B.A. ENGLISH - SEMESTER I - INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH (26BENC2) - UNIT IV - DRAMA

 

B.A. ENGLISH

Semester I

Core Course II: Indian Writing in English

UNIT IV — DRAMA

Summary • Analysis • MCQs • Short & Long Answers • Essays

 

  About This Unit

Unit IV covers Girish Karnad’s celebrated play "Tughlaq" and Joginder Paul’s "Sleepwalkers" (Khwabrau). For each text you get a detailed summary and analysis, multiple-choice questions with an answer key, ten two-mark questions, three paragraph questions and one essay question with a full model answer. As both are under copyright, the original texts are not reproduced here; they are available in your prescribed anthology. (Note: "Sleepwalkers" is strictly a novella; it is treated here as your syllabus places it.)

  Tughlaq  —  Girish Karnad

Historical play in 13 scenes, written in Kannada (1964), translated into English | Themes: idealism versus reality, the corruption of power, appearance and disguise; often read as an allegory of the Nehruvian era. (Original text under copyright — not reproduced.)

Summary and Detailed Analysis

"Tughlaq," written by Girish Karnad in 1964, is one of the finest plays of modern Indian drama. A historical play in thirteen scenes, it dramatises the reign of the fourteenth-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, tracing his fall from a brilliant, idealistic ruler into a lonely, paranoid tyrant. Beneath its historical surface the play is a profound study of the gap between idealism and reality and of the way power can corrupt even the noblest vision; it is widely read as an allegory of the disillusionment of the Nehruvian era in post-Independence India.

The play opens with the Sultan announcing his grand and idealistic policies. Muhammad is no ordinary king: he is intelligent, learned, a philosopher and a dreamer who wishes to build a rational, just and united kingdom. He abolishes the jizya tax on non-Muslims, speaks of equality and reason, and hopes to bring Hindus and Muslims together. Among his boldest schemes are two fateful decisions: to shift his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in the south, so as to be central to all his people, and to introduce a copper "token" currency equal in value to the silver dinar.

Both grand schemes end in disaster. The forced migration of the whole population from Delhi to Daulatabad brings terrible suffering and death along the way, and Daulatabad does not become the promised paradise. The copper currency, which depends on the honesty of the people, collapses when forgery becomes universal and everyone mints false coins. These failures reveal the fatal gap between Tughlaq’s lofty ideals and the hard realities of human nature and governance.

As his schemes fail, the idealist hardens into a tyrant. The court fills with conspiracies, and Tughlaq answers them with cunning and cruelty. He has already come to the throne, it is suggested, through the murder of his father and brother during prayer—because of which he has banned public prayer for five years, so that prayer itself becomes linked with treachery. He crushes a nobles’ conspiracy and has Shihab-ud-din killed; he manipulates the orthodox religious leader Sheikh Imam-ud-din and sends him to his death; and when his own stepmother confesses to poisoning his adviser Najib, he has her stoned to death. Each act leaves him more isolated and more haunted.

Running alongside the Sultan’s tragedy is the comic and cynical sub-plot of Aziz and Aazam. Aziz, a clever Muslim washerman (dhobi), and his bungling companion Aazam are vagabonds who live by cunning and deceit and who exploit every one of Tughlaq’s schemes for their own gain. Aziz disguises himself as a Brahmin to claim land-grants and compensation meant for Hindus, plans to grow rich by forging copper coins, and finally murders and impersonates the holy man Ghiyas-ud-din Abbasid, who has been brought to restart the public prayers. Aazam is killed while fleeing with stolen treasure, but Aziz, when at last unmasked before the Sultan, coolly confesses everything and declares himself the Sultan’s "true disciple." In a bitter irony, Tughlaq, recognising in Aziz a reflection of his own cunning, pardons him and even gives him an official post.

By the end the kingdom is sunk in famine, death, forgery and rebellion, and the once-brilliant Sultan is a weary, half-mad, utterly lonely man. His faithful friend the historian Barani takes leave of him, and Tughlaq sinks into an exhausted, troubled sleep. The idealist who dreamed of a perfect state is left ruling over chaos, destroyed by the very grandeur of his own ambitions.

