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Novels Society and History
The Rise of the Novel

• Introduction
• The print culture, had been begun, and started spreading, awareness, among the people. It created various new forms of literature mainly novels. Novel is a modern form of literature in which writer presents imaginary fascinating story or content about a specific character.
• Manuscripts: From ancient times great thinkers produced handwritten books called manuscripts. But due to single or very few copies, the circulation of handwritten manuscripts were limited to very few people. In contrast to this print enabled production of multiple copies of any book thus making it easier to circulate and thus to gain popularity in very short time.
• More readers more books: Due to print and improved communication London was connected to small towns. Novels got wide variety of readers so to fulfill their interest wide variety of novels were produced. With more reading people started thinking about topics like relationship between love and marriage, men and women and so on.
• Increase in Publicity: Even if people started writing novels from seventeenth century still it got wide publicity from eighteenth century with the development of print culture. At first novels got popularity in England and France. Novel readers included traditional upper classes and lower class people such as shopkeepers and clerks.
• Financial Support to Authors: With the growth of the readers books started flooding in the market as a result the incomes of the authors also increased. Due to which now they did not have to depend on upper classes for financial support. Which enabled them to write whatever they want. In early eighteenth century Henry Fielding an independent novelist announced that he was ‘the founder of new province of writing’ where he could make his own laws.
• Walter Scott: Walter Scott remembered and collected the well known scottish ballads i.e. poem narrating stories in small stanzas and used these to in a novel about wars between Scottish clans i.e. Scottish family.
• Epistolary Novel: A different form of Novel i.e. Epistolary novel used forms like private and personal forms of letters to narrate the story. Samuel Richardson’s ‘pamela’ explains the story through the exchange of letters between two lovers. Readers understand the hidden conflicts of the heroine’s mind.

 

The Publishing market:

• High cost of Novels:
• Initially as the books were costly so poor people could not buy and read the novels. for instance the pricing of each volume of Henry Fielding’s ‘Tom Jones’ novel was three shillings each. It was more than a labours earning in a week.
• Access to Books:
• But from 1740s, formation of public libraries enabled the poor people to gain the access of books. Various technological improvement in print technology helped in reduction of prices of the books. Due to this it became possible for even common people to buy the books. In this way sale of the books was expanded. In France, to increase the profits, publishers started lending books on hourly basis.
• Reasons For Popularity of Novels:
• Mass Production: The novels were first mass produced items to be sold during that time.
• Interesting Stories: The world presented in novels appears interesting, believable and real.
• Impact on Minds: While reading the novel, the readers imagine themselves in the world of the story.
• Private as well as Public Reading: Novels were readable in private as well as in public. In both ways the reader get pleasure. In public they could discuss the stories with the Relatives and Friends.
• Reading in Rural Area: In rural areas people came together and listen the loud reading of the novel. As they hear the reading they become deeply involved in the character.
• Deep impacts of Novels on Minds: People were so much involved in the novels. for instance when a group of people in Slough in England heard that Heroine of Richardson’s Novel, Pamela was married in their village then they rushed to Parish Church and ring the bell of the church.
• Illustrations, Suspense, and cheapness increased the novel publicity. E.g. Charles Dickens’s story ‘Pickwick Papers’ was published in serialised fashion it has all such characteristics which won the hearts of the readers.

 

The World of Novel

• Earlier forms of printing involve writings about famous personalities but the new form of writing i.e. Novels involve writing about life of common people.
• Industrial Age: In nineteenth century industrial age began in Europe. Factories were established, business profits were increased and thus overall economy grew. But this age brought miseries to the life of workers. Now they had to work for long hours and for were usually underpaid. Unemployed poor people had to wait in the streets for getting jobs. Those which did not have homes had to stay in workhouses.
• Hard Times: Novelist like Charles Dickens recognised their problems and wrote about the terrible effects of industrialisation and development on the lives of people. In his Novel ‘Hard Times’ (1854) he describes the story of an imaginary town called ‘Coketown’. The town was looking sad, full of machinery, smoking chimneys, polluted rivers, and buildings were all alike. In this town the workers were known as ‘Hands’. They had no separate identity other than a machine operator. Charles Dickens criticised the greed for profit and also the thinking about workers as Instruments of production.
• Oliver Twist: His another novel ‘Oliver Twist’ published in 1885, he highlighted the terrible conditions of urban life in the industrial age. In this book he narrated story of a poor orphan child ‘Oliver’. He was living in the world of Criminals and Beggars. Later he was brought up in bad Workhouse. Finally he was adopted by a wealthy man and since then he lived happily.
• Germinal: Emile Zola written ‘Germinal’ novel in 1885 on the life of a young miner. In this novel, the hero i.e. the young miner leads a strike which fails and his co-workers turn against him. So his all hopes shatters. Hence, the story had a sad end.

