LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:11 November 2016
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.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Self-Realization in Upamanyu Chatterjee’s
English August: An Indian Story

M. Maheswari, M.A., M.Phil.


Abstract

Self-Realization is an expression used in discussions relating to spiritual matters, psychology, and in religions. Mortimer Adler as a critic defines self-realization as freedom from external coercion including cultural expectations, political and economic freedom from worldly attachments and desires, etc. Dictionaries define self-realization as “the realization or fulfilment of one's own potential or abilities” (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/self-realization?s=t)

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English August (1988) carries a subtitle, An Indian Story. It clearly underlines the protagonist Agastya’s hybridized position. The novel projects the troubled consciousness of Agastya and portrays the conflict within his fractured self. The conflict finally forces him to step out of his colonial self, his western education and training and discover himself through his own cultural moorings.

Keywords: Upamanyu Chatterjee, middle-class India, ironic humor, self-realization

Agastya Sen, the Protagonist

Upamanyu Chatterjee made his debut as a novelist with his maiden novel, English August: An Indian Story in 1988. The novel also presents an inclusive guised profile of Agastya Sen, the IAS Officer on probation, posted at a Mofussil town Madna. Agastya Sen is a misfit in the Indian Administrative set-up. He belongs to the new generation, ‘the generation of apes’ (EAIS 280), ‘the Cola generation’ and ‘the generation that doesn’t oil its hair (EAIS 47). He is ‘an absurd combination, a boarding-school-English-Literature education and an obscure name from Hindu myth’ (EAIS 129). He is named after the great Hindu rishi, Agastya who stopped the Vindhyas from growing up and drank up the ocean. However, his conduct, words and deeds stand out in contrast to his mythical counterpart. From “‘Agastya’ he becomes ‘August’, ‘Ogu’ and ‘the English type’”. His school-friends call him ‘last Englishman’, ‘hey English’, ‘hey Anglo’ and even sometimes ‘hello Mother Tongue’ (EAIS 85). Agastya Sen is an offspring of mixed parentage His Bengali father, Madhusudan Sen is the Governor of West Bengal and his mother is a Goan Christian woman. This renders him a cultural mongrel.

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

M. Maheswari, M.A., M.Phil.
Assistant Professor of English Department
Sri.Krishnasamy Arts & Science College
Sattur - Sivakasi - Kalugumalai Rd.
Mettamalai 626203
Tamil Nadu
India
mahesarivukutty@gmail.com
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