Abstract:
Partition Literature, or the popularly known Partition narratives provide a ‘fictionalized history’, which is less fictional and more real. It holds the mirror to the bloody past that changed many lives, and revealed the face of ‘Independence’, all covered in blood. The discourse of Indian literature comprises many such stories that evaluate the event of Partition, through many different lenses. These stories have been told, and re-told by the people of India, who belong to the varied range of regions. The Partition literature in India has been written and translated in different languages. As has been later discussed in the present paper, Akhepatar is written by Bindu Bhatt, is the only novel in Gujarati with the event of Partition at its core. The novel won the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 2003. The word ‘Akhepatar’ is the mispronunciation of the word ‘Akshaypatra’, which means a vessel which never goes empty, or a cornucopia. It later expounds on the woman’s perspectives and sufferings in terms of her experience with partition and it’s brutality. The paper delves deeper into the idea of women’s position in society, and how the ‘everyday’ events of the partition challenged their survival and existence in the given context. The partition not only brought the “incomprehensible site of trauma”, but, at the same time it also invited the culture of constant repression, and silence. The present research pays a heartfelt homage to the unheard victims of partition who survived through the pain and trauma that this major historical event brought into their lives. This trauma was felt at both individual and collective levels. It was shared by one and all. But, the plenty of unheard stories from different regions are required to be looked at from a critical point of view, which the present research diligently thrives to achieve.
Keywords: Partition, Partition Literature, Gender, Collective Memory, Trauma, A Woman’s perspective
The wicked let loose the evil,
Evil reigned, humanity fled;
Innocent, untouched virgins
Were deflowered, desecrated,
The youth of delicate damsels
Ruined, their life destroyed
Karam Singh, Sohni
The year 1947 saw the largest and the most barbarous exodus in human history due to the partition of India. The violence, the bloody killings, the abuse were uncontrollable as they were perpetrated by people themselves, against each other. Millions were forced to leave their homes and escape with whatever they could grab. Some could make it without a scratch and some couldn’t. The most unfortunate ones were those who could make it alive but were deadened during the journey. The trauma they went through penetrated the next generations. The communal riots that the country saw during the partition prepared a strong base for the perpetual bitterness between the two nations.
Partition had been more generous in inflicting atrocities on the female gender. Women were abducted, raped, paraded naked, their breasts were cut, their bodies sketched with symbols of the opposite religion, they were forcefully converted, forced into marriage, forced into prostitution and impregnated. Women being the physically vulnerable and weak species were unable to retaliate and became the most abused ones.
Jill Didur, in his remarkable work, Unsettling Partition: Literature, Gender, Memory rightly mentions that, before 1980s’ the discourse of English literary criticism did not give its due credit and space to the partition literature, and the related literary studies. But, in some of the well-acclaimed literary works and journals the events depicting the brutal partition narratives have been incorporated to put forward the face of reality, and the events that took place during that time. Here, he quotes Joy Cleary,
[i]n the case of partitioned societies, cultural narratives play a number of
very important functions. They represent one of the media through which
the trauma of partition is subsequently memorialised and understood by
peoples involved; they can also help either to ratify the state divisions
produced by partition or to contest the partitionist mentalities generated
by such divisions. (Cleary 2)
Urvashi Butalia in her book The Other Side of Silence feels that there is no mention of the trauma of being a woman in the history of partition. Women never expressed themselves, as their stance was not considered significant. It is difficult for a woman to talk about her pain especially because they have never been given a chance to voice their concern. Urvashi says,
To whom would they have spoken? Who would have listened? I realised too that in my questioning, something I had not taken into account was that in order to be able to ‘hear’ women’s voices, I had to begin to pose different questions, to talk in different situations, and to be prepared to that most important of things, to listen: to their speech, their silences, the half-said things, the nuances. (Butalia 126)
Women writers such as Ismat Chugtai, Bapsi Sidhwa, Mehr Nigar Masroor, Anita Kumar, Shauna Singh Baldwin have tried to record the female experience in their works and have thereby presented a gendered perspective of Partition. The women writers have attempted to portray that, women’s experiences of Partition have been completely different than that of men, and have thus provided a different angle to the reading of Partition. Seema Malik writes,
Partition discourses by women writers are accounts of feminine triumph highlighting women’s strength, resilience, adaptability and spirit against all odds. … There is a strong plea to see women as human beings, as individuals having an identity of their own and not merely as sex objects. Thus, women writers foreground the marginal by placing women at the centre rather than at the periphery. (Malik 23)
Akhepatar, written by Bindu Bhatt, is the only novel in Gujarati with the event of Partition at its core. The novel won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the year 2003. The word ‘Akhepatar’ is the mispronunciation of the word ‘Akshaypatra’, which means a vessel which never goes empty, or a cornucopia. Akhepatar is symbolic to the life of Kanchanba, whose life has never been devoid of pain and suffering. Bindu Bhatt has kept her gaze focussed on Kanchanba in her narrative and has articulated her inner experiences. The novel begins with a 78 year old Kanchanba coming to her father’s village Jasapar, after a decade. She had come to the village to seek peace at the temple of Goddess Shakti. The novel covers a span of three days, but within that short span of time tells the life tale of Kachanba.
