Postcolonial Theory Meaning

Postcolonial Theory: Meaning and Significance
--Dr. Shrikant B. Sawant

S. R. M. College, Kudal
Dist- Sindhudurg (M.S.) 416 520

The Post - colonial Literature and
theory investigate what happens when two
cultures clash and one of them with
accompanying ideology empowers and deems
itself superior to other. The Writers of Empire
Writes Back use the term post-colonial to
cover all the culture affected by the imperial
process from the moment of colonization to
the present day (2). Post-colonialism marks
the end of colonialism by giving the
indigenous people the necessary authority and
political and cultural freedom to take their
place and gain independence by overcoming
political and cultural imperialism.
Postcolonial discourse was the
outcome of the work of several writers such as
Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi Wa
Thiango, Edward Said, Bill Ashcroft and his
collaborators, Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha,
Aizaz Ahmad and others.
Postcolonialism:
The concept of Post-colonialism (or
often postcolonialism) deals with the effects
of colonization on cultures and societies. The
term as originally used by historians after the
second World War such as post-colonial
state, where post-colonial had a clearly
chronological meaning, designating the post-
independence period. However, from the late
1970s the term has been used by literary
critics to discuss the various cultural effects of
colonization. Although the study of the
controlling power of representation in the
colonized societies had begun in the late
1970s with the text such as Saids
Orientalism, and led to the development of
what came to be called Colonialist Discourse
Theory in the work of critics such as Spivak
and Bhabha, the actual term post-colonial
was not employed in these early studies of the
power of colonialist discourse to shape the
form and opinion and policies in the colony
and metropolis.
Postcolonialism, in the words of
Charles E. Bressler , is an approach to
literary analysis that concerns itself
particularly with literature written in English
in formerly colonized countries (265). It
usually excludes literature that represents
either British or American viewpoints, and
concentrates on Writings from colonized
cultures in Australia, New Zealand, Africa,
South America, and other places and societies
that were once dominated by European
cultural, political and philosophical tradition.
Although there is little consensus
regarding the proper content, scope and
relevance of postcolonial studies, as a critical
ideology it has acquired various
interpretations. Like deconstruction and other
various postmodern approaches to textual
analysis, postcolonialism is a heterogeneous
field of study where even its spelling provides
several alternatives. The critics are not in
agreement whether the term should be used
with or without hyphen : i. e. Post-colonial
and postcolonial have different meanings.
The hyphenated term Post-colonialism
marks a historical period as is suggested by
phrases like after colonialism, after
independence, after the end of empire
whereas the term postcolonialism referring
to all the characteristics of a society or culture
from the time of the colonization to the
present.
As a historical period, post-colonialism
stands for the post - second World War
decolonizing phase. Although the colonial
country achieved political freedom, the
colonial values do not disappear with the
independence of a country. According to Bill
Aschcroft, Griffith & Tiffin, The semantic
basis of the term post-colonialism might
seem to suggest a concern only with the
national culture after the departure of the
imperial power (1).
Meenakshi Mukherjee rightly
observes:
Post-colonialism is not merely a
chronological label referring to the
period after the demise of empires. It
is ideologically an emancipatory
concept particularly for the students
of literature outside the Western
Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nanded
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world, because it makes us interrogate
many concepts of the study of
literature that we were made to take
for granted, enabling us not only to
read our own texts in our own terms,
but also to re-interpret some of the old
canonical texts from Europe from the
perspective of our specific historical
and geographical location (3-4).
It seems that Postcolonial theory
emerged from the colonized peoples
frustrations, their direct and personal cultural
clashes with the conquering culture, and their
fears, hopes and dreams about their future and
their own identities. How the colonized
respond to changes in the language, curricular
matters in education, race differences, and a
host of other discourses, including the act of
writing become the context and the theories of
postcolonialism. The project of
postcolonialism is not only applicable to the
students of literature alone, indeed, it seeks to
emancipate the oppressed, the deprived and
the down-trodden all over the world.
Postcolonialism, in the words of G.
Rai , is an enterprise which seeks
emancipation from all types of
subjugation defined in terms of
gender, race and class.
Postcolonialism thus does not
introduce a new world which is free
from ills of colonialism; it rather
suggest both continuity and change
(2).
Thus, the term Postcolonialism
marks the end of colonialism by giving the
indigenous people the necessary authority and
political and cultural freedom to take their
place and gain independence by overcoming
political and cultural imperialism.
Colonialism:
The term colonialism is important in
defining the specific form of cultural
exploitation that developed with the expansion
of Europe over the last 400 years. Elleke
Boehmer defines colonialism in her book
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature as a
settlement of territory, the exploitation or
development of resources, and the attempt to
govern the indigenous inhabitants of occupied
lands (2).
Colonialism has been a recurrent
feature of human history. The history of
colonialism has existed since ancient times.
By 1900 almost every country or region in the
world had been subjugated by European
colonialism at one time or another. The Period
after the Second World War saw an upsurge
of new independent states. India and Pakistan
were granted independence in 1947. Frances
decolonization was marked by wars in French,
Indochina, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands all
divested themselves of their overseas
possessions during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Colonialism has taken many different form
and has engendered diverse effects around the
world that can be gauged by thinking about its
relationship with the two other terms:
Capitalism and imperialism.
Capitalism:
Colonialism was the means through
which capitalism achieved its global
expansion. Ania Loomba marks, Colonialism
was the midwife that assisted the birth of
European capitalism, or that without colonial
expansion the transition to capitalism could
not have taken place in Europe (4).
Colonialism was the lucrative commercial
operation bringing wealth and riches to
western nations through the exploitation of
others. It was the first and foremost part of
commercial venture of the Western nations.
Dennis J udd argues, no one can doubt that
the desire for profitable trade, plunder and
enrichment was the primary force that led to
the establishment of the imperial structure
.. (3). Thus, colonialism was pursued for
economic profit, reward and riches. As
colonialism and capitalism share mutually
supportive relationship with each other ,
colonialism can be defined as the conquest
and control on other peoples land and goods.
Imperialism:
Colonialism is sometimes used
interchangeably with imperialism but in
truth the terms mean different things. In its
most general sense, imperialism refers to the
formation of an empire, and, as such, has been
an aspect of all periods of history in which
one nation has extended its domination over
several neighbouring nations. Edward Said
uses imperialism in this general sense to mean
the practice, and the attitudes of a domination
metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory
(1993, 8).
Colonialism, however, is only one
form of the ideology of imperialism, and
specifically concerns the settlement of one
group of people in a new location.
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Imperialism is not strictly concerned with the
issue of settlement. Childs and Williams
define imperialism as the extension and
expansion of trade and commerce under the
protection of political, legal and military
control ( 227). Colonialism is a particular
historical manifestation of imperialism,
specific to certain places and time..
Colonialism : Its forms and effects:
Ashish Nandy in his book The
Intimate Enemy (1983) states two forms of
colonization : one is the physical conquest of
territories. The other is the colonization of the
minds, selves and cultures. The first mode is
violent, transparent in its self interest and
greed. The second mode is that of the
rationalists, modernists and the liberals who
claim to have the responsibility of civilizing
the uncivilized world. Nandy comments on
the colonization of minds as,
This colonialism colonizes minds in
addition to bodies and it releases
forces within colonized societies to
alter their cultural priorities once and
for all. In the process, it helps to
generalize the concept of the modern
West from a geographical and
temporal entity to psychological
category. The West is now
everywhere, within the West and
outside; in structures and in minds(xi
).
Marxist thinkers also distinguished
the two forms of colonialism as precapitalist
and capitalist colonialism. Modern
colonialism did more than extract tribute,
goods and wealth from the countries that it
conquered. It restructured the economies of
the latter so that there was a flow of human
and natural resources between colonized and
colonial countries. This flow worked in both
directions. Slaves and indentured labourers as
well as raw material were transported to the
metropolis. The colonies provided captive
market for European goods. This results into
the flow of profit and goods along with a
global shift of population. Both the colonizers
and the colonized moved colonial masters as
administrators, soldiers, merchants, settlers,
travelers, writers, domestic staff, missionaries,
teachers and scientists and the colonized as
slaves, indentured labours, domestic servants,
travelers and traders. Thus, colonialism
produced economic imbalance that was
necessary for the growth of European
capitalism and industry. The term
colonialism results in the consolidation of
imperial power to govern the indigenous
people in act colonialism.
Colonial / Postcolonial Discourse:
Theories of colonial discourses have
been hugely influential in the development of
Postcolonialism. Postcolonial discourse was
the result of the work of several writers such
as Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi wa
Thiango, Edward Said, Ashcroft et. all ,
Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Aizaz Ahmad.
In general their work explores the ways of
representations, and modes of perception that
are used as fundamental weapons of colonial
power to keep colonized people subservient to
colonial rule.
Frantz Fanon:
Frantz Fanon is an important figure in
the field of postcoloniality and central to any
discussion in anti-colonial resistance. He was
influenced by contemporary philosophers and
poets such as J eanPaul Sartre and Aime
Cesaire. Fanon wrote two books Black Skin
and White Masks (1961) and The Wretched of
the Earth (1963) that deal angrily with
mechanics of colonialism and its effect on
those it ensnared.
Fanons Black Skin, White Masks
examined the main psychological effect of
colonialism and The Wretched of the Earth is
a broader study of how anti - colonial
sentiment might address the task of
decolonization. Fanons writing cover a range
of areas and have been influential in a number
of fields, such as psychiatry, philosophy,
politics and cultural studies.
Edward Said:
If the origin of postcolonial aesthetics
lies in Frantz Fanons The Wretched of the
Earth (1961), its theory is found in Edward
Saids Orientalism (1978). Postcolonial theory
is an area that has developed largely as a
result of Saids work. Along with Said, Homi
Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak form what Robert
Young has called the Holy Trinity of
postcolonial theorists.
Said defines Orientalism as
Western style for dominating, restructuring
having authority over orient (3). The term
Orientalism which refers to the historical
and ideological process whereby false images
of and the myths about the Eastern or the
orient world have been constructed in
various Western discourses, including that of
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imaginative literature. Orientalism which is
based on the cultural superiority of the West
over the East paved the way for imperialism.
Edward Said looked about the
divisive relationship of the colonizer and the
colonized. Ania Loomba rightly says, Said
argues that the representation of the orient in
European literary texts, travelogues and other
writings contributed to the creation of a
dichotomy between Europe and its
others(44). Saids project is to show how
knowledge about the non- Europens was a
part of the process of dominating them.
Western attitude towards Orientalists is based
on ignorance of the Eastern culture and
literature.
The colonizers imposed their culture,
and literature on the colonized people through
various means. Said tries to show that West
was wrong to treat the East as inferior both
culturally and intellectually. Said argues that
Western views of the Orient are not based on
what is observed to exist in Oriental lands but
often results from the Wests dream, fantasies
and assumptions about what this radically
different place contains.
The West has misrepresented the
Orient as mystic place of exoticism, moral
laxity, sexual degeneracy and so forth.
Orientalism constructs binary division. The
Orient is frequently described in a series of
negative terms. Leela Gandhi states
Orientalism is the first book in which Said
relentlessly unmasks the ideological disguises
of imperialism(67). Saids Orientalism can
be said to inaugurate a new kind of study of
colonialism (Loomba 44). He wants to do
away the binary opposition between the West
and the East so that one can not claim the
superiority over the other. Saids Culture and
Imperialism (1993) continues and extends the
work began in Orientalism by documenting
the imperial complicities of some major works
of the Western literary canon.

Homi Bhabha:
Bhabha has popularised the term
ambivalence, mimicry and hybridity. The
term ambivalence first was developed in
psychoanalysis to describe a continual
fluctuation between wanting one thing and
wanting its opposite. Adapted into colonial
discourse theory by Homi Bhabha, it describes
the complex mix of attraction and repulsion
that characterizes the relationship between
colonizer and colonized.
Mimicry is an important term in the
post-colonial theory, because it has come to
describe the ambivalent relationship between
colonizer and colonized. When colonial
discourse encourages the colonized subject to
mimic the colonizer, by adopting the
colonizers cultural habits, assumptions,
institutions and values, the result is never a
simple reproduction of these traits. Rather, it
results in a blurred copy of the colonizer that
can be quite threatening.
Bhabha describes Mimicry as one of
the most effective strategies of colonial power
and knowledge (35). British wanted to create
a class of Indians who should adopt English
opinion, morals. These figures were just like
Fanons French educated colonials depicted in
Black Skin, White Masks. They are mimic
men They learn to act English but do not look
English nor are they accepted as such. As
Bhabha puts it, to be Anglicized is
emphatically not to be English (87). Mimic
men are not slavish. They also have power to
menace the colonizers. The use of English
language on the part of the colonized is a
threat to orientalist structure of knowledge in
which oppositional distinction is made. The
mimic men in relation to the colonizers,
almost the same but not quite (89) is what
Bhabha thinks as a source of anticolonial
resistance. Mimicry gives rise to
postcolonial analysis by subverting the
colonial masters authority and hegemony. It
is a weapon of anti-colonial civility, an
ambivalent mixture of deference and
disobedience. Leela Gandhi rightly says,
mimicry inaugurates the process of anti -
colonial self -differentiation through the logic
of inappropriate appropriation (150).
The term hybridity has been most
recently associated with the work of Homi K.
Bhabha, whose analysis of colonizer /
colonized relations stresses the inter-
dependence and mutual construction of their
subjectivities. Hybridization is a kind of
negotiation, both political and cultural,
between the colonizer and the colonized. Like
Bhabha, Edward Said also underlined the
importance of cultural hybridity and it has
come to stay and no amount of effort can
completely separate the West from the East.
Hybridity being an integral part of
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postcolonial discourse bridges the gap
between West and the East.
Gayatri Spivak:
Spivaks most significant contribution
to feminism and subaltern studies is her post-
colonial exposition of the status of the Indian
woman. She asks whether the Indian subaltern
woman has a voice, or a even a voice
consciousness ? Can the subaltern speak? Will
she be heard? And Spivak comes to
conclusion that the subaltern cannot speak
(Gandhi 3). Spivak has praised Saids
Orientalism because she is interested in the
current concept of marginality. Saids work
has foregrounded marginality and created the
ground for the marginal.
In discussing the silence of subaltern
as female, Spivak explains that she was not
using the term literally to suggest that such
women never already talked. It is not so much
that subaltern women did not speak, but rather
that others did not know how to listen, how to
enter into a transaction between speaker and
listener. The subaltern cannot speak because
their words cannot be properly interpreted. It
is, therefore, the silence of the female as
subaltern is a result of a failure of
interpretation and not a failure of articulation.

The Project of English Studies:
The Project of English studies
becomes a medium to strengthen the colonial
rule. English literature was used as a medium
for the colonial civilizing mission. English
literature was made as central to the cultural
enterprise of Empire as the monarchy was to
its political formation (Ashcroft etc. all 3).
Macaulays minutes of 1835 is usually cited
as an evidence that defended the introduction
of English Education in colonial India: a
single self of good European library was
worth the whole native literature of India or
Arabia. Macaulays valourisation of English
literature at the cost of indigenous literature is
taken as a paradigmatic instance of canon
formation (Gandhi 144).
Colonialism is defended as a project
of civilizing the underdeveloped world. Gauri
Viswanathan in her Masks of Conquest
unmasks the British educational mission, as
they tried to mask or disguise their
real interest by representing colonial
rule as an educational mission and
popularize the human aspect of
English culture. In contrast to the
violence of European colonization the
English literacy text becomes the
mask for economic exploitation
.successfully camouflaging the
material activities of the colonizer
(20).
Anti-Colonial Resistance :
Anti-colonial resistance is another
major issue in postcolonialism. The colonial
experience is a continuing process even after
the formal end of the colonial situation. Anti -
colonial struggles, therefore, must challenge
colonialism at political, intellectual and
emotional levels. The two historical figures,
Gandhi and Fanon, represent a style of total
resistance to the political and cultural
offensive of the colonial civilizing mission.
Both of them suggest Nandys idea of
psychological resistance to colonialism. Fanon
asserts, Total liberation is that which
concerns all sectors of personality (250). In
Fanons view the colonized has the ability to
resist the cultural supremacy of Europe.
Gandhi feels sad about Indians attraction
towards the glamourous superficiality of the
West. He remarks, We brought the English
and we keep them. Why do we forget that our
adoption of their civilization makes their
presence in India at all possible ? Your hatred
against theirs ought to be transferred to their
civilization (Gandhi, Mahatma 66). Gandhi
was a kind of liberators to literary men, the
one who broke the shackles of all around. He
freed the enslaved Indian writers.
Anti-colonial resistances have taken
many forms. Anti-colonial movements drew
upon western ideas and vocabularies to
challenge the colonial rule. They often
hybridized what they borrowed by juxtaposing
it with indigenous ideas. English education
fostered the ideas of liberty and freedom in
native population. There is shift from
abrogation to appropriation, from
unlearning English to the project of learning
how to curse in the masters tongue, the
emergence of Caliban- paradigm. The
colonized may now assert like Caliban who
tells Prospero : You taught me language; and
my profit on it is , I know how to curse
(Tempest Act I sc. II). Caliban symbolically
illustrates the logic of protesting out of
rather than against the cultural vocabulary of
colonialism.
From Commonwealth to Postcolonial:
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The shift from Colonial to
Commonwealth perhaps suggests particular
version of history in which the status of
colonized countries happily changes from
subservience to equality. Commonwealth
literature may well have been created in an
attempt to bring together writings from around
the world on an equal footing, yet the
Commonwealth in Commonwealth
literature was never fully free from the older,
more imperious connotations of the term.
Meenakshi Mukherjee observes that,
The term Commonwealth literature
has finally fallen into academic
disfavour, one can see that its biggest
problem indeed was the
presupposition that an umbilical cord
tied all there diverse bodies of
writings --- from Australia, Canada,
India, Nigeria, Kenya, Trinidad,
J amaica, Barbados and the rest ---to
the mother country England, which
absent centre set the evaluative norms.
Absent because literature from
Britain was never seen as a part of this
package (6).
However, the patient, detailed and
enthusiastic readings of Commonwealth
literature laid the foundations for the various
postcolonial criticism that were to follow, and
to which much postcolonial critical activity
remains indebted.
Recently, a new term post-colonial
foregrounding the political dimension of both
text and context of this literature - is being
used more often, slowly pushing out, the old
seemingly apolitical name Commonwealth
literature. Post-colonial literature,
Mukherjee says, is presumably free from
such centralist undertones; it suggests de-
centring, plurality, hybridity, a dismantling
authority hence many ways it is an enabling
and protean term (6-7).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the
term postcolonial has been used to replace the
earlier term like The Third World Literature
the term coined by Alfred Sauvy or
Commonwealth Literature. The term
Commonwealth Literature fell into the rough
weather in the hands of writers from erstwhile
British colonies, when it was drawn upon
them that the writers of the colonizer ( i.e.
England) do not form a part of this body of
literature. Hence, a new term, post-colonial
literature is coined to suggest decentring of
colonial literature. Two books, Empire Writes
Back (1989) by Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin
and The Encyclopedia of Post Colonial
Literature in English (1994) ed. by Benson
and Connolly have popularised the term post-
colonial and lent respectability to post-
colonial literature.
Post Colonial Theory: A Critique:
Although a number of postcolonial
theorist and critics such as Frantz Fanon,
Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak contributed to postcolonialisms ever-
growing body of theory and its practical
methodology, an inherent tension exists at the
centre of postcolonial theory, for those who
practice this theory and provide and develop
its discourse are themselves a heterogenous
group of critics. On one hand critics such as
Fredrick J ameson and Georg Gubelberger
come from a European cultural, literary and
scholarly background. Another group that
includes Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said, Homi
K. Bhabha, and many other were raised in the
Third World cultures but now reside, study
and write in the West. And still another group
that includes writer such as Aijaz Ahmad live
and work in the Third World. A theoretical
and practical gap occurs between the theory
and practice of those who trained and living in
the West and the Third World, subaltern
writers living and writing in non - Western
cultures. Out of such tensions, postcolonial
theorists have to discover problematic topics
for exploration and debate.
No theory, either political or literary,
can be totally objective. Postcolonialism can
neither be rejected nor accepted fully.
Makarand Parajape states,
The best way to begin interrogating
postcolonism is not by pretending that
we are the masters of our own
academic destinies but by admitting,
how colonized we still are. What is
more, we cannot continue to blame
only the West for our sorry state of
subjection; we must blame ourselves.
The dignity of the brown-skinned
scholarship depends more than even
before on how we view ourselves,
rather than how others view us (43).
Post colonial situation has given our
writers confidence to write creative literature
in English and it would be good for them to
gain confidence to write literary criticism in
our way- then only post-colonial redeem the
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colonial. Paranjape further adds that, We
need to strengthen ourselves, our institutions,
journals and publication industries. We need
not merely attempt to duplicate or copy
metropolitan system, but develop our needs
(46 ).
Postcolonial studies are preoccupied
with the issues of hybridity, creaolisation, in-
betweenness, diasporas and liminality with the
mobility. Arun P. Mukherjee is of the view
that -
Indian literatures, I believe, are too
multifarious and too heterogenous to
be containable in the net of a single
theory. Anyway, the questions Indian
readers must ask Indian literary texts
particularly in the context of struggle
against fundamentalism, casteism and
patriarchy cannot be answered within
the framing grid provided by
postcolonial theory where readers are
instructed solely how to decode the
subtle ironies and parodies directed
against the departed colonizer. I think
I need another theory. (20)
To sum up, the postcolonial theory
deals with cultural contradictions, ambiguities
and perhaps, ambivalences. It repudiates anti-
colonial nationalist theory and implies a
movement beyond a specific point in history
(i.e. colonialism). Hence, postcolonial theory
is transnational in dimension, multicultural in
approach and a movement beyond the binary
opposition of the power relations between the
colonizer / colonized, and centre /
periphery.
WORK CITED

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Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes
Back : Theory and Practice in
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Bhabha, Homi. The Location of
Culture. London: Routledge.
1994.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and
Postcolonial Literature, Oxford
and New York : Oxford
University Press. 1995.
Bressler, Charles E., Literary Criticism
: An Introduction to theory &
Practice, New J ersey: Prentice
Hall, 1999.
Childs, P. and Williams, P. An
Introduction to Post-Colonial
Theory. London and New York:
Prentice Hall, 1997.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Mask.
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Grove Press. 1963.
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory : A
Critical Introduction. Delhi: OUP
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Gandhi, Mahatma. Hind Swaraj.
Ahamdabad: Navjivan Publishing
House, Reprint. 1938.
J udd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial
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Present. Harper Collins. 1996.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism /
Postcolonialism.
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Mukherjee, Arun P. Post-colonialism:
Some Uneasy Conjunctures
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Theory, Text and Context. Ed. by
Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi
Mukherjee. Shimla: IIAS, 1996.
Mukherjee, Meenakshi. Interrogating
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and Meenakshi Mukherjee
:Shimla :IIAS, 1996.
Nandy, Ashish. The Intimate Enemy: Loss
and Recovery of Self under
Colonialism, New Delhi: OUP,
1980.
Paranjape, Makarand, Coping with Post-
Colonialism, Interogating
Post-Colonialism: Theory, Text &
Context. Ed. Harish Trivedi &
Meenakshi Mukharjee. Shimla:
IIAS, 1996.
Rai, G. Postcolonialism : Its Meaning
and Significance The SPIEL
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Volume : 1 No. 2 J uly 2005.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism.
London: Chatto and Windus.
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Postcolonialism :An Aesthetic of Subversion and Reclamation
-D. P. Digole
P.G. Dept. of English & Research Centre,
Peoples College, Nanded (M.S.)
ABSTRACT
No race has a monopoly on beauty, on intelligence, on strength
and there is room for everyone at the convocation of conquest.
- Aim Csaire Notebook of a Return to the Native Land.

