Geeta Gupta
Voice of protest against Capitalism in the selected fictional works of Anita Desai
India's goal is socialism, as such; she has been trying to socialize the means of production, distribution, and exchange. The benefits of production, distribution, and exchange are to be shared by one and all. However, this kind of dispensation will not destroy the individual's economic motivation or his freedom of occupational choices. It is believed that there will be no problem of employment, class-struggle, and inequality of income. Nevertheless, Anita Desai says that India is a socialist country in name; for capitalism is seen in all fields of life. Further, all the resources are monopolized by the rich who do not share profits with the poor. Desai protests against the growing power of capitalism in which the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. She wants that economic justice should be shared by one and all. What is produced is not the result of the endeavours of any one class. She wants to emphasize that the labourer is the real producer of wealth; as he should be entitled to the major part of profit. If labourers get sufficient wages, they will be able to live happily and increase their working capacity.
Anita Desai opines that labourers want freedom to work. So capitalists should not waste their time in checking them. They should leave the workers to work without interference. One can see how in Voices in the City Nirode is puzzled by the capitalists' habit of hovering over the head of labourers : "I 've reached a point now - I always knew I would arrive at if one day - when it would be impossible, physically impossible to work under any man, by his orders, at a given time, at a meaningless job. I loathe those automations at the top - I loathe their superciliousness, their arrogance, their blindness." [18]
In Clear Light of day Anita Desai shows the luxurious life of capitalists. By investing their money in production, they get large sums of profits without coming to office or doing anything in production. Bim's father is shown as a capitalist. He goes to office at times and lives a luxurious life. He spends most of his time in clubs. If children want to ask something, they have to wait till night, when he returns from club: "Finally late one night when Raja forced him to sit down after his return from the club, not brush him aside as he walked past quickly, his father explained. Perhaps he had played a good game at the club. Perhaps he had enjoyed his dinner there. He was puffing at his cigar with an air of calm self-confidence as he talked."[ 51]
Further Anita Desai shows the luxurious life of a great capitalist Hyder Ali Sahib. Who has invested his property or capital in production. By giving his houses to tenants he takes rent from them. He rides his white horse in the evening along the bank of Jamuna. His servant has to run before him to make way for him and his dog has to run after him to show that a king is coming. After seeing Hyder Ali, Raja thinks that he should also ride a horse in his majestic way : "Hato; Hato; " shouted a man in a khaki uniform and a scarlet turban, and pounded past them on urgent heels, making way for a white horse that loomed up out of the dunes and floated by with a dimmed roar of hoof beats on the sand, followed by a slim golden dog with a happy plume of a tail waving in the purple air. The pampas grass bent and parted for this procession and then rustled silkily upright into place again. When the three figures had vanished into a dip in the dunes and then reappeared in the white dust of the road ahead, at a distance. Raja breathed out in awe. "It is Hyder Ali Sahib on his horse. He looks like a general; like a king." [123]
Anita Desai protest's against those capitalists who do not care for their capital. In Clear Light of Day, Brij is that type of capitalist who does not care for his business. He wants that the manager should collect money for him. Anita Desai wants to convey the message that this type of capitalists cannot earn money. In the end Brij becomes bankrupt and his business is ruined. When Bim asks Brij's father about Brij's business and the manager, "he says: "Good manager - ho, yes, very good manager, had them eating out of his hand. They thought he was an angle on earth - a faristha - slaving for their sakes, to fill their coffers with gold - till one day they went to the office to open the coffer for some gold - they must have needed it for those Grant Road women they go to, those songs and dance women - and they found it empty and the money gone. "And the manager?’ Gone. "he took care of money - the money went - he went with it' ........... 'what did they think? Someone else will work so that they can eat?" [33]
Those capitalists, who earn money by taking rent from their tenants, have become more greedy. They give their house on rent only to those who can repair their house. Bose says to Nirode : "My friend, how can you say such a thing? You know I suffer, suffer ignonimously at the hand of my own landlord. A proper demon that man is. It would not surprise me at the least, if we concealed a tail in - ah the seat of his pants'. The little eyes, slow moving but bright as globs of honey, twinkled up at Nirode hopefully. No response. 'In fact, only today he has been to see me about repairing my courtyard at my own expense." [Voices in the City 14]
