Depiction of Agencies of Farmers in the Select Indian English Fiction

Depiction of Agencies of Farmers in the Select Indian English Fiction

      Fairoja Jahangir Mulla

      M.A. II,

      English Department,

      Shivaji University,

      Kolhapur.

      Mob.9168938120.

        India is known as the land of cultures and traditions and is one of the oldest civilization in the world Indian culture and tradition are rich and unique in their own way. In our Country there are many communities and sub-communities each of them has their own culture, tradition, religion, language and literature. Literature plays a very important role in the established and growth of the society plots depicted in the fictional writings are inspired by the reality in our country there are many great authors who wrote about their land, farmer people poor people for e.g. Raja Rao, Kamala, Markandaya’s, Vilas Salunke, C. Raodarmel, Sarojini Naidu, Nissim Ezekiel, A. K. Ramanujan, Rabindranath Tagore, Rajendran Muthiah, R. K. Narayana, Mulkraj Anand the founding fathers of Indian English literature were mainly concerned with the downtrodden of the society, Indian middle class life and the expression of the traditional and cultural ethos of India. The famous American writer Mark Twain Wrote about “India that India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech the mother of history the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition”.

        Literature always acted as a mirror to society Ancient. Ancient authors had portrayed the picture of an ancient Indian through their writings for e.g. Munshi Premchndra showed the actual Indian society and the conditions that existed that time the time when India was almost completely a rural place. He showed the true pain and agony of the farmer and the poor.

Depiction of Farmer’s Life

The Gift of a Cow by Gardon C. Raodarmel

        A Translation of the Hindi Novel ‘Gardon’ by Premchand translated by Gardon C. Raodermel

        The Gift of a Cow is set in oudh in the area around Lucknow. The novel fallows the stories of many characters but the central one is Hori ‘Ram’ who lives with his family in the small village of Belari.

        Hori is a poor farmer a decent soul but like practically all the other villagers deeply indebted Hori believes in the order of the day, which also means putting the welfare of the local zamindar Rai Sahib Amrpal Singh ahead of that of his family Hori’s wife ‘Dhaniya’ is more practical preventing some of Hori’s worst excesses but not all of them.

        The title of the Novel Godaan in the original refers to as the glossary explains the gift of a cow made by a pious Hindu’s to  Brahman at the time of death but while Hori’s longing for a cow to call his own plays a role in parts of the book this and the hope he will have one to give at his death isn’t an over whelming part of the plot. Instead Premchand offers a far brader tapestry Aside from Hori’s family several other characters lives and fates are closely fallowed and the book also shifts back and forth from country life to that in the city. Getting a cow in mething Hori does drams of it was his life’s ambition his greatest since any ideas of living off bank interest of buying land or of buying a monsoon were too granation for his cramped mind to comprechend.

        In fact however the book begins with his dream being fulfilled but the perfidy of a never-do-well brother means that this happiness lasts only a short.

        Among the consequences of his having accepted the cow from a herdsman from a neighboring village Bhola is that widowed daughter ‘Jhujiya’ and begins an affair with her when she gets pregnant Gobar brings her to his family home or almost does he sends her ahead then high faits it to town the proper thing for Hori and his wife to do is not to allow Jhuniya over their threshold but they are decent folk and they do the right thins and take the poor pregnant girl in this casts all in dishonor and the whole village is outraged.

        The major problem in the village is that everyone is deep in debt and that the debts keep growing Barrow 30 rupees and before you know it what with fees and compound interest you owe two hundred Premchand devotes considerable space to money lending practices understanding since to money lending practices understandable since money lending is so central to all these lives.  

        Cush problems not only problem but also the poor and rural folk much of the novel also centers around a rich, urban class. The Zamindar and circle or acquaintance which includes lawyer, professors industrialists, doctor, newspaper, editor’s and businessmen several of them also have money trouble though things work out much more easily for them but  even the recognize that the systems has gone wrong.

Major Character

        Hori is a peasant who is married to Dhaniya and haw two daughters and a son he is a up righteous man and struggle throughout his life to preserve his up righteousness.

Dhaniya

        Dhaniya is Hori’s wife devoted to him and always supportive to him she is bold and fiery and cannot tolerate injustice she raises her voice against injustice against the wishes of Hori and irritates.

Gobar

        Is the only son of Dhaniya and Hori

Themes

1. Problems due to caste segregation – people of different voeation and their respective castes represent the village Datadin the Bhahmin priest represent the upped most caste.
2. Exploitation of the lower class- Premchand has drarn a realistic picture of the poor peasant exploited by the poor peasant exploited by the village Zamindar and the greedy moneylenders.
3. Exploitation of women - The women character Dhaniya, Shunia Seliya and Roopa are exploited by the men they love and are dedicated to.
4. Problems due to industrialization growth of capitalistic greedy industrialist - who exploit the labor class migration of youngsters from the villages to cities conflicts and tensions in cities are some of the problems.
5. Interpersonal relationships love and marriage - premchand as progressive writer envisages a modern India where love and inter-caste marriage would thrive we have the inter-caste marriages of  gobar and Jhunia, Mattadin and Seliya and that of educated pair, Rudra Pratap and Saroj. The educated pair, Rudra Pratap and Saroj. The marital relationship of Mr. Khanna and his wife is strained as he lacks love and respect for her.
6. Political Scenario of the period - The country was fighting for its liberation from colonial power. It was the period for the growth and development of different parties and ideologies Premchand through the novel expresses his stand as a socialist socialism is a panacea for all kinds of discrimination and exploitation.

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