Character of Ila

Another young and one of the most important diasporic characters in the text is Ila. Ila appears in the text as
perpetually locked in the present although a materially elite, cosmopolitan who, is not able to transcend the
“shadow lines” even on a circumambulate tour of the world. In a way both the narrator and Ila can be seen as
diasporic. Since, both of them are dislocated from their native land, to the other side of the globe but in
separate respects. While, for Ila the different countries she has travelled to and their memories are equally
insignificant, the narrator is capable of traveling through the agency of his imagination in the allegorical
sense. As the narrator is of the view that “a place does not merely exist, that it has to be …show more
content…

The narrator is able to see through her deceptions and miseries even though she tries to hide them from him.
For instance, he is able to gauge that Ila is lying as she tells him when they were fourteen that she had a
“dashing” boyfriend after she shows the narrator a picture of him in her school yearbook. The tacit
implication that the text seems to provide here is that Ila is an unrooted character, exemplifying one of the
archetypal forms of twentieth century diaspora and it is this confusion that troubles her. For instance, the
reader can easily decipher that Ila’s relationship with Nick is based on delusion right from her childhood and
it is not really shocking for the reader when the narrator finds out that Nick sleeps with other women even
after being married to Ila. Suvir Kaul in the essay “Separation Anxiety: Growing up Inter/National in The
Shadow Lines” has made a penetrating analysis of this episode. He says:When the narrator, thinking of the
sexually expressive, even promiscuous Ila about whom he has always fantasized, laughs and says to her
sins had finally come home to roost, we hear a vindictive undertone. Ila’s reply locates her dilemma even
more firmly within the cleft between her Indian and London selves: “ …I only talked like that to shock you, and
because you …show more content…Malathi notes in “Nation as identity in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow
Lines” that Benedict Anderson has provided a penetrating remark on the nation. He says, “The nation is an
imagined political community. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never
know most of their fellow members meet them or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the
image of their communion.” (Malathi, 303) The formation of a nation state is a bipartite procedure involving
from one point of view a blending together in spite of apparent dissimilarities among those situated inside
the territory and a creation of alienness on those located outside the border. Tha’mma’s feeble, aged
Jethamoshai ,who was the sole reason for Tha’mma’a visit to Dhaka provides an illuminating remark on the
the absurdity and illogicality of borders and boundaries that form a nation. He says, “Once you start moving
you never stop. That’s what I told my sons when they took the trains. I said: I don’t believe in this India-
Shindia. It’s all very well,you’re going away now, but suppose when you get there they decide to drawanother
line somewhere? What will you do then? Where will you move to?” (SL 211) The simple question brings to
fore the problem of identity faced by any displaced person and the sheer nonsensicality in the efforts of
drawing borders and dividing

Comment on the role of women characters in Shadow Lines.

The main female characters in Shadow Lines are from India, Pakistan, and England. They show women’s
changing roles in the mid to late twentieth century, including female contributions to ending British colonial
rule in the subcontinent. Tha’mma, the narrator’s grandmother, was an educator in India who supported the
independence movement. Ila, the narrator’s cousin, is a free-spirited woman who moves to London. May,
who becomes her sister-in-law, is a White Englishwoman whose naïveté has fatal consequences. Amitav
Ghosh, through his women characters, perfectly portrays all the psychological and sociological trauma that
the common citizen of war-torn and riot-ravaged post-Partition India suffered through. The central male
characters4Tridib, Rabi, the narrator, and Nick Price4are passive in importance, whereas women characters
like Tha’mma, Ila, and May Price are more active. Through their trials and tribulations, they bring to the
forefront key issues like the complexities of belonging and alienation, identity crisis in postcolonial society,
and the role violence plays in constructing national identity. Tha’mma is a victim of Partition and has to
carve out a space for herself in an alien land, which gives her a no-nonsense attitude to life. She struggles
through life and, through hard work, finally finds a respectable niche for herself as a teacher in middle-class
Bengali society. She is a woman hardened by circumstance, and her former struggles cast a shadow on her
attitude toward Tridib. She is rather possessive toward the narrator and wants to give him a better life, which
is why she is adamant that her grandson should not be <loafing about with Tridib.= The character of
Tha’mma gains even greater importance and dimension when we focus on her idea of nationalism and how
it changes over the years. She lived through the terrorist movement in Bengal and the terrible days following
independence and Partition. As she recounts to the narrator, she would have loved to help the cause of the
terrorist movement against the British. What this shows is her need to construct her identity with respect to
an identifiable enemy4in this case, British colonial power. Even though readers may respect her strength of
character, they cannot miss her chauvinistic attitude. As A. N. Kaul points out in his essay <A Reading of The
Shadow Lines,= she is a <still surviving representative of a fossilized nationalism.

The complexity of her sense of belonging comes to the forefront when she says that she would <come=
home to Bangladesh instead of <go= home. Separated from her native land by the Partition, caught between
her place of birth and her adopted country, the certainties of the language of differentiation slide away from
her. She asks questions that are trivial on the surface but poignant on deeper probing. Unable to understand
the concept of an international border or no-man’s-land, she asks: But if there aren’t any trenches or
anything, how are people to know? I mean, where’s the difference then? And if there’s no difference both
sides will be the same, it will be just like it used to be before, when we used to catch a train in Dhaka and get
off in Calcutta the next day without anybody stopping us. What was it all for then4partition and all the killing
and everything4if there isn’t something in between? The Riots in Dhaka further put her off balance, as <till
then she had thought of violence as the abettor of national consciousness but now she was to realize that it
can be an interrogator of the same too= (Dhrubajyoti Banerjee, <Violent Cartography”). After Tridib is killed,
she tries to create a new sense of belonging, a new sense of reality, as she remarks, <We have to kill them
before they kill us; we have to wipe them out.= What was once her own now belongs to some other; those
who were once her brothers, alongside whom she would have died happily, now becomes her enemies. The
growth and development of Tha’mma’s character encapsulate the futility and meaninglessness of political
freedom in what was otherwise supposed to be an era of peace and prosperity. From the beginning of the
novel, Thamma is posited as Tridib’s opposite. She may disapprove of Tridib, but Tridib is the only person
who can understand her completely: A modern middle-class woman4though not wholly, for she would not
permit herself the self-deceptions that make up the fantasy world of that kind of person. All she wanted was
a middle-class life in which, like the middle classes the world over, she would thrive believing in the unity of
Nationhood and the territory, of self-respect and national power: that was all she wanted4a modern middle-
class life, a small thing that history had denied her in its fullness and for which she could never forgive it. In
the novel, Tridib repeatedly stresses the importance of being free from other people’s inventions and stories.
Both Tha’mma and Ila fail to do so, although Ila’s failure is less pardonable, as she is not a victim of history.
Ila makes it clear through the stories she makes up regarding her childhood that she subscribes to a
Eurocentric worldview. It seems that she was hard put to anglicize herself, be it after the fashion of the blue-
eyed doll Magda or as a trendy Marxist. The narrator does not notice that she is always at the periphery in
the school yearbook photos which become symbolic of her marginalized status in England. She has lived her

Life by deceiving the narrator and the people around her, pretending to be someone she is not. By doing so,
she has deceived herself, too. Her compulsive traveling is symptomatic of her subjective dislocation. She is
the epitome of cultural rootlessness, and it is her inability to belong to any culture that forces her to
fabricate stories about her life in London. Her relationship with Nick Price does not have any emotional
basis, and it is not surprising to the reader when Nick strays into an extramarital affair. Her position
becomes all the more poignant as we remember that throughout her life, she has wanted to distance herself
from the cultural milieu which the narrator inhabited. She even goes so far as rudely pointing out to him that
she wants to be <free of your bloody culture and free of all of you.= The novel shows her carrying the burden
of her own expectations and fabrications, and the narrator, in the end, cannot find the pertinent words <that
would console her for the discovery that the squalor of the genteel little lives she had so much despised,
was a part too of the free world she had tried to build for herself.= May Price is the picture of the deluded
idealism, the cultural dislocation or incomprehension, that sets the stage for personal or public tragedy. This
is evident when she forces Tridib to stop the car to put a dying dog out of its misery, and later, she is the
first person to jump out of the car to save the old man Jethamosai4an idealistic but reckless act that
ultimately gets Tridib, Jethamosai, and Khalil killed. Her role in the novel is limited to the realization that she
owes her life to Tridib; but that, too, is flawed, as in the end, she realizes that Tridib sacrificed himself. Thus,
through the broad spectrum of women characters4ranging from Tha’mma to Ila to May4Amitav Ghosh
eloquently criticizes the colonial hangover and cultural dislocation in a postcolonial situation while also
portraying the psychological makeup of the victims of history, who in turn counterintuitively thrive on
violence.

