Literature to Combat Cultural Chauvinism:
A Response

Shivani Jha

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The blind faith of the innocent village folk as displayed in Chha Mana Atha Guntha (Six Acres and a Third) is reminiscent of an African short story poignantly catching the social temper of the time and milieu of the village of Kgotla and the surrounding areas of Africa, “Looking for a Rain God.“ Set in the periods before and after 1958, “Looking for a Rain God“ reflects the social reality, the buried but not dead thought processes of village folks who rely on charlatans, and witchdoctors to overcome the problems that they encounter in the form of a seven year drought. It conveys the reliance of people in practices that are self-defeating. When every possible remedial measure disappoints the family under discussion then the head of the family, Mokgobja, remembers and reveals an ancient tribal practice in order to appease the Rain Gods. The remedy sought is the sacrifice of the two young girls of the family– Nesta and Neo– and spreading their limbs in the country side. The sacrifice is made, but it does not rain. The ignorance and belief of the villagers of Kgotla as symbolized by Mokgobja is very similar to that of the Odisha village under discussion in Chha Mana Atha Guntha, which shows poor Saria easily misled into believing that an elaborate prayer to Goddess Budhi Mangala would take care of her barrenness and would bestow a long life to her husband.

The Critic as Reformer

“Literary criticism, like literature, can hardly exist meaningfully in a vacuum insulated from culture and history. The liberated reader is also the creator of new values, of a new world fit for human beings“ (Satchinandan 224).

An involved reading of Chha Mana Atha Guntha (Six Acres and a Third) points toward the social evils prevalent in the form of ignorance and traditions that give rise to new subalterns. (People would avoid Bhagia and Saria’s cottage and path on auspicious occasions as Saria’s barrenness is taken as a presence that could invite bad luck). And as Mohanty says, “Before literary critics conclude that the subaltern cannot, in fact, speak, or that we won’t be able to understand what s/he is saying, it would be good to ask, for instance, what literary forms–drawing on oral performative traditions– show us about the kind of critique that have been developed in our rich regional, vernacular literatures“ (8).

In Chha Mana Atha Guntha (Six Acres and a Third), we see that drawing on such oral traditional technique the narrator critiques the society and encourages the readers into critiquing rather than remaining passive consumers of social realities. This opinion is not formed simplistically but through methods rich in technique and stylistic qualities revealing the rich literary traditions of the nation. Note how when Champa arrives at Bagha Singh’s house, in the village of Ratanpur, as the youngest daughter-in-law’s aunt from Tangi in a palanquin with five loads of gifts, the village women hurry to Bagha Singh’s house in curiosity. Senapati writes tongue- in- cheek:

The village women rushed in to see the gifts-Rebati, Sukuri, Sakri, Malia, Jema’s mother, Bhima’s mother and aunt, Hagura’s mother, Sadari, Menki, Kanak, Netajeji, Sabi, Kamali, Padiapa, Shyama’s daughter-in-law, Nalita, Bishakha,and Sumitra, the young daughter-in-law of the cowman’s family. Some women came carrying their babies, some arrived with their children in tow, others came in small groups, and some on their own. Sukra’s mother had been in the middle of spreading cow dung on her earthen floor; she came running without stopping to wash her hands, which she kept like a snake’s hood. Bagha Singh’s courtyard was packed with this throng of women, who stared at the newly arrived aunt like devotees meditating on the face of the image of a goddess. (132)

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