BHUMI DANGI
SEMESTER 4, M.A.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,
MK BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY.
ASSIGNMENT.
PAPER – 13 – NEW LITERATURE.
TOPIC - "India of 'light' and India of
'Darkness' in 'White Tiger' & 'Swamp' of 'city' & 'Villege' in 'Swamp
Dwellers"
TO EVALUATE MY ASSIGNMENT,
…The Swamp Dwellers
The Swamp Dwellers focuses on the struggle
between the old and the new ways of life in Africa.
It also gives us a picture of the cohesion that existed between the individual
and southern Nigerian society. The conflict between tradition and modernity is
also reflected in the play. The play mirrors the socio-cultural pattern, the
pang and the sufferings of the swamp dwellers and underlines the need for
absorbing new ideas. The struggle between human beings and unfavourable forces
of nature is also captured in the play. Soyinka presents us the picture of
modernAfrica where the wind of
change started blowing.
The
Swamp Dwellers is a close
study of the pattern of life in the isolated hamlets of the African countryside
as well as an existential study of the simple folk who face rigours of life
without any hope or succour. Soyinka tears apart social injustice, hypocrisy
and tyranny. The Swamp
Dwellers expresses the
necessity for a balance between the old and the new. Soyinka is not for
excessive glorification of the past. In the play we see Soyinka’s crusade
against authoritarianism, complacency and self delusion. Besides, in The Swamp Dwellers Soyinka satirises the betrayal of
vocation for the attraction and power in one form or another.
The
Swamp Dwellers reflects the
life of the people of southern Nigeria.
Their vocation mainly is agro based. They weave baskets, till and cultivate
land. They believe in serpent cult. They perform death rites. They offer grain,
bull, goat to appease the serpent of the swamp. Traders from city come there
for crocodile skins. They lure young women with money. Alu withstands their
temptation. Young men go to the cities to make money, to drink bottled beer. In
fact the city ruins them. The
Swamp Dwellers consummate
their wedding at the bed where the rivers meet. They consider the river bed
itself as the perfect bridal bed. Sudden flood ruin the crops throwing life out
of gear.
The swamp dwellers are hospitable.
They give cane brew in calabash cups. Fly sickness blinds them. Merry making
and drumming both go together in their lives. Sheep and goats are fed on
cassava. They believe in salutations through drumming. They believe in sooth
saying. Any attempt to reclaim the land from the swamp is considered an
irreligious act. Friends who meet after a whole season indulge in drinking
bouts. When the stream is swollen people are ferried across by folk like
Wazuri. The swamp dwellers believe in the infallibility of Kadiye, priest of
the serpent of the swamp. Their belief is exploited by Kadiye to the hilt.
Igwezu questions Kadiye and his ways. It tells us of the clash between
tradition and modernity in southern Nigeria.
Rain brings them hope. It brings the marvel of new birth to the land. Water
plays the role of both the creator and destroyer in the life of the swamp
dwellers. Crops are suddenly destroyed by the swarming locusts.
The
Swamp Dwellers makes use of
contrast, parallelism, humour and irony in a suitable manner. Soyinka focuses
the plight of the swamp dwellers in the play realistically. The swamp dwellers
are at the mercy of furious nature unless they compromise tradition with
modernity, embrace modern technology they wouldn’t have a bright future.
…THE WHITE TIGER
The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga.
It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year.[1] The novel provides a darkly humorous
perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a
retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing
Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich
landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his
master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste,
loyalty, corruption and poverty in India.[2] Ultimately, Balram transcends his
sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own
taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty and
underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, "tomorrow."
The novel has been well-received, making the New York Times bestseller list in addition to winning
the Man Booker Prize.[3] Aravind Adiga, 33 at the time, was the
second youngest writer as well as the fourth debut writer to win the prize in
2008.[4] Adiga says his novel "attempt[s]
to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India — the voice
of the colossal underclass."[5]According
to Adiga, the exigence for The
White Tiger was to capture
the unspoken voice of people from "the Darkness" – the impoverished
areas of rural India, and he "wanted to do so without sentimentality or
portraying them as mirthless humorless weaklings as they are usually.
Balram Halwai narrates his life in a
letter, written in seven consecutive nights and addressed to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao.
In his letter, Balram explains how he, the son of a rickshaw puller, escaped a life of servitude to
become a successful businessman, describing himself as an entrepreneur.
Balram was born in the rural village of Laxmangarh,
where he lived with his grandmother, parents, brother and extended family. He
is a smart child but is forced to leave school in order to help pay for his
cousin's dowry and begins to work in a teashop with
his brother in Dhanbad.
While working there he begins to learn about India's government and economy
from the customers' conversations. Balram describes himself as a bad servant
but a good listener and decides to become a driver.
