Final Solution Deals with The Conflict Between Two Cultures

(The Hindus and The Muslims)

By:
Assistant Instructor .Halima Ismail Radam. College Basic Education /University of Diyala/

Abstract:
India is a country of saints and seers who have always preached the lesson of love,
harmony, co-operation and respect for each other's sentiments. If we follow the
preaching of our elders in letter and spirit, we shall love all religions equally well and
there will not arise any occasion for conflict. It is rightly written in the scriptures of all
religions that all paths lead to the same God Even if they worship gods in different
ways. Yet they should try to realize the underlying spirit in each religion and that is to
serve mankind which is basically one. It is very sad that in our country often sectarian
riots take place. Sometimes, the grounds are quite flimsy or trivial. The people need
some awakening and joint efforts by enlightened people of all sectarian ties as piece is
good for all and strife is harmful to everybody. It is said that the partition of our
country, sowed the real seeds of sectarian disharmony. We must understand that India
is constitutionally a secular country where people of all religions, castes and creeds can
live enjoying equal rights and opportunities for progress and have the same stake in the
welfare of the nation let us all forget our petty religious differences.
Keywords: Solutions, conflict cultures, Hindus, Muslims, Sectarianism, Dattani,
Communalism.

Section One
1-1 . Introduction

Mahesh Dattani is a remarkable dramatist of India and final solutions can be called
his masterpiece. It is the play which won Sahitya Akademi Award for Dattani. The
play deals with the traditional theme of sectarianism. It shows the hated between the
antique enemies. The Hindus and the Muslims. The theme is reflected in the title too.
The fact may be explained as follows.

First, The chorus who represent the mob stand for both the Hindu and Muslim
people. They sometimes wear the Hindu masks and sometimes the Muslim ones. The
masks reveal their difference of nature. The Muslim mob blame the Hindu's and justify

1
their own position. On the contrary, the Hindus blame the Muslims and support their
own views. The Hindu chorus, for example, say:
Chorus2,3: They broke our 'rat' They broke our chant and failed our gods!

Chorus 1,2,3: This is our land! How dare they?

Chorus 1: It is in their blood!

Chorus 1,2,3: It is in their blood to destroy.

Similarly, the Muslim chorus at one place comment:

Chorus1: A drop of oil cannot merge with on ocean of milk. One reality cannot accept another
reality.

Secondly, there is a severe conflict between the Hindu characters and the Muslim
ones. Daksha, the Hindu, young girl calls the independence " a most terrible thing".
She is angry with the fighting of the Hindu and the Muslim people after the partition of
media Diksha's family is friendly related to the Muslim family of Zarine. Daksha is
interested in the songs of Noor Jehan but her parents-in-law do not allow her to go to
her house. Not only this but the shop of Zarine's parents is burnt by Hari and his father
and then is bought for less amount.

However, the main incident showing the religious conflict is the breaking of the
chariot and the beating of the two Muslim boys. The chariot with gods comes in the
street of the Muslims. Then stones are thrown on the chariot. The chariot falls down
and the gods too fall on the road. Somebody kills the pujari and the chariot remains on
the road. As a result, riots take place. The boys, Baban and Javed, are beaten seriously.
They enter the house of Ramnik. Therefore, their lives are saved. To save riots, curfew
is declared. The chorus says: "A drop of oil cannot merge with an ocean of milk. One
reality cannot accept another reality".

Javed angrily says:

" They will arrest me don't worry. To please people like you. And a few innocent
Muslims to please everyone". The writer thus reveals the conflict between the two
communities. However, he has to teach us that in reality we are all human beings.
There are good Hindus as well as good Muslims. They can be friends and even lovers.
Daksha has a Muslim friend. Zarine. She goes to her house and listens to the music of
Noor Jehan. Her father in-law and Zarine's parents were friends. Similary, Javed and
Baban know Smita. Smita and Tasneem are friends.

2
 Tasneem is the sister of Javed. Baban loves Tasneem. He also likes Smita and Smita
freely says that she has no rivalry for Tasneem. Javed deliberately comes to the house
of Smita, he asks Smita if she really does not sacrifice for Tasneem. Towards the
ending of the play. Ramnik becomes emotional, he regrets for their ill- behavior to the
parents of Zarine. Thus, the play is mainly about the traditional theme, the conflict
between Hindus and Muslim.