Write an essay about "The Marooned" as a document of exploitation of women during partition.

The Marooned" by Attia Hosain is a powerful novel that provides a stark portrayal of the exploitation of
women during the partition of India in 1947. The novel explores the plight of women who were left behind in
newly formed countries, and the atrocities they faced as they struggled to survive in the midst of political
turmoil.The novel follows the lives of several women who are marooned in their homes as the violent
partition of India and Pakistan unfolds around them. These women are often left alone to fend for
themselves as their husbands, fathers, and brothers either abandon them or become victims of the brutal
violence that was rampant during the partition. As they navigate the chaos and uncertainty of their new
reality, they are forced to confront the ways in which they are exploited and oppressed by those around
them.The exploitation of women in "The Marooned" is evident in several ways. First and foremost, the
women in the novel are subjected to physical and sexual violence at the hands of men who take advantage
of the lawlessness that ensues during the partition. Many women are targeted simply because of their
gender, and their vulnerability is often exploited by those who seek to assert their dominance over
them.Furthermore, the women are also exploited economically and socially. As they struggle to secure food,
shelter, and other necessities in the midst of chaos, they are often taken advantage of by unscrupulous
individuals who seek to profit from their desperation. This economic exploitation is compounded by the
social stigma and ostracization that many of the women face as a result of their status as "abandoned" or
"marooned" women.In addition to these forms of exploitation, the women in "The Marooned" also face
systemic and institutionalized oppression. The newly formed governments of India and Pakistan, as well as
the larger societal structures, fail to provide adequate support and protection for the women who are left
behind. Instead, these women are often left to fend for themselves in a world that is hostile and
unforgiving."The Marooned" serves as a damning indictment of the exploitation of women during the
partition of India and Pakistan. It sheds light on the ways in which women were marginalized, victimized, and
exploited in the midst of political upheaval, and it highlights the urgent need to address the systemic issues
that perpetuate gender-based violence and oppression.In conclusion, "The Marooned" is a powerful and
compelling document of the exploitation of women during the partition of India and Pakistan. Through its
vivid depiction of the struggles and hardships faced by the women who were marooned in their homes, the
novel sheds light on the pervasive and insidious ways in which women were exploited and marginalized
during this tumultuous period in history. It serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to address the
systemic issues that perpetuate gender-based violence and oppression, and it calls for greater attention to
the experiences of women who have been historically marginalized and silenced.
•×• The Marooned by Protiva Basu: Depiction of Women's Bodies as Sites of Sexual Violence during the
Partition

Protiva Basu's novel "The Marooned" provides a poignant portrayal of the harrowing experiences of women
during the Partition of India in 1947. The novel vividly illustrates how women's bodies became the sites of
sexual violence amidst the chaos and brutality of the Partition. This depiction is a stark reminder of the
atrocities committed against women during this tumultuous period in history.The Partition of India was
marked by widespread communal violence, displacement, and loss of life. Amidst this turmoil, women bore
the brunt of the violence, facing sexual assault, abduction, and forced conversions. Basu's narrative skillfully
captures the vulnerability of women and the dehumanizing nature of sexual violence during this period.The
novel portrays how women's bodies were objectified and violated as a means of asserting power and
dominance. The perpetrators of sexual violence sought to demoralize and subjugate not only the individual
women but also their communities. Basu's portrayal underscores the deeply entrenched patriarchal
attitudes that perpetuated such violence, viewing women as symbols of honor and shame.Through the
experiences of the characters in "The Marooned," Basu sheds light on the psychological and emotional
trauma inflicted upon women who became victims of sexual violence. The novel delves into the lasting
impact of such trauma, exploring themes of resilience, survival, and the struggle for justice and healing.

Furthermore, Basu's depiction of women's bodies as sites of sexual violence serves as a powerful
commentary on the intersection of gender, power, and conflict. The novel highlights how women's bodies
were weaponized in the context of communal strife, reflecting the broader dynamics of gender-based
violence in times of social upheaval.In conclusion, Protiva Basu's "The Marooned" effectively portrays
women's bodies as the sites of sexual violence during the Partition. The novel's depiction is a poignant and
necessary exploration of the often overlooked experiences of women during this tumultuous period in
history. Basu's narrative serves as a reminder of the enduring impact of gender-based violence and the
resilience of women in the face of adversity.

Overall, Basu's portrayal in "The Marooned" offers a compelling and thought-provoking perspective on the
intersection of gender, violence, and historical trauma, making it a significant contribution to the literature
on the Partition of India.
forms of violence, affected women differently than it affected men." Discuss with reference to the harrowing
experiences of Bindubashini and the members of her family in Protiva Basu's 'The Marooned.

Ans - Abstract :: The 1947 Partition was considered the most cataclysmic crisis in Indian history. Based on
an arbitrary line drawn on a map, it was not merely the division of a nation into two parts, but the division of
people and hearts. Further, it came along with dystopian instances of exodus, genocide, ethnic cleansing,
and unfathomable communal violence committed by people on either side of the border. The victims of
Partition were deeply scarred by the trauma of their uprooting and they did not find solace in their new
homelands. Consequently, a new branch of literature emerged to serve as a testimony to the horrific
experiences of the victims, their ordeal, and their longing for lost homes. This intensified the steam of
mistrust among communities, which continued to blow the whistle of violence through several other
catastrophic incidents. Naturally, even after seventy-five years, the question remains as to whether there is
any resolution to this psychological unrest. Therefore, in this paper, I wish to explore the works of authors
such as Manto, Amitav Ghosh, Prativa Basu, and others who attempted to find a way to vent their agony and
resolve peace with their daunting memories through their writing. I further intend to put forth Derrida's
concept of 'forgiveness' and seek how, only through mutual empathy and by forgiving the "unforgivable," the
denouement for this forbidding tale can be reached and mental peace may be achieved.

Introduction :: On every 15th August, the social media handle of every Indian gets flooded with celebratory
posts of Independent India. Our government never holds back in innovating new ways, each year, to
celebrate the occasion more grandly. Like in 2022, they announced the initiative of 'Azadi Ka Amrit
Mahotsav' with the objective to "commemorate 75 years of independence". Yet there are few people who
raise the question - "are we really independent?" The question might seem frivolous because of the context
it is mostly used in, but when thought about, it does hold quite a lot of weight. The event of India becoming
an independent nation has been so meticulously inculcated into our minds as a jubilant one since so long,
that we have become desensitized about the most horrific outcome of it the fateful Partition. Are we really
independent from the horrors of Partition or are we just evading the discussion perpetually to defend
ourselves from the psychological trauma that it causes. Ashis Nandi in the forward of Mapmaking (2011)
talks about how "Independence came packaged in genocide, necrophilia, ethnic cleansing, massive
uprooting and the collapse of a moral .

