Chapter II He Who Rides a Tiger

Transcription

1 Chapter II He Who Rides a Tiger

2 He Who Rides a Tiger Thou who art the secret breath in all created beings, Hail to thee, Mother, and hail, and hail, hail! Thou who art the joyous light in all created beings, Hail to thee, Mother, and hail, and hail, hail! Thou who art the core of bliss in all created beings. Hail to thee, Mother, and hail, and hail, hail! (Bhattacharya, He Who Rides a Tiger (HWRAT) 233) Bhabani Bhattacharya ( ) born at Bhagalpur Bihar, an Honours graduate in English literature from the University of London (1934), occupies a position of eminence in Indian English Literature. He is renowned world-wide and his books have appeared in twenty-six languages, sixteen of which are European. He has won the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award for Shadow from Ladakh in "In his writings he... portrays feelings... inhumanities committed by man against his fellow beings" (Sharma K, "Aesthetics," X). His major preoccupation is with the future of India in context of its social, religious, economic and political regeneration: With his progressive ideas and his vision of a glorious future he has also great admiration for the spiritual and cultural heritage of the country. Like the great men whom he admired, particularly Tagore and Gandhi, he is also a builder of bridges between the present and the past. (Chandrasekharan, Bhabani Bhattacharya 8) Recollecting his journey as a novelist he recalls how his first two attempts at writing a novel were left half way through because "the great famine swept down upon Bengal. 55

3 The emotional stirrings felt were a sheer compulsion to creativity. The result was the novel So Many Hungers'" (Chandrasekharan, Bhabani Bhattacharya 2). All the novels of Bhattacharya present a true picture of India and its teeming millions surging with life. He does not believe in the dictum of art for art's sake. All writing for him has a social purpose and his outlook is highly constructive and creative. His writing compels one to hear the dialogue between man and his situation, between man and man and between man and the ideas he lives by. He visits slums and sucks up the misery of dwellers in his inner self He looks into the shriveled faces and sunken eyes of the depressed, marginalized and dominated, shares their anguish, suffers quietly and pours out the sufferings in words. The process involves deep agony but the end product is a major creative endeavour. Bhabani Bhattacharya concedes that creative writing spontaneously brings out the inner pain: I seldom planned a story structure. Each story grew in my subconscious mind as it were. When it had grown enough I had to give it physical form. (Chandrasekharan, Bhabani Bhattacharya 5) As per Bhattacharya, a novel should be concerned with social reality, who has his own theory on the purpose and method of writing a novel. On more than one occasions, he has expressed in clear terms what novel has meant for him and what he has tried to achieve through this form. A novelist, for Bhattacharya, is a creative writer, possessing a special gift for such creation and differing from ordinary men and women he is endowed with more than usual sensitivity: "The creative writer has a well-developed sensitivity though this does not mean that he understands or shares all emotions. The things he witnesses, the things he experiences, are likely to move him more intensely than what may be called recollection at second hand" (Joshi, "An Evening with Bhabani," 395) and this unusual sensitivity must be stirred by his power of observation. A true artist cannot 56

4 exist in an ivory tower of his own and revel in fancies which have no relevance to human life on earth. On the other hand his observant eyes are keen on perceiving what is happening around him. He says, "I have not missed a single opportunity of observing incidents, happenings where I can gain something for the writer in me. Most of my characters have shaped themselves from real earth" (Joshi, "An Evening with Bhabani," 1969). The truly creative writers are driven by an urge to write which almost becomes an obsession with them. With Bhattacharya, it is not merely a question of writing, it is a compulsion to find an outlet for the living images in his subconscious. This inevitability of an artist's craving for expression is at the root of all art. While conversing with Sudhakar Joshi about art and literature and his own practice as a writer, he observes: I hold that a novel must have a social purpose... Art is not necessarily for art's sake. Purposeless art and literature which is much in vogue does not appear to be a sound judgment. (Bhattacharya, "Literature and Social Reality," 394) The writer's purpose is the depiction of truth as he perceives it. It must be closely related to, and should be an exploration and revelation of, the basic truths of life in an artistic manner. In every novel, he depicts the social reality with vivid imagination and creativity, with a motive to draw the depth of the problems of casteism, female marginalization, hunger, famine etc. He depicts the truth, not callously and impersonally, but in terms of life, making it vivid by using the method of dramatization: Art must teach, but unobtrusively, by its vivid interpretation of life. Art must preach, but not only by virtue of its being a vehicle of truth. If that is propaganda, there is no need to eschew the word. (Sharma K, "Aesthetics," 32) 57

5 "Truth" for Bhattacharya seems to have a clear humanistic meaning. Like Socrates, the Renaissance thinkers, and modern existentialists, truth for Bhattacharya is man-centered (Crawford, "A Meditating Man," 43). The inner depths of the bitter realities of life should be explored by art, for art is to serve the society. The post independent scenario calls forth a castelcss society, perceived by the Constitution of India and by the popular imagination, however, the reality is frightening in its various manifestation. Bhattacharya mirrors contemporary reality in So Many Hungers, Music for Mohini, A Goddess Named Gold and He Who Rides a Tiger. He Who Rides a Tiger delineates the sufferings of lower-caste people in a caste-ridden society against the backdrop of famine and hunger and the concomitant degradation of human values that dehumanizes man to an alarming extent. Bhattacharya keeps the artist and propagandist in perfect equipoise. His bias against caste hierarchy and female exploitation manifests itself in He Who Rides a Tiger. He is against exploitation - whether economic or the one based on caste hierarchy - and this comes out vividly in the protest of Kalo in the principal plot and in that of Biten in the ancillary plot (Sharma P, "Artist/Propagandist?," 1982). Bhattacharya's fiction "does not simply convey life... it reveals some kind of pattern in life. It brings significance" (Kettle, An Introduction 13). His achievement lies in realistic representation of life in its shades of black and white. He Who Rides a Tiger, is essentially a crusade to challenge the very organization of society. Set in the times when the reservation of seats in the legislature for different communal and social groups was in the air, it records the inter-caste struggle within the human community (Bhatnagar, Readings in Indian English Literature 119). Placed in its actual historical context, the novel recreates the nascent consciousness among the poor in 58

