A Critical Study of the Autobiographies of R. K. Narayan, Khushwant Singh
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A Critical Study of the Autobiographies of R. K. Narayan, Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Harvansh Rai Bachchan, Dom Moraes and Baby Kamble (ABSTRACT) Mrs. Rajashree K. Hardikar The reading choices of the common reader can easily bear out the observation that next to fiction, the popular choice of the reader is inclined to read biographies and autobiographies. One would like to add the travelogue also as the next chosen read. That may be one reason why autobiographies are the publishers' choice also in terms of business returns of their investment. However, opinions are divergently divided on an important issue,—whether the autobiography can be considered as a form of "pure literature." It is a question often raised and debated but not answered conclusively. It is true that autobiography has the same material, i.e., experiences, events, situations from life, and it uses language as its medium, as literature does. However, one great difference is that while literature uses imagination freely and also minds the aesthetics of form and expression, autobiography cannot do so, failing which it will be fiction itself! It does not at all mean that imagination and beauty of expression have no place in the writing of an autobiography. Even so, one expects facts to assume greater significance as its inevitable component because it is a history of an individual recorded by himself/ herself Another difference between a literary genre and autobiography is that a creative writer— a novelist or a dramatist— usually exercises a very careful selection or rejection of the material for his work in order to create a meaningful, consistent whole, while an autobiographer has apparently a narrow range to select mainly from his / her life. The interesting but unanswerable vii question is about the quantum of fact and fiction that an autobiography can accommodate, for it is not to be a presentation of a garbled account of a life, which will be a gross disqualification for an autobiography. Writing an autobiography is quite different from writing a novel or a short story or any type of material that aims at catering to the literary sensibility of its readers. Facts and related, relevant and appropriate interpretation of facts and events become the hall mark of autobiography. It is, of course, easily granted that facts and concrete reality can be seen imaginatively coloured by imagination in an autobiography. An autobiography is a record of a person's life. People from practically all walks of life have written the stories of their lives. The question "Who should write an autobiography?" is more or less irrelevant because it is clear that anyone who has created his or her own identity has a fit case for telling his or her own story. In other words, an autobiography is supposed to be an account of a significant and substantial life that offers experiences worth communicating to the world. An autobiography is not only an account of the writer's inward journey from childhood to maturity; it is also a unique representation of the milieu of which he is a part. The present researcher thinks that a critical discussion of the contents of an autobiography is more satisfying than the study of its "formal" features. It is the matter rather than the manner seems to be more inviting. An attempt is, therefore, made here to critically study the autobiographies of the writers mentioned in the title. Autobiographies of the writers mentioned in the title are reviewed and an evaluation of these writers and their autobiographies has been attempted in order to mark their overall growth, the total circumstances that contributed to it or even hampered it, the contribution of these writers to their field, their times and the milieu in which they worked and grew. VIII Self-portrayal has become an integral part of modern culture and India equally shares this universal mood. A large number of Indians have committed themselves to the writing of their autobiographies in English as well as in the regional languages. The autobiographies selected here are mainly of those persons who have made a mark of their personality and achievements in different fields of life in India and by extension, in the whole world. They include: R. K. Narayan, My Days; Khuswant Singh, Truth, Love and a Little Malice; Amrita Preetam, The Revenue Stamp; Harivansh Rai Bachchan, In The Afternoon Of Time; Dom Moraes, My Son's Father and Never at Home; and Baby Kamble, The Prisons We Broke. A brief review of the genre is useful to set the background of the present study. Indian autobiography in English has a comparatively short history. It is true that the similar kind of writing existed in Sanskrit (Banabhatta's Harshacharit, Marathi (Leelacharitra which is the life of Chakradhar Swani written by Mhaimbhatt) and possibly other languages in India. However, the theoretical awareness about the forms of biography and autobiography in the present sense of these terms were alien to the Indians before the British arrived. The systematic development of autobiography in various languages including English in India can be traced from the second half of the 19th century and it has been continued in the twentieth century and, now in the twenty first century also. The present research studies the autobiographies mentioned in the title with a view to understanding the various experiences, factors, people and situations which contributed to the grow1;h of the protagonists. It also traces the maturing, flowering and developing of the writers with reference to the time in which they lived and to note how they reacted to certain critical situations in life. It attempts to note the contribution of these stalwarts to the society and the world of literature ix The chapter wise division of the thesis is as follows: sChapter I: Introduction The first chapter of Introduction discusses the whole outline of the research work. At first there is brief etymological information. It is followed by a few attempts to define autobiography. The chahter states the scope of the research which is restricted to the study of the selected autobiographies of Indian English writers for its content. The need and relevance to study autobiography for its content has been discussed/Thei--e. is^discussion on the motives and an attempt is made to find an answer to a question about one's urge to write autoHi?Tgfapii}\. "A^/ comparative approach has been used to bring together the similarities and differences in the events and situations. The relevant historical background of autobiographies written by Indians is surveyed. The emergence of the Dalit literature and the importance of the Dalit autobiographies in Marathi literature and in other Indian languages is taken into consideration. ^s/ Chapter II: R. K. Narayan: My Days and Khushwant Singh: Truth, Love and a Little Malice R. K. Narayan is one of the famous 'trio' of Indian fiction in English, the other two being Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand. Narayan is authentically an "Indian" writer. His autobiography reads like his novels. A story teller in him can be seen with his characteristic wit and humour. It is interesting to read what material wenHnto the making of this gentle writer's life and career. The researcher is of the opinion that his autobiography certainly helps one to discover the secret of turning failure into success. ' ^ Khushwant Singh always enjoyed being in the eye of controversy and his autobiography is no exception to it. His autobiography is important in the sense that it relates all important events of the century. A globe trotter and a raconteur Khushwant Singh brings alive all his experiences in this book. He writes interestingly and in doing so he brings in to operate all his multifaceted personality in the narrative. The researcher has chosen to combine these two autobiographers in this chapter as they are more or less contemporaries but with extremely divergent backgrounds and engagement with life. It has been an interesting experience to study these men of letters coming from opposite directions of the southern and northern states of India. Chapter III: Amrita Pritam: The Revenue Stamp and Harivansh Rai Bachchan: In the Afternoon of Time \The third chapte^ discusses two outstanding writers from two regional languages of India, Punjabi and Hindi. The first woman recipient of the Sahitya Academy Award (1956), Amrita Pritam wrote in Punjabi only. Her autobiography is available in English translation by Krishna Gorowara. She is a bold writer who opened new, unexpected vistas in Punjabi fiction and made the woman's world vocal. She lived a life that others might think of as unconventional, for a cohabitational ("Live-in") relationship is still an off-beat life style in India. The / autobiography throws a flood of light not only on the events that led to some of the momentousN, decisions of her life but also hold a mirror to the times in which she lived and wrote to become a literary success. Originally written in Hindi, the autobiography of Harivansh Rai Bachchan is translated into English by Rupert Snell and it was published in 200 las In the Afternoon of Time. Harivansh Rai Bachchan is a significant name in Hindi literature. He was the first Hindi Officer in the Government of Pandit Nehru. Nearly thirty-six years later, when he was established as a major Hindi writer, he wrote four volumes of his autobiography—Kya Bhulun Kya Yad Karun (1969), xi Need ka Nirman Phir{\910), Basere Se Dur (1978) and Dushdwar Se Sopan Tak (1991). In the Afternoon of Time is an abridgement of these four volumes. The reason to combine these two stalwarts in this chapter is that both are noteworthy Punjabi and Hindi writers respectively, with their autobiographies being available in English translation.