A HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH DRAMA
BY DR. RAM SHARMA
SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH
J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT , U.P.
India has rich heritage of Drama from the ancient times .Drama in India begins its journey with the Sanskrit plays.A.L.Basham , a prominent historian , expresses his views in this manner ``The origin of Indian theatre is still obscure .It is certain , however that even in the Vedic period dramatic performances of some kind were given , and passing references in early resources point to the enaction at festivals of religious legends , perhaps only in dance and mime``1 Indian traditions are preserved in the "Natyasastra",. the oldest of the texts of the theory of the drama,.This play claims for the drama divine origin and a close connection with the sacred Vedas themselves. Origin of Indian English drama can be traced to the ancient rules and seasonal festivities of the Vedic Aryans. The dramatic performances of those times mainly included such events like depiction of events of daily life accompanied by music. Some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as animals like goats, buffaloes, reindeers and monkeys were chased by those, playing the roles of hunters and a mock hunt was enacted. In such a crude and a simple way was drama performed during the age of the Vedic Aryans. Later, different episodes from The Ramayana [ Ram Leela], The Mahabharata and The Bhagvadgita were chosen and dramatized in front of the people. This kind of performance is still very popular in India especially during the time of Dussehra, when the episode of the killing of Ravana is enacted out in different parts of country.
There are refrences to drama in Patanjali's Vyakarna Mahabhashya, as well as Vatsyayan's Kamasutra, Kautilya's Arthasastra and Panini's Ashtabhyam. Thus the origin of Sanskrit drama dates back to 1000 B. C. All literature in Sanskrit is classified into Drishya (that can be seen on exhibited) and the Sravya (that can be heard or recited). While poetry in all forms can be said to fall under the later, drama falls under the formes. Drama in Sanskrit literature is coverded under the broad umbrella of rupaka' which means depiction of life in its various aspects represented in forms by actors who assumes various roles.
A `rupaka' has ten classifications of which `Nataka' (drama), the most important one, has come to mean all dramatic presentations. The Sanskrit drama grows around three primary constituents namely Vastu (plot), Neta (hero) and Rasa (sentiment). The plot could be either principal (adhikarika) or accessory (prasangika). The former concerns the primary characters of the theme and pervades the entire play. The later serves to the further and supplement the main topic and relates to subordinate characters other than the chief ones. This is further divided into banner (pataka) and incident (parkari). The former is a small episode that presents, describes, improves or even hinders the primary plot to create added excitement. The latter involves, minor characters. The Neta or the hero, according to the definition prescribed by the Natyashastra, is always depicted as modest (Vineeta), sweet tempered (Madhura ) sacrificing (Tyagi), capable (daksha), civil in talks (priyamvada), belonging to a noble family (taptaloka), pure (suchi) articulate (vagmi), consistent (Sthera), young (yuva) endowed with intellect (buddhi) enthusiasm (utsaha), good memory (Smrthi) aesthetics (Kola), pride (maana) and is brave (Shura), strong (dridha) , energetic (tejaswi), learned (pandita) and pious (dharmika). The main category in which the hero of Sanskrit drama normally falls is the `Dheerodatta' that is he who is brave and sublime at the same time.
Bharata's Natyasastra is the most significant work on Indian poetics and drama. In it there is description in detail about composition, production and enjoyment of ancient drama, a wealth of information of types of drama, , stage equipment, production and music . According to the legend, when the world passed from the golden age to the silver age and people became addicted to sensual pleasures and jealousy, anger, desire and greed filled their hearts. The world was then inhabited by gods, demons, yakshas, rakshasas, nagas and gandharvas. It was the gods among them who led them by Lord Indra, approached god Brahma and requested him thus -
"Please give us something which would not only
teach us but be pleasing both to eyes and ears'.2
Bharata ascribed a divine origin to drama and considered it as the fifth Veda. Its origin seems to be from religious dancing. According to Bharata, poetry (kavya) dance (nritta), and mime (nritya) in life is play (lila) produce emotion (bhava) but only drama (natya) produces flavour (rasa). The drama uses the eight basic emotions of love, joy (humour), anger, sadness, pride, fear, aversion and wonder attempting to resolve them in the ninth holistic feeling of peace. Thus, when the dramatic art was well comprehended, the natyaveda was performed on the occassion of the celebration of Lord Indra's victory over the Asuras and danavas. In the Natyashastra there is a verse in its sixth chapter which can be quoted as Bharat Muni's own summary of his dramatic theory.
"The combinition called natya is a mixture of rasa, bhavas, ,vrittis, pravrittis, siddhi, svaros, abhinayas, dharmis instruments, song and theatre - house'.3
The most celeberated dramatists of the ancient era are Ashwaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidas, Harsha, Bhavabhuti, Visha-khadatta, Bhattanarayana, Murari and Rajeshkhora, who enriched Indian theatre with their words like Madhya-Mavyaayoda, Urubhangam, Karnabharan, Mrichkatikam, Abhigyana Shakuntalam, Malankagnimitram, Uttar Ramacharitam, Mudrarak, Shasa, Bhagavadajjukam, Mattavilasa etc.The supreme achievement of Indian Drama undoubtedly lies in Kalidasa who is often called the Shakespeare of India. The Sanskrit drama flourished in its glory till the 12th century in India when the Mohammedan intrusion shifted the Sanskrit stage. But till the 15th century, plays of Sanskrit tradition were performed on stage in Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Utter Pradesh and Gujarat but thereafter, Indian dramatic activity almost ceased due to foreign invasions on India.
The beginnings of Loknatya (People' Theatre) are noticed in every state of India from the 17th century onwards. We see in Bengal "Yatrakirtaniya' "Paol' and "Gaan' in Madhya Pradesh "Mach' in Kashmir "bhandya thar' and in Gujarat the forms were "Bhavai' and "Ramleela' in Northern India. There were "Nautanki, Bhand, Ramleela and Rasleela' in Maharashtra "Tamasha' in Rajasthan "Raas' and "Jhoomer' in Punjab "Bhangra' and "Song' while in Aasam it was "Ahiyanat' and "Ankinatya' in Bihar it was " "Videshiya' and "Chhari' in West Bengal and Bihar.
The rise of the modern drama dates back to the 18th century when the British Empire strengthened its power in India.As Krishna Kriplani points out , the modern Indian drama `Owed its first flowering to the foreign grafting.`With the impact of Western civilization on Indian life , a new renaissance dawned on Indian arts including drama. Futhermore ,English education gave an impetus and a momentum to the critical critical study of not only Western drama , but classical Indian drama .English and Italian dramatic troupes toured India and performed many English plays, mainly Shakerpeare`s, in cities like Bombay and Madras .The Portuguese brought a form of dance drama to the West coast. A Russian music director , Rebedoff , is saidto have produced the first modern drama in Calcutta towards the end of 18th century.Thus , the Western impact awakened `` the dormant , critical impulse in the country to bring Indians face to face with new forms of life and literature, and to open the way for a fruitful cross-fertilization of ideas and forms of expression``2 In 1765 one Russian drama lover Horasin Lebdef and Bengali drama lover Qulokhnath had staged two English comedies Disgaig and Love Is The Best Doctor. But the real beginning was in 1831 when Prasanna Kumar Thakur established "Hindu Rangmanch' at Calcutta and staged Wilson's English Translation Of Bhavabhuti's Sanskrit drama Uttar Ramacharitam. Social drama of Girish Chanda Ghosh, historical dramas of D.L. Roy and artistic dramas of Rabindranath Tagore (Muktadhara, Chandalika) continued to reach upto the stage of realistic dramas during the period of the Worst - ever famines of Bengal and the second World War. In 1852-1853, the famous Parsi Theatre was launched in Bombay which influenced the whole country in no time. Postagi Pharmji was the pioneer in establishing the Parsi Theatre company in India. Many new theatre experiences were brought up on stage during Parsi Theatre' evolution in India. On the other hand, the amateur theatre also developed with the works of Bharatendu Harishchandra, acclaimed as the father of Hindi drama.
Indian English drama was started when Krishna Mohan Banerji wrote "The Persecuted' in 1837. The real journey of Indian English Drama begins with Michael Madhusudan Dutt's `Is This Called Civilization`. which appeared on the literary horizon in 1871. Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, the two great sage - poets of India, are the first Indian dramatists in English . R.N. Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali but almost all his Bengali plays are available to us in English renderings. His prominent plays are Chitra, The Post Office, Sacrifice, Red Oleanders, Chandalika, Muktadhara, Natir Puja, The King of the Dark Chamber, The Cycle of Spring, Sanyasi and The Mother' Prayer. These plays are firmly rooted in the Indian ethos and ethics in their themes, characters and treatment.R.K Ramaswamy finds a depth and gravity of purpose in his dramatic art`` --- more than anything else , he has shown the way both in respect of ideas as well of methods , by which the soul of India could be realized and revealed in the realm od dramatic creation and representation`` Sri Aurobindo is the prominent dramatist in Indian English Drama.
He wrote five complete blank verse plays besides his six incomplete plays. His complete plays are Perseus the Deliverer, Vasavadutta, Radoguna, The Viziers of Bassora and Eric and each of these plays is written in five acts. His incomplete plays are The Witch of Ilni, Achab and Esarhaddon, The Maid and the Mill, The House of Brut, The Birth of Sin and Prince of Edur. The length of these incomplete plays varies from one scene of fifty two lines to three acts.
The notable feature of Sri Aurobindo’s plays is that they depict different cultures and countries in different epochs, ringing with variety of characters, moods and sentiments. Perseus the Deliverer is grounded on the ancient Greek myth of Persues, Vasavadutta is a romantic tale of ancient India. Rodoguna is a Syrian romance, The Viziers of Bassora is a romantic comedy which takes us back to the days of the great Haroun al Rashid, while Eric is a romance of Scandinavia, a story of love and war between the children of Odin and Thor.In Aurobindo we find romance, heroic play, tragedy, comedy, farce. Aurobindo is much influenced by Elizabethan drama in matters of plot construction and characterisation . The use of the English blank verse is flawless in Aurobindo and in the right tune with the characters and situations. We also find the impact of Sanskrit playwrights like Bhasa, Kalidas and Bhavabhuti on Aurobindo., as Dr. K. R. S. Iyenger observes,
“But all five plays are stepped in poetry and romance, recalling the spirit and flavour of the distinctive dramatic type exemplified in different ways by Bhasa, Kalidas and Bhavabhuti. Though, of course all have Aurobindonian undertones.”4
Another playwright who has made significant contribution in the growth of Indian English drama is Harindranath Chattopadhay. He started his career as playwright with Abu Hassan (1918). There are seven verse plays to his credit published under the title of Poems and Plays (1927) and all the seven plays are based on the lives of Indian saints. His Five Plays (1929) are written in prose . The Window and The Parrot deal with the lives of the poor. Whereas the Sentry’s Lantern is a symbolic display of the expectation of the advent of a new age for the downtrodden people. Sidhartha: Man of Peace is an adventurous effort to dramatise Budha’s life.
The next great name is A.S.P. Ayyar who wrote six plays. In the Clutch of The Devil (1926) is his first play and the last one is The Trial of Science for the Murder of Humanity.. P. A. Krishnaswamy is also a name in the history of Indian English drama whose fame rests chiefly on his unusual verse play The Flute of Krishna.
Another dramatic voice on the Indian literary scene that demands attention is that of T.P. Kailasam. He wrote both in English and Kannada. Though Kailasam is regarded as the father of modern Kannada drama, his genius finds its full expression in his English plays such as The Burden (1933), Fulfilment (1933), The Purpose (1944), Karna (1964) and Keechaka (1949). He has a real genius and love for the drama G. S. Amur holds a very high opinion about T.P. Kailasam. Amur rightly remarks------
“A talented actor who appeared on the amateur as well as the professional stage, he brought to the writing of drama an intimate knowledge of the theatre. It is for this reason that his plays whether in Kannada or English , have a uniform technical excellence.”5
Bharati Sarabhai is the modern woman playwright during the colonial era of Indian English drama. She has written two plays The Well of the People (1943) and Two Women with some considerable measure of success. Of these two plays, the former is symbolic, poetic and is besides a significant contribution to the Gandhian social order, while the letter is realistic, written in prose and probes the private world of a sensitive individual
J.M. Lobo Prabhu is the last great name in pre-Independence Indian English drama. He has written over a dozen plays but only Mother of New India: A Play of India Village in three Acts (1944) and Death Abdicates (1945) appear before Independence. His Collected Play was published in 1956. Lobo Prabhu is capable of writing dialogues with felicity, situation – creation is also admirable but his characters do not appear life like, soothing and convincing to the audience.
upto post – independence era, drama in English in Indian soil could not flourish as a major current of creative expression. Although the pre–Independence Indian English drama is notable for its poetic excellence, thematic variety, technical virtuosity, symbolic significance and its commitment to human and moral values, it was by and large not geared for actual stage production.
The post- Independence Indian English drama was benefitted by the increasing interest of the foreign countries in Indian English literature in general and Indian English drama in particular. A good number of plays by Indian playwrights Asif Currimbhoy, Pratap Sharma, Gurucharan Das was successfully staged in England and U.S.A. But the plight of Indian English drama is that no regular school of Indian English drama was established in our country. This was mainly because the encouragement drama received from several quarters immediately after India got freedom but it was monopolised by the theatre in the Indian regional languages while Indian English drama continued to feed on crumbs fallen from its rich cousins table.
The plays have been written in prose but at the same time poetic plays also survive in the post colonial era. M.K. Naik rightly opines “……. that Tagore-Aurobindo-Kailsam tradition of poetic drama continues, but which a difference in the hands of of poetic drama continues, but which a difference in the hands of Manjeri Isvaran, G.V. Desani, Lakhan Dev and Pretish Nandy.”7 Manjeri Isvaran’s Yama and Yami (1948) is a dialogue in poetic prose, with a prologue and an epitogue, dealing with the incestuous love of Yami for her brother. G.V.Desani’s Hali (1950), an entirely different kind of play, received high praise for its originality, symbolism and rich imagery.Regarding the message of the play Hali ,M.K.Naik remarks,
``Hali finds peace in the thought that man must transcend human love, go beyond life and death and even leaving behind his limited idea of godhead, develops in himself a god-like love and detachment``8 Lakhan Dev’s Tiger Claw (1976) is a historical play in three Acts on the controversial murder of Afzal Khan by Shivaji. His two plays are Vivekananda (1972) and Murder At The Prayer Meeting (1976). The use of blank verse is flawless and the last play compels us to remind of T.S.Eliot’ s Murder In The Cathedral. Other verse plays of the period include P.A.Krishnaswami’s The Flute of Krishna (1950) M.Krishnamurti’s The Cloth Of Gold (1951). S.D.Rawoot’s Immortal Song. Karm and The Killers (1959) Satya Dev Jaggi’s The Point Of Light (1967) Pritish Nandy’s Rites for a Plebian Salute (1969). Hushmat Sozerekashme’s Vikramjeet (1970), Sree Devi Singh’s The Purple Braided People (1970), P.S. Vasudev’s The Sunflower (1972) and S.Raman’s Karme (1979). The number of prose playwrights is larger in comparison to verse playwrights. The most prolific playwright of The Post-Independence period is Asif Currimbhoy, who has written and published more then thirty plays. Some important plays are The Tourist Meeca (1959), The Restaurant (1960) The Doldrumness (1960) The Captives (1963) Goa (1964), Monsoon (1965) An Experiment With Truth (1969) Inquilab (1970) The Refugee (1971), Sonar Bangla (1972) Angkor (1973) and The Dessident M L A (1974).Inspite of comprehensiveness , Currimbhoy`s dramatic art has been a subject of criticism for the lack of structured plot , embellished language and balanced characterization .His dialogue reflects the extreme poverty of invention and his language is not suitable to capture the internal drama of the clash of motives ``His symbols are often crude , conventional and mechanic but the greatest limitation of his technique is revealed especially in his later plays , in which Currimbhoy appears to confuse dramatic technique with theatrical trickery and stage gimmicks with dramatic experience``9
Pratap Sharma wrote two prose plays A Touch Of Brightness (1968) and The Professor Has A War Cry (1970). His plays were staged even abroad successfully but they failed to be staged in the country. Sex, moreover remains the prime theme of his plays but Pratap Sharma shows a keen sense of situation and his dialogue is often effective. Prof M.K.Naik appreciates his dramatic art for his keen sense of situation and effective dialogues.10
In the realm of Indian Drama , Nissim Ezekiel is acknowledged for his exceptional poetic creed and rare dramatic sensibility. Nissim Ezekiel’s Three Plays (1969) including Nalini: A Comedy, Marriage Poem: A Tragi Comedy and The Sleep Walkers: An Indo-American farce are considered to be a welcome addition to the dramaturgy of Indian English drama. Songs Of Deprivation (1969) is also a short play by Ezekiel. Gurucharan’s Larins Sahib (1970) a historical play, deal with Henry Lawrence of Panjab. The play Marriage Poem, presents the conflict of a middle class husband caught in the conflict of commitments of married life and the desire of love. The Sleep Walkers is a diverting take off on national preconceptions and prejudices. In spite of strong sense of dramatic concept, Ezekiel could not transform his poetic talent into appropriate dramatic talent. His plays can be appreciated for symmetrical construction with abundance of irony. They unveil his sharp observation of the oddities of human life and behaviour. Ezekiel’s poetics self swayed his dramatic creed but his plays make a ‘pleasant reading’. It is attributed
“In his satire of current fashion, in his exposure of prose and presence, Ezekiel comes very close to the spirit of some English social satirist in theatre”.11
Contemporary Indian drama, deviating from classical and European models, is experimental and innovative in terms of thematic and technical qualities. It is not an off spring of any specific tradition and it has laid the foundation of a distinctive tradition in the history of world drama by reinvestigating history, legend, myth, religion and folk love with context to contemporary socio-political issues. A cumulative theatrical tradition evolved by Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sirkar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad, prepared the background of contemporary Indian English theatre.
