location of Toba Tek Singh that in his incoherent

manner he starts hurling abuses on all those people who are responsible for this tragic

event.

When lunatics are being divided and he has to be taken to India Bishan Singh refuses

to budge. As he is considered harmless, he is left alone in no man's land by the

soldiers. His gibberish suggests the conftised state of the people who had to leave

their places abruptly and the anguish of the people who had to leave their native

places in search of new homelands with which they didn't have any affinity. To

Bishan Singh the verdict of partition is unacceptable. He stands in no man's land.

With the advent of the dawn he gives out a loud cry and dies. It is a symbolic

rejection of the partition of the country. Behind the barbed wire, on the other side lay

Pakistan. Toba Tek Singh lay on no-man's land. Manto parodies the working of the

bureaucracy. The very basis of the story i.e. the decision to transfer the lunatics is

presented by Manto with a comical parody of the pompous officialdom nature of

authorities. Mahey remarks "The story searches out and lays bare, as it were the

profoundest human consequences of political, territorial divergences in a single such

act and somehow touches the lowest common denominator of all such acts which

coming into contact with it, continue thus to revitalize the meaning of the story."

(Translating 151)
 121

This story parodies the antics of the irrational politicians, who appear more insane

than the inmates of the asylum. Bishan Singh identifies with the place and becomes

one "Toba Tek Singh". He represents the faceless humanity, their non-

representational side.

"An Epic Unwritten" by Intizar Husain is one of the most beautiful stories written on

partition. It depicts the fate of Pichwa who has lost his status and identity with the

bifurcation. It presents the bruised psyche of a refugee, who has been displaced from

his familiar milieu and has been uprooted emotionally and becomes culturally

disoriented. The story is in the form of the entries in a diary. Pichwa the village bully,

a club wielder is a hero who vehemently participates in Muslim league propaganda.

He does not have any ideological or personal agenda to support. Nonetheless he fights

for it because he wants to prove that he is the best club wielder of the area. He

unknowingly works up his downfall when in a patriotic fervour he unfurls the flag of

the Muslim league on the peepul tree. He does not have a faint idea that Qadirpur one

day will be transformed into Jatunagar and would be wiped out from the map. Pichwa

moves to Pakistan, first of all dejected that Qadirpur did not come into the ambit of

Pakistan. But still is hopeful, but as soon as he steps into Pakistan, he is soon

disillusioned by the sudden change in the attitude of those people who were non-

entities in Qadirpur. Naim Miyan scolds him saying "everybody just marches into

Pakistan expecting to get something as if his old man had buried a treasure there.

They just don't realise that there is not much room in Pakistan." (167) Pichwa had

never had to worry about the basic necessities of life in Qadirpur, they were fulfilled

unasked. It is pathetic that this towering figure is reduced to beggary. He begs the

narrator to make arrangements for some work for him and get a house allotted to him.

Pichwa is disillusioned, the dreams he carried of a prosperous country are quashed to

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the ground. At this stage he faces an identity crisis. First of all he was forced to flee

Qadirpur, when he reached Pakistan, he was a Muhajir there. Pakistani authorities

declared that they cannot accommodate more Muslims, so those who were still in

India should remain there and who are not still accommodated in Pakistan should go

back to India. Poor Pichwa returns to old Qadirpur which has dramatically and

drastically changed in his absence. Once Pichwa returns to India he is totally

exhausted, dejected, disillusioned and broken man. He has lost his identity, his status

takes a nosedive and he foresees that he won't be able to acquire his old status. His

rivals who dared not see him eye to eye are emboldened. He at last meets his nemesis

when his rivals hang his head on that very peepul tree, where he had once flown the

flag of Pakistan. As for the narrator these memories are stifling and burdensome to

him so he engrosses himself in his mill business and other humdrum activities of

everyday life.

Another touching story "The Shepherd" by Ashfaq Ahmed is a class in itself Ashfaq

Ahmed begins the story by writing about the syncretic culture and traditions of India

which are imbibed and incorporated in the lives of the people of another religion.

