LAJWANTI

-Rajinder Singh Bedi

Rajinder Singh Bedi

Rajinder Singh Bedi is a name which is a matter of great pride in the world in Urdu language. A truly
unique, distinguished, and matchless personality, he is one of the four pillars of modern Urdu fiction.
RAJINDER SINGH BEDI (1915 – 1984) was born in Punjab region of Pakistan and moved to India at the
time of the Partition. He was educated in Urdu. In his early working career he was a postal clerk. Later
on he got a job at All India Radio. It was there he began his writing career. From here he moved to script
writing for Bollywood movies and then into directing. He exploited his genius to represent Indian ethos
using mythological references. He also wrote plays and penned dialogues and stories for films.

After working for a short period as Station Director for Radio Kashmir, he joined the Mumbai film
industry producing and writing scripts for a number of successful films. His Urdu novel Ek Chaadar Maili
Si, translated into English as I Take This Woman, received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1965.

Apart from writing in films, Bedi also grew as a literary personality. In his novel, ‘Apne Dukh Mujhe De
Do’, his genius is apparent. In 1965, he was awarded the Sahtia Academy Award for a ‘Chadar Maili Si’.
Later, in 1978, he was awarded the Ghalib Award for Drama. In his memory, the Punjab Government has
launched the Rajendra Singh Bedi Award for Urdu Literature.

Bedi’s personal life was very bitter, he had a rocky marriage, his son Narender Singh Bedi, a producer
and director in the film industry, died quite young in 1982. His wife passed away shortly afterwards. And
Bedi's final days were spent in heartache and helplessness. He suffered a stroke in 1982 and was later
diagnosed with cancer. After these long-standing ailments, Bedi finally left us all in 1984.

Bedi, who died in 1984, is regarded as the second most prominent Urdu fiction writer after Sa’adat
Hasan Manto. Like Manto, his best known work pinpoints the immense human cost of the 1947 Partition
of India divulged into Pakistan and India. Much the worst of this holocaust (death tolls range from 1/2 a
million on up to 2 million) was felt by the women as men of diverse groups took their revenge by raping
and abducting women of other groups. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu women were abducted by
Muslim and viceversa. Many of the women killed themselves from shame.

His play "Lajawanti" is about a once happily married couple who suffered in the riots resulted in the
Partition of India. The effects of partition were very worse in the Punjab region where the story is set
and where Bedi grew up. The wife Lajawanto was kidnapped. It is also a story about human cruelty. Not
just the cruelty of the abductors but of the husbands and family of the abducted women.

Lajwanti
Background:
 Partition of colonial India in 1947 led to the formation of two nations, India and Pakistan. At the time of
its independence from almost two centuries of British rule was a deeply violent and gendered
experience. Women were subjected to horrific forms of sexual violence during partition, which question
the positions of women in the patriarchal society. Moreover, the victimization of women of the “other
community” was not only the kind of violence women faced. Besides, no one even hesitated in
condemning “the abduction and rape of women, the physical mutilation of their bodies, the tattooing of
their sexual organs with symbols of the other religion” to name a few of the atrocities women had gone
through during partition. However, communities are not willing to speak about the fact that many
women were killed by their relatives to “save their honor” and also many committed suicide for the
same. Again to protect children and women from forced conversion, many male members were
“martyred”. There were also women who had escaped martyrdom and honourable death by their own
family but these issues are even less discussed. The state, too, as the history of partition shows,
duplicates the violence of fixing the value of a woman in terms of her sexuality and to treat merely as a
currency in an honour economy.

Introduction:

Rajinder Singh Bedi's Urdu afsāna (short story), Lajwanti, recounts the aftermath of the abduction of
women amid the violence that accompanied Partition. The story is told from the perspective of the
eponymous protagonist's husband. The abduction of women was considered a way to humiliate rival
communities and assert masculine dominance.

At the beginning of the story, we are told that Lajo was abducted amid the tumult of Partition in her
native Mulla Shakur. Her husband, Sunderlal, is elected the general secretary of the 'Rehabilitation
Committee' that seeks to rehabilitate these women upon their return. Through Sunderlal's recollections,
the author introduces the readers to Lajo - slender and tanned in the sun, her graceful gait compared to
dew drops on leaves, and her resilient, yet ebullient, tolerance of Sunderlal's abuse quite unlike the
flower Lajwanti (touch-me- not) which withers at the slightest human touch. After her abduction,
Sunderlal promises to truly harbor her in his heart if she returns.