Postcolonialism or postcolonial aesthetic
designates a broad, postmodern intellectual
discourse that has renewed the perception and
understanding of modern history, cultural
studies, political theories and literary criticism.
Emerging from the colonial testimony of Third-
world countries and the discourses of minorities,
it aims at shedding the colonial amnesia and
creating tabule rasae (blank sheets / slates)
with a view to rewriting /rethinking of all
aspects of the colonial process from the
beginning of colonial contact and addressing the
questions of history, culture, identity, ethnicity,
gender, language and education It entered the
agenda of metropolitan intellectuals and
academics as a reflex of a new consciousness
around 1960 in the wake of political
independence sought by various Third-World
countries in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana
and Nigeria), Asian Continent (India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh) and the Caribbean (J amaica,
Trinidad and Guyana).. These now independent
states / countries shared a common history of
colonial domination, the imposition of the
English language and British ways and styles,
loss of indigenous cultures, psychological
dependency and slavish survivalism. Hence, the
rejection of the Western hegemony forms the
nucleus of the postcolonial rhetoric which in
turn creates space for marginalized groups or the
disadvantaged nations. It exploits the Derridean
deconstructive strategies and subversive modes
like hybridity, orature, mimicry,ambivalence etc
for destabilization of Eurocentric norms and
ways of thinking and thus punctures the
widespread tendency in contemporary discourse
of giving,in the words of Homi k. Bhaba, a
hegemonic normality to the uneven
development and the differential, often
disadvantaged, histories of nations, race,
communities and peoples (Bhaba,1994:71). In
other words, it provides a means of reclamation
of cultural past and resistance by which any
exploitative and discriminative practices can be
challenged.
The term postcolonialism is replete with
contradictions and conundrums owing to the
varied forms of colonial rule and processes of
decolonization. It has an inherent plentitude of
connotations and/or significations that can
denote a historical transition, a dying
colonialism, an achieved epoch, a
weltanschauung (world-view), a cultural
location, an extension of anti-colonial
movements, a theoretical stance or a critical
practice and so on. In its most general sense, the
label postcolonialism is used in connection
with any discursive contest against
marginalization or subjugation. One may
wonder that colonies no longer exist and yet
how can the term postcolonial survive?
Timothy Brennan rightly observes that the
term, however, survived in part because it
successfully euphemized harsher terms like
imperialism or racism in professionally
respectable academic environments. (Brennan,
128 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
2004: 132). Another postcolonial theorist Aijaz
Ahmed also holds a similar view evident from
his blunt assertion: postcolonial is simply a
polite way of saying not white, not Europe or
perhaps not Europe-but-inside-Europe (Ahmad,
1995: 30). Moreover, the hyphenated (post-
colonialism /post-colonial) and non hyphenated
terms are not always used consistently which
fuel the debate regarding the very nomenclature.
The hyphenated term tends to refer to the
historical period after a nation has been
officially recognized as independent whereas the
non-hyphenated form denotes the consequences
of colonialism from the time of its first impact.
The present paper proposes to outline
postcolonialism as an Aesthetic of Subversion
and Reclamation thereby pointing out the
centrality of the states of marginality, hybridity,
mimicry backwardness, plurality and perceived
otherness as sources of energy and potential
change in the postcolonial thought. Beginning
with erasure and culminating in reclamation
or assertion, the postcolonial aesthetic involves a
renewed quest for native roots and distinct self-
identity. This progression can also be viewed as
a move from imposed innocence to awakened
conscience.The seminally canonical texts like
Shakespeares The Tempest (1611), Daniel
Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1719) and J oseph
Conrads Heart of Darkness (1899) embody the
recognizable paradigm for postcolonial ends as
they deal with the conflict between the natural
inhabitants and the intruders. The play The
Tempest allegorizes an altercation between
Miranda, the daughter of the proto-colonial
settler, Prospero and Caliban, the dispossessed
native of the Island. Miranda accuses Caliban of
being selfish and ungrateful towards the masters
who endowed him with the pedagogic gifts of
language and self-knowledge. Caliban thus
replies bluntly:
You taught me language: and my profit
on it is, I know how to curse; the red
plague rid you, For learning me your
language ! (The Tempest Act I. Sc. II:
77).
This reverberation of the dubious benefits of the
linguistic indoctrination particularizes, in the
words of Leela Gandhi, the logic of protesting
out of rather than against the cultural
vocabulary of colonialism (Gandhi, 1999: 148).
His native intelligence and astonishing mastery
of newly learnt language an amalgam of force,
magic and the seduction of new learning is
clearly evident from his description of the Island
occupied by Prospero: Be not afeard; the isle is
full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that delight
and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twanging
instruments will hum about mine ears; and
sometimes voices (The Tempest Act.III. Sc.II:
136-9).This Calibanesque eloquence and use of
colonizers language in his own indigenous way
substantiate the native ways of living and the
natives primitive but self-reliant and
independent universe. Homi Bhabha uses the
terms like hybridity, mimicry ambivalence and
subversion to denote how the colonial authority
is rendered hybrid or ambivalent in the
postcolonial era.
Postcolonialism stands for the
cultures and societies at margin and
challenges the centre-margin archetype
with an intention of the removal of
inequality. Therefore, it eschews the high
culture of the elite and espouses
subaltern cultures and knowledges. It
combines and draws on elements from
post-modernism, post-structuralism,
Socialism, feminism and
environmentalism. I ts difference from
any of these as generally defined is that it
begins from a fundamentally tri-
continental world, third world, subaltern
perspective and its priorities always
remain there. For the people in the west,
post-colonialism amounts to nothing less
than a world turned upside down. It
looks at and experiences the world from
below rather than above. Like
colonialism, postcolonialism is state of
consciousness, a crucial phase in the
continuum of our cultural process and
self awareness. Colonialism is very much
a part of power dynamics used for
domination and exploitation. The
colonizers use myths, history, language,
literature etc. as powerful tools in the
process of colonization.
129 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Ashish Nandy in his book The
Intimate Enemy presents the theory of
colonialism in light of the colonial
conditions between India and Britain. The
Britishers enslaved the natives in I ndia
through an ideology which replaced the
native consciousness with the
consciousness of the master. As a result
the Empire is gone but the imperialism of
the West is left in several manifestations
or incarnations. The colonial rule has
crippled the thinking of the colonized
I ndians who privilege even now
everything that is western-values,
traditions, manners, and even literature.
What the Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa
Thiongo says of Africa is stunningly
relevant to India also:A new world order
that is no more than a global dominance
of neo-colonial relations policed by a
handful of western nations is a disaster
for the peoples of the world and their
cultures the languages of Europe were
taught as they were our own languages,
as if Africa had no tongues except those
brought their by imperialism bearing the
label MADE IN EUROPE (Thiongo,
1993:35).He uses the terms like
linguistic oppression cultural bombing
and delocalization to denote the
hegemony of the West operating through
linguistic globalization. The cultural
values, family relationships, respect for
elders, respect for knowledge, ability to
be happy even without material comforts
and philosophical and religious values of
the natives are being replaced by
foreign values. I n order to shed the
hegemony of the West, he abandoned the
use of English and firmly decided to
write in his indigenous language Gikuyu.
He justifies his choice of the rural
language of Gikuyu people thus:
Language is a carrier of a peoples
culture, culture is a carrier of a
peoples values; values are the
basis of a peoples self definition
the basis of their consciousness.
And when you destroy a peoples
language, you are destroying that
very important aspect of their
heritage you are in fact
destroying that which helps them
to be themselves that which
embodies their collective memory
as a people (J ournal of
Commonwealth Literature 26:1).
The postcolonial theorists and
practitioners like Frantz Fanon, Aim
Csaire, Edward Said, Gauri
Vishwanathan, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri
Spivak Chakravarthy have developed the
theory of colonialism and its aftermath in
their works. Frantz Fanon, the patriarch
of postcolonial discourse has analyzed
very minutely the psychological aspects
of colonialism and myths of racism in his
works like Black Skin, White Masks
(1952), A Dying Colonialism (1959) and
The Wretched of the Earth (1961).
According to him, the colonizers
deliberately paralyze the natives
consciousness and insert their ideology
into the fabric of consciousness of the
colonized with an aim to justify their
rule and occupation of the natives
territory. The indigenous world of the
native is thus corrupted by using the so-
called supremacy myths and attributing
the opposite qualities of what they
represent reason, sophistication, morality
and so on. The natives are thus forced to
believe that they are by definition
irrational, uncultured or barbaric,
immoral, feeble and therefore require the
correcting hand of the cultivated man.
This very denial of any worthwhile
indigenous culture or history necessitates
the assertion of identity and celebration
of native ways of living and history.
Fanons observation is quite appropriate
and summative here:
The claims of the native
intellectual are not a luxury but a
necessity in any coherent
programme. The native
intellectual who takes up arms to
defend his nations legitimacy and
who wants to bring proofs to bear
out that legitimacy, who is willing
130 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
to strip himself naked to study the
history of his body, is obliged to
dissect the heart of the people
(Fanon, 1968: 211).
What Fanan advocates here is nothing but
a search for nativism and the recovery
of past through the celebration of the
indigenous values and traditions.
Therefore, he views past as a resource of
alternative history and links it with the
present from the standpoint of a future
vision without European rule and a
nation capable of future achievements.
Fanons another pioneering work
Black Skin, White Masks (1952) probes
deeper into the colonizers psychology
and the diabolic effects of racism and
colonialism on the minds of the
colonized people. The effects lead to a
paralysis of consciousness thereby
resulting into psychological dependency,
loss of self and identity and loss of
culture. Anger is replaced by surrender
and voice is replaced by silence or
mutedness. The European values and
traditions gain absolute superiority and
greater authority over the colonized
people. Fanon in the context stresses the
importance of asserting their negritude,
to use Aim Csaires famous term, and
negation of imposed values and
traditions. Aim Csaires description of
the native people under the colonial rule
is highly suggestive and worth quoting
here: Societies drained of their essence,
cultures trampled underfoot, institutions
undermined, lands confiscated, religion
smashed, magnificent artistic creations
destroyed and the extraordinary
possibilities wiped out (Aim Csaire,
1972: 21-22). This is the blunt reply to
the colonizers who talk about progress,
achievements, diseases cured and
improved standard of living. But the
reality is that the colonial domination of
Britain took the form of a denigration of
native cultures and a silencing of the
native voices. Hence, postcolonism
demands the reclamation of native
cultures by challenging the colonial
misrepresentations. Frantz Fanon aptly
states that: Black men want to prove to
white men at all costs, the richness of
their thought, the equal value of their
intellect (Fanon, 1967:10).
The postcolonial intellectuals
developed a new perspective whereby the
conditions of marginality/subalterneity,
plurality, mimicry, hybridity and
perceived otherness are seen as sources
of energy and potential change. They
argued that Western values and traditions
of thought and literary practices are
guilty of repressive ethnocentrism.
Such values and traditions of thought are
instrumental in establishing the centre-
margin archetype and marginalizing the
non-western values and traditions.
Edward said in his magnum opus
Orientalism (1978) enlarged the scope of
the post colonial approach by exposing
the Eurocentric universalism that
establishes western superiority over the
East. He elaborates the European modes
of governing knowledge and reinforcing
power and thus dismisses or excludes
the knowledge which natives might
claim to have. He points out that
Orientalism is not only a geographical
location but also an ideology - a
Western style of dominating,
restructuring, having authority over the
Orient. He argues that the Orient has
been managed or even produced
politically, sociologically, militarily,
ideologically, scientifically and
imaginatively by employing certain
systematic ways by the Europeans. He
observes that: European culture gained
the strength and identity by setting itself
off against the Orient as a sort of
surrogate and even underground self.
(Said, 1991:3) The people in the East are
seen as masses and not as individuals.
The Westerners attributed the qualities
like decadence, laziness, cruelty,
stupidity, effeminacy etc. which they do
not wish to attribute themselves. They
thus essentialised their own culture by
denuding the native cultures. While
131 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
commenting on the important role played
by anticolonial nationalism, Edward Said
in his canonical book Culture and
Imperialism rightly points out:
It is a historical fact that
nationalism-restoration of
community, assertion of identity,
emergence of new cultural
practices-as a mobilized political
force instigated and then advanced
the struggle against western
domination everywhere in the
non-European world. It is no more
useful to oppose that than to
oppose Newtons discovery of
gravity. (Said, 1993: 218)
Claiming Derridas authority,
postcolonialism rejects such notions and
celebrates plurality, hybridity etc. as the
sources of vigour and vitality. Derrida
maintains that literature is only a free
play of signifiers without a centre and
far from presenting any meaning words
carry with them a certain absense or
indeterminancy of meaning. He
recommends dissemination as an
alternative to the polysemy of
interpretation as he believes there are
thus two interpretations of
interpretations, of structure, of sign, of
free play (Derrida, 2005: 411). Said
through this inspirational key text of
post-colonial discourse succeeds to a
great extend in teaching the colonized
people how to teach a literature which is
not their own: To deconstruct the text,
to examine the process of its production,
to identify the myths of imperialism
structuring it, to show how the
oppositions on which it rests are
generated by political need at given
moments in history quickened the text to
life in our world. (Pathak, 1991: 195)
The postcolonial scholars attempt to
overcome the stigma of marginality or
otherness by foregrounding differences
and diversity. Gayatri Spivak has rightly
pointed out that when a cultural identity
is thrust upon one because the centre
wants an identifiable margin, claims for
marginality assure validation from the
centre. (Collier and Geyer-Rayan, 1990:
220) She goes on to add that
postcoloniality is a conceptual structure
that need to be deconstructed. She
devotes her essay Post-structuralism,
Marginality, Postcoloniality and Value
for negotiating the postcolonial condition
by using deconstructive strategy. She
thinks that the deconstruction of
postcoloniality bears not only the status
of migrants in the Western metropolis but
also the conditions in the decolonized
world. She notes that decolonized nations
include disenfranchised, subaltern
populations that were exploited by the
old colonialism yet do not share in the
energy of decolonization. But
intellectuals like Michel Foucault and
Gilles Deleuze maintain that the
colonized subjects also through their
participation in the celebration of native
ways of living can speak, act and know
for themselves. Her highly controversial
essay Can the Subaltern Speak? with an
obvious negative answer denies the very
possibility of cursing or voicing their
anger/wrath. One finds it very difficult to
agree with her argument as the
subalterns-oppressed people also look
back in anger towards the colonizers
while asserting their individualities. She
further argues that, postcoloniality is
neither to recover signs of self
representation of the disenfranchised
speaking for themselves nor to address
victimhood by assertion of identity.
(Spivak, 1990: 56)
Like Said and Spivak, Homi
Bhabha theorizes postcolonial discourse
in his edited books Nation and Narration
(1990) and the Location of Culture. By
coining the terms like mimicry and
hybridity, Bhabha advocates the plurality
of postcolonial cultures as they embrace
the European and indigenous traditions.
This celebration of hybridity, according
to Bhabha is a positive advantage that
allows the postcolonial writers and critics
132 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
to analyze the West as insiders as well as
outsiders. Bhabhas theory of hybridity
thus provides an affirmative answer to
Spivaks celebrated question can the
subaltern speak? The postcolonial
writers have shown that they have not
only gained independence but
successfully made the colonizers
language as vehicle for the creative
expression. Each former colony uses
English in its own way and therefore, we
get I ndian English, African English,
Caribbean English etc. in the postcolonial
age. Hence, it is difficult to agree with
Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, the authors
of the book The Empire Writes Back,
when they say that postcolonial
literatures are result of this interaction
between imperial culture and the complex
indigenous practices.imperial language
and local experience. (Ashcroft et. al.,
1995:1) Leela Gandhi in her book The
Post-colonial Theory: A Critical
Introduction (1990) refutes their claim by
pointing out the fundamental differences
between the colonial rule in the countries
like Australia and New Zealand and the
countries in Asia and Africa. Such
differences pertain to cultural
subordination in those countries.
Peter Barry in his book Beginning
Theory identifies three phases of post-
colonial theory. The first phase is the
adopt phase in which the writers and
critics follow the European form and
norms to describe their experience. The
creative writers Chinua Achebe,
E.M.Forster, R.K.Narayana, George
Lamming etc. belong to the first phase.
Forsters novel A Passage to India, in the
words of Revati Krishnaswamy, offers
an entire grammar of colonial desire, a
narrative that codifies an entire spectrum
of intra-and interracial male relations,
from most outrageously homo-social to
the most subtly homo-erotic. It not only
ridicules the racialised opposition
between English manliness and Indian
effeminacy in strident terms but
surreptitiously draws the homo-sexual
into the orbit of the erotic. The second
phase is the adopt phase in which they
suitably modify the form and norms to
their own specifications. It includes
writers like Derek Walcott, Salman
Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram
Seth. Rushdies tour the force Midnights
Children is the best example of the adopt
phase as it uses magic realism and the
multicultural ethos to convey the reality
of the Indian sub-continent. The process
of chutnification, pickling or
biryanification is also a part of the post-
colonial desire. The third stage is called
adept phase where a colonial mind
becomes independent, creative and really
cross cultural in expressing its
experience. This stage is dominated by
the writers like Shashi Tharoor, Kiran
Desai and others. Kiran Desais The
Inheritance of Loss embodies the features
of the independent and cross cultural
mind liberated from the shackles of
colonial ideology.
To conclude in brief , postcolonialism
is truly a dissentual, subversive theory/
practice erasing the debunking of cultural
past by the colonizers. I t sought
reclamation of native cultures through
the celebration of indigenous traditions
and values.As Rushdie says the Empire
writes back, but with a vengeance, the
Calibans successors/ children like
Chinua Achebe, Derek Walcott, George
Lamming, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth
and Kiran Desai are competent enough to
get the due benefits of the English
language the power of colonizers, to
curse and thus showing their native
intelligence in the use of colonizers
language also. By exploiting the
deconstructive approach, post-
colonialism redefines, reassesses and
restructures history, politics, culture,
literature, knowledge and psychology of
the erstwhile British colonies. It marks
the end of colonialism by giving the
indigenous people the necessary
authority and political freedom to take
their place and gain independence by
133 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
overcoming political and cultural
imperialism. An indigenous approach
based on our own needs and suitable to
our multi-cultural and muti-lingual
context can be helpful in decolonizing
mind and thus handling the dangers of
neo-colonialism. In the end, one is
inclined to agree with B.K.Das view that
post-colonial theory is transnational in
dimension, multi-cultural in approach
and a movement beyond the binary
opposition of the power relations
between the colonizer/ colonized and
centre/periphery(Das:233).
REFERENCES:
* Aijaz, Ahmad. In Theory: Classes,
Nations,Literatures. New Delhi,
OUP, 1999.
* Ashcroft Bill, Gareth Griffiths and
Helen Tiffin.. The Empire Writes
Back: Theory and Practice in Post
Colonial Literatures. London
Routledge, 1989.
* Barry, Peter..Beginning Theory.
New York:MUP,2000.
* Das, B.K. Twentieth Century
Literary Criticism. New Delhi:
Atlantic Pub., 2004.
* Derrida, J acques. Structure, Sign
and Play in the Discourse and
Human Sciences ed. B.Das and
J.M. Mohanty..Literary Criticism:
A Reading. Culcutta:OUP, 2005.
* Gandhi, Leela..Post-colonial
Theory : A Critical Introduction
Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1999.
* Krishnaswamy, N. et.al.
Contemporary Literary Theory : A
Students Companian Delhi:
Macmillan,2001.
* Krishnaswamy, R.Effeminism: The
Economy of Colonial Desire,1998.
* Pathak,Z., Sengupta, S.,
Purkayashtha, S. The Prison
house of Orientalism, Textual
Practice, 1991.Vol.5 no. 2 p.195-
218.
* Said, Edward. Orientalism.
London & Henley : Routledge &
Kegal Paul,1978.
* Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty.
Post-structuralism, Marginality,
Post-coloniality and Value.
Literary Theory Today Ed. Peter
Collier & Ryan New York 1990.
* Wa Thiongo, N. Moving the
centre: The struggle for cultural
freedom. London:
Heinemann,1993.

Young, Robert J .C. Post Colonialism
:A Very Short Introductio Delhi:
OUP, 2003.

134 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Post-Colonial Theory: A Retrospect
--Totawad Nagnath Ramrao,
Vivekanand Arts, S.D.Commerce and Science College,
Samarthnagar, Aurangabad.

Abstract: Post-Colonial theory is a discussion of migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation,
difference, race, gender, place and responses to the influentional master discourses of imperial. Europe and the
fundamental experiences of speaking and writing by which all these come into being -Bill Ashcroft
Post-Colonial theory signifies a
closure with colonialism. It also opens with
an inquiry and understandind.Post-
colonialism also appeared as a
decolonization which as marked the second
half of twentieth century.Post colonial
theory allows for a wide ranging
investigation such as :post-colonial
history,economy,science,culture and
marginalized.It is also an attempt of
development and recovery of identity.The
present research paper aim at analyzing the
the women condition in pst-coloniai age.It
also focus on various sociakl problems such
as prostitution rape,violation,murder and
harassment.Bapsi Sidhwa's I ce-Candy-
Man, Water or The Pakistani Bride,
describes in detail about Hira Mandi. The
Prostitution still continues in the society. It
is also labeled as Devdasi Custom still
continues in the society against the
Dedication Act of 1982 (The ban on
Devdasi). Prostitutes are considered lower
and downtrodden. On the other side they
have no place in any society in the
hierarchical order. In Water, 2006, Bapsi
Sidhwa rightly, point out the upper caste
men secretly and often visit to the widows.
And some men keep them (widows or
prostitutes) as sexual commodities. In
Water, Narayan, the Gandhian idealist is
against widow system and tradition. He
decides to marry a widow, Kalyani,
knowing she is a prostitute (sex works to
run the widow house). At this moment
father Dwarkanath, upper caste, suggest
Narayan to keep her. And on the other, Seth
Dwarkanath has many times put the sexual
relation with Kalyani.
The Hira Mandi in Lahore has emerged as a m
same like Water, Freddy slept with Rosy.
In I ce-Candy-Man 1988, the Partition
experience very well narrated. Women
became the victim in all communities.
Hindus abduct Muslim, rape, murder or
make a sexual violation. While on the other
Muslim men caught Hindu women, the
experience is narrated by the novelist as
follow. Ice-Candy-Man, a Muslim abducts
Hindu Ayah, a friend of him, played,
enjoyed & spent together. In Partition he
forgets everything, marries with her, named
her Mumtaz, and finally forced her into
prostitution. Ice Candy mans nature is
exposed by the novelist as follow:
Any man who has the money.... my
cook. Wrestler, Imam Din, the Knife
Sharpner, Merchants, Peddlers, the
Governor, Coolies.... can come to
relax and enjoy by playing with
women's bodies with 'make-up on
their faces and flowers in their hair.
(1988:124)
The same narrative also very well
highlighted in Hindi Cinema. The places
like Mandi & Tawaif are shown in the
Cinemas like- Water and Earth: 1947 by
Deepa Mehta, Canadian Director. The
cinema also highlights the problems and
silences of women (or prostitutes). The
marginalized women have dreams and
desires along with tender feelings but no
escape. They have trapped in the system in
which one enters, no exist at all. Men do
not suffer in these partition upheavals but
women. Women only the subject of sexual
and physical violence. The violation of
women is a weapon of domination and
repression. Susan Brown Miller in her
seminal text Against Our Will: Men,
Women and Rape, very well highlighted
the pattern of abuse to women. According
135 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
to her the sexual violence is not about
sexuality, she comments:
It shows a pattern of power and
domination..... For centuries, in
groups and individuals, as soldiers
and civilians, ordinary men have
used rape to humiliate and
subordinate women and to proclaim
there masculine superiority and
dominance to women and to other
men. (1975:193)
The power of men over women is only a
matter of pride. Women from the centuries
became the inferior. In partition or in any
issues women only became victims. The
silence and patience of women that only
survived them. The women suffered a lot
from the past. Once they loss the chastity or
became the victim of rape or abducted, the
family gave them the second treatment of
non accepting.
Partition has focused women
identity in many ways. It has faced many
acts of brutality and all the memories are
preserved in literature in various tones and
ways. The writers who have contributed to
the issue of Partition in literature they are
Khushwant Singh; 'Train to Pakistan',
Chaman Nahal; 'Azadi', Attia Hosain's;
'Sunlight on a Broken Columns', Anita
Desai, 'Clear of of Day', Shauna Singh
Baldwin's, 'What the Body Remembers'
Manju Kapoor's, 'Difficult Daughters',
Mumtaz Shah Nawab's, 'The Heart
Divided', Meher Nigar Masroor's,'Shadow
of Time', Sophia Mustafa, 'Broken Reed'
and Anita Kumar's; The Night of the Seven
Dawns.
Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man,
1988, also scripted by Deepa Mehta in the
Film, Earth: 1947 is a unique in its
content. Partition in multicultural India has
affected mostly three cultures- Hindu,
Muslim and Sikh. It has faced migration,
death, destruction, and loss. Before
partition no one could have foreseen the
ferocity of blood and enmity among the
cultures. In partition women is the central
issue in all cultures. The abduction of
women, mass rape, women's abduction and
marriage with other community members.
Rape and molestation of women became a
matter of Bride to other community, but
none could understand the harsh reality.
The violation of women of every
community by the opposite means
systematically all communities women are
violating. Partition is an example of
extreme sexual brutality involves all
patriarchal conception. The each
community member involves in the rape of
other community women. It is according to
them is the only way to penetrate them.
Rape, abduction, molestation, marriage,
kidnapping of a young girl, these issues are
the challenging to men and their manhood.
The attack on honor and chastity of women
is the only way of defiling them. Bapsi
Sidhwa presents the general opinion of
people towards woman. Lenny, in I ce-
Candy-Man, 1988, became the victim of
Polio. Which the Britishers brought. Col.
Bharucha the president of the Parsi
Community decides the fate of Lenny, as
follow:
She'll marry - have children - lead a
carefree, happy life. No need to
strain her with studies and exams.
(1978:15)
Her brother Adi goes to school on the other
Lenny is denied from several privileges.
Comparing to other Parsee boys including
her brother she gets the secondary
treatment. As a child, polio-stricken and
finally a woman nobody cares her education
equal like boys. Speaking of women is not
allotted, there role is only the passive,
observer and listener. The women's passive
role and its acceptance. Susie Tharu
comments on the issuein Patriarchy and
Feminism: The Birth of Consciousness':
As women we often believe our
exploited sexuality passive,
dependent role in best for us. We
are contented, often exalted by its
meager rewards, its promised glitter.
Further we have so identified with
patriarchy's hostility to anything
that challenges the established order
we fear and even actively resist
critical speech and radical action.
Worst of all, we are ourselves so
136 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
insecure in the system (the time
between good and bad, and hence
acceptable and totally unhoused, is
slippery) that often we are the most
vicious in our castigation of those
who do not conform.(1982-50)
According to Tharu, women must be real
conscious. The conscious which will lead
against the victimization. There is a need to
step ahead to protest patriarchy.
According to Urvashi Butalia the
women's bodies became the defining
identity of nation. Women who are highly
valued in a national representation and a
spirit of nation crushed bitterly and largely
in partition. It is in the words of Krishna
Sobti, 'difficult to forget and dangerous
to remember'. The women in Partition
were abducted as Hindus and converted as
Muslims. Recovered as Hindus got
pregnant and the children of Muslim
fathers. Finally these women disowned by
their own families by the label of
'impurity'. The identity of women as neither
Hindu nor Muslim. The result many women
have made suicides, some has taken a
support of Ashrams and some made
invisible. The Partition has taken much
death. All the dominant communities
Hindu, Muslim and Sikh suffered a lot.
Hundreds of women were killed by their
own husband in order to avoid humiliation
and sexual abuse. Many women were also
killed by their own fathers and brothers to
avoid sexual abuse and violation.
Partition in India has brought a permanent
hatred among the communities. It gave
birth to the communal hatred. Women and
her body treated as the territory of one's
identity. Women became the symbol of
exploitation of the communities. The
Partition uses largely 'sex' as a weapon of
revenge of all community. It is the attempt
of humiliation of the rival community. The
Partition has also given birth to the forced
marriages and conversions of women into
other. Urvashi Butalia, as a social historian
comments on the crucial condition of
women in Partition, she comments:
Mass scale migration, death,
destruction, loss - no matter how in
evitable Partition seemed, no one
could have foreseen the scale and
ferocity of bloodshed and enmity it
unleashed.... Still less could anyone
have foreseen that women would
become so significant, so central,
and indeed so problematic.(1998:
188)
Women's self sacrifice and murders are the
courageous and inhuman actions. It is a
continual process of suffering of womens
sexuality. The constant exploitation and
objection continues after the post-partition
period. Women were restored and put their
violated bodies aside but away from
accepting in the society. Finally many
experienced homelessness at home. Thus,
patriarchal values and communal identity
and the honor of nation have converted
many women into murder & suicide. It is
labeled in the words of women writers as -
an act of 'heroism'. Many women were
became the victim of Partition, talking
about the death ratio of women in Partition,
Urvashi Butalia comments:
'There is no record of the numbers
of women and children killed by
men of their own families, their own
communities. Unlike in the case of
abducted women, there families did
not report the deaths of their
women, for they themselves were
responsible for them. But while
abducted women then entered the
realm of silence, women who were
killed by families, or who took their
own lives, entered the realm of
martyrdom.(1998: 208)
Partition, of the Indian subcontinent, thus
has many ways made target to the women.
Women who suffered a lot in the Partition
to the maximum. The minute observation
and study reports that women are the major
victims of Partition comparing to men.
Women in Partition have experienced many
identities that none could imagine and
think. The study lastly expresses their
sacrification as an act of heroism and
martyrdom.
References:
137 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
1) Barbara, Smith (ed) 'A Black Feminism:
A Movement of Our Own', 1975: 12
2)Castillejo, Irene de Claremont (ed).
'Knowing Women: A Feminist
Psychology'; P. 91.
3)Goodyear, Sara Suleri (ed). 'Blurb of
Water, Penguin Books, India: 2006, P. 30.
138 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Post Colonialism: A Substantial Contribution of English to the
Study of Literature and Culture
-Dr. Rupali P Hiwarkar
Vivekanand Arts, Sardar Dalipsingh
Commerce and Science College, Samarth
Nagar, Aurangabad, 431001.

Language has always been the consort of
empire and forever shall remain its mate.
Together they came into being together they
grow and flower.
-Elio
Antonio de Nebrija, Bishop of Avila.

The global spread of English has
resulted in the emergence of a diverse range
of postcolonial varieties around the world.
Postcolonial English provides a clear and
original account of the evolution of these
varieties, exploring the historical social and
ecological factors that have shaped all levels
of their structure. It argues that while these
Englishs have developed new and unique
properties which differ greatly from one
location to another, their spread and
diversification can in fact be explained by a
single underlying process, which builds upon
the constant relationships and
communication needs of the colonizers.
Outlining the stages and characteristics of
this process, it applies them in detail to
English in sixteen different countries across
all continents as well as in a separate chapter,
to a history of American English.
Language and empires have always
gone together. Colonization, requiring legal
social and political control, is also an
archivization project, to document,
disseminate and formulate rules, information,
and policies, often, colonialisms drive to
generate its own vocabulary and command
and evacuate non - European languages of
signification in official transactions means
that the natives were forced to speak the
language of the colonizer. England itself has
seen the domination of Latin since the
Romans and Latin continued to be the
language of prestige, power, and scholarship.
Thus English suffered colonization by Latin
during the early phase. It must also be kept in
mind that there
were languages and literatures in England
well before English. Old English Norse,
Welsh, Latin, Irish-Gaelic among others.
English suppressed Celtic, Welsh, Cornish
(of which there are about 300 speakers
today), and Gaelic on its route to domination
of the islands.
Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and
Portuguese acquired the status of
'international' languages because their
dissemination across their local geographical
borders (into Asia, Africa, and South
America) was facilitated through the
machinery of empire. As Walter Mignolo's
magisterial study, The Darker side of the
Renaissance : Literacy, Territoriality and
Colonization (2003) has demonstrated,
language grammars, codices and cartography
are all rhetorical forms engineered by
colonialism to attain control over the non-
European. Incidentally, when the British
Empire expanded and Spanish and
Portuguese empires shrank, English replaced
Spanish and Portuguese the most dominant
imperial language.
Postcolonial literary and cultural
studies explore the role of languages in the
process of colonialism. The subjects of post
colonialism's study of language in
colonialism include:
The domination of native languages
by European ones;
The hybridization of both languages;
and
The politics of language, literature,
and translation.

139 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Gandhi declared in Hind Swaraj (a text
that continues to have relevance for
postcolonial processes of decolonization, as
Makarand Paranjape has argued, 1993): 'To
give million knowledge of English is to
enslave them. Raja Rao, one of the first
generation of Indian novelists in English, in a
much-quoted formulation expressed the
linguistic and narrative anxiety of the
postcolonial writer: One has to convey in a
language that is not one's own Spirit that is
one's own. One has to convey the various
shades and omissions Of a certain thought
movement that looks maltreated in an alien
language. I use the word 'alien', yet English
is not really an alien language to us... Our
method of expression therefore has to be a
dialect which will some day prove to be as
distinctive and colorful as the Irish or the
American.
The debate about English derives
from the context of globalization. For
countries that have barely begun to recover
from the cultural assaults of colonialism,
globalization presents the newest challenge
English is clearly the language of
globalization, represented mainly by
business and economy, where it becomes the
language of management, trade debates and
negotiation, and even dispute - resolution.
That is, language here has a close correlation
with actual socioeconomic processes.
English as the language that drives
globalization is also the best contender for
the status of a 'global language', where it
homogenizes various parts of the world
under its umbrella.

References:
1. Nayar, Pramod K(ed). Postcolonial
Literature An I ntroduction, 2008,
Pearson Longman 2008.
2. Krishan Das Deepchand Patra (ed).
Postcolonial English Literature,
Daya publication 2009.
3. Schneider, Edgar Werner(ed). Post
colonial English: Varieties around
the world, Cambridge University
Press, 2007.
4. Shukla, Bhaskar A(ed). Critical
study of postcolonial literature,
Mark publishers 2009.
5. Wolfreys,Julian(ed).I ntroducing
literary Theories, Edinburgh
University Press, 2002.

140 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Reconnecting Past: Orhan Pamuks Snow
--Dr. Shaikh Kalimoddin Rashid
Maulana Azad College of Arts,
Science & Commerce,
Aurangabd.

