CHAPTER-II

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL OF STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN NOVEL IN EGYPT AND INDIA

11

2.1. The Origin of Arabic novel:

The origin of the Arabic Novel can be traced to a long process of cultural revival and assimilation, referred to Al-Nahdah, (Renaissance). Characteristic of this period were two distinct trends. The Neoclassical movement sought to rediscover the literary traditions of the past, and was influenced by traditional literary genres such as the Maqama and Alf Laila wa Laila (Thousand and One Nights). In contrast, the modernist movement began by translating Western works, primarily novels, into Arabic.

The birth of the Egyptian novel, however, could not take place until the modern era, when five pre-conditions had been fulfilled:

1. The influence of European literature, where the novel developed into a major genre in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; 2. The establishment of Egyptian printing works and press rooms in the nineteenth century along with the rise of news paper production; 3. Public education and the spread of literacy; 4. A gradual liberation from oppression by foreign powers, starting with the reign of Mohammed Ali in the aftermath of the Napoleonic occupation in the early 1800s; 5. The emergence of an intellectual class with broad international learning. 1

On the other hand, the individual authors in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt created original works by imitating the classical Maqama. The most prominent of these was Al-Muwaylihi, whose book, Hadith Isa ibn-Hisham, critiqued Egyptian society in the period of Mohammed Ali.

1. Devid Tresilian, “The Origin of the modern Arabic novel”, (article) available at http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Arab+literature 12

This work constitutes the first stage in the development of the Arabic novel. This trend was furthered by Jurji Zaydan, a Lebanese Christian writer who immigrated with his family to Egypt following the Damascus riots of 1860. In the early 20th century, Zaydan serialized his historical novels in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Hilal. These novels were extremely popular especially in comparison with the works of Al- Muwaylihi because of their clarity of language, simple structure, and the author‘s vivid imagination. Two other important writers from this period were Gibran Khalil Gibran and Mikhail Naimy, both of whom incorporated philosophical musings into their works. 1

The concept of Al-Nahdah in Arabic literary criticism and historiography, meaning a rising up or revitalization, refers in part to a period of neoclassicism an awakening of old literary traditions following a time of decline or stagnation since the 11th century. The term also refers to creativity, new syntheses, modernization, dynamic experiments, and progress. The Egyptian novel matured in great works by 20th century writers such as Muhammad Hussain Haykal (1888- 1956), Taha Hussain (1889-1973), Ibrahim Abdul Qadir al-Mazini (1890-1949), Muhammad Tahir Lahshin (1894-1954) and Tawfik al- Hakim (1898-1987). 2

Nevertheless, literary critics do not consider the works of these authors to be true novels, but rather indications of the form that the Arabic novel would assume. Many of these critics point to Zainab, a novel by Muhammed Hussayn Haykal as the first true Arabic-language novel, while others point to Azdra Dinshwai by Muhammad Tahir Haqqi as the first true novel. The development of the modern Egyptian novel is reflected by – and reaches a peak in – the half century of work by

1. Ibid 2. Anders Hallengren, „The Arabic Renaissance and the Rise of the Egyptian Novel, (article) available at http://libraray.auceegypt.edu/guides/mahfuz.htm 13

Naguib Mahfuz, Nobel Laureate in 1988, the first writer in Arabic who received the Nobel Prize in literature. 1

2.2. Development Arabic Novel in Egypt:

Contemporary Arabic Literature is the result of a long but often accelerated process which has its basis Al-Nahdah, the movement of cultural renaissance which began in earnest during the 19th century, although some of its roots can be traced to an earlier period. This phenomenon varied widely in its course and impact within the different regions of the Arabic-speaking –world, but in every case the particular local development was the result of a process which involved two principal forces. These are variously known as the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, the classicists and the modernists, and so on; more specifically, the encounter with the West, its science and culture, on the one hand, and on the other, the re-discovery and stimulation of the great classical heritage of Arab-Islamic culture. 2

In more literary terms, increasing contacts with Western literature led to adaptation and works of European fiction into Arabic, followed by their adaptation and imitation, and culminating in the appearance of an indigenous tradition of modern fiction in Arabic. The search into the literary heritage of the classical era was to remind scholars of the existence of earlier model for a neo-classical revival of certain prose genres. Not for the first time in Arabic literary history, the clash between the old and the new became a source of fertile tension among litterateurs.

