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Anti-War Sentiments in Andha Yug

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(RJELAL) Research Journal of English Language and Literature Vol.4.Issue 4. 2016 A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal (Oct.Dec.) http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected] RESEARCH ARTICLE ANTI-WAR SENTIMENTS IN ANDHA YUG VISHNU RAM Research Scholar, Dept. English & Foreign Languages, MDU, Rohtak, Haryana, India. [email protected] ABSTRACT Can war be the solution of quarrels among humans for property, kingdom and honour? Is war necessary to bring peace and prosperity in the world? Can war be termed as holy or unholy? Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug deals with an array of such questions. Needless to say, innumerable generations of India has grown up listening the story of the Mahabharata war fought in Kurukshetra as it is recorded in the eponymous epic. The epic seems to entrench a view insidiously that wars and slaughter can be holy and participating in carnage is only one’s karma. Andha Yug can be seen as an eye-opener in this regard. The play takes its readers to the VISHNU RAM eighteenth day of the war and a couple of decades following it. The readers are made to rethink about the outcome of the ‘holy’ war. The play poses certain questions exposing the sham belief that wars destroy evil. The events of Andha Yug can easily be compared to the partition of Indian subcontinent and post- partition wars between India and Pakistan. Neither the Kurukshetra war nor the partition of India brought peace. Wars merely increase the feelings of disillusionment and hatred among people. Through Andha Yug, Dharamvir Bharati attempts to present a war as a war, not as holy or religious or the harbinger of peace. Keywords: War, honour, destruction, karma, suicide, meaninglessness, neutral, code, moral, blind, existence. KY PUBLICATIONS The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the with their more changed versions, e.g. Parkash Jha’s two great Indian epics, have always been closely Rajneeti and Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. Besides associated with the consciousness of traditions, folk inspiring so many annual festivals and dramatic tales, ethical codes and societal norms of Indian performances, these epics are widely used for the subcontinent. Being full of parables and moral syllabi of lower and higher education across the lessons related to the spiritual, social and country. psychological lives of people, they have continuously Much longer than the Ramayana, the remained important sources of inspiration for poets, Mahabharata represents the Indian political, social novelists, and playwrights. They are even adapted and cultural scenario more closely. Over the last into television serials by notable directors, e.g. B.R. hundred years, the Mahabharata is translated into Chopra and Ramanand Sagar. And some more several foreign and Indian languages. Moreover, its eminent filmmakers adapted them for silver screen smaller incidents and anecdotes have inspired many 442 VISHNU RAM (RJELAL) Research Journal of English Language and Literature Vol.4.Issue 4. 2016 A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal (Oct.Dec.) http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected] literary creations of small and large scale. Andha indulgence his sons have brought destruction to Yug, a play by Dharamvir Bharati, is one of such their clan. Gandhari shows deep dissatisfaction literary creation inspired from the Mahabharata. towards the ethical concepts of the world. Published in 1953, Andha Yug is a very Meanwhile, Vidura unsuccessfully tries to pacify significant post-Independence play. It is considered them. to be a landmark in the history of Indian drama. The second act, ‘The Making of the Beast,’ When dramatized for the first time on the stage, it concentrates on the character of Ashwatthama, one was immediately hailed as a classic play of highest of the three survivors from the Kaurava side, the order. Written just few years after the Partition, it other two being Kritavarma and Kripacharya. He is meditates upon the difficult phase of the holocaust enraged because Duryodhana gets shamefully which destroyed the lives of millions of people. The defeated in the war. Victory in the war matters the play brings the fact into light that the real most to Ashwatthama because of his father’s independence, peace and prosperity cannot be unlawful murder in the same war. He behaves like a achieved by the means of war or division. Wars beast justifying his actions reasoning that even cannot resolve effectively the basic existential persons like Yudhishthira chose the side of untruth problems of human lives. by speaking half-truths to get advantage in the war. Along with many other languages, Andha Blinded by anger, he attacks Sanjaya and a Yug is translated into English abundantly by various Mendicant. Kripacharya and Kritavarma save the authors. Among these translations, Alok Bhalla’s former but the latter is strangled to death by translation of the play seems the best one. Bhalla Ashwatthama. masterfully captures various