Abstract
Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi is an experimental novel written by Mulk Raj Anand. This is a confessional work that details Anand’s encounter with Mahatma Gandhi in Sabarmati Ashram for the first time. This work gives a complete picture of Anand’s encounter with Gandhi which reveals the personality of Mahatma. It also reveals the socio-political scenario of the country and his relation with other leaders. Though Anand calls it a novel, its structure and features are more inclined towards a drama. The present paper attempts to study the features of this experimental work that will provide enough details to attribute it the genre of drama than a novel.
While Mulk Raj Anand’s adeptness as a novelist and short story writer is widely acknowledged, little is known regarding his experimentation with the accepted forms. Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi is a part of the series of autobiographical (experimental) novel written by Mulk Raj Anand.
Experimentation with Genre
The present experimental novel is written in dialogue form, which bears resemblances to drama in many ways. The narrator performs the duties of a stage director who does not interfere in the action of the novel. Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi, written in 1927, first published in 1991, is a speck in the splurge of experimentation of Anand.
This experimental novel has two features that match that of a novel: the characters have proper names with a specific identity like Krishna Chand Azad, and description of surroundings. But the novel does not have one uniform story continuously developing along the timeline. Anand divides the odyssey into 15 exempla and names them to indicate their themes.
Features of Drama in the Work
The first major feature that gives it the status of a play is the entire work is written in dialogue form. The important features include stageability, description by the author about acting arena, stage directions, stage and setting, limited number of characters, spoken form of language, and dialogue form. The language used is evidently spoken form of English and in some contexts Hindi words are used.
Each scene is set to be enacted in one acting arena and directions are clear and appropriate for staging. The action of 9 scenes takes place in the verandah of Sabarmati Ashram. The number of characters in each scene are limited, not exceeding more than seven.
Conclusion
To conclude, Little Plays is the best confessional play yet written by an Indian English writer. This experimental confessional novel lacks major criteria to call it or treat it as a novel and has adequate characteristics to treat it as a play.
Works Cited
- Stindberg, August, Stindberg; Five Plays trans. Harry G. Carlson. Berkeley, Uni. of California Press, 1971.
- Pantham, Thomas and Kenneth L. Deutsch ed. Political Thought in Modern India. Saga Publications, 1986.
- Anand, Mulk Raj: Little Plays of Mahatma Gandhi. Arnold Publications, New Delhi, 1990.
- Anand, Mulk Raj. Seven Summers: A Memoir. Penguin books, New Delhi, 2005.
- Anand, Mulk Raj: Omnibus, Penguin / Viking, New Delhi, 2004.
- Meyