Nationalism in Indian English Literature
Abstract
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, nationalism is defined as "loyalty and devotion to a nation, especially a sense of national consciousness," and "exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups."
Nationalism involves a strong identification of a group of personages with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. It is the belief that a nation has a right to statehood. Nationalism emphasizes collective identity - a 'people' must be autonomous, united, and express a single national culture. Nationalism centers on a country's culture, language, and often race. It may also include shared literature, sports, or the arts, but is primarily driven by cultural associations. And, it promotes the nation at the expense of others.
Nationalism has also its effect on literature. We have seen a whole lot of era of literature focused on nationalism. Because nationalism cannot only be bound with society, culture, race or people but it also has its influence on literature too. In Indian writing in English, a whole lot of writers has shown their interests in writing nationalistic fiction, at the time of 1857 revolt then before independence, during independence after that much more literary works has been written.
The major Indian writers in English like Tagore, Soshee Chandra Dutt, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Manohar Malgonkar, K.A. Abbas, G V Desani, Bhabani Bhattacharya and many others depicted the dominant themes of nationalist struggle apart from their civilizational, cultural and historical antecedents.
Keywords: Nationalism, Discourse, Indian Writing in English,
Introduction
Nationalism was first used in the 18th century as a common way to define and promote a nation according to "ethnographic principles." Although the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire had some nationalistic aspects, they were much more in favor of a so-called "world-state," spanning nations under one banner. By the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the French and American revolutions sparked a new age of nationalism that promoted a unified nation and its political and economic interests - namely, capitalism.
Indian Freedom Struggle carried into focus the concept of nationalism and one can deal with the subject ‘Nationalism and Literature’ very easily by relating patriotic writings as a manifestation of nationalist enthusiasm of the people against foreign supremacy which began to appear in the mid of 20th century.
The present paper reconnoiters the notions of nationalism and the nation in Indian English literature. The novelists like Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, K.S. Venkatramani, K.A. Abbas, Manohar Malgonkar, G V Desani, Bhabani Bhattacharya and many others portrayed influence of Indian independence movement and Gandhian idealism in Indian writing in English.
Nationalism in Indian literature initiated at the time of 1857 revolt although its root arose in 1835 when Kylas Chunder Dutt wrote “A Journal of Forty-Eight Hours of the Year1945” and Shoshee Chunder Dutt wrote “The Republic of Orissa: A Page from the Annals of the Twentieth Century”, both project into future, describing battles of liberation against British, but end with dissimilar resolutions. Kylas Chundur Dutt fixes on a year more than a century later as the date of a crucial Indian confrontation with the British. By this time in the future, Indians would have reached the limits of their tolerance. His piece begins thus:
“The people of India and particularly those of metropolis had been subject for the last fifty years to every species of subaltern oppression. The dagger and the bowl deals with merciless hand, and neither age, sex, nor condition could repress the rage of the British barbarians. Those events, together with the recollection of the grievances suffered by their ancestors, roused the dormant spirit of the generally considered timid Indians”.
Bankimchandra Chatterjee (1838-94) significantly influenced the notion of Indian religion and secular nationalism through his writings. He uses religion as an important tool to rise the people against colonial rulers. Bankim proclaimed that the idea of western nationalism reinforced the spiritual values of Indian nationalism. His novel, Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss 1882) is set in the late 18th century and portrays the Sannyasi Rebellion. This novel stirs many people to sacrifice their lives for the struggle of Independence. The novel was banned by the British regime.
Rabindranath Tagore in his poem, “where the mind is without fear” writes:- ‘Where the mind is led by thee into ever-widening Thought and action into that heaven of freedom my father, let my country awake’. The theme of nationalism also represented in Tagore’s Gora (1909). Tagore’s concept of nationalism doesn’t ignore human quality in day-to-day social life. He believes that every Hindu should sacrifice his life for the fulfillment of freedom. His another book The Home and the World set upon the same ideas expresses the numerous aspects of the anti-colonial nationalist struggle in India against the colonial regime. He proposed of nationalism on humanitarian ground instead of nation. “It is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity”. He opposed the ideas of the nationalism imitated from west.