 

Community and Society

• Introduction: Most of the Novels were based on life of Rural People. Since most of the readers were from cities thus the novels created feeling of affection for the rural community in their mind.
• Thomas Hardy: Thomas Hardy a british novelist wrote about Traditional Culture of Rural Areas which were speedily vanishing. The novel was written during the time when farmers established machines on the agricultural lands, employed labourers and started producing Industrial Goods.
• Mayor of Casterbridge: The same was reflected in Hardy’s novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’ (1886). In this novel Michael Henchard a successful grain merchant, later become the mayor of a farming town called Casterbridge. Henchard was presented as a free-minded man who follows his own styles in conducting the business.Towards his employees his nature was unpredictable i.e. sometime he behaves good and sometimes bad. Compared to him his manager Donald Farfrae was a Good Natured & Even Tempered man. He give equal treatment to all employees.
• Bringing Different Cultures Together: From this story Hardy suggest deep sorrow for the Loss of Older World but he also presents problems of the older world and Advantages of the new world. Generally novel use same language throughout but in this novel Hardy used Vernacular Language i.e.Spoken Language of common people, in this way he tried to bring Different Cultures Together.

 

The New Women

• From the eighteenth century women’s involvement in reading as well as in writing the novels was increased. Novels started expressing the emotions, identities, experience and problems of the women.
• Domestic life in Novels: Many novels were based on domestic life. Based on their experience, women wrote about their family life and gained wide popularity. Novels allowed them to write whatever they want without bothering about the society.
• From the novels of Jane Austen we can find that during early-nineteenth-century the society encouraged women to look for ‘good’ marriages and find a rich husband. The first sentence of her book ‘Pride and Prejudice’ states: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’
• Social Life in Novels: In some novels especially those written by women it was shown women opposing the social norms. Reading such books women readers feels sympathy for the life of women which can give rise to rebellious actions.
• In Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘Jane Eyre’ published in 1847 the character Jane was shown as independent and confident. The girls of her age i.e. age of 10, were expected to keep quiet and well behaved, Jane opposes the hypocrisy of her elders. She straightforward tells her cruel aunt ‘People think you a good woman, but you are bad… You are deceitful! I will never call you aunt as long as I live!

 

Novels for the Young

• For young boys, novels presented new type of man who was strong, confident, independent and daring. Most of the novels were full of adventures. Usually these stories states the scenes of long distance places from Europe.
• Colonisers as heroes: Colonisers were shown as heroes as they bravely face the native people in the unknown regions. Where they try to adopt their life as well as try to change them. In this way they continue their colonising mission. Some examples of such novels are ‘Treasure Island’ published in (1883) of R. L. Stevenson and ‘Jungle Book’ published in (1894).
• Bravery of Youngsters: During the domination of British empire, historical adventure novels of G. A. Henry became widely popular. These novels presented the excitements and adventures of winning strange lands. Most of the times the stories were taken from countries such as Mexico, Alexandria, Siberia. These stories always had young boys which involved in well known military actions. The stories explains how these boys showed ‘English’ courage.
• Love Stories for young Girls: Novels such as ‘Ramona’ by Helen Hunt Jackson published in 1884 and ‘What katy Did’ by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey published in 1872 presented love stories for adolescent girls.

