CHAPTER- III

POST-COLONIAL THEMES

To begin with, its important to understand the term Colony. According

to the Oxford English Dictionary Colonye is derived from the Latin Colon-Us
meaning, a farmer, a cultivator, a planter or the settler in a new country. It was
used to describe the Roman settlements in fourteenth century.1

Colonialism also has a definition in Oxford English Dictionary “an

alleged policy of exploitation of backward or weak people by a large power”.2
To be very clear about the meaning of the Colonialism, it was not merely
political control over Asia, Africa, or South America. During the eighteenth and
the nineteenth century, European powers destroyed and modified the culture
and knowledge of the dominant countries. It was actually a very strong cultural
and epistemological victory over the native populations. Thus a new world
came into existence at the behest of the colonial powers.

Derek Walcott has stated a satire on the Colonial World of the New
World in a poem.
“Adam has an idea,
He and the snake would share
The loss of Eden for the profit.
So both made the new world,

And it looked good.....”3

Colonialism has been undertaken as a powerful mode of

exploitation. It was totally affected due to the difference in race, culture, forms
of knowledge, technological advancement and political system. “History does

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 not just provide a background to the study of texts, but forms an essential part
of textual meaning....”4Anila Loomba.

Warren Hasting, T.B. Macauley and academic scholars like William

Jones and James Mill studied Indian Languages (Sanskrit and Persian) and
translated the text from these languages into English. They established that
English and European culture alone could ensure equality, liberty, development
and modernization. Thereby the colonial administrators installed English.
Science, medicine, anthropology and other disciplines formalized the
importance of English. It can be said “..... in post colonial writing, the historical
record never gets wiped clean .....”5 Sage Wilson.

It was until the mid twentieth century, that European powers ruled over
vast regions of the Asian, African and South American continents. There was
political governance, economic exploitation and cultural domination. Gradually,
the transformation began in the later half of the nineteenth century and the mid
twentieth century. The Anglo Indian Community uprose with the arrival of
Portuguese not the Britain. But the word Anglo was attached with the arrival of
British and was accepted in the Indian constitution, 366 (2).

Finally, their struggles began through out the colonies. These struggles,
resulted in political independence for many states in Asia and Africa. Therefore
in temporal terms these independent colonies were called Post Colonial
suggesting liberation from imperialism.

Post Coloniality, is a phenomena that refers to the Historical,

Cultural, Economical, Political and actual living conditions of the newly
independent Asian, African and South American States with the Global
System. It can also be called the impact of the global geopolitics, globalization

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 and economic shifts upon the material conditions in Asian and African nation
states.

Literature of the post-colonial era reflected the strategies of resistance

negotiation and cultural assertion that the countries such as India adopted to
deal with increasing neocolonial interference and control exerted by the
developed first world nation.

Helen Gilbert's definition of Post colonial is the term that indicates a

degree of agency or a programme of resistance, against cultural domination,
signals the existence of a particular historical legacy, a stage in a culture's
transition into a modern nation- state ; (or) to suggest a form of co-option into
western cultural economics... “Post colonial has become a convenient term to
describe and kind of resistance particularly against class, race and gender
oppression.”6

Postcolonial literature reflects the transformation. The concept-of post-

enlightenment notion of modernity began to percolate into the literature. It is
difficult, but some considerations have helped in creating a definition of
postcolonial writing. These writings of postcolonial era are, the technical
/literacy processes which enabled colonized people to assert their difference and
raise resistance. While European colonial master and culture attempted to
develop similar strategy to tackle contemporary global situation and neo
colonial processes of domination.

The term Common Wealth evolved to designate, the literature and

writing from Britain's colonies. Common wealth literature, theory is the
terminology focused to describe writing from Africa, Asia, South America and
Ireland. The writings comprise literary contribution from formerly colonized
nations including Chinua Achebe from Nigeria and R.K. Narayan from India.

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 Although, The countries become independent of Britain Imperial rule,
many countries continued to maintain hierarchy, and up keep the authority of
Britain. The symbol of authority of Britain.

Salman Rushdie contradicted in Common Wealth Literature : Does Not

Exist , the whole idea of common wealth literature. He said “that people from
diverse countries, cultures and colonial experience gathered into ghetto. Every
term and basic literature seemed Unreal monstrous creature”7 , but, the term
Postcolonial persisted ever.

The post colonial literature of 1950-1960 was dominated by the themes

of nationalism and euphoria of decolonization. R.K. Narayan preferred realism
as the mode of literature. Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe dealt with the
themes such as Nationalism. The unstable local and tribal identities opposed to
universal humanism. The Conflict between European modernization and native
tradition was evident.

