Religious Studies' Perspective on Vikram Chanda's Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995)

Religious Studies' Perspective on Vikram Chanda's Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995). NY, Little & Brown.

Chandra's writing, like Salman Rushdie's can be classified as both 'magical realist' and as 'postcolonial'. Red Earth and Pouring Rain is a text that deals with India's colonial past, with British attitudes towards India and with India's and Indians' responses. It is also about identity, almost by definition a central concern of post-colonial literature. References to religion are scattered throughout the book and some knowledge of Hinduism may help readers to decipher the plot. For example, on p 12 we read about thirty-three million, three hundred and thirty-three thousand and three hundred and thirty three gods. On p 14, we read that 'karma and dharma, those … mechanical laws' are 'sewn into the great fabric of the cosmos … mysterious in their functioning'. Page 27 has a reference to Valmiki and Vyasa, the narrators of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Page 79 lists the four ages, krta-yuga,treta-yuga,dvapar-yuga and kali-yuga; 'many universes exist beside each other, each with its own Brahma; this is the wheel, immense, beyond the grasp of conception'. Page 103 mentions Radha and Krishna 'the cowherd, sweet limbed and faithful'. Page 121 mentions Vishnu as 'half-man, half-lion' (Vishnu as Narasimha, his fourth avatar. Page 276 has 'Rama protect us', pages 366 - 367 return to the Krishna story. I refer to other religious content below. Page 512 says, 'Dharma … is the friend of men and women … with us in our streets'. As the novel proceeds, a lot of the religious and political history of India is told through a series of cameo essays, each headed 'What Really Happened'.

The text qualifies as 'magical realism' because reality and fantasy merge in the telling of the story. Chandra's inspiration in part comes from the Arabian Nights, since his narrative, as does that text begins with a frame story (p 24). In the Nights, Scheherazade tells a story each night, which she is careful not to end before the punch line, so that the king will keep her alive to finish off her story. In Red Earth and Pouring Rain a similar device is used to allow 'a story to be told'. Also, the audience must remain entertained (p 17). Other cameo essays, between chapters, show us how the ever-larger audience becomes itself involved in the proceedings, which get printed and distributed, sometimes in embellished versions (p 190). Hearers argue about the accuracy of the stories; 'The antagonists were the retired head of the Sanskrit Department at JanakpurUniversity and a visiting biologist from Calcutta' (p 265). Police permission for the gathering had to be obtained: 'They will even provide crowd control, and a lost-and-found booth' (p 271). Eventually, television cameras arrive (p 373). Sexual content in both of the storytellers' material was another point of debate among the crowd: 'the far-left parties object to the sensationalization and falsification of history; and the pernicious Western influences on our young. Everyone objects to the sex, except the audience' (p 373). One listener has an MA in Colonial Literature.

The Frame Tale

The frame tale (pp 25 - 42) introduces De Boigne, a French soldier of fortune who embroiled himself in 'the boiling confusion of the clans and states' of India and amassed a great fortune. The real De Boigne, Count Benoît de Boigne 1751 - June 21, 1830, was a French adventuter in India who became head of ten battalions on behalf of the powerful Maharajah of Gwalior, Mahadji Sindhia (d. 1794) who controlled much of North India, including Delhi where technically Shah Alam II (1728-1806) was Mughal Emperor. It is said that on the Maharajah's death, the Count could have made himself ruler of India but instead remained loyal to Mahadji's successor, his grand-nephew Daulat Rao Sindhia (1779–1827). In more recent years, three generations of the Sindhia family have served in the Indian Parliament. In the novel, De Boigne's soldiers become the feared Chiraj Fauj (p 40). The main narrator is a Monkey called Sanjay, although when he gets tried of speaking Abhay, the young Indian graduate of a North American College, takes over. It was Abhay who, recently returned home, had shot the old monkey for annoying him, much to his parents' horror. We read, 'there is a Hanuman temple not five minutes from here; if they find out they'll start a riot' (p 7). However, the shock of the shot revived Sanjay's memory of his previous human existence and magically he finds that he can communicate with Abhay and Abhay's family by typing on an old machine. Just as Sanjay starts to enjoy human intercourse again, Yama the God of the Dead appears and tells him that his time is up. He cries out to Hanuman, 'best of monkeys, the most loyal of friends … the protector of poets, for help' (p 16). Hanuman would live, we are told, 'as long as men and women tell his story (p 16). Hanuman, of course, features in the Ramayana where he fights by Ramas' side against Ravana. Not only is Sanjay a monkey but he had been a poet in his previous life, or at least a would-be-poet (see p 390). Ganesha also appears (p 69) and uses his powers to broadcast the storytelling from the roof of the house to the gathering that now congregates regularly outside. 'There was a story to be told', says the Son of Shiva, so 'naturally I came'. Yama agrees to stay his hand as long as Sanjay can retain the audience's interest, or rather as long as their interest is retained; 'a story', says Hanuman, 'is what the contract calls for …. Somebody else could do the storytelling' (p 44).

