A trait we can do without

Krishan Chander’s Ghaddaar finds a new language to remind us of the futility of hatred

October 16, 2017 11:32 am | Updated 11:32 am IST

MIRRORING REALITY Javed Akhtar and Rakshanda Jalil at the release of “Traitor”

MIRRORING REALITY Javed Akhtar and Rakshanda Jalil at the release of “Traitor”

In times when the crop of hate is being harvested all over again, let’s turn pages of hope that Krishan Chander penned almost six decades back to rekindle our faith in humanity. One of the pillars of Progressive Writers’ Movement, Chander’s Ghaddaar (Naya Idara) has recently been translated into English by noted literary critic Rakshanda Jalil. Traitor (Tranquebar) was released in Delhi recently with a panel discussion that featured Jalil with Javed Akhtar. Akhtar counts Chander as one of his major inspirations and it was he who nudged Jalil to undertake the translation of Ghaddaar as apart from a spell binding novella, which describes the horrors of Partition, it has a contemporary ring to it.

Using words of Ali Sardar Jafri, Akhtar described Chander as a poet who somehow entered the league of writers. “Ideas mattered to him more than the story. Story was an excuse for him to slip in his thoughts. On the surface it is a story of a man who moves from a village near Lahore to Amritsar during Partition but the way he narrates the events and finds new meanings, it curdles your heart. I read it many times during my colleges days and every time I could not hold on to my tears after reading couple of pages. And as I prepared for this discussion, I found his words continue to have the same impact.”

Describing Partition as one of the ten blunders that the human race committed on earth, Akhtar said, “The way Krishan Chander has captured the ugliness of events, it is unbelievable.” Akhtar, in his evocative narrative style, referred to a severed hand that Baijnath, the protagonist, finds on a desolate patch. “He wonders whose hand, whose fingers are facing the sky, it might be. Once upon a time it would have turned the pages of a book. It could have built bridges. It would have held the shoulder of a friend. It would have felt the face of beloved. This hand could be of a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh....”

Book cover

Book cover

Jalil found Chander’s writing lyrical but not impenetrable. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Chander found a unique balance between realism and romanticism. Ghaddaar is not just about wounds of Partition. Jalil referred to the way, he pauses the painful journey of Baijnath to reflect on natural beauty. When he sees swans in flight, he desires to be like birds for they don’t suffer from hatred. Akhtar reminded Baijanth’s conversation with his dog. “He tells her to return for she will be accepted by the new occupants of his home for she doesn’t know how to offer namaz or conduct puja. It is he who has to run because he is a human being and is running away from his kind.”

While she enjoyed the process of translation, Jalil also tried to add an extra layer to it, making it contextual to present times as the word traitor made a comeback last year when the debate on dissent reached the Parliament. Located in August- September 1947, and written in 1959, the novella continues to be relevant. “During the course of translation, I realised that while it is heartening that good literature continues to speak, the sad part is that even after 70 years of Partition, we have not evolved. Mob continues to exercise power and the one who doesn’t follow the majoritarian discourse is branded as a traitor – the one who betrays the cause.”

New meaning

Akhtar added that what made Krishan Chander great was the way he gave a new meaning to the word traitor. “Usually, a traitor is one who betrays his country or community. Here Baijnath is the traitor of hatred. The moment he picks up a Muslim child in his hands and decides to raise him, he realises that he would not be accepted on both sides of the border.” Reflecting on mob mentality, Akhtar maintained that every society had a mad fringe. “The common man is never part of it but the moment common man starts believing that this mad fringe also has a point, the fringe takes over.”

The eminent poet reminded that Hindi and Urdu have the same grammar and share more than 90% of the words. “People have tried to put a skull cap and paste a beard around it but the fact is as along you understand me, you feel I am speaking in Hindi but the moment you don’t, you say that I am conversing in Urdu.” He said that some people condescendingly describe Urdu as a beautiful language. “It is more than that. It is a socially conscious, progressive and secular language, which is left to the centre. So when you read Traitor , you must remember that it was written by an Urdu writer.”

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