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Mulk Raj Anand: Indian-ness in Two Lady Ram
The English language has become to the Indian Subcontinent as a’ reminiscent’ and much prized reward of the British Colonial experience which spans nearly all of the ‘History of India in Becoming a Unified nation’. And it is in the same understanding that one cannot refuse to accept that English as a language has played a pivotal role in igniting the nationalist spirit in the minds of the Indian citizens who were divided on the basis of regional identities. Quoting from the famous essay of A. K. Ramanujan- ‘Is there an Indian Way of Thinking?’ the parable as told by Buddha and reiterated by Ramanujan in the same context goes as follows: “…Once a man was drowning in a sudden flood. Just as he was about to drown, he found a raft. He clung to it, and it carried him safely to dry land. And he was so grateful to the raft that he carried it on his back for the rest of his life”. Thus, it is agreeable that invasively so, but the English Writing has been the rescuer of the Indian Civilisation after the Partition in 1947 and ever since has become the reflection of the ‘Voice of the (New) Formed Nation’. Amongst all the writings in English the short story form enjoys a special affection amongst the members of the ‘Intelligentsia’ like Mulk Raj Anand to the modern day writers like Salman Rushdie. After all, the short story is an art form staunchly Indian in origin of which the examples are the Vedic texts like the Puranas to the epics like Mahabharata. Yet the paradox remains that Indian short story in English is but a product of Western Influences (M.K.Naik). But remarkably so, even then“English is borrowed into (or imposed on) Indian contexts” (A. K. Ramanujan) which subdues the existence of English as an alien language and makes it all the more “Indian”. And when issues concerning the Indian Nation form the core of the Writing in English the product is but an expression of the lives of the Indian common folk in a more universally read medium. Such colourful “Indianism permeates in the diction, idiom and imagery in dialogue” of Mulk Raj Anand. One of the ‘triumvirate’ in the 1930s who established the Indian English Novel, Anand has since then written eleven novels alongside many short stories that reflect on the issues that were prevalent in then India, suitably justifying the Indian English short stories as the “Breath in the Mirror”. The short story: Two Lady Rams (part of the short story collection The Tractor and the Corn Goddess) is typically what Anand defined as “highly developed form of folk tale” that included “psychological understanding of the contemporary period”. The short story comes as a social satire on the “Angrezi Sarkar of India” and highlights the tussle between the colonial subject and the colonial master. The story follows the same theme at two levels, where for one, Lalla Jhinda Ram is the colonial subject to the “department that acted on His Majesty’s Behalf” and the second are the wives, Sukhi and Sakuntala who are the colonial subjects to (the agent of the patriarchal society) i.e. Sir Jhinda. As the story unfolds one can understand the satire that stands to highlight how poorly the ‘colonial master’ governed over its subjects of whom he knew and cared the least. The apparent honour of Knighthood which is cunningly bestowed on Jhinda Ram (mark of his sly ‘sundry’ services to the Empire) and supposed to raise his social status helps to bring forth this negligence of the British State; and as for the wives the selfish decision of Lalla Jhinda to take the second wife to his investiture ceremony because otherwise she would abstain from entertaining him, shows the lack of regard and respect towards wives that were then treated as mere objects of the household. Another theme shadily addressed in the story is the tuft between on setting modernity and fading traditions. Thus even when Jhinda Ram enjoys a siesta and his mansion had an “English style gol kamara or, living room” he was acquitted to marry two wives on the grounds of Hindu Mitakshara Law and demanded for his wives to dress in a traditional sari for the Ceremony. In all, the household of Jhinda Ram was on the margins of traditional and the cusp of modern. And when the Modern (the Kinghthood) merged with the Traditional (the two wives of Sir Jhinda) (amusingly enough) the Colonial Anxiety is surfaced. It is in the same light that one can imagine the last gravely serious comment “the three staunch pillars” said with respect to Jhinda Ram and the Lady Rams as a drawing its symbolism to the state of the Indian common folk (Jhinda Ram) which struggled to obtain an identity through the modern (Sakuntala) but could not afford to lose the traditional (Sukhi) that had formed the whole truth of their survival. Another facet of the issue of Identity comes through the tussle of Sakuntala and Sukhi both of whom wish to be Lady Ram since the women of colonial India were recognised by the name of their husband, Anand comments on the lack of individual identity of women in marriage and through his female characters attempts to inspire revolution in women to fight for their ‘rights’. The Two Lady Rams runs as a comical account of the day of a shopkeeper’s life who is bestowed the highest honour in British Raj, only to add misery to his life. A misery which does not come from poverty or exploitation (as in the other short stories of Anand) but whose cause is ‘over abundance of undue credibility’. Thus, even when the story is not the whole truth yet it is derived from the truth of the lives of the ‘Indians’. In addition the story places a satire on the ‘sleeping Indian spirit’ and the so called ‘collaborators’ of the British Raj who out of selfish motives served the Colonial Master. By extension, the story therefore, comes with the hidden message of the agony involved in the service of the British than the ‘Homeland’ which came with the loss of one’s integrity and common sense which Jhinda Ram idolises when he seeks the advice of his Chauffeur.
