CRY FOR DEFENCELESS AND VOICELESS DALITS IN PRAVEEN GADHVI`S POETRY VOLUME` THE VOICE OF THE LAST

CRY FOR DEFENCELESS AND VOICELESS  DALITS  IN PRAVEEN GADHVI`S POETRY VOLUME` THE VOICE OF THE LAST`

                                           BY

Dr. Ram Sharma, Senior Lecturer in English in Janta Vedic College, Baraut, Baghpat, U.P., India

The Dalit writers began their serious work in the 1950`s .Although  most of the writers have come out of the Buddhist movement , one of the earliest , Annabhau Sathe, who belonged to the Untouchable Mang caste , was deeply influenced by Communism. In the sixties , the flow of Dalit literary writings increased in the form of short stories , novels and drama .Conferences were held almost every year. In the 1970`S , individual volumes of poetry began to be published by the Maharashtra Buddhist Literature Committee , Asmitadarsh Press , or the Marxist Magova Press .Dalit Sahitya has changed the face of Marathi literature and inspired similar literary creativity in Gujrat and Karnatak.

Praveen Gadhvi is a distinguished name in Dalit poetry.Numbers of the anthologies are at his credit., particularly Dalit poetry and short stories.He is a prolific writer of Gujrati Dalit literature involving the historical events and characters ironically in his poetryHis collections of poetry are Bayonet[1985], Padchhayo[1996], and Tunir[2002].His short story collections are Pratiksha[1995], Antarvyatha[1995], and Surajpankhi..This volume comprises Gadhvi`s translations of his own poems from the Gujrati original into English .In the preface the eminent critic Dr. Rupalee Burke writes,

“It is an event that calls for celeberation and one heralds a new era not only in the history of Dalits in Gujrat .And the present writer feels extremely privileged to be a part of it. What more can one ask for his deeply committed bureaucrat –poet who priveleges his compassion for his deprived brothers over his own privileged social status [ more so for exporting Dalit poetry  from the regional Gujrati to the much wider realm of English]?“

                                                                                        [ p-  5]

The very first poem is a cry of a Dalit who wants that he should not  be differentiated because he has been involved in history from Mohan-jo-daro. In every development he has been actively involved and he has made his history with his flesh and blood.

“ There are prints of my steps on every stream of this nation

There is fossil of mine under every rock of this nation

The unreadable script of Mohen-jo-daro throbs in my blood,

You cannot bury me as an untouchable`

                                                                       [ I AM THE HISTORY OF THE NATION p-13]

Taking the story of Shakultala-Dushyant the poet try to divert our attention that Dalits have the same origin and they have the same contribution in the annals of the country.The poet is trying to remind everyone that blacks and whites are one but they have forgotten this.or their ancestors have eradicated this.

“You see the origin of her race,

Where is the origin of my race,

 It has been eradicated by your ancestors

Though my black blod is rootless, it flows through all continents of the earth.

[ SOLILOQUY OF THE UNTOUCHABLE SHAKUNTALA p-14]

The poet wants to eradicate the marginal mentality of the persons with waters of Ganges .There is no need of venomous Manusmriti who has divided the society between blacks and whites.He craves to brainwash all these things.

“ there is no need of venomous curses of Manusmriti ,

This is centre of vision which gave me Black identity since centuries

Dear Bhudev ,

See the blue sky of the winter, see the green woods.

 Also see the seven colours of rainbow.

[ BRAINWASH p-15]

The poet is doubtful that persons will give equal rights to Dalits .He is ready to remove provisions for reservations in the constitution but will the society give the chance to the sons of Dalits.Will they be provided half the portion of harvest to them.Gadhvi has also raised more serious questions like plundering of the virginity of Dalit daughters.He wants that they should be remained untouchable and nobody should try to touch them.This is really emotional cry of the poet because the situation is very dismal and they still have to suffer many hardships .The poet calls temples as slaughterhouses because their ancestors sacrificed their lives for the service and safety of the temples but even then they were not allowed to take entry in the temples and in this way their sacrifices became useless.

“They have covered the bloodstained walls with sheets of gold

They have made the golden peaks of the temple touch the sky,

The corpses of our ancestors are buried under the pillars of that temple, they groan,

Stop,

Don`t step into that slaughterhouse`

[ DON`T ENTER THE TEMPLE p-19]

Gadhvi creates pitiful scenes to rise the sympathy of the readers. Dalits are everywhere amid the wolfes and they have no protection. They have to work in the sun and bore all hardships that is the reason they became black. This is the reason they are blacks and others are white.

“ We suffered the pains of the earth

 We were open to the sky,

 You were in the graves

So that we are black and you are white.

[ WE ARE BLACK, YOU ARE WHITE p-21]

The poet wants them to raise against the injustice done to dalits.They worked hard and bore every hardships but in return what they got only dark history and blank pages in the last five thousand years. He wish them to stand up against this hardships , they can disappear  like Dinosaurs.

“ no blank page of history to write

Make yourself disappear like Dinasaurs from the face of the earth,

Because might is right as Darwin said,

Do you understand?

[  QUESTION p-23]

Dalits are legs of God Brahma and they have been walking throughout the ages but they have no dignity and respect.The poet is desiring that all blacks of the world should be united and they should have their own script and language.For Dalits it is very difficult to come out from their shadow of untouchability.They can change their appearance and language but still they remain MARGINAL and Dalits.The poet becomes the voice of the Dalits and he craves for his own village where they can walk with self respect. They want to have their own land and pucca house.In todays caste system , Dalits have no self respect

“ She had no village,

She had no religion,

She had no language,

She had no dignity,

She had no modesty,

She was guilty

Because she was untouchable by birth

[ BARTER SYSTEM p-33]

Changing of names and changing of religion are not helping them. Even they are insulted more by these acts.Dalits can`t draw water from the well, they have no lands of their own but inspite of that this country is theirs.They constructed the temple but they have no right to take entry in it.The poet salutes, Buddha, Gandhi, Shahuji Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar to rise the consciousness among the Dalits.Even in the whole history they weren`t considered as human beings.They even couldn`t get clothes and dignity.He doesn`t want the division of human beings on the basis on caste and creed and they should remain only human beings.

“ He asked my caste

I was heart

He asked my sub-caste,

I was offended

He asked my inner sub-caste,

I was disgusted.

[ LET ME BE A HUMAN ONLY p-41]

Dalits were stopped from reading the religious scriptures and even their limbs were cut to touch the scriptures.Even there is nothing for them in scriptures.Still today caste system is hoverin there.and there are titles to indicate the caste.Even Dalits are not able to mingle in the society and their efforts have become futile.They are able to understand the efforts of Gandhiji and Ambedkar after their death.The brick-maker has no identity and everyone praises sky scrappers.This is quite humiliating for them to find their own identity.One can see the clear Dalit  sensibility in this volumeThe second part of this volume is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi who has made efforts for the upliftment of DalitsDr. Rupalee Burke writes in the preface of this volume,

“Mahatma Gandhi holds in the poems of the second section as is obvious from its title .No mincing of words for this poet and those expecting paeans in honour of the Father of the Nation are sure to be let down. Each poem in this section is laced heavily with anger ,sarcasm , irony , violence and scorn[ might we addd hate?]“

                                                     [P-9]

.In this volume Mahatma Gandhi is dissected , examined from every possible skeptical angle and turned inside out, reducing him to the merest of mortals.In this country no one is following the teachings of Mahatma and he has no regard now.This country has become country of wolves now.He calls Gandhi as without crown and throne and we should respect him for his efforts to uplift the downtrodden.The poet also raise the questions why Gandhi or Ambedkar couldn`t be successful in their efforts to abolish caste system .The poet has tried to search Gandhiji in this volume .Gadhvi has clarion call to be united and make efforts to attain dignity and identity and he is quite hopeful regarding this.

