The Glimpses of Human Rights and Society in the Novels “Untouchable” and “The God of Small Things”
Dr. Ravindra Ramdas
Borse
B.P.Arts, S.M.A.
Sci. and K.K.C. Com. College, Chalisgaon
Email:
ravindraborse1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The present study aims to observe the role of human rights in the
societies before and after the independence India. It is studied through the
novels of Indian writing in English. Here, it is an attempt to study, discuss
and find out the reflection and violation of human rights in Indian society
during pre-independence and post-independence period through the Indian fiction
in English with reference to the selected novels of Mulk Raj Anand and
Arunthati Roy. For this study two novels have been selected, first is
“Untouchable” and another one is “The God of Small Things”. Selection of these
writers and novels is based on the particular principles and thoughts. The
basic criterion of selecting these writers and novels is the issue of “Human
Rights”. Both the novels belong to two deferent periods of Indian history still
they have a common theme that is humiliation of mankind and violation of human
rights in the society. As we know that Mulk Raj Anand is the pioneer of Indian
writing in English. He is an eminent writer in the history of Indian English
Fiction. He is the first Indian writer who dared to write and raised the voice
of deprived people in pre- independent India. On the other hand, Arundhati Roy
is an author who belongs to post- independent period of India. In her novel,
she tries to show the real picture and approach of Indian literate society and
its people towards the poor and backward people through the depiction of Indian
cultures and societies. In her novel “The God of Small Things”, she depicted the
real picture of Indian people and their approach towards the illiterate and
backward class people.
Above mentioned novels have been
selected on the basis of following principles:
1. Both the
novels focus on different cultures with common agenda.
2. The
selected novels depict the plight and pathetic condition of downtrodden people
in Indian society before and after the independence.
3. The writers
of these novels have concern for underprivileged people.
4. Violation
of human rights has been keenly depicted by these authors in above mentioned
novels.
5. There is an
ample scope for the study of human rights and its violation in India as shown
in said novels.
KEYWORDS:
Deprived, underprivileged,
downtrodden, human rights, backward, literate, illiterate, pre-independence,
post-independence, plight, caste, creed, culture, multi-cultural,
multi-lingual.
INTRODUCTION:
“Human Rights” are rights which have
been offered to all human beings by birth with the purpose and aim of no
discrimination. Without ‘Human Rights’ it’s impossible to the people to leave
their life merrily. Each and every member in society needs of it. It helps all
the human beings to live with freedom and peace. “Human Rights” can be
considered as a basic rights or fundamental rights which have been offered to
every individual. These rights are crucial in our life just like the ‘Food’,’
Cloths’ and ‘Shelter’ as the three basic needs of every human beings. Human
rights have special significance in India and it also plays a vital role in the
country like India. Role of ‘Human Rights” in a country like India is quiet
complicated because it’s a large country in the world where people from
different caste, culture and religion.
Role of ‘Human Rights” throughout a country like India is quiet complicated because
it’s huge country within
the world where people from different caste, culture and
religion live together.
There are some other issues like population, poverty and lack of
education which affect the proper implementation of human rights in India. The
true beginning of “Human Rights” can be noticed on 10th December
1948 at Paris. It is a year when United Nation’s General Assembly accepted and
implemented the proposal of ‘Human Rights’ for world. But in India, it has been
taken into consideration and implemented on 2nd October 1993. An aim
of ‘Human Rights Commission of India’ is to stop manipulation of Indians by the
bureaucracy and safeguard the rights of common people.
As we know, India is multicultural and multilingual country in which
people belongs to different caste, culture, community and creed still they live
together. Above discussion makes it cleared that India is multi-lingual and
multi-culture country. Due to these multi-culture and multi-lingual societies
in India there is a chance and possibility to discriminate among the people of
high caste and low caste. It has been noticed and observed from the past
references that Indian society (in the context of Hinduism) had been divided
into class / caste system (Vernas). The people were categorized into four
classes / castes (vernas) such as: 1.
Brahmin, 2. Kshatriyas, 3. Vaishyas, 4. Shudras. This class or verna system has
at less or maximum level been continued in pre and post- independence India
which we can notice in society and even in Indian writing as well. The
incidents of ‘Human Rights violation in society’ are truly presented in the
literary works of Mulk Raj Anand and Arunthati Roy. Number of words and sentences
in “Untouchable” and “The God of Small Things” shows it in a cleared manner.