dimensions of the ‘The Half-Truth of Ashwatthama,’ the third argument depicted in the play. Further, he act, details how from the fight of an owl and a crow beautifully retains its epic grandeur, and poetic Ashwatthama gets the idea to destroy the Pandava simplicity blended with supreme elegance. army while the soldiers are sleeping. Duryodhana As mentioned earlier, the moral and gives his consent to make Ashwatthama the new political issues depicted in Andha Yug are relevant commander. Meanwhile, Yuyutsu, the only Kaurava even in the twenty-first century. This technocratic who sided with the Pandavas considering their side age is perhaps the eponymous age of blindness virtuous, is humiliated in Hastinapur by the citizens surrounded in the sinister forces of terrorism, and his mother for fighting against his own relatives. corruption, religious fundamentalism, and Vidura, again unsuccessfully, tries to console bloodshed over the issues of community, caste and Yuyutsu. honour. The next section, ‘Interlude: Feathers, The play has a prologue, five acts, an Wheels and Bandages,’ explores the ideas of interlude and an epilogue. The prologue begins with honour, Karma and blindness chosen willingly. This an ‘Invocation’ addressed to Narayana, Saraswati part does not affect the main narrative but as the and Vyasa. It is followed by the ‘Proclamation’ Mendicant comments it is there to understand the explaining how Vishnu Purana mentions the age of “inner contradictions” of some of the characters darkness that will follow ‘the great war,’ the strong who appear as specters in this section (Bharati 90). reason behind the decline of prosperity, dharma and The fourth act, ‘Gandhari’s Curse,’ honour from the earth. chronicles the destruction of Pandava camp by In the first act, ‘The Kaurava Kingdom,’ furious trio of Ashwatthama, Kripacharya and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Vidura along with all Kritavarma. Gandhari along with Dhritarashtra, the citizens of Hastinapur apprehensively wait for Sanjaya and Vidura visits Kurukshetra. Greatly Sanjaya who is neutral in the war for what happened disturbed at the sight of the corpses of his sons and in the battlefield in the eighteenth day. relatives, especially after seeing the carcass of the Dhritarashtra, though somewhat reluctantly, half-eaten Duryodhana, Gandhari alleges that acknowledges that because of his too much Krishna is responsible for the war and curses him 443 VISHNU RAM (RJELAL) Research Journal of English Language and Literature Vol.4.Issue 4. 2016 A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal (Oct.Dec.) http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected] with an ordinary death following the destruction of honour. Gandhari considers these concepts as his clan. Krishna accepts the curse and thus making useless and manipulative. Even the narrator begins Gandhari even more remorseful. the play in the following manner: The fifth act, ‘Victory and a Series of Both sides in the war Suicides,’ is an account of the suicides of Yuyutsu, violated Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and some others. Krishna the code of honour… also goes to the forest even after knowing that he the Kauravas perhaps more than the would be killed by a hunter in that forest. The Pandavas. (Bharati 27) suicide of Pandava brothers and Draupadi is hinted The same violation is perhaps the sole reason upon as Yudhishthira, disillusioned after war and behind the end of the dwapara yug and the defeat disappointed by the disrespectful behavior of his of “whatever is good and gentle and beautiful” brothers, decides to go on a pilgrimage on the (Bharati 27). What makes this concept weak and higher crests of Himalayas. manipulative is the fact that it remains vague and In ‘Epilogue: Death of the Lord,’ another unspecified from the beginning to the end of the invocation is devoted to the Christ-like sacrificial play. Everyone seems to revere it and want to abide death of Krishna. Sanjaya and Ashwatthama witness by it. However, it is either manipulated by cunning Krishna’s death by Jara who is reincarnation of people suiting their own ends or abandoned by wrongfully killed Mendicant. In the end, Chorus people finding it useless. Immensely disappointed comments that with the death of the Lord began the Gandhari comments: age of darkness that will be full of half-truth and I had seen the ways of the world some more great wars. and knew The author of Andha Yug warns the readers that dharma against an age of darkness. He wants them to duty and honour improve themselves because improvement of their were illusions. souls is the only way out from the encroaching When the time of reckoning arrives darkness and evil. He implies that there are at least wisdom and honour two ways of improvement: the first is learning are always useless. (Bharati 37) through one’s own experience and the other is She is of the view that hypocrisy directs all these learning through others’ experience. At the very precepts: beginning of the play, the playwright asserts that the Morality, honour, selflessness story is meant to enlighten its audience.
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