‘From Karbala to Ayodhya’: The Unorthodox Domain of Intizar Husain's Stories

That the Partition of India was a cataclysmic event which irreversibly ruptured the fabric of the nation is a recognised fact. Many truths vis-à-vis this catastrophic moment in the history of India have been documented. And yet, there are narratives which lay buried in the deep recesses of history for decades for various reasons which included resistance of the people as well as the powers that be. Clearly, it may not have been easy for the survivors of the Partition to relive the trauma they underwent and these narratives may not have served the partisan interests of the state. Hence, ‘forgetting ’was considered to be the inevitable option. In the recent decades, however, many unheard stories of specific experiences of those who closely experienced the horrors of Partition have surfaced owing to the conscious efforts of some writers and also because many stories born out of personal suffering became available in translation. This paper is an attempt to provide the perspective of an important writer from the subcontinent, who could never reconcile to having moved from the town of his childhood. Building on Renan's formulation of the concept of nation as well as his view on how historical enquiry has been invariably stifled by the state machinery for the fear of sordid truths tumbling out, the paper seeks to examine four stories of Intizar Husain (1925–2016), namely “Qayyuma's Shop”, “Circle”, “Kela” and “Sorrow City”. The paper explores the two most traumatic aspects of the Partition—forced movement of people consequent upon the completely unnatural division of a nation, and the horrific spectre of communal violence that gripped both sides of the border, dealing a blow to an inherently pluralistic society of pre-Partition India.