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Home , Hindi literature, Indian literature, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Samay, Vir Singh (writer)

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Shifting from Tradition to posed for teaching purposes in courses for East Modernity Company officers, also found a warm wel- come among Krṣ ṇ ạ worshippers and has been Until the 19th century, themes, motifs, and forms reprinted until today. Lallūlāl’s Premsāgar turned in the literature composed in modern languages into a kind of prototype text for the language and in India were largely traditional. Artistic refine- contents of the pamphlet literature to be found at ment and literary individualism were achieved devotionalia stores at religious places all over through the ways and means of how given sub- contemporary . Linguistic standard- jects were treated, and how repetition and man- ization was much induced by the production of nerism were avoided in dealing with them. religious texts production in many languages, not Subjects were mostly taken from the huge stock only through Bible or Christian mis- of religious imagination developed in the sionary pamphlets, but also through the produc- Purānaṣ and in Sanskrit epic literature or from tion and distribution of renderings of the bardic and folklore tradition (→ oral traditions popular Hindu stories and myths. The early and folklore; → bards). → Swaminarayan movement, initiated by Within the framings of tradition, a high level of Sahajanand Swami (1781–1830) in and around literary creativity developed in the focal points of the present state of → Gujarat, may serve as an the production, performance, and transmission example for this process. Sectarian text produc- of literature, namely, the courts and temples. tion turned out to be an important tool for the These were embedded in a multireligious and shift fromjūnī gujarātī (“Old Gujarati”) to the transcultural context with its multitude of Hindu modern spoken language as a literary and reli- and Islamic traditions and beliefs, yogic and Bud- gious medium. Many of these changes were dhist substrata, , , and subaltern linked to the introduction and the wide spread of religiosity. Literary creativity was bound to these printing houses throughout the 19th century and sources of inspiration and allowed a high level of new forms of public space related to them. artistic refinement and individual mastery within Literature production in regional languages in its framework. In many parts of India, these tra- British India can be taken as an indicator of ongo- ditional resources are alive until today and con- ing shifts in identity construction and related tinue to infuse society and imagination. identity politics. Modern started Around 1800, Calcutta () with its Fort off as a new form of creative interaction of West- William College (founded 1800) turned into a ern and Eastern reflexivity. Traditions were rein- prominent location of a new type of literature and terpreted, questioned, reconfirmed, and recovered language use. Prose literature writing had not under layers of decline and error, then recom- been completely absent until then, but had posed and reconstructed. Cultural and religious remained largely marginal in many Indian lan- defense strategies facing the challenge of a guages and Persian. Through the inspiration of British-dominated concept of modernity and people like John Gilchrist (1759–1841), advisor modernization were important motives of authors to the bhākhā munśīs (vernacular language teach- and critiques. Tradition was used as a tool to reas- ers), textbooks in various languages for the use of sert self-consciousness threatened by colonial the language courses for Company staff modernity. officers were produced and inspired authors to produce textbooks in the spoken language. One of the literary products of the Fort Williams Reinterpretations of Tradition College textbook production was the Premsāgar by Lallūlāl (1763–1825), a retelling of the classical Ānandamatḥ , the famous written by → Krṣ ṇ ạ biography following a version by Bankimchandra Chatterji in 1881 (in Bengali), can Caturbhuj Miśra of the Bhāgavatapurānạ serve as the most powerful example of the effort (→ Purānas)̣ original in Sanskrit. to construct Hinduism as a source for anticolo- Astonishingly, this text, written around 1803 in nial resistance and assertive Indianness. The novel some form of early Modern Standard , com- is on the famine of 1770 in , which had 660 Hinduism and Modern Literature been under the ’s direct con- century Bengali writings, and in Michael Madhu- trol since the in 1757. A group of sudan Datt’s (1824–1873) Meghanādvadhkāvya saṃ nyāsīs (religious ascetics and monks) turn (Killing of Meghanād; 1861) in particular. The to revolt in favor of the suffering people. The hero subject of this epic poem is one of the highlights of of the novel, the landowner Mahendra