Women: The Silent but Resilient Victims

Apart from the reports of families being divided, homes being destroyed, crops being left to rot, one of the
most brutal aspects of the Partition was the widespread sexual savagery women were abducted and raped
by men of not only the other religion but indeed sometimes by men of their own religion as well. Thus, many
women after the partition decided to remain within the zone of silence in order to shield themselves from
being questioned about their survival story. Such experiences frame Prativa Basu's "The Marooned" and
Manik Bandopadhyay's "The Final Solution"."The Marooned" helps to recreate the texture of life in the
refugee camps and the picture of the contemporary established society by national governments to deal
with the huge influx of migrants. Basu vividly captures the difficulties of providing infrastructure, relief, and
eventually rehabilitation in the camps, as local officials sought to encourage families and women to support
themselves by finding employment or starting small enterprises. Basu's story exposes how the political
chaos of partition made women universally vulnerable to men with predatory and exploitative instincts. Ritu
Menon and Kamla Bhasin in Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition (1998) observed that a
woman's body during the partition crisis was treated as a sight where one ethnic group tried to prove its
religious supremacy. As a result, the middle-aged widow, Bindubashini, without any patriarch, along with her
widowed daughter in law, Uttara and her two young grand- daughters, Mrinalini and Bulu, are compelled to
leave their ancestral land and take abode in the Muslim dominated Bangladesh and migrate to India. Yet,
they fall easy prey to rapacious men of their own "trusted" community. The title of Basu's story. "The
Marooned' or 'Dukulhara' brings out their homelessness on both sides of the border, having to abruptly
abandon their original homeland and having no safe shelter in their new place of refuge. The throes of
migration have been meticulously scripted by Basu as she depicts - "Across the vast fields the government
had arranged for two ropes to be stretched from one end to the other, serving as passage. Thousands of
people entered the narrow passage." (Basu, 2011, p. 161) Wild instincts are unleashed amongst the faceless
crowd so that some "Clawed at the female bodies in the crowd, some picked pockets, taking away the
meagre cash one carried for the road." (Basu, p. 161) Though Bindubashini's family wears as many
ornaments as they can, "carry the minimum possible cash and gold", they lose "almost everything" before
crossing the border (p. 160). After two days of incessant walking, they reach Hindustan, and come to a huge
mango orchard where the "tired starving bodies of men and women" slump to the ground "like logs of
woods." (p. 163) Forty-eight children from 12 families hurdle their mothers in the cold. While Bindubashini's
younger granddaughter, Bulu, starts suffering from high fever, a "rough, harsh, masculine hand" (p. 163) tries
to pull Bulu away to abuse or molest her. A terrified Uttara clasped her daughter. However, sadly enough,
Bull succumbs to fever. Soon refugee women from the working class find means of survival as part-time
domestics in local households and their little daughters start begging in the streets. The sudden influx of
female refugees creates an opportunity for prosperous lustful men to dupe and sexually exploit them. As a
result, Bindubasini and her family are victimised by the rich black-marketeer, Rajit Lochan, who sexually
violates Uttara and then abandons her at some brothel, takes Milu to his friend, Shashishekhar to deflower
and debauch her, and ultimately brutally kills Bindubasini as she is unfit to gratify the libidinous drives of the
lascivious men. Ultimately, Bindubasini loses everything she once gracefully possessed: home,
homeland,family, dignity, and hope.Manik Bandopadhayay, however, unlike Basu captures a tale of
resistance rather than helplessness in his story 'The Final Solution. It portrays a picturesque description of
the destitute and miserable condition of Mallika's family affected by the partition of Bengal. The deplorable
condition of homeless refugees can be vividly discerned through the author's description "Everything,
everyone was squeezed there Mallika, her husband Bhushan, their two and-half-year-old son Khokan and her
widow sister-in-law Asha; tin suitcase, beddings, bundles, pots and pans." (Bandopadhayay, 2011, p. 36) In
the topsy-turvy condition of post-partition, there were some chance-seekers like Pramatha and his assistant
Ramlochan who used to come to the destitute families in the pretence of help and would lure married
women of those families into prostitution with the offer to provide them with money. Mallika too had to
accept Pramatha's proposal with a pinch of salt at first, finding no way out for survival. It was her motherly
affection that compelled Mallika to keep pace on the perverted path. Nonetheless, Mallika could no longer
tolerate the exploitation of the Pramatha. When all the ways seemed closed to Mallika, she thought the
murder of her exploiter to be the only "solution" for their survival in this infernal world. The Final Solution'
finds Mallika assimilating into the subordination exercised upon women. However, unlike Bindubasini and
her family, she acquires agency by reclaiming authority upon her body. Mallika chooses compliance as a
form of survival strategy only until gender politics at play do not hold her in its grip.Another astounding
depiction of woeful refugee conditions is shown in Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
(2013). The movie is based on the life of the Olympic winner athlete, Milkha Singh, who hails from a Sikh
family in Govindpur, Punjab province of present Pakistan. The first part of the movie explores how Singh's
present is haunted by his traumatic childhood memory of his parents being slaughtered during Partition.
After being orphaned by religious violence, he reaches a refugee camp in Delhi, where he meets his married
sister's family. The portrayal of his life in the impoverished camp, with him sleeping beside his sister,
cramped up while his brother-in-law forced himself on his sister, creating a daunting picture of how dreadful
it could have been for the immigrants.Attempts of Rehabilitation and the Gaze of the Natives Though the
Ministry of Rehabilitation under the Government of India managed to set up.

Toba tek Singh

Theme/s

Manto's story, "Toba Tek Singh" is regarded as one of the classics commenting on the insanity of the
Partition. It is a trenchant indictment of the partition and the minds behind it. Manto himself was born in
Ludhiana, Punjab but migrated to Pakistan after the Partition and was always ill at ease in the new situation.
It was hard for him to believe in the fact and reality of the Partition. He had deep sympathy for the underdog
(downtrodden people). His humanity always stood above considerations of religion, caste or creed. He was
a realist and had the courage of conviction to declare his ideas and opinions. This is sharply reflected in the
present story. Bishen Shigh's final posture of lying with his face to the ground is clearly an expression of his
love and reverence for the land, declared for the last time. His death is a symbolic refusal to be "divided" into
different religious groups and different countries. As M. Asaduddin points out, Manto's Bishen Singh "...is
the image of a nowhere man, an existential exile, a marginal man whose fate is decided by the politics of
attrition indulged in by shortsighted politicians... Among all the creative writers who wrote on the theme of
Partition, Manto stands apart. He alone had the capacity to take a hard, impassioned look at the slaughter
and senseless violence let loose on the eve of India's independence, without ideological blinkers, pious
posturing or the slightest trace of communal prejudice... "Toba Tek Singh' has become a metaphor for the
utter absurdity and mindlessness of the entire exercise of Partition...a devastating indictment of amateur
statesmen and unscrupulous politicians who draw shadow line boundaries between peoples and countries.
Their actions are so insane that even the hardcore lunatics of an asylum seem much wiser than them... " 14
It seems that there is some "method in madness" of these lunatics. One of them is so confused by the
complicated situation of two countries and their locations that he climbs up a tree in the asylum compound
and declares when the guards come to bring him down, "I want to live in neither Hindustan nor Pakistan...I'd
rather live on this tree." In another incident another lunatic, one Muhammad Ali, declares that he is
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Qaed-e-azam. Immediately a Sikh lunatic declares himself to be Master Tara
Singh. This situation has a dangerous potential of a bloody riot. Hence the two are locked separately. This is

obviously a comment on the politicians who were responsible for the Partition. They are the true lunatics
who have taken arbitrary and thoughtless decisions to divide people and antagonize them against one
another causing bloodbath! For a long time most people living close to the border areas were not sure which
part of the land was included in which country. Bishen Singh's insanity and gibberish are a result of the
trauma of having been uprooted from his prosperous village and well-to-do family. It is also the result of the
fear of impending exile into an unknown land where perhaps enemies wait for his blood. The fear of the
"other" and the insecurity and conflict arising out of such cross-cultural encounter is a recurring theme in
post-colonial writing. Manto's greatness lies in this visionary leap into an unknown prospect where future
shock awaits the outsider.

