6
ANTI-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN TABISH KHAIR
(A Summary)
Tabish Khair is a versatile genius writer of Indian origin who is presently residing in Denmark. He has written on a number of emerging and interesting issues of contemporary age. Being a diasporic writer themes like alienation, class division, racism, self, enigma of identity, quest for cultural roots, alienation from native land, assimilation to the adopted nation, colonial and racial otherness etc. certainly found in his works. In his works we also find the element of anti-colonial discourse in the respect as he carries the cultural baggage of India and he also tries to assimilate the cultural conflicts prevailing in between his root nation and adopted nation. Tabish Khair merges the ancient ideas and postmodern era, with a great deal of zeal and enthusiasm.
The thesis is divided into six chapters including introduction and conclusion and remaining all the four chapters have been based upon the different works of the writer focusing attention upon the elements of the concept of anti-colonial discourse. These chapters evaluate how above mentioned elements of anti-colonial discourse have been portrayed and evaluated in the works of Tabish Khair. Chapter one is “Introduction”, chapter two is the study of ‘alienation and class conflict’ his book Babu Fictions: Alienation in the Contemporary Indian English Novels. The third chapter deals with two of his very famous novels The Bus Stopped and The Thing About Thugs. The Bus Stopped focuses upon the ‘regionalism and nostalgia’ and The Thing About Thugs is the analysis of ‘racism and ethnicity’. Chapter four is the study of his poetic collection Where parallel Lines Meet which highlights the dilemma of identity and quest for cultural roots. The fifth chapter is the analysis of his wonderful book The Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness: Ghosts from Elsewhere which highlights the role of colonial and racial otherness from biblical to post modern era and the sixth chapter is the Conclusion.
The introduction highlights the meaning and significance of colonial and postcolonial literature. Subsequently it highlights the concept of anti-colonial discourse with the help of the projection of certain theoretical concepts. The introduction also focuses upon the life and works of Tabish Khair at the length of the chapter along with that it is worth noting that the writer reflects his deep sense of attachment with Indian culture, myth, flavours and religion etc.
The second chapter is Babu Fictions: Alienation in the Contemporary Indian English Novels which discusses ‘alienation and class conflict’ with reference to certain contemporary writers and their major texts. Here the Babu term is applied to address the people of upper, mostly urban, English speaking class and the people of lower, culturally marginalised, and less or non- English speaking class has addressed as Coolies. The writer highlights the changes and differences in the identities of Babus and coolies and their relationships across the time and spatial distances. These changes have been focused by the author with special reference to some specific writers and their certain works like Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and Amitav Ghosh.
From the perspective of alienation, the difference in Babu Fictions is related to the relation of these writers to others and to the society. Because there are some issues and attitudes treated by pre-independence writers and might be used by the writers of the post- independence writers. These writers defines ‘alienation’ in their narratives with the help of some specific issues such as rhetoric of exile, exile sensibility, enigma of identity, hybridity, class, caste, gender, tension in mind, and the problem of mapping language.
Actually Babu Fictions is a study of Contemporary Indian English writing in English and the target audience is certain middle class or less English speaking class. Yet the book does not related directly to the concept of anti-colonial discourse but it approaches towards anti-colonial discourse because the writers discussed in the book by Tabish khair certainly dealt with the issues which approaches towards anti-colonial discourse such as Alienation, Caste, Class, Gender, Hybridity, Rhetoric of exile, Industrial landscape, Identity and Language. And these issues are effectively involved in the concept of anti-colonial discourse and Khair has defined these issues in an efficacious way.
Babu Fictions essentially deals with the narration of ‘alienation’ in terms of treatment of language. But Khair also highlights some major aspects which brings alienation in the society. Such as while talking about Anita Desai Khair mentions the elements which brings ‘alienation’ more specifically in the women narratives. The portrayal of alienation from the society and from the family is very depicting in Raja Rao’s Javni and in The Little Gram Shop. The class division is a prominent signifier of racism. Early it was based upon the colour of the people as White people were considered as superior to Blacks. Subsequently the thinking became change the Indian society was divided on the basis of ethnicity, caste, and on the social, religious and economy.
