A Reading of A GLIMPSE OF EMPIRE by Jessica Douglas-Home

 

    A Glimpse of  Empire is a work that shows the tryst of an Irish woman Lilah with India in the first decade of the 20^th  century. She comes to India to  escape the oppressive influence of her  mother and  see the darbar of George V in Delhi .Her granddaughter  penned the courageous take if Lilah   who  came , saw and fell in love with India. She wrote about her impressions  which  were found in her diary. The love between Irish and India is historical. There has been a proximity between the two countries which  suffered  under  the colonial rule of the British. The Irish home rule movement came to India, thanks to Annie Besant. Lilah’s perception of India seems fresh even after more than a century  after her visit to India. It is a symbol of triumph of emancipation of woman from  “the claustrophobic Edwardian and aristocratic  conventions of her gloomy mother.” (1) Her independence of mind is shown through her sure rebuttal of advances from the middle aged and wealthy  Comte de Madre on her voyage to India on the ship called Maloza. She was an explorer into the life of style of India and its rulers, princes , Rajahs  in pre-independence  India. She navigated through  the  unchartered  waters to understand the heart of India. She observed the life plainly and without any prejudice, the eyes of the innocence.

John Steinbeck too visited Soviet union and he expressed  his objective understanding  any political glasses. He observes the landscape and  people of Russia to perceive the country’s heart without tinted glasses. 

In both the books we find the black and white  photos which present enchanting history of India and Russia respectively  in   unvarnished terms. See to know the truth . This is the technique  in  both the books. Jessica Douglas use her material and diary entries of her grand mother to reveal the charm of her person and perception whereas Steinbeck and Capa bring out the enigmatic truth of Russia.  

On her way to Delhi, Lailah sees bewildering reality of India.

Through the window she could see grey monkeys with white chests and very ling tails darting in and out among trees, parakeets, mynahs and crows, carts drawn by great horned bullocks, fields full of  mimosa trees, palms and scrub, and peasants in the fields washing their clothes in muddy streams.  (28)

When she got down on the platform   she was

Instantly surrounded by a  swarm of small boys, natives in brilliant turbans  and naked men protected only by loin clothes, all bargaining ,begging, stealing or performing mesmeric feats of conjuring.  (28)

Her diary entries showed that

  whole framework and all the preconceptions of her English existence, with its formalities and  rules, had abruptly become irrelevant. Life in India  was outside the pale of those rigid conventions: it was unpredictable, bewildering – but it was life.   (29)

She was in tented city. When she came back from a small excursion , she heard about the two Punjab camps were caught fire and there wa no alarm by the watchmen.

Indians were, by all accounts, highly superstitious. In Bombay earlier in the day the flag that was hoisted on the King’s arrival had stuck at half mast, resisting every effort to rise it further. This too was considered a bad omen. Lilah herself had a touch of Irish superstitiousness.   (34)

Lilah Visited the tents of various kings or chiefs of the principalities who came to participate in the Durbar. She refers to the encampment of   Kashmir king, the Muslim  female ruler of Bhopal, the luxury-minded Maharajah of Patiala , the faithful Nizam of Hyderabad, The  independent Gaekwar of Baroda, The Maharaja of Bikaner, the Maharajh of  Nawanagar  and famous cricketer Ranjit Singh .

In the work we see the journey of Lilah through the eyes of Jessica who recreates the journey imaginatively and yet makes it look fresh.

Referring to the ambiguous relation between the Kings and The raj, she writes,

Each chief and his family had behind them at least a century’s history of loyalty, ambivalence or disaffection towards Britain. As the Empire disintegrated, giving way to the East India company and later to the Raj, many of the Mahrajahs had sought the Crown’s protection from marauding Afghans and from each other.  (39) 

   The book refers to collaboration  between the Raj and the Rajahs and Princes and an unspoken part of the  Durbar’s aim was to reinforce the authority of the Raj by getting the princes to proclaim their homage publicly to the King Emperor in front of their own people.”(43)

The year 1911 was also not free from   apprehension of the fear of possible  mutiny or terroristic violence and the trouble affected Punjab that had been loyal so far. The parade showed that  the Queen was more noticeable than the King and the Indian Princes stole the show through their show of splendor. Lilah understood what Dhokal Thakur told her on board regarding the Durbar procession 

which was a carefully crafted religious ritual , the core of all that kept the princely families compelling to their peoples. A ruler needed to be displayed to enhance his power; the public needed to see him to participate in that power. The objects he brought to a Durbar were as important s the clothes he wore, centuries-old decorative symbols which left interpretation to the viewer, allowing for differences in belief about religion and kingship. (51)

In the story of Lilah imaginatively reconstructed y her granddaughter , one can observe how she has shown partiality towards the British captains who died in mutiny and the same is not at all shown to the mutineers or freedom fighters who opposed  the British rule.  When he came to know about Nana Sahib’s treacherous act of giving a safe passage to the British and gunning them down while they were going on boats and butchering of the English prisoners  including women and children  disturbed her a great deal. The reprisals on the mutineers were also brutal. Jessica Douglas also refers to  Vasily Vereshchagin’s war paintings in which the mutineers were shown tied up to the cannon and blown up. Lilah thought  that the “Mutiny had seen terrible acts on both sides.” (87)   Western historiography portrays rebellion against the raj in the negative and natives are hardly given any praise for their spirit of rebellion. They are savage ,retributive , illiterate, lustful and what not. The same  continues in any  depiction of history of rebellion against the oppressors. So Nana sahib and others appear horrible and the Vietcong fighters in Vietnam war are commies who needed to be napalmed rather than understood. The burden of civilization continues to torment the Westerns since 1857. But Lilah also praises hospitality of Indians and criticizes the English for imposing generosity upon some prince or Rajah . Shea remarks .” Many of these contemptuously termed ‘natives’  are far finer truer gentlemen than many an Englishman.” (119) The book also mentions how Lilah was swayed by   Annie Besant in her return journey  and when she came to know about Annie’s desire to take on the Home rule movement , she was ‘dumbstruck.’ (120)This shows how the book presents the courage as well as prejudice of Lilah who looked at India more from the  western viewpoint rather than Irish nationalist viewpoint.      

Reading Vargas Llosa’s novel "The Feast of the Goat"

 Vargas Llosa’s  novel , The Feast  of the Goat  depicts the brutal regime of Dominican republic under Trojilla and how it damages  the social and moral fabric of the country. The notorious dictator rules his country with an iron hand and a megalomaniac and a narcissist. Or him his loyalists and opponents are expendable at his will and pleasure. He symbolizes the terror that completely subjugates  people-  loyalists in the military, powerful families of the country and middle class professionals. He was a victim of   an illusion of grandeur  and counts on reciprocal American support for his allegiance in voting in the UNO in favour  of  America. His uneasy relationship with Catholic church , antagonism to Cuban revolution and  native rebels make him build a labyrinthine system of oppression in which torture and extrajudicial killings decide the fate of others.

The novel  interweaves the story of Uranita, the daughter of  Augustin Cabral, the disgraced follower of Trujilla and four people who planned the elimination of Trujilla to end tyranny.  Urania returns form America where she spent thirty five years without going back to her country and her father who  stooped to betrayed her for the sake of Trujillo. The four people – Imbert, Saldhana, Amadito , Antonio de la Mazza  have suffered personal losses  in the regime which used and abused them. The novel  is written in a gripping suspense and portrays  brutality in chilling terms.

