Novel Society and Culture

The Rise of the Novel

 Novel is a modern form of literature. It is born because of print
which is a mechanical invention. Novels could reach a larger
audience because of print.
 Novels began to be written from the seventeenth century and
flowered in the eighteenth century. New groups of lower-middle-
class; along with the traditional aristocratic and gentlemanly
classes in England and France formed the new readership of
novels.
 With the growing readership, the earnings of authors increased.
This made them free from financial dependence on patronage of
aristocrats. They became independent to experiment with
different literary styles.
The Publishing Market
 Initially, novels did not come cheap and were out of reach for the
poor classes.
 With the introduction of circulating libraries in 1740; people
could get easier access to books. It also allowed the joy of publicly
reading and discussing stories. People often got deeply involved in
the lives of characters.
 In 1836, Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Papers was serialized in a
magazine.
 Magazines were cheaper and illustrated.
 Serialization allowed readers to relish the suspense. They could
live for weeks in anticipation of the next plot of the story.
 Charles Dickens and Emile Zola were the notable authors of this
period who wrote about the lives of the workers and ordinary
citizens.
Community and Society
 The novels reflected the contemporary developments in the
society.
 Many novelists wrote about the problems of city life.
 Many others wrote about the various changes witnessed in the
rural life because of advent of modern technology.
 People were becoming more professional and the personal values
were eroding at a faster pace.
 Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is novel written
in the rural backdrop.
 The novel by Hardy has use of vernacular language which is the
language spoken by common people.

The New Woman

 Many women in eighteen century’s novelists also began to raise
questions about the established norms of society.
 Many novels began to ask questions about hypocrisy which was
prevalent in the contemporary society.
Novels for the Young
 Novels for the young boys were based on heroism. The hero of
such novels used to be a powerful, assertive, independent and
daring person.
 This was the period of expansion of colonialism, most of the
novels tried to glorify colonialism. Books; like R. L. Stevenson’s
Treasure Island (1883) and Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book
(1894) became great hits.
  G. A. Henry’s historical adventure novels for boys were very
popular at the height of the British Empire. These novels were
always about young boys who witness grand historical events and
get involved in some military action.
 Love stories for adolescent girls also became popular during this
period.

Colonialism and After

 During the rise of colonialism, most of the novels glorified the
conquests of the Europeans.
 Later, in the twentieth century, some novels showed the darker
side of colonial occupation. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was one
such author.

The Novel Comes to India

 In the nineteenth century, the Western novels were introduced in
India
 Some of the earliest novels in India were written in Bengali and
Marathi.
 Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna Paryatan (1857) was the earliest Marathi
novel.
 This was followed by Muktamala by Lakshman Moreshar Halbe (1861)
 Leading novelists of the nineteenth century wrote to develop a modern
literature of the country. They wanted to produce a sense of national
belonging and cultural equality with their colonial masters.
 Novel in South India
a. O. Chandu Menon wrote the first Malayalam novel Indulekhs in
1889.
b. Kandukuri Viresalingam (1848-1919) wrote the Telugu novel
Rajasekhara Caritamu in 1878.
The Novel in Hindi

 Bharatendu Harishchandra was the pioneer of modern Hindi

literature.
 The first proper novel in Hindi was written by Srinivas Das of Delhi. It
was titled Pariksha Guru and was published in 1882. This novel
highlights the pitfalls of blind copying of the western culture and
advocates preserving the traditional Indian culture.
 The writings of Devaki Nandan Khatri created a novel-reading public in
Hindi. Chandralekha was his best-seller
 The Hindi novel achieved excellence with the writing of Premchand.
He began to write in Urdu and later shifted to Hindi. He took a leaf
from the traditional art of kissa-goi (storytelling). Simple language was
the hallmark of his writings