Mridula Bhatt
Linguistics slides
Sharing the notes relating to the course humanities and subject Linguistics . The documents attached below in the knowledge includes topics such as Description of Vowel sounds, Description of Consonant Sounds, Places of Articulation, Manner of Articulation, etc. #BITS Pilani
Avinash Pati
Detective fiction in "Murder of Roger Ackroyd"
Debatably considered the masterpiece of Agatha Christie, the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, sets the limits for Detective Fiction to a level which was unimaginable in the Golden Age of the Detective novels. Christie enjoys a reputation among critics’ circles as a writer who can easily merge the boundaries of the genre of her writing with unexpected and purely imaginative outcomes. But in the Murder of Roger Ackroyd Christie seems to utilise the (redundant) and limiting conventions of the self same “genre” to fit in with (her) plot, such that in the “inverted “detective novel the conventions and the contradictions go parallel leaving an impact which is as inexpressible as it is gripping. Detective fiction is a sub-genre of the crime thrillers which gives the reader two gimmicks – a seemingly unsolvable problem and the pursuit to untangle it for which the detective proves instrumental. Yet the heart of the novel is “logical deduction” which beyond all reasons cannot be uncompromised. In the MRA, Agatha Christie follows the major characteristics of a detective novel which are elaborated upon by the work of the clever Hercule Poirot. The Murder of the wealthy and old Mr. Ackroyd takes place in a closed room which could not be accessed without getting in notice of the other members of the house. The event is further complicated when it is revealed that Mr. Ackroyd was heard talking just minutes before he was discovered brutally murdered. The murder provides the perfect exposition for the retired detective Poirot to interfere in the matter and identify the murderer. As critics note the novel is filled with “too many curious incidents which are not related to the crime” and yet perform the role of red herrings which under chaotic sequence of things tangle the story further. With more than 5 suspects and a ‘missing’ prime suspect the novel clearly justifies its position as a detective fiction. Like all other detective novels by Christie, The MRA also upholds reason and logic above all virtues which is epitomised in Hercule Poirot. Yet, the deductions made by Poirot are more close to “cultural” manifestations and personal habits than universal cold logic. In the make believe world of the detective fictions, crime and evil form the perverse part of reality which is easily spotted and hence severely punishable. Following the same convention, Christie also places the narrative of MRA in the village of King’s Abbot where modernity has not set foot – “We have a large railway station, small post office, and two rival ‘General stores’…Our hobbies and recreations can be summed up in one word, ’gossip’ (MRA, Who’s who in King’s Abbot) . But the climax of the novel hints at a more dubious reason for selecting the conventional “English country house “setting. As Julian Symons notes -“Criminals of Christie’s novels were not generated out of a culture but individual desires” and therefore it is reasonable to argue that the criminals of Christie’s novels are a product of an anxiety which gripped the urban life after the World War. Money and sex were the two major reasons for which Christie’s criminals indulged in the evils like murder and theft. In a constantly shrinking world, these were the two forces which guided the man in England to pursue the evil ways and it is hence that through the corruption of the godly doctor (Dr.Shepperd) in the seemingly original and pure country village, Christie wishes to highlight the degraded moral state of the times- a degradation which has spread from the cities to the country. The detective in the story acts as the link between the reader and the progression of the investigation/ story. He not only demands the trust of the reader but also assumes the position of a competitive figure in the battle of wits between the reader and the investigating detective. But every detective fiction conventionally had only one detective/ character who was allowed to match the wit of the reader but in the MRA Christie introduces the character of Caroline since the very first chapter as a person who could identify strange events “without stepping out of the house”. She is the first character which establishes that link of competition with the reader until