Colonialism and After

• Novel writing was started in Europe during the time when Europe was colonising the world. At first the writers focused on the topic of colonisation and presented themselves as superior community people.
• Robinson Crusoe: IN a novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ written by Daniel Defoe published in 1719 the hero was presented as adventurer and slave trader. Because of severe damage to ship he lives on an island where he treats black people inferior to him. He rescues a ‘native’ person and make him his slave. Instead of asking him his name he arrogantly call the slave as Friday.
• During that time the readers and writers of Europe think colonialism as natural. Colonised people were treated as inferior. It was presented that only colonial rule could civilise them.
• Presentation of Dark side: Only after the twentieth century, writers like Joseph Conrad wrote novels that presented dark side of the colonialism. He shown different problems raised against the  colonised nations because of colonisation.

 

The Novel Comes to India

In the twentieth century writers like Joseph Conrad wrote novels that presented dark side of the colonialism. as a result the colonised people started believing that novels allow them to explore their problems and identities.

• Story writing in India: Story writing was not new to India. In the seventh century Banabhatta written ‘Kadambari’ in Sanskrit. Similarly ‘Panchatantra’ was also written. ‘Dastan’ written in Urdu and Persian was also an example of story writing. However these were not novel. The modern form of Novel was emerged in India from nineteenth century with the introduction of European novel writing.
• Novels in India: The Earliest Indian novels were published in Bengali and Marathi. Baba Radmanji’s ‘Yamuna Paryatan’ was first marathi novel published in 1857. In this novel the story was simple and based on dangerous situation of lives of widows. After this Lakshman Moreshwar Halbe written ‘Muktamala’ in 1861. It was a romantic story narrated with moral purpose.
• Cause based writing: In the nineteenth century usually novel writing was based on any cause e.g. the colonial rulers treat Indians as inferior. So Indian Novel writers wrote to create new and modern literature of the country that would build the feeling of nationalism in Indians as well as present Indian culture as equal with colonial culture.
• Translations: Soon the novels were translated to different languages thus the popularity of the novels was increased continuously.

The Novel in South Asia

• Indulekha: The beginning of novel writing in South India started with the efforts to translate English novels into Indian languages. O. Chandu Menon tried to translate English novel ‘Henrietta Temple’ written by Benjamin Disraeli into Malayalam. While doing so he realised that readers in Kerala would not understand the description of the characters as they did not know English clothes, way of speaking, and manners he thought that the direct translation would be boring for them. So he stopped the translation and written a story which was similar to the english novel. This novel was ‘Indulekha’ which was published in 1889. It was recognised as first modern novel in Malayalam.
• ‘Rajasekhara Charitramu’: Similarly in Andhra Pradesh, Kandukuri Viresalingam started translating Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘Vicar of  Wakefield’ into Telugu which he stopped due to similar reason and wrote first Telugu novel ‘Rajasekhara Charitramu’ in 1878.

 

The Novel in Hindi

Bharatendu Harishchandra, the pioneer of modern Hindi literature encouraged poets and writers of his circle to Recreate and Translate novels from other languages. Under his influence many novels from English as well as Bengali were translated to Hindi.

• ‘Pariksha Guru’: The first proper novel was created by Srinivas Das of Delhi which was published in 1882 under the title ‘Pariksha-Guru’. In this novel he advised the young men of good families to remain safe from influence of bad company and warned about losing their morals.
• In ‘Pariksha-Guru’ the characters were in dilemma as to adopt the colonised society or to preserve their own culture. The characters finds the modernisation as both frightening as well as attractive.
• In this novel writer teach the ‘right way’ to live. He expect all readers to be aware and practical. He want them to respect our Tradition and Culture and live with Dignity and Honour.
• The characters try to reduce the difference between the modern world and traditional world through the actions such as new Agricultural Techniques, modern Trade Practices, Learn Western Languages so as to Communicate with western language. Srinivas Das then try to create the habit of ‘newspaper reading’ in young population. He want this to be achieved without harming the traditional culture. Since the novel was too moralising hence it did not became much popular.
• ‘Chandrakanta’: It was a bestseller novel created by Devaki Nandan Khatri. It was a romantic novel full of fantasy. This novel popularised Hindi language and Nagari script among the educated people.
• Novels of Premchand: With the writings of Premchand, Hindi novel achieved its excellence. At start he written in Urdu then he shifted to writing in Hindi. He used traditional art of ‘Kissa-goi’ i.e. storytelling. His novel ‘Sevasadan’ focused on serious issues of lives of ordinary people and society. Thus in one way it was a change in novel writing from as usually entertainment or or moralising stories.‘Sevasadan’ highlights the poor conditions of women in the society, child marriage and dowry.