Siṃ h, the Sanskrit → Rāmāyanạ , the fight between becomes one of them and has guns made in his Laksmaṇ ạ (brother of → Rāma) and the son of village to fight the British. However, when defeat Rāvana,̣ Meghnād. It is written in a traditional is apparent, a holy man explains to him that the 8+6-syllable-meter blank verse. The subject is British were sent to him by destiny, but the real widely known trough all kinds of vernacular ver- enemy he has to fight are the . Part of the sions all over the subcontinent (Datt had known novel is the hymn Bande Mātaram (I Bow to the subject probably from the popular Kṛttivāsa You, Mother) – devoted to the Bengali mother version), but the author is at the same clearly goddess – which was put into partisan use by the influenced by European epic , particularly svadeśī (“homemade”) movement from 1905 after Homer, Dante, and J. Milton, in treating his tradi- the partition of Bengal. It is still used as a patri- tional Indian material. otic hymn in contemporary India, even though it Authors like ’s recompos- contains a deeply rooted anti-Muslim message. ing of traditional characters was not simply affir- Towards the end of the 19th century, tradition mative. In his long poems “Yaśodharā” – (wife of was more and more perceived in terms of a the historical Buddha) and “Urmilā” (wife of monolithic construction of culture cum religion Laksmaṇ ̣, Rām’s brother, in his long poem under baptized as “Hinduism.” In the world of Hindi, the title Sāket), he retells historical and mythical Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886–1965) should be stories from an imagined female perspective. mentioned, marking the breakthrough of poetry Both poems are concerned with the suffering, but writing in Modern Standard Hindi, particularly also the moral strength of abandoned wifes, his patriotic collection of hymns Bhārat-Bhāratī which has been largely neglected in traditional (The Voice of India, 1912). The publication of this poetry. Even though Maithili Sharan Gupt por- book earned him the title rāsṭ rakavị (“national trays his female characters with empathy, and ”) by his mentor and then-editor of the Hindi almost with devotion. The ascetic strength of literary magazine Sarasvatī, Mahavir Prasad these women, and their moral superiority, make Dwivedi (1864–1938). Rāsṭ rakavị clearly indicates them fit into the classical ascetic female ideal: the the link between the political and the poetical: chaste Indian wife, ready to accept any suffering Bhārat-Bhāratī glorifies India’s past, contrasting it from an unjust husband. Gupt also translated the with the decline of the present. Even though popular quatrains (Rubaiyat) of Omar Khayam poetry of this kind may not be explicitly anti- (1048?–1122?) into Hindi, a widely appreciated Muslim, it served as an important tool to create piece of Persian lyrics in India. contemporary identity politics referring to an New readings of episodes from the Rāma story imagined homogenized version of a highly ideal- continue to be created by authors of different ized form of Hinduism as a monolithic unity. backgrounds, particularly after the destruction of Contrasting India’s golden past with the decline the Babri Mashjeed in Ayodhya (→ ) as a result of Muslim and British domination sub- in December 1992, following an intensive cam- sequently became a common feature of anticolo- paigning for the construction of a Rāmjanma- nial literary sentiments. It was convenient to bhūmi Temple on that very spot and the ensuing portray Hinduism in general as the innocent vic- communal riots all over India, leaving about three tim of malicious intruders. At the same time, tra- thousand people dead throughout India. As the dition was constantly reinterpreted and used to Hindi poet Kunwar Narain (born 1927) says in exemplify modern messages. New readings of his poem “Ayodhya, 1992,” were produced by a great diver- O sity of authors. During the last decades, the space Life is a bitter fact for such readings has steadily shrunk, leading to a and you are an epic. (Narain, 2008, 51) stark diminishing of both the political and the lit- erary lives of these texts. In modern → and subaltern writing, the fig- The first examples of this modern refor mulation ure of Eklavya, taken from the → Mahābhārata, of classical subjects are to be found in 19th- has become a focal point of a counter-cultural Hinduism and Modern Literature 661 reading of the classics. Low-caste Eklavya is a tion of mentally disturbed patients of a mental kind of illegal pupil of Dronācārya,̣ the five asylum some time after partition (1947). Some Pānḍ ̣avas’ teacher, for the use of weapons. When lost mentally disturbed Hindus and Sikhs, who Dronạ discovers that Eklavya has learned to shoot had been inmates in the asylum for years, are to be with arrows by following his teachings secretly exchanged with similar Muslim patients from from afar, he demands his right thumb as India (→ madness). The