The Title

Post-Colonial literature studies dislocation and exile. "Toba Tek Singh" is precisely about it. In spite of lunacy
Bishen Singh has not lost his sense of the place where he belongs, so much so that at the end of the story
he becomes the place himself: "Toba Tek Singh is here!" For him exchange is "exile", a throwing out of one's
legitimate residence; it is like uprooting him and transplanting in an alien soil. He is not a tree for such a
transplantation; he is a human being with feelings, emotions and a sense of belonging to a place, a culture,
to an economic, religious and linguistic group from which he is being uprooted. This is traumatic, confusing
and unexpected. It is unacceptable also. That is why the story ends with Bishen Singh falling dead in the
patch of land technically known as no-man's land. The home and the exile become one at this stage.
Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh' is a beautiful blend of satire, bitterness and pathos in partition time. - Discuss.

An Introduction

'Toba Tek Singh' first published in 1953 in an Urdu magazine Savera, was written at a time 'when Manto's
energies were at their lowest ebb' in more ways than one. He had migrated to Pakistan in 1948 and since
then had been leading an agonized existence. Constantly plagued by memories of the past, Manto could
never bring himself to feel that he really belonged to Pakistan. In addition to this, his increasing poverty and
failing health drove him to alcoholism and there came a time in his life when he almost got himself admitted
to a mental asylum because his circumstances coupled with his attitude to life had pushed him into a deep
depression.Manto locates his story 'Toba Tek Singh' in a lunatic asylum and thus takes the theme of
Partition to the world of the insane highlighting the political absurdity of the Partition itself and at the same
time lodges a note of protest against the powers that be, who take such momentous decisions as splitting a
country into two, without ever thinking of the consequences.

The Theme of Partition

Partition of the subcontinent into two separate geographical entities was that calamitous event in its history
that changed not only its physical boundaries forever but also altered the lives of its people in an irrevocable
manner. The horror, the madness, the bestiality, the violence, arson, looting and rape that followed in the
wake of the political decision was unprecedented. Suddenly, overnight, all those secure walls of a shared
tradition, shared culture, shared history came crumbling down. People of different communities, who till
then had led a harmonious and peaceful co-existence, now turned into enemies. Reason was the first
casualty and fear and then rage were its first.outcome. Neighbours who till yesterday would have died for
each other now thirsted for one another's blood simply because they belonged to different communities.
Scenes of senseless carnage were witnessed everywhere. A communal frenzy, a hypnotic obsession with
violence overtook the people on both sides of the dividing line. It was ironical that the people of the same
country who had set an example of winning a struggle in a non-violent manner, following the ideals of
Gandhi and had thrown off the yoke of British subjugation, would now turn against each other. Certainly
these were demented times when people had no consideration for either young or old, child or woman and
all suffered a horrifying fate. If any managed to escape physical violence or torture, the memory of what they
witnessed scarred their minds forever and none emerged unscathed from the holocaust.

For writers who wrote around that time it became almost an inward compulsion to write about the Partition
of the country. For most of them the memory of what they had suffered or witnessed was too recent to
allow for objectivity in their writings about it. There was an obsessive preoccupation with violence as they
had been sufferers, eye-witnesses and tragic participants in the horrendous events. The horrors suffered
and witnessed had become a part of their experiential world. They were too near and too much involved in
the holocaust. The stories that were written immediately after the Partition therefore, tend to recreate the
horror in all its details without many attempts at objectivity or an imaginative rendering of the events being
described. These stories could not even offer any historical explanation nor see any political necessity for
the suffering. They are marked by a sense of rage and helplessness and also a sense of incomprehensibility
of it all due to its utter meaninglessness. Writers like Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chander, Bhishm Sahni,
Ibne Insha, Kamleshwar, Umm-e-Ummara, Kulwant Singh Virk, Sant Singh Sikhon, Khushwant Singh, Ibrahim
Jalees. S.K. Vatsayan and many more; all gave expression to their tormented souls through the medium of
fiction. History thus entered the realm of Fiction but a rendering of the same event brought into focus the
human face of the tragedy. What were merely some figures and statistics in the historical chronicles of the
time now assumed human identities through the works of these creative writers. Instead of just numbers so
many dead, so many wounded, so many raped, so many homeless these fictional historical narratives tried
to show the actual suffering that lay behind each face, each number. For a historian the holocaust of 1947
can perhaps be covered in two volumes of objective recording. For the fiction writer, however, the sad event
threw up unlimited possibilities of delineation and treatment as there were innumerable faces of grief and
an equally limitless number of questions that erupted from the sudden barbarism and bestiality of man to
man. The writers tried to grapple with their fractured psyches with the basic question 'why? Why did the
shared social, cultural, traditional and historical fabric collapse? Why did we turn killers and violators? Why
did we forget the past? Why did we give in to rage rather than reason the questions are endless. The fictional
writings took up these questions in one story after another, in one novel after another, looking for answers
but failing to find any.Fictional historical narratives about the Partition developed basically on two lines.
There were those who re-evoked the senseless carnage, the horrifying brutalities and the numbing
meaningless violence that the different communities perpetrated on each other. Then there were those
narratives that focused on the fear, the agony, the insanity which resulted from the sudden dislocation of
people, uprooting them cruelly from places which had been home to them for generations, only to be thrown
into a strange alien land and told that henceforth this was their home. The suffering and anguish that
resulted from being wrenched away from familiar surroundings forever, is sensitively delivered in these
stories.Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh' also falls into this category of stories that deal with the theme of
concentrating on the tragedy of dislocation and exile. The madman Bishan Singh who hails from village in
Punjab, Toba Tek Singh, is unable to take in the fact that the division of the subcontinent re him to cross the
border line and forget his homeland forever. In the story, we shall see shortly, how becomes the place and
Bishan Singh refuses to comply with the orders, preferring to give up his life All these writers who wrote
about the tragic uprooting of people emphasized the same point over a again. What emerges from a reading
of these stories is the realization that geographical divisi possible but how can one divide a shared history, a
shared memory and a shared consciousness? It is o that the decision makers never took the ordinary man
into account and what the Partition would do to Thus they could never anticipate the great human tragedy
that followed in the wake of their Partition a small political decision.

Manto's 'Toba Tek Singh' also falls into this category of stories that deal with the theme of Partition
concentrating on the tragedy of dislocation and exile. The madman Bishan Singh who hails from a small
village in Punjab, Toba Tek Singh, is unable to take in the fact that the division of the subcontinent requires
him to cross the border line and forget his homeland forever. In the story, we shall see shortly, how the man
becomes the place and Bishan Singh refuses to comply with the orders, preferring to give up his life instead.

