Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Malgaonkar was a historical fiction writer who had a deep knowledge of historical facts that he incorporated into his fictional stories to present a critical unbiased viewpoint of the events during the freedom struggle of India and the aftermath of partition. One such novel written by Manohar Malgaonkar was A Bend in the Ganges which was published in the year 1964. India faced the Sino-India War in 1962 and it raised questions about the policy of non-violence of Nehru. During such a period, Malgaonkar published this novel which depicts the internal conflicts between the proponents of non-violence and the supporters of violence. He recreates one of the most tragic phases of modern Indian history, the period of the 1940s when India attained independence against British rule but at the same time, had to face the gruesome burden of partition that resulted in one of the worst communal riots in the history of mankind. Thus, it is a Partition novel. The author forces the reader to contemplate if non-violence brought freedom, or who actually won? Gandhi or the British? Malgonkar owed the title of his novel to The Ramayan.
Characters of A Bend in the Ganges:
Gian Talwar is a young man from a poor peasant family who becomes a follower of Gandhi’s non-violence call during the Swadeshi Movement. However, he is a pragmatic, cowardly person who adopts his policy to suit every circumstance. Hari is Gian’s elder brother while Vishnudutt is a rich landlord of his village. Debi Dayal is the son of a rich trader from Duriabad. During his teenage, he saw a drunken English officer molesting his mother and he violently revolted against him. Since then he has had a strong hatred for the British and this personal hatred becomes his reason to fight for Independence. Though, he believes that non-violence is for cowards and joins a violent rebellious group called Hanuman Club. Tekchand Kerwad is Debi’s father who is a rich trader and Sundari is Debi’s younger sister. Shafi Usman is another young rebellious man who ridicules Gandhi and believes that only non-violent means can bring freedom. His father was massacred at Jallianwalla Bagh. Shafi believes in Muslim superiority but believes that Hindu-Muslim unity is necessary to uproot the British Raj and thus, he tries to be secular. Shafi is an active terrorist most wanted by the British Police. Mumtaj is a poor Muslim girl whom Shafi keeps as his concubine. Patrick Mulligan is the jailer of British jail in Andaman where Debi and Gian are sentenced to suffer jail terms. Patrick Mulligan easily manipulates Gian who betrays Debi and others. Hafiz Khan is a fanatic who believes in Muslim supremacy. He manipulates Shafi and instigates hatred against Hindus to such an extent that Shafi starts believing that the primary enemy of the Muslim community is Hindus. Basu is another friend of Debi Dayal who is also a revolutionary. Initially, he believes in Hindu-Muslim unity but during a riot, some Muslim hooligans threw acid on his wife’s face and this cruel incident fills him with hatred toward Muslims. He joins Hindu Mahasabha to be aligned, in sheer self-defense of Hindus against Muslims. Dipali is the beautiful wife of Basu who is attacked by a Muslim with an electric bulb filled with acid that disfigures her face.
Summary of A Bend in the Ganges:
The story of the novel covered the period from the 1930s to 1947 when India got its independence and the scar of Partition. The novel begins with the ceremonial burning of Western goods and clothes by Indian villagers during the Swadeshi movement. Gian Talwar is a villager who comes to the city of Duribad for his education where he becomes a friend of Debi Dayal. While Gian belongs to a poor peasant family, Debi is the son of Tekchand Kerwa, the richest and most successful trader of Duribad. Debi is a revolutionary who is engaged in active rebellion against the British government. One day, he invites Gian to a picnic where he meets other revolutionary friends of Debi which include Shafi Usman disguised as a Sikh, Basu, a Bengali student and a revolutionary, Dipali, Basu’s beautiful wife, and Sundari, the younger sister of Debi. Gian feels attracted to Sundari who is very beautiful. During the picnic, Debi reveals that he is a revolutionary and believes that the non-violence of Gandhi cannot bring any good to Indians. Gian opposes him and claims that he has full confidence in Gandhi and he will never join any non-violent group. Shafi criticizes Gandhi and says that non-violence is the philosophy of sheep, a creed for cowards and it is the greatest danger to this country. He further shows discontent with his revolutionary group too and says that everybody is motivated by their personal reasons while none of them think of the nation as an entity. He mentions Debi who hates British rulers because, during his teen years, he witnessed a drunken British police officer trying to molest his mother.
Gian remains friends with Debi as he is enamored by Sundari. One day, he presents an idol of Shiva to Tekchand, Sundari’s father who accepts it and establishes it at the temple of his home. After some days, Gian returns to his village Konshet where he gets involved in a family feud between his family and the family of the landowners over the Piploda land. In this dispute, Hari, his elder brother is murdered by Vishnu Dutt. Gian could not muster the courage to interfere and stop the fight. He tries to be a true follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He pays only lip service to the principle of nonviolence. When faced with reality his entire idealism evaporates and he feels that non-violence is an impractical philosophy that cannot be followed in real life. His heart fills with an extreme vengeance and he kills Vishnudutt.
