Chapter-I

INTRODUCTION

English is the only language through which one can reach the
farthest corner of the world without much difficulty. For the
reasons that the Indian-English writings become available to the
world in no time after publication, it is the Indian-English writers
who are creating the image of India abroad. Even the best writings
of the Indian writers in regional languages take decades to get
translated into foreign languages and in case of translation, mostly
remain neglected in the English-knowing world for reasons of
linguistic inappropriateness and stylistic insipidity. In India even
today, if there is any language that deserves to be called the
language of the intellectuals, it is English. As such writings in
English find larger and more enlightened audience than even the
best pieces written in regional languages. It is an advantage which
the Indian-English writers enjoy over the contemporary writers of
Indian languages. But they are also confronted with the challenge
of being compared with the writers of the world. So, if they sell
outside India and enjoy some popularity, it is not all due to the
propaganda value of their literature, it is due to some intrinsic
worth as well. Recent evaluation of the achievements of the Indian-
English novelists and also the critical analysis of some of the
novels supports our contention. It is with this intention of
presenting Markandaya’s fiction in perspective that this attempt is
undertaken.
 2

Post-Independence Indian-English Fiction retains the

momentum the novel had attained during the Gandhian age. The
tradition of social realism established earlier on a sound footing by
Mulk Raj Anand is continued by the novelists like Bhabani
Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar and Khushwant Singh. They
made their appearance during the. nineteen fifties and the early
sixties with inevitable individual variations. A notable development
is the emergence of an entire school of women novelists among
whom the leading figures are Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kamla
Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai. By the end of the
sixties and in the early seventies newer voices are heard, the most
striking of them are Arun Joshi and Chaman Nahal.

The earliest of the social realists of the period is Bhabani

Bhattacharya (1906), a novelist strongly influenced by Tagore and
Gandhi, while both his fictional theory and practice show his
affinity with Anand. He is convinced that a novel must have a
social purpose. It must place before the reader something from the
society's point of view. While each of his novels has an
unmistakable social purpose, occasionally does he succeed in
achieving a vivid interpretation of life. His chief weakness is his
tendency to rest content with presenting too neat and machine-made
contrasts and to settle for easy romantic solutions.

Unlike Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar (1913) is a realist

who believes that art has no purpose to serve except pure
entertainment. While in Bhattacharya's fiction, women characters,
on the whole, come to life better than the men, Malgonkar's is a
 3

male-dominated world in which women seem to be little more than

instruments of masculine pleasure. His novels are neatly
constructed and entertaining by old narratives which present a
rather limited view of life and human nature^a man for whom love
y
is mostly equated with sex and the flesh. His flat, cliche-ridden
style serves his simple artistic needs admirably. It is only when he
adopts, a broader view of things as in The Princess that he is able
to rise above his self-imposed restrictions.

The realism of Khushwant Singh (1918) is an earthier variety.

He has declared that his "roots are in the dunghill of a tiny Indian
Village" and his fiction racks with the odour of his roots. He also
appears to take a markedly irreverent view of Indian life and
character. His style, hard and vigorous, employs colourful Punjabi
expletives and terms of abuse.
H K
There are novelists like S. Menon Marath (1906)^Balchandra
Rajan (1929^Sudhindra Nath Gosh ((t8^9H965)) and G. V. Desani.
Of the novelists of the late sixties and the seventies, the most
prominent are Arun Joshi (193^ahd Chaman Nahal (1927), Arun
Joshi's recunent theme is alienation in its different aspects and his
heroes are intensely self-centered persons prone to self pity and
escapism. Inspite of their weaknesses, they are, however, genuine
seekers who strive to grope towards a purpose in life and self
fulfillment. In his three novels, Joshi attempts to deal with three
facets of the theme of alienation, in relation to self, the society
around and humanity at large.
 4