All these writers who wrote about the tragic uprooting of people emphasized the same point over and over
again. What emerges from a reading of these stories is the realization that geographical divisions are
possible but how can one divide a shared history, a shared memory and a shared consciousness? It is
obvious that the decision makers never took the ordinary man into account and what the Partition would do
to him. Thus they could never anticipate the great human tragedy that followed in the wake of their political
decision.Manto has written extensively on the theme of Partition with stark realism and powerful evocation
of the shocking horror of those times. As Alok Bhatia observes, these stories 'are written by a man who
knows that after such ruination there can neither be forgiveness nor any forgetting.' Stories like 'Thanda
Gosht' ('Cold Meat'), 'Khol Do' (Open It)J 1919 Ki Baat' ('It happened in 1919'), 'TobaTek Singh' and 'Titwal Ka
Kutta' ('The Dog of Titwal') are just a few of the nerve shattering stories which recreate the honor of the
Partition. What is remarkable in these stories is the completely detached tone of the narrator as well as an
evocation of the event through suggestiveness rather than details. We are just given a tip of the iceberg, as
it were and left to imagine the rest. This mode of working through suggestiveness increases the horror of
the stories manifold and at the same time saves them from being merely a perverse indulgence in violence
on the one hand and sentimentalization and thereby dilution of the real human tragedy on the other. Siyah
Hashiye or Black Margins was a full length work on the Partition theme, brought out by Manto. This book
consists of short fragments, sketches on the events of the Partition. It is notable for its black humour and
also for Manto's determination not to name the religion of any of the perpetrators described in these brief
sketches. For him all were equally responsible. It was not just a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh who was the question
but man who had turned into a beast having lost all his tolerance.
TITLE OF "FINAL SOLUTIONS"

Final Solutions by Mahesh Dattani is a play which frames the time and its burning problems. In this play
particularly the issue of communal harmony is raised and what takes the play to a different level is that the
playwright tries to cater a solution to the problem by bringing the followers of the two religions on an even
keel. Whether it remains a conjecture or whatever, is a different matter altogether, but, no doubt, Dattani
tries. In The Shadow Lines, Amitav Ghosh failed to reach any solution of the raging problem of the divide
between the Hindus and the Muslims, in Riot Shashi Tharoor struck at the root of the problem and in Train to
Pakistan Khushwant Singh concludes with a ghastly scene of death where two minds of two different
religious sects though got united in love but in reality could not. In the conclusion of this play by Mahesh
Dattani, there is a striving for reaching an amicable solution but it is still dubious, rather an expiatory note
dominates.

Final Solutions touches us, and the bitter realities of our lives. The past begins to determine the outlook of
the present and thus the earlier contradictions re-emerge. No concrete solutions are provided in the play to
the problem of communalism but it raises questions on secularism and pseudo secularism. It forces us to
look at ourselves in relation to the attitudes that persist in the society. Since it is an experiment in time and
space and relates to memory, it is a play, which involves a lot of introspection on the part of the characters
in the play and thus induces similar introspection in the viewers. The chorus represents the conflicts of the
characters. Thus the chorus in a sense is the psycho-physical representation of the characters and also
provides the audience with the visual images of the characters' conflicts. There is no stereotyped use of the
characterization of the chorus because communalism has no face, it is an attitude and thus it becomes an
image of the characters. The sets and properties used in the play are simple. This has been done to
accentuate the internal conflicts and the subtext of the play.Dattani's careful manipulation of memory as an
index to questions of identity and power is crucial to his entire oeuvre. As Alyque Padamsee asks: "Is life a
forward journey or do we travel round in a circle, returning to our starting point?" In her essay on Final
Solutions, Angelie Multani also poses a set of similar questions: "What then is the 'final solution'? Is one
even possible? Would it be better for us to stop trying to find the final answer, and just try to make our own
peace with ourselves and those around us? Is it possible to atone for the past?..." It is in this context that we
need to take a closer look at the title of Dattani's play. The very word 'final' subverts the possibility of a
'solution'since Dattani deliberately sticks to the plural-'solutions', thereby questioning the justification of
'final'. Angelie Multani points out that in this deliberate subversion lies the repetitive nature of communal
violence, guilt and hatred "The title of Dattani's play on communal violence and tensions in contemporary
urban India itself calls to attention the apparent insolubility of this situation....It is indeed, this very search
for a final solution, which in many ways perpetuates the cycle of violence and hatred."The cycle of hatred
and as Alyque Padamsee terms it; 'transferred resentments' seem to continue.Ironically, ten or twenty years
after the Babri Masjid demolition, the country was subjugated to yet more phases of communal violences:
the Godhra carnage, 2002 or the riots in Assam, 2012-making the ironic quality of Dattani's title disturbingly
pertinent.

The role of the narrator in 'The Shadow Lines'

"The Shadow Lines' is one of Amitav Ghosh's most outstanding novels and may be regarded as one of the
masterpieces in the field of Indo-Anglican fiction. The novel focuses on the meaning of political freedom
and the force of nationalism as well as the personal experiences of the narrator of the novel.Told in first
person, the story of 'The Shadow Lines' is of a growing boy who lives in the shadow of the man he idolizes
and of an individual drawn into history as well as social and political turbulence. Tridib gives the boy who is
the narrator of the novel "worlds to travel in and ....... eyes to see them with". The narrator's grandmother,
Tha'mma, is the third central character to the structure of the novel. As an eight-year-old child, the narrator
sees England through the eyes of Ila and Tridib. As a twenty six year old, he realizes the truth when he
merges from the shadows of Ila, Tridib and Tha'mma.The anonymous narrator who refers to himself as 'I' is
apparently relating the experiences of the past that involves his father's aunt's son Tridib, his cousin Ila, his
uncle Robi, his grandmother, Tha'mma, May Price and others in the period between 1939 and 1964. By
skillfully manipulating the narrator's developing social consciousness and his interactions with multicultural
representatives in fictional reconstruct, Amitav Ghosh makes 'The Shadow Lines' a subtle medium of
sophisticated comment on current realities.Fifteen years after Tridib's death, the narrator is still haunted by
'the impenetrability of its banality' because, in a way, Tridib and he are inseparable. Tridib taught him in
childhood to see things clearly without the shadows of inhabitations or illusions. A strange bond exists
between the two. The young narrator considers it his 'unique privilege to understand Tridib.' In this sense,
Tridib is also a narrator. He tells the story of his journey to the narrator 'in installments.'The narrator not only
appears a mirror of Tridib, he also serves as a mirror to reflect times, places and people. What Tridib had
wanted is finally realized by his mirror image fifteen years after Tridib's death when he meets May Price and
finds that she too has remained pinned down to the past. The story of "The Shadow Lines' moves backwards
and forwards here with the narrator recalling his youth and the grandmother's memories and the setting
shifts back and forth from Calcutta to London to Dhaka."The Shadow Lines' has two narrators, instead of
one, and both of them are more or less without an identity. We learn of Tridib's personality from the narrator.
The narrator, who plays a vital role in the novel, remains 'neutral, impersonal' throughout his growing up
years as he relates the multi-layered, complex story.

