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p Indian English Novels and the Works of Salman Rushdie T
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2.1 Indian English Novels
The literary map of India is about to be redrawn. The
familiar outline - E.M. Forster's outline essentially - will always
be there, because India will always offer the dualities essential
. for the Forsterian vision : the open sewer and the whispering
glade, Mother Theresa and the Taj Mahal. Serious English
language novelists from India (often called Indo-Anglians), or
those from abroad who use Indianrnaterial, have steered a steady
course between these two vast, mutually obliterating realities;
hence the vivid patches of local color provided by the timeless
South India of R.K. Narayan's novels and the cool pastels
added by the later fiction of Anita Desai. The Indian novels of
Paul Scott and Ruth Jhabvala also fall comfortably between
those two poles. For a long time it has seemed that novels
from India write their own blurbs: poised, witty, delicate, spar
kling.
Ironically, the century before Independence contains
many vennacular language writers who would merit a place in
any anthology: BankirnChandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore,
Dr. Muhanunad Iqbal, Mirza Ghalib, Bibhutibhushan Banerjee(the
autl10r of Pather Panchalli, on \vhich Satyajit Ray based his
28
celebrated .. ·· ·.·. Trilogy of fihns), and Premchand, the prolific
(and therefore rather variable) Hindi author of, among many
others, the famous novel of rural life Godaan, or the Gift of
a Cow. Those who wish to seek out their leading present-day
successors should try, for example, O.V Vijayan (Malayalam),
Suryakant Tripathi Nirala (Hindi), Nirmal Verma (Hindi), U.R.
Ananthamurthy (Kannada), Suresh Joshi (Gujarati), Amrita Pritam
(Punjabi), Qurratulain Haider (Urdu), or Ismat Chughtai (Urdu),
and make their own assessments.
The first Indian novel m English was a dud.
Rajmohan's Wife (1864) is a poor melodramatic thing. The
writer, Bankim, reverted to Bengali and immediately achieved
great renown. For 70 years or so there was to English-language
fiction of any quality. It was the generation of Independence,
:midnight's parents", one might call them, who were the true
architects of this new tradition (Jawaharlal Nehru himself was a
fine writer.) Of these, Mulk Raj Anand was influenced by both
Joyce and Marx but most of all, perhaps, by the teachings of
Mahatma Gandhi. Raja Rao, a scholarly Sanskritist, wrote de
tennined!y of the need to make an Indian English for himself,
but even his much-praised portarait of village life, Kanthapura,
seems dated, its approach at once grandiloquent and archaic.
29
The autobiographer Nirad C. Chaudhuri has been, throughout
his long life, an erudite, contrary and mischievous presence. His
view, if I may paraphrase and summarise it, is that India has
no culture of its own, and that whateverwe now call Indian
culture was brought in from outside by the successive wavesof
conquero•rs. This view, polemically and brilliantly expressed,
has not endeared him to many of his fellow-Indians. That he
has always swum so strongly against the current has not, however,
prevented The Autobiography of an Unknown Indianfrom being
recognised as the masterpiece it is.
English Novels written by Indian writers are very
umque. Mulitidimensional richness, beauty and complexity can
be seen in the Indian English Novels. Moreover, the geme of
the novel has long been considered a medium for conveying
thoughts, feelings and experiences. "A novel is a living thing, all
one and continuous, like any other organism." says Henry
James. Of all the gemes of creative literature the novel is the
most popular these days in our country. It is gratifying to note
that Indian English Novel has also been flourishing with vigour
and vitality both in quality and quantity since Independence. By
now the novelist make up a fonnidable body of fiction. In
addition to the common themes like cross-cultural relations, the
30
national movement for freedom, the partition of India and the
holocuast that followed Independence, the Indian English
Novelist has also been preoccupied with the dilineation or poverty,
hunger, pestilence, widespread social evils and resultant
tensions, examination of the survival of the past, exploration of
the hybrid culture of the middle · class educated Indian youth,
the countless dislocations and conflicts in a tradition-ridden
society tmder the impact of an incident, half-hearted industriali
sation etc. A cursory glance at the Indian English Novels written
upto 1960s reveals that it is mainly concerned with large public
issues and national/social problems of the individuals. In
contrast, the novel of seventies and eighties have turned
introspective and indivual's quest for a personal meaning in life
which has become a theme of urgent interest for these writers.
