Chapter -VI

Conclusion Ihis is the concluding ciiapter of the study. Culture is a poiycenlric concept. There is

no one way to define or describe cuUure. One can at the most explain it with the help

of the domestic, social, national features of an individual. Though each one of us has

one dominant culture, there are other less dominant cultures in every individual's life.

Literature deals with human activities, their interactions with the others and their

emotional upbringing. No human being in the world is without culture. Ihis

necessarily means that culture generates literature. Culture and literature are closely

linked with one another. The researcher has taken into consideration various views on

culture expressed by the experts in the world at the beginning of the study.

India has always been a land of many cultures staying together amicably for

many centuries. Indian literature in various regional languages has always included

characters, ideas and incidents having many cultural implications. This tradition

continues even in Indian English literature today. The researcher has observed that

culture believes and expounds good things. Whatever may culture mean, it cannot be

bad. It does not have harmful elements in it.

Multicultural individual or society is a self-explanatory term in sociology.

Coming together of many cultures at one place renders the phenomenon multicultural

property. European and American societies were mostly monocultural for many

centuries. They had to start a political movement called multicultural movement in

order to invite and accommodate people from various cultures of the world. Canada is

supposed to be a pioneer of this movement. The population of Canada was so thin and

sparse that, they had to make special appeals to the outsiders to come and stay there.

The researcher has taken into consideration Indian perspective on multicultural

movement.

192 The researcher found that hidian Enghsh literature is lull of characters belonging to different cuhural backgrounds. Writers from R. K. Narayan to C'iietan

Bhagat include multicultural ambivalence in their writings without making any special efforts to incorporate them. Indian English novels deal with the people from different casts, cultures and nationalities. British rule in brought Indians in contact with European people for various reasons. Indian writers in English included

European characters in their writings. The interaction between the people from the

East and the West enhanced multicultural environment in Indian writing in English.

Indian attitude to these people varied from time to time. We had respect, fear, doubt, apprehension and anger for these people. Rudyard Kipling's famous statement that the East and the West cannot meet seems to be true in the beginning. Gradually

Indians began to comprehend western people. Edward Said states, "Culture is never just a matter of ownership, of borrowing and lending with absolute debtors and creditors, but rather of appropriations, common experiences, and interdependencies of all kinds among different cultures."' The interaction between the two became an enriching experience for the Indians. Novels like R. K. Narayan's The Guide (1958),

Mulk Raj Anand's Coolie (1936), 's The Serpent and the Rope (1960) and

Jai Nimbkar's Come Rain (1993) etc. show a fruitful amalgamation of various cultures in literature.

The present study deals with the analysis of six novels from multicultural perspectives. There are two ways to talk about this perspective. One is normative multicultural perspective and the other is descriptive multicultural perspective. The normative perspective prescribes rules and regulations to be followed by the concerned cultural groups. It distinguishes between good and bad, high and low, rich and poor. The descriptive perspective does not prescribe but it describes the cultural 193 relations as they are. It abstains from value judgment. All the cultures are equal for descriptive perspective. I'he modern world believes in equality, liberty and fraternity.

Multiculturalism and humanity are the two sides of the same coin today. Cultures are not the battlegrounds for people. This is reflected in the selected novels for the study.

The first hypothesis of the study was that Indian novels in English are deeply rooted in Indian social milieu. The novels selected for this study prove this hypothesis. All these novels have Indian characters- their customs and conventions.

Though the novels are not limited to Indian setting exclusively, main incidents take place in Indian minds only. There is a reference to Biju in America in Desai's The

Inheritance of Loss. The White Tiger is fully set in India. The Immigrant may be set in Canada but it shows the journey of Indian mind from India to Canada. Home also takes place on the rich Indian soil. Amitav Ghosh's two novels namely The Hungry

Tide and Sea of Poppies are set in the Indian subcontinent. Thus, we can say India frames locales of these novels.

