by P. Sreenivasulu Reddy

In the 1920s and 1930s Gandhi was not yet an undisputed leader. There were many who did not have faith in his nonviolent, non-cooperation movement. But his social reforms, such as eradication of untouchability, the picketing of hot toddy shops, and the social reform ideals influenced by Ruskin (sarvodaya) drew nearly everyone’s attention. The most humiliated and long neglected sections of Indian society had at last found someone to champion their cause, and by the late 1930s, Gandhi’s successful Salt Satyagraha campaign and march demonstrated to the world the effectiveness of the nonviolent struggle for independence. Apart from nonviolence (ahimsa), Gandhi’s love of truth and spirit of sacrifice made him the guiding spirit of the Indian freedom struggle. Under his influence, many sacrificed what little they had for the sake of making India a free country.

This article gives an overview of some appearances of Gandhi as a figure in Indian English-language fiction, for example as a character in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) and Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi (1991), and by other authors such as K.A. Abbas in Inqilab (1955), R.K. Narayan in Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), and The Vendor of Sweets (1967), and Nagarajan in Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).

Although he does not appear as a character in K.S. Venkataramani’s Murugan, the Tiller (1927) or Kandan, the Patriot (1932) nor in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), Gandhi is nonetheless the driving force represented by characters inspired by his ideals. Gandhi’s followers, if not Gandhi, also appear in Bhabani Bhattacharya’s  So Many Hungers (1947), Mrs. Sahgal’s  A Time to be Happy (1957) and the previously mentioned The Vendor of Sweets by R. K. Narayan.

K. A. Abbas

In Inqilab, K.A. Abbas presents Gandhi as a votary of Hindu-Muslim unity with his unflinching faith in the oneness of religion and as an apostle of nonviolence. The protagonist is the young Anwar Au, and his baptism into Gandhianism takes place at the highly impressionable age of eight! Every day, Anwar sits besides his father and listens to the elders talking about the Rowlatt Bill, Martial Law, strikes, the Congress Party, the Muslim League, Gandhi’s satyagraha, and ahimsa. Concerning them: “Two things instinctively appealed to him—not to obey the unjust laws of the Government and not to kill anyone.” He learns from his father the meaning of self-rule (swaraj). Anwar is influenced by Gandhi well before he meets him, and he decides to meet Gandhi in spite of his father’s newly developed hatred of Hindus.

Gandhi greets Anwar with a smile and asks him to sit down. Anwar does not know how to convey his anguish to the Mahatma. He bursts into tears. Then the spinning wheel stops creaking and the Mahatma without saying a word, goes to the boy and puts a hand on his head, taking off the fez cap and gently stroking Anwar’s short hair. There is such tenderness in his touch that Anwar feels even more helpless and sobs. “Oh Mahatmaji!” he cries out, “Please do something about these Hindu-Muslim riots. Please! Please! Only you can save us.”

After saying these words, he looks at Gandhi’s face and feels relieved: “Now he knew why they called him Mahatma, Great Soul. On his face was a look of such suffering, kindness and pity, as if he personally felt the misery of every single human being.” Instead of mocking the whimpering boy, Gandhi gives him an understanding smile. And Gandhi in turn is inspired. The voice of God, or his Inner Voice, shows Gandhi the way and he undertakes a fast for twenty-one days. The riots immediately stop.

The image of Gandhi as presented by Abbas is an objective one. He presents an estimate of Gandhi by his admirers, and by people who differ from him. Nehru disagrees with the Gandhian theory of trusteeship. Some are angry with Gandhi for supporting the Railway laborers and they call Gandhi bania—a lowly seller of flour and pulses. Even Anwar does not approve of certain actions of Gandhi. He wonders why Gandhi does not dissuade people from touching his feet or carry away the dust “sanctified by his bare feet.” Anwar found his earlier feeling of exultation considerably chilled by the religious aspect of the Mahatma’s satyagraha. Perhaps, this is the view of Abbas also.

Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand introduces Gandhi as a character in Untouchable. Anand is objective in his portrayal of Gandhi. He makes the innocent victim, Bakha, listen to every word of Gandhi with rapt attention, in the hopes that his misery and humiliation would come to an end. But Gandhi offers no immediate solution. In The Sword and the Sickle, Anand shows how Lalu, the protagonist, though impressed by Gandhi’s peasant-like appearance and sincerity, refuses to be convinced of the effectiveness of Gandhi’s nonviolent struggle. Both in Untouchable and The Sword and the Sickle, Anand questions the effectiveness of a Gandhian solution to the problems of untouchables and the peasants.

Bhabani Bhattacharya

Bhabani Bhattacharya in his novel So Many Hungers also presents the impact of Gandhi on people through an idealized character, Devesh Basu, a truly Gandhian character— in precept as well as practice. Devesh Basu stands for love, truth, and nonviolence. The villagers call him Devata (deity). Though more than seventy, he is energetic and always inspired by the Gandhian ethos. He runs a school for the villagers. Devata is nonviolent both in thought and action. As with Gandhi, his love embraces all. He dislikes the British rule in India but not the British, a truly Gandhian distinction.

Devata is not only inspired but is also inspiring. Consequently, Rahoul, a budding professor and Kajoli, a peasant-girl, join the Gandhian liberation movement. After her village is destroyed by the police, Kajoli seeks shelter in Calcutta. As a result of the famine, a man-made scarcity, she finds that no one will come forward to help her and her mother. Finally, she makes a grim decision. “She would sell the last thing she owned—herself.” At this juncture, she hears the news that Devata is fasting unto death in prison. Devata’s advice, for the villagers not to betray the Indian flag and themselves, rings in her ears. Though “hunger-trapped,” she decides to be “strong” and becomes a newspaper vendor instead.  She is really “a living tricolor,” a true exemplar of the new India.

Manjeri lsvaran’s short story

While the young Rahoul in Bhabani Bhattacharya’s So Many Hungers sacrifices his job for the sake of the country, the sixteen-year old Raja Raman in Manjeri lsvaran’s short story “Between Two Flags,” sacrifices his future in response to Gandhi’s call. Raja Raman is only sixteen, but he loves India so much that he comes to hate the presence of the British. He refuses to salute the Union Jack at school, nor is he deterred by the Headmaster’s threats. He has so much faith in Gandhi that he visualizes a free India and tells his father, echoing the United States pledge of allegiance: “I salute the flag of my country and the empire for which it stands, with many nations but all one and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” But his father, a loyal pillar of the foreign, British government, thinks that what Gandhi and the Congress have been propagating is sheer nonsense. He decides that his son must stop such mischief. So he slaps his son! As a result Raja Raman experiences a conflict of loyalties—loyalty to the Union Jack and loyalty to Gandhi. He thinks: “It was an insult to our Motherland, an insult to our respect, to go on saluting the Union Jack, when our patriots were being gagged and muzzled, beaten and thrown into jails by the white men. “So, he decides to leave his father, mother and sister and join the freedom struggle. But before he leaves his home, he smashes to pieces the portrait of King George V. He does not return home even after India gains independence. No one knows what the alien government did to him. Nobody knows whether he is alive or not: “But he remains as the deathless symbol of an independent spirit that has won, waving the banner of Free India, singing the song of ecstasy.”

K. Nagarajan

Nagarajan also presents an exemplary image of Gandhi in his Chronicles of Kedaran. The main character,  Vanchi subverts Gandhian ideals to feather his own nest. But Nagarajan presents characters like Nirmala who adore Gandhi and adopt his teachings in their daily life to the last dot.

In Chronicles Gandhi appears in just two scenes. He accepts the invitation of Vanchinatha Sastri, the president of the local Congress Committee and visits Kedaram. Then, he addresses the people and resolves the long-standing dispute between the two Iyengar sects. Under the impact of Gandhi, Nirmala begins to work for the welfare of untouchables (Harijan). Later, she gives away all her assets to be used for the uplift of Harijans and joins Gandhi at his ashram in Sabarmati.

