Conflictism In Manohar Malgonkar's A Bend In The Ganges

Through the prescribed framework of magic realism, the novel allows its multitude of characters, belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds, to appraise and originate their own versions of Indian history, thus subverting British colonial versions of history. Magic realism becomes obligatory to communicate the postcoloniality of India, and within its framework, the novel explores and presents a postcolonial history of its own. The cultural and social hybridity, along with the historical hybridity present within the novel allows the text to exemplify the major themes of the novel and postcoloniality itself: the formation and telling of history, self, and narratives. The novel effectively and noticeably depicts the problems of postcoloniality and

Bengal's growing need for an identity, equal and ethnic acceptance and a pride in their mother language eventually led to many conflicts both emotional and political. Having been recently independent from British India, the Two Nation Theory was engraved in everyone's minds. But the geographical division of East and West Pakistan was much more than distance; it was felt as a conspiracy for West Pakistan to govern the entire country (Bose, 1).The war was considered an unnecessary act by some as autonomy was the desired result and not a new country. However as the story of the lives of civilians unfold the distrust and unfairness of the situation in the country is seen to be evident.

Nair attempts to interpret and relocate the characters from their succinct semantic images on paper and re-cast them as believable entities embodying social, economic and psychological baggage in an essentially postmodern world order. In Lahiri’s novel, a world order presents itself where people like Ashoke and Ashima are subconsciously put on the fringes of the mainstream American society, in part by their attitude and approach to the new, almost alien societal and cultural experiences and circumstances and in part by the reaction to their reaction by the world around them. And this is essentially a conflicting world order where there is an intent to adapt to this bewildering newness around while there is equally strong a yearning for the familiar and much cherished roots. The two characters (Ashima more visibly so) are torn, as it were, between the two worlds, and struggling to conform to either! Into this palpable melee comes the son. The second-generation of Indian immigrants and a first-born American citizen of Bengali origin who is bestowed with a name borrowed from a Russian writer of repute, Gogol Ganguly endeavours to be efficaciously functional in a space that might be essentially regarded as an interstice or gap between the American ‘public’ sphere as Nikhil, truncated or anglicised to the convenient ‘Nick’, and the Indian ‘home’ sphere as Gogol, while trying to make peace or strike a middle path with his baffling name and social, national, cultural and ethnic

“The Shadow lines” is an award winning novel by Amitav Ghosh. The historical events like the Swadeshi Movement, Second World War, partition of India and communal riots of 1963-64 which took place in Calcutta and Dhaka are all mentioned. The concept of boundaries is an important one for the postcolonial world writer’s .This novel discusses these lines across cultures and boundaries and tries to study them. These borders and boundaries not only divided the people but also relocated them from their own country. The story is told in first person narrative and all the events are described in a retrospective manner of about two decades .Because of the borders, borderlines, nation and nationhood there is a certain degree of nuances which is created inside the human mind which is also discussed in his novel. The plot of the novel centres

B. Bawake examines the changing morals and values as reflected in fiction while placing Adiga in the tradition of a long line of Indian English writers and identifying those who have influenced him.

In writing his 1912 novel, A Passage to India, Forster found himself deeply troubled by the racial oppression and deep cultural misunderstandings that divided the Indian people and the British colonists, a reflection which is strikingly pertinent in his writing. He lamented that ‘‘the sense of racial tension, of incompatibility, never left (him)” during the days of the British Raj, between 1858 and 1947, and as a result, aimed to capture the intense social segregation from this period in A Passage to India. Through the interactions between Adela Quested, Mrs Moore and Ronny Heaslop, among others, and the prominent Indian figures in the novel, most notably Dr Aziz, the deep-rooted racial prejudices and popular sentiment of British superiority, becomes apparent.

Rushdie has explored many themes and issues in his writing cosmos within the postcolonial perspective in relationship with language, history, politics, identity, migration, and globalization. The present paper is focused on his two famous novels The Moor's Last Sigh and Shalimar the Clown that had taken a reversion from the other works that are based on western countries and characters. He is traversing back from routes to roots, envisioning the Indian subcontinent within his critiques. Rushdie encompasses through the geographical, political, and cultural limits in the course of his written works, just to come back to explore his subcontinent. In both these books the Indian nation expects a key topical core interest with a major focus on serious issues like historical backdrop of India loaded with turbulence in the present circumstances, and the issue of Kashmir has given a priority that has got mutilated between India and Pakistan since independence. The experience of distance inside the third world connection is pondered upon after the postcolonial era of the subcontinent. Rushdie investigates the historical backdrop of India full with turbulence in the most recent century in The Moor’s Last Sigh, while it is the issue of Kashmir that expects priority in Shalimar the Clown.

