Doctor of Philosophy In English

Transcription

1 LANGUAGE, HISTORY AND SOCIETY: AN ASSESSMENT OF AMITAV GHOSH'S SELECT NOVELS A Thesis submitted to the University of Lucknow for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In English Supervisor Dr. Nazneen Khan Associate Professor Department of English and Modern European Languages University of Lucknow Lucknow Research Scholar Shivangi Srivastava DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND MODERN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW LUCKNOW 2015

2 Declaration by the Candidate The thesis entitled Language, History and Society: An Assessment of Amitav Ghosh s Select Novels submitted to the Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, is a record of my original and independent work and has not been submitted so far, in part or in full, for any other degree or diploma of any University or Institution. Shivangi Srivastava Research Scholar Department of English and M.E.L., University of Lucknow, Lucknow.

3 Certificate The thesis entitled Language, History and Society: An Assessment of Amitav Ghosh s Select Novels submitted by Shivangi Srivastava to the Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English has been carried out under my supervision and has not been submitted, in part or in full, for any other degree or diploma of any University or Institution. This may be placed before the examiners for the evaluation leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English. Supervisor Dr Nazneen Khan Associate Professor, Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, Lucknow.

4 Contents Acknowledgements (i) - (ii) Preface (iii) - (vi) Chapter I : Introduction 1-38 Chapter II : The Calcutta Chromosome Chapter III : The Glass Palace Chapter IV : The Hungry Tide Chapter - V : Sea of Poppies Chapter - VI : River of Smoke Chapter VII : Conclusion Works Cited and Consulted

5 Acknowledgements First of all I thank the Almighty who offered me such an opportunity to bring out this thesis in its final shape. Secondly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nazneen Khan, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Lucknow, for her constant encouragement, generous help and scholarly guidance during the entire period of my Ph.D. work. Her helping suggestions, inspiring encouragement and cooperation were greatly beneficial and quite valuable to me. I feel pleasure in acknowledging the help and moral support provided by Professor Nishi Pandey, Professor and Head, Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, towards my doctoral research. In addition, I would like to express my profound sense of gratitude to Professor Vijay Prakash Singh for his generous support towards my academic pursuits. I am thankful to all the respected faculty members of the Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, for their encouragement. I would also like to thank Mr. Ajay Bajpai, the O.S., Department of English, the Librarian and the staff of the Library of English Department, Lucknow University, for procuring relevant material for my research. I would like to thank my seniors, colleagues and juniors who helped me in crossing many stumbling blocks while pursuing this research work. i

6 I am extremely indebted to my family members: my father, mother, sisters, brother, my husband and my in-laws, for their unconditional love, affection, encouragement and sustained support during the entire period of my research, without which it would not have been possible to complete this work. (Shivangi Srivastava) ii

7 Preface The present thesis is an analysis of the select novels of Amitav Ghosh, one of the most serious writers crafting fiction in English today, from the perspective of language, history and society. Post 1980 Indian English fictional scene has become variegated, complex and thematically richer. In the changed contemporary scenario reality, instead of being treated as stable, monolithic, absolute or transcendental in nature, is considered to be pluralistic, provisional and contextual. Corresponding to these ideas, the fictional reality depicted in contemporary Indian English writing is comprehended as constructed and discursive instead of being mimetic or representative. Postcolonial perspectives have also impacted the critical and the creative aspects of Indian English fiction. How the colonial rulers created a particular image of their subject races to perpetrate their hold on them forms an important feature of the emerging forms of narrative. The variety of life that forms the subject matter of postcolonial creative and the critical writings also includes different forms of oppressed human existence even after the end of British Imperialism. The postcolonial fictional writings often provide a revisiting to history and contest through its existing interpretation. The fiction writers often mix fact and fiction to re-examine the earlier happenings, incidents, views and assumptions. Their major concern being the nature of reality that existed during the colonial period, these writers often concentrate on the political and social happenings with a view to contest the academic or the accepted versions about them. In the process, these writings use the historical facts and references to persons and places to subvert the earlier discourses. Another aspect of the presentation of iii

