An Alternative Idea of India by Gangeya Mukherji

Author:Gangeya Mukherji [Mukherji, Gangeya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Philosophy, Political Science, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781000083774
Google: raMJEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-11-29T16:13:48+00:00

Indranath in Char Adhyaya appears to be blinded by a sense of insult and injustice, lapsing into cynicism even while claiming to be clear-sighted:

I do not believe blindly Kanai. I have completely abandoned all thoughts of either victory or defeat. I am here because it is meet that I should be the master of such a grand affair. The stakes are high either way, whether or not it ends in victory or defeat. They tried to shut all the doors on my face, to belittle me. I want to prove that I am greater than they are even as I die (Tagore, 2002b, p. 21).

Yet Tagore’s portrayal is that of a man who is talented and perceptive. Further, the danger of being haunted by a sense of personal and communitarian hurt, as expressed by Haldar, is seen in the novel as real and exacting were one to succumb to it. Kanai voices Tagore’s concern about the terrorist enterprise to Indranath: ‘The business that you’ve got into brother — that is bound to go bankrupt sooner or later’ (ibid., p. 19). However, Indranath’s assessment of English character, as well as the contemporary Indian mind, echoes Tagore’s thinking (ibid., p. 22). Similarly, towards the close of the novel, Antu expresses Tagore’s views of the tragedy of the lives of young terrorists (ibid., p. 79). His reiteration that there is ‘some thing bigger than patriotism’, and that being patriotic resembles riding a crocodile across the river, echoes sentiments that are repeatedly expressed in Tagore’s writings.

The world of Char Adhyaya is a world of futile endeavour. The English are ‘struck by a terminal disease, their insides hollowed out through years of ruling other people and other lands’ (Tagore, 2002b, p. 24). Indranath explains to Kanai: ‘No race carries on its shoulders the burden of so many nations, and that eats into their swabhava, their very nature’ (ibid.). Tagore had said as much in so many contexts. Ironically, Indranath fails to realise that, in ruling over the personal lives of his disciples, he too tries to carry the burden of other lives, which eats into his own swabhava. Correspondingly, he is insensitive to the toll that ruthless campaign takes on the lives of the helpless sufferers of hatred and violence.

Char Adhyaya appears more or less to be Tagore’s full statement on violent paths to liberation. One is led to believe that he had consciously intended the novel to carry his message on this contentious and painful issue. It is hardly incidental that the dialogue largely reflects his own views and that of his extremist interlocutors. It is a little difficult to accept his assertion in his ‘Kaifiat’ or explanation that, as the author, he knew ‘what [he] had intended to write when [he] set out to write it’ (see Tagore, 2002b, p. 143); he states unambiguously here that ‘the only thing that may properly be called the theme of this narrative is the love between Ela and Atindra’ (ibid.). But could this not be a

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