Premchand’s 'Godan' - An Unforgettable Novel of Bharat Before Independence

 

This is an unforgettable novel to which I  returned after four and half  decades.  In this novel, Premchand portrays  village life caught in the grip of  feudalism  during pre-independence times.  Hori , the farmer under the grip of traditions, usury, domination by Zamindar, village Panchayat elders . He gets separated from his brothers Heera and Sekhar. He gets a cow which is poisoned by his brother Hera who absconds from village. He turns into a debtor , pays penalty demanded by elders when his son Gowar goes away from villages after marrying Jhunia against the wishes of  her family. His oxen were confiscated by Bhola in lieu of debt incurred to buy cow earlier. Hori has to take care of his brother Hera’s family and their lands. He himself becomes a coolie in the lands of Sastry, one of the Village elders.  Gowar earns money through various sundry activities, business and usury. He comes back to his village and restores the status of his family to an extent. But soon Gowar gets tired of petty life in  village, goes back to Lucknow, turns into a worker from a petty trader , indulges in beating  his wife, and even loses his elder son. His wife Jhunia grows alienated due to her husband's insensitivity. Later she   gives birth to another child and her neighbour  .  When he is beaten by the henchmen of the factory owner, Jhunia nurses him back to his  health leading to a change of heart in him. Meanwhile Hori gets his daughters Sona and Rupa  married  but gets debt ridden. Sona gets angry with Silia suspecting that she has flirts with her husband Madhur . Matadeen realises the folly of caste discrimination and reunites with Silia, Gowar comes back to his family to mitigate the burden of his father, Hori’s brother Heera comes back  after long time and apologizes for his misdeed of killing the cow. In the end ,  Hori , the farmer-coolie- and eternal debtor dies. Dhania, his wife and a  monument of patience and a symbol of defiance  gives up one rupee and four annas as ‘Godan’ or gift of cow to the Pandit.

Dhania comes out as a strong woman who can go against social norms to protect the weak and protest against the exploiters. She gives shelter to Jhunia , and later Silia who have been left in the lurch by their husbands Gowar and Matadeen. Both women  belong to the  marginalized sections. Dhania also is fearless in criticizing those elders, and usurers   who   take advantage of Hori. One can also find  Jhunia and Silia who survive against all odds through their patience, tricks and steadfastness in dealing with other men. They flirtation is to save themselves and pay back the wily in the same coin. The characters like Gowar, Matadeen, Sastry belonging to the Middle and the upper castes  represent the evasion and  vacillation in fighting traditional norms. The coolies and Madigas come out daring in seeking justice for Silia. Silia’s parents and brothers beat her for transgressing caste norms in having relationship with Matadeen but also teach a lesson to him by cutting off his holy thread and putting a bone in his mouth to make him lose caste. Sastry assures his son Matadeen through talking of expiation. Hori is a traditional figure, compliant, suffering, fatalistic, fearful of his wife Dhania, the strong woman. Prem Chand’s women characters such as Dhania, Jhunia, Silia, Nohari all symbolize struggle and  endurance in the face of  unfavorable  social conditions and traditions.           

  Godan is  a novel that moves the reader to the core of his heart. The novelist  portrays the human relations distorted by economic entanglements, pressures by village life on women deceived , celebration of  festivals, the  pyramid like hierarchy of collies- tenants- village elders- Police and bureaucrats and Zamindar from bottom to the top, the contradictions between the rural and the urban life.  The caste norms,  transgression of traditional mores, assertion of individuality  by the sufferers , domination by the privileged all are shown in a heart moving   manner. It is the saga of the people caught in the era of transition between feudalism and  the emerging  capitalism.         

The translation had been done by Atluri Pitcheswara Rao in a racy and  in vibrant  dialect. Even the names Gowar, Mirza, Malati, Sekhar, Sastry  are recognisable across regions. This is  the story of a  village, a microcosm of rural India in the first half of tw

Review of Orwell‘ s Down And Out in Paris and London :

  

