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Huhjkokjji9 jyPost partition state of Pakistan & intizar hussain

Submitted by: Muhammad Abid Aslam

Roll No:01

BS (Hons) Semester II

Session 2018-2022

Submitted to: Dr. Ayesha

CENTRE FOR CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB LAHORE
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Huhjkokjji9 jyPost partition state of Pakistan & intizar hussain

A line so delicate a sparrow might have picked it up in

its beak
A line between the birth and non-being
A line that would bring death to so many

(Moniza Alvi)1
Every tragedy captures the minds of a nation, especially the creative minds who are
actually The Tongue of society. Rather it was industrialization, modernization, communistic
revolution or World Wars. Many of the famous literary figures of English literature
(Hemingway, George Orwell, Anne Frank and list goes on) are of post-world war II. Although it
was not a war or a revolution, but Partition of subcontinent was actually a tragic event for world
history. Partition of United India posed serious issues both on surface/societal level and creative
level. The massive migration, huge massacre, sexual oppression, financial and defense issues
were serious problems. But the emotional and psychological impact of these issues urged the
writers and poets to draw out their pens and write whatever they observed, experienced or
perceived. The varying themes of post-partition literature were illustrating adversities, optimism,
bravery, self-belief, progressive movements and criticism on need for partition.
The experience of partition/migration gained great currency among contemporary writers,
although didn’t oust the number. A group of writers and poets, although small, did consciously
try to make this experience their pivotal concern of Creative endeavor. The question of mental
migration was posed even for those who didn’t physically migrated.2
The imbalance on creative level in the writers (which is actually depiction of what is
repressed amongst common people) was the most dangerous drawback of partition. The post
partition literature depicts a society which has conflicts; conflict of being a Muslim by values
and Indian by culture, conflict of nationalism and Hijrat, conflict of realism and surrealism.

I ntizar Hussain is one of those writers who took the Jungian perspective of
“shadow” in a way that “darkness enlightens your personality more than positive side” by
narrating the dark side of partition. Although Intizar Hussain cherished partition but he accepts
the creation of Pakistan more as a historical necessity than as the happy culmination of a dream
which, have labored to project, started from the earliest the Subcontinent. Rather than adhere
slavishly unworkable and unrealizable idea, I. Husain realizes the reality of divisiveness and
disunity (which is obviously not the case with Progressives).
1
At the Time of Partition(21Nov2013)
2
Memon, M. (1980). Partition Literature: A Study of Intiz̤ār Ḥusain. Modern Asian Studies, 14(3), 377-410.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/312138
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Huhjkokjji9 jyPost partition state of Pakistan & intizar hussain

Most of his stories deal with Partition. The characters, the situations, or answered-all find
their ultimate meaning in Partition. The stories 'Sirhiyaan' (The Stairway) “aaag ki taraf'
(Towards His Fire) deal with the loss of memory to retrieve it, while others such as 'Wo jo Kho
gya Hai ‘and 'Shahr-e-afsos’ (The Dolorous City), project the fall and annihilation of memory.
Between these two specific ideas falls hiatus. The stories of the hiatus period, namely,‘Akhri
admi’ (Last Man), 'Zard kutta' (The Yellow Cur) and ‘kaya kalap’(metamorphosis) deal with the
degeneration and moral fall of man and thus provide the necessary link in the three-act tragic
drama of self which begins with the attempt to retrieve the past by remembrance, failure and
moral fall and culminates in the death of creative self.3
But if there is a single story in which most of the problems arising from the Partition find
their most pointed expression, then this is undoubtedly his 'Ek bin-likhi razmiya’ (An Epic that
Never Came to be Written). Written a few years after Partition the story attempts to present in its
bewildering multiplicity of forms an experience undergone by a whole people. With an economy
of words rarely achieved in Urdu short fiction, I. Hussain here presents the Partition and
communal violence against a fair-sized social and political backdrop. So many dimensions of
meaning criss-cross within its limited span and so many aspects of feeling, sensation and
apprehension are laid bare within it that the story succeeds in gathering a whole era within its
sweep. It presents the climate of hope and unbounded optimism prevailing among the Muslims in
the days just prior to the Partition, and their deep emotional attachment to the idea of Pakistan. It
is interesting to note that the writer makes no effort to define this idea, for that would have meant
sacrificing its complexity for emotional edification. However complex and elusive, the idea of
Pakistan was real enough to have influenced a majority of Muslims.
Most of all, neither time nor constitution could remove Indian-ness from migrated Muslims.
Even today our grandparents burst into tears when talking about the native Indian villages. An
extreme statement by intizar Hussain narrates: -
“You ask Jilani Kamran and he would, without a second's
hesitation, head off in the direction of Medina. To me you
do not put such a question, but if you did, chances are I
would first go and watch the Ram Lila show, then I might
go to Karbala', and may be there make preparations to set
out for Mecca”4
Intizar Husain in his interviews said that my ideas evolved with the passage of time. “there were
always two forces in my mind, a conflict, which derived my writings”, he said. He vehemently
said in disappointing tone:

