Assignment Code: Meg-07/ 2021-22

Course Code: Meg-07

Assignment Name: Indian English Literature

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Q1. Write short note on:

Q1. a) Forms of Hind Swaraj

Ans) Hind Swaraj was thrust into the spotlight on the Indian political scene in 1921. It was about this time that Gandhiji began the first countrywide Satyagraha in India against British tyranny. On August 1, 1920, he officially launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, which he characterised as a “non-cooperation movement.” He promised that if people stayed together, adopted Swadeshi, and most importantly, adhered to truth and nonviolence, they might achieve “Swaraj in a year.” The focus, though, was unmistakably on nonviolence. The demand for ‘Swaraj in a year’ sparked national enthusiasm on the one hand, and foreign rulers’ efforts to Hind Swaraj is written in the form of a dialogue between the “Reader and the Editor” ,who is the author himself, with the Reader serving as a model for the kind of enraged young man whom Gandhi encountered in London and wanted to change. Gandhi uses the dialogic method in order to create a book that “can be put in the hands of a child.”

This dialogue is mainly a manifesto, a record of Gandhiji’s discussions with London’s “misguided” nationalists. Plato’s manner, whose writings he had studied with great attention and admiration, must have impressed the young Gandhi. Gandhiji makes it plain right from the start that, although he holds the ideas stated in Hind Swaraj, he has only attempted to follow in the footsteps of Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson, and other authors, as well as the masters of Indian philosophy, in a humble manner. Gandhiji states at the beginning. This brief book, Hind Swaraj, contains the major concepts that arose from Gandhiji’s South African experiences, and is undoubtedly one of his most important works. Gandhi, the Young Crusader, visited London in 1907 to rally support for Indians in South Africa. The Indian Students Association asked him to speak when he was in London. He accepted the invitation and arrived at the designated location, but his host was not there. Gandhiji volunteered to wash dishes and scrub veggies after meals, just like the rest of the young pupils.

Q1 b) Women in Kanthapura

Ans) The woman in India and other patriarchal countries symbolises weakness. She is supposed to live a miserable and dependent life. Our culture has neither given her the right to remain free and independent not to act on her own. She is considered to be a creature to be commanded. She is transfigured into a cultural sign rather than a material being. In Indian sub-continent, before the 20th century, female emancipation was strictly forbidden.

Educating a girl was considered to be a sin. Her only duty was to deal with the affairs of her home and remain dependent on her husband. But with the emergence of western education, the society underwent various changes and gradually the views on the women also changed. Towards the end of the 19th century, various social reformers and philosophers tried to uplift the women and give her freedom.

Various movements like Widow-remarriage, Prohibition of Child Marriage, Prohibition of Dowry System etc were introduced to the society that helped in the betterment of women up to some extent.

Women Play Leading Role

In Kanthapura novel, we find that woman plays a leading role. They play an active role than men. Thus. the woman is an inseparable part of the novel. His choice of the old woman, Achakka, as the narrator shows that he wants the novel to be described from the perspective of the female. This is very rare where history is looked at from the woman point of view as opposed to analytical power-the male view.

Q1. c) The Harikatha Element

Ans) Harikatha is a sort of Hindu storytelling in which the storyteller addresses a religious theme, usually one of the life of a saint or a narrative from an Indian epic. It is a religious responsibility for a devout Hindu to organise or attend a Harikatha ritual on a regular basis. It can take place anywhere, whether at home or in a temple. As the name implies, it is the telling of the storey of an incarnation of Vishnu, also known as Hari, or any other deity, accompanied by singing and dancing. Harikathas entail the participation of entire villages or communities. It instils religious fervour in participants and bestows merit upon them. Harikatha is as well-known in Kanthapura as it is across India. When the community learns of the Harikatha, everyone rushes to the temple.

Jayaramachar is a well-known Harikatha-man. He does the Harikatha in an unusual way. He weaves Gandhian teachings into his stories in one way or another. When telling the storey of Siva and Parvati, he adds that Siva is three-eyed and Swaraj is three-eyed, pointing to Gandhi's message of self-purification, Hindu-Muslim unity, and Khaddar. In Kanthapura, harikathas like these have never been heard before. For hours, Jayaramachar, who can also sing, had them entranced and in tears. They will never forget his Harikatha about Gandhi's birth, which is a great example of how the religious plank can be used to accomplish political change. Kanthapua residents have no problem with this because both agendas are beneficial.

