Dr.

Sadashiv Pawar
Head, Dept. Of English,
Shri. A. B. College,Deogaon(R.)
Kannad. Aurangabad.
PARTITION PERSPECTIVES IN B. SAHNI`S TAMAS

Abstract:

The tragic incident of india-Pakistan partition influenced and affected remarkably to the
Indian English novelists. These novels based on the insane butcheries committed in the name
of religion after or at the time of partition. Not Indian History, but Literature only delineated
the vivid reality of the tragic historical partition.
Tamas by Bhishma Sahni is based upon the true events of the riots of 1947. The title
Tamas itself suggests an attempt to depict and condemn the ignorance and darkness involved
in communal violence on the eve of the partition of India.

It is not the Indian history that tells us the black historical partition, but the literature.
The history only glorified the independence movement and its achievement. We find the total
negligence regarding the rendering the black historical partition of sovereign India into India
and Pakistan in the History. But in literatures, some writers took effort to show the reality of
the partition and how political, economical, religious, cultural, social and geographical
elements revolve around it. This tragic incident of partition influenced and affected
remarkably to the Indian English novelists. These novels based on the insane butcheries
committed in the name of religion after or at the time of partition. There are only few
novelists, who depicted the realistic picture of partition. In it we may find, kushwant Singh’s
Train To Pakistan, Raj Gill’s The Rape, Manohar Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges,
and Chaman Nahal’s Azadi, and some references in B. Rajan and Bhabani Bhattacharya’s
writing. Bhishma Sahni`s Tamas is also deals with this religious frenzy. It was written in
Hindi and translated into English by Jai Rajan after a lapse of three decades.
Tamas, as an anatomy of partition, depicts communal violence generated by
fundamentalists in the three communities and persons were duped into serving the ulterior
purposes of the communalists, who infused tension and hatred for their own ends at the cost
of inter-communal harmony. The title ‘Tamas’ itself suggests an attempt to depict and
condemn the ignorance and darkness involved in communal violence on the eve of the
partition of India. The first episode of the novel is the killing of a pig and throwing on the
steps of a mosque at the instance of a Muslim Leaguer, Murad Ali. The other episodes,
silhouetted against this backdrop, are intended to show how the tentacles of communalism
spread to the rural areas. The novelist makes it clear that it was the onus of the three
communities-Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs-who had unabashedly perpetrated arson, rape,
murder, conversions in the name of religion. The novelist seems to interpret the evil designs
of the British and of the communal groups mainly through Richard, an I.C.S.
The conversation between Richard and his wife Liza introduces the theme of partition.
Their conversation clarifies the fact that the policy of divide and rule brought havoc by
making the people alienated and grew suspicious of one another. The British intentionally
tried for the growth of communalism because they knew well that "the Indians are an irascible
lot and highly volatile...ready to shed blood in the name of religion...”.1 They played the role
of only a spectator instead of controlling the communal crisis.
Richard, the British official of the district is "the mouth-piece of British imperialism
when he took upon himself the task of putting into practices the policies and imperialist
designs of the British ruling class" (p. 40). The novelist vividly delineated the tricks of divide
and rule among the communities. In the period of pre-independence, there was no any
inherent idea of separation among the people. Colonizers adopted the policy to break the unity
and integration, so that they may remain busy in fighting with each other instead of opposing
the Empire. The government adopted the policy and encouraged every fissiparous tendency in
the country to safeguard the empire and themselves. This is clear when Richard said to his
wife:
When the people fight among, themselves the ruler is safe. (p. 45).
The conversation between Liza and Richard reveals that the British rulers did play an
important role in the promotion, spread, growth and ultimate success of communalism. Their
role became crucial precisely because they held the state power which was a crucial
determinant. They could prevent Indians from fighting in the name of religion. This was
clearly told with great candour by Bakshiji when he said to Richard that ‘Everything is under
you, Saheb. If only you have a mind to...’
The novelist remarkably views that "the communal division was not the only constituent
of the policy of divide and rule just as divide and rule was the only weapon in the armory of
colonialism for its preservation and continuance."2 Every effort was made to set as many
groups and interests against one another to find and widen as many social gaps as possible;
and different permutations and combinations were tried at different times to split up the
Indian people and prevent their emerging unity. Sahni shows this when Richard said that
Indians "came from the same stock." (p.53). He knows that Indians knew nothing the past. He
did not want to make Indians know these facts because "the rulers don't look for similarities
