Title: Pinjar: The Skeleton and The Man
Author: Amrita Pritam
Publisher: Tara Press
Genre: Social and Fiction
Year of Publication: 1950
“When the body perishes all perishes but the threads of memory are
woven of enduring atoms I will pick these particles weave the threads
and I will meet you yet again.”
About Novel
“Pinjar: The Skeleton and That Man” narrates the harrowing experiences of women during and after the partition, depicting their immense suffering and distress. It unveils the stories of women like Pooro who endured kidnapping, displacement, and the shattering of their identities.
The novel, Pinjar, serves as a poignant outcry muffled beneath the collective pain of countless women, all of whom became casualties of religious and ethnic tensions in the wake of the Indian subcontinent’s partition.
With a profound and tragic intensity, the book captures the raw emotions of the partition, delving intimately into the upheaval that shattered the lives of women like Pooro.
Amrita Pritam, honored with the Bhartiya Gyanpith Award, authored Pinjar, which was subsequently translated into English by the renowned Khushwant Singh. Published in 1950, shortly after the partition, the novel resurfaces almost half a century later, in 2003, when filmmaker Chandra Prakash Dwivedi adapted it into a compelling cinematic production.
Plot
Pooro and her family are in Amritsar as the book opens. The members of Pooro’s family include her pregnant mother, her father, her older brother Trilok, and her younger sister Rajjo.
The family travels to their village of Chattovani in quest of a suitable bridegroom for their daughter, where they settle Puro’s marriage to Ramchand, a resident of Rattovall. Tradition dictates that there must be a
trade, therefore Lajjo, the sister of Ramchand, and Puro’s brother are now engaged.
Puro is happily anticipating her marriage to Ramchandra, the man of her dreams, but then Rashid, a Muslim from the same area, kidnaps her, and the joy of her family is shattered.
Pooro begs Rashid to take her back to her grieving family in a hysterical and desperate tone. According to Rashid, Puro was abducted as a result of an intergenerational family dispute.
The abduction of Pooro was to settle the past scores. Due to a loan failure, Puro’s ancestors had made the Muslim family homeless and had kidnapped a woman from their residence in an effort to defame them.
In order to exact revenge on their relatives and restore their honor, Rashid’s uncle and cousins had him swear on the Holy Quran. Puro is informed by him that she would never be accepted by her family and that she will always be an outcast. He acknowledges that he has been in love with Puro ever since he first saw her.
Pooro runs away to her house since she doesn’t believe him. Pooro’s parents reject her when she returns to them after escaping from Rashid’s imprisonment. Her own parents urge her to go back so that the Muslims won’t kill their entire family, which makes for a sad scene.
Nothing can hide the reality that she has become a stain on their reputation because she spent the night in the home of another man. Pooro goes back to Rashid as a result.
Pooro has no other option but to wed Rashid. Laajo (Sandali Sinha), the sister of Ramchand, is the spouse of Trilok, while Ramchand’s cousin brother is the spouse of Rajjo.
Also Read: Book Review: The Pearl That Broke Its Shell.
Rashid and Pooro leave the village and settle in the nearby village Sakkar. She is now known as “Hamida” because of her dislocation. Pooro is pregnant but miscarries the baby as she is depressed from everything that has transpired.
We see a mentally ill woman who is raped and becomes pregnant in the second half of the book. She later passes away after childbirth, leaving a child that the pooro raises.
Her story illustrates how some men view a woman’s body as nothing more than a “Pinjar” that can be used for anything they please. While it is an issue of honor for some, it is just an object for others.
The British left India in 1947, dividing it into two. The consequences of Partition were felt equally by people on both sides. Pakistan incorporates Rattoval and Sakkar. Muslims in Rattowal destroyed all of the Hindus’ homes by setting them on fire. Rajjo has made the trip to Amritsar with her brother.
Laajo, Ramchand, and their parents, however, find themselves in the middle of riots. Ramchand is pursued by a crowd with open swords. Ramchand succeeds in escaping their grasp and makes it to his home. Along with his mother and sister Laajo, he departs the house. His father is not in the news. Laajo gets kidnapped by a Muslim while traveling to India.
Ramchand’s mother and Ramchand are left to mourn the passing of Laajo and later Ramchand’s father. Ramchand approaches Pooro and asks him to save his sister. In Rattovall, Pooro goes from house to house while posing as a salesperson. She eventually locates Lajjo, who is being kept captive in her own home by Muslims. She is able to save her with Rashid’s assistance, and as Ramchand and Trilok wait at the Wagah border to transfer Lajjo to Hindustan, the book’s climax approaches.
There is a tearful reunion of two pairs of brother and sister. Trilok requests that Pooro return and marry Ramchand. Pooro, on the other hand, surprises them by declaring that she now belongs to Pakistan. Rashid has already exited the building. Pooro goes around looking for him. She finds him and declares that he is her true love. They said their goodbyes to Laajo, Ramchand, and Trilok.
Pooro’s Character
The central character of the Pinjar, named Pooro, embodies the hidden strength within women, serving as a symbolic representation of this trait. Her emotions undergo frequent fluctuations, contributing to a heightened sense of realism.
Pooro’s character is enriched by various elements: her struggle with feeling unwell due to an unwanted pregnancy, the agony caused by Rashid’s brutal abduction, her mixed feelings about her impending marriage to Ramchand and the subsequent renaming to “Hamida,” her unlikely friendship with the mentally unstable Kammo, her aid to Laajo, the gradual transformation in her perception of Rashid, and ultimately, her decision to establish Pakistan as her permanent residence.