The names of the characters also reflect the Indianness of these novels. Proper names like Jemubhai, Gyan, Balram, Nina, Nisha, Ashok, Kalua, Nilima, Nirmal, etc. have Indian flavor. These names also suggest that they come from different parts of

India having a variety of cultures. Jemubhai is Gujarati, Gyan is Nepali, Balram comes from , Nina is from Delhi, Nisha is from Delhi and Nilima is from

Calcutta etc. All these characters have different social and cultural backgrounds. The novelists show the interaction and intercommunication among these characters to show the amalgamation of many cultures in Indian writing in English.

The term culture is simultaneously related to caste, class, gender, nationality and heritage. Indian novelists in English have not been able to come out of traditional

194 teaUires ascribed to the characters. I'or example, a person iVom low caste or class has

to play the secondary role in the action of the novel. Nepali cook in the service of

Jemubhai Patel is shown to be a beggar, asking for God's favor. His attempts to overcome his conditions by sending his son to America fail miserably. Balram in The

White Tiger has to work as a driver to a multimillionaire because he comes from lower caste. The difference between the two is that Biju fails but Balram succeeds.

Multiculturalism is a theory to analyze and assess characters with compassion and sympathy. It expects readers and writers of fiction to go into the details of the action of the characters. We feel pity for the loss of inheritance of Biju and his father.

Gyan may be wrong in joining terrorist camp but sympathetic reader may compare

Biju with the Indian freedom fighters. Thus, multiculturalism expects us to read the situation from different angles. That is why Balram's action is not totally disapproved by the writer and the readers. It was considered to be a mortal sin to kill one's master in the past. Such action was related to religious preaching in the past. When the existence of God itself is doubted, the very idea of sin recedes into the background.

Thus, the theory of multiculturalism expects readers to look at the history, culture and religion from a new angle. All these novels show that it can help us to look at our traditional culture with a new perspective. Woman is an important component of any culture. Indian woman led a life of suppression and dereliction for a long time. Even the women did not oppose to their exploitation. It is because they were studied from one cultural view only. When Indian men and women came into close contacts with the men and women from other cultures, they reviewed their position in Indian society. That is why they have started asserting their rights to live life like men. Multiculturalism brought freedom of thought and action for women. It has freed them from the tyranny of monocultural thinking. Nina and Nisha in The 195 Imniigranl cind Home respectively are prepared to challenge the male dominance in the I'amily. Both of them go out with their boyfriends, interact with them without guilt and shame. Nina has extramarital sexual relation with Anton, because she is dissatisfied with her disabled husband.

Kiran Desai's The Inheritunee of Loss shows the failure of human efforts to acquire other culture at the cost of one's own culture. Jemubhai Patel, Biju and Gyan can be quoted in this respect. Jemubhai Patel was impressed by the British culture and wanted to become one of it. He hated his wife because he thought her simpleton. He tried to acquire British ways of life for a long time. The result was that he was cut off from his roots in India and he could not take roots in alien British culture. It never accepted him in its fold. The ultimate outcome in his life was the life of loneliness in the Himalayan ridges. He led a life of barrenness in the old age.

If Jemubhai suffered in England, Biju was a victim of running away from one's own native land. Biju in America and his father in India looked at America as a land of opportunity but Biju had come back to India without a single dollar in his pocket. Biju's case is a revelation for many aspiring Indians. Biju could neither talk about his sufferings in America nor could he bear the humiliating inhuman experience there. He meekly tolerated the insults. Multicultural globalization in this way has made a man coward and secretive.

Gyan is a very different case. He was fighting against India in India itself He and his Gorkha National Liberation Front thought that India was trying to obliterate their separate identity of worrier Gorkha. He also did not succeed in his mission to establish a separate identity for himself

196 Ihus. Kiran Desai shows the negative etTect of multicuhural aspirations of the

Indian persons in this novef Though she does not state it clearly, she seems to be

suggesting that one should inherit profit in one's own culture and land. Though the

world is becoming speedily multicultural, people are not ready to accommodate

financial and national interest of other people at the cost of their own interests.

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger shows the diabolic effects of globalization

on the innocent Indian mind. Ashok Sharma, Pinky Madam and Balram Halwai are

studied from multicultural prospective in this dissertation. Balram was transported

from his rustic life into cosmopolitan Delhi very early in his life. The neo-capitalism

has severe effects on his mind. He led the life of a destitute in Delhi. He lived in parking lot of the huge palatial buildings in Delhi. Naturally, Balram wanted to raise

his status from a person living in parking lot to the person with well-furnished flat. U

is a human tendency to expect better standard of life. Balram wanted to be as rich as

the people from luxurious flats. It was his heart felt desire to cross his culture.