George Lamming, Patrick White, Derek Walcott, Raja Rao, R.K.

Narayan and many more, have been the writers of post- colonial literature. Raja
Rao in his works has brought out various facets of native traditions, local
histories, cultural roots, rituals , icons and belief systems. The impact of
colonialism on native cultures brought about endless debates. The social realists
like Bhabani Bhattachrya, Kamala Markandya, V.S. Naipaul, Chinua Achebe
and Nagugi Wa Jhiongo have shown the fabric of changing society in their
literary output.

Nial Ferqusson quoted in New York Times on 27th April 2003. “The
British Empire has had a pretty lousily press from a generation of Post Colonial
historians..... affronted by its racism.... the reality is ...... the British were
significantly more successful at establishing market economies, the rule of law

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 and the transition to representative government.... than the majority of Post
Colonial governments.”8

With the advent of 1980's a critical reflection on the post colonial

conditions could be read in literature. The post - colonial dream was becoming
disillusion . A degree of cynicism was creeping into literacy texts.

The disillusionment was reflected in many literary works for example:

The Beautiful ones are not yet born (1968) by Ayi Kwei Armah; The mimic
men (1967) by Naipaul ; and A Man of the people by Chinua Achebe.

The writers were in the mood of experiment, specially inculcating

narrative modes. They mixed genres and were prompt to write with different
ideology, meaning and policies for example, Naipaul's : In a Free State (1971)
and Rushdie in Midnight Children (1982).

Twentieth century's last decades has to its own credits a literature which
dealt with the following aspects globalization, ethenic identities, minority issues
and sessionist movements. Uma Paramswaran is the diasporic writer. The
others diasporic writers are David Dabydeen (A Harlots Progress), Hanif
Kureashi (The Buddha of Suburbia), Bharati Mukherjee (Jasmine) and Timethy
Mo.

To talk further about post colonial literature the poetry of Agha Shahid
Ali, Meena Alexander and Sujata Bhatt did explore hybrid identities.

In 1965, The Journal of Common Wealth literature was published. Under

, the umbrella of Common Wealth literature, a certain common ground and
common cause among the countries and literature of Asia and Africa was
revealed. Depiction of colonial part and anti colonial struggles was deciphered
in early works.

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 The new genre was cautions enough to suggest that there was existing a
wide diversity in the cultures and literature. For Example, India and Africa have
been colonies known for their anti colonial struggles. The Journal of Common
Wealth Literature in its inaugural editorial had emphasized, the pressures acting
upon a Canadian writing in euphonic differ significantly from those operating
upon an Indian using a language not his mother tongue.

Common Wealth Literature was the foundation of postcolonial literature,

which grew and flourished. The post-colonial writing subverted the eminence
of imperial English. The literature gradually adopted international status with
English as the medium of expression. Booker prizewinners began to claim
recognition. They hailed from colonalized nations. Gyatri Spivak gained
popularity as post-colonial critic. According to her “As teachers we are now
involved in the construction of a new object of investigation, "The third world",
the marginal for institutional validation and certification.... It is as if, in a
certain way, we are becoming a complication in the preparation of a new
orientation.”9

Aiyaz Ahmad suggested that immigration involved its own politics.

“There was a combination of origins, professional ambitions and absence of
socialist - agenda, the immigrant intellectual, to seek the polities of Third World
ism-as-opposition. Exile is over-romanticized”.10 Ahmad did not include the
upper-class Indian who chooses to live in metropolitan cities. The post colonial
literature did not confine to the thrid world.

In Post Colonial literature, they went beyond the third world Edward
Said had pointed out the following pre suppositions. This is the humanist
tradition : (Orientation).

Ø A Unified European History which is at the origin of history.

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 Ø This history - visible in a set of beliefs , values and attitude remains
essentially the same, right to the twentieth century.

Ø This history and beliefs are stress in the great books of western canon.11

Be it Europe, Africa, Asia the literature, definitely has been the

revelation of the society.

According to Femi - Osolisan, theatre has a definite capacity to bring, to

the surface, the autocratic system of power and meter gives gives expression to
the hopes and concerns of the disposed. It very correctly conveys, the
achievement, of some of the exciting dramatic work, which is being performed
across the world in recent decades.... “A definitely impressive deal of this work
is developed within nations which are formerly colonized by western imperial
powers.” 12

Uma Paraeswaran was the representative of diasporic literature. One of

the major examples of post colonial literature is Dear Deedi, My Sister by her.
This play was composed in 1980s. The script of the play had been drafted much
earlier. Uma Parameswaran had been on the board of Immigrant Women's
Association of Manitoba and the Margaret Laurence Chair of Women's Studies
and Various Committees. She was an Indian and this was not obstacle in her
personal career growth.

