P-205 Assignment

Five Types of Cultural Studies

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

👉Introduction:

Cultural studies has broader meaning because we see from various perspective then an individual can know what actually it lies in the meaning. Therefore firstly it is necessary  to deconstruct the meaning of culture as the meaning is elaborated according to different critics so at first we will have glance on the meaning of culture. Generally it means Way of living life or it can also be said that the life style of people and Matthew Arnold also quotes about Culture that it is a march towards perfection.Cutural study has meaning in very broader sense.Because it includes mny other theory with the help of others.

To know more we will take bird’s view about culture and its types in detail.

👉What is culture?

• Culture means it is the related to the particular society and its idea ,custom ,and art.
• Culture is the word which is impossible to described in the word.
• culture is the consists of activates such as the art and philosophy which are considered to be important for the development of the civilization and peoples mind even particular society or civilization especially consider in the relation to its beliefs way of life or art.
•  Culture is the words it's impossible to elaborated in the one word.

👉 What is the cultural studies ?

· We know very well about culture . we all are studied about it culture is the so difficult as well as the cultural studies very much hard to define.

· Cultural studies is the study which is the department of the Anthropology, Archaralogy, History ,sociology ,philosophy, Geography ,literature, and our own.

· In the Cambridge English dictionary states in that find out culture is...

                      "The way of life especially the general customs and belief the particular group of a people at a particular time".

“Cultural Studies is not a tightly coherent unified movement with a fixed agenda, but a loosely coherent group of tendencies, issues, and questions.”

Cultural studies is composed of elements of Marxism, Post structuralism and Postmodernism, Feminism, Gender studies, anthropology, sociology, race and ethnic studies, film theory, urban studies, public policy, popular culture studies and Postcolonial studies: those field that concentrate on social and cultural forces that either create community or cause division and alienation.

The definition of cultural studies can sometimes be misconstrued. It is not simply the study of different cultures but uses many other studies to analyze different cultures such as philosophy, theology, literature etc.

👉Types of Cultural Studies

Cultural studies is the interdisciplinary field investing the way in which creates and transforms individual experience everyday life ,social relation and power.Cultural studies is the composed of elements of the Marxism ,feminism, gender studies , anthropology, and sociology race and aesthetics studies all this field are attention on social and culture.In a cultural studies in which we have analysed a wide variety of forms of cultural expression like : T.V, Films , art , and all. 

· British cultural materialism

· New Historicism

· American Multiculturalism

· Post modernism and popular culture

· Postcolonial studies etc.

Let’s have a glance on each of these in detail.

1. British cultural Materialism

Cultural study is referred to as “cultural materialism in Britain. Matthew Arnold sought to redefine the “givens” of British Culture. Edward Burnett Tylor’s pioneering anthropolog1ical study ‘primitive Culture’

“Culture or civilization, taken in its widest ethnographic sense, is a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

Cultural Materialism began in 1950s with the work of F.R.Leavis and heavily influenced by Matthew Arnold. Raymond Williams talks about attributes of working class and elite class. As Williams memorably states:

“There are no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses.”

          In modern Britain two trajectories for "culture" developed: one led back to the past and the feudal hierarchies that ordered community in the past; here, culture acted in its sacred function as preserver of the past The other trajectory led toward a future, socialist utopia that would annual the distinction between labor and leisure classes. Cultural materialism began in earnest in the 1950s with the work of F.R.Leavis, heavily influenced by Matthew Arnold's analyses of bourgeois culture.

Cultural materialists also turned to the more humanistic and even spiritual insights of the great student of Rabelais and Dostoevsky, Russian Formalist Bakhtin, especially his amplification of the dialogic form of meaning within narrative and class struggle.

2. New historicism

New Historicism historical criticism insisted that to understand literary piece . we need to understands author biography and social background what idea come on that time.

New historicism to find the meaning in so many text by considering the work within the frame work of the privilege idea and assumption of the privilege idea.In which i have observed so many things here history is not a chronicle of fact and events but rather a complex elaborating of the human reality.

Michel Warner phrases New Historicism motto as , ....

              "The text is historical and History is textual".

New historicists seek " Surprising coincidence "that may cross generic , Historical and cultural lines in borrowing metaphor ceremony as popular culture.

Definition: New historicism

 “New historicism is that it is a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts, usually of the same historical period”.

