Amrita Pritam’s ‘Pinjar’: A Poignant Depiction of Wrath of Partition on Weaker Sex

Abstract

In 1947, a ghastly incident occurred in the Indian Sub-continent known as Partition of India under which two new countries India and Pakistan came into existence. And for these countries the incident proved to be the most atrocious and catastrophic incident in human history due to the occurrence of incessant robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder. Since then, Partition of India has been the most gruesome and ugly past of Indian history which puts the nation to shame whenever remembered or discussed. The partition and the associated bloody riots compelled many creative minds to create literary pieces capturing the inhuman acts of murder and brutal slaughter on both sides. The trauma of partition and agony experienced by the people of Indian Sub-continent found its voice in the literature of Partition written by various writers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in different languages. While some creations depicted the massacres during the refugee migration, others concentrated on the aftermath of the partition in terms of difficulties faced by the refugees on both sides of the border. Even now, after more than 75 years of partition, works of fiction and films are made that relate to the events of partition. A few literatures describing the human cost of independence and partition are ‘Train to Pakistan’ by Khushwant Singh, ‘Toba Tek Singh’ by Saadat Hassan Manto, ‘Tamas’ by Bhisham Sahni, and ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdi. The present paper deals with the sensitive story picked from a Punjabi novel ‘Pinjar’ written by Amrita Pritam. Amrita is a prominent writer from Punjab who has provided an avid expression of the lives and experiences of women during Partition in many of her poems and novels. Pinjar is an appalling and petrifying story of a Hindu Girl who is kidnapped by a Muslim young man who marries her. In the course of events the girl again gets a chance to meet her family and re-unite which she is compelled to refuse as her parents denied accepting her saying that she has been defiled by a non-Hindu. The novel, in its flow of narration, unfolds the harrowing journey of innocent females whose whole life is rendered shattered due to a single episode called ‘partition’.