To Toba Tek Singh

 Annette A Rajive,20SJCCC306

Link for Twitter Page:     https://twitter.com/toTobaTekSingh?s=08

REPORT

 

          Expressing an idea creatively is very important in engaging the audience with the material. This is especially true for historical subjects which traditionally are boring to most people who come across it. We can see that this is true when we see how historical films are more famous than actual articles written on the incidents or a documentary related to it. People are more inclined to follow something when there is a solid narrative to it or a twist to it, rather than just a plain explanation of what happened. They engage with it more when creative elements are added and they also pay more attention to it. They play a big role in making people aware of the significance of certain events, especially if they were not alive during the time they occurred. Creatively expressions help it in gaining a much wider audience. More number of people become interested in the matter and hence more people engage with it. This helps the artist in spreading the idea to a greater number of people.

          If students are asked to write about the partition and what had happened, it is very easy to google it and copy it straight from there. But, when they are asked to creatively engage with it, they are forced to look into it more and learn more about it. They would put much more thought into it and in the process would end up learning much more, than what they would have learned, had they been asked to write a simple article. When you reimagine history, you should know the real history behind it and so you learn more. This is why a creative mode of expression is important in historical reimagination.

          I have used a twitter account to write a letter to Toba Tek Singh. The account is from the perspective of an ­89-year-old man who was in the asylum due to his participation in the Calcutta riots and him being born into a privileged family helps as he is put into an asylum and not a prison for his involvement. I thought about how best to express an 89-year-old man who was introduced to social media and I thought twitter would be a good place to start. In this reimagination, Toba Tek Singh has been taken as a village that Bishan Singh lived in. According to him, it is a peaceful village where everyone is upright and provides shelter to everyone who wanders by. In his mind, it is basically an idealistic place. Although the letter is addressed to Toba Tek Singh, I wanted him to address the youth in general. I wanted him to relay his hope for the future generation which includes the people of Toba Tek Singh too. It is a place that he still can’t forget even though many years have passed since his days in the asylum.

                In this historical setting, immediately after the partition, everything was peaceful and idealistic. Everything happened just like how the people had hoped would happen. It was like partition was the solution to all the problems and once it was done, all the problems also immediately got solved. In the perspective of the people, including the old man whose perspective I wrote from also, everything was politically good in the nation. However, things started to change about 2 months before the letter was written. He started noticing unrest in the country again. He felt like he was taken back to his childhood as people were still fighting over the same problems again. Although he feels the change happening only recently, in reality it had been going on from a long period of time and it is only now that he is noticing it. He had been mistaken about the peacefulness and it is only now that the small incidents of violence were coming out. Although it felt like everything was fine after the partition and its violent nature, there were still people suffering in many forms. The only thing different was that the problems were being brought into the public now. He is distraught over this and so feels the need to talk to the people about it, especially the youth and it was not only to the youth of India that he wanted to write to, he wanted to address the youth of Pakistan too, specifically the youth of the village Toba Tek Singh.

                In this context too, it is the common man who has suffered more than anyone. It is the citizens of the country whose lives have been affected by the hatred. Just like at the time of the partition, because of the action of some lunatics, many people’s lives are affected. Dividing people, isolating them from other people, making them feel like anyone different from them are automatically violent and a threat were all contributors in the further divisions of people. In this context too, it seems like although people feel like things are getting better and people have been getting along with different communities, there are still incidents and small aggressions which then lead to bigger losses that ultimately affects innocent people.

Of course, in an idealistic world, everyone would get along and there would be no division, but different situations throughout the world and not just in India have proven that it is almost impossible for that to happen-people are different and belong to different communities and naturally there may arise some difference in opinions, but something that could have turned out different is how we reacted to that difference.

                 We could’ve actually practiced what was taught in smaller classes in our school-unity in diversity. This is basically how India was described to us all throughout school and yet it is rarely seen in reality. The future could’ve been different had we actually practiced what we preached. We are either trying to change everyone to confirm with us or will instigate violence if they refuse to do so. We don’t have to ignore the differences and pretend to get along with everything that is happening, but it would’ve been nice to see a future where riots and violent incidents doesn’t start because of them.