The Great Indian Novel
A Post- Modernist Reading.
The paper explores the Post-Modernist genre of the ‘The Great Indian Novel’ which is an
equal blend of epic, facts and fictions.
Post-modernist literature blends literary genres, cultural and
stylistic levels, the serious and the playful and they also resist
classification according to traditional literary rubrics. It has parallels with
post- structuralism in literary theory says M.H Abrams in his book ‘a glossary
of literary terms’. Shashi Tharoor’s novel ‘The Great Indian Novel’ (1989), was
written when post-modernism was about to come to an end, to find the elements
of post-modernism we will analyze the novel based on the following features;
intertexuality, pastiche, paranoia, satire, hyper-reality, late capitalism,
post-world war 2 and metafiction. Fredrick Jameson says that post-modernism is
a sign of hollow world in which any sense of history has been lost and replaced
with a stream of images. These fragmented images of history and epic compressed
together can be seen in ‘The Great Indian Novel’.
Is the novel a parody of the epic form? Does it mock the
ancient text of Mahabharata? No. the novel very creatively and brilliantly
takes the plot and character of the epic and puts in them the very soul of the
Indian independence movement. The term epic according to M.H Abrams “is a long
verse narrative on a serious subject, told in formal elevated style and
centered on heroic figure whose actions determine fate of the nation”. In the novel
there is no fixed heroic figure, but the fate of nation does depend upon a
certain few. The novel definitely imitates a grand narrative style of epic and
starts in medias res but it does not
mock the form. It celebrates the form and takes it ahead as something necessary
for the story telling.
There is no exact date as to when post-modernism began, but
artists because of the Holocaust and World War 2, began employing certain
techniques and attitudes in their work and these later on became the criteria of
post-modernist novel. So is the novel then modernist, proto- modernist or post-
modernist? The novel was written in 1989 which is basically when post-
modernism was coming to an end and contemporary novel was starting to make its
place in literature. The time period depicted in the novel is however before
during and sometime after the Indian independence. The novel also depicts Pandu
(Subhash Chandra Bose) going to meet Hitler and Hitler in action. Pandu says
“Do you know who I am? Herr Hitler’s best friend”. (P.249). Hitler is someone
who is shown as didactic, Pandu wishes to indulge in non- violence like Hitler
to get India’s freedom. “No more “truth- force” only yuddha. It’s time to learn from that chap Hitler”. Tharoor makes
both of their attempts go in vain. There is a similarity between Hitler and
Pandu; Pandu knew if he indulges in sexual act he would die. So was he
committing suicide? “P…Pandu! What hath happened to you? (p.202). Hitler also
commits suicide. Both give up their life after encountering failure. The novel
is thus post-modernist since it was written in a time when the techniques of post-modernism
were very well known to the writers as well as audience.
Late capitalism began after World War 2, it shows a world
full of Mass Media (Arjun is representative of Mass Media in the novel),
consumerism, globalism and big corporation. So, in the novel after India has
attained its independence Arjun emerges as a journalist “I thought of Arjun
with his paradoxical mixture of attributes, as the spirit of Indian people, to
which he so ably gave voice as a journalist.” (p.459). After the independence
there comes a time when Arjun is confused about his role, it is then Krishna,
who tells him he should do his Karma without
wishing for a reward. Their talk is equivalent to the Gita in Mahabharata. Journalism and Mass Media became very
important in a capitalistic society. After the independence we see that the
morals were getting pushed back by profit. The officials were more interested
in earning profit than doing their work responsibly. Election funds were also
seen in trouble; corruption had taken its place in the “world’s largest
democracy “(p.562). Everyone was thinking of power and money. Different parties
had different ways of running the country but the common thing was they both
wanted profits and power. The showcasing of this society as capitalist is one
of the features of post-modernism.