It shows how a nation struggles to become modern democracy wading through  the swamp of violence. It is a typical story of many third world countries ruined by native and imperialistic oppression. All dictatorships are alike in their contempt for people and avarice for power. The Franco Spain, Nazi Germany, Chile of Pinochet, Dominican Republic of Trujillo, Cuba of Batista, Stalinist Russia, Kampuchea of Polpot have one thing in common—treatment of people as means of power. The ideologies, languages, systems  differ but not the utter disregard for people in the name of development. The power of life and death wielded over common people fills one with horror and disgust for the degeneration of the ruling classes and the  specific rulers. The justifications are given in the name of historical conditions or human errors . Whatever it may be, the end result is plain mayhem. This is the sad saga of humanity walking through the mire of history and reminds us the saying, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

Memory can be painful and  she says to her invalid father that she  has spent her  time reading her country’s  history. It’s a rather peculiar history, it’s true. But I find it restful. It’s my way of not  losing my roots.” (129). Agustin Cabral hasn’t been in a position of understanding her words completely. Uranita ‘s recounting her memories is struggling to come to terms with the painful past of her country and her personal life.  She has emancipated herself from leaving for America suddenly with the help of the sisters of a church  and  study and job in world bank .  She studies at   Siena Heights College, spends her time in  “obsessive and redemptive” (178) Study in  a beautiful library in Michigan  to escape from painful Dominican  memories   and  later in Harvard law school. 

Her comeback denotes how memory revisits  the past and the conversation  between the daughter and father  is a conversation between amnesic and collaborative nature of brutal past and slow recovery of the country into democracy. He also reveals the fate of the Goat’s family after his death. The dictator’s family vanishes in crime and penury. Trujillo’s sons perish in  dissipation and crime and his daughter  Angelita turns into a nun and his wife Dona Maria dies half-witted  in penury despite having millions in a bank having forgotten  numbers of secret  accounts.

In the novel we find through different characters how they came to hate the regime and the dictator who compromised and robbed them of their honour as individuals. Amadito was forced to cancel his marriage with his girl friend and tricked to kill the brother of his girl friend.  Antonio dela mazza lost his  brother Tavito who had been used and thrown away by the regime ,   Tony Imbert , the manager of one of the companies felt guilty of discrepancy between the false image  of the regime spread  and reality of the face of the regime. He felt stifled and decided that the end of the goat Trujillo was the only way to get rid of “awful queasiness of constantly having to be two people in one , a public lie and a private truth   that could not be expressed.” (166)  the religious minded  Salvador Sadhala could not digest the liquidation of Mirabel sisters by the regime and confessed his desire to end to the church people who gave sanction in the name of higher truth.   The prime conspirators and other accomplices were former Trujilloists disenchanted by the regime that made them survive or prosper at the cost of their individual honour.    The novel shows  the plot and  assassination of Trujillo, the dictator known for his illusion of grandeur ,nepotism, womanizing, Machiavellian tactics, arbitrary bestowal and withdrawal o f rewards on hi s cronies , ambiguous relationship with the church and America .

The majority of conspirators meet  their deadly fate and  the novelist has succeeded in creating a empathy in the minds of the readers through delineating historical, political and psychological   character of the dictator and his assassins. He gives a terrific picture of degeneration of human nature wrought by the regime. The story has wider significance as it  is applicable to other dictatorial regimes of the last and the present century which imposed their barbarity on different countries in  Africa, Asia, Latin America and even in Europe such as Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia and Franco’s Spain.         

The narration is done through the memory of Urania,  intersperses the past and present  within the same chapter without any breaks, and maintains gripping suspense. Llosa makes the reader to have a glimpse into the torture chambers of the regime and portrays the naked brutality most ingenuously. He allow the plot and characters to reveal the  horrific regime. These tin pot dictators are native  and also pampered by America in its quest for domination . There is no reason to blame the backwardness of culture or economy for this sorry state and the story of collaboration of the native  brute and the   foreign capital has been a typical characteristic of many third world counties in  general and Latin American countries in particular.  The transition of modernity goes through a period of brutal regimes, a comparable phenomenon to primitive accumulation of capital that took place in England.

    Urania’s narration  of  the reason behind her abrupt departure from the country  runs parallel to the story of Trujillo’s end. He father  sacrifices her to win back favours form Trujillo and regain his political and financial status. Uranita witnesses the impotence of  Trujillo and his rage and directly  goes to the sisters of the church and leaves for higher studies for America. She has embraced study, work and  resorts to  silence for thirty five years before she reveals her story and anguish to her aunt Adelina , her cousins Lucindita and Manolita and her niece Marianita. At the end she hasn’t been sure if she wanted  her father to have been killed   like many other former Trujillistas. Through her narration we can understand the  saga of Dominican Republic which emerged out of dictatorship . We also come to know how the country didn’t want to turn into a poor country like Haiti or American invasion in case of another dictator after Trujillo. Llosa’s choice of a female figure Urania to reveal the history of Dominican Republic  shows the masculine brutalization and  robbing of honour of country   seen as woman. The woman characters appear  docile, victimized sexually but in times of crisis  bold rescuers of the executioners of Trujillo even at the cost of their own safety and  lives. The novel brings out in fictional form how the suppressed  Dominicans welcomed democracy and paid price in terms of blood, tears and supreme sacrifice.  But one gets the feeling that the lens of the novelist  is more on  the rebellion from the sections of the ruling classes rather than popular democratic  forces .            

India’s story has been fortunately different. It hasn’t passed through brutal regimes barring emergency in 1975.  The Indian state has also  behaved violently in crushing separatist and revolutionary movements but the common people have not suffered on a large scale as in the case of other countries ruled by dictatorships.    Indian  democracy has survived for nearly seven decades  despite its elitist bias. The unique struggle for Indian  independence from Britain  saved the people  from the  fate of its neighbors such as Pakistan, Bangladesh or even China.                           

 

 

Memory and  Liberation From Tyranny : A study of Marquez's     The General in His Labyrinth         

   There are many similarities between India and Latin America . Both have  suffered under colonialism and imperialism .The diversity  in religion, creed, hybridity of identity, strong ambience of magic , and the  painful transformation under the relentless assault by the West. India has withstood this assault in terms of language and many  Indian writers  excelled in their vernacular languages. Only a minority of writers have made English as their medium of expression unlike their counterparts in Latin America who have embraced Spanish of the colonizer. The conqueror has failed to wipe out Indian languages and their literatures. The conquered have no need to speak in a different tongue  as Neruda Praises  Spanish language in his memoirs.

    Where does lie the fascination for Latin American literature—in their inherent greatness of  techniques  of expression of their local or continental  reality or the capturing of universal imagination?  In Latin American fiction Garcia Marquez carved a niche for himself through his fiction in which the elements of history, myth, Psychological truth, rational and irrational elements of this world. His novels are  initially indecipherable, exotic and enigmatic. It needs the patience of a miner to dig the golden meaning out of his works. He focuses mainly on inseparable solitude of  an individual whether it is private or historical. The colonel who waits for pension, the unifier of continent like Bolivar, the indefatigable  lover , the person over  whom death hovers as in chronicle, the corrupt mayor concerned with Order In Evil Hour – all of them appear as strange and pitiable at once.

 

The present paper analyses the last journey of Bolivar and his anguish over the broken dream and  amidst solitude of power. 

