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This Chapter Attempts an Analysis of Raja Rao’S Comrade Kirillov from the Viewpoint of Indian Culture and Philosophy

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This Chapter Attempts an Analysis of Raja Rao’S Comrade Kirillov from the Viewpoint of Indian Culture and Philosophy CHAPTER-V DEPICTION OF INDIAN CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY IN COMRADE KIRILLOV Introduction: This chapter attempts an analysis of Raja Rao’s Comrade Kirillov from the viewpoint of Indian culture and philosophy. The novel Comrade Kirillov was first published in 1976. However, a French version by George Fradier had come out in 1965. Its primary edition was printed in the 1950’s. M.K.Naik has marked out its chronology and inveterate that it was perhaps written in the nineteen-fifties: “Comrade Kirillov was written some years before The Serpent and the Rope.”(Naik, 1982:142) Comrade Kirillov is a compact novelette, little than The Cat and Shakespeare. Initially, the book had only eighty-five pages of typeset and nineteen thousand words only. The published edition has one hundred and thirty-two sheets and twenty-nine thousand words. All this indicates a dynamic and brilliant creative movement going all these years between its first translation and the published version in 1976. Rao worked repeatedly on the book, as acknowledged in the Post face. The book before us is the definite edition of the text. This novel also forms a continuation to the previous masterpieces- viz., The Serpent and the Rope and The Cat and Shakespeare which deal with the mission for Indianness as their subject. The Serpent and the Rope discovers on an individual level, The Cat and Shakespeare on a communal level and Comrade Kirillov on a political level. Fundamentally, Comrade Kirillov is a quest for one's heredity. It is charming and captivating story of an Indian intellectual-turned socialist misplaced in his quest. While stating the brevity of the novel, A.N.Gupta comments: “The story…. of Comrade Kirillov may be said to be slender, so thin that it can be summed in a few words” (Gupta, 1980:120) The novel Comrade Kirillov is a satirical draft of an Indian communist; whose original name is Padmanabhan Iyer. When very young, he is selected by Annie Besant 142 and the Theosophist and fling to California to be groomed as a companion of J. Krishnamurti. He begins reading literature on socialism, when Krishnamurti discards the role of Messiah. He respects the British Labour Party and arrives to England. He is called by the name Comrade Kirillov after his renovation to communism. The novelist frequently talks of Kirillov as a kind of sadhu devoted to communism. The speaker, “R” a reporter of The Hindu, meets Padmanabhan Iyer in the first convenes in London. Padmanabhan Iyer marries to a Czech girl, Irene, “with red blood and red hair”, and they have a son, Kamal. The speaker last sees Kirillov in 1948, before leaving to America: “When I returned from America, a strange, tragic news awaited me. Irene had died in childbirth, her two days old son, lovely dark haired and well-built, following her. Kamal, for care and change was sent to his grandfather, in Trichinopalli. Kirillov, indefatigable left for Moscow. He sent to me greetings” (P.93) The very first part of the novel moves by an extract from Irene’s diary. The twenty six pages of Irene’s relating are followed by an eight page explanation by ‘R’ of his meeting with Kamal. Therefore, we observe that the novel has a very slender plot. About slenderness of the plot, Shyamala A. Narayan comments: “Unlike The Cat and Shakespeare, Comrade Kirillov does not have any story worth the name… P. becomes a communist, though in his heart he still believes in Mahatma Gandhi and his principles. He marries a Czeck wife, has a son, and goes off to Moscow, that Mecca of communists leaving his son in India. The important thing in the novelette is not the story but the ironical sketch of the self- contradictory Indian communist. But this ironical presentation by itself is not enough to sustain the book, which suffers from the thinness of the content.” (Narayan, 1988:100) It is this thinness of the plot that characterizes the novel as it becomes the strength of the narration. It is a progression in art on the part of the novelist and a kind of new theme for the readers to deal with. 143 One of the most important traits of this novel is that it was written in the post independence period and in the wake of the self-realization on the part of Indians. It features the encounter of Padmanabha Iyer with communism and thus explores the possibility of social and culture change through communist philosophy. Rao attempts a possibility of the Indian interaction with the communist ideology as it would work as an alternative to the Indian philosophy or other Western philosophies. It is in this respect that Comrade Kirillov (1976) deals with the communism and its socio-cultural interaction. The