Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 179

Re-mapping Culture through Literature: Narratives as Vehicles of Culture
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141
mythology, archaeology take roots. One cannot forget Lord Krishna's frolicking in and around the Yamunā so lovingly described in the literature of India; one is reminded of the Saryu of the Rāmāyana, Kalidas's Kshiprā, the place of Godāvari and Kāveri in the psyche of the South, the power of the Brahmaputra (the only male) and the love and awe attached to the five rivers of the Punjab. As for the Himalayas, it is a part of the unconscious of the race. In the Gitā, Lord Krishna calls himself Himalayas among the mountains.
Discussing the process of de-colonization Edward Said remarks: "After the period of primary resistance,' literally fighting against outside intrusion, there comes a period of secondary, that is, ideological resistance," when efforts are made to reconstitute a community and restore its dignity and unity. By this process the subaltern occupies his place self-consciously so as to gain his rightful place. Said gives examples from literature to make his point. Ngugiwa Thiongo induces life in the river Honia in The River Between and Tayeb Salih re-maps the power of the Nile in Season of Aligration. When compared to Joseph Conrad's river in the Heart of Darkness, the above two rivers-Honia and Nile-appear living entities. Only an insider who has imbibed the culture with his/her mother's milk can think of nationalism in terms of cultural practices.
Both Gita Mehta and Arun Joshi suggest a rethinking of Indian culture and tradition. Joshi hints at the self-destructive trends of the power politics and warns contemporary India. He advocates purity of thought and action through the story of the city and the river, and through Som's dissipation. Gita Mehta weighs the mysticism of Vānprastha in the scale of modern rationality and finds that the dynamism of Indian thought has always advocated detachment with action, and animism with humanism. The self-contained and interconnected characters and tales reconcile the rich diversity of doctrines in the flow of Narmadā - the symbol of our cultural multiplicity and unity. The Narmadā guesthouse is symbolic of this world where people come, stay awhile and depart. This oriental view reminds us of Omar Khayyām's Rubāyyat likening this world to a "Caravan Sarai." The bureaucrat manager of the guesthouse represents the modern seeker - confused and unable to decide what to choose: this world or Vānaprastha. He is knowledgeable but his knowledge is pre-eminently in the shape of information, not wisdom. As Tariq Miā often says teasingly, one has yet to learn a lot about the world before one seeks renunciation.
References Fanon. Franz. The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Mentor Books, 1969).
Jain, Jasbir. "Interpreting the Past: Culture and History in Sahgal's Works" in Surya Nath Pandey ed. Writing In A Post Colonial Space (New Delhi: Atlantic, 1999).
Joshi, Arun. The Las Labyrinth (New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1981). -
The City And The River (New Delhi: Khilnani, Sunil. The Idea Of India ( London: Hamish Hamilton, 1997). Mehta, Gita. 1 River Sutra (New Delhi: Penguin, 1993).
Mukherjee, Meenakshi." Interrogating Post-Colonialismin Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi Mukherjee ed. Interrogating Post-Colonialism: Theory. Text and Context (Shimla : Indian Institute Of Advanced Study, 1997)
Said, Edward. Imperialism And Culture (London: Vintage, 1994). Words: 3595 References: 1. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism. Vintage, London, 1994 pp. 252-259. 2. Ibid. 257