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ISSN: 0974-892X

VOL. II
ISSUE II

July, 2008

 

 

Gunjan Mittal

Vision of the Regeneration of India in the Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya

 

The advent of Bhabani Bhattacharya is an historical occurrence in the history of Indian-English literature. He had started his career while studying in England. His contact with the progressive writers of England made him aware of the basic causes of tragic lot of downtroddens. It was also not easy for him to escape from the impact of social environment in which he was brought up and grew to maturity. He was witness of all the significant turning points in the life of his country. That's why, he weaves the web of his fiction round the contemporary historical events and social conditions. He has clearly depicted the impression of changing time on all the categories of the society. It was clear demonstration of the progressive ideas in his writing that when he visited Russia. " the audience rose to its feet as he appeared acclaiming him with thunderous applause."(Ray 75)

Bhattacharya wears many hats as he is a reformist, adviser and socialist etc. The edifice of his novel is based on his exposure of social evils and events that occur everyday in common life and they are related to humanism, struggle for freedom and reformation of the society etc. His novels are the clear mirror of the society. The message which he wants to deliver to his readers is sent through his novels. Basically his novels deal with the theme of hunger, poverty, exploitation, misery and disease, modernity and tradition and the issue not only related to modern civilization but also to East-West encounter etc. It was not possible for him to remain without being impressed and stamped by the surrounding conditions of his time which happened before his eyes. Due to being a social novelist, he always observed the social activities minutely and adopted them with the intention to ameliorate them.

His mission was to raise the status of downtroddens by making them assertive and at the same time wanted to change  the hearts of the exploiters by making them merciful, so that both the sections will be educated in the right direction. In this respect his art is a valuable league in transforming the society. This spirit can also be seen in his all novels because each of his novels handles some pressing problems of contemporary life of typical Indians of all strata of society. The main configuration of his novel is based on the surroundings - social, cultural, political and economic conditions of his time which stimulated him to think and create social novels. It is his milieu which directs his mind and nourishes his soul to produce meaningful works of art. In this connection Bhattacharya puts the following comments:

“........ the true artist writes because he must. If the events of today have moved him so deeply that he must have a creative outlet for his feelings, why should he put those feelings in cold storage, as it were and leave them there until the present time has slipped into the vista of dim yesterday"(5)

 Actually Bhabani Bhattacharya was deeply moved by the prevailing social conditions which inspired him to create his first novel So Many Hungers ! It is not only a political novel that deals with the age of freedom but one of the best because it portrays realistically the agony of the age. It shows Bhattacharya's determination and grasp to portray in the most realistic manner the depth of suffering of the innocent men, women and children of Bengal who became the prey of hideous famine. This devastating Bengal famine of 1943 which stalked through the sacred soil of Bengal encouraged him to write his first novel. It is based on his personal observation. He writes  about his experience :

"Then the great famine swept down upon Bengal. The emotional stirring I felt (more than two million men, women and children died of slow starvation amid a man-made scarcity) were a sheer compulsion to creativity. The result was the novel So Many Hungers ." (Interview Qtd. By Chandrasekharan 2)

It unfolds the human dramma against the dismal background of Bengal famine and the war years of early forties. No other novelist perhaps has depicted the true picture of hunger at such an epic scale as Bhabani did in So Many Hungers ! The novel reveals that Bhattacharya not only deals with surface meaning but probes deeper in order to bring out the inner meaning of a particular dramatic situation. He has tried his best to portray the hardship faced by the common man during this moment. He has immortalized the memory of the hideous famine years in all its sordidness in this novel. Thus Bhabani Bhattacharya's humanitarian outlook and his love for the poor and the oppressed is visible in his deep sympathy for the destitutes.

