Ratan Thiyam’s play Prologue. Image credit- Tayenjam Bijoy Kumar Singh

The feature write-up in its explanation of the theme abiding values had raised certain interesting questions. It had stated, “The question arises whether there are values that are seen as rising above these ideological differences and conflicts to give humanity an ennobling vision of peace, love, unity, and brotherhood/sisterhood? Have there been sagacious voices that have provided reasons for humanity to see life beyond political divides and war mongering? Have such values endured and continue to guide humanity? Do traditional values still have relevance in the world that has moved on to cyber lifestyles and has thrown up newer set of social values?” (MI feature)

Taking this as the cue, in this article I would like to review the concept of the two terms and reflect on how it gets considered by discussing few writers and few select works from Indian writing in English in English.

One of the big questions that one would like to ask is, how do you define abiding values? When we examine the terms, we understand that ‘abiding’ refers to something that is long lasting. On the other hand, defining the term, ‘values’ is a bit difficult because it has a number of synonyms. It refers to merit, worth, usefulness, utility; Yet, other references that can be used for the term are principles, moral code, ethics, and rules of conduct and behavior. In a certain fashion, while ‘abiding’ is easier to understand, it is difficult to pinpoint ‘values.’ Taking this discussion forward and viewing literature and art makes it seem that we somehow need to rethink about these terms as both literature and art are highly critical and are formulated based on the contexts of the society. One of the key issues to be discussed especially concerning Indian writing is the question of nation and the concerns of the nation.

In this contextualization of the nation, let me briefly examine the work of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.  Although, Roy was recognized as a political figure, he can be considered as one of the great prose writers of the 19th century. Many of his works on the Upanishads, the scriptures were well known arguments. He was in many newspaper articles dealing with the burning issues such as the rights of women, the judicial system, and the language problem. In his argument regarding widow burning he judiciously examines the Shastras and mentions, “The Sastras, and the reasonings connected with them, enable us to discriminate right from wrong”.(95) Similarly, in his statement of theism he states, “In order, therefore, to vindicate my own faith and that of our forefathers, I have been endeavouring, for some time past, to convince my countrymen of the true meaning of our sacred books, and prove that my aberration deserves not the opprobrium which some unreflecting persons have been so ready to throw upon me.” (?) In another place of the same introduction he points out: “The present is an endeavour to render an abridgment of the same (the Vedanta) into English, by which I expect to prove to my European friends, that the superstitious practices which deform the Hindoo religion, have nothing to do with the pure spirit of its dictates.”(91)

Raja Rammohan Roy. Credit- Facebook	Sri Aurobindo hinduwebsite.com

I wished to use Roy to locate how the nature of values and society was examined and how issues of modernity were reasoned out by social reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy. As these queries regarding Indianness were cropping up, there was also a move to disentangle religion from rituals. Hence, institutions such as the Arya Samaj, the Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, and the theosophical society began to flourish. It is relevant that amidst these changes, there was also an inherent need or advocacy by many for English education as they felt it had the power to push us on to the path of scientific and technological growth. A letter addressed to Lord Amherst by Raja Rammohan Roy substantiates this view:

The Sanskrit system of education would be the best calculated to keep this country in darkness, if such had been the policy of the British legislature. But as the improvement of the native population is, the object of the Government, it will consequently 'promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embracing Mathematics, Natural Phi1osophy, Chemistry, Anatomy, with other useful sciences, … employing a few gentlemen of talent and learning' educated in Europe and providing a College furnished, with necessary books, instruments and other apparatus. (1)

Sri Aurobindo in The Future Poetry asserted this statement in a different way. He co-related the issue of the nation and language from the point of views of culture:

The awakening brought by the opening years of the twentieth century has chiefly taken the form of a revival of cultural patriotism, highly necessary for a nation which has a distinctive contribution to make to the human spirit in its future development, some new and great thing which it must evolve out of a magnificent past for the opening splendours of the future; but in order that this may evolve rapidly and surely, it needs a wide and sound information, a richer stuff to work upon, a more vital touch with the life and master tendencies. (5)