Joshi is a novelist seriously interested in existential dilemmas

and equally acutely aware of both the problems of Post-
Independence Indian society and the implications of the East-West
encounter. He is a skilled narrator and can even make an entire
novel a long monologue without losing his hold over the reader's
attention. He has the vision and the technique-all he needs is
greater maturity. Chaman Nahal is a novelist of painful odysseys
presented in different contexts. Like the women poets of the Post-
Independence period, the women novelists too form a sizable and
significant school. R.P. Jhabvala (1927), born of Polish Parents in
Germany and educated in England, is married to an Indian and has
lived in India for more than twenty-four years. Her best work
reveals inwardness in her picture of certain segments of Indian
social life. The most distinctive feature of her novels is the subtlety
and adroitness with which she unravels the gossamer threads of
intricate human relationships especially among the women in the
Hindu Joint family. If Jhabvala is an outsider-insider, Kamla
Markandaya (Purnaiah Taylor, 1924) is an insider-outsider in that
she is an expatriate, who has been living in England for a number
of years. Markandaya's fiction evinces a broader range and offers a
greater variety of setting character and effect.

Nayantara Sahgal (1927) is usually regarded as an exponent

of the political novel, but politics is only one of her two major
concerns. She herself has declared that each of her novels "more or
less reflects" the political era we are passing through. Her fiction is
also preoccupied with the modern Indian woman's search for sexual
freedom and self-realization.
 5

In contrast with Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai (1937),

youngest of the major Indian English women novelists, is more
interested in the interior landscape of the mind than in political and
social realities. Desai's protagonists are persons "for whom
aloneness alone" is the sole natural condition, aloneness alone the
treasure worth treasuring. They are mostly women and are all
fragile introverts "trapped in their own skins".

Anita Desai unravels the tortuous involutions of sensibility

with subtlety and finesse and her ability to evoke the changing
aspects of nature matched with human moods is another of her
assets, though her easy mastery of the language and her penchant
for image and symbol occasionally result in precocity and over­
writing. Her psychological insight into the character'
may one day achieve an amplified pattern of significant exploration
of consciousness comparable to Virginia wolf at her best.

Very few of the rest of the women novelists of the period

understudy have sustained fictional writing, most of them
remaining content with a solitary novel or two each. Santha Ratna
Rau's two novels Remember the House (1956), and The
Adventurer (1970) are charming pictures of the East- West
encounter while Nargis Dalai’s experience of journalism has hardly
proved a salutary influence on her fiction. Her Minari (1967) is an
account of high class life at a hill station.

Minor fiction by women offers some authentic chronicles of

social life in Hindu, Muslim and Parsi house-holes "Mrs. Leela
Khari" In Transit (1950) is an evocative picture of three
 6

generations of a Poona Brahmin joint family between the two world

wars. Attiah Husain's Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) is a
nostalgic account of aristocratic life in pre-partition Lucknow.
Perin Bharucha's The Fire Worshippers (1968) deals with Parsi
life.

Important examples of historical fiction are Vimla Raina's

Ambarpali (1962) which takes us to the India of Budhist times.
Manorama Modak's Single in the Wheel (1978) is a novel set
against the fall of the last Peshwa in the early nineteenth century.

Shakuntala Shrinagesh's one novel The Little Black Box

(1955) is an interesting experiment in psychological fiction. It
depicts the thought processes of Sarala, an embittered rich woman,
who lies dying in a hospital with her money box under her bed.

Among novels by women published during the nineteen

seventies may be mentioned. Raji Narasimhan's The Heart of
Standing is you can not Fly (1973) and Forever Free (1979) are
absorbing tales of a young woman's search for fulfillment. Veena
Negpal's Karmyogi (1974) and Compulsion (1975) follow the
best-seller formula with a vengeance. Kamala Das's Alphabet of
Lust (1976) suggests that the novel is not the right medium for this
talented poet. Rama Mehta's Inside the Haveli (1977), Sahitya
Akademi Award (1979) is an engaging story of Rajasthan Purdah
life.

