Assignment 2

 

 

Home and the World as a Political/Postcolonial Novel

Name: Emisha Ravani

paper: 201 Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

Roll no: 07

Enrollment no: 4069206420210031

Email id: emisharavani3459@gmail.com

Batch: 2021-2023(M.A Sem 3) 

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English, maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction:

The English translation of Ghare-Baire (1919), The Home and the World, was first serialised in the Bengali magazine, Sabuj Patra, in 1915. It follows the story of a wealthy and educated gentleman, Nikhilesh, his young wife, Bimala and his fiery friend, Sandip, a headstrong Swadeshi fighter. Under Sandip's influence, Bimala abandons the traditional role she has hitherto occupied and begins to step out of her confined world. But she is also dazzled by Sandip's rhetoric, unimpressed by the moderate politics and quiet determination of her husband and her transformation into a modern woman carries with it a great price.

Who has written the novel?

Rabindranath Tagore, Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West." 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World is a product of the crisis of that time, and as a political novel it echoes through its narration a large number of attitudes, not always compatible with the colonial experience. The novel deals with the experience of modernity and the price one has to pay for it. The controversial nature of the subject matter, in which Tagore takes the opportunity to launch his fiercest attack yet against the ideology of nationalism, contrary to its rising popularity both in India and the West, was also a reason it drew much attention, mostly in the form of reprobation and scorn, from readers both in and outside Bengal.

Postcolonial Novel

All literature written in the United States after 1776 could qualify as postcolonial. Because the United States has occupied the position of an economic and political world power since the nineteenth century, however, it is today regarded more as a historically colonizing force than as a former colony of Great Britain. Within this field of literary studies, “postcolonial” refers to those nations that gained independence between the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the 1960’s.

Geographically, “postcolonial” is a global term: It designates nations of the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, the South Pacific islands, and Malaysia. It applies equally to India, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Philippines. The colonizing powers to which these countries were subjected and with which they have continued to contend after gaining independence are Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and the United States.

Post-colonial studies treat a broad span of concerns: the functioning of different empires during the colonial period and varying administrative systems left as legacies to the former colonies; the specific conditions under which independence was gained in each case; cultural, economic, and linguistic imperialism that persists after independence; and the local concerns of education, government, citizenship, and identity. Postcolonial literature tends to address opposition to imperial forces as it seeks to define autonomous national identity. In that quest, postcolonial literature explores issues of cultural alienation, and it struggles to express the specificity and particularities of indigenous cultures in languages that are not generally the original languages of the indigenous peoples but rather the languages of the former colonisers. 

The dynamics of foregrounding and theorising a plurality of identities, mixing of cultures, and interdependence between coloniser and colonised, as well as localised political concerns, create a reciprocity between postcolonial fiction and Postcolonial Theory. The interdependent development of postcolonial fiction and theory constitutes Postcolonialism.

The main features of postcolonialism are the criticism of the term itself. Literature research suggests that postcolonialism writers seldom use the term in their writing. However, postcolonial literature does not revolve around colonialism but also dwells in cultural transition and differentiation. Post-colonial scholars have been identified to be part of the larger group of individuals who expose the struggle of local inhabitants against racial prejudice and exploitation by large rich nations. Some critics however argue that the term postcolonial literature should be used to refer to the written works that were written after colonisation.

Another feature of post-colonial writing is that postcolonial texts bring together cross-cultural works which bring together different literary traditions and cultural groups. For instance, one of the most popular writers in India displays remarkable knowledge on the process of the struggle for independence during the colonial period, a concept that is often ignored by most modern scholars. Another writer who is also from the country is an aggressive critic of postcolonialism despite his origin which is from the Indian labourers in Trinidad. This cross-culture aspect causes the writer to be identified as being an opponent more than being an ally of post-colonial literature.

