''A Bend in the Ganges'' (1964) is a novel by the Indian author

Manohar Malgonkar Manohar Malgonkar (Marathi language, Marathi: 2 July 1913- 14 June, 2010[karwar district, was an Indian author of both fiction and nonfiction in the English language. He was also an army officer, a big game hunter, a civil servant, a mine ow ...

. The novel opens with the civil disobedience movement of the early 1930s and ends with the partition riots in Punjab. It encompasses the Swadeshi movement, the activities of the freedom fighters, the outbreak of the Second World War, the British retreat from Rangoon, the Bombay Explosion (1944), Bombay dock explosion and the Partition of India, division of India in 1947. The epigraph of this novel is from the

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

: "''At a bend in the Ganges, they paused to take a look at the land they were leaving''". This story revolves around three male protagonists: Gian Talwar- who is very much influenced by the Gandhian ideology of non-violence; Debi Dayal and Shafi Usman are other two who often uses "Jai-Ram: Jai Rahim" slogan to equate their feeling toward

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on Secularity, secular, Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the Separation of church and state, separation of relig ...

. The fundamental difference between Talwar and Debi-Shafi duo lies in their ideology. As Talwar picks 'Gandhian

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

' as his way to fight against the British atrocities, Debi-Shafi finds violence as the only option left. Freedom fighters also establish 'The Hanuman Club', an institution for their physical and spiritual upliftment in a country which is immensely divided due to its variations in political ideology and religious fragility.

References

1964 novels 1964 Indian novels {{1960s-hist-novel-stub