Friday, February 3, 2012

The Concept of Tripple Oppression in the Novels of Gwendolyn Brooks and Bama

Oppression is a cunning strategy through which one section of the people is dominated and discriminated by other section, to enjoy some privileges. Creative writing brings into light the modes, consequences and the roots of oppression. This study is an attempt to expose the oppression faced by Dalit and Black women which are threefold - society, caste and race, and patriarchy. The present study is an inquiry into the threefold oppression which is analysed through two important writers: Gwendolyn Brooks and Bama. Brooks through her works narrates how society, race and patriarchy operate in a Black woman's life. She gives enough evidences in a novel Maud Martha, showing how a Black woman is considered as a non-entity or a non-belonger. Bama through the portrayal of Dalit women's life in Sangati from birth, childhood, marriage to death, reveals the Dalit women's struggle against the society, caste and patriarchy. the entire study focuses on these two writers representing there own communities to show the oppression they face in their daily life. The first chapter focuses on the significance and relevance of comparative Literature. Then it goes on to deal with the characteristics of African American literature and Dalit literature and also highlights how Brooks and Bama represent Black and Dalit feminism. The second chapter discusses in brief the cause and nature of oppression. It contains a short synopsis of the two novels Maud Martha and Sangati. The third chapter analyses the two books and shows how triple oppression acts as a powerful force in determining the life of Black and Dalit women. The fourth chapter narrates the optimistic tone of the novelists Brooks and Bama. It pinpoints the similarities and differences between both the novelists. The final chapter sums up the comparative study of both the novels and also the suggestions put forth by Brooks and Bama to break the oppression. for further details contact ek12385@gmail.com

TRAIN TO PAKISTAN

Mano Majra, a small village in Punjab, serves as the fictional setting of Train to Pakistan. It is situated on the Indo-Pak border, half a mile away from the river Sutlej. In spite of bloodshed and rioting in the frontier area, life in Mano majra remains peaceful. The river is spanned by a rail road bridge. On one heavy August night five dacoits, led by Mali, raid the house of Ram Lal, the village money lender, and commit robbery and murder. On their way out they fire shots in the air and throw bangles in the house of Juggat Singh, who has not joined them. At the time Jugga has gone out in the fields to meet Nooran, his beloved. Jugga has had an inglorious past; his father has been hanged for murder; he has served several terms in jail and is now released only conditionally. He is required not to leave his home after sunset. But the call of Nooran’s love is too strong for him and he goes out to meet her. They are locked in each other’s arms till they hear the sound of gun fire. Nooran is the blind Muslim weaver’s daughter and the whole village knows of her association with Jugga. Almost at the same time when Mali and his gang are committing dacoity and Jugga and Nooran are engaged in a loving embrace. Hukum Chand, the district magistrate, is involved in a sordid affair with Hareena, a teenager prostitute at the officers’ Rest House across the bridge. His mouth smells of whisky, tobacco and pyorrhea. As he starts fumbling with her dress, he hears the sounds of shots, noises of distant people, and he swears and leaves the girl. Next morning policemen arrive at Mano Majra to conduct an inquiry into the murder. The same train brings Iqbal (Singh), a western-educated, immature socialist to Mano Majra. He has been deputed by his party to create political consciousness among peasants at that crucial period. He arrives at the village Sikh Temple – Gurudwara-, meets Meet Singh, but, to his surprise, is later arrested. He and Jugga are both held or grounds of mere suspicion. He is arrested by sheer mistake but is later suspected to be a Muslim Leaguer. The police inspector has stripped him naked merely to observe whether he is ‘circumcised’ and, therefore, a Muslim. Events move fast and the fate of individuals in Mano Majra is almost overwhelmed by catastrophic events of the partition. The arrival of the ghost train, filled with corpses at Mano Majra from Pakistan created a commotion. Sikhs and Muslims, who have lived together for centuries, are engulfed in a fratricidal conflict. The scene of their meeting and consultation is pathetic. Mass madness in the air and it invades Mano Majra too. Muslims of evacuating to a refugee camp for departure to Pakistan later. Nooran, who is with Jugga’s child, receives no encouragement from his mother and is taken to a camp of intending evacuees. Meanwhile no evidence is obtained by the police for Jugga’s or Iqbal’s part in Ram Lal’s murder, and they are released on purpose by Hukum Chand. Fanatical outriders are busy with revengeful activities and they plan to blow up the bridge and the train which is scheduled to carry Muslim refugees to Pakistan in retaliation for what Pakistani Muslims have done to Hindus trying to cross over into India. Jugga went to Mano majra only to find that Nooran has been taken to the camp. She is to board the train to Pakistan. Then Jugga climbs the steel spans of the bridge and begins to slash at the rope with a kirpan. The leader of the Hindu saboteurs fires at him, but Jugga clings to it with his hands and cuts the rope in shreds. The engine of the in coming train is almost on him.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Type-cast roles in Anita Desai’s "Where shall we go this summer"

Eating, breathing, working and sleeping are not the only activities for which God created woman. If a woman were to spend her married life in complete servitude with a notion that Nature has allotted to her a capacity to love her husband and rear children who would one day be exemplary citizens, then that life would be a barren existence. An existence that is totally devoid of creativity and experimentation is pathetic and yet it is still what Indian males expect their women to be. Anita Desai’s Where shall we go this summer illustrates this point convincingly. Anita Desai has chosen ‘Sita’ as the name for her heroine in this novel because, for the Indian consciousness, Sita stands for the typical Indian woman who is pious, beautiful and loyal to her husband and these are the qualities of Lord Rama’s wife Sita in the Ramayana. Mythology has the uncanny habit of planting deeply rooted ideas and concepts in the minds of people. It is very hard for a generation to forget this image planted in the collective unconscious realm (As Jung would describe it). One cannot forget any incident overnight and how much so for a generation to forget the heroes and heroines of mythology! Bearing children, whether the woman desires for it or not, seems to be the order of the day in Where shall we go this summer . Bearing the fifth child becomes the point of contention for Sita and it is as if each child’s birth and arrival at the homestead reinforces the fact that Sita is destined to a life of drudgery. Sita goes to the island in search of freedom and instead confronts nothing that is very different from what she experienced in the city. She flees into wilderness to find her wild side but the island disappoints her by pointing out the barrenness in her life through a very uneventful life. It is a disappointment of many sorts in the sense, Sita becomes more acutely aware of her barrenness in the island more than what she felt during her stay in the city. In other words, It is a thwarted escape, an escape into another kind of prison; an escape from a prison made of crude metal bars into a prison made of golden bars.