 

Novels in Bengal

• In nineteenth century, the Novels in Bengal focuses on primarily two cases.
• Novels based on History: In these novels the characters, events and love stories were based on historical events.
• Novels based on Domestic life: Such novels primarily focus on social issues and romantic relationships between men and women.
• Entertainment for Elite merchants: For old elite merchants of Calcutta, kabirleri i.e. poetry competition, musical soirees i.e. a musical program in the evening, and dance performances were part of entertainment. In contrast to this new bhadralok prefer to reading novel in private.
• Group reading: Novels could be read individually or in groups too. For instance the great Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay hosts ‘jatra’ in his household. A group of literary friends gather in Bankim’s room to read, discuss and judge the literary work. Bankim read out his first novel ‘Durgeshnandini’ to such a group then the people were amazed with the excellent writing.
• Full of twists and turns: This novel was full of cleverly created twists and turns and full of suspense. The language and the prose style was also quite enjoyable.
• Language of Novels: Initially the Bengali novels accepted everyday’s style associated with urban life. Then it used ‘Meyeli’, the language of women’s speech. Later this style was replaced by Bankim’s writing which was Sanskritized but also contain other spoken languages too.

• The popularity of novel was raised quickly in Bengal. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay became widely popular for his way of telling stories in simple language.

 

Novels in The Colonial World

Uses of the Novel

• For Colonial Administrators:
• Source of Information: Colonial administrators took Indian novels as source of information on native life and cultures. They use such information to govern the Indian society. E.g. they understood the variety of communities and castes in the country and then used it for their divide and rule policy.
• Information about domestic life and culture: Indian novels often include information on domestic life. E.g. how people dresses, their form of worship, beliefs and practices etc. So the Indian novels were also useful for British Administrators to understand Indian lifestyle inside the house.
• For market and publicity: Sometimes Indian books were translated to English by British administrators or Christian Missionaries.
• Uses for Indians:
• Criticizing bad practices: Indians used novels to criticize the bad practices in the society and also for suggesting the remedies for those. For instance, writers such as Viresalingam used novels for this purpose.
• Creating feeling of nationalism: Many novel writers written thrilling stories of adventures and conspiracy happened in the past. In this way they created a feeling on national pride in the people.
• Sense of Collective Belonging: people those could read or write a particular language were thought as belonging to that language group. Thus this created feeling of collective belonging.
• Different Speaking ways: People of different region, caste or class may speak same language with different ways. E.g. Hello word in different regions could be spoken as Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Etc. such variations were also started showing up in the print thus making it easy for the people to understand how their language was spoken in different ways other than them.

 

The Problem of Being Modern

• In a novel, even if the stories were imaginary still these were presented as if these were real. It is because often novels present a Imagination of how things should happen in reality. Novelist often creates Heroes and Heroines in the story and presents them with ideal qualities so that the reader should praise and follow them.
• The Ideal Person: The ideal person i.e. hero successfully handles the problems raised by colonisation. They were modern but Follow their Tradition. They accept the ideas coming from west but preserve their identity. E.g. Chandu Menon a novel writer presented Indulekha as a beautiful woman having Strong Mental Abilities and Artistic Talent. She was also expert in English as well as Sanskrit. The hero of Menon’s novel Madhavan was a member of English-Educated Class of Nayars from University of Madras. He was also a ‘first-rate Sanskrit Scholar’. He uses western clothes for his dressing but at the same time keep long tuft of hair to follow the Nayar family rules.
• The Ideal Combination: During colonial period the English-Educated People were attracted towards western lifestyle thus the heroes and Heroines in the modern world were presented as modern. If we compare these with Mythological Characters then they focuses on Traditional Culture. Thus, in the story Menon showed that how traditional and Foreign Lifestyle could be brought together so as to form an ideal combination.