The novel deals with the experiences of three characters during the volatile period of swadeshi: Nikhil, a benevolent, enlightened and progressive landlord; his childhood friend and a voluble, selfish but charismatic nationalist leader, Sandip; and Nikhil’s wife, Bimala, who is happy at the outset in her traditional role as a zamindar’s wife but who, encouraged by her husband, steps out of home to better acquaint herself with the world and find a new identity for the Indian woman. At the sight of Sandip, she emotionally trips, vacillates between him and her husband, until she returns home bruised and humiliated but with a more mature understanding of both the home/self and the world.

The novel has a certain allegorical quality in that Nikhil and Sandip seem to represent two opposing visions for the nation; with Bimala, torn between the two, not knowing for sure

what should be her guiding principle - signifying Bengal tottering between the two possibilities. Nikhil’s vision is one of enlightened humanitarian and global perspective, based on a true equality and harmony of individuals and nations. On the other hand, Sandip’s parochial and belligerent nationalism, which cultivates an intense sense of patriotism in individuals, threatens to replace their moral sensibility with national bigotry and blind fanaticism. Seen from this perspective, Nikhil’s death at the end of the novel, just when Bimala is turning the corner and returning to her senses after a prolonged infatuation with Sandip and his views, also signals Tagore’s pessimism about the future of Bengal. In the absence of truly benevolent leaders like Nikhil, she would be mutilated, divided in two with millions of her children playing with their lives to meet the apocalyptic wishes of self-seeking, immoral, power-hungry politicians, determined to carve out her body on religious communal lines.

Nikhil loves his country as much as, if not more than, Sandip, but he will not allow his love for the country to overtake his conscience. Sandip, on the other hand, believes that ‘a country's needs must be made into a god’, and one ought to set ‘aside conscience [by] putting the country in its place’. This reckless deification of the nation and his belief that any action, no matter how heinous or unscrupulous, is justifiable if undertaken for the nation’s sake eventually turns him into a frightful terrorist and appalling criminal. He does not mind using intrigue or violence to accomplish his mission, even if it means harm to his own followers. As long as the mission is accomplished, the end justifies his means. He adroitly persuades Bimala to give all her jewellery to him to finance the movement, and steal money from the family safe. He also uses Amulya, an impassioned but idealistic youth (emblematic of the many adolescents who were influenced by the movement), exploitatively. When Mirjan, a Muslim boatman, refuses to stop carrying foreign goods, as it will take away his livelihood, Sandip arranges to sink his boat in midstream.

Post-colonial critics such as Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Tom Nairn have pointed out how nationalism cultivates the sentiments of irrationality, prejudice and hatred in people and Leela Gandhi has spoken of its attendant racism and loathing, and the alacrity with which citizens are willing to both kill and die for it.

Frantz Fanon has explained that although the objective of nationalism is to create a horizontal relationship and fraternity within its people, in reality the nation never speaks of the hopes and aspirations of the entire ‘imagined community’, and hierarchy, factional hegemony, inequality and exploitation remain a daily occurrence in its body. In Sandip’s actions, Tagore has insightfully and shrewdly anticipated all these pitfalls of nationalism pointed out by latter-day post-colonial critics.

This radical critique of militant nationalism, conceived against a backdrop of a larger ideology of love, creation and global human fellowship, is what occupies Tagore’s The Home and the World.

Conclusion:

As we have seen this novel through the lens of politics and postcolonialism discourse. In that about the author, that how the author was in the particular time and has given the justice to the work. Then we have seen glimpses of postcolonial novels and its features. And how it is applied in the novel.

Work cited:

Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Postcolonial Novels and Novelists.” Literary Theory and Criticism, 28 July 2019, literariness.org/2019/03/08/postcolonial-novels-and-novelists/.

“Rabindranath Tagore.” Tagore: Home and the World as a Political/Postcolonial Novel, www.literaturewise.in/mdl/mod/page/view.php?id=84.

“The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 31 Mar. 2005, www.goodreads.com/book/show/174216.The_Home_and_the_World.