Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Khushwant Singh was known for his short stories. He won fame as a journalist as well as a fiction writer. ‘With Malice Towards One and All’ was a very popular weekly newspaper column penned by him that used to be published in all leading English newspapers of India occupying two full-length columns on the editorial page of the Saturday edition. In addition, he also worked as the editor of the Indian magazine The Illustrated Weekly of India. In 1989, his short stories collection titled The Collected Stories was published which was republished with some additions and a new title The Collected Short Stories of Khushwant Singh in 2005.
Karma is a short story by Khushwant Singh that was first published in 1989 in his first story collection and was republished in 2005. Through this story, Khushwant Singh exemplifies the age-old adage, ‘Pride comes before a Fall.’ The story is about concerns regarding cultural identity.
Characters of Karma by Khushwant Singh:
Mohan Lal is a middle-aged Indian man in his late forties. He works for the British Indian government as a barrister. He got his education from Oxford, Britain and he is an anglophile. An anglophile is a person who appreciates English culture, the English language, and the English people. However, Mohan Lal is more than an anglophile. He imitates English people in his behavior and is disgusted by native Indian culture and people. He feels inferior being an Indian. Hence Mohan Lal endeavors to change himself completely in favoring the habits of Englishmen. Lachmi is his wife who is a fat 45 years old lady. She has been a loyal wife to Mohan Lal but now she has lost all her physical charm. She is a native Indian woman who, unlike Mohan Lal, appreciates and adheres to her Indian cultural roots with pride. She is a traditional Indian woman belonging to a poor family. She is illiterate in terms of English. Despite her being a devoted housewife, her married life is not good with Mohan Lal as he doesn’t appreciate anything Indian and thus, they do not have any kids. Mohan Lal treats her as his submissive and often remains disrespectful towards her. A bearer serves beverages to the travelers in the first-class waiting room of the railway station. There is a coolie on the railway platform who helps Lachmi get on the train with her luggage. Bill and Jim are two British soldiers who consider Indians inferior slaves with no rights.
Summary of Karma:
Mohan Lal is an Indian Barrister working for the British Indian government. He is a rich and powerful man who got his education at Oxford University London where he spent five years of his life. He became so impressed by the English culture, English language, and English people that after returning to India, he seldom talked in Hindustani and always preferred to speak in English. However, he was married to a traditional Hindu girl belonging to a poor and illiterate family. It was a mismatch and Mohan Lal, who loves only English people and English things, failed to make any cordial relationship with his wife Lachmi. In India, Mohan Lal is surrounded by Indian people who don’t value the customs and lifestyle that he actually loves and thus, he alienates himself from the surrounding world and his own wife. Lachmi used to be a beautiful, devoted but ignored wife. However, she always performed her duties as a housewife. Since Mohan Lal had no interest in her, they do not have any kids. Because of her husband’s neglect and loneliness, Lachmi who loves to talk failed to maintain herself and now she is a fat unimpressive middle-aged woman. Mohan Lal completely alienates himself from his wife. He doesn’t have any mutual sexual relationship with her and he even doesn’t live with her anymore. While she lived on the second floor of the house, while he was on the ground floor. Mohan Lal hardly stayed with her for some moment. Even when he used to approach her, he would use anglicized Hindustani to instruct her and she would obediently follow his instructions. Lachmi had no inclination to learn the English ways and this further alienated Mohan Lal from her. For Mohan Lal, Lachmi represented a typical Indian, submissive while he always found himself to be closer to English people, the rulers. He maintained this charade even during their travels. While Mohan Lal prefers to travel in the first-class compartment of trains, which is often exclusive for British people, he makes Lachmi travel through the general second-class Janana boogies meant for Indian women. Lachmi has her own reason as she says, “I am unable to communicate in English and am unfamiliar with their customs, so I stick to my janana inter-class.”
