Memories of Partition: Shiv K. Kumar’s - A River With Three Banks
Shiv K. Kumar’s, A River With Three Banks is a novel delineating the theme of Partition. As Partition meant parting of ways between the Hindus and the Muslims, Kumar’s novel deals with the utter discord between the two major communities of India. The novel suggests the dissolution of the first pattern of communal discord that emerged with the Partition of the subcontinent. The ill-will and antagonism between the Hindus and Muslims has been projected through killings, arson and molestation of women in the novel. Communal hatred that engulfs the city of Delhi has been presented in all its ugliness through incidents described in the novel. The death and destruction that is perpetrated by both the communities on each other is a grotesque reminder of the folly of man who cannot feel the pain and misery of another. The writer, however, concludes the narrative on a subtle note of hope and promise. Creative writers, unless they chose like Raja Rao to completely ignore Partition, have been writing about it ever since 1947. The heat and dust raised by the catastrophe did not settle down for a long time. The unnaturalness of communal strife that gripped the country at that time is still beyond human understanding. Kumar has used the backdrop of Partition in his novel as “a gift of British diplomacy which thrived on the political ambition and the resultant myopia of the seekers of power who chose the trauma for glory.”1. What is different about the novel is that here the writer does not give the picture of different communities living peacefully. Partition has already drifted them apart as the narrative begins. For Kumar Partition is an experience that he lived and felt as he himself migrated from Lahore to Delhi in August 1947. Thus, in A River With Three Banks he looks back at the event after a gap of fifty years. Govind Nihalani, talking about Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas (1974), explains why it is necessary for a writer to relook at a traumatic even several years later, when he says:
A traumatic even usually finds the artistic/literary response twice. Once during the even or immediately following it and again after a lapse of time, when the even has found its corner in the collective memory of the generation that witnessed it. The initial response tends to be emotionally intense and personal in character, even melodramatic. On the other hand, when the event is reflected upon with emotional detachment and objectivity, a clearer pattern of the various forces that shaped it is likely to emerge 2. Similarly, Kumar, like every Punjabi writer, felt the need to get the trauma of the partition out of his system. But in order to have a better understanding of his experience he chooses to look back at it after a gap of fifty years, as he says: “If you are too close to the canvas of your painting, you can’t see it in the proper perspective. You have to stand back a little from the canvas.”3 Thus he stands 50 years back from 1947. The action of the novel is located in Delhi, the capital of independent India. For a brief period the action is shifted to Allahabad as well which is hot-bed of communalism during the time. It is the month of August and the Partition has take place. However, the city of Delhi is gripped in the barbarity of communal fury. Unlike Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, Kumar’s novel has the urban locale. The writer depicts the communal differences and shows how these differences are deliberately fostered. The communal discord has assumed such proportions that the two communities are at a dagger’s drawn with each other. Both Hindus and Muslims are on a killing spree in the streets of Delhi. The joint pillars of the gateway to the composite culture of India have crumbled and columns and columns of displaced humanity are moving across both sides of the border while the bloodiest of the acts are being enacted. Delhi is in the throes of the worst communal discord. The writer points at the incidents of killing, looting, arson and molestation of women, rampant in the streets of Delhi. Though the novel opens on a day that happens to be the quietest day of the week,with only one death reported. The victim is a helpless Muslim, killed by a fanatic Hindu as an act of vendetta for what the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan have suffered at the hands of Muslims. It is after a hectic spell of arson, rape and massacre that Delhi is gradually reverting to normalcy, at least temporarily. Before another curfew paralyses life in the city, people are seen buying groceries and a “a few refugee vendors have spread their wares: coarse woolens (sweaters, stoles, stockings, gloves), necklaces and bracelets in coloured beads, and tiny bronze gods and goddesses “4.