“The earth is mother of all,

There is no need of any walls,

The sun is father of all,

Nobody is untouchable to its shrine,

It is better to die by their sticks-spears than to face insults,

Rise, awake,

[INVOCATION p-22]

In the end I can say that Praveen Gadhvi is the voice of the voiceless and defence of defenceless in this poetry volume.

                                       END NOTES

1-Sivashankar Pillai`s Scavenger`s Sons , A Seminar on Dalit Literature in Marathi and Gujrati was held on February 18-20 , 1988 in Surat

2- Lal , Sheo Kumar and Nahar, Ummed Raj , 1990 .Extent of Untouchability and Patterns of Discrimation , New Delhi , Mittal Publication

3-Praveen Gadhvi, The Voice of the Last,Yash Publications , New Delhi, 2008[All poetry lines have been taken from this volume]

‘ QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY IN MANJU KAPUR`S NOVEL ` HOME`

‘ QUEST FOR FEMININE IDENTITY IN MANJU KAPUR`S NOVEL ` HOME`

BY . DR. RAM SHARMA , SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH , J.V.P.G COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.

Quest for feminine identity is largely a Post-Independence social phenomenon in India, a phenomenon influenced by various changing forces of reality – freedom movement, progressive education, social reforms, increasing contacts with the west, urban growth etc. The emergence of women writers in the last quarter of the 19th century carried with it a double significance. It bore testimony to the birth of a new era of emancipation for the Indian women, an era of increased opportunities and a more dynamic participation in the social and intellectual life of the country ushered in by the great social reorientations which came at the turn of the century. Secondly, it was also a commentary on the rise of individualism in the life and letters of the age, an individualism which is closely associated with the rise of the novel in India in the same way in which it was associated with the rise of the English novel. Feminism emerged as a worldwide movement to secure women’s rights on the one hand and love, respect, sympathy and understanding from males on the other.  It focused on women’s struggle for recognition and survival and made them realize that the time has come when they should stop suffering silently in helplessness.

Gayatri chakravorty Spivak writes in her article “Can, the Subaltern speak?”

“Between patriarchy and imperialism subject constitution and object formation the figure of woman disappears not into a pristine nothingness, but into a violent shuttling which is the displaced figuration of the ‘Third – World Woman’ caught between tradition and modernization.”(p-80)

Simone De Beauvoir has very precisely exposed the condition of woman in her most famous book ‘The Second Sex’. Of course, the miserable condition of woman all over the world inspired the women of talent like Virginia Woolf to do something in this field and the result was the emergence of Feminism, a great movement in the western world in 1960. It is a movement for the emancipation of women and their fight for equal rights. The condition of woman is equally miserable in Indian society. The Indian society is basically patriarchal where a woman is given the secondary role.

The modern woman does not find any sense in such self-sacrifice and yearns for self-expression, individuality and self-identity. She is trying to free herself of the dependence syndrome as says Chaman Nahal—

“I define Feminism as a mode of existence in which the woman is free of the dependence syndrome. There is a dependence syndrome, where it is the husband or the father or the community or whether it is a religions group, ethnic group when women free themselves of the dependence syndrome and lead a normal life, my idea of feminism materializes.”(p-30)

.Simone de Beauvoir expresses his own views on man – woman nexus — man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general, where as woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria without reciprocity.” (Seldom; 1988 : 534)

A woman is never regarded as an autonomous being since she has always been assigned a subordinate and relative position. “Man can think of himself without woman. She can not think of herself without man. And  she is simply what man decrees —. She appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex…. absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to man and not he with reference to her, she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential.” (Seldom, 1988 : 534

Home’ (2006) is the third novel of Manju Kapur. This is a fast

moving story which makes an ordinary middle class family’s life in Delhi. The patriarch of this family is Banwari Lal, a cloth businessman who lives with his family in New Delhi neighbourhood of Karol Bagh. Banwari Lal has two sons and one daughter. Elder is Yashpal, younger is Pyare Lal and daughter’s name is Sunita who is already married to a person named Murli before the beginning of the novel.

Who is married to Murli a person beyond the status of Banwari Lal in views as well as in money. It seems that Sunita likes the boy that’s why she is married to him.

The Banwari Lal family belongs to a class whose skills have been honed over generations to ensure prosperity in the market place. From an early age children are trained to maintain the foundation on which these homes rested. The education they received, the values they imbibed, the alliances they made has everything to do with protecting the steady stream of gold and silver that burnished their lives. Banwari Lal is a believer in the old ways. Men work out of the home, women within. Men carry forward the family line, women enable their mission. His two sons unquestioningly follow their father in business and in life but their wives do not. Neither does his grand daughter who makes choices considered unavailable to the women to the family.

At the beginning of the story Sona Lal and Rupa Gupta both sisters are childless. Sona is the wife of Yashpal who falls in love while Sona with her mother comes from Meerut to match a blouse in preparsion to attend an uncle’s wedding.

Sona’s mother considers that it is necessary for marriageable girls to blossom during such occasions, it being likely that among the guests a boy, or better still his parents, can cast a glance and held it steadily upon her person.

With this in mind, the mother with her daughters is shopping in Karol Bagh determines that her daughters should look their best for every function. Yashpal falls in love and enquires all necessary details. Next morning he puts the address on his father’s hand and says he should go and talk to the family without delay. If he could not marry her he would leave the shop and spend the rest of his life celibate, by the bank of the Ganges.

Banwari Lal consults to a holy man, a Baba and settles the matter. Although Sona’s family is not as rich as Yashpal’s family. In marriage they can offer nothing but their daughter whose heart is golden like her name.

Their marriage is performed. But her mother-in-law is not pleased and she passes taunts. This makes Sona unhappy but Yashpal consoles her saying that when we have children, mother will forget all this. But unfortunately Sona could not conceive for a long time. By this time Pyare Lal is also married to Sushila who gives birth to a boy within one year of the marriage. Sona feels very bad and thinks that it may be the result of her past Karma, Sona keeps fast but it is of no use. During this period Yashpal’s sister burns herself and dies. As the family receive the news, they leave for Bareilly. Here Sona’s mother-in-law mourns, Sona tries to consols her.

‘Sleep now, Maji, sleep you will make yourself ill if you cry like this, and it will not bring her back.

The old woman glared at Sona and spat out, you think sleep is possible? What can you know of a mother’s feelings? All you do is enjoy life, no children, no sorrow, only a husband to dance around you, Sona is already mentally disturb to hear the taunt of her. Her father-in-law comes back with Vicky ten years old. The Boy is pushed towards Sona.

Sona has to take care of Vicky Sona discusses her matters to Rupa and tells that her life has become unbearable ever since Sushila has entered in the house.

