Reviews

Twentieth Century Urdu Literature: By Prof. Mohammad Sadiq. (Padma Publications Ltd., Pherozeshah Mehta Road, Fort, Bombay. Pp. 96: Price Rs. 2-8-0).

This is a brief but splendid review of the modern age in Urdu Literature. The author has selected only such writers as are of top rank, and has successfully depicted their ‘Mind and Art’.

In Iqbal he finds a rare combination of the progressive and conservative elements in art–a revolutionary in thought with a lingering longing look on the glorious past. Iqbal, according to the author, is a prince among poets. Josh is a true progressive poet, in the sense that he faces realities. In his attacks on imperialism, as well as on political and social tyranny, and in his regard for the poor and oppressed he is second to none. Among the novelists and story writers the author has rightly named Premchand, Krishan Chandar, Akhtar Ansari and others who have been honoured and revered In Urdu Literature.

The author, in a brief compass, has covered a big period in his admirable style and clear exposition. The book is worth study. I congratulate the author on his valuable contribution to our literature.
H. R. Abdul Majeed.

Eminent Indians: By D. B. Dhanapala. (Publishers: Nalanda Publications, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road, Bombay. Pp. 180: Price Rs. 7-4-0.)

One approaches a book of this sort in a mood of jaded interest. What could anybody have to say afresh about such popular heroes? “These sketches were written (among others) in the course of a journalistic career as routine tasks,” we are told in a short Preface. And turning to the dust-cover the familiar publisher’s patter meets our eye, containing more information about the writer–“a writer of distinction with a style as vivid as Robert Lynd’s and as provocative as Aldous Huxley’s.” The writer had his early education in Ceylon, took his M. A. degree in Allahabad, and is at present on the staff of the ‘The Times of Ceylon’.

Going through these short sketches on such well-worn themes after these stimulating preliminaries, one must admit that one is not disappointed. The pages are full of apt and scintillating phrases, clever paradoxes and neat epigrams. Though by a Ceylonese author, the book contains sketches only just two Ceylonese, Ananda Coomaraswamy, the great art-interpreter, and Bhikku Rahula, a fiery Buddhist monk who is an impassioned advocate of Indo-Ceylonese unity. A few more would have been very welcome, if only in the interests of greater Indo-Ceylonese understanding. Of the fifteen other sketches, Gandhi, Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, Rajaji and Jai Prakash Narain, make up nearly half the book. The other publicists sketched are Sir Tej Bahdur Sapru, Sir C. P. and Sir R. K. Shanmukham Chetty. Sir S. Radhakrishnan and Jiddu Krishnamurti are the themes of two arresting sketches. Amarnath Jha, C. K. Nayudu and G. Venkatachalam are the other vignettes presented in this volume–altogether an attractive assortment of different types of personality. There is not a dull paragraph anywhere–no padding nor fluff–but a breezy, almost brusque, ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ manner which makes the book eminently readable from cover to cover.

Mr. Dhanapala has caught the trick of the great sketch-writers of hitting off in a few smart words the most marked traits of his hero. “It is a strange destiny for a man to be exhibited for half his life as a bit torn off from the Divine and then spend the other half denying the divinity attributed to him,” says the author beginning his sketch of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Of Jai Prakash Narain we are told, “He amalgamates in his person associations and atmosphere of Karl Marx, Shivaji and the Scarlet Pimpernel.” Radhakrishnan is “a philosophical bi-linguist who acts as the liaison officer, of Hinduism”. Sometimes Mr. Dhanapala can be sarcastic or irreverent, as when he writes of Sir R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, “A man may change his party once through conviction, twice through courage. But if an ambitious man with a keen head plays leap-frog with parties more than twice, it must be through sheer cussedness.” And writing of C. K. Nayudu’s fame as a cricketer, the author writes, “Nayudu stands with his bat at the wicket in lone splendour as almost the only man whom all India hailed with full-throated ease before Europeans had time to give tongue in the praise,” or of Nayudu’s external bearing, “An officer of the Indore Army and an A.D.C. to a Maharaja as this high-priest of the bat really is, yet he has the outward demeanour of a travelling salesman of Swadeshi cosmetics.”

For even a talented journalist to have entered so intimately into the traits of such diverse personalities as are presented here is an admirable feat. But smart writing and love of the sparkling phrase is not without its perils. In the sketch of Gandhi, for instance, occur a few statements that are open to challenge. “Yet this mystic spinner is a queer mixture of epic poetry and stump oratory, the prophet at his boldest and the politician at his funniest.” (P. 3). Gandhiji was innocent of oratory, stump or otherwise, and those who had occasion to deal with Gandhi the politician found him far from funny. Again, Gandhiji is reported to have said, “If we Indians could only spit in unison we could form a puddle big enough to drown three hundred thousand Englishmen.” (P. 17). One has heard of this apocryphal statement before, but Gandhiji is not its author nor could he have repeated anything so morbid and nauseating! “Yet a general melancholia pervades the inner nature of Gandhi,” (P. 18) is an assertion that shows the bright writer entirely off his rails–or of Rajendra Prasad that he is ‘undersized’!

Such lapses are luckily few and far between. There are twelve good portraits provided by way of illustrations.

For the quantity provided, the book is rather overpriced. But then the publishers have their own assessment of the quality, and justly too!
K. S. G.

