Express News Service
What’s in a name?” Four centuries ago when William Shakespeare wrote this, he wasn’t thinking about Shubhankar Trivedi. But the young lad, growing up in the India of the 90s, owes everything to his name, and has to constantly bear its weight––once it put him on a podium as a witness to a mob attack, and years later, made him a victim of an act of violence because of that very name. It’s this dichotomy of a democratic India that Santanu Bhattacharya addresses in his debut novel One Small Voice. Through the voice of Shubhankar, one understands how free will is still a matter of privilege and politics in present-day India, where cattle vigilantes rub shoulders with technocrats.
Set against the backdrop of the 1992 riots after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, One Small Voice follows the journey of 10-year-old Shubhankar, who witnesses a gruesome attack––a man belonging
to a minority community is immolated––in Lucknow, where the silent complicity of his family leaves him scarred. The novel, which runs parallel in two timelines, starts with the protagonist as a child struggling to say his tongue-twister of a name.
Two decades later, as he sets foot in Mumbai carrying the wounds of his past, he self-anoints himself as Shabby, in an attempt to run away from the burden of his name. Some would say karma has an uncanny way of catching up as was the case with Shubhankar. Once his religion saved him, and his class spared him, but eventually he falls prey to a hate crime––this time, in Mumbai in the late 2000s, when for a brief period, Maharashtra was rife with an anti-north sentiment.
And as we witness the protagonist’s mental breakdown in the aftermath of the attack, the question that stays unanswered is what’s better––to be bound by community or alienated by freedom.
As the novel progresses, we see Shubhankar grappling with the trauma of the two events while navigating the complexities of his privileged upbringing, family expectations, personal aspirations and artistic pursuits, and the contradictions of his city life against the conservative life back home. He is unable to shed off the weight of his childhood trauma where, by remaining silent, he believes he had aided in the crime.
Bhattacharya’s strength lies in the way he captures the brilliance of ordinary lives. It’s easy to see why this book, which he spent 10 years writing, is the Observer Best Debut Novel for 2023, and winner of the Mo Siewcharran Prize. His style is simple and straightforward, yet it evokes a deep sense of empathy and compassion. His perceptiveness is reflected in the way every character shapes up over the years. Be it Shubhankar’s nani, who is a feisty old woman with unconditional but hidden love for her grandson, or his domestic help, Shakku bai, who atones for the sins of her son, Mangesh (he instigated the attack on Shubhankar).
The story sheds light around the realities of India of the early 90s––a nation struggling to forget its past and accept modernity, one where compassion and prejudice run in equal measure. In the bylanes of Mumbai––often described as both chaotic and enchanting ––characters such as Shruti and Syed (friends), and Mangesh depict the contrasts that shape the city.
Towards the end of the novel, Shubhankar must finally choose to either accept or escape his reality––that his family silently watched on as a mob burnt a man alive. It’s this dilemma that shapes most part of One Small Voice, in which India’s nationalist waves, its struggles with religious and regional clashes, the expectations and hopes of the youth are all bundled together.
More than once, we are told how in the protagonist’s name, shubh translates to good. It’s the sign of times to come, and we do see Shubhankar striving to find out about the stranger who was killed all those years ago, his parents standing up against communal pressure. Long after the book is over, Shabby’s voice continues to ring in your ears, offering a sense of hope that perhaps all is not lost.
‘Bhattacharya’s style is simple and straightforward, yet it evokes a deep sense of empathy and compassion’
One Small Voice
By: Santanu Bhattacharya
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 383
Price: Rs 699
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