Amitav Ghosh as a Post-Modernist in the Shadow Lines

1. Introduction

Both modern and postmodern literature represents a break from 19th century realism. But basically Post
modernism is a reaction against modernism. It gives voice to insecurities, disorientation and fragmentation.
In character development, both modern and postmodern literature explore subjectivism, turning from
external reality to examine inner states of consciousness, in many cases drawing on modernist examples in
the "stream of consciousness" styles of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, or explorative poems like The
Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. Post modernism is a reaction against the modernist and the "Anti-modernist'
tendencies which have psychological and intellectual impact. In America and France post-modern literature
emerged as a genre. Post-modernist writers break away from all the rules and seek alternative principles of
composition conforming to their content of existentialist thought. Postmodern in Indian English literature
explores fragmentariness in narrative and character-construction in a different way from its British or
American counterpart. In post modernism, there is a preoccupation with insecurities in the existence of
humanity. The picture of life delineated by them accommodates meaninglessness, purposelessness and
absurdity of human existence through the employment of devices such as Contradiction, Permutation,
Discontinuity, Randomness, Excess, Short Circuit and so on. Post-modernist literature manifests chaotic
condition of the world. Post modernism of Indian English literature is, however, different from that of
England or Europe which rejects western values and beliefs as only a small part of the human experience
and rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture and norms of the western. A Sahitya Academy Award winner. The
Shadow Lines, is an interweaving of personal lives and public events. Ghosh tells us that as he was upset by
the riots that followed Mrs. Gandhi's assassination, he transformed his turmoil in the form of the novel. The
memories of the 1964 Calcutta, Dhaka and other riots actually were revived and he was impelled to write the
novel. This novel is a continuous narrative which reproduces the pattern of violence. Ghosh gives a lot of
emphasis to details and has an acute ear for speech and dialogue, but the profounder fact is that he is
looking and probing deeper into something that resembles the work of a historian. His novel is rooted in
reality, yet it looks. characters with conflicted selves, he denies it. He says that 'his men characters are as
much conflicted as his women characters. Ghosh focuses on his main characters like Tridib, the narrator
and May and less important characters are presented in a fairly summarized form. The Shadow Lines is a
novel of ideas. The post-modernist sometimes tries to find realistically and convincingly picturise Antar in
The Calcutta Chromosome and Tridib in The Shadow Lines.beyond. Though the novel is based on historical
reality, it can be termed as a complete piece of fiction. The reader sees in Tridib, an impulsive character and
he is the organizing principle in the novel. It is through his creative imagination that he conducts his life. He
is guided by none but himself, and guides that narrator, being his mentor. To complement him, Ghosh
created the character, May. The other characters like Ila, the Shaheb and Nick Price are presented as striking
contrasts to Tridib. Characters like Tha'mma and Robi are sometimes alike him but differ in their ideologies
of nationalism. Amitav Ghosh narrates the story through a nameless narrator. Though nameless, he is not
faceless. His name is "I". As the novel develops, the character grows with the novel and he becomes a full-
fledged character, worth reckoning. The narrator lives in the 'story' of Tridib. Ghosh treats his characters
with respect and concern. Though there is criticism that he creates women inward meaning and chronicles
his self in his writings. The conventional narrative method of linearity and chronological sequence is
subverted by the narrative voice, which as an implied author is separate and distinct from the real author.
The narrator in The Shadow Lines makes detailed reference to the houses, lanes and cities, locations that
resonate with personal and cultural significance. The author's love for travel aids him in this process.
Ghosh's experiences in Egypt helps him to

2. Different styles

The novelist has used the different styles, both traditional and innovative, to look at it afresh from an entirely
new perspective."The arranging of episodes and of digressions, the art of foiling; the use of symbols,
metaphors and tropes as structural elements- all this indicates a conscious purpose that yields an
extraordinary symmetry of form" (1) depicts Ghosh as a post modern novelist. The novel is in non-linear
narrative mode and it moves back and forth and doesn't bother about the conventional notions of time and
space. Post modernists use this technique and one can experience this in Ghosh's novel "The Shadow Lines".

4. Post modernism

The Indian writer is English is biased because of the responsibility, in particular, of narrating the nation, in all
its 'postcolonial contexts and Ghosh's The Shadow Lines, following Rushdie's The Midnight's Children, has
often been cited as a pattern of this tradition. As a post-modern writer, he believes that the family can be a
metaphor for the nation and in his own words: Two of my novels (The Shadow Lines, and my most recent
The Glass Palace) are centred on families. I know that for myself this is a way of displacing the 'nation'....In
other words, I'd like to suggest that writing about the nation (or other restrictively imagined collectivities). I
think there is a long tradition of this, going back at least to Proust- and it's something that Jameson,
Anderson (and even Bhabha) never seem to take into account. (Brinda Bose, 29). Taking the last two quoted
statements from Ghosh together, it is possible to suggest that, one, Ghosh is a quintessential postmodern
writer who invites the reader to actively participate in the unfolding of a text and two, that it is in keeping
with Ghosh's expectations of his readers that he chooses to 'displace' the nation with the unit of the family.
The novel is post-modernist in two senses- the author questions the existing paradigms without blindly
agreeing to the so-called universal truth. The myth that violence gets driven to the borders once new nations
are carved out of a single state is questioned in the novel. Two, the subjective nature of post- modernism is
depicted. Though Tridib's death is experienced in a disjointed manner by the different characters, its fuller
implications are understood when the different characters bring their partial perspectives on this very
painful and poignant incident. R.K.Dhawan describes the book as a novel that resists classification: It is
basically a memory novel that weaves together past and present, childhood and adulthood, India and
Bangladesh and Britain, Hindu and Muslim. It is a social document and a political novel, a Bildungsroman
and a postmodernist work of fiction

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that this novel marks a notable shift to a more realistic examination of the
protagonist's search through his memories, ultimately provoking a recognition in him and in the reader that
he too was fleeing and pursuing something: namely, the connection between past and present in his own
identity.
A theme of nationalism in The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh Presented By:

Abstract: Amitav Ghosh in this historical fiction explores the consequences after the partition of India-
Pakistan and the partition of Pakistan- Bangladesh. It presents how the social and religious culture has
affected to the family and society.

Introduction: The novel explores the concepts of history, freedom and nationalism and also criticizes the
dramatic yet unrecorded consequences of historical events on innocent human beings. It highlights the
absurdity of the national border we draw between people and nations, which serves as a source of enmity as
well as horrific violence. Many subaltern voices are heard in this novel, as in Ghosh's prior works. The
Shadow Lines... became a book not about any one event but about the meaning of such events and their
effects on the individuals who live through them.... I had to resolve a dilemma, between being a writer and
being a citizen.Ghosh tells the subaltern history of militant nationalists through Tha'mma's memories,
focusing on how much they did and sacrificed for the freedom of their country. The grandma was inspired
by the heroic stories of Khudiram Bose and she also wanted to fight for freedom. "Ever since she heard
those stories, she had wanted to do something for the terrorists, work for them in a small way, steal a little
bit of their glory for herself" (Ghosh, 39). As far as Thamma knows, there was another world on the other
side of the border. In the novel Thamma is sure that real borders divide the countries. She is surprised when
she hears that she won't be able to see a border between India and Pakistan when she flew over it. She asks,
"If there isn't any difference, won't both sides be the same?" The hypothetical mapping of the nations by
Thamma is similar to nationalism that is dependent on the things which unite the people.The central
character of the novel, Tridib, is also affected by the war. He saw a man and a woman being romantic in a
bombed-out theatre in London. He remembers the event so well that he wants to have a similar scene of
making love in a ruin. During this trip to London, Tridib just come to know May, who is just a baby at the time.
Since 1940, Tridib has sent Mrs. Price a Christmas card every year to remind her of the time they spent
together. When Tridib was 27 years old he starts writing to May, who is just19 years old at that time. In his
fourth letter to May, he tells her that he wants to make love to her in a ruin with the freedom of a stranger
with no history between them, just like Isuelt, a beautiful woman loved overseas by Tristan, a man without a
country and the hero of his iconic story, which is told by Mrs. Price's husband to him.Means to be able to
recognize the contemporaneity of the past, to be able to see historical memory as vital to any understanding
of the present, and to be able to see different times and places as inextricably intertwined The Shadow Lines
also tells how the Partition affected to some of its characters including the grandmother, Saifuddin and
Khalil. Tha'mma is rendered a foreigner when "in 1947 came Partition, and Dhaka became the capital of East
Pakistan. There was no question of going after that. She had never had any news of Jethamoshai and her
aunt again".The loving relationship between May and the narrator in the end of the book shows how
boundaries between countries are made to be too rigid and how the concept of a nation based on the
holiness of racial background is just a myth. When she gets back to Tha'mma after the Division of the
country, she learns that her uncle Jethamoshai's family home is still on the same place. The grandmother,
basically a sheltered from Bangladesh, learns that people like her don't have a roof anywhere except in their
memories. But still very soon she would be the part of idealistic history when she decides to donate her gold
chain to conquer the army of Pakistan to protect the liberty of nation: "I gave it to the fund for the war for
your freedom. We have to kill them before they kill us; we have to wipe them out" (Ghosh, 237)."

The murder of Tridib shows that Tha'mma's nationalism doesn't give her liberty since it leads to frightening
violence and individual sadness. At the end, she is angry and upset as what she sees nearby her does not
match her sense of nationalism: "All she had asked from life was a stable middle- class life but history
denied her even that (Chaudhary, 96). The grandmother's questions about the division of the nation show
that the rulers of both the nations made a mistake in history that made it harder for people to share their
culture, way of life, memories, and dreams. The novel goes against the views of elite historians who stress
the distinctions between Hindus and Muslims by showing, satirically, that Dhaka and Calcutta got along
better after the Partition and that they were like a "inverted image" of each other. The Partition makes the
grandmother a foreign person in her own country because her citizen status and birthplace are at odds with
each other. In dilemma she tells she will "come home to Dhaka" rather than "go home to Dhaka." In Dhaka,
an experience of the city and her family's old home makes her free from the impact of the most popular
version of history. It was the first time in her life, she sees similarities between India and Pakistan, which
shows that the shadow lines are only man made and based on geographical maps, not on real cultural
aspects.Jethamoshai's refusal to go to India with Tha'mma also shows how silly the shadow lines are: I
don't believe in this India-Shindia. It's all very well, you're going away now, but suppose when you get there
they decide to draw another line somewhere? What will you do then? Where will you move to? No one will
have you anywhere. As for me, I was born here, and I'll die here. (Ghosh, 215)

Conclusion: The Shadow Lines is an archaeology of subaltern voices that questions elitist history by
showing its hidden and tragic effects on subalterns and by making the historical look fictional and the
fictional look historical. It looks at the ideas of nationalism and freedom with the critical eye of a
postcolonial subaltern historiographer and shows how silly and unfair they are. The Partition was one of the
most dangerous periods in the history of our country. Thousands of people were killed in communal riots. A
lot of trains were sent from India to Pakistan and Pakistan to India full of dead bodies. The film Gadar and
the book Freedom at Midnight is the finest example of it. After a long period of communal riots finally two
countries were geographically divided. With its many other themes and structural parts, the novel as a whole
looks at the relationship between the dominant and the dominated from both opposing and complementary
angles.

Significance of the Title of the Novel 'The Shadow Lines' by Amitav Ghosh

ANS: The Shadow Lines' by Amitav Ghosh is a great novel. This book captures the perspectival view of time
and events. It draws a line that brings people together and holds them apart. This line is visible on one
perspective and nonexistent on another. Lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another's
imagination. These lines constantly forms the criss-crossing web of memories of many people, it never
pretends to tell a story.In the novel Trideb is one of the shadow lines that the Ghosh tries to draw here. He is
a link or we can say line that connects characters. He is a shadow line that never materializes. It is with him
that the story begins, and it is his death that finally unites the narrator and Robi in their memories of him,
and the narrator and May in understanding and love. Here he becomes shadow because he never actually
'lives' the story except through the memories of the narrator, May and Robi.But this issue becomes more
pertinent when viewed in the context of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. The novel centres round a
young boy the narrator. Through the book, we watch him move backwards and forwards in time as bits and
pieces of stories, both half-remembered and imagined, come together in his mind until he arrives at an
intricate, interconnected picture of the world where borders and boundaries are mean nothing, mere shadow
lines that we draw dividing people and nations.In proof of nothingness of borders, the author gives us a
glimpse of the reactions that shook Dhaka and Bengal on their separation. There was a striking similarity in
the pattern of fear, mutual hatred and violence that gripped the two. The narrator realizes the futility of this
incessant line-drawing by the politicians, for it never actually manages to separate anything or anyone but
only provokes mindless acts of violence that in fact highlights the sameness of human emotions and
perceptions, no matters which side of the border the people are: " they had drawn their borders, believing in
that pattern, in the enchantment of lines, hoping that once they discovered that they had created not a
separation, but yet a undiscovered irony- the irony that killed Tridib....."The author uses the trope of house to
explain this. As children, Tha'mma and Mayadebi witness the family dispute between their father and his
elder brother (Jethamoshai) that leads to the division of the house. Tha'mma as a child in Dhaka house
makes stories about the upside down house (the other half of the house occupied by the uncle's family) and
narrates them to the younger sister. In the other half of the house, these stories talk of everything as being
upside-down. The artificial constructedness of the 'otherness' of the house is very evident and gives to the
keen reader a foretaste of a similar exercise in constructing the difference between the two sides of a
partitioned nation. What is significant is that the two nations were united at one time but the course of
history (or failure of vision) makes them two and for sustaining their separation this difference has to be
invented. It is ironic therefore that Tha'mma who was herself a creator of that artificial difference cannot see
through the strategy of the state. "But if there aren't any trenches or anything, how are the people to
know?"The case of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent has been very different because the state has
been forced to create a difference where none existed and show the two nations as inherently opposed."It is
the fear that comes of the knowledge that normalcy is utterly contingent, that the spaces that surround one,
the streets that one inhabits, can suddenly and without warning become as hostile as a desert in a flash
flood. It is this that sets apart the thousand million people who inhabit the subcontinent from the rest of the
world-not language, not food, not music-it is the special quality of loneliness that grows out of the fear of the
war between oneself and one's image in the mirror."Perhaps this oblivion on Tha'mma's part is tantamount
to a deliberate non-admission of facts that are deeply disturbing. The oblivion of Tha'mma therefore
becomes her survival strategy.. Nationalism too gets redefined in various ways through experience.Whereas
the great historical project of nationalism first undermines community (here the Bengali Community that is
common between the East and the West Bengal.) to formulate nation, it then 'narrates the nation. The
theorist Bhaba sees this project as comprising of the creation of 'the narratives ... that signify a sense of
'nationness': the...pleasures of one's hearth and the... terror of the space of the other. This idea however in
the context of the Indian subcontinent gets problematised because the otherness being talked of has to be
created rather than merely alluded to. People in the newly formed nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh are
prompted through narration 'language, signifiers, textuality, rhetoric to create a difference where none exists.
Therefore what the book looks at is the createion of artificial difference between two nations that are
inherently one.Another subtle manner in which the author exposes this strategy is by describing the
experience of an Indian (lla) outside India (London). In London, she inhabits that space where the India-

Pakistan-Bangladesh differentiation melts down. During their visit to London she takes Robi and the narrator
out for dinner 'at my (lla's) favourite Indian restaurant.' As it turns out that the 'Indian place' she has been
talking about is a small Bangladeshi place in Clapham! Amitav Ghosh asserts that the borders that separate
nations are nothing more than artificial lines created by men. Thus the 'shadow lines' of the title are the
borders that divide people, and one of the main emphases of the novel is on the arbitrariness of such
cartographic demarcations. Why are these lines 'shadowy' then? Because like shadow they lack substance,
they lack meaning. Ghosh believes that these 'shadow lines', these meaningless borders can and should be
crossed -if not physically, then at least mentally through our imaginations and through open-minded
acceptance of people, irrespective of nationality, religion and race.