Gautam Mehta, the protagonist, who is a journalist, has come to see Father Jones because he wants to convert to Christianity in order to seek divorce from his adulterous wife, Sarita. While he is still in the Church, the lull is broken with the sound of frantic knocking at the front gate of the Church. It is accompanied by ear-splitting cries for help”. Simultaneously, a menacing voice is heard: “Kill him! Har Har Mahadev!” followed by another deafening yell: “Sat Sri Akal!” (9). As the Church gate is unlatched, the body of an old bearded man with his chest, neck and abdomen riddled with stab wounds and intestines sprawled around, slumps on the floor. On seeing the dead body, Father Jones laments that a short while ago the man knocked for admittance but he failed to let him in. But Gautam doubts it , as he says: “We’re dealing with blood hounds , not human beings” (10). This shows the barbarity of the attackers. As there is widespread violence in the city, the priest cautions Gautam who is leaving the Church, to be careful and observes: “There is madness on the streets”. (12) Soon after, on his way back home, Gautam encounters a terrible blaze of fire with yellow, brown and red flames lapping towards the sky. The timber shops of Pahar Ganj, with godowns stacked with teak, bamboo and deodar are engulfed and the incensed flames are gutting whatever comes their way. It is suspected that “it must be those bloody Muslim arsonists” (29). The Hindus are enraged and instead of making way for the fire engines, they are blocking the road and shouting “Har Har Mahadev”. On another occasion when Gautam and his friend Berry are returning from the court after Gautam has sought “Allah-ho-Akbar” is heard and then from the bend of the street emerges a mob of Muslims armed with knives, swords, spears and sticks. The crowd is led by a young man who is blaring away through a microphone: “Khoon-ka-Badla-Khoon! Blood for blood!” and the other join in. “Kill the bloody kafirs! Castrate them! Rape their women!” (54). Thus, it comes out that the city is charged with communal frenzy and the only motive is to kill the members of the rival community. Whenever there is a brief spell of silence, it is viewed only a lull before the next storm that may erupt any time. Though Kumar does not depict incidents of women being paraded naked through the streets, there are occurrences of molestation and abduction of women in the novel. The bearded old man who was killed at the gate of Church is Abdul Rahim who has come to Delhi in search of his daughter Haseena , abducted from Allahabad. Obviously, the man, when killed, was going to mail the letter. The contents of the letter expose yet another face of brutality. It gives a clue that in the nefarious trade of prostitution both the Hindus and the Muslims (Panna Lal and Suleiman Ghani) are co-workers, as the letter reveals:
This morning I talked to a Muslim shopkeeper in Urdu Bazaar, near Jama Masjid. I was shocked to learn that most have been brought to Delhi, where they are forced into prostitution. O Allah! And, in the nefarious business both Hindus and Muslims are operating as close accomplices. I shudder to think of our dear child. (10)
This reveals another face of violence being executed against women by pimps like Panna Lal who are forcing helpless girls into prostitution for the sake of money. The writer suggests that there are no religious barriers among the pimps. When Panna Lal informs Gautam that the call girl (Haseena) is a Muslim while he (Panna Lal) is a Hindu, Gautam remarks sarcastically, “there’s perfect communal harmony”(70) The writer describes another incident of assault on a Hindu woman who is abducted along, with the brother while they are on way to see their sick mother. The ruffians kick and stab the brother and strip the woman naked, threatening them: “We’ll ravish the whole lot of you – bloody grass eaters?”(59)
Gautam and Berry are made to helplessly watch the gruesome spectacle. They find it very agonizing but cannot intervene as that would mean certain death. It is the arrival of the Police which saves the situation as the woman and her brother are escorted to the safety of their house. The novel suggests how the unprecedented outbreak of communal violence leaves deep scars on the psyche of the surviving victims.. Their agony revives at the slightest touch of nostalgia and they are stirred with the passions of hatred and revenge. The Muslims in India are made to bear the brunt of atrocities committed on Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. The Sikh tonga driver shares his tale of woe with Gautam when he tells him: My family had the worst of it……………..
Two of my sisters were carried away. My old man’s throat was slit before my mother’s eyes.
Then he was roasted alive. I was the only one to escape. Oh those blasted Muslims! (14)

He, however, feels consoled when he joins the killers of Abdul Rahim who “was a good catch”. In the face of this situation the process of killing does not seem to end. The writer goes on to reveal that even animals are the objects of communal fury when he describes how a cow falls a prey to the Muslims mob. The barbarity of the action is brought out when one of them hits the cow with a weapon and:
The others now swooped down upon it with knives and spears tearing, apart its body, limb by limb. On their faces, glowing with demoniac rage in the blazing summer sun, was the lust for blood – the blood of even a “Hindu Cow”. (58).

