Novel
Traitor
غدار
Krishan Chander · 1960
Synopsis
Baijnath, a wealthy Hindu merchant who is married and in love with a Muslim woman, Shadaan, sees the Punjab split in two in August 1947. Driven from his ancestral village by rioters, he flees across a countryside given over to massacres, seeking refuge with Muslims who hesitate to hand him over. When he learns of his son's death and his sister's abduction, he in turn demands a weapon to take revenge.
Context
The novel appeared in Lahore in 1960, from Naya Idara, thirteen years after the partition it recounts in the first person. Its aim is to show that Hindus and Sikhs also suffered in the exodus, whereas the narratives published in Pakistan mostly told of the sufferings of Muslims. It was translated into English only in 2017, by Rakhshanda Jalil, under the title Traitor, from Tranquebar.
Who it is for
A short novel, in Urdu, available in English; knowing what the Punjab massacres of 1947 were sheds light on the story.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the classics of Urdu literature on the riots of the Partition, without being the best known of its author's novels.
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