In analysis, "Tughlaq" is a rich and many-sided play. Its central theme is the tragic gap between idealism and reality: Tughlaq’s noble visions fail because they ignore human weakness and the practical facts of life, showing how grand dreams can bring disaster when they are not grounded in reality. Closely linked is the theme of power and its corruption, as the well-meaning idealist becomes a ruthless autocrat. The play is also built on the motif of appearance versus reality and disguise: Tughlaq masks his own nature, and Aziz’s many disguises mirror and mock the Sultan’s hypocrisies, so that the cynical washerman becomes a dark double of the king. Recurring images of chess and prayer deepen these ideas—politics as a game Tughlaq wins on the board but loses in life, and prayer turned from devotion into an instrument of murder. Above all, the play is understood as a political allegory: like Nehru, Tughlaq begins with high idealism and a secular, rational vision, only to end in disillusionment and failure, so that the fourteenth-century Sultan becomes a mirror for the hopes and disappointments of modern India. Written in taut, poetic prose and tightly structured in thirteen scenes, "Tughlaq" is rightly regarded as a landmark of Indian English drama.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. "Tughlaq" was written by:

(a) Vijay Tendulkar

(b) Girish Karnad

(c) Mohan Rakesh

(d) Badal Sircar

2. The play was first written in which language?

(a) English

(b) Kannada

(c) Hindi

(d) Marathi

3. In which year was "Tughlaq" written?

(a) 1947

(b) 1964

(c) 1972

(d) 1980

4. The play is built in how many scenes?

(a) Five

(b) Nine

(c) Thirteen

(d) Twenty

5. The play dramatises the reign of the Sultan of:

(a) Golconda

(b) Delhi (Muhammad bin Tughlaq)

(c) Bijapur

(d) Bengal

6. Tughlaq shifts his capital from Delhi to:

(a) Agra

(b) Daulatabad

(c) Lahore

(d) Lucknow

7. Tughlaq introduces a token currency made of:

(a) Gold

(b) Copper

(c) Paper

(d) Iron

8. The copper currency scheme fails because of widespread:

(a) Theft

(b) Forgery

(c) Flood

(d) War

9. Aziz, the cunning trickster, is by trade a:

(a) Barber

(b) Washerman (dhobi)

(c) Cook

(d) Soldier

10. Aziz disguises himself as a __ to claim grants meant for Hindus.

(a) soldier

(b) Brahmin

(c) merchant

(d) priest of Islam

11. Aazam is Aziz’s:

(a) Brother

(b) Companion and fellow trickster

(c) Master

(d) Son

12. Barani in the play is a:

(a) Soldier

(b) Historian and the Sultan’s conscience

(c) Merchant

(d) Rebel

13. Tughlaq has his stepmother stoned to death for:

(a) Theft

(b) The murder (poisoning) of Najib

(c) Treason with a rebel

(d) Forging coins

14. At the end, Aziz is:

(a) Executed

(b) Pardoned and given an official post

(c) Banished

(d) Imprisoned for life

15. The play is often read as an allegory of the:

(a) Mughal empire

(b) Nehruvian era in independent India

(c) French Revolution

(d) British Raj

Answer Key: 1-b  2-b  3-b  4-c  5-b  6-b  7-b  8-b  9-b  10-b  11-b  12-b  13-b  14-b  15-b

Two-Mark Questions (One-sentence answers)

Q1. Who wrote "Tughlaq" and in which language?

Ans. It was written by Girish Karnad, originally in Kannada (1964).

Q2. Who is the central character of the play?

Ans. The central character is Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the fourteenth-century Sultan of Delhi.

Q3. What kind of ruler is Tughlaq at the start?

Ans. He is an intelligent, idealistic ruler who dreams of a rational, just and united kingdom.

Q4. What are Tughlaq’s two great disastrous decisions?

Ans. Shifting the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and introducing a copper token currency.

Q5. Why does the copper currency scheme fail?

Ans. It fails because people forge false coins on a massive scale, causing economic collapse.

Q6. Who is Aziz?

Ans. Aziz is a cunning Muslim washerman who exploits Tughlaq’s policies by disguise and fraud.

Q7. Who is Barani?

Ans. Barani is the historian who acts as the Sultan’s friend and moral conscience.

Q8. Why is prayer banned for five years in the kingdom?

Ans. Because Tughlaq is said to have murdered his father and brother during prayer, prayer becomes linked with treachery.

Q9. What happens to Aziz at the end of the play?

Ans. Though unmasked as a fraud, Aziz is pardoned by Tughlaq and given an official post.

Q10. Of what modern period is the play an allegory?

Ans. It is read as an allegory of the Nehruvian era, whose idealism ended in disillusionment.

