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Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nandedbeautiful blending between two trends, thetraditional and the modern.According to the second components of themulticulturalism i.e.Egalitarianism that all theunits of the society must be treated equally in allrespect. The present story ‘The Dreamer’ isabout the poverty and honesty of a poor child,Devaki Nandan Pandey is blind in his right eye,but seems to have enough mischief in his lefteye to make up for the absence of light in theother one. The title of the story is itself selfexplanatory,ads it is about someone’s dream.‘The Dreamer’ Mulk Raj Anand considers thatthe caste system prevails with the job one carrieson and the easy way to remove it is to upgradethe work environment and bring dignity to eachwork. We have no right to downgrade any work.The story simply shows a way to solve the twoproblems that still lingers India. 1. Sanitation.(No need to explain this problem, when onetravels by train in the early morning or walks ona rainy day through the roads one sees not soclean Indian metro…) 2. Casteism. DevakiNandan Pandey is a victim of the Indian evilsocial system of the caste and class. DevakiNandan Pandey belongs to the weaver caste andhe knows that Gautama Buddha acceptedeveryone. The Protagonist has been sufferingunder this system for a long time and has toleave school and work to earn food, because thechildren of upper class parents had imbibed thefeeling of superiority over him and his caste.While traveling with the visitor he wishes to belike Budh Nath. Devaki is a good story teller.Further, he narrates to the visitors Hindu maths(like temple) situated near Bodh Gaya temple forpeople to join the Budh Math. His furtherillustration is rather eloquent and strange;The Boy: ‘When I grow up, I would liketo belong to the Budh Nath.’‘My mother says that ‘for Harijans thereis no place in the Hindu Math.We are just outcaste! “Lepers”! Thevillage boy will no even let us play withthem in case we should touchthem during the sport. I am of theWeaver caste.But Gautama accepted everyone. Iwant to wander like him…’‘So you arecoming to the place where BudhMaharaja stayed with Amrapali? --------’The Visitor: ‘To be sure!’(‘The Dreamer’P.105)Devaki Nandan Pandey’s mother had told himsome authentic fact of their life and caste. Shehad said that ‘Harijans’ had no place in theHindu Math. They are just outcasts and lepers’.He narrates his other experience with villageboys while playing with them, such as that he isforbidden to touch. In India caste is an identityand is describes as, ‘Caste is an elaborate andcomplex social system that combines elementsof endogamy, occupation, culture, social class,tribal affiliation and political power. It shouldnot be confused with race or social class, e.g.members of different castes in one society maybelong to the same race. Usually, but not always,members of the same caste are of the same rank,occupation, and/or economic position, andtypically have mores which distinguish it fromother groups. The word caste can also justgenerally refer to any rigid system of cultural orsocial distinctions. ’India is a multicultural,multiracial, multilingual and multireligiouscountry where people preserve their identitieswithin their social framework. The Visitor issurprised to listen to the narrative style of thechild and is shocked and recognizes thesufferings of the boy and introspects abouthimself. The visitor thinks of buying a shirt forDevaki place of the old one, Daveki NandanPandey (a child) but due to his honesty and selfrespect,and positive face towards his life he willnot allow himself to accept anything free fromothers. The visitor gives him half a kg ‘Ladoos’(sugar-ball in India) and promises to see him thenext morning. The next day the Visitor reachesthe spot where the meeting of the interlocutorshas been scheduled. The visitor has been waitinghim for long but the boy does not come andfinally visitor’s restlessness increases and heinquires of a big boy about Devaki NandanPandey. His answer astonishes the visitor. Theanswer of the big boy (another character in thestory) is ‘Who” Is Devaki Nandan Pandey. Headds that there is no one of that name in Budh497 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedGaya. The visitor again tells his identity that oneeyed boy. His original name is Kania one-eyedboy a good story-teller. The visitor is expectinga positive response from the one-eyed boy.When the other Boy reveals that Devaki hasneither a mother nor a father, the reaction of thevisitor is very sympathetic and surprising; thevisitor never cares for the social barriers andloves the boy much and sympathizes with himfor his plight. It is noteworthy that human beinglike the speaker still survives on the earth. TheVisitor is representative of the whole humanityof ‘positive picture of multicultural aspect is toaccepted and approved. We are equal in allrespect because we learnt the lesson thathumanity is the final truth of life.The last component is Diversitywhich is loggerheads with its concept ofEgalitarianism. We can thus say thatmulticulturalism is reduced to the perpetual levelwhere all groups are to be treated equally on thebasis of skin colour, sex-rather than conceptuali.e. ideas and values. In ‘The Parrot in the Cage’Mulk Raj Anand has created the poorest beggarcharacter Rukmani with parrot cage. She lives inPakistan (Lahore). Who needs some food to eatfor herself as well as parrot. Which is expectingfrom Govt. or from any generous men but, thethreat and oppressed of deputy collector(Pakistan Govt.) is spread in the whole Lahoreso that the stall-keeper requests to Rukmani tokeep silence otherwise the collector wouldpunish her and Stall-Keeper. The description ofthe old woman is the authentic picture of theLahore city in Pakistan. How Pakistani live invery bad condition. The old woman is arepresentative of the whole society. The storyteller depicts the intolerable scene of thedowntrodden people and their unsolvedquestions. Rukmani’s affinity to the parrot (a petbird) is unparallel. ‘The parrot in the Cage’ storyis not only about woman and parrot closerelation, but also it has other layer i.e. theoppression on the Muslim women. The storytellerdepicts the pitiable plight of thedowntrodden people and their unsolvedquestions. Rukmani’s affinity to the parrot isunparalleled. The following utterance is abeautiful example multiculturalism;Rukmani: ‘Son, I don’t know where Iam….’‘I only know that if fate has not givenme her burqah to escape with, I shouldnot be here….’Parrot:‘Ni tun ki karni hain?’Rukmani: ‘Nothing son, I am doingnothing ….only waiting …’‘Allah ho Akbar!’ ‘Har har Mahadev!’‘Sat sri Akal!’ (The Parrot in the CageP: 56)For them the ‘burqah’ is for face saving orescaping from the reality. Rukmani’sexplanation of ‘burqah’ is the positive side onthe one hand, because she could hide her facebehind the ‘burqah’ and save her image from theevil society. On the other hand, it has a negativeside; Muslim women hide their face due to theterror or threat of the religious injunctions inPakistan. ‘The Parrot in the Cage’ is not onlyabout the close relationship between a womanand a parrot, but, it has another layer i.e. theoppression of the Muslim women. Theconversation with her pet to keep her mindoccupied is metaphorical. The story-teller’sintention behind this use is that the common anddowntrodden people never use pure Englishlanguage because of their education, even itlooks unreal. She has drastic need of food andwater but nobody pays attention to her and herpet in the cage. This situation indicates that thewhole society is devoid of any feeling due to theGovt.’s policy of oppression. Rukmani isshouting and uttering words like ‘Allah…Harhar Mahadev…Sat sri Akal…’ confuses us,because she believed that nobody wouldrecognize her and label her as ‘Hindu’, ‘Muslim’or ‘Sikh’. Consequently, she wants to hide heridentity and expect food or help to save herparrot and herself. Whole humanity is ‘selfish’and very cunning about everything.The conclusion is of the paper is thatthe three components of multiculturalism areapplicable to the stories of Mulk Raj Anand. Theprincipal sources of Diversity are race, religion,498 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
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