contributors and paper presenters for their effort and to the UGC for the financial sanction to organise a national level event and also to Editorial publish the proceedings of the seminar. I am indebted to the Principal, SPU College and the members of the management committee for their untiring and generous support.

Post modernism in literature is reflected in changing forms, themes – Dr. Gautam Sharma and the language adopted by contemporary authors who have chosen to look at reality around them with an unconventional eye. The traditional value systems are mocked at and the new values are celebrated in such literature. The philosophy of ‘Small is beautiful’ has come to be globally accepted and this has created greater spaces for the marginalised and minority voices. This trend has set in almost every sphere of life, literature and media. Fiction, cinema and the life of the youth are all swinging together to the voice of the changing times. Today what is funky is more popular than the formal. Things which were taboo a decade earlier, are creating the norm of the day. Concepts like lesbian and gay marriages, live-in relationship are now content of programmes in sociology and social research. In literary criticism the theory of post modernism has become an area of contestations and debates. Besides aesthetic and literary parameters, it has political overtones also. The creation of a unipolar world after the disintegration of erstwhile USSR has given a new face to the geo–polotical contours of the world. The balance of power has broken and a new world order has come into being. The philosophers of the new order have given rise to concepts which are full of controversy and deserve a lot of debate. Therefore, it was thought proper to have a discussion on this theme in a UGC sponsored National Seminar on “Postmodernism in Literature”. The present volume is a collection of research papers presented at the seminar. I hope this will prove useful to the aspiring scholars interested in contemporary society and literature. I am thankful to the Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in Gelber’s Sleep 95 – Dr. Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas CONTENTS Exorcism of Illusion in Post Modern Literature – With Special 104 Page Reference to - Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia A Postmodern Reading of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is 1 Woolf – Priyanka Jain Red – Vaibhav Shah Awareness of One’s being in Waiting for Godot 109 Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special Reference 9 – Vinu George and Richa Bohra to Fire on the Mountain – Dr. Kalpana Purohit and Postmodernism Floating on Silver Screeen – Pooja Rawal 117 Sunidhi Bissa Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern 123 Historicity in Girish Karnad’s Play Tughlaq 19 Expressions of its Reconstruction: Toward A Postmodern – Sulochana Choudhary Theory of Law – Gopal Krishna Sukhwal The Saga of Struggle and Survival: African-Americans in 27 Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies – Some Essential 135 Alice Walker’s Novels – Niyatee Ayyar Aspects – Dr. Rashmi Rajpal Singh Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle of 32 Sun and Sand in Anna Ram Sudama’s Novel Meve Ra Runkh Reason – Tamishra Swain – Dr. Tarana Parveen 146 Postmodernist Trends in Cinematic Version of Sharat Chandra’s 46 Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s Inside the Haveli Devdas – Manoj Kumar – Dr. Rekha Tiwari 152 A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction – Asha Arora 52 Postmodernism and Representation of Indian myths in Githa A Postmodernist Study : Image of Woman in Indian Cinema 62 Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night – Divya Maheshwary – Gautam Sharma 163 Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows: Refracting the Shadows 66 Postmodern Feminism: The Emerging Role of New Woman with of Troubled History – Kiran Deep Special Reference to Shauna Singh Balwin’s What the Body Remembers– Manobi Bose Tagore and Shibani Banerjee 173 Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om – Rajnish Mishra 74 Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern A Satire on Politics and Prejudices : Mahesh Dattani’s Final 82 Critique of Selected Dalit Short Stories – Karan Singh 184 Solutions – Dr. Sonu Shiva and Prashant Yadav Interrogating the Pressures of Race and Gender : Jean Rhys’s A Cartographic Journey Unto Self - A Postmodernist View of 86 Wide Sargasso Sea – Usha Kunwar 195 The Shadow Lines – Manisha Sharma Our Contributors 203 Communalism and Other Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s Final 91 Solutions – Niranjan Gangwal Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:1-8 (2011) 2 Vaibhav Shah

The designation “modern” does not refer to a period in history as much as to a constellation of positions (e.g., a rational demand for unity, certainty, universality, and ultimacy) and beliefs (e.g., the belief that words, ideas, and things are distinct entities; the belief that the world represents A Postmodern Reading of Orhan Pamuk’s a fixed object of analysis separate from forms of human discourse and My Name is Red cognitive representation; the belief that culture is subsequent to nature and that society is subsequent to the individual) (Stephen). Vaibhav Shah Modernism laments over fragmentation and chaos which is explicitly reflected in highly reflexive and discontinuous narratives of early 20th Postmodernism is one of the most discussed and disputed theories of century literature. The art movements like Impressionism, contemporary era. It has given rise to many controversial issues of Expressionism, Surrealism, Dadaism, and convoluted modern techniques today’s time. Many theorists and scholars have tried to define the term like Stream of Consciousness, imagist poetry, Symbolism made the in their own way but still there is a dissension among them. However, modern literature obscure and difficult to read. Postmodernism, Postmodernism is hard to define as it is not simply an age or movement undoubtedly, preserves the similar trends and characteristics but with a but set of ideas prevailed in the various disciplines of art like philosophy, different approach. To quote: literature, architecture etc. It has its roots in modernism which is as Depending on the artistic discipline, post-modernism is either a contentious as postmodernism itself. However, scholars believe that radicalization of the self-reflexive moment within modernism, a turning postmodernism is only a continuation of modernism and it can not be away from narrative and representation. And sometimes it is both. separated from modernism. To quote: (Encyclopaedia of Postmodernism, 121) A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism Thus, Postmodernism also rejects the boundaries between high and thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and low culture, rigid genre distinctions, order in system and favours disorder, this state is constant. (Francois De La Roche foucauld) fragmentation, chaos, self-reflexivity and discontinuity in all fields. Thus, postmodernism can not be conceived of as an end of modernism However, as has been stated earlier, postmodernism differs from but rather a concept that is predominating the ‘modern’ age. modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Postmodernism Postmodernism can not be understood without first comprehending the perceives chaos and fragmentation from a different point of view. As term ‘modernism’ as most of the characteristics of both the terms are Mary klages points out: same but with different purpose and objectives. Modernism can be Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art can provide seen as a revolution or reaction in art against traditional values and the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of modern beliefs that dominated throughout the centuries. The age old structures life; art will do what other human institutions fail to do. Postmodernism, were pushed back to the periphery and superseded by the new in contrast, doesn’t lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates that. The world is meaningless? Let’s approaches and applications. Objectivity was replaced by subjective not pretend that art can make meaning then, let’s just play with attitude; values were substituted by practical needs and, the distinction nonsense. (Mary Klages) between high and low culture was also diminished. Thus, as Stephen Daniel opines, Postmodernism does not mourn over disorder and chaos but takes it lightly and celebrates it. The play or function is more important than the A Postmodern Reading of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red 34 Vaibhav Shah meaning or purpose in postmodernism. Hence, it is beyond any entertainment. Even serious literary works incorporate the genres which systematic pattern or structure. The lack of order, set patterns etc. were once considered pertaining to popular culture or fiction. A related leads to the incoherence, ambiguity, and simultaneity which can be phenomenon is the development of numerous hybrid genres that erode explicitly found in the various forms of postmodern techniques used in the distinctions, for instance, between literature and journalism, literature contemporary fiction. The elements like pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony and (auto) biography, and literature and history. Thus, Postmodernism play a significant role in constructing the postmodern art and literature. has vigorously affected the contemporary literature and all the traits of Postmodernism mark their presence explicitly or implicitly in it. The major characteristic of postmodernism, unlike modernism, is its perception of meta-narratives or grand stories. Jean-Francois Lyotard, Orhan Pamuk is one of the leading postmodern writers of the in his The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, sired the contemporary era. His novels are deeply imbued with the social, cultural term Metanarrative to define the grand stories in terms of postmodern and religious history of Turkey. A common theme in his novels has scenario. Lyotard argues that all aspects of modern societies rely on been that of cultural change. In a seemingly static cultural tradition, the metanarratives. The metanarratives are those grand stories that shifting values have resulted in uncertainties, dilemmas, confusion and have been richly embedded in culture and considered as universal facts. pain. Pamuk’s novels revolve round the issues like identity, violence, Postmodernism then is the critique of grand narratives, the consciousness religious fundamentalism and retrograde conservatism, conflict between that such narratives serve to conceal the paradoxes and fluidities that Eastern tradition and Western modernization. The striking feature of are inherent in any social organization or practice. In other words, every his writing is his excessive use of highly complex postmodern techniques attempt to create “order” always needs the creation of an equal sum of which occur in his novels quite naturally and spontaneously. “disorder,” but a “grand narrative” masks the constructedness of these Pamuk’s current oeuvre consists of eight novels: Cevdet Bey and His categories by explaining that “disorder” is chaotic and bad, and that Sons (1982), The Silent House (1983), The White Castle (1991), The “order” is rational and good. Postmodernism, in rejecting grand Black Book (1994), The New life (1997), My Name is Red (2001), narratives, supports “mini-narratives,” stories that explain small Snow (2004), and The Museum of Innocence (2009). He has also written practices, local events, rather than large-scale universal or global non-fictional books like Istanbul: Memories of a City (2005) in the concepts. Postmodern “mini-narratives” are always situational, form of an autobiography and Other Colours: Essays and a Story provisional, contingent, fluid and virtual making no claim to universality, which is a collection of his essays, interviews and Noble Lecture. Except truth, reason, or stability. the first two novels written by Pamuk, all his books have been translated Thus, minorities that were considered as ‘others’ by modernism are into English. foregrounded here in postmodernism. This radical change in Socio- The most popular and award winning novel of Pamuk is, of course, My political-cultural nexus leads to the rise of fundamentalism as a form of Name is Red. This is the novel that has brought him national and resistance to the questioning of the “grand narratives” of religious truth. international fame. The novel is highly postmodern in its approach and This reaction of fundamentalists brings chaos in society and creates deals with many polemical issues like conflict between East and West, disorder in the World. Tradition and modernity, Fundamentalism and Secularism, Universal and Another hallmark of postmodernism is the erosion of the boundaries Particular, and faithful imitation and individual style etc. The novel sets between “high,” elite, or serious art and “low,” popular art, or amid the perils of religious repression in sixteenth-century Istanbul, the A Postmodern Reading of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red 56 Vaibhav Shah world of the Turkish miniaturists, who sit in their workshops decorating Pamuk attempts to find the answers of these questions by using various great and holy books for the pleasure and prestige of their Sultan. In the postmodern techniques like multi-narrative, story within story, whodunit year 1591, the Sultan secretly commissions a group of artists to illustrate genre, foregrounding of other (West in this context) and many others. a book depicting the glories of the Ottoman Empire, after the style of All the voices or the narrators in the novel speak from the first person the infidel Venetians. But the project is suddenly halted when one of the point of view. It provides with an opportunity to get an insight into the illustrators, Elegant, is murdered, and his body is thrown into a well. characters both living and dead and we also come to know about the The entire novel revolves round this murder-mystery and at times, deeper opinion and perspectives of the various illumined objects of the paintings reflection and meditation on art and painting. like Dog, Tree, Gold Coin, Death, Red, Horse, Satan, Dervishes from One of the most crucial aspects of the novel is the clash between two their own mouths through the novel. As john Mullan opines: perspectives in the painting. Faithful imitation is the creed of these Without Pamuk’s controlling conceit of illumination and its representative miniaturists, their greatest delight is to render each image in a way that elements, the tales of his impossible narrators would be self-indulgent makes it indistinguishable from all other similar illustrations, so that the doodles. Here they are shards of strange illumination scattered among image itself becomes absolute, timeless. These painters perceive the soliloquies of the living, breathing characters. They are inert parts of the novel, having no influence over events. This is not magical realism: individuality or ‘style’ as an error. In such a static and inflexible world the novel’s characters live in a world where the laws of probability are comes a vision of painting, imported from the West, where the great strictly obeyed. Pamuk has provided these voices as the narrative measure European painters are discovering depth and light and perspective, and of those paintings, with their powerfully formulaic elements, around whose are beginning to paint portraits in Frankish style. Such a technique is not designs his novel is woven (John Mullan). only antithetical to the Turkish art but also potentially blasphemous, since All these non-human characters speak about themselves and tell us the creation of idols or portraits is forbidden by Islam. how they are perceived by the artists and human beings. To quote: Thus, metanarrative here, is the age old belief of Turkish art that imitation I’m a dog, and because you humans are less rational beasts than I, you’re is the gift of God and one should not innovate a new or individual style telling yourselves, ‘Dogs don’t talk.’ Nevertheless, you seem to believe in painting. It is a sin and a blasphemy to the God. The Sultan, attracted a story in which corpses speak and characters use words they couldn’t by the Frankish and Venetian style, forms a committee of miniaturists possible know. Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to to prepare a glorious book modeled after European style. But this project listen. (MNR11) results in causing grave rifts in the fraternity of the miniaturists and Pamuk makes his novel more complex by using story within story eventually ends in a series of spine-chilling murders. Pamuk sets forth technique to give the references from Koran, and other popular Arabic to interrogate this very deep-rooted belief by raising such questions stories of Husrev and Shirin, Laila and Majnu and many others. The like- what is the meaning of the self? Does virtue lie in celebrating the device here works to support the ideas and perceptions of the three self or effacing it? Does greatness consist of losing oneself in the infinite, miniaturists. The medium here is Black who investigates this murder- or in setting one’s self apart from it? This is not simply a clash of two mystery and to whom the miniaturists tell the stories. The stories serve artistic traditions; it is the fundamental battle of generations, the eternal to provide with the ancient glory of Turkey as well as deeper meditation conflict between new ideas and the old traditions. on art and paintings. One story leads to another story and thus turns into an unbreakable chain of stories that ponder over the questions like- A Postmodern Reading of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red 78 Vaibhav Shah the significance of style and signature, imitation or innovation, blindness Pamul has beautifully blended the two genres – whodunit and philosophy or seeing. Pamuk uses this device to bring digression in the main story (reflection on art). Whodunit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the plot i.e. murder mystery and takes us away in the World of art and detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The miniatures to meditate on the nature of various paintings and appreciate investigation is generally conducted by an eccentric amateur. In this them wholeheartedly. It is very well observed in conversation between novel, Black is an investigator who investigates three miniaturists one Enishte and Black: of whom is a murderer. Sometimes when investigation goes on, the “It is the story that’s essential,” our wisest and most Glorious Sultan had story moves rapidly but at times it becomes slow because of the deeper said. “A beautiful illustration elegantly completes the story. An illustration meditation on art and miniatures. that does not complement a story, in the end, will become but a false idol. Concludingly, it can be said that My Name is Red is a complex postmodern Since we can not possibly believe in an absent story, we will naturally novel dealing with many complicated and controversial notions on the begin believing in the picture itself… (MNR 109) nature of art and painting. It offers us various perspectives to see the The title of the novel is deeply imbued in the main plot. Red symbolizes things through different postmodern devices and these very techniques love, energy and power. At times it also refers to anger and danger. All make the novel highly challenging for the readers. these emotions and feelings are present in the novel in the form of Red. As the colour red it self states: References Color is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness. John, Mullan. “Talking Pictures: The Impossible Narrator.” The Guardian 16 Because I’ve listened to souls whispering – like the susurrus of the wind Oct. 2004. I’m so fortunate to be red! I’m fiery. I’m strong. I know men take notice of Stephen, Daniel. “Paramodern Strategies of Philosophical Historiography.” me and that I can not be resisted. (MNR 186) Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 1.1 (1995). Thus, ‘Red’ speaks of determination and will. “Verily and truly, I’ve Taylor, Victor E., and E. Charles. Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, Winquist been everywhere and am everywhere”. Red, amid much self-love and London and New York: Rouletdge, 2001. bombast about being king of the colours, tells the simple story of a http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/postmodernism.html. conversation between two blind miniaturists: What is the meaning of red?’ the blind miniaturist who’d drawn the horse from memory asked again. ‘The meaning of colour is that it is there before us and we see it,’ said the other. ‘Red cannot be explained to he who cannot see.’ ‘To deny God’s existence, victims of Satan maintain that God is not visible to us,’ said the blind miniaturist who’d rendered the horse. ‘Yet, He appears to those who can see,’ said the other master. ‘It is for this reason that the Koran states that the blind and the seeing are not equal. (MNR 188) Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:9-18 (2011) 10 Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa

and chaotic flow. They are moved by the aesthetics of existence, whatever is beautiful and good, whatever has glory and power, is only a Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special portion of the radiance. Majority of her characters - Maya, Monisha, Raka, Nanda - live either in illusions by retreating into fabrication and Reference to Fire on the Mountain fantasy, or show their reluctance to face reality; they live in a self - imposed solitary confinement. They are questers and their joy and glory Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa lies not in completely triumphing over their confounding situations, but in the struggles they make against the prophets of doom despair. Salman Rushdie, once described Desai’s work as “solitude”, her characters as “isolators and outsiders” - her fiction probing “the tensions between Fire on the Mountain goes a step ahead in voicing the multifarious their desired privacy and detachment, and the powerful family and aspects of humanity and theme of alienation. The novelist reveals in social lies that both stifle and sustain.” (A.C.F.W. 115) this novel the social, economic and human problems and three protagonists, Ila Das, Nanda Kaul and Raka outlines the mysteries The above description is apt as most of the protagonists of Anita Desai’s novels as neurotic, psychotic, crazy, abnormal or eccentric bordering intricacies of human relationships, economic hardships and existential pursuits, through the stream of consciousness device. In this device, on insanity. But the question that has been explored in depth is whether the madness and psychosis are inherent in their nature or they developed action is presented through the minds of her characters, shifting their mental time backward and forward. Virginia Woolf calls it Desai’s, this state of mind as part of their quest for secure, happy life. When we grasp with her character’s psychology, we begin to see them as human “tunneling process by which she tells the past in installments”. with their weaknesses and potentialities. They are, indeed, caught in This method delineates a character and this mode of characterization, “achieves by depth what traditional method achieves by extension”. the web of their own compulsions, but cannot be regarded as “haunted protagonists” who do not come to grips with life. When understood The motive behind using this device is to experience a total vision of life. It psychologically, we begin to visualize their ambitions, disappointments and loneliness as real. they react to their troubles with tragic intensity. “provides a method of presenting character outside time and place, in By her fictional rendering of neurotic behaviour interaction and solution, the double sense that, first, it separates the presentation of consciousness the novelist not only plums human nature but also helps us to grasp their from the chronological sequence of events, and second, it enables the inner reality intuitively. What psychologists and social scientists treats quality of a given state of mind to be investigated so completely, by means of pursuing to their ends the remote mental association and objectively, by abstract analysis, Anita Desai provides subjectively by suggestions, that we don’t need to wait for time to make potential actual her aesthetic portrayal. before we can see the whole.” The psychological intricacies of the behaviour of her protagonists their In this novel all the three protagonists, through this device exhibit their struggle to find a meaning in life symbolize the concern of modern man wrestle with the forces working against their individual identity in society. with the eternal human situation which speaks of the changed perspective They show their willingness to wage a war against those social forces of writers in depicting characters. Anita Desai’s art is not traditional, that block their smooth existence. Mrs. Nanda Kaul, Ila Das, and Raka her personages are engaged in contemplation, not action. She creates a are the characters correspondingly analyzed for their respective search character in order to tell a tale and embody her vision of life and these for selves and immeasurable alienation. characters are living individuals interested in life with its hopes, dejections, Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special Reference... 11 12 Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa

Nanda Kaul, an old woman, caught in the web of what Martin suggest a sickness of soul which is imposed upon them from inside. Buber calls, Outer forces do affect the workings of their minds, but their trouble is “self - contradictions and the failure to work out and realize the in - ingrained in the sense of insecurity developed in the claustrophobic born Thou and what meets it.” (N.A.D.72) atmosphere they live in. Nanda’s difficulties arise out of her intense Nanda Kaul is not aware of the split in her personality caused by the self - contempt generated from her dismal failure in life. Her has been desire of self to recoil from all contact and yet attempt to reach out to an existence choked with activities - the multiple responsibilities of the other. She vacillates between two contradictory forces: withdrawal running a household, looking after a brood of children, and maintaining and involvement, detachment and attachment, which Anita Desai a social status of V.C. husband. After such a hectic life, with all the metaphorically explains through the lines of G.M. Hopkins’s poem mundane responsibilities discharged, a wish for a quiet spell of aloneness ‘Heaven - Haven’, and contemplation is understandable. But, Nanda Kaul, does not look for peace in Kasauli. She likes the emptiness of Carignano and enjoys “I have desired to go, the ‘starkness’ of the town. Where springs not fail To fields where flies no The novel incorporates a ‘bizarre psychology’. In her frustration Nanda sharp sided hail, frantically searches for detachment. Life has not honored her claims. And a few lilies below. So much is made of the protagonist’s rebelliously detached attitude and her desire to live in complete isolation that we tend to regard Nanda Kaul as a formidable old woman who has snapped all ties and discarded And I have asked to be everyone. It is hard to believe that Nanda is basically a complaint Where no storms come, character for whom love is the most desired sentiment, above everything Where the green swell is else. Her ‘flashbacks’ of her over busy days reveals that Nanda strikes in the haven’s dumb, a bargain with fate which Horney terms as a ‘Deal’. And out of the swing to the sea.” (F.O.M. 58) “Too many trays of tea would have to be made and carried to her husband’s study, to her mother - in law’s bedroom, to the verandah that which signifies her desire to be away from the humdrum of mundane was the gathering place for all, at all times of the day. Too many meals life, to be in a heaven of nature far from the madding crowd. too many dishes on the table, too much to wash up after.” (F.O.M. 29) Nanda, the oldest of Anita Desai’s protagonists and Raka, the youngest She is ever engaged in her duties disavowing her pride and thinking that character discussed so far, take recourse to self destructive isolation as if she is good and dutiful, others will treat her with love. But the realities an alternative to their conflicts, while the older woman has a tendency of life give her a raw deal. Her husband’s infidelity, his utter disregard, to look back and regret, the younger one is terrified of past, present the callous attitude of her children deal her blows. The choices are and future, striving to shut out the agony of experiences. Both of them limited for Nanda - to fight it or bear it mutely. She chooses the second offer the pattern of self - alienation of the severe kind, leading them alternative. Also to save her from self - berating, she quickly builds towards neuroses. Metaphysically, they point to the futility of human around her a citadel of self glorifying virtues. Quietly, she engages herself existence and the inevitability of human suffering. Raka and Nanda in the discharge from her family duties. Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special Reference... 13 14 Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa

This is the portrait of a silent sufferer, a martyr, a “sub - dued victimized identity which Nanda strives to forego. Her constant effort is to become self”, who think herself as a, ‘night - cat’ prowling in the dark, but anonymous, faceless to, unconscious forces tell her that she is like the bird flying unevenly, “merge with the pine trees and mistaken for one. To be a tree, no more ‘through the funeral moonlight’. These images flashes across her mind and no less, was all she was prepared to undertake.” (F.O.M. 4) when her husband leaves her alone to carry on his love affair. To relieve At another time, her desire is to lie still, to, the tension of the situation, she considers her aloneness as, “be a charred tree trunk in the forest, a broken pillar of marble in the “a moment of private triumph, cold and proud” (F.O.M. 26) desert, a lizard on a stone wall.” (F.O.M.4) But, Nanda ia neither triumphant, nor proud of her aloneness. She is A tree trunk could not harbour irritation nor a pillar annoyance. She bitter. Only in order to hide the inner fear of isolation she creates a would imitate death like a lizard. This death wish shows that she does facade of pride and victory. If she were really proud of her life of not want to undergo the past torture again. withdrawal, she should not have wallowed in self - pity. Throughout, the narrative, the refrain is, Raka’s arrival at Carignano does not elicit an affectionate response. No tangible bond of tenderness develops between them. It is quiet unlike “Discharge me. . . . . I’ve discharged my duties. Discharge.”(F.O.M. 30) the reaction one would expect from a great grand mother. No affection with a strong note of compunction. She derives a weird sense of grows between Raka and Nanda as their solutions of withdrawal clash. happiness, of a release from bondage, when the responsibilities are Sometimes Raka excels her great grand mother in her eagerness to over. It is to be remembered that Nanda Kaul has nothing to look know all that is unknown to her. She shows certain extra ordinary traits forward to. Her children are alienated from her. Her misery is implicit as a child for the persuasiveness of Nanda’s secret life. in the last sentences she utters before her death. “If Nanda was recluse out of vengeance for a long life of duty and “And her children - the children were alien to her nature. She neither obligation, her great grand daughter was a recluse by nature, by instinct. understood nor loved them. She did not live here alone by choice - she She had not arrived at this condition by long route of rejection and lived here alone because that was what she was forced to do, reduced to sacrifice -she was born to it, simply.” (F.O.M. 48) doing”. (F.O.M 145) Even Nanda acknowledges the greatness of Raka as a recluse. Anita She is a forsaken woman and this dismal sense of having failed at Desai, like George Eliot, analyze Raka for her hidden and unseen motives everything in life produces self - reproach and self - contempt. In order of life. Unlike Nanda Kaul, Raka is an explorer who dislikes a duty to escape the self hate Nanda found the easiest course, and shifted her bound code of life. energies from complaint drives to resignation. An atmosphere of “Raka had all the jealous guarded instincts of an explorer, a discoverer.” impersonal relations suits her. She has achieved the desired loneliness (F.O.M. 61) and feels happy. She has, however, over - looked the basic principles Unlike her great grand mother, she is a born explorer: she stands for the that the past cannot be shut out by fleeing it. Nanda confronts her past definitive purpose of life. With an eagle’s eyes, she explores her existence in Ila and Raka, and is ensnared in her memories and so she bitterly beyond the apparent view of the readers. Like a discoverer, she analyses resents Raka’a intrusion because it awakens past memories. She is each and every object with a keen intensity of a scientist. About the one of the links of the long chain of events Nanda wishes to forget. So scenes and other objects down hill in the ravine. Raka thought it an is Ila Das whom she avoids. Both Raka and Ila Das represents that ancient scroll unrolled her feet for her to survey. Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special Reference... 15 16 Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa

Children of her age are often attracted towards the beauties of existence: “ I do believe the women would listen to me if it weren’t for that impossible fairy tales, adventures stories, flowers, butterflies. Raka, on the contrary, priest. It’s so much harder to teach a man anything. Nanda - the women relates to ugliness. She possesses a weird imagination and is drawn to are willing, poor dears, to try and change their dreadful lives by an effort, uncanny places and things. She is not a normal child. Her granny’s but do you think men will let them? Nooo, not one bit.” (F.O.M.129) imaginatively spun stories can hold her interest only for a short while. She faces all round opposition to her reforms, but like a Karma - Yogi, The bizarre spots of Kasauli, the charred house and trees have an she carries on her work as a social welfare officer. She never cared immense fascination for her. Raka’s psychological alienation can be much of the consequences of it. One day, when she was coming back ascribed to her unfortunate home which leaves the child insecure and from Carignano to her home, she faces her doom, humiliation and finally isolated. If the world is so much hostile, the easiest course is to withdraw death at the hands of Preet Singh, a native of the same village. The from it. Instinctively, she learns to expect nothing from it. Conversely, murder of Ila Das suggests the deterioration of human values. It becomes she gives nothing to it. Raka is unable to get in touch with her impulses symbolic of the growth of animalism in man. at the ‘wish’ level and is thus handicapped in finding the deeper roots of So far,Nanda manages to avoid the onslaught of self hate by escaping her own thrust into life. alternately into the intra - psychic defenses. Finally, the telephone call, Through Ila Das, Mrs. Desai lets the wheel of time come in full circle. announcing the death of Ila Das, overwhelms her with spite of herself. Past memories of Nanda Kaul unfold the vision of time. Metaphysically, the deaths of Ila and Nanda are interpreted as the final reality suggesting the futility of human existence. Ila dies because of “My dear, you can’t imagine you have no idea what it has meant to me to have you here at Carignano, to come and see you today. Why, its been her concern for others, Nanda dies because her concern for loneliness. a little bit of the past come alive. As if the past still existed here and Both involvement and non - involvement signify a tragic sense of I could simply come and visit and have a cup of tea with it when I was unfulfillment. From psychological standpoint we analyze the forces tried to the present.” (F.O.M.132) destroying Nanda as the compulsions of self - destructive drives Ila brings forward, the social cause of humanity, as a social reformer. generated by the torment of a life which has been a failure. She fights against evils like social ignorance and superstitions. Born On receiving the news of Ila Das’s death Nanda’a self hate operates in and brought up as a Christian, she never enjoyed the status of the several ways. That she fails to stand up to her glorified image impinges privileged one. Ila deliberately chooses the hard life of a social worker. upon her unconscious. She is overwhelmed by the feelings of She had a divided family, as all her sons had been sent to foreign worthlessness and inadequacy. A loving individual as she is, she should universities, but none of them excelled in his discipline. Ila’s husband have thought of asking Ila to stay on at Carignano. Self reproach paid all the debts, but her sons were so selfish that they did not even proclaims her guilty, she is lowered in her self esteem. She lived in a turn up on the death of their father. As Ila Das relinquishes all her make belief world to compensate for the cruel reality and her aggression physical and worldly attainments, she undergoes a metamorphosis of directs against her “self” because she has to cope with the struggle character. This change in her enables her to embrace a wider vision of between her idealized and real selves. In her last moments we discern life for serving the cause of humanity. She has no religion of humanity. that behind the fabricated and fragmented world reflected by her self As she fights for the women’s cause, she encounters injustices, cruelties accusations, lies the vision of reality; a belief interplay of life and death, and atrocities against them in the male - dominated society, destruction and renewal, chaos and cosmos. Finally, the negative values, chaos and destruction overpower her real self which a life time of Alienation in the Novels of Anita Desai: Special Reference... 17 18 Kalpana Purohit and Sunidhi Bissa pretences has already enfeebled. An inevitable by - product of the Gopal, N.R. A Critical Study of The Novels of Anita Desai. New Delhi : Atlantic confrontation between real and idealized selves is inner conflict. Nanda Publishers & Distributors, 1999. condemns herself as a murderer of Ila. Self destructive drives work on Kumar, Gajendra, and Uday Ojha. Indian English Literature: A Post Colonial her silently but fatally. She doesn’t commit suicide but her death wish, Response. New Delhi : Swarup and Sons, 2005. expressed in preceding pages works on her psyche. It finally causes Singh, Anita. Existential Dimensions in The Novels of Anita Desai. New Delhi: her psychic death, followed by a sudden physical demise. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2001. The silent self - annihilation of Nanda is followed by a more violently Tandon, Neeru. Anita Desai and Her Fictional World. New Delhi : Atlantic destructive act of Raka i.e. setting the hill side to fire. Publishers and Distributors, 2008. Tiwari, Shubha. Critical Responses to Anita Desai. New Delhi : Atlantic “Down in the ravine, the flames spat and crackled around the dry gross Publishers and Distributors, 2004. and black smoke spiraled up over the mountain.” (F.O.M.49) through which Desai gives us a positive message of striking a balance between illusion and reality and to make our lives meaningful. Fire on the mountain invites a striking comparison to our minds with Shakespeare’s King Lear. In this great tragedy, when he dramatizes the agony of betrayed father. Shakespeare removes Lear from the palace and places him in the mid - heath - a hostile place - to suggest that the plight of Lear is identical with the suffering of every wronged father. Shakespeare employs animal imagery to indicate the rotten and corrupt world of the dramatis personae of King Lear. While Desai’s use of images of insects and animals hints at how her female protagonists despise the absurdity of their existence. The novel contains the core of novelist’s existential world - view in that all the three characters are nothing but the manifestations of her alter - ego that gives expression to her outlook on life. It may not be an exaggeration to say that Fire On The Mountain merits a place in the galaxy of existential masterpieces like Kafka’ Trial, Camus’ The Plague and Sartre’s Nausea.

References Bande, Usha. The Novels of Anita Desai : A Study in Character and Conflict. New Delhi : Prestige Books, 1988. Desai, Anita. Fire on The Mountain. New Delhi : Allied Publishers Pvt. Limited, 1977. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:19-26 (2011) 20 Sulochana Choudhary

a re-invocation of history. It portrays the fourteenth century Sultan of Delhi, Tughlaq (1325-51), a brilliant and idealistic man but an Historicity in Girish Karnad’s Play Tughlaq unsuccessful ruler. The play depicts the parallels with the events during the Nehru era. Critics like Anantha Murthy, points out that, “the play is more than political allegory… perhaps no play in Kannada is Sulochana Choudhary comparable to Tughlaq in its depth and range”. Play which is of permanent interest to Indians, deals with the last five years of reign of “True drama is created by bringing life to the theatre and the theatre to Tughlaq. The unities of time and place have been overlooked because life... good drama must be equally satisfying on each level..... as on the one hand, and the highly conventional art of the theatre, on the other. the action of the play takes place in Delhi in 1327,and discusses about And unless the dramatist works like an organist playing on two key the Sultan’s policy of communal harmony. There is a tension in the boards at once the audience cannot respond as it wishes to respond”. beginning when the sultan expresses and announces his decision to – Priestley shift capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. Above lines are suitable for Karnad’s. plays especially when he played Religion and politics are like kins in history. They occupy key role in the key role in the collective endeavour, after 1960: history of any nation. Religion advises self-effacement, politics call for self-dominance. One shuns power and other craves for power. Politics “To devise a distinctively Indian powerfully synthetic theater that could circumvent the convention of western realism and theatrisim. His major makes religion, its tool for its gain. “Karnad in his plays tries to evolve plays employ traditional Indian narrative material and modes of a symbolic form out of a tension between the archetypal and mythic performance successfully to create a radically modern urban theatre” experience and a living response to life and its value” (Veena Noble (Dharwadker, 355). Das, 71). He does not take the myths in their entirety. He borrows only According to Bharatya Natya shastra, “theatre is life. There is no art, no those parts which are useful for his purpose and the remaining he craft, no learning ,no yoga, no action which cannot be seen in it” supplements with his own imaginations and manifests them in a (Adyarangacharya, 35) contemporary form while giving meaning to the past. Karnad’s knowledge of an European theatre, his exposure to western In this play karnad emphasises that politics, ambition and religion cannot dramatic literature and his theatrical seniority sharpened his knowledge go together. The politician who is basically a crafty intriguer has to shun of stage he has shown to the world how the past and the present can religion, however, forcefully, he may say that he is true to his religion. coalesce to give a meaning to our existence. What he has achieved is The conflict between monarchy and theology is valid even today. Imam- through synthesis of all three traditions classical, folk and contemporary. ud-din declares that he does not want saints to dabble in politics and yet Karnad is one of those ancestors of dramatic tradition of India, among is ready to crush those wanting to crush the ‘faithful’ to dust. When the modern. He is the most important dramatist of the contemporary Tughlaq makes prayer compulsory and abolishes Jiziya and decides the theatre, a richness, that could be equated only with his talent as an transfer of the capital, there is uprising. Hindus and Muslims unite against actor-director. the sultan. The religious leaders revolt against him but with the help of History leads to the success of a historical play. People may love historical his crafty courtiers, the sultan gets them killed or exiled. Among them tales but no play has gained success as much as Tughlaq alone by being are great saints like sheikh Haidri, Sheikh Hood and Imam-ud-din. The Historicity in Girish Karnad’s Play Tughlaq 21 22 Sulochana Choudhary

Ulemas are put behind bars. He say, “They tried to indulge in One of the finest example of the the religious leader becoming a prey to politics...... I could not allow that”. (Tughlaq, 164) the political game of Tughlaq, how politics gets linked with religion and how the Revered Sheikh Imam aligns himself with politics. He then Karnad uses history and places in the midst of imaginary incidents and situations. He makes Tughlaq an Idealist and establishes that in politics, accepts the plea of the Sultan to serve as his envoy and dissuade Ain- ul-Mulk from the folly of turning against the Sultan. This would help to idealism is ruinous and so it is bound to fail particularly when the idealist happens to be an impulsive too. save the blood of the innocent Muslims in the war that seemed inevitable between the Sultan and Ain-ul-Mulk. “... Please Sheikh Saheb, I am Prayer is vitiated as murders take place during the prayer. Imam who not asking you only for my sake but for all the Muslims who will had got killed his own father during prayer should not enforce prayer. die at the hands of the fellow Muslims. Isn’t that enough for the Karnad shows the rise and fall of the seriousness of prayer, the various great Sheikh Imam-ud-din? You have attacked me for inaction. stages the prayer passes through the life of the ruler and the people. You can’t turn away, now when you are offered a chance. You The word ‘prayer’ is repeated several times in the play but is defiled at can’t”.(Tughlaq, 164) the very source that its solemnity is breached. Ambition for both power and money vitiates prayer and religion both. Prayer is used as a means Thus, the play combines the theme of religion and politics of the idealist. to end and not as end in itself. In one of the scenes people talk to each It aims to show that idealism in a ruler will ruin the idealist. Tughlaq murders people one after another and he is not at peace. He is torn other outside the fort of Daulatabad: within and only God can save him. “Oh God please help me..... My “First man: Prayer, prayer, who wants prayer now? skin drips with blood and I do not know how much of it is mine and Second man: Ask them to give us some food. how much of others. I started in your path Lord, why am I wander- First man: There is no food. Food is only in the palace. Its ing naked in the desert now ? why am I become a pig rolling in this prayer for us”.(Tughlaq, 208) gory mud” (Tughlaq, 208) Imam-ud-din, his staunchest critic tells the Sultan, “you are the most “The struggles of the Sultan have been forcefully brought out and the powerful king on the earth, God has given you everything - power, play ends with time pleasantly flowing at its own sweet will. Tughlaq learning. intelligence, talent”.(Tughlaq, 164) presents a rich orchestration of themes subtly interlocked with one another, with a rapid progression of events.” (Sinha, 62) He rouses the people of Kanpur with his provoking speeches. He tells them that the Sultan is guilty of patricide and fratricide and that he is a Karnad employs the devices of dialogues, contrast, parallelism and irony great transgressor of Islamic tenets. The audience goes wild and burns for character delineation .The character of Tughlaq i.e Sultan has been down half of the city. The Sultan is informed of this. He does not act portrayed with great psychological truth and depth. The dramatist deftly rashly; but on the contrary he invites Imam-ud-din to Delhi to address projects the paradoxes in the complex personality of Tughlaq who is the his people, to analyse the Sultan’s administration and also show where only unifying character in the play . Tughlaq himself reveals his idealism, he has gone wrong. The plan works out well for the Sultan. The Imam Scholarship and secularisim, through his various speeches. When his is caught in a trap. When he comes to Delhi, he finds no audience to idealism eludes realism, and the administrative reforms he undertakes listen to him. Tughlaq has cunningly manoeuvred the event, the people backfire, he is frustrated and a psychological change comes over him. have stayed behind at the point of bayonet. The Imam is depressed. He wants to treat both the Hindus and the Muslims alike but also made praying five times a day compulsory for all Muslims as enjoined by the Historicity in Girish Karnad’s Play Tughlaq 23 24 Sulochana Choudhary

Holy Koran .The Muslims suspect him for being kind to the Hindus powerful personality which disintegrated within a short span of twenty while, the Hindus are wary of him and consider him to be fanatic years, and the mood of disillusionment that set in corresponds well with Muslim . the mood frustration at the end of Nehruvian era. Religion and politics, Idealism and realism are the dualties which cannot Symbols play an important role in any piece of literature. They are co-exist. Whenever any body has tried too ride on these two horses essentially objects, which have great emotional and associative simultaneously then the result has been disastrous. significance besides their denotative meaning. Hence ,they enlarge the To quote M. Sarat Babu: expressive range of the language and make it more beautiful and forceful. Girish Karnad has also used a number of symbols in Tughlaq. “—The protagonists in these plays strive very hard and sacrifice everything to solve the problem. Their noble struggle meets with a fiasco The entire play is symbolic of the political situation in India of the sixties. on account of the mighty antagonism of our morbid cultural and wrong Karnad has himself commented, “I felt in the early sixties India had perception of the problem”. (M. A. Sarat Babu, 80) also come every far in the same direction… the twenty year period Most playwrights in India have either written in such a traditional manner seemed to me very much a striking parallel”.(Tughlaq, 80) that they lost relevance to their urban existence, or they have written in The character of Tughlaq itself is a symbol. It reflects how rulers get such an rustic manner, that relevance to the traditional part of their trapped in their individual beliefs and in their obsession to implement personality has got ignored. In this context, Girish Karnad comments, their theories, fail miserably because they are unable to distinguish “We keep acrobating between the traditional and the modern, between reality and illusion. Sleep is another meaningful symbol that perhaps, we could not hit upon a form which balances both”. represents on the one hand the need for rest in man’s life, on the other (Karnad, 161) hand it becomes symbolic of the rest and peace which often eludes A dramatist can never be very far ahead of his time in politics, religion, man. The rose garden is a symbol of the aesthetic and poetic morality, scientific speculation or any other subject on which opinions susceptibilities of Tughlaq. Another symbol indicative of Tughlaq’s do not take too long to change. Even in his characterization, he is barbarity is that of the python. The young sentry has seen a strange restricted by current assumptions. A historical play seems to be and frightening secret passage in the Daulatabad fort. he says, “It is a contradiction in terms. History requires the truth of events of the past long passage, a big passage, coiled like and enormous hollow but art needs imagination and concentration on the needs of art. This python inside the belly of the fort.” This is symbolic of the complete means that writer of historical plays must use the facts of history with degeneration of the Sultan’s personality. discretion to suit the needs of drama. While maintaining the fidelity in Daulatabad is a Hindu city and making it the capital makes it is a general to history, he may deviate from the facts of history and even symbol of Hindu –Muslim unity. This is why Tughlaq transfers his introduce new characters in the interest of dramatic effectiveness.. capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, but the entire experiment is a failure. He followed the traditional sources, which present a prejudiced view of The play reflects the slow disillusionment of the generation with the the life and times of Tughlaq, and they does make some deviations from new political developments in country after independence At the micro history, which they considered necessary for artistic reasons and technical level prayer symbolises the religious idealism of Tughlaq; at the macro purpose. While writing the play Karnad was struck by the parallelism level, it connects man’s conscious or unconscious need for divine between Tughlaq’s reign and contemporary India. Tughlaq was a blessings in the hour of need. It is interesting to note that the words Historicity in Girish Karnad’s Play Tughlaq 25 26 Sulochana Choudhary

‘pray’ and ‘prayer’ have been used fifty – five times in the play. Ranga Charya, Adya. The Indian Theatre. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1971. Karnad in the play exposes the evil effects of the caste system at cultural and psychological levels. The techniques that Karnad has employed Sarat Babu, M.A. “A Psycohocultural Study of Karnad’s Plays.” The Plays of Girish Karnad Critical Perspectives. Ed. J. Dodiya. New Delhi: Prestige sharply intensify the dramatic action of his plays. He has used myths, Books, 1999. legends, folklore, symbols, and allegory extensively to underscore his dramatic themes. He juxtaposes the past and the present with such Sinha, A.K. “Thematic Concerns and Technical Features in Girish Karnad’s Play.” The Plays of Girish Karnad: Critical Perspectives. Ed. J. Dodiya. dexterity that the dramatic scenario of each play assumes metaphysical connotations. In Tughlaq he uses history to reveal the duplicity of human nature. Karnad has put Indian drama on international map of theatre Drama is one genre, which has received the minimum attention in the modern literacy scene of India. Karnad had demonstrated to the modern writer’s world that India has a treasure of tales, which needs to be exploited artistically by people with dramatic talents. It is also true that it is difficult to write plays because it requires a man with a sense of drama to energise his characters on the stage. Since, Karnad had been exposed to the dramatic traditional in his childhood, he developed a world of theatre-within, his mind. And this theatre within enlarged his dramatic vision enveloping the dialectics of life, seeking resolutions to live in a sane manner.

