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Indian Writings in Literature

Notes bonding with the other youth who have undergone the same process of initiation as himself that
keeps Javed attached to his group. Ritual far from always creating solidarity by reinforcing shared
values, often produces solidarity in the absence of any commonality of beliefs.
The provocative speeches that Javed, like his fellow recruits, is privy to, serve precisely this
purpose of legitimizing the conceptual principals of the organization through its emotional impact.
Javed - It was different when I used to attend their meetings. I was swayed by what now appears
to me as cheep sentiment. They always talked about motherland and fighting to save our faith and
how we should get four of theirs for everyone of ours. By showing how Javed, the rebel-fanatic is
created, Dattani unpeels the manipulative power of ritual activities that engineer such constructions.
Dattani also emphasizes that ritual binds people together, often by common action rather than
common thought. Javed : I felt a stone in my hand. Bobby : They were giving him stones! Javed :
I hit them hard with stones! Bobby : I couldn't stop him! No one could. More people joined in
throwing stones. Javed : And then I felt something else in my hand. Bobby : Oh no! He couldn't.
Javed : I had power. To retrace this arguments. Dattani asserts that while rituals can engender
solidity, they can also be a handicap if an individual wishes to break free. In an almost poetic-turn
of phrase. Javed describes this phenomenon. I had permission to do exactly what I had been asked
not to do all my life! Raise my voice in protest. To shout and scream in protest, to shout and
scream like a child on the giant wheel in a carnival. The first screams are of pleasure of sensing an
unusual freedom. And then - it becomes nightmarish as your world is way below you and you are
moving away from it - and suddenly you come crashing down and you want to get off. But you
can't. You don't want it anymore. It is the same feeling repeated over and over again. You screen
with pain and horror but there own cycles of joy and terror. The feelings come faster and faster till
they confuse you with the blur created by their speed. You get nauseres and you cry to yourself
'why am I here? What am I doing here? The joy ride gets over and you get off. And you are never
sure again. [Pause] It is a terrible feeling being disillusioned. [Pause] Don't we all have anger and
frustration? Am I so unique? Now that I am alone, I hate myself. When Javed finds the knife thrust
into his hand during the rath yatra procession. Thrust with murderous intent, he experiences that
'terrible feeling' he has described. And he backs off "I got nauseous and cried. 'Why am I here?
What am I doing here? Get Me Off! Want to Get Off! I was so close to him I could - I could have.
I could…. I let go of the knife. (The Mob/Chorus stops humming). The knife fell to the ground.
The joy ride was over. (Pause) I couldn't hear noises anymore. I watched men fighting, distorted
faces not making a round. And I watched someone pickup the knife and piece the poojari. I
watched while people removed a part of the chariot as planned. The poojari fell to the ground. The
carnival continued. What would be regarded as an act be betrayal or even cowardice on the part
of Javed, is commended by Ramnik who observes. You are brave. Not everyone can get off. For
some of us it is not even possible to escape. For Ramnik, Javed appears to be lucky as he can not
himself escape from the sins of his forefathers whose crimes arising from communal hatred haunt
and torture him. In her essay, 'Final Solution' Angelia Multani speaks of the set design of the play
as emphasizing Dattani's contention that the family unit recusants society".
Multani comments on the significance of the fact that only the kitchen and the pooja room are
detailed as against the rest of the living space as- It is largely through food habits and taboos that
we all draw the lines that separate us from each other.
There is a close relationship between food habits and religious belief and the obvious 'otherness'
of different communities is manifested through differences in what/how we and they eat. We also
make sharp distinctions where food and food related utensils are concerned, which perhaps serves
to emphasize separation in a uniquely distinctive and defined manner. Taboos are most clearly
expressed is our realities through these two particularized spaces in Dattani's sets - the room for
worship and the space where the food is prepared. The sets also portion the family, signified by
the home, in relation to society which is represented through the Mob/Chorus [five men and ten

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