1. Anders Hallengren, „The Arabic Renaissance and the Rise of the Egyptian Novel, (article) available at http://libraray.auceegypt.edu/guides/mahfuz.htm 2. Peter Gran‘s Islamic Roots of Capitalism, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1979, xii (introduction). 14

The classical tradition of Arabic narrative comprises a number of different types of narrative: anecdotes, vignettes, moral tales, stories of miraculous escape, and so on. These have been gathered under a wide variety of titles into collections for the use and entertainment of the literate (and mostly bureaucratic) classes. Such volumes and their organizing principle were not to meet the generic needs of the early pioneers of modern fiction in Arabic. From a Western prospective, what is remarkable is that another source of possible inspiration, the world‘s greatest collection of narratives, Thousands and One Nights, was also left out of the picture – at least, during the early stages in the development of the novel in Arabic. One may begin by nothing, as the British orientalist Edward Lane does, that copies of the collection were extremely rare, at list in Egypt, at the of the beginning of al-Nahdah.1

This rarity of written versions and lack of interest among litterateurs can be traced to a common cause: Thousand and One Nights was intended as a set of narratives for oral performance. One might surmise that any written versions that existed were intended as mnemonics for the story teller themselves rather than written versions for a wider readership (which, due to levels of literacy, did not exit any case). The society at large has traditionally regarded the stories in a Thousand and One Nights as part of popular culture. Such attitudes, coupled to a strongly felt sense of linguistic hierarchy that assigns enormous cultural value to the language of high culture – and especially religious and literary texts – while virtually denying any worth to expression in the colloquial dialect have left this world famous collections of tales, which has had such a profound and prolong effect on Western literatures, in a sort of cultural nether world in the Arabic- speaking countries of the Middle-East. Only contacts with Western

1. Adward Lane, An Account of the Manner and customs of the Modern Egyptians, London, Everyman, 1954, p. 420 15 scholarship and, more recently, the development of a tradition of folklore studies in Middle-Eastern academic institutions, have begun to stimulate a larger interest among Arab litterateurs and critics. 1

There was, however, one narrative genre that did attract the attention of the earliest pioneers: the Maqama apparently initiated by Badi al-Zaman al-Hamdani (968-1008), the basic form consisted of a picaresque narrative that exploited the antics of a narrator and rogue in al-Hamdani‘s case, Isa ibn-Hisham and Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari respectively to provide both social commentary and, mostly through inverse implication, moral enlightenment; the genre also invoked a kind of discourse found most notably in the text of the Quran itself, namely the rhymes and cadences of saj usually translated as rhyming prose, the virtuoso use of whose provided a long-established stylistic vehicle displaced of erudition. The cultural opportunities that this particular genre provided for rhetorical display address to a wide variety of possible topics help to account for the fact that it remained in vogue through the centuries preceding Al-Nahdah. It was therefore the prose genre most readily at hand to provide early pioneers with a frame work within which to revive the glories of the first heritage, most particularly in realm of language and style, while at the same time addressing themselves to the social issues of the day. 2

In many of the regions of the Arab world the encounter of the West was a gradual process that needs to be viewed over a lengthy period of change. In the case of Egypt, the situation of somewhat different in that the meeting of East and West was at its most brusque. When Napoleon invaded the country in 1798, Egyptians were brought

1. Jabra, Ibrahim Jabra, Yanabi al-ru‘ya, Beirut, al-Muassasah al Arabiyyah li al-Dirasat wa- al-nashr, 1979, p. 68-71 2. Muhammad Rushdi Hassan, Athar al-maqamah fi nash‟at al-qissah al-Misriyyah al- hadithah, Cairo, Al-hay‘ah al-Misriyyah al-Ammah li-al-Kitab, 1974, p. 213. 16 face to face with European advances in technology and military science, and, in the wake of their defeat, with the wonders of European culture and scientific knowledge. The precise nature of this historical encounter between cultures and the almost exquisite match of dates with the turn of a century have made it a godsend for those which choose to view the narration of history as a series of conflicts between the forces of opposing authority system and of convenient chronological sequences rather than as a more subtle and allocated process involving other segments of society. Thus, while 1798 is clearly a date of major important in the history of Egypt and thus of the entire Middle-Eastern region, the model that it provides the process of cultural change is clearly sufficiently unique to make clear that it cannot serve for the entire Arab world region. While the forces involved in Al-Nahdah may have been basically the same for the area as a whole, the means, the sequence, and the place varied widely from one region to another.

With the withdrawal of France forces, Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman soldier from Albania, took over the government of the country. Impressed by the efficacy of the French army, he decided that Egypt needed to train an army along similar lines. Beginning in the 1820s, he sent mission of young Egyptian to Europe, initially to Italy but later primarily to France. Rifa‘ al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) was chosen to accompany one of these early missions to Paris as imam. After a stay five years in France, he wrote his famous work, Tkhlis al-ibriz fi talkhis Bariz, a description of life in France that included accounts of dress, food, government, laws, and many other topics. It serves as one of the very first examples of a whole series of narrative in which Arab visitors to Europe have recorded their impressions. The subject has serve as the frame work for a series of novel which have appeared during the course

17 of the twentieth century by Tawfik al-Hakim, Taha Husayn, Yahya Haqqi, Suhayl Idris, Al-Tayyib Salih, and Abd al-Rahman Munif. 1

