literature is the reflection of the life in all its varied...
TRANSCRIPT
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Literature is the reflection of the life in all its varied forms and shapes.
Literature is the mirror to life and society. It depends upon the writer where he
places the mirror. From time to time writers have been exploring the various
dimensions of the relationship between man and society. Every age has its
own compulsions, tensions, fears aspirations and logic which characterize the
works of that time.
Novel emerges as a powerful medium to present the age in a
descriptive and analytical manner. It represents the social, political, cultural
and historical growth of society at a great length. Literature and history are
intimately linked with each other. The modern Indian English writers are
representing the historical incidents and events in their works time and again.
It is difficult for a writer to escape the major historical events. Historical events
and momentous happenings are one such domain, which are truly mirrored in
literature, mostly through treatises, essays and novels.
Indian English fiction has always been responsive to the changes in
material reality and theoretical perspectives. At the earlier stage the fictional
works of the writer like Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan And Raja Rao were
mainly concerned with the down- trodden of the society, the Indian middle
class life and the expression of traditional cultural ethos of India. Then writers
like Kamala Markandaya , Bhabani Bhattacharya, Chaman Nahal , Ruth
Pawar Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal , Arun Joshi and Khushwant Singh wrote
about the themes related to social reality of the times .Their views were not
only related to the study of external reality , the psychological reality
expressed through different characters formed another aspect of fictional
works.
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The interplay of a variety of material and philosophical developments
marks a shift in the nature and study of Indian English fiction .Now Indian
English has become more complex and thematically richer the writers settled
in abroad and the other writers who divide their time between India and
abroad have contributed much to this rapidly genre of English Literature .The
writers like Bharti Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai, and Kavita Dasvani
provide an inside view of the problems faced by the displaced people in their
adopted land . Their works and based on the concepts like home, nation,
native and alien.
Contemporary writers are hailing from the colonized notions
particularly, in India explore the different forms of life that existed during the
British rule .These writers also bring out the functioning of the power politics
that defines the relation between the powerful people and the people who are
kept at the margins after the end of the political imperialism.
A number of contemporary writers fictionalize these aspects of life.
The Post-Colonial fictional writings often provide a revisiting to history and
contest it existing interpretation. The fiction writers often mix fact and fiction to
re-examine the earlier happenings, incidents, views and assumptions. Their
major concern is the nature of reality that existed during the colonial period.
These writers also concentrated on the political and social happenings of life.
Historical Overview of Partition and Emergency in India
Pakistan’s partition from India in 1947 had arisen from the ‘two nation’
that Muslims and Hindus in India were two ‘nations’ whose people could not
live together. Pakistan was the first modern state founded solely on the basis
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of religion, although India has a Hindu majority its population, with Muslims,
Sikhs, Jains, and Christians was multi-religious and its constitution was
secular. When East Bengal was included in the partition, many thought this
mistaken because of the cultural differences between Bengal and the peoples
of what became West Pakistan. When the west tried to impose Urdu as the
official language in the East, a linguistic- cultural opposition movement began
On December 4,1971, the Indian Army , far superior in numbers
and equipment to that of Pakistan, executed a three- pronged pincer
movement on Dhaka launched from the Indian states of west Bengal , Assam ,
and Tripura, taking only 12 days to defeat the 90,000 Pakistani defenders
.The Pakistan Army was weakened by having to operate so far away from it
source of supply .The Indian army ,on the other hand ,was aided by East
Pakistan’s Mukti Bahini (Liberation Force). On 16 December 1971 the
Pakistan army wing in East Pakistan led by Niazi surrendered and Bangladesh
was liberated. This day is celebrated in Bangladesh as Victory Day with more
emphasis than Independence Day (26 March 1971).
The Bangladesh War of Independence of the Bangladesh Liberation
War refers to an armed conflict between West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) that lasted for roughly nine months in 1971.
The war resulted in Bangladesh’s Independence from Pakistan.
