Forces of change are always at work in the society. Assimilation, acculturation, or amalgamation takes place and the old values are gradually replaced by new ones. The transition involves adjustments, anxieties and disturbances until the new order is accepted and firmly established. Literary works also reflect these disturbances and the society's attempt to return to its prior state. While some take the change in its stride others oppose it vehemently. A traditional society never accepts change easily. Those who defy its rules and values become 'outsiders' and are shunned by its members. One finds many such characters in Indian English fiction. While some move with the current others are cast away as scapegoats, some others remain defiant and have to pay for their defiance. A few rebel, but the social conflict is rendered impossible and they soon find themselves conforming to the established order. This study takes up a few such 'temporary' rebels and 'outsiders' in Indian English fiction.
A typical Indian attitude to life is presented in R.K.Narayan's The Dark Room. The heroine (Savitri) is a traditional Hindu wife (servile and tolerant) devoted to her family. Suffering is depicted as a virtue and Savitri is presented at the opening as a Sita figure in contrast to her later rebellious nature. After each quarrel with her tyrant husband (Ramani) Savitri retreats to the 'dark room' only to sulk and emerge as if nothing has happened. These quarrels which rock the Ramani household are temporary. A submissive Savitri does not respond to her husband's cynical remarks. The social structure is laid bare through the words, "You should either let your words out or feel that everything your husband does is right [. . .]. What he does is right. It is a wife's duty to feel so" (59). These words make Savitri feel foolish at the thought of her own resentment. The Ramani-Savitri encounter takes place a number of times in the novel. Savitri is unable to put up a fight against her husband, despite the fact that she glares at him and feels "faint with anger" (48). Though she leaves the house after one fight, yet she is unable to live away from her familiar surroundings and returns. Thus, it proves to be just another version of her sulking in the dark room. Submissiveness pleases Ramani and restores the situation to normalcy, while Savitri helplessly looks on. Savitri's outbursts are written off as a "sentimental show" (48) and "a stage-show" (48). The dissension of domestic harmony at the time of the Navaratri festival prefigures the later separation of Ramani and Savitri, when Savitri does not merely sulk in the dark room and refuse to come out, but leaves her house and embarks on her own. An orthodox patriarchal social set-up is presented throughout the novel and a character like Savitri, who opposes it initially, conforms to it at the end. Ramani decides to ignore his wife's absence. While Savitri sulks, Ramani remains indifferent. He appears bent on making her realize that she is not indispensable. Life continues to be normal for Ramani, while the children suffer in silence. It is ironic that in spite of all the shouting and sulking Savitri says, "There is no quarrel. I never uttered a single word" (59). The thought of spoiling the happiness of her children hastens Savitri's return and restores normalcy. Savitri is a docile woman and not a representation of Shakti. One may even say that she does not put up a real fight (only protests silently) which results in the restoration of routine life. The novel ends with the wife's resignation to her traditional role. Savitri's return shows the novelist's "unflinchingly traditional outlook" (Mukherjee, Considerations 81). The 'outsider' here is taken back into the folds of society and is unable to hold on to her (passive) rebellion. R. K. Narayan operates within a framework of traditional Hindu society whose code of conduct he largely endorses. Through the episode he conveys the plight of the traditional Hindu wife in Indian society. The novelist's attempt is not to present a Sita image through Savitri but to focus on the tradition-bound society in which any attempt to go against the prevailing social tradition and customs is impossible. His female characters range from the docile, suffering, and helpless Savitri to the dominating ones like Bharati (Waiting for the Mahatma), and Daisy (The Painter of Signs). One is able to trace the transformation in his portrayal of female characters. While Savitri's silent suffering is broken by a temporary rebellion, Bharati and Daisy have a will of their own thus reducing their counterparts to a passive role. In Malgudi, women are steeped in blind beliefs and superstitions. Rituals and ceremonies form a part of their life. They propitiate the gods, observe festivals and holidays. In the orthodox set-up Savitri has no other alternative but to return to her husband and children. A woman with liberated views, who fights against her husband's injustice, cannot carry on her struggle in a society like Malgudi. Here one finds an attempt to break away from the mythological image of Indian women. The women in some of R.K.Narayan's novels dare to be different even in the given traditional patriarchal society. But, characters like Daisy do not find a place in Malgudi. Though Savitri's rebellion against the callousness of her husband awakens her from her soporific state she becomes an emotional cripple. She breaks out of the ordinary domestic world only to show how difficult revolt is for an Indian woman haunted by the Sita-Savitri image that rules the society as well as her own psyche. Savitri's return at the end of the novel has no effect like her sulking during the Navaratri festival. Her name recalls the archetypal constant wife of the Hindu legend. But Savitri, in The Dark Room, is timid, weak, and vacillating. She is thus an ironic counterpart to the legendary Savitri and merely gives vent to her feelings by making fiery speeches.
