Seths Novel, A Suitable Boy - Essay Example

“These writings emphasize the spatial and temporal openness of the city as a place of manifold rhythms forged through daily encounters and multiple experiences of time and place, the city as a series of imprints from the past, the daily tracks movements across, and links beyond, the city itself” (Mbembe and Nuttall 2004:361). Discuss the ways in which literature or film imagines the city with reference to at least two texts. This essay will try to examine the descriptions of the city in the colonial and postcolonial times by looking at the representation of the city in A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, and Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. I will also address the representation of the city in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in order to offer a comparison of distinct ways in which the city is imagined in colonial and postcolonial eras and I will argue that the descriptions of the cities in these works are influenced by the authors’ personal perspectives of colonial and postcolonial times. The authors persuade the readers of the dual multi personalities that colonial and postcolonial cities exhibit. Seth’s novel, A Suitable Boy, focuses on the postcolonial city, Brahmpur. Brahmpur is a fictional city in the aftermath of India’s independence from England (Robinson). Seth talks about the protagonist, Maan’s and his journey to Barsaat Mahal and how the city became divided into different parts with strong cultural differences because of its colonial heritage. Mbembe and Nuttall state that, “the city has long been used as a device to read social change. (352) They also assert that postcolonial cities are, “unfinished cities” that have “a conversation with the past and the future” (366). Seth uses topographical descriptions to distinguish the former colonial section of the city. Seth describes the Eastern part of the city of Brahmpur in contrast to its neighbouring West side: the tonga passed through the green residential ‘colonies’ of the eastern part of Brahmpur…at the western end of the old town, on the Ganges itself, stood the beautiful grounds and the still more beautiful marble structure of the Barsaat Mahal. (96) This description emphasizes the lushness of the ex-colonial section of the city and the luxuriant marble architecture. Seth links the ex-colonial part of Brahmpur with cleanliness and neatness. Even though Brahmpur is a postcolonial city, the colonial past still lingers; this past divides the city into a predominately native or colonial section of the city. Mbembe and Nuttal state that in the aftermath of colonial rule, a “field of changing matrices of identity and power” struggles to emerge (Mbembe and Nuttall 2004: 366). This means that Brahmpur will progress beyond the colonial past, but the city’s change will not occur immediately. The changes in postcolonial cities endure occur slowly. Continuing his description of the different sides of the city, Seth describes Nabiganji, “the fashionable shopping street”, in a part of the city with few cars and bicycles. The effects of the former English colonization have created a typically Western atmosphere in Nabiganji: the signs were printed in English, and the prices matched the signs…restaurants, coffee houses…two cinema-halls_ Manorma Talkies (which showed Hindi films and the Rialto) which leaned towards Hollywood and Ealing. (97) This quotation from the novel indicates the influence that colonization made on the language. English, the language of the ex-colonizers, replaced the native tongue. The English signs show the shops cater to the colonizers who were there before India’s independence, not the natives. This is another symbol of the division of the city’s personality; the ex-colonial side of the town is different from what was previously the native part of the city. The passage above shows that the city is made up of “sites of memory” left by the colonial past. These imprints of the English colonizers’ influence have actually created the city and show that the postcolonial city can never really escape its colonial past. The prominence of the English language is a historical imprint from India’s colonization. After discussing the part of the city built by the British, Seth moves on to talk about another dimension of the city; the native element. He states: there was just enough room for the tonga to get through among the bullock-carters, rickshaws, cycles and pedestrians who thronged both the road and the pavement.(97) The tonga goes to the other side of the city where the streets become narrower and the alley reaches a stage where it becomes very small. This description makes a reader feel that Maan is going to another world which is totally different in every aspect. The streets are full of the rickshaws and cycles. Seth talks about how the streets are crowded overflowing with people, donkeys, students, and women walking alone without their men. Seth goes on to paint a picture about Maan and his affection towards Saeeda Bai. Maan talks about this matter with his friend Fairoz and they talk about the origin of Saeeda. Fairoz feels the following about Saeeda: well, her people did in fact originally come from Fairozabad. But that’s all history…Saeeda Bai was brought up in this part of the city” He pointed his stick towards the disreputable quarter. ‘but naturally Saeeda Bai herself, that’s made good and lives in Pasand Bagh_ and breathes the same air as you and I_ doesn’t like people to talk about her local origin.