Towards Excellence UGC-ACADEMIC STAFF COLLEGE, GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD, INDIA

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1 ISSN No X Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Mayur An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education Towards Excellence UGC-ACADEMIC STAFF COLLEGE, GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD, INDIA THE DEPICTION OF SOCIAL FIDELITY AND HUMANISM IN SHORT STORIES OF KUSHAWANT SINGH & MANOJ DAS: A CRITICAL STUDY Abstract: Dr. Mayur Wadhwaniya The short stories of Kushwant Singh and Manoj Das has acquired relevance in Indian artistic context as the stories of Kushwant Singh shows the glimpse of Punjabi Culture and stories of Manoj Das depicts the Odhisa Conventions. Through their short stories the reader is able to visualize the scenario of Indian life though social and literary lens. Therefore, the present paper explore the critical social and literary dimensions in second generation short story writers in Indian English Literature: Khushwant Singh (b.1915), and Manoj Das s (b.1934). Further the paper attempts to understand various concepts, ideology, social fidelity, Social Consciousness during post - independence era in India. At the end, the paper also gives some critical insights into the social cognizance of contemporary India as a result there is a formation of affiliation between society, literature & Culture through the in depth analysis of short stories of Kushwant Singh & Manoj Das. Key Words: Fidelity, Conventions, Consciousness, Contemporary 1. Introduction: The existence of stories is source of delight and instruction to human race since long. The inception of the stories in earlier time was in the form of fairy tale, fable, pebbles, legends, and so on. These forms were accepted formally as Short Stories in literature in It is challenging to define short stories because every short story written by author offers a different viewpoint to a reader. This characteristic of short makes it very popular and most read form of literature. There are many writers who are engaged in writing one or another form of short stories. Every author uses an unique element to provide concrete theme to his/her short stories. In other words, the author tries to in cooperate his/her personal vision, March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 108

2 observations etc. The contemporary authors describe short stories as "a product of an imagination which is essentially private, rooted in the individual consciousness of the author" (Naik, 112) or some may define short stories as A short story is the fruit of a single Moment of time, of a single incident, a single perception." (Allen, 276) 1.1. Development of the genre in Indian writing in English: The growth of the short stories in India started during the pre-independence era of freedom struggle as these short stories became a major medium of expressing the discontent, anger, of the suppressed voices. The content of the short stories had a major shift because the stories which were written before the pre independence era around 1910 were mainly focusing on historical, mythological tales or legends or stories about Indian mannerisms. The concept of short stories was not new to the Indian English writers just the form of writing was different like in earlier times the short stories were in form of Kathasaritasagara, the Panchtantra, the Jatalca tales. As a matter of fact, the reality was that the Indian Short stories were shaped by the western and particularly the English literary traditions and that reality cannot be denied. The development of Indian English Literature started before a century. The term Indo Anglian Literature is used to describe the contribution of Indians to English. The various forms of art like Novel, Short stories & drams were non -existent in the Indian English literature before the middle of the century. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee became the first Indian writer of a novel. Rajmohan s wife (1864). One thousand and One Nights by S. K. Ghosh and Indian Detective Stories by S. B. Bannerjee are other works of prose-fiction in English from Indian hands. The Indian short stories have experienced changes in the last century. The writing of Indian English short stories began by the end of 19th century with the publication of Kamala Satthianandan s Stories from Indian Christen Life in Then K.S. Venkataramani s two collections and K. Nagarajan s one volume published in 1945.The first few decades of this century were the formative years to the Indian short story. They capture the terror and temper of a nation in ferment. Moreover, the initial short stories depicted the gallery of mothers, daughters, wives, widows and prostitutes mart from patriarchal notions and romantic idealizations of women. Rabindranath Tagore, Ruydard Kipling, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja, Rao, R.K. Nurayan, ManjeriInsvaran, K.S. Abbas, Khushwant Singh, G.D. Khosla, Antia Desai, ManoharMalgonkar, March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 109

3 SashiDespande, Manoj Das, ChamanNahal, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Vikram Chandra, GithHariharan, JumphaLaheri, Anita Nair, Ruskin Bond and many others have contributed more in redefining the genre in the Indian context yet Western influence was found out in effecting certain major shifts in sensibility in the course of the last century. 2. Social Fidelity in Khushwant Singh s Short Stories This section of the paper deals with the critical analysis of the social fidelity in short stories of Kushwant Singh. The main fascinating feature of his short stories is that, his stories are based on mutual relationship of the characters, their attitudes and behaviors. The reader can have deep understanding of human nature because he is able to skillfully portray different types of human relationships with complete authenticity. His stories like Karma. A Bride for the Sahib, The Convert, Black Jasmine, Zorasingh, Life s Horoscope depict the complication of marriage and marital tradition of arrange marriage in Punjabi cultural. India is the country of different religions therefore the stories of Kushwant singh are is deeply touched by the religious ethos of the country and therefore a reader can find the religious traditions and custom existed in the religions in his stories Some of his works try to unveil the hypocrisy behind most of the religions, while others endeavor to bring out the good teachings inherent in all religions, and yet others exhort people to give up mindless superstitions and cult of so called god men. The stories like The mark of Vishnu critically examines the superstitions inherent in the Hinduism and question about the sanctity of kosher meat and particular religious irony in Islam in the story The Fawn. Khushwant Singh being a Sikh focuses upon his community in some of his stories. Some of his stories have a large measure of the Sikh experienced as it can be termed. In the story When Sikh meets Sikh gives the consideration information about Sikhs. The story begins by telling the reader when a Sikh meets another Sikh; they both say SutSree Akal. This means God is Truth. Some of his stories also give the real pictures of the contemporary society and social, political and religious behavior of the people. His work on Train to Pakistan gives original picture of the village Mano Majra before and after partition,the love story of Nooran, the greedy people, death and violence. Similarly in his work on I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale gives a brief picture of Sikh life and traditions in the days of Pre-Independence India. In his novel on The March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 110