While at Tahtawi‘s work certainly aroused the interest of the Egyptian readership concerning European society and its bases, his importance within the early development of the novel lies more in two other areas: translation and the press. In 1836 he was placed in charge of a new School of Languages in Cairo. During the following decades he and his pupils translated numerous significant works of European thought: Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Fenelon, to name just a few. To these were added, slowly but inevitably, works of literature, particularly at the hands of his famous pupil and collaborator, Mohammed Uthman Jalal (1929-1898). Not only did he translate a large number of French literary works, such as Moliere‘s plays and the fables of La Fontine; he also set in motion an important facet in the development of an indigenous fictional tradition by Egyptianizing their plots and characters, thus paving the way first for attempts at imitations and later for the development of a incipient novel genre. With these translation activities underway, it is hardly surprising that by the 1870s and 1880s the adventure novel of Alexander Dumas and Jules Verne, early favourates for translation, were being rendered in Arabic. It is worth noting that these priorities in selection mirror very closely the parallel translation movement in Turkish where Fhenelon‘s Telemaque was translated in 1859, Hugo‘s Les Miserable in 1862 and Dumas the Count of Monte Cristo 1871. 2

Al-Tahtawi‘s contribution to the emergence of an Egyptian press tradition was equally significant. He served as editor of the Egyptian

1. Issa J. Boullata, “Encounter Between East and West: A Theme in Contemporary Arabic Novels,‖ Middle East Journal, 30, no. 1, p. 44-62 2. Ahmed Evin, Origins and Development of the Turkish Novel, Minneapolis, Bibliotheca, 1983, p. 41. 18 newspaper Al-Waqai al-Misriyyah (founded by Muhammad Ali in 1823); while it may have functioned as the official gazette, it also laid the foundations for the later emergence of vigorous tradition of Egyptian journalism. It is here that one can make one of many links with the events in Syria in the 1850s and 1860s, in that Egypt offered a heaven of safety and freedom of expression to the large number of Syria Christians who came to Egypt following the civil war in their homeland. They brought with them their research in to the classical language and its literature, as well as early experiments in fiction and drama, a numerous journals and magazines of both a scientific and cultural nature.

It is hard to overestimate the important role the press has played the revival of Arab cultural awareness throughout the Arab world during the large century. 1 It came to full fruition when nationalist sentiment and opposition to foreign domination were beginning to be heard; in fact in many cases, this causes led to the foundation of newspapers. However, in addition to providing a forum for the discussion of ideas concerning nationalism and Islamic reform, the newspapers and journals also published works of fiction; initially translation from European languages, but gradually and inevitably including early experiments composed in Arabic. There were even a few publications which were entirely devoted to the publication of such entertainment literature. The renowned Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram, for example, founded in Alexandria in 1875, provided a forum for narratives and, indeed, still does. Novels were published in serial form and drew a wide readership. One of the first published novels of this type was Dhat al-Khidr by a member of the illustrious al-Bustani family, Said (d. 1901). Appearing in Al-Ahram in 1884, it displays all the complexities of plot and plethora of coincidence that were encountered in the earlier works of Marrash

1. Ilyas Khuri, Tajarbat al-bahth an uqf, Research Centre, P.L.O., Beirut, 1974, p. 12. 19 and Salim al-Bustani. The press in the Arab world continues to fulfill this previewing role until the present day. While publishing opportunities and circumstances may differ in nature and scope from one country to another, Naguib Mahfuz, the Nobel Laureate from Egypt, still avails himself of the literary pages of newspapers and journals in Cairo to introduce his new works to the public. But even this should not cause any surprise, for, as R. G. Cox notes, a great deal of Victorian literature verse and general prose as well as novels, was first published in periodicals; they can be seen as forming a vast nursery for its production. Later he adds that during the 19th century then, periodical performed a wide variety of functions…… They played a large part both in creating the public and in keeping it alive, active and at once receptive and critical. At a more practical level the periodical played an important part in furnishing an interring market for literary work. 1 Novel writing is not a profession by which one can earn a living in the Arab world; even Naguib Mahfuz was only able to devote himself entirely to writing following his retirement from a civil service job. For that reason, the Arabic press has continued to play a vital role in the development of the Arabic novel, firstly by making the works available to a wider public through serialization, and secondly – in the case of better known writers – by offering a variety of position as editors in cultural journals and magazines, thus providing a regular source of income in an area not too far remote from their real sphere of interest. However, that very same opportunity brings with it a negative side. It has to be admitted that the abuse of this convenient employment opportunity has occasionally and, in some counties habitually led to cronyism among the older generation of writers and to the virtual exclusion of younger generations from publication opportunities.

