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SPEECH ACTS in ^^UNTOUCHABLE" 3.1 Preliminaries

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SPEECH ACTS in ^^UNTOUCHABLE HAPTER 3- SPEECH ACTS IN ^^UNTOUCHABLE" 3.1 Preliminaries The present chapter, in the beginning, will highlight the significance of the application of the speech act theory to a novel as a form of literature. Then it will briefly account for the underlying principle and the relevance of this theory to be applied to the sociological novel, 'Untouchable' by Mulk Raj Anand. The chapter is mainly devoted to the analysis of the selected speech acts from the novel 'Untouchable'. The thrust of the argument is that there are abuses and diminutives galore in the novel 'Untouchable', which need to be interpreted in the context in which they occur. The context is that in Indian pre- independence era the untouchables were ostracized, stripped and stunted in their own land by the then Caste Hindus. An attempt is being made in this chapter to study power semantics (humility, humbleness, arrogance etc) and solidarity semantics. The selected speech acts will be analyzed thoroughly against the Indian social realities prevailing at that time. 3.11 Speech Act Theory and Fictional Discourse Speech act theory is erected on the solid foundation laid by Wittgenstein and Austin. Wittgenstein put forward a line of thought called 'ordinary language philosophy'. According to him, the meaning of language depends on how we in reality use it. He holds that language, we use in our day-today communication, is a language game mainly because it consists of some definite rules. Austin also 120 considers that language is used for the most part to do things by following rules. However, according to Searle, language is intentional behaviour and therefore, one must understand the intention of the speaker in order to understand the language. He further says that language is to be treated like a form of action. He calls it speech act. The speech act is the basic unit of language, which expresses meaning. He refers to statements as speech acts. However, the speech act can be a word or phrase if it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention of the speaker. Therefore, it becomes obligatory to understand the speaker's intention to comprehend the meaning. The linguistic realization of the speech act is decided by scores of factors such as interpersonal relationship, the subject of the topic, shared knowledge, social taboos, linguistic sources available etc. The conversational moves are mostly influenced by the relationship between the two interactants. Since the interlocutors are the members of the society, they cannot remain disconnected from the social reality. The characters of a novel are the fictional figures that move through the plot. They are invented by the novelist and are made of words rather than of flesh and blood. Therefore, they cannot be expected to have all the attributes of real human beings. Nevertheless, novelists do try to create fictional people whose speech situations affect the reader as the situations of real people do. A social novel focuses on the behavior of characters. It also emphasizes how their actions reflect or contradict the values of their society. The social novel includes two major types: the novel of manners and the chronicle novel. The novel 121 of manners focuses on a small segment of society. The chronicle novel paints a broad survey of society as a whole. In the 1920s and 1930s the novels of Anand described the situation of India's poor and dispossessed. Mulk Raj Anand is considered as one of the founding fathers of Indian-English novel. M. K. Naik (2006) comments: "The strength of Anand's fiction lies in the vast range, its wealth of living characters, its ruthless realism, its deeply felt indignation at social wrongs, and its strong humanitarian compassion. His style, at its best, is redolent of the Indian soil, as a result of his bold importation into English of words, phrases, expletives, turns of expressions and proverbs drawn from his native Punjabi and Hindi" (p. 160) 3. Ill Making of Anand Born in Peshawar as son of a coppersmith and soldier, Anand attended the Khalsa College in Amritsar, and entered the University of Punjab in 1921, He got his first degree in the year 1924. Thereafter, Anand did his additional studies at Cambridge and at London University, receiving his PhD in 1929. He studied and later lectured at League of Nations School of Intellectual Cooperation in Geneva. Anand also lectured on and off between 1932 and 1945, at Workers Educational Association in London. In 1930s and 1940s, Anand divided his time between literary London and Gandhi's India, joining the struggle for independence. He also fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, he worked as a broadcaster and 122 scriptwriter in the film division of the BBC in London. After the war, Anand returned permanently to India and made Bombay his hometown and the centre of his activities. Mulk Raj Anand has left us with an unbelievable gift of his priceless works such as, 'Untouchable', 'Coolie', 'Two Leaves and a Bud', 'The Village', 'Across the Black Waters', 'The Sword and the Sickle', and the much-admired 'Private Life of an Indian Prince'. His autobiographical novels are 'Seven Summers', and 'Morning Face' that won the National Academy Award, 'Confession of a Lover' and 'The Bubble' are less admired. 