Section Two
2-1 Mahesh Dattani as: Early life And background

Mahesh Dattani was born in Bangalore at 7 August 1958 is an Indian. He went to

Baldwin Boys High School and then went on to join Josephs College, Bangalore
Dattani is a graduate in history. Economics and political science. He is a post- graduate
in marketing and advertising management. After reading Edward Albee's play whose
afraid of Virginia Woolf in his early life. Mahesh was interested in writing. He was in
flounced by Gujarati play Wright Madhu Rye's Kumarni Agashi and developed interest
in play writing ( Baskaran, 2012: 3).

Mahesh Dattani began his career as a compywriter an advertising firm. In 1986, he

wrote his first, full- length play. Where There's A will'. And since 1995, he has been
working as a ful-time theater professional. He has also worked with his father in the
family business. Dattani is also a film director. His debut film is Mango Souffle
adapted from one of his plays. (Roy, 2013, 24).

2-2 Dattani and Final Solution

Final Solutions Centers around the Gandhis, a middle class Hindu family in Gujarat,
who find themselves in a challenging predicament when two young Muslim men seek
refuge in their home during a communal riot. The Gandhi family comprises of the
secular Ramnik, his staunchly religious wife Aruna, his mother Hardika, who is
survivor of the partition of India and Pakistan, and his daughter Smita, a college
student. The two Muslims who come to Ramnik's home seeking protection are the
liberal- minded Babban, who prefer to go by Bobby and his childhood friend Javed,
(Pillai, 2012).
Dattani's Final Solutions is a very serious and delicate drama on the well- worn
subject of communalism. He is first staged in Bangalore in 1993 focusing on the

3
problem of communal disharmony between the Hindus and Muslim in India, especially
during the period of the post- partition rot.
The play highlights the intolerant attitude and the lack of accommodation between
the two communities and unacceptability gives rise to acrimony resulting in terrorism
and anarchy. The play itself is a question-mark on this age-old enmity between the
communities wondering if there would ever be a final solution to this endemic
problem. Though the play Final Solutions is outwardly focused on Hindu-Muslim
communal hatred, the undercurrent theme is even more powerful for it unwinds the
ideological differences and hostility amongst the members (Srinivas, 2014: 53).

Section Three

3-1. Final Solutions and the problem of Communalism in India

Final Solutions by Dattani was staged in the back drop of the communal fever
dripping not only India but also many other Islamic countries, particularly in India. The
play by Jehan posing the people belonging to two different and dominating
communities in India-Hindu and Muslim divided on the basis of their religious and the
basis of their religious and cultural beliefs once again opens up the wounds of
communal violence inflicted on humanity during partition. The characters delineated in
the play fall into two categories; one group comprises of Hindus such as Hardika,
Ramnik Gandhi, his wife and daughter Samita while the other comprises of Muslims
like Javed, Bobby and their family members; even chorus which plays a very
significant role in the development at action in the play represents these two
communities.
For the Indian, the most important battle for the establishment of a distinctive
identity within a territorial location lay in the partitioning of India. National identities
were conceived and took shape in accordance with the ideologues that formulated
these on the basis of religions ( and later, linguistic, ethnic, caste), identities. The
gruesome rioting and communal/ religious disharmony that took seed in 1947 has
continued to throw up countless at such incidents independent to secular India,
(Chaudheri, 2005: 77).
The issue at religious bigotry is dealt with very minutely by the playwright and it
assumes enormous importance in the background of our history and cultural variety.
Our fore father witnessed a lot of bloodshed, violence and atrocities perpetrated by one
community or the other where both parties had equal share in robbing others of their
fortune and honor. Even the hardener fanatics like Aruna can hide her true face of

4
hypocrisy and the gift of gab while convincing Javed about her respect for other
religious:
" Please try to understand. We have nothing against you. It is only that we have our
ways and customs and … and…we are equal. There is no doubt. We respect your
religion and we wish you well. Why, we have friends who are… Samita has so many
friends who are not … all religion is one. Only the ways to God are many" (Dattani,
2010: 55).
When one starts realizing the implication of the views put forth by Bobby then no
one will ask us to leave for Pakistan or India, there will be no blame game as who did
what and to whom and why in the past and the lines uttered by chorus 1 that' A drop of
oil cannot merge with an ocean of milk. One reality cannot accept another reality' will
remain pointless Samita, Bobby, and Ramnik make the plea that we need to belong to
all the creations of the pleasures, trials and tribulations, aims and aspirations of all the
mankind without any selectivity on racial of communal grounds. When we are able to
assimilate all the diverse forces running through our social fabric.
Then we hope a new pattern based on human qualities will emerge and this will as
Bobby suggests pave the way for the final solution: " The tragedy is that there is too
much that is sacred. But if we understand and believe in one another, nothing can be
destroyed. And if you are willing to forget, I am willing to tolerate" (Dattani, 2010:
74).