With the growing interest in Indian-English literature, there

was a sudden spurt of fiction during the nineteen seventies. Notable
among these are B.K. Karanjia's novel of Parsi life in Bombay -
 7

More of an Indian (1970), V.K. Gokak's Narahari: Prophet of

India (1972), Timeri Murari's The Marriage (1972), Sasthi Brata's
She and He (1973), S.S. Dhami's Maluka (1978), Raji Gill's The
Rape (1974), D.R. Mankekar's No, My Son, Never (1974) and
noted Punjabi author Narendra Pal Singh's English translations
including Trapped (1979).

Kamla Markandaya is an outstanding Indian-English women

novelist. Her sense of involvement in the social life of India, her
keen observation combined with critical acumen and the feminine
sensibility brought her international fame with the very first novel:
Nectar in a Sieve (1954). Besides, she has published Some Inner
Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A
Handful of Rice (1967), The Coffer Dams (1969), The Nowhere
Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), and The Golden Honeycomb
(1977).

Thus she has nine novels to her credit. Markandaya's

acquaintance with Indian life is as authentic as her understanding of
the English men and their character. She has achieved a world-wide
distinction as a significant Indian English novelist. Her novels have
been read with deep interest and have elicited wide critical acclaim
from both Indian and foreign critics of repute.

Markandaya's first novel Nectar in a Sieve is a tragic tale of

Rukmani, the narrator heroine. It is a realistic picture of the
sufferings of the peasants in colonial India. In this novel the
novelist takes us to the heart of a South Indian village where life
has not changed for a thousand years. The village is invaded by
 8

industry and modern technology after a while in the shape of a

tannery.

Rukmani is the youngest of the four daughters of a village-

headman. She is married at the age of twelve to Nathan, a tenant
farmer. He is very poor but not in love and care for his wife. She
lives with her husband in a house built by his own hands. The
family faces poverty, hunger, deprivation and starvation. They have
also to suffer the vagaries of cruel nature. Flood is followed by the
severe drought creating terrible desolution. It dashes all the hopes
of Rukmani and Nathan. They experience one misery after another.
This makes her husband unfaithful to her. Ira, her daughter takes to
prostitution to save the family from starvation: Her youngest child,
Kuti dies of hunger. Her two sons, Arjun and Thumbi, leave for
Ceylon in search of job. And the family is finally evicted from their
land. The husband and the wife leave the village in frustration. Uma
Parameswaran sums up :

Nectar in a Sieve is the story of the faceless peasant who

stands silhouetted in the unending twilight of Indian agrarian
bankruptcy, the horizon showing through the silent trees now with
crimson gashes, now with soul-exalting splendour, always holding
out the promise that the setting sun will rise again after the night
ever approaching yet never encompassing.'

Some Inner Fury, her second novel, is different from her

first novel. Markandaya for the first time presents East-West
conflict which she repeats in her later novels. Mirabai and her
brother, Kitsamy belong to a cultured and well-to-do family. They
 9

have an adopted brother, Govind. Kit comes from London with his
Oxford friend, Richard Marlow. In India Kit agrees to marry
Premala, a traditional girl. Though reserved by temperament
Govind also falls in love with her. Kit upholds the authority of
British Raj while Govind seeks to overthrow it by terrorist
activities. Politics sets the two brothers apart. Mira comes into the
contact with Roshan Merchant, a journalist. Working as a journalist
Mira happens to see Richard and she again lives with him. There in
a village she helps an English missionary, Hieky to run a new
school for the boys. Once Mira and Richard go on a tour. On their
return they find Quit India Movement engulfing the country.
Govind and his friends set fire to the school. Kit is knifed to death.
Govind is arrested for his murder. During the trial Govind is set
free. Mira and Richard are forced to part from each other. Mira
returns to her home to live with her old memories.

