SYLLABUS B.Com II SEM Subject – ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INDIAN CULTURE UNIT – I 1. Amalkanti: Nirendranath Chakrabart, 2. Sita: Toru Dutt, 3. Tryst with Destiny: Jawaharlal Nehru 4. Delhi in 1857: Mirza Ghalib 5. Preface to the Mahabharata: C. Rajagopalachari 6. Where the Mind is Without Fear: Rabindranath Tageore 7. A Song of Kabir: Translated by Tagore 8. Satyagraha: M.K. Gandhi 9. Toasted English: R.K. Narayan 10. The Portrait of a Lady: Khushwant Singh 11. Discovering Babasahed: Ashok Mahadevan 45, Anurag Nagar, Behind Press Complex, Indore (M.P.) Ph.: 4262100, www.rccmindore.com 1 B.Com II Sem. Subject: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INDIAN CULTURE Chapter - 1 AMALKANTI Summary By: Nirendranath Chakrabarti The presented poetry “Amalkanti” has been composed by Nirendranath Chakrabarti. Originally the poem was written in Bengali but now available to all non-Bengali languages. Amalkanti means "pure radiance" in Hindi as well as in Bangla. The meaning affects the understanding of the poem.The poet has used irony to express the facts of success and achievement. Irony is a literary device through which writer or speaker expresses the opposite meaning. In the poem Amalkanti dreamt to be sunlight and intended to brighten up others lives. But he had to work in a semi- dark room in a press. The poem has drawn the authentic picture of the result of planned career or aim of an individual during schooling. It reveals the fact that the person without aim is just like a sheep without rudder. Amalkanti was the friend and classmate of the poet, Nirendranath Chakrabarti. He was weak and careless student. Often he would go to school late and never bothered to complete school works. The poet has revealed the fact that Amalkanti could not till three forms of verb. Whenever the teacher asked him, he started to look out of the window. He looked confused and speechless. The poet makes the fact clear that classmates of their class were ambitious and alert. They had their goals to be teachers, doctors or lawyers etc. But Amalkanti was different. He did not have any aim or career plan but he always wanted be sunlight so that he might enlighten even in the fading the evening. Years passed, most of the students settled down. Some of them became doctors, some teachers and some lawyers etc. Nirendranath Chakrabarti said that Amalkanti failed to achieve his goal. He couldn’t become sunlight, the person to bring hope and light in anybody’s life. Misfortunately he had to work in a semi-dark room as press worker. He was unable to enlighten even his own life. At last the poet compared Amalkanti and other classmates. He described the fact that Amalkanti’s friend achieved their goals but he failed. Everybody was satisfied except Amalkanti whose dream was shattered according to the poet. Conventionally Amalkanti was not successful but literally he was the great success as he had been working to spread the light of knowledge through books, working inside dark room for low pay. 45, Anurag Nagar, Behind Press Complex, Indore (M.P.) Ph.: 4262100, www.rccmindore.com 2 Chapter – 2 SITA SUMMARY BY: Toru Dutt Indo-Anglian literature has occupied an outstanding place not only in India but in European countries also. Toru Dutt (1856-1877) was a remarkable Indo-Anglian Poetess who was like Keats. Toru Dutt interpreted Indian life before the Western world. The poetry of Toru Dutt is notable also for the feel of Indian life that it has been able to convey in a foreign language. It was her Indianism that led to the publication of “Sanskrit Sheaf” in 1882 by Kegan Paul entitled Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. Toru respected the Gods of ancient India, and her praise of Yama and other deities is evident everywhere. In Savitri and Sita she brings out her great admiration for the true Indian wife. Apart from Sita, her collection of verses includes life – portraits of Lakshaman, Jogadhya Uma, The Royal Ascetic and Hind, Dhruva, Buttoo, and Sindhu. This poem is an example of nostalgia. In it Toru Dutt longs for things that are no more. The poet reflects on her childhood days when she and her brother and sister gathered at their mother’s knee in the twilight and used to hear bed time stories of Sita’s sufferings narrated by her mother. When the mother tells the story, the three children see a dense forest with cleared spot in its centre. There are big flowers on creepers, which cherish the tall trees. The white swans glide there in quite and clear lake. The sea, the peacocks springing and the deer racing too. There are also small shining fields with yellow waving grain. The blue smoke from strange altars rises. In this divine place there lived in peace, the poet anchorite(one who lives in seclusion). There also lived a fair lady Sita who is weeping. At every tear she shed, the children are moved with pitty. They also weep with her and are moved with her suffering. Sita presents us the picture of an ideal Indian woman. Sita is the perfect epitome of temperance ,tolerance, sacrifice and innocence. The poet remembers how such sad tales filled the children with melancholy. Yet those were the happy times when the children were happy together under their mother’s protection..Now after so many years she is remembering the presence & the protection given by the parents. 45, Anurag Nagar, Behind Press Complex, Indore (M.P.) Ph.: 4262100, www.rccmindore.com 3 Chapter-3 Tryst with Destiny By: Jawaharlal Nehru "Tryst with Destiny" was a speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. It focuses on the aspects that transcend India's history. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of all time and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the largely non-violent Indian independence struggle against the British Empire in India. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of India. He was a great statesman who is responsible for all the progress of India. As the prime minister of India, Nehru shaped the foreign policy of the country and gave gib support for the development of science and technology Nehru was originally a lawyer but he was also an expert in most other subjects. The people of India respected his vast knowledge and called him'Pundith Nehru'. India won Independence from England on the 15th August, 1947. At the very stroke of midnight in the clock, Nehru announced the happy news of the freedom of India to the entire world. During the colorful ceremony held at New Delhi, the flag flag of England was pulled down and the new tricolor national flag was hoisted. After that, Nehru delivered a historic speech which is known as "Tryst with Destiny". Nehru began his speech by referring to the pledge made by Indians long years ago to win the freedom for the homeland. Freedom has finally come and the long suppressed soul of the nation is liberated. Nehru asks the people of India to dedicate themselves to the service of India and to the service of the whole mankind. India emerged as a new nation in the early hours of 15th August, 1947. Behind this success lies the long and great sacrifice done by the freedom fighters of many generations. According to Nehru, the people in India will collect their courage from the principles of the past. The success celebrated on the 15th August is only an opportunity for great successes in future. He asks the people on India to accept this challenge and to serve the future generation of India. Nehru reminds the people of India that freedom and power bring responsibility Before 1947, India used to depend upon England for leadership and guidance. After 1947, India is her own master. The country has to take its own decisions, learn from mistakes and move forward. India has to grow into a mature and wise nation and be a model to other nations. Nehru feels that all Indians should work hard for the development of their dear nation. Doing service to India means doing service to million of poor people who suffer all over the county. Nehru feels that the past is over and it is the future that has to be taken care of. It is for the future generations that we have to dedicate ourselves. Nehru urges the people to labor and to work hard to give reality to the dreams of the nation. Those dreams are not only for India but for the entire world. According to Nehru. all the countries in the world are closely connected. No one can live in isolation. Peace, freedom and prosperity are the common property of all humanity. Nehru warns the people that disaster in one part of the world can affect everyone else, because the world cannot be divide into small isolated pieces. 45, Anurag Nagar, Behind Press Complex, Indore (M.P.) Ph.: 4262100, www.rccmindore.com 4 Chapter-4 DELHI IN 1857 By:Mirza Ghalib Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan born on 27 December 1797 – died 15 February 1869), was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from the Mughal Empire during British colonial rule. He used his pen- names of Ghalib in Urdu means "dominant")and Asad means "lion". His honorific was Dabir -ul- Mulk, Najm -ud- Daula. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of.