Of Cabbages and Kings: By Humayun Kabir. (Published by Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay. PP. 238: Price Rs. 4/-).

This is a collection of the addresses and speeches delivered by the author on various occasions from 1931, when he was a student at Oxford, to 1945. Mr. Humayun Kabir has the distinction of being eminent not only in the field of letters but also in politics and public life. He has, besides, guided the student movement in his own Province of Bengal and elsewhere and has been an active trade-unionist. He has a flair for English expression, and a parliamentary manner, characterised by a suavity and sweet reasonableness reminiscent of the spacious days of Gokhale and Sastri of a past generation,–a combination of gifts getting somewhat out of vogue in present-day India.

In this volume are collected together twenty-one speeches and addresses, four delivered before the Oxford Union dealing with contemporary British politics from the standpoint of an Indian nationalist, four presidential addresses delivered to Students’ Conferences, and one addressed to a Teachers’ Conference, two Radio talks, and the rest, ten speeches delivered in the Bengal Legislative Council. The author is a well-known nationalist, a believer in Socialism, and has been among the doughty fighters for the political and economic independence of our country. Above all, he has been a firm believer in the integral culture of our Motherland and has spoken and written eloquently of the fundamental unity of India and of our cultural heritage. Though topical and often treating of matters which appear to be of ephemeral, interest, the addresses repay perusal, if only for their charm of expression and the high level at which the arguments are presented. As the author points out in his brief Preface, many of the problems dealt with in them still baffle us and await solution. Some of the addresses, however, like ‘Literature of the Machine Age’ dealing with some modern English Poets, and ‘Education and Nationalism’ are of more enduring value.

The book is dedicated to Gandhiji–‘a pilgrim of Eternity’.

The get-up and letter press leave nothing to be desired.
K. S. G.

Fancy Tales: By Manjeri S. Isvaran, (Shakti Karyalayam, Madras. Price Rs. 2-0-0).

Rickshawallah (Short Stories): By the same author. (The Alliance Company, Madras. Price Rs. 2-8-0).

‘Fancy Tales’ is a collection of fourteen short stories, of which about seven are reminiscent of South Indian folklore and the rest are creations of Mr. Isvaran’s peculiar twilight fantasy. The folk tales are clothed in attractive raiment, and sometimes even in heavy embroidery. The story of the ‘Stolen Jack Fruit’, as here narrated, has lost some of its native humour, because, in the village version the imprisoned priest eats the entire fruit, all by himself, whereas Mr. Isvaran allows the policeman surreptitiously to share the fruit, and reduce the glory. The author is at his best in tales like ‘The Deepavali of a Princess’, ‘The Rainbow’, ‘Mukta’, and ‘The Cop and the Angels’. The uniform perfume of these blossoms lingers long in the atmosphere of the mind, mainly due to the picturesque style adopted by the author in delineating the moods of Nature. One has to complain, however, that the phrase, “impudent like the worm that turns under the eclipse” can hardly be intelligible to many readers who do not know the South Indian story of the snobbish earthworm which raised its head and claimed kinship with Rahu, the Dragon, just when the latter was engaged in swallowing the Moon!

‘Rikshawallah’ is a collection of ten stories. The title-piece takes up a third of the book. It is a great story, told artistically and with genuine feeling and sympathy. “Deep in the bottom-lands of his mind, the past reared its head and egged him on to definite action.” Mr. Isvaran, with his keen observation and kindly understanding, has plumbed those bottom- lands and described that action which brought about the poor fellow’s death. ‘The Toilette’ is a story which basks in the sunshine of humour. The scene is laid in a third-class compartment of the Calcutta Mail and the author watches the scene from his vantage point on the upper plank. She, “the second young wife, smart, charmingly forward,” and, on the opposite bench, he “who saw no difference between her and a well-masticated chew of betel and nuts”! ‘Visit of an Immortal’ deals with a worn-out theme, handled by Mr. Isvaran, too, in the traditional style. ‘The Thoughtless Donkey’ could well have gone into the volume of ‘Fancy Tales’ since it shares the childlike pomposity of stories in that collection and has no kinship with its neighbours in this book. ‘Passage Money’, too, is below par. The story revolves around the two meanings of the native idiom, “she is a little girl”, one chronological and the other physiological, which have not been made clear. Of the others, ‘The Gap in the Wall’, ‘The Dance of Siva’, ‘The Death of a Doll’, and ‘Posthumous Award’, the two latter are eminently satisfying. Subedar Ratnaswami’s spirit hovers over the ceremony where his widow accepts the V. C. on his behalf, and whispers to itself, looking at the tiny girl his wife carries on her hip, “You are favoured of the gods, for you are a female, and you will not have to enlist as a soldier in the event of another World War.”

Mr. Isvaran’s stories ‘move to pity and mould the understanding’, to quote his own words while appreciating the writings of two of his friends. While announcing his book on the flap, his publishers claim, “In the handling of the short story, as pure literary form, Mr. Isvaran is both artist and artisan.” It may not, therefore, be out of place to plead that Mr. Isvaran may give us less of the artisan and be the artist, more of the time. His artisanship and ‘technical skill’ cloud the sincerity of his style by the tinge of artificiality. With his large compassion and energetic vision, he can well afford to shed his occasional partiality for the strange and the garish in style and vocabulary.

N. Kasturi