8 contemporary social reality and history is the interaction between the majority view and a marginalized consciousness. In the present scenario the role of language has also witnessed tremendous change. Language is no longer treated to be an objective medium used to express or represent already existing reality. Language now is used to construct a world according to the given cultural and socio-historical context instead of representing or expressing stable reality. In the construction of a particular context, language is used to deconstruct and destabilize established systems of understanding. Consequently, a shift from traditionally accepted standards and forms of life to the popular and marginalized forms of life, and from fixed literary norms of presentation to altogether new, striking and wonderful has resulted in the writings of contemporary Indian writers as well as the writers of the Indian diaspora such as V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arvind Adiga, M.G. Vassanji, Hari Kunzru and several others. Amitav Ghosh is acknowledged by many as one among the finest practitioners of the genre who emerged out of the post-midnight s Children boom in Indian English fiction in the 1980s. He has written consistently good novels and non-fictional prose works which have won great acclaim both in India and abroad. Critics have recognized his extraordinary virtuosity as a faithful chronicler of the contemporary world, one who has enhanced our knowledge of buried histories and has borne an eloquent witness to some of the momentous events of our times. Amitav Ghosh's oeuvre comprises seven major novels and five important works of non-fiction. iv

9 Amitav Ghosh is a novelist of unusual variety in whose works travel, history, cultural commentary, political reportage shade into one another, the whole permeated with ruminations on freedom, power, violence and pain. This preoccupation with a plethora of experiences, issues and stories that his works deal with can perhaps be traced to the exceedingly varied experiences that he had as a child accompanying his diplomat father to different parts of the world. Indeed, a survey of his fiction reveals an author who revels in the challenges of depicting people from diverse backgrounds and histories, and telling their individual stories that are set off against the broader sweep of historical events and contexts. Amitav Ghosh, as a writer, drives his strength from transforming forgotten stories, the histories of subalterns who were hitherto considered outside history itself, into major and significant, if not, grand narratives. His work is characterized by a thematic concern with modernity, globalization and the violent production of the modern nation-state. Ghosh s writing is constantly attentive to details of local people and places, while also demonstrating their imbrications in global historical movement. Through his consistent critique of the operation of empire and the legacy of the colonial encounter, Amitav Ghosh emphasizes the impact of colonialism on shaping modern understanding of subjectivity and nationhood. In order to make an assessment of the select novels of Amitav Ghosh from the perspective of language, history and society, as depicted in them, a comprehensive but uncomplicated scheme of chapter division has been followed. Chapter (I) is introductory and expository in focus and presentation. There is a brief analysis of Indian English fiction from its beginning in pre-independence era to the contemporary times with the focus on post 1980 Indian English fictional v

10 scene followed by a synopsis of Amitav Ghosh s life and writing career, influences on him and his thought processes and a brief introduction to his novels and non-fictional prose works. Chapter (II) The Calcutta Chromosome, is devoted to an analysis of Amitav Ghosh s third novel in which he seems to have amalgamated literature, science, philosophy, history, psychology and sociology in a theme that encompasses history, the politics of scientific research, psychological affiliations, technology and memory. Chapter (III) The Glass Palace, deals with an assessment of this novel in which Ghosh has depicted the critical, sociological and political repercussions of the experiences of exile, homelessness and loss through a discourse on postcolonial subjects aimed at remapping the histories of three crucial South-Asian countries - India, Burma (Myanmar) and Malay (Malaysia). Chapter (IV) The Hungry Tide, focuses on the language, history and society as depicted in this novel which shares Amitav Ghosh's concern for the individual against a broader historical and geographical backdrop highlighting the plight of displaced people struggling to find their place in the world. Chapter (V) Sea of Poppies, is devoted to an analysis of this epic novel which is Amitav Ghosh s first volume of the Ibis trilogy, which traces several characters from different levels of society united chiefly through their personal lives aboard a ship and through their connections to the opium and slave trades. Chapter (VI) River of Smoke, deals with Amitav Ghosh s second volume of Ibis trilogy which traces the fate of the other characters from the Ibis and describes the opium trade in China. The last chapter - Chapter (VII), has been conceived by way of conclusion and summing up. Lucknow Date: (Shivangi Srivastava) vi

11 Chapter - I Introduction The growth of a literature can be determined on the criteria of its contribution to the articulation of the central concerns of its source society, its contribution to the enrichment of the languages it uses, and its success in exploring new areas of meaning and new possibilities of consciousness. (Devy 98) Language is a specific but complex system of acquiring and using speech sound into communication. It is human capacity and cognitive ability to learn and use sounds, words, signs and symbols. In this sense it is a system (of signs) for encoding and decoding information. Language is a part of narration. It does not exist in vacuum rather it is rooted in cultural and social contexts. Myths, allusions, idioms, proverbs, memories and histories all are an inevitable part of language. Language, therefore, has certain social, political, cultural and climactic relationships where words and speeches evoke certain responses. In this manner society and culture absorb its environmental and contextual behaviours and, in an accumulative process, create and recreate myths and associations. As far as Indian English fiction is concerned language, history and society play a very important role in executing and progressing towards a bright future both for the novel and its exponents. During the pre-independence era, the English-knowing Indian intellectuals started to doubt their creative skills while trying to authentically articulate their feelings vis-a-vis the Raj and its imperial, often very repressive, system of administration. This doubt can be attributed especially to M.K. Gandhi and R.N. Tagore s pronouncements, both of whom were regarded as two of the greatest political and cultural icons steering the 1