 Louis Montrose defined the new historicism as

A number of historicists claim that these cultural and ideological representations in texts serve mainly to reproduce.A New Historicist looks at literature in a wider historical context, examining both how the writer's times affected the work and how the work reflects the writer's times, in turn recognizing that current cultural contexts color that critic's conclusions.

“The text is historical, and history textual”

-Michael Warner phrases

“History is always historicized”

New historicism has made its biggest mark on literary studies of the Renaissances and Romantic periods and has revised motions of literature as privileged, apolitical writing. Much new historicism focuses on the marginalization of subjects such as those identified as witches, the insane, heretics, vagabonds, and political prisoners.

3. American multiculturalism

American multiculturalism have its different four types like:

1-African American Writers

2-Latin Writers

3-American Indian Writers

4-Asian American Writers 

In 1965 the watts race riots drew worldwide attention the civil rights acts had passed in the 1964.the terms is used in two broad way likes descriptively or informative multiculturalism centre on thought in political philosophy about cultural and religious differences.Multiculturalism in the America has long silent history.

  1]- African American Writers:-

African American studies is pursued in America literature criticism from the recovery of 18th century poet.like Phillis Wheatley to experimental novels of Toni Morison.

In " Shadow and Act " 1964 novelist Ralph Ellison argues that...

               " Any Viable theory of Negro American

                 culture obligates us to fashion

                 a more adequate theory of

                 American culture as a whole"

African American writers continued to enter the mainstream with the protest novel of the 1940s.Ralph Ellison was influenced by Naturalism but even by American tradition such as the Trickster , Jazz , Blues ," signifying ,"and political system.This novel of a physical and spiritual Odyssey by a black man who moves in north direction and his journey to reclaim and culture in the novel of ," Invisible Man " (1949) .

· 2 ]- Latino Writers :-

The term " Latina/o " to indicate a broad sense of ethnicity among Spanish speaking people in the united state.Mexican American are the largest and most influential group of Latina/ o ethnicities in the united States.Some Latinas such as" Maria Amparo Ruiz De Burton " author of the 1885 novel of "California" , "The Squatter " and , " The Don".

Three cultural archetype have been central to Latina identity :-

 1) La Malinche

 2) La Virgen De Guadalupe

 3) La Llorona,

but this are newly interrogated today.

Rudolfo Anaya's 'Bless Me Ultima' 1973 perhaps the best known novel of the Latino , focuses on impact of World War 2 on small community in New Mexico.Two other by Contribution to Latino fiction are :

1- Oscar Zela Acosta , author of' The Revolt of Cockroach people' 1973

2- Richard Rodriguer - " Hanger of Memory" 1981.

     3] -African Indian Literature :-

In predominantly oral cultures , story-telling passes on religious belief moral values, political codes , and practical lesson of everyday life.For American Indian stories are source of strengths in the face of centuries of silencing by Euro-Americans.two types of Indian literature have evolved as a fields of study .Tradition Indian literature includes tales ,song and oratoryturies that have existed on the north American continent for centuries composed in tribal language.

  4] -Asian American Writer :-

Asian American literature is written by people of Asian descent  in the united state that addressing the living in the society that views them as alien.Asian American autobiography inherited descriptive strategies, Maxine Hong Kingston's: the women warrior : memories of girlhood Among Ghost 1976 illustrate.Asian American studies has been focused on writer from Hawaii Guam Philippines.

4] Postmodernism and popular culture :-

- What is Post modernism ?

               " It's like post structuralism and deconstruction is a critique of the aesthetic of the preceding age, but beside more critique ,postmodernism celebrates the very act of dismembering tradition".

A late 20th century style and concept in architecture and criticism which represent a departure from modernism and is ,a characteristic by the self-conscious use of earlier style and convention mixing of different artistic style and media and general destruct of theories.john walkins Chapman suggested " a post modern style of painting " even post modern had been used to described new forms of the arts and music as well as postmodern music is either music of the most important post modernist concern is the Deconstructed.

Post modern is the fashionable terms used to described contemporary culture or the recent culture which we live amongst .We are inhabiting a postmodern world.

post moderns media rejects the idea of that any media product that or the text any greater value then other .

The distinction between media and rejecting has collapsed ,postmodern text become mediated version of reality audience start interpreting reality based on interpretation rather than experience,major figure of the high modernism : Virginia Woolf ,James Joyce , Ezra pound , T.S Eliot, etc...