1. R. G. Coxe in the Pelican Guide to English Literature, vol. 6, From Dickens to Hardy, London, Pelican Books, 19636, p. 198. 20

The expanding press tradition, with its need for a clear and precise prose style and the translation movement, which, like all such endeavours, fostered a good deal of thought about the nature of the target language to be used, combined to encourage the development of a completely new kind of literary discourse, one that would satisfy the tests of the ever-growing public for popular fiction while at the same time fulfilling as far as possible the cultural expectations of more conservative critics. While several writers contributed to this process, none was more influential than Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti (1876-1924). Using the medium of the press once again, he published a whole series of essays and vignettes o a variety of topics; they were later published in book form as Al-Nazarat and Al-Abarat. The latter title (Tears) demonstrates the excessively romantic and sentimental nature of the content of these works. From the first collection, Al-Ka‟s al-Ula (the first drink) tells the story of a man who allows he to drink a single glass of wine, where upon his entire life disintegrates. Another piece, Sidq wa-Kizb (truth and falsehood) betrays through its title the way in which qualities are painted in terms of black and white, with few, if any intermediate hues of gray. But to dwell on these faults is hardly necessary, since they were attacked with characteristics vigor by Ibrahim al-Mazini in the famous critical work, Al-Diwan that he published along with Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad. 1 In spite of such vigorously expressed criticism; Al-Manfaluti‘s works have remained popular with adolescents for many decades. Viewed in a historical perspective, it can be assumed that the most significant feature of these essays was the manner in which Al-Manfaluti choose to express his ideas, a curious blend of Islamic modernism, an awareness of the classical heritage and anti Western sentiments, a blend typical of the period at the turn of the centuries in which he wrote. His style was strait

1. Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad and Ibrahim al-Mazini, Al-Diwan, Cairo, N.P., 1921, p. 1-21 21 forward often in the form of a dignity, a letter which he had received, anecdote which he had heard. These essays introduced a new and captivating kind of literature to the Egyptian reading public and that in a style which was immediately accessible. Thus, while the content may place them within the realm of early romanticism, the language in which they were expressed and the readership that they fostered were an important step in the development of the novel tradition in Egypt.

2.3. Origin of Assamese novel in India:

Modern began from the later part of the 19th century with the advent of English education when the Assamese mind came into contact with English literature and Western humanist ideas. In this context one recalls an apparently small but vastly significant incident that of establishing an organization called Asamiya Bhasar Unnati Sadhini Sabha in Calcutta on 25 August, 1888, by a batch of Assamese students and their subsequent publication of a literary magazine, Jonaki. Inspired by Western literary achievements and the contemporary resurgence in Bengali literature, this devoted band of Assamese students, particularly Laksminath Bezbarua, Chandra Kumar Agarwala and , the precursors of the romantic upsurge in Assamese literature, devoted themselves, with newly awakened patriotic zeal, to the tasks of raising the Assamese language to the level of other developed languages of the world, restoring and editing of old Assamese literary works and of working for the all-round development of the land of their birth. Thus began a new chapter in the history of Assamese literature the second Golden Age of Assamese literature, the first being the Age of the Neo-Vaishnavite Movement. 1

1. Kabitamanjuri by Prof. Nirmalprabha Bordoloi, PP: 0.26 -0.43 22

The overall effect of this West inspired literary movement was almost a complete break with the religious aims and ideals of medieval Neo-Vaishnavite literature and the introduction of the pursuit of the humanistic and romantic ideal of beauty, of glorifying the common and the ordinary aspects in human life and nature, of revival of old Assamese ballads and history in romantic light, and the search for new forms of expression. It was as if a new source of vitality, energy and freshness had been tapped leading to the release of the self, the creative imagination that coloured everything it touched. Suddenly, tinged by the light that never was on land or sea, the old, familiar earth and its earthy humanity, the singing birds, the flowering plants, the traditional ballad characters like Tejimala and Ratani, even the history of the dead past acquired a strange beauty. Personal emotions became predominant and the lyric became the dominant form of poetic expression. Other forms also came in the sonnet, the literary ballad, the short story, the novel, the historical drama, and also literary criticism and the personal essay. Language itself became free from the conventional bondage and approached the idioms and words of day-to-day conversation.1

The romantic wave began towards the end of the 19th century and continued to expand till the beginning of the forties. In poetry, Chandra Kumar Agarwala proved to be not only the precursor of the deepest aspirations of Assamese romantic poetry, its love of beauty, of life in nature, its sense of sadness at the transience of beauty and at the sufferings of human life, its glorification of human life, its patriotic fervour; but he also proved to be the creator of some of the finest and deepest specimens of Assamese lyrics. His friend, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, was less of a poetic artist but his was the most dominating and influential personality during the entire period of Assamese

1. Ibid 23 romantic literature. Another contemporary poet, Hemchandra Goswami is particularly notable for introducing the sonnet form in Assamese poetry. 1

The first three decades of the twentieth century saw the flourishing of the literary ideals upheld by the poets of the age, among whom we may count, besides the three pioneers just named, such elderly poets as Kamala Kanta Bhattacharyya, celebrated for his fiery patriotic zeal, Bholanath Das, known for his first use of blank verse in Assamese poetry, and Bolinarayan Bora, the pioneer of Assamese satirical poems. The other poets who were associated with the Jonaki age were Mafizuddin Ahmed Hazarika, Padmanath Gohainbaruah, Benudhar Rajkhowa and Ananda Chandra Agarwla.