The partition experience is the core of Kanchanba’s life. The trauma of the experience became a strong attribute to give shape to Kanchanba’s attitude and conduct. The trauma theory Cathy Caruth proposes says that a traumatic event cannot be easily recollected and comprehended and hence it becomes more traumatic. For Cathy the most noteworthy feature of recollecting a traumatic event is “the fact that is not a simple memory” (Caruth 151). She writes,
The trauma is the confrontation with an event that, in its unexpectedness or horror, cannot be placed within the schemes of prior knowledge- that cannot, as George Bataille says, become a matter of “intelligence”- and thus continually returns, in its exactness, at a later time. Not having fully integrated as it occurred, the event cannot become, as Janet says, a “narrative memory” that is integrated into a completed story of the past. The history that a flashback tells- as psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and neurobiology equally suggests- is, therefore, a history that literally has no place, neither in the past, in which it was not fully experienced, nor in the present, in which its precise images and enactments are not fully understood.... The trauma thus requires integration, both for the sake of testimony and for the sake of cure. (Caruth 153)
The traumatic past continues to affect the present events in ways beyond our understanding. Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub’s theory of trauma, similarly states that trauma can never be termed as an experience that is ‘over’, its consequences are always evolving. In Akhepatar, Bindu Bhatt has tried to portray the inner journey of Kanchanba and the impacts of her trauma successfully. Kanchanba’s stay at the temple gave her ample time and opportunity to be with herself. She was suddenly surrounded with memories and feared questions. There had been many moments when she thought that the past would run over the present. She had put in a lot of efforts to dig the past, but on that day it sprung up and faced her. Kanchanba says, “Good or bad, memory is violent in itself. It is difficult to escape its claws.” (Bhatt 57)
Kanchanba’s life can be divided into three phases- her childhood which was spent in Jasapar; her life in Karachi, fleeing to Jasapar due to Partition, making a living; and residing at Chandrakant’s place and leaving it due to his betrayal. Kanchan’s life began with her grandmother wailing in sorrow, as a girl was born. Kanchan spent her childhood in Jasapar, but soon, along with her mother Reva and brother Vishwanath moved to Karachi, where her father Jeshtharam worked. The journey of Kanchan’s life began, as she left behind the village and adjusted herself to the amazing world of a big city. Kanchan’s grandfather died soon and hence Reva had to stay in the village with her grandmother for a year, handing over the responsibility of the house at Karachi to Kanchan. Kanchan, who thought the responsibility was just a matter of a year, was mistaken when Jeshtharam brought an ill Reva, along with grandmother, back after a year. Kanchan had to drop out of school due to the grandmother’s complaints. Soon a proposal came for Kanchan and she was married to Amrut, the only son of a rich businessman, Devshankar. A new responsibility fell on Kanchan’s shoulders, now that she had to take care of a rich household. Years went by and Kanchan gave birth to Gautam, Chandrakant and Aruna. The harmonious life of Kanchan was disrupted on the spur of a moment due to the Partition. The Partition robbed Kanchan of every relation - her parents, her brother, her in-laws, her son, and her husband. The novel is thus, an intense tale of loss and survival. Kanchan faced loss at every step of her life, yet she struggled to raise her children and to lead an honourable life.
The freedom movement is depicted in the novel with the character of Kanchan’s school teacher Shardaben and friend Lalita. When Kanchan was in school, Shardaben was arrested for picketing in a foreign cloth shop. As a child she was not able to understand why a respectable lady like Shardaben was harassed by the police. Kanchan was very impressed with Lalita, whose father used to stay with Gandhiji. Lalita pretended to be a freedom fighter and a social worker, and actually was a revolutionary. Once, she came to stay at Kanchan’s place, posing as her relative, to hide herself from the police. Devshankar was the mayor of the city and very close to the Britishers making it her ideal hideout. During Lalita’s stay Kanchan’s sister in-law Jaya came under her influence and went away with her when Lalita departed. This incident completely broke Devshankar, and he became numb for the rest of his life.