among the ruled. They are only interested in finding out what can keep them apart"(p. 42)
Sahni clearly shows the historical fact that how the element of communalism had been
exploited by the British, so that they could survive and rule.
Tamas ruthlessly shows that if people who do not know history are perhaps
condemned. This becomes clear in the conversation between Richard and Liza. Basically, the
Indians, whether Muslims or Indians, are one nation-their roots were the same. Sahni tries to
put forth the ancient history of India. For example, Richard emphatically said:
The first lot came from central Asia...And those that followed after a lapse of many centuries
were also from the same stock. Their origin, so to speak, was the same. The first bunch was
known as the Aryans. They came into this country thousands of years ago. The others who
were known as Mussalmans made inroads into this country thousand years ago. But their
roots were the same. (pp. 36-37)
The Indians in whose memories history and myth were so often blurred had only
observed the difference. The ethos of a race or a nation is a continuum, it is rooted in the past,
it shapes the present, and is an inspiration for the future. But the people were ignorant of these
facts because "they don't know their history. They only live it"(p.37). Their gross ignorance
about the present was even more than their blindness to history. This is brought out clearly
when Richard explained to his wife about the fundamental oneness of the Indians.
Have you ever taken a good look at these people? They belong to the same stock, the same
features, same noses, mouths, broad foreheads, brown eyes. (p. 36)
Sahni throws into bold relief that people from the same community are different. It is
ironical to note that Murad Ali, a notorious communist and the one promoter of communal
violence, is dark, thick-set, short- statured...small penetrating eyes in stark. And Shahnawaz,
the voice of sanity helping his Hindu brethren during riots, sympathetic and handsome. While
Milkhi, a Brahmin, was a 'dirty, slimy lizard'. 'Nobody knew his origins '
Thus Sahni debunks the falsity of Jinnah's two-nation theory insinuating that people
belonging to the same religion had diverse racial origins. Despite their conversion to Islam
Muslims refer to themselves as Jats, Gujjars, Rajputs, etc. The Sikhs too refer to themselves
as Jat Sikhs, Majabhi Sikhs, etc., Raj Sikhs profess surnames like Chauhan (Jagjit Singh
Chauhan), (Ganga Singh Dhillon), Arora, Oberoi, Sainai, etc., that display caste backgrounds.
Caste wheedles its way into most religions in India.
Co-existence and interdependence are the marked features of the town. 'There was
hardly any wedding in the city which Khudha Baksh had not stitch the bridal cloths.' The
intimacy between the close friends, Raghunadh and Shahnawaz, was very warming and
touching to observe during the riot. Raghunadh's wife affectionately called him 'Khanji.' Even
Congress and Muslim League leaders have great warmth of feeling to each other. Thus “the
multifarious activities of the people, like the measured tones of a symphony, were attuned to
the heart-beat of the city" (p. 88). It means there was racial integration and unity among
themselves. And it`s true that during the independence movement they were together.
The main thrust in Tamas is the grim consequences of communal politics leading to
partition. Glorifying the past leaders on communal lines, and associating religious symbols
with party politics disturbed the very structure of society. Though often adopting
diametrically opposite and hostile positions, the communal interpretation of history adopted
basically the same historiographic framework, premises and assumptions. The history is being
twisted to imbibe their policy and political, social thoughts. Communities were asked to look
others suspiciously and as an enemy. In the novel, Vanprasthiji, a Hindu priest, chanted the
couplet.
Horrible have been the sins of the Muslims in the land Even the sky has refused us its favour
and the earth its bountry. (p. 57)
The crisis was being used to serve divergent political objectives. The priest-craft
sought to use it to appropriate it for a harmful cause. Similarly, "the Sikhs believed that they
were settling scores with their traditional enemies, the same Turks"(p. 193). It became most
virulent with Muslims. "It's the age-old enmity between the Hindu and the Muslim. A kafir is
a kafir. As long as he does not profess the right religion, he will remain our enemy. To kill a
kafir brings merit" (p. 168). Their minds had been conditioned by the propaganda.
Thus contemporary politics were projected into the past and the happenings of the past
were so described as to serve the communal politics. The three communities adopted an
interpretation of the past, through which feelings of fear, insecurity and isolation could be
aroused among the people of the present. It means intentionally communal history produced
and propagated communalism to arouse the thought of alienation.
The communalist primarily saw medieval Indian history as one long story of Hindu-
Muslim conflict. Hindus and Muslims were permanently divided into separate camps whose
mutual relations were bitter, distrustful and hostile. This indoctrination seeped in the minds of
the teenagers during their impressionable age. In the novel, Master Devbrat trained up Ranvir,
a Brahmin, to kill a hen thereby enabling him to possess a stout heart He "imagined Shjivaji