3
Cf.Hamare ahad ka adab;savera

4
Cf ,’interview ’shub khoon’
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Huhjkokjji9 jyPost partition state of Pakistan & intizar hussain

“After our political ups and downs…., Now, I feel that

sometimes a great experience comes to be lost to nation,
often nations forget the history.5
I. Husain considers migration as the most tragic incident of partition and many of his stories
focus directly or indirectly on partition. His novel “ , ‫ ”چراغوں ک ا دھواں‬is the best example. An
excerpt from it is as follows:
‫ن ت ت ت ت‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ن‬
’’ ‫ و وہ اری خ کا‬،‫ے پ تہر‬ ‫ھ‬ ‫ڑ‬ ‫ےچ‬ ‫ل‬
‫ے ڈھ‬
‫پ‬ ‫ا‬ ‫ں‬ ‫ی‬ ‫ہ‬ ‫ے‬ ‫و‬ ‫ص ح و ش ام ہ‬
‫ب‬ ‫ے‬ ‫تاری خ کےت اپ‬
‫ٹ‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ج‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ہ‬
‫ج ھٹ پ ٹ ا ھا۔خت م پرفای قک پہر ج ار ا ف ھا دوسرا ٓر ا ھا ھی و می نں می ر ھ ٹسے‬
‫ہ‬ ‫ہ‬
‫ےگاڑی می ں ہی ںٹ ب ی ھ‬
‫ے؛‬ ‫الہ ور ت ک کا م صر س ر ت ی امت کا س ر ب ن گ یٹا۔ج ی س‬
‫خ‬
‫ےہی ں‬ ‫ے ا ت ی ار ب ی ھ‬
‫ے ہ ی ں اور ب‬ ‫‘‘ اری خ کے ج ہاز می ں ب ی ھ‬6

Most of his characters don’t work out in the form of formula, but according to their own natures.
In actual most of his characters are multiple projections of his own personality. Freudian
psychoanalytic crituiicism would name it “displacement”. In a short story “‫رہ گیا شوق منزل مقصود‬

I. Husain expressed his inner conflict through his character of son and father, son being his
irrational and emotional thinking and father as judgmental perspective. In the following dialogue,
the conflicts of his personality are visible:
‫ے؟‬ ‫ت‬
‫و ب اوا پ اکست ان ک ی ا ہ‬
‫ق‬
‫ب ی ٹ ا !پ اکست ان می ں ای ٔداعظ م ہ ی ں۔‬7
Some writers could not write off the Partition with ease. One such writer is Intizar Husain. He
shows a keen awareness of the history of India since the arrival of the Muslims in the
Subcontinent. He feels that the creativity of the incoming Muslims, working in close
collaboration with the creativity of the native Hindus, produced a composite culture. But, from
the very beginning, puritanical elements within the Muslim and Hindu populations worked
against this synthetic culture. Although historically the incident was nevertheless tragic. tragedy.
But I. Husain is also a pragmatist. Tragedy unless it is sublimated through a creative process, is
pure waste. Partition of India must, therefore, be seen as a creative force. The experience of
migration, a recurrent phenomenon in Muslim peoples, was again made available to the Muslims
as a result of the Partition. This experience had creative possibilities which have been exploited.
Unfortunately, they were not.

5
Cf ,’interview ’shub khoon’
6
Charaghon Ka Dhoowan(2012,sang-e-meel)
7
Janam Kahniyan(sang-e-meel)
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Huhjkokjji9 jyPost partition state of Pakistan & intizar hussain

References
1))‫جنم کیانیاں(انتظار حسین‬

2) Partition Literature: A Study (Muhammad Umar Memon,Cambridge University Press)

3))‫بستی ناول(انتطار حسین‬

4))‫چراغوں کا دھواں(انتظار حسین‬