Marathi Short Story: Past and Present

Marathi Short Story
Past and Present

This is the Narrative of the Native. The present essay attempts to streamline a chronological survey of Marathi short story as a distinct literary genre. A long history of story-telling and writing has been exclusively considered to highlight the gradual enrichment of the thematic and characteristic dimension of the genre. The history of story-telling and writing goes to the twelfth century. In this century, before Chakradhar, founder of the Mahanbhav sect, the stories were seen narrated in Sanskrit and Prakrit. However, the derivation of romantic stories, fables, imagery stories and supernatural stories is found in the Rigveda.Vaidhnath’s Vaidhnath Kalanidhi is the first Marathi short story collection written in the thirteenth century. Besides, Moropant, Sridhar, Mahipati, Waman Pandit and Raghunath Pandit composed poetry which basically bears the stamp of short story-like narration.

During 1800 to 1880 many writers like Ramji Choughule, Chintaman Dixit, Ram Kolarkar, Raghunath Seth contributed to the enhancement of the genre. However, in the beginning, writings were influenced by the mysterious stories in Arbi and Farci languages. The atmosphere of their stories was charged with ideals, politics and ornate portrayal of woman. However, these stories could not continue to be the forceful vehicle of projecting social and cultural awareness.

The phase 1900 to 1920 is predominantly typical in the context of slight extension of the stories in terms of vision as well as form. It brought a new complexity to the story; the writer narrated a story which dealt with crowding situations and a number of characters. The phase in which H. N. Aapte wrote stories was stirred by the social renaissance. The problems like widow­marriage, child-marriage, dogmatism, dominance of mother-in-law in familial life etc. were surfacing on the socio-cultural life of Maharashtra. May be due to this phenomena, Aapte intended to produce didactic stories. Though he concentrated significantly in terms of coherent writing in connection with socio-political and socio-cultural movements; he has rarely thought of story as an independent form of literature. It can’t be neglected criticizing structure of his story was scattering and rarely integrated. On the contrary, his contemporary, V.S. Gurjar’s story was systematically organized. His style is cohesive to the theme and it is playful, a little humorous and lyrical in expression. His dialogues are independently structured with twist in the end of the story. Moreover, substantially speaking, his story fails to authenticate the atmosphere of despair and disillusionment, pained reaction and subjective dimensions of experience. The writers, influenced by Aapte’s writing, are Anandibai Sirke, Kashibai Kanitkar, K. K. Ghokhle, N.H. Aapte, S.M. Paranjape and N.C. Kelkar. They walked in the footprints of H.N. Aapte only in a sense of vision and theme.

The phase 1920 to 1940 is typical. The writers of this phase practised story-writing with new experimentation. New concerns and techniques equipped the revelation with various unveiled facets of contemporary life. In 1922 Divakar Krishna published a story entitled Manoranjan (Entertainment). It was a systematic psycho-analysis of the innocent child’s mind. Truly speaking, in his later stories psycho-analysis came to be a milestone of writing. His story is predominantly characterized by delicate and intrinsic interpretation of emotions, dramatic events and beauty of language. After Divakar Krishna, N. C. Phadke dominated the scene by writing romantic love-story, humorous, dramatic, versatile, and chromatic story. His story has been typical in terms of coherence of the beginning, the middle, the end and interweaving of situations. Unquestioningly, his story is based on ‘art for art’s sake’ theory. However, V.S. Khandekar’s story is based on ‘art for life’s sake’ ideology. His world dealt with the sense of service, sacrifice, self-control tolerance and the sense of sympathy. Y.G. Joshi’s story focused on familial attachment and emotional relations. However the disintegration of joint family was the concern of his deliberation. In this phase V. S. Sukhtankar endeavoured to manifest the region of Gomantak. He spotlighted the Devdas-­Parampara, familial hostility and subsequent annihilation. Laxmanrao Sardesai followed his precursor and described the nature of Goa in his writing.

The phase 1940 to 1960 is marked by the formidable turn in the province of Marathi short story. Indirectly, the World War has stirred the regular filux of socio-cultural and socio-economic life. Poverty and degeneration of socio-cultural values have brought traumatic societal change. At this point, the Navkatha made sprightful beginning and focused on the emanate compulsions of the changing society. It ruminated the psychological intricacy and intangibility of human state of mind. It probed into the psycho­-erotic motives of human tendency. In this context, the trium virorum, Gangadhar Gadgil, Arvind Gokhale and P. B. Bhave strengthened the spirit of Navkatha. Though the Navkatha seems achieving the historic status in investigating the psycho-analytical aspects; due to its fanatical motives, it degenerated in sustaining potential for the new writers. Simultaneously in the same phase, the beginning of Marathi Gramin Katha was marked by its authenticity and definite elaboration, it has slowly and steadily passed through several necessary modifications in the context of structure, theme, ideology and idiom. S. M. Mate interwove the inner upheavals of human mind. In general, exclusively enough, the theme of Mate’s story has been turmoil of human being, interior world of men and women, discontent and repression, mute suffering, nausea and nostalgia. He peeled the microscopic layers of inner experience. However, his contemporary writers depicted innocence, hostile tendency, sowing, winnowing, fairs and festive occasions.