(99) Even though Saeeda is originally from Fairozabad, she ignores her origins, because of her fame and wealth. Saeeda also is a prostitute who wishes to hide her low class origins. Saeeda’s low opinion of her origins portrays Fairozabad as a disgraceful part of the city. This imagery of Fairozabad shows one side of the dual personality of the city, formerly known as the native side. But Seth does not solely link the indigenous people and provinciality with cultural and domestic poverty. When he describes Misri Mandi, where the roads are smaller and the people are financially poorer, he identifies a sense of contentment in the (native) part of the city: as he enters the residential areas of Misri Mandi, the alleys became narrower and cooler and somewhat quieter, though there were still plenty of people getting from place to place and others lounging around or playing chess on the ledge near the Radhakrishna Temple, whose walls were still bright with the stains of Holi colors. The strip of bright sunlight above his head was thin and unoppressive, and there were fewer flies. After turning into a still narrower alley, just three feet across, and avoiding a urinating cow, he arrived at his sister’s house.(91) In this quotation, Seth gives us another picture of the situation in Misri Mandi. Even though this part of the city is just as crowded as the rest, Seth portrays this neighbourhood as domestically cosy. This part of the city is a place where natives like Maan are comfortable. Natives crowd into a small section of the city with domestic animals urinating aside, Misri Mandi still considered home to the ones living there. Seth’s description of the divisions left behind in the postcolonial city is similar to Frantz Fanon’s writings about a colonial city. Fanon describes the huge differences between the settler’s town and the natives’. He says: the settler’s town is a well-fed town, an easy-going town, it’s belly is always full of good things, the settler’s town is a town of white people, of foreigners. The town belonging to the colonized people, or at least the native town, the Negro village, the medina, the reservation, is a place of ill fame, peopled by men of evil repute…it is a world without spaciousness, men live there on top of each other…the native town is a hungry town, starved of bread, of meat, of coal, of light…(30) This quotation states that that the foreigners in the colonial city are the ones who live in the better side of the city and on the contrary, the natives live in the opposite of that. In A Suitable Boy Brahmpur is a postcolonial city, unlike Fanon’s colonial city but it is important to study Fanon’s views on the city, because the colonial effect on postcolonial cities are imprinted on the cities for generations. Seth talks about violence which comes along with the riots in Misri Mandi. The novel talks about how strikes could do harm to the city because the trade is influenced badly by these continuing strikes. The strikers threaten that they will close all entrances to this city in which the city will be isolated from the outer world (246). The personality the city now exhibits is one of turmoil. Fanon also supports Seth’s novel when he talks about the violence in colonial and postcolonial cities. Fanon talks about the colonial and postcolonial city and how two different nations, two groups live in one city. Firstly, violence in the colonial city shapes the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized and how they know each other very well. Fanon says: in fact, the settler is right when he speaks of knowing ‘them’ well. For it is the settler who brought the native into existence and who perpetuates his existence. The settle owes the fact of his very existence, that is to sat his property, to the colonial system. (28) This citation indicates that the colonial city is inhabited by two nations who are opposed to each other completely. Fanon also talks about the violent relation between the colonized and the colonizer. The colonial city is divided into two parts: one is for the natives and the other for the foreigners and strangers. Fanon explains: the colonial world is a world cut in two. The dividing line, the frontiers are shown by barracks and police stations. In the colonies it is the policeman and the soldier who are the official, instituted go-betweens, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule of aggression. (29) This citation emphasizes the notion of the division created in the same city because of colonialism. State how this is linked to your discussion of Seth and the postcolonial