- Popular Culture :-

The term " Popular culture " was coined in the 19th century or entirely about ides, perspective , attitude , images , and other phenomena .the Abbreviated from " pop" for popular culture id connected with our society and our everyday life.Before 1960s there was a time when popular culture not a studies of academic way but when it was just a popular culture only, comic books ,television films , advertising popular music and computer cyber culture they access how much culture factors as ethnicity , race, gender , class ,age, region, and sexuality, are shaped by in popular culture.this chart reshaped the popular culture :there are four  types of popular culture analysis :-

This all analysis seek to get beneth and surface meaning and examine implicit social meanings:

 

Sometimes popular culture can be over take and repackage a literary work that is impossible to original text about without references about to many layers of the popular culturehere we will add to one more point the popular culture reconstruction of a work like Frankenstein can also open it to unforeseen new interpretation

Once we define the term and then it becomes very easy to understand this term as it is also known as Pop-Culture so The term ‘Popular Culture' was coined in the 19th century or earlier. Traditionally, the term has denoted the education and general “culturedness” of the lower classes, as opposed to the “official culture” and higher education emanated by the dominant classe.The stress in the distinction from “official culture” became more pronounced towards the end of the 19th century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period.

 Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumbed down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and counter cultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted.

There are four main types of popular culture studies analyses like:

· Production Analysis

· Textual Analysis

· Audience Analysis

· Historical Analysis

So with the help of these an individual can analyze the types as production analysis deals with the production and while on the other hand Textual analysis deals with the text and on the other side we can also say that the third one is audience analysis which has more importance in the popular culture because Audience remains at the center in this kind of analysis while last but not the list kind is Historical analysis which plays vital role in the popular culture or so called Pop-culture.

5 Postcolonial Studies

So far as my reading is concerned about this study of Postcolonial we can say that it is against colonialism because colonialism came in to existence at the beginning of the century but slowly and steadily some people started to oppose against it so Anti-colonialism came into enlightenment so Post-colonialism came into utilization to oppose the Colonialism though it came into later on but we can find the post-colonial study in the play A Tempest which is written by Aime Ceaser which also deals with the Post-colonial study because in this kind of study an Individual can find the conflict between colonizer and the colonized people as it is found in many of work of literature and the best example is A tempest which also highlights the same thing in the play.

                At first glance postcolonial studies would seem to be a matter of history and political science, rather than literary criticism. Britain seemed to foster in its political institutions as well as in literature universal ideas for proper living, while at the same time perpetuating the violent enslavement of Africans and other imperialist cruelties around the world, causing untold misery and destroying millions of lives. Postcolonial literary theorists study the English language within this politicized context, especially those writings that developed at the colonial “front,” such as works by Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Foster, Jean Rhys, or Jamaica Kincaid. Earlier figures such as Shakespeare’s Caliban are re-read today in their New World contexts. Works such as ‘The Empire Writes Back’, edited by Bill Ashcroft and others, and ‘The Black Atlantic’ by Paul Gilroy have radically remapped cultural criticism.

          Therefore we can say that all cultural studies possess its own value by its culture. Thus, postcolonial study studies opposite to colonial studies; it studies beyond to colonial studies.

👉Conclusion

These Cultural Studies exists with particular ideas which shows particular cultural world. Sometimes popular culture can so overtake and repackage a literary work that it is impossible to read the original text without reference to the many layers of popular culture that have developed around it.

Reference

Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. 2008.

Blog link:https://dsksathish67.blogspot.com/2019/08/five-types-of-cultural-studies.html?m=1

P-203 Assignment

Allegory in Robinson Crusoe

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- The Postcolonial Studies

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction

The question may arise in our mind that what is allegory?

An allegory is a narrative piece of art in which the authors use their characters, setting and plot to entertain by delivering moral lessons. Allegories were popular in England from the sixteenth century onward Robinson Crusoe is regarded as one of the finest allegories. Defoe must have been inspired by the allegories of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost. But the real inspiration behind Robinson Crusoe is undoubtedly Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, another class allegory.

In both the novels, The Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe life has been treated as a voyage of human soul. Life in both these novels is a probation. In the Pilgrim’s Progress a pilgrim, who is the human soul, makes his progress towards the House Beautiful. Likewise Robinson makes his voyage on sea, the Bhav Sagar, which must lead him towards his destination – the spiritual salvation.