The title of the novel suggests that  “ even the powerful-even generals, colonels , patriarchs-cannot control fate and destiny. “( Martin 106)

  “the theme of fame and glory takes us back to a complex of themes which had preoccupied Garcia Marquez  long before he himself had become celebrated, in particular the matter of identity and the solitude of power, including the distance between one’s image and reality.” (Martin 106)

 

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    In Latin American fiction Garcia Marquez carved a niche for himself through his fiction in which the elements of history, myth, Psychological truth, rational and irrational elements of this world. His novels are  initally indecipherable, exotic and enigmatic. It needs the patience of a miner to dig the golden meaning out of his works. He focuses mainly on inseparable solitude of  an individual whether it is private or historical. The colonel who waits for pension, the unifier of continent like Bolivar, the indefatigable  lover , the person over  whom death hovers as in chronicle, the corrupt mayor concerned with Order InEvil Hour – all of them appear as strange and pitiable at once.

   Garcia Marquez’s novel The General in the Labyrinth shows the solitude  of power, the latter’s temporariness, the gap between one’s vision and actuality. The dream appears whole but the actual world crushes it to fragments. This  has been the fate of many historical personages good and bad. The dreams of  Bolivar, Lenin, Gandhi have not heralded the unified continent of Latin America, the  revolutionary communism, the undivided India respectively. No leader could transcend the limitation of time and physicality. Leaders succeed  only when they are in tune with times. They fail if they whip the dead horses even though they are adept jockeys. Bolivar failed since nationalism was growing in stead of continental unity. Lenin could not prevent the rise of bureaucracy which was the reverse of communism. Gandhian vision  of undivided India suffered fragmentation and simmering historical rivalry and conflicts between India and Pakistan. The top leaders feel inalienable solitude in the face of overwhelming odds. Bolivar in the face of national differences in Latin America , Lenin  in the face of the rise of bureaucracy and Gandhi in the throes  of partition experienced this intense loneliness or solitude. An individual’s life inexorably moves towards death irrespective of the fortunes of nations. The solitude of  those who exercise great power and the fading of glory in the face of death  is inevitable in nature. The new generation takes over and makes or mars the future of the country. Latin American countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico went through the purgatory of nation formation. Lenin’s Russia turned bureaucratic, imperialistic and imploded in the face of competitive  global capitalism  and ceased to be a super power. India has remained democratic but at loggerheads with Pakistan and a victim of corruption, inequality and Hinduistic struggling to adopt to modern ethos and technology. The present paper analyses the last journey of Bolivar and his anguish over the broken dream and  amidst solitude of power. 

 

   Gerald Martin comments that “the title suggests that even the greatest power is always limited, always temporary: even the powerful –even generals, colonels, patriarchs—cannot control fate and destiny.” (106)   Marquez’s preoccupation had been with  “the matter of identity and solitude of power, including the distance between one’s image and one’s reality.”(106)

Why did Bolivar fail in realizing his dream despite his  “earlier  success in liberating eighteen provinces from Spanish domination.”  In the novel , we come to know through Jose Palacios the historical facts of creation of the republic of Colombia  out of the  former territories and his “fantastic dream of creating the largest country in the world : one nation, free and unified, from Mexico to Cape Horn.” ( the General, 48)

Bolivar lost his wife early that was when he was nineteen and gave himself to liberating a continent and no other leader had undertaken such a huge task in history. If he failed it was due to the currents of history which encouraged nationalism.                                                                           

   The people admired him earlier and now they wanted him to go away and they didn’t believe that he would really go away finally. They had some respect for him for his past glory but times have changed  and a few followers were with him. His former loves Manuela Sanchez and Miranda Lyndsay saved his life. Manuela informed him about the possible plot and helped him escape from the assassination and Miranda arranged a rendezvous just to keep him away from being killed.

His men were weary of wars and further sacrifices he demanded from them. They said that they had got independence and asked him what to do with it.  Alexander’s army   also might have felt the same weariness   when they clamoured to go home from India. The glorious emperor of the ancient days  died midway and so were Napoleon and Bolívar. Napoleon died as a prisoner whereas Bolívar as a prisoner of his dream. At Mompox , Bolívar met his former comrade Lorenzo Cárcamo and both ”lamented their misfortunes, mourned the frivolity of nations and the ingratitude of victory” (117)

Bolívar as a young man fell under the influence of Rousseau , swore to kick the Spanish out of Venezuela enjoyed Parisian life but felt bored afterwards. After many years and at the end  of  his life he remembered his friend Cárreno’s advice and sink down into  “the redemptive ocean of purple verbena  along with his armies of beggars, his useless glories, his memorable errors , the entire country.” (132)        

         He might have heard the vast silence  like the explorer  Columbus notes the novelist.

 

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The lone journey of  Bolívar  shows the how leader also may be left out of touch with the pulse of the people or spirit of the times. The general was desperate to resurrect his former days of glory. The betrayal by Santander pain him whereas the assassination of his chosen heir  Sucre pains him a lot. His entourage still treats him with deference and his former loves try to help him to regain his bearings and former glory. But the wave has passed and he needs to heave a  sigh. He reached  Barranca Nueva   and didn’t like to have  burlesque performances of the black men and women which he liked earlier. E slept and suffered nightmares. He was generous in giving money to the officers and soldiers and sighs but could not “renounce his  infinite capacity for  illusion  at the very moment he needed it most” (136)

He has shrunk physically but not mentally as per the words of his General Montilla, a witty man. 

An individual’s life inexorably moves towards death irrespective of the fortunes of nations. The solitude of  those who exercise great power and the fading of glory in the face of death  is inevitable in nature. The new generation takes over and makes or mars the future of the country. Latin American countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico went through the purgatory of nation formation. 

Reference:

Martin, Gerald. The Cambridge Introduction to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. New Delhi: CUP,2012.  

 

 

Gao Xingjian's ideas on Language , Literature and Litterateur's Choice - Part- II

 Gao gives his is ideas on Language, Literature and the Choice of Writer which cna be understood form his The Case for Literature are as follows :   

Literature and Metaphysics (lecture , 1991):

The use of Chinese language is political issue, social pressures leading to psychological self- restrictions and the issue of language itself.

Gao Xingjian wrote the novel Soul mountain to show that there was space for greater  creativity.

The transfer of western linguistic and theoretical writings into Chine language writings resulted in a rigid translation genre.

He advocates writing in the living language and thinks that an appropriate use  of  vocabulary  word-formation and  syntax of some dialects enrich the modern Chinese.

He was impressed by  Feng Menglong and Jin Shengtan in use of language.

He also thinks that the written words must have auditory appeal and used tape recorder to elicit direst perception of language. He searches for the modern form of language to express his perceptions. Language  is a spontaneous entity and its  basic nature of language is greater than politics , ideology, rules of philosophy, ethics or social customs.

He refers to stream of consciousness technique as  a ‘flow of language’ and soul mountain is along soliloquy in which pronouns keep changing . this leads to same subject being endowed with different angles of perception.

Chinese language is more adept in describing psychological activities than western languages. By not indicating tense , it merges past, present and future are inseparable and reality and imagination , memory and thought are integrated within he process of narration.

In the Chinese language , the subject is often omitted and the verb is not inflected according to the pronoun facilitating  an easy change in narrative angle.

Western languages are more analytical .

Gao Xingjian has tried to embody the pure spirit of Daoism and Chan Buddhism in modern Chinese language. To him, “using tradition to attack people and denigrating tradition both are reprehensible.” (94) he respects  Chinese writers like Pu Songling, Shi Nai’an, Cao Xueqin, and Liu E and also modern writers like Tolstoy, Chekhov, Proust, Kafka, Joyce and French nouveau roman writings. 

