Nationalism and Socialism Portrayed in the Novels of the Indo-Anglian Novelist Trio: Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R.K Narayan. Mehruna Hossain Student ID: 09203006 Department of English and Humanities August 2013 A Thesis Submitted to The Department of English and Humanities of BRAC University by Mehruna Hossain ID: 09203006 In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English August 2013 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor, Ms. Mushira Habib, for having all the patience and for helping and guiding me in my thesis. I want to thank all my teachers in the department: Professor Firdous Azim, Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, Ms. Rukhsana Rahim Choudhury, Ms. Shenin Ziauddin Ms. Sabreena Ahmed, Mr. Abu Sayeed Noman, Professor Kaiser Haq, Ms. Roohi Huda, Professor Riaz Partha Khan and Ms. Mahruba Tasneem Mowtushi. I am thankful to my family and friends. My special thanks go to Sarah Habib, Untara Rayeesa, and Tausif Sanzum and very big thanks goes to my sister Moon Moon Shiriya. Above all, I thank God for everything. Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….2 Chapter 1: Eradication of the Class-System through Gandhi in Untouchables………………………………………………………………..13 Chapter 2: The Gandhian spirit in the Waiting for the Mahatma……………………………………………………22 Chapter 3: The Gandhian Whirlwind in Kanthapura…………………………………………………………………29 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….36 Bibliography………………………………………………………………..38 Hossain  1    Abstract History of Indian writing in English significantly accounts the emerging new rich genre in India the novel, which was adopted by the 20th century Indian writers. Indian writers had their native languages, yet writing in English was a product of their colonial encounter and diasporic constructions. In addition, the nationalistic movements for independence during the 20th century, which brought in political and social changes, also brought forth changes in the themes of Indian writers. Therefore, nationalism and socialism were the major issues, which were being dealt with to portray and present the real scenario of India in the colonial and postcolonial times. The contributors to this new literary genre are the Indo-Anglican writers, most famous being the trio—Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R.K Narayan. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore how English language of the colonial rulers became a language of the Indian writers, who were writing about their native land and people and India of the colonial period using the colonial language. Furthermore it focuses on the dormant nationalistic and social issues in the novels. However, it also tries to understand how nationalism and socialism are portrayed in these novels to bring out the real and desired India. Hossain  2    Introduction Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, bright with orchard gleams, Cool with thy winds of delight, Dark fields waving mother of might, Mother free. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya (Anandamath 1882) translated by Sri Aurobindo, Vande Mataram Nationalism or “Desh bhakti” or loyalty towards nation was a significant belief existing in the minds of the people of India till the 1800s or Bengali Renaissance. In India, nationalism as a concept is connoted with love and passion for the “motherland”, which has been the idea since ancient times. It could be said that in India, nationalism has its emergence from religion. For in Hindu religion, worshiping one’s own motherland was the “dharma” or duty of its members. Therefore, protecting one’s own motherland is also the responsibility of the son or daughter of the motherland or the members of the nation; for example similar idea is delivered in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Anandamath or The Abbey of Bliss (1882) and Dharmatattva (1888). Eventually what has happened is that the concept of nationalism changed with the rise of British colonialism in India. Hence, we can also say that the challenge of Imperial rule produced India’s nationalism. Hossain  3    However, the concept of nationalism which people had in mind during the colonial times is said to be influenced by modern ideas. It was not only about patriotism and passion for the country, but also a struggle for freedom and protecting and claiming one’s own identity. Also as nationalism in India in the 20th century was resistance towards the British; it was therefore predominant in the nationalistic movements for independence. The rise of nationalism was only after the Mutiny of 1857, which nationally and politically alarmed both the British as well as the Indian educated elite society. The educated class or the members of the Congress Party which emerged decades after the historical first Mutiny, had much in mind the memory of the Mutiny in 1857. The liberal nationalists or the congress members and the national revolutionaries were then active participants of the independence movements. Undesirably both held different views about the Indian nation. In the essay “The Freedom Movement and the Partition of India”, Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund discuss that “the national revolutionaries felt that the Indian nation had existed from the time immemorial and that it only had to be awakened in order for it to shake off foreign rule.” (278) On the other hand, the Liberal nationalists believed in “nation building within the framework of British Rule” (277). Moreover, in this essay, it accounts about the “radical nationalists”, which were stimulated by the partition of Bengal in 1905. The division was to strike the roots of the nationalist elite of Bengal by the British. Henceforth the agitated Bengali Hindus emerged as the young “extremists”. Moreover, the most striking event after the mutiny of 1857 was the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre in 1918, which led to many revolts and unrest in India. This incident led to many important events led by Gandhi, like “Swaraj in one Year” and “The Non-Cooperation Movement”. The non-cooperation movement’s major feature was a campaign to boycott “British Hossain  4    textiles, British schools, universities and law courts; rejection of all honors and titles bestowed by the British Indians” (286). Furthermore, in 1930 Gandhi led the “Civil Disobedience Movement” and also practiced his “Salt Satyagraha”. Therefore, the historical context of India defines the nationalistic sentiments of the people. India’s struggle for independence against the British colonial powers could be the main cause behind the rise of modern nationalism. However, how and when the Indian nationalists adopted the new idea of modern nationalism is important to understand. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s composition “Vande Mataram”, hailing or personifying the motherland “India” as the “mother” or “Goddess” gives a vivid description of the conception of India as a nation or motherland. For Bankim Chandra, nationalism was a policy for Indians to rely on their own strength in terms of generating national awareness, preparing the people for struggle and the self-sacrifice required for such struggle, and curtailing their dependence on the government as an agency for promoting general welfare. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh in his writings in “Bande Mataram” while narrating about Chattopadhyay had stated that Bankim Chandra had preached religious nationalism which explicated that the land was the Goddess and it was the people’s duty to protect the nation and hence the people of the nation. Also Bankim Chandra had showed the way to achieve oneness between their individual interests and the interests of the national community to which they belonged. Therefore, as a constructive thinker, Chattopadhyay has provided us with a common basis of Indian national identity and cautioned us against playing up our smaller identities around caste, community, language, region and faith. In doing so, he laid the first systematic foundation of nationalism in India. Hossain  5    Even in the religious field, national thought progressed. Religious reform movements and reactions against religious orthodoxy resulted from the settlement of the Christian Missionaries. The teachings of the Christian Missionaries invoked in the people of neo-Hinduism believers the feeling of “universalism”, which led to the reconstruction of “traditional nationalism” of attaining solidarity and glorifying the past. The British thought of the Hindu religion as a “ragbag of superstition”; however Swami Vivekananda greatly stimulated Indian nationalism by propounding the message of his new philosophy called the “Vedanta Philosophy”, which was an inspiration for the national revolutionaries (Kulke and Rothermund 276). Also in Bengal, the cult of Kali or Vaishnava saints was the symbols of emotional nationalism. Figures like Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Swami Vivekananda, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak and more contributed in developing or growing amongst people the sense of nationalism and duty towards the mother nation through religious embodiments and philosophy. Thus religious nationalism or nationalism, which had its presence in the religion and culture of India, was later brought out with events of nationalistic movements. Significantly, the modern concept of 20th century nationalism was different from the 19th century. The advent of the modern form of nationalism in India is elaborated in Rabindranath Tagore’s “Nationalism in West” and “Nationalism in India”, in his book, Nationalism (1917). The notion of many scholars that nationalism as a concept emerged from Western ideals is also marked by Tagore. Here, nationalistic ideas which emerged mainly from Europe are contested by Tagore, for he believes that India had a completely different concept than Europe. He asserts that politics in the West have dominated western ideals and Indians are trying to imitate it. He completely disagrees with the idea of nationalism and thus states: Hossain  6    Nationalism is a great menace. It is the particular thing which for years has been at the bottom of India’s troubles. And inasmuch as we have been ruled and dominated by a nation that is strictly political in its attitude, we have tried to develop within ourselves, despite our inheritance from the past, a belief in our eventual political jesting. (133) In the light of post colonial discourse, John Mcleod in “Beginning Postcolonialism” comments that attitudes or approaches to nationalism are “wide-ranging” and “conflictual”. Like Tagore, he affirms that the idea of the nation is Western in origin and had its effect with western capitalism, industrialization and imperialist expansion. To further understand the theory of nation or nationalism, Mcleod looks at the definitions given by Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner and Homi. K Bhabha, and in conclusion he describes the idea of “nation” by saying that “central to the idea of the nation are notions of collectivity and belonging, a mutual sense of community that a group of individuals imagines its shares” (69). Peter Robb, in his essay, “A history of India” comments that imperial nation states and anti-colonial resistance have modern nationalism in common and both identified people by culture and history having their own territory with a self-determined government. More importantly, he explains that a nation has its own “historical narratives” which shapes the nation’s past and its origin and thus the national history narrates its victory, past fortune and present identity. Moreover, he articulates that national interest should transcend petty divisions of class, religion, dialect or caste. Likewise the Indian nationalistic movements in the postcolonial context are present in its national history. Historically, divisions existed in the society of India, like class, religion, dialect and caste. However, the struggle for Independence united the people of India, which is portrayed in the novels of the 20th century Indian Literature. Gandhi’s “epic fast” was to give the “untouchables” in the society their rights and privileges.