Bhattacharya's second novel Music For Mohini takes us close to the years of Independence. He wants to awake his countrymen to the need of bringing about social freedom because India could not free herself from the shackles of orthodoxy and superstition even after Independence. He wants to make his countrymen free from the deadly mire of old and orthodoxy traditions and superstitions and those obsolete customs which are obstacles in the progress of a country. Through this novel Bhabani Bhattacharya shows the synthesis between old and new. Here, the novelist has used two sets of characters first the upholder of old established values of the past and second the pleader for a change and deviation from the past for being the supporter of the new and unconventional value pattern that suits the modern age. Though the novelist gets success in blending the two contrary values- tradition and modernity but the actual message is hidden under this synthesis. Actually Bhattacharya attacks the fossilized social traditions which thwart the progress of the country. The need for a change of social outlook and reorientation of social values are Bhattacharya’s main concern.

He Who Rides A Tiger is a satire on the blind religious faith of ignorant masses who grudge to feed famished destitute but are always ready to fill whole heatedly the alms- bowls of the sadhus dressed in saffron loincloth. This work shows his outburst against the exploitation by the upper caste such as Brahmins as well as a society which does not provide an honest means of livelihood to poor people. His theme is to expose the wicked practices of the hollow religion, employed by the vested interests to exploit the blind faith of simple and credulous people. Really religion seems to have lost its pristine glory and forgotten its basic ethical values in this novel. 

His next novel A Goddess Named Gold is a beautiful novel on Indian social life and a masterly satire on those who love by the lure of gold. Though Bhabani Bhattacharya is considered as a serious novelist yet this novel objectifies his vision towards comedy. He also wants to warn that political freedom many turn into a curse for the people of the country if allowed to be misused by unscrupulous capitalists for their selfish ends. It deals with the theme of economic freedom of hungry masses. It is also a message to warn people against the evil of profiteering and poverty which if not completely eradicated may defeat the purpose of freedom and lead to many more hungers.

The fifth novel Shadow From Ladakh presents Bhattacharya's ideological vision. The novel provides an insight into the contrasting contemporary life of India symbolized by Satyajit who regards Indian village life as an ideal life and by the Westernized America trained Bhaskhar Roy who feels that India's future lies in industrialization. The writer wants to make his countrymen alert that if they become complacent in their attitude and don't remain alert in guarding their frontiers constantly, aggression will take place. Everything is depicted very realistically in this novel. The novel is characteristic of Bhattacharya's thematic writing and his working out of a preconceived idea but in an artistic manner. He won Sahtiya Akademi Award for this novel and it would not be exaggerated to say that he thoroughly deserves this accolade :

“He has traveled widely and he is a much translated novelist. The Sahitya Akademi award to him in 1967 was a fitting recognition of his standing and achievement in the field of Indian fiction in English.”(Iyanger 413)

His last novel A Dream In Hawaii is the only novel of Bhattacharya which does not deal with the theme of National Independence. Through this work Bhabani Bhattacharya wants to show how much a society is suffering from the disease of over materialism. The youth of such a society is simply restless and frustrated in the absence of any meaningful ideals in life. They are looking for Indian gurus and Synasis for guidance and inner peace while these gurus themselves are not above reproach. In this way, he wants to make it obvious that India should not stick to its ancient religion without critically examining it. It's his novel with the theme of East- West encounter. Here the sense is laid in Hawaii where Bhabani Bhattacharya had spent more than twenty years of his life. He estimates that there is no better meeting ground of East and West than Hawaii. In this novel Bhabani Bhattacharya extends his vision beyond the problems of his country to the problems of the sick western civilization of today and gets success in its main message of cultural assimilation as a necessary tool for cosmic welfare. Thus Bhabani Bhattacharya is one of them who are always concerned with the betterment of society. The National Movement was on progress when Bhabani Bhattacharya was advancing in age. He has seen the struggling India through his naked eyes, nothing has been hidden from him. It was the movement which had shaken the roots of the whole country. It had affected not only social life but also cultural, political, economic, affairs and literature of the country Bhattacharya's novels are the outburst of his feelings which rise due to his external and internal observation of man and his surroundings.  Dorothy Blair Shimmer, Bhattacharya's biographer, writers :

"These were the forces  that swirled about Bhabani Bhattacharya as he left adolescence and reached manhood.”(4)

He has dealt with epoch making events such as pre and post Independence periods, social, political, diplomatic and cultural events that were happening at that time. The whole country was waving from various problems and struggling for freedom and human rights so his earlier novels which were written in India have different themes from that of the novel written during his stay at America.