The first three decades of the current century was a period of exceptional fruitfulness for the romantic era. With increased confidence, and urged by a pervasive desire to raise the level of Assamese language and culture, and also moved by greater nationalistic awareness, the Assamese middle class proved their capabilities and excellence of performance in almost all branches of art and culture. This was the period of poet Raghunath Choudhary, a poet in whom the romantic love of nature reached its acme and became a passion-oriented religion and also found its most perfect utterance of Ambikagiri Roychowdhury, in whom the ideals of love and patriotism found the most remarkable lyrical and vigorous expression, and also of Jyotiprasad Agarwala whose poetic vision transformed the best traditions of Assamese culture into modern artistic creations, particularly in lyrics and dramas. There were also a host of other poets and writers, Durgeswar Sarma, Jatindranath Duara, Sailadhar Rajkhowa, Surya kumar Bhuyan, Ratna Kanta Barkakati, Bhagavati Prasad , Prasannalal Choudhury,

1. Ibid 24

Parvati Prasad Barua and the poetesses, Nalinibala Devi and Jamuneswari Khataniyar. 1

The forties of the present century marked the turning point in the annals of literature. There were visible changes in the attitudes and modes of writers and poets and the re-published Progressive journal, Jayanti, became the vehicle of these changes. These changes were in part a reaction to the sentimental, too personal, loosely effusive writings of later romantic poets like Jatindranath Duara even Devkanta Borooah, who has been reckoned as one of the best love poets in Assamese and earned popularity for his impressive use of the dramatic monologues, was not spared and were also due to the socio- economic crisis following the Second World War, the scars left by the 42 Movement, the direct or indirect influence of Marxian socialistic thinking, Freudian psycho-analysis, and, finally, the disillusionments following the attainment of Independence. The publication of the Jayanti was followed by that of the Pachowa and the Ramdhenu, and by that time, the modern Assamese mind had been exposed to literary trends from almost all over the world. We have now come upon the period of 20th century modernity.

The changed climate led to a quest for new subjects and ideas as well as for new forms of expression in every branch of literature. As one examines the new, post-war trends, one notices two divergent directions. The Jayanti group of writers and poets like Bhabananda Dutta, Amulya Barua set forth an anti-romantic, realistic trend with Marxian under- tones and, though they produced very few successful creative works, their ideal continue to attract followers till to-day. The other trend avoided overt political commitments and chose the path of non- committal pursuit of art.

1. Ibid 25

The earliest Assamese novels were written in prose narrative form at the behest of the Ahom kings who ruled Assam for six hundred years. These novels were published in the last decade of the nineteen century, known as the prose chronicles (Buranji) of the Ahom court. In the Ahom court, historical chronicles were at first composed in their original Tibetan-Chinese language, but when the Ahom rulers adopted Assamese as the court language, historical chronicles began to write in Assamese. From the beginning of the seventeenth century onwards, court chronicles were written in large numbers. These chronicles or Buranjis, as the Ahoms called them, broke away from the style of the religious writers. The language is essentially modern except for slight alterations in grammar and spelling.

To substantiate the phase value of these chronicles, Tilottama Misra observed that the opinion of the noted historian S.K.Bhuyan who has rightly mentioned the significance of these Buranjis as storehouse of a large mass of folklore containing the oral tradition to trace back the origin of the Asamiya historical novels. The fictional prose narrative was relatively introduced in a new form, which came to existence in Assamese literature soon after the British annexation of the region, by the treaty of Yandaboo in 1826. This treaty made between the East India Company and the Burmese invaders placed Assam in British hands. Assamese literature before this period largely comprised devotional literature inspired by the neo-Vaisnavite movement of the late fifteen- early sixteenth centuries Assamese versions and translation of sacred texts and the epics, and the buranjis or chronicles kept by the Ahom rulers. Henceforth, the British entry into the region is considered the kind of blessing for the Assamese people to flourish their own language, which reinstated in 1873 as the state language instead of Bengali, which the British introduced it soon after the state occupied by them in 1826.

26

The American Baptist Missionaries were the first to use this dialect in translating the Bible in 1813. These Missionaries established the first printing press in Sibsagar in 1836 and started using the local Asomiya dialect for writing purposes. In 1846, they started a monthly periodical called Arunodoi, and in 1848, Nathan Brown published the first book on Assamese Grammar. The Missionaries published the first Assamese-English Dictionary compiled by M. Bronson in 1867. One of the major contributions of the American Baptist Missionary is the reintroduction of Assamese as the official language in Assam.