novel puts forth Indian culture and philosophy related to cultural differences which create various philosophical issues. The novel might also be seen as a passage of bewilderment and despair in the life of Raja Rao. After the meeting with his guru Swami Atmananda he gets peace and lined the way for mental lucidity and broadening of religious vision. For Kirillov, this was the motivation. Also, the big gap of twenty two years between the two novels had helped the writer experiment with different methods, fiction-ideas and shapes. These steady attempts gave Comrade Kirillov its structure. According to Shiva Niranjan: “Comrade Kirillov also expressed the novelist's disapproval and dismay with the forceful upsurge of communism during the final phase of the Indian freedom struggle. Providing glimpses of the novelist's temporary association with the underground activities of the Young India Socialist Movement, it depicted his consequent frustration with these extremist activities. The disillusionment led to rejection of the communist mode and a firm commitment to the Vedantic way of life.” (Niranjan, 1985:1) The novel Comrade Kirillov should be positioned after Kanthapura in chronology if a survey is made to draw Rao's concern with nationalistic and political philosophy before his final pilgrimage in the area of Truth. For some indefinite cause, the novel was available after The Serpent and the Rape and The Cat and Shakespeare. Perhaps, the structure as well as the context took time to appear, perception being at chaos, and form also at continuous testing. However, thematically, it can be related to Kanthapura as well as The Cat and Shakespeare. Like Kanthapura the political and 144 social developments in Europe had provided the motivation for this novel as well as the writer was experiencing a hope of some drastic change through communism in India. The rise of Hitler and Stalin during the World War II inspired Kirillov with a new trust of extreme change in the world map. Kirillov had confidence that Stalin's order to the Indian Communist Party would be bottomed on a specific rational conclusion. But the policy of war was changed by order to the British line up. He remained in the dark night of the spirit to realize the new directions. But the consequences disillusioned him; Kirillov lapsed into deep consideration seeking the meaning of occasion and statistic to their dialectical inevitability. The distorted conditions appeared almost to change his skin and he came outside as Padmanabhan Iyer. The speaker proclaims that with the big change of 1947, India was free from the British rule. The non-violent theory of Gandhi had finally appeared triumphant. This triumph was not unforeseen for Iyer knew the power and potency of India. Faith in India and its leader’s gets renovate. A brilliant script entitled India and our fight hold the history of the Indian association with Tilak, Gandhi as main actors and motivators re-establishes faith while explaining to Irene the implication of a wife in the cast he says that all traditions initiated first in India his Motherland: “Who does not know...that from the airplane to the latest theories of democracy, passing through medicine and mathematics, all had one, and only one origin - Holy India?” (P.78-79) In her diary Irene minutes her husband’s profound facts about “Mantra-Sastra”-the science of the sacred word- of the artistic syllable which was made clear to her by him prior. It gives details of her husband’s alertness and Brahminic priorities. Just as in Kanthapura the British-the red people represented wickedness in this novel- Russia turn out to be the evil one. The Indian philosophy of Buddhism and the deliverance of Bodhisattva are compared with the Marxist ideology. Marxist ideology excites Kirillov and holds sway over him. The story goes that the fiend Mara enticed Buddha and discouraged he from getting his goal but the saint did not give way to Mara. Unlike Buddha Kirillov gets trapped in the attraction of theosophy, Marxism and communism. But Rama, the observer, considers in his capacity to exceed Mara and 145 arrive at the final target like Buddha. At one place in the novel, he disgraces and rebukes wickedness: “Go, go, Mara,...I know of your doings, I know the dialectic of Feurbach, and the State and the Revolution of Lenin... Go, you many - mouthed, many-armed, you multiple monster, Mara!” (P.92) The Indian Brahmin who distinguishes the "intrinsic reason behind all meditation" is destined to find out the glory of his resident land. The lost Kirillov has to distinguish his real individuality as Padmanabhan Iyer. Rama, the observer, continues: “I told you Kirillov was an Indian—and his Indianhood would break through every communist chain." (P.91) The end depicts Kirillov disguise thoroughly miserable, confused and jumbled. He identifies his society, yet the sturdy pulls from both accepted views and modernism leaves him perplexed.
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