Peace as Godot: The
Study of Absurdity in Partition through the Lens of Manto and the Genre
Concerning Absurdism
Sreeja Roy, M.A,
University of Calcutta,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Abstract: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" - a
famous quote by Albert Camus describing the absurdist philosophy that plays its
significant role in our everyday myth titled 'life', where existence in itself
is something surprising. A living being is caught into the cyclic sphere of
life and death. And in this cyclic sphere the role of Sisyphus is what he plays
to exist which is seemed normal and accepted. Now, how is war connected to
absurdity? It vitalises the myth with more meaninglessness. Trust, love and
care brings meaning into the absurd spheres of human life. But a war
destabilizes everything. From the Indian context this cruelty was portrayed
through Partition. Was partition and borders at all important? Partition lead
to both shattered identity and existence. The wait for Godot in Samuel
Beckett's play Waiting for Godot
and the idea of peace being obtained through divisions based on religion seems
somewhat similar. The journey from meaninglessness to meaning and vice versa is
well portrayed through Manto's notable narrative of "Toba Tek Singh"
where the lunatics seem to be more sensible than the decision makers and
practitioners of partition. This paper thus examines and formulates the quest
for Godot, portrayed through the context of war and trauma, taking into
consideration the existential and absurdist theories of Albert Camus and Jean
Paul Sartre along with Cathy Caruth's trauma theory and Homi K. Bhabha's theory
on hybridity and dealing with a parallel absurd narrative on partition but does
not belong from the genre of absurdism.
Keywords: Absurd; Partition;
Trauma; Hybridity; Godot
Introduction
The term
"absurd" has acquired wide and diverse connotations in modern
philosophy, theology and the arts in which it has expressed the failure of
values to fulfill man's needs. The word has its etymological origin from the
Latin word absurdus-a-um, meaning unreasonable, out of place, foolish,
ridiculous, discordant, etc. Absurdism is the genre that deals with the
meaninglessness of human existence. It is derived through the amalgamation of
two ideas comprising of the irrational world which is tried to be perceived as
rational. The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), a philosophical work of Albert
Camus, is one of the perfect examples of absurdist philosophy. According to the
myth, Sisyphus was given the punishment of rolling a rock up to the hill which
rolled back to its starting point, and Sisyphus continuing his repetitive
sessions of trials (Camus 119). This tale clearly portrays the absurdity of
human existence and the repetitive actions that we perform in our everyday myth
of survival titled life. The repetitive performances that we are taught,
manipulated and encompassed with are synonymous to that of the actions of
Sisyphus. Absurdism is very well linked to existential and nihilist ideologies,
which are associated with Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, French philosopher
Jean-Paul Sartre and German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Albert Camus was
influenced by them in introducing his idea of the absurd. Absurdism includes
the idea of meaninglessness of the universe which propagates the idea that no
supernatural forces guide the Earth. For Camus, man's salvation is not
achievable in God; it must be achieved here on earth by man's hand; thus, the
world for him is devoid of God; for God is dead, he is no longer in existence
and can no longer guarantee our existence; thus, man in order to exist must
decide to act (Camus 40). From the moment man accepts that the world has no
direction, according to Nietzsche, he must give it one, which will eventually
lead to a superior type of humanity (Nietzsche 125). This led to question the
presence of God. Who is God then? How is he then perceived? Camus considers the
existential leap of faith as propagated by Kierkegaard as the expulsion or
annihilation of reason in human existence (Camus 32). Thus, in Kierkegaard,
anything beyond the absurd requires an irrational and necessary religious
escape, hence only God can provide meaning to the meaningless world
(Kierkegaard 55). Religion becomes significant in this context as one of the
means through which human beings attempt to assign meaning to an otherwise
meaningless entity. Meaning can be assigned to things, but should that
transitory meaning replace the awareness of absurdity — as in the case of
religion — it destroys itself by trading truths for absolutes. And this led to
question the uselessness of the concept of religion which is based on something
that doesn't exist in a place that itself is absurd. The existence of anything
depends on the sphere of time and place. But religion as portrayed to be the
core and provoking factor of human identity as per many, is based upon
something absurd of both time and space. Thus, within the framework of
absurdism, religion cannot be considered an unquestionable source of absolute
meaning. If both God and religion lack existence then how come a partition
based on religiosity is considered to be relevant? Is this a form to express
the absurd reality we belong to where we hope for a better tomorrow by
considering irrelevances to be something relevant and existentially important?
These questions and contradiction become particularly significant when
religious identity is transformed into a basis for political and geographical
division.