For example, the words “Bhangis (Anand, p. 123), Chamars (Anand, p. 132),
Harijans (Anand, p. 131) were used in contemporary period for deprived people
of society to humiliate them by calling them with the use of their castes. To
prove this point we can go through the novel “Untouchable” in which one can
find number of examples of such discrimination among the people by the so
called upper class society in Indian history from beginning to the present era
by reading Indian literature. Indian literature is a mirror of society which
reflects and represents Indian society, specially marginalized communities. In
this context, the novel “Untouchable” and “The God of Small Things” are
appropriate examples of deprived people. These writers shade lights on human
rights’ violation in society through their respective novels. The characters
sketch of the “Bakha” in ‘Untouchable’ and “Velutha” in ‘The God of Small
Things’ are real depiction of underprivileged class in India. The themes of
these novels move around these characters only. As we go through the reading of
these novels it’s noticed that there is no life, freedom, peace and choice to
lower class people in society as every incident in the novels present
exploitation and humiliation of characters. Both ‘Bakha and Velutha’ are
victims of caste system. Mulk Raj Anand and Arundhati Roy aim to reflect caste
system and violation of human rights of these people in India in contemporary periods
through the character sketches ‘Bakha and Velutha’. Mahatma Gandhi insisted and
asked Mulk Raj Anand to give exposures to the plight of lower class communities
in pre-independent India during 1930s. Casteism was a kind of disease in India.
Even today, it has been continued in more or less amount directly or
indirectly. Lower class people were suppressed by upper class not only by
mental torture but also physically and socially. In this regard C.J. George
says, “Casteism is a social practice and no Hindu religious leader of any merit
and significance would admit it as part of his religion. Giving a place to
casteism in Hindu religion is done by certain wolves in sheep’s skin for
certain privileges and advantages” (p.40).
Human
Rights and Literature (The novels under consideration):
Human rights and literature both are
concerned to the human being and play crucial role in society. Progress and
development of mankind is the common agenda of human rights and literature.
Literature and human rights are age old concepts. The purpose of both of them
is to shade light on human life and bring illiterate downtrodden people in to
the flow. Thus, we can state that literature and human rights are two different
things with same motto. Both try to develop and correlate to mankind. These two
are the sources of the study and solutions to human challenges and issues of
lower class such as exploitation and manipulation. Human rights and literature
are the terms which harmonizing to one other. Therefore, it is necessary to
discuss these terms simultaneously. Indian English literature has a tradition
of raising issues of contemporary eras. Hereby, an attempt to study human
rights perspective through the novels ‘Untouchable’ and ‘The God of Small
Things’.
The novel “Untouchable is written by
Mulk Raj Anand in 1935. It has been set in pre-independent India. The setting
of the novel is of one day episode from morning to evening in which number of
events can be observed in the life of low caste communities in colonial period
of India. Mulk Raj Anand is one of the pioneers of Indian English Literature
who often raised the point of subaltern people through all of his literary
work. He is considered a champion of human rights as he depicted the true
picture of human psyche in his literary pieces. The very first work of Mulk Raj
Anand’s is ‘Untouchable’ where he pointed out the pathetic condition of
marginalized people in society who have badly been treated in the Indian
community by upper class. The story revolves around the prominent character
‘Bakha’. He is the man who has been fascinated by the upper class people in
society. He just tries to imagine and imitate the upper class military officers
life for oneself which highly impossible during the colonial India. We can
notice the situation of it from the opening lines of the novel which gives us a
vivid picture marginalized community and violation of their basic rights in the
contemporary period. It can be cleared from the beginning lines of the novel
“Untouchable”. The colony of these out caste people was settled in two rows
near the cantonment in the town but out of the reach of upper class colony. The
upper class people separated their colonies from the marginalised. There lived
the scavengers, the grass-cutters and other outcastes from Hindu society”
(Anand, p.1). Here, one can get an idea from the quote, how the place of living
and the people who have been privileged were differentiated and poorly treated.
