Topic > The effects of colonialism in the books

Tamas by Bhisham Sahni and The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai deal with the repercussions of the period of subjugation by the British and how deeply the partition affected people's lives. The partition of India and Pakistan was not merely a geographical division but also divided the people in their hearts; their thoughts tuned into a different wavelength and culminated in mutual hatred. The book Tamas shows the realistic depiction of the nation, India sectioned into Pakistan and India with Muslim and Hindu population respectively. The existing peace between the two religions has been disrupted and has led to a series of violence, out of which hundreds of innocent people have fallen prey to this inhuman activity. Novels serve as a means to decipher the silent decay of a nation, when it is polluted by irrational principles and logic seems to be lacking, to understand that communal clashes and hierarchical division devour the nation like mites. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essaySahni in his novel, conveys a first-hand experience of the prevailing chaotic times of the horrors of partition and how politics entered into all this, manipulating people and snatching their innocence and guilt, sending them to a homicidal madness. The novel also talks about the association of animals with a religion that has fueled so much hatred in the Muslim community that it has pushed them to rebel at the act of killing a pig and holding it in front of the doors of a mosque, the doors that lead to paradise and help people. in maintaining contact with the divine. "Say (O Muhammad): I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything that is forbidden to be eaten by anyone who wishes to eat it, unless it is Maytah (a dead animal) or blood shed (by slaughter or the like), or the flesh of swine (pork); for this surely is impure or wicked (illegal) meat (of an animal) which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than Allah (or which has been slaughtered for idols, or upon which the Name of Allah was not mentioned during the slaughter)” (al -An'aam 6:145) These lines of the Quran clearly state that killing pig or eating pork is "haram" and anyone who follows the Islamic religion should think so too, then he instigated the people of the Muslim community and led to a riot which led to destruction of peace and property, tore apart the harmony between the communities We see that, the novel begins with the scene which remains the cosmos of the entire novel,. it tells a story, it gives a glimpse of the consequences unfolding. Tamas resembles the way UR Ananthamurthy's Samskara is written, where the main scene is introduced at the beginning and the story begins around the act constructed for the readers. The title itself proposes darkness and ignorance, rooted in a human being who is considered an element of nature in Vedanta. Tamas in the literal sense means a property inhibited by an individual who is not positive, is ignorant, dark and lethargic, which can be deduced by reading the novel, where we see the dark sides of humanity, and the innocence shredded, compromised their sense of being. Bhisham Sahni celebrates the vibrancy of culture, religion and the diversity of their approach. Tamas, is a story of chaos and pain, it takes us on a journey into reality that has resisted the threads of time. Sahni's book is contemporary in nature, an individual who builds his identity on his actions but not the religion he was born for can perceive it. The book recounts the horrors of the riots that broke out in Pakistan and India after independence in 1947. People were massacred, their wivesraped, children were kidnapped and all this happened in the name of peace. The irony of this regarding partition is also shown in the play Toba tek Singh, written by Saadat Hasan Manto, published in 1955. The story that depicted is a strong satire depicting the relationship between India and Pakistan. The show showcases the inmates held at Lahore Asylum, some of whom were transferred to India after Pakistan's independence in 1947. Tamas, is also a period drama television film, written by Govind Nihalani in 1988. Sahni also won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was also awarded the Padma Bhushan for literature in 1998. Sahni uses an imaginary thread to create a story so that he can visit the past when the riot took place. The story features the character of Nathu who is a street sweeper, brilliant and hardworking. Nathu was asked to leave all his work unattended and exterminate a pig by another character, Thekedar. After a series of denials and an act of corruption on the latter's part, Nathu killed the pig. The body of the dead animal was found the following morning in front of a local mosque. The story is not woven with fiction and fantasy but with the ink of reality seen and the unheard cries of many. The revolt left a deep scar in the hearts of the people, so much so that they could not undo this cursed path, which haunted their future and never allowed them to believe in the other community. We see that the novel is about a place, created by his poetic imagination, which goes beyond borders, territories and indifferences. Writers like Khushwant Singh and Radhika Swaroop have written soul-shrinking novels like Train to Pakistan and Where the River Divides, depicting the intensification of violence and bloodshed that devastated the harmony of the village. Even in the novel Where the River Divides, Swaroop presents us with the tainted love story in which the protagonist, Asha, has to leave her husband and suffer the terrifying pain of losing her entire family. Sahni astutely paints a picture of dead bodies of people belonging to various communities including Sikhs while Muslims demanded ransom in exchange for their lives. In case of disagreement on the terms mentioned, a fight breaks out between the two communities and the Sikh men leave the refuge to join together, collecting their weapons leaving women and children in fear, who decide to give up their lives by throwing themselves into a well, taking with them their own children. on your back. The story shows fractured and fragmented relationships and communications between neighbors, where doors and windows were mostly closed, all public activities were stopped, and beautiful neighborhoods and villages were transformed into Hell. The air around the place was filled with suspicion and fear. In all this, the fire of communal hatred is fanned by pretentious religious extremists, for example Devrat. The decisive moment of this situation is represented by the episode of the cereals reduced to ashes at the cereal market, in which the writer constructs an image of the city destroyed and on the brink of revolt. The book explores physical violence as a motive, but projects psychological violence as a means to break sanity. The political mind game then, as now, has been the reason for countless causalities where human life has been seen as nothing to get what they want. The British did not pay attention to the problems of the people, even the deputy commissioner Richard remained unaffected and considered the problems faced by the people of humble nature. Although for the sake of the position, Richard implemented some measures to gather some leaders and appoint them Aman Committee to send a message of peace. The writershowed characters