Mahir pari's assignment on The White Tiger representation of India and India within India ( two india )

The White Tiger representation of India and India within India ( two india )

Mahir pari's assignment grain of wheat

Name : Goswami mahir pari c.
Sem : 4
Roll no. : 21
Paper:- new literature
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic :  The White Tiger representation of India and India within India ( two india )

Enrollment no :  20691084201180021

Email Id :goswamimahirpari786@gmail.com


To evaluate my assignment click here

Introduction:
Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is the story of a man named Balram Halwai and his journey. The writer paints a sardonic and dark picture of India in his novel. By this assignment I will try to bring out the truth behind the writer’s representation of India.
Two Contrasting Visions of India – Mirror of India versus Bleak Description of India
Existence of these two contrasting versions is primarily due to the fact that India as a concept has always intrigued the west. Some consider it to be the library of ancient knowledge as depicted in Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, while others consider it as floundering in poverty, hunger, naked bodies and hungry bellies. Some believe it to be the storehouse of intellectual knowledge while others can only view Adiga’s “glistening lines of sewage”. But among these one thing is pretty certain- India will always continue to be an intricate puzzle for the west because it is probably none of these and even more possibly both of them. This in fact is a matter which needs its own deep and detailed exposition. However, the question here is how realistic is Adiga’s representation of India.
A Glaring Error of Distinct Zones of Darkness and Light
A glaring error in Adiga’s novel is that he has divided India into two distinct zones- Darkness and Light. As the protagonist initially informs the Premier -
“I am in light now, but I was born and raised in darkness”. (14, The White Tiger)
Adiga has tried to draw a distinct line between darkness and light. When Balram is in in Laxmangarh he is residing in darkness, but in Bangalore and Delhi he comes to Light. Everything is supposed to be perfect just like ‘mini-America’, with its big hotels, cloud reaching buildings, call centers, malls, high tech areas indeed “A small bit of America in India”(204). But Adiga’s own description of the city diminishes the thin line between the two. As he consciously begins to try to find his self-identity and the justifications for his future heinous action, he stumbles upon a slum in Delhi and finds himself facing a line of men defecating, trying to construct a wall between darkness and light. He also witnesses thousands of people living on the side of the roads in the city with their thin bodies and filthy faces, becoming a particular problem for the drivers.
Coexistence of Darkness and Light
Thus we can witness the coexistence of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Light’ in Delhi, living harmoniously and moving forward step by step, hand in hand for the progress of the propagators of ‘India Shining’. The division between the two classes is definitely not regional as reproduced but economic and may possibly be social. Adiga’s protagonist is the living example in his story of the fact that you can be in light and still be enduring the same conditions as darkness. So, India probably the most diverse nation in the world just cannot be divided on the basis of economic disparity and Adiga fails immaturely in his endeavor to divide India between the haves and have-nots on regional basis.
Another Glaring Error: Only Elites versus Poor
Another glaring error in Adiga’s visualization of India’s masses is that he confines the boundaries of his work up to the elites and the poor, completely ignoring India’s burgeoning middle class which doesn’t find an iota of mention in it. Although it is the artistic liberty of a writer, whether he wishes to deal with other aspects of society or not, but if Adiga takes his novel to be a vivid representation of India then the bridge between ‘Darkness and ‘Light’ which is filled with the middle class just cannot be avoided, which he has done most comfortably. How can a work which doesn’t mentions a major part of a country’s population be taken to be its realistic representation?
Indian Education System – Another Jungle
Indeed, Adiga has through the employment of animal imagery piercingly exposed the corrupt roots of India. He even makes use of it in order to expose the frailties of the Indian education system, which Adiga found to be defunct and again to him, it resembled a jungle, another jungle, probably a smaller analogy to the nation. Our education system in the ’Darkness’ is made up of schools where a teacher’s primary focus is not to teach, but earn money through dishonest means. Balram’s teacher, a paan chew and throw man spits in the classroom, drinks, dozes off and sells the uniforms and food meant for the students in the market but then -
“The teacher had a legitimate excuse to steal the money- he said he hadn’t been paid his salary in six months”. (33, The White Tiger)
Indeed the whole system seems to have been corrupted in a manner so as to make sure that the poor stay in darkness. No doubt Balram received better education in the tea shop than in school.
Elections as Another Feature of Darkness
Apart from the education system Adiga also viewed the elections in the ‘Darkness’ with bigoted eyes as a disease inflicted upon the nation. Indeed, it were the elections that actually gave Balram his birth date, because his employer had sold off his vote to the great socialist and he was supposed to turn eighteen immaturely, to be able practice adult franchise. His father had seen through twelve elections, voted all twelve times but not himself. Elections in the ‘Darkness’ have been portrayed as a kind of nostalgia, a fervor where everyone was discussing them, but they only resembled” eunuchs discussing Kamasutra”. (98), which is proved to be true, when a mad but brave rickshaw-puller decided to cast his vote and was ruthlessly murdered by Vijay and his companions. The elections were a time to celebrate not the democracy but its elimination from the nation as we witness biryani (a traditional Indian food, rice cooked with meat or vegetables) being distributed in front of a temple and free booze in abundance for all. Actually a primary difference between ‘Light’ and ‘Darkness’ is that in ‘Light’, people are free, cast their own vote and in ‘Darkness’ people are again free to cast their own vote, but not by themselves as Balram declares:
“I am India’s most faithful voter and I still have not seen the inside of a voting booth”. (102, The White Tiger)
But Adiga’s views regarding the fake elections are not just hypocritical but also myopic. With regard to his generalizations about elections, he ceases to be an impartial presenter of India’s woes, instead he becomes a biased observer. India might be facing a lot of problems and probably more adversely than Adiga’s picturization, but its democracy has always stood firm only because elections in India have always been largely free and fair, most of the time, whether they be in light or in grey or darkness.

