Advocating ASikh Fundamentalist Identity in Shauna Singh Baldwin's What The Body Remembers

Shauna Singh Baldwin, a Sikh-Canadian writer, in What the Body Remembers depicts the plight of the Sikhs, a minority religious community caught between two major religious groups: the Hindus and the Muslims, during Partition. From the beginning of the novel, she emphasises the separateness between the three communities and highlights the differences between the Hindus and the Sikhs, on the one hand, and, the Muslims and Sikhs on the other. Through three main characters: Bachan Singh, Roop and Sardarji: Baldwin shows how fundamentalist and communalist attitudes coalesce to disrupt the composite culture of pre-partition Punjab. With reference to the Hindus she asserts that ‘Sikhs are not Hindus‘ and on more than one occasion she expresses her disapproval of Gandhi and the Hindus he leads. The feeling of betrayal of the Sikh community by the nationalist movement is also conveyed. Similarly, in dealing with the Muslims the undercurrent of suspicion and hostility lurks constantly beneath the veneer of amity and goodwill. The historical memory of conquest and gore between the two communities remains indelible and shapes their karmic memory and Sardarji finally leaves his treasured ambivalence and finances Sikh Jathas when Partition breaks out. With the demand for a Sikhistan being made too late, Sardarji, Roop and Bachan Singh are forced to leave Pakistan and settle in Delhi. Though their exodus leaves them shattered, they pick up the threads. Baldwin constantly harps on an exclusive Sikh identity and through this identitarian portrayal of her community, whom she feels is wronged, she shows how the Sikh fundamentalist character is formed. This will, in Independent India, lead to the demand for Sikh separatism.