Studies in Indian Place Names ISSN: 2394-3114

Vol-40-Issue-60-March -2020
(UGC Care Journal)

The Rebellion of An Individual Against Communal Life in The

Novel: A House of Mr. Biswas By V.S. Naipaul.
Dr. Gowhar Ahmad Wani.
ABSTRACT

The novel contains the story of Mr. Biswas’s struggle to have a house of his own. He
wants to become the proud owner of a house. Mr. Biswas did not have enough money for the
purchase of the house. The novel covers the entire span of the life of Mr. Biswas from time of his
birth to the time of death. Biswas is accompanied by several bad omens. The pundit who reads
the boy’s future predicts that he will prove to be unlucky and will grow into the spendthrift, a
lecher and lair. After certain initial setbacks Mr. Biswas become the sign painter and by this
work he went to Hanuman House where he feels attracted by Shama the daughter of the house
and married with her. With no residential accommodation he has to live in the Hanuman house
as the other son-in –laws who have married previously with the Tulsi daughters. Mr. Biswas
finds that has to lead a life of subservience not only to Mrs. Tulsi and Seth but also the other
members of the family. Being an independent minded man with a lot of self respect, he rebels
against the state of affairs. Mr. Biswas’s rebellion against Hanuman house and all stands for
constitutes the main substance of the novel.

Key words: Struggle, Omen, Setbacks, Accommodation, Subservience.

The entry of Mr. Biswas unto the Tulsi household creates a disturbance because his ideas
are different those which hold the sway at Hanuman house. Mr. Biswas had spent his childhood
and boyhood in an environment more liberal than the one prevails in at Hanuman house. Mr.
Biswas has experienced the comparative cosmos politanism of primary school life. He has under
gone the rigid discipline imposed on him by Pundit Jiaram. He found out of place at Hanuman
house which is a symbol of traditionalism, rigidity, a hierarchical system and communal life in
the eyes of its inmates. His rebellion against Tulsidom is but natural.

It is the combination of the external forces of westernization and urbanization aided by

internal human impulses, which brings about the decay of the highly structured social
organization operating a Hanuman house. The old Hindu culture receives a great blow when Mr.
Biswas become the one of son-in-law of Mrs. Tulsi. He openly disapproves the Tulsi practices
and policies. He even challenges their religious beliefs when he begins to attend the lectures of
an Arya Samaj and begins openly to advocate the progressive and reformist ideas of that Samaj.
He does not accept the superior and inferior grading within the household and proves very
disgraceful to the matronly Mrs. Tulsi and her partner in authority. He refuses to work for the
Tulsi on the ground that he does not wish to lose his independence and that he would like to
“paddle his own canoe”. It is only because of economic necessity that he agrees to work first at a
Tulsi shop and then as an overseer on the Tulsi estate. He thinks himself superior to them

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Studies in Indian Place Names ISSN: 2394-3114
Vol-40-Issue-60-March -2020
(UGC Care Journal)

because of his strong intellectual interest, because of his reading books. He has vague ambitions
of rising in life. He simply cannot adjust himself to the conditions of slavery under which others
live in this house. The author has depicted the world of Hanuman house in such a way that the
house becomes symbolic of darkness, stagnation and decay.

Mr. Biswas feels most uncomfortable in the barracks just as he had felt most at Hanuman
house and his discomfort arises from his incapacity to accept any kind of regimentation, there
were regimentation at Hanuman house too and therefore move to Green vale that brought him
partial relief by removing him from his close physical proximity to the Tulsi clan. So Mr. Biswas
decides to build a house of his own. This house which he decides to build would be more than a
place where he can live. Unable to tolerate, his dependence upon the Tulsi family and unwilling
to surrender of his self-respect he desires to have his own house. The desire to own a house
symbolizes an individual’s wish to preserve his individuality. He has moved into the in-
complete house because he had hoped that “living in a new house in a new year might bring a
new state of mind”