Living in the Light But Taking Decisions in the Darkness
However, a more severe division existing in India is not based on religious or social structure, but on economic lines. Men with small bellies are born to get ‘eaten up’ by those possessing big bellies. A rich man can easily get his own way by twisting the rules with his financial muscle power. The Stork has nothing to fear about his illegal mining activity, because he has the capacity to bribe the politicians living in light and taking decisions of darkness. In a similar way when Balram had money power in Bangalore, he had an easy access to police, who in collaboration with him caught all the drivers of a company who used to take call center workers to their homes at night and he was able to set himself as an entrepreneur. Indian political system, judiciary, police, administrative officers, political leaders all have different standards for the elite and different ones for the economically deprived.
Indians Caged in Coop (Rooster Coop)
According to Adiga this deplorable situation does not exist either due to social, religious or economic differences, but due to the mental slavery that is inflicted upon the Indians in Darkness. The writer employs the “rooster coop” analogy to his vision of enslaved Indian masses. He compares them with roosters in old Delhi, behind Jama Masjid where they are stuffed tightly in wire-mesh cages and,
“The roosters smell blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they’re next. Yet, they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop”. (173, The White Tiger)
The same situation exists with human beings in this country. They are enslaved in their own minds and consider it their birth right to live and die for their masters in “Perpetual servitude”. When Balram’s mistress Pinky madam ran over a child, his masters wanted him to take the blame and lead the rest of his life behind bars. But Balram did not rebel, he consented with their demand and his grandmother Kusum would have been particularly proud that her grandson had foregone his life for his masters. This mindset is because they are all in the rooster coop and Balram had yet not broken out of it. So, millions have been trapped in the same manner, not physically but mentally and the Indian masses have been trained by a meager number of individuals, who might be as well-equipped and talented to exist in perpetual -
“So strong that you can put the key of emancipation in a man’s hand and he will throw it back at you with a curse”. (176, The White Tiger)
Depiction of Social Life – Ridicule of Indian Marriage
Even the social life of India has not escaped Adiga’s sting. He has explicitly and truthfully portrayed how caste and religion can be immensely important factors in shaping the life of an individual in the ‘Darkness’. When Balram was asked about his caste before being employed as a driver, he instantly knew it would bias the decision of his masters. He quickly responded by saying that he was a Halwai by caste and was capable of making sweets and got the job. Similarly, he grasped the opportunity to go Delhi as the driver of Honda city by unearthing the fact that the other driver was a Muslim and not a Hindu.
However, the most critical aspect that has been ridiculed about the social life of India is the institution of marriage. Marriage, which is supposed to be a celebration, a union has transformed into a social stigma. When Balram’s cousin Reena got engaged, his family arranged for a big wedding by their standards and also gave a huge dowry. For all these expenses, they had taken a loan from the Stork and due to the inability to pay it back, the Stork now owned them as his slaves. Balram also had to leave school and labour for him. So, we see how an able and talented student was deprived of his education and a whole family became a bunch of slaves just because of a marriage.

In the novel, Balram is writing letter to Wen Jiabao who will visit India soon in the narrative. Balram is telling him the story of his life and he interwoven the India which he has faced in his lifetime. Balram is talking about The India which is actually can be considered as “Real” India. He describes such incidents in which there is true representation of India.   1)   Ganga – It is a holy river of India but novel represents it as Balram describes,   “One fact about India is that you can take almost anything you hear about the country from the prime minister and turn it upside down and then you will have the truth about that thing. Now, you have heard the Ganga called the river of emancipation, and hundreds of American tourists come each year to take photographs of naked sadhus at Hardwar or Benaras, and our prime minister will no doubt describe it that way to you, and urge you to take a dip in it.    No!—Mr. Jiabao, I urge you not to dip in the Ganga, unless you want your mouth full of feces, straw, soggy parts of human bodies, buffalo carrion, and seven different kinds of industrial acids.”   2)   Representation of village – “Electricity poles—defunct.  Water tap—broken.  Children—too lean and short for their age, and with oversized heads from which vivid eyes shine, like the guilty conscience of the government of India.    Yes, a typical Indian village paradise, Mr. Jiabao. One day I'll have to come to China and see if your village paradises are any better.” “A stiff cardboard-backed poster for a pornographic film was tied to the back of his cycle—what traditional Indian village is complete without its blue-movie theater, sir? A cinema across the river showed such films every night;” He time and again used “Traditional Indian Village” to not limit his observation to only his village, rather he is making his  village as an archetype of all villages of India.   3)   Education system – Balram narrates his school life. He tells about corruption in his school by teacher. How students were given name and the behavior of teacher which is an archetype of school in all Indian villages. As he said,   “The teacher turned aside and spat—a jet of red paan splashed the ground of the classroom. He licked his lips.”   The teacher is corrupted but he gives an excuse which again represents India,   “The teacher had a legitimate excuse to steal the money—he said he hadn't been paid his salary in six months. He was going to undertake a Gandhian protest to retrieve his missing wages—he was going to do nothing in class until his paycheck arrived in the mail. Yet he was terrified of losing his job, because though the pay of any government job in India is poor, the incidental advantages are numerous.”   From Gandhi to Ganga and Buddha to entrepreneurs, on all his incidents ‘India’ is criticized as well as defined in the new way of looking at India.
   It seems like challenge to define India.  India has tremendous diversity and all good and bad things together.  ' India ' - what does it mean?  How and What you think about India? India means ..... The Land of Spirituality, The land of holiness and the land of peace.  India has been taught the world both tolerance and acceptance together.                                                                                                                                         It is said by  George Barnard Shaw that.....  "The  Indian  way of living life provides the vision of the natural , real way of living life. we veil ourselves  with unnatural mask . On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the creators  hand." -   If we look at our past , it was glorious and fulfil with magnificent and much wisdom of the world. We have Upanishads and  Vedanta which still can lead people to live their life with morality. We had many great writers , Scientists , thinkers and philosophers  etc...we have much stronger and marvellous  heritage for which  we feel proud to be Indian.  Though country has the lack of much materialistic things , it is rich by heritage , culture and Vedic literature and so many other things also. we have enough myths to convey the message or morality to people. The past of India is mostly  about  Its  richness . No doubt the illegal or immoral things are also existed there but it was very less in comparison of today.  But After the effect of colonization, corruption spread widely and people accept it as regular mind set.     " Mind is never problematic , Mindset is."  But it's all about Past , what is  the condition of India today?
 I am not fully agree with  Adiga's the projection of India because it is half truth of India.  First of all , I would like to say that writer Arvind Adiga gives the glimpses of  dark India in his novel ' The White Tiger '. He gives the concept of New Morality  giving word 'Amoral' rather than 'immoral.'  It is the story of the bribery, corruption,  poverty, skulduggery,  toxic traffic jams , theft and murder. Adiga portraits two different countryside of same Country.  Balram Halwai has come from what Adiga calls the Darkness- the heart of rural India.  All things are described is true but it is only half necked truth.  what about other side? No doubts all things  and every institution and each professions  go under the jaw of evil  in the text  which like....... Education, Religion ,Democracy, Elections, Business, doctors , law system  politicians etc..  Though the narration of nation is quite true to India  with  Balram Halwai's perspective, we can't reliable on his  narration because writer uses the sentence from the starting of novel that.." It is the autobiography of half backed Indian."  Means the protagonist is not able to see things in totality so we can't accept his truth- half truth  as truth of the whole.

