| To Khushwant Singh, 1947 was a period of great disillusionment and crisis of values, a distressing and disintegrating period of his life. The belief he had cherished all his life were shattered. Giving went to his inner struggle and agony, he says, “The beliefs that I had cherished all my life were shattered. I had believed in the innate goodness of the common man. But the division of India had been accompanied by the most savage massacres known in the history of the contry… I had believed that we Indians were peace loving and non- violent, that we were more concerned with matters of the spirit, while the rest of the world was involved in the pursuit of material things. After the experience of the autumn of 1947, I could no longer subscribe to this view. I became… an angry middleaged man, who wanted to shout his disenchantment with the world… I decided to try my hand at writing”(Talk ). |