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Title: $Elements of Syncretism in Nayantara Sahgal's Mistaken Identity
Abstract: In the novel Mistaken Identity, Nayantara Sahgal rivets her focus on syncretism, a phenomenon that is very delicate, especially in a country having a diversified culture like India. Her concern for a united nation caught within the clutches of a multicultural society is brought to the limelight. The humanistic values interspersed with her plea for the mingling and amalgamation of the divergent features of the various religions prevailing in this subcontinent are given prime importance. The novel Mistaken Identity is set in the twilight years of the British rule in India. Sahgal yearns for a fairytale solution in which the various discordant multicultural elements coalesce to synthesize a unique, harmonious and syncretic mosaic which binds the different groups together. The protagonist, Bhushan, serves as the mouthpiece of the novelist in this regard. He pleads for the acceptance of the fusion of the various cultural aspects which ultimately leads to an interwoven culture in which the various entities are inseparable. This paper attempts to reveal the unique cultural panorama reflecting the unique secular and syncretic mosaic that can prevail in the human landscape of a multicultural society.In Mistaken Identity, Nayantara Sahgal is very upbeat in terms of visualizing the syncretic aspects of the multicultural vision that envelops the multicultural society of India harmoniously.Syncretism can be defined as the combination of different forms of belief or practice. Burman (1996) says,The rise of fundamentalism in recent years has obliterated the deep rooted syncretism in Indian culture. In India, few have studied the syncretic phenomenon of local religion though many have studied it in terms of formation of composite culture.Sahgal opines that an undivided unity among the followers of different religions will pave way for a glorious India. Sahgal envisions an India in which her fellow compatriots are compassionate and compatible in a democratic, secular and diversified cultural setup. Sahgal is unique in her artistic sensibility of projecting national consciousness; she also reflects the consciousness of change and the strange and sudden ways in which it has come to shape the character of individuals and the temper of the collective life as well as the competing structures of human values and destiny.In Mistaken Identity, a unique blend of the unmistakable historical and cultural ambivalences of the Indian tradition is presented. India, being a secularist democracy, calls for the harmonious existence of several religions side by side under a singular umbrella of human passion apart from maintaining the age-old heritage which is many millennia young. In Mistaken Identity, Sahgal portrays India in the twilight years of the imperialistic rule; the majortheme being Hindu-Muslim relationship, very relevantto the then emerging trend, which finally led to independence. The twenty-nine year old protagonist, Bhushan Singh's preoccupation with Razia, his marriage to another, his experience in the jail, and his mother's departure with her Muslim lover form the basic matrix of the story. Viewed with a historical eye, the novel offers insights into the civil war in Turkey, rise of Mussolini, Dandi Salt March, mass arrests in India and the death of hunger-strikers in Lahore. Krishna Rao (1993), in his article, Historical Consciousness in the Novels ofNayantara Sahgal, says:The maj or legacy of cultural change in modem India has been the new historical sense, containing in itself a feeling for the past as well as an awareness of the future, as both dramatize in the personality of the present. The climate of ideas that one encounter in her novels exemplifies, what Wilson Harris might have called cross-cultural imagination.Bhushan, the lovelorn protagonist of Mistaken Identity, falls head over heels in love with the Muslim Razia. But this unfortunately triggers on a communal riot. For Bhushan, it was an eternal quest for identity as he was entrapped in the identity crisis. …