Describe the ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging.

The ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a

sense of pan-Indian belonging were:

→ Many historical novels were about Marathas and the Rajputs

which produced a sense of a pan—Indian belonging in Bengal.

They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism,

romance and sacrifice. The novel allowed the colonized to give a

shape to their desires.

→ Bankim’s Anandmath is a novel about a secret Hindu militia

that fight Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel

that inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.

→ Shivaji, the hero of the novel Anguriya Binimoy (1857) written

by Budhadeb Mukhopadhyaya’s (1827-94) engages in many

battles against clever and treacherous Aurangzeb, what gives

him courage and grit is his belief that he is a nationalist fighting

for the freedom of Hindus.

→ Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel

helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common

nation. It was another way to include various classes in the novel

so that they could be seen as belonging to a shared world.

Premchand’s novels, for instance, are filled with all kinds of

powerful characters drawn from all levels of society.

Describe how the issue of caste was included in novels in India. By referring to any two novels, discuss the ways in which they tried to make readers think about existing social issues.

Indians used the novel as a powerful medium to criticize what

they considered defects in their society and to suggest

remedies. The issue of caste was included in Indian novels for

this same purpose. Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were

written by members of the uppercastes with upper-caste

characters.

→ Potheri Kunjambu, a lower-caste writer from north Kerala,

wrote a novel called Saraswativijayam in 1892. It was a direct

attack on caste oppression. The novel’s hero, an ‘untouchable’

leaves his village to escape from cruelty of a Brahmin overlord.

He converts to Christianity, receives modern education and

returns to his village a judge of a local court. In the meantime,

the villagers bring the landlord to his court, they believe the

landlord’s men had killed the hero. The judge reveals himself

and the Nambuthri landlord repents and promises to reform.

The novel emphasizes the role of education in uplifting the

lower classes.

→ In 1920, a Bengali novel Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1956)

written by Advaita Malla Burman takes up the cause of ‘low

castes’. The people described are the Mallas - community

of fishermen. The story covers three generations and describes

the oppression of the upper castes. The lives of the Mallas is tied

with river Titash. As the river dries, the community dies too. This

novel is special because the author himself a ‘low caste’

describing the anguish of low-caste people.

In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for both the colonisers as well as the nationalists?

The novel in colonial India was useful for both the colonisezs as

well as the nationalists on account of a variety of reasons.

Colonial rulers found "vernacular" novels illuminating for the

information they provided on native customs and life. It was

useful in the governance of this diverse country. Indian

nationalists used the form of the novel to criticize colonial rule

and instill a sense of national pride and unity amongst the

people.

Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women reading novels. What does this suggest about how women were viewed?

The concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and

India about women reading novels bore more or less similar

fears. Women were seen as easily corruptible and an imaginary

world that the novel provided was seen as a dangerous opening

for the imaginations of its readers. In certain Indian

communities, it was felt that women who read novels would

leave their domestic environments and aspire to be part of the

outside world- the male domain.

This suggests that women were viewed as delicate and

incapable of being independent. They were merely expected to

marry a man who could take care of their financial needs while

they maintained his household and remained subservient to

him.

Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Social changes in 19th century Britain highlighted by Thomas

Hardy:

→ The breaking up of rural communities because of

industrialization. Due to industrialization, peasants who toiled

with their lands were disappearing as large or big farmers

enclosed lands, bought machines and employed labourers to

produce for the market.

→ In his novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, Hardy mourns the loss of

the more personalized world which is being replaced by a more

efficiently managed urban culture.

Social Changes Highlighted by Charles Dickens:

(1) Charles Dickens wrote mainly about the emergence of the

industrial age and it’s effects on society and the common

people.

(2) Growth of factories and expanded cities led to the growth of

business and economy and increased the profits of capitalists.

(3) At the same time workers faced immense problems. Use of

machines resulted in unemployment of ordinary labour; they

became homeless, creating a problem of housing. Pursuit of

profit became the goal of factory owners while the workers

were undervalued and almost lost their identity Human beings

were reduced to being mere instruments of production.

Write a note on: (a) The Oriya novel (b) Jane Austen's portrayal of women (c) The picture of the new middle class which the novel Pariksha-Guru portrays.

(a) In 1877-78, Ramashankar Ray started to serialize the first

Oriya novel, "Saudamini"; but it remained incomplete. Orissa's

first major novelist was Fakir Mohon Senapati. He wrote "Chaa

Mana Atha Guntha" that deals with land and its possession. This

novel illustrated that rural issues could be an important part of 

urban concerns.

(b) The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of

women in genteel rural society in mid-nineteenth century Britain.

Women, at that time, were encouraged to look for a good

marriage and find a wealthy and propertied husband. Her

famous novel 'Pride and Prejudice' depicts this well. It writes 'it

is the truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in

possession of good fortune must be in want of a good wife'. The

main characters are shown to be pre-occupied with marriage

and money.

(c) The novel "Pariksha-Guru" portrays the difficulties of the new

middle class in adapting to colonized society while preserving its

cultural identity. It emphasizes that Western ideals must be

inculcated, but without sacrificing the traditional values of

middle-class households. The characters in this Hindi novel by

Srinivas Das are seen endeavouring to bridge the two different

worlds of modern education and traditional ethics.

Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an increase in readers of the novel in eighteenth-century Europe.

→ Print made novels to be read widely and become popular

quickly.

→ Novels produced a number of common interests and a

variety of readers.

→ Readers were drawn into the story and identified themselves

with the lives of fictitious characters. They now could think

about issues like love and marriage, proper conduct for men and

women.

→ Prosperity, due to industrialization, made new groups join the 

readership for novels. Besides the aristocratic and gentlemanly

classes, new groups of lower-middle-class people such as

shopkeepers and clerks joined in.

→ The rise in the earnings of authors freed them the from the

patronage of aristocrats. They could now experiment with

different literary styles. Epistolary novel – Samuel Richardson’s

Pamela – written in the 18th century was the first of its kind. It

was a story told through letters.

→ Books became cheap and even the poor could buy them.

Circulating libraries made books easily accessible. Publishers also

started hiring out novels. Books could now be read in private or

could be heard by more people, while one of them read it out.

→ Magazines serialised stories (Charles Dickens’ Pickwick

Papers was the first), illustrated them and sold them cheap.

All these changes increased the number of readers.