References Dharwadker, Aparna. “Girish Karnad Interviewed”. Jain, Madhu. Girish Karnad: Acient Metaphors,Contemporary Messages. India Today, 15th March,1992. Karnad, Girish. Tughlaq : Three Plays. ---. “Acrobating between the Traditional and the Modern.” Indian Literature, XXX11. 3 (May 1989). Noble Das, Veena. “Experiment and Innovation in Modern Indian Drama in Translation.” Contemporary Indian Drama. Ed. Sudhakar Pandey. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1990. Priestly, J.B. The Art of Dramatist. London: Heinemann, 1957. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:27-31 (2011) 28 Niyatee Ayyar

activism, black women writers have sought to have a voice in the two centuries of liberation struggle. The Saga of Struggle and Survival: Among the highly acclaimed contemporary Black feminist novelists is Alice Walker, whose graphic depiction of the lives of southern Blacks African-Americans in Alice Walker’s Novels has established her as a major American author. She is an accomplished poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, anthologist, teacher, editor, Niyatee Ayyar publisher and above all a feminist. Within the last two decades, Walker has placed herself in globe as one of the most versatile and controversial Art and literature are inseparable parts of human life. They explore the writers of African-American literature. The literary world of the author hidden regions of human emotions; help to put forward the voice of the thus encompasses themes such as: violence, isolation, troubled conscience, and also aim at the betterment of humanity. Therefore it is relationships, multi-generational perspectives, sexism and racism. a world-wide belief that pen is mightier than the sword. The first novel of Alice Walker, The Third Life of Grange Copeland In the era of globalization, literature has undergone a flux. Post modern (1970), spans the years between the depression and the beginning of writers, across the globe, are penetrating to themes and issues which the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. The novel is primarily are based on common human experiences. Among the existing literary concerned with Black man-woman relationship and also records the trends, worldwide, African-American literature is a prominent one. strife of African-Americans for their basic rights in the community African American literature has its root from the historical circumstances dominated by the Whites. The novel is about the life of a Black of slavery. The African-American writers launched their literature in sharecropper cum slave, Grange Copeland. The man abandons his wife North America during the second half of the eighteenth century. Most and son Brownfield to seek a better life in the North. When Brownfield of the major colored writers launched their literary careers through the grows young, he is no better than his aggressive father. He repeats the slave narrative. Such narratives were anecdotes of their personal history by degrading his wife Mem. Brownfield is an egoist to the core experiences of pain and sufferings. These slave narratives depicted the and possesses all signs of male chauvinism. He eventually kills his wife constant strife of black Americans for their human and social rights. in a fit of fury. However, the youngest daughter Ruth is rescued and The birth of African-American writing was an evidence of the irresistible taken in by her grandfather Grange Copeland. Grange has turned old human urge for liberty of life and expressions. Slavery, ironically, provided and is now a changed persona. Time and experience have transformed a fertile ground for the creation of a new literature. This new literature him into a sensible, soft and saintly man. He not only protects Ruth but was fore-grounded by the oppressed people to impeach the oppressors. also nurtures her. At the end, he kills his cruel son and sacrifices his Thus the early Black writers gave vision and voice to the sufferings own life as well. Hence, Copeland, a victim of abuse and a ruthless and struggles of their fellow people. husband, in his third life, evolves as a guardian of his granddaughter Ruth. The women writers in African-American literature too have successfully created an aesthetic community of resistance for freedom of expression The novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, clearly points at and existence. From the antislavery and women’s rights movements of Walker’s faith in her roots as a Southern Black writer. The south is the the 19th and 20th century, up to today’s contemporary black feminist reoccurring location in many of Walker’s short stories, poems and novels. The Saga of Struggle and Survival: African-Americans... 29 30 Niyatee Ayyar

The author refers to the discrimination, violence and brutality of the Alice Walker has the firsthand experience of the pernicious effects of south against the Black community. But at the same time, she also oppression. Mere survival has never been the motif of her writing. As a acknowledges the resilience of her fellow folk in hoping for change. Black feminist writer Walker desires that Black men and women, as Walker condemns slavery in strong words. She is against any means of well as other citizens of the globe in general, should be able to carry oppression against her fellow people. It is noteworthy that Walker never human dignity along with them. Being a writer, she opines: makes any emotional appeal through her writing. The author takes pride Perhaps my Northern brothers will not believe me when I say there is a in accepting the mixed heritage of her tribe. She is reasonable in depicting great deal of positive material I can draw from my ‘underprivileged’ the community of Blacks. background...Nor do I intend to romanticize the Southern Black country The second novel of Alice Walker, Meridian, is set against the turbulent life…No, I am simply saying that Southern Black writers, like most writers, have a heritage of love and hate, but that they also have enormous backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, which gained force in the 1960s. richness and beauty to draw from. And having been placed, as Camus The anonymous narrator narrates Meridian’s struggle as a woman of says, ‘halfway between misery and the sun,’ they, too, know that ‘though unbent will and determination. Meridian has a dominant role in the novel all is not well under the sun, history is not everything. (In Search 21) as she searches for self-acceptance and self- knowledge while finding Walker not only possesses modern thinking but also tries to generate a role for herself in college life and thereafter in the Civil Rights modern thinking in the minds of the people through her writing. Hence Movement. her writings intend to instill consciousness and empathy for the African Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel- The Color Purple (1982) is American women in the minds of the people. indeed an international best seller. The novel is in epistolary form and One of the outstanding features of creative works is that it enables its tells about the quest for empowerment, sexual freedom, and spiritual readers to think and act. Walker’s novels fit best into this feature. The growth of the African- American women. The tale deals with human truthful narration and vivid characterization give her writings a universal experiences from the perspective of the suffering and the downtrodden, appeal. Walker’s novels are the representation of African-American the hurt and the oppressed. In the novel, most of the women characters heritage. Her novels are the eye-openers to the entire mankind. The are victims of racial, sexual, and economic oppression and exist under sufferings of Black people, depicted in Alice Walker’s novels, may help degrading circumstances. Nevertheless, they express their full vigor to awaken the concerned authorities. In short, literature gives an for co-existence. They also manage to transcend their desperate and opportunity to Walker to seek collective action for social change through painful circumstances in order to affirm their place in the society. strong determination. The prime theme of The Color Purple is Black women’s strife for In the recent past, triumph of an African American, in the United States, identity and independence. It is a story of liberation and redemption and to hold the most powerful position that of the US President is a celebrates the courage and resilience of the unconquerable female spirit. remarkable achievement for the whole African American community. Moreover, women empowerment is a linking theme in the novel. Thus Barack Obama’s tremendous victory has given a ray of hope to the the novel celebrates the bonding of women in their struggle against people of his tribe. The coming years, in the United States, are hoped to oppression. The ending of the novel suggests that feelings of kinship generate racial harmony, integrity and respect for every community, and Black identity can bring people close to one another. under the leadership of a colored President. The Saga of Struggle and Survival: African-Americans... 31 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:32-45 (2011)

References Andrews, William L. Book Review of A History of Afro-American Literature, Vol.1: A Long Beginning, 1746-1895. By Blyden Jackson. American Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s The Literature 62.3 (Sept.1990): 494-96 ‹http://jstor/bookreviews.html› Andrews, William L. et al. eds. Oxford Companion to African American Circle of Reason Literature. London: Oxford UP, 1997. Tamishra Swain Bell, Bernard. The Afro-American Novel and Its Traditions. Amherst: University of Massachusetts P., 1987. Amitav Ghosh is better known for his writings more specially writing Campbell, Duncan. A Long Walk to Freedom. The Observer 25 February 2001. about the Asian commoners and their societal problems. In all his writings Christian, Barbara. Black Women Novelists. Westport: Greenwood, 1980. starting from his first novel The Circle of Reason to his latest venture Clarke, John Henrik. “The Origin and Growth of Afro-American Literature.”‹http:/ The Sea of Poppies, he has fulfilled his promises to highlight the issues /www.malaspina.com/afroamericanliterature› of Indians (of greater India or Indian subcontinent), peoples’ movement, Daniel, Chris. “Alice Walker’s Biography.” ‹http://biography. jrank.org/pages/ haunting for settled life , a regular bread and butter, elevating standard 4812/Walker-Alice Malsenior.html”› of living and seeking a sound economic condition. His writings trace Dieke, Ikenna, ed. Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Westport Greenwood, the roots of uprooting the people and their settlement and under which 1999. conditions they are made and forced to migrate across the country and Gordon, Jane Anna, and Lewis R. Gordon, eds. A Companion to African continents. His training with an academic background in Anthropology, American Studies. USA: Blackwell, 2005. literary stuff as a Stephenian, a unique narrative stature and beautiful Harris, Trudier. “From Victimization to Free Enterprise: Alice Walker’s The Color stories with firsthand information has made him a global representative Purple.” Studies in American Fiction 14 (1986). of novelist of marginalized. High, Peter. An Outline of American Literature. NY: Longman, 1985. Marginalized and the process of marginalisation are the key themes of Pullin, Faith. “Landscapes of Reality: The Fiction of Contemporary Afro- Ghosh’s writings. His intention to show how the marginalisation process American Women.” Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro- American gets in and marginalised is further marginalised and oppressed is further Novels since 1945. Ed. Robert Lee. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1980. oppressed. In this article the author wishes to highlight how this Sethi, Navneet, ed. Women as Seen by Women: A Study of African- American marginalization process happen in any society in general and Indian Women Novelists. New Delhi: Reliance Publisher, 2003. society in particular. The author further wishes to examine the key Walker, Alice. The Third Life of Grange Copeland. New York: Harcourt Brace events, characters which Mr. Ghosh wants to highlight in his novel and Jovanovich, 1970. what theories Mr. Ghosh held for upholding these issues in The Circle - - -. In Search of Our Mothers’Gardens. San Diego: Harcourt, 1983. of Reason. - - -. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket Books, 1982. The Circle of Reason occupies a unique place in diasporic writing representing the condition of marginalized, lost home, who are displaced, the migrant in search for their basic bread and butter. The author foregrounds in the novel the various socio-economic problems faced by Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 33 34 Tamishra Swain the Indian diaspora in foreign soil due to illegal migration. Besides, the Ghosh, who is a strong supporter of Lois Pasteur and very much sincere novel seems to undermine such other ideological issues of post- in his rational thought. He works for the eradication of germs to see a independent Indian society. The novelist brings to the reader’s attention good and normal society. He looses his job of a school teacher for in this text towards the configuration of new social forces that seems to opposing the local mighty Bhudeb Roy. Ghosh tries to show two contrast overcome the past burden. India faces series of problems after characters who is spreading ill wills, bad factors, destructive forces. independence e.g., social inequalities, acute feelings of casteism, gender These activities can very well bring imbalance for a healthy society. discrimination, resulting corruption of public life and feminist issues. Bhudeb Roy represents this creed who believes in irrational process The post-independent India has protracted a hermetically sealed mentality and activities and wants to eliminate the good ideologue those who for non-acceptance of any progressive idea. Ghosh tries to spread a wants to spread good wills so that the society can be brought back to its message which undermines the dirt of a system, e.g., Indian social smooth functioning. Balaram once opposes Mr. Roy over an issue which system. In the early part of the novel, Balaram, a self-professed could be well understood good for the society and the school he works rationalist tries to flush out the society of germs and mental sickness; in. For this good gesture he lost his school job which Ghosh points a his progressive plans are blemished by the uncalled for intervention of case of war between an inferior and a powerful and how a powerful police, petty politicians and local landlords. The establishment of School Bhudeb forces Balram marginalized not to uphold his basic human rights. of Practical Reason to spread the message of ‘reason’ in the society is Ghosh’s cultural characters came from small hamlets in unique ways. dismantled and snagged for its popularity by the evil-element of the He wages a war of words to redress the marginalised. Shombhu who society. Ghosh shows a contrast view of evil and good forces of the was ignored and his special skills were buried over the time by social- society. The novelist contrasted the views between the Schools of ill-debris. Ghosh argues to revive and wants Shombhu regain his original Practical Reason versus the antisocial elements who resist the former’s position as a master craftsman. So Balaram requested Shombhu to attempt to cleanse the societal evils. Amitav Ghosh portrayed the play tutor for his nephew and the master weaver would uplift Shombhu corrupted police and security system, instead of bringing normalcy it for his marginalized position. Ghosh takes a look into the condition that creates further nuisances. The police officer Jyoti Das is the construct brought Shombhu to the low status. Shombhu Debnath, like all the of this evil system. “A misguided police officer Jyoti Das is a product of Debnaths, was the weaver of coarse cotton. He has learnt the art and the socio-political degradation of Indian police morale (Tripathy and craft of weaving at the cost of endangering his own life. In his young Mishra 94).” The downtrodden, oppressed in the society run from pillar days he was a precious learner who could easily master the intricate to post to earn their bread and butter, suffer the burden of unsecured designs. Having learnt his family profession in his childhood at the age social engineering, bureaucracy, and other man-made caste and of twelve, he disappears from his village. He heard the fame of the patriarchal stains of the society in their diasporic life. Ghosh manages Boshaks of Tangil, near Dhaka who have ruled continents for centuries to carry out this issue very tactfully in The Circle of Reason. with their gossamer weaves. In those days a Boshak was not at all The initial part of The Circle of Reason centres on a Bengal village permitted to teach his trade to an outsider. Pretending himself to be an Lalpukur. In the village the landlord Bhudeb Roy exercises the paltry orphan, Shombhu finds a space in the family of a Boshak master weaver. politics in the local and tries to institute his control over local issues. He He learns rapidly the intricacies of their Jamdani inlay techniques from spreads his bad wings over the school management in the village. At the master weaver’s sons. He could succeed only in dedicating himself the same time Amitav Ghosh comes up with another character Balaram selflessly to work with the family for years for nothing except his food Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 35 36 Tamishra Swain and a few clothes. That was a period in his life when learning was a the preservation of tradition than a sudden breakthrough even people passion for him. The novelist is all praise for this young man’s genius becomes displaced from their native place. The text of Ghosh reflects for learning: a reality for the struggle of life particularly among marginalised that He even learnt to make the fine bamboo reeds, which were the centerpieces might be called the deprived section of the society. Mukarovsky was of third Jamdani Looms, the only ones which could hold fine silk yarn right in saying: without tearing it. That was a skill few even among the Boshaks could About the novel which has absorbed the reader there has accumulated boast of, for it was the preserve of a wandering caste of boatman and not one but many realties. The deeper the work has absorbed the reader bangle-makers called Bede . (Ghosh, 67) the greater is the area of current to which the work attaches a marital Shombhu’s secret identity is revealed and Shombhu leaves for his hamlet relationship. (Mukarovsky). and stays in his village to teach people the secrets of Jamdani. More Amitav Ghosh represents Alu, the protagonist of the novel, as a deprived sorrows were added to his unhappiness when people in his village reply character. In his childhood, he loses his parents in a car accident and is to him “a crow falls out of the sky if it tries to teach peacockery.” By sympathetically picked up by his aunt Toru debi. At Alu’s arrival in doing this Ghosh aim at undermining a corrupt degraded system. Lalpukur, people gather to gaze at his unusual size of head, “an Here he disappears again for years and he found no body in his family extraordinary head, huge, several times too large for an eight-year old, when he comes back his home with his ailing wife. He builds a hut and and curiously uneven, bulging all over with knots and bumps.” installs a loom at a distance from the village. In the meantime he losses Multiple displacement forces Alu to become a nomadic refugee and his wife leaving behind a son and a daughter. This family disaster move from one place to another. When his parents die in a road accident, wrenched him and he became disinterested in weaving except he loses his parental home. Aunt Toru debi then brings him from his occasionally tutoring his son, just to earn enough for the daily expenses. native place to Lalpukur. Second time he runs away from Lalpukur Comparable to the critical situation of Balaram’s efforts revitalize when he sees his uncle’s house in flames and surrounded by smoke. Shombhu’s skill for the societal benefit and immediately benefit for his Bolaida, the owner of the cycle repairing shop, accompanies him to his nephew Alu. Ghosh voices for the poor Sombhu who was discarded escape to the city of Calcutta. During these days Alu’s body is covered from his own community, own folks by virtue of being born to a caste with boils, his deep knowledge in weaving befriends him with Rajan of alleged to be lower than his fellow villagers. Being trained and highly his own caste of Kerala in Calcutta. Dutta observes: skilled he could not retain his knowledge of weaving as it was opposed Initially located in a refugee village, the story refers back to Bangladesh by the believers of casteism of the then Indian society. By these he was and Calcutta, finally moving to the Middle East via Kerala where it reaches neither allowed to exercise his own labour nor even able to carry out this denouncement in a desert of shifting sand-dunes. (Dutta 71) the skill for future generation for nothing but for a handful of bad social Fear of being hunted down by the police drives Alu to reach Mahe with elements. He was not only marginalized but entered into the process of the help of Ranjan. He then manages to board a steamer, Mariamma, further marginalization so that he cannot stand up in the society anywhere bound for al-Ghazira. All the passengers of this steamer are displaced to earn even his bread and butter. and dislocated from their native place. Undoubtedly The Circle of Reason is a treaty of marginalisation of The body is involved in political field, power relation have an immediate marginalised and attempts to uplift those marginalised. Novelist shows hold on it. They invest it, train it, torture it and force it to carry on tasks. Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 37 38 Tamishra Swain

It is largely as force of production that the body is involved with relation hopes or “fantasy” as an immigrant but rather, the failures ‘at /home’ that of power politics and power sharing. The key characters of the novel underwrite those hopes that the act of migrating (Daiya 45) are involved in these types of activities. This forces them to travel to Amidst lot of uncertainties hovering on the future of the unborn baby in safer place by means of anything. They are in search of better living her womb she is unwilling to give birth to it. As reported by Kulfi the conditions. Most of them are illegal immigrants having no valid passport woman has stuffed in to her wrist. Maybe she is trying to kill the unborn or official document to enter any other country. Mariamma becomes baby. The problem of Karthamma is a vital issue pertaining to an unwed the first spot of the marginalised people to rally round for a common mother. She forgets that she is moving without a valid passport or visa cause. Chambers detects: and irrationally demands a form to be signed by her so that her baby In The Circle of Reason Ghosh shows that for residents of third world can get a house, car or anything. She has no knowledge of the procedure countries in the late twentieth century, the utopian myth of a New world involved in migration. She is one of those passengers who are illegally of wealth and opportunity has bee transposed onto the oil-rich states of trying to cross the boundary of another country. If detected by the the middle east. (Chambers 38) authority they might receive the punishment of detention or deportation., Karthamma herself approached Zindi and requested her to take her Ghosh through his powerful writings has made The Circle of Reason so away from India and she even offered her money for this, it is known vivid that all the characters and their behaviors look real. Ghosh gathered that most of the passengers have willingly accepted displacement as a characters from different background and of different nature at a place economic necessity and to escape from police or court of law in India. where they all were collected to travel by ill-fated boat just to evade the Ghosh try to confirm the conditions: torture, oppression and the social brutalities under the pseudo claim as if they are travelling to earn more money and in search of good life. Mariamma’s migrant women’s condition is the most illustrative of Where as the inside story, the characterization of the actors in the boat migrancy’s paradox of opportunity and oppression, betterment and loss. The conscientious and moralizing professor Samuel sees the Indian tells a different story of marginalization. As it is said the people in the women who are going to al-Ghazira to be prostitutes in Zindi’s house as boat are from different background, different locations are the results enslaved and going to sell them into slavery in al-Ghazira. Something like of victimization by the ill forces of the society. The circumstances forces that or worse (Ghosh, Circle 173) them to be the unwanted victim at the fault of someone else. A bright The process of marginalization is depicted so real in The Circle of example of marginalization could be Karathamma who is travelling in a Reason, all the characters faces almost similar fate in their making of sinking boat with a baby inside her womb. This story itself signify the livelihood. By virtue of being rootless, socially segregated and money- brutality, the atrocities inflicted on her for which she is evading and less, their journey to a foreign land in fulfilling the emptiness in their trying to save her baby and to give a new life. The society in which she lives don’t succeed them in getting those basics of life. Mr.Ghosh’s was born and the society who made her homeless does not assure a imagination of a foreign land al-Ghazira has given the impression of a place neither to Karathamma to stay nor even her future baby. land which can provide shelter to the poor characters migrating from Instead, Karthamma refuses the “ironic compromise”. For her child the Asian and Indian sub-continent. Al-Ghazira is supposed to be a gulf alternatives are rendered in the stark terms of death or a comfortable, country at least can fulfill the imagination to earn something for the wealthy life in the new county, the compromise of a life in India is livelihood. Chamber aptly says: unacceptable to her. This equation between death and her past life in India forces us to realize then, not the newness and possibility in her Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 39 40 Tamishra Swain

Poverty and petty delinquency are certainly widespread in The Circle of honest work. She even requested Zindi to take her away from India so Reason. The novel focuses on the misery and displacement caused by that she could lead a decent and honest life. the Bangladesh war and the lack of job security or legal rights faced by migrant workers in the Gulf States. (Chambers 37) Amitav Ghosh provides a balancing rather a postmodernist narration over the characters and further movements of the novel. The speciality But the destiny has something different for them. As it is said above, Amitav Ghosh maintains in his novels that he raises the issues revolves somehow socially segregated characters Alu, Karathamma, Kulfi and around the marginals and how these marginals and marginal characters other fellow travelers somehow migrated to the land of hopes al-Ghazira could get rid of those socital impositions. The social rulings puts it in search of getting something in their lives. The place posed before dracunal jaws on the helpless and at the same time saviors comes forward them as a foreign and alien and broken their hopes into pieces although to rescue in his writings. The Circle of Reason is not free from this they settled temporarily in search of settlement. Cultural isolation has rather being the maiden writing Mr. Ghosh establishes this contrasting become a big hindrance for these helpless Indians to show their identity characteral postures with this novel. Tracing back through the beginning as people of al-Ghazira have always treated them poor Asians have part of the novel two views or ideologies fingers at each other. One come for food as if long-distanced beggars. ideology exercises by the mighty Bhudeb Roy who with the help of his Ghosh has taken up the issue of marginalized character so strongly that money and muscle power wants to establish his supremacy at the same every characters except a few suffers and runs through the painful life. time contrary to this a series of sets of characters opposes his view by This feature very much dominates Amitav Ghosh’s writings in all his exercising a rational principle which he supposed to be fit for running a novels.Apart from the dominant figures described Alu, Balaram, smooth society. Balaram was tortured and victimized which is described Krathamma and Zindi other supporting characters narrated in The Circle in first half of this essay fights back not to succumb the ill wills of Mr. of Reason tells the similar stories of horror and dreadfulness. If a Roy. Bhudeb wanted to cleanup the germ in the village as germ can character is composed as victim in some case the others are hatred of create a health and sanitation degradation shows his rational mind. being wearing their indigenous dress materials and still others faces Amitav Ghosh not only wants to establish that there are bad wills in the similar hatredness of being looking black or speaking different languages. society who works devastation and imbalance where as voicing the Most of the migrants pass through harrowing experiences in life. Mast good quality of the so called marginalized should prevail. Ram comes in the group of a labour contractor to al-Ghazira from some Alu the central character moves out of his own home for searching for remote part of north Indian hills as a boy. He is exploited by the labour another home along with other common folks whom Mr. Ghosh voices contractor and receives only one-third of the wage he was promised by to the extent despite being their marginal status. The entire story of The him. The emigrants make illegal entry into al-Ghazira and work in the Circle of Reason moves around this unusual-shaped head boy Alu. country without having visa or any legal document. Ghosh’s novel When he has loss his parents in an accident, his aunty came forward to describes the life of the marginalised people in al-Ghazira who were rescue him and stay in the story in Ghosh’s style to be seen till the end. driven by adverse circumstances in their homeland cross the border He was homeless, orphaned and unsettled boy moves to nowhere sneakily. The married life of Kulfi was marred by the insufficient income whereas he was given a chance to have a comfortable child life. earned by her husband. He forced her to whoring when he lost his fancy job. She eventually became disgusted with her life of a call girl. Although Shombhu shows no interest in teaching Alu, Balaram In a state of destitution she approached Zindi in Bangalore for some encourages Shombhu by offering him the post of section head to manage Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 41 42 Tamishra Swain weaving in his School of Reason in his house. The peculiarity and Ghosh’s fall shakes the whole of the town and momentarily darkens the sky. perception behind showing Balaram’s wife as a different character. The details of the disaster as reported by Abu Fahl to Zindi send a Along with the societal forces, his wife Toru debi oppose the attitude of ripple of shock wave in the apartment. Unexpected news spreads quickly Balaram tooth and nail and brand him as a gimmick. To pacify her like that Alu is alive beneath the debris but it remains confined to the migrants of Shombhu, Balaram also offered her the head of the department of only the center of the star is hollow as is the space for a five-story sewing. Balaram play a role to honour people by their talents irrespective green house. Inside it thousands of plants grow in hanging chain pots caste creed and religion and same policy maintained to join his ‘School when the building collapses, five big pillars become towering mounds of of Reason’. rubble and the place becomes a valley providing a space for Alu to remain trapped inside. But the problem is that police heavily guards the Zindi’s apartment in al-Ghazira presents diasporic life of the migrants. site of the debris and no one is allowed to visit the accident spot. The She runs a small tea shop in al-Ghazira and a boarding house. Even in inhabitants of the colony for many reasons do not take the risk of police her humble vocation, she comes to the rescue of the illegal migrant assistance to save Alu. Had the police rescued Alu, his fate would have labourers. On their arrival in the town she proves the destitute migrants’ gone from frying pan to fire. He would have landed himself in goal succour that left to them would have failed to keep their body and soul from want of a work permit, visa and passport. In such a critical time together. Zindi’s apartment in al-Ghazira presents diasporic life of the the sense of fraternal feeling and cooperation extended by the diaspora migrants. She arranges jobs for them and in return receives small is exemplary. Abu Fahl becomes the leader of the rescue party. Lying payment. She boasts of supplying hard working and reliable girls to the beneath the debris, Alu in the meantime has overcome the problem of people. Zindi is moved by Alu’s voluntary help in Mariamma and takes identity crisis. During his brief stay in al-Ghazira he has earned so much pity on his suffering. She applies hot coconut oil to his boils. The next popularity that the number of secret volunteers to join the search party day the pain oozes away with pus and he gets a sound sleep for the first increases to such an extent that it really poses a problem for Abu Fahl time in his six days journey in the sea. Zindi is in labour transportation to make a selection of volunteers. The rescue party finds out the business for a long time. When she comes to India, men and women precarious condition in which Alu is vying with death beneath a slab throng around her to be taken to al-Ghazira to work as laborer in very close to his nose-‘another hair’s breath and he would have been a construction work, sewage, domestic servant, gardening and shop work, dead man.” The slab is two feet thick. Being fully conscious of death etc. She has earned reputation for supplying sincere and hardworking knocking at his door he remains unnerved signal in others that he is lla labourers to the people of al-Ghazira. She apprises Alu of her profession right even though he has suffered days together without food and drink. in order to instill his faith in her ability: Even though physically disabled, his mental strength is unparalleled; he The whole of al-Ghazira knows Zindi’s girl are reliable and hard working; displays stoic tolerance. When the building was on the verge of collapse everyone comes to me[…] it’s not a business; it is my family, my aila, my he was the first among the people inside the star to hear the noise of own house, and I look after them, all the boys and girls and no one’s unhappy and they all love me. bricks and plaster. He pushed others out of the basement stayed himself behind just smiling at Abu Fahl After being rescued from the debris, he With the illegal migrants getting them absorbed in the job market, six is taken to the house of Hajj Fahmy, a respectable man of the locality, months after the arrival of Mariamma in al-Ghazira, Alu gets trapped in because Alu’s friendly disposition had endeared him with the members the place of his work in the collapse of a big building called an-Najma, of the family. the star. It is one of the largest buildings ever built in al-Ghazira and its Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 43 44 Tamishra Swain

After some days of solitary confinement and pondering over the ways life in which fate has subjected them to. It is the natural instinct of man to remove dirt from the Ras, Alu has emerged from the debris a different to arrange for his safety and preservation wherever he stays. As no man. He has cast off his silent nature and is now able to talk utopian society has survived in history the fate of this society too, meets simultaneously in three to four languages mixing up words from Hindi, a sudden fall. The police officer toeing Alu ever since he fled from his Bengali, English and Arabic. He reveals his new ways of thinking soon village gets wind of Alu’s plan in the Ras. Jeevanbhai plays villainy. At – how to remove dirt? The theory he has evolved is no money leads to times the imagination of police stretch to probable extent. Mr. Jyoti Das no dirt. With crusading zeal, he declares to wage a war against money. plays fowls and misinterprets the cooperative scheme as ‘money A cooperative society among the migrants is formed. Taking cue from grabbing racket’ of Alu and his associates. This utopian society is attacked him, Prof. Samuel puts his ability to keep accounts of money and by outside germs that destroy it. Jeevanbhai spits venom on the prosperity arranges to open a page for every earning member of he society. Money of the cooperative society. He helps police to nab Alu. earned by all is kept in a common pool. Weekly purchases are made It is known to everyone that Alu’s life in the Star was saved by two from the common fund. People are allowed to take their requirements sewing machines in the debris. Under the leadership of Haj Fahmy all from Prof. Samuel. This cooperative system as evolved by Alu saves the members of the Ras resolve to present the two buried machines to them from the harassment of the shopkeepers. At the end of every Alu as a mark of fellow feeling and love. On the way towards the star week the savings earned by all members are sent to their villages or police in helicopters with tear gas suddenly attacks this group. Zindi any other place as per one’s wish. Even if some one falls short of notices the brutal way Haj Fahmy, Professor Samuel and Rakesh are money on a particular day there is no dearth of food, medicine and dragged off the road. In the presence of Zindi, Karthamma falls on a other basic necessities of life. Expenditure so incurred is adjusted in pickaxe and meets an unnatural death. During the raid when Zindi one’s account when the person earns enough. Those who participate in manages to reach the embankment she finds Alu, Kulfi and Boss already this scheme do have to tie a piece of cloth above their right elbow. there. They escape providentially from al-Ghazira in a motor-launch. Whenever they enter their dwellings they have to dust the threshold so We see that in his migratory wanderings. Alu has been forced by that no dirt is carried inside. Such a hygienic practice is made compulsory circumstances to undertake multiple journeys to save his life from the for all to ensure a germ free life. All welcome Alu’s proposal. It is his police. vision of a utopian society. The success of the scheme lures the mind of the other people and the enrolment of members increases by leaps and The time for separation and dislocation arrives in Zindi’s apartment. An bounce. The society runs its office in a shack near Hajj Fahmy’s house. analyst of diasporic life, Avtar Brah fittingly points out separation and Prof. Samuel maintains the accounts and deposits the money in a bank. dislocation s important elements in migratory experience: “The word At the end of each week he goes to a post office and sends money to diaspora often invokes imagery of traumas of separation and dislocation, all the places given to him by the members. With the passage of time and this is certainly an important aspect of the migratory experience.” the members are able to send remittances to their families four or five Hajj Fahmy professor Samuel, Chunni, Rakesh and all the rest are times more than they used to do earlier. Entertainment programme of escorted by plain clothes men next morning to the airport to be deported every sort are arranged for the members. Even to facilitate the visit of to their motherland or wherever they had come from because they are the members to their families between Egypt and India they dives a found to be unauthorized and unwanted persons in al-Ghazira . In their plan to charter an aeroplane. It is true their stay in al-Ghazira is migratory life Alu, Zindi, and Kulfi pass trough the traumatic experience unauthorised, yet they try their best to improve their living condition of of being separated from their coworkers. Zindi is a woman of courage. Voicing the Marginalised in Amitav Ghosh’s... 45 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:46-51 (2011)

In such tarrying circumstance when the police in the border area are chasing them she does not become discouraged. Even though she herself is in distress, she bravely consoles others putting her arm round their shoulder. Almost certainly, their illegal stay in al-Ghazira seeded the Postmodernist Trends in Cinematic Version of chance for dislocation. Fear of again being separated lurks in their minds: Sharat Chandra’s Devdas if detected by police they would be deported at any time. Manoj Kumar A curious aspect of diasporic discourse is the phenomenon of the specially incarcerated natives, the Third World consciousness in the Indian cinema is greatly indebted to literature. It has been witnessed metropolitan capitals. There are people who were not forcibly moved for that some literary works have gained popularity after being adopted in their location. Dislocation, if any was matter of choice and exile is not celluloid. Certain films have gained popularity chiefly because these necessarily something which ought to generate angst. (Ramnan 36) films were based on popular novels or stories. For example Junoon is As it is observed by the author that Amitav Ghosh settles his characters based on A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond, Shatranj ke Khiladi on in a balance to show marginalized in one hand and the predicament to Shatranj ke Khiladi by Munshi Premchand, Pinjar on Pinjar by Amrita rescue from the process of marginalization. This contrast is the beauty Pritam, Parineeta on Sharatchandra Chatopdhaya’s novel Parineeta, of his writings as raising an issue of downtrodden and also the story to Hello on A Night @ the Call Center and newly released Three Idiots voice in their support. This postmodern narrative brings him at the on Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat and a movie is being made forefront of writers who writes for the commoners. All the characters on Midnights children by Salman Rushdie. arrives at a point of convergence divergence so that settled and ‘the’ Sharatchandra’s works have been made into numerous films, particularly analysis should be overcome. Any history and factors ruling the socital ‘DevDas’, ‘Parineeta’, and ‘Apne Paraye’. Lots of movie makers were governance can be rewritten so that the marginalized can be voiced. fascinated by his novel ‘Devdas’. The classic novel, ‘DevDas’ was He exhibited this skill through the main character Alu throughout. written by the greatest Indian novelist Sharat Chandra Chattopadhay in References 1901 which was published in 1911. ‘Devdas’ has been a favorite topic for film-makers that is why there are lots of interpretations of this love Chambers, Claire. “Representations of the Oil Encounter in Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Circle of Reason’.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 41.1 saga. Since 1928 to 2009 there were number of movies which were (2006) : 33-50. made on ‘DevDas’ in different languages with P.C. Barua to Sarukh khan in the leading role. Now there is another interpretation of ‘DevDas’ Daiya, Kavita. “ ‘No Home But in Memory’: Migrant Bodies and Belongings, Globalization and Nationalism in The Circle of Reason and The Shadow is in the form of Anurag Kashyap‘s ‘Dev D’. Lines.” Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspective. Ed. Brinda Bose. Delhi: Sharatchandra was quite opposed to Devdas being published at all. In a Pencraft International, 2003. 36-55. letter, written to one of his friends. He wrote “Devdas is not satisfactory, Ghosh, Amitav. Circle of Reason. Ravi Dayal: New Delhi, 1986. Pramatha, not satisfactory at all. I don’t want it to be published.” Ramnan, Mohan. “Some Reflections on Indian Diasporic Literature”. LITTCRITT “Don’t give Devdas to them. Don’t even think of it. It was written in a 33.2 (Dec 2007): 36-46. drunken state. I am ashamed of the book now. It is immoral. There is a prostitute in it and God knows what else”. Postmodernist Trends in Cinematic Version of... 47 48 Manoj Kumar

This paper intends to analyze the latest filmy version of this novel. It is Leela Bhansali in 2002. Now there is another interpretation of “Devdas” necessary to have brief thematic representation of original novel. The in the form of Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D in 2009. All previous films story of Devdas is as follows: had the same title Devdas, but this film bears a modern name. The title Devdas is a romantic tragedy about the relationship between Devdas ‘Dev D’ is apt to the films modern day backdrop. This film exhibits the and Paro. Devdas is from a rich, upper class family and Paro is from a postmodernist- trends. All the aspects exhibiting postmodernism are middle class back ground. The story starts with Devdas and Paro as discussed below: young childhood sweethearts. After thirteen years they still feel the 1. Dev D is a revamped take on the character with a touch of post same. Living in accordance with Bengali tradition, where the girl’s modernistic gloss. It is the treatment of the story and the much parents have to approach the boy’s parents with a proposal of marriage, deeper psychological analysis of the characters taking cue from Paro’s mother goes to Devdas’s mother with a proposal. Devdas’s the day to day breaking news portrayals of MMS scandal in schools mother rejects the proposal sighting her on higher status in society. or Hit and Run cases that gives a postmodern touch to this film. Paro’s mother is insulted and to prove a point to Devdas’s parents she 2. The backdrop of the story has been shifted from rural Bengal to a arranges Paro’s marriage to a man with higher financial and social modern day semi urban Punjab and shady by- lanes of Delhi’s status. Paharganj. Paro comes to know about her marriage and talks to Devdas, hoping 3. Most of the characters and elements of the story remain the same that he will go against his parents and marry her. However Devdas is but the theme of the film is much darker. Where in the original, too much of a coward to go against his parents, he leaves home and Devdas suffers from being separated from Paro, but in Dev D the flees to Calcutta. From there he writes a letter to Paro saying that they thought of Paro making love to somebody else is what affects him. were only childhood friends and he doesn’t love her. Paro is heartbroken This is the typical psyche of the man in the postmodern period. after reading the letter and in weakened state she agrees to marry the 4. The constant follow up of the three headed conscious of Dev brings man chosen by her parents. Devdas realizes that he has made a mistake a new way of story telling in Indian cinema.The portrayal of the and comes back to apologize. A disheartened Paro doesn’t forgive him; drinking bars which shut doors after the prescribed hours, but operate she punishes him for his cowardice by rejecting him. Then a heartbroken in the inner chambers, the shady hotels backing up as prostitute Devdas goes back to Calcutta and forms a relationship with a courtesan, quarters or the quick deal between the drug peddlers and customers he takes to heavy drinking with the intention to drink till death. realistically bring to the fore alternate path of law which can be Later Devdas senses that he has only some days to live, in the hope of pointed out as peculiar and sad aspects of postmodernism. seeing Paro the last time he goes to her house, as he gets there he 5. While in the erstwhile Devdas, consideration of caste was significant collapses at her doorstep. Paro learns of this and runs towards him but but in this movie Dev rejects Paro’s proposal of marriage not only her in-laws prevent her from stepping out of the door. Devdas dies because of the rumours he had heard about Paro’s fiddling ways without seeing her face. but also because she was the daughter of the manager of their The character of alcoholic, lonely Devdas has always been a filmmaker’s business concern. This shift of focus also seems to be accordance delight. Many film makers have made movies on Devdas such as P.C. with the period that is Post-modern. Barua in 1935, K.L. Saigal in 1936, Bimal Roy in 1955, and Sanjay Postmodernist Trends in Cinematic Version of... 49 50 Manoj Kumar

6. In the previous films Devdas was perceived as a misunderstood 10. The most interesting cinematic shift happens with the end of the and a sentimental man to be pitied upon but this Dev D’s Dev story of the modern Devdas. Unlike the original version, here Dev makes the audience grow apathetic to the idiosyncrasies of a grown doesn’t die a pitiful death at Paro’s door. He survives and he comes up adult who refuses to come to terms with his life just like many of to terms with his ego. In the original, Chandramukhi was always a the youngsters of this age. passing phase in Devdas’s life. He couldn’t love her and hated her 7. This Dev is selfish and egoistic. He doesn’t mind being a peeping because she was a prostitute. But unlike the original here Dev tom in the house of Paro while she enjoys a domestic life, calling realizes that he loves Chanda and goes back to her. her up in the midnight or manipulating her vulnerable sister in law. Earlier Devdas’s versions are honored slyly: Dev passing a poster of Dev doesn’t bother to trust Paro, rejects her because of her allegedly Shah Rukh Khan in the title of Devdas in 2002 and Lenny, one of the fiddling ways but doesn’t mind to indulge in the same throw out. He main characters, being mesmerized by Chandramukhi dance and commits the same mistake all over again when on the day of his renaming herself after her. realization of his love for Chanda, he faces one of her clients and Surprising elements of the film Dev D which can be highlighted as the unable to cope up with that and egged by a phone call by Chunni, visual Post-modern shots: he walks out from her life. The complexity of these ✦ misunderstandings and unabashed portrayal of the male ego is the Paro with the mattress on the bike: portraying an Indian woman as hallmark of this reinterpretation of the old story. a strong and sexual being. ✦ 8. Different from the original the heroines have moved from being Paro at the water pump – never before has a Hindi film heroine coy and shy to women whose portrayal reflects the new trend in been shown in this fashion. cinema that doesn’t only show women as objects of desire but also ✦ An angry Paro beating up her brother in law and chasing him through who are in touch with their needs. Both the female protagonists mustard field. show Dev his touchy egoist reality, which he runs away from, and ✦ Dev’s world spinning usually after alcohol excesses: urge him to face that. ✦ The twilight players: three performers who provide a wonderful 9. Chanda’s character is much more fleshed out than the character of take on the observed becoming observers. Chandramukhi with a background story attached to her life. Chanda ✦ Chanda lecturing Dev on how to call someone in her profession: was known as Lenee, a school student and a daughter of a commercial sex worker, because prostitute is so passé. government officer and foreign mother. In a moment of intimacy her boyfriend shoots a sexually explicit MMS clip which transforms Conclusion her into a ‘slut’ in the eyes of her friends in the school and to those Dev D is one such flight of fancy of the filmmaker that definitely defies who downloaded the video and devoured it. A media trial of the all the conventions and demolishes all moulds. It rewrites the techniques issue ensues whereby a vary private moment of her life is made of the artistic medium, with unusual cinematography. The technique the fodder of breaking news on national television. Her father which is used in this movie is called ‘Snorricam’ technique. It has diszzy commits suicide and her mother disowns her. Afterwards she meets editing, non-linear plot narration, turn of the century dialogues and Chunni, the pimp and chooses to be a prostitute. This aspect also breathtakingly bizarre audio track like ‘emotional atyachar,’ ‘saali khusi’ gives a great Post-modern touch to this film. Postmodernist Trends in Cinematic Version of... 51 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:52-61 (2011) and the rest. Dev D is indeed a coming-of-age film and it comments on all the previous ‘Devdas’ movies. It is a parody of ‘Devdas’.This movie denies the male dominance and the notion which Hindi bollywood movies have about the hero of movie is depicted larger than life. The sexuality A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction of hero and heroine is depicted freely and they are not puritan. Asha Arora The analysis of film Dev D presented above proves that it is a Post- modern version of the original novel. “Man suffers not only from war, persecution, famine and ruin, but from inner problem……..a conviction of isolation, randomness,(and) meaninglessness in his way of existence.” -Edmund Fuller Joshi’s novels reveal human psyche and inner self of the characters. The protagonists are confronted by the quest for the meaning of life. They carry with them a sense of alienation, loneliness and pessimism, perceive themselves to be in a hostile world. They are representatives of the postmodern articulation of the state of dilemma of modern man who finds himself in a turbulent and wayward labyrinth of life. They feel existential anxiety as they are in disillusionment and despair .They find themselves as isolated beings ,cast into an alien universe, conceive the universe as possessing no human truth, values and meaning of life. They find the life moving towards ‘nothingness’ or ‘void’. The Suggestive Titles – The title of Joshi’s novels are very suggestive. Just as- “The Foreigner” means a person who does not belong to a land where he lives. “The Apprentice ”means a person who is learning something, who is a learner not a trained person, who has no expertise or base or ground or fixed roots in his work or profession. “The Last Labyrinth” suggests a confusing quest. Labyrinth refers to a place which has confusing paths, puzzling ways, dark and interwoven images, wayward mazes that confuse to a person. I 1. The Foreigner (1968) The protagonist –Sindi (Surrender Oberoi) is a Kenya- born Indian who is unable to find his roots .He is of mixed parentage- Indian father and an English mother, and an isolation is almost forced on him with the loss of his parents who died in an air-crash near Cairo when he was at A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction 53 54 Asha Arora the age of four. Denied parental love and care in childhood, he develops Sindi’s coming to India from America is like a drifting over the surface an unbearable sense of insecurity. He is an orphan. He shrinks into his of earth because he feels himself to be a misfit in the ultra- modern shell and avoids company with all seriousness. The situations of his society of Boston. But his foreign background makes him a misfit in early life made him the ideal ‘foreigner’- he person who does not belong Indian society also. to anywhere. He realizes- “In truth, it had only been a change of theatre from America: He is brought up by his uncle and is educated in Nairobi, London and the show had remained unchanged” (207). Boston. He grows to be a sensitive individual, and everything seems to He thinks- “I felt like a desert or like a vast field of naked oaks in him as unreal and transitory. The little he has learned from his uncle winter time. I felt more alone and naked in the world then I had ever and aunt does not satisfy his thirst to learn about his motherland-India, felt before” (149). and establish his identity. He says- “Look at me, I have no roots. I have no system of morality. What does it mean to me if you call to me an He falls in love June Blyth. She is a typical American modern girl, but immoral man. I have no reason to be one thing or another” (Foreigner full of love , tenderness and peace. He refuses her offer to love because 118). he is “afraid of getting involved”. (53). At that time, June believes that he is ‘detached’. His ancestry is Indian but he grows up in America. He is a foreigner to both the East and the West. He knows nothing next to the culture to He realizes his mistake only when June meets with a tragic death in the which he belongs and the culture of America where he is brought up. course of an operation for abortion. Her death leads him to realize his This makes him feel belonging to ‘nowhere’.Sindi’s being an Indian has fallacy of detachment- “Detachment consisted of right action and not always embarrassed him. He says- “I was born an Indian and had been an escape from it. The gods had set a heavy price to teach me just spat upon, had I been a European, I would have done the spitting”(26). that” (193). He feels- “Somebody had begotten me without a purpose... I felt like Yet love and life seem to have no significance for him as he opines because I was a foreigner in America but then what difference would earlier that “Love was like a debt you had to return sooner or later. And it have made if I had lived in Kenya or India or any other place for that if you didn’t, you feel very uncomfortable.” (54). matter! It seemed to me that I would still be a foreigner. My foreignness Babu,his friend also dies in a car-accident. After Babu and June’s lay within me and I couldn’t leave myself behind wherever I went”(55). death, he decides to leave America, and he comes to India where works Sindi has nothing positive to say about his long years in Boston. He with Mr. Khemka and his daughter, Sheila (Babu’s sister).In India he feels that he had spent all his time uselessly. He says- “Twenty five realizes that the solution to his life’s problem is perhaps in “getting years largely wasted in search of things in wrong places. Twenty five involved” rather than “detached”. years gone in search of peace”(80). In the end of the novel, his involvement with Sheila and her father’s He realizes- “After all this, I was as far from finding the purpose of my business reveal him humane and kind-hearted. Sheila, many times asks life as I had been to start with. It all puzzled me. And I spent a whole him to tell her about his relationship with her brother (Babu),and to year wandering through the maze of my existence looking for an explain the cause of his death. He very patiently tells her the events answer” (144). which happened in Boston in which he, June and Babu were involved. He assures Sheila that Babu died in a car-accident yet he admits that A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction 55 56 Asha Arora he had ‘driven a man (Babu) to his death.(174) This admittance shows only a dream. Things remained the same. Honesty, hard-labour, truth his humaneness. and social values were of no use. Money was omnipotent. Later on, when Mr. Khemka is captured in jail because of his dishonesty Rathore comes to Delhi from Punjab in search of a career. He fails to and his firm is sealed by Income-Tax people ,Sindi works for the sake get help from his father’s friends. Alone, disheartened, and defeated, of employees and saves them from starvation. With courage and the world appears to him “as a bundle of mirrors, tempting and somehow efficiency, he saves the various clerks from losing their livelihood. In a held together, but on the brink always of falling apart” (18). talk with Muthu, who is an employee of Mr. Khemka, he realizes that He gets the job of a clerk. Because of his ambition, he gets married to detachment means getting involved with the world. the cousin of the Superintendent for getting promotion. Then a post is II created and he is made an assistant. But he feels dissatisfied in his marital life. He does not exchange with his wife. He felt- “Both she Arun Joshi’s “Apprentice”(1974) is in Browning’s dramatic monologue- (wife) and I suffer from the same disease: discontent and discontent form. The protagonist is Ratan Rathore. His father was a revolutionary (22). man who for the sake of his country gave up his practice, though his decision was a hard one as he had a tubercular wife who spatted blood He becomes materialistic. Though he progresses upward in rank yet he and a small child to look after. He took part actively in the freedom- becomes increasingly unscrupulous. He confesses- “The more money struggle for the independence of country at the call of Mahatma Gandhi I accumulated, the more I was dissatisfied and the more I was who was in jail. He felt proud when he saw his son (Ratan Rathore) determined to ‘enjoy’ life”(89). participating in the procession at the age of ten. Ratan as a child is He feels that he has become a master faker (28), a hypocrite and a liar. confronted by a double inheritance-the idealism of his father and the He takes bribe and supplies defective weapons in war against China. pragmatism of his mother. He is greatly inspired by his father’s active He is encouraged to take bribe by Sheikh whose real name is Himmat participation in the country’s freedom-movement. His father was killed Singh. In the case of bribery, he has to live in lock-up but he does not in a police-firing .He martyred his life for the sake of country. confess his guilt. S.P. is not able to find substantial proofs against his During his studies-period, he is often haunted by the memories of his crime, so he is released from jail. But for his crime, his brigadier friend father who had advised him to be good and useful to others. So, he has to desert his job and to escape shamefacedly, he commits suicide. decides to make some landmark in his life. He also want to devote his At that time, Ratan feels perturbed- “Twenty years and nothing gained. life for the sake of country. But at that time, his mother checks him to And empty life-time. What had I learned? Pushing files? Manoeuvring? do so. She advises him not to befool himself with those notions because At forty-five all that I knew was to manoeuvre. A trickster, that was I “Man without money was a man without worth. Many things were had let life make of me. Did I know the meaning of honour, friendship? great in life, but the greatest of them all was money”(20). Did I ever know it? Would I ever know it again?”(139). She asserts that- “Money succeeded where all else failed. There are He is filled with endless regret. He says- “I felt only restless, depressed, many laws……. But money was law unto itself” (19). uncomfortable. Many things disturbed me but I had expected new achievements, new standards. No standards at all. It was this that made Ratan, who took part in freedom-struggle, expected that after me the most uncomfortable”(63). independence, India would be a land of order and justice. But that was A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction 57 58 Asha Arora

He feels- “I was nobody. A NOBODY. Deep down I was convinced Right from the beginning , he realizes that he has “become a nuisance” that I had lost significance: as an official; as a citizen; as a man. How and that he has been falling around “ like a clown performing before a could then my actions have significance? What significance was there looking glass.”(10) in stealing a boat that had no destination, or watering a plant that would Even in his school-days ,he felt disturbed by the useless activities of life never bear a fruit.” (70) and requested the Headmaster’s wife “to explain the meaning of it Ratan tries to kill Himmat Singh and Secretary but does not do so. He all”(24). feels penitence but he does not confess his guilt. He realizes the futility Later, he becomes even more convinced that life is full of complications, and hollowness of his whole life. He feels himself astraying “ in “labyrinth within the labyrinth (29). Life appears to him as “vanity of smog:confused, exploited, exploiting, deceiving”(p. 138) tired of body vanities” which can be compared to “meaningless flights of stairs” and soul.In order to get redemption from his guilt, he every morning (34) or “a fisherman’s net” (37).To him, in life “nothing was straight cleans shoes of those people come to temple. forward. One was always running a hurdles race”(133). III With such a grim experience and reality of life, he develops a new The protagonist in “The Last Labyrinth”, Som Bhasker is a thirty five loathing towards life. He feels tormented by a great roaring hollowness year old millionaire. He returns from Harvard to Bombay to inherit an inside his soul and “the boredom and the fedupness” that resulted from empire in plastics factory. His father had sent him to world’s reputed his different experiences. At the age of thirty five, he becomes “a universities to get education. worn-out weary man incapable of spontaneous feeling” (14).He is always in a hurry “like a hare chased by unseen hounds (12). He has a terrible His labyrinth is the labyrinth of life’s existence. He is in search for the sense of emptiness. He feels- “It is the voids of the world, more than its meaning of life, death and divinity but is never able to get it. He feels- objects, that bother me” (47). “This then, was a labyrinth, too, this going toward and backward and sideways of the mind.”(53) Everything in this mysterious world, he finds is “a haze”.His cry of “I want, I want” (11) haunts all the time. He does not know what he He yearns for peace in life. The labyrinth of life, in which, he finds desires. He is fascinated by an obsolete, decaying yet fascinating world himself concerned, leads him to untold sufferings. Although he has had of Anuradha and Aftab- and by the labyrinth of the haveli they inhabit. good western Education, which makes him a supporter of the rational, industrial and technological world yet his traditional Indian roots give Som meets Anuradha for the first when he is in a Delhi hotel at a him a sense of isolation when he needs to follow western culture in the reception organized by Aftab for the plastic Manufacturers Association. materialistic world of Bombay. The city has taught him to apply scientific He gets attracted towards her. The strange house in which she lives principles. with a lover seems to him as being labyrinthine. It is Aftab who had invited him to Banaras and when Som meets him at his residence, Lal In the opening chapter, Bhaskar questions- “Why is the sea so grey Haveli, he feels- “it was a maze that we were moving through. Perhaps, here? It is blue down in Goa and bluer still on the coast of Ceylon?” (9) the entire haveli had been built as a maze”(34). “it was a labyrinth”(35) The turbulent grey sea symbolizes the acute mental conflict suffered He rates Bombay superior to Banaras as it is full of brilliant industrialists. by him. But he feels that he experiences a sense of isolation and loveliness in A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction 59 60 Asha Arora both the places. Both are thickly populated but neither of them is able And if it is there, if Man has inherited it, then what is he to do with it? to give him a sense of belonging, he craves for getting rid him of his (132). unbearable, inexplicable sense of isolation. Anuradha allows Som to love her but is never ready to leave Aftab. But His quest in life is to find out why he should believe in the mystic concepts when he finally goes to meet her at Aftab’s haveli in Banaras, he realizes of Indian tradition. His father has voiced his doubts about the ‘First a foul game in the mysterious disappearance of Anuradha but he cannot Cause’ in his son’s presence. The father’s intention is to discover the reach to any definite conclusions against Aftab as he does not find any connection between cause and effect. His grandfather, on the other proofs against him. When Dr. Kashyap narrates Som how he was saved hand, was a lover of luxurious life and a pleaser-seeker. The grandson from a deadly heart-attack by the miracles performed by Anuradha. was exposed to these two contradictory attitudes at home, at the very He is forced to confess- “Probably , I want to believe. But one can’t early age. It is this lack of stability in the formative stage at home that order belief ”(213). leads to anxiety in his coming life. No amount of material prosperity One has to be born in it “to reach up to the crack in the door to peep into can give the child the secure sense of identity which he feels with his a room” or “one had probably to rise up to the crack by oneself” own people. (215). He, in spite of all his misgivings about Banaras, is charmed by Lal Thus, In spite of all his unpleasant habits of boozing and womanizing, Haveli. It is here that he gets to know Anuradha who means much to he is able to retain his wife Geeta’s heart for himself. While Aftab, him as a source of his mental peace. Anuradha and Gargi advocate ‘faith’, Geeta lives it in her life. Geeta Dark and alluring Anuradha casts a spell on Som. He is bewildered by judges him accurately and fulfill his needs while he is not even able to her charm- “She was not self-conscious about her body of whose grace judge himself. The novel ends with the probability to come to faith. and sensuousness she seemed unaware” (41). The novels’ ending on the Concept of purification or He turns from one pleasure to another; he is in quest of hunger for the resurrection- Joshi’s protagonists seem to be moving in a world devoid joys of life. He, therefore, involves himself in search of new experiences of all values. Their quest for meaningfulness of life ends with the whether they are concerned with business or fornication. perception of the futility of human life .Like T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and R.K. Narayan’s “The Guide”, though implicitly , Joshi also He wants to grab the plastics company of Aftab acquiring its shares as leaves a note of hope in the end of the novels. In “The Foreigner”, the well as Anuradha, Aftab’s mistress.He wants to make Anuradha of consoling power to Sindi is Sheila, Babu’s sister. He feared to be involved himself. But he is unable to get her totally released from Aftab. So, he with others. But in the end of the novel, he begins to believe in decides to buy off the remaining shares of Aftab’s company to humiliate ‘attachment’, and clear indications are given of a growing mutual him. But Anuradha who was the owner of the fifty percent shares , understanding and attraction that promises a closer relationship. In “The sells them to Lord Krishna . So, he goes in search of the temple in the Apprentice”, Ratan engages himself in selfless noble cause as a mountains to which she had left her shares. This journey, symbolically, repentance to his evil-doings as he, every morning, cleans the shoes of becomes a reaching out to his soul, the essence of human existence. the people who go to temple. In “The Last Labyrinth”, Som’s only He comes out of the labyrinth of his reason into faith. He learns from saving grace is his wife, Geeta who is a sensible and brave person and Anuradha how all actions and aspirations of life can be offered to Lord is “aware of certain fundamentals” of life which have remained hidden Krishna. In his new understanding, he realizes that “This spirit is there. A Struggle for Existence in Arun Joshi’s Fiction 61 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:62-65 (2011) from her husband. Her unwavering faith in her husband and marital life gives a sensible substitute to his rationalism. Joshian heroes, sooner or later, have to take sides if they want to remain A Postmodernist Study : Image of Woman human. In the end , they commit themselves to an action, for they have in Indian Cinema chosen to be human. Conclusion Divya Maheshwary Joshi is pre- occupied with the themes of rootlessness of individuals and purposelessness of existence. His protagonists are self-centred and Art and literature of the early part of the 20th century play a significant singularly individualistic persons. They are frustrated, disinterested and part in shaping the character of post modern culture. Post modernist art disillusioned. They are engaged in exploring the meaning of life. They can be very pop. It often draws its subject matter from the realm of face a conflict that is common to the entire world of modern times. popular culture and employs pop culture forms and genres. They cannot feel at home in their own tradition because they have only Post modernist film describes the articulation of ideas of post modernism learnt to question and not to analyze the profound values that lie hidden through the cinematic medium. Post modernist film upsets the main behind traditional practices. They are not satisfied with the modern stream conventions of narrative structure and characterization and tries knowledge which they have acquired because it does not provide them to change the audience’s suspension of disbelief to create a work in a substitute to meaningfulness of life. They find themselves isolated which a less recognizable internal logic forms the film’s means of and uprooted in their shell of life. In the end of the novels, they realize expression. that man, as a social-being, cannot always continue with an irresponsible existence but has to commit at some point. The purpose of life is action, Cinema like other forms of art, is a mirror held to society. It tries to not Inaction. depict what happens in the society. The cinema is simulating a hyper real world. They try to show a “real life”. That world lures people. References They present what people love to see. Emotions are transformed into Abraham, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 2007 celluloid or video tape. Dhawan, R.K. The Fictional World of Arun Joshi. Indian cinema is not untouched by its effect. In the years after Joshi, Arun. The Foreigner. Orient Paperbacks. independence the issues like unemployment, black marketing, poverty, Nawale, Arvind M. Existentialism in Arun Joshi’s ‘The last Labyrinth’. corruption, frustration etc. were presented as themes of movies. Women Rengachari, S.S. Indian Writings in English. issues were not given much prominence. In movies women have been Sharma, Ram. Between Two Worlds: Conflict of Sensibility in the Novels of depicted in form of goddess like Sita, Durga etc. The celluloid presentation Arun Joshi. of goddesses also expects them to possess the qualities of female Singh, Praggya M. The Nowhere Man in the novels of V.S. Naipaul and Arun chastity. The details of their physical charm and their sexual encounter Joshi. depicted in the mythology prove that these power women are their to The Apprentice. Orient Paperbacks. please the sexual desire of males. The image of women in Indian cinema The Last Labyrinth. Orient paperbacks. was also constructed in this frame. The female characters were never Uttam, Paritosh. Indian Writings in English : Arun Joshi. given central stage. The male coin could transfer itself from Devdas A Postmodernist Study : Image of Woman in Indian Cinema 63 64 Divya Maheshwary

(1955) to Deewar (1973) to adjust with contemporary social and political But now in this postmodern era there is a big change in the society and perspective but the female characters were never spared. In general, movies also. The subjects of movies are being changed. Likewise, the popular Indian cinema did not grant any license to the total freedom of theme related to women in movies are also being changed surprisingly. women. Untouched subjects are being shown in movies. Movies like fire brought Women were portrayed as the typical urban dream-woman of the to the fore hitherto taboo subjects like lesbianism to the Indian screen Nehru‘s era as the traditional motif. The directors used to celebrate the for the first time. Women in mainstream Indian cinema has undergone traditional motif of womanhood in different context. Women were so many changes in respect of dress code, body language , moral values, presented as idol of sheer power of tolerance and acceptance of all style in song and dance sequences, romantic scenes etc. with the change types of humiliation from the patriarchy. The image of women was of time, many movies came in light dealing with women issues. These constructed in the images of Sita,Radha ,Meera. The most exploited movies have tried to depict the reality or say, women’s real position, image of womenhood in hindi cinema is based on the mythological icon condition and identity in the society. They have shown the strength and “Sita”, a woman who is always ready to sacrifice everything to sustain courage of the women, their potential to fight against for justice. Women the honour of her husband and his family. Hindu women’s socially are shown as they are ready to rebel and fight for their rights. accepted as “kamini”(who seduces) “Bharya”(who is fed and maintained Apart from the sweet, simple, romantic, beautiful stereotypical image by husband ), “Ramini”(the sex partner) and “jaya”(who gives birth to of a Bollywood actress they are moving towards more bold roles like in the children) are the role models for building the image of women in movies Chameli, Chandani bar,damini, lazza, astitva, water, black, Indian cinema. She is not allowed to think and take any decision Cheenikum. Life in a metro, page 3, corporate, mritudand, zubeda etc. independently. Women in these movies, are very believable to today’s urban women. “Marriage” as theme of movies also channeled the women‘s power for They are familiar to women working in BPO’s, MNCs, media etc the sustenance and promotion of the patriarchal values. Movie like spanning a wide range. They display their independent streak in their Gauri(1968),Devi(1970),Karma(1968),Griha Pravesh(1979)etc. show decision making, they do not mind if people find them slightly off – women as totally devoted, sacrificed , idealized housewives whose life putting because they are not docile-doll cut-outs. should revolve around her husband, children, in-laws and home, but not It is to the credit of the script writer too that they are projecting women for herself. Same as, the theme of adultery by men is quite permissible as real and contemporary instead of being clones of calendar-art images in Indian society as well as in Indian cinema, but for ideal women it is of the “Bhartiya Naari”. For years the audience of hindi films was used strongly formidable zone. to seeing the heroine, despite her tight fitting clothes and running around The sexual power politics always indulges “rape” as the essential element the trees with the hero in song and dance routines, falling in line as soon of the mainstream Indian cinema . In most of the films rape is used to as she was “domesticated” by marriage. Look at films of the films of satisfy the male lust and to prove that this patriarchal system could be 60th s and 70 s and we would see her abandoning the trousers and the only “protector” of the women in real sense. Even prostitution as a salwar suits for the good old sarees as soon as marriage vows hovered theme is glamorized keeping behind its reality of sub human exploitation. in background. Tons of tears, devotional songs etc were thrown in for Popular cinema generally does not allow the rape victims and prostitutes good measure as if to establish that she was the traditional (what ever to survive to a decent life. Even if they sometime take revenge or rebel, that means) family girl after all. Rebels were not tolerated, she had to they also prefer to commit suicide. be a lesson if she threw up tantrums. A Postmodernist Study : Image of Woman in Indian Cinema 65 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:66-73 (2011)

Some critics opined that it is an effect of globalization and consumerism where mass production is the order of the day that heroines have become more ornamental than real woman. She might be dancing away in snow covered Switzerland or Austria but basically have clung to the ideal Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows: women Indian males fantasize about the gharelu home maker. But in Refracting the Shadows of Troubled History recent times, though a majority of bollywood films churns out the same image in the name of “family entertainment”, there has been a welcome Kiran Deep relief with the presence of heroines who are more acceptable to modern sensibilities. And even I can remember A day when the historians left blanks in their writings, The change of image has not been a sudden one. It has been happening slowly. Looking at her portrayal in popular cinema, at least for very I mean for things they didn’t know. many years, it would seem that time had stood still for her. Today, the Ezra Pound (Draft of XXX Cantos) characterization is more nuanced. Then there has been a welcome It is important to take into account the voices recorded by the historians change. For exp. Jiah khan, a Lolita like figure in Ram Gopal Verma’s because they provide a comprehensive perception of the past. A NISHABD is a fresh change because instead of castigating her as a “a unilateral vision of the events is no longer sufficient since Postmodernism bad girl” the director focuses on the teenager’s growing consciousness favours multiple perspectives of events. In recent years, Postmodernism of her sexuality; she accepts it as she confidently reaches out to a man has transcended across the boundaries of the fabricated literary world more than twice her age. to the supposedly objective and scientific discipline of literary history. It is perhaps also due the entry of the small cinema encouraged by the History as a factual narrative is considered to be a failure because it multiplex cultured that new directors more savvy with the times can can never derive accurate interpretation of human reality in its myriad spell out their dreams in their scripts. Fortunately, many of them have forms. It can be studied as source of the traces of the past. The become hits showing that the public wants a change from the stale presentations of these traces are in the documents, the letters, the story line. All the batter for heroines who want to walk a different path. speeches and the official government records. Such representations act as filters through which one interprets the traces of the past. There The directors denounce and condemn the male chauvinism and try to are a number of contemporary novelists who have immersed in the seek some sort of equality between the genders. The movies declare language, the texts and the material cultural of the past to produce that the women can also be equally powerful if they are given opportu- some remarkable fiction. Vasili Grossman’s Life and Fate (2006) nities to come out of their confinement. portrays Russia during the World War II. Khaled Houssani’s A In conclusion, several film makers are earnestly trying to portray women Thousand Splendid Suns (2008) speaks of Afganistan in the second in a dignified, realistic, and an intriguing way and have succeeded half of the twentieth century. Ooka Shohei’s Fires on the Plain (2001) considerably. Of this genre, film makers like Mahesh Bhatt, Rajkumar reveals the tragic picture of Japan during World War II. Pakistani novelist Santoshi, Shyam Banegal, Madhur Bhandarkar, and a few others seem Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2008) reflects on to have given us the best of such women significant films. how the world changed after the 9/11. Identifying and exploring the possibility of connections between events from Nagasaki to Indian Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows... 67 68 Kiran Deep partition thence to New York in the aftermath of 9/11, Kamila Sahamsie’s Jaipur literature Festival 2009, showing keen interest in ‘unofficial version Burnt Shadows opens a new window into history. of history’, Kamila Shamsie said “I came of age during the Zia-ul-Haq Kamila Shamsie, a Britain-based new wave Pakistani novelist is one of years, and growing up in a country where you have an ‘official’ version those writers whose writings peep in to the hidden crevices of tragic of history, you are always curious about the ‘unofficial’ version.” historical events. In her recent novel, Burnt Shadows (2009), which (Chandran, 1) is short listed for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, Kamila attempts Recognition of subjectivity, the un certainty and the multiplicity of truths to look beyond the shadows of history to pen down the ways in which inherent in any account of past events allies her fiction with postmodern the world’s many tragedies and histories shape one another, and about novels. In Lyotard’s words, postmodernism “…searches for new how human beings can try to avoid being crushed by their fate and can presentations, not in order to enjoy them but in order to impart a stronger discover their humanity, even in the fiercest combat zones of the age. sense of unpresentable” (quoted in Lucy, 63). Kamila has voiced this The present paper attempts to trace the shades of light and dark in this postmodernist search for new in her fiction in her individual way without moving narrative which speaks of bombs which fracture the bond of chutnification of history and meta-fictional historiography. Attempting cross-cultural relationships and also of the love of languages which to pierce through the objective historical documents, Kamila does not nurture the plant of such harmonious relations., why is it that some out rightly reject the value of these documents as she told Michele bonds flourish in times of crisis, and why do some fail? The paper intends Fillgate about the Nagasaki Episode in the novel: “The starting point to address these issues in relation to Hiroko, the Japanese protagonist was reading John Hersey’s Hiroshima …helped me start to visualise of the novel. details such as clothing, interiors, details of wartime living. . . . searching The novel opens up with a man, shackled and terrified in the interrogation out anything I could find about Nagasaki before the bomb and on the cells of Guantanamo Bay, asks “how did it come to this?” In answering day of the bomb. I was particularly interested in finding images of pre- this question, the novel distils much of the most tragic history of past 60 bomb Nagasaki, so I could picture the world in which my characters’ years. It moves in space from Nagasaki to Delhi, Karachi, the Pakistan- lived. And maps—maps of Nagasaki were very important, too, to help Afghan Frontier, New York, Canada and Cuba, and in time from the me —well, get my bearings” 1945 bombing of Nagasaki to Indian independence and partition, the There are novelists who discard a rigid version of past events, enhancing soviet invasion of Pakistan, the 9/11 attacks, the overthrow of Taliban the discussion of a system of different voices and storylines as Thomas and America’s subsequent extra-legal round-up of enemy – combatants. Pinchon has done in his postmodern historical saga, Gravity’s Rainbow. By re-visiting the past, the novelist thus perform the analytical role of a Discussing the evolution of this literary history in our postmodern society, historian, by not only identifying in the past the causes of what came Linda Hutcheon writes: “A Postmodern literary history can be neither later, but also tracing the process through which those causes began the cumulative record of everything that has been written nor the slowly to produce their effects. compilation of themes and topics that have been emphasized by past This novel belongs to the historical fiction , which neither form a part historians.. ..It is an ongoing search for understanding of our sense of of the official history of a nation but attempts to reveal emotional past the past, which stands behind the texts we read in the present. There is along with social or political past whereas the documents or the objective no doubt that at any given point in history, the knowledge of the past is history focus on the political and economic life of a nation. During the partial and reflective of present perspectives.”(81) Burnt Shadows reveals how history affects our relationships with each other, Sometimes Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows... 69 70 Kiran Deep history defers relationships and others relationships survive despite the Her love of languages enables her to belong everywhere and nowhere history. simultaneously. When she comes to Delhi, “She had every confidence In each of the major parts of novel there are historical events that are that her three languages and glowing references from the Americans would be sufficient to secure employment anywhere in the world.” well known but what is not known is how it affects individuals who only want “to farm their land and raise their families.” There are themes of (48) But in 1947, millions of individual lives are being tossed about on sameness and otherness in different cultures and the issues that one the relentless tide of history; Sajjad is forced to leave India and move to the newly created country across the border, and Hiroko goes with can have when trying to be the same. The novel is the panoramic tale of two families – the Ashrafs and the Burtons, tangled together in some him. ‘She had not thought of destination as much as departure, wheeling through the world with the awful freedom of someone with no one to of the most devastating conflicts of modern history. Across continents and through geopolitical flux, each family continue to act as a catalytic answer to...a figure out of myth...who loses everything and is born anew in blood. (48). The omniscient narrator presents as a woman force upon the other, sometimes in life-saving ways, and sometimes who is buffeted about by history and learns how to adapt in order to causing great peril. feel at ease in different places, without ever letting go of her sense of The people are the matrix as the book unfurls in Nagasaki on August self. On being asked whether Hiroko’s search for a home, a place to th 9 1945 and with a telling first part of the book entitled The Yet Un- settle is at all a metaphor for people trying to understand their own knowing World. We know of course that the unlikely couple Hiroko place in history, Kamila replies: “...I think Hiroko would reject such Tanaka and her Berlin friend Konrad Weiss are about to face yet again phrases as “their own place in history’—she just wants history to leave the devastating trauma that just four days previously had been unknown her alone” to mankind. Hiroko is in love with Konrad Weiss, an idealistic German Kamila is concerned with what happens to the relationships of people artist and scholar whose work attempts to discover how Eastern and Western civilizations might learn to live in harmony. Fate doesn’t treat from contrasting backgrounds when they start to feel themselves on different sides of history/politics. She seems to be in tune with Foucault’s this young man very well; within the first few pages of the novel noth- ing is left of him but a scorched shadow etched on a large rock. At the assertion : time of the attack, Hiroko was wearing a kimono with black cranes on “We do not live in a kind of void inside which we could place individuals its back; those birds embroidered on the back of the kimono burn them- and things. We do not live in a void that could be coloured with diverse selves into the skin on Hiroko’s back, a brand that will remain with her shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites for life. Hiroko survives ‘that unspeakable day’ now forever to be known which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not super imposable on one another.” (22) as ‘hibikusha’. Though Hiroko is the thread that runs through the book, the story isn’t Two years later, Hiroko picks up the pieces of her life and moves to filtered through any one perspective After partition, Hiroko and Sajjad Delhi to stay with Konrad’s half-sister Elizabeth, with whom she forms started living in Karachi, but events in the world outside continue to a lasting friendship. She also enters an unlikely relationship with a young exert a pull over their family, as their restless son Raza comes man named Sajjad Ashraf, who teaches her Urdu. She attempts to defy dangerously close to joining the Afghan mujahideen — the young the haunting shadows of troubled history with her passion for learning warriors trained by the Americans to fight the Soviets. new languages to assimilate with the culture of the country she lives in. Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows... 71 72 Kiran Deep

Later presences include Elizabeth’s son Harry Burton, who works for of Nagasaki in 1945 to post-9/11 New York, when terrorism and distrust the CIA and forms a strong bond with Raza, and Harry’s daughter Kim has defined a country’s response to a terrible act. But the heart of the who becomes close to the aged Hiroko in the book’s final section, set in tale begins with language, with the sharing of one language with another, New York post 9/11. one culture with another. Out of this simple human connection comes a In the connections it makes between places and events, it recalls the story of history, tragedy and loss. Hiroko Tanaka, a survivor of the tangled web of history. The macho posturing of young Pakistani boys bombing of Nagasaki, cannot find an answer to the question that haunts ,steeped in Islamic fundamentalism , is compared to Japanese youngsters her: After Hiroshima, why a second bomb? Who makes such a decision? aching to become kamikaze pilots during the Second World War. From that infamous day through 9/11, the acts of violence in the world Afghanistan, before the Americans and Soviets made it a personal are laid bare, countries in conflict, individuals searching for identity and battleground, is likened to Nagasaki before the bomb fell. When Sajjad meaning. Bearing the scars of Nagasaki, Hiroko views her life, her is forced to leave his beloved ‘Dilli’, it’s an echo of Hiroko’s departure grief, through the lens of that experience, a lifelong search for an answer. from Japan. “Until you see a place you’ve known your whole life reduced As time passes, the world grows smaller, from Japan and Nagasaki to to ash you don’t realise how much you crave familiarity,” she says in a India to Pakistan and New York, yet more complicated, more moving passage, “I want people to disapprove when I break the rules treacherous. This story of Hiroko refracts the shadows of troubled past. and not simply to think that I don’t know better…I want doors to slide With her concept of historiographic metafiction, Linda Hutcheon open instead of swinging open”. And there are little misunderstandings elaborates on past: “The past really did exist, but we can know it today and twists of fate, like the one where a young boy, Hiroko’s son Raza through its textual traces, its often complex and indirect representation Konrad Ashraf looking to buy a cassette player for his father ends up in the present ; documents, archives, but also photographs,… films and with an AK-47 instead. literature” (78) At one point Konrad, whose shadow hangs over the book, tells Hiroko Kamila Shamsie presents the turbulence of a century in which people that “metal barriers can turn fluid when touched simultaneously by people have had to repeatedly leave their homes and where events from the on either side” (82). Shamsie balances this idealistic thought with a distant past cast a very long shadow over the present. Hiroko, Sajjad, more pragmatic, hard-edged understanding of how individuals are shaped Konrad, Ilse, Harry, “history had blown all of them of course, no one and damaged by history, and how easily one injustice can beget another. ending – or even middling- where they had begun” (Shamsie 282). This novel can be read as an argument for the fluidity of identity. The novel The British Empire turns American. Harry Burton becomes a member is pessimistic about the possibility of rooted ness. Beloved places prove of the CIA and then a private mercenary. He manages to capture the as ephemeral as relationships; even America, where Hiroko is delighted trust and affection of young Raza, the mixed-race son of Hiroko and to hear “Urdu, English, Japanese, German all in the space of a few Sajjad. Raza possesses an uncanny gift for languages — he and his minutes”( Shamsie 288), ultimately betrays her. “The appropriation of mother speak Japanese, English, German and Urdu on a regular basis history , the historicization of the past, the narrativization of the society, — and although he has some trouble making a place for himself in all of which give the novel its force” (Said 93) make ‘widescreen’, Pakistan, he has only to cross the Afghan border to be thought of as a historical saga reflect on the troubled recent histories, fractured social native tribesman, because of his almond eyes, his high cheekbones and relationships through the prism of the “complicated shared history” his amazing command of the language. The novel bridges the bombing (Shamsie 277) of two families and individual loss as well. Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows... 73 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:74-81 (2011)

