Research Journal of English Language and Literature ( RJELAL )

The	  partition	  of	   India	   is	  one	  of	   the	  most	   traumatic	  and	  complex	  event	  not	  only	   in the	  history	  of	  the	  Indian	  subcontinent,	  but	  also	  in	  the	  world	  history.	  The	  decision	  of Partition	   left	   its	   people	   with	   identities,	   which	   were	   communal	   in	   nature	   and overpowered	  all	  other	  identities	  —gender,	  class,	  caste,	  and	  region	  that	  had	  existed in	   the	   country	   so	   far.	   Religion,	   which	   had	   hardly	   been	   an	   identity	  marker	   in	   pre-­‐ partition	  life,	  suddenly	  began	  to	  play	  an	  essential	  role	  in	  the	  Indian	  politics.	  This	  was in	   contrast	   to	   the	   daily	  experiences	   of	   people	   at	   many	   places,	   where	   people	   of different	   religions	   were	   living	   with	   great	   peace	   and	   understanding.	   The	   present paper	   attempts	   to	   examine	   discourse	   of	   identity	   through	   the	   reading	   of	   Mukul Kesavan’s	  Looking	  through	  Glass	  and	  Shiv	  K.	  Kumar’s	  A	  River	  with	  Three	  Banks.	  Both texts	  are	  distinct	  in	  its	  delineation	  of	  identity	  politics.	  Religious	  identity,	  which	  was so	  exclusively	  enforced	  on	  people	  at	   the	   time	  of	  Partition,	  appears	  as	  a	  symbol	  of exteriority	   in	   these	   narratives.The	   paper	   has	   four	   sections.	   The	   Introduction proposes	   the	   aim	  of	   the	   paper	   and	   discusses	   the	   concept	   of	   identity.	   The	   second and	   the	   third	   sections	   trace	   the	   ways	   the	   selected	   novelists	   have	   projected	   and problematized	  the	   issues	  of	   identities	  especially	   in	   the	  pluralistic	  domain	  of	   Indian sub-­‐continent	  in	  the	  wake	  of	  partition.	  The	  last	  segment	  of	  the	  paper	  will	  serve	  as	  a conclusion. Key	  words:	  Partition,	  religion,	  identity,	  individual,	  communal,	  nation. ©KY	  PUBLICATIONS


INTRODUCTION
Partition and Identity--politics: The partition of India is one of the most traumatic and complex event not only in the history of the Indian subcontinent, but also in the world history.The process of nation formation, which was expected to include people in historical process, excluded them from their own history. The poor people who had all the rights to celebrate the long awaited freedom were forced to mourn the death of their hopes, sense of belonging, loss of past life, identity, home, land, fields and separation of near and dear ones and much more.
Partition history is the history of losses, not of gains. Instead of solving anything partition of India aggravated and triggered problems; By drawing Radcliff line once, it created innumerable fine cracks which are very dangerous and alarming for the existence of both the nations even till to date. The politics of India and Pakistan are still muddled with the history of partition.
Partition signifies a period, which saw the emergence of dual identities, as the personal became political and vice versa. At this juncture, political nationalism gave way to religious nationalism and religious sentiments of people in their divisive and exclusionist sense became defining forces of identity. "In what is called historical role reversal phenomenon, the new identities such as histories, nations and nationalism become subservient to the older identities of people such as ethnic cultures and religions" (Komalesha 126).
According to Gyanendra Pandey "Partition is a defining movement in shaping and strengthening communitarian consciousness. Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus were all redefined by the process of Partition" (Pandey 2001). Partition subordinated other identities-gender, class, caste, and region to an exclusive religious community: a monolithic religious community.
Thus, the process of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 not only demanded a re--evaluation of national and personal identity, but indeed created new concepts of identity altogether. The process of establishing new identities, based on shifting national, religious and cultural communities, meant that identity became a conscious part of people's life. People who had never been out of their locales were suddenly forced to choose a country they didn't know the whereabouts.

Problematics of identity in Looking through Glass:
Kesavan's novel Looking through Glass interrogates the hegemonic aspects of official history by retrieving suppressed history of the marginalized people. Kesavan voices the local and the particular. In fact, Kesavan doesn't dismiss history but retrieves various other versions, which have been left out of the domain of official history. According to Mukul Kesavan his novel "is about people in the midst of great change, about ordinary people who do not have any great lasting convictions, people who are attached to the lives they lead" (T.R.K. 1996).
The novel critiques the official version of secularism and attempts to map the agony of the nationalist Muslims who were sidetracked from the mainstream politics. Centering on the Congress's version of the Quit India Movement, the novel contests the notion that in a nation fragmented by class, race, religion, there can not be a single, completely objective viewpoint giving history in totality, therefore emphasizing the need to record the histories of those who are silenced by hegemonic discourses of history.
The novel is unique in accepting the fact that religious identities are not substitutes for national identities. Identity is a complex and multidimensional concept: it consists ethnic or religious background, gender, social and economic status. The whole idea of purity and Identity is questioned in the novel. The novel interrogates the kind of identity politics that puts religion in centre. Names and other external religious markers/ signifiers are unreliable indicators of identity, proving the point that real identity is not dependent upon them for its creation. Identities can be easily transformed or shifted, religions adopted or abandoned, or falsely constructed by society, but the inner being remains, anchored in its existential moorings. Identity is not solely dependent on religion; the need to base it in religion arises out of a political necessity for counter defense.
If we look at the identities of the characters, most of them have misleading identities. All these characters foster the idea of humanity as well as secularism and plead for non-differentiation among individuals. Their identities are symbolic of the inclusive culture of India.One of the simplest ways of identifying the victim is through external markers like Tilak,Bindi, Cap, Burka, turban or bodily one like carving of Swastik or circumcision. But these markers appear to be superficial and shifting in the novel Looking through Glass. The whole idea of identity as fixed entity is interrogated through the identities of various characters who have multi--layered identities. All these characters foster the idea of humanity as well as secularism and plea for non--differentiation among individuals. Their identities are symbolic of the inclusive or assimilative culture of India.
The narrator who is a Hindu lives and is adopted by a Muslim family. He starts his journey as an unnamed traveller with the intention of immersing his grandmother's ashes in the Ganga and is being transported from the 1990s to the 1940s. He is exposed to various phases of history, which he was not aware of. He becomes part of historical happenings and is injured during the assault on thana, he has been " shanghaied in the name of the nation and pressed into serving a doomed rebellion"(LTG 103--04) He is sheltered in Varanasi in Pant Ram Ka Akhara where he is cast as Sita in the nationalist Ramlila. By the end of the novel, he is circumcised, thus leaving his Hindu self and assimilating his identity in the minority class.He takes shelter in the Purana Quila with the Muslims of Delhi while the riots of 1947 continue outside. In the end of the novel we find the narrator willingly including himself in a group photograph of Intezar's family.
Another character Parwana has multiple shades of identity. She is Chandrakanta, then becomes Ruth and finally is named as Parwana: Each name is associated with a different community. Her identity gets more complex when she is found kissing Asharfi. She gets shelter in a Hindu family, in Kaushalaya Devi's (Dadi's) home and is wildly loved by Masroor, a Muslim boy. There Kaushlya Devi tries to change her by dressing her in Khadi but her body revolts and breaks out in rashes signifying resistance against any impositions on her body.
One more character Tojo also represents shifting paradigms of identity. His real name is Ram Lakhan but after the Japanese overran Malaya he had changed his name as Tojo to fight the British.
Masroor's father Intizar turns out to be the son of Kalidass Ganjoo who was a Kashmiri Brahmin. For his love for Urdu and Musaddas and for Kulsum (Ammi);his love, he embraced Islam.Charandass's adaptation of Islam further complicates the demarcating line between the two communities. But his present name Intizar he had adopted even before he marries Kulsum. "He had chosen it because it staked his claim to poethood….Intezar. Waiting. Stern, silent poet waiting for the Muse"(LTG 26). The author has introduced chronicled family history of Intizar entitled as "The History and Destiny of the Ganjoos," a story of their migration from Kashmir to Lucknow and their prosperity first in the court of the Nawab of Awadh and then won by siding with the colonizers. However, the 'Destiny of Ganjoo' remains incomplete as the only heir changed his religious faith to be a poet and to marry a Muslim girl. The grieving father, who used to take pride in his ancestry, right from the days of Kalhana, died broken hearted, 'trying to write his way out of his destiny's dead end.'(LTG 27).
