Monday, 30 October 2017

“English as Crucial and Global Language in India”

Name : Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment Topic : “English as Crucial and Global Language in India”
Paper no: 12, English Language Teaching-1
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Roll No. : 23
Submitted to :  Dr. Dilip Barad, Department of      English MKBU University.

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“English as Crucial and Global Language in India”

# Introduction:



English is the language of modernization and globalization. It is an international language that connects various country. It is the ‘Link Language’.  India can have wide range of global opportunity by making English as official language. It’s impossible to imagine the world without the two ‘e’s : Electronic Communication and English. English plays an important role in our everyday life. There is great utility of English in modern world. So, the use of English should be continued along with Hindi and other regional languages.


English has it’s unique importance in India. It has played an important role in building new and modern India. English is one of the most important Global language. Most of the international transactions of recent times were concluded in English. The language has contributed significantly in narrowing the gap between the geographical boundaries.

The study of English language in this age of globalization is essential. English language is the most important language of communication between different countries.  In India, people of different states have their own language. English Language has come to us as a connecting link among various states of India.


U.N. has recognized five languages as its official languages and of them English takes the first position because of its background, international acclaim of easy access to the people. If we go back to historical facts, we see that half of the globe was under the British imperialism. Those countries coming directly under British rule had by necessity or under compulsion to learn English and the rest either being influenced by the English culture or to keep pace with modern trend had but to opt for learning it.


French, German, Greek and definitely Sanskrit are not inferior to English, yet the fact is, English had stood the test of time. From the pragmatic point of view, it should receive a great boost. Inflict, English serves as a window to the world. It is known to all that the legacy of English language has left an indelible imprint on the Indian psyche. Hence we can’t deal with English just as foreign language. Secondly, the entire spectrum of education and philosophy, science and technology can be better understood through this language.


The common practice all over the world in the modern age is to learn English language to facilitate easy understanding political, social, cultural and religious issues because this language is easier than French, German, Greek and Sanskrit. It is with the help of this language that we are gaining knowledge of modern science and technology and are keeping ourselves in touch with the most progressive ideas and current thoughts.


English has emerged as the most important global language. It is a wrong view to hold that it is a language of the British alone. English has evolved be a language of science and technology. Majority of all important books for higher studies are written in English. The Indians must not keep their eyes closed in this adventurous period of globalization. (Roy)


 India is a large country containing diverse states and all have their different languages, thus English plays role of link language in India.  For longer period of time we were colonized by British people and directly came into contact with their language.


When India attained freedom in 1947, the British symbol were replaced but the institutions and instruments were retained. This is true of the English language also, which had symbolic as well as institutional and instrumental functions. As there was a new national flag symbolizing the emergence of new society with new values, pride and power there ought to be new national language. Recognizing multinational character of the country, English remains the official language of the India.

After second world war the stature and power of English increased internationally in the political and commercial sphere. It was perceived that India will have some natural advantage in world politics and commerce by officially remaining an English using country. There was also an enormous leap in the growth of science and technology much of which was done in English. There was a growing awesome fear that the knowledge gap cannot be caught up by the Indian languages in content and vocabulary by interaction. The increased international mobility and possibilities of higher education abroad, which gave new and handsome returns to the already advantaged, underscored the importance of English education. The language despised as the language of Satans by the freedom fighters. Came to be praised as the boon of Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. In the words of Rajaji in his later years, who was the first Governor General of independent India.


 English had become more and more Indianised grammatically and functionally due to it’s use by large number of Indians thanks to increased education, commerce and journalism and the Indian English was no more foreign. The increased preference and use of English in the country can be seen from several facts such as Those who take Indian language medium for their higher education are a small minority and are poor students scholastically and economically. The college level text books and references books written in or translated into Indian languages spending crores of rupees remain unsold. Therefore learning English is important in India. (E.ANNAMALAI)


English is taught as ‘Second Language” In India. The term second language is understood in two different ways-


(1)   English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primary and more significantly.

(2)   In school education, the second language is what is introduced by primary stage and has pedagogical as well as a functional definition particularly in the context of the three language formula.


