Historical Fiction wins the Booker

Winging Historical Fiction !

Another historical fiction wins the Man Booker Prize again! That too, a new writer on the bloc Eleanor Catton for her tomb of a book ‘The Luminaries’, based on the gold rush in Victorian New Zealand.  Before her, the British author Hilary Mantel bagged it twice for her historical narrative on the reign of Henry VIII. Historical fiction, a specialized genre of writing, seems to be giving an edge to other forms of writing, not that it has not won accolades for authors through the times, but consecutive wins have added to its enigmatic flavor.

Historical fiction, a wonderful and satisfying blend of storytelling and history, lends an aura of mystic to the otherwise dry, prosaic and academic pursuit of history.  Historical fiction writing is like making a period film. The frames have to come alive with meticulous details of life in that period of history. The author has to conjure up the times, imbuing it with the authentic aromas of sight, smell and taste unique to that span of time. The fashion and clothes that people wore, the language and dialects they spoke, (River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh), the belief systems that perpetuated the society, the religion that communities followed, the political  and social set-ups , the economy and trade of the people….. such that when we read the book, we enter the scene in history and breathe and feel the feel of the place and duration in time as a palpable truth ; the then becomes now. Historical narrative in the hands of a skilled writer acquires the scope of a Tolstoy, the depth of a Dickens and the pace of a thriller, a fatal unputdownable reading experience par excellence. I would any day pick up a historical narrative or watch a period film rather than pursue a historical record to explore history.  Just waiting to lay my hands on Catton’s work!

Historical novels, the winners make a long list.  My earlier reads would be Roots by Alex Hailey, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  Roots left an indelible impression on my youthful mind of the long-long journey from slavery to freedom, about the trials and tribulations of men, of mastery of humans over other men, of subjugation, fight for freedom, search for identity, racism, oblivion of entire cultures and rich heritage and hybridization. Anna Karenina’s search for truth in relationships mirrors a hypocritical society mired in supercilious wealth and hollow principles. Gone With the Wind, set against the civil war background, glorifies the South and demonizes the North, centering on a sympathetic depiction of slavery and the Klu Flux Klan. My recent reads have been Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. To be able to bag the coveted booker prize in quick succession for the two sequels of her trilogy on Tudor History is equally astounding and bewildering.  But I would rather not delve into the intricacies of the process of deciding a Booker winner, for the subject of historical fiction writing intrigues me more. Wolf Hall is a book which portrays the break from Rome, a process where one man is wolf to another and the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon.  Bring up the Bodies deals with the reign of the second Queen Anne Boleyn, and at the end, her execution ordered by Henry himself.  Further researching and reading the Tudor history, you discover why the cocktail ‘Bloody Mary’ is called such. The latter, the daughter of the first queen ordered the beheading and slaying of innumerable courtiers from the reign of Henry VIII, because the state reverted back to a Catholic state and the Church became  supreme again for a time.  Intervening these have been other very interesting books like The Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  A story of a domestic help who, because of her intelligent disposition and sensitivity, becomes a confidante of the famous painter, Vermeer. The ensuing relationship paints a portrait of Vermeer’s work, personality, household and 17^th century Delfit town. ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison haunted me just as she haunts the home of her mother who mercy-killed her to save her from a life of slavery.  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the delineation of a fictional town Macondo and the story of a noble, ridiculous, beautiful family, a reflection of all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Back home, I have thoroughly enjoyed revisiting history through the works of Amitav Ghosh. He said of his work, ‘The Glass Palace, “one can examine the truths of individuals in history definitely more completely in fiction than one can in history”. The release of the first two books of the Ibis trilogy engrossed me further. The books outdo theory as well as history in terms of its subtle treatment of colonialism.  Amitav’s broad canvas in the books is big enough to include insights into 20^th century Burma after the 3^rd Anglo Burmese War in 1885 and the Opium Wars between China and Britain – a classic portrayal of British hegemony and despotism.  Before these, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children and Enchantress of Florence held me captive with their stylistic writing technique of magic realism used superbly to portray the birth of a nation and in the latter, the Mughal Courts and the Medici family of Florence. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan  transports the reader to the court of Prince Salim and his involvement with Mehrunissa, the wife of an Afghan commander, who with the turn of history becomes the empress of the Mughal empire – Nur Jahan.

History is the story of mankind on earth.  Classics, from Homers’ Odyssey,  Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, Shakespeare’s Othello,  ‘The Qissa of Heer Ranjha’ by Waris Shah to contemporary literature,  portray the tales of man which are ever repetitive.  These great classics live on and can never die, for human nature and behavioural patterns recur again and again. Historical fiction intrigues, baffles, astounds, disgusts and imbues us with more such emotions – and the question remains , ‘Do we really learn from history?’  Primary aim of life is to live it forwards, but we can learn only when we look backwards. ‘Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, seems to hold more true for mankind.

