LIT 332-S1

The World of Qurratul Ain Hyder

Mahnoor Jamil

The socioeconomic and political position of women in India through the years

as depicted in Hyder’s River of Fire

Aag ka Darya or as the title of the English transcription of the Urdu Novel goes, River of Fire, is

considered among the subcontinent’s author Qurratulain Hyder’s best works. It occupies relative

space in the Urdu literary canon as the novel has been followed by a series of publications

analyzing the multitude of literary techniques the author has employed. The entire novel is

divided into four eras of history dating all the way back to the 4th century BCE to as recent as the

post-colonial era. These eras in the River of Fire are indicated by the time periods of the

Mauryan dynasty of Chandragupta Maurya or more typically referred to as the Classical/Pre-

Islamic period, the Lodhi Dynasty or the Medieval/Islamic period, the period of British

colonization, and finally the post-colonial period of a divided India.

As author Nikhat Taj discusses in her article ‘A Study of the Organising Principle(s) in

Qurratulain Hyder's 'River of Fire,’ Qurratulain Hyder’s narratology is an imperative storytelling

device as she utilizes multiple focalizations, intertextuality, and non-linear chronology to depict

India’s history as it evolved over centuries.

This essay aims to dive into Hyder’s use of multiple focalizations particularly in the context of

the variations in the character Champa, to gauge the picture Hyder paints of women in India

throughout first three eras taken up in the novel. Champak from the Mauryan Dynasty,

Champavati or Champabai from the Lodhi Dynasty and, Champa Jan from the Colonial period

will be characters and corresponding lenses through which the analysis of the sociopolitical and

cultural state of women in India will be conducted.

As the novel covers a span of 2000 years, the varying roles of the leading female character of

Champa cover the evolution of what it meant to be a woman in the corresponding era in India.

In the first exposure to the character, the reader learns the customs and way of life for young and

high-class women. As Gautam sees the three ladies by the lake for the very first time, his

assumption of each their socioeconomic status is also the author’s way of hinting at the typical

association of caste and color as Gautam identifies the princess and Kumari Champak as women

of high status through their golden complexion, while he, truthfully, assumes the dark-colored of

the three to be the dasi/maid to the two.

Kumari Champak, the daughter of the chief minister accompanied through the Mauryan portion

of the novel by her companion Princess Nirmal and Gautam Nilambar is a character representing

the social standing and role of women in the Hindu Classical period. Champak awaits her fiance

and Princess Nirmal’s brother Hari Shankar. She does not wish to spend a life as a nun which

denotes how the course of destiny usually turned out for women in this period. Further on in the
story as Champak and Gautam confide in each other, Champak plays source of his diversion

from the path of righteousness he took on as Buddhist monk. His life path permanently goes in

the complete opposite direction of where he began as he ends up going through life as a theatre

actor and eventually as a sculptor. Whereas Champak ends up on the typical path of housewifery

and childbearing. This alludes to the notion that woman is the root of all evil that prevailed

during the period. As Gautam wonders about woman’s purity and evil in his pursuit of Champak,

he recalls the conversation between Buddha and his disciple Ananda:

“Don’t look at them.”

“But suppose one’s glance falls on them, Sir?”

“Do not speak to them.”

“If they start talking to us?”

“Keep wide awake.”

In the novel, this is followed by Gautam’s internal monologue on the paradoxes present in the

Indian society at the time where Woman represented both, all things pure and all things evil.

“Evil came into existence because of creation. Woman gave birth, so she was the origin of all

sin. Woman was hungry for love, and therefore unreliable. And yet, despite her weaknesses, she

could be immensely virtuous, faithful and self-sacrificing. She should be respected. She

symbolised Shakti”

Much alike Champak of the Maurya Dynasty, Champavati of the Islamic era is also a character

portrayed under patriarchal accounts. She cannot be analyzed without considering the

accompanying female characters in her era. She becomes Kamaluddin’s love interest who
compares her with his previous courtship Bano who is a royal and wealthy woman. What draws

him to Champavati is every manner in which she is not Bano.

‘Champavati is utterly enchanting, so different from Bano. No regal airs, no jewellery, no make-

up, no silks and brocades. She wraps herself in an unstitched piece of cotton cloth and goes about

barefoot. When I want a glass of water she brings it in a clay cup and places it on the ground,

then rushes back to her cow-dung plastered hut.... These infidel women have a charm of their

own. They are faithful, shy, docile. They worship their husbands as demi-gods and touch their

feet in obeisance every morning.... It wouldn’t be a bad idea to save her soul and show her the

path of the True Faith.

While this passage depicts how Hindu women were perceived in Islamic India by Muslim men, it

is contested ahead in a conversation between Champavati and Kamal where Hyder challenges

the predominant notion that women lacked will and authority in this era under Muslim

oppression. Champabai establishes how she is a woman of faith and while she does not represent

rebellious women, she does represent women who hold their ground. Her opinions are expressed

in when she tells Kamal to throw the sword away (stop violence), and when she tells him she

will not submit to his proposal but to her ultimate fate.

Finally, we learn of Indian women through the role of Champa Jan in the colonial era. Champa

Jan’s lifecycle is a fictional account of the very real past that courtesans, Tawaifs or Nautch girls

went through as contended by author Vijay Prakash Singh in the article ‘From Tawaif to Nautch

Girl: the Transition of the Lucknow Courtesan.’ Through Champa Jan, the life of Lucknow

courtesans is documented which falls in line with Singh’s point on how colonization reduced

these women held otherwise in veritably high esteem as mere entertainers and concubines. Hyder

refers to this tragic humiliation as well in an account between Gautam Dutt and Champa Jan
where the satrangi player clarifies how Champa Jan’s words (she tells him she will serve him

according to his wishes), are mere formalities in replacement of the word entertainer as they do

not suit her person. However, her life is riddled with downfall as colonization disgraces her

down to the status of a mere beggar. This stands in stark contradition to what the character Cyril

set out to achieve apparently. His repulsion for the act of Satee and aims to bring the Indian

Woman freedom and choice run against the laws of colonization which Hyder achieves through

Champa Jan’s portrayal.

In each of the variations of Champa, Qurratulain Hyder has sketched women’s position in the

Indian society throughout these historical periods. A feminist analysis of these characters will

reveal that their biggest enemy portrayed here has not been patriarchy or oppression. While of

course, the society was dominantly patriarchal in all three eras, their biggest struggle has been

the atrocity of Time. As Nikhat Taj writes, ‘Champa epitomizes change and continuity of

experience in Indian women.’

It can therefore not be an overstatement, that Hyder’s novel was ahead of its time. Tackling

Oriental despotism through a fictitious novel is not only a unique theme but also executed

wonderfully as Amarakeerthi notes how the women in this novel are deprived and oppressed

beginning from the onset of European colonialism while the Indian woman precolonial era was

intelligent, spiritual, acknowledged as equal, and aware of the matters of the world.

References:
 Amarakeerthi, Liyanage. “River of Fire: Critiquing the Ideology of History.” Annual of Urdu Studies
18 (2003)

Hyder, Qurratulain. River of Fire (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2007)

Taj, N. (n.d.). A study of the organising principle(s) - jstor.org. Retrieved May 4, 2023.