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org © 2023 IJCRT | Volume 11, Issue 4 April 2023 | ISSN: 2320-2882

MANIK BANDOPADHYAY’S ‘THE FINAL

SOLUTION’: A STUDY IN THE PERSPECTIVE
OF PARTITION
Binoy Dangar
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Berhampore Girls’ College

Abstract
Following the two-nation theory propounded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and others, Bengal suffered partition
and its aftermath. The nationalist discourse suppressed the real suffering of the people faced in two provinces in
Punjab and Bengal. On the other hand the independence was glorified in such a way that the trauma and
sufferings of the millions of refugees got suppressed. As alternative history we can look at contemporary
literature. Manik Bandopadhyay’s ‘The Final Solution’ depicts the inhuman suffering of a woman along with
many families and her ultimate resisting spirit that she shows at the end of the story. The purpose of this paper
is to analyse the story from the perspective of Partition and to show how women suffered in multifaceted ways
during and after the partition. The paper aims to point out the sexual exploitation that women had to face
through even in their distressful situation as refugees. The character of Mallika in the story ‘The Final Solution’
fell in the trap of Pramatha, a dishonest man who tried to exploit her sexually and commercially. But she proves
that she is no less strong than a man in fighting against him and winning over him.

Keywords: Partition, women, exploitation, refugees, Bengal

Partition of India has remained as a very unfortunate event in the history of India. A substantial painful body
of history and literature were born in India and Pakistan out of this catastrophic event. It has become an area of
study in the academic field. It was a dream of all Indians that India would be free from the British rule. It
brought so much happiness to the people of the country. People celebrated the event and the national history is
full of glories written about the sacrifice of the freedom fighters. But along with independence came the
division of the country on the basis of community. Leaders played a very bad game in this irrecuperable match
with a poor foresight. The history of gaining independence was so glorified that another side of suffering, loss
and pain has remained outside the purview of the national leaders and the dominant ideologies prevalent at that
time. Partition was done on the basis of religion. It was not followed by any systematic exchange of people and
belongings. It was declared as if suddenly and people were confused what to do. Immediately the border areas
became hotspot of religious animosities and violence. Ismat Chughtai in his book Friend, My Enemy: Essays,
Reminiscences, Portrait has written ‘It wasn’t only that the country was split in two- bodies and minds were
also divided. Moral beliefs were tossed aside and humanity was in shreds’ (3). There were spasmodic and
sporadic riots killing many people on both sides of the border. Dr Asaduddin in his article “Fiction as History:
Partition Stories” has written:

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The partition of India, a momentous event in Indian history, continues to tantalize historians, haunt the Indian
psyche and cast its shadow on our social and political life. It is closely linked with the chronicle of our freedom
struggle that made the actual liberation of the country from foreign yoke an experience of violence, slaughter
and exile for many. One of the most massive demographic dislocations in history, with its attendant human
tragedy, it defies chroniclers to come to grip with it in all its dimensions (313).

Partition played havoc on women. Women were the symbol of honour in the society. They were targeted by
both the communities. They were raped, abducted, tortured, and exploited in whatever way men could. Urvashi
Butalia writes, ‘as always there was widespread sexual savagery: about 75,000 women are thought to have been
abducted and raped by men of religions different from their own (and indeed sometimes by men of their own
religion)’ (3). Many women lost their husbands, children, and relatives. On the one hand they suffered the
trauma of loss and on the other they faced violence over their own bodies. All these stories of women’s
suffering came down to some extent through oral tradition of family storytelling. Literature has revitalized those
painful events in the lives of women. The pains of partition are unforgettable. To go over in the memory of the
pains and sufferings of partition the prime minister of India Narendra Modi in a twitter post proclaimed 14 th
August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.

West Bengal and Punjab were the worst sufferers. Many people lost their relatives. With the division a
family also got divided. They were unable to meet their relatives. In fact, the actual history of Partition
remained in the stories of each displaced and suffered family. Partition literature came with those stories even
after seventy years of the disastrous event. Partition literature is written in many languages such as Urdu,
Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, and English. In English some of the great writers wrote on partition are Manohar
Malgonkar, Chaman Nahal, Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, and Bapsi Sidhwa. Writers in other languages
include Saadat Hasan Manto, Bhisham Sahni, Intizar Hussain, Joginder Paul and others. It is often said that
Bengali writers have not written much on partition. A large part of partition literature has been produced on the
division in the Western border. But if we look carefully we can well understand that a substantial amount of
writing we can get from the Bengali writers also. But this is a fact that this has not gained sufficient publicity
due to the negligence of critics and translators. Jyotirmoyee Devi, Pratibha Basu, Manik Bandopadhyay, Sunil
Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Prafulla Roy are some of the writers from West Bengal. From
Bangladesh there are Syed Waliullah, Hasan Azizul Huq, Rizia Rahman and others. In Bengali Jyotirmoyee
Devi’s novel “Epar Ganga Oper Ganga”, Saroj Kumar Roychowdhury’s “Neel Agun”, Satinath Bhaduri’s short
story “Gananayak”, are some of the writings depicting the psychological and social effects of partition.

