LIBERATION MOTIF IN SELECT NOVELS OF MULK RAJ ANAND ...

self-awareness is held out as one mode of changing society.Compassion or bhakti or Yoga is projected as an efficacious Wayof combatting social evils such as casteism, class conflict,exploitation, alienation and social inequalities. There is,however, a hint, according to a few critics, to collective actionor bold individual decision geared to making a dent in thecitadel of outmoded thought patterns and actions.Achebers fictional aim or purpose has been interpreted by anumber of critics, from an analysis of both his fictional andnon-fictional output, to be, to teach his fellow-~igerians,Africans and Europeans about the past glories of Africantradition, culture, religion and literature and to restoredignity and pride to his people who lost it in their encounterwith the white race, Achebe's nostalgic and grandiose evocationof the Igbo tribe's harmony and its unparalleled religiouspractices and convictions is cited as irrefutable proof of hisespousal of the cause of his people's freedom. Achebe is open tochange and to any democratic system of government that iswilling to accord top priority to the needs of the masses.According to some critics, Achebe engages in a systematicanalysis of power equations, use and abuse of power at differentlevels in precolonial tribal society, in the colonialadministration and in the post-independence days. Power is saidto be at the centre of all the activities of the tribe, andtherefore Achebe probes the different approaches to it in thedifferent novels. He seemingly advocates shared power and group