References Chandran, Rina. “Pakistani Writer Shamsie Seeks ‘Unofficial’ History.” Wed. Jan 30, 2008. (1-2) http://uk.reuters.com/articles/idUKsp…. Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om Foucault, Michele. “Texts/con Texts of Other Spaces.” Diacritics (Spring 1986). Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. New York: Rout ledge, 1989. Rajnish Mishra Hutcheon, Linda, and Mario J. Valdés. Rethinking Literary History. Oxford New York: Oxford UP, 2002. Motion pictures have been very important socio-cultural constructs since Lucy, Niall, ed. Postmodern Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: the time they were invented. Be it a director, a writer, an editor or an Blackwell, 2005. actor, no one can remain unaffected by their milieu. Hence there is a Shamsie, Kamila. Burnt Shadows. London: Bloomsburry, 2009. close relationship between films and the tendencies and characteristics Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. Lon don: Vintage, 1995 of the period they are made in; more so, in the “post-techno-capitalist” (Robinson, 43) societies of today. The present paper proposes to focus Interview on the extent to which a popular Hindi film Om Shanti Om (henceforth, Kamila Shamsie in an interview with Michele Filgate. OSO) displays the tendencies of postmodernism. This film was chosen . because of its conscious and unconscious intertextuality, its conspicuously conscious fusion of genres and its numerous explicit and implicit allusions to the “great tradition” of Indian cinema. Its plot, cinematographic techniques, characterization, dialogues, suspicion of the metanarratives, hyperrealism mixing of genres and foregrounding of the intertextual elements: all challenge many assumptions about and trends of the modern cinema. Roll, sound, camera, action: thus begins OSO, by foregrounding the “unreal city” - the studio of the successful producer Mukesh Mehra. The same studio appears in the second half as a burnt and dilapidated one which the hero is trying to bring back to life to shoot the “film in the film” - Om Shanti Om for the second time as he wants to complete the circle of life. The circle of life is a motif that appears repeatedly in the film and is mentioned by the hero OK in a talk with the villain Mukesh too. The circle of life is complete with the linking of the key image of “Om” that appears on the forearm of the hero in his two lives as Om Prakash and Om Kapur. Prolepsis and analepsis, both in terms of OSO and in terms of the history of Hindi films, tend to complete this circularity. Prophesy and allusions along with active determination of future through planning perform the functions mentioned above in the film. Outside Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om 75 76 Rajnish Mishra the individual film, the same functions are performed variously, e.g. made in the first half are realized in the second half only - becomes Shah Rukh as OK uses the title of film Main Hoon Naa to reassure explicit on the second viewing of the film and gives the film its decidedly the frightened Mukesh and Quick Gun’s part played by Om Prakash as postmodern stance. A close viewing ( suspending entertainment for a Omiswaami in Mind It gave rise to a film with the same name in 2009, while) also shows the numerous references dropped casually – as if probably unintentionally. OSO was paying tribute (or making fun of) the whole “great” tradition The film begins with a caption that reads “30 Years Ago” as the camera of Indian cinema. The self referentiality also tends to foreground the takes a long shot of the studio premises. Junior artists are in the period aspects of the art of filmmaking that tend to be neglected at times. Bela costumes and the camera focuses on a scene in which there is a Makhija, the mother in the film, is posited as a counterpoint to the simulation of unreal. Another director (Subhash Ghai) is ordering the prototypical mother of Hindi films. She delivers the dialogues used by camera to be focussed on an actor lip syncing a song sung by someone the original mother Durga Khote - the primary or the first user of the else and even this is not real because the audience’s “willing suspension lines in the first, real or primary reservoir of reference, Karz. She does of disbelief” is challenged willingly and consciously by a merging of it with a twist that distances her from all the previous mothers of the past and present. The song, “Om shanti om”, is being shot as the film tradition. Ironically, her son Om Praksh calls her his “filmy” mother and starts and the whole crew of the film inside the film is present and rebukes her on her overacting when she is only faithfully copying the involved in this opening sequence along with that of OSO. Thus starts onscreen mother Durga Khote. Does one hear the echoes of prince the merging of reel, apparently real inside reel and real. It is a blitzkrieg Hamlet’s instructions regarding the art of “real and faithful” of merged time-referrants that the audience experiences since the very characterization to the players? Is it a conscious allusion or just an first minute of the film when Om Prakash Makhija (does the audience accident due to Shakespeare’s presence in the now globalized collective still see only Shah Rukh Khan?) imagines himself replacing Monty (Rishi unconscious? There is more to it than just coincidence. The song “Sunne Kapoor). This merging is atavistic; as Forrest Gump (1994) had already waalon” uses lines that echo Macbeth’s famous lines about crime’s celebrated the present’s entering the past and becoming one with it. having tongues to declare itself and about blood staying on the criminal’s Thus the film blurs the line that separates fact from fiction and history hands etc. from story. It enters the realm of near-faction and combines a great There is intertextuality and self-referentiality in the use of music too deal of period fact with fictional treatment or incongruously incorporates that has several effects. Just like Karz, OSO uses a recurring signature actual living experience with history. It challenges reality and creates a tune that transcends the frontiers of time and is associated with various simulation which simulates what actually is not there. The real director responses of various people. The tune on which the song “Main agar of OSO is shown as the unimportant audience, along with the real star kahoon” is composed is the tune used for a sad song after Om Prakash Shah Rukh Khan shown as an insignificant junior artist. “It bears no overhears Shanti’s conversation about her marriage with Mukesh. The relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum” same tune is used in the song that announces to Mukesh OK’s being a (Baudrillard, 405). Real collapses within the imaginary and the simulation reincarnation and his intention to take revenge. Whenever this tune is that one observes is hyperreal. audible – diegetically or non-diegetically – those hearing it become aware OSO has a lot of self referentiality – it refers to the industry and to its of the referring back within and outside the film on screen. Thus a own self - which is ironic at times. The irony that is hidden - as references signature tune becomes an independent motif just like it was used in the parent film – Karz. Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om 77 78 Rajnish Mishra

OSO is a metafilm too in a way. Film history keeps dropping every now revenge. As in this scene products and finish are to reflect the passage and then as the characters interact. There are instances that reveal the of thirty years, all the hoardings have sleek and modern designs and artificiality of the process of film making in a planned manner. The song products, and the centre hoarding has OK endorsing some product (is “Main agar kahun”, for instance, shows the ways in which effects that for real or on the reel only?) like blowing wind, moving vehicles, snowfall etc. were created in the The premiere of Shantipriya’s film stages a veritable carnival of parodies. eighties. The mock-shooting of the Tamil film and the Mohabbatman After actors representing Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Shatughan Sinha, scene parody the way action sequences are shot. Names like Raj Kapur, Rajesh Khanna, Mithun, Aruna Irani, Dimple Kapadia etc. come to the Chintu Baba, Alam Aara, Mughal-e-Azam, K. Asif, Madhu (bala), premiere Om Prakash and Pappu both pose as Manoj Kumar and the Rajendra Kumar, Om Prakash etc. appear casually. Just after the first actor playing Manoj Kumar (the real one in the film but actually only a song Om Prakash meets his best friend Pappu Master and they talk poser) is chased away by the police off the movie theatre. The whole about his possibility of becoming a superstar. In a tongue-in-cheek kind evening has a heightened set of attitudes as unreal is posed as real and of ironical stance he parodies the superstitions and trends related to overacting is in the air. But then, overacting is very real in all the events names in the Indian film industry. He advises him to have a name that where the public figures appear on screen. The scene shown on the ends in Kumar (Raj), Kapur(Rishi) or Khanna (Rajesh) – the successful screen as the film in the film – Dreamy Girl – begins is a reference and heroes of their time. They advise a struggling artist Govind Ahuja to tribute to and a parody of Amar Prem. The heroine, a prostitute, speaks change his name and adopt a name like Rohan Kapur or Raj Kiran the lines that highlight the importance of the sanctity of vermillion. There (incidentally an actor in Karz) and finally give assent to the name he is no hero visible only Rajesh Khanna’s voice says “Pushpa” in his oft suggests – Govinda. There is a scene in OSO that attempts to parody parodied characteristic style. The song “Tum tana” is thrown in without that famous scene of Mother India which is an immortal part of the any link with the film on the screen. It falls directly in the tradition of the Indian “film tales” due to its repeated retellings. It was this very scene dream songs of the yesteryears. It has a crescent moon and clouds that in which Sunil Dutt saved Nargis from a fire and they came closer after are very clearly and consciously not real. The screen is now presented that. Shantipriya plays the role that Nargis had played in her real life in muted tones and whenever the camera focusses on the audience and Om Prakash, the junior artist, plays the role of Sunil Dutt after the “real and lifelike” colours reappear. Thus the polarity of real versus “real” hero of the film refused to jump in the fire that had gone wild. imaginary is highlighted where the element portrayed as real is only a Om Prakash has a habit of talking to his muse Shantipriya, the “Dreamy representation – that too without any attempt at hiding its nature, i.e. Girl” of the eighties – a sure reference to the “dream girl” Hema Malini hyperreality. Once again a merging of real past with the screen present of the same era. There is a very interesting set of products (from Sholay and real present is shown without any possibility of confusion in the to Exide battery) being advertised through hoardings that flank the huge minds of the audience. The heroine(Deepika Padukone as Shantipriya) centre poster of Shantipriya’s film Dreamy Girl. His mother comes projected to the eighties is shown with the heroes of sixties to eighties and very much unlike what normally happens, accepts her “daughter- and Shah Rukh as Om Prakash replaces them in each case by the end in-law” readily. Her prophetic soul tells that her son’s face would appear of their section of the song. There is no attempt at generating laughter on posters one day. The significance of this scene becomes clear once through this epitome of anachronism. Hence it’s a pastiche and not a Om Kapur – the reincarnation of the old Om Prakash in the second parody of a song. It celebrates it and assembles together the stars and half - is seen on the same bridge talking to his friend Pappu about styles of the past golden era of Hindi films in the form of bricolage. It Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om 79 80 Rajnish Mishra challenges all the conventions to such an extent that they are totally OSO foregrounds “the element of ‘narcissism’ in narrative technique... obliterated and no trace of any question related to disbelief or even its [it] focus[ses].. on and debate[s]... [its] processes, and thereby conscious suspension remains. ‘denaturalise[s]’ [its] content”(Barry, 91). There are several instances The second half has songs that address completely the youth amongst that foreground the art, economics and truth of film making. It shows the contemporary audience. It parodies the MTV loving, “happening” how many producers and superstars actually ghost direct through remote crowds through OK’s demand and inclusion of a dream song that is control. There is a mention of three of the greatest Indian directors of totally absurd and is not needed by the script. It flashes a completely classic films like Pather Panchali, Madhumati and Kaagaz ke Phool and shockingly new image of the reel or real Shah Rukh with his well by Partho Roy the director of a film being shot. He tells the producer sculpted body (and the “six-packs” abdomen) for the first time on screen. Mukesh that he had used the camera angles of Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy Just after this song comes the picturisation of a scene with and Guru Dutt. The realistic producer gives him the bottom line by Mohabbatman, a real and consciously attempted absurdity in the genre asking him to finish the shot that very day and to use the one angle that that boasts of the technological feats like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, would surely work – that of the famous golden jubilee masala film Krrish and a host of small screen super heroes like Shaktiman. It is the director Manmoham Desai. Later in the film superstar OK forces the second time in OSO that the hero is picturised flying. The first time director to insert an absurd “item” number with 5-6 item girls and coerces round it was Quick Gun Murugan (an eponymous film later) with him to accept his “inspired” idea. The second half also has the part in comparatively crude flying technology who flew for quite a long time to which OK writes the script and directs the story of his revenge – just land without hitting the target. The advances in mechanics made the like prince Hamlet, or Anand (Dileep Kumar) in Madhumati did. OK flying easier and more “real” but the absurdity of a man flying remained screen tests the candidates for the role of his real heroine, there are the same as it was thirty years ago. Both the scenes are presented instances when Bela Makhija shows them and lectures on how to act ironically. and shows her disgust at finding them incompetent. The difficulties faced by the technical staff are shown through the failed attempts at The title of OSO is from a famous song of Karz - the film that gave a lighting a fire behind Shanti’s portrait. huge proportion of its plot to OSO. It makes any attempt at symbolic puzzle solving impossible. The happenings in the film provide a stark OSO is basically a series of spectacles and favours style over substance contrast to what one may expect from the title. There is no bliss or at several important junctures. Even OK’s scenes with his mother are peace (shanti) till the end of the film as chaos and disturbance rule turned melodramatic just for the sake of an ironic perspective on the both the film’s plot and the life of its central characters. This film never traditional spectacular nature of such scenes. This distances the spectator attempts at the classical suspension of disbelief. It challenges it, parodies from the developments on screen and denaturalizes the linear reception it and neglects it completely thus leaving chaos at the end very happily. of the content by drawing the viewers’ conscious or unconscious mind OSO questions the ability the medium of cinema has to stand for reality towards the mode of representation. Thus the need to analyse the truth and life. It is highly self-conscious and underscores the chaotic dream off and on the screen – a very postmodern attribute of a film - is aroused. like nature of life, cinema and life in cinema through the recurrent dream The two halves make a confused potpourri of elements from the plots motif in the film. This attitude is a signature of postmodernism, as only of Karz and Madhumat (or a film that came after it: Kudrat). There postmodernism can celebrate chaos with such an abandon. are changes and surprises but they are calculated not to astonish or Postmodernism in Om Shanti Om 81 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:82-85 (2011) shock the audience. Even the ghost of Shanti is not shocking as it is quite logical and falls in the tradition of and is related to the ghost in Madhumati. The linking of the three films appears to be very conscious A Satire on Politics and Prejudices : on the part of the director. This makes it easy to switch between the two reference donor plots and the plot of the film on screen. Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions OSO is self-referential, self-exposing, self-analysing and self-reflexive. Sonu Shiva and Prashant Yadav The whole film, especially the first half, is so rich in intertextuality that on every exchange of dialogues some allusion, reference or quote drops A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out in. There is a distinct mixture of multiple genres in OSO. It begins as a from the old to the new, when an age ends and the soul of a nation long romantic comedy with elements of farce in it. Then it turns into a tragedy supressed finds utterance. – Jawahar Lal Nehru due to the murder or death of the protagonists. It finally becomes a The partition of India left both India and Pakistan devastated. It claimed suspense thriller along with a romantic comedy with dashes of many lives on both sides. They have been to war twice and the division reincarnation and masala elements thrown in. Silly wordplay within a and disturbance between Hindus and Muslims still persists within India. serious context makes the artificiality of art or fictionality of fiction With the freedom of our country the society could be seen structured apparent. The reel-real play keeps recurring. It raises “alienation to the on the line of minority and majority; the seeds sown by British empire second power, alienating [the audience] even from [their] own alienation” fully bloomed and these two communities become entirely hostile towards (Eagleton, 362). each other. The sense of insecurity in terms of religious dominance and References an endeavour to control the behaviour of the other resulted into major conflicts and large scale violence in form of riots. Dattani traces the Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Hindu – Muslim conflicts through the three generations of a family. He theory. Chennai: T. R. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2006. attempts to examine the deep rooted attitudes behind years of prejudice. Baudrillard, Jean. “Simulacra and Simulations.” Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader. Ed. Lodge, David and Nigel Wood. First Indian Reprint. Delhi: Interpersonal relations depend mainly on how one observes the actions Pearson Education, 2003. of others. It is an important factor of scientific or common sense Eagleton, Terry. “Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism.” Modern psychology that man understands events in relation to the variable Criticism and Theory: A Reader. Ed. Lodge, David and Nigel Wood. First behaviour to the envaried underlying conditions. These unchanging Indian Reprint. Delhi: Pearson Education, 2003. conditions keep on manifesting themselves in various ways and certain Jameson, Frederic. “The Politics of Theory.” Modern Criticism and Theory: A conditions such unchanging conditions in this context is the relationship Reader. Ed. Lodge, David and Nigel Wood. First Indian Reprint. Delhi: between Hindu and Muslim culture among which the fine mixing has Pearson Education, 2003. never occoured. Their rivalry manifests itself openly at the time of Robinson, Dave. Nietzsche and Postmodernism. First Indian edition. Delhi: religious festivals, when there is an attempt to show one’s superiority in Worldview Publications, 2005. order to overshadow other which often results to administrative disorder. In Final Solutions Dattani intends to say that after independence riots have occured and reoccured in many cities and towns throughout the A Satire on Politics and Prejudices:… 83 84 Sonu Shiva and Prashant Yadav country. The play starts with Hardika’s statement in which full of despair live in where the attitude and struggle in the name of religion is same she says, only faces change. Mob has no name no loyalty. Lots of politics is After forty years … I opened my dairy again. And I wrote. A dozen pages involved in the collection of the crowd and all the violence is done to before. A dozen pages now. A young girl’s childish scribble. An old serve some one’s personal interest. Dr. Iqbal in his article “The Theory woman’s shaky scrawl. Yes, things have not changed that much. (167) of Communal Fertility” confirms a few hypothesis about communalism. It usually happens that a person tries to understand the actions of others Though the caste, community, or religion based biases or rigidities have by refering to certain unchanged underlying conditions. Therefore the been found to play a crucial role in augmenting communal violence, there result or understanding depends upon the perception of a person as are certain latent or convert powers which keep the conflict alive. These well as environment. The outcome of anything is the combination of hidden hands may be having a social, political or economic backing. Certain historical or local issues are also kept alive to build up communal effective personal forces and effective environmental forces. One thing rift. (58) that should be noted is environmental forces can be negative or positive with respect to personal forces. In case of Haridika it is negative. The Javed at one point when crowd outside the house disappears comments despair of her father’s murder at the time of partition is still alive in her “May be they aren’t paid overtime (204)” Dattani introduces Ramnik heart. The environment of deep conflict in the play and roots of hatered Gandhi as an outstanding figure with mental state of tolerance. Through lie in past. Dattani discusses these complexities in an open and impartial the characters Ramnik, Babban and Smita, Dattani expresses that manner and the amount of intolerance and hatered both communities everyone in India and Pakistan does not have hatered for other have for each other. community. It is only the work of few minds for their particular political benefit. The play is a satire and irony on Indian politics and prejudices. Dattani makes an honest attempt to tear down the age old fundamentalist It was written after the demolision of Babri Masjid but Dattani sketches attitude impartially and makes one understand the true meaning of the tension between Hindus and Muslims from the time of partition to diversity. Mob is a symbol of fundamentalist feeling that has been present the present day. in both the religions since partition. They wear either Hindu or Muslim masks. When referred individually they become chorus. These masks Dattani neatly opens up the psyche of all his characters. They come suggest that religious identity is manipulated politics to ignite communal full facedly before the readers with all their tensions, passions, fears, clashes. Faceless feature of crowd is displayed by using religious masks. prejudice, weaknesses and sensitivity. The play appears to free one of They give voice to the prejudices inherent in the minds of both one’s own inhibitions and illusion of thinking oneself as liberal. communities through generations. As the characters interact with each other it is through their dialogues Final Solutions is written early in 1991 a year before the communal one gets a clearer and impartial picture of the prejudice which generations riots in India’s Bombay; sparked by the destruction of Ayodhya mosque. have carried religiously on their shoulders unknown about the pressure The play revolves round the Hindu family that gives refuge to two muslim their behaviour has created in the society. One is forced to reflect upon boys seeking safe place for themselves during riots. This family becomes their biased attitude. Babban’s last lines are thought provoking. the microcosm of India. Dattani explores the inner self of his characters The tragedy is that there is too much that is sacred. But if we understand and tries to state that this hatered and intolerance is not somewhere and believe in one another, Nothing can be destroyed. And if you are what we see outside in form of riots, it is very well present in the inner willing to forget. I am willing to tolerate. (225) lives of human beings. The changing of masks denotes the society we A Satire on Politics and Prejudices:… 85 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:86-90 (2011)

The memories of partition and the insult faced on both sides has remained the thought process of both the communities. The past has always overshadowed the present day perception on both sides. Dattani’s A Cartographic Journey Unto Self - characters depict an unusual behaviour that shows the extent of communalism present in the society and the secularism of the country A Postmodernist View of The Shadow Lines under question. Bobby’s touching the idol of lord Krishna and his sharp comments are an answer to the prejudice that one sees breaking like Manisha Sharma the stairs of sand. This scene has a long lasting impact and one finds that years of mutual hatered and communal violence are insignificant. Amitav Ghosh, a stalwart, lustrous gem who has captured the gamut of Ramnik who is viewed as a tolerant character opens up the secret of postmodern Indian fiction was born in 1956 at Calcutta and now resides the shameful act of his father burning a shop of muslim for his own in Newyork. His Magnum opus are Sea of Poppies (2008), The Circle interest is a fine example of resentments present on both sides i.e. of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1990), The Calcutta Javed who is accused of violence and intolerance as well as tolerant Chromosome (1995), The Glass Palace (2000) For The Shadow Lines, Ramnik who on one side thinks that Javed has done an unforgetable act he won the Sahitya Academy Award. His fiction is characterized by but on the other hand accepts the deed of his father and insists that the strong themes like Post Colonialism and Indo-Nostalgic concern. past should be forgotten for fresh beginning. The Shadow Lines, one of the finest and fabulous creations of Amitav The characters of Dattani are stereotypes. They do not speak their Ghosh deals with Ghosh’s organization of space elements, further individual minds but can be seen speaking for their whole community, manufacturing a world within a world, also weaving events and and their collective sensibility. The play gives one all the chance to characters in a single thread of unity with time. introspect and understand the reason behind the prevalent politics and The novel deeply explores an inward voyage to farthest places, crossing prejudices. threshold of national boundaries as well as real journeys within the spatial compartments of the country. The author clearly introspects the dissected References positions of East Pakistan and West Bengal and also the trauma that Dattani, Mahesh. Collected Plays. New Delhi : Penguin India, 2000. each inhabitant faces. Maheshwari, A.P. Communalism : A Crisis of Conciousness. Delhi : Ajanta The story of the novel is articulated by an unnamed author in a non- Publications, 2000. linear manner as if some scattered pieces of jigsaw puzzle were put The Partition of India . together coherently. The novel begins with the change of place and time due to physical journey and the effects it casts on human cartographic imagination :- “In 1939, Thirteen years before I was born, my father’s aunt, Mayadebi went to England with her husband and her son, Tridib”(1). “The truth is that I did not want to think of her as a relative, to have done that would have diminished her and her family – I could not bring A Cartographic Journey Unto Self… 87 88 Manisha Sharma

myself to believe that their worth in my eyes could be reduced to perception- “If one was lucky, to a place where these was no border something so arbitrary and unimportant as a blood relationship.” (1) between oneself and one’s image in the mirror” (29). The novel rearranges the geographical expansions through subjective The novel deliberates upon this realization of the territorial borders and perceptions of human minds that the narrator says, “ Tridib has given lines as merely shadows and illusionary existence or arbitrary for a me worlds to travel in and he had given me eyes to see them with.” mind there is no such limitation in context of time and space. Further The unnamed narrator identifies himself deliberately with Tridib but his “alienation or marginality” is something that exists in our mindset grand mother refuses to accept Tridib like the narrator “he looked but the borders cannot separate the links of the hearts and vanish the completely different – not at all like you.” long lived memories of different places that become connectives– “It’s a mirage, the whole thing is a mirage. How can anyone divide a Tridib is depicted as the narrator’s own projection as he says:- “Tridib memory?” (247). had given me worlds to travel in and he had given me eyes to see them with.” The actual journeys of Calcutta, Dhaka and London are The novelist takes the reader on a fascinating exploration through vivid portrayed with critical acumen and chiseled craftsmanship of the author imagery from a stern grandmother to the bloodbath and riots in the and gradually there is a shift, a move for inward voyage of the places streets of Dhaka and Calcutta. like Cairo, Madrid, Colombo. There is another important character mentioned named Ila, the childhood The novel problematizes the question of being at different places and love and cousin of the narrator, is a baffling instance of alienation that also needlessness of confining oneself to boundaries and borders people feel who live away from their native lands. Though she is– “She superficially. There is a seamless continuity of time and space with and I were so alike that I could have been her twin - it was that very Ila reminiscences of the past as grandmother disapproves Tridib as a who baffled me get again with the mystery of difference” (31). “loafer and wastrel” But “he was a familiar figure within the The narrator’s love for her remains in the shadow, a sort of dark voyage floating, talkative populations of students.” because being considered as taboo in the society, it raises a question on The reader seems to be traveling in Malaysia, Fiji, Bolivia, the Guinea its futility as well as on its exposure. Coast and Ceylon and feels the sensation of those places in his The physical places can be imagined as a kind of microcosm world as imagination – “A place does not merely exist, that is has to be invented the narrator says– “When we were eight – year old children she herself in one’s imagination” (21). had once invented London for me” (32). But these journeys are framed tightly and harmoniously without any The novel provides a cosmopolitan view for cross – border humanity dislocation – “I began to imagine the sloping roofs of Colombo for myself: that mars communalist outlook and racism and also dogmatism. The the pattern they made if one wheeled in the sky above them, how sharply novel speaks about the pangs of partition i.e. formation of East Pakistan they rose if one looked at them from below, the mossiness of their tiles (Bangladesh) and West Bengal and highlights Ghosh’s secular concern when one saw them close up” (29). in multiculturalism- “Every word I write about those events of 1964 is The architectural description one feels and restructures in his imagination the product of a struggle with silence. It is a struggle I am destined to about the place narrows the gulf between outer world and inner lose have already lost for even after all these years, I do not know where within me in which corner of my world this silence lies” (218). A Cartographic Journey Unto Self… 89 90 Manisha Sharma

The novel further explores empathy, bonding and a sort of deep lean on the parapet and gaze across the dark breadth of the Thames at attachment that lies in the hearts of people who despite facing crudeness the concrete hillocks of the South Bank” (94). of partition feel oneness, affiliation with the communities across the So distance between places does not matter in the novel as the novelist borders. Their inward journeys to these places where their own people successfully meets with this challenge through the use of lucid imagery live draw a kind of line segment and act as a connective for them- “We and imaginative powers and thus this distance gets melted through inner know as Dhaka and Calcutta were more closely bound to each other journeys and the reader feels no discontinuity and also a kind of tightly- than after they had drawn their lines - so closely that I, in Calcutta, had knot tie that holds and binds the readers into a single time and space. only to look into the mirror to be in Dhaka; a moment when each city This is the charm and fascination of the novel that resolves the problem was the inverted image of the other, locked into an irreversible symmetry of alienation and self-centeredness where every narrow, selfish motive by the line that was to set us free- our looking glass border” (233). intermingled to make a massive objective. The title itself seems providing The novel also looks at the binary setting that a border makes for the a solution for this problem as it suggests all lines as mere shadows, not people that are embedded with same cultural fabric creates transnational real entities that divide the human race and communities. intricacies and biased situations, it is used as a tool for separation by There are many references of unknown places of the world also which anti- national activists- “If you look at the pictures on the front pages of provides the reader with kaleidoscopic vision to look at the insignificance the newspapers at home now, all those pictures of dead people - in Assam, the north - East Punjab, Srilanka, Tripura people shot by of boundaries that separate cultural milieu. The novel sensitizes the terrorists and separatists and the army and the police” (246). issues of colonialism and imperialism as mere futile games to crush humanism and nationalism. The crux of the matter is that the novel tries The novel also offers as the slices of history and its events related to to redefine and recapitulate the validity of emotional milieu and partition and it seems a sort of networking of journeys in our minds. transnational bonding. By the end of the novel, the novelist speaks about The reader is enthralled by the imaginative realism of the events and a “final redemptive mystery” that has remained unsolved yet and who feels emotional bonding with the past people. knows what this mystery can be about – whether a restructuring of The novel triggers the layers of our consciousness when it reflects the space or resolving silence? communal tension in Indian subcontinent- “Where’s Dhaka? I can’t see Dhaka. I had not been to Dhaka, and in any case her Dhaka had References long since vanished into the past.” (193) . The novel portrays a varied shaded landscape where different journeys and different junctures that are interwoven with past memories are < http: // news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7606147.stm> designed scrupulously. The novel gives binocular vision of Dhaka and Calcutta at one end and simultaneously it switches over to London and we at the bank of Thames- “I would find myself wandering through Soho or around Trafalgar Square and I would pretend to myself that I was walking for the mere pleasure of it, discovering the city. I would Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:91-94 (2011) 92 Niranjan Gangwal

Mahesh Dattani in the beginning of the drama “FINAL SOLUSTIONS” gives the description of Indian people who are celebrating Indian Independence and some other are crying over the partition. He compares Communalism and Other Issues in this with the tendency of children who enjoy the last day of their school Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions before the commencement of the vacation. Daksha [Hardika] says that before leaving India , Britishers have rooted Niranjan Gangwal the seed of animocity between Hindu and Muslim. The fear of riots in a common man’s family has been sincerely presented by Mahesh Postmodern Indian English literature has shown its concern for the social, Dattani.. economical and political evils infecting the contemporary Indian society. The burning social issues have been repeatedly voiced in the Postmodern Daksha’s mother and she herself are very much affected by the riots. Indian English literature She prays for the safe return of her husband who is out of home at the time of the riots. He does not return home because he was killed by the Mahesh Dattani [August 7, 1958] is one of the prominent Indian rioters. playwright of our time. He is a Multi-faceted personality. He is the Indian English dramatist who won the first Sahitya Akademi Award for After forty years of Indian Independence the situations have not so Final Solutions and Other Plays. much changed. In a stone- pelting incident at the Rath Yatra, the wheel of the chariot is broken and a knife piercing in the stomach of poojari Mahesh Dattani has raised questions related to feminine identity, religion, communal tension, sexuality, gay relations etc. These are the issues kills him. And the curfew was imposed in the city. The Muslim Girls which are ready to split our society. Communal hatred has been boldly Hostel was bombed and when the matron called the police, nobody expressed by Mahesh Dattani in his “Final Solutions”. And the very came to rescue them . first line of the note on the play by Alyque Padamsee expresses the The problems created by some poor and misguided anti-social elements theme of play— “The demons of communal hatred are not out on the who are hired by some religious fanatic and some power hungry politicians street….they are lurking inside ourselves.” have been boldly presented by Mahesh Dattani. Such fanatic people Again she asks, “Is life a forward journey or do we travel round in a have been presented by the effective method of CHORUS/MOB circul, returning to our starting point ?” wearing Hindu-Muslim masks alternatively.Now the younger genetration has started learning the true intentions of such leaders. Daksha‘s [one of the characters in the play] diary introduces the theme of Hindu-Muslim riot as an integral part of Indian independence. The CHORUS 1— There is heartache . we doubt the leader’s intentions. They mutual hatred only increases tension is made clear in the play. Dattani want our blood to boil. They have succeeded. uses chorus to introduces mob who alternatively put on Hindu and Muslim JAVED— It is a terrible feeling. Being disillusioned. masks to give out violent hatred for the other community. The root ………….I hate myself . It was different when I used to attend the meetings. behind Hindu-Muslim riots is best revealed through Javed and Bobby, I was swayed by what now appears to me as cheap sentiments. the two Muslim young men who are chased by some Hindu fanatics. It Common man doesn’t want any kind of anti-social activity, riots or is made clear that failure of understanding between man and man creates problems in the society. This is beautifully presented by Mahesh Dattani communal tentions. Communalism and Other Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s 93 94 Niranjan Gangwal by introducing two Muslim young men , Javad and Bobby, in the family their own business well; all her hatred goes and she asks her son to help of Ramnik Gandhi. them. Bobby [to Aruna, Ramnik’s wife]— …if you are willing to forget, I am We should not fight like dogs over the petty things ; after all we are all willing to tolerate. human-being irrespective of any religion. The peoples of the world must The two Muslim young men take shelter in Ramnik Gandhi’s home at learn to live together with fraternity. Social and political freedom are the time of the riots over the Rath Yatra incident. Ramnik shows the necessary to make India riot-free. attitude of a modern man who is ready to eliminate the hatred between Hindus and Muslims. He gives them shelter and also offers a job in his References shop to Javed who is even a member of rioters’ group and a hired man. Dattani, Mahesh. Collected Plays. New Delhi : Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. He says to Bobby– 2000. I have to give him all the chances that I can possibly give. Isn’t that what Das, Bijay Kumar. Form and Meaning in Mahesh Dattani’s Plays. New Delhi: any liberal-minded person should do? Atlantic Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2008. Mahesh Dattani shows that the younger generation sees no difference between the two community. They show friendly and helping behavior with the members of opposite community. They have nothing to do with fanaticism. Aruna [Smita’s mother] does not allow Bobby and Javed to touch the water for God’s bathe. But Smita allows Javed to fill water of God . Bobby leads towards the pooja room and picking up the image of Lord Krishna in his hands and says— Bobby—Look how He rests in my hands ! He knows I can not harm Him. He knows His strength ! I don’t believe in Him but He believes in me . He smiles ! He smiles at our trivial pride and our trivial shame. Mahesh Dattani seems to be of the opinion that there are only a few people who want to spread poison in our society otherwise public at large want peace and harmony. The old pattern of fanaticism is rapidly changing giving place to mutual understanding in every community. As Aruna says to Javed , “……All religion is one . Only the ways to God are many.” The misunderstanding and the prejudice about the opposite community has been presented in the drama by Hardika’s hatred towards Muslim community throughout the drama. When she realizes that her husband and his father themselves burnt the shop of opposite community to run Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:95-103 (2011) 96 Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas

youthful, exuberant and experimental voice that extended our appreciation of the post-modern aesthetic. In his play Sleep (1972) Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in too, he continues experimenting with dramatic form, structure and content. He traverses the borders of faith, logic and social coherence Gelber’s Sleep to reconnoiter an arcane and intimidating terrain of sub conscious life filled with uncertainty and remorse. At core, the play Sleep (1972) Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas deals with the situation of a psychologically embroiled and emotionally perturbed man whose existence is ruefully defined by the over-powering Jack Gelber (1932-2003) was one of the most resplendent playwrights personal and at large the societal issues. It dramatizes a laboratory who glorified the Off-Broadway cosmos and the American theatrical scene wherein two scientists Merck and Morphy are shown operating history. He appeared on the American dramatic stage when it was on the protagonist Gil’s mental landscape. All that is enacted on stage is being dominated by the fading lights of Tennessee Williams and Arthur a mélange of people, situations, seething thoughts and feelings crowding Miller. An avant-garde dramatist, primarily active during the 1960s and Gil’s mind. Herein, Gelber turns from the public world of his protagonist 1970s, he is best known for revolutionizing the traditional realism of the to his private world, examining spiritual crisis using the techniques of American theatre by sabotaging the conventional periphery dividing the psycho-analysis and the role of the sub-conscious, the Rapid Eye audience and performer in his first play, The Connection (1959). Movement sleep and dream. Gelber’s brand of drama is conspicuous for its play-within-play structure, The present paper is an attempt at exploring and explaining the improvisational nature, a self-conscious element of theatricality and totally kaleidoscopic vision of a post-modernist dramatist of the whole socio- unconventional staging. During the late 1950s, Gelber became associated cultural reality, its impact on the fugitive modern man and the latter’s with the Living Theatre, an experimental New York repertory company response to it. The protagonist Gil is an apt specimen of the American founded by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, who produced and directed race that suffered the numerous socio-cultural onslaughts in the late The Connection in 1959. 1960s and early ’70s. The phase was a turbulent time when the average Gelber’s emergence on the American dramatic scene signaled the birth American was caught up in a dizzying whirlpool of ogres like racialism, of a resurgent spirit with firm and fresh intellectual and artistic the Vietnam war, the feminist movement, political fiascos and a host of convictions. His plays like : The Connection(1959), The Apple (1961), domestic or familial problems like: infidelity, marital discord, divorce, Square in the Eye (1965), Sleep (1972) —— all marked a vehement juvenile delinquencies, etc. These events took a serious toll on the person repudiation of the stultifying ethos of the dominant Broadway theatre and the psyche of the Americans. Each individual was a fragile island and an assertion of the reflective, self-critical and axiomatic functions unto oneself. Faith in religious or political authority was fast vanishing of drama in presenting its immediate society or culture. The Gelberesque as the American soul was groping in the dark, vainly attempting to unravel drama or theatre attempted to be serious, shedding the frivolity of the enigma and turmoil of its so-called modern and progressive existence. Broadway theatre and striving to achieve the eminence that drama had achieved in the hands of O’Neill, Williams and Miller for presenting the Man had been jolted out of his comforting cocoon. His world had been cultural aspirations and frustrations of people in their times. He conferred sabotaged by the two World-Wars and he was dreadful of the third. upon the American stage its post-modernity in 1960s, interjecting a Millions were robbed of their physical and emotional security. Crimes and divorce rates were on a constant ascendant. This pathetic character Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in Gelber’s Sleep 97 98 Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas of the modern man defined by the overwhelming forces of his society, because Gelber was concerned with bringing man face-to-face with became the muse of Gelber. As such we see that the protagonist Gil in the images of his own self and that of his life. Gil represents the Sleep(1972) is not a reflection of the traditional figure of a notable Americans enduring a neurotic age—figures continually doomed by stature surcharged with a high destiny and propelled by profound myriad spiritual and existential insecurities. passions, rather he is his own caricature—a bewildered creature A great deal of psycho-analysis has been exploited as a technique in floundering in a quagmire of frustration, self-denial and misery, as Sleep (1972). Gelber drifts from the carnal to the flimsy, spiritual world someone “..groping, puzzled, cross, mocking, frustrated and of the protagonist Gil, making a scrutiny of his repression and crisis isolated” (The Vanishing Hero, 6). He is caught between the terrible using the tools of dream sequences and the probing into his unconscious. binary of hope and hopelessness, struggling with his distorted version of The doctors pose him with varied verbal devices like mathematical the objective reality. He thus seems to exist in an ongoing state of shock. riddles, metaphysical questions, enumeration of names and questions Gil is not at loggerheads with the society he is inhabiting, but he is pertaining to his sexual life. Gil’s free-associating sentences reveal the intrinsically at war with himself, with his inability and helplessness to bitter truth about the whole generation’s mood of sheer anxiety, despair surmount his predicaments. Haphazardly wrought up and eternally and anger. Gil is an archetype of the fugitive and repressed modern perplexed, he resorts to his inner self and makes it his battlefield. He man who is suddenly rendered anchorless and clueless in the storm of comes across as a man ridden with tremendous phobias and anxieties, living. He voices the creed of a man trying to re-locate himself in a pounded by spears of self-guilt and inferiority complexes and driven by dubious, maddening world enveloping him. When the doctors interrupt morbid compulsions. his psychological sea-faring, he snappingly vents out his disgust at being Until the advent of the psychological perspective in literature, it was buffeted from the process of self-actualization, of getting close to making considered that forces outside man determined the destiny of character some meaning of the elusive mirage called life : he fumes, from the onset till the end. With Freud’s efforts—the organized explanation “.. Gil : I was getting somewhere. I was making progress. You interrupt. of the role of the unconscious which postulated that our conscious life As always…” (Gelber, 83) is merely a surfacial manifestation of a complex of impulses lying hidden His is a need for acquiring his own identity in the chaos of his complex in the nebulous, perilous waters of the unconscious, did we get a detailed existence. He seeks a niche for himself : he utters this desire and his and enriching comprehension of ways of etching and understanding subsequent failure in seeing that happen. characters. Gelber too dedicated his play Sleep (1972) to the psychological aberrations and sickness characterizing modern existence. “ Gil : I had to search for a way to fit in..,” soon he finds himself failing We see in Gil something of the whole general problem of humanity, : “…..I don’t see it. Oh, yes. Here it is. I see it. I’m falling. I’m falling. I can’t stop falling...”(Gelber, 90-93) suffering from forces beyond its control, forces which lie inside as well as outside man and make him utterly dreadful and paranoid when he The prolonged dream fantasy is acted out with varied characters playing recognizes them. A close look at Gil’s character makes us feel as if the out roles which press towards the grotesque. Figures from the past whole play is “..the drama of the psychic life, with its recurrent occupy the same space and time as those who inhabit the present. patterns more deeply significant than the drama of the outer life” Reactions are magnified, sensibilities heightened. Through Gil’s (Roberts, 10) .Like Pirandello’s work, which he referred to as ‘ teatro psychological probing, we get a glimpse into our own inner mass of dello speechio’, Gelber’s play Sleep (1972) is like a looking-glass gross anxieties, fears and apprehensions, we begin to feel that “…the Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in Gelber’s Sleep 99 100 Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas theatre will never find itself again. .except by furnishing the They could not keep away from the lurking dangers to life in the form spectator with his truthful precipitate of dreams, erotic obsessions, of the widespread social violence : his savagery, his chimeras, his utopian sense…even his cannibalism “…Gil : They’re after me. pour out on a level not counterfeit and illusory, but interior.”(Artaud, Kay : You were always a paranoid personality..”(Gelber, 47). 7). Gil’s dream motifs manifest in a gamut of images : as chunks of dialogue from conversations, recreation of situations, made up events The epicenter of life was lost. Insanity, obsessive disorders, insomnia and even voices echoing in his head. There is a sense of irony, playfulness became the hallmarks of a modern living : and black humour. Gelber here makes us whiff in his zolaesque world, “..Morphy : Having trouble sleeping ? a malevolent place in which a sense of bafflement and loss prevails and Gil : No more than usual..” and the customary visit to the psycho- we too begin to feel Gil’s dreams sequences that are the tenuous analyst’s was indispensable to somehow hold the fragile threads of life embodiments of his unresolved conflicts with his wife, his children, his together.“.. Gil : Yes. I mean, it’s not an accident that I’m friends as well as of the panic and trepidation generated by the whole here…”(Gelber, 6-7). turbulent socio-cultural scenario of the American society at large. His dreams come across as an intermittent expression of the general paranoia, The social menace of racialism is also given space in Sleep (1972). It fears, humiliations, desires and guilts of the confused, spiritually oppressed is cast in one of the dream images where Gil is accused by a Black and lonely modern man. woman. At another, the agony and vengeance of a Black is conveyed when he fulminates at Gil, “…There is something perverse in me looking for meaning all the time…” (Gelber, 89). The inquisitive and restless artistic soul of a “Black Actor : I had to stand by in chains and watch while you raped dramatist like Gelber could not shun the call of the social atmosphere of our women. It’s all over. That’s centuries old and you’re gonna pay for America. He raised certain consequential questions regarding man and that!..”(Gelber, 69). society as he himself asserted, “..I’d like to ask a big question. Big The Black Actor as well the two doctors, who are also transposed to question. I would rather have big questions even if I can’t answer the dream world, appear as threatening figures to Gil, practising some them..” (Purohit). In saying so, Gelber endorses to the post-modern kind of mind-control on him : they, thus substantiate the existential peril writer’s stance on presenting the predicament as it is and his ready posed by the modern society, in variegated ways, on an individual. resignation over his inability in resolving it. Issues of marital disharmony and concurrent violence have also been The big existential questions that loomed large were the unjust war on touched upon by Gelber in Sleep(1972). Loss of tolerance and fidelity Vietnam, the growing political corruption, the bias and cruelty towards was fast giving way to significant rise in divorce rate and each one was the Blacks at home—all reasons enough to escalate the cynicism and struggling, “…still new to the feeling of being divorced…” (Gelber, psychological trauma of the American people in general. Fear and 33). The brunt of parental estrangement subsequently took a harsh toll insecurity had penetrated deep into people’s psyche and resultantly they on children who would develop into indifferent and callous personalities. grew into clusters of highly sceptical and paranoid personalities. The “..Edna :..My own daughter don’t care about me..”(Gelber, 14). maddening scenario pushed people like Gil into a labyrinth of unending The on-going feminist movement was also taken into the thematic gamut distrust and they exceedingly became “…suspicious of groups..” of Gelber’s Sleep(1972). Women had became rather sensitive regarding (Gelber, 90). Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in Gelber’s Sleep 101 102 Kalpana Purohit and Rakhi Vyas their place in society and they looked upon family as an oppressive as well as the principal motive for the audience in the theatre. More paradigm of patriarchal society. They wished to break the shackles of a significantly ,Gil’s state of sleep carries serious implications for all of suffocating domestic life, “…I feel trapped in a rat maze of us. Is our whole life—a blind alley signifying our inability in dealing the domesticity..”(Gelber, 77) and assert their position in a male-dominated existential perils, one long, eternal sleep or is it the customary visit at society. our psycho-analyst, where we are induced to ‘sleep’ to actually awaken The act of sleep has been exquisitely exploited as a brilliant metaphor in to our accumulated stock of complexes, fears and failures, a slice of this fine post-modern dramatic endeavour of Gelber. The play has sleep? Probably, the latter sleep is the more real and significant one. It given Gelber a triumvirate of horizons to explore— the techniques of is actually an exercise in enlightenment, in awakening—awakening to psycho-analysis and unconscious blending to study the repressed one’s real self and confronting its suppressed side. Such a sleep is characters in light of the intricate social maelstrom. The span of necessary to awake oneself. The culminating part of the play sums up sleep is forged to cut through the darkness of the subject’s unconscious the whole episodic experience of sleep: and interpret his existence at social and personal levels. Using the “..Gil : There’s no room for argument. Part of me died here, technique of pastiche interlaced with psycho-analysis, Gelber has shed you know. I have the feeling I’ve been through this before. light on the modern man’s dual life of reality and illusion, presenting a Merck : Tomorrow night we don’t wake you. vivid expression of his sense of the nightmarish human existence. Gil : You don’t think I’m coming back. The play can be perceived as a unique form of ‘a post-modern therapeutic theatre’ wherein the author leads the audience to participate (Gil exits ) emotionally in the protagonist’s conflict with his own unconscious Merck : What do you think ? experiences, motives and impulses. He aims to make his audience Morphy : ( Still working on his clipboard) We’ve seen this achieve a state of awareness, which implied both an intellectual before. He’ll be back. perception of wholeness and more importantly an emotional release of repressed fears, wishes or turmoils, which paralleled to those of the ( They exit.)..”(Gelber, 102-103). protagonist on stage. In calling for the drama to purge the spectator of The catharsis having been accomplished, the subject is now purged and the emotions of pity and fear, Gelber endorsed to Aristotle’s plea for ready to set out and resume his life replete with unresolved questions. the therapeutic value of the dramatic experience. Gelber thus lent to Indeed a part of him has died here and a part has just been born. He theatre a fourth dimension having nothing to do with form : it was the has acquired a new lease of sanity to further his voyage through the dimension of depth of perception. Perception of human character, tempest of life. perception of life itself. It was a direction which could help the stage Jack Gelber, was thus, indeed someone who was quite alive to and expand, grow and enlighten itself in a spiritual sense. responsible for much of the theatrical revolution that interwove theatrical The character of Gil validates that the complex, bewildering, ambivalent, text with social context. His was, above all, an intensely voracious and groping human animal is still the exclusive subject for drama; his discovery fresh voice. It was moreover a voice that defined the private fears of of himself and his unconscious impulses and his integration of them into the individual and public disorders of a society or nation. a meaningful whole will remain the great theme of post-modern drama— Unraveling The Post-modernist Mosaic in Gelber’s Sleep 103 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:104-108 (2011)