The fourth the twentieth century decade of was indeed a blooming
period for the Indian English Novel. It was the appearance of
the novels by the big three. Anand's Untouchable (I 935),
Narayan's Swami and friends (1935) and Raja Rao's
Kanthapura (1938). In them can be discerned a marked
improvement on their predecessors in form, teclmique, art of
character-delineation and handling of themes, new teclmiques,
new style and new approach to the form of noveL
31
It was in the 1930s that the Indians began what has
now turned out to be their very substantail contribution to the
novels in English, and one peculiarly suited to their talents. 1
Ever since the debut of the big three during the
1930s, novel as a gem·e has continued to dominate the literary
scene. By imaginatively treating the contemparary themes, the
novelists have sought to explore and interpret India significantly
in its various aspects - social, economic, cultural, political and
the like. The Indian English Novelists of the 1950s and 1960s,
like Shelley, well realised that so song as the imagination of
people is not stirred, the seeds of reform will keep lying on the
road to be trampled by the unwary traveller.
While the old established novelists, have a historical
relevance, it is the writing of the new young novelists of the
1970s, 1980s and 1990s that has advanced the tradition of the
Indian English Novel by shifting the focus from the social
political-economic themes to the exploration of the individual's
interior world, the outer weather, the physical atmosphere or the
visible surface action. Tllis forte is the exploration of the
limitless depths of mind, the hidden contours of the human
psyche. 1l1is aspect of their works undoubtedly adds a new
32
and significant dimension to the discipline. Under the impact of
the new pressures of the scientific and technological advancement,
the world around us shows signs of the disintegration of the
individual. It is, therefore, imperative that the Indian English
writer today should seek new techniques to articulate these
newly experienced realities.
Arun Joshi, a deep-reaching and avant - garde
novelist refuses to simplifY his people and his crowds are to
complicate his prose which is sharp, brassy, polished, lapidry,
nervous and vivid in terms. His skill lies in his ability to
describe experience in the peculiar Indian so that the texture of
the experiences come through. He can articulate the philosophical
moral complexties of human life without losing that life itself
He can defme darkness but never enter it, he can examine
cultural anihilism but never share it. Joshi's torch seems to light
up the darkness in every direction with its fitful illuminations.
One gets an extraordinary sense of the infmite remifications of
human life, its unpredictableness, its inconclusiveness. The
Foreigner, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, The Apprentice
and his latest book The Last Labyrinth have got some unique
narrative technique, style and delineation of characters. In each
33
of his novels, he conducts his characters through the game of
move and counter-move, always along the line of their
respective predicament and always within the framework of the
chosen consciousness.
Anita Desai is another very popular name in the
Indian English literary scene. She is a powerful writer of eight
novels and a collection of short storiess. She rose to eminence
with the publication of her first novel, Cry, The Pecock (1969)
Voices in the City (1965) is also one of her significant
creations. In each of Desai's novels, the main thrust is on the
life of the individual, on myriad inner impressions, passing
fancies and fleeting thoughts, together with her razer like sharp
awareness of the futility of existence. The central theme of her
most of the novels is the existential predicament of an individual
which is projected through incompatible couples - acutely
sensitive wives and dismal callous understanding husbands. Desai's
fiction seems to assimilate both the traditions of American and
British Novel. As a result, her fiction takes its form and tone
from polarities, opposites and irreconcilables. For her "it is
depth which is interesting, delving deeper and deeper in a
character, a situation, or a scene rather than going round about
34
it."
R.K. Narayan's A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) offers
not only a usual feast of literary dialectics such as 1rony,
humour, parody, satire and comic view of the world, it
transports us rather unobtrusively into the higher realms of
metaphysical inquiry and quest of the self, the comic VIew
ultimately assuming the magnitude of the cosmic view.
