The influence of Mahatma Gandhi Indian Writing in English.
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Name:- Zankhana .M.Matholiya
Roll.No:-50
Paper No.-4-Indian English Literature - Pre Independence
Class :- M.A. Sem-1
Topic:-Write brief note on the influence of Mahatma Gandhi Indian
Writing in English.
Enrollment No:- 2069108420180036
College:- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Email ID :- zankhanamatholiya96@gmail.com
Submitted:-Department of English M.K.University, Bhavnagar
Introduction:-
Indian writing in English began in the colonial period. In the beginning it gave the voice to the expression to the natural feelings and emotions. But later it could not escape the inevitable element in Indian history, the social phenomenon called the rise of nationalism. Especially, the fiction became the tool for social realism. It dealt with the themes of colonialism, exploitation andawakening. In its formidable years Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R K Narayan took efforts to establish it to the height that met with the standards of international literary aesthetics.
Gandhi and Pre-independence India:
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1868-1948) took the charge of Indian struggle movement in 1920s, and with his peaceful weapon of non-violence succeeded in attaining India its freedom. Under his leadership the movement became a mass movement. Being a mass leader, he was popularly called by the people as Mahatma. After independence, he became the father of nation. Indian history refers to pre-independence period in Indian history as Gandhian era. Gandhi was not only a political hero, but also he was a spiritual leader. His social and economic ideas have contributed to the national development in an influential way.
Gandhi’s Ideology:
Although he was a political leader, Gandhi gave the greatest priority to religion.Hinduism with its message of Ahinsa is most appealing and relevant to Gandhi. The influence of the Bhagwad Gita and Ramayana on Gandhi is a well known fact. Apart from these Hindu scriptures, Gandhi firmly believed in the Bible, the Quran and the Zend Avesta. Gandhian philosophy has close relation with the philosophy of Karma, theory of submission, Varnashram Dharma and so on.
Gandhi and Indian Writing in English:
Gandhi remained an influential figure in Indian life and literature also. Although he wrote in Gujrathi in original, all his writing is now available in English.Though he himself was a writer, more prominent point was in his being source inspiration for many writers. All prominent Indian writers in English have written about Gandhi. Rao, Anand, Narayan, Bhattacharya and Abbas are the important authors to name. These writers have voiced Gandhi’s views and ideas. In brief, Gandhian philosophy and ideology has invariably motivated and invigorated the contemporary Indian writers and a huge corpus of contemporary Indian writing is fore-grounded on Gandhi.
One of the most popularly discussed and many time controversial figure of Indian politics is Mahatma Gandhi. There is hardly any area in the pre or post-independence era that he had left untramplled for the sake of Indian development and independence. He is such a socio-political figure who is barely impossible for someone to forget or ignore. He has influenced every aspect of human consciousness and there is hardly any discipline that he has left uncommented. He is an immense source of writing himself and has influenced different disciplines and very many writers from different fields like history, politics, philosophy, literature, sociology and so on, have him as their central themes. While musing on different books on Gandhiji, especially the then Gandhian Indian English Literature, one can easily sense that the then time was grossly occupied by a ‘Gandhian consciousness’ socially, culturally and politically, at least in the period from 1918-1922 in the anti-colonial against the British. There are vicarious studies and research works that Mr. Gandhi has found and is still finding.
Indian nationalism and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life become the important subject matter of the novels written by three major novelists. They are Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. They are called the trio of the Indian novelists, who write in English. Basudeb analyses the contribution of these three novelists, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.
The growth of Indian novels written in English in the twentieth century was a phenomenon. This was due to the freedom movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The struggle for Independence both violent and non-violent inspired all Indians to stand united against the Colonial rule in India. Indeed the Indian nationalism at the conceptual level was in existence even at the time of the Sepoy Revolt against the British in 1857.
Gandhiji was so much part and form of any literary genre of that period that he made appearance in many dramas, novels, stories and in poems.Gandhiji insisted on high thinking and simple living which was also reflected and highlighted by the literary English authors of the time, mainly Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayanan, who in their novels and stories portrayed the real picture of the the-then society from various perspectives, thereby presenting the influence of Gandhi on Indian villages and towns, letting us a scope to probe how Gandhiji’s ways of developmental communication created effects on human lives bringing a sea change in their thoughts, views and living. Almost all of their novels represent events which distinctly correspond to the examples of actual incidents and teachings that Gandhiji in real life encoded during his visits at various places. The crux of the morale or bottom spread of Gandhism, which the novels often portray by vicarious means and events are:
The most important and common fact that we find in the Gandhi novels is that they talk of a distinct village, a representative of all villages in rural India and the rural folk same as others, immersed in their Gandhi- their savior, their God. Mahatma’s image takes form within pre-existing patterns of popular belief and ritual action corresponding to their demographic customs. There are few who oppose him and are swept away in importance and deeds by the Gandhi followers and the whole lot take Gandhian as their life irrespective of any troublesome consequence. The procedure of development as said before was through group communication, through the political meetings held by the Mahatma or occasional visits by him at various places to perform a righteous deed for a great cause i.e. freedom. The other way was automatic trans-creation of religious slokas to Gandhi slokas or Gandhi Puranas, which found way to stages, temples through songs, Keertans and Jatras. Such was his popularity that things associated with him got his name attached to it as a suffix or a prefix like Swaraj was called as ‘Gandhi-Swaraj’or‘Mahatma Swaraj’ only because of his tremendous influence. Gandhi is now transformed into ‘Mahatma’, great souls, whose words are like that of the Lord and must be adhered to, and the authenticity or the purpose, the deep rooted meaning is never to be questioned. Such feeling was common to most of the ignorant people and women folk of the village who went on chanting stories and songs about the Mahatma without even properly understanding them.