‘Ever since that woman has come, my life has been a misery’ (P- 24.) Yashpal feels that Sona is not feeling well so he makes plan to visit a shrine at Chitai, near Almora Though the shrine is small it is famous, the Devi of these hills is said to have miraculous powers.

Rupa & Premnath also joins them. After two mothers Sona discovers that she has conceived. Sona feels it is because of Devi. Later on Sona gives birth to a girl. Nisha is declare as a Mangli. Nisha grows up as a beautiful girl and after Nisha, Sona gives birth to Raju. Now Vickey starts going to shop and there is some relax for Sona. Who does not like Vickey’s activities. By the time Vickey is fifteen and he begins to take interest in Nisha. Nisha cannot understand his intension. Nisha becomes mentally disturbed and nobody could understand why she is not eating, sleeping. So she is sent to Rupa’s Home for a change. Here she has no problem at all. Rupa & her husband Premnath understand all that there is a hand of Vicky behind Nisha’s miserable condition.

Nisha now finds herself in an atmosphere very different from the one she has lived in. As the only child she is the centre of interest, concern and attention. The pattern of Nisha’s next ten years is not set. She passes all week with her aunt and uncle. Premnath teaches her and brings a lot of things. Here Nisha flourishes as the most beautiful girl. On the other hand Vicky passes class X with third Division & Yashpal argues that he should go back to his father. So Banwari Lal with Vickey visits Bareilly but his father refuses to keep him pretending so many reason. Now Banwari Lal thinks about his marriage and performs it with Asha. Soon Asha gives birth to Virat. After a long illness Banwari Lal also dies and the whole burden comes to Yashpal, being the elder one. Nisha also returns her home to accompany her grand mother. Ajay’s marriage takes place a year after his grandfather’s death and after it Vijay Marriage.

The Board results are out Raju in Class X has barely scraped through with a 45 percent overall aggregate.

Nisha was a mangli. A mangli, destined to marry unfortunately, destined for misery, unless a similar mangli could be found, with a similar fate and horoscope. To do this would take time, and during that time perhaps an education? Not too much just a bit & Nisha enters in Durga Bai College for doing English Honours. In College Nisha’s best friend is Pratibha. Soon Nisha meets a boy Suresh who is studying in Khalsa College of Engineering. They become friendly within two or three meetings. Both fall in love and wonder here and there in each other’s company. She now totally changes.

‘Who gave you permission to cut your hair, suddenly you have become so independent, you decide things on your own, where did you find the money, the time, the beauty parlour, where did you find all these things?’ (P- 150)

The academic session is coming to close. Nisha has had a difficult year and now she feels nervous.

‘I can’t meet you, I have to study, I have to get a second division at least’, she told Suresh, ‘Arre yaar, what does it matter? It’s impossible to do badly in English.’ (P-152)

Suresh purchases St. Stephen’s tutorials from Daryaganj at Sunday bazaar and gives to Nisha. Nisha with the help of these notes gets success and gets first division. Nisha and Suresh continue their routine in next year also.

As for Nisha, her uncle’s training has stood her in good stead. With family wedding, she has still been able to obtain a 70 percent in Humanities. The uncle is thanked profusely for the care he has taken of his niece.

By this time Pyare Lal has two daughter-in-law so he feel uncomfortable in the house where there is no seprate bathroom for them. So he consults his brother to reconstruct the home again. Yashpal says nothing at the moment. Her wife also does not like the reconstruction. Yashpal says-

‘It was not his fault. He was the youngest, what could he do by himself? Now he had sons, daughter in law and grand children, now he was a patriarch in his own right.’ (P-170)

So they all moves out of the house Hotel Palace Heights in Karol Bagh. By now Nisha  in her third year. Nisha enjoys in company of Suresh. He takes her to the room in Vijay Nagar where he tries to make sexual relation with her but could not successed.

On the way back Nisha remarks if he is so keen to do all this, why does not he make his parents talk to her parents? Let the whole thing be clear.

Towards the end of Nisha’s third year her parents receives a letter from the college authorities. Their daughter is short of attendance, and will not be allowed to sit for exams. Now parents enquires the reason, but Nisha does not tell directly and sents Suresh to meet at the shop. Now all things become clear & Yashpal enquires all things. Finally he declares him unfit for the girl. All day she remaines in the house, a prisoner of her deed, a prisoner of their words. Once she gets a chance to go with her masi Rupa & arrenges to meet him. Here Suresh finally declares that he cannot marry her & leaves her. Nisha’s nights are now ones of restlessness. After three years of thinking that Suresh is her future, Nisha will have adjust to the idea of another man in his place. Later on she badly suffers from eczema. This disease affects her a lot. This period had very important for Nisha’s coming future but it had passed in this fatal eczema.

This condition of Nisha remains same for a long period. Parents have been worrying, daughter getting older by the minute, son’s future blocks because of this, good matches will pass over because of this. One day a proposal comes from a richer branch of Rekha’s family showrooms in Karol Bagh and South Extension. Pyare Lal tells his brother that this type of proposal does not come daily so without any delay he should make up his mind. So they all go to Babaji. Babaji tells

‘I have good news, continued Babaji. The boy and the girl’s horoscopes are perfectly matched. This girl will be good for the family and even Nisha’s future will open after her sister-in-law comes to the house.’  (P-248)

So marriage is performed and Raju & Pooja go for a honeymoon in Europe. They return after one month and Pooja proves quite opposite.

Sona complains to Raju that Pooja is not behaving like a daughter-in-law. Pooja spends no time with the rest of the family, no time with Nisha. Raju responses –

‘Pooja is right : you don’t like her, why did you marry me to her, then? Was I in such a hurry? snapped Raju before returning to his lair, leaving Sona to tearfully narrate the conversation word for bitter word to Nisha and later to Rupa.’ (P-259)

Sona things that her son has become the slave of his wife and is bent on stabing his mother in heart. Condition is getting worse day by day and there is a great dispute among the family.

Pooja goes and comes without anyone’s permission. Parents think that it is very bad for Nisha to remain at home all the time. She should join a school so that she feels  better. She starts going to school to teach.

After seven months of the marriage Raju announces that Pooja is pregnant. Soon she gives birth  to a boy.

Parents are continuously searching a mangli boy to match for Nisha, but they are not getting success in it. Soon Nisha feds up of the teaching job and plans to start a business. She consults to her father. Yashpal at the time of dinner says to Nisha ‘Beti’ he started, ‘business is not an easy thing’ (P- 291).

I will help you in the beginning, but the responsibility, profit and loss all are yours. In teaching no matter what you do, you get your salary. This is different Nisha starts business and it flourishes day by day. Demands of suits increase in the Market. During this period Yeshpal finds a mangoli boy for Nisha. soon boy and his mother came to see Nisha and pass her. Although boy is a widow and aggres on Nisha’s condition.

‘I cannot give it up’ she confided this was the only thing she could visualise in any marriage, that she had to come to the basement everyday’ (P-303).

Arvinds lives in Daryaganj and have a business there. He accepts that Nisha need not to stop her business and he will hire a room near Karol Bagh so she will not feel any problem to continue it. Only one thing Arvind wants a registry marriage. All agree and the preparison of marriage begins after a long period. They have an eleven ‘o’ clock appointment with the registrar at Tees Hazari. In evening there will be the reception at the Sartaj Hotel. All family members with Nisha reach at Tees Hazari.

