The mystified immediate post-independence era had left its indelible imprints on the psyche of the Indian people through which three generations tried to cope with. The most affected section of the people were politicians who tried to find a place for their principled stand on issues of governance which had hastened departure of the colonial masters.
The bureaucrats obsessed with their British ICS status and impassive toward the freshly hatched Indian ICS officers were the others who were to govern and train their successors to keep running the Indian administrative machinery. The bewildered educated youth in search of identity and a role in the new set-up formed the third group to be used as fodder for Indian political cannons, as activists of social change in the closely knit cast-based Hindu society and counterfeit of the leftover British culture.
In her masterly portrayal of the mental make-up of these groups in her novel "This Time of Morning" Nayantara Sahgal, daughter of Vijayalakshmi Pundit and niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, has discussed each one of them in a lively manner. She takes the reader to the doorsteps of Rakesh - an officer of the Indian Foreign Service, his colleague Saleem, his superior Sir Arjun Mitra and his pleasure-seeking wife Uma, Rashmi, a childhood friend of Rakesh who falls in love with a Danish architect and Nita who develops liking for charismatic Kalyan. The character of a hardcore politician committed to his paradigmatic thesis on the exercise of political power Kailas and a few more men and women have been used to encompass the complete Indian scene that prevailed immediately before and after the Independence Day, August 15.
To make her views on Indian politics clear Sahgal has effectively used Kailas to talk about different facets of the Indian politics. What has been most painful to her is the poverty that continues to grind people in India. "Hinduism was boundless enough, Kailas explained, to encompass the loftiest of metaphysics, rigid enough to despise the untouchable. It was goodness and piety and the living light of faith, and Prayag, said Kailas, using Allahabad's ancient name, was probably the only place in the world where kings had given all their riches in charity. Yet it was the sufferance of disease and clamour near the temple. It was a torpor that accepted maimed limbs, blind eyes and abject poverty as destiny, letting generations live and die in hopelessness, and at the same time it was the majesty and the mind engaged in lifelong combat with the senses.
What we have today is not a government. It is a police regime to maintain law and order. Government will begin when this man, and that one and that, he pointed out to two tattered pilgrims washing in the river (Ganges in Allahabad) and a beggar covered with sores who squatted half naked staring glassily at passers-by, arousing some concern and are given a chance to live like human beings."
Impressed by Kailas, Rakesh was already afire with the situation talks about his career, which he has chosen despite opposition from his father. In Rakesh the reader would find a young man devoted to his work. "Rakesh had grown up at a time when young men were ardent nationalists. He had a troubled sense of responsibility towards his country, too young, actively to share its travail, too old to be indifferent to it."
Kailas had been in and out of jail for his political thoughts. Kailas' daughter Rashmi has been symbolised to represent a typical Indian girl in search of her identity and recognition of her self. Her affair with the Danish architect Neil, which remained inconclusive despite her complete submission to him, is a sensible commentary on upper middle class Indian girls.
"What have you been doing, Rashmi?" Rakesh asked.
"I have been taking Neil sight-seeing. How do you like him?"
"He is a nice enough person, " said Rakesh carefully, but he's like a lot of people I've met, people who roam the world..."
"You make him sound like an animal," she interrupted.
"Roam the world," he continued carrying the emotional debris of their lives around with them and leaving deposits of it where it suits them. They have no interest in permanence or standards or values aside from their own changing spectrum."
Rashmi considered this attack thoughtfully, then defended Neil, "I like him,"
Sahgal has artistically painted Rashmi-Neil relationship and the extent they went to satiate mutual desires - Rashmi emotional, Neil amatorial.
But Nita, the girl who develops liking for a mature politician, Kalyan, has a different story to tell. It is all about her persuasion - of a desire that is dreamlike but innocent and unadulterated in essence. It touches heart and develops sympathy for her illusive longing to belong to Kalyan.
But above all Uma is a different character that has been used by Sahgal. It attracts sympathy of readers. Uma is wedded to Sir Arjun Mitra. Her stillness and frigidity towards Mitra has given sufficient insight into the state of mind of such women who live a mismatched life. Uma chases moments to have intimate relations with people at parties with no hesitation. There are women who initiate intimacy to hide their battered life under the thin veneer of frustration, deprivation and total disregard to moral values.
Sahgal has used her characters as next-door-neighbour and provided a window so that one can peep into their privacy.
The first edition of the book appeared in 1965 by Victor Gollanez. Ltd., London. Its second edition was published in India in 2000 by Kali for Women. This edition by Sama, 2004 has been published by arrangement with Kali for Women for sale in Pakistan only.
Despite a lapse of about 39 years between the first edition and the present one, this novel kooks as fresh as it was first published in 1965. All characters still exist in India and are likely to live longer than expected. Sahgal has used her pen effectively and painted pictures of her characters in words that leave lasting impression. Her art seems to be in being natural rather than being arrogant as many writers who think that they write with authority and therefor have a right to be imperious. Sahgal is different. This Time of Morning is a pleasure reading. It takes a reader to places unseen, and to an extent - exciting.
Name of the book: This Time of Morning
Writer: Nayantara Sahgal
Publishers in Pakistan: Sama Editorial & Publishing Services, 4th floor, Imperial Court, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Karachi.
Pages: 233
Price: Rs 375
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