From the beginning Balram satirizes various institutions of India. He says ....."And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."(P-4) Here in school teachers are selling uniform of students given by government. Why teachers do this?? Because govt. don’t pay them their salary on time. The similar thing happens with hospitals also that there is no doctor in hospital; he is in his own clinic. He can run clinic by bribing officers.

“ I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god's arse.  Which god's arse, though? There are so many choices. See, the Muslims have one god. The Christians have three gods. And we Hindus have 36,000,000 gods. Making a grand total of 36,000,004 divine arses for me to choose from.

Conclusion

Behind Adiga’s savage representation of India lies the unpalatable truth of the suffering Indian masses, entailed by the corrupt, lopsided Indian administrative and social system, firmly tilted in favor of the elite. His description may not be truly realistic, but his courageous endeavor to expose the plight of the poor who remain obliquely hidden in Indian democratic system is highly commendable. His work is of paramount importance to realize the invisible boundaries laid upon the progress of the poor and working towards liberating them to the new horizon of equality, education and prosperity.

Mahir pari's assignment on grain of wheat

Historical, biographical and Post colonial approach in "A Grain of Wheat" by Ngugi wa Thiongo.

Mahir pari's assignment grain of wheat

Name : Goswami mahir pari c.
Sem : 4
Roll no. : 21
Paper:- African literature
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Historical, biographical and Post colonial approach in "A Grain of Wheat" 

Enrollment no :  20691084201180021

Email Id :goswamimahirpari786@gmail.com


To evaluate my assignment click here

*Introduction*

One of the most important characteristcs of literature is that it is Imaginative.Although we've to remember that it is not Fanciful ideas away from Reality.It has touch of realism. No writer can write anything unless that experiences is lived by himself, feel by himself.

So, lets discuss that how Ngugi wa Thiongo's personal experiences are poured into A Grain of Wheat. At the same time we will also keep in mind that Ngugi is very important figure in Post colonial world. So, we will also try to evaluate novel from post colonial angle.

 Colonial period was a time of turmoil, supression/repression of colonies. So this was experienced by the writers himself as a child. and when they grew up they have written their experiences of this time.

Lets have a brief look on What is Post colonialism?

Post Colonialism is an approach, a lens to see, understand and subvert notion of Western superiority.

~ It is an approach, in which colony writes back.

~We have to relook, rethink, revisit whatever written or spoken by the white people.

~Europeans have developed pre conceived notion about the East.

~Doubt whatever comes from West, every step taken by them is under doubt& question.

.  Postcolonialism  includes  terms  such  as  “resistance, hybridity, desire, difference”  in  addition  to “the  facts of slavery, migration,and political  independence”

# Hybridity:-

Concept of hybridity is very essential in post colonial era. Writer himself was born in colonial Kenya, given a christian name James and later on he also studied English authors. so the impact of European as well as native values, tradition and culture always remains at clash.

 Ngugi  wa  Thiong’o  is  one  the  most  important  postcolonial  writers  who  shows  his  protest against  the  colonizers  in  his  works.  In  Decolonizing  the  Mind,  he  stresses  how  the colonizers  exploited Africa,  and its people. He  asserts that, In  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  Europe  stole  art  treasures  from  Africa  to decorate  their  houses  and  museums;  in  the  twentieth  century  Europe  is  stealing  the treasures  of  the  mind  to  enrich  their  languages  and  cultures.  Africa  needs  back  its economy,  its  politics,  its  culture,  its  languages  and  all  its  patriotic  writers  (eds. Parker and Starkey, 125).  

Ngugi was born in 1938, and grew up in rural areas of heaviest European occupatipn , where memories of expulsion and displacement were within the life time of the people.

His elder brother joined the Mau Mau, and another brother, who was deaf and dumb, was shot by security forces in exaclt the way Gitogo dies in the opening pages of A Grain of Wheat, unable to hear an order to stop runing.- This point indicates that how biographical elements also shape the literature. He makes a character who stands for his own brother. The kind of description is given about character is very powerful and it touches to heart. we feel sympathy for the character as well as writer. we can imagine the pain that what may happen to him as well as his mother when their family members were killed by White people. After such terrible experiences what can we expect from him?? Definitely, it will be full of angst, anger and hatred.

*Hisgorical approach: 

The novel captures the period of independance of Kenya and Emergency. Mau Mau Emergency in A Grain of Wheat presented for the first time an African perspective on the Kenyan armed revolt against the colonial rule. novel is a reading of  past- present & - future of Nation (Kenya).

novel is  interesting historical document to read the contemporary time. we find many parallel of that time narrated in the novel-Mau Mau rebellion is one of them, so lets discuss about it.