The contribution of the National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi was enormous in reinforcing as well as consolidating the concept Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life become the important subject matter of the novels written by three major novelists. They are Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, and R.K. Narayan. They are called the trio of the Indian novelists, who write in English. One major trend that unites the trio of the twentieth-century novelists is that these three novelists Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life.
Mulk Raj Anand work in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy;-
A study of Anand’s novels shows that Anand champions the underdog and the oppressed people of the Indian society. He delineates the indescribable sufferings of the have-nots of the Indian society in his novels. That the caste-divided Indian society is a hindrance to the formation of Indian nationhood is perhaps the sub-text of Mulk Raj Anand’s novels.
• Untouchable (1935),
• Coolie (1936),
• Two Leaves and a Bud (1937),
• The Lal Singh Trilogy (1939-42),
• The Big Heart (1945),
• Seven Summers (1951),
• The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953),
Untouchable is a potent condemnation of the evils of a degenerated and distorted orthodoxy. Bakha is an 18-year-old boy, one of the sons of Lakha, the head sweeper. Bakha’s day begins with the work of latrine cleaning. He is an efficient sweeper. Sisir Das comments:
Mulk Raj Anand’s first novel Untouchable is yet another powerful novel exposing the dehumanising role of caste narrativised through a fine analysis of a day’s activity of a sweeper boy. The dirt and filth of the public latrines, the odour of the hides and skins of dead carcasses, the most offensive abuses heaped upon the boy by the upper caste make his life, an unending nightmare, with all its horrors and pain, Bakha.How the caste divided Indian society inflicts pains upon this poor Bakha has been photographically delineated by Mulk Raj Anand in this novel.
Coolie shows the indescribable suffering of Munoo, a 15-year-old orphan boy, who represents the misery of the oppressed and subjugated class of people in India. The locale of this novel is not a particular village or a city. Munoo moves from one Indian city to another. The novel is epical in nature.
R.K. Narayan and Gandhian Ideology:
R.K. Narayan was born in Madras in an orthodox Brahmin family in colonial India, in 1906. He died in 2001 when he was 94 years old. He belongs to the long span of the 20th century. R.K. Narayan’s first novel is Swami and Friends. His other novels are
• The Bachelor of Arts,
• The Dark Room,
• The English Teacher,
• Mr. Sampath,
• The Financial Expert,
• Waiting for the Mahatma,
• The Guide,
• The Maneater of Malgudi,
• The Vendor of Sweets,
• The Painter of Signs,
• A Tiger for Malgudi,
• Talkative Man,
• The World of Nagaraj,
• Grandmother’s Tale.
Narayan has incorporated Gandhian ideology and philosophy in many of his novels, namely, Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets, The English Teacher, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Man Eater of Malgudi and A Tiger for Malgudi. In the domestic surroundings of Malgudi, his imaginary town Narayan has artistically interwoven Gandhian ideology in these novels. His works manifest the multifarious facets of Gandhian ideology. His protagonists and characters rooted and nurtured in the Indian ethics and philosophy are people in quest of truth who embody the greatest virtues of life and they are Gandhian in their own particular manner. When they are disillusioned, they epitomize the disillusionment of the masses who failed to comprehend and assimilate the teachings of Gandhi to the danger of trivialization of Gandhism.
R.K. Narayan had a deep rooted commitment to the ancient Indian heritage. Narayan had not settled abroad.the prime period of his acceptability by Indian readers as a novelist. Narayan’s popularity increases immediately after his novel The Guide is made into a film in Hindi. He brings about the ultimate triumph of Indian values through the characters like Savitri, Raju and Jagan. Conservatism, which is the kernel of the Hindu religion, in general, and the Brahminical cult, in particular, and the zeal for reforms, both are contrasted in Narayan’s novels. A modern man and at the same time an Indian, championing the values of ancient Indian heritage, Narayan ultimately bends towards the India past. We find in him two opposite views on life – the first, is his intellectually realised modern views on life. The second, is his emotional faithfulness to the Hindu attitude to life, which Narayan inherits from his orthodox Brahmin family. Finally, the second one triumphs over him. And his novels are the reflection of this triumph.
Savitri in The Dark Room struggles to be independent and self-sufficient. Her sanity is wounded when she finds that her husband develops extramarital attachment with Shanta Bai. Even Ramani hardly cares his wife’s sentiment when he takes away Savitri’s favourite piece of furniture for the decoration of Shanti Bai’s room. She walks out of her home. But finally she decides to go back to her husband. She yields to the age-old values of Indian wife, sacrificing the democratic as well as moral values in the relationship between husband and wife. The concept of the empowerment of woman is western. The Guide presents a thesis on the dichotomy between appearance and reality in the character of Raju. The Vendor of Sweets shows how the protagonist finally eschews the modern life suggested by his son and takes refuge in the mystic world. Jagan in The Vendor of Sweets becomes a worst suffer of the predicament arising out of their confrontation between the Indian and the modern western values of life.
R. K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma was written in 1955, about seven years after the assassination of Gandhi. In it R. K. Narayan examines the influence of Gandhi on an average Indian. Sriram, the protagonist in the novel is representative of the mediocre, middle class Indians with his foibles and faults.It is his only novel which places Gandhi at the centre of the text.
