Analysis of The Uncolonised Mind by Ashish Nandy Part 1

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The long essay The Uncolonised Mind is taken from the book The Intimate Enemy; Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (1983) by Ashish Nandy, a well known social psychologist. Presenting the cases of two writers, Rudyard Kipling and Aurobindu, Nandy poses the question of identity (self) in colonized cultures. The work is significant as it explains how colonialism devastates individual concept of self and how counter narratives from the part of the colonized subject often crate a plethora of complex socio-cultural and psychological issues. Following the studies of Franco phone (Afro-French) intellectuals, Nandy observes the deep rooted impact of colonial ideology on the cognitive / affective domains of the subject and the role of colonialism as an agency of power which constructs the identity of its ruling/ ruled people. Any nation which has undergone the colonial process has to grapple with the loss and recovery of self and face heterogeneous aspects of identity in counter narratives.

Section I

                    The essay begins by quoting Rudyard Kipling’s (1862-1936) belief that to be ruled by Briton was India’s right and to rule India was Briton’s duty. In his poem white men’s Burden Kipling construed that it is the white men’s burden to civilize the non-west .why did Kipling, who was born and brought up and wrote a lot and loved India, considered ruling India as the duty of Briton? This duality found in Kipling is, according Nandy, the result of self formation in Kipling at his growing up years shared in India and Briton.

                      Kipling was brought up in India by Indian servants in an Indian environment. He thought, felt and dreamt in Hindustani, mainly communicated with Indians, and even looked like an Indian boy. In contrast to this, his relationship with Victorian parents was troublesome. It was formal. There was a wide gap between Kipling and his parents. Alice Kipling, Kipling's mother, didn't fit to the image of mother Kipling dreamt and she didn't encourage much emotionalism.

                   It was a custom among British in India to send their children to England in order to pick up European culture and manners. The Kiplings too sent Kipling and his sisters to Southsea, where his aunt Mrs. Rosa Holloway, took charge of them. At Southsea, young Kipling was exposed to bullying, restraints and sadism. Those were the most painful experience in the life of Kipling. Tortured by Mrs. Holloway and her son, he found Southsea as a house of desolation and finally he had a 'severe nervous breakdown' followed by partial blindness and hallucinations.    

                 Later Kipling was taken away from Southsea and admitted in to a public school which catered to children of families with a military background.  The school too provided harrowing experience as Rudyard was a servile, artistically minded boy who hated sports, but the school emphasized masculine and military values. These experiences introduced Kipling to the other side of English authority which produced the ruling elites of the colonies.

                It is surprising to see that the England that alienated him, labeled him, treated him as a bicultural sahib and tortured his childhood, evoked in him great admiration. During those years in England Rudyard was convinced that England was a part of his self, and he had to disown his Indianness.  In order to identify with the colonialism (aggressor) and to get out of victimhood/ill-treatment he had suffered in England, he has to learn not to identify with the victims. The attempt to identify with the suppressor is a complex mental response to the act of domination in many cultures. The subjects fail to see an alternative and internalize the values of the aggressor. So that they share the ‘power’ of the powerful.

              Rudyard was all that he despised in his works. He disliked, the weak, effeminate, individualistic rebellious and often presented an ‘ideal victim’ he wanted to become but failed in his work Rudyard presented two kinds of victims; the first one fights well, and pays back the tormentor in his own coin, and the second is passive aggressive, effeminate and fights back through non-cooperation, shirking, irresponsibility and refusal to value face to face fights.

             Though Rudyard identified with the aggressor and supported counter balance, he never realized what he disliked was there within himself. He identified with what the tormenter assumed. This mental state prevented him from a critical insight a creative writer needs. In order to cover up the hollowness of this duality, Rudyard refused to look inside ad saw the bonds of race and blood more important than person to person relationship. To drive off the troubles of his complex-mental state, he attempted to search for cultural roots through the service he was rendering to the imperial authority. It is easy to see that Rudyard has been split between parts of his own selves. The one which supported aggression, violence and counter balance  and the other was the softer, more creative and happier part of his self; as the first was colonial; the second was Indian.

Then what about Kipling’s love for India? As we already indicated, Kipling admired English culture but he loved India. Though his love for India equipped him to write captivatingly about India and it appealed to his softer and creative self, he despised her. He respected the India which confronts violence with counter violence in this sense he too joins the group of writers like as Naipaul, Nirad c chauduri who respected the martial past of the India. They glorified the past heroes of the India and believed that glorious India of past can provide counter-violence to the violence of colonialism.

