Abstract
This article analyses and interprets Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on the author’s approach to language and her treatment of history. Hyder’s approach to language in River of Fire enables us to understand the emancipatory potential of language. As a writer, Hyder not only attempts to decolonize English language but also questions the culture, history, and language whose strength and superiority has been systematically robbed of due to prolonged and protracted colonial subjugation. The study examines how Hyder transcreates Aag ka Darya (1959) into River of Fire (1998) in Indian English, appropriating the English language in an Indian context, using fragmented and broken narratives, foregrounding the stories of women, and writing an alternative history from the point of view of the marginalized.
Keywords: Qurratulain Hyder, River of Fire, Aag ka Darya, postcolonialism, language, decolonization, Indian English, historiography, subaltern, partition
Language as a Tool of Power
Language, as we all are made to believe, is an innocent medium of instruction and an effective means of communication. But the destructive and disabling potential of language has been precariously used by hegemonic powers, both at local and global levels. It is now an established fact that language determines our thoughts and thoughts determine the use of our language. The potential of language has been systematically tapped by the privileged groups to subjugate and dominate the unprivileged group.
Hyder’s Postcolonial Approach
In the light of the above thesis, the present paper seeks to analyse and interpret Hyder’s River of Fire from a postcolonial perspective. Hyder’s approach to language and her treatment of history in River of Fire enables us to understand the emancipatory potential of language. As a writer Hyder not only attempts to decolonize English language but also question the culture, history and language whose strength and superiority has been systematically robbed of due to prolonged and protracted colonial subjugation.
The Novel’s Language and Structure
The River of Fire is very unconventional as far as its language is concerned. She consciously avoids the use of “pure” English or English man’s English which carries the cultural baggage of colonial power. In River of Fire Hyder describes four epochs of Indian history: first, the Mauryan empire under Chandragupta in the fourth century BC; second, the end of the Lodi dynasty and the beginning of Mugal rule; third, the beginning of East India Company rule; and fourth, the period of nationalist struggle, Partition, and Independence.
Transcreation and Indian English
Interestingly the originality of Aag ka Darya (1959) is very artistically transcreated into River of Fire (1998). It is not an act of translation where there is encounter of two languages, two cultures and two paradigms of mind, rather it is a transcreation of Indian sensibility into an artistic form. It is unique as it has been rendered in Indian English which automatically solves the problems arising out of the very act of translation. Like Raja Rao she knows how to “convey in a language that is not one’s own the spirit that is one’s own.”
Alternative Historiography
Hyder deviates from the “standard” historiography and does rely more on the “fragments,” in people’s account than the “official” versions of happenings. River of Fire is full of historical events and the description of these historical events includes those details which do not figure in the “important” and notable books of history. The historical details and the personages involved in these events may not interest the mainstream historians who always look for big stories involving big people.
Women’s Voices in the Narrative
Hyder’s postcolonial stance becomes more emphatic when she brings to the fore the stories of women about whom the world knows little. Kamaluddin’s travalogue tells about Razia Sultan, a female Muslim monarch who advocated the abolition of the tax paid by Hindus. She was killed in tragic circumstances. It also offers an alternative view of male-centric history where women are only mute spectators of things happening around them and happening to them.
Works Cited
- Guha, Ranjit. A Subaltern Studies Reader (1986-1995). rpt; 1997. New Delhi OUP, 2010.
- Hyder, Qurratulain. River of Fire. New Delhi: Kali for Woman, 1998.
- Nandy, Ashis. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. Oxford: O.U.P, 1983.
- Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. rpt; 1961. New Delhi: ASIA Publication House, 1972.
- Pandey, Gyanendra. “In Defense of the Fragment: Writing about Hindu-Muslim Riots in India Today.” A Subaltern Studies Reader (1986-1995). Ed. Ranjit Guha. rpt; 1997. New Delhi OUP, 2010.
- Roy, Arundhati. The Algebra of Infinite Justice. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002.
- Thiong’o, Ngugi Wa. Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. 1981 rpt. New Delhi: Worldview, 2007.