G. H. Mair, while praising Robinson Crusoe and exalting it above The Pilgrim’s Progress writes :

“The Pilgrim’s Progress is begun as an allegory, and so continues for a little space till the story takes hold of the author….But the autobiographical form of fiction in its highest art is the creation of Defoe.”

👉Autobiographical Allegory

Generally the allegorical novels are the autobiographical by nature. Dickens in David Copperfield, Great Expectations writes about his own miserable life, as a childhood. Defoe writes his own life in Robinson Crusoe. Defoe had led a miserable struggling life. In the course of activities he was imprisoned and was even pilloried. And while he was in jail his wife and children starved. We can relate his imprisonment with Robinson’s imprisonment on the solitary island. The starvation of his family is expressed in the following lines :

“I had a dreadful deliverance. For I was wet, had no cloths to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me, neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger.” (Robinson Crusoe)

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously.

Robinson commits the disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. He is also punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive :

“O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.” (Robinson Crusoe)

👉Life as a Voyage

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played false, sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously. He must have repented for his dishonesty and wickedness to be forgiven. This we can read in the life of Robinson Crusoe. Robinson commits the sin of disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures, and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. Robinson is punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all, he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive: “O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.

He finds only a drowned dead boy. The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson repents for his wicked sin he committed against his father and God. He prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. Crusoe thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. He, who had pined to be cast on the island of despair, rejoices that he was brought to this place. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He feels that God has dealt with him bountifully, and He has still mercy in store for him. He can no longer feel indignant because he feels that his punishment is less in comparison to his sin. Crusoe enjoys mercies which he had not deserved and expected. He feels that only the providential wonders have brought him his daily bread. He now reconciles himself to the afflictions bestowed on him and thanks to God for showering blessings on him. Robinson, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God. He gets reconciled to God. His soul is saved and he has received the spiritual salvation he sought for. Thus Robinson Crusoe can be called the spiritual allegory.

👉Spiritual Allegory

The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. He thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He is fed as Elijah was fed by the ravens. He, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in The Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God.

Man has come to this world alone and he will depart one day from her comes empty-handed and goes empty-handed. Life is only an illusion. No one has any belonging to others. Life is Maya, a mirage. It slips from under our hands like sand. Ecstasy eludes here like horizon. True ecstasy can only be sought in the union with the Almighty. The island, the solitary island symbolises this loneliness, and our constant effort salvation.

👉Allegory of Isolation

This island also is an allegory of alienation. Apart from isolation man feels alienated. A person feels himself to be lone even amidst the crowd. We feel alienated because we find no one to share our ideas and feelings. Moreover, we feel lonely when we fall upon the thorns of life and bleed. Rarely does then anyone come to comfort us, to balm o sorrows. We feel that when we laugh the world laughs with us, but when we weep, we weep alone. The weeping of Robinson, the lonely weeping on the lonely, desolate island cannot be heard by anyone.

👉Allegory : Material Advancement

Defoe was a materialist. He was, like Bacon, practical and, like Locke, empiric. He indulged in fraud and dishonesty. He believed in amassing wealth. Robinson is another Defoe. Ian Watt calls him an economic individualist and Karl Marx in his Das Kapital regards him as a capitalist.

Robinson embarks on voyages not only for adventure but also for trade. He earns a lot of money in his first voyage to Guinea. He possesses, like Marlowe, an infinite immoderate passion for rising fast in life. On the island he brings from the stranded ship a lot of money which cannot buy even a pair of shoes. He bides his time for deliverance from almost the life imprisonment on the desolate only for collecting his material things. He goes mad and dizzy and almost like dying when he finds his wealth all around him.

Allegory of Colonialized

The Britishers founded colonies in almost half the world, including India. Robinson regards himself as the king of the island. Later when he revisits his island he claims half of the island as his personal property. Robinson Crusoe can be read on this line

Conclusion

To conclude we can say that an allegory implies double layer of meaning – literal and inherent with symbolic interpretation. It's very important part of literature.It is just like the innumerable waves formed when a stone is thrown into the water. Robinson Crusoe can be read on many levels.As we have seen earlier it can be read as an autobiographical story, as an adventurous story, as a picaresque novel, as a religious pilgrimage, as a parable of the Prodigal Son, as a moral treatise, as a conquest over Nature, as material advancement, as colonial expansion and as so many other things. Therefore Robinson Crusoe is a superb allegory.

