Invisible Issues in Stephen Gill’s Shrine

Nidhish Kumar Singh

Poet Laureate of Ansted University and a former vice-president of World Federalists of Canada, Stephen Gill has authored more than twenty books, including collection of poems, fiction, literary criticism and the books of historical nature. He has not written only in English but also in Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi languages. His several poems have been translated in German, Spanish, Bengali, and other languages.

An author’s experiences of the environment in which he breaths cast a valuable effect on his writing and “the personal experiences of a poet create his poetic voice” (N. K. Agarwal, 93). Gill’s writing shows his bitter experiences of life of worse circumstances, of the stuffing environment and of humanity. His writing exhibits his voice of protest against these experiences.

The partition fury has been rooted deep in the heart of Gill. It shakes his heart with every gust. It has tamed his conscience and teased him often. His quest for remedy ends under the mild shelter of Muse. She greets him with power to vent his fury and feeling. He turns the sparks into flames which illuminate the things that the darkness has devoured. It’s a specialty of a poet that he can see the things that are behind the light like stars behind the sun .The poet polishes them in a way that they eclipse the sun, so is Stephen Gill. He has shown the untouched things of partition, war, revolts, terrorism, addiction, conflicts etc. in his poetic collection Shrine. Dr. Chhote Lal Khatri remarks:

The volume consists of sixty poems on various aspects of social life-- the problem of drug addiction, refugee, war, terrorism, atrocities on women and children, communalism and aids. (188)

There are several Indians who have written on partition of India and Pakistan, but Gill’s approach is slightly different from them. He is one of the victims of that partition and has experienced it entirely. Therefore, his approach is realistic. It originates from depth, sincerity and mildness in him. Gill kindles the horror of partition in his preface where he says:

Every time there was a stir caused by the wind, a car on the street, the bark of dog, or the mew of a cat, we froze inside our house. (Shrine, 8)

He adds further:

It was not easy to sleep when night after night the ghosts of fear looked straight into our eyes. (Shrine,8)

Gill’s preface to the Shrine is a documentary account of partition. He soundly elaborates the bewilderment, agony, torture, fear, frustration and the riot of parting India. He has fetched the things that are confined into the mind of a victim. His description successfully stirs the things that are still. That event has become the history, but it is still alive in the nostalgia of Gill. It is the darkness that every one wants to escape from. This darkness haunts Gill as his shadow. He admits:

It was a shock when I realized that the darkness I left behind had been chasing me continuously. The thought of cruelty of humans always remained in my mind like my own shadow. (Shrine, 23-24)

The impact of partition brings Gill to the point where he gets an opportunity to know them. He turns towards the war that is a curse to humanity. Gill demonstrates the invisible consequences of war through his poems. It can’t be solution of any dispute-- it brings only disaster, destruction, darkness, discomfort, bewilderment, crisis, insecurity, anger, jealousy etc. Gill writes in “War Fever” that war:

poisons the air of surroundings

disturbs the calm of sea

crumbles human relations

kills the appetite of the soul

weakens the liver of love

turning everything upside down. (Shrine, 49)

Indeed, it can’t give solace to anyone. It becomes a cause of departing peace, harmony, justice, kindness, courtesy, charity and honey of humanity. It’s hounds “ravage the bridge of harmony” and prohibit harmony and “dove of peace” to enter in our world. War leaves only “poor shrunken things” in our mind and:

Bodies rotting in ditches

or dumped with the garbage.

Bodies washing up

onto the beaches

like bundles of clothes (Shrine, 68)

It can be the matter of power, glory, pride, and prestige for politicians or nations, but it can’t be so for innocents. It is they who suffer the most during and after war. They are deprived of their basic needs, including food, shelter, sanitation and medicine. They lose their son, brother, father, husband, daughter, mother, wife, sister and friends. It is they who become refugees, immigrants and victims of other miseries. Gill depicts the agony of a mother thus:

Here is a mother

who moves the corpses

to find her son; (Shrine, 69)

He further adds:

Who are these innocents

whom the storm of cruelty

has extinguished

as of they were candles. (Shrine, 69)