It is in a similar conservative society that Mulk Raj Anand sets Gauri. The eponymous heroine rebels against her plight here. The novel is an indictment on the society which reduces women to the position of slaves. Gauri is presented as a docile cow at the beginning of the novel. At the marriage negotiations, her parents repeatedly refer to this quality of hers and say, "Gauri is like a cow, very gentle and very good" (11). From the very beginning her marriage is doomed to end in disaster. It later leads to her transformation from a docile woman to a self-reliant one. The relationship is broken off and renewed three times before the marriage actually takes place. Bad omens recur in the novel. The superstitious beliefs of the villagers come true at the end as Gauri leaves her house. Her arrival coincides with the fall in the family fortunes. Each disaster in the village is seen as the unfortunate result of the ill-starred marriage with the unlucky and inauspicious Gauri. The heroine thus comes to be identified with Goddess Kali (the destroyer). Gauri is restored to Panchi only to be rejected because of the rumours of her life in Hoshiarpur, and she leaves. At the very onset the novel indicates the framework of Gauri from the Ramayana. The novel uses the Sita myth as a structural parallel. But the parallelism between the two stories stops at the point where Panchi challenges Gauri to give proof of her purity. The legend is thus made to suit the modern times as the heroine instead of suffering silently leaves her house to carve out a life for herself. She adopts a path different from the one adopted by her mythic counterpart. The Sita myth is introduced at the beginning only to be exploded at the end. The heroine becomes a symbol of new womanhood. Gauri's plight reminds one of Girija in Rajam Krishnan's Lamps in the Whirlpool. Both the novels trace the transformation which the female protagonists undergo. Girija a middle class girl, and a Hindu wife in a Brahmin community has to maintain ritual purity which her mother-in-law insists. Unable to stand the restrictions of a tradition-bound, orthodox set-up she leaves her house only to return to be charged with infidelity. Girija is forced to choose between a crushing orthodoxy at home and the freedom of self-expression outside it. Unlike Savitri who returns to her house, Gauri shares the qualities of Nora in Ibsen's The Doll's House. Gauri refuses to conform to the dictates of those around her and emerges as a woman with a will of her own. But, her society rejects her. Though Mulk Raj Anand advocates the liberation of women, he seems to stress the need to strike a balance—to retain the traditional aspect of life as well. In spite of contacts with modernity Gauri remains firmly rooted in tradition. Through the heroine Mulk Raj Anand depicts the unsuitability of an old myth to the modern world and the necessity for change. The novel hints at the necessity for new myths which draw their power from the ancient Indian culture—a blending of both the old and the new.
Set in the traditional milieu these novels also reveal an explicit gender dynamics. These characters indicate a cultural situation in which the woman is reduced to the position of the 'other' and is forced to live in submission. The hold of the traditional concept of a woman (going back to the Sita-Savitri myth) on the Indian psyche and the attempts of an egotistic patriarchal society to maintain it and keep the woman under control are brought out here. As in Lamps in the Whirlpool (the mother-in-law) women themselves often indirectly help in sustaining and nurturing the male social standards. There is a break from the social order, a disruption of the normal order, but this is often temporary. The characters end up being conditioned by the society surrounding them or are forced to leave it. The orthodox social setup fiercely resists any deviation from its existing order and one is left to lurch in the 'darkness'. The rebellion is at times feeble and in vain and the 'outsider' ceases to be one because of his feeble attempts. The three novels present a more or less similar plight (while Savitri returns, Gauri and Girija are cast away). They become rare occasions of self introspection. To a large extent the patriarchal nature of the society is further asserted and their continuance ensured.
