Today Topic-Value addition Course- VAC- Reading Indian Fiction in English Unit- 3 ( Azadi By Chaman Nahal ) Semester- 1
Subject- ( Sol/ Ncweb / Du Regular / Other
About the writer
- Azadi is a novel written by the Indian writer Chaman Nahal who was born before partition in Sialkot, Pakistan, on 2 August 1927. He migrated to India after Independence with his family.
- He received his university education from the University of Delhi with M.A. in English in 1948. Later, he studied at the University of Nottingham as a British Council scholar from 1959 - 61 and did his PhD in English in 1961.
- He married Sudarshna Rani and has two daughters. He received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 1977 and the Federation of Indian Publishers award in 1977 and 1979. Besides writing novels, short stories, and critical essays, he also taught as visiting lecturer at several universities in India, the U.S.A., Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and North Korea.
Summary
The story is about the migration of Hindu families during the partition of India and Pakistan. The plot begins on the 3rd of June 1947 with the announcement of the Viceroy who declares the partition in the evening. Before the partition, by and large, the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs lived together in harmony and peace. Lala Kanshi Ram is one of the oldest tenants of Bibi Amar Vati and the main protagonist of the novel. He lives in a three-room set with his wife Prabha Devi and twenty-year-old college-going son, Arun. Lala Kanshi Ram is a grain merchant, a follower of the Arya Samaj but he is also fascinated with the British Raj.
Just opposite their house lives a Sikh family which includes the pregnant Isher Kaur, her father, grandfather and husband. The landlady Amar Vati lives with her husband, an adopted son, a beautiful Kashmiri daughter-in-law Sunanda and two grandkids. On the ground floor lives the charwoman Padmini and her daughter Chandani. The building also houses Mukanda's mother, whose son is in jail. T
he lives of these characters are ripped apart the day the Partition is announced. Through their experiences, we as readers, relive the horror and the pain of the partition. “The story is a journey of multiple characters, who all have to leave their home in Sialkot after Partition and move to the new free India during the ongoing riots between Hindus and Muslims.
The main protagonist is the grain merchant Lala Kanshi Ram who lives on rent in a shared house with his wife and a college going son along with seven other families.
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
Lala Kanshi Ram
- The main protagonist and a grain merchant in West Pakistan's city of Sialkot He is the oldest and chief tenant of Bibi Amar Vati.
- He is not well-read but shares the common middle-class mindset to elevate the status of his family with education and follows a trendy nationalist spirit.
- The story is about his loss of identity, home, and family members and a quest to find them again in new India.
- He firmly believes in Gandhi and cries after his death but he also admires the British government. He loves his language Urdu and his motherland Sialkot. However, he easily calls India his motherland, after crossing the Ravi.
Prabha Rani
- She is Kanshi Ram's wife and an ideal example of a Good Indian woman. As a forty-year-old woman, she is mature and clever enough to manage her home well.
- She also has her own superstitious beliefs, and a collection of perfumes, sarees and jewellery.
- As a dutiful wife she worries about the health of her husband and feels proud that he is so well- versed in current affairs.
- Like an ideal wife from any classical text, she complains to others about how difficult it is to make her husband happy.
- She is the ideal wife who knows how to be docile and when to be brave and take care of the situation.
Arun Kumar
- Kanshi Lal and Prabha Rani's twenty years old son. He studies at Murray College, Sialkot.
- At the age of twenty, he studies English Literature and plays tennis. His character is partially inspired by Nahal's life.
- He also shares the role of the narrator with Lala Kanshi Ram. Like any other young boy, he has a fair share of romantic relations and sexual desires.
- He does not like Gandhi but gets offended when someone else insults him.
Chandni
- Young girl of eighteen years old. Padmini's daughter and Arun's second girlfriend. She dreams of marrying Arun and living a peaceful life.
- Her end remains unclear and she is symbolic of all women lost during the riots. Her fate is not shared but it is clear that she will not have a good life.
- First, she serves as a distraction for Arun to not think about Nur and Madhu. Nahal writes "Chandni had seeped so deeply into his consciousness.
Chaudhari Barkat Ali
- He is a Muslim friend of Lala Kanshi Ram.
- His son Munir is best friends with Arun, and his daughter Nur is Arun's first girlfriend. He is the perfect example of an ideal Gandhi follower.
- Unlike other Muslims whose fanaticism leads them to hatred, hysteria and frenzy, he keeps his friendship and brotherhood till the end.
- He is a good father, who believes in his daughter and son's education. He does not stop Nur from singing, because she likes it. Without caring about others' opinions, he follows his heart and tries to give his best in everything.
- He firmly believes in Gandhi's words that "A Muslim in India was more an Indian than anything else" .
Summing up
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