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Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nandedfrom the high class society. The high classof society is more materialistic incomparison of other two classes of society.Their materialistic life seems in weddingceremony of Savita and Pran. The guestsand hosts themselves from high-class whichseems in this ceremony. Their clothes,jewellery, and arrangement shows thematerialistic life of this class : “Hundreds ofsmall coloured lights strung through thehedge came on all at once, and the silk sarisand jewellary of the women glimmered andglinted even more brightly. The high, reedyshehnai music burst into a pattern of speedand brilliance.” [ASB : 6]The plot of A Suitable Boy is largelyset in the four metropolitan cities as thefictitious witty Brahmpur, the capital ofimaginary state of Purva Pradesh, Calcutta,Kanpur and New Delhi, Vikram Sethfocuses the high class families’ social andmaterialistic life from these cities : “Thenarrative is largely set in the fictitious city ofBrahmpur, the capital of the imaginary stateof Purva Pradesh, which lies in the heartlandof the Indian subcontinent. Seth hasacknowledged Brahmpur as a combinationof different geographic locations known tohim - Patna, Lucknow, AllahabadUniversity, the Banaras Ghats and Kanpur.Brahmpur lies on the bank of the riverGangas, and the narrative shifts in scenes asit follows the Gangas downstream to Patnaand then to Calcutta, and also upstream pastBanaras till Allahabad, and through remotevillage districts.”[Pandurang, Mala. 2005 :105.]These all locations are taken forshowing the metropolitan cities as we see it.This fictional city of Brahmpur halps Seth tomake his own statement about the Indiannational state in the 1950s, torn betweenspirituality and materiality, tradition andmodernity. We believe, in fact, that thenovel’s length is due to the author’s desire togive voice to more than one concept of thenation state as articulated in the text throughthe perspective of its many characters. Thefashionable commercial street namedNabiganj and the river Ganges might besaid to form an imaginary axis that marksthe city’s <strong>org</strong>anization and division. Thefashionable street is the symbol ofmaterialistic life of Bramhpur and the sacredGanga is the symbol of spiritual life.As A Suitable Boy is a long saga thattakes place in the post- independence Indiain 1950s at the end of the colonial rule andthe beginning of the Indian republic andindustrialzaiton Indians slowly pace towardsthe materialism. As it is mentioned bySeemita Mohanty through industrialization,materialistic life enters in India and createsthe high-middle class : “Just as the IndustrialRevolution affected the England of Austen,Nehru’s socialist and Industrial Revolutionaffected the India of the fifties . Nirad C.Choudhari, a sharp observer of the Indianscene writes: “A far stronger force, in actualfact, the only positive force, is the Hindusinsatiable greed for money. … It is this loveof money which is the true motive behindthe industrialization in England and India,the insatiable greed for money, let to thebirth of a middle class. Mrs. Bennet andMrs. Rupa Mehra, members of this class,find it increasingly difficult to searchsuitable boys for their daughters.”[Mohanty, Seemita. 2007 : 170-171.]Industrialization comes along withIndependence in India which changes thesociety and the people from the society.Due to it, society becomes morematerialistic. Brahmpur is divided into twoparts by the busy and crowded Nabiganjstreet which divides the city into the475 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedWestern and Eastern districts. The districtto the East is modern and anglicized whileone to the West is old and traditional. Thus,on its Eastern sidewalks are all thefashionable stores with European nameswhich show the materialistic life as theeffect of Industrialization. This Eastern sideof the city, then, with its colonal sites, itslandscape fashioned in Western style, itswell-lit streets and its urban bourgeoisie,reflects some of the values of thismaterialistic life.A Suitable Boy is a landmark inSeth’s career because it represents a sort ofcoming of age, of industrial, modern, andmaterialistic India as Shobha De’s fictiongives us a glimpse of the changing trends ofIndia and Indian English Writing. She isborn and educated in New Delhi andMumbai - the metropolitan cities. As she iseducated from these cities, she is familiarand well-known with the life-styles of theso-called elite societies of the metropolitancities of India which are totally influencedby materialism. This reflects in her writing-“In Starry Nights, Shobha De exposes thesham and hypocrisy of the Bombay filmworld. The competitive, commercial city ofBombay has no times for failures. In such anundisguisedly materialistic environmenthedonism rules and there is no supportsystem for the poor people.” [Chakravarty,Joya. 2003 : 86]A Suitable Boy is about much morethan a girl choosing a suitable husband. It isan exploration of all the trials that must beendured before enough strength has beenacquired to do the right thing. It is anexploration of India’s development in allsectors after freedom. Seth offers a huge,thick and multilayered slice of Indian lifethat, in its versatility, serves to counter thewidespread false views of India. Hefocuses on the society which is the symbolof high society : “Just as Ge<strong>org</strong>e Eliotexamined the great political and socialchanges in an earlier England, so Seth,writing in 1990s, recreates the period oftransition (1951-52), after Independence(1947) - but without Eliot’s demandingcritical dimension.” [Mohanty, Seemita.2007 : 163]The picture of the Chatterji’s familyis a nice portrait of materialistic life ofmetropolitan city Calcutta. Calcutta is anapt choice for the setting of a cosmopolitanfamily like the Chatterjis, as Calcutta wasthe social, cultural and political capital ofthe British in those days, long before Delhibecame the centre of things. For writing onthe materialistic life in India in 1950-52,Seth should choose Calculta as it is the cityof changing India of that time.Seth points out that he too hadinitially held the impression that the 1950swas a period of idealism of the freedommovement but extensive reading ofnewspapers of the era proved, otherwisethat this was neither ‘an innocent time’ nor‘a period of great public probity’. Referringto the interviews that he conducted withpeople who have been young students at thattime.” [Paranjape. 1993 : 20-24] Seth pointsout that student riots and protests weretaking place in places like Lucknow tosupport this observation.” [Pandurang, Mala.2001: 108]As this era was the beginning ofindustrialization and the beginning ofwithering idealism and rooting materialism.And this reflects in Vikram Seth’s work inA Suitable Boy after eight years hard task tocomplete the manuscript : “Seth hasprovided his readers with a kaleidoscopicview of post-Independence India in the476 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
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