Another significant character Haasan, mistaken by all for a Shia Muslim, a permanent entity in Masroor and Ammi's household is' in fact Haasan Yamanachar Narasimhamurthy, Iyengar Brahmin from the town of Hasan in Karnataka.Haasan has moved to Mysore and then Calicut where he was obliged to trade with Mappila Muslim Communities to make a living by selling banana chips and pickles. He is compelled to assume an identity of a Muslim because he hears "rumours of British Garrisons being put to flight by mobs of rampaging Muslims."(LTG .82) and rumours about Muslim "rebels forcibly converting Nambudari Brahmin families to Islam". His uncle insists that he will be secure in an area with "Muslim rebels on rampage" if he dresses as a Muslim. So Haasan dresses himself "a beard recently grown trimmed Muslim fashion, a small lace cap, another name Ali Musaliar" (LTG 82) whenever he goes on his business tours. Although Haasan hesitates in going the only place for eating vegetarian place at Garudapuram, "a fanatically vegetarian enterprise where Brahmins looped with sacred thread, serve food." He is not treated well there. First the food arrives with a cockroach swimming in it. When he objects, he finds the coffee in his face and then: Someone kicked my jaw and then another by temple……..Someone shouted cut it off, cut it off and another laughed and someone else said no……and then terrible line of fire and pain spread across my chest….They have etched him with the logo of their faith. This swastika……But it was his fault that he'd been mistaken for a Muslim. The initial markings had been his: cap, lungi, and the careful beard…..The cook had simply gone by appearances (LTG 85). Therefore, he, mistaken and branded for being a Muslim, voluntarily assumes that identity in order to rid himself of all signs of identification through religion. In fact Haasan's character foreground the fears and fortunes of many a marginalised people. His ethical code while talking of generalities "love for" all essential humanity, unclassified, unclothed," establishes his commitment firmly with those who are weak, victimized and suppressed.
Outward appearances turn out to be complex identities, if not disguises. When Ammi, the matriarchy of the narrator's adopted family decides to contest an election and make a separate party Anjuman Bara--i--Tahaffuz--i--Haal, photographers and interviewers through the lens of stereotypical ethnicity see her. They all want to see a Muslim woman dressed in a Burka. But she says that it "is not a Muslim party------it is the society for the Defence of the Present." She affirms that her party is a secular party. When asked "Didn't she want to live in the Muslim Homeland, in Pakistan?" rejects by saying, "But it won't be Lucknow" (LTG 330). She totally rejects the religious and communal prejudices and outward markers of identity such as dress (burka), party (Muslim League) and branding of language (Urdu) on the basis of the religion. Ammi strictly retorts against the extraneous parameters 's essentiality for identification.
Another character who has mistaken identity is Bihari. The real name of Bihari Halwai whose ladle moves from right to left on the karahi, inscribing the Koran in jalebi, a line a day, is Omar Oureshi.
In fact the novel, through the identity of various characters, emphasizes on the act of belonging and affirms that all other markers of identity like name, language, external signs are/ can be unreliable and mistaken.
The end of the novel Looking through Glass is quite symbolic. The Hindu narrator along with Haasan joins the Muslim Refugees at the camp at Purana Quila. Narrator's inclusion in Ammi's family photograph is a significant sign on behalf of a Hindu--self integrating itself in a Muslim family.The end of the novel does not show the scene very common in most of the partition novels: Muslim leaving India from refugee camps to Pakistan. Instead of going to the 'Promised Land' for the Muslims, they opt to go back to Lucknow: to their ancestral home. Thus the novel challenges the official nationalist version both by applying a corrective lens and by removing the lens between history and life. It does not reject the nationalist history altogether, but rearranges the national politics with a more committed to local people .

Issues of Identity in A River with Three Banks:
Shiv K. Kumar's A River with Three Banks (1998) is one of the recent creative responses on Partition. Shiv K. Kumar recaptures the pain and sufferings of those who had to face the tragic consequences of an event for which they were nowhere responsible. Kumar visualizes the time of 1947 with all its brutality, romance, agony and ecstasy. Along with human depravity and hatred, there is also a plea for universal kinship and a hope and commitment to the cherished values like love, compassion and forgiveness.
