INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH
UNIT I: INTRODUCTION
Arrival of East India Company
and the associated Impact
The East India Company (also the East India Trading Company,
English East IndiaCompany, and then the British East India Company) was an
early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing
trade with the East Indies, but that endedup trading mainly with the
Indian subcontinent and China. The oldest among severalsimilarly formed
European East India Companies, the Company was granted an EnglishRoyal Charter,
under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Tradinginto the East
Indies, by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. After a rival English
companychallenged its monopoly in the late 17th century, the two companies were
merged in1708 to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the
East Indies,commonly styled the Honourable East India Company, and abbreviated,
HEIC; theCompany was colloquially referred to as John Company, and in India as
CompanyBahadur (Hindustani bahādur, "brave"/"authority").The
East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre,
tea, and, intoChina, illegal opium. The Company also came to rule large
swathes of India, exercisingmilitary power and assuming administrative
functions, to the exclusion, gradually, of itscommercial pursuits. Company
rule in India, which effectively began in 1757 after theBattle of Plassey,
lasted until 1858, when, following the events of the Indian
Rebellion of 1857, and under the Government of India Act
1858, the British Crown assumed directadministration of India in the new
British Raj. The Company itself was finally dissolvedon 1 January 1874, as a
result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act.The Company long held a
privileged position in relation to the English, and later the British,
government. As a result, it was frequently granted special rights
and privileges, including trade monopolies and exemptions. These caused
resentment among its competitors, who saw unfair advantage in
the Company's position. Despite this resentment, the Company remained a
powerful force for over 200 years. East Indian company is currently
owned by Mr.Sanjiv Mehta, entrepreneur born in Mumbai.
Indian trade links with
Europe started in through sea route only after the arrival of Vasco da Gama in
Calicut, India on May 20, 1498. The Portuguese had traded in Goa as early as
1510, and later founded three other colonies on the west coast in Diu, Bassein,
and Mangalore. In 1601 the East India Company was chartered, and the English
began their first inroads into the Indian Ocean. At first they were little
interested in India, but rather, like the Portuguese and Dutch before them,
with the Spice Islands. But the English were unable to dislodge the Dutch from
Spice Islands. In 1610, the British chased away a Portuguese naval squadron,
and the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat. This small outpost
marked the beginning of a remarkable presence that would last over 300 years
and eventually dominate the entire subcontinent. In 1612 British established a trading
post in Gujarat. As a result of English disappointments with dislodging the
Dutch from the Spice Islands, they turned instead to India. In 1614 Sir Thomas
Roe was instructed by James I to visit the court of Jahangir, the Mughal
emperor of Hindustan. Sir Thomas was to arrange a commercial treaty and to
secure for the East India Company sites for commercial agencies,
-"factories" as they were called. Sir Thomas was successful in
getting permission from Jahangir for setting up factories. East India Company
set up factories at Ahmedabad, Broach and Agra. In 1640 East India Company
established an outpost at Madras. In 1661 the company obtained Bombay from
Charles II and converted it to a flourishing center of trade by 1668. English
settlements rose in Orissa and Bengal. In 1633, in the Mahanadi delta of
Hariharpur at Balasore in Orissa, factories were set up. In 1650 Gabriel
Boughton an employee of the Company obtained a license for trade in Bengal. An
English factory was set up in 1651 at Hugli.
In 1690 Job Charnock established a factory. In 1698 the factory was
fortified and called Fort William. The villages of Sutanati, Kalikata and
Gobindpore were developed into a single area called Calcutta. Calcutta became a
trading center for East India Company. Once in India, the British began to
compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination
of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India
Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769. In 1672 the
French established themselves at Pondicherry and stage was set for a rivalry
between the British and French for control of Indian trade.
Battle of Plassey - On
June 23rd, 1757 at Plassey, between Calcutta and Murshidabad, the forces of the
East India Company under Robert Clive met the army of Siraj-ud-Doula, the Nawab
of Bengal. Clive had 800 Europeans and 2200 Indians whereas Siraj-ud-doula in
his entrenched camp at Plassey was said to have about 50,000 men with a train
of heavy artillery. The aspirant to the Nawab's throne, Mir Jafar, was induced
to throw in his lot with Clive, and by far the greater number of the Nawab's
soldiers were bribed to throw away their weapons, surrender prematurely, and
even turn their arms against their own army. Siraj-ud-Doula was defeated.
Battle of Plassey marked the first major military success for British East
India Company.
Battle of Wandiwash
1760: From 1744, the French and English
fought a series of battles for supremacy in the Carnatic region. In the third
Carnatic war, the British East India Company defeated the French forces at the
battle of Wandiwash ending almost a century of conflict over supremacy in
India. This battle gave the British trading company a far superior position in
India compared to the other Europeans.
Battle of Buxar: In June 1763 under Major Adams British army
defeated Mir Kasim the Nawab of Bengal. Though they with a smaller army against
Mir Kasim, the English had victories at Katwah, Giria, Sooty, Udaynala and
Monghyr. Mir Kasim fled to Patna and took help from NawabShujauddaulah and the
Emperor Shah Alam II. But the English
under the General Major Hector Munro at Buxar defeated the confederate army on
22 October, 1764. Mir Kasim fled again fled and died in 1777. After winning the Battle of Buxar, the
British had earned the right to collect land revenue in Bengal, Bihar and
Orissa. This development set the foundations of British political rule in
India. After the victory of the English in Buxar Robert Clive was appointed the
governor and commander in chief of the English army in Bengal in 1765. He is
claimed as the founder of the British political dominion in India. Robert Clive
also brought reforms in the administration of the company and the organization
of the army.
Warren Hastings was
appointed the Governor of Bengal in 1772. Under the Regulating Act of 1773
passed by British parliament, a Council of four members was appointed, and
Warren Hastings (Governor-General 1774-85) was empowered to conduct the
Company's affairs with the Council's advice. His task was to consolidate the
Company's rule in Bengal. He brought about several administrative and judicial
changes. Warren Hasting faced an uphill task in dealing with the Indian rulers.
He faced stiff resistance from the Marathas in the north and Hyder Ali in the
south. In 1773 he concluded the treaty of Banaras with the Nawab of Avadh
appeasing the emperor and getting financial gains thus blocking alliances
between the Marathas and the Nawab of Avadh. Under Warren Hastings English army
took part in the Rohilla War in 1774 that brought Rohilkhand in the company's
jurisdiction.
The First Anglo-Mysore
War (1767-69)
After the death of the
Raja of Mysore in 1760, Hyder Ali, became the ruler of Mysore. He extended his
territories by conquering Bednore, Sundra, Sera, Canara and Guti and subjugated
the poligars of south India. With easy success in Bengal, the English concluded
a treaty with Nizam Ali of Hyderabad and committed the Company to help the
Nizam with the troops in his war against Hyder Ali. In 1767, - the Nizam, the
Marathas and the English made an alliance against Hyder. But Hyder was brave
and diplomatic. He beat the English at their own game by making peace with the
Marathas and alluring the Nizam with territorial gains and together with the latter
launched an attack on Arcot. The fight continued for a year and half and the
British suffered heavy losses. The panic-stricken British had to sue for peace.
A treaty was signed on April 4, 1769, on the basis of restitution of each
other's territories.
1769–70 there was
‘Great famine in Bengal’ in which nearly 10 million people perished. Later
several other famines hit different parts of Indian killing millions of people
during East India companies rule. During the period 1772-1785 the territory of
the East India Company included Bengal. Bihar, Orissa, Banaras and Ghazipur. It
also included the Northern Sarkars, port of Salsette and the harbours of
Madras, Bombay and other minor ports. The Mughal territory included Delhi and
other surrounding areas. The territory of Avadh, which was autonomous, was
bound in an offensive-defensive alliance with the East India Company since
1765. The North Western part of India was under the Sikh clans, who controlled
region around the Sultej. The Muslim chiefs ruled in North western Punjab,
Multan, Sindh and Kashmir. The Marathas dominated over western India, parts of
Central India from Delhi to Hyderabad and Gujarat to Cuttak. The Deccan was
ruled by Nizamof Hyderabad. Hyder Ali ruled
over Mysore. Tanjore and Travancore were under the Hindu rulers.
British and
Marathas
First Anglo Maratha war
(1775 –1782): Narayan Rao became the fifth Peshwa of the Marathas. Narayan Rao
killed by his uncle Raghunath Rao, who declared himself as the Peshwa. The
Maratha chieftains under the leadership of Nana Phadnis opposed him. Raghunath
Rao sought help from the English. The English agreed to help him and concluded
with him the Treaty of Surat on March 7, 1775. According to the treaty the
English were to provide 2,500 men and Raghunath was to cede Salsette and
Bassein to the English with part of the revenues from Broach and Surat
districts.
Maratha army and chiefs
proclaimed Madhav Rao Narayan as the Peshwa and on January 9 1779, the British
troops met a large Maratha army at Talegon and were defeated. This shattered
the prestige of the British so low that they had to enter into a humiliating
Treaty of Wadgaon. British had to surrender all the territories acquired by the
Company since 1773.
Warren Hastings, the
Governor-General, sent a strong force under Colonel Goddard who took possession
of Ahmedabad on February 15 and captured Bassein on December 11, 1780. Warren
Hastings sent another force against MahadajiSindhia. Captain Popham captured
Gwalior on August 3 1780 and on February 16, 1781, General Camac defeated
Sindhia at Sipri. These victories increased the prestige of the English, who
gained Sindhia as an ally to conclude the the Treaty of Salbai on 17 May 1782.
As per this treaty Company recognisedMadhav Rao Narayan as the Peshwa and
returned to the Sindhia all his territories west of Yamuna. The treaty of
Salbai assured mutual restitution of each other's territories and guaranteed
peace for twenty years.
Second Mysore war
In 1780 when the
English wanted to attack the French at Mahe, situated on the west coast of
Mysore, Hyder Ali did not permit it. Therefore the English declared war against
Hyder Ali. Hyder Ali arranged a joint front with the Nizam and the Marathas. In
July 1780, Hyder Ali with 80,000 men and 100 guns attacked Carnatic. In October
1780 he captured Arcot, defeating an English army under Colonel Braille.
Meanwhile British managed to break the alliance between the Raja of Berar,
MahadjiSindhia, Nizam and Hyder Ali.
Hyder Ali continued the
war with the British. But in November 1781, Sir Eyre Coote defeated Hyder Ali
at Porto Nova. In January 1782, English captured Trincomali. In 1782, Hyder Ali
inflicted a humiliating defeat on the British troops under Colonel Braithwaite.
On December 7, 1782, Hyder Ali died. His son Tipu Sultan bravely fought against
Britishers. Tipu captured brigadier Mathews, in 1783. Then in November 1783,
Colonel Fullarton captured Coimbatore. Tired of the war, the two sides
concluded the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784. According to the treaty, both the parties
decided to restore each other's conquered territories and free all the
prisoners.
Pitt's India Act - 1784
- British Parliament under Pitt’s India Bill of 1784 appointed a Board of
Control. It provided for a joint government of the Company (represented by the
Directors), and the Crown (represented by the Board of Control). In 1786,
trough a supplementary bill, Lord Cornwallis was appointed as the first
Governor-General, and he became the effective ruler of British India under the
authority of the Board of Control and the Court of Directors.
Third Mysore War - The
immediate cause of the war was Tipu's attack on Travancore on December 29, 1789
over aq dispute over Cochin. The Raja of Travancore was entitled to the
protection of the English. Thus taking advantage of the situation, the English,
making a triple alliance with the Nizams and the Marathas, attacked Tipu
Sultan.
The war between Tipu
and the alliance lasted for nearly two years. British under Major-General
Medows, could not win against Tipu. On January 29, 1791, Cornwallis himself
took over the command of the British troops. He captured Bangalore in 1791 and
approached Seringapatnam, Tipu's capital. Tipu displayed great skill in
defending and his tactics forced Cornwallis to retreat. Tipu captured Coimbatore on November 3. Lord
Cornwallis soon returned and occupied all the forts in his path to
Seringapatnam. On February 5, 1792 Cornwallis arrived at Serinapatnam. Tipu had
to sue for peace and the Treaty of Seringapatnam concluded in March 1792. The
treaty resulted in the surrender of nearly half of the Mysorean territory to
the victorious allies. Tipu also had to pay a huge war indemnity of and his two
sons were taken as hostages.
Fourth Mysore war -
Lord Wellesley became the governor general of India in 1798. Tipu Sultan tried to secure an alliance with
the French against the English in India. Wellesley questioned Tipu’s
relationship with the French and attacked Mysore in 1799. The fourth
Anglo-Mysore War was of short duration and decisive and ended with Tipu’s death
on May 4, 1799 who was killed fighting
to save his capital.
Second Anglo-Maratha
war, 1803:
After death of Nana
Phadnavis in 1800, there was infighting between Holkar and Sindhia chiefs. The
new PeshwaBaji Rao murdered VithujiHolkar, brother of Jaswant Rao Holkar in
April 1801. Holkar defeated the combined armies of Sindhias and the Peshwas at
Poona and captured the city. The new PeshwaBaji Rao II, was weak and sought the protection of British
through treaty of Bassein in 1802. Baji Rao II was restored to Peshwarship
under the protection of the East India Company. However, the treaty was not
acceptable to both the Marathas chieftains - the Shindia and Bhosales. This
directly resulted in the Second Anglo-Maratha war in 1803.
Sindhia and Bhosale
tried to win over Holkar but he did not join them and retired to Malwa and
Gaekwad chose to remain neutral. Even at this point of time, the Marathas
chiefs were not able to unify themselves and thus the challenge to the
authority of the Company brought disasters for both the Sindhias and Bhosales.
The war began in August 1803. British under General Wellesley (brother of Lord Wellesley) defeated Bhosales
at Argain on November 29 and the British captured the strong fortress of
Gawilgrah on December 15, 1803. In the north, General Lake captured Delhi and
Agra. The army of Sindhia was completely destroyed at the battle of Delhi in
September and at Laswari in Alwar State in November. The British further won in
Gujarat, Budelkhand and Orissa.
By the Treaty of
Deogaon signed on December 17, 1803, the Bhosale surrendered to the Company the
province of Cuttack and the entire region in the west of the rivers Wards.