However, Pooro makes an unconventional choice by refusing the opportunity for reconciliation and assimilation with her family, community, and the nation that had previously rejected her.
Instead, she opts to embrace Pakistan as her true home, a decision that defies societal norms. In doing so, she takes control of her own identity by reclaiming “Hamida,” a name that had once been imposed upon her.
This rejection of conforming to the ethnocentric nationalist identities promoted by both India and Pakistan, two recently formed independent countries, showcases Pooro’s defiance of categorization.
Themes
1. Women’s Body as a Site of Encroachment
The socio-religious divides produced by the partition led to the creation of fragmented identities that struggled to reconcile themselves with the violent reorganization of the nation, community, and family.
In Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s Pinjar (2003), the religious fault lines are made apparent in their obtrusive control over women’s bodies, which become sites of conquest whereby masculine dominance can be inscribed; this trauma of gendered communal violence coupled with mass dislocation fundamentally reshaped the psyche of the female subject.
Pinjar structurally recreates the partition by showing two different temporal spaces, pre-partition, and post-partition, studying their similarities and renegotiations. The film’s depiction of the pre-partition paradigm alerts us to the layers of religious antagonism buried beneath the sedate normalcy that is ruptured by Puro’s abduction by Rashid.
This act signifies the status of women as objects – the conquest of their bodies authenticates masculine socio-religious fulfillment and identity formation. Puro is reduced to the level of a shuttling commodity whose coercive exchange marks Rashid’s familial male advancement; he carries with him the generational trauma of his Sheikh ancestors whose property and women were appropriated by the Shah household.
Coerced by the patriarchal Muslim community, who ‘Called on his blood’, his decision to abduct Puro exemplifies the continuance of cycles of abuse that characterizes the historical relationship between the Hindu-Muslim communities, whose successive generations inherit the trauma of their forbears.
This ordeal exposes the submerged fissures that comprise the masculine struggle for dominance based on religious differentiation and superiority. For such a polity, women’s bodies become inscriptive surfaces to demonstrate religious and nationalist politics.
2. Oppression of Women by Double Yoke of Patriarchy and Partition
The story takes a pivotal turn when Rashid kidnaps Pooro as retribution for a similar act committed by Pooro’s uncle. This highlights how conflicts between families and communities often result in the mistreatment of women.
Pooro’s family refuses to take her back due to moral and gender-based notions of purity that are associated with women. This underscores the hypocrisy of Hindu patriarchy, as it portrays Muslim men as kidnappers of Hindu women, challenging the stereotype of Muslims as the sole source of patriarchal violence.
This patriarchal system assigns honor and community respect to women’s bodies, yet strips them of their individuality, making them more susceptible to violence.
The book emphasizes that women in this patriarchal society constantly needed to prove their innocence and assert their dignity. Most female characters in the book experience some form of victimization.
The mentally ill woman is oblivious to the violence inflicted on her body and the child growing within her. Women faced oppression from both patriarchy and the partition of the country. These female characters share a common bond, understanding their bodies as representatives of their community’s honor during the traumatic relocation process.
“Pinjar” cleverly reimagines the Ramayana myth, paralleling Pooro to Sita. Her marriage to Ram(Chand) is obstructed by the “Muslim Ravana” who abducts her. This challenges the post-partition Hindu interpretation of the abducted Hindu woman, countering the notion of the pure Sita corrupted by the Muslim “other.”
3. Double Edge Sword of Patriarchy
Rashid’s persona serves as a metaphor for the complicated dualities at the heart of the patriarchal narrative, which not only uses violence against its female subjects but also frequently preys on and severely harms men.
The single error he does, for which he must pay a high price, is the kidnapping of Pooro. He feels ill with shame for mistreating a female. His persona serves as evidence that males are equally at risk of patriarchal
abuse as women are.
The book marks the changing attitude between conservative men to that of young and educated men. Pooro’s father refused to accept her when she escaped from Rashid’s house.
While on the contrary Pooro’s brother never stopped looking for her and even came to the border to bring her back accompanied by Ramchand who agreed to marry her despite knowing that she has been with a Muslim man all this time. However, it is not always that education overthrows the deeply ingrained notions of patriarchy in people.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be inferred that throughout history, women have consistently been subjected to violence. “Pinjar” delivers a strong blow to the prevailing patriarchal system where women’s bodies are objectified and subjected to various forms of violence, both physical and psychological.
The book portrays the gender-specific pain and suffering caused by the 1947 partition of India, highlighting violence fueled by cultural, religious, and societal norms. The narrative of Puro exemplifies how women are devalued and diminished to insignificance.
The book also acknowledges women’s strength in confronting gender-based abuse, loss of identity, and estrangement. In essence, “Pinjar” offers a poignant depiction of the human toll of conflict and division, underscoring the enduring resilience of the human spirit in the face of immense adversity.
The novel “Pinjar” provides a compelling account of the plight of women during India’s partition, urging for a more just society that doesn’t subjugate women or reduce them to objects, as depicted in the story.
It calls for a society that upholds women’s rights, dignity, and worth as essential aspects of humanity. Ultimately, the book conveys a powerful message about the significance of empathy, compassion, and justice in shaping a more equitable world for everyone.
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Authored by Lakshya Haritwal, a 2nd year Student at National Law University Odisha.