Manik Bandopadhyay is one of the noted Bengali writers who felt deeply the nuances of sufferings of the
poor and the displaced. Born in 1908, during his forty eight years lifespan he has written many unforgettable
novels and short stories. His novels are as many as thirty eight and short stories above three hundred. At the age
twenty one he wrote his first novel Dibaratrir Kavya (Poetry of the Day and Night). His works have been
translated in many languages. His most famous novel Padma Nadir Majhi (Boatman of the Padma) has been
translated thrice in English. His writings are imbued with the details of the hard life of the deprived and
downtrodden. His short story ‘The Final Solution’ is translated by Rani Ray from its original Bengali version
and it captures the disturbed world of the refugees during the partition. This article is intended to investigate and
explore the various layers of negative impact of partition on human beings particularly women in and around
partition time reflected in the story.

The story spans a day only and within it a woman transforms herself from a very weak feminine sufferer to
a strong masculine fighter. A woman’s resilience, fighting capacity, mental might which accounts never to yield
has been delineated perfectly with many layers of painful tones. At the beginning the sense of homelessness
grabs the attention of the readers. A large number of people with a few of their essential belongings huddled
together in the occupied spaces in the platform of railway station. Manik Bandopadhyay writes, ‘...one could
see the forlorn dispossessed people, spending their days and nights, huddled together like herds of cattle and
goats in the shelter of a railway platform.’(36) The writer dehumanizes their condition by saying that they lived
like cattle. The story portrays only one family among so many in the platform. One small mattress is the
kingdom (space) of the family consisting of four members. The members are named with care Mallika,
Bhushan, Asha, and Khokan, a two and half-year-old child. Many aspects of Mallika’s life have been pointed
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out in the story. The world, as if, stares like a bird of prey to the women like Mallika. Being a woman she is
vulnerable to many traps and seduction. So the small world is painted as dark and ugly. Even the sun’s light is
befitting here. Only night fits their situation. If the sun had option not to rise, it would not rise to show these
people daylight. With the paucity of spaces there is extreme hunger prevalent among the homeless people. The
condition of the mothers and the small children is worst. The mother in Mallika feels agonizing pain watching
the small child going without food. The child goes on whimpering for food all the time. She becomes desperate
to find food and feed the child. But there is no scope for food.

The situation turned absolutely hellish: ‘They had continued to live one hell of a life in the station...’ The
main male member of the family is suffering from malaria fever. There is no scope for treatment. The day when
the story unfolds is an extremely bad one because ‘Mallika’s family had nothing to eat.’ They were on the brink
of fasting. The condition of the child is more heart rending. He ‘had been whimpering since early morning.’
‘He howled and dropped from time to time’ (36). There was no help from anyone. Men from various
organizations and societies visited the place but no changes came to their lives. People lost their hope to rely on
the government. Only people left to aid them are the dishonest, capitalistic, opportunist touts like Pramatha. In
this situation the mother in Mallika crosses the limit of endurance. She becomes desperate to save her child.
One of the most valuable aspects of human self- the ‘motherly self’ becomes deeply traumatised in such
situation. Belief in God loses ground consequent of degraded life. God is referred as ‘disgraceful being’ by
Mallika when Pramatha says that God is responsible for making them so poor. They were used to live a
respectable life with dignity. Women never would go outside for work. When Mallika was told that there was
no job for male members and a few jobs still available for females she was shocked and hurt. As a habit she
suddenly shouts out, ‘Oh God, even this was in my fate!’ The mention of God here is only habitual with no
indication of appeal to Almighty (38).

Partition has made men insane in many cases. Incidentally Mallika’s husband Bhushan is almost inactive in
the story partly because of his illness and partly his mental disturbance. His behaviour points to his perching on
the edge of insanity. Bandopadhyay writes about Bhushan: ‘The world, his own existence, had turned remote,
upside down. Everything had become muddled in his mind’ (40). Taking advantage of their extreme situation
many dishonest people came forward to commercially exploit their destiny. The government and the social
service organizations failed to take care of them. In this situation men like Pramatha in association with the
police cast their evil nets on women. The background of Pramatha shows well how he is an expert in
accumulating wealth in a dishonest way violating and flouting the human values. Taking advantage of the
topsy-turvy ambience of partition he occupied a two storeyed house at the brink of the city driving away the
Muslim family by creating a riot in the locality. Manik Bandopadhyay writes ‘The house had belonged to a
Muslim family, who had fled when Pramatha managed to cause a riot in the area. (41).The house was used by
him to keep the women like Mallika and their family in return of rents and sex. The man was carrying out
multiple earning machinations simultaneously. He was collecting room rents from the women, giving cars in
rents, taking commission from the earning of the women as prostitutes. He was running flesh trade openly. In a
desert he seems to be the only oasis to many of the homeless refugee women. In exchange of their bodies they
are getting a roof over their heads.