Reviewing the situation back, while there was a move towards modernity there was also another kind of awakening happening from leaders such as not only Aurobindo Ghosh, but also Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa because they provided a cultural and spiritual mode of reinstalling the nationalist spirit and thinking this would lead to a renaissance. This, I believe led to the conflict of values and therefore when India gained freedom it was very difficult to establish what could be the values of a free India. Gandhi had visualised through Hind Swaraj an idea of humanity and humaneness and of integrating the rural ethos into a liberated country. In this process of thought, he did not value art and I substantiate this taking the words of Srinivas Iyengar, who states, “Gandhi too erred in denying art in its particular autonomy and preeminence, but at least their views have been a corrective to some of the aberrations of those who hold Art is for Art’s sake alone or even that Life itself is only for Art’s sake” (272). In fact, Gandhi thought that art would stunt the country: “Life must immensely exceed all the arts put together for what is this hot house art-plant of yours without the life-soul and background of a steady worthy life?...what, after all, does this fussing with art amount to if it all the time stultifies life instead of elevating it”(qtd in Iyengar, 272). Although Gandhi might have taken a low view of art, it is important to recognise that he thought that India had to have a value system that would project humanitarian approach. In opposition to Gandhi, Nehru, when he took over the helm of affairs, adopted a path of progression by thinking that growth could be through science and technology. This picture is drawn to explain how values were continually in a state of flux.

At this juncture, we need to analyse the concept of culture as this is the one that gets reflected in literature. Although, India adopted the concept of ‘Unity in Diversity’ allowing a sense of plurality and heterogeneity, yet, due to cultural markers, that were discernibly touched by linguistic and religious overtones, it led to a friction thereby  resulting in the politics of identity and belongingness. Given the above-mentioned conditions the statement regarding values becomes impacted with differential markers such as caste, religion, class, and gender. With this overview let us briefly examine the periods of writings in India. I will for the purpose of this article examine select fiction.

Raja Rao Courtesy- Goodreads.com	R K Narayan Source- Amazon.in	Mulk Raj Anand Courtesy- literariness.com	Kamala Markendaya Credit-  en.Wikipedia.org

The period from 1930s to 1960s was a period when novels were mapped out to construct a nation that seemed to have one identity, namely the liberation of the nation. These novels— Raja Rao’s Kanthapura and The Serpent and the Rope; R.K. Narayan’s Guide; Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, Kamala Markandeya’s Nectar in a Sieve—have been read variedly as novels that had used the master’s tongue beautifully and had by their narratives destabilized the centre’s dominance and yet a re-reading of the novels reveal the fact that these novels once again seem to address the making of a single identity and a glorification of the past. There were also contentions regarding the use of a colonial language as the foreword to Kanthapura pointed out how English could be indigenized. In a parallel statement, R. K. Narayan too mentions the idea of Bharat English:

The time has come for us to consider seriously the question of a Bharat [i.e. Indian, ‘Bharat’ being the indigenous name for India] brand of English…Now it is time for it to come to the dusty street, the marketplace and under the banyan tree. I am not considering a mongrelisation of language…Bharat English will respect the rule of law and maintain the dignity of grammar, but still have a swadeshi [native] stamp about it, like the Madras handloom or check [sic] shirt or the Tirupati doll. (Narayan quoted in Krishna Sen 129)

Interestingly Narayan, Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand deal with themes that endeavour to investigate how to value class, caste and identity. If Raja Rao’s Moorthy tries to embody Gandhi and create a small ideal classless and casteless village in Kanthapura, he also realises the problematics of egalitarianism in a plural and diverse culture. One interesting facet provided in the novel to explain this is regarding the spinning of yarn. When Moorthy asks the village women to spin yarn they state,

“I ask you; will you spin a 100 yards of yarn per day?” But Madanna’s wife says, “I’m going to have a child,” and Satanna’s wife says, “I’m going for my brother’s marriage,” and her sister says, “I’ll spin if it will bring money.” And Moorthy feels this is awful, and nothing could be done with these women;… (78)

The novel ends by revealing a much-accepted truth which Moorthy narrates: “And I have come to realize bit by bit, when I was in prison, that as long as there will be iron gates and barbed wires around the Skeffington Coffee House, and city cars that roll up the Babbar Mound, and gas lights and coolie cars, there will always be pariahs and poverty.” (183).