Fiction often reflects how in a custom ridden orthodox society women of independent spirit are always unacceptable. They are cast aside as rebels. Most of these novels (like Rajam Krishnan's Lamps in the Whirlpool, and Lalithambika Antharjanam's Agnisaakshi) help to bring out the plight of women caught in the coils of an orthodox social set-up. It helps to lay bare the restrictions imposed by the extremely ritualistic religious practices among the caste Hindus. The Indian woman is depicted as being held back by the dictates of her husband, parents, and brothers, who maintain that she keeps up the Sita-Savitri image. Women in R. K. Narayan's novels (like Savitri in The Dark Room and Susila in The English Teacher) are generally relegated to the house where innumerable customs and traditions are thrust on them. One also finds that as the social milieu gradually changes, from an orthodox one to one of progress and liberation, the women also slowly begin to assert their independence. A number of novelists have portrayed this struggle of a woman against the practices of a conventional society in their works. They lash out against the pretentious pieties of a family, individual, or community.
It is also a fact that most of the instances in which the individual tries to break the tradition with the accepted beliefs and ways of living bring unhappiness to him. This is true not just of the women characters but even of men. As with Moorthy (Kanthapura), Naranappa (Samskara) and Appachu (The Scent of Pepper), social ostracism is the punishment meted out for the breach of caste rules. They are considered as outcasts by the community. While the characters conforming to time-honoured norms lead a contented life, the deviants head towards a frustrating, lonely existence. The growing frustration makes people rebel against the traditional practices in society. The rebellion is mostly thwarted in a conventional social set-up. They find themselves unable to go against the established social values. The new values and approaches which find their way into this society are often unable to establish themselves because of the existing ones which have a firm hold on the people. Works of creative writers like R. K. Narayan, U. R. Anantha Murthy, and Raja Rao are conditioned by their traditional social set-up. Their characters are more or less conservative and move within a tradition-bound atmosphere which has its bearing on their mind. It is paradoxical that along with conveying his contempt for the brahmins' excessive adherence to rituals and ceremonies, Anantha Murthy also suggests that it is impossible to escape the hold of religion in Samskara. Even Naranappa who rebels against the ways of religion is unable to shed his brahminism completely. On his death bed Naranappa shows the tenacious hold the orthodox beliefs of brahminism have on him. A lifetime of deliberately postured defiance only hints at the conflict in his mind between the orthodox ways of brahminism and the unorthodox life he led. The vehemence of his repudiation suggests an unconscious attachment as well as a sense of guilt at defying it. Brought up in the rituals and beliefs of brahminism, Naranappa (as well as the central character Praneshacharya), like Moorthy in Raja Rao's Kanthapura, is unable to rid himself of the brahminic creed. The situation does raise questions about the real nature of these rebellions.
Appachu in The Scent of Pepper (Kavery Nambisan) too has to face a similar predicament on his death. This is indicated through the entirely different funeral rites given to him. Appachu, like Naranappa, is an 'outsider'. He marries Marjorie, a Christian, and converts to his wife's religion. He defies the Kodava customs only to be deserted by his wife and children, and to return to his roots towards the end of his life. This transgression makes the Kodavas expel him from their traditional society. On his death the villagers avoid the family as an expression of faith in a tradition which Appachu had once left behind. Appachu presents the picture of a man who gets uprooted from his native cultural traditions and values. His position as an outcast and an unaccommodated alien (he is unable to be a part of the two cultures) is clearly portrayed in the novel. The villagers feel it unwise to burn the body of an outcast in the family funeral ground and prefer to give it a Christian burial. They do not enter the house or take part in the rites, thus expressing their protest.