Pleasure of Reading

• Like everywhere, in India also novel become most popular for entertainment of people especially those of middle classes. People were getting entertained from variety of novels such as Picture Books, translations from other language books, popular songs, stories in newspapers and magazines. As a result novels became quickly popular.
• E.g. During twentieth century, popular novels were produced in huge quantity, in Tamil. Detective and Mystery Novels had huge demands so these books had to be printed again and again to meet the demand.
• Silent Reading: Earlier people read anything loudly but Novels helped people to learn silent reading. Thus now people could read while sitting at home or travelling in the trains enjoy the novel reading. Even in case of crowded  room a person could read novel silently and imagine what he reads.

 

Women and the Novel

• People’s fear about novels: Many people thought that novel could create bad effects on readers especially on women and children. They thought that women and children could be easily diverted. So many of them wrote in newspapers and magazines to “stay away from the bad effects of novels”. So parents keep novels in lofts in the houses out of reach from their children. Young people read novels in secret.
• Women in Novel: Earlier the role of women was to read the writings of men. With time, women also started writing novels. In some languages women first created poems, essays of autobiographies. During the beginning of twentieth century South Indian women also started writing novel and short stories. Involvement of women in writing started the conception of womanhood. Novel started representing women as independent and confident who could choose or refuse their partners and relationships.
• Novels by Rokeya Hossain: Rokeya Hossain was a social reformer. When she was widowed then she started a girl’s school in Calcutta. She wrote a novel called ‘Sultana’s Dream’ which was a satiric fantasy. Satiric fantasy is a form of writing in which the writer criticize the society in a humorous and clever manner. In this novel, women takes the place of men. In another such novel ‘Padmarag’ she spread the message that women need to reform their condition by their own actions.
• Secrete Writing: During those days women were not allowed to write so many women had to write in secrecy. E.g. Hannah Mullens, a Christian missionary wrote her first novel ‘Karuna o Phulmonir Bibaran’ in secrete which was published in 1852.  Sailabala Ghosh Jaya was able to write only because of her husband’s protection. In south women and girls were discouraged from reading novels.

 

• Indulekha:
• the novel ‘Indulekha’ was a love story. The story concentrates on two upper caste groups of Kerala Namboothiri Brahmins and Nairs. this novels presents the conflict of marriage practice of  these upper-caste hindus.
• Story of Indulekha:
• Namboothiri Brahmins were major landlords and Nayars were their tenants. In late nineteenth century English Educated young generation of Nair’s earned property and wealth on their own. They started opposing the marriages of Nair women with Namboothiri Brahmins and demanded new laws regarding property and marriage.
• Suri Namboothiri wanted to marry Indulekha of Nair family. She refuses to marry him and instead marry with a well educated and handsome Madhavan from the Nair family. The young couple then move to Madras. In Madras Mahadevan works in civil services and they live happily. Desperate Suri Namboothiri, finally marries a girl from poorer relation of same family and goes away thinking that he had married Indulekha. In this story the writer Chandu Menon wanted that the reader should appreciate the role and values of hero and heroine and, criticise the immorality of Suri Namboothiri.
• In Novels such as Indulekha and Indirabai were written by upper-caste people, the hero and heroines were from upper-caste but there are other novels such as ‘Saraswativijayam’ shows the life of lower class people.
• Saraswativijayam: The novel Saraswativijayam was written by Potheri Kunjambu a lower caste writer which was published in 1892. In the novel he criticized caste oppression, i.e. bad behaviour with lower castes. The hero of the story belong to an ‘untouchable’ caste. He left his village so as to escape from the cruel behaviour of his Brahmin landlord. He went to city where he converts to Christianity. He learn modern education become a judge and return to local court. During this time the the villagers file a case against the landlord, thinking that his men killed the hero. At the end of the story the judge reveals his true identity. From that time the landlord change himself and becomes a good man. In this way Potheri Kunjambu focused on the fact that education is must to lift the lower classes up.
• Titash Ekti Nadir Naam: During 1920s, In Bengali Novels also started publishing stories based on Lives of Peasants and ‘low’ castes. Advaita Malla Burman who belongs to Low Caste Community wrote an epic ‘Titash Ekti Nadir Naam’ presenting the life of Mallas, a community of fisherfolks who were dependent on fishing in Titash River for their survival. The story focuses on various aspects of their life such as Holi and Kali Puja festival, boat races, Bhatiali Songs, and similarly social issues such as hatred with Peasants and oppression by the upper caste. Ananta a child belonging to parents which were separated tragically after their wedding night leaves the community and went to city for getting education. With the rising influence of modern culture slowly, the society breaks and start fighting among themselves. The Life of Community and the river are closely tied. In the story their end also comes together i.e. as the river dries up, the community also dies.
• Basheer’s Novels: Similarly, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer was one of the Muslim writers who gained wide popularity for his novel writing in Malayalam. He was just Formally Educated. Most of his writings include his real life experience. At the age of five he left home and went to take part in Salt-Satyagraha. Later he spent many years in travelling all parts of India and Arabia. He Worked on Ships, Lived with Sufis and Hindu Sanyasis and also got Training as Wrestler. Most of his Short Novels and Short Stories were written in Common Spoken Language. He written everyday incidents in Muslim families in humorous ways. He wrote many Malayalam Writings based on Poverty, Insanity and Life in Prisons which were not common in those days.