Dauji is a representative of such a culture which believes in encompassing the finer

nuances of others in its fold. He is deeply indebted to his learned teacher Hazrat

Maulana for making an unlettered goatherd into a court scribe. Dauji has maintained

his identity as a Hindu by growing a tuft, but under the influence of his teachers

learning, learnt Persian and Arabic and incorporates best of Muslim ethics in his life

by having read the scriptures. Under the guidance and tutelage of his teacher Hazrat

Maulana he becomes the symbol of bringing the synthesis of these two strong

traditions of the Indian subcontinent. He wants to pay back to society what he had

received from his revered teacher. He wants to carry on the legacy of his teacher by
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maintaining the Guru Shishya Parampara (tradition). He is always enthusiastic to

disseminate knowledge to his wards to the best of his ability. With the partition there

appears a big chasm in the relationship of the Hindus and the Muslims. Ranu's

brutalistic behaviour towards Dauji is reflected when he cuts his tuft and deprives him

of his identity, there is an erosion of values. Dauji's life is spared because somebody

in the crowd sees the utility of his being alive as he would teach their children. This

shows that people deep down their hearts understand that Dauji is capable of

imparting the best knowledge to their wards. Dauji is asked to recite a Kalma, so that

he could be converted to Islam, when Dauji asks him which Kalma should he recite,

he is knocked on his head and pushed as it is taken to be his impertinence and

defiance. It is the irony of the situation that Dauji who is outside the ambit of Muslim

faith, yet he has deep understanding of intricacies of Islam and Ranu who is bom

Muslim is not well conversant with his religion. The illiterate, depraved Ranu takes

sadistic pleasure watching the suffering of Dauji. Ranu asks Dauji to tend his goats,

and ironically he turns into a goatherd. It is an irony that one Muslim, his teacher pulls

him out of ignominy and from a goatherd makes him a scribe, yet there is another

Muslim, who had turned a man of wisdom and learning into a goatherd. He becomes

the victim of the mob mentality, of the frenzied mass which pushes him into oblivion.

Irony is even at the severest when Dauji inspite of being a Hindu is more conversant

with the tenants of Islam. The mob may have usurped his formal identity, but they

cannot deprive him of the values that he has imbibed from his teacher. Dauji takes his

humiliation stoically and moves on to his new role as a goatherd awarded to him by

the mob and Ranu.

Joginder Paul's story "Dariyaon Pyas" (Thirst of Rivers) is yet another story which

depicts the pain of being dislocated from ones place. The author describes the pain of
 124

Bebe through the simile of mother earth. "The motherland had delivered a bundle of

pain from her womb. And after giving birth to blood soaked twins has breathed her

last. The Day of Judgement has come - arre! Why doesn't someone clean these

orphans? Put some warm clothes on them. Think of something for them to eat." (82-

83) This birth has rendered the people homeless usurped them from their land^

forcibly, standing amid alien lands, disoriented, trying to pick the threads of life once

again. Bebe too is pushed from her Haveli with which she had long associative

memories. She had arrived at its doorstep as a child bride, welcomed by her in-laws.

Everything in her house opens a flood gate of memories associated with her dead

husband. This place is sacred to her and a place of reftige. She was given the custody

of this house when she was handed the keys of this Haveli and since then they have

become part of her existence. With different keys she can open many doors of her

memories. She is of the belief that one day she would be able to open the lock of her

Haveli with these very keys. She establishes familial relationships within the world of

Haveli. To have her come out of that world would mean a total demolition of herself

By refiising to accept her separation from that existence she keeps her past intact

through her attachment with the bunch of keys. The suddenness of the partition gives

her no time to comprehend the changing reality. She moves into a new bungalow with

her son. She tries to open up the lock of her son's new bungalow with her old keys,

which shows that even after a passage of time she is unable to forgo her old codes and

is unable to reconcile to the new codes while living in the present. She cherishes the

familial relationships which are tied to her bunch of keys. Although her son has

moved on with the times but she is unable to reconstruct her identity in relationship

with new bunglow which remains closed to her. Sukrita Paul Kumar writes "she

never manages to reach the insides of the new reality represented by the new
 125

bunglow." (Settar 58) Bebe remains the lonely figure, engrossed and lost in her own

world oblivious of the happenings around her. Kumar says "in locking the Bebe

outside the bunglow there is perhaps a suggestion that if tradition cannot be totally

destroyed it can yet be resisted, dismissed or even ignored." (Settar 58) Bebe has a

loving family but has lost the haveli, and her keys don't match the locks of the new

bunglow and thus remain redundant and her mind remains stuck in her past, probably

it is the way of reconciliation.

Ismat Chugtai's story "Jarein" (The Roots) talks about the splintering of families and

uprootedness. It is a story of a mother who is adamant to stay on in her house when

the remaining members of families have decided to leave for Pakistan. They persuade

her to accompany them and leave the land of kafirs "she was like the roots of a giant

oak, that remains standing in the face of fierce storm" Ammi refuses to budge fi-om

her position saying "You may go, where can I go in my last days?" (582) The young

son of the family says "She does not know what torture the kafirs have inflicted upon

innocent people. If we have our own country, at least our lives and property would be

safe." (583) Ammi retorts back "What is this strange bird called our country? The

narrator reads the mind of Ammi and says that Ammi would have said "If this is not

your country, how can some distant land where you merely go and settle for a few

days become your country." (583) Ammi is anguished and sways in distress when she

envisions her blood in exile. She roams about in the room and thinks of its

inhabitants, her blood, with whom she had made a home. They have left her alone. An

autobiographical element of Chugtai's life has crept in the story. She found her

mother in the same state when she went to meet her when her brothers had left for