absurdity of the question gurudaksiṇ ạ̄ , as the gift for the → guru after having of religious identity in the asylum exemplifies the learned everything from the guru. absurdity of the violent partition on religious grounds. Asghar Wajahat’s short story Maiṃ Eklavya! Hindū Hūṃ (I Am a Hindu!, in the Hindi literary Don’t turn into a fool once again journal Hams 8, 2002) is about the reactions of don’t give your thumb, my friend ̣ from now on from betrayal Muslim youths in a Muslim neighborhood in a keep it safe North Indian town during communal riots. They for the next fight. (Shashi, 1990, 22) prepare for defense, keep a strict vigil, and defy their feeling of being threatened by daydreaming While social emancipation is the basic message of of Pakistan and an innate feeling of belonging to references to Eklavya, in the second part of Sunil the right religion. The mentally disturbed youth Gangopadhyay’s historical novel Sei Samay (1983, Saifū, however, is brutally beaten by the riot police in Bengali), the Mahābhārata epic as a whole when he tries to explain to them in his confused is reduced to a kind of romantic metaphor. manner, “I am a Hindu!” Nabīnkumār, hero of the novel and last offspring Partition and the extreme forms of communal of a mid-19th-century Bengali aristocratic family, violence during and after Partition have figured accepts the task of translating the Mahābhārata high in Punjabi and as well as into Bengali, while his family is constantly on in . Perhaps the most prominent novel the decline. Nabīnkumār’s death symbolizes the featuring this subject is Tamas (1974) by the collapse of the famous 19th-century Bengali famous Hindi prose author (1915– renaissance. 2003). This novel describes the psychological The transformative reinterpretation of charac- set up and the growing radicalization along com- ters from the epics is a very common feature even munalist lines during and after independence in modern from the subcontinent, (1947) in a certain region of the Pakistani Panjab. including English literature. A classical example The screening of the film-version of the novel for this process are modern renderings of the love in Indian television in 1987 (film by Govind story between Śakuntalā and Dusyanta,̣ best Nihalani), 40 years after the tragic events, made known through → Kālidāsa’s classical Sanskrit the novel into one of the best known pieces of drama. Kirtana Kumar’s retelling of Śakuntalā in modern Hindi literature in India. The novel English presents the heroin as an autonomous Hamārā śahar us baras (Our Town That Year, personality, ready to fight for her rights. Her 1998) of Geetanjali Shree (b. 1957) is a reaction Śakuntalā, unlike the submissive woman and to the riots following the destruction of the abandoned mother in Kālidāsa’s treatment of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya and reflects anxiety, original Mahābhārata plot, is ready to cope with regret, and desperation in response to the her fate as a lonely mother. subtle changes of mood among friends in the situation of a communal riot. Geetanjali Shree’s concern, like that of others as well, is basically Communalism and Universalism on the growth of attraction of hindutva ideas in recent years, which propel religious polariza- Communal riots have often been the subject of tion and violence. Her more recent novel Khālī literary writing. The Urdu author Saadat Hasan Jagah (Empty Space, 2006) is focused on the Manto (1912–1955) was among those and almost question of the identity of a boy who loses his par- obsessively wrote on the trauma of partition, ents in a religiously motivated terror attack. The accompanied by Hindu-Muslim and Sikh-Muslim “empty space,” a niche in a building in which a boy riots of an unprecedented scale. His short story miraculously survives the bomb blast, becomes Ṭobā Ṭek Siṃ gh, one of the most famous in mod- the metaphor of his identity after having lost ern Indian short-story writing, tells of the separa- his parents. 662 Hinduism and Modern Literature The question of identity and its substance has the same time, God appears not only as spirit or accompanied modernity from its beginnings and as the impersonal “God of life,” but also, at least continues to be raised through the voice of mod- metaphorically, in personal form, for example as ern literature. Rabindranath → Tagore’s (1861– a king, manorial, and merciful at the same time. 1941) approach to the imminent question of God’s existence is in itself a response to suffering identity – and religious identity in particular – and death. can be read in the context of anticolonial Indian Real religiosity is universal in character, as Tag- (and Hindu) identity politics. In his famous novel ore explains particularly in The Religion of Man Gorā (1910), a young and particularly orthodox (1931). Tagore insisted on universalism in reli- Hindu called Gorā (“The White”) is severely gious matters, but somehow did not comply