Natasha Sharma’s debut novel ‘Beneath Divided Skies’ is a bold tale of love and divided loyalties against the backdrop of the Partition.
By Ranjani Rao
Love & the Partition
Setting a love story in the backdrop of the bloody Partition of India is a bold move in itself, but when the lovers happen to harbor loyalties on either side of a newly divided India, it makes for a riveting read.
Natasha Sharma‘s debut novel Beneath Divided Skies is the story of Iqbal and Satya, two young people impacted by the Partition who bear their sorrows stoically and choose to act in courageous ways that redeem not just themselves, but also the religious communities they belong to.
Rescue operation across the border
The book begins with an exciting rescue operation planned and executed by two women, Satya and Prerna, to free a young girl on the Pakistani side of the border and return her to India. It is a mission completed successfully thanks to their accomplice, a young Pakistani army officer, Iqbal Syed. As the story moves through the initial few months after the independence of both countries from the British, more such daring rescues are conducted, bringing Satya and Iqbal in close contact with each other, igniting sparks of attraction that shine brightly despite the knowledge that it will not last long.
Through heart-wrenching flashbacks, we learn about sixteen-year-old Satya’s family in Pakistan who become the target of a murderous mob. When she comes out of hiding, Satya discovers their dismembered bodies but realizes that her sister is missing. Although she manages to cross over safely to India, she doesn’t stay idle.
Freeing Hindu and Sikh women in Pakistan
Spurred by love for her sister, she joins an organization that rescues Hindu and Sikh women who have been held captive in Pakistan. Prerna, an older woman who has herself experienced the horrors of the Partition, becomes Satya’s mentor and guardian. Together they find many other women on either side of the border who live in mortal fear, sometimes shielded by kind souls from the rival community, who want them to be safe, even if that safety lies across the border in an unfamiliar land.
Both fictional and non-fictional accounts, some by famous authors, have chronicled the bloodshed that followed Gandhi’s nonviolent movement to free India from British rule. The arbitrarily drawn Radcliffe Line separating a great, diverse nation into two parts, one that chose to be secular and the other that chose to be a Muslim nation, displaced nearly 200,000 to 2 million people.
Partition Narratives
Many narratives describe trains full of corpses and the mad scramble of people to get away from their familiar homeland to an unknown part of a new country, believing it to be welcoming solely based on religious affiliation. Yet, very little is known about what really transpired at the individual level for those who lived through the terrible months after independence was declared, birthing two new countries at the stroke of midnight.
Stories like Beneath Divided Skies bring home individual tales in unique voices that carry the memories and burdens of having lived through unbearably difficult circumstances. The author has deeply researched the lives of people displaced by the Partition and brought them to life through a host of memorable characters such as Prerna, Santo, and Ikankar among others. Young Iqbal and Satya share a true love but the circumstances of their meeting are not conducive to a lifetime of togetherness. Both want to stay true to their calling while acknowledging their mutual admiration, affection, and regard but the chasm created by this newly drawn line of separation is too wide for them to cross.
More than just a love story
It would be reductive to say that this is a love story because the points made by the author through the multitude of tales from every character show how much was truly lost. As the narrative flits between the horrors of 1947, and forty years later, when Satya has carried on with her life on the Indian side, we get to see how women bear the brunt of war. Most are defenseless, choiceless, and forced to comply with the wishes of family, community, and laws supposedly written for the greater good.
Within the limited confines of the world they inhabit, women still manage to build lasting bonds, develop genuine friendships, and create beauty. Whether it’s through the beautiful phulkari embroidery created by rescued women who can’t trace their scattered families or who are shunned for being raped by their captors, or through Satya’s valiant efforts to establish a Partition museum decades later, the women dream and nurture their talents, supporting each other along the way.
A new purpose in life
Satya’s wish to share these stories with her children who remain ignorant of the ugly truth of their parents’ youth gives her a new purpose later in life. It also gives her a chance to visit her childhood home. Yet, some of her personal sorrows continue to haunt her, particularly her sister’s life and the what-ifs of her first love.
Beneath Divided Skies manages to do what good historical fiction does – it makes you curious. It makes you want to know what really happened, which part of the story was fictional and what are the kernels of truth embedded in this heartfelt and heartrending narrative? For that reason alone, this book is a must-read in the canon of post-Partition literature from India.
Read: ‘Vikh’ – A Step, the new poetry book in two Sindhi scripts
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Ranjani Rao is a scientist by training, writer by avocation, originally from Mumbai, and a former resident of USA, who now lives in Singapore with her family. Ranjani Rao is the author of Rewriting My Happily Ever After — A memoir of divorce and discovery and The Coherent Writer newsletter.
Courtesy: India Currents (Posted on June 18, 2024)