6 general and 'untouchables' in particular, as a result of numerous political developments: Macdonald's Communal Award (1932), its later modification through the Poona Pact, the floating of the Anti-Untouchability League and Gandhi's inspiring articles against the pernicious practices of exploitation of untouchables in the weekly, Harijan (1933 onwards) (Sarkar, Modern India ). Bhabani Bhattacharya presents the picture of Indian woman full of vitality with high ideals, offering a ray of hope for humanity. Usually his novels depict different types of alienated woman characters, who seem to be at war with both the Self and the Society. Likewise in He Who Rides a Tiger, Bhattacharya portrays caste woman character Chandra Lekha to reveal his affirmative vision of life. The choice of this title for a narrative that focuses on a female character is, indeed, interesting with several possible interpretations. The visual imagery that comes before eyes is that of Kali, a Hindu goddess widely popular in Bengal, who rides a lion/tiger. She is known to be ferocious and is vehemently assertive against all dangers, distracters and evil forces, an apt backdrop for the delineation of powerful Chandra Lekha who represents a paradigmatic shift from her position as the caste "Other." The author appears to champion the rights of women to seek and gain their rightful places, and thus through the use of He, he appears to bring a sense of unity between men and women in their saga of fight against adversity. Chandra Lekha, the chief female character, looses her mother at birth and later suffers terrible tragedies on account of the catastrophic famine. She loves her father more than anything else in the world and he too cherishes his daughter and names her Chandra Lekha, the moon-tinted one, which no other Kamar could even think of. He sends her to the local English convent school even amidst the opposition of his fellow caste men wherein she is subjected to caste discrimination time and again. 59

7 A humble village blacksmith, named Kalo takes his revenge on a rigid, casteridden society and makes a living for himself and his daughter by performing a false miracle - a miracle that begins as a fraud and ends as a legend - passing himself off as a Brahmin priest. Eventually when the fraud is detected, low caste people hail him as their brother and the outraged upholders of caste dynamics suffer in panic due to this subversive act. He Who Rides a Tiger is a legend of freedom, a grim satire on Hindu orthodoxy, surging with agitating emotions; a legend to inspire and awaken. Iyengar opines that the tempo of life in Calcutta - the complex of urban vices and urban sophistication - the pressure of mass movements and mass hysteria gives the novel a unique quality of its own. This novel is based on an ancient saying "He Who Rides a Tiger cannot dismount." Critics like K. R. Srinivasa lyenger in Indian Writing in English and M. K. Naik in A History of Indian English Literature call Kalo, the poor protagonist of He Who Rides a Tiger a cheat (Qtd. in Chattopadhyay, "Tiger as a Symbol," 141). Bhattacharya's use of Tiger as a symbol of protagonist Kalo's vehicle for onward voyage is true to E. M. Forster's standards: "Not completion. Not rounding off, but opening out" (Forster, Aspects of the Novel). Reviewing this novel, Orville Prescott of New York Times says that He Who Rides a Tiger is a skilful, entertaining and an illuminating fictional glimpse inside the corner of India. Kalo, a low-born blacksmith, is not happy with the people of his class and he maintains distance from them. Another significant aspect of social life realistically treated in the novel is the unbridgeable gulf between two entirely different classes the rich and the poor, the low and the high, and the high-caste and the low-caste. Kalo sees that the poor are dying miserably under the impact of the ravenous hunger created by the rich for their selfish motives. The caste-system indeed is tlie worst evil that has been 60

8 eating the entrails of Indian society for ages. Kalo tells Chandra Lekha that the low-caste untouchables are helpless creatures who cannot dare to go to the police. Then there is the problem of marriage, he is not able to get a suitable match for his daughter in his own caste. He is also shocked to find that owing to her low caste, she does not get due praise and admiration for the medal she wins as a brilliant student. Bhabani Bhattacharya, a Bengali Brahmin, takes up the contradictions and tragedies of life among such caste groups. He brings in other complexities such as the "fate" of women in such social conditions. The position of woman, irrespective of caste or class is that of the "Other" in the patriarchal set up. Herein the author brings out the wonderful fighting spirit of human beings through the character of Lekha. She has not only a purpose in life, but also the power to achieve it. She also has an unflinching faith in her capacity to attain her goal. Though she does not hear anything from her father for a long time from the city, her faith in him does not waver. Naturally when his letter and two ten rupee notes reach her after a long, unexpected gap of time, she is not surprised: Lekha knew her father's strength of purpose, the metallic stuff at the core of his being. How could she have lost faith in him even for one eye-flick? Happiness flooded into her with that thought. With Baba (father) safe in the great city, fighting his battle, Lekha could hold her. She would reduce for one-meal-a-day to five bare mouthfuls, saving the rice in stock. Better days could not be far off (HWRAT 59). Lekha is infused with fresh confidence and dreams of having a better ftiture. She also dreams of making a living in the city with her father. She also thinks about the great schools in the city. But, unfortunately, one day Lekha falls a victim to the evil of prostitution and Kalo comes to her rescue in time. A woman had decoyed her to the city with the false story that her father had met with an accident, was in hospital and had sent for her. Fortunately Lekha was saved right in time by her father. She was extremely 61