Pakistan. Her mother was a woman who never made her emotions public. But when

she saw Chugtai she started crying bitterly like a child. She became representative of
 126

those women who were abandoned to a life of desolation and loneliness. Hindu doctor

brings back the family back to their Haveli because he feels that he has some duty

towards the welfare of the family. So a shared bond endures between the two families

belonging to different faiths although there was a temporary rupture. For Ammi to be

ripped apart from her emotional abode could have proved disastrous. Both Bebe and

Ammi have their Havelis as a place of anchorage. As displacement accompanied by

winds of violence lashed at people, they sought reflige in camps and then undertook

journeys to nowhere. The story "An Impenetrable Darkness" by Mumtaz Mufti shows

a Tonga driver talking about the sudden change in the behaviour and attitude of the

people. He says "All of them were the same people who covered their ears at the very

mention of causing injury to a living being. I know that because I have spent my

whole life at the stand in Krishna Nagar. And all of them attacked Moti with spears

and swords." (213) Mute animals too become objects of the ire of the mob. Moti the

horse of the Tonga driver becomes a victim of their brutality. He says "They raised

hands against the mute Moti.... Moti was no Muslim." (213)

The condition of the camps was deplorable the milling humanity had sought refuge

there to save their skin. Manto describes about one such camp in one of his story titled

"The Maker of Martyr" "Everywhere I looked, I saw broken down dilapidated human

beings, wan faced, sunken eyed, dressed in rags, weighed down by worries and

anxieties, besieged by the fear of earning their daily bread, where they were dumped

in some poky shack, the discarded railway goods or wandering aimlessly around

shops and markets with ownerless animals with upturned snouts. Again why are they

alive, whom they live for and how, no one has the answers. Thousands die every time

there is an outbreak of some disease or the other." (38) The camps were bursting at
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the seams. There wasn't any space for putting the proverbial seed of sesame

anywhere, yet the people were being stuffed into it.

In the story "To the Head of the State" by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, a reftigee woman

lands up at the Walton refugee camp. She seeks help from many people but is turned

away. She bursts out "I don't have the courage to beg, seven generations of my family

have earned with their own hands, how should I, the unfortunate sully their name.... I

had heard from the women members of the league that when we are free, each will be

able to help the other' but nobody has helped her so far." (123) Fikr Taunsvi in "The

Book of Divine Knowledge" paints a very grim picture of the refugees. "The refugee

had pale faces, their clothes had gaping holes. Broken pots and pans lay about.

Bewilderment and expectations peeped from refugee's eyes and half open lips, an

expectation of burnt rotis and dal and rice. And women with silken bodies who had

never slipped out of their homes were clad in rags." (107) The adverse circumstances

forced refugees to sell anything they could lay their hands on, they had to satisfy their

hunger. They sold even their daughters and wives. The pompous attitude of the

officialdom aggravated the situation even further. These government officials

indulged in most gross exploitation of these refugees. The writer says about them "....

having sent them the angels. God totally ignored them and was lost in his own

dreams" (108) The last section of the story "The Rehabilitation" tells about the

discrepancies that marred the rehabilitation process. It were the influential and

prominent refuges who got away with whatever they wanted but the common man

was left at the mercy of the landlords who loomed large over them. "Want and hunger

hovered around them like vultures." (110) Although these refugees toiled hard, grew

crops but angels of God declared famine. The poor refugees remained a harassed lot

and the rich enjoyed all the privileges. Taunsvi concludes this story with a sardonic
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remark. "This book of divine knowledge bequeathed to the refugees is considered by

the sons of God as unlawfiil and instrument for investing violence. The refuges must

accept the truth. Lord God will make them suffer perpetually Amen." (112) The book

is unlawful because it openly describes the plight of the refugees and the exploitative

policies of the mighty and powerful. Most of the people could never reclaim losses

and had to endure unimaginable hardships all their lives. In Khadija Mastoor's story

"Apne Aagan Se Door" the narrator's uncle managed to get a house allotted in his

sister's name and provided her with forged receipt to claim the stuff lying in that

house. Whenever the domestic help of the house handled the stuff of the house

heavily she was cautioned by Alia's mother and told that all those things were bought

with lots of money whereas everything was a bundle of lies. "So the Witness stated"

is another story by Taunsvi which is set in a court where criminal accounts of a

criminal named 'refugee' is given a hearing by a judge. Witnesses who have turned

up to testify against him are all antisocial elements. They catalogued his crimes and

thus expose their own selves. To them a refugee is 'shameless' and 'intolerant'. "Call

it bad luck or country's misfortune or smartness of the criminal that he became a

refugee.... He waited and screamed handed over his life's earnings to the goondas,

saw his wife and children being slaughtered with knife and daggers but did not utter a

sigh. He saw his home engulfed by a raging fire and yet did not let out a scream....

