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Muslim Identity in Indian Anglophone Fictions International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ Volume 01 Issue 08 September 2015 Muslim Identity in Indian Anglophone Fictions Mukul sk M A, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, Uttar Pradesh, India [email protected] Abstract Since the independence of India, the Key words: minority, Muslim, secularism, minority identity, specifically the Muslim secular matrix, minorotarian position, identity, turns into a matter of great Anglophone writers question, which is further threatened by the religio-political upheavals of various IN 1947 India emerged as a secular ideology; and Muslim issues has frequently state out of the pluralist idea of religion and been staged as a serious subject by many syncretic aspect of cultural practice; and the Anglophone writers. My study delineates the Nehruvian ideology of secularism and minority identity (by minority I especially Gandhiji’s policy of religious tolerance led mean the ‘Muslim’) in secular Indian to the path of the Indian secularism. The canon in English. The canon comprises a Indian nation-state promised to provide number of contemporary Indian novels that equal treatment to each individual citizen, involve in representing the nation or the irrespective of religion, language or culture. national concern in the mode of secularism. But the way India goes today by the name of This paper examines different aspects of secularism is different from the way Nehru Muslim identity in relation to secularism and Gandhiji wanted India to be. The within the secular framework of the Indian Muslim began to exist in India as a minority English fictions. The different aspects group after the Partition, and they constantly include the question of secularism, issues of and increasingly felt threatened of their Muslim identity, and the historical certainty. Each different ideology and social relationship of the Muslim to the nation. organization now wants the nation to be Finally I put focus on the relationship directed by the radar of their own ideology, between secular matrix and minoritarian subordinating the fundamental component of position, as two contemporary concepts in secularism to their own worldview, refuting the canon of Indian English fictions. the ethnic groups’ traditions to subsume into the mainstream of Indian subcontinent. The So my study aims to present a broad novels I have chosen are of different overview of the two above-mentioned varieties: The Shadow Lines(1988) by subjects and contextualize the novels in Amitav Ghosh, Midnight’s Children(1981) relation to some of Muslim issues, in that the by Salman Rushdie, A Suitable Boy(1993) Indian secularism was found to be very little by Vikram Seth. All the three novels are successful to sustain a fair-free existence of involved in presenting the national concern, the minority after independence Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 489 International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ Volume 01 Issue 08 September 2015 and premised on the pluralist idea of religion Midnight’s Children exploits a and nation, and they each present a number conflict between the radical secularism and of perspectives on Indian nationhood and the Muslim position, and forges what Homi religion. However, the gap they each show K Bhaba calls the ‘double temporality’. On between the secularism and the minority the one hand the Muslim nurtures an identity position and the way they attempt to build based on their historical attachment to the bridge between the two matrix differs quite nation, which is ensured the Indian radically. Midnight’ Children (1981) is an constitution-oriented secularism. On the amalgam of history, magic realism, an other hand, they have identity shaped by account of political disturbances during and their religious positions. Aadam Aziz, the after the Partition, and through the grandfather of the protagonist Selim, is a heteroglossic realm, dramatizes a secularism Kashmiri Muslim and is well conscious of based on a minoritarian perspective, and the political turmoil in pre-independent draws a discrepancy between the Indian India. After getting married he moves to secularism and the religious worldview. Agra, and works for the nationalist Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’(1993) stages the movement. Naseem aziz, his wife, feels conflicting religious worldviews of Hindu- disappointed and a fear of some unexpected Muslim communities and voices a consequences for her husband’s involvement secularism derived from a majoritarian in the freedom movement, and wants her perspective. Ghosh’s the Shadow Lines husband to live just under the fold of the (1988) is premised on the historical events Muslim identity. Aziz, a secular Muslim, of riots, Partition, and like A Suitable Boy