The present paper deals with
reconnecting past as one of the themes of the
novel Snow by Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish
author, winner of the Nobel Prize in
Literature 2006. It was published in
Turkish in 2002 and in English in 2004
which is translated by Maureen Freely.
Though story of the novel encapsulates many
of the political and cultural tensions of
modern Turkey and successfully combines
humor, social commentary, mysticism, and a
deep sympathy with its characters. The plot
revolves around the return to Turkey, after
twelve years, of an exiled poet, Ka, for his
mothers funeral. He is a rootless figure.
Never inspired by the traditional faith of his
childhood, Ka has abandoned the idealistic
leftist politics of his youth, seeing only how
the authoritarian, violent state smashed
young peoples idealism. Notwithstanding
his retreat from politics to art, in Germany,
Ka becomes an isolated figure, who is
misunderstood or ignored by the locals, who
has lost his muse, and has stopped writing
poems.
Ka returns to Turkey after twelve
years political exile and his journey to Kars
function as- a journey to reconnect past. In
Turkey, he takes up a journalistic assignment
to discover why the headscarf girls, banned
from the local schools in the dilapidated
border town of Kars, have taken to
committing suicide but more than this he
also has another purpose that is to hook up
romantically with an old friend, Ipek, whom
he has never forgotten. Therefore the theme
of reconnecting past this novel deals not only
with the headscarf girls of Turkey but also
similarly with the narrator Kas past. Kars, a
cut off place by heavy snow, Ka wanders
through a decaying city haunted by its
glorious former selves: there are architectural
remnants of the once vast Ottoman Empire;
the grand Armenian church stands empty,
testifying to the massacre of its worshipers;
there are ghosts of Russian rulers and their
lavish celebrations, and pictures of Ataturk,
founder of the Turkish Republic and
instigator of a ruthless modernization'
campaign, which included not incidentally a
ban on headscarves. Ka's pose as a journalist
allows Pamuk to put on display a wide
variety of opinions. Those not living in the
shrunken remains of former empires may
find it hard to imagine the mix of resentful
entitlement, shame, blame, and anxiety about
identity that takes up a great deal of
headroom in such places, and thus in Snow.
There are two strong female characters, the
emotionally battered Ipek because of her
divorce from Muhtar partly due to his
interest in political Islam and another strong
woman is Ipeks sister, the stubborn actress
Kadife, who has joined and become the
leader of the headscarf girls those who
insist upon being covered. Those
scrapping for power on both sides use these
dead girls as symbols, having put unbearable
pressure on them while they were alive. Ka,
however, sees them as suffering human
beings. 'It wasn't the elements of poverty or
helplessness that Ka found so shocking.
Therefore he asks Ipek as:
Why are so many people turning to religion
all of sudden? Why is everyone in this city
committing suicide? asked Ka. Its not
everyone whos committing suicide; its just
girls and women. The men give themselves
to religion, and women kill themselves.
1

Neither was it the constant beatings to which
these girls were subjected, or the
insensitivity of fathers who wouldn't even let
them go outside, or the constant surveillance
of jealous husbands. The thing that shocked
and frightened Ka was the way these girls
had killed themselves: abruptly, without
ritual or warning, in the midst of their
everyday routines.'' Their suicides are like
the other brutal events in the novel: sudden
eruptions of violence thrown up by relentless
underlying forces. The attitudes of men
toward women drive the plot in Snow, but
even more important are the attitudes of men
toward one another. Ka is always worrying
about whether other men respect or despise
him, and that respect hinges not on material
141 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
wealth but on what he is thought to believe.
Since he himself isn't sure, he vacillates from
one side to another. Shall he stick with the
Western enlightenment? But he was
miserable in Germany. Shall he return to the
Muslim fold? But despite his drunken hand-
kissing of a local religious leader, he can't fit
in.
Once Ka gets to Kars, a bigger story
develops, as the town turns in on itself when
three days of heavy snow isolate it. All the
divisions and tensions between old
disillusioned leftists, Kemalists, the military,
the virtually omnipresent intelligence
services (the MIT), the press, the Sufis,
Kurds, Armenians and the Islamists are
there, and they are about to boil over into
violence. So in a meeting with Serdar Bey-
the owner of the Border City Gazette, Ka
being ironic asks,
This is the work of international Islamist
movement that wants to turn Turkey into
another Iran...Is it same with suicide girls?
Arent the Islamists against suicide?
2

But, unlike in Istanbul, where everyone lives
separately in tribes, in Kars everyone stills
knows and mixes with each other, and these
divisions get played out within families.
It is worth pointing out that none of main
protagonists come across as cardboard cut-
out caricatures either. The forces of the state
believe that a wanted Islamist terrorist named
Blue is behind the religious agitation in the
city. The Islamists are poised to win the
municipal elections. Ka witnesses the
assassination of a local school head for
upholding the ban on headscarf by a young
Islamist in a cafe. The Islamist violence and
terror is real enough, but it pales into
insignificance beside the manipulation and
torture of the intelligence services, and the
even more brutal and open violence of the
military and the police force. The chief
villain in Snow is not Blue, but the murky
and sadistic figure of Z. Demirkol, head of
the local intelligence service, whose runs
MIT in Kars with the efficiency of the
former East Germanys Stasi. Everybody
suspects somebody else, and there is no such
thing as a private meeting. With Kars
temporarily snowbound and unaccountable,
the forces of repression take their chance to
smash the Islamists with searing brutality.
Demirkols puppet is the has been theatrical
star, Sunay Zaim, famed for his resemblance
to Ataturk, whose performance of the
play My Fatherland or My Headscarf at the
citys main theatre becomes the pretext for
bloody suppression, with soldiers killing the
religious high-school kids in the audience
who have come in support of the headscarf
girls. At the exact time of firing, the short,
fearless boy stood up and shouted:Damn the
godless secularists! Damn the fascist
infidels! (169)
The great central metaphor in Orhan
Pamuks Snow is embedded in the title, and
the novels deeper themes are connected with
it. Ka, like Kafkas K, is either a witness to
events, or occasionally a catalyst for them,
rather than a protagonist. He finds love,
trauma and inspiration in Kars: all of the
towns profoundest hopes and fears surface
violently when snow in Turkish, kar
blocks all ways in and out. Ka, having no
traditional faith, having abandoned his
youthful political idealism and bereft of
poetic inspiration, finds, in the tumult of
snowbound Kars, his muse in the
antinomies of religion and atheism,
authoritarianism and freedom, aesthetics and
politics, love and duty. Finding inspiration,
nineteen poems are dictated to Ka during
his short stay, which he attempts to map
through the use of a snowflake diagram, in
the years after those three strife-filled days in
the town. His poems narrate a complex
individuality, irreducible to mere labels,
aligned on the axes of logic, imagination and
memory in his snowflake diagram. Snow is
thus a double metaphor: it stands for both
confinement and freedom, and, through Kas
alternation between these two poles, this
doubleness is played out as the dramatic
tension between personhood and politics.
Yet it is Kas seemingly ambiguous,
cipher-like indecisiveness that does much to
cause distrust among many in Kars, when,
after getting dragged into the towns political
crisis, a local paper accuses him of being a
spy. He doesnt want to take sides, and thus
reduce his art to political propaganda. His
newfound faith, expressed through his
rebirth as a poet, is not enough:
Before I got here, I hadnt written a poem in
years, he [Ka] said. But since coming to
Kars, all the roads on which poetry travels
here have reopened. I attribute this to the love
of God Ive felt here. I dont want to destroy
your illusions, but your love of God comes
142 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
out of Western romantic novels, said Blue.
In a place like this, if you worship God as a
European, youre bound to be a
laughingstock. Then you cannot even believe
you believe. You dont belong to this
country; youre not even a Turk anymore.
First try to be like everyone else, then try to
believe in God.
3

Ka is similarly berated for his naivety in
protesting state violence: it is merely a
European vice, an idealistic liberal pretence.
As one reviewer has astutely noted, everyone
has a double in Pamuks writing. Kas
double is Sunay, who stages a
postmodern military coup in Kars, who
puts his art in the service of the state,
instigating the imprisonment, torture or
killing of Kurds and Islamists in the town.
Sunay embraces politics as the culmination
of his art, to serve the fatherland, while Ka
embraces its contradictions creatively but
runs from its practical consequences. Most of
all, this running away is a refusal to be
labelled as a Europhile, a naive liberal, an
Islamist sympathizer, a spy and informant,
and so on all the things he is, in the end,
accused of because of his wish not to take
sides, but to live for art and love. In the
short-circuiting of politics, art becomes
escapism, and so, offering no solutions, finds
no vindication in the blood and repression of
Kars
Snow is also a tragic love story, a
thriller and, more broadly speaking, a dark
journey into familiar Pamuk territory: faith,
identity, betrayal and solitude. Similarly this
novel vividly portrays the cruelty and
intolerance of both the Islamic
fundamentalists and the representatives of
the secularist Turkish state. More
importantly, however, Pamuk has created
believable, sympathetic characters
representing both sides of that great divide
and has given eloquent voice to their anger
and frustration. According to Margaret
Atwood the novel, Snow is an in-depth tour
of the divided, hopeful, desolate, mystifying
Turkish soul. In short, in Snow Orhan Pamuk
uses his powers to show us the critical
dilemmas of modern day Turkey. How a
European country is it? How can it respond
to fundamentalist Islam? And how can an
artist deal with these issues? Snow is a book
about the difficulties faced by the nation torn
between tradition, religion, and
modernization. Set in the farthest east of
Turkey, the locals are certain that in Western
eyes theyre all considered ignorant yokels.
They suffer from a dreadful inferiority-
complex and a need to prove them to counter
that. Religion is the easiest crutch to rely on.
The struggle is not only with West, however,
but with the strong tradition of secularism in
Turkey itself.
In Snow Pamuk effectively portrays
these difficulties, and the many ambiguities
in contemporary Turkish life. Snow is the
latest entry in Pamuk's longtime project:
narrating his country into being. It's also the
closest to realism. Kars is finely drawn, in all
its touching squalor, but its inhabitants resist
''Orhan's'' novelizing of them. One of them
asks him to tell the reader not to believe
anything he says about them, because ''no
one could understand us from so far away
(p.435). This is a challenge to Pamuk and his
considerable art, but it is also a challenge to
us. In the final lines of Orhan Pamuks
masterful novel Snow, the narrator describes
how he boards a train leaving the town of
Kars in eastern Anatolia, looks out through
its windows, and meditates on the life and
death of his friend Ka, a poet murdered after
his visit to Kars four years previously. The
novel closes with him staring into the thick
falling snow until the thin and elegantly
quivering ribbons of smoke rising from the
broken chimneys at last seemed a smudge
through [his] tears (436). The moment is
pure Pamuk: tears of melancholic longing
become a lens that bends the landscape
around the contours of a sadness mirrored in
the broken buildings he regards.
4

To sum up, Orhan Pamuks Snow
deals with a clash between radical Islam and
Western ideals, it can be an insight into
rapidly rising fundamentalist movements or a
modern day life in Turkey but
simultaneously it tries to reconnect with the
past.
References:
1) Orhan, Pamuk. Snow. NewYork: Faber and
Faber Limited. 35. Print.
2) Orhan, Pamuk. 27.
3) Orhan, Pamuk. 334.
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.

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144 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Post- Colonial Analysis of Riot
--Pramod R. Jaware
R.C. Patel Institute of Technology, Shirpur Dhule (MS)
--Vinod Kumar Mangwani
O.P. Jindal Institute of Technology,Raigarh (CG)

I. INTRODUCTION TO POST-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE:

To know Post-Colonialism it is important
to know about colonialism. Colonialism is the
expansion of a nation's sovereignty over foreign
territories through forcible occupation. European
colonialism began in the fifteenth century and
reached its culmination point in the late 19th
century. At the height of European colonialism,
more than three quarters of the earth belonged to
European nations. These colonial powers were
interested in increasing their own political power
and in exploiting the colonies resources. Most of
the indigenous people of colonial territory were
oppressed and enslaved by the occupying power.
Sometimes they were even deported from fertile
land or murdered to make room for new
settlements. At the same time, they were forced to
give up their cultural heritage and to assimilate to
the colonizers culture. This strategy, which is also
known as culture colonization, was supposed to
manipulate the colonized peoples' minds. The
colonial powers believed that a colonized nation
which adopted and admired Western culture would
no longer resist the colonizers' occupation. In
British colonies, for example, the colonized
population had to convert to the Christian religion
and learn the English language and read English
literature in school. As a result, they adopted
Western values, and the colonizers were
eventually able to rule by consent and not by
violence. However, this assimilation could never
be complete. Similarly
in this novel the cultural, ideological and
existential colonization got never possible.
Post-colonialism is an intellectual
direction that exists since around the middle of
the 20
th
A major aspect of post-colonialism is the
rather violent-like, unbuffered contact or clash of
identities, cultures and ideologies as an inevitable
result of former colonial times; the relationship of
the colonial power to the (formerly) colonised
country, its population and culture and vice versa
seems extremely contradictory.This contradiction
of two clashing cultures, identities ideologies and
the wide scale of problems resulting from it must
be regarded as a major theme in post-colonialism.
Postcolonialism is a spcifically postmodern
intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to,
and analysis of , the cultural legacy of colonialism
and imperialism.
century. It developed from and mainly
refers to the time during and after colonialism. The
post-colonial direction was created as colonial
countries became independent. Nowadays, aspects
of post-colonialism can be found not only in
sciences concerning history, literature and politics,
but also in approaches to identity, ideology, and
culture of both the countries those colonised and
the former colonial powers.
Identities, cultures and ideologies have
always been a dominant preocupation of the
Indian novelists in the postcolonial era. This
compulsive obsession was perhaps invevitable
since the genre originated and developed from
concurrently with the climatic phase of clonial
rules and in the final stages of the freedom
movement. Post-colonialism can take the colonial
time as well as the time after colonialism into
consideration.
II. POST-COLONIAL STUDY OF THE NOVEL:
Author, peace-keeper, refugee worker,
human rights activist, a Director of
Communications cum Executive Assistant to the
UN Secretary-General and once as the member of
the Indian Parliament from the
Thiruvananthapuram Loksabha constituency in
Kerala, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of
experience. His is a multi-faceted personality,
carving a curious niche in the literary scenario of
the Contemporary Indian English writing after
independence. He can be hailed as a major voice
in contemporary Indian literature as far as the
nature of his anxieties is concerned.
Shashi Tharoors works normally resound
with rhetoric of multiple socio-cultural affairs.
145 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Like The Great Indian Novel, Show Business
and The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories,
Riot also conforms to the criteria. In fact, this
novel confirms Shashi Tharoor as a major voice in
contemporary literature. Some of the great
reviewers appreciate its concern with the multiple
kinds of social, political & cultural affairs in
varying degrees. He has been appreciated for the
freshness of his ideas, stylistic novelties, and
unrestrained experimentation in narrative
technique as well. Moreover, he can also be
remembered highly to bring in the post-colonial
aspects of different types of conflicts and
collisions.
There have been no attempts to unveil the
collisions and conflicts in this novel. Shashi
Tharoor himself has confessed in many of his
interviews that the novel is full of conflicts and
collisions of various sorts- identity, culture and
ideology. This major voice has tried to solve
different kinds of global problems as a senior
official of the UN for more than two decades.
Besides, he has searched the way-out of pacifying
communalism and violence plaguing Indian
awareness to a great extent. Naturally, this novel
discourses various types of conflicts and collisions
between identities, cultures and ideologies.
Various forms of postcolonial collisions
and conflicts such as identities, cultures and
ideologies have been productively and extensively
explored in postcolonial theory. Here, the conflict
of identity commences with the authors
engrossment with finding his own unique identity
in the literary sphere. While reading this novel,
Riot, one comes across the observation that
Tharoor is not different from a journalist for he
resorts to journalistic reporting, diary writing, and
interviews to depict reality. Riot appears to be
great in more than one way. One of the strengths
of the novel is implicit in the unconventional
narrative structure- the writer has come up with-
perhaps more successfully. This fact has been
highlighted and justified by the writer also who
defines novel as a literary genre in which one can
always bring some kind of novelty. In fact, his
personality itself is very experimental and,
therefore it does not seem very surprisingly that he
has tried his hand on a very unconventional
structure. A modest attempt to understand some of
the features of the narrative structure of this
masterpiece is necessary since Tharoor has
interwoven time in the narrative of the text in well
and innovative manner. This attempt may be
perhaps to carve out identity amidst Contemporary
personalities of the genre.
Another striking point about the narrative
is that the whole novel is divided into seventy
eight sections of varying length. These sections
help in unfolding the story of the novel in two-tier
system. The first strand runs through records
entries and letters, whereas the second one
unwinds through interviews, conversations and
interrogations. The various sections impart the
novel a touch of an encyclopaedia where each
section brings linear perspective about Priscilla
Harts multidimensional personality, and her
universe and also the tragic flaw of her character,
if any, which might have contributed to her death.
Further, many of these sections also attempt to
explore socio-political condition of the time in
which she served and stayed in India and finally
got entrapped in its storm leading to her death.
Apart from these, one of the great merits of this
novel is that though each section is an independent
whole in itself, one can find interrelatedness
among them besides like an encyclopedia, one can
take the liberty of reading it in any order without
missing the crux of the story. This novel
contradicts the traditional view that every novel
should start with exposition and then go on to a
resolution via complication. Here the novel begins
with resolution, if gone by the spatial arrangement,
and then keeps on alternating between exposition
and complication. This is nothing but a search for
identity by the author by resorting to
innovativeness.
The plot of the novel starts with the death
of an American social worker Priscilla Hart,
during the sectarian violence in the wake of Babri
Masjid agitation. Her estranged parents come to
visit Zalilgarh- the place of Priscillas death and
the story unfolds the investigation of an American
journalist, Randy Diggs who is looking for a
story for the western media and accompanies
Rudyart Hart and Katherine Hart, the parents of
Priscilla Hart from United States of America.
There he meets the local chaunistic Hindu
fundamental leader Ram Charan Gupta to
investigate the politics behind riot which
ultimately led to Priscillas death.
One perceives different types of collisions
and conflicts in the plot of the novel. The novel
146 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
focuses on Priscilla Hart, a 24 year-old American
volunteer serving in association with Help-Us,
involved in developing awareness among women
about family planning program. However, she
does not witness anything changing as women are
still so subservient that they cannot question even
for their welfare rather they yield to the demands
of their men folk and swallow any number of
pregnancies merrily. So, this is a great conflict,
which is hard nut to crack for Priscilla. She herself
acknowledges that her project is not so easy but at
the same time it is difficult because religion, age-
old traditions and the males ego interfere in
getting her objective achieved. Further, she also
accepts that these women folk are so gifted, so
knowing, yet so weak to stand up against their
tradition and society in limiting their family and
thus providing their children a quality life and
preserving their health too. She attempts to
convince them to avoid bearing undesirable
children but she has to compensate for this by
suffering the anger of Fatima Bis husband who
calls her a foreigner and threatens to kill her as he
thought her to be responsible for the abortion of
Fatima Bis eighth child. She feels bewildered as
to why they are after her life when she is trying to
elevate their condition by teaching the real art of
living with dignity and happiness. This comes up
as a great conflict in any progressing nation where
no one is ready to ponder upon anothers
perspective, where no one wants to change, where
no one wants to stand and ask questions regarding
their better future.
The American version of the novel
contained the label A Love Story. It is really a
sensual but ill-fated romance between Priscilla
Hart, the American heroine, a 24 year old family
planning counsellor and V Lakshman, an older
married Government official posed as the district
Magistrate. This relationship brings to surface
several kinds of conflicts, like the conflict between
the existential need and social expectations.
Lakshman, though deeply in love with Priscilla
Hart, refuses to go with her, as he does not want to
lose his social image, his job and his daughter.
Though every cell of his wants to be with this
American lady, he does not want to lose social
prestige and honour just to feed his emotions.
Besides, it also exposes the traditional Indian
social fabric that does not consent a lady to fight
against her husband. Further, the relationship
between Indian civil servant and the American
researcher leads to the perennial conflicts between
the Oriental values and the Western perception of
truth. The officer who talks sensibly, and who
thinks alike attracts her. But it seems that love
does not provide long-term pleasure, rather it
brings fear, insecurities, tension, confusion and
uncertainty. Lots of things that have been taken as
a sinful act, like extramarital affairs in Indian
culture, does not even raise an eyebrow in the
Western culture. On occasions, Priscilla has been
roled to question the very foundation of the
traditional Indian marriage system where the
elders of the family arrange the marriage. She is
unable to swallow this marriage as the lifetime
commitment between a boy and a girl.In deeper
analysis, we come to know that his affair with the
American lady paints a conflict between his being
and nothingness. His whole being cries for this
woman so much that he is unable to remain away
from her even for a week. He just thinks of an
alternative life where he will not suffer the
loveless life he has suffered for nine years with his
wife, Geetha. Priscilla, for him is a mere fantasy
come true, the possibility of an alternate life.
This also brings to the surface some of the
so-called social taboos, like sex for discussion in a
very bold way as sex also plays a very crucial role
in bringing this civil servant closer to the foreign
researcher. Geetha has a different attitude towards
sex. She just takes it as a routine job in which she
does not want to initiate or welcome in any way;
she just wants to be a passive partner. She also
feels that she is born to bear it rather than enjoy it.
On the other hand, Priscilla enjoys every moment
of it as if sex is a great festivity and celebration for
her. All these bring Lakshman closer to her but
ultimately his social face wins over his personal
and existential faces and he decides to end the
relationship, as he has to look after the family,
especially his daughter Rekha.
Besides these, Priscilla is always lost
because of his double standards and feels that
perhaps it is a part of Indian culture. She finds
even Holy Scripture supporting her point. On 16
July 1989, she writes in her scrapbook:

Learned something interesting about the Hindu
god, Ram the one all fuss is about these days.
Seems that when he bought his wife back from
Lanka and became king, the gossips in the
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kingdom were whispering that after so many
months in Ravans captivity, she could not
possibly be chaste anymore. So to stop the tongues
wagging, he subjugated her to agni-pariksha, a
public ordeal by fire, to prove her innocent. She
walked through unscathed. A certified pure
woman. (p. 63)

She further continues:

That stopped the gossip for a while, but before
long the old rumours surfaced again. It was
beginning to affect Rams credibility as king. So,
he spoke to her about it. What could she do? She
willed the earth to open up, literally and
swallowed her. That was the end of the gossip.
Ram lost the woman he had warred to win back
What the hell does this say about India? Loyalty
is all one way from the woman to the man. And
when society stacks up all the odds against a
woman, shed better not count on the mans
support. She has no way out than to end her own
life. (p. 63)

She is remorseful for having an affair with the
civil servant for this very reason: And I am in
love with an Indian. I must be crazy. (p. 63).
These remarks speak volumes about womens
status in India even towards the end of 20th
century.
Connected to the conflict of standards in
Indian society is the conflict between he scientific
facts and public opinion. She is shocked to know
that even now ordinary people believe that a lady
is responsible for the birth of a girl or a boy not the
gentleman. Besides, her value is, normally,
decided by the fact if she has been able to deliver a
male child in the family. Priscilla brings forward
Sundaris episode. Sundari is rebuked often by her
mother-in-law: what use this woman who
cannot produce a son. Implicitly, a girl child is
a curse and a boy is considered, more often, a
boon. Sundari, who is brought to hospital with
75% burns and in her feeble voice, narrates the
circumstances leading to the severe burns. She
could not bring the expected dowry from her
parents. Besides, she is accused of carrying a
female child in her womb. So the result is that her
own husband and mother-in-law set her ablazed.
Through, Sundari, Tharoor puts forth the trauma
and pangs of the evil of dowry. Kadambri terms it
as our major concern:

That is the real issue, for women in India. Not
population control, but violence against women, in
our own homes. (p. 249)

Next, Tharoor highlights a conflict
between the promotion of multinational companies
and our age-old consciousness. Rudyard Priscillas
father is always surprised to know that where
people keep on facing infinite problems, how
members of parliament get sufficient time to
attack Coca-Cola.
This novel also exposes an ongoing
conflict between so called idealism and realism in
the life of civil servants. Lakshman knows that a
riot is nothing but just as an assault on the
political value of secular India. However, he finds
himself helpless to control the situation because of
the governments wrong policy.
Riot is a product of increasing
communalism, so it is always concerned about the
growing gap between the two communities the
Hindu and the Muslim. In the novel Ram Charan
Gupta represents the Hindu ideology but Mohd
Sarwar articulates the Muslim one. Lakshman and
Gurinder have been shown being neutral and
always dancing as puppets in the hands of
politicians. Mohd Sarwar, the historian, is
shocked at the controversy arising out of
Ramjanambhoomi Babri Majid issue. He prefers
to quote Maulana Abdul Kalam to vent the
sentiments of Muslims and to assert that India
belongs to them as much as she belongs to Hindus:

I am part of that indispensable to this noble
edifice. Without me this splendid structure of India
is incomplete. (p. 108)

Mohd Sarwar peeps back to the history of
freedom of struggle and highlights two different
images of Muslims in pre-independence and post
independence India. Muslims were considered a
great force to end the British regime in India but as
soon as India was made a free country, we
witnessed a partition of the whole country into two
parts and somewhere deep down our hearts,
Muslims are held responsible for this partition. He
holds a very clear view that Muslims did not
partition the country, the British did, the Muslim
148 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
league did, and the Congress party did. (p. 111)
Now with the discriminating attitude towards
Muslims, he is shattered and lost:

where do Indian Muslims like me fit in? I have
spent my life thinking of myself as a part of us,
now they are Indians, respectable Indians, Indians
winning
votes, who say that I am really them. (p. 114)

However, the world is known for having varieties
of people with unlike perspectives. Tharoor
conceives India as an extraordinary, polyglot,
polychrome, poly-confessional, country with five
major resources of division language, region,
castes and sub-castes, class, and religion. Though,
himself a practicing Hindu, he does not subscribe
to Guptas points of view in constructing a temple
with bricks and cement, rather he counsels
building a temple in peoples minds and hearts.
Instead of having faith in religious dogma, he
subscribes to Hindu creed, a set of beliefs which
nurture humanity and help them in blooming fully
and having its all round development. Besides, he
champions diversity and openness instead of living
in an isolated world. He is sore with Guptas
Hindu zeal as well as Mohd Sarwars aggressive
defense of Muslims. He feels shocked to note than
when the whole world is crying for globalization,
India is still beset with identity crisis.
Returning to the issue of having different
perspectives, one can refer to Gupta who is highly
interrupted because of pampering one community
at the cost of another and giving so many special
privileges to the Muslim community on various
occasions while Hindus are deprived of such
privileges in the garb of their majority. Shortly,
one may say that Tharoor is really an expert in
bringing out the various conflicts successfully. In
his interview with Harvard International Review in
2002, he blames our history for most of these
conflicts:

Many clashes and conflicts occur as a result of
contending narratives, and these narratives are
often based on recapitulations of history, in some
cases, contrived to make a point for
its contemporary relevance and often not in a
constructive way. So, yes, history can be misused.

To elaborate, even some Americans may
be haunted with history and some Indians also
look to the future as well. But that juxtaposition,
for Tharoor, may be a necessity to make a really
larger and important point. However, he does not
believe only in highlighting the conflicts but also
tries to implicitly suggest pluralism and openness
for the healthy growth of Indian society.
Riot depicts different types of conflict -
of people, attitudes, philosophies, religions, loves
and hatreds. Therefore, it was difficult to have just
one point of view and naturally, a multitude of
narrators were needed to be resorted, presumably,
different points of view. Some examples will make
this idea clear. Ram Charan Gupta is an extremist
firebrand Hindu who feels that even the Taj Mahal
is actually a Hindu temple. Prof. Sarwar believes
in India's pluralism but, by no means, he is a
representative of the majority of Muslim ideology.
III. CONCLUSIONS
Thus, Shashi Tharoor, a multi-dimensional
and controversial personality, can be hailed as a
major voice in Indian English Literature during
80s and 90s for his in depth grasping of the actual-
reality. In fact, he is praiseworthy in terms of the
depiction of the bitting reality especially when two
different identities, cultures and ideologies clash
together for the sake of each of them.
REFERENCES
[1] Tharoor, Shashi. Riot. New Delhi: Penguin Books,
2001
[2] Tharoor, Shashi. Interview with Sandeep Rai-
Chowdhary, Octobr, 2001.
[3] Patil, G.M. 2007. Shashi Tharoor: His Vision and
Art. New Delhi: Creative Books.
149 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Reconstructing Village as Nation: A Study of Raja Raos Kanthapura
--Jeevan S. Masure
Netaji Subhashchandra Bose College, Nanded

The discourse of nation and
nationalism is the gift of ascendancy of
colonial paradigm. In recent years, the study of
nation has focused on the formulation of
nation and cultural construct. Defining the
nation is somehow problematic. The very
idea of a nation is never static or fixed. It is
constantly in the process of making or
becoming. But some critiques and studies of
nation throw light on the definition of nation.
Benedict Anderson defines the nation as an
imagined community born with the demise
of feudalism and rise of capitalism (Benedict
1991:113). This definition is significant while
referring to constructions of nation and
nationalism with regard to third world
countries. In the formulation of nation, the
native intelligentsia played a crucial role. The
native people shaped the nationalism, nation-
state in the colonies.
The present paper comprises three
parts. The first part deals with the traditional
village community in India whereas the second
invokes the domination of Gandhian ideas and
revitalization of villages. The contribution of
village in nationalism and national identity is
included in the last part.

Village as a Traditional Social Structure

The village represents India in
microcosm where one can see and study the
real India with its social organization and
cultural life. By studying a village one could
generalise about the social processes and
problems to be found occurring in great parts
of India. The Indian village signifies the
authentic native life. It is a social and cultural
unit without outer influences. In India, the
village acquires a status of primary unit that
represents the social formation of the entire
civilization. So it becomes necessary to see the
primary and traditional village community.
The primary stage of village, without
machines and motorized transport, reveals the
real soul of India. The village India was
religious and spiritual in nature. It had its own
village deities, gods and goddesses, customs,
beliefs, superstitions and fears. The villagers
had strong faith in god and in the local deities.
Tales from mythology became indivisible part
of their conversation. They frequently
followed the rites and rituals. The recitation of
Gita, HariKathas, verses of the Mahabharata,
of the Ramayana, of Gayathri, and Bhajans
marked their life. No village was without its
own legendary history or a rich sthalapurana.
As Raja Rao points out in his forward of
Kanthapura:

There is no village in India, however
mean, that has not a rich sthalapurana,
or legendary history, of its own. Some
god or godlike hero has passed by the
village Rama might have rested
under this pipal-tree, Sita might have
dried her clothes, after her bath, on
this yellow stone, or the Mahatma
himself, on one of his many
pilgrimages through the country,
might have slept in this hut, the low
one, by the village gate (Rao 1938:5).

The simple village folk replaced the godlike
personalities by comparing to the gods. They
believed in incarnation of God. So Gandhi and
Moorthy were compared respectively to Rama
and Hanuman whereas Jawaharlal to Bharatha.
Villagers surging and swelling humanity
could be seen at the celebration of various
festivals- Dussehra, Diwali, Holi,
Rakshabandhan and some jayanti. The
corporate life of the entire village community
revolved around an endless cycle of pageants,
festivals and carnivals. The structure of village
clearly reflected the feudalistic rural set up.
For the simple village folk, a house was not
necessary a place for shelter but a symbol of
ones prestige.
Raja Rao in Kanthapura has not only
given a faithful reconstruction of the village
life but has breathed life into it, making it
vibrant and pulsating. The intimate description
of the village, the hill and the river is intended
to provide a strong sense of locality.
Kanthapura represents a typical Indian village
caught up in the tortuous cyclicality of change,
growth and self-transformation, but ultimately
150 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
held together by the reality of its own generic
personality far above the sequential logic of
history. The village folk were known by their
picturesque names- water-fall Venkamma,
Nose-scratching Nanjamma, Front-house
Akkamma, Temple Rangappam, Coffee-
Planter Ramayyam, Gold-bangle Somanna,
Patwari Nanjundiah etc. There was also the
village Bhatta who symbolized the perverted
orthodoxy and the blind casteism. The Bhatta
never spared Moorthy, the village Mahatma,
from his vitriolic comments. He tried to create
disunity by holding a threat that Swamiji
would excommunicate Moorthy, who mixed
with the untouchable freely. There was Range
Gowda, the village patil, the symbol of
commonsense and stolidity, a sort of Sardar
Patel to Moorthy. At the other extreme there
stood Bade Khan the policeman who
symbolized the oppressive soulless
bureaucracy, and made visibly repulsive. Thus,
the novel projects the total image of India
with its diverse social and religious customs
binding the different sinews of its life (Rao K.
1980:55).
Indian Village was the land of
superstition and orthodoxy. The village
Kanthapura, a small South Indian village in the
province of Kara of Maysor, had the different
superstitions. Kanthapurian thought that the
famine and diseases were given to their sins.
In order to avoid the curses of god and
goddess, they took the oaths and vows. They
assured the goddess saying that

we shall walk the holy fire on the
annual fair.... We shall offer you our
first nice and our first fruit, and we
shall offer you saries and bodice-cloth
for every birth and marriage, we shall
wake thinking of you, sleep
prostrating before you,
Kenchamma... (Kanthapura 8-9).

