Indian Literature

Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages. The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted.

BACKGROUN OF INDIAN LITERATURE

–Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world.

– With the vast culture diversities, there are 22 officially recognized languages in India.

–Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produces in various languages in India.

–It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs.

–Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian scene. Sanskrit literature refers to texts composed in Sanskrit language since the 2nd-millennium BCE. Many of the prominent texts are associated with Indian religions, i.e., Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and were composed in ancient India.

–It is also interesting to note that the Hindu Literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabrata.

–Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence.

–About 2000 B.C., a branch or the Aryan race gave Vedic Literature, Sanskrit epics, the Hindu religion and Caste system.

–Their civilization, however, appears to be very ancient; religion, philosophy, ethics, and literature all seem to have reached a high level of development before authentic records were kept.

–The modern period of Indian literature began in the 18th century with the colonization of India by the British. There was not a complete break in the past, however.

–The influence of the early Sanskrit classics could still be seen in the modern novels, poetry, and drama that were being reshaped by the Western political ideas and literary styles.

–The modern literature of all Indian languages was inevitably influenced by the desire for social reform, antipathy toward the British rule, the political activities of Mahatma Gandhi, and new ideologies coming from Europe- particularly SOCIALISM and MARXISM.

–Much of the literature tried to revive the great periods of Indian history, such as the Maurya, Gutpa and Mughal dynasties before British intervened.

One of their stories was entitled KARMA by Kushwant Singh.

–Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956 (made into film in 1998), which became his most well-known novel.[1][2]

–Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in Modern School, New Delhi, St. Stephen's College, and graduated from Government College, Lahore. He earned an LL.B. from King's College London and was called to the bar at the London Inner Temple. After working as a lawyer in Lahore High Court for eight years, he joined the Indian Foreign Service upon the Independence of India from British Empire in 1947.

–He was appointed journalist in the All India Radio in 1951, and then moved to the Department of Mass Communications of UNESCO at Paris in 1956. These last two careers encouraged him to pursue a literary career. As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism,[3] humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as the editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1980-1986 he served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.

–Khushwant Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974;[4] however, he returned the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star in which the Indian Army raided Amritsar. In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.

KARMA

–"Karma" is a story written by Indian writer Khushwant Singh. It was originally published in 1989 in Singh's The Collected Stories. Karma is about an Indian "Gentleman" who tries to adopt upper class English culture and lifestyle such as speaking the "Queen's English", and about his relation with his wife etc.

CHARACTERS:

–Sir Mohan Lal - An arrogant middle-aged man

–Lady Lal - An ordinary Indian woman who wants to be the wife of Mohan Lal and loves to chew on Betel Leaves

–A bearer

–A porter

–Two British soldiers.(Bil)

THEME:

–The story Karma illustrates the famous proverb "Pride Comes Before a Fall". It is the story of an arrogant person who feels bad about his country's culture, lifestyle etc. He is condescending to his wife because she is an ordinary woman unable to appreciate his aristocratic English culture. Others are: Imitation of foreign culture Unhappy married life Contrast of culture and life-style Aristocracy and patriotism.

PLOT:

–Mohan Lal is a middle-aged man who works in the British Raj. He is ashamed to be an Indian and hence he tries to speak in English or in Anglicized Hindustani and dresses up as a high-ranked British official. He fills crossword puzzles, to show off his immense knowledge of English. His wife Lachmi is a traditional Indian woman and due to this difference they don't have a sweet married life.

–The important event occurs on a journey of Mohan Lal and Lachmi in a train. He makes Lachmi sit in the general compartment while he gets his seat arranged in the first class compartment, which was meant for the British. There he meets two British soldiers who try to abuse him. When the arrogant Mohan Lal opposes them, he is thrown out of the train. He could only look through the rails on the moving train.

TONE AND STYLE OF NARRATION:

–The important event occurs on a journey of Mohan Lal and Lachmi in a train. He makes Lachmi sit in the general compartment while he gets his seat arranged in the first class compartment, which was meant for the British. There he meets two British soldiers who try to abuse him. When the arrogant Mohan Lal opposes them, he is thrown out of the train. He could only look through the rails on the moving train.

Next, we have The Lion Makers a story from Panchatantra.

–The Panchatantra is a collection of ancient stories from India that were written down more than two thousand years ago, though the stories themselves are much older than that. They are the first fables ever told in the world. They’re mostly humorous stories that have a very pointed point.

THE LION MAKERS

–Four Brahmans lived near one another and were friends in a small town. Three of them had been scholars their whole lives and had learned much, but they had no common sense. The fourth couldn’t be bothered to study from dusty dry books, but he had a great deal of common sense.

–One day they got together to talk and decided that all their accomplishments and learning were pointless if they didn’t go out in the world to meet people, see places, gain a little political power, and make a little money. So they decided to travel together.

––They hadn’t gone far when the eldest said, “One of us is not smart enough or educated enough, having nothing but common sense. He won’t make it very far in the world without scholarship, so let’s not share our money with him. He should go back home.”

–The second said, “That’s true, friend, you should go home.” But the third said, “No, this is no way to treat our friend who we have known since we were small children playing together. He will stay with us and have a share of the money we earn.”

––So they agreed and all four continued on together. Soon they came upon the bones of a dead lion in the forest. One of them said, “Here is a chance to show off how intelligent and learned we are. Let’s bring him back to life through our superior knowledge.”

–The first said, “I can assemble the skeleton for I know how it should go.” The second said, “I can add on the muscles, organs, and skin.” The third said, “I can give it life.”

––But the fourth, who was the man of no scholarship said, “This is a lion. If you give it life it will kill every one of us.”

–The scholars replied, “We will not make all our learning pointless. We must use it at every opportunity.” So the fourth replied again, “Then wait a moment while I climb this tree.”

–So the man of sense climbed a tree while the other three brought the lion to life. The lion rose up and killed the three scholars. But the man of sense climbed down after the lion had left and went home.

MORAL LESSON: The main theme in the story is seek intelligence don't rely on what you already know and think carefully before you do actions. Scholarship symbolize wisdom and knowledge , Sense symbolize deeply understanding, awareness and the lion symbolize death, a consequences on what they did brought the lion back into life.

END!!!