The literature of Partition

Indian novel writing in English is a living and evolving literary genre. It is richer in content, wider and variegated in range. Before Independence, their subject matter was inescapably political but after Independence a clear shift has been marked in their focus and one can easily find that human relationships, social issues, gender equations and other important issues like futility of existence, alienation, Diaspora and psychosomatic issues have become the main concerns of the novelists.

Not only in the history of the India but also in the history of the world, the Partition of India has been documented as the most lethal incidence, the entire humanity has ever witnessed. Indubitably, the partition loiters as an unforgettable event, not only for its political significance in the emergence of the Sovereignties of India and Pakistan, but also for its lasting impact of monstrosity and horrific emotional duress.  The people, who had never been out of their confined parishes for ages together, were suddenly coerced to choose a country. It is believed that history books on the incident of partition  do not record lively and passionately the pain, trauma and sufferings of those who had to part from their kith and kin, friends and neighbours, the  deepening nostalgia  for places  of those who had lived in for generations, the anguish of  those devotees who got removed from their places of worship and the harrowing experiences of those 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.

But if we go through the literature written on the tragedy of partition particularly in the form of novel, one can find that the issues before and after partition have been discoursed in a such a manner that one feels with that unfortunate lot of people  who  passed though the trauma  of the partition. The novelists, who have dealt with this tragic incident, simultaneously have attempted to explore other issues pertaining to human destiny touching the   universal problems which are larger than the bloody bath of the partition.

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