References Artaud, Antoine. The Theatre and Its Double. Trans. M. C. Richards. New York, 1958. Gelber, Jack. Sleep. New York : Hill and Wang, 1972. Exorcism of Illusion in Post Modern Literature – Gelber, Jack. The Connection. New York : Grove Press Inc., 1960. With Special Reference to - Edward Albee’s Purohit, Kalpana. Jack Gelber’s ‘The Connection : An Interpretation’. 1989. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Roberts, Patrick. The Psychology of Tragic Drama. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Publishers, 1975. Priyanka Jain The Vanishing Hero. Boston: Little, 1959. “There is no fixity of any kind in our lives and we are in a state of virtual reality perpetually -that is the spirit of post modernism.” Postmodern means so many things to so many people, and it has a slightly different meaning in nearly every discipline, from art and architecture to fashion and technology. Postmodernism is a way of life, a way of feeling, and a state of mind. Virtual reality, constant displacement, and a ‘somehow win’ attitude as part of what has come to be termed ‘social engineering’ marks post modern life. Today, nobody is being urged to sacrifice the pleasures of his dreams in order to obtain the fruits of his virtues in the next World. On the contrary, he is being urged to enjoy the real consolation of his fellow human beings-in the alienated world of the present. A failure to accept the need to confront reality is not only to deprive man of dignity but also to leave him in a state of helplessness so that he tries to flee from the world of actuality. This kind of hell consists in the lack of communication between individuals and their tendency to escape from reality and seek consolation in fantasy. All that remains is a frustrating parody of contact in which love begets dislike, humour begets anger, and the aspirations of the individual seeking contact are rendered futile. Post Modern literature is mainly concerned with the purgation and ultimate destruction of an illusion. Being an age of virtual reality, there is always a contrast between Reality and Illusion. This is a fact that if reality and fantasy are not kept separate from each other, the result can only be despair and frustration. The word “exor- cism” means the ritual expiation of the evil spirits haunting a place or a person. In the context of Post Modernism it means the expiation of Exorcism of Illusion in Post Modern Literature… 105 106 Priyanka Jain illusion from everybody’s life which out of fear of facing reality have comfort his wife in her profound grief saying that it is better for both to recourse to illusions. face the reality, but Martha tells him now that she is really afraid of “Virginia Woolf” (A life without illusion). Edward Albee, the American playwright has penned down these frustrations caused by illusion in his play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia “Who’s afraid Virginia Woolf——? Woolf .”The internationally best known American playwright of the “I am, George, I am,” Martha answered. She was a vulnerable child at the sixties, Edward Albee came to the fore since mid-century and reached end of the play in George’s arm.” (Wildcrane Brog) a wide–spread audience His play were much acclaimed on the continent. Albee has been remarkable in bringing into focus, the pointlessness and Albee’s title of the play “Who’s afraid of Virginia woolf” superficially absurdity of the human situation He has concentrated our attention on seems puzzling but it actually means “Who afraid of life without illusion?” the tragic hiatus between man’s environment and inner being, his growing It defines that in this age of virtual reality everybody is afraid of a life alienation, his failure to comprehend the fantastic complexities of modern without illusion. As an absurdist, Albee believed that a life of illusion life, and finally his caving into a cozy world of illusion as a desperate was wrong because it created a false content for life just as George attempt to escape the nightmare of insecurity and fear. The overall and Martha’s empty marriage revolves around an imaginary son In breakdown of values, the utter incapacity for creative action and the Albee’s view, reality lacks any deeper meaning. The couple must come ennui of routine life are seen as the manifestations of the malaise of the to face that by abandoning their illusions. There is a great need for modern man. society to abandon its faith in abstractions. The abstractions in which Albee wanted to name the play, “The Exorcism”, In this case, “exorcism” society places its faith not only take individuals out of their direct would mean dispelling an illusion of a fantasy child from the lives of relationship with actuality but also take them out of any genuine George and Martha, a married couple who have remained childless for relationship with one another. Alienation thus becomes less on aspect over a quarter of a century. As the reality of their married life is very of the human situation than a consequence of a false response to the heavy and depressing, they sustain their cat and dog life with the illusion situation. The watch words of this “success-society” therefore becomes of an “imaginary son” which they together have invented. The illusion “non-involvement”. In the face of this failure in society, Albee insists on of their son sustains George and Martha’s tempestuous marriage. They the need to face “Virginia Woolf” or to face the stark realities, no matter have agreed upon them selves not to mention their “son” to guests. But how painful such a course may be. quite unwittingly and to feed on her ego by defying George warning, Inspite of material prosperity and scientific progress, modern civilization Martha mentions their “son” to guests. When George comes to know is essentially hollow. The symbol of this emptiness is sterility. In the that Martha has broken the rules of the game, he is very much upset. play it is no coincidence that both the couple are childless. George and Ultimately George takes it upon himself to “kill” that illusion when Martha Martha do not have any and Honey, the wife of the young Biology brings it too far into reality. He administers a decisive blow on her by Professor Nick, does not want to have any, this sterility is basically killing their imaginary son through a supposed message received through moral and symbolic people have lost contact with the traditionally a telegram. He tells Martha that their son was killed in a car- accident cherished values and are at complete disharmony among themselves. and buries him with requiem, Martha is shocked and crest fallen. She is Their whole life not withstanding their richness, has become barren, no longer the fertile Earth- goddess but a sterile childless woman. George hollow and insubstantial. Here the focus is also on the hollowness of a exorcises the illusion of the imaginary son from their lives . He tries to society which treats worldly success as the ultimate goal of human life. Exorcism of Illusion in Post Modern Literature… 107 108 Priyanka Jain

Martha’s aspirations with regard to her husband’s career as well Nick’s layer after layer of pretense and artificiality, it seems to suggest that ambition for the attainment of which he will go to any length show their even at the naked core of an individual there are destructive illusions, sterility. Both the couple in the play are sterile in having no children and the pain of losing them staggering. society as a whole is sterile in a spiritual sense. Nick married Honey for “Postmodern simply followed the logic of the existentialism, which asked her father’s is a very wealthy priest. So Honey for Nick is goose that every individual to instruct his own meaning from the meaningless would lay golden eggs. Though he initially appears to love his wife, it existence. Everything from nothing?” (Nihilism and Nietzsche) becomes evident that he married her for her money. To be afraid of “Virginia Woolf”, as Martha says she is at the play’s Martha, daughter of the president of the college in New England town conclusion, is to admit a very human fear about the lack of inherent of New Carthage, married George out of infatuation but she is upset meaning in one’s existence. In order to feel fear, one has to have shed because George is far from being a dream husband. She chose George, all of the illusions which had previously seemed to give life, meaning. believing he had potential to become the head of the history department Virginia Woolf probes the question of what happens to human being and eventually to replace her father as president of the University. when they no longer have recourse to the allusions which had previously George’s failure to rise to this position is her biggest disappointment and given their lives meaning.Albee describes the philosophical notion of she refuses to let her husband see just how much of a disappointment absurdity as “having to do with man’s attempt to make sense for himself he is to her. Now, Martha is a braying, heavy-drinking embarrassment, out of his senseless position in world which makes no sense.” who seduces now faculty members just to anger George. Her “The Post modern text, at heart, reveals skepticism about the ability of art disappointment led her to entertainment herself with an illusion. The to create meaning, about the ability of history to reveal truth, about the following statement shows Martha’s state of mind : ability of language to convey reality. All of that skepticism leads to “I cry all the time; but deep inside no one can see me. I cry all the time. fragmented, open-ended, self reflective stories that are intellectually fascinating but often difficult to grasp at first read.” And Georgie cries all the time,too.We both cry all the time, and then, what we do, we cry ,and we take our tears, and we put them in the It also leaves some questions to be answered, as after reading this play icebox, in the goddamn ice trays until they are all frozen and then …. a question arises “Have you taken recourse to illusions in your life from We put them in our drinks.” escaping the fear to confront the bitter realities of life.” Martha knows everything but have fear of losing the only thing of References happiness she has in her life. Martha comments to George “Truth and Adams, Michael. Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Barren illusion——you don’t know the difference,” and his reply is, “ No, but Educational Series,1985. we must carry on as though we did.” Albee, Edward. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf . At various places there are attempts to attack false hood on a number Berry, Peter. Beginning Theory. An Introduction to Literary Theory and of levels in the hopes of finding something true. Many deep secrets are Culture. Manchester University Press, 1995. revealed in the process, forcing to confront the consequences. The Krisnaswami, N. Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s Companion. primary exorcism in the play is the killing of Marta and George’s MacMillan. imaginary son, but there are other explosive confrontations with realities Modern and Postmodern English Literature. past and present abound in the play. This is the process of peeling off Postmodernism.. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:109-116 (2011) 110 Vinu George and Richa Bohra

At the end of the war, the span of 1945-50 saw a burst of inspired creative writing from him. This included his connected novels, and plays Endgame and Waiting for Godot (1955), the most influential play of Awareness of One’s being in Waiting his literary spheres and the world around. John Fletcher commented, for Godot almost nothing that Beckett wrote later ‘was quite equal to the works of the late 1940s in profundity, originality and imaginative power’ Vinu George and Richa Bohra [S.B’s. A]. Proportionately, Beckett’s plays are marked to be under the influence of “A world that can be explained by reasoning, however faulty, is a familiar the Existential philosophy of Jean – Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, which world. But in a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and of proposed to “view a human being as an isolated existent who is cast into light, man feels a stranger. His is an irremediable exile, because he is an alien universe, to conceive the universe as possessing no inherent deprived of memories of a lost homeland as much as he lacks the hope of truth, value, or meaning, and to represent human life, as it moves from the a promised land to come. This divorce between man and his life, the actor nothingness whence it came towards the nothingness where it must end, and his setting, truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity.”[M.O.S, 13] as an existence which is both anguished and absurd.”[M.O.S, 13] This is an exuberant extract from The Myth of Sisyphus in which Albert In the light of this thought, Adorno says of Beckett’s plays that they Camus tries to diagnose the human situation in a world of shattered “have an effect by comparison with which officially committed beliefs – distinctly evident in the post-war period. works look like pantomimes, for they ‘arouse the fear which And these notions of nothingness and meaninglessness of life on earth existentialism merely talks about’.”[M.B.D., 172] Therefore, the characteristically modelled the post-modern era, with the variations of existential journey from nothingness to nothingness builds up the most the ‘Avant-Garde’ phenomenon comprising of the dramatists such as time honoured play Waiting for Godot; symbolizing the quest of hope Arthur Adamov, O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Jack Gelber, and belief in one’s self- with the saying that, and Harold Pinter. Tomorrow everything will be better [W.F.G., 46]. Of these notable figures, Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) the Irishman Waiting for Godot signified as the embodiment of the universal myth, holds a place of prime importance in the theatre of Absurd and of Post- was originally composed in French entitled as En attendant Godot Modernism. The shift from modernism to post-modernism is often (1953); a less ambiguous subject meaning ‘While Waiting for Godot’. characterized in his journals quite remarkably. And he is said to have On the contrary the English title envelopes one with the incomprehensible had close ties with the modern period because of his friendship with mystery, seeming to imply that the play is about the act of waiting itself James Joyce – the pioneer of the ultra modern novel. Joyce became a – an inevitable concept of miserable uncertainty. Technically, the play major influence on his early literary style. is a plot less drama of nameless menace encountered by the four Thereby in 1945, Beckett had a revelation that in order to escape the characters Vladimir – Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky – the stringed pairs shadow of Joyce, he must focus on the poverty of language and man as throughout the narration. a failure. Finally, Beckett’s pen helped him to shape the development of To a certain extent, this technique could be compared with that of the literature away from modernism. Post-Modern designs of surface reality, avoiding the realms of the explicit answers about reality. In this regard, ‘realism in drama, like Awareness of One’s being in Waiting for Godot 111 112 Vinu George and Richa Bohra realism in fiction, may be broadly defined as an attempt to reproduce (W.F.G. 11). Then at a certain turn in the play, Pozzo says ‘ I’d like faithfully the surface appearance of life, especially that of ordinary people very much to sit down’[W.F.G.29]—an everyday urge of the common in everyday situations’. [L: I.T.F.P.D] man in the war time period, echoing in the speech of Davies, the tramp ‘The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who in The Caretaker as well. begins to weep, somewhere else another stops.’[W.F.G.25] Search for identity could be discussed in the very name of Godot himself. Waiting for Godot is a multi-faceted play about the human condition, a Godot has been, at times, identified with God (‘Godo’ being the spoken meditation on the human predicament in mid-twentieth century Europe. Irish for God; Godot being a French diminutive form for God), but not Thus, it is acknowledged to be a play about the characters, not what accepted by Beckett himself. The name Godot also seems to be identical happens to them but about them, a portrayal of human beings without with Balzac’s Godeau who is absent from the stage for most of the any answers or certainties. Emphatically, in a dialogue with George time. Even the name of this mirage was not so sure about as he is Duthuit Beckett expresses the dilemma that ‘…there is nothing to referred to as Godin … Godet … Godot … [W.F.G., 29]. Godot cannot express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, be made to represent any one idea because he represents the absence no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation of somebody – this absence is associated with the title waiting thereon to express.’[S.B: C.E.17] symbolizing hope throughout the journey. Likewise, in Endgame, we have a boy who does not turn up. The absence of certain characters -Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, its awful.- [W.F.G., 34] gives them hope in that emptiness of world and this emptiness can be From the critical point of view, what Beckett had inherited was a Godless taken as an analogy for the vagueness in which the mankind perceives universe, a universe where to continue to survive without hope but with its existence. dignity was itself heroic. Albert Camus states that “Living, naturally, is never easy. You For Hope deferred maketh the something sick… [W.F.G. 2]. continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many The title itself recognizes with the divine hope which proves to be a reasons, the first of which is habit” [M.O.S., 13]. Life has become fruitless one. The meaningless hope for the arrival of Godot, an a habit to pass the time with irremediable absurdity. Estragon’s addic- unidentified figure – develops the play from varied dimensions of the tion to sleep and hunger is considered to be the subject of habit, then times. The most firing question of the day was that of Identity preferred so as to pass the merciless time. crisis, Racialism, and the vacuum of socio-economic relationships. We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist? The play is in two acts; the second being the repetitive emptiness of the [W.F.G., 61] first one, around the pitiful tree with the tramps. The monotonous state Another characteristic feature of the Post-Modern theatre, recognized of changeless Time and Waiting are symbolized by the titles of the two as Playfulness also performs a vital role in this act of motionlessness. acts: covering A country road. A tree. Evening (act I) and Next day. Eluding is the invariable game entertained to reduce the pain and Same time. Same place(act II) suffering of the world of realism. In this context, suicide is a recurrent -Time Has Stopped- [W.F.G., 29] phenomenon but even suicide is also not possible, for it implies an end The whole world was engulfed in the enigma of stillness and to one’s life which is not at all an easy task for such actors. ‘Dying namelessness. The air was full of cries with We’ve lost our rights? voluntarily implies that you have recognized even instinctively the Awareness of One’s being in Waiting for Godot 113 114 Vinu George and Richa Bohra ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason being. In this world of alienation and deconstruction, there is a loss of for living, the insane character of that daily agitation and the uselessness faith in religion together with the so called humanism. of suffering’[M.O.S., 13] suggested in The Myth of Sisyphus. This ‘The bible… [Estragon reflects] I must have taken a look at it’ attempt could be associated with the words of Estragon who says, ‘Let’s [W.F.G., 4]….but not a hint of reading is suggested ever by the hopeless hang ourselves immediately!’[W.F.G.,9]…….either with a bit of rope figure. Apparently, the disgust with such malignant code of behavior is or a belt on the tree. Then there is a mention of the ‘Boots’ which expressed when Vladimir shouts: symbolizes the economic stability, very much aspired for by every man in that age. Similar to Davies’ life in The Caretaker, in Estragon’s To treat a man … (Gesture towards Lucky) … like that … I think that … no … a human being … no … it’s a scandal! [W.F.G., 20] enterprise also they are tormenting for they were not fit for his feet. So, ‘I (Estragon) must have thrown them away because they were hurting In the above lines he rejects the notion of thinking for thinking was an me!’[W.F.G., 58] impossibility in those crucial moments. But the historic truth of the crucification of Christ was identified with the suffering of mankind. Next to this aspect, is the symbolic tool of Language. Language is abrupt and mostly employs the stations of silence and pauses. For, as said by “‘All my life I’ve compared myself to him’ [W.F.G.46], says Estragon. To Harold Pinter, “we communicate only too well in our silence, in what which Vladimir responds, ‘…at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not’.”[W.F.G.72] is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rear-guard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves. Communication is Compatibility between the three set of characters is too fearsome a too alarming. To enter into someone’s life is too frightening. To disclose possibility. These pairs are not always harmonious, an air of tension to others the poverty within us is to fearsome a possibility.”[L: A.I.] As breathes between them. A pattern of binary opposition is formulated in for instance, Estragon feels hesitant towards Vladimir as well; this fact the play with the discourse of addiction to one another so as to seek is made known to us when he says: relief from the heaviness of alienation and estrangement. Pozzo and Lucky representing the concept of master-slave equation are physically Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can’t tell them to you? tied to each other which could also be stated in terms of the most wanted [W.F.G., 8] Habit. In similar proportions, Vladimir and Estragon are unable to part Therefore, whatever intrudes from outside seems almost always sinister, company despite their frequently expressed wish: ‘If we parted? That malevolent, or disturbingly indefinable. For example:- Davies in The might be better for us.’[W.F.G., 87] Caretaker(1960), Goldberg and Mc Cann in The Birthday Party(1958), and Godot himself who is desperately awaited for in the Thus, such namesake companionship is regulated for the awareness of vague experiment; are all threats because what lies, absurdly, outside one’s self. There is a perpetual waiting with the stagnant waters of the the immediate conscious experience is, because it is unknown, life around. The dreadful staleness could be perceived in the mannequins unamenable to conventional definition, and must be regarded as of the three pairs. Estragon’s easy defeatism, despair, and his pre- potentially dangerous. occupation with immediate physical needs (hunger and sleep) are in contrast with Vladimir who is obstinate, optimistic and intellectually pre- A human being, such playwrights assume, is a helpless waif alone in a occupied with philosophical questions like ‘It’s the start that’s difficult’ universe that confronts him with ridiculous obstacles; thereby leading [W.F.G.,55]. And probably, this contrast makes them mutually to the disintegration of a mind, and the cruelty of people to their fellow complementary and adds a new dimension to their relationship. Awareness of One’s being in Waiting for Godot 115 116 Vinu George and Richa Bohra

Then, follows the contrast within the other pair Pozzo and Lucky, which Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. London: Faber and Faber Ltd., is mainly situational. As mentioned earlier, Pozzo is a domineering and 1956. bullying master with Lucky as a treacherous but obedient slave. They Brown, John Russell. Modern British Dramatists (New Perspectives). incarnate Time’s twin qualities of change and changelessness, because New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.; Englewood Cliffs, 1984. they are the only ones in the play who change (in terms of blindness Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. Great Britain: Hamish Hamilton,1955. and dumbness). Pozzo changes from the sharp sight to complete Cohn, Ruby. Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot; A Case Book. London: blindness. And Lucky is initially subjected to a change from a teacher Macmillan, 1987. of beautiful things to an incoherent babbler, then from a speaking slave Esslin, Martin. Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood to a dumb one. Therefore, time’s changelessness and its stationary form Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1965. are characterized in Pozzo and Lucky’s incessant wandering coherently, Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Bedford: St. Martin’s for whom travelling has become a habit. In actuality, they are thus Press, 1989. trapped in this circular time of the universe. Kennedy, X.Y. Literature: An Introduction To Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Likewise, a similar situational contrast is traced between the messenger 2nd ed.Canada: Little, Brown and Company , 1979. boy who looks after the goats and is treated well. But his brother who looks after the sheep is often beaten. This piece is a highly symbolic artwork, flashing upon the rigidities and hard-core realities of man’s life. All the characters are ruthlessly caught in the prison of a lost world and are inclined to enact the role of a slave at the hands of the dogmatic Time. The play is an open ended play which invites a lot of interpretations as per the arrival of Godot on the scene which is almost an impossibility provided by the dramatist. It would be worth while to sum up with Lee A. Jacobus’ words, which says:- “The great plays of this period reflect the values of the cultures from which they spring. They make comments on life in the modern world and question the values that the culture takes for granted. The drama of this part of the 20th century is a drama of examination.” [B.I.T.D] That is why ‘Beckett’s play is felt to be about every individual’s, every community’s, particular problems. It is a dramatized metaphor for the most general existential experience of humanity.’[W.F.G:C.B., 174] References Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed. Bangalore: Prism Books Pvt. Ltd., 1993. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:117-122 (2011) 118 Pooja Rawal

1. Jab We Met 2. What”s your Rashi Postmodernism Floating on Silver Screeen 3. God Tusi Great ho 4. Jai Veeru Pooja Rawal 5. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Postmodernism has become a moot point in the corridors of human 6. Aloo Chaat culture for it is sequentially and reactively related to modernism. It 7. No Entry, Welcome, Blue, Partner, Water, Radio etc. transcends the notion of present and dwindles between past and future, Script with an effort to blend them in a narrative mode. But to our dismay, this effort has resulted into deep skepticism and spirit of nihilism. Impact of Gone are the days when a single story treated as a whole would keep postmodernism is more glaring in the sphere of cinematic art. Like every the audience glued to their seats. But postmodern generation needs form of art it imbibes and reflects the current ethos and has converted variety as clinging to one sounds traditional. To cater the taste of this taxing term into relaxing one. postmodern generation many stories run in parallel in a single movie as Metro (Three Stories), Das Vidaniya (Ten Stories). Post modernistic fondness of multiplicity has resulted into multimedia, multiplexes, multinational market, multicultural approach, multi starrer Characterization movies, multidimensional characters, multifarious plots and multi-versal There have been three major characters in Indian movies. appeal. This paper deals with multiple aspects of postmodernism with special reference to Indian movies and songs. Postmodern Indian movies 1. Mythological character include identity crisis, dissolving self, paranoia, chaos, ruthlessness, 2. Omnipotent Hero clash of social forces and psychic structure(Ghajini), capitalism, 3. Menacing villain consumerism, competition, promiscuous superficiality, eclectic But in postmodern movies there are just heroes and anti-heroes. 1st nostalgia, cosmopolitanism, crumbling social institutions like family and and 3rd category has been usurped by technology (It is both God and marriage and apathy (Fashion, Metro, Corporate)parody, pastiche, self- Villain for post modern society). It has rendered our grand and gracious referential humorous rehashes of classic pop culture (Om Shanti Om), mythological figures to “Oh My Friend Ganesha”. Our so cold simulacra, time bending, cybernetics (Love Story 2050), techno-culture, hyper-reality, violence(13B), fluidity and cybercrime (Wednesday). omnipotent heroes like “Vishavnath and Shanshah” are not to be seen any more. In this era no single actor is ready to shoulder the responsibility A sea change has occurred in Indian cinema right from the titles to script, of box office gain therefore there is a flood of multi starrer movies like characterization, screenplay, technique, music, choreography and publicity. Dus (Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Jayad Khan), Titles Asambhav (Arjun Rampal, Mukesh Rishi, Nassarudin Shah, Tom Alter). Not only this, Hero/heroine loves to play multi dimensional characters The titles of postmodern movies are perfect example of eclecticism as (Priyanka Chopra in What’s Your Rashi) audience keeps on locating they are fetched from various sources. the protagonist is till the very end. To the great relief of audience, our Postmodernism Floating on Silver Screeen 119 120 Pooja Rawal menacing villains like “Mogambo” and “Gabbar Singh” have bidden society (represented by Ghajini ) Kalpana is Killed & sanjay becomes adieu leaving their privileged placed to comic villains like “Chhota Don amnesiac Killer. Being amnesic his identity is constructed by forces of (Partner)” and “Sikandar (Welcome)”. surrounding culture (represented by Police Man, Doctor, his manager). His sense of self : who he is, how he thinks of him self, how he sees and Technique interprets the world and give him self in meaning in it, is subjectively Linear narrative technique is not in fashion. Bizarre and delightful scene constructed through languages (paper slips, tags & diaries etc.). In some transition, juxtaposition of past & present, present & future through way sanjay represents the post modern generation that has become a technical effects, have become essential for a post modern movie. victim of eternal amnesia with isolated, dissolved, fluctuating, unfixed self. Songs and Music A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island No less is the impact of post modernism on songs and music. Earlier songs would appeal to heart but in post modern era they make appeal to Each exits in a fabric of relations that is now sight with artificial shimmer, mesmeric locations and alluring costumes. more complex and mobile than before. “Just listen to it” has been converted into “just have a look”. Postmodern JEAN FRANCIOS LYOTARD The post modern condition. hero relishes even pain, the most pathetic of all emotions and the result is “Dil me Mere Hai Darde Disco” (Om shan…). Music has become 13 B :- Hats off to post modernism that has made ghosts hi tech. The an element of storytelling (Pyar ki Ek Kahani Suno- Parinita). One can story his about a family that shifts in new house, already haunted by find tactful and curious fusion of Punjabi folk, rap beats and hindi lyrics ghost family. Ill omens are shown as “failure of lift, “distorted picture in in songs like “Tenu Lai Ke Jana- Jai-Veeru”. mobile camera”. Being hi tech this ghost family uses television set to avenge its murder. Ordeals done to them are conveyed through a serial Publicity “sab khariat”. Ultimately the protagonist Manohar (next to tv set it self) Commercialism has crept into cinematic art to such an extent that most correlates this serial with his own life. Missing links are collected through of the movies have got their media partners. During a movie various news papers. Finally the culprit Dr. Shinde is killed and TV set is broken. products and brands are dexterously advertised in one way or the other. Everything seems to have settled just then the mobile phones rings and In Love Sotry 2050 (Nokia, Ceat tyres, Ira jewellary, Tata Indicom, spirit of Dr. Shinde threatens to avenge his murder through mobile phone. Lux) Ghajini (Airtel, Tata Sky, Hamam). Really such a hyper-reality completely destroy audiences‘ suspension of disbelief. It affirms that technology as servant can do wonder but as Let us scrutinize a few movies (Ghajini, 13 B, Om shanti Om, Love a master does blunders. Story 2050) in light of Post modernism. Om shanti Om :- Having lost historicity, the post moderns are prone Ghajini :- At the very outset graphics show fabrication of mental & to parody and pastiche. Irony soaked post modernisms has ample scope emotional identity. Unlike the traditional movies the title revolves around for parody. Pastiche is also uniquely post modern play of pure discourse the anti hero “Ghajini Dharmatama”. It is a story about a handsome which reduces the past to a set of empty icons. Pastiche lacks sense of business tycoon Sanjay Sihgania who changes his Identity (Sachin) to history and impulse of satire. The movie goes back to the 80’s with win love of a struggling model Kalpana. But in the hands of callous Postmodernism Floating on Silver Screeen 121 122 Pooja Rawal protagonist Om Prakash Makhija and returns to 2008 with the rebirth Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is of O.P. Makhija as Om Kapoor. Through reiteration, inversion, We should recognize the utility of what is not. misdirection, literalization, exaggeration, typical separation and reunion, death-rebirth, the movie remains a master piece of parody and pastiche. “God is not in Heaven” still “All is well” (3 idiots) is post modernistic world. Love Story 2050 :- This movies is a forte of simulacra or Virtual reality. It projects a futuristic vision which shows the direction post References modern mind. Lover boy Karan undertakes time travel in time machine Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed. in order to search his beloved Sana. This ordinary love story turns out Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985, Rev. 1995. to be magical as he lands in Mumbai 2050. Flying cars, 200 store buildings, th robots, sky rails, virtual shopping system have changed the face of Guerin Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 5 ed. Oxford : Oxford UP, 2006. Mumbai. Dr. Hoshi is the DEMI GOD here, having both the power to destroy the planet and create the life. Here everyone has got ID Chip Lifton, Robert Jay. “The Protean Man.” Partisan Review 35.1 (1968):13-27. (how funny) in this alien world Karan is helped by QT a friendly femme Lyotrad, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition : A Report Knowledge. robot and Boo, a small robotic teddy ultimately Karan finds his love and Trans. Bennington, Geoff & Brain Massumi. Minneapolis: Manchester returns to 2008. The replicates (QT, Boo) are human simulacra. They University Press, 1984. work under the threat of Dr. Hoshi who wants only to use them and can destroy them any time. This argument can be applied to humans in our real Capitalist Society. We are controlled by Cyber world. We have already given our lives to cyber world that can destroy us any time. With our mechanical lives, dried up emotions we are no better than robots. There is no denying the facts that post modernism as a discursive stylistic grid has enriched film theory and analysis by calling attention to a stylistic shift towards a media conscious cinema of multiple styles and ironic recyclage. Much has been said about the “absence” (reality, morality, hierarchy etc.) in post modernism yet the picture is not completely dismal. To quote Lao Tzu We turn clay to make a vessel But it is on the space where there is nothing That the utility of the vessel depends. ………………...... …………………. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:123-134 (2011) 124 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal

Linguistics is a formal study of communication of meaning and interpretation of utterances. Linguistics device a model of grammar for teaching as language is bound to discourse. Linguistic methodology aids Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern in explaining the rules of interpretation which is instrumental in Expressions of its Reconstruction: understanding the nature of law and meaning of legal terms. The purpose Toward a Postmodern Theory of Law of learners is to use English as a means of communication. The findings of linguistics therefore play a key role in determining the content of Gopal Krishna Sukhwal courses. The role of linguistics in language teaching has its own importance. The language teacher does not teach linguistics. He teaches “Laws are coded in language, and the processes of the law are meditated something which is the object of study of linguistics, and is described by through language. The legal system put into action a society’s beliefs linguistic methods. For example, Brenda Danet notes that legal and values, and it permeates many areas of life . . . . The language of documents often avoid pronouns, resulting in violation of linguistic rules law is therefore of genuine importance, particularly for people concerned of anaphora both within and between sentences (Language in the with addressing language issues and problems in the real world – that Legal Process 482). is, Applied Linguistics” (Gibbons, Language and the Law: ARAL 156). In the complex society of the end of the twentieth century, the criteria The work of a lawyer is commonly understood to consist of searching of rationality are dramatically diverse because they define distinct for and locating in the codes and laws the appropriate disposition to subgroups of the population, each one of which sees and thinks reality solve a case and apply the legal consequences anticipated by the norm (and law) from its own perspective. It is opportune to take advantage to the situation in controversy. of this affirmation to justify the title and theme of this paper and answer the question: Why propose a postmodern theory of law that differs Over the past three decades there has been a dramatic expansion of from theoretical-juridical positions rooted in the pragmatism of the interest in studying the language of the law. “Linguists and applied linguists twentieth century? have also begun to recognize the enormous potential of the language of the law as one of the richest resources of linguistic data” (Bhatia, State The reply is: the pragmatic point of view in legal theory conceives law of the Art: Language of the Law 227). Language of the law is described as an instrumental process molded by extralegal factors such as history, in the context of English as an official language used by lawyers in economy, culture, etc. Contextualization is a characteristic that legal jurisdiction. The characteristics of the legislative language within the pragmatism shares with the postmodern explanations of law, but institutions of English and English-derived law are: archaic and pragmatism contextualizes law according to a homogeneous culture uncommon words (Mellinkoff 11), long complex sentences with intricate and society (western), while the postmodern point of view accepts and patterns of coordination and subordination (Crystal and Davy 204; Bhatia, revindicates a world of irreducible cultural heterogeneity in which each Easification of Legislative Texts 7) and passive voice (Danet, one of us possesses very different bases for the knowledge of and the Language in the Legal Process 479). The linguists consider the experience of life. If law intends to maintain its role as a resource for language of law as a specialized register; dialect or even language social control, it should be studied and approached as such within the (Tiersma). framework of legal theory. Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern… 125 126 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal

There are certain areas which have attracted scholars for quite some claims on the other hand are concerned with the issues of what judges time. Social scientists, lawyers and linguists are trying to find out the are obliged to do and what the law requires. Rolf Sartorius has supported ways in which language relates to the functions of law in society. Law the view of Ranold Dworkin. and language both are rule-governed systems. Linguists and legal Kenneth J. Kress describes the linear order of decisions as the order in professionals have shown increasing interest in the ways law and which the cases have been decided and this order affects the legal language intersects. rights. He also discusses the legal reasoning and coherence theories, The rule application and rule interpretation were the central concerns Dworkin’s rights thesis, retroactivity and the ripple effect argument. of the legal theorist and jurist H.L.A. Hart. Hart’s positivist account of The rights thesis proclaims that even in hard cases, where rules do not legal normative order is the clearest statement of the standard theory of provide definitive guidance, there is a single pre-existing right answer. law. In hard cases, highly controversial issues are raised and the cases The principles guide to the right answer. The retroactive application of become legally indeterminate. Such cases can be decided by exercising law means that sometimes the settled law is altered while the case is discretions. The main purport of the theory can be summarised as: being litigated and followed by its eventual adjudication. The ripple effect argument suggests that at the time of adjudication a different right existed 1) The law consists of legal rules formatted in general terms. and it does not enforce the right that the prevailing party had when the 2) All general terms are ‘open textured’: they contain a ‘core’ of settled litigation begun. meaning and a ‘premature’ or ‘periphery’ where their meaning is The formal distinctions which Dworkin makes are dubious. David O. not determinate. Brink argues that there is a defect in Dworkin’s theory and his claims 3) There will always be cases not covered by the core meaning of about legal interpretation. “Hart’s resistance to definitional projects in legal terms within existing legal rules. jurisprudence and in legal philosophy more generally is both so familiar 4) These cases are therefore legally indeterminate. and so persuasive that Dworkin’s attribution of a semantic project to 5) Courts cannot decide such cases on legal grounds. positivism has largely fallen on deaf ears” (Coleman and Sinchen 1). 6) Hence courts must decide such cases, if at all, on non-legal, for Kelson’s pure theory of law failed in its attempt as a purely logical example, political and moral grounds; that is, the courts must exercise analysis of law. Legal formalism developed with the work of Kelsen. judicial discretion and make, rather than apply, law. (121-32). The theory followed that law was a system of norms and logic. Social, Ranold Dworkin, the legal philosopher, challenged this view. He claimed political or historical subjectivity were excluded. Logical form and that hard cases illustrate the existence of legal principles which are objectivity to legal meaning were paramount. It thus failed to provide different from legal rules. Rules apply in an all-or-nothing fashion, an explanation for legal interpretation and the rules of law. whereas principles so not. Principles have weight; while rules do not Saussure the historical contemporary of the formalists and later positivists, (Taking Rights Seriously 24-27). What he means by principles is that developed the concept of langue and parole language system. He was they are considerations which judges “must take into account” when aware of the dangers inherent in formalism. Language system and deciding cases (Taking Rights Seriously 35). Dworkin in Law’s Empire language use were treated separately by formalists. He also did not suggests that not following these principles of law would involve an provide any realistic concept of semantics. interpretive mistake. Not following these principles would be making Legal positivism developed with the work of H.L.A. Hart. He was moral or political mistakes on the part of the judges. The normative aware of the problems of interpretation and application of legal rules Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern… 127 128 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal and jurisprudence. The problem which was generated for the future serve to limit the influence of a court to change the law. Thus individual development of semantics by the system of langue, had affected legal courts are not endowed with the power to make law. Thus precedents positivism which had taken recourse to the philosophy of language. act at checks and balances on judges within the common law. “Legal Hart believed legal system as a complex form of social entity. Though officials and ordinary citizens have conditional reasons to act that are Hart has succeeded in describing law as a social fact, as opposed to dictated by the rules of the law just as players of a game have reasons formalist theories, the hermeneutic viewpoint is of little import. to act in accordance with the rules of the game they are playing” Wittgenstein elaborated a philosophy of meaning as construed in language (Christiano and Sciaraffa 512). use and proposed a conception of language as context bound. Hart’s We have argued that solutions to the problems of the heterogenous legal theory concentrates on rules; the force of rhetoric and creativity social order we share are not implicit in the formally elaborated rules in the language of law are not emphasized. and principles or in the logical-formal processes of the application of Law does not function in the same way across cultures, across time, law. Legal theory cannot ignore this fact. It is necessary to work toward nor even across different segments of one society. A general analysis a drastic change in the contents of this philosophical-juridical of “law” which, like Hart’s, focuses upon rules and prerequisite subdiscipline. conditions, paying minimal attention to ongoing legal creativity, misses My proposal is to work, from the point of view of Legal and Political the important variation along the rule-dominated versus creative Philosophy, on replacing legal justice with creative justice. The definition dimensions, which differentiate law within and across sociocultural of this justice is a task still pending, nevertheless, a point of departure is contexts. (Weissbourd and Mertz 648) already clear: creative justice is the justice of an active society, justice “When it comes to matters of definition and theory in jurisprudence, it that assumes a turbulent world characterized by differentiation and must firstly be realized that legal language is ‘peculiar’ and ‘distinctive’, vertiginous changes in social, technological and consequently, in ethical that the logical structure of rules is ‘puzzling’ and not amenable to matters. ‘common’ modes of definition” (Goodrich, Legal Discourse: Studies in Linguistic, Rhetoric and Legal Analysis 54). Lexically clear We need a practical revolution for an impractical profession: law. Such statements become semantically penumbral. Polysemy affects all the a revolution includes at least two requirements: 1) Reformulation of the facets of rule usage. In the work of Hart vagueness prevails. The formal categories with which jurists work in order to transform them linguistic truth is that polysemy extends throughout the legal language. into functional categories. 2) Development of an understanding of the “It may finally be added that where Hart examines the problem of social structure in which law operates. This implies taking into account penumbral meanings, these are secondary to the conception of a contributions from other disciplines and sciences that might help solve generally determinate legal lexicon and syntax and are, in any event, social problems. eventually subsumed under an ill-defined and strongly subjective category Law at the end of the twentieth century is a practice based on legal- of discretion” (Goodrich, The Role of Linguistics in Legal Analysis philosophical concepts such as the representational theory of truth, 527-528). neutrality, universality, and legitimacy. The content of such concepts Grant Lamond explains the role of precedents in the legal process. The responds to the tradition of the western cultural paradigm. We share focus is on the common law and not the statutes. The precedents facilitate the experience of fragmentation in this cultural unanimity: we live in a convergence in decisions. While cases are being decided, the precedents world of heterogeneousness and multiplicity that upholds the claims of Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern… 129 130 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal different concepts of the world and of life shared by dwellers in other criteria of identity ad hoc (still under construction) that are microspaces. The theory of law should be adapted to take this experience considerably more fluid. into account. We propose a change in direction oriented toward the We cannot base our decisions about how to act on notions of rationality creation of operational legal concepts: creative justice, perspectivist or legitimacy associated with the notion of modern identity, because rationality, a systemic theory of truth and a judicial process that individuals and groups in our end-of-the-century society experience a guarantees the multicultural experience. Postmodernity affirms the high degree of instability in terms of their belonging to a class, an ethnic urgent need for a new form of legal reasoning. group, or even to a sex. These identifying contexts present themselves This vision of law is a myth; it is extraordinarily powerful, but a myth, to us only as fragmented narratives, taken from the generation previous nonetheless. Such an affirmation is unreal, but not because law, far to ours. from being a complete and static system, is a dynamic system continually Legal and political philosophy must accept the challenge of re-thinking being created and modified. This condition of dynamism is already a commonplace in legal theory, yet its acceptance has not resulted in a the meaning of our actions which overlap in a multicultural social age de-mythification of law. Modification and permanent self-creation of that we, as individuals, must understand and reorganize. the system of norms always and necessarily takes place according to Derrida, Rorty, Habermas, Lyotard, Deleuze, Guattary, MacIntyre, to the mechanisms and criteria of legal assessment included in the code of mention only the most innovative thinkers in our discipline, insist on positive law. assuming the theoretical constructions of modernity just as they are The formulation of answers to such questions and perplexities constitutes given to us, with the purpose of criticizing them, but they remain incapable a challenge not yet resolutely accepted by those who study law and the of or unwilling to conceive solutions that require adventuring much legal phenomenon, those who are attempting an extensive revision of farther beyond the old paradigms. modern notions incapable of responding sensibly to the problems of our The problems of legal rationality, of legitimate behavior, of desire, of contemporary world. responsibility, of individual and group identity, should be worked on It has already been demonstrated in academic and extra-academic accepting the fact that important processes of transformation are taking efforts and discussions whose desperate attempts to provide answers place in the social spectrum. are translated into written and verbal intellectual product, handled on The history of law may be divided into two great periods: the almost infinite information frame of our “web” culture. Nevertheless, 1) Classical legal science characteristic of the ends of the eighteenth I will illustrate this incapacity with a brief example: and beginnings of the nineteenth centuries. In the interests of Modern legal and political philosophy tend to emphasize the notions of simplification, we could call this the period of “universal reason” identity (either individual identity in the liberal tradition or identity of the because all activity of production and application of the norms of social group in the Marxist tradition), although one of the clearest and law was based on the belief that such norms rested on universal, most outstanding aspects of our contemporary world is the erosion of immutable principles that assured the rights of the individuals subject traditional forms of personal and social identification: sex, class, race, to them. trade union, the heterosexual family based on monogamy, etc. 2) “Jurisprudence” of the twentieth century. We shall call this period Many, not to say the majority of individuals, function more efficiently “pragmatic”. The dominant legal theory in this century has been outside of those traditional parameters of belonging and they resort to Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern… 131 132 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal

instrumental: law is an instrument that assures the social order; its Nevertheless, new developments in legal theory have produced a legitimacy rests on its capacity to serve a social purpose. Legal fragmentation or fracture in this representational model. It may be said theory has failed, nonetheless, to define what those social purposes that we are experiencing, in the legal ambit, a crisis of representation, should be and to propose strategies through which they might be because the traditional canons of truth are fading away and explanations achieved. are arising that accept truth as a socially and contextually constructed discourse. The search for truth has become a process of social In this second block, one can discern various positions in the attempts performativity. to structure coherent explanations of what law is. The most recent trends show that we are experiencing a change of direction in legal Diverse cultures compete for control of the system of norms and it is thought: Law and Economy, CLS (Critical Legal Studies), Feminist not clear if law can be defined as an order that is impersonal, universal Theory of Law, Law and Literature, Critical Racial Theory, etc. or legitimate in this context of cultural division or diversity. To date, the philosophy of law produced and taught at universities In effect, scholars and practitioners of law seem interested in replacing corresponds to that conceptualization. Philosophical-juridical problems traditional truths, transcendental values and neutral concepts of law such as concept of law, norm, validity, efficacy, etc.; the sources of law, with an explanation of law that is non-essentialist, plural and contextual the interpretation of legal texts, and many others have been approached and with a theory of decision-making immersed in a multicultural society. from that enlightened or modern perspective. This perspective conceives At the end of the twentieth century we are forced to recognize: law as the only system of norms legitimized to regulate human social conduct based on the legal conceptions of the world and of life reflected ✦ That law is in itself a culturally specific discursive form. in positive dispositions. ✦ That there is no pre-existent uniformity of values that explains a Legal theory needs to be rethought and reformulated. In this work, I culture; there is cultural heterogeneity and multiplicity. Consequently, will outline four directions toward which legal philosophy should direct ✦ The authority of law based on a metanorm hierarchically superior its efforts and its reflection in order to complete that practical revolution to and underlying positive law, or on a social purpose legitimated by in legal theory: one culture only, has become increasingly problematic. ✦ The theory of enlightened truth should be replaced by a theory of The practice and theory of liberal law characteristic of modernity, are systemic truth. based on a concept of language that assumes words and concepts to be ✦ Universal rationality founded on legality or legitimacy derived from capable of capturing objectively the meaning of the events that law the authority (sovereignty) of the state should be substituted for a pretends to describe and control. Professional legal language uses such perspectivist rationality. abstract categories as object/subject, law/society, substantive/adjective, ✦ Legal methodology should become a methodology based in action. etc. to construct rules of law that satisfy the legal requisites of generality ✦ A new design for the judicial process that includes the concept of and objectivity. Modern legal theory assumes that these representational the parties as agents whose plurality should be respected, must dichotomies permit the legal system to produce neutral decisions utilizing replace the image of an impartial process in which one of the parties the resource of legal interpretation. is correct, the other incorrect, and it is the task of the judge to clarify the truth. Crisis in Modern Legal Thought and the Postmodern… 133 134 Gopal Krishna Sukhwal

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a traumatic impact when they are wrenched from their idyllic traditional institutions and traditional patterns of relationship and behaviour in favour of contradictory and controversial they are plagued on all sides by Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies – uncertainty and every kind of unpredictable behaviour. In such erratically Some Essential Aspects changing world, every thing new and unfamiliar may seem to contain unlimited potential for evil. Music and movies suffer most from disharmonious attitudes of people in transitional societies. These have Rashmi Rajpal Singh more complex roles to manage in face of ambitiousness and less predictability in their presentations and productions and programmes. The paper seeks to underline the essential theoretical perspective and The cultural contact through music and movies help create mobile interpretation with focus on the points of departure in postmodernism. personalities with the ability, empathy and information processing capacity This is based on the surmise that modernism is drawing to a close. A to relate with the alternative life styles of postmodernism. Postmodernism new stage of social evolution is quest of the different preferences and is basically fragmentary by nature. Disharmonious depiction weakens utilities is coming. Varying viewpoints comprising the post modernism all associational sentiments in every form of art and culture, especially flow out in writings and formative art such as music and movies. There expressions through sound and stage. is steady increase in the number of researchers and methodologies The rising pressure for de-mystification under post modernism the looking for new age music., poetry, plots and character players spread all over the world and in every form of human expression. Re- revered ideals and names, relics and rites, social structures and systems interpretation of modern trends and tendencies is going on in the light of find diminishing audience and reducing space in music and movies. new age needs. The efforts go beyond the visible need today anticipating Among a host specifies, mention could be made of women who are no the needs in times to come. The revitalized literary expressions (music longer projected as having only one profession, that is , marriage: and and movies) show the rejection of social commandments and codes. In only one fate to be faithful slaves of God and victims of males. All this the name of individual freedom to make choice personal meanings and is being considered utterly out of keeping with the age of technology methods are emerging. The world is being defined with new norms. and science. The much glorified concept of paternalism and protection The coming structure of language, the rhythm of dance and beat of is viewed as erosion of self-confidence and individual initiative. Social music break all cultural rules with total disregard of essential unity. The hypocracy, i.e. divergence between what one believes and says and established order of things is repressed response, responsibility and does is strongly decried. All ideologies are assessed on the acid test of reward. contemporary relevance and utility. The existing social order and practices in music and movies may not necessarily be the desired forms Modernisation is a potential de-stabilizing force and de-stabilization and fronts and lose their ground of acceptance. The cause for this may becomes turmoil in face of postmodernisation. The awakening of lie in the nature of current Indian culture. India is not yet stabilized into postmodernism itself looms large as a threat. However the active and easy equilibrium of cultures, conventions, expectations and habits. The molding influence on young people comes not from the superannuated existing diversity between ideology and functioning mark music and people and awakened academicians but from and through music and movies with their distinctive stamp. movies. All individuals in every class, category and character experience Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies… 137 138 Rashmi Rajpal Singh

Every stage beings with tensions and turbulence, strife and struggle, presssure. Such freedom from fear will generate genuine urge for and slowly settles down with new perceptions and interpretation. creative art of living. Human limitations will progressively diminish. Man Postmodernism too opens with all sorts of delusions and doubts. Societies shall become instrument of knowing new forms, nature and substance move on, leaving the heritage of habits, attitudes and response. of beauty and grandeur of life. The main strands in man’s philosophy of Two significant essentials need to be underlined. Postmodernism has life during postmodernism shall not be acceptance but questioning; not emerged as a leading current against modernism. Modernism applied exclusion but comprehension; not imitation but innovation and not the perspective of Enlightenment. Same way postmodernism is supression but integration. application of Evaluation for defining and de-mystifying the illusionary This phase of evolution that is focussed and strong in seeking and and absolute codes and commandments. It is strongly imbibed with the searching something new and different and unknown earlier. It is not idea of progress. The rising diversity of future societies search for new driven by any clear objective or committed goal. It is a collective term options through flexibility and experimentation, which are used to without a single definition. It is the idea of building a future unfettered transform with the needs. There is little readiness to accept any prevailing by traditions of the past. The quality of living is not high on priority. The dogma or remain stereotyped. The second essential feature of aim is the individual freedom to choose own life style as antithesis of postmodernism is the result of the desire of young people to shape their the established and given life style. Undoubtedly such freedom to choose cultural destiny. They find themselves bound by Fear of Insecurity from may even make caste/feudal/class system redundant in future. Films any departure from conventional boundaries set under modernism. They are made for the masses not for a limited audience. Modern societies are collectively aware of their greatest need, namely, Freedom to think wish to be a part of the global world. Postmodernism opens the and act without fear. Young people make renaissance the mission of floodgates for a range of presentations from newness to nudity. The their life, with new aspirations in intellectual, artistic and religious fields. self confident young people want to fit in somehow, anyhow, anywhere. They have faith in themselves. They have unflincing confidence to Music and movies have a larger domain that needs to be explored. In discover, even invent, a higher purpose in a new form of moral and these are some hidden sources of socialisation that need to be examined. inner foundation of life. They are not afraid to be they and engage in The power of music and movies as sociological tools of considerable the practice of self-sculpture with new slogans and influences. They psychological significance. The influence is visible on behaviour of young enjoy the gift of right to ‘be’ themselves as the architect of their own with their parents, gender relationships among youth and other fate and for the transformation of their life reaching the highest complexes. The poetry and beats in songs supported by the magic of possibilities and achievements. camera, light, view and angles, dress and drama and dance all help to Post modernism is a stage when individuals try to get out of ever present define their social roles, boundaries of behaviour and functions. These past. The familiar icons of the past fade. The needs are seen in futuristic are the forces inherent in any art form which can be used or misused. projections of the present. The exercise focusses on revival of the That is, domainance submission patterns can be diluted and destroyed. dormant fundamental value: the dignity of man.This requires conductive The threat to the deprived and denied sections of society can either be conditions for his freedom so that he may evolve on the lines of his own amarginalised or glorified. Music and movies both act on the subconscious temperament and capabilities. The belief is that there must be harmony mind in different ways, for example, the belief that the norms prescribed of individual and social good created on freewill and without fear or by the power people gives then the divine right for oppression and Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies… 139 140 Rashmi Rajpal Singh exploitation of power less people. This may be reinforced or changed and doing better. His vision is to explore the known and untried, his by sentiment of songs and influence of movies. perspective is imaginative and innovative, and his preference has been In the field of literature and in art forms there is nothing like easy experimental and explorative. His way of work is unending quest and transition. Continuity is challenged by change. Faces and forms of his method is continuous striving without ever accepting defeat. This expression shift from familiar to new faces and forms. Perceptions and way the characteristics of human history are Motion and Movement, responses get alligned with market expectation of younger generation. adoption and advancement. History thus is a record of progress that is With the intensifying competition from writers and singers, technological experimental, forward-looking, futuristic, imaginative, and innovative in instrumentation of total control of voice and the choice of digital is moving perspective and perception, in technique and usage. from poetic rendering of sentiments in words to the thumping beat of Music is the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds in a manner drums. The music of spirit is shifting from soul songs to street songs. that is considered pleasing to hear. Great masters find music as the soul The sedate sound with meaning and message altered into kolahal of of a song and poetry its body. Instruments nurish the body and raise turbulent throb and maddening beats. emphasis and energy. It is taken as a form of entertaiment to some, and Under modernism classical forms and styles are considered sacrosant for others music is a source of spiritual uplift, or emotional tranquility or ideals and mark of social identity. The practice of music, and later on soothing peace or noble inspirations. Theatre, cinema, movies are both movies did not remain a way of life based on dedication, faith, trust, an art and an industry. Movies are a form of art bringing together the spirituality and religion, enforcing committed practice and rigorous different streams of dance, music, poetry and architecture and designing. practice. With growing dilution by entertainment factor, it no longer All genuine aesthetic experience takes place with specific sentimental remained a sacred pursuit confined to families (gharana) and individuals. flavour. For the artist it lies in the act of creation and for the spectator With growing dominance of entertainment element, all art forms started in the act of observance and response depicting different moods and surrendering to new format especially music and movies. Both changed emotional arousal. with time in response to the changing attitudes of practioners as well as Both these creative activities of artistic expression of different viewpoints their producer-directions. Permanent became transitory, eternal became about construction/interpretation of the societal culture. Indian culture etherial. All forms of entainment tuned with the demands of the times. is composite of different, divided and diversified ‘worlds’. Each of these Culture, like evolution of man, is a collaborative work in progress. are unique and special yet woven together by some essential beliefs Likewise history far from coming to a stop quickens its pace to keep in and expectations. Understanding Indian music and movies is possible tune with changing times. It is never completed, closed or concluded in with reference to and in context of the structure, ideology and meaning any of its features. The 20th century has now become distanced. The that make up Indian culture. The reference and context have evolved sparkle of yesterday becomes a spark today and fading pin tomorrow. with varying construction/interpretation in the pre-modern, modern and The bench marks of literature, on any art form lose meaning in the post modern phase. Binary thinking (two opposites) of pre-modernism deluge of rejection and recreation. The new becomes a burning brand and modernism is not accepted in postmodernism viewpoint. For lighting the way for future generations – coming or to come, refuse to example, the two opposites such as progress and preservation, fact and accept the ever present past and to pause in endless wait for future. faith, intelligence and emotion, passive acceptance of old ways and Man has always been a relentless, inquisituve seeker of knowning more active adoption of new path. Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies… 141 142 Rashmi Rajpal Singh

Indian movies or cinema is essentially a composite of different cultural shock. The Parallel Cinema movement in India started earning traditions. It stands as a tribute to Indian talent and artistry to earn international acclaim. Hard realism began to enter Indian movies acceptability with the varying sensibilities of people having separate exploring issues of caste and culture, oppression and exploitation, values, conventions and outlook on life. The Encyclopedia Britannica postmodernism marks the intolerance of the humble acceptance of will (2009) observes that Indian movies carry formulaic story lines, expertly of god and fatalism (kismet, bhagya), and the end of patience for silent choreographed, spectacular song and dance routines, emotion charged suffering. Rejection and revolt appeared in songs and cinema. The social melodrama, and larger than life heroes. It has successfully created a awakeing made revolutionary changes in Indian movies and art of world of make belief with grandeur and opulence which their audience depiction. The harbingers of change entered Indian movies and the dreams about. It provides song, love, laughter, piety and avenging angles musical style and composition of folk songs, romantic songs and for injustice and oppression and exploitation. The spectators are made devotional songs were dramatically used. Commercial films as well as to forget their emotional pains and misery of living a life of scarcity and art films shall rise to meet the demand of mature audience with more want. content and realism in scripts. The common movie goer shall be provided The enthusiastic response to modernism has made India the largest with escapist entertainment at affordable price. Postmodernism shall producer of films in the world. The films in Hindi and Telegu forming see the advent of golden era film industry by brining freshers into it. the bulk of productions, other regional languages follow. Movie making New era shall dawn in quality and technology as well as in styles. had become an established craft upto the Second World War. The From subdued sexual experssions and moderate glamour a major shift craftmanship shows some significant sources of influence. The ancient shall invite Indian movies to adopt maximum skin exposure and scenic Indian epics exerted profound influence on shaping the style of titilation. The Indian New Wave movies shall take over the canvas with narratives. Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into more action and melodrama, picturesque locations, illogical and sub-plots. The dramatic experience of Sanskrit drama gave the vibrant improbable plots. At the same time, movie makers shall keep their fingers spectacle of music, dance and gestures. The stamp of traditional folk on the pulse of socio-political climate and make-up. It can be specific theatre of India (yatra, ramlila, terukkuttu), is already noticed. movement for serious content, realism and naturalism. This movement Parsi theatre gave dramatic melodrama and blending of earthy dialogue promise to straddle (mount over) art movies and commercial cinema. with ingenuity of stage presentation. The films genre adopted the Parsi The realism of modernism being in better tune with times, mixing various crude humor melodious comedy, sensationalism and dazzling stage craft. musical traditions, with local dance and music remaining the time tested Hollywood showed the way to use song and music as a nutural mode of recurring theme. The Indian diaspora (dispersal) has made Indian movies articulation of feelings in a given situation. Departing from Hollywood ‘deterritorialized’. This has brought extensive interaction between artists style Indian movies made no attempt to conceal the fact that what and movie makers from India and Asian, European and American were shown on the screen was artifical creation, an illusion, and a fiction adopted blending the traditions of their heritage to those of their adopted which was skillfully interwomen with the day-to-day life of real people. country giving rise to popular contemporary movies and music. Moreover, many Asian, African and South Amercian countries are The glimpses of postmodernism can be seen in the changing pace, camera increasingly coming to find Indian movies and music better suited to angles, dance sequences and music along with the traces of revolutionary their sensibilities than western movies and music. A renaissance of style vision and determination to meet future in order to minimize the future Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies… 143 144 Rashmi Rajpal Singh of Indian movies and music in postmodernism is moving towards the music remaining in continuous state of growth and change. It cannot be taste of pop-culture, hip-generation, and casual and free lifestyles and controlled to pander to the requirements of an unhapered entertainment relationships. mad box office policy of commercial interests. It must remain in touch with current trends and objectives to see them in their true perspective. In the postmodern scenario unfolding in Indian movies, in addition to all It must develop a comprehensive style and form, able to crystallize the that has received mention earlier in this paper, fond wish may be made. achievement of present in a manner that is meaningful for the future. More persistent application of psychological and sociological tools will be made to unearth the hidden forces shaping movies and music. The A scrutiny shall reveal that modernism rested on reformation not negation deprived and denied sections of society will be shown and sung in new of the heritage of art forms. Post modernism goes for rejection and roles, limits and functions. The dominant submission pattern shall be replacement in visual as well as sound and poetry elements. One can diluted and finally destroyed through movies. With technical perfection see that tradition and experiencing of the spectrum of feelings and flavors of Indian movies and sound technology, these are powerful tools to from the ancient to the present and from present to future. There is prevent loss of realism. The picturesque background helps to create translating, transmuting and transforming into many shapes and hallucinations which make audience to identify itself with sensibility arrangements in each age and time. In the immediate foreseeable and sentiments of poem and tune and close-up photography of heroes postmodernism the eternal human instincts survive, namely, joy of and heroines. Such experiencing and exposure shall generate sympathy innocence, fear, panic, hatred, wonder and surprise. (the basic human towards problems of women. Music and movies could suggest or attempt emotions are humour, anger, fear, terror, sorrow, hatred, beauty, and to offer changes in social structure, mode of dominance submission sensuality). pattern, objectification of women, marginalisation of have-nots, along The ultimate determinant of movies and songs are the spectators and with the evils of surrender and assault to sadistic assaults by males. singers who decide the nature and apporach of such art. Art appreciation We have seen that postmodernism is denial and demolition of all and is a genuine aesthetic experience. Such experience in postmodernism every tradition, convention and code of conduct. After all it is an idea stage is not transcendental in nature but temporal, not sublime but that germinates, grows and spreads on the sustaining strength of mother physical. The source of all pleasure is earthy excitement. For spectators soil. Under its shelter human spirit rises and taken possession of mind it is not the enjoyment of inheritance from antiquity but the joy of and body. The blue-flame intensity of maturing young people builds its innovative newness. A work of art (songs and drama) is considered character. They provide the foundation of some moving impulse-one or rich or poor on its power of physical and wordly stimulation of emotional many. Movies and music become powerful instruments of giving push energy expressed in form of action, movement and sound. The complex to man or igniting new awareness of life through realistic approach to amalgam of tradition and modernity comes out of affective songs and men and matter. All the means, the tools, the techniques aim at same cinema. In postmodernism state of evolution the practice of prescribed end result, namely, the creation of reality, discarding all illusion and make- rites and rituals is taken as redundant by the younger ‘hip-and-happening’ belief. The purpose is to educate through entertainment. The play acting, population. The ornate puja pandals and temples become a glittering production, scenic effect, and whole paraphernalia of rituals that is theatre place of fun and frolic like the megamalls. The sacred symbolism that and drama create a live flame. This is a flame awarness of seeing marks music and dance is turned into sensuous spirituality. Shringar anew, more clearly, more sharply, the manifold manifestations of Ras – the erotic beauty – is dominant aesthetic experience which receives experience and meaning behind them. This is a call for movies and Postmodernism in Indian Music & Movies… 145 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:146-151 (2011) acceptance as the most illuminating flush of joy. All other traditional art sentiments are savoured, experienced and enjoyed after immersion in Shringar. The other human emotions, though timeless and universal, Sun and Sand in Anna Ram Sudama’s get diluted and faded in march of time. Novel Meve Ra Runkh Indian music is moving towards fusion of classical and modern. Folk music and temple music are coming up fast to become commercially Tarana Parveen viable. The stigma for court music and court musicians is fading under pressure of young people who are not bound by any boundary and Present paper is based on the famous Rajasthani Novelist Anna Ram accept no segmentation in music. The tone and tanor is changing from Sudama’s Novel “Meve Ra Runkh”, meaning a dry-fruit tree. The book slow (mandra) to high (tar sptak). Another major development is the has been awarded by The Central Sahitya Academy. shift from meaning-based songs with some message to songs of pleasing melody without meaning. The primacy of tonal sounds is pushing words Anna Ram Sudama was born in a village in Bikaner and has placed his into background and replacing words with tempo i.e. pace of beat and novel in a similar background. He has focused his attention on the rate of Rhythm. The general preference for high decibel is rejecting exploitation of the already nature-struck poor at the hands of the police, lower decibels as weepy-sleepy. The youthful exuberance and politicians and local businessman. The natural environment in which expression of energy give acceptance to music that is ‘seen’. Such they are living is in itself a calamity and they are left with no alternative visible music is the mix of sound, dance and dress. The basic change is except to accept exploitation as their fate and exploiters as their well for music as tranquiliser to music raising, vibratory throb and pulsation wishers or dry-fruit trees. for more erotic and less dramatic effect. The novel begins with the description of the heat of the sun. The thorms of shrubs and trees of the desert have not only scratched the bodies of the people, but torn their hearts too. Sinath (Shrinath) the protagonist and his cousin Sugna are farm labourers engaged in a petty job of uprooting weeds in a farm. Their day begins with the fear of the angry sun. Sinath tells Sugna “look the sun has risen so early in the morning, how will we complete uprooting weeds from one row of the field before afternoon?” The heat of the sun not only weakens them physically but mentally too. He looks at the sun and remarks ÞQsj lwjt lkeks ns[;ks] fudGrks gh Økafrdkjhß1 (5) The heat of the shining sun is so much as soon as rises that it appears to be revolutionary. Sweat starts flowing from the bodies in the morning itself. He is worried “What will happen if it does not rain for four or five days? Where will we go? What will we eat? The scorching heat of the sun not only burns their bodies but their souls too. Noticing the condition of the plants in the fields, some of which are scorched by the sun, some Sun and Sand in Anna Ram Sudama’s… 147 148 Tarana Parveen are lying on the ground, Sinath thinks that the process of sowing seeds You are a Jat, son of the land, have faith in plough, if the earth would be in fields in a dry area is a futile exercise of mixing twenty – thirty kgs of happy, a number of things would happen, do not be a coward. It is only seeds in the mud and so we have performed it. He Says Kaki who knows the truth about the rains. When Sinath tells her that if “ik¡p&lkr e.k nk.kka ?kwM+ esa f[kaMkok gk] f[kaMk fn;ka” ( 5) it rains they would be fortunate – A scene of sunset in a desert may appear to be beautiful and pleasing to “fcj[kk gq tkoS rks iksckjk iPphl gS” (17) us, but for the villagers it is an expression of the anger of the sun. The Kaki tells him that when the grains and cereals fill his containers then novelist gives an imagery of the angry sun. He describes that tired of only he should rest assured, because only the rains are not responsible shining fiercely during the day and angered by watching the dumb world, for good crops but there are a number of factors like the wind which the sun disappeared behind the curtain of the clouds. It appears as if should flow in the proper direction and right time. before setting the sun has imprinted its anger on the West which has “[kM+h [ksrh ns[kdj] er xjHkS fdjlk.k turned red, and the sun because of its anger appears to have sunken fdrkd >ksyk cktlh ?kj vkoS rc tk.kA” (17) into a red lake. People predict that since there is no wind and the moisture has increased “tkaorks&tkaorks vkijh ukjktxh tk.kwa vk;w.k vkHkS ij NksMk;ks gqoS bZ [kkrj there is hope of rainfall. The fields in the village are quiet and sad gks cks ¼vkHkks½ vckj ,d yky >hy esa MwC;ksM+ks lks ykxS gSA” (10) awaiting the rains. The hurried twittering of the sparrows scurring Human nature has the capability to adapt itself to the adverse towards their homes and the crowing of the crows the two contrasting circumstances. To over come the fear of a drought farmers voices could be heard together. In the evening the sounds produced by consequently start hoping for the rains. Though the novel is based on the bullock cart and cattle returning home are pleasing not only to the the lives of the people residing in a desert area, there is a repeated ears but they enter our consciousness too. mention of the rains in it. When Sinath sees birds bathing in the sand “xkao dkauh f?kjrS jkoM+ vj cy/k xkM+h jh dksbZ&dksbZ lqjhyh Vksdjh under the shadow of a long Keliya tree, he is hopeful of rainfall. He dkuka jS psruk esa mrjrh jkx jks flLVh ekaMS gks] i.k] flukFk vj says lqxuks Mkaxjk jk fd;ksM+k nks&,d xyrk Bhd dj.k es ykX;ksM+k gkA” (10) “vkaxM+ jk vklkj gSA” (p. 6) “c/krh ihM+k vj mnklh uS tk.kw The poor have not time to seek pleasures from their surroundings and ,dj dh fcljke fey X;ks” (6) no ear to listen to the melodies of nature. A place where the heat of the The mere thought of the rain gives him relief from the pain and sorrow sun and dryness of the land offers the people limited opportunities to emerging from fear of a drought. An old man in the novel expresses the work and realize their potential, poverty becomes their past, present positive symbols of a rain and says – and future. Ninety percent the people in the village depend upon “eVdh esa ik.kh xje] fpfM+;k UgkoS /kwM+ agriculture, they are farmers, but agriculture depends upon rains, so baMk ys dhMh p

She praises and blesses the mother of Dhanji saying that she should be four times fortunate, goddess Laxmi, the goddess of money, should make her rich. These days butter milk is not available in a number of villages. Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s Inside People have kept the butter separator in a corner, behind which cat and mice play ‘I spy you’. These people who feed us are dry fruit trees, the Haveli they add meaning to our birth and in fact they themselves have a blessed birth. Rekha Tiwari

References Writers in modern times have focused attention on contemporary Sudama, Anna Ram. Meve Ra Runkh. 3rd ed. Dharti Prakashan, 1997. problems. The subjugation of women is a part of the Indian ethos. Women have always been denied their rights and claims for individuality by a All further references are to this edition. male-dominated society. A woman is a slave living in life-long slavery dominated first by her father, then her husband and finally her son. In spite of increasing education and the western influence, atrocities against women are on an increase. Even educated women have to submit to indignities imposed on them by a tradition-bound society. The Indian writer in English is obliged to bring about enlightenment to an entire thought process of a society. The barbarous elements which dominate our lives like traditions, customs, social and religious taboos should be rejected. Consciousness has to be revived and women should be recognized as individuals with a right to lead their own lives. This paper attempts to present the psychological conflict experienced by educated women in modern India. This is done with special reference to Rama Mehta’s absorbing novel Inside the Haveli, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979. The woman is confined in, and defined through, her relationships within a strict patriarchal authority. The major function of Indian Purdah is to enforce obedience to authority in the form of both husband and mother- in-law. It is disguised in a discourse that “honors” wives. While the Hindu and Muslim veiled woman may respectively appear to be a relic of traditional class and religious values, or an icon of the eroticized female body of colonial desire, despite the impact of modernization / globalization, she still appears as a powerful and ambiguous – indicator of meaning. In contemporary literature, differing representations of the Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s… 153 154 Rekha Tiwari veil are found in writers as diverse as Rama Mehta and the “postmodern” From Purdah to Modernity a fascinating study that reflects Mehta’s Salman Rushdie, and from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to contemporary social concern with women and her country’s co-existing and conflicting trends activists such as Ginu Kamani. The veil, though seeming to define of time. The novel portrays the educated heroine’s trajectory from boundaries of invisible borders and impose rules of space and sexual Bombay where she has led a life of freedom to Udaipur which in the difference, nevertheless allows some women increased mobility within novel stands for tradition. She portrays the life in the Haveli, where the their social and spatial world. severe restriction of etiquette and subservience dominate life and women Rama Mehta is a sociologist by profession and she has researched have to remain behind a veil. She experiences the shift between two deeply into the lives of the western educated Hindu women and the eras and two geographical space-time dimensions, leaving behind the Hindu divorced women. In her sociological study The Western Educated modernity of her parents’ home for the traditional household of her Hindu Woman (1970). She observes: aristocratic in-laws. While apparently typifying ‘silenced woman,’ Mehta’s heroine Geeta finds fulfillment in observing without being It was clear from the responses (of the women interviewed) that western observed, and she finally not only accepts the power of patriarchs - the attitudes and values in the domestic realm are not respected, nor is the “towering tree under which the family sheltered” (262) – but ultimately western concept of individualism felt to be worth emulating. Educated perpetuates its values in the next generation. The main theme of the Indians seem to be prepared to merge traditional attitudes with modern novel concerns Geeta’s alienation from the life of the Haveli and her needs, but they want to separate the modern from the western. This gradual acceptance of its mores and rules. may only be a confusion of terminology and perhaps there is no academic basis for making this distinction. Nonetheless the difference exists in In the novel, Rama Mehta has restricted herself to the depiction of life the minds of Indians and is therefore important. It shows that developing in an aristocratic family of Udaipur. The title of the novel Inside the countries in the process of modernization want to maintain their way of Haveli is not just descriptive. It is a search, “exploration of one’s own life and want change but on the foundations of their cultural values. self,” one’s identity which is lost in the labyrinthine traditions and customs of a society. The book has its own motion; a soft stir of values, In her novel Inside the Haveli, Mehta sets out to depict this dilemma perceptions and attitudes. It covers a period of fifteen years and can be which is the quandary of a large number of educated Indians today. divided into three parts, the three periods in the life of two characters— Inside the Haveli is an autobiographical novel—a kind of feminist Geeta, the heroine and the other character being the Haveli which has confession which has been desribed by Rita Felski in her book Beyond been a silent witness to an entire era. Feminist Aesthetics as “an open ended structure which offers a retrospective and thus more clearly synthetic account of part or all of Geeta is representative of the modern educated woman, who is torn the author’s life history from the standpoint of the writings present” apart by two worlds—the traditional and the modern. The other (96). A confessional text employs a structure based on retrospective protagonist of the novel is the Haveli—Jeewan Niwas. It is the symbol narration and is less obviously concerned with inclusiveness and the of the oppression and tyranny of age-old customs. The haveli is the depiction of every detail of daily events. The author herself is both a setting of the novel. All the characters closely identify with the symbol novelist and a leading sociologist whose insight into the lives of women chosen. The Haveli is the pivot round which revolves their aspirations, is based upon her own experiences of life in Udaipur (Rajasthan). Her desires, hopes and fears. It gives direction to the character’s thoughts novel is built upon information contained in one of her non-fiction texts and sensibilities. Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s… 155 156 Rekha Tiwari

The novel begins with a detailed description of Udaipur. Udaipur experience and it provides support, sustenance and a sense of belonging becomes both the geographical locale for the narrative as well as a to its members. The exterior of the Haveli / Indian tradition shows symbol for contemporary India. Udaipur was once the impressive capital absence of any scheme or design. The interior however reveals a rich of the state of Mewar now it is just a town like many others. The strong finely-honed, evolved organization. “bastioned wall” is “crumbling” now and there are “big gaps” in the The Haveli with its maze of rooms dividing the sexes and generations wall – infiltration by the modern, the recent is inescapable. But, traditional houses the extended clan and their retinue of servants. The servants resistance (the wall), to a change continues and the wall still divides the have to follow a strict code of conduct. The male and female servants city of Udaipur “into two halves” – the old and the new. However, like mingle freely with women folk and they do not veil their faces whereas the old, the new too displays insularity and outright rejection of the women of the family who belong to the high class observe purdah. The other. Udaipur is pictured as having elements of both the old and the concept of purdah is central to the theme of the novel. The only child of new. The tone of the description is devoid of nostalgia and idealization. educated parents, and a product of a co-educated Bombay College, It is appreciative of what is valuable in tradition (old city). The grandeur Geeta who is a spontaneous, vivacious girl, used to mixing with boys, is of the “old city” has gone but its “beauty” and “mystery” persists. hardly prepared by her background for the purdah which she would Although dirty, haphazard and congested the “old city” is rich, multivalent, have to wear for the rest of her life The Haveli is the symbol of the warm and caring. The new township though neat, planned, manicured oppression and tyranny of age-old customs. All the characters closely is devoid of human intermingling. Its people despise the inhabitants of identify with the symbol chosen. The Haveli is the pivot round which the “old city” and wonder what they find in that locality / tradition. revolve their aspirations, desires, hopes and fears. It gives direction to Geeta is born and brought up in Bombay. She had lived and had been the character’s thoughts and sensibilities. Geeta who enters the Haveli educated in Bombay in a co-educated college. She is accustomed to of Jeewan Niwas as a daughter-in-law discovers to her amazement the freedom of Bombay life where men and women mixed freely in that the time-honoured customs and traditions are precious to her in – and outside the home. Geeta is representative of the modern educated laws, and move against them on her part would not be acceptable to woman. Udaipur with its new complexity is macrocosmic India. The them. Brought up and educated in a modern society Geeta has her own microcosmic is symbolized in Sangram Singhji’s Haveli. The Haveli is view of life. She believes that one can carve out his own destiny in this both the home of the culture bearers (Sangram Singhji and Bhagwat large world and it is wrong to accept everything as a part of one’s Singhji) and of the new Indian person (Geeta who comes to live there predestined fate. Geeta begins her re-education in the traditional behavior after her marriage with Ajay – the son of Bhagwat Singhji – a Professor of “respectable” women when she just lifts back her sari from her face of Science). The Haveli becomes a particularized example of the vast, to look at the vast walls of the Haveli. “No, no you cannot do that,” she incomprehensible concept, that we simplistically call traditional Indian is told as the sari is pulled down over her face. “ In Udaipur we keep culture. purdah. Strange eyes must not see your beautiful face”(7). Geeta an Sangram Singhji’s Haveli is three hundred years old. It is likened to “a educated woman from Bombay is no more prepared for this reality and banyan tree”(3). The simile connotes strength, roots, antiquity and she stumbles into the enclosed world of the Haveli and feels trapped in security. The Haveli represents a noble tradition that has matured and the Haveli with its traditions and unchanging patterns. This scene in the developed over a period of time. It is founded on years of varied novel lucidly describes her introduction to the purdah system thus: Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s… 157 158 Rekha Tiwari

