IntroductionIndian novel in English took its distinct shape in 1930s but the fact remains that its genealogy

can be traced back, into the 19th century. For example, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyays Rajmohans wife (1864) was the first publisher novel in English. I was the first and only English novel he wrote and it appeared as a serial in the Indian field of 1864, therefore, he wrote novels in Bengali and persuaded Michael Madhusudtian Dutt and Ramesh Chander Dutt to write in Bengali. His novels like Durges anandini and Anandmath won him wide acclaim as a superb story-teller, Bankims real contribution to the development of Indian novel in English lies in the fact that he knew how to adopt an alien form and medium to a theme and sensibility which were essentially Indian. Humayun Kabir has a point when he observes: He sought human fulfillment through acceptance of the empirical and was in this respect influenced by Europe. Simultaneously he sought to base the empirical on a total realization of knowledge, love and action, an impulse he derived from his Indian heritage. The European outlook is towards looking where it is better to travel than to arrive. For it, all experience is an arch For Indian, novelty is not enough and must be based on a deeper understanding or intuition of the whole. It was to Bankims credit that he was able to effect a partial reconciliation between the entrary views. For this and also for his skill as a story-teller Bankim is spite or many blemishes is the first great novelist of modern India and the first writer in Bengali who established the novel on a firm foundation.(19) The fact remains that his role as pioneer of the Indian Novel cannot be undermined. He showed the way to all the later novelists including those writing in English. Krishna Kripalani has rightly observed.

Nevertheless, it was Bankim Chandra who established the novel as a major literary form in India. He had his limitation, he was too romantic, effusive and didactic, he indulged a little too freely in literary flourished and bombast and was no peer of his great European Contemporaries, Balzac and Dickens, much less of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. These have been better novelists in India since then, but they all stand on Bankim Shoulders (44-45). Thus, it is clear that it was Bankim who showed how the novel in India could be creatively used to portray social life and manners, and how Indian writers could do it in their vernaculars as well as in English. Another important novel Govinda Samanta was published in 1874. Its another Lal Behai Day (1824-94) was an excellent observer of human nature. The scene of the novel is Burdwan district during 1850-75 and in the words of Dorothy Spencer much of this is pure ethnography. This was awarded a prize in 1871. It was considered to be superb novel illustrating the social and domestic life of the Rural Population and working classed of Bengal. The novelist in his prefatory note makes a direct statement an what the reader should and should not expect, e.g. he should expect here a plain and unvarnished tale of a plain he should expect here a plain and unvarnished tale of a plain peasant living in this plain country of Bengal. In fact, Govinda Samanta is a realistic story poignantly told, an unvarnished tale with no ensciously developed form or plot, which goes on and on without a pause or break. It is the moving story of a Bengali raiyat, Govinda Samanta, the son of Badan Samanta of Kanchanpur, a village in Burdwan. The novelist shows how the hero bereaves trial offer trial, but as misfortunes come in terrible succession, he succumbs to ill-health and suffering.

In goes without saying that Govinda Samanta depicts the cruelities of the old feudal order which the novelist found still lingering on the zamindari system. It must be pointed out here that Days depiction of feudalism is more realistic and humanistic than Bankim Chandras treatment of it in Durgesanandini. K .S. Ramamurti has a point when he observes. In other words, Bankim was far steeped in tradition to be able to see life with the eye of a realist, as Lal Behari Day was able to. Both Rajamohans wife and Durgesanandini are more romantic and moralistic and less realistic than Govinda Samanta and for this reason alone one way be justified in considering Govinda Samanta as the first Significant Indian novel, notwithstanding the fact that the two novels of Bankim referred to above belong to a much earlier date (61). In fact the novel is a very significant source of conveying a vision of harmony. According to Meenakshi Mukherjee, the emergence of the novel in India is more than a purely literary exercise. In her classic book Realism and Reality. The Novel and Society in India, Meenakshi Mukherjee rightly observes: The factor that shaped the growth of this genre since the mid-nineteenth century arose as much from the political and social situation of the colonised country as from several indigenous though attenuated narrative traditions of an ancient culture that survived through constant mutation. English education and through English an exposure to western literature were by far the strongest influences at work. It is not an accident that the first crop of novels in India in Bengali and Marathi, appeared exactly a

generation after. Macaulays education Minutes making English a necessary part of an educated Indians mental make up were passed. Yet to regard the novel in Indian as is sometime done, as the railway or cricket would be to overlook the complex cultural determinents of a literary genre(3). The novel in Indian was primarily concerned with the projection of reality in terms of art .Its close connected with the changing moral, cultural and economic basis of society determined its theme______and it become an organic product in the hands of three major novelists Mulk Raj Anand(1905-2004), R.K. Narayan(1906-2001), and Raja Rao(1908-2006). In fact they are considered to be the forefathers or pioneers of Indian written in English. Mulk Raj Anand was born in Peshawar, Studied at Lahore, London and Cambridge. He studied philosophy at the University of London. He was also drawn into the fringes of the Bloomsburg circle. His first unpublished work in English was a 2000-page Gandhian confession which furnishes the raw material for his subsequent autobiographical writing. K.R. Srinivasa lyengar rightly observes that Mulk Raj Anand was extremely conscious of the polical events that took place in Indian at that time. The critic further says Although normally resident in England, Anand too could not but respond to the impact of event in India. With him, however, as with Bankim Chandra before him, political action took the form of writing novels. He wrote of the people, and as the man of the people. It may be said that these early novels reveal an aim and a sense of direction much as an avalanche or a flood shows a

fury of momentum, a surge of force, a heady rush towards the goal (332-333) His five novels appeared in the following sequence: Untouchable (1935), Coolie(1936), Two leaves and a bud (1937),The village(1939)E and across the Black water (1940).Untouchable graphically depict one day in the life of Bakha who is an introspective young speaker. He lives in the out casts colony in small cantonment town in Northern Indian. The atmosphere of the late 205 and early 305 was surcharged with political fervor. When Mulk Raj Anand started writing he preferred the familiar to the fancied, avoided the highways of romance and sophistication, and explored the bylanes of the outcasts, the sepoys and the working class. Gandhi ji exercised a very powerful influence on his creative imagination. It was under his able guidance that he chose to write about the plight of the downtrodden in Indian society In his special Preface to the second edition of two leaves and a bud (1951) Anand explain that he deals with the plight of the pariahs and the bottom dogs as it has been a wait like Munoo in coolie, and untouchable like Bakha, an Indentured labourer like Gangu and makes them the protagonists of his various novels. Anand explain the source of these characters in the following words:All these heroes, as the other men and women who had emerged in my novel and short stories, were dear to me, because they where there reflection of the real people I had known during my childhood and youth. And I was only replaying the debt of