Markandaya's third novel, A Silence of Desire explores the

theme of the clash between tradition and modernity, between faith
and reason of a married couple Sarojini and Dandekar. The husband
gets annoyed with his God-fearing wife. After fifteen years of their
married life he begins to feel suspicious of her character, one day
he follows her while she goes to a Swamy to get her womb tumour
cured, Dandekar feels tortured by fear as well as frustration. He
neglects his family. He explains everything to his boss Chari who
orders an inquiry by Mr. Ghose to find out the truth regarding the
Swamy. The deadlock ends when the Swamy advises Sarojini for an
operation. Now Dandekar a changed man regains his mental peace,
 10

but he suffers from a sense of guilt after the departure of the

Swamy.

_ As compared to the three earlier novels, Possession is by and

large a disappointing one. It is a symbolical novel which concerns
contradistinctive values of East and West. Its story is related by
Anasuya, an Indian novelist who visits England for publication of
her novels.

A divorced young British woman Caroline Bell while in India

finds out a fourteen year old village lad Valmiki. She takes him to
England and makes him a distinguished painter. She also wants to
exploit Valmiki's youth for her physical satisfaction. After
sometime Valmiki begins to feel alien there. At this she shows him
the letter of his Swamy friend in India. Inspired by the letter he
again starts painting. To her utter surprise Caroline discovers that
Valmiki has some otherwise relation with Ellie, a maid-servant in
her house. She cleverly manages to separate them. Later on Valmiki
comes to know that the letters from Swamy that were shown to him
were fabricated. He decides to leave Caroline and begins to live
with Annabel. Anasuya sells one of Valmiki's paintings and
manages his return ticket to Indi ^ ” e also comes to India.
But Valmiki refuses to be possessed laying that she is a possessive
woman. But at last Caroline assures the Swamy that one day
Valmiki will return to her.

Markandaya's next novel A Handful of Rice may be

compared to Bhabani Bhattacharya's novel He Who Rides a Tiger.
Ravi comes to Madras for a better living, but contrary to his
 11

expectation, the city offers him nothing but unemployment and

frustration. He resorts to manual labour and soon picks up the
company of Damodar, a smuggler. One night to escape a policeman
he enters into the house of a tailor, Apu and spends the night. Apu's
wife ties his hands and feet and also beats him. On his confession
of trespassing she takes pity on him and allows to go. There Ravi is
attracted to her daughter, Nalini. Later he changes his ways and
proves very useful in that house. He marries Nalini and settles
down there. He works hard and his business prospers. He is not
satisfied with his earning as compared to others. Once again he
meets Damodar who offers him work that involves dishonesty. Here
he is divided in his mind over the superiority of his wife Nalini and
his friend Damodar. With each meeting with Damodar, he
experiences the conflict between honesty and dishonesty with
greater intensity. This makes his life hellish. His son dies of
meningitis. Nalini's silence and his son's death makes an angry
young man. Once a riot breaks out and a mob indulges in looting a
granary. Stones are pelted. Ravi also joins and picks up a stone, but
his strong inner consciousness overpowers him. He changes his
way. Thus, this novel is a tale of personal failures and struggle of
Ravi. In her sixth novel The Coffer Dams the novelist again
handles the East-West theme but in a changed context. This time
she highlights the financial help that an underdeveloped country
like India receives from England.

The Coffer Dams is under construction in a forest of South

India. It is over a South Indian turbulent river in Malnad. The
tribesmen living for centuries at the sight of the dam are shifted to
 12

an inconvenient place as they feel. The British includes Helen, the

wife of Clinton, and Millie, the wife of Rawlings the Chief
Engineer. Helen is curious to know the country and its people. She
develops rapport with the people. Bashiam is a crane-driver who
helps her to understand the locality and its inhabitants. In due
course they fall in love with each other. Clinton wants to complete
the construction work in accordance with the schedule. Only
Bashiam and Krishnan, the Indian Engineer, know the nature of the
river during monsoon. Nearly forty men are killed while trying to
blast a rock to change the course of the river. The tribals refuse to
work unless the dead bodies are found out and cremated. Their
demands are supported by Helen, Krishnan and others. Bashiam is
badly injured while lifting the heavy boulders by the crane. Helen
blames her husband for the defective crane. In the meantime,
monsoon starts and the water level goes up beyond control. It
requires demolition of the dam. Helen and the construction
consultant are restless finding out a suitable alternative. Fortunately
the water level goes down and the crisis is resolved. The great dam
remains safe.