Girish Karnad in the capacity of writer, director and actor substantially contributed to enrich the tradition of Indian English theatre. His dramatic sensibility was moulded under the influence of touring Natak Companies and especially Yakshagana which was in those days not accepted as the purified art form. His well known plays are Yayati (1961), Tughlaq (1962), Hayvadana (1970), Nagmandala (1972). He borrowed his plots from history, mythology and old legends but with intricate symbolism, he tried to establish their relevance in contemporary socio-political conditions. The play Yayati reinterprets an ancient myth from Mahabharata in modern concept. The plot of the play Hayvadana is adopted from Katha Saritsagar, an ancient collection of stories in Sanskrit. Tughlaq is Karnad’s best historical play where he mingles facts with fiction. Karnad projects the curious contradictions in the complex personality of Sultan Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq. In the play Tale Dande, he discovers the vital relationship between contemporary society and literature. His use of myth as a structure and metaphor in his play gives “new meaning to the post from the vantage point of view of present”. In the play Nagmandala, the conflict is between patriarchal and matriarchal views of society. It is about the life of Rani, a typical Indian woman in male dominated society. She is married to Appanna, a wealthy village youth. The focus in the play is on sexual liberty of to sexes: male and female. In order to counter mail dominance, Karnad adopts a strange device in which King Cobre gets sexually involved with Rani and ultimately she becomes pregnant. Like his other female protagonist, she is encouraged to pass through chastity ordeal. Regarding the position of Rani, Smita Nirula holds,
“Rani is never free to express herself, to be herself. She is either daughter, wife, lover or mother. She is always playing a role imposed upon her, except in her dreams in the lonely nights that engulf her. She is a woman used, abused. She can either live as a whore or a Devi. There is no element of person for her”12
Karnad’s dramatic art lacks stability still his success lies in technical experiment with an indigenous dramatic form. The collective efforts of Karnad and Karalam Narayana Pannikar are significant in their binding of the traditional forms of Indian theatre with the modern. Born in 1828, Vijay Tendulkar began his career as a journalist but from the very first play Grihasth in 1955 to Safar in 1992, his plays have given Indian theatre a rich and challenging reprtoire. Leading the Vanguard of the avant-garde Marathi Theatre, Vijay Tendulkar symbolizes the new awareness and attempts of Indian dramatists of the century to depict the agonies, suffocations and cries of man, focusing on the middle class society. In all his plays, he harps upon the theme of isolation of the individual and his confrontation with the hostile surroundings. Influenced by Artaud, Tendulkar, relates the problem of anguish to the theme of violence in most of his plays. He does not consider the occurrence of human violence as something loathsome or disgusting in as much as it is in note in human nature.He says,
“Unlike the communists I don’t think violence can be eliminated in a classless society, or for that matter, in any society. The spirit of aggression is something that human being is born with. Not that it is bad. Without violence man might have turned into a vegetable.”13
While depicting violence on the stage, Tendulkar does not dress it up with any fancy trapping so as to make it palatable but rather keep it row and natural. The plays Chimanicha Ghor Hote Menache (1960) Kalojanchi Shalai (1968), Ek Holti Mugli (1967) reflect Tendulkar’s concern with authority and the idea of exploitation of individual. In the plays Silence! The Court Is In Session (1968) and Ghasiram Kotwal (1972), the theme of oppression dominates. Sakharam Binder (1972) is a study in human violence amounted to powerful dramatic statement. Kamala (1982) and Kanyadaan (1982) are written on the lines of naturalistic tradition. Kamala is a study of marital status as well as study in the theme of exploitation. Kanyadaan is a complex play about the cultural and emotional upheavals of a family. Tendulkar was associated with New Theatrical Movement in Maharashtra. He presents a fictional reality in which the reality of life acquires a sharp focused character having rare dramatic power.
Badal Sircar too is a prestigious name in the realm of contemporary theatre. He represents New Theatrical Movement in India. He has created an appropriate ‘puples’s theatre’ a theatre supported and created by people. His dramatic career began with humorous play like solution X. His earlier plays are Evan Inderjit (1962) That Other History (1964) and There Is No End (1971). All these plays are based on political, social, psychological and existential problems. Evan Inderjit, is a tale of a playwright who struggle in vain to write a play. In the play There’s No Need Sircar develops the thesis that “We are all accused” and share the burden of guilt. Afterwards, he wrote Pary Konodin, Jadi Aur Ek Baar, Palap and Pagla Ghoda. His later plays Procession, Bhoma and Stale News are based on the concept of Third Theatre. The play Procession is about the search for a ‘real home’ in new society based on equality. It suggests a ‘real way’ to new way in which man does not have to live exploiting man but should work according to his own needs. Bhoma is a dramatization of the life of oppressed peasants in sexual India. The analysis of these three plays suggest remarkable changes in Sircar’s concept of a ‘real home’ a new society based on equality and free from the horrors of exploitation. Tendulkar in 1967, established his theatre group called ‘ Satabdi .’ sircar’s first contact with Grotowski’s ‘Poor Theatre’ influenced him greatly in formulating his Third Theatre. In Indian English drama the influence of Mohan Rakesh can not be ignored. Hr wrote in Hindi but for exceptional dramatic relevance, his plays have been translated in English and other regional languages. He published his first major play Ashadh Ka Ek Din in 1958, Leharon Ke Rajhansa appeared in 1963 and Adhe Adheere was first staged in 1969. The play Pair Tale Ki Zamin was completed by Kamleshwar after his death and published in 1974.
As a playwright, his main concern was to portray the crisis of contemporary man caught in the web of uncongenial surroundings and the persistent threat to human relationship. Mohan Rakesh perceived drama as a complex art involving the uniform contribution of actors, scenic effects, light and music and effective stage direction. Mohan Rakesh made extensive experiments in theatre. He used words and languages not as dialogues or direct statements but as the tools of suggestion to convey the meaning beyond the verbal connotation. In Ashadh Ka Ek Din, he highlights the dangers of sycophancy that whitess of his age face in desire of dignified official position. In Leharon Ka Rajhans, he reflects on the problem of relations between man and woman, ego clashes, divided self and on going illusion and nothingness. Adhe Adhure deals with the clash of ego between husband and wife, disintegration of family relationship, the prominence of individual interest against the commitments of the family. Besides, women dramatists also tried to enrichthe soil of Indian drama by projecting the inner world of feminine psyche in the theatre. Women’s theatre coalesces with Street Theatre movement, using the same technique in performance and production. It can be attributed as a ‘Theatre Of Protest’ because women wuters expressed their resentment against the politics of exploitation on the basis of gender discrimination. They also revived the traditional myths of Sita and Savitri and tried to reinterpret the epics from women’s point of view. The dramatic work of Usha Ganguli and Mahasweta Devi can be placed in their category. MahasWeta Devi emerged as a dramatist having a quest to explore something challenging and new. His five plays are Mother of 1084, Aajer Urvashi O’ Johny, Byen and Water. The play Mother of 1084, is a moving account of the anguish of an apolitical mother who had witnessed the horrors of Naxalite Movement. In Aajir, Mahasweta Devi deals with the issue of the fast deterioration of values and their effects on society, particularly on illiterate people. Urvashi O’ Johnny is a play written for emergency through the love affair of Johnny with Urvashi, a talking doll. The play Bayen presents a moving account of harsh reality of a woman,s life in rural India. The play Water, is the story of a professional water-diviner, Maghai Done who is an untouchable boy. Her plays represent a profound concern for human predicament and sincere hope for the better future of mankind.
Mahesh Dattani
Mahesh Dattani is arguable one of the best playwrights the country has ever produced. Born in Banglore on 7th August 1958, Dattani studied in of his preference for English as a medium of expression was almost obsessed to represent Indian soil and sensibility in the wake of globalization.His famous plays are ` Where There is a Will, Final Solutions, Dance like a Man, and Tara`
Indian English drama has registered a remarkable growth and maturity through English translations of Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Kannada plays. During his college career, in early 1980’s he joined Bangalore Little Theatre and starting taking part in workshops, acting and directing plays. He learned the lessons in western ballet under morly Andre at Alliance Francaise De Bauglore (1984-87) along with the training of Bharatnatyam under the guidance of Chandrabhaga Devi and Krishna Rao Bangalore (1986-90). The interest in dance and ballet encouraged him to begin his own theatre to give a concrete shape to abstract ideas. He founded a theatre group Playpen in 1984. He directed several plays ranging from Classical Greek tradition to his own time. He was already confronting the essential problem. Dattani speaks of his choice of English as his medium as one that is home grown and Indian a ‘hybrid language’ that is spoken normally and unobtrusively, in an uninhibited way, as a matter of course by his characters who are essentially Indian. “………. You have got to be true to your expression also. English is for me a short of given. It’s my language as it is to a lot of Indians here and abroad. (Menol and Prakash, 2003).
For his distinctive achievements, Dattani received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of plays Final Solution and other plays, published by East West Books Chennai. He is the first Indian playwright writing in English who got this prestigious award. His art was appreciated for the diversity of themes, the awareness for the issues responsible for tension in contemporary society and exceptionally brilliant contribution for technical innovations. It is cited in the attribute of Sahitya Aakademi “ “ [Dattani’s work ] probes, tangled attitudes is contemporary India towards communal differences consumersiv and gender- - - a brilliant contribution to Indian Drama in English.”17
Dattani ’s dramatic art is inspired by the mission to communicate profound meaning through his plays and, therefore, he exhibits keen awareness for the direction and stage performance of his own plays. Dattani teaches theatre courses at the summer session programme of Portland State University, Oregon. USA and conducts workshops regularly at his studio and outside it. His international reputation is based on his writing credentials which include playes like Where There’s A Will, Tara, Bravely Fought The Queen, Final Solutions and Muggy Night In Mumbai. Besides, he wrote for Radio plays Clearing The Rubble, The Swami and Winston, Uma and Fairy Queen and A Tale of Mother Feeding Her Child. Dattani’s conviction that the production of a film and screen play is a different experience and not necessarily, hierarchical. Dattani’s early screenplays include Hum Tum Or Who, Ek Chingair Ki Khoj Mein, Ek Alag Mausam and the screen adaptations of Dance Like A Man and Mango Souffle. It is here that he writes his plays using a computer, working on the performance dynamics, staging a small production. Conducting a theatr workshop or even hosting an exhibition
“My milierr is theatre. You can not operate in isolation - - - I do want a theatre movement to happen. The major block for that is lack of sound training and professional. We have the talent, but theatre is more than that, it’s a craft of communicating through the language of action.” (Dasgupta, 2001) 18
Given his chosen medium of expression, the language of his plays obviously restricts a wider, more expansive, grassroots audience in India. That is not exactly the kind of audience that he is looking for, in every case, as he claims that he writes for the Urban Indian upper and middle class audience and not for the working class audience:
“The more your basic needs are taken care of, the more space have to reflect on certain things. Whereas , if you don’t have that space and are concerned 24 hours about your basic needs, then you want to escapee into something else [ - - ] (Vardhan, 2004 ).19
The play Tara was first performed as Twinkle Tara at Chidian Memorial Hall, Bangalore on 23rd October 1990 by Playpen, Performing Arts Group. The plot of the play revolves round the family of Mr. Patel. It is related with the life of congenial twins, one girl and one boy who are joined together at the hip. Chandan is the son and Tara is the daughter. They are to be separated through a surgical operation which will mean the danger to life of one of them and in this operation mother prefers that child should be stronger. The operation was arranged in such a manner that Chandan got the loose of life and poor Tara was left cripple. She was too innocent to realize the ho…….of tragedy. It was all arranged by Bharati, mother of Tara. After the operation, the idea of self guilt grips her conscience. Not only Bharati but Chandan also suffers for the conscious injustice done to Tara. To get rid of the shadows of horrible memories, Chandan decides to escape to London. His anguish was so intense that he failed to get rid of his personal guilt and only confessed “forgive me Tara, forgive me for making it my tragedy.” 15The play is woven of the complex web of relationships. Dattani pleads for two issues, the gender discrimination and the corruption prevalent in medical profession along with concern for the detoriation of values oin general.
Bravely Fought The Queen was written in 1991 and performed at the Sophia Bhabha Hall, Mumbai on 2nd August 1991, Michael Walling while commenting on the British production of Bravely Fought The Queen Admits
“ Post- colonial India and multi culture Britain both have an urgent need for a cultural expression of the contemporary they require public spaces in which the mingling of eastern and western influences can take
place.”
The play is set around on Indian family in which the male authority is represented by to sons Jitin and Nitin, the co – part -ness of an advertising agency. The claustrophobia of domesticity and confined space is apparent through their wives Dolly and Alka, the to sisters married to two brothers. Women manage household affairs where they have to look after their ageing mother – in - law Bua. Her presence undercutting the apparent naturalism and upsetting the fragile frictions which the characters had created. The play is a dramatic representation of the emptiness and shame in the lives of its cloistered women and self – indulgent unscrupulous men lost in the web of terrible secrets deception and hypocrisy. The text is classified in three acts titled ‘women’ ‘Me ’ and ‘Fue For All’. The act one exposes the ‘female’ would marked by claustrophobic spaces, second act is ‘male’ would of business and in the third act both the worlds are exposed in the background of family setting. The play aims at tearing the veil of the filthy realities and gruesome truth lie behind the presence of conservative Indian morality. Besides the issues of gender and sexual identity, Dattani also exhibits his concern for sexual abuse, alcoholism, adultery and homosexuality. The play is a remarkable achievement from the angle of theatrical techniques. In the play Bravely Fought The Queen, the female protagonists are not sinner but the silent sufferers for the wrong doing of their companions. Dattani’s approach to female suffering is not sentimental but a bit rational and argumentative. In one of his interview with Lakshmi Subhramanyam, he categorically confessed,
“ I am not sure I have portrayed the women as victims of their own rage and repression . This has serious consequences on the lives of women”20
Dance Like A Man is a play related with gender issues with an exceptional originality of conception. The social myth that male and female roles are predecided in social order and the efforts to cross the boundaries prose a prelude to the confrontation between individual’s choices and the exceptions of society is the central motif in the play. He deals with the crisis of three generations in the family of Amritlal, an Image of a dictatorial household. The text is fo.……. on the life of Ratna and Jairaj, classical dancers based in Bangalore. They reflect on their past how it moulds and modifies their identities in the present. Jairaj has an innate passion for the classical dance Bharatnatyam. Amritlal being disgusted with the effeminate nature of the art of dance, tries his best to dissuade his son from pursuing his career in dancing. He contrives a conspiracy with Ratna to empower the passion of Jairaj. This conspiracy adversely affects the personal relationship of Ratna and Jairaj. Their discontent subsequently casts its gloomy shadows on the life of Lata, their daughter. They thrusted their ambitions on her. Lata decides to marry Vishwas, how had no objection in their art. Lillette Dubey Done more than 150 productions of the play and bought world recognition to Dattani’s dramatic art. He said
“ It is beautifully crafted. The way it moves back and forth in time, its use of one actor to play more that one role which really test the actor’s talent and it has strong characterization and the ‘seamless’ movement in time.”21
It is an argument in favour of male identity or the identity of an artist against female autonomy.
