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Indian Writings in Literature

Notes while they highlighted stray incidents of communal violence in the pre-partition time to give
a historical justification to the inevitable phenomenon of Partition, in The Shadow Lines, on the
other hand riots, civilstrife and communal riots do not find expression in the official records.
This happens because the same incidents, which at one time supported the political decisions
will at the present only go on to, hamper its legitimacy. In both cases the community experience
and its depiction suffers. The accounts of partition completely ignore the fact of the composite
quality of relationships that existed between people of different religions and that there were
other potent factors of their cohesion like a shared cultural ethos. Train to Pakistan by Khushwant
Singh talks of such a definition of community in the village of Manomajra. Some of these books
show the existence of an alternate religion with people of different faiths looking upon a
common shrine (in this case a sandstone slab) as religious. Interestingly, this feature about
close knit cohesive communities later gets transported to the imagined community of the state
of otherwise riot-ravaged India.
6. Postcolonial Literature
As students of History we have all come across the term Colonial. We also know that the germs
of modern day economic progress of the first world countries really lie in the movement called
Industrial Revolution. With the coming of this movement in 17th century Europe, several
fundamental changes were made in the means and modes of production. With the coming of
mechanical support and subsequently industry the medieval economic model of feudalism
was replaced by Capitalism. Capitalism was spurred on by the then pervasive ideology of
Utilitarianism inspired by ideologues like Jeremy Bentham. The chief concern of this movement
was “the greatest good of the greatest number.” Not only was this ‘goodness’ solely material in
nature, it also did away with all faith in morality and right action. Therefore to look for
material benefit became the chief concern of those who held the means of production i.e. the
capitalists.
The coming of Industry led to quick production of a large quantity of goods. To begin with this
seemed like a welcome change from the earlier arduous methods of production that were both
labour intensive and time consuming. However soon a new concern began to plague the
capitalists: that of depleting home markets and lack of raw materials.
Simultaneously another development was taking place: the advancement of geography with
the coming of sophisticated sea vessels and implements like magnetic compass. This meant
that the Capitalists could not only get new places and markets to sell their mass produced
goods but also find treasures of cheap raw materials. Thus began an unequal relationship
between these two kinds of blocks of nations: one, mostly European, the beneficiary of Industrial
Revolution looking for markets and raw materials and the other, belonging to Asia, Africa and
America waiting to be exploited.
This exploitation that lasted over two centuries did not remain merely material in nature. It
transformed itself to other forms: it became ideological, cultural and also spiritual. If we talk of
India, the colonial exploitation on the economic front included a systematic destruction of the
existing Indian Industry and the exploitation of its rich raw materials that included crops, minerals
and metals. Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian to criticize this gross exploitation of India as a
colony by the British said in this regard that Britain had acted like a “sponge” sucking out all that
was valuable year after year with impunity and depositing the spoils on its shores. Gradually the
ambition of the Raj increased and what they desired subsequently was conquering the colony
also culturally and spiritually. It is in this regard that they imposed English as a method of
instruction and also introduced ‘the classics of English Literature’ into Indian classrooms.
This total exploitation of India went on till the year 1947 when India attained freedom. Post
World War II has seen many of these erstwhile colonies attain freedom partly as a result of
sustained Popular Movements against foreign rule and partly because as a consequence of the
economic ill effects of WWII most of these erstwhile colonies became incapable of supporting
overseas rule.

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