INTRODUCTION:

This study attempts to focus on the post colonial approach of V.S. Naipaul’s ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ (1964). It has been tried to coin Bhaba’s post colonial ideas like Mimicry, Unhomeliness, Ambivalence and Creolization. Homi K Bhaba (1949) one of the famous contemporary post colonial critics, was born in Mumbai, India. He received his under graduate degree from Elphinstone college, Bombay University in 1970. Then he did his masters degree followed by a PhD in 1990 from Oxford University. He sharpened himself as a postcolonial theorist under the dynamic influence of Lacan, Freud, Bakhtin, Derrida and argues that in the encounter of colonizer and colonized, both cultures are affected. In this study, the researcher attempts some of the Bhaba's ideas such as Hybridity, Stereotyping and Mimicry in V.S. Naipaul’s ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ (1964).

The characters of this novel faces an identity crisis who are away from their homes and have to accept the rules, customs, practices of the governing culture in which they find themselves unhomed and then Bhaba remarks, psychological refugees since they don't know to which culture they belong, the Indian culture or the British culture. They don’t know which culture should give them a value as a result of their character and personalities became ambivalent. Their identities are floating between the dominant culture and their own cultures. A house for Mr. Biswas became Naipaul’s fourth published work that gave him an international fame. After the success of ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, advised the novelist to consider on a non fictional work about the Caribbean. Naipaul was uncertain about his uncertainty to write such non fictional works.

Naipaul’s ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ is a tragic comic novel set in Trinidad in 1950s and was published in 1961. It deals with an East Indian’s suffering and the struggle for a place in search of identity. The novel takes its subject matter from the excluded people who have been alienated from societies to which they belong and who are in quest of an identity. In his book, Naipaul tries to put forward the life of an ordinary excited and marginalized man, Mr. Biswas and his struggled to find a place of his own in the Caribbean country of Trinidad. Pit Recep Tas in the essay, “Alienation, Naipaul and Mr. Biswas”, considers the most important contribution of ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ as “legitimization of the spoken language of the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies”.

Post colonial criticism:

Complicated and abstract style of Bhaba has given him a high chair in the world of postcolonial criticism. In a vital term that analyzes the culture, history, literature and mode of discourse that is specific to the former colonies of England, Spain, France and other European powers. Such study has focused especially on the third world countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean islands and South America. Therefore, the political, social, cultural psychological operations of colonialist and anti colonialist ideologies are the chief components of the post colonial theory.

Homi K Bhaba’s theoritical framework is epitomized in his book ‘location of culture’ in which he focuses the concepts such as Mimicry, Ambivalence, Hybridity and Identity. The colonizer thinks that through suppression and providing specific mode of behaviour can dominated the colonized. However the colonizer is affected due to such interaction and the colonized inject some of their conventions and manners to them. Bhaba with the terms i.e. Mimicry, Stereotype, Ambivalence, Unhomeliness … argues that the identity of both colonizer and colonized is changed during their encounter.

Multi culturalism or diversity among cultures is a chief term in post colonial study. In common, these terms both refer interchangeably to the variety of cultures and the requirement to acknowledge this variety to avoid universal prescribed cultural definitions. As it refers itself as a variety of culture and according to Bhaba is a distinct and separate groups of behavior, attitudes and values. Through cultural differences Bhaba also advised that cultural authority is not merely a series of fixed to be defined, but this is which bring into discriminate between the various “Statements of culture or on culture which gives right to the creation of various areas of references by which we order them” (P-20). Bhaba’s main focus demonstrates what happens on the borderlines of cultures and also in between cultures through which he calls it ‘luminal’, means that which is on the border and emphasizes on what in between fixed cultural forms of identities like self and other that is central to the creation of new cultural meaning. This study also portrays how language transforms its actual meaning through its confrontation of colonizer and colonized.

“Creolization is the process of intermixing and cultural change that produces a Creole society” (Ashcroft, P.51. 2000). Creolization is used to define those “post-colonial societies whose current ethnically or racially mixed populations are products of European colonization” (P.51). It is actually defined as the response of each individual towards the Creole society where they are living in. Such responses can be religious, educational and psychological. The interaction they have and the quality of response are to a large extent dependent and are defined by the dominant culture, they produce a totally new construct. (P.11).

Another important theme of Bhaba’s theory in Diaspora. In common, it means dispersing, moving from one place to another region, as Joanathan Ingleby (2007) defines diaspora includes a dispersion from one place or ‘centre’ from which all the dispersed take their identity, through which there can be a various foreign destinations. In fact they always remain stranger and always belong to Minority in the eyes of their host and differ from Majority.