Abhay's Story

Two stories are woven through the text. First, Sanjay's, second, Abhay's. Perhaps only the bizarre situation links the two men and their stories yet there is some overlap. Both men struggle with their identities, as they do with the meaning and mystery of life itself. Sanjay's story is also the story of India's colonial experience. Abhay's story, about his time in the USA, is in some respects an 'East meets West story'. Once, he awakes in a motel to hear 'Gujerati, children's voices' and 'for one confused moment' he thinks he is back in India' (p 355). After telling his first 'story', Abhay avoids 'his parents eyes' because it had included a reference to sleeping with a girl called Kate, 'we … still did sometimes, although we didn’t need to be as drunk as we used to…' (p 50). Twice we hear him relate the claim, made by others, that the British had 'done good in India'. On page 53 we are told about 'a fellow named Lin' who talked 'about Asian revolutions. The British, he was saying, changed India for the better with their efficient railroads and efficient administration and so on'. Later, he meets Amanda's father (she is his new his girlfriend) who regards himself as an authority on the "Mutiny' and:

He told me pretty bluntly that the British Raj had been good for India: unification, railroads, the political system of democracy, the custom of tea drinking, and cricket, all these benefits accruing to the benevolently governed (p 369).

As we see in the text, Sanjay had been a prime mover behind and during the 'Mutiny'. He had wanted to cleanse India of the pollution of the British. We have Sanjay and his cook, Sunil, sending messages to each outpost of Indian resistance hidden in chappatis (p 462). We have the Delhi, Lucknow and Meerut uprisings; 'the Thirty-third were put in chains in Meerut because they refused to use the new cartridge' that rumor said was greased with beef and pork fat (p 469). Then we read that 'everything is red now' and that Victoria was to declare herself Empress of India (p 479). The 'Mutiny' (1857) was a critical event in the history of British India. Before the uprising, the East India Company was primarily still a commercial enterprise and even though many of her officials may have had little regard for Indian culture they did not want to interfere very much (see below). Some had a high regard for Indian culture. Now, the British government assumed direct responsibility. Feeling that they had fought for and won India, the government started to impose British systems and institutions. However, the idea that British political systems were morally superior to those of traditional India is open to challenge. On the one hand, hereditary kingship was the norm in India but on the other hands ancient texts on rajniti specify that unless a social contract exists between king and people, with the king fulfilling obligations towards the people, he loses his right to rule. Public opinion, too, was expressed through influential councils (parishad, orsabha) (see Embree, Vol 1 p 238).

East-West Disorintation

Towards the end of the novel, Amanda visits Abhay in India and tells him that she had been reading 'something about' him, 'about India, I mean'. She had actually read M. M Kaye's romantic novel, The Far Pavilions, Rudyard Kipling's Kim and E. M Forster's A Passage to India, all fine in many respects but also all written by English writers! They are also all works of fiction. Her trip to India was not a huge success and their parting was full of a sense of awkwardness:

She said, I'll see you again in a few months, and I said yes. But I really did not know, I felt lost, all I knew was that I had to go home too. We had come down from Matheran with an awkwardness between us, and in the taxi on the way to the airport we had talked about movies …There was an unreasonable sadness within me, a bitterness I could not focus on … (p 537).

The east-meets west experience can be disorienting. We can lose ourselves somewhere in the middle. See Abhay's description of his sense of meaninglessness: 'my self was a hard little point … spinning … in a hugeness of dark where there was no beginning, no end: no meaning' (p 536).

Magical Brothers

Sanjay's frame tale provides the background of his own magical birth, in which De Boigne played a role. Sanjay and his three brothers were born as a result of magical laddoos eaten by Janvi, a 'Rajput lady who had inexplicably become Skinner's wife' (p 132) and by her friend, Shanti Devi. Skinner was a British Captain in the service of the East India Company, which liked him because he won battles (p 129). In the novel, Skinner becomes Resident of Barrackpore in Bengal. However, Janvi had already set her heart on an Irish adventurer, George Thomas, also known as Jahaj Jung (see pp 117). Earlier, we learn all about Thomas' arrival in India, where he had jumped ship (p 85), as well as about his strange rescue by Guha of the Vehi. This is based on the remarkable story of the real George Thomas (1756-1892), a Quartermaster who deserted his ship in Madras to ermerge as the rajah from Tipperary. Magic appears here: 'Over the next few days I discovered that I seemed to somehow absorb nourishment from the air and the sunlight' (p 89). Thomas also became a soldier of fortune, fighting first for the Rajah of Balrampor (p 94).