Partition created suitable atmosphere for appearing in the scene for such thugs. They dominated the women
and women’s bodies were taken by them as profitable and exploitable space. Pramatha in the story “The Final
Solution” offered jobs to Mallika in exchange of food and shelter. The kind of job remained unknown at first
but gradually it becomes clear to her. She came to know that Pramatha runs prostitution business with the
women refugees who being helpless fall in his trap. Inspite of knowing everything she takes him as God
because she had no other way to save her child except accepting the offer of Pramatha. Pramatha, on the other
hand, makes profit by renting rooms and cars to those women engaged in prostitution. Mallika says that she
wants to do anything for the sake of her child. She goes to where Pramatha’s assistant Ramlochan took her with
his car. After getting a room and food for her child she became happy for a moment but this did not last for
long. Pramatha wants to enjoy her. He needs her immediately to have a tea. But actually he wanted to exploit
her sexually at first before engaging her in the profession of prostitution. Mallika however could not endure this
idea of Pramatha. She became a tigress looking at him when to have the opportunity to pounce on him. The
writer has used animal imagery to depict the violent aspect of human characters. Mallika’s angry look has been
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described this way, ‘To Pramatha her emaciated hungry looks took on the form of a human tigress as she kept
fidgeting. The way she looked straight at him, her head raised, it seemed she was about to pounce on him, dig
her teeth into his flesh.’(43)This is a way to look at human beings as beasts. Partition in fact made people
beastly taking away the human values from them. When most of the women were ready to surrender to the
situation Mallika stood to decide to protest this exploitation. She gathered courage and becomes strong and
masculine.

Mallika’s degrading humanity is perceived in Pramatha’s attempt to make her clean and well looking. With
an indistinct idea of what would happen to her Mallika had to respond to the call of Pramatha. She went to his
gorgeous home in the city suburb. Mallika’s ‘grimy clothes’, ‘filthy sandals’ and ‘unkempt hair’ have made her
detestable to a tout like Pramatha. The hypocritical society gave her access to an ‘aroma filled bathroom’ only
to make her sexually exploitable. She was going through a psychological trauma facing Pramatha at his house.
First time she was watching someone drowning ‘glasses of alcohol at one go’. She became ferocious when
Pramatha drew and pulled her to his bosom saying that this way he wanted to get her. Mallika then leads the
readers to encounter a counter violence which bespeaks of women’s courage and fortitude in the atmosphere of
hegemonic patriarchal violence. She uses the soda bottle as her weapon to strike the man who wanted to exploit
her sexually. She does not lose her mental strength at the incident of Pramatha becoming unconscious at her
strike. She does not rest until his death. In a cool mind inside the room Mallika thinks, plans and executes the
last blow by killing him with the noose made of her sari. Even after all this she was able to take away all the
money that Pramatha had in his pocket. Such an unbelievable fight was not expected from Mallika. Here she
becomes different from all other women. She at least made an example of courage, protest and fight against the
patriarchal power. It was an ominous and vicious power that engulfed the women who became homeless, were
abducted and tortured after partition.

So the story ‘The Final Solution’ captures the essence of violent, exploitative atmosphere that partition
brought to the people of divided Bengal. It ushered in the growth of capitalism at the cost of human values,
respect and dignity of women in the society. People lost the meaning of life with extreme situations of
homeless, foodless, health hazards and consequent mental anguish. Women could not protect their honour, self-
respect and dignity.

Works Cited

1. Asaduddin, M. “Fiction as History: Partition Stories”. Pangs of Partition, vol.2, edited by S. Settar and Indira
B. Gupta, Manohar, 2002, pp. 313-329.
2. Bandopadhyay, Manik. “The Final Solution”. Translated by Rani Ray. Partition Literature: An Anthology,
edited by Debjani Sengupta, Worldview, 2018, pp. 36-46.
3. Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Penguin Books India, 1998.
4. Chughtai, Ismat. My Friend, My Enemy: Essays, Reminiscences, Portraits. Translated by Tahira Naqvi, Kali for
Women, 2001, p.3.
5. HASAN, MUSHIRUL. “PARTITION NARRATIVES.” Oriente Moderno, vol. 23 (84), no. 1, 2004, pp. 103–
30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25817920. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.
6. Modi, Narendra [@narendramodi]. “Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers
were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence. In memory of the struggles and
sacrifices of our people, 14th August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.” Twitter, 14
Aug. 2021,
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1426410192258830341
7. SARKAR, PRABIR KUMAR. “A REFLECTION ON PARTITION LITERATURE OF INDIAN
SUBCONTINENT IN ENGLISH”, International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), ISSN:2320-
2882, Vol.9, Issue 5, pp.k312-k318, May 2021, URL : http://www.ijcrt.org/IJCRT21A6118

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