Book Review: The Survivors

The Survivors by Gurdail Singh

The Survivors is an English translation of the Punjabi novel written by Gurdial Singh. Translated by Rana Nayar, it is one of the best works of translation that I have read. Originally published as Unhoye in Punjabi, this novel revolves around Bishna, a man of rare courage and deep, passionate principles, who prefers a path of confrontation rather than simply conforming to social norms and convictions. Unlike the rest of the society, he doesn’t consider the government to possess absolute power and challenges it even though he has to visit the jail which he and Daya Kaur consider to be the place of their in-laws. The novel is set in Mandi, a town in the Malwa region, but the ambience is rural.

A carpenter’s son, Gurdial Singh has been and done so many things in his life: He has lived a life of a carpenter, made wheels for bullock carts, been a college professor for a living, painted for leisure, molded water tanks out of iron sheets. He has seen a carpenter’s life very closely as is visible through the context of the novel. He has presented the characters, environment in a very realistic way that takes the reader to the rural towns of Punjab and Himachal. Each and every detail of the surroundings, the graphical way the situations have been described indicates author’s intimacy with rural environments he lived in.

The Survivors is a novel that reminds us that humanity has a place apart on this earth. It is a novel about how ordinary individuals in a small town in the Malwa region of Punjab in India strive to maintain their dignity and self-respect against injustice and oppression by a hierarchical social order that continues to thrive despite the nation’s independence. It is a story about the survival of Bishna Singh under the oppression of government, alienation from society, separation from brother poisoned by hi wife and finally losing his near ones including Daya Kaur-his wife. The author has focused on issues of national importance such as caste system, disintegration of kinship culture and community life under the pressure of western civilisation.

The story is about two brothers, Bishna and Bhagat, and their confrontation with the oppression of the pre-Independence colonial state in the form of a self-important thanedar and constables. Bishna and his wife Daya Kaur resist the eviction of Bishna Singh, as ordered by officials. Bishna can’t but help remember their origins, the unholy and selfish way in which they got to the stage of being minions of the administration. Such minions as vazirs and chaudhris dispense flawed justice. Bishna is outspoken and is imprisoned along with his brother. The imprisonment is just like a visit to the in-laws for Bisha but this time it strains further the relation between brothers already disturbed by the quarrels between sister in laws and they drift apart. The greatness of our main character is realized when he maintains his calm and vigour even on being separated by the brother whom he loves so much that he sent Buddha, to help Bhagta. Daya Kaur, who is giving and loving goes through a state of trauma on series of Bishna’s imprisonment but maintains her faith- an essence of human quality which Gurdial Singh has tried to convey through his works of literature. The strangeness of our main character is noticeable through the decisions he make – one of them leaving the place just as he arrives from imprisonment followed by the submissive but strong nature of Daya Kaur who goes along with him. Besides the main characters, Budha, a sidekick who is much more, Hetiya, a self-trained accountant with a dream and a secret, Santu and his family adopting Bishna and Daya Kaur when cataract claims her eyes…the book is rich as it weaves a realistic tapestry of a slice of life in Punjab untainted by urbanisation.

Gurdial Singh as an author has achieved a height in literature that makes our country proud of him. He is winner of practically every literary award in the country, including the Padma Shri for literature, and the Jnanpith for lifetime achievement. . His writings function in the realm of human creativity, hovering between the private and the public, the individual and the social. It questions freedom and commitment and ideas that make human beings less incomplete. This novel, according to me, as a translation has achieved its purpose of conveying what Gurdial Singh wanted to in his original Punjabi novel ‘Unhoye’.The translation is smooth and throughout the fiction, he maintains a punjabi touch to the story that reminds reader that it is translated work. The little elements form the original novel that have been kept unaltered like

"Pairi Paune, Daya kaure!"

“Weh, peo deya saaleya”, “Henh”, “Paire Paune”

maintains the atmosphere that Gurdial Singh wanted to create.

Overall the novel has achieved an eminent position in Indain literature. It holds the interest of reader till the end although the story seems to be extrapolated at some points. The graphical depiction of various situations deeply involves the reader and creates a virtual rural world in his mind. Lastly, the slice of Punjabi rural life engulfs the reader and opens the doors to the homes in villages of Punjab.