Transient ties, intransient happiness

Jaspal Singh

The novel, Paper Marriage, by Nachhatar Singh Brar deals with a starkly real, though not rare, immigration trickery that many overseas Punjabis resort to. Since the 20th century Punjabis have migrated to other countries in thousands in search of greener pastures. They first went to Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and even the Philippines. Some even went to Kenya and’ Uganda in Africa. After a few years stay, many from South East Asia migrated to the Americas particularly the Western coast of Canada and the USA. Many these migrants did not use any unethical means.

Towards the middle of the second decade of the 20th century thousands of them sailed back to India to launch a ghadar in India to drive out the British. This venture, however, fell through and is now a glorious chapter of the history of India’s struggle for freedom. Then for a few years there was hardly any emigration from Punjab.

The second wave started in the early 1960s under the ‘British Voucher System’. In quick succession Canada and America again became the favourite emigration destinations.

This craze for emigration to the Western countries or to Australia and New Zealand has only increased with time. Every mofussil town of Punjab is dotted with dubious travel agencies. Every corner of the street in such towns displays a sign-board of IELTS institute to equip the youth with ‘functional English’ in exchange of a hefty fee. Punjab hardly has any jobs to offer to the youth, who are ambitious and want to earn a lot of dollars. They want to migrate to their El Dorado by hook or by crook. 

One of the devious means of immigration is the ‘paper marriage’ which means that a girl citizen from any of the Western countries is bribed to marry a particular boy and as soon as the boy gets permanent residency (PR), the marriage is dissolved and the boy becomes free to marry the girl of his choice. Then in course of time his and his bride’s entire family is imported.

This phenomenon, with an unexpected turn of events, is deftly delineated in this novel by Brar, who is based in Vancouver. The protagonist, a Punjabi boy, Jagseer (24), lands in Vancouver by arranging a ‘paper marriage’ with a Canadian girl, Mani (34). Jagseer pays her $ 40,000 for this sham marriage. The deal is that as soon as Jagseer becomes a citizen of Canada, Mani will divorce him so that he can go back to India and marry a girl of his choice. And eventually he will arrange for the immigration of his and his bride’s families to Canada. As this narrative unfolds the inner contradictions and complications of this relationship on paper appear one after the other. 

Mani had been married earlier and that disastrous relationship is also laid bare. But she is now fully accustomed to the style and rhythm of the Canadian life. She starts looking at her contract marriage from a different angle. As soon as Jagseer gets a PR status, he becomes impatient and even bitter to get divorced from Mani. Every evening he exhorts Mani to seek a divorce as per the contract. But she has other plans. She realises that Jagseer is a gentle and hardworking boy. Painfully aware of her middle age, she wants to turn this ‘paper marriage’ with a young Jagseer into a permanent one in order to settle down. She entices him into a sensual trap that eventually leads to couple of children. In utter helplessness, Jagseer is doomed to spend his entire life with her. 

Mani, whose wishes have been fulfilled, now wants to help Jagseer fulfil his promise to his family. She helps him to get his family immigrate to Canada thus winning their and his hearts. She also takes extra care of Jagseer’s old parents resulting in a harmonious family atmosphere.

This unpredictable human turn of events makes this novel an engaging read. From extreme bitterness and turmoil of a contract marriage, the happy turn of events is a great relief to all the people involved in this turbulent drama. Even a notorious practice like ‘paper marriage’ can develop into a compassionate human relationship. 

On account of these turns and twists, the tale becomes an important contribution to the Punjabi diaspora literature which now has emerged as a distinct genre in Punjabi world of letters.