Lajo's return marks the climax of the story—making explicit the mutual dance between the overt and
the covert, the public sphere and the private interior of the home. In the eyes of the public, Sunderlal
accepts Lajo with open arms and becomes an exemplar for the rehabilitation committee. Sunderlal is the
Ram to Lajo's Sita. And very much like Sita, within the private realm, Lajo is reduced to a goddess. Now
addressed as Devi by Sunderlal, she is silenced whenever she broaches the subject of her absence. Bedi
concludes Lajwanti had been rehabilitated but not accepted.

Lajwanti Title Significance:

Lajwanti is Punjabi for flower “touch me not” which withers or shuts itself upon human contact. Bedi
chose this title to describe protagonist which is a woman. He showed us how a woman’s chastity and
purity was important and how sensitive and fragile it was that even a single touch can damage or
destroy it. "The leaves of Lajwanti wither with the touch of human hands". This very first line of the text
shows Lajwanti, the protagonist's resistance towards human hands. Aptly named behind the touch-me-
not plant, this abducted woman withers because the human hands do not just touch this flower, but
tear it apart and crush it. To add to the trauma, the hands do not kill the flower to death, instead, force
it to live a life much worse. Lajwanti is a narrative that focuses on the effects of trauma in the aftermath
of the Partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan on the characters such as Lajo and Sunderlal,
Both are victims of this epoch-making historical event and the violence and mayhem. Lajwanti depicts a
world where women have internalized the idea that they are little more than property. Imagine the
horror of being abducted, taken to another country and raped over and over for perhaps years. When
you at last return to your home country, you are toted that your failure to kill yourself has brought great
shame on your family and in many cases are driven from your old home.

Summary:
"Lajawanti" is about a once happily married couple. Then in the riots that resulted in the Partition of
India (the effects were at their very worse in the Punjab region where the story is set and where Bedi
grew up) the wife Lajawanto was kidnapped. It is also a story about human cruelty. Not just the cruelty
of the abductors but of the husbands and family of the abducted women.

As the story opens we see Lajawanti expects to be beaten. It is part of the marriage custom and it
almost seems a wife regards a husband who never beats her as "unmanly". Then she is abducted and
taken over the border. Years go by and her husband tries to get along with his life. In time Pakistan and
India authorities begin to arrange for the swapping of abducted women. A truck load of Hindu women
would be exchanged for a truck load of Muslim women. There were lots of problems and quarrels over
this. Sometimes men of one side managing the exchange would complain that all they are getting back
is "useless old and middle aged women". The real cruelty to the women in many cases came when they
returned.

There were some people who refused to have anything to do with the abducted women who came back
"couldn't they have killed themselves? Why didn't they take poison and preserve their virtue and
their honour? Why didn't they Jump into a well? They are cowards, they clung to life...."

Hundreds of thousands of women had in fact killed themselves rather than be dishonoured, how could
the dead know what courage it needed to face the cold, hostile world of the living in a hard-hearted
world in which husbands refused to acknowledged their wives. And some of these women would think
sadly of their names and the joyful meanings they had "suhagwanti of marital bliss" or they would turn
to a younger brother and say “Oi Bihari, my own little darling brother, when you were a baby I looked
after you as if you were my own son.”

Lajawanti's husband is at first overcome with joy when one day she was among the returned women.
Lajawanti used to routinely beat his wife for the smallest matters. He asked if the man she spent longs
months with while abducted beat her. She says no, then the husband begins to wonder why she looks
better and healthier than before she was abducted. Maybe she was happier with the other man. He
promises never to beat her again and he keeps his word. He never criticizes her like he used to. They
never fight over anything. At first she is very happy then she realizes why this has happened.

Many days passed in this way. Suspicion took the place of Joy: not because Sunder Lal had resumed ill-
treating her but because he was treating her too well. Lajo never expected him to be so considerate. She
wanted him to be the same old Sunder Lal with whom she quarreled over a carrot and who appeased
her with a radish. Now there was no chance of a quarrel. Sunder Lal made her feel like something
fragile, like glass which would splinter at the slightest touch. Lajo took to gazing at herself in the mirror.
Arid in the end she could no longer recognize the Lajo she had known. She had been rehabilitated but
not accepted. Sunder Lal did not want eyes to see her tears nor ears to hear her wailing.