The Mau Mau Uprising , also known as the MauMau Revolt , Mau Mau Rebellion , or Kenya Emergency , was a military conflict that took place in British Kenyabetween 1952 and 1960. The Mau Mau failed to capture widespread public support, partly due to the British policy of divide and rule and the movement remained internally divided, despite attempts to unify its various strands.(Wikipedia)

So, the resistance, the struggle for independence ( Mau Mau revolt) which is the spirit of the time is very much present in the novel. In  A  Grain  of  Wheat,  we  again  see  the  awakening  and  resistance  of  native  people,  who  go to  the  forest  to  fight  against  the  colonizers

The  novel  includes  four  main  characters,  who  are  all  from  the  Gikuyu  village  of Thabai.  These  characters  are  Mugo,  Gikonyo,  Mumbi  and  Karanja.  Mugo  is  a  heroic person,  who  started  hunger  strike  in  detention  camp  and  also  he  resisted  against  a  village guard  to  protect  a  pregnant  woman  from  beating.  Although  he  is  considered  to  be  a  hero throughout  the  whole  novel,  at  the  end  of  the  story  it  is  understood  that  Mugo  is  the  traitor of  Kihika,  who  was  a  freedom  fighter  hanged  after  being  betrayed  by  Mugo.  That  is,  Mugo is  the  symbol  of  betrayal  in  the  novel.  Apart  from  Mugo,  Karanja  is  also  betrayer  who collaborated  with  the  British  and  considered  to  be  the  traitor  of  Kihika.  Karanja  opts  for joining  the  government  guards  instead  of  fighting  for  his  own  people.  He  also  betrays  his close friend, Gikonyo, by sleeping with Gikonyo’s wife, Mumbi. A Grain of Wheat gives voice to this

underlying sense of loss. while also reaffirming the value of Africa’s past (pre-colonization), it offers an intimacy and strong clarity to the painful process of redefining and recreating a broken society.Gikonyo is driven to deny an oath he holds sacred because of a longing to return home where, “He only wanted to see his Mumbi and take up the thread of life where he had left it” (125). On a larger scale, the reality of Gikonyo’s wanting and its outcome illustrates this haunting consequence of colonization. Obviously, there can be no return from colonization; decolonization simply shifts.the forced relationship from exploitation to the painful struggle for independence and liberation.

All  of  the  characters  look  forward  to freedom.  Warui’s  expressions  show  their  love  for  freedom:  “Our  people,  is  there  a  song sweeter  than  that  of  freedom?  Of  a  truth,  we  have  waited  for  it  many  a  sleepless  night. Those  who  have  gone  before  us,  those  of  us  spared  to  see  the  sun  today,  and  even  those  to be  born  tomorrow,  must  join  the  feast”  (Thiong’o,  19).  Gikonyo  also  thinks  that  his country  is  ready  for  freedom.  “For  a  time  Gikonyo  forgot  his  mission  to  the  city  as  his heart  fluttered  with  the  flags.  He  got  out  of  the  bus  and  walked  down  Kenyatta  Avenue feeling  for  the  moments  as  if  the  city  really  belonged  to  him…  to  Gikonyo  Nairobi  seemed ready for Independence” (Thiong’o, 59-60). Ngugi,  by  means  of  Kihika,  expresses  his  thoughts  about  freedom.  In  every  case, Kihika  tries  to  motivate  his  people  for  the  independence.  Kihika  says  “Choose  between freedom  and  slavery  and  it  is  fitting  that  a  man  should  grab  at  freedom  and  die  for  it” (Thiong’o,  186).  Kihika  also  believes  that  black  people  are  the  owners  of  Kenya.  It  does not  belong  to  the  whiteman.  This  soil  belongs  to  Kenyan  people.  Thus,  nobody  has  right  to sell  or  buy  it.  He  sees  Kenya  as  their  mother  and  also  thinks  that  all  her  children  are  equal before  her.  She  is  their  common  inheritance  (Thiong’o,  96).  He  continues  his  speech  by giving  the  example  of  India  and  Gandhi  to  encourage  his  people.  Because,  he  believes  that if  they  never  stop  fighting  against  the  colonizers,  freedom  will  come  so  soon.  With  the story  of  Gandhi, he  also stresses the importance  of  togetherness. It  is  a  question  of  unity,  the  example  of  India  is  there  before  our  noses.  The  British were  there  for  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  years.  They  ate  India’s  wealth.  They  drank India’s  blood.  They  never  listened  to  the  political  talk-talk  of  a  few  men.  What happened?  There  came  this  man  Gandhi…  they  say  with  one  voice:  we  want  back our  freedom.  The  British  laughed,  they  are  good  at  laughing.  But  they  had  to swallow back their  laughter  when things turned out serious (Thiong’o, 86).  

We also  see  why  native  people  went  to  the  forest.  The  only  reason  of  this  is  the  increasing oppression  of  the  colonizers.  They  went  into  the  forest  because  whiteman  never  behaved them  in  a  good  way  as  he  declared.  “He  ruled  with  the  gun,  the  lives  of  the  all  black  people of  Kenya”  (Thiong’o,  95).  General  R.  talks  to  the  public  to  make  them  aware  about  the colonizers and  why  they  chose  to live in the forest: The  whiteman  went  in  cars.  He  lived  in  a  big  house.  His  children  went  to  school. But  who  tilled  the  soil  on  which  grew  coffee,  tea,  pyrethrum,  and  sisal?  Who  dug the  roads  and  paid  the  taxes?  The  whiteman  lived  on  our  land.  He  ate  what  we  grew and  cooked.  And  even  the  crumbs  from  the  table,  he  threw  to  his  dogs.  That  is  why we went into forest.

