Chapter I

CHAPTER- I

Introduction

Indian writing in English derives moderately a long way from the mere use of

the English language to the accurate tool for collaborating one’s ideas, thoughts,

concepts and imagination. Learning English would not mean a slave attitude. English

language with its great literary tradition is no longer a language of a particular nation

or race. It has imitated a World language that has plentiful profits. In other words “It is

a wonderful window on the world and has thrown open to us a vast panorama or

worldwide scientific, literary, cultural and political scene by which we have

immensely gained” (Promodhkumar, Singh, 14-15).

The English language was relocated to India because the East India Company,

soon after introduction of their rule in India, began to feel a communication gap

between the British rulers and the citizens. At first Indians answered with doubt

towards the English language, but later on welcomed it with open arms and English

language was granted a special place in India.

Indians have the skill of storytelling from the period of the Rig-Veda and

Upanishad. There were Thirty Two Tales of the Throne dealing with King

Vikramaditya or Somadeva’s Kathasaritasager. In the formation, the transformations

of the western models have performed. Then translation took the form of approval and

summarization and finally the creation of the original works took place in the form of

an imitation of the western models. K. S. Ramamurti says in this regard:

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The novel as a medium of story-telling and the art form is essentially of

the West and represents a tradition of fiction writing, which is a totally

different from India’s time honoured tradition of story-telling (2).

The Indian novelists in English have their roots in two traditions – the Indian

and the Western. It was an encounter for them to express clearly an Indian feeling in

an assimilated language. Indian Writing in English has a very new history, which is

one and a half century old. British people ruled India for hundred and fifty years. India

and England had collaborated in trade, military and political affairs. During this

period, England attained wealth and empire of India. India acquired English language,

in return and the notion of the constitutional Government. From the ancient viewpoint,

Indian English Literature has passed through several phases such as Indo-Anglian,

Indo-English, Indian Writing in English and recently Indian English literature. In spite

of its varied cultures, races and religions, Indian Writing in English has undoubtedly

recollected and imitated the multi-cultural, multilingual society. As a result, it has

encouraged a good deal of interest at home and abroad also. The works of various

writers get not only a massive group of readers, but also receive an immense critical

acclaim.

The term Indian Writing in English is used in a wider sense. This is the body of

works by the authors whose mother tongue is one of the languages of bilingual India.

According to K. R. S. Iyengar, there are three types of Indian authors in English,

First, those who are acquired their entire education in English in schools

and Universities. Second, Indians who have settled abroad, but are

constantly in touch with the changing surroundings and the traditions of

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their country of adoption. Finally, Indian’s who have acquired English

as a second language (30-31).

Thus, a large number of Indians were significantly moved by the candid desire to

present before the western readers a reliable picture of India through their writings.

The literature of pre-independence India also imitates the passion and

enthusiasm of nationalism that was alive among the people. Indian writers were

followed the western norms in writing poetry and fiction. They were influenced by the

Romantic poets of the west. The Romantic poets like Byron, Shelley and Keats left a

permanent mark on the mind and soul of Indian writers.

Literature was not a matter that required being life behind, which with time had

expanded pace, thus opening to carve a new way of introducing feminism in Indian

literature. Balaram Das, a poet of the sixteenth century had conveyed the concept of

male domination of woman in an exactingly patriarchal society.

Before independence several Indian writers began to use English language as a

medium of literary manifestation. The first literary work in English was started by

Cavelly Venkata Boriah. His translated work, Accounts of the Jains (1809), is perhaps

the first published English work. In the works of pre-independence Indian writers, the

romantic attitude is attached with patriotic passion. This amplified love of the people

for their homeland. In western writings, liberty has endlessly been associated with

Romanticism. The western educations inspire the Indians emotion to look after their

own country and fight for their freedom.

The first book written by an Indian in English was Travels of Dean Mahomet

by Sake Dean Mahomet; his travel tale was published in 1793 in England. In its early
 4

stages, it was prejudiced by the Western art form of the novel. From the beginning,

Indian writers used English untouched by Indian words to prompt their knowledge

which was basically Indian. Indian writings in English are a product of an ancient

summit between the two cultures—Indian and the western—for about one hundred

and ninety years.

The growth of Indian English fiction from 1857 to 1920 was generally

imitative and immature, though their success is meagre in this phase. Bankim Chandra

Chatterjee wrote Rajmohun's Wife (1864), and it is the first novel in English. It is said

that he wrote the novel, in order to fascinate the attention of the west. As the first

Indian novel in English it secures a unique place. The novel is extraordinary for

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's descriptive skill. He deftly uses the devices of accident,

crime, thrill and confusion. It is a candid tale of the desolations of a typical Hindu

wife Matangini.