Q1. d) The Title of Midnight’s Children

Ans) "The title of Midnights Children comes from the hour of India's independence, August 15, 1947. A1I the children born at that crucial period become the offspring of the time in Rushdie's novel: "By History, you understand, I was fathered (8). "The highest of talents that men have ever dreamed of," they say.

Midnight's Children takes its name from the time of India's independence, August 15, 1947. All the children born at the same moment become the children of the times in Rushdie's novel: "Fathered, you understand, by history." The children, on the other hand, represent "the highest of talents that men have ever dreamed of."

Saleem's novel tells of the happy discovery of the midnight children thanks to his protagonist's "All India Radio," an astonishing psychic skill that serves as a communication hub for all 1001 of the children. Their full potential, however, has yet to be realised. "The third principle is called childhood." But it dies, or, to put it another way, it is murdered.”

At the heart of Saleem's horrific tale is the annihilation of the Midnight's Children, which he believes is the underlying reason for India's state of emergency. Mrs. Gandhi, the widow, performs "test-and-hysterectomies" on them, completely destroying their magical ability (438). This is Rushdie's way of describing the nation's emasculation and castration as a result of the Emergency.

Q1. e) Roopa’s role in Tara

Ans) Everyone wishes for a regular life, but no one knows what that means in practise. In this drama, Roopa serves as a counterweight to Tara and Chandan. She's normal, offensive, and funny all at the same time. Because she is ordinary, she is both irritating and amusing. Dattani purposefully sets up an opportunity for the audience to laugh at her, giving her a shaky command of both English and Kannada. She has all the curiosity of a healthy adolescent girl, as well as all the doubts and worries that come with it. However, Dattani makes it impossible to assign normalcy to Roopa as a desirable trait. Her brief venture into sexual exploration with Chandan is staged for laughs, and she is otherwise depicted as a cruel and slightly corrupt person, the type who will grow up to be the ever-interfering, ever-watching society. She takes advantage of Bharati's plight while laughing at her. Who wants normalcy if this is it? In the worldview of these plays, notions of normalcy and the execution, the institution, of norms are regarded as deadly traps. Tara is correct when she says that the rest of the world is ugly.

What I haven't addressed yet, and you're probably wondering why, is that the play is about disability and its ramifications. On the surface, the play appears to be about this at the start. The drama appears to be on the impact of the children's impairment on their family and their own life. Others' difficulties embracing them for who they are - fun-loving, wisecracking growing youngsters - and thus their quest for acceptance, as well as the irritation that this causes, appears to be part of the play's major action. The stress on the parents and the resulting effect on their marriage appears to round out the picture. The fact that the family has gone through difficult times is evident, and they appear to be suffering under the pressure. However, there are different paths to choose in the play. However, this is still a major worry in the play, and Roopa's relationship with them is a central theme that continues throughout the play and serves as a metaphor for how society views them. The final time we see Roopa in the play, she is teasing them, calling them freaks and holding up a placard that says, "We don't want freaks." We have a unique potential to make diverse people unwelcome, whether it's because of their faith, their situation, their community, or their numerous abilities.

Tara, like any other play, can be interpreted in a number of ways. Several themes in the play have already been discussed. However, certain techniques are only visible during a performance. Roopa might be viewed as a purely humorous figure on stage, and the actress portraying her can leave the audience laughing and applauding. As a result, Dattani must work carefully to balance the play so that, even if the audience cheers for the actress playing Roopa, the performance retains its power. In the next unit, we'll look at the techniques that Dattani used in Tara. Techniques, obviously, aid in bringing his thematic concerns to the fore. As a result, we may revisit some of our previous discussions in this unit.

Q2. Discuss Raja Rao’s novel Kanthapura as a novel written in the Gandhian spirit.

Ans) Raja Rao's novel "Kanthapura" delves into how Gandhi's philosophy influenced Raja Rao, leading to the creation of the character Moorthy. It also focuses on Moorthy's attempts, although influenced by Gandhi, to persuade others to join the liberation movement. Gandhi, according to Raja Rao, represents the road, the truth, and the life. In the book Kanthapura, Gandhi's philosophy serves the same role for Moorthy, who considers it to be the way, the truth, and the meaning of his life.