Consequently we set up camps for the refugee since then he parades around

shamelessly and is pain in the neck." (260) The whole range of atrocities committed

on refugees are catalogued. Another witness describes the wrongful activities taken up

by the refugees in order to survive. The next witness states the apathy of the

officialdom who kept refugees busy in the intricacies of paperwork and standing in

long queues to wait. The poor, unlettered rustic people could never come to ternis
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with the paper work of the officials. They were bewildered by the enormity of the

situation which had engulfed them and there was no ray of hope for them. These

stories expose the politics of opportunism where high and mighty made money at the

expense of the suffering refugees. Their callous attitude towards those who had

everything does not touch the inner chords of their hearts. Their desire seemed to

come closer to the centre of power. They were making hay at the expense of those

who had lost everything in the raging fires of Partition. Refugees coped with the

trauma with aid of memory and recollection of the people and places left behind. It is

impossible to exorcise our past, as our past always digs into our present. Exile is an

ontological condition to be grappled on day to day basis. So they try to reconstruct

those memories of places which they had left behind. There are some stories in Urdu

literature which depict the pain and trauma of truncated families. In many Muslim

households, half of the family stayed back and other half moved on to another

country. People movingfi-omcentral provinces did not face the violence as the people

of Punjab did.

Intizar Husain's story "A Letter from India" is a story in a form of a letter which is

written by Qurban Ali. He wants to keep the relationships alive by knowing the

welfare of his near and dear ones who have made Pakistan their home. He is pained

by the growing materialistic attitude of the people who place money above the

relationships. Despite his dwindling fortunes he is trying to continue with the family

cultural traditions. He is pained that he has not heard about some relatives of his

whether they have made to Pakistan or not. Talking about the dispersal of his family

says "The very family that lived and died in one place now has its graves scattered

across three graveyards.... now since the shadow of the elders does not protect me and

our family. It has been divided up and scattered across India, Pakistan and
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Bangladesh. (74) He through his letter makes his nephew aware that they are double

noble Sayyaads and since he is next heir he should be in know of his pedigree, history

and family tree. He feels that dispersed families never come back together. Qurban

Ali mourns for lost genealogies and scattering of his family whom he longs to meet.

Talking about "Khayal Surat" (Dream Images) by Surendra Prakash, Ravikant and

Tarun. K. Saint say "It plumbs the psychic debris generated by the experience of

migration. The dream like return to a homeland that has been transformed beyond

recognition where memory seems to play tricks upon one is brilliantly rendered. The

narrator's longing to re-join his friends and a place of his youth triggers this dream

voyage, almost surrealistic in tone." (Ravi Kant XXIII) Mohammed Assaududdin

commenting on the story rightly says that "It is a story of exile loss and imaginative

reclamation. In fact story collapses the distinction between the notions of'exile'and

'home' rendering the meaning interchangeable what was home before is no longer so

in geographical space. And the geographical location where the protagonist lives now

cannot be home in its most comprehensive sense because he does not feel the same

affinity with it." (Ravi Kant 122) Surendera Prakash recreates a syncretic tradition of

Indian Muslim culture which had communally shared social and cultural life but with

partition there appeared a rupture a chasm. It vitiated the lives of the people. Being

Hindu and Muslim was not by choice, these faiths were followed, its tenets adhered to

as people were bom in families who followed the dictates of religion unquestioningly.

At the very outset he sets the tone of the story "I kept thinking why we had to be

Hindu or Muslim. Another answer lay in our birth because we were bom of parents

who were either Hindu or Muslim.... The only things which remained there were

memories and shadows." (54) The narrator is comfortably set in his new environs, but

the memory of his birth place does not leave him. He dreams and relives all the places
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and its associative memories which are embedded in his consciousness. All the

memories go on like a film of life lived in post-partition days. Narrator is

accompanied by his wife and children. On his visit to Pakistan he wants to establish

communication and numbers are dialled but every time response is wrong number. He

symbolically makes use of the names of literary stalwarts like Intizar Hussian, Anwar

Sajjad, Kishwar Nahid and Salman who are always in dialogue and are bridges for the

people across the border. When narrator's wife takes out money to pay for the phone

calls and finds that currency is not valid, they at once realise that a place which was

once their habitat, is no longer theirs and they need passports to travel to this zone.