There was nothing wrong in all these. He saw the unethical practices of the rich industrialists and the famous politicians to grab power and wealth. He was quick to understand that if he led the life of a beggar in the world, he would not be in a

position to go higher in life. That is why he adopted the unethical and immoral way to

become rich and respectable.

When many cultures come together, it is not always the best that comes out.

Sometimes it could also be the dark side of one culture that is picked by the raw minds from other culture. Globalization has shown the various possibilities of

changing one's life for better. Unfortunately, it mostly deals with the economic side

of human life. The quality of life is always related to the richness. It is not at present

197 related to humanitarian values in India. That is \vh\ Indians seem to be running after worldly riches by giving up the past richness of their souls. Ashok. Pinky and Balram are victimized by the new commercial culture in India, though Aravind Adiga does not evaluate the actions of these three major characters, it is obvious that he does not disapprove of it.

One of the basic tenants of multicultural theory is that it selects the good from every culture. But in its raw form the bad features of every culture seem to be more impressive than the good ones. The white tiger is a rare species in the multicultural

Indian environment of modem times.

Manju Kapur's Hume is studied from multicultural perspectives. Though the novel is deeply rooted in Indian cultural milieu, it also shows gradual change in perception of persons from one generation to another. Lala Banwari Lai has a refugee status in Karol Bagh Delhi. Naturally, his only aim of life was to lead it moderately.

He does not do anything extraordinary in his life. But the second generation comprising of Yashpal and Pyare Lai shows a change in their ideas about life. They took a slightly different mode in life. Sona the wife of Yashpal could not have a child for a long time after marriage. But when she gets a girl child, other members of the family are disappointed because they wanted a baby boy.

The third generation Nisha is the real protagonist of the novel. She not only rejects the traditional ways of life imposed on her but also falls in love with a boy from low caste. His cousin molested her. Nisha is a representative of modern youth.

Her mother forced her to listen to the story of Sati Savitri. She is also made to fast on

Karva Chauth. The difference between the culture of her mother and her own culture is noticeable at this place because though she observes it she does not believe it from

198 the bottom of her heart. Her secret atTair with tlie low caste boy also shows her intention to challenge the old ideology. Multiculturalism believes in giving up the rotten ideas of the past and take up the new ideas of the modern time, fhat is why

Nisha is more comfortable with her aunt Rupa than with her own mother.

Nisha symbolizes the half-cooked ideas of the modem times. She is a mixture of the old and new. She dares to fall in love with a boy from other caste but succumbs to the pressure from the parents and relatives. She gets married to a widower of 37 years age. Though she is not very happy with him, she abides by the marital ties with him.

Manju Kapur has given an ironic title to the novel. Home in traditional Indian sense signifies security for all. But modern time has reviewed the very concept of home. Nisha's grandmother was not exposed to the external culture. Naturally, her home was her heaven. Nisha's mother had some doubts about her role and position in the same home. Nisha challenged the concept of home by temporarily revolting against her parents and family. Multicultural perspectives expect readers to be sympathetic with the changes in the traditional culture. It may not ask concerned people to give up everything that is old but it certainly encourages people to accept new things. Nisha is presented in such a way that we do not get angry with her. In fact, readers do not associate with her parent's action to suppress her. Multicultural perspectives thus provide a new angel to the cultural thinking of the society. Manju

Kapur's Hume is studied from that point.

Manju Kapur's The Immigrant provides a fertile ground in the study of multicultural perspectives. Though most of the characters in this novel are Indians, the setting of the novel is Canada. It is often said that Canada provides people from

199 different cultures a ground to lead their life there without trouble. There are Indians and Canadians there who follow their own customs and traditions without friction.

Marriage, food habits, clothing, and sex are the major parameters of any culture. All these factors are reviewed from multicultural perspectives in the novel. Ananda gets married with Nina without following Indian wedding system. He gets married with

Nina without much pomp. This in itself is an example of acceptance of a new culture.

