Indiain Historical and Literary Writings: A Critique of Representation

Abstract

The research analyses how India has been represented in historical and literary writings and explores the causes for such deviation in representations.Native historical writings discover the inner strength of India, while English literary writings under British colonial influence distort India as a land of emotions, magic and sentiments only Indian scholars Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and the first elected Prime Minister of newly independent India Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) represent the historic India which upholds the faith in humanity and commitment to unity whereas the foreign novelists, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) and E. M. Forster (1879- 1970) examine the literary India with its cultural diversity, yet inferiority. These Eastern and Western scholars have had their distinct representation of India and its glimpses manifested in their historical and literary works. Tagore‘s Nationalism (1917), Nehru's The Discovery of India (1946), Kipling‘s Kim (1901), and Forster‘s A Passage to India (1924) are the major texts taken into consideration to substantiate the major arguments. TheIndian native scholars Tagore and Nehru represent India as an entity upholding faith in humanity, global brotherhood and cosmopolitan outlooks.Through their writing, theyshape the world as one family of national and international communities having supportive, cooperative and friendly relations. They say, let us not do to others that we do not want to be done to ourselves. The English writers, Kipling and Forster give a glimpse of the cultural and religious diversity of British India, but with a derogatory colonial lens of demeaning it. The foreign literary writings of the Westernscholars have left an ambiguous imprint on India. The research examines a gap between the Eastern and the Western scholars on the way of looking at India. How do these historical and literary interpretations of India come closer to and are different from each other? Why do these Indian native and English authors have their two respective projections of India in their writings as they present them? Tagore and Nehru project India with its unique features and varieties of forms, especially considering it too vast in its area and too diverse in its races, from the historical perspective, and Kipling and Forster examine India based on their perception of India's culture, mindset and behavior through literary perspective. The research reveals that while the Indian writers take pride in the historical glory of Indian culture and history; the Western writers look at India in a prejudiced and intolerant way because of the deep-rooted colonial and imperialistic mindset that projects the West as superior and the East as inferior. Tagore‘s Nationalism portrays India seeking true unity encompassingthe globe with a faith in humanity. Culturally, India‘s diversity has been accepted as a fact figure from the beginning of its history. On the other hand, Nehru‘s The Discovery of India analyzes how Indians have had a dream of unity. It has occupied the Indian mind since the beginning of civilization. Indian diversity is acknowledged and encouraged in recorded history. The core value of Indian unity appears to be Nehru‘s central concern. Contrarily, Kipling‘s novel Kim, though it presents a kaleidoscopic view of the cultural and religious diversity of India, is a portrayal of misinformation about the historical (the real) India because of its controversialdepiction of British colonialism. India remains unexplored due to the colonial perceptions of the British administrators, officials, and bureaucrats, and is presented to be inferior. Forster‘s A Passage to India does not analyze the cultural bonds of the Indian people. The English writers fail to do so under the hallucination of Indian history and its enigmatic ties of beauties that never come true in the study of India.The literary works of Kipling and Forster vividly bring out the twofold distinctions of the east west between the colonized and the colonizers. Both novels shed light on the contradictions embedded in the global dimensions. The research has adopted the qualitative approach to understand, envision, interpret, analyze, and reflect upon the issue of India's representation in selected writings of Indian and English writers. Based on the close reading of selected texts, the researcher has tried to discover and describe the narratives, and interpret and analyze them to reflect upon how and why India has been represented in different ways by natives and foreigners. Theoretical insights have been received from Edward Said and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. It can be gathered that foreign writers divide the globe into two spheres as supercontinent, the West and the subcontinent, the East. Superiority is deeply exercised by the supercontinent, whereas inferiority based on muddled thinking, is attributed to the subcontinent. The conflict between the supercontinent and the subcontinent gives rise to critical insights as postulated in Edward Said‘s Orientalism and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak‘s A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. These theoretical viewshelp interpret the British India projected in the literary works of Western novelists from literary perspectives. The historic argumentbased on rich heritage, ancient tradition of India isa livedportrayal and it enrichs with the inspirational wisdom. India‘s portrayal fromliterary perspective of the Western novelists rests on literal meaning without acknowledging the roots of its philosophical tradition, culture, and rich Indian heritage. They view India from the foreigners perspectiveand present itwith mundane representation. The history portrayed by Tagore and Nehru is to emphasizehuman virtue which bearvalue based civilization tostrengthen, deepen and embrace the lived and close relations with peopleacross the world, rather the historythat justbelongs to long myths and events of any country or its people. The research findings of the study build on historical (the real) India. It interprets the native scholars‘ version of historical India found in human ethics, manners and moral values. Their insightful wisdom and knowledge about historical India focus on philosophers and seers like holy men and sages of ancient time like the Buddha, Ashoka, Yagnavalkya,Kautilya, and others. But the literary or imaginative India portrays English novelists' version influenced by mindset, economic, cultural, and educational dominations. India, thus, appears different to the Indian and the British scholars. The research mentions as a whole that a better understanding of India can be acquired through an engagement with historic India rather than the literary, fictional or imaginary India. The study also engages readers more to decipher the true glory of India by trying to understand India historically from past to present rather than by carving a temporal imaginary representation of India. The western authors‘ literary approach comparatively loses the spirit of civilization in the light of Indian historic portrayals of artistic and cultural values. These Eastern and Western writers have shown Indian history and literature with two divergent interpretatoins and analysis. The research drives readers to perceive historic and literary India in a comprehensive way. The research sums up India‘s representation in its historic and literary writings through the perspectives of Indiannative historians and British colonialauthors.Before the independence of India, these two native and foreign scholars narrated thehistorical and the literary texts of Indiawhich was in a big turbulent condition. These East – West thinkers, philosophers and scholars, though belong tothe same age, their features and narratives are different.Historical Indiaconcretized by Tagore and Nehru,potentially,presents past, present and future capabilities to empower human dignity and value in every corner of the world. The portrayal of India by these two continental scholars, namely Tagore, Nehru, Kipling and Forster,deliberately offer contribution as well as complexity totheir historic and literary writings on a large scale..