Mahatma Gandhi was the first Indian national figurehead to recognise that revolutionising people without relying on their religious resources was impossible. Not only for his fight for Indian freedom, but also for his perfect character, he was India's and the world's leader. Education, politics, economics, religion, social life, language, and literature were all influenced by Gandhi's thought and worldview. Gandhi's impact on modern literature is both personal and varied. Raja Rao is a Gandhian writer whose novel "Kanthapura" depicts Gandhi's effect on India during the 1920s, when he launched the Freedom Movement to free the country from British colonial rule. M.K. Naik is correct in his evaluation that the work is largely political in nature and does not, except in a limited sense, reflect the author's customary philosophical preoccupations. Gandhi's beliefs of loving one's enemies, nonviolence, and the zealous abolition of untouchability are explored in depth by the author. Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and K.A. Abbas were all influenced by Gandhian ideology. Raja Rao was deeply influenced by Gandhi's philosophy. For a few days, Rao remained at Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram. During the Quit India Movement, Raja Rao was linked to secret programmes run by young socialist militants.

Raja Rao saw Mahatma Gandhi as a true saint because of his belief in Gandhi's teachings. In this novel, Rao portrays Mahatma Gandhi as a symbol of divine power. Gandhi is shown as a reincarnation of Krishna who will provide solace to the people of India. In the same way that Krishna slayed the serpent of foreign dominance, Gandhi will slay the serpent of foreign dominance. Gandhi, as a leader, instructs Indians to spin yarn so that money that would otherwise go to Britain can be used to feed the hungry and clothe the naked can stay in India. Gandhi's campaign is elevated to legendary proportions by the author. Rao draws an interesting parallel between Ram and Ravana, with Ram representing Mahatma Gandhi and Ravana representing the British government. In this novel, Sita is compared to Mother India, Gandhi is compared to Ram, and Jawaharlal Nehru is compared to his brother Bharta. The author makes a reference to Gandhi's exile. Gandhi leaves his home, traverses the length and breadth of the country, and lives in exile in order to free India. Gandhi, like Ram, would go to Britain and Lanka to secure our independence, Sita, according to Rao. The gods and the devil are in a struggle.

Moorthy's conviction in Gandhi's nonviolence worldview is strengthened by Seetharamu's willingness to suffer torture by the British authority. Since ill-will is the source of antagonism and violence, the term non-violence refers to the eradication of ill-will from one's heart. When Ranga Gowda wants to teach Puttayya a lesson for taking all of the canal water for his crops, Moorthy educates him about Gandhi's nonviolence and love for the enemy. Moorthy urges Ranga Gowda against using violence to settle a score with Bade Khan, the British-appointed policeman in Kanthapura who controls the political activities of the freedom fighters.

Gandhi's nonviolence creed is a fantastic model for the entire world. Because truth is God, Jayaramachar continues, individuals should tell the truth. It bears the same tone as the Bhagavad Gita, which stresses the need of honesty in human behaviour.

During his early years, Rao was inspired by Gandhi's thought, which is one of the most difficult philosophies of the twentieth century. Gandhi is "like a forceful stream of fresh air... like a beam of light that entered the darkness and removed the scales from our eyes; like a whirlwind that affected many things, most importantly the workings of people's brains," according to Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi gave India's people the powerful weapon of nonviolence, which was later bolstered by the 1930s non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements. Gandhi's movement aimed for more than simply political independence; it also aimed for economic freedom and spiritual rejuvenation. Gandhi intended for everyone, rich and poor, to have a dignified life devoid of exploitation in whatever kind.

Q3. What are the major issues in the poetry of Sri Aurobindo?

Ans) Clearly, Sri Aurobindo is not an easy poet to comprehend. A lot of work needs to go into trying to come to terms with him. The modernist poets have consistently attacked his poetry, P. Lal divided readers into those who liked Sri Aurobindo and those who can't stand him. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra in his anthology says words to the effect that Sri Aurobindo spent most of his life composing a "worthless" epic of 24,000 lines! On the other hand there are devoted readers of Sri Aurobindo, who read his works as they would a sacred text. I know of people who don't leave home without reading a few lines from Savitri each day. Moreover, in terms of critical responses, no other poet has attracted as much attention as Sri Aurobindo. I would therefore like you to steer clear of the extremes of adulation and antipathy.