city. Another aspect of Seth’s city is the religious imagery. The religious imagery in the text does not, “emphasize the spatial and temporal openness of the city” but describes Brahmpur, “as a place of manifold rhythms forged through daily encounters and multiple experiences of time and place” (Mbembe and Nuttall 2004:361). Seth talks about how Muslims and Hindus live together uneasily and there are mosques and temples that coexist in the same city. The tension between these two groups is brought sharply into focus when the Imam gives the sermon on a Friday prayer. The Imam’s sermon touches the devote Muslims, convincing them they cannot continue their silence regarding the building of the temple to the west side of the mosque (249). This indicates the tension between the followers of these two religions who live in the same city and their tenuous relationship. The fragile relationship could be disturbed at any time if one side crossed the other’s lines. The religious side of the city shows that the basic dual imagery of the city (formerly as settler/native) splinters into a more complex aspect like the Hindu and Muslim conflict in a postcolonial era. Fanon also mentioned the religious separation with regard to the colonial city and stated that the colonists used religion to oppress the natives. He states: The church in the colonies is the white people’s church, the foreigner’s church. She does not call the native to God’s ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor. (Fanon 32) Here Fanon shows how the colonists’ religion is another way to separate natives and the settlers. But later he presents the oppressor as hypocrites when it comes to religion: And the nature of the adversary: self-hating, constructing a false ego, auto-destructive. Fanon again: “In this way the individual’-the Fanonian native-‘accepts the disintegration ordained by God, bows down before the settler and his lot, and by a kind of interior restabilization acquires a stony calm.’ (355). Fanon also talks about post-colonialism and how religion might divide one nation. He states: Inside a single nation, religion splits up people into different spiritual ommunities; all of them kept up and stiffened by colonialism and its instruments. Totally unexpected events break out here and there. in regions where Catholicism or Protestantism predominates, we see the Moslem minorities flinging themselves with unaccustomed ardour into their devotion.(129) This citation shows that the differences in belief cause division inside a single nation live together in one country or one city. Overall Seth’s description of the city is as important as his illustration of Maan. The city takes on a sort of shattered personality that is divided as the people who inhabit it. On the former colonial side, a privileged, clean, and honorable personality shines through. On the previously knows as (native) side, a poor, dirty, and overcrowded personality is hidden beneath the surface. This city could reveal a different facet of its personality to each individual resident or visitor, depending on who the person is or where they are from. Although this city might not have been like that in the beginning, it has ended up segregated by the colonial heritage. Colonisation affects cities even after liberation of the colonised country because one side sill be linked to the natives and one side will be more influenced by the colonists. On this aspect of colonialism Goh and Yeoh report: an analytical model which is more cognizant of the co-casual relationship between Western colonial influence and the cultural particularities of the colonized peoples, in the creation of the colonial urbanisms which leave their mark on the newly-independent nations. This has further inspired other accounts of colonial cities as the product of both colonial control and local resistance.” (Goh, text not paginated) This passage reaffirms the theory that the colonial and postcolonial cities have dual traits, one native and the other colonial. Even though Brahmpur is a postcolonial city, the people and the nature of their city are still effected by the colonization and the native opposition to the oppressive nature of colonization. The Satanic Verses: Salman Rushdie In The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie describes the distinctive personality traits of London. Rushdie, like Seth, was born in India just around the time colonial rule was coming to an end (Allingham 1275). In The Satanic Verses Rushdie describes colonial and postcolonial effect on the citythrough aspects of religious traits. The descriptions of London reflect England’s predominately Christian background which is linked toward the colonist oppressive attitude toward natives. This novel is post colonial because of the descriptions of the political climate of London, one passage even mentions the Thatcher government (1979-1990). This novel also has religious overtones, made especially evident by Rushdie’s use of “satanic” in the title: “The novel plays upon the legend that Satan inserted certain verses into the revelation of the Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam” (Hoskote). Two Indian characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha are fighting for good and evil after falling to earth when their Air India jet explodes (Rushdie, 4). The fantasy nature allows the writer certain liberty with the imagery of the book. Although Rushdie describes London throughout the book, even mentioning the city on the opening page (3) two descriptions from separate chapters stand out. In the chapter “A City Visible but Unseen” Rushdie states: “English: damn cold fish!