Mulk Raj Anand’s Letters on India (1942) as a Postcolonial Response to Rudyard Kipling’s From Sea to Sea: Letters of Travel (1899) and Edward Morgan Forster’s Selected Letters (v1.1879-1920/v2.1921-1970)
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Date
2016-09
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University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
This research paper is a postcolonial study of Rudyard Kipling’s From Sea to Sea: Letters of Travel(1899), and Edward Morgan Forster’s Selected Letters (Vol. 1. 879-1920/ Vol. 2. 1921-1970) in contrast to Mulk Raj Anand’s Letters on India(1942).Following Edward Said’s postcolonial theory developed in Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993), I have analyzed Anand’s work as a response to the misrepresentation of India and its people in the “Orientalist” discourse of Kipling’s and Forster’s texts. Both Kipling and Forster stigmatize the Indian culture and people. They represent Indian customs and religions as barbarian and bloody. Therefore, they associate Indians with violence. Similarly, they argue that Indians suffer from a cultural trauma as an outcome of their religions diversity. Moreover, they presume that Indian political instability is due to Indians refusal to accept the British offer to enlighten them. They argue that Indians lack political expertise. Finally, they argue that the bad socio-economic condition of India is an outcome of the corrupted people and their rulers. In “resistance” to this misrepresentation, Anand argues that India is a continent with this diversity. He associates his countrymen with peace. In addition to this, he denies Indians’ lack of political expertise by referring to Nationalism. Finally, he declares that the declining condition in India results from the “hegemonic” practices of the British administration and the capitalist system rather than Indians.
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59p.:ill;30cm.(+cd)
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Langues, Cultures des Pays Anglophones et Médias