Kenchamma was their benign and bounteous
goddess. So they begged for their life and for
protection from famine, disease, death and
despair (9). Traditional India was thus
religious India which was embedded in various
superstitions.
The village Kanthapura was never disliked
itself with the past of orthodoxy and the
conventional division of society. It had the
traditional Indian society that comprised the
quarter of Brahmin... a Pariah, a Potters
quarter, a Weavers quarter, and a Sudra
quarter (11). The caste was the core social
institution of traditional Indian village. Indian
villages were the centres of orthodoxy where
untouchability was serious problem. The
popular feeling of pollution and purity was
there. The separation of quarters to Brahmin
and
Sudra revealed historically isolation of
Touchable from Untouchables. It exhibited the
social excommunication that presented in the
village community. Every Hindu village had a
ghetto. The Hindus lived in the village and the
untouchables lived in the ghetto (Ambedkar
1948:22). Indian society had an old social
structure based on the autonomous village
community, caste and the joint family (Nehru
1946:244).
Apart from the castes and
untouchability, village performed the valuable
role in the construction of Indian civilization.
The village was not merely a place where
people lived. It had a design in which were
reflected the basic values of Indian
civilization.

Revitalization of Village and Gandhian
Ideas

Gandhian ideas revolutionized Indian
masses. Connecting Gandhis ideas to the
traditional and religious folk culture of India,
the nature of the mass-upsurge could be seen.
During 1930s the Indian people were gathered
against the British Empire. They were
impressed to his benign and bounteous
nationalism. His combination of religion and
politics revitalized Indian milieu. The country
men accepted the Gandhian ideas of non-
violence, truth and the resultant moral outlook
on life. Raja Raos construction of India of the
1930s and 40s in his Kanthapura is the
outcome of Gandhian influence. Raos faith in
Vedic and Upanishadic values, his idea of
good and evil, and the morality are clearly the
evidence of Gandhian philosophy. The village
Kanthapura being inspired by Gandhijis
philosophy starts fighting against the Red-
mens government.
Moorthy, a local Gandhi, educated in
the city. He became a staunch follower of
Gandhiji. He had gone through life as a noble
cow, quiet, generous, serene, deferent and
brahmanic, a very prince... (11). He spread
out the Gandhian messages from village to
151 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
village. He began to go door to door, even in
the Pariah quarters of the village and explained
to the villagers the significance of Gandhis
struggle for independence. Teachings of
Gandhi such as harm no soul, love all, all are
equal before God, dont be attached to riches,
tell the truth, spin and weave every day
inspired not only Moorthy but also the
countrymen. Gandhiss fighting against the
enemies of the country, his pure voice, and
wisdom assembled the Indian villagers against
the tyrannical rule of the alien government.
Moorthy using Gandhian ideas awakened the
villagers and trained them in Charka-spinning
with weaving their own cloth. The satyagrahis
along with Moorthy fought as valiantly against
the puritanical forces of orthodoxy. Moorthy
inspired people to use the slogan Mahatma
Gandhi Ki Jai! Men and Women were
organized and trained. The people were
directed not to pay land revenue to the unjust
Red men. They should remain peaceful and
non-violent even if their fields, crops, cattle
and houses were auctioned and occupied
(Agrawal 2007:77). Moorthy advised the
villagers that

Our gold should be in our country.
And our cotton should be in our
country..... Because millions and
millions of yards of foreign cloth
come to this country and everything
foreign makes us poor and pollutes us.
To wear cloth spun and woven with
your own God-given hands is sacred...
Our country is being bled to death by
foreigners. We have to protect our
Mother. They bring soaps and
perfumes and thus they bug your rice
and sell their wares. You get poorer
and poorer, and the Pariahs begin to
starve... (24-26).

For the villagers, Moorthy was a deep-voiced
and a god-loving person. He would do not
mixing of castes. Moorthy was the youngest
son of a pious old woman, Narsamma. She
was tall and thin, and her big, broad ash-marks
gave her such an air of ascetic holiness.
Moorthy had seen a vision of the Mahatma
mighty and God-beaming. He became a
volunteer and threw his foreign cloths and his
foreign books into the bonfire. He walked out
as a Gandhis man. He helped his country by
going and working among the dumb millions
of the villages. The villagers warned Moorthy
not to mix with Pariahs. But Moorthy
frequently visited the Pariahs to distribute the
free spinning-wheels. So the Swami sent word
to say that the whole of Kanthapura will be
excommunicated (47). His mother got the
shock after hearing the news of
excommunication. She warned her son. But
Moorthy went more and more into the pariah
quarters, and now he was seen walking side by
side with them... and even carried the body for
a while...(53). What happened was shocking.
Moorthy was excommunicated. He and his
family were excommunicated to all the
generations that come. It became the cause of
his mothers death. After the death of his
mother, Moorthy still went to the Pariahs. And
he gave them cotton to spin and yarn to weave.
He taught the Pariahs alphabets and grammar,
arithmetic and Hindi.

Moorthy was now the satyagrahi and
the leader of the non-violent movement in
Kanthapura. The other leading spirits of the
Gandhian revolution in the village were
Rangamma, Range Gowda and the girl Ratna.
They suffered terribly for the noble cause of
their country. Gandhian ideas paved the way
for a non-violent destruction of the
imperialistic hegemony of Red-mens
government. The villagers launched on the
Dont-touch-the-Government Campaign, the
no-tax Campaign and other forms of Civil
Disobedience. For that the villagers sacrificed
their life with smile. Their valiant struggle thus
attained the dimensions of a heroic myth. In
this village Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of
untuochability and other items of Gandhijis
programme were being implemented. In short
this village is in the vortex of momentous
national struggle and it is a faithful picture of
what Gandhiji wanted Indian villages to be
like in those days (Agnihotri 1984:126).

Village in Nationalism and National
Identity

During the British colonial rule, India
was constructed as a land of village
republics. In the subcontinent, the British
colonial rulers attributed autonomy, stagnation
and continuity to the village life. They did it to
their own political interests. Constructing India
as an ancient civilization, the colonial
administrators also explained the social
152 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
structure and economic life of the Indian
people. To distinguish Indian society from the
West, the colonial ethnography deployed the
two most important categories-castes system
and village communities. These two categories
later came to be accepted as the concrete social
unit of the traditional social structure of India.
However, the nationalist leadership did not see
village simply as the constituting basic unit
of Indian civilization. For them village
represented the real India, the nation that
needed to be recovered, librated and
transformed. The village imparted a strong
sense of belonging and represented a
rootedness of the Indians. The village
remained a core category for the leaders of the
nationalist movements. The Indian villages,
awakened by Gandhian ideas, actively
participated in the creation of nationalism. The
village as a concrete reality with regional
variations and historical specificities
represented the essence of Indian civilization.
The Indian nationalists especially Gandhiji
used the idea of village to establish
equivalence of the Indians with the ruling
English community. For Gandhiji village was
the site of authenticity, the real or pure India
without the Western influences. He revealed
the reality that our cities are not India, India
lies in her villages, and the cities live upon the
villages (Gandhi 1966:288). Even the real
Swaraj or self-rule of M.K. Gandhi based on
the revival of village communities. By
restoring the civilisational strength of India
through revival of its village communities, the
Hind Swaraj could be achieved and visualized.
The Indian villages created a common national
bond with the sense of common culture,
common traditions, common heroes and saints,
and common land. Village was a central
category in the nationalist imagination. The
representation of rural life in the nationalist
imagination built sociology of the Indian
nationalist movement. In the Indian nationalist
movement, India could be represented as a
single cultural and political entity. On the basis
of this ideology, they could imagine
nationhood for India.
Anti-colonial nationalism is the result
of European political and intellectual history.
On the one hand it challenged the colonial
state and on the other hand it enabled the
colonized to assume their difference and
autonomy. Anti-colonial nationalism
attempted to create its own domain of
sovereignty within colonial society
(Chatterjee 1986:46). It divided the world into
a material and a spiritual domain. The
material, the outside sphere, constituted of the
economy state craft, science and technology.
The spiritual or inner domain of culture
constructed on religion, customs and the
family. In the material domain the supremacy
of the West was admitted. The spiritual world
was claimed as the essence of national culture
that must be protected and defended. The
assertion of a spiritual or inner core thus
became the site for the construction of national
identity. For the traditional Indian village
community a nation is a soul, a spiritual
principle (Renan 1990:19). The villagers
shaped their national consciousness deriving
its strength from the glorious past, its folk
tradition, religion, rural dialects and so on.
They never tolerated the domination and
slavery of British rule. They were fascinated
by the idea of Bharatha. The consciousness
of enslavement fanned the fire against Red-
men who came from across the seas and
oceans to trample on our wisdom and to spit
on virtue itself ... to bind us and to ship us, to
make our women die milkless and our men die
ignorant (18). The representative of the Red-
mens government like Bade Khan started
collecting revenue. The Red-men exploited the
simple village folk in the Skeffington coffee
Estate. The coolies half-naked, starving,
spitting, weeping, vomiting, coughing,
shivering, squeaking, shouting and moaning
marched to the skeffington coffee Estate for
rice.
The leaders of Indian nationalist
movement had tried to visualize India as a
unified national identity. So the leader
Moorthy in Raja Raos Kanthapura acted as a
negotiator between national politics and the
village awakening. The novel is primarily
ideological construct building up saga of
nationalist struggle (Jain 2006:09). Moorthy,
the self-conscious Gandhian protagonist rose
above the common humanity by the sheer
force of his character. His initial reluctance to
enter an untouchables house, his attempts to
gain control over his emotions and his efforts
to eradicate orthodoxy of the village Bhatta
made him real volunteer of Gandhian
movement of nationalism. When Moorthy
cleared the fog of ignorance up, the villagers
supported him with all their enthusiasm. To
ensure their support and enthusiasm the
153 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
satyagrahis among with Moorthy accepted
religion as the sure way of winning over the
masses. So they arranged Bhajans and Hari
Kathas. They mixed politics with religion. A
small congress was formed with Range Gowda
as its elected president. To keep patriotic fire
burning, they were in touch with some
nationalist publications like Deshbandhu,
Vishwa Karnataka, Tainadu and Jayabharata.
The isolated and orthodoxical villagers at last
actively participated in freedom movement
with patriotic fervour and political activism.
Legends and myths, the very staples of the
villagers imagination, naturally get merged
with political fact. Gandhis emphasis on
political and cultural independence
consolidated India under one banner and
provided a specific national identity as against
Indo-British identity (Jha 1983:92). Thus, the
novel reveals human commitment both
individual and collective. The collective
consciousness is guided the embodiment of
Eternity like the Mahatma, the village gods
and goddess Kenchamma and the river
Himavathy. The villagers outward failure
revitalised into abundance spirituality. It
brought the new begging for the villagers as
the members of nation.

Works Cited
Agnihotri G. N. (1984) Indian Life
and Problems in the Novels of Mulk
Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R. K.
Narayan, Meerut: Shalabh Book
House
Agrawal, K. A. (2007) Raja Rao As
a Great Sadhak in Agrawal Krishna
Avatar (eds.) Post-Colonial Indian
English Literature Jaipur: Book
Enclave
Ambedkar B. R. (1948) The
Untouchables: Who were They and
Why They Become Untouchables?
New Delhi: Amrit Book Company
Benedict, Anderson (1991) Imagined
Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism
London and New York: Verso
Chatterjee, Parth (1986) Nationalist
Thoughts and Colonial World: A
Derivative Discourse, Delhi: Oxford
University Press
Jain, Jasbir (2006) Narratology and
the Narrative of the Village in Jasbir
Jain (eds.) Narrative of the Village:
Centre of the Periphery Jaipur: Rawat
Publication
Jha Rama (1983) Gandhian Thought
and Indo-Anglian Novelists Delhi:
Chanakya Publications
Gandhi M. K. (1966) The Collected
Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol xxi,
Delhi: Government of India
Naik, M. K. (1973) Raja Rao
Twaynes World Authors Series, New
Delhi
Nehru J. N. (1946) The Discovery of
India New York: The John Day
Company
Rao, Raja (2001) Kanthapura New
Delhi: Orient, first published in 1938
Rao, K. R. (1980) The Fiction of Raja
Rao Aurangabad: Parimal Prakashan
Rao, A. Sudhakar (1999) Socio-
cultural Aspects of Life in the Selected
Novels of Raja Rao New Delhi:
Atlantic Publisher and Distributors
Raizada Harish (1980) Point of View,
Myth and Symbolism in Raja Raos
Novels in Sharma K. K. (eds.)
Perspectives on Raja Rao Ghaziabad:
Vimal Prakashan
Renan, Ernest (1990) What is a
Nation? trans, M, Thorn, in H. K.
Bhabha, (ed.) Nation and Narration
London: Routledge
Srivastava, R. K. (1988) Raja Raos
Kanthapura: A Village Revitalized in
R. K. Dhawan (eds.) Commonwealth
Fiction Vol. I New Delhi: Classical
Publishing Company

154 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Sartreanism in Feminism and Postcolonialism
--Shaheen Saba
Jamial Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Abstract: Jean- Paul Sartre has been acclaimed widely for existentialism which was later widely picked up by writers like
Beckett which had multiple approaches but the textual locus of which has always been literary; but today it has been replaced by
structuralism and poststructuralism. Today Sartrean philosophy appears to be relegated to some form of back-datedness. But
Sartres contribution to the developing ideas about feminism, gender studies and post-colonial studies cannot be overlooked.
Sartres seminal work Being and Nothingness (1943) besides going on to show that an individuals existence precedes essence
also strongly went on to be one of the strongest propagators of human freedom against all sorts of determinisms. This has been
crucial in the formulation of many current theories and ideas. Sartres early works are asocial, more concerned about the ontic
and the existential, more about the phenomenological, grounded in being of/ in/ with; however a number of latter works do not
take refuge in ontic mysticism but takes the concrete man in his objective and social realities. This paper seeks to show this
influence with a few examples and how even today when we may not be directly speaking about Sartre but the theories that we
discuss today do have a Sartreanism beneath them because we can only understand him on the basis of what has/have come after
him.
Crucial to this would be a brief understanding
about the concept of the other. Sartre in his play
Huis Clos (No Exit) states Hell is others,
Fredrich Nietzsche in The Gay Science phrased
it You are always a different person, Lacan
went on to articulate the other with the symbolic
order of language (I think where I am not),
Simone de Beauvoir articulated the allocative
implications of the other in The Second Sex
andLevinastriedto show it by giving us his
ethics of hospitality. Whatever be their views,
the primary question that emerges is that how
this other comes into existence and what does
freedom have to do with it?Sartres conception
of freedomhas been widely misunderstood.
Literally freedom means the state of not being
under control and being able to do whatever one
wills which gives happiness and confidence to
an individual. For Sartre, freedom is inherent in
human consciousness, and specifically in the
faculty of imagination: imagination is the whole
of consciousness in so far as it realizes its
freedom. It is the power that consciousness has
of negating what is conscious, that constitutes
human freedom. But this freedom of
consciousness is far removed from the freedom
of action and hence we have the formulation of
the other. Sartres radical thesis in The
Transcendence of the Ego states the ego is
neither formally nor materially in consciousness:
it is outsidea being of the world, like the ego
of another (p.31, periphrasis and italics mine)
Both feminism and postcolonialism thrive on the
notion of the other, freedom, ranging from
rights to can the subaltern speak ? . Hence we
always have the binaries of the self/ other,
colonizer/ colonized, master/ slave, black/ white,
oppressor/ oppressed operative as categories of
analysis. Interestingly Hegels brief notes on
Lordship and Bondage are built on the
assumption that human beings acquire identity
of self- consciousness only through the
recognition of others (Hegel 1910, vol. 1, pp.
175-88). In his postulation of the master- slave
relationship, Hegel asserts that the master and
slave are throughout engaged in a struggle- unto-
death which continues till the slave preferring
life to freedom gives in and after this struggle
the slaves existence becomes that of the other.
Sartre went on to write about the slave in his
reworking of Hegels summary text: I am
possessed by the Other; the Others looks
fashions my body in its nakedness, causes it to
be born, sculptures it, produces it as it is, sees it
as I shall never see it. The other holds a secret-
the secret of what I am, (Sartre 1969; cited in
Gendzier 1973, p. 31). This I am is what
feminism and post-colonialism went on to
155 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
foreground. It became a carrier of their long
suppressed wills and actions and it is not
surprising that in order to become that I am
they again have to struggle because of the
internalization of the fact that they can only see
themselves by otherizing themselves. This is
what colonialism of any form does be it in
feminism where the fair sex as they call it is
colonized by patriarchy or the postcolonial
subject who is still struggling still to come to
terms with itself. And this sets them to return
back and recover themselves, their I am. The
slave figure in Sartres Being and Nothingness
makes the revivalistic and self- affirmative
statement: I lay claim to this being which I am:
that is, I wish to recover it, or, more exactly, I
am the project of the recovery of my being(
p.364).
Frantz Fanon was correct when in The
Wretched of the Earth (1961) he argued that the
initial step of the colonized people to reinstall
their subalternness and identity could be
possible by reclaiming their past. Here Satres
work Colonialism and Neocolonialism needs to
be discussed because besides being a critique of
the French policies in Algeria in the 1950s and
1960s, it triggered future postulations on
colonialism, postcolonialism, politics and
literature. Seminal in this text is the preface to
Fanons The Wretched of the Earth where he
shows the shock that the master/ ruler receives:
What? Can they talk on their own? Look what
we have made of them though (p.136). This is
their reaction to the subalterns opening of their
mouth. In Algeria and Angola where Europeans
were being massacared on sight Sartre states;
colonial violence does not only aim to keep
these enslaved people at a respectful distance but
it also seeks to dehumanize them (p. 142). This
was an important strategy of colonialism. And
hence Sartre further states that: We knew this
truth, I think, but we have forgotten it. No
gentleness can efface the marks of violence; it is
violence alone that can destroy themOnce it
starts it is merciless (p. 148). He makes a
remarkable statement in the end: Will we
recover? Yes. Violence like Achilles spear, can
heal the wounds that it has made (p. 154), and
this shows the extent to which Sartre was
enthusiastic about rebellion for recovery and he
has been accused of propagating violence for
achieving this. He challenges vehemently and
orders: Europeans, open this book, and enter
into itHave courage to read it, because it will
make you ashamed, and shame, as Marx said is a
revolutionary sentiment(p.141). Rebellion or
revolution in Sartrean context is in itself like an
authentic existential leap because one has to
negate ones being before plunging into such
acts, a foregone state of being sacrificial is at the
core of acting as Brati in Mahasweta Devis
Mother of 1084 or as the Pioneers in Whitmans
clarion call, a will to nihilate the hitherto
stausquoistic, unhappy and inert [probably not
even unhappy but non-committal and indifferent
] nauseating givenness with a radical
engagementa threshold to alterity.
Significantly, the revolutionary or the martyr
makes the economy of sacrifice an ecology of
gift, unto himself and others.
Fanons Black Skin, White Mask returns to both
Hegel and Sartre when he tries to show the
condition of the colonized slave as a symptom of
imitativeness. Seen in Hegelian context as
mentioned earlier also the slave must turn away
from the master or rather internalize his
inferiority. But for Fanon whenever the black
slave confronts the white master, s/he is
overtaken by envy and desire/ will instead of
passive resistance. The slave, Fanon writes,
wants to be like the master. Therefore he is less
independent than the Hegelian slave. In Hegel
the slave turns away from the master and turns
towards the object. Here the slave turns towards
the master and abandons the object (Fanon
1967, p.221). Placed in Sartrean context the
colonized subject aspiring to a white mask is
one of inauthencity and bad faith. Robert J. C
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Young in his preface to Sartres Colonialism and
Neocolonialism remarks: Through Fanon,
postcolonial theory thus draws on the very
domain of Marxist theory that the whole
theoretical drive of French Marxism since the
1960s was concerned to refute: Sartrean
existentialism and his theoretically
incompatible alliance of Marxism and
subjectivity, of human praxis as the source of
meaning and political action (p. 20). Sartre
while speaking of negritude claimed that the
essence of blackness that they pursued was not
conceived of as a priori entity in existence but as
the product of life- choices because in existence
one is condemned to choose and hence
Africanism, negritude, like anti- colonialism,
were the products of situational engagements.
Negritude, wrote Sartre in Black
Orpheus(appeared in1948 as the preface to
SenghorsAnthology of new Negro and Malagasy
poetry), is an act more than a disposition.
The Look a section in Being- for- Others in
Being and Nothingness proves to be crucial in
understanding the concept of gaze which
Sartre calls as being- seen- by- another. It was
taken up by Laura Maulvey when she develops
the concept of the male gaze or the peeping
Tom. The mere possible presence of another
person causes/reduces one to the positon of an
object where one tries to see itself and its world
as the other conceives of it/ views it. Hence the
act of seeing/ viewing becomes the governing
principle or the crux of being. Why would the
black desire for the white mask?, precisely
because the black skin wants to hide its gaze
from the whitea glossing over of the
differentiality of perspective through a surrender
to the scopic regime of indiffrence, and also to
re-present himself as an almost ipseity,
dangerously oblivious of the alterity that would
place him in a fallen secondariness in that ocular
fieldToni Morrisons Pecolas fetish with
bluest eyes, or Aziz finally cleaning his paan-
clad teeth in Forsters imperial erotica. The
white represents power and knowledge. Here the
question of will/ desire also comes in because
the other wants to appropriate itself with the
superior by a gesture of imitativeness which is
potentially dangerous but one fails to notice it.
What Sartre went on to show are very true and
crude facts of our reality today, for instance if
we look at our country itself or the other
developing third world nations which are proud
of being independent and having a democracy
actually thrive on a simulacra. Sartre very
critically remarked: Politics is abstract. Whats
the use of voting if you are dying of hunger? (
Colonialism is a system, Les Temps Modernes,
March- April 1956. Speech made at a rally for
peace in Algeria. p. 31) Or when we speak of
neocolonialism today the situation is still the
same just that it does not appear very obvious to
us. Sartre tried to show vehemently what
colonialism does to human rights and rights is
one of the major common preoccupation of
feminism and postcolonialism and aim to
achieve success in their doings. Why else would
one retalitate?. However for Sartre the
authenticity is more important than successful
agency, the metaphysics of authenticity
eclipsing the concrete priority of the physics of
successful friction, politics, and progressive
activism. His launching of nothingness as a state
of mind in which one can become anything, in
reference to our desire and situation also seems
very escapist in refernce to the actual politics
where every possibility of nothingness is a
hierarchic bi-product of exploitation of one
sector by another in the social practice. But
overall he did try in the later parts of his life to
deviate from such preoccupations and do
something for the real physical being in the real
world. This is what has inspired theoreticians
and thinkers till date.
WORKS CITED
Caws, Peter. Sartre. London, Boston and
Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.
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Christina Howells Ed, Sartre. London and
New York: Longman, 1995.
Fourny, Jean- Francois & Charles D.
Minahan Ed, Situating Sartre In Twentieth
Century Thought andCulture. U.S.A:
Macmillian, 1997.
Sartre, Jean- Paul. Being and Nothingness,
tr. Hazel. E. Barnes. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1956.
Sartre, Jean- Paul. The Transcendence of the
Ego: An Existentialist Theory of Consciousness.
Hill and Wang [paperback edition]: 1991
Sartre, Jean- Paul. Colonialism and
Neocolonialism. London and New York:
Routledge, 2001(1
st
English translation)

158 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
The Glass Palace: A Post Colonial Text
- Miss Bhojane Gita Maroitrao
Peoples College, Nanded (Ph.D Research Student)

Inspite Amitav Ghosh belongs to post-colonial era
and he presents that element in his all work, but he
takes his reader back in colonial period in his The
Glass Palace.
The Glass palace is a novel of three
generations that starts from Mandalay. It is about
geographical entities, space, distance and time.
There are many characters and many stories merged
together. It is a saga of many families, their lives
and their connection with each other. The Glass
palace is a story of an Indian orphan Rajkumar who
is transported to Burma by accident. Rajkumar, the
boy who is eleven years old, is remarkable for his
exploring sprit, keen perception and his ability to
take calculated risks. He works in tea stall of
matronly lady Ma Cho. He loves exaggerating his
age just of feel like an adult. He is established as
bold and remarkable. Once he lands in Mandalay,
his life long search for places and people begins.
He is taken in by the city.
He is a complete destitute in an alien city
with no acquaintances. Finally he goes to Ma Cho
for job and he receives rebuke and scolding at the
beginning. But then he knew that it wasnt aimed
directly at him soon. He develops his sense of
belonging at the new places. As he views the fort of
Mandalay the crystal shining glass palace, he
knows that orphans like him cannt go there and
yet-
No matter what Ma Cho said, he decided,
He would cross the moat before he left
Mandalay; he would find a way in. (Ghosh,
2000:7)
The glass palace is symbol of power as
well as fragility of imperialism. The people in the
glass palace do not have the liberty to throw stones
at others. The colonized people are always
imprisoned in The glass palace and they have lost
the capacity to throw stones at the colonial master.It
is a dhaba where Raj Kumar meets the man in Ma
Chos life, Saya John. Saya John comes Closest to
what Raj Kumar could have called a father. But this
doesnt come in a day. Raj Kumar matures fast..
Life teaches him its own lessons. At his heart, he is
always certain about his success in life. When the
British throw down the king of Burma, Raj Kumar
is told that British wish to control Burmese territory
for wood. And from this point start his shaping of
his future plans. He senses wealth in teak. When the
city is rampaged by the British, it is the Indian
soldiers who come on orders of their colonial
masters. Suddenly Indians becomes the target of
mob frenzy. Raj Kumar is also attacked. He is
saved by Saya John. He gets job at Sayss
Company with his integrity and personality. When
the place of King Thebaw is evacuated, every one
rushes into it loot as much as they can. Raj Kumar
also goes in. He gets there his future wife Dolly.
She is an orphan like Raj Kumar. She is a miad
who looks after the princesses. Raj Kumar uses his
free will in building his business. He decided to
take a loan from Saya and establish his separate
timber yard. Saya is full of doubts, and then
Rajkumar gives a few tips to Saya-
If Im ever going to make this business
grow Ill have to take a few risks. (Ibid:
130)
Having much risk he grows and grows very
well he becomes a successful and respected
businessman. Then he goes in search of Dolly who
is living with the king Thebaw and Queen who are
in exile in India. Usually no one form Burma is
allowed to meet the deposed king or staff lest such
a meeting may not create problems of revolt at
Burma. Uma, the collectors wife and good friend
159 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
of Dolly arranges the meeting between Dolly and
Raj Kumar. They married at Ratnagiri. He gets two
sons Neel and Dinu. When Dinu becomes victim
of slight polio in one leg, Dolly spends her day and
night in Dinus care. She cuts herself off from the
world including her elder son, Neel and husband.
During this period Raj goes into physical
relationship with one of the workers forcibly and
Ilongo his illegitimate son is the result of this
extramarital mating. Rajkumars life story is a story
of the struggle for survival in the colonial turmoil.
As a colonized subject from Bengal, he becomes a
colonizer in Burma transporting indentured
labourers form South India to other parts of the
colonial world. He has even sexually exploited a
women worker on his plantations.
Saya John who is a fine example of the
breed of hybridity. His clothes are western. He
speaks English, Hindustani and Burmese. His face
looked like that of Chinese. Saya himself makes fun
of his mixed identity-
The soldiers there were mainly Indians and
they asked me this very question: how is it
that you, who look Chinese and carry a
Christian name, can speak our language?
When I told and say, you are dhobi ka
kutta a washermans dog.. no ghar ka na
Ghat ka.. You dont belong anywhere,
either by the water or on land, and Id say,
yes, that is exactly what I am. He laughed
with an infectious hilarity, and Rajkumar
joined in. (Ibid: 10)
This is the fun both of them. Rajkumar is a
much a washermans dog as Saya John. Saya John
throws light on the Indian soldiers constituting the
British army. When he was working as an orderly
in a hospital in Singapore, Saya John came across
several wounded Indian soldiers who were in their
twenties. It was the money that drew them to this
profession. They earned a few annas a day, not
much more than a dockyard coolie. It always
amazed him-
Chinese peasants would never do this allow
themselves to be used to fight other
peoples war with so little profit for
themselves. (Ibid: 29-30)
Amitav Ghosh refers to the phrase
banality of evil in the context of soldiers fighting
for their British masters form neither enmity nor
anger, but in submission to orders from superiors,
without protest and without conscious. The process
of colonization and the state of the colonized are
very relevant thought components of this novel.
The very word used for Rajkumar- Kaala- is
objectionable to our generation, which is
decolonized at least in the political sense of the
world. In this novel, there is the actual process of
aggression, capture ad colonization. How the
Burmese people are robbed of all grace with guns
and artillery. The British are only giving
commands. The soldiers who are invading Burma
are Indians. Instead of fighting their common
enemy- the British- the Burmese and the Indians
are fighting among themselves. Another point that
those who wait on Queen Supayalat are supposed to
do so on all their fours i.e. both hands and legs on
floor. When an English midwife comes, she refuses
to crawl. Supayalat fails to make her crawl; she
was an English women.
To Arjun modern and western are
synonymous. He is boasting of his connection with
westerners. In his mind he has accepted that the
western style is better and therefore desirable Dinu
is also fascinated for the British. When Arjun is
conversed with Dinu he replies-
To you the modern world is just something
you read about. What you know of it you
get from books and newspapers. Were the
ones who actually alive with westerns
(Ibid: 279)
Dinu understands that it was through their
association with European that Arjun and
his fellow- officers saw themselves as
160 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
pioneers. Mental colonization is even
worse. Arjun says-
We understand the west better than any of you
civilians. We know how the minds of westerns
work only when every Indian is like us will the
country become truly modern. (Ibid: 279-280)
Saya John doesnt see the English as
usurpers for him, they are superior. From them, he
has learnt the art of using everything for his own
benefit. Rajkumar being convinced that without the
British the Burmese economy would collapse.
Many stances can be given where the author has
shown the cruelty of colonization and its impact on
the lives and mind of the colonized Decolonization
is not easy, perhaps it is not even possible. As
Arjun says-
We rebelled against an Empire that has
shaped everything in our lives; colored
every-thing in the world as we know it. It is
a huge, indelible stain, which has tainted all
of us. We cant destroy it without
destroying ourselves. (Ibid: 518)
One can easily find the theme of an orphan
hood. Rajkumar, Dolly, Saya John, all the maids of
Queen Supayalat are orphans. The novel begins in a
web of journey, chance, uncertainty and orphan
hood. These are related. The roadside food stall
(dhaba) is well-recognized symbol of journey. The
roadside food stall is also a place of current news,
cheap food and temporary connections. It is a novel
about many places, war and displacement, exile and
rootlessness. It also depicts human helplessness in
such a scenario. All human being try to adjust,
compromise live and above everything else to form
relationship. This forming of new bonds mixing of
races and castes is something that doesnt stop. The
collector at one point of the novel is intrigued when
he comes to know of the pregnancy of Supayalats
first daughter. He is disgusted. He is at a loss.
His sense of class and decency is deeply
violated
Was this love them: this coupling in the
darkness a princess of Burma and a marathi
coachman; this heedless mingling of sweat?
(Ibid: 152)
Apart from Characters, there are various
ideas in this novels. There are relevant ideas on the
process of civilization, wars and their futility, the
concept of boundaries, colonization, journey.
Hybridity, rootlessness, childhood and process of
growing etc. one can find loneliness in this novel.
Rajkumar is lonely at the beginning of the novel
and at the end of the novel.
Uma, who is a widow, leads her life lonely
and depression. Her husband, collector Dey,
doesnt have a peaceful married life. When Uma
leaves him, he feels lonely and commits suicide. In
The Glass Palace, Galas Palace functions as a
metaphor, Glass is brittle and implies transparency.
Palace is the symbol of power. Glass Palace is an
illusion that is created around power.
References:
1. Bose, Brinda, Amitav Ghosh-Critical
Perspectives. Pencraft Intenational.
Delhi,2005
2. Ghosh, Amitav. The Glass Palace. Harper
Collins Publisher. New Delhi,2000.
3. Khair, Tabish. Amitav Ghosh- A Critical
Companion. Permanent Black. Delhi,
2003.
4. Tiwari, Shubha. Amitav Ghosh-A Critical
Study. Atlantic Publisher. New
Delhi,2003.