On Soul Mountain , he writes that “it uses pronouns in stead of characters , psychological perceptions in stead of plot , and changing emotions to modulate the plot.” (94)

The primary structure of the book involves the first-person  pronoun “I’ and the second person pronoun “You”, in which the former is  travelling in aa real world while the latter, born of the former , is magical journey of imagination . Later “she” is born of “you” and later still the disintegration of “she” leads to the mergence of  “he”, who is the transformation of “I”. (96)

This structure has allowed the novelist to observe the psychological levels of language since “human awareness of language begins with the emergence of pronouns.  

 It  breaks free form concepts such as plots and characters and resembles a travel diary and a soliloquy and a fiction though and  is a fiction by virtue of their ( critics’) negating it.” (96)

Gao has tried to use a variety of narrative  methods which he unifies by changing pronouns. This is his understanding of language as a  continuous flow. He changes narrative methods gradually and in a limited manner  to avoid chaos and music helps him listen keenly to the rhythm of his inner mind.

He wanted to show a different culture  through his novel Soul Mountain . he refers to four different cultures – Orthodox  feudal culture, Daoism tracing its origins to  primitive Shamanism and reformed  Buddhism , folk culture and a  purely Eastern based spirit expressed in nature-based philosophies of Laozi and Zhuangzi and the metaphysics of the Wei and inn dynasties and Chan Buddhism. He says that the culture of the novel is of the latter three forms .Gao Xinjiang  has preferred  “to go on a spiritual journey to reveal the aspects of Chinese culture that had been concealed by bureaucratic Orthodox culture.”(99)

   Heis inspiration has been that of Yangtze Basin culture rather than the Yellow river basin culture . he also refers to Xia culture . to him, the flourishing of culture does not inseparably linked with political authority . He is not for the  importation of the Western culture or searching for roots  . “ It is simply a matter of how I understand these roots, including how I understand myself.” (103)

Gao Xingjian is a modern Chenese writer who believes in no isms and allows people a choice to live a mode of life suitable for them and fleeing form political persecution .He says, “ For me, history remains an engulfing fog , and this self of mine makes me equally anxious.” (103)

In “The Necessity of Loneliness’’ ( Speech, 2002), the writer says it is unique to humans, stems from self-love leading to self-pity or conceitedness or even impetuosity.  It has to be examines with an internal as well as an external eye. The third eye, known as consciousness or wisdom .   it is an aesthetic judgement but also can become a drive for achievement. It encourages maturity and necessary for adults. It gives space for others and perquisite for freedom of reflection.  It is stillness amidst din of the clamorous world of mass media. It is necessary to listen to the voice of  one’s own heart and self-establishment and  to achieve things.

The writer says that  ‘’ life is a state of  perpetual fleeing, from political oppression or from others. One must also flee from one’s self , because once the self has been awakened it is this that one cannot flee; tis is the tragedy of modern man.” (124) he does not accept  slavishness to a faction and the independence of the write is more important and he does not aspire to return to his home land under tyranny.  The impossibility of fleeing from oneself can be observed in the Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy .  Gao Xinjian wanted his play  Fleeing ( written after Tiananmen square massacre in 1989) to be performed not in realistic or naturalistic style. This play led to his  alienation and break  from the Chinese Communist party and even the from democratic movement to an extent. The actor had to maintain certain distance from character to be able to get into and out of it occasionally. While Brecht’s theatre shows alienation between the audience and the play , Gao wants alienation between the actor and the character.

 The Case for Literature (Nobel lecture, 2000)

 ‘Literature is inherently man’s affirmation of his own self-worth, and that this is validated  during the process of writing.”  Its  impact if any has been felt after the work is finishes and beyond the control of the writer. 

Gao refers to the fact how the 20th century has proved oppressive and many writers suffered persecution and death in the hands of political power and during the communist regime after 1949,  fleeing also has not been an option to the writer.

. To him, literature is the voice of the individual and  a  writer is a normal person but more sensitive but  not the spokesman or representative of  people or embodiment of righteousness. His voice is weak but authentic. he thinks that ideology united with power dooms literature and the writer. he thinks participation in  politics must be left to the choice of the writer.

 Not much is known about the authors of Chinese classics such as Journey to the West, Water margin, Jin Ping Mei and Dream of the Red Mansions  remain anonymous and Kafka and Pessoa wrote  without seeing their books coming into light.  Literature is the final crystallization of civilization, complex , probing into an individual and linking him with world, communicative across cultures and its eternal spiritual value lines in the shared time between the writer and the reader.  

Gao Xingjian considers that   literature “transcends ideologies, national boundaries and racial consciousness in the same way that the individual’s basic existence transcends this or that ism.” (36) he sees literature as  universal, restrictions on it are external,  aesthetic judgments containing subjective have recognizable universal standards  he is not for fashionable or market oriented  literature .

Gao supports “cold literature‘‘. From this perspective the writer is  a simple man but not  super man or a spokesman of the masses or a criminal or an enemy of he people. The authorities manufacture enemies of writers to divert the attention of the people. The relation between the reader and the writer  is spiritual and does not depend on social interaction and beyond “the gratification of material desires.”(38) and its survival relies on  the writer’s “willingness to endure loneliness.’ (39)‘ the writer cannot fill the role of creator or a prophet

Gao Xingjian, the Nobel prize winner states that the present century is not immune to catastrophes as memories are not carries in genes , humanity will not always  move in progressive direction. Science and technology has not made mankind more civilized.  

To hIm, the important thing for a writer  is to live in the present ,understanding oneself being a witness and to search for truth and  the dilemmas of human existence remained   despite the era of no isms . tis search for truth has made the Greek tragedy and Shakespeare relevant even today.  Literature removes false illusions and understands mundane things form heights  in a broader perspective.  

Language of literature is not for games of the intellect but  to express emotions and experiences  but to expand the expressive capacity and  fiction and drams have nor come to end. A writer gains knowledge through direct and indirect means.

Gao also says that  literature is not a commodity and nonutilitarian function is fundamental to it. The means of the craft of the  writer is using  language to challenge society through his works..  

On one hand, Gao wants the writer to bother about the present and on the other hand, he state that the writer writes out of inner need . a writer is neither a hero nor a zero. He is against  glorification of  historical laws and for individual voices and choices.

Gao means that the contemporary writer has to  strike a  balance between addressing the needs of  the present and writing out of joy derived form the craft of writing without being trapped by power politics and conformism.  

Gao Xingjian's Thoughts in "The Case For Literature" - Part I

 

  In his article , “Author’s Preface to Without Isms”(1995) Gao Xingjian notes that speaking without isms means speaking freely and spontaneously eve despite the act being futile. It is “simply speech without outcomes.” (25)

It is an attitude and better than Nihilism. It admits no blind obedience to religion or power or an ideology. It is not empiricism but respects experience but as experience of one’s or of others has a limitation or uniqueness, there is no need to treat an experience as a gospel. What matters is an individual’s judgement with out any need for moral  verification as it is not possible to go on living in the face of verifying everything . It is an individual’s choice but not an imposition. It sees judgement of an individual as relative. It is more human being free form judgements bade on different criteria of different people.it allows neither domination by oneself nor senseless butchery  of oneself by the world. It is against totalitarianism, extreme individualism, foisting of politics, utopia, recruiting oneself or others into a group, political messages , anarchy and also against dictatorship in the name of any ideology be it fascism, communism, nationalism or religious fundamentalism. It is about human freedom and opposes profiteering or indoctrination . it risks public condemnation as people shift from one ism to another ism but not allowed to without isms. It is a great liberation and being without trauma of others’ isms.