Another contemporary writer of Chatterjee was Toru Dutt. One could see the

inspiration of Keats; she translated the book A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876,

translated from French into English) and another volume of verses – Ancient Ballads

and Legends of Hindustan (1882). Toru Dutt (1856-1877), a well-known poet of the

era wrote a novel called Bianca (1878). She wrote it when she was a young girl. It is

said, Bianca is more a product of imagination than of experience. Here Toru Dutt

defines the sorrow of her protagonist Bianca and Bianca's father. Bianca's mother is

drawn as a villain. The novel is imaginatively rich. But, because of Toru Dutt's early

death, it was unfinished.

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The incompleteness and fragmentary scene of the novel is a solemn handicap in

creating any exact view about it. The remaining proportion can be finished that Bianca

is going into an impulsive fit of restlessness and improving all too suddenly is rather

unrealistic, typical of the Victorian novelists. About the style and language of the

writer, K.S. Ramamurti states “One looks in vain in all the Indo-English novels which

were written during the years that followed a description so real and clothed in

English, so natural and felicitous as to sound almost an-Indian”. (71)

Toru Dutt’s attentiveness, her impudence to feminine beauty and grace, though

outwardly English, is essentially Indian. Though the background of the novel is an

English village with Spanish characters, the novel tells the value of mind that is

essentially Indian. The English language gives the awareness in the hands of a young

writer who was by no means a sensible experimenter with her standard.

The Gandhian whirlwind pushed across the country during 1920-1947. Under

the active guidance of Mahatma Gandhi, political concepts started disappearing from

the act and in turn new thoughts and approaches appeared, not only in the dogmatic

field but in practically every walk of Indian life. The inevitable impact of the

Gandhian campaign on Indian English literature was the abrupt flowering of realistic

novels throughout the nineteen thirties. Authors turned their attention away from the

past to think on contemporary subjects. In their novels major social and political

problems that the Indians initiated themselves were given prominence. The national

movement of Gandhiji not only encouraged the Indian English novelists, but also

provided them with some of their noticeable themes, such as the struggle for freedom,

the East-West encounter, the communal problem and the miserable condition of the
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untouchables, the landless poor, the downtrodden, the economically exploited and the

oppressed.

The zeal of patriotism was further emphasized in the works of Mulk Raj

Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao. The socio-political condition of pre-

independence India is represented emotionally, in the novels of these writers. Mulk

Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936) portray the rigid caste system in

India. R.K. Narayan’s writings still continue to focus on complications of India and

her people. His notable works are Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts

(1937) and The Dark Room (1938). Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938) directed attention

towards the social construction in India. Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao

continued their writing after Independence.

A brief glance at the panorama of Indo-Anglian fiction through the ages of

growth gives a view of certain prominent and recurrent themes. The Indian social

theme has always a limitless plenitude of themes to offer. Its inequalities and

immoralities, problems and hardships have produced some of the best writing in Indo-

Anglian fiction.

The family as the modest unity of the social building comes in for a multi-

sided and extravagant treatment in the works of almost noticeable Indo-Anglian

novelists. The joint family structure has its disintegration on account of social

changes. In the thirties the ‘Big Three’ of Indian Writing in English appeared on the

scene, and they were the originators of true Indo-English novel, though almost all the

time they certainly portrayed the village life and the related effect of freedom

movement. They could not keep themselves away from the Gandhian philosophy,
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which consciously or unconsciously kindled their creative writing. But it is in this

stage that one comes across excellent novels for the first time, as is evident from Mulk

Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), R.K, Narayan’s Swami and Friends (1935) and

Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938). But they are different from each other as to their

literary approaches and objectives.

Mulk Raj Anand (b.1905- 2004), presents to the West that there was more in

the orient than it could be incidental from Omar Khayyam, Tagore or Kipling. When

he started writing fiction, he decided that he would prefer to acquaint with the

imaginary. He had first seen his protagonists as pieces of unsteady humanity and

loved them before he pursued to put them into his books. His topmost novels are

Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936), Two Leaves and a Bud (1937), Village (1939),

Across the Black Waters (1940), The Big Heart (1945), The Seven Summers (1951)

and Sword and Sickle (1955).

Mulkraj Anand’s novel Coolie is about the social difference in India. In R.K.

Narayan’s fantasy village Malgudi, the obscure men and women of our seething

populace come to life and performance out life with all its obstinacies and

originalities. In Raja Rao’s Kanthapura awakes Gandhism in a sleepy village down

south. India no longer required to be portrayed by outsiders. The perspectives from

within confirmed more clarity and served as a social documentaries as well.

