CIA 3

MEL431: Indian Literature In English

Shyam Hajare (1837312)

Sakshi Singh (1837346)

Manohar Malgonkar

Manohar Malgonkar (1913-2010) was an Indian author of both fiction and nonfiction in

the English language. He was also an army officer, a big game hunter, a civil servant, a mine

owner and a farmer. As an eminent post-Independence writer, his contribution to Indian writing

in English is immense. Malgonkar is notable for his military thrillers, historical novels and

adventure fiction. His major works include The Men Who Killed Gandhi, A Bend in the Ganges,

Spy in Amber, Comb at of Shadows, The Garland Keepers, The Sea Hawk, Shalimar, The

Malgonkar was born in Jagalbet village Karwardist, near Londa in Belgaum district. He began

his education in Belgaum and later attended school in Dharwad and graduated from Mumbai

University. After, he joined the army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Maratha

Light Infantry and retired from service at the age of 39. Malgonkar lived in a remote bungalow

called ‘Burbusa Bungalow’ located at Jabalpet in Joida Taluk in Karnataka.

Most of this happened during the struggle for Indian independence and its aftermath,

often the settings for his works. The socio-historical conditions of those times form the backdrop

of his novels, which are usually of action and adventure. He also wrote non-fiction, including

biography and history. For many years, Malgonkar wrote a weekly column covering a wide
range of topics, which was published in Indian newspapers like The Statesman and Deccan

Herald. Most of his books were published in India by Orient Paperbacks or by Rupa Paperbacks.

Malgonkar is particularly well-known for his historical fiction with political undertones,

but the list of his works include eleven novels that have a blend of history, romance and military

life, two light romances/thrillers, a detective novel, a play, various essays/articles, two historical

accounts, a travelogue and number of short stories collected in several anthologies. His works are

as varied as was his life; a stint in the army, a time spent as a big game hunter, a miner, a tea

garden manager and an adventurer.

He writes about India, Indian themes and Indian characters. This can be seen in his work

“The Devil’s Wind”, which shows his efforts to understand Nana Saheb Peshwa and the 1857

Revolt from Indian perspective or in “Combat of Shadows” where his anger at Henry Winton is

quite evident as he punishes Winton with death for his racial discrimination. His five novels are

unified by "a particular 'vision of life' ". He locates that "vision of life" in the recurrence and

counterpointing of five themes: "Indo-British relationships at the personal level," "initiation,"

"history of India," "relationships between men and women," and "hunting"

Malgonkar is of the opinion that writing becomes authentic only if it comes from within

the writer’s context with which s/he identifies. “I keep writing of India …because I feel no

author should write outside his own living circumstances. If he does, it is phony” (The Ellsworth

American 1970). One aspect of his writing for which critics often attack him is his neglect of

class-consciousness, ordinary people and their real problems. Critics find this far removed from

the reality of Indian life. This though can be understood by his family background. Malgonkar

was the grandson of the Prime Minister of a former princely state of Dewas. The Malgonkar
family was closely associated with the rulers of Dewas which gave his young self the advantage

of knowing the royal household from close. This helped him in his accurate depiction of royal

life in his novels like “The Princes” and “The Devil’s Wind”.

He is an Indian and is fully aware of the responsibilities of the Indian writer who

shoulders the task of interpreting his country to the whole world. He is bold and does not fight

shy of revealing those aspects of Indian life about which most of the Indians prefer to be silent,

or, if vocal, try to romanticise the history of Freedom Movement lest the image of Gandhi and

the Congress Party should be tarnished.

Reflecting on the influence of his life on his writing, he graduated from Bombay

University with English and Sanskrit and took to big game hunting. Later he joined the army and

rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Maratha Light Infantry. As an officer in the Army

he entered the protected realm of the ‘whites’. Association with British officers gave him the

advantage of speaking in English as it was spoken by the British. This was his reality which

helped him understand human beings and their problems. Due to this, he depicted Indian as well

as British characters with equal understanding. This is the reason why he portrayed his British

characters with sympathetic consideration which is often censured by critics as his colonial

leanings, as well as why did not write about ordinary people; he just never saw that part of Indian

closely.

Distant Drum, his first novel, is a military novel. It was published in 1960 when he was

47, and the experiences of army life were still fresh in his mind. It is motivated by the martial

code that is in the blood of every soldier. Honesty, integrity, loyalty to duty and discipline form

its core. In a broader context, the novel is about the moral and ethical questions of mutual
relationships of the English and the Indians in British Indian Army during colonial times and the

Indian and Pakistani soldiers in the armies after Independence. Malgonkar holds the view that in

Independent India, everything British need not be condemned in our enthusiasm to celebrate

‘nationalism’; and that filtering the good from the bad and making our own decisions will be

good for our nation.