A set of rebels is presented through Velutha and Ammu in Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. Unlike Sophie Mol, Velutha's body is dumped in the themmady kuzhy (the pauper's pit where the police dump their dead) and is not given proper last rites. Like Naranappa and Appachu he is an "outsider" who has gone against the dictates of his society. Hence he is cast out and punished. Ammu, another "outsider", too is denied a Christian burial. She is ostracized due to her relationship with a Paravan, Velutha. Ammu dies in a grimy room in a lodge. The church refuses to bury her. So her body is taken to the crematorium by Chacko (her brother), and Rahel (her daughter). Chacko and Rahel are given her ashes--"The grit from her bones. The teeth from her smile. The whole of her crammed into a little clay pot. Receipt No.Q498673" (163). It is significant that, like Velutha, she is given a last rite similar to those of derelicts. Ammu is reduced to a numerical value, on the receipt, shorn of all human dignity and individuality. The society thus asserts itself through various means to assure that the deviants are punished or brought back to its fold.
Novelists not only expose the need for reforms in a particular society, but also portray the changes that accompany them. The growing frustration makes people rebel against the traditional practices in society. But, the rebellion is mostly thwarted in a conventional social set-up. They find themselves unable to go against the established social values. The new values and approaches which find their way into this society are often unable to establish themselves because of the existing ones which have a firm hold on the people. Though novelists portray characters who make an attempt to go against the prevailing practices in society, they also hint at the impossibility of a total break with the past. The reason and mode of defiance are different, but their plight seems more or less the same. These rebels find it difficult to face the collective force of a traditional society. One also finds the tendency of social systems to resist or minimize the effects of disturbing outside influence, and a natural tendency to return to a prior steady state. But, as psychologists observe, whoever protects himself against what is new and strange and thereby regresses to the past, falls into the same neurotic condition as the man who identifies himself with the new and runs away from the past.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Novels
Anand, Mulk Raj. Gauri. New Delhi: Orient Paperback, 1976.
Antharjanam, Lalithambika. Agnisaakshi. Thrissur: Current Books, 1976.
Krishnan, Rajam. Lamps in the Whirlpool. Trans. Uma Narayanan and Prema Seetharam. Madras: Macmillan Indian Ltd., 1995.
Murthy, U. R. Anantha. Samskara. Trans. A.K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Nambisan, Kavery. The Scent of Pepper. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1996.
Narayan, R.K. The Dark Room. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1996.
---. The English Teacher. Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 1998.
---. The Painter of Signs. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1993.
---. Waiting for the Mahatma. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1997.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New Delhi: India Ink, 1997.
Drama
Ibsen, Henrik. The Doll's House. Trans. Peter Watts. The Doll's House and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 1965.
Secondary Sources
Books
Agnihotri, Dr. G. N. Indian Life and Problems in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K.Narayan. Meerut: Shalabh Book House, 1984.
Bhatnagar, Manmohan. K. and M. Rajeshwar, eds. Indian Writings in English. 8 vols. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2000.
Mohod, Veena.V. Social Realism in R. K. Narayan's Novels. Jaipur: Book Enclave, 1997.
Mukherjee, Meenakshi, ed. Considerations: Twelve Studies of Indo-Anglian Writing. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1977.
---. The Twice Born Fiction: Themes and Techniques of the Indian Novel in English. New Delhi: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1971.
---. Realism and Reality: The Novel and Society in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Ramteke, S. R. R. K. Narayan and His Social Perspective. New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1998.
Reddy, K. Venkata, and P. Bayapa Reddy, eds. The Indian Novel with a Social Purpose. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1999.
Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. Delhi: Orient Paperback, 1970.
Sharma, Dr. Krishna. Protest in Indian English Fiction. Jaipur: Bohra Prakashan, 1995.
Srivastava, Sharad. The New Woman in Indian English Fiction. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1996.
Williams, Haydn Moore. Studies in Modern Indian Fiction in English. Vol. 2. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1973.
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