Novels in Bengal
Many Bengali writers excelled in writing on historical topics,
 Durgeshnandini (1865) was written by Bankim and this novel was
much appreciated for its literary excellence.
  Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) became the most
popular novelist in Bengal and probably in the rest of India
because of his expertise in storytelling in simple language.
Novels in the Colonial World
Uses of Novel: For the colonial administrators, novels provided a good
source to understand about the life and social hierarchy in India. They
could understand different aspects of the Indian society through novels.
Some of the novels were translated into English; by British
administrators or Christian missionaries.
Women and the Novel
 Novels were viewed as having negative impact on people’s mind.
Women and children were often prohibited from reading novels.
Some parents kept novels at secret places so that children could
not lay their hands on novels. Young people had to read them in
secret. Older women took the services of their grandchildren to
enjoy listening to a novel.
 However, many women turned into writers and wrote poetry,
essays and autobiographies. In the early decades of the twentieth
century, women in India also began to write novels and short
stories. Many women writers had to write the novel in secret
because the society did not permit it.
Caste Practices
 Many authors began to highlight the plight of lower caste people
in their novel. In some of the novels, conflicts arising out of
marriage between a lower caste and an upper caste were
highlighted.
 Some people from the lower caste also became authors; like
Potheri Kunjambu from Kerala. Many communities got space in
the literary scene through novels.
Nation and Its History
 In Bengal, many historical novels were about Marathas and
Rajputs.
 These novels portrayed the nation to be full of adventure,
heroism romance and sacrifice. The novel thus allowed the
colonized subjects to give shape to their desires.
 Bhudeb Mukhopadhyat’s Anguriya Binimoy (1857) is about
Shivaji’s adventures against Aurangzeb.
 Bankim’s Anandamath (1882) is a novel about secret Hindu
militia which fights Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. This
novel inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.
 Many of these novels also reveal the problems associated with
thinking about the nation. We know that India cannot be a nation
of only a single religious community.

Ques1: Explain the following:

(a) Social changes in Britain which led to an increase in women readers
Ans: As the middle classes became more affluent, women got more
leisure time to read and write novels. Also, novels began to explore the
world of women, their emotions, identities, experiences and problems.
Domestic life became an essential subject of novels- a field women had an
authority to speak about.

(b) What actions of Robinson Crusoe make us see him as a typical

coloniser.
Ans: Robinson Crusoe’s actions that make us see him as a typical
coloniser are many. Shipwrecked on an island inhabited by coloured
people, Crusoe treats them as inferior beings. He is portrayed as
“rescuing” a native and then making him a slave. He gives him the name
Friday, without even caring to ask for his name. Colonised people were
seen as barbaric and primitive, and colonialism became their self-
professed civiliser. Crusoe was a direct representation of this ideology of
colonisers.

(c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people.
Ans: After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people
because of the introduction of circulating libraries, low-priced books, and
also because of the system of hiring out of books by the hour. This made
books easily available to the poor people, who could not afford books
earlier due to high costs and absence of lending libraries.

(d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause.

Ans: Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause because the
novel was a powerful medium for expressing social defects and suggesting
remedies for the same. It also helped establish a relationship with the
past. Since people from all walks of life could read novels, it was an easy
way to popularise anti-colonial ideas. It also helped bring about a sense of
national unity among the people.

Ques2: Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an

increase in readers of the novel in eighteenth-century Europe.

Ans: Print made novels to be read widely and become popular quickly.
1. Novels produced a number of common interests and a variety of
readers.
2. Readers were drawn into the story and identified themselves with
the lives of fictitious characters. They now could think about issues
like love and marriage, proper conduct for men and women.
3. Prosperity, due to industrialization, made new groups join the
readership for novels. Besides the aristocratic and gentlemanly
classes, new groups of lower-middle-class people such as
shopkeepers and clerks joined in.
 4. The rise in the earnings of authors freed them the from the
patronage of aristocrats. They could now experiment with different
literary styles. Epistolary novel – Samuel Richardson’s Pamela –
written in the 18th century was the first of its kind. It was a story told
through letters.
5. Books became cheap and even the poor could buy them.
Circulating libraries made books easily accessible. Publishers also
started hiring out novels. Books could now be read in private or
could be heard by more people, while one of them read it out
6. Magazines serialised stories (Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers was
the first), illustrated them and sold them cheap.
All these changes increased the number of readers.

Ques3: Write a note on:

(a) The Oriya novel
Ans: In 1877-78, Ramashankar Ray started to serialize the first Oriya
novel, “Saudamini”; but it remained incomplete. Orissa’s first major
novelist was Fakir Mohon Senapati. He wrote “Chaa Mana Atha Guntha”
that deals with land and its possession. This novel illustrated that rural
issues could be an important part of urban concerns.

(b) Jane Austen’s portrayal of women

Ans: The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of women
in genteel rural society in midnineteenth century Britain. Women, at that
time, were encouraged to look for a good marriage and find a wealthy and
propertied husband. Her famous novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ depicts this
well. It writes ‘it is the truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man
in possession of good fortune must be in want of a good wife’. The main
characters are shown to be pre-occupied with marriage and money.