Ironically, in the intensity of the madness of communal hatred, even animals are branded as Hindu or Muslim. Communities, blinded by communal rage indulge in killing without any compunction. Similarly, the novelist describes how Hindu and Sikh refugees coming from Pakistan have been the victims of Muslim fury, while train loads of Muslims leaving for Pakistan are attacked by Hindu and Sikh mobs. He shows how refugee special trains are bringing Hindu and Sikh refugees from Lahore, Multan and Peshawar who are seen squatting on the platform, “their hair unkempt, lips famished, faces moribund” (98) . Hindu volunteers try to help them in the midst of confusion and chaos. The writer draws a picture of their mutilated lives when he remarks:
But how could these volunteers help men with amputated penises, young women whose breasts had been chopped off after they’d been raped? It wasn’t the physical pains so much as the social stigma these destitute would have to endure for the rest of their lives. (99)
This is an example of the worst kind of vengeance community can wreak upon the rival community. The incidence of arson, killings and molestation reveals how bands of hooligans and mobs commit unimaginable crimes against humanity, leaving the victims thoroughly dehumanized. These are the times when mutual hatred serves to whip up emotions and marked places and streets reverberate with anti- Hindu and anti-Muslim slogans. This is the climate when communal rioting is at its worst. So far as communal riots are concerned, these are different from other kinds of riots as these are most violent and most difficult to control. Moreover, “they are the most virulent because the particular conflict, generally a blend of religious, political and economic aims, becomes imbued with religious ultimacy.”5. These riots also differ from other riots in that they do not remain confined to one location. They can engulf many parts of the country within a span of a few days. A River With Three Banks delineates the dissolution of the first pattern of communal harmony and shows how Hindu and Muslim mobs enact the bloodiest of acts against each other. This takes place when identity in a crowd gets refocused and:
The loss of personal identity in a crowd makes individuals act in terms of the crow’s identity, for instance, according to the behavior’ expected’ of an anti-Hindu or anti-Muslim mob. The individual is not operating at some deeply regressed, primitive level o the psyche but according to the norms of the particular group.6
The dastardly acts of senseless killing committed during the Partition of the country were a result of this mob mentality. When the masses are swayed by communal fury, the writer refers to the radio broadcast of the messages of Mountbatten and Nehru, asking people to abide by the great values of the Indian heritage. Mountbatten, the first Governor-General of free India, paying homage to the great tradition of tolerance and forgiveness, asks all communities “to live in peace and enjoy the furits of freedom”. (36-7) Thereafter, Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India reminds his countrymen: This is not the freedom we’d fought for – this is not the India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams ….. Let there be no ill will against Pakistan; we wish that country peace and prosperity……We have hitched our destiny to the stars we have miles to go and promises to keep. Let’s march together, hand in hand – resolute, unflinching, and fearless- till we mould the India of our dreams. Jai Hind. (37-8)
Thus, the speeches remind people to work for the building fo the country and not wast their energies in senseless killings and mutual hated.
The novel suggests how the world of nature is a reflection fot eh gruesome happenings of the human world, when he remarks: There had hardly been any rain during the entire month of August as though nature had deliberately smothered the monsoon to provide a grim backdrop to the drama of hate and violence being enacted in Delhi, during the cataclysmic year – 1947 (17). Khushwant Singh has also referred to the delayed monsoon in Train to Pakistan in the backdrop of communal conflict. Thus, it emerges that communal tension of the Partition days had become a part of everyday reality. Both Hindu and Muslims had to pass through a process of untold suffering.
And the line dividing India and Pakistan had not only divided the political map of India but had also become a symbol of the Schizophrenic divide between the two communities.7 The heavy loss of life, movement of people on both sides of the border, the destitute men, women and children crowding the streets of the cities, the injury to human modesty and dignity and the loss of faith are some of the tragic consequences of Partition described by Kumar in his novel. The writer, however, does not paint a dark picture despite the collapse of values. There is much in the novel which transcends the horror and brutality of Partition by giving a glimpse of the compassion and understanding that suffering generates. In the midst of Hindu-Muslim divide, Kumar has created the cool face of Christianity, represented by Father Jones. He raises a voice of sanity in the maddening din of communal hatred. Though he has been in India for only six months, he would not like to turn his back on the communal holocaust and desert his flock in the troubled times. In doing so, he believes he would be doing his duty towards God. When Abdul Rahim falls down dead at the Church gate, stabbed by fanatic Hindus, he mutters in anguish, “Oh Jesus”…. “ Is it another crucifixion?” (9).
