![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Published in 1902, Fakir Mohan Senapati’s famous novel Six Acres and a Third sets up a parallel between the import of English commodities and English literary taste into Odisha in late nineteenth century. The paper takes this parallel as its point of departure to explore colonial Odia discourses on political economy and literary criticism, and goes on to study how they construct Odisha as a peripheral space. The paper finds that the public discussions on economy and literature shared a common ideological code. This code preferred to engage with history, whether economic or literary, by turning it into a moral question. This ideological code deeply informed the peripheral middle-class imagination, which often spoke for a working alliance between educated middle orders native aristocracy and colonial state for the sake of economic and literary progress in the region. The paper concludes by showing how this code was at work in Fakir Mohan, in his responses to colonialism, and in his engagement with a fundamental problem of the peripheral space, that of redundant capital. ‘Provincial Victorians’ refer to Fakir Mohan and several other public intellectuals of his generation who came to see themselves as inhabiting the economic and literary peripheries of the Victorian world system.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Senapati, Six Acres and a Third, 58. All quotations from the novel are from the Penguin translation unless otherwise mentioned. Hence forth Six Acres.
2. The novel was serialized from 1897 to 1899. The survey is broadly confined to this period as well.
3. Jay and Jay, Critics of Capitalism, 4–6.
4. Brewer, “Scottish Enlightenment,” 118–119.
5. Goldstrom, “Popular Political Economy for the British Working Class Reader in the Nineteenth Century,” 259–273.
6. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism, 56–57.
7. Dash, “Muladhana O Tahara Karya.” Besides, classical political economy received attention prior to the period under consideration. An anonymous author published an essay “Artha O Mudra” in the journal Utkal Darpan in 1873. It spoke about the laws of Adam Smith. Kashinath Acharya brought out Arthavyavahara, A Treatise on the Principles of Wealth in 1875. It was a translation of Rajakrishna Chaudhuri’s Bengali treatise Arthavyavahara, which was, in turn, a translation of Richard Whately’s Money Matters. Acharya”s text was taught in the schools in Odisha. For the essay “Artha O Mudra,” please see, Giri, Utkal Darpana: 1873, 247–251. For Rajakrishna Chaudhuri’s Bengali treatise, see, Mitra, “Exchanging words,” 514.
8. Samantaray, “Apachaya,” 96. Samantaray writes, “It is a matter of great wonder that despite enjoying an all-round progressive rule, Odias could not march forward on the path of progress.” My translation. This remains the fundamental question of economic history of colonial Odisha. Nabin Kumar Jit, for instance, seeks to explain “Why economic degeneration of Orissa could not be arrested despite beneficial measures adopted by the British Raj for the modernization of the administrative set up of Orissa.” See, Jit, The Agrarian,10.
9. Kara, “Desiya Drabya ra Bayabahara,” 86.
10. Dash, “Muladhana O Tahara Karya,” 165. He writes, “It seems if all the capital of the city of London is given to the progeny of Utkal, then, let alone enhance the variety and productivity of labor, they will refrain from whatever little productive labor they presently engage in, and will prefer to spend the days in amusement.” My translation.
11. Ratha, “Krusaka Jibana,” 63–65.
12. Kara, “Desiya Drabya ra Byabahara,” 86, 87. Kara writes, “Setting aside futile pride, we need to sit at the feet of the foreigner-guru, and learn over a long period, how to work it out.” He continues, “Nothing can also be done by people like us. If the powerful kings, zamindars and wealthy men of the country do not wake up and take timely action, nothing will bear any fruit.” My translation.
13. Maharana, “Lauhabartma.”
14. See note above 6.
15. See Acharya, Unabinsha Satakara Duiti Bismruta Sahityapatra, 25–58. Also see, Samantaray, Odia Sahityara Itihasa, 490–494.
16. Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, 83, 116, 178–179, 34–35, 39, 41.
17. Casanova, 83.
18. Casanova 41.
19. Choudhury, “Utkala Sahitya O Utkaliya Pathaka,”176.
20. Shri, “Utkal Sahitya ra Unnati,” 94–95.
21. Mishra, “Siksha O Samalochana,” 100. My translation.
22. For a short account of the college in the nineteenth-century, see Mohapatra, Adhunika Siksha O Odisha, 116–118. For a general discussion of its role in the formation of Odia literature, see, Samantaray, Odia Sahityara Ithihasa, 165–167.
23. For a short account, see Samantaray, Odia Sahityara Ithihasa, 173–175.
24. Jameson, “On Interpretation: Literature as a Socially Symbolic Act,” 25.
25. Hebel, “Towards a Descriptive Poetics of Allusion,” 139–140.
26. Samantaray, “Apachaya,” 51. Also see, Smiles, Thrift, 16.
27. Samantaray, “Apachaya,” 52–53. The quotation is from ‘Barrow’s’ sermon “Of Industry in General.” See, Napier, The Theological Works of Isaac Barrow, 377–378. Also see, Smiles, Thrift, 16. Quite likely, Samantaray did not have a direct familiarity with ‘Barrow’s’ sermons. He seems to have encountered the Anglican divine in Thrift.
28. Briggs, “Samuel Smiles and the Gospel of Work,” 121.
29. Morris, “Samuel Smiles and the Genesis of Self-Help,” 91.
30. Here, we analyse the particular situation in the alluding text where the quotation takes place. Hebel calls it “localization of allusions” and Plett calls it “interference.” See, Plett, Intertextuality, 145 and 11.
31. Smiles, Thrift, 21–22.
32. Briggs, “Samuel Smiles and the Gospel of Work,” 126.
33. Samantaray, “Apachaya,” 195. “In the metropolis of Calcutta, numerous brahmins and khandayats earn a living by manual labor. On Sundays, all the offices and houses are closed. Dice boards are laid out on the public lanes of the neighborhoods in which they live. Hordes of Odias are occupied with playing at dice. They are bereft of any knowledge of the self, of time or of the place. Utterly lost in the game, they are shouting. Throwing dice upon dice, they show the heights of their prowess…what a shameless and foolish race!” My translation.
34. Bal, “Utkal Sahitya,” 134.
35. Tennyson, “The Princess,” 318–319.
36. Tennyson, “The Princess,” 323 and 325.
37. Tennyson, “The Princess,” 325.
38. Killham, Tennyson and the Princess, 276, 14, and 222.
39. Buckler, The Victorian Imagination, 136–137.
40. Bal, “Utkal Sahitya,” 137 and 134.
41. Nayak, Chandrabati Harana Suanga.
42. Jameson, “On Interpretation: Literature as a Socially Symbolic Act,” 72–73.
43. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III. See the essays, “Gadajatra Rajamane,” “Udisyara Adhunika Abastha,” “Udisyara Bartaman Abastha,” and “Dhenkanalra Ki Durdasha.” These essays were published between 1874 and 1885.
44. Dash, “Rediscovering Ramachandra Mangaraj,” 198, 204.
45. See, Dash and Pattanaik, “The Making of a Novelist,” 117, 113. Dash and Pattanaik observe that Fakir Mohan was “aware of the devastation wrought upon India by colonial system” but “had to make tactical compromise with the colonial administration to fight the Bengalis the more immediate, and the more rapacious enemy.” The middleclass langue of alliance I find at work in the period is different in the sense that it was based on an awareness of the “progress” that colonialism had brought in its wake. Also, it had a wider scope. It sought to bring the three constituencies of Odia social life – the educated middle orders, the colonial state and its officials and the native aristocracy – into a mutually benefitting dialogue with each other.
46. Mohapatra and Nayak, “Writing Peasant Life in Colonial India” 120.
47. Mohanty, “Introduction,” 19–23.
48. Satpathy, “Allusive Politics,” 30.
49. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III, 281. My translation. See the essay, “Krushi Banijya Dwara Deshara Unnati Hue – Chakiri Dwara Nuhe.” The essay was serialized in 1880–81.
50. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III, 283–284. My translation.
51. This is not to argue that anti-colonial sentiment is absent in the passage.
52. Mishra, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. I, 415–419. The title of the poem roughly translates into “From the Market, I Returned.” The poem was first published in the Utkal Sahitya in 1904.
53. Mishra, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. I, 418. My translation.
54. Acharya, Fakir Mohankruta Ramayana, “gha.” Sivaram Patra writes an introductory essay to the volume. It mentions that Madhusudan Rao and Nandakishore Bal first consecrated Fakir Mohan as Vysakavi. One more name needs to be added to the list. Published in 1903, Damodar ‘Pattnaik’s’ Uktala Jatiya Sangita included a short lyric-prashasti of Fakir Mohan. Its concluding lines associate Fakir Mohan with Valmiki, Veda Vyasa and Hindu religious life. In the Odia original, the lines are “jaya Valmiki jaya / jaya Veda Vyasa jaya / jaya Fakira Mohana / jaya dharma jibana.” See, Pattnaik, 30.
55. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III, 219–220.
56. Senapati, Six Acres, 60.
57. Sanskrit continued to have a “popular” appeal in the period. Consider the market for cheap tracts. Govinda Ratha”s tract Bhakta Sambala printed the Rasalila in Sanskrit language and Odia script. Or, his tract Parashara Krusi Paddhati reproduced traditional knowledge about agriculture in Sanskrit language and Odia script.
58. Dash and Pattanaik, “The Tradition-Modernity Dialectic,” 224. In my reading, the short story “Aja Nati Katha” establishes a functional equivalence between novel and purana as regards loka siksha but does not necessarily support a thesis about generic replacement.
59. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III, 123. The short story was first published in 1914.
60. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. III, 124.
61. For an analysis of Fakir Mohan”s allusions to British sources, see, Satpathy, “Allusive Politics.”
62. Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. II, 312. My translation.
63. In the Odia original, the epigram reads, “Sarbe chalibe kala bale / katha rahiba mahitale.” See, Behera and Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. I, 42.
64. Dasa, Shrimad Bhagavata 39. My translation. The original in Odia reads, “kalara krida e jagata / kalaku keba samaratha; sarji palai puna hare / kalara krida e samsare; tahaku pratikriya nahin…”.
65. The original in Odia reads, “samaya bishesare, ghatanachakra paribartare, nidritabrutti samasta jagarita hoiuthibara dekhajae…jeun bruttira bashambada hoi manusya anutapa kare, mangarajankara sei brutti aji uttejita hoi uthi nahi – e katha kie kahipare?” Behera and Dash, Fakir Mohan Granthabali: Vol. I, 45. My translation.