like Harnam Singh and his wife Banto who lived their entire lives in the place they called home, which gives a subtle hint to the poem Postcard from Kashmir, written by Agha Shahid Ali, where Shahid Ali also talks about a place that it remained imprinted in his heart and forever imprinted in his soul. Harnam Singh finds it difficult to move to a new place where he doesn't feel at home. But being a targeted target of violence, he had to choose a difficult choice between the two that were offered to him by fate. The novel shows well-established power politics and communal politics. It exposes the municipal leaders' strategy of instigating religious hatred and communal disputes. It is believed that politics is influencing people into a dark alley of shrunken mentality. But the novel also sketches the rays of hope during those crucial days of independence. In the preface to the novel it is shown how violence was generated from its roots. From the moment the leader gives hope to violence and the people who follow him like cattle in a herd serve the cruel intentions of the communalist. Tamas illuminates the lack of illumination in the crevices of the wounded soul. The book talks in depth about the unrest that afflicted the community in the days before the partition and how profoundly the madness of indifference to mercy created crests that were difficult to overcome. The novelist has represented the three communities of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh respectively, in a stereotypical manner, filling the gaps in the line drawn by the society. So Tamas as a novel brings out different shades of humanity, blurring the line between humanity and cruelty. The novel, The Legacy of Loss by Kiran Desai, addresses the delicate topic of migration and fragmented and dubious identity. Identity construction is very broad in terms, it is what an individual associates with. People even in contemporary times have been maimed by the upper upper class people who exploit the simply exploited. Existentialism is a concept stated and defined in philosophical books but people are afraid to implement existentialism, it states that woman or man or any other gender is free to exist in their individuality. The book focuses on the characters Sai and Biju, building an identity for them. The novel is primarily based on Kalimpong district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Kalimpong has a history and name for its institutions, most of which were founded during the colonial period ruled by the British colony. You can see in the story that there is a sense of colonialism and postcolonialism. The characters are shown flailing between classes, trapped in the vicious cycle of the Indian class system. The story can be read between the lines and the emotional baggage of the characters emerges from the words of the writer Desai. The story is told in the time of the 1980s when Sai, a 17-year-old girl, comes to live with her grandfather, who is an educated judge and alumnus of Cambridge University. The story is also about the unrequited love between Sai and his mathematics teacher, Gyan. Desai in his writing style brought out the story of each character and gave them a distinct life. Even in the book there are cases in which "masculinity" is shown to be raw and ruthless, also obtained by having sex. Dreams and happy hope are conveyed in the story where everyone wants to escape the strict caste system imposed in their homeland. Just like in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, where the protagonist believes in American dreams and truly expects America to provide opportunities to everyone who deserves it. So in this novel too, Biju, the cook's son, dreamsan opportunity that will only be offered to him when he emigrates to America. Even after migrating to America, Biju's caste remains with him like a shadow. The assumed belief of people in India is that the lower social class is not trustworthy and the upper social class treats them as their slaves. On the other hand, the lower caste expects betrayal to be a fundamental characteristic of the upper class. This creates the binary in which the two social classes maintain their separate lives. There is a dissection in the identity of the three characters Judge, Sai and Biju, who have seemingly masked their roots and accepted the Western world, to be more progressive and welcoming. The judge is a complex character who has been so influenced by colonialism that there have been cases in the form of dialogue in which he gets angry at his mother for being "Indian". He wants to blend in with the Western world. From an early age, the judge learned all the mannerisms of Western people. So the identities of the three characters are a compromise and are disconnected. And it's the hangover of colonialism. The novel written by Desai contains cynicism towards globalization, considering it a product of colonialism. Isolation is also a recurring theme in the novel where Biju, among a thousand other cities, also feels lonely and misses his childhood with his father and grandfather. The judge seemed to contemplate his past actions and live in the dark shadow of his previous sins. There is a block of colonialism even after colonies were no longer the domain of India, people in their hearts were colonized and deemed socially attractive only when they knew English ways like the English. By imitating the style of the English, we created a self that was distant from the individual themselves and this created fission in their acceptance of identity. We see that there is a crisis going on in the minds of the people because they have bathed in the water The English ways were so foreign to their own culture, their own people, their own land and even to themselves. Characters like that of the judge, Sai, and even Biju are seen struggling with their labeled national identity, imperialism had dented their truth and made them see a fog of lies that only the English are powerful and sophisticated, civilized beings and concentrate. This psychological oppression was achieved by introducing the concept of self and others, where the self is the European discourse while the less educated and civilized "others" remain on the periphery. The concept of self and other stabilized because third world nations believed it to be true, it is easy to control someone's mind if that individual gives permission to do so, without thereby compromising the integrity they possess . The colonizers not only ruled for so many years, but even today, the imprint of the binary between self and others is still present in the minds of the people, to whom we have generalized our thinking. As seen in the novel, the cook is proud of the fact that his son is in a foreign land and therefore is a great man, who does not fight for his survival. The cook did not seem bothered by the difference in distance and the fact that his son, Biju, works in menial jobs with extremely low wages and is in the country illegally. Biju on the other hand thinks of a day when he will be home, in the land he knew. European discourses created a master-slave dichotomy where they learned the art of being the dominant and the only authority allowed to judge others, creating insecurity in them to such a level that they could not believe otherwise. The novel's story is carefully woven around two different worlds held together by these characters' fascination with the West. This hybrid self is..