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NOTES ON THE FIRST INDIAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH

Beloo Mehra

Published in New Race: A Journal of Integral and Future Studies, April 2015, Volume I

(1), pp. 54-59.

First, a disclaimer. This is not a book review in the actual sense. It is rather a close

look at a book, a very special book in the annals of Indian literature in English

language, Rajmohans Wife by Bankim Chandra Chatterji.

While the plot and the main characters of the novel are quite appealing in

their own way, what is most fascinating about this novel is its history. This is the

first Indian novel written in English, published in 1864, and the first and the only

novel ever written by Bankim in English. This piece of work was considered a false

start by some commentators and critics of Bankims work and has often been

ignored by those interested in Indian writing in English. After Rajmohans Wife,

Bankim never wrote any fiction in English and wrote only in his native language,

Bangla. The rest, as they say, is history, of the gigantic literary contribution made by

this great son of Mother India.

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In the Penguin Classics edition of this novel that I read, we find an

informative Introduction and an analytical Afterword by Meenakshi Mukherjee. She

provides the reader with some highly interesting facts about how some chapters of

this novel were lost and then found by a mere stroke of luck (luck as in seemingly

ordinary occurrences such as wrong sets of pages getting stapled together....yes, that

is the kind of exciting story that led to the final surfacing of the chapters that were

once considered lost by the lovers and scholars of Indian literature and Bankims

writings). She also examines the place of this very special work in the whole corpus

of the fictional writings of Bankim, as situated in the time and the literary and social -

cultural context in which he lived and wrote, as well as the significance and impact

this novel continues to have on the genre of Indian novel in English language that

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came afterwards, a genre shaped...by the contending pulls of colonial education

and indigenous traditions of storytelling (Mukherjee).

As much as I appreciated reading the scholarly analysis and its contextual

background, what I found most captivating in the novel was a deep feeling for the

poetry of life and an unfailing sense of beauty what Sri Aurobindo remarks as

the distinguishing marks of Bankims style (CWSA, Volume 1, p.109). Read this

passage below and you will know instantly how accurate this insight is. Read it once

again to fully visualize the painting the novelist is painting.

The recent shower had lent to the morning a delightful and invigorating

freshness. Leaving the mass of floating clouds behind, the sun advanced and

careered on the vast blue plain that shone above; and every housetop and every

treetop, the cocoa palm and the date palm, the mango and acacia received the

flood of splendid light and rejoiced. The still-lingering water drops on the

leaves of trees and creepers glittered and shone like a thousand radiant gems as

they received the slanting rays of the luminary. Through the openings in the

chick-knit brought of the grooves glanced the mild ray on the moistened grass

beneath. The newly awakened and joyous birds raised their thousand

dissonant voices, while at intervals the papia sent forth its rich thrilling notes

into the trembling air. Light fleecy clouds of white wandered in the solitude of

the now purified blue of the heavens, which were fanned by a light breeze that

had sprung up to shake the pattering drops from the pendant and wooing

boughs.

What a delightful picture of a fresh morning after a rainy night! The clear blue

sky, the pleasing sounds of the birds, the moistened grass, and still -lingering water

drops on leaves....beauty all around, loveliness that pleases and delights. And all this

comes right after the description of a rather heavy sequence in which a gang of

dacoits is running around in the rain and feverishly hunting down the wife of one of

the gang members who might have been a spy and an informer! All traces of any

inkling of suspense, horror or anxiety that the reader might have felt when reading

the preceding passage were completely washed clean by this delightful portrayal of

after-the-rain-morning that brings with it a new hope and a new adventure in life.

This is perhaps an appropriate example of what Sri Aurobindo describes as the

novelists keen sense for life, and the artists repugnance to gloom and dreariness

(ibid., p. 96).

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Source: Penguin Books

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Another prominent aspect of the novel is Bankims portrayal of the characters,

particularly of the women in the story. This aspect is sufficiently analyzed by

Mukherjee in her Afterword, but primarily using the familiar and scholarly

acceptable perspectives such as social conformity, morality, virtue and honour in

man-woman relationship, narrow confines of domesticity and silencing of women.

Informative as these viewpoints may be, perhaps they still fail to do full justice to the

beauty of Bankims insights into the feminine character. The following passage

serves as an example.

You weep! said Madhav. You are unhappy.

Matangini replied not, but sobbed. Then, as if under the influence of a

maddening agony of soul, she grasped his hands in her own and bending over

them her lily face so that Madhav trembled under the thrilling touch of the

delicate curls that fringed her spotless brow, she bathed them in a flood of

warm and gushing tears.

Ah, hate me not, despise me not, cried she with an intensity of feeling

which shook her delicate frame. Spurn me not for this last weakness; this,

Madhav, this, may be our last meeting; it must be so, and too, too deeply have I

loved youtoo deeply do I love you still, to part with you forever without a

struggle.