gratitude I owed them for much of the inspiration they had given me to mature into manhood, when I began to interpret their lives in my writing. They were not were not mere phantoms They were flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood and obsessed me in the way in which certain human beings obsess an artists soul. And I was doing no more than what a writer does when he seeks to interpret the truth from the realities of his life (IV). Thus it was Anand who advocated the cause of the downtrodden and the underprivileged. His other important novels include the big Heart (1945), Private Life of an Indian Prince ( ), the old Women and the cow (1960), and The Road (1961). They reveal his

humanity and compassion. His post independence novels, however, fail to match the excellence of his earlier works of fiction. Based on the life of a Kashmir freedom fighter The Death of a Hero (1964) Morning Face (1970) and Confessions of a Lover (1976) continue the slow

chronological progression of Anands autobiography through the fictional persona of Krishna Chander In fact his longest sustained fictional narrative is Seven Ages of Man .The protagonist is Krishna Chander and the novel is his recapitulation of his own childhood, set in the Punjab of the opening decade of the present century; and Krishna chander partly an incarnation of Krishna of the Yadus and partly a Panjabi lad ____ with his liveliness and love of life which adds a special charm of the novel. It is true that as a writer of fiction he has serious limitations. But inspite of many linitations, according to K.R..Srinivasa Iyengan his notable marks are Vitality and keen sense of actuality. He is a veritable Dickens for describing the inequities and idiosyncrasies in the current

human situations with candor as well as accuracy (365). It was Anand who gave a specific direction to Indian novel in English. His novels Are instrumental in the history of the Indian novel in English. Their experiment with social realism, and corresponding attention to the surface of life in pre-independent Indian, catches with in fiction the complex alliances, misalliances, trans formations and failures of the Indian national movement moreover these novels are pioneering in their effort to render into English the exuberant dialects of northern India. Although awkward, Anands exposition of Pidgin English prepares the way for the subsequent linguistic and cultural translations of Indian English writers (Melhotra 178179). Another important contemporary novelist is R.K Narayan (1907-2001) who has lent seriousness to the art of writing novel .His mother art of writing novel. His mother tongue was Tamil. He spoke Kannada but wrote in English. His first publisher novel is Swami and friends (1935) which are deeply enriched in the soil of Indian. The novel presents the exploits of swami, an average of obscure boy and his friends_____ somu, the monitor, Mani, the good for nothing, Samuel, the ordinary and the dashing, romantic leader Rajan. Narayan explained his fictional concerns in an article The fiction writer in India. It was published in the special Atantic Monthly supplement on India. Narayan expressed the view that during the period of nation a list agitation the subject matter of fiction became inescapable political the mood of comedy, the sensitivity to atmosphere, the probing of

psychological factors, the crisis in the individual soul and etc resolution, and above all the detached observation, which constitute the stuff of fiction were forced into the background. However after in dependence the writer in India hopes to express through his novels and stories the way of life of the group of people with whose psychology and background he is most familiar ;and he hopes that this picture will not only appeal to his own circle but also to a larger audience outside (Iyengar 360). After Swami and Friend, The Bachelor of Art (1936) and The Dark Room (1938) were publisher in quick succession. The Bachelor of Art graphically depicts the dilemma of a restless drifter Chandran. He is hungry fradventure. Through his character Narayan portrays his dislike for the British system of education. He runs away from home to become a wandering sadhu since he cannot marry the girl of his choice. He realizes that the religious path of his ancestor cannot be retrieved. As a result he quickly accepts the smallness of his horizons. Finally he settles down to a life of quiet and sobriety. The novelist shows how the encounter with the half baked modernity of colonialism has deracinated Indians like Chandran. Pankaj Mishra has a point when he observes:Like Chekhovs, Narayans realism can seem homely and nuance at the same time. Narayan never casts sufficient light on the larger social and historical setting of his fiction; the major historical events British colonialism Indian independence, the

emergency___ through which his characters drift. Even a quite real setting goes under the imaginary name of Malgudi; and only a few easily missed domestic details hint at the fact that Swami and

Chandran, along with many other Narayan protagonists, are Brahmins marginalised by a fast changing world (199) This it is clear that Narayan is a pure novelist which distinguishes him from Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. William Walsh praises the pure and disinterested art (22)in his novels. O n the other

hand Srinivasa Iyengar is of the view that Narayan has no axes of and kind: he is that rare thing in India today, aman of letters pure and simple (358).Meenakshi Mukherjee highlights the degree of detachment which characterises his fiction. The critic points out that his whole a achievement depends on his capacity to remain uninvolved 36P.S. Sundaram is of the view that at a time ,when India was primarily preoccupied with getting rid of the British regime Narayan his stories as if Malgudi was the centre of the universe and the domestic occurrences in a middle class family to the extent they impinged on a school boy or an undergraduate were all that mattered (139). Narayans sympathizers have all praise for his artistic qualities. However his detractors have found him a superficial writer, a mere story teller; nothing less and seldom more. David Mc Mutchion is of the view that Narayan deals with quaintness without any sense of the real world (33). Commenting on the original compound of realize and fantasy, T.D.Brunton observes that when the vein of fantasy predominates, his writing slips into escapism and triviality (59). V.S. Naipaul observes in his book An Area of Darkness (1964) that Narayan leaves out much that is overwhelming of Indian reality. He further adds that there is a contradiction in Narayan, between his form, which implies concern, and his attitude which denies it (228)

In fact Narayan as a novelist remained uninfluenced by external events. Social- political changes did not distribute his writing process. That is why he remains detached. He appeared to be more of a passive observer than an active participator in the arena of life. However, the novelist is preoccupied with the Guru theme. He explores its comic potential from different angles. It is also important to point out that Narayan is interested in exploring the mental make up of a trickster sadhu. The way he project a trickster sadhu in his novels shows that his protagonists finally return to the Malgudi world of common sense. The narration, for example, tells us in The Bachelor of Arts that Chandran was different from the usual sanyasi. Other may recnounce with a spiritual motive or purpose. But Chandrans renunciation was not of that kind, It was an alternative to suicide. He was a sanyasi; because it pleased him to mortify his flesh. His renunciation was a revenge on society, circumstances, and perhaps, too, on destiny(108). After eight moths of aimless wandering he reaches Koopal village. The villagers take chandran at his face value and pamper him with gifts and devotion. However, he suddenly felt a cad, a fraud, and a confidence trickster. These were gift for a counterfeit exchange. He wished that he deserved their faith in him(111). The reality dawns upon him that he cannot afford to remain self deceived anymore. He realizes: There was no such thing; a foolish literary notion. If people didnt read stories they wouldnt know there was such a thing as love. It was a scorching madness. There was no such things. And driven by a non-existent thing he had become a deserter and a counterfeit(112). The above description anticipates Rajus realization at the end of Narayans most popular novel The Guide. However, Raju has to pay a very heavy price in The Guide. The