Charector of tamma

Tha'mma is the protagonist in Amitav Ghosh's novel The Shadow Lines. Tha'mma was quick tempered with
a deep sense of freedom. She is proud, stubborn and strong-willed. She along with lla is an itinerant
character. Narrator's grandmother, Tha'mma represents the idea of the idealism and the enthusiasm with
which the people worked towards nation building just after independence. Amitav Ghosh chiefly through his
characters wants deliver to the most powerful message to readers that the futility of creating nation/states,
the absurdity of drawing lines which arbitrarily divide people when their memories remain
undivided.Tha'mma is a strict disciplinarian who was very punctilious about the right use of time and lost
her temper if anybody wasted it. This was one of the reasons for her disapproval of Tridib and his waste of
time.

The second person that did not find her favour was lla, the daughter of her sister Maya Devi. For her, Ila is
firmly outside the pale of sobriety and common Indians, her looks and her clothes were inappropriate to her
Bengali middle class origins: 'Her hair cut short like a bristle on the tooth brush, wearing tight trousers like a
Free School Street whore', she comments. Her concept of freedom is quite different from that of lla. She had
long believed that nostalgia is a weakness. 'It is everyone's duty to forget the past and look ahead and get on
with building the future', she used to say. But one in Dhaka, she understands the harsh reality of the border
and realizes that dislocated people like her have no home but in memory. Stunned by her nephew Tridib's
death by a riotous mob in Dhaka she develops a great hatred for Pakistanis. She gives away her only
necklace, the last remembrance of her husband to the war fund so that the Bangldeshi army may fight them
properly at last with tanks and guns and bombs. She says to her grandson 'For your sake, for your
freedom.Tha'mma is a victim of Partition and has to carve out a space for herself in an alien land, which
gives her a no-nonsense attitude to life. She struggles through life and, through hard work, finally finds a
respectable niche for herself as a teacher in middle-class Bengali society. She is a woman hardened by
circumstance, and her former struggles cast a shadow on her attitude. toward Tridib. She is rather
possessive toward the narrator and wants to give him a better life, which is why she is adamant that her
grandson should not be "loafing about with Tridib."When Tha'mma was studying at College in Dhaka, she
wanted to work for the terrorists to run errands for them, to cook their food, to wash their clothes and to
render some help-because the terrorists were working for freedom, but here she wants to help to terrorist to
the perspective of martyrdom. Tha'mma was introduced to the terrorist movement among the nationalists in
Bengal. She tells her grandson the story that how one of her classmates was arrested during a police raid at
their college. Tha'mma's classmate seemed an unlikely terrorist, shy and beard,but while being arrested he
does not show his fear. Tha'mma adds that she had dreamt of him.Though she was not a revolutionary in
the literary sense, she nurtured a desire to help those who were fighting for Indian Independence.When
Tha'mma enters Dhaka, she comes to know her birth place has become a part of another nation, Pakistan.
The big political event the Partition of 1947- makes Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan and divided her from
her native city. Dhaka was Tha'mma's place of birth, but her nationality was Indian. When Tha'mma was
young girl, she had thought of fighting for freedom in East Bengal. The national feelings still continue to
inspire Tha'mma. She still identifies herself with the country in which she belongs. During the time of Indo-
Pakistan war Tha'mma was very patriotic. She gives away her chain with a ruby pendant, she wears that
chain as a memento of her late hubby, to the war fund because she has been inspired by patriotism.
Through the character of Tha'mma, the novel delivers the most powerful message that the futility of creating
nation states, the absurdity of drawing lines which arbitrarily divide people when their memories remain
undivided. In spite of all that, she remains a fine revolutionary in the novel. Though she is an old woman
without strength, she fights for her country and she is a bold woman character. Her blind love for her country
makes her a revolutionary in the novel.True to what scholars say: "Tha'mma is another pillar of this novel...
Ghosh depicts all the peculiarities of a suffering, braving middle class Indian. For all her extremes, she is a
real life heroine".
The upside-down house of Tha'mma memory is a potent metaphor for the chaos and confusion wrought by
partition in The Shadow Lines. Discuss.

The story in The Shadow Lines revolves around the incident of Partition (1947) and talks about how deeply it
affected the lives of people. It criticizes the entire idea of nation as emerged by the circumstances. The
Indian subcontinent was divided into two different nations followed by massive dislocation of millions of
people from the places their descendants have lived and traditionally they once called home. This
dislocation traumatized people who witnessed the bloody incident of Partition (1947) followed by division of
Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1967.

One such character in Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines is Tha'mma, eight years old narrator's
grandmother. She is portrayed as an upright and no-nonsense woman. Born in Dhaka in a joint family, she
was raised during the Indian National Movement against Britishers headed by M. Gandhi and the other
nationalists together. She was deeply influenced by the freedom movement which filled her with deep sense
of patriotism, so much so that once when she was in college in 1920's, one of her classmates was arrested
for the revolutionary acts serving the cause of national freedom. She recalls that she so strongly wished to
help him in any way she could from providing food for him to cleaning his clothes. She even proudly said
that she would not even fear death if it was for the freedom movement. Unfortunately the circumstances
made her leave Dhaka when she is married to an engineer who gets posting to other countries. After twelve
years when her husband died of pneumonia she settled in Calcutta with her son and took a job as a teacher.
She independently raises her child, struggles to make the ends meet but does not let herself depend on
anyone. Consequently, she retries finishing the circle of her life. Her perception and view of life was
profoundly impacted by the nationalism she witnessed as a young woman. She admired the young
nationalists and idolized them. She secretly wished to be part of the freedom movement.

She never criticizes the episode of Partition consciously. It is her personal experiences or anecdotes which
make her recognize the conflict in her beliefs. When in Dhaka house Tha'mma was a child, she used to cook
up stories about the disputed upside down house and narrated them to her younger sister Mayadebi. The
upside down was the other side of the house taken by the elder brother of the family. As children both of
them witnessed the fight between their father and his brother with led to the division of the house from
middle. Even the commode was divided which seems both irrational and avoidable as a reader. Tha'mma
being the elder sister talks about house as the Upside down house where everything was opposite to how
normally things are."Everything's upside down over there, I'd tell her;at their meals they start with Sweets and
end with dal, their books go backwards and end at beginning, they Sleep under their beds and eat on the
sheets, they cook with their jhatas and Sweep with their ladles, the write with umbrellas and go walking with
pencils..."The fabrication of "otherness" of the house is similar to the exercise both the states indulged in to
justify the reason of partition and to create difference if it didn't exist. The two parts of house were like the
two nations which were united once but due to some circumstances had to divided and for validating the
separation the differences had to be created if it didn't exist. Once the house was separated no one was
allowed on the other side not even the kids. When she decides to go back to Dhaka to her old house there to
bring her old uncle, she had to go through many tiresome times. She was unable to understand that why
does she have to go through so many interrogations and clear doubts about her identity when the place she
is "coming to" is her home. She goes through identity crises when she without any hesitance fills Indian as
her nationality but begins to think if she truly belongs to India or her birth place. Her idea of border being a
visible line demarcating India and Pakistan shatters when she finds none.

She questioned "Would I be able to see the border between India and East Pakistan from the plane?" as she
believed it would be a "long black line with green on one side and scarlet on the other" as if it will be visible
like division line of her Dhaka house. The story cooked up by Tha'mma clearly symbolizes the fear of
millions of people, emerged from the knowledge that the spaces they once occupied, streets they once
played in, houses they once called their homes suddenly without warning became inhospitable to them and
suddenly the had to leave their 'normalcy' behind.