BLEND OF FICTION AND REALITY: PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN INDIAN NOVELS.

DEBAJYOTI BISWAS

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Realism and Reality

THE NOVEL AND SOCIETY IN INDIA.
Meenakshi Mukherjee
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Rs 195
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Realism and Reality gives a glimpse on the rise of novel in India during mid-nineteenth

century till twentieth century. Apart from the novels written in English language, she takes into

consideration the novels written in regional languages. She includes the minor literary figures

like Nazir Ahmed, Catherine Hannah Mullens to most prominent writers like Bankimchandra

Chatterjee, Saratchandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, and Premchand and Anantha Murthy

and analyses them from socio-literary point of view and their contribution to shape the genre.

The book had been published by Oxford University Press in 1985, and had received acclaim

during that time. Hitherto, it is a very seminal text in the analysis of the influencing factors in the

making of Novel as a genre in India. The book is divided into two parts. The first part has five

chapters; namely, “From Purana to Natuna”, “Pilgrim prose and the Novel of Purpose”,

“Recreating a Past: Fiction and Fantasy”, “Women in a new Genre”, and “The Novelists for all

Seasons”. The Second part of the book has three chapters and deals with texts of individual

writers, “Pather Panchali”, “Godan”, and “Samskara”. The chapters are followed by Appendices,

Notes, Bibliography and Index. This paperback edition comes with a preface from the writer and

is available at Rupees 195. The total number of pages is 218.

The first chapter is named “From Purana to Natuna”. The writer acknowledges at the

outset that the study of emergence of novel in India cannot be a purely literary exercise. It has to
be rather coupled with the political and social study of the times. She holds that the literature that

evolved during that time is the byproduct of the social, political and indigenous narrative

traditions of an ancient culture. It would be erroneous to consider the rise of novel in India

during the mid-nineteenth century as the legacy of British rule, which will be like brushing aside

the complex cultural determinants that might have influenced the rise of novel. With this thesis,

she moves on to explain the several influencing factors along with the tradition that already

existed.

She begins the analysis by examining the form of novel, as distinct from other genres,

that has emerged in Europe in the eighteenth century. She cites the instances of Hegel, Lukacs,

Steiner, Watt and Todorov who commonly assign the rise of novel to factors pertaining to

economic, political and metaphysical assumption about man’s relationship with time, nature and

other human beings. She states the prevalent thoughts among the philosophers and critics who

forwarded several factors like time and space; the emphasis on individualism owing to the

economic factors and industrialization. She raises the question that if these factors are

determinant of the rise of the novel in the west; does it hold true in the case of India, which had

in the past, irrespective of those factors, produced work like Kadambari by Banabhatta in the

seventh century; or in a country like Japan which had a long prose narrative like The Tales of

Ganji in the tenth century. Clearly not. Then one has to find out some defining factors for novel

which will be valid across cultures. Thus she says that novel as a genre and its evolution defies

any strict definition.

Next she moves on to analyze the pre-novel narratives that existed worldwide in various

forms. In works like Kadambari, Panchatantra, Arabian Nights, The Tales of Genji, Legends of

King Arthur, Decameron or Canterbury Tales, one may find a circular structure consisting of

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several stories connected to the central narrative. The difference that she notices between these

forms and novel is that the novel is more unified. Next, she observes that the suspension of time

and space in pre-novel narratives. The usual way of telling a story was “Once upon a Time”,

which gave the writer a freedom to borrow and change the crux of the story as well as he pleases.

However, in the novel, the story is locked by its historical and geographical setting along with its

description of time. A novel therefore cannot cross the frontiers of cultures less flexibly than a

fable or an allegory. Another difference which Meenakshi Mukherjee points out that

differentiates a Novel from other forms is the art of characterization. Whereas, the characters in a

novel are individuals, the characters in a fable or an allegory are representatives of classes or

moral values.

The difficulty that the Indian early writers faced with these European models before them

were that, the sense of realism does not fit into the Indian context. Secondly, the hero in

European novels were individuals, free from social bondage, which is less applicable in Indian

context where even marriage is not a matter of personal choice. It became extremely difficult for

the novelists to synchronize the familial and social structure with the literary form. Similarly, the

novelists faced two challenges, to adept the life and the alien literature to the Indian setting. So

there emerged more fantastic forms since the Indian society could not be conflated with the

European models. Early instances of such novels are Naro Sadashiv Risbud’s Manjughosha

(1868) and O. Chandu Menon’s Indulekha (1888). Other problems that encountered the Indian

writers were placing the story within a historic time and space as opposed to mythic time.