The Idea of Truth:
For Gandhi, truth or Satya was the eternal principle of life. He considered it as the regulating force in the universe. It is synonymous to God and amounts to sincerity of heart and inner force of soul that implies the discovery of one’s own self. Gandhiji balanced his social, political and spiritual life on the foundation of truth. According to the Gandhian concept of truth, “The instruments of the quest of truth are as simple as they are different.” Narayan substantiates this fact in his novels through the characters in search of truth and self. There is a mixture of Gandhism and pseudo-Gandhism in his novels. The novelist exposes the class of pseudo-Gandhians like Jagan and Sriram and delineates the process of transformation in the protagonists in their search for truth and self-realization.
The Idea of Non-violence:
Narayan depicts Gandhian ideology of non-violence in the novel. There is a reference to Mahatma’s arrival. Since Gandhi had mass appeal, a huge gathering of Malgudian citizens are waiting on the bank of Saryu to receive their beloved leader. Volunteers clad in white Khadi guide the people and maintain law and order at the meeting. Despite severe heat, the crowd sat patiently and uncomplainingly on the hot sand. As the Mahatma reaches the venue and delivers his speech, “No good. Not enough. I like to see more vigour in your arms, more rhythm, more spirit. It must be like the drum beat of the non-violent soldiers marching on to cut the chains that bind Mother India…. I want to see unity in it.”
The Idea of Renunciation:
Narayan is also aware of Gandhian idea of renunciation. Sriram, the protagonist of the novel renounces all luxury and comforts. Gandhi in this novel preferred to stay in a Harijan’s hut when he visited the villages. Sriram too feels more comfortable with the ordinary people and asks them not to worry for his stay. His possessions include a spinning wheel, a blanket on which to sleep, and the couple of vessels, some food stuff, and a box of matches. This shows Narayan’skeenness in exploring Gandhian idea of simplicity in life.
Thus, in his novel Waiting for Mahatma R. K. Narayan illustrates Gandhian ideology of truth, non-violence, renunciation, and karma theory in Hinduism. The novel gives Sriram’s journey from a common man to a satyagrahi and an escape from Gandhian ideals to reach extremists and finally an arrest by police. This is nothing but the benefit of being a follower of Gandhia’s principles and also reflects the consequences of not adhering to them.
Raja Rao work in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy:-
Basudeb critiques the novels of Raja Rao and analyses the impact of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy in his works, in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.
Raja Rao was roughly a contemporary of Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. He was born on November 8, 1908, in the State of Mysore. His mother tongue was ‘Kannada’. English was his second language. He completed his post graduate study in France. He was adequately exposed to Europe and America because of his frequent visits to those two continents. But at the same time he was a child of Gandhian period. He breathed in an environment of Gandhian philosophy of life. His important works are :-
• Kanthapura (1938)
• The Serpent and the Rope (1960)
• The Cat and Shakespeare: A Tale of India (1965)
• Comrade Kirillov (1976)[8]
• The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988)
• The Cow of the Barricades (1947)
• The Policeman and the Rose (1978)
• The True Story of Kanakapala, Protector of Gold
• The Cow of the Barricades
• The Policeman and the Rose
KANTHAPURA:-
Kanthapura sketches the step by step social development of a south Indian village Kanthapura, and its people, who following Gandhiji became successful not only in forming a Swadeshi or anti-colonial group and performing anti-colonial protests but also redeeming their village from the social evils of untouchability, Castesism, women backwardness, dis-unity and toddy or wine drinking. Gandhiji’s popular effects are noticed when we hear him chanted in a Keertan or in a village-made swadeshi song, songs sung as preface to anti-colonial protests, as he is considered as the main Lord of inspiration behind all actions and all political activities. When the entire village carries out an anti-colonial protest against the Skeffington Estate, the coolies cry out, “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” and “we (the villagers) say ‘Mahatma, Mahatma, Gandhi Mahatma!, and they put their mouths to our ears and say ‘Gandhi Mahatma ki jai’!”, as a source of inspiration, strength and will power. Kanthapura experiences a total reformation from a place with a common term, ‘village’ to a village in the real sense of the term, in the end, where there is no caste distinction, backwardness and religious fanatism, but self-employment, women emancipation, love, social awareness and of course the pride of their Sthalapurana. The enthusiasm that Gandhiji generated, the expectations he aroused and the attack he launched on the British authority, had all combined to initiate the very first anti- colonial movements in the peasant India which could lead to the conceptualization of an over turning of the power structure not only in its international aspect between the British and India but also within the country where a peasant could now dare to violate a landlord, a farmer the unjust priest or police, or a high class - a pariah. The development is gradually noticed in form of the incidents through out the novel, from the mouth of the narrator, Moorthy and the village folk, all in an interesting and story telling manner. “So Moorthy goes from house to house, and from younger brother to elder brother, and from elder brother to the grandfather himself, and what do you think? He even goes to the Potters’ quarter and the Weavers’ quarter and the Sudra quarter, …….We said to ourselves, he is one of these Gandhi-men, who say there is neither caste nor clan nor family, and yet they pray like us and they live like us. Only they say too, one should not marry early, one should allow widows to take husbands and a Brahmin might marry a pariah and pariah a Brahmin.”(p.15). Again, when we come to matters like keeping an uncorrupted spirit by the grace of God we see Achakka narrating: “Ah! says Range Gowda. ‘And I shall not close my eyes till that dog has eaten filth,’ but Moorthy interrupts him and says such things are not to be said, and that hatred should be plucked out of our hearts and that the Mahatma says you must love even your enemies.”