Partition suddenly turned Kanchan’s life upside down. One evening Amrut came panicking and dreadfully announced that Karachi was to be a part of Pakistan, therefore the family would have to shift immediately. To which Kanchan had innocently argued, “We live so harmoniously. Do you think our theatre’s guard Rehmat could harm us?” (Bhatt 111) It was decided that Devshankar, Kanchan and the children would accompany Jeshtharam and Vishwanath to go to India by ship. Amrut planned to go to Kampala after winding up everything, where he thought his family would join him later. This split strategy turned out to be the greatest mistake of Amrut’s life. Twenty four hours were not enough for Kanchan to pack. “While packing things, sometimes Kanchan got engrossed in touching them or sometimes got confused what to take and what not! Kanchan thought ‘What if she can’t take them, she should keep them safely’... Leaving the things was like forsaking the person associated with it.” (Bhatt 112-113) Looking at Kanchan packing the things Amrut got angry, “Will you protect the luggage or save the lives of the family?” (Bhatt 113) and suddenly felt guilty for his words.
The novel has succeeded in depicting how people had lost everything during Partition. Kanchan not only lost her house, her happy life but also her loved ones. Rehmat, the Muslim guard at Amrut’s theatre was selected to take the family to the port for safety reasons. Earlier Kanchan had argued that Rehmat would never harm them, but when he came to take them to the port she could not avoid doubting him. The moment she left the house was very touching, she prayed to God and lighted lamps at all the sacred places. The entire house melted in her tearful eyes. While leaving, she kept on looking towards Amrut and the house till she could. When the car came out on the streets, they realised the trouble they were in. They were followed by a crowd of 200-500 people with torches in their hands. Rehmat accelerated their way to safety, but entering the area of Jeshtharam’s house they saw fire. Rehmat went to fetch Jeshtharam and Vishwanath. Gautam wanted to go with him to watch the firemen do their work, but Kanchan scolded him. Kanchan asked a pedestrian about the fire and came to know that it was the same building where Jeshtharam lived. The pedestrian also informed that no one could be saved. When the firemen tried to douse the fire with water, it became rather inflated. People doubted that the tank was filled with kerosene instead of water. While Kanchan was interacting with the pedestrian, Gautam could not contain his curiosity and ran away to watch the firemen, only to be lost. Kanchan thought of the possibility of Gautam accompanying someone to the port. Her plight can be realised in the lines,
If she saw a child in brown shirt and black shorts she would run towards him only to be let down. She used to ask all strangers as well as acquaintances, “Have you seen a ten-eleven year old, plump, fair and round-faced boy? There is a curly feat on his forehead. If you happen to see him, let me know.” Sometimes she won’t even realise that the person has left. She would go on talking oblivious to the world around. She herself is not able to understand till date, why she hadn’t gone mad. (Bhatt 122)
In a similar unguarded moment Kanchan lost Devshankar. Devshankar had become absent-minded, unfeeling and listless since the day Jaya had left the house. He had lost the track of time, place and relations. His stoic existence just obeyed the instructions given to him. Once he went to the lavatory and sat there for five hours, as no one instructed him to come out. From that day Kanchan had to remain very watchful to give him proper directions. In the basement of the steamer going to India, the people around had taken Devshankar to be mad. Devshankar used to sit on the deck the entire day and look at the sea. Kanchan used to send Chandrakant to be with him. But on one unfortunate night, while Kanchan was busy with the delivery of a fellow female passenger, Devshankar disappeared forever.
Partition was a time when not only were the Hindus and the Muslims against each other, but the Muslims were also against the Muslims who helped the Hindus and vice versa. Rehmat being a Muslim himself had shown his loyalty to his Hindu master, but had to bitterly pay for it. Rehmat dropped Kanchan, Devshankar and children at the port and went to search for Gautam. He knew it was a difficult task,
The entire Karachi had become a jungle. The fire of communalism had spread itself in all the areas of the city. The people who were getting scorched, roasted, sputtered, sparked, were not Hindus, not Muslims nor Sikhs. They were merely living beings...Where had this cruel aspect of human beings been dormant till now? The same eyes which were mirrors of affection now were the reflections of gory doubts. (Bhatt 118-119)
Rehmat came across a rally shouting ‘Haay Hindustan!’ He was terrified with the thought that it was very easy to identify the mayor’s car in a city, where few people owned a car. Some ruffians stopped his car and asked him to give a lift till Bolton market. Rehmat got terrified and gave in to their demand and dropped them. As he had reached near his house, he thought of checking on his own family. He would never have imagined what lay in store for him. As Rehmat went inside the car was torched by a group of fanatic Muslims. Rehmat was considered a traitor and his family was killed. Rehmat too wasn’t forgiven. “After Rehmat was burnt alive, along with the car, the crowd felt that justice was done. A traitor got an appropriate punishment.” (Bhatt 120)
Women - young or old, rich or poor, married or unmarried, alone or with her family- were humiliated and raped during Partition. In many cases the parents fearing that their daughter would be raped forced her to commit suicide to save the horror. Some women voluntarily killed themselves. Bhisham Sahni in his novel Tamas narrates one such event in which twenty seven women jumped into a well along with their children, which was as a matter of fact a real life incident of Khalsa village. There were women who after being a victim committed suicide as they were unable to bear the humiliation.