Actually India was bringing out a new literary form which could be palatable to the Indian

readers. This new form is called “Upanyas” as a synonym for novel. This term was first used in

1862 by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay. Meenakshi Mukherjee analyses the epistemological meaning

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of the term upanyas. Several kinds of novels in many languages were written in India and were

termed differently like naval, naval-katha and novel. Despite of these terminologies, the thematic

aspiration for the novels was the English novels which the writers read. Thus she brings out the

fact that non-literary aspects can shape the literary forms. Apart from this, religion too had an

influence on the novel in India. Meenakshi Mukherjee also makes a brief survey of the Indian

prose form that existed prior to the emergence of novel in India.

In the next chapter “Pilgrim Prose and the Novel of purpose”, Meenakshi Mukherjee

analyses the effect of the missionary work on the prose medium in India. The first effort could be

seen on the part of the Christian missionaries who hired writers from different regional languages

to translate the Bible. Prose works also supplemented the reading texts for the newly founded

colleges. Secular texts as well as religious texts were written and translated simultaneously

thereby providing a spurt of literary activity in the first half of 19th century. Apart from educating

the Indians, conversion to Christianity was another purpose for which the religious texts were

made available in local languages. The Christians also wrote several fictions with religious

undertone like Phulmoni-o-Karunar Bibaran by Hannah Catherine Mullens, The Slayer Slain by

Mrs. Collins, Kamini Kanta by G.S. Gurney, Prathapa Mudaliar Charitram by Samuel

Vedanayakam Pillai and Sukumari by Joseph Muliyil. These novels emphasized the benefits of

coversion to Christianity and are an early example of the colonial homogenization process that

started working under the garb of religion. Meenakshi Mukherjee analyses these novels and

devotes a small section to each of them to show the purpose for which these books were written.

Further issues like widow remarriage which was till then considered gingerly by the

novelists also found space in work like Yamuna Partayan. However, Meenakshi Mukherjee is of

the opinion that it lacks the realistic mode of description, and the characters are lifeless who

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record incidents like a picaresque structure. It is pertinent to note here that Christianity had little

effect in the mainstream Indian culture and very few writers and poets had reflected the traces of

Christianity in literature in India. But it is also true that passing references to Christianity could

be found sporadically and alongside didactic works centering round Hindu and Islam also existed

in the novels.

In the next chapter titled “Recreating a Past: Fiction and Fantasy”, the writer explores

noveabout heroism and adventure, love and romance which captured the popular imagination of

the nineteenth century. Mostly, fantasy and history were mixed to give a new form to novel in

India. Romesh Chandra Dutt’s “Maharashtra Jiban Prabhat” written in Bengali in 1778 deals

with the Maratha power under Shivaji. Another important novel is Devikanandan Khatri’s

“Chandrakanta”. Between the poles of fiction and fantasy there existed novel like

Bankimchandra Chattarjee’s “Rajsingha” written in 1882. There was seen a rendering of

historical figures with non-historical figures through imaginary characters.

Simultaneously, India was also going through a cultural crisis due to the percolation of European

culture in India. The writer beautifully presents how the European trends were trying to come

into terms with the Indian past, present and remote to recreate a collective historical

consciousness. The novels of that period included history and historical personages owing to at

least four factors: exchange of cultures through English; the differences between the british and

the Indians; reading history through British perspective; and the last one which is most important

is to rewrite the history from the indigenous point of view.

Meenakshi Mukherjee uses not only the texts to anlyse the influence and growth of novel,

but also takes into account the cross references of other writers like Rabindranath Tagore who

has mentioned about the availability of the pre-novel forms in Indian literary tradition.

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The writer also credits the Sanskrit literary tradition which she believes has prepared the ground

by the mingling of “kavya” and ‘natya’. She also analyses the epistemological meaning of the

words “kavya” and “ithasa” to figure out the significance of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,

and relate in the similar manner the forms of the other novel and pre-novel forms that existed in

India. These terms were loosely used since there was no clear terminology to demarcate the

differences. Stories involving historical figures and mythical figures were used to teach language

and not the history, thus obviously the distinction between history and fiction became blurred.

Another significant finding of Meenakshi Mukherjee is that the influence of Sir Walter Scott on

the historical novel in Indian tradition is much exaggerated than it really is. She states that the

influence of historical narrative from other regional languages cannot be ruled out, and that Scott

only served as a catalyst to invigorate the nationalist feelings. But at the same time, she does not

cite sufficient instances to substantiate this argument. Next, Meenakshi Mukherjee deals at

length with Anandamath to show the use of history by Bakim in his work. In this relation, she

also acknowledges the role played by Bangadarshan which gave literature a wider platform for

public consumption.