The Indian Emergency of 26 June 1975 to 21March 1977 was a 21
months period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon request by Prime
Minister Indra Gandhi , declared a state of Emergency under Article 352 of the
Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree,
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suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial
times in the history of Independent India.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi had given the ‘Twenty Points Programme’ during
Emergency period. These Twenty Points are Attack on Rural Poverty,
Strategy for Rain Fed Agriculture, Better Use of Irrigation Water, Bigger
Harvest, Enforcement of Land Reforms, Special Programmes for Rural
Labour, Clean Drinking Water, Health For All, Two Child Norm. Expansion of
Education, Justice to Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes, Equality for
Women, New Opportunities for Youth, Housing for The People, Improvement
of Slums, New Strategy for Forestry, Protection of the Environment, Concern
for the Consumer, Energy for the Villages, A Responsive Administration.
The Emergency had influenced the life of the nation. In novels mainly,
writers highlighted the some points of reference to serve the historical context
for the novels dealing with the themes like, 1.)The facts of the imprisonment of
a number of imprisonment of a number of important politician and common
people making, total of over one lakh.2.)Treatment of prisoners in jails. Even
VIP’s treated like this: a) Some like Moraji Desai and Jayprakash Narayan
kept in solitary confinement. b) Mrinal Gore kept in the company of two women
– a leaper and a lunatic, and with common toilet facilities. C) Lawrence
Fernandez, the brother of the George Fernandez, one of the important leaders
of the agitation gone underground, made to suffer continuing torture and
humiliating behaviour.d) Jayaprakash Narayan released with damaged
kidneys.3) The so-called ‘City Beautification Programme’ causing large-scale
bull-dozing of slums etc. 4) Sterilization Programme with the laudable
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objective of population control implemented with unimaginable ruthlessness
and barbarity, making the Emergency an object of anger and hatred.
Kuldip Nayar has analysed the some of the characteristic features of Indira
Gandhi like courage, treating results as more than means, and above all, her
thinking herself to be indispensable. In this regard JP wrote to Indira Gandhi,
“Madam, don’t equate yourself with this great nation. India is immortal, you are
not.”1
Justice Jagmohan Sinha calls Emergency “the blackest period of
Post-Independence India.”2 He also says that human values are deterioting,
and the violation of fundamental rights is also continuing on large scale. In his
words:
There is no official Emergency today, yet the atrocities persist. It
appears we have learnt no lessons.
There are dangerous portents, unless we take serious notice today
to rectify these evils, the much maligned Emergency may recur,
albeit in a disguised form3.
It is right to say that it is not easy to win the battle of freedom. This
battle is never won and its fields will never quiet. Lord Acton rightly puts his
words as, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”4 The nation has to pay this
price for liberty always. During Emergency a poem entitled as Gandhi at a
Cross- Road was composed and recites on the All India Radio. It is like:
1 Mathur,O.P.Indira Gandhi and the Emergency as viewed in Indian Novel. New Delhi. Sarup and Sons.
2004.14. Print. 2 Ibid.,13.Print.
3 Ibid.,14.Print.
4 Ibid.,14.Print.
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To the Gandhi standing on a pedestal I said:
To me you seem a traffic inspector
Made permanent
On a government post. …
Again I said to him:
These assess are gazing on the green grass
Right under your nose
What’s the use of your lathi then….5
Indira Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime
Minister of Independent India. She attended Visva- Bharti University, West
Bengal, and the University of Oxford, and in 1942, she married Feroze
Gandhi, a fellow member of the Indian National Congress Party. She was a
member of the working committee of the ruling Congress Party from 1955. In
1959, she was elected to the largely honorary post of party president. Lal
Bahadur Shastri succeeded Nehru as Prime Minister in 1964. He appointed
her name as Minister of Information and Broadcasting in his government.
After the sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri , Indira Gandhi
became leader of the congress party in January 1966. Thus also became
Prime Minister in a compromise between the right and left wings of the party.
Her leadership, however, came under continual challenge from the right wing
of the party, led by a Former Minister of Finance, Moraji Desai. In 1971,
5 Mathur,O.P.Indira Gandhi and the Emergency as viewed in Indian Novel. New Delhi. Sarup and
Sons.Print.
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however, she won a sweeping electoral victory over a coalition of conservative
parties. Gandhi strongly supported East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in its
secessionist conflict with Pakistan in late 1971, and India’s armed forces
achieved a swift and decisive victory over Pakistan that led to the creation of
Bangladesh.