In a nutshell, Rudyard had great love for India, he had to take revenge over the agents of colonialism which had split his self and made his sense of identify vague.

As India of his time was incapable of producing legitimate violence to colonial one, he turned to glorious past of India, failing to make sense of the self and the world, he finally identified with the aggressor’s  values and believed that glorification of the aggressor is the only way to make his vague sense of self affirmative.

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Kerala PSC HSA English Rank File Series – 7 Solved Model Question Paper [Descriptive]

Dear readers,

I hope you find my blog psmoreadings.blogspot.in helpful in your pursuit of a career.   We have been preparing objective questions and answers so far.  As some of you mailed me, it is high time that we got ready for descriptive questions. Since HSA examination includes descriptive writing, this post will provide a few tips on how to get ready and prepare paragraph/ essay questions.

All competitive exams are time bound. It is not what we know, but what we can put forward within the stipulated time frame. The challenge is to present all relevant points within the least number of words/ sentences you have in your arsenal. I suggest you draft model paragraphs and get practiced before entering the exam hall. Writing is a skill that needed to have regular drilling. The write up must be well structured, systematic, easy to read and simple. 

Write a paragraph a day

Wish you all the best.

Answer the following questions. Each question carries 5 marks. Maximum length of each essay should be two pages.

 Attempt a critical analysis of Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale.

[It is good to have a clear idea on how to structure the write up and prioritize the things you want to include:

 Paragraph 1: introduction to Keats – romantic poetry – literary forms – ode.

Para 2: theme of the poem – contrast between nightingale and human beings –escapism – personal vision and the longing for freedom

 Para 3: romantic elements of the poem- imagery- treatment of nature- democratization of literature]

              John Keats (1795-1821) is considered as one of the best romantic poets in English literature. He belongs to the second generation of romantic poets of 18^th century who mounted on the ‘viewless wings of Poesy’ and introduced unknown lands of imagination into literature. He was instrumental in expressing the ‘fever and fret’ of everyday life and longed for the eternal bliss of immortality. Like other romantic poets, Keats too found human life on earth as a punishment and the transience of life tormented him. He realized the pain of human life as we are conscious of the past and the present and presented the natural world unaffected by the passage of time. He advocated the worship of beauty as a substitute for the pain of mundane existence. Since the Romantic Revival of 18^th century was a movement against neoclassical literature which exposed the city life, Romantic writers attempted to make literature feasible to all. Odes were commonly used by all romantic writers including Keats. An ‘ode’ is a long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and elevated in stanzaic structure. It is done in the form of an address.

                   The poem begins with the speaker’s declaration that he feels a drowsy numbness. This mental state makes him disenchanted with the world outside and he longs for something that can bring him back to life.  This longing for something beyond the material world is a common feature of all romantic poetry. One can observe similar kinds of lines in poems  like ‘Ode to a Skylark’ by Shelley or ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by Keats himself.  The hopeless, disappointed and static condition suddenly gives way to the sweet music of a nightingale which helps him to come out of his numbness and reminds him of the immortal world. The speaker feels that the bird is immortal and it is untainted by earthly existence. Its ecstasy, rapture and joy make the poet aware of the condition of humanity which is tormented by the thoughts of the past and future. He realizes that the bird is free because it is not haunted by yesterday or tomorrow and it exist at the moment. Attracted by the ecstasy of the nightingale, the poets try to fly with it carried by Bacchus, the God of wine. Later he feels that the viewless wings of poesy can carry him to the bird. This contrast between human and the bird/ nature can be traced in the works of other romantic writers like Shelley (Ode to the West wind).

                       The poem can be considered as a typical romantic poem as it pours out the emotional conflict of the speaker at the outset. It is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings of the narrator and he is torn between the mortal and immortal worlds. Escapism is a feature of romantic poetry as the poem exposes the longing of the speaker to fade away in the forest with the bird. It is also interesting to note that the poet finds faults with humans as we are subject to the passage of time whereas the music of the nightingale is eternal. The instinctive life and ecstasy of the bird is praised by the poet. The use of natural imagery, rhythm and narration make the poem effective. The role of art in scaffolding human efforts to achieve immortality is also emphasized.