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.