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Did Madhav chide her? Ah, no! He covered his eyes with his palm and his

palm became wet with tears. There was a deep silence for some moments, but

their hearts beat loud. Matangini, recovering her presence of mind as speedily

as she had lost it, first broke the heart-rending silence.

The distant and reserved demeanour, the air of dejection and broken-

heartedness which had marked her from the first, had disappeared; the

impetuosity and fervour of the first burst of a deep and burning love had

subsided; and Matangini now stood calm and serene, her usually melancholy

features beaming with the light of an unutterable feeling. A sweet and sober

pensiveness still mantled her tender features, but it was not the pensiveness of

deep-felt enjoyment, for the wild current of passion had hurried her to that

region where naught but the present was visible, and in which all knowledge

of right and wrong is whirled and merged in the vortex of intense present

felicity. Was not Matangini now in Madhavs presence? And had not her long-

pent-up tears fallen on his hands? Had he not wept with her? That was all

Matangini remembered, and for a moment the memory of duty, virtue,

principle ceased to fling its sombre shadow on the brightness of the impure

felicity in which her heart [revelled]. There was a fire in that voluptuous eye,

there was a glow on that moonbeam brow, and as she stood leaning with her

well-rounded arm on the damask-covered back of the sofa, her beautiful head

resting on the palm of her hand over which, as over the heaving bosom, stayed

the luxuriant tresses of raven hue; as thus she stood, Madhav might well

have felt sure earth had not to show a more dazzling vision of female

loveliness.

What a beautiful description of Matanginis beauty, of course! But what is

even more beautiful is the portrayal of her state of mind, her deep inner conflict

between passion and virtue, between love and family duty, between strength and

weakness. It was probably such descriptions in this novel and in Bankims later

Bangla novels that perhaps made Sri Aurobindo write a wonderfully phrased

comment on the portrayal of women in Bankims novels. Taking a humorous jab at

the Anglicized social reformers of his time sadly enough, many such so-called

reformers exist till today among the circles of westernized, urban, Indian

intelligentsia who cant find anything beautiful in Hindu ways of life and social

organization Sri Aurobindo wrote in his unique style:

Insight into the secrets of feminine character, that is another notable

concomitant of the best dramatic power, and that too Bankim possesses....The

social reformer, gazing, of course, through that admirable pair of spectacles

given to him by the Calcutta University, can find nothing excellent in Hindu

life, except its cheapness, or in Hindu woman, except her subserviency. Beyond

this he sees only its narrowness and her ignorance. But Bankim had the eye of a

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poet and saw much deeper than this. He saw what was beautiful and sweet

and gracious in Hindu life, and what was lovely and noble in Hindu woman,

her deep heart of emotion, her steadfastness, tenderness and lovableness, in

fact, her womans soul; and all this we find burning in his pages and made

diviner by the touch of a poet and an artist (ibid., p.110).

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Bharat Mata, Painting by Abanindranath Tagore

Source

In a thought-provoking essay, enticingly titled, The Allegory of Rajmohans

Wife: National Culture and Colonialism in Asia's First English Novel, Makarand

Paranjpe presents his allegorical reading into the characters of this novel,

particularly Matangani.

The importance of Rajmohans Wife only increases when we realise that it is

probably not just the first English novel in India, but in all of Asia. Its dramatic

location at the cusp of history only adds to its fascination. In Bankims slender

work, not just a new India, but an emerging Asia seeks to find its voice in an

alien tongue. In this effort, a spark shoots across the narrative sky in the form

of a new beautiful, spirited, and romantic heroine, Matangini. There has been

nothing like her in Asian fiction before. Created from an amalgam of classical,

medieval, and European sources and a totally unprecedented imaginative leap

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into what might constitute a new female subjectivity, Matangini is a memorable

character. In all of Indian English fiction, there are few women who have her

capacity to move the narrative. She, moreover, embodies the hopes of an entire

society struggling for selfhood and dignity. Her courage, independence, and

passion are not just personal traits, but those of a nation in the making. This

subtle superimposition of the national upon the personal is Bankims gift to his

Indian English heirs. The trail of an epoch making novel like Midnights

Children (1981) can thus be traced back to Bankims more modest trial as far

back as 1864.

Paranjpes analysis of the whole novel as a national allegory convincingly argues

that while the pronounced nationalism of Anandamath comes later in Bankims

literary career, its beginnings may be found in Rajmohans Wife.