In March 1972, buoyed by the country’s success against Pakistan,
Indira Gandhi again led her new Congress Party to a landslide victory in
national elections. Afterwards her defeated Socialist Party opponent charged
that she had violated the election laws. In June 1975 the High Court of
Allahabad ruled against her, which meant that she would be deprived of her
seat in parliament and would have to stay out of politics for six years.
In response, she declared a state of Internal Emergency throughout
India. She imprisoned her political opponents, and assumed emergency
powers, passing many laws limiting personal freedoms. During this period, she
implemented several unpopular policies, including large-scale sterilization as
form of birth control. When long-postponed national elections were held in
1977, Indira Gandhi and her party were soundly defeated. Then she left office.
Janata party took over the reins of government.
At about 9:20 AM on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was on her
way to be interviewed by the British actor Peter Ustinov , who was filming a
documentary for Irish television. She was walking through the garden of the
Prime Minister’s Residence at No.1, Safdurjung Road in New Delhi towards
the neighbouring 1 Akbar Road Office.
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As she passed a wicket gate guarded by Satwant Singh and Beant
Singh, they opened fire. Sub-Inspector Beant Singh fired three rounds into her
abdomen from his side arm. Satwant Singh then fired 30 rounds from his Sten
gun into her after that she had fallen down on the ground. After the shooting,
both threw their weapons on the ground. They both were caught by other
soldiers of Indira Gandhi . Beant Singh was killed by the soldiers and Satwant
Singh was hanged in 1989 with accomplice Kehar Singh.
The Anti -Sikhs riots or the 1984 Sikh Massacre were a series of
progroms directed against Sikhs in India, by Anti –Sikh mobs, in response to
the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. There were more
than 8,000 deaths, including 3,000 in Delhi. The Central Bureau of
Investigation, the main Indian investigating agency, is of the opinion that the
acts of violence were organized with the support from the Delhi police officials
and the Central Government headed by Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as prime minister after his mother’s death and, he
said about the riots that ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes.’
During the imposition of the Emergency on India in 1970s, thousands
of Sikhs campaigning for autonomous government were imprisoned. The
sporadic violence continued as a result of an armed Sikh separatist group
which was designated as terrorist entity by the Indian government. In June
1984, during operation Blue star, Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian army to
secure the golden temple and eliminate any insurgents, as it had been
occupied by Sikh separatists. Later operations by Indian parliamentary forces
were initiated to clear the separatists from the countryside of Punjab state.
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The violence in Delhi was triggered by the assassination of Indira
Gandhi, India’s Prime Minister, on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh
bodyguards in response to her actions authorising the military operation. The
Indian government reported 2,700 deaths in the ensuing chaos. In the
aftermath of the riots, the Indian government reported 20,000 had fled the city,
however the people’s union for Civil Liberties reported 1,000 displaced
persons. The most affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods in Delhi.
Human rights organizations and newspapers across India believe that the
massacre was organized. The collusion of political officials in the massacre
and the judiciary’s failure to penalise the killers alienated normal Sikhs and
increased support for the Khalistan movement. The Akal Takht, the governing
religious body of Sikhism, considers the killings to be genocide.
Rajiv Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India (1984-1989). He
took office after his mother’s assassination on 31 October 1984. He was also
assassinated on 21 may 1991. He was the youngest Prime Minister of India
when he took office at the age of 40. Rajiv Gandhi’s last public meeting was
held at Sriperumbudur on 21 may 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles
from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was assassinated while campaigning for the
Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate. The assassination was
carried out by The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
At 10:21 pm, a woman approached Rajiv Gandhi in a public meeting
and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated a belt
laden with RDX explosives tucked under her dress. The explosion killed Rajiv
Gandhi and fourteen other people. The assassination was caught on film
through the lens of a local photographer, whose camera and film were found
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at the site. The cameraman himself died in the blast but the camera remained
intact. Rajiv Gandhi’s mutilated body was airlifted to the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences in New Delhi for post-mortem, reconstruction and
embalming.