Similarly, the Sindhia
signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjanaon on December 30, 1803 and ceded to the
Company all their territories between the Ganga and the Yamuna. British forces
were stationed in the territories of the Sindhia and Bhosale. With these
victories Britishers became the dominant power in India.
In 1804 Holkar army
successfully defeated British army in Kota and forced them out from Agra.
British somehow managed to defend Delhi. However in November 1804 British army
managed to defeat a contingent of Holkar army but Holkar again defeated British
in Bharatpur in 1805. Ultimately Treaty of Rajpurghat" was signed on
December 25, 1805 between Holkar and British.
Third Marataha War
(1817-1818): Marathas were ultimately
defeated and Maratha power destroyed by British in several wars during 1817-
1818. Holkar's forces were routed at Mahidpur December 21, 1817 and Baji Rao
II, who was trying to consolidate Marathas, finally surrendered in June 1818.
British abolished the position of Peshwa and Marathas were limited to the small
kingdom of Satara. Thus ended the mighty Maratha power.
Between 1814 to 1826
British had to fight many wars against Gurkhas in the North and Burmese in the
North East. After several losses and some gains British signed peace treaties
with Gurkhas of Nepal and Burmese. During the period of 1817-1818 British had
to fight against non-traditional armies of Pindaris, who used to plunder
British territory. British finally managed to crush Pindaris.
During this period in
the North West region of Punjab the Sikh power was growing and Maharaja Ranjit
Singh (1780-1839) of Punjab became very powerful. British already had their
hands full with problems in different part of India. They were afraid of Ranjit
Singh’s power. So in 1838 they made a peace treaty with Ranjit Singh. During
the same year there was a big famine in north-west India that killed nearly a
million people. But after Ranjit Singh’s death there was infighting amongst
Sikhs. British tried to take advantage of this and First Anglo - Sikh war
started in 1845. Battle of Mudki and Ferozshah (1845) saw heavy fighting
between British and Sikhs. Sikhs were defeated due to the treachery of their
generals. The final battle of Sobraon on February 10, 1846 proved decisive
where Sikhs again lost due to the betrayal of their generals. The British were
able to capture most of India after defeating Sikhs in 1849 in Second Anglo -
Sikh War.
The year 1853 stands
out to be a landmark year in modern Indian history as the first Railway opened
from Bombay to Thane and first Telegraph line from Calcutta to Agra was
started. This was one of the first major positive contributions that British
made in India. Although the initial purpose of these was to improve the
mobility and communication of the British troops but much later they became
very useful for common people.
Before 1857 there was
nothing much about East India Company except some laws and the take over of the
Indian lands. Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757, and Bengal lost. Then in
1764 company won the Battle of Buxar, Bihar. Orissa also got lost. Company got
Gangetic plains under them. They then moved towards south to Bombay and
Chennai. Anglo-Mysore wars, Anglo-Maratha war both were lost in 1799 and 1818
respectively, giving control to the company of the southern India. They then
took over the lands of Punjab, Delhi, Sindh, Kashmir, North West Frontier
Province. They took all the major cities of India under their control and most
of India by 1857 and then handed over to the Queen of England to rule over. So
the role of the East India Company was to gain control over the India's land
and pass over the control.
In 1773, Company made
Kolkata, then Calcutta its capital. Opium trading was the major trade of the
Company. New Revenue laws, zamidari system was introduced. They created courts,
canal, railways, post offices and telegraph offices. Their major contribution
was the English education schools. Economy was quite good till then. After the
rule hand over condition got bad to worse.
History
of Indian writing in English
English language public
instruction began in India in the 1830s during the rule of the East India
Company (India was then, and is today, one of the most linguistically diverse
regions of the world. In 1835, English replaced Persian as the official
language of the Company. Lord Macaulay played a major role in introducing
English and western concepts to education in India. He supported the
replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English
as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of
English-speaking Indians as teachers. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, primary-,
middle-, and high-schools were opened in many districts of British India, with
most high schools offering English language instruction in some subjects. In
1857, just before the end of Company rule, universities modelled on the University
of London and using English as the medium of instruction were established in
Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. During subsequent Crown Rule in India, or the
British Raj, lasting from 1858 to 1947, English language penetration increased
throughout India. This was driven in part by the gradually increasing hiring of
Indians in the civil services. At the time of India's independence in 1947,
English was the only functional lingua franca in the country.
After Indian
Independence in 1947, Hindi was declared the first official language, and
attempts were made to declare Hindi the sole national language of India. Due to
protests from Tamil Nadu and other non-Hindi-speaking states, it was decided to
temporarily retain English for official purposes until at least 1965. By the
end of this period, however, opposition from non-Hindi states was still too
strong to have Hindi declared the sole language. With this in mind, the English
Language Amendment Bill declared English to be an associate language
"until such time as all non-Hindi States had agreed to its being
dropped." This hasn't yet occurred, and it is still widely used. For
instance, it is the only reliable means of day-to-day communication between the
central government and the non-Hindi states. The view of the English language
among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating
it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of
India. While there is an assumption that English is readily available in India,
available studies show that its usage is actually restricted to an elite,
because of inadequate education to large parts of the Indian population. The
use of outdated teaching methods and the poor grasp of English exhibited by the
authors of many guidebooks, disadvantage students who rely on these books.
Indian English
Literature has a relatively recent history, being only one and a half centuries
old. The first book written by an Indian in English was Travels of Dean
Mahomet, a travel narrative by Sake Dean Mahomet published in England in 1793.
In its early stages, IEL was influenced by the Western novel. Early Indian
writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience
which was essentially Indian. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) wrote
Rajmohan's Wife and published it in 1864; it is the first Indian novel written
in English. Raja Rao (1908–2006), Indian philosopher and writer, authored
Kanthapura and The Serpent and the Rope, which are Indian in terms of their
storytelling qualities. Kisari Mohan Ganguli translated the Mahabharata into
English, the only time the epic has ever been translated in its entirety into a
European language. Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) wrote in Bengali and English
and was responsible for the translations of his own work into English. Dhan
Gopal Mukerji (1890–1936) was the first Indian author to win a literary award
in the United States. Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897–1999), a writer of non-fiction,
is best known for his The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951), in which
he relates his life experiences and influences. P. Lal (1929–2010), a poet,
translator, publisher and essayist, founded a press in the 1950s for Indian
English writing, Writers Workshop. Ram NathKak (1917–1993), a Kashmiri
veterinarian, wrote his autobiography Autumn Leaves, which is one of the most
vivid portraits of life in 20th century Kashmir and has become a sort of a
classic.
Among the later
writers, the most notable is Salman Rushdie, born in India, now living in the
USA. Rushdie with his famous work Midnight's Children (Booker Prize 1981,
Booker of Bookers 1992, and Best of the Bookers 2008) ushered in a new trend of
writing. He used a hybrid language – English generously peppered with Indian
terms – to convey a theme that could be seen as representing the vast canvas of
India. He is usually categorised under the magic realism mode of writing most
famously associated with Gabriel GarcíaMárquez. Nayantara Sehgal was one of the
first female Indian writers in English to receive wide recognition. Her fiction
deals with India's elite responding to the crises engendered by political
change. She was awarded the 1986 SahityaAkademi Award for English, for her
novel, Rich Like Us (1985), by the SahityaAkademi, India's National Academy of
Letters. Anita Desai, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times,
received a SahityaAkademi Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain and
a British Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea. Her daughter Kiran Desai
won the 2006 Man Booker Prize for her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss.
Ruskin Bond received SahityaAkademy Award for his collection of short stories
Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra in 1992. He is also the author of a historical
novel A Flight of Pigeons, which is based on an episode during the Indian
Rebellion of 1857.
Salman Rushdie
Vikram Seth, author of
The Golden Gate (1986) and A Suitable Boy (1994) is a writer who uses a purer
English and more realistic themes. Being a self-confessed fan of Jane Austen,
his attention is on the story, its details and its twists and turns.Vikram Seth
is notable both as an accomplished novelist and poet. Vikram Seth's outstanding
achievement as a versatile and prolific poet remains largely and unfairly
neglected.
Another writer who has
contributed immensely to the India English Literature is Amitav Ghosh who is
the author of The Circle of Reason (his 1986 debut novel), The Shadow Lines
(1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), The Glass Palace (2000), The Hungry
Tide (2004), and Sea of Poppies (2008), the first volume of The Ibis trilogy,
set in the 1830s, just before the Opium War, which encapsulates the colonial
history of the East. Ghosh's latest work of fiction is River of Smoke (2011),
the second volume of The Ibis trilogy.
Rohinton Mistry is an
India born Canadian author who is a Neustadt International Prize for Literature
laureate (2012). His first book Tales from FirozshaBaag (1987) published by
Penguin Books Canada is a collection of 11 short stories. His novels Such a
Long Journey (1991) and A Fine Balance (1995)earned him great acclaim.
Shashi Tharoor, in his
The Great Indian Novel (1989), follows a story-telling (though in a satirical)
mode as in the Mahabharata drawing his ideas by going back and forth in time.
His work as UN official living outside India has given him a vantage point that
helps construct an objective Indianness. Vikram Chandra is another author who
shuffles between India and the United States and has received critical acclaim
for his first novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995) and collection of short
stories Love and Longing in Bombay (1997). His namesake Vikram A. Chandra is a
renowned journalist and the author of The Srinagar Conspiracy (2000). Suketu
Mehta is another writer currently based in the United States who authored
Maximum City (2004), an autobiographical account of his experiences in the city
of Mumbai. In 2008, Arvind Adiga received the Man Booker Prize for his debut
novel The White Tiger.
Recent writers in India
such as Arundhati Roy and David Davidar show a direction towards contextuality
and rootedness in their works. Arundhati Roy, a trained architect and the 1997
Booker prize winner for her The God of Small Things, calls herself a "home
grown" writer. Her award winning book is set in the immensely physical
landscape of Kerala. Davidar sets his The House of Blue Mangoes in Southern
Tamil Nadu. In both the books, geography and politics are integral to the
narrative. In his novel Lament of Mohini (2000), Shreekumar Varma touches upon
the unique matriarchal system and the sammandham system of marriage as he
writes about the Namboodiris and the aristocrats of Kerala. Similarly, Arnab
Jan Deka, a trained engineer and jurist, writes about both physical and
ethereal existentialism on the banks of the mighty river Brahmaputra, and his
co-authored book of poetry with British poet-novelist Tess Joyce appropriately
titled A Stanza of Sunlight on the Banks of Brahmaputra(1983) published from
both India and Britain(2009) which is set under this backdrop evokes the spirit
of flowing nature of life. His most recent book Brahmaputra and Beyond :
Linking Assam to the World(2015) made a conscious effort to connect to a world
divided by racial, geographic, linguistic, cultural and political prejudices.
His highly acclaimed short story collection The Mexican Sweetheart & other
stories(2002) was another landmark book of this genre. JahnaviBarua, a
Bangalore based author from Assam has set her critically acclaimed collection
of short stories Next Door on the social scenario in Assam with insurgency as
the background.
The stories and novels
of RatanLalBasu reflect the conditions of tribal people and hill people of West
Bengal and the adjacent states of Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal. Many of his short
stories reflect the political turmoil of West Bengal since the Naxalite
movement of the 1970s. Many of his stories like ‘Blue Are the Far Off
Mountains’, ‘The First Rain’ and ‘the Magic Marble’ glorify purity of love. His
novel ‘Oraon and the Divine Tree’ is the story of a tribal and his love for an
age old tree. In Hemingway style language the author takes the reader into the
dreamland of nature and people who are inexorably associated with nature.
R. K. Narayan
(1906–2001) contributed over many decades and continued to write till his
death. He was discovered by Graham Greene in the sense that the latter helped
him find a publisher in England. Greene and Narayan remained close friends till
the end. Similar to the way Thomas Hardy used Wessex, Narayan created the
fictitious town of Malgudi where he set his novels. Some criticise Narayan for
the parochial, detached and closed world that he created in the face of the
changing conditions in India at the times in which the stories are set. Others,
such as Greene, however, feel that through Malgudi they could vividly
understand the Indian experience. Narayan's evocation of small town life and
its experiences through the eyes of the endearing child protagonist Swaminathan
in Swami and Friends is a good sample of his writing style. Simultaneous with Narayan's
pastoral idylls, a very different writer, Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004), was
similarly gaining recognition for his writing set in rural India, but his
stories were harsher, and engaged, sometimes brutally, with divisions of caste,
class and religion. According to writer Lakshmi Holmström, "The writers of
the 1930s were fortunate because after many years of use, English had become an
Indian language used widely and at different levels of society, and therefore
they could experiment more boldly and from a more secure position." Kamala
Markandeya is an early writer in IEL who has often grouped with the trinity of
R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. The contributions of Manoj Das and
Manohar Malgoankar to growth of IEL largely remains unacknowledged.
Nativisation
of English
By nativizing the
English language, Indian English novelists have created their own language to
affirm their own distinct identity. The term nativization of a language can be
defined as re-defining the language in one's own linguistic and cultural
framework. It is a process of accumulation of new words and meanings to suit
the social and cultural requirements. It is a known fact that language change
over time and place. English used in environments different from its origin,
would adjust and change to suit its new environment. The growth of English in
India in all possible genres acknowledges the fact that it has changed and
adjusted to suit its Indian environment. Nativization expanded the language,
moulded and refashioned it so much so that after all this time it has its own
identity and place in the linguistic world. It's very interesting to note that
this new variety of English that has passed through the phases of imitation,
adaptation and innovation is not only confined to and being used by Indians, it
has also entered the lexicon of the so-called native speakers. Indians
contributed to the evolution and expansion of this malleable and user-friendly
language. The transplantation of English in the fertile soil of India yielded fruits
of fresh flavor and taste. The Indian rich soil lent to the language what it
had in it as a result of witnessing passage of an ancient civilization and its
exploits since the pre-historic times. English mingled with other Indian
languages and resulted in a new and distinct variety.