References

• Parker, George. “THE ALLEGORY OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.” History, vol. 10, no. 37, Wiley, 1925, pp. 11–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24399567.

• Muzahid, Billah. “ROBINSON CRUSOE AS A RELIGIOUS ALLEGORY.” Academia, 2010,www.academia.edu/32563832/ROBINSON_CRUSOE_AS_A_RELIGIOUS_ALLEGORY.

• “ALLEGORY IN DEFOE’S ‘ROBINSON CRUSOE.’” Artlark, 2015, artlark.org/2021/04/25/allegory-in-defoes-robinson-crusoe.

P-202 Assignment

Peaceful Coexistence in Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- Indian English Literature-Post Independence

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

👉Introduction

Mahesh Dattani was born in Bangalore in 1958. He is an Indian English playwright, filmmaker, director, writer and actor. As a writer, he wrote several plays like Final Solutions, Tara, Dance like a Man, Thirty Days in September, Bravely Fought the Queen, The Big Fat City and others. He has known to be a modern playwright because he has contributed in making a substantial standing of the current time by attacking the burning problems that take over the view of publicity. In 1998, he has considered as the first English playwright to be the one who won the Sahitya Academy award. He gives a name for theatre, which is “A craft of communicating through the language of action”. He writes the plays by keeping in mind the stage directions.

 This assignment is to highlight and analyze the internal conflicts in the play. The center of discussion in this assignment is the religious tolerance as a platform leads to peaceful coexistence.As we all know that religious Plays vital role in any work of art or literature.In this novel also Dattani has portrayed religious conflict and communal conflict through the Hindu and Muslim community. Dattani’s Final Solutions reflects communal issues in which hatred and fears are aroused among individuals and varied, by the help of the sectarians, from one individual to another. It attempts to raise some questions as the main problem of this research to prove the main idea behind the positive effect of the religious coexistence in a society. What makes Dattani write this play? And what are the solutions that he suggests to end this communal conflict? Is there any story behind Dattani’s Final Solutions? What are the outcomes of the communal riots in India? While the main idea of this work focuses on the question; How can people achieve peaceful and progressive society?

This study aims to find out the spark of the religious racism in a community. It also seeks to find out the reasons and motifs behind Final Solutions. It seeks to study the final solutions that Dattani provides to put an end to the religious conflict, not only in India but also all over the world to bring about peaceful communities. As a way to compare it to Arabic literature, the study gives an example of peaceful coexistence in the Arab world. Thus, if the society achieves harmony and coexistence among religions the societies can be developed and progressed.

👉 Mahesh Dattani-Final Solution

 Mahesh Dattani remains one of the best and serious contemporary playwrights in Indian English Drama. He touches various aspects of Indian raises and society through his plays. Final Solutions is one of his plays that brought him "Academia Award" and it is a very meaningful play. It is first profound in Bangalore in 1993 and contains three acts. The play deals deeply with the issue of the historical past and lays its accolade in acknowledging the similarity of two religions and respecting their differences. In the present paper, a literature review made below to find out the critical articles and researches around Dattani’s Final Solutions.

Final Solutions is a play about communal riots in India and subordination of women who belong to three significant times in the history of India. Daksha/ Hardika belongs to three pre-independence period: Aruna, her daughter in law, belongs to independence period; and Smita Aruna’s daughter, is a contemporary, postindependence Indian woman. (507) Final Solutions discuses the conflict between two communal parties, how the Indian society treats woman as subordinate and keeps her in shadow without accepting any contribution from her. The play deals with three generations of woman; the first character (Daksha as Hardika) lived in pre- independence period while her daughter in law (Aruna) lived in independence period and (Smita) lived in post- independence period that represent the educated and contemporary girl.

👉 Peaceful coexistence in Final Solution:

 Dattani’s plays emerged as a new arrival in the range of Indian English drama in the late of twentieth century.

 In his plays, he raises various issues that people suffer in Indian society like identity crisis, homosexuality, communal tension, gender perception etc. Thus, his plays deal with contemporary problems. Because of that Dattani’s plays could be performed anywhere in the world.