. The development is prominent and is bound to take place as we find the villagers equating Gandhiji with Brahma, Shiva and Krishna who were all Saviours in our Hindu mythology and anything said by them is bound to be true. The most interesting matter that one must note is that the entire change or transformation, social and civic, as carried on by Moorthy , the representative of Gandhiji, is done only by different modes of communication through group discussions, religious chants, Ramlilas, gram sabhas, etc. based on Gandhi-talks and no non-violent measures are needed or introduced. The Harikatha man, Jayramachar while telling a story from Hindu mythology tells” You remember how Krishna, when he was but a babe of four, had began to fight against demons and had killed the serpent Kali. So too our Mohandas began to fight against the enemies of the country. And as he grew up, and after he was duly shaven for the hair ceremony, he began to go out into the villages and assemble people and talk to them, and his voice was so pure, his forehead was so brilliant with wisdom, that men followed him, more and more men followed him as they did Krishna the flute-player, and so he goes from village to village to slay the serpent of the foreign rule. Fight, says he, but harms no soul. Love all, says he…… He is a saint, the Mahatma, a wise man and a soft man, and a saint. You know how he fasts and prays. And even his enemies fall at his feet.”. All the village folk irrespective of their caste distinction now came up to the temple and swore the oath unanimously to serve the county “‘My Master, I shall spin a hundred yards of yarn per day, and shall practice ahimsa, and I shall seek Truth’, and they fell prostrate and asked for the blessings of the Mahatma and the gods, and they rose and crawled back to their seats.”. A certain village gossip reveals that girls, who are quite aged to bring up children, go to the universities and “talk to this boy and that boy and one, too, I heard went and married a Mohammedan.”. Moorthy, the miniature Mahatma, in the story, experiences an epiphany and it is Gandhiji’s loving touch and words that makes him a Gandhi-man, leading him to boycott foreign goods and quit foreign university. In a progressive meeting, Moorthy counsels a woman:
“To wear cloth spun and woven with your own God given hands is sacred, says the Mahatma. And it gives work to the workless and work to the lazy. And if you don’t need the cloth sister, ‘give it away to the poor’...... Our country is being bled to death by foreigners. We have to protect our mother”.
Again, in the village Brahmins sit with the Pariahs in the meetings and eat and sing in the temple. Kanthapura now arranges for even adult Night Schools and Pariah Night Schools. Once in an anti-colonial protest, a Pariah saves a Brahmin and a Brahmin leaves way to a Pariah too. Thus, Kanthapura relates the story of a village, socially and morally uplifted, by the effective developmental communication processes of Gandhiji.
But Moorty, the village Gandhi, in the end, leaves Gandhism, joins the Nehru group and writes in a letter
“Is there no Swaraj in our states and is there not misery and corruption and cruelty there? Oh no, Ratna, it is the way of the master that is wrong. And I have come to realize bit by bit….”.
Though the magical effect of Gandhiji was found bulleted through, to a certain extent, by the introduction of other idealisms, for the common people it was like the God imprisoned for His wrong ways and the huge mass of disciples found no soil under their feet, but still they managed to keep faith on the Lord as He still was the source of strength and existence in their lives. Though Moorthy leaves Gandhi and Kanthapura, yet the other village members stay back firm rooted in Gandhi and the narrator says, “They say Rangama is all for the Mahatma. We are all for the Mahatma. Pariah Rachanna’s wife, Rachi, and Seethamma and Timmamma are all for the Mahatma. They say there are men in Bombay and men in Punjab, and men and women in Bombay and Bengal and Punjab, who are all for the Mahatma. They say that the Mahatma will go to the Red-man’s country and he will get us Swaraj. and Rama will come back from exile, and sita will be with him for Ravana will be slain and Sita freed, and he will come back with Sita on his right in a chariot of the air, and brother Bharata will go to meet them with the worshipped sandal of the Master on his head.” .
The faith and religious coating on the bitter political truth is prominent and ‘Rama’, the Mahatma, will go to England in the Round Table Conference and bring back ‘Sita’ independent India from the ‘Ravanas’ the British and Pt. Neheru ‘Bharata’ will welcome the Mahatma as The Ramayana dictates. It was essentially a Gandhi-Purana that the ordinary village folk understood and because of such religious orientation, the majority of the people blindly followed Gandhi. Despite everything, it is an uncontested truth that it was Gandhiji who introduced the National consciousness among people irrespective of class, caste and religion, not only through religious coated speeches or political campaigns but also bringing the genuine realization of the need to be united against the British to fight back freedom by observing certain social, civic, psychological and behavioural changes in society.
Raja Rao wrote The Serpent and the Rope when he returned to India after a long stay abroad. During this phase of his life, Raja Rao tried to explore a “connection with his roots in the modern rendering of the Mahabharata legend of Satayavan and Savithri. The work also dramatised the relationships between Indian and Western culture”.
Concusion;-
Indian history never saw such an upsurge of faith, unity in action, united will, community feeling and social development, without any expensive spending as in the Gandhian Age from the grass root level. He himself was a means of communication for the people between the British and the Indians, as he had a well formed conception about the motherland and her people, their needs and their mind set which helped him to attain millions of disciples and act as a positive social worker with the help of traditional ways of communication. Scopes for further research lies in the fact whether Gandhiji’s motives, ideals, teachings etc. and their consequences were right or not but it must be undoubtedly concluded that nothing but such tactful means of communication through the Folk media and myth was the only way to foster revolutionary feelings in the ignorant poor villagers thereby making them realize the need for change and self-development. It was my sincere effort to unveil the logic behind Gandhiji’s use of myths, puranas, harinaam-keertans and padayatras as primary tools behind his freedom campaigns and what effects they produced in the minds of the people together with how he could bring certain social and ideological betterment in the villages, their social life and attitude towards life, at least as portrayed by the the-then literary writers.
