Gulzar's 'Toba Tek Singh' Full Analysis In Detail

"TOBA TEK SINGH"

 BY GULZAR 

Image

      Gulzar , besides being a writer and a poet , is a veteran filmmaker as well as a lyricist . Among many of his writings , Toba Tek Singh is a poem which refers to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 . The poem comprises two major sections found according to the subject matter of this poem : the first one presents a preliminary sketch of Bishan Singh , and the rest contains the main idea of the poet . First of all , it has to be mentioned that the poem Toba Tek Singh is , to a great extent , Gulzar's first emotional response to Sadat Hossain Manto's Toba Tek Singh . In the introductory part of the poem , we find that the poet feels a need or must to meet Bishan Singh at Wagha border where Manto has terminated his story, to tell him that , as an impact of the partition , the horrific ongoing events still continue . But , there his mental agony is literally revealed by his swollen feet and by his facial expression while babbling incoherent mumbo-jumbo beyond the reach of reason because Bishan Singh is deeply inflicted from heart and soul as a result of the political turmoil during the partition . In the second stanza , the poet intends to find "that mad fellow" - be there difficulties to entangle him or be there any thorns in the way to impede and decoy him . He has to locate that fellow anyway . Sometimes , the poet strangely finds him to speak up from a higher branch of a tree like God furtively looks and speaks the principles of life . And , he alone decides where to go , that means " whose village to whose side" . Actually to say , " that mad person " is ironically referred to the then politicians who had lost control over their minds , who had failed to recognise humanity . Besides , the higher branch of a tree is , here , a symbol of political power . After that , the third stanza discloses what the poet wants to say . The poet says that when that fellow will descend from the higher branch of that tree , the poet will tell him about the climax of partition , about how India is divided , broken into pieces and how the cord line of communal harmony is cut forever , how many people are injured , how many died or were killed and about the trauma . Falling into the pit of resentfulness , the poet voices that " there are some more partitions to be done " , and the partition of 1947 is " only the first one . In next section , the poet goes on saying that it is also very important to inform Bishan's friend Afzal about the cruel torture and deaths of his near and dear ones namely Lahna Singh , Wadhwa Singh and Bheen Amrit . All of them managed to escape from Pakistan , but in the end they were both brutally and savagely butchered , looted . They had none to salvage , to rescue them from the hand of death . In the last stanza , the poet depicts the brutality of partition in a realistic manner . He says that there are a lot of people like Bhishan who have yet to reach their destinations . At last , the poet watches Toba Tek Singh's Bhushan , standing on either side of the newly drawn border between India and Pakistan , expresses his utter frustration by muttering " India and Pakistan go to the bloody hell " .