The priest feels moved at the spectacle and tears moisten his eyes. Similarly, when Gautam decides to embrace Christianity in order to seek release from his wife, he turns to this faith to find solution to the turmoil he is experiencing in his inner world. However, when Gautam and Berry are caught unawares by the hoodlums,brandishing their knives and swords. Christianity becomes a passport to safety from hooliganism. The title of the novel is symbolic in the sense that the placid waters of the river – India are troubled by the inner currents of brutality. Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are the three banks that condition the flow of nation life-stream, used as “the three powerful functional blocks”.8 Kumar’s novel is a symbolic record of man’s vigorous search for harmony across the domains of conflicting social, religious or cultural dogmas. It registers the triumph of life over he forces that unsettle the world through manoeuvers like Partition, riot and psychic unrest. The novel reveals that it is not people like Panna Lal, Suleiman Ghani or the marauders and fanatics who play the game of killing, but person like Gautam, Berry and Haseena who win ultimately; it is such people who add meaning to life. In Gautam Mehta, the writer has created a liberal humanist, who is able to provide balm to the inured humanity when there is madness all around. He himself is a migrant from Pakistan and his family, though could cross the border intact, and had to leave behind all their property. He, however, does not nurture any ill-will or hatred against Muslims. As a journalist he has been writing on tolerance and non-violence. He is not a religious fanatic and seeks the help of Christianity as a solution to his personal problem. He is above any communal hatred and when he looks carefully at the face of the dead Abdul Rahim, after having read his letter, he finds the face having acquired a new eloquence. And he recognizes “a striking resemblance between Abdul Rahim and his own father – the same wheatish complexion, arched eyebrows, chiselled chin and nose. A handsome face, altogether” (11) Looking at the deteriorating communal situation, Gautam has no hesitation in telling the Bishop:
Look what my co-religionists are doing these days. All this pios talk about Brahma, ahimsa, the Higher self, cow-worship, and then this senseless killing of innocent Muslims! Of course, Muslims have done no better in Pakistan. (5-6) He sounds like a religious man in the true sense of the word. He stands for religion that basically advocates brotherhood, compassion, understanding and love. “The essence of all religion is unity. It’s only the outward façade, the ritual, the orthodoxy in each religion that differentiates”.9 Gautam has an ability and drive to come out of the crisis. He resolves his internal conflict by deciding to convert to Christianity. However, when he fears delay is his conversion he observes:
To Hell, with Hinduism , Islam or Christianity, he said to himself – all that he wanted was an instant release, a way out of the labyrinth, a quick, painless deliverance. (6)
Thus his real concern is not religion but to secure peace and harmony jeopardized by an unhappy marriage. Again, he has no qualms in embracing Islam if he can secure Haseena as his wife. He rescues Haseena, who was abducted from Allahabad and forced into prostitution in Delhi by Panna Lal. At the initiative of his friend Berry, he is made to spend time with Haseena after his divorce with Sarita. He, however, develops love and understanding with her. On being asked by Haseena if he is a Muslim, he tells her:
I’m now Christian. A few days ago I was a Hindu. He said. And I wouldn’t mind becoming a Muslim. I don’t believe in these religions – they all condone violence, instigate their followers to kill… (80)
His conversion to Christianity was a game but his love for Haseena is true. “It is a love that has grown on the debris of her suffering with a passion and vigour to transcend all socio-religious barriers. It is a flow of the life-force that guides them”10. This love admits no barriers. Moreover, he looks at Haseena not as a girl who belongs to Muslim community but as a human being, a young girl go rare sensitivity, compassion, understanding and commitment to human values. Gautam’s act of rescuing Haseena from the pimp is an act of rare courage. He accompanies Haseena to Allahabad at a great risk for his life. Interestingly, while at Allahabad, he along with Haseena has to move sometime in the guise of a Hindu and sometime in that of a Muslim and finds it very ridiculous as he remarks: How funny, one’s life depends upon what one wears these days” (49). This, however, is necessary for the safety of both Gautam and Haseena. At Allahabad he is chased by the bloodhound Panna Lal, whom Gautam succeeds in killing in a scuffle, thus symbolizing the victory of good over evil. Haseena’s mother, who is already indebted to Gautam for having rescued Haseena and keeping them informed of the murder of her husband Abdul Rahim, readily consents to the proposed marriage of Gautam and her daughter . Gautam’s father Sham Lal who is an Arya Samajist , but internally is an indulgent father, comes forward to bless the marriage. So does Gautam’s mother. Gautam and Haseena’s marriage marks the beginning of a new race of humanity. Against Haseens’s wish to be addressed a “Haseena Mehta” Gautam says: No my love…. Not Hassena Mehta…. Just Haseena Gautam – our first names only…. Sans caste, sans religion. Sans nationality. (214)