R.K. Narayan described first a purely Indian sensibility. He is India’s most

honoured and creative novelist. In the words of K.R. Srinivas Iyengar,

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He is one of the few writers in India who takes their craft seriously,

constantly striving to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense of

dedication what may often seem to be the mirage of technical perfection.

There is a norm of excellence below which Narayan cannot possibly

lower himself. (359)

Though R.K. Narayan was not as radical as Raja Rao in his assumption of English,

Narayan is part of the process, which in his own word is an ‘Indianaisation’ of

English. R.K. Narayan‘s novels are centred on the search for identity through a

knowledge of self. Almost all his novels denote a conflict between tradition and

beliefs. The Guide is a romantic novel, but the end of it has a philosophic posture.

Narayan's The English Teacher (1945), Mr. Sampath (1949), My Dateless Diary

(1960), The Man Eaters of Malgudi (1961), The Painter of Signs (1967), A Tiger of

Malgudi (1983), The World of Nagraj (1990) etc. came later directing upon various

social aspects of Indian life.

Raja Rao was a child of Gandhian age, and disclosed in his work, his sensitive

awareness of the powers let loose by the Gandhian rebellion as also of the awkward or

equilibrium pulls of past tradition. But as a user of a foreign language, he also

acknowledges his limitation in ‘Foreword’ given by himself in his first novel

Kanthapura. He writes, “English is the language of our intellectual make up, whereas

our mother tongue is the language of our emotional makeup”. (8)

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Such was the imaginative genius of these ‘Big Three’ that they wide-open a

whole new world in Indo- English fiction. They observed closely the Indian awareness

and showed the faults of the Indian way of life. He has written five novels Kantapura

(1936), The Serpent and the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comrade

Kirillov (1976) and The Chess Master and his Moves (1988). Kanthapura is the only

novel of Raja Rao which was published pre-independence.

During post-Independence period (1950 to 1960), Indian English fiction

recollects the energy of the novel had expanded during the Gandhian age. Bhabani

Bhattacharya’s fiction bore social purpose, as he considers that the novel must have a

social purpose but he rarely succeeded in achieving a bright understanding of life. In

his first novel So Many Hungers (1947), Bhattacharya, deals with the theme of

exploitation on the political, economic and social ground, takes the Quit India

movement and the Bengal famine of the early nineteen forties as its background. It

continued the tradition of social realism emphasizing, like Mulk Raj Anand, the

obligation of social purpose in fiction. His fiction has been translated into more than a

dozen European languages. His sense of narrative mode, situation, use of Indianisms

and easily identifiable characters created a picture of India. Bhabani Bhattacharya

wrote many novels like So Many Hungers (1947), Music for Mohini (1952), He Who

Rides the Tiger (1952), A Goddess Named Gold (1960), Shadow from Ladakh, (1966)

and A Dream in Hawaii (1978).

Manohar Malgonkar (1913-2010), is one of the popular Indo-English novelists

of the modern era and he started his career after independence with the publication of

a Distant Drum (1960). It is the story of military life and civil life, as well as army
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and Political life. His Combat of Shadows (1962) was set in the tea estate in Assam.

The Princes (1963) is Malgonkar’s best novel which deals with the strength and

weakness of Indian feudalism. A Bend in the Ganges (1964) is an ambitious novel; the

title and the epigraph are drawn from the Ramayana which represents a generation

lost in the forties. Spy in Amber (1971) is a thriller; The Devil’s Wind (1972) is a

historical novel. It deals with the great Revolt of 1857. He is a performer of the first

order. He excels in literary sensibility and critical maturity; he “subtly makes a

landmark as a historical novelist” (229). Though as a realist, unlike Bhattacharya,

Malgonkar holds the view that art has no other purpose to help than pure amusement.

His major obsession seems to be the role of history in individual and social life in

India.

Khushwant Singh (1918- 2014) came into a consideration as an elementary

realist with the publication of his Train to Pakistan (1956). In this novel he portrays

the impact of partition in a small village on the India-Pakistan border. His second

novel I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959) displays an ironic image of a Sikh joint

family signifying different Indian responses to the freedom movement of the nineteen

forties. Later novels include Delhi (1990), and The Company of Women (1999). His

rough realism finds a place in each of his novels.

The novels of 1970 laid substance for the revolution in the fictional technique

and sensibility in the novels of 1980s. The publication of Salman Rushdie’s

Midnight’s Children (1981) is reflected as the sensational event in the literary history.

Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate (1986) is another miracle by an Indian author. Other

notable writers of the 1980s are Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry.
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Unlike 1930s and 1950s last eras of the nineteenth century have noticed the

important development and growth of the Indian novel in English. During this period,

some important Indian men, women novelists and their novels have emerged on the

literary scene. The novels of this period delineated private tension, self-alienation and

loneliness. Anita Desai described the distressed lives of the middle class. Shashi

Deshpande described the personal, domestic life of women. Arun Joshi focused on

different aspects of alienation in his novels like The Foreigner (1968) and The Strange

Case of Billy Biswas (1971).

