IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 238

Sk. Masikul Ahmmed

M.Phil. Research Scholar
Department of English
Hemwanti Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University
Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India
skmasikulahmmedamu@gmail.com

Dialectics of Humanity and Religiosity in Amrita Pritam’s Novel Pinjar (The Skeleton): A
Humanistic Approach

Abstract:

Society has been divided on different bases in which gender and religion are at the front.
Human beings are divided in society on the basis of different religion,and by doing so they
distinguish themselves from each other. This particular approach can be defined as to judge
all the incidents of men and women by their religious beliefs rather than considering that
person as a creation of the same Almighty. Though the main principle of every religion is to
promote brotherhood among each other. It is a duty of every human being to consider others
as brothers and sisters and raise hands to help regardless of their religion. That’s why, it is
universally acknowledged that religious beliefs can never be a true identity of anyone rather it
is humanity which is the sole and perfect identity of human being. As social representatives,
writers are trying to make a bound up of the people of different communities in a single row,
Amrita Pritam is such a writer who also tries to build a common place where everyone will
be treated with equal rights and there will be no distinction on the basis of gender, class, and
religion so on. This research paper will be based on these mentioned humanistic aspects with
critical analysis of Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar, written in Panjabi and is translated into English by
Khuswant Singh in 2009, in a humanist perspective and explores a woman’s fractured
identity amidst the religious and clan feuds on the eve of Indian Partition.

Keywords: Humanism, Religion, Brotherhood, Tradition, Ritual, Belief, Communities,

Partition, Society.
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 239

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Humanism as ―A rationalist outlook or system of

thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters‖. So
in other words, it can be asserted that humanity is such a thing which integrates the whole
spectrum of humankind into a single perspective of humanity. It is against the dividing of the
humankind on the basis of religions, class, caste and gender. As Mark Twain in his story,
―Concerning the Jews‖, defines humanity as, ―I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no
color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any
society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being-that is enough for me; he can’t
be any worse‖ (P 277).

Indian literature on partition, particularly the fiction, is a triumph of the spirit of

humanism. In all the major works of fiction in Indian languages as well as in Indian English
writings, the focus is not only on revenge, bloodshed, rape or massacre but on recognition of
humanistic truths of love, respect, faith, freedom, fellow feeling and tolerance.As works like,
Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man (1998), Chaman Nahal’ Azadi(2001), Manohar Malgonkar’s
A Bend in the Ganges (1965), Kushwant Sing’s A Train to Pakistan (1956), Homen
Borgohain's In Search of Ismail Sheikh, Ismat Chughtai's Roots, Urvashi Butalia’s The Other
Side of Silence (1998) have a historical background of communal riots, transformations of the
community life, and they each attempt to put forward the fact that the Indian culture is a salad
bowl which respectfully accommodates divergent religious faiths and cultural practices. It is
the very heterogeneity of Indian culture that makes it historically possible for different
religions and cultures to survive and to mutually enrich themselves in their own way. This
humanistic approach of Indian philosophy has a worldwide attraction since the time
immemorial. Mother Teresa, Sister Nivedita and many other great men and women from all
over the world settled lifelong in India to discover the spirit of humanism and its rich source
of philosophy.ShashiTharoor in his novel, Riot, comments ―. . . An India neither Hindu nor
Muslim, but both. That is the only India that will allow them to continue to call themselves
Indians‖ (116).

Amrita Pritam (31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005), a prominent Indian writer who
wrote her literary works in Panjabi and Hindi languages and most of her literary pieces,
especially novels, have been translated into English as well as modern Indian languages. She
has focused on the social reality of suppressed people, especially women, of India in her
writings.As a true worshiper of humanism she always prefers humanistic attitudes to religious
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 240

mentality. As a witness to Punjab's Partition, She writes: "In 1947, Lahore was turned into a
graveyard. It was the politics of hate that engulfed Lahore inflames; at night one would see
houses being swept in flames, hear cries of pain, while the day would be spent witnessing
long hours of curfew". She evokes her childhood memory in her autobiography, Raseedi
Ticket (The Revenue Stamp), that when she travels to her mother's village in Gujranwala, she
notices water being hawked at the railway platform as ―Hindu pani” and ―Muslim pani‖ (P
14-15). She questions her mother — "Is water also Hindu-Mussalman?" and her mother, Raj
Kaur, replies, "It happens here, God knows what all happens next‖ (P 7).In her poignant
poem, “Ajjaakhaan Waris Shah Nu‖ (―Today I invoke Waris Shah – Ode to Waris Shah"), an
elegy to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, expresses her anguish over massacres during the
partition of India. Pritam’s view on humanity has been reflected through her writings,
especially Pinjar.