9 shocked by this incident. The meanness and cruelty shown by unscrupulous exploiters arouse their indignation. Society has hurt them not merely in the belly but in the soul and they must have their revenge. The cruelty of society becomes unbearable to Kalo when he sees that under the compulsion of circumstances his daughter is in a brothel, he was also doing a job in the brothel and when he heard the voice of crying for help near his room he went there and saved his daughter from becoming a prostitute. He finds himself and his daughter Chandra Lekha too weak and helpless before the mighty social conventions. He is ceaselessly haunted by torturous thoughts: His daughter was polluted, fallen, even to have breathed the air of the harlot-house would mark a woman as fallen. That was the terrible fact, almost displacing all feeling. Whoever was to blame, the fact was there. What could he do about it? Was he not helpless against the social idea which branded her for all time? {HWRATIX) He realizes that his miseries or sufferings are not the result of his past bad deeds or the Bengal famine is not only responsible for his miseries but the rich, the money lenders are also responsible for his difficulties and it is just because of these money lenders he has to leave his village, his daughter and everything that belonged to him. After leaving his village he had to go to jail for stealing bananas and now after saving his daughter from a brothel he decides to take revenge against the society and the rich. He is reminded of B-1 0 who suggested to hit back at the rich or the enemy is the only solution to be out of the clutches of misery. He starts his fight against the society and the rich people by faking a miracle to get a temple raised by the rich. He disguises himself as Bralimin and adopts a name, Mangal Adhikiri, the prosperous priest of the temple. Now he is ready to ride a tiger and camiot get down from its back. Kalo pretends to be happy but his heart knows that whatever he is doing is wrong and his.62 ao3a4-1 (,

10 transformation into Mangal Adhikari starts eating his soul. He finds himself doing the same thing, the one against which he had started his fight. His daughter, Chandra Lekha, is also unliappy with his disguise because she thinks that he disguised himself to avenge against the corrupt people but now he is sailing in the same boat. She starts keeping a distance from her father and when he sees it he feels depressed. The only way to get back to her is to disclose his identity. So he prefers to kill the tiger and emerges victorious. Bhattacharya presents Indian socio-cultural and religious world with an authority and understanding that no one can hope to match. The protest against caste-system depicted in the novel is especially effective and touching, presented through Kalo and Biten: Kalo, a blacksmith takes revenge on the Brahminical society and Biten, the symbol of protest, is himself a Brahmin, deeply hurt by the so-called Brahminism. The position of women is under threat, they are forced to prostitution and amidst this scene, Chandra Lekha, the caste woman attains a new height. Kalo, a dark-skinned blacksmith in a small town Jhama, is an ambitious, competent and industrious man. His pretty wife dies in childbirth and the baby daughter is named Chardra Lekha, a name casually suggested by an aged Brahmin customer. The priest says: "If it is a boy, call him Obhijit. Girl, call her Chandra Lekha. There! We gentlefolk give that kind of name to our sons and daughters. Dark minded folks of your caste have a fancy for Haba and Goba, Punti and Munni, han {HWRAT2)T A prescribed inequality exists even in the naming of a child. Manu asserts in chapter 2 of Manusmriti that the name of a Brahmin should have a word for auspicious, of a Kshatriya for strength, of a Vaishya for wealth, and the name of a Shudra should breed disgust. Chandra Lekha inherits her mother's good looks and displays unusual intelligence and grows under the tender care of her father. Kalo sends her to a local English Convent school where her presence is frowned upon by the girls belonging to the 63

11 higher castes, and also by the people of her own caste out of jealousy. It is deemed that education is the birth right of high-caste people and especially the lower-caste women are doubly suppressed, they are not allowed to step out of the old boundaries made by high-caste privileged people. Their education is a threat for high-castes because it can make them self-dependent: A Kamar Girl puts on the feathers of learning! A sparrow preens as a parrot! Old Brindavan had cried to a gathering of caste elders, shaking grey head in disapproval. {HWRAT 11-12) Kalo is criticized for his presumptuousness both by the high caste people and by his own people. In the fmal year at school Chandra Lekha participates in state level essay-wring competition, and to the great joy of her father, her essay is adjudged the best and she gets a gold medal, Ashoka Memorial Medal; but to his dismay, the people of the town attach no value to her distinguished achievement as she belongs to the lower caste hinting at the stronghold of caste-based prejudices. Kalo takes the medal out of the casket everyday and spends some time fondly looking at it in anticipation of bright future for his accomplished daughter. The shadow of Bengal famine begins to spread over Jharna town. Food grains become scarce and employment becomes more and more acute. Kalo does not find enough work and his hammer and blowpipe become silent. The petty traders from the cities take advantage of the situation and buy implements and household articles at nominal prices. The agents from the brothels also roam from place to place so as to trap good-looking and impoverished girls. One such agent talks to Chandra Lekha when she is alone in the house in insinuating language and for the time being induces her to sell a pair of gold bangles. Kalo surveys the whole situation and decides to go to Calcutta. In fact Chandra Lekha has been the centre of his life after the death of his wife and he 64

