Zainab And Buta Singh Short Story Analysis

The story of Zainab and Buta Singh remained hidden for a long time and Urbashi Butalia admitted that their story helped her uncovering some of the silences. Zainab was a Muslim girl who was said to have been abducted while her family was on the move to Pakistan. She was sold to a Jat named Buta Singh who married her and became parent of two girls. Families of both Zainab and Buta Singh took help of search party and separated them with the intention of grabbing their share of property. Someone from Pakistan informed Buta Singh that Zainab was forced to marry his uncle’s son. Buta Singh sold his land and collected money for going to Pakistan. He converted him into Zamil Ahmad. But in the court Zainab denied her relationship with Buta Singh.

There were many children who took birth as unwanted and reared up unprotected and neglected. Stories of those childhood, filtered through the prism of adult experience were presented by the writer in this chapter. In the cruel volcanic atmosphere of distrust and hatred of the adults, those innocent children with their smile of love were stunned and suffocated. Miserable stories of those children composed a phase of ‘shame’ in human civilization. Children are taken to be the messenger of God in India. To worship childhood, girl children are still worshipped in Belur Matth in West Bengal on the occasion of Durga Puja. But it is pathetic that the section who received the greatest trauma was the children who did not have developed the sense of self determination at that critical time. Without proper nourishment, many of them died, some grew up in orphanages or homes, some grew up on streets. Partition snatched away parental love and affection from them and left them turn beggar at the very beginning of their life. Urbashi Butalia remarked, “Partition survivors, developed severe psychological problems, and found they could not live in families” (254; ch.6). The writer specially told the story of Kulwant Singh who saw his father being cut into pieces. He still remembered in a frenzy of fire, all the female members of his family including his mother threw their children into the fire and then they jumped into that fire to save their honour. Later, when he got up, his hands were cut and his body was burnt. He was kept one year in the hospital till March 1948. After recovery, he was sent to one of his relatives, but there, he could not settle down because he was terror stricken. He was sent to a home and