*POST COLONIAL FEMINISM

Gayatri  Spivak  also  mentions  the  inferior  position  of  third  world  women,  and  she uses  the  term  “subaltern”  to  describe  them.  She  focuses  on  mainly  colonized  females  who are  double-colonized  economy  and  gender.  And,  she  makes  it  clear  that  there  are  not  two basic  categorizations  of  people  and  nations  as  colonizer  and  colonized,  but  there  is  another group  except  for  this,  and  it  is  colonial  women  oppressed  by  both  the  colonizer  and colonized.  In her most famous  work,  Can the Subaltern Speak, she  points out  that: Within  the  effaced  itinerary  of  the  subaltern  subject,  the  track  of  sexual  difference is  doubly  affected.  The  question  is  not  of  female  participation  in  insurgency,  or  the ground  rules  of  the  sexual  division  of  labor,  for  both  of  which  there  is  evidence.  It is,  rather,  that,  both  as  object  of  colonialist  histography  and  as  subject  of insurgency,  the  ideological  construction  of  gender  keeps  the  male  dominant.  If,  in the  context  colonial  production,  the  subaltern  has  no  history  and  cannot  speak,  the subaltern female  is even  more  deeply  in shadow  (Spivak, 28). That  is,  the  oppression  of  colonialism  and  patriarchy  makes  it  unbearable  for  the  females, for  this  reason  non-white  women  were  silenced  and  nobody  can  hear  them. 

Woman  offered  their  naked  bodies  to  him,  even  some  of  the  most  respectable  came to  him  by  night.  But  Mumbi,  his  Mumbi,  would  not  yield,  and  he  could  never  bring himself to force  her (Thiong’o, 205). That  shows  the  bitter  lives  of  colonized  women  in  a  wretched  society.  Even  they  were enjoying  with  themselves,  women  have  the  fear  of  humiliation.  Ngugi  says  in  the  novel “Mothers  warned  their  daughters  to  take  care  not  to  be  raped  in  the  dark”  in  the  festival  of celebration (Thiong’o, 199) 

COLONIALISM- POST COLONIALISM:-

Oxford English Dictionary  defines the term as: A  settlement  in  a  new  country…  a  body  of  people  who  settle  in  a  new  locality, forming  a  community  subject  to  or  connected  with  their  parent  state;  the community  so  formed,  consisting  of  the  original  settlers  and  their  descendants  and successors,  as  long  as  the  connection  with  the  parent  state  is  kept  up. 

This definition of Colonialism is also problematic. Because it says Settlement in new locality..., But what about those people who were  already living there. What did they do with them??? What about the conflict between settlers and Natives?? The definition is silent over this matter. so we can understand that how under a good language even Oxford dictionary has totally changed the meaning of Colonialism. Whenever next generation will read this definition, they will think Colonialism means this only.Meaning is constructed by language.

So, the tale which OXford definition tries to hide, is made public by Ngugi wa Thiongo in the novel. There is always another side of coin, the darker shade which White people's definition was trying to hide is shown to the world- that what colonialism actually was. Supression, torture, slavery, killing of mass, rape were faced by Natives.

In  spite  of  these  deaths,  nobody  stepped  back.  “The  movement  remained  alive  and  grew,  as people  put  it,  on  the  wounds  of  those  Waiyaki  and  Kihika  left  behind”  (Thiong’o,  17). 

 And the  deaths  of  these  people  were  the  grains  of  wheat,  which  led  to  freedom.  Especially, Ngugi  stresses  the  death  of  Waiyaki:  “Then  nobody  noticed  it,  but  looking  back  we  can  see that  Waiyaki’s  blood  contained  within  it  a  seed,  a  grain,  which  gave  birth  to  a  movement whose  main strength thereafter sprang  from a  bond with the  soil”  (Thiong’o, 12). The  colonizers  showed  no  mercy  to  the  native  people  during  the  emergency.  But  in the  beginning,  the  colonizers  were  not  as  hard  as  during  the  emergency.  “…  whiteman came  to  the  country,  clutching  the  book  of  God  in  both  hands,  a  magic  witness  that  the whiteman  was  a  messenger  from  the  lord.  His  tongue  was  coated  with  sugar;  his  humility was  touching”  (Thiong’o,  10).  By  using  the  Bible  and  mild  language,  they  attracted  several people. But their  attitudes changed day  by  day, they  threw  the  Bible  and used sword: 

Kihika  also  deals  with  the  colonizers’  use  of  the  Bible.  He  is  aware  of  the  fact  that  the colonizers  benefited  from  the  Bible  just  to  get  the  lands  of  the  native  people.  He  makes  it clear that: 

We  went  to  their  church.  Mubia,  in  white  robes,  opened  the  Bible.  He  said:  let  us kneel  down  to  pray.  We  knelt  down.  Mubia  said:  let  us  shut  our  eyes.  We  did.  You know, his remained open  so that he could read the  word. When we  opened  our eyes, our land was  gone  and the  sword of flames stood on guard  (Thiong’o, 14)

The  most  grief  oppressions  were  generally  experienced  by  the  women.  They  were  seen  as sex  tools  for  the  colonizers.  Ngugi  mentions  an  event  in  which  Mugo  also  takes  place, “Mugo  had  been  arrested  during  the  Emergency  for  intervening  to  stop  a  policeman  from beating up a woman who, it was said, had refused him sex” (Thiong’o, ix).  Emergency  is  the  other  name  of  Mau-Mau  rebellion,  and  during  this  movement  a lot  of  people  suffered  so  much.  Githua  is  one  of  these  sufferers,  who  lost  one  of  his  hands. He  says  “I  tell  you  before  the  Emergency,  I  was  like  you;  before  the  whiteman  did  this  to me  with  bullets,  I  could  work  with  both  hands,  man”  (Thiong’o,  3).  Kihika,  one  of  the main  characters  of  the  novel  who  died  for  his  own  country,  was  also  excruciated  by  the colonizers.  “Kihika  was  tortured.  Some  say  that  the  neck  of  a  bottle  was  wedged  into  his body  through  the  anus  as  white  people  in  the  Special  Branch  tried  to  wrest  the  secrets  of the  forest  from  him”  (Thiong’o,  17).  His  sufferings  ended  with  death.  He  “was  hanged  in public,  one  Sunday,  at  Rungei  Market,  not  far  from  where  he  had  once  stood  calling  for blood  to  rain  on  and  water  the  tree  of  freedom”  (Thiong’o,  17).  Waiyaki  is  also  one  of  the sufferers, who was killed brutally  by  the  colonizers.  Conclusion:- Thus, we can examine A Grain of Wheat from Historical, biographical and post colonial approach.