12 direction of India s emancipation from colonial rule. However, it was precisely Ghandiji s ability to communicate in English, and that too in clear, lucid terms, which added to his prestige as a no-nonsense interlocutor at the Round Table Conferences. This held true despite the British establishment s politically motivated description, cleverly disseminated by the British media, of his popular image as a sage in terms of a half-naked, oriental prodigy. Further, his confident dealings with the coloniser s language through his writings never made him look very un-indian, something he feared about others who were similarly using English as a medium of expression. In this context, the case of Tagore is even more interesting: his Geetanjali (1910) had to be translated as Song Offerings (1912) with judicious help from foreign friends before he could lay his claim to the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. It was in this seeming paradox that the future progress and flourish of English both as a lingua franca and as a literary language lay. Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay is a perfect example of the early brand of Indian English writers whose diffidence, grammatically correct though stiff English, and imitation of Sir Walter Scott or W.W. Reynolds clearly show that they were responding to English as a colonial language. Later both Chattopadhyay, the author of Rajmohun s Wife (1864), and the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt made a significant switch and began writing in Bengali thereby indicating even more clearly how the nationalist debate influenced Indian writers who had first chosen to write in English. However, this group of late nineteenth or early twentieth-century writers were followed by a new group of novelists who arose mainly during the 1930s and, unlike their predecessors, never thought of English as a foreign tongue. During the early nineteen thirties and nineteen forties, nationalism and freedom struggle along with social reforms and political consciousness 2

13 influenced the novelists concerns. The novel came to be employed as a weapon to fight colonial rule and to mirror contemporary society. It was used for social protest, for the upliftment of the underprivileged and for restoring human dignity. The early themes in Indian English Fiction were basically social and patriotic. In fiction the social sense was tearing its way through the maze of romance. Consequently, novelists like Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar, Khushwant Singh etc. dealt with themes like poverty, inequality, patriotism, partition as well as the clash of traditional and transitional values. R.S. Singh maintains: The purpose of fiction was clear; to rouse the masses and instil in them a sense of responsibility and dedication either to the land of a glorious past or to the one that had fallen on evil days. The reformist zeal was predominant and the political plight a major obsession. (Singh 44) Writers like Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand, R.N. Tagore heralded the beginning of Indian English novels in true sense. Raja Rao in his Kanthapura (1938) portrays a realistic picture of Satyagraha Movement, Gandhian philosophy of non-violence and untouchability. The classic foreword to Kanthapura has been viewed as a manifesto for tradition Raja Rao opted for his writing in English. He resolved the dichotomy of foreign (English) language and methods of Indian story telling through a systematic mingling of English language in the spirit and tempo of Indian life and tradition. Mulk Raj Anand presented the plights of untouchables and downtrodden in his works - Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937). R.K. Narayan, on the other hand, was concerned with the social conditions and the progress of middle-class man. His Guide (1958) heralded the era of acceptance of English novels by Indian authors of the time as an indigenous 3

14 genre. It won the Sahitya Akademi award in Since then Indian English novel has marched ahead with the general economic growth and prosperity to a new era of growth and development. Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan and Raja Rao consciously decided in favour of English as their chosen mode of literary expression because they thought, and rightly so, that after centuries of indigenization, English no longer remained a foreign language. But to accommodate the typical Indian spirit and emotional make-up, the English language had to be freed from its essentially foreign moorings. Thus began the projects of decolonizing English along with the process of de-colonizing the Indian psyche. The varied and many Indian phrases and turns of speech were literally translated in order to re-shape the master s language and to effectively make it a suitable vehicle for writing about sentiments and addressing the needs of a non-white community of readers. A certain regionalism, however, crept into the writings because these authors tried to write about regions they were most familiar with. But the newest among this group- Anita Desai, Khushwant Singh and Arjun Joshi mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, started articulating a pan-indian approach to writing which is wider in scope but has a distinct urban character about it. The post-independence novel (of the nineteen fifties and early nineteen sixties) marked out a new phase of intellectual and emotional growth in Indian English Fiction. This was the time to look over partition-caused violence. Khushwant Singh s Train to Pakistan (1956), Manohar Malgonkar s A Bend in the Ganges (1964) and Bhabani Bhattacharya s Shadow from Laddakh (1966) represent not only the violence, pain and dilemma caused by partition but also examine the effect of Gandhian philosophy on the life of people. Late nineteen sixties was the time of writers like Anita Desai, Arun Joshi, 4