Adi Da finds that Sri Aurobindo's contributions were merely literary and cultural and had extended his political motivation into spirituality and human evolution N. R. Malkani finds Sri Aurobindo's theory of creation to be false, as the theory talks about experiences and visions which are beyond normal human experiences. He says the theory is an intellectual response to a difficult problem and that Sri Aurobindo uses the trait of unpredictability in theorising and discussing things not based upon the truth of existence. Malkani says that awareness is already a reality and suggests there would be no need to examine the creative activity subjected to awareness.

Ken Wilber's interpretation of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy differed from the notion of dividing reality as a different level of matter, life, mind, overmind, supermind proposed by Sri Aurobindo in

The Life Divine, and terms them as higher- or lower-nested holons and states that there is only a fourfold reality (a system of reality created by himself).

Rajneesh (Osho) says that Sri Aurobindo was a great scholar but was never realised; that his personal ego had made him indirectly claim that he went beyond Buddha; and that he is said to have believed himself to be enlightened due to increasing number of followers.

Q4. Discuss the personalities of Bim and Tara as depicted in Clear Light of Day.

Ans) Despite the restraints, the female protagonists in Clear Light of Day try to find their identity. For example, they appear to embrace the dominant class's language and culture. The goal of this essay is to show how female protagonists, such as colonial people, struggle to establish their presence by various means, including hybridization. These women use the oppressor's language and culture to survive.

The storey is set in ancient Delhi and centres around an Indian family. The youngest daughter's memories and experiences. Their two brothers, Raja and Baba, are the family's youngest mentally challenged member. While Tara and her husband returned to her home and family after their parents died when they were children, Bim had to look after Raja. As the storey develops, Tara and her older sister, Bim, remember about how their family contracted tuberculosis and how they nursed him back to health. While caring for Baba, she also had to look after her aunt when she became ill.

Bim, now a history professor, is a strong, single woman who must care for her crippled brother, Baba, as well as the family home and business following their parents' deaths. Her mother, sister, and aunt hail from a traditional family where women are expected to follow patriarchal society's rules. Her outlook on life, family, education, and marriage, which contributes to the character's hybridity, sets her apart from a typical Indian lady. Tara, on the other hand, lacked the confidence to take on a challenging assignment, and all she wanted to do was return to Bakul's clean, sanitary, disinfected atmosphere, complete with laws and regulations, neatness, and orderliness.

Bakul, Tara's husband, trains her to be "strong" and "decisive" after they married as a subservient lady. Bim wishes to be a patriarchal figure like her older brother Raja. By dressing up as masculine people who are superior to women, she rejects this patriarchal way of life. As a result, she must hybridise her personality in order to differentiate herself from the stereotypically gentle Indian lady. She, like Raja, adores poetry reading. The author claims, "She knew Byron, Igbal, and even T.S. Eliot" (42). In a traditional Indian household, men are encouraged to study poetry since they are considered intellectually superior. As a child, Bim wanted to be a "heroine," whereas Raja wanted to be a "hero." Tara.

Bim's energetic and vibrant personality was repressed at home due to the unusual setting of their household. School, with its professors and courses, presented Bim with a pleasant challenge to her natural intelligence and mental curiosity. School, with its instructors and classes, was a terrifying prospect for Tara. She missed home while imprisoned within the massive stone walls, almost unable to bear the thought of being away from Aunt Mira, Baba, and the comfortable familiarity of her old ayah. Bim was a natural with the bat and ball, having been taught sports by Raja and Hamid, who had frequently employed her as a fielder when they had set up a cricket game between them. Another example of hybridization is Bim's participation in sports with males, which allows her to express her own existence and identity.

Tara, on the other hand, was a complete failure in every game she attempted. Tara was always the last to be chosen in circumstances where instructors and students were forming teams for a game, standing ignored and impoverished until one of the leaders grudgingly decided to accept her in the team. She is a lady who makes no attempt to display her femininity. Tara appears to accept her disadvantaged position as a woman to some extent. When Tara and Bim were younger, they studied Hindi, but Raja picked Urdu since it seemed like the logical choice for a Delhi family's son. Urdu was the court language of Muslim and Moghul emperors, and it has remained such as the language of the learned and intellectual. At the time, Hindi was not thought to be a language with a long history.