Kanchan too was not spared the horror. After reaching Okha, she along with her children, was staying in a relief camp waiting for the train to take them to Kaamp (Surendranagar). One night she got the news of a dead body found on the shore. Thinking it to be of Devshankar she ran towards the shore, and came back devastated and deadened.
Kanchan returned to the camp at dawn. She had gone to bring a dead body, and returned a corpse herself. She was unsteady on her feet. Messed hair, bruised cheeks, cut ear lobe with blood clotted on it, crippled and crushed body...the most unfortunate chapter of many women like her! (Bhatt 136)
After almost a month of travelling, Kanchan reached her village. She could procure shelter in her father’s house but she had no means of income. She thought of asking for flour from the fellow villagers.
I have never kept count of who came to ‘Dev Villa’ and what the person took away. How will I stretch out my hand? Will I be able to put my entire being in those hands, which has always given, and beg? How will I face the eyes of the benefactor and the giving hands? What if I cry? ... Kanchan told herself as if she was repeating a pledge ‘I would now forget that I am Mahadevprasad Vyas’ granddaughter, who had his personalised cheques. I would forget that I am Devshankar Shukal’s daughter in-law who used to run charitable trusts. I am nothing but a ‘Mother’ now.” (Bhatt 139)
Kanchan came to know that she is pregnant. At one moment she would hope that the child was of Amrut, but at the other she would shudder at the thought of the watchman who had raped her at the Okha Port. Her mind was constantly swirling. “She had a deep faith that the grain of a rape would never cultivate. Sometimes when her mind would uproar she would agitatedly say, ‘but the womb is mine’.” (Bhatt 141) Kartik was born prematurely with a twisted foot. Kanchan felt that the child symbolised the country.
Kanchan thought, this is a child of this age. India has got independence but the child of Mother India like me is not born to stand independently on both his feet. How will the future time match its steps with the steps of a lifespan that is lost in a country which is no longer one’s own? (Bhatt 144)
Years later, in a moment of confrontation with Kartik, Kanchan opens her heart,
I feel that you are the child of my life’s last blissful moment, and also of the most terrifying moment. You were a kid, an immature being. I have spent many sleepless nights in the conflict of who is your father. At the end, my conscience has given me just one reply and that is, you are my son and I am your mother. (Bhatt 216)
Partition completely changed Kanchan’s outlook towards life. She was born in a rich and rigid Brahmin family and became the daughter in-law of the most respectable and benevolent person. Partition snatched away a happy and luxurious life from her, yet her indomitable spirit faced the harsh challenges that destiny posed in front of her. She belonged to a family which was so orthodox that even a touch of an other-caste person demanded a bath. She shelved those values instilled in her from birth and promptly accepted a girl from other-caste as her daughter in-law. Kanchan had become such a humanitarian that she could easily understand the pain of Shanta, a married but not divorced woman, with whom Kartik was in a live-in relationship and could welcome her in her family. Kanchan could even forgive her husband Amrut, who went to Kampala after the Partition and married again. All her life she had waited for the moment when Amrut would return. Though all she got was the news of his death, his remarriage, his son and his will.