Novelist shows a consistent concern for the moral pattern. Raju the swindler is turned in the course of the story into a Mahatran. He is compelled by the faith of the villager in him. Finally he modifies himself and gets moulded as per the demand of the term. He abnegation of life pursued for his own pleasures so far, is described to have given him a new sense of freedom:For the first time in his life he was making an earnest effort, for the first time he was learning the thrill of full application, outside money and love; For the first time he was not personally interested(238) What is important in the case of Raju is his moment of transcending his limited self. Meenakshi Mukherjee has a point when she observer that the unquesting faith of the people drives him on until he identifies himself as an instrument of their will(128). The novelist describes the moment of his illumination in the following words:If by avoiding food I should help the trees bloom and the grass grow, why not do it thoroughly? Raju shows through his actions that he is a changed man. It has rightly been pointed out: In the story of Raju, what we have is the created object transcending its creator. The sainthood that Raju has created out of his deception ultimately transcends his control and obliterates his former self. The theme gains its strength through repetition, because earlier, in the Rosie episode, the same pattern has been established. Raju more or less created Nalini the dancer, and his motivation was not exactly an aristic passion for Bharat Natyam. But Nalini does not remain a doll in Raju, hands. For her the

dance is not a profession, a means of making money, but a cause, a devotion , and as Raju gets more deeply involved in the forgery case, Nalini begins to lead an independent life of her own. Finally she goes out of Rajus influence altogether. To become an illustrious artist on her own strength and devoted to her art (Mukherjee,129) Narayan also dealt with Gandhian thought in his novels like The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma and The Vendor of Sweets. It must be pointed out that about seven years after Gandhis assassination, Narayan returned with a more direct treatment of the subject of Gandhi in Waiting for the Mahatma. This novel can be compared to Anands The sword and the Sickle, K. Nagarajans Chronicles of Kedaram and Venu Chitlales In Transit In Waiting for the Mahatma Narayans primary aim is to show the nature and extent of Gandhis impact on the average Indian. Srirams character provides the novelist an important vehicle to analyse the Gandhi an impact on India psyche The plot of this novel is woven around the process of change in Sriram from the unruffled existence. into a socially and politically aware and highly responsible Indian citizen. No doubt he fee bewitched by the charm of Bharati, a Gandhi a follower. But the fact remains that his attraction for Bharati signifies his personal search for a frame of reference for life and Bharati is a powerful agent of this. When sriram is in formed about the coming of the Mahatma his reaction is significant: lead a fuller life

Sriram suddenly came out of an age-old Somnolence and woke to the fact that Malgudi was about to have the honour of receiving Mahatma Gandhi (14). The protagonists fist exposure to Gandhi is directly through Gandhis own voice addressing the congregation of devotional Malgudians. He hears Gandhi giving his mantra of Ramdhun, Spinning on the charkha and the practice of absolute Truth and Non-violence(17)to the people of Mangudi. However after What exactly do you want to do?(46). Sriram like other Narayan heroes feels confused. Like an intelligent Psychoanalyst Gandhi Ji draw Sriram out to stay

that the would simply like to be where Bharati is. It is in this way that he joins the Gandhi fold. He has to pass through the girl of Gandhian Discipline in the camp where all Gandhian ideas are translated into Practice. However the novelist suggest in no uncertain terms that he fails to comprehend the full import of Gandhian ideas for him Gandhi is a living symbol of Mahatma hood. Once sriram comes back to his house. He confront his granny talking lightly about Mahatma Gandhi ji:Oh! He is your God, is he! Yes; he is, and I wont hear anyone speak lightly of him. ..How should I know about that man Gandhi? He is not a man; he is a

Mahatma! Cried Sriram. What do you know about any Mahatma, anyway? (PP 55-56) The above conversation reminds one of Raja Raos depiction of Moorthys Mother Narasammas incomprehension of Gandhis teachings. In fact the difference between Raja Rao and Narayan is clearly visible in Raja Raos Serious handling of Gandhian Principles in Kanthapura and Narayan comic handling of the situation. It goes without saying that Narayans comedy lies in extending a little measure of this incomprehension an the part of Sriram. The novelist also touches on the basic issue of Gandhian campaign, the colonial exploitation specially during the world war: Though not bombed, they still suffer from the war; one did not see the A.R.P. signs or even a war poster, but small wayside station acted as a vital link, a feeding channel, to a vast war reservoir in western Europe(59). The novelist also shows how Sriram has come to realize the importance of Gandhis teachings. By this time he has come to derive his inspiration more from Gandhi than Bharati. When Gandhi leaves Malgudi In a trains at Koppal station; The thought of having to live a mundane existence without Mahatma Gandhi ji appalled him .Not even the proximity of Bharati seemed to mitigate his misery(62)

It has been made clear that Sriram represents an ordinary young man. He has all the weaknesses and strengths of a common man. The novelist also shows that it is an easy task to follow Gandhi an way of life in its totality .Moreover Srirams journey before he finally becomes a true Gandhi an is a difficult and painful one. For example his participation in the terrorist activities on account of which he is put in jail convinces him of the rightness and efficacy of the Gandhian path. This also provide the novelist an opportunity to show the difference between two ideological point of view ___ the Gandhian and the Marxist. It is also important to note that Sriram is completely transformed by way of his jail experiences. He finally submits himself to Gandhian philosophy . This also makes clear Narayans primary concern in the novel. According to Keith Garebian, this concern is a moral pattern the vindication of Gandhi and the conversion of Sriram(90), Viewed in the light of the Novelists intention the novel presents in all details the nature of the Gandhian impact on the common people of India. Another major contemporary of Mulk Raj Anand and R. K. Narayan is Raja Rao who gave an altogether different direction to Indian novel in English, In an interview published in the Illustrated Weekly of India, Raja Rao has spoken in detail about his view of literature; For me literature is Sadhana (spiritual discipline)not a profession but a vocation. That is why I have published so few works. Also this explains why since 15 years ago except for The cow of the Barricades ____ my writing is mainly the consequence of a metaphysical life, what I mean by sadhana. I had this conflict in me ___ should a man be a writer first , and then a man, secondarily, or a man first and a writer afterwards? And by

man I mean the metaphysical entity. So the idea of literature as anything but a spiritual experience is outside my

perspective . I really think that only through dedication on to the absolute or metaphysical principle can one by fully creative . literature as Sadhana is the best life for a writer. The Indian tradition which links the word with the Absolute (sabdabrahman) has clearly shown the various ways by which one can approach literature, without the confusions that arise in the mind of the western writer viewing life as an intellectual adventure, Basically, the Indian out took follows a deeply satisfying, richly rewarding and profoundly metaphysical path. All this may sound terribly Indian, but it is not so really. Valery Rilke and Kafka, for instance, are as close to this view as Tagore in looking upon literature as sadhana (44-45).