15 Khushwant Singh, Kamala Markandaya and others. With their writings Indian English Fiction achieved maturity. Their novels portray the bewilderment of individual psyche confronted within the socio-cultural environment of selfgratification and self-fulfilment. They gave a new comprehensiveness to the Indian English Fiction by shifting the emphasis from the outer to the inner reality. The emergence of women novelists was a significant development of this decade. Writers like Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai came upon the literary stage and shared the platform enjoyed by the best known writers in English. These women writers of the first generation engaged themselves with issues of women in conventional marriage systems, human relationships, and contemporary social and political developments from a woman s point of view along with the psychological influences of contemporary world. Salman Rushdie s Midnight s Children (1981) is a landmark in Indian English Fiction. With the publication of this novel, Indian English fiction found a voice that shook the literary world with its energy, its selfindulgence, irresponsibility, disorder and cockiness. (Paranjape 2010: 220) Here Rushdie made an attempt to elaborate the text as a narrative fiction. He particularly tried to deal with Indian history and national events at the same time. Salman Rushdie s literary ancestry lies in the urbane, pan-indian mode of novel writing and when he burst onto the literary scene with his Midnight s Children (1981), he did away with both the sophistication of a Desai or Joshi and the regionalism so much a favourite with Narayan, Rao or Anand. Rushdie s representation of Mumbai as a bustling, chaotic and messy Indian metropolis with its ingrained cosmopolitanism makes it a miniaturized 5

16 metaphoric locale that represents the whole Indian subcontinent where many languages are spoken and many cultures co-exist. The bold and highly experimental technique of Rushdie s writing paved the way for a new breed of Indian writers in English who arose mainly in the 1980s and, in the aftermath of the Rushdie phenomenon, writers like Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry and Amitav Ghosh started writing about India as a country which is globally interlinked with other nations and activities of the world. India s potential, as one of the most ancient but still persisting and flourishing civilizations, becomes a literary property with its really interesting story or stories to tell. The many tellers of this Indian tale take to different routes of narration. Harish Trivedi describes Rushdie s occasional sprinkling of Hindi-Urdu-Hindustani words and phrases in Midnight s Children as mere garnish that does not alter the basic ingredient of the English curry. (Devy 141) Midnight s Children is considered to be a harbinger of renaissance in Indian Writing in English. Elements of postmodernism, play with language and grammar focus on history, liveliness of language, magic realism, allegory and references to contemporary Hindi cinema have become commonly available points in other contemporary novels. Midnight s Children opened a doorway to a new world of Indian English writing: Although the Indian English novel emerged into a recognizable form in the 1930s after its false starts and gestation during more than six decades, it gained a striking momentum and magnitude only after the publication of Salman Rushdie's Midnight s Children in Rushdie's unprecedented use of Indian material in sprightly, ingenious and cleverly crafted and engaging narrative transactions gave a phenomenal head start to English-language fiction from the subcontinent... By the time Midnight's Children appeared, the language had already shed its alienness and 'exoticity'. Its local variant 6

17 was getting enriched by inputs from the media, the advertisement and entertainment industry, rhetoric of political speech and diverse ranges of registers and reverberations. Propelled by the new receptivity and social dynamics, Midnight's Children brought linguistic innovations in the Indian English novel at the tipping point. (Volna et al 9-13) The writers after 1980s show a skilful mastery of forms and innovations. They gave shape to the thematic aspects of conflict between tradition and modernity and resolved it through innovations in stylistics. Commercial development of publishing Indian language within India also played a vital role in boosting the zest for writing fiction in English. A combination of postmodern vision and continuation of narrative techniques of Indian epic tradition is a distinct feature of novels published after Postl980 Indian English fictional scene has become variegated complex and thematically richer with a flood of creative writings from Indian writers as well as writers of the Indian Diaspora such as V.S. Naipaul, Rohinton Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, Aravind Adiga, Shashi Deshpande, Bharati Mukherjee, Pankaj Mishra, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, M G Vassanji, Hari Kunzru and several others. Instead of informing a typical Indian cultural background and traditional cultural ethos, their writings exhibit global concerns through the presentation of multi-cultural reality. The changed nature of their concerns has resulted in their ever-increasing readership at home and abroad. The expansion of the scope of their thematic concerns and development of new forms of expression has won them many prestigious international awards and recognitions including the Nobel Prize, the Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. 7

18 In the changed contemporary scenario reality, instead of being treated as stable, monolithic, absolute or transcendental in nature, is considered to be pluralistic, provisional and contextual. Corresponding to these ideas, the fictional reality depicted in contemporary Indian English writing is comprehended as constructed and discursive instead being mimetic and representative. The post 1980 generation of Indian authors in English was free of the burden of the consciousness of both English language and novel as a form that belonged to the west. These novelists used English language deftly, covering a larger canvas of emotional, political, cultural, geographical and historical issues. There was gusto of creativity, vigour, hope and confidence surfacing through rich, mischievous language, funny, comic and humorous approach that reigns their writings. There was an awareness of national and international developments reflected in themes woven around the displaced, marginalized modern man and uninhibited modifications in the genre. These works were advance in theme, use of language, especially English, style and technique. They set their premises of writing around socio-political, cultural and national issues that emerged after independence in India. Later this focus shifted to the individual s quest for personal existence, identity and social relationships. They became more concerned with human beings both within a community and as an individual. Their remarkable artistry and exceptional skill helped them in crafting stories out of many pre-partition and post partition, preindependence and post independence historical events of India. Contemporary Indian English fictional scene has become variegated, complex and thematically richer. The writers settled abroad and the ones who divide their time between India and abroad have contributed much to this rapidly developing sub-genre of English literature. Now Indian English 8

19 literature no longer remains limited to the writings necessarily of the sons of the soil. It has broadened the scope of fictional concerns of these writers from purely Indian to the global and transnational. The diaspora writers in particular interweave the Indian and the global that marks the emergence of cultural mix at a mass level in the times impacted by globalization and unprecedented growth in the field of technology and communication. Their writings show how the developments in one part of the world have immediate and wider impact in different parts of the world. Their fictional works become more significant for giving expression to crosscultural encounter from a different perspective. The writings of Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Amitav Ghosh, M.G. Vassanji, V.S.Naipaul and Hari Kunzru, to name a few, provide an inside view of the problems faced by the displaced people in their adopted homes in a way that questions the traditional understanding of the concepts like home, nation, native and alien. These writers contest essentialist nature of the difference between cultures premised on binary division informing the east and the west. Whereas the earlier writers depicting cross-cultural encounter often created stereotypical forms of life and characters to mark the essential difference between the cultures, diaspora writers often contest fixed notions of identity and stable norms that govern life at home and abroad. Diaspora fiction highlights an altogether different attitude of the people from the erstwhile colonies in the postcolonial times. Postcolonial perspectives have also impacted the critical and the creative aspects of Indian English fiction. Post-colonial literature is subversion of the imperial centre and for others it is an assertion of identity both in theme and language. In Indian English Literature the question of identity is often entangled with that of alienation. Post-colonial involves two types of 9

20 Imperialism, Political and Cultural. Therefore myth and history, language and landscape, self and the other are all very important aspects of postcolonialism. Colonial experience is associated with the politics of interrelationships as and when they are affected by authority of subjugation. Looked at from this point of view, it is easy to find strains of political discourse in any text which thematically or otherwise employs the interplay of class, gender or hierarchical relationships. How the colonial rulers created a particular image of their subject races to perpetrate their hold on them forms an important feature of the emerging forms of narrative. Contemporary writers hailing from the previously colonized nations, particularly India, explore forms of life that existed during the British rule and expose the subtle strategies employed to make the colonized people take their subjugated position as something natural and transcendental. These writers also bring out the functioning of almost the same power politics that defines the relations between the power wielding people and the people kept at the margins even after the end of political imperialism. A number of contemporary writers fictionalize these aspects of life and the postcolonial critics analyze and expose the way colonialists propagated constructed reality about different societies and cultures as the reality. The theoretical perspectives used for the purpose arc usually based on the insights provided by Michael Foucault, Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha and the other postcolonial thinkers. All these ideas contest monolithic, unitary and totalitarian views about reality and its understanding. The variety of life that forms the subject matter of postcolonial creative and the critical writings also includes different forms of oppressed human existence even after the end of British Imperialism. It points out the colonialist nature of the native rulers and challenges the essentialist understanding that 10