She was immediately encircled by women singing but their faces were (27). In the Haveli, along with physical veiling, emotions must also be covered. One of them came forward, pulled her sari over her face and hidden. Geeta finds “that although the other women thrive on gossip exclaimed in horror, “where do you come from that you show your face they never expressed an opinion and never revealed their feelings. At to the world?”(14). times of crisis, Geeta burns with rage, anger or frustration, yet remains There is bewilderment on Geeta’s part, and outrage and shock on the silent. The inner emotions are masked behind the veil of silence. part of the Haveli women. Geeta is at once perceived as an alien, as She notices lack of spontaneity in the behaviour of her family members. one who is not conversant with the customs of Udaipur. Geeta has her The position of each member is defined and codified. The younger own limitations in changing the world to her heart’s desire. Rooted deeply cannot take any kind of liberty with elders. She finds that “even the in the culture of her society, she cannot revolt outright against its husband talked to his parents as if they were dignitaries (28). No extra traditions. She is baffled no doubt by the poverty, illiteracy, superstition or unpleasant word can be used. There is a decorum which must be and ignorance of the people around her, and enraged at the exploitation maintained. The necessity of keeping a formal pose all the time sometimes of the working class by the successors of feudal society, but at the weighs heavily on her and she longs for the free, natural and uninhibited same time she cannot overlook the overwhelming love and concern atmosphere of her parent’s home. Her depression resulting from the which her in-laws give her. The deep poignancy of the novel lies in the necessity of living in a “constricted atmosphere” cannot go unnoticed pathos of her situation as the only daughter-in-law of a family for which by her husband. He tells her, “I have neglected you and not thought she has regard but cannot bring herself to accept its traditions which do enough of your life in the Haveli. This life in purdah is not meant for you not stand the test of reason. Mehta describes that “in the Haveli men …. You must always have confidence in me that I will support you in were regarded with awe as if they were gods. They were the masters whatever you decide to do”(44). She tells him that her aspirations are and their slightest wish was a command; women kept in their shadow for him since she does not believe that a man of his qualifications should and followed their instructions with meticulous care”(18). She discovers remain confined in Udaipur. But her dream of leaving Udaipur comes that “although the supremacy of the male was unquestioned, her mother- to an end when she is told by him – that since his parents need him at in-law was also a force that could not be ignored” (4) because it was home at that time, it would be unfair on his part to leave them alone. she who managed the entire Haveli to keep men free from household She feels herself caught in the Haveli like the daughters and daughters- worries. in-law of her age in other Havelis who: The concern of Geeta’s mother-in-law is to show to the people of her Seemed like little canaries in a cage who sang and twittered but seemed community how “even an educated girl can be moulded”(26) in the to know no passion. Their large eyes full of yearning and longing looked caste of a becoming daughter-in-law of a prestigious Haveli and as dreamily on the world beyond from behind their veils. Though young, such she drops instructions to her gently from time to time. But when some unknown fear seemed to have eaten away their natural her maid Dhapu conveys her caution to Geeta that she must not “lift the exuberance. They followed the traditions of their families at the biding baby or show any concern for her in front of others” (27) as the of their elders, but they lacked the same faith or commitment to it. It celebration of her daughter’s birth is going on, she exclaims in sheer seemed to Geeta that they were waiting for the day when they would exasperation against the hypocrisy of this advice, “stop lecturing me, I be freed from their confinement. (69-70). am fed up with all the pretence that goes on here …. I hate all this meaningless fuss! Don’t tell me what I should do with my own child” Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s… 159 160 Rekha Tiwari

The emphasis on the silence of women, the necessity for Geeta not to number of servant children, then servants, then daughters of the Havelis. voice her concerns or anxieties to any one, for silence before her mother- For Geeta, education has served the modernist function of individuation, in-law, any old relatives and for the taboo on speech at all in front of a and she desires this for Sita and the others with whom she spends male relative indicates that Indian women behind the veil are effectively hours telling stories and teaching basic literacy. As a result, servants’ silenced from within the social system. She is filled with a sense of children start getting jobs. Ravi goes on to regular schooling. Sita rebellion against the rigid customs of her society which do not permit undergoes a positive personality change and maids begin wondering if the females the right to be their natural selves, who must live uneducated they really should stay maids. Rumors and delegations from other Havelis and unenlightened like dumb-driven cattle. Geeta struggles and fetters, arise at the point when the ability to attract and keep servants seems flares and retreats, rebels and regrets. She thinks of the six generations threatened. She has now a deeper understanding of poverty and realizes of the human size gilt-framed portraits hanging in the hall of the men’s that even the poor need fun and gaiety in their life to get occasional apartments in her Haveli and reflects, “what if I cannot trace my ancestry relief from its boredom and monotony. She follows her programme with beyond my grand father? There is no reason why I should enthusiasm which makes her father-in-law exclaim, “I am proud of surrender”(81). She decides to take up the challenge. Binniji. Tell her to let me know if she needs any help” (128). Her project The servants and maids of the Havelis whose lives and values are proves a great success and the Havelis which resented it earlier starts intertwined with those of their masters serve as a foil against which the sending their own daughters and daughters-in-law to learn in these strength and weakness of the people in the Havelies become more classes. She is later on praised even by her critics for bringing the gift striking. They have unflinching devotion and loyalty towards their masters of learning to the poor. They discover that most of the girls could now and they rejoice in the happiness of their masters, and weep when any read and write and get work. misfortune falls on the Haveli. They do not hesitate even in protesting Those who had approved the idea of education suddenly denounce it against any discrimination or injustice done to them or their class. for “undermining our authority and making rebels out of our servants” Lakshmi, one of the maids of Haveli, with her daughter Sita provides a (134). Geeta’s mother-in-law however chooses to defend Geeta’s parallel sub-plot to the novel which is finally woven in the texture of the school. She defends her Haveli by reflex from outside criticism of its main plot through Vijay, the grand daughter of the Haveli. Lakshmi members and also because her husband had given approval to Geeta’s pained by the unjust accusation of her husband leaves not only him but project. She herself is all praise for her daughter-in-law and says: also her daughter because she cannot accept the traditional right of a I should be grateful. An educated girl like her could so easily have been husband to treat his wife the way he likes. She stands in open revolt a total misfit here. What could we have done, Pari, if she were insolent, against it in tune with modernity, no matter what hardships she has to or worse, indifferent? No, she has never raised her voice to me, and in face. The deserted child now becomes the responsibility of the Haveli her own way she is proud of the Haveli. (118). and a play-mate of Vijay. The question posed by Vijay one day “If I can go to school, why can’t Sita?” (77) keeps haunting Geeta and she tells Indeed, once education becomes an issue of the master’s judgment and Pari jiji after long deliberation, “Sita must go to school” (79). Her large the Haveli’s reputation, even Geeta discards it. hearted father-in-law Bhagwat Singhji supports her proposal, and Sita Geeta’s open revolt against tradition comes with the proposal of Daulat is admitted to a school. Geeta makes efforts to break her silence by Singh’s wife for her daughter Vijay, a school-going girl of thirteen. educating first Sita, then Ravi, a bright servant boy, then increasing Although the proposal is from the richest Haveli in Udaipur, she burns Tradition and Modernity in Rama Mehta’s… 161 162 Rekha Tiwari with rage against the custom of tying the destiny of a girl with a boy acquiescence into tradition is achieved by Geeta without either disrupting whose shaping in the future is all unknown. She tells her husband angrily, the harmony of the life in Haveli or violating any of her own basic “I have put up with enough in your family and I am not prepared to integrity, Geeta’s integration into the Haveli and its community gives bend any more. I won’t ever agree to this criminal act of deciding who her a significant insight into the Indian family. She finds the Haveli to be Vijay will marry when she is still a child”(164-65). Keeping in spirit a living thriving center of harmony, mutual love and personality nurture. with modernity, she rules out wealth as the sole consideration in making Instead of becoming a symbol of “tomb” or “the grave” – an office a girl’s married life happy and fulfilled. crushing woman’s initiative and free spirit – the domestic space, In spite of her urge for freedom and modernity, Geeta finds that the confinement within the family circle, within the Haveli, becomes for age-old customs and traditions of her family and the love and affection Geeta an opportunity for greater understanding, insight and maturity. which she gets from her in-laws have sanctity of their own and to She creates a living relationship with these people, for she shares with disregard them would be an act of sin against human values. She is them her regard for knowledge and freedom; and learns from the value filled with a sense of overpowering gratitude when her mother-in-law of one’s own traditions. The harmonious relationship that Geeta builds tells her that they must avail themselves of bigger opportunities if they up inside the Haveli without either surrendering her own intellectual come their way, since they are young and future is open to them they independence or disrupting traditions, reflects her ability to use her should not allow their consideration for them or the Haveli to mar their education in a creative manner. Rama Mehta’s heroine makes one of future prospects. Here was a bounty for Geeta which she perhaps the most valuable contribution that an educated housewife can make never expected and putting her head in her mother-in-law’s lap, she and which no other agency can perform – to take the light of learning, sobs like a child shedding tears of joy. While there are the traditional love of mental independence and a habit of deciding for oneself into the constraints upon her by way of certain customs, Geeta is not ill-treated dark rooms behind high walls. Education has helped her in developing by her in-laws. Rama Mehta tries to bring out the uniqueness of each what Harold Taylor in his essay Education for Women considers to be situation where people from different backgrounds and attitudes are the chief purpose of women’s education, “a sensitive and flexible mind brought together in India. There can be no easy formulae for making a and a way of facing reality, whether it is the reality of home and her relationship in India work. Everybody has to discover his own solutions. children or the reality of a profession, with a trust in herself and a And that is what Geeta and her in-laws do. Geeta and her in-laws stand respect for the necessities.” at two ends of a straight line. By the time the book concludes, both References parties have made a conscious effort to come closer and tried to understand, tolerate and appreciate each other’s views and needs. Felski, Rita. “On Confession.” Beyond Feminist Aesthetics, Feminist Literature and Social Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1989. The substance of the novel lies in analyzing and assessing the limit to Mehta, Rama. Inside the Haveli. Arnold Heinemann, 1977. which modernity can be acceptable in life if traditions weigh on the ---. The Western Educated Hindu Woman. Bombay: Asia, 1970. other side of the scale. Geeta is the symbol of the synthesis between these two attitudes towards life. Deeply rooted in her culture, she holds Taylor, Harold. “Education for Women.” Women Society and Sex. only a scheme of amendments and adjustments viable. She changes and gets changed if the happiness of her family demands it. This Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:163-172 (2011) 164 Gautam Sharma

The term postmodernism is sometimes applied to the literature and art after World War II. As with all stylistic eras, no definite dates exist for Postmodernism and Representation of Indian the rise and fall of postmodernism’s popularity. 1941 the year, in which Irish novelist James Joyce and English novelist Virginia Woolf both died, myths in Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces is sometimes used a rough boundary for postmodernism’s start. The of Night prefix ‘post’ however does not necessarily imply a new era. Rather it could also indicate a reaction against modernism in wake of Second Gautam Sharma World War. The beginning of postmodern literature could be marked by significant Of the three major “posts” – Postmodernism, Poststructuralism and publication of literary events e.g. Waiting for Godot (1953), Howl postcolonialism – postmodemism has apparently come to serve as an (1956), Naked Lunch (1959) and for others it is marked by movements umbrella concept for marking the post–war attitude to art, life and thought in critical theory of Jacques Derrida’s “Structure, Sign and Play” a – system. It would be legitimate to regard postmodernism as inclusive lecture in 1966. Postmodern literature is both continuation of the of poststructuralism and postcolonialism as local phenomena occurring, experimentation championed by writers of the modern period and a say in Canada, Australia, South Africa, India and elsewhere within the reaction against enlightenment of ideas implicit in modern literature. larger, global phenomenon called postmodernism. This is possible The postmodernist critics challenge the distinction between high and because postmodemism is a movement fundamentally opposed to any low culture and highlight texts which work as hybrid blends of the two. form of the totalizing impulse and it is fully committed to accommodating Evaluation of postmodern Indian English literature which refers the works the voices of the ex–centric and the marginalized. of literature after 1980 is not an easy task. It has transcended the local There is a great deal of debate about how modernism and post and transformed into global, successfully meeting the challenges of Bhasa modernism differ. The two concepts are of different vintage, literatures at home and postcolonial literature and Anglo–Americans ‘modernism’ being a long–standing category which is of crucial literature abroad. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura, Rushdie’s Midnight’s importance in the understanding of twentieth century culture where as Children (1981) and Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter day Psalms (1982) mark the term postmodernism as is well known, has only current since 1980’s. the postmodernism in Indian English literature. Modernism is the name given to the movement which dominated the Kottiswari observes that Indian women writers wish to analyse the arts and culture of the first half of the twentieth century. Modernism workings of patriarchy in all its manifestations, desire to think in terms was the earthquake in the arts which brought down much of the structure of pluralities and diversities rather than unities and universals and of pre–twentieth century practice in music, painting, literature and articulate ways of thinking about gender without simply reversing the architecture. One of the major epicenters of this movement seems to old hierarchies or confirming them. have been Vienna, during the period of 1890–1910, but the effects were felt in France, Germany, Italy and eventually even in Britain in arts In order to achieve these goals, Indian feminist writers have exerted movements like Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism and Futurism. Its their energies to deconstruct the past, reconstruct a more meaningful aftershocks are still being felt today, and many of the structures it toppled present. They have unraveled the thick tapestries of male hegemony have never been rebuilt. and analysed the reasons for the persistent reproduction of conscious Postmodernism and Representation of Indian myths in Githa… 165 166 Gautam Sharma and unconscious presumptions about women and they have knitted up India is the cradle of civilization with great tradition and heritage. The a woman’s tradition. They have also made a study of sexual difference ethnicity of this country is prolific with a lot of myths. Though there are of what is ‘male’ and what is ‘female’. In such a venture, the many religions and linguistic variations, all people live in harmony. From postmodernist inquiry with its exploration of the pluralistic implications our country the rest of the world learn unity in diversity. We have great of a universal culture becomes meaningful. They have sought to expose saints and Rishis in our land who taught their people the art of living. the mechanisms of their misrepresentation by restoring their past, We have a rich heritage of literary tradition. We have produced great generating accurate representations for the present and by projecting epics of the world, i.e. Ramayana and Mahabharata which invariably their equivocal future. (90) preach the principles of life to the people. In the works of Githa Hariharan we see a multilayering of postmodern– Githa Hariharan’s first Common Wealth Award winning novel The feminist differences. What these feminist stories bring out is that Thousand Faces of Night may be read as revisionist myth–making subjected to a multitude of forces, often contradictory, the women in program in which the novelist attempts to renew the whole community India not unlike women elsewhere, have begun to move toward self of women through representation of myths. perception, self expression and self determination, slowly indeed and The Thousand Faces of Night could be described as, what Malashri not entirely against tradition, within the family bindings. The western Lal calls “a narrative of split consciousness” (l09). She maintains that concepts of equality, individual rights and personal choice would chal- there is a paradigm of the ‘Law of the threshold’ in the Indian context lenge and dismantle the Indian family structure, which is based on sharing that implies a strong sense of the ‘inside’ and ‘out there’. She adds that accommodation. Hariharan’s works dwell on this “difference” of men have partaken of both the worlds. The law allows ‘multiple postmodern feminism. existences’ for men, a single for women and ‘a step over the bar is an Viney Kripal, while differentiating Indian postmodernism with Western act of transgression. She observes that ‘“women have long been Postmodernism, avers that... while the same themes of gender relations complicit in such gendered roles” (Lal l09). and self–identity, history, political and social reform, have been addressed S. Padmasani writes in his article that the tradition continued in imparting in the Indian English novel since the 1920’s, the technique has changed our culture and interpreting the myths of our country. The women writers dramatically since the 1980’s. Again although the Indian novel has been concentrated on the portrayal of different facets of women. The writers influenced by the dominant literary trends and theories prevalent in the are highly educated and experienced enough to focus the status of west, novelists have invariably adapted them or chosen out of them women in Indian society. They talk about the contemporary women’s eclectically to suit representations of their society. Thus, the 1980’s problems in love, sex and marriage with greater confidence. Githa novelists may have been influenced by current postmodernist writing Hariharan articulates these themes with the help of Indian mythology. and poststructuralist modes of thinking but their novels can, by no stretch She presents the Indian myths taken from Ramayana and Mahabharata of the imagination, be described as postmodernist in the Western sense. and relates them to the women characters of her first novel, The The postmodern novels of the Euro–American world are a continuation Thousand Faces of Night. Through this novel she has won an of the modern novel and carry to the extreme its contratraditional outstanding place in Indian Writing in English. experiments particularly those with language. (30) The term ‘Myth’, used in English is derived from the Greek word ‘Muthos’ meaning ‘Word’ or ‘Speech’. It is a system of “Hereditary Postmodernism and Representation of Indian myths in Githa… 167 168 Gautam Sharma stories which were once believed to be true by a particular cultural to Devi by her grand mother; the stories of wives of saints and other group and which served to explain why the world is as it is and things pativratas recounted to Devi by her father–in–law and real life happen as they do to provide a rationale for social customs and experiences of actual women either observed by Devi directly or narrated observances.” (Abrams 170). to her by her house keeper Mayamma. In the Indian traditional family system these myths have a unique This commonplace story of marital discord and woman’s quest for identity importance as they are verbally and orally transmitted from one outside marriage is turned into a remarkable rendering of the collective generation to another generation in order to “establish the sanctions for struggle of women for self–liberation through the author’s play with the rules by which people conduct their lives” (Abrams 170). Indian narrative structures –framing texts within texts, with texts overlapping Mythology is connected with the stories about goddesses and even the in curious ways; her carnivalesque accumulation of intertexts ranging legendary heroes mentioned in the epics like the Ramayana and from the tales from the Mahabharatha to folk stories and her deft Mahabharata. The myth collections are called Puranas. Githa Hariharan, interweaving of these with the lives of real women. Hariharan’s narrative being brought up in a traditional Hindu family might have been acquainted voices strike a powerful chord in contemporary literature returning to with all these myths and she perfectly blended the myth and reality in the multi–dimensional vibration of voices unfolding within a vast mythic the modern Indian life. social time space. (Vijayasree 177) The story of The Thousand Faces of Night revolves around three Devi becomes familiar with god–like heroes and heroines from the women Characters––Devi, the central character; Sita, her mother and stories of her grandmother. Devi’s grandmother’s narration is a kind of Mayamma, the care taker cum cook. Githa Hariharan deftly explores revisionist mythmaking in its own right – she does not dwell on the the prescription of the gender relations by means of Indian mythology. more prominent figures of the Hindu myths – Sita, Savitri or Anasuya– The stories of Gandhari, Amba, Damayanthi and others reflect on the often celebrated as paragons of female virtue. She retrieves marginal life of these characters in the novel. The novel establishes the figures like Gandhari, Amba and Ganga. When Devi questions her relationships which originate out of the emotional needs of human beings grandmother about her mother Sita who is seen holding a veena in her coming into contact with one another. As a young girl, Devi inquisitively hand in a photograph, the latter tells her the story of Gandhari. Gandhari tries to know the mystery of life. During her childhood her grandmother is an example of a woman who turns her anger against herself. Gandhari, told her several stories. Every one gains knowledge as Sigmund Freud the mythical figure in Mahabharatha was given in marriage to the says: “Widely different sources, from fairy tales and myths, jokes and Prince of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra. Though initially she was impressed wit, from folklore. . . saying and songs of different people and from by the refinement of culture and riches of the people of Hastinapur, poetic and colloquial usage of language” (166). later she became very angry on knowing that she was married to a After spending a few years in America, Devi comes to India to live blind man. In her anger she tore off a piece of cloth and tied it tightly with Sita, her widowed mother. While returning home she had to leave over her eyes. “She embraced her destiny – a blind husband – with behind the memories of Dan, a black American, for a better life in India self–sacrifice worthy of her royal blood” (TFN 29). which her mother promises she sure would find. The main story of her Gandhari’s story is once again reflected in the life of Sita, Devi’s mother. life is written by Devi herself and into this frame a number of other Before marriage her parents taught her to play veena. She entered her stories are incorporated; the legends of the mythical heroines narrated husband’s house with a veena as part of her dowry. After completing Postmodernism and Representation of Indian myths in Githa… 169 170 Gautam Sharma the household affairs, which was considered as the foremost duty of grandmother till the old woman’s death. Urna is unlike Amba since she the house– wives, she used to play veena. One day her father–in–law does not have her fighting spirit. called her for performing some works before the morning puja. She The mythical stories become so much a part of her life that Devi thinks could not hear, as she was playing veena. The father–in–law scolded of herself as the very incarnation of all the avenging deities. If at all she Sita. “Put the veena away. Are you a wife, a daughter–in–law” (TFN is wronged she would be the mythical Devi like–avenger. The illusory 30). In a momentary anger and frustration, she pulled out the strings of life of Devi comes to an end when she is married off to Mahesh after veena and vowed not to play the veena again and replied in a whisper: her return from America. He has an executive job and enormous riches. “yes, I am a wife and a daughter–in–law” (TFN 30). When Devi wishes to take up a job, he says that a woman has much Another figure in the Mahabharata who could be regarded as the work to do at home as he cannot accept her liberty. Mahesh thinks that incarnation of penance is Amba. When Bhishma went to Kashi he heard marriage is only “a necessity, a milestone like any other. It’s a gamble.” of a Swayamvara at the king’s palace. He went to the palace to get a (TFN 49). Devi feels cheated like Gandhari, slighted like Amba. She girl for his stepbrother, Vichitravirya. He abducted all the three beautiful seeks solace in the presence of her father–in–law Baba, a retired princesses, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika from the swayamvara. Nobody Sanskrit scholar, who tells her few stories that are supplementary to could stop them including the King of Salwa who was about to be her grandmother’s stories. “Her stories were a prelude to my garlanded by the elder princess Amba. Devi questions her grandmother womanhood, an initiation into its subterranean possibilities. (TFN 51) why they did not stop him. Her grandmother answers “Once he While analysing Baba’s stories Devi says, “His stories are for a woman... (Bhishma) had laid his manly hands on her shoulders, Devi, she was no an exacting touchstone for a woman, a wife.” (TFN 51). longer a girl. A woman fights her battles alone” (TFN 36). Amba pleaded Baba talks about Manu, who is the creator of Hindu code of conduct. with Bhishma to let her go but the king of Salwa rejected her saying He teaches Devi what Brahminhood is. He tells Devi quoting from that it was Bhishma who had a rightful claim over her as he had won Manu, “A Brahmin. . . shrinks from honors as from poison; humility he them all in the Swayamvara. Amba returned to Bhishma and asked him covets as if it is nectar” (TFN 52). Baba dwells deep on the Vedas and to marry her but he rejected her because he had taken the vow of Sanskrit hymns. Devi feels glad to be a disciple of such an intellectual celibacy. She took offence and with the desire to take revenge on man. Bhishma went to the forest to perform penance. Shiva, pleased with her penance, touched her garland and promised her that whoever wore Baba tells her the story of Muthuswamy Dikshitar who had two wives. it and fought Bhishma in a battle would be able to kill him. She threw Dikshitar’s second wife asked for jewellery to match her beauty. He the garland around a pillar in King Drupada’s court and went to the said that when the goddess Lakshmi was with him, why should he care forest to meet her death. She was born again as Drupada’s daughter for unworthy mortals. The same night goddess Ambika, in her glittering Shikhandi. She was brought up as a son and later at the Battle of jewellery came in her dream. Overwhelmed with the sight of the goddess Kurukshetra she wore Amba’s garland and went to the battle to see she forgot her desire for ornaments. The story was intended to show Bhishma’s death. Devi parallels Amba’s story with Uma’s story who is how a woman subdues her wishes for the sake of her husband. Devi Devi’s cousin and a common girl. Uma gets married in an affluent finds solace in the story of Mayamma, the old house–keeper in Mahesh’s family. On one occasion, Uma’s father–in–law in a drunken condition house. She narrates the story of her own life, which is a tale of tears kisses on her lips. She comes away from that house to stay with her and traumatic experiences. She is forced to undergo ten years of penance Postmodernism and Representation of Indian myths in Githa… 171 172 Gautam Sharma to get a son but the son grows into a wastrel son. Finally he dies. takes the Indian culture to the western readers of the English speaking Mayamma then learns the strategies of survival and as she herself puts countries through her chosen Indian vocabulary. it “I have learnt bow to wait, when to bend by back, when to wipe the rebellious eyes dry.” (TFN 126). References Devi’s interest in life is renewed with the arrival of Gopal, a classical Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Heinle: Thomson, 2005. singer. She decides to move out of the house of Mahesh “seeking a Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. New York: goddess who is not yet made” (TFN 95). She accompanies Gopal’s Washington Square P., 1968. troop but, as months pass, she no longer enjoys his concerts and becomes Hariharan, Githa. The Thousand Faces of Night. NewDelhi: Penguin, 1992. restless of this life too. Her initial fascination for Gopal wanes since she Kottiswari, W.S., Postmodern Feminist Writers, New Delhi: Sarup and Sons discovers that he is a flirt. Her life has come full circle with Devi choosing Publisher, 2008. to come back to her mother to begin her life afresh. As she nears her Kripal Viney. “Postmodem Strategies in the Indian English Novel.” Littcrit 22.2 house, she hears the music of a veena. Sita plays the veena for her (Dec.1996): 21–34. self–satisfaction and waits for Devi to return to her. Sita too is reborn Lal, Malashri. “Writing the Self: Indian Women Writers in English.” Literature as she retrieves her lost self by returning to her music. As Vijayasree and Ideology. Ed. Veena Singh. Rawat Publications: Jaipur, 1999. points out that the mothers of Devi’s rebirth are, thus, manifold. Besides S. Padmasani, Kannan, S. Ramanathan. “Githa Hariharan’s ‘The Thousand her mentors, there are many other women whose lives offer new and Faces of Night : A Replica of Indian Heritage’.” Journal of English useful lessons to Devi. She draws on her biological matrilineage as well Literature 2.4 (April–June, 2011). as spiritual and mythical heritage. The invisible energies of the ancient Vijayasree.C “Revisionist Myth–Making: A Reading of Githa Hariharan’s ‘The goddesses – Devi, Kali and Saraswathi among others as well as genetic Thousand Faces of Night’.” The Postmodern Indian English Novel: inheritance from all women who lived in the past ages and experiential Interrogating the 1980’s & 1990’s. Ed. Viney Kripal. Bombay : Allied wisdom of her own contemporaries – all these contribute to the eventual Publishers, 1996. psycho–spiritual growth of the protagonist. (181) Thus Githa Hariharan selected the less prominent figures from the Indian epics and Puranas. She talks about Gandhari, Amba who are less known to the contemporary learners instead of talking about Sita and Savitri. She talks about Indian myths which are forgotten by many of us in the era of globalization and liberalization. Our sophisticated lives made us renounce our heritage. On the whole, this novel is the retelling of the past. In these way Indian myths through her narrative she turns her work into the act of restoration of lost Indian tradition. In her novel Githa Hariharan not only Indianised the incidents, but also nativized the use of the language. She abundantly uses Indian words like agraharam, ashtapdi, nadaswaram. Nagaligapushpa, and so on. She Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:173-183 (2011) 174 Manobi Bose Tagore and Shibani Banerjee

their dreams of integrity or selfhood take? Most important, and this has been the major principle for our selection: what modes of resistance did they fashion? This kind of writing has been very popular with the women Postmodern Feminism: The Emerging Role of writers like Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shauna Singh Baldwin, New Woman with Special Reference to Shauna Shashi Deshpande, Shoba De, Anita Desai, Rama Mehta and many Singh Balwin’s What the Body Remembers others have projected the postmodern feminist wave through their protagonists. Manobi Bose Tagore and Shibani Banerjee The present article will try present an insight into the understanding of rebellion in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What The Body Remembers. In Postmodern thought is, in its very essence, an adventure and an the chapter an attempt has been made to emphasize both – the public expression of life experience. There is no such thing as a definition of image of woman as represented in literature and the private the postmodern. It is a mood rather than a strict discipline. The understanding of woman as an individual and also as a member of society. postmodern focuses on a de–structured, de–centered humanity. It is an With the 1947 Partition of India as the backdrop, What The Body acceptance of the chaos that encourages a play with meaning. Remembers is a loving portrait of the Sikhs – the community of people Postmodernism also accepts the possibility of ambiguity. Things and from the northwest corner of India. Baldwin has used research and her events can have two different meanings at the same time. own experience as a Sikh to draw the three main characters: Sardarji, Postmodernism puts everything into question and radically interrogates his wife Satya and her nemesis Roop, the young girl Sardarji marries philosophies, strategies and world views. secretly so she could give him a son. Today women might broadly agree to the goals of feminism that is The Sikh women in Baldwin’s story surprise us with the strength they gender equality and end of gender discrimination but they might not show in adversity, the way they bend without breaking when their world identify themselves as traditional feminists. Postmodern feminism is falls apart and reshapes in permanently altered shapes. Satya and Roop, therefore experience oriented and women participate in the movement the two women married to Sardarji, so different in their personality and purely based on their practical personal experience in life and that is character, yet live under the same fear and belief: the fragility of their one of the reasons why the core identity of feminism has to be highly security. From different levels of prosperity and status, they see each elastic. Postmodern feminist thought represents an incredible diversity other with clarity the ease with which their lives can be blown away at of individual lives. the slightest show of disobedience. It is a story lived by many women in Our paper focuses on the emergence of new woman in all the walks of all cultures. life. It will try and emphasize on the role of woman before and after Satya, Sardarji’s first wife in What The Body Remembers is a very from an oppressed woman into a person who understands her role and unusual and strong character. She does not surrender easily in front of speaks against exploitation. She is not afraid to speak out her rights and circumstances. Yet she feels completely helpless when she is rejected desires. In today’s context Women’s Writing stresses on: what forms by Sardarji for not giving him an heir. The fact that she cannot bear a the grains of these women’s struggles? How were their worlds shaped? child aches her. Satya experiences an unbearable agony but burns it up How did they tread their oblique paths across competing ideological inside and does not even share it with her own mother: grids; or obdurately hang on to illegitimate pleasure? What forms did Postmodern Feminism: The emerging role of new woman… 175 176 Ms Manobi Bose Tagore, Ms Shibani Banerjee

But how to talk to a mother about the things that happen between a is not enough merely to perform household chores but it is essential to husband and a wife in the dark? How could Satya speak of the pain of his do so in a humble manner, by “bending the waist” (indicating humility touch, so gentle, so forbearing, so kind– when she could not repay it and obedience). A proper woman must: with children? What right had she to share his bed and bring nothing from the coupling? Follow everyday the wise counsel of the father. She is one who combines timidity, bashfulness, implicit acceptance and physical sensibility. “A man is pleasured”, Bebeji said, “You can see it afterwards”…”But a (Lakshmi) woman is merely cracked open for seeding like the earth before the force of the plough. If she is fertile, good for the farmer, if not bad for her”. ( 8) Though reluctantly, she accepts Sardarji’s decision but does not surrender her individuality. Her skills of management at Sardarji’s place as well In this context Sathupati Prasanna Sree rightly remarks: as official affairs give her a new boost to live. Nothing can cow down A barren woman is a cursed one. A barren wife is pitilessly ill–treated in her independent spirit and that is what pinches Sardarji too, for she the tradition bound Indian society and this is a universal phenomenon. cannot lower her gaze in front of Sardarji. (57) Roop and Satya, are very different from each other. One too timid to The sheer hypocrisy of society is worded simply and Satya too knows speak for herself and the other bold enough to make things go her own it very well. Taking it as her religion, she does accept her fate and way. It is this servile nature of Roop and her submissiveness that becomes though apparently willingly, but not really so, she accepts Roop, Sardarji’s a drawback for her. Satya takes her revenge by dominating Roop. Satya, new bride. In this regard Pandita Ramabai Saraswati writes: though she accepts Roop, spurs her rebellion in a different direction by Religion, as the word is commonly understood has two distinct natures treating Roop no lesser than a servant. She derives malicious pleasure in the Hindu law, the masculine and the feminine. The masculine religion in snatching away Roop’s children from her and keeping them with has its own peculiar duties, privileges and honours. The feminine religion herself. Roop obeys her without question for she knows disobeying her has its own peculiarities. With the anchoring of a woman to the single duty of service to her husband, a host of responsibilities and constraints would hurt Sardarji and that she might be sent back to her place, Pari are loaded on her. (58) Darvaza where she would surely not be a welcome soul to anyone. Satya carries out all her household and public responsibilities successfully Roop submits before her destiny but that does not mean that she does and is even sharper in public dealings than Sardarji but ironically, despite not possess wit. She too is intelligent and wise enough to know what’s her faithfulness and dedication towards her husband she is termed as happening and one can see her silent rebellion coming out in the form of ‘barren’ by society and neglected by her husband. advice that she gives to her newborn daughter Pawan: Sardarji has a bigamous marriage with Roop, for an apparently legitimate “Listen, but do not obey everything”, she tells her baby, and begins to cause. Satya is barren and he needs a fresh and productive womb to pour into her tiny ears all she might tell her in ten, twenty, fifty years. bear sons for him– sons to inherit his thirteen villages and the new “Always speak. Never be silent. Respect your elders, but don’t be too generous...... Say what you want. Don’t be like me.”(181) India. Satya thus must be cast aside because she is unable to fulfill some of the roles that the feudal, patriarchal set–up has assigned to a Roop, though she is aware of everything that is going around her, chooses woman. She fails to do, ‘what women are for’ (179), that is to bear to remain silent. Even when her first child, her daughter is given to sons and heirs to the jagir. C.S Lakshmi in her article quotes a popular Satya, she accepts it as a part of her destiny and does not rebel against song of a Tamil film of the 1950s which describes a “good woman”. It the injustice being done to her. The girl child however has not made Postmodern Feminism: The emerging role of new woman… 177 178 Ms Manobi Bose Tagore, Ms Shibani Banerjee anybody happy, it is just proof that she is not barren. Roop remains “You have made a son now. Do you think you have to stay in Bari puzzled with her role in Sardarji’s life. She is in line with Kamala Sardarni’s shadow much longer? Take courage, Roopji” (219) Markandaya’s protagonist Rukhmani who is a bride at the age of 12, a She encourages Roop to rebel against the injustice being done to her as mother at 13, mother of six children at twenty four and old at forty. she notices the jealousy of Satya and the inhuman behaviour growing Rukhmani was married, but she never knew the meaning of marriage hard day by day. She wonders why, even after obeying Satya in all which brings a woman maturity in both body and soul. She says: ways, she is not able to make a place in her heart: “A woman, they say, always remembers her wedding night…. but for me Roop, for the first time revolts and stops taking food when she comes there are other nights I prefer to remember, sweeter, fuller, when I went to to know that Satya has convinced Sardarji not to take her to the Ramlila my husband matured in mind as well as in body.” (Markandaya 2) saying that “she really does not have the requisite dignity yet” (249) Similarly Roop too matures and understands that it is not she as a human that can match the standards of the English. That is the first step of her being that is wanted or expected in Sardarji’s life, it is her body that is in defiance, her rebellion that had remained silent for such a long time and demand and that plays an important role in his life. In this context Anne was now burning to vent out like the lava of the dormant volcano. She Collette writes: goes to her father’s place at the invitation to a marriage ceremony and Men accept the body and the bodily response as natural, as part of our plans that she would later write everything to Sardarji when she is safe human identity because they have been socially conditioned and at her place. She gets no support from her father, on the contrary she is sanctioned to do so. Are women’s bodies and bodily response any less blamed for choosing Sardarji as her husband. natural, any less part of our human identity? (78) Roop learns that she has got no place in her father’s family. She is a How true it is, that in our patriarchal system a woman is recognized daughter and not a son. That house belongs to his sons and daughters only by her body. How easy it is for a man to leave one woman and go are mere guests who have the privilege of spending a few days there to another and if the man is impotent, the woman is expected to hide it, but ultimately have to go back to their own house – the house of their conceal it and take the blame on herself as it hampers the social image husbands: of the man. Susan Bordo, while commenting on the concept of femininity, And Roop understands now, like a simmer coming to boil: Papaji will not points out that it is the female body: protect her. His duty to Roop ended the day of her marriage, but his duty “whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, to Jeevan lasts to the day his body follows Mama’s to cremation and subjection, transformation and improvement. Through the exacting and beyond. Jeevan’s inheritance is far, far more important to Papaji than normalizing disciplines of diet, make–up, and dress– central organizing Roop’s life or children. And for that he stands within a circle inscribed by principles of time and space in the days of many women–we are rendered Sardarji. (262) less socially oriented and more centripetally focused on self– What an irony it is that the family in which one is born and brought up modification.” (144) has no place for one after marriage for the sole reason that one is a Ultimately Roop gives Sardarji his heir and this time also she has to daughter. Roop knows all these things very well yet she gathers strength hand her son over to Satya. Her pain, her agony and her motherhood to rebel against the adverse circumstances and decides to stay there are not understood by anyone and her she is always taken for granted. for the time being. In times of distress there is only Mani Mai, her maid who solaces her and encourages her to speak for herself: Postmodern Feminism: The emerging role of new woman… 179 180 Ms Manobi Bose Tagore, Ms Shibani Banerjee

When Roop is away Sardarji feels her absence and it is then he tries to On the other hand, Satya is blamed for everything and is again cast analyze her role in his life. But then too he is too egoistic to accept his aside and boycotted by everyone. Hats off to the rules of our male fault and thinks only about himself. He thinks that he had given her all dominated society where a man gets a clean chit but if a woman raises the facilities that a village girl like Roop could never imagine and she a voice against injustice done it is unacceptable for a woman born to should be glad and happy about that instead of being so audacious. endure everything! Sardarji’s marriage to Roop is absolutely valid for Sardarji fails to understand her emotional needs and the need for her as Sunny Singh says, “Weddings are a necessary social evil” (313) existence that has been nullified by him. When Roop calls her children which is not generally founded on reciprocity. This traditional practice to Pari Darvaza he becomes furious for this hasn’t occurred in his life is regarded as a service assigned to woman and the patriarchal society before, and certainly he has never heard of it in other man’s life. “Roop wants that a woman should be submissive to her husband’s will. Simone should fear his wrath, if not his favour”. (274) On the other hand Satya De Beauvior comments: enjoys the comeback of her husband. She feels triumphant when just “Men do not marry for themselves, whatever they may say; they marry for a few days he returns to her bed, as a man who knows all his as much or more; for their posterity, their family”. (454) actions are preforgiven. Satya also forgets every wrong that Sardarji How easy it is for Sardarji to leave Satya as if she is a piece of furniture had done to her by bringing Roop in the family: that has to be discarded when the new one comes in! She feels the All that Satya can feel is that her Sardarji came back, came back to Satya agony of loneliness and her barrenness burning very strong inside her the way a trader returns to walk the streets of a city that raised him from but she never brings it out, does not share it with anyone nor does she boy to man. (275) ask for Sardarji’s forgiveness for she knows she is not wrong. One can But her happiness is short–lived as Sardarji leaves her again at the call feel Satya’s pain in the following lines: of Roop’s father. I am not wife, for my husband has abandoned me. I am not a widow, for he At Pari Darvaza, when he is questioned by Jeevan about what has still lives. I am not a mother, for the son he gave me is taken away, I am not happened, he feels very uncomfortable. In a very ostentatious manner sister, for I have no brother. With no father, I am but a daughter of my he speaks about the social status that he has given to Roop but is well Bebeji. answered by Roop’s brother who counteracts by saying: And so I am no one. (308) “We gave you our best jewel, our Roop. The most beautiful girl in Pari Satya is a woman of great strength and this time though silently, she Darvaza. She has given you a son . How is it that you can send her rebels by ending her life. She decides to leave the world where she is home?” (280) not wanted: Sardarji however is not prepared to take this.After much argument it Why yearn to live in the same household, sharing his attention with is decided that Roop and children would live with Sardarji at Lahore Roop– meek incompetent beauty? Or live here, separated from him by his and Satya would stay at Pindi. Sardarji chooses Roop over Satya for command; like a peacock that dances alone in a forest. If she subtracts Roop will pamper him and listen to him admiringly, “her eyes upon his herself, it will solve the problem. (309) mouth as if ropes of pearls fell from his lips, while Satya has never Thus, she willingly embraces the infection of tuberculosis and prepares lowered her eyes before him and carries herself far too herself to lie on the death bed: confidently”(286). Roop’s rebellion thus turns out to be fruitful for she gets what she had always wanted: her identity. Postmodern Feminism: The emerging role of new woman… 181 182 Ms Manobi Bose Tagore, Ms Shibani Banerjee