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight's Children (1981) indicated a new era in the

history of Indian English Fiction. His other significant novels include Shame (1983)

and Satanic Verses (1988). Amitav Ghosh, is one of the most widespread names in

recent Indian English fiction writing, started his literary career with The Circle of

Reason (1986) followed by In An Antique Land (1992), The Calcutta Chromosome

(1996) and The Glass Palace (2000). (1989) Shashi Tharoor’s first novel The Great

Indian Novel (1989) is one of the finest instances of post-modern fiction in recent

Indian English Literature.

The post- independence period marked the beginning of Modernism in Indian

English Literature. Modernism as a technique and philosophy came to the Indian

literary scene only after independence. It was the time when social and literary

growths in England and America influenced the Indian writers.

Indian writing in English is now gaining ground rapidly. In the realm of fiction,

it has heralded a new era and has earned many successes both at home and abroad.

Women have always been portrayed as subservient and passive. With the introduction
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of western education and with the growth of women’s societies, things had initiated to

change. It led to the beginning of women education in India. All these growth had

helped in teaching the sense of individuality among the women. These changes helped

in developing the trend in English novels writing patterns of India.

Today’s women are sophisticated and economically independent. They quest

for their own identity. All these varying images of Indian women are depicted in the

write-ups of the contemporary Indian novelists.

Indian women writers have started questioning the prominent old patriarchal

domination. They are no longer puppets in the hands of man. They have shown their

worth in the field of literature, both qualitatively and quantitatively and are showing it

even today without any hurdle. Today, the works of Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara

Sahgal, Anita Desai, Geetha Hariharan, Shashi Deshpande and Manju Kapur and

many more have left an ineradicable imprint on the readers of Indian fiction in

English.

Thus, the Indian women novelists do not only talk about glorious

cultural past, traditions and customs; but they have dealt with changing domestic and

social problems of women with the changing scenario of society. Exploitation of

women and their struggle has been one of the common themes in Indian English

novels. Some talented women writers pull out the Indian readers out of their shells to

overcome gender issues. They have written about the complex issues like sensuality,

servility and society. It is possible to view a different world through the eyes of these

women writers.
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Kamala Markandaya (1940- 2004) is the pseudonym by Kamala Purnaiya

Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. She uses fiction as a vehicle for

communicating her vision of life. Her themes are East-West encounter, racial and

cultural conflicts, communal disharmony, industrialization and urbanization and the

consequent conflicts between the cross cultural values. Her novels reflect the

awakened feminine sensibility in contemporary India. The women characters in her

novels are extracted from different strata of society like peasants, middle class, and

educated women as well as from the royal families. However, the common thread

among them is that they quest for independence of the self, compiled with care for the

family and for the larger community of men and women. Thereby, women are

confronted with several obstacles emerging mainly from the irregularities in the social

system along with economic difficulties. As the women battle with these forces, they

develop a mature vision of life.

Markandaya has described a gloomy scenario of Indian life due to changes in

social, economic and political spheres. However, she believes that togetherness and

mutual understanding can create a meaningful existence for mankind. Kamala

Markandaya, being a woman novelist has brought mostly woman characters into

being. She portrays strong women characters that face challenges in their life. She has

left behind eleven novels and almost all the novels depict an Indian woman journey

from the womb to the tomb, from anonymity to recognition which passes through

different stages. She reveals the virtues and potentialities of a woman reflecting that a

woman is no way inferior to man.

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Markandaya describes the life of the village, cities, husband-wife relations,

social conflicts and love for modernism. She is different from her contemporaries in

her own remarkable way by depiction a large variety of the realities in Indian life.

Markandaya’s women characters emerge to come out of the darkness, throwing off

legally their humiliations, dependence and resignation seeking equality with their

responsibility to get their freedom. She has published many novels such as Nectar in a

Sieve (1954), Some Inner Fury (1955), Handful of Rice (1966), The Coffee Dams

(1969), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), and her most ambitious novel

The Golden Honey Comb (1977).

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s works disclose inwardness and pictures of certain

segments of Indian and social life which is difficult. Her eight novels fall into two

different and equally matched groups, like comedies of urban middle class Indian life,

especially in undivided Hindu families and ironic studies of the East-West encounter.

The first group comprises To whom She Will (1955), The Nature of Passion (1956),

The House Holder (1960), and Get Ready for Battle (1920). To the second group

belong Esmond in India (1958), A Background Place (1965), A New Dominion

(1973), and Heat and Dust (1975). In her novels, Jhabvala points out the vulnerability

and the lack of direction of Western youth. She has experienced cultural tensions

sharply and continually, and her experience has proved to be a rich source for her

creativity.