12 leaves for Calcutta in search of job for the sake of his daughter only. The predicament of Kalo and Lekha reminds of the poverty, hunger and exploitation of Nathan and Rukmani in Nectar in a Sieve (Khatri, "A Socio-Economic Perspective," 60). The torment Kalo experiences in parting from his daughter while going to Calcutta evokes pity and sympathy for the two: Tears sprang to his eyes. What misery was this! A fistful of rice for Lekha and himself was all he asked. In return he would toil and sweat for you from dawn to deep night, toil like a peasant's bullock, and bless you from his heart, bless you. Only let him not be parted from his Lekha, his daughter. (HWRAT24) The circumstances compel him to leave his daughter with a heavy heart in the care of an old aunt. Travelling on the foot-board of a train, he is tempted to steal some bananas from a carriage when he is extremely hungry and this effort to save his life lands him in jail. Kalo pleads his case on the ground that he had to steal so as to preserve his life for the sake of his family. The magistrate asks in an insensitive and callous manner, "Why did you have to live?" {HWRAT3\) Kalo explains: I am a worm, sir, and it is nothing if I live or die. But I have a daughter. She has no mother. She has only me. My daughter, Chandra Lekha... 'Three months hard labor'. Out of his cleanshaven lips the magistrate had spoken. {HWRAT3\-32) Bikaksh Mukherjee is a Brahmin fired with the crusading zeal of Kalo. In the prison Kalo shares his cell with him, who like all other prisoners, is known by the number, B- 10. Biten is under sentence of imprisonment for the offence of having protested against a policeman, beating and killing a hungry destitute in the city who had stood before an eating-place and stared at the food. A bond of sympathy is immediately established 65

13 between the two. The life in prison brings about a drastic change in Kalo. Biten enlightens Kalo about the ground realities of the sufferings of the downtrodden and about the hypocrisy of the privileged classes. Kalo seeks advice on job opportunities in Calcutta and Biten suggests: There is one road for us - for me, for you, for all of us... We are the scum of the earth. The boss people scorn us because they fear us. They hit us where it hurts badly - in the pit of the belly. We've got to hit back. {HWRAT31) The pain and agony suggested in the lines is indicative of the smug society that has sidelined the basic humanitarian values and the tendency to govern over the poor or weak is reigning supreme. Biten is of the view that the times demand that one must adopt survival strategies in the hostile society. As per job prospects, Biten tells Kalo of the two professions whereby he can make money easily. First he refers to Rajani, a brothelkeeper, who can employ him as an agent. Kalo is reminded of the immoral trading of women in his village. Some immoral traders had come to Kalo's village to buy girls at high rates to be harlots in Calcutta, but the indignant people like Kalo and others spit on their faces. After getting insulted by Kalo, one of the dissolute traders, mutters: "The lowborn people won't bend but they will crack. God has sent this mighty hunger to teach the low born people a true lesson" {HWRAT 16). Through B-10 the novelist shows his deep understanding of this problem and points to the white devils operating behind the curtains: 'Rajani works for a house of women,' B-10 said... 'You understand? He is not the master of course. The man at the top remains unseen. May be they are highly respected lawyers, bankers, pillars of society, anyway, and the houses, Rajani told me, 66

14 are prospering today as never before... Maidens have been bought from their parents, or stolen, or lured away with fair promises.' (HWRAT 3S-39) One of the most striking aspects of the fiction of Bhabani Bhattacharya is the importance accorded to the women in each of his novels. He presents Indian woman as an embodiment of purity, exuberant vitality and high morals, only to be victimized by the society. According to Bhattacharya, the women are the source of strength, inspiration and affection for men. "I think they have more depth, more richness, in them than our menfolk," (Fisher, "The Women in Bhattacharya's Novels," 66) unfortunately they fall easy targets to men's designs. Kalo is embittered at the stark realities of prostitution, he feels frustrated and his heart fills with venom for the elite class of society and for those girls, who agree to adopt this profession of prostitution. The underlying fact is that this profession is not by choice but it is enforced by unbearable circumstances. Low-caste women are the worst sufferers because they have to sell their bodies to fill their empty stomachs to survive in this cruel world. This is not acceptable to Kalo for he considers death better than selling one self; Biten presents the other side of the coin: Must a woman die rather than sell herself? Why must she die? Only her body, which seemed to be of no account, was involved, a body that, unsold, had less value than a seer of goat's meat. Why must she die for her honour, die for a dead idea? (HWRAT3S) The body of a low-caste woman seems a burden to Kalo, if it cannot earn its livelihood with dignity. Biten refutes these notions attached with women because if anyone is to be blamed it is society that has degenerated to a great extent. 67

