White Blood

This Punjabi novel, published in 1932, reads like an Indian-style Romeo and Juliet, in which the two central characters die tragically in the face of opposition within the community in which they live. Another dimension of the novel is that Sundri, one of the central characters, is a foundling brought up by a juggler from the lowest level of the caste system. An essential element of the plot is that she takes it upon herself to attain a high standard of literacy disregarding the fact that education would ordinarily be denied to someone of her social status. She receives encouragement in her aspirations from Bachan, a young man from a higher social class, and they fall in love. She goes on to become a successful writer (an interesting autobiographical feature where the self-educated male author describes his own experience through the character of a woman).

The author, Nanak Singh (born 4 July 1897), was brought up in a poor Hindu family and changed his name when he converted to Sikhism. He was the best-selling novelist in India for several decades. This was his first popular novel and reflected on the ambiguity of contemporary Punjabi society, dangerously corrupt while emphasising a pretense of devotion to religious precepts and virtues. His grandson, Dilraj Singh Suri, has recently translated this novel into an awkward version of English that is idiosyncratically Indian (for example, when Bachan comes before a legal official he is asked “Do you have to say anything?”).

The two aspects of the novel that fit into the global context of the first third of the 20th century are societal change and a high level of violence. Bachan is executed for three murders that he didn't commit. Sundri, on the other hand, carries out a vengeance killing:
“I haven't killed any innocent one. I've killed all those who ruined my master and who drank the blood of my father. Don't forget, you cruel fellows, those responsible for making woman a widow cannot escape from the fire of her rage. God will definitely punish all those who are responsible for the execution of my innocent master and those who protected the killers of my father by giving false evidences in the court. The real killers have got reward of their evil deeds.”