Another problematic that the novel does raise is the question of what religion should the nation adopt? I think that Rao deliberately, in his resurrection of Gandhian ideology, is also rooting for an Indian past that was the glorious period of spirituality once again vis a vis Hinduism. This is substantiated in his later work, The Serpent and the Rope. Narayan at the same time, using a tongue in cheek attitude continuously, remarks at the people of Malgudi as the ‘babu class’ and the ‘ordinary class’ who wish to move into the spirit and class of the babus. His work, The Guide is a classic example of how Raju wishes to raise his position in society. In this struggle to achieve prestige and status in society, he fails and realises his failure. In order to redeem himself, he once again moves to become a spiritual leader providing a kind of faith and succour to the Indian masses. Writing almost at the same time, Mulk Raj Anad vetoes these acts of spiritualism and sets a new pathway for the marginalised, such as Bakha in The Untouchable, to uplift and gain prestige. In contrast to these works, Kamala Markendeya examines the rural-urban divide and the economic condition of women. She seems to depict the notion of fate and destiny and the stoicness that Indian families seem to carry forward. In a way, these works were trying to establish values of eradicating differences and homogenising an Indian nation, which I think they were not very successful at.

Arun Joshi Source- Amazon.in	Anita Desai Courtesy- Goodreads.com	Shashi Deshpande Credit- Hyderabd Lit Fest

In the second phase of Indian writing in English (from 1960s to 1980s) saw a swing from external reality into an interiorization of the mind. This was essential as the nation was making itself and in its trial to rebuild the nation, it was also witness to undue technological and scientific growth. As a result, the writers such as Anita Desai, Arun Joshi, and Shashi Deshpande had to seek their selfhoods. If Arun Joshi’s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas revealed Billy’s escape into tribal society, then Desai’s women were wrought with hypersensitivity and underwent mental estrangement, isolation and alienation. The theme of the period seemed to be a quest for a spiritual peace that was almost non-existent. Almost all the earlier novels of Desai, Cry of the Peacock, Voices in the City, and Fire on the Mountain discuss the fraught marital relationship and the intense questioning of the woman regarding her identity.  Carrying this aspect a little further, Deshpande’s protagonists were caught within marital webs and were continuously straining to get out of the patterns of their existence. Interestingly enough, Deshpande’s women are also stigmatized by issues such as rape and feel that they have been caught in the throes of victimhood. In her short story, “Intrusion”, the protagonist feels she is caught in a loveless marriage where in her body is possessed by her husband. The issue of the sexual assault in “It was Dark” becomes the major idea in Roots and Shadows. In Binding Vine it goes a bit further with a real rape contrasted with a narrativised or manuscripted rape account. The women such as Jaya in That Long Silence, Monisha in Voices in the City, Maya in Cry the Peacock, Nanda Kaul in Fire on the Montain , Sita in Where Shall We Go This Summer and Bim in  Clear Light of Day are continuously trying to remake themselves. These women writers reveal to us that within the Indian nation there is a question of assimilating women. Thus, once again these narratives reveal a quest for the spiritual past as well as an attempt to depict women succumbing to social and cultural values of being ‘good’ women who play their roles well.