In this work  George Orwell depicts the backbreaking and pathetic life of hotel workers in Paris and of  the  vagrants in London. He creates various characters who appear real and gives us a glimpse into the lives of the wretched lives. One feels he has  unfolded  the lives of the modern slaves through  portraits, experiences and  physical and psychological conditions. In this world you find the unknown and ugly side of our civilization that offers luxuries to some and miseries to many. You find the educated drudges, the ex- Russian soldiers like Boris whose ambition is to become Head waiter , the Italian who engages the author for learning English but disappears suddenly. The narrator who goes starving for five days and prays to the portrait of a prostitute mistaking her for a saint. Poverty makes you tell lies, live in the cellars, work for 18 hours a day,  pilfer food and wine, swear at your coworkers, cry in helplessness , go without love or marriage,  cheat the gullible, drink to the excess, go without love , sleep on beds with bugs , learn tricks of survival, face uncertain tomorrow, enjoy the momentary pleasures and die unwept and unsung. People become indifferent to themselves, ignore murders that happen under their windows, suffer from sleeplessness , turn shirkers like Jules who evades work as a from of protest. It opens the filth and lack of hygiene  in the kitchens of  hotel industry where exists hierarchy in workers , profits for proprietors, luxuries for customers and the wretchedness for the workers.

The irony is brought out in style of writing and the readers tends to  smile at the words .

“We were simply carrying out our duties; and as our first duty was punctuality, we saved time by being dirty.” (83)

 “Roughly speaking, the more one pays for food, the more sweat and spittle one is obliged to eat.” (83) 

“The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.” (137)

The workers have not formed a union to go on strike for better working conditions. But they do not think, because they have no leisure for it; their life has made slaves of them” (124)

If the educated people who have to stand by these overworked workers acquiesce in the process and are afraid of them since they know nothing about them. The same attitude persists in the case of the homeless and the vagrants  who are depicted as criminals.

Orwell also describes the subhuman lives of the homeless who are not allowed to stay in shelter’s for  more than a night, undergo humiliating medical tests to ensure that they are free form infection, are forced to pray by the religious Charities for the sake of bread. These homeless lose their self-respect, lose sense of hygiene ,turn lazy , indulge in  telling lies , begging  and  petty thefts and suffer imprisonment  and do all they can to save pennies to keep off starving. Their struggle for existence itself  is daunting.  They can become better by providing them self-sustaining work in working in kitchens and gardening to grow their own food and vegetables. A lot has to be done to make them recover  or rediscover their sense of humanity.

Orwell writes toward the end of his nonfictional work  that he “should like to know more about propleg like Mario, paddy and Bill and to understand  “what really  goes on in the souls of plonguers and tramps and Embankment sleepers.” (227)

He ends the book saying, “ I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army , nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill , nor enjoy a  meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.” (227)

This is a book for those who want to  know about our fellow humans living in partial or completely wretched conditions.                 

 

              

Reading Malati Chandur’s ' Sadyogam' and 'Vaisakhi'

 

Women writers, particularly women novelists in Telugu excelled in depicting social conditions which affect the development of individuality of women . Reading their fiction would really educate and enlighten the readers more habituated to read fiction by male writers for one reason or other. A sort of prejudice that women novelists bother more about domestic affairs  also is the reason for the negligence of women writers in literary reviews.    

In her novels, Malati Chandur  portrays women characters as independent in decision making in various stages of their . In the first novel Sadyogam , the heroine Sumitra joins as a junior lawyer to Venkat Raman, who is famous, shrewd, and master of lawyering. He looks stern and unforgiving externally and has compassion inside. She slowly gains experience and tactics to find out evidence to win cases. Her initial skepticism melts but when she comes across a person who has cheated her earlier, her courage fails to argue for him. Venkat Raman chides her for her negligence , comes to know of her past and still asks her to argue the case. The novel shows the author’s deep knowledge about the lawyering profession and cleverness needed by lawyers to succeed in their profession and work as mentors to juniors. The young lawyers would learn a lot from this novel which elevates the heroine  Sumitra who rises herself in her chosen profession with self-esteem.

In the second novel, Vaisakhai the novelist captures  the evolutionary movement once rocked the state. A third year medico Nirupama  is kidnapped by revolutionaries to render medical aid to one of their comrades. Her anxiety  fears vanish in the course of her stay and interaction with those in the Movement. She herself  gets drawn in to the movement in the course of time , stays for a year with them , observes their actions in providing summary justice to the affected   and also sees brutality done  by them and to them by the State. She feels agony over the death of Subhash whom she treats as her brother and Swami who sacrifices his life to enable the escape of Nirupama and Reddy .  She and her lover Reddy escape the site of  encounter , flee to madras and live incognito. Reddy who comes from landlord  slowly drifts and becomes a gambler and smuggler but hides the fact. Nirupama who has been working as a nurse develops concern for Ramchandran , a Customs Officer recuperating from his illness. Both of them become good friends and Ramchandran even intends to marry Nirupama. But  in the course of his job, Ramchandran captures Reddy , finds out the latter’s  criminal activities and also gift he has given to Nirupama in their house. When asked,  Nirupama reveals her past life and asks for saving Reddy from torture and punishment. Ramachandran reluctantly does so , leaves her for another place advising  her to confess in court and finish her medicine course. Nirupama understands the escapism of Reddy given to luxurious life  and avoidance of responsibility by Ramachandran and decides to live on her own . The novel shows Malati Chandur’s grasp about the social  conditions of those turbulent  times and psychology of different characters in a realistic manner. More than all, she delineates the evolution of Nirupama as an independent woman who learns from  her experiences and charts her own path.                           