3-2 The Conflict Between Two Cultures (The Muslims And The
Hindus)

The Muslim community in India is the second largest community in India, following
the Hindu Community, and it forms the largest Muslim minority in the world. Ever
since the decline of Moghul rule in India, Muslims in India have been facing
communal riots and conflicts from some segments of the Hindu community who are
communalists and militants. (Ibid).
Again culture plays important role in Final Solutions. India is known for unity in
diversity. There was no distinction between the Hindus and the Muslims till the British
came to India to divide and rule on the religious ground. The disgruntled voice heard in
the India life is an offshoot of dirty politics which relies on communal difference and
caste vote issue. Dattani maintains the truth, the love, and the beauty of these cultural
ethos and culture to achieve the goal of making a real and ideal world. Final Solutions
highlights Communal hatred caused by lack of understanding. It addresses an issue of
utmost concern to our society, the issue of communalism, However, the play comprises

5
the issue of class and communities, identity, terrible human suffering, loss of faith
perpetual hatred, aggressiveness and nothingness within the larger socio- political
context. Dattani gives the message that the Final Solutions comprise in the words like
tolerance, generosity and respect for other human beings, which are the strength of
Indian culture (Kumar, 2012: 2).
In 1998, Mahesh Dattani made history by becoming the first English-language
playwright to win the Sahitya Academy Award, the highest literary honor a writer in
Indian can achieve. The work Dattani received the award for was a collection entitled
Final Solutions and other plays. The bestowment of this prestigious award indicates
that the Indian literary community regards Dattani as one of the nation's best
playwrights. However, just because the members of India's National- Academy of
letters like a plays text, does not necessarily mean that audience members well be as
receptive to a theatrical production of the play. As woodruff notes, although " Literary
critics have for generations pleased. Themselves by taking theater to be a little more
than the enactment of literary text", theater is not simply literature (Woodruff, 2008:
43).
In Final Solutions undergo a transformation in the course of the play through the
process of dialogue. Javed may not be able to completely trust Hindus at the end at the
play, yet the audience sees him begin to respect them as he spends more and more time
with the Gandhis. As he tells Aruna, "we are not very different . You can me , we both
feel pride". By sharing with his mother the past actions of their family, Ramnik enables
Hardika to begin a crucial process of reflection and forgiveness. Javed and Bobby's
were presence allows Smita to express her true feeling about her- religious upbringing
to her mother (Pillai, 2012: 107).
One community hates another. One community is in the majority, the other is in the
minority. Consequently, the two communities are at loggerheads, living in a
atmosphere of conflict and acrimony. Mahesh Dattani's rare look at the sociopolitical
problem defines all ' Final Solutions'. In Dattani's view Hindus and Muslims are not
just two cardboard communities. They clash when a procession is stoned, a Pooja is
disrupted, a mosque is dismantled. These for him, are just the jagged tips of an
ominous iceberg. One that threatens to freeze the entire landscape into polarized
communities that live by intolerance and hate in place of harmony. More important is
the iceberg an amorphous mass that glorifies the credo of unity in diversity without
actually understanding the meaning of diversity. (Chaudhuri, 2005: 65).
The play looks straight in to the heart of fundamentalist and the liberal and tears
down, the prototypes. " Final Solutions" touches us. The past begins to determine the
outlook of the present and thus the earlier contradictions re- emerge. No concrete

6
solutions are provided in the play to the problem of communalism but it raises
questions on secularism and pseudo secularism. It forces us to look at ourselves in
relation to the attitudes that are persisting in the society. Since it is an experiment in
time and space and relates to memory, it is a play, which involves a lot of introspection
on the part of introspection on the part of the characters in the play and thus induces
similar introspection in the viewers. I have attempted to experiment with the chorus. It
has been used in a style, which I would like to call 'realistic stylization' . The chorus
represents the conflicts of the characters. Thus, the chorus in sense is the
psychophysical representation of the characters and also provides the audience with the
visual images of the character's conflicts. There is no stereotyped use of the
characterization of the chorus because communalism has no face, it is an attitude and
thus it becomes an image of the characters. The sets and properties used in the play are
simple. This has been done to accentuate the internal conflicts and the subtext of the
play. Thus the play becomes a timely reminder of the conflict raging not in India but in
other parts of the world (Chaudhuri, 2005: 108).