As a masculine character, Raja chooses Urdu as the court language, which makes him proud and superior to those who speak Hindi. Urdu is regarded as a more complete and complete language, as well as a show of manhood. He mockingly held up one of their Hindi copybooks as if it were an old sock, saying, “Look, its angles are all wrong.” The fact that you have to go back and cross out each word as soon as you've finished writing it is also a hindrance. When you have to walk back and forth across the street all the time, it's tough to think clearly. He claims that it disrupts the composition's general flow.

Bim and Tara's struggle against patriarchal culture is highlighted by their hybridity, as evidenced by their determination to "do anything they wanted" because Raja had not returned home from school and everyone else in the house was sound asleep. They debated what they should do to take advantage of such a fantastic opportunity that was daring, crazy, and illegal. They finally realised why they were so different from their brother, why they felt so small and insignificant in comparison: they didn't wear pants like their sibling. They take advantage of their chance to enter patriarchal society by hybridising themselves and donning Raja's pants. Bim dashed across the desk, pulling out the small top drawer where Raja kept his cigarettes, swept away by the beauty of their trousersed bodies. She realised why Raja walked with such a gorgeous, carefree swagger when she spotted an unsealed package in her pocket, along with a few cheap, foul-smelling, haphazardly packed cigarettes and matches. If she had pockets and cigarettes, it was only natural for her to swagger, to feel wealthy, superior, and powerful. (132) Wearing a pair of pants shows dominance and masculinity. When they put those pants on, they entered the realm of masculinity, which is another example of hybridization. “They slid their hands even deeper into their pockets, evidencing their superiority.”

Q5. Discuss Amitav Ghosh as a writer of travelogues.

Ans) Amitav Ghosh as a practitioner of post modernism in novels focuses entirely on the colonialism’s impoverished, and usually non-white, victims. They are given the central position, not the white masters. Amitav Ghosh took nearly three and a half years to write the second book of his Ibis trilogy.

In Amitav Ghosh’s novels, there is a colorful array of seamen, convicts and laborers sailing forth in the hope of transforming their lives. Apparently it seems that the characters are his targets. The Brits whom he depicts are basically scheming, perverse and ruthless to a man, but Ghosh has portrayed them not as round characters who grow. They are largely caricatures.

At the end of The Sea of Poppies, the clouds of war were seen looming, as British opium interests in India pressed for the use of force to compel the Chinese mandarins to keep open their ports, in the name of free trade. Symbolically, the novel thus ends amidst a raging storm, rocking the triple-masted schooner, the Ibis. In The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh narrates the havoc caused by Japanese invasion in Burma and its effect on the Army officers and people. He creates a sense of dejection that deals with so much human tragedy, wars, deaths, devastation and dislocation. Ghosh penned the story of sacrifice in The Shadow Lines, The rescue of May from Muslim mobs in the communal riots of 1963-64 in Dhaka is indeed a great sacrifice.

Amitav Ghosh expressed a developing awareness of the aspirations, defeats and disappointments of the colonized people. In The Hungry Tide, Ghosh routes the debate on eco-environment and cultural issues through the intrusion of the West into East. The destruction of traditional village life in The Circle of Reason is an allegory about the modernizing influx of western culture and the subsequent displacement of non-European peoples by imperialism. In An Antique Land, contemporary political tensions and communal rifts were delineated with the post-modernist approach.

Postcolonial migration is yet another trait of postmodernism and it is a theme in The Hungry Tide, - the ruthless suppression and massacre of East Pakistani refugees who had run away from the Dandakaranya refugee camps to Marichjhampi as they felt that the latter region would provide them with familiar environs and therefore a better life. In Sea of Poppies, the indentured laborers and convicts are transported to the island of Mauritius on the ship Ibis where they suffer a lot.

In The Glass Palace, Burmese Royal family, after the exile, lives an uncomfortable life in India. Rajkumar who piles heap of amount in Burma is forced to leave his home and business due to Japanese invasion. He spent several weeks in Guangzhou and learnt some Cantonese to depict the background of the novel which is set in Fanquit town. Most of the action occurs in Guangzhou. Like the Sea of Poppies, the novel which deals with opium trade in China is also not a single linear. Like Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the relationship between Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke is a ‘tangential one’ as Amitav Ghosh himself describes it. The mash-up of fact and fiction works, coalescing into a narrative shaped by cataclysmic historical events but inflected with small-scale personal drama beautifully works here in the novel.