Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Apprentice is a novel by Arun Joshi that was published in 1974. His novels have characters who are urban, English-speaking, and disturbed for some reason. He often explored the shallowness and struggles of the middle class. The Apprentice is unique because of the techniques of first-person confessional narrative that Arun Joshi used in this novel. The novel is shaped as a series of dramatic monologues spoken by the protagonist-narrator to a listener, or reader. ‘The Apprentice’ is predominantly about money, power, politics and corruption. The novel basically deals with how the New Slavery has come into existence after independence with new masters: politicians, officials (bureaucrats), and the rich. The novel offers the protagonist's confrontation with his own self, inner and outer, probe directly into his psyche and lays it bare for the reader to examine. The novel explores the drawbacks of the socio-political system of Post-independence India.
Characters of The Apprentice:
Ratan Rathor is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel. Most of the novel is presented as his dramatic monologues as if he is presenting an autobiography. Ratan is the son of a reputed lawyer and a patriotic freedom fighter. Rathor is from Punjab and grew up in the foothills of Punjab. His father was a follower of Gandhian philosophy. He decided to donate all his property and completely devote himself to the Indian freedom struggle. Ratan’s mother opposed her husband and tried to convince him that money matters more than patriotism. Ratan observed the contrast between selfless patriotism and materialism within his home. His father gets killed during a procession against the British rulers. Ratan finds it difficult to find a job in the newly independent India. Somehow, he gets a temporary clerk’s job in a Government office, dealing with war purchases.
Brigadier is one of Ratan’s childhood friends. Brigdier’s father died at an early age and his mother and elder sister worked hard to offer him good education. Later on, he becomes a reputed military officer and faces the enemies five times in the battleground. Brigadier is an honest and brave army man while Ratan is the exact opposite, he is a coward. The superintendent is the boss of the government office where Ratan works. Ratan works hard to please his superintendent. The superintendent encourages him to take bribes from the dealers. Ratan realizes that a successful career cannot be achieved through diligence and sincerity, but be realized through flattery and cunning. The superintendent offers a recommendation for a permanent job for Ratan on his assurance that he would marry the superintendent’s niece Geetu. Sheikh Himmat Singh is a corrupt dealer and businessman who facilitates weapons and other necessities for the Indian army.
Summary of The Apprentice:
The novel begins as Ratan Rathor meets an N.C.C. cadet who came to New Delhi to participate in the Republic Day parade. Ratan begins a conversation with him and he comes to know that the student is requesting him to direct him towards grounds to attend rallies. Ratan continues his conversation with the student in a nearby shop, he takes him there for tea because that tea shop seems to be the best of the neighborhood and adds that the proprietor is an excellent man. When the student enquires him about his residence he explains that he lives in a government colony, which are identical flats, yellow by day and colorless at night with an occasional park, a library without books, a boy’s school, a girl’s school, a sub-station, an area neither poor, rich nor hostile, friendly. Ratan begins telling his story to this young N.C.C cadet.
Ratan is from Punjab. His father was a successful lawyer and a Gandhian follower who took an active part in the Indian struggle for Independence. Ratan admired and supported his father when his father decided to donate all his money and devote all his energies to the processions against the tyrannical British government. Her mother was suffering from tuberculosis but preferred staying at home instead of going to the hospital to save money. She opposes her husband’s decision to stop working as an advocate and donate all his money to the freedom struggle and says, “It was not patriotism but money, she said, that brought respect and bought security. Money made friends. Money succeeded where all else failed. There were many laws, she said, but money was law unto itself.”
Ratan had a friend named Brigadier who once saved him against the bullies in a sugarcane field. Brigadier had lost his father at an early age and Ratan’s father helped his family to keep up with his education. Brigadier is a brilliant student and he continues to excel but never forgets the struggles his mother and elder sister go through for his proper upbringing. During a procession against the British government, Ratan’s father too dies during the lathicharge. After his graduation, Ratan tries to find a job but fails to get any. He decides to be a part of Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj and leaves his home. But much before he can reach his destination, he realizes that he is too cowardly to be a freedom fighter and returns home.
After the Independence, his mother advises him to go to Delhi to seek a job. She manages to get a letter of recommendation for him from one of the friends of Ratan’s father. In his search for employment, he realizes that the posts advertised are already filled in some manner. Even his father’s friends could not come to his aid to find a job for him. During his stay in Delhi, he gets shelter in a sarai (inn) beside a masque where several others also occupy the same room with him. A stenographer living at the same inn manages a temporary job for him in a Government office, dealing with war purchases.
Ratan distances himself from his friends at the inn and devotes all his energies to pleasing his boss, the superintendent of the office. He remembers how his late father despised the clerical jobs as bourgeois filth. He works hard to please his superintendent. In a very short period of time over six months, on the recommendation of the superintendent, he gets confirmation in the service on his assurance that he would marry the superintendent’s niece. Henceforth he never looks back and on the superintendent’s retirement, he gets this most coveted post which brings him every comfort in his life. With the accumulation of riches, Ratan rather gets himself associated with the pleasure of wine and women in Bombay. The superintendent teaches him the tricks of making money and Ratan begins taking bribes. In the Post-independence era where career and class define any human in addition to it is the period of an inferno of corruption, Ratan also goes in the pursuit of career “one had to live. At the earlier stage of his career, he hesitates in taking bribes but with the words of his superintend he justifies his deed that there was no point in looking for truths aside from the truth of God. Money in the world always changed hands. God was only concerned with what one did with the money.
During the Indo-China war, a dealer named Sheikh Himmat Singh approaches him and offers a great deal of money as a bribe for supplying substandard war items during the emergency. The substandard material causes a great deal of loss to the Indian Army. An inquiry is staged to find out the causes. Ratan fears that he may get caught so he deceives his very close friend, Brigadier, by giving a false statement without admitting his crime. The inquiry committee finally submitted that the Brigadier was responsible for the substandard war material.
Ultimately, the Brigadier commits suicide. His best friend Brigadier’s death acts as an eye-opener for Ratan, he never confesses his guilt but tries to redeem himself. He thinks of confessing his crime but fears losing his reputation.
He realizes that there is nothing unethical about the fact that the son of the freedom fighter runs after a bureaucratic career. But it is highly illegal, unethical, and unscrupulous that he should get corrupt and act against the national interest. During the time of the nation’s adversity, he was not the only one to gain prosperity by clearing sub-standard war materials supplied by Sheikh Himmat Singh, being used in the Indo-China war without caring for the lives of innocent people.
He begins serving poor people and washing their feet every day at a temple. He also vows to correct his wrong by discovering and exposing the real corrupt person behind the debacle of substandard war material. He begins pursuing Sheikh Himmat Singh to take revenge. He blames the Sheikh for all this mess because he was the one who brought the offer to Ratan. But when Ratan confronts the Sheikh and puts a gun on his head to kill him, Himmat Singh reveals that it was not his idea to get the clearing for substandard war material. He reveals that the whole plan was of the Minister and his Secretary and they chose Ratan to be a part of the plan because he was a ‘spineless flunkey’. Ratan realizes that the whole Department right from the Minister to the peon is corrupt. He further learns that Himmat Singh didn’t become a part of the conspiracy for money, as he already has a lot of money. But Himmat Singh assisted in the plan because he despised the whole society and wanted the whole system to do bad. He got involved in such a crooked act of ignoring the safety of the lives of innocent people because he despises society as a whole and just wishes for destruction and disaster for all. He belonged to a poor family and witnessed his mother being forced to sell herself to feed him. His past memories filled such venom in him that he just seeks revenge against society. Ratan learns that Himmat Singh too was the son of a revolutionary and should have become a revolutionary in post-independent India but he too falls victim to the socio-political set-up of new India. Ratan realizes that there was no specific reason for taking the bribe – neither need nor compulsion. Yet, Ratan feels the need to justify himself and despite knowing everything, he deceives Himmat Singh and holds him responsible for the supply of defective materials. Himmat Singh retorts and says, “You are bogus, Ratan Rathor…. from to bottom. Your work, your religion, your friendship, your honor... nothing but a pile of dung”.
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!
