Kitne Pakistan is a 2000Hindi novel by Kamleshwar, noted 20th-century Hindi writer, a pioneer of the Nayi Kahani movement of the 1950s, and later screenwriter for Hindi cinema. The novel combines allegory and realism, and deals with a vast expanse of human history, as it follows the rise of sectarianism, nationalism, Hindutva and communalism, raising questions about the true motives of the people who make decisions on the behalf and for common people, who throughout the history have borne the brunt of their decision. It witnesses the violence, separation and bloodshed in the aftermath of partition of India in 1947 and examines the nature and futility of divisive politics and religion. It won the 2003 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi, given by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. Today, the novel is considered as author's finest work, and one of the classics of modern Hindi literature.
History
Kamleshwar started working his ambitious novel in May 1990, aiming to understand Partition through allegory and realism. The first English translation of the novel came in 2001, in an partition anthology Translating partition published by Katha, which also featured works by Saadat Hasan Manto and Bhisham Sahni. This was followed by another translation by Ameena Kazi Ansari, Partitions was published by Penguin Books in 2006, subsequently it was widely anthologised, It has been subject of several critical studies, including Partition stories : mapping community, communalism, and gender by Vinod K Chopra. In 2013, another study, Kitne Pakistan: sampradayika vimarsha of the novel was published by Pratapsingh Rajput. The novel achieved both popular and critical acclaim, it has been translated into several languages including Marathi and French.
Summary
In a fictional court, various historical characters are brought to the witness's box and asked to narrate their version of history. These historical personalities range from mughal emperors Babur and Aurangzeb, Spanish adventurer Hernando Cortez, Lord Mountbatten, Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, along with political leaders, religious zealots and even scheming Gods of mythology, many are accused of creating innumerable divided nations and people, and a legacy of hatred and distrust. The only arbiter standing for the humanity, is an unnamed abeed, littérateur. He listens to the witnesses, and mulls over the casualties of Kurukshetra, Kargil, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nazi Germany, East Timor, the Aztec civilization and mythological Greece to Bosnia.
Legacy
In a 2007 interview, poet-lyricist Gulzar with whom Kamleshwar had work in film career, noted about the novel, "I had underlined so many sentences that were potential short stories or film material. There is a description where a handkerchief falls off the bridge; I always used to tell him that I could write a complete short story on this one line only." The novel has also been adapted to a play in 2013.