In the next chapter “Women in a New Genre” she deals with the tussle of the novelists to

homogenize and localize the realistic mode of characterization and description in the Indian

context. Although, western concept of Individualism, which emerged out of the social changes in

Europe, it was extremely difficult to accommodate such realisitic description of individuals over

social boundaries. However, writers like Bankimchandra, O. Chandu Menon, Harinarayan Apte,

and Mirza Mohammed Hadi Ruswa dug out realistic characters from the society to be portrayed

in a realistic manner.

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 The depiction of love and romance in Indian social system posed a complex problem,

because love was not known for the women in India as contrasted to English society where love

and marriage was a “matter of Individual choice than familial obligation”.

Romantic love was only possible in historical setting with temporal remoteness since it

did not fall into the contemporary social restriction. Love could only be conceived to be illicit

and apt for a courtesan or a widow in the Indian social setup, where these two people do not

come under the domain of social structured society. It was a typical problem which the novelists

encountered. To analyse the problem Meenakshi Mukherjee takes into account four novels by

four different writers, namely Indira by Bankimchandra, Indulekha by O. Chandu Menon, Pan

Lakshyant Kon Ghetto by Harinarayan Apte, and Umrao Jan Ada by Mirza Mohammed Hadi

Ruswa. She inspects the language, discourse, question of female identity and structure of these

novels from the feminist point of view, and raises a significant issue pertaining to the patriarchal

identity ascribed to womenfolk.

In chapter five entitled “The Novelist for all Seasons” Meenakshi Mukherjee starts with

the influence of political and economic changes on the literary output. Although, there were

differences in the literary taste and trend in India, depending on the region and the culture of that

region, yet some common parameters could be framed out belonging to literary culture of India.

She then deals at length with the novels of Saratcandra which were not only popular and best

sellers during the contemporary and present times, but also singles out the radical presentation of

womenfolk, especially widow, in his novels. This chapter seems like a continuation from the

previous chapter since it again deals with the presentation of women in fiction as opposed to the

real position that women actually occupied in the society.

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She speaks highly of Saratchandra, since the later was considered a radical in the society during

his times. Saratchandra presented the way for women emancipation in his novels, but never had

he allowed them a happy ending. This he perhaps did, as Meenakshi Mukerjee considers, due to

the possibility that he knew widow may never get remarried due to the strict social structure. In

analyzing the position of women in the family, Meenakshi Mukherjee also points out to the caste

system that prevailed in India and as depicted by the novelists. Drawing historical references like

the effort of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s crusade for the remarriage of widow, she creates a new

way of looking at literature; quite close to New-Historicism. Apart from citing Saratchandra’s

Srikanta, Sesh Prashna, and Charitraheen, she cites other novelists to make a study of the cast

system that prevailed in India. The writers that she deals with can be considered as classical

writers in modern fiction. She concludes the section by eulogizing Saratchandra’s Pan-Indian

outlook and terms him as a phenomenon.

After discussing at length, though on limited canvas, the theoretical aspect of the

emergence of realistic novel and presentation of realism in the context of Indian scenario,

Meenakshi Mukherjee takes three novels, classic in itself, which defies traces of euro-centricism

in matter of theme, form and structure. The second section of the book is divided into three

sections, each chapter devoted to the analysis of a novel.

She at first briefly presents the taxonomy of the novel which existed in Europe, which is

culture and euro-centric. She then cites Pather Panchali as a distinct novel, eluding the euro-

centric definition of genre, which forms a new form of novel. The structure and form of Pather

Panchali is discussed at length in this chapter. In the next chapter she deals with Godan written in

the present century and is a study in the social system in itself. Munshi Premchand poses a

problem in the novel, rising out of the social embers that consume the individual. Though the

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writer’s ideology is not let to get over the narrative, the novel poses a unique social problem

whose remedy is not prescribed by Premchand. In the last Chapter, named Samskara, Meenakshi

Mukherjee points out the realistic portrayal of the decaying brahminical society which subsumes

the individual. All these three novels are not inspired, perhaps, by the European form or novel or

sense of realism, rather emerged out of the requirement of presentation of realism to fill the void

in literature.

The book is a comprehensive study on the emergence of novel in India. It is a seminal

text to analyse the influencing factors that resulted in the early growth of fiction with the mix of

indigenous flavor and ancient culture. Although Meenakshi Mukherjee have taken only a few

texts and have ignored the description of Sanskrit, and other non-European tradition, culture and

literature that might have influenced the literary forms, yet the book remains unique in itself. It

can be a cue to a research work too. Her knowledge of regional literature and holistic approach to

analyse the situation can be traced in the book. She has not only presented the theoretical aspect

alone, but has also practically contextualized it with novels of those times. One may agree or

disagree with her perspective; however, she has critically reviewed the situation which has not

been done by any other author hitherto. The book is printed well with just one error at page

number 102; line 1, where the hyphen is missing at the end of the line.

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