The Descendants

About The Descendants

This novel named ‘The Descendents’ authored by Pratima Dhar, translated from Bengali by Amitava Chatterjee, accounts for a first-hand experience of the author who saw immigrants all around her as a child, who had migrated during the partition of Pakistan into West and East, which later became Bangaldesh. While her own family was based out of West Bengal, India, she witnessed how people earlier united by the same language, Bengali, were now divided based on their religion, Hindu or Muslim, and how the people of the minority religion were exploited by the majority even to give up their religion for the sake of their lives. She recalls how once the most joyful topic of discussion for her parents, a united  homeland consisting of East and West Bengal, could no longer bring smiles on their faces. India, which was once ruled by foreigners, had to go through the pains of division twice – once during the India and Pakistan split during independence from the British followed by split of Pakistan into Bangladesh and Pakistan. After the partition (s), they were ever since deprived of the land that belonged to their forefathers,  that became foreign the natives themselves. The novel tries to puts forward the emotional turmoil men, women and children had to go through during such a life-changing event and the trauma that carries on for generations.