The document discusses the play "Final Solutions" by Mahesh Dattani, which examines communal disharmony in India. The play is set during a period of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in the city. It focuses on the Gandhi family, who take in two young Muslim men, Bobby and Javed, seeking shelter from a Hindu mob. Interactions between the six characters over one tense night highlight tensions between religious communities. The play also depicts the suffering of Hindus and Muslims during periods of communal conflict through multiple generations of the Gandhi family. It demonstrates how perceptions of religious superiority can divide communities and trigger mob violence. Overall, the play uses the Gandhi family's experience to analyze attitudes towards communalism among Hindus

1. COMMUNAL DISHARMONY IN MAHESH DATTANI’S FINAL SOLUTION

2. • Name: Rajyaguru Dhvani Dipakbhai
• Paper Name: Indian English Literature- Post Independence
• Code: 202
• Subject: Quest for communal harmony Mahesh Dattani In Final Solution
• Roll no: 04
• Email Id: dhvanirajayguru22@gmail.com
• Department: Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji University, Bhavnagar.

3. WHO IS MAHESH DATTANI:
• Mahesh Dattani was born on
• He is not only a playwright but also a stage director, an actor, a screen writer, and a film-
maker. He is continuing contributing the Indian-English drama. The theme of his plays is
extremely out of mind and unconventional as he always focuses on the burning concepts of
society like problems of women, gender-discrimination, taboos, husband-wife relationship
etc.
• Dattani remarks himself, “The function of the drama, in my opinion, is not merely to
reflect the malfunction of the society but to act like freak mirrors in a carnival and to
project grotesque images of all that passes for normal in our world. It is ugly, but funny”.
• His plays are somewhere, subjective and he has successfully staged his plays in the whole
country.
• His plays like- Where There’s a Will (1988), Dance Like a Man (1989), Tara (1990),
Bravely Fought the Queen (1991), Final Solutions (1993),Do the Needful (1997), On a
Muggy Night in Mumbai (1998), Seven Steps Around the Fire (1999) and Thirty Days in
September (2001) broke all the barriers in the history of literature.
• As Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri comments, “The preoccupation with ‘fringe’issues forms an
important element in Dattani’s work – issues that remain latent and suppressed, or are
pushed to the periphery, come to occupy centre stage” (jetir.org- Shweta Dubey)

4. WHAT IS COMMUNAL DISHARMONY :
• According to Cambridge Dictionary:
“The situation in which there is disagreement and unpleasant feeling between people” is
known as Disharmony. (Cambridge Dictionary)
• Nandagopal R. Menon states about communal and community in Jstore that,
“Sampradayikmel, Sampradayik sadbhavna in hindi and samudaya sauhradam in Malayalam
are the words used for Communal.” (Jstore)
• One of the first major communal riots took place in August 1893 in Mumbai in which about a hundred people
were killed and 800 injured.The period between 1921 and 1940 marked a particularly difficult phase. The
1926 Muharram celebrations in Calcutta were for example marred by a clash that led to 28 deaths.India
witnessed its worst communal riots in 1948 after the partition. Noakhali in Bengal and several villages of
Bihar were the worst hit.The first major riots between Hindus and Muslims after the bloodshed of partition in
1947 occurred in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh in 1961. (Hindustan Times)

5. INTRODUCTION OF THE PLAY:
• Dattani has mainly shown certain things in the play which can be considered as the themes
of the play and they are selfishness, weakness of a human, patriarchal dominance, fear and
hatred. The playwright in the play talks about the problems of both the minority and the
majority communities, where the minority is the Muslims and the majority is the Hindus.
The play is not confined only to the problems of minority and majority, but it also talks
about patriarchal hegemony in an Indian family.
• Communal tension and communal harmony are such terms which are familiar to everyone in
India. Communal harmony is seen sometimes in many things between a Hindu and a Muslim
but sometimes it shows its absence.
• Mahesh Dattani, has mentioned about both communal tension and harmony beautifully in
his play Final Solutions. The plays of Dattani emerged as the fresh arrival in the field of
Indian Drama in English at the end of the twentieth century and they have won the hearts of
the people not only in India but throughout the world.