The significance of English can only be understood in the larger and historical perspective. It is to be noted that English in India is a symbol of ‘Linguistic centralism’ whereas other Indian languages are seen to represent ‘Linguistic regionalism’. The conceptual structure of English has three parts.

(1)   Modernization
(2)   Mythology
(3)   Language policy


English become the language of modernization and internationalism. English is one “Pan-Indian’ language that would promote National Integration. To further buttress this argument, a whole mythology got built up around the role of English in which the central metaphor is the metaphor of the “Window”. In which Indian language are ‘Walls’ that enclose us in ‘Darkness’ and English is the window that let’s in the ‘Light’ of reason and modernization.


(1)   English is the Language of Knowledge
(2)   English is the language of liberal, modern thinking
(3)   English is our window on the world
(4)   English is the Link language
(5)   English is the language of reason and library language
(6)   English is the Lingua-franca

All above facts evokes the importance of learning English in India. (KAPOOR)


 "The English language in all an advanced and flexible one and its teaching should not be discarded altogether. Indian cannot afford to ignore this language". -Dr. Rajendl'a Prasad


India inherited English from British who ruled over India for longer period of time. At the beginning there was strong argument against English in free India. It was seen as threat for Indian languages and values. Well educated English people can contribute in the development of English Literature. The works of Rabindra Nath Tagore, Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Radha Krishnan were beyond doubt a real contributor for the literature of English language. knowledge of English is necessary at least for acquiring higher education.  The importance of learning of English for the advancement and growth of technical education in the country.


 “In my considered opinion English education in the manner it has given to us has emasculated the English educated Indian, constrained our intellect and endured us effeminate" - Mahatma Gandhi learning of English as language is very important as it is not only necessary for higher scientific and technical education, but it is a linking language, spoken through out a large part of the world. It is one of the most popular international language for all diplomatic, political conferences, treaties and scientific discourses. One can't imagine to arrange any international conference, scientific discourse, without help of English, as medium for communication among the members. English had played very important role in making the Indians enlightened about the many revolutionary ideas during the British rule. We can't forget the role played by Indian scholars and educationist in our freedom struggle. Our freedom could have been a dream even as yet if we lack scholars that they have been able to tell us what is freedom. In present condition when India has attained freedom English is playing very crucial role in the progress of the country. The Indian students are the most favored engineers, technical experts in European countries because they could understand and communicate well in English.


 The name of Indian students in IT Space, is world wide recognized. They could acquire the knowledge and expertise in the respective fields in English. The study of English language is thus very necessary to introduce us into the fast developing world. If India has to keep pace with the. developed nation in the present scenario of globalization and liberalization we must give due importance to the learning of English language. If India has to keep abreast with other fast moving nations of the world, in the field of literature, science,space, computers, economics, we can't ignore the importance of learning English. Imagine, had Kalpana Chawla, Hargovind Khurana, Dr. Amritya Sen,etc. not acquired the knowledge of English, would they have earned the recognition, they possess today? Shakespeare' once said, "Sometimes out of ills cometh the good". Macaulay introduced English in India to produce clerks but the study of English radiated on Indians an exhorting influence that made them confident of wining the freedom. (Mol, Essay on importance of 'Learning English' in India)

# Conclusion:

English is the Language of communication and Business in recent time. Person will have opportunity abroad as well who has mastery over English language. All research and new knowledge are done into English language, those who are unaware about English will remain unaware about the current and future  trends of advancement. India can become developed country through accurate use of English.

Works Cited

E.ANNAMALAI. "Satan and Saraswati: The Double face of English in India." (n.d.).

KAPOOR, KAPIL. "Teaching English as Second Language in India." (n.d.).

Mol, Akhila. Essay on importance of 'Learning English' in India. 24 October 2017 <http://www.preservearticles.com/201103034387/essay-on-importance-of-learning-english-in-india.html>.

—. Essay on Importance of 'learning English' in India'.

Roy, Anurag. ImportantIndia. 5 September 2013. 24 october 2017 <https://www.importantindia.com/2398/essay-on-importance-of-english-language-in-india/>.



