Clearing a Space, Amit Chaudhuri, Black Kite, Rs 395
Amit Chaudhuri traces Indian modernity beyond mysticism and magical realism
The literary essay,” wrote the American essayist Arthur Krystal, “though it may begin by addressing books, always ends up being about the interaction of society and culture.” The observation is exemplified yet again by Amit Chaudhuri’s Clearing A Space, comprising articles published in The London Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement, among others.
The common thread running through many of the essays is Chaudhuri’s concern with tracing an alternative version of Indian writing, one that steers a course between the idea of India as a mystical, exotic land and the postcolonial, polyphonic torrents of Salman Rushdie and those who followed him. This is the space that Chaudhuri tries to clear, one that exists in “the elisions that direct the binaries (East, West; high, low; native, foreign; fantasy, reality; elite, democratic)”.
To chart this, Chaudhuri attempts to define a separate Indian modernity through the actions of its literate middle class over the years, particularly that of the Bengal Renaissance; to reevaluate Indian writing in the vernacular; and to look at the texts of those who pre-date the “boom” in Indian-English writing. Thus, there are essays that offer perspectives on writers such as Nirad C. Chaudhuri, R.K. Narayan, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Jibanananda Das and, of course, arch Bengali humanist Rabindranath Tagore.
In expressing unease with the triumphalist narratives of India’s rise, and glib theories of what Indians ought to be writing about, Chaudhuri favours delicacy, nuance and the minutiae of the everyday — which, of course, are the qualities that distinguish his own novels and stories. These are reminders that the house of fiction, with its foundations in India or elsewhere, ought to contain many rooms, and not just one great hall for the majority.
However, many of the essays, though thought-provoking, are couched in concepts borrowed from poststructural and postcolonial studies that make them heavy going for the lay person. These are offset by a few others that offer autobiographical vignettes, such as his move to Bombay with his parents when he was a child, his life in Oxford and his return to Calcutta. Readers of Chaudhuri’s earlier works will find themselves on familiar ground. Also of note is a piece on the stasis of what’s called fusion music as well as some astute observations on the commonalities and differences between Bollywood and Hollywood.
