Notes on Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column by Student Help.

Notes on Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column by Student Help.

Politics and Communal Riots:

 The partition of India, an important event affected many aspects of life. Partition has drawn the attention of politicians, historians and creative writers. Sunlight on a Broken Column narrates the story of the individual crisis of Laila and the political crisis facing the people. The novel is political in as much as the characters not only react but also participate in the political goings on in the country and take definite stands for and against them. The political milieu does not overtake the human story. But the decay of the feudal system, Hamid’s entrance into politics division of the family due to partition and the characters inheriting political climate and discussions on the political ideas enrich the political flavour of the novel. Laila’s friends in the college hold divergent views about the contemporary politics. Nita Chatterji, who is a nationalist, upholds the congress; Nadira, an ardent follower of Islamic ideals, upholds the Muslim League and Joan, an Anglo-Indian, upholds the British rule. The novelist very interestingly holds up mirror to three main streams the congress, the Muslim League and the British Raj through these characters. In addition to that, as Novy Kapadiya writes, Asad’s head injury, Nita’s dismissal from college and death caused by lathi blows on her head, students’ protest at the viceroy’s arrival and plain-cloth policeman at the University campus were all sings of political ferment. (Kapadiya, 173) The novel implicitly depicts the struggle for power politics. After the abolition of the feudal system, Hamid wants to find a new political identity by contesting election. Saleem says to Hamid: In the final analysis what you are facing is the struggle for power by the bourgeoisie. It is not really a peasan’ts movement, but when it comes to division of spoils even class interests are forgotten. (SOBC, 231) On the other hand, the focus of the novel is on crisis within the Muslim community. Historically speaking, partition was an enigma. They were torn between two worlds the newly created Pakistan, a separate homeland for the Muslims, and India, the country where they were born and lived for many years. This kind of climate this yielded two types of Muslim stands; one pro-Pakistan, demanding the division of the country and two pro-India, supporting the united India. At the level of high political scenario also one can trace the representation of the former  in personalities like Jinnah and Liakat Ali and the latter in Maulana Azad.