with shaken in his strictly Brahmanic self-conscious- Mahatma → Gandhi’s interpretation of Hinduism ness when he finds out that he is not the son of as a tool for Indian modernity. Tagore’s poetry his parents, but an adopted child from Irish par- and particularly Gītāñjalī, which in its English ents who were killed in the uprising of 1857–1858 version made Tagore the first ever non-occidental in British India. This revelation puts a question recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, mark behind Gorā’s identity, since he finds out he was much translated from Bengali and English is not a native Brahman. Pareś Bābū’s and Gorā’s into several Indian languages, initiating a kind of growing love of Suracitā, Pareś Bābū’s adopted pan-Indian poetical naturalism. In Hindi, the daughter, pave the way to a new construction of Tagore-inspired discovery of new images and identity after his expulsion from Brahmanic metaphors of nature and God is called Chāyāvād orthodoxy caused by the revelation of his non- (the movement on “the reflections of God in the Brahmanic ancestry. He discovers a new space of world”). Perhaps the most significant Chāyāvād some kind of internalized religiosity, transcend- author was (1907–1987). Par- ing the limitations of a historical religion. ticularly in her poetry collection Yāmā (Hours, “My religion is the religion of the poet,” says 1936), she develops her lyrical imagination as a Tagore in his book The Religion of Man, published tool of prayer and communication with God, 1931 (Tagore, 1931, 107). Tagore himself, like who, even though he is beyond the world and many other “religious” authors, usually made its shortcomings, is reflected in the beauty of statements on religion beyond historical condi- nature. He is transcendental and the cosmos, the tions and dogmatic constitutions of any sort. Tag- addressee of poetical invocations and at the same ore’s highly impressive public image, with his long time painfully far away and unreachable. beard and the red robe, occasionally led to the comparison of the “Wise man from the East” with the prototypical guru (religious teacher) and Religion and Progressivism Christ himself. Even though he rarely openly resisted the stereotypical perception of his per- Statements on cultural and religious decline often sonality, particularly during his long journeys in turned into a criticism of religious institutions Europe and America, he simply understood him- and religion in general, which are portrayed as self as a kobi (Skt. kavi; poet), and not a guru. the core of corruption and human disregard Neither Tagore nor other modern Indian in society. A critical attitude towards religion authors were much concerned with metaphysical became a common feature in modern Indian problems like theodicy, prophetical unrest, or writing in the regional languages, particularly contrition, as in modern Christian literature. God from the 1920s onwards. This was perceived as an is usually the omniscient creator and redeemer, Indian response to the liberatory optimism of the merciful, sometimes in mysterious ways, an claims of enlightenment in a Western sense and object of longing and loving desire, of mystical as a Western infusion. Nobel Laureate (2001) V.S. experience, and perhaps more impersonal than Naipaul’s (b. 1932, Trinidad) observation in his personal in character. Tagore’s three early poetry travelogue A Million Mutinies Now (1990), writ- collections Naibedya (Sacrifice, 1901),Kheyā ten during the author’s sojourn in his ancestral (Transfer, 1906), and Gītāñjalī (The Offering in land, has been criticized as an outsider’s perspec- Form of Songs, 1910) are full of images and meta- tive in Indian criticism and an indicator of how phors of some kind of mystical naturalism, relat- the West continuously misunderstands India. ing nature to God and to final union with him. At Hinduism and Modern Literature 663 The liberation of spirit that has come to India The New Temple could not come as a release alone. In India, with its layer below layer of distress and cruelty, it had (1877–1938) chided the temple to come as disturbances. It had to come as rage as well as the mosque in his famous Urdu poem and revolt. India was now a country of a mil- “Nayā Šivālā”̇ (The New Temple, in Bāng-e darā, lion little mutinies. (Naipaul, quoted in Massey, 1924) and calls for the construction of a new tem- 2004, 88) ple as a new space of cultural and national iden- The articles on “progressive literature” in different tity, transforming “communal” forms of religion. Indian languages scheduled by the Sahitya Aka- Such a conceptualization of liberal religiosity demi in its monumental Encyclopeadia of Indian transcending the limitations of institutionalized Literature demonstrate the discoursive domi- religions resembles the experience of Tagore’s nance of progressivism in Indian literature as a Gorā, who finally comes to the conclusion that whole. The criticism of priests and other religious oppositions among , Muslim, and officials, bigotry, greed, and blind belief are con- Christian are resolved in him. Finally, a kind of stant features of progressivist literature in India. cultural nationalism is to appropriate the space of Priests are often depicted in terms like “dealers of religion. The didactic character of prose and religion” (Hind. dharm ke thekedāṛ ), and even in poetry dealing with the subject of religious “com- plots that were much influenced by some kind of munalism” was generally not perceived as dimin- emphatic Gandhianism, like Premcand’s (1880– ishing literary quality. The condemnation of 1936) short story Mandir (The Temple, 1927). In religious violence and hatred, bigotry and nar- this short story, the priest is an uncivilized and rowness, and the glorification of religious toler- merciless slave of the traditional social and reli- ance was expected from literary creations, since gious discrimination of . The real religious they had to serve the higher purposes of progres- is Sukhiyā, the unhappy lonely mother of a sick sivism, anticolonialism, and national uplift. child. The purity of her devotion is contrasted by Premcand’s short story Mandir demonstrates the wickedness of the Hindu priest and the ruth- typical features of the literature of the 1920s on lessness of the village people, who prevent the religion. Authors work out the “real” religion in simple Dalit woman from entering the temple in the hearts and behaviors of simple-minded char- order to pray and bring forward her offer for her acters as in the case of Sukhiyā in Mandir, model sick son. → Caste society and extreme forms of character of the suffering mother. Sukhiyā’s per- social injustice are often the focus of engaged sonal and sincere devotion is contrasted with the writing. The Untouchable (1936) by Mulk Raj world of religious institutions and the constant Anand (1905–2004) is often seen as the first orig- misuse of religion as an instrument of power and inal Indian novel in the English language and hypocrisy. Contrasting “real” religion with exist- focuses on Bakha, the scavenger, who, being ing organized form of religious practice is not a unable to improve his social identity, finally ends modern invention, but follows a traditional model up inventing the water closet to change his plight of literature in general. Under the influ- (→ untouchability). ence of ’s return to religion as a Starting from the spearheading 19th-century source of modern Indian identity, it is sometimes Bengali novel writing, pious characters are very interpreted as a response to the use of religion as often manifestations of hypocrisy. The more a source of communal violence. pious, the more greedy and lecherous: one of the Only few years later, and particularly in his early prototypes of this combination is Bhakta great novel Godān (The Gift of a Cow, 1936) and Prasād in Michael Madhusudan Datt’s (1824– short stories like Kafan (The Shroud, 1936), Prem- 1873) play Buro Śāliker Ghare Rov (The Old cand’s idealistic characterization of the religious Lecher, 1866), a rich and pious landowner run- feelings of the socially marginalized and the Dal- ning after the wife of a Muslim debtor. Under its in particular is gone. The first chapter inGodān pressure, she elopes with him and meets him in a lets Horī hurry up in the morning without break- ruined temple. Since the location is not devoted fast in order to meet the village feudal lord, to → Śiva anymore, the hypocritical Bhakta Prasād because he would like to attend to him before he feels free to satisfy his desires at this very spot. starts his “bathing and praying” – a deeply sarcas- tic statement on the brahmanic religiosity of poor Horī’s rich landlord. While Horī (in Godān) has 664 Hinduism and Modern Literature at least maintained his personal sense of honesty Religion as Reaction even under constantly deteriorating conditions, Mādhū and Ghīsū (in Kafan) are hopeless – they A somehow characteristic example of the con- appear as disoriented, passive, and broken char- tinuing Marxist dealing with religious literature is acters, immutable victims of the violence inher- Dharmgraṃ thoṃ kā Punarpātḥ (Re-reading of ent in the caste system. Premcand’s growing Religious Books, 2004), written by the indepen- pessimism leaves any optimism inherent in pro- dent author, critic, and editor Mudrarakshas gressivism behind. The same Premcand however, (born 1933). The book is an outcome of Mudra- shortly before his death in 1936, is among the rakshas’ reading of modern postcolonial theory founding fathers of the Progressive Writers’ and argues against the Brahmanic dominance Association. (Hind. brāhmaṇ tantr) in history, politics, and lit- Emphatic statements on the liberation of the erature, deconstructing Hinduism and recon- individual from tradition are, however, contra- structing subaltern traditions of the marginalized dicted by a continuing