Nativisation of English
in India has remained to be a much discussed topic even after, several years of
independence. Many critics and writers have expressed their views on the
nativisation process in India which has resulted into a new variety of
English—distinct in form and content. It has certainly helped in asserting
Indian identity in world literature. English language has been redefined by the
Indian English writers and used in typical Indian socio-cultural context. The
term nativisation has been described variously as acculturization (Stanlaw
1982) Indigenization (Richards 1982) or hybridization of a language in a non
native socio cultural context. The term is used to describe the divergence of
varieties of language from a parent source (Kachru 1982). In the context of
English, the term nativisation refers to the changes which English has
undergone as a result of its contact with languages in diverse cultural and
geographical setting in the peripheral circle of English. The process of
nativisation in English is responsible for deviations in the new varieties of
English raising various types of linguistic and sociolinguistic issues.
Nativization can be defined as a process whereby a language gains native
speakers' This happens necessarily where a second language used by adult
parents becomes the native language of their children. Nativisation has been of
particular interest to linguists. The process of nativisation is due to the
transfer from local language as well as to the new cultural environment and
communicative needs (Saghal 1991: 300). Because of deep social penetration and
the extended range of functions of English in diverse sociolinguistic contexts
there are several varieties, localized registers and genres for articulating
local social, cultural and religious identities (Kachru 1997:69). Also, factors
such as the absence of a native group, inadequate teaching and acquisitional
limitations (e.g. lack of exposure and facilities, learning under compulsion)
contribute to the process of nativisation. (Saghal 1991:300). Scholars (such as
Kachru, Halverson, Verma, Mehrotra and Sridhar) have all concluded that the
Indian varieties of English are being nativised by acquiring new identities in
new socio-cultural contexts. They have emerged as autonomous local varieties
with their own set of rules that make it impossible to treat them simply as
mistakes of deficient Englishes (Kandiah 1991: 275). Indian English (IE) has
developed to a more distinctive level than in other countries where English is
used as a second language (Crystal 1988: 258). English in India has evolved
characteristic features at the phonological, lexical, syntactic and even at
discourse level. Initially, these innovations were rejected by purists, but
they are becoming increasingly accepted: English is not anymore treated as a
foreign language; it is part of the cultural identity of India.
Introduction
of English studies in India (Macaulay’s Speech)
Western education was
spreading fast in different parts of Indian and was doing much better than the
institutions imparting oriental education. The Orientalists and the Anglicists
continued to wrangle but it was quite evident that the former were steadily
losing ground, till finally, Macaulay's celebrated Minute settled the issue. He
declared that it was both necessary and possible "to make the natives of
his country good English scholars". On 7th March, 1885, Lord William
Bentinck resolved, "the great object of the British Government ought to be
the promotion of European Literature and science among the natives of
India".
Macaulay's Minutes
By the turn of the
century, the imperialists believed in giving English education to the Indians.
There was a pressing need for Indian clerks, translators and lower officials in
administration and knowledge of English was essential for these jobs. Before
the close of the eighteenth century, missionaries came to Indian for spreading
the "word of Christ" among the native Indians. A large number of
missionary schools imparting English education were set up by the early 1800's.
The Orientalists opposed the project of importing English education in India.
Lord Macaulay who is
called the Father of English education, asserted in the House of Commons a year
before he sailed to India; "To trade with civilized men is infinitely more
profitable than to govern savages". The civilized subject of Macaulay's
imagination was not the slave who performed his salaams to the British officer,
but "the English educated gentleman using English tapestry and English
cutlery, the man who valued English manufactures and spoke the English
language". In 1835, as a law officer to the Supreme Council, he drafted a
document which came to be known as "Macaulay's Minute on Education".
The process of producing English-knowing bilinguals in India began with the
Minute of 1835, which officially endorsed T.B. Macaulay's goal of forming
"a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we
govern—a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste,
in opinion, in morals and in intellect".
According to Kachru,
the far reaching Minute was highly controversial because of disagreement about
whether it was correct to impose an alien language on Indians or not. The
Orientalists expressed their disagreement in a note dated 15 February 1835, but
they could not stop it from passing and had to give way. On 7 March 1835, the
Minute received a Seal of Approval from Lord William Bentinck, and an official
resolution on Macaulay's Minute was passed. This resolution "formed the
cornerstone of the implementation of a language policy" in India.
Writers of Indian
Diaspora are at the centre stage since last decade because of their capturing
works. Indian Diaspora occupies second largest place in the world. The
population of Diaspora is approximately 25 million, who settled whole notable
regions of the world. Indian immigrants in the overseas are for various reasons
like free trade, better standards of life and earning. Diasporic or immigrant
writing occupies a great place of significance between cultures and countries.
Writings Diaspora benefits many ways and a powerful web connects the entire
globe. The foremost characteristic features of diaspora writings involve the
quest for identity, nostalgia, familial and marital relationships apart from
re-rooting, uprooting, multi-cultural milieu etc. Bharati Mukherjee is an Indo
American writer and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She
wrote numerous works that cover both fiction and non-fiction. Mukherjee has
gone to the extent of contemplating herself as an American writer and not a
migrant writer. Her works include novels, short story collections, and one
memoir non-fiction. She has won National Book Critics Circle Award in 1988 for
‘The Middle and other stories’. Her other works are ‘Jasmine and Wife’. The
Middle Man and other stories present the theme of immigration while Jasmine is
the story of woman who is reluctant to accept the outdated traditional society.
The collection of stories Darkness (1985) focusses the immigrant experience in
the USA. In the novel Dimple Das Gupta who dreams to marry a neuro surgeon, had
to marry according to the wish of her father and she couldn’t adapt herself to
the real life situations. Shauna Singh Baldwin is the Indo-Canadian Diasporic
writer. She is the author of two short story collections ‘we are not in
Pakistan’ and ‘English Lessons and other stories’. Her stories in the short
story collections have been published in various literary magazines. The
setting of the novel What the Body reminds the partition theme and revolves
mainly around three characters Roop, second wife of Sardarji, infertile first
wife and Sardarji whoalways struggle for his identity. This book bagged
Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best book from the region of Caribbean and
also long listed for the Orange Prize in fiction. JhumpaLahiri was born to
Indian parents from London, who settled in the USA after her birth. Lahiri’s
debut collection of short stories ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ (1999) brought
laurels to her by clenching Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In her first novel ‘The
Namesake’ and her short story collections, she is successful in presenting
discontentment at the core in the families she portrays. Her ‘Low Land’ is the
story of blood relationship that was brutally spoiled by politics, which got
shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. AnjanaAppachana is a novelist of Indian
origin who lives in the United States. She has written a book of short stories
titled ‘Incantations’ and a novel titled Listening Now is a novelist of Indian
origin who lives in the United States. Her debut work ‘Incantations and Other
Stories’ was first published in England, in United States and was translated
into German language. AnjanaAppachana is the recipient of O.Henry Festival
Prize and National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowship. Her
first novel ‘Listening Now’ based on the themes of female bonding, female
sexuality and mother-child relations relationships spans three generations in a
narrative that is not sequential, elliptical. The novel is written in English,
but we find nativity in the rhythms of the language and the metaphors Anita
Nair is an English Language writer of India. Nair, who hailed from a small
village of Kerala was educated in Chennai. Her ‘Satyr of the Subway’, a
collection of short stories won her a fellowship from Virginia. Nair’s novels
The Better Man and Ladies Coupe were translated into 21 collections. Her
‘Ladies coupe’ is about a middle aged Indian unmarried woman on her journey of
selfdiscovery. The theme of the story is based on a one way train journey which
transforms the life and changes the protagonist into a new woman. Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni is poet, essayist, author, fiction and short story writer,
book reviewer. She is an Indo American poet. Her short story collection
Arranged Marriage and other Stories brought her the credit of winning the
American Book Award in 1995. Her works are largely set in the United States as
well as in India. Her focus sometimes is on the experiences of South Asian
migrants. ManjulaPadmanabhan is a playwright, journalist, comic strip artist,
an artist, illustrator and cartoonist. She was born in India and grew up in
Sweden, Pakistan and Trinidad. Her play Harvest was selected for the Onassis
Prize in 1997 out of 1470 and bagged the prize. Marginalization and separation
are the themes of her writings. Her semi-autobiographical work ‘Getting There’
depicts the plight of young woman illustrator in Bombay. Anita Rao Badami is a
writer of South Asia who settled in Canada. Her novels handle with intricacies
of Indian family life, cultural gap that is encountered by the immigrants who
settle in the west. The Hero’s Walk was placed on the top five finalists for
CBC Canada Reads Competition. The book, ‘The Hero’s Walk’ describes the
problems in the family life and at last how peace evolved in the family.
V.S.Naipaul a Nobel Laureate belongs to Trinidad born in a Hindu Brahmin
family. Writer of Indian descent, popular for pessimistic themes. In the novel
‘Area of Darkness’ he focusses on the post-Independence problems like poverty,
caste system, neglected areas ofsanitation and segregation by society. In ‘A
House for Mr Biswas’, Naipaul presents the sorry state of protagonist having
house on his own. ‘The Mimic Men’ criticises the newly liberated countries and
individual’s sense of identity. Kamala Markandeya born in Mysore belongs to a
Hindu family. She is not only a writer but journalist and activist too. Her
marriage to English man, made her settle in London. During intervals, she used
to make visits to India. Her ten novels are ‘A Silence of Desire’, ‘The Nowhere
Man’, ‘The Coffer Dams’, ‘A Handful of Rice’, ‘Possession’, ‘Two Virgins’, ‘The
Pleasure city/Shalimar in the American Edition’ and ‘The Golden Honey Comb’.
Her novel ‘Nectar in a Sieve’ is translated into more than dozen languages with
the theme, the pathetic plight of a poor peasant. Markandeya is ahead of twenty
years in predicting the diasporic experiences in her work ‘The Nowhere Man’.
Anita Desai is an Indian writer and professor of Humanities at Massachusetts.
Her name was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. Desai’s novel, ‘Fire
on the Mountain’ won Sahitya Academy Award in the year 1978. Her works mainly
focus on family in particular, matters about women. Clear light of the day
presents the importance of family life. In the work Custody, she describes the
problem of alienation of college teacher from his deep rooted culture. Anita is
expert in handling literary technique, the stream of consciousness in the novel
Cry the peacock. In another novel ‘Bye Bye Black Bird’, she deals with the
problem of adaptability; the theme of the story revolves around the three
characters Adit, Dev. and Sarah. Salman Rushdie was born in India and studied
at Cambridge in England. He is popularly known for his controversial works. His
‘Satanic Verses’ was published amid controversy and violence. It has been
banned in various countries. Death sentence was proclaimed against him by the
then President of Pakistan. His themes are innovative and about migration and
spiritual alienation. MeeraSayal was born and brought up in an immigrant
Punjabi family in England. MeeraSayal MBE is a British Indian comedian, writer,
playwright, singer, journalist and actress. Her Punjabi-born parents came to
Britain from New Delhi and she has risen to prominence as one of the most UK's
best-known Indian personalities. She was awarded the MBE in the New Year's
Honours List of 1997. In ‘The House of Hidden Mothers’, MeeraSayal, as an
accomplished novelist, takes on the timely but under explored issue of India's
booming surrogacy industry. Western couple pays a young woman to have their
child and then fly home with a baby, an easy narrative that ignores the complex
emotions involved in carrying a child. Shyama, a forty-eight-year-old London
divorcée, already has an unruly teenage daughter, but that doesn't stop her and
her younger lover, Toby, from begetting a child together. Their relationship
may look like a cliché. But despite the news from her doctor that she no longer
has any viable eggs, Shyama's unfair pair is not ready to give up their dream
of having a baby. So they decide to find an Indian surrogate to carry their
child, which is how they meet Mala, a young woman trapped in an oppressive
marriage in a small Indian town from which she's desperate to escape. But as
the pregnancy progresses, they discover that their simple arrangement may be
far more complicated than it seemed.
Meena Alexander is an internationally
acclaimed poet, writer and scholar. Born in Allahabad, India and brought up in
India and Sudan. At present she lives in New York City. She is the author of
numerous collections of poetry, essays, and works of fiction, literary memoirs
and literary criticism. Her novel ‘Nampally Road’ published in the year 1999 is
haunting and lyrical. The novel Nampally Road brightly portrays contemporary
India a woman’s struggle to cut together her past. In the middle of the novel
she becomes the victim of the gang rape by the police. The people in that place
rise up and burn the police station. The incidents in the novel resemble the
recent tragic events in Delhi. Amit Chaudari belongs to a new group of writers
whose roots trace back to the post emergency period in India. Setting in his
works is in India and in England. His themes are not revolutionary and
turbulent but deals with city life servants, Indian culture and family life.
Themes are close to diasporic experiences. His major works are ‘A Strange and sublime
Address’ (1991), ‘Afternoon Raag’ (1993) ‘Freedom Song’ (1998), ‘A New World
and Real Time’ (2002) Vikram Seth became world famous through his novel ‘A
Suitable Boy’. Setting of the novel is in a late post-independent India. The
theme of the story is social and financial issues; a Hindu Mother who searches
a suitable son in law for her daughter. It highlights the issues like land
rights, inter religious marriages and identity crisis in sections. This novel
is frequently compared to Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ by critics and
reviewers. Kiran Desai is an Indian author. Her novel ‘The Inheritance of Loss’
won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction
Award, is one of the most highly praised Indian writers of second generation.
She grew up in India, the U.K. and the U.S.A. where she has settled down. Her
debut novel, ‘Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard’ published has praised so much
for its subtle portrayal of India. ‘The Inheritance of loss’ eclipsed the first
novel. This book won the Man Booker Prize in the year 2006 and received The
National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in the year 2007. Themes include
post-colonialism and globalization as they relate to a modern India. It is
considered a master piece of Indian literature in 21st century. This
extraordinary novel, long listed for the Man Booker prize and produces a
strange effect. It is a lengthy novel that stretches from India to New York; an
ambitious novel that reaches into the lives of the middle class and the very poor;
an exuberantly written novel that blends colloquial and more literary styles;
and yet it communicates nothing so much as how impossible it is to live a big,
ambitious, exuberant life. Everything about it dramatizes the fact that
although we live in this mixed-up, messy, globalised world, for many people the
dominant response is fear of change, based on a deep desire for security.