   It is best to search for truth oneself. It does not bother about the existence or nonexistence of truth. “Moreover, truth could well be a captive bird that once held in the hand will die.”  (30) It is not pragmatism and the self outside market is not worthless.  It does not construct self-validating system . it isa form of resistance and reverence for the mystery of life. It is his individual choice , says  Gao  Xingjian . it is not pessimism . “It is stopping before the brink of despair to look silently around.” (31)

Without Isms(1993):

   Gao Xingjian rejects all labels and thinks that futile debates among isms are not conducive for creative work . he write how he has been labelled differently after writing different works. The disastrous thing is, ‘ by failing to conform, one is consigned to the ranks of those to be criticized, banned, exterminated , purged, killed or destroyed.” (66)

    He thinks that in the present era of collapse of isms, the writer can safeguard his spiritual independence by only adopting scepticism or questioning. The abstract collectives such as nation , the Party, race or people with authority “can  only strangle literature.” (67)

   He thinks that   ‘’literature requires the need to affirm the existence of oneself before the art can arise out of it.” (670. He also distinguishes Chinese from Western languages and in the process  “discovered that syntax in Chinese is not fixed, that the subject and object can be freely transposed, that verbs have neither declension nor tense , that the subject can be dispensed with  and that sentences without a pronoun are very common.”

He wants Chinese grammar book need to be rewritten. he also thinks that infusion of spoken language and dialect into the language of literature enlivens it and a creative act.

Gao has not wanted to make literature an appendage of language, focused on internal or psychological  reality . He has tried to chalk out an independent path. He has tries to find new avenues in both playwriting and performance methods.

He observes that debates following the May Fourth period subsided and cross-cultural communication has become  no problem.  Referring to Gombrowicz and Joyce who preserved Poland and Ireland respectively in their selves and who didn’t revisit their homeland, Gao Xingjian says that life in exile has given him more points of reference.

Gao thinks that a  writer is not the spokes person of a culture or its representatives and creativity goes if one has the misfortune of becoming so. He thinks that the individual voice of the writer facing the world alone is closest to  truth.  He is against the Nietzschean concept of inflated self which may end in madness and becomes judgmental . He  adopts the  tranquil contemplative attitude towards society but not for nonaction of Daoism and renunciation of Buddhism. He wants to write for himself but not to please others. To him life is above ethics and value lies in one’s existence. He does not want to change the world as he finds that changing himself is not manageable for him. He says that literature can transcend ideology and beyond moral judgements as  Baudelaire and Dostoyevsky have shown. What literature is inextricable is from aesthetic judgements. He also says some modern writers have expunged ethical judgments from their writings . the last fort of the writer’s authority  is an inevitable subjectivity in their aesthetic judgements.  He describes is position as that of middle between the East and  the West and as an individual level living  at the margins of society.                         

    In Cold Literature “ (1990), the writer writes about literature writing free from compulsive reading by the reader or commodification or following a creed. “Its existence  depends on the writer’s willingness to endure loneliness.” (79)Cold literature exists as a spiritual activity and Kafka and  Cao Xueqin whose works remained unpublished during their life time wrote out of joy.  He thinks that fleeing from a group or political  movement gives a writer complete freedom. He  can have political attitudes and ethical viewpoints . he says Chinese literature has impacted by wars, revolutions and political movements leading to writers to fight and die for livelihood. They have not been able to save either nation or people due to intolerance towards dissent. Cold literature exists only in the absence of societal and political pressures and a race that does not allow this  non-utilitarian  kind of literature shows its  spiritual poverty.

Gao, in his  “The voice of the Individual”(1993) writes that Chinese intellectual class , in contrast with old age scholars became more influenced by The Western political thinking and after 1930’s got entangled with politics whether they were aware or not or due to external conditions.  He calls it a ‘nightmarish predicament’ (127) he questions if it is a historical necessity or possibility to assert their independence without trying to be saviour or a sacrifice. In the name of people or nation or patriotism they found it difficult to  affirm their individual worth. Owing to traditional culture, they have never separated the notion of  nation from  the  individual  and found the moral pressure unendurable than physical pressure. Hence, they risked their lives and also   confessed crimes when labelled reactionaries. They have abrogated the right to freedom of thought in slavery to the myth of nation or ‘dictatorship of the people’. Gao notes that “if the self of  the intellectual  is dissolved in the collective big self or what is known as “we “, the individual self no longer exists. “ (133)  He says that it is the choice of the intellectuals to go into politics or not.  After 1949, the CCP control over intellectuals increased and totalitarian politics reached a high point during cultural revolution. After the rise of Deng there was relaxation in controls on intellectuals but Nietzschean  concept of  superman again made  the intellectuals to inflate their role as spokesman of race or nation.   He opposes Nietzsche’s notion of superman embraced by intellectuals and observes the lower status of intellectuals  under communism .He opposes futile debates of tradition-modernity, Eastern- western, authentic-unauthentic, form or content, realism or modernism, modernism r postmodernism  and sees them as traps to be avoided.  He observes the decline  of socialism and the crisis of  liberalism and the rise of racism after the Second Big War.    He denies the idea of pure racial culture   in the era of cultural fusion and ends  saying “ The awareness that an individual is able to attain is what I call rationality and it is not an ism.”(139)

 

In the article “Literature as Testimony” (2001), Gao Xingjian states Literature serves only truth, literary revolution and revolutionary literature resorted to linguistic violence and turned the field of spiritual freedom into a battle field. A writer is labelled and it is in face better for him to be an ordinary person without privileges . the inflation of ego distorts the individual’s perception. It is better for him to be  a dispassionate observer, self-scrutinizer and gives up the mission of recreating the world. There is no pandering to the readers. Literature that seeks truth refuses to be subordinate to market or to politics. Truth has many layers and all witnesses are not reliable. Literature as testimony overcomes the problems of  a witness’s cowardice or personal viewpoint leading to omissions intentional or otherwise , psychological inhibitions. A writer who creates literature as testimony base on experience  has limitations. He digs out truth from history that is changed according to the convenience of the rulers . it is better for him to maintain distance and  His testimony based on experience of himself or his family  is autobiographical to an extent .  it supplements history by preserving memories though of one man.  Literature that is testimony does not avoid politics, takes up taboos in every field such as  politics, society ,religion or custom  by being independent without compromise, does not impose political view point   on others .  He says that a writer can participate  in politics but    supports the fine  tradition of Hugo, Camus and Zola in whose works political engagement is dissociated from their literature. Writers fused their personal experiences with their inner perceptions removing barriers between fabrication and real events. Truth is not exhaustive and  literature that probes life  can be written as long as humankind is not possessed  by madness.  A writer searches for a unique method of narration but stylistic exploration need not be for the sake of controversy. The  process of writing  helps a writer’s self- transcendence make  and a distant  observer who appreciates   beauty. Gao  thinks that literature does not need semantic analysis or linguistic theories . To him , truth is direct and people are human in their weaknesses , globalization and It have  increasingly affected critical thinking of  people. He wants  to end the search for new isms and prefers  return to  “the truth of being human-that is  , return to the true perceptions of the individual, return to the instant and stop manufacturing lies about tomorrow.” (61) Observation is superior to judgement, evil persists due to human weaknesses, return to the reality of life saves at literature if not the writer. He concludes that  literature cannot solve all problems,  wars , fanaticism and  terrorism    continue and it is futile to mention compassion in the absence of minimum understanding.