“ Transcendentalism in Scarlet Letter”


Name : Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment Topic : “ Transcendentalism in Scarlet letter”
Paper no: 10, American Literature
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Roll No. : 23
Submitted to :  Dr. Dilip Barad, Department of English MK Bhavnagar University  

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“ Transcendentalism in Scarlet Letter”

# What is Transcendentalism?    

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest to the general state of culture and society.  Among the transcendentalists’ core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both man and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that man is at his best when truly “self-reliant” and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed. They were very optimistic about the perfectibility of humans by following one’s own conscience. The Romantic Movement gave rise to New England Transcendentalism, which portrayed a less restrictive relationship between God and Universe. The new philosophy presented the individual with a more personal relationship with God. Major transcendentalists are




        

   Ralph Waldo Emerson - essayist, author, leading exponent of Transcendentalism

      Henry David Thoreau - poet, essayist, abolitionist; best known for Walden

      Nathaniel Hawthorne - immensely influential 19th-century American novelist


    Herman Melville - influential novelist, author of Moby-Dic

           Walt Whitman - American poet (Leaves of Grass, etc.), humanist     

       Transcendentalism as a movement that supports the conviction that divinity can be found in all things, Hawthorne deliberately represents his personal beliefs and observes all the ethics of transcendentalism in The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne who had been brought up in a puritanical society with its rigid laws tried to blend his favor upon transcendentalist ideas with his religious thought together in his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. 

It’s quite opposed to puritan orthodoxy and dogmatic theology of all religious. It is highly influenced by the individual idealism of romanticism and self reliance, nature and human as a central aspect of everything. While puritan puts religion at the center and human at the periphery. So transcendentalism saw a direct connection between universe and human.

It is believed by transcendentalist that man is able to find good and evil, by which he can improve his condition on earth.  The ideas of a Supreme Being, or of immortality and freedom of will, are inherent in the human mind. What attracted Hawthorne in Transcendentalism was its free inquiry, its radicalism, its contact with actual life. It is remarkable to pay attention that the main aspects of the transcendental ideas which occupied Hawthorne’s thought in his romances, especially in The Scarlet Letter, were the doctrines of self-reliance and of compensation. According to the idea of compensation every action carries its reward or punishment with it.


#  Transcendentalism in Scarlet Letter:


In scarlet letter, Hawthorne portrays puritans and their religion. They are very much orthodox in the matter of God and religion and tend to follow them blindly, at the cost of human being. In the first  chapter society curses and abuses Hester for her adultery. Would it be different if the community had different religions? It probably would because other religions might have a different opinion on adultery. But puritan society can not bear such adultery. Transcendentalism allows one to think about self. In this way transcendentalism comes into large umbrella of ‘Romanticism’.  The follower of romantic movement strongly believed in individualism. Transcendentalists try to find themselves through nature. Nature cannot influence a human to think a certain way. Nature actually reveals what a person really feels without any thoughts that are not from him/her mind.

Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter illustrates self-reliance in a society in which there is no respect for individuals. During her punishment, Hester passes some different and difficult stages which show her as a transcendental and self-reliant character. First stage shows her as sinner, cursed by society, seen as lawbreaker. Which takes place in prison, market and scaffold. The second stage portrays Hester as victim who suffers everything with persistently and patiently. in the third stage society accepts her as good human being who helps poor people and now the letter “A” has different meaning than earlier that is ‘A’ for “Able or Angel”.





Hester is, indeed, a sinner. But her sin is a cause not of evil but of good. Suffering disciplines Hester, so that she grows strong. Sorrow awakens her sympathies, so that she becomes a nurse. In fact, the best deeds of Hester’s life come about through her fall from grace. Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, and her unquestioned presence in times of trouble are the direct result of her search for repentance. If Hester had not sinned, she would never have discovered the true depths of tenderness within herself. Considering Hawthorne’s transcendental ideas Hester did nothing wrong. She is faithful and loyal toward her true lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, and also she is not disloyal to her evil husband, Chillingworth, because she has never loved him as we see she tells Chillingworth, “Thou knowest I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any”. but her love for Dimmesdale is a real love. She wants honestly to be with her lover forever. Transcendentalists do not consider Hester as a sinful woman who broke the rules because in the sight of God she had never been married. Hester just obeys her heart because she feels no conflict, as Dimmesdale feels, between her heart and her head. (ESSAYMONSTER)