Around the same period Venkatesh Madgulkar came forward to portray the miniature world of rural life. Lucidity of language and photographic delineation seemed to be the paramount facets of his revelation. He visualizes rather than communicates. On the contrary, Ranjeet Desai depicted extraordinary people who survived with pride and honour. And then Annabhau Sathe delineated the people whose honour and pride were deeply rooted in self-sacrifice. Untouchables, downtrodden and deprived are also human beings is the credo of his story.

In the phase 1960 to 1980 the groups of story writers can be classified in terms of the mode of writing. In the short story of G. A. Kulkarni, Khanolkar, Vidyadhar Pundlik, Sharadchandra Chirmule, Panavalkar and Jategaonkar the delineation of an ‘event’ is the main core of expression. Kulkarni’s story highlights that the man is an ambitious, frail, selfish and self-centered animal surviving under the shadow of destiny. There is significant cohesion of characterization and psycho-analysis in his story. A pertinent use of symbols and images makes his expression of grief­-stricken experience more sensitive. Though the story continued to be the apt instrument of expression; consciously enough, the short story of these phases had not divulged the conspicuous socio-moral and socio-economic issues.

The stories of Dilip Chitre, Kamal Desai and Vilas Sarang are classified under the term ‘surrealism’. Their stories generate the multiple circles of meaning in terms of human relationships. Dilip Chitre’s story seems structurally scattered but there has been interior cohesion. His narration is forceful and the ending is effective. The scattering aspects in the commencement of story are interwoven in the end to integrate them. The loss of identity in the case of his characters generates chaos in the mind of the character and the reader also. Kamal Desai delineates the social dilemma in the life of woman. Her characters believe strongly in destiny and hence automatically turn silent, alienated, dry and static. Vials Sarang’s writing is also influenced by surrealism. Life is ambivalent, futile and disbanded-is the reoccurring principle in the story of Vilas Sarang.

In the same phase, Gramin Katha brought an idiosyncratic change in its landscape for the sensitive writers of rural ground devoted for writing. Shankar Patil, Anand Yadav, Udhav Shelke, R.R. Borade, D.M. Mirasdar, Sakha Kalal, Madhumangesh Karnik and Mulate vitalized gramin katha in an authoritative way. They dived deep into the authenticity and explored all pervasive facets of rural ethos. The focus of their writing has been on the break-down of social structure of village life, farmer in the grip of destructive forces-natural, socio-economic and socio-political, plight of woman in terms of obeying customs and traditions, miserable condition of hard-working woman, tensions among relations and all grief-stricken facets of rural life.

In the same phase Baburao Bagul and Shankarrao Kharat predominantly projected the world of Dalit people. Bagul intensely exposed nude reality in the lives of untouchables and downtrodden people. The miserable condition of untouchables in his story is mixed with agitation and interior indignation against the hierarchy that at times dehumanized and persecuted them. On the other hand, Shankarrao Kharat underlines the moments of humiliation in the lives of untouchables but his tone of articulation is not so furious as Bagul uses; it is soft and controlled.

In the last phase 1980 to the present, the writers, of later generation, of the tradition of Gramin Katha are Bhaskar Chandanshiv, Anand Patil, Bharat Sasane, Nagnath Kotapalle, Ranganath Pathare and Prabhakar Harkal. Chandanshiv’s story is an acute synthesis of rural ethos. The sharp-witted awareness of social service classes, sarcastic socio-political relationships, unquenched thirst for lust, deterioration of farming and tragedy of farmers are the representative facets of his writing. Bharat Sasane’s story seems to sustain the possibility of potential inherent in rural reality. His exploration of human relation is prudent but not fully sufficient to make a remarkable contribution to the canon of modern Marathi short story. Rangnath Pathare’s projection is sarcastic at the core. He hits at double-dealing and grandiose tendencies of the changing society. Kothapalle’s story delineates the rustics’ love for humanities rather than material gain. He concentrates on illegitimate relationships and sarcastic socio-political associations. However, Prabhakar Harkal’s story invites a comprehensive delineation of interminable stress and tribulation in the lives of farm-labourers. His writing discloses the perplexity of changing dimensions of socio-political facets, revenge attitude, exploitation of farm-labourers and hostility between the farm-labourers and the farmers.

In this phase the next generation of Dalit writers appeared with new urge and vital force of expression. Amitabh, Waman Howal, Yogiraj Waghmare, Keshav Meshram and Sharankumar Limbale are the prominent writers of this phase. These writers neatly tried to legitimize and authenticate the bias of hierarchy inherent in the social system. However, these writers could not handle the aspects of realism veiled by misapprehension.