Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column: Mirroring the Cultural Transition in Post-Independence India

Abstract

This paper aims to examine Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) to explore the impact of cultural transition on interpersonal relationships at the time of the partition of India when the feudal system was collapsing. The study undertakes to make a comparative reading of the cultural milieu in pre-independence and post-independence India, with a special focus on the treatment of women in the backdrop of the political and religious context. The paper navigates through Hosain’s text to identify the decaying traditional values and belief system of Lucknow, popularly known as the city of Nawabs and highlights the social, cultural and political turmoil that existed in the mid-twentieth century in India. Through this paper, I will investigate how the characters in the novel the challenges of negotiating tradition and modernity in the evolving cultural landscape of post-independence India.