 For people who are locked into their own experiences, mutual understanding is difficult. Yet through literature , there  can be a certain degree of communication, so the writing of literature that essentially has no goal does leave people a testimony of survival. And if literature still has some significance , it is this.(63)

 

Vasily Grossman’s epic novel Life and Fate : A Study of Human Nature Amidst War

           

    This novel shows how the former  Soviet union people fought against Germans during the second world war to defeat Nazis. It also shows how the repressive system of the time has jettisoned the old generation  revolutionaries and gave full powers to the new generation which carried out the orders form the top in a blind and submissive  manner to harass and punish the people. The intellectuals including poets and scientists were   promoted or pulverized and perished according to the caprice of the authorities. In this scenario there have been young people who defied death to defeat German aggressors. This novel has wider canvas like Tolstoy’s War and Peace or Quiet Flows the Don by Sholokhov.  The destiny of individuals , families , regions , countries, communities and even nationalities is intertwined and suffered in the maelstrom of the Second World  War which too a heavy toll on humanity and civilization. The Second big war came due to imperialistic ambitions of Germany, the ‘appeasement policy ‘ of  Britain and France , the  myopia of Soviet Union in making a pact with Germany.  The senselessness, carnage , slaying of freedom of nationalities and the tremendous scale of  horror devastated the lives of people. Human has to search for meaning of humanity in the face of concentration camps.

We remember the fate of many characters such as Shaposhnikov sisters, Lyudmila and Yevgenia. Lyudmila’s husband Victor Shtrum, a nuclear physicist experiences the rise and fall of his fame and fortunes according to the grace or resentment of the top people. Lyudmila loses her son Tolya in war , suffers and stands by her husband through thick and thin. Yevgenia, the bolder woman struggles for  residence permit, leaves   her first husband Krymov , a commissar in Red Army for a Colonel Novikov, a commanding officer.

Among Victor’s colleagues we find all kinds of people-supporters( Pyotr Sokolov and Anna Loshakova, enemies such as Shishakov, opportunists, dissentients such as Chepyzhin). Victor and his colleagues discuss things freely away from Moscow  in Kazan but later he is tormented by doubts regarding who might have informed against him  when he fell  out of favour with authorities in Moscow. He finds a genuine love for Marya Ivanova Sokolova , the wife of his friend and who sympathizes with him in his downfall. Victor is also consumed by guilt but his love outside wedlock remains unfulfilled. Lyudmila understands her husband’s inner turmoil but supports him even at the cost of her own suffering. Yevgenia who separates from her mono-track minded  and colourless   husband Krymov goes to see him who is charged with treason in  prison . Her letter causes jealousy in her lover Novikov who is in the thick of the battle.  Krymov himself the first  generation Bolshevik overwhelmed by bureaucratic upstarts and suspected as treacherous undergoes interrogation and physical torture.  The character Viktor , his guilt over the death of his mother,  his weakness in signing against the doctors’ plot against Stalin’s life  ,  his love for the wife of his friend have parallels in his personal life.

The hard  life in camps run by Germans as well as Russians is described vividly .The humanity of inmates belonging to various nationalities. Professions , religions   is denied, their dignity is compromised, their labour is abused to dig their own graves, their rebellion is suppressed ruthlessly.  The prisoners of war suffer more tragic experiences due to the megalomania of their respective rulers who drove them to war in the name of nationalism. They are perished unwept and unsung- Mostovskoy, (an old Bolshevik), Ikinnikov-Morzh( a former  Tolstoyan), Chernetsov ( a former Menshevik), Captured Russian officers such as Osipov In German camp . In Russian labour camp – Abarchuk( Lyudmila’s former husband),Rubin ( a medical orderly), Barkhatov ( A criminal), Magar ( an old Bolshevik and Abrchuk’s teacher ) , a mystic called  Prince Dolgoruky,  a former professor of  economics called Stepanov) and others. We find the slavery in its modern incarnation here. In the face of might of State , no forgiveness reigns where the inmates are sentenced for long periods and arbitrarily by making them confess by force. This is a story of tiny individual who is caught like an insect in a spider’s web. A hopeless maze.

 The most poignant scenes are witnessed in march of the innocent and hapless to the Gas  Chamber. The face of humanity is totally disfigured here. The people hoping for resettlement   are marched like lambs by the hyenas called Nazis. Their physical possessions, , honour and  even souls are crushed and suffocated to death to  write and stain  pages in history  in blood and tears. The reader experiences indescribable anguish at the fall of man to the level less than that of insects not withstanding the glorification of civilization . It is an impregnable  dark chamber in the mind and heart of man.

The heroics of the fighter squadron of the Russian Air force , soldiers in House 6/1, officers of the Soviet army in Stalingrad bring out various facets of people involved . The desperate search for food and water, the life in the bunkers, the sprouting  of love between the young people, the sacrificing  spirit, the undying humour amidst dance of death, the inexplicable  forgiveness  by an old woman who offers to a prisoner of war  a loaf of  bread instead of a brickbat , the desertion of regions , the betrayals by some  remembering  their pathetic past , all these create a welter of emotions and thoughts in the minds of readers.

Descriptive powers of the novelist :

Grossman uses  riveting similes.

  ‘’On the left , towards the Volga, were the tall chimneys of the ‘Red  October’ factory and some goods wagons that looked like a herd of animals huddled around the body oft heir dead leader- a locomotive that was lying on its side.”  (43)                                                  

  A burst of machinegun fire  under the feet of Byerozkin “was almost as though a flock of sparrows had suddenly shot up from the ground.” ( 44)

When he was flying  the breath of an old Russia from the forests and lakes  came into experience of  Lieutenant Viktorov.

Ancient racks ran among these lakes and forests; houses and churches had been built from the tall , upright trees; the masts of sailing boast had been hewn from them . The grey Wolf has run through these forests. Alyonushka had stood and wept on  the very bank along which Viktorov  was walking towards the mess . This vanished past seemed somehow simple-minded, youthful ,naïve; not only the  maidens in towers, even the grey-bearded merchants , deacons and patriarchs seemed a thousand years younger than  the worldly-wise young pilots  who had come to this forest from a world of fast-cars, machine -guns, diesel engines , radios and cinemas. The Volga itself-quick and slim , flowing between steep, many-coloured banks , through the green of the forest , through the patterns of light blue and red -was a symbol of this vanished past.  (143)    

The novelist in the same breath describes how the forest under his feet which had many layers sprung to submerge him in itself. He feels at the beginning a sense of strangeness and  uncomfortable  as if he were  at the  bottom of a reservoir looking up through a layer of water and observes various flies, birds and the moss covered in dew drops. when he enters into brightness, he feels optimistic and sense of freedom and becomes a part of nature.

The lemon-coloured butterflies , the polished , blue-black beetles , the ants , the grass-snake rustling through the grass, seemed to be joining together in a common task. Birch-twigs, sprinkled with fine leaves  , brushed against his face ; a grass-hopper jumped up and landed on him as though he were a tree- trunk; it clung to his belt , calmly tensing its green haunches as it sat there with its round , leathery eyes and sheep-like face 

Only a great observer with a poetic heart like Grossman who saw beauty amidst ugliness of war  could write like this.    

   

Philosophy :     Grossman’s deep understanding of human history is described in chapter 50  of part one.  He writes that people are whipped up into frenzy of hatred for others, voted unanimously , allowed rabies enter their houses, kept discreet silence about mass killings, herded and guarded prisons, obeyed  a  lot,  some rebelled but the vast masses succumbed to obedience. The human spirit is paralyzed by totalitarian violence. The instinct for self-preservation is supported in the name of  future greatness of motherland, world progress, happiness of mankind, of a nation , of a class. The violence of totalitarian State becomes an object of mystical worship. Blind optimism , rebellions born out of desperation,  waiting for execution and believing the voice of Jewish executioners.