Writing for Raja Rao is not only spiritual discipline; it is also a severe discipline of sensibility and of the urge for creative expression (Naik 23). Raja Rao is himself of the view: The write should be solitary. He must be alone to get the right word. Writing is an extremely severe discipline or a sadhana. The writer gives everything of himself. He begins with fear but ends in exhaustion. These is nothing more for him to give when he has finished the book (Naik 23-24). What is important in the case of Raja Rao is that he has lent a philosophic seriousness to the art of fiction in India. His profound knowledge of classical Sanskrit literature and modern European literature makes his mind a living encyclopedia of philosophy, cultural currents and

cross currents. That is why novel in his hands acquires the form of sthala Purana. In his foreword to Kanthpura Raja Rao explains: There is no village in India, however mean, that has not a rich sthala purana, or legendry history, of its own. Some god or god like hero has passed by the village Rama might have rested under this people free , Sita might have dried her clothes, after her beth, on this yellow stone, or the Mahatma himself, on one of

his many pilgrimages through the country, might have slept in this hut, the low one, by the village gate. In this way the post mingles with the present , and the gods mingle with men to make the repertory of your grandmother always bright. One such

story from the contemporary annals of my village I have tried to tell. (v) It is clear from the above remarks that the projection of contemporary India in his works is why Raja Raos first novel Kanthpura celebrates the spirit of man, the liberty of the individual that Gandhian thought values most. If Mulk Raj Anands disillusionment led him to Gandhian secular humanism, Raja Raos religious intellectual background led him to the spiritualmetaphysical aspect of Gandhian thought. It is in this light that Raja Rao defines Gandhian . He categorically asserts: Gandhism is a technique of revolutionary activity composed, and used , not for a political but a metaphysical change. So, It called Satyagraha or the grasping of is

Truth . All men seek

liberation, thus all men are significant. No one shall destroy another .further as Jainism says (and Gandhi was profoundly influenced by the Jains) an object is or is not, or neither is nor is not etc. etc. There are only six ways of looking at any object. If, even after this process of inquiry, no object could be proven to exist, how then prove the existence of an adversary. The adverdary himself is of my making, as the object, that table, that wall or even the distant moon. Since we cannot prove an object. We cannot prove our adversary either (The Meaning of India, 68). This clearly suggests that Raja Rao has a deep knowledge of ancient Indian scriptures. Kanthpura is the story of a small south Indian village. caught in the maelstrom of the freedom struggle of the 1930 and transformed so completely in the end that there is neither man nor mosquito left in it (M.K. Naik, 60). What is important in the case of this novel is that this describes a sleepy little agricultural village and the whirl wind of the Gandhi am revolution shakes this little village to its very roots. It must be pointed out in the beginning that its reaction to Gandhian thought is however one of rather bored apathy when young Moorthy, the Gandhi an visits the pariah quarter, the comment of the narrator is noteworthy: We said to ourselves, he is one of those Gandhi men, who say there is neither cast nor clan nor family, and yet they pray like us and they live like us. Only they say, too, one should not marry early, one should allow windows to take husbands and a Brahmin might marry a pariah and a pariah a Brahmin. Well, well, let them say it how does it affect us? We shall be dead before the world is polluted. We shall have closed our eyes (9-10). However, Moorthy is very shrewd and he know fully well that the master key to the rustic Indian mind is religion. That is why he puts the new Gandhian

mind into the age old bottle of Harikatha. This theme is treated authentically for the first time in indo-anglian fiction. The novel is in fact, as Iyengar rightly observes is a a veritable grammar of the Gandhian myth-the myth that is but a poetic translation of the reality(396). Tents of Gandhian thought, which are otherwise in comprehensible to the villagers suddenly come alive to them when explained and enacted in the language of religion. The social, economic and political programmers of Mahatma Gandhi become an integral part of the religion spiritual aspects of the rural India. Instead of taking up any of the various issue of Gandhian movement like Satyagraha, ahimsa, untouchability, antimechanisation, colonial and racial exploitation as particular themes just as Mulk Raj Anand does in his novels, Raja Rao critically examines the overall spiritual regeneration that Gandhian thought projected. Almost all the major activities of the congress during the 1930s for example noncooperation by not paying taxes and showing disloyalty to the government(PP 206-208), the Dandi March and the inauguration of civil Disobedience movement(PP 170-173); the response of the villagers to the movement in their launching of satyagraha in the village(PP182-201), Gandhis round table conference(255-257); the formation of the congress committees in the remote villages(100-111)etc. are woven artistically in the novel and they become an essential part of the thematic design of the novel. C.D. Narsaimhaiah has a point when he observes that Kanthapura has in it three strands of experience the religious, the social and the political(47). The close connection between these three strands of experience in an Indian village has been a disturbing point for western observers of India. They think of Indian as a land of magicians and mystics, Sadhus and Sanyasis and also dubit as mainly spiritual. They hardly realize that for the Indian The spiritual is never divorced from the worldly reality. The manner the Indian make the

leap from the material to the spiritual with such ease has always baffled the pragmatic western man. The setting up of the Kanthapuriswari temple in Kanthapur, with which the novels action begins, is a good example the fine fusion of the social and religions impulses and how they integral and nourish one another in the Indian people. Raja Rao, impact is here exploshag probated nothing now but only a well known and time tested device. Gandhi has been as an Avatar or Shiva. He becomes a mythological figure. Hence the pledom

struggle is preserved as a modem myth .The spirited nanoualigm is, thus, infused into the minds or the people or kanthapura, ileac and illiterate , and we restore me novel is an enchant or how their lives are aggecved being seized or this spirit . In guploying the derice or Hankathe as political education as well as entertainment Raja Rao has also over come a miner irritant involved in the depiction or Gandhi as a charachg in fichan. While some novelists lick Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, k.Nagarajan and K.A. Abbas have introduced Gandhi as a real person in their novel, Raja Rao progress to avoid a divert portrayal of Gandhi in Kanthapura. As well as in his other stories like

Narsiga and The cow of the Barricades. Paradoxically however, he is able to present the spirit of Gandhi with greater success by resorting to my thigication. And this spirit of Gandhi, in spiel of his unseen presence, pervades the culture novel. The novelist shows how the unseen is to be experienced by the villagers. That is why Raja Rao establishes a close relationship between the mythical and the factual. The Gandhian myth is realised in living terms through the character of Moorthy. In Kanadda the word Moorthy means the image and Moorthy is image of Gandhi in Kanthapura Moorthy is

introduced in the very beginning in the following words; Corner-House Moorthy, who had gone through life like a noble cow, quiet, generous, serene, deferent and Brahmanic, a very prince I tell you.(5). His own conversion to Gandhism is marked by two significant events, A college going young man with a bright future ahead of him, There is but one force in life and that is Truth, and there is but one love in life and that is the love of mankind, and there is but one God in life and that is the God of all (35-36). Moorthy is so overcome by the surge of emotion within him that falls on the feel of Mahatma Gandhi saying I am your slave.The following conversation between the Mahatma and Moorthy has a special charm and sets the tone of the novel and determines its thematic design: The Mahatma lifted him up and before them all, he said ,what can I do for you, my son? and Moorthy said, like Hanuman to Rama,Any command, and the Mahatma said, I give no commands save to seek Truth, and Moorthy said, I am ignorant, how can I seek Truth? and the people around him were trying to hush him and to take him away, but the Mahatma said, You wear foreign cloth, my son ____ It will go, Mahatma ji you perhaps go to foreign universities. ____It will go, Mahatma ji ____ you can help your country by going and working among the dumb millions of the villages. so be it, Mahatma ji, and the Mahatma patted him on the back, and through that touch was revealed to him as the day is revealed to the night the sheath less being of his soul; and moorthy drew away, and as it were with shut eyes groped his way through the crowd to the bank of the river.