Nina's life in Canada changes completely with the passing of time. She worshiped her husband in the initial phase of her life. She cared for him out of her feeling that he is an incarnation of God for her. But the same Nina does not mind having extramarital sex with Anton. She selects a boy from other culture. It is to be questioned whether extramarital sex should be approved. However, one thing is certain that she does not hide her infatuation with another man.

Nina was used to vegetarian food in India. She carried the same habit to

Canada and followed it for some time. Gradually, she began to eat meat in Canada.

She does not think it anti religious. Thus, the concept of religion is also reviewed in multicultural circumstances.

Nina was used to cover her entire body in India. She tried to do the same in

Canada. But as the time progressed, she changed her style of dressing. She replaced traditional sari with modern jeans in Canada. She was trained to lead a life of interdependence in India. She helped her mother after her father's death. She thought it her responsibility to look after her mother in India. Same Nina began to believe in individualism in Canada. Initially she prepared food for her husband. She soon realized that personal freedom was more important than conventional thinking in the conduct of family in Canada.

200 1 bus. The Immis^ntnl picked up the culture of the new place without shame or regret. Multiculturalism believes in shedding the unnecessary items from the old culture and replacing them with good ones in the other culture. It is slightly difficult for Indian readers to accept the changes in Nina"s character. However, sympathetic reading into the character of Nina will change our perception of Nina.

Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide is an ideal fictional example to show the importance of creating multicultural society. A Scotsman, Sir Hamilton purchased ten thousand acres of land from the British Government with a pious intention to establish a society without any cultural tags. There are examples of the people travelling from different places in India and from abroad to create an ideal society of Hamilton's perception. Prof. Nirmal and his wife Nilima gave up the peaceful life in Calcutta and shifted to Morichjhapi. Fokir was a son of Kusum a Hindu woman and Rajen a

Muslim. The couple sold eatables on the railway platform. The same Fokir sacrifices his life in order to save American researcher Piyali Roy from the storm in

Sundarbans.

These examples are extremely significant in the study of multicultural perspectives in Indian English novels. It is because all these characters come from different castes, religions, and nationalities. It is noticeable that all these characters give up their past fractured identity and create a new homogeneous identity.

The myth of Bon Bibi is remarkable in the study of this novel. Because it shows the defeat of a tyrant at the hands of the lady, Bon Bibi. It is also noticeable that Bon Bibi returns the half of the captured area to Dokkhin Rai. This shows the spirit of forgiveness of victorious people in India. The people of Sundarbans were

201 guided by the philosophy of forget and forgive which is the highest moral principle of multicultural coexistence.

The novel signifies that the multicultural society can be created on an alien land, far away from the main land. India is a land of many religions and cultures.

Though we speak about unity in diversity in Indian culture, some people think it to be more of propaganda than a reality. The partition of the land in 1947 and the

Bangladesh warfare of 1971 have seen the massacre of thousands of innocent people from both the religions. Amitav Ghosh has created a Utopian setting in this novel to demonstrate the need of a new society. All the characters in this novel show the spirit of mutual cooperation, sacrifice and interdependence. Nobody wants to harm the others. Normative multiculturalism expects the setting of such a society. The novel also shows the possibility of such a society in Indian subcontinent.

Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies also shows various characters belonging to different cultures living peacefully together on Ibis, a ship. The novel deals with three main pairs of characters from three different cultural backgrounds. Deeti was married to a person from high caste. But she was unfortunate in her married life because her husband was impotent and her mother in law wanted her to have sex with her brother in law. She not only rejected her suggestions but also fell in love with Kalua, a low caste Chamar. Both of them forget their castes and are ready to sacrifice their own interests in order to keep their love intact. It is ironic that the society does not approve of the real love between the two. The same society however forced a married woman for illicit sexual contacts. There was only one way open for them. It was to run away from their native land, which believed in the discrimination based on caste and creed.