To Evaluate My assignment, Click Here
Roll.No:-50
Paper No.-4-Indian English Literature - Pre Independence
Class :- M.A. Sem-1
Topic:-Write brief note on the influence of Mahatma Gandhi Indian
Writing in English.
Enrollment No:- 2069108420180036
College:- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Email ID :- zankhanamatholiya96@gmail.com
Submitted:-Department of English M.K.University, Bhavnagar
Introduction:-
Indian writing in English began in the colonial period. In the beginning it gave the voice to the expression to the natural feelings and emotions. But later it could not escape the inevitable element in Indian history, the social phenomenon called the rise of nationalism. Especially, the fiction became the tool for social realism. It dealt with the themes of colonialism, exploitation andawakening. In its formidable years Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R K Narayan took efforts to establish it to the height that met with the standards of international literary aesthetics.
Gandhi and Pre-independence India:
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1868-1948) took the charge of Indian struggle movement in 1920s, and with his peaceful weapon of non-violence succeeded in attaining India its freedom. Under his leadership the movement became a mass movement. Being a mass leader, he was popularly called by the people as Mahatma. After independence, he became the father of nation. Indian history refers to pre-independence period in Indian history as Gandhian era. Gandhi was not only a political hero, but also he was a spiritual leader. His social and economic ideas have contributed to the national development in an influential way.
Gandhi’s Ideology:
Although he was a political leader, Gandhi gave the greatest priority to religion.Hinduism with its message of Ahinsa is most appealing and relevant to Gandhi. The influence of the Bhagwad Gita and Ramayana on Gandhi is a well known fact. Apart from these Hindu scriptures, Gandhi firmly believed in the Bible, the Quran and the Zend Avesta. Gandhian philosophy has close relation with the philosophy of Karma, theory of submission, Varnashram Dharma and so on.
Gandhi and Indian Writing in English:
Gandhi remained an influential figure in Indian life and literature also. Although he wrote in Gujrathi in original, all his writing is now available in English.Though he himself was a writer, more prominent point was in his being source inspiration for many writers. All prominent Indian writers in English have written about Gandhi. Rao, Anand, Narayan, Bhattacharya and Abbas are the important authors to name. These writers have voiced Gandhi’s views and ideas. In brief, Gandhian philosophy and ideology has invariably motivated and invigorated the contemporary Indian writers and a huge corpus of contemporary Indian writing is fore-grounded on Gandhi.
One of the most popularly discussed and many time controversial figure of Indian politics is Mahatma Gandhi. There is hardly any area in the pre or post-independence era that he had left untramplled for the sake of Indian development and independence. He is such a socio-political figure who is barely impossible for someone to forget or ignore. He has influenced every aspect of human consciousness and there is hardly any discipline that he has left uncommented. He is an immense source of writing himself and has influenced different disciplines and very many writers from different fields like history, politics, philosophy, literature, sociology and so on, have him as their central themes. While musing on different books on Gandhiji, especially the then Gandhian Indian English Literature, one can easily sense that the then time was grossly occupied by a ‘Gandhian consciousness’ socially, culturally and politically, at least in the period from 1918-1922 in the anti-colonial against the British. There are vicarious studies and research works that Mr. Gandhi has found and is still finding.
Indian nationalism and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life become the important subject matter of the novels written by three major novelists. They are Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. They are called the trio of the Indian novelists, who write in English. Basudeb analyses the contribution of these three novelists, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.
The growth of Indian novels written in English in the twentieth century was a phenomenon. This was due to the freedom movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The struggle for Independence both violent and non-violent inspired all Indians to stand united against the Colonial rule in India. Indeed the Indian nationalism at the conceptual level was in existence even at the time of the Sepoy Revolt against the British in 1857.
Gandhiji was so much part and form of any literary genre of that period that he made appearance in many dramas, novels, stories and in poems.Gandhiji insisted on high thinking and simple living which was also reflected and highlighted by the literary English authors of the time, mainly Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayanan, who in their novels and stories portrayed the real picture of the the-then society from various perspectives, thereby presenting the influence of Gandhi on Indian villages and towns, letting us a scope to probe how Gandhiji’s ways of developmental communication created effects on human lives bringing a sea change in their thoughts, views and living. Almost all of their novels represent events which distinctly correspond to the examples of actual incidents and teachings that Gandhiji in real life encoded during his visits at various places. The crux of the morale or bottom spread of Gandhism, which the novels often portray by vicarious means and events are:
- 1.Unity among all religions especially Hindu-Muslim Unity.
- 2.People should not adhere to extremist means of protest, i.e. they should be non-violent and not use domestic arms like lathis, sharp weapons, and stop picketing and looting places.
- 3.Stop the evil practices of untouchability, castism, enmity among classes, hatred, lying, swearing but spreading of brotherhood, love and unity among all races instead.
- 4.Stop consumption of tobacco, ganja-smoking, gambling, stop swearing, using slang, whoring, and beating the womenfolk at home, sex-crimes and the like.
- 5.Boycotting foreign goods, educational, economic and legal institution.
- 6.Take up the initiative to spin, weave, cultivate, study, learn and teach, control sex, family planning, lead a simple living, self-sacrifice and self- purification.