It has been further pointed out:

And he wandered about the fields and the lanes and the canals and when he came back to the college that evening, he threw his foreign clothes, and his foreign books into the bonefire and walked out a Gandhis man (36). Thus Moorthy comes back to Kanthapura as a Gandhi man. The novelist presents Moorthy as an individual who is an idealist and devout follower of Gandhi and his ideals, so much so that he is regarded by the villagers as He is our Gandhi and He is the saint of our village. In portraying the character of Moorthy the novelist is operating within the Indian tradition of philosophy and religion. He is deeply aware of the fact that for the Indian, the highest goal in life is self realization. In order to achieve this, three ways are open to the individual ______ (1) Karma, (2) Jnana (Knowledge) and (3) Bhakti (Devotion). In Kanthpura the path chosen is the path of action. Later novels like The Serpent and The Rope and The Cat and Shakespeare follow the path of knowledge and devotion respectively. Raja Raos next novel The Serpent and the Rope is a highly complex and challenging novel. It has been described as a metaphysical novel and a novel of ideas. Some critics are of the opinion that it remains a work that can hardly be called a novel. Such a criticism is not new, for anything new in literature has evoked such hostile reactions initially. However, with the passage of time, such hostile reactions have given way to those of acceptance. It has been hailed as novel which testifies the uniqueness of Raja Raos fictional art.

The fact of the matter is that Raja Rao does make certain significant departures from the novel form but whether such a departure can be considered as a logical offshoot of the uniqueness of artistic experience to be mediated is a point for consideration. It must be pointed out that Raja Rao has created a novel that can be justified as a pure Indian novel. By this it means that The Serpent and the Rope is different from other Indian novels in English which are primarily Indian in theme, But more often western in technique. Which Mulk Raj Anand employs the European Realistic novel to convey his view of life, R.K. Narayan find the comic ironic mode of Jane Austen suitable to describe his comic vision of life. On the other hand Raja Rao creates a work that is Indian both in its theme and technique. But at the same time it must be said at once that this does not rule out the presence of certain Western influence in the novel. K.R. Shirwadkar has a point when he observes; In The Serpent and the Rope, Raja Rao tries to define the concept of Indian identity and the novel becomes a spiritual history of the hero narrator Ramaswamy. The concept of identity is based on the traditional notion of Brahmanism courageously confronting the greater challenges of science, communism and psycho-analysis from all over the world (1-2). The Serpent and the Rope in fact is the most ambitious of all his work. Ever his critics are of this view that its complexity is almost wholly absent in any other Indian English novel. K.R. Srinivas a Iyengar has a point when he observes: To compare the small with the great (in terms of quality, that is, not of quantity), if Kanthapura is Raja Raos Ramayana, then the Serpent and the Rope is his Mahabharata. If Kanthapura has recognizable epic ____ it is almost encyclopedic in its scope (397). The story teller in Kanthapura is Brahmin window, largely a creature of memory and tradition, and herself a character in the action, though a strictly minor one her intellectual range is quite limited. On the other hand, the story teller in The Serpent and the

Rope is Ramanaswamy who is also the central character in the story he is trying to tell. He is at once sensual and spiritual, sensitive and subtle. He is a Vedantin and an avowed believer in the non dualistic philosophy of Sri Sankara of the 9 th century. This determines his attitude towards his own life, people and place. His marriage with French women Madeleine also suggests the encounter between the East and the West. Through their character, two different ways of life have been portrayed. On the other hand the relationship of Rama Swamy and Savithri posited by the novelist as the ideal one between a man and a woman is offered not merely as a contrast to the Rama Swamy Madeleine relationship but rather as a corrective. The novel opens with the following sentence: I was born a Brahmin that is, devoted to Truth and all that (5). It is also curious to note that there is also a reference to the Brahmin on the last page of the novel: A Brahmin is he who knows Brahman. That is one definition.. There is another, a roguish definition. A Brahmin is he who loves a good banquet (406). There is an ironical reference here, and such ironical references are scattered throughout the novel. Rama Swamy says that he is a good Brahmin: because he even knew Grammar and the Brahma Sutras, read the Upanishads at the age of four, was give the holy thread at seven (5). Hw also says that he is a European Brahmin because he has been to France and England. He meets at the University of Caen his future wife, Madeleine, a teacher of history and five years his senior in age:

Her hair was gold, and her skin for an Indian was like the unearthed marble with which we built our winter palaces For Madeleine Geography was very real, almost solid. She melt the things of the earth, as though sound, form, touch, taste, smell were such realities that you could not go beyond them ____ even if you tried (18). They marry on 10th Feb, 1949. A child is born whom they first call Krishna and later Pierre. However, the child dies within a year of his birth. And Rama returns to Indian hearing that his father is seriously ill, The traditional Indian view regards life as a pilgrimage and so does Ramaswamy, the true Indian, an integral aspect of Raja Raos image of India. What constitutes a real journey for a true Brahmin is beautifully described in the following words: For the going inward is the true birth. He is indeed the Brahmin who turns the crest inward, even if you are a pandit great as Jagannatha Bhatta or learned in logic as Kapilacharya, the true life, the true brahminhood commences when you recognize yourself in your eternity. At some moment you must stop life and look into it. Marriage or maternity, pain or intimacy of success ____ love ____ may dip you into yourself (215 216). The novel in fact, is the dramatisation of this inward journey of Ramaswamy. There are two very important constituents of Rama Swamys journey ___ his marriage with Madeleine and his place in his life. Both these constituents take him closer, in different