The play On A Muggy Night In Mumbai is the first of its kind elevating prestige to the global level. It was first performed at the Tara theatre. Mumbai on 23rd November 1998. Here Dattani takes the issue of the identity of Gays and Lesbians. In spite of social taboos, the compulsive suppression of their irresistible urge, they too are the part of Indian social life. It is a pathetic and daring dramatization of the anguish of a Gay, who finds it impossible to reveal his personal life and ultimately falls in depression. In order to come out of the bouts of depression, he us…… a homophobic psychiatrist and ultimately comes to the harsh realization
“ I would never be happy as a gay man. It is impossible to change society - - - but it may be possible for
you to reorient yourself –” (69)
The play begins with the interrogation “If two men want to love each other, what is the problem?” Kiran, the only lesbian in the play defending the position of her brother Kamlesh, a gay admits “I really wish they would allow gay people to marry” but the social apathy has been utilized in the cynical reply to Ranjit “ They do, only to the same sex.”20 With the release of this play, the identity of Dattani has been established as a socio- radical thinker to open the gates of Indian theatre to handle the sensitive issues like the conflict of gays, lesbians, homosexuality and social conventions. He seems to be preoccupied with the problem – the predicament of human ambitions against the expectations of social order. Keeping it in mind the multidimensional conflicts and the complex structure of identity. Dattani receasted it under the little Mango Souffle. It is the first Indian feature film to address homosexuality, addressing gay issues within the traditional society of India. Dattani calls it a ‘metrosexual’ or ‘metrocentric’ love story. It is to cater the interest of urban English speaking audience in India and the audience of Indian Diaspora all over the world. It has been established
“ The movie is targeted at urban audience since it is all about urban life and urban relationship.” 22
Do The Needful, is a dramatic narrative to defend the societal conflicts and familial relationship of gays. The issue of alternate sexuality is dramatized around the idea of India idea of arranged marriage. The play was first broadcasted on 14th August 1997 by B. B. C Radio. The play is about Alpesh and Lata. Alpesh is a gay and idea of heterosexual marriage was a serious below to him. Lata in love with Salim, a terrorist. Both these relationship are prohibited according to cultural practices of society. Lata implores
“ Please, Amma please don’t insist I agree to this ! you are ruining my life.”23
Alpesh also finds himself lost in the chaos of personal choices and the dreams of his conventional parents.
“ Is it - - it is very important for me to get married? I don’t want to get married? Dattani explores the crisis with a comprehensive realization of the helplessness of human ambitions. The vision of dramatist takes recourse to a reflective turn in his conviction that the formed institution of marriage is a burden to individual’s free will. It is attributed”24.
Dattani manages to enmesh the dominant issue of homosexuality and gender, arriving at an ingenious solution that finds liberation in the teaming up of two sub……… ( Lata / Alpesh) With different agendas (Salim / Trilok) against the hegemony of a common oppressor the family / society.”
The trio logy Seven Steps Round The Fire, Swami And Winston and Uma and The Fairy Queen can be placed in the category of detective plays. Here Dattani, ventures to pull the curtain to expose the word of crime, conspiracy violence, treachery and manipulation of human motives. In all these plays plots unfold through the consciousness and efforts to Uma Rao, a researcher in sociology. She is the wife of Suresh Rao, the Police or superintendent. She reinvestigates three different cases of murder ignoring the restrictions imposed by husband. However, by the end of the revelation of mystery, she finds herself lost in her personal dilemma.
The play Seven Steps Around The Fire was first broadcasted as Seven Circles Around The Fire by B.B.C Radio on 9th January 1999. The play was first performed on stage at the Museum theatre, Chennai by MTC Production. Here Dattani expresses his concern for eunuch – community who are destined to pass the life of marginalized sections. Uma comes to know about the murder of innocent Kamala, an eunuch. Police tries to establish that Anar Kali, the chief of eunuch – community, is responsible for the murder. Uma is not convinced by the apathy of Suresh and becomes restless to unveil the mystery of murder. Uma with her humanitarian insight develops sisterly affinity with them. The reality of the murder was horrible because her own husband was involved in that loathsome act. In this play, the human touch and Dattani’s endeavour to discover the zest of life of marginalized in praise worthy.
In The Swami And Winston Uma in vertigates another case. She comes to investigate the case of the death of English man Mr. Winston. A Burkeberry Raincoat and mischievous dog provide a clue to the identity of murder.
Uma and Fairy Queen was first broadcasted on 15th August 2003 at 3:00 P.M. on B.B.C Radio. There was a stage production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The actor playing the role of Oberon is Kidnapped. He only appears at the crucial moment when he is expected to play his part. In the course of stage production, he again disappears and subsequently found dead in the Greenroom by Nila Ahmad, his famous Pakistani wife and co – star. Uma suspects that murder is not motivated by martial problem or political intrigue. In the dialogue. “I do but beg a little changing boy.” Strikes in her head with the help of Hiam Tate. British cultural Ambassador, Uma outwits her husband and unveils the mystery of Michael’s murder.
Morning raga is a screen play and it has be transcribed as a film script. It was released in India on 22th October 2004. Its premier was a part of the Cairo Film Festival in December 2004. The play is centred round the life of a Carnatic singer Swarnlatha. Regarding the purpose of screen play, Dattani admits
“It is about a meeting of two world, story that begins together the modern and the traditional unites the past with the present carnatic music with Western music fate and coincidence with individual choices.”25
Abhinay is enchanted by Swarnlatha’s art of singing and he has taken it as a challenge to unite the two. His father does not favour Swarnlatha could not tolerate this insult of music and only admits “ I will sing for you” and here lies the mystery of impersonal relationship between characters. The existence of past in sustained with the image of violin at the cen……. It also gives in sight into Swarnlatha’s mind that she holds herself responsible for the death of Abhinay’s mother. The obsession of Swarnlatha for the violin and music provide a very strong dramatic situation with an exceptional touch of sentimentalism.
Final Solutions was first performed at Guru Nanak Bhavan, Bangalore on July 10, 1993. The play was subsequently performed at Tara Theatre Mumbai on 11th December 1993. This play is about communal violence, the uncompromising hatred between Hindus and Muslims. It is attributed as play about ‘transferred resentment’ and about looking for a scapegoat to not out at when we feel let down humiliated. Dattani here treads the ground that prejudices are the integral part of human psyche and they can be shaken only through love and compromise. He reflects on the horrors of communal harmony for both the communities – Hindu and Muslim. The chorus is used in the play, to express the roots of resentment existing in two communities. There are reflections of suffocation in the family of Ram….. Gandhi. Smita criticizes her mother, Aruna, for her orthodoxy. Her husband has an exchange with Javed but none is wiser to draw a conclusion. Smita already knows Javed and Bobby when they seek shelter after being hounded by a mob. She conceals the fact of her relationship with Javed and Bobby. The significant scene in the play is when Bobby touches Krishna’s idol, To Javed he teaches
“See ! Javed ! He doesn’t humiliate you. He doesn’t crying from my touch. He welcomes the warmth of my hand.”26
In a note on the play, Director Alyque Padamsee says
“The mob in the play too is symbolic of our haterd paranoia. Each member of the mob is an individual yet
they meld into one something whole as room as politicians play on their fears and anxieties.”27
Dattani is certainly a new an unconventional voice in Indian theatre . The echo of his theatrical art both in terms of form and content anticipates his prominence in the theatrical world at global level . The flexibility and ease of expression , breaking the barriers of tight fisted dramaturgy and initiating a penetrating in sight into the psycho – philosophical spectrum of human behaviour affecting human relationship at personal and interpersonal level , would add new dimensions to the are of theatrical canons. In Dattani’s dramatic world, drama instead of being an expression of art, has become a realization of life and it is a preface to the tradition of unconventional popular, Indian theatre. At Mahesh Dattani is at the peak of his creative powers, continuously experimenting with new forms and manners of expression. As a playwright he will never be stereotypical. The varied content of his plays seldom have his characters mouthing quotable lives, nor d---------- his thematic material rise to extraordinary heights. But what makes Mahesh Dattani one of India’s finest playwrights is perhaps his manner of speaking to the audience with complete honesty. For the moment, he seems to have found the right combination where his art is not compromised upon and yet makes commercial sense. His expectations of his audience are high, and he does not provide quick or expedient endings, only perhaps a kind of insight into their own lives.
Notes and References
1-A.L.Basham:The Wonder that Was India,Rupa &co, New Delhi, 1987, pp434-435
2-Bharat Gupt,Dramatic Concepts:Greek and Indian-A Study of Poetics and Natya Shastra[ New Delhi, D.K.Printworld,1994,] p-86
3- A.B.Keith; The Sanskrit Drama, Motilal Banarasidas, Delhi, 1992, p-12
4-
4. Kirplani, Krishna, Literature of Modern India, New Delhi: National Book Trust ,1982]p-40
5-Shastri, Ramaswami, Rabindranath Tagore ; The Poet and Dramatist, Calcutta : Oxford University Press,1948, p-47
6-K.R.S Iyenger-Indian Writing In English , New Delhi, Sterling, 1985, p-226
7-G.S.Amur- Kailasam`s Quest for Greatness[ Critical Essays on Indian Writing In English]Macmillan , Madras, 1977p-186
8-M.K.Naik-A History of Indian English Literature, Sahitya Akademi , New Delhi, 1995, p-256
9-ibid p-257
10- ibid p-260
11 Chetan Karnani, Nissim Ezekiel , New Delhi : Arnold Heinmann, 1974, p-126
12-Narula, Samita-``Evolving Mixed Feelings` The Pioneer ,11 sept, 1988
13-Sachidanand Mohanty : Theatre : Reaching Out to People, The Hindu, New Delhi, February, 14, 199p-5
14-Ayyar, Raj-`Mahesh Dattani Gay Cinema Comes of Age` GAY Today-8,48,2004
15-Menon,Rajiv and K.S.Prakash`Theatre to Morning Raga`, The Hindu , Hyderabad, 2nd July, 2003
16Padamsee, Alyque, `A Note on the Play, `Collected Plays, p.156
17-Dasgupta, Uma Mahadevan- `The Minute I Write A Play, I Want to Direct It`
18-Vardhan Manisha,`I`m no Crusader`, I`m a theatre person
19-Martin Esslin, TheField of Drama :How the signs of drama create meaning on stage and screen, London and Newyork;Methusen ,1987,p-28,
20-Lakshmi Subramanyam[ed]-Maffled Voices; Women in Modern Indian Theatre , New Delhi , Shakti,2002, p-134,
Saturday, July 3, 2010
‘ QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY IN MANJU KAPUR`S NOVEL ` HOME`
‘ QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY IN MANJU KAPUR`S NOVEL ` HOME`
BY . DR. RAM SHARMA , SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH , J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.
Quest for feminine identity is largely a Post-Independence social phenomenon in India, a phenomenon influenced by various changing forces of reality - freedom movement, progressive education, social reforms, increasing contacts with the west, urban growth etc. The emergence of women writers in the last quarter of the 19th century carried with it a double significance. It bore testimony to the birth of a new era of emancipation for the Indian women, an era of increased opportunities and a more dynamic participation in the social and intellectual life of the country ushered in by the great social reorientations which came at the turn of the century. Secondly, it was also a commentary on the rise of individualism in the life and letters of the age, an individualism which is closely associated with the rise of the novel in India in the same way in which it was associated with the rise of the English novel. Feminism emerged as a worldwide movement to secure women's rights on the one hand and love, respect, sympathy and understanding from males on the other. It focused on women's struggle for recognition and survival and made them realize that the time has come when they should stop suffering silently in helplessness.
Gayatri chakravorty Spivak writes in her article "Can, the Subaltern speak?"
"Between patriarchy and imperialism subject constitution and object formation the figure of woman disappears not into a pristine nothingness, but into a violent shuttling which is the displaced figuration of the 'Third - World Woman' caught between tradition and modernization."(p-80)
Simone De Beauvoir has very precisely exposed the condition of woman in her most famous book 'The Second Sex'. Of course, the miserable condition of woman all over the world inspired the women of talent like Virginia Woolf to do something in this field and the result was the emergence of Feminism, a great movement in the western world in 1960. It is a movement for the emancipation of women and their fight for equal rights. The condition of woman is equally miserable in Indian society. The Indian society is basically patriarchal where a woman is given the secondary role.
The modern woman does not find any sense in such self-sacrifice and yearns for self-expression, individuality and self-identity. She is trying to free herself of the dependence syndrome as says Chaman Nahal—
"I define Feminism as a mode of existence in which the woman is free of the dependence syndrome. There is a dependence syndrome, where it is the husband or the father or the community or whether it is a religions group, ethnic group when women free themselves of the dependence syndrome and lead a normal life, my idea of feminism materializes."(p-30)
.Simone de Beauvoir expresses his own views on man - woman nexus --- man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general, where as woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria without reciprocity." (Seldom; 1988 : 534)
A woman is never regarded as an autonomous being since she has always been assigned a subordinate and relative position. "Man can think of himself without woman. She can not think of herself without man. And she is simply what man decrees ---. She appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex.... absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to man and not he with reference to her, she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential." (Seldom, 1988 : 534
Home’ (2006) is the third novel of Manju Kapur. This is a fast
moving story which makes an ordinary middle class family’s life in Delhi. The patriarch of this family is Banwari Lal, a cloth businessman who lives with his family in New Delhi neighbourhood of Karol Bagh. Banwari Lal has two sons and one daughter. Elder is Yashpal, younger is Pyare Lal and daughter’s name is Sunita who is already married to a person named Murli before the beginning of the novel.
Who is married to Murli a person beyond the status of Banwari Lal in views as well as in money. It seems that Sunita likes the boy that’s why she is married to him.
The Banwari Lal family belongs to a class whose skills have been honed over generations to ensure prosperity in the market place. From an early age children are trained to maintain the foundation on which these homes rested. The education they received, the values they imbibed, the alliances they made has everything to do with protecting the steady stream of gold and silver that burnished their lives. Banwari Lal is a believer in the old ways. Men work out of the home, women within. Men carry forward the family line, women enable their mission. His two sons unquestioningly follow their father in business and in life but their wives do not. Neither does his grand daughter who makes choices considered unavailable to the women to the family.
At the beginning of the story Sona Lal and Rupa Gupta both sisters are childless. Sona is the wife of Yashpal who falls in love while Sona with her mother comes from Meerut to match a blouse in preparsion to attend an uncle’s wedding.
Sona’s mother considers that it is necessary for marriageable girls to blossom during such occasions, it being likely that among the guests a boy, or better still his parents, can cast a glance and held it steadily upon her person.
With this in mind, the mother with her daughters is shopping in Karol Bagh determines that her daughters should look their best for every function. Yashpal falls in love and enquires all necessary details. Next morning he puts the address on his father’s hand and says he should go and talk to the family without delay. If he could not marry her he would leave the shop and spend the rest of his life celibate, by the bank of the Ganges.
Banwari Lal consults to a holy man, a Baba and settles the matter. Although Sona’s family is not as rich as Yashpal’s family. In marriage they can offer nothing but their daughter whose heart is golden like her name.
Their marriage is performed. But her mother-in-law is not pleased and she passes taunts. This makes Sona unhappy but Yashpal consoles her saying that when we have children, mother will forget all this. But unfortunately Sona could not conceive for a long time. By this time Pyare Lal is also married to Sushila who gives birth to a boy within one year of the marriage. Sona feels very bad and thinks that it may be the result of her past Karma, Sona keeps fast but it is of no use. During this period Yashpal’s sister burns herself and dies. As the family receive the news, they leave for Bareilly. Here Sona’s mother-in-law mourns, Sona tries to consols her.
‘Sleep now, Maji, sleep you will make yourself ill if you cry like this, and it will not bring her back.
The old woman glared at Sona and spat out, you think sleep is possible? What can you know of a mother’s feelings? All you do is enjoy life, no children, no sorrow, only a husband to dance around you, Sona is already mentally disturb to hear the taunt of her. Her father-in-law comes back with Vicky ten years old. The Boy is pushed towards Sona.
Sona has to take care of Vicky Sona discusses her matters to Rupa and tells that her life has become unbearable ever since Sushila has entered in the house.
‘Ever since that woman has come, my life has been a misery’ (P- 24.) Yashpal feels that Sona is not feeling well so he makes plan to visit a shrine at Chitai, near Almora Though the shrine is small it is famous, the Devi of these hills is said to have miraculous powers.