"Lajwanti" depicts a world where women have totally internalized the idea that they are little more than
property. Imagine the horror of being abducted, taken to another country and being raped over and
over for perhaps years. When you at last return to your home country, you are told that your failure to
kill yourself has brought great shame on your family and in many cases are driven from your old home.

Hypocrisy of Sunderlal:

Sunder Lal's behavior was almost hypocritical. On the one hand, he treats her with utmost kindness, but
on the other, he refuses to give her a chance to talk about her experience. Lajwanti's sorrow remained
locked up in her heart. Helplessly, she gazed at her body and realized that, since the Partition, it was no
longer hers, but the body of a goddess. She was happy, ecstatically happy. But she was also
apprehensive. Slowly, happiness was replaced by suspicion. This was not because Sunderlal had begun
to mistreat her again, but because he continued to treat her with excessive kindness. Lajo didn't expect
him to be so gentle.

She wanted to be Lajo again, the woman who could quarrel with her husband over something trivial and
then be caressed. The question of a fight didn't even arise. Sunderlal made her feel as if she was
precious and fragile like glass, that she would shatter at the slightest touch. She began to gaze at herself
in the mirror and came to the conclusion that she would never be Lajo again. She had returned home,
but she had lost everything. Sunderlal had neither the eyes to see her tears nor the ears to hear her
sobs.

Character of Lajwanti:

Lajwanti is a simple, sweet, fearless, smart and caring girl. She is a Punjabi girl and is proud to throw the
Sikhni attitude around Sunderlal. She is a happy soul and tries to bring happiness around her. She often
gets mischievous. She is given good values by her elders and not restricted to have her own thinking.
Lajwanti falls in love with Sunderlal and becomes his obedient wife. She knows Sunderlal’s behavior
because of the circumstances. Lajwanti has unique charm and always wins the arguments. She appears
to be a caring friend and acts with maturity in the hour of tough situations.

Character of Sunderlal:
Sunderlal is restrained, humourless, dull-personality person and behaves strict at times. He is from
India’s Lahore back in 1946 era. He has good at heart, but has a set of rules for his life, which gets
broken after Lajwanti enters his life. He is short tempered man, and gets angry when things go against
him. He believes in ruling as a man and ends up arguing with Lajwanti. He falls in love with Lajwanti and
marries her. Their problems start during the country partition. Sunderlal and Lajwanti become each
other’s support. He becomes a typical husband who dominates his wife, and later misses her when she
gets away post partition. Sunderlal then values Lajwanti more and tries to get her back.

Themes:

Patriarchy:

Lajwanti unveils two distinct dimensions of violence against women. The first one is the sexual violence
inflicted upon women by the men of other community. Second is the psycho- spiritual violence, the
insult and rejection faced by the women at the hands of their own families. The sexual violence against
women erupted from the patriarchal ideology where women are seen as the less important
marginalized other and the men as the more important centralized 'subject'. In a patriarchal society, the
men in power are the ones who make rules shaping and controlling their identity, subjectivity,
personality and even sexuality. Doing so they create an anti-women narrative of honor which further led
to the exploitation of women in society.

Rehabilitation and acceptance after partition:

At the centre of Rajinder Singh Bedi’s story, Lajwanti, is the process of recovery and rehabilitation of
abducted women, ordained by the governments of Pakistan and India. Problems after partition are
highlighted in this process, with women often denied the right to choose where they wanted to return
to. It was their religion that dictated their eventual place. While the contradictions in the rehabilitation
process have been theorised, we fail to get a picture of the aftermath of the ‘return’ process. Through
the character of Lajwanti, Bedi’s short story brings forth abducted women’s plight after they were
returned to their families.