15 Is there any honor left in this country?... Why should the women continue to bear on their shoulders the rotting corpse of honor? They who suffer so much from social tyranny? (HWRAT 39) This outburst of B-10 is a strong indictment on society that accuses women in the name of honour and passes the blame on to them, making them bear the brunt always, forcing them on to the route of death. The real culprits in the case go scot free and continue exploiting the women folk unabashed. His second suggestion is to hit back at the victimizers of the society by exploiting their faith in religion: Can you wear a saffron loincloth, smear your body with ashes and mark a red-paste trident of Shiva on your forehead? Then as you walk the streets, your aim bowl will fill up in no time; and may be, if you have luck, someone with money enough to squander will see in you a yogi with great spiritual power. {HWRAT AO) Casually Biten mentions to Kalo one of several ways whereby he can make money quickly, which Kalo retaliates strongly. Another way suggersted is to play a fake miracle, to get a temple raised by exploiting the gullibility of people and to make fools of them by making them worship a bogus image. This idea lurks in Kalo's mind to germinate and convert into a mighty tree in due course of time. In fact, Kalo is convinced of B-lO's wisdom and somewhere in his subconscious B-lO's words "We've got to hit back" {HWRAT51>) get stamped. Consequent upon his release from prison, Kalo does not find work as a blacksmith and works as a stretcher bearer in Calcutta to pick up corpses of destitute people. He is shocked to know that he works for a skeleton smuggler in the guise of a doctor. He is tormented by the fact that these are the bodies of the people of his kind. He is thrown out 68

16 of this work for demanding his due wages and wiuingly he goes to Rajani and accepts the job of a pimp in sheer desperation. A recurrent cry, "Baba... hunger kills me, Baba... give me one sip of rice water" (HWRAT 4S) makes him visualize his own daughter and this propels him to do what his conscience does not permit him to do. Earlier Kalo was against the evils of prostitution, he felt pity for the victims of this institution, he hated the sellers of poor innocent girls but time compels him to jump into the mud of this profession for the sake of hunger. Now hunger supersedes honour, honesty gets defeated and corruption wins. The individual struggles for self liberation but is silenced by the buffets of societal values (Khatri, "A Socio-Economic Perspective," 60). Chandra Lekha sells most of the essentials of the house, including the bed mattresses and her memorial medal. This novel marks a departure from Bhattacharya's earlier novel dealing with famine. So Many Hungers, in the sense that though the background in common, Kajoli in So Many Hungers was compelled to take to prostitution, Lekha is brought to the harlot-house by deception (Srivastava, "The Theme of Hunger," 176) and is lucky enough to be saved in time by his father. One night in one of the brothels for which Kalo has been working as a tout, he sees a rich customer enter one of the rooms. Immediately after that he hears the plaintive, protesting cries of a woman, sounding strangely like that of Chandra Lekha. Within a couple of minutes the customer leaves the room in anger. Driven by strange foreboding, Kalo enters the room to find to his horror that the girl is no other than his daughter. Not willing to loose a moment lest the keeper of the house should block their way, he hurriedly leads her out of that hell and takes her to the poor habitation. She tells her father how a woman had decoyed her to the city with the false story that he has met with an accident, is in hospital and has sent for her. Kalo's chance discovery of his daughter in the harlot-house becomes the proverbial last straw on his back and he turns against the unjust society. 69

17 Kalo contests that nothing is more unfortunate in the history of mankind than the social evil of prostitution - the end of human decency - caused by economic disparities, social barriers of caste and creed, superior status of upper castes in comparison to lower castes, an evil to which Lekha falls a victim to. Subsequently, Kalo recalls B-lO's philosophy of seeking vengeance on "the boss people." The society has now hurt him and his daughter not merely in the belly but in the soul. He must have his revenge, but the immediate motive is to find a new way of earning money by exploiting the caste based attitudes of society. The caste system is so deep-rooted in the consciousness of the people that they honour the caste hierarchy with all its taboos as if it is a divine design. Religion seems to have lost its pristine glory sidelining its basic ethical values. It is turned into a spiritual merit to exchange for merchandise (Raizada, "Fiction as Allegory," 90). Food for the soul is produced and sold like food for the stomach, and though the ways of the two trades are different, you pay for both with hard cash. The temple is a market and the priest a dealer. People are always ready to pay well for feeding the inner man. (HWRATAl) Through all these phases of life as destitute, thief, prisoner, corpse-remover, and pimp, Kalo goes down on the social scale, but remains exalted on the moral scale. Despite being a decrepit, he does not debase his soul but makes continuous efforts to find some proper source of honest hard-earned living. The assault on the honour of his daughter, however, fills his heart with poison against the hypocritical, corrupt and debased society that turns girls into prostitutes and honest men into thieves. Lekha joins hands with Kalo and Biten to fight caste prejudices and economic injusfice. The novel is the story of the woman, the redeemer, the reformer around whom the social change whirls (Krishnaswamy, "The Pure Woman as Victim," 82). 70

18 Kalo metamorphoses himself into a Brahmin - Mangal Adhiicari and sits under a banyan tree chanting repeatedly Namo Shivaya and pouring water on the ground. Lekha keeps telling people about her father's dream in which Lord Shiva has told him that he will rise out of the earth here only. By working a miracle explained by B-10 a Shivalingh comes up tearing the earth. People gather there in large numbers, and a big temple is built over there in short time. H. M. William observes: "In rage against the corrupt system, against the acquisitive society, Kalo perpetrates a successful masquerade by turning himself into a miracle working Brahmin" (William, Indo-Anglian Literature 68). Soon the lower-caste Kalo, playing the role of a Brahmin as Mangal Adhikari, rises to eminence and finds himself surrounded by sages and politicians, leaders of industry and trade. Kalo feels happy at this transformation: He was a scum no longer. He was going to be a pillar of society. A pillar created by two seers of gram. Han, that was the way to avenge himself. A smith reincarnated as a Brahmin. A convict and harlot-house procurer became a master of a temple. {HWRAT%6) The label of high caste earns him respect and the Magistrate who had asked him, "Why do you want to live?" touches his low-caste feet in the changed scenario. "Nothing is as true as falseness. The more false you are, to yourself and to others, the more true you become. The rest of the answer is, evil is to be faced and fought with its own knives" {HWRAT 27>9). Affluence does not make the new Brahmin forget the friend and benefactor who had given him the idea of the temple, namely B-10. He remembers the exact date on which he is to complete his term of imprisonment. Accompanied by Lekha he undertakes a train journey to the place, meets B-10 as he comes out of jail, and takes him to his 71