In Dear Deedi, My Sister, a young women from Kenya and another from
Nigeria suffer from nostalgic pains. They symbolize the feelings of Uma
Parameswaran a diasporen herself.
Wemahu : Under a sky more vast then any I've seen,
On snow more cold than ever I dreamed,
I stand alone,
Amid masks that speak an alien tongue

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 Far Far from those I love and love
And for the fragrance of my native flower

Sekoni : A young man from Nigeria, seated in bus.

Who are these faceless people
among whom my life is dozing away ?13

The two characters are voicing the feelings of the Indo-Canadian

diaspora. The theatre immortalizes the feelings of the diaspora. The theatre is
the medium that is very effective.
Osofisan has rightly quoted :
“Against the inert silence which .
antocrats seek to impose upon their
subjects, the dissenting artist can
triumph through the gift of metaphor
and magic, parody and parable
masking and mimicry14

The postcolonial literature is diverse and powerful. Various plays are

like the body of work, whose segments, have been scrutinized by the critics
time and again. Garg Boire has stated in relation to the British Empire “The
Superficial Crime of super imposition may have been the same in all colonies,
but given the specificities of history, ethnicity, gender, culture and geography.
There are significant and subtle variation between each repetition and amongst
the multiple reactions to it.” 15

The broader meaning of postcolonial literature would be kind of

portmanteau term to deliberate resistance against a particular class and gender
oppressions Basically European and American powers had spread the fan of

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 colonialism .The masses expressed their response in a variety of ways that
could be ambivalent, celebratory, humorous, cynical, detached, angry,
passionate or whimsical. The various playwrights have expressed them in
thematic motifs or narrative structures or performances coded or decoded in
culturally definite presentation taking into account the resources available in a
particular theatrical milieu. The English language theatre evolved and
developed in the geographically British dominated countries.

The plays of Uma Parameswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan are deeply

influenced by specific cultures and historical circumstances. The themes and
characters delve into specific cultures and historical circumstances that elicit the
curiosity of the readers. The time span of the play is restricted to the recent era
of decolonisation. The plays rather the indigenous plays have been drawn and
published in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and India. One can also
trace definite connections between specific African performance idioms and
diasporic transformations. At the time it is also important to consider the effects
of global developments such as. Nationalism, Communalism, Multi Culturalism
or Consciousness. There are some recent implementation of official
reconciliation processes designed to deal with histories of cultural genocide for
example South Africa, Australia, Canada, and to some extent India. The legacy
of western orientalism, itself enmeshed British imperial project in India as well
as Malaysia and Singapore.

Manjula Padmanabhan has brought to the world the concept of “Western

cannibalizing of third world bodies in Harvest, also has a ritualistic element in
so far as it is driven by a myth of resurrection - the restoration of youth and
wholeness. When Jeetu's organs are transplanted to Ginni/ Virgil the transaction
is not merely a medical one. Symbolic capital flows....”.16 Colonialism is
gradually being replaced by power of capital and machines.

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 It is very difficult to corelate the era of British independence with the
limited number of text that raised anti imperialism issues. Different countries
experienced the after effects of wars of independence, at times peacefully and at
the times through ravages of time.

As far as the theatre is concerned, it is an example of anti-

imperialism Yet the geographical, social and racial limits of post colonialism
kept changing the perspectives of particular scholars and writers.

There always were considerations, regarding colonization of indigenous

populations. One thing is definite and that is colonization troubled both the
operators i.e. settlers and indigenous playwrights.

There are plays from different countries Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe,

Zambia , which can be classified as topical contemporary postcolonial plays.

Alex Mukulu 30 years of Bananas (uganda) ; Ngugi Wa Thiogo's - I will

marry when I want (Kenya) ; Andrew Whaley's- The Nyoka tree (Zimbabe) ;
Shamsul Haq's historical drama ; Nuraldeen's Life (Bangladesh) ; Anton Juan's-
Prmum of lizard moon (Philippines) and Marianne Ackerman's- L' Affaire
Tartnffe (Qucbec).