Narrator's children seem to have lost a cultural chunk of life, which was a way of life

for their parents. That is why they are unable to comprehend Muslim Musafir Khana

and Hindu Dharamshala. When they are before the shrine of Baba Kasaundi Shah,

they are asked by their mother to say 'Allah! Allah!' They join hands as if praying

before the Hindu images. They are thus introduced to life which had communal

sharing and inter connectedness. At the end narrator is unable to locate his children as

all children look alike. Again symbolically the writer wants to convey the shared

culture of the two communities. It is the elite who raise the barriers of differences to

sustain their seats of power. It is the literate who keep the communicafion going.

In the story "A Land Without sky" by lUyas Ahmad Gaddi, Kalim Bhai while talking

about the intertwined lives of the people says "Did you notice Ammi has to get her

examplesfi^omHindus of all the people. And at times no less when Hindus constitute

her greatest enemies. You know why? Because somewhere deep down, our culture

stems fi-om a common core. We are inextricably linked with one another at some

point farther back. But today religion rides roughshod over those links." (342) He

agonises over the snapped relations. He feels that the perpetrators of crime can be
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from any faith and it is the politicians who give the weapon of religion to innocent

people. They are inflamed, instigated, brainwashed, and let loose to play havoc with

the lives of ordinary people like them. Kalim Bhai is saddened by the turn of the

events. He simply utters "An old bond is broken today." (347) It sums up his grief of

the loss of a certain character in the society. Joginder Paul's "Fakhtain" (Doves) has

Labh Singh as its main character who had to leave Chavinda during partition quite

abruptly. He was a primary teacher at Chavinda along with his friend Fazaldin. After

taking up the occupation of a taxi driver in India and then retiring he takes refiige in

his memories. The younger generation has moved on with times. He keeps writing

letters to his friend at Chavinda. "Keep lying in my cot day and night, only those

moments seem worthy, when while sleeping I reach Chavinda." (222) He suggests to

his friend that if visa is not possible then he can come by some other means as he

wants to embrace him, He feels that people like him don't have any concern with the

fights of high and mighty. He reasons it with himself that only if he becomes a

sparrow that he can visit his friend but with rigid procedures, getting visas is not easy

and free movement across the border remains a distant dream for people like Labh

Singh. His reverie is broken when his son brings him to the world of reality by telling

him that he is aware his fiiend at Chavinda had died long ago. This remembrance of

his birth place and his friend is a way of coping with his agonized feelings.

Remembrance becomes a tool for reconstructing the past which gives comfort and

solace to the old man even knowing frilly well that it is not possible to visit his birth

place and acceptance of death of his friend is difficult for him to bear. In the story

"Patar Anaran De" (Pomegranate Leaves) by A. Hamid, the narrator remembers the

days spent with her friends and the changing colours of ponnegranate leaves. Her

fiiends were from all faiths and they had amiable relationship with them. They have
 133

now reached the new country. They had left in a hurry leaving everything behind. The

narrator equates her displacement with a tree and states thus "With the uprooting of

the tree, we were uprooted and shortly nothing but only the stump remained, but even

in this deserted atmosphere the fine human emotions had not dried up." (72) In the

turbulent atmosphere of the place a Sikh watchman, whom they thought to be cruel

and callous, stood up for their safety jeopardising his own life. He lay on the ground

with his Sten gun so that people could reach the refugee camp safely. Although there

is no visible violence in the story but the aftermath of this violence can be seen

affecting the people. In the story "The Land of Memories" written by Asif Aslam

Farrukhi presents the story of two bosom friends separated by the Radcliffe line. In

the story "Sahae" a pimp lies dying in the street when he meets Mumtaz, he unbuttons

his shirt with great difficulty takes out jewellery and twelve hundred rupees in cash to

be handed over to Sultana a prostitute as she is going away and is in dire need of

money. He sacrifices his life to help Sulatana fully knowing that he would be

endangering his life by entering the Muslim area. It is here he is stabbed and he lies

dying. In the story "To the Head of the State", a Muslim woman after her husband's

murder is given refuge by a Hindu family. In Ashfaq Ahmed's story "Stony hearted"

the narrator comes to India as a liaison officer and his father's fiiend does not let him

stay anywhere else but his home, he is a police sub inspector and his daughter is

friendly with the narrator as they have grown together. She helps a girl Hassena flee

fi-om her captivity and is taken back to Pakistan with other two girls. These stories

depict that people cut across religious divide to help the other. They endangered their

lives in the process and somefimes even sacrificed their lives for their welfare. In