202 Another thread that runs through the no\el is a love affair betvseen Paulette and Zachary. Paulette was born of a French father. Mr. Lambert in Calcutta. But he was hated by white community there for his relations with a black woman. Paulette was very happy to know that the white boy with whom she was in love also had some blood of a black person. From multicultural perspective, it shows the hollowness of concept of the purity of blood. Europeans had believed that their blood was pure. But the studies in biology shows that it was far from the fact. This is obvious from

Paulette and Zachary case in the novel. At the same time, it is to be noticed that

Jodu's mother an Indian woman nourished Paulette. The role that humanity played was more significant than the role played by religion in the lives of these characters.

Multiculturalism believes in the equality of human beings. Raja Neel Rattan

Haider could not accept the humanitarian principle of equality of people during his heydays. He discriminated between rich and poor, touchable and untouchable. The same Raja had to live with the dirtiest Chinese in the cell of prison. The novel brings together people from different walks of life to show that co-existence is inevitable In modem world. Caste and class are temporary properties in human life. Amltav Ghosh shows the futility of these unnatural characteristic features of human beings.

Both these novels are set up on imaginary lands. This suggests that the real lands are not worth multicultural coexistence. It is impossible to end discriminations in the present situation. That is why he creates a Utopian setting. Whatever may be the reason, one can certainly hope for a land where the man made differences between people will vanish. This is the multicultural optimism of the modern time. Dr. B. R.

Nagarjun says, "As Both Piya and Kanai seem to morph into a new kind of cosmopolitan who can actually feel at home in a place like the tide country, the reader fmds this latest of Amltav Ghosh's fictions opening up new and unexpected 203 perspectives: the postcolonial text, product and retlection of a translated world, nonetheless proclaims the need and the desire . for us as global citizens, to built nev\ bridges across that world.'""

Many components make culture. Customs, conventions, rituals, clothing and dietary habits, interpersonal relations are the most important components of culture.

These components assign some roles to the individuals in the family and society. Each culture ascribes certain duties and rights to the men and women of society. As long as these men and women do not come in close contact with the men and women from other culture, they do not change much. The twentieth century saw speedy development in international communication. The information is spread with the lightening speed from one place to another. Each house today has become a theater where information from all over the world is poured. This has challenged the concept of culture all over the world. The unchangeable nature of culture has undergone basic changes with the onslaught of outside cultures.

Human beings want change. It is the demand of every individual today. He or she wants to belong to many cultures at a time. Therefore, they have started questioning the very foundation of institutions like marriage, family, culture, religion, and nation. All these challenges are reflected in the writings of Indian English novelist of the modern times. We find inter-caste love affairs, inter-caste marriages, premarital and extramarital sexual relations being described in these novels. Sai and Gyan, Nisha and Suresh, Nina and Anton, Kusum and Nirmal, Kalua and Deeti and Paulette and

Zachary are some of the quotable examples in this regard. If we think of these characters from traditional cultural angle, we might blame them for their unqualified sensuous relations. But when we think about it from multicultural point of view, we rationalize their relationship. Monocultural thinking discriminates between two 204 individuals. Multicultural thinking docs not discriminate between the people. In this

respect B. P. Singh says. ""No religion or group should have the feeling of a threat of

being swamped. There are no "majority" and "minority" cultures. The smallest unit has

its contribution to make to the enrichment of the national sum total, and must be

respected."''

Marriage is an institution in which unfortunately undesirable elements have

entered over the period. For example, dowry system in Hindu marriage has led to the

continuous exploitation of a girl and her family for no reasonable explanation. It also

imposed secondary citizenship on the woman section of the family. When modem girls came across the girls from other cultures, they naturally wanted to be like them.

Democracy provided them with an opportunity to present their views without fear or favor. Therefore, we come across girls who challenge the dowry system and the girls who assert their own rights in the family.

Capitalism has exploited the poor and the needy people in the world. But modem ideas of economic freedom have challenged the capitalist behavior. Balram may be wrong in killing his own master but it seems that he did not have any other option but to have his way. One would like to say that Amitav Ghosh's idea to create a new region where people would be bereft of any caste, class, religion or region. The society may become multicultural but it may not save the people from artificial barriers, that is why Amitav Ghosh proposes to create a new Utopian society on the land not inhabited by anybody so far.