 

The Nation and its History

History for Intellectuals

The History written by British historians presented Indians as weak, divided and dependent on the British. Indian administrators and intellectuals were not ready to accept these. Also they did not believed on traditional Puranic stories of the past especially those of gods and daemons. They wanted to read those novels which presented Indians as independent minded and strong.

Novel in Bengal

In Bengal, most of the novels were about Marathas and Rajputs. Such novels created sense of collective belonging. In the novels nation was imagined to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and sacrifice.

‘Anguriya Binimoy’

‘Anguriya Binimoy’ was the first historical novel in Bengal written by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay and published in 1857. The hero of the story Shivaji fought many battles against clever and untrustworthy Aurangzeb. With the Man Singh’s efforts Shivaji become ready for peace with Aurangzeb. When Shivaji realises that Aurangzeb want to keep him in house prison, Shivaji escapes and return to battle. It was his belief that he is a nationalist who is fighting for the freedom of Hindus gave him courage and determination to do so.

‘Anandmath’

Novel is so powerful that it could raise actual political movement. The novel ‘Anandamath’ written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. It is a novel in which Bankim presents story of a secret hindu militia that fight with the Muslims to establish a Hindu Kingdom.

 

The Novel and Nation Making

• Novels presented heroic past of India which helped to bring sense of collective belonging. Collective belonging suggests belonging to the same nation. Similarly various classes were also included in the novels so as to create a feeling of shared world.
• Premchand’s Novels:
• In Premchands novels the heroes and heroines were from various classes of society and are presented as powerful characters. There are aristocrats, landlords, middle-level peasants and landless labourer, middle-class professionals and marginal class people of the society. In his stories women especially those belong to such classes were also strong. Even if he did not focused on past still in his novels one can look forward in future but by remembers the importance of the history.
• RangBhoomi:
• In almost all novels of Premchand, the characters present democratic values to the reader. In ‘Rangbhoomi’  or The Arena, the character ‘Surdas’ is a visually impaired beggar and belongs to an ‘untouchable’ caste. With this story Premchand showed that people from low castes could be part of the novels. In the story we read that Surdas struggles against the forcible takeover of his land for building a tobacco factory. As the story progresses we understand the impacts of industrialisation on society and people.
• Godan – Another such novel ‘Godan’ i.e. The Gift of Cow was published in 1936. It is a great novel written on Indian Peasantry. The novel tells the story of peasant Hori and his wife Dhaniya. The landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial officials treat cruely with them. They rob their land and Hori and his wife become landless labourers. In the story Hori and Dhania retain their dignity till the end.