A state funeral was held for Rajiv Gandhi on 24 may 1991. His
funeral was telecast live on national and international level. The dignitaries
from over sixty countries attended this funeral. He was cremated on the bank
of the river Yamuna, near the Samadhis of his mother, brother and mahatma
Gandhi. Today, the place where he was cremated is known as Vir Bhumi.
By the middle of the 20th century , Hindus in the area were claiming
that the mosque had not been used by Muslims since 1936, and according to
a court ruling an idol of Rama was placed inside the mosque in the intervening
night of 22/23 December 1949. A movement was launched in 1984 by the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad to reclaim the site for Hindus who want to erect a
temple dedicated to the Lord Ram.
On 6 December 1992, the structure was demolished by Karsevaks,
150,000 strong, despite a commitment by the government to the Indian
Supreme Court that the mosque would not be harmed. More than 2000 people
were killed in the riots following the demolition. Riots broke out in many major
Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad.
Minority Communities in India: A Bird’s Eyeview on Parsi Community
The Parsis are an ethno-religious minority in India. Although they are
minority in India, their contribution to the society, economics, commerce,
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science, politics, and literature is remarkable.it is united religious community.
In India they live mostly on the west coast of the subcontinent, especially in
Mumbai. In Pakistan, most Parsis dwell in Karachi and Lahore.
The Parsis are the followers of Prophet Zoroaster and their religion
is known as Zoroastrianism. The original homeland of the Parsis, Pars or Fars,
an ancient Persian province is located in southern Iran at present. In seventh
century AD, the Parsis left their homeland to preserve their religion from being
Islamized by the invading Islamic Arabians. They sought freedom to practice
their faith, for that they came to India in the eighth century.
Zarathustra was born in the city of Arak, in Azerbaijan, in Western
Iran. Before the Zarathustra, the Iranians were following the Mazdayasni
religion. When Zarathustra born, the real and true teachings of the religion
were forgotten by the people and they believe in many gods. This caused
distress in the mind of Zarathustra, at the age of fifteen, Zarathustra turned
away from all worldly pleasures to seek the message from God. He devoted
himself totally to the worship of Ahura Mazda.
Zarathustra thoughts and teachings are called Avesta and these are
the basis of Zoroastrianism. Avesta or Zend- Avesta is the prayer book of
Zoroastrianism. It is sacred book of the present day Zoroastrianism known as
Parsis. Avesta is the doctrine of the ancient belief and a record of the customs
of the earliest period of Persian history. The poems, which are attributed to
Zoroaster known as Gathas. These Gathas are basically the dialogue between
Zoroaster and God. Other religious texts are the Yasna, a collection of
seventy- two psalms which is the chief liturgical work in the Avesta and
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Vendiad which is a code of conduct with laws on purity and behaviour in
twenty-two chapters.
The thoughts and ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras were
influenced by Zoroaster’s words. These and other Greek and Roman writers
also viewed Zoroaster as a prophetic founder of eastern wisdom and magic.
Zoroaster’s notions affected the development of Judaeo-Christian beliefs
about demons and angels, the after -life ,heaven and hell, as well as the
concept of the resurrection of the dead. John. R. Hinnells summarizes the
Zoroastrian teachings in the following words:
When men are judged at death, it is their thoughts, words and
deeds that are weighed in the balance. Men’s as well as women’s
own lives are the only basis on which they are judged. Unlike in
Christianity, there is no idea of one man to save all, or of salvation
by faith. In Zoroastrian belief man has free will to think, speak and
do as he pleases. It is how he uses that freedom throughout his life,
which will cause him to go heaven or hell. The person who goes to
heaven is the one who has cared for and expanded the good
creation both- spiritual and material and who has been truthful,
wise, and generous. In addition to these positive duties, there is
also the reverse, the rejection of evil. Zoroaster taught that man
should render evil to evil. To ‘turn the other cheek’ as Christians
advocate is wrong in Zoroastrian thought. Evil should be vigorously
opposed in every possible way; from cleaning a house to
overcoming suffering and misery. The middle Persian teaching on
man’s duty to repel evil has one particularly important and
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interesting detail. If the material world is the good creation of god, it
follows that the devil cannot have a material form. Evil can only live
in the world like a parasite in men’s bodies. If men would reject the
demons such as greed, anger and the lie from themselves, then evil
would be expelled from the world, so that creation would be restore
to its original idea perfection.6
It is said that Zoroastrianism flourished as the state religion of three
religion of three Iranian empires the Achaemenians (549-330BC), the
Parathions (248BC-224AD) and Sassanians (224-652AD). The Parsis arrived
at India in 766A.D. India was selected by them for many grounds. The first
reason was that India is geographically close, and it had cultural and
commercial fastening with Iran. Secondly, both the Iranians and people of
North India have much in common in languages of Avesta and Sanskrit.