19 residence in Calcutta. He narrates how he raised the temple and became a Brahmin as per his advice, and offers him a share of income from the temple. B-10 promptly declines the offer as he had different plans for future. B-10 asks Kalo's feelings about his Brahminism, "So you are a full-fledged Brahmin? How do you like being a Twiceborn?" Kalo replies confidently: I used to feel strange, awkward. I don't any more. Now I want to cry out to people, 'Look, friends, see how easy it is to break the ageless barriers held to be sacred!' {HWRAT 159) B-10 notices that Kalo has come to identify himself a little too much with the part he has been playing, that is the role of a high-caste priest, enjoying the glory of power, respect and wealth. However, knowing Kalo's innate honesty and integrity, B-10 prophesies that Kalo will realize the hollowness of game in the course of time. Kalo over-reaches himself and in deceiving the society that he hates, he deceives himself At first he only seeks to exploit the caste-based prejudices of the high-caste people but gradually he himself gets trapped in the same caste-based prejudices. Feeling proud of the respect and wealth he enjoys as a Brahmin, he impulsively rebukes a lowcaste destitute who happens to touch him in pleading for help. Truly he is now riding a tiger and cannot get down from its back. Riding on the back of tiger Kalo is playing with the norms of the society. Knowing fully well that it is tough to get down and if he dares to get down the tiger will eat him, thus he is trapped in his own web. Willing or not willing, he has to ride so as to save his life. On the contrary, Lekha goes about her new work quietly without showing any elation. She feels pained when her father as Mangal Adhikari rebukes a destitute for having touched him and thereby polluted him. Kalo's tiger comes from within, he 72

20 befools gullible minds by false rumour of dream announcing arrival of Shiva. Within the halo of falsehood i.e. presence of tiger Kalo lives, acts, speaks according to inner essential urge (Chattopadhyay, "Tiger as a Symbol," 141). There is an agonizing story of a destitute lost child named Obhijit, eating the dry crust of mango from dustbin, who is adopted by Chandra Lekha and her father after their first meeting with this hungry child. The boy had found a half-eaten mango, nothing in its yellow skin. He saw Lekha coming towards him and stiffened. He put the fruit back in the garbage and waited, staring. His mouth opened but no voice came. He could not even whimper or beg for mercy. (HJVRAT 200) This scene touches the heart of Lekha and she is full of regret on seeing the miserable child. Lekha sees her own past in Obhijit and she feels the pain of hunger and suppression as if she has taken the place of destitute child. Here the comparison can be made between the lower-caste merciful Lekha and upper-caste priest's merciless wife. Lekha can feel the agony of helpless hungry child because she has faced the same misery herself while the upper-caste lady cannot feel pity for him because she never felt the pain of hunger and poverty. When the egoism of being the woman of Brahmin caste erupts, then the humanity of a mother's heart ends. Obhijit, the little boy is treated very harshly by the priest's wife. Obhijit goes down to the first floor and peers into the priest woman's kitchen. The priest woman is stirring a pot of rice over fire and she senses his presence even without turning her head, for she has the eyes of a tigress. Casteless waif! Boy from the gutters! Dare you set eyes on a Brahmin's kitchen? You will pollute the food with your breath. 73

21 Then I shall have to give it to the dogs. Don't you understand? (HWRAT 2\3-2\4) The tyrannical behavior of priest's wife towards a low-caste boy is indicative of caste based dimensions in a larger context of pollution/purity paradigm. The very presence or the mere breath of low born is sufficient to pollute the high born, they ensure to maintain a distance from them. This very notion is subverted in their getting blessings from a low born in the disguise of Mangal Adhikari. In spite of his best attempts to assimilate Braluminism, Kalo remains in his heart of hearts a blacksmith only. He takes home a destitute boy who has been separated from his parents and gives him the Brahmin name Obhijit. Lekha is very fond of the boy whom she treats as a younger brother and wants to bring him up in a respectful manner, presenting the inherent love for humanity. Mangal Adhikari is faced with a serious problem concerning Lekha. She is of marriageable age and as the Manager of prosperous temple he has to find a suitable Brahmin bridegroom for her. Kalo notices that his friend B-10 and Lekha are in love with each other, he decides to approve of their marriage only after making sure that he is a Brahmin, as it is mandatory to keep up with his high status, he enquires:... As for the sacred thread, i have watched you in jail and I am almost sure that you are a Brahmin, else you could not have taught me Gayatri. That was the slip you made. Now, be frank with us, Are you a Brahmin? If not, what caste are you? 'I am of convict caste', B-10 repeated gravely. (HWRAT \59-\60) The caste prejudices are deeply ingrained in the society and Kalo who is dead against this system initially, himself falls a victim to the system. However, Biten rejects castesystem completely and therefore he does not disclose even his name, and suggests that he 74

