31 pages • 1 hour read
Bhisham SahniTamas
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Nathu
Nathu serves as Tamas’s failing conscience. He accepts the job of killing a pig, thinking that its corpse will be used for medical purposes. When the pig is thrown onto the steps of a Mosque instead, threatening to start a series of riots, Nathu blames himself. Although the novel is without a main character, Nathu comes closest to filling the role of protagonist. As he struggles with the implications of his actions, Nathu gives the reader a chance to consider the nature of personal responsibility. It is hard to blame him for taking a job, albeit an unsavory one. And yet, it is also true that, had he not killed the pig, it would never have become the galvanizing factor in the riots.
Richard
Richard is the Deputy Commissioner, the representative of British power in this region of India. It is his job to govern the region on behalf of the British Empire. However, he does his job out of duty to Britain, rather than any affection for the people of India. Richard looks down on the Indian people and sees them as inferior beings who can only be improved by the white man’s presence. Rudyard Kipling’s concept of the “white man’s burden” refers to the obligation a white man has to improve the lives of people of color. Despite Richard’s love for his Buddhist statues, he practices neither the compassion nor the contemplation that Buddhism encourages. Richard becomes the most important factor in staving off the violence of the riots but he intervenes only when doing so will gain him credit and professional accolades.
Liza
Liza is Richard’s wife. She is a bored alcoholic who hates living in India. Her relationship with her husband is ambivalent. She both admires him and is bored by him. Richard’s suggestion that she interest herself in local charitable causes is laughable to her. She finds the Indians ferocious and ignorant. She has no desire to put her time into endeavors that would improve their situation. However, her appeals to Richard to do what he can to stop the riots, suggests that she has a moral awareness and warmth that her husband lacks. At the end of the novel, it is Liza who tells Richard that nothing he does matters.
Harnam Singh
Harnam Singh is a Sikh man who flees the riots with his wife, Banto. As soon as they leave, their tea shop is plundered and destroyed by a mob of Muslim rioters. After a long walk they reach the village of Dhok, where they are given shelter by a Muslim woman. However, her son in law, Ramzan, a member of the Muslim League, is enraged when he learns that they are being hidden there. When Ramzan commands Harnam to kneel so that he can kill him with an axe, Harnam offers no resistance. He is Tamas’s representation of humble sacrifice and faith. When confronted with Harnam’s acceptance of his fate, Ramzan’s anger fades and he realizes that, whatever his religious convictions are, he cannot kill a man he knows, simply because he is a Sikh. The hatred he felt is unsustainable when the anonymity of his perceived enemy is destroyed.
Ranvir
Ranvir is the stereotypical warmongering youth. Because his life lacks any real purpose and meaning, the struggle afforded by war and violence looks adventurous and noble to him, rather than terrifying and brutal. There is little evidence that Ranvir acts out of love for his religion. Rather, his hatred of Hindus seems to be more significant to him than his own faith. Without an eternal enemy to wage battle against—as the conflict is presented in both Muslim and Hindu scripture—Ranvir and other radicalized youths are aimless, restless, and have little hope for meaningful lives.
