New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) When Hindia-Urdu writer KrishanChander had written 'Ghaddaar', a story of a man accused ofbeing a traitor, India and Pakistan were still struggling tocome to terms with the loss of lives in the wake of a bloodypartition.
While in hindsight the savagery seen and written byseveral authors of that era can be termed an outcome of the"dark and depressing times", author-translator RakhshandaJalil feels, even after 70 years, the book remains relevant as"we as people have not evolved much".
Jalil, who has translated Chander's book into English --"Traitor", said that "things have not changed much as anyonewho doesn't conform to the majoritarian discourse is termed atraitor today".
The book tells the story of Baijnath, who is coming toIndia from the newly formed Pakistan after partition but istermed a traitor for showing love to an orphan child who couldbe either a Hindu or Muslim.
"The book is not relevant just because it is goodliterature, but it talks about all the issues that are stillrelevant like barbarism, savagery, darkness and how humanitycan rise at a time of darkness.
"There are things that have not changed much. Even todayanyone who thinks differently, who doesn't conform to themajoritarian discourse is branded a traitor now," she said.
She also noted that in the last few years, a mobmentality that exercises enormous power and dictates publicopinion, has come to the fore.
"There is a hyper nationalistic discourse in actiontoday, and the mentality of 'If you are not with us, you areagainst us' is on the rise," she said.
Poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar, who was attending the launchof the book at India International Centre here yesterday,commended Chander's style of writing.
He said that the writer had introduced a new meaning tothe word 'traitor'.
"Of course you can be a traitor to a community, areligion, a society, but Krishan Chander found a new meaningto the word. On the last page of the book, Baijnath picks achild, perhaps a Muslim child, from a field that is strewnwith dead bodies and decides to adopt this child.
"Then he says to himself, 'Where will you go now,Baijnath. You have become the traitor to the hatred of boththe countries'," Akhtar said. PTI MAHTRS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.