TAMAS BY BHISHAM SAHNI (TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY DAISY ROCKWELL)

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BOOK NAME: TAMAS

AUTHOR NAME: BHISHAM SAHNI (TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY DAISY ROCKWELL)

GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION

PUBLISHER: PENGUIN INDIA





Let me start this review with a question for a change. What do you think of history? Can history ever be accurate? I wonder what if someone somewhere missed the point entirely and miswrote history unknowingly? How can historians learn the intentions hidden in someone’s heart? How can one take into account minute details that happened in the dark that no one except the vast dark sky could witness? How would one know if it all didn’t start with something and end with something else altogether? Who do you trust, and how many sources would one consider? So, can history ever be accurate, or is it just hearsay? Because all of us can write history based on what we know or hear. But will it ever be enough to be called the truth? 


Tamas by Bhisham Sahni is a first-person account of the riots that broke out across the villages in pre-independent India, where Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs found themselves against one another all of a sudden. One day, they were all brothers gossiping about their British rulers. The next day, they are stocking ammunition in their backyard to fight one another. The story starts with a very unsuspecting event where Nathu agrees to skin a pig for a Muslim dealer to supply for the veterinary doctor. But things go haywire when the carcass of the pig is found outside a masjid. A communal riot breaks out as the centre keeps watching with their folded hands.


Even with a vast array of characters that sprout anew in every chapter, there is not one protagonist in the book. The events are raw and told from the point of view of people from each community. At one point, you feel someone is wrong, and the very next, you realise the other group isn’t a saint either. Some events would boil one’s blood, and it doesn’t matter if you identify with the community of the abusers or not; you would want to scream in their faces to end it all. Now tell me, who writes history with such neutrality? 


One particular scene that shook me was when the book depicted how a man changes from being a human to an animal, absorbed by his extremist ideologies, and forgets his core principles just to prove himself right. Another scene where someone struggles to harm another person belonging to a different community because he had known him once is nuanced beautifully, making you realise how fragile the human mind is and how it can be mended with love instead of hatred.


The beauty of the book lies in the fact that it doesn’t speculate or accuse one particular person or religion and doesn’t justify the cruel actions that follow later. It only raises concerns and questions the authorities who watch the play unfold. It’s an exhaustingly long book full of emotions, violence, and numerous characters. But you wouldn’t want to miss this, based on the Indian partition. 




This is a part of BlogchatterA2Z2026 challenge 

#penbooksandscalpel

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