Rupa & Premnath also joins them. After two mothers Sona discovers that she has conceived. Sona feels it is because of Devi. Later on Sona gives birth to a girl. Nisha is declare as a Mangli. Nisha grows up as a beautiful girl and after Nisha, Sona gives birth to Raju. Now Vickey starts going to shop and there is some relax for Sona. Who does not like Vickey’s activities. By the time Vickey is fifteen and he begins to take interest in Nisha. Nisha cannot understand his intension. Nisha becomes mentally disturbed and nobody could understand why she is not eating, sleeping. So she is sent to Rupa’s Home for a change. Here she has no problem at all. Rupa & her husband Premnath understand all that there is a hand of Vicky behind Nisha’s miserable condition.
Nisha now finds herself in an atmosphere very different from the one she has lived in. As the only child she is the centre of interest, concern and attention. The pattern of Nisha’s next ten years is not set. She passes all week with her aunt and uncle. Premnath teaches her and brings a lot of things. Here Nisha flourishes as the most beautiful girl. On the other hand Vicky passes class X with third Division & Yashpal argues that he should go back to his father. So Banwari Lal with Vickey visits Bareilly but his father refuses to keep him pretending so many reason. Now Banwari Lal thinks about his marriage and performs it with Asha. Soon Asha gives birth to Virat. After a long illness Banwari Lal also dies and the whole burden comes to Yashpal, being the elder one. Nisha also returns her home to accompany her grand mother. Ajay’s marriage takes place a year after his grandfather’s death and after it Vijay Marriage.
The Board results are out Raju in Class X has barely scraped through with a 45 percent overall aggregate.
Nisha was a mangli. A mangli, destined to marry unfortunately, destined for misery, unless a similar mangli could be found, with a similar fate and horoscope. To do this would take time, and during that time perhaps an education? Not too much just a bit & Nisha enters in Durga Bai College for doing English Honours. In College Nisha’s best friend is Pratibha. Soon Nisha meets a boy Suresh who is studying in Khalsa College of Engineering. They become friendly within two or three meetings. Both fall in love and wonder here and there in each other’s company. She now totally changes.
‘Who gave you permission to cut your hair, suddenly you have become so independent, you decide things on your own, where did you find the money, the time, the beauty parlour, where did you find all these things?’ (P- 150)
The academic session is coming to close. Nisha has had a difficult year and now she feels nervous.
‘I can’t meet you, I have to study, I have to get a second division at least’, she told Suresh, ‘Arre yaar, what does it matter? It’s impossible to do badly in English.’ (P-152)
Suresh purchases St. Stephen’s tutorials from Daryaganj at Sunday bazaar and gives to Nisha. Nisha with the help of these notes gets success and gets first division. Nisha and Suresh continue their routine in next year also.
As for Nisha, her uncle’s training has stood her in good stead. With family wedding, she has still been able to obtain a 70 percent in Humanities. The uncle is thanked profusely for the care he has taken of his niece.
By this time Pyare Lal has two daughter-in-law so he feel uncomfortable in the house where there is no seprate bathroom for them. So he consults his brother to reconstruct the home again. Yashpal says nothing at the moment. Her wife also does not like the reconstruction. Yashpal says-
‘It was not his fault. He was the youngest, what could he do by himself? Now he had sons, daughter in law and grand children, now he was a patriarch in his own right.’ (P-170)
So they all moves out of the house Hotel Palace Heights in Karol Bagh. By now Nisha in her third year. Nisha enjoys in company of Suresh. He takes her to the room in Vijay Nagar where he tries to make sexual relation with her but could not successed.
On the way back Nisha remarks if he is so keen to do all this, why does not he make his parents talk to her parents? Let the whole thing be clear.
Towards the end of Nisha’s third year her parents receives a letter from the college authorities. Their daughter is short of attendance, and will not be allowed to sit for exams. Now parents enquires the reason, but Nisha does not tell directly and sents Suresh to meet at the shop. Now all things become clear & Yashpal enquires all things. Finally he declares him unfit for the girl. All day she remaines in the house, a prisoner of her deed, a prisoner of their words. Once she gets a chance to go with her masi Rupa & arrenges to meet him. Here Suresh finally declares that he cannot marry her & leaves her. Nisha’s nights are now ones of restlessness. After three years of thinking that Suresh is her future, Nisha will have adjust to the idea of another man in his place. Later on she badly suffers from eczema. This disease affects her a lot. This period had very important for Nisha’s coming future but it had passed in this fatal eczema.
This condition of Nisha remains same for a long period. Parents have been worrying, daughter getting older by the minute, son’s future blocks because of this, good matches will pass over because of this. One day a proposal comes from a richer branch of Rekha’s family showrooms in Karol Bagh and South Extension. Pyare Lal tells his brother that this type of proposal does not come daily so without any delay he should make up his mind. So they all go to Babaji. Babaji tells
‘I have good news, continued Babaji. The boy and the girl’s horoscopes are perfectly matched. This girl will be good for the family and even Nisha’s future will open after her sister-in-law comes to the house.’ (P-248)
So marriage is performed and Raju & Pooja go for a honeymoon in Europe. They return after one month and Pooja proves quite opposite.
Sona complains to Raju that Pooja is not behaving like a daughter-in-law. Pooja spends no time with the rest of the family, no time with Nisha. Raju responses –
‘Pooja is right : you don’t like her, why did you marry me to her, then? Was I in such a hurry? snapped Raju before returning to his lair, leaving Sona to tearfully narrate the conversation word for bitter word to Nisha and later to Rupa.’ (P-259)
Sona things that her son has become the slave of his wife and is bent on stabing his mother in heart. Condition is getting worse day by day and there is a great dispute among the family.
Pooja goes and comes without anyone’s permission. Parents think that it is very bad for Nisha to remain at home all the time. She should join a school so that she feels better. She starts going to school to teach.
After seven months of the marriage Raju announces that Pooja is pregnant. Soon she gives birth to a boy.
Parents are continuously searching a mangli boy to match for Nisha, but they are not getting success in it. Soon Nisha feds up of the teaching job and plans to start a business. She consults to her father. Yashpal at the time of dinner says to Nisha ‘Beti’ he started, ‘business is not an easy thing’ (P- 291).
I will help you in the beginning, but the responsibility, profit and loss all are yours. In teaching no matter what you do, you get your salary. This is different Nisha starts business and it flourishes day by day. Demands of suits increase in the Market. During this period Yeshpal finds a mangoli boy for Nisha. soon boy and his mother came to see Nisha and pass her. Although boy is a widow and aggres on Nisha’s condition.
‘I cannot give it up’ she confided this was the only thing she could visualise in any marriage, that she had to come to the basement everyday’ (P-303).
Arvinds lives in Daryaganj and have a business there. He accepts that Nisha need not to stop her business and he will hire a room near Karol Bagh so she will not feel any problem to continue it. Only one thing Arvind wants a registry marriage. All agree and the preparison of marriage begins after a long period. They have an eleven ‘o’ clock appointment with the registrar at Tees Hazari. In evening there will be the reception at the Sartaj Hotel. All family members with Nisha reach at Tees Hazari.
Finally they collect in front of a magistrate in the nicest room. Here Arvind and Nisha sign their names in several places. Pooja takes out a box from her hand bag and unnrapes the paper covering to reveal fat white squares of cashew barfi. She firmly holds a piece out to Arvind.
‘Now you are married: She says laughing ‘You should be the first to sweeten the mouth of your bride’.(P-312) .Their marriage performs happily from the court they drive straight to the Sartaj Hotel in Karol Bagh. Here all family and relatives of both side enjoy the reception and bless the couple.
Next morning Arvind takes Nisha to his home & they pass their time happily. Nisha continues her business and comes regularly to see the work of tailors. This routine does not continue for long due to the pregnancy of Nisha. Her mother in-law advises her not to go daily otherwise it will create big problem so Nisha have to stop it. After ten months she gives birth to twins.
One girl and one boy. Nisha feels that God has shown mercy on her and now her duty is over.
Thus novel ends with the naming ceremony of twins and everybody looks happy and satisfied.
REFERENCES
1. Manju Kapur, Home [ New Delhi : Random House Publishers , 2006]
2. Simone de Beauvoir , The Second Sex , ed & tr. H.M Parshley [ 1955 : Middlesex : Penguin Books , 1986]
BY . DR. RAM SHARMA , SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH , J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.
Quest for feminine identity is largely a Post-Independence social phenomenon in India, a phenomenon influenced by various changing forces of reality - freedom movement, progressive education, social reforms, increasing contacts with the west, urban growth etc. The emergence of women writers in the last quarter of the 19th century carried with it a double significance. It bore testimony to the birth of a new era of emancipation for the Indian women, an era of increased opportunities and a more dynamic participation in the social and intellectual life of the country ushered in by the great social reorientations which came at the turn of the century. Secondly, it was also a commentary on the rise of individualism in the life and letters of the age, an individualism which is closely associated with the rise of the novel in India in the same way in which it was associated with the rise of the English novel. Feminism emerged as a worldwide movement to secure women's rights on the one hand and love, respect, sympathy and understanding from males on the other. It focused on women's struggle for recognition and survival and made them realize that the time has come when they should stop suffering silently in helplessness.
Gayatri chakravorty Spivak writes in her article "Can, the Subaltern speak?"
"Between patriarchy and imperialism subject constitution and object formation the figure of woman disappears not into a pristine nothingness, but into a violent shuttling which is the displaced figuration of the 'Third - World Woman' caught between tradition and modernization."(p-80)
Simone De Beauvoir has very precisely exposed the condition of woman in her most famous book 'The Second Sex'. Of course, the miserable condition of woman all over the world inspired the women of talent like Virginia Woolf to do something in this field and the result was the emergence of Feminism, a great movement in the western world in 1960. It is a movement for the emancipation of women and their fight for equal rights. The condition of woman is equally miserable in Indian society. The Indian society is basically patriarchal where a woman is given the secondary role.
The modern woman does not find any sense in such self-sacrifice and yearns for self-expression, individuality and self-identity. She is trying to free herself of the dependence syndrome as says Chaman Nahal—
"I define Feminism as a mode of existence in which the woman is free of the dependence syndrome. There is a dependence syndrome, where it is the husband or the father or the community or whether it is a religions group, ethnic group when women free themselves of the dependence syndrome and lead a normal life, my idea of feminism materializes."(p-30)
.Simone de Beauvoir expresses his own views on man - woman nexus --- man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general, where as woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria without reciprocity." (Seldom; 1988 : 534)
A woman is never regarded as an autonomous being since she has always been assigned a subordinate and relative position. "Man can think of himself without woman. She can not think of herself without man. And she is simply what man decrees ---. She appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex.... absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to man and not he with reference to her, she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential." (Seldom, 1988 : 534
Home’ (2006) is the third novel of Manju Kapur. This is a fast
moving story which makes an ordinary middle class family’s life in Delhi. The patriarch of this family is Banwari Lal, a cloth businessman who lives with his family in New Delhi neighbourhood of Karol Bagh. Banwari Lal has two sons and one daughter. Elder is Yashpal, younger is Pyare Lal and daughter’s name is Sunita who is already married to a person named Murli before the beginning of the novel.
Who is married to Murli a person beyond the status of Banwari Lal in views as well as in money. It seems that Sunita likes the boy that’s why she is married to him.
The Banwari Lal family belongs to a class whose skills have been honed over generations to ensure prosperity in the market place. From an early age children are trained to maintain the foundation on which these homes rested. The education they received, the values they imbibed, the alliances they made has everything to do with protecting the steady stream of gold and silver that burnished their lives. Banwari Lal is a believer in the old ways. Men work out of the home, women within. Men carry forward the family line, women enable their mission. His two sons unquestioningly follow their father in business and in life but their wives do not. Neither does his grand daughter who makes choices considered unavailable to the women to the family.
At the beginning of the story Sona Lal and Rupa Gupta both sisters are childless. Sona is the wife of Yashpal who falls in love while Sona with her mother comes from Meerut to match a blouse in preparsion to attend an uncle’s wedding.
Sona’s mother considers that it is necessary for marriageable girls to blossom during such occasions, it being likely that among the guests a boy, or better still his parents, can cast a glance and held it steadily upon her person.
With this in mind, the mother with her daughters is shopping in Karol Bagh determines that her daughters should look their best for every function. Yashpal falls in love and enquires all necessary details. Next morning he puts the address on his father’s hand and says he should go and talk to the family without delay. If he could not marry her he would leave the shop and spend the rest of his life celibate, by the bank of the Ganges.
Banwari Lal consults to a holy man, a Baba and settles the matter. Although Sona’s family is not as rich as Yashpal’s family. In marriage they can offer nothing but their daughter whose heart is golden like her name.
Their marriage is performed. But her mother-in-law is not pleased and she passes taunts. This makes Sona unhappy but Yashpal consoles her saying that when we have children, mother will forget all this. But unfortunately Sona could not conceive for a long time. By this time Pyare Lal is also married to Sushila who gives birth to a boy within one year of the marriage. Sona feels very bad and thinks that it may be the result of her past Karma, Sona keeps fast but it is of no use. During this period Yashpal’s sister burns herself and dies. As the family receive the news, they leave for Bareilly. Here Sona’s mother-in-law mourns, Sona tries to consols her.
‘Sleep now, Maji, sleep you will make yourself ill if you cry like this, and it will not bring her back.
The old woman glared at Sona and spat out, you think sleep is possible? What can you know of a mother’s feelings? All you do is enjoy life, no children, no sorrow, only a husband to dance around you, Sona is already mentally disturb to hear the taunt of her. Her father-in-law comes back with Vicky ten years old. The Boy is pushed towards Sona.
Sona has to take care of Vicky Sona discusses her matters to Rupa and tells that her life has become unbearable ever since Sushila has entered in the house.
‘Ever since that woman has come, my life has been a misery’ (P- 24.) Yashpal feels that Sona is not feeling well so he makes plan to visit a shrine at Chitai, near Almora Though the shrine is small it is famous, the Devi of these hills is said to have miraculous powers.
Rupa & Premnath also joins them. After two mothers Sona discovers that she has conceived. Sona feels it is because of Devi. Later on Sona gives birth to a girl. Nisha is declare as a Mangli. Nisha grows up as a beautiful girl and after Nisha, Sona gives birth to Raju. Now Vickey starts going to shop and there is some relax for Sona. Who does not like Vickey’s activities. By the time Vickey is fifteen and he begins to take interest in Nisha. Nisha cannot understand his intension. Nisha becomes mentally disturbed and nobody could understand why she is not eating, sleeping. So she is sent to Rupa’s Home for a change. Here she has no problem at all. Rupa & her husband Premnath understand all that there is a hand of Vicky behind Nisha’s miserable condition.
Nisha now finds herself in an atmosphere very different from the one she has lived in. As the only child she is the centre of interest, concern and attention. The pattern of Nisha’s next ten years is not set. She passes all week with her aunt and uncle. Premnath teaches her and brings a lot of things. Here Nisha flourishes as the most beautiful girl. On the other hand Vicky passes class X with third Division & Yashpal argues that he should go back to his father. So Banwari Lal with Vickey visits Bareilly but his father refuses to keep him pretending so many reason. Now Banwari Lal thinks about his marriage and performs it with Asha. Soon Asha gives birth to Virat. After a long illness Banwari Lal also dies and the whole burden comes to Yashpal, being the elder one. Nisha also returns her home to accompany her grand mother. Ajay’s marriage takes place a year after his grandfather’s death and after it Vijay Marriage.
The Board results are out Raju in Class X has barely scraped through with a 45 percent overall aggregate.
Nisha was a mangli. A mangli, destined to marry unfortunately, destined for misery, unless a similar mangli could be found, with a similar fate and horoscope. To do this would take time, and during that time perhaps an education? Not too much just a bit & Nisha enters in Durga Bai College for doing English Honours. In College Nisha’s best friend is Pratibha. Soon Nisha meets a boy Suresh who is studying in Khalsa College of Engineering. They become friendly within two or three meetings. Both fall in love and wonder here and there in each other’s company. She now totally changes.
‘Who gave you permission to cut your hair, suddenly you have become so independent, you decide things on your own, where did you find the money, the time, the beauty parlour, where did you find all these things?’ (P- 150)
The academic session is coming to close. Nisha has had a difficult year and now she feels nervous.
‘I can’t meet you, I have to study, I have to get a second division at least’, she told Suresh, ‘Arre yaar, what does it matter? It’s impossible to do badly in English.’ (P-152)
Suresh purchases St. Stephen’s tutorials from Daryaganj at Sunday bazaar and gives to Nisha. Nisha with the help of these notes gets success and gets first division. Nisha and Suresh continue their routine in next year also.