reassurance of tradition in in Hindu society. The first and longest chapter is a modern literature, and the expression of the need “re-reading of India’s past” (Hind. bhāratīy atīt kā of reform and reaffirmation of some kind of punarpātḥ ) and recovers Buddhist and Dalit his- “purified” tradition. Besides, the age-old tradition tory behind the colonial constructions of a mono- of sectarian and devotional literature writing also lithic Hinduism. continued throughout the 19th and 20th centu- Statements on “debrahmanising history” and ries, in poetry and prose. Particularly in the world on “dominance and resistance in Indian society” of Hindi, the → Arya Samaj (founded 1875) (Braj Ranjan Mani, Debrahmanising History: inspired authors to write on “Vedic” issues and Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society) sig- the return to the → is sometimes presented nal the dynamics of Dalit literature in Marathi as the clue to national renaissance. since the late 1960s and of other Indian languages was much inspired by some more recently. The construction of alternative authors related to the Singh Sabha Movement in perspectives on literature and religion fit into the the late 19th century. Bhai (1872–1957), agenda of progressive writing: “the [Progressive the most important author of this group and a Writers’] Movement refuted and opposed our father of modern Punjabi literature, founded the age-old Oriental civilization, and our great cul- Khalsa Tract Society in 1894 and published works tural, moral, and spiritual traditions” (Zaheer, on Sikh theology (see → Hinduism and Sikhism), 2006, 79). The concept of progressiveness in liter- and history, and fine literature ature in India took shape in the early 1930s and as well. His magnum opus, a detailed commen- was defined in the manifesto of the Progressive tary on the complete Guru Granth Sāhib (or Writers’ Movement (PWM), drafted by a circle of Ādigranth), remained unfinished due to his sud- Indian students in London in 1935 (later called den death. Sri → Aurobindo (1872–1950) is better the Progressive Writers’ Association [PWA]). As known as a guru and author of books on Hindu Ahmed Ali pointed out, the word “progressive” in spirituality, but he also is an author of poetry and the Indian context originally meant “banishment aesthetic theory that deeply influenced particu- of mysticism” and “acceptance of realism” – larly South Indian authors. His epic poem something that was perceived as already achieved “Sāvitrī,” which remained unfinished due to the in , while Indian literature was author’s death, refers back to the couple Satyāvan perceived as being backward. Even movement and Sāvitrī in the Mahābhārata and is on the members who used to write on Indian “mysti- development of the human soul, and the future of cism” themselves – like the Urdu author, histo- humankind. With its 24 thousand blank verses, it rian, and critic Yusuf Hussain Khan (1902–1979), is probably the longest poem written in English. younger brother of the third , In the late 19th and 20th centuries, classical epics Zakir Hussain – supported the manifesto text were in parts or completely reformulated by mod- with its progressivism. Statements on progressiv- ern authors in the recently developed style of ism, the general credo of the modern literature in modern prose writing, starting from Lallūlāl’s many languages, were usually permeated with Premsāgar. criticism of religious institutions or religious behavior as such. It often had overtly socialist and Marxist overtones. Hinduism and Modern Literature 665 In general, the “secular” and its conceptualiza- The secular historians’ inattention to the language tion as “secularism” are mostly perceived in terms of religion and faith is one area in which the of a practical mode to achieve a certain balance right-wing Hindu claims often sticks. (Pandey, between different religions in modern society and 2006, 88) as a synonym to practical and theoretical toler- The open question remains, whether a return to ance and toleration in India. In an age of terror- religion surrounded by growing secularism and, ism inspired by a modern interpretation of Islam, at the same time, universal scepticism,is possible and of Hindu revivalism, religion is still often as deliberately, as Nirmal Varma seems to have perceived by intellectuals in India as the source of had in mind. “communalism,” as a source of violent resentment While progressivism in form of social realism and resistance against modernity and progressiv- is still vivid among creative writers, the overall ism as a positive source in history. In contrast, feeling of loss and the resulting effort to recover religion – in the form of Hinduism – is simply identity permeates contemporary literature. Kiran identified with the national. Rām is perceived and Desai’s (b. 1971) superb novel The Inheritance of explained not only as a Hindu god to be wor- Loss (2006), for which the young