Finally they collect in front of a magistrate in the nicest room. Here Arvind and Nisha sign their names in several places. Pooja takes out a box from her hand bag and unnrapes the paper covering to reveal fat white squares of cashew barfi. She firmly holds a piece out to Arvind.

‘Now you are married: She says laughing ‘You should be the first to sweeten the mouth of your bride’.(P-312) .Their marriage performs happily from the court they drive straight to the Sartaj Hotel in Karol Bagh. Here all family and relatives of both side enjoy the reception and bless the couple.

Next morning Arvind takes Nisha to his home & they pass their time happily. Nisha continues her business and comes regularly to see the work of tailors. This routine does not continue for long due to the pregnancy of Nisha. Her mother in-law advises her not to go daily otherwise it will create big problem so Nisha have to stop it. After ten months she gives birth to twins.

One girl and one boy. Nisha feels that God has shown mercy on her and now her duty is over.

Thus novel ends with the naming ceremony of twins and everybody looks happy and satisfied.

REFERENCES

1. Manju Kapur, Home [ New Delhi : Random House Publishers , 2006]
2. Simone de Beauvoir , The Second Sex , ed & tr. H.M Parshley [ 1955 : Middlesex : Penguin Books , 1986]

QUEST FOR SELF IN KAMLA DAS` POETRY VOLUME` SUMMER IN CALCUTTA`

QUEST FOR SELF IN KAMLA DAS`S POETRY VOLUME ` SUMMER IN CALCUTTA`

BY

 Dr.Ram Sharma, Senior Lecturer in English, J.V.College, Baraut, Baghpat, U.P.

Kamla Das`s poetry presents the portrait of her feminine self as a tortured young women.On one level , most of her poetry concerns itself with the poet`s intenselsely passions to the world by beginning with the self.The dominant out-cry in her poetry volume Summer In Calcutta continues to be her self, her exploration and her various experiences. Her poetry reveals the dilemmas and poignant situations faced by Kamala Das under the strain of her longing for love, sex and resultant loneliness. She is obsessed with such passions as love and  sex. She `pines for what is not there.` She faces the pains of loneliness  and alienation even in her child-hood. Neither her parents nor the society in which she grew helped her to free herself from this loneliness. As she complains about her parents:-

“They took us for granted and considered us mere puppets, moving our limps according to the tugs they gave us-—— I felt myself to be an intruder in any room rather than mine-—— every morning I told myself that I must raise my-self from the desolation of my life and escape, escape into another life and into another country”¹

Marriage does not provide her any solace or comfort  from this loneliness .In her married life she has to face only lust and sex. She got no freedom in selecting an ideal lover for her. Kamla Das never liked the way her parents moved about and fixed as important an affair as her marriage without, even trying to know her ideas and aspirations and she finds herself as a helpless victim:-”

I was a victim of a young man’s Carnal

———————————————

heingee & perhaps out of our

Union, there would be

Born a few children”²

While recollecting the first sexual experience from the first night she says:-

“Then without any warning he fell on me, surprising me by the extreme brutality of the attack”³

This ‘brutal attack’ lends in her a sense of helplessness and alienation which prompts Das to become a rebel and she looks down up on all her relations with contempt and disgust: –

“——————Marriage meant nothing

More than a show of wealth

To families like ours”⁴

The immature sexual approach of her husband -developed contempt against the bonds of married life and male-domination. Her injured feminine self attempted to explore an identity and freedom. For this task she experimented herself with sexual adventures and suicide attempts. Her longing for true love gives her neither the peace of mind nor the emotional fulfilment. She complains of the failure of love within and without the bonds of marriage. The love which she found outside the lawfully wedded husband was a redefinition of her feminine self. She says:-

“Like the majoritv of city dwelling

woman, I too tried adultery for a

short while, but I found it distasteful

———— whom we embraced, we fell in the

cerulean pools of his many mirrors

as a deathless motif———yet 1 hated

the exploitation of my body”⁵

She fails in her attempts – to find a relationship which could give her love and security. The Dance of the Eunuchs’ its jingling sound corresponds to the sterility of the emotions within her.

In her reply  to Subhash Chandra Saha`s questionnaire the poet says that at this time she was searching for passionate involvement in the hot river of sex and that what she meant by “They sang of lovers dying` was all barren passion .All quest for love and meaningful existence ends in disaster , growing within her the sense of unfulfilment and alienation.All her efforts for her feminine self for fulfillment end in strange manner and her self remains the eternal hunger with an eternal irony “6.Her quest for fulfillment of love leads her only to sterility and vacant ecstasy. The whirling movement and extended frenzy are contrasted with ‘inner vacuity’ Kama! Das herself suffered form such ’emotional vacuity’. The dance of the eunuchs is the symbol of her inner self. Das is a mere feminine injured self as the eunuchs are after wearing feminine dress. The dominant characteristics of the Summer In Calcutta are represented by the rottenness and barrenness of the dance of the eunuchs and their sweat and weariness. She received the same rottenness from her husband who offended her feminine self. The pain which the poetic self of Kamla Das presents is the result of this emotional conflict. In her husband she tried to seek the life giving force of love in both forms – physical and meta-physical. But,her husband gave her only ‘skin-communicated thing-called love’ who dribbled spittle into her mouth” This is really a disgusting experience faced by Das. Her husband was ‘selfish’ poured himself into her every nook and corner and embalm her poor lust with his ‘bitter sweet juices.’

It is the crucial encounter which makes her disillusioned by her partner whose inner self is small and shallow which her feminine self tries to seek love outside marriage. Her experience in love and marriage became painful which further accelerates the identity crisis in her feminine self. The Sunshine Cat is an example of this self :

” Her husband shut her

In every morning : locked her in a room

of books

With a streak of sunshine lying near

the door, like

A yellow cat, to keep her company,

but soon it

Winter came and one day while locking

her in, he7

Noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a lone, a hair thin line, and in the evening when.

He returned to take her out she was a Cold and Half-deal woman, now of no use at all to man” The ‘yellow-cat’ here stands for Kamla Das and her feminine self. She realized the miseries of utter loneliness and even humiliation at the hands of her callous husband ‘a ruthless watcher’ She gets only ‘tears’ in the name of love from her husband as well as other men who were the ‘band of cynics.’ Her husband locked her up in a room of books. When he returned he found her ‘Cold” and ‘half dead’ of no use at all. Thus, her feminine self and poetic self got offended. That is why her poetry serves as the emotional or psychological equivalents of her own mental states. At this moment her poetic self seeks an outlet of these mental tortures by recollecting the comforts of the Nalapt House and the tender dealing of the grandmother.

