A study of Morality, teachings and gaiety in Khushwant Singh's works
By Parikshit Jhala Research scholar and Faculty of English in Maharishi Arvind International Institute of Technology Kota (Rajasthan)
Abstract:
Khushwant Singh is one of the most renowned prose writers of India who has given many proverbial maxims and fictional masterpieces in post colonial themes, as a columnist on varied topics in a number of newspapers and literature. His keen-insight, focused attitude provides a reflection on Issues of identity crisis, loss of tradition, effects of colonialism and other issues and hence he has become a true icon of secularism in this communally sensitive society. This paper covers his selective essays and columns published in various newspapers. Symptomatic of how the characters are bound by superstition, hypocrisy and suffering.
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According to Khushwant Singh, love and sex are essential aspects of life. His story, The Rape and Black Jasmine deals with sex. The other story Kusum is coloured with the element of sex. Kusum is dark, short and ordinary girl. No man even looks at her. She too knows it and remains secluded and does not use cosmetics. One day she dashes her bicycle against the cart of a hawker. When she argues with him, he makes obscene gestures to her. This kindles the emotions of sex in Kusum and she starts using cosmetics in order to look smart.
In Khushwant Singh's Absolute Khushwant: The low-down on life, Death and most things in-between. He talks about the inevitability of death. He says “You may or may not doubt the existence of God; you can’t doubt the certainty of death". At 95, I do think of death. I think of death very often but I don’t lose sleep over it. I think of those gone; keep wondering where they are. Where have they gone? Where will they be? I don’t know the answers: where you go, what happens next. To quote Omar Khayyam,
“Into this Universe and Why not
Marianopolis College ENG-101 Introduction to College English C. Killam. 81-82.
Kothari employs a mixture of narrative and description in her work to garner the reader’s emotional investment. The essay is presented in seventeen vignettes of differing lengths, a unique presentation that makes the reader feel like they are reading directly from Kothari’s journal. The writer places emphasis on both her description of food and resulting reaction as she describes her experiences visiting India with her parents: “Someone hands me a plate of aloo tikki, fried potato patties filled with mashed channa dal and served with a sweet and a sour chutney. The channa, mixed with hot chilies and spices, burns my tongue and throat” (Kothari). She also uses precise descriptions of herself: “I have inherited brown eyes, black hair, a long nose with a crooked bridge, and soft teeth
Paul Dean.The Review of English Studies , New Series, Vol. 52, No. 208 (Nov., 2001) , pp. 500-515
This research was prepared by Rashid Ahli for the English Language subject, taught by Mr.Abass Abdulsamad.
Cerjak ,The English Journal, Vol. 76, No. 5 (Sep., 1987), pp. 55-57 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
One statement in the beginning of the book was especially poignant to any one who studies Indian culture, It is easy for us to feel a vicarious rage, a misery on behalf of these people, but Indians, dead and alive would only receive such feelings with pity or contempt; it is too easy to feel sympathy for a people who culture was wrecked..
Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children employs strategies which engage in an exploration of History, Nationalism and Hybridity. This essay will examine three passages from the novel which demonstrate these issues. Furthermore, it will explore why each passage is a good demonstration of these issues, how these issues apply to India in the novel, and how the novel critiques these concepts.
During the time period this literature was written India gained independence from Britain, and separated into India and Pakistan. This hurt people who had loved ones in other countries, and was devoted to India, etc. The literature had a prominent loss of self theme because of heartbreak. The motifs pain, addiction, and devotion to a single beloved develop the theme of loss of self through heartbreak in
Uniyal, Ranu. Women In Indian Writing: From Difference to Diversity. New Delhi: Prestige, 2009. Print.
They are equally mindful of the need to fight against imposing rule of the British government as their historical counterparts. Patriotism in his protagonists does emerge very distinctly. His central character is an ordinary man who wants to make his presence felt, his voice heard. Ghosh’s sturdy assurance that nationalism also burns in the heart and spirit of unhistorical figures makes him give voice to their patriotic zeal. Hence his greatest and utmost concern in including history into his works of fiction is to bring to the fore ordinary individuals, who search for examples to create history for themselves. Refusing to allow his individuality to be inundated in the surge of history the ordinary citizen of a nation attempts to carve a place for himself in the period of history. Thus Ghosh’s novels re-create the ordinary citizen as a distorted and transgressed
Works Cited Curzan, Anne and Adams, Michael. How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Crystal, David. The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language.
The concept of orientalism refers to the western perceptions of the eastern cultures and social practices. It is a specific expose of the eurocentric universalism which takes for granted both, the superiority of what is European or western and the inferiority of what is not. Salman Rushdie's Booker of the Bookers prize winning novel Midnights Children is full of remarks and incidents that show the orientalist perception of India and its people. It is Rushdie's interpretation of a period of about 70 years in India's modern history dealing with the events leading to the partition and beyond. Rushdie is a fantasist and a creator of alternate realities, the poet and prophet of a generation born at the degree zero of national history. The present paper is an attempt to study how Salman Rushdie, being himself a writer of diasporic consciousness, sometimes perceives India and its people as orientalist stereotypes and presents them in a derogatory manner.
Miller, T. P, & Faigley, L. (1982). College English. National Council of teachers of English, 44(6). Retrieved from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-
Although the author presents the English prejudice in the novel in many situations, he also presents the Indian reaction and behavior. The author demonstration of British behavior vs. Indian behavior gives the readers the field of free thinking and association to decide for themselves which side they would favor. It also questions the validity of criticisms that think of this book as a bias novel that offends British people. However, the author does indicate his favoritism towards Indians throughout the novel by presenting them as the weak and helpless characters that do not have any authority in their own country, but they poses scientific and spiritual knowledge that earns them respect among their society.
Tagore outlines the oppression of the past in his interesting yet profoundly genuine illustration Kartar Bhoot ("The Ghost of the Leader"). As the regarded pioneer of a nonexistent area is going to bite the dust, his terrified supporters dem...