The one of the major themes of Transcendentalist is Individual v/s society.  Hester  is outcast woman, lives in forest with her daughter Pearl. Puritan society does not accept her and pearl is not allowed to study in Puritan school. Society, for the transcendentalists, is a blinding, deforming, and devouring force. What matters to them is the individual, who has the potential to be beautiful, divine, and free. Hester and Pearl live as social outcasts who can't attend Church services, and Pearl is not accepted into the Puritan school. Children are taught to shun and mock them both. They are literally alone even when in the midst of the community, yet they seem closer to the divine and are more free than others in the community. Another theme is the idea of the sacred within. Transcendentalists do not believe in one religion and certainly not in the highly restrictive Christianity practiced by the Puritans. For the transcendentalists, God cannot be confined to a single name or religion. One can develop the sense of scared within self. Hester developed her own sense of morality and helped poor people.  


When puritan society was forcing Hester to admit her adultery, it was not because they think that adultery is wrong but it is taught to them through religion and religious masters. the cause of the crowd having the same idea was not cause the true believed it, it was taught to them. Their teachers forced them to accept these ideas, not allowing them to question the teachings.  Nature is the central element of transcendentalism. When Hester was abandon to live in society she prefers to live in forest surrounded by woods. She is quite free from the thoughts of society, what society would think about her. Nature allows her to spent time with herself. And become the medium of expression for Pearl and Hester. In Scarlet letter, characters believe in supernatural. Transcendentalist accepts supernatural elements. Transcendentalists saw the world split in two. One side was God, spirits, and over-soul. The other side was humans, animals, and nature.




# Quotes from the Novel related with Transcendentalism:

“She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers - stern and wild ones - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” Chapter XVIII

Transcendentalist focused around nature. Transcendentalist felt that they could learn about themselves from nature. Nature is also part of the over-soul, equally as important as humans.

“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.” Chapter XIII
Transcendentalism is about transforming or changing. Hatred changing into love could possibly be a example of transcendental. (CRISOLOGO)

“A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.“ Chapter XII

Transcendentalist believed in the truth. Transcendentalist did not want to follow society thought their rules and regulations, transcendentalist wanted to express them selves by their own thoughts, not ones given to them by religion or culture. When people fallow the rules and regulations, they are fictionally meaning they are putting on gloves, covering their impulse.

“A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.” Chapter X

Hawthorn writes that the character is suffering from a spiritual sickness. Transcendentalist did not try to prove that their theories of the spiritual world were true, but that everyone is free to believe in it anyway they want to.

# Conclusion:

Transcendentalism is not a religion, it is a way of thinking. One could be involved in a religion and still believe in Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is how one views the world through their eyes. Knowing one's self is key to learning about transcendentalism. Transcendentalist are constantly faced with questions about themselves and their thoughts.  It must have been hard to go against everyone in the community. But what motivated the transcendentalist was the phrase "fallow your heart". 



Works Cited

CRISOLOGO, CHRISTIAN KYLE. CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SCARLET LETTER AND TRANSCENDENTALISM. 11 June 2008. 25 0ctober 2017 <http://aceenglishproject.blogspot.in/>.

ESSAYMONSTER. 4 December 2015. 25 October 2017 <http://essaymonster.net/literature/901-transcendentalist-codes-in-hawthorne-s-the-scarlet.html>.


Friday, 27 October 2017

# Post-colonialism in Literature and post-colonial reading of Two movies

Name : Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment Topic : “ Post-Colonialism in Literature and Postcolonial Reading of Two Movies “
Paper no. 11, Postcolonial Literature 
Roll No. : 23
Submitted to : Dr. Dilip Barad, M.A. Department of English
                            MK Bhavnagar University
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Batch Year : 2016-18

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# Post-colonialism in Literature and post-colonial reading of Two movies



In many works of literature, specifically those coming out of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, we meet characters who are struggling with their identities in the wake of colonization, or the establishment of colonies in another nation. For example, the British had a colonial presence in India from the 1700s until India gained its independence in 1947. As you can imagine, the people of India, as well as the characters in Indian novels, must deal with the economic, political, and emotional effects that the British brought and left behind. This is true for literature that comes out of any colonized nation. In many cases, the literature stemming from these events is both emotional and political. 

