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The theme of partition since 1980

Soumendu Mishra
Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj University
2014
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Summary: 
An attempt has been made in the following chapters to study 'The Theme of Partition Since 1980'. The theme of Partition and the impact of freedom movement are almost inseparable counterparts in Indian history. India's two hundred years long struggle for Independence resulted in the birth of two nations through Partition. Indian English novelists can not afford to avoid the influence of freedom movement and the Partition trauma in their writings. Salman Rushdie is the forerunner of Partition theme since 1980. His award winning novel Midnight's Children opens the floodgate for recent Indian English novelists to deal with the theme of Partition. His supremacy on Magic Realism, Post-Colonialism, Surrealism, Chutneyfication of history and cinematic view delights us every time. Shauna Singh Baldwin, the diasporic genius wrote What The Body Remembers (1996) on the theme of Partition revolving around the life of Satya and Roop (with Sardarji) and the life of a nation (Indian Subcontinent). Her parallel symbolism, feminine perspective, minute details of the agonizing days of Partition make us liable to read the novel at a stretch again and again. Shiv K. Kumar's A River With Three Banks (2001) reveals Partition's agony and ecstasy, forgiveness and revenge, irreparable loss and robust optimism through the visions of a poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, translator and critic. Mukul Kesavan's revisionist psychology is superbly portrayed in Looking Through Glass (1995). The Partition holocaust is vividly and realistically revealed with the narrator protagonist's view through the tainted glass. Thus, the purpose of the present work is to make a detailed study of the Partition theme as depicted in the historical context by the stalwart novelists since 1980. The study aims to emphasize that it is important for all of us to realize the real value of human lives- its dignity, honour and pricelessness. It also aims to efface the memories of this menace of Partition from the face of the globe once and for all. An evaluation written by four novels of the four Indian English novelists undertaken in this thesis enables us to have a panoramic view of the theme of Partition as portrayed in contemporary Indian English Fiction since 1980. hdl.handle.net/10603/224474
Language: 
English