Product Description
Tamas
Author: Bhisham Sahni
Format: Paperback
A poignant and politically charged novel about the 1947 Partition, translated by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell
Tamas, Bhisham Sahni's 1973 novel, is a product of the Partition's devastation. It drew immediate and universal critical acclaim for its poignant and striking retelling of Partition and its bloody aftermath. Tamas is a story about how simmering communal tensions snowball into full-fledged riots that grip villages across the subcontinent. In a city in undivided Punjab, Nathu, a tanner, is bribed to kill a pig.
When the animal's carcass is discovered on the steps of the local mosque the next morning, brewing tensions explode into riots and massacre. A seemingly well planned and executed job by the British plants seeds of mistrust and hatred among those who, until the day before, had been close friends and neighbours. Tamas is a chilling reminder of the consequences of religious intolerance and communal prejudice.
About the Author
Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) is considered to be among India’s greatest writers and a distinguished voice in Hindi literature — having written over 100 short stories and several plays. Sahni, who was born in Rawalpindi, in present day Pakistan, was an active participant in the Quit India Movement, and settled down in India after Partition. Tamas, his most known novel, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was subsequently adapted into a National Award-winning film by Govind Nihalani.
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