It is for this reasons that he feels himself hostage even in his own house:

Alert in the bunker of panic

I like a hostage

to the ghastly Gulf War

that raises

the high walls of the captivity

to my freedom and peace

in my own living room

though I am thousands of miles

afar. (Shrine, 53)

Terrorism is one of the major causes that disturbs peace and social harmony. It is a known fact, but what Gill exhibits through his poetry are entirely different. Gill offers his readers to taste the still water of deep ocean who have only acquainted with the taste of surface water. Like Literature it also has its latent and manifest aspects. We are acquainted with its manifest meaning but scarcely know about its latent content. Gill dips deep to find out the latent content and represents it through his poems.

Terrorists are like the machine whose heart has been parched up and they are emotionless. Either they are dead for the world or the world is dead for them. Therefore, “they rape/ the sanctity of life” and slaughter men like carrot. The poet asks:

Why

they are trained

in the school of anarchy

which blooms

as deadly nightshade

on the fringes of fallacies.

Why

they talk of harmony

but plan genocide (Shrine, 155)

Gill arouses some more questions that direct to find the root of terrorism. He takes world as a nation, so the problem of terrorism doesn’t belong to a state, city, or region. Therefore, one shouldn’t cut its branches or trunk, but should endeavour to fetch it out from its root. He insists that terrorists should be chained like mad dogs:

It is beyond

the shadow of my doubts

the law of the Jungle

and the language of weapons

are mad dogs

to be chained. (Shrine, 156)

He also warns them:

Those who kiss

the lips of the sword

fall victims to its fury. (Shrine, 156)

It is beyond the perception of the poet why do they choose arms and violence for the settlement of disputes? Instead of solving, it enhances those problems. Therefore, Gill doesn’t advocate it:

I do not believe

in suppressing the truth

nor using arms

to settle disputes. (Shrine,157)

Gill focuses on the other side of the simplest but the serious causes of problem whether it is about war or terrorism or religion or addiction or politics or humanity. War and terrorism are the major demons that disturb world peace and harmony. Politicians play significant role in the settlement of the causes that breed the war-like circumstances. Gill brings into light what they really do for the settlement:

Our rulers talk of peace

but it is futile

when nuclear-powered marines

sail over breasts of the oceans;

missiles look down like hawks

and neutrons

make fun of every life. (Shrine, 46)

In the didactic poems, “The Voice of Democracy”, “Lotus of freedom”, and “Seed of Democracy”, Gill tells politician that the lotus of freedom and seed of democracy cannot bloom in stuffing environment. They have to provide favorable environment for its growth. Gill kindles the vices:

Cruelty can uproot a weed

but to uproot it --- no!

Only autocrats will do it

to cause irreparable loss

to the stems of humanity. (Shrine, 62)

If politicians want to sprout the lotus, they have to plant it where it should be:

I dwelt in those waters

where I received warmth

from the breeze of liberty.

the hands of the judiciary

caressed me,

singing a murmuring lullaby. (Shrine, 59)

And the seed of democracy:

sprouts in the open air

of that soil

which is freely watered

by the freedom of expression

and where tongue of serpent

does not throw poison of fear

to fertilize the land

for the thorns of repression

to grow. (Shrine, 61)

Offence cannot bring peace and harmony. It’s a simple logic that they are unable to learn from the exile of Adam and Eve till now:

When Adam and Eve

broke the scepter of the divine law,

they were chased out from there;

only mother earth gave them refuge. (Shrine, 36)

They haven’t learned lesson from their guilt. They are still cooled by their vices, fertilizing them on the soil of mother earth:

On the soil of her mind

they planted

the seed of the tree of knowledge

which they managed to steal.

It has yielded the fruit of

jealousy, superiority, murders

rapes and exploitation in abundance. (Shrine, 36)

The poet doesn’t talk about politicians particularly, but in general. Others are also responsible for disturbing peace and harmony, whether they belong to politics or religion or education or science. If they do not amend themselves they:

will be soon exiled to another planet

as their ancestors were.