Some people say that multiculturalism is a propagandist idea. According to them personal differences between human beings will never end. We need some sort of system to organize the life of an individual in society. The system is something that

205 is supposed to suit everybody but in reality does not suit anybody. Wherever there is a system, there is a difference. Modern world has found itself in dilemma. People want to belong to different cultures simultaneously. There are advantages and disadvantages of human desire to belong to different cultures. It sometime creates serious problems for the humanity. That is why thinkers and social workers advise us to take up the best in every culture to become the best human being in the world. Till then human beings would Hke to lead the life of multicultural virtues by giving up multicultural vices.

Culture and language are interlinked in a sense that the dominant culture most of the times carries dominant language. In India Brahmin culture and language were considered to belong to the high rank in the past. Sanskrit was considered to be the language of Gods (Girwanwani) and was not allowed to be used by socially backward people of the times. Even the women were prevented from using

Sanskrit in their daily life. Sanskrit, Latin and Greek had the status of divine language of the past.

Afterwards, English occupied an important position in the twentieth century. It became an important tool to dominate the people, who did not know English. It became a symbol of prestige to speak English during the British Empire. A person who could communicate well in English was given an important position in the government. People began to talk about its richness, standard and dominance.

Nothing was right about these adjectives applied to English. A Swiss linguist

Ferdinand de Saussure was the first linguist to assert that all languages are equal. No language was inferior and no language was superior. According to him, languages have nothing to do with the Gods and Goddesses. Languages evolved through the

206 gradual development of human mind. He went on to prove that there are as man\ languages as there were users of languages. Eaeh individual was a unique case of language use. It allowed individual variations in the use of language. He talked about language as a system of systems. All these showed that there are many linguistic cultures in the world.

Readers and writers began to describe the language instead of prescribing it.

Writers used the languages used by different people in the society as a mark of linguistic variations. Indian writers in English initially used grammatically correct and technically perfect language in their writing because they believed in the purity of its culture. Times have changed and people began to respect the others language also.

Just as coexistence of different cultures in a nation is considered to be a mark of national richness of linguistic variations in a text is considered to be a mark of its greatness. Amitav Ghosh used expressions from many languages. Ag mor logal bci

(32) (I'm on fire) is Bhojpuri song. Dikhat awe to rasta mil Jawe(203), tohran jat kaun ha?(234) are expressions. Many words are used from regional languages and also from pidgin like Chupowing (chupna ), Gantas (bells), Tuncaw (tankha,) etc.

Fokir and Piya in The Hungry Tide communicate with each other without a common language between the two. This indicates vanity of the notions like superior language and inferior language. It favors multilingual living in a society. Kiran Desai used various languages to represent various characters from different languages. Kiran

Desai used many Hindi words and phrases like puja, Namaste. babaji. Biju beta. bhai,dekho, aesa hai (95), phata-phat, (131), bilkul bekaar, chalo, chalo , jai Gorkha, etc. (147). It subverts the idea of the purity of language for communication in favour of multicultural living.

207 Further Research Avenues:

1. As stated in the findings, selected novels deal v\ith other aspects along with the

multicultural perspectives. Other researcher can explore these novels from \arious

aspects such as subnationalism, diaspora, subalternity. etc.

2. Rewriting of history is one of the major aspects of Amitav Ghosh's writing, which

can be studied in details. He explained the multicultural interaction of various cultures

among the different continents.

3. Recent emergence of subnationalism needs to be studied as it offers uniqueness to

Indian multicultural literature. Regional subset forms a formidable body, which can

be analyzed for its thorough exposure.

4. Manju Kapur's female characters like Nisha, Nina have shown their journey from alienation to assimilation. They have encountered cultural alienation and assimilation with a lot of struggle as compared to their male counterparts. These female characters can be studied from point of view of feminism.

5. The selected writers and their works can be explored in the context of globalization from different perspectives such as postcolonialism, feminism, subaltern studies and multilingualism.

208 REFERENCES

I.Said. Hdward. Culture and Imperialism. Londan. Vintage. 1994.p.262.

2.NagarJun. B. K. Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study. New Delhi. Omega

Publications.2011.p.lOO.

3. Singh, B. P. India's Culture. Delhi, Oxford University Press. ]999.p.67.

209