Sunderlal’s wife, Lajwanti, is abducted during the time of Partition. In the aftermath of Partition,
Sunderlal gets involved with the government initiative for the recovery and return of abducted women,
as the secretary of the committee responsible for convincing people to accept the women back into
their families. He comes across as a progressive man, as he organises processions as part of this
acceptance-initiative. However, we soon begin to discover that there are contradictions in Sunderlal’s
character. One day, he is informed that his wife, Lajwanti, has returned from Pakistan. He is shocked and
seems rather hesitant to see her. When he does meet Lajwanti, he is surprised at the image before him,
which is rather different from what he expected. Lajwanti looks healthy and is dressed in typical Muslim
fashion. Sunderlal is surprised that Lajwanti was not treated poorly by her abductor. He wonders why
she even returned if this was, indeed, the case.

Lajwanti returns home but Sunderlal does not offer her space to tell her story from the other side of the
border. He starts calling her Devi, intending to worship her; but her voice, as a woman, is silenced. Thus,
Bedi manages to show the difference between being returned to your family and being actually
accepted by them with your difficult past.

Bedi’s story, through its portrayal of Sunderlal, comments on the idea of masculinity prevalent in
situations of communal strife. In such settings, where sexual violence is common, the ideal man is
supposed to uphold and defend his women’s honour. According to this ideal, Sunderlal should not
accept his wife, who has been abducted and possibly violated by the ‘other’ side. However, by
advocating for the acceptance of abducted women, Sunderlal challenges this masculine ideal. He even
has an argument with some local men, where he argues that the society and the abductor should be
blamed for a woman’s sufferings. In the end, he succumbs to the very same societal ideal by refusing to
acknowledge Lajwanti’s past, saying, ‘jaane do beeti baatein’ (‘let go of the things of the past’).

The story shows Lajwanti as the victim who never gets the chance to reveal her difficult past: ‘Aur
Lajwanti ki man ki man mein hi rahi’ (‘and what was in Lajwanti’s heart stayed in her heart’). Telling her
story on her own terms would have given Lajwanti a chance to express her plight. It is precisely this
chance that she is denied. This unresolved past will perhaps live with her into an uncomfortable future.

Through this depiction of the workings of the recovery process on the ground level, Bedi helps us
understand the resistance offered by men who refused to accept women back. More importantly, by
showing the neglect of Lajwanti’s difficult past by Sunderlal, Bedi shows us the aftermath of the recovery
process within the homes that women were returned to.

Brutality of Society:

Lajwanti is a tale that reflects the stark reality of many women who were abducted during the Partition.
The story is about Sunderlal and his reunion with his abducted wife, Lajwanti. Set amidst brutal violence,
the story explores the plight of hapless women who were abducted on both sides of the newly-etched
border and their subsequent rehabilitation.

In his dramatic story, Bedi points out the stark and shameful reality of the rehabilitation process. He
reveals the many emotions at play: between a husband and his repatriated wife; of the many women
who came back only to be rejected by their families; of women confronted with society's misplaced
sense of honour; of being told to commit suicide because they were 'tarnished' and no longer
acceptable in the community.

Feminism:

Partition of sub-continent is biggest partition in the history of the world, it brings with it some dreadful
memories and sufferings which is associated with millions of people who suffered during the traumatic
episode; the fallout of which has lasted decades. Women, in particular, dealt with brutal violence. This
period in history witnessed gendered violence inflicted on women either by the males of their families
or by members of other religious communities. Women were kidnapped, raped, publicly humiliated and
had their genitalia mutilated. Women were also killed in the name of honour by their families, and many
were forced to die by suicide in an attempt to protect their chastity. The Partition triggered one of the
bloodiest upheavals and horrendous chapters in history. These uncouth acts reflected the mindset of
the patriarchal community wherein women were considered objects of honour. Partition violence
situated women as objects of possession and vehicles of communication of reprisal between opposed
groups of men.

Conclusion:

Bedi's discerning analysis of the post-Partition society and the reconstruction that followed is
commendable. He has succeeded in capturing the essence of the patriarchy that undergirded this
society where men had the agency to decide whom to accept and whom to reject. In particular, the
scene in the story where women are exchanged underscores how both sides see them not as humans,
but commodities. In sum, Lajwanti is an example of master storytelling and a sobering reflection of post-
Partition life.

Above all this story presents a true picture of communal devastation during the period of partition. The
characters are well drawn and they represent lively picture of Indian population in undivided India with
the cult of Hindu-Muslim ethos. The religion is not brought to condemn the nation in this story but the
social fabric with the political upheaval is the culminating point in shaping this story.

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