Novel as a Nation and Nation as a Novel: A Study of Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire
“The Nawab Vazirs created a culture which combined the finest elements of the civilizations of Iran and India. It was a tension-free society of polite, fun-loving people. This chivalrous, feudal world was inhabited by scholars, poets, storytellers, musicians, scribes, knights and barons, actors, jugglers, chefs, calligraphers, embroiderers, champion swimmers, kite-fliers and cock-fighters.”(Hyder 131)
Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire was originally written in Urdu in 1959 and was later transcreated by the author itself in 1998 in English. The novel timelines spanned over two thousand years. Hyder focuses on history which was trivialized and ignored. Rather than focusing on central issues of colonialism and partition, like other post-colonial texts, she reflects on the history’s periphery. She covers the history of Subcontinent, beginning from Vedantic India, Muslim arrival, Britishers invasion and post-partition era. Unlike other post-Partition texts, she focuses on the psychological trauma and development of character’s mind, not the physical destruction and atrocities.
This paper aims to show how Hyder portrays nation as a novel and novel as a nation. Nation is an “aggregation of men, speaking the same language, using the same customs, possessing historic continuity, and distinguished from other like groups by their racial origin and characteristics”(Black 1175). Nation forms a collective unity and collective identity for its inhabitants. It is a socio-cultural community with same interests and political stance. According to some sources, novel is a fictitious prose narrative of certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting. It is an amalgam of both reality and fiction.
Hyder portrays different stratums of society. The novel is divided into four ages, starting from 4th Century BC, late 1500’s to early 1600’s, late 1800’s to 1900’s and post-partition era. According to her, partition does not only mean physical division of a nation, but also the ideas and views of the characters are opposed. The psyche of Hindus and Muslims cannot be bifurcated entirely because of the shared past before partition. As Peter Jackson, a character, puts,“They are terribly disunited. Many have become our allies. There are natives who will befriend us and turn against their own people if they find some personal profit in it.”( Hyder 106) Britishers took advantage of the differences between natives, and introduced the idea of partition.
River of Fire employs the metaphor of nation, to describe collective shared identity and common past. Although Hyder gives personal depictions of characters like Champa, Gautam, Kamal and Cyril in her narrative, the novel stands as a depiction of the past they shared. In the beginning of the novel, the characters were situated in different situations with different identities. They were loosely connected to each other through time, space and narration. Hyder portrays their individual experiences and lives within cultural and political spheres. By the end of the novel, most of the main characters are depicted as expatriates living in a foreign land. All of them resented the idea of partition and shared a feeling of nostalgia. The novel moves from depiction of individual to collective identity.
Hyder’s idea of nation, which once had unified values and cultures, has now deteriorated to separate spheres of India and Pakistan in post-partition era. Hyder by situating much of her novel in Lucknow, a culturally diverse city of Kingdom of Oudh, tries to develop her idea of alliance and convergence. The assertion of confluence is through Oudh, where culture transcends religio-linguistic objective differences. She claims that by denying a shared past, one cannot find a stable identity. Through writing a novel which incorporates historiographical accounts, diverse cultures, identity politics, affects of partition and perennial existential dilemma, Hyder portrays novel as a nation itself.
Allegory is a story, poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. According to some sources, allegory is used as literary devices or as rhetorical devices that convey hidden meanings through symbolic figures, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey. National allegory is a type of narrative whose essential subject is nation. It tends to be focused on the lives of ordinary people and using their mundane daily struggles as a means of illustrating the state of the nation. This novel is a national allegory, as through descriptions of characters, situations and past, it reveals the socio-political and cultural stance of Hyder. It portrays the novel as nation, with its complexities and diversities. Hyder gives a narrative account of India and its development. The focus remains on the nation and how it was bifurcated into two separate entities.
The collective experience goes beyond national divide. Hyder not only confines her novel in depiction of India as a nation and nation-state dichotomy, but also includes the outsider’s narrative. Eurasian is a person of mixed Asian and European ancestry. Maria Teresa of Madras is a character in the novel who is a Eurasian wench. Telling about Eurasian females, a host tells Cyril, “…never commit the folly of marrying a black girl unless she be high born. You can take them concubines.”( Hyder 109) Through her narrative, Hyder puts light on the plight of women, who either are subjects of pardah system or have to become prostitute for mere survival. British invasion and their narrative is incorporated through portrayal of Orientalist, Cyril Ashley and his friend Peter Jackson, who comes to India. So, Hyder includes different narratives of people of nation and also goes beyond the nationalistic fervor.
The idea of nation as a novel is a complex amalgamation of reality and fiction. Nation is a reality of existence which shares common language, religion and culture. Novel is its fictitious rendering, which is an amalgam of different characters, location settings and cultural socio-political scenario. Nation is diverse in its stratifications. It is an umbrella term which includes diverse people, cultures, religions, history, festivals and mythologies. River of Fire narrativizes memories of many generations. Hyder incorporates imagination and fictional elements in portraying realistic nation. Like novel, nation depicts amalgam of reality and fiction.
The narrative not only remains in the periphery but trespasses the definitive boundaries. Novel includes different elements and themes. Similarly, nation in River of Fire is not limited to India’s partition but includes the narrative of Negroes, Britishers, slavery, trade, merchandize, subjugation, inequality, prostitution and women’s condition in the nation. Through portrayal of atrocities, poverty, racism and slavery, Hyder universalizes the experience of natives of India. Although the novel is situated in a particular time phase with certain historiographical situation, but it universalizes the experience. Hyder incorporates various literary text’s references, ranging from medieval writers to the modern. This use of intertexuality to depict the idea of nation as diverse, Hyder renders its nation literality. The nation in the novel, becomes a novel.
Novel not only portrays the physicality of situation and people’s existence, but also depicts the psychological affects. Nation, similarly, not only includes physical world, but also different ideas and psychological affects. Although novel has different narratives, but it is unified by some themes. Similarly, though Hyder’s nation has different stratums, it shows a convergence and unified reality.To sum up, River of Fire is depiction of nation and nationalistic fervor of its inhabitants through narratorial voice and voice of characters. Novel as a nation and nation as a novel is depicted by the use of allegory of nation. Hyder voices her characters to show how they yearn for a unified nation, inspite of the inevitable demarcations inherent.
References
Hyder, Qurratulain. “River of Fire”. India: Women Unlimited. 2003. Print.
Black, Henry Campbell. Black Law’s Dictionary. 4th Edition. Print.
http://postcolonial.net/@/Backfile/_entries/55/file-pdf.pdf
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