Internal Assignment

Name- Sujit Kumar Patra

Course- CBCS/CL/UG/Core5.2

Roll no- 61

Department of Comparative Literature

Question Attempted (2)

"Modernity is change and novelty
manifest in socio-
political or economic terms, and
broadly, it is an indication of
progress. Modernism, on the other
hand, refers to the procesS
of assimilation of the 'new' into the
evolving of modern outlook
which may cause a split in the
tradition-bound secure human
psyche."
-Keeping this comment in mind, how
will you evaluate Modern
Indian short stories? Argue with close
textual references.
Modernization is an encompassing
process of massive social changes that,
once set in motion, tends to penetrate
all domains of life, from economic
activities to social life to political
institutions, in a self-reinforcing process.
Mod-ernization brings an intense
awareness of change and innovation,
linked with the idea that human
societies are progressing.
Modernism in Indian literature, like
Indian modernity, resists neat
definitions. Just as
experiences of modernity outside the
Western world have prompted accounts
of ‘alternative,’ ‘colonial,’ or
‘vernacular’ modernity’s, literary
modernism in India calls fora
recognition of historical and locational
specificities. A perplexing diversity of
languages, communities and literary
cultures, the continued life of oral
traditions and uneven levels of literacy,
and complexities of political and
economic realities in postcolonial India
confront attempts to chart modernism’s
career in India.
In Indian society today, there exists a
sort of “misconceived modernity” or
mis-match of westernization &
modernisation. In metros and big cities
life has become notoriously
westernized, western culture is aped
mostly by the youth in their life style
like food habits, dress, music, dance.
Night club family life and the like.
It is debatable to identify which
traditional and orthodox elements in
India have to be cast off and which have
to be retained. Yet, the agreed view
favours a synthesis of tradition and
modernity. The evolution around the
short stories takes a staunch attitude in
changing the norms of the society. The
writers started hitting the taboos of
patriarchal society, where men
dominated the desires and need of
women. Where both socio-political and
economical movements of women were
backlashed. The writers had made up to
certain revolutions by penning down
their thoughts into stories and breaking
down the stereotypes. Short stories that
left a mark in the whole thought process
of modernization were Hansda
Sowvendra Shekhar's ‘The Adivasi will
not dance’, Bhagwati chanan panigrahi's
‘Shikaar' (The hunt) has made a huge
impact on the society. It led to a huge
hubbub around the people in Orissa and
this text has made a huge shift in
Orrisa's literature. Saadat Hasan Manto
has always uphold a political gesture in
his writings, being in Pakistan he had
always strived his ways through political
and social dogma of his place. It was the
selection of shocking and real life stories
which makes Manto one of the most
controversial short-story writer
of the time. He was never afraid to
expose the madness, nakedness and
hollowness of the society
around him. His short story ‘Toba tek
singh ‘ comes up with a political satire
and engulfs the injustice of partition.
‘The last song' by Temsula Ao, ‘Chaprasi’
and other short stories have been the
epitome of Modernization.

Manto, the more real than realists or to

say socio-realists,
tragically showcased the real life stories
of the victims exposed
to the partition, both from India and
Pakistan. In the story Toba tek singh
through the metaphor of madness,
Manto hit like a red-rag upon those who
were not-mad, especially the polticians.
The story illustrates the partition issue
how it has jeopardised several million
lives. Here he outcast the madness of a
person into a symphony of political
revolt. The protagonist Bashan Singh
who was Sikh by his customary religious
beliefs had spend his 15 years in mental
asylum. He owned a land in Toba tek
Singh that was all known about him His
relatives used to visit him once in a
month. Although he had very little sense
of time, he seemed to know when his
relatives were coming to visit. This visits
got stopped during the India/Pakistan
troubles. There were more lunatics who
were pondering on the facts of
Partition, they were all in thirst of
knowing where would be this two
separate lands and where will they be
sent. A Hindu lawyer who has got mad
over his love affair found out that his
beloved being Hindu would be sent to
India and he we will be left alone
Pakistan, it clearly depicts how Manto
has clearly shown the division of love
and separation of lovers by the wires of
partition. The lunatics of asylum raised
very logical and big questions, but sadly,
these questions were never answered
by the politicians of the time. Thus, the
madness was a symbol through which
Manto hit a metaphorical slap on the
faces of Jinnah and Nehru for the
political violence that erupted across
the borders. When it was time to
exchange the lunatics between two
countries and It was decide that Bashan
Singh will be taken to India he was
brought out to Wagah Border where he
asked the officials "Where is Toba Tek
Singh? Is it in Pakistan or India?" The
officials said “It's in Pakistan.” Hearing
this they couldn’t console Bashan Singh
to move to the other side of the border
in spite of the fact that his whole family
including his daughter was sent to India.
This all because all he remembered that
he had a land there which is now in
Pakistan. "Toba Tek Singh is here!" he
cried. Then he started raving at top
volume: "Upar di gur gur di annexe di
be-dhiyana mang di daal of di Toba Tek
Singh and Pakistan!" So they him free as
he didn’t do any harm. After a certain
period of time they heard a sound.
Officials came running from all sides.
“After fifteen years on his feet, he was
lying face down on the ground. India
was on one side, behind a barbed wire
fence. Pakistan was on the other side,
behind another fence. Toba Tek Singh
lay in the middle, on a piece of land that
had no name.” This portrays that Very
often a mad person is described as
someone who lives in dissociative
realities and lacks logic and reason (Oz).
This is how social norms have
constructed the difference between
sanity and madness. But in the case of
partition, the lunatics and their
thoughts on partition seem more logical
than the decision taken by the
government officials. Even the lunatics
could understand that being uprooted
from one’s homeland is traumatic.
Initially, the inmates are seen living
together happily without any communal
hatred. But only during and after
partition, when the country was torn
with communal hatred, the asylum also
sees instances of religious difference,
for instance when one of the mad men
calls himself Jinnah and another calls
himself Tara Singh, the leader of the
Sikhs, and violence is prevented by
shifting them to different cells. Bishan
Singh's madness was liberating who has
got immense courage in his spine to
neglect all orthodox partitions.