When the Arabs conquered Iran and the Persian Empire fell under their
control in the 7th century A.D, they gradually imposed their own religion of
Islam on their subjects. Consequently, a small group of Zoroastrians seeking
freedom of worship sailed towards the warm shores of Western India. They
eventually arrived along the Gujarat coastline in 936A.D at a place they
named Sanjan, some 180 kms North of Bombay. There they flourished and
came to be known as the Parsis, named Fars, the region from where they
came to India.
Sanjan was then ruled by the liberal monarch, King Jadav Rana. The
chief Dastur (priest) of Zoroastrian reached Jadav Rana and sought for his
6 Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.3.Print.
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permission to settle in Sanjan. The King asked the Dastur to give details of the
Zoroastrians at the assembly hall. The Dastur gives details in sixteen Sanskrit
Slokas. First, King Jadav Rana did not allow them to give shelter in Sanjan.
Then, the Dastur requested to bring an urn filled with milk to the brim
of the assembly. The Dastur took of his ruby studded gold ring and dropped in
the urn. He explained the importance of the example by saying that just at the
content of urn had spilt over but became richer by the ring, similarly the Parsi-
Zorastrains would bring further prosperity to the area. King Jadav Rana was
moved by this incident and asked them to tell to the actual requirements.
The Dastur replied that they want freedom of worship, freedom to
bring up their children in their own religion and its traditions, and land for
cultivation so that they became self –dependent. King Jadav Rana agreed to
these recruitments of priest. But, he put five pre-conditions before them.
These are 1.) To adopt Gujarati language. 2.) The women should wear the
saris.3.) Men should handover their weapons.4.) Venerate the cow.5.) The
marriage ceremonies shall be performed at night only.
The Dastur agreed to the conditions told by King Jadav Rana. He
gave his response symbolically to assure the King of their loyalty and
diligence. He took a brass bowl and swirled a spoon full of sugar and said “we
shall try to be like this insignificant amount of sugar in the milk of your human
kindness.”7 King Jadav Rana gave them shelter and freedom to establish
their own colony and to practice their own faith. The Dastur uttered some
7 Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.6.Print
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words on behalf on his community. These are “hame Hindustan rayr bashim
(we shall be the friends of all India).”8
These words are the basic philosophy of faith for Parsi
Zoroastrians throughout their settlement in India. This also reflects the
characteristic spirit of adaptability of this minority community. This made them
flourish in a country of such diverse culture and religions.
The population of the Parsi community is dwindling fast. It is a dying
community. This community is dying because of low rate of birth, higher rate
of death, late marriages and interfaith marriages of girls. Sooni Taraporewala
comments on the dwindling population of Parsi community as:
Demographically,we are a dying community- our deaths outweigh
our births. Parsis like to quote a remark that Mahatma Gandhi once
reportedly made, in numbers Parsis are beneath contempt, but in
contribution, beyond compare…it is a fact that obsesses us-
whether we fear our demise or deny it.9
Parsis shifted to Bombay from rural Gujarat during the British rule.
Bombay was the safe palace where they could have many opportunities to
growth and their all-round development. Gillain Tindali writes:
With their speedy arrival in Bombay, it was almost, as if the Parsis
sensed in the arrival of English, a unique historical opportunity that
8 Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.6.Print
9 Ibid.,4.Print.
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was to be as momentous for them in the long run as the chance
that had carried them to Gujarat a thousand years before.10
The Parsis are the most urbanized community in the Indian sub-
continent although they are losing their strength. Lila Visaria says in this
context that:
The Parsi population has been remarkable exception in the general
Indian demographic scene. Their fertility is so low that depicts him
life expectancy, the number of Parsis has been declining for more
than two decades.11
After settling in India, the Parsis have contributed a lot to the fields
like industry, commerce, literature and art. Some eminent Parsis like Dadabhai
Naoroji, Sir Pherozeshaw Mehta, Jamshedli Tata and others have shown their
loyality to India. As Nani .A. Palkhiwala quotes Dadabhai Naoroji in his book
We, The Nation: The Last Decades as “whether I am Hindu, a Mohmedan, a
Parsi, a Christian or any other creed. I am above all an Indian. Our country is
India, our nationality is Indian.”12
The Parsis have not only contributed in the fields like commerce,
arts music but also to the literature. The earliest example of Parsi writing is
Shah-Nama by Firdausi. This work is of great importance for Parsis. It
provides them their ancient traditional knowledge and historical background.
The first Parsi poet was Behram Malbari. His well- known collection of poems
is entitled as The Indian Muse in English Garb which was first published in
10
Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.7.Print 11
Ibid.,7.Print. 12
Ibid.,11.Print.
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1877. There were some other poet like D.M. Gorwala, Jehangir Mody and
J.B.H. Wadia. In Post- Colonial India, Parsi poets, Keki.N. Daruwala , Kersy
Katrak , Gieve Patel and Adil Jassuwala.
In the twentieth century, another Parsi writer was Cornelia Sorabji
published three volumes of wonderful stories Love And Life Behind The
Purdah (1901), Sun Babies (1904) and Between The Twilights (1908) and two
autobiographical works.
The Parsi well known novelists are Boman Desai, Firdaus Kang, Bapsi
Sidhwa, Farrukh Dhondy, Saros Dara Cowasjee, Farishta Murzban Dinshaw,
Dina Mehta and Rohinton Mistry. They know the reality that their community is
fast disappearing. These writers intend to preserve their ethnicity through their
works for ages to come. V.L.V.N. Narendra Kumar writes:
Parsee novel in English, i.e. novel portraying Parsee, life is a
potent index of the Zoroastrian ethos. It voices the ambivalence, the
nostalgia and the dilemma of the endangered Parsee community. In
Parsee novel in English, the ‘operative sensibility’ is Zoroastrian.
The Parsee novelists have forged a dialect, which has a distinct
ethnic character. The tempo of Parsee life is fused into their English
expression just at the tempo of Jewish life has gone into the best
work of Saul Bellow and Bernard Balamud. The triumph of the
Parsee novelists in the use of English language is largely due to
Parsee westernization and exposure to English culture. Their prose
in interspersed with Persian words and Gujarati expressions.
Besides being innovative, the Parsi novelists describe in detail, the
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esoteric rituals, and the Zoroastrians customs such as Navjote.
Thus Parsee novel in English gives up a peep into the turbulent
Parsee mind of today. 13
The Parsis have contributed to different aspects of Indian life and
culture, particularly in the Post-Independence period. Their contribution to
Post-Independence Indian English novel is remarkable. Parsi Indian English
writers are Firdaus Kanga, Farrukh Dondy, Boman Desai and Rohinton Mistry.
Making of the Artists: Rohinton Mistry and Aravind Adiga
Rohinton Mistry has emerged as a significant literary figure in the
twentieth century. He is a socio-political writer. He lived in Bombay. It makes
him depicting the life of the Parsis in India and portraying the corruption of the
city. Mistry was born on 3rd july, 1952. His father was Behrman Mistry and his
mother Freny Jhaveri Mistry. He was the second child to his parents. He has
one elder and one younger brother also. He has a younger sister also. Mistry
grew up in an average middle-class Parsi family, his father was in the field of
advertising while his mother was a housewife. Mistry went to two very good
schools in Bombay. There is a Primary and St. Xavier’s –a fact that
corroborate the relative prosperity of the family. He didn’t live in Parsi Baag –
housing estate but had friends through whom he did observe a lot. He was not
much of a writer in his school days, though he did scribble a few random
pieces on sundry subjects. Both Mistry and the woman he later married, Freny
Elavia, graduated from St. Xavier’s college, Bombay. As an Arts degree with
literature was thought to be an indulgence for Boys then he got enrolled in a
13
Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.8-9.Print
19
more worthwhile course in Mathematics and he completed his degree in
Science in 1974.