22 may be called Biten - which is only 'B-10' with a slight modification. Kalo suggests Biten that he should wear the sacred thread and call himself a Brahmin so that he may marry Lekha without shocking public sensibility. Biten refuses to look like a Brahmin and the person who suffers a lot is Lekha because she has to sacrifice everything in life where caste remains the determining factor. On Biten's refusal to look like a Brahmin, Kalo commands Chandra Lekha to leave Biten, she in turn exposes her father's complicity in the unjust and baseless caste system: I have had enough of this gilded cage, you are content with it. How long must it hold me too? A patriotic man hits out at his people's bad rules, but when power comes to him, he becomes one with those rulers. A common tale - everywhere in the world. {HWRAT 182) The only condition stipulated for Biten's winning Lekha's hand is that he should wear the sacred thread. He has no hesitation in refusing the sacred thread and the girl whom he loves and adores. In this episode Bhattacharya dramatizes the protest against the caste system through a Brahmin who has witnessed the degradation of Brahminical ideals and values. The pledge of Biten and Kalo's attachment to the position result in the suffering of Lekha. Kalo wants to retain the false status of Brahmin and Biten is not interested to accept the status that he had rejected long time back. Lekha is neither interested to be a Brahmin nor is she interested in the caste of Biten but no one asks her desire. Chandra Lekha believes that her father is not the only man who can fight heroically; she too can attain the dignity of standing on her legs. She states that fight is a mere means to live a happy and righteous life. She has the confidence that "the way of struggle is the true way, the struggle, first of ail, against fear" (Gupta M, The Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya 165). 75

23 Biten's rebellion against casteism has its seeds in his aching past experiences. His sister Purnima is hastily given away in marriage to an elderly widower when the parents discover that she is in love with a lower-caste young man, Basav. Her unhappy married life leads her to commit suicide. Biten questions the very notions, the rigid confines and inhuman treatment owing to caste based attitudes that separate man from man and create barriers in the happiness of life. What evil power was it that, in a minute, turned loving parents into brutes? How could the force of belief be so blind and devastating? For, they who could have given all they had to make their daughter happy condemned her to a living death. How was such perversion possible? {HWRAT \67) Pained and hurt at this cruel incident, Biten renounces his Brahminism forthwith, breaks and throws away his sacred thread and vows never to speak about his caste again. Biten takes the risk of losing Lekha whom he loves dearly, in sticking to his resolve never more to refer to his caste. His Brahmin caste has given him so much pain that he cannot bear the burden of being a high-caste any more. He is ready to sacrifice his love but he is not ready to accept his kicked hollow caste identity. Herein Lekha suffers a lot due to her low-caste status and the same is true of high-caste Purnima. She is five years younger to Biten, and though she is not exceptionally beautiful like Chandra Lekha, she is pleasing in her own way. Since her twelfth birthday much of her time after school hours was to be given to religious rites at home. The status of women is same in society, the only difference is in lower-castes the females resist, revolt and cry to show their anger but in high-castes they suppress their marginalized feelings and suffer silently most of the times. Through the story of Purnima the fact is stressed that orthodox Brahmins are irrationally opposed to the education of 76

24 girls. There is no basic difference between the rules laid down for high-caste women and lower-caste women. Purnima's mother suggests discontinuation of her studies as it interferes with her assisting at home in the daily ritual worship:... When Purnima complained that she could not do her school work because of this preoccupation, Mother threatened to stop the schooling. 'What good is this false book-learning?' She asked. 'I would not let a big girl of mine go to school.' (HWRAT \64-]65) Lekha's position is suffocating, who finds herself in a gilded cage and yearns for freedom. In order to get ease and liberty, she breaks communication with her father. She has been through the same hell of starvation and suffering, in a way she has suffered more than her father at the hands of society, because she was forced into a brothel (Kumar, "Kemal of Indian Culture and Caste System," 106). Being uprooted from the soil Lekha feels trapped and alienated, as she says, "The lies press heavy on my chest" {HWRAT \07). Bhattacharya suggests that ritualistic worship even in a false temple with a false image can be of help to a dedicated worshipper. Lekha knows the reality of her fake caste and position in the society, in spite of that she seeks refuge in its rituals when her lover Biten leaves her. The questions aroused in her mind are enumerated as: Would the temple bring her peace? Would her piety be no less potent than Brahminic invocation; investing the stone with meaning, transmuting falsehood into truth? {HWRAT203) The answer comes almost immediately; a series of miraculous things happen to her. One day an aged mendicant comes to the temple who tells a passer-by that he is seeking the Mother of Sevenfold Bliss. As soon as he sees Lekha, he rushes towards her, prostrates himself at her feet and begins chanting: 77