Qasim's story "Parmeshwar Singh" the main protagonist Parmeshwar Singh, a Sikh

saves a Muslim boy Akhtar fi-om the clutches of religious fiends who are bent on
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killing him. Parmeshwar Singh sees his own son in his image whom he had lost in the

mela. Although Pamieshwar Singh has accepted him as his son but his wife and

daughter find it difficult to accommodate him in their hearts. Like Sikh children his

hair is tied on top as a bun. Akhtar is unable to forget his mother. He recites "Qui

Khuwallah-ho-Ahad". When Parmeshwar Singh chances upon seeing a powerful bond

of love between a mother and child at his neighbour's place, he resolves to take him

across the border, so that he can be restored to his mother. He takes Akhtar to the

border but all of a sudden is reminded that he has forgotten to cut his hair. To protect

his ward from any eventuality arising from his long hair he rushes back to border and

in confiasion is hit back by a bullet. Life is drawing out and he can only say. "I had

forgotten to cut Akhtar's long hair. I came to give him back his religion Yaroon."

(210) In the story "Andhiare Mein Ek Kiran" by Suhail Azeemabaadi (A ray in the

Dark). The main protagonist Chander sacrifices his life to save the Muslims of his

village.

In the story "A Debt to Pay" by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas depicts the prejudiced view of

Sheikh Burhamiddin against the Sikhs. He finds them obnoxious and uncouth and has

contempt towards them. Ghulam Rasool his fiiend had unravelled to him, the strange

and incomprehensible behaviour of the Sikhs. A Sikh displaced fi-om Rawalpindi

takes a quarter next to him and the narrator feels happy that he had to flee that place.

In spite of all the travails faced by this refugee he is not bitter, in fact has a sunny

disposition. The narrator is not ready to strike a conversion with him, in fact when the

Sikh tries to open a channel of communication with him he is snubbed. But he keeps

assuring the narrator that as long as he was alive nobody could touch him. The

narrator was winding up his work. Times were changing fast, one day a mob reached

the narrator's house, the Sikh led him safely to his place. The looters, who had come
 135

with a truck to load the booty, could not take everything as his Sikh neighbour too

staked equal share in the booty and so retrieved many of his things. A casual remark

by a young innocent granddaughter put the Sikh in jeopardy. Now all the angst and

fury was turned against the Sikh and he was hit by a shot and when he lay dying the

narrator asked him why he had done so. He said he had debt to pay as a Muslim

Ghulam Rasool had saved his and lives of his family. So this moment when the

narrator looked at the Sikh he resembled his grandfather simultaneously the clock

struck twelve o'clock and he blurted out that for Sikh it was always twelve' o clock

and breathed his last. Twelve' o clock has a historical connotation in Sikh history,

when plunderers took away women and material things, the Sikh guerrillas in broad

day light rescued women which came to be associated with daring acts of Sikhs to

help the weak. The story "Land of Memories" written by Asif Farrukhi tells the tale of

two bosom friends who had been separated by the division of the country, they meet

after a long span of time, still their love has not diminished for each other. The

floodgates of the memories open when Aslam alights from the train, he is emotionally

so overwhelmed that he picks up the soil of his place and applies on his forehead.

Bhupendra and Aslam talk late into night. Aslam's sons' apprehensions vanish when

they see so much love bestowed on them by their father's friend. The sons don't find

the place strange as they have heard the stories of the place many times from their

father. They are able to visualize and reconstruct it whereas for Aslam the place

becomes a graveyard of memories, as most of the landmarks gone and so are the

associated memories with it.

The story "Shadow Lines" by Surinder Prakash presents a Hindu family's love and

compassion towards a Muslim boy named Mohammed Baksh. Mohammed Baksh lost

his parents to plague and employers of his parents took him under their care. As he
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was Muslim, it was made sure that he was well versed with his religion. So Baksh

studied Quran in school with a Maulvi during the period of religious studies. With the

partition came a huge dilemma whether Mohammed Baksh would migrate with them

or stay back. At last it was decided that he would come along to India with them as he

was a member of the family. But the new state forbids him to go to India with his

Hindu family because he is a Muslim. The father of the narrator argues with the

officer-in-charge who brushes aside all arguments saying "Everything will be

managed.... Pakistan will look after everything. This is Pakistan's responsibility.

Don't you worry?" (271) To this Mohammed Baksh replies "If 1 don't worry now

dear Sir, I will have to worry throughout my life." (271) Parting for both Mohammed

Baksh and Hindu family is painful. The emotional bond remains intact. Mohammed

Baksh although lost to Kripa Ram resides in his thoughts and dreams. One day he

narrates a dream to his family in which he has dreamt of a well settled life being led

by Mohammed Bux, who is married and has children. Even when the father dies the

memory of Mohammed Bux does not leave him. Mohammed Bux had become such

an inseparable part of their existence that the narrator could not be aloof to it. Inder's

friend Farooqi Sahib has many relations and friends in Pakistan and he tells him news

about Pakistan and Inder always evinces interest in it. One day Farooqi Sahib asks

him. "Inder Bhai, Why do you take so much interest in Pakistan? Who is there after

all that you feel so concerned." (275-276) He can only reply "Mohammed Baksh."