21 treats certain races as always the colonizers and the others as fundamentally free from such cultural traits. The postcolonial fictional writings often provide a revisiting to history and contest its existing interpretation. The fiction writers often mix fact and fiction to re-examine the earlier happenings, incidents, views and assumptions. Their major concern being the nature of reality that existed during the colonial period, these writers often concentrate on the political and social happenings with a view to contest the academic or the accepted versions about them. In the process, these writings use the historical facts and references to persons and places to subvert the earlier discourses. The fictional polemics in such writings is often premised on the ideas that treat history as something constructed, hence a kind of fiction. The major function of these writings is to expose and criticize the subjugation of man by man in all its forms. Therefore, the critical stance used by postcolonialists turns extremely relevant in the works concentrating on the decolonization of the social groups oppressed in the name of class, caste, gender and race. Instead of objective and realistic, this kind of fiction tends to be purposive and political as it involves the assertion of specific views in the name of giving voice to plurality, multiplicity and heterogeneity informing life. Earlier a fictional discourse was understood to be governed by the singular perspective of the narrator or the author or some dominating character. All the fictional details were supposed to move towards a unified world view presented in a work of art. All other voices were subordinated to the governing consciousness of the author or the character assumed to carry the ideas of the writer. In the changed scenario, reality presented in a novel as well as the world view of the characters form 'polyphony' of voices. Sometimes even the characters subordinated to the predominant voices in a 11

22 novel represent multiple valid voices. These ideas have challenged the unitary nature of reality, the authority of the omniscient narrator and presence of a centralized perspective. It points out a decisive shift in the understanding of reality and its presentation in fiction. As reality is no longer treated to be unitary and singular, the meaning of a work of art, too, is no longer considered to be ultimate, complete, total and limited to the intended meaning of the writer that he can convey in authoritative terms. The reality and ideals like truth, justice, human self and identity are treated to be constructed and contextual. By implication, the stable, pre-given and fixed nature of values stands contested. In the study of literature it displaces the canonical view about culture and literature. According to these ideas the difference between high and low, serious and popular culture and art is constructed and fictional. The life in the mainstream or kept at the margins or periphery has equal relevance and significance for art. These theoretical views have impacted the thematic as well as the formal features of literary writings, particularly fiction. According to these frameworks, a work of art is not supposed to follow set literary patterns and parameters. It has encouraged experimentation in fiction writing. Consequently, a shift from traditionally accepted standards and forms of life to the popular, and marginalized forms of life, and from fixed literary norms of presentation to altogether new, striking and wonderful has resulted. Apart from different theoretical views, quick urbanization of the Indian society in recent years, emphatic role of institutionalized form of democracy and an unprecedented awareness of human rights have resulted in self assertion and individual independence that can be observed from a lack of the sense of community and a disregard for moral and social values. Corresponding to these developments, there has emerged a spurt of writings 12

23 about what is commonly called the marginalized forms of life. These writings concentrate on the life and problems of the people kept at the margins due to the compulsions of gender, caste and ethnicity. For example, the writings concentrating on the problems of women are now explored with a view to ascertain how far they support women's struggle for liberation from patriarchy. Using theoretical ideas propounded by different western feminist thinkers, the critics study the fictional works of art as an expression of a specific reality related and limited to women's existence in society. Similarly, the life and experiences of the people related to specific, particularly minority or ethnic group also form the subject of study in a number of fictional writings. Although these writers tend to give a realistic view of the life around but the way they fictionalize these forms of life marks a study of reality from a specific point of view that makes the presented reality created and constructed purposefully rather than being representation of reality understood traditionally. Consequently, what has been presented does not seem as important as how it has been presented. It highlights the fictional nature of the reality depicted and tends to make these writings a politically symbolic act. Such writings further highlight multi-layered and heterogeneous nature of reality and the vertical nature of cultural division instead of horizontal. The theoretical perceptions propagated in different critical theories like postcolonialism and feminism have also introduced a new trend in contemporary Indian English fiction. These perspectives have not only provided an opportunity for the expression of the life at the margins but also added political dimensions to fiction. Under the impact of the new perceptions the fictional writings of the contemporary writers also explore the working of power politics in human relationships. It tends to make their works a 13

24 politically symbolic act. As a result of this, the images of particular classes of people and the fictional stereotypes of different cultures are presented and studied from a different perspective. The postcolonial perspective, with its emphasis on the experiences of the erstwhile colonies of the British Empire, has resulted in the depiction of cross-cultural contexts from a different view. It adds political overtones to literary writings. The colonial experience and the process of decolonisation find powerful expression in Amitav Ghosh's novels. An interesting aspect of the depiction of the experience of the colonised culture is the continuation of colonial oppression in postcolonial cultures in a different form. Moreover, how the process of decolonisation finds extended meaning in man-woman relationships has been presented by feminist Indian fiction writers, particularly women writers. Here again the constructed nature of historical truth, cultural stereotypes and the concept of gender gets highlighted. Feminism with its thrust on women's concerns has also brought a major change in contemporary Indian English fiction. Women writers, in particular, seem to deliberately concentrate on women's experiences. Their concern for the marginalization and subordination of women in different walks of life can be ascertained from the fictionalisation of different forms of women's life in their works. A notable change in their depiction of women can be observed from the presentation of the women characters different from their traditional counterparts. Instead of submissive, docile and passive women we find assertive and aggressive women characters in the writings of contemporary Indian English women writers. They tend to show modern, educated women who do not seem to accept their lot in traditional family set up. In their efforts to find a viable space in patriarchy dominated society these women explore different aspects of female sexuality and advocate a 14