Meanwhile, Debi Dayal joins a revolutionary group called Ram-Rahim Group on the insistence of Shafi. To increase unity between the Hindu and Muslim members of the club, Shafi introduces some secular ways of behavior. Their common slogan is Jai Ram-Jai Rahim. To renounce vegetarianism and the taboos of religion they partake in the ceremony of eating a meal of beef and pork. This brings the Hindu and Muslim members of the group closer to each other with their only aim to attain freedom for India. They establish the Hanuman Club as a disguise for their anti-establishment activities which include fishplates from the railway tracks, cutting telephone wires, and blowing up Air Force planes with explosives. Shafi is the most ‘wanted’ by the British police and one thousand rupees is announced as a reward to the person who gives information about him. Shafi disguises himself as a Sikh not to be caught by the police while Debi helps him in keeping safe. However, all their unity and harmonious relationships are shallow. While Shafi realizes that he needs Hindu members for the activities of his group, he sternly believes in Muslim superiority. Furthermore, one of his associates Hafiz Khan advocates the two-nation theory and pleads for a separate state. However, Shafi opposes Hafiz and suggests that irrespective of their religion, they are all brothers. Still, he starts feeling jealous of Hindu members and especially Debi who belongs to a rich family. One day, he assigns a task to Debi which includes setting fire to an airplane by using explosives. After performing the task, Debi runs away. Shafi gets information about police trying to capture Debi and instead of warning Debi about impending capture, he offers clues to the police to capture Debi. Debi gets caught because of the betrayal of Shafi and is sent to Andaman where he meets Gian again who is facing jail term for the murder of Vishnudutt. Gian has developed a good rapport with Patrick Mulligan, the jailer. He offers help to Debi and says that if he too behaves well, the jailer will let him have an easy time. However, Debi rejects his help. Debi continues to plan for running away from the jail. He learns that the Japanese are planning to attack Andaman and he wishes to get away with the Japanese and take their help against the Britishers. Gian, on the other hand, hopes for a release with the help of Patrick and he too betrays Debi by telling all his secrets to Mulligan.
Meanwhile, Hafiz convinces Shafi to accept the two-nation theory. He tells Shafi that they should re-orientate their activities. Hafiz asks Shafi that he should concentrate his activities not against the British but against the Hindus since they are their real enemies.
Gian is released much before Debi who continues to hope for the arrival of the Japanese. Andaman is then attacked by the Japanese forces and Debi gets a chance to get rid of Andaman's jail. He stays with the Japanese forces for a while and realizes that the Japanese are no better than the British and gives up the idea of taking Japanese help for his own freedom struggle. He returns to India so that he may continue his struggle against the British forces but by then, the British forces have announced India as a free state along with Pakistan, as a part of it. In Bombay, he meets Basu who takes him to his home. When Debi meets Diplai, he gets shocked by seeing her disfigured face. Basu informs that all the Hindu members of the Ram-Rahim club in Duribad were captured by police because Shafi betrayed them. Basu somehow managed to avoid being captured but failed to safeguard Dipali who was attacked by a Muslim mob with an electric bulb filled with acid that burnt her face. Basu informs that he joined the Hindu Mahasabha “to be aligned, in sheer self-defense of Hindus against Muslims.” Debi learns that Duribad is now a part of Pakistan and his family is caught in extreme Hindu-Muslim violence. He and Basu decide to return to Duribad to safeguard Debi’s family and to take revenge against Shafi.
Meanwhile, Gian had reached Duribad for his affection towards Sundari. Unaware of Debi’s whereabouts, he pretends to be a close friend of his and says that Debi will return soon. He continues to fool Debi’s father while trying to get Sundari’s hand in marriage. But after the independence and Partition, the situation worsens and he runs back to India while Duribad is now a part of Pakistan. After returning back to safer areas he learns about the atrocities done by Muslims on the Hindus of Punjab. For the first time, he feels guilty about being a coward and decides to return to Duribad to help Sundari get out of Duribad.
Debi and Basu reach Duribad and find Shafi in a brothel. He is too drunk to respond to them. Debi and Basu go to his home where they find Mumtaz, a concubine of Shafi. Debi abducts her as a sign of revenge and takes her with him. The whole of Punjab is engulfed in Hindu-Muslim riots. While trying to safeguard Mumtaz from the rioters, Debi realizes that he likes her and to show that Hindus and Muslims can live peacefully, he decides to marry Mumtaz. The extreme violence in the name of religion makes Debi question his own belief in violence and he decides to accept Gandhi’s non-violence.
On the other hand, Shafi is too furious because of the abduction of Mumtaz. He decides to attack Debi’s home in Duribad and abduct his beautiful sister Sundari and take her as his keep. He attacks Debi’s home with a crowd of his followers and kills all the Hindu servants of the house. Debi’s mother also dies while trying to protect Sundari. However, Gian reaches Debi’s home and tries to rescue Tekchand and Sundari. Shafi is too strong against Gian and Sundari but they attack him with the same idol of Shiva that he presented to Tekchand. Sundari kills Shafi by using the idol of Shiva and then Gian takes her and Tekchand to the railway station to go back to India. However, Tekchand has no motive to go. He worked hard throughout his life to establish his big farms and tract of land in Duribad. Now when he is old, and it is time for him to cherish the fruits of his hard work, he is supposed to go away as a poor moneyless refugee. He decides not to leave and vanishes from the railway station alone. Gian and Sundari return back to India. On the other hand, Debi and Mutaz too try to reach India but Debi is caught by a group of Muslim men searching for Hindus and killing them. Debi pretends to be a Muslim but soon he is caught. Debi is a strong man who always preferred violence but now, he has given up violence. He tries to follow Gandhi’s non-violence and tries to reason with the angry Muslim mob but he falls a victim to the violence of a mob on the very day that brings freedom to the two countries. Before dying, he questions himself, Who won? Gandhi or the British?
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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