Paragraph Questions

Q1. How do Tughlaq’s idealistic schemes turn into disasters?

Tughlaq begins as a noble idealist who dreams of a rational, just and united kingdom, and he backs his vision with bold schemes. To bring Hindus and Muslims together and be central to all his people, he shifts his capital from Delhi to distant Daulatabad; and to strengthen his economy he introduces a copper token currency equal in value to silver. But both schemes ignore human realities. The forced migration to Daulatabad causes terrible suffering and death, and Daulatabad never becomes the promised paradise; the copper currency collapses when people forge coins everywhere. Thus his grand ideals, ungrounded in the facts of human nature, bring only chaos, famine and ruin, revealing the tragic gap between vision and reality.

Q2. Discuss the role of Aziz in the play.

Aziz, the cunning washerman, is one of Karnad’s most brilliant creations and the key figure of the play’s comic and cynical sub-plot. Together with his bungling companion Aazam, he exploits every one of Tughlaq’s schemes for private gain: he disguises himself as a Brahmin to claim grants meant for Hindus, plans to grow rich by forging copper coins, and finally murders and impersonates the holy man brought to restart the prayers. Aziz represents the corruption and opportunism that flourish under Tughlaq’s idealistic but impractical rule, and he serves as a dark double of the Sultan, mirroring his disguises and hypocrisies. The bitter irony of the play is that, when unmasked, Aziz is not punished but pardoned and rewarded, because Tughlaq recognises in this shameless survivor a reflection of his own cunning.

Q3. Why is "Tughlaq" regarded as an allegory of the Nehruvian era?

Although set in the fourteenth century, "Tughlaq" is widely read as an allegory of modern India, especially the Nehruvian era. Like Jawaharlal Nehru, Tughlaq begins as a high-minded idealist who dreams of a secular, rational and united nation and introduces bold reforms for the good of all. But his idealism, unmatched by practical wisdom, leads to failure, suffering and disillusionment, just as the great hopes of the early years of Indian independence gave way, by the 1960s, to disappointment and disorder. Karnad, writing in 1964, uses the historical Sultan as a mirror for this modern experience, so that Tughlaq’s decline from idealism to despair reflects the disillusionment of a whole generation of Indians.

Essay Question

Q. Discuss "Tughlaq" as a study of the conflict between idealism and reality and as a political allegory.

Introduction

Girish Karnad’s "Tughlaq" (1964) is a landmark of modern Indian drama that dramatises the reign of the fourteenth-century Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Beneath its historical surface it is a profound study of the conflict between idealism and reality and of the corrupting effect of power, and it is widely read as an allegory of the disillusionment of the Nehruvian era. Through the Sultan’s fall from visionary to tyrant, Karnad explores the tragedy of great dreams that fail.

1. The Idealist King

Tughlaq is no ordinary ruler but a learned, intelligent idealist who dreams of a rational, just and united kingdom. He abolishes the jizya tax, speaks of equality and reason, and hopes to bring Hindus and Muslims together. His grand schemes—the shifting of the capital to Daulatabad and the copper token currency—spring from this noble vision of a perfect state.

2. The Failure of the Ideals

But his ideals founder on the hard rock of reality. The forced march to Daulatabad brings death and misery, and the promised paradise never appears; the copper currency collapses when forgery becomes universal. These failures reveal the fatal gap between Tughlaq’s lofty vision and the stubborn facts of human nature, showing how grand dreams can bring disaster when they ignore reality.

3. From Idealist to Tyrant

As his schemes fail, the idealist is corrupted into a tyrant. Beset by conspiracies, Tughlaq answers them with cunning and cruelty—crushing the nobles, manipulating Sheikh Imam-ud-din to his death, and having his own stepmother stoned. Each act leaves him lonelier and more haunted, illustrating how power can destroy even the noblest nature.

4. Appearance, Disguise and Aziz

The play is built on the contrast between appearance and reality. The cunning washerman Aziz, who disguises himself as a Brahmin and later as a holy man to exploit the Sultan’s schemes, is a dark double of Tughlaq, mirroring his masks and hypocrisies. The bitter irony that Aziz is finally pardoned and rewarded underlines the corruption that idealism, gone wrong, has let loose.