The atmosphere of terror and violence of her married life is contrasted by that of peace, softness and security of the old house which she remembers only with a sense of full satisfaction. The Nalapat house and grand mother gave her both love & security of which memory always lives in her poetic self :

“There is a house now far away where once

I received love ………. that woman died

The House withdrew into silence,

Snakes moved among books I was

Then too young

To read, and, my blood turned

Cold like the Moon

How often I think going

There ………………….8

Thus, her poetic self is disturbed by her feminine self in her husband’s house. Her husband has been declared as ar. unwelcome intruder into the privacy of her mind. As she is fed-up with her husband who is a mere ‘Snatcher of Freedom’ seeks love to others. She writers :

“My way and beg now at stranger’s doors to

Reeeive love, at least in small change”9

She got only lust, physical exploitation and resultant frustration in the hands of others – outside marriage

Kamla’s poetry is a well – documented dissertation of her wounded feminine self and its experience as she writes :

“an armful Of I sprinters————designed

To hurt, and pregnant with pain—— “¹⁰

Her feminine self feels humiliated by all – husband, lover, -society and also the humorous heaven. As her poetic self repents:

“I am wrong, I am wronged

I am so wronged.”¹¹

One finds that isolation and alienation has made her sensitive mind frustrated. In fact, her dissatisfaction in married life and the quest for love was the cause of the birth of hcr poetry.

In fact, her feminine self got humiliated not only in ner husband’s house but in the Nalapat House also of which unpleasant memory lingers upon her mind, she says :

“The women of best Nair families Never mentioned sex, It \vas their principal phobia.“12

They associated it with violence and blood shad. They had been fed on the stories of Ravana who perished due to his desire

But she does not follow the moral stories and completely breaks away from the traditional roles of women and present her self-courage of being a woman. Here, her feminine self speaks in the first person pronoun. .

She seeks love :

“I am every

woman who seeks love”¹³

But her love-self begins to turn into a tragic self when she got married to an unsympathetic husband who devoted ail his time to the official works. He could not sow the seeds of love in the field of newly bride. About her husband, she says :

“My husband was immersed in his office-work, and after worth. There was the dinner, fo ‘.lowed by sex. Where was :herc any time left for him to want to see the sea — “¹⁴

Here, ‘sea’ stands for her feminine self. Here, her sexual self feels like a bird caught in spring which tries to fly-away but can not. Her feminine self is filled with tragic vision and melancholy. Her life, even her feminine identity, becomes a mere toy in the hands of her husband. As Hotense Allart opines:

“I am delighted to have really

learnt what a woman’s fate is,

for I talked about it before and was

not married now, I do know”¹⁵

Instead of getting happiness in marriage Kamla Das gets in it a heap of tension and despair an even danger to her existence. She tells in – My Story- that she suffered a nervous break down as a neglected wife. She was kept closed into a room where her poetic self as well as her feminine identity got suffocation. About this cruelty against female H.M Parsley opines:

“All agree in recognizing the fact that females exist in the human species, to day as always they make up about one half of humanity. And yet we are told that femininity is in danger, we are exhorted, to be women, remain women, become women…”¹⁶

She remembers the poem ‘My Grandmother’s House’ by and large its comforts. She writes:

“The house withdrew into silence,

snakes moved among books I was

Then two young

To read, and my blood turned

Cold like the moon.

How often I think of going

There ………… “¹⁷

The grand mother’s house is a symbol of security and protection which is now missing in her married life. Even the ‘darkness’ of this house keeps security for her feminine identity. She wants this darkness to be present in her married home. Her love-longing psyche expresses the feelings of fustration.

Her love-self calls her husband darling, far sometime, out of love, she forgets the boredom of her frustrated life. When she feels ‘proud’ and ‘loved’ of this house. .

A Hot Noon in Malabar is a good example where her feminine self moves between memory and desire. She is sitting inside her home. She tells strangers ”be here, far away, is torture’. This line practically echoed in her later life. Unfortunately, she could not escape herself from this ‘torture’ which is far away (in her husband house) from the Nalapat House. Her poetry bruised the SELF that expresses itself in so many different moocis. Her poetry is an expression of a frustrated feminine self which needs a loving husband, warmth and home. She wants to break away the dead and outworn social values to assert a strong feminine self. This protest ranging from weak feminine sense of helplessness and submission to a restless quest for happiness and shelter. This is an expression of her inner self which is eager to break the shackles and have its voice heard. As she declares :

“As the convict studies

His prison’s geogralohy

I study the trappings

Of your body, dear love.

For 1 must some day

Find

As escape from its

Snare ……,…..”¹⁸

These lines show that her quest for feminine identity is being eclipsed under ‘your body’ It is her ego-self which wants an ‘escape from its snare’ Kamla Das with the help of her artistic-self like a convict – wants to escape from the trappings of her husband. The expression ‘clear love’ functions here as a mere mockery of love. As a prisoner wants to run away from it after studying its geography and he may succeed in his efforts.

The   cause   of  kamla  Das’  frustration   was   her   ruthless husband, his betrayal end resultant tortures :

“……… Betray me?

Yes, he can, but never physically,

Touch of air and die with

Metallic sighs

What care I for their quick

Sterile sting, white

My body’s wisdom tells and tells again

That I shall find my rest, my sleep, my peace

And even death no where else but

Here in my betrayer’s arms ………….19

These lines clearly indicate that her sexual hunger must have been satisfied. The expressions like ^:he can, but never physically’ and ‘my body’s wisdom’ show that her feminine self runs after sex while her ego-self which calls him ‘sterile’ wants to ‘touch of air’.

And once again her callous husband become cause of pain for her as lago is for the black moor. The callousness and betrayal of her husband has been pointed out by Bruce king, as he says :

“Das’ opened areas, in which previously forbidden or ignored emotions could be expressed in ways which reflect the true voice of feeling …………”²⁰

Thus, Bruce king stresses upon the fulfilment of her emotion. The answer to the above asked question can be given in the same voice. In fact, her poetrv is an exploration of the geography of her inner self. Poem after poem the same song of fulfilment of emotion or emotional emptiness can be heard. Take the case of her poem ‘The Freaks’ in which one finds the intensity of feelings, impatience, frustrations, the hollowness of her inner self and a great contempt for the masculine self. As she says :

“and empty cisiern waiting

through long hours, fills itself

with coiling snakes of silence——

I am a freak21

The disgust of a woman for sexually starved man, can be realized in the selection of such expressions like – ‘sun-stained’, ‘a dark-cavern,’ ‘Puddles of desires’, ‘an empty cistern’ etc. But her * husband is a passive lover who can satisfy only ‘skin’s lazy hunger’ and love-self of Kamla Das remains hungry. Her helpless feminine self asks question. “Who can help us who have lived so long and have failed in love? The words ‘I  am a freak¹ clearly mocks her feminine integrity. Here one finds that her poetic self fails in gaining a total vision of life. The reason for this failure is that she keeps no barrier between the poetic self and its direct expression. This becomes clear from the above mentioned poem ‘The Freaks’ which provides her with the basic awareness of self’s loneliness and the vacant ecstasy. This is because of her obsession with ‘body’s wisdom’ or physiological aspects of sex which is however no guarantee against the sense of alienation and emotional unfulfilment. Her poetic self achieves forces from her feminine existence which goes forward and backward in search of love. About this pendulum-like activity of the feminine self Devindra Kohli savs :

“It is difficult to sav whether Kamla

Das succeeds in resolving her tension between physical and spiritual aspect of love”²².

In *The Music Party’ her feminine self wants to be loved with warms feelings. As she says :

“Music in front –

A pale Girl in pink

Beside the Harmonium;

Behind me,

Your stillness,

Nothing else,

No reason

Why my ears

Should have ignored

The girl’s signing,

And sucked in

With wild greed

The whisper ,..”²³.

