LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:2 February 2018
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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Portrayal of Gandhi in The Gandhi Quartet by Chaman Nahal

Rasak Annayat


Abstract

Chaman Nahal’s sequel of four novels: ‘The Crown and the Loincloth’, ‘The Salt of Life’, ‘The Triumph of the Tricolour’ and ‘Azadi’ is based on the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. It is known as Gandhi Quartlet. It is a landmark in the annals of Indian English fiction. In The Gandhi Quartet, Chaman Nahal has portrayed the character of Gandhi not as an apostle, a god or as a superhuman being, who is always sure of his aims, purposes and opinion, but an ordinary common human being, full of doubts and uncertainties, which were so deeply and abidingly impacted by the forces around. He was not sure how people would react to his political style, yet he was ready to experiment. Chaman Nahal succeeded wonderfully in achieving two objectives: first, he succeeded in portraying Mahatma Gandhi and all that he lived and stood for and finally died for, including the inevitability of his role in the nation’s freedom movement, as a major character, not the protagonist; second, Chaman Nahal succeeded in portraying Gandhi’s relationship to the Indian masses and his deep and abiding impact on their lives, and the reactions and responses of his admirers, followers, associates, critics and adversaries.

Keywords: The Gandhi Quartet, life and style of Gandhi, independence struggle, impact of Gandhi

Introduction

Chaman Nahal, a contemporary novelist in Indian Writing in English has taken up the themes of Indian freedom movement as a major core of his fiction. His The Gandhi Quartet deals with incidents of the freedom struggle almost exhaustively. Thematically the four novels may be classified as follows, though the chronological order of publication is not followed. The first novel The Crown and the Loincloth deals with the Non-Cooperation Movement during the years between 1920 and 22. This is followed by the second novel The Salt of Life dealing with the incidents from the Civil Disobedience Movement to India’s involvement in the Second World War during 1920s and 30s and the third novel The Triumph of the Tricolour deals with the incidents from the Quit India Movement to the Cabinet Mission which visited India during the period between 1942 and 46 and the fourth novel Azadi mainly deals with the riots that resulted from partition during the period between June 3rd 1947 and January 30, 1948 (Chaman Nahal, 1990).

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

Rasak Annayat
Assistant Professor (Contractual)
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
NIT Srinagar
Srinagar 190006
Jammu and Kashmir
India
rasikannayat@gmail.com

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