2.4. Development of Assamese novel in India:

The period of modern Assamese literature begun with the publication of the Assamese journal, Jonaki in 1889 and this introduced the short stories form by Laxminath Bezbarua. This era is known as the Age of Romanticism in Assamese Literature. The age had long faded in English literature, the Romantic ideal and appeal was most applicable to writers of this emergent literature. The Romanticism itself is used by Assamese writers implied the same approach to literature as it does in English literature. The writers of this age did not imitate the English Romanticists; rather they were strongly influenced by the Romantic sensibilities of the English writers of the time. During this period, Assam was untouched by industrialization and urbanization; the natural landscapes held much scope for literary exploration and the literary climate was full of promise and possibilities. The central theme and concept changed from devotion to God to devotion to the world, its beauties and man as a reflection of the supernatural. However, this was still a literature of the early twentieth century could not be totally divorced from modernity. The acceleration of the freedom movement and the socio-cultural reformation movement in West Bengal and other parts of the country influenced it and made it also a literature that 27 examined social and national issues. In 1917, the Axom Xahitya Xabha formed as a guardian of the Assamese society and the forum has started activities for the development of Asomiya language and literature. The Axom Xahitya Xabha facilitated the exchange of ideas, popularized Assamese literature, art and culture, and provided a forum for literary debate and discussion through its conventions, journals and publications. 1

The true essence of writing Assamese novel began towards the end of the eighteen century with the publication of Padumkuwanri (1891) by Laxminath Bezbaru and Bhanumoti (1890) and Lahori (1892) by Padmanath Gohain Baruah. The three novels were strikingly similar in many ways and this is reflective of the similarity of economic, social and educational background of the two writers as well as their social beliefs. The settings of these three novels are situated in the historical past and have the central themes of secret love in between the hero and heroine. The endings of Bhanumoti and Padum Konwori are tragic while Lahori ends with marital bliss. All the three heroes are without homes or parents and are adopted either formally or informally by the parents of the heroines. This interesting fact seems to point to a social problem faced by the two authors. The authors faced the difficulties of creating a situation where a young boy can meet a girl who is not related to him and fall in love with her. Hence, the young heroes of both Bezbarua and Gohain Barua‘s novels are placed in a convenient situation within the heroines‘ house where they can exchange furtive glances with the heroines, sees an opportunity to speak a few words or exchange love letter. The hero is always calm, hesitates to take the first step and somewhat detached. It is the heroine who is passionate, aggressive and ready to die. When faced with problem of the impending marriage of the

1. Bhattacharya, Parag Kumar. Adhunik Upanyash, Assam Publishing Company, Guwahati, p. 185 28 girl with a groom selected by her father, the hero in each of the three novels remains passive or runs away and leaving the beloved to brave the storm alone. It is obvious that the authors are unable to handle such a situation themselves without violating the codes of middle-class morality. So, Kamal, the hero of Lahori, tries to make a tame retreat when the impending separation looms ahead. The solution he gives is typically within the bounds of conventional morality. He pleads that romantic love is temporary fantasy which must be given up in time in order to lead a happy family life. Throughout the novel Lahori reacts in a manner all weak women are supposed to do. Consequently, the story of Kamal and Lahori takes an unexpected turn and the two are happily married. The three stages of woman‘s life- daughter, daughter-in-law and wife are traditionally experienced by the heroine with development of the plot of the novel. Lahori considers her husband as true God and worship him as one. She is well aware of the proper duty of a wife to bring up her children, build their moral character and to give them good education. She never fails in performing these duties conscientiously. 1

The inability of the early novelists in Assam to go beyond the bounds of their class and caste boundaries and to present the bold and realistic picture of the lives of ordinary folks is thus the greatest weakness of these novelists. Assamese literature of the time displays a strong tradition of novel and short story writing. Their novels are extremely conscious of its social function and political responsibilities, and takes as its subjects and events surrounding the last stages of the independence struggle and the shifting social and economic condition of modern India. The condition of the modern world forced the novelists to turn to realism and naturalism and adopt a cynical attitude towards man and society.

1. Ibid, pp. 185-203 29

Of course, both of them are not seen looking forward to pay adequate interest to write more novels to enrich the granary of Assamese prose writing. Directly or indirectly, they were reeling under several problems like lacking ground level sources and events for their story. Hence, they diverted their attention from this field to other literary activities during this period. Gohain Baruah wrote only two novels and Bezbarua has single historical novel to his credit. Both of them took up Assamese figures of recent history as their subjects especially figures who symbolize resistance to British rule. They adopted the main plot from history and the historical figures are characterized in their works. So, the main feature of their novels is reformative in its sum and substance. The sources and approaches were carefully chosen from historical events giving the action a complete whole. According to critics and biographers, Laxminath Bezbarua was the Victor Hugo of modern Assamese literature. Bezbarua had the Dickensian ability to combine serious social commentary within humorous depiction. People call him the gifted essayist has to his credit one historical novel and three historical plays which are considered a breath of fresh air in the stagnant world of Assamese modern literature of the time. In fact, his writing took Assamese literature on to the road of modernity. His historical works laced with the romantic idealism of history creating a world of new faith and confidence among the people of Assam. 1