3. IV 'Untouchable'- A Social Novel His first novel 'Untouchable' earned him name and fame not only in India but also in the Western world. The opening line of the preface written by E. M. Forster, a well-known critic, speaks volumes about the novel. He says, "This remarkable novel describes a day in the life of a sweeper in an Indian city with every realistic circumstance ". The language Anand uses is loaded with meaning and vibrantly transports the reader to the grief and filth surrounding the life of an Untouchable, through Bakha, the protagonist of the novel. One comes to know how Hindu society had stooped in its treatment of lower caste people who worked in ignominious, polluting, and unclean occupations. It is unfortunate and irksome that Hindus caused such misery, humiliation, and injustices to the untouchables in pre-independence era. The fact 123 that within his own caste system there were further sub divisions, which made Baicha's Ufe extra hard. The action of the novel takes place in Bulandshahr, a town in the Punjab Province of the Indian Subcontinent. It depicts the inhuman experiences faced by an eighteen-year sweeper-boy named Bakha in the course of a single day. In the novel 'Untouchable', the center of attention is the sweeper-community. However, the novel also depicts the lives of the certain other lower caste communities such as leather- workers and washer- men. Anand vividly describes the squalor, the wretchedness and the miserable conditions making the lives of the downtrodden more difficult. Bakha has been a typical symbolic representation of the oppressed class of the downtrodden. However, Bakha, as an individual, evokes pity in the minds of the readers as he has been portrayed as a pitiable, abject and oppressed individual in the novel. Nevertheless, he does not subjugate himself. On the contrary, he shows a lot of self-respect due to which he looks more dignified. In the beginning of the novel Bakha, the protagonist is described as a quick, honest and efficient sweeper boy. To describe Bakha one would use the phrase 'a dexterous workman" to indicate that he is agile and very quick in doing the job of scrubbing and cleaning the public latrines in Bulandshahr. Anand develops the character of Bakha in such a way that the entire picture of the contemporary reality of the social life of the downtrodden communities is brought out skillfully. A day in the life of Bakha is full of experiences of inhumanity, humiliation, surprises, pity, and a desire to change the world. 124 Towards the end of the novel, the poet, when discussing a speech by Gandhi explains how caste has undergone structural changes because of "the legal and sociological basis" of caste having been broken down by the British-Indian penal code, which recognizes the rights of every man before a court, caste is now mainly governed by profession. When the sweepers change their profession, they will no longer remain 'Untouchables'. However, this is a challenge that cannot easily be met despite the fact that India constitutionally abolished the practice of "untouchablility" in 1950, it continues until today. In some cases, these people are violently abused and A humiliated. In 1989 India enacted the Schedule$ Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to prevent and punish either state or private abuses against Dalits (the proper caste name but previously only known as "untouchables"), to establish special courts for the trial of such offences, and to provide for the rehabilitation and relief of the victims. Human Rights organizations have observed that without a serious and sustained commitment to implementing these constitutional safeguards and other national and international legal protections, human rights abuses in their most degrading forms will continue against scheduled-caste community members. The sad part is that prejudice, feelings of inferiority and superiority, are absorbed, and shared by all Hindus, including the Untouchables. This is evident by Bakha's description of the clothes he chose to wear; a sign of his own status, distinguishing himself from his peers, wanting to emulate the British Tommies. Bakha could choose salvation through Christianity, Gandhi or Modernization. The 25 reference to emancipation through sanitation makes this a truly public health novel. Extensive use of speech acts helps Anand poignantly develop his themes and sub-themes. In addition, the speech acts authenticate the characters and create cultural reality par excellance.
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