The modern period constitutes works written from 1980s to millennium. These novels were greatly influenced by Rushdie’s Midnight Children. The story of Saleem Sinai triggers off questions of the Indian nation, the historical roots, the delineation of the modern angst and critiques the neo-colonial attitudes of the nation. Illustrations of such novels are the works of Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Anita Nair and Shashi Tharoor. If Ghosh subverts colonial constructs in novels such as The Glass Palace and Shadow Lines to derive a postcolonial space, Vikram Seth uses the social reality in The Suitable Boy to ridicule marital arrangements in India. Ghosh in The Glass Palace sketches the ravage of the South Asian regions due to colonial expansions. Ghosh through the narration of Rajkumar’s life highlights the fragilty of the nation and the impact it has on individual lives.  The Glass Palace uses the period of a colonized Burma, to trace the evolution of the novel’s protagonists, Rajkumar and Dolly and at the same time, he extensively uses a spirit of patriotism through multiple set of voices. The novel brings alive Gandhi, Nehru, Bikaji Cama and others in its depiction of the historical contexts. Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel, is an interrogation of the political history of the Indian nation through an imaginative re-reading of the great epic of India – the Mahabharatha. The novel debates upon the politico-social aspects and delineates that modern India is a place fraught with political instability. The novel presents through myth a conflicted and conflated history. Gangaji in the novel is a spoof of Gandhiji and takes up Gandhian issues such as cleanliness, celibacy and so on. Just as in Kanthapura, the Gandhi ideology is spread out only later to lead Tharoor to comment in the course of his novel, “…we were not led by a saint with his head in the clouds, but by a master tactician with his feet on the ground.” (122). Similarly, the above illustrated novels and novelists are carried away by an ideal of trying to construct a homogenous nation but realised that such an idealisation was not possible given the nature of divergence.

Salman Rusgdie Courtesy- Amazon.com	Vikram Seth Goodreads.com	Amitav Ghosh Amazon.in

Aundhati Roy Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0	Kiran Desai Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0

The period from 1980s to 2000 onwards saw the rise of novelists such as Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga and Kiran Desai. Roy’s The God of Small Things raises the threat of casteism, commnunalism, and politicization. Roy sets the story in a small town in Kerala and skillfully using incidents in the life of the protagonist, Ammu throws open the central questions that haunt Indian women such as the role of families, the question of motherhood, the primacy of marriage, and the status quo of unchaperoned women. The novel scathingly remarks at the values of Ayemenem in Kerala but the statements done at a micro level do work at a macro level making one wonder at the nation’s stance in terms of gender and caste. The novel also foregrounds the underlying problem of sexuality and seems to mock the psyche of the heteronormative society.

Aravind Adiga in his The White Tiger raises the issue of a meaningless Indian society that only thrives on a quest for money. Adiga attempts to depict the relationship between nationalistic identity and other related aspects of the subject such as class, gender and sexuality in White Tiger. Utilizing certain socio-cultural and socio-political concepts in the formulation of an Indian identity, the novel tries to reveal how the tropes of marginality work in the Indian nation. The author’s attempt to satirize the Indian class structure and the overall theme of national belonging possibly could just be a masquerade. White Tiger at a certain level, is thought to be a realistic portrayal of the new India and at the same time as reviews and critics state epitomises a negative aspect of the glorious nation. The story depicts a dissonance in the notion of Indian-ness—India as imagined and India as experienced. The opposition in the novel is between the protagonist, Balram’s desires and wishes, and the firmly held beliefs and faiths of the other, in this case, the employers, Mr. Ashok and Pinky. Using the backdrop of Darjeeling, The Inheritor of Loss is a work that questions the sense of inclusive and exclusive politics. The novel is a remark at the class structures in society and is also a story of deprivation of rights.