Grossman refers to the rising in Warsaw ghettoes , in camps like Treblinka and Sobidor , partisan movements in subjugated countries, the uprisings in Berlin in 1953,Humgary ( 1956), the camps of Iberia, the riots in Poland and students’ protests against the suppression of freedom of thought  point out  the imperishable yearning for freedom. He writes “Man’s fate may make him a slave , but his nature remains unchanged.” (220) he echoes Hemingway’s words in his novel The Old Man and the Sea ,   “A man can be destroyed but not defeated .”   Grossman writes , Man does not renounce freedom voluntarily. This conclusion holds out hope for our time, hope for the future.”(200) He predicts  that future may produce a machine with artificial intelligence, but can it surpass man? He ends ,” Fascism annihilated tens of millions of people.” (201)

This novel is written on an epic scale and credit goes to the writer who has persisted with writing the novel despite no hope of publication in his home country for two centuries. But the novel saw the light of the day in 1985 in English translation by  Robert Chandler in the West. 

The novel portrays on a wide canvas the history of the Soviet Union , its tortuous road of development through collectivization that affected Ukraine , atmosphere of terror due to total State surveillance, the self-censorship and opportunism of intellectuals, the courage of some and the destruction of many, antisemitism that has grown,  the nature of totalitarianism and undying yearning of man for freedom , the patriotic upsurge that helped defend Stalingrad and turn the tide against Nazism. According to Linda Grant , the novel will be famous when the readers realize that “all that matters is the individual and the furious joy of being alive, to live as human beings and die as human beings , not the mouthpieces of unreality.” (xviii)  This is also the philosophy of the novelist Vasily Grossman who has become depressed over the ‘arrest’ of his book by the authorities. Robert handler notes, ‘Life and Fate could perhaps be called a Chekhovian epic about human nature.” (xxxiv)

The Tolstoyan question in his War and Peace  why did millions follow their leader even to their destruction is again posed here in the context of the Second World War. The people of the twentieth century too followed their leaders out of ignorance and doubt killing obedience and millions perished in the service of national chauvinism pitted against freedom and emancipation of the suppressed.  

Reading "Social Justice and The undone Vast" by Justice Krishan Iyer

 

Justice Krishna Iyer wrote the work Ambedkar Centenary :  Social Justice And  The Undone Vast in which he began with the efficacy of constitutional methods and examines how a lot of undone stares at us in ameliorating conditions of the Dalits. He exhorts that to make laws enliven political action on the part of Dalits and Soshits is required.  The book consists of six chapters written  across the years in his inimitable style.

The first chapter is titled, ‘Ambedkar-Gandhi and Constitutional Disorder’ he writes that in free India law is a  means to serve ends which society thinks are right  and it must be “complied with as long as it remains unchanged or is interpreted by the highest court contrarily.” (3) Gandhiji opposed the British law, its moral authority and courted jail in penance. Ambedkar , a man of law hated injustice, demanded human rights , not mere legislated legality.” He opposed unconstitutional methods in the interests of democratic decency.  Krishna Iyer criticizes ,militant methods adopted by some parties and organisations. He is for justifiable and advocates ”innovative  , catalytic processes for realistic redressal , not contra constitutional counterfeits.” (6) Wile Gandhiji in fight against the British imposed  ‘dictatorial discipline’  despite occasional outbursts by his followers who were called to order or the movements withdrawn. Ambedkar was “a spiritually kindled humanist with every great cause as his cause” and preferred Buddhism which taught prajna( understanding), Karuna ( love) and samata (equality) for good and happy life.  Justice Krishna Iyer wants a paradigm shift which “will frown upon legitimizing and making politically respectable any  damage to public property, condemn all attempts to disrupt public life and to measure success of political or other socio-economic action by the quantum of infliction of community suffering.” (7)

Ambedkar points out the contradiction between social and economic inequality and political equality , eradication of caste-differences to attain fraternity and national unity . Krishna Iyer also writes that  social justice was the human essence of Ambedkar’s contribution to Indian political life. He opposed class war, personality cult in politics , landlordism and untouchability. Ambedkar also castigates Hinduism for practicing untouchability, Brahminism which negates the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity  and discrimination against untouchables in labour and internecine warfare among unions and he wants every generation to change constitution according to its will. Here the leaned jurist supports Gandhian ahimsa in lieu of hartal or bandh and says there is room for dissent under constitutional law.  He end the chapter saying that Ambedkar rose above narrow party politics and ”a great constitutional lode star of the nation, a daring  spirit bent on breaking human bondage.” (22)

In the second chapter entitled, “Dr.B.R. Ambedkar Social Justice and the Indian constitution – Myth versus Truth”,  Justice Krishna Iyer notes that it  is  more difficult to fight half-truths and without sociopolitical change our constitution , which is  ‘national paramount parchment’  “may prove a mareecha   jurisprudence ,a learned citation for lawyers, a provocative agenda for action for ultras, at best , ‘a beautiful and ineffectual angel , beating in the void its luminous wings in vain.” (23) He sees that the challenge before Indians is to bridge the gap between promise and performance.  If the contradictions are not removed, the victims of inequality will demolish the structure of political democracy built up laboriously. He says that untouchability  is entrenched in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, UP and in many parts of rural India  prevail practices  such as Sati, dowry murder, homicide, rape , incarceration of brothel , sex discrimination in matrimonial and inheritance.  The  successors of   Founding Fathers of our constitution merely offered words minus will to overcome class oppression. He says that Ambedkar was “a historic necessity who symbolised the dialectical demand for social democracy without which  the emancipation of the oppressed remains an illusion.  When the elite uses violence, “ To break the law , to make the law more just is itself of Gandhian vintage. Defiance is the oxygen of social justice when law itself silences militant speech.” (28)

He refers to the Articles 15, 16, 29  which deal with specific rights to equality and directive principles enshrined in 38, , 39, 41, 42, 43, 45 which promote the welfare of the weaker sections. He quotes the report By justice Chinnappa Reddy, “ Their claims to equality are not to be viewed as favours or concessions to them . As was remarked in Vasanth Kumar’s case, the demands are maters of right and not philanthropy. They ask for parity but not charity.” (31) Various Commissions formed for the marginalized  need powers . He writes  that I stead of mere rhetoric and ‘legislative opium’ under which the masses are kept , the Bench-Bar must fight for implementation of law  and social action groups must be “clothed with legal standing and power”  to initiate liberation of the  weaker sections, women, children , mentally ill and disabled people.(34)  PILs are frowned upon by the higher judiciary and  inordinate delay in justice is disenchanting the victims belonging to the tribals and Scheduled Castes.  The bottom most are without change, the creamy layer snaps up the benefits and the lack of adequate representation of the reserved category in bureaucracy and judiciary and many social evils such as dowry deaths, infant marriages, human trafficking,  gang rapes, infanticide cruelty against females in custody are persist in practice and regrets, “Bharat, even today, lives simultaneously in several cultural centuries.” (36) He, quoting report of Reddy commission ,writes that reservations are of no avail without tackling  issues of  poverty, dropout rate of the reserved category students at the lower level of education.