Another important novelist during Indian Independent movement is Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004). He came into the influence of Gandhi and therefore he moved himself from Bloomsbury to Sabarmati. His first novel Untouchable (1935) delineates one day of the life of an untouchable character Bakha. Ananad’s Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937) are also the study of the marginalized and oppressed downtrodden. Raja Rao’s classic novel Kanthapura (1938) represents the life of Moorthy in a simple village. He wishes to break the orthodox traditions of Indian people.
Manohar Malgonkar contracts with the painful drama of the partition in an inclusive way in his novel A Bend in the Ganges. The novel portrays realistically how the 'complete freedom movement' was altering in the terrorist movement. This movement was a symbol of national unanimity for India which was organized and designed to overthrow the British rule from the Indian soil. This freedom movement engenders into communal hate and violence during the partition. The struggle between the Indian nationalism and the British colonialism change in unfortunately to the dreadful.
As Meenakshi Mukherjee writes in her novel The Twice Born Fiction that “ A great national experience must surely help in maturing the novel form, because an experience shared by the people at becomes the matrix of a society and the novel flourishes best in a society that is integrated”. By writing this she says that literature is an expression of nation’s mind in writing. The national events have a great influence upon the literature of a country. The national events and happening exerted a powerful influence upon the creative writings of Indian English literature. Independence movement has been a major event asserting national identity in Indian political panorama. Its impact upon the minds of Indian English writers has been so potent and permanent that no writers living during this period could avoid their writing on it. Not only writers of 30s and 40s but writers of post-independence era retrospectively delineated all the phases of freedom struggle in their writings.
In Indian English Literature the later part of 20th century many writers reconsider 1857 struggle in their fiction. The bulk of literature in the free India contains 1857 war as their subject matter, but couple of fiction need to be cited here to show how British was insensible in their activities and they are snob in their narration. Manohar Malgonkar’s fictional Nana Sahib Autobiography The Devil’s Wind (1972) represent the rebellion of 1857. The Devil’s Wind is a first person account given by the Nana of Bithoor about his life and his role in the revolt of 1857. The novel also depicts the atrocity and brutality of the colonial officers. The Last Mughal (2006) written by William Dalrymple depicts the real face of imperialism by showing the cruelty of the Britishers such as the killing of all of Zafar’s sons and the destruction of cherished monuments in Delhi and other cities of India. Ruskin Bond’s A flight of Pigeons (1978) looks at the events of 1857 both from the British and Indian point of view and debates the contrasts of colonial relations.
Many other novelists in Indian literature like K.A. Abbas, who discusses about the issues of nationalism and untouchability in his novel Tomorrow is ours: A Novel of the India of Today (1943), he delineates through a female protagonist called Parvati. Bhabani Bhattacharya’s novel So Many Hungers (1947) sets in the circumstances of Bengal famine and Quit India Movement of 1942. His characters are profoundly impacted by Gandhian philosophy. The main character of the novel is Kajoli, a village girl who arises as a new and educated woman in Gandhian sense. She discards the profession of prostitution enforced by the surroundings on her. She begins to sell the newspaper in order to look after her family.
In her essay ‘Nationalism and the Imagination’ Gayatri Spivak expands upon her previous post-colonial scholarship, employing a cultural lens to examine the rhetorical underpinnings of the idea of the nation-state. In this gripping and intellectually rigorous work, Spivak specifically analyzes the Indian sovereignty in 1947 and the tone of Indian nationalism, bound up with class and religion that arose in its wake. Spivak was five years old when independence was declared, and she vividly writes, “These are my earliest memories: Famine and blood on the streets. She also talks about the role of mother tongue and the relationship between language and feelings of national identity. She concludes that nationalism colludes with the private sphere of imagination in order to command the public sphere
Conclusion
The writers in almost all the Indian languages and Indian Writings in English, particularly play chief part in producing the nationalistic and anticolonial reactions during colonial era. The fiction written in reaction to colonial manipulative regime stimulated the soul of the people of India. They created the longing for the freedom among the masses. They played important role in liberation from the chains of slavery. There are many poets, lyricists, novelists, essayists, orators and journalists who fearlessly write against the British government. In short, the nationalistic movement put into indication the process through which a transition to modern nationhood was sought to be made in India rather than the colonial occupation.
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