Qurratulain Hyder (1927–2007)

I am in two minds over this book. Parts of it were sheer brilliance and the end felt like somebody pushed me from a tall cliff into a dry river bed. The lyrical interpretations of Sinhalese history, its locales, Buddhist and Hindu philosophies spewed by the two main characters, Sita and Irfan in course of their conversations in Lanka, the golden land; the gorgeous narrative of the Sindh and interiors of Karachi had me hooked and absolutely transfixed with the story. However, women always are seen to be more forgiving than men and in reality they are, Sita just seemed to be someone who captivated attention wherever she went. Her Colombia education made her a free thinking liberal woman unafraid to smoke cigarettes and drink in the company of men, for which I don't judge or despise her, but the men around her exploited her emotionally. Sita's vulnerability tugged my heart and the way her life came to be drifted apart at places and in the company of people she thought she knew and loved her, just saddened me. I am terribly miserable about the way the book shaped her character and my empathy for her cannot be judged in stars.… (mehr)

A sweeping novel by a major Urdu writer tracing over thousands of years of Indian history with characters reappearing in different eras.

Qurratulain Hyder is a major contributor to twentieth-century world literature. Her books are complex and literary. A Muslim growing up in northern India among Hindus, she experienced the Partition firsthand. After a brief time in Pakistan, she returned to India where she lived and continued to write in Urdu. Her writing often witnesses to how Muslim and Hindu lives were braided together during the centuries they lived together in India.

River of Fire is generally regarded as Hyder’s masterpiece. I read it because I had been impressed by My Temples, Too (See my review.) I found River to be a difficult, but rewarding book. Even more than Temples, it assumed a familiarity with Indian words and names and their variations. But the writing was so powerful that I was swept along even when I didn’t always understand. After publishing this book in Urdu thirty years earlier, Hyder herself translated in English.

Hyder begins her story with a traveling student in ancient India. Repeating the names of her characters in different eras, she describes what changes and what does not as northern India moves through medieval conquests and modern colonization. She tells the stories of the more recent periods in more detail, ending with accounts describing the 1950’s, when she wrote the book, and her description of her characters’ lives in divided India and Pakistan. Throughout the book characters with names we know from earlier chapters fall in and out of love, support and oppose governments, and vigorously debate literature and politics. Always they are a mix of Muslims and Hindus who differ on a host of issues, but seldom argue over religion. Typically they all live in north central India and belong to relatively affluent families, affluent enough to pass down a heritage to the next generation. Although a cluster of leading characters appear in the different centuries, so do a few servants. The section of River of Fire that deals with the 1947 Partition is reminiscent of the scenes in My Temples, Too. The account of the period after the division into India and Pakistan is full of regret over what was lost, balanced by the sense that life goes on even after cataclysmic change.

This is an important book, one that I am glad to have read and recommend to others. Those who know something of India’s histories and myths are sure to find it more accessible than I did. Even those of us without that background can relate to the flow of changes that the book depicts.
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A brilliant novel written by a major Indian writer about the daughter of an elite Muslim family in northern India during the turbulent years between World War II and the Partition of India.

My Temples Too introduced me to a world I never knew existed; the world of elite Muslim families living on hereditary estates in northern India in the mid-twentieth century. At the center of the novel is Rakshanda, or Roshi, the daughter of such a family and one of a group of bright young people who defined themselves as idealistic and nationalistic, rational and liberal. Although their families are nominally Muslim, religion has little meaning in their lives. Women were not secluded or veiled, and no one offered daily prayers. The young people took part of both Muslim and Hindu festivals. Class was more important than religion or ethnicity. Roshi felt guilty enjoying her ancestral home built by the labor of starving peasants.
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