Other than these the works of Athol Fugard and Brain Friel can also be
classified as postcolonial. Who can deny the importance of Jack Davis,
regarded as the father of Aboriginal theatre in Australia. Dennis Scott is
considered a powerful writer and director. He has been central to the
development of Jamaican performance idioms ; Michel Tremblay is the first
Quebecois playwright to challenge Canada's predominantly Angolo-centric
canon ; Vijay Tendulkar, author of Ghasiram Kotwal has reflected a stunning

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 political corruption in India and Hone Kouka is the current driving force of
contemporary Maori theatre.

There is a wide variety of literature with in the field of theatre, that tends
to eschew narrow conceptions of dialogue dependent performance. It is easy to
portray textual dialogue based postcolonial plays. Otherwise, pictorial
presentation is a must.

Language definitely is the crucial medium of the Post colonial Play

theatre. Language raises questions that help in resolving some basic morality
issues. English language has enjoyed its colonial legacy and therefore has
become, the language of the Postcolonial Plays. Being the language of the
masses and easily, understandable, English is the basic cause of popularity of
Post Colonial Plays.

In some post colonial regions, such a project has led to the formation of
creole and Pidgin variant of English. Which have become independent and
separate languages Edward Braithwaite says of Nation Language in Caribbean
“English may be in terms of some of its lexical features. But in its contours, its
rhythm and timbre, its sound explosions, it is not English, even though the
words as you hear them, might be English to greater or lesser degree”.17
Variants of English now claim status as separate languages and indeed function
in many countries.

The Malleability of English language has enabled the postcolonial plays

to reach maximum audience. Some times use of English is strategic choice for
many of the playwrights. But many a times, to switch to other languages is
meant to reach the basic audience. For instance, Girish Karnad's Hayavadana
(first written in Kannada and then translated by the author in English).

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 Most of the plays have been written predominantly in some version of
English. As discussed earlier other languages are incorporated to convey certain
culturally specific concepts or to subvert the domination of the imperial tongue.
For those playwrights who are born into monolingual English speaking
communities, writing in English is no choice.

With the desire to circulate her work internationally, Manjuala

Padmanabhan who is fluent in several languages deliberately wrote Harvest in
English. Despite the lack of a suitable English language theatre culture. She
wanted to show case the play in India, her motherland. Girish Karnad produced
his play in English, as well as in two Indian languages. Each translation
involved a different kind of play-writing exercise. There is one more writer Kee
Thuan Chye , who wrote only in English to bridge different cultural groups in a
multi ethnic nation .

All said and done, theatre is the medium which relies upon intonation,
pitch of voice and gesture. These three elements enable theatre to cross barriers
of languages. The critics consider any kind glossing as Eurocentric. It hampers
with the spirit of the play.

Uma Parameswaran recognizes the experiences of Indo-Canadians as

expressed through literature to be unique in their own right: The literature of
Canadian writers born on the Indian subcontinent (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan
and Bangladesh) is varied in content and form, but common to all of them is a
passionate faith in their own voice that is raised to express their Canadian
experience [Indo-Canadian writers] bring to their writing not only racial
memory and contemporary history, but the poetic traditions and modes of India.
As such, Parameswaran published SACLIT. An introduction to South-Asian-
Canadian Literature in 1996.

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 The work is a collection of essays written between 1982-1992 and
focuses on the South Asian diaspora in Canada. Uma Parameswaran owes her
great success to the language, she chose to write in i.e. English. She is a
successful playwrights and the play Dear Deedi, My Sister describes the life
and hardships of immigrants in Canada through a Variety of characters and
the letters written between Sapna in Canada and her sister in India. As Sapna
muses, “Here too women suffer, Dear Deedi, for being women. The burdens
are different but the pain is the same.”18 In Rootless But Green are the
Boulevard Trees, Parameswaran's progression of subject matter moves to the
new generation of Indo-Canadians—children of immigrants raised in Canada.
The relationships and complications of the characters aided by the free flowing'
prose of the play reveal Parameswaran's attempt to capture the South Asian
Canadian experience across all countries through literature. The free flow of
English language is suggestive of the fact that almost all characters of her plays
despite being Indians communicated in English, their mother tongue in
diaspora.

The plays of Uma Parameswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan explicitly

hold their audience whether by telling stories, almost inviting them to discuss
philosophical problems, by confronting them directly with controversial
material , by exhorting them to participate in the action or suddenly
transforming them into participants. Thereby, they try to heal the sufferings of
people, specially those who have been victimized during colonial spread. Yes,
of course the participation seems mutual and voluntary.

