The City and The River by Arun Joshi | Characters, Summary, Analysis
Hello and welcome to the Discourse. "The City and the River" is a notable work by Arun Joshi, an Indian author known for exploring existential themes and the complexities of human relationships. Arun Joshi has been acclaimed as a psychological and philosophical novelist who has made a unique contribution to Indian English fiction. He wrote five novels — The Foreigner (1968), The Strange Case of Billy Biswas (1971), The Apprentice (1974), The Last Labyrinth (1981) which won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, The City and The River (1990) and a collection of short stories, The Survivor (1975).
The City and The River was his last novel and it is different from his other novels because it is an overtly political allegory and satire and focuses on the predicament and quest of not one individual but that of the entire country. The novel focuses on the battle between the victimized citizens and the corrupt, power-hungry rulers. The novel is, in fact, a satire or commentary on the Emergency, applied by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi during 1974-75, which is indeed a black spot in a Democratic country like India. Joshi replicates the actual segment of the Emergency in the form of a parable with the multi-layered conceptions of social identity, ambition, freedom, tyranny, corruption, anxiety, murder, bloodshed, spiritual vision, and so on. On the other hand, the novel also raises questions about modernism against nature, and the issue of environmental deterioration.
Characters of The City and The River:
Great Yogeeshwara is a sage residing in the Himalayas, who sends one of his disciples named The Nameless One to a new developing city at the banks of a river as its teacher and astrologer. Before his departure, the great sage describes the past of the city to his disciples. Grand Master is the ruler of a highly modern and powerful city on the banks of the river. He is a corrupt, cynical, tyrannical ruler. The Grand Master's Council is full of power-hungry sycophants. The Astrologer is the prime councilor of the Grand Master. He is also the prime teacher of the city. The Master of Rallies is a young man who initially belonged to the boatmen community. He had been a brilliant student who always wished to be a boatman but his parents insisted he pursue higher education and become a member of the ruler community. However, the middle class and the upper-class community consider him an alien. The Headman is an experienced woman and the leader of the boatmen community. The Boatmen are the lower class of citizenry who lived on the banks of the river for the ages. While they are part of the city administration, they insist their allegiance is only towards the river whom they consider their lively divine mother. Dharma is a police inspector of the city. He belongs to the middle class who lives in a bricked quarter along with his father. Dharma is a headstrong middle-class man who values competence and honesty, however, he finds that such morals have no place in the higher-class echelon. Shailaja is his fiancee. Shailaja’s brother is a mystical revolutionary who tries to help the boatmen when they suffer persecution. Vasu is a brave journalist who raised questions against the Grand Master and his council and faces the ire of the administration. Bhumiputra, or Bhoma is the young iconoclast teacher of the boatmen who gathers the boatmen to resist the tyranny of the Grand Master. Though he is a rebel, he adheres to the philosophy of non-violence and sacrifice. The Professor is the teacher of Bhoma. He works for the administration but he opposes the ills and corruption of the system. He represents the intellectual class who tries to bring awareness among the masses against the ills of administration. The River is the protagonist of the novel and it represents nature, while the City is the antagonist which represents corruption, pollution, political and social ills of the rich, ruling class. The story suggests that ultimately, nature will bring an equilibrium to end the tyranny, evil, pollution, and corruption of the rich, ruling class.
Summary of The City and The River:
The novel begins as the Great Sage Yogeeshwara summons his disciple The Nameless One and asks him to prepare for a journey. He tells him that now when he is grown up and well-educated, he must go to the uprising City at the banks of the river originating from the mountain where they reside.
The Nameless One is unaware of the city and his own past. The Great Sage tells him that he must be the teacher of the City and guide the people of the city in a righteous Dharmic manner. Then he begins telling the history of the City where The Nameless One is asked to go and serve as the Teacher.
The Great City on the banks of the Great River was ruled by a tyrannical Grand Master. He lived in a white-domed palace atop the picturesque Seven Hills. On these hills stood the splendid mansions and offices of the self-serving sycophant ruling elite. Next in rank came the docile brick people living in brick colonies. Lowest of all were the despised mud-people. The most rebellious of them were the boatmen who bowed to the River alone and refused to salute the Grand Master. Though there was no king of the city, the Grand Master was the most powerful and rich industrialist and politician who handled the administration of the entire city.
The Grand Master was aware of an ancient prophecy according to which, a new king would rise to rule the City. His prime councilor, the Astrologer informed him that according to his studies of stars, the time for the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy was about to come. The Grand Master was already a greedy, totalitarian, and corrupt administrator but this information further ignited the greed of him to be the supreme ruler, the king of the city to whom everyone must bow. The Grand Master and his Astrologer announced the set of three draconian laws, - one, all citizens are to owe complete allegiance to the Grand Master; second, to ensure wealth for all, there shall be only one child to a mother; third, those disobeying the Grand Master are to be ruthlessly punished. (The second law was a reference to the forced sterilization drive (Nasbandi Campaign) initiated by Sanjay Gandhi in 1976 to control the Population).