Tuberculosis, I am yours. Claim me. Roop thus proves her true worth and emerges as a ‘new woman’ by Sardarji, I begin death from this moment. In the world’s eyes. fulfilling all her duties and fighting for her rights. As a rebel she is even The world does not know I died five years ago. (316) ahead of Satya for she faces the challenges that lie before her and So Satya dies in Sardarji’s arms and Satya’s mother blames him for her gives a new meaning to her life. She paves her way through and yet death. The Bebiji who taught Satya to be patient bursts out with her maintains her dignity and existence. anger held in these many years, and says right to his face: The women characters in What the Body Remembers bring out rebellion “Look what you have done to her. Are you satisfied now?”…. “Even a in varied forms. Satya in What the Body Remembers is a true rebel for tiger kills a kakar quickly, to eat the deer and survive, but you did it she fights for her rights; she does not let the things get away from her slowly, and your reasons were not reasons but excuses!”(325) easily, and believes in equality. She is bold and courageous in expressing Sardarji has no answer to her comment for within his heart he too her views to Sardarji and lives with this spirit till her last. Roop, though knows that he had wronged Satya, his dutiful wife. Roop gathers strength she appears to be a submissive woman at the beginning, gradually displays from Satya’s death and promises herself that she would keep Satya’s her rebellious spirit very strongly when she opposes the dominance and spirit alive by carrying forward her pride and ambition and she really interference of Satya in her life. Apart from her rebellion it is the trans- does that. Roop’s evolution is accompanied by an acceptance of social formation of her personality that can be appreciated the most where responsibility and a spontaneous search for freedom. The title of the she takes on Satya and manages things even better than Satya and narrative of the book indicates that Roop has actually imbibed Satya’s Sardarji. spirit. Sardar Kushal Singh calls Roop ‘Satya’ …… “Roop walks like Satya, laughs like her.”(526) References Roop transcends all boundaries of class, gender and religion. She thus Baldwin, Shauna Singh. What The Body Remembers. New York: Anchor Books, builds new relationships and connections when she is thrown into the 2001. whirlpool of violence. She is a woman and a victim, but she is also Beauvior, De Simone. The Second Sex. Trans H. M. Prashley. New Delhi: invested with a great deal of agency as she attempts to protect those Penguin, 1983. who are dependent on her. She enters the probable domain of relative Bordo R. Susan. “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity: A Feminist freedom from her ‘private’ sphere through the way she faces the external Appropriation of Foucault”. Gender/ Body/ Knowledge. Eds. Alison world. With a spontaneous understanding of the working of the political M.Jagger and Susan R. Bordo. New Brunswick: Rutgers University P., sphere of power and control, she is successful in keeping herself free 1989. from any communal prejudice– something that even Sardarji is not able Chauhan. S. Vibha. “Women, History and Fiction: Kapur’s Difficult Daughters to achieve fully. Vibha S. Chauhan comments on Roop’s evolution and and Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers.” Desert in Bloom: Contemporary Indian Women’s Fiction in English. New Delhi: Pencraft says: International, 2004. The transformative potential of her experience during the Partition also Collette, Anne. “The Novels of Shashi Despande.” Desert in Bloom: initiates a change within her being as a whole, and extends to affect even Contemporary Indian Women’s Fiction in English. Delhi: Pencraft her relationship with Sardarji. In the end, we find that it is Roop who International, 2004. persuades Sardarji to give up his lethargy and recognize himself. (156) Postmodern Feminism: The emerging role of new woman… 183 Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:184-194 (2011)

Lakshmi, C.S. “Bodies called Women: Some Thoughts on Gender and Ethnicity and Nation.” Economic and Political Weekly. November 15, 1997. Saraswati, Pandita Ramabai. The High Caste Hindu Woman (1888). Delhi: Inter–India Publications, 1984. Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: Sree, Sathupati Prasanna. “Gender Consciousness in Kamala Markandaya’s A Postmodern Critique of Selected Dalit Nectar in a Seive”. Indian Women’s Writing in English: New Perspectives. Short Stories New Delhi: Sarup and Sons. Markandaya. Kamala. Bombay: Jaico Publishing House, 1954. Karan Singh Singh, Sunny. Single in the City. New Delhi: Penguin, 2000. Dalit writings are often disparaged as backward looking representations of a skewed social reality and are denigrated for being embroiled in caste politics to the hilt. To accept this general drift of criticism is to shrug off the more interesting features this literature shares with its modernist and post–modernist counterparts. Increasingly, dalit writers are employing the strategies used in postmodern texts to bring home the tone and tenor of rejection, revolt and subversion. The genesis of the reactionary writings such as dalits is rooted in the important insights offered by Post–moderrnism: “The rise of Subaltern groups such as dalits can be read as an offshoot of this contextual shift in modern consciousness from fixed to fluid, coherence to incoherence, wherein ‘view from everywhere’ seeks to replace ‘view from nowhere’” (Singh viii). Dalit texts are curious sites where the post–modernist concerns such as differentiation, fluidity and resistance to hegemonic stances come to have a free play. The vital concerns of post–modernistic writings such as interrelation of hegemony, power and gender mark their visibility more vehemently in dalit literature than in any other extant literature. Ideology and Power are coupled with subterranean tunnels of domination and subjugation. Ideology in Marxism is invariably seen as an intellectual weapon in the hands of ruling class to subordinate the masses: “Having at its disposal the means of production, it is empowered to disseminate CORRIGENDUM: The article “The Changing Face of ELT in India” its ideas in the realms of law, morality, religion, and art, as possessing published in The Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in universal verity” (Habib 37). Here ideology becomes infected with English. Volume 6, 2010 is authored by Ms Manobi Bose Tagore and insidious forms of power in dominant groups to subjugate the subordinated Ms Shibani Banerjee, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Udaipur. groups. Habdige in his book Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979) Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern Critique… 185 186 Karan Singh gives a much wider scope to the term ideology. For him, there is an projection” (Habib 114). Plurality and flux become byword for what ideological dimension to every signification: “Ideology is indeed a system comes to be seen as a world of shifting perspectives and a view from of representations but these operate as structures –such as family, everywhere. The dominant and hegemonic categories are deconstructed cultural and political institutions—imposed on the majority of people” to be shown as hollow and full of contradictions. (Habib 184). The postmodern interrogation of the term, thus, see it as Brahmanical thought is an exemplary configuration illustrating how implicit in nearly every aspect of society and culture and its visibility ideology penetrates to the unconscious and gets established there, thus can be examined in social and familial relationships which tabulate its forcing a person to interpret norms as universal and absolute statements. role through hierarchical power associations among different members The temporality of codes is lost along with their spatiality through their of the group. The concept of Power, as is relevant to us here, is assuming the nature of transcendental truths. Any event of defiance expounded by Michael Foucault in his famous assertion ‘Knowledge is against the imposition of such mores produces fear and bewilderment Power.’ Since ideology operates through an intellectual element in its in the minds of the members of dominant as well as subordinate caste. assertion of its universalistic claims, ideology becomes a form of power These structures, internalized by the masses, spawn a virtual security over less privileged ones. Through it the lives of the Other are defined, which precipitates in trepidation at any attempt of disruption of the codes. given a particular meaning and are ordered in a seemingly coherent ‘Annachi’ by Bama is a story of how ideological codes get rooted in the whole. In this dissemination of ideology, which is a form of power, gender society at large and thus dominate and control individual behaviour. is a significant diacritical mark. As acknowledged by Simone de Beauvoir, Madathi’s exclamation about Ammasi as being “not straight one” (Bama gender reveals a form of hierarchical relationships between the culturally 45) puts customary behaviour in contradiction with the violence of constructed notions of male and female. By privileging and prioritizing language Ammasi uses to disrupt the transcendental ideas about male sex, gender is a projection of power in human relationships. Through hierarchy of caste and normative practices. For Muthurattinam, Ammasi its essentializing of male at the top and female at the bottom of social “belongs neither here nor anywhere. He is self–willed, too much so” pyramid, a sanctimonious and graded social stratum is created wherein (Bama 45). The middle position occupied by Ammasi dislocates him ideology lends its helping hand in sustaining and sanctifying the system. from any ideological vantage point and gives him freedom to view the Post–modernism, through its questioning of Enlightenment, put to notice nature of social reality from a temporary, make shift location thus the cultural superiority of the West over ‘native’ cultures. One aspect bringing an arbitrariness and topicality to his view point. The of it was the destabilizing of the high brow and conventional genres of unconventionality of Ammasi, though not situated in logocentric truths, literature. The revolutionary nature of post–modernism takes its steam is not totality spurious. He is not “groundless” (Bama 45) in the sense from its opposition to given truths and accepted notions of every kind. that his claims to truth are not based on universal human ethics but on The world, seen through the spectacles of post–modernism, is “an his own local version of truth as man made and structured by power ideological construction, refracted through an endlessly circulating world groups. He appeared to be “whiling away his time but actually knew of signs, through media images and the various technologies and the lay of things about him” (Bama 45). institutional codes (of School, workplace, religious centers) that hold us It is slavery made instinctive and ingrained in a particular genus of in their sway” (Habib 114). In it “the conventional worlds of morality mankind by cultural and theological conditioning that untouchables accept and culture in general are viewed as without absolute foundations and the symptoms of their inferior status as natural. It is revealed through a grounded in human desire, material need, a libidinal economy and self dominant metaphor in the story. The word ‘Annachi’ is a term of en- Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern Critique… 187 188 Karan Singh dearment used affectionately for a friend and an equal in a context free pariahs? Young chit of a boy and you break rules and seek to tell us a environment, literally meaning ‘elder brother.’ But when used by a couple of things, do you?” (Bama 49). Ammasi rejects the protocols ‘Pariah’ for a ‘Nayakkar’ the term supersedes caste hierarchies. When which sets a person in caste straits, thus denying human singularity. deliberately used, the term takes an ironical stance in the hands (or The freedom to call a Nayakkar or Irulappan, the scavenger, ‘Annachi’ mouth) of the ‘Pariah’ while arousing derisive associations in the mind tends to search for human dignity not in the target but in the speaker, an of a Nayakkar. Along with the loss of accepted relation between the act which is revolutionary in itself due to denial of human element in the signifier and the signified, the signified assumes multilayered perspectives dogmatic ideology driven discourses of the caste. depending upon the locale of the speaker and the audience. Ammasi’s ‘The Mound’ by Perumal Murugan is about the impossibility of deliberate and provocative use of it before Jayashankar undercuts the communication along caste lines. The story disputes the feminist notion of assumed superiority and transcendence and undermines his assumption of the woman as a unitary category without any fault lines. genteel and touch–me–not status: “Annachi you have a wrist watch. I Tracing the impact of Post–modernism on feminism, Patricia Waugh in don’t have one Annachi. Annachi do tell me the time. I should buy me ‘Postmodernism and Feminism’ pulls apart the foundationalist one as soon as I can Annachi. And then Annachi, I can tell you the assumptions in considering woman as an absolute category without time” (Bama 48). The repetitive provocative use of the word and the apparent differentiations: “Gender, like class, or race, or ethnicity, can statement expressing a desire for knowing the time through the watch, no longer be regarded as an essential or even a stable category, nor can which the speaker himself wants to possess so that he would be able to it be used to explain the practices of human societies as a whole. It is tell ‘the owner’ the time, seeks to invert the accepted mode of no longer legitimate to appeal to the category ‘woman’ to ground a relationship wherein the high caste person is the only divinely chosen metanarrative of political practice – even in the name of emancipation” ‘giver’ of material/ideological essences. The desire to locate telling of (351). Since there is no homogeneity in the experiences of women which time not in any transcendental image of the high caste divinity but in the are a product of their location in linguistic community, race or caste, it mechanical wrist watch, which can be possessed by an untouchable would not be correct to append all female experiences under a single through money, deconstructs the divinely ordained metaphysical world phenomenon. The insistence on commonality of all females ignores how of high castes. structures of ethnocentricity, for instance, govern and mould them. Thus The pervasiveness of caste ideology makes elder Pariahs vocal any grand metanarrative involving all women of the world is impossible defenders of the caste system. It is they, who along with women in and “political communities founded on the solidarity of shared experience general, are shown as the active carriers of the received values of might only exist legitimately in local, provisional and attenuated forms” ideology driven caste system. The Naikars choose to work from the (Waugh 352). Fiona Tolan in ‘Feminisms’ notes that feminist movement background by complaining to the caste councils. The stratification in has been guilty of ignoring the differences of cultures, race or caste in caste councils towards Ammasi is symbolic of schism between traditional its desire to project a uniform platform, thus essentializing and advocating and reactionary. While the old ones “loathed him” (Bama 45), the a partisan white middle class European female experience as a universal youngsters “adorned him unabashedly” (Bama 45). The headman one: “Just as feminists had worked to expose ‘gender–neutral’ culture invokes the authority of tradition and usage to underline the non– as a situated and gendered construction, so feminism was to be accused acceptance of Ammasi’s behavior: “During all these years, have the of repressing the views of a privileged minority. In the desire to position Nayakkar men ever been addressed as Annachi by us pallas and women as a unified, powerful political group, some feminist had been Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern Critique… 189 190 Karan Singh guilty of ignoring the differences that existed between women” (330– Despite of all the insouciance shown by her companion, Ramayee feels 331). a surge of pride that “the child she once used to carry in her arms, is A chance encounter of Ramayee, a chakkli labourer returning from her herself a grown up mother of two children now” (Murugan 193). She work in fields, with a Gounder girl triggers fond memories in Ramayee senses “a great feeling. A feeling of pleasurable relief at one go from all whose desire to connect with her upper caste counterpart is repelled by the misfortunes that were haunting one all through” (Murugan 193). non–committal grunts of the younger woman. The Mound over which The contrast between elation of Ramayee and the recalcitrance of the both the women walk becomes symptomatic of social barriers woman Gounder girl summons up Alice walker’s short story ‘Am I Blue?’ have to face in an andocentric society. But ironically their inability to wherein the narrator talks about the spontaneity of understanding communicate evinces the wide gulf the ideology of caste fabricates. between negro nannies and white children when they are small. As Ramayee’s effusion on discovering the identity of her companion gushes these children grow up, the cord of communication breaks up under the with a natural flow: “Chinna Goundachi! Don’t you recognize me…? I onslaught of racial prejudices: am Ramayee. I worked in your farm for over ten years. I grew up, fed About white children, who were raised by black people, who knew their by the Gounder’s house…don’t you still know me…? (Murugan, 51). first all accepting love from black women, and then, when they were The subaltern here has got the voice and expresses her solicitude in a twelve or so, were told they must ‘forget’ the deep levels of communication language of intimacy. Her efforts to live a life in its immediate environment between themselves and ‘mammy’ that they knew. […] many more years later a white woman would say” ‘I can’t understand these Negroes, these are spontaneous and almost effortless. The trammels of caste and blacks. What do they want? They’re so different from us. (Walker 83) conventions do not stop her from sharing and caring. The near silence of the Gounder girl baffles her who sincerely wants to relive her past ‘The Mound’ ends on a cryptic note with the Gounder girl speeding and be accepted. The mumblings of the Gounder girl, which are the away on her bicycle once she reaches at the top of the Mound, while only responses from her in answer to repeated questionings from Ramayee continuing to look in her direction “eagerly expecting, perhaps, Ramayee, show her disinterestedness in any companion value the that she might turn and look back” (Murugan 193). This hankering for untouchable woman may entertain. While Ramayee asserts her past to some sign of recognition in the heart of Ramayee rises above caste claim solidarity, the girl denies the existence of it through her non– specificities and becomes a human condition. Rabindranath Tagore committal replies. The only statement which the girl appears to be beautifully captures the pathos of desire in human psyche for love and capable of is in the form of a query: “Is anyone in your colony willing to acceptance in his short story ‘The Postmaster’ through the love of come to work?” (Murugan 53). The temporary company of the girl Rattan, an orphan girl, for the Postmaster when he exclaims: “Alas, for makes Ramayee reminded of her association with the Gounder’s house. our foolish human nature! Its fond mistakes are persistent. The dictates Her emotional attachment to the bygone life raises the phantoms of of reason take a long time to assert their sway. The surest proofs memories within her: “She was itching to ask a hundred questions, about meanwhile are disbelieved. One clings desperately to some vain hope, the mango sapling she brought in and planted when she was working till a day comes when it has sucked the heart dry” (Tagore 23–24). there, about the Nedumbi class of sheep that gives birth to ewes in The failure of the Gounder girl to appreciate and recognize the twos, about the palm tree that gives potsful of palm milk both morning commonality of their life, expressed in the words of Ramayee “so and evening” (Murugan 52). what…Chami. You don’t have to worry yourself over that. Look at me. Same is my fate too. What I have are only two girls…than what?” Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern Critique… 191 192 Karan Singh

(Murugan 193) to feel their common fate in a masculine world, is a doctors but all of them failed to arrest the deterioration of his physique: failure of feminist sisterhood before caste concerns. The issue of gender “A twig. That was what his body had turned into. A twig. Sunken eyes becomes problematic here due to identification of the Gounder girl with directed inwards, it seemed. No energy to sit up. No energy to eat. To her caste norms in opposition to her sex. The loss of the voice of the girl swallow even water” (Abhimani 54). The recuperation in Mandram signalizes her loss of female identity due to fostering of caste ideology. takes place when he agrees to sacrifice a goat to the god of Sirumalanji The forceful removal of the end of sari with which Ramayee covers “a good god, they said. An active god, they said” (Abhimani 54). With the head of her children and replacing it with a handkerchief betokens his promise of oblation, Mandram gets a new lease of life and feels like her failure to understand the concern and love of Ramayee which she a new born: “A new stream of energy was flowing through his body. It overrules with the imposition of borrowed value system of clean was like plants and trees with new shoots after the first shower” handkerchiefs. Ramayee’s pushing the bicycle of the girl without any (Abhimani 56). The god is to be appeased with the ritual slaughter of a invitation or approval from the girl while representing her instinctual totally black goat purchased at the cost of a hundred rupees. The kindness also presents her a victim of a social order which believes in benevolent god who cures people must be gratified with a sacrifice, accepting labour as a matter of divine right without any consequent new clothes for everybody and a feast. One cannot afford to be miser gratitude whatsoever. as far as the offering to the god is concerned, otherwise one will have ‘The Offering’ by Abhimani is a recapitulation of the power religious to face the wrath of god, as is feared by Mandram’s wife: “ ‘The anger persuasion holds over dalit minds and how it transforms psychological of the gods…no,’ she said, fully convinced over and over again, she had reality. It depicts, through Mandram, how a people who are stepped up heard it. She said this to Mandram. He agreed. She was thrilled. ‘You in an alternate reality see things in their own way. Religion, as an mean the god who cured me on just being asked, will it not mind if the important part of the mass culture, is one of the major ideological agency vow is not kept’” (Abhimani 56–57). through which the subaltern part of the society accepts its subordination The turning point in the story transpires when the sacrificial goat is lost as given and natural. Postmodernism, through its questioning of on the creek and is feared to have been devoured by wild dogs. logocentricism of texts, displaced ‘logos’ or the divine Word from the Mandram’s fears about the safety of the goat turn momentarily into primacy it enjoyed. ‘The Offering,’ too, does not convey a rational, doubt: “How can the goat meant for the god, be just carried away? Just scientific universe as much as it depicts how beliefs can transmute carried away by a dog? Will the god just let it go? Make the dog cough psychical reality. The legacy of enlightenment with all its attendant values out blood…the god will see to it” (Abhimani 59). The story ends with such as rationality, scientism etc. appear inadequate in a world of multiple Mandram foraging for the remnants of the goat on rocks with his heart gods who assure freedom from diseases at a price which is comparable beating with fear: “Which were the bones, which the skin, of the goat to the modern doctors. Postmodernism questioned presentation of our he was going to offer to the god? Mandram started searching, frightened. world as a rational entity, governed by certain ‘understandable’ laws The black skin, with the sheen of diamonds. Could be the remnants of and principles. The picture of our universe governed by cause and effect the offering” (Abhimani 59). is too mechanical and simplistic to be really worthwhile. Mandram’s The pervasiveness of cultural ideology editing the psychology of dalits physical recovery in the story from “the tired, emaciated body” is too visible to miss in the story. Mandram and his wife’s belief in the (Abhimani 54) to being “infused with new blood” (Abhimani 54) is a benevolent as well as destructive nature of god betoken human responses journey beyond the boundaries of modern science. He has been to many Interrogating Ideology, Power and Gender: A Postmodern Critique… 193 194 Karan Singh reflected in the conception of the god. The potentiality of the ideology Singh, Karan. Dalitism and Feminism: Locating Woman in Dalit Literature. to produce acquiescent and fatalistic psychology through religion is New Delhi: Creative Books, 2011. starkly presented here. The power of unconscious fears to control and Tagore, Rabindernath. “The Postmaster.” The Pointed Vision. New Delhi: Oxford produce physical and psychical reactions in the body results into University Press, 2004. Mandram’s physical ailments and his subsequent recovery. The Tolan, Fiona. “Feminisms.” Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. ideological constructs surrounding the life of Mandram make him see Ed. Patricia Waugh. Oxford: Oxford University P., 2006. the goat as the right of god who would need compensation against his Walker, Alice. “Am I Blue?” The Pointed Vision. New Delhi: Oxford University bounty on him. ‘The Offering’ thud examines the experience of living P., 2004. on the edge of the society where life is governed by abrupt changes Waugh, Patricia. “Postmodernism and Feminism (1998).” Modern Literary and chance encounters wherein the desire to seek consoling patterns Theory: A Reader. 4th ed. Ed. Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh. London: through religious paraphernalia is as futile as the stability desired through Bloomsbury Academic, 2001. shaky foundations of modern civilization based on empiricism. The story seems to echo the assertion of Carel in Time of the Angels that in our world “there is only power and the marvel of power, there is only chance and the terror of chance. And if there is only this there is no God” (Murdoch 172). To conclude, it can be inferred on the basis of foregone discussion on these eclectically selected dalit short stories that that to straitjacket dalit writings only in terms of caste theme is to ignore some of the finer points of this writing. In its questioning of hegemonic structures in Hindu society, in its negation of normative values and beliefs, in its interrogation of inherent ideological structures in dalit society along with the role of power in their sustenance, dalit literature’s claim for being considered post–modern writings is based on credible postulations.

References Abhimani. “The Offering.” Indian Literature. 43.5 (1999): 55–59. Bama. “Annachi.” Indian Literature. 43.5 (1999): 45–49. Habib, M.A.R. Modern Literary Criticism and Theory: A History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Murdoch, Iris. The Time of the Angels.1966. London, Chatto and Windus: Penguin Books, 1968. Murugan, Perumal. “The Mound.” Indian Literature. 43.5 (1999): 50–54. Journal of Rajasthan Association for Studies in English 7:195-202 (2011) 196 Usha Kunwar

landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s, it is written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. It constructs a Caribbean history for Bertha Mason Interrogating the Pressures of Race and Gender and her parental family, interrogating the pressures of race and gender particularly from the point of view of Bertha/Antoinette Cosway, the : Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea Creole heiress, whom Rochester marries for her rich inheritance. At one point of time Antoinette shows her reluctance in marrying Rochester, Usha Kunwar but the domineering patriarch in Rochester blocks the termination of his engagement as he “did not relish going back to England in the role of a Since writing has been long recognized as one of the strongest forms of rejected suitor jilted by this Creole girl” (Rhys, 56). Far above this cultural control, the rewriting of central narratives of colonial superiority combination of racial and gender snobbery is the love of the dowry is a liberating act for those from the former colonies. Rhys’s text is a Antoinette was to inherit in marriage as she says, “Gold is the idol they highly sophisticated example of coming to terms with European per- worship” (Rhys150) Rhys presents Bertha as representative of a group ceptions of the Caribbean Creole community. of Caribbean women in the early nineteenth century” whose dowries Rhys’s “violation” of Bronte’s text, it has been argued, results in the were only an additional burden to them, products of an inbred, decadent, breaking of the integrity of Jane Eyre, the “mother text is maimed, and expatriat society, resented by the recently - freed slaves whose in essence, disarmed” as Ellen G. Friedman puts it. Rhys’s opening of superstitions they shared… [they were] ripe for exploitation” (Wyndham European texts to a new type of critical scrutiny - the very realization 12). that the canon, particularly the ever-popular gothic canon, can be Antoinette has a given identity (Bertha is the identity Rochester imposes interpolated, accosted, defied, and even disregarded - has made Wide on her), the daughter of a Welsh planter father and a white Creole Sargasso Sea a “mother text” in its turn, opening the way for some mother, is born, brought up and lives in Jamaica, but she is neither at remarkable intertexual correspondences between it and other Caribbean home with the Caribbeans for whom she is a “white cockroach”, an texts. outsider, nor is she able to conceive England as “home” which excludes Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre has Rochester, the Byronic hero, her as a culturally inferior Creole and for her it is a “dream land” made who has a mad wife, Bertha Mason, a Creole, locked up in the attic. He of paper, no wonder it burns easily. Instead of belonging or mediating is in love with Jane and wants to marry her but on the day of the marriage between the two homes, she is an outsider to both. Her given identity it is revealed that he has a mad wife, living and Jane leaves him. Later undergoes a change according to the various subject positions she Bertha dies and Jane marries Rochester. Rhys, herself a Creole, daughter occupies. of a Welsh doctor and a White Creole mother, born in 1894 in Dominica Rhys herself, like Antoinette, had an ambivalent self-identity as quoted (West Indies), at 16 comes to England, where she comes across Jane at several places. When enquired, “Do you consider yourself a west Eyre. Later she moves to Paris. She is so fascinated by the mad Creole Indian?” She shrugged. “It was such a long time ago when I left”. wife that she traces a kind of genealogical history for Bertha, bringing her centre stage and giving her a name, Antoinette Cosway. “What about English? Do you consider yourself an English writer?” “No! I am not, I’m not! I’m not even English”. Wide Sargasso Sea (a brilliant deconstruction of Bronte’s legacy), is “You have no desire to go back to Dominica?” Rhys’s attempt at legitimizing Bertha’s madness. Set in the lush, beguiling “Sometimes!” She said. Interrogating the Pressures of Race and Gender : Jean Rhys’s 197 198 Usha Kunwar

At another time she’s caught saying, “I don’t belong anywhere, but I abuses and sneerings from the ‘black niggers’ at their subordinated get very worked up about the West Indies, I still care….” Although positions. Tia, Antoinette’s childhood companion tells her, “old times Rhys’s attitude to her birth place, Dominica, remained ambivalent white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than throughout her life, the Caribbean shaped her sensibility. She remains white nigger” (Rhys 09). Both Annette and her daughter Antoinette are nostalgic for the emotional vitality of its black peoples, and the conflict lonely, isolated, afraid and without friends. As Annette marries Mr. Mason between its beauty and its violent history becomes enmeshed in the to restore the family fortunes, the simmering resentment of the former tensions of her own often fraught personality. Rhys identifies with the slaves further spills over into violence, setting their home on fire, killing Negro community in her childhood and indeed throughout her life, Antoinette’s younger brother and driving her mother to a degraded insane although she came to realize that her world could never align itself with state in which she is sexually abused and exploited by her keepers. It is that of her nurse maid, Mita, and other Negro mentors. She envied the this insanity, Antoinette relives when rejected by Rochester. Negro community for its vitality and often contrasts the sterility of the Antoinette wishes Tia, to be her projected double-strong and resilient white world with the richness and splendour of black life, “Cold, stony, as “fires always lit for her, sharp stones did not hurt her bare feet” drab England” to “warm, passionate, colourful Caribbean”. Whereas in (Rhys 08). When their house is put on fire, Antoinette runs to Tia but contrast to her, Rochester desires dominance over Antoinette and her she throws a stone at Antoinette that hurts her face, but she doesn’t financial assets but is unable to comprehend nature’s beauty, holding its feel it as though it is happening to her mirror image. The tears on Tia’s lushness in mistrust : “what an extreme green?” and views in it secret face mirror the blood on Antoinette’s : “It was as if I saw myself, like in and unanswerable questions. a looking glass” (Rhys 28). The death of her planter father and the aftermath of the abolition of Karl Miller claims that “doubles may appear to come from the outside slavery reduce Antoinette and her family to penury, from white to black. as a form of possession, or from the inside as a form of projection” As ‘Real white’ people have money and racial superiority and economic (416). Both novels, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea explore this ascendancy achieved through economic and sexual exploitation of slave doubleness, between and within characters. For Freud, identification is labour, the abolition of slave trade with the emancipation Act of 1833, a psychological process in which the subject assimilates an aspect of decreased the profitable agricultural economics, rendering the plantation the other and is transformed, wholly or partially, according to the model owners to the position of ‘white niggers’. Fanon also points out that in that the other provides. The personality or the self is constituted by a the colonies, the economic substructure is also a superstructure. The series of identifications. Jacques Lacan’s account of what he calls ‘the cause is the consequence; you are rich because you are white, you are mirror stage’ locates the beginnings of identity in the moment when the white because you are rich. infant identifies with his or her image in the mirror, perceiving himself It is not easy to feel sympathy for the slave-owners, but the loss of or herself as whole, as what he or she wants to be. The self is constituted caste and property is nonetheless the immediate context of Antoinette’s by what is reflected back : by a mirror, by the mother, and by others in mother’s descent into insanity and Annette is presented as a figure social relations generally. Identity is the product of a series of partial worthy of sympathy. The Cosway family is forced to live with the very identifications, never completed, always in process. natural hostility of the black population whom they had once owned. Rhys uses the mirror in Wide Sargasso Sea to symbolize the duality of They have no money with which to leave or buy protection. In this the self. Antoinette, the mad woman locked up in the attic, finds no reversal of family fortunes, Antoinette and her family face constant looking glass there and recalls watching herself brush her hair and her Interrogating the Pressures of Race and Gender : Jean Rhys’s 199 200 Usha Kunwar own eyes looking back at her, “the girl, I saw was myself yet not quite is put out of the attic and is endowed with a voice of her own and an myself” (Rhys 143). The reflected and the real self are separated by a individual identity. How her identity undergoes a split under imperialistic “hard cold and misted over with my breath” glass wall preventing, self- and patriarchal oppressive structures and how she is forced by wholeness. The mirror separates the self and the image, the self being Rochester to become her mother’s double, find expression in Rhys’s thus doubly imprisoned in the world of reality and in the world of the work. Rochester imposes on Antoinette a new name Bertha, the mirror, which itself is a kind of “mysterious enclosure in which images stereotype of madness, created by patriarchal society. The transition of of the self are trapped like ‘divers parchments’” (Gilbert and Guber the free spiritual Creole girl, with “the Sun in her” (Rhys 130) to the 341). The use of the mirror can be seen to represent patriarchal judge- beastial Bertha is a chilling metamorphosis, which leads us through ment. Now that Antoinette finds no mirror in the attic, she is even unable suspended time back to the other novel - Jane Eyre, where she is a to have a view of her self-image. There is a complete loss of identity caged beast of prey, and “the clothed hyena”, guarded by her keeper, through oppressive colonial, patriarchal pressures rendering her into a Grace Poole. Antoinette, sold into marital slavery along with her dowry, non-entity. She reflects in a painful desperation : “Now they have taken becomes a commodity and bears violence on her mind and body. everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?” (Rhys Rochester sexually subjugates her, claiming “I watched her die many 144). A little later when she has a mirror to look into, she doesn’t times, in my way, not in hers.” (Rhys 92). Rochester’s marriage to recognize her own reflected image owing to the fact that her identity is Bertha perpetrates the personal and economic exploitation on Bertha, completely tarnished and in an irretrievably split state. degrading her from the human to the animal, as in a reversal process of Antoinette, in a state of lunacy, is left with no sense of time and space Darwinian progression. Under this pretext of Bertha’s lunacy and her as to how long has she been there locked up in the attic. The mad eventual mental and physical degradation, Rochester justifies his woman has been given a voice and at times one wonders whether she alternative sex relationships. is really mad or is her lunacy a pretence? The realization of pain and This passage from one text to the other is ingeniously enacted by Rhys loss is still there as “Then I turned round and saw the sky, it was red through a series of dreams, which merge into a circular pattern of and all my life was in it” (Rhys 151). She goes down the memory lane enclosure from which Antoinette cannot escape. The first dream and Coulibri with all its rich associations comes alive to her - Tia, her occurring after Antoinette’s literal separation from Tia, anticipates the double, beckoning her to leap back off the attic roof, into the past to lurking mad-double that constantly follows Antoinette. identify herself with her, to trace back her identity. But meanwhile, “The individual does not naturally arise as a function of ‘human nature’ Rochester, the man who hated her comes in calling, “Bertha! Bertha!” but the meaning of the individual is historically and culturally specific, denying her any such freedom and Coco like, the parrot whose wings created out of material conditions and is a construction rather than a are clipped by Mr. Mason, Antoinette’s step father, she is left with no naturally occurring phenomenon.” (Robbins 42). options other than to attempt a fiery apocalypse. Coral Howells considers Antoinette’s going along the passage as ‘her journey back into another Both Rochester and Bertha are prisoners of a colonial mind that neither text, Jane Eyre which is the only place where her history can have its can escape, she shut in the attic and he tied to a lunatic wife, unable to ending” (Howells 22). be divorced, hence each others double. The boundaries between self and other seem blurred as each is trapped in the other’s world completely The creation of an external double to the mad woman, Bertha, is Rhys’s misapprehending each other’s worlds. great achievement in her rewriting of the Bronte text. Bertha/Antoinette Interrogating the Pressures of Race and Gender : Jean Rhys’s 201 202 Usha Kunwar

Miller points out that “there is a popular duality which claims that there becomes mad from a combination of causes, in other words including is no such thing as character, that human beings are aflux and a sum of the material and social deprivations of her childhood, the betrayal of her their changes, chances and contradictions (Miller 47). This exploration friends and family, the failure of her husband to try to understand her of the layered doubleness reveals a double life lurking within all of us. and his decision to take revenge on her for what he perceives as the Ruth Robbins in tune with Jean Rhys has some uncomfortable questions, trickery of his marriage. Had any of the links in this chain of cause and “what are we saying if we say that we are happy when Jane marries effect been broken Antoinette need not have became Bertha”. (Robbins Rochester? That we sanction her triumph even though it depends on 40) another woman’s grisly death? That we do not care about that death Rochester’s obliteration of Antoinette’s ethnic background, family ties, much because we have not recognized that other woman as human? cultural identity and her name along with her gender, places her in a That even in a book so clearly dedicated to one version of feminism, clearly defined category of “the dispossessed” in Wide Sargasso Sea. victory for one woman necessitates defeat for another? What price Rhys’s work is a critique that exposes a problem and it is worth it even has sisterly solidarity now? No wonder my pleasure’s guilty” (Robbins if it can not change the world. It is a tool, a part of an ongoing process 42). - not an answer in itself. She reads it as a story of material oppression and believes that unless But despite all deconstructive writings like this, Jane’s success story the power relations between the west and the rest of the world remain will ever fascinate readers and Rochester will still enjoy the sympathy the same, Jane’s campaign for personal liberty will always be at the of the readers as there is always a provision for suffering and penance expense of Bertha Mason/Antoinette Cosway. Spivak also feels that that absolves all sins. ‘the silent and subordinate object’ that is ‘spoken for’ may not be fully heeded to and stresses that what is important is not merely to ask who References am I? but equally important questions are - who is the other woman? Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. New York : Oxford UP, 1980. How am I naming her? How does she name me? Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Guber. The Mad Woman in the Attic : The Woman Jean Rhys takes Bertha’s ending as written by Charlotte Bronte as a Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Imagination. New Haven : Yale “given”, that is inevitable. But the story told from Antoinette’s perspective University P., 1979. demonstrates that her madness and death are not inevitable in other Howells, Coral Ann. Jean Rhys - The Mad Woman Comes out of the Attic - Wide terms. Her life might have had a different course had the circumstances Sargasso Sea. Oxford UP, 1987. been different. Her madness is shown throughout the novel as a reaction Miller, Karl. Doubles : Studies in Literary History. Oxford UP, 1985. to patriarchal structures rather than congenital. She is not “the true Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. London : Penguin Books, 1968. daughter of the infamous mother” (Bronte 345) who inevitably inherits Robbins, Ruth. Literary Feminisms. London : Macmillan P. Ltd., 2000. her madness but she is made to suffer her mother’s way to turn mad. Wyndham, Francis. “Introduction to Jean Rhys.” Wide Sargasso Sea. 1966, Antoinette seems to be insisting on Rochester to listen and understand London : Andre Deutsch, 1983. her side of the story, as there are equally significant views from different subject positions along with the author’s version. “There is always another side, always” (Rhys 106). Robbins opines that Antoinette 204 Our Contributors

● Dr. Rakhi Vyas : Department of English, JNV University, Jodhpur

● Priyanka Jain : Lecturer in English, Govt. College, Suratgarh OUR CONTRIBUTORS ● Pooja Rawal : Lecturer in English, DBR Ambedkar Govt. College, Sri Ganganagar

● Vaibhav Shah : Assistant Professor, English, Institute of Technology, Nirma ● Vinu George : Research Scholar, Department of English, JNV University, University, Ahemadabad Jodhpur

● Dr. Kalpna Purohit : Associate Professor, Department of English, JNV ● Richa Bohra : Research Scholar, Department of English, JNV University, University, Jodhpur Jodhpur

● Sunidhi Bissa : Research Scholar, Department of English, JNV University, ● Dr. Gopal Krishna Sukhwal : Lecturer in English, Govt. College, Kota Jodhpur ● Dr. Rashmi Rajpal Singh : Department of English, Mahila P.G. ● Sulochana Choudhary : Research Scholar, Department of English, JNV Mahavidyalaya, Jodhpur University, Jodhpur ● Dr. Tarana Parveen: Lecturer, Department of English, Meera Girls College, ● Niyati Ayyar : Lecturer in English, Govt. College, Kherwara Udaipur (Raj.)

● Tamishra Swain : Research Scholar, Department of English, Banasthali ● Dr. Rekha Tiwari : Lecturer in English, Department of English, Guru Nanak Vidyapeeth University, Niwai Girls’P.G. College, Udaipur (Raj.)

● Manoj Kumar : Research Scholar, Department of English, MLV Sharamjeevi ● Dr. Gautam Sharma : Head, Department of English, S.P.U. (P.G.) College, College, Udaipur Falna

● Asha Arora : Lecturer in English, Govt. College, Suratgarh ● Ms Manobi Bose Tagore: Sir Padampat Singhania University Udaipur

● Divya Maheshwari : M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English, MLV ● Ms Shibani Banerjee : Sir Padampat Singhania University Udaipur Sharamjeevi College, Udaipur ● Dr. Karan Singh : Govt. College, Ateli, Haryana ● Kiran Deep : Lecturer in English, Govt. College, Suratgarh ● Dr. Usha Kanwar, Govt. Dungar College, Bikaner ● Rajnish Mishra : Research Scholar, Department of English, JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Udaipur

● Dr. Sonu Shiva : Lecturer in English, Dungar College, Bikaner

● Prashant Yadav : Research Scholar, Dungar College, Bikaner

● Dr. Manisha Sharma : Lecturer in English, Govt. Bangur College, Pali

● Niranjan Gangwal : Assistant Professor, Department of English, Govt. P.G. College, Mandsour (M.P.)

● Dr. Kalpana Purohit : Department of English, JNV University, Jodhpur RASE EXECUTIVE THE JOURNAL OF RASE President Prof. S.N. Joshi Conference Papers presented at the Formerly Associate Professor of English, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur (Raj.) VII Annual Conference and of RASE held at Vice Presidents SPU College, Falna, Dist. Pali, Rajasthan Prof. Rajul Bhargava 23–24 January 2010 Formerly Professor and Head, Dept. of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur Dr. Sudhi Rajeev Prof. and Head, Dept.of English, J.N. Vyas University, Jodhpur Guest Editor : Dr. Gautam Sharma Dr. Paritosh Duggar Vice Principal, SMB Govt. College, Nathdwara Managing Editor : Prof. Hemendra Singh Chandalia Prof. Sunil Bhargava Vice Principal,GDB Girls College, Kota

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