R. K. Narayan

While Gandhi appears only in a few scenes in some of the works mentioned so far, he appears more prominently in R.K. Narayan’s, Waiting for the Mahatma. Narayan’s Gandhi loves truth and children, enforces discipline, lives with the untouchables, preaches nonviolence, stays where people are suffering, and inspires people to take part in the freedom movement. He sees an untouchable boy on the premises of the Municipal Chairman’s spruced up bungalow. He immediately goes to stay in the colony of untouchables.

Gandhi once again comes alive when he refuses to attend the Independence Day celebrations. Instead, he goes to Calcutta, where fresh riots are breaking out, because “[his] place was where people were suffering and not where they were celebrating.” Followed by Bharati and others, Gandhi visits villages affected by communal riots. He consoles the victims of riots. He forbids everyone to refer to anyone in terms of religion as Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs. He pities the perpetrators of the crimes. He asks Bharati to take care of the children who have lost their parents in the riots. The children are given the names of flowers and birds and no one knows whether they are Muslim children or Hindu. Thus Narayan presents an exemplary image of Gandhi.

Narayan’s intention is to show Gandhi’s impact on the average Indian and to present an ironic portrayal of the response of some persons to Gandhi’s teachings. Sriram, the protagonist, does not know the difference between Subhas Bose and Gandhi. He becomes a follower of Gandhi so that he can be near Bharati, the foster daughter of Gandhi, whom he loves. He weaves, wears hand-spun cloth, reads the Gita and takes part in the Quit India movement . When India becomes a free country, he feels proud of himself because he has contributed his bit to the freedom struggle. Another character in the book, a timber-contractor has Gandhi’s portrait in his house, donates five thousand rupees to the Harijan Fund, but he does not apply Gandhian ideology to daily life. As he is afraid of the authorities, he attends the loyalist meetings. The Municipal Chairman spends a lot of money in welcoming Gandhi. But he belongs to the group of people who want to raise their stock by staying close to the Mahatma.

If Sriram in Waiting for the Mahatma becomes a follower of Gandhi for the sake of the woman he loves, Jagan in The Vendor of Sweets becomes a follower of Gandhi because he ardently desires to be revered as Gandhi’s follower. Gandhi’s speech at the village of Malgudi, Narayan’s imagined world, explaining the real significance of human action and service inspires Jagan. As a result Jagan joins the movement for freeing India from foreign rule and gives up his studies, home, and normal life and breaks the British laws of the time. Neither the beatings from the police nor the successive periods of prison life ever touched him when he remembered that he was performing service.

He goes on chanting the name of Bapu day in and day out and always tells others that every action of his is influenced by Gandhian principles. He spins every day for an hour and wears hand-spun cloth. He wears only ahimsah chappals, sandals made from the hide of animals that died a natural death.

However, Narayan soon reveals the true colors of Jagan: “His reminiscent mood slurred over the fact that he had failed several times in the B.A., ceased to attend the college and had begun to take his examination as a private candidate long before the cause of Gandhi.” He mashes into a pulp the leftover sweets and fries them afresh into a new shape. When he sees a hungry vagrant begging for a handful of rice, he thinks that vagrant is a disgrace to the nation because the latter is not begging for the sake of a public cause. He hoodwinks the tax officials because “Gandhi had made no reference to the sales tax anywhere.” Like Gandhi, he renounces everything, but not his checkbook. Thus, Narayan, the comic novelist, presents the response of certain people to the Gandhian ideology in his own characteristic ironic way.

Raja Rao 

Unlike Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao does not represent Gandhi as a character  in Kanthapura. Nevertheless, he gives a vivid and faithful account of the impact of Gandhi on rural India. The image of Gandhi presented by Rao is an exemplary image; Gandhi as an avatar of Vishnu. For many people in the village of Kanthapura, Gandhi is the invisible God and Rao’s protagonist, Moorthy heralds the visit of the avatar. Moorthy’s efforts to eradicate untouchability and make the villagers spin, weave, and wear hand-spun cloth, meet with resistance. But Moorthy slowly succeeds in making the freedom struggle take root in Kanthapura. The oppressive government uses brute force against the villagers, some of them die and others leave Kanthapura and settle in a new village. Moorthy is drawn towards the Congress Party activities led by Jawaharlal Nehru. Though Kanthapura is physically destroyed by the imperialist government, the spirit of the villagers remains undaunted. They believe, “He will bring us self-rule (swaraj), the Mahatma. And we shall be happy.”