During the pre-independence period lower class people were not allowed to join
or sit with upper class people and it could be the reason of illiteracy and
cause of lacking behind in lower class. Because they have never been allow to
get an education or join the stream of knowledge which was the only right for upper
class society. Education and performing prayers’ to God are the birth rights of
upper class only. It was the tendency of upper class people towards lower
class. Once Bakha was attracted by the worship “Sri Ram Chandarki Jai” (Long
live the Great God Ram) (Anand, p.52). He was fascinated and moved at temple
but was caught by the priest who shouted “Polluted, polluted, polluted”(Anand,
p. 52). Lower caste people were not
allowed to enter in the colonies of upper class. If he had to do so then must
announce his arrivals.
“You be sure to shout now,
you illegally begotten!” said a shopkeeper from a side, ‘if you have learnt
your lesson!’ Bakha hurried away. He felt that everyone was looking at him. He
bore the shopkeeper’s abuse silently and went on. A little later he slowed
down, and quite automatically he began to shout: ‘Posh keep away, posh,
sweeper coming, posh, posh, sweeper coming, posh, posh, sweeper
coming!’ (Anand, p.42)
These lines
appropriately express the plight and humiliation of Bakha in the novel
Untouchable. Mulk Raj Anand in his novel clearly focuses on the treatment of
upper class towards untouchables. Each and every page contains number of events
that point out violation of human rights. In the novel ‘Untouchable’, it is
noticed that even simple touch of untouchable impure the upper class man. “You’ve touched me, he had heard the Lalla
say to Bakha, ‘I will have to bathe now and purify myself anyhow. Well, take this
for your damned irresponsibility, you son of a swine!” (Anand, p.41). These
lines show the mentality of so called upper class during colonized India.
Untouchables were supposed to do all the menial work for upper class that is
the only thing. In this way, Anand not only tries to sheds light on the upper
class people’s attitude towards the lower class but also it is the violation of
human rights of untouchables. On the other hand, though Arunthati Roy is a
writer of post-independence era but reflection of downtrodden still observed in
her novel “The God of Small Things”. The novel has been written in 1997 after
the four years of establishment of ‘Human Rights Commission in India”. As we
understand the background and professional life of Arundhati Roy it seems quite
different to the way she has deal with the theme of “The God of Small Things”.
The novel first published in the month of April of 1997 and received “Booker
Prize” in the month of October of the same year. Within a short period of six
months’ time she got an award for her novel. This is a rarest case in Indian
history. It shows the prominence of the theme and her writing. By profession
she is architecture and worked as a production designer. The theme and issues
of Arundhati Roy’s novel are quite different from the other Indian writers in
English. She began her writing carrier after getting separated from her husband
after the four years married life. The novel “The God of Small things has its
own place in Indian English literature. In the novel, she shades light on the
current social issues of marginalized people. Through this novel, she provides
exposure to these people and gives a platform to such people. She often tries
to bring them in main stream of society as it has been noticed in the novel
“The God of Small Things”. The plot of the novel begins with oppressive system
of the society. There are two prominent issues we can notice here: one is caste
exploitation in the contemporary period after the post-independent India and
the second is the love story of a woman of upper caste who fallen in love with
untouchable man. The setting of the novel is of Ayemenem, a small city in
Kerala. The aim of the writer is to fight for equality and dignity of lower
castes and classes in the society. Number of issues of human rights been
discussed by her in the novel such as: children’s right, rights of women,
rights of Dalit, right to select life partner for marriage and domestic
violence.
Conclusion:
To sum up, the present paper is an
attempt to sheds light on ‘Human rights and Literature’. Both the elements play
crucial role in the life of people and society as well. “Human Rights and
Literature” are interconnected and effective elements to understand psychology
and traditionally biased mind set human being. At the one side, ‘Human rights’
is the study and guideline for people of society to live their life happily. On
the other hand, ‘Literature’ can be strongly considered the manifesto of people
in society. Apart from this, one can study, read and observe these novels for
the better understanding of human rights and its violation. One can consider
these novels as documents of human rights study and also the mirror which shows
the real picture of upper class society and their tendency towards lower class.
Reading of both the novels helps us to know ‘human rights and violation of it’
through literature as an outcome of society. Thus, it is noticed that the aim
of Mulk Raj Anand and Arundhati Roy’s writing is to bring awareness among
people of the society about the violation of human rights in real life
situations.
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