25 redefinition of gender roles. In this context, the new aspects of women's experiences fictionalised as a form of feminist understanding of life find expression in the novels of Shobha De, Manju Kapoor, Namita Gokhale, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Shashi Deshpande and others. Another significant development that brings out a perceptible change in Indian English fiction is the depiction of cross-cultural context. Earlier this theme was mainly concerned with the conflicting aspects of the East and the West. Indian life was presented to highlight its exotic features that had a specific appeal for the western readers. The western reason and scientific point of view juxtaposed against the Indian perspective governed by faith in spiritualism and highly emotional response to life formed the major thrust in the writings of earlier Indian English fiction writers. It tended to create specific cultural stereotypes representing two major cultures coming in a close contact due to political compulsions. The understanding that governed the depiction of this theme was usually based on the perspective that viewed life in binary terms. The two different cultures in question were seen from the consciousness of the colonisers. The essential qualities of both the cultures were considered to result in a conflict. The differences between the Eastern and the Western cultures depicted in this kind of fiction were treated to be fundamental, transcendental and eternal. Moreover, the interaction between the people related to these two cultures was shown to be taking place at a limited and specific level; either it was on the political level, or it was shown taking place at individual level in particular situations. Consequently, the characters belonging to the western culture were either political bosses or kind-hearted missionaries and social workers. The acceptance of an essential difference between the two cultures seemed to be the governing principle so far as the depiction of East-West encounter is concerned. 15

26 The fictionalisation of contemporary history in the works of contemporary Indian English fiction writers also brings out a changed perspective. Instead of presenting historical truth from monolithic view of the governing consciousness of the author, the contemporary writers tend to provide multiple perspectives. It highlights the constructed nature not only of the historical truth but also that of the different perspectives. In spite of the presentation of the political implications of the constructed reality the involvement of multiple perspectives tends to make their works artistic. It saves their works from being propaganda. Another aspect of the presentation of contemporary social reality and history is the interaction between the majority view and a marginalized consciousness. The intervention of politics in common human experience also finds expression through multiple points of view. In the process what gains significance in relation to historical events is not the truth but truths. In the works concentrating on the fictional presentation of history the distance between the author and his work is carefully maintained. Instead of providing an overall pervasive view, the expression of multiple voices gains more significance. It sometimes results in making a fictional work a topical discussion on some events having historical importance in the national context. It certainly marks a shift in the nature of the fiction. The interest in such kind of a fiction lies not in the life spectacle presented or the fate of some character rather it centres on the discussion involving different groups expressing pluralistic nature of truth. Shashi Tharoor's Riot, Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters and Manju Kapur's A Married Woman are some of the examples of this fiction. The changed perception informing a different nature of the relationship between the author and his work has also impacted the contemporary Indian 16

27 English fiction writing. In the changed understanding about reality and literature that has resulted in its constructed nature the author is not the ultimate authority. The reader not only has to arrange the fictional details to re-create a plausible narrative but also has to exercise his or her own perception for its understanding. The constructed nature of narrative demands an active role of the reader. Apart from other Indian English fiction writers indulging in conscious experimentation with its form there are writers like Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and Shashi Deshpande whose recent publications express their attempt to construct narratives that highlight the recent trend evolving in Indian English fiction writing. This aspect of the form of fiction developing in recent times has had a deep impact on the nature of the plot structure informing fictional works. Most of the writers who exhibit awareness about the constructed nature of narrative do not deploy a traditional linear plot. Nor do they seem to concentrate on the life and experiences of a limited number of people taking place in a sequential order. The traditional linear plot is shunned to introduce frequent digressions. Instead of a compact, well-knit plot what we find in the name of the construction of narrative includes a variety of material involving a number of characters, places and experiences. All these elements seem to have only a thin link among them. Instead of developing a single story the plot now marks the presentation of multiple stories. It develops on the pattern of story within the story. Consequently, it becomes difficult for the reader to trace the priorities of the author. The reader gets involved in making sense of the multi-layered narrative. It baffles the reader. Another trend that marks a shift in the development of plot is its construction on the pattern of visual forms of art. It has brought fictional works closer to visual art forms and the author seems more interested in showing than telling. The complex nature of the plot 17