The post colonial plays can easily contextualize theatrical practice,

minimum community structures with current political struggles so that
performance becomes one kind of rehearsal for social change.

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 There definitely is one important factor to be considered the precise
degree of political leverage acquired by post colonial theatre, may be
compromised in countries, where mass property prevents the vast majority of
the population to the exposure of it. It is done many a time through participation
in paid theatre activities. Again the status of English is inter activity language
of a special section of the society. Thereby some authors like Osofisan or Girish
Karnad have written or translated in language easily understood.

What is required is reception of thoughts ideas, attitudes, cultures,

conveyed through post colonial plays. Uma Parmeswaran and Manjula
Padmanabhan expect their viewers to understand adopt or develop their own
ideas , through the analysis of tradition, religion, politics, gender, race, identity
class, history myth sexuality and cultural location.

The plays of Uma Parameswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan are

contemporary post colonial. Their plays convey the specific vitality of a body
of work that is currently affecting society . Their post colonial plays deal with
Globalization; Race and class relations ; Gender and sexuality ; Nationalism;
Media representation ; Political corruption and Slavery.

Inspite of all efforts of Uma Parameswaran to continue with the effort to

promote the Indian playwrights in Canadian diaspora, Alan Filewod cautioned
that “in relation to mainstream production of native Canadian plays it can be
dangerous to isolate particular texts from their inner productive communities,
which constitues, a discourse of material practice that can absorb and synthesis
contradictions. One should know the history to understand the texts.”19

English language became the representative of the post colonial

literature. And the post colonial literature depicted transformation. The new
concepts of modernity demanded, resisted and reflected the societal

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 transformation. As far as western counties are concerned, the changes with
strategies and techniques were easily observed. But the concepts such as
citizenship, the state, the civil society , human rights and equality before law in
post colonial countries had different meaning. English with it is higher status,
being imperialist language became the carrier of changes too. Dipesh
Chakrabarty diagnosis of the situation is rather gloomy “One simply can not
think of political modernity without these and other related concepts that found
a climatic form in the course of the European Enlightenment in the nineteenth
country.”20 English was gradually becoming the common mans's language.

Initial responses to Common Wealth Literature treated English as a

version of humanist approach. Writing literature in English that too under the
influence of vernacular grew. The example is a poem of Lorna Goodson's
Thanks to Miss Merry.
“She could not read or write a word in English
but took every vowel and consonant of it and rung it around,
like the articulated neck of our Sunday dinner sacrificial fowl
in her anger she stabled at English, walked it out .....”21

This extract is the manifesto of The Women Writer of Post Colonial

Literature.

The woman is an individual who has throbbing pulse i.e. alive to the
core with feelings and as emotions. The woman is aware of her own
perspective. Not only of her own life but also of the world around her. The
Indian woman may be rich or poor, traditional or modern, in the writer
background, will have her inner strength and integrity. In her own resolute way,
she will know how to find her path in the sexually exploitative discriminatory
world.

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 Post colonial literature deals with a contemporary issue, i.e. a question of
women status whether in Western or in Indian Scenario. The women are seen
launching themselves for a their identity. The various issues, as the profession
to be chosen, superstitions, cultural identity associations-joint families,
strengths of nuclear households, monetary eminence, those forced break ups
from the nature plans and so on seem to orbit around the pivot i.e. the woman,
almost every woman writer from Asia or other colonized countries present deep
critiques of political economy, the larger social context and law; these aspects
too directly affect woman's life. The public genres such as post colonial street
theatres or women's organization (India) have attempted to improve women
status and generate awareness about women issues.

The gradual internationalization of literature, the high visibility of

booker Prize winners from the formerly colonized nation, “the celebrity status
of post colonial critics such as Gayatri Spivak are all part of institutionalization
of English”22 as reflected in discussion by Amirah and Majaj. Today, there are
more influences, more readers and more markets now than ever before. The
world is globalised and cultural flows move around for the women writers to
pick and choose the influences.

In the last decades of the twentieth century gender and sexuality have
become common themes in Literature. Gender and role of women in the post
colonial nation state has been the focus in the writing of Anita Desai, Ama Ata
Aidoo, Sumit Namjoshi, Budhhi Emecheta and Nawal El Saadawi, Uma
Parmeswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan.