 In his powerful language , Justice Krishna  Iyer writes as follows ;

  The bar has chanted the esoteric text; the bench has written Bhasyams with semantic twists; the jurists have heaped homage on the Constitution’s chief architect; the House has hallowed his presence with portraits; the Establishment has petrified him in ubiquitous statues. Politicians have canonized him with Bharat Ratna; and the rulers have sublimely sentenced him to an elitist Centenary Year packed with paper-logged projects and commercially profitable gatherings ‘full of sound and fury signifying nothing. (39)

What is required is not mere glorification of Ambedkar but the attempts  by     the change seekers  to “ animate the embalmed Ambedkar to his living flame’ which is “the task of conquest of truth over myth.” (39)

The chapter , “The contribution of Ambedkar” shows how Ambedkar was chosen to be the drafting committee chairman . he was a man of sacrifice for the depressed classes, imbued with incomparable erudition of constitutional law and history and with rebellious spirit and poignant experiences.

Ambedkar spoke that it is wrong for  the majority to deny the existence of minority and for minority to perpetuate itself. He wants the majority to realize  its duty not to discriminate against minorities leading t the disappearance of the minority. 

He also writes that Ambedkar has disagreed with socialists that economic factor alone  is decisive to the exclusion of religion, social status and revolution is  impossible without social reform without which caste remains a problem even after revolution. Krishna Iyer advises the youth to read Ambedkar to be worthy of new Bharat. He writes that Constitution is our armour and our invincibility in the war for human liberation and social justice.

Justice Krishna Iyer quotes Ambedkar extensively from the latter’s speech on November 25, 1949 . Ambedkar has taken a stand for constitutional methods, opposed Bhakti and wanted to make our political democracy as social democracy in the absence of which the discontentment born out of inequality may dismantle political democracy . Ambedkar  has seen castes as anti-national and without fraternity , equality and liberty will be superficial. He has justified exceptions to the freedom of speech and expression. he saw article 32  as quintessential one and it “makes the power of the supreme court to enforce every fundamental right itself a fundamental right.” (54)  He called the article “ the very soul of the Constitution and the very heart of it.” (56)He wanted a fine  balance between immutability and  ‘easy amendability’ (58) he has taken a stand for parliamentary democracy . he has challenged caste system. “He fought for the non-derogatory right to human dignity which is the spiritual –material essence of Swaraj. ‘ (65) Justice Krishna Iyer sees Ambedkar as a symbol of social justice and of “this tremendous tornado of social change.” (67)He points out in a significant way that  “ it is unfortunate that, without a vision of social justice and its historical roots and contemporary tears , upper caste intellectuals oppose measures for elimination of social and educational inequality.” (67)

In the next chapter titled, Social justice to Dalits and Soshits , Krishna Iyer notes that “the rhetoric of social justice has been the opium of the suppressed people all these decades.”(70)Caste discrimination still persists. Laws have been cadaverous and the reason being “the implicit hostility of the dominant classes  to legislative measures which are merely the skin-deep homage paid to social justice.” (72) a basic rupture with the system involves activism of the victims of injustice.  As there has been an inadequate representation of Dalits in higher echelons of administration and judiciary . “What is required is a social revolution , a educational revolution and a public services revolution through  crash programmes and mass line methodology.” (74) he writes that there is no genetic factor in the degradation of the Dalits but the lack of encouraging ambience, poverty and the long distance from educational and cultural opportunities which have kept them in serfdom. The developed in Dalits  neglected their brethren and the division of the ranks among the different political parties made them disunited and powerless.

Writing on the plight of tribals in  in “The Untold Story of the Jharkandis”, Justice Krishna  Iyer passion reaches far and deep. He castigates mismanagement by the  political parties which are causing more destabilization. He writes, “Jharkhand must be considered , no with blind hostility nor with secessionist allergy but with sympathy , and  sense of justice, a claim to a home within the impregnable  Bharat.”(80) He observes that continuous and systematic exploitation and dispossession of the indigenous people, lop sided development projects, manipulative politics and state violence  leading to extremism to “fill  the vacuum in purposeful politics.”(86) He states finally that “ Indians must redeem their tryst with destiny and liberate every sub-nationality from ‘injustice, social, economic and political.” ( 89)

In the last chapter, “Centenary Year Reflections” Justice Krishna Iyer shows an in-depth understanding of the relevance , legacy and supreme significance of his contribution. He describes him as Mahar Manu of India and his immortal spirit leading India towards “a dynamic revolution of justice, liberty and equality.” (91) He points out the glaring contradiction between glossy development model and gory sufferings of the victims. He also criticizes ‘soulless verbal labels’ such as ‘Harijan’ and ‘Girijan’, 'Scheduled Castes' and 'Scheduled Tribes'. He refers to Articles 15, 46 and 335 which seek the advancement of Dalits. Articles 338 and 339 refer to the appointment of a Special Officer and a Commission to look after safeguards and welfare of SCs and  STs    He writes, “The compassion of the Constitution for the Fourth World within our  Third World is still comatose and has yet to be conscientized into action by political catalysts and judicial activists.” (93) He points out the futility of various acts -Such as The Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands  Act, 1975 and The Untouchability Offences Act , later reincarnated as Protection of Civil Rights Act “bark verbally but never bite upon breach.” (95) Time and again the learned jurist demands activism of law  in order to remain effective. He criticizes the spinelessness of legislators , the  borrowed colonial  sophistication of judges and the corrupting power of the bourgeois. He does not spare successive govt. of Kerala headed by Marxists, communists and Congressites since 1975.

The people facing atrocities such as  gang rapes in northern states such as   Bihar, bonded labour mainly come from Dalits. He writes that a lot has to be done despite some benign changes. “Societal conscience is vaccinated against sensitized action to uphold the dignity of their personhood , and agents of adharma   are on top in the professions, in the three branches of the State and in the agrarian and business world.” (98)

Jusitce Krishna Iyer also writes about the problem of slums which he describes as ‘pathological eruptions in all our cities and these inhabitants are mostly ‘Dalits’-and the upper class need slum-dwellers’ proximate and low-priced service.” (98) He  regret the terrible injustice even after legislation.  Land reforms have come cropper due to  “legislative lethargy, executive apathy and judicial jaundice”. Human scavenging remains in spite of the civil rights law and constitutional equality. Irrespective of party rule, slum clearance laws “suffer from cardiac arrest”  (101) Dalits cannot demand for  minimum wages despite the laws, cannot enter temples or become priests, reservation remain unimplemented and sterile ‘without dynamic components and creative inputs”  (104) The existence of class system in education creates uneven competition. Special facilities need to be created in education and sports for Dalits to make the more confident ,  ‘the VIP youth must be vaccinated at school and college  against the racial myth of superiority”.(107)  The SC./S.T.( Prevention of Atrocities ) Act remained a paper tiger as unjust killings went on raising in Bihar. U.P. and Madhya Pradesh. He writes, “Paper tigers have never been panaceas. Nor is revolution secured thro’ legislative rosewater.” (112) At the end , he wants to demolish   two myths regarding inferiority Of intelligence in SC. And S.T. He cites examples of Tiruvalluvar, Vyasa, Valmiki, Pakkanar and Karuppan “to nail the lie of genetic deficiency concocted maliciously.” (113) Another myth has been the rise of Dalits  through reservations over the heads of caste Hindus and the reality is that” the bureaucracy and political elitocracy  exclude the dalit classes” (113)  in higher rungs of administration and judiciary.  He also refers to monopoly of benefits by some  already advanced Dalits and the liberal addition of OBCs may work to the detriment of Dalits. But this observation may not be correct as the reservations for OBC s are of a different category and do not affect reservations for Dalits. He writes,  “The Third World is the victim of the West .But invisibly suppressed is the Fourth World  within the Third World.  Dr. Ambedkar was the voice of this voiceless Fourth world.” (114) the social kernel of his message is liberty, equality and fraternity.