6. SUMMARY OF THE PLAY:
• The action of the play is set in motion by the recent destruction of the chariot and
images of Hindu dieties of a Rath Yatra while travelling through a Muslim
neighbourhood of the city. Riots had broken out in Amargaon and so curfew has
been imposed in the city. The communal violence between these groups brings
back Hardika‟s memories of partiton and her life life as a new bride in 1948. Her
memories are expressed through the character of Daksha who is shown reading
from her diary. The Gandhi family is safe within their home and although Smita is
worried about the safety of her Muslim friend, Tasneem.
• The family is having a peaceful evening but it is disrupted when Bobby and Javed
two young Muslim men arrive at their doorstep begging to take them inside. The
Mob/Chorus with Hindu masks are after Bobby and Javed and are threatening to
kill them. Despite the objection of his mother Ramnik opens the door of his house
to protect the two. An interaction occurs between the Gandhis and Bobby and
Javed throughout the course of the night.
• The struggle of these six characters to spend one night under the same roof
creates a tense situation. The play reaches its end in the early hours of the
morning when Bobby enters the prayer room and picks up the idol of Krishna to
Aruna‟s great distress. Bobby proclaims that he is touching god and nothing is
happening to him. Upon seeing Aruna‟s horror he tells Aruna that if there is
understanding and faith in each other nothing can be destroyed. The play ends
with the image of Javed and Bobby standing among the Mob/Chorus.

7. COMMUNAL DISHARMONY IN PLAY:
• Final Solutions can be considered as a problem play as it speaks about the communal tension and
communal riot.
• Dr. Deepti Agrawal, talks about the Hindu Muslim communal riot in her book: The Plays of Mahesh
Dattani, A Study In Themtaic Diversity And Dramatic Technique in page no 237 and she discusses
about Final Solutions in one of the chapters that,
• “The very insightful and sharp analysis of the nationalist conceptualization of India’s Islamic legacy
is taken up by Dattani in his well performed play Final Solutions. In this play, Dattani bemoaned the
takeover of the symbols of his religion, by proponents of Hindutva”. (www.acadpubl.eu/hub/)
• Communal riot is such a war which is actually not fought between two different nations,
rather it takes place between two different religious groups. Dattani focuses mainly on the
communal disharmony between the Hindus and the Muslims. The play talks about the
condition of India during the post partition riots.

8. SUFFERING:
• Final Solutions talks of the problems of cultural hegemony, how Hindus
has to suffer at the hands of Muslim majority like the characters of
Hardika and Daksha in Hussain’s hand, and how Muslim like Javed
suffers in the set up of the major Hindu community.
• This all resulted in communal riots and culminated in disruption of the
normal social life, and thus hampered the progress of nation. The locale
of the play is Ramnik’s house and the central characters are his daughter
Smita, wife Aruna and mother Hardika, besides himself and the two
Muslim boys Bobby and Javed who entered into his house during
communal tension occasioned by the attack on the Rath Yatra
procession.

9. HARDIKA:
• Hardika the mother of Ramnik. She is also known as Daksha in the play when the play
revolves around the past. Daksha writes down everything in her diary because diary is her
best friend. Right from her first day at her in laws house to making a new Muslim friend
namely Zarine, she writes down everything in her diary. The diary symbolizes the past and
the present. Daksha as a young girl in the past writes down everything on the pages of her
diary and Hardika in the present, teaches things to her family about the past, from her diary.
• Hardika, known as Daksha at her young age, had a Muslim friend whose name was Zarine.
Zarine’s house was the only place for Daksha where she could found some solace and
freedom. Daksha was fond of the Noor Jehan songs and she could hear the songs only at
Zarine’s place. Zarine and Daksha were good friends, but their friendship was not meant to
be last forever. Daksha’s father was killed by the Muslims in a riot and from then onwards
Daksha started to hate the minority people. Infact she lost all her faith from her Lord Krishna
as well. Hardika or Daksha is a such a character who symbolizes the majority or the Hindus
and their sufferings as well.

10. CHORUS AND CHARACTERS:
• Dattani attempts a balancing act in tracing the malady of communal disharmony. The ground he treads is full of
mines ready to explode, as this involves the fanatic elements within the Hindu and the Muslim communities. It is
obvious to all that people are paid to create political instability and cause communal riots to fan distrust and
suspicion that tear the social fabric. Inevitably the politicians exploit the susceptibilities of the two communities
on sensitive issues.
• In the play, the chorus is an expedient device used brilliantly to provide the commentary on the way communal
provocation instigates mindless mob violence. There is always someone to light the fire of violence. The play
illustrates how the notions of pollution, food, kitchen habits and fear of contamination by touch become repeated
instances of communal clashes.
• The characters in the play motivate us to think that angry outbursts lead to chain reaction. As long as the
characters are on stage as individuals, they are fine; but behind the masks they represent the faceless, mindless
mob, thirsting for blood. Anger and violence take their toll on both groups. The chorus with Hindu masks bursts
with angry words. There are indications of political mischief and deliberate instigation. Nobody thinks the land
belongs to all Indians. 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 an atmosphere of conflict and
acrimony.