Poirot is introduced and in fact it is Caroline only who helps Poirot identify the real murderer through her gossipy nature. Caroline Shepperd is acknowledged by Christie as the precursor of Miss Marple. So, it is not wrong to conclude that MRA features not one but two detectives. The multiplicity of events is also noticed in the number of times that the crime is reconstructed with different characters of the story. Unlike the other detective novels where the crime is reconstructed in the end to clearly identify the culprit, the crime is partially reconstructed with each character through the progression of the novel. Yet, unlike the other novels of the genre, the climax of Christie’s MRA lies in the revelation of the narrator as the culprit of the murder. In this final revelation, Christie breaks the trust of the reader and delves into a territory which was unchartered in detective fiction – “the criminal mind”. It is in fact the untrustworthy nature of the narrator that lashes the reader into accepting a world of deception. By allowing the narrator to be the murderer Christie sidelines the centrality of the character of the detective who restores the social order and throws the light on the development of the criminal mind from the execution to punishment of the crime. Christopher Booker in his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories? describes the meta plot of a novel as having the following stages: • “The anticipation stage, in which the hero is called to the adventure to come, • Dream stage, in which the adventure begins, the hero has some success, and has an illusion of invincibility. • Frustration stage, in which the hero has his first confrontation with the enemy, and the illusion of invincibility is lost. • This worsens in the nightmare stage, which is the climax of the plot, where hope is apparently lost. • Finally, in the resolution, the hero overcomes his burden against the odds.[2] Clearly then, the light of the novel MRA lies on the criminal unlike the other detective fictions where the detective and his rationale were the central concern. The key thesis of Booker’s book then helps in understanding the MRA more accurately: "However many characters may appear in a story, its real concern is with just one: its hero or heroine. It is he with whose fate we identify, as we see him gradually developing towards that state of self-realization which marks the end of the story. Ultimately it is in relation to this central figure that all other characters in a story take on their significance. What each of the other characters represents is really only some aspect of the inner state of the hero or heroine themselves."
Bhagvad Gita slides
Notes made available for the students studying humanities as a course and subject literature.The topics included and discussed are Srila Vyasa Deva: Compiler of Bhagavad-gita, Vedas, Gita mahatmya, etc. #BITS Pilani
industrial sociology
industrial sociology
shreya singh
communication skills
communication skills
Epic Diction: In light of Oedipus Rex
One of the sic constituents which determine the quality of a tragedy, as explained by Aristotle- Diction stands second to plot. While the entire emphasis lays on the decree of plot yet it is equally acclaimed that the mode of effectively revealing thought, character and plot comes as a witty way of writing. Diction in the words of Aristotle means the arrangement of the verses, the kind of word selection and placement of sentences used to express an emotion. Oedipus The King is a play laiden with numerous writing techniques be it irony, symbolisms or imagery. Beginning with the very name of the eponymous hero, the careful selection of words is evident. As per the Greek script the name of Oedipus is spelt as “Oidipous” and while “Oida” means “I know” the word “dipous” is the Greek word for two footed. Throughout the play, Oedipus is found asserting his authority in the name of his exceptional “knowledge” though on the contrary he did not even know his real mother and father. He was ignorant rather blind to the truth of his own life. Oedipus learns that he was blind not to see the warnings that people have given him not to seek his identity. The use of irony shows that at the beginning he was too proud to see the truth about himself. As more and more information is being given to him he realizes that he has cursed himself and that he is the most unfortunate man in the world. “Dipous” on the other hand draws its dual meaning from two major events of Oedipus’ life. “Man” the answer of sphinx’s riddle that Oedipus gave as well as the prophesy