LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:2 February 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Communalism and the Politics of the Sacred:
A Study of Tamas by Bhisham Sahni

Prateek Deswal, M.A Eng., NET

Tamas cover

Abstract

Tamas is a Sahitya Akademi award winning novel, based in a small town, which endures the ravages of communal riots that succeeded the Independence of India. But transcending the limits of a fictional story, it lays bare the policy of segregation followed by the Britishers, the futility and brutality of communal violence and puts before the reader a dwarfed version of the tragedy. This paper is an attempt to unravel the parallels existing between Tamas and the situation prevailing in the nation as well as the roles played by the national leaders during the riotous times. It also enumerates the all-important lesson that Tamas beckons on all Indians to maintain unity and peace during tough times and discard any attempt to create dissensions between them.

Keywords:Communal, Conflagration, Atrocity, Riot.

Tamas – Repository of India’s Independence

A nation’s greatest teacher is its own history which bears within itself the zenith of pinnacles it has reached and the tragic abyss it has endured. Only by keeping in mind the fruits of our experience that we can construct our present in a pragmatic and purposeful manner and plan our future with wisdom, care and perspective. Awareness of one’s own self-identity is indeed the first step towards self- realization. Every nation possesses a unique history and one such repository of India’s Independence is Bhisham Sahni’s novel Tamas.

Almost every nation in the world has at one point or another endured the ravages of patriotic struggle for its Independence. When, as in Nehru’s words, it makes a tryst with destiny and when its soul long suppressed finds utterance and the moment always stands as a symbol of harnessing unity, strength and patriotism in the nation. But the Independence struggle of few nations have stood out because of the eternal messages in the principles of morality and humanity they have conveyed to the world. The American War of Independence illuminated the world with the concept of Democracy. The French redeemed it with the ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty. And the Indian Independence movement alluded to the century fraught with violence of its two world wars, the only alternative of peaceful co-existence - Doctrine of Ahimsa- “Non-Violence”.

Led by the apostle of peace - Mahatma Gandhi, if the message reached its culmination by stirring the multitudes of the second most populous nation in the world against the British Empire, its conclusion in the form of Indian independence was nothing but opening of Pandora’s Box filled with conflagration and cataclysm. India’s Independence, achieved on 15th August 1947 was succeeded by communal riots which transcended every limit and horror imaginable to a sane mind. And the most poignant and realistic depiction of the national tragedy can be witnessed in Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Prateek Deswal, M.A Eng., NET
Research Scholar
Central University Himachal Pradesh
Shahpur, Distt. Kangra
Himachal Pradesh
India. Pin- 176206
patrickdeswal.601@gmail.com
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