The novel, read in conjuction with Man Eater of
Malgudi (1961) and The Painter of Signs (1976), demonstrates
Narayan's abiding interest in folk wisdom, his unflinching faith
in ancient Indian values and his pride for rich spiritual heritage
of his country, thus ensuring that his metaphysical probings and
their possible solutions are fmnly rooted in his own cultural
ethoes.3
The 1980s have witnessed the birth of new kind of
Indian English Novel. Narayan's A Tiger for Malgudi
Shahane's Prajapati (1984) and Amitav Ghosh's The Circle
of Reason (1986) mark a distinct progression -moving from the
portrayal of the contermporary socio-political themes to the
imaginative treatment of individual fantasies in the mythic/arche
typal, fabulistic and satiric mode.
35
The eighties and nineties have been the most
productive and eventful decades of Indian English literature in
terms of abtmdance, variety and richness.
The prestigious Booker Award to Salaman Rushdie
for The Midnight's Children (1981) and succussive prizes to
Robinton Mistry, Nayantara Sahagal, · Anita Desai, Amitav ·
Gosh, and an astronomical royalty advanced to Vikram Seth
for A suitable Boy Arundhati Roy for The God of Small
Things, and Jhumba Lahri for 'Interpreter of Maladies' must
make us realize that the Indian mind is on a rampage. The most
glaring feature of the decades is a mushroom growth of the
writers who became celebrities with their Maiden Publication.
To begin with Rushdie's Midnight Children Shame and then
the most controversial Satanic verses which invoked the death
fatwa from Iran, Vikram Seth's, The Golden Gate, followed
by All You Who Sleep Tonight (poetry), and A Suitable Boy.
Upmanyu Chatterjee's The English August; Amitav Ghosh's
The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land
and Calcutta Cromosomes; Allan Sealey's Trottemama, Namita
Gokhale's Passions of Para and Himalayan Love Story; Gita
Mehta's Raj, Karma Cola and The River Sutra; Boman
36
Desai's Memory of Elephant; Rohinton Minstry's Tales From
Ferozshah Baag, such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance;
Deepankar Ray's Hell-Bent; Balraj Khanna's A Nation of
Fools; Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel; Shashi
Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terror, Roots and Shadows,
If 1 Die Today, Come up. and Be Dead, That Long Silence,
The Binding Vine and A Matter of Time; Firdaus Kanga's
Trying To Grow; Jayant Narlikar's Return of Vaman; Pratap
Sharma's The Days of Turban; M.G. Vassanjis's The Gunny
Sack, No New Land ? Uhuru Street and other Stories and The
Book of Secrets etc. and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of
Maladies.
The most singificant prospect of these novels is the
bewildering variety of thematic concerns ranging from
mythology, history, family relationships, bureaucracy, politics and
feminism to horror, suspense, sex, nostalgia, diasporic
experience, generation gap, fossilised emotions, racial tension,
use of fantasy, fabular imagination, dystopia, travesty,
intertextuality, self-reflexivity, subversion and other postmodem
techniques. It is this spectacular variety that enthralls the global
audience. Most prominent contribution of these writers is the
exploration of unconventional themes, sparing neither the my-
37
ghological prophets nor the historical high profiles.
Another notable feature of the literature of the two
decades has been the outburst of protest against the political
tyranny of the Seventies, the proclamation of Emergency that
drastically curbed freedom and stifled democracy. Since the
phemomena was all over the subcontinent, the fictional back-·
drop was India-Pak-Bangladesh with allusious to all the leaders
living or dead. Rushdie launched his scathing diatribe against
India, Zia, Bhutto. Tharoor against Gandhi/Bhishma, Nehru I
Dhritrashtra, India I Duryodhana, and Menon I Shakuni.
Among these, Arundhati Roy chose the different
theme and backed the very prestigious Booker Award for The
God of Small Things. Roy's achievement is never to forget
about the small things in life. She deserved to win, says Jason
Cowley.