As for Nisha, her uncle’s training has stood her in good stead. With family wedding, she has still been able to obtain a 70 percent in Humanities. The uncle is thanked profusely for the care he has taken of his niece.
By this time Pyare Lal has two daughter-in-law so he feel uncomfortable in the house where there is no seprate bathroom for them. So he consults his brother to reconstruct the home again. Yashpal says nothing at the moment. Her wife also does not like the reconstruction. Yashpal says-
‘It was not his fault. He was the youngest, what could he do by himself? Now he had sons, daughter in law and grand children, now he was a patriarch in his own right.’ (P-170)
So they all moves out of the house Hotel Palace Heights in Karol Bagh. By now Nisha in her third year. Nisha enjoys in company of Suresh. He takes her to the room in Vijay Nagar where he tries to make sexual relation with her but could not successed.
On the way back Nisha remarks if he is so keen to do all this, why does not he make his parents talk to her parents? Let the whole thing be clear.
Towards the end of Nisha’s third year her parents receives a letter from the college authorities. Their daughter is short of attendance, and will not be allowed to sit for exams. Now parents enquires the reason, but Nisha does not tell directly and sents Suresh to meet at the shop. Now all things become clear & Yashpal enquires all things. Finally he declares him unfit for the girl. All day she remaines in the house, a prisoner of her deed, a prisoner of their words. Once she gets a chance to go with her masi Rupa & arrenges to meet him. Here Suresh finally declares that he cannot marry her & leaves her. Nisha’s nights are now ones of restlessness. After three years of thinking that Suresh is her future, Nisha will have adjust to the idea of another man in his place. Later on she badly suffers from eczema. This disease affects her a lot. This period had very important for Nisha’s coming future but it had passed in this fatal eczema.
This condition of Nisha remains same for a long period. Parents have been worrying, daughter getting older by the minute, son’s future blocks because of this, good matches will pass over because of this. One day a proposal comes from a richer branch of Rekha’s family showrooms in Karol Bagh and South Extension. Pyare Lal tells his brother that this type of proposal does not come daily so without any delay he should make up his mind. So they all go to Babaji. Babaji tells
‘I have good news, continued Babaji. The boy and the girl’s horoscopes are perfectly matched. This girl will be good for the family and even Nisha’s future will open after her sister-in-law comes to the house.’ (P-248)
So marriage is performed and Raju & Pooja go for a honeymoon in Europe. They return after one month and Pooja proves quite opposite.
Sona complains to Raju that Pooja is not behaving like a daughter-in-law. Pooja spends no time with the rest of the family, no time with Nisha. Raju responses –
‘Pooja is right : you don’t like her, why did you marry me to her, then? Was I in such a hurry? snapped Raju before returning to his lair, leaving Sona to tearfully narrate the conversation word for bitter word to Nisha and later to Rupa.’ (P-259)
Sona things that her son has become the slave of his wife and is bent on stabing his mother in heart. Condition is getting worse day by day and there is a great dispute among the family.
Pooja goes and comes without anyone’s permission. Parents think that it is very bad for Nisha to remain at home all the time. She should join a school so that she feels better. She starts going to school to teach.
After seven months of the marriage Raju announces that Pooja is pregnant. Soon she gives birth to a boy.
Parents are continuously searching a mangli boy to match for Nisha, but they are not getting success in it. Soon Nisha feds up of the teaching job and plans to start a business. She consults to her father. Yashpal at the time of dinner says to Nisha ‘Beti’ he started, ‘business is not an easy thing’ (P- 291).
I will help you in the beginning, but the responsibility, profit and loss all are yours. In teaching no matter what you do, you get your salary. This is different Nisha starts business and it flourishes day by day. Demands of suits increase in the Market. During this period Yeshpal finds a mangoli boy for Nisha. soon boy and his mother came to see Nisha and pass her. Although boy is a widow and aggres on Nisha’s condition.
‘I cannot give it up’ she confided this was the only thing she could visualise in any marriage, that she had to come to the basement everyday’ (P-303).
Arvinds lives in Daryaganj and have a business there. He accepts that Nisha need not to stop her business and he will hire a room near Karol Bagh so she will not feel any problem to continue it. Only one thing Arvind wants a registry marriage. All agree and the preparison of marriage begins after a long period. They have an eleven ‘o’ clock appointment with the registrar at Tees Hazari. In evening there will be the reception at the Sartaj Hotel. All family members with Nisha reach at Tees Hazari.
Finally they collect in front of a magistrate in the nicest room. Here Arvind and Nisha sign their names in several places. Pooja takes out a box from her hand bag and unnrapes the paper covering to reveal fat white squares of cashew barfi. She firmly holds a piece out to Arvind.
‘Now you are married: She says laughing ‘You should be the first to sweeten the mouth of your bride’.(P-312) .Their marriage performs happily from the court they drive straight to the Sartaj Hotel in Karol Bagh. Here all family and relatives of both side enjoy the reception and bless the couple.
Next morning Arvind takes Nisha to his home & they pass their time happily. Nisha continues her business and comes regularly to see the work of tailors. This routine does not continue for long due to the pregnancy of Nisha. Her mother in-law advises her not to go daily otherwise it will create big problem so Nisha have to stop it. After ten months she gives birth to twins.
One girl and one boy. Nisha feels that God has shown mercy on her and now her duty is over.
Thus novel ends with the naming ceremony of twins and everybody looks happy and satisfied.
REFERENCES
1. Manju Kapur, Home [ New Delhi : Random House Publishers , 2006]
2. Simone de Beauvoir , The Second Sex , ed & tr. H.M Parshley [ 1955 : Middlesex : Penguin Books , 1986]
SOCIAL HISTORY AND REALITY IN THE NOVELS OF BHABHANI BHATTACHARYA
SOCIAL HISTORY AND REALITY IN THE NOVELS OF BHABHANI BHATTACHARYA
BY DR. RAM SHARMA, SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH, J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.
Bhattacharya deals with social history and reality in his novels, the Bengal famine and the ill effects of the Bengal famine, the impact of the world was 11, caste-system. untouchability and other social evils. The background of his writings is the historical events and he divides into two parts — pre-independence or from world was II to independence and the second part from independence to the late seventies. The famine of 1943 brings so many hungers, the hunger for food, money and sex, the exploitation of man by man seemed to him to have become the creed of the day. The prevailing social conditions also worked upon the growing mind of Bhattacharya, and inspired him to create his first novel. The famine of 1943 which stalked through the scared soil of Bengal, was one of the such events as he himself confesses:
―Then the great famine swept down upon Bengal. The emotional stirrings I felt (more than two million men, women and children died of slow starvation amid a man — made scarcity) were a sheer compulsion to creativity. The result was the novel So Many Huniers.”1
1 3
Bhattacharya‘s novel So Many Hungers is based upon man‘s ―hunger for food and political freedom‖2, the Indian freedom struggle, Bengal famine and the second world war, hunger for food and political freedom. The novel is regarded as a socio-political novel. The novel deals with the political, social and economical history of the pre- independence India. K.K. Sharma asserts that this novel,
―is, infact a very deep and lively study of the history of India, of times first preceding the independence which no history book could have rendered in that detail and with that much of depth and liveliness. The novel records the political, social and economic history of the pre- independence society with minuteness and aptness.‖3
It deals with the two plots — the story of the young scientist Rahoul and his struggle for freedom and the peasant family. Then Young girl Kajoli and her family. Devata (Devesh Basu) is the link between the two plots. Samarendra Mist‘ by profession is a lawyer and he has two sons Rahoul and Kunal. Rahoul has in himself strong patriotic and nationalistic qualities and he has contemplated joining the independence movement and is willing to get arrest. Samarendra Basu is a shrewd and money-minded man. His main aim is to please The British rulers and to earn titles and he thinks or makes plans of earning
14
money. He buys rice at a very low price from the villagers and hoard it and later sells it at a very high price. He wants his son Rahoul to do a job as Technical Advisor in New Delhi. But at the end of the novel his dreams arc shattered, when he comes to know that Rahoul has been arrested for _joining the Quit India Movement and Kunal goes missing in Italy.
Samarendra‘s father Devesh Basu, popularly known as Devata because his love for the common people, is a Gandhian character. Devata encourages the people of the village to take part in the Quit India Movement. He believes in non-violence. He always thinks about the welfare of the villagers and advises them not to sell their rice to the government agents. He lives in a village, Baruni with Kajoli and her family. Her father and brother Kanu have been arrested for their participation in Civil Disobedience Movement, started by Mahatma Gandhi. Devata shares food with them and now he becomes the head of the family. Devata was arrested but he said to the villagers to be strong, true and deathless. Kajoli is also the victim of this man-made famine. After the arrest of Devata. they have to face the terrible pangs of starvation. It was the situation where hungry people cry themselves to death Rahoul notices this on the platform:
15
―Some yards away on the platform, half concealed by another packing case, a destitute woman lay on her side, her legs drawn up, eyes closed, a baby at her breast. The women lay still, but she moved its lips faintly as it suckled. The mother was dead.‖(p.154)
Kajoli was also dying from starvation and when she meets an Indian soldier and asks him for food. He gives her a bread, which she gulps without thinking about her brother and mother, and just in return for one piece bread he rapes her. However, the two satisfy the hunger of each other because she has the hunger for food and he has the hunger for sex.
After some time her brother Onu comes and begs the food from the soldier with pathetic cries, saying his mother, his sister and he himself were hungry and requests him to give them some food to live. It was the time when hungry people start having those things which the animals refused to have. A six year old girl is sold to a procuress for only ten silver rupees. There is a scene in which an empty jam tin is dug out by Onu from a rubbish heap. The tin is snatched by a bigger boy.
In order to ward off starvation, people have to live on roots, figs and what ever else their luck could bring them. Vultures eat them alive as
16
they do not have the necessary strength to show the vultures off. Kajoli decides to become a prostitute but is finally saved from it.
Thus the novel shows the different dimensions of hunger. Kajoli is miserably suffering from the hunger for food, the soldier was suffering from the hunger for sex, Samerendra Basu‘s hunger for money and Rahoul‘s hunger for freedom is shown by creating fictional prototypes of real characters and situations in this novel, Bhattacharya presents a real picture of the socio-political, economical, cultural and ethical history of India‘s life.
Bhattacharya‘s novel Music For Mohini, deals with political and social freedom; it is concerned with the social realities of the old and the new times and attempts a synthesis of the two. The social changes of the post-independence period are remarkably portrayed in the novel. I3hattacharya says that social freedom is important for the real progress of the people because without it even the political freedom is ineffective.
Mohini, is a central figure in the novel, is described by the novelist as having a passion for the bright, joyful life, and a contempt for all that is dull and dead. ―Mohini, who loved the warmth the colour of life, could not bear image of decay.‖4
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Caste-system is a big problem in Indian social life. The Brahmin boy Heera Lal, under the impact of his grandmother does not eat meat. When the low born snake-chamer, who does not believe in the taboos of caste, scorns this age-old social evil. Heera Lal does not tolerate him and said: ―And a Brahmin‘s a Brahmin‘, snapped Heera Lal. His temper rose. He felt the inside of his nose itch. Defile caste. I never not for the Nizam‘s Treasures. Not for the governor of Bengal‘s powers.‖5 Marriage of a girl is a major problem for the Indian parents. Mohini‘s marriage causes immense worry to her father and grandmother. Mohini‘s father has to go through the matrimonial column in the daily newspaper. The custom of showing the girl of the family members of the prospective bridegroom and Mohini, however,
does not like this but she is to follow this because it is a custom and Mohini also has to under-go this ordeal more than once. Dowry is the decisive factor in marriages.
Bhattacharya by depicting Jayadev‘s and also Harindra‘s hatred for inequality on the basis of caste, hints at the idea shared by Mahatma Gandhi in this regard, Mohini and Jayadev notice that even the revolutionary Harindra can not find it easy to marry his beloved, Sudha, because of the difference of the caste: ―But what of the rock like barrier of caste? Even the bold impulsive Harindra would find
1 8
caste hard to sermount. Even Sudha‘s great uncle would be against the marriage.‖ (p.1 58)
Bhattacharya also depicts the rituals and superstitions of Indian social life. Mohinis‘s grandmother is worried to see her grandson, Heeralal, getting weaker day by day, and she decides to take help of an amulet, which she believes, ―will guard his health; it will strike evil Eye sightless.‖6 She asks Heeralal to wear the copper amulet in his neck and he refuses to wear it and says that if he wears it then his classmates would laugh at him. When Mohini sees a white owl sitting on bokul tree early in the morning and pays respects to the owl of the future which blinks as the light grows and flies away after some time. When her mother-in-law is suspected that she is a barren woman then she persuades her to cut the skin of her bosom and offer her blood to. Devi, so that she may become a mother. Professor Hanuman is famous and widely advertised for reading man‘s life correctly and telling him his past life correctly. Mohini is not permitted to eat anything on her marriage day because it is the ritual that a bride cannot eat the food until the marriage is over.
When her father scorns this practice and protests against it. The old Mother can not break any conventions, inspite of her strong desire to
19
do so. She is very sad to see that she can not accompany the girl, to the railway station to see her off with her husband.
Mohini is a care-free person having a passion for .life and is playful. She is married to Jayadev. He has a deep belief in Nehru‘s beliefs that at the time of India‘s attainment of Independence. In this manner of Nehru, Jayadev is of the opinion that the greater task of social freedom is still lying ahead. He wanted to achieve his goal without thinking his newly wedded wife. Jayadev is a social reformer and wants to make his village Behula a modern village. He knows that it is not a cake walk. He knows that it‘s not as easy as writing books rather, for that, he has to do a great labour and struggle for it. He wants Mohini‘s help to achieve his ideal. He wants Mohini to teach the village women how to read and write. He knows that ignorance and illiteracy is the main reason of their slavery at the hands of the powerful people. Jayadev meets Harindra, a surgeon, who also understands the problems of the village very well. Another social evil is the caste-system. Jayadev decides to make people free from the fetters of caste and creed. Mohini and Jayadev find that even the revolutionary Harindra can not find it easy to marry his beloved Sudha because she belongs to a different caste.
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Bhattacharya, in this novel, depicts the social, cultural and economical history of India just after the attainment of freedom in 1947.
He Who Rides a Tiger deals with the fearful consequences of the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Quit India Movement. It focuses attention on the caste-ridden social order and the degrading political and economic system that prevailed in India. Kalo, the central character and his daughter, Chandralekha, suffer a lot owing to the caste-system and the economic to patterns of society. Hunger and famine drive Kalo from his village to Calcutta. Famine of Bengal was grinding the people to death. The Bengal Famine drives him to go to Calcutta to seek employment. He has to leave his daughter, Chandralek7ha, with his old aunt. On the way to Calcutta he steals three bananas to save himself from starvation. He steals bananas to preserve his life for the sake of his family. The magistrate says in an inhuman manner ―why did you have to live?‖7 Kalo, a low-born blacksmith, is not happy with the people of his class and he maintains distance from them. Another very significant aspect of social life realistically treated in the novel is the unbridgeable gulf between two entirely different classes — the rich and the poor, the low and the high. Kalo sees that the poor are dying miserably under the impact of the ravenous hunger created by the rich for their profit. The caste-system, indeed is the
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worst evil that has been crushing, Indian society for ages. Kalo tells Chandralekha that the low-caste untouchables are helpless creatures who cannot dare to go to the police. Then there is the problem of marriage between the boy and a girl of the same caste. Kalo is not able to get a suitable match for his daughter in his own caste. He is also shocked to find that owing to her low caste, she does not get due praise and admiration for the medal she wins as a brilliant student. Kalo‘s sister Purnima is in love with a low-caste boy and when her parents get to know this they become hostile towards her. Kalo asks why the society as well as the parents could not understand that love is beyond all things and that they just try to make their child‘s life miserable just because of caste-system. His sister commits suicide and he observes that:
―What evil power was it that, in minute, turned loving parents into brutes? How could the force of belief be so blind and devastating? For they who could have given all they had to make their daughter happy condemned her to a living death. 1-low was such perversion possible?‖ (p.167)
The cruelty of society becomes unbearable to Kalo when he sees that under the compulsion of circumstances he found his daughter in a brothel, he was also doing a job in the brothel and when he heard the
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voice of crying for help near his room lie went there and saved his daughter from becoming a prostitute. He finds himself and his daughter Chandralekha too weak and helpless before the mighty social conventions. He is ceaselessly haunted by torturous thoughts: ―His daughter was polluted, fallen, even to have breathed the air of the harlot-house would mark a woman as fallen. That was the terrible fact, almost displacing all feeling. Whoever was to blame, the fact was there. What could he do about it? Was he not helpless against the social idea which branded her for all time?‖ (p.71)
He becomes hitter in his heart against the society. He feels that his miseries or sufferings are not only the result of his past bad deeds and the Bengal famine is not only responsible for his miseries but the rich, the money lenders are also responsible for his difficulties and just because of these money lenders he has to leave his village, his daughter and everything that belongs to him. After leaving his village he had to go to jail for stealing bananas and even he finds his daughter in a brothel and then he thinks that he would take a revenge against the society and the rich. Then he reminds B- I 0 what he said. He said that ―to hit back‖ the rich or the enemy is the only solution to remove the miseries. Now Kalo knows the many ways in which ―to his back‖ — faking a miracle to get a temple raised by exploiting haves and to
23
make them fools. Now his fight starts against the social, religious and the rich people. He disguises himself as Brahmin and adopts a name, Mangal Adhikiri, the prosperous priest of the temple. Now he is ready to ride a tiger and can not get down from its back. Bhattacharya accepts Kalo‘s revenge against the social evil and caste-system but he was not happy with the way in which it was taken. Kalo pretends to be happy but his heart knows that whatever he is doing is wrong and his transformation into Mangal Adhikari starts eating his soul. He finds that he is doing the same thing, the one against which, he had started his fight. His daughter, Chandralekha, was also unhappy with his disguise because she thinks that he disguised himself just because of taking revenge against the corrupt people but now he is doing the same thing. She starts keeping a distance from her father and when he sees it he feels depressed. The only way to get back to her is to disclose his identity. So he prefers to kill the tiger and emerges victorious. The social reformer who has renounced his Brahminism to lead the destitutes in their struggle for food, has come back to hear Kalo. The victory of Kalo is not the end of the war but it is only a step in the process that Kalo moves out of the temple B-10 and Vishwanath continues his struggle. Kalo has not only a purpose in life, but also the power to achieve it.