5. The Political Allegory

Above all, "Tughlaq" is a political allegory. Like Nehru, Tughlaq begins with a secular, rational and idealistic vision that ends in disillusionment and disorder. Writing in 1964, Karnad uses the medieval Sultan as a mirror for the hopes and failures of the early years of Indian independence, so that the play speaks powerfully to modern India.

Conclusion

Thus "Tughlaq" is at once a gripping historical drama and a profound meditation on idealism, power and disillusionment. Through the Sultan’s fall from visionary to lonely tyrant, and through the mocking mirror of Aziz, Karnad shows how noble dreams can turn to ruin when they ignore human reality. As an allegory of the Nehruvian era, the play gives the story of a fourteenth-century king a lasting relevance, and it remains one of the greatest achievements of Indian drama in English.

  Sleepwalkers (Khwabrau)  —  Joginder Paul

Urdu novella (1990), translated into English (1999) | Themes: Partition and displacement, nostalgia and memory, madness and reality, identity. (Original / translated text under copyright — not reproduced here.)

Summary and Detailed Analysis

"Sleepwalkers" is the English translation of Joginder Paul’s acclaimed Urdu novella "Khwabrau" (literally, "one who walks in dreams"). Joginder Paul, himself a migrant who moved to India at the time of Partition, wrote the work after visiting Karachi, where he was struck by how the Urdu-speaking migrants from north India seemed to be living, as if in a deep sleep, in a remembered world of the past. The novella is a moving and original meditation on Partition, displacement and the power of memory, told not through scenes of violence but through the strange, dreamlike survival of a lost home in the minds of its people.

The story is set in Karachi many years after the Partition of 1947 and centres on the "mohajirs," the Muslim refugees who migrated from Lucknow and other towns of north India to Pakistan. Unable and unwilling to give up the beloved city they have left behind, these migrants have recreated their old Lucknow within Karachi—its Chowk and Ameenabad, its streets, houses and manners—so faithfully that visitors to the city are proudly asked, "Have you seen Lucknow in Karachi?" They carry, as the novella beautifully puts it, an entire city within the folds of their hearts, and they rebuild it, brick by brick, in a new land.

At the centre of this dream-world stands the old protagonist, Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose very name means the "mad Maulvi." His madness, however, has a method and a strange dignity, for it consists entirely in his refusal to accept that he has ever left Lucknow. In his mind he is still living in his old city, among his old neighbours, and he feels no sense of loss. He believes that he has merely come to Karachi to visit his son, Ishaq Mirza, and that he must soon hurry back to his wife, Achhi Begum, in "Lucknow"—not realising that the Lucknow he longs to return to is itself only the imagined Lucknow recreated in Karachi.

Around him move the other migrants and their families, each caught between two worlds. The watchman Manwa Chowkidar, patrolling the silent recreated Chowk at night, is bewildered and frightened by the apparitions of the past that seem to crowd the empty square; the wife of Nawab Mirza is afraid that her husband must daily cross a dangerous "Pakistan corridor" on his way through their "Lucknow." Through such figures Paul shows a whole community sleepwalking through life, physically present in Pakistan but mentally rooted in a vanished India, living in a "third space" that is neither wholly real nor wholly dream.

The novella also brings out the conflict between the generations. The first generation, represented by Deewane Maulvi Sahab, clings wholly to the remembered Lucknow, while the younger generation, born or grown up in Karachi, belongs more to the new city and the new nation. This gap between the nostalgic elders and the children of the present deepens the pathos of the story and shows how migration divides not only lands but families and hearts.

The dream, however, cannot be sealed off forever from harsh reality. The peace of the imagined Lucknow is finally broken by the violence of the real Karachi, and the collision between the remembered world and the present shatters the protagonist’s fragile dream, bringing the novella to its tragic and moving close. Paul thus reminds us that however lovingly the past is preserved in memory, it remains a "sane madness" surrounded by an "insane reality."

In analysis, "Sleepwalkers" is a remarkable and unusual work of Partition literature. Instead of describing the bloodshed of 1947 directly, Paul renders its lasting trauma through the tropes of memory and madness, so that the horror of Partition is felt through its very absence, in the longing and dislocation it has left behind. Its central themes are displacement and the search for home, the power and pain of nostalgia, the blurring of dream and reality, and the crisis of identity suffered by the refugee, who belongs fully neither to the land left behind nor to the land arrived at. The recreated Lucknow becomes a powerful symbol of the migrant’s divided heart, at home and yet not at home. Written in a lyrical, dreamlike style that breaks away from ordinary realism, and rich in the flavour of Lakhnavi culture and Urdu speech, "Sleepwalkers" is a compassionate and profound exploration of what it means to lose a homeland and to carry it, forever, within one’s heart.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. "Sleepwalkers" (Khwabrau) was written by:

