View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Etheses - A Saurashtra University Library Service Saurashtra University Re – Accredited Grade ‘B’ by NAAC (CGPA 2.93) Kinger, Anil H., 2008, “The Minorities and their Voices: A Critical Study of the Contemporary Indian English Writing with rererence to the Novels of Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, I. Allan Sealy and Esther David”, thesis PhD, Saurashtra University http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu/id/834 Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Saurashtra University Theses Service http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu [email protected] © The Author THE MINORITIES AND THEIR VOICES: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ENGLISH WRITING WITH REFERENCE TO THE NOVELS OF SALMAN RUSHDIE, ROHINTON MISTRY, I. ALLAN SEALY AND ESTHER DAVID DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY, RAJKOT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SUBMITTED BY: ANIL HARILAL KINGER LECTURER & HEAD SHRI P. D. MALAVIYA COLLEGE OF COMMERCE, RAJKOT SUPERVISED BY: DR. KAMAL H. MEHTA PROFESSOR & HEAD DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES, SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY, RAJKOT. SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY RAJKOT. 2008 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY RAJKOT CERTIFICATE This is to certify that this dissertation entitled THE MINORITIES AND THEIR VOICES: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ENLISH WRITING WITH REFERENCE TO THE NOVELS OF SALMAN RUSHDIE, ROHINTON MISTRY, I. ALLAN SEALY AND ESTHER DAVID is submitted by Mr. Anil Harilal Kinger for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the faculty of Arts of Saurashtra University, Rajkot. No part of this dissertation has been submitted for any other Degree or Diploma. Rajkot. Date: …../03/2008 Supervisor (Dr. Kamal Mehta) Professor & Head Department of English & CLS Saurashtra University, Rajkot. 2 Acknowledgements I express my sincerest gratitude to my guide Dr. K. H. Mehta, Professor and Head, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot without whose help and unstinted guidance, this dissertation would have been impossible. I also express my gratitude to Dr. A. K. Singh, former Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, and now Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad for being the inspiration in the process of my being focused on this topic for my dissertation and also for his scholarly support. I am also thankful to the faculties of the department – Dr. J. K. Dodiya, Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, Mr. Ravisinh Zala – for helping me in every possible manner for making this a success. I am also thankful to the principal of my college Dr. K. M. Jani and my colleagues Dr. H. V. Parmar, Mr. Ajay Mehta, Mr. P. V. Jobanputra and Ms. Urja Mankad, among others for their valuable support and suggestions. I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Nilesh Soni, Librarian, Saurashtra University, Rajkot for his prompt help at every step of my dissertation. And last but never the least, I express my deepest sense of gratitude to all my family members – especially my mother, my wife Geeta and my sweet sons Harsh and Rohan – whose warmth and loving support I may never be able to repay. Rajkot Date: …/03/2008 (Anil Harilal Kinger) 3 C o n t e n t s Certificate Acknowledgement Chapter 1 Introduction o2 Chapter 2 Minority and Midnight’s Children 20 Chapter 3 Parsi Journey 63 Chapter 4 Trotting Anglos Saunter Here 91 Chapter 5 Through the Walled City 137 Chapter 6 Conclusion 177 Select Bibliography 189 4 Chapter 1 Introduction The colonial period in India is marked by gradual transformation of its society from agrarian to semi-industrial leaving far reaching impact on almost all aspects of life. The impact of modernization caused by the industrialization and automation was discernible even before our independence in a distinct community life among people. The advent of enormous housing colonies, huge towns and bigger cities, besides many other changes caused by the new industrial culture, were perhaps the natural by-products of the whole process. Another point worth stressing in this regard is that in the wake of industrialization and along with the rise of the middle-class, the urbanity also blossomed. The big cities of the world today are the direct consequence of the industrialization. Urbanity and middle-class, both thrived mutually in this transitional period. This caused unprecedented diaspora invoking migration of people from villages to towns and cities - which subsequently gave rise to various problems and crises typical to urbanity. Spacious villages were replaced by spaceless and timeless towns and cities and then houses with people stuffed in them in most of the cases. A new form of life characterized by urban stress and anxieties was discernible in these cities. According to a study, it is believed that today almost half of the world lives in cities and more than one-third of the Indian population have migrated to live in urban towns and cities. By the year 2001 Mumbai alone had 16 million inhabitants. 5 The confrontation of the east with the west and particularly of Britain with India created unrest and anxiety among the natives. Though India's traditional life was given a jolt by this confrontation, yet a new kind of awareness and consciousness also dawned on the people pursuing critical and intellectual activities in a new atmosphere. K.R.S. Iyenger has quoted Arthur Mayhew in this regard, who rightly observes: Under English rule in India the impact of the civilizations may have produced unrest. But it has also sustained and stimulated life.1 And the reflection of this stimulated psyche is characterized in the literature of the age. The race, the surroundings and the age, as H. Taine postulated, are three definitive factors which affect the creation of literature. The pre-industrial society marked by tribal, agrarian and feudal way of life in which the fate of the people was identified with one central person, or a king whose fate would be the fate of the people. But during the second half of 19th and early 20th centuries, democratic system flourished and the common man was in the centre of the affairs as against the superman of Nietzsche. Literature and other forms of art also voiced these changes. The modern writer was sensitive enough to record the man, the milieu and the moment around him. A comparison between the idea of heroism of the ancients and that of the moderns of the 19th century would substantiate the point of view. For instance, the two Ulysses of literature of different ages are so different that the 6 later version seems to be parody of the preceding counterpart, and that is the only sustainable relationship between the two. Because the Homeric Ulysses, an embodiment of gallantry, bravery, virtuosity, and other super-human qualities, is in sharp contrast with the modern Ulysses of James Joyce, who is a weaknead, sensual man caught in the throes of modern industrial world. Every age has its own compulsions, tensions, fears, aspirations and logic and accordingly finds a genre suitable to it. Even a cursory glance at the history of English Literature would approve it. The sensibility conditioned by the industrial progress had altogether different hopes, wishes, fears, anxieties, feelings and emotions, and so it found itself authentically reflected in the novel genre. Industrialization led to the rise of middle classes which found novel as the most suitable literary form for itself. Since the west was the early cradle of industrial revolution so it was but natural that it was the cradle of the novel form, too, which reached far flung countries of the world along with the colonizing west and to an extent explored it as part of their colonial project. It was with India's unfortunate fall that the novel came to India through western channels though the critics like Bhalchandra Nemade oppose this view.2 During the latter half of the 19th century, the number of western educated people increased because of the spurt in educational activities and establishment of universities in India. Prose writing came into vogue during those days and through English prose only, regional languages of India were cast into prose style. The prose, initially functional, was also used later on as 7 a medium of artistic expression and a class of native writers could even use English prose creatively for their purpose. It was Bengal that led the Indian reception of the novel form and its use for creative endeavours with its writers like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, Bibhuti Bhushan, Naini Bhaumik and Manoj Basu among others.3 Writers from other Indian regions-Nirad Chaudhary, Rajnikant Bardoloi, K.S. Venkatramani, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Sir Jogendra Singh and the famous trio R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, to name only a few - soon joined the league.4 They all engaged themselves in the art of novel writing following the model of English type, for it was easily accessible to us and it was practiced by the master colonisers. With colonial complex in operation the English novel came to be the western novel for us and became the pole guiding novel for our writers though there were the few like Bankim Chandra and Goverdhanram Tripathi who resisted colonial influence in the ways as different as they themselves were.