The post-colonial theorist enters these texts through a specific critical lens, or a specific way of reading a text. That critical lens, post-colonial theory or post-colonialism, asks the reader to analyze and explain the effects that colonization and imperialism, or the extension of power into other nations, have on people and nations. post-colonialism asks the reader to enter a text through the post-colonial lens.


 Postcolonial literature emerged at the same time that many colonies were fighting their way to independence. It really began picking up as a coherent literary movement in the mid-twentieth century. Many classic postcolonial texts were published between the 1950s and 1990s. And while drama and poetry are important in postcolonial literature, it's really the novel that defines this movement.

 What the postcolonial writers did was as important as what the anti-colonial freedom fighters and activists did. That's because postcolonial writers challenged some of the basic assumptions (like "white people are better") that had justified colonialism in the first place. In other words, the writers' battlefield was the mind, while the freedom fighters' battlefield was… well, the battlefield. 

Postcolonial writers emerging from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, South America and other places"wrote back" to the empire. They decided that the big guys—like Britain and Francehad been hogging the microphone for too long. Now it was time for postcolonial writers to tell their own stories, from their own perspectives. We all love justice. Isn't it nice when everyone's treated fairly, when we each have the freedom to do what we want and pursue our own happiness? That's the world we all want to live in. If you dig justice, equality and freedom, you'll dig postcolonial literature. Because it's a literature born out of the struggle of colonized peoples for justice, equality and freedom. Postcolonial literature is the literature of the underdog. All those people who were brutalized and exploited for decades by European colonizers, finding their voices and standing up for themselves—that's what postcolonial literature is all about  Postcolonial writers tell history from their perspective and show how the history written by colonizers is—you guessed it—totally biased against the colonized and toward the colonizers. When postcolonial writers take colonial languages like English and French and use them to talk back to the colonizers in a way they can't help but understand, that's a fancy little thing we call appropriation of colonial languages. (shmoop)


 Literary texts do not simply reflect dominant ideologies, but encode the tensions, complexities and nuances within colonial culture. Literature is a place where ‘Transculturation’ takes place in all it’s complexities. The colonial contact is not just reflected  in the language or imagery  of literary texts, it is not just a backdrop of ‘context’ against which human dramas are enacted, but a central aspect of what these texts have to say about identity, relationships and culture.


Language and literature are together implicated in constructing the binary of a European self and N0n-European others. Which as Said’s Orientalism  suggested, is a part of the creation of colonial authority. Literature in such reading, both reflects and creates way of seeing and modes of articulation that are central to the colonial process. It is especially crucial to the formation of  colonial discourses because it influences people as individual. But literary texts can also militate against dominant ideologies or contain elements which can not be reconciled to them. Plays such as Othello and The Tempest evoke contemporary ideas about incivility of non-European. Both plays have been interpreted and taught in ways that endorse colonialist ways of seeing, but both have also inspired anti-colonial and anti-racist movements and literatures as texts that expose the workings of colonialism.


# Post-colonial reading of movies:

(1)      “ Midnight’s Children”  



'Midnight's children' is a novel by the famous writer 'Salman Rushdie'. Midnight's children won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. it is a postcolonial novel in which writer gives account of events happened during British India and Independent India. He adds the beauty to these events by using the tool 'Magic Realism' which makes novel imaginative piece of literature instead of boring historical novel. 

The protagonist of novel Saleem sinai was born on the exact movement when India gained it's freedom from British rule, 15th august,1947. He is the narrator of story and starts telling from the life of his grandfather. His grandfather named Adam Aziz was doctor begins treating Naseem his grandmother. Here one can read postcolonial feminism that Adam was not allowed to treat Naseem directly. Even Doctor can not check woman, she remained in 'parda'. Novel begins in Kashmir, the place is already problematic for India and Pakistan. Novel speaks about some minority muslim people who didn't want partition. But 'Islamophobia' spreads in such a way nowadays that we always blame them for everything. 

Saleem born on the midnight of India's independence with giant nose therefore possesses telepathic power to gather children who born on the same midnight. other children also possess the enormous power. 'Magic realism' is the aesthetic aspect of the novel. so readers can not question or accept surreal things as telepathic power of Saleem, Even the mother Naseem can go into the dreams of daughters, Parvati's power of doing magic 'Abra ka dabra'. 