(a) Saadat Hasan Manto

(b) Joginder Paul

(c) Khushwant Singh

(d) Bhisham Sahni

2. The original novella was written in which language?

(a) Hindi

(b) Urdu

(c) Punjabi

(d) English

3. The word "Khwabrau" means:

(a) Homeless one

(b) One who walks in dreams

(c) A refugee

(d) A storyteller

4. The novella is set in the city of:

(a) Lucknow

(b) Karachi

(c) Delhi

(d) Lahore

5. The "mohajirs" of the story are migrants from:

(a) Punjab

(b) Lucknow and north India

(c) Bengal

(d) Sindh

6. In Karachi the migrants have recreated their old:

(a) Delhi

(b) Lucknow

(c) Bombay

(d) Hyderabad

7. Visitors to the city are proudly asked, "Have you seen __ in Karachi?"

(a) Delhi

(b) Lucknow

(c) India

(d) Agra

8. The protagonist of the novella is:

(a) Nawab Mirza

(b) Deewane Maulvi Sahab

(c) Ishaq Mirza

(d) Manwa Chowkidar

9. The protagonist’s madness consists in his refusal to accept that he has left:

(a) His family

(b) Lucknow

(c) His religion

(d) His wealth

10. Deewane Maulvi Sahab believes he has come to Karachi only to visit his son:

(a) Ishaq Mirza

(b) Nawab Mirza

(c) Hashim

(d) Salim

11. He longs to return to his wife, __, in "Lucknow".

(a) Suraiya

(b) Achhi Begum

(c) Chand Bibi

(d) Rano

12. Manwa Chowkidar, the watchman, is frightened by:

(a) Thieves

(b) Apparitions of the past in the empty Chowk

(c) Soldiers

(d) Wild animals

13. The novella renders the trauma of Partition mainly through:

(a) Battle scenes

(b) Memory and madness

(c) Court trials

(d) Love letters

14. The dream-world of Lucknow is finally shattered by:

(a) A flood

(b) The violence of the real Karachi

(c) A famine

(d) A journey to India

15. A central theme of the novella is:

(a) The joy of migration

(b) Displacement, nostalgia and the search for home

(c) Political corruption

(d) Religious ritual

Answer Key: 1-b  2-b  3-b  4-b  5-b  6-b  7-b  8-b  9-b  10-a  11-b  12-b  13-b  14-b  15-b

Two-Mark Questions (One-sentence answers)

Q1. Who wrote "Sleepwalkers"?

Ans. It was written by the Urdu writer Joginder Paul.

Q2. What is the original title and language of the work?

Ans. Its original title is "Khwabrau," written in Urdu.

Q3. What does the title "Khwabrau" mean?

Ans. It means "one who walks in dreams," or a sleepwalker.

Q4. Where is the novella set?

Ans. It is set in Karachi, many years after the Partition of 1947.

Q5. Who are the "mohajirs"?

Ans. The mohajirs are the Muslim refugees who migrated from Lucknow and north India to Pakistan.

Q6. What have the migrants recreated in Karachi?

Ans. They have recreated their beloved old city of Lucknow within Karachi.

Q7. Who is the protagonist of the novella?

Ans. The protagonist is the old man Deewane Maulvi Sahab, the "mad Maulvi."

Q8. What is the nature of the protagonist’s "madness"?

Ans. His madness is his refusal to accept that he has ever left Lucknow, so that he still lives there in his mind.

Q9. How does Paul convey the trauma of Partition?

Ans. He conveys it not through direct violence but through the tropes of memory, nostalgia and madness.

Q10. What is the central theme of the novella?

Ans. Its central theme is the displacement of the refugee and the longing for a lost home.

Paragraph Questions

Q1. How have the migrants recreated Lucknow in Karachi?

Unable to bear the loss of the city they left behind, the mohajirs from Lucknow have lovingly rebuilt their old home within Karachi. They have recreated the Chowk and Ameenabad, the familiar streets, houses and manners of Lucknow, and even its Lakhnavi speech and style, so faithfully that newcomers to Karachi are proudly asked, "Have you seen Lucknow in Karachi?" As the novella beautifully suggests, each migrant carried an entire city within the folds of his heart—some the bricks of their houses, some a whole lane—and rebuilt it, brick by brick, in the new land. This recreated Lucknow is the dream-world in which the mohajirs live.