Sunetra Gupta Bengali born settled in London, who spent her childhood in
Ethiopia, Zambia and Liberia. Her debut novel ‘Memories of Rain’ published in
1992 won her Sahitya Academy Award in 1996. Her works mainly present stream of
consciousness style entering on the interior monologues of the characters. Her
writings reflect cultures, histories and human understanding and considerations.
Her fiction moves the central preoccupation of diasporic writings from the
crisis of uniqueness to the mapping of a process of experience and feeling.
In ‘Memories of Rain’,
plot from beginning to the end is concentrated within the span of a single day.
On that day, Moni, an Indian woman who had come to England after having married
the English Anthony, decides to leave her untrustworthy husband and returns to
India with her daughter. The association between Moni and Anthony presents
regular paraphernalia of cross-cultural differences and racism, with the
responsibility of ‘originality’ reversed and applied implicitly to cold
England. However, writing is not something that we encounter everyday: almost
no period as the prose seems to mimic the rain, sometimes it’s a downpour like
when Anthony and Moni meet and fall in love. Sometimes, it is light like when
Moni is feeding the doves in England and putting water in the bird bath and she
remembers her grandmother’s words.
CONCLUSION
The list of Diaspora
writers is very lengthy and elaborative. The roots of Diaspora spreading from
time to time had been representing their home land culture and their nostalgia
through their works. The readers of such literature sporadically experience
different and relatively unpalatable trends of life in alien lands. At times,
they even identify themselves with protagonists and other influential
characters in the works. The fundamental element and innate soul in ordinary
Indian families under no circumstances are eclipsed by almost all writers. The
indissoluble attachment to one’s ground and roots is the common under current
in all works
Unit
II: PROSE
"The World Community" -
Dr.S.Radhakrishnan
Introduction:
“The World Community” by Dr.S.Radhakrishnan is a plea to the
great powers of the world to unite under a single umbrella, namely, a world
federal government. To achieve this, he enumerates on the dangers posed by
nuclear weapons and wars. According to him, world peace is not a dream in a
shrinking world. It is a necessity, an essential condition for the survival of
the human race. For this, a world federal government is the way out; with
powers limited to establishing and maintaining law and order among the nations
of the world.
Wars – An Illegitimate Instrument of Politics:
In World War I, of the ten million people who were killed,
95 per cent were soldiers and five per cent were civilians. In World War II, of
the fifty million people who were killed, 52 per cent were soldiers and 48 per
cent were civilians. In the Korean War, of the nine million killed, 84 per cent
were civilians and 16 per cent soldiers. Thus, war has degenerated into mass
murder of the defenceless, women and children. It has become an illegitimate
instrument of politics.
Dangers Posed by Nuclear Weapons:
Nuclear developments have given enough power to the great
countries to annihilate the human race many times over. Politicians have become
indifferent to this growing danger. The apathy and indifference among the
masses have resulted in a creeping paralysis of the people. The building of
nuclear armaments means, the destruction of cities, the ruin of countries, the
suffering of millions of human beings and the demoralisation of the world.
There is no protection from nuclear weapons through shelters or emergency
regulations.
Alternatives for the Military Methods:
In a world, where peace is becoming more and more
precarious, the great powers have a special responsibility. William James in a
famous essay on “The Moral Equivalent of War” proposed a ‘substitute for war’s
disciplinary functions’. It is necessary that we devise alternatives for the
military methods. Issues which were hitherto decided through wars should
hereafter be decided by peaceful means. In political life, we cannot exclude
conflicts altogether.
These have to be settled by a world organisation, an
international authority. Kant, in his essay on “Perpetual Peace”, suggested a
group of states’. Observing minimal rights of civilised behaviour. He proposed
a notion of world citizenship without the support of an overall sovereignty.
World control by a single authority is an illusion. A federal solution is the
way out, a world community which substitutes the processes of law for armed
conflicts. Dharma, in Indian thought means a gathering in, a binding together,
integration; adharma, its opposite, is a scattering out, a falling away,
disintegration. Thus, a world federal government capable of establishing and
maintaining law and order among the nations of the world is a practical way of
achieving just and lasting peace.
Pre-requisites for a World Community:
For a world authority to be effective, a world understanding
is necessary. We should work for a world community, for, the alternatives are
chaos or world tyranny. The Hammurabi code of the Babylonians, and the Egyptian
Book of the Dead contain suggestions of the Ten Commandments of the Israelites.
One of them reads, “Thou shalt not oppress the stranger for ye were once
strangers in Egypt”. Alexander looked upon the whole inhabited world as his fatherland.
All good men are of this world; the wicked are the aliens. Ashoka, Harsha, and
Akbar represent this view of life. By continually dwelling on the selfishness
of others, we ourselves become more selfish. Not by accusing others do we get
out of our selfishness, but by purifying ourselves.
Jesus could not accept the primitive morality of an ‘eye for
an eye’. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Return good for evil. Bless
those that curse you’, he said. Professor Max Mueller, who did a great deal for
the interpretation of Indian religion to the Western world said that the aim of
human existence was a world community. The real force working for world unity
is man’s inborn compassion for others.
Unit
III: Poetry
THE TIGER AND THE DEER
SRI
AUROBINDO GHOSH
Brilliant, crouching, slouching,
what crept through the green heart of the forest,
Gleaming eyes and mighty chest and soft soundless paws of grandeur and murder?
The wind slipped through the leaves as if afraid lest its voice and the noise of its steps perturb the pitiless Splendour,
Hardly daring to breathe. But the great beast crouched and crept, and crept and crouched a last time, noiseless, fatal,
Till suddenly death leaped on the beautiful wild deer as it drank
Unsuspecting from the great pool in the forest's coolness and shadow,
And it fell and, torn, died remembering its mate left sole in the deep woodland, -
Destroyed, the mild harmless beauty by the strong cruel beauty in Nature.
But a day may yet come when the tiger crouches and leaps no more in the dangerous heart of the forest,
As the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia;
Still then shall the beautiful wild deer drink from the coolness of great pools in the leaves’ shadow.
The mighty perish in their might;
The slain survive the slayer.
Gleaming eyes and mighty chest and soft soundless paws of grandeur and murder?
The wind slipped through the leaves as if afraid lest its voice and the noise of its steps perturb the pitiless Splendour,
Hardly daring to breathe. But the great beast crouched and crept, and crept and crouched a last time, noiseless, fatal,
Till suddenly death leaped on the beautiful wild deer as it drank
Unsuspecting from the great pool in the forest's coolness and shadow,
And it fell and, torn, died remembering its mate left sole in the deep woodland, -
Destroyed, the mild harmless beauty by the strong cruel beauty in Nature.
But a day may yet come when the tiger crouches and leaps no more in the dangerous heart of the forest,
As the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia;
Still then shall the beautiful wild deer drink from the coolness of great pools in the leaves’ shadow.
The mighty perish in their might;
The slain survive the slayer.
SUMMER WOODS
SAROJINI
NAIDU
O I am tired of painted roofs and
soft and silken floors,
And long for wind-blown canopies of
crimson gulmohars!
O I am tired of strife and song and
festivals and fame,
And long to fly where cassia-woods
are breaking into flame.
Love, come with me where koels all
from flowering glade and glen,
Far from the toil and weariness, the
praise and prayers of men.
O let us fling all care away, and
lie alone and dream
‘Neath tangled boughs of tamarind
and molsari and neem!
And bind our brows with jasmine
sprays and play on carven flutes,
To wake the slumbering serpent-kings
among the banyan roots.
And roam at fall of eventide along
the river’s brink,
And bathe in water-lily pools where
golden panthers drink!
You and I together, Love, in the
deep blossoming woods
Engirt with love-voiced silences and
gleaming solitudes.
Companions of the lustrous dawn, gay
comrades of the night,
Like Krishna and like Radhika,
encompassed with delight.
IN INDIA
Nissim Ezekiel
I
Always, in the sun’s eye,
Here among the beggars,
Hawkers, pavement sleepers,
Hutment dwellers,slums,
Dead souls of men and gods,
Burnt-out mothers, frightened
Virgins, wasted child
And tortured animal,
All in noisy silence
Suffering the place and time,
I ride my elephant of thought,
A Cezanne slung around my neck.
II
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
The whitewashed Anglo- Indian boys
The musclebound Islamic boys
Were earnest in their prayers.
They copied , bullied, stole in
pairs
They bragged about their love
affairs
They carved the table broke the
chairs
But never missed their prayers.
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
Confessed their solitary joys
Confessed their games with high-
heeled toys
And hastened to the prayers.
The Anglo – Indian gentlemen
Drank whisky in some jewish den
With Muslims slowly creeping in
Before or after prayers.
To celebrate the year’s end:
men in grey or black,
women,bosom semi-bare,
twenty –three of us in all,
six nations represented.
The wives of India sit apart.
They do not drink,
They do not talk,
of course, they do not kiss.
The men are quite at home
among the foreign styles
(what fun the flirting is!)
I myself,decorously,
press a thigh or two in sly
innocence.
The party is a great success.
Then someone says:we can’t
enjoy it, somehow, don’t you think?
The atmosphere corrupt,
and look at our wooden wives….
I take him out to get some air.
This, she said to herself
As
she sat at table
With the English boss,
Is IT. This is the promise:
The long evenings
In the large apartment
Crab
Arun Kolatkar
Look, look
Just look at them.
The crabs
There are two of them.
They’re keeping watch.
On whom, you ask?
On you of course,
who else?
See how they’re looking?
Looking at you,
naturally.
And you’ll never catch them blink
either.
One on this side.
One on the other.
At an angle of a hundred and sixty
degrees
to your left and to your right.
They’re going to eat your eyes.
That scare you?
It needn’t, you know.
It’s not as if they’re going to
start eating right away.
No. But one of these days.
Tomorrow? Who knows?
If not tomorrow, then the day after.
Or ten years from now, who can tell?
They’re in no hurry.
They have plenty of time.
And they can live without food
for a long time, you know.
Look this way,
quick.
Don’t turn your head.
Just move your eyeballs.
Do you see a crab there?
Not the whole crab, may be,
not yet,
but you did see something move?
Now look the other way.
No, no. Not the whole head.
Just move your eyeballs
like I said.
All you can see for now
Is just the pincers may be,
But you’ll see,
You’ll see the whole crab yet.
And you’ll see it clearly.
They’re only doing their job of
course,
but patience
is one thing you should learn from
them.
The crabs belong to you,
and to you alone.
They
have no interest in eating
somebody else’s eyes.
They came out of your head.
Where else did you think they came
from?
But how they’ve grown.
Look at them now,
Big fat crabs.
They’ve been playing a waiting game
ever since they emerged
from your head.
They’ll come for your eyes
any time you say.
Sometimes I think they’re just
waiting
for your permission.
All you have to do is give the word.
And once they’ve eaten your eyes,
their job is done.
You’ll never see them again.
EVENING WHEAT
VIKRAM
SETH
Evening is the best time for wheat.
Toads croak.
Children ride buffaloes home for
supper.
The last loads are shoulder- borne.
Squares light up
And the wheat sags with a late gold.
There on the other side of the
raised path
Is the untransplanted emerald rice.
But it is the wheat I watch, the
still dark gold
With maybe a pig that has strayed
from the brigade
Enjoying a few soft ears.
FIREFLIES
MANOHARSHETTY
Outside they were flashing
streamers.
But straying indoors like wavering
lanterns
Into widening shadows thrown by
excited
Nets of caps and blazers, we caged
them
In grass- crammed bottles, the tops
Punctured for air, and watched them
Stare like luminous dials..
I had imagined burning crystals
Or tips of emerald embers,
But found a softer substance-
Soon dimming- the insects, worried
By coarse hands, the walls of glass
Baffling their tiny wings,
Wilted to lifeless specks.
I had felt nothing then.
Only a small pang for the loss
Of a schoolboy’s ornament, But now,
Travelling my daily groove
In the hunt for food and habitat
I remember their trapped blank
lights.
UNIT IV: DRAMA
Dance
like a man
-
Mahesh Dattani
Critical Analysis of Mahesh
Dattani’s play 'Dance like a man'
INTRODUCTION :
Mahesh Dattani, an authentic
contemporary voice, a director, playwright, producer, was born on 7th August,
1958 in Bangalore where he later founded his theatre group 'Playpen’ in 1984
and where many of his settings are constructed; for example, Bravely Fought
the Queen is set in the „suburb of Bangalore and the Patels in Tara are
from Bangalore. He is an intellectually stimulating Sahitya Academy Winner .
Dattani‟s playscript casts its focus and locus entirely on the urban space,
specifically rooted in the dynamics of domestic space. Environmental
sustainability of the cities like Bangalore or Mumbai in his plays are the
symbolic tropes and modes of economic power that can be categorized as the
material element for discussing the issue of citizenship that “raise(s)
questions around notions of equality and rights, issues of individual, group
and community rights, active and passive citizenship and the relationship
between, and relative primacy of, rights and duties” (Mallick 131). There
is proper blending of Western intellectual consciousness and
Indian theatrical techniques in his
plays. He himself comments on the relevance of Indian theatre:
‘There is going to be a good
positive development because as we
get into the internet age which
isolates human beings, the act of
communication will be a premium.
Theatre is our cultural activity
directly related to human beings’
communication with each other’
(Qtd in Chaudhuri 23).
DANCE LIKE A MAN :
The play Dance
Like a Man, a stage play in two acts, is one of the most wonderful dramatic
creations of Mahesh Dattani. It tells the story
of three generations; their personal ambitions, sacrifices, struggle,
compromises, internal conflicts and the way they try to cope up with the life;
and mainly focuses on a dancing couple. The pathos of human predicament
is explored in the subtlest way. It embodies a brilliant study of human
relationships as well as human weaknesses through its characters. The play
depicts the clash between issues such as marriage, career and the place of a
woman in patriarchal social set up. It deals with the lives of the people who
feel exhausted and frustrated on account of the hostile surroundings and
unfavourable circumstances. The story is unfolded in time past and time
present. The play was first performed at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Bangalore on
22 September 1989 as a part of the Deccan Herald Theatre.
Dattani’s
plays presents the socio-political issues, domestic and individual problems. In
the play Dance like a man, dattani focuses on the conflict and clash between
three generations, their conflicts and individual struggle.
Conflict between the three
generations :
‘There is no original or primary
gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no
original.’
