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.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Violence and Hope in Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend

Vandana Sukheeja


Abstract

Violence is quite a negative phenomenon prevalent in the present scenario. Nevertheless, its opposite side is illumined with a ray of positivity and hope for the humanity to move forward. Based on this theme, the recent novel of Nadeem Aslam The Golden Legend highlights the story of Massud and Nargis; Imran and Helen engulfed in the mire of terrorism aired by religious hatred and their courageous fight against it. The objective of the paper is to understand the novel and its characters in the light of the theories of violence and hope given by eminent scholars such as M.K. Gandhi, Frantz Fanon, Rene Girard, Thomas W Blume and C.R. Snyder. Violence and suffering in the novel under consideration give traumatic experience to characters who are pan- national and pan-religious. The deep insight of the novelist in the political and social life of his native country Pakistan has the capacity to shake the reader.

Keywords: Nadeem Aslam, The Golden Legend, love, hope, violence, terrorism, suffering, religion

Nadeem Aslam, a Diasporic English Writer

Nadeem Aslam, a diasporic English writer, was born in Pakistan and now lives in England. He has written five novels and has carved a niche for himself in the literary world. His novels are – Season of the Rainbirds (1993), Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), The Wasted Vigil (2008), The Blind Man’s Garden (2013) and The Golden Legend (2017). The Golden Legend, his fifth novel, is published in 2017. His Maps for Lost Lovers and The Blind Man’s Garden have been shortlisted for the IMPAC Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature respectively. He has won the Kiriyama Prize and Encore awards for Maps for Lost Lovers and Windham-Campbell Prize for his literary achievements in 2014.

Violence and Decolonization

Twentieth century is the century of wars and revolution and according to Thomas W Blume “violence is a social phenomenon” (p 9). There is a great diversity in the world with different nations and varied cultures, so much so that no two individuals are same, even twins have a different trait. There are different races and religions. The principal cause of violence in the present scenario at the international, national and domestic levels is lack of tolerance for each other. The failure to give space to others and respect other’s viewpoint mounts up the problem. The violent psyche of a human being brings out bestial aspect and in that state physical or mental injury is the common result. Mohit Chakrbarti quotes M. K. Gandhi in his book The Gandhian Aesthetics of Non-Violence that “the doctrine of violence has reference only to the doing of injury by one to another” (p 41). Moreover, aggression is simply not possible unless one is driven by rage and hatred.

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


Vandana Sukheeja
Assistant Professor English
Miri Piri Khalsa College
Bhadaur 148102
Punjab
India
vsukheeja@gmail.com

Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.