LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 5 May 2011
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.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Meena Alexander and Nampally Road

K. Suganthi, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Scholar

Nampally Road Cover Page

Meena Alexander's Nampally Road (1992) is a portrait of India after twenty-five years of Independence. It is a socio-political novel. The socio-political novels in Indian writing in English deal with many political and social problems with focus on changes in these realms in Indian society. Creative writing links social and political problems together as it is difficult to distinguish between them. In reality every social problem acquires a political dimension, pointing towards an all-encompassing political revolution.

The novelist, Meena Alexander, is extremely critical when she sees institutions veering away from ideals. In Nampally Road, she has shown the deterioration in the personal and political areas of life. In this novel, Meena depicts the political life of the country as it happened in the immediate post-independence era.

Mira and Ramu

The novel is based on some selected incidents, which happen in Hyderabad and, in particular, on a road called Nampally Road. The narrator is Mira, a college teacher. She is accompanied by a male college teacher, Ramu. They both teach English in Sona Nivas, a local college. He is so completely desi that he gives up all opportunities of going abroad, which is odd considering that most people in India have always been crazy about going abroad during and after the colonial period: ". . . he turned down the Rhodes Scholarship that others might have killed for, accepted a modest grant from Jawaharlal Nehru University and swore on the memory of his dead mother never to leave the boundaries of free India . . ." (3). He is highly unorthodox and rejects superstitions including what he refers to as "horoscope rubbish".

Ramu is an active participant in all protests. Once he helped produce the underground newspaper that students set by hand. For this he was detained and held in custody several times. He always wanted to make a difference, to do something for India, whatever that something might be.

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

K. Suganthi, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Scholar
Associate Professor in English
P.M.T. College, Melaneelithanallur
Sankarankovil 627 953
Tamilnadu, India
ksuganthi64@gmail.com
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