Further, Anita Desai shows the selfishness of the capitalist class. They expect that the labourer should work for them without claiming justice. In Voices in the City Nirode is a clerk in an office. He has to sort out important information from magazine and newspaper and paste these cuttings on a file: "How dare they be arrogant when working at such senseless jobs: Spend their lives, their entire energy and intelligence on something that does not matter? How can one? He seemed to be asking the star outside or, rather, the darkness for she was not one to question the stars and expect answers. 'Better to peep out of the window and the end it all instead of smearing this endless sticky glue of senselessness over the world. Better not to live." [18]
Anita Desai unmasks the secret of rich man's wealth. They do not earn it by honorable means. In The Village by the Sea Biju is a prosperous men of the village Thul. He has not earned his money by honest means. He smuggles the precious things into India. Hari tells his sisters the meaning of smuggling when she asks him: "what do they smuggle?" 'silver and Gold.' 'No-o-o" 'yes, of course. That's how they get so rich.' 'Where do you think they get it from - the Silver and Gold? Can you find it in the Sea?' 'No, sillies, it's brought from foreign countries that have gold and silver mines and where it is cheaper than here. It is brought in dhows from Africa, from Arabia - and unloaded into fishing boats that go out to meet them in the sea. It's put into the smugglers' boat and brought to share, and sold here for much money.' ....... Biju is supposed to make his money in that way." [31-32]
Anita Desai is harsh towards those rich men who do not know how to behave with the poor. She focuses her attention on the economic condition of the poor. She is pained to find that the rich try to expropriate the labour of the poor. She sees a wide gulf between the poor and the rich. Anita Desai disapproves of the cheating habits of the rich: there is cheating in rich men's economic dealings with the poor. The poor have to work hard, but they are not paid wages equal to their work. In Cry the Peacock Anita Desai says how rich men's pride and pelf go to make the poor humble. Maya is the daughter of a rich landlord. She has the habit of feeding animals in preference to man. She gives bananas to the bear while the trainer is very hungry. Maya's handling of bananas to bear makes the trainer very angry. He says, "you have given the beast food, miss sahib, and not to a poor human being. If he is hungry, do I not strave/ If he dances for his living, do I not sweat? Alas for the ignorance of the blessed rich.' They will not consider a man's hunger any more. Alas ..... and rolling up his shirt, he begins to rub his belly and moan." [88]
In The Village by the Sea Anita Desai wants to say that the poor work hard but they do not get enough money for their labour. Hari works hard in his field, but he does not get enough to eat. Hari, who is an uneducated boy, wants to get work in the factory, which is going to start in his village: "A job. A factory. Many jobs. Many factories. Jobs - factories. Factories - jobs, ' ..... But all the time he thought of the factory and a job. Could he get one too? Could he work in a factory and earn money? No, he thought, I had not finished school. Although he could read and write and add figures, he had not taken an exam and had no degree so how could he get a job? But did you really need a degree to work in a factory? Any man could work machines and use tools if his hands were fit to work. As Hari's were. [Cry the Peacock 14]
It is seen that capitalists take much work from labourers and give them less for their work. A labourer should get at least as much as he needs to manage his necessities. Wages have a bearing on one's working capacity. Since the capitalist wants to amass wealth, he pays the labourer below his subsistence level. Anita Desai protests against this unjust relationship between work and wages. In Voice in the City Jit says to Nirode that laborers are not payed just wages by the British employers. These employers want to socket more money by cheating the labourers. Jit is a managing director of a reputed business firm. The employers do not pay full salary to workers. Jit says to Nirode, "My dear chap, you're too innocent; you just don't know what you are talking about, what really goes on there. I am accomplice, do you hear, an accomplice to their crime. These British are not here to pay as big salaries and help us live comfortably like Sahibs. They are here for money, money money." [104]
Works Cited
Desai, Anita. Voices in the City. New Delhi; Orient Paper Backs, 1985.
…………… Clear Light of Day. New Delhi; Harmonds Worth, Pengium Books, 1986.
…………… The Village by the Sea. New Delhi; Harmonds Worth, Puffin Books, 1985.
……………. Cry the Peacock. Delhi : Orient Paper Back, 1983.