24
Bhattacharya in his novel A Goddess Named Gold deals with the happenings in a village during the period immediately preceding ―India‘s attainment of freedom. The novel is set in the hundred days prior to the attainment of Independence on 15 August l947.‖8 It refers to the Freedom Movement, though it embodies the novelist‘s concept of ideal freedom. The country has not reaped the full benefit of the political freedom which we got alter a long period of struggle and sacrifice. The novel gives a realistic picture of the social life of Indian villages. It was the first time when women took part in the freedom struggle and came out of their houses, Atmaram a wandering Minstrel, gave an amulet to his grand-daughter Meera. He said that if she does a noble act then this metal will transform into gold. Seth starts a new business with Meera on a fifty-fifty basis. But Meera and Seth got disappointed by the amulet because it didn‘t show any desirable result. Meera throws the amulet into the river. At this moment, the Minstrel appears in the village of Sonamitti and interprets the symbolism of the amulet. Through him the novelist expresses his belief that political freedom is not a remedy for all social, political and economic maladies, it can not impact an all-sided prosperity to a country. It creates an environment to give man an opportunity to show his best and attain prosperity by hard work.
25
Bhattacharya affirms that political freedom opens up where there are no ways, but miracles can not occur without hard work. Then Atmaram says to the villagers:
―……The miracles will not drop upon us. It is we who have to create them with love and with sweat……‖ (p.303)
The novel gives a realistic picture of The Bengal Famine and the political events around Independence Day. The women were suffering from acute shortage of clothes caused by the profiteers. Women had to wear patched saries and many of them had to sleep almost naked at night in order to save their saris from further wear. Seth was the only cloth merchant in the six villages around, who was responsible for the miseries. He raised the prices to increase his profit. He was a money lender also and he gave the people money at a very high rate of interest and most of the villagers were deep in debt. The village women start a movement against the Seth and with the help of his wife Lakshmi, compel him to give each one of them a sari free of cost. He does not find anything wrong with his profit motives which he has learnt from the big businessman no body condemns and punishes.
A Goddess Named Gold also satirizes the election methods actually adopted by the politicians. An election is to take place at Sonamitti for
26
The District Board. The Seth decided to contest it. He spends a lot of money and employs all sorts of stunts to purchase votes. He hires the school children to convince the people that he is a brother and equal to the poor. He plans a number of tricks to win the election. He thinks of using the squads of young teachers from the village school to go around crying slogans in his favour. Bhattacharya depicts the caste differences and superstitions prevailing in Indian villages. The Halwai of village Sonamitti wants to marry young Meera but in their marriage there was a problem of caste. He knows that they both belong to different castes and the villagers won‘t allow their marriage but he believes that his wealth can enable him to overcome the caste barrier. He tells Meera that there is only one way of their marriage and that is to give the money to the five elders. Seth also knows the power of . gold which enables man to work a miracle and attain great heights. Superstitions oppress the villagers as much as casteism. The villagers were obsessed by the fear of apparitions visible at certain places in the night. The Seth, who is more enlightened than most of the illiterate villagers, is terribly frightened when one night he has to pass by a neem tree supposed to be haunted by the bhootni, a female ghost. The villagers faith in the horoscope is also brought out in the novel., the description of the marvellous legend of the talking goat. The goat was
27
purchased to be slaughtered for meat on the occasion of a marriage feast. But when about to be slaughtered, it spoke in a human voice. The result was that the owner could not dare kill it, rather he broke down in remorse and fell at the animal‘s hoofs. It was believed that a noble human soul resided in the goat‘s body.
Bhattacharya also deals with the evils of dowry and bribery in this novel. The need for dowry for a girl‘s marriage causes a lot of misery and hardship to Indian families, it is also one of the cause of poverty in our country. Money helps the parents to get a suitable husband for their daughters. An unfortunate old woman had a daughter and she was not able to get her married to a suitable boy because she did not have money and that‘s the main reason. The corrupt practice of bribery and other unfair dealing, so rampant in Indian society are among the prime reasons of the nation‘s slow progress. It was the first time when women came out of their houses and took part in the struggle for freedom. How Gandhi cast a magic spell on the women of Sonamitti is clearly portrayed by the novelist. An eleven year old girl, Meera, could not confine herself to her hurt at the time of Quit India Movement Lakshmi, the wife of the cloth merchant, the Seth, did not worry about her inconvenience for a moment and joined the procession: ―Seven months. There was the heavy-bellied mother-to-be
28
with short quick-steps, breathless in her effort not to be left behind‖ (p.12). In the end Ministrel points out to the people that ―to win the freedom to be free‖ (p.301) is more important than political freedom. Bhattacharya in this novel shows the multi-dimensional freedom, philosophy of Gandhi towards the end of the novel, the social, cultural, political and economic history of India just after achieving freedom. He shows the social reality and history of the country after getting freedom in 1947 and his main concern was how to preserve this newly attained freedom.
Shadow from Ladakh depicts many social realities of the post Independence India. This novel deals with ―India‘s recent history, the problems and challenges that India has faced in the wake of Chinese aggression.‖9 On the political level it deals with the conflict between Gandhian social and technology. Comparing this novel with So Many Hungers, Bhattacharya himself declares that it is, ―rooted more deeply in Gandhian thoughts.‖10
The need for overlooking caste-system for the betterment of the society is emphasized in this novel. On the political level it deals with the conflict between Gandhian social and political ethics, and the modern forces of science and technology. The two major characters in the novel, Satyajit and Bhaskar, represents these two contrasting
29
attitudes to life. Satyajit is dedicated to the Gandhian way of life and lives in Gandhigram modelled by him after the Gandhian philosophy of life. On the other hand Bhaskar has created a new westernized kind of life centred around steel civilization in Steel town. Bhattacharya shows Satyajit and Bhaskar‘s conflict but by and by they iron out their differences and ultimately reach an understanding and adjustment. The novel emphasizes that synthesis comes from correct understanding and adjustment. The novel also refers to the population explosion which is becoming a problem to the national life of India. Bhaskar is portrayed to be afraid of this horrible problem of the birth of a child after every five seconds in India, the idea of feeding, rearing, clothing, educating, giving cultural welfare, giving employment and giving their due share of human existence to these babies harasses Bhaskar.
Bhattacharya‘s description of our great leaders such as Nehru, Tagore, Gandhi and Dalai Lama a few characters based on the Gandhian and Nehru‘s vision of India, clearly shows the insight of the political history of India. Bhattacharya‘s method of presentation of the historical perspective is one of comparison and contrast, the contrast is not between Gandhigram and Steeldown but it is between two contrary ways of life. Sayajit‘s plan of forming a Shand Sena is born of his faith in Gandhi‘s non-violence. He feels that Shanti-sena could
30
touch the hearts of Chinese and draw them away from their aggressive desire.
Sayajit is dedicated to the Gandhian way of life. Bhaskar is against Sayajitism, has created a new westernized world for himself. The one believes in simple living and high thinking but the other believes in western ways of life and industrialization. Bhaskar is of the opinion that Indians who have been a slave to the Britishers and Muslims should achieve their full share of a free and happy life.
Beside discussing the Chinese aggression and its impact an Indian social and political life, the novel gives consideration to the pernicious evil of the caste system. At Santiniketan, where Satyajit, the central character of the novel, happens to serve for some time, we find the total rejection of caste. He discards his surname, `Sen‘, indicating his caste affiliation, and prefers to he simply casteless in the style of yogis who would renounce the world to become `casteless and rootless‘. He is in love with Suruchi, who belongs to a different caste from this own. He told Suruchi, that caste system won‘t create any hurdle in their marriage and soon, they married without any difficulty and their families were also happy and satisfied with their marriage. Santiniketan. Gandhigram, too aims at eradicating untouchability and casteism. The untouchable and the casteless are given homesteads
31
beside the people belonging to high castes and strata. Suruchi, is the first person to comprehend the synthesis of traditional and modern values of life, she favours the harmonious blending of the old and new. Satyajit and Bhaskar realize the essence of one another for the benefit of the country.
Thus we see that the novel records graphically the political condition of India, China and Tibet around the year 1962. Bhattacharya presents these realities of Indian history, in the wake of Chinese aggression with a lively description. From these novels, we can have an understanding of the undercurrents of the social life of India spanning from the Bengal Famine of 1942-43 to the Chinese attack on India in 1962. It deals with the various planes of reality — political, historical,
social, economic and spiritual reality of life.
32
REFERENCES
Sorot, Balram S. The Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1991. p.13.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. So Many Hungers. New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1978. p.3 (1947, rept. All The Subsequent references are to the same edition.)
Sharma, K.K. Affirmation of Life: The Vision and Themes of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979.p.14.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. Music For Mohini. New Delhi: Orient Paper Backs, 1984. p.6 and all Subsequent references are to the same edition.
Sharma, K.K. Affirmation of Life: The Vision and Themes of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979. p.133-135.
Ibid. p.135-136.
7. Bhattacharya, Bhabani. He Who Rides a Tiger. New Delhi: Arnold — Heinmann, 1977. P.31 and all the subsequent references are to the same edition.
33
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. A Goddess Named Gold. Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1960. p.25 and all the subsequent references from the same edition.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. Shadow From Ladakh. London: W.H. Allen, 1967. p.29.
10.Chandrasekharan, K.R. Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1974. p.107.
BY DR. RAM SHARMA, SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH, J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.
Bhattacharya deals with social history and reality in his novels, the Bengal famine and the ill effects of the Bengal famine, the impact of the world was 11, caste-system. untouchability and other social evils. The background of his writings is the historical events and he divides into two parts — pre-independence or from world was II to independence and the second part from independence to the late seventies. The famine of 1943 brings so many hungers, the hunger for food, money and sex, the exploitation of man by man seemed to him to have become the creed of the day. The prevailing social conditions also worked upon the growing mind of Bhattacharya, and inspired him to create his first novel. The famine of 1943 which stalked through the scared soil of Bengal, was one of the such events as he himself confesses:
―Then the great famine swept down upon Bengal. The emotional stirrings I felt (more than two million men, women and children died of slow starvation amid a man — made scarcity) were a sheer compulsion to creativity. The result was the novel So Many Huniers.”1
1 3
Bhattacharya‘s novel So Many Hungers is based upon man‘s ―hunger for food and political freedom‖2, the Indian freedom struggle, Bengal famine and the second world war, hunger for food and political freedom. The novel is regarded as a socio-political novel. The novel deals with the political, social and economical history of the pre- independence India. K.K. Sharma asserts that this novel,
―is, infact a very deep and lively study of the history of India, of times first preceding the independence which no history book could have rendered in that detail and with that much of depth and liveliness. The novel records the political, social and economic history of the pre- independence society with minuteness and aptness.‖3
It deals with the two plots — the story of the young scientist Rahoul and his struggle for freedom and the peasant family. Then Young girl Kajoli and her family. Devata (Devesh Basu) is the link between the two plots. Samarendra Mist‘ by profession is a lawyer and he has two sons Rahoul and Kunal. Rahoul has in himself strong patriotic and nationalistic qualities and he has contemplated joining the independence movement and is willing to get arrest. Samarendra Basu is a shrewd and money-minded man. His main aim is to please The British rulers and to earn titles and he thinks or makes plans of earning
14
money. He buys rice at a very low price from the villagers and hoard it and later sells it at a very high price. He wants his son Rahoul to do a job as Technical Advisor in New Delhi. But at the end of the novel his dreams arc shattered, when he comes to know that Rahoul has been arrested for _joining the Quit India Movement and Kunal goes missing in Italy.
Samarendra‘s father Devesh Basu, popularly known as Devata because his love for the common people, is a Gandhian character. Devata encourages the people of the village to take part in the Quit India Movement. He believes in non-violence. He always thinks about the welfare of the villagers and advises them not to sell their rice to the government agents. He lives in a village, Baruni with Kajoli and her family. Her father and brother Kanu have been arrested for their participation in Civil Disobedience Movement, started by Mahatma Gandhi. Devata shares food with them and now he becomes the head of the family. Devata was arrested but he said to the villagers to be strong, true and deathless. Kajoli is also the victim of this man-made famine. After the arrest of Devata. they have to face the terrible pangs of starvation. It was the situation where hungry people cry themselves to death Rahoul notices this on the platform:
15
―Some yards away on the platform, half concealed by another packing case, a destitute woman lay on her side, her legs drawn up, eyes closed, a baby at her breast. The women lay still, but she moved its lips faintly as it suckled. The mother was dead.‖(p.154)
Kajoli was also dying from starvation and when she meets an Indian soldier and asks him for food. He gives her a bread, which she gulps without thinking about her brother and mother, and just in return for one piece bread he rapes her. However, the two satisfy the hunger of each other because she has the hunger for food and he has the hunger for sex.
After some time her brother Onu comes and begs the food from the soldier with pathetic cries, saying his mother, his sister and he himself were hungry and requests him to give them some food to live. It was the time when hungry people start having those things which the animals refused to have. A six year old girl is sold to a procuress for only ten silver rupees. There is a scene in which an empty jam tin is dug out by Onu from a rubbish heap. The tin is snatched by a bigger boy.
In order to ward off starvation, people have to live on roots, figs and what ever else their luck could bring them. Vultures eat them alive as
16
they do not have the necessary strength to show the vultures off. Kajoli decides to become a prostitute but is finally saved from it.
Thus the novel shows the different dimensions of hunger. Kajoli is miserably suffering from the hunger for food, the soldier was suffering from the hunger for sex, Samerendra Basu‘s hunger for money and Rahoul‘s hunger for freedom is shown by creating fictional prototypes of real characters and situations in this novel, Bhattacharya presents a real picture of the socio-political, economical, cultural and ethical history of India‘s life.
Bhattacharya‘s novel Music For Mohini, deals with political and social freedom; it is concerned with the social realities of the old and the new times and attempts a synthesis of the two. The social changes of the post-independence period are remarkably portrayed in the novel. I3hattacharya says that social freedom is important for the real progress of the people because without it even the political freedom is ineffective.
Mohini, is a central figure in the novel, is described by the novelist as having a passion for the bright, joyful life, and a contempt for all that is dull and dead. ―Mohini, who loved the warmth the colour of life, could not bear image of decay.‖4
17
Caste-system is a big problem in Indian social life. The Brahmin boy Heera Lal, under the impact of his grandmother does not eat meat. When the low born snake-chamer, who does not believe in the taboos of caste, scorns this age-old social evil. Heera Lal does not tolerate him and said: ―And a Brahmin‘s a Brahmin‘, snapped Heera Lal. His temper rose. He felt the inside of his nose itch. Defile caste. I never not for the Nizam‘s Treasures. Not for the governor of Bengal‘s powers.‖5 Marriage of a girl is a major problem for the Indian parents. Mohini‘s marriage causes immense worry to her father and grandmother. Mohini‘s father has to go through the matrimonial column in the daily newspaper. The custom of showing the girl of the family members of the prospective bridegroom and Mohini, however,
does not like this but she is to follow this because it is a custom and Mohini also has to under-go this ordeal more than once. Dowry is the decisive factor in marriages.