Nayantara Sahgal (1927) developed one of the most significant expressions in

the realm of Indian English fiction. She is a creative writer. Nayantara Sahgal’s first

book Prison and Chocolate Cake (1954), an autobiography, was published when she
 15

was only twenty-seven years old. The book defines the powerful associations and

experiences of her childhood and provides priceless insight into the determining

influences of her life. The political consciousness, which controls her literary

creations, is real and inseparable from herself and her surroundings.

She has to her credit nine novels, two biographies, two political commentaries

and a large number of articles, contributions to various newspapers and magazines.

She is a novelist of politics as well as a successful political columnist for different

newspapers. Her writing is generally characterised by simplicity and boldness. Her

writing is also famous for keeping in touch with the latest political ups and downs

with a tinge of Western liberalism. Her novels truthfully mirror the contemporary

Indian political theme. Her novels portray the contemporary incidents and political

realities saturated with artist and object. All her major characters of the novel are

drawn towards the vortex of politics. Besides politics, her fiction also focuses

attention on an Indian woman’s search for sexual freedom and self-realization.

Anita Desai (1937) is different from other women novelists, as she has offered

psychological exploitation of her women characters. Her protagonists are mostly

lonely and sensitive. Her writing is a process of “exploration of language: how much

can language do, how far it can pretend human experience and feelings.” (Interview

with Mangla Costa)

Anita Desai, published her first novel Cry the Peacock in 1963 which presents

woman as a victim of the superstitious beliefs of astrology. Voice of the City (1963),

deals with the theme of alienated individuals which means middle class longing for

creativity and self- expression. Bye – Bye Black bird (1971) depicts the theme of the
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east west encounter. Where Shall We Go This Summer (1975) unfolds the story of

atrocities on women, It was followed by, Fire on the Mountain (1977), Games at

Twilight (1978), Clear Light of Day (1980), The Village by the Sea (1982), In Custody

(1984), Baumgartner’s Bombay (1988), Journey to Ithaca (1995), Fasting Feasting

(1999), Diamond Dust and Other Stories (2000), and The Zigzag Way (2004). Desai

confesses that she feels for India as an Indian. But she thinks about it as an outsider.

So her fiction moves around the themes such as women’s oppression, quest for

identity, family relationships, the breakdown of traditions and social biases. Dr. Pal

has rightly observed Desai as an “obsessive existentialist”. (Pal, Shashi 69)

Shashi Tharoor is a diplomat and a writer who has been known mostly for

having worked as an Indian diplomat in the United States. Tharoor’s fictional work

includes, Riot (2001), Show Business (1992), The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories

(1990), The Great Indian Novel (1989). His non-fictional works are The Elephant, The

Tiger and The Cell Phone: India- Emerging 21 Century to Power (2007), Reasons of

State (1982), Nehru, The Invention of India (2003), Kerala, God’s Own Country

(2002), India: from Midnight to Millennium (1997). Tharoor has written numerous

books in English. Most of his works are centred on Indian themes and they are ‘Indo-

nostalgic’. Perhaps his most prominent work is The Great Indian Novel, published in

1989, in which he uses the narrative style and the theme of the famous Indian epic

Mahabharata to weave a satirical story of Indian life in non-linear mode with the

characters drawn from the Indian independence movement. His novel Show Business

(1992) was made into a Hindi Bollywood film in 1994.

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Gita Hariharan’s first novel, The Thousand Faces of Night (1992) won the

prestigious Commonwealth award. She has offered a battle of women in their

relationship with men and society. Her novel The Song of Anusaya (1978) is an

instance of it. Jai Nimbkar’s novels Temporary Answers (1974), A Joint Venture

(1988) and Come Rain (1993) have dealt with the middle class married women’s

identity crisis in the contemporary male dominated society.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a Bengali woman, belongs to post-independent

group of Indian writers who have been writing in English. Divakaruni has showed

herself as a distinct, talented and extraordinary South Asian woman writer. She is one

of those writers who have spent much of their life outside India, in one of the western

countries. Some part of her writing is autobiographical in nature as it deals with her

personal experiences in India and America. Her works primarily deal with the

practices of the immigrant women from the feminine standpoint. Her collection of

short stories, Arranged Marriage, won critical acclaim, 1996 American Book Award,

Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Fiction.

The Mistress of Spices was on several Best Books lists, including the San Francisco

Chronicle’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.

