Re-Presenting the Past in the Hindi Novel: The Darkness in Bhīṣma Sāhnī’s Tamas

Abstract

While the modern literary novel in Hindi has traditionally grappled with contemporary issues impacting society in north India, Bhīṣma Sāhnī’s famous novel Tamas (“Darkness”) may be considered a unique endavour to revisit the horrific events that marked the transfer of power and partition of British India in 1947. This article represents a preliminary attempt to consider the emergence of a work of literary fiction in Hindi approximately 25 years after the events on which it is based.