After learning how to drive, Balram finds a job driving
Ashok, the son of one of Laxmangarh's landlords. He takes over the job of the
main driver, from a small car to a heavy-luxury described Honda City.
He stops sending money back to his family and disrespects his grandmother
during a trip back to his village. Balram moves to New Delhi with Ashok and his wife Pinky Madam.
Throughout their time in Delhi, Balram is exposed to extensive corruption,
especially in the government. In Delhi, the contrast between the poor and the
wealthy is made even more evident by their proximity to one another.
One night Pinky Madam takes the wheel from Balram, while
drunk, hits something in the road and drives away; we are left to assume that she
has killed a child. Ashok's family puts pressure on Balram to confess that he
had been driving alone. Ashok becomes increasingly involved in bribing
government officials for the benefit of the family coal business. Balram then
decides that killing Ashok will be the only way to escape India's Rooster Coop. After bludgeoning
Ashok with a bottle and stealing a large bribe, Balram moves to Bangalore,
where he bribes the police in order to help start his own taxi business. When
one of his drivers kills a bike messenger, Balram pays off the family. Balram
explains that his own family was almost certainly killed by Ashok's relatives
as retribution for his murder. At the end of the novel, Balram rationalizes his
actions and considers that his freedom is worth the lives of his family and of
Ashok. And thus ends the letter to Jiabao, letting the reader think of the dark
humour of the tale, as well as the idea of life as a trap introduced by the writer.
Balram Halwai narrates his life in a letter, written in seven
consecutive nights and addressed to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao. In his letter, Balram explains how
he, the son of a rickshaw puller,
escaped a life of servitude to become a successful businessman, describing himself
as an entrepreneur.
Balram was born in the rural village
of Laxmangarh, where he lived with his
grandmother, parents, brother and extended family. He is a smart child but is
forced to leave school in order to help pay for his cousin's dowry and
begins to work in a teashop with his brother in Dhanbad. While working there he begins to
learn about India's government and economy from the customers' conversations.
Balram describes himself as a bad servant but a good listener and decides to
become a driver.
After learning how to drive, Balram
finds a job driving Ashok, the son of one of Laxmangarh's landlords. He takes
over the job of the main driver, from a small car to a heavy-luxury described Honda City. He stops sending money back to his
family and disrespects his grandmother during a trip back to his village.
Balram moves to New Delhi with
Ashok and his wife Pinky Madam. Throughout their time in Delhi, Balram is
exposed to extensive corruption, especially in the government. In Delhi, the
contrast between the poor and the wealthy is made even more evident by their
proximity to one another.
One night Pinky Madam takes the wheel
from Balram, while drunk, hits something in the road and drives away; we are
left to assume that she has killed a child. Ashok's family puts pressure on
Balram to confess that he had been driving alone. Ashok becomes increasingly
involved in bribing government officials for the benefit of the family coal
business. Balram then decides that killing Ashok will be the only way to escape
India's Rooster Coop. After bludgeoning Ashok with a bottle and
stealing a large bribe, Balram moves to Bangalore, where he bribes the police in order
to help start his own taxi business. When one of his drivers kills a bike
messenger, Balram pays off the family. Balram explains that his own family was
almost certainly killed by Ashok's relatives as retribution for his murder. At
the end of the novel, Balram rationalizes his actions and considers that his
freedom is worth the lives of his family and of Ashok. And thus ends the letter
to Jiabao, letting the reader think of the dark humour of the tale, as well as
the idea of life as a trap introduced by the writer.
Globalization
The White Tiger takes place in a time in which
increased technology has led to world globalization, and India is no exception.
In the past decade, India has had one of the fastest booming economies.
Specifically Americanization in
India has played its role in the plot, since it provides an outlet for Balram
to alter his caste. To satisfy Pinky’s want for American culture, Ashok, Pinky,
and Balram simply move to Gurgaon instead of
back to America. Globalization has assisted in the creation of an American
atmosphere in India. Ashok justifies this move by explaining "Today it’s
the modernest suburb of Delhi. American Express, Microsoft,
all the big American companies have offices there. The main road is full of
shopping malls—each mall has a cinema inside! So if Pinky Madam missed America,
this was the best place to bring her".[6] By blackmailing Ram Persad, the
other driver, Balram is promoted and drives Ashok and Pinky to their new home.
Ashok is even convinced India is
surpassing the USA, "There are so many more things I could do here than in
New York now...The way things are changing in India now, this place is going to
be like America in ten years".[7] Balram is noticing the rapid
growth as well. From the beginning of his story he knows that in order to rise
above his caste he should become an entrepreneur. Although his taxi service is
not an international business, Balram plans to keep up with the pace of
globalization and change his trade when need be. "I‘m always a man who
sees ‘tomorrow’ when others see ‘today.’"[8] Balram's recognition of the
increasing competition resulting from globalization contributes to his corruption.
TO EVALUATE MY ASSIGNMENT,
