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Unit 1 Non-Fictional Prose: a Survey

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Unit 1 Non-Fictional Prose: a Survey UNIT 1 NON-FICTIONAL PROSE: A SURVEY Structure I .O Objectives 1.1 Indian Prose Writers 1.2 Post-Independence Prose 1.3 Forms and Varieties of Prose 1.4 Let Us Sum Up 1.5 Suggested Reading 1.0 OBJECTIVES In this unit we shall trace the beginnings of Indian English Non-Fictional Prose. While surveying the field we will document important prose writers of the pre- independence era as also those who are currently writing. You will also be acquainted with the Forms and Varieties of Prose. After reading this unit you will appreciate the fact that whether fictional or non-fictional, prose should be read as closely as verse. 1.1 INDIAN PROSE WRITERS lndian English literature began as a by-product of the Indo-British encounter. Indians first started learning English for the purpose of trade and commerce. Expository+prose writing, letters, and speeches were the first to be published. The first Indian author in English, Dean Mahomet, published his memoirs, The Travels ofDean Mahomet, in 1794. There have been outstanding Indian orators like Vivekananda, Tilak and Srinivasa Sastri. Indians have published biographies, autobiographies, travelogues, and humorous sketches in addition to scholarly monographs in various fields of knowledge. Many of the contemporary novelists and poets have written good prose. But the achievements in poetry and fiction have drawn armtion away from non- fiction prose writings. Dean Mahomed ( 1759- 185 1) was born in 1759 into a fhmily claiming traditions of service to the Mughal Empire. After the death of his fbther, at the age of eleven, he .ioined the East India Company's Bengal Army as a camp follower, and attached h~mselfto an Ensign Godfrey Evan Baker. Over the next fifteen years, they travelled all over the Gangetic plain, from Delhi to Dhaka. Dean Mahomed became a market master and then a subaltern officer, as his Anglo-Irish patron rose to become the captain of his unit. When Baker sailed home to Cork in 1784, Dean Mohamed went to Ireland with him. He settled down there, and married an Anglo-Irish girl. Zfe read widely, and it is possible that Addison's and Smollett's accounts of their travels in Europc encouraged him to write. In 1794, with the help of public subscription, he published his book, The Travels of Dean Mahomet, cvNrrtive ofPafna in Bengal, Through Several Parts ofIndia, While in the Service of the Honorable The East India (hmpnny. (In the East India Company's administration, most of Bihar, including ' Patna were part of the province of Bengal). At that time, the most common way of publishing a book was by subscription -- the author would collect money from the book-reading public to pay for the cost of publication. Dean Mahomet (to use the spelling he fbvoured) adopted the epistolary form; the book is in the form of thirty- eight letters. The Travels of Dean Mnhomet is probably the only account by an Indian of life with the East India Company. The book ends with his arrival in Britain. The I;~ca~eisqfIdean Ilkihomer, -the first book ever written and published by an Indian in English. is a memoir, rs. popular genre in non-fictional prose. It is in the form of thirty-eig'r?:letters. The epistolary form is just a cowenticin; different portions of the first person nanative, the various "letters", begin with "Dear Sir". The flrst letter (the first. chapter of his Travels) begins with his birth and childhood. he claims that hc was descct~dedfrom the Nawabs of Murshidabad. Subsequent chapters clcarl~. describe the towns and villzges they passed through, the dress and occupations of the people, and the sctivities of the various classes of men in the Bengal Arm!,. W;s lqguage is sra&~"rllcand without sia1e diction when he is describir~gcve~~ts in his 1162. or scencs from the anny camp. Btit when it comes to descriptions of nature. Dean Maholne? turns to cliches he has picked ilp from his reading of English naturc descriptions. This is not surprising, as early writers in the settler colonies likc Canada, Anstraiia and New Zealand experienced the szme problem of the dichotomy between the language (though It.was their mother tongue) and tl~eplace they wcrc writing abo~i. The book \YSS written more than two centuries ago, just whe~~the Mughal Empire was fading a-*;ay and the British a;:zr; taking over. Dean Mahome? describes various aspects of lifc in India, always laying stress on the beauty of the country and the nobility of its people. He describes "the Mohammedan ceremony of maniagc". thc caste system, the custom of offering betel leaves, and t!x goods mmufacturcd in different parts of the coilntrq;, such as the fine cloth of Dhaka. But the tone is al\va!.s that of a neiltral observer. One ofien finds the author t-&ing over the European's values alo~gi~ih his vocabulary: the Indims (probably PLclivasis) who attack thc Rengal Army's convoy, are described as "a savage clan" and "unfceling barbarians". The tri'kals armed with bows arrows ere no match for the British guns. and thcy are punished brttaliy: "some being whip1:ed in a pcblic manner, others suspended on a kind of gibbets, igriominiously exposed along the mountain's conspic~ousbrow. 