Here her feminine self does not want to ignore the ‘singing girl’ because she is gaining a wild sensuous pleasure a ‘stillness’. Her inclination to physical hungers in search of the quest of her genuine self brings suffering for Kamla Das. Her creative Self wants to create a balanced relationship that can soften her wounded psyche.

But her creative self gets disgust instead of an ideal lover which can lead her to a frantic search. A close study of her poems would reveal the fact that each of her lovers is presented by her with utter disgust :

‘”These men who call me

Beautiful not seeing

me with eyes but with hands

and even … even … love”²⁴.

^uOf what does the burning mouth

of sun burning, in todav’s   sky. remind me … his limbs

like  pale and carnivorous plants reaching

… of my unending lust”²⁵\

Her poem ‘The Forest Fire’ strikes a good balance between the suffering of creation and the suffering of human living. That is why she encounters life with its Sordidness in order to strengthen her poetic self. She says :

“Of late I have begun to feel a hunger.

To take in with greed, like a forest

fire … my eyes lick at you

like flames, my nerves

consume; and when in finish

with you, in the Pram, near the

tree and, on the park bench,

I spit out small heaps of ash, nothing else …”26

. As Devinda Kohli has also the same view. Her intense effort to “put my private voice away and to portray a larger panorama of experience transcending her personal moods and feelings”-‘²⁷.

But the detachment of the self is shortwhile. It again struggles to relate one’s personal experience with the cosmos. This “becomes clear from the close study of the most celebrated poem. ‘An Introduction’ Here, her poetic self struggles to keep her identity a separate entity – against The categorizes’. It asserts the growth of her feminine identity and poetic consciousness which was fading away slowly with despair. She asserts her identity, she says :

“… who are you,

I ask each and everyone,

the answer is, it is I

Anywhere and every where

I see the one

who calls himself …

It is I who laugh,

it I who make love.

And then,

feel shame,

it is I,

who lie dying

with a rattle in my throat.

I am sinner,

I am saint.

I am the beloved

and the betayed”²⁸.

The physical attraction encompasses ‘everyman’ and ‘every woman’ on the common sexual ground. The expression which asserts her identity is ‘it is can be an answered who are you’, thus encompassing the whole humanity into ‘I’.

To assert her femininity she straightly speaks in the first person pronoun T, thus breaking the barrier between ‘the man who suffers and the mind which crecites’.

The poem ‘An Introduction’ gives two attributions – one to her as a rebel against the oppression and the second to poetic self as a tragic dignity for its evolution. Kamla Das has tied her best to reconcile the clash between the flesh and the spirit. As a female poet she seeks a definition of her SELF as a woman and as an artist. That is why she concerns her poetry with herself. As Feroze Jussawala says :

“Her self as woman and … her self as poet amd artist .. are tied together. The ‘feminine sensibility’ can be described as her personal self : her feelings as a woman, her physical desires and her evolution from teenage bride to adulteress and mother figure”²⁹.

She learns that in her quest for ideal love lies her disappointment ‘Getting a man is easy’ for the satisfaction of sexual hunger. . As she states in her poem The Testing of the Siren :

“Ah why does love come to me like pain

Again and again and again …

I shut my eyes, but inside eyelids

there \was no more

light, no more love, or peale,

only the white, white sun

burning, burning, burning …”³⁰.

These lines show that the momentary quest of self for the philosophical insight gives no consolation to it. Kamla Das remains loyal to the ‘confessional-utterances’ to resolve the dilemma. And her poetic self does help to her ‘psychic project’. But the expressions like ‘I shut my eyes’, ‘Burning, burning’ are beyond the protective hands of ‘poetic-self hence can not escape her feminine self from being an object of frustration and even death consciousness.

REFERENCES

1.       Kamla Das, My Story (New Delhi : Sterling Publications, 1976), pp. 77-79.

2.       Rejeshwar Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Picincco, Kamla Das : A Critical Spectrum (ed.) (New Delhi : Atlantic Pub. & Dis. 2001), p. 44.

3.       Kamla Das, My Story (New Delhi : Sterling Publications, 1976), p. 92.

4.       Rajeshwar Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Picincco, Kamla Das : A Critical Spectrum (ed.) (New Delhi : Atlantic Pub. And Dis. 2001), p. 44.

5.       Kamla Das, My Story (New Delhi : Sterling Publications, 1976), p. 193.

6.     A.N. Dwivedi, Kamla Das And Her Poetry (New Delhi : Atlantic Pub. And Dis. 2006), p. 61.

7.       Kamla Das, Summer in Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 49.

8.      Ibid. p. 15

9.      Ibid. p. 15

10.     Rajeshwar Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Piciucco, Kamla Das : A Critical Spectrum (New Delhi : Atlantic Pub and Dis.), p. 149.

11.     Kamla Das, Summer in Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 24.

12.     Kamla Das, My Story (New Delhi : Sterling Publishers, 1977), p. 22.

13.    Ibid. p. 60

14.     A.N. Dwivedi, Kamla Das and Her Poetry (Atlantic Publishers and Dis. 2006), p. 29

15.     Stephens Sonya, A History of Women’s Writing in France (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 139.

16.     Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Tran and ed). H.M. Parshley (Vintage Pub. 1977), p. 9.

17.     Kamla Das, Summer In Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 15.

18.     Bhatnagar ,K. Manmohan, Feminist English Literature (Atlantic Pub. And Dist. 2002), p. 7.

19.     Kamla Das, Summer In Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 18.

20.     King Bruce, Modern Poetry in English (OUP, Bombay, 1987), p. 152.

21.     Kamla Das, Summer in Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 10.

22.     Devindra Kohli, Kamla Das’ Contemporary Indian English Verse, ed. Kulshestha, Chirantan (New Delhi : Arnold – Heinemann), p. 23-24.

23.     Kamla Das, Summer in Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965), p. 30.

24.     Ibid. p. 61.

25.     Ibid. p. 14.

26.     Ibid. p. 51.

27.     Devindra Kohli, Virgin Whiteness : The Poetry Kamla Das (Calcutta : Writers workshop, 1968), p. 14.

28.     Kamla Das, Summer In Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press) 1965, p. 60.

29.     Feroze Jussawalla, Kamla Das : The Evolution of the Self, The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Jan-July 1982, p. 54.

30.  

          Kamla Das, Summer in Calcutta (New Delhi : Everest Press 1965), p. 64.