11. • Ramnik Gandhi seems to be a very liberal-minded person towards the Hindu-Muslim
relationships and does not like Hardika’s telling his daughter that “those people are all
demons”. Aruna is a typical Gujarati house wife doing ‘pooja – path’ everyday, praying
constantly “our Krishna will protect us”. She is a God-fearing woman and thinks that her
Krishna will do everything smooth and peaceful one day. Her mother-in-law Hardika could
not forget what was happened before forty years during partition and does not believe
Muslims at all. She is an epitome of those hateful thoughts towards them, as any fanatic
Hindu would be. The following lines spoken by Baa/Hardika clearly show her fears of both
past days and the coming days, when the two Muslim boys come to Ramnik to take shelter
while riots outside:
• This time it wasn’t the people with the sticks and stones. It was those two boys running away
who frightened me. Those two who were begging for their lives. Tomorrow they will hate us
for it. They will hate us for protecting them. Asking for help makes them feel they are lower
than us. I know! All those memories came back when I saw the pride in their eyes! I know
their wretched pride! It had destroyed me before and I was afraid it would destroy my family
again. They don’t want equality. They want to be superior. (P.172)

12. Dattani demonstrates that the major cause of difference endangered by the two leading
communities in our country is their sense of superiority. The Hindus always think that they are superior to the
Muslims and the Muslims think the same. This causes a big chasm in their relation. The scarcity of religious
tolerance is the leading factor for generating a breach in the society. The sentiment of two different groups can be
traced in the chorus of the play Final Solutions:
• Chorus 1 : The procession has passed through these lanes every year. For forty years!
• Chorus 2, 3 : How dare they ?
• Chorus 1,2,3 : For forty years our chariot has moved through their mohallas.
• Chorus 4,5 : Why did they ? Why did they today ?
• Chorus 1 : How dare they?
• Chorus 2,3 : They broke our Rath. They broke our chariot and felled our Gods!
• Chorus 1,2,3 : This is our land! How dare they ?
• Chorus 1 : It is in their blood!
• Chorus 2,3 :It is in their blood to destroy!
• Chorus 4 : Why should they?
• Chorus 5 : It could have been an accident.
• Chorus 2 : The stone that hit our God was no accident!
• Chorus 3 : The knife that slit the poojari’s stomach was no accident. (P.168)

13. CONCLUSION:
• Final Solutions has a powerful contemporary resonance as the central issue of communalism
is of the utmost concerns of our society. Presenting different shades of communalist attitudes
prevalent among Hindus and Muslims, the play attempts to underline the stereotypes
influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another. Moving from
partition to the present day communal riots, Final Solutions examines the attitudes of three
generations of a Gujrati business family. The events in the play unfold at a swift pace,
weaving the post-independence partition riots, with the communal riots of today in a
common strand.

14. REFERENCES:
• Bhattacharya, Suchismita. “Communal Tension and Gender Bias in Mahesh Dattani's Play Final
Solutions.” International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 119, no. 16, 2018, pp. 2447–
2455.
• C K, Uma Devi. “Problem of Communal Devide and Communal Tension in Mahesh Dattani's Final
Solutions.” Research Articles, vol. 3, Jan. 2017.
• “Chronology of Communal Violence in India.” Www.hindustantimes.com, Hindustan Times, 9 Nov.
2011, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/chronology-of-communal-violence-in-india/story-
jJtcgvxFYh5N3jhSw7H4KN.html.
• Dubey, Shweta. “Mahesh Dattani: A Strategic Playwright.” Journal of Emerging Technologies and
Innovative Research, vol. 5, no. 5, 2018, pp. 421–422.
• Menon, Nandagopal R. “Communal Harmony as Governmentality: Reciprocity, Peace-Keeping, State
Legitimacy, and Citizenship in Contemporary India.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 49, no. 2, 2015, pp.
393–429. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24495407. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.
• Parmar, Mr. Dhiren. “Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions: an Analytical Study.” International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science Invention, vol. 8, no. 8, 20 Aug. 2019, pp. 49–54.
• Ponnurangam, Dr Suresh. “Communal Tension and Gender Bias in Mahesh Dattani's Play Final
Solutions.” International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 119, no. 16, 2018, pp. 2447–
2455.

15. THANK YOU