Since it is an experiment in time and space and relates to memory, it is a play, which involves a lot of introspection on the part of the characters in the play and thus induces similar introspection in the viewers. It is an attempt to experiment with the chorus. It has been used in a style, which is called 'realistic stylisation'. The chorus represents the conflicts of the characters. Thus the chorus in a sense is the psycho-physical representation of the characters and also provides the audience with the visual images of the characters' conflicts.

Final Solutions is one of his well-known and commonly performed play. It is the fifth play by Dattani written in 1991 a year before the communal riots that happened in Bombay and it sparked because of damage of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhysa. The play performed first at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Banglore in 1993. It is in three acts attacking the conflict of communal violence and religious racism of modern urban Indian culture. In additions, it reflects the loss human weaknesses and identity, greed, selfishness, memory and suffering problems. The play takes a place around a Hindu family that helps and gives a refuge to Muslims boys.

👉Religious discrimination in Final Solution:

 Religious discrimination is also very important in the plays of Mahesh Dattani.His all okay signifies something special that is not signified in any other plays.This concept means a different treatment of a person or group for their particular beliefs especially related to religion, which they hold it. Therefore, these people have treated unequally either in law or in environment settings as housing or employment and consider as inferior among the majority religion. In addition, the concept of religious discrimination is associated to religious persecution; it includes cases, which are the most extremist forms in which it executed people for their beliefs perceived to be heretic. Regarding Dattani’s Final Solutions, there is a discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. Therefore, this discrimination leads to creating problems.

The history of India witnessed the horrible bloodshed because of partition on one hand and being independence on the other. Unexpectedly, the partition made in both communities hatred and people became wild. In addition, this bitter communal did not end and clashes started more by the development of time. The play Final Solutions has written very close to Babri Masjid destruction in 1992. Therefore, this play shows the response playwright to the demolition. Although, it is not just a paly which reflecting the Indian present but also deals with problems of hatred, the violence exploitation of communal riots and the position of the fanatics of the India in 1940s as compare with the present.

👉Role model of religious compromise

 Oman is an example of peaceful country as Oman is known to be one of the best religiously tolerant country. Though Islam is the official religion, but Oman also adopts citizens from different religions like Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha’ism and Sikhism. Historically, this behaviour of tolerance was among people in Oman before putting the rules for that. It is considered as a main rule nowadays that calls all people in Oman to follow it and live in peaceful coexistence. In addition, Oman’s basic law protects religious freedom and the discrimination on religion is forbidden because it is against the law in Oman. For centuries, Hindu community has been living in Oman and settling down in Muscat. Several of the families have shown their great contributions to the improvement of Oman. For instance, a young Hindu girl called Brinda Toprani who has been living in Oman since long time ago and some members of her family have been granted the Omani citizenship says: “We have been very fortunate to have lived in Oman and always found it very accepting in terms of celebrating festivals and following our faith”.iv Even the Christians have long history of living in Oman too. Alyssa Alexis is an American Christian who has been settling in Sur mentioned her perspective of people in Oman when she states: “I think Omanis are fairly tolerant of Christians, in general. Some seem to think Muslims and Christians are brothers and others have tried (in not-too pushy ways) to convert me. But, on the whole, they seem to accept that some foreigners who live here are Christian”. vThus, these two examples and we can find more those are considered as proofswhich emphasis that the religious freedom is something very important and highly valued in Oman and it is the main reason behind keeping Oman in the top of the list of peaceful countries.

👉Conclusion

 Religious compromise is important part for individuals within a society, particularly when there are varieties of people and cultures with different religious beliefs who live in a community. If the religious compromise is spread among people of a particular community, unity and harmony occur in a society that lead to peaceful coexistence and consequently this leads to a developed community too. Dattani’s Final Solutions is an example ofa community who shattered by the sectarians and unified by the moderates of the same community. Thus, Dattani’s thesis is quite clear that India is a country of several different religions and everyone needs to accept the others beliefs and religious rituals. But when the seniors forget this virtue of living and converted into sectarians, the conflict leads to unlimited troubles in which the new generation like Smita, Bobby and Javed endure it in their life. They are the victims of this communal conflict. Though they did not commit any sins but they had to suffer. The religious compromise, as Dattani calls for, is the only solution to end such conflict and bring about peaceful community.