The story conveys that the ties of love and friendship rise above the barriers of caste,

creed and religion, they transcend the boundaries. Religion of humanity, fellow-

feeling and compassion is supreme. "Do You Suppose It Is the East Wind" is a story

by Altaf Fatima which portrays the familial ties between Hindus and Muslims before

partition. These relationships severed and ties were broken when people of one faith
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started moving to the places of safety. In Indian folklore the East Wind is thought to

open old wounds in an individual and revive memories which lie buried under the

sands of time. Robby Dutt wanted a rakhi to be tied by a Muslim girl who helped him

in his studies. She too valued being his sister. With partition she has moved to another

land and sitting in this land which is her home now she envisions him to have grown

up into an honourable man and she wishes to tie a rakhi on his wrist and demand

'dachana'. Probably it is East Wind which has opened up her old wounds.

"Amrit Niwas" by Riffat tells the tale of an old man who is informed by his daughter

that one Jagdish Niwas has been alloted to him. She wanted the ceremony of holy

water to be sprinkled by him. The narrator is reminded of the times when these places

were occupied by the Hindus. With their moving away to India these houses were

allotted to Muslims. Amrita Devi a widow ran a school in the house Amrita Niwas.

All the boys were in awe of her beauty. When Salem built a house at Gujranwala it

had a reflection of Amrita Niwas, even his wife was named after Amrita. The narrator

comes searching for his past in Amrita Niwas. The name plate had been given a cow

dung plastering, with stick he removes the plastering and the name Amrita Niwas

appears. The narrator feels lighter coming there and feels as if he has been left alone

in the world. "Teetwal Ka Kutta" by Manto depicts the dilemma of a reftigee by

means of a dog. A common man is caught between the cross fires of two opposing

nations where bars of animosity have been raised and the 'other' is seen with

suspicion. A stray dog lands up on the Indian side and is pampered by the Indian

soldiers, they put a cardboard round its neck to announce its allegiance to their nation.

One soldier announces that even dogs will have to be either Hindustani or Pakistani.

Then it moves to the Pakistan camp, where it is bestowed love and affection. Later on

it is killed by those very soldiers who pampered it earlier. This dog is equated to a
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refugee. Banta Singh holding its tail says that the poor thing is a refugee. Dog on the

allegorical level becomes a refugee who in a confused state is running about seeking

shelter and livelihood to survive. Waris Shah, a great love poet of Punjab, whose

couplets are representative of the syncretic culture lend a special piquancy to the story

in the backdrop of hatred and enmity. A refugee certainly dies a dog's death when he

is unable to prove allegiance to a particular nation. "The Last Salute" is a beautiful

story by Manto which depicts the dilemma of the people who grew up together, had

deep friendships but all of sudden they were declared enemies of each other. They

were facing each other with arms, given the duty to defend their lands. It is a story of

two bosom friends, who have been together at many battle fronts and have won many

victories, one is a Muslim and the other is a Sikh. Many a jovial repartees are

exchanged between them. They stand on the border as enemies facing each other. In

the end the Sikh is mistakenly killed by his Muslim friend. This story in the

allegorical sense represents the politics and attrition practised by the two nations who

turn friends into foes. It also represents the state policies of the warring nations, who

in no way are ready for reconciliation. So with this division a syncretic tradition of the

continent is lost forever. Gulzar's "Batwara" (Partition) is a poignant story of parents

who take Gulzar to be their lost son. The father narrated the tale of loss of his two

youngest children. When they visited Pakistan, by chance they were able to locate

their daughter in Mianwali who had converted to Islam and was now Dilshad and had

two sons well placed in life. The mother thought that as Satya became Dilshad and

Sampooran Singh had become Gulzar. Mother told Gulzar "Son, you may stay

wherever you feel like even if you have converted to Islam it does not matter, but

agree that you are my son Punni." (181) When Gulzar gave the detaikof his life and

family the father Harbhajan Singh was dejected. After eight years Gulzar got a letter
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from Harbhajan's son Iqbal, in which he had mentioned that the mother insisted that

the letter to be posted to the 'youngest' about the demise of his father. Gulzar too felt

as if he had lost his father. The story depicts the pain of those parents who lost their

children in this catastrophe. All their lives they were hopefiil of meeting their

children. Altaf Fatima in her story "Gair Mulki Ladki" (A Girl from another Land)

has brought out a very different problem faced by the Muslim community. There was

lack of suitable matches for the girls as many eligible bachelors had moved to

Pakistan. This girl came from Khere District Lakhimpur to her aunt's place so that a

good match could be fixed for her. In her boredom she used to write long letters to her

mother. She is reminded of all the small details of her place and relatives in alien land.