Keeping pace with the advent of modernity in Assamese literature, Padmanath Gohain Baruah contributed a great deal to the History of Assamese Novel. He has left an imprint on Assamese literary world as a founder of modern Assamese novel. His novel Lahori, published in 1892 is regarded as the first Assamese novel. Though a number of his predecessors wrote few novels in Assamese but from

1. Ibid 30 literary point of view Lahori is regarded as the first Assamese novel. Taking a glorious chapter of Assam history he wrote another novel Bhanumoti first published serially in Bijulee, a monthly Assamese magazine edited by Krishnaprasad Duwara. He also proved his dexterity as a poet and Lila kabya, Jurani and Phular Chaneki which bore testimony to his caliber.

As a playwright Padmanath was comparable to none of Assamese drama and theatre. He wrote a number of dramas on local plots and events. Picking up a number of glorious chapters from Assam history he wrote historical dramas like Joymoti, Gadadhar, Lachit Borphukan and Sadhani. On the basis of the legendary love story of Usha and Aniruddha he wrote a mythological drama called Ban Raja. In his social drama Gaonburha he neatly described the economic condition of Assamese people under the British rule. His comedy Teton Tamuli and Bhoot Ne Bhram created spontaneous overflow of laughter among the readers and audiences. According to renowned critic Dr. Mahendra Bora, Gohain Baruah‘s Sri Krishna is an epic drama, novel as well as an autobiography. No other writer in any part of the world so lucidly wrote a book on a legendary person like Sri Krishna.

In the last part of the ninetieth century Assamese novel took inception in the hand of Padmanath Gohain Barua, Lakshminath Bezbarua and it reached in perfection by the keen efforts of Rajanikanta Bordoloi, known as Scott in Assamese literature. Rajanikanta Bordoloi, the great novelist of Assam wrote his first novel Mirijiyoree basing on the Missing tribes of Assam. The life style of Missing people has been depicted here in a very faithful manner. The story, character and setting have become appealing to the reader because of its proper treatment against backdrop of proper setting. A love story of a pair of lovers of Missing community has been described with a pathetic strain. The 31 misery occurred in the life of these two lovers come as a result of tribal beliefs and customs. Along with the story, the different festivals of the Missing people find an artistic expression in the hand of this great novelist.

However, Rajanikanta Bardoloi contributed as many as nine novels enriching the treasure house of Assamese literature. In 1894, Rajanikanta Bordoloi published the first Assamese novel Mirijiyoree that earmarked the history of Assamese literature in real sense of the term. Assamese literature today cannot be characterized as having a single, common vision or belonging to a particular school. The ready availability of newly published works from around the world, the advent of technology and mass media, and the easy access to travel and study across the world all influenced writers in various ways. Ideologically, it reflects a post-Freudian, post-Marxist, postmodern world. Furthermore, recent political upheavals in the country and the state, the breakdown of public morals, and economic progress continue to affect present-day writers. Literature today includes a wide range of poetry, novels, short stories, dramas, and subgenres such as folklore, science fiction, children‘s literature, biographies, and translations. Thus, a short survey cannot do real justice to, nor encompass, a continuing literature. 1

Modern poetry reveals personal reflections and focus on the immediate shifting trends of modern life, often within urban settings. The poetry that evokes natural, Romantic imagery, too, brings to these images a modern perspective. Modern poetry takes many forms; some poets still use traditional lyric forms and rhymes, whereas others use blank and free verse in ordinary, rather than poetic, language. Some of these trends had been displayed in the poetry of the 1940s. Though contemporary poetry displays a cynicism and dismay at modern

1. Ibid 32 conditions, it is not as vehement as the poetry of the 1940s, nor does it contain that revolutionary zeal. Modern poetry is both symbolic and realistic.

Historical novel is an oxymoron, a curious mix of fact and fiction. Aristotle resolves this conundrum once for all in his Poetics. He states that the poet‘s read the author‘s function is to describe not the thing that has happened that is the work of the historian, but to describe the kind of thing which might happen, that is, being probable or necessary. History deals with the actual. But poetry read novel or historical novel deals with the universal. The difference between history and historical novel is the difference between Plutarch and Shakespeare or between a documentary film and a feature film based on the same subject. As F. A. Backer rightly points out in his now classic History of the English Novel that to present and interpret facts is the historian‘s business, to summon up a past epoch to show men and women alive in it and behaving as they must have behaved in the circumstances, is the labour and joy of the life of the genuine historical novelist.