Herein, lies the note of promise – the dreams to liberate the posterity from all narrow consideration and facilitate them with the true freedom. This reflects the novelist’s essentially humane outlook on life. He holds the fact that evil cannot snuff out virtue totally. True love is healing and it has the power to sustain mankind against all odds. Thus, through the love of Haseena and Gautam, Kumar opens the door towards the third pattern of communal relations, viz. reconciliation and rapprochement. It is true love which is the essence of all genuine relationship and basis of harmony and coexistence. The novelist recommends an attitude of tolerance towards “all communities which is a commonwealth for mankind” 11. The religious strains of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam in the novel get merged in Gautam’s life stream a river with three banks. Not only that he accepts Haseena s his wife, he also safely escorts Haseena’s family across the border with the help of Berry’s British connections. He risks his own life accompanying them from Allahabad to Amritsar, thus strengthening the bond of mutual harmony. Shiv K. Kumar, who invariably explores meaning in the last part of his novel, concludes the narrative on a subtle note of promise in a symbolic manner. He expresses a poetic belief in the “trinity of emotion, image and thought”12. He brings his protagonist to Allahabad, the sacred city of the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the subterranean Sarswati. The trinity motive is also associated with the Allahabad Fort which was built by Ashoka, renovated by Akbar and it was this fort where a Christian garrison was massacred during the Great Munity 1857. Kumar makes Gautam and Haseena’s marriage also a part of the trinity motive, as Gautam a Hindu becomes a Christian to get divorce and then accepts Islam to marry Haseena. Thus the three religions are “a sort of confluence that brings Gautam and Haseena together”. This trinity motive is discernible in other details in the novel as well. Gautam, who gets fascinated by any river, has been described as “thrice born” (117) . Bhole, the Panda and the boatman of Allahabad has “three gold teeth” (125) , and he is “tough-muscled Oarsman, Hindu priest and bloodhound”, and “three-in-one” (130). Gautam recalls his first visit to Allahabad when he saw the priest “feeding three white swans on the holy bank (121). In the boat ride, there are three people – Gautam, Haseena and Bhole. And Gautam asks Haseena – “Let’s not meet for three days” (132). Similarly, the sky as the third bank has a symbolic significance, when at the end of the novel, the writer observes, “suddenly, a flock of birds shot into the sky, and began to circle joyously over the maize fields on either side, as though scornful of the happenings on the earth below”(214). Man has divided the country into India and Pakistan but the overarching sky keeps them united. Thus the writer suggests that true faith does not recognize bonds and borders and true lovers have faith and not religion. The novel is Kumar’s powerful denunciation of such notions of religion which divide rather than unite humanity. It describes how human lives were wasted by the monster of communalism during the Partition of the country. He has portrayed a panoramic picture of the riot-torn city of Delhi where both Hindus and Muslims perpetrated atrocities on each other. He also highlights the helplessness and anguish of the women abducted during Partition. However, despite the dark forces of hate, revenge, malice and cruelty which overcast the subcontinent, the writer offers a futuristic vision suggesting the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Mulk Raj Anand has rightly observed that:

Shiv K. Kumar’s novel has both beauty and power. It recreates, in a language that glows with fragrance and colour, not only the trauma that one associates with Partition , but also love, compassion and fragrance that it evokes even in the midst communal frenzy. Here is poet’s visualization of the India of 1947 – its beauty and romance, its agony and ecstasy. 14

References

1. Prabhat K. Singh, A Passage to Shiv K. Kumar (New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2001)258. 2. Govind Nihalani, Introduction, Bhsham Sahni, Tamas, Trans. Jai Ratan (Penguin Books, 1988)5. 3. Sachidananda Mohanty, “Partition revisited”, an interview with Shiv K. Kumar, The Hindu, Sunday, November 15, 1998, XVI. 4. Shiv K. Kumar, A River With Three Banks (New Delhi: UBS Publishers, 1998) 2. 5. Sudhir Kakar, The Colours of Violence (Penguin Books, 1996) 51. 6. Ibid, 58 7. Jagdev Singh, Bonds and Borders (Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1996)84. 8. Prabhat K. Singh, opc.it. 258. 9. “Partition revisited” , op.cit. 10. Ibid, 261. 11. Prabhat K. Singh, op.cit, 263. 12. Isaac Squeira, “A Ring of Authenticity”, The Deccan Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1998. 13. “Partition revisited”, op.cit. 14. Mulk Raj Anand, on the back cover of Shiv. K. Kumar’s A River With Three Banks, op.cit.