Shikaar(The Hunt)1 published in 1936,

has been acclaimed as a milestone in
the history of Odia literature. The
short story portrays the character of an
innocent santhala Ghinua, who
encounters the law of the civilized world
with all its intricacies and the reader
encounters the tribal world encroached
upon by the powerful clutch of the
Sarkar-Zamindar-Sahukar nexus. The
writer Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi
(1907-1943) was associated with the
Marxist ideology. He declared that
those who opposed the changes in the
society were the enemies of progress.
His writings reflect this conviction and
his dream of a classless society. Through
this short story he opens a new trend in
Odia literature where the oppressed
rose in revolt against the formidable
oppressor. Towards the end of the
nineteenth century an Odia middle class
gradually emerged as a result of sprea
of education and a nationalistic fervour.
This class created a public sphere that
discussed and debated the
contemporary issues affecting the
society. The protagonist of the story
Ghinua is a simple Santhal who, like
many Adivasis, is engaged in his own
life. He is a renowned hunter and he has
been awarded by the Deputy
Commissioner after killing two Royal
Bengal Tigers. The Sahukar Gobind
Sardar is a tyrant who kills, exploits and
loots a number of tribal people. He even
casts his lustful eyes on Ghinua’s wife. It
is too much for his innocent mind. He
beheads the tyrant and takes the
head wrapped in a gamchha (a piece of
cloth similar to a towel) to the Deputy
Commissioner covering thirty miles
through the forest. He demands his
reward as he has killed a dangerous
beast; more dangerous than a tiger.
This time he is more ambitious about
the reward (baksis) considering the risk
and danger involved. It is beyond
his understanding that he is a criminal
before law and must be punished. He is
arrested but he thinks that this
might be the procedure to reward him.
Till he is hanged he remains in this
illusion that he will be rewarded as he
has eliminated a devil. In the court also
he gives a detailed description of his act
and justifies why he should be
lavishly awarded. He is hanged but the
law of the land still remains an enigma
for him.
The much anthologized short story has
been discussed in several ways; as an
expression of Marxist ideology,
the protest by the peasant class against
the tyranny by the bourgeois, the social
turmoil created by the capitalist
economy, and the cultural penetration
into the tribal society by the so-called
civilized society. In Shikara, Ghinua is
executed without any
idea of his crime. The story ends in the
following manner.
At last the day of his hanging came. He
was asked about his last wish. He said,
“I want my baksis (reward)”.
“Well! Come to get your reward”. They
took him away. His face was covered
with a black cloth. Ghinua
thought gold and silver would be
poured in his hands after making him
blindfolded. The government must have
various techniques to give rewards. He
will show all those rewards when he
returns home. How delighted his
wife would be! He will spend life happily
after building a good house and
cultivating his land. Gobinda Sardar
is no more there to loot all his
belongings.
Suddenly something hit him on his neck.
The notion of guilt is not there in
Ghinua’s innocent character. As per the
proceeding of law his intention cannot
be questioned. He wants to get rid of
the dangerous Gobinda Sardar and as a
result he wants his reward from the
deputy commissioner. His mind cannot
accept the modern interpretation of the
Law and he does not feel any
remorse for his deed. In fact his
behaviour contradicts the mind-set of
criminals and goes against the opinions
of criminologists. Thus their nobility
makes them vulnerable in a world that
is not interested in the act but in the
guilt. Thus the fight takes place not
between the
criminal and the innocent but between
the knower and the ignorant.

