Get complete information on the rise of novel in Indian literature

The novel was a new genre in Indian literature. Along with the short story, it emerged in the latter half of the 19th century under the growing influence of English literature upon Indian literature. In classical Sanskrit literature, Banabhatta’s prose romance, Kadambari, came closer perhaps to the form of the novel than other tales.

Such tales abounded, both in Sanskrit and in Persian, but these were without the realism and the specific time-and-place context required by the novel. In the modern Indian languages, the rise of the novel was contingent upon the prior emergence of prose literature at the beginning of the 19th century.

As prose emerged, there were also emerged prose narratives of a somewhat new variety in the first half of the nineteenth century. These formed the tentative overtures to the emergence of the full-fledged novel. Alaler Gharer Dulal by Pyarechand Mitra, which is sometimes cited as the first novel in Bengali, was a satirical social sketch published in 1858. A series of sketches built around a dissolute young zamindar, it had a good deal of social realism, but it did not have the sort of developed plpt characteristic of the later 19th century novel.

Indian language, it is set against the background of the Mughal Afghan war for the possession of Bengal, with a romantic love triangle as the main focus of interest. Chatterjee’s incomparable novels, set mostly in a historical context, followed one after another.

Ananda-Math set against the background of the Sannyasi rebellion in Bengali, contained the famous nationalist song ‘Bande Mataram’ with the Rajput rebellion against Emperor Aurangzeb as its theme was another stirring historical novel. Chatteijee’s contemporary, Romesh Chunder Dutt, wrote several historical novels under his influence, of which the two most famous are Maharashtra Jivan Prabhat and Rajput Jivan Sandhya.

The historical novel came into vogue in other Indian languages, too. The reason is that, contemporary society in the late 19th century afforded little scope for love and heroism on account of numerous social restrictions. In consequence, tales of heroism and love had to be set in a historical context.

The first romantic historical novel in Marathi, P. Amchandra Bhikaji Gunjikar’s Mochanged is built around a hill fort in Maharashtra which Shivaji captures eventually. Many of these historical novels had the heroic deeds of the Rajputs and the Marathas as their theme, with Muslim characters being sometimes shown in an unfavourable light.

The historical novels that appeared in Urdu drew their inspiration by way of contrast from the historical glories of Islam both within and outside India. The leading Urdu novelist, Abdul Halim Sharar, wrote several novels exhibiting the great superiority of Islam in its heyday over non-Muslim, especially Christian powers.

To set novels successfully in the contemporary social context made greater demands for realism on the art of the novelists. Bankim Chandra showed the way with his two major social novels, Bishabriksha and Krishnakanter Will. These works had a depth of characterisation that set the standard for Indian fiction for many years to come. O. Chandu Menon s Malayalam novelesi, Indulekha sought to combine romantic love with realistic social detail.

Govardhan Rams huge Gujarati novelist, Saraswati Chandra had a romantic and sentimental interest, but in this work the hero and the heroine decided at the end not to marry each other as the girl was a widow and the idealistic lovers were unwilling to hurt the sentiments of their community Hari Narayan Apte’s large Marathi novel, Pan Lakshant Kon Gheto was a more realistic work dwelling on the injustice and violence of Orthodox Hindu society towards widows. Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s Umrao Jan Ada a distinguished Urdu Novel with a courtesan as the protagonist, recounted her story in the first person with remarkable detachment and objectivity.

The beginning of the 20th century accentuated the tendency towards psychological realism, which Rabindranath Tagore consciously projected as the main thrust of his weighty novel; Chokher Bali This was followed by his even bigger work, Gora a massive novel of the new aspirations and ideals that had stirred Bengali society in his youth.

The portrayal of contemporary society in authentic detail was also the distinguishing mark of the two widely acclaimed n0velists who started writing soon afterwards: Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and Munshi Premchand. Their works bore the strong imprint of the nationalist movement that stirred 20th century India. But it was the depth of their social and psychological observation, climaxing with Chatterjee’s Grihadaha and premchands Godan which made them the leading writers of fiction in their own time.