28 informing a major shift in contemporary Indian English fiction can be observed in Amitav Ghosh s In An Antique Land, Shashi Tharoor s Riot and The Great Indian Novel, Shashi Deshpande s Small Remedies, Salman Rushdie s Midnight s Children, Arundhati Roy s The God of Small Things. In the present scenario the role of language has also witnessed tremendous change. Language is no longer treated to be an objective medium used to express or represent already existing reality. Language now is used to construct a world according to the given cultural and socio-historical context instead of representing or expressing stable reality. The different factors working in the background of human experience do not allow it to remain a neutral medium. In the construction of a particular context, language is used to deconstruct and destabilise established systems of understanding. For example, in postcolonial and feminist perspectives language is effectively used to deconstruct established cultural stereotypes. Similarly, the interaction of various cultures has resulted in a cultural mix. It has marked the emergence of a mixing of different languages rejecting the purity of language. The use of a language contesting an understanding of life on hierarchical and binary terms has a special significance in postcolonial and feminist perspectives. Language is used to mark a decolonised state of existence and the rejection of centralised, totalising and unitary views that result in the marginalisation and suppression of certain social groups. These ideas have contested the concept of the purity of language. Consequently, frequent code mixing and code shifting forms an important aspect of the language used by contemporary Indian English fiction writers. The words and sentences from Hindi and other regional languages are laced with English. Instead of a standard code, the language in use finds more relevance. The language used by different social, cultural, ethnic and 18

29 professional groups is also incorporated to give expression to the heterogeneity and multiplicity of experiences informing human existence. No doubt, earlier Indian English fiction writers also used to sprinkle native words and expressions in their writings. They often provided a translated version of the words and expressions taken from regional languages. On the other hand, most of the contemporary writers rarely feel the need to give the translated version. It may be due to the emerging close contact among different people resulting in frequent cultural mix. In such a situation certain words and expressions tend to become a part of the conceptual zone of the people using a different language due to the repeated occurrence of these words in their dayto-day conversation. Another factor contributing to the emerging trend in the use of a mixed language can be attributed to the impact of mass-media. The use of a mixed language by different Indian English fiction writers marks the emerging trends in contemporary Indian society. Another aspect of the use of language finds expression in its attempt to challenge the concept of binary understanding of language based on gender. Traditionally, women's language is supposed to be related to the life of domesticity and men's language related to the public sphere. And the language used by men does not find social acceptance when it is used by women. Certain words and expressions are considered to be taboo for women. In the present circumstances women not only use masculine language but also show no inhibition in using taboo words particularly in certain sections of the society. The destabilisation of the traditional understanding of language is often used to mark a decolonised existence of women. In the works of some of the contemporary Indian English fiction writers women characters use this kind of language to mark their protest against patriarchy-dominated society. The language used by women characters in the novels of Shobha De, Namita 19

30 Gokhale and Manju Kapur can be seen in this context. These aspects of the use of language not only contest the difference based on hierarchial terms but also tend to make the works popular. All these factors have introduced the inclusion of a variety of elements in fictional works that mark the interdisciplinary nature of literature, particularly fiction. A novel today includes the elements of biography, history, sociology, anthropology, fantasy, romance, journalism and even pornography. Similarly, the art forms like film, advertisement and computer generated images also form a part of fictional writings. The existence of a variety of elements destabilizes the traditional norms governing the understanding of literature. Therefore, an understanding of recent fiction writing requires a changed perspective which is not based on the fixed notions of canonical literature. In contemporary Indian English fiction the recent novels of Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, Khushwant Singh etc. mark the inclusion of the elements of different art forms making their works interdisciplinary in nature. The use of diary entries, newspaper reports, poems, letters, transcriptions of interviews form useful narrative units in Shashi Tharoor s Riot. The elements of mystery, fantasy, romance and pornographic details can be observed in the novels of Shobha De, Khushwant Singh and Shashi Tharoor. The development of a fictional narrative on the pattern of a research project forms an interesting feature of Amitav Ghosh's In An Antique Land, Shashi Deshpande s Small Remedies and other such writers. The inclusion of traditionally considered non-literary material in the fictional works marks the destabilization of genre boundaries. Lingual, historical, social and national issues are very important themes under the wider term Postcolonialism. It defines the aftermath of colonization in the literary and social world that has been affected by colonial 20