111 order to strike terror into the hcaris of their accomplices". Dean Mahomet say t11at they "justly received exemplary punishment". The begirfiings of Indian English writing are not fully documented. For long, Cavelley Vertkata Bsriah's "Account of the Jains" published in 1809 in a j~~~rnalhas been cosisidered the first published work by an Indian in English. M.K.Naik (in his ,.I Hisior,, qfhdii7n English Literature, 1982) and K.R.Srinivasa lyengar in his lt~lh'iori Writing in Et~glish(1962) supported this view because The Trme1.s of Desm M~7l~onrur had been forgatten. It is only in 1996 that a historian, Michael H. Fisher, brought this work to light, His scholarly work, The Firsf Pndinn Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1 795-1851) in India, Ireland and England has chronicled the life of this unknown Illdim, tracing his later life as the first Indian entrepreneur in England.. and the role his wife Jane played in hrthering his business cf n~nninga coffee housc and hter a medicinal bath. But it is difficult to correctly place Deal1 hfahomet's work in the tradition of Indian English writing, He is chronological!y the first. but cvc do not know whether later writers likc Raja Rart~~rnshunRoy were aware of his work. Raja ~mohunRoy's essay, "A Dcfence of Hindu Theism" (1817) is the tirst original publication in expository prose in the history of Indian writing in English. Raja kilmohun Roy (1772-1833) was the greatest social: religious and cultural i-ef~~~~eiof the period. The son of a rich landlord, he studied Arabic and Persian at Patna, and Hindu theology md philosophy at Benares. He kneiv many Euiopcall languages, and had read the Bible in Cheek, Hebrew and Latin. He was a polymath. who \+;rote i? Bengali (his mother tongue), Persian, and Sanskrit in addition to English. In 11828, he foinded the Brdimo Samaj, a reformist Hindu mo\ement. He fought for women's rights, and Isad a movement against sari. His articles about tlc "pradice of burning widows alive", and his "Address to Lord Wil!ia)n Ber~tinck" (1830) played a big role in framing legislation to ban this cruel custom. Hc \ianted k: modernize India, and realized the importance of knowing English. He was one of the founders of the Hindu College (which came into being in Calcutta in 18 17). GI~"Letter on English Education" addressed to the Govemor-General Lord Amherst Non-Fictional in 1823 is a fine example of his prose style. His writing reveals clear thinking and Prow: A Survey logical argument. He was a master of English prose, the first in a long line of distinguished Indians who used English prose to promote social and political refom. Bengalis have made an outstanding contribution to early prose writing. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-94), the father of the Bengali novel and author cf I2qrnohan's Wife (1864), the first Indian novel in English, wrote several essays in English. With the growth of English education, a larger number of Indians started writing distinguishe:d scholarly books. Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848-1909) a member of the Indian Civii Service is remembered for his verse translations of the Ramayam and the Mahabharata. He wrote novels in Bengali, two of which he translated into English. The Lake ofP(r1ms (19023) and The SheGirl ofAgra (1909). His non- fiction prose works are equally distinguished, his most famous book being the two voluntes Economic History of Indra (1902 and 19d4). He was also the first Indian (the secb~td,now that Dean Mahornet's work has come to light) to write a travelogue, Three Years i~ Europe 1869-1871, published in 1872. He was also the first to wire literary history: The Literature of Bengal(1879). His friend and contemporary, Surendranath Banerjea (1848-1925). one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress was a powerful orator; his speeches have been published as early as 1890. Three Bengalis,, who distinguished themselves in the fields of religion, poetry and national awakening, were masters of prose. Swami Vivebnanda (1863-1902) was namcd Narendranath Di-itta by his parents. At the age of eighteen, he became a disciple of the great mystic hakrishna Pararnahamsa, and took the name Vivthanda. After Sri Ramakrishna's dcath in 1885, he founded the Ramaknshna Mission.
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