- 7.People will not betray their help-seeker; they should be honest, progressive and self-confident about their country, resources and abilities.
- 8.Believe in the truth, face the truth and apply it in life, realization of Swaraj, grace of God, strength of the united people when motivated towards one goal peacefully
The most important and common fact that we find in the Gandhi novels is that they talk of a distinct village, a representative of all villages in rural India and the rural folk same as others, immersed in their Gandhi- their savior, their God. Mahatma’s image takes form within pre-existing patterns of popular belief and ritual action corresponding to their demographic customs. There are few who oppose him and are swept away in importance and deeds by the Gandhi followers and the whole lot take Gandhian as their life irrespective of any troublesome consequence. The procedure of development as said before was through group communication, through the political meetings held by the Mahatma or occasional visits by him at various places to perform a righteous deed for a great cause i.e. freedom. The other way was automatic trans-creation of religious slokas to Gandhi slokas or Gandhi Puranas, which found way to stages, temples through songs, Keertans and Jatras. Such was his popularity that things associated with him got his name attached to it as a suffix or a prefix like Swaraj was called as ‘Gandhi-Swaraj’or‘Mahatma Swaraj’ only because of his tremendous influence. Gandhi is now transformed into ‘Mahatma’, great souls, whose words are like that of the Lord and must be adhered to, and the authenticity or the purpose, the deep rooted meaning is never to be questioned. Such feeling was common to most of the ignorant people and women folk of the village who went on chanting stories and songs about the Mahatma without even properly understanding them.
The contribution of the National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi was enormous in reinforcing as well as consolidating the concept Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life become the important subject matter of the novels written by three major novelists. They are Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, and R.K. Narayan. They are called the trio of the Indian novelists, who write in English. One major trend that unites the trio of the twentieth-century novelists is that these three novelists Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life.
Mulk Raj Anand work in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy;-
A study of Anand’s novels shows that Anand champions the underdog and the oppressed people of the Indian society. He delineates the indescribable sufferings of the have-nots of the Indian society in his novels. That the caste-divided Indian society is a hindrance to the formation of Indian nationhood is perhaps the sub-text of Mulk Raj Anand’s novels.
• Untouchable (1935),
• Coolie (1936),
• Two Leaves and a Bud (1937),
• The Lal Singh Trilogy (1939-42),
• The Big Heart (1945),
• Seven Summers (1951),
• The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953),
Untouchable (1935):
Untouchable is a potent condemnation of the evils of a degenerated and distorted orthodoxy. Bakha is an 18-year-old boy, one of the sons of Lakha, the head sweeper. Bakha’s day begins with the work of latrine cleaning. He is an efficient sweeper. Sisir Das comments:
Coolie shows the indescribable suffering of Munoo, a 15-year-old orphan boy, who represents the misery of the oppressed and subjugated class of people in India. The locale of this novel is not a particular village or a city. Munoo moves from one Indian city to another. The novel is epical in nature.
R.K. Narayan and Gandhian Ideology:
R.K. Narayan was born in Madras in an orthodox Brahmin family in colonial India, in 1906. He died in 2001 when he was 94 years old. He belongs to the long span of the 20th century. R.K. Narayan’s first novel is Swami and Friends. His other novels are
• The Bachelor of Arts,
• The Dark Room,
• The English Teacher,
• Mr. Sampath,
• The Financial Expert,
• Waiting for the Mahatma,
• The Guide,
• The Maneater of Malgudi,
• The Vendor of Sweets,
• The Painter of Signs,
• A Tiger for Malgudi,
• Talkative Man,
• The World of Nagaraj,
• Grandmother’s Tale.
Narayan has incorporated Gandhian ideology and philosophy in many of his novels, namely, Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets, The English Teacher, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Man Eater of Malgudi and A Tiger for Malgudi. In the domestic surroundings of Malgudi, his imaginary town Narayan has artistically interwoven Gandhian ideology in these novels. His works manifest the multifarious facets of Gandhian ideology. His protagonists and characters rooted and nurtured in the Indian ethics and philosophy are people in quest of truth who embody the greatest virtues of life and they are Gandhian in their own particular manner. When they are disillusioned, they epitomize the disillusionment of the masses who failed to comprehend and assimilate the teachings of Gandhi to the danger of trivialization of Gandhism.
R.K. Narayan had a deep rooted commitment to the ancient Indian heritage. Narayan had not settled abroad.the prime period of his acceptability by Indian readers as a novelist. Narayan’s popularity increases immediately after his novel The Guide is made into a film in Hindi. He brings about the ultimate triumph of Indian values through the characters like Savitri, Raju and Jagan. Conservatism, which is the kernel of the Hindu religion, in general, and the Brahminical cult, in particular, and the zeal for reforms, both are contrasted in Narayan’s novels. A modern man and at the same time an Indian, championing the values of ancient Indian heritage, Narayan ultimately bends towards the India past. We find in him two opposite views on life – the first, is his intellectually realised modern views on life. The second, is his emotional faithfulness to the Hindu attitude to life, which Narayan inherits from his orthodox Brahmin family. Finally, the second one triumphs over him. And his novels are the reflection of this triumph.
The Dark Room
Waiting for Mahatma:-
The Idea of Truth:
For Gandhi, truth or Satya was the eternal principle of life. He considered it as the regulating force in the universe. It is synonymous to God and amounts to sincerity of heart and inner force of soul that implies the discovery of one’s own self. Gandhiji balanced his social, political and spiritual life on the foundation of truth. According to the Gandhian concept of truth, “The instruments of the quest of truth are as simple as they are different.” Narayan substantiates this fact in his novels through the characters in search of truth and self. There is a mixture of Gandhism and pseudo-Gandhism in his novels. The novelist exposes the class of pseudo-Gandhians like Jagan and Sriram and delineates the process of transformation in the protagonists in their search for truth and self-realization.
