Text, Representation and Revision : Re-visioning Partition Violence in Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan and Bhisham Sahni's Tamas

Abstract

Partition is a complex historical reality that continues to puzzle the minds of scholars, historians and imaginative writers, who, ever since its occurrence, have endeavored to comprehend, through their numerous texts and writings, the subtle nuances of the complex strands that shaped the making of this seminal event. The present study attempts to examine, through a comparative analysis of Singh's Train to Pakistan and Sahni's Tamas, how the profoundly sensitive and deeply perceptive imagination of both Singh and Sahni create texts which re-enact, with sheer clarity and force, the happenings of partition and hence enable the readers to re-vision the complexities involved in its occurrence, create awareness/consciousness in them regarding those historical blunders, the consequences of which are still borne by the people and also urge them to revise/reform their attitudes, thinking and practices so that their present as well future is safeguarded against such catastrophic events.

La Partición es una realidad histórica compleja que continúa siendo un enigma para las mentes de eruditos, historiadores y escritores creativos, quienes desde su aparición se han empeñado en comprender a través de sus numerosos artículos y textos los ligeros matices dentro de los enfoques complejos que dieron lugar a este acontecimiento. Este estudio procura examinar, a través de la comparación de las novelas Tren a Pakistán de Singh y Tamas de Sahmi, de qué manera la imaginación altamente sensible y extremadamente perceptible de ambos autores da lugar a textos que promulgan, con plena claridad e ímpetu, los acontecimientos que dieron lugar a la Partición, haciendo posible a los lectores la revisión de las complejidades inherentes a los hechos, y creando en ellos un sentido de conciencia sobre los errores históricos, cuyas consecuencias todavía perviven, y urgen a reformar sus actitudes, pensamientos y prácticas, de forma que tanto su presente como su futuro queden a salvo de tan catastróficos eventos.