161 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: As a Postcolonial Feminist.
,
--Dr. Deepak Kumar Singh
D.A.V.P.G.College,
Lucknow(U.P).

Spivak was born Gayatri
Chakravorty, in Calcutta, India, 24 February
1942, to a middle class family. She did her
undergraduate in English at the University
of Calcutta (1959), graduating with first
class honors. She borrowed money to go to
the US in the early 1960's to do graduate
work at Cornell. She received her MA in
English from Cornell and taught at the
University of Iowa while working on her
Ph.D. Her dissertation was on Yeats
(published as Myself Must I Remake: The
Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats [1974)]) and
was directed by Paul de Man. During this
time she married and divorced an American,
Talbot Spivak. Her translator's introduction
to Derrida's Of Grammatology has been
variously described as "setting a new
standard for self-reflexivity in prefaces" and
"absolutely unreadable, its only virtue being
that it makes Derrida that much more
enjoyable." Her subsequent work consists in
post-structuralist literary criticism,
deconstructivist readings of Marxism,
Feminism and Postcolonialism (including
work with the Subaltern Studies group and a
critical reading of American cultural studies
in Outside in the Teaching Machine [1993]),
and translations of the Bengali writer
Mahasweta Devi. She is currently an Avalon
Foundation professor at Columbia. Her
reputation was first made for her translation
and preface to Derrida's Of Grammatology
(1976) and she has since applied
deconstructive strategies to various
theoretical engagements and textual
analyses: from Feminism, Marxism, and
Literary Criticism to, most recently,
Postcolonialism. Spivak is widely cited in a
range of disciplines. Her work is nearly
evenly split between dense theoretical
writing peppered with flashes of compelling
insight and published interviews in which
she wrestles with many of the same issues in
a more personable and immediate manner.
What Edward Said calls a "contrapuntal"
reading strategy is recommended as her
ideas are continually evolving and resist, in
true deconstructive fashion, a straight textual
analysis. She has said that she prefers the
teaching environment where ideas are
continually in motion and development.

Her recent work, A Critique of
Postcolonial Reason, published in 1999,
explores how major works of European
metaphysics (e.g., Kant, Hegel) not only
tend to exclude the subaltern from their
discussions, but actively prevent non-
Europeans from occupying positions as fully
human subjects. Spivak coined the term
"strategic essentialism," which refers to a
sort of temporary solidarity for the purpose
of social action. For example, the attitude
that women's groups have many different
agendas makes it difficult for feminists to
work for common causes. "Strategic
essentialism" is about the need to accept
temporarily an "essentialist" position in
order to be able to act. Spivak's writing has
been described by some as opaque. It has
also been suggested that her work puts style
ahead of substance. In her defense, it has
been argued that this sort of criticism reveals
an unwillingness to substantively engage
with her texts. Marxist literary critic Terry
Eagleton, who has called her writing
"inaccessible," noted nevertheless that "there
162 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
can thus be few more important critics of
our age than the likes of Spivak.... She has
probably done more long-term political
good, in pioneering feminist and post-
colonial studies within global academia than
almost any of her theoretical colleagues."

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak calls
herself a "Marxist-feminist-
deconstructivisit",
1
a combination that
makes her critical of the west's predominant
discourse in the 1970s and 80s. Her concern
is with the imperialistic, neo-capitalist
market strategies used by the West to
control, manipulate and exploit the Third
world population. Women are exploited and
suppressed in a double bondage in the
colonial and patriarchal systems. Spivak
relates the diverse aspects of the Third
World population to analyses the causes and
features of the conditions of exploitation.
This paper attempts to analyze and state in a
simplified manner some of her ideas, for
Spivak's dense, multi-referential language
becomes a deterrent to many interested
scholars. She had made important
contributions to the current debate of
Postcolonial theory, in taking a stance
against imperialistic trends of Western
discourse and against the issues related to
the feminist struggle in the Third World.

Spivak uses her location as an
immigrant Third World academic to
problematise the Postcolonial situation, and
to understand continued Western
domination. She uses her experience as a
woman, an Asian and an immigrant in the
West to build on the Postcolonial feminist
deconstructive analysis. In her role of a
woman, of an Asian and of an immigrant in
the first world, Spivak found the experience
of marginality to be a common factor.
2

Inclusion in the mainstream, closeness to the
centre was possible, on given conditions.
3

However whenever the margin considered
itself close to the centre, the lines somehow
shifted and marginality once again appeared.
As a woman-academic, she could belong to
the dominant male academic centre and she
would be treated as "better than other
woman", but this would lead to alienation
from the other woman. Looking upon her
repeated experiences of marginality, Spivak
tries to draw certain conclusions, and points
out ways of dealing with these conditions.
She would like to make her marginality a
location, from which she can examine and
deconstruct the hegemonic system of the
West.

In her essay Explanation and
Culture: Marginalia,
4
Spivak begins with
her experience of marginality. Her insistence
upon questioning and examining the terms
of discussion, rather than to indulge in using
those terms for a discussion, she found
herself being consistently ignored.
5
She was
later offered token inclusion, and she
realized that the putative centre welcomes
selective inhabitants of the margin in order
better to exclude the margin.
6
As a
deconstructivist she wanted to "reverse and
displace such hierarchies as cognitive-
aesthetic" and to discover the expressed
grounds of these assumptions. For, she
begins with the suspicion that what is at the
centre often hides a repression.
7
She
wanted to overturn and explore the
commonly held assumptions of the liberal
humanist discourse. Terms like "culture"
and "explanation" need to be deconstructed
to realize the hidden politics in the
discourse. Jacques Derrida's approach to the
liberal humanist tradition has helped Spivak
in realizing how the old words would not
resemble themselves anymore when one
uses the new "tricks of re-reading" she learnt
from Derrida. He "touches the texture
language" and changes their meanings. The
trick she says is to recognize that every
textual production, in the production of
163 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
every explanation, there is the itinerary of a
constantly thwarted desire to make the text
explain.
8

An attempt towards explanation
reveals, Spivak writes, "a symptom, a desire
to have a self and a world", for this
presupposes an explainable world and the
explaining self. The world is assumed to be
containable within our explanation,
resolving the differences. So that, in
"explaining" the Other/world, we exclude
the possibility of the radically
heterogeneous.
9
Humanities in the US
academia have become a source of
constructing explanation of Asia, East, the
Other, the Postcolonial world. The
constructed knowledge is a means of
containing these diverse worlds into the
systems. Spivak criticizes the construction
of knowledge in USA, the Western world
and the use of technology in the
dissemination of this product.

Within the Universities, Spivak
holds the gradual decline of humanities and
social sciences to be the outcome of the
capitalist control over most social, cultural,
institutions, including education. High level
technology has strengthened neo-capitalism,
which controls production and dissemination
of knowledge. The humanities have been
entrusted with the role of producing the
society's culture, but Spivak points out that
the humanities are required to produce the
culture that will describe and make neo-
capitalism acceptable to the masses in the
First and the Third worlds. There is no
neutrally created knowledge, Universalist
and morally guided. The production of
knowledge has a sharp and clear political
purpose, aiming to justify, popularize and
"explain" the culture of consumerism, high
fashion and advancing technology.
10

The politicized construction of
knowledge is responsible for power
equation. Edward Said has argued that the
construction of orientalism was primarily
directed by the west's colonial expansion
during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Spivak and other Postcolonial critics
maintain that the construction of knowledge
in the metropolitan centers and the Western
Universities produce a specific type of
culture. Spivak finds that this culture then
prescribes, defines and writes the scholars.
By using interruptive
perspectives of race, gender and nation in
critiquing the First world's academic
projects Spivak, Homi Bhabha and the other
postcolonial critics argue for a rethinking of
the concepts such as life, selfhood, culture
and national identity.

The "official explanations" become
aligned with power and continually impose
the status of the "Other" on those in the
margin. These explanations, Spivak says,
follow the requirements of the power
emphasizing continuity or discontinuity
with past explanations, depending on a
seemingly judicious choice permitted by the
play of this power.
11
In producing these
officially sanctioned explanations (of
culture) we reproduce", she writes,
structures of possibility of knowledge
whose effect is that very structure.
12
We
(the Third world scholars who study the
knowledge produced by the First world
academy) are a part of the records we keep
and ... we are written into the texts of
technology. These effects upon us of the
close adherence to the knowledge produced
elsewhere emphasize the "complicity" and
the "surrender" to the controlling power of
neo-capitalism.
13
She states very
emphatically that no individual writes these
texts with full control over the situation, but
is rather an instrument in continuing the
patterns desired by those in power. The view
164 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
of a free individual thinker that liberal
humanism had upheld a "sovereign
subject" is a grand illusion. Spivak, a
deconstructionist, rejects the idea of a
subject with a stable final awareness of
selfhood, and deconstructs the terms and
ideas that make this assumption. The crisis
in the humanities is seen the world over: in
the first world they are on a decline as they
are being pushed by economic requirements
from the society to become cost-effective,
efficient. These pressures push the
departments in universities to adopt courses
that will bring financial security. The
humanities are being "trashed" as they are
being pushed into writing explanation
literary aesthetic courses - using the
practices that go on with the belief in the
civilizing effects of literature, philosophy
and other subjects.

Looking at these pressures upon the
humanities, Spivak makes a larger statement
about the purposes and functioning of
"Theory(ies)". The grand narrative of over-
all synthesizing theory that comes up after
every few years, in the West, is produced by
a certain class and economic group. The
purpose of Theory become self reproductive,
for the stability of a technocracy depends
upon this continued reproducing of the
grand theory - running through diverse
cultural social institutions.
14
The grand
theory checks any questioning diversity or
true multivocality. The main elements of
Theory are "blind" to the "will to power
through knowledge". It constantly tries to
resolve contradictions, differences and
regional diversity of interest, identity and
goals. Literary theories and criticism are
also seen by Spivak as being subsumed
within the grand narrative of capitalism. The
theories of metaphor, modernism and
postmodernism continue to function on the
assumptions about the superiority of a
particular class, group and race over the rest.
These self-centered practices that have had
continuity since romantic poetry privilege
the Western concepts of its superiority over
the rest of the world.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's writing
is a commentary on the first world's practice
of imposing its political power over the
Third world through indirect strategies. Its
highly sophisticated system of production
and dissemination of knowledge has
strengthened its power through education,
mass media and market forces. Spivak takes
up these ideas again in her essay
Marginality in the Teaching Machine and
she discusses how the selection of a few
texts valorizes those as important sources of
values and ideas. The selection leads to their
importance in the canon. These texts create
the mind set that perpetuates some specific
ideological approaches.

Next to the selection is the impact of
the teaching method. In both the essays
"Explanation and culture: Marginalia" and
"Marginality in the Teaching Machine",
Spivak discusses the need to evolve a
confrontational methodology for Third
world teachers. This is the method "that
continually opens up texts - the language,
metaphor, form - and deconstructs the
repressed meanings. The critic must be on
the lookout for heterogeneity, rather than for
final, grand truths. The teaching method of a
Postcolonial teacher/ critic should be
confrontational, opening out the implied
assumptions of dominant discourse and
should question them. Spivak refers to this
strategy repeatedly in the different essays,
and she takes on a position of questioning
major concepts, movements and ideas. She
writes, What I look for rather is a
confrontational teaching in the humanities
that would question the students
15
received
disciplinary ideology (model of legitimate
cultural explanations) even as it pushed into
165 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
indefiniteness the most powerful ideology of
the teaching of the humanities: the
unquestioned explicating power of the
theorizing mind and class, the need for
intelligibility and the role of law.

Spivak examines the sudden
popularity of postmodernism in the US
literary circles, foregrounding Latin
American narrative style of "magic realism",
of terms like "Third world". She asserts that
name giving is a source of Power too. The
name given to the ex-colonies as "Third
world" in the USA reflects a clear
dislocation of Britain's past of a great
imperial power. It also creates the historical,
present orientation in which the first world,
mainly the U.S., is ruling the world. A
Similar strategy makes Latin American
literary style suddenly most important. Latin
America's closeness to the U.S. reflects their
political and literary importance. Spivak
notes that the Third world scholars accept
the literary preferences from the U.S. even
though this technique may not reflect their
cultural specificities. Pablo Neruda, Garcia
Marquez have used this style to reflect their
own cultural complexities. This style does
not, Spivak says, narrativise
decolonization
16
yet it is adopted in the
countries, as a mark of being up to date in
literary fashion.

Spivak also argues that the West uses
Postmodernism to counter the important
issues being raised by Postcolonial writing.
Many of the techniques that were part of the
colonial world are, she says, taken over by
the colonizer, appropriated and then given
back to these countries, as if of Western
origin. When the colonized people try to
create their own systems of thought the
West reclaims most of the important
concepts. The languages and concepts, such
as nationalism, constitutionality,
citizenship, democracy, culturalism are
claimed to have written elsewhere.
17

These concepts, when used in the
Postcolonial society become "catechresis",
as their meaning changes in the new
contexts. Spivak suggests that these
catechresis may be used strategically, as a
stock to begin with, to examine the West's
philosophical Universalist concepts, to
"peer, however blindly, into the constantly
shifting and tangling network of techniques
of knowledge and strategies of power
through the question of value."
18

In questioning the West's continued
hold over the Third world's labor
market, Spivak makes use of the Marxist
analysis of "value" and "desire",
Capitalism's subtle manipulation of "desire"
is, she argues, closely related to the wide
spread consumerism and global marketing.
The labor market of the poorer, Postcolonial
markets is still controlled by the rich and
advanced countries' industrial system. The
economic system spreads over other cultural
institutions, including education. Spivak
refers to the pressures of the economic
system on the universities where
departments are being compelled into
becoming more cost-effective, efficient and
self-financing.

Gender politics is as much under the
networking of the market, for, Spivak finds
that the labor market determines gender
value, which is coding of the value
differential.
19
She takes on the feminist
struggles in the Third world in their specific
culture and material contexts. Her criticism
of the Western feminist schools is based on
her perception of difference and
heterogeneity. Spivak's feminist theory is
informed with Postcolonial theoretical
concerns. She applies deconstructive
opening out of hegemonic images of the
Third world Women as an important project
of Postcolonial feminism. This strategy
166 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
lends weight to her sustained efforts to
identify and criticize globalizing relations of
Power / Knowledge.

So, Spivak demands that the
relationship between the critic and her
research be more interactive; she must be
willing to explore how divergent cultural
contexts may reveal hitherto unseen
problems in her approach. or, as she
sardonically puts it, " [t]he academic
feminist must learn to learn from then, to
speak to them, to suspect that their access to
the political and sexual scene is not merely
to be corrected by our superior theory and
enlightened compassion."
20
It is interesting
to see here how spivak complicates the idea
of a "First world" feminist. As an Indian
working in America skilled in European
philosophy, and like the Sudanese woman
using structural functionalism in Saudi
Arabia, Spivak is entirely in complicity with
"First world" feminism in her intellectual
approach to "Third world" women.

Spivak proceeds to provide a detailed
example of the problems involved when a
"First world" feminist attempts to deal
sympathetically with "Third world" woman,
by looking at the French feminist Julia
Kristeva's work on Chinese women. Spivak
argues that a "First world" feminist is often
mistaken in considering that her gender
authorizes her to speak for "Third world"
women. She must "learn to stop feeling
privileged as woman".
21
In indulging in this
erroneous privilege, Kristeva's attempts to
offer a feminist account of woman in
chinese culture fails to engage dynamically
with the specifics of her subject-matter.
Instead, she indulges in a "wishful use of
history"
22
where her own ethnocentric
speculations into Chinese culture
masquerade as historical fact. Chinese
culture becomes appropriated in order to
serve Kristeva's particular feminist ends, and
her priorities remain firmly self - centered.
Ultimately, argues Spivak, Kristeva is less
interested in Chinese women per se as she is
concerned with how the exploration of a
"Third world" culture allows her to raise
questions about the "First world". In taking a
voyeuristic detour through women is
Chinese culture, Kristeva's terminus is in
reality a self - centered critique of Western
philosophy, Questions are raised such as
"who then are we (not), how are we (not),
23

with the "we" relating exclusively to "First
world" feminists. We might want to consider
here the uncomfortable resemblances which
Spivak exposes between Kristeva's work and
the project of Orientalism.

So, using a phrase at the end of
Spivak's essay, we can describe the
appropriation of "Third world" women to
serve the self-centered ends of "First world"
feminists as compelling example of "the
inbuilt colonialism of First world feminism
toward the Third."
24
In attempting to
discover what "they can do for them",
Kristeva, the Sudanese woman and the
Spivak stand accused of this charge.
Feminists must learn to speak to women and
not for women; they must be willing to learn
the limits of their methodologies through an
encounter with women in different contexts,
rather than assimilate differences within a
grander design. It is important to notice that
Spivak's argument avoids the charge of
ethnocentrism by refusing the logic that, for
example; only Indian women can speak for
other Indian women. Spivak has consistently
advocated that critics must always look to
the specifics of their own positions and
recognize the political, cultural and
institutional contexts in which they work.
The space from we speak is always on the
move, criss- crossed by the conflicting and
shifting discourses of things like our social
class, education, gender, sexuality and
167 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
ethnicity. It is very difficult to assume that
the critic can ever speak "on behalf" of
anybody, because the position of both the
critic and their "object" is never securely
fixed.

In 1985 Gayatri Spivak threw a
challenge to the race and class blindness of
the Western academy, asking "can the
subaltern speak? By subaltern Spivak
meant the oppressed subject, the members of
Antonio Gramsci's subaltern Classes,
25
of
more generally those "of inferior rank", and
her question followed on the work begun
in the early 1980's by a collective of
intellectuals now known as the Subaltern
studies group. The stated objective of this
group was to promote a systematic South
Asian Studies. Further, they described their
project as an attempt to study "the general
attribute of subordination in South Asian
society whether this is expressed in terms of
class, caste, age, gender and office or in any
other way." Fully alert to the complex
ramifications arising from the composition
of subordination, the Subaltern Studies
group sketched out its wide-ranging concern
both with the visible history, politics,
economics and sociology of subalternity and
with the occluded attitudes, ideologies and
belief systems - in short, the culture
informing that condition. In other words, "
Subaltern studies"
26
defined itself as an
attempt to allow the "people" finally to
speak within the jealous pages of elitist
historiography and, in so doing, to speak for,
or to sound the muted voices of, the truly
oppressed.

Spivak's famous interrogation of the
risks and rewards which haunt any academic
pursuit of subalternity drew attention to the
complicated relationship between the
knowing investigator and the (un)knowing
subject of subaltern histories. For how, as
Spivak queried, "can we touch the
consciousness of the people, even as we
investigate their politics? With what voice-
consciousness can the subaltern speak?
27

Through these questions Spivak places us
squarely within the familiar and troublesome
field of "representation" and
"representability".
28
How can the historian /
investigator avoid the inevitable risk of
presenting herself as an authoritative
representative of subaltern consciousness?
Should the intellectual "abstain from
representation?" which intellectual is
equipped to represent which subaltern class?
Is there an "unrepresentable subaltern class
that can know and speak itself? And finally,
who - if any - are "true" or "representative
subalterns of history, especially within the
frame of reference provided by the
imperialist project?

The complex notion of subalternity is
pertinent to any academic enterprise which
concerns itself with historically determined
relationships of dominance and
subordination. Utterly unanswerable, half-
serious and half-parodic, the question "Can
the Subaltern Speak?", circulates around the
self-conscious scene of Postcolonial texts,
theory, conferences and conversations.
While some postcolonial critics use it to
circumscribe their field of enquiry, others
use it to license their investigations. And,
above all, the ambivalent terrain or subaltern
- speak has given rise to a host of competing
and quarrelsome anti and Postcolonial
subalternities. There is little agreement
within Postcolonial studies about the worst
victims of colonial oppression,
29
or about
the most significant anti-colonial
insurgencies.

Further, in "can the subaltern Speak",
Spivak suggests that it is impossible for us
to recover the voice of the "subaltern" or
oppressed subject.
30
Even a radical critic
like Foucault, Spivak says, who so
168 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
thoroughly decentres the human subject, is
prone to believing that oppressed subjects
can speak for themselves, because he has no
conception of the repressive power of
colonialism, and especially of the way in
which it historically intersected with
patriarchy. Spivak turns to colonial debates
on widow immolation in India to illustrate
her point that the combined workings of
colonialism and patriarchy in fact make it
extremely difficult for the subaltern (in this
case the Indian widow burnt on her
husband's pyre) to articulate her point of
view. Spivak reads this absence as
emblematic of the difficulty of recovering
the voice of the oppressed subject and proof
that "there is no space from where the
subaltern [sexed] subject can speak". She
thus challenges a simple division between
colonizer and colonized by inserting the
"brown woman" as a category oppressed by
both. Elite native men may have found a
way to "speak" but, she suggests, for those
further down the hierarchy, self-
representation was not a possibility.
31

Spivak's point here is also to
challenge the easy assumption that the
Postcolonial historian can recover the
standpoint of the subaltern. At the same
time, she takes seriously the desire, on the
part of postcolonial intellectuals, to highlight
oppression and to provide the perspective of
oppressed people. Spivak therefore suggests
that such intellectuals adapt the Gramscian
maxim - "pessimism of the intellect,
optimism of the will" - by combining a
philosophical skepticism about recovering
any subaltern agency with a political
commitment to making visible the position
of the marginalized. Thus it is the
intellectual who must "represent" the
subaltern: The subaltern cannot speak. There
is no virtue in global laundry lists with
"woman" as a pious item. Representation
has not withered away. The female
intellectual as intellectual has a
circumscribed task which she must not
disown with a flourish.
32

Benita Parry while writing "Problems
in current Theories of colonial discourse,"
suggests
33
that Spivak in her own writings
severely restricts (eliminates?) the space in
which the colonized can be written back into
history, even when "interventionist
possibilities" are exploited through the
deconstructive strategies devised by the
postcolonial intellectual. Parry further adds
that Spivak is theorizing the silence of the
doubly oppressed subaltern woman,
34
and
Spivak's theorem on imperialism's epistemic
violence extends to positing the native, male
and female, as an historically- muted
subject. The story of colonialism which she
reconstructs is of an
interactive process where the European
agent in consolidating the imperialist
sovereign self, induces the native to collude
in its own subject(ed) formation as other and
voiceless. Thus, while protesting at the
obliteration of the native's subject position
in the text of imperialism, Spivak in her
project gives no speaking part to the
colonized, effectively writing out the
evidence of native agency recorded in
India's 200 year struggle against British
conquest and the Raj-discourses to which
she scathingly refers as hegemonic nativist
or reverse ethnocentric narrativization.

Spivak's another essay, Three
women's texts and a critique of
Imperialism,
35
offer another take on the
"disappearance" of the "gendered subaltern"
within liberal feminist discourses. Her
arguments here open up a crucial area of
disagreement between Postcolonial and
Feminism. Rather than chronicle the liberal
feminist appropriation of the "gendered
subaltern", this essay queries the
conspicuous absence of the "Third World"
169 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
woman within the literature which
celebrates the emerging" female subject in
Europe and Anglo-America.
36
Spivak
argues that the high feminist norm has
always been blinkered in its" isolationist
admiration" for individual female
achievement. A re-reading of women's
history shows that the historical moment of
feminism in the west was itself defined "in
terms of female access to individualism.
37

Yet nowhere does feminist scholarship stop
to consider where the battle for female
individualism was played out. Nor does it
concern it with the numerous exclusions and
sacrifices which might attend the triumphant
achievements of a few female individuals.
Spivak's essay is posed as an attempt to
uncover the repressed or forgotten history of
Euro-American feminism. Once again the
margins reveal the mute figure of gendered
subalterneity: as the female individualist,
not quite/not male, articulates her in shifting
relationship to what is at stake, the native
female as such (within discourse, as a
signifier) is excluded from a share in this
emerging norm.
38

It should be clear from the ideas we
have explored so far, that the category of
"Third world" woman is an effect of
discourse rather than an existent, identifiable
reality. It does not approximate any stable,
collective body. Similarly the singular
"Third world" woman is an ideological
construct wholly produced within "First
world" intellectual debates, and not an
individual subject. As we have considered,
the concepts and methodological approaches
used to bear witness to Third world
experiences may be inappropriate to the task
and result in generalization, falsification and
conjectures. But this leaves a problem: how
does one bear witness to the agency of those
women throughout history who are today
inadequately represented as "Third world"
woman?

This is an issue which Spivak has
explored in her most challenging and
intellectually rich essays, Can the Subaltern
speak?
39
Spivak begins by turning first to
the work of poststructuralist thinkers such as
Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze who
have challenged the notion that human
individuals are "sovereign subjects" with
autonomous agency over their
consciousness. As poststructuralism would
have it, human consciousness is constructed
discursively. Our subjectivity is constituted
by the shifting discourses of power which
endlessly speak through us, situating us
here and there in particular positions and
relations. In these terms we are not the
authors of ourselves. We do not construct
our own identities but have them written for
us; the subject cannot be "sovereign" over
the construction of selfhood. Instead, the
subject is "de-centered" in that its
consciousness is always being constructed
from positions outside of itself. It follows,
then, that the individual is not the point of
origin for consciousness, and human
consciousness is not a transparent
representation of the self but an effect of
discourse.

Spivak argues that, surprisingly for
these figures, when Foucault and Deleuze
talk about oppressed groups such as the
working class they fall back into precisely
these uncritical notions of the "sovereign
subjects" by restoring to them a full
"centered" consciousness - or to use her
terms, they are guilty of a clandestine
restoration of subjective essentialism.
40
In
addition, they also assume that the writing of
intellectuals such as themselves can serve as
a transparent medium through which the
voices of the oppressed can be represented.
The intellectual is cast as a reliable mediator
170 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
for the voices of the oppressed, a
mouthpiece through which the oppressed
can clearly speak. Spivak urges that critics
must always beware of attempting to
retrieve a "subaltern consciousness" from
texts.

These problems are further
compounded by the issue of gender, because
representations of subaltern insurgency tend
to prioritize men. "As object of colonialist
historiography and as subject of insurgency,
the ideological construction of gender keeps
the male dominant. If, in the context of
colonial production, the subaltern has no
history and cannot speak, the subaltern as
female is even more deeply in shadow.
41

This point raises the following questions:
Can oppressed women's voices ever be
recovered from the archive? Can the
subaltern as female, confined in the shadows
of colonial history and representation, ever
be heard or speak? The answer, it seems, is
no, so long as intellectuals go searching for
an originary, sovereign and concrete female
consciousness which can be discovered and
readily represented with recourse to
questionable assumptions concerning
subjectivity. Rather than hunting for the
"lost voices" of women in the historical
archives in an act of retrieval, intellectuals
should be aware that this kind of work will
continue to keep the subaltern as female
entirely muted.