Theoretical Framework
and Literature Review (The Theatre of Absurd)
The term "Theatre
of the Absurd" was coined by critic Martin Esslin in his book The
Theatre of the Absurd in 1961, who identified common features of a new
style of drama that seemed to ignore theatrical conventions and audience
expectations (Esslin 23). However, the philosophical idea of the absurd had
already been articulated in Albert Camus's seminal essay The Myth of
Sisyphus in 1942. The themes of the plays by Beckett, Adamov, Ionesco,
Genet, and other writers who examined ludicrous elements in plays broadly
mirrors the absurdity of the human situation (Esslin 24). Martin Esslin claims
that the dreamlike imagery and linguistic breakdown of the era's silent films
served as an inspiration for the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin 35). Charlie
Chaplin's portrayal of the small man or Buster Keaton's stony-faced avatars
influenced writers like Ionesco and Beckett (Esslin 36). Dadaism, Surrealism,
and the Parisian avant-garde are also three key influences on the Theatre of
the Absurd (Esslin 37). The theme of the plays of the Theatre of Absurd
comprise of the juxtaposition of tragedy and comedy constituting the genre
titled tragicomedy. The contemporary and usual characteristics of theatre and
plays are subverted in the creation of absurdist plays. It comprises of a
simple or rather barren setting that revolves throughout the play, and with the
lack of expression and hopeless attitudes alongwith repetitive dialogues of the
characters that comprises the play. The breakdown of conventional dialogue
further disrupts the expectation of logical communication and meaningful
progression. The three unities in drama — time, space and action — are
shattered in the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin 25). Conventional logic and
realistic representations are deliberately disrupted. The audiences thus, are
forced to raise the emotion of boredom and despair alongwith disgust through
the proceedings of the play. The theatre actually makes the audience realize
the Sisyphus that we all carry within ourselves and through these repetitive
endeavourings of the play the audience confronts their own constructed actions
and emotions through a disruption of conventional catharsis which make them
realise the irrelevances of those self-centric deeds and despairs where the
existence of the 'self' is in itself absurd. Cathartic elements thus led the
comic endeavourings fall into the sphere of tragedy. Samuel Beckett's Waiting
for Godot (1952) is one of the relevant examples of an absurdist play. The
setting of the play focusing a tree with the whole plot narrated in the same
place with no significant relevance of time and the whereabouts of the
characters — Vladimir and Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky — with their insignificant
and monotonous actions and dialogues proves its efficiency in the genre
(Beckett 7–11).
Who is Godot?
Beckett's Waiting
for Godot has its relevance in the contemporary post-modern era where the
absurdity of human existence has abruptly been accepted through human actions
that includes loss of relations, boredom and isolation, which has taken its
grip over the society and culture. The play focuses on the dialogue of the
tramps: "We are waiting for Godot" (Beckett 14). Neither the audience
nor the characters know about his existence. Godot thus becomes an epitome of
the self-suspended imagery of meanings where everyone is free to interpret
anything and anyone as Godot. This Godot for the contemporary world could be
visualised as their irrelevant desires and dissatisfactions that never
relinquishes, or even the desire of the adulterated humanity desiring for its
original essence and purity that could never be achieved again. Godot thus can
be seen through the framework of Deconstruction, a philosophy pioneered by the
French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It is a method that breaks down established
ideas, texts or systems to reveal internal contradictions, biases and
assumptions (Derrida 158). The absolute meaning is never achieved throughout
the play's proceedings, creating a state of aporia where meanings get subverted
and destructed (Derrida 162). The hope turns into hopelessness, movement
becomes stagnant, certainty becomes doubt and so on. It can be aligned with the
Indian distinct notion of Karma (action). In the Indian concept we are
taught to perform good deeds to attain moksh/mukti (salvation). And
therein also lies the concept of 'karma returns back' i.e. the belief that
actions have corresponding consequences which moulds us to perform good deeds.
This factor becomes both a concern of peace and fear for survival, because just
like the subversion of actions we never know what would come back. All we do is
hope for a better living which if overturned becomes similar to that of the
narrative of the play. This destabilization of action and consequence can also
be read through the Indian concept of dharma. Goodness is a structured concept
that rises through the absurd concept of 'arbitrariness of meanings'. This
arbitrariness is also a determining factor for the genre of absurdism and the
essence of meanings to collapse and co- exist. Camus identifies the
implications of Absurdism as "a total absence of hope (which has nothing
to do with despair), a continual rejection (which must not be confused with
renunciation), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which must not be compared to
immature unrest)" (Camus 31). The play ends with an ambiguous undertone
concerning Godot being God, the messengers or even the tramps (Beckett 107).