The novel, Pinjar or The Skeleton deals with the partition of India on the basis of
religion, and sets against the backdrop of partition of India in 1947. It is a tale of complexities
of human mind, loss of brotherhood, decline of the real essence of humanity, abduction of
women, loss of identity, a sense of alienation, psychological and physical trauma of human
beings. It covers a span of decade from 1935 to 1947 and describes the life of a Hindu money
lenders of the village –Chhatoani. A young girl of the family named Pooro is engaged to
Ramchand, a son of a Hindu money lender of a neighbouring village Rattoval. Pooro desires
to see Ramchand and tries her best to meet him by standing on the road which goes to
Rattoval. At the same time, the country is divided and both the villages of Pooro and
Ramchand's fall in the Pakistan territory. The novelist focuses on the situation before and
after the Partition. The novelist bitterly satirizes the political leaders and their decision of
separation of the Hindus and the Muslims. The very decision transformed into communal
riots and the nation lost the very principles on which it stands.

Pritam has illustrated the theme of humanism from the very beginning to the end of
the novel with such pictures as partition, communal violence, treatment of women, and one’s
thinking about and deal with other from different religious background. Humanistic attitude
is reflected through the character of Rashida, though he has been abducted and forced to
marry Pooro, but he is a character with true humanistic features which are exposed by his
dealing with the other characters. Though he has committed sin by abducting Pooro and
forcing her to marry him and changing her religion (from Hindu to Muslim) and name (from
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 241

Pooro to Hamida) against her willing. But as far as his behaviours with other characters and
even Pooro, are concerned he is very cooperative, supportive, caring and always ready to lend
a hand to help others in their crucial times without contemplating ontheir religious beliefs. He
always denounces himself for his misdeed to Pooro and is very much conscious about her
health. He says, ―My sins be forgiven me! Speak to me just once!‖(P 13). He also rubs the
soles of Pooro’s feet and ―He gently pressed her shoulders and with his hands poured water
between her lips. He put a teaspoonful of hot ghee mixed with gur into her mouth‖ (P 13).
The mental condition of Rashida has been reflected through the voice of the narrator, “He
had lowered his eyes; he did not have the courage to look Pooro in the face” (P 14). His
humanistic treatment towards Pooro is also exposed through his speeches to her like, ―I
promise that no harm will come to you for the rest of your life‖, ―Pooro, I will put the world
at your feet‖, ―Iwill love you as long as I live. And I will not behave the way your uncle
behave towards my aunt‖ (Pooro’s uncle had robbed out Rashida’s aunt and casted her from
his life after three days). He also tells Pooro, ―Pooro, your entreaties will not make me feel as
if I had committed a murder, I swear by Allah, I cannot bear to see you crying all the time”
(P 16). The originality of Rashida’s character is also exposed by the narrator herself through
the thinking of Pooro, ―She glanced towards Rashida, who was sitting beside the hearth in the
courtyard. He had not left her, nor thrown her out. She was safely installed in his house. He
was a kind husband…‖ (P 57). Now it can also be pointed out that, unlike others he has
abducted Pooro against his own wishes rather being provoked by his uncle who urges him to
make an oath on the Quran that he would abduct the daughter of Sahukar family.

Rashida’s humanistic attitudes are not only indicated through his voices but also with
his actions, as he provides Pooro every type of freedom and supports her at all condition. At
the time of Pooro’s abortion, the condition of his mind is narrated as, ―he wished he could
take some if not all the pain from his wife’s body into his‖ (P 32). Rashida gives value to
Pooro’s word, when she makes decision to nourish madwoman’s new born child he
encourages her decision though he is aware that the madwoman was Hindu. Not only that, he
also gives permission to stay in his house to a Hindu girl at the time of communal riot. His
devotion and affection for human being as a whole and his value to Poore’s words is more
exposed when he rescued Lajo. In order to release Lajo from Muslim’s hands he agrees to
replace his house to Rattoval with his family, not only that, after rescue lajo, he also take his
charpoy to another room because he realises that ―…the women wanted to be left to
themselves to have a heart to heart conversation…‖(P 116). The character of Rashida has
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 242

been revealed in Pooro’s words to Lajo, ―Rashida certainly committed a crime in abducting
me. But since then, he has been good to me. If he had not helped me, how could I have found
you and brought you away?‖ (P 120).