would have placed outside his tent before throwing the gallant soldiers into battle against
Aurangzeb"(p. 137). Similarly when the Muslim rioters were about to attack Gurudwara, the
Sikhs, having amassed arsenals overnight singing in unison, thought:
Three hundred years ago, they had sung the same song before going to meet the enemy. (p.
161)
This struggle or hostility between the Hindus, Sikhs on one side and the Muslims on the
other was carried over to the twentieth century and served as the basis or the cause as well as
justification for the current communal antagonism. The remedies to the communal problem
put forth by them were very similar. The Muslim communalists raised the demand for the
separation of Muslims from Hindus through the creation of Pakistan, while the Hindu
communalists demanded the expulsion or the subordination of Muslims. Both Hindus and
Muslims are responsible for the very idea separate state.
Religion was brought in actively during the mass, fascist phase of communalism when
it was used to mobilize the common people. People came to the revered Vanprasthiji not for
religious reasons. In his 'sermon' Vanprasthiji referred to the sins of the Muslims in the land
in a couplet. He asked the Hindus 'to have a canister of mustard oil and a sack of charcoal
ready at hand' to pour over the enemies, because the Muslims 'had been collecting lathis,
spears and such other lethal weapons in the Jama Masjid.' Temple bell was repaired at once to
alarm the people in case of trouble. The same was the case with Sikhs who were very
aggressive and petulant. They also sensed the separate and isolated state.
The Khalsa, the pure heart will dominate the world. The enemy will be annihilated. (p. 165).
Like the Sikhs, the Muslim inhabitants of the village "had overnight turned into crusaders
and were preparing to earn merit by killing infidels" (p. 163).
Religiosity is a major contributory factor, imparted communalism the passion and
intensity which made it politically effective. Religiosity may be defined as "deep and intense
emotional commitment to matters of religion and religious emotions intrude into non-
religious or non-spiritual areas of life "3 As Nehru pointed out, there was 'too much
religiosity in India.'
Sahni demonstrates that the historical incident became a pretext for the evil in human
minds to manifest. Soon after the killing of the pig and throwing on the steps of the mosque,
a Muslim was thinking to kill cow. Bakshiji remarks that ‘vultures and kites will fly over the
city’. The prophecy came true and soon the city was on flames. "The flames licked upward
like the red fangs of a mighty snake gradually spreading" (P.110). Inder killed a perfume
seller on Ranvir's instructions. Harman Singh's shop was looted and set ablaze. His daughter,
along with the other Sikh women, jumped into the well as the marauders began to siege the
Gurudwara. His son, Iqbal Singh, was circumcised and was converted to Islam. Many poor
people cutting across religious lines were ruthlessly butchered. Rioting, arson, murder and
forced conversions went on unabated for a few days. When riots came to a grinding halt, two
refugee camps were set up to take care of the uprooted people of the twenty villages in the
area. The happenings were more vigorous, dehumanized during the times of partition.
Bhisham Sahni's faith in Marxism and his scientific approach to social phenomena are
clearly brought out. The novelist's view of humanism reflects in the characters of Rajo and
Shahnawaz. His impressions of the Marxist class character of society are also depicted in the
novel. In the riots, the poor and weaker, particularly women suffered a lot. According to
Marxist theory 'one always attacks a weakling.' Two college peons were engrossed discussing
the offshoots of the riots. One of them observed:
Only foolish people like us suffer in these riots. The rich and those coming from good families
don't fight...Just watch them. How friendly they are with one another. (p. 231)
Sahni delineated Gandhian characters and philosophy. The General and Bakshiji are
the representative of Gandhian ideology. The General intended to control the rioting and was
struck to death in the process. He was a symbol of Gandhi's creed of non-violence.
This is the novel which shows the dynamics of communal politics deeply entrenched at urban
level insidiously worming its way into rural areas. However, its political mechanism is not
independent in nature but an inalienable part and a microcosm of sectarian politics at the
national level. The communal groups, which were blind to 'the same roots,' could only work
and act at the behest of their communal leaders. The novel is significant because here
Bhishma Sahni successfully reveals how the communal leaders, in the guise of religion,
pressed religious symbols into service and made battles over them. 'Tamas,' the darkness of
intolerance and of communal frenzy always hovers over them and still it continues.
Thus the novelist remarkably delineated the untold history of the partition with necked
reality.

REFERENCES:
1. Sahni Bisham: Tamas (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1987), p. 42.
Further references to this text in this article are cited parenthetically by page number.
2. Bipin Chandra: Communalism in Modern India (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing Pvt. Ltd.,
1987), p. 174.
3. Bipin Chandra: Communalism in Modern India,(New Delhi: Vikas Pub., 1987), p. 174.