—Judith Butler
Dattani in this play,
puts a few unlikely questions about the sexual construct that a man is or the
very constituents of a man’s identity-in terms of sexuality, as the head of the
family and as an artist. The play deals with the self and the significance of
the other, through the frameworks of gender and gender roles-the prostitute as
a dancer and an artist; the man as a dancer; the guru who sports long hair and
has an effeminate walk are categories that the older generation, fed on its
perception of the self cannot come to terms with. Dattani uses Traditional
Dance as a medium that creates conflict in the play within the minds of the
other characters. As the play goes forward and the actions take place; Dance
takes the center stage and pushes the characters outside. Traditional Dance, in
the play, is not only a form or a tool that enables the writer to tell his
story but it creates its own psyche that guides or misguides the actors on the
stage.
Dance is a very significant factor
in this play that means different things to different characters. Jairaj and
Ratna wants to develop their career as dancers and for them Dance is not only a
form of art but also their life and soul. It is not only their passion but also
a tool that will help them to gain desired success. The stereotypes of
gender roles are set against the idea of the artist in search of creativity
within the restrictive structure of the world that he is forced to inhabit.
Jairaj with his obsession for dance dismantles these stereotypes. This is the
twist that the playwright gives to the stereotypes associated with ‘gender’
issues that view solely women at the receiving end of the oppressive power
structures of patriarchal society. The play removes this notion and explores
the nature of the tyranny that even men might be subject to within such
structures. Jairaj and Ratna live within such a structure: the domain of the
patriarch Amritlal, Jairaj’s father.
Dance for him is the profession of a
prostitute, improper for his daughter-in-law and absolutely unimaginable for
his son. He forbids Ratna from visiting the old devdasi who teaches her the
intricacies of bharatnatyam; he cannot tolerate the sounds of the dancing bells
that ring through their practice sessions; is astounded at the long-haired guru
with an effeminate walk and cannot, most of all tolerate the idea of his son –a
man- becoming a professional dancer. The underlying fear is surely, that dance
would make him effeminate so that the suggestion of homosexuality hovers near,
though never explicitly mentioned. And hence Amritlal must oppose, tooth and
nail, Jairaj’s passion for dance. This clash brings about the play of property
and money in deciding and manipulating the construction of identities that
would conform, but the result is tragic. He makes a pact with Ratna. He will
permit her career in dance only if she helps him pull Jairaj out of his
obsession and make him a ‘manly’ man. The two can then enjoy the security of
his riches (Chaudhuri 67-68).
In this play, as a reader, one may find that the play poses some
delicate questions among which one surely is of MALE idea. Personally for
Jairaj, Dance is a form or a means to express emotions and stands as the tool
of defiance, revolt, negation of a particular way of life that was decided by
his father, Amritlal. He starts dancing as a hobby or rather a fancy that his
father thought would perish after a period of time but it does not happen that
way. Jairaj continues his practice of traditional dancing in spite of all the
opposition from his father and overtly presents himself as a rebel. He becomes
more headstrong because of the support of his wife, Ratna who also was
interested in traditional form of dancing. The reason behind Amritlal’s
opposition suggests that his mind was not ready to accept his son as a
Bharatnatyam Dancer. This is more clear in AMritlal’s view of dance.
Amritlal : “ A
woman in aman’s world may be considered as progressive. But a man in a woman’s
world is pathetic”
Amritlal, though being called as progressive fails to accept dance as a
form of art for men. His ideas though were meant to be liberated were actually
devoid of progressive ideas. His ideas of freedom and independence was that
related to the nation whereas Jairaj’s ideas of progressiveness and
independence is way different from that of Amritlal’s. Their conflict in ideas
is seen in their argument on progress and freedom.
Jairaj : “Didn’t
you have any obsessions?”
Amritlal : “ If you
mean my involvement in fighting for your freedom, yes, it was an obsession.”
Jairaj : “You had
yours. Now allow me to have mine.”
Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri
writes, “Dance like a Man is a play that deals with one of Dattani’s pet
concerns – gender – through one of his principal passions, dance.” (p. 67)
In the society everyone wants the Male to earn that much so
that the house would run properly but Amritlal knew that dance would not help
Jairaj to earn enough money and that would make him unworthy in the eyes of his
wife Ratna. For Amritlal, dance was good as far as it remains a hobby but it
was not proper to be taken as a profession. And we should not forget that
traditional dance, especially for Male was not considered a respectable
profession in the olden days in India. Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri says,
“The underlying fear is obviously that dance would make him ‘womanly’ – an effeminate man – the suggestion of homosexuality hovers near, although never explicitly mentioned.” (p. 68)
In the play Maleness of Jairaj was not that much a question of Body than
that of mentality. Researcher found that for Ratna Maleness might have meant
one’s independent decision making power, doing the work that one liked, living
on one’s own conditions, standing on one’s own feet without any support and
some other that Jairaj lacked. Interestingly even Jairaj was trying to prove
himself an able MALE to Ratna. When Ratna was worried about finding a mridangam
player for her daughter he says,
“Will finding a musician make me a man?
“Will finding a musician make me a man?
Dance, for Ratna, serves as an undying passion that drives her character throughout all the actions of the drama. Behind all her moves in the drama, Dance was the main factor. Her character has a negative shade and that makes her different than others. She involves herself in a relationship with Jairaj and that was a clear self-centered decision on her part. No love or attachment with Jairaj was there on the outset of the relationship. Her overconfidence and faith in her own talent was so much that she hesitated not even once to destroy Jairaj’s career as a dancer joining hands with her father-in-law, Amritlal. She single-mindedly follows her heart overpowered by mind; and tries to be famous using Dance as a medium. Traditional Dance stands as a thing that will help her in earning fame and money along with respect in the world of dancers.
For Ratna Dance was a medium to gain popularity and status and for that she
married Jairaj who would never stop her from dancing. Ratna’s selfish inner
desire was so powerful that she cold-bloodedly plays with the emotions of
Jairaj by misguiding him constantly. In the guise of a true life companion she
deceives her husband and tries to curb his potential as a dancer. In order to
gain personal aims she sacrifices Jairaj’s abilities. Ratna not only spoils
Jairaj’s life but tries to mould her daughter Lata’s life also by making her a
traditional dancer. In spite of being a Male member of the family Jairaj never
tries to command his authority over Ratna and instead, she, very deliberately
plays with his emotions. When Jairaj returned to his father’s house, Ratna
disliked it and she says in the play ones,
“You! You are
nothing but a spineless boy who couldn’t leave his father’s house for more than
forty-eight hours.”
Lata, her daughter, was used by her to fulfill her inner suppressed desires to earn fame and money nationwide and abroad. Unknowingly Lata falls in the whirlpool created by Ratna and becomes the object only. Ratna’s endeavors seem very ambitious and manipulative. She was ready to establish her daughter’s career on the right track right from the very beginning and for that she schemes, manipulates and uses all her contacts and links. It is very clear that Ratna saw her own self in her daughter Lata and therefore acted so violently to create a firm, concrete base for her. It is this quality that makes her different from others. For her Traditional Dance was important but it never became a wild passion at any point of time. The desire to take dance, as a hobby was very clear in her mind as she tells Vishwas,
Lata, her daughter, was used by her to fulfill her inner suppressed desires to earn fame and money nationwide and abroad. Unknowingly Lata falls in the whirlpool created by Ratna and becomes the object only. Ratna’s endeavors seem very ambitious and manipulative. She was ready to establish her daughter’s career on the right track right from the very beginning and for that she schemes, manipulates and uses all her contacts and links. It is very clear that Ratna saw her own self in her daughter Lata and therefore acted so violently to create a firm, concrete base for her. It is this quality that makes her different from others. For her Traditional Dance was important but it never became a wild passion at any point of time. The desire to take dance, as a hobby was very clear in her mind as she tells Vishwas,
“When I was a
little girl, I used to stand near the door and watch mummy and daddy practice.
It was magic for me. I knew then what I wanted to be.”
She takes dance as a pure art form and does not link it to any gender. She wanted to pursue dance but her desire was not blended with any passion or force. For her, marrying Vishwas was also important and she wouldn’t sacrifice her love for the dance. Her balanced mind makes her likable and different from her parents. Actually she is away from the circle in which her parents were trapped which was too vicious to believe. She dances and continues to do so because it is a hobby for her and not a way that leads to the path of success. There is no malice, over ambition or misled want in her that keeps her interest in dance. Considering this aspects reader can conclude that Lata stands in stark contrast with other characters.
She takes dance as a pure art form and does not link it to any gender. She wanted to pursue dance but her desire was not blended with any passion or force. For her, marrying Vishwas was also important and she wouldn’t sacrifice her love for the dance. Her balanced mind makes her likable and different from her parents. Actually she is away from the circle in which her parents were trapped which was too vicious to believe. She dances and continues to do so because it is a hobby for her and not a way that leads to the path of success. There is no malice, over ambition or misled want in her that keeps her interest in dance. Considering this aspects reader can conclude that Lata stands in stark contrast with other characters.
What therefore starts as a portrayal
of staunch patriarchy in most of his plays opens up new domains of study, where
Dattani subverts the norms to present the alternate views. Thus, what emerges
is a new definition of masculinity not merely as an antonym of feminity but
paving a way for men to break their “alpha roars” and do what they would
perhaps like to. As Butler says, it is possible to “do” these cultural
constructions of sexuality. And as for the females, they can opt for a path of
their own too, breaking their silence and the performative roles that they have
always played, knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly (Mallick,
par.33).
Conclusion :
Dance Like a Man is a play that does not present the character as pure
White or Black but it shows their different shades in all possibilities. The
play poses fundamental questions and presents the actors with the best of their
talents. It demands the answer whether the world is progressive in real sense
or we are still in search of that utopian era where no dance form is actually
attached to any gender of the dancer but considered as a pure form of Art.
UNIT-
V: FICTION
Swami
and his friends
- R. K.
Narayan
Swami and Friends is the first of a
trilogy of novels written by RK Narayan (1906–2001), English language novelist
from India. The novel, Narayan's first, is set in British India in a fictional
town called Malgudi.
The second and third books in the trilogy are The Bachelor of Arts and The
English Teacher.
Malgudi Schooldays is a slightly abridged
version of Swami and Friends, and includes two additional stories
featuring Swami from Malgudi Days and Under the Banyan Tree.
Overall
summary
Swami and Friends is the first of a trilogy of
novels written by RK Narayan, a celebrated English novelist from India.
RK Narayan started his prolific writing career with
this novel Swami and Friends written in 1935. It is full of humor and irony.
Narayan started writing this novel with the words “It was Monday morning…” to
the auspicious time his grandmother chose for him. Like many of his fictional
grandmothers, he was close to his grandmother who was well versed with
astrology. Despite this it took time for the budding writer to be acknowledged
as an author. Fortunately for him, he had helped from many quarters, such as
the well-established author British author Graham Green. He called Swami and
Friends a work of “remarkable maturity, and of the finest promise…and is the
boldest gamble a novelist can take. If he allows himself to take sides,
moralise, propaganda, he can easily achieve an extra-literary interest, but if
he follows Mr. Narayan’s method, he stakes all on his creative power.”
The novel is set in pre-independence days in India,
in a fictional town – Malgudi, which has almost become a real place in India
today, due to the wide recognition and popularity of Narayan’s many novels. His
novels are known for their ‘deftly etched characters, his uniquely stylized
language and his wry sense of humor’.
Swami and Friends is the story of a 10-year-old
boy, growing up during this particular time, his innocence, wonder, mischief
and growing pains. He is a student at Albert Mission School, a school
established by the British which gives importance to Christianity, English
literature and education. His life is dramatically changed when Rajam – a
symbol of colonial super power – joins the school and he and Rajam become
friends.
At first glance, Swami and Friends is nothing more
than a simple, charming story of a ten-year old boy who lives in a world of (in
his eyes) bossy adults – be they parents or teachers at school – and his
friends and enemies at school. His life is fairly complex and he has a tough
job to do: pleasing both his demanding peers and also the dour world of adults
around him. He manages his tough balancing act for a while but then two
incidents change his life forever. Finally, he gets out of trouble, but the
cost is heavy: he loses the friendship of Rajam, the son of the Police
Superintendent and is devastated at his departure at the end.
The central theme of the novel is growing up of
young Swami. He is a spontaneous, impulsive, mischievous and yet a very
innocent child. His character is a child in the fullest sense of the world.
Through Swami’s eyes the reader gets to peak in to the pre-independence days in
South India. The life portrayed in the novel is accurate in its description of the
colonial days – the uprisings, the rebellions, the contempt and the reverence
the natives had for their subjugator, together with varied elements that have
become one, such as cricket and education.
Unlike many colonial and post-colonial writers
Narayan does not directly attack or criticize the colonial system, although
elements of gentle criticism and irony directed towards the colonial system,
are scattered through out Swami and Friends and all his other novels. He has
rather directed his creativity at depicting the life of the people at the time.
It is almost as if he is charmed by these unsophisticated and simple, yet
eccentric people and their lives. It is unclear if he refrained from an all out
attack on the British colonial system out of choice or reverence. But it seems
at this point in his career, (and during this particular point of India’s
history), when he is starting out as an author, he would write to the English
speaking audience in India and for the vast audience abroad. Hence it would be folly
to attack the very system that would sustain him as a novelist, his career of
choice. Asked about why he was unbothered about the prevailing political crisis
and other happenings during the time, Narayan replied in an interview thus ”
When art is used as a vehicle for political propaganda, the mood of comedy, the
sensitivity to atmosphere, the probing of psychological factors, the crisis of
the individual soul and its resolution and above all the detached observation
which constitutes the stuff of fiction is forced into the background.” Beyond
this, he also had tremendous regard for the English language and literature as
an aesthetic past time, and was not blind to its value in that regard.