So called religious minded people come in such radical condition that if someone
shows eagerness to help other of a different religious background, he/she is not allowed to
help because there is a belief that taking help from someoneof different religious believer
would pollute the religion. Although, there is no such condition in any religious scripture.
The novelist, Pritam is against such religious attitude. In order to criticise such mentality of
human being she has created a religious based incident between Pooro (Hamida) and
Kammo. When kammo carries a pitcher full of water and it slips down off her hand,Pooro
(Hamida) offers her―I can carry the pitcher for you‖ (P 37), Kammo replies her, ―You will
Pollute my pitcher‖ (P 39). But the novelist shows the victory of humanism against religious
attitude by creating a situation where Kammo loses her balance and Hamida catches the
pitcher and she also massages her (Kammo’s) ankle with her palms and from that time
Hamida dares to help Kammo with her pitcher of water in the dim light of the early morning
and Kammo makes all kind of excuses to meet Hamida. Finally their relationship becomes so
strong that the narrator describes as,―Hamida andKammo behaved towards each other like
mother and daughter, as well as like two close friends‖ (P 41).

Communal violence is another landmark which downtrends the value of

humanism.K.K. Sharma and B.K. Johri say in the preface of their book, The Partition in
Indian English Novel:

The partition of the Indian sub-continent on the communal basis into the sovereign
states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947 caused one of the bloodiest upheavals
in the history of human race. It shocked the conscience of the civilized people all the
world over, and made them shudder with anguish and dismay at man's wolfish cruelty
to m.an in the name of religion. The sudden, rude shock of the partition unnerved
men, destroyed their human attributes, and transformed them into wild beasts, who
perpetrated extremely barbaric cruelties against their fellow human beings. They
looted and burnt down shops and houses, killed small children and made millions of
people refugees. Women became a special target of communalfury; they were
abducted, raped and paraded naked in the streets, with shaven heads and breasts
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 243

severed firm. Their trunks. In fact, this event, which resulted in the barbarity of the
most heinous kind and in the massacre of not fewer than two million people, -was
terribly tragic arid heart rending because it was deliberate, and not a natural calamity
like an earthquake or a flood.

During Partition the people, though they may be Hindu, Sikh and Muslim, feel pride in taking
revenge against one another. It was such a worst time when humanity suffered a lot, not a
particular religious believer. In the aftermath of Partition, there were innumerable cases of
women abductions. Ritu Menon suggests that the official estimate of the number of abducted
women was placed at 50,000 Muslim women in India and 33,000 non-Muslim ones in
Pakistan (P 49). As Khuswant Singh in his novel, Train to Pakistan makes a comment,
―Muslim said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the
Muslim were to blame. The fact is both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and
clubbed. Both tortured and both raped.‖

During the partition if abducted women some how manage to run away back to their
families; family members have not accepted them. Thus at the time of partition women of
both religion were subjected to torture at a larger level. Same thing happened in the life of the
central character Pooro, when she has been abducted by a Muslim boy, Rashida as a result of
her ancestral mistreatment towards Rashida’s family though she has not done any wrong to
him and his family. Pooro asks, ―If my uncle abducted your aunt, what was the fault of
mine?‖ (P 18). When she manage to escape from the “Pinjar” of Rashida her parents are not
ready to accept her. The novelist narrates the reactions of her parents, ―The neighbours will
hear. There will be a crowd,‖ warned her father. Pooro’s mother stuffed her mouth with the
hem if her shirt. Daughter, this fate was ordained for you, we are helpless.‖Pooro heard her
father’s voice. She clung to her mother. ―The shaikhs will descend on us and destroy
everything we have‖ (P 22). On the same occasion when Pooro caries, ―Take me to Thailand
with you‖! (P 22).Her father is more conscious to the tradition and the religion, he replies,
―Who will marry you now? You have lost your religion and your birthright. If we dare to help
you, we will be wiped out without a trace of blood left behind to tell of our fate.‖(P 22). Now
as a reader, we all know that Pooro is not responsible for what is happening to her rather it is
the destiny and her father’s too much faith in religion and social traditions and customs which
are against the humanistic values. As a result of communal riots, same thing also happens
with others women characters like an unknown women who has been abducted and raped by
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 244

the Muslim goon das and rescued by Pooro from sugarcane fields and Lajo, wife of Pooro’s
brother Trilok. Through these abduction and rapes the novelist, Pritam shows how a girl’s
individual freedom was subjugated and stunned permanently and the Indian concept of
humanism that believes in the freedom of the individual comes into question.As KavitaDaiya
suggests, Pinjar challenges the communalist production of conflict between the Hindus and
Muslims as ― ―always already a site of conflict‖ (P 175).