Gandhi before India

Gandhi the Man: How One Man Changed Himself to Change the World

Yet another book is out on Gandhi, ‘Gandhi before India’ written by our popular historian Ramachandra Guha. A book with a difference, as it seeks to explore the context of Gandhi’s words and actions in the context of the words and opinion of his associates, friends and acquaintances. ‘The Collected Works’, the hundred-volume mammoth writings of Gandhi comprising of letters, speeches, interviews, essays, has been an authentic source and a mainstay of writers and critics, who have wanted to reflect, write or film him. The volumes are indicative of his prolific writings throughout his life. It is available today as a CDROM, but Ramachandra deviates from the norm and has based his research on the archives in India, London and Africa, in  government papers, documented court cases, letters to Gandhi from friends and adversaries. He distills a space for the reader to view Gandhi from a perspective, other than his own voice. Secondly, his emphasis is on the making of the Mahatma, given the set of circumstances, influences and experiments that he encountered in Victorian London and colonial Africa, which shaped his philosophy of non-violence, and school of thought about racism, imperialism, civil rights movement, woman emancipation and a deliverance from social evils.

Guha’s preoccupation in the book is study of the colossal metamorphosis in the persona of Gandhi which happened overseas, and turned an average man into a Mahatma. A man born in an orthodox Gujarati Bania family, was drawn by the prestige of law college in London, where he practiced vegetarianism, and returned a barrister. If the barrister had made it big in his profession in India, he would have continued as a wealthy Gujju bania, confined to his conservative community, beset with prejudices, but the failure sent him to Africa where his experiences propelled him to first defend Muslims and then discover a diasporic Indian community of Bengalis, Tamilians, Punjabis…… of hawkers, tradesmen, street urchins, professionals, lawyers, representing    India’s cultural, linguistic and religious diversities. Guha says,’Gandhi’s  skills as a writer, propagandist, organiser and fund-collector were also shaped and developed there.  He wanted to pay close attention to these decades and the interesting cast of characters he worked with — his housemates Henry and Millie Pollak; the Tamil radical Thambi Naidoo who with his fellow Tamils saved the Satyagraha movement; his secretary Sonja Schlesin who pushed him to take a more sympathetic stance on gender rights; his friend Pranjivan Mehta who funded and supported him and who played a fundamental role in shaping Gandhi. In South Africa, Gandhi had real friends, colleagues, companions; in India, he had mostly followers, disciples or rivals. He also wanted to flesh out his life in Gujarat and London in more detail. It was while he was writing for the Vegetarian Society in London that he learnt how to craft an argument, how to make a case, to collaborate with other people in an organization and how to build relationships — all very important to his later work in his homeland.’ Guha has balanced his approach by also delineating his patriarchal approach to his married life and his abominable failure with his elder son.

The book, a voluminous edition and outcome of eight years of research parlayed from his series of lectures on ‘Arguments with Gandhi’ at the University of California in Berkeley. The authorities were a little skeptical about the enrollment for the course, but the full-class attendance got Guha thinking of the great worldwide impact Gandhi had on minds transcending time, geography, and national boundaries. His epigraphic quote of Gandhi from his book ‘My Experiments with Truth’ admits to  inadequacy of autobiography as history which is an individual’s subjective truth – but our wide diverse reading as avid readers leads us to discern our own truth about man and history. In this endeavor, Guha’s book is an appreciated attempt.

The book  unintentionally draws the attention of the people away from two recent  writings:  A famous historian Jad Adams who wrote many revealing facts on Mahatma Gandhi in his book, ‘Gandhi: Naked Ambition’. The book no doubt caused a lot of swirl in the public and media, but at the same time it also invoked many questions in people’s minds about the truth of Gandhi.  Joseph Lelyveld’s ‘Great Soul’ explored the homoerotic relationship of Gandhi with his Jewish friend, Hermann Kallenbach.

‘Touchzing Media, an iOS app development company, announced  the release and immediate availability of Mahatma Gandhi Interactive Biography 1.0, its latest book title developed exclusively for Apple's revolutionary iPad device. Designed specifically for the iPad screen, this app features a complete interactive biography of Gandhi with rare photographs, videos and articles covering all the major events and people of his life. Gandhi was famous as a man of peace and this app presents his life story in an interactive format. This app aims to inspire today's generation with Gandhi's message of peace, just like he inspired millions of people, years back.’

Gandhi lives on in the contemporary world of power structures, rivalries and hatred. A flame that burns over a dark void, but its very existence and prevalence sustains hope and light in our hearts. And the cycle of life goes on!