Universal Novels Mithun Dey Both 19th and 20th centuries have witnessed an unprecedented growth and spread of education. Industrialization speeded the production of paper and subsequently improved printing technologies which helped in the publication of books that were essential for education. For the urban middle class, education was a necessary step towards achieving higher social status. With the opening of schools and colleges, education which had been the privilege of only the rich upper aristocratic class, became available to all. Industrialization and education spread in Europe simultaneously and as the European powers colonized various regions of the world in search of their markets they introduced education as a strategy to achieve rapid modernization and to create a mass of literates who would form the base of a local administration that would be responsible for governing the colonies. Thus, England which colonizes nearly the whole world by the middle of the 19th century, established education systems and methods which are still followed by the countries which were once its colonies. India would be a fine instance. The European came to India as traders in the 18th century and the British set up the first educational institute in Bengal in the early 19th century. Naturally, the medium of education in such an institution was English. In fact, the English language reached almost all parts of the world because it was the language of an imperial country that had colonized many regions of the world. English, French, Spanish and Portuguese are some of the languages that are spoken by many all over the world. But, English is the most understood and spoken language, because as the British were the rulers, it was natural for them to decide what is to be taught and how. It is not surprising that English literature, besides English language was also introduced as a part of academic syllabus. Thus, the English novel reached India along with other forms of English literature. Soon, the novel form began to find its place in the regional languages. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was one of the first to experiment with the novel form in the Bengali language. Interestingly, one may discover a strong flavour of Shakespearean drama in his novels! The English also rapidly industrialized its colonies. And as we know that industrialization would produce a bourgeoisie which would, as a class, be the chief patron of the novel. So, when the novel began to appear in regional languages it also found its readership. Prem Chand in Hindi and Sarat Chandra in Bengali were immensely popular novelists, like dickens in England and in their novels we can identify an attempt at diagnosing social ills and evils just as we may discover the same in some of dickens’ novels. What happened in India also happened in many other places of the world: in Africa, Latin America and in other parts of Asia. As communication networks developed, the global exchange of ideas could take place at a faster pace. Also, information reached from one corner of the world to the other faster than ever before. Remote areas have now become accessible. All this had an effect on the novelist is in a position to know of many other novelists all over the world and secondly, they were able to reach out to a large readership. Publication and marketing networks made the works of a novelist easily available. Today, the novel is really a global phenomenon. Due to the advancement of information technology, information about events or incidents in the form of news or reports reach all parts of the world. The electronic media brings us live coverage of many events. For example, during the Gulf War between Iraq and the USA and its allies, the CNN, an International News Agency, the actually covered the war live with the help of video cameras and satellites and millions all over the world saw the grim battle on their televisions inside their drawing rooms! So, there is no reason why an Indian or an African novelist may not be able to voice their concern about the Gulf War. Today, the novelist is adopting a global perspective and voicing global concerns, because they are not only the citizens of their country but also the citizens of the world. International issues like the nuclear fallout, environmental degradation, human rights, terrorism, violence, etc are all themes and issues that are being reflected in novels. We might wonder if the language is a barrier to this form of global interaction. In some ways it is, but since English language is understood by a large number of people all over the world, publishers find it lucrative to offer translations of novels in English; this way the works of novelists from all parts of the globe are accessible. A novel written by a Nobel Prize winning novelist is sure to hit the bookstands of important book shops in big metropolitan cities of Indian within weeks of the announcement of the award, irrespective of the region the author belongs to or language they write. In the modern world, the novelist is a part of an increasingly smaller world and the novel they write finds an increasingly larger readership.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 05:57:20 +0000
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