Final Solution

Mahesh Dattani is one of the best and most serious contemporary playwrights. His themes and the characters are chosen from the Indian society but he raises them to the universal level. While dealing with the problem he lays bare the Indian society with respect to its psyche, various socio-cultural, religious, mythical, ritualistic and political patterns through the responses and reactions of the characters to the problem. In his play, Final Solutions, he has depicted the picture of communal riot and involved the audiences to re-think over the burning issue. He has drawn a realistic picture of Hindu Muslim relationship. He, through this beautiful realistic presentation of two major groups of India, has tried his best to provide a workable solution to fill up the gap between the Hindus and the Muslims.

In 1947, when India get independence, people, who had been living together for centuries, became blood thirsty and bitter enemies of one another, in the name of religion. Even after so many years of Independence, people have not been able to forget their enmity and bias against each other. Dattani has powerfully brought out the scenario of religious bigotry in Final Solutions portraying construction of Communalism in India. The story of the play brings forth the relationships between Hindus and Muslims, their doubts about one another, their meeting grounds and the emerging broad concerns about the possibility of their mutual co-existence in secular India.

The play hints at that religion instead of working as a binding force has become a disruptive hurdle in the progress of mankind. The play questions the conservative and narrow view of religion and raises doubt about the regressive aspect of religion which cuts one human being from another. Many instances are portrayed in the play where the narrow minded attitude of some people makes the communication between these two communities almost impossible.

The friendly and helping Javed turns into a pawn in hands of communal forces because of his ill treatment by a Hindu neighbour. A simple instance of delivering him a mail by Javed has been taken as a violation of his religion. Similarly, in past, Daksha (now Hardika) was very comfortable in her friendship with a Muslim girl, Zarine and she even tried to resolve the matter of her family with this Muslim family without the complete knowledge of the facts. Daksha never came to know of that her father-in –law and husband destroyed Zarine’s father’s shop. She only thought that Zarine’s father, after his shop was destroyed in an accidental fire, had expected some help from her father-in-law, which had been refused. And she had rationalized the withdrawal and hostile silence of Zarine’s family as an instance of resentment and arrogance. The memories of her father’s alleged lynching by a Muslim mob in Hussainabad during the violence of Partition had reinforced the rationalization.  Dattani, thus, graphically portrays the role of the surrounding ideological myths in creating a trust deficit between different religious communities and hints at the possibility of falsification of one’s perception and social beliefs.

Ramnik on his part understands the necessity of resolving the self-other dialectic, but even he requires shock treatment to shed his self-delusion. He knows that not all people in the other community are demons even as he understands that there are demons in his own community also. But the knowledge has not yet touched until Javed tells him, “You don’t hate me for what I do or who I am. You hate me because I showed you that you are not as liberal as you think you are.” Javed’s words make him realize that his smug liberality is only a cover for complicity, an evasion of the sense of guilt. Indeed his failure to speak the truth to his mother can be seen as pointing to a deeper block. Until now he had been pacifying his troubled conscience by merely virtuously responding to the urge to protect and help Javed and Bobby. He had not really come to terms with his conscience in which the memories of injustice done to a happy Muslim family lie buried: the shop he has inherited from his father was actually snatched from the rightful ownership of Zarine’s father.

The Mob is nothing but they represent the resentment of the people. Through them the dramatist depicts the inner feeling and thought of the people. The Hindu chorus thinks about the temple and the Muslim chorus about the mosque. They forget the true spirit of humanity. The Mob, at most of the places, uses the image of animals those are related to particular communities. The images of ‘pig’, ‘swine’, ‘mouse’, ‘rat’, ‘lizard’, etc, hints at the communal hatred and contempt toward other community. Through these very words Dattani very sincerely depicts the bitterness between these two big groups of the country. The words of Mob are clear indication of communal disharmony.

The  characters in the play are  very deftly  set apace  from each other. The closer they come the better  the interaction and sharing of sensibilities and emotions. The Mob/Chorus, remaining at the periphery on the ramp, causing  riots and tension, acting on impulses. But the characters in the Gandhi household as they debate and argue,  enter into  better understanding. Javed and Bobby as they come to closer interaction, breaking off from the mob, are able to  build a  relationship with the Gandhi household. When Bobby forcefully enters into the  inner space of the pooja room, he  shatters  the ritualistic outlook of religion and says, “The tragedy is  that there is too much that is sacred. But if  we understand and believe in one another, nothing can be destroyed”. Bobby is willing to  forget and tolerate provided Hardika is willing to  do the same. But the old woman  was not willing to forget until truth  about their in-laws evil deed was  revealed.

India  has been plagued by unchecked communalism since its  independence, gnawing into the  very fabric of  secularism, peace and harmony that existed from time immemorial. Through this play Dattani has showed that Indians are getting torn apart by communal hatred and carnage, perpetrated in the name of religious affiliations. Dattani’s shows the problem of Hindu-Muslim relations as not inherently insoluble. Through the play he has suggested that rationality and human concerns are the goalposts which are to be traversed to have a peaceful and progressive society.