The novel, through its richly textured negotiation of cultural choices for a

newly emergent society, according to Paranjpe, is really an allegory of modern

India, of the kind of society that can rise out of the debris of an older, broken

social order and of the new, albeit stunted, possibilities available to it under

colonialism. The novel shows both the glimmer of hope and a more realistic

closure of options towards the end. He further writes:

Rajmohans Wife gains in value and interest when we see it as a part of the

story of modern India itself. This is a story that is still being written; in that

sense it is a work in progress, which is exactly how Id like to see Rajmohans

Wife too. As a work in progress, rather than a false start, it negotiates one path

for Indias future growth and development. In this path, the English-educated

elites of the country must lead India out of bondage and exploitation. While the

Rajmohans and Mathurs must be defeated, Matangini must find her happiness

with her natural mate, Madhav. However, the latter is not possible just yet;

Matangini has [to] therefore retreat to her paternal home. Like an idea ahead of

its time, she must wait till she can gain what is her due. But not before she

enjoys a brief but hard-earned rendezvous with her paramour and smoulders

across the narrativescape of the novel with her disruptive power. Indeed, the

novelty in Bankims novel is precisely the irruption, the explosion that

Rajmohans wifeboth the character and the storycauses in the narrative of

modern India. Like a gash or a slash, the novel breaks the iterative horizons of

a somnambulant subcontinent, leaving a teasing trace that later sprouts many

new fictive offshoots.

English-educated elites of the country must lead India out of bondage and

exploitation is it still an idea ahead of its time? Is it still not possible just yet?

Bankims novel was published in 1864, is the idea relevant now? Is it possible for this

path to work now for Indias future growth and development? These are the

questions that are still very valid today, the nature of bondage and exploitation may

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have changed a bit, but the need for moving toward a freer and more equitable

progress for all remains a high priority for Indias future evolution.

To answer this we need to look back, at least for the past six decades since

Indias independence from the British colonialists. Has the English-educated elite

that was created as a direct result of English education been able to lead the path of

Indias development? Answer to this is neither simple nor singular. In some ways,

yes this elite has been responsible for bringing a certain modernity into Indian

outlook for social and economic progress. In other ways, this very modernity has

been seen as an imitation of something alien by many, particularly when the social-

economic modernising project begins to enter into the cultural realm.

Both views may be correct in their own way, and incorrect too. And there

may be possible many more intermediate views in between the two responses. The

evolution of Indian social-economic-cultural consciousness continues despite or

perhaps because of these diverse push-and-pull mechanisms. While a certain section

of Indian society may feel a greater pull toward the this is how India was in the

past type of rhetoric, another section is more dismissive of all that was good in the

past and champions for a complete break-up from the past by pushing her into a

future that is entirely based on Western materialism.

Bankims Matangani, like the outer body of India (her social-economic-

political realm) seems to have been caught up in this discourse. She belongs with

Madhav, who at this point carries in him the seed of a truly modern outlook, thanks

to his education, but isnt ready to be with Matangani. Not just yet. Perhaps because

he hasnt yet found the grounded-ness for his modernity to flower naturally in its

context. He hasnt yet discovered the indigenous roots of his modernity and he is

still running around looking elsewhere for a confirmation of his reason, his view on

what is good for his future. And the future of his country. The Modern hasnt been

fully harmonised with the Eternal, the Reason hasnt been fully integrated with the

Faith, the progress of Mind hasnt yet fully become the growth of Spirit.

Reading Bankims Rajmohan Wife in this light of what the characters may tell

us about the nation and its future course of growth and development can be further

enabled when we recall these words of Sri Aurobindo:

I can only say that everything will have my full approval which helps to

liberate and strengthen the life of the individual in the frame of a vigorous

society and restore the freedom and energy which India had in her heroic times

of greatness and expansion. Many of our present social forms were shaped,

many of our customs originated, in a time of contraction and decline. They had

their utility for self-defence and survival within narrow limits, but are a drag

upon our progress in the present hour when we are called upon once again to

enter upon a free and courageous self-adaptation and expansion... (CWSA,

Vol. 36, p. 274)

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Madhav in Rajmohans Wife isnt perhaps ready yet to let go of all that drags

his progress and that of his country. Thats why perhaps Matangani, the nation is

not really his at the moment.

And when will Madhav be ready to be with Matangani? When will the

English-educated elite of India find their grounded-ness in the Indian soul? That

hope rests with the youth of India. To recall again from Sri Aurobindo:

Our call is to young India. It is the young who must be the builders of the new

world,not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or

the materialistic communism of the West as Indias future ideal, not those who

are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and

transformation of life by the spirit, but all who are free in mind and heart to

accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who

will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the future.... It is

with a confident trust in the spirit that inspires us that we take our place among

the standard-bearers of the new humanity that is struggling to be born amidst

the chaos of a world in dissolution, and of the future India, the greater India of

the rebirth that is to rejuvenate the mighty outworn body of the ancient

Mother. (CWSA, Vol. 13, p. 511)

Rajmohans Wife, when read as an allegory of modern India reminds the

reader that national consciousness when invoked through and inspired by

thoughtful and noble literature, art and music is always much more real and

uplifting than anything uttered by the so-called political leaders and workers of the

official machinery.

To appreciate the vast contribution made by this noble soul, Bankim Chandra,

to the awakening of his motherland and to the renaissance of Indian literature and

thought, and to do it through the lens of a literary criticism that is grounded in the

eternal essence of all things Indian and is not merely an imitation or regurgitation of

whatever theoretical frameworks that may be the fad of the day this is what

makes reading Bankim extra, extra special for me.