LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:12 December 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Cultural Commitments in Bhabani Bhattacharya’s
Music For Mohini and A Dream In Hawaii

J. Maria Jeyameni, M.A., M.Phil.


Abstract

Bhabani Bhattacharya is a realist who is keen on exploring the realities of life. He has a sensitive understanding of the problems of contemporary Indian society. His novels are a microcosm of India. In Music for Mohini, the harmonious blending of tradition and modernity, village and city is the predominant theme. The main problem for Mohini in the Big House is that of mental adjustment. Bhattacharya portrays an ideal woman in Mohini whose life divides in two phase. It is essential in two phases in order to visualize the adaptability and understanding of Mohini in the changing situation. A Dream in Hawaii is designed to project an acculturation between the materialism of the west and the spiritualism of the east. He provides ample realistic ideas of the Indian and American life. On one hand Yogananda preaches to his disciples about Vedanta philosophy and on the other hand he reveals his inner self urge for Devjani. In Music for Mohini and A Dream in Hawaii Bhattacharya discovers more relevance in synthesizing the two cultures and enjoying the benefits of the both but together rather than oscillating between the two. The binaries within the characters of Mohini and Yogananda and within post – colonial Indian culture are pitted against the binaries of the western culture in general. Both the novels thus bring a true picture of the age couched in the modern realism. The reader can find through the characters of Mohini and Swami Yogananda, the methods of re-adjustment and compromise to solve their personal problems.

Bhabani Bhattacharya is one of the most celebrated Indo-Anglian writers. His passion for synthesis and integration has had a deep impression in the arena of Indian English Literature. In his six novels Bhabani Bhattacharya has treated culture with different dimensions.

Acculturation

Bhabani Bhattacharya’s novels are in the tradition of Indian moral fable. Bhattacharya’s Music for Mohini is a novel of tensions- tension between the mind and the body (the mechanical Acculturation), the mind of the husband and the body of the wife, tension between East-West, Village and town, tradition and modernity, astrology and rationalism, the daughter-in-law and the Mother-in-law. Ultimately, all tensions are resolved and there is the marriage of true minds. We have a big haul of characters, major and minor, sharply diversified as in the old mother and the lady of the Big House. The Big House itself is a major character, like the Elizabethan Great House replaced by the court. The novel is different from the novels of Bhattacharya. The title suggests that Mohini is central to its conception. In short it deals with the marriage of Mohini and Jayadev, which gets accomplished, despite the intellectual divergence between the two.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

J. Maria Jeyameni, M.A., M.Phil.
1/35 R. C. South Street
Meenampatti 626189
Virudhunagar District
Tamilnadu
India
maria171293jeyameni@gmail.com

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