ways, to an awareness of his own self and the ultimate meaning of existence. His marriage with Madeleine and the reasons for its eventual failure are presented only through the reflections, statements and observations of the protagonist. The marriage of Ramaswamy and Madeleine is presented as the natural culmination of their interest in each other at various levels ___ physical, philosophic and intellectual. It has been pointed out that Madeleine has a kind of obsession with purity and touch. Ramaswamy says that Madeleine loved his partly because she felt India had been wronged by the British, and because she would, in marrying me, know and identify herself with a great people (18). Raja Rao shows that both of them sincerely strive for a successful marriage but both of them represent top contrary world views. Ramaswamy observes : Madeleine had never participated in my superstitions, though I has in hers (54). But what actually is described in the novel amounts to a flat denial of this remarks as Madeleines involvement with his superstitions is both sincere and total. Like Ramanswamy she takes the huge flat stone near their garden for Nandi bull and offered it grass and flowers. On seeing this Ramaswamy frankly confesses: The Hindu in me used to be so happy (55). And when their neighbor starts hammering away at the rock, her reaction is quite genuine: My heart bled as though something terrible was going to happen (239). On her plea, the neighbor relents and the bull is saved. However, it must be emphasized here that she hardly transcends these little gestures. For example, when Ramaswamy leaves for India on hearing of his fathers illness, he would have very much liked to take Madeleine along with his to India. He frankly says : to me Madeleines presence would have meant the daughter-in-law coming home, the division of family responsibility; truly it would

have been the crossing of the threshold. I almost felt that if she can, Father could not die, he would not die. How, when the first daughter-in-law came home, could the father die? (56) But the fact remains Madeleine does not go the Indian. The differences that come to the surface on Ramaswamys return from Indian are accentuated further through his meetings with Savithri. She makes him aware of what Madeleine is not, and also of what he has been missing in his married life. M.K. Naik has a point when he observes; Conscious of the growing rift, Rama and Madeleine desperately seek and find temporary fulfillment in sex (82). But as soon as Rama comes into contact with Savithri first in France and then at Cambridge, he comes to know her ____ and through her his own urges ___ better. The moment he and Savithri are united in a symbolic ritual marriage in which Rama pushes. the toe-rings on the her seconds toes, the marriage with Madeleine is doomed. The marriage between Rama and Madeleine fails but the question arises why this marriage fails. Various reviews and critics have tried to answer this question. The obvious explanation for the failure of marriage is that Madeleine has come to know the supposed infidelity of her husband. But this explanation is too simple to ob true. In fact some more solid reason is there than merely the question of marital in constancy. There is an unbridgeable gulf between two kinds of cultural ethos. Rama says: Madeleine loved bridges. She felt truth to be always on the other side. However, she cannot build a bridge across this gulf and reach Ramas truth. Some western critics consider it as an artistic flaw. They are puzzled by the fact that Madeleines conversion to Buddhism, instead to bringing her closer to her Indian husband hastens the end of the marriage. But the fact remains that the answer to the query is to be found in the text itself. Madeleine asks:

What is that separated us, Rama? India. India? But I am a Buddhist. That is why Buddhism left India, India is employable. But one can become a Buddhist? Yes, and a Christian and Muslim as well. Then? One can never be converted to Hinduism. You mean one can only be born a Brahmin? That is ____ an Indian, I added, as an explanation of India. Your India, then, Rama, is in time and space? No. It is contiguous with time and space, but is anywhere, everywhere. I dont understand. It stands, as it were, vertical to space and time, and is present at all points. (331) Raja Rao himself clarified this point in a letter written to M.K.Naik: The answer (for an Indian) is simple. As the Gita so justify and nobly proclaims, the dharma of another, however, good, is not to be followed as against ones own dharma. Madeleine through her own Catholicism (by

going back to it and beyond it) would have reached Rama better. To be true to ones background is to be true to all backgrounds (84). Raja Raos next novel The Cat and Shakespeare was actually written about two years after The Serpent and the Rope. The novelist told M.K. Naik that this short novel is substantially based on certain events in real life about which he heard when he was living in his Gurus ashram in Kerala in the late 1950s. He also says that The Cat and Shakespeare is a sequel to The Serpent and the Rope that it takes up the theme of the metaphysical quest at the point to which Ramas story has carried it, and that it shows the next step in this quest. (115), Raja Rao himself describes the book as a metaphysical comedy. He adds : All I would want the reader to do is the weep at every page, not for what he sees, but for what he sees he sees. For me its like a book of prayer (Naik 115). In fact, the novel is intended to be a telling comment on the ideas propounded by the eleventh century philosopher, Ramanujacharya. Combining fragments of upanishadic wisdom with Shakespeare pontification, the novel is a tale of Ramakrishna Pai, the narrator and his neighbor Govinder Nair. Pai is a clerk in Trivandrum. He projects the notion of a secular Utopia _____ Gandhi Raj ____ where all dreams will be finally **** into reality. On the other hand, Comrade Kirillow is the story of padmanabha Iyer. Iyer is a London- based young Indian Marxist but the fact remains that Gandhi intermittently appears in the text. Many critics consider Raja Raos nostalgia for the past a stumbling block. They are of the view that instead of grappling with contemporary socio-economic realities of the post 1947 India, Raja Rao is still concerned with presenting. The exotic and spiritual image of India. But it must be pointed out that one can understand his profound concern with Indias past because of

Indias continuing demoralized state of affairs. Moreover, technique wise also, it helps the novelist in understanding the complexity of the contemporary malaise in concrete terms. It is also important to point out that he has immense faith in the basic Gandhi an tenet of authenticity and sincerity to ones own self. That is why he cites Gandhis example to illustrate the character of Madeleine: I am interested in authenticity. One should be authentic. For example, I have seen Gandhi ji and Mulana Azad face to face with each other at Sevagram. I have spent quite some time at Sevagram with Gandhi ji. Gandhi ji was a good Hindu. Azad was good Muslim, they could talk to each other authenticity. It is to those who are not authentic that misery comes . (24) Thus, it is clear that Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan and Raja Rao form a remarkable tried. In fact, they have paid the foundation of modern Indian English novel. Gadhian philosophy also had a deep impact on Bhattacharyas novels. His novels take up various themes from the social and political issues of the 1930s and 40s. That is why Edwin Gerow has rightly observed that Bhabani Bhattacharya is a socially programmatic novelist (230). It is also important to point out that Bhabani Bhattacharya has written a book length study of Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi (1977) which meticulously examines the nature of influence which Gandhi exercised in writes in India. Gandhi, according to Bhattacharya, inspired creativity on a scale surpassed by name (224) and Indian literature gained in depth and dimension by his depth. He points out that the political image of Gandhi served as a trigger to the imagination of

a common man but at the same time there was something deeper than this image that appeared to the writes. Bhattacharya points out: The other part of the Gandhian personality was even more meaningful for the poets, novelists and dramatists. He stood for the common man, for the humblest, the lowliest and the lost (225). In his book on Gandhi Bhattacharya has all praise for Gandhis autobiography The Story of My Experiments with truth. His creative writing is influenced by Gandhis attempt at recording ordinary happening in public and private areas of his life. He is of the view that facts of everyday life invest the word with the illusive quality known to the creative writer as human interest(131) Bhattacharyas literary creed is also Gandhian in character. His deep interest in contemporary history motivated him to write novels. He himself describes how he actually came to write his first novel: When I was a student in London in the thirties, I started writing a novel. Half way through, I thought it was no good and I was not destined to be a creative writer. I tore up the manuscript . Back in India I found other preoccupations. Early in the forties, I tried to do a novel again. When half written, it found its way into a heap of unwanted papers. Then the great famine swept down upon Bengal. The emotional stirrings I felt .were a sheer compulsion to creativity. The result was the novel So Many Hungers (B6).