Mimicry is another key term of this study where Bhaba demonstrates Mimicry as an exaggerated copying of language, ideas, thought, practices, culture and manner by the colonized that combines both Mimicry and Menace. Bhaba says “Mimicry repeats rather that represents” (P. 85). Following Bhaba’s idea “the excess or slippage’ produced by the ambivalence” of mimicry does not completely turn the discourse but transfer into an uncertainty makes the colonial subject as a ‘partial’ presence (P.86).

Another significant concept is discourse of stereotypes. As just said beforehand, in the process of creating identity the colonizer considers themselves as superior and the native people as inferior by giving them the identity that they are just “indolent, thoughtless, immoral, demented and unreliable” (Bressler, P.140, 2002). On the other hand, their own culture is “civilized, sophisticated or as post colonial critics put in, Metropolitan” (Tyson, (P.419, 2006).

Various changes in three generation of Creole Society of Trinidad:

A house for Mr. Biswas is a story and history of three generations of Indian people living in the Creole Society of Trinidad. Mr. Biswas who is the main protagonist of the novel viewed all three characters in his own eyes. We, the readers are well aware of the cultural changes in the rituals of the Indian people as a result of which their belief and identity undergo drastic variations. Rosemary Pitt argues “the main changes which are recorded are the decline of the Hindu culture and rituals as they undergo the process of creolization and the accompanying changes in attitude” (P.8. 2001). These cultural changes along with the change of their identity during the meeting with the colonizer and the other people of their race, are psychological, spiritual, religious and educational. The important thing of this novel is that these changes occur along with the changes in the Creole society in which different cultures are clashing with one another and they adopt themselves to the norms, beliefs and values assigned to the them by the dominant culture.

Variation in language in Creole society:

One of the chief matter that the colonized may face in the Creole Society of Trinidad is the issue of language among the Indian people, immigrating their. As the story goes on, we confronted with the changing generation of India, we see the drastic change of language and is supplanted by the language of the colonizer. The culture Mr. Biswas was born to speak Hindi but with passing of time as they live in a Creole Society of mixed cultures, they begin to use English instead of Hindi in public. Tara, Mr. Biswas’s aunt, speaks English with the photographer in his father’s funeral as English is becoming the prevalent in Trinidad. It shows how the dominant culture is influential in shaping one’s identity and culture that they begin to use the colonizer’s language in public.

Mr. Biswas himself uses English at Hanuman House as an act of rebellion against the other members in the house “even when they spoke to him Hindi”, He uses “English as a gesture of rebellion and independence” (Pitt,P.120.2001). When Mr. Biswas after a period of absence from the family and Hanuman House, comes back and talks to Mrs. Tulsi, he spontaneously talks to her in a friendly Hindi language as he now feels at ease with her and calls her Mai, meaning mother. “Mr. Biswas did not want to talk to Mrs. Tulsi in Hindi, but the Hindi words came out”. How are you, Mai? I could not come to see you last night because it was too late and I did not want to disturb you (HB, P.94). This shows the change of language in a Creole society, where one has to speak English. As Mr. Biswas, the protagonist is an immigrant, certainly he utters Hindi words as per his foundation based native language practice.

Educational changes:

Along with the cultural variations that happen in the island, we see tremendous changes in the education of the people in the three generations of the Indian people living in Trinidad. We can see how this change in the experience each generation has with education makes people’s specification change too. With the flow of the novel, we see the significant change from first to third generation along with the educational changes where the first generation believes in the superstition and even when Biswas goes to school, he doesn’t believe in the lessons he should learn. He considers those lessons are worthless. But in the next generation, it is the English language that occupied a dominant position and they even forget how to speak their native language Hindi. It is also mentioned, “responsible for the decay of Hindu tradition” (Pitt, P.10.2001). The system of education as per the view of the colonizer is remote from the tradition of Hindu, Mr. Biswas is taught about Oases and igloos on his entry to the new world at school in Pagotes, topics as wiped out from his experience which makes him ignore and do not pay attention to them.

The same occurs when he is Assigned to write some message on the seasons in England of which he has no experience. However, with the change in generation, they disolve the problem and the third generation faces no hurdles with this issue and they easily relate to the new topic.

In another occasion when Mrs. Tulsi has decided to send Owad abroad to study medicine, some of her friends turn back on her and she’s not paying much attention to the caste and costume as she’s sending her son to study abroad. “Forgetting this they were in Trinidad, that they had crossed the black water from India and had thereby lost all caste, they said they could have nothing more to do with a woman who was proposing to send her son across the black water”(HB,P.167). Though Mr. Biswas belongs to the second generation and his way of thinking is traditional, he lets his children, Anand, Sabi go abroad as per their scholarship program, but he is also afraid of their future. As Pitt demonstrates “Mr. Biswas fears for his son’s future if the boy does not get some kind of education, but his fears are transformed into hope and optimizing when his son goes abroad on scholarship. This education system is viewed in an ambivalent way”(P.9).