His ‘illiterate’ relatives and ‘dirty, vulgar countrymen’ are irrelevant to him. But because of his alienation, he is filled with sadness and frustration, There’s hardly any sex and love in his life and he has no friends. He always carries the English daily The Times, English wine, and English cigarettes in a handsome gold case, all of which serve to impose an Englishness on himself. He is perpetually ready to express the long-repressed “five years of grey bags and gowns, of sports blazers and mixed doubles, of dinners at Court inns and nights with Piccadilly prostitutes.” While no Englishman will listen to him, he wouldn’t talk with petty poor Indians who hardly know any English.
The story begins as Mohan Lal and his wife Lachmi are traveling. They are at a railway station. As scheduled before, Mohan Lal is waiting for the train in the First Class waiting room of the railway station where he observes the mirror is too dirty and old. He thinks that the mirror must have been made in India and that is why it is inefficient, dirty, and indifferent. Mohan Lal himself takes good care of his physique and prefers to be called Sir by others as if he is knighted. He sees himself in the same mirror and says that unlike the mirror he is distinguished, handsome, and efficient. He had a neatly-trimmed mustache and was wearing an expensive suit. He calls the bearer and asks for a peg of beverage. After serving him, the bearer sees that his luggage was kept along the wall. The bearer observes a middle-aged woman sitting on a small grey steel trunk. The bearer approaches her and asks if he could help her. The woman is Lachmi. She answers that she is with her master. She is a short, fat woman wearing a dirty white saree with a red border and a diamond nose ring, and several gold bangles. She is chewing a betel leaf.
While Mohan Lal continues to wait for the train in the First Class waiting room, Lachmi calls for a coolie and asks him where the Jnana bogie will stop. The coolie informs that Janana Bogie will stop at the back end of the platform. Soon they hear the signal and the bell sound which symbolizes that the train is approaching. Lachmi hurries up towards the back end of the platform while the coolie picks up the luggage of Lachmi and by following the coolie, Lachmi walks to the end of the platform to get a seat in Janana's compartment. They both reached the end of the platform. Meanwhile, Lachmi opened her brass lunch - box and eats her meal, chapattis, and mango pickle. After taking some food, she again starts chewing a betel leaf. Meanwhile, she starts talking with the coolie. She likes talking but at home, she often remains lonely and thus she talks with the coolie enthusiastically. As the train arrives at the platform, Lachmi washes her hands and enters the Janana compartment. The coolie shifts her luggage into the compartment and Lachmi offers him two annas for his help.
Mohan Lal is standing at the other end of the platform where the First Class compartment stopped. He too takes the help of a coolie to pick up his luggage. He finds no one in the compartment as there hardly are any English passengers while Indian passengers are supposed to travel in the second class compartment. As he ventures out of the window, he sees two English soldiers approaching the train. Mohan Lal feels elated seeing them and asks the train guard to invite the two soldiers to travel with him in the first-class compartment while he is willing to pay their fare. However, Mohan Lal soon realizes that he is no more than a nigger to those soldiers who despise him. The soldiers are Bill and Jim. They enter the First Class Compartment and start admonishing Mohan Lal and asking him how dare he enter the first class compartment? They order him to get out or they will throw him away. Mohan Lal tries to reason with them and tells them that despite being an Indian, he has totally acclimatized to the English way of living and has spent five years in Oxford. The Englishmen refuse to entertain him. They pick up Sir Mohan’s suitcase and throw it onto the platform. After that, they throw his thermos flask, briefcase, bedding, and a copy of The Times. Mohan Lal shouts in protest again, hoarse with rage, ‘Preposterous, preposterous,’ only to be slapped and thrown from the train. As Mohan Lal is pushed down off the train on the platform, he reels behind and trips on his bedding, and falls down on the suitcase. He is badly hurt and takes time to stand again. Meanwhile, the train starts moving. Mohan Lal sees the last bogie passing away from the platform which happened to be the Janana compartment. Lachmi was sitting there near the side window. As the train leaves the platform, Lachmi spits out the betel leaf she was chewing. Mohan Lal watches her going away while she fails to notice him. Still believing that her husband is traveling in the first-class compartment that he prefers, she leaves the railway station.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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