Bhattacharya writes with one goal and that is to sketch a true and clear draft of the society. His sympathy is always with those human beings who become the victim of injustice. He is concerned with a provocative moral vision of a purposeful life for his common folk. He always intends to bring his countrymen out from the unhealthy atmosphere. According to Marlene Fisher, Bhattacharya's novels "deal with the efforts of human beings to forge and to fulfil workable and communal ideals and perforce, with the struggle to reconcile individual social goals".(288) He is one of those novelists who has deal with the agitation of the teeming millions. He is highly influenced by the circumstances which encircled him. He minutely observed the Indian events right from his childhood till the last days of his latest creative work. Therefore, he draws a picture in his novels after observing the predicament of the people around him because truth of social life draws the interest of readers very closely. It may be suggested that Bhattacharya is both a realist and an idealist. Though there is a difference between realism and idealism because the former presents the things as they are while the latter presents as they should be. But such literary contradiction can be resolved by a genius artist like Bhabani Bhattacharya who not only portrays the life as it is but also interprets as it should be.

That's why the novel in the hands of Bhabani Bhattacharya becomes an instrument to bring about an awareness of social reality. He is neither a propagandist nor a moralist, neither a social reformist nor a preacher, but he is a man of letters who writes only with one purpose and that is, social purpose. In all his works, he reflects the Indian way of life, Indian sensibility as well as Indian culture. His popularity can be traced as expressed by Kh. Kunjo Singh :

"His wide range of experience in and around the world and his close association with men, manners and their personalities with which he grasps the innate significance of humanity, find their expressions in all his works. With all these qualities he is an outstanding Indo-Anglian novelist who has earned world wide distinction and popularity."(179)

With such a vast background, a brilliant academic career, varied experience and precious concepts of fiction, it is no wonder that he has risen like a meteor in the literary firmament. Being deeply rooted in the native soil, Bhabani Bhattacharya's writing makes efforts to join the spirit of the modern world. It is amazing that he gets success to cope with this spirit. He is a novelist with a vision hence he never neglects his responsibility as a social artist. Infact he has not alienated himself from the Indian social, religious and political milieu. The novels of Bhattacharya are deeply and entirely concerned with contemporary life, its sufferings as well as tribulations which were faced by people form time to time. He thinks that all the evils ought to be scrapped and eradicated from the society. Actually Bhattacharya wants to create a social order in which an individual can live in comfort and with dignity. The charm of his novels lies in this fact that they never give straight answer but attempt strongly to discover the hidden meaning. Infact, the foremost quality of his works is his sincerity and depth of feeling.

 

 

Works Cited

Bhattacharya, Bhabani. ‘Literature and Social Reality’, Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya.

Fisher, Marlene. ‘Personal and Social Change in Bhattacharya's Novels’ World Literature Written in English, Vol. XII, No. 2, Nov. 1973.

Interview. Bhabani Bhattacharya, ‘Contemporary Novelists in the English Language’St. Martin's Press, New York, 1972, qtd in K.R. Chandrasekharan's “Bhabani Bhattacharya” New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1974.

Iyanger, K.R. Srinivas Indian Writing in English, New Delhi : Asia Publishing House, 1973.

Ray, Lila. ‘Bhabani Bhattacharya : A Profile’, Indian Literature, Vol. X1. No. 2, April-July 1968.

Shimer, Dorothy Blair. Bhabani Bhattacharya, Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1975.

Singh, Kh. Kunjo ‘Bhabani Bhattacharya’s Style’, The Fiction of Bhabani Bhattacharya, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2002.