As a true worshiper of humanism, Pritam emphasises the notion of humanistic attitude

that to be happy in relationship religion does not matter, rather it is love, affection, and
adoration on which the gladness of human relationship depends. In support to this theory she
creates two types of relationship, first one is inter-religious relationship (based on same
religion group) and intra-religious relationship (based on two different religion people). The
relationship of Rashida and Pooro starts with some extorter way .Initially, she hates Rashid
for abducting her. She is not able to accept her son rather considers herself to be polluted and
unclean. She considers herself to be a skeleton, devoid of any feelings, desires, stripped off
her subjectivity and dreams. But this objectification by the society could not strip her off her
humanity. She does not undergo dehumanization rather the traumatic experiences of her life
turn her to be more humane and sympathetic toward the plight of other subaltern women
around her. She showers her motherly affection to the orphan girl Kammo, who is ill-treated
by her aunt, she adopts the madwoman’s child as her own and even breastfeeds him, with the
help of her husband Rashid, and she manages to save the camp girl and Lajjo from their
abductors and manages to send them to their respective families. Finally she decides to stay
with Rashid in Pakistan. Thus it is human love, affection, and adoration which can change
one’s mentality from aversion to liking. There is another husband-wife relationship based on
same religious group. Taro’s relationship with her husband is defective because as a woman
she is being deprived of all kinds of liberty and she has been tortured from the first day of her
marriage. Her physical conditions have been narrated as:

…her skin had become the colour of a spring onion; her face, yellow like a stick of
turmeric. Some people said that she was possessed by a spirit; others, that she had
contracted some unknown disease. … Each time she returned to her parents, she was
thinner than before. Her bones stuck out of her flesh. But no one did anything about
her.(P 43)
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 245

Thus it can be said that the novelist, Pritam, has created two different religion based
relationships in order to prove her theory of humanism. By analysing these two types of
relationships we can say undoubtedly that to be happy in relation, it is not necessary to marry
someone of the same religion, rather it is essential to have someone who has love, affection,
adoration and respect for his/her partner. Dalai Lama states, ―We can live without religion
and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.‖

The people with humanistic attitudes are more appraisable than the religious minded
ones. As the Philanthropist, Abdul Sattar Edhi comments, ―No religion is higher than
humanity‖ .In support of this humanistic theory Pritamhas formed a plot of madwoman.
Being lunatic she has crossed the boundary of so called religion. She is free to go anywhere
of her wishes and she has also freedom to take food, dress and shelter from any religious
community. Though it is believed that madwoman is a Hindu but when she is loaded with a
child and local women are failed to cover her nakedness, ―the elders of the Panchayat took
the mad woman by the hand and left her in the dark at some distance from Sakkar. Out of
sight, out of mind!‖ (P 53). No one ponders about her crucial condition, rather they assuring
one another, ―Let some other village take care of her now‖ (P 53). Not only that, when
madwoman returns and gives birth to a baby , no one is willing to take care of madwoman
and her new born child. It is Hamida (Pooro) and her Muslim husband Rashid who show
eager to take care of the new born child. As the child grows up with the nourishment of them
and the milk of Hamida’s breasts, there is a gossiping in the village that a Hindu child is
converting into Muslim. ―The mad woman was a Hindu. The Muslim have grabbed a Hindu
child. Under the very nose of the Hindus, they have converted a Hindu child into a Muslim . .
.‖ (P 59). Though dogmatists of Hindu community are disturbed about the religion of the
child but no one has courage to take care of the child. They make a plan to ―raise a
subscription and pay the water-carrier’s woman to look after him (the child)‖ (P 59). They
also come in a decision that ―when he grows up he can sweep temple floor. All he’ll want is
two square meals a day. Surely we can provide that!‖(P 60). But no one is talking about the
bright future of the child. It is Rashida and his wife Pooro (Hamida) nourish this baby as
their son, Javed. Not only that, Rashida has to tolerate insulting comments from both
communities. He has also been threatened ―If someone takes it into his head to do harm,
don’t you say we did not warn you!‖ (P 64), he is also said, ―We too know that ghee only
sticks to the crooked finger‖ (P 65). Finally the child has been snatched away from Hamida’s
(Pooro’s) bosom. The narrator puts questions on the so called Hindu community:
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 246

