REVIEW: Once upon a time: Chander & Sudha by Dharamvir Bharati
Umair Khan www.dawn.com umair-khan
The English translation of Gunahon Ka Devta eloquently retells the Hindi classic
DAWN.COM
CHANDER & Sudha is the English translation of the timeless 1949 classic, Gunahon Ka Devta, written by the iconic Hindi writer Dharamvir Bharati, the recipient of the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award. The novel tells the passionate love story of Chander and Sudha. The plot is simple and devoid of any distracting thrilling moments. Instead it is driven by the interaction of the central characters that is in many ways innocent as well as naive. What makes this novel so unusual, and one of the biggest bestsellers of its time, is the author’s ability to present his characters with conflicting choices that have fatal consequences.

The story is set in Allahabad just after Partition; we are introduced to a young research student, Chandrakumar Kapoor, an orphan, who has a mentor in Dr Shukla, a widower, and who is very close to Dr Shukla’s daughter, Sudha. The two share a relationship that is deep and strong, and their attraction for each other increases with the passage of time. That Sudha is in love with Chander soon becomes clear to the reader and other characters such as Sudha’s best friend, Gesu, and Sudha’s cousin Binti. Chander is from a lower caste than Sudha and that is why he doesn’t dare ask for Sudha’s hand in marriage from her father. While Sudha seems to be fairly 'modern', she cannot stand up to the social pressure to get married to the man of her father’s choice; Chander also forces her to abide by the wishes of her father. This, then, is the turning point in the novel but it is also through this tragedy that Bharati has made the story appealing to readers.

The writer uses this love story to hold a mirror against society’s socioeconomic divide that tears people apart emotionally. Bharati highlights an important point here; while children are taught to follow the values of the society they are born in, and are judged on their ability to make choices according to those standards, it is sometimes psychologically corrosive for people to keep following those ideals. In those moments, resistance against such ideas becomes not only the pragmatic choice for an individual but it is also the only way for societies to move forward.

Chandar has a choice: should he snatch Sudha from the clutches of social taboos or should he let her go and sacrifice his love at the altar of ‘good’ behaviour?

Chandar makes the socially acceptable choice and the consequences of this result in him becoming fully aware of his feelings for Sudha. The agony of an unattainable love burns him up slowly. His calm and rational outlook towards life is replaced by a longing to untie the jumble of his emotions. At this point he turns to Pammi, a Christian girl, to explore the physical aspect of love which was hitherto unknown to him. When even the physical expression of love cannot alleviate his agony he turns to Binti in search of an emotional connection that really isn’t there. With the passage of time, it becomes abundantly clear that his heart longs only for Sudha and no one can replace her in his life.

The writer also suggests that in such a restrictive society, young adults are bound to develop romantic feelings for anyone from the opposite sex whom they get a chance to interact with on a regular basis because they have limited options. While they have been exposed to the modern concept of a loving relationship between two adults, society still considers marriage a sort of bond of compromise rather than a fulfilling relationship.

It is not an easy task to translate an emotional story, especially one that is set in the distant past. Moreover, this novel is full of visual imagery, making the job of the translator more difficult. But Poonam Saxena has done a wonderful job. She has not tried to translate the original Hindi into perfect English; rather, she has used the Hindi terminology peculiar to Bharati’s native language which is more appealing for the readers of the subcontinent.

This novel is not only an engaging love story but also a critique of the restrictive social norms of the time, and how they affected relationships and women’s lives. These themes are as relevant today as they were when Gunahon Ka Devta was first published.

Chander & Sudha

(TRANSLATED WORKS)

By Dharamvir Bharati

Translated by Poonam Saxena

Penguin, India

ISBN 978-0670087501

352pp.