This absence of hope and certainty is reflected in the ambiguous figure of
Godot. The possible character that was supposed to be Godot after the entry of
the messengers was the unknown shepherd who was never seen, which is similar to
the idea of God. The questions 'Who is God?' and 'Who is Godot?' sound similar.
Both their presence is never seen, but are felt through various interpretations
and attributes. Whatever is unseen often becomes a mystery that is to be
honoured and respected. The human urge to know the unknown provokes the readers
to find the meaning of the play till the very end though with boredom and
disgust of the harsh reality that they are forced to feel. Thus, the idea of
God that is held to create a concept titled religion becomes a central absurd
concern to deal with that culminates to the social crisis in the name of
partition.
Was Partition Needed?
Wars, borders and
partitions are the most deliberate examples of absurd way of living. The
Theatre of the Absurd gained prominence in the aftermath of World War II. What does a war comprise
of? Does it really produce anything termed as peace? The aftermath of a war
constitutes of a topsy-turvy environment where the system is dismantled,
tranquility is disturbed and humanity fades. The human desire to control and
rule over others persists and can be perceived through the tremendous
enforcements of wars. The idea of religion is one such instinct of domination that
has been tactfully handled to control the society and its infrastructure. In
the Indian connotations, religion is termed as Dharma. Dharma is
derived from a Sanskrit word Dhri which means to sustain, maintain or
hold. In English it is roughly translated to righteousness, duty, morality or
cosmic order. The concept thus cannot be summed up to religion. It's reproduction to a narrow religious identity therefore
involves a significant simplification of the concept. If
the meaning
attributed to the concept itself is unstable, then how can a political decision
based upon such an interpretation claim absolute validity? of the word is unstable then how can a
decision upon it be valid? Peace is a perceived and constructed notion. A
border cannot be a guarantee
of peace. Peace is something that has to be felt and
acquired. Humanity can in itself be the forebearer of the concept of peace.
What did partition do to this idea of peace? It dismantled everything that
resulted to disruptions till date. Literature has always emphasized an interest
on partition as its backdrop. Saadat Hasan Manto's "Toba Tek Singh"
is the tale of the apparently constructed psychic disabilities
portrayed to be the victims of the intellectual act of partition (Manto 1).
Manto in the story very tactfully portrayed the insanity of the decision-makers
who are socially attributed as intellectuals. The author mocks the decision
with disgust by subverting the lunatics of the asylum to sound saner than that
of the educated intellectuals (Manto 2). The ambiguity in location of the place
Toba Tek Singh
resonates with the ambiguous setting of Beckett's Waiting
for Godot (Beckett 7). The apparently sarcastic episode of a Muslim lunatic
shouting "Long live Pakistan!" while bathing, which led him to slip and
die instantly, portrays the futility of such slogans (Manto 3). The vehement
insanity of disbursting the roots of the people, producing new identities and
routes, and celebrating it with such half-witted slogans pictures the
destability of humanity. The resemblance in the gibberish articulation of
speeches concerning Bishan Singh — a prisoner of fifteen years — and seemingly nonsensical speech
of Lucky, the slave of Pozzo (Beckett 42–45), to express
their emotions are the common tropes wielded by the authors to showcase the
absurdity in dominance. The dominance of the bourgeoisie on the proletariats —
Pozzo's oppression on Lucky (Beckett 29) — and of the decision-makers on the
common people under the pretext of religion are thus prominently portrayed. Manto
has very well tried to validate the setting of the plot through attributing
names of places that exist in reality, comprising Lahore and Sialkot, but the
dilemma lies in the name of Toba Tek Singh and Bishan Singh's continuous
question whether it is in India or Pakistan, which speculates its destability
(Manto 4). The futility of borders is very well pictographed at the very end of
the story where the body of Bishan Singh lies in no man's land, portraying him
as inheriting humanity as his Dharma and belonging to no other artificially constructed sphere of religion (Manto 7). He thus
becomes the epitome of resistance to the Partition. The aporia thus comes into
consideration where meanings are again destabilized as those
socially labled as psychopaths allude to morality, and the
"sensitive" people are the curse to humanity — like that of the
upturned meanings in the genre of absurdism. This sudden uprooting of the
countrymen led to the loss of identity and honour through the initial trauma of
displacement, gradually leading to suffering from the trauma of
'in-betweenness' of their identity. In-betweenness links to Homi K. Bhabha's
theory of Hybridity. Bhabha formulated the concept of the 'third space' where,
inspite of the simple blending of two cultures, Hybridity occurs in an
in-between zone where it subverts the authority of the colonizer, allowing the
marginalized voices to negotiate and form transcultural identities (Bhabha
36–37). In the context of Partition, hybridization worked into the psyche of
the victims due to their sudden change of identities. A hybrid self is the most
traumatic one, where one falls into an uncertainty of their true identities as
they suffer from the 'dividing self' and an 'other' comes into existence
(Bhabha 38). This hybrid self leads to Bhabha's theory of mimicry (Bhabha 85).