To conclude, i{ has to be admitted that despite a
score of weaknesses, these novelists have been experimenting
with new fonns and new teclmiques. Their works on the whole
have life and substance, and present a convincing picture of
human existence. A serious effect to articulate Indian sensibility
and get to grips with the new pressures, new aspects and new
38
challenges of life is increasingly in evidence.
2.2 Salman Rushdie - Life and Works
Salman Rushdie, an Indian Expatriate, shot into fame
m 1981 with the Booker prize award to his second Book
Midnight's Children. And now, no doubt, he has being hailed
as a major novelist with his many other besttsellers. He has
instantly charmed all the categories of readers.
He was born on 19th June, in the year of India's
independence. His life begun in Bombay. He attended cathedral
School in the same city, a city that fascinated him the most.
Rushdie left India in 1961, at the age of fourteen. He received
education at Rugby and later on at Cambridge. At present he
lives in New York city with his wife and little son. Rushdie
came to fiction writing via fringe theatre and advertising He
gained rich experience in advertising, specially it taught him to
condense. His novels are characterised by an abundant variety,
in both teclmique and subject matter. One of the significant
themes of his novels is the re-expression of past, portrayal of
the events from recent Indian history. He has made specific use
of history and at the same period our freedom movement and
39
the consequent emergence of the two states, namely India and
Pakistan in Midnight's Children. He has transformed facts of
history into a great work of art. Apart from Midnight's Children,
which is having a great amount of historical and political
essence, he has written many other, books with different themes.
The literary excellence of his novels are simply outstanding ..
He is an author, novelist, essayist and sometime a
critic and yet he has fantastically proved himself in every field.
His novels have brought up Indo-English fiction into the
international scene. It is no insignificant matter that The Booker
Prize, Englands most prestigious award for fiction, was awarded
to Salman Rushdie for the year 1981. As many as seventy
four books were considered for the prize and seven of these
were short-listed. after several readings by the judges,
Midnight's children was adjudged as the award-winning book.
And the most important factor is that this book was again
adjudged Booker of Bookers in 1993 i.e. the best book to
win Booker award in the last twenty-five years. Rushdie
has provided an authoritative answer to the sceptics who
predicted the death of Indo-English fiction. He has turned to the
past as much to trace the deepening mood of nationalism as
to cherish the memories of bygone days.
40
Though he is a new comer on the scene of Indo
English literature, but he has already aquired a some what
mythical reputation. Some people say that he is Kashmiri, some
others say he is a Parsee, some others still think him to be an
Afgan. People even dispute his place of birth. Some say he
was born in Pakistan, . the others say in India. Even the
pronounciation of his surname is debated. Is it Rushdie (as in
'Rush') or Rushdie (as in 'Bush'). Further-more, was he born
rich or poor ? It is true that he is married to an English
woman and lives in England ? All this has added glamour to
his reputation. But it has highlighted a point about Rushdie's
fiction which he himself has advanced, that is : the 'fallible
memory' or 'fallible narrator'.
The subject-matter of Rushdie's novels if fairly var
ied; it is neither stereotyped nor predicatable "There's nothing
like a consistent theme", comments Dilip Fernandez, "that has
emerged in his work so for... There are signs however, of
certain key ideas shaping of a perspective developing in his
writing".
Rushdic applies so many themes and techniques in
his novels. One such theme is his concept of history and its
41
interplay with the individual. He calls himself, significantly enough,
'a fairly political animal.".
He told his reviewer Gordon wise that his last two
novels are on historical themes. "It seems to me", he remarked,
"that everything in MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN has had to do
with politics and with the relationship of individuals and
history." Rushdie, as we know, went to Cambridge in 1965 to
read history. His studies and experiences have helped him evolve
a distinct concept of historical processes and their roles.
In writing MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, the novelist's
"aim was to relate private lives to public events and to explore
the limits of indiviality in a country as big, as populous and
culturally variegated as India.'' 8 Rushdie is "certainly involved"
with aspects of the most crucial critical/theoretical debates of
his day. He is deeply concerned with the politics of the Indian
subcontinent, and his commitment and sense of urgency are
really remarkable. He presents realities of public history
influencing and getting influemed by individuals' actions and
aspirations, with exceptional honesty.