Rebellion that Failed : Orwell's 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying'

 

George Orwell’s novel shows the debilitating and depressing influence of poverty . The hero Gordon Comstock hates earning money and becomes obsessed with it. His ambition to become a famous poet, marry Rose Mary, pay back the debt he owes to his sister Julia who helped him flounder on the rock of reality. He considers himself old and motheaten and no amount of concern by his love Rose Mary convinces him otherwise. When he gets ten pounds for his poem , he spends it on giving  a party to his love Rose Mary and editor friend Ravelston. The description of internal turmoil of Gordon and his aversion to the role of money is superb. It is a yearning against middle class respectability.  He fights till the end to sink to the bottom disregarding advice by friends and well wishers to earn money. he even throes away his  manuscript of poems, London Pleasures.When he comes to know that Rose Mary becomes pregnant, his resistance melts. He goes back to his former job at Albion as a copy writer in advertisement. He settles down and the Aspidistra  plant comes back to his new found  home.

It is a moving novel that portrays the struggles of a budding poet, nonconformist, a person with low self-esteem whose rebellion ends on the rock of reality of marriage and family.                    

Orwell on Fascism And Democracy

 

George Orwell’s Fascism And Democracy (Penguin Books,2020)  shows how bourgeois democracy is preferable to Fascism and the degree of difference between them matters a lot. Nationalism has been more strong than socialism which is understood vaguely. The English people come together in case of crisis.   Communism has been a lost cause in western Europe.  Democracy is not a sham and  its values  cannot be dismissed as superstructure or illusion as doctrinaire Marxism maintains. 

He also writes that totalitarianism means the  end of literature . In democracy , the relative freedom enjoyed by people is more dependent on  public opinion than on law. Resistance to evil is necessary to vanish it. Western Europe , The Americas, China and India will evolve their own form of socialism which is not totalitarianism .The reinstitution of slavery has been observed during the Second World War due to German totalitarianism which held concentration camps. Britain under War cannot be complacent thinking that it cannot happen  here.

I n fact, except in case of China, Orwell's predictions have not come true and even there Socialism has turned authoritarian.       

On Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence

 

Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of  Innocence portrays the obsessive love of Kemal Bey towards Fusun, a sales girl intent on turning into a film star.  He breaks his engagement with Sibel to who he has been engaged . He falls into depression but comes out of it and becomes a regular visitor to the house of Fusun. Her father Tarik Bey and mother  Aunt Nesibe are cordial towards him as they perceive his  attachment towards their daughter. Fusun’s marriage with Feridun who dreams of becoming  a director does not deter Kemal to pursue his love  relentlessly. He collects the memorabilia belonging to Fusun and their intimacy with each other . The museum of innocence is  a monument to  deathless love .  Pamuk’s style of  putting down even the minutes observations stand testimony to  his eloquent style. Istanbul , the times characterised by violence, coups , military rule,  the clash between the old and the new , the beauty of the landscape , the social and cultural life are brought out vividly.     The Turkish society has been caught in between the Oriental cultural norms and Occidental strivings to develop one’s individuality. The disobeying sons like Kemal Bey . Independent and cigarette smoking young girls like Sibel and Fusun , the once principled but now nonchalant    fathers like Tarik Bey , the loving and calculated mothers like Aunt Nesibe , the obeying drivers like Cetin, the career hunting and casual minded artists in Cafes, the actresses intent on raining like Papatya, the ambitious but insensitive Ferudin all pass on the stage meant for conflictual cultural norms .

The novel also shows the difficulty love faces in a society constrained by traditional  values including family status and lack of chances for free expression. The feelings are acknowledged slyly but never given full expression   quickly. They need a lot of buffeting. Mutation and transformation. The traditional society understands the indisputable romantic love between the young  people   but hardly gives a green signal . it has pass through the test of times and pay the necessary price.