By this time Mistry was already in the music scene in Bombay,
gave performance and was seriously contemplating a career as a musical folk
singer. Freny, who was not as competitively trained with Mistry’s distractions,
had decided a year earlier after her graduation to migrate to Canada, where
she had her relations. Mistry followed her to Canada a year letter, in 1975
where they got married that very year. That year Polydor released a disc
Ronnie Mistry on which he sang his own compositions and folk songs. He had
initially wanted to become ‘a star’ in the musical world in Canada. But that was
not to be. Mistry, to turn to another direction, took up a job as a clerk and
accountant in the Canadian imperial bank of Commerce, from 1975-1985. He
and Freny lived in a Toronto suburb Brampton, for twenty years, having a
materialistically comfortable life.
It was in 1978 that Mistry along with Freny took up evening courses
at the University of Toronto . He studied English literature and philoshophy
and got a second bacholer’s degree in 1982. In the year1983, he wrote his
first short story One Sunday which won The Hart House Prize. He got the
same award for another story Lend Me Your Light. In 1985 Auspicious
Occasion won the contributor’s Award Of Canadian Fiction. These awards
resulted in publishers showing interest in Mistry’s collection of short-stories
.The ultimate was the publication of Tales from Firozsha Baag in 1987 by
Penguin Canada, set in Parsi housing estate in Bombay. It was brought out
later under title, Swimming Lessons and other Stories from Firozsha Baag in
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Britain and U.S.A. the book was short listed for Canadian Governor General’s
Award.
His first novel, Such A Long Journey has one of the most
remarkable and interesting novels. Mistry has well studied the historical
boundary of India and has fictionalized it in the novel which is culturally
significant. It is a story about a Parsi family of Bombay. In Canada, the book
won Governor General’s Award for Fiction and The W.M. Smith Books in
Canada First Novel Award. It also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for
Best Book. The novel was also shortlisted for The Booker Prize and Trillium
Prize. In March 2000, it was adapted for film by Sooni Taraporevala, directed
by Sturla Gunnarsson, starring Om Puri and Roshan Seth and released as a
major motion picture.
Rohinton Mistry’s second novel A Fine Balance, is a significant
landmark in recent Indian fiction in English. In 1995, he received many awards
for this novel also. It won Giller Prize and in the same year Commonwealth
Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for Booker Prize and Irish
Times International Fiction Prize in the year 1996.
The third novel Family Matters has also won the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize. Mistry is the joint winner with Pascal Khoo Thwe for Kiriyama
Pacific Rim Book Prize for Family Matters. The novel is also shortlisted for
Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2002 and International IMPAC Dublin Literary
Award in 2004. In an interview, Linda Richards remarks as, “His most recent
21
novel, family matters, is brilliant. It manages to be warm and familiar, while for
North American readers, at any rate- fragnantly exotic.”14
Family Matters shows the events at the level of the local and the
familial. Communal politics and disturbances affect the common man as
Yezad, though he is in no way involved in sectarian strife, or even local
politics. Mistry shows how fundamentalism and skewed political thinking have
altered the very social structure in such a way that even the common man-
dissociated from politics-is scared and affected. Beyond the concern with the
right-wing politics of the Hindu majority, Family Matters also deals with larger
issues of religious zealotry, bigotry and fundamentalism within all
communities.
Although he lived in Canada but as a writer, he has mainly
focused on India. Like many other expatriate writers, he continues a good
relationship with his country. As a Parsi writer, he writes about the state of
Parsi community but within the boundaries of India.
His fictional works deal with the social and political India during his
stay in Bombay. He has immense knowledge of Indian politics though he has
left India many years before. The depiction of Shiv Sena, political schemes
like Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, Babri Masjid Riots, Bangladesh
War of Independence, Anti Sikhs Riots etc., corruption and the sufferings of
middle-class dominate his novels.
14
Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.34-35.Print
22
Rohinton Mistry is a diasporic writer also. He occupied remarkable
place in the list of diasporic writers. Nilufer Bharucha writes in this context
As an Indian who now lives and writes from Canada, Rohinton
Mistry is a writer of the Indian diaspora. However, Mistry is also a
Parsi -Zorastrian and as a person whose ancestors were forced into
exile by the Islamic conquest of Iran, he was in a diaspora even in
India. This informs his writing with the experience of multiple
displacements15.