Change in religious perspective:

The Trinidadian Hindus are very sticked to their religious views. Similar to other cultural changes that occur in various generations, we see, during the course of the novel that religious view also changes with the change in generation. The first generation follows Mrs. Tulsi, Bipti and Tara hold strong outlooks towards their religion and respect the customs, rules and values of their caste. As an example, the daily puja is done at Hanuman House as a tribute to the Gods, even the name of the house signifies the old India. However, this religious views fades with the change of generations, as the new generation emerges, the new mode of religions thought is established. The ideology of each generation becomes more modernized and therefore we can check the difference between the traditional and modern Indian religious belief.

Mr. Biswas as being from the high cast in treated respectfully at the beginning of the novel whenever he goes to Tara’s house. It shows the prevalence of caste system in their custom. “He became a different person… In tara's house he was respected and pampered as a Brahmin; yet soon as the ceremony was over, he became once more only a laborer’s child” (HB, P.21,1995). Even one of the reasons that Mrs. Tulsi agrees with Mr. Biswas’s marriage to her daughter, Shama, in the fact that he belongs to a respected Brahmin caste. As a child, he is expected to become a pundit but he feels no compassion towards the religion and leaves, disgracing the holy tree. Later on, he is married to the Tulsi family, he resents their idol worship and mocks them when they pray to the Monkey God. To find a new path to tease the family and in quest of a new community with which he would be able to construct a relationship, he turns to Aryanism, which was against caste, pundits, animistic, ritual, parentally arranged and child marriage and for the education of girls.

“He was speaking of the protestant Hindu missionaries who had come from India were preaching that caste was unimportant, that Hinduism should accept converts, that idols should be abolished, that women should be educated, preaching against all the doctrines and orthodox Tulsis held dear…. after thousands of years of religion idols were an insult to the human intelligence and to God; birth was unimportant, a man’s caste should be determined only by his actions” (HB, P.52-3,1995).

Similarly, Anand comes to attend the sacred thread ceremony merely as an excuse for absenting himself from school, for he and his father know that with a shaved head he could not go to school, inviting ridicule and unusual molks from other children and his teachers. Mr. Biswas encourages him to learn, retrent school notes, and his performance of the puja. The only thing Anand can do is sticking flower stem under God’s chin, and can’t consider the rituals strictly. As the third generation fellow, Anand does not believe in the religious rituals and he takes the rituals just for fun and can’t agree to go to school with his bald head. He does not take the ceremony in serious manner. This depicts the Brahminical thread ceremony ritual where the child has to shave his head and has to follow some ritual and holistic practices. However, the influence of caste has been weakening; and discrimination based on caste is now diminishing in democratic India.

CONCLUSION:

As mentioned earlier, in the clash between the culture and practices of the colonizer and the colonized, both cultures are affected through which the identity of both is established, framed and changed. ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ through the help of the concept of creolization, it is illustrated that how the immigrant Indian people, leaving their own country and come in contact with the colonial and Creole Society of Trinidad, change their customs, practices and identity to accept the norms, rules and regulations of the dominant culture. The novel shows the three generations of Indian people living in a Creole Society of Trinidad, under the dominance of England. We see each generations encounter with the cultural process of creolization. As each generation passes, they lost their cultural, educational, social, religious views of their own custom.

Mr. Biswas, as the main protagonist of the novel, is looking for a house of his own throughout his life. He represents displaced people having no identity in Trinidad since they are unhomed from their native land and in this new environment. Biswas quests for his identity in Trinidad. The unhomed people faces an identity crisis and they are looking for that in the new place. Moreover, they become more confused as to which culture they should adopt and thereby find an ambivalent personality.

REFERENCES:

1. Ashcroft, B., Gareth, G., and Helen T.(2000). Post-colonial studies: The key Concepts. London: Routledge.

2. Bhaba, H.K. (990). “DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern Nation.” Nation and Narration. London: Routledge.

3. Brathwaite, E.K.(1974). Contradictory Omens: Cultural Diversity and Integration in the Caribbean. Mona: Savacou Publication.

4. Pitt, R. (2001). York Notes: V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas. London: Longman.

5. Naipaul, V.S. (961). A House for Mr. Biswas. London: David Campbell Publishers.

6. Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today, A User-Friendly Guide. 2th Ed. New York: Routledge.

7. Bressler, C. (2007). Literary Criticism. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Received on 10.08.2023 Modified on 22.08.2023

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2023; 14(4):229-232.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2023.00045