These laws created a rift between the ruler and the ruled. However, most of the upper class was sycophant and submissive to the Grand Master and the middle class hardly had any tooth to disobey. Yet, some people registered their opposition to the Triple Laws. The Professor, the police inspector Dharma, his fiancee Shailaja, and journalist Vasu were among them. The lower class vehemently tried to oppose these draconian laws and thus, the Grand Master announced the fearsome Era of Ultimate Greatness (reference to Emergency). Police forces were used to intimidate the masses. Even the despised mud-people began bowing down to the Grand Master and vowed their complete allegiance, but the boatmen refused to do so, they considered the holy river their mother and Goddess. Although they are sub-marginalized, bourgeois, or lower-class people, they are satisfied with their condition, since they are completely devoid of any psychological problem, ennui, frustration, or mental conflicts. They preferred to remain free and valued their autonomy.
The Astrologer tried to make a peaceful deal between the administration and the boatmen community. He addressed the boatmen community and said that God sent the Grand Master to serve the people. To protect the city he must be the king and every citizen must vow their allegiance to the king considering him the father and guardian of the citizenry. The Headman, a woman, head of boatmen, argued firmly on the matter of her allegiance and said, “We have no quarrel with the Grand Master and we have no quarrel with you. If it is a matter of allegiance, our allegiance is only to the river and cannot be shared, that is all that I want to say.”
This strong-headed refusal further angered the Grand Master who was not prepared for any resistance. He foolishly decided to reprimand the boatmen community and apply force (police and army) against them. The boatmen were poor people with their bows and arrows. They couldn’t face the guns and tanks of the army. The situation became so drastic that even the boatmen began to sway and submit to the tyranny to save their lives. However, the Headman maintained her allegiance to the river and every boatman followed her. There is resistance from the poor and middle-class citizens, mostly in the form of non-violent civil disobedience. Bhumiputra, or Bhoma began gathering the boatmen and other mud-people and announced civil disobedience against the tyrannical administration. The Grand Master was not ready for this. He declared that Bhumiputra was a traitor against the city and must be imprisoned. It became difficult for Bhoma to save himself, he had to hide from the police and the army.
As governmental tyranny reaches its acme, freedom of expression is taken away. The Professor, the representative of the intellectual class, thought of an alternate means to broadcast the truth about the administration and the rebel leader Master Bhoma. His initiative named 'The Lottery Stall’ was supported by some selfless, fearless citizens including Dharma and Shailaja. The ingenious Lottery Stall enterprise was crushed, but Bhoma’s parable was told among millions, and the ruling class was ridiculed. The Grand Master then enforced a 'dragnet' - a cluster of self-multiplying laws suggesting limitless tyranny. Brutality was unleashed upon commoners.
The shattered and dilapidated boatmen decided to disagree with the Headmen and take the oath of loyalty to the Grand Master. At such a desperate time, Bhoma returned from his hideout and addressed the boatmen about the transience of despots and exhorted them to overcome their fear of the Grand Master. He said, "What does your soul care if a man is powerful and a man commands the guns? Guns cannot kill you, my brothers and sisters. ....If you choose the death of your soul above the death of your body, then no one...can help you." His words invigorated the boatmen who were ready to sacrifice their bodies to protect the reverence of their mother River and their souls.
This re-energized opposition from the boatmen prompted the Grand Master. One night, when the boatmen and other mud people were sleeping, the police force of the Grand Master raided them and killed two hundred boatmen in the hall when they were sleeping. This angered the remaining rebels who vowed to take revenge. Bhoma tried to calm them and said they must remain non-violent. He knew that violence ultimately leads toward the destruction of humanity, but the Headwoman disagreed. She wanted to take revenge for the humiliation and killing of their brethren. Hence, the boatmen began the route of violent opposition.
The Grand Master declared mass imprisonment. Many of the common people were imprisoned and kept in drastic conditions in the Gold Mines, an underground jail facility. The Professor and Bhoma too were arrested and so was the Headman. The Professor and Headman were old enough to fail against the drastic jail rule and perished. The Heaman was forcibly blinded by pushing hot iron rods in her eyes. The professor opposed this brutality and went on fast until death, and died. After their death, Bhoma became the main leader of the rebels and the boatmen. However, he was an adherent of non-violence.
In the absence of an able leader, the resistance from boatmen weakened. A new Supreme Council was secretly instituted. It crowned the Grand Master as King and the City was transformed into an absolute dynastic dictatorship of the elite. All democratic practices were abolished.
The Great Sage of the Mountain realized what was coming, so he sent a Hermit to visit the City. The remaining boatmen gathered and announced war against the new king. But their bows and arrows were no match to the guns and tanks. The army burnt them alive and threw their bodies in the river.
The new council decided to celebrate the coronation of the new King.
On the pedestal, the King’s son announced Bhoma and his associates as traitors and killed them. The mother River couldn’t bear all this and she got alive.
Most of the boatmen were killed by the time the Hermit from the Mountain reached the city. He found the child of a dead boatman and anointed him as the next teacher of the city. At the same time, a raft rose from the river bed and took the child and the city's horoscope to the Mountains where Yogeeshwara lived. The River was violent and flooded the City. The Seven Hills crumbled. The King and his family perished along with all the sycophants. It rained for seven days and seven nights and the City disappeared. On the eighth day, the sun rose over a boundless ocean.
It took time for the land to rise again, and humans began to gather at the place to build a new city. Meanwhile, the boatman’s child was groomed and taught by the Great Sage. That child was called The Nameless One.
Yogeeshwara informs him that he is the same child who came from the drowned city and tells him to help the people to establish the city again. He exhorts The Nameless One to remain righteous and keep striving for the victory of good over evil.
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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