Keith Wilson is of the opmwn that -
"The image of the writer as both master and
42
victim of public and private material, which
he has been formed by in the past as is
himself attempting to form in the present,
dominates Midnight's Children."
Rushdie's Masterpiece, Midnight's Children is a novel
about Indian independence, the partition and their aftermath. He
is of the view that the freedom movement in India was "not
merely a political struggle, but an all pervasive experience that
became a part of the life of almost all the sensitive and enlight
ened Indians."
Midnight's Children encapsulates the expenences of
three generations of Sinai family, living in Srinagar, Amritsar and
Agra and then in Bombay and fmally, migrating to Karanchi.
Saleem Sinai, the narrator engaged in the actual writing of the
story, works in the pickle factory by day and records in
expenences by night, hoping that -
"One day, perhaps, the world may taste the
pickles of history. They may be too strong
for some palates, their smell may be over
powering, tears may rise to the eyes; I hope
nevertheles it will be possible to say of
43
them that they possess the authentic taste of
truth."
Rushdie has highlighted the connection between public affairs
and private lives in this particular novel. He says that these two
cannot be seperated. The Sunday Standare, 14 June 1981, p.6
reVIews :-
"They interpenetrate and that is how the
writer needs to examine them, the one in the
contest of the other."
Alongside of Saleem's personal history, we have the
collective experience of a people and the history of a nation.
There is in the novel virtually all of the twentieth century Indian
history;
the Jallianwalla Bagh tragedy, Quit India
movement, Cabinet Mission, Freedom Movement,
Muslim league and its role, riots and blood
shed subsequent to the independence, five
year plans, reorganization of Indian states
and language riots, chinese agression, the
theft of the sacred rilic from the Hazratbal
Mosque, Pakistan war, liberation of Bangladesh,
44
the Emergency and various other historically
important events. There are also typically
Indian divisions and dissents, chaos and
disillusion, communal tensions, religious
fanaticism besides traditional values and
Modernising efferts.
All these are 'preserved' in the novel to evoke the truth of India
and Saleem and make the novel, in Maria couto's words "an
extraordinary saga of epic dimensions and resonance."
WORKS
Since Salman Rushdie is an author, novelist, essayist
and some time critic, he has contributed a lot to literature. He
has written many books and essays which have got utterly
different . themes and expessions from each other.
Rushdie's first novel is Grimus (1975), a sctence
fiction. But there ate no spaceships in it, the most predominant
element of the book is fancy. He makes use of the fantasy
element in Midnight's Children too, and with a definite
purpose. "I have always thought of fantasy", says Rushdie, "as
only being useful as a way of emiching realism, not as an end
in itself."
45
Midnight's Children (1980), Rushdie's second novel
Is a panoramic book spanning a period of seventy years in
India's Modem History. The author, born and brought up in the
Multi-cultural city of Bombay, recreates the vitality eclectic culture
of urban India, with reference to the early decades of the
century to mid-seventies. It took him four years to write this
novel and to gather the specific facts, he visited India and lived
here for six months. It is a political novel that transcends
politics. He aims to relate private lives to publi~ events. The
connection between public affairs and private life cannot be
overlooked; they interpenetrate and that is how, the writer needs
to exmine them, the one in the context of the other. But since
he was writing about India, a country he has quit long ago,
Rushdie felt hesitant before embarking on the ambitious work.
As a preparation, he came back to India on a long visit, he had
not been here for ten years. He toured the cotmtry for six
months and talked to all kinds of people to recapitulate the
colours, smells and catch-phrases. Some critics say that
Midnight's Children is long, but it can be said that in is not
over written. Its turbulent 3,50,000 words are heavily charged
with innucedos, associations, symbolism, correspondences and
metaphorical extravagance. The material is tightly packed with a
46
linguistic and imaginative framework that is always undercontrol.