When people enquired about this girl the daughter-in-law of the house explained that

all the suitable boys had migrated to Pakistan. Therefore, she was there. She felt out

of place and alienated in the Pakistan society. Her mother after receiving her letter

had sensed her boredom but asked her to stay put there so that a good match could be

fixed for her. She felt as if her destiny was here and she kept saying to herself that she

would establish fies with this country and then kissed her mother's letter.

"When Prisoners were Released, the Times had Changed" by Qurratulain Hyder, is a

story of a narrator who is a witness to a slice of history. She had witnessed the history

taking a shape in the Andaman Nicobar islands, where she happened to reside with

her father. She visited an agriculture fair in 1959, in which the pavilion of Andaman

and Nicobar Islands was put up. The young people out there didn't know much about

it. In the portraits she watches familiar faces and names. At once she sees at her back

a man standing who tells her that he was a terrorist who fought for the freedom of the

country and had lost everything. His family was killed in the riots and his village went

to Pakistan. When the narrator ftjrther wanted to say something, he had gone away
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and mingled with the crowd. The story "Amritsar" by Krishan Chander ends with an

elaborate sermon. The ghosts of the Siddiqi, Om Prakash, Zainab, Begum Paro and

Sham Kaur all vow to return, because as they pontificate through the writer. "We are

human beings, the heralds of life in the whole universe and life cannot be killed. We

are life and you- you are destruction, you are animals, brutes. You should die, but we

should not, because man never dies for he is not a brute, he is the very spirit of good,

the purpose of God's creation, the pride of universe." (106)

Urdu writers have written on varied themes, the displacement of the people from their

ancestral lands, Havelis, Imambaras, Mosques and other familiar landmarks is a

source of pain and anguish to them. Most of the stories are anchored in the syncretic

composite culture of the Indian subcontinent and set against the high politics of

Partition. They right away reject communalism which led to large scale rioting,

massacres, and huge loss of human lives. They blamed the politicians, imperial

power, and political instigators and sometimes fate for this tragedy. Majority of the

writers very sensitively delineated on lunacy of this biftircation which rendered

million homeless, displacement of the people from their familiar locales. Profiteering

by the high and the mighty, exploitation of the ordinary people became the theme of

many stories. Many stories are based on personal experiences. These writers have

nostalgically remembered the places left behind. They unravel their feelings through

the memories associated with those places, they seem to long for lost cultural life

which existed before 1947. Displacement from one's root carries psycho-political

overtones. Migration is accompanied by a sense of despair for those who have been

forcibly vacated from their places and wilfiil migration for better opportunities has a

hope for better future, which was the case of migration from central provinces. But

idealism propagated by the Muslim league fell short of the expectations and
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aspirations of the common Muslim who was dispirited and felt let down because

assimilation with the local population was difficult. An identity crisis arose in the

people as they were unable to decide what was more important to them, their religion,

a card on which they had waged such a fierce battle of establishing a new nation or

their region which they had left behind and had arrived in their adoptive country with

a vision of Utopia, a truly Islamic state or language which was declared the national

language but was not acceptable to the locals whether they were Sindhis or Bengalis.

The raging winds of regionalism now swept them off their feet and led to an identity

crisis as they were unable to cope with the new reality facing them. Some stories

highlight the shared living of various religious communities which have been

irrevocably lost to them never to be retrieved. They seem to interrogate the divisive

tendencies which led to this bifurcation. Splitting and splintering of Muslim families

became another theme of the stories. The dilemma of the people whether to migrate or

to stay back is beautifully captured in some stories. The pain and anguish of those

families whose few members migrate and others decide to stay back, probably never

to meet again. The truncated families had never envisioned that the borders would

become so rigid that they would need visas to visit each other. It was devastating

experience of rupture fi-om a secure past. Some Muslims were nationalists who had

jumped in the independence fray with liberal democratic ideals and were in a fix as

they were misfits in Pakistan and were looked down with suspicion in India.

One of the major themes dealt by the Urdu writers is the violence accompanying the

birth of a new nation. They have depicted the brutal physical violence inflicted on the

minorities in all its shades. They have given graphic details of arson, carnage, loot,

rape, and murder. Leaders are blamed for their lack of vision. A common man had to

pay a huge price for the independence. Women in particular were singled out and
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were physically brutalised. Hope for communal amity and establishment of spirit of

brotherhood is sounded in many stories.