25 Thou who art the secret breath in all created beings, Hail to thee, mother, and hail, and hail, hail! (HWRAT206) The inherent idea posited here is that these caste based divisions are man made, the God created human beings as pure souls and the later stratification is manipulated by the society. The radiance on Lekha's face testifies the power that attracts everyone to her. A week later an exactly similar incident occurs, the seeker this time is a saffron-clad woman ascetic, Bhairabi. On another day a handsome youth, son of a millionaire, arrives in a big Chrysler car and after greeting Lekha with a verse from the same litany as the one mendicant and Bhairabi had used, announces that he has decided to renounce home and parents and become a Yogi. All these independent happenings and the new radiance on Lekha's face show that she has undergone a spiritual transformation. The change in Lekha and her obvious saintliness can be explained with reference to her intensified piety. The change may at least be due to compassion she has for the destitute boy, Obhijit; the suggestive episode of the photographer trying to capture the radiance on her face at a moment when Lekha is looking naturally and unselfconsciously at Obhijit in a spirit of compassion. Another possible explanation for Lekha's accession to glory can be the change initiated in her by Biten's demonstration of deep love. His impulsive embrace immediately produces revulsion in her as she is terribly transported in her imagination to the brothel from where her father rescued her later, but ultimately, it awakens the woman in her and releases her from mental imprisonment, which her position in the temple involves: Now that she was a woman like any other, with a woman's feelings and needs, she was addressed as Mother of Sevenfold Bliss. The moment she became a woman, she was falsely deified. (HWRAT209) 78

26 When father and daughter start 'riding the tiger,' it is the daughter who shows greater discomfort and less inclination for the adventure. Her acceptance of the position into which she is forced, is passive. In fact she functions throughout as the keeper of her father's conscience, feeling hurt whenever he is not true to himself and rejoicing in any occasional manifestation of sincerity and naturalness on his part, "putting on the sacred thread he had made himself rootless" {HWRA T 84) by becoming what he is not; his identity is unreal and fake, only a medium to take revenge. Lekha's sufferings lead Mangal Adhikari towards the path of revenge, he fights only to avenge himself and his daughter, whom the society debased, but has inhibitions regarding her stand: And his daughter, his Lekha, whom they had debased? Kalo lost his elation. Would Lekha share his feelings and become his real companion? She was society's scum in true sense than he - Her sufferings had been incomparably more than his. She had to hit back. Would she? Would she? He wondered to himself again and again. (HWRAT87) Lekha joins hands with Kalo and Biten to fight against the baseless caste based society but she hates the wrong ways and stresses to abide by the humanitarian ethics in life. Bhattacharya presents her in a larger than life scale who in spite of being a low caste woman has the potential to be instrumental in changing the lives. The high-caste Motichand tries to take advantage of Lekha's love for Obhijit. He threatens that presence of an outcaste in Mangal Adhakiri's house has contaminated the temple and when people will come to know about it, they are sure to revolt. He wants to marry Lekha and if Lekha does not agree then he will take revenge by spreading word that the boy is a chamar. Ruthlessly the high-caste Motichand blackmails Chandra Lekha on the basis of love and motherly affection she possesses for the untouchable. 79

27 Motichand watched Mangal with calculating eyes. He may be a chamar or some other kind of untouchable. 'Even a hungry Brahmin boy would eat from garbage cans.' 'A Brahmin boy would rather die.' 'Ail children are jewel-pure, whatever their birth.' Motichand once more shook his head sadly. 'That is the real trouble. You are a broad-minded person. So am 1.1 still remember what Lord Macaulay said about the equality of man and man...' 'It's the masses. They live in darkness, and yet our destiny is a thread in their hands' {HWRAT2\%). Motichand contests that they cannot convince and deceive hundreds of uppercaste people who visit the temple everyday. But the question is - who is being deceived, lower-caste Chandra Lekha, untouchable Obhijit or humanity? Kalo has no objection to Lekha's becoming the Mother of Sevenfold Bliss if she cannot get a suitable Brahmin husband. She has to accept Motichand's proposal to be his fourth wife for he blackmails by threatening to get Obhijit expelled from the temple if Lekha does not agree to marry him. Lekha seeks solution by accepting Motichand's proposal to save Obhijit and also to save herself from becoming the Mother of Sevenfold Bliss. Lekha begins as a rebel and comes out as a liberator. She shocks her father by announcing her decision to marry Motichand, when he asks her in consternation whether she is to marry "that old shark with his castoff wives" (HWRAT 231), she counter questions whether he expects her to stay forever "buried in the temple" (HWRAT 231). Now Kalo understands the nature and magnitude of the sacrifice that Lekha is about to make in order to liberate herself from a living death 80

28 in temple and to let him have the security that he desires. She speaks as if she can read his thoughts: You should approve. I would at last be with you in your battle. That proud man would have a casteless spouse. He would eat food served by her contaminating hand. Then... She hesitated, a flush of bitter struggle on her face. 'Then a child to complete the disgrace'. (//^/?/4r231) Hope in her is not drained and her words reveal her utmost confidence in life. Even though she came across several disasters her thoughts were new and confident which reveal her positive approach in life. Even in this terrible situation of marrying an old man, or becoming the "Mother of Sevenfold Bliss" and losing her freedom, she has strong faith in life, she does not contemplate suicide or run away somewhere to save herself This shows her affirmative vision of life. She sees only life before her: "In spite of it Lekha would not accept defeat... Life stood before her not death. There was a new strength in her, a new awareness, with which to face the challenge of an unknown future" {HWRAT 23\). But Kalo does not want his girl to marry an old man and so he acts dramatically on the day of the ceremony for the installation of Lekha as the "Mother of Sevenfold Bliss", and stuns everyone by revealing his true identity and by narrating all about the fake miracle of raising the Shiva image. The high class people shout at Kalo in anger whereas the low class people cry victory to him because one of their classes has outwitted the so-called superior castes and has made the mighty ones eat dirt. Lekha is filled with disgust for the hypocrite high-caste Brahmin and accepts the proposal of Motichand so as to contaminate him by her low-caste existence. 81