Thus it is clear that the Bengal famine was the immediate source of his creative art. The novel really unfolds the story of a largely man made hundred that look a toll of two million innocent men, women and children in Calcutta and Bengal. The novel describes the horrors that people faced during famine. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar rightly observes: while the hoarders, profiteers and blacketeers piled a thundering trade, authority was apathetic, the wells of human pity seemed to have almost dried up, and only the jackals and the vultures were in vigorous and jubilant action. (413). The choice of theme and the area of human experience focused on in. So, many Hungers, through the life of a common man in a Bengal village, indicate Bhattacharyas Gandhian idea. The characters of Rahul and Kajoli is a vindication of the Gandhian point of view. If his Goddess Named Gold presents a critique of materialistic value that are enveloping post-independence India, in Shadow from Ladakh, the novelist strongly Endemism violence as a solution to international Englicts. A critical reading of his fiction establishes the point that writing novels with a social purpose become the hall mark of Bhattacharyas creed. He minces no words and frankly says that he has not believed in writing for the sake of writing (163). In an interview the novelist throws light on his literacy credo: I hold that a novel must have a social purpose. It must place before the reader something from the societys point of view. Art is not necessarily for arts sake. Purposeless art and literature which is much in vogue does not appear to me a sound judgment. He further adds:

Art must teach, but unobtrusively, by its vivid interpretation on life. Art must preach, nut only by virtue of its being a vehicle of truth. If that is propaganda, there is no need to eschew the word (136). Bhattacharyas Gandhian concept of evil is at the root of his treatment of character. His novel Music for Mohini brings out the clash between the old and the new, the seeming antagonism between the country and the city. The gradual growth of mutual understanding between Mohini and Jydev, the difficulties faced in following the imperatives of superstitious mother in-law are some of the major traits of this novel. He who Ride A Tiger takes the readers back to Calcutta and the theme of hunger. It is story of transformation or metamorphosis of Kalo, the blacksmith into Mangal Adhikari, the Brapmin. The novel also dramatically explores Lekhas journey from the harlot house to the place where bliss reigns. It is true that hunger ____ hunger for food and hunger for worldly pleasures and material possessions ___ is the basic theme of He who Rides A Tiger. But the novelist also treats the theme of quest for freedom. It is exhaustively explored on various levels ____ political, social and individual. There are many reference to the Indian freed on struggle, especially the Quit India Movement the novelist also describes how the prison cells are choked with quit Indian men. Countless people are put behind the bars because they fight for the freedom of their land: Imprisoned in the great Movement that shook the country . Imprisoned for no crime save the one of loving their country and asking a better way of life for it, a life free from hunger and indignity (167 168).

The novel can also be read as a moral fantasy. The novelist writes with a passionate social purpose and through this novel his conscience is somewhat appeased, for justice in the morel imagination is better than no justice at all. However, Kalos predicament makes the novels appearance reality theme more applicable to life S. C. Harrex has rightly observed : He who Rides A Tiger is a real life fairy tale which makes its socio logical point with plain morel circumspection. (201). On the other hand A Goddess Named Gold has a cathartic quality. Its complex situation binds a new dimension to the story. It is a modern fable of India. Shadows From Ladhakh is based an Chinese invasion of 1962. It recapitulates Indian history. Excerpts from Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehrus speeches and military and political correspondence mark the novel. From the heart of darkness, the novel points to dim beckoning light at the end of the long dark funnel. Thus it is a fine blind of history and fiction. Manohar Malgonkar (1913 2010) is another important novelist who took to writing novels after his retirement from the army. His novels were published in quick succession. They include Distant Drun (1960), combat of Shadows (1962), The Princes (1963), A Bend in the Ganges(1964) and the espionage thrillers ____ Spy in Amber (1971) and Bandicoot Run (1982) and film script ____ Shalimar (1968) and Open Season (1978). Distant Drum is the story of 4th Satpura Regiment. It is based on the novelists personal experiences as a colonel in the Indian Army. The CO, Kiran Garud, Bina Sonal and Abdul Jamal are the main characters. The novel is divided into three parts. The novelist presents some aspects of army life in India during the period of transition from the last years of the British empire to the initial years of Indian democracy. The wonderful caricature of Lala Vishnu Saran Dev and Red tapism of civil servants stand out in this novel which describes army civilian coash. His other important novelis

Combat of Shadows. It is a British manager, Brindian Tea company at the silent Hill. The novel carries the epigraph from the Gita: Desire and aversion are opposite shadows. The novel is divided into two parts: Prelude to Home Leave and Return from Leave. The action of the novel is the shadow play of conflicting forces of tea and python, sports manship and vendetla, love and passion. The movelist shows how passions rage, attitudes clash amidst an awareness of diverse background of the tea estate and the jungle, the racial antagonism and the flobal holocaust of the war. The ending of the novel is melodramatic where the opposite forces are desire and aversion cultninate into poetic justice. Malgonkars novel The Princes is a very important work of art but it has not received enough critical attention. It has been rightly pointed out by V .M . Madge that it is a first rate work of art and a writer who can write such a novel deserves to be hailed as a major figure in Indo English fiction (12). The novel is about the problems of numerous Indian princes who have been left in the lurch by the colonial rulers. The fact remains that it is not only this story of Abhavraj,the heir apparent of the Begwad estate but also of many aristocratic princes of prepartition India who thought that their interests would be promoted and safeguarded by the verbal assurances of he British monarchy. The novelist highlights the contrast between a glorious princely past and a gloomy democratic present. However, this contrast cannot be taken as a nave one. Abhayraj, the narrator hero, acts as an ironic spectator. He comments on the peculiar situation faced by the princes in contemporary India. When his father, the Maharaja of Begwad says, . there will always be a Begwad and Bedar ruling it, so long as the sun and the moon go round, Abhayraj finds this claim slightly comic. It is he who recognizes the stark reality of their imminent doom. It is he who sees the writing on the wall. However, he is also conscious of

