Ms.

Rumi Roy
Assistant Professor
Vivekananda Law School
Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies
Affiliated to GGSIPU

Mahesh Dattani's

FINAL SOLUTIONS
Summary:
"Final Solutions" has a powerful contemporary resonance an it addresses as issue of utmost
concern to our society, i.e. the issue of communalism. The play presents different shades of the
communalist attitude prevalent among Hindus and Muslims in its attempt to underline the
stereotypes and clichés influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another.
What distinguishes this work from other plays written on the subject is that it is neither
sentimental in its appeal nor simplified in its approach.
It advances the objective candour of a social scientist while presenting a mosaic of diverse
attitudes towards religious identity that often plunges the country into inhuman strife. Yet the
issue is not moralised, as the demons of communal hatred are located not out in the street but
deep within us.
The play moves from the partition to the present day communal riots. It probes into the
religious bigotry by examining the attitudes of three generations of a middle-class Gujrati
business family, Hardika, the grandmother, is obsessed with her father's murder during the
partition turmoil and the betrayal by a Muslim friend, Zarine. Her son, Ramnik Gandhi, is
haunted by the knowledge his fortunes were founded on a shop of Zarine's father, which was
burnt down by his kinsmen.
Hardika's daughter-in-law, Aruna, lives by the strict code of the Hindu Sanskar and the
granddaughter, Smita, cannot allow herself a relationship with a Muslim boy. The pulls and
counter-pulls of the family are exposed when two Muslim boys, Babban and Javed, seek
shelter in their house on being chased by a baying Hindu mob.
Babban is a moderate while Javed is an aggressive youth. After a nightlong exchange of
judgements and retorts between the characters, tolerance and forgetfulness emerge as the only
possible solution of the crisis. Thus, the play becomes a timely reminder of the conflicts
raging not only in India but in other parts of the world.
Dattani‟s Final Solutions is a very serious and delicate drama on the well-worn subject of
communalism focusing on the problem of communal disharmony between the Hindus and
Muslims in India, especially during the period of the post partition riot. The play highlights the
intolerant attitude and the lack of accommodation between the two communities and
unacceptability gives rise to acrimony resulting in terrorism and anarchy. The play itself is a
question-mark on this age-old enmity between the two communities wondering if there would
ever be a final solution to this endemic problem.
The theme of the play is to highlight human weakness, selfishness and avarice and
opportunism. Woven into the play are the issue of class and communities and the clashes
between traditional and modern life style and values systems. The problem of minorities is not
confined to just Hindus and Muslims, it disrupts the peace of any minority community among
the majority. Final Solutions has taken the issues of the majority communities in different
contexts and situations. It bares the ugly face of communalism in contemporary Indian society.
It took moral courage to , in the immediate aftermath of the Babri Masjid on the part of Dattani
to write the play. Presenting different shades of communalist attitudes prevalent among
Hindus and Muslims , the play attempts to underline the stereotypes influencing the collective
sensibility of one community against the other. Moving from partition to present day communal
riots , the paly examines the attitudes of three generations of a Gujarati business family. The
play act as a mirror of current society which we live on.
It talks of the problems of cultural hegemony, how Hindus had to suffer at the hands of Muslim
majority like the characters of Hardika / Daksha in Husaainbad. And how Muslims like Javed
suffer in the setup of the majority Hindu community. This all resulted in communal riots and
culminated in the disruption of the normal social life, and thus hampered the progress of the
nation. The mob in the play is symbolic of our own hatred and paranoia. Each member of the
mob is an individual , yet they meet into seething whole as the politicians play on their fears.
In this play, the chorus continuously sings sometimes under the mask of Hindus and sometimes
under that of the Muslims revealing their feelings of fear and hatred for one another.
The scenes of the play take place inside and outside Ramnik Gandhi’s house. The mob is inn
form of chorus changing its guise into Muslims and Hindus through masks and songs. Inside ,
a Hindu family is sharply divided over giving shelter to the unknown Muslim youths in the
midst of communal frenzy and violence. Eve after fifty years of Independence , people have
not been able to forget their enmity and bias against each other . i.e Muslims against Hindus
and Hindus against Muslims. The family unit comprises members of different age groups
symbolic of past , present . stretching the plot to over a period of half a century. Young people
like Smita, Javed, present the future and Ramnik and Aruna , the present while Hardika the
grandmother of Smita is sometimes presented in Daksha( past) fifteen year old newly married
young girl , writing her diary and then as her grandmother in her sixties (present) teaching
her children and revealing the family’s past. Major events are represented through her eyes.
Javed becomes victim and a terrorist in the play and is exploited by the politicians in the name
of Jihad. He is trained for sabotaging and terrorist activities. He never thinks on the fact that
the hatred and untrust that would be created in society will last for a long time. As Hardika, an
old female character in the Final Solutions, remembers her past and when the communal riot
occurs again after 40 years she tells: “After forty years… I opened my diary again… Yes,
things have not changed that much.
It is interesting to note that the world is beset with many problems. These problems are created
to fulfil the aspirations of some vested groups. Indian condition is not aloof from the world.
Casteism, regionalism, linguism, parochialism, communalism and other forms of factionalism
have drawn strength from our commitment to the politics of vote rather than to the nation. The
politician can stoop to any level, jeopardize national interest to any extent, if it helps them to
secure votes. It is this trivial politics that created situation for two great wars. We fought these
wars but for what? Still now the problem of Israel and Philistine exists in medieval form. The
problem of the Hindu and the Muslim is very grievous in India. In most of the problems, the
role of our leaders are very hypocritical.
One of the important features of the play, Final Solutions, is the role of the police administration
during and after a riot. In the play Final Solutions, Mahesh Dattani has very beautifully exposed
the reality of the police administration which has become totally defunct in modern context.
The play Final Solutions also shows that the Police and the Politicians never treat the society
on equal terms. The politicians whose primary purpose is to gain the vote by hook and crook,
is often seen indulging in so many malpractices.
The play shows that the cause of the communal riot is not only due to disbelief and hatred but
also it is related to economy. Zarine’s father collects his community people only when his shop
was burnt. In the beginning he wants the real price of his shop. When he fails in the act he relies
on the fanatic way. All the male members of Daksha’s family knows this
Central theme:
The two communities Hindus and Muslims are at logger heads living in atmosphere of hatred
and communal acrimony. The plays looks straight into the heart of the fundamentalist and the
liberal and tears down the prototypes. The past begins to determine the outlook of the present
and thus the earlier contradictions re- emerge. No concrete solutions are provided in the play
to the problem of communalism but it raises questions on secularism and pseudo secularism.
It forces us to look at ourselves in relation to the attitudes that are persisting in the society. The
chorus represents It is a timely reminder of the conflicts raging in India .
Dattani, through the play Final Solutions, explored issues of identity, memory, suffering and
loss and resulting ‘other’-bashing, either/or terms of reference within the larger political
context through the various products of this play. He, through this beautiful realistic
presentation of two major groups of India, has tried his best to provide a workable solution to
fill up the gap between the Hindus and the Muslims. His primary concern as a writer of drama
is to expose the various maladies of society and whenever necessary to give some proper
solutions through the medium of literature. He seems to be very certain in protecting his vision
of secularism in which both the communities live together with happiness