Paper no - 14

Wanting for the barbarian'ss from Goswami Mahirpari

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The white tiger_and_vaastav.. from Goswami Mahirpari


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Academy awards for documentary feature from Goswami Mahirpari

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9 Christianity and Harry Potter

9 Christianity and Harry Potter.

Most of the criticism of Harry Potter is from fundamentalist evangelical Christian groups, who believe the series' depiction of witchcraft is dangerous to children. Paul Hetrick, spokesman for Focus on the Family, an American Evangelical Christian group based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, outlined the reasons for his opposition to them: "[They contain] some powerful and valuable lessons about love and courage and the ultimate victory of good over evil; however, the positive messages are packaged in a medium – witchcraft – that is directly denounced in Scripture." Harry Potter has been the subject of at least six book burnings in the U.S.In 2002, Chick Publications produced a comic book tract titled "The Nervous Witch" that declared "the Potter books open a doorway that will put untold millions of kids into hell." In 2007 Jacqui Komschlies wrote an article in Christianity Today comparing Harry Potter to "rat poison mixed with orange soda," and said, "We're taking something deadly from our world and turning it into what some are calling 'merely a literary device.'"

A common belief among fundamentalist Christians is that Harry Potter promotes the religion of Wicca, and so keeping the books in public schools violates the separation of church and state in the United States.In her response to Laura Mallory's court case, education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban Macbeth and Cinderella.Jeremiah Films, a Christian video company largely known for its Clinton Chroniclesrelease, also released a DVD entitled Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged, which stated that "Harry's world says that drinking dead animal blood gives power, a satanic human sacrifice and Harry's powerful blood brings new life, demon possession is not spiritually dangerous, and that passing through fire, contacting the dead, and conversing with ghosts, others in the spirit world, and more, is normal and acceptable."

In 2001, Evangelical journalist Richard Abanes, who has written several books arguing against new religions and Mormonism, published a polemical text that made similar allegations to the video: Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick. Later editions incorporated comparisons and contrasts between Harry Potter and the more overtly Christian works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. In an interview with CBN.com, Abanes remarked that, "One of the easiest ways to know whether a fantasy book or film has real world magick in it is to just ask a simple question, 'Can my child find information in a library or bookstore that will enable them to replicate what they are seeing in the film or the book?' If you go to The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings what you see in, story magic and imagination, it is not real. You can't replicate it. But if you go to something like Harry Potter, you can find references to astrology, clairvoyance, and numerology. It takes seconds to go into a bookstore or library and get books on that and start investigating it, researching it, and doing it."

Abanes writes: "The classic passage dealing with divination, along with several other forms of occultism, is Deuteronomy 

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these thing are an abomination unto the LORD.

8 Mythical and Magical creatures in Harry Potter

 8 Mythical and Magical creatures in Harry Potter.

There are quite a few mythical creatures featured within the Harry Potter series. From Hippogriffs to a Phoenix, the series has it all. 

For an in-depth list, author JK Rowling wrote the book Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. This book is usually sold paired with Quidditch Through the Ages, and is well worth buying.

7 Moral and Philosophical reading of Harry Potter

7 Moral and Philosophical reading of Harry Potter

What is the meaning of life? It’s an age-old question theorized in a place one may not expect: within the pages of Harry Potter. A perspective on love and death are major themes in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books. The popular book series urges us to accept our mortality so we can fully experience human virtues, particularly the virtue of love.

Every individual has a choice to accept or deny their mortality. This choice is exhibited through the actions of the main protagonists, Harry and Voldemort. The two had a very similar upbringings, both were brought up as orphans cut off from the wizarding world; both were poorly treated by their guardians and made out to be outcast by societal standards; both went to Hogwarts hoping to find a new and real place to call home; both find happiness at Hogwarts; both are intelligent and gifted wizards.

They were so similar that Harry feared he would become too much like Voldemort, who is portrayed as the evil villain within the world of wizardry.

The two had such similar upbringings yet are vastly different moral characters. They are ultimately in perfect moral contrast.

Understanding Choice

But let’s look at the conception of choice. More specifically how choices and actions define our moral character. Not social roles, wealth, ancestry — those don’t add anything to our moral character. They don’t make us more morally worthy. No, a choice is how we demonstrate who we really are. Choice and action are how we express our moral worth.

Take the choices made by Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort. During his youth, he makes decisions that ultimately leads him to become a dark wizard that the wizarding world comes to fear. Tom chooses to vent his anger and frustration at the world with vexation. He points this anger towards others.

Like Harry, Dumbledore plays the role of mentor to Tom. He tries to lead him in the right direction. Having him go to Hogwarts — pushing him towards a life of virtue instead of violence and hate. At first, Tom seemed to be going down the right path. He was a successful student, winning awards, and leadership positions — on the road to becoming a successful wizard. Yet, he finds himself down the path of dark magic, destroying anyone in his way to power. Why?

What ultimately marks the tipping point, the difference that draws one to a virtuous life and the other to wickedness?

Accepting Death

The contrast between Harry and Voldemort boils down to the different response both have in the face of the inevitable destiny for all of us: death. The choice to accept or deny death.

See, Voldemort doesn’t trust anyone, he doesn’t love anyone, his only real desire seems to be finding immortality. Once we understand his refusal to accept is inevitable death, we can then follow his path towards evil.

He’s obsessed with death. He sees death as a human weakness — something to be overcome by a mighty wizard. Something that nobody has been able to overcome — even powerful wizards. We see his obsession when he wants the Sorcerer’s stone for bringing him back to life and learning about the splitting of his soul in the Horcruxes.