Postcolonial Indian English Literature

Dr.Anshu Sharma ( Bhardwaj) Dr.Ram Sharma Senior Lecturer in English Deptt. Senior Lecturer in English Lecturer Arya College of Engg.& I.T. Janta Vedic College,Baraut , Kukas, Jaipur ( Raj.) Bhagpat-250611 Email:dransu@rediffmail.com Mob.Mo.09219710874 Mob.No.09887031545 Postcolonial Indian English Literature The term ‘Postcolonial’ came after the term ‘colonial’ which was based on the theory of the superiority of European culture or Imperial culture and the rightness of the empire. Colonial literature means the literature written by the native people including the writings by creoles and indigenous writers during the colonial times. Postcolonial literature means the literature written after the withdrawal of the imperial power from the territory of the native people. Having got the freedom from the colonial rule ,the Postcolonial people thought of having their identity. So they raised their voice against the past exploitations and oppressions and attempted at establishing their identity. The question of identity whether it is of the writer or of poet, of the nation or of religion, and of the national or regional literature is important for each. The postcolonial poet Niranjan Mohanty appears very conscious of the identity question and also believes that “no order of things obfuscate/ my identity.”1Undoubtedly, he is “frail, common human being, born here” and is “naked to the bones,” yet he feels pride of being what he is. With a view to explore his identity, he learns “how to begin a dialogue/with none but myself.”2 He realizes, “It‘s perhaps, time to learn / what makes me myself.”3 He associates himself with the world and tries to locate it in himself. He inwardly attempts to reach the core of his identity, “Every moment I live, I try/to locate the world in me/ its dust, debris and dung/its noise, nutrine and song.”4 Even touching the beloved does not let him lose his identity but rather makes him realize his own self, “On touching you / I begin to touch myself, / and all that makes me myself.”5 Thus, this new term ‘Post colonial’ literature is coined to suggest de-centering of colonial literature. The origin of Postcolonial theory has become an enigmatic riddle that occupies the mind of the critics round the globe but no clear cut solution has yet come. Regarding to its origin we remember Rajnath who has stated: “The origins of postcolonial theory are rather complex .Did it emerge out of the ruins of post-structuralism? Was it a version of Marxism? Was it a reaction against formalism? Said’ s relationship with other critics and critical trends are far from simple. He has acknowledged the influence of Foucault who is both a structuralism and post- structuralism .For his political emphasis he can be clubbed with Marx. He has not dismissed formalism but finds it inadequate, just as he finds Post structuralism and Marxism inadequate. Nevertheless, the best way to view Said’ s postcolonial theory is to see it as a reaction against Formalism, particularly Anglo-American New Criticism which ignored worldliness of a text. Whereas formalism focused on the pristine text with no affiliation to the author or the reader, let another the world, Said’ s Intervention brings in the world with a vengeance. The Publication of ‘Literature and Society’ in 1980 edited by Said marked a significant mutation an Anglo- American criticism. In his ‘Introduction’ to the volume Said expressed acquiescence in the critical position taken by the contributors to the volume, which goes contrary to the New Critical stand, Said’s own magnum opus Culture and Imperialism’ published in 1993, brings out with considerable emphasis the political subtext of the mainstream Western writing.”6 In fact, the postcolonial discourse means “to get connected with what is important for the lives of ordinary people-their culture, or on the other, “ to show how people are being constructed and manipulated by cultural forms.”7 In the postcolonial era the lives of ordinary people and their culture have been widely discussed in both Indian English Fiction and Indian English Poetry by the different perceptions of different writers and poets of different cultures. In Indian English Fiction, representation of colonialism, offers an unbiased common man’s and common sense perspective on colonialism in India .Mulk Raj Anand , R.K. Narayan ,Raja Rao and A.S.P. .Ayyer whose life views and language stem from Indian perceptive have discussed Indian landscapes and culture in their writings on the wide scale. We can notice in R.K. Narayan’s novels “the pattern of the Indian fairy tales.”8 Bhabani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar , Kushwant Singh and Arun Joshi focus on specific socio-political problems placing the country whereas the novelists like R.P.Jhabvala ,Kamala Markandaya, Nayantra Sahgal and Anita Desai view, from feminist perspectives ,socio-political as well as personal problems. Some recent novelists like Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Githa Hariharan and Amitabh Ghosh highlight postcolonial issues in more specific ways. Darkness of ignorance , illiteracy, starvation, poverty, suffering and humiliation prevailing in Indian writings .In this paper we discuss the writings of Kamala Markandaya, Kushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, Bhabani Bhattacharya and R.P. Jhabvala on the map of Post colonial English Fiction.In her novel, ‘ Nectar in a Sieve’ Kamala Markandaya shows how urbanization of rural areas make the people landless and homeless. Further she notices Rukmani’s relentless struggle for survival in the context of urbanization of rural areas where a new founded Tannery upsets the tranquil life of peasant people during the time of rain ,rice, draught and fine weather, hope and fear, hunger and starvation and then the become the captives of failure of crops, fear and the lure of the essay pleasures of life. In the paddy fields lies the hope of farmers attuned to a patterned existence: This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land knows that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours from one harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the week surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.9 This view is also apparent in Kushwant Singh ‘s poem‘I Shall not Hear the Nightingale’ when he observes, “ Our country has never been free and we have developed a servile mentality .We are frightened of power.”10 Salman Rushdie also writes in ‘Midnight’s Children’: It is the privilege and the course of the midnight’s children to be both masters and victim of their times ,to forsake privacy and be sucked in to the annihilating whirlpool of the multitudes, and to be unable to live or die in peace.11 Bhabani Bhattacharya’s ‘So Many Hungers’ is an analysis of the strength and endless struggle of human beings against the evil forces of mankind. Kajoli’s mother does not sell the cow Mangala , since she regards her as a mother symbol that has provided nourishment to her family. She meets a desperate starving woman with no milk in her breast for her dying baby who in concern for her child says, “Poor godling, so hurt with hunger! Look, my breasts have no milk. … he has no throat to cry. If he sleeps a little! Where is sleep? He is hurt and hurt all the time with his hunger.”12 The favourite theme of Postcolonial literature is east-west fusion that makes its presence felt in the English speaking world by breaking a new ground both in themes and techniques of both fiction and poetry. There are many European characters that come to India and adopt the Indian culture and also remember their culture so there creates a matter of compare and contrast between the east and the west. Jhabvala’s ‘A Backward Place’ shows a very fusion of the east and the west as her European sensibility mixes with Indian sensibility and presents the compare and contrast of two cultures. In this context Balachandra Rajan writes: …the presence of two cultures in one’s mind forms a wider and therefore saner basis on which to originate the quest for identity, and …the discordance between these two cultures can be creative as well as merely confusing. Perhaps one can go further and suggest that the man with mixed allegiances is contemporary Everyman.13 Judy and Etta are the women central characters of this novel. They came to India and stayed for a long time. One can easily find the contrast in their habits and preferences. Etta is a seeker of husbands and wants to marry an Indian and lives in India within western style. She is expert at love-making art and to her, “Marriages are made to be broken” and broken marriage is “one of the rules of modern civilization.” That’s why, she has married several times only for getting the comforts. She thinks that a flexible marriage is better than the permanent marriage for her. On the other