Novel raises the ontological question of Saleem's life. We can find several gray areas about Saleem's identity. When we ask question epistemologicaly at that time we find several information about his existence and identity. Perhaps he is child of William Mathwold and slave lady so the problem of hybridity takes place.  But then exchanged by nurse and got rich family. 'Let the rich be poor and poor be rich'. it suggests that we are thrown in this careless universe, we don't have control over birth. The identity which is given to us or label with which we live as Hindu, Muslim or christian is fake. Because we don't know the fact about someone's birth. Saleem lives with given identity but all of a sudden he come across the truth that 'he is not what he is'. And suddenly lost his fortune and becomes poor person. so at the end he speaks that 'I had many family and no family'. 

Political crisis is one of the major events of the novel. Which portrayed the India during 'Indira Gandhi's' rule. Emergency is world-known political crisis for India.Novel evokes the pathetic condition of poor people. India got the democracy, freedom and progress at the cost of poor people. Salman Rushdie makes fun of India's progress by suggesting that India and Saleem grew together.   

One can find a postcolonial aspect in novel and film. Because salman Rushdie was abandoned writer for India and 'Deepa Mehta' the director of the film is Canadian. So they portrayed India as a country of 'snake charmers' and the people who believe in superstitions. So they narrate 'Orient' people as inferior and badly poor.  

In a way this novel has the postcolonial characteristics. which gives picture of India during British rule and after the independence.  


(2)       “ The Reluctant Fundamentalist”


 "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is a 2007 novel written by the Pakistan-born writer Mohsin Hamid and film is directed by Mira Nair. This is post 9/11 story about the impact of Al Qaeda on one Pakistani person and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them.

 One ambitious Pakistani man, Changez khan goes to America to have bright future. He belongs to the gentle and educated family. His father is a poet, well known person and respected by all. Changez khan has the great literary heritage.He belongs to great literary canon but distracted from that path. instead of following family tradition he went to America.He easily mix up with the environment and people of America. He is Intellectual man so proves himself better than other colleague and also got the promotion by owner of company. This may be the reason for jealousy of American people and they consider other people as 'outsider'. He falls in love with Erica, American artist. Everything was well going but his life changed after the attack of 9/11 on America.

Suddenly American people start doubting him because he comes with label of 'Pakistani'. Even her girlfriend Erica suspects him. She ask him that 'do you know anything about the attack?' Very furiously he replies that 'how can i know about attack?'. His moustache  becomes the symbol of terror for American people. Even his love abuse him by portraying him as Pakistani and not as 'Human being' in her photographs.He recognizes himself as American and tells that 'I love America' but no one believes him and try to make him 'Terrorist' just because he is Pakistani. He faces many adversity adversity and finally he commit professional suicide and came back to Pakistan.

 In 2011 Anse Rainier, an American professor at Lahore university is kidnapped. An American journalist arranges the interview a colleague of Rainier, Changez khan. Whom he suspects just because he was doubted for the American attack. Changez  khan tells entire story to Robert Lincoln in flashback  It's no wonder that the words 'Islam' and 'Fundamentalism' are tightly coupled in the mind of every person. everyone suffers from 'Islamophobia' which is only the oriental narration of power country that is America. It has spread Islamophobia in such a way that we always blame Muslims for terrorism. As Edward said rightly put that Americans narrate Muslims as 'Orient' and them as 'Occident'.   


# Conclusion:

“ Literature is the mirror of society. “ One can find a direct reflection of society into literature. Society provides the theme and subjects of literature. Literature is the expression of joy, happiness, suffering, pain  of writer himself. Most of the country colonized for longer period of time. And still suffering from the effect of colonialism. Which gets reflected into wide range of literature. 

Works Cited

shmoop. 22 october 2017 <https://www.shmoop.com/postcolonial-literature/>.



