International Journal of Teaching, Learning and Education (IJTLE)

ISSN: 2583-4371
Vol-2, Issue-4, Jul-Aug 2023
Journal Home Page: https://ijtle.com/
Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijtle

Exploring the Unexplored- Postcolonial Issues in the

novels of Upmanyu Chatterjee and Arvind Adiga

Dr. Manoj Shankarrao Madavi

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Annasaheb Gundewar, College, Katol Road, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

Received: 11 Jul 2023, Received in revised form: 13 Aug 2023, Accepted: 20 Aug 2023, Available online: 31 Aug 2023

Abstract
Indian English fiction writings have flourished after the post-independence period. Most of the Indian English
novels were dealing with post-partition, changing social-political values and impact of colonial rule on Indian
Psyche. Upmanyu Chatterjee wrote some of the prominent novels focusing on changing values of Indian society in
postcolonial India were having high education and all comforts of life, characters in novels finds themselves in a
cultural dilemma. Postcolonial literature of India which deals with the decolonization of the minds of colonized
communities. Important issues like socio-economic disparities, cultural domination, ethical subjugation, identical
marginalization, political nepotism, and corrupt bureaucracy have been brought to the forefront by Arvind Adiga
in postcolonial Indian English fictions. This research article examines the different aspect of postcoloniality as
reflected in the selective novel writing of Upmanyu Chatterjee and Arvind Adiga.
Keywords— Culture Clash, Uprootedness, Neoimperialism, Deprivation, Broken Identity

I. INTRODUCTION a writer a theme of profound interest. Therefore the

Upmanyu Chatterjee was the first novelist who search for one's identity is found to be a common and
satirizes the Indian Administrative services of recurrent theme Indo Anglican fiction” (Mukharjee:
postcolonial India. His magnificent novels are The 1971:66).
English August (1981), The Last Barden (1997) and The Through his novels, Chatterjee has shown his
Mammaries of Welfare State (2000) where we find the protagonists crave for identity. Social traditions in India
anti-hero’s observation of India. The heroes of these are brilliantly focused on him. A postcolonial trauma of
novels find themselves in a cultural clash. They are cultural hybridity and cultural assimilation runs
confused between their modern upbringing and through his novels. The frustration of the characters,
traditional values. Their urban materialistic mentality, inner struggle and marital conflicts are some of the
family values in the contemporary scenario and their points on which their psychological states are observed
inner turmoil. Upmanyu Chatterjee’s novel gives us an by the novelist. His characters come to know that the
idea of how was the consequences of encounter and root problem of their alienation in western educational
fusion of traditional Indian Society and British colonial modes, a different attitude toward physical needs and
mentality. The way Chatterjee has narrated the colonial their parental relationships. Upmanyu Chatterjee’s
ruling and native responses through his writings; it novel, The English August, The Last Burden and The
seems that he is the by-product of both the cultures. He Mannoses of Welfare State, all deals with the difference
has a very good study and analysis of East and West between western materialism and eastern upbringings.
cultures and their value system. In this regards, Obviously, the cultural uprootedness, cultural loss and
Minakshi Mukherjee has given a very good opinion, “The the identity of a confused mind, find the main theme of
intellectual nature of his own writing becomes for such his novels like the other postcolonial novelist including,

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Madavi, Int. J. Teach. Learn. Educ., 2023, 2(4)
Jul-Aug 2023