4 Company of Women he has focused on man-woman relationship. Here Singh seems to be have extending that the idea that the love and sex know no caste, class and community bar. Kushwant Singh draws life in its true colors and as humanist he loves the rainbow of experience. His social realism is not only full of violence, sex, bloodshed, but an expression of his essential humanism. Khushwant Singh's apprehension of life transcends the limits of social theory and becomes humanized through his figures. His success as a social realist artist is optimized in his creative vitality. On the background of the contemporary criticism regarding Khushwant Singh's social realism and his treatment of communal harmony, the present study, thus, proves that Khushwant Singh's social realism acquires a new dimension. 3. Humanism in the Short Stores of Manoj Das: This section tries to explore the influence of social beliefs, traditions, superstitions, and rituals on the life of people through the selected short stories of Manoj Das. His stories mainly reflect the social, political and religious traditions of people of Odisha reflected in his stories. Manoj Das is bio-lingual author and belongs to the culture of Odhisa. The reader can find a particular belief about India in the stories written by Das because he believes that India and Indian people has specific characteristics and thus when an author like Das is guided by the spontaneous inspiration and creativeness, he is bound to breathe the Indian spirit into his writing. Thus in one of his interview he has said that When an Indian writer is naturally Indian, his Indianness is hardly pronounced, but what becomes grotesquely pronounced is when an Indian writer makes a conscious effort to highlights the Indianness or does the opposite- tries to 12 consciously cultivate a stance that should appear dazzlingly different from the traditional writing. (The Times of India: May 18:1980) His story The Different Man deals with a question that what a reformist needs to be? In this short story Pratapsing is the protagonist. He is a reformist. He tries to reform the people living around him. But he lacks the ability to judge the persons, their mood and psychological aspects of man. He becomes the subject of derision. When he sees the young trio buying cigarettes, he says March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 111

5 When did you take to smoking? Why did you pledge your health to the vampire of tobacco? You consider yourselves very clever. Don t you?... Don t you know the cartoon announcing Cigarette smoking is injurious to health? The trio counterattack in a contraction of anger with their question to him, Why did you get married when the ancient saints and seers thousand years ago had pronounced warning against sex? (p.129) The communication quoted above shows the humanistic approach of the protagonist as well as of Manoj Das. It is how the protagonist of the story tries to reform people but he is unable to do so. The hero, Pratap Singh touches important fabrics of human life. He wanted to shape the life of humans by correcting their vices attacking on them. This vision of the hero makes him humane in the real sense ( Sonu, 17). In his story The crocodile s Lady is another short story by Manoj Das in which he describes human Faith in God. Here in this story the writer renders the great love of a foreigner towards Indian Mysticism. India is a land of Fakirs, snake-charmers and the people with Bohemian existence may not be having a place on the map for its great scientific and technological advancement but one thing the rest of the world is sure of is that life throbs and thrills in India for its mystery. (Sonu, 17) 4. Conclusion: The realism of Kushwant Singh is not a doctrinal socialism but an expression of his essential humanism. This interpretation is fortified by various discoveries on the conceptual and structural levels. The present study also renders a new perspective for evaluating Khushwant Singh. Most of Khushwant Singh's critics have talked about his realistic portrayal of sex and violence; they have not fully apprehended the expensive scope of his vision of humanism. Khushwant Singh is, no doubt, a writer of social novels but not only sex and violence. He does not keep the surface reality. Unlike the other social writers Khushwant Singh selects his material from the bewildering variety of life and his vision is truly comprehensive One can observe Das s stories based on Humanism. His stories can best be studied from the point of view of humanism. Because when we study the stories of Manoj Das, we can come across the humanistic approach of the writer. His pen has been used masterly to convert inhuman into human. It is the skill which makes him March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 112

6 distinguished for his handling of the themes related to human qualities. His stories are not only the stories of humans but he presents nature in a humanized form. His all the stories discussed here in this research paper deals with the concept of medieval humanism i.e. the creation of dedicated societies for the betterment of humans. It is in The Different Man reflected as need of moral values for healthy society. In The Murderer the permanent qualities of human beings servility and honesty are highlighted. In The Crocodile s Lady human Faith in God is shown and in The Mountain Nature is described as the only object of offering peace and solace for human being. March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 113

7 References: Ian Reid, The Critical Idioms: The Short Story, London: Methuen and Co. Ltd Print Walter Allen, The Short Story in English, Oxford:' Oxford Uni. Press Print P.Sailaja (ed.), English and Indian Short Story.New Delhi: Orient Longman Ltd., Print Naik, M.K,History of Indian English Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi Print Sonu, N, Humanism in the story of Manoj Das.Jalgao: Research Journey Journal Print Dr. Mayur Wadhwaniya March, VOL.9. ISSUE NO. 1 Page 114