Ultimately, Spivak suggests, it is better
to acknowledge that the subaltern as female
exists as the unrepresentable in discourse, a
shadowy figure on its margins. Any attempt
to retrieve her voice will disfigure her
speech. So, she concludes, intellectuals must
instead critique those discourses which
claim to rescues the "authentic" voices of
the subaltern as female from their mute
condition, and address their complicity in
the production of subalterneity. Simply
inserting subaltern women into
representation is a cosmetic exercise as long
as the system of representation endorses
discredited models of essential, centered
subjectivity. As Spivak memorably
concludes, [t]here is no virtue in global
laundry lists with woman as a pious
item.
42

There is no doubt that Spivak has a
first rate mind and the type of mind that
contemporary theory requires. The fact that
she translated Derrida's Of Grammatology is
itself an indication of her potential. She is
sharp and possesses the rare virtue of being
able to mould her requirements according to
current needs. Though she claims to be more
at home in the West and though she has at
times disowned an Indian identity and calls
India "an artificial construct"
43
she keeps her
position rather independent by making
statements such as, I am absolutely
plural.
44
Such a position keeps her
absolutely free from the basic categories of
oppositional theory. In fact, it may be easier
to identify Spivak's position by the process
of elimination; by saying what she is not.
Even the deconstructive establishments find
her uncomfortable.
45

Although Spivak is a feminist but
strangely she denounces kali as a
hegemonic female
46
and further she makes
a specific use of deconstruction but says "I
am not a deconstructivist,"
47
she calls herself
bicultural but adds my biculturality is that
I'm not at home in either of the places.
48

Further, she is not a book writer,
49
and has
written several books, she is not a
fundamentalist,
50
though her spirit is one
which smacks of that. Spivak can keep
changing positions by remaining on the
margins of deconstruction, marxism and
feminism and in so doing indulge in a kind
of intellectual coquetry. It is possible for her
to do this because she has made her way into
171 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
the inner shrine of Postcolonial theory.
Spivak asserts that she is not an Althusserian
in the strict sense and she is not a
postmodernist either. She tries to protect her
purity by repudiating essentialism - I am
not interested in remaining pure even as I
remain an anti-essentialist.
51
Spivak
describes herself rather self- consciously,
through certain position she takes calling
them "her some where else": One of my
somewhere else is this kind of anti-sexism
which is against a sort of purity of the
deconstructive approach. Derrida himself is
very careful to distinguish woman in some
gentalist description from the figure of
woman...there I Part Company. I think it
important to be anti sexist. My second way
has been not only to see how remaining
within a Freudian discourse one can identify
the production of philosophy of the
findingof the lost objects but to find some
place outside where the regulative
psychobiographies construct women in
another way.
52

Spivak says that she is a very eclectic
person and uses what comes to hand. And
that she is not a fundamentalist.
53
She is a
feminist concerned about women in a
particular way. She spells it out as an
interest in working out the heterogeneous
production of sexed subjects. It is also ... in
terms of recognizing international division
of labor.
54
She is largely interested in
female subject constitution, which she
describes as "distinguishing between and
among woman and so on."
55
This kind of
discourse comes, she tells us "when you
speak of the constitution of the urban sub-
proletariat or the
Para-peripheral women, or tribality,
aboriginality, etc., either a very hard
classicist Marxist or, fundamentalist kind of
talk or a sort of celebration of the other."
56

In terms of critical method, spivak
consistently and scrupulously acknowledges
the ambiguities of her own position as
privileged western based critic of (neo-)
colonialism, and draws attention quite
explicitly to her complicitous position in a
"workplace engaged in the ideological
production of neo-colonialism."
57
Spivak
also rejects the idea that there is an
uncontaminated space outside the modes
and objects of analysis, to which the
Postcolonial critic has access by virtue of
"lived experience" or cultural origin. A
recurrent motif of spivak's work,
consequently, is "negotiation" with, rather
than simple rejection of, Western cultural
institutions, texts, values and theoretical
practices.
58
Spivak's work derives in
considerable measure from the multiplicity
of the "negotiations" she conducts at a
methodological level and her refusal to
espouse any one critical school or
cultural/political master-narrative at the
expense of others.

Gyatri Spivak in her essay "History"
59

suggests that the effort to present Europe as
an Other involves careful disciplinary
preparation in the matter of the other, as
well as political impatience with the matter
of Europe. We (Third world) were not yet
such a group. She further adds that the task
of discussing the representation of Europe
by other cultures should require a
preparation broad and deep enough to check
superficial enthusiasm and condemnation.
Therefore a critique of imperialism is
necessary to expose "how Europe had
consolidated itself as sovereign subject by
defining its colonies as " Others", even as it
constituted them, for purposes of
administration and the expansion of markets,
into programmed near-images of that very
sovereign self."
60
Further, the above critique
would also restore sovereignty for the lost
self of the colonies so that Europe could,
172 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
once and for all, be put in the place of the
other that it always was.

Spivak also suggests that great works of
literature cannot easily flourish in the
fracture or discontinuity that is covered over
by an alien legal system masquerading as
law as such, an alien ideology established as
the only truth, and a set of human sciences
busy establishing the "native" as self-
consolidating other ("epistemic violence).
61

She says that for the early part of the
nineteenth century in India, the literary critic
must turn to the archives of imperial
governance to supplement the consolidation
of what will come to be recognized as
"nationalist" literature.

Spivak in her essay "Literature"
62

suggests that we must remind ourselves that
it should not be possible, in principle, to
read nineteenth-century British literature
without remembering that imperialism,
understood as England's social mission, was
a crucial part of the cultural representation
of England to the English. The role of
literature in the production of cultural
representation should not be ignored. Today,
says she, a section of so-called
Postcolonialist feminism insists upon these
facts with certain narcissism.

Spivak is able to set a new field - one
that defies a clear solution, but a new
theoretical direction indeed, into academic
discussion and is therefore the typical stuff
of which contemporary western thought is
made. She exposes the irony that whereas
theorists make the Third world woman the
object of their experiments, we never get to
know what she has to say about herself. She
has drawn attention to widow - immolation
or "Sati". We talk about the tradition of
"Sati" but not about the individual who
immolates herself.
63
She is praised because
she upholds a tradition. We get to know her
as a type but not as an individual
personality. Women are the sites rather than
the subjects of debates - and this is an
important aspect of postcolonial theory.
References:

1
Colin MacCabe "Foreword", in G. C. Spivak In Other
Worlds : Essays in Cultural Politics (London and New York :
Routledge, 1988), p. ix.

2
Santosh Gupta, "Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak :
Problematising / Speaking the Margine" ,(ed.) Contesting
Postcolonialisms,
Jasbir Jain andVeena Singh (Jaipur : Rawat
Publications, 2000), p. 69.
3
Ibid., p. 69.

4
G.C. Spivak, " Explanation and Culture : Marginalia",
In Other Worlds : Essays in Cultural Politics (New York and
London : Routledge, 1987), pp. 103-117.
5
Ibid., p. 104.
6
Ibid., p. 107.
7
Ibid., p. 104.

8
Ibid., p. 105.

9
Ibid., p.105.
10
Ibid., p. 107.
11
Ibid., p. 108.

12
Ibid., p. 108.

13
Ibid., p. 108.
14
Ibid., p. 113.
15
G. C. Spivak, "Explanation and Culture : Marginalia,"
In Other Worlds : Essays in Culture Politics (New York and
London : Routledge, 1987), p. 116.
16
G. C. Spivak, "Marginality in the Teaching Machine,"
Outside in the Teahcing Machine (New York and London :
Rouledge, 1993), p. 57.

17
Santosh Gupta, "Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak :
Problematising / Speaking the Margine,"(ed.) Contesting
Postcolonialisms,
Jasbir Jain and Veena Singh (Jaipur : Rawat
Publications, 2000), p. 74.
18
Ibid., p. 61.

19
Ibid., p.63.
20
G.C.Spivac, French Feminism in an International
Frame, In Other Worlds: Essays in cultural Politics (New York
and

London: Routledge,1987), p.135.
21
Ibid., p. 136.
22
Ibid., p. 138.
23
Ibid., p. 137.
24
Ibid., p. 153.
173 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
25
Leela Gandhi, "After Colonialism," Postcolonial
Theory: A Critical Introduction, (New Delhi: O.U.P., 1998), p. 1.

26
Ibid., P. 2
27
G. C. Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak? in C. Nelson
and L. Grossberg, (ed.) Marxism and the Interpretation of
Culture (Basingstoke : Macmillan Education, 1988), p.
285.

28
Leela Gandhi, After Colonialism," Postcolonial
Theory : A Critical Introduction (New Delhi : O.U.P., 1998), p. 2.
29
Ibid., p. 2.
30
Ania Loomba, "Challenging Colonialism, Colonialism
/ Post colonialism (London and New York : Routledge, 1999),
p. 233.

31
Ibid., p. 234.
32
G. C. Spivak, Can the subaltern Speak ? ", in C.
Nelson and L.Grossberg (ed.) Marxism and the Interpretation of

Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1988), p.
308.
33
Benita Parry, "Problems in Current Theories of
Colonial Discourse," Oxford Literary Review (Vol. 9, Nos. 1 & 2,
1987),
pp. 27-58.
34
Ibid., p. 35.

35
G. C. Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of
Imperialism," Critical Inquiry (Vol. 12, No.1, Autumn 1985), pp.
243-261.

36
Ibid., p. 243.
37
Ibid., p. 246.
38
Ibid., p. 244-45.

39
G. C. Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak ?" in C. Nelson
and L. Grossberg (ed.) Marxism and the Interpretation of
Culture (Basingstoke : Macmillan Education, 1988),
pp. 271-313.
40
Ibid., p. 190.
41
Ibid., pp. 289-90.
42
Ibid., p. 308.
43
Sarah Harasym, (ed.) The Post-Colonial Critic :
Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues (New York and London :
Routledge, 1990), p. 39.

44
Ibid., p. 38.

45
Ibid., p. 6.
46
Ibid., p. 40.
47
Ibid., p. 45.
48
Ibid., p. 83.
49
Ibid., p. 40.
50
Ibid., p. 55.
51
Ibid., p. 17.
52
Ibid., p.14.
53
Ibid., p. 55.
54
Ibid., p. 10.
55
Ibid., pp. 12-13.
56
Ibid., pp. 10-11.
57
G.C. Spivak, " Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing
Historiography," In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics , p.
210.
58
Bart Moore-Gilbert, "Gayatri Spivak: The
Deconstructive Twist", Postcolonial Theory : Contexts, Practices,
Politics ,
(London and New York: Verso, 1997), p. 78.
59
G.C. Spivak, "History," A Critique of Postcolonial
Reason (Calcutta :Seagull Books, 1999), pp. 198-311.
60
Ibid., p. 199.
61
Ibid., p. 205.
62
G. C. Spivak, "Literature, A Critique of Postcolonial
Reason (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1999), p. 113.
63
Leela Gandhi, "Postcolonialism and Feminism,"
Postcolonial Theory : A Critical Introduction (New Delhi : O.U.P.,
1998), p. 90.
174 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Post Colonial Writer: Diaspora Discourse

- Rajesh S. Gore
Toshniwal College, Sengaon

Abstract: The present paper throws its glimpse over Mistrys Such a Long Journey as a Diaspora Discourse. Rohinton
Mistry is well-known immigrant writer whose literary creation makes clear our concept of literature of the Indian Diaspora.
Asian Indian who now lives in and writes from Canada, Mistry is a writer of the Indian Diaspora. His writing is informed by
this experience of double identity or displacement. Mistrys Novel, Such a Long Journey as a Diaspora discourse. He is
living in Canada but writing about the social, political and cultural situation in India in the year of 1960
s
& 1970
s
. The
physical distance from his motherland gives Mistry a better position to review it.

As an Indian who now lives in and
writes from Canada, Rohinton Mistry is a
writer of the Indian Diaspora. Mistry has a
double identity. Who is living in Canada but
writing abut Indias situation in 1960
s
&
1970
s
. The bonding of culture, religion,
literature and language is especially strong in
Diaspora situation.
Mistry first novel, Such a Long
Journey, returns to Bombay and the Parsis
world. Even more than the short stories, this
novel is Diaspora discourse. Here Mistry has
Very overtly attempted to deconstruct and
repossess his past. He was born in 1952 and
left India in 1975 for Canada- so the India
evokes is that of 1960
s
& 1970
s
, more
specifically Bombay of that era that he has
created in this novel. Another significant
aspect of this discourse is the leitmotif of
Journeying which is also central to most
Diaspora writing.
In Such a Long Journey the Parsis
world gradually moves out of its self imposed
isolation and interact at the highest levels of
finance and politics with the post colonial
Indian world. The catalyst which brings about
this contact is the Fictional characters of
Major Jimmy Bilimorias. This is a composite
character fashioned out of the real-life state
Bank cashier Sohrab Nagarwala and Parsi
agent from RAW (Arm of the Indian Secret
Service), who was close to Mrs. Indira
Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India. The story
line is centrally concerned with the events that
had overtaken Nagarwala. He was the
manipulated in the Rs. 60 Lakhs scam that had
rocked the Indira Gandhi Government in 1970.
He claimed that he had received a call from
the Prime Minister instruction him to hand
over that large sum of money to a messenger.
This was never accepted by the Prime
Ministers office and Nagarwala charged with
embezzlement and arrested. He died in rather
mysterious circumstances before he could be
brought to trial. The missing sum of money
was also connected with the 1971 war between
India and Pakistan, which resulted in the
creation of Bangladesh.
It is against this backdrop that Gustad
Noble and his family live out their lives in the
city of Bombay. From the vantage point of the
1990
s
, Mistry has reviewed Bombay of the
1960
s
& 1970
s
. These were decades that
witnessed the slow erosion of the idealism
which had marked the beginning of the end of
the Nehruian dream of secular India. The
Chinese attack of 1962 was seen as a betrayal
by Nehru. He never recovered from the shock
of seeing his vision for Asian socialism and
regional co-operation crumble.
The end of the Nehruian utopia also
marked the beginning of sordid power-
politicking, corruption at the highest levels,
Nepotism and cynical endeavoring of the
electorate. In Bombay, it marked the end of
the Island-citys famed religious tolerance.
When large parts of Northern and Eastern
Indian were convulsed by Hindu-Muslim riots
in 1947. Bombay had remained an oasis of
calm and sanity. This, whoever changed in the
1960s with the rise of extreme right wing
political parties like Shiv Sena. The Sena
raised the bogey of the other the religious
other, the Muslim, the linguistic other,
especially Tamil, separators and the regional
other, those who come from other parts of
India. Mistry like many political analysts and
Naxalite places the blame for this at Indira
Gandhi door-How much bloodshed, how
much rioting she caused. And today we have
that bloody Shivsena, wanting to make the rest
of us into second class citizens. Dont forget,
she started it all by supporting the racist
buggers. The language of this denunciation of
175 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Mrs. Gandhis politics is indigenized in the
tradition of postcolonial discourse. Mistrys
texts are splendid celebration of the Parsi
idiom and faithfully capture its rhythms.
In the midst of this city slowly
succumbing of the triple graded monster of
religious, linguistic and regional chauvinism,
stands the Khodadad building, the Parsi
residential complex where the main
protagonists of the novel live. Significantly
enough, the building is protected from the
outside world by high black wall. The wall is
an important symbol in the text. It is actually a
closer of symbols at the beginning of the
narrative it represents both protection and
reduction. It shuts the outside world, thus
providing security. Out side the protection
wall lies the squalor of India- The flies, the
mosquitoes, the horrible stink, with bloody
shameless people pissing, squatting along side
the wall late at night it became like a whole
state public latrine.
As the novel progresses Gustad Noble
turns the offensively stinking wall into the
wall of all religions. He gets a pavements
artist to point on it gods and prophets of all the
major Indian religions. Over the next few
days, the wall filled up with gods, prophets
and saints. When Gustad checked the air each
morning and evening, he found it free of
malodor. Mosquitoes and flies were no longer
quite the nuisance the used to be However, in
the cynical increasingly intolerant city, Gustad
wall is doomed. The municipal Corporation
pulls it down to widen the road and the gods
come tumbling down, however, the artist takes
this destruction quite philosophically. To
Gustads question about where he would go.
He replies: In a world where roadside latrines
become temples and Shrines become dust and
rain, dries it matter where? Thus artists
moods are typical of the Hindu ethos which
does not place much of with in external
symbols of divinity. The destruction of Babri
mosque in December 1992 was a politically-
engineered event rather than an expression of
the spontaneous religious belief and outrages
that are made out be.
The destruction of Gustads wall is
turned into a positive happening because it
prompts from to Lake Town the blackout
papers he had posted on his window and
ventilators at the time of the Chinese attack in
1962. He stood upon the chair and pulled at
the paper covering the ventilators. As the first
shutter away, a frightened moth flew out and
circled the room. This letting in of the light
can be seen as a metaphor for the letting in of
Indian reality into Cocooned isolation of the
Parsi world.
Mistry is living in Canada but writing
about Indian culture, socio-political scenario,
religion and Indian ethos in this way he has
role double identity as a Diaspora writer.
References:
Mistry, Rohinton - Such a
Long Journey, 1995. Faber and Faber Ltd.
London.

Dodiya, Jaydipsinh - Critical
Perspectives on the Novels of
Rohinton Mistry, Prestige Books, New
Delhi.
_________, The Fiction of
Rohinton Mistry. Prestige Books: New
Delhi.

176 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Reflection of women in Dalit Memoir Upara
--Jadhav Pradip V.
M.S.S Arts College Tirthpuri,
Jalna.

The Indian women were considered a
commodity to be possessed by men without their
existence. Indian castes ,religions ,scriptures
which made the life of women unbearable and
miserable .It is ridiculous that women in Indian
were worshiped as goddesses but at the same
time they were subject to the bonds of slavery
and operation. In the case of Dalits, the situation
of women is even bitterer. The Indian
established social system exploited them as
untouchable and lower caste. They were
oppressed on the basis of distinction in castes,
religions and gender also. As a woman and
belongs to lower category, she is faced double
slavery by Dalit males and Hindu savarna.
Women are viewed as secondary and oppressed
in Hindu patriarchal society. She is treated as a
trivial object and ignorable part of the society.
As if she is born to tolerate the exploitations and
sufferings. Dalit women toiled and worked hard
day and night. She carried double responsibility
in her domestic life. She was happy in an
adverse situation with her husband in her
ignorance. She is not disappointed with her
worst situation because she is imbibed the idea
of supremacy of traditional belief. In this regard
Pushpa Bhave puts Dalit women also were
under the spell of Hindu rituals, blind faiths due
to ignorance and inferiority complex. (Lalita
Dhara:11)
If the responsible person in the family is
addict of wine or he is idle while she stands
responsibly to run her family. Dalit women are
exploited in her domestic life by Dalit male at
the same time she is oftenly seduced and raped
by upper caste Hindu people. In the Indian
established society, she has been treated
brutally. It is a disgrace on the part of
humanity.Prof. Rage in his study of Dalit
women says Dalit women are more likely to
face the collective and public threat of rape,
sexual assault and physical violence at the work
place and in public.(Rage: 95) Thus Dalit
women is to struggle every moment of her life.
This pitiable condition of Dalit women is vividly
observed in Dalit memoirs.
Reflection of Dalit women in Upara can
be a major discussion as a part of feminist study.
The narrator Laxman Mane demonstrates the
struggle of women in kaikadi community with
their realistic account from their birth to death.
Women in Upara are exploited not only because
of her sex but also on the basis of her class, race
and castes. There are many accounts of incidents
where women are tortured in their domestic life.
Women of kaikadi community are double slaved
by male Dalits and Hindus. She has no freedom
as a part of kaikadi community and under the
control of Indian patriarchal society. The women
of kaikadi community in Upara have no equal
status.
Upara is a Dalit memoir presents the
social picture of wandering kaikadi community.
The narrator provides us an account of suffering
and agonies of his own and his family. Besides,
it is a representative picture of kaikadi
community in Maharashtra. The presentation of
women in Upara is to be examined as a deprived
class on the basis of religion caste and gender
also. The Narrator demonstrated the pitiable and
helpless condition of women of kaikadi
community from their birth to death. There are
many notable incidents where kaikadi women
are tortured and subjected on various ground in
their way of life. The oppressed and deprived
177 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
women are mentioned such as Narrators mother
(Anwari), Nani ,Paru, Gajara, Wife of Pingla
Joshi, Sharda, Sari, sari of Holar community
and narrators aunt Pari. These women are
strictly follower of their traditional norms and
cultures. They are completely influenced by the
rigid conservative thoughts. The blame is not to
be given them because they are not given
education .Yet, they are not allowed to go out of
their home. Pingla Joshi takes an objection when
her wife came late. The wife says, I spends all
my life with this man reach bone of my body has
been worn out his service. And seeing him in
there condition. I could not possible let him die.
I went out to fetch the medicine prescribed by
this brother of mine .And look at him suspecting
me for no reason whatever.(Upara: 87)
Mother of Narrator is a representative
woman of kaikadi community .She is one of the
important characters among the other women.
She is presented bold, hard worker submissive,
devotional and deprived one .Many time she
played protective role for the narrator. She says,
Lakshya take the donkeys out until it is time to
go to school when I see the other children on
their way to school .I will send Sami to look
after the donkey so that you can go to school.
Dont run away from school or else father will
beat you to death. (Upara : 22)The mother is
given secondary position in taking any decision
.Even she is abused in a very rustic language.
The father of narrator calls her, You bitch of a
wife! You dont him to be a beggar? I will
certainly send him to school and make him a
teacher or an officer. Who are you to poke your
filthy nose into my affair, woman? (Upara : 22)
The mother is believed in traditions, customs
and social norms. She never hoped her son
should be educated or learn without marriage.
She is a woman of kaikadi community not to
believe in inter caste marriage .She is
submissive women and lived in the patron of
husband. She is victimized under the observation
of patriarchal society.
Parumami is a beautiful woman raped
by the villagers. In the result her husband
divorced her. She is a pitiable and helpless
woman neglected all kinds of happiness. To be
beautiful in kaikadi community is worse on
them. This can be observed with Paru character.
The submissive nature of the women can be
observed in the words of narrators mother. She
says that the women of kaikadi community
should not have bath or make up. Because she
things that they are not able to live as such.
When Paru is raped She said, A beggarly
women should always behave like a lady. She
must not behave like a nauth girl from the
tanasha in makeup. Otherwise, she will meet the
same fate as Paru. (Upara: 85)This suggestion
is to all the women in kaikadi community. It
means they have to be restricted in the name of
poor and lower castes. It may be the worst if
they live like modern women.
The next important women character is
Shashi , a wife of narrator . She Stands firmly
with narrator as a wife in every path of life. She
involves in kaikadi community without any
hesitation. Her real love with the narrator is
cleared in her following statement, If we are to
die, well die together. Whatever happens. I
have prepared myself to live on the pavement. (
Upara: 174) Shashis fearless and bold
personality is appeared after her marriage with
narrator. Both Shashi and narrator came to
Satara after their marriage .They are caught in
the bustand and investigated by the police.
While Shashi boldly replied: I am his wife.
(Upara: 182) Shashi is a dominant woman
character possessed scientific view. He didnt
like caste discrimination. Somewhere she said,
I thought that we Marathas alone were insanely
proud of our ninety six generation of Maratha
lineage, but what I witnessed just now appears to
be even worse. (Upara: 186) This statement of
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Shashi reveals the attitude towards caste system.
It means that she could have not expected cast
difference in lower category. But unfortunately,
she has to listen the discussion of narrators
mother and father on caste. Shashi is blamed and
insulted by the narrators father and mother.
Because they mean the cause of disturbance in
their life is Shashi. Mother shouted at Shashi
when they came to Satara, You cursed Woman!
You broke our house into two, you treated us in
an inhuman way and on the top of that you are
preparing tea for us? We wont drink anything
coming from your cursed hands!(Upara:184)
Narrators Parumami was a beautiful
and good looking woman. Whenever she bathed
young men would hang around her. It is
humiliation of the beautiful women in kaikadi
community. Even these beautiful women are not
given freedom to comb her tresses properly.
Once the husband of parumami, noticed that his
wife was combing her hair. He dropped her to
the ground and sat on her chest snatching the
mirror from her hand, he began hitting her face
with it. Parumami is raped brutally by the young
men. Her painful condition is observed in her
own language; It was terribly painful .The
wolves didnt leave me my body has become
a rotten log of wood now! When mother
reported the matter of rape on Paru to Maruti
mama and father, they have not shown any kind
of sympathy towards her. Instead, they blamed
her, This bitch was not going to be faithful to
me. She has sacrificed her honor and she is
crying now.(Upara :84) Here once again the
pitiable and helpless condition of Para hurts us.
The next deprived woman character is
Pingla Joshis wife. She behaved very boldly
and sacrificed for her husband. One day Pingla
Joshi was suffering from high temperature. His
wife came late after getting fathers prescribed
some herbal plant which had to get from the hill.
Then Pingla Joshi suspects her and abuses her,
Bloody where! You brazen bitch! Ill get your
mother screwed by a donkey. He continued his
attack on her you old bitch! It is all over
between the two of us out! Get out! I cannot
stand the sight of you! Have gone crazy in your
old age. (Upara :86) They are no more treated
as human being. But the wife of Pingla Joshi is
not disturbed. Even she boldly says I shall look
after these four children as best I can.It means
the women have potential to struggle in her
domestic life. She is self sufficient. But the
patriarchal Indian system made her victims. The
moral advice of the mother of Narrator to the
wife of Pingla Joshi is worth noting. The
miserable life of kaikadi woman is observed in
the words of mother she says, A women must
return home before sunset, if not she is
suspected of misconduct. I spent all my life this
man. Each bone of my body has been worn out
in his service. (Upara:87)
Gajara is another woman of kaikadi
community. She became the victims of the rigid
rule of the community due to her adulteress. Her
seven children are begotten from seven fathers.
She is portrayed beautiful and heighted one. She
is banished due to her adulteress by the
community. The narrator entered in Gajaras
house with one of her sons to get a drink of
water, at this moment Narrators mother express
anger in following words: son of a bitch! you
drink water in this filthy house ? Have you
mortgaged your sense of propriety or what.
(Upara:101) Yet, mother warned narrator never
cross the threshold of Gajaras door and see the
face that big whore. The seven children of
Gajara have all been excommunicated. People of
community do not even eat with them. All the
kaikadi houses stood together where Gajaras
house stood apart. Poor Gajaras was not going
to survive the attack of her son. At last, one of
the elder brothers caught her by their and
dragged her out of the house. The wrong was
only with her that she commits adultery. So she
was banished by the community. The women in
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kaikadi community are mortgaged for the need
of money. This is one of the crucial things
observed with deprived Kaikadi women.
Punnapa have mortgaged his wife to Dharmea
last four years. He had promised to return the
amount to Dharma in four years. Now Punnapa
was ready to return the money but the fellow
Dharmna is not willing to return punnapas wife.
This discussion between Punnapa and Dharma
declares that women is considered as a
commercial object or mere thing. The woman
mortgaged here reveals her submissive nature
under the patriarchal tradition of the kaikadi
community. Your honour I submit before you
that I am better than a meek animal.
(Upara:57) The statemen defines submissive
and victimized women in the background of
kaikadi community.
Sharda is another deprived jumped on a
rope, left tones with her locks. Many tempted
young fellow impressed on the skill of Sharda
and attacked on her and fulfilled their sexual
hunger. Later on she is thrown away. In the
result she is died in her painful agonies. Pari and
Sari are the wife of Pingla Joshi. They were
selling the pots of silver and fulfilling their
needs. Each kaikadi women are hard worker.
There are some minor women character like
Bagli Phaltankarin who demands Sari as bride
groom for her son Vasant and managed to marry
them. Tani Wadarin helped Laxman when he ran
at phaltan. She advised him properly. Sari is
belongs to Holar society lived in Satara. She had
eight to nine children. Her husband was addict
of drinking wine. Her husband suspected her.
She boldly behaves with her husband. Pari is a
minor character, a wife of Jayshing who is
second uncle of narrator. She helped the family
of Narrator while wandering from one place to
another. Every woman in this memoir is
possessed responsibity in their domestic life.
Every woman in the memoir is dominated in the
name of caste, religion and gender.
The reflected Dalit women in the present
memoir are a typical deprived and subjugated in
the kaikadi community. Yet, they are exploited
physically also by the so called established
Hindu people. The women have not got any
kind of sympathy by Dalit male and Savarnas.
She is completely slaved under the rigid norms
of the patriarchal society. The women in upara
are an untouchable in untouchable. She is not
taken care of her health to look beautiful. The
women are fearful of their physical exploitation.
They are victims of physical exploitation time to
time in Hindu community. The Entire memoir is
a typical account of Dalit woman who is
marginalized in Indian patriarchic society.
Reference:
1) Mane, Laxman. Upara :An outsider
translated by A.K.Kamat (New Delhi
sahitya Akademi: 1997)
2) Rage, s.Cast and Gender: The violence
Aqainst women In India ,P.Jopland (ed.)
(New Delhi: Gyan publication, 1994)
3) Dhara, lalita, Bharat Ratna
Dr.Babasheb Ambedkar and womens
question. Published by Dr.Ambedkar
College of com. and eco. (
Mumbai:2010 )
4) Dr.Agrawal Beena and Dr.Neeta.
Contextualizing Dalit consciousness In
Indian English literature (Yking Book:
2010)
5) Dr. Mulate, Vasudev. Dalitachi
Aatmkathne: Sanklpna v Swarup
(Aurangbad ; Swarup Prakashan, 2003 )

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POST COLONIAL THEORY

Things Fall Apart as a Post Colonial Novel
Jayanti Dattatraya Shinge
Student, MA (Eng) III Sem
J S S College, Dharwad

Abstract:Postcolonial literature, is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial literature often involves
writings that deal with issues of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule. It is also a
literary critique to texts that carry racist or colonial undertones. Postcolonial literature, finally in its most recent form, also attempts to critique the
contemporary postcolonial discourse that has been shaped over recent times. It attempts to assimilate this very emergence of postcolonialism and its
literary expression itself.
Postcolonial literary critics re-examine classical literature with a particular focus on the social "discourse" that shaped it.Edward Said in his popular
work Orientalism analyzes the writings of Honor de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire and Lautramont, exploring how they were influenced, and how
they helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Postcolonial fiction writers might interact with the traditional colonial
discourse by attempting to modify or subvert it. An example of this is Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which was written as a pseudo-prequel
to Charlotte Bront's Jane Eyre. Here, a familiar story is re-told from the perspective of an oppressed minor character. Protagonists in post-colonial
writings are often found to be struggling with questions of identity, experiencing the conflict of living between the old, native world and the invasive
forces of hegemony from new, dominant cultures.In Wide Sargasso Sea, the protagonist is shown to be re-named and exploited in several ways.
The "anti-conquest narrative" recasts indigenous inhabitants of colonised countries as victims rather than foes of the colonisers. This depicts the
colonised people in a more human light but risks absolving colonisers of responsibility for addressing the impacts of colonisation by assuming that
native inhabitants were "doomed" to their fate.
Lopold Senghor conceived the idea of ngritude, Homi K Bhabha, Hampat B, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) made a significant mark
in African literature. Ayi Kwei Armah in Two Thousand Seasons tried to establish an African perspective to their own history. In Britain, J. G.
Farrell's novels Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip, written during the 1970s, are important texts dealing with the collapse of
the British Empire.