author received shipped in his images, but also as a national hero. the Booker Price of 2006, stands for the percep- From this perspective, Islam is an antinational tion of cultural identity as something that is lost factor. and beyond the possibility of being recovered. In this book, an inner relationship to God and reli- gion is a memory, similarly present as the “family Reflexive Modernity → pūjā silver from their pre-atheist days” (ch. 37). One of the most famous English authors of At the same time, modernity includes a growing Indian background, A.K. Ramanujan (1929–1993), skeptical awareness that modernity does not sim- writes in his poem “Elements of Composition,” ply solve problems through the application of rational thought. Estrangement from tradition, and the sweet inherent in modernization, deconstructs identi- twisted lives of epileptic saints, ties. The inherent rationale of progressive writing and even as I add, is not only perceived as liberation. It also denudes I lose, decompose the human being. He finds himself alone in a dis- Into my elements enchanted world, and movements like the Nayī Into other names and forms, Kahānī (“New Short Story”) Movement in Hindi Past, and passing, tenses literature in post- developed out of Without time, an underlying feeling of a general disillusion with Caterpillar on a leaf, eating, any form of idealism and existential loneliness. being eaten. In the world of Hindi, Nirmal Varma (1929– Here, poetry production is composition and 2005) was perhaps the most radical interpreter of decomposition at the same time as a way to feelings of loneliness and desire in an Indian con- go through time and yet transcend time – text, for example in his short-story collection changing names and forms, and at the same time Kauvve aur Kālā Pānī (Craws and Black Water, transcending them. The process of literary cre- 1983). “What is the use of suffering loneliness in ativity is perceived in the terminology of Hindu life, if the right to die lonely is not granted to us?” philosophy. he writes in his diary Dhumdh se Uthtī Dhun (The ̣ ̣ A.K. Ramanujan wrote poetry almost entirely Melody Arising from Mist, 1997, 187). Varma’s in English. Reviewer B. King called A.K. Ramanu- efforts in the last two decades of his life, to come jan, along with two other transcultural , back to terms with the vocabulary of tradition “Indo-Anglian harbingers of literary ” and to reinterpret Hindu cultural and religious (quoted in Patel, 1992, 960). A.K. Ramanujan dis- traditions, were much opposed in the world of cusses the following poem, “Astronomer,” in Is Indian literature. There were allegations that he There an Indian Way of Thinking? (1990), explain- had turned from communism to Hindu national- ing that this poem is about his father, Srinivas ism. Varma had joined the communist party in Ramanujan, who was a famous mathematician. 1956, but, being disillusioned, he left it in the late He describes his father: 1960s. But, in the words of G. Pandey, 666 Hinduism and Modern Literature He was a mathematician, an astronomer. But he The modern feeling of loss, of home, and of an was also a Sanskrit scholar, an expert astrolo- instituted religiosity corresponds to his tradi- ger. He had two kinds of visitors: American and tional Jewish identity, referring back to prophesy English mathematicians who called on him and to the language, rhythm, and style of the holy when they were on a visit to India, and local book. In “Psalm 151” (1950–51) he writes, astrologers, orthodox pundits who wore splen- did gold-embroidered shawls dowered by the Hours of joy with doubt are charged, . I had just been converted by Russell Confessions bring me no release. to the “scientific attitude.” I (and my generation) (born 1961), in her famous novel was troubled by his holding together in one The Lord of Small Things (1997, Booker Prize in brain both astronomy and astrology; I looked the year of publication), refers to religion, to the for consistency in him, a consistency he didn’t Keralese Christianity of her childhood, and to seem to care about, or even think about. Hinduism in form of popular culture. The novel The poem “Astronomer” is an attempt to make is focused on extramarital love relationships in a sense of his father’s seemingly contradictory Christian factory owner’s family in Kerala, a story image, mixing elements of modern astronomy spanning three generations. When Sophie, visitor and traditional Hindu → astrology into one and from India, suffocates in her boat, the Dalit Velu- the same personality: tha, who had had a love affair with Rahel and Estha, is found responsible for the death and is Sky-man in a manhole unable to defend himself. The God of small things with astronomy for dream, is the God of loss. Small things refer to and astrology for nightmare; fat man full of proverbs, replace the big issues. the language of lean years, In Inderjit Badhwar’s English novel Sniffing living in square