Moreover, Dattani’s Final Solutions makes the receivers turn back to themselves and think about searching solutions to end this communal issue. As can be noticed, Mahesh Dattani speaks on behalf of the majority who has suffered in the society. This fears of the consequences made them moving around in the same circle, so this conflict remains the same in every new generation. However, Dattani tried to raise this issue to encourage people from different religions to avoid ignoring the others beliefs and try to live in harmony.

👉References

• Chennai. Gatt, D. (2012). Will there ever be a final solution? Mahesh Dattani’s final solutions revisited in the light of communal divide . Journal of English and literature, 3(6). Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/app/webroot/article/article1379517182_Gatt.pdf

• Dattani, Mahesh. (1998). Final Solutions. Bangalore: East – WestBooks

👉Websites:

• https://englishsummary.com/final-solutions-dattani

• https://www.karnataka.com

Paper- 201 Assignment

The Home and the World as a political novel

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- Indian English Literature-Pre Independence

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

👉Introduction

Rabindranath Tagore's novel The Home and the World (1916) is set in India during the early twentieth century, a time when England still held power over the country. Tagore writes each chapter from the perspective of either Nikhil, Bimala, or Sandip to reflect the political turmoil and lack of unity in India at the time the novel is set.

The Home and the World is set during the height of the Swadeshi movement, a boycott of British goods that was initiated in 1905 as a protest against Great Britain’s arbitrary division of Bengal into two parts. At first, Tagore was one of the leaders of Swadeshi, but when protests evolved into violent conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, Tagore left the movement. In The Home and the World, he explained why he did not approve of what Swadeshi had become.

The Home and the World as a Political Novel

Viewed purely as a social political novel, Tagore's The Home and the World seems to make a sharp distinction between two rival political impulses, Nikhilesh representing the pure passion for constructive work in swadeshi (nationalism), and Sandip its greed and destructive energy .Nikhilesh worships nothing but truth which is greater than the country, and which is alone all temporary crazes; for Sandip the success of the moment, no matter by whatever means it is the only thing that matters. For Nikhilesh, the Ideal is the principal ingredient in the real; for Sandip the Ideal is tolerable only when it is a means to the attainment of the Real. Bimala, the central character of the novel, who has been given a large number of autobiographical narratives than the other two principal characters, is torn between these two contending forces which exercise a powerful fascination over her mind. Nikhilesh’s passion for absolute truth reminds us of the sages of ancient India, and the dominating force in Sandip’s character is greed which is the lane of modern western nationalism. The novel has been regarded as an allegory, Bimala, standing for modern India, Nikhilesh for ancient India and Sandip for modern Europe.

The novel consists of twenty-three chapters, each of them a first-person narrative by one of the three major characters. The first and the last chapters are both labeled “Bimala’s Story,” thus emphasizing the fact that the young wife Bimala is the pivotal character in what is superficially a love triangle but, more profoundly, is a conflict between two points of view, one good, the other evil. The other two narrators are Nikhil, Bimala’s husband, a wealthy landowner with Enlightenment views and a benevolent nature, and Sandip, a charismatic but completely unscrupulous Swadeshi leader.

Nikhil and Sandip have extremely different views for the growth of the nation. Nikhil demonstrates these beliefs in him marrying Bimala, an "unattractive" woman because of her skin color. In the novel, Nikhil talks about disliking an intense patriotism nation, "Use force? But for what? Can force prevail against Truth?" On the other hand, Sandip has contrasting views for the growth of the nation believing in power and force, "My country does not become mine simply because it is the country of my birth. It becomes mine on the day when I am able to win it by force". The contradicting views of Nikhil and Sandip set up the story and constructs an interesting dilemma for Bimala. Unfortunately for Nikhil, he has already tried to show Bimala the outside world, and stir some sort of emotion within her since the beginning of the novel, and failed. Sandip possesses great oratory skill, that wins Bimala over simply because of his passion and ferocity, something that her husband may lack.

 Irving Howe, in his discussion of the nature and types of novel, defines a political novel as a work of fiction ‘in which political ideas play a dominant role or in which political milieu is the dominant setting.’ Now, what Howe implies is that a political novel treats some political events of significance in a politically based situation. Naturally, this genre includes political thoughts, confrontations and problems. In fact, materials here are political, situations have a political background, characters, even if imaginary, have political conceptions and ideologies. Of course, it should be admitted here that Tagore’s The Home and the World satisfies all the above mentioned requirements and hence its claims to be a political novel seems to be just and relevant.

