Gandhian Values and Indian English Fiction (original) (raw)
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The Indian Literature in English: A Journey from Nationalism to the Search of Nation
Historically, the East India Company was formed by some leading London merchants. With a purpose to trade with India, the British came here and after it as we all know they dominated Indian subcontinent for more than 200 years. By the beginning of the 19 th century the British felt the need for educating and civilizing the natives for various purposes. That is why a token grant of rupees one lakh per year was made for education. In reality, their idea was to promote only Oriental education and to prepare human resource which could them in administration. They established the private schools that imparted English educationsuch schools have been started as early as 1717 at Cuddalore near Chennai. They also established printing presses in different parts of the country. The motif behind all these development was to dominate, control and to spread the oriental authority in Asia. Articulating the goals of British colonial imperialism most succinctly, Thomas Macaulay said in his infamous ‗Minute on Indian Education' (1835) that-We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect." 1 Thus after reading, speaking and comprehending English, Indians soon started writing also. Simultaneously, Indian writing in English had to range from the most utilitarian prose to the most ambitious verse-epics. It emerged as a new creative force of resistance. It resisted the injustice and cruelty of the colonizers and manifested what we often referred to as the literary renaissance. So from a sapling to a strong rooted banyan tree with multiple new branches, Indian Literature in English now has emerged as a major voice of the nation. Indians, however, did not start writing in English in a dayit took several historical events. Many distinguished personalities had tried hard to bring Indian writing in English to its present eminence. Historical Perspective is an effort to contextualize the growth and rise of Indian English Literature, from its inception to its present glory. This paper discusses thematically the journey of Indian Literature from the colonial to the post-colonial period and from resistance to the search of the roots. Literature reflects the emotions and attitudes of the people of the country. It is a powerful mean to express the writer's thinking and his/her approach. In India, the English
Are you comfortable with the study of colonial literature and language? The present paper is addressing the first part (the issue of literature) of the question. Studies have proved that in the present scenario English is no more an alien tongue in Indian milieu. With the passage of time, its sense of alienation and otherness submerged in Indianness and emerged with a domestic taste and tone. But the existence and proliferation of colonial literature (the English literature) in post-colonial education system raised fundamental questions about its roles and status in Indian academia. The existing syllabi and pedagogy involved in the teaching of English in India still lack the sense of belonging. They are colonized in structure, undemocratic in approach, and follow unsuitable teaching methodology. The present study examines the relevance, dominance, and suitability of the study of British literature in post-colonial Indian academia. The paper is empirical in nature and an outcome of evidences collected from teachers and research scholars of English with the help of a questionnaire. It is an effort to make an account of the nitty-gritty of these issues and to develop an academic dialogue among the scholars on these issues and to acknowledge their views. In 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay " s infamous Minute on Indian Education was historic in both the colonial enterprise of Britain and Indian academia. It is a documentation, elaboration, and justification of never-ending process of colonization. With the analysis of Minute, one can easily acknowledge the colonial intentions involved in the projection of English curriculum in Indian schools. In his speech on Minute (1835) in British parliament, he evaluates Sanskrit and Arabic literatures in following words: I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of Orientalists themselves. I have never found one of them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia (721). " After reading Macaulay " s Minute, no one can deny the fact that the teaching of English was used as an imperialistic tool to subjugate native mind and to facilitate the imperialist project. It was used with an idea that a Westernized curriculum would teach Indian students to identify with social, cultural, and religious supremacy of Europe. Macaulay says: " We must
The Influence of Western and Indian Writing on Mahatma Gandhi
The Criterion: An International Journal in English, 2019
It is crucial to remember that Gandhi did not receive the informal honour of the 'Father of the Nation' all of a sudden. In order to dismantle the imperial regime of the British Empire and resuscitate India with truth and non-violence as weapons of resistance, there was a metamorphosis that this saintly yet controversial figure underwent. A self-transformation on this visionary's part was imperative to the realisation of his grand vision of a national revolution taking place, and it can be traced back to his perusal of the works of a range of philosophical writers from Leo Tolstoy to John Ruskin among the Westerners and from Rabindranath Tagore to Gopal Krishna Gokhale among the Indians. Movements triggered by him such as those of civil disobedience and non-cooperation can be largely attributed to his fervent encounters with works of these seminal writers. This research article, therefore, intends to look at how a multitude of Western and Indian writers have significantly contributed towards shaping the psyche of the 'Mahatma' that this leader of the national independence movement gradually came to be known as. Though remarkable in its own right, this article does not seek to discuss the influence that Gandhi, in turn, had on several prominent writers both Indian and foreign.
Abstract: Mahatma Gandhi struggled for the sake of Indian freedom and development. He became an immense source of writing and influenced different disciplines and writers from different fields like philosophy, politics, history, literature, sociology, and so on. Indian English literature has great impact of Gandhian philosophy. The great Indian trio- R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao has explored Gandhian thoughts in their writings. Their novels follow Gandhian ideology and his principles of Non-violence, Truth, Brotherhood, Satyagraha and his views on untouchability. The present paper is an attempt to study Gandhian strain in R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, and Raja Rao’s Kanthapura. Waiting for the Mahatma portrays Gandhi as a great leader who is deeply connected with the problems of ordinary people. In Untouchable his views give a hope for a good life for the downtrodden. And at the same time Kanthapura shows influence of Gandhi’s struggle for Indian Independence and its impact on the people of a small village. Key Words: Gandhism, influence, impact, leader, downtrodden.
Introduction to Indian English Literature
Literature views reality critically. Literature presents the essence of reality linking things together. As art is the negative knowledge of the actual world, it exists in the real world and has a function in it. Yet, it offers a knowledge that negates a false condition.
RETROSPECTING INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE: TEXTS, CONTEXTS AND CONSEQUENCES
This paper deals with Indian sensibilities that appeared to be the subjects of primary concerns and sites of ideological, cultural confrontations and religious contestations, particularly in the literary texts that were being experimented in Indian English. It takes up three novels Untouchable, Train To Pakistan and That Long Silence by Mulk Raj Anand, Khushwant Singh and a slightly later writer Shashi Deshpande to discuss the issues which became both explicit and implicit allusions in their texts and drew the world's attention to such a new genre.