however, does not avoid his citizen duty by articulates a majotarian secularism. All the entering into a ‘sectarian’ mode of three novels propound a secularism from religiosity. Aziz’s disagreement with his their own perspective and stage conflicting wife can be seen as a conflict between the worldviews of different religions in relation secularism and religious worldview. Aziz to secularism, and finally establish a need to could not bring his wife to his sideline, and, recuperate a rational secularism in the Indian in regret, refused to take any food. “The war subcontinent. As works like, Bapsi Sidhwa’s of starvation which began that day very Ice-Candy Man (1998), Chaman Nahal’ clearly became a duel to the death. True to azadi(2001), Manohar Malgonkar’s a Bend her word, Reverend Mother did not hand her in the Ganges(1965), Kushwant Sing’s a husband, at mealtimes, so much as an empty Train to Pakistan(1956), have also a plate. Doctor Aziz took immediate reprisals, historical background of communal riots, by refusing to feed himself when he was out. transformations of the community life, and Day by day the five children watched their they each attempt to put forward the fact that father disappearing, while their mother the Indian secularism must preserve the grimly guarded the dishes of food”(Rushdie unities of all ethnic relations 1981: 43). The India of Aziz is a whole tree, Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 490 International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ Volume 01 Issue 08 September 2015 in that each fruit of the tree are to be labeled Muslim perspective, and call the ‘Free Islam with the same identity. Aziz wants himself Convocation’ to begin a Muslim secular to be identified by his motherland’s identity: movement. Mian Abdullah’s movement “I started off as a Kashmiri and not much of wants to form an India with Muslim fervor a Muslim. Then I got a bruise on the chest and Aziz, sidelining with him, claims that that turned me into an Indian” (Rushdie Abdullah is fighting his fight. 1981: 40). Aziz even thinks that others also should come up to form a secular modern However, Aziz should not to be India and bids his wife to think of being taken as a Muslim devoid of any national modern Indian. ‘Forget about being a good feeling. His disagreement with his wife, his Kashmiri girl. Start thinking about being a involvement in the freedom movement, his modern Indian woman’ (Rushdie 1981: 34). attempt to form a secular India lead to the His devotion to the nation makes him come fact that he wants to live under the broad out of his home and join the Ghandhi-led umbrella of Indian secularism. He protest by helping the wounded mobs. A effectively mediates between the religious large number of people gathered in Amritsar and national identity. for an anti-British protest. The mobs were Ghosh’s the Shadow Lines shot scattered by the British military force. resonates with typical national concerns and The Ghandhi-led ‘grand design’ got revolves around the historical context of ‘distorted’ (MC 340: “the shops have shut; India-Pakistan war, Hindu-Muslim riots, the railway station is closed; but now the religion-based nation Partition. There were rioting mobs are breaking them up. Doctor some other novels also in Indian English Aziz, leather bag in hand, is out in the canon that have background of the historical streets, giving help whether possible. Partition. Such as, Balchandra Rajan’s The Trampled bodies have been left where they Dark Dancer (1970), Chaman Nahal’s fell. He is bandaging wounds, daubing them Azadi( 2001), Kushwant Sing’s A Train to liberally with Mercurochrome, which makes Pakistan (1956). The Shadow Lines, them bloodier than ever…” (Rushdie 1981: however, is especially remarkable because 34-35). His extension of secular hand in this novel diverse versions of identity towards the wounded people makes the __linguistic, religious, regional__ come to novel a great endorsement of secular matrix. be sharply focused in this novel. Gosh’s Aziz, however, does not wear a novel revolves around the story of three secular identity by replacing his Muslim generations in Dhaka, Calcutta, and London, identity, rather sees India from a Muslim keeping Tridib, a cousin of the narrator’s secular perspective. He wants India to have father at the centre in the novel. He is the a Muslim secularism. Mian Abdullah, one who experiences the terrible picture of contemptuous of ‘the Muslim League’, the communal riots and becomes a victim of promotes the idea of secular India from a the danger. The story begins in the pre- Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 491 International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ Volume 01 Issue 08 September 2015 independent India and ends just after the The narrator, who is of a secular disposition Partition.
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