Q2. Discuss the character and "madness" of Deewane Maulvi Sahab.

Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose name means the "mad Maulvi," is the heart of the novella. His madness, however, is a strange and touching one, for it consists simply in his refusal to accept that he has ever left Lucknow. In his mind he still lives in his old city among his old neighbours, and he feels no sense of loss; he believes he has merely come to Karachi to visit his son Ishaq Mirza and must soon return to his wife Achhi Begum in "Lucknow"—never grasping that this Lucknow is itself only the imagined city recreated in Karachi. There is method and even dignity in his madness, for it is really the extreme form of the nostalgia that grips all the migrants, and through him Paul gives moving shape to the refusal of the exiled heart to let go of its lost home.

Q3. How does "Sleepwalkers" treat the theme of Partition differently from other works?

Most Partition literature deals directly with the violence, bloodshed and mass migration of 1947. "Sleepwalkers" is remarkable because it treats Partition indirectly, through its lasting effects rather than its immediate horrors. Paul renders the trauma through the tropes of memory and madness: the pain of Partition is felt through its very absence, in the longing, dislocation and dreamlike existence it has left behind in the migrants. By showing a whole community sleepwalking through life, physically in Pakistan but mentally in a vanished India, the novella conveys the deep psychological wounds of displacement more powerfully, perhaps, than any direct account of violence could. This original, dreamlike approach is what makes the work a landmark of Partition writing.

Essay Question

Q. Discuss "Sleepwalkers" as a novella of Partition, displacement and nostalgia.

Introduction

Joginder Paul’s "Sleepwalkers" (Khwabrau) is one of the most original works of Partition literature. Set in Karachi long after 1947, it tells of the mohajirs from Lucknow who, unable to give up their lost city, have recreated it within their new home and live, as if in a dream, in a remembered past. Through the strange madness of its protagonist and the dreamlike survival of a vanished Lucknow, the novella movingly explores displacement, nostalgia and the search for home.

1. The Recreated Lucknow

The novella’s central image is the recreated Lucknow. The migrants from north India, unable to bear the loss of their beloved city, have rebuilt its Chowk, its streets and its houses within Karachi, carrying, as Paul says, an entire city within their hearts. So faithful is the recreation that visitors are asked, "Have you seen Lucknow in Karachi?" This dream-city is the world in which the whole community lives.

2. The Protagonist’s Madness

At the centre stands Deewane Maulvi Sahab, the "mad Maulvi," whose madness is simply his refusal to admit that he has ever left Lucknow. He believes he has only come to Karachi to visit his son and must soon return to his wife in "Lucknow," never realising that this Lucknow is itself an illusion. His condition is the extreme form of the migrants’ nostalgia, and gives the novella its haunting central figure.

3. A Community of Sleepwalkers

Around him a whole community sleepwalks through life. The watchman Manwa Chowkidar is haunted by apparitions of the past in the empty Chowk, and Nawab Mirza’s wife fears the "Pakistan corridor" he must cross through their "Lucknow." Physically in Pakistan but mentally in a vanished India, these people live in a "third space" between dream and reality, embodying the divided soul of the refugee.

4. Memory, Generations and Reality

The novella also shows the conflict of generations, as the nostalgic elders cling to the remembered Lucknow while the young belong to the new Karachi. And the dream cannot be sealed off forever: the violence of the real city finally breaks in, shattering the fragile illusion and bringing the story to its tragic close. Memory, however lovingly preserved, cannot hold back reality.

5. A New Kind of Partition Writing

What makes the novella extraordinary is its indirect treatment of Partition. Instead of describing the violence of 1947, Paul conveys its lasting trauma through memory and madness, so that the horror is felt through its very absence. The recreated Lucknow becomes a symbol of the migrant’s divided heart, at home and yet not at home, and the novella becomes a profound meditation on exile itself.

Conclusion

Thus "Sleepwalkers" transforms the tragedy of Partition into a haunting meditation on memory, displacement and the longing for a lost home. Through the recreated Lucknow and the moving madness of Deewane Maulvi Sahab, Joginder Paul shows how the refugee carries his homeland forever within his heart, living between dream and reality. Original in method and deeply humane in feeling, the novella stands as one of the finest and most unusual works of Partition literature.