The class conflict has become one of the prominent and primary signifier of racism and racism is one of the important and major characteristic features of Anti-Colonial Discourse. The racial superiority can easily be translated into the terms of class. But there is also a fact that the racism was not determined merely by economic distinctions, rather economic differences are determined by the ideologies of the class.
The third chapter deals with the study of Tabish Khair’s two famous novels; The Bus Stopped and The Thing About Thugs. Both the novels are beautifully narrated by the author. These novels share certain common and some different elements of anti-colonial discourse. The Bus Stopped is written in the form of a travelogue more than a novel. Actually the novel is collection of nicely written master pieces.
The Bus Stopped is a well-balanced travelogue where a number of stories are woven to create a masterpiece. The stories are essentially the portrayal of memories of a migrant writer. The setting of The Bus Stopped is so fixed on the past that reliving memory comes to replace living experience. And it turns results in petrification and obsession with the past. The writer has essentially used two strong metaphors in the novel, ‘The Home’ and ‘The Journeys’. Here he used the Home as a signifier of identity and memories of a diasporic writer. And the Journeys are described the movement and the diasporic dynamism. The novel is a Journey of emotions and experiences along with fun. A one short sentence is sufficient to describe the effort of the author and the zest of the novel, ‘the memory on wheels’.
The novel The Thing About Thugs is one the most famous and mysterious novel of the author. The central character of the novel is Amir Ali who has taken away to London to investigate the cult of thugee in the region. Amir’s experiences and memories becomes the source of the development of the narrative. The period portrayed in the novel was nineteenth century it was colonial period in India and with the help of multiple techniques Khair denies with the superiority of British Empire over India or other eastern countries he also refutes their typical mind-set about eastern subcontinents along with eastern thinking and dreams about western lavish, high profile and busy country life. The novel is a wonderful attempt and a counter-attack on the stereotypes, barbarism, class, caste, racist attitude, discourse, inter-racial relationships, and religion etc.
The fourth chapter of the thesis highlights quest for identity and cultural roots in Tabish Khair’s famous poetic collection Where Parallel Lines Meet. The poems of the collection highlight that how the elements like homelessness, nostalgia, and dilemma of identity, dislocation, regionalism and quest for cultural roots affects the life of a migrant poet. The series is a wonderful effort of the poet to express his feelings, ideas, experiences and memories. The poet has portrayed himself as a man living in exile and the man tried to re-feel and relive the colours, smells, traditions, culture, and textures of his native country. Through this he is searching another identity. These poems are majorly concerned with writer’s childhood memories. Subsequently this narration gives him peace, pleasure and relief to his present situation. These memories still connects a migrant writer to his native country. And through the narration of these memories the poet returns back to his native land.
Chapter five of the thesis focuses attention upon the treatment of colonial and racial otherness in the book The Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness: Ghosts from Elsewhere. The book tries to define the efforts of the writers of the colonial and postcolonial period to write- back. The readings and descriptions of certain prominent texts of some major writers, such as, Rudyard Kipling, Emily Bronte, Joseph Conrad Erna Brodber Melville, and Jean Rhys etc., offers Khair’s innovative and challenging descriptions on certain major issues discussed in the book like, otherness, sameness and differences and identity along with the role of emotions in the literature right from the nineties. Khair has also offered some suggestions which work as a productive ways of engaging with contemporary global and postcolonial issues.
The Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness: Ghosts from Elsewhere is a critical survey of English literature from the eighteenth century gothic works to the postcolonial period which highlights the role of racial and colonial otherness prevailing in the Indian English literature. The objective of the author is to explore ‘Otherness’ in English literature from the biblical period to the postcolonial period. The book brings a study of ‘other’ as to how other has been treated and viewed as a problem, and how they become a major form of horror, fear, violence and marginalisation.
The sixth chapter of the thesis is Conclusion which summarises the whole themes and issues discussed in the previous chapters. On the basis of the study of works of Tabish Khair it is foremly mentioned that we find certain prominent elements of Anti-Colonial Discourse in his works.