3-3.There is no solutions

India since ancient times has the history of communal violence and it has
grown up witnessing all that goes with this sectarian divide and selective
preferences. This undercurrent of mistrust runs unabatedly between the two
most dominating communities in the sub-continent-Hindu and Muslim-as
generation after generation this feeling of cultural and communal animosity is
further transmitted to the coming generation, making the next moment
frightening and scary for the inhabitants of this world. The mistrust between the
two communities emanates on account of expression of cultural hegemony,
difference in the religious practices and by playing the role of godfather by the
majority. The finger pointing at each other as the narrow minded fundamentalists
on both sides poses the biggest danger to the establishment of healthy
relationship between the Hindus and the Muslims. Here the playwright Mahesh
Dattani explores some possibilities for solution to the problem of communal
divide in his play Final Solutions and ultimately suggests some remedies in this
regard. The dramatist feels that liberal outlook with a conciliatory approach and
respect for one-another’s beliefs, mutual trust and sharing of pleasures and pains
can help in overcoming the man-made communal divide where individual will be
treated as a human being and not as a Hindu or Muslim. Thus , there is no
solutions.

7
 Conclusion
The title of the play 'Final Solutions' is quite meaningful. Its significance may be
stated as follows
The play is social and Satirical. It deals with the traditional conflict between the
Hindus and the Muslims. The enmity between the two communities is a chronic
problem. Dattani wants to ask us: "Are there any 'Final Solutions' to this burning
problem?". The answer to the question is perhaps 'no'. This is because the Hindus and
the Muslims quarreled in the past and they still attack one another.
At present the chariot of the Hindus taking their idols is attacked by the
Muslims. The 'gods' fall down as the chariot is broken. The priest has been stabbed by
a Muslim man as a result riots take place. The Muslim Hostle is attacked by some
Hindus. One of the girls there is the friend of Smita, the daughter of a Hindu
gentleman. Similarly. Javed and Baban are suspected to have a hand in the chariot of
episode. So they are beaten seriously by the Hindus. Smita knows the boys and her
father saves their lives by giving them shetter in their house. Smitas mother and her
grandmother do not like the boys.
Thus, both the Muslims and the Hindus know that they are wrong but they fail to
find out ' Solution's to their problem'.
Thus, Dattani, through the play Final Solutions, explored issues of identity,
memory. Suffering and loss and resulting, other, bashing, either/ or terms of reference
within the larger political context, through the various products of this play. 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. His primary concern as a writer of drama is to expose the various maladies of
society and whenever necessary to give some proper solutions through the medium of
literature. He seems to be very certain in protecting his vision of secularism in which
both the communities live together with happiness.

References
1- Alyque, Padamsee (2000). Director's Note In Collected Plays By Mahesh Dattani.
Penguin Books, New Delhi. India.
2- Amar, Nath, Prasad (2007). British And Indian English Literature: Sarup and Sons,
New Delhi, India.
3- Baskaran, G, (2012). Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani: Methods and Motives.
Yking Books, Jaipur, India.

8
4- Chaudhuri, Asha, (2005). Contemporary Indian writers in English Mahesh Dattani.
Cambridge House, New Delhi, India.
5- Chaudhuri, Asha (2005). Contemporary Indian writer in English: Mahesh Dattani.
Foundation Books, Delhi, India.
6- Dattani, Mahesh (2001). Final Solutions. Surjeet books, New Delhi, India.
7- Dattani, Mahesh (2010). In the plays of Mahesh Dattani. Prestige Books, New Delhi,
India.
8- https://en.wikipedia.org/-Kumare.Tribhuwan (2012). Culminating A Confluence of
Cultures: A study of Dattanis plays. SRM University, Campus, Modinagar, India.
9- Roy, Pinaki. (2013). Mahesh Dattanis Final Solutions: A Brief Rereading His
Stagecraft in India Theater. New Authors press, New Delhi, India.
10- Pillai, Sohini (2012). Challenging Religious Communalism With Theater:
Mahesh Dattanis' Final Solutions. Prerequisite for Honors, New Delhi, India.
11- Srinivas, S, (2014). Mother Daughter, Conflict in Mahesh Dattanis' Final
Solutions. ISSN, Challasyam, India.
12-Woodruff, Paul (2008). The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being
Watched. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.