HINDU MYTHS IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIAN WRITINGS IN ENGLISH

Abstract

While myths have been an inseparable part of human existence, the mythical stories associated with them have been recognized as the most significant tools towards comprehending the human predicament. With a critical survey and analysis of myths in general, this thesis intends to examine the nature of Hindu myths in particular and their creative employment in the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterji, Raja Rao, Dharamvir Bharati, Shivaji Sawant, Shashi Tharoor and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni among others. The thesis attempts a critical evaluation of the conflicting as well as complementing nature of the dichotomous and confounding relationship between Myths and Science as the two different ways of human communication. With its six distinct chapters, the present study begins with the first, the Introduction, which presents a detailed analysis of mythology as a discipline with its roots in antiquity and discusses its functions and interconnectedness with other disciplines. It examines the role of myths in giving ‗shape and significance‘ to the ideals of a given society while arguing how the ‗primitive humans‘ had been ‗myth-makers‘ even during the times as early as the Palaeolithic Era of human civilization. Through a brief and critical employment of the findings of the anthropologists and cultural theorists including Bronislaw Malinowski, Joseph Campbell and Claude Levi-Strauss among others, the thesis attempts to resolve the perceived conflict between history and mythology as two different and often contradicting concepts with their roots in the philosophical writings of Plato, a dichotomy which proceeded into the formation of strict hierarchies favouring the one over the other––history over myth––during the heydays of European colonization. In the light of arguments put forth by the mythologists including Joseph Campbell, Robert A. Segal, Claude Levi-Strauss, Bultmann among others, the chapter serves as the expository background to the ongoing discussion related to the work. The second chapter, Nation and its Narration: Mythography as Literature, discusses the role of narratives in formation the idea of ‗nation‘. In the light of the propositions of some of the important theorists including Ernest Renan, Benedict Anderson and Homi K. Bhabha among others, the chapter examines the western notion of ‗nation‘ as fraught with the risk of a gross generalization of the term. In the light of the findings of these critics, the chapter presents a discussion around the term ‗nation‘ and the act of the ‗narration‘ as an inseparable agent towards its formation and dissemination as a cultural construct. The relatively more distant yet a relevant one, the idea of ‗rashtra‘ finds a detailed critical analysis in the study as a coterminous to the idea of ‗nation‘ as an ‗imagined community‘ or even ‗spiritual entity‘. The colonization of India, like several other countries of the world, has played a significant role in i defining the concept of nation, and the chapter aptly deals with the issue while employing the ideological construct of ‗rashtra‘ as the counterpart of ‗nation‘. Further, the literary writings of ancient Indian scholars like Kalidas, Bhavabhuti and Bhasa have been juxtaposed along with creative writings of some of the contemporary writers like Maithili Sharan Gupt, Jaishankar Prasad, Bharati, Shivaji Sawant, Shashi Tharoor, Devdutt Pattanaik and Chitra Divakaruni in order to underline the formation of what we can arguably quote, a Hindu mythography. The study also discovers the role of the two Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as the metaphorical rudder and reservoir of the Indian writings. The figuratively entitled third chapter, They Write Back: Bankim Chandra and Raja Rao, aptly presents a critical evaluation of the works of Bankim Chandra Chatterji and Raja Rao and analyses them as an act of resistance against the ruling dispensation i.e. the British colonizers. In the immediate context of the country‘s Freedom Struggle, these writings carry a significant space in that they were able to influence not only the revolutionaries but also the writers of successive generations. Bankim Chandra‘s political novel Anandamath established itself as a source for inspiration to the generations of revolutionaries in their rebellion against the oppressors. Written in the backdrop of the important though lesser known Sannyasi Rebellion during the eighteenth century famines and the eventual uprising, the novel attempts to capture the contemporary scene of chaos and anarchy with the help of the myth of Goddess as Bharat Mata (Mother India). The creative employment of the myth of Goddess is intended to depict the plight of Indians, ravished by the colonial subjugators and oppressors. It can be argued that the writer attempts to establish the role of a pious deity as the protector of impoverished Indians who have been left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of the great famine caused by the faulty policies of the emperors of the day. However, the Mother India (Bharat Mata) has been aptly portrayed in tattered garbs only to symbolize the decrepit state of the nation. Similarly, Raja Rao‘s Kanthapura falls back upon the myth of Ram as saviour and connects it with the image of Gandhi as the liberator of Nation. The Freedom Struggle of the Indians finds its counterpart in the myth of exile, struggle and the final repatriation of Ram to his kingdom in Ayodhya. With a similar verbal figuration as that of the previous one, the fourth chapter entitled The Hope that Was: Myths in Post-Independence Era, examines the use of myth as a literary device to give expression to the growing disenchantment against the political system in the country. With the works of Dharamvir Bharati (Andha Yug–The Dark Ages) and Shivaji Sawant (Mrityunjaya), the two notable authors writing in Indian languages, the chapter discusses their ii works in the light of modern theories including Neo Historicism. The text and tropes used in each of these works serve to highlight the socio-political milieu prevailing during the post Independence days thus encapsulating the entire scene of rising aspirations and crashing hopes of the citizens of a newly found country marked by the scars of the Partition and the frustration of the masses. The failure of governments and the resultant disillusionment and despondency among the masses, the futility of the successive wars with the neighboring countries like Pakistan as well as the internal strife and the abysmal situation of general hopelessness finds a mythological parallel in the Mahabharata. The subaltern and marginalized voices find a creative representation in Sawant‘s novel Mrityunjaya. The fifth chapter, The Hindu Myths in Contemporary Indian Writings, analyzes the literary representation of socio-political events in the Post-emergency India. Shashi Tharoor‘s The Great Indian Novel interrogates and dismantles the Eurocentric notion of ‗history‘ as well as their historiography. Other than this novel, the chapter also analyses Chitra Divakaruni‘s The Forest of Enchantments (2019) in the light of some of the most relevant theories. While the concluding chapter, entitled Conclusion, advocates the relevance of the study in present times, it also attempts to resolve some of the basic questions and tensions that seem to have emerged during the following discussion around the theme of use of Hindu myths in Indian writings in English.