Where will they go from here

is a question now. (Shrine, 37)

Gill holds a mirror to the masses to show what is stabbing at their back. He provokes to vent their furies that buried deep into their hearts. He mentions their sufferings in several poems. He says that it is they who die in assaults whether it is of war, terrorism or riot. And it happens in the whole world:

It is a familiar scene

from Bangladesh

at the time of freedom;

or a place in the middle-east,

Bosnia, Rwanda,

Somalia or Lebanon.

It may be any country in Asia

Africa, Europe or South America. (Shrine, 71)

Besides they are also exhausted of:

Heavy taxes

less service

higher unemployment

financial obligations

more elderly persons

soaring prices

increase in terrorism

shortage of physicians

violence on the street

no security (Shrine, 89)

The mirror reflects that we are carved as a flower but we have sprouted thorns and weeds beside us that pinch us :

Humans were created like flowers;

but they become intoxicated

with pride

and created

their own plastic roses and jasmines

without roots. (Shrine, 34)

In order to get ride of all these thorns “of war, hatred and illusions” crowd needs “the caring arms of the earth” and “the soft nurse of nature / and a mysterious rain.” But nature grants it only to those who are awakened. And they still sleep and wait:

…for a Hercules

for deliverance from vultures

who match the bread of peace

or a Minerva

who would help to bring down

the fire again. (Shrine, 99)

Gill endeavors to arouse them from their sleep. Being awakened, they may say:

All the storms and tornadoes

and all the thunders

I can face alone. (Shrine, 58)

Because:

…their leaders are unable to see

maddening clouds of dangers

and their rulers unable to hear

distressing cries of the innocent

though they are blessed

with sound ears and healthy eyes. (Shrine, 147)

We accuse others for happenings but never peer into our heart or try to find how much we are responsible for that. Gill illustrates that most of our social problems emerge from our selfish and sinful nature. We help crime and criminals directly or indirectly because we do not protest and watch as a passive viewer. He mentions the present that asks to stand against the terror. “He leads the reader” says Michelle D. Cownell “to believe it isn’t up to governments, or wars or others to bring about peace; but that all of us can do our part.” (194)

Now, the “citizens crave peace”, Justice, truth, security, harmony, democracy and calm. They want to be rescued from the cave of insecurity, terror, offence, violence, injustice, exploitation and cruelty. Gill shows them those causes about which they haven’t ruminated. Now, they know its root and sources and want to exile them from universe.

According to Gill a “poem should not be predictable, and it should not be constructed on the trodden path.” (Agarwal, 115). Undoubtedly, he leads his readers into a world that is unknown to them. His poems deal with war, terrorism, peace, and social concerns including AIDS. He moulds the sensibility of the readers about these social issues. Bianca Elliot commends Gill’s ability of presentation:

I have never touched a person with AIDS. I never have spoken with a person who has suffered extreme neglect or persecution. The knowledge about these and other people like them exists but they are only on the news or in the paper. I don’t “see” them. That changes a little when I read Shrine. (197)

Gill uses “fresh language and images” which make “stone stony.” His poems are “candle that spreads the fragrance of light” and take his readers to higher level from where they can see everything. Many poems of Shrine focus on the elements of evil of war and terrorism. He makes distinction between the world of terror and violence and the world of peace and harmony; he calls his readers into the world of peace and harmony.

Works Cited:

Agarwal, N.K. “A Critique of Stephen Gill’s Literary Sensibility.” Discovering of Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles. Delhi: Authorspress, 2008. 91-110.

…… Stephen Gill On His Writing and Diaspora. Discovering of Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles. 111-132.

Connell, Michelle D. “Gill’s Shrine Implores to Think.” Glimpses. Ed. Hamadan Darwesh. Ontario: Vesta, 2005. 194.

Elliot, Bianca. “Shrine.” Glimpses. 197-199.

Gill, Stephen. Shrine. Arizona: World university Press, 1999.

NIDHISH KUMAR SINGH

Lecturer in English,

P.R.B.S. College,

Rae Bareli.