of Teresias about Oedipus leaving the city of Thebes as a blind man “a stick tapping before him step by step” are the two peaks of Oedipus’ tragic life. It is worthy to note that Sophocles has introduced the motif of sight vs blindness which is symbolic of “pursuit of knowledge”. In another translation, Oedipus’ name in Greek translates to "swollen foot." When Oedipus was three days old, his parents received a prophecy saying that he would one day kill his father. So, they pierced and bound his feet and sent him off to be abandoned on a mountainside. Oedipus survived the incident, but was left with scars on his feet. It is here that the first instance of symbolism is visible. Oedipus’ scarred feet highlight the fact that he has been marked for suffering from the moment of his birth. This expounds upon Sophocles' idea that humans have no power in face of the gods. Although his name blatantly points attention to his scarred feet which are the keys to discovering his identity, Oedipus doesn’t realize his true identity until it’s too late. An example of symbolism also comes from the doomed king's ignorance on the key matter of his identity though he was made famous for his keen insight, by solving the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus thus, becomes symbolic of all of humanity, stumbling forward through a dark and unknowable universe, which may as well have been the thought of the entire play. Throughout the play Oedipus The King Sophocles uses irony. His uses of irony suppose to show the reader what kind of a person Oedipus really is. Irony thus can be cited in three main headings- Verbal Irony is illustrated in the hero’s speeches. Like: when Oedipus demands that the evil man who murdered Laius be punished, but he is unaware that he is the murderer. and Oedipus ridicules Teiresias for his blindness but Oedipus is also a sightless, witless and senseless man to the truth of his own actions. Tragic irony is shown by the character’s actions and even verbal actuations resulting in a pathetic outcome which the spectators are aware about beforehand Like: Due to the prophecy, Oedipus leaves his parents and escapes to another city. He does not know that he was an adopted son. His escape leads him to the city where his true parents resides and Oedipus does not know that he has married his own mother and has four children with her. Incest is one of the greatest crimes, so he causes the plague to happen in his city. Situational irony is the disparity between the anticipated outcome and the factual end when invigorated by dissolute fitness. It examples are situations like Oedipus is an adopted son; he hears the prophecy; so he escapes to the city of his real parents onlltoreturn back later. Also it happens that he unknowingly kills a man who happens to be his father and is persuaded to marry the queen who happens to be his own mother. Worthy of attention are the words of Oedipus that describe the aspects of his personality. Fire and water-associated with the birth of the god Dionysus-are used to suggest the "raging passion" and "cooling reason" that divide Oedipus' personality. When he acts in haste or with anger, for example, Oedipus speaks in images that suggest fire. When he pauses to consider his actions or reflect on his decisions, Oedipus speaks in images that suggest water. Due to more than a century’s worth of philosophic understanding in Hellenistic societies by the time of Oedipus, it could be assumed that Oedipus’ quick rage was a product of extreme vanity and hubris. In the tradition of the literary rule of three’s, Oedipus is given three opportunities to fall from his high horse and avoid his fate. First by the Oracle, who Oedipus antagonizes until he is forced to reveal the prophecy. Second by Jocasta, who realizes the horrid irony of their history together, and begs Oedipus not to pursue it further (1056-1062) and finally by the herdsman who left him, as a child, on Cithaeron’s slopes. However, Oedipus’ persistence and brute-determination despite these entreaties are his undoing. Thus, the audience is provided insight regarding Oedipus’ tragic flaw through thought-revealing diction on behalf of all the characters in the play.
Bhagvad Gita notes
Notes made available for the students studying humanities as a course and subject literature.The topic included and discussed is of bhagvat gita. #BITS Pilani
Juvenile Delinquency in India
Studies the cases of juvenile delinquency from various lens of ethical perspectives and is concluded by providing the validity of these perspective when dealing with juvenile delinquency.