Lagaan (2001), through the setting of Hindi cinema and the popular appeal of cricket, charts an alternative history of India, from the colonised past of 1893 to an ideal post-colonial future. Using elements of pop culture, the director Ashutosh Gowarikar transforms the singularity of Champaneer’s struggle against triple-lagaan, into a microcosm of an Indian nation’s ideal path toward self-rule. Notably, this self-rule is ideologically centred ex ante on Gandhi’s vision of self-sufficient village units, as mentioned in Hind Swaraj . In doing so, Gowarikar is able to (a) tell the historical tale of colonial rule and oppression in India, and (b) through dealing with Champaneer’s internal struggles toward becoming a self-sufficient village unit, highlight current thorny issues of Indian politics.

In 1947, the partition of India on the departure of British colonial power laid the seed for widespread bloodshed, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin pioneer a new understanding of partition through the voices of affected women for the first time, whose stories were buried under the dust of time and the blankets of the patriarch. Authors, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin both have strong roots in women’s studies. Menon as an independent scholar and publisher focused on violence against women, and Bhasin for her work with South Asian women’s movements for the United Nations. As feminist scholars and activists, Menon and Bhasin’s Borders and Boundaries expands from their previous scholarly publications. Menon and Bhasin argue the importance of a feminist approach to studying India’s partition against the backdrop of an overwhelming wealth of political and communal histories, the gruesome reality that Partition was distant from the smooth process written on paper. They also argue the objectification of women, whose bodies became symbolic territories to ‘claimed, conquered and marked, as “women became the respective countries, indelibly imprinted by the other.”

V.S.Naipaul’s “An Area of Darkness” is a semi-autobiographical account of a year he spent in India in 1964 in which he describes the country from his outlook. The book is written in the first person narrative voice and Naipaul uses descriptive passages very well to outline his themes. The title ‘’An Area of Darkness’’ refers to India and many of the negative aspects of the Indian culture is highlighted and Naipaul seems to see the whole bleakness of the culture at every stage. Naipaul gives the reader a vivid insight into the various sects and cultural systems dominating India. Naipaul analyses the whole colonial process and there is a copious references to the Hinduism and Muslims and Buddhism and he paints some vivid pictures of the

Today, even though I live in the United States, I occasionally receive news of these riots from my relatives living in India. Moreover, there are constant news headlines highlighting political corruption, terrorist bombings, healthcare disparities, and issues among the citizens due to social caste and status. All of these contribute to the further splitting of India, a nation whose freedom fighters risked their lives to free India from British imperialism and keep the nationalistic spirit of “Bharat Mata,” or “Mother India,” alive. The freedom fighters united the citizens no matter their caste, religion, or creed. After India gained its independence, however, these cascades of internal problems led to more and more disunity. This essay analyzes how even though the freedom fighters fought hard for Indian Independence, their struggles and accomplishments seem to be shadowed by the political, religious, and social divisions and turmoil present in India today; however, the music of A.R. Rahman (specifically the songs “Desh Mere Desh” and “Bharat Humko Jaan Se Pyaara Hain”) aims to not only help understand these problems, but also encourage “Hindustanis” (citizens of India) to once again unite with compassion and nationalistic vigor,

Bapsi Sidhwa is a Pakistani Parsee journalist. She has composed The Bride, The Crow Eaters, Ice Candy Man, An American Brat and Water. Sidhwa characterizes herself as Pakistani, Punjabi, Parsee lady journalist (Monsoon, 2000). Khushwant Singh is a Sikh Indian journalist. He has composed books like Train to Pakistan, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale and Delhi. The present study proposes to attempt a correlation fundamentally between Ice Candy Man and Train to Pakistan for the depiction of the diverse parts of Partition by the two essayists in these books.

Despite having drastically different perspectives, E.M. Forster and Mulk Raj Anand display a common disdain for British imperialism and racism while sharing in a struggle to fully capture the complexities of the British Raj while still spreading their intended message in their novels, A Passage to India and Untouchable.

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.

Ruth Jhabvala’s first novel reveals world order in which a stubborn identification with one’s inherited culture is both realistic and desirable. This identification has its genesis in the ancient code of laws laid down in the Dharma Shastras. An adherence sustained over the centuries to the social order created thereof, with its ramifications of caste and class and separations attendant upon them, still shapes and colours the Indian outlook as Ruth Jhabvala sees it. The characters of her novel identify with a well defined area, predetermined by birth and heritage and share a common conviction that only disruption and unhappiness can result from a violation.