Rukim Advani, Mukul Keshvani and Nalinaksha outlooks towards life. In a real sense, The Last Burden is
Bhattacharya. In this regards, S. N. Sharma opines in his the story of unaccountability of life. Jamun, the central
Recent Revelation of Indian Fiction in English, character whose philosophical longings finds no escape
When an individual goes abroad and nor gives any concrete idea of his reasoning about
stays there for quite a few years quite human existence. He is shown as a drifting object
possibly there is a silvering and between family expectations and personal longings. R.S.
disbranching. He gets alienated from Pathak comments on this psychology as follow, “This is
his roots in native soil. He is no longer the unbearable burden of family ties as Jamun the
year’s chestnut, the great rooted protagonist comes to realize when he returns home,
blossomed. When he gets back home after being informed that this mother is critically ill. The
with the accretions of foreign cultures, better and sweet memory of the past mingles with the
he finds himself in distress tensions and irritations of the present. This could have
acclimatizing himself. His is the case of made for an absorbing drama in the theatre of the mind”
rootlessness, of loyalty and of identity. (Chatterjee: 1993:70). The psychology of modern
This agonizing awareness of difference educated Indian youth has been depicted in the
and sameness is the plight of the character of Jamun who depicts an average Indian
isolated individual trying to forge youth, who considers that his life will be easier in
precariously a delicate balance. London or New York than in small place of India. The
(Prasad: 1983:207) relationship status in middle-class Indian families is the
main focus of Chatterjee’s writing. The protagonist is
born in the family which is hateful. Notice, the mindset
II. POSTCOLONIAL IDENTICAL AND of the protagonist,
EXISTENTIAL ISSUES IN NOVEL WRITINGS
At fifteen and at twenty-eight, Jamun
OF ADIGA AND CHATTERJEE
recognized the disparity in what
Chatterjee has shown August Sen as the anti- money denotes to him and to Berfi
hero of the novel posted as BDO in the small town of rather at fifteen, he was certain at
Madana, West Bengal but because of his urban and elite twenty-eight, he fancied that a
education, he finds life utterly boring, his other difference in their attitudes might
administrative colleagues are dull and his exist, but also that it might not matter.
administrative mechanical work finds him no reason of He himself gauges money to be wily. If
good life. He takes refuge in drinking and drugs. This he has the money, he will by chewing
novel is a striking satire on bureaucracy and how gum or condoms or a refrigerator. If be
bribery is indirectly important for officialdom. does not he will puzzle himself to do
Sophisticated cynicism in spite of efficient stage of mind without. The self-discipline becomes in
has been brought out convincingly by Upmanyu itself quite piquant. But for Berfi,
Chatterjee. In the novel, he experiences selfish civil deprivation is a failure, a cudgel to his
servant, opportunistic political leaders, the violent face self-esteem. (Chatterjee: 1993:69-70)
of naxals, wretched tribals, and a true Gandhian Dr.
Chatterjee’s next novel, The Mammaries of
Rammana who is a worker for the leprosy patients. After
Welfare State, is the sequel of his first novel, The English
seeking his refuge in drinking and drugs, Augastya takes
August. It presents a more drastic picture of modern
his job seriously, taking inspiration from Rammana.
bureaucracy than his first novel. Chatterjee takes us on
Following conversation of Augusta and his colleagues
a completely new pattern of ‘Banderland of Bobudom’
shows his disliking about his working culture, fitting
and uses several ironical devices to pinch their
with the three men, he was again assailed by a sense of
absurdities. Bureaucratic red-tape, nepotism, sheer
the unreal. “I do not like a breaker what am I doing here.
corruption and lethargic pig-headedness are brilliantly
I should have even a photographer or a maker of aid
delineated by the novelist. Management of the corrupt
films, something like that, shallow and urban”
politics, bureaucracy with their personal benefits to
(Chatterjee: 2003:02).
certain classes, the depravity of marginal, subaltern
Chatterjee another novel of postcolonial social section and finally the false image of the Welfare State
realism is The Last Burden (1993) where three- have been skillfully constructed by the novelist. The
generation lives under one roof having different Mammaries of the Welfare State is a much bigger and

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Madavi, Int. J. Teach. Learn. Educ., 2023, 2(4)
Jul-Aug 2023