The Idea of Non-violence:
Narayan depicts Gandhian ideology of non-violence in the novel. There is a reference to Mahatma’s arrival. Since Gandhi had mass appeal, a huge gathering of Malgudian citizens are waiting on the bank of Saryu to receive their beloved leader. Volunteers clad in white Khadi guide the people and maintain law and order at the meeting. Despite severe heat, the crowd sat patiently and uncomplainingly on the hot sand. As the Mahatma reaches the venue and delivers his speech, “No good. Not enough. I like to see more vigour in your arms, more rhythm, more spirit. It must be like the drum beat of the non-violent soldiers marching on to cut the chains that bind Mother India…. I want to see unity in it.”
The Idea of Renunciation:
Narayan is also aware of Gandhian idea of renunciation. Sriram, the protagonist of the novel renounces all luxury and comforts. Gandhi in this novel preferred to stay in a Harijan’s hut when he visited the villages. Sriram too feels more comfortable with the ordinary people and asks them not to worry for his stay. His possessions include a spinning wheel, a blanket on which to sleep, and the couple of vessels, some food stuff, and a box of matches. This shows Narayan’skeenness in exploring Gandhian idea of simplicity in life.
Thus, in his novel Waiting for Mahatma R. K. Narayan illustrates Gandhian ideology of truth, non-violence, renunciation, and karma theory in Hinduism. The novel gives Sriram’s journey from a common man to a satyagrahi and an escape from Gandhian ideals to reach extremists and finally an arrest by police. This is nothing but the benefit of being a follower of Gandhia’s principles and also reflects the consequences of not adhering to them.
Raja Rao work in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy:-
Basudeb critiques the novels of Raja Rao and analyses the impact of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy in his works, in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.
Raja Rao was roughly a contemporary of Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. He was born on November 8, 1908, in the State of Mysore. His mother tongue was ‘Kannada’. English was his second language. He completed his post graduate study in France. He was adequately exposed to Europe and America because of his frequent visits to those two continents. But at the same time he was a child of Gandhian period. He breathed in an environment of Gandhian philosophy of life. His important works are :-
• Kanthapura (1938)
• The Serpent and the Rope (1960)
• The Cat and Shakespeare: A Tale of India (1965)
• Comrade Kirillov (1976)[8]
• The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988)
• The Cow of the Barricades (1947)
• The Policeman and the Rose (1978)
• The True Story of Kanakapala, Protector of Gold
• The Cow of the Barricades
• The Policeman and the Rose
KANTHAPURA:-
Kanthapura sketches the step by step social development of a south Indian village Kanthapura, and its people, who following Gandhiji became successful not only in forming a Swadeshi or anti-colonial group and performing anti-colonial protests but also redeeming their village from the social evils of untouchability, Castesism, women backwardness, dis-unity and toddy or wine drinking. Gandhiji’s popular effects are noticed when we hear him chanted in a Keertan or in a village-made swadeshi song, songs sung as preface to anti-colonial protests, as he is considered as the main Lord of inspiration behind all actions and all political activities. When the entire village carries out an anti-colonial protest against the Skeffington Estate, the coolies cry out, “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” and “we (the villagers) say ‘Mahatma, Mahatma, Gandhi Mahatma!, and they put their mouths to our ears and say ‘Gandhi Mahatma ki jai’!”, as a source of inspiration, strength and will power. Kanthapura experiences a total reformation from a place with a common term, ‘village’ to a village in the real sense of the term, in the end, where there is no caste distinction, backwardness and religious fanatism, but self-employment, women emancipation, love, social awareness and of course the pride of their Sthalapurana. The enthusiasm that Gandhiji generated, the expectations he aroused and the attack he launched on the British authority, had all combined to initiate the very first anti- colonial movements in the peasant India which could lead to the conceptualization of an over turning of the power structure not only in its international aspect between the British and India but also within the country where a peasant could now dare to violate a landlord, a farmer the unjust priest or police, or a high class - a pariah. The development is gradually noticed in form of the incidents through out the novel, from the mouth of the narrator, Moorthy and the village folk, all in an interesting and story telling manner. “So Moorthy goes from house to house, and from younger brother to elder brother, and from elder brother to the grandfather himself, and what do you think? He even goes to the Potters’ quarter and the Weavers’ quarter and the Sudra quarter, …….We said to ourselves, he is one of these Gandhi-men, who say there is neither caste nor clan nor family, and yet they pray like us and they live like us. Only they say too, one should not marry early, one should allow widows to take husbands and a Brahmin might marry a pariah and pariah a Brahmin.”(p.15). Again, when we come to matters like keeping an uncorrupted spirit by the grace of God we see Achakka narrating: “Ah! says Range Gowda. ‘And I shall not close my eyes till that dog has eaten filth,’ but Moorthy interrupts him and says such things are not to be said, and that hatred should be plucked out of our hearts and that the Mahatma says you must love even your enemies.”