Voldemort sees magic as a mere means to avoid death.

We learn that to succeed at becoming immortal, the splitting of the soul in the Horcruxes, you must commit a cruel act: murder. This symbolizes that to become immortal, you must lose your humanity, by doing the most inhumane thing: killing your fellow human.

The tragedy is in what Voldemort’s choice ultimately does to him. He sacrifices his humanity. In that sacrifice is his ability to love. For what? A chance at eternal existence. Empty everlasting life. Only to be feared, and never to be loved.

See, the entire serious is demonstrating the importance of accepting our ultimate death. Embrace it. Its part of life and leads to the ability to find the joys of life. Once we embrace our inevitable death — accept the finite time we have — we can then begin to experience life, recognize the importance of our choices and actions.

Without recognizing death, you can’t comprehend the meaning of life. Considering the most fundamental truth of our human condition is we are alive, and death is inevitable. This is a fundamental truth. This basic truth sets up the foundational understanding of morality. How our actions and choices relate to our knowledge of the finite time we live here.

Once we understand this truth, we can begin to understand the importance of our choices and their relation to life’s meaning. We recognize that we don’t have eternity, this gives meaning and urgency to our choices. We begin to realize that our decisions have consequences for ourselves and others — and the ability to understand how those choices affect those we love.

You see, we recognize that Voldemort does not love. He cares for himself and only himself. His denial of mortality leads him to deny any reason for love. Our mortality gives us a reason to love.

Love acts as a spark that provides that connection between two individuals. The understanding of our impending demise motivates us to seek out relationships with other individuals to share in the time we have here in the universe. Us mortal beings see relationships as essential to forming those life experiences while we still can.

Voldemort lacks the motivation to pursue those relationships and understand love because he doesn’t understand the concept of death itself.

History and Symbolism

Aristotle helps make this connection with his idea of friendship. Where a perfect friend is like a second self for Aristotle. For him, friendship is only possible between two virtuous people. Where you understand your own good, and you see that goodness in others — like a reflection. That’s how you experience goodness and virtue: with your fellow human being.

As Aristotle said: “in order to love, one must accept who one is” by rejecting death you are denying the reality of the existence of life and love. Voldemort looks at love and understands that by accepting the love he’s accepting death — a fundamental truth he’s unwilling to accept.

You see, with friendship — a good loving friendship — that reflection of virtue can help provide moral guidance and improvement.

We see this symbolized in the bible when Jesus experiences the death of his friend Lazarus, as a regular mortal being Jesus weeps his death. He experiences grief, sadness, the feeling of a lost loved one like you or I would — like a mere mortal.

But Jesus then raises his friend from the dead. You might be thinking doesn’t this contradict, in that Jesus himself is denying death. Well, I’m using a story example for its symbolism here. That symbolism is that love is more powerful than death. Love is the crucial point. You see, what do we need more than anything in life? To be loved. Without it, we feel empty.

We even see this in ancient mythology. The Gods, the immortal beings, were often childish and petty. They were often jealous of humans. You see humans have the conscious ability to know their own morality — comprehend that mortality — something immortal gods could never understand. With this knowledge came an understanding of love and kindness. Something the ancient Gods failed to follow because they could not understand death.

6 The theme of Love and Death Harry Potter

6 The theme of Love and Death Harry Potter.

This article focusses on the key theme’s of love, death and friendship in Harry Potter, mainly focussing on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows however it can be used as an overview for the whole series of books. In introducing the article Killinger states:

“After thousands of pages of harry Potter’s story, it is clear now that this has been J. K. Rowling’s theme from the beginning: love, friendship, sacrifice, and eventually life. For it is life that springs out of harry’s gift of him- self: the life of self-sacrifice, the life that defeats death, the life of ongoing friendship.”

Showing that the main aim of this article by John Killinger is the sacrifice of Harry himself and how this reflects on life and defeating death.  Killinger looks at these themes in the Harry Potter series from a Christian perspective as he is an Executive Minister as well as a Theologian at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York. However the article itself is rather informal as Killinger opens the article by saying “Friends. Amigos. Chums. Companions. Mates. Buddies.” If this article was written for educational purposes and for the use of scholars at the Marble Collegiate Church, terms such as “chums” and “buddies” wouldn’t be used to address the readership. The use of these informal terms would suggest that the article was written with a more informal purpose, possibly to inform those attending the Church of the connections between Christianity and Harry Potter, therefore making Christianity more accessible to those of a younger generation.

Killinger then reinforces his belief that the Harry Potter books relate greatly to the sacrifice of Christ by comparing quotes and scenes from the children’s books to those of events in the Bible. For example the article displays how Harry Potter is ‘the chosen one’, Killinger states:

“If there was any doubt about Harry’s being created in the image of Christ, it is surely dispelled in The DeaThly hallows volume, where he is repeatedly called ‘the Chosen one’.”

The article also uses references to Jesus’ disciples via Ron Weasley, Hermione Grainger and Neville Longbottom. Killinger also likens Dumbledore and Professor McCongial to God and Sophia, God’s female counterpart. However for my research the most relevant part of the article occurs when Killinger suggests:

“Harry would eventually die like Christ. And indeed, in the final novel, he does. He dies voluntarily, as Christ did, literally presenting himself to Voldemort for execution. And then, as Christ did, he returns from death, this time to deal a mortal blow to the prince of darkness himself.”

Here is where Killinger makes his article relevant to the theme which I am researching, the theme of death. It is stated that Harry’s death at the end of the series is based upon the sacrifice Jesus made in order to save his friends, and the rest of humanity from sin. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry presents himself to Voldemort as a sacrifice in order to save his friends, students and teachers of Hogwarts and once again the rest of humanity from the dark ways of Voldemort. Death becomes the ultimate sacrifice.