Historical fiction, then, is the artistic form that springs from the impulse to give a shape to the past. But it‘s not just to give a shape to the past. It is to bring part of the past alive into the present. Stephen Crane, the author of the American Civil War classic The Red Badge of Courage, was once asked why he had chosen to write his book as fiction rather than history. The reason, he said, was because he wanted to feel the situations of the War as a protagonist, not from the outside. And it was only by writing a novel that he could do this. And this is what all historical fiction does. It makes us feel, as a protagonist, what otherwise would be dead and lost to us. It transports us into the past. And the very best historical fiction presents to us a truth of the past that is not the truth of the history books, but a bigger truth, a more important truth – a 33 truth of the heart. The most distinguished Assamese historical novelist of our times, Troilokya Bhattacharjya‘s career as a writer spans over half a century. Bhattacharjya‘s output is weighty: more than ten novels, over 250 short stories, innumerable non-fictional prose works mostly uncollected and scattered in magazines and newspapers, few plays for stage, and some plays for radio. His range is rare: historical novel, biographical novel, autobiographical novel, mythological novel, social novel, novellas, short stories, columns, causeries, skits, and features for radio, editorials, and an autobiography; even edited a weekly newspaper called Sadinia Sambad for long seven years. Bhattacharjya‘s novels can be classified into three basic traditions/groups: social, historical and the mythological. The second category of novels which stemmed from the author‘s deep sense of respect for heritage and fierce patriotism provides a real insight into his dedication, creativity and possibly into deep crevices of his pride Assamese mind.

Though Troilokya Bhattacharjya has contributed to so many genres, his forte, as critics like Dr. S. N. Sarma, Dr. Sailen Bharali, Jnanananda Sarma Pathak and Dr. Prafulla Kotoky etc. have pointed out, in their scholarly write-ups from time to time, is historical fiction. He has a reverence for the past and believes like George Santayana that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Inspired by stalwarts in the field like Sir Walter Scott, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Pramothnath Bisi and our very own Rajanikanta Bordoloi to take up the cudgel to capture the tempestuous phases of his land, and the work that he produced endures for its fidelity to life, verisimilitude, creative imagination, authentic character portrayal and charm of style. Deep insights, subtle delineation of incidents are the marked features of his literary creations. The Sanchipatar Puthi, Bhattacharjya‘s first full-length novel published novel in 1973, is a

34 candid narration of the days and people of Assam from 1836 to 1857 indeed a very crucial period for the people of Assam. The former is the year of the introduction of Bengali as a medium of instruction in administration and education in Assam, and the latter being the year of the first War of Independence of India. The novel is divided into three parts He Bideshi Bandhu, Arunoday and Agniyugar Firingoti.

Arrival of the Baptist Missionaries in Assam for the first time and the beginning of their venture, Arunoday Age and the Sepoy Mutiny in Assam are three subjects that the writer deals with in three respective chapters of the novel named as He Bideshi Bandhu, Arunodoy and Agni Yugar Firingati Moi. The first two chapters are interconnected and have large slice of Renaissance in Assam and depict the activities of its main players: the American Baptist Missionaries like Father Nathan Browne, Miles Bronson, Mr. & Mrs. Cutter and Assamese intellectuals like Anandaram Dhekial Phukan and Gunabhiram Baruah, who were instrumental in rescuing Assamese language and literature from extinction in its very land of origin. Starting on his poetic career during the forties in association with the Jayanti, Navakanta Barua continued to express himself through the Pachowa and the Ramdhenu the two magazines that became the pivots of the modernist movement in Assamese poetry during the late forties and the fifties respectively. Essentially a romantic lyricist, Barua‘s early poems carry the influence of Tagore. One notes in them a pervasive mood of nostalgia, a romantic, wistful longing for those values for which poet Barua‘s familiar symbols are the far-off, limitless sky and the green earth. The modernist flavour that he brought to Assamese poetry was the result of his treatment of urban subjects and his use of symbols and images, blending the serious with the light, applying the language of conversation and prose rhythms, and introducing a wide variety of rhythmic patterns. His modernist

35 attitude to life is also characterized by his non-committal attitude towards all matters of conventionally accepted faith. It is to be noted however, that his kinship to T.S Eliot was only peripheral and external: the ambivalence and complexity, the intellectual depth and subtlety, and the blending of the ironical and the satirical in Eliot‘s poetry are missing in Barua‘s essentially romantic sensibility. There is no doubt, however, that with the publication of his three collections of poems He Aranya Hey Mahanagar, Eti Duti Egharati Tara and Jati aru Keitaman Sketch during the fifties. In more sense than one, he prepared the stage for the emergence of the major poets of the sixties by introducing varied modes of poetic expression in modern Assamese poetry with a remarkable sophistication. That way he serves as the bridge between the earlier period of romantic effusion and the later phase of greater condensation and suggestive richness that we find in the poetry of the sixties. 1

1. Ibid 36