Pastiche is a work of art it imitates the style or character
of work of one or more artists. It is different from parody since pastiche
celebrates the work it imitates and doesn’t mock it. Pastiche adopts the stylings of original but
doesn’t comment or make fun of the material. But what is post-modernism doing
then? According to Plato’s theory of
mimesis “art is twice removed from reality”. But in the case of post-modernism
isn’t art thrice or even more removed from reality? Can we even consider an
imitation a work of art or even more, a work of literature? Tharoor mixes and
matches works and characters, he doesn’t really create anything. One is
definitely overwhelmed seeing Draupadi as democracy, Bhisma as Gandhi ji,
Dhritarashtra as Pt. Nehru, Priya Duryodhani as Indira Gandhi and Karna as
Mohammed Ali Jinna. This combining of works as a celebration is what classifies
the novel as post-modernist. But why is post-modernism even considered
literature?? It’s just an imitation of works; wouldn’t it be equivalent to
plagiarism? The novel adopts the plot line of Indian epic Mahabharata and also
its characters but Tharoor replaces the names of those characters and important
movements with the name of Indian Freedom Struggle. By combining Mahabharata
and Indian Freedom Struggle ‘The Great Indian Novel’ qualifies for the category
of pastiche making it a post-modernist novel.
Paranoia believes that
there is an ordering system behind chaos of the world. Having no control of
what is happening currently. In the novel there are many instances of Paranoia,
some people want something done but some don’t, everyone had different views
and thus different actions take place which result in Paranoia. The most
significant examples are firstly of Pandu’s actions, he goes to Berlin ,
Singapore and other foreign countries to accumulate military help but fate goes
entirely against him and he commits suicide. The second is the partition of
India. Mohammed Ali Karna wants a separate country “the party resolved
unanimously to accept in principle the partition of the country. It was the
first time we had ever gone against the expressed wishes of Ganga ji”. (p.311).
Ganga ji who was not in favor of this, died soon after. “And he was gone, and
the light as Dhritarashtra was to say, went out of our lives”. (p.327). Does
paranoia lead to death? The third is when Yudhishtir is the deputy Prime
Minister but Priya Duryodhani does not listen to him and Yudhishtir resigns;
“he resigned” (p.493). Later on Duryodhani loses her position as the Prime
Minister but soon she comes back to power and we see VV ji dreaming about the
journey to afterlife of Pandavas and Draupadi. We see that this chaos that
things are just not going your way was what happening in the real world. There
were so many people of authority wanting more power and asserting their rule
that the result was a chaos. In the process of trying to control everything nobody
was able to control anything.
Hyper reality distinguishes reality from a simulation of
reality. In this real and fiction are so seamlessly blended together that
there’s no clear distinction between the beginning and end of each other. This
feature of hyper reality perfectly describes the novel; the epic and the
freedom struggle which are as real as they are fiction are blended into each
other. The fact that the narrator calls the text a story indicates that it can
be real as well as unreal. The truth validity of Mahabharata is also in doubts
so we know that the text is definitely a combination of fiction/ real or
real/real. But is the freedom struggle real? Is the inside information that we
get real? It is Tharoor who is writing and he is someone with a position and
perspective both. So is the text hyper real or the imagination of Tharoor?
Isn’t the text a product of imagination? If it is it must be biased and if it
is biased it can’t be completely real. So is the text entirely fictitious?
Fragmentation is quite popular as a feature; it was in
Romanticism, Gothicism, and modernism and even stuck to post- modernism. The difference
however is that Post- Modernists’ play with the idea of fragmentation and
others only mourned in that way. To post-modernists the fragmentation is a tool
they use to explore the chaos of the world. Is there fragmentation in the
novel? Well the novel moves from theme to theme and character to character
telling us the story but in between VV ji or the narrator tells Ganapathi that
he forgot to tell about a certain character. He gets so engrossed in the
character and what’s happening that he completely forgets about a character, he
talked in the past. But is this even fragmentation? If we look at the literal
meaning it means a break in the text or narrative, basically a non-linear
narrative. The text is surely linear, it moves from what happened first then
second and so on. But there are many breaks in the narrative. “Let us leave
them there for a minute, Ganapathi and take a quick look at others” (p.205), “I
can take story from here” (p.408) are some examples. The dreams that VV ji sees
are also an element of fragmentation and magic realism since it takes us away
from the reality. There are supernatural elements in the story which otherwise
in the real epic were quite a part of the text. The dreams of ‘disrobing of
Draupadi’ (p.551), ‘Arjun meeting Lord Shiva’ (p.577) and the ‘path to
salvation of Pandavas with Draupadi’ (p.604-607) are all in the text to explore
the features of fragmentation and magic realism.