Bhattacharya by depicting Jayadev‘s and also Harindra‘s hatred for inequality on the basis of caste, hints at the idea shared by Mahatma Gandhi in this regard, Mohini and Jayadev notice that even the revolutionary Harindra can not find it easy to marry his beloved, Sudha, because of the difference of the caste: ―But what of the rock like barrier of caste? Even the bold impulsive Harindra would find
1 8
caste hard to sermount. Even Sudha‘s great uncle would be against the marriage.‖ (p.1 58)
Bhattacharya also depicts the rituals and superstitions of Indian social life. Mohinis‘s grandmother is worried to see her grandson, Heeralal, getting weaker day by day, and she decides to take help of an amulet, which she believes, ―will guard his health; it will strike evil Eye sightless.‖6 She asks Heeralal to wear the copper amulet in his neck and he refuses to wear it and says that if he wears it then his classmates would laugh at him. When Mohini sees a white owl sitting on bokul tree early in the morning and pays respects to the owl of the future which blinks as the light grows and flies away after some time. When her mother-in-law is suspected that she is a barren woman then she persuades her to cut the skin of her bosom and offer her blood to. Devi, so that she may become a mother. Professor Hanuman is famous and widely advertised for reading man‘s life correctly and telling him his past life correctly. Mohini is not permitted to eat anything on her marriage day because it is the ritual that a bride cannot eat the food until the marriage is over.
When her father scorns this practice and protests against it. The old Mother can not break any conventions, inspite of her strong desire to
19
do so. She is very sad to see that she can not accompany the girl, to the railway station to see her off with her husband.
Mohini is a care-free person having a passion for .life and is playful. She is married to Jayadev. He has a deep belief in Nehru‘s beliefs that at the time of India‘s attainment of Independence. In this manner of Nehru, Jayadev is of the opinion that the greater task of social freedom is still lying ahead. He wanted to achieve his goal without thinking his newly wedded wife. Jayadev is a social reformer and wants to make his village Behula a modern village. He knows that it is not a cake walk. He knows that it‘s not as easy as writing books rather, for that, he has to do a great labour and struggle for it. He wants Mohini‘s help to achieve his ideal. He wants Mohini to teach the village women how to read and write. He knows that ignorance and illiteracy is the main reason of their slavery at the hands of the powerful people. Jayadev meets Harindra, a surgeon, who also understands the problems of the village very well. Another social evil is the caste-system. Jayadev decides to make people free from the fetters of caste and creed. Mohini and Jayadev find that even the revolutionary Harindra can not find it easy to marry his beloved Sudha because she belongs to a different caste.
20
Bhattacharya, in this novel, depicts the social, cultural and economical history of India just after the attainment of freedom in 1947.
He Who Rides a Tiger deals with the fearful consequences of the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Quit India Movement. It focuses attention on the caste-ridden social order and the degrading political and economic system that prevailed in India. Kalo, the central character and his daughter, Chandralekha, suffer a lot owing to the caste-system and the economic to patterns of society. Hunger and famine drive Kalo from his village to Calcutta. Famine of Bengal was grinding the people to death. The Bengal Famine drives him to go to Calcutta to seek employment. He has to leave his daughter, Chandralek7ha, with his old aunt. On the way to Calcutta he steals three bananas to save himself from starvation. He steals bananas to preserve his life for the sake of his family. The magistrate says in an inhuman manner ―why did you have to live?‖7 Kalo, a low-born blacksmith, is not happy with the people of his class and he maintains distance from them. Another very significant aspect of social life realistically treated in the novel is the unbridgeable gulf between two entirely different classes — the rich and the poor, the low and the high. Kalo sees that the poor are dying miserably under the impact of the ravenous hunger created by the rich for their profit. The caste-system, indeed is the
21
worst evil that has been crushing, Indian society for ages. Kalo tells Chandralekha that the low-caste untouchables are helpless creatures who cannot dare to go to the police. Then there is the problem of marriage between the boy and a girl of the same caste. Kalo is not able to get a suitable match for his daughter in his own caste. He is also shocked to find that owing to her low caste, she does not get due praise and admiration for the medal she wins as a brilliant student. Kalo‘s sister Purnima is in love with a low-caste boy and when her parents get to know this they become hostile towards her. Kalo asks why the society as well as the parents could not understand that love is beyond all things and that they just try to make their child‘s life miserable just because of caste-system. His sister commits suicide and he observes that:
―What evil power was it that, in minute, turned loving parents into brutes? How could the force of belief be so blind and devastating? For they who could have given all they had to make their daughter happy condemned her to a living death. 1-low was such perversion possible?‖ (p.167)
The cruelty of society becomes unbearable to Kalo when he sees that under the compulsion of circumstances he found his daughter in a brothel, he was also doing a job in the brothel and when he heard the
22
voice of crying for help near his room lie went there and saved his daughter from becoming a prostitute. He finds himself and his daughter Chandralekha too weak and helpless before the mighty social conventions. He is ceaselessly haunted by torturous thoughts: ―His daughter was polluted, fallen, even to have breathed the air of the harlot-house would mark a woman as fallen. That was the terrible fact, almost displacing all feeling. Whoever was to blame, the fact was there. What could he do about it? Was he not helpless against the social idea which branded her for all time?‖ (p.71)
He becomes hitter in his heart against the society. He feels that his miseries or sufferings are not only the result of his past bad deeds and the Bengal famine is not only responsible for his miseries but the rich, the money lenders are also responsible for his difficulties and just because of these money lenders he has to leave his village, his daughter and everything that belongs to him. After leaving his village he had to go to jail for stealing bananas and even he finds his daughter in a brothel and then he thinks that he would take a revenge against the society and the rich. Then he reminds B- I 0 what he said. He said that ―to hit back‖ the rich or the enemy is the only solution to remove the miseries. Now Kalo knows the many ways in which ―to his back‖ — faking a miracle to get a temple raised by exploiting haves and to
23
make them fools. Now his fight starts against the social, religious and the rich people. He disguises himself as Brahmin and adopts a name, Mangal Adhikiri, the prosperous priest of the temple. Now he is ready to ride a tiger and can not get down from its back. Bhattacharya accepts Kalo‘s revenge against the social evil and caste-system but he was not happy with the way in which it was taken. Kalo pretends to be happy but his heart knows that whatever he is doing is wrong and his transformation into Mangal Adhikari starts eating his soul. He finds that he is doing the same thing, the one against which, he had started his fight. His daughter, Chandralekha, was also unhappy with his disguise because she thinks that he disguised himself just because of taking revenge against the corrupt people but now he is doing the same thing. She starts keeping a distance from her father and when he sees it he feels depressed. The only way to get back to her is to disclose his identity. So he prefers to kill the tiger and emerges victorious. The social reformer who has renounced his Brahminism to lead the destitutes in their struggle for food, has come back to hear Kalo. The victory of Kalo is not the end of the war but it is only a step in the process that Kalo moves out of the temple B-10 and Vishwanath continues his struggle. Kalo has not only a purpose in life, but also the power to achieve it.
24
Bhattacharya in his novel A Goddess Named Gold deals with the happenings in a village during the period immediately preceding ―India‘s attainment of freedom. The novel is set in the hundred days prior to the attainment of Independence on 15 August l947.‖8 It refers to the Freedom Movement, though it embodies the novelist‘s concept of ideal freedom. The country has not reaped the full benefit of the political freedom which we got alter a long period of struggle and sacrifice. The novel gives a realistic picture of the social life of Indian villages. It was the first time when women took part in the freedom struggle and came out of their houses, Atmaram a wandering Minstrel, gave an amulet to his grand-daughter Meera. He said that if she does a noble act then this metal will transform into gold. Seth starts a new business with Meera on a fifty-fifty basis. But Meera and Seth got disappointed by the amulet because it didn‘t show any desirable result. Meera throws the amulet into the river. At this moment, the Minstrel appears in the village of Sonamitti and interprets the symbolism of the amulet. Through him the novelist expresses his belief that political freedom is not a remedy for all social, political and economic maladies, it can not impact an all-sided prosperity to a country. It creates an environment to give man an opportunity to show his best and attain prosperity by hard work.
25
Bhattacharya affirms that political freedom opens up where there are no ways, but miracles can not occur without hard work. Then Atmaram says to the villagers:
―……The miracles will not drop upon us. It is we who have to create them with love and with sweat……‖ (p.303)
The novel gives a realistic picture of The Bengal Famine and the political events around Independence Day. The women were suffering from acute shortage of clothes caused by the profiteers. Women had to wear patched saries and many of them had to sleep almost naked at night in order to save their saris from further wear. Seth was the only cloth merchant in the six villages around, who was responsible for the miseries. He raised the prices to increase his profit. He was a money lender also and he gave the people money at a very high rate of interest and most of the villagers were deep in debt. The village women start a movement against the Seth and with the help of his wife Lakshmi, compel him to give each one of them a sari free of cost. He does not find anything wrong with his profit motives which he has learnt from the big businessman no body condemns and punishes.
A Goddess Named Gold also satirizes the election methods actually adopted by the politicians. An election is to take place at Sonamitti for
26
The District Board. The Seth decided to contest it. He spends a lot of money and employs all sorts of stunts to purchase votes. He hires the school children to convince the people that he is a brother and equal to the poor. He plans a number of tricks to win the election. He thinks of using the squads of young teachers from the village school to go around crying slogans in his favour. Bhattacharya depicts the caste differences and superstitions prevailing in Indian villages. The Halwai of village Sonamitti wants to marry young Meera but in their marriage there was a problem of caste. He knows that they both belong to different castes and the villagers won‘t allow their marriage but he believes that his wealth can enable him to overcome the caste barrier. He tells Meera that there is only one way of their marriage and that is to give the money to the five elders. Seth also knows the power of . gold which enables man to work a miracle and attain great heights. Superstitions oppress the villagers as much as casteism. The villagers were obsessed by the fear of apparitions visible at certain places in the night. The Seth, who is more enlightened than most of the illiterate villagers, is terribly frightened when one night he has to pass by a neem tree supposed to be haunted by the bhootni, a female ghost. The villagers faith in the horoscope is also brought out in the novel., the description of the marvellous legend of the talking goat. The goat was
27
purchased to be slaughtered for meat on the occasion of a marriage feast. But when about to be slaughtered, it spoke in a human voice. The result was that the owner could not dare kill it, rather he broke down in remorse and fell at the animal‘s hoofs. It was believed that a noble human soul resided in the goat‘s body.
Bhattacharya also deals with the evils of dowry and bribery in this novel. The need for dowry for a girl‘s marriage causes a lot of misery and hardship to Indian families, it is also one of the cause of poverty in our country. Money helps the parents to get a suitable husband for their daughters. An unfortunate old woman had a daughter and she was not able to get her married to a suitable boy because she did not have money and that‘s the main reason. The corrupt practice of bribery and other unfair dealing, so rampant in Indian society are among the prime reasons of the nation‘s slow progress. It was the first time when women came out of their houses and took part in the struggle for freedom. How Gandhi cast a magic spell on the women of Sonamitti is clearly portrayed by the novelist. An eleven year old girl, Meera, could not confine herself to her hurt at the time of Quit India Movement Lakshmi, the wife of the cloth merchant, the Seth, did not worry about her inconvenience for a moment and joined the procession: ―Seven months. There was the heavy-bellied mother-to-be
28
with short quick-steps, breathless in her effort not to be left behind‖ (p.12). In the end Ministrel points out to the people that ―to win the freedom to be free‖ (p.301) is more important than political freedom. Bhattacharya in this novel shows the multi-dimensional freedom, philosophy of Gandhi towards the end of the novel, the social, cultural, political and economic history of India just after achieving freedom. He shows the social reality and history of the country after getting freedom in 1947 and his main concern was how to preserve this newly attained freedom.
Shadow from Ladakh depicts many social realities of the post Independence India. This novel deals with ―India‘s recent history, the problems and challenges that India has faced in the wake of Chinese aggression.‖9 On the political level it deals with the conflict between Gandhian social and technology. Comparing this novel with So Many Hungers, Bhattacharya himself declares that it is, ―rooted more deeply in Gandhian thoughts.‖10
The need for overlooking caste-system for the betterment of the society is emphasized in this novel. On the political level it deals with the conflict between Gandhian social and political ethics, and the modern forces of science and technology. The two major characters in the novel, Satyajit and Bhaskar, represents these two contrasting
29
attitudes to life. Satyajit is dedicated to the Gandhian way of life and lives in Gandhigram modelled by him after the Gandhian philosophy of life. On the other hand Bhaskar has created a new westernized kind of life centred around steel civilization in Steel town. Bhattacharya shows Satyajit and Bhaskar‘s conflict but by and by they iron out their differences and ultimately reach an understanding and adjustment. The novel emphasizes that synthesis comes from correct understanding and adjustment. The novel also refers to the population explosion which is becoming a problem to the national life of India. Bhaskar is portrayed to be afraid of this horrible problem of the birth of a child after every five seconds in India, the idea of feeding, rearing, clothing, educating, giving cultural welfare, giving employment and giving their due share of human existence to these babies harasses Bhaskar.
Bhattacharya‘s description of our great leaders such as Nehru, Tagore, Gandhi and Dalai Lama a few characters based on the Gandhian and Nehru‘s vision of India, clearly shows the insight of the political history of India. Bhattacharya‘s method of presentation of the historical perspective is one of comparison and contrast, the contrast is not between Gandhigram and Steeldown but it is between two contrary ways of life. Sayajit‘s plan of forming a Shand Sena is born of his faith in Gandhi‘s non-violence. He feels that Shanti-sena could
30
touch the hearts of Chinese and draw them away from their aggressive desire.
Sayajit is dedicated to the Gandhian way of life. Bhaskar is against Sayajitism, has created a new westernized world for himself. The one believes in simple living and high thinking but the other believes in western ways of life and industrialization. Bhaskar is of the opinion that Indians who have been a slave to the Britishers and Muslims should achieve their full share of a free and happy life.
Beside discussing the Chinese aggression and its impact an Indian social and political life, the novel gives consideration to the pernicious evil of the caste system. At Santiniketan, where Satyajit, the central character of the novel, happens to serve for some time, we find the total rejection of caste. He discards his surname, `Sen‘, indicating his caste affiliation, and prefers to he simply casteless in the style of yogis who would renounce the world to become `casteless and rootless‘. He is in love with Suruchi, who belongs to a different caste from this own. He told Suruchi, that caste system won‘t create any hurdle in their marriage and soon, they married without any difficulty and their families were also happy and satisfied with their marriage. Santiniketan. Gandhigram, too aims at eradicating untouchability and casteism. The untouchable and the casteless are given homesteads
31
beside the people belonging to high castes and strata. Suruchi, is the first person to comprehend the synthesis of traditional and modern values of life, she favours the harmonious blending of the old and new. Satyajit and Bhaskar realize the essence of one another for the benefit of the country.
Thus we see that the novel records graphically the political condition of India, China and Tibet around the year 1962. Bhattacharya presents these realities of Indian history, in the wake of Chinese aggression with a lively description. From these novels, we can have an understanding of the undercurrents of the social life of India spanning from the Bengal Famine of 1942-43 to the Chinese attack on India in 1962. It deals with the various planes of reality — political, historical,
social, economic and spiritual reality of life.
32
REFERENCES
Sorot, Balram S. The Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1991. p.13.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. So Many Hungers. New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1978. p.3 (1947, rept. All The Subsequent references are to the same edition.)
Sharma, K.K. Affirmation of Life: The Vision and Themes of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979.p.14.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. Music For Mohini. New Delhi: Orient Paper Backs, 1984. p.6 and all Subsequent references are to the same edition.
Sharma, K.K. Affirmation of Life: The Vision and Themes of Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979. p.133-135.
Ibid. p.135-136.
7. Bhattacharya, Bhabani. He Who Rides a Tiger. New Delhi: Arnold — Heinmann, 1977. P.31 and all the subsequent references are to the same edition.
33
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. A Goddess Named Gold. Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1960. p.25 and all the subsequent references from the same edition.
Bhattacharya, Bhabani. Shadow From Ladakh. London: W.H. Allen, 1967. p.29.
10.Chandrasekharan, K.R. Bhabani Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1974. p.107.
