Amrita’s works reflect Partition pangs: Prof

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, January 31

The trauma of Partition, reflected in the writings of Amrita Pritam, was narrated to participants at a national seminar in Calcutta University today.

Amrita Pritam, who was born on August 31, 1919, at Gujranwala, Pakistan, was 28-year-old when the country was divided. She went through the horror and felt the pain of people.

According to Chaman Lal, former Punjabi University (Patiala) professor, who later joined the JNU, Amrita’s finest expressions came through when Partition formed the backdrop of her works.

The setting could not have been more appropriate for a presentation of this sort. It reignited memories of the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946 and the sufferings of millions of refugees, who flooded the city in the aftermath of Partition.

Amrita’s widely read poem “Aaj Akhan Shah Nu” was written in the backdrop of Partition violence. Chaman Lal chose to speak about the poem.

The poem is in a rhythmical form. The effect of words is most intense when the poem is sung as a song. “Pakistani band “Mekaal Hasan Band” has recorded the song in an album,” he said.

Next the professor cited “Pinjar”, a novelette by Amrita, which too has Partition violence as the main theme.

Chaman Lal concluded his presentation, saying, “Amrita’s story of Partition, its horror and tragedy have communal men as the tormentors and women as the sufferers. The novel “Pinjar” focuses more on the trauma of women abducted, raped, murdered, stripped and paraded naked in the streets, forcefully married or made slaves by the opponent communalised community.”

Besides Amrita, papers are also being read in the seminar on Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and Bengali poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay. This year is the birth centenary year of these two poets too.