after Papa (2002), the religious comes back as a deep almanac square cultural layer on the occasion of death. On the prefiguring the day. Second( Sight, 1986) death of his atheist father (“the Shikari”), towards the end of the book, the caste fellowship takes Astrology stands for the past – even though it over his dead body: may be meaningless in a scientific sense, relating to dreams and illusions, it also is a culturally They knew about death and its rituals. They had bound identification of man with his universe: come to claim one of their own…And damn the Shikari’s oft-repeated request, when he was his body the Great Bear alive, that his body be quietly disposed off with- dipping for the honey, out the religious ceremonies he did not believe the woman-smell in. (Badhwar, 2002, 459ff.) in the small curly hair down there. Badhwar then comes to the cleansing of the body with yoghurt and water, and the ensuing funeral, Authors write about memories of religion and after which the remaining bones are collected prayer. Memories take over, where identities are from among the warm ash heap, purified by broken under modern conditions. The Indo-Jew- → Gangā̇ water (Badhwar, 2002, 469ff.). ish author (1924–2004) starts off his poem “Prayer I” (1953) with the following: In America we had heard nothing of this from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi or Rajneesh or the If I could pray, the gist of my talkathons on on television. Demanding would be simply this: Papa’s bones had filled the urn that weighed Quietude. The ordered mind. no more than a couple of pounds. (Badhwar, Erasure of the inner lie. 2002, 472) And in “Lamentation” (1950–1951) he writes, Questions of displaced Hindu orthodox identity My lips lack prophesy issues figure prominently in Ananthamurthy’s My tongue speaketh no great matters (b. 1932) Saṃ skāra (1966), somehow resembling The words of the wise are wasted on me Tagore’s Gorā and Badhwar’s Sniffing Papa. Origi- Fugitive am I and far from home. nally written in , the story is situated in a Hinduism and Modern Literature 667 traditional Brahman rural settlement. The narra- Twentieth-Century Indian Literature, ZZA.S 1, Tübingen, tion starts off with the question of whether the 1998. death rituals (→ saṃ skāras) can be performed for Lothspeich, P., Epic Nation: Reimagining the Mahābhārata in the Age of the Empire, New , 2009. a Brahman who was guilty of having publicly Mani, B.R., Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resis- maintained a love relationship with Candrī, a tance in Indian Society, New Delhi, 2005. low-caste concubine. When Candrī offers her jew- Marriot, M., India through Hindu Categories (= CIS 5), elry as compensation, the Brahmans try to con- New Delhi, 1990. vince the presiding priest Praneśācāryạ to perform Massey, J., “Dalits in India: The Question of Conflict and the rituals. Praneśācārya,̣ however, turns to the Peace,” in: H.-M. Barth & C. Elsas, eds., Religiöse Mind- temple image of the god → Hanumān in order to erheiten. Potentiale für Konflikt und Frieden, Marburg, 2004, 74–96. come to a decision – but to no avail. When return- McGregor, R.S., Hindi Literature from Its Beginnings to the ing home from the temple, he meets Candrī, who Nineteenth Century, HIL 8/6, Wiesbaden 1984. falls to his feet crying and touching him without McGregor, R.S., Hindi Literature of the Nineteenth and intention, and he is finally seduced by the girl- Early Twentieth Centuries, HIL 8/2, Wiesbaden, 1974. friend of the deceased. When he wakes up in her Mudrārāksas,̣ Dharmgraṃ thoṃ kā Punarpātḥ , , lap, Praneśācāryạ is ready to confess to the village 2004 (Hind.). what has happened, but he finds his village in a Murshid, G., Lured by Hope: A Biography of Michael Mad- husudan Dutt, New York, 2003. deteriorated state with rats and vultures attack- Narain, Kunvar, No Other World: Selected Poems, New ing. People start to simply run away, while Candrī Delhi, 2008. with the help of Muslim villagers takes the rotting Oberoi, H., The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Cul- corpse of her beloved away and has the funeral ture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition, New organized in secrecy without Brahman assistance. Delhi, 1994. Praneśācārya’ṣ wife dies, and he decides to leave Pandey, G., Routine Violence: Nations, Fragments, Histo- the village and becomes a kind of wandering ries, Stanford, 2006. Pennington, B.K., Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indi- ascetic. Praneśācārya finally decides to go back to ̣ ans, and the Colonial Construction of Religion, Oxford, his village, and this is where the novel abruptly 2005. ends, leaving the reader to his own imagination. Ramanujan, A.K., The Collected Poems of A.K. Ramanu- jan, Delhi, 1995. Ruben, W., Indische Romane I, Berlin, 1964. Bibliography Sawhney, S., The Modernity of Sanskrit, Minneapolis, 2008. 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