Page 46 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes and forth and the events are not narrated sequentially. The narrator is a man with great and
penetrating insight. He cannot only peep into the past and future but also into the lives of characters.
The novel questions the efficacy of borders. The family of Dutta Choudarys and Prices in London
defy the borders between them and there is a continuous to and fro movement between the two.
They have good relations despite the racial and cultural differences. Ila gets married to Roby and
May falls in love with Tridib. Had the tragedy not struck, then the two might have tied the nuptial
knot. It, therefore, demonstrates that there is not much difference between the people across the
globe. The humanity is same everywhere. It would not be too bold to say that Ghosh has gone a
little too far to bring the people together.
Time and again he has tried to drive home the point that the borders that are drawn are more a
source of violence than a mark of an actual separation. After the division of India, a carousal of
violence was let loose. People living as brothers for centuries together turned on each other killing,
ransacking and maiming one another. ‘All the instances of brotherhood and unity of the past were
thrown to the wind. The happenings on one side affected and controlled the events on the other.
The undivided India had long been living in peace and harmony and though people followed
different religions, they stayed in mutual cooperation. It was towards the beginning of 20th century
that the seeds of dissension were sown by some people in connivance with and on provocation of
the ruling masters and the matters came to such a pass where the partition was the only choice.
M.A. Jinna’s obstinate stand for a different nation for the Muslim population was not only myopic
but also hazardous. Even after partition, the people lived peacefully except those led by the
rumour mills of their brothers being attacked and killed in the other parts. The most to suffer were
typical plodding countrymen who did not even know who M.A. Jinna or J.L. Nehru was or what
was India being partitioned for. The old uncle to Tha’mma gives entry to a Muslim family, which
stays with him and looks after him. Khali, the rickshaw driver is more concerned for him than his
own family; and both the innocents are killed in the riots. The old folks stay where their roots are.
They have an unqualified love and a deep sense of belonging for the place where they have been
born. Tha’mma wants to get back to her native place in Dhaka and her uncle does not want to
come to India. Both of them do not believe in the borders. Riots and other things of such nature are
very transient in nature and get sucked up in the history and fade away from public memory
before long. The Shadow Lines makes it amply clear.
The resurgent nature of the people’s separatist tendencies is certainly taking the world by storm.
Where on one hand, the world has become a miniature globe due to the rapid progress of
information technology and means of transport; the other differences have cropped up that are
obstacles to linking people and promotion of world peace or the idea of one Government. Be it in
India or Sri Lanka or Africa or Ireland, there is constant effort to establish a separate identity by
secessionists. Nationalism has been under a constant attack for these developments.
The Shadow Lines questions the sanity and efficacy of the borders that divide. These lines that are
drawn on maps and on lands are powerless. These lines may put the people in different groups
but they cannot divide and experience or memory as experienced by Tha’mma, her 90-year old
uncle, Roby or by the narrator but they are certainly capable in one thing, that is, wreaking havoc,
spree of violence, rape, murder and loot. In most of these cases the commoners neither have a say
nor a will for such division. It is a handiwork of a few hungry of either power or ruled by fanatic
dispositions.
Ghosh has also been able to comment on the riots, which are the result of people’s insensitivity to
their religion and the religion of others. A few amongst them, by fiery speeches or actions, play on
the most sensitive realm of human beings—emotions and put them against each other. While the
gullible bathe in blood and mutilation of limbs, they revel over a drink in the air-conditioned rooms.

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