'Shame' is Rushdie's third novel written in 1983. It
is a story about Pakistan. It dramatizes 'Military Politics of the
Divided Muslim India' whose history Rushdie considers a
'disaster'. It opens in the imaginary town of 'Q' ~ Quetta in
Pakistan. And in this ·town lived three lovely loving sister's
known by the names of Chunni, Munnee and Bunny. Omar
Khayyam, an image of suspense and fantasy, is born as the
fantastic son of three sisters who share automatic and
simultaneous symptoms of pregnancy and interestingly with no
father in picture. 1n the process of unfolding this fairytale Rushdie
makes a savage attack on the political life of Pakistan. This
novel reconstructs the sordid political history of Pakistan
bringing to light the deep socio cultural imbalances that have
shaped tllis history. He has excellencily picturised the scenes of
murders, camps and rigged elections in the context of the grim
atmosphere of fear, intrigue! humiliation and desperate defiance
that govern the lives and minds of the people of Pakistan. It
is well known that Rushdie writes without any bmmdation, he
finnly believes that freedom of expression is the most precious
asset of a writer.
47
In 1985, Salman Rushdie made a documentry fihn
named as the 'The Painter and the Pest'. It was his first work
for electronic media, as it is known. Then came 'The Jaguar
Smile' A Nicaraguan Journey' first published in 1987. Rushdie's
astonishing partait of this tiny volcanic country, profile of peo
ple politics, land and poetry of Nicaraguan finely demonstrates
novelist Rushdi's prowess as a discerning political journalist.
'The Riddle of Midnight's was his second documentary
fihn which came into existence in the same year. Rushdie's
documentry fihns were also quite unique and were regarded as
outstanding works.
His most controversial novel, 'The Satanic verses'
published in 1989 made him much famous and infamous. It was
because of this novel, On 14th February 1989, Fatwa a
religious sentence, in this case a death sentence was pronounced
by Ayatollah Khomeini, the then Administrater of Iran. Muslim
community strongly opposed 'The satanic verses', as they found
some characters and scenes very controversial in the novel.
Opponents debated much on it. It was questioned what is this
piece of writing ? Is it just fiction, is it just facist pamphlet, is \
it just historical distortion, or it is something else ? Muslim
48
leaders raised their voice against Rushdie. It was said that by
the term 'Satanic Verses' Rushdie wants to say something more
than the alleged incidents the history of Islamic revelation. They
further say that Rushdie has even doubted the authenticity of
Quran, though in a Modified way. They have also alleged that
author has satirized the mles of holy Quran. And consequently
soon after its publication in Sept. 1988, 'The Satanic Verses'
caused a mutual revulsion of rival groups of readers.
In 1990, his another bestseller 'Haroun and the Sea'
was published. As it is already mentioned that Rushdie is
soumetime a critic, amd his first work on criticism was
published in 1991, which was named as 'Imaginary Homelands
: Essays and criticism (1981-1991). In continuation 'The Wizard
of Oz' came in the year 1992 and then 'East-West' in 1994.
A tragic lament, 'The Moor's Last Sigh' was again
Rushdie's one of the best novels. In the year 1995 it was
published. 'The Moor's Last Sigh' is a rununciaton of institu
tional religion and a heroisation in spite of postrnodemist jokes
of the independent secular artist. It is therefore, indirectly a
justification of Salman Rushdie's own artistic career, as his
harsh, satiric vision of the world's sectarian evil earned him
49
powerful enemies ranging from Mrs. Gandhi to the Imams of
Islam. Finally, 'The Moors Last Sigh' is a tragic plea from
beyond despair for the tolerance of multiculturism in a world
that is rent by ethnic and sectarian hatred and war.
After this novel Rushdie wrote 'The Vintage Book of
Indian Writing' (47-97) (anthology, edited jointly with Elizabeth,
West), which was published in 1997.
After two years, in the year 1999 'The ground be
neath her feet' was published. It was also one of the finest
novel. Fury is his latest known major novel published in 2001.
Though in the year 2002 'Step Across this Line' was published
but still, Fury is considered as his latest major creation.
50
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