Shashi Deshpande was born in Dharwad, a small town in the state of Karnataka

in southern India. Like other Indian writers, she is committed to social causes and

responsibility. Her novels are women oriented. In all her stories and novels, she

represented real India. Women deprived of love; understanding and companionship

are at the center of her works. She shows how the traditional Indian society is biased

against women. She believes that men and women write differently. In the beginning
 18

of the novel That Long Silence (1989) she says, “I somehow feel that anybody who

reads this would know this is a woman writing”. (39)

Thus, the brief survey of Indian women novelists in English clearly shows that

women have made their permanent mark in the field of English fictions. They are

being conferred on not only national but also international awards. In most of their

writings they have tried their best to free the female mentality from the age long

control of male domination and they tried to focus on self -identity. In short, in their

novels the protagonists are mostly women characters desolated and isolated by an

entirely sapless, hypocritical and insensitive male domination. Today whatever

political, social, cultural and individual awareness we see in women, is the result of

these fiction writers who heralded a new consciousness in the realm of traditional

thinking. Even today the condition of women in the remote villages is very heart-

rending. They are still getting step motherly treatment by the parent in both education

and nourishment.

Literature is a product of social, political, historical and cultural conditions of

any nation. The present study will certainly help us to understand the plight of women

and contemporary women writers along with socio-cultural setup. Identity is carved

by one’s authentic recognition. The word ‘living’ denotes only breathing without any

identity, whereas ‘existence’ shows real identity.

Identity is rooted in the psyche of the community. It is simply there and cannot

be changed. One’s identity is fixed, derived from religion, caste, patrimony and

mother tongue. Identity is a state of mind in which one recognises or identifies one's
 19

character traits that lead to find out who he or she is and what one does. In other

words, it is who one is and what one defines him/her as being.

The theme of identity is often expressed in literature so that the reader can

relate to the characters and their emotions. It is useful in helping readers to understand

that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what

they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want, but that

can never change.

The world has probably changed more swiftly than before, with the increasing

exchange of capital across the globe. Therefore, cultures mixing changed in manners,

with tremendous implications for the identity and self of individuals who are moving

across a variety of different cultures. The cultural exchanges take place not only at

social levels, but also in the mind of individual selves. Culture is characterised by

change within groups as well as within the self of individuals who are torn between a

localised situation in which they grow up and a globalised location in which they have

moved in search of job, pleasure and money.

The reflection of society and culture demands a new conception of individual

identity. The notion of identity is still dominant, highly dynamic and contested

circumstances in which individuals find them. Identities have multiplied and therefore,

tend to shift in meaning according to context, as a result of which some have

suggested that the concept of identity should be replaced by the notion of identity,

pointing to the nature of contemporary identities. Others have suggested that the
 20

analytical value of the concept of identity is insufficient to do justice to the

multicultural individuals.

Identity is a key element in the contemporary society. “Identity is a concept

that neither imprisons nor detaches persons from their social and symbolic universes,

so, it has over the years retained a generic force that few concepts in our field have”

(Davis, 105). According to Homi K Bhabha “Identity is never a priori, nor a finished

product; it is only ever the problematic process of access to an image of totality”. (51)

The term ‘identity’ comes from the Latin root idem, which signifies ‘the same’.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term identity in the following manner: “the

sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances; the condition or fact

that person or thing is itself and not something else; individuality, personality”

(Online version). According to Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, there are two types

of identity; personal identity and psychosocial identity. Personal identity varies from

individual to individual and it is based on a sense of continuous existence and a

coherent memory of a unique self. Personal identity, in the words of William James, is

the ‘real me’ as viewed by the individual (61).

According to Oxford English dictionary; identity is defined as ‘the fact of being

who or what a person or thing is’ but in postcolonial contexts, identity is a complex

concept that would be difficult to define. The identification of an individual or a group

or a nation in postcolonial terms as one notice easily is linked to the ‘other’, that

means they recognize themselves ‘us’ with the existence of the ‘other’ (705).

Psychosocial identity is not confined to a single individual; it is shared by a

group of persons. It includes ethnic and diasporic identity. It is not a mere aggregation
 21

of personal identities; it also involves the collective identity of the community as a

whole.

Identity is a multidimensional word. In psychology and sociology, identity is a

person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations. Identity

may be defined as the distinctive characteristic belonging to any given individual, or

shared by all members of a particular social category or group. The term comes from

the French word ‘identité’, which finds its linguistic roots in the Latin noun

‘identitas’, -‘tatis’, itself a derivation of the Latin adjective idem meaning ‘the same’.

However, “the formation of one's identity occurs through one's identifications with

significant others. These others may begin, such that one aspires to their

characteristics, values and beliefs, or malign when one wishes to dissociate from their

characteristics”. (Weinreich and Saunderson, 123)

Theorist Erik Erikson coined the term identity crisis and believed that it was

one of the most important conflicts people face in development.

An identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of

different ways of looking at oneself. Erikson's interest in identity began

in childhood. Raised Jewish, Erikson appeared very Scandinavian and

often felt that he was an outsider of both groups. His later studies of

cultural life among the Yurok of northern California and the Sioux of

South Dakota helped formalize Erikson's ideas about identity

development and identity crisis. Erikson described identity as a

subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness

and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity
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of some shared world image. As a quality of unself-conscious living,

this can be gloriously obvious in a young person who has found himself

as he has found his communality. In him we can see a unique unification

of what is irreversibly given--that is, body type and temperament,

giftedness and vulnerability, infantile models and acquired ideals--with

the open choices provided in available roles, occupational possibilities,

values offered, mentors met, friendships made, and first sexual

encounters (43).

The question of identity is the most controversial issue in postcolonial period

and literature and it can be regarded the most important because of the crisis exist in

all postcolonial communities. Due to the circumstances of postcolonial era and the

problematic conditions that forced newly freed nations and countries in their search

and formation of self-identity, the crisis floated on the surface. The issue of identity is

not a clear and fixed concept as it may imagine, that led to the crisis and became a

phenomena as Mercer argues “identity only becomes an issue when it is in crisis,

when something assumed to be fixed, coherent and stable is displaced by the

experience of doubt and uncertainty”. (43)

Edward Said argues that “It is a historical truth that nationalism-restoration of

the people, declaration of identity, coming out of new cultural practices as a mobilized

political power initiated and then raised the struggle against western authority in the

non-European world”. (218)

The national identity that’s formed in a postcolonial state “is believed to be

never fixed and is ever changing according to environment and culture, because of
 23

transfer and sovereignty which leads to a confusion in identity” (Chan, i). The identity

is not a stable and fixed notion as Hall confirms, “Identity emerges as a kind of

unsettled space or an unresolved question in that space, between a number of

intersecting discourses” (10) and the impact of colonial legacy was multidimensional

besides there were different consequences of colonialism in different locations and,

“the issue of identity appeared in different shapes and forms”. (144-53)

Franz Fanon in his theoretical argument about the consequences of colonialism

and the change formed by the experience of immigration, “examines the experience of

having to wear ‘white masks’ to get by Europe, of having to bend one’s own identity

so as to appear to the colonizer to be free of all taint of primitive native traits” (117-

118).

According to Wikipedia, “Crisis is any event that is expected to lead an

unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole

society. Crisis is deemed to be negative changes in the security, economic, political,

social or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no

warning. It means “a testing time”. (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis>).

The crisis is often linked to the concept of stress. In accidental culture, the term

is often used to suggest a negative of fraught experience while in the UK as a

hazardous event and in oriental cultures like China it means danger and opportunity.

In general crisis is the situation of a complex system.

A personal crisis occurs when an individual can no longer resist a situation.

The crisis is simply a change in the events that comprise the day to day life of a
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person. A person going through a crisis experiences a state of mental disequilibrium,

the ego struggles to balance the demand. (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis>)

People come across a number of crises in their personal, professional, cultural,

political, religious and social interaction. Therefore, crisis is a part of human

civilization. The success depends on how well people are able to tackle these crises

and live amicably. One of the major crisis is a community experience, when their

identity is questioned or at stake. The identity of a person or a community speaks what

a person or a group is all about. When a group feels that they are deprived of

something that they deserve, people begin to polarize and fight for their demands.

Most of the major conflicts occurred in history are based on ethnicity.

Identity Crisis is one of the most important battles in human interactions. An

Identity Crisis is a time in life when an individual begins to seriously quest for

answers about the nature of his being and he searches for an identity. Identity Crisis

may occur at any time of life, especially in periods of great transition and depression.

It is not restricted to adolescence and the emergence into adulthood. It can occur at

any time and many people label midlife crises as a crisis of identity.

Identity crisis has made it into dictionaries, and is defined as follows:

According to the Webster’s New World Dictionary “the condition of being uncertain

of one's feelings about oneself, especially with regard to character, goals, and origins,

occurring especially in adolescence as a result of growing up under disruptive, fast-

changing conditions”. (696)

This statement ultimately describes ‘identity’ is one's spirits about one's self,

atmosphere, goals, and origins. While much before to our current meaning than the
 25

older meaning discussed above, this is nearer still to ‘self-image’. As one use it now,

‘my identity’ is not the same thing as my feelings about myself, character, goals, and

origins, but rather something about my definition of myself, character, and so on.