. The development is prominent and is bound to take place as we find the villagers equating Gandhiji with Brahma, Shiva and Krishna who were all Saviours in our Hindu mythology and anything said by them is bound to be true. The most interesting matter that one must note is that the entire change or transformation, social and civic, as carried on by Moorthy , the representative of Gandhiji, is done only by different modes of communication through group discussions, religious chants, Ramlilas, gram sabhas, etc. based on Gandhi-talks and no non-violent measures are needed or introduced. The Harikatha man, Jayramachar while telling a story from Hindu mythology tells” You remember how Krishna, when he was but a babe of four, had began to fight against demons and had killed the serpent Kali. So too our Mohandas began to fight against the enemies of the country. And as he grew up, and after he was duly shaven for the hair ceremony, he began to go out into the villages and assemble people and talk to them, and his voice was so pure, his forehead was so brilliant with wisdom, that men followed him, more and more men followed him as they did Krishna the flute-player, and so he goes from village to village to slay the serpent of the foreign rule. Fight, says he, but harms no soul. Love all, says he…… He is a saint, the Mahatma, a wise man and a soft man, and a saint. You know how he fasts and prays. And even his enemies fall at his feet.”. All the village folk irrespective of their caste distinction now came up to the temple and swore the oath unanimously to serve the county “‘My Master, I shall spin a hundred yards of yarn per day, and shall practice ahimsa, and I shall seek Truth’, and they fell prostrate and asked for the blessings of the Mahatma and the gods, and they rose and crawled back to their seats.”. A certain village gossip reveals that girls, who are quite aged to bring up children, go to the universities and “talk to this boy and that boy and one, too, I heard went and married a Mohammedan.”. Moorthy, the miniature Mahatma, in the story, experiences an epiphany and it is Gandhiji’s loving touch and words that makes him a Gandhi-man, leading him to boycott foreign goods and quit foreign university. In a progressive meeting, Moorthy counsels a woman:
“To wear cloth spun and woven with your own God given hands is sacred, says the Mahatma. And it gives work to the workless and work to the lazy. And if you don’t need the cloth sister, ‘give it away to the poor’...... Our country is being bled to death by foreigners. We have to protect our mother”.
Again, in the village Brahmins sit with the Pariahs in the meetings and eat and sing in the temple. Kanthapura now arranges for even adult Night Schools and Pariah Night Schools. Once in an anti-colonial protest, a Pariah saves a Brahmin and a Brahmin leaves way to a Pariah too. Thus, Kanthapura relates the story of a village, socially and morally uplifted, by the effective developmental communication processes of Gandhiji.
But Moorty, the village Gandhi, in the end, leaves Gandhism, joins the Nehru group and writes in a letter
“Is there no Swaraj in our states and is there not misery and corruption and cruelty there? Oh no, Ratna, it is the way of the master that is wrong. And I have come to realize bit by bit….”.
Though the magical effect of Gandhiji was found bulleted through, to a certain extent, by the introduction of other idealisms, for the common people it was like the God imprisoned for His wrong ways and the huge mass of disciples found no soil under their feet, but still they managed to keep faith on the Lord as He still was the source of strength and existence in their lives. Though Moorthy leaves Gandhi and Kanthapura, yet the other village members stay back firm rooted in Gandhi and the narrator says, “They say Rangama is all for the Mahatma. We are all for the Mahatma. Pariah Rachanna’s wife, Rachi, and Seethamma and Timmamma are all for the Mahatma. They say there are men in Bombay and men in Punjab, and men and women in Bombay and Bengal and Punjab, who are all for the Mahatma. They say that the Mahatma will go to the Red-man’s country and he will get us Swaraj. and Rama will come back from exile, and sita will be with him for Ravana will be slain and Sita freed, and he will come back with Sita on his right in a chariot of the air, and brother Bharata will go to meet them with the worshipped sandal of the Master on his head.” .
The faith and religious coating on the bitter political truth is prominent and ‘Rama’, the Mahatma, will go to England in the Round Table Conference and bring back ‘Sita’ independent India from the ‘Ravanas’ the British and Pt. Neheru ‘Bharata’ will welcome the Mahatma as The Ramayana dictates. It was essentially a Gandhi-Purana that the ordinary village folk understood and because of such religious orientation, the majority of the people blindly followed Gandhi. Despite everything, it is an uncontested truth that it was Gandhiji who introduced the National consciousness among people irrespective of class, caste and religion, not only through religious coated speeches or political campaigns but also bringing the genuine realization of the need to be united against the British to fight back freedom by observing certain social, civic, psychological and behavioural changes in society.
Raja Rao wrote The Serpent and the Rope when he returned to India after a long stay abroad. During this phase of his life, Raja Rao tried to explore a “connection with his roots in the modern rendering of the Mahabharata legend of Satayavan and Savithri. The work also dramatised the relationships between Indian and Western culture”.
Concusion;-
Indian history never saw such an upsurge of faith, unity in action, united will, community feeling and social development, without any expensive spending as in the Gandhian Age from the grass root level. He himself was a means of communication for the people between the British and the Indians, as he had a well formed conception about the motherland and her people, their needs and their mind set which helped him to attain millions of disciples and act as a positive social worker with the help of traditional ways of communication. Scopes for further research lies in the fact whether Gandhiji’s motives, ideals, teachings etc. and their consequences were right or not but it must be undoubtedly concluded that nothing but such tactful means of communication through the Folk media and myth was the only way to foster revolutionary feelings in the ignorant poor villagers thereby making them realize the need for change and self-development. It was my sincere effort to unveil the logic behind Gandhiji’s use of myths, puranas, harinaam-keertans and padayatras as primary tools behind his freedom campaigns and what effects they produced in the minds of the people together with how he could bring certain social and ideological betterment in the villages, their social life and attitude towards life, at least as portrayed by the the-then literary writers.
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