Building up a fierce reputation (and gaining the honorary status of a kshatriya, p 102) Thomas moved on to other exploits. With his friend, Reinhardt, he entered the service of the famous, mysterious and beautiful Begum Sumroo, also known as the Witch of Sardhana. He became her lover; 'Making love with her was like dancing' (p 107). Then destiny took a strange twist. Instead of marrying Thomas, who would 'do for a lover', the Begum made Reinhardt her 'foreign king' (p 107). Thomas, 'embarrassed and ashamed … accepted employment under a series of aliases', until 'a succession of not very remunerative hirings as escort for traders' caravans' took him to Rajputana. There, he ended up as a palace guard. Then the East India Company attacked the city and Janvi became Skinner's wife. However, she resolves that though she will bear Skinner's daughters she will not bear his sons (p 135). Janvi then sends Skinner's deputy, Uday Singh, who was a former comrade in arms of Thomas', to find him. The actual Thomas did serve Begum Sumroo (died 1836), herself a real person of legendary repute. Begum Sumroo, or Farzani, is said to have risen from being a dance-girl to being a princess. Stories about her abound, and a play, The Rebel Courtesan - Begum Sumroo by Partap Sharma (2004). A convert to Catholicism from Islam, she married a Colonel Walter Reinhardt Sombre (a Swiss-German mercenary) and commanded a troop of some 3,000 European soldiers.

Uday catches up with Thomas at a town called Hansi, which Thomas is determined to capture and to rule over as rajah. The town is deserted except for an old man and his two lions, yet Thomas can not defeat the old man, with whom he fights in single combat. Thomas sends for Begum Sumroo's help. She arrives in Hansi. He tries again and again to beat the old man. Finally, Thomas asks him how he can be defeated. The old man replies that the town can only be taken by a woman (p 155). Thomas is getting ready to dress up in women's clothes, when Uday arrives. Thomas tells him that although he thinks he understands 'about the sons' he 'really can't do anything about it at this moment' (p 156). Then he thinks, perhaps the old man can help. Magic follows. The old man prepares five laddoos (flour, sugar, oil) and asks Thomas to cut himself so that some of his blood drips into each laddoo. These are to be given to Janvi, 'and she will have sons'. No one else should touch them. As it happens, Begum Sumroo touches them, as does De Boigne (who crumbles one in his hand) when Uday crosses his path on his return journey (p 160). The two Brahmans in Barrackpore also touch them, so the children have multiple parents. The real Skinner family lies behind this fictional one; Colonel James Skinner,C.B. (1778-1841) was founder of the renowned Skinner's Horse regiment. Also known as 'Sikander Sahib'), he was the son of a Scottish Captain, Hercules and of a Rajput lady. James' sons, also by an Indian wife, were James (1808-61) and Hercules (1814-1866), while his own brother, Robert (c.1783-1821) was also a Major in Skinner's Horse. James Skinner left a considerable fortune to his heirs.

Janvi has three sons: the first is John; the second is Sikander; the third Robert (known as Chotta). . She gives one laddoo to Shanti Devi, who has a son called Sanjay. Little is heard of John, who becomes a sailor, 'a peculiar fellow. He was on ships all his life. Literally, that is' (p 506). Sanjay's 'parents' decide immediately that he will be a poet (p 144). Each of the children's future, it seems, was predetermined somehow. Also, there is a magical quality about each of them. Sikander and Chotta can make themselves invisible (p 204) while Sanjay has the ability to hear complete sounds, even as a child. Although he could not understand what he heard, later he was able to remember whole sentences and to reconstruct what had been said, even in English. Sikander (Alexander) was always going to be a soldier. Janvi said, after John's birth, 'The next one will be my Sikander' (p 143).

There are lots of references to Alexander in the novel. Sanjay's 'father', Arun and uncle, Ram Mohan, often contemplated 'the role of this Alexander, Sikander, in history' (p 129). They write a play about Alexander, in which (p 222 - 226) he meets a Sadhu under a tree. They were especially proud of this dialogue but had to delete it because, 'the Company men said that Sikander would have asked more penetrating questions about philosophy and metaphysics'. Arun calls Alexander 'the scourge of the earth', though some 'think of him as a god' (p 133). Between the branches of a peepul tree, there is a huge knotted rope. This, says Ram Mohan, was like one that Sikander had once untied, yet 'Even if he could cut it, if he did cut it, how could he bear to? Look at the thing … it is a thing of profundity' (p 131).

'The so-called theology of the Hindoos …'

Skinner starts to support the cause of Christian evangelization, despite the company ban on missionary activity. He does so by offering hospitality and financial support as well as by lobbying for a change of company policy (see p 192 and 198). This resembles Charles Grant (1746 - 1823. As a Company official in India, then as a Director in London, where he also sat in Parliament, Grant did much to introduce the 'pious clause' in the 1813 Charter. This opened up India to Christian missions. Skinner became the Reverend Sarthey's patron. Together, they ask the two Brahmans, Arun and Ram Mohan, to get them copies of the Veda, which he called 'the Beds' (p 200). Before this episode, we overhear (through Sanjay) Sarthey complaining of the audacity of an Indian who had dared to question India's dire need of moral and spiritual help; 'Indian theology has as elevated a conception of God as in Christianity and equally lofty ethical conceptions' (p 193). Furthermore, intercourse between India and Britain would be of more benefit to Britain (p 194). Sarthey disagreed. He represented Hindu theology as 'that collection of libertinism, oppression, superstition and folly that masquerades as a religion' (p 198). Hindu gods were false. India's civilization was in decay (p 199; 228). The British were happy to think that India's past had been great, since the notion that the Aryans who are said to have entered India around about 1,500 BCE were actually Europeans allowed them to claim that ancient heritage as their own.