Chinua as a post-colonial writer

"Achebe is aware that the acquisition of a speaking voice
betrays his involvement with the process of destruction
he records; that he can celebrate the value of Ibo culture
only with he language tools acquired in the act of
destroying it". Many critics agree on this point, that for
Achebe, "To write is to reconcile oneself to a past
foreclosed by the experience of colonialism; it is an
archaeological gesture that seeks to recover the
historicity of Igbo life and culture". Postcolonial writers
are faced with the irony of using the tools of their
destruction to recreate a foreclosed past, and also to
reconcile themselves to it as well. "Achebe is aware that
in gaining the voice to speak he reveals his involvement
with the destruction which he records."
Chinua Achebe's 1961 book is a narrative that follows
the life of an Igbo tribe on the very cusp of the time
when the wave of colonization washed over Africa. Set
in Nigeria, the book follows the story of Okonkwo, the
son of a ne'er do well, who is determined not to end up a
failure like his father, but wants to follow tradition and
rise in rank within the tribe. But just as the title predicts,
Okonkwo's plans for a perfect life go astray. Change is
inevitable, and even the best laid plans go astray. In the
turbulent time setting, Okonkwo is doomed to lose the
traditions he cherishes as his society slowly falls apart.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
(From Yeats The Second Coming" .)

Achebe and the 20th century Igbo society

"Achebe recalls that his parents looked down upon the
"heathens" in their community who did not espouse
Christianity, but he eventually came to wonder if "it isn't
they who should have been looking down on us for our
apostasy"which mirrors the hybrid experience of the
twentieth-century Igbo society as a whole" Achebe is
able to so completely record and create Igbo society
because he has faced the general problems on a personal
level. He has felt and lived in the questions colonialism
brings up, and is able to use them to his advantage in
recreating an unbiased past. "Achebe's advantage is that
he is able to use with economy and confidence rituals
and conventions each of which symbolizes the society
his is describing."
"Things Fall apart is indeed a classic study of cross-
cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the
rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or
civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism,
takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another
civilization." One of the things pointed out is that
182 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Umofia had no kings or chiefs but had a highly
democratic and efficient government. This is something
the invaders did not see; Western sensibilities insist that
each nation needs a leader, at least one person to take
charge and prevent anarchy. The courts used the white
man's justice: either a flogging or hanging: both
senselessly brutal in Umofian eyes. The main reason for
the culture clash is lack of social interaction and
understanding between the cultures. And the
misunderstanding did not end at the end of the novel; the
colonizers are the ones who recorded the history, so, as
the saying goes, "Until the lions produce their own
historian, the story of the hunt will glorify only the
hunter". African history is unique; "History has not
treated the whole world the same way, and we would be
foolish not to realize how we are in a peculiar situation
as Africans. Our history has not been the history of
England." The cultural misunderstanding led to a false
history, with characters written from the hopes and fears
of a people whose uniformed accounts are prevalent
even today. "Achebe has made it clear that his principle
purpose in the book was to give African readers a
realistic depiction of their precolonial past, free of the
distortions and stereotypes imposed in European
accounts."
Okonkwo and the end of tradition

So how is Okonkwo related to the end of traditional
Umofian society? Booker sees Okonkwo as a visual
representation of the standards of success in Ibo life. He
is prosperous, he is one of the egwugwu, no one
compared him to his shiftless father; he has everything
he wants at first. But things start to change when
Ikemefuma was killed. Up until that point, following the
traditions of his society has only improved Okonkwo's
situation. When the choice comes to kill Ikemefuma, the
shortcomings in tradition start coming through.
"Okonkwo can be seen as testing the limits of his
society's integrity and exposing its real failure to provide
for humane and compassionate feelings." He adheres so
strictly to the rules that his example points out to others
the flaws in the system. If the system was complete, then
Okonkwo's stubborn, inflexible observation of the rules
would not have led to his downfall. Wright also claims
that Okonkwo's death was inevitable because through his
inflexibility he was the clog in the wheel of progress. "If
things fall apart is first a story of the disintegration of a
traditional African society, it is also the personal tragedy
of a single individual , whose life falls apart in the midst
of that same process."
But does Okonkwo fall because he represents the values
of a culture that is disappearing, or because he deviates
from that society's' norms? Umofian society is very
flexible; they compare their actions to those of their
neighbors, always questioning and adapting. But
Okonkwo does not adapt at all. In fact, he is so adverse
to changing that he cannot even accept it in anyone else.
And as for his strict adherence to tradition, that is not
quite true. Sure, he does follow the order to kill
Ikemefuma-even when he is given a loophole to escape
through, pointed out by Obierika-but he also disrupts the
Week of Peace and Achebe writes that "Okonkwo was
not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through,
not even for fear of a goddess". In that scene, he is
following his own stubborn will, and not tradition. He
kills Ikemefuma not because the system is flawed, but
because he does not want to appear weak like his father.
Okonkwo as a Historical Figure

One of the requirements of "civilization" is that a nation
must have a history. But Umofia seems to lack one.
Gikanki suggest that the beginning of Things Fall Apart
is an "imaginary response to the problems of genealogy
and cultural identity that have haunted igbo culture"
The book sets up Okonkwo as surrogate founding father,
with the story about throwing the Cat in a wrestling
tournament, and other aspects of Okonkwo's history as
the same as those of the Umofian nation. This is possible
because he seems to draw his identity from the traditions
and laws of Umofia. It is when he is separated from
these values and sent to his mother's land that marks the
end of his way of life. "In general terms, Okonkwo
acquires his heroic and tragic status by becoming
alienated from the very values he espouses and uses to
engender himself."
Okonkwo's tragic flaws

Umofia is a nation that definitely treasures loquacity. In
a setting like this, Okonkwo's stammer is a tragic flaw. It
is not seen in the book much; never does Achebe quote a
passage when Okonkwo sputters out his words. One of
the reasons for this may be that Okonkwo uses
aggression to replace his lack of speech. This flaw sets
him apart from the traditions he embodies; he can
participate, but he cannot find the joy of being verbose
like his compatriots. Another tragic flaw is Okonkwo's
stubborn inflexibility.
"As Achebe presents this growing success, he insinuates
the cause of future conflict: Okonkwo's inflexible will is
bringing him success in a society remarkable for its
flexibility." His rigidity leads to his participation in the
death of Ikemefuma. This incident is seen by many as a
turning point in novel, the beginning of the end. It
"initiates a series of catastrophes which end with his
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death". This action may have been legally correct, but it
was morally wrong. From that point on, all of
Okonkwo's decisions lead to disaster, even at the end
when his decision to kill the messenger leads him to kill
himself, something so abhorrent to his nation that they
cannot bury him. Despite Okonkwo's best efforts, he is
further separated from his nation until "the
embodiment of traditional law has become the outcast of
the tribe".
The culture clash

"Things Fall apart is indeed a classic study of cross-
cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the
rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or
civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism,
takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another
civilization." One of the things pointed out is that
Umofia had no kings or chiefs but had a highly
democratic and efficient government. This is something
the invaders did not see; Western sensibilities insist that
each nation needs a leader, at least one person to take
charge and prevent anarchy. The courts used the white
man's justice: either a flogging or hanging: both
senselessly brutal in Umofian eyes. The main reason for
the culture clash is lack of social interaction and
understanding between the cultures. And the
misunderstanding did not end at the end of the novel; the
colonizers are the ones who recorded the history, so, as
the saying goes, "Until the lions produce their own
historian, the story of the hunt will glorify only the
hunter". African history is unique; "History has not
treated the whole world the same way, and we would be
foolish not to realize how we are in a peculiar situation
as Africans. Our history has not been the history of
England." The cultural misunderstanding led to a false
history, with characters written from the hopes and fears
of a people whose uniformed accounts are prevalent
even today. "Achebe has made it clear that his principle
purpose in the book was to give African readers a
realistic depiction of their precolonial past, free of the
distortions and stereotypes imposed in European
accounts."
Postcolonial responses to the missionaries: Things
Fall Apart
Gerald Moore has stated in Seven African Writers that
Achebe's goal in writing Things Fall Apart was to
recapture ''the life of his tribe before the first touch of the
white man sent it reeling from its delicate equilibrium''.
This is central to an understanding of the novel. Right
from the tribes' first encounter with the whites, the
reader observes it being unchangeably altered.
It is the coming of the missionaries which brings the
disruption. After thousands of years of unviolated and
untouched tribal existence, Okonkwo returns after just
seven years of exile to find his village almost
unrecognisable. Similarly, his fellow clan members seem
unwilling to recognise him. Instead, ''the new religion
and government and trading stores were very much in
the people's eyes and minds ... they talked and thought
about little else, and certainly not about Okonkwo's
return''. The Europeans have been active in Nigeria for
just seven years and already the pre-colonial Nigeria has
been lost. This presents a clear picture of the sheer
rapidity of the colonial project. It seems inevitable that
much indigenous tradition and heritage will be swept
away, resulting in feelings of profound cultural
dislocation, and loss of identity.
Yet despite these hardships, the reader cannot escape the
feeling the Achebe is not as narrow-minded and bitter as
he first appears. He clearly does not object to the
discovery of and learning about new religions and
cultures. He presents a strong argument in favour of
discussion as a path towards understanding. In Things
Fall Apart, the missionary Mr Brown and Akunna, one
of the tribal elders, often spend long hours in discussion,
and although ''Neither of them succeeded in converting
the other ... they learnt more about their different
beliefs''. This demonstrates a mutual relationship, in
which both parties are equally eager to learn when
approached on equal terms.
It is not Achebe's intention to demonstrate any
superiority an idealistic pre-colonial Nigerian existence
might hold over life in Europe. What he seeks to achieve
is an ''illumination of the complicated truth of African
existence (and) a concrete insight into the reality of their
existence''. As clearly demonstrated in Things Fall
Apart, he is making neither excuses nor apologies for
African existence.
Similarly, he does not try to force Nigerian culture upon
a European audience. This is exactly what he objects to
in the colonial project - the forcing of European culture
on an unwilling Nigerian clan. The missionaries simply
walk into the midst of the tribe with their interpreters,
and ''told them that they worship false gods, gods of
wood and stone''. After thousands of years of
worshipping unchanged deities, the white man virtually
commands them to ''leave your wicked ways and false
gods''. Upon first contact, the natives are instantly and
ignorantly termed labelled ''false'' and ''wicked'', a
poignant example of Manichean aesthetics at work. It is
easy to understand how Achebe repeatedly views
colonial relationships as ''Master and Slave''
relationships.
184 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
In his rejection to this approach to missionary work, and
the colonial project in general, Achebe not only makes
them seem ''mad'' and a reason for much laughing and
joking, but he also hints at darker and more sinister
aspects to them. The missionaries were injected into
Africa with the expressed desire to completely change
all aspects of African life, and convert it into something
much more Europhile. They ''pride themselves on their
indifference to all the ceremonies which bind and
express the life of the tribe''. By extension, they can be
assumed to have entertained a great of indifference
within the tribe also. Basically, these individuals were
statistics of converted and unconverted natives.
The missionaries were ruthless in pursuit of new
converts. Domestic support for the missions depended in
large measure upon the tangible success of their
preaching, ''success'' being reflected in the numbers of
conversions. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe even hints at
their use of bribery and blackmail in their endeavours.
He tells us, ''the white missionary had set up a school to
teach young Christians to read and write''. The inference
is clearly that the unconverted heathens were not given
this opportunity. Yet bearing in mind the orality of
Nigerian culture, the apparent pointlessness of learning
to read and write is exposed. This is indicative of the
move away from Nigerian pre-colonial orature, towards
a more Eurocentric culture.
In their desire for quick converts, the missionaries
allowed into their ranks outcasts and ''afulefu, worthless,
empty men''. In the ideology of the missions, this was
portrayed as display of the truly egalitarian nature of
European Christianity, so different to the harshness
experienced in tribal living. Yet as Gerald Moore notes,
there are more duplicitous aspects to this. He states that
outcasts and seemingly worthless man were specifically
targeted by the missionaries because they are a group
which ''despises and gradually undermines the older
ones. Thus a fatal weakness is introduced at the very
heart of the clan, which is the unit of its customary life''.
In his portrayal of Nwofia, Achebe also acknowledges
the subversive side of the converts, men who have no
real place in the tribe, and no loyalty to it.
To further enhance the negative aspects of the missions,
Achebe suggests that even the converts never really
accept the religion they are being offered. The reader is
led to believe that each convert has their own self-
centred alterior motives for going into the ''evil forest''
with the missionaries. Two examples of such behaviour
are given. Nwofia is more attracted by the ''rollicking
tunes of evangelism'' than by the doctrines of
Christianity, and he doesn't really fit in within the tribe
anyway. Nneka also has her own reasons for conversion.
Having had two sets of twins killed by the tribe already,
and once more being pregnant, she goes to the
missionaries, it seems, to save her unborn child. Not
only that, but her family are relieved to separate
themselves from such an obviously cursed woman. In
Things Fall Apart, Achebe never accepts that
Christianity has been fully recognised, even by the
converts.
The people of Umuofia find it difficult to arrive
at a firm conclusion as to their opinion of the whites. To
the end they remain ambiguous, for example, they like
the wealth and new found value that white trade brings,
a strong reminder of the missionaries' role to find a
substitute for slaves. Yet they cannot reconcile
themselves with white intrusion and indirect rule
through a District Officer. Perhaps the reason for this
ambiguity and uncertainty lies in the difficulty in finding
a language or a voice for expressing and describing
white intervention. Such was the clash of cultures
involved in the colonisation of Nigeria that even the
language had to alter to accommodate it. In many cases,
this alteration brought about a silencing of native
dialects, and a loss of indigenous voice. This is potently
reflected towards the close of the novel with Achebe's
assertion that ''even now they have not found the mouth
with which to tell of their suffering'', an issue keenly
raised in Spivak's essay ''Can the Subaltern Speak?''.

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Re/Conceiving the Post/Colonial Ethos inNgugis Devil on the Cross
--Mirza Sultan Baig
Indira Gandhi Sr. College, Nanded.

Abstract: Kenya, like several other countries has undergone turmoil and curse of colonization, shares these experiences
commonly. Ngugi, having taken birth, in the crucial historical age of the nation, documented these experiences and political
exercises in his writings. He observed his father working, to an African landlord, on his own land. Its root cause was
involvement of one of his brothers in Mau-Mau uprising. This theme gets central position in many of his novels.

Ngugi, being a writer, puts his belief
about the position of the writer in a variety of
places particularly in his Homecoming (1972).
He believes that a writer plays a significant role
in society. According to him a writer must be a
more direct, didactic and polemical that he can
be in the creative process where he is in the
world of imagination. He says
Literature does not grow or does not
develop in a vacuum; it is given
impetus, shape, direction and even area
of concern by social, political and
economic forces in a particular society.
1

For him, novels become a creative manifestation
of this exploitation of beliefs. In other words,
the writings of Ngugi is an attempt to
understand himself and his situation in society
and history.
2
He pays consistent attention to his
basic themes. He identifies three phases of the
encounter with European imperialism
slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
It is through Church, Culture and Politics, Ngugi
pinpoints these basic themes of human reactions
to the social and political circumstances which
dictate the lives of men and shape their history.
Ngugi makes use of historical and
political elements to make a better future. Karl
Marx and Frantz Fanon occupy a dominating
place in Ngugis philosophy. Karl Marxs
political and economic philosophy suits to his
conviction about post independent Kenyan
development. It is Fanon who put the Marxist
theory in African context. Ngugi is impressed
for his expression.
Fanons philosophy is expressed in his
master piece The Wretched of the Earth and
Black Skins, White Masks. This first book deals
with his philosophy of revolution, a philosophy
which is derived from his experiences of
Algerian struggle and his experiences as a
psychiatrist. He finds violence and revolt as the
solution of getting oneself free from oppression.
He considers the poor peasants the instrument of
revolution. For him, these poor peasants are the
wretched of the earth. Here Fanon slightly
differs from Marx who stressed urban proletariat
to be the instrument of revolution. There is
psychological and political base for Fanon.
His second book Black Skin, White
Masks explores the socio-economic causes of
mental stress within the context of armed
revolution. He attributed the myth of colour as
the main source of racist oppression, he began to
see not a psychological aberration but a political
phenomenon.
3

In his novels Ngugi presented peasantry
as an uncorrupted class which has nothing to
lose. Fanons theories have been challenged by
several critics and labeled as incomplete and
unanswered. Ngugi tries to give answer to these
questions through his novels. The historical and
political theories have been combined in this
chapter as they are interdependent. Devil on the
Cross is a move towards a socialist revolution in
the post independent Kenya, where peasantry is
the centre of exploitation.
Devil on the Cross (1982) is a
significant novel in many respects. Firstly, it is
the continuation of Petals of Blood. If Petals of
186 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Blood represents new Kenya then Devil on the
Cross can be said as its transformation into a
modern state in which materiality is valued.
Secondly, the novel is not written in English but
in Ngugis mother tongue Kikuyu, while he
was in cell 16, at Kamiti Maximum Security
Prison in 1978. It was the result of his
decision
Kenyan writers have no alternative but
to return to the roots, return to the
sources of their being in the rhythms of
life and speech and languages of the
Kenyan masses if they are to rise to the
great challenge of recreating, in their
poems, plays and novels, the epic
grandeur of that historyInstead of
being suppressed and being sent to
maximum security prisons and detention
camps, theyd be accorded all the
encouragement to write a literature that
will be the pride of Kenya and the envy
of the world.
4

Ngugi was denied the supply of pen and paper to
write his novel. So, he found out the solution in
form of toilet paper and put down his next
fictional creation i.e. Devil on the Cross. He
says
One could get two or three sheets or
paper. But a whole pile for a novel? I
resorted to toilet paper. Whenever I
have said this people have laughed or
looked at me with questions in their
eyes. But there was no mystery to
writing on toilet paper. Toilet paper was
very coarse. But what was bad for the
body was good for the pen.
5

Thirdly, the format of this novel is very different
from the format of the Petals of Blood, which
was a detective story. Petals of Blood is a new
experiment of the novelist in which the whole
story is told in an oral narrative, the story is
narrated by a Gicaandi player. Fourthly, the
novel is an epic of post-independent Kenya in
which nothing is free. Ngugi points out the
two divisions of Kenyan society on the basis of
its economic standards. Ngugi freely uses the
political jargon to criticize and show dislocation
of politics in contemporary Kenya. The two
classes are the newly emerged black capitalists
and the age old class, depending of peasants and
workers.
The last significant aspect of the novel is the
creation of female characters as the protagonist
of the novel. He made Jacinta Wariingaa
common girl, turned into womanhood; the
principal character and the male characters play
minor roles. In fact the character of Jacinta
Wariinga is the outcome of Ngugis attempt to
portray image of positive African woman, which
was started with the character of Mwihaki,
Nyambura, Mumbi and Wanja. It is here with
the creation of Wariinga, Ngugi seems in his
bloom and success.
Originally, entitled in Gikuyu as Caitaani
Mutharabaini translated in English as Devil on
the Cross was received into the age old tradition
of story-telling around the fireside; and the
tradition of group reception of art than enhances
the aesthetic pleasure and provokes
interpretation, comments and discussions.
6
It
was published in a hard time of Ngugis life.
For his play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry
When I Want) was banned under the charge of
blasphemy. So it was a challenge for the
publisher to distribute it and most of the
publishers were expected to print and publish for
the English loving society. It came as a great
success quite unexpectedly for both the writer
and the publisher.
There are a number of characters in the novel
who can be said to represent a number of
characters from his former novel Petals of
Blood. These characters represent the two
sections of society. They newly emergent
bourgeois class and peasantry on the other hand
which also played dominant role in Petals of
Blood. Regarding the resemblance of the
187 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
characters and themes Harish Narang
comments
Jacinta Wariinga is a mother avatar of
Wanja Kaii while Wangari like
Nyankinyua in the earlier novel provides
a link with the freedom struggle. Muturi
like Karega, the Rich Old Man, Mwireri
and Robin Mwaura like Kimeria, Chui,
Mzigo and Nderi wa Riera in Petals of
Blood represent the forces pitted against
the people of Kenya. The theme too is
the same: complete and most inhuman
exploitation of the Kenyan masses by a
nexus of the ruling comprador
bourgeoisie and the criminal thugs in
alliance with their global allies.
7

Apart from it, The Journey is also common
theme in the novel. The present novel is a series
of narration of the various characters. It begins
with a dilemma of the Gicaandi Playerto tell
or not to tell:
Certain people in Ilmorog, our Ilmorog, told me
that this story was too disgraceful, too shameful,
that it should be concerned in the depths of
everlasting darkness
8

Simultaneously the novelist tells the readers how
the Gicaandi Players dilemma is resolved as
Wariingas mother came to me when the
dawn was breaking and in tears she
beseeched me: Gicaandi Player, tell the
story of the child I loved so dearly. Cast
light upon all that happened, so that
each may pass judgment only when he
knows the whole truth. Gicaandi Player,
REVEAL ALL THAT IS HIDDEN.
9

The novel right from the beginning throws light
on the class struggle between the poor and the
rich, the haves and the have nots in Marxist
terms. The novel begins with the story of
Wariinga, a woman fired from her job for not
submitting to her employer, Boss Kihara. In this
respect, Wariinga represents the most urban
women in Kenya who share the same saga of
exploitation. Ngugi sharply portrays the
bourgeois mentality
She enters another office. She finds
there another Mr. Boss. The smiles are
the same, the question are the same, the
rendezvous is the sameand the target
is still Kareendis thighs. The modern
Love Bar and Lodgings has become the
main employment bureau for girls and
womens thighs are the table on which
contracts are signed.
10

Wariinga has to face a series of misfortunes,
maltreatments and exploitation at the hands of
some irresponsible men in the society. At
school, she was made pregnant and deceived by
the Old Rich Man of Ngorika. She attempted a
failed attempt of suicide on railway track but
saved from timely intervention of Munti. After
having her baby, she completes secretarial
studies.
Her saga is through her narration when
she narrates her tale of suffering to her
undergraduate friend John Kimwana. He walks
out on her accusing her of being Boss Kiharas
mistress, who was the owner of Champion
Construction Company. Within a couple of days
she comes on road. Her landlord asks her for
increase in rent to which she opposes and finally
her luggage was thrown out of her one-room
apartment by the three Devils Angelsthe
hired thugs of landlord. Even she was
threatened to issue a single way ticket to Gods
kingdom or Satans, one way ticket to Heaven or
Hell.
11

Wariinga had been a victim right from
her girl hood. The Old Rich Man sacked her
after abusing her physically. Then her rejection
to be a sugar girl of Boss Kihara, indulge her
into a series of exploitation. She decides to leave
Nairobi, the soulless and corrupt city and return
to Ilmorog where her parents and daughter,
Wambui were living. She goes to Matatu stop to
go to Ilmorog, she sees a vision in which the
white colonialist Devil is crucified by the masses
188 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
(apparently, a reference to political
independence) only to be resuscitated by the
local comprador.
12
By this vision of Devils
crucifixion, she feels dizzy and was about to
collapse but suddenly saved by the stranger
whose assumed name is Kareendi. Before going,
he hands over an invitation card, saying
If you would like to know more about
the conditions that breed modern
Kareendis and Waigokos, go to the
feast advertised on the card.
When you go to Ilmorog
The Devils Feast!
Come and see for yourself
A Devil-sponsored Competition.
To choose seven Experts in Theft and
Robbery
Plenty of Prizes! Try your Luck.
Competition to choose Seven Cleverest
Thieves and Robbers in Ilmorog.
Prizes Galore!
Hells Angels Band in Attendance!
Signed: Satan
The King of Hell
C/o Thieves and Robbers Den Ilmorog
Gold Heights.
13

The journey begins in Robin Mwauras bus to
Matatu Wariinga is accompanied by Gatuira,
Muturi, Mukiraai and Wangari, the three men
and a woman respectively. The motif of journey
plays an important role as played in Petals of
Blood. The narration is turned to person to
person in the bus journeying to Ilmorog, the
travelers sharing their personal experiences with
each other. Before the journey starts, Mwaura
discovers that the old woman, Wangari has no
money to buy his ticket, he threatens her to put
down her immediately in the jungle:
I dont want any wrangling between us.
This vehicle does not run on urine.
Nothing is free in Kenya. Kenya is not
Tanzania or China
14

As soon as Mwaura is assumed of payment of
fare by Mariina and two other passengers, the
journey begins. It is here, Ngugi hands over the
threads of narration to the old woman Wangari.
She narrates her tale of life. Coming from a
peasant origin, she had participated actively in
Mau-Mau struggle: she seems disillusioned and
justifies the independence as
these legs have carried many bullets
and many guns to our fighters in
forests so that our children might eat
until they were full, might wear clothes
that kept out the cold, might sleep in
beds free from bedbugs.. That our
children should learn the art of
producing wealth for our peoplemy
small piece of land two acres had just
been auctioned by the Kenya Economic
Bank, as I had failed to pay back the
loan
15

After being snatched away her land, Wangari
finds a job in Nairobi but in failure. She was
arrested for being a vagrant and not having the
required papers for entering Nairobi:
I Wangari a Kenya by birth how can I
be a vagrant in my own country? How
can I be a foreigner? I denied both
charges: to look for work is not a
crime.
16

Meanwhile all the members had already
received the invitation of Devils Feast. She had
been released by the police on the promise to
show them where the robbers and thieves were
hidden in Ilmorog.
Wangaaris story inspires Gatuira to tell
his tale. He introduces himself as a Junior
Research Fellow in the Department of Music in
the university, working in the field of Culture.
Gatuira seems a conscious person of the state of
nation, culture, and the circumstances. He
makes others realize
our culture has been dominated by the
Western imperialist. Culture that is
what we call in English CULTRUAL
IMPERIALISM. CULTURAL
IMPERIALISM IS MOTHER TO THE
189 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
SLAVERY OF THE MIND AND THE
BODY.
17

He expresses his inner desire and ambition to
compose a music with the help of all types of
national instruments.
Gatuira tells his ventures particularly a
story of a peasant to whom he had metan old
manfrom Bahati in Nakuru-who had told him
old stories of ogres and animals. It was the story
of Ndingun who had sold his soul to Devil. It
was the tale within a tale within a tale.
Afterwards, he gives information that he is the
only son of a rich businessman who wants to
inherit everything and see him taking his charge
in business but Gatuira had refused on the basis
that he cant take charge of his business as he is
busy in his studies and research. Finally, he says
that he has received the Devils Feast invitation
which he got in his pigeonhole. He also
intended to attend it. This was the same
invitation which had been given to Wariinga by
the stranger on bus station. She faints on the
mention of Devils name.
The journey begins after some time as
Wariinga gets her consciousness. This time
another passenger Muturi tells his story. In this
way he becomes the narrator. He tells them that
he is a workera carpenter, a mason, a
plumber, a painter all that in Champion
Construction Company. He is sacked from his
job for demanding hike in wages. The employer
brought armed policemen with guns and batons
and iron shields and dismissed him. He also
expresses his intention to visit Devils Feast.
The travelers turns to Mwauras
opinion on the situation in the country. His
response reflects his typical bourgeoisie outlook.
He says
Business is my temple, and money is my
God. But if some other God exists
thats all rightshow me where the
money is and Ill take you there.
18

He is not the follower of any religion, sect or
religious philosophy. He knows only one
ideology i.e. bourgeoisie. He remarks
If I find myself among members of the Akurino
sect, I become one of them when Im among
Muslims, I embrace Islam. When Im among
pagans, I too become pagan.
19

The last passenger to tell his story is Mukiraai
who was in grey suit and dark glasses. He had
not taken part in any action until now. Even he
had not contributed in Wangaaris fare. He says
that he had studied at Makarere and Harvard and
wants to seek a career in commerce. His
thoughts reflect his thinking and proves him a
believer in capitalist system. He says
It is your kind of talk that is ruining the
country. That kind of talk has its roots
in communism. It is calculated to
sadden our hearts and make us restless.
Such works can lead us black people in
God and in Christianity. Kenya is a
Christian country and thats why we are
so blessed.
20

In the first part of the novel Ngugi has
mentioned the two obvious classes in
contemporary post independent Kenya. On one
side, he presents the workers, the peasants and
students, and on the other side he places the rich,
exploiters, and their collaborators. The group of
African elites or capitalist is the group of
wealthy people upon whom the destiny of the
nation depends. The group is represented by
The Old Rich Man, Boss Kihara, Mwaura,
thieves and robbers with the control over
administration and government policies. Their
attempts dislocated the politics of the nation. It
created two valleys in one nation on the basis of
economic condition. The political system which
the peasants had dreamt of has failed to provide
security and had become threat to their survival.
Ngugi takes favour of the peasantry and workers
and sharply satires the elite class who is mainly
responsible for the dislocation of political
190 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
system and anarchy in Kenya. He supports the
socialist system of administration.
Dislocation of Politics is clearly shown
by Ngugi in the second half of the novel which
depicts the celebrationDevils Feastwhich
is the competition among the thieves and robbers
to elect the greatest among them. The
competition is held in a cave near Ilmorog and
for this Feast, all the introduced passengers
Wariinga, Muturi, Guitiria, Mukiraai and
Mwaura have come either to observe or to
participate. It is to elect the heir of the white
colonizer to loot and enjoy every possible
material pleasure. To tell the story of his
robbery each has to come on the stage and tell
his story how he first came to steal and rob.
Even they had to tell the skills and techniques
used by them in their crime only to impress the
competitors. Finally, their aim was to show us
how we can develop the partnership between us
and foreigners so that we can hasten our ascent
into the heaven of foreign commodities and
other delight.
21

