Indian post-colonial writing continued:
A Raj Quartet
The students were free to write about the extract from Sashi
Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel. This extract is about a
massacre in India carried out in cold blood by the colonial army. One
of the messages of the story is concisely rendered by the quotation
the student has selected as a preface to her interpretation, i.e.
that those that violate the dignity of man and annihilate his
existence disgrace themselves in the act.
The student fuses her relation of the story with her analytical and interpretive comments, a method I normally neither teach nor require. But it is a very good read, as you may see for yourself below. Wulff
Interpreted by Anastasia Mattern, S2
" [...] yes, the civilising mission upon which Rudyard and his tribe were embarked made savages of all of us, and all of them." (p. 296)
After the annexation of Hastinapur by the British Raj the people of Hastinapur show their indignation by closing their shops and refusing to work or to go to school (p. 293), though using only little violence (p. 293).
They assemble in the Bibigarh Gardens where they want to listen to Gangaji´s speech on the State´s annexation, without having any intentions to destroy anything or to fight against the police - the men, women and children at the Bibigarh Gardens are unarmed. But Sir Richard, former Resident of Hastinapur, presently Special Representative of the Viceroy in charge of Integration, and a very ambitious man, sees the Indians as savages who can be easily influenced by a strong leader and who will follow him without consideration (p. 294). Accordingly, he decides to call the army to solve this "problem". And Colonel Rudyard finds a solution to this "problem", and a very frightening one. Arriving at the Bibigarh Gardens, Colonel Rudyard orders his men to fire at the unarmed crowd without any warning, which the soldiers carry out immediately (p. 296). Neither Colonel Rudyard nor his soldiers accept this crowd as people who also have a soul and a mind, for they see them just as objects for which have no feelings, neither hate nor compassion (p. 296). The soldiers just do their work - cold-blooded and without any doubts (pp. 296f.). After the Hastinapur Massacre Rudyard is "prematurely" (p. 299) retired (on a full pension), but he is seen as a hero in the British society and is highly paid for the "realisation of his duty" (ibid.). And this action of the British is even more frightening than Rudyard´s deed and shows that Rudyard and his soldiers are not the actual evil, they just represent the evil of a system which permits such a tragedy to happen and whose society admires such people as Rudyard (p. 298).
Gangaji assumes this tragedy to be a proof of the superiority of non-violence, for, in his opinion, "the weapons of morality and Truth" are stronger than bullets and knives (p. 298), and he realises that there can be no compromise between India and the British Empire, therefore the British should "quit India" (p. 300). Despite Gangaji´s call for non-violence, there are still some persons who want to murder Rudyard to have their revenge. These persons even manage to carry out half of their plan. Only half, for they happen to murder a person that is not the one they wanted to. Rudyard who is neither ashamed of his deed nor afraid of revenge (p. 300) stays alive; in his place a person named Kipling is killed "by a simple case of mistaken identity" (ibid.). But the murder of Professor Kipling seems to be even more a retribution to the Indian nation than Rudyard´s assassination could have been, for he was the one whose speeches justified and influenced the whole colonialist system which finally had Rudyard murder the people at the Bibigarh Gardens (pp. 300f.).
You will find this story on pp. 292 - 301.
Delivered as a revised homework on June
10, 2002
Dr
Salaam interpreted
Anastasia Mattern was a student of Gymnasium
Hamm, Hamburg
Contact for further information: Thorsten-Michael Wulff