Judy appears as pure an Indian character who passes through poverty, superstition, violence, suffering and communal effort that are the real Indian characteristics. Judy is a typical Indian mother who does not much oppressed by her own sufferings but the health of her little son Prithvi torments her more .In this condition Prithvi desires his father to stay with him and asks her the water with ice in a weak voice. There is no ice at home. Then the sense of mother in Judy arises and asks her husband Bal to get it. Bal who wishes to attend on Krishna Kumar ,a Bombay film star on a visit to Delhi ,ignores her and his son and says , “It is getting very late .They must all be waiting for me.” Seeing Prithvi ’s high temperature ,Judy asks Bal to stay at home but fails. So she pushes him in the street, catching him by the sleeve of his kurta, asking him to do his duty as father. At that time the colour of her face changes into pink and her eyes, looking at him very directly ,are stark blue and angry and he says, “Get the ice. Let go.” Without caring for the norms of the society, she carries him catching him by sleeves on the road only for fulfilling her son’s desires. Bal yields before this typical Indian mother. In spite of being an European character, she has a strong urge to feel herself an Indian responsible lady with a sense of belonging. As a matter of fact, Judy’s character is a fine fusion of east and west that is bound with the culture winds. It is said: Between East and West the cultural wind blows both ways, though a hasty present-day inspection might suggest that it blew mainly eastward…The wind from the east is quieter, older, and less immediately detectable; it penetrates and mingles, and its note is deep…Today the student from the Orient may find Himself to some degree at home in Western thought for the elements of his own culture that are missed in it.14 On the map of Post colonial Poetry we place Shiv K.Kumar and Niranjan Mohanty for their post colonial themes and techniques appear in their valuable writings. Shiv .K. Kumar himself underlines the favourite theme-east –west fusion of Postcolonial Indian English Poetry and also states, “ Another recurring theme in most contemporary Indian Poetry in English is East-West cultural encounter .This perhaps relates to the fact that several of our poets have had their education abroad at Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds or some American University .So they often tend to write like expatriates or exiles while living in the west and look back nostalgically on their western experience when they return home.”15 Kumar’s poem ‘A Letter from New York ’included in his poetic volume ‘Subterfuges’ is the best example of the dichotomy between the east and the west and also reveals his great longing for returning to India. He says: Here I live in a garbage can and pile grows bigger each week with the broken homes splinted all round.16 and further makes the contrast between the two cultures of east & west and points out that nothing is there but emptiness : Incidentally, there are no beggars at Grand Central or Broadway, no cripples on wheel barrows no lepers with patches of scraped skin. Only eyes, eyes, eyes staring at lamp-post.17 Postcoloniality emphasizes a contemporary state and therefore ,Kumar as a post-colonial poet writes poems of contemporary interest .He is well-versed with the new postcolonial terms like ‘hybridity ’and ‘diaspora’ and his poetry is a living example of these terms in action and operation. As Leela Ghandi who considers Postcoloniality is another name for globalization, has rightly pointed out: Post colonialism pursues a post national reading of the colonial encounter by focusing on the global amalgam of cultures and identities consolidated by imperialism .To this end, it deploys a variety of conceptual terms and categories of analysis which examine the mutual contagion and subtle intimacies between colonizer and colonized. In this regard, the term ‘hybridity’ and ‘diaspora ’,in particular stand out for their analytic Versatility and theoretical resilience. 18 Apart from the themes, one important ingredient of postcolonial literature is the language in which it is written. It was the conspiracy of the colonial rule to introduce English with the intention of converting the colonized into mimic men, but this tool proved to be the nail in their coffin as the Indians learnt how to pay them in the same coin. But today it is not the problem because English has become a global language, and has become a medium to represent the east to the west in an emphatic manner. Niranjan Mohanty is well aware of the language of the language question, and hence thinks that it is only through language he can find a link to tie the other members of his tribe. He asks God to teach him, “ how to begin my lesson with this /talkative machine called language”19 and finally concludes, “ Perhaps language is a river now /where I can swim and float any way I like /only to get a feel that I’m a part of the tribe. ” Hence he chooses to write in English with the intention of introducing the orient to the occident. Being a postcolonial poet, Mohanty is not blind to the contemporary Indian landscapes which reflect their original colour. The poet weeps over the pitiable condition of his countrymen .He opines the windows for light but they show him the true picture of the country. Very candidly he expresses, “here it is my country / burning, and every instant falling a part /Terrorists, their tempestuous uproar/everywhere./ Bears and tigers lolling out thirsty tongues /like the tropical summer./In the temple , blood bath./ In the streets, bomb blast/ In the house, frozen-necked fears./And a godless emptiness/ everywhere./ What hell my country has turned into.” 20 Mohanty’s postcolonial consciousness can be traced in his treatment of Indian culture which he has imbibed in his life ,and accordingly he lives and feels satisfaction within. Indianness seems to flow in his veins. His roots are in Indian soil and hence, will not think of the western winter. “I began to realize that/the less we speak of winter /the more is the glitter /of summer or any other season /that sustains us, trains us/to face the stings of pain,/in a night without rain.”21 The writings of the writers are purely postcolonial in texture and structure as their writings deal with notional and transnational themes with a poet mind. Poverty, superstition injustice, hypocrisy double dealing, east-west encounter and suffering of language and typical Indian ness in the contemporary society. All come within the purview of their writings. Through techniques the poets succeed in their mission of preserving the rich Indian heritage. We quite agree with Pandey when he says, “The poet is rooted to the traditions and cultures he lives by and that his vision is one of preserving the values which lie embedded in such traditions and cultures.”22 References: 1 .Niranjan Mohanty, ‘Prayers to Lord Jagannatha’ Indus, New Delhi,1994,p.154 2. Niranjan Mohanty, ‘On TouchingYou and Other Poems’ Cambridge, Calcutta, 1999, p.64 3. Niranjan Mohanty, ‘Life Lines’, Cambridge, Calcutta, 1999, p.40 4. Ibid p.32 5. Niranjan Mohanty, ‘On Touching You and Other Poems’p.59 6. Rajnath, ‘Edward Said and Postcolonial Theory’, Journal of Literary Criticism, 9:1 (June2000) p.73 7. Sarangi, Jaydeep, ‘Third World Orientations In Postcolonial English Literature’, in Indian Book Chronicle, Aalekh Publishers, Jaipur, 2009, Feb.vol.xxxiv, No.2 8. Meenakshi Mukherjee, ‘The Twice-Born Fiction, Pub. Arnold Heinemann, New Delhi, 1971 9. Kamala Markandaya, ‘Nectar in a Sieve’, Pub. Jaico Publishing House, Mumbai, 1956, p.135 10. Kushwant Singh, ‘I Shall not Hear the Nightingale’, RaviDayal, 1997, p.86 11 .Salman Rushdie, ‘Midnight’s Children’, Vintage, London, 1995, p.647 12. Bhabani Bhattacharya, ‘So Many Hungers! ’Hind Ketabas Ltd., 1947, p.168 13. Rajan Bala Chandra, ‘Identity and Nationality’ in Common Wealth Literature, Heinemann Educational Books, John Press, London, 1965, p.108 14. Amalendu Bose, Times Literary Supplement of 26.12.58, p.751 15. Shiv.K.Kumar, ‘Contemporary Indian Literature in English (in collaboration with Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla) New Delhi, Manohar Publications, 1992,p.5. 16. Shiv. K. Kumar, ‘A Letter from New York’ Subterfuges, Oxford University Press, 1976, p.17 17. Ibid.p.19 18. Leela Gandhi, ‘Postcolonial theory: A Critical Introduction’, OUP, Delhi, 1999, p.129 19 .Niranjan Mohanty ,’ Prayers to Lord Jagannatha’,p.38 20.Niranjan Mohanty , ‘On This Bloody Game’, Poetry Publication, Behrampur p.79 21.Niranjan Mohanty, ‘Prayers to Lord Jagannatha’,p.126 22. Santosh K. Pandey, ‘The Eternal Flute – Player, A Study of Niranjan Mohanty’s Krishna,’ The Atlantic Literary Review, 7.2, April-June, 2006, 89-101

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