As in Kanthapura, also in the short story, “The Cow of the Barricades” (1947) Raja Rao deals with the fight for India’s freedom and Gandhi’s impact on people, but, as in Kanthapura, Gandhi remains in the background. On the advice of the Master, the apostle of peace, people stop buying foreign cloth, stop serving the Englishmen’s government and refuse to pay taxes. The workmen build barricades to prevent the army from entering the city. But the Master says: “No barricades in the name of the Mahatma, for much blood will be spilt. No, there shall be no battle, brothers.”

The tense situation gives the impression that the cow, Gauri, is the central figure of the short story; she is sad. Somebody even sees “a tear, clear as a drop of the Ganges” running down her cheeks. When the city is about to be assaulted by the British, red-men’s army, Gauri clambers to the top of the barricades. The crowd, that is the workmen, begin to chant the hymn to Mother India, the Vande Mataram. Soon, the English army joins the crowd and all of them begin to shout “Victory to the Mahatma, Mahatma Gandhiji jai!” Angered at this, the chief of the army fires a shot and kills Gauri. Only then is peace restored. Gauri symbolizes Mother India. Gandhi always wanted India to be a land of peace, with unwavering faith in ahimsa and love for everyone as a mother with infinite compassion. Raja Rao makes Gauri the Mother, herself, Bharat Mata, Mother India.

References 

K.A. Abbas,  Inqilab, Bombay: Jaico Publishers, 1955.

Mulk Raj Anand, Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi: Arnold Publications, 1991; Untouchable, London: Penguin Classics, 1989; Coolie, London: Penguin Classics, 1993.

Bhabani Bhattacharya,  So Many Hungers, London: Victor Gollancz (Left Book Club), 1947.

Tara Chand,  History of the Freedom Movement in India, New Delhi: Goverment of India Publication, 1992.

K. Nagarajan, Chronicles of Kedaran, Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1961.

R. K. Narayan, The Vendor of Sweets, London: Penguin Classics, 1993; Waiting for the Mahatma. New York: Vintage Classics, 2000.

Raja Rao, Kanthapura, Madras: Oxford University Press, 1990.

B. Pattabi Sitaramaiah, Gandhi In His Many Aspects, Bombay: Jaico, 1986.

EDITOR’S NOTE: P. Sreenivasulu Reddy is Head, Department of English, V.R. Institute of Post Graduate Studies, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India. With courtesy of Language in India, March 2012.

NOTES ON THE WRITERS:
Little biographical information is available about K. Nagarajan, but with this exception information on the writers mentioned in this essay can be found at the links provided below.

K.A. ABBAS (Khwaja Ahmad Abbas 1914-1987) was a film director as well as a novelist, whose 1957 film Pardesi was nominated for the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His Wikipedia page gives a thorough list of his achievements.

Mulk Raj ANAND (1905-2004) has an extensive Wikipedia page, with links to and descriptions of his novels and other works. The blogsite Best Indian Writers also has useful information on Anand and other Indian writers.

Bhabani BHATTACHARYA is less well known than some of the other writers listed here, but a good place to start for information is his Wikipedia page.

R. K. NARAYAN (1906-2001) is one of the most beloved of all English-language Indian novelists, and his series of novels about the South India fictional village of Malgudi won him fame throughout the English-speaking world. It might be said that before Salman Rushdie, Narayan did the most to extend the popularity and boundaries of Indian fiction. His Wikipedia page is a good place to start, but a Google search will show the extent of his fame and popularity.

Raja RAO (1908-2006) had one of the finest English styles of the writers mentioned in this essay. New Directions publishers in New York were quick to see his potential and brought out early an edition of Kanthapura, making him, along with Narayan, one of the better known of this group. His Wikipedia page is also a good place to start.