Satire is used by Tharoor to ridicule the human or individual
voices, follies, abuses and short comings. The purpose of satire is to show
what the author disapproves of. But can satire tell us about morality since the
author only satirizes of which he personally disapproves of. In book sixth
‘Forbidden fruit’, Dhritarashtra becomes the head of Kaurava party and Pandu
deprived of his positions leaves the party. Ganga ji starts the Mango March
(allusion to salt march) and dies in the middle before any of the major
conflicts with national political parties starts. Mohammed Ali Karna wants a
separate nation, Karnistan (Pakistan). In book eleven ‘Renunciation- or, the
bed of arrows’ Tharoor tries to tell the trauma of partition by giving a clear
picture of how the land was divided. “Congratulations, Mr. Nicholas! ...you
have just succeeded in putting your international border through middle of the
market, giving the rice fields to Karnistan and warehouses to India. Largest
pig farm in Zilla to Islamic state and the Madrasah of the holy prophet to the
country the Muslims are leaving…the schoolmaster will require a passport to go
to the loo between classes.” (p.313).
Post modernism feminist strives for equality of all genders.
It fights for race and sexuality as well as on the basis of gender post-modernist
feminism thinks not just about white but any woman in need. The women bond not
because of a victimhood but they focus on survival and health. Women work in a
progressive way in this movement. Mary Joe Frug says that “sex is not something
natural, nor is it something completely determinate and deniable. Sex is a part
of a system of meaning, produced by language”. There are few female characters
compared to all the males, Satyavati, Kunti, Madri, Sarah- Behn, Duryodhani, Draupadi
and Subhadara. Only Duryodhani’s character challenges the norms of Ganga ji and
his kind of politics. Is Tharoor uplifting women? Or because Duryodhani was a
male in the original epic that he makes his character very empowering? Is he
then making all other women seem inferior? Draupadi was a very fiery and
majestic character in Mahabharata but here we see her fate depends on what her
husbands and Priya Duryodhani do. In book sixteenth ‘the Bungle book- or, The
Reign of Terror’, D.Mokrasi is seen having ill-effect on her health and finally
“and Draupadi Mokrasi was diagnosed as asthmatic, her breath coming sometimes
in short gasps, the dead air trapped in her bronchia struggling to expel
itself, her chest heaving with the effort to breathe freely…”(p.507). The women
characters have one or many incidents where they are sexually exposed. Kunti
and Madri have affairs with other men to produce sons. Madri dies while
indulging in a sexual act with Pandu, “she was gasping, ‘oh, yeth! Harder!
Harder!’”. Sarah Behn becomes a victim to the self- control of Ganga ji. “Sarah
Behn will sleep in my room from now on- and in my bed” (p.318). Draupadi is
also unclad and robbed of her clothed in front of an assembly of men,
“Draupadi’s breasts swung tantalizingly in and out of view as she turned and
the sari continued to unravel and faces leapt off the walls to look at her in
my dream”. (p.552). only Duryodhani is spared from any sexual contact. Why?
Because she takes on the role of a man- a prime minister? Why was Duryodhani
not commodified? Does Tharoor introduce equality of gender through this? Is he
a good feminist or a bad one? Is he even a feminist? Or is he a
misogynist? He strips woman off of their
clothes and presents them as some sort of sexual relief in the novel. Women in
the novel are not represented as they were in the original epic, no one comes
to take revenge for them neither do they speak up for themselves. Tharoor
compares the dressing style of an Indian and Western woman. He says Indian Sari
is better than western clothes, “if she had been wearing the skirts or dresses
or even the trousers of western democratic woman, she might have been far more
easily disrobed”. (p.557). like woman are deified as goddesses in India, Draupadi
is equaled to Democracy. The reader doesn’t see Draupadi as a person but as a
thing, a way to govern a nation. She does not have an identity but becomes a
way to give identity to others around her.
Metafiction signals that a text emphasizes itself as a text.