The audience of this article is clearly Christians and those interested in how Christianity is relatable to contemporary art such as literature. However the easy access to the writing makes it accessible to anyone interested in the links between Harry Potter and the sacrifice, as I found this piece of writing by searching “Harry Potter and the theme of death”. No academic login or identification is required, therefore making the audience to be anyone who is interested, however, as said earlier, I do believe the main readership would be those who are interested in Christianity.

I believe this article to be useful during my research into how the theme of death is represented in the Potter books, as said before many links are made between scripture and the series of books. However in comparison to a literary criticism it is not as useful, no theories or theorists are explored in relation to Harry Potter and Christianity/the theme of death. Although outside of literary criticism this article could help the Christian readership deal with the idea that death is inevitable and that the main focusses in life, and the main focusses in the Harry Potter series, are those of love, life and friendship.

5 The theme of Choice and Chance Harry Potter

5 The theme of Choice and Chance Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter series is esteemed and loved for many reasons: the rich fantasy world, the beloved characters, the humor, the suspense-driven plots, the meaningful choices... and the way the plot fits together like a tightly constructed jigsaw puzzle. The endings of the Harry Potter novels are filled with "oh, yeah!" moments in which everything suddenly fits together in new and unexpected ways: the revelation of Tom Riddle as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the unmasking of Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,and the true identity of the Prince in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. At the end of each Potter novel a final resolution is reached and the loose ends are neatly tied up.

Except in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Deathly Hallows includes a full resolution for many issues, and Rowling's post-publication interviews provided closure for more details, for example with the very welcome (to me) news that Dolores Umbridge was finally made to pay for her crimes.However, the climax of the Deathly Hallows ’ the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort ’ seems to leave several loose ends and ambiguities.

The climax of Deathly Hallows occurs when Harry sets off to sacrifice himself and allows Voldemort to hit him with the Killing Curse. The Horcrux within Harry is destroyed, Harry survives through his blood connection with Voldemort, and Voldemort's power is broken as a result.

This is the way I read it, but it leaves many unanswered questions. What exactly is the role of Harry's final sacrifice, and how did it defeat Voldemort in the end? Is the outcome the result of Harry's choice, or is it due to the chance acquisition of the Elder Wand? Harry's self-sacrifice seems to be the critical point at which Voldemort's power is broken, but the story of the Elder Wand points towards a resolution in which the outcome is determined mainly by chance. The following is an attempt to identify the loose ends in this, the most important final piece of the Harry Potter puzzle, and give my view that choice, not chance determines the outcome. Perhaps Rowling will provide help at some future date!

The question of choice versus chance runs throughout the Harry Potter series. The question appears first at the end of Chamber of Secrets, when Riddle/Voldemort tells Harry that "it was merely a lucky chance that saved you" after he is told that Lily's sacrifice was the reason he had not been able to kill baby Harry. Dumbledore subsequently tells Harry that "it is our choices [¦] that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."  Throughout the series, Voldemort continues to insist on chance as the cause of his downfall, right up to the bitter end. Dumbledore, by contrast, insists on the importance of personal choice in determining outcomes, rather than either chance or fate. Rowling has said that Dumbledore often speaks for her (and Voldemort certainly does not), so it seems that she would also believe in choice rather than chance. Although Harry Potter is a magical world in which fate (such as the house assignments made by a magical hat) at first appears to be dominant, Rowling is clear that hers is not a fate-dominated world. Professor Trelawney, the bumbling Divination teacher, almost always gets it wrong, and even though the world of Harry Potter contains magical prophecies, the prophecies come true only because people choose to act on them. Even the magical hat takes people's choices into account, as Harry reminds his son in the epilogue. Rowling herself has written that she does not believe in fate, but in "hard work and luck, and that the first often leads to the second."  Not fate, then ’ but is the outcome due to choice or chance in the end?

In piecing together the puzzle that is the conclusion of the series, it is first necessary to consider the history of the Elder Wand. The story of the Elder Wand (which is critical to Voldemort's downfall) provides the type of tightly-fitting resolution in which everything is explained. The Elder Wand is a uniquely powerful wand, but its special powers are only available to its true owner. For all others it is just a wand like any other. The Wand recognizes as its true owner only the one who has conquered its previous owner. Many Dark wizards have thought that it is necessary to kill the previous owner to gain the Elder Wand, but this is apparently not correct: Grindelwald, Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy and Harryall gained true possession of the Wand without killing the previous owner. According to legend, the past owners of the invincible Elder Wand met their downfall because they boasted about the Wand and thus attracted attention to it.Gregorovich made this mistake, leading Grindelwald to steal the Wand and defeat Gregorovich in the process. Dumbledore then gained the Wand by defeating Grindelwald.

Dumbledore was clever enough to keep his ownership of the Elder Wand secret and planned to die undefeated, so that the Wand would have no master and would no longer confer such deadly power upon an owner. Unfortunately, that "did not work as [he] intended."  Voldemort eventually found out that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand, and naturally thought that Snape, Dumbledore's killer, had become its master. However, Snape's murder of Dumbledore was arranged by Dumbledore and represented no defeat. In fact, it was Draco Malfoy ’ who had earlier disarmed Dumbledore ’ who had become the Wand's owner, though he never knew it and never actually possessed the Wand. Then, because Harry accidentally defeated Draco, Harry became the Wand's master. This lead to Voldemort's final downfall: Voldemort used the Elder Wand against Harry and was killed by the backfire of the spell as "Harry [¦] saw the Elder Wand fly high [¦] spinning through the air towards the master it would not kill." 

Voldemort's mistake in thinking that Snape rather than Draco was the master of the Wand may have been a mental lapse (overlooking Draco's disarming of Dumbledore), or it may have followed from Voldemort's Dark thinking that the Wand only recognizes the one who killed its previous owner. Even if he had known about Draco, it would not have mattered: Harry had already disarmed Draco when Voldemort found the Wand. Thus, in the end, the ownership of the Elder Wand was determined when Harry accidentally snatched Draco's wand out of his hands.