Malgonkar's second novel Combat of Shadows (1962) takes the readers to the North-

Eastern Assam tea plantations. Against the background of the British officers and the Indian

coolies and politicians engaged in the welfare activities of the workers, it shows how the two

shadows of desire and aversion are always active to take possession of the soul. Time covered in

the story is September 1938 to March 1940, that is, the time when the whole world was engaged

in a conflagration of the magnitude history had never before witnessed. What was going on in

Assam on a smaller scale was actually enacted on a larger scale when mankind was fighting a

second world war. Personal animosities, petty jealousies and small considerations of gain and

loss rule even the biggest minds, and prove obstacles in understanding the problems that concern

others.

Many Indian English novelists have given their contributions which comprise

contemporary themes and events in the post-independence era. Partition of India, and its

consequences, has worked as an exciting source for works of some of the reputed novelists.

Malgonkar is also one of those writers with his novel A Bend in the Ganges, which was

published in 1964. It explores the theme of Partition, exposing personal, patriotic and

partitioning events during and after India’s freedom. A Bend in the Ganges depicts the personal

views of the people and the events that happened during independence. The novel presents the

history of Independence movement and the Partition of India starting with 1930s and extending
till the independence in August 1947. Malgonkar shows the events from local to national

bloodshed and suffering, while describing the cruel behavior of the people at the time of the

freedom movement and the Partition.

There are three protagonists; Gian Talwar, Debi Dayal and Shafi Usman who are young

men. The novel starts with Gian Talwar, who listens to Gandhiji’s speech and influenced by that,

becomes the follower of Gandhi, believing in non-violence. Debi and Shafi are active members

of a group who strongly believe that only with violence they can get things done. ‘The Hanuman

Club’ is formed by freedom fighters for physical fitness but the real intention behind the

formation of this club is to participate in violent activities. They believe that the religious

differences among people weaken their unity. With this view they form a new religion with a

group of young men from different communities. Gian, a poor Brahmin young man, who comes

to Duriabad for his college studies, befriends Debi Dayal, who invites him to join their group.

When Gian declares that he is a follower of Gandhiji and non-violence alone can bring freedom

to India, Shafi jeers and criticizes Gandhiji’s principle of non-violence. His conviction is that

non-violence is the philosophy of sheep, a creed for cowards and it is the greatest danger to this

country. Later when his own brother, Hari, is killed by Vishnudutt, Gian wants to take revenge.

Thus when the real life situation confronts him, he rejects the concept of non-violence in which

he had a strong belief once.

Later in the novel, in the Andamans, by cooperating with Patrick Mulligan, the Jail

Superintendent, to spy on Debi, Gian becomes treacherous. Communal differences ruin the

minds and nerves of Hindus and Muslims. Hafiz expresses his fear to Shafi that, as majority are

Hindus, the Muslims will have to live as slaves to the Hindus in the absence of the British rule.

The words of Hafiz make Shafia a violent communalist who leaves his broad secular outlook and
develops a thirst for the blood of Hindus. The disloyal behaviour of Shafi generates an abyss

between Hindu and Muslim communities in the club that results in a violent communal fighting.

A. Padmanabhan on this says that, “Thus, the Hanuman Club becomes a microcosm of the

macrocosm that was Indian society, with the Hindus and the Muslims united at first to fight

against the British, and, at last when they were about to leave, fighting against each other”.

The novel moves on to touch upon the topics of the communal murders, fear of becoming

second class citizen, disorder and anarchism which leads to a large number of killings. The novel

ends with Debi raising the question, “Who had won? Gandhi or the British?” This question has

been a highly debatable one. The non-violent path to attain freedom still let to a lot of bloodshed

during the partition. The critics claim that by raising this question Malgonkar hinted that freedom

through militant action would have been a better way than the path of non-violence, whereas

others say that he does not uphold violence as way of life as in the death of Debi he discards

violence by revealing its self-consuming nature.

Magonkar may not have achieved similar kind of status as some of his contemporaries

like R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao or Mulk Raj Anand in the area of Indian English novels but his

works still play a huge part in understanding the writings in the post-independence India. As an

army person and someone living as an Indian privileged in the British India he provides a

different perspective to the society of that time period. Already known for his books on the

Maratha period of Indian history when he started his career as a fiction writer, he did not have to

formulate his views about the cultural heritage of India and its present politics: his views were

definite and had the authenticity of a true participant