When the victims are
compelled to adopt the newly born religious nation and identify themselves as Hindu or Muslim rather than a Punjabi,
Bengali or Indian i.e.
their earlier regional or cultural identities is an instance that can be read through the lens of mimicry. Neither the sufferers could adapt nor protest the
scenarios, thus ending up in mimicking the nation. These adversities also led
to the emergence of Cathy Caruth's Trauma theory. According to this theory,
trauma constitutes a disruption that surpasses conventional human comprehension
(Caruth 4). Her idea emphasizes the delayed aspect of trauma, which does not
assimilate instantly into the individual's experience but manifests as a shock,
subsequently acknowledged as painful (Caruth 7). The aftermath of partition and its continuing trauma can still be found among the few lived victims
through their shattered expressions of fear and despair. Besides, are we still
not suffering its consequences? Is peace achieved? Could borders return the
absolute happiness that an undivided independent India could gift us with?
Conclusion
The instances discussed
in this paper thus depict that, in this absurd world, the Godot that we are
craving for represents the ultimate peace that has vanished. God is thus portrayed as the
ultimate Godot, as human beings often seek a transcendent figure rather than
acknowledging the ridicule person of the cell that justify Nations such as
Hindustan or Pakistan as the sole representation of Identity. It is good to believe in religion through the idea
of God and perform different rituals as one feels contented with, but it cannot
be the ultimate source of peace Apple which a nation or humanity can depend. If religion excels humanity, it would always lead to
such lunatic decisions like partition. Godot lies within humanity. Yet, our
search for Godot or God in this absurd world can be seen as humans' search for
self-redemption for their guilt in accepting borders. The ideas of Manto and
Beckett thus get aligned in the sphere of absurdism through the
misinterpretations of Dharma that needs to be re-examinedor rectified. This rectification can itself be viewed as Godot or 'the better tomorrow' that
would never come. This absurd situation of human forlornness is similar to the
nihilistic resignation
express in Estragon's "Nothing to be
done" (Beckett 2) , and
because Macbeth perception of life as ultimatly devoid of enduring significance
in "...life's but a walking shadow, a poor player /
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / and then is heard no more. It
is a tale / told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / signifying
nothing" (Shakespeare 5.5.24–28). Freedom, for Camus, is unachievable
beyond what the absurdity of existence permits; however, the nearest one could
approach being absolutely free is by way of accepting the absurd (Camus 60). He
therefore introduces the idea of "acceptance without resignation" as
a means of dealing with the recognition of absurdity. In a world devoid of
higher meaning, human nature becomes as close to absolutely free as is humanly
possible (Camus 60). In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus presents that Absurdism is an optimistic philosophy that
invites people to redefine their values and seek justice (Camus 119). According
to Madden, Sisyphus believes that this situation was his fate and that he
needed to struggle with it (Madden 45). This struggle becomes a call
to consciousness and responsibility rather than escapism in religious guise.
The motto of attaining Godot thus should not comprise of religious skepticism,
as religion is just an ideologised system that culminates destruction and
fragility rather than ultimate perseverance to humanity.
Works Cited
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy
in Two Acts. Grove Press, 1954.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture.
Routledge, 1994.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other
Essays. Translated by Justin O'Brien, Vintage Books, 1955.
Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative,
and History. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Translated
by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd.
Anchor Books, 1961.
Kierkegaard, Søren. Either/Or: A Fragment of Life.
Translated by Alastair Hannay, Penguin Books, 1992.
Madden, David. A Primer of the Novel: For Readers
and Writers. Scarecrow Press, 1980.
Manto, Saadat Hasan. "Toba Tek Singh." Manto:
Selected Stories. Translated by Aatish Taseer, Random House India, 2008,
pp. 1–8.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Translated by R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin Books, 2003.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism.
Translated by Carol Macomber, Yale University Press, 2007.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Sandra
Clark and Pamela Mason, Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2015.