Religious identity, which was so exclusively imposed upon people at the time of Partition, appears as a symbol of exteriority in the novel RWTB.When Gautam watches the dead body of Abdul Rahim killed by the riot mongers he "Suddenly recognized a striking resemblance between Abdul Rahim and his own father-the same wheat--ish complexion, arched eyebrows, chiselled chin and nose" (RWTB 11).
The shifting Identities of Gautam and Haseena from one religion to another just for survival testify the absurdity of Partition when religious identity had shrank to merely outward identity markers like Muslim fez cap, sherwani, burka, dhoti--kurta, caste--mark, Kumkum etc. and bodily one like circumcision. Gautam and Haseena have to change their cloths again and again as they go from one place to another place in order to move safely. It is with bitter irony they comment on the situation: How funny! One's life depends upon what one wears these days ….All that one need (...) is two sets of cloths in a handbag.
(RWTB 119--120). It is very painful for Gautam who is the firm believer of universal religion that he has to undergo the humiliation of having to prove his non--Muslim--ness by stripping himself naked. It's a great irony that the frenzied mob, which humiliates him to do so, leaving within him a permanent scar, impressed by that "desecration of both his body and soul" (RWTB 211), belongs to his same original religion: Rip off his clothes if he doesn't cooperate Blood mounting to his face, Gautam began to undress------first his trousers, then his underwear.... He felt so sick that he nearly threw up...He wished he'd been killed instead.
As he stood stark naked, like a pale sacrifice offered to some demon, a flashlight probed his groin-then a rough hand probed him between his thighs.
No circumcision------he's a Hindu all right, said a voice." (RWTB 211) It is the most humiliating and traumatic experience for Gautam having his life spared in the name of religion because even in the midst of religious intolerance he was able to keep himself balanced enough to declare: "I'm now a Christian. A few days ago I was a Hindu. [ ... ] And I wouldn't mind becoming a Muslim, I don't believe in these religions--they all condone violence, instigate their followers to kill [...]" (RWTB 80).
The novel RWTB is distinct in showcasing the underlying unity among different religions. Kumar uses Gautam and Shamalal as his mouthpieces in order to represent basic principles of all religions, the very heritage of Indian subcontinent thus suggesting a way to come out of the rigid framework of religiosity. The following discussion between Gautam and his father reveals Kumar's belief in secular aspect of nationalism. Gautam quotes from the Koran: All human beings are created as a family A single community Then God sends His Prophets Bearer of glad tidings, Who guide those who believe in Him And punish the evil. (RWTB 191) As soon as he finished reading, his father asked: "Now isn't that lord Krishna also says in the Bhagavad--Gita?
Whenever righteousness declines and evil prospers, I assure a visible shape and move as man with man, guiding the virtuous, punishing the wicked...' don't you have here two Prophets saying the same thing? (RWTB 191) The unity is shown not only between Hinduism and Islam but also between Christianity and Hinduism. According to Shamalal, Gautam's father, Christ is a Yogi. 'What Gautam reads in English translation of the famous edict engraved in Pali on the Ashok pillar, 'which evokes memories of Ashok the Great, who was a champion of non--violence, seems to be the message of the novel: True religion does not recognize any barriers between one human being and the other. It embraces all living creatures--man, animal and bird. Compassion, endurance, understanding and love are man's greatest' treasures(RWTB 157). This message of humanity is also given even in Mahatma Gandhi's prayers: All human beings are created as a family A single community (RWTB 191) ......... Called by diverse names--Bhagwan or Allah You are the same, O Lord! Give every human being Sanity to perceive this (RWTB ). Haseena who is victimized during the atrocities of partition also conveys her view on religion. According to her, religion should be "a matter of conviction"(RWTB) Kumar seems to juxtapose the universal religion of humanism as against religious fanaticism and communalism and also seems to enforce the message of a universal religion through the character of Gautam. Commenting upon Gautam's article in the newspaper, its editor says, "(...) You seem to be moving towards Gandhi, as you understand him--towards a sort of universal religion" (RWTB 195).
Gautam, the protagonist of the novel and an ideal hero of Kumar's creation, is a symbol of this universal religion. He is an instrument of Kumar's vision of liberal humanism. Being a member of the educated elite, Gautam is a cosmopolitan hero, who transcends above all religious barriers. He does not bother about outward rituals and religious practices. He takes his conversion to Christianity, the ritual in