The text is aware that it’s a fiction. Post- modernism doesn’t hide what it
actually is, it is self-aware. In metafiction attention is called to the
process of writing and reading. This novel however falls into the category of
Historiographic metafiction which basically means that a fictional text is
mixed with history. History is not seen as a fact but it is put with fictional
things. In this novel there are many instances when the narrator VV ji tells
the reader that he is telling a story. He does so by incorporating his role in
the novel and by indulging in talks with Ganapathi. The most prominent example
of this is the ending of the novel, “I see the look of dismay on your face. I
am sorry Ganapathi I shall have a word with my friend Brahm tomorrow. In the
meantime let us begin again”. (p.607). The novel starts with the narrator
asking for a writer to write the text. Throughout the novel we hear hi converse
with Ganapathi explaining him what happened and how he should not judge, other
times he weaves a story in a story through his dreams.
The most important feature of post modernism is
intertexuality. Intertexuality is connection between texts and the author does
so by quotes and direct references. It means when we read the text two
relationships are formed, first between us and author and second between text
and other text. The relation of one text with other text is known as
intertexuality. The text is not in isolation but relates to other works of
literature. But why does it do so? For fun? Post modernists made so many
references because they wanted to show that individuals are not isolated
creatures. Roland Barthes said that post modernism is a multi-dimensional space
in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. With so
many references, is the author in control of the text? The challenging of
conventional norms of structure of novel and the act of narration is also a
feature of intertexuality known as fabulation. Tharoor comments on the use of
language “if every Australian novelist had to set down the speech of his
character to approximate the sounds they made rather than the words they spoke
do you think there would a single readable Australian novel in the world?”. He
then throws some big names of Tolstoy, Ruskin and Buddha at the reader along
with Saint Joan. Madri compares herself with Helen of Troy “do you think I’m
some thameleth Helen of Troy to trot off another man’th threed?” (p.260). He
also talks about Virgil “Don’t worry about a thing, as Virgil put it, “expert
credite”” and Horace “nescit vox missa reverti” (p.282). In between VV ji the
narrator reminds the characters that they should have studied their Epics,
“study your epics, young man” (p.274). Which Epic does he refer to? Mahabharata
is also an epic so if the characters know Mahabharata then don’t they know what
is happening? They should be aware of how destiny or Karma will affect their
lives. The narrator makes references to
Puranas and Vedas (451, 469), so if the people have read the Mahabharata then
they should know that they are one of the characters from the grand epic. Are
they unaware of the story or simply choose to ignore it? There is a mention of Kama sutra in the novel, “to most
foreigners who know nothing of India, the one Indian book they know anything
about is Kamasutra. To them it is the great Indian novel” (p.595). Why is the
Kama sutra seen as something taboo? The ancient people saw sex as a very
natural process which existed among all other things. Human mind is concerned
about money and survival only; sexual act is something which emerges from the
need for survival. Why does Tharoor make the nakedness of body and sexual acts
so eroticized? He shows them like he is transgressing by writing something like
this. Why can sex never be accepted as something which is natural as hell? It
will always have a prejudice clinging to it. Tharoor compares Priya Duryodhani
to Joan of Arc (p.603) because she emerges as a savior of India. There are
references to Ramayana, Gospel (p.572), Spenser (p.380) and Rudyard Kipling as
well. Shashi Tharoor does not wish to make the text isolated and thus gives us
many references to other texts which make this text highly Post- Modernist.
‘The Great Indian Novel’ which translates as Maha- Bharata is
a Post-modernist novel according to theme of intertexuality, metafiction,
fabulation, pastiche, paranoia, satire, feminism, late capitalism, and hyper
reality. Tharoor smartly puts in the Indian freedom struggle in the ancient
epic Mahabharata and creates a fantastic fictional text.
WORKS CITED
Abrams, M.H. ‘A Glossary of Literary Terms’. Cengage
Learning. 2014. Print.
Jameson, Fredrick. ‘Post-Modernism and Cultural logic of late
capitalism’. Rawat publications. 2012. Print.
Tharoor, Shashi. ‘The Great Indian Novel’. Penguin random
house India. 2014. Print.
Deepali Yadav
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GOOD WORK
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