Her next novel The Nowhere Man is the most powerful and
the maturest of all her novels. Basically it is a moving elegy on
England's recent racialism which continues still unabated. The
novelist has the opportunity to shape a current situation in the
fictional form.

Srinivas spends his early youth in a small Indian town, but he

and his wife Vasantha are forced to leave India during British rule.
 13

They settle down in England. Two sons are born to them there,
Laxman and Seshu. Laxman becomes a British factory owner and
Seshu joins the Royal Air Force. After some time he is killed
during German War. His wife Vasantha dies of tuberculosis. His
elder son marries an English girl and lives with her, Srinivas
remains a lonely creature. The death of his wife proves a great blow
to him. His business suffers and he is now not able to rehabilitate
himself. One day he meets an elderly divorcee, Mrs. Pickering and
invites her to share his house with him. When racialism slowly
develops she defends him. In 1965 a terrible racial riot erupts. His
neighbour Fred Fletcher spearheads the anti-coloured agitation. He
compels Srinivas to consider himself 'a nowhere man' and an alien
after fifty years of his stay in England.

In a fit of depression he thinks of committing suicide, but

Mrs. Pickering saves him. In his t^ffTda^s he gets afflicted with

leprosy. He requests his tenants to vacate not because he is anti­

white but because he is a leper and this aggravates the situation.
Fred sets fire to his building, Srinivas is saved from the fire but
dies of shock.

Markandaya's Two Virgins has been considered as the

weakest of all her novels. This is divided into six parts.
Thematically it is not substandard. Uma Parmeshwaran writes(?)lf

two Virgins succeeds for some readers it is because it taps the

treasurehouse of basic human experiences, especially the ever-
popular one of adolescence, in a series of well-worded, well
 14

organised vignetts, if it fails, it is because, it does not go deep

enough into the human experiences it talks about.

Her latest novel The Golden Honeycomb is a milestone in

the development of her career as a novelist. It is a historical novel
which covers the end of the last century to the attainment of
independence in 1947. The scene of action is the princely state of
Devapur. It is divided into three parts having a prologue and an
epilogue.

The Raja of Devapur is ousted because of his seditious

activities. His distant relation Bawajiraj is made the King. His son
Bawajiraj III is placed in the care of an Englishman and he is
alienated from his own people. Bawajiraj II dies in an accident and
Bawajiraj III becomes the ruler. He is married to Shanta Devi. Only
four daughters are born to him. He has a son by his mistress
Mohini. He is named Rabi. His education is supervised by his
mother and grand-mother. A strong spirit of nationalism is infused
in him. He has common people as his friends so he has knowledge
of the world outside the palace. As he grows up he finds wide gap
between the ruler and the ruled. He is appointed as heir to the
throne of Devapur by the Viceroy. While accompanying his family
in Bombay he joins a group of striking mill-workers. He gets
injured in police lathi-charge. He is taken care of by a mill-worker,
Jaya, who also initiates him into love. He returns to Devapur with a
determination to improve the lot of the poor with active support of
Usha he organises peaceful demonstrations against the Britishers.
Ultimately they win freedom for India.
 15

Thus, the novelist has treated four themes - the theme of

poverty and hunger, the theme of struggle for independence, the
theme of conflict between tradition and modernity and East - West
encounter. Apart from these themes Markandaya has dealt with
Indian ethos - repeatedly in her novels, revealing a notable variety
within her limited range. Since no work has been done on this

aspect of her fiction, this thesis is a modest endeavour in this

direction.

REFERENCES

1. Uma Parmeswaran : A Study of Representative Indo-

English Novelists, New Delhi, Vikas Pub., 1976, p. 92.