Objectives of study

The aim of the thesis is to highlight and focus on the theme of identity crisis in

Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Jhumpa

Lahiri’s The Namesake and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. The protagonist’s

identity is the crux of their work. Their protagonists are known for their inner strength

and they emerge triumph of their sufferings. Within the limited image available for

expounding the thesis, this thematic study confines itself in the four novels. The

search for meaningful life is the important issue highlighted in the above mentioned

novels.

Hypothesis

Indian women writers in English of the last four decades have invariably

concerned about issues pertaining to personal / individual identity. Many critics and

women writers have raised this problem and strived to answer the question: ‘Who am

I?’ the question of identity has been expressed in three levels such as national,

regional and personal or individual identity. Bharati Mukherjee, Arundhati Roy,

Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai’s protagonists keep asking the question ‘Who am I’?

How am I related to this location? How am I accepted, and recognised, loved,

considered, treated by others in the society? The authors try to find positive answers

for all these questions. In the four writer’s work, the theme of identity is being
 26

depicted well. These writers reveal their protagonist’s identity crisis in Jasmine, The

God of Small Things, The Namesake and The Inheritance of Loss.

Methodology

The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter, Introduction deals with

the brief sketch of growth and development of Indian literature. The theme of identity

crisis in the Indian society down the ages in order to know to what extent social justice

was rendered to the women folk for time to time is also discussed in the first chapter.

An attempt has also been made into extensive survey the works of Indian women

writers in English to discover the commonness and divergence in their themes and

perspectives.

Chapter II entitled ‘Restless Search for a Rootless Person’ discusses Bharati

Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine. The protagonist Jyoti Vijh is the wife of a man killed in a

terrorist bomb blast. Jyoti is rebellious by nature. She does not want to live the life of

a widow in India. She was against the feudal Indian customs and traditions. She is

interested in English and the free life of the United States. It is the journey of Jyoti

from Hasnapur to the United States. Her husband gives her new shape of life from

Jyoti to Jasmine. Her husband dies, but the seeds of change have already been shown.

She passes through many adventures. She changes her name whenever necessary.

Jyoti – Jasmine for Prakash Vijh, Kali for Half face, Jase for Taylor and Jane for Bud.

She is the modern woman with rebellious nature who refuses to surrender to the

circumstances. She undergoes rapes, murders, fears and other challenges. It is also a

journey from orthodox feudal society to modern liberalism.

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Chapter III entitled ‘Trials and Tribulations’ discusses in detail Arundhati

Roy’s The God of Small Things. The central character Ammu, marries a tea estate

manager in order to escape her authoritarian father, Pappachi, and her bitter mother,

Mammachi. Her husband is an alcoholic who abuses her. She is the mother of Rahel

and Estha and the tragic figure. She was humiliated and insulted and ill-treated by her

father, ill-treated by her husband, badly insulted by the police and deserted by her

brother. Untouchable Velutha, Ammu’s lover, suffers the brunt of casteism, social

injustice and callousness of police administrations. So totally neglected by her family

she meets a sad fate. She struggles constantly to make both ends meet.

Chapter IV entitled ‘Tug-of-War’ examines Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

which tells the story of two generations. First generation immigrant Ashoke and

Ashima traditional Bengali from Calcutta, are not interested in assimilation into the

United States, their adopted home. Their son Gogol, the central character, is born in

the United States and he is somewhat embarrassed by his name; it is neither Bengali

nor an American name. No one knows that he has a name like this. But the conflict

goes deeper. His father tries to explain why he gave that name to his first-born child,

but Gogol couldn’t care about it. In an attempt to get out of the traditional Bengali

culture, Gogol even tries to completely disassociate himself from his family. After his

father’s death, he became very close to his family. Gogol realizes the importance of

family and culture; he falls in love with a Bengali friend Moushmi. Both were

married, but Moushmi has tasted freedom in her twenties in Paris-freedom from his

parents and Bengali culture. She turns away from Gogol; finally Gogol reached a

mature resting place between the two cultures that are his heritage.
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Chapter V ‘Tradition and Progressiveness’ examines Kiran Desai’s novel The

Inheritance of Loss. The protagonist Biju is an illegal immigrant in United States who

is trying to make a new life; Sai is an Anglicised Indian girl lives with her grandfather

in India. The novel shows the internal conflicts in India between tradition and

progressiveness. There is the rejection and yet awe of the English way of life, the

opportunities for money in the US, and the squalor of living in India. Many leading

Indians were considered to be becoming too English and having forgotten the

traditional ways of Indian life, shown through the character of Sai’s grandfather, the

retired Judge.

Chapter VI ‘Summing up’ analyses the findings and records the conclusion.

The chapter also compares the salient features of the authors and their works in the

preceding chapters and arrives at conclusion.

Do the protagonists emerge victorious?