much wider book them its precursor. Augustya Sen is exploitation, problem of illiteracy, employment,
older now but as shiftless minor character drifts in and zamindari practices, social taboos, rigid class
out when you least expect them in again. There is not discrimination, corrupt politician sick educational
even the excuse of a plot. Because really nothing system, shrewd entrepreneurs, illusive media and moll
happens except a lot of bureaucratic confusions” (The cultures. He is of the opinion that all these materialistic
Hindu: 1 April 2001: 04).The novel shows the objects contribute to exploit Dalit, tribal and marginal
barrenness, opportunistic state policies and the elite society.
families who fail to understand the meaning of life. The White Tiger is the gripping story of tribals,
underclasses and their misery where life begins for food,
III. LITERARY SILENCE ON MARGINALITY BY for the rights of the land, seeking shelter at the roadside
POSTCOLONIAL INDIAN WRITING and their place in the 21st century of India. Balram also
belongs to the marginal community. Here, we can
Indian English fiction writer looks down the
consider that Balram is the mouthpiece for Dalits,
regional literature, therefore, they do not want to
tribals, labourers and farmers because most of the part
educate themselves with the regional themes and
of the novel is situated in Dhanbad (Jharkhand) which is
literatures about the various perspective of local and
the major tribal populated territory. Here, Balram
native life of the Indian community. Writing in English is
opines:
one kind of linguistic imperialism. This must not forget
that English education in India was a kind of linguistic So the rest of the village waited in a big
imperialism. This is the language which was forced on group outside the shop. When the
the Indian psyche. It could be a better medium to resist buses came, they got on packing the
neo-colonization in India. But English writer is still in inside, hanging from the rolling,
the hallucination that they are getting world limbing into the roofs and went to
recognization by the western literary world. Writing in Gaya, there they went to the station
western style, entertaining western materialistic values and rushed into the train, packing the
is another form to revive colonial legacy. Indian English inside, hanging from the railings,
fiction writer should oppose the recolonization of Indian climbing into the roofs and went to
minds and literary subjects. They can take inspirations Delhi, Calcutta and Dhanbad to find
from African writers like N. Gugi WA Thinogo and work. A month before the rain, the men
Chinua Achebe. The Indian writers should give priority come back from Dhanbad and Delhi
to native, aboriginal themes in their writings. They and Calcutta, learner, darker, anger but
should promote indigenous culture, local issues and with money in their pockets. The
strengthen the voices of the agrarian society in India. women were waiting for them, they
Writing with western values can not become you hide behind the door and as soon as
westerner. In spite of all the literary crafts, you will be men walked in, the pounced like wild
still orient in the eyes of western sophisticated canons cats on a slab of flesh. (Adiga: 2008:26)
of literature. Indian English writer should take regional The novel, The White Tiger is set in U.P. and
themes and revive the martyrdom of freedom fighter Jharkhand which are Dalit-tribal belts of India.
which should become a literary discourse in the western Obviously, after the seventy years of Independence,
world also. Dalits, particularly tribals are still struggling for their
He has studied tribal- Dalit and minority life rights. Their struggle of survival is continuing for the
under these policies. Most of the evils which are the root last three centuries. Yet Government is not able to give
cause of the discrimination among tribals and Dalits are them their constitutional rights. So for the employment,
still exist in India after Independence. His first novel The tribals are leaving their local places and wondering to
White Tiger deals with numerous contradictions of the North India. This is the contemporary reality of India on
early free Indian villages. Novel presents the dark life which Adiga has commented. The novelist has shown a
and sufferings of tribals and underclasses. The novel rural as well as urban society which is deceased with
has taken Laxamangarh, Gaya, and Dhanbad as its main western parameters of modernity. The east is copying
locations which are major tribal- Dalit dominated west, therefore the problems are arising. Novel boldly
territories. Dalits and tribals are still the oppressed attacks Indian evils like the major ratio of illiteracy, cast
souls in this country. The novel presents their discrimination, cultural deprivation, superstitions,
exploited tribals, struggling farmers, marginalize

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women, malnutrition infants, the rise of naxalism, poor tribal as such in their writings. This
health service, tax-evading rackets, weakening family smells to a conspiracy of silence
structures, prostitution, corporate success, and its against a large chunk of our society
fallouts. Everything is incorporated brilliantly which which is doomed to remain
makes the real picture of postcolonial India. Novelist marginalized and lead life in its
Adiga has created the picture which he has shown from periphery. (Chaturvedi: Prafece: VII)
his little brisk sentences: Adiga’s novel The White Tiger is a prominent
Half backed that the whole tragedy of voice in postcolonial India which demands a socialist
this country. Typhoid, cholera and manifesto to dismantle the inequalities and
election fever, are the main diseases of dissemination between Big Belies and Small Belies. The
this country and the last one the novelist has made a major comment on homelessness
worst”. Voters discuss the election rootlessness unemployment and displacement of tribal
helplessly as eunuchs discussing the societies which are dislocated from their own land and
Kama sutra. (98) Moneybags, muscle find shelter in the muddy area of the metro. His picture
power, police, strategic alignment of of modern India clearly visible from his next comment,
various factions and power to woo the “Thousands of people lives on the side of the road of
underclass assure the victory in the Delhi. They have come from the darkness too. You can
political game. Balram reports I am the smell them by their bodies, filthy faces, by the animal-
Indians most faithful voter and I still like way they live under the huge bridges and
have not seen the inside of a voting overpasses, making fires and washing and taking like
booth. (Adiga: 2008: 102) out of their hair while the car roar past them. These
homeless people… never wait for a red light” (Adiga:
2008:120).
IV. NEED TO BREAK THE CULTURAL
HEGEMONY AND REPRESENT THE BROKEN The novel The White Tiger gives a historical
CLASSES IN LITERATURE view of India that poor, tribal, Dalit, farmers, laborers
are exploited, on the basis of their culture, cast,
Adiga has developed the theme of his novel
occupations and economic status by the elite
from the villages of early free India. No doubt his
mainstream. The history of the world is the history of
description of economic disparity, growing materialism,
ten-thousand year of the war fought between the rich
suppression of aboriginals and marginals are very
and the poor. Each side is eternally trying to hoodwink
powerful as compare to other novelists who justified
the other side. (254)This results in the incurable
social realism of India after independence. We can say
paralysis of one part of the society to which Balram,
that the novel The White Tiger is in true sense
tribal, Dalit belongs and other remains sophisticated,
Postcolonial Manifestation of Modern India. Adiga has
elite with their materialistic mentality. This paralyzed
made a serious comment on the writing culture about
community is presented with extreme realism by the
India when he has given an interview to Guardian
title as The White Tiger. Final message Arvind Adiga
claiming that, one of the most important challenges of a
gives to the social, political and democratic system to be
novelist is to write about people who are not anything
aware themselves of the tribal, Dalits and marginals
like me. This is the reality for a lot of Indian people and
rights. He longs for the social, political, economic rights
it’s important that it gets written about, rather than just
of marginal and broken communities. They are still
hearing about 5% of people in my country who are
waiting for their constitutional and social rights of
doing well. Now the question arises why this happened
respect and dignity. If their suppression, exploitation
in postcolonial Indian English Fictions. Regarding this
and dominance continue, they will bring out the
analysis A.K.Chaturvedi comments:
monster in themselves and become criminals. These
In order to bring into the light the marginalized are sympathetic towards their broken
lifestyle and social status of scheduled communities and for entire human races on the planet.
tribes, in particular, a few Indian It may be turn out to be a decent city where the human
writers have depicted them in their can live as like human beings and the animal can live like
writings. Although twentieth-century an animal. Regarding the regional voice of Mahashweta
writers have profusely dealt with rural Devi for tribals, Dinesh Mishra opines In Marginalization
life, they have rarely touched upon