Karthikeyan Surendiran
Ethics pdf
Slides by IIT ROORKEE'S PROFESSOR
aayushi shrivastava
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility - Pointers to work upon, Head lines
Tigiripalli Hemanth Raj
Swami And Friends: On Cusp of Modernity
The idea of a novel is best summarised in the words of Iyengar: “In my beginning is my end to my end is my beginning”. The novel tradition in India, ever since Independence, has been used as a medium by the writers to express “the way of life of the group of people with whose psychology and background he’s most familiar”. The evident example of the same being writers like Mulk Raj Anand who painted the picture of India and presented it as if first hand. But in the same time, R.K. Narayan emerged as a writer who used the novel as medium of reflection of India but Narayan’s picture is overtly the Utopian picture of India. “He is neither an intolerant critic of Indian ways and modes nor their fanatic defender”. Narayan in his novels attempts to “explore the wayward movements of the consciousness and the thoughts and stirrings of the soul, which are recognizably autochthonous”(Iyengar). And it is thus that even after Swami undergoes the “biggest shock of his life” his childish brain gets carried away towards a tin can floating in the gutter. This way Narayan is able to maintain a sufficient distance from the “political” and “nationalist” using his “Touchstone method” and yet cater to the paradox that permeated in the lives of the Common Indian of the time. Narayan’s Malgudi is neither a village nor a typical city but a town of modest size. It is a place that “embraces all change” and yet remains the same in its core. The Sarayu river which is lavishly described as if it bears the fervour of the Ganges and the Memphis Forest on the other side of Malgudi spread as Amazon are hints that point to the fact that Malgudi is a small representation of Narayan’s India (Naipaul), which is steadily intermixing with the world. And to quote Walsh: “What happens in India happens in Malgudi and what happens in Malgudi happens everywhere”. In the early twentieth century when the common Indian struggled to find an identity amongst the tussle between the humbled traditional and the invasive modern norms of the society, it becomes imperative that “Malgudi” would encounter the same with a certain seriousness and comic element. As Ron Shepherd observes there is “an architectural duality (in the structure of Malgudi) in which modernity superimposes on tradition”. Hence in a remote town like Malgudi, which stands at a large distance from Madras, one can find the Ellaman street and Grove Street and the Abu Lane and Vinayaka Mudali Street existing simultaneously. Such blending becomes explicitly evident in the household of Swami, where three generations of Srinivasan Family emulate the three stages of transition from the traditional to the apparently modern society. Swami’s Grandmother epitomises the life of the traditional with her “faint atmosphere of cardamom and cloves”. She sleeps on a bed made of “fine carpets, bed sheets and five pillows” and narrates the stories of Harichandra to the much ignorant Swami. It is this ‘aura’ of the Grandmother that makes Swami refuse for Rajam to meet her with “brutal candour”. While Swami’s father expresses the stage of partial acceptance as he dresses for the court in a black silk coat and “turban”. As K. Chellapan opines, the socio-ethical life portrayed in Narayan’s novels are “rooted in the ageless past, of which myths are objective correlative”. Thus, while Swami and his friends look with much fascination at the toy gun in Rajam’s possession, one and all of their tussles are sorted out through simple hand to hand duels. On the other hand, while the children read about the Bible, Rajam attempts at quoting from the Vedas and Swami troubled by the supposed death of an ant “took a pinch of earth and uttered a prayer for its soul”. And to extend this understanding of the middleclass household from Swami’s House to all the houses in Malgudi won’t prove futile. But while these manifestations of modernity “overlay the earliest formation of tradition and customary life they do not necessarily replace them”. Malgudi is a town which has a railway station which stands as a direct symbol of the industrialization brought with Colonial rule but yet the 12:30 mail “glided over the embankment, booming and rattling while passing over Sarayu Bridge”. On one side of the town lie the fields and to the other the Colonial structures like Court, where Swami’s father works and the Police Station. Malgudi thus, becomes a town which is as wild as the Memphis Forest at its core- a town of peasants and herds- but equally modernised and raised to the stature of a ”near presidency”. And to personify the town Malgudi, one can imagine it to appear like the “Common Man” of R.K. Laxman (Narayan’s cartoonist brother) “who is clad in dhoti and a plaid jacket”. So while the mixed attire of the Common Man may mislead and/or misdirect to present him as a modernised figure, but it is impossible to notice the covert traditionalism he follows. Therefore, while mapping the layouts of Malgudi, it is understandable that the town dwells on a structure where “life” happens in a natural environment such that modernity seems to become more of a psychological phenomenon than physically transformational. So much so, that “citizens” seem to personify the same spirit of the town amidst these two notions of Living