Kerur Vasudevacharya’s “Indira” – Part 2: Social change and other issues

In between the many fluctuations in the romance between Indira and Ramakanth, Vasudevacharya introduces a group of ‘social change agents’ with whom Indira and Ramakanth are seen engaged in debates regarding women‘s freedom, women‘s education, widow remarriage, language issues, and so on.  Many well-known reformers and their reform activities are lampooned here.  

Pandita Ramabai, who, through her social service activities and writings and campaigns for emancipation of women, came to epitomize the ‘female social reformer’ and who became well-known across the major cities of India during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, is lampooned by Vasudevacharya as Pandita Radhabai, a social reformer.  Pandita Ramabai‘s work was positively acknowledged in Gulvadi Venkatarao‘s Indirabai, where her book Streedharma Neeti is introduced as an essential reading for young women and through Pandita Anandibai‘s character, who establishes a home-cum-school for young widows.

Cover of recent edition of Indira

In Indira, Vasudevacharya rewrites Pandita Ramabai‘s character as Pandita Radhabai, a caricature of Ramabai.  To add insult to injury, he makes Radhabai speak about herself. Pandita Ramabai‘s widowhood and her conversion to Christianity are satirized.  In Indira, Pandita Radhabai is shown as having married three times, each time after being widowed and her conversion is shown as coming after her marriage to a Father Cunningham in America. Seshadasacharya Adya (author of an early Kannada social play, Suvadana Bhaskara) is lampooned here as Phanindracharya Adya.  

Phanindracharya is shown here as marrying Nagalakshmi, who has been widowed thrice and that he is not bothered about her not being a virgin-widow.  The exaggeration and the language used for this description are gross and also show Vasudevacharya‘s unconcealed rage at these acts. Nagalakshmi is described as a woman who was ‘savoured’ by three husbands previously.

The meetings of the reformers at the Upasana Samaj is described by Ramakanth as being similar to Church sermons and rituals, with chapters being read out from The Bible. Vasudevacharya makes it clear that he sees all the reform activities as Western and more specifically Christian and that he would not have anything to do with such reforms.

Vasudevacharya was a student at Pune during the years 1889-1890 and was witness to the reformist-conservative debate between Agarkar and his followers demanding reforms and supporters of Tilak who wanted to uphold Hindu values.  Pandita Ramabai‘s activities were reported in their respective periodicals/ newspapers —Maratha, Kesari and Indu Prakash of the Tilak group and Sudharaka and Subodha Patrika of the reformist Agarkar group.  These debates would have influenced Vasudevacharya and coming from an orthodox, priestly family, he seemed to appreciate Tilak‘s views. This exposure could be the cause of his anger towards Ramabai and other reformers.

Apart from presenting the contemporary conservative attitude towards reforms, Vasudevacharya makes the novel topical by introducing elements like the names of newspapers that Ramakanth reads, the Kannada-Marathi language debate, Venkatacharya‘s popular translation of Bankimchandra‘s Vishavriksha that Indira reads, names and activities of religious and social reformers and long discussions on reforms.

Kerur Vasudevacharya’s “Indira” – Part 1: The Story

Not all early realist novels supported social change.  In the novels discussed in earlier posts, the people who opposed women‘s education, widow remarriage, and general change in society, were on the other side and the authors of these novels strongly advocated reforms, though Bolara Baburao's and Gulvadi Annajirao's approaches in their novels can best be termed ambiguous.  Kerooru Vasudevacharya's Indira (1908) is an example of the orthodox 'anti-social change' point of view.

Indira is essentially a story of the romance between Indira and Ramakanth.  The story of Indira's and Ramakanth's love has all the 'classical' ingredients – first meeting, falling in love, separation, misunderstanding, parental objection, and finally marriage.  Ramakanth's father, Kamalakantha, Indira's father, Jayarao, and Devayani, a young educated widow, were friends in their youth in Srirangapattana. Kamalakantha and Jayarao both develop a liking for Devayani, but she has a soft corner for Kamalakantha and wanted to marry him.  Jayarao did not like this and once when Kamalakantha was away on some work and did not return for many days, he uses this opportunity and informs Devayani that Kamalakantha had got married in some other town.  Kamalakantha too had sensed that Devayani liked him and he too wanted to marry her.  When he returned from his trip, Devayani refuses to meet him.   

When Kamalakantha got to know what had happened and when his desire to meet Devayani and explain matters were rejected by her, he leaves town, hurt and dejected.  He later marries a girl of his parents’ choice and Ramakanth was born some years later.  Jayarao too marries a girl of his parents’ choice and Indira was born to them.  Devayani chose to remain a widow.  Ramakanth's and Jayarao's respective wives die early.  

Jayarao continued to live in Srirangapattana, and so does Devayani.  Jayarao's business matters meant frequent trips outside his town and Indira grows up into a young girl under the loving care of Devayani.  Devayani had not forgotten Kamalakantha and when she learnt that his son, Ramakanth, had come to Bangalore in search of a job, she wanted to see him and through a mutual friend, requested him to come and see her.  Ramakanth comes to Srirangapattana and in course of time meets Indira in Devayani's house.  

Friendship soon turns to love.  Jayarao, on returning, saw this growing closeness with increasing concern.  He wanted to get his daughter married to a titled young man, through whom he too could assume some importance in society.  His greatest ambition was to acquire the ‘Rao Bahadur’ title from the British.  Moreover, he did not want Indira to marry the son of someone who thwarted him in his bid to marry Devayani.  He tries to send Ramakanth outside the state by offering jobs. Many such attempts and misunderstandings later, Indira and Ramakanth come together finally to get married.