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of Tribals: Literature as Resistance in the edited book, decisions, neoimperialism of Indian culture, tribal
Literature and Social Change, opines: language and literature rarely becomes the topic of
The tribal have suffered marginally novel writing whereas we can notice these subjects as
and its inevitable deprivation for a the main topic of African and Latin American writing.
long time. Literature has been a Today Imperialism has maintained the governments of
witness to it, but not a dumb witness. the many third world nation countries through their
Writers like Mahashweta Devi in her corporate agents. Imperialism uses the local military to
novels, short stories and prose suppress the resistance of indigenous communities.
writings have exposed the villainy of These happened in Native America, Latin America, the
profit mongering industrial and African continent, Asia and Australia. Regarding this,
mining, corporates, inconvenience Anand Varma says:
with the writing classes. She is of the Imperialism is the power structure of
view that forest belongs to the forest dead capitalism. Handfuls of stock
dwellers, the tribal communities. They exchange shareholders of Wall Street
must not be ousted from their own decide the future or death of a
land and environment, just to satisfy company. They can decide what to eat
the ambition of some profiteers with and where to eat. They give birth to
insatiable greed. (Mishra: 2015:148) drought, pollution war or cultural
genocide. The common man, the
farmer who is away from these global
V. CONCLUSION
policies becomes the prior victim. The
It is expected from postcolonial Indian English huge profit of these multinational
fiction writers that they should oppose the neo- seems only on the screen of the bank
colonization of the native communities. They should computer. In the contemporary global
understand the importance of mass resistance against world, the organization likes the
Imperialism. They should come out from their colonial International Monetary Fund and
educational background and sophisticated western World Bank are deciding the policies
patterns of literary writing and make a collective front and future of the mass population of
of the world’s socialist order where society, social Africa, Asia and Latin
concern, values of equality and liberty will be the main America.(Varma:2009:161)
focus of writings. They should learn from the dark (Translated)
reminiscences of colonialism but should be very
attentive about contemporary issues of writings. They
should relate the Indian English literature with the REFERENCES
postcolonial writings of Africa, America and Asia. They [1] Adiga, Arvind. The White Tiger. Noida. Harper Collins
should strengthen the voices of tribal aboriginal, Publi.2008.Print.
minorities, laborers and farmers against recolonization [2] Chaturvedi, A.K. Tribals In Indian English Novel. New
Delhi. Atlantic Publi, 2008. Print.
of the world. Indian English writers should focus on
[3] Chatterjee, Upmanyu. The English August. London. Faber
imparting the importance of social justice and
and Faber.2003.Print.
communal harmony. They should promote the agrarian [4] Mishra, Dinesh. Literature and Social Change. Edt. Pramod
masses to be the ruler of the state and promote public Mehara. Delhi. Kalpaz Publi, 2015.Print.
centric policies. They should refuse the interference of [5] Varma, Anand Swaroop. Upniveshik Mansikta Se
corporate in governmental administration. In this way, Mukti.New Delhi. Granth Shilpi.1999.Print.
India English fiction writers can promote resistance .
literature and challenge the intensity of global
capitalism. In this way, our novelist can give justice to
broken identities and existential issues of the Adivasi
community.
The postcolonial writing in India speaks about
Indian transformation after Independence. But global
policies, corporate interference in governmental

©International Journal of Teaching, Learning and Education (IJTLE) 32

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