The absence of criticism on the colonial system
maybe also due to the fact that Narayan simply believed the colonizer and the
colonized could live together in harmony, benefiting each other. Most
Englishmen and the natives certainly seem to do so in his novels, such as Mr
Retty (Swami and Friends) and Matheison (Waiting for the Mahatma). The rice
mill owner Mr Retty was “the most Indianized of the ‘Europeans’….and was the
mystery man of the place: nobody could say who he was or where he had come
from: he swore at his boy and his customers in perfect Tamil and always moved
about in shirt, shorts and sandaled feet.” Mr Matheison feels strongly for
Indians and considers himself Indian. “You see, it is just possible I am as
much attached to this country as you are.” Only Mr Brown seems to be the ‘black
sheep’ in this regard. His Western mind is only capable of “classifying,
labeling and departmentalizing…” And the gentle criticism and irony directed
towards him was in the same way directed towards his fellow countrymen. In his
mind British or Indian, they were all human beings with prejudices, follies,
errors, kindness and goodness, each in varying degrees.
Narayan’s success as a writer emerges from his
portrayal of a unique culture, and yet at the same time a subtle criticism of
the alien political power. For this he used the tools of humor and irony. His
success in reconciling these two opposing ends is seen in the fact that
Narayan’s novels are received well both in his native country India and all
around the world.
When the novel unfolds, we are told that Swami has four friends. ‘He (Swaminathan) honoured only four persons with his confidence’ – Somu, the Monitor, who carried himself with such an easy air; Mani the mighty Good-For-Nothing; Sankar, the most brilliant boy of the class and Samuel who was known as the Pea, who had nothing outstanding about him, like Swami, but they were united in their ability to laugh at everything. Swami’s relationships with each of these friends were different, but he cherished them all. This harmonious existence is threatened with the arrival of Rajam. Rajam is the colonial superpower that Narayan introduces. He symbolizes the new Indian middle class that Thomas Babington Macaulay anticipated in his now famous 1835 Minute on Education ‘a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.’
When the novel unfolds, we are told that Swami has four friends. ‘He (Swaminathan) honoured only four persons with his confidence’ – Somu, the Monitor, who carried himself with such an easy air; Mani the mighty Good-For-Nothing; Sankar, the most brilliant boy of the class and Samuel who was known as the Pea, who had nothing outstanding about him, like Swami, but they were united in their ability to laugh at everything. Swami’s relationships with each of these friends were different, but he cherished them all. This harmonious existence is threatened with the arrival of Rajam. Rajam is the colonial superpower that Narayan introduces. He symbolizes the new Indian middle class that Thomas Babington Macaulay anticipated in his now famous 1835 Minute on Education ‘a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.’
“He (Rajam) was a new-comer; he dressed very well-
he was the only boy in class who wore socks and shoes, fur cap and tie, and a
wonderful coat and nickers. He spoke very good English, exactly like a European;
which meant that few in the school could make out what he said.” The last
sentence in the quotation actually runs beyond its literary meaning. Rajam
brought up in a different atmosphere than that of his fellow classmates did in
fact speak differently and few understood what he said. Rajam wanted to be
better than the rest, to be successful, to impress and to lead. As the novel
progresses we see that he is neither affectionate, loyal nor faithful to his
friends. At the same time he is confident, intelligent and rarely if ever loses
his composure. He has developed the proverbial ‘English stiff upper lip.’ Swami
was greatly impressed by Rajam and wanted to be friends with him. And when he
finally does so, this friendship initially creates friction between his earlier
friends.
The turning point in his young life comes when
impulsively he decides to join a rebellion against the British. He was however,
not being patriotic, but rather impulsive, and was enjoying breaking
windowpanes by throwing stones. He is punished harshly by the principal and in
a moment of desperation runs away from the school. He is later admitted to
another school – Board High School. It is during this time that Rajam, Mani and
Swami form a Cricket Club and set a date for a match against another cricket
club. Swami is now under pressure by Rajam to attend cricket practices; he
skips his drill classes in order to do so, and gets into trouble with the drill
teacher. In yet another moment of desperation he runs away both from school and
home. He gets lost on the road, but is found by a cart-man and is brought home.
He learns that he had indeed missed the cricket match, which he took such pains
to practice for.
Rajam stubbornly refuses to see him after this, and
after a lapse of some days Swami comes to know through Mani that Rajam’s father
was transferred and was moving the next day. Swami is crushed, but in his
innocence, he erroneously thinks that Rajam will relent and forgive. Rajam had
decided otherwise and hardened himself against forgiving. There is immense
poignancy in the parting seen between the friends. It is heightened by the fact
that the reader knows that Rajam has not and will not forgive Swami, while
Swami believes that he is forgiven and is grieving for his “dearest friend’s”
departure:
“At the sight of the familiar face Swaminathan lost
control of himself and cried: ‘Oh Rajam, Rajam you are going away. When will
you come back? Rajam kept looking at him without a word and then (as it seems
to Swaminathan) opened his mouth to say something, when everything was
disturbed by the guard’s blast and the hoarse whistle of the engine.……Rajam’s
face with the words still unuttered on his lips, receded”
Swami did not have the money to buy a lavish gift
for Rajam, but had thoughtfully decided to give him an English book “Anderson’s
Fairy Tales” and writes on the flyleaf ‘To my dearest friend Rajam’. In this
last episode Narayan stresses the difference between the thoughtless Rajam and
his devoted two friends Swami and Mani. Rajam was ‘dressed like a European
boy’, his very appearance was alien to them, but it is not only on the outside
that Rajam was different, but even within, as the reader sees through out the
novel and especially at the end. To Narayan, Rajam’s ways and thinking are different,
much like the “Europeans.” Rajam in his superiority does not feel he owes
anybody explanations or farewells. He came, he conquered and he will go as he
pleases. This attitude of Rajam’s is akin to that of the colonizer who came,
conquered, made drastic changes in the lives of Indians and then left just as
abruptly as he had come, leaving chaos behind. Rajam was the symbol of that
‘class of people’ the British colonizer bred, who invariably became alien and
even contemptuous to their very own culture.
The novel, first intended for a very young
audience, later expanded into a universal one, for its simple narrative and
depiction of colonial India. Today in India it is recommended as a textbook or
a reference book. One of the most glaring facts about the novel is the
similarity of children through out the world, and how they have not changed
since the time the novel was written. Children are all mischievous, impulsive
and innocent like Swami. They all play and enjoy just like Swami, and try to
circumvent doing homework by ingenious excuses and methods. Like Swami most
children – even today- attend schools that do not nourish their heritage and
culture, throughout the world including the US.
The criticism of the educational system and the
lack of faith in it is a common theme of Narayan. It runs throughout this
trilogy Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.
Narayan’s own father who was a principal did not think much of the system as
Narayan and his many fictional characters, such as Swami, Chandran, Krishna,
Sriram and a host of others. But the educational system comes under grave
criticism in this trilogy, and discussed at length in The English Teacher.
(Read The English Teacher web page in this site.) It is not that Narayan thought
that education was useless, but rather that the school and education system
founded by the British was irrelevant. He was maybe among the second generation
of persons who received a formal education in India during the time, and saw
how his grandparents and many other of his countrymen surviving, thriving and
living as good human beings, perhaps even better than the ‘educated folk,’
without any education.
R.K.Narayan’s first short novel, Swami and Friends,
also provides the setting for his later novels and short stories, Malgudi.
Malgudi is the typical Indian middle and lower-middle class town and something
that provides a window into the life-blood of South India: its unique culture,
its simple people and also its paradoxes.
Swami is a paradox throughout the narration.
R.K.Narayan does a wonderful job in bringing out his emotional pysche. While
Swami sincerely and innocently believes in the sanctity of his friendship with
Rajam, Rajam remains aloof and impersonal. Swami’s relationship with his peer
group is very complex as so-called ‘friends’. The novel is full of irony and
subtle wit. And also disturbing. Friendship at that age is nothing more than
peer pressure and this is a fact that Swami cannot fathom. He tries to impress
his friends and peers. He acts impulsively and loses control of himself on more
than one occasion. He gets little emotional support at home or from his peers.
School is a place where life is tough. Constant pressure from all directions
finally tells on Swami and he bends.
Narayan also gently laughs at the world in which
Swami lives. The paradoxes of pre-independence India, the alternating aloof and
passionate nature of the people, the confusions that encompass the mind of a
child in such a volatile environment: all those things are brought out
beautifully. Narayan takes a dig at the educational system too as envisioned by
the British masters. The use of the cane, the degrading and humiliating nature
of the ‘stand-up-on-the-desk’ punishment, the heavy workload are all shown up
by Narayan for what they are: a cruel way of education which mass-produces
unimaginative clerks and subordinate staff to serve in the British
administrative machine. The real irony of this is seen when Swami runs away
from the Board High school and feels nostalgic about his old school: the Albert
Mission.
In the final analysis, Swami and Friends is more
than the story of a child. It is the story of a generation of Indians who are
born and brought up in the shadow of the British colonial Raj and who inherit
the confusions of the cultural and social conflict. This is best seen where
Swami is seen alternatively admiring and envying Rajam: the rich boy who walks
to school dressed like a ‘European’. Swami is caught between two worlds as
represented by Mani and Rajam. Rajam who stands for all that is posh and
urbane, smooth and unemotional, well educated yet hard and ruthless in a way.
The other end is Mani who is rough, untamed, naive, emotional and yet loyal.
The masterly irony is seen because these two characters not only meet but (in
Swami’s eyes) they also apparently get along well. To the end, Swami cannot
understand the difference and hence the pathos in the final scene.
Narayan passes no judgement on anybody. He presents
Swami for what he is and also the world around him for what it is. His style is
smooth and simple. His sentences are crisp, yet unconventional. His use of
certain ‘Indianisms’ might alienate the foreign reader, yet they convey his
meaning adequately. The apparent discontinuity of narration at places serves to
enhance, rather than dispel, the overall effect. The cultural aspect is very
visible throughout: for example Swami’s fearful respect towards his father, his
closeness to his grandmother, his turbulent relationships at school and his
total emotional isolation in spite of physical proximity to so many people are
so typical of Indian life where visible demonstration of love and care are seen
as signs of weakness and a thing of shame. Throughout Swami grovels in darkness
around him and yet does not see himself as being in the dark: that is the final
irony and the one the cuts deepest.
A highly readable novel that can be read on all
levels. While my review focusses more on the psychological aspects of the book,
the book can also be read without all this mental baggage. That is what keeps
Swami and Friends evergreen and fresh at even this day and age.
Chapter 1
Raju, the tourist guide has just
been released from the jail. He sits cross-legged beside an ancient shrine near
the village Mangal. The shrine is on the banks of the river Sarayu. The
villager named Velan comes there after seeing his married daughter.
Raju has his last shave only two
days before after his release from the jail. The talkative barber says, “You
look like a maharaja now”. The barber is a master and wise man. He guesses
rightly that Raju has been released from the jail. Raju repeats, “Not a bad
place”.
Velan looks at Raju with a great
devotion and Raju tells him, “I am not so great as you imagine. I am just
ordinary”. But Velan has his own problem to be solved.
Then Raju recalls his own past. He
thought that Rosie has not come from a foreign land. She was just an Indian
like Devi, Meena, Lalitha or any one of the thousand names in India. Rosie was
a great classical but an orthodox dancer. Raju was the first man to appreciate
her art of dancing but her husband was a grotesque creature in his life. He
looked like a space traveler and was dressed like a permanent tourist.
Raju thought about his past life as
a tourist guide. He lived in a small house opposite to Malgudi Railway Station.
His father had a small shop and all day he sat there selling peppermint, fruit,
tobacco, betel leaf, parched gram, and whatever else the wayfarers on the Trunk
Road demanded. It was known as the ‘hut- shop’. Raju recalled his childhood
memories of his own life, his father, mother and his trips to the town.
When Velan raises his own problem
about his father’s last wife’s youngest daughter, Raju talks magnificently like
a holy man of Lord Buddha and the dead child. Raju then tells him that everyone
has a problem. Velan’s problem is that the girl shows no gratitude and is
unwilling to accept his plans for her marriage with his cousin’s son. Raju asks
Velan to bring her there and he would talk to her. When Velan goes away, Raju
is left alone. He says himself, ‘I shall be rewarded for this profound service
to humanity. People will say, “Here is the man who knows the exact number of
stars in the sky. If you have any trouble on that account, you had better
consult him. He will be your right guide for the skies”. While counting the
stars in the sky, he fell asleep under the open sky.
Next morning Velan comes to Raju
with his step-sister of fourteen years old. Velan has brought a basket filled
with bananas, cucumbers, pieces of sugar-cane, fried nuts, and copper vessel
brimming with milk. Raju sat in silence, eyeing the gift for a while and then
picked up the basket and went into an inner sanctum. He placed the basket of
edibles at the feet of the image and said, “It’s His first. Let the offering go
to Him, first; and we will eat the remnant.” Then he began narrating the story
of Devaka, a man of ancient times who begged alms at the temple gate every day
and would not use any of his collections without first putting them at the feet
of the god. This story was told him by his mother but he couldn’t remember the
whole story.
Suddenly Raju said to Velan, “I am
not going to think of your problem, Velan, not now.” Velan retorts ‘why’. Raju
says, “When the time is ripe for it”. He also tells Velan that he should think
over the problem and further adds, “Whatever is written here will
happen-------.We may not change it, but we may understand it”---------- ‘And to
arrive at a proper understanding, time is needed’. Velan understands and appreciates
his wisdom. Raju looks at Velan’s difficult sister and says, ‘What must happen
must happen; no power on earth or in heaven can change its course, just as no
one can change the course of that river’.
Chapter 2
Raju as a child is now growing fast.
Very soon the train is to be introduced in Malgudi. He sees the men busy in the
track outlines of Mempi Hills. Then Raju’s father does not send him to Albert
Mission School but to a Pyol School in Kabir Lane. Raju begins to learn the
alphabet and numbers there. Thus Raju’s education begins. The school master
gets one rupee a month and some gifts by the students’ guardians or parents.
Raju then is sent in Board High School for the first standard.
Velan comes near Raju with the news
of a miracle and tells him that his sister’s problem is over and she is ready
to marry her cousin. Before The assembled family she said, “I have been a
bother to you all these days. Forgive me, all of you. I shall do whatever my
elders order me to do”.
One day Velan comes back and invites
Raju to his sister’s marriage but Raju avoids the wedding ceremony. After
wedding the girl regards Raju as her saviour and tells everyone, “He doesn’t
speak to anyone, but if he looks at you, you are changed”.
Very soon a huge mob begins to
gather in the evening at the temple on the river bank of Sarayu and takes him
as a saint. But Raju felt that he himself was an intruder. After release from
the jail he tried very hard to think where he should go next and what to do.
One evening he hides behind a bush
to avoid the villagers. One of the villagers said, “He is a big man, he may go
anywhere, he may have a thousand things to do”. Another man said, “Yogis can
travel to the Himalayas just by a thought”. Next morning Raju realized that he
had no alternative. He has to play the role Velan had given to him. Raju begins
to play the role of a saint. He calls Velan’s nephew and asks him to tell his
uncle that he has come again.
Chapter 3
One day, the Railway station
building at Malgudi is ready. The Stationmaster and a porter began to stay in
stone house at the back of the station. Raju’s father became a prosperous
businessman. He acquires a jutka and a horse in order to go to the town and do
his shopping. He uttered the word ‘bank’. As a shopkeeper he runs a shop at the
Railway station. Because of Raju’s mother’s continuous opposition, he sells the
horse the carriage.
The stationmaster and the porter
named Karia came to observe Raju’s father’s shop. As per the suggestions of the
stationmaster, the shop is filled in with bananas, Mempi oranges, fried stuff,
colourful papermints and sweets, loaves of bread, buns and cigarettes.
Occasionally Raju is made the in-charge of this hut-shop and the customers did
not find in him a good companion for them. Very soon, Raju’s father asks him to
handle the business in the new shop at Malgudi Railway Station and it
stopped his schooling.
Chapter 4
The banana which Raju gave to
Velan’s nephew worked a miracle. The nephew told everyone that the saint is
back at his post. Naturally, men, women, and children assembled there in a
large number. Raju advised them about education. Next day, the schoolteacher
visits Raju and Raju tells him the importance of education. He advises the
teacher, “After all self-help is the best help”, and “It is our duty to make
everyone happy and wise”. The teacher responds him that he will do anything
under his guidance.
The result is that the teacher went
back to the village as a changed man. The students came there and Raju spoke to
them on godliness, cleanliness, and the Ramayana. Raju gets hypnotized by his
own voice.
Raju’s father dies and his mother
becomes a widow. Raju closed down his father’s hut-shop and set the new shop at
Malgudi Railway Station. He felt like an actor who had come on the stage.
Velan comes there and asks Raju,
“Give a discourse, Sir”. The only topic on which he could speak with any
authority was his own jail life and its benefits for one mistaken for a saint.
He says, “All things have to wait their hour”.
Raju soon realized that his spiritual
status would be enhanced if he grew a beard and long hair to fall upon his
nape. His prestige as a saint had grown beyond his wildest dreams. His
influence on the mob was unlimited. He not only chanted holy verses but also
discoursed on philosophy. He began to prescribe medicines to children who would
not go to sleep. Even he settled the disputes and quarrels over the division of
ancestral property.
Chapter 5
Raju became famous as ‘Railway
Raju’. Perfect strangers began to ask him about the famous spots around
Malgudi. His friend, the old shark is Gaffur, the taxi- driver. Gaffur takes
the tourists in his car to various places. Within a few days Raju became a
full-blown tourist guide. Occasionally, he asks the porter’s son to look after
his shop and he goes with tourists in Gaffur’s taxi. At home, Raju’s mother
asks him to accept the proposal of Lalitha, the young daughter of her brother.
In a few months Raju became a
seasoned guide. He became a part-time shopkeeper and a full time tourist guide.
Malgudi and its surroundings were his special show. His tourists are of many
kinds and types and he tries to please them of all. One day a very strange
tourist named Marco came to Malgudi along with his wife named Rosie from
Madras. Raju made their lodging provision at the Anand Bhavan Hotel. Rosie had
a figure. A slight and slender one beautifully fashioned with sparkled eyes and
dusky complexion. As soon as she set foot in Malgudi, she asked Raju, ‘Can you
show me a cobra- a King Cobra it must be- which can dance to the music of a
flute’.
While Marco is engaged in
investigating carving episodes from the Ramayana on the stone wall in Iswara
Temple in North Extension, Raju took Rosie in Gaffur’s taxi to watch a cobra
dance at Nallappa’s grove on the other side of the river. Rosie swayed her body
in a dance giving the snake- girl performance. Rosie appears to be the greatest
dancer of the century to Raju.
Rosie’s husband, Marco is an
extraordinary hateful fellow. When Raju tells his mother about their visit to a
snake charmer, she doubts about the girl as a snake- dancer. Thereupon Raju
says, ‘Mother, she is a good girl, not a snake-worshipper. She is a dancer’.
Next day, Raju went upstairs to Room
28 on the second floor of the hotel. Marco, the strange man wanted to study the
friezes. He also wanted to study the cave-paintings. Rosie is not willing to
come with Marco to see caves. But Raju goes back to Room no. 28 and persuades
Rosie to come along with them. He appreciates her dance, form and figure and
introduces himself in these words, ‘My name is Raju’. Then he asks her to be
ready and remarks, ‘Who would decorate a rainbow?’ Yet she is not willing to
join them but Raju says, ‘Because life is so blank without your presence’. She
responds, ‘Wait a minute, then’.
Now Rosie, Raju and Marco go to the
Peak House in Gaffur’s car. The Peak House is situated on the topmost cliff on
Mempi Hills. The river Sarayu is seen sparkling at a distance. Joseph is their
caretaker. He is nearly sixty years old man. He was converted into a Christian
by the missionaries. They have to stay there for a night. Joseph gave them some
useful suggestions and said to Rosie,’ If you sit up on that veranda, you can
watch tigers and other animals prowling about. But you must not make any noise;
that is the secret of it’.
At seven-thirty in the evening, Raju
tried to serve the dinner. At that time Rosie said, ‘No, no. Let me serve you
both, and I will be the last to eat, like a good housewife’. When Raju tries to
serve a dish to Marco, Rosie snatches it from his hands and it is her golden
touch on which his memory lingers on. The soul of Raju is crying to say her
that won’t she be his sweetheart. After the dinner Raju and Rosie went to the
glass veranda to watch animals and Marco was lost in his papers.
Next day, Marco and Raju went to the
valley to study caves keeping Rosie in the Guest House. Marco is engaged in his
ruin collecting activities. Immediately, Raju went back to
the Guest House where Rosie was
alone. Rosie surprisingly said, ‘Looking for me?’ Raju learnt from
Rosie that they had quarrels every night. But Raju said, ‘Being with you must
be such a bliss’. Then Raju praised her dancing and spoke out his love for her.
He spoke of her as ‘an artist……World’s artist number one’. Then she said, ‘You
are a brother to me’ and gave all details of their married life. She told him
that she belonged to a family traditionally dedicated to the temples as
dancers. The women in her family are considered as public women and are not
considered respectable. She has taken her master’s degree in Economics. Hers is
a registered marriage with Marco and he is a man of high social standing; He
has a house outside Madras. But he is interested in painting and old arts. Raju
overcame with the sadness in her life and said, ‘In his place, I would have
made you a queen of the world’ and put his hand on her shoulder.
Marco’s car didn’t come back because
of breakdown, so they stayed there for another night. When Gaffur’s car came
there, Marco asked Raju to bring his black trunk from the hotel. At that time
Rosie seeks his permission to go back to hotel and says, ‘We may not be able to
return tonight’. After coming back to Malgudi, Raju goes to his home to change.
His mother comments, ‘Becoming a dandy’ Gaffur, too, warned him, ‘She is a
married woman, remember’. Thereupon Raju said, ‘She is like a sister to me’. At
night Raju and Rosie went to see a movie and returned to the hotel after the
picture. At midnight, he stepped in Room No. 28 and locked the door on the world.
Chapter 6
Several years have passed. Men and
women are busy worshipping Raju as a saint. His disciples brought him special
gifts according to seasons and festivals of the year. So he did not require a
calendar. His beard now caressed his chest and his hair covered his back. He
wore a necklace of prayer-beads around his neck. His eyes were filled with the
light of wisdom. Whatever gifts his disciples brought him, he gave them all
back to the women and children at the end of each day. He protested to Velan
and said, ‘I am a poor man and you are poor men; why do you give me all this?
You must stop it.’ But people called him Swami.
In the first half of the year there
were rains; but in the second half of the year there were no rains. The summer
seemed to continue. Raju asked, ‘Where are the rains?’ The millet crop is all
scorched on the stalks. A thousand banana seedlings are dead. Raju’s reaction
is, ‘Such things are common; don’t worry too much about them. Let us hope for
the best.’ However, the cattle do not get grass to eat. The river Sarayu became
dry. Sugar-canes were wilted. The villagers always talked about the scarcity of
the rains. Raju decreed, ‘You must not think too much of it. The rain god
sometimes teases those who are obsessed with thoughts of him.’ Yet it was
reality that cattle stopped giving milk and flocks of sheep became dry. The
wells in the villages were drying up. The earth was fast drying up. A buffalo
was found dead on a foot track. Velan took the Swami to observe the scene in
the village. The Swami raised his hand and said, ‘Be peaceful; I will fix it
with gods.’ He gave several explanations of the losses and pleased the
villagers.
More cattle were found dead here and
there. The village shopman started charging high prices. As a matter of fact,
there was a battle between the shopman’s relatives and sympathizers and Velan
and his men. Next morning Velan’s brother came to Raju with sad news that
several villagers and Velan got injured skulls and burns. After listening to
the story of the village quarrel from Velan’s twenty-one years old brother, a
semi-moron, Raju said to him, ‘Tell your brother, immediately, wherever he may
be, that unless they are good I will never eat.’ Raju has given the message
that he will not eat till they are good. Velan’s brother of the lesser
intelligences ran into the assembly of his village elders and said, ‘The Swami,
Swami, doesn’t food anymore. Don’t take any food to him.’ When asked ‘Why’, the
boy replied that it doesn’t rain and there should be no fight. Then all the
villagers declared, ‘Let us all go and pay our respects to Swami, our saviour.’
Raju was waiting for his usual gifts
and food. He had suggested them to bring him wheat flour, rice flour and spices
so that he can prepare something new. He has liking for bonda, which he used to
eat in the railway station stall. It was composed of flour, potato, a slice of
onion, a coriander leaf and a green chili. Now he sees a crowd coming to him.
They called him Mahatma. They touched his feet. Velan said, ‘Your penance is
similar to Mahatma Gandhi’s. He has left us a disciple in you to save us.’
Velan remains there to look after him. When Raju says that the next day he will
take his usual food, Velan asked him, ‘Do you expect it to rain tomorrow, Sir?
Velan expected him to stand in knee-deep water, look to the skies, and utter
the prayer lines for two weeks, completely fasting during the period- and so
the rains would come down, provided the man who performed it was a pure soul,
was a great soul. Raju had told them, ‘When the time comes, everything will be
all right. Even the man who would bring you rain will appear, all of a sudden’.
Then he asked Velan to live him alone that night and come to see tomorrow
night. Velan agreed to do so.
Now Raju suddenly thinks of leaving
the place for good or he might be in trouble. If he left the place, people will
conclude that he had gone to Himalayas. He cooked his food and kept a reserve
of food for a second meal at night.
Finally, Raju tells Velan that he is
not a saint; he is an ordinary man like anyone else. He tells his life story to
Velan. Velan listened to him without uttering a word of surprise or
interjection in all humility.
Chapter 7
Marco accepted Rosie as a member of
the family. He was just an impractical and absolutely helpless man. He married
Rosie out of desire to have someone care for his practical life but his choice
was wrong. The girl herself was a dreamer. However, Raju gave up all his
routine jobs in order to be of service to them. At Peak House he was in entire
charge of Marco’s all affairs. Gaffur’s car was permanently engaged for Marco.
Joseph looked after Marco’s needs at the hotel and Raju spends much of his time
looking after Marco and Rosie. Marco paid him his daily rate also allowed to
look after his ‘routine jobs’.
Raju is more interested in Rosie
than her husband. Gaffur is not happy with Raju because he does not like that
he should get involved with her. While going back to the hotel, Gaffur says to
Raju that an old, uneducated wife is better than the new type of girl. Raju is
obsessed with thoughts of Rosie. He is now spending more money on being looking
very smart. His shop is being managed by the boy. Raju’s mother always warns
him to keep eye on that boy. Then Raju went over to the shop and checked the
accounts. The boy informed him that the two tourists who were interested in
sightseeing went away disappointed. The boy always called him ‘Raju sir’. Raju
did not care for his own mother, the shop and his bank balance. The only
reality in his life and consciousness is Rosie. The man at the desk and the
boys at the hotel were watchful about Raju’s arrival and departure in Room No.
28.
It is difficult to Raju to
understand Rosie’s mind. She allowed him to make love to her husband on the
hill. She would say, ‘After all, he is my husband. I have to respect him. I
cannot leave him there’. Furthermore she cries, ‘Is this right what I am doing
After all; he has been so good to me, given me comfort and freedom. What
husband in the world would let his wife go and live in a hotel room by herself,
a hundred miles away?’ Again she says, ‘As a good man he may not mind, but is
it not a wife’s duty to guard and help her husband, whatever the way in which
he deals with her?’ Raju is now in a confused mood. He feels that Marco would
come down the hills and take her away. He asks Rosie, ‘Why don’t you stay up
with him, then?’ She tells that he sits up all night writing and all day he is
in the cave.
Rosie asks him whether he is also
like her husband not interested in her dancing. Raju replies, ‘I will do
anything for you. I will give my life to see you dance. Tell me what to do. I
will do it for you’. This remark delighted her. She gets a bronze image of
Nataraja, the god of dancers. At five in the morning she would start her
practice and continue for three hours. She would then spend an hour or two in
studying the Natyashastra of Bharatmuni. Raju is not really interested in her
music and dancing but keep up the false face. Rosie tells him so many things
about the dance and says, ‘What a darling. You are giving a new lease of life’.
Rosie along with Raju goes to the
hill to see her husband. Marco talks about a wonderful third cave. Then he
showed him some marvelous cave paintings. But Raju is ignorant about them. But
still he went through them with a show of interest. Marco told him, ‘When this
is published, it’ll change all our present ideas of the history of
civilization. I shall surely mention in the book my debt to you in discovering
this place.’