-Living underwater most of the year, in days the colour of night!” (Rushdie, 352). Rushdie goes on to explain: the moral fuzziness of the English was meteorologically induced. ‘When the day is not warmer than the night,’ he reasoned, ‘when the light is not brighter than the dark, when the land is not drier than the sea, then clearly a people will lose the power to make distinctions, and commence to see everything-from political parties to sexual partners to religious beliefs-as much-the -same-, nothing-to-choose, give-or-take. What folly! (354) This description gives London the personality of the people living there defined by Rushdie; amoral, cold, and fickle. London takes on a dark nefarious presence due to the meteorological appearance of England. When Gibreel (one of Rushdie’s main characters) decided to change London’s personality, Rushdie wrote of a meteorological alteration: Gibreel Farishta floating on his cloud formed the opinion that moral fuzziness of the English was meteorologically induced. When the day is not warmer that the night,’ he reasoned, ‘when the light is not brighter than the dark, when the land is not drier than the sea, then clearly a people will lose the power to make distcinctions, and commence to see everything…(354). Rushdie uses Gibreel to change London’s weather. By changing London’s weather to a tropical setting, the author reveals London would have a completely different personality in a different climate. Rushdie points out if London was in a Caribbean setting, people would not rush about worrying about work, and they would be too tired from the heat (355). London would longer have the personality of a cold business like fish. The new London would be an easy going place; lazy warmth would invade the city. Rushdie shows that if London’s “manifold rhythms forged through daily encounters and multiple experiences of time and place” were native/colonized, the ex-settlers would understand what used to be called the (native) better (Mbembe and Nuttall 2004:361). . Rushdie sees London wholly as a city of oppression, the English as oppressors. When Gibreel changes London’s climate, he imposes a native climate upon the city to show the Londoners what native towns feel like (Rushdie 355). The division of the city is still present, leaving London as a dual personality city. Brahmpur, Seth’s city, mirrors Rushdie’s London with a dual personality. In The Satanic Verses Rushdie imposes a fictional scenario putting the former colonist into the same environment natives come from; this is to make the reader ponder if the English would react like natives in a similar environment. In the second chapter, “The Angel Azraeel”, Rushdie shows London as a racially divided city (449-451). Rushdie symbolises how London as a native city would feel native, with the colonisers living in a position of power and the natives in poverty (450). The result of London as a native town is an uprising and racial unrest, just like postcolonial towns all over the world (Rushdie 449-450). This mirrors Seth’s and Fanon’s writings that show the division, the uprisings, and racial unrest in Brahmpur and Algeria. Gibreel also feels the city is alive with its own personality. Rushdie writes: “The city sends him messages” (458). The messages are foreboding: Not all migrants are powerless, the still-standing edifices whisper. They impose their needs on their new earth, bringing their own coherence to the new-found land, imagining it afresh. But look out, the city warns. Incoherence, too, must have its day. (Rushdie 458) Rushdie is trying to explain that even though a city is inanimate, a metropolis can speak and have a personality just like a living breathing person. Both Seth and Rushdie imagine cities from the aspect of a descendent of colonized parents. In fact, Seth admitted when writing A Suitable Boy that he patterned characters after his own family (Srivastava). Seth and Rushdie’s writings reflect the attitudes of Indians born in a postcolonial India. Both men were born in India, but later moved to England. Both men’s writings show cities defined by race, colour, and class. The caste system of the colony has fully been passed down from generation to generation. Even though England left India decades ago, the damage the colonial rule caused has not entirely been erased. Another facet of both Seth and Rushdie’s views on imagining their cities is the partition between India and Pakistan. The formation of Pakistan for Muslims and India as a secular state made up mostly of Hindus shows in both men’s writing (“The Partition of India”). Seth writes about the conflict between Muslim and Hindu, while Rushdie writes about the conflict between Muslim and Christian. It is clear Rushdie’s vision of London is a city that is godless from this example: How hot it is: steamy, close, intolerable. This is no Proper London: not this improper city. Airstrip One, Mahagonny, Alphaville. He wanders through a confusion of languages. Bable: a contraction of the Assyrian ‘babilu’. “The gate of God.’ Babylondon. (459) London here is described like a woman of the night, loose and willing to engage in many nefarious deeds. Before an enraged Gibreel changes London, Rushdie writes: “-No more of these England-induced ambiguities, these Biblical-Satanic confusions!” Seth also sees his cities as Muslim or Hindu, telling of the peace, then the fury between the two religions (249). Both men choose to point out the religious differences which divide the cities. Perhaps Seth and Rushdie’s views on infusing their towns with dual personalities, native and settler, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian might have come from India’s history, more specifically India’s colonial days. Before India’s independence the British treated Indians as sub-humans. One scholar, Hegel, writing during the period of colonial India said, his writing about British occupation of India though?? state what he was writing about - It is characteristic of the blacks that their consciousness has not yet even arrived at the intuition of any objectivity, as for example, of God or the law, in which humanity relates to the world and intuits its essence. ...He [the black person] is a human being in the rough. (Hegel, 38). How can Seth and Rushdie write and give their towns anything but opposing views on natives and settlers when natives during colonial times were treated as unworthy or, in Hegel’s words, “rough”? Even though the cities that were described here were postcolonial cities, the division of native and settler in these cities were apparent. The root of the division of native and settler began and ended in the belief that the native was not equal. When India became independent, views like the quote above did not disappear. Fanon, like Seth and Rushdie, also talks about the postcolonial city. He mentions how the postcolonial city still continues to be divided after the independence of several nations. He states: Immediately after independence, the nationals who live in the more prosperous regions realize their good luck, and show a primary and profound reaction in refusing to feed the nationals…the nationals of these rich regions look upon the others with hatred and find in them envy and covetousness and homicidal impulses.(128) This quote shows that even after the independence, the nationals who live in the rich neigbourhood act like the previous settlers who looked at those who used to live in the native side of the city with disgust. In their works Rushdie, Seth, and Fanon reflect on how the city is changed and shaped by history. In Seth’s city, it is true that the colonial rule left India but A Suitable Boy paints the picture of the city’s division created by the colonization’s imprints. For Rushdie, London is portrayed through the eyes of a man raised in post-colonial India. India’s history mirrors the anti-settler/pro-native of Seth and Rushdie’s writings. Mbembe and Nuttall summarise what these authors achieve when they state that they: emphasize the spatial and temporal openness of the city as a place of manifold rhythms forged through daily encounters and multiple experiences of time and place, the city as a series of imprints from the past, the daily tracks movements across, and links beyond, the city itself(Mbembe and Nuttall 2004:361). All of these men were clearly influenced by colonial rule. They used these influences to explore cities giving them the colonial and post-colonial identities. Seth’s rioting and divided postcolonial city, London cold and proper, turned into a tropical city, churches that only accepted white people, and poor Muslim neighborhoods all were formed by men influenced by colonial rule, like their cities. Bibliography Allingham, Phillip. The Cambridge Biographical Dictionary, ed. Magnus Magnusson and Rosemary Goring. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. P. 1275. “Baroness Thatcher (1925 -)” (n.d.). 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Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. 13 May 2006 http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9064456 Srivastava, Neelam. “Vikram, Seth.” The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 Oct. 2002. The Literary Encyclopedia Company. 13 May 2006 http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4020 Vikram, Seth. A Suitable Boy. United Kingdom: Orion Publishing Group, 1993. Walker, Alvin Wyman. “Remembering Fanon.” Race and History. 2000. Raceandhistory.com. 13 May 2006 http://www.raceandhistory.com/Historians/frantz_fanon.htm Read More