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Translated by the author 'Tamasdrove the point home that ordinary people want to live in peace' The Guardian Set in a small-town frontier province in 1947, just before Partition, Tamas tells the story of a sweeper named Nathu who is bribed and deceived by a local Muslim politician to kill a pig, ostensibly for a veterinarian. The following morning, the carcass is discovered on the steps of the mosque and the town, already tension-ridden, erupts. Enraged Muslims massacre scores of Hindus and Sikhs, who, in turn, kill every Muslim they can find. Finally, the area's British administrators call out the army to prevent further violence. The killings stop but nothing can erase the awful memories from the minds of the survivors, nor will the various communities ever trust one another again. The events described in Tamas are based on true accounts of the riots of 1947 that Sahni was a witness to in Rawalpindi, and this new and sensitive translation by the author himself resurrects chilling memories of the consequences of communalism which are of immense relevance even today.
In a bustling town in Punjab before the Partition, a sickly but restless child longs to play with the neighbourhood youngsters. He is constantly thwarted by his mother’s anxious need to coddle him at home. When not being punished for using foul language, he is fighting with his siblings or being teased by the servant. As time passes and his curiosity of the wider world deepens, he discovers that his father is not invincible, that his long-held derision of girls vanishes with the first bloom of sexual longing and that the playground battles of old are no match for life’s cruelties. Boyhood is a haunting portrait of the inescapable agonies and unfathomable desires of childhood by one of Hindi literature’s most towering luminaries.
In a city in undivided Punjab, Nathu, a tanner, is bribed to kill a pig. When the animal’s carcass is discovered on the steps of the local mosque the next morning, simmering tensions explode into an orgy of bloodlust. As the carnage ensues, ordinary lives are dramatically upturned: The women of a Sikh village resolve to make the ultimate sacrifice when faced with imminent death at the hands of an advancing mob; an elderly couple undertakes a perilous journey when the one place they call home is no longer safe for them; and wracked with guilt, Nathu must come to terms with his unwitting role in instigating the violence. Yet, despite the darkness of the times, rare moments of unexpected friendship and love also surface. A timeless classic about the Partition of India, Tamas is also a chilling reminder of the consequences of religious intolerance and communal prejudice. Daisy Rockwell’s fresh and definitive translation expertly renders the power and passion of this iconic and award-winning novel for a new generation of readers.
The Forty Three Stories From Twenty One Languages Anthologised Here Reflect The Diversity And Complexity Of Life Lived In India. From The Violence And Mass Hysteria Of The Partition To The Supressed Rage And The Gnawing Self-Pity Of Individuals Trapped In Broken HomesýThese Stories Capture The Outer And The Inner Lives Of Indian Society. The Sacred And The Profane, The Elite And Subaltern Meet In Many-Layered Narratives In These Stories, Providing Us Metaphors To Visualize Ourselves. These Stories Map An Eventful Century During Which Our Country Emerged Into A Nation. The Images Gathered Here From The Haunted Interiors Of The Twentieth Century Are Both Disquieting And Illuminating.
Novel.
Middle India, in this collection of seventeen short stories, Bhisham Sahni examines middle India the lower middle class not rich or famous or educated in convent schools, not cosmopolitan but urban or semi-urban. In these tightly told tales, he explores with precision of thought and expression the humanity of individuals and their places in society.The collection includes some of Sahni’s best known stories: ‘Dinner for the Boss’, a tragi-comic tale of a man trying to please his employer and a mother’s attempt to please her son; ‘Paali’, the drama of a young boy shared between a Muslim and a Hindu family during Partition; and ‘Sparrow’, a story of love and loss in a marriage. Among the other stories in this anthology are popular favourites like ‘Veero’, ‘The Witch’, ‘Before Dying’, ‘Radha-Anuradha’ and ‘Salma Aapa’.
'An icon in Hindi literature'-The Hindu The braid of young Basanti's life thickens with time. Feisty and fearless, she plays hide and seek with her overbearing father, dodges the crippled old tailor whom she's sold to and elopes with a handsome young man. Unwilling to let anyone suppress her spirit, she even rejects the benevolence of Shyama bibi, her confidante and employer. With the thunderous clap of demolition of a basti in Delhi and a complex understanding of the confluence of classes, renowned writer Bhisham Sahni gives voice, laughter and resolve to a persona who might have otherwise coursed silently away through the veins of this megacity.
Revised Curriculum and Credit Framework of Under Graduate Programme, Haryana According to KUK/CRSU University Syllabus as Per NEP-2020
This collection is about those on the wrong side of the border. Apart from offering a perspective on displaced people and communities, the stories talk about people as religious and linguistic minorities in post-Partition India and Pakistan. These narratives offer insights into individual experience, and break the silence of the collective sphere.
Rawalpindi in the first few decades of the twentieth century is a prosperous, bustling town, witnessing the first stirrings of the freedom movement. It is in this place and time that a delicate child grows into adolescence, at the heart of an unusual family. Adulthood and the horrific business of Partition drive the young man to Bombay, then Ambala and finally Delhi. As he gathers life experience and hones his talent at writing, his politics are formed. We observe the making of one of the icons of modern Hindi literature: Bhisham Sahni. In addition to being the story of Sahni’s life and art, Today’s Pasts also chronicles the great cultural highpoints of modern India: the IPTA, the Progressive Writer’s Association, the Nayi Kahani movement. The stars of Hindi and Urdu literature enter and exit the text as friends and familiars. In Bhisham Sahni’s hands a life story is transformed into a history of our present: one life bears witness to the tale of a nation.