“ Indian Reading in The waste Land”



Name : Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment Topic : “ Indian Reading in The waste Land”
Paper no. 9 , Modernist Literature
Roll No. : 23
Submitted to : Dr. Dilip Barad, M.A. Department of English
                           MK Bhavnagar University.
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Batch Year: 2016-18

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         “ Indian Reading in The Waste Land “


# Introduction:



Poetry, religion and philosophy are no doubt quite distinct from each other in theory and may have different purposes; but in practice they often coalesce. Poetry for example may embody powerful feelings in a unique form, and yet carry both religious and philosophical overtones. Moreover, at their profoundest and deepest levels, poetry, religion, and philosophy spring out certain intense perception, which evolve into complex visions with a cosmic significance. We may therefore, penetrate the works of a philosophical poet like Eliot by means of the keen perception underlying his poetry. By juxtaposing these insight with those of the Upanishads. We find a deep insight of Indian religion and philosophy in the last part of the poem “ What does the Thunder say?”.
 

“The Waste Land" has long been considered T. S. Eliot's masterpiece. In its five sections, he delves into themes of war, trauma, disillusionment, and death, illuminating the devastating aftereffects of World War I. When it was first published, the poem was considered radically experimental. The title is indicative of Eliot’s attitude toward his contemporary society, as he uses the idea of a dry and sterile wasteland as a metaphor for a Europe devastated by war and desperate for spiritual replenishment but depleted of the cultural tools necessary for renewal. The poem is deliberately obscure and fragmentary, incorporating variant voices, multiple points of view, and abrupt shifts in dramatic context.


# Impact of Upanishad on The Waste Land:

T.S Eliot was highly influenced by Indian philosophy. He makes an incontrovertible appeal to the thunder of the ‘Brihdarankya Upanishad’ in the final portion of  The Waste Land.  The scene shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where thunder rumbles. Eliot draws on the traditional interpretation of “what the thunder says,” as taken from the Upanishads. According to these fables, the thunder “gives,” “sympathizes,” and “controls” through its “speech”; Eliot launches into a meditation on each of these aspects of the thunder’s power. The meditations seem to bring about some sort of reconciliation, as a Fisher King-type figure is shown sitting on the shore preparing to put his lands in order, a sign of his imminent death or at least abdication. The poem ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children’s song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant of “Shantih shantih shantih”—the traditional ending to an Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes to the poem, translates this chant as “the peace which passeth understanding,” the expression of ultimate resignation.


There are numerous examples of Hindu influences on the "Wasteland." Some of these allusions are obvious, such as the Hindu story footnoted in Part V. or the repetition of "shantih" at the poem's close. Others are only apparent if you know where to look. Illustrations of life-in-death are reminders of the Hindu concept of maya, or the ultimate unreality of what we consider life. Maya describes the veil of illusion that leads people to believe that the world is made up of things separate and distinct, and blinds them to the reality that life is in fact a unified whole. Hindu philosophy teaches that it is the ignorance of this unity which is at the root of all human misery and suffering. Illustrations of the other aspect of this motif, life-in-death, can also serve as reminders of Hindu philosophy, specifically the concept of reincarnation. According to this idea, reincarnation or rebirth is not something to be celebrated, but instead signifies that the person being reborn has not yet realized the unity of life. Those who fail to come to this realization are doomed to rebirth and the continuation of an endless cycle of suffering in a world of illusions. 


There are three kinds of  "DA" taken from Hindu mythology. The gods interpret this as "damyata" or “control,” the humans as "datta", or “give,” and the demons as "dayadhvam", or “sympathize.” The story ends with the Creator, represented as the sound of thunder, repeating "da da da" as a reminder to practice self-control, giving, and compassion. In the "Wasteland" Eliot modifies this story following each interpretation with a passage in which the protagonist thinks about how the word, and the ideas it represents, relates to his life. Many critics interpret these responses in terms of human love and connection, and while this reading relates to other sections of the poem that depict sterile or uncommunicative relationships, it does not address the reasons why Eliot would choose to use a Hindu story to illustrate these states. (Robyn)