Partitions have always resulted in long-lasting conflicts. The Partition of India was a complicated affair because Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs resided all over the Northern Province. It resulted in a lot of violence and innumerable traumatic instances. Urvashi Butalia puts her experience of listening to traumatized victims of partition in the following words,
Silence and speech. Memory and forgetting. Pain and healing. These are at the heart of my book. At the end of several years of work, I had listened to many stories. Each was unique. In every telling I found a different Partition, in every story a different experience. (Butalia 356)
Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory states that trauma is a call for survival, and that is precisely the moral of Akhepatar. Kanchanba accepted life as a struggle. At the end of the novel before leaving Jasapar for an unknown destination, Kanchanba prays to Goddess Shakti,
Today once again I have to start a new journey. It was an illusion that I have reached my destination. I had come to you to gain the strength to lead my life. I was not able to find a way. I had come to ask for light….I have re-lived the past fifty years during these three days of religious observance. Earlier, these memories used to squeeze me and drain me out. I was not able to confront them, but now they have become my companion in my journey. My burden is dissolved and I am feeling light and serene. There is no feeling or ill-feeling, like or dislike in my mind. Now, whatever direction I would take would be appropriate for me. (Bhatt 252)
Mansukh Salla in his article ‘Vedna na Amrut nu Akhepatar’, which is published in the 2012 edition of the novel, mentions the role of Partition in the novel, “Partition is a factor that gives enormous dimensions to this novel. Its shadow spreads its radius till the concluding events” (Bhatt 256). He writes about Kanchanba,
Through the questions of the present, she could look at the cornucopia (akhepatar) of past sufferings. There was no one to strap or stop her. She had entered a phase where she had become detached from children, relatives and acquaintances. It is the celebration of being liberated of the attachments of one’s body and self. The cornucopia (akhepatar) of pain becomes the cornucopia (akhepatar) of liberation. The acceptance of pain and reality becomes her strength. (Bhatt 263)
Joseph Conrad’s words ‘The novel is the history of human experiences’ are very apt for Akhepatar. Akhepatar is the life story of Kanchanba. It is the heroic tale of a firm and virtuous woman, who faced the challenges of life with courage. Kanchanba has faced crisis at every stage of her life, yet has survived all the storms. Kanchanba stands for the ordinary woman, whose trauma of partition remains unexpressed and unregistered. The unusual and common stories of pain were lost in the wave of heroic tales of great magnitude. Mushirul Hasan voices the same concern when he writes,
The history of books do not record the pain, trauma and suffering of those who had to part from their kins, friends and neighbours, their deepening nostalgia for places they had lived in for generations, the anguish of devotees removed from their places of worship and the harrowing experiences of the countless people who boarded trains thinking they would be transported to the realization of their dreams but of whom not a man, woman or child survived the journey. (Hasan 201)
In the report of Live Mint, Partition through the eyes of women, dated 15th August, 2017 it was mentioned that, “Things change their meanings depending on who is looking, from where and in what context.” (Livemint) The article was prepared to address the preservation and documentation of the events and experiences of people (here, women), during the Partition. The article also, quoted the paper, Unveiling the Layers: A Journey into the Covertures of Women Partition Survivors:
Partition, as a whole, affected the social lives of everyone. However, it affected the women contrastively. Women were not the ones who were deciding their fate, their killing or living or migrating. Women faced violence at various levels; communal, at family level and at the macro level. They were being abducted, kidnapped, raped, killed. They were forced to commit suicide in order to protect the family honour. Furthermore, in the name of recovery, they were disowned by their families, their children were deprived of basic rights as they were considered illegal and wrong… (Kumar et. al.)
The researchers have continued to suggest that future research scope in the discourse of Partition literature and narratives demand to approach the methods of exploring the personal narratives of the survivors to authenticate the process of fictionalization, and at the same time this will also help the writers and creators to get closer to the reality. Even today, the mainstream partition literature sings the saga and sufferings of the Hindu and the Muslim population in general, through the eyes of “male” historians, authors, and characters, but a closer look into the reality will open the doors for the investigation into the particular events that affected the marginalized and the voiceless communities and genders. The focus has often been given to the written documents which were approved by the authorities and government. But, at the same time, it is important to dissect and evaluate the oral narratives, and the stories that the survivors have shared through all these years. The multiplicity of voices and perspectives help the readers and explorers to look at the history from a different angle, to derive the new meaning, which is closer to the “nugget of truth”, and reality. At the same, the present research has also opened up the gates to the other regions and their narratives, dealing with the events and aftermaths of partition, for the readers. “There is an urgent need to collect these unheard voices, otherwise, after a few years even if people want to hear them, they would not be able to do so. Research interventions should be done to collect these voices so that the partition history could also have a voice of women.” (Kumar et. al.)
It is suggested by many literary scholars that, in order to initiate such authentic research in the field of Partition literature, the qualitative research method, specifically the narrative interviewing or ethnography could be used. A micro level analysis of such narratives, narrated by women or other marginalized people and communities will definitively facilitate the quality of such researches.
Narrative interviewing is a very effective method for qualitative research. There is no doubt that the generation, who had/have suffered and survived partition, is disappearing. The State should provide funding and other means to future research if they wish to work on this topic. Soon there would probably be no survivors to talk to. Hence, there is a need for the State to expedite matters to facilitate quality research work on this. (Kumar et. al.)
Works Cited