CRY FOR DEFENCELESS AND VOICELESS DALITS IN PRAVEEN GADHVI`S POETRY VOLUME` THE VOICE OF THE LAST`
CRY FOR DEFENCELESS AND VOICELESS DALITS IN PRAVEEN GADHVI`S POETRY VOLUME` THE VOICE OF THE LAST`
BY
Dr. Ram Sharma, Senior Lecturer in English in Janta Vedic College, Baraut, Baghpat, U.P., India
The Dalit writers began their serious work in the 1950`s .Although most of the writers have come out of the Buddhist movement , one of the earliest , Annabhau Sathe, who belonged to the Untouchable Mang caste , was deeply influenced by Communism. In the sixties , the flow of Dalit literary writings increased in the form of short stories , novels and drama .Conferences were held almost every year. In the 1970`S , individual volumes of poetry began to be published by the Maharashtra Buddhist Literature Committee , Asmitadarsh Press , or the Marxist Magova Press .Dalit Sahitya has changed the face of Marathi literature and inspired similar literary creativity in Gujrat and Karnatak.
Praveen Gadhvi is a distinguished name in Dalit poetry.Numbers of the anthologies are at his credit., particularly Dalit poetry and short stories.He is a prolific writer of Gujrati Dalit literature involving the historical events and characters ironically in his poetryHis collections of poetry are Bayonet[1985], Padchhayo[1996], and Tunir[2002].His short story collections are Pratiksha[1995], Antarvyatha[1995], and Surajpankhi..This volume comprises Gadhvi`s translations of his own poems from the Gujrati original into English .In the preface the eminent critic Dr. Rupalee Burke writes,
``It is an event that calls for celeberation and one heralds a new era not only in the history of Dalits in Gujrat .And the present writer feels extremely privileged to be a part of it. What more can one ask for his deeply committed bureaucrat –poet who priveleges his compassion for his deprived brothers over his own privileged social status [ more so for exporting Dalit poetry from the regional Gujrati to the much wider realm of English]?``
[ p- 5]
The very first poem is a cry of a Dalit who wants that he should not be differentiated because he has been involved in history from Mohan-jo-daro. In every development he has been actively involved and he has made his history with his flesh and blood.
`` There are prints of my steps on every stream of this nation
There is fossil of mine under every rock of this nation
The unreadable script of Mohen-jo-daro throbs in my blood,
You cannot bury me as an untouchable`
[ I AM THE HISTORY OF THE NATION p-13]
Taking the story of Shakultala-Dushyant the poet try to divert our attention that Dalits have the same origin and they have the same contribution in the annals of the country.The poet is trying to remind everyone that blacks and whites are one but they have forgotten this.or their ancestors have eradicated this.
``You see the origin of her race,
Where is the origin of my race,
It has been eradicated by your ancestors
Though my black blod is rootless, it flows through all continents of the earth.
[ SOLILOQUY OF THE UNTOUCHABLE SHAKUNTALA p-14]
The poet wants to eradicate the marginal mentality of the persons with waters of Ganges .There is no need of venomous Manusmriti who has divided the society between blacks and whites.He craves to brainwash all these things.
`` there is no need of venomous curses of Manusmriti ,
This is centre of vision which gave me Black identity since centuries
Dear Bhudev ,
See the blue sky of the winter, see the green woods.
Also see the seven colours of rainbow.
[ BRAINWASH p-15]
The poet is doubtful that persons will give equal rights to Dalits .He is ready to remove provisions for reservations in the constitution but will the society give the chance to the sons of Dalits.Will they be provided half the portion of harvest to them.Gadhvi has also raised more serious questions like plundering of the virginity of Dalit daughters.He wants that they should be remained untouchable and nobody should try to touch them.This is really emotional cry of the poet because the situation is very dismal and they still have to suffer many hardships .The poet calls temples as slaughterhouses because their ancestors sacrificed their lives for the service and safety of the temples but even then they were not allowed to take entry in the temples and in this way their sacrifices became useless.
``They have covered the bloodstained walls with sheets of gold
They have made the golden peaks of the temple touch the sky,
The corpses of our ancestors are buried under the pillars of that temple, they groan,
Stop,
Don`t step into that slaughterhouse`
[ DON`T ENTER THE TEMPLE p-19]
Gadhvi creates pitiful scenes to rise the sympathy of the readers. Dalits are everywhere amid the wolfes and they have no protection. They have to work in the sun and bore all hardships that is the reason they became black. This is the reason they are blacks and others are white.
`` We suffered the pains of the earth
We were open to the sky,
You were in the graves
So that we are black and you are white.
[ WE ARE BLACK, YOU ARE WHITE p-21]
The poet wants them to raise against the injustice done to dalits.They worked hard and bore every hardships but in return what they got only dark history and blank pages in the last five thousand years. He wish them to stand up against this hardships , they can disappear like Dinosaurs.
`` no blank page of history to write
Make yourself disappear like Dinasaurs from the face of the earth,
Because might is right as Darwin said,
Do you understand?
[ QUESTION p-23]
Dalits are legs of God Brahma and they have been walking throughout the ages but they have no dignity and respect.The poet is desiring that all blacks of the world should be united and they should have their own script and language.For Dalits it is very difficult to come out from their shadow of untouchability.They can change their appearance and language but still they remain MARGINAL and Dalits.The poet becomes the voice of the Dalits and he craves for his own village where they can walk with self respect. They want to have their own land and pucca house.In todays caste system , Dalits have no self respect
`` She had no village,
She had no religion,
She had no language,
She had no dignity,
She had no modesty,
She was guilty
Because she was untouchable by birth
[ BARTER SYSTEM p-33]
Changing of names and changing of religion are not helping them. Even they are insulted more by these acts.Dalits can`t draw water from the well, they have no lands of their own but inspite of that this country is theirs.They constructed the temple but they have no right to take entry in it.The poet salutes, Buddha, Gandhi, Shahuji Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar to rise the consciousness among the Dalits.Even in the whole history they weren`t considered as human beings.They even couldn`t get clothes and dignity.He doesn`t want the division of human beings on the basis on caste and creed and they should remain only human beings.
`` He asked my caste
I was heart
He asked my sub-caste,
I was offended
He asked my inner sub-caste,
I was disgusted.
[ LET ME BE A HUMAN ONLY p-41]
Dalits were stopped from reading the religious scriptures and even their limbs were cut to touch the scriptures.Even there is nothing for them in scriptures.Still today caste system is hoverin there.and there are titles to indicate the caste.Even Dalits are not able to mingle in the society and their efforts have become futile.They are able to understand the efforts of Gandhiji and Ambedkar after their death.The brick-maker has no identity and everyone praises sky scrappers.This is quite humiliating for them to find their own identity.One can see the clear Dalit sensibility in this volumeThe second part of this volume is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi who has made efforts for the upliftment of DalitsDr. Rupalee Burke writes in the preface of this volume,
``Mahatma Gandhi holds in the poems of the second section as is obvious from its title .No mincing of words for this poet and those expecting paeans in honour of the Father of the Nation are sure to be let down. Each poem in this section is laced heavily with anger ,sarcasm , irony , violence and scorn[ might we addd hate?]``
[P-9]
.In this volume Mahatma Gandhi is dissected , examined from every possible skeptical angle and turned inside out, reducing him to the merest of mortals.In this country no one is following the teachings of Mahatma and he has no regard now.This country has become country of wolves now.He calls Gandhi as without crown and throne and we should respect him for his efforts to uplift the downtrodden.The poet also raise the questions why Gandhi or Ambedkar couldn`t be successful in their efforts to abolish caste system .The poet has tried to search Gandhiji in this volume .Gadhvi has clarion call to be united and make efforts to attain dignity and identity and he is quite hopeful regarding this.
``The earth is mother of all,
There is no need of any walls,
The sun is father of all,
Nobody is untouchable to its shrine,
It is better to die by their sticks-spears than to face insults,
Rise, awake,
[INVOCATION p-22]
In the end I can say that Praveen Gadhvi is the voice of the voiceless and defence of defenceless in this poetry volume.
END NOTES
1-Sivashankar Pillai`s Scavenger`s Sons , A Seminar on Dalit Literature in Marathi and Gujrati was held on February 18-20 , 1988 in Surat
2- Lal , Sheo Kumar and Nahar, Ummed Raj , 1990 .Extent of Untouchability and Patterns of Discrimation , New Delhi , Mittal Publication
3-Praveen Gadhvi, The Voice of the Last,Yash Publications , New Delhi, 2008[All poetry lines have been taken from this volume]
BY
Dr. Ram Sharma, Senior Lecturer in English in Janta Vedic College, Baraut, Baghpat, U.P., India
The Dalit writers began their serious work in the 1950`s .Although most of the writers have come out of the Buddhist movement , one of the earliest , Annabhau Sathe, who belonged to the Untouchable Mang caste , was deeply influenced by Communism. In the sixties , the flow of Dalit literary writings increased in the form of short stories , novels and drama .Conferences were held almost every year. In the 1970`S , individual volumes of poetry began to be published by the Maharashtra Buddhist Literature Committee , Asmitadarsh Press , or the Marxist Magova Press .Dalit Sahitya has changed the face of Marathi literature and inspired similar literary creativity in Gujrat and Karnatak.
Praveen Gadhvi is a distinguished name in Dalit poetry.Numbers of the anthologies are at his credit., particularly Dalit poetry and short stories.He is a prolific writer of Gujrati Dalit literature involving the historical events and characters ironically in his poetryHis collections of poetry are Bayonet[1985], Padchhayo[1996], and Tunir[2002].His short story collections are Pratiksha[1995], Antarvyatha[1995], and Surajpankhi..This volume comprises Gadhvi`s translations of his own poems from the Gujrati original into English .In the preface the eminent critic Dr. Rupalee Burke writes,
``It is an event that calls for celeberation and one heralds a new era not only in the history of Dalits in Gujrat .And the present writer feels extremely privileged to be a part of it. What more can one ask for his deeply committed bureaucrat –poet who priveleges his compassion for his deprived brothers over his own privileged social status [ more so for exporting Dalit poetry from the regional Gujrati to the much wider realm of English]?``
[ p- 5]
The very first poem is a cry of a Dalit who wants that he should not be differentiated because he has been involved in history from Mohan-jo-daro. In every development he has been actively involved and he has made his history with his flesh and blood.
`` There are prints of my steps on every stream of this nation
There is fossil of mine under every rock of this nation
The unreadable script of Mohen-jo-daro throbs in my blood,
You cannot bury me as an untouchable`
[ I AM THE HISTORY OF THE NATION p-13]
Taking the story of Shakultala-Dushyant the poet try to divert our attention that Dalits have the same origin and they have the same contribution in the annals of the country.The poet is trying to remind everyone that blacks and whites are one but they have forgotten this.or their ancestors have eradicated this.
``You see the origin of her race,
Where is the origin of my race,
It has been eradicated by your ancestors
Though my black blod is rootless, it flows through all continents of the earth.
[ SOLILOQUY OF THE UNTOUCHABLE SHAKUNTALA p-14]
The poet wants to eradicate the marginal mentality of the persons with waters of Ganges .There is no need of venomous Manusmriti who has divided the society between blacks and whites.He craves to brainwash all these things.
`` there is no need of venomous curses of Manusmriti ,
This is centre of vision which gave me Black identity since centuries
Dear Bhudev ,
See the blue sky of the winter, see the green woods.
Also see the seven colours of rainbow.
[ BRAINWASH p-15]
The poet is doubtful that persons will give equal rights to Dalits .He is ready to remove provisions for reservations in the constitution but will the society give the chance to the sons of Dalits.Will they be provided half the portion of harvest to them.Gadhvi has also raised more serious questions like plundering of the virginity of Dalit daughters.He wants that they should be remained untouchable and nobody should try to touch them.This is really emotional cry of the poet because the situation is very dismal and they still have to suffer many hardships .The poet calls temples as slaughterhouses because their ancestors sacrificed their lives for the service and safety of the temples but even then they were not allowed to take entry in the temples and in this way their sacrifices became useless.
``They have covered the bloodstained walls with sheets of gold
They have made the golden peaks of the temple touch the sky,
The corpses of our ancestors are buried under the pillars of that temple, they groan,
Stop,
Don`t step into that slaughterhouse`
[ DON`T ENTER THE TEMPLE p-19]
Gadhvi creates pitiful scenes to rise the sympathy of the readers. Dalits are everywhere amid the wolfes and they have no protection. They have to work in the sun and bore all hardships that is the reason they became black. This is the reason they are blacks and others are white.
`` We suffered the pains of the earth
We were open to the sky,
You were in the graves
So that we are black and you are white.
[ WE ARE BLACK, YOU ARE WHITE p-21]
The poet wants them to raise against the injustice done to dalits.They worked hard and bore every hardships but in return what they got only dark history and blank pages in the last five thousand years. He wish them to stand up against this hardships , they can disappear like Dinosaurs.
`` no blank page of history to write
Make yourself disappear like Dinasaurs from the face of the earth,
Because might is right as Darwin said,
Do you understand?
[ QUESTION p-23]
Dalits are legs of God Brahma and they have been walking throughout the ages but they have no dignity and respect.The poet is desiring that all blacks of the world should be united and they should have their own script and language.For Dalits it is very difficult to come out from their shadow of untouchability.They can change their appearance and language but still they remain MARGINAL and Dalits.The poet becomes the voice of the Dalits and he craves for his own village where they can walk with self respect. They want to have their own land and pucca house.In todays caste system , Dalits have no self respect
`` She had no village,
She had no religion,
She had no language,
She had no dignity,
She had no modesty,
She was guilty
Because she was untouchable by birth
[ BARTER SYSTEM p-33]
Changing of names and changing of religion are not helping them. Even they are insulted more by these acts.Dalits can`t draw water from the well, they have no lands of their own but inspite of that this country is theirs.They constructed the temple but they have no right to take entry in it.The poet salutes, Buddha, Gandhi, Shahuji Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar to rise the consciousness among the Dalits.Even in the whole history they weren`t considered as human beings.They even couldn`t get clothes and dignity.He doesn`t want the division of human beings on the basis on caste and creed and they should remain only human beings.
`` He asked my caste
I was heart
He asked my sub-caste,
I was offended
He asked my inner sub-caste,
I was disgusted.
[ LET ME BE A HUMAN ONLY p-41]
Dalits were stopped from reading the religious scriptures and even their limbs were cut to touch the scriptures.Even there is nothing for them in scriptures.Still today caste system is hoverin there.and there are titles to indicate the caste.Even Dalits are not able to mingle in the society and their efforts have become futile.They are able to understand the efforts of Gandhiji and Ambedkar after their death.The brick-maker has no identity and everyone praises sky scrappers.This is quite humiliating for them to find their own identity.One can see the clear Dalit sensibility in this volumeThe second part of this volume is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi who has made efforts for the upliftment of DalitsDr. Rupalee Burke writes in the preface of this volume,
``Mahatma Gandhi holds in the poems of the second section as is obvious from its title .No mincing of words for this poet and those expecting paeans in honour of the Father of the Nation are sure to be let down. Each poem in this section is laced heavily with anger ,sarcasm , irony , violence and scorn[ might we addd hate?]``
[P-9]
.In this volume Mahatma Gandhi is dissected , examined from every possible skeptical angle and turned inside out, reducing him to the merest of mortals.In this country no one is following the teachings of Mahatma and he has no regard now.This country has become country of wolves now.He calls Gandhi as without crown and throne and we should respect him for his efforts to uplift the downtrodden.The poet also raise the questions why Gandhi or Ambedkar couldn`t be successful in their efforts to abolish caste system .The poet has tried to search Gandhiji in this volume .Gadhvi has clarion call to be united and make efforts to attain dignity and identity and he is quite hopeful regarding this.
``The earth is mother of all,
There is no need of any walls,
The sun is father of all,
Nobody is untouchable to its shrine,
It is better to die by their sticks-spears than to face insults,
Rise, awake,
[INVOCATION p-22]
In the end I can say that Praveen Gadhvi is the voice of the voiceless and defence of defenceless in this poetry volume.
END NOTES
1-Sivashankar Pillai`s Scavenger`s Sons , A Seminar on Dalit Literature in Marathi and Gujrati was held on February 18-20 , 1988 in Surat
2- Lal , Sheo Kumar and Nahar, Ummed Raj , 1990 .Extent of Untouchability and Patterns of Discrimation , New Delhi , Mittal Publication
3-Praveen Gadhvi, The Voice of the Last,Yash Publications , New Delhi, 2008[All poetry lines have been taken from this volume]
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