The Adivasi Will Not Dance by Hansda

Sowvendra Shekhar has a collection of
10 short stories set up in Jharkhand. The
book got banned by the Jharkhand
government as they found it against the
dignity of women. In the story
"November is the Month of Migration"
the character Talamai kisku, a young
lady who moves from Jharkhand to
West Bengal to earn her living. In
between her journey he got pulled out
by a ‘Fair Jawan' of RPF. And Talamai
has to fulfil his physical desire for which
she will be paid bread pakoras. Talamai
is aware of what she does and she has
done it earlier even for the need to fill
her stomach. Talamia effortlessly
acknowledges the need of the Jawan for
the thirst of “ two cold bread pakoras
and a fifty rupee note.” In India this is
considered to be prostitution which is
termed to illegal. To earn money by
using one’s own body is considered to
be taboo. Presently in the days when
we have such a large number of
campaigns for destitution, general
mindfulness and
instruction, ladies like Talamai and
Tribals like Santhals still yield a
considerable measure for their essential
needs. They scarcely can bear the cost
of bread. Indeed, even the Christian
ministers who guarantee individuals
nourishment, great wellbeing and
instruction turn out to be con artists,
recently attempting to build number of
individuals of their religion is their
objective. Santhals guaranteed with
everything have turned Christians like
numerous other dalit/adivasi/minor
groups
yet to end up in the same or more awful
state. Each and everybody who gets a
possibility is attempting to breath out of
this interlacing economy, legislative
issues and social chain of importance
yet comes up short. Wherever they
motivate opportunity to acquire cash by
snare or hoodlum Santhals have took
yet just to get bread for a day or
thereabouts, nothing is helping them
raise their status from ground of
destitution and useless presence.
Talamai's activity show a photo of a
general public where everybody knows
about the flippant and profane exercises
yet the higher ones are taking joy of it
and lower ones too have their family's
stomachs to bolster and the rest
couldn't care less as it doesn't concern
them. Dislike everybody ought to wind
up noticeably a social specialist but
rather ought to at least attempt to
change the discernment towards
individuals who are poorer and lower to
us in our general public.

The book ends with the story “The

Adivasi Will Not Dance” starts on a
suppressive note “ They pinned me to
the ground they didn’t let me protest
they didn’t even let me raise my head
and look at my fellow dancers and
musicians as they were being beaten up
by the police.” Which shows the voice
of Santhals, Adivasi and Dalits are never
being heard. They are always beimg
tormented and suppressed by the upper
section of the society. The story tales
the tell where a man of sixty, who was a
farmer long back manages a troop of
dancers and singers. He proclaims the
tribe to be foolish who are made to
dance as a puppet by the power
bearers. They face the lack of security in
their own land where women had to sell
themselves for their bread and butter or
they get raped by the Muslims out there
whom they call Jolha whom they
trusted with their land but they
occupied it and made tolas of their own.
Jharkhand, a state rich of natural
resources, has a place as much with
Santhals with regards to the general
population who call themselves the
harbingers of advancement there, or
more. Santhals are not tended to much
by anyone not by the political pioneers
or the upper standing Hindus who
would prefer even not to live close
them. The upper caste Hindus need
them to "stop eating cow-
meat" and their other every day
propensities and basically leave their
personalities. As Murmu says "we are
losing... our identities, and our roots.
We are becoming people from
nowhere". The "Adivasi culture' and
'Adivasi dance' that Murmu and his
colleagues perform are consecrated to
him and all Santhals "But hunger and
poverty has driven us to sell what is
sacred to us." He says that "Diku are
quick to call Jharkhand their own. But
when it comes to displaying Jharkhandi
culture the onus of singing and dancing
is upon the adivasi alone." Their coals
have been used by others and they have
to re-steal them to earn their living as
they are not good with business they
sell it away at the cost of their basic
necessities. "Bharat Mahaan’, what
mahaan? I pondered." The treacherous
conduct done to the santhal made the
storyteller disheartened to an extent
where he feels that there is no one to
live up to their wants. Along with the
characters and author even the
persuer's hopeful perspective of life is
Shaken yet the essayist can't be
reprimanded for the limit components
in the content as the truth of the tribes,
for example, Santhals is intensely
anguishing. Murmu brought out a
revolution that the Adivasis will not
dance unless their lands are given back
to them. But as the outcome is known
to us there is no reward given to Murmu
nor is his voice listened, no equity is
done to the thousand poor souls
however therefore Murmu's refusal
brings him beatings and he is sent to
imprison from where he portrays the
story. Gandhian beliefs are worshiped in
books and talks however no place else
in all actuality. This book of short stories
has brought forth the despair faced by
the santhals and they have outraged to
an extent that the government needs to
take a toll in changing the norms.
Though being banned by the Jharkhand
government the book throws the light
over the tribe that has never been
heard or been taken care of. And this
clearly depicts the political condition of
our society where if one raises his voice
against the deeds of the government or
socio structure their voices are meant to
be curbed down by the powers.

There have been great deal of short

stories that stirs the feast of
modernization and thus breaking the
dos and don’ts of the society and acting
as a way of protest.