Two days later Raju went back to the
hill and Joseph told him that Marco and Rosie had gone down and didn’t return
yet. After some time Marco returned and Rosie followed him silently. Suddenly
Marco said, ‘It’ll not be necessary for either of you to come in’ and shut the
door of his room. Rosie then passed up the steps without a word, opened the
door of his room and went into the room. This behaviour baffled Raju.
Meanwhile, Gafffur came round to ask, ‘What time are we going down?’ Raju said,
‘Why are you in a hurry, Gaffur?’ Gaffur came close to Raju and said, ‘Raju,
this in not at all good. Let us get away. Leave them alone. After all, they are
husband and wife; they’ll know how to make it up. Come on. Go back to your
normal work. You are so interested and carefree and happy then.’
Raju thought over Gaffur’s advice
for a while and asked him to wait near the car. Then he heard Marco calling
Gaffur, ‘Driver, are you ready to go?’ Marco picked up his bundle and started
walking to the car. It puzzled Raju. He tried to cross the hall and open the
door but it was bolted. Then Raju went near the car. Marco had already taken
his seat. Raju asked Marco with courage, ‘Where are you going?’ Marco replied,
‘I’m going down to the hotel to close my accounts there.’ Then Raju said, ‘Take
that man wherever he may want to go and bring me back the car tomorrow- and you
will make complete settlement of all your bills with him. Keep a separate
account for my own trips.’
There is a quarrel between Raju and
Marco. Raju opened the door of the car and pulled Marco out of it and said,
‘You can’t abandon a wife in this place and go away.’ Marco asked, ‘Who are
you? What is your business?’ and said, ‘And I dispense with your service from
this minute. Give me your bill and be done with it.’ Again, he said, ‘Let us be
done with everything, and then you get out of my sight.’ Raju asked Joseph to
open the other suite and account it to him. Raju entered in this new suite and
left the door open. Marco had gone and bolted himself in his own room.
Half an hour passed without any
speech or movement. Raju was worried about Rosie’s food. So he himself put the
food on plates, put them on a tray and walked to their room. Rosie was lying on
her bed with eyes shut and Marco was sitting in his chair. Raju placed the tray
before Marco. Rosie opened her eyes and said, ‘Don’t waste any more of your
time with us. You go back. That’s all I have to say.’ Raju said, ‘First, you
must have your food. For what reason are you fasting? She repeated, ‘I want you
to go.’ Raju became weak and cowardly at her tone and thought that she had been
in his arms forty-eight hours ago and was asking him to leave. Raju came back
to Gaffur and left the place. Gaffur said, ‘It’s time your elders found a bride
for you. Raju I’m senior in years. I think this is the best thing you have
done. You will be more happy hereafter.’
Then a more miserable period of his
life started. He had no taste for food, no sound sleep, no stability, no peace
of mind, no sweetness of temper or speech- no. no. no. a number of no’s.
Everything looked so unreal. He relieved the boy and began to look after the
shop. He started to work as ‘Railway Raju’, the guide. However, he did not
forget Rosie. Thirty days passed and one day his mother said to him, ‘Someone
is asking for you.’ There stood Rosie on the threshold, with a trunk at her
feet and a bag under her arm. Raju welcomed her and told his mother that Rosie
is their guest now. There is a discussion between Raju’s mother and Rosie about
whereabouts.
Raju asks Rosie to tell him everything
from beginning to end. Rosie asked Marco for his permission to dance but he
regarded dancing as street-acrobatics. Rosie said, ‘Everyone except you likes
it.’ And it was her blunder. Then Marco worked as an examining doctor and
subjected to a close questioning. He asked details of their movements. Finally
he said, ‘I didn’t know that that hotel catered to ‘such fervid art- lovers! I
was a fool to have taken too much decency for granted.’ Rosie felt that she had
made the capital blunder of her life. She realized that she had committed a
sin. She was terrified and pitied her husband. Marco felt as if he was alone in
the world. He would not eat his food. He did not look at her and speak to her.
He told, ‘This is my last word to you. Don’t talk to me. You can go where you
please or do what you please.’ Rosie asked for pardon and said, “I want to be
with you. I want you to forget everything. I want to forgive me.” He said, ‘You
are not my wife. You are a woman who will go to bed with anyone that flatters your
antics. That’s all. I don’t want you here, but if you are going to be here,
don’t talk. That is all.’ The Othello was kindlier to Desdemona.
One day Marco started packing his
luggage in Room No. 28 as he alone was going back to Madras. She also picked up
her trunk and followed him. Marco said, ‘I have no ticket for you.’ Then Rosie
came to Raju’s home. Raju comforted her and said, ‘You are in the right place.
Forget all your past. We will teach that cad a lesson by and by.’ He tells her
that he will make her the greatest dancer. Raju’s mother objected to Rosie’s
presence at her home but Raju says, ‘I am an adult. I know what I am doing’.
Now Raju has given his shop to a new
contractor. Raju slaps the previous boy as he neglected the shop. Then the
boy’s father who is a porter remarked, ‘It is not he who has ruined you but the
saithan inside. He meant Rosie. There is a quarrel between the porter and Raju
and Raju is saved due to his mother.
Chapter 8
Raju’s creditor was the Sait, a
wholesale merchant in Market Road. He was a prosperous businessman. He was
Raju’s good friend. One day the Sait called on Raju and he personally came to
see Raju. He opened his notebook and told Raju the figure of dues nearly eight
thousand rupee. There is a hot argument between Raju and Sait and within a week
or ten days there is a criminal suit against Raju. He looks out for a lawyer to
fight out the case. With the help of Gaffur he finds an adjournment expert.
Raju thinks of starting a new life
with Rosie as a public dancer. He needed five hundred rupees to start the new
business. He thought of Rosie as a gold mine as the Bharat Natyam is really the
greatest art business. He asks Gaffur to help him. Gaffur was essentially a man
of heart but he had no money. He advised Raju to send Rosie away and start an
ordinary real life. He prayed God to give him better sense and went away.
Sait is bringing a criminal motive
to quicken the procedure. Raju had a small lawyer to plead his case. Raju gives
him five rupees. He manages to get an adjournment for Raju. Rosie is not
interested in this case. Now it is Raju’s mother’s turn. She had adjusted to
Raju’s behaviour as a loafer. One day Raju’s maternal uncle dropped in like a
bolt from the blue. He was a general advisor and director of all family matters
in Raju’s household. Raju’s mother wanted him to marry her elder brother’s
daughter. Raju’s maternal uncle took him to task and asked Rosie to go away by
the next train. Raju’s mother called her a serpent and a viper. Now, out of
anger, Raju’s mother prepares to leave the house. Raju and Rosie pleaded her
not to go. But Raju’s mother went away with her brother after the quarrel.
Now Rosie starts a new phase of her
career. As a public dancer she has been christened as Nalini, a name that could
have significance, poetry, and universality. Raju becomes a man with a mission.
He is on the road to become an impresario. He ceases to be the old Railway
Raju. When the two men Management Committee of the Secretary and the Treasurer
came to Raju’s house to watch Rosie’s Bharat Natyam dancing, Rosie welcomes
them with a smile.
Chapter 9
The Union function started and Rosie
soared Rocket-like. Her name became a public property. She had the genius in
her, and the public had to take its notice. Raju adapts himself into a
businesslike impresario. He is now conferring favour on them by permitting the
dancing programmes. The people try to catch a glimpse of Rosie. She is so
grateful to Raju for her success.
Now Raju is unwilling to stay in his
old house. He rents one at New Extension in keeping with their status. Now
Rosie had a ‘dance master’, a man from Koppal. Raju has appointed a large staff
of servants- a car driver, two gardeners, a Gurakha sentry and two cooks.
Raju’s office was on the ground floor with a secretary in- waiting, a young
graduate from a local college.
There were several visitors to them.
There were musicians who wanted a chance to accompany Nalini. There were others
with genuine offers of engagement. But Raju had a monopoly of her and
told the visitors that she was busy. However, there was Raju’s inner circle of
friend consisting of two judges, four eminent politicians, two big textile
mill-owners, a banker, a municipal councilor, and the editor of The Truth, a
weekly. Sometimes there were musicians or actors around Nalini. Raju wanted her
to be happy but only in his company.
Now there engagements took them to
all corners of South India, with Cape Comorin at one end and the border of
Bombay at the other. Raju’s philosophy was centred upon all the money in the
world. Raju obtained a medical certificate to say that he needed alcohol for
his welfare and became a ‘permit-holder’. Raju played Three- Cards with some
men. He now became a man of status.
One day the book entitled The
Cultural History of South India arrived by post. Marco was its author who had
acknowledged his debt to Sri Raju of Malgudi Railway Station. Raju did not show
that book to Rosie and it was his horrible mistake. If he had shown the book to
Rosie, everything would have been well. Raju had committed an act of treachery
and betrayal.
Three days later Marco’s photograph
appeared n The Illustrated Weekly of Bombay. Marco’s photograph was published
along with a review of his book, and the book was called, ‘An epoch- making
discovery in Indian cultural history’.
Rosie wanted to see Marco’s book.
She called Raju’s secretary, Mani and asked him for the book. Meanwhile Rosie
had cut out Marco’s photo and placed it on her dressing mirror. Rosie asked
Raju, ‘Where have you kept the book?’ Raju said, ‘All right, I will show it to
you tomorrow’. Raju explained her that Mani was responsible for that mistake.
At night, Rosie said, ‘After all, after all, he is my husband.’ But Raju takes
everything lightly and talks about his role in making Rosie the great classical
dancer, the figure of name and fame.
Suddenly a letter arrives from
Marco’s lawyer in Madras. A letter was addressed to ‘Rosie alias Nalini’. The
content in the letter was ‘Madam, under instruction from our client, we are
enclosing an application for your signature, for the release of a box of
jewellery left in safe custody at the Bank of --------, in the marked place’.
Raju did not show this letter to Rosie. He put that letter to his drink casket
and locked it up. He thought over the letter for some time. He was in a dilemma
whether to show the letter to Rosie or not. She also never asked for it. He
thought about the quantity of jewellery in the box. At midnight, he once again
saw the letter, and made a careful trial of Rosie’s signature and forged this
letter after some struggle in his mind and posted it at seven-thirty in the
morning. He now waits for the insured packet to come in return of the letter.
Their programme was going on at
Kalipet, a small town sixty miles away. Two hours passed and Rosie was doing
her fifth item- a snake dance that lasted for forty- five minutes. When the
dance was going on, there came the District Superintendent of Police asking for
Raju. He is there with a warrant of Raju’s arrest on the act of forgery. Rosie
blamed for ‘karma’ and said, ‘He was no longer my friend, but a frightful
technician’.
Chapter 10
Raju has to spend a couple of days
in the lock up. Rosie spent much money to save Raju but in vain. Then Raju got
the bail. But finally, the case is lost by him and he is in jail. In jail, he
becomes a model prisoner. Mani came to visit him. Raju told him that the
Central jail is not a bad place. Mani gave him the news that Nalini had cleared
out all the financial transaction of the town, bag and baggage. She had settled
down at Madras and was looking after herself quite well. She had given Mani a
gift one thousand rupees on the day of her departure. Before her departure, she
had paid all the debts. She had sold all the furniture and other possessions to
an auctioneer. She carried with her only Marco’s book and went away into the
car. Mani also told Raju that his mother is keeping well in the village.
Chapter 11
Raju’s narration of his past to
Velan was over at the dawn. Raju had mentioned every detail of his career from
his birth to his release from the jail. Velan questioned Raju, ‘I don’t know
why you tell me this, entire Swami’. However, he assured Swami that he will
keep it all a secret and went away to the village.
A wandering newspaper correspondent
who had come to the village to observe the draught situations sent off a wire
to his paper at Madras to circulate the news in all towns of India. The heading
was ‘Holy man’s penance to end the draught’. He sent a second telegram to say,
‘Fifth day of fast.’ He described how the swami came to the river’s edge, faced
its source, and stood knee-deep in water from six to eight in the morning,
uttering some prayer. Then the holy man would go back to the pillared hall of
the temple. There was a big crowd around him. He fasted totally. After
meditation, he would go to sleep and his devotees remain there, guarding him.
It was the fourth day of his fast.
At the end of the first day, late at night, he went into his inner sanctum and
ate the remaining food hastily. After that the vessel was empty. Raju felt that
Velan was responsible for his present plight. The villagers have killed the
crocodile and found in it the jewellery worth Rs.10000/-.
Raju made the resolution that he
would give up all his thoughts of food for the next ten days. For the first
time in his life he was making an earnest effort. For the first time he was
learning the thrill of full application, outside money and love. It gave him a
new strength to go through with the ordeal. He had been fasting to save humanity
from draught. He almost lost all sensations.
The special trains for the crowds
were going to Malgudi. The journalist had done their work. Gaffur’s taxi drove
up and down a dozen times a day. The crowd gathered near the river Sarayu at
Malgudi. The public swarmed their life flies. The Health Department came there
to prevent some epidemics of Cholera, Malaria and so on. A large crowd always
stood around and watched the Saint with profound awe. They touched the water at
his feet and sprinkled it over their heads. Velan asked them to go away. The
school master took charge of all telegrams and letters from all over the
country wishing the swami success. The pressmen were busy with their daily
business. The American visitor arrived in a jeep. He said, ‘Namaste’ to
Swamiji. His name is James J Malone from California and his business is
production and T.V. shows. Raju gave his consent. James J Malone asked him some
questions regarding his fast and Raju answered them just like a wise man.
The Government appointed some
doctors to look after Raju. American asked some questions to the doctors
regarding Raju’s health but they had no permission to answer. Then the American
asked the school teacher about Raju’s daily routine and the school master
explained him in detail and asked him to see tomorrow morning.
It was the eleventh day of fast. At
five thirty in the morning, the doctors declared the condition of Swami. The
government gave a top priority to save the life of Swami. Velan sat very close
to Swami. Raju asked him ‘help me to my feet’. Then he got up to his feet. He
went down the steps of the river. He stepped into his basin of water, shut his
eyes, and turned towards the mountains, muttering the prayer. He opened his
eyes, looked around and said, ‘Velan, it is raining in the hills. I can feel it
coming up under my feet, up my legs’, and with that he sagged down.
