Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Arun Joshi was an Indian English writer who won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1982 for his novel The Last Labyrinth. He was born on July 7 1939 and died in 1993. His father was the Vice Chancellor of Benaras Hindu University. His first novel was The Foreigner which was published in 1968. The novel tells the story of a young man facing problems of alienation, an identity crisis, a sense of void, and an existential dilemma. The story's protagonist is Sindi Oberoi. The story revolves around his loneliness and feelings of anguish and anxiety born of his estrangement from his environment, tradition, and true self.
The story is told in a series of flashbacks and appears highly autobiographical by the protagonist. While the main theme of the novel is alienation and existential crisis faced by the protagonist, it also highlights the difference between the Western and Eastern cultures, Marxism, socio-economic classes, and discrimination against women, and delves into the deeper discussion of nonattachment, suffering, fear of commitment, and the concept of Karma yoga.
Characters of The Foreigner:
Sindi Oberoi (Surinder) is the main character. He is a young man with a sad lonely past. Since childhood, he remained alone and uprooted from any sense of family, culture, and society. He learned from his experience that detachment from human emotions and committed social relationships is a way to avoid sadness. However, he learns that his non-commital attitude and detachment cause more harm than good and he seeks a better way of living. He is an Indian born in Kenya. His mother was an English woman while his father was an Indian businessman in Kenya. His parents passed away when he was just four years old. He was raised by one of his uncles in Kenya who too died away when he was still growing. He goes to London for his education and then he moves to Scotland to work as a librarian in a village. Later, he moved to Boston, America for further studies and to complete his Ph.D. Frank Sinatra is a Japanese girl whom he meets and befriends in London.
Anna is a minor artist working in London with whom Sindi develops an affair. Kathy is an English housewife who develops an extra-marital affair with Sindi. Baburao Khemka is an Indian student in Boston who has become a close friend of Sindi. He is the son of an overprotective Delhi tycoon. Being a young man, Babu is very interested in girls however, his father is strictly against inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. June Blyth is an American girl studying with Sindi and Babu. She befriends Babu and develops a love affair with Sindi. While June wishes to marry Sindi, he does not believe in marriage but in women hunting. He believes that marriage is ‘more often a lust for possession than anything else.’ Sindi also learns that Babu is very much interested in marrying June. He pushes June to marry Babu who is unaware of the affair between Sindi and June. Mr. Khemka is Babu’s father. He is a greedy man who is only interested in making money. Sheila is Babu’s younger sister. Karl is another American friend of Sindi and Babu. His stepmother has extra-marital relationships with other men. After his father’s death, she tries to seduce Karl and thus, Karl leaves the house. Mr. Ghosh is a worker at Mr. Khemka’s factory who continues to study and becomes an Income Tax officer. He doesn’t like Mr. Khemka’s discriminatory and abusive attitude towards lower workers and raids on his factory after becoming an income tax officer. Muthu is a common man and leader of the workers working at Mr. Khemka’s factory.
Summary of The Foreigner:
The story is narrated from Sindi’s point of view and describes the gradual evolution of Sindi Oberoi from a negative philosophy of detachment to a positive aspect. The story begins at a morgue where Sindi is called to identify the dead body of his friend Baburao Khemka who committed suicide.
Sindi is an Indian student pursuing a Ph.D in Boston, America. His father was an Indian businessman working in Kenya and his mother was an English woman. His parents died when he was only four, and he was brought up by his uncle in Kenya. He was educated in East Africa, London, and America. He was denied parental love at a very childhood age. So, he did not feel any kind of love or affection towards his parents. Sindi had felt some kind of security when his uncle was alive. But after his death, the security was destroyed. He grew up as a parentless child who missed the childhood affection and care of parents enabling the tender child to establish a meaningful relationship with the external world. To him, the memory of his parents is “the story of those strangers whose only reality was a couple of wrinkled and cracked photographs.” He grows into a wayward man and finally becomes a wanderer, alien to his own culture. He finds no longer any security and his sense of being an outsider remains to be static. This is why the novel is titled ‘The Foreigner’ because Sindi, wherever he goes, finds himself alien to others. Sindi begins feeling that emotional attachment is the main cause of people’s misery and sadness and favors detachment which leads him to his irresponsible behavior.
After the death of his uncle, he goes to London for studies. He decides to become an Engineer and joins London University. However, he finds that classroom lectures aren’t providing him the knowledge about life and his own problems. Thus, he decides to work outside the University to gain some knowledge about life in general. He begins working as a dishwasher in a local Soho Club where he meets Anna, an amateur artist. He develops an intimate relationship with Anna, however, he intends to avoid involving at an emotional level. Anna, on the other hand, wishes to have a family. Sindi realizes that getting involved with a married woman would be better as such a woman won’t ask for marriage and thus, he develops an illicit relationship with Kathy, a married woman working at the Saho club. Kathy too enjoys Sindi’s company but after some months, she begins feeling guilty about cheating on her husband and declines to continue with Sindi. Sindi fails to accept this and considers it his loss. Being raised in Western culture, Sindi feels nothing wrong or taboo about premarital or post-marital sexual relationships.
After his graduation, he leaves London and goes to Scotland where he begins working at the library of a small village. He meets the local priest of the village and discusses Christian ethics and morality with him at length. After some months, he decides to go to America to pursue his post-graduation. He gets admission to Boston University where he meets June Blyth, a young American girl studying at the same university. June and Sindi develop a love relationship but Sindi again tries to avoid emotional attachment. June wishes to marry him but he doesn’t want to commit to any such relationship. Sindi also befriends Babu Khemka, an Indian student who also loves June and wishes to marry her. June befriends Babu and Sindi feels a feeling of jealousy about this. He questions himself and wonders if he too is possessive about June. He decides to remain detached and pushes June to marry Babu while Babu is unaware of the relationship between Sindi and June. Babu is a typical Indian male who values virginity before marriage and the sanctity of marriage.
After their marriage, June becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, Babu realizes that June and Sindi were romantically involved before his marriage to June. He also notices that even after his marriage, June and Sindi have maintained their relationship to some level. This breaks Babu emotionally and he commits suicide. Sindi is heartbroken by this incident as June also blames him for the death of Babu. June and her unborn child also die during the delivery and Sindi begins questioning himself about his idea of detachment. He feels guilty and decides to go to Delhi and meet the family of Babu.
He meets Babu’s sister Shiela and her father Mr. Khemka who lives in a huge bungalow. Sindi begins working at Mr. Khemka’s factory and notices that Mr. Khemka is a greedy and corrupt businessman who treats his workers very badly. He meets. Mr. Ghosh works as a clerk at the factory. Sindi befriends Muthu, the leader of the factory workers. Sindi realizes that the poor workers of Khemka’s factory are working and living in drastic conditions while Mr. Khemka’s family enjoys a lavish lifestyle. He tries to improve the situation of workers and gains their trust. Mr. Ghosh is a bright student who prepares for administrative services and succeeds. He becomes an Income Tax officer. He decides to raid Mr. Khemka’s factory as revenge for the ill-treatment he faced as his worker. Meanwhile, Sheila develops a friendly relationship with Sindi. Sindi discusses Babu’s death with her. Shiela says that she or her father never approved of his marriage to June. She strongly opposes the idea of premarital sex and favors Indian girls who maintain their virginity till their marriages. Sindi says, “So you think one of these Marwari girls is really superior merely
because of a silly membrane between her legs?” Gradually, Sheila begins trusting Sindi.
Mr. Ghosh finds financial irregularities in Mr. Khemka’s business and Mr. Khemka is imprisoned for embezzlement. In his absence, it becomes difficult for Sheila to manage the business. She asks for Sindi’s help but Sindi begins feeling detached again and wonders if he should run away from the responsibility of managing the factory, factory workers, and Babu’s family. He decides to go away but while he prepares to go, Muthu meets him and tells him how hopeful factory workers are. They believe that Sindi will manage the factory well and will help them improve their condition too. Sindi realizes that staying and facing the problems might be a better option than running away from the responsibilities. For the first time, he feels that while detachment is important, involving in the world’s affairs too is equally important and true emancipation is in remaining detached while fulfilling all the worldly responsibilities. He realizes that this is what Karma Yoga says and this is what he must follow. He decides to stay in Delhi and help Sheila in managing the business.
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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