# What The Thunder Said:
                 

A starting point of our analysis of what the Thunder said is afforded by the first essay  in the ‘Kittredge Anniversary papers, which is extremely interesting to students of T.S. Eliot. This paper, ‘ Hindu Law and Custom as to Gifts’, is by Charles Rockwell Lanman, former Wales professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University. He mentions that The voice of God repeats, the thunder, when it rolls “ Da Da Da” that is damyata, datta and dayadhvam. Therefore these three must be learned, self-control, giving, compassion. According to Lanman ‘The teaching of the Vedas, the Brahman’s noblest duty, is a “ giving of the Sacred word.” Just as the water, once poured out, can never be regathered  and taken back. In the Waste land this idea becomes “The awful daring of a moment’s surrender/which an age of prudence can never retract.” The speaker is thinking of something far more profound. About what he should have given. This giving operates on two levels. The first is a complete surrender of himself to another person in love. But if we recall the Hindu context of Praja-Pati’s  command, we have a clue to another level of  meaning in the passage ,for the most important gift the Brahman could give was the ‘Sacred Word’. Therefore this passage operates not only on the level of a profound and significant human love, but on the level of divine love as well. In Hindu religion and philosophy each being understands and realizes God in terms of his own spiritual background. Hence there are many Gods, different Gods for Hindu, Muslims, jain, Shikh, Buddha etc. But the ultimate message is the same of every God. According to the Hindu religion, opposed to the virtues enjoined by Praja-Pati are the ‘three primary vices’: desire of lust, greed and wrath. And the Radhakrishan emphasizes the importance of what the thunder said to Hindu thinking;


“ In one passage all the virtue are brought together under the three ‘Da’ which are heard in the voice of the thunder, namely, dama or self-restrain, dana or self-sacrifice and daya or compassion. Prajapati   conveys it to the three classes of his (asura) Gods have desires(kama), men suffer from greed (Lobha) and demons from anger(Krodha). By the practice of the three injunctions we free ourselves from the sway of craving, greed and anger. When the Buddha asks us to  put out in our hearts the monstrous fires of infatuation, greed and resentment, he is emphasizing the three virtues enjoined by the Upanishadas.”


Here again a reference to the Hindu commentary is in order: ‘ Daya or  compassion is more than sympathy or intellectual or emotional feeling. It is love in action, fellowship in suffering. It is feeling of one’s own the circumstances and aspirations to self-perfection which we find in others. The ultimate goal of any human being is salvation through knowledge.

‘The Atman or soul in it’s essential nature is one with Brahman, the absolute. ‘Brahman’ thee first principle of the universe. Is known through Atman, the inner self of man. The soul of the universe is identified with the soul of the man. “ Rule over oneself becomes rule over the World”. The Upanishads give in some detail the path of the inner ascent. The inward journey by which the individual souls get at the ultimate reality. Truth is within us….. the goal is identity with the supreme consciousness and freedom. (M.E GRENANDER)

The last line of The Waste Land has the singular distinction of having baffled the best commentators on the poem. A commentator like David Ward wanders why a poem “ So little like the Upanishads in it’s moral and spiritual universe.” Ends with blessings and greetings of peace. Among the Hindus it is well known that ‘Shantih’ is chanted in solemn benediction to oneself and to the others. Vedic recitation strictly end with the chant of the Shantih Mantra. Which seeks for the blessings of the God and ends with the mystic syllable ‘OM’.  Upanishadas describe om as the supreme symbol Brahman, indeed of the whole world. (CHANDRAN)   
                                                                                                
# Conclusion:‘ The Waste Land’ is modern poem by T.S Eliot which has deep  essence of Hindu religion. Last part of the poem speaks about the Indian philosophy and religion. It reflects the search for the self and it’s relation with the universe. It is the journey of getting the ultimate goal of human being “Salvation”. The word ‘Shantih’ has deep meaning of the Hindu thoughts and philosophy. Last section of the poem is full of Hind mythology.


Works Cited

CHANDRAN, K. NARAYANA. ""Shantih" in The Waste Land." JSTORE 61 (n.d.): 681-683.

M.E GRENANDER, K.S NARAYANA RAO. "The waste Land and the Upanishadas: what does the Thunder say?" JSTOR 14 (n.d.): 85-98.

Robyn. yoExpert. 21 October 2017 <http://poetry.yoexpert.com/reading-studying-poems/what-are-the-hindu-influences-on-ts-eliot-s-%22waste-955.html>.


  
     




                                                    





                                                                                                           

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