Aravind Adiga is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel,
The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Aravind adiga was born in
Madras on 23 October 1974 to Dr.K. Madhava Adiga and Usha Adiga, both of
whom hailed from Manglore. His paternal grandfather was the late K.
Suryanarayana Adiga, former chaiman of Karnataka bank while his maternal
great-grandfather, U. Rama Rao, was a popular medical practitioner and
Congress politician from Madras. He grew up in Mangalore and studied at
Canada High School, then at St. Aloysius High School. He studied English
literature at Columbia college, Columbia University in New York, where he
completed his SSLC in 1990. He secured his first rank in state in SSLC.
Incidentally his elder brother Anand Adiga secured 2nd rank in SSLC and first
rank in PUC in the state. After immigrating to Sydney , Australia,with his
family, he studied at James Ruse Agricultural High School. He studied English
literature at Columbia college, Columbia University in New York, where he
studied with Simon Schama and graduated as salutatorian in 1997. He also
15
Dodiya, Jaydeep. Perspective on the Novels of Rohinton Mistry.New Delhi. Sarup &Sons.2006.35-36.Print
23
studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where one of his tutors was Hermione
lee.
Aravind Adiga started his career as a journalist with the magazine
Money (Manhattan). After that he joined Times where he remains as a South
Asian correspondent for three years. His articles on politics, business and the
arts have appeared in international newspapers and magazines like, Time,
The Financial Times and The Sunday Times.
Adiga’s novels are The White Tiger (2008), Between The
Assassinations(2009), Last Man In Tower(2011) and his short stories are the
Sultan’s Battery (The Guardian, 18 October 2008, Smack (The Sunday Times,
16 November 2008), Last Christmas In Bandra (The Times, 19 December
2008.), Elephant(The New Yorker, 26 January 2009).
The novel The White Tiger won The Man Booker Prize in 2008.
The White Tiger is the story of Balram, the son of a rickshaw puller, who lives
in a small Indian village. He finds the destitution of his family repulsive and
decides to break away from it. He is constantly on the lookout of opportunities
that could alleviate his poverty. He learns how to drive and manages a driver’s
job with the landlord’of the village. Lady luck smiles upon him when Balram is
asked to accompany the landlord’s son to Delhi as a driver. In Delhi, Balram
learns the ways of the urban society. A keen observer and a fast learner,
Balram realizes very soon that a little dishonesty can bring him money for a
secure future. So he robs and murders his master , runs away to Bangalore
with his loot and starts his own business there. Years later, Balram is seen as
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an influential member of the Banaglore power circle successfully steering his
career from one height to another.
Aravind Adiga’s second, book, Between the Assassinations, was
released in November 2008 and in this US and in 2009. The book has 12
interlinked short stories. His second novel and third published book, Last Main
In Tower, was published in the U .K.in 2011.
Between the Assassinations (2008) is an entertaining, finely
detailed novel in stories presented as a travelogue and written in a warm,
lively, colloquial style. The stories revolve around different classes, castes and
religions in India. Adiga, in his second novel Between the Assassinations
depicts the journey of Indian society from aspirations to disillusionment by
raising very vital issues of national importance such as corruption, terrorism,
fanaticism, child labour and social discrimination on the ground of castes,
religion, class and gender through a story of ‘every man ’of ‘every town’ of the
period of transition between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv
Gandhi (1984-1991). Khushwant Singh describes Adiga as “a born storyteller
with a special gift of saying a lot in the briefest of space.”16
Last Man in Tower is a 2011 novel by Indian author Aravind
Adiga. It is the third printed novel by Adiga. It tells the story of a struggle for a
slice of shinning Mumbai reality. The protagonist of the novel is a retired
school teacher named Yogesh .A. Murthy. A distinguished builder offers to
shop for out the complete lodging block. All of the occupants agree, apart from
masterji. This creates drawback for the builder and also the different residents.
16
www.museindia.com.web.
25
This is the novel about the fighting of Masterji and he faces social and political
problems.