‘Failure of Indian literature to capture horrors of Partition played a role in return of communalism’

Author N.E. Sudheer discusses the impact of literature on communalism and democracy at MGU Literature Fest.

If the horrors of Partition had been understood in all its intensity and Indian literature had evolved through the possibilities it threw up, resulting in an informed reading on the tragedy, then probably communalism would not have made a comeback in India, said author and critic N.E. Sudheer.

He was talking at a session on ‘what purpose the readers serve’ held at Maharaja’s College in connection with the Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) Literature Fest. Except for a few works like Train to Pakistan, literary works that captured the horrors of the Partition were missing in Indian literature, unlike how European literature captured Auschwitz. That’s why a fascist like Modi managed to come to power and Indian democracy has been left weakened, Mr. Sudheer said.

“How we read is as important as what we read as it is intrinsically linked to the complex relation between reading and one’s sense of discretion. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi shaped his life and ideals based on his favourite book Bhagavad Gita, while his assassin Nathuram Godse also used the same text to reach the conclusion that Gandhi was wrong. Stalin was a good reader and Adolf Hitler had a library. But what good their reading served the world,” Mr. Sudheer said.

Readers of modern European literature that centered on themes like the Holocaust and fascism have become devotees of figures like Trump and Modi, present a striking contradiction. They often fail to grasp the full extent of autocratic excesses and underlying politics behind those tragedies, treating those books as mere fiction. However, when the same political ideologies that precipitated those tragedies resurfaced, the same readers became their advocates, Mr. Sudheer observed.

Previously, the Constitution was considered a mere text confined to Parliament and the judiciary. However, in the changed political landscape, the Constitution has been reinterpreted and has emerged as the most powerful tool of resistance for ordinary citizenry.

Critic Rahul Radhakrishnan said the Indian people are staring at a similar labyrinth faced by characters created by Kafka, even on the death centenary of the great author. People were being accused of crime about which they have no clue or knowledge of the reasons.

He said that reading would become pointless if one does not exercise discretion or wisdom. “We have overcome an era when reading was limited to a privileged few. A democraticisation has happened in reading. Reading sharpens our political outlook. Even while reading a work of fiction, readers must engage in a preparatory process to grasp broader aspects such as politics, geography and the administrative system of the place being discussed,” Mr. Radhakrishan added.