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{{Short description|English Novel about Kashmir Conflict}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2023}}

'''''The Scarlet Sword''''' is an English novel by [[H. E. Bates]] published in 1950.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Head |first1=Dominic |title=Writing against the Nostalgic Grain: H. E. Bates in the 1950s |journal=Literature & History |date=May 2010 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=4–15 |doi=10.7227/LH.19.1.2 |s2cid=194904336 }}</ref> The novel was serialised in ''John Bull'' from 19 August to 7 October 1950.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Scarlet Sword :: HE Bates |url=https://hebates.com/library/the-scarlet-sword |access-date=2023-08-19 |website=hebates.com}}</ref> Like other partition novels, the narrative deals with the battle between India and Pakistan over [[Kashmir conflict|Kashmir]], especially the historical event of the sacking of [[Saint Joseph|St. Joseph]]'s Convent in [[Baramulla]], [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]], transpiring in the latter part of October 1947.<ref name=Vergara1951>{{cite journal |last1=Vergara |first1=Allys Dwyer |title=The Green and the Red—Sean O'Casey: The Man and His Plays. By Jules Koslow |journal=Renascence |date=1951 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=72–74 |id={{ProQuest|1290864250}} |doi=10.5840/renascence1951/19524116 }}</ref> This incident was carried out by a group of pro-Pakistan [[Afridi]] and Pathan tribal soldiers. The novel boasts a diverse ensemble of characters, encompassing two [[clergy]] members, a journalist, a Hindu dancer, a retired [[Colonel]] and his spouse, a youthful Englishwoman along with her mother, a nurse, tribal soldiers, and a multitude of individuals representing different facets of religious, medical, and military backgrounds.<ref name=":1"/>

== Synopsis ==
According to Andrew Whitehead in his ''A Mission in Kashmir (2007),'' the novel was inspired by Sydney Smith's report on Kashmir Incident in ''[[The Daily Express|The Daily Voyage]].''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitehead |first=Andrew |title=A Mission in Kashmir |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-670-08127-1 |pages=220–226 }}</ref> The narrative concerns the fate of a modest community in the tumultuous onset of conflict lasting ten days, during which both Hindu residents and British individuals sought sanctuary within the confines of the nearby Catholic Mission. The survival and preservation of their sanity in the face of adversity hinged on the valor of Father Simpson.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Herbert Ernest |title=The Scarlet Sword |date=1993 |publisher=Chivers Large Print |isbn=978-0-7451-1722-5 }}{{pn|date=September 2023}}</ref> [[The Atlantic|''The Atlantic'']] review<ref>{{cite news |title=The Scarlet Sword |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1951/02/the-scarlet-sword/639829/ |work=The Atlantic |date=February 1951 }}</ref> summarises the plot of the novel as follows:

{{Blockquote|text=In the eruption following the Partition of India, a band of murderous Pathans attacks an isolated Catholic Mission harboring some sixty people — two priests, the nuns, Hindu refugees, a British war correspondent, a British colonel and his wife, a young English girl and her mother, a nurse from Glasgow, and a dancer from the brothels of Bombay. The action, which lasts ten days, is one searing flash of violence in which the characters are brilliantly illumined.|author=''The Atlantic''}}

Hindu characters that play a pivotal role in the novel include the Bombay prostitute, Kaushalya. Towards the conclusion of the novel, it is implied that she is raped by two Pathans.<ref name=":0" /> The novel has sub-plots such as the affair between the "war-weary British journalist", a British Foreign Correspondent Crane and Julia Maxted.<ref name=":2">{{cite magazine |title=Books: Up a Familiar Trail |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,805702,00.html |magazine=Time |date=8 January 1951 }}</ref><ref name=":0"/> Towards the end, a resolution is provided as the Indian Army drive off the tribal soldiers.<ref name=":2" />

== Criticism ==
Andrew Whitehead criticises the lack of context in the novel with almost no non-Europeans, especially Kashmiri characters, given enough narrative space, let alone giving them distinct identities and names.<ref name=":1" />

The novel has also been criticised for using a traditional trope of a "familiar group of Occidentals in their little island" undergoing a roller-coaster of emotions and experiences.<ref name=Vergara1951/> Moreover, the novel's preoccupation with the depiction of the inscrutable interior life of the characters, with all the religious and missionary overtones, makes the narrative less interesting.<ref name=":0"/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite news |url=https://h-e-bates.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/Downloads/A67-Daily-Express.pdf |title=Ten days of terror |newspaper=[[Daily Express]] |date=11 November 1947 |page=2}}

[[Category:Fiction set in the 20th century]]
[[Category:Novels about the partition of India]]
[[Category:Novels set in Jammu and Kashmir]]
[[Category:Books about the Kashmir conflict]]

The Scarlet Sword - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Creating a new article