the human pendency to think about the past in romantic and nostaligic terms. He says that he knowns Most of the people would gladly give up their right to vote for a return . to the good old days of the Maharajas, the rough and ready justice on the spot, the large number of holidays, the pomp and pageantry, freedom to drink, dance and not have to pay income tax. They cannot divorce the creeping joylessness of life from the change in administration (63). After 1947, situation changed tremendously. People recall nostalgically the days of Abhays father and say, in the days of Hiro ji Maharaj, we used to get wheat at 16 seers to a rupee He was a real food giver, the ann-data was our Dada Maharaj (7). Abhayraj does not subscribe to this idea. Rather he calls it a tragedy of those people ruled by instinct more than reason, sentiment more than logic. He frankly says that the old order hand little to do with the cheapness of food and clothing (64). V.M. Madge has rightly observed : It is this ironic detachment that lends credence to the narrators description of the princes and their socialistic successors. It is again this ironic detachment in presentation that never allows the characterization in the novel to become simplistic. Such awareness of the complexity of human character marks Malgonkars difference from and superiority to a novelist like Anand. The critic further adds that a novelist like Mulk Raj Anand deals with socio economic conditions of the under dogs. He describes the tragedy of common man. He does not romanticize

the proletariat but exposes the social forces of tragedy _____ industrialism, capitalism and communalism. That is why Madge is of the view: Anands characters are usually drawn by referring to their social class. All the underdogs are necessarily angels and all the Brahmins and Maharajas necessarily devils. Malgonkars

characterization is definitely an improvement over Anands; the difference between the two is the difference between a novelist who uses the fictional medium as a means of propaganda and one who is primarily interested in the act of storytelling in and for itself (13). Malgonkars next novel derives its title from Ramayana ___ At a bend in the Ganges, they paused to take a look at the land they were living. A Bend in the Ganges is written on agrand scale. It depicts the Gandhian era in totality, the issue of Indian nationalism and British colonialism, the Hindu Muslim conflict and the consequent freedom along with the partrition of India. In the Authors Note the novelist clearly says: Only the violence in this story happens to be true what was achieved through non-violence, brought with it one of the bloodiest up heavels of history: twelve million people had to flee, leaving their homes; nearly half a million were killed; over a hundred thousand women young and old, were abducted, raped and multilated (379).

The horror, the pity and the futility of this great national tragedy is reaveled under the guise of fiction. His another novel The Devils wind alludes to the first ware of Indian independence, 1857. It is the story of infamous, despicable, dastardly, crafty demon, barbarous butcher, Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Bajirao Peshwa II. In Malgonkars own words: This ambiguous man and his fate has always fascinated me. I discovered that the stories of Nana and the revolt have never been told from the Indian point of view It is fiction; but it takes no liberties with verifiable facts or even with probabilities (6). In fact the novelist has artistically captured the spirit of the hectic days when India made its first consistent effort to throw off the British empire. Malgonkers novels describe the subtle nuances of Indian history in fictional framework. It is not the sociological, psychological or anthropological themes but consistently absorbin history of the partition of India and other historical events which are presented in the light of adventure, hunting and military life. His works clearly show that he is a first rate artist who has a flair for historical biography. Women novelists have also contributed to the growth of Indian novel in English in a big way. The fact remains that the emergence of women writers in English during the last decade of the nineteenth century was of great significant. It marks the birth of an era which promises a new deal for the Indian women. The advent of English education with facilities for higher education had again its impact on the status of women in Indian society. Only the enlightened families educated their girls at home and at school. But a large number of Indian women could not take advantage of education. In fact they were denied their right to get education. Evils associated with child marriage, child widowhood and complete control of women by their male counterparts persisted. The battle for emancipation was yet to be waged. That is way women writers struggled

hard to tell the world their problems Alphonso Karkala rightly observes : They tried to tell the world the obstacles women faced and the disadvantages they suffered in an orthodox Hindu world. These women writers struggled to give form and shape to their autobiographical accounts, which attracted publishers both in India and abroad (18). Among early novels by women writers may be mentioned Toru Dutts Binaca (1878), Raj Lakshmi Debis The Hindu Wife (1876), Krupabai Satlhianadhans Kamala, A Story of Hindu Life (1894). However, women novelists made a special mark of themselves in 1950s and 1960s. Eminent women novelists who wrote internationally acclaimed novels include R.P. Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal and Kamla Markandaya. R.P. Jhabvala, according to Meenakshi Mukherjee, bring a European sensibility to work on material which is non European. As and outside insider Jhabvala combines the comic and the ironic vision. She exposes the vanities, follies, pretences of the sophisticated and not so sophisticated upper middle class in Delhi, India. Her close observation on a milieu that changes from local to cosmopolitan, from traditional to conventional like a chameleon is reflected in her novels like To whom She Will (1955), The Nature of Passion (1956), Esmond in India (1958), The Householder (1960), Get Ready for Battle (1962), A Backward place (1965), Heat and Dust (1975). It must be pointed out here that her novels present a sterotype picture of India. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar is of the view: Mrs. Jhabvala looks at life in modern Delhi with amused, yet detached, interest and she lights upon what is bizarre, what is knotted with self deception and contradication, what is ludicrous,

what is fantastic, and occasionally ___ very occasionally ___ even what is perilously close to tragedy (452). Novels published after migration deal with her Eurocentric vision and a wide canvas. Her works like In Search of Love and Beauty (1983), Sharda of Memory (1995) and Three Continents (1987) highlight her interest in East West encounter. Nayantara Sahgal is another important novelist whose works have given a new dimension to Indian novel in English. The political upheavals of post independent India are reflected in her novels. Her important workd include Prison and Chocolate Cake (1954), From Fear Set Free (1963), A Time to be Happy (1957), This Time of Morning (1965), Storm in Chandigarh (1969), The Day in Shadow (1971), Rich Like Us (1985), Plans for Departure (1986), Mistaken Identity (1988) and Relationship (1944). Her novels dramatise the life of the richest sections of Indian society. Their shallow values along with their hypocrisy form the subject matter of her novels aginst the background of major national events like partition of Punjab, emergency, Bengal Famine etc. A story humanistic concern informs her work. Anita Desai is another important woman novelist who is primarily concerned with the theme of alienation, anxiety, search for identitiy and the question of freedom. Her important works include Cry the Peacock (1963), Voices in the City (1965), Bye Bye Blackbird (1969), Where Shall we Go This Summer (1975), Fire on the Mountain (1977), Cleat Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984), Baumgartners Bombay (1988) and Journey to Ithaca (1995). It has been right pointed out that the whole arc of her creative endeavour is a painstaking and dedicated attempt to come to terms with loneliness of the human psyche by fearlessly exploring

its dark interiors and unpredictable depths, as also building bridges of communion with the circumambient universe (Nandakumar 198). Kamala Markandaya occupies a significant plac in the history of post independent Indian novel. Her forte is undoubtedly her special insight into the female psyche and her concern with womens plight in modern India. It is against this background that the works of Kamala Markandaya will be critically examined in the following chapters to see how the quest for female identity becomes the central concern of her fictional art.