LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Novel as Contemporary Indian History -
A Glimpse of Works by Manohar Malgonkar,
His Contemporaries, and Precursors

Mayur Chhikara, Ph.D.

Abstract

Contemporary politics, religion, philosophy and sociology contribute primarily to the conceptual content of literature. In Indian literature also, Contemporary history has been used as an important theme explicitly or implicitly by almost all the Indian writers in their works. It has been as an important plot ingredient in their novels. Likewise, most of the novels written in India have been influenced by contemporary history.

This paper analyzes influence of history on the works of Manohar Malgonkar in particular, his contemporaries, and precursors.

Literature, especially novel as a literary form is inextricably linked up with the environment in which it is written. It is a social activity. Novel has its foundations in economic, political, social, philosophic and religious patterns of time. The whole environment as such has a vital role to play in the making of literature especially novel.

Shamota comments:

The soil which nurtures artistic talent is the culture of the people, the tastes, spiritual demands and life of the artist's contemporaries. In other words, the artist is only the co-author of a magnificent creation known as the culture of the people. (Shamota 106-7)

Lawrence regards, novel a very vital form of creative art, as it is the "only form of art or science" which focuses on the living man in his "entirety" (Lawrence 85). Politics, religion, philosophy and sociology contribute primarily to the conceptual content of literature. The novelist is supposed to embody and reflect the true picture of society of what he is a keen observer.

Henry Fielding incorporated in English novel a significant streak of socio-political concern. This streak of socio-political concern, has since then, struck deep roots and produced many great works of genius.

Gradually novel found acceptance as an adequate medium of expression to withstand the demands of time; where the majority of the problems raised in bristling multitude by contemporary social and political developments could be discussed, analyzed and interpreted. Writers of the coming generations kept on following the same mode of projection of socio-political issues and emotions.

Indo-Anglian fiction is an outcome of its contemporary history though exception. Caudwell in his essay "On Romance and Realism", brilliantly points out the socio-political roots of literary arts:

The traditions of art are not language traditions, but social traditions. Literary art therefore, has an essential feature- the use of associations gathered is shops, market places, friendly conversations, political speeches and quarrels. It is not surprising therefore; a literary art is conditioned at every step by social relation, fabricated by the necessity of human co-operation. (Hymes 30)

The Goal of This Paper

The present paper analyses the influence of history on the works of Manohar Malgonkar in particular, his contemporaries and precursors. Indian novels revealed the Indian character and Indian life from the very beginning of it. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Rajmohan's Wife appeared in 1864 which was a romantic story of domestic life set in a Bengal village, advocating the virtues of renunciation over self love for the attainment of freedom from slavery.

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed a gradual growth of the fictional form. Some of the important writers in the beginning were K.K. Sinha, T. Rama Krishna and Jogender Singh et al. The socio-political ferment, along with the Gandhian influence, gave a new impetus to the growth of Indian English novel. Fictions were used as a means of arousing and fostering national pride.

S. Venkataramani and A.S.P. Ayyar made the first significant attempt to lionize the patriot who organized the masses at the cost of his life against landlordism and foreign domination. Novels like Kandan The Patriot (1932) and A Novel of New India in Making (1932) are examples in this direction.

The Indo-Anglian fiction came to its own in the nineteen thirties and took up themes of immediate relevance viz., the colonial exploitation, the Indian freedom struggle, the Second World War (1939-45), Japanese air-raid, the August Revolution of 1942, the holocaust of communal riots, partition of India and other burning socio-political issues.

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