 The background of Tagore’s novel is based on the wide canvas of the national uprising of 1905, particularly in Bengal. The partition of Bengal by British rulers in 1905 and its consequent repercussions – the Swadeshi movement and boycott of foreign goods, the indiscriminate burning of foreign goods and clothes, anarchical agitations, political plunders and secret murders- are all included in its purview. Even the oppression of the British rulers and the fanatical activities of the extremists find a brilliant representation in Tagore’s fiction.

From page one of the novel, the love and union between Nikhil and Bimala is illustrated as something sacred. Nikhil proved throughout the story that he was undeniably devoted to his wife. He proved this first by marrying a woman who hailed from a poor family, along with accepting her darker skin. He made great effort to not only educate her, but also for her to understand her place in the world and not just her place in the captivity of their house. He shows his love by giving her freedom. Bimala also adores her husband, but in a less material manner. This is demonstrated in Bimala's daily ritual of "taking the dust", an Indian ritual of reverence not usually performed by a wife to her husband.

Due to Bimala's extreme devotion to Nikhil, in the beginning of the novel, the union between the two of them is seen as one that cannot be broken. However as, the story progresses, Bimala is slowly overcome by her feelings for Sandip. She eventually realises that she has found in Sandip what she longed for in Nikhil, fierce ambition and even violent defence of one's ideals. Her deep desire for Sandip led her to completely break her sacred union with Nikhil, going as far as to steal money from her household funds. Sandip shows his love for Bimala through idolisation. This idolisation comes about due to her freedom, though.

It is really to be admitted that the political flame of 1905 steers the story of The Home and the World. The story starts with the quiet, happy conjugality of Nikhil and Bimala. Their home was all peaceful, amorous and congenial. All that Nikhil desired was to bring his wife out of the narrow home to the wide world in order to know her more fully. However it was Sandip’s arrival, his intoxicant political views and his personal enchantment that stirred Bimala’s serene centre- her home – and brought her out of to the whirlwind of politics in the wide world outside. She was fascinated by Sandip’s stirring speeches and Swadeshi slogans and also by his romantic adoration of her as Mother India. Again Sandip was crafty enough to bring a stir among the young generation of Nikhil’s area. In other words Sandip and his associates lit up the political fire with noble intention but unfortunately the fire spread in a destructive manner.

Truly, there is nothing to question the Swadeshi background of Tagore’s novel. Yet questions may be raised about the actual political scenario of The Home and the World. The politics of Swadeshi is deeply rooted in the centre of the work and spreads its boughs and twigs all over the story. Still the movement is not dominant in its real flame and fervour. Except Sandip’s catchy, agitative speeches and the reckless burning of foreign clothes at his incitement, The Home and the World presents no scene worth mentioning of the Swadeshi movement. The history of political unrest and the desperate conflict between the English rulers and the poor ruled of India is absent in Tagore’s artistic canvas. Nothing of the country- wide revolt by the young patriots, the fearless acts of terrorism and the glorious selfsacrifice by many dedicated souls has got a space in the novel. Therefore judged from this very angle, it remains impossible to group The Home and the World together with the classic political novels like War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities and The Mother.

Again on the basis of the stark contrast between Nikhil and Sandip Tagore’s The Home and the World has suffered much criticism from the contemporary Swadeshi leaders. Contextually Bipin Pal commented, “Rabindranath had not understood the essence of Swadeshi itself.” However, a reasonable analysis of the novel establishes a different truth. It is then we confront the fact that, the author is not speaking against Swadeshi. Rather he is speaking for those poor natives who suffered the extreme as a result of the propagation of the movement which dealt with the destruction of their livelihood. The question is not then, how far Nikhil and Sandip are real historical personages. What is important here is that Tagore by the means of his novel originally intended to show the negative aspect of the movement, which had been given birth by sincere patriotic thoughts. The novel therefore remains as it does a specimen of Tagore’s remarkable understanding of the fragility of the destructive temperament, during the Swadeshi era. Herein Nikhil’s comment seems to be the most relevant since he in the course of the novel acts as Tagore’s spokesman- “you should not waste even the tenth part of your energy in the destructive excitement.”

Work Citated:

Datta, Sandip Kumar. Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and the World: A Critical Companion. Anthem Press, 2005 

Tagore, Rabindranath. The Home and the World. Edited by William Radice, Translated by Surendranath Tagore, Penguin Classics, 2005.