It is worth out that pointing out the traditional Hindu custom requires the bride to join her
husband’s household and become almost a servant of her mother-in-law. The complete
humiliation of the position of Mr. Biswas and of the other son-in-law in the Tulsi household is
that they have live as servants, or at least as subordinates of their mother-in-law. Mr. Biswas’s
rebellion is directed against the humiliation. The rebellion I course of time becomes very vicious
and bitter and is accompanied with plenty of abuse and scorn. Indeed, Mr. Biswas at times
behaves in a very cowardly and contemptible manner; and the part of novel’s greatness lies in the
fact that Naipaul has been able to present a hero in all his littleness and yet to preserve a sense of
the man’s inner dignity.

Hanuman house symbolically presided over by the monkey-god, is a communal

organization whose maintenance depends on recognition of the authority of the two leaders, and
also a denial of individuality to the subordinate members of the clan. As soon as the Tulsi
weakness, the whole system begins to disintegrate and there follows the anarchy of the Shorthills
adventure, where everybody pursue his her own interest and where life seems to follow the code
of the jungle where every creature is self-centered. In this decaying paradise of dictatorship, Mr.
Biswas the individualist described as a serpent or spy. Seth’s argument against Mr. Biswas is that
the individual is worthless if he tries to live independently of the old system. The Tulsis remind
Mr. Biswas again and again that he had come to them with no material possessions. Tulsidom
depends for its existence on the psychological undermining of the men and on the maintenance
of their sense of inferiority.

Mr. Biswas’s refusal to conform to the code conduct of Hanuman House leads to his
expulsion from there. He is now sent to The Chase to take the charge of Tulsi food-shop there.
He finds ill-equipped to function as a shopkeeper and to deal with his customers. He also feels
deeply dissatisfied with the accommodation which he has given at The Chase. He resents in

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Studies in Indian Place Names ISSN: 2394-3114
Vol-40-Issue-60-March -2020
(UGC Care Journal)

having been described as a “labourer” in the birth certificate of the first born child. He even
becomes unreasonable and protests against Savi being fed on fish by Mrs. Tulsi. Mr. Biswas
realizes at that time that Hanuman house is a sanctuary to which he feels like going quite
frequently. Thus his attitude towards hanuman House becomes ambivalent.

Mr. Biswas is keenly aware of the need of remaining at the centre of her daughter’s
consciousness. She is a powerful mother-figure and rules the household through her
understanding of the psychology of slavery. She is constantly demanding love and worship and
is very skillful at counterfeiting illness on appropriate occasions in order to create feeling of guilt
in those who have failed in their worship. She maintains an elaborate system of rules according
to which daughters and others in the household find it easy to offer their devotion to her but Mr.
Biswas the enemy of ritual and the man with independent mind does not submit rules. he refuses
to obey the established code of conduct in the house.

Lastly Mr. Biswas wanted to aim a house so as to be able to asset and preserve his
independence. He is able to own his house at the end, even though he does not live long enough
to enjoy its blessings. He dies a free man with self respect and individually intact. His rebellion
against the Tulsi family has proved successful and he has achieved freedom. The main theme of
a A House Of Mr. Biswas is an individual’s rebellion against the social and economic tyranny
and the attainment of freedom as a reward of that rebellion. Mr. Biswas’s owner ship and
possession of a house symbolizes the freedom that he has achieved.

Bibliography:

Primary source:

Original work of A House of Mr. Biswas.

Secondary source:

Robert D. Hammer. A Critical Perspective on V.S Naipaul. Heinemann International

Literature and text books. 1979.

King Bruce. The New English Literature. Oxford university press. 2005

White Landeg. V.S. Naipaul: A Critical Introduction. Branes and Nobel Books.1975

Kenneth Ramchand. The West Indian Novel and its Background. Heinemann. 1983

Paul. Theroux. V.S. Naipaul: An Introduction to his Work. Heinemann and Educational

Publishers. 1972

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