(c) The picture of the new middle class which the novel Pariksha-Guru
portrays.
Ans: The novel “Pariksha-Guru” portrays the difficulties of the new
middle class in adapting to colonized society while preserving its cultural
identity. It emphasizes that Western ideals must be inculcated, but
without sacrificing the traditional values of middle-class households. The
characters in this Hindi novel by Srinivas Das are seen endeavoring to
bridge the two different worlds of modern education and traditional
ethics.

Discuss
Ques1: Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain
which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.
Ans: (i) Social changes in 19th century Britain highlighted by Thomas
Hardy
 The breaking up of rural communities because of industrialization.
Due to industrialization, peasants who toiled with their lands were
disappearing as large or big farmers enclosed lands, bought
machines and employed labourers to produce for the market.
 In his novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, Hardy mourns the loss of the
more personalized world which is being replaced by a more
efficiently managed urban culture.
(ii) Social Changes Highlighted by Charles Dickens
 Charles Dickens wrote mainly about the emergence of the industrial
age and it’s effects on society and the common people.
 Growth of factories and expanded cities led to the growth of
business and economy and increased the profits of capitalists.
(iii) At the same time workers faced immense problems. Use of machines
resulted in unemployment of ordinary labour; they became homeless,
creating a problem of housing. Pursuit of profit became the goal of factory
owners while the workers were undervalued and almost lost their identity
Human beings were reduced to being mere instruments of production.
Ques2: Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and
India about women reading novels. What does this suggest about how
women were viewed?
Ans: The concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about
women reading novels bore more or less similar fears. Women were seen
as easily corruptible and an imaginary world that the novel provided was
seen as a dangerous opening for the imaginations of its readers. In certain
Indian communities, it was felt that women who read novels would leave
their domestic environments and aspire to be part of the outside world-
the male domain.This suggests that women were viewed as delicate and
incapable of being independent. They were merely expected to marry a
man who could take care of their financial needs while they maintained
his household and remained subservient to him.

Ques3: In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for both the
colonisers as well as the nationalists?
Ans: The novel in colonial India was useful for both the colonisers as well
as the nationalists on account of a variety of reasons. Colonial rulers
found “vernacular” novels illuminating for the information they provided
on native customs and life. It was useful in the governance of this diverse
country. Indian nationalists used the form of the novel to criticise colonial
rule and instill a sense of national pride and unity amongst the people.

Ques4: Describe how the issue of caste was included in novels in India.
By referring to any two novels, discuss the ways in which they tried to
make readers think about existing social issues.

Ans: Indians used the novel as a powerful medium to criticize what they
considered defects in their society and to suggest remedies. The issue of
caste was included in Indian novels for this same purpose. Novels like
Indirabai and Indulekha were written by members of the uppercastes with
upper-caste characters.
(1). Potheri Kunjambu, a lower-caste writer from north Kerala, wrote a
novel called Saraswativijayam in 1892. It was a direct attack on caste
oppression. The novel’s hero, an ‘untouchable’ leaves his village to escape
from cruelty of a Brahmin overlord. He converts to Christianity, receives
modern education and returns to his village a judge of a local court. In the
meantime, the villagers bring the landlord to his court, they believe the
landlord’s men had killed the hero. The judge reveals himself and the
Nambuthri landlord repents and promises to reform. The novel
emphasises the role of education in uplifting the lower classes.
(2). In 1920, a Bengali novel Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1956) written by
Advaita Malla Burman takes up the cause of ‘low castes’. The people
described are the Mallas – community of fishermen. The story covers
three generations and describes the oppression of the upper castes. The
lives of the Mallas is tied with river Titash. As the river dries, the
community dies too. This novel is special because the author himself a
‘low caste’ describing the anguish of low-caste people.

Ques5: Describe the ways in which the novel in India attempted to create
a sense of Pan-Indian belonging.
Ans: The ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a sense of
pan-Indian belonging were:
(1) Many historical novels were about Marathas and the Rajputs which
produced a sense of a pan—Indian belonging in Bengal. They
imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and
sacrifice. The novel allowed the colonized to give a shape to their
desires.
(2) Bankim’s Anandmath is a novel about a secret Hindu militia that
fight Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel that
inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.
(3) Shivaji, the hero of the novel Anguriya Binimoy (1857) written by
Budhadeb Mukhopadhyaya’s (1827-94) engages in many battles
against clever and treacherous Aurangzeb, what gives him courage
 and grit is his belief that he is a nationalist fighting for the freedom
of Hindus.
(4) Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel helped in
popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation. It was
another way to include various classes in the novel so that they could
be seen as belonging to a shared world. Premchand’s novels, for
instance, are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from
all levels of society.