Shashi Tharoor Shashitharoor.in	Amish Tripathi Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0	Anita Nair Goodreads.com

Chetan Bhagat Twitter	Aravind Adiga Karnataka.com

In fact, these quests and investigations regarding identity, culture and nation led to the contemporary present stage of writing, namely the world of Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi. Chetan Bhagat in The Three Mistakes of My Life; Five Point Someone and other works, nurtures the issue of identity loss and the devaluation of values, to emphasise the materialism and consumerism that has crept into the Indian society. Five Point Someone critically evaluated the aspirations of Indian families with regard to their childrens’ education and careers. Another classic example of using culture ideologically and redesigning it is seen in the production of Amish Tripathi’s The Immortals of Meluha. The book portrays Shiva as a nomad and as a tribal. In the narrative, Shiva moves from Kailash to Meluhas, which is portrayed as a civilized society and Shiva has problems adjusting to civilisation and culture.  As the plot moves forward, Shiva, in the fictionalized narrative transforms from a leader of the tribe ‘gunas’, to an individual known as ‘Neelkanth’, ‘Mahadev’ and also ‘Karma Saathi’. The novelist by adding these problems of identity displaces the God Shiva from the temples and places him among the sects such as ‘Suryavanshis’ and ‘Chandravanshis’. I foregrounded this novel as it utilized the concepts of identity’ and ‘culture’ as a type of commodity and in a way defragmented and devalued mythic creations in religion.

With these short sketches of various canonized texts from 1930 to present, I wanted to highlight how Indian Writing in English was constantly trying to reassess India and Indianness and spell out the need for new values. The writers are struggling to position the Indian and provide him/her with strong roots but I think they are unable to so due to the nature of global changes that are occurring. It is also another problematic that the writers till the millennium were continuously trying to make a Hindu nation while the postmillennial writers (if one can label them as such) Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi and a host of others decided to throw all this aside and create the existing reality into a consumerist mode. Finally, in conclusion I would like to maybe ideally think that abiding values such as human welfare and rights are part of all the writers and this they have skillfully brought to us through their narratives. Going back to the beginning of the essay, I would say that the writers do emphasize human values and try to convey the need for them as they continue to exist no matter what age or time. Yet, one also needs to be cautious as the writers I think, succinctly point out that even such human values are in a way degenerating due to increased social and cultural values of exclusiveness and differential politics. Indian writing in English provides readers an opening to understand as to how values that are to be abiding are getting to be transitory and short-lived. Yet, let us hope as literature lovers, optimistically, that such interventions by the writers have made us re-examine and re-think our value as humans.

Works Cited:

Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. Atlantic Books. 2008

Anand, Mulk Raj. Untouchable. Penguin Classics. 2001

Desai, Kiran. The Inheritor of Loss. Atlantic Monthly Press. 2006

Ghosh, Amitav. The Glass Palace. Ravi dayal Pub and Permanent Black. 2000

Ghosh, Aurobindo. The Future Poetry.1953. Pondicherry India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Iyengar, Srinivasa K.R. Indian Writing in English. 5th ed. New Delhi: Sterling, 1990.

Narayan, R.K. The Guide. Penguin Classics. 2006

Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. Orient paperbacks. 1938.

Rao, Surya. Muse India. Feature.
https://museindia.com/Home/ViewContentData?arttype=feature&issid=97&menuid=9536

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. India Ink. 1997

Roy, Raja Rammohan. “A Defence of Hindu theism”.
https://advocatetanmoy.com/2020/07/18/a-defense-of-hindu-theism-ram-mohun-roy-1817/

-------. Letter to Lord Amherst. 
https://apworld14.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/1/23519582/seeking_western_education.pdf

-------. “Translation of a conference between an advocate for and an opponent of the practice of burning widows alive” from the original Bungla, Calcutta, 1818, as reprinted in The English Works, p. 91 https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/rammohun-roy/

Sen, Krishna. “Post-Colonialism, Globalism, Nativism: Reinventing English in a Post-Colonial Space.” Identity in Crossroads Civilizations: Ethnicity, Globalism and Nativism in Asia. Eds. Erich Kolig, Vivienne SM. Angeles and Sam Wong. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 115-132. JSTOR, www. jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n248.11.

Tharoor, Shashi.  The Great Indian Novel. Penguin Books. 1990

Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha.  India: Westland press. 2010