Ngugi makes his satire more sharp with
the bold confession and demonstration of
participants after participants who tell the stories
of their affluencenumber of houses, cars,
wives and mistresses and then their stories of
expertise at theft and robbery and finally their
suggestion. The Devils Feast is inaugurated by
the leader of fraternal delegates from
International Organization of Theft and Robbery
(IOTR). He advises the audiences, which
reflects his brutality and stone heart. He says
I think there is no one who does not
know that theft and robbery are the
cornerstones of American and Western
Civilization. Money is the heart that
beat to keep the western world on the
move. If you people want to build a
great civilization like ours, then kneel
down before the god of money. Ignore
the beautiful faces of your children, of
your parents, of your brothers and
sisters. Look only on the splendid face
of money and youll never, never go
wrong. Its far better to drink the blood
of your people and to eat their flesh than
to retreat a step.
22

His brutal speech creates an atmosphere to tell
each of the participants about his plans and
projects. It filled the atmosphere with
competition to overcome each other and crown
himself/herself as the king of thieves and
robbers. One of them suggests bottling air and
selling it to masses for breathing, whereas
another suggests building and marketing of
folding nests for the poor to lay their heads into
at night.
23

The Feast is disrupted with the arrival of
Wangaari with police. The irony is at its peak
when the police deny arresting those thieves,
gathered at the cave, on the ground that it is
purely a Party or Celebration of gentlemen.
They arrest Wangari under the charge of
accusing these respected businessmen.
During this time Wariinga and Gituiria
come closer to each other almost theyd fallen in
love. They tell their stories in which their
family background and their conditions are told.
Gituiria tells Wariinga that
My father is a business tycoon. He
owns several shops in Nakuru and lots
of farms in the Rift Valley and countless
other businesses to do with import and
exportI am his only son. His aim was
to send me to America to learn how to
manage property and profit, business
administration,but as for me, I have
never intended to follow in my fathers
footsteps.
24

He, at the same time, explains his intentions of
doing something significant in the field of
music. Wariinga also tells about her that she
was born in 1953 when Kenya was under the
rule of Britishers under very oppressed laws
that went by the name of Emergency
Regulations In 1954, Wariingas father was
191 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
arrested detained at Manyani. A year later her
mother was also arrested and detained at
Langata and Kamiti Prison.
25

According to her, the time which she
spent at Nakuru Day Secondary School was the
happiest time of her life. She was one of the
brightest students of the school. Her intention
was to be an engineer. Her uncle introduced her
to a Rich Old Man from Ngorika who used to
befriend her with a handsome pocket money and
gifts. He seduced and made her pregnant and
finally dumped. Out of shame and repentance,
Wariinga tried to commit suicide several times
but unsuccessful including throwing herself into
a pool and running before train. She, finally,
gave birth to a daughterWambui. She had
started life with new determination and positive
approach. To stand on her own feet, she had
come to Nairobi in search of job from which she
had been fired for not submitting to Boss
Kiharas physical advances.
Ngugi has simultaneously shown the
struggle between the two classes. Like Karega,
Muturi is busy in awakening the workers and
the unemployed, urging them to follow him, so
he could show them where all the thieves and
robbers of peoples wealth had gathered to
competition to see who had stolen most from the
people.
26
Muturi successfully organizes the
demonstration of a public rally outside the cave,
against the bourgeois exploiters and capitalist
system where theft and robbery was an open
field. Soon their rally is disrupted and five
workers are killed by the forces of bourgeoisie
law and order. Muturi, the students leader is
arrested for leading a violent rally.
The second half of the novel describes
the events after two years during which
Wariinga had become an automatic engineer in
Nairobi in a single room. Her personality is
totally changed from her former actions. It is
because of Ngugis mission to portray a positive
African woman. His is the attempt to convert
the age old traditional image of African woman
whose only work was limited to the boundaries
of the house. Through Wariingas character
Ngugi tries to liberate the African woman from
the barriers of tradition. She is portrayed as
The Wariinga of today has rejected all
that, reasoning that because her thighs
are hers, her brains is hers, her hands are
hers, and her body is hers, she must
accord all her, faculties their proper role
and proper time and place and not let
any one part be the sole ruler of her life,
as if it had devouted all the others.
27

She had learnt the arts of martial arts like judo
and karate. Meanwhile, her affair with Gatuira
is going on and they were planning of marriage
as her parents had already affirmed. They
wanted, now the permission of Gatuirias
parents for which they planned the journey to
Ngorika with lot of hopes and expectations of
their pleasant married life.
It comes to Wariinga as a blow when
she is introduced to the father of Gituiria who
was no other than the Old Rich Man who had
deceived her by making pregnant and deserted.
He was the father of Wariingas daughter
Wambui. But this time Wariinga is a matured
woman. She is bold and brave to meet the Old
Rich Man who pleads her to leave his son alone:
My home would fall apart. My property
would be left without a manager. My
life would break into seven pieces.
Jacinta, Save me!...I would like you to
leave GatuiriaBe Mine. Remember
you once belonged to me. I believe I am
the man who changed you from a girl to
a woman. And you are the mother of
my child although I have never set eyes
on it.
28

This time Wariinga is not an innocent to be
befooled as had been in childhood. She refuses
all the proposals from him offering every
comfort in life. She is not ready to be his sugar
girl, obviously, a showpiece for pleasure. Her
personality is developed in a conscious woman
192 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
fully aware of her circumstances. She shoots the
Old Rich Man with a gun which was given to
her by Gutiuria for her safety two years ago.
Her plans of marriage come under shadows. She
is not at all repent over her action but questions
him
There kneels a jigger, a louse, a weevil,
a flea, a bedbug. He is mistle toe, a
parasite that lives on the trees of other
peoples lives!
29

She goes out of the house without looking back.
But she knew with all her heart that the hardest
struggles of her lifes journey lay ahead.
30
She is
ready to face the coming challenges. In other
words, she declares a war against the ills of
society where there is no chance of deception
and reform.
In this regard, Wariinga resembles
Wanja who attacks Kimeria with a panga in her
private room in Petals of Blood. She is not
ready to duped twice and takes revenge on the
person who shattered her dreams. Her character
also resembles with Bessie Heads Dikeledi of
her story The Collector of Treasures.
Devil on the Cross is a document
representing the dislocation of politics best
represented by the thieves and robbers who
proclaim openly their criminality and greed vis-
-vis the communal goods.
31
It presents the
contrast between social classes, by certain
characters in post-independence Kenyan society
dominated by the bourgeoise class particularly
by the thieves, robbers and Kihaahu wa
Gatheeca, the elected chairman or Icicri County
Councils Housing Committee. He directed all
his politics on corruption and financial
blackmail. It is shown in his act of depositing
the amount in his account:
It happened that now and then the
council would borrow money from the
American-owned World Bank, or from
European and Japanese Banks, to
finance the construction of cheap houses
for the poor. That was a source of real
fact. I can remember one time when the
council demolished some shanties at
Ruuwa-ini. The plan was to erect a
thousand houses there instead. The
money was loaned to the council by an
Italian bank. The company that won the
tender for building the houses was
Italian. But, of course, it had first given
me a small Bank-hander of about
2,000,000 shillings. I put the money in
my account and knew that the campaign
money had been repaid.
32

The persons like him enjoy power and authority
only to fulfill their desires. They break the trust
of their follower/masses who think that
everything will be easily provided to them for
they are led, represented and ruled by their
countrymen. Politically strong persons grab the
political power to utilize their own needs, for
which they use each time new tactics and
techniques. Gatheeca, the leader of IOTR, The
Old Rich Man, and Boss Kihara are
representative of the tools of showing dislocated
politics.
Dislocation of Politics, violent
atmosphere, corrupted leaders and absence of
law and order make things worse. It is clear
with the case of Wangaari who had been
arrested for pointing out and accusing the so
called businessmen. The novel not only
describes the tension between the two classes
but also absence of democracy where national
wealth is robbed by the leaders. Health,
education, employment, housing and
transportation facilities and security to women
and children are not provided in public reform.
Devil on the Cross has been hailed as a
literary bombshell criticizing contemporary
Kenyan society. Ngugis attempt to present a
socialist state began with A Grain of Wheat, and
Petals of Blood in which he showed the peasants
and workers marginalized and left in deadly
condition. The novels were a new socialist
awakening in nature. It is here in Devil on the
193 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Cross, Ngugi lashes his satire over social and
political issues. The characters are more aware
of their conditions than his character in earlier
novels. In her article Socialist Consciousness
in the Novels of Ngugi, S. S. V. N. Sakuntala
opines:
Ngugi firmly states that a
revolutionary path is the only option left
for the Kenyan masses to form a
socialist society.
33

Expressing his opinion about the theme
and nature of the novel, Devinder Mohan says
The novel presents a literary form which
captures the nature of revolution in
humanistic context by differentiating the
psychological, sociological and
unverbalized motives in the working
class against the materialistic
acquisition.
34

Simon Gikandi pays serious concentration to the
motif of journey to be a parody of John
Bunyans Pilgrims Progressthe voyage
towards salvation and self understanding.
35
He
goes on tracing the significance and symbolic
meaning of the characters. The six persons in
the taxi represent a set of meaning and interest
both opposed and united together. He says
Mwaura literally means one who makes
off with other peoples things, a thief;
Muturi is a blacksmith, a worker;
Wangaari is a mother, named after one
of the daughters of Gikuyu and
MumbiWariinga means a woman in
chains, while Gatuiria is the seeker of
truth; Mwireri wa Mukiraai is one who
thinks only of himself.
36

Devinder Mohan goes on comparing the
character of Wariinga with the legendry
character in English literature like Hawthornes
Hester Pryne, Thomas Hardys Sue Bridehead
and Tess and in the modern novel, Isabella
Archer who face challenges bravely and emerge
conquerors. So far as Gatuiria, means the seeker
of his truth comes to know of the loose character
of his father. He is disillusioned with the reality.
Other characters also fit and work according to
their name and meaning.
Devil on the Cross reveals the plight of
the peasants and worker in contemporary days in
Kenya. Through Wariingas nightmare, Ngugi
has justified the selection of the title of his
novel. She dreams the devil was being crucified
but there were the rich persons in black suits
who released the devil from suffering and they
did not let him die on the cross. Ngugi clearly
shows that the devil belongs to the capitalist
class who makes them to exploit common
people. He has shown the increasing white-
coloured corruption growing like weed in the
developing cities of Kenya like Ilmorog,
Mombasa, Nairobi, Nakuru, and Kisumu.
There are two symbols used to present
the complete dislocation of politics. They are
Matatu bus and the cave: respectively The
Matatu representsthe world of
underprivileged where freedom of speech is not
guaranteed. Thus, Matatu represents the lower
class striving after freedom is seen in the
characters of Wangaari, Maturi, Gatuiria, and
Wariinga. The caves on the other hand,
represents the devils domain represented
exclusively by men of profit and women in
leisure.
37
The possibility of peasant revolution
which is expressed in the last two novels seek
reality in Matigari. The hero, an underground
messiah of the poor oppressed people give
justice to the under estimated class with full of
fury and violence for the opportunist elite class
in Kenya.

References:
1. Ngugi wa Thiongo. Homecoming.
London: Heinemann Educational Books,
1972. p.xv.
2. Reinhard Sander and Ian Munro. Tolsoty
in Africa. Ba Shiru, vol. 05, 1973. p.22
194 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
3. Killam, G. D. An Introduction to the
Writings of Ngugi wa Thiongo.
London: Heinemann Edu. Books, 1980.
p.13
4. Ngugi wa Thiongo. Detained: A
Writers Prison Diary. London:
Heinemann Edu. Books, 1981. p196
5. ----. Decolonizing the Mind. Harare:
Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1981.
p.74.
6. Ibid. p.83.
7. Narang, Harish. Politics as Fiction: The
Novels of Ngugi. Delhi: Creative Books,
1995. ISBN- 81-86318-15-1. p.116
8. Ngugi wa Thiongo.Devil on the Cross.
London: Heinemnn Edu. Publishers,
1982. p.07
9. Opcit. Ngugi Devil. p.07
10. Ibid. p.19.
11. Ibid. p. 07
12. Opcit. Chijioke Owasamba. p.102.
13. Opcit. Devil on the Cross. p.28
14. Ibid. p. 37.
15. Ibid. p.40.
16. Ibid. p.41.
17. Ibid. p.43.
18. Ibid. p.56.
19. Ibid. p.47.
20. Ibid. p.87.
21. Ibid. p.87.
22. Ibid. p.89.
23. Opcit. Narang, Harish. p.122.
24. Opcit. Devil on the Cross.p.133.
25. Ibid. p.138.
26. Ibid. p.157.
27. Ibid. p.218.
28. Ibid. p.251.
29. Ibid. p.254.
30. Ibid. p.254.
31. Djiby, Diaw. Elitism in Ngugi wa
Thiongos Devil on the Cross and
Petals of Blood. Published on
(www.beep.ird.fr/collect/resource/)
32. Opcit. Devil on the Cross. p.115-116.
33. African Literature Today Ed. R. K.
Dhawan. Delhi: Prestige Books, 1994.
ISBN. 81-85218-83-8. p. 214
34. Devinder Mohan in Commonwealth
Fiction. Ed. R. K. Dhawan. New Delhi:
Classical, 1987. p.206.
35. Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiongo.
Cambridge: Cambridge Universiity
Press, 2000. p.216.
36. Ibid. p.216.
37. Opcit. Chijioke, Uwasomba. p.104.

195 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Mahesh Dattanis Where Theres a Will : Portrayal of Family in Postcolonial
Indian Society
--Deepmala Marotrao Patode
S.S.S. Pawar college Purna.(M.S.)

Postcolonial Literary Theory is an intellectual
field which makes an enquiry into the conditions
of the colonized people during and after
colonialisation. According to Bijay Kumar
Das,Postcolonialism means something that has
a concern only with the national culture after the
depature of Imperial Power. So, Myth and
History, Language and Landscape, Culture and
Tradition and self and other are the themes of
postcolonial literature. In Where Theres a Will
Mahesh Dattani presents disintegration of family
and changing father-son relationship in
postcolonial Indian society. It concentrates on
husband-wife relationship through two
generations underlinging the changes that have
taken place as well as extra-marital relationship.
Plays of Mahesh Dattani throw light on
the realities of contemporary Indian Society.
His plays focus on the changing values of the
postcolonial India such as communal discord,
politics and crime, growing homosexuality or
the gender bias. In Where Theres a Will ,
Dattani concentrated on disintegration of family.
The play is about marital discord, Dattani has
described it as the exorcism of patriarchal code.
It is about the chaos reigning in a family due to
the emotional and temperamental
incompatibility of the members.
In Where Theres a Will Dattani
presents the character of Hasmukh in relation to
his wife, son and mistress. Hasmukh Mehta is
one of the top businessman in the city.He is
gritty, gusty,stubborn type of man. Hasmukh is
not happy with his married life.He considers his
marriage as the greatest tragedy of his life.
This is because, his wife,Sonal was incapable of
understanding her husband and also cold in love-
relationship with him. Thats why Hasmukh
says:
I soon found out what a good-for-
nothing she was. As -good -as mud. Ditto our
sex-life.
To satisfy his sexual needs Hasmukh
indulges himself in extra-marital relationship as
he himself confesses-
Twenty-five years of marriage and I
havent enjoyed a sex with her. So what does a
man do?... I needed a safer relationship.
Something between a wife and a pick-up. Yes A
Mistress. (CP 473)
He chose Ms. Kiran Zaveri as his mistress. She
is the business executive in his office. He
increases her status by making her one of the
Directors of the company. Thus, we find marital
discord in the life of Hasmukh Mehta and Sonal
resulting in extra-marital relationship with Ms.
Kiran Zaveri.
Everything was not right in Kiran
Zaveris life.Her mother suffer from marital
discord. Kirans father was a drunkard and used
to come home every evening with a bottle of
rum. He would abuse her mother and beat her.
Same thing happens with her brothers. They
have turned out like their fathers. They too
come with bottle of rum and abuse and beat their
wives. Kiran Zaveri, herself, married a drunkard
who allows her relationship with Hasmukh only
for the sake of money and a bottle of rum that he
got every evening.
Mahesh Dattani while examining the
disintegration of family, further talks about
changing father-son relationship in the
contemporary society. It has been presented
through Hasmukh Mehta the conventional
father who thinks that a father knows what is
good for his son , and Ajit, the son who believes
in living his own life. Having been a good boy
to his father all his life Hasmukh Mehta expects
the same from his son Ajit. But Ajit is not
ready to surrender his individualidty to satisfy
his father.
The conflict between the father and son
is evident at the very beginning of the play as
Ajit is talking to a friend on phone and telling
him how he would modernize the whole plant if
he were given only five lakh rupees. He said
196 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
that his father just wont listen to him I dont
think he ever listened to me in his entire life.
Hasmukhs reaction to Ajits statement that after
all he is his son reveals his whole attitude
towards his son:
What makes it worse is knowing that I
actually prayed to get him. Oh God! I
regret it all. Please let him just drop
dead. No, No. What a terrible thing to
say about ones own son . I take it back.
Dear God , dont let him drop dead. Just
turn him into a nice vegetable so he
wont be in my way. Eversince he
entered my factory, he has been in my
way. (C P 455)
Hasmukh considers Ajit as an
incapable and irresponsible young man who
resists all his attempts to take him under his
wings. Ajit on his part, considers his father to
be head-strong person who is just not ready to
consider any other opinion except his own.
Hasmukh is unhappy with his son, Ajit, because,
he would not follow in the footsteps of his
father. As he says-
Hasmukh: Yes I want you to be me!
Whats wrong with being me?
Ajit : And what becomes of me?
The real me, I mean , If I am you, then
where am I? (461)
Thus, the father wants a typical submissive,
hardworking and obedient son. He has no use of
for a son who is imaginative individualistic and
independent. The son on the other hand, is not
ready to be merely a prototype of his father. He
belives in living his own life and thinking his
own thoughts.- Why is it that everything I say
or do has to be something that somebody has
told me or taught me to do!
In this way Mahesh Dattani has
presented the relationship between Hasmukh and
Ajit as the representative of the changed society.
The Postcolonial Indian society has undergone
some fundamental changes. In the first half of
twentieth century Indian economy was
predominantaly agrarian , which fostered the
patriarchal code. In social and family life, codes
were fixed and each succeeding generation was
taught to follow them in a rigorous manner.
With changing economic scene all this began to
change. With the spread of education and
growth of employment opportunities in industry,
commerce and service sectors, the youngsters
are developing independent thinking where the
guidance of the father and other elders of the
family has but a limited role. The same thing
happens with Ajit as he wants to follow his own
ideas in business.
AS Hasmukh is not happy with his wife
and son, he is suspicious of his dughtet-in-law
Preeti. According to him Preeti is Pretty,
charming, graceful and sly as a snake. Preeti
is a new women who wants freedom and money.
She hates her mother-in-law. She is blunt and
offensive in her manners. Hasmukh was not
wrong in his opinion about her. She alters
Hasmukhs bloodpressure controlling tablets
with her vitamin tablets. It doesnt put control
over Hasmukhs bloodpressure and resulted in
severe heart-attack bringing Hasmukhs death.
In this way Preeti, Hasmukhs daughter-in-law,
is responsible for his death.
Hasmukh didnt love the members of his
family nor did he trust them. That is why he
took a mistress and created a trust in her name to
save his family from disintegrating. According
to the will Kiran Zaveri, Marketing Executive
turned one of Directors of the company,
becomes the trustee of the Trust and comes to
live with Hasmukhs family. She got the
authorities to disown the members of the family
from the property if they fail to follow the will.
Ms. Kiran Zaveri with her cunning conduct and
behavior brings discipline and harmony in the
family of Hasmukh Mehta.
Thus, Hasmukh Mehta was not happy
with his wife- Sonal, he had conflict with his son
Ajit, he was suspicious about his daughter-in-
law Preeti. There was no emotional and
temperamental compatibility among the member
s of the family. In this way Mahesh Dattani has
examined marital discord and father-son
relationship in postcolonial Indian Society
through Where Theres a Will.

REFERENCES:
1) Das, Bijay Kumar.Critical Essays on
Post-colonial Literature.New Delhi:
Atlantic Publishers,2007.
2) Dattani Mahesh. Collected plays. New
Delhi,2000.

197 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
A Study of Colonization in J. M. Coetzes Foe
-- Sham T. Jadhav
Bhai Kishanrao Deshmukh College
Chakur, Tq. Chakur Dist. Latur. [MS]

Colonialism denotes the manner in which
one culture appropriates the land, people and
resources of another to further its imperialist
ends. Colonialism has become a recurrent
and widespread feature of human history.
Modern European colonialism is different
from earlier colonialisms. The colonialism is
a particular historical manifestation of
imperialism. Colonialism is the settlement of
territory, the exploitation or development of
resources, and the attempt to govern the
indigenous inhabitants of occupied lands.
The Postcolonialism or Postcolonial
discourse is a current movement of thought
or a theory that deals mainly with the effects
of colonisation on the culture and thoughts
of the colonised societies.
Commonwealth literature is a
veritable storehouse of different cultures and
perspectives. African literature in English
and other European languages has added a
new dimension to the Commonwealth
literature. Thus Commonwealth literature
has reached a greater height in its search for
universality and truth. The diversity of the
Commonwealth literature is further
enhanced by the contemporary African
literature. This factor has posed a new
challenge before the Commonwealth writers
to redefine their perspective of unity which
links them into a cohesive group. The spread
of imperialism in Africa has created areas of
political influence and domination which
naturally produced a far-reaching influence
in the growth of African literature. English,
French and other European languages
became a part of African culture and
literatures of the Western world provided
models for the African writers. But the
native sensibility retained its identity,
though layers of foreign influences became a
part of African literature. Soon the plight
against the colonial powers gave rise to the
dimensions of social commitment and
protest movements in African literature.
African literature of today successfully
presents the conflicts and contradictions
within the African society and also provides
a glimpse of things in future.
Coetzees first book Dusklands
[1974] contains two linked novellas, one
concerning the American involvement in
Vietnam, the othe about an 18th century
Boer seller. In the Heart of the Country
[1977] was filmed in 1986 as Dust. This
novel focuses on the meditations of a
disturbed Afrikaner spinster. Waiting for the
Barbarians [1980] is a powerful allegory of
oppression which won the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize. This was followed by the
Booker Prize winning The Life and Times of
Michael K [1983]. In it, a man takes his
ailing mother back to her home in the
country as South Africa is torn by Civil
War. Then his famous work appeared Foe
in 1986 another one White Writing [1988].
His Age of Iron [1990] is a compelling story
of a woman dying from cancer and her
relationship with a homeless alcoholic who
camps outside her hosue. Doubling the Point
[1992] is his another famous work. The
Master of Petersburg [1994] is set in 1896
and this is the story of an exiled Russian
198 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
novelist who returns to St. Petersburg to
collect the belongings of his dead stepson
and becomes entangled in a web of intrigue
and revolutionary subterfuge.
Foe is a novel by J. M. Coetzee
published in 1986. It is based on a re-
imagining of Daniel Defoes classic novel
Robinson Crusoe with a woman, Susan
Barton, cast away on the same island as
Robinson Crusoe (here called Cruso) and
Friday. It uses allegorical techniques and is
considered by many critics as the archetypal
post-modern novel, examining the creative
process of storytelling, narrative, language,
as well as issues of gender, race and
colonialism. Returning from Bahia, where
she has been searching for a lost daughter,
Susan Barton is put off the ship after a
mutiny; she is accompanied only by the
dead body of the captain, whose mistress she
had been. She swims ashore and finds
herself on the island with Cruso and Friday.
Friday has been mutilated: he has no tongue.
Who did this, where or how it happened, we
are never told. After their rescue by a
passing merchantman, Cruso dies aboard the
ship and Susan and Friday are left to make
their way in England. After she arrives in
England, Susan drafts a memoir, The
Female Castaway, and seeks out the author
Foe to have her story told.
Coetzees novel comprises four
parts: beginning with Susans memoir, it
continues with a series of letters addressed
to Foe, letters that do not reach him because
he is hiding, trying to evade his creditors.
The novel proceeds to an account of Susans
relationship with Foe and her struggle to
retain control over the story and its meaning;
it ends with a sequence spoken by an
unnamed narrator (possibly standing for
Coetzee himself) who revises the story as
we know it and dissolves the narration in an
act of authorial renunciation.

[Coetzee, J.
M. 1987.]
The main focus of the novel is on
the art of storytelling. Primarily it examines
the issue of narrative voice, who is telling
the story. Coetzee turns the story, characters,
and subject positions of Defoes novel on
their heads to disrupt notions of truth, trust,
and story. The major question asked
throughout is Whose story is the right one?
Is there ever one right story? Susan Barton
begins as narrator of the novel. She battles
the cunningly-named Foe for the survival of
her original conception of herself as Crusos
living successor, while Foe, becoming more
authoritative than mere scribe of her
exploits, posits such possibilities as her
daughters reunion with Susan, and those
details which actually appear in Robinson
Crusoe.
The focus shifts from what is in
Susans mind, to what could be in Foes.
Susan is transformed from an actual
character to merely the muse that drives Foe
to write his book. In the end, what we get is
the story of how a story changes into its
final form and how its failed possibilities are
no less alive than its successful ones. The
novel dives into the wreck of Daniel Defoes
failed alternatives, examining the depths
Robinson Crusoe did not cover.
In the novel, Foe is a parody of the
English novelist Daniel Defoe. The name
Foe is ambivalent. It was Defoes real name
before he gentrified it with the De- and it is
a synonym of enemy. This word is
specifically present in protestant religious
texts where it stands for the enemy, the devil
himself. In its historical use it was exploited
by British colonists in order to define
colonized peoples as foes, a lexical
attempt to justify their actions over un-
civilized countries. The text analyzes
traditional canons of class, gender and race
199 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
in the processes of cultural acceptance and
exclusion. Written from the marginal
position of South Africa, it questions
marginality itself in an attempt to break the
silence of post-colonial voices. The author
Coetzee places his novel against the
traditional British master literature and
examines the historical and discursive
conditions under which South African
authorship must operate.
Based on a revision of Robinson
Crusoe, one of the founding narratives and
prototype of colonial storytelling, the novel
develops a re-conception of the plot, of the
act of creation of the book by his author Foe,
and of the famous characters of Crusoe (in
Foe, Cruso) and Friday with the help of a
new woman protagonist. Throughout the
novel, Fridays silent and enigmatic
presence gains in power until it overwhelms
the narrator at the end: the silence of Friday
passes through the cabin, through the
wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the
island, it runs northward and southward to
the ends of the earth. Fridays silence wins
in the end on all narrative voices. His only
weapon against cultural prepotency is to
remain silent, to turn his back to the
European attempt to have his story told. This
might be seen as his intention throughout the
story: he wants to counter domination, he
cannot be penetrated by others and so his
story will not be told by them. This leads to
the interpretation that this is his only
possible rebellious act against European
historical and cultural domination.
In Foe, Coetzee introduces a
fundamental change: the narrator is a
woman. Robinson Crusoe lacked female
characters: the only feminine element in the
story was the island, which was to be
dominated and tamed by men. Susan
Bartons narrative introduces the feminist
self-affirmation, specifically by taking the
island conditions of Robinson Crusoe and
overlaying them with the narrative of
Defoes Roxana, whose heros real name is
of course Susan. Susan is in a struggle to get
her story told by the novelist Foe: she wants
to protect her vision of the island but needs
Foe to write the story down for her, thus
providing it access to tradition and
institution of letters.
Another important difference with
Defoes novel is in the character of Friday:
in Robinson he was a handsome Carib youth
with near-European features, yet in Foe he is
an African; He was black: a Negro with a
head of fuzzy wool...flat face, the small dull
eyes, the broad nose, the thick lips, the skin
not black but dark grey, dry as if coated with
dust.[56] The pertinence of Friday to black
history is not in question: the inaccessibility
of his world to the European world is a
consequence of colonialist oppression and
racism. The mutilation in his mouth is
emblematic of black-African cultural
castration operated by the white invaders.
An archetype is a generic, idealized model
of a person, object, or concept from which
similar instances are derived, copied,
patterned, or emulated. In psychology, an
archetype is a model of a person,
personality, or behavior. This article is about
personality archetypes, as described in
literature analysis and the study of the
psyche.
The novel Foe ends with a surreal
and cryptic scene in which an anonymous
first-person narrator wanders around the
submerged wreck of Crusos ship. This has
finally become available for inspection. In
this scene, all the characters of the novel
make their appearance. These last pages turn
a simple postmodern interest in questions
of textuality and intertextuality into a potent
investigation of the issue of power,
200 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
envisaging for the subaltern Other the
possibility of resistance.
Coetzees novels expose the fact
that identity which understood as a
fundamental truth about the individual does
not exist. Because identity is achieved in
language. It is simply mediation, and just as
the meaning of the literary text changes
according to the reader. So the individuals
identity is determined by the context the
person finds himself or herself in. In
Coetzees work, this context becomes the
intertext which lies at the heart both of our
lives and of the work of art Coetzees most
self-reflexive novels can and should be read
as part of a larger discourse on humanity.
Since human beings can escape neither their
context nor their intertext, their identity is
exposed as constructed by their surrounding
reality and the preceding reality. This reality
constitutes the history of humanity. Any
idea of identity as a fixed meaning is
destroyed in Coetzee. In its place, we find
an identity which is deconstructed piece by
piece. As Coetzee suggests, truth about the
individual may only be found by
recognising that the sum of these different
fragments, their interaction, the empty
spaces between them and their everchanging
condition is what composes identity.
References:
Coetzee, J. M. 1987. Foe. (1986),
Harmondsworth, Penguin. [All the
parenthetical references of the text are
taken from the same publication.]

: WEBLIOGRAPHY USED :
http://www.google.com
http://www.navhindtimes.com
http://www.rediff.com
http://www.yahoo.com

201 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1

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