―Why have the Hindus not thought of taking the baby on the first day? Why had they
let her swallow palm fuls of cumin-seed and the blood in her veins to milk in her
breasts? Why had they made her wash the child’s soiled garments till her hands
become hard and calloused? Why? Why? Why?‖ (P 61-62).

But at the end of the fourth day, on the fifth day, the child is returned to Hamida. Thus the
novelist emphasises on the victory of humanity to so called religious attitudes. Henry Rollins
observes that, ―It is only our humanity that can deliver us from the brutality of our
achievements.‖

In socio-religious and traditional treatment of women, the real essence of humanity

come into its wounded spot. They are counted as ―other‖ in the society as well as even their
own family. In the novel, Pinjar, the principle woman character, Pooro has been treated as
“burden” in her own family. The narrator points out, ―Pooro’s parents were resolved to
lighten themselves of the burden of a daughter‖(P 3) by arranging marriage of their daughter.
The word ―burden‟ indicates the indignity and ignominy that a girl can suffer as a
human.Pooro is also not allowed to go outside from the house when her father booked Ram
Chand because her mother thinks ―there was a lot of coming and going between the two
neighbouring villages and… people from Ram Chand’s might see her daughter‖(P 6). But
Ram Chand has not such condition and he can go whereby he want to wish. Not only that, the
novelist, Pritam has also shown a real picture of how a girl/woman is used as a tool of taking
revenge for other’s misdeed. Pooro has been kidnapped by a Muslim young boy, Rashiada,
for her uncle’s misbehave to Rashida’s aunt as a result of economic disparity between
Shaikhs and Sahukars family. Pooro’s grandfather had advanced Rs 500 on compound
interest to Rashida’s grandfather. When the poverty ridden Shaikhs family could not pay the
amount in due time, they were mercilessly rendered homeless. Their community was
defamed by the abduction of one of the women members of the family by Pooro‟s uncle. So
Pooro has been abducted not for her own offence towards Rashida’s family rather it is her
ancestors, especially her uncle’s sins. Thus, she puts question to Rashida ―If my uncle
abducted your aunt, what fault was that of mine?” (P 18). The exploitation and suffering of
women in a phallocentric society gets further developed through the other female character in
the story. Kammo, an orphan girl is ill-treated by her aunt. She takes Pooro as her mother but
is banned by her aunt to meet the latter. The novel raises question to the attitude of the
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 247

society towards a married women through the character of Taaro. Though her husband takes
another women as his wife but she cannot leave him as her parents and society don’t support
her. They rather say, ―Once we give away a daughter our lips are sealed. It’s up to her
husband to treat her as he likes.‖(P 47) Taaro is fully aware about the violation and this
realization makes her feel disgusted about it and turns her almost insane. She calls herself
unclean, a whore who ―sells her body for cloth and food‖ (P 46). The story of the mad
woman presents another paradigm to the abuse of women in a patriarchal society. The most
shocking incident is that the mad woman is impregnated by somebody and this incident puts
question on the so called civilized society that ―what sort of man could have done this to
her‖(P 53): is he a human being or a wild beast with a shape and face of a man?

To conclude, it can be pointed out that in her novel, Pinjar, Amrita Pritam tries to
prove that being a human, a person should judge another person from the humanistic
behaviour of that person, rather calculating religious or other background. As it is universally
acknowledged that religion can never be a true identity of a person, rather it is humanistic
attitudes which is thesole and perfect identity of a person. In the novel, Rashida has become
the hero though he has done some misdeed to Pooro (Hamida), but he never thinks one’s
religious background to help that person, instead of that, he always raises his hands for
support to others in their critical conditions.
IJELLH Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018 248

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Menon, Ritu. ―Do Women Have a Country?‖ From Gender to Nation. Ed. RadaIvekovic and
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