It is interesting to read post colonial women's texts through the Prism of

Identity. The statement of Mariama Ba is the universal reality. She says : “The

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 women writer in Africa has a special task. She has to present position of women
in Africa in all its aspects. There is still so much injustice .... In the family, in
the institution, in society, in the street, in the political organization,
discriminations reign supreme .... We no longer accept the nostalgic praise to
the African mother, who, in ......anxiety, may confuse with Mother Africa”.23

One of the earliest plays (in India) like Theatre Union's Om Swaha (first
staged in 1980, theme of dowry in Hindu marriages) ; Dafa 180 (dealing with
rape and legislation were successful. Social Trap (by Garib Dongari Sangathan)
; The Girl is Born (by Stree Mukti Sangathana) and Brides are not for burning
(1993) by Dina Mehta (won the award) received critical attention.

Nayantara Sehgal, the Novelist, high lighted the condition of women

workers in Kilns. “Hundreds of brick kilns along (The Ganges) ... open and
swallow up women ....... women labour disappeared into kilns , where they
worked and the pigholes, where they lived, Some times never to return, used ....
by Kiln Markets and their men , when they finished carrying brick loads for the
day ....”.24

In Cherrie Moraga's The Hungry Women (2001) is futuristic play about

the Chicano/ a nation of Aztlan, Moraga's characters Savannah and Mama Sal
Exchange the dialogue :

“Mama Sal; We are content for a while …

Savannah : until the revolutionaries told the women, put down your
guns and pick up your babies.....And into the Kitchen”.25 The fact remains -
Feminine duties to be resumed with political independence. A woman can stand
up to man, as he needs but she has to step down as required by the man.

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 Cherrie Moraga has stated “The nationalism I seek is one that
decolonizes the brown and female body, as it decolonizes the brown and female
earth”.26

In the futuristic Play Harvest Manjula Padmanabhan (1997) , tenderly

suggests a woman's strength to resist , western materialistic world and power of
machine, Jaya, represents the Indian woman who values traditional ethics and
modern woman's independence.

Uma Parameswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan represent, playwrights

who have freely written post colonial literature. Although, post colonial writing
originated from Africa, Asia and South America in the mid twentieth century, it
has been constantly and critically examined, negotiated with and almost
represented the over arching experience of colonial subjugation. Post colonial
literature has been redefined to reveal and identify, the concepts of
associations, relationship, social bonding and cultural dilution. Concept of
identity and history has been merged in self constructed literary paradigms.
There are indigenous forms of representation.

Uma Parameswaran and Manjula Padmanabhan try to expose the politics

of the Indian joint family while revealing the gender differences and the rapport
between the world of men and that of women. But Of course, one cannot deny
that past colonial literature does have private common ground in various fields
which cannot be segregated. African American, Native American, Aboriginal,
South American, Indian and dalit literature. Their substantial contribution is all
the more important for their own field of post colonial studies, its limitations
and contributions for the study of culture.

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 Autobiography or Women's life written from post colonial nations has
acquired strategic eminence from the point of view of the theorists. Not only
Memories and diaries but some personal accounts have been captured as the
woman's experience. There was a sense of immediacy and authenticity which
could not even be traced in realist fiction.

The opportunity was grabbed by Uma Parameswaran. “She in a

deceptively simple and intimate style explores the subtleties of human
relationship in the changing contemporary world.”27

Similarly, Manjula Padmanabhan wishes to create a world surviving on

partnership through her dramatic skills. The theme of Harvest reveals her
ideology. “Harvest’s bitter narrative is driven by a utopian impulse to
suggest the impossible possibility of a world in which there are no winner or
lossers only partners.”28

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 Reference :

1. Nayar, K Pramod. Post Colonial Literature and Introduction, 2008.

http:// www.pearsoned.co.in/ pramodknayar. 14 Dec. 2014.

2. Ibid.

3. Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems New York, Farrar Straus and Giroux,
1986.p.3001

4. Mittapali, Rajeshwar. Representations of Colonialism in Indian Fiction

in English "(ed.) Sarangi Jayadeep. Presentations of Post Colonialism in
English", 2007 , P.1.

5. Ibid

6. Gilbert, Helen. Post Colonial Plays : An Anthology, London, New York,

Routledge, 2008, p. 214.

7. Rushdie, Salman. Common Wealth Literature" Does Not exist in

Imaginary Home lands : Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 London
,Granta, p.61

8. Fergusson, Niall, New York Times , 27 April, 2003.

9. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Three Women's Texts and a Critique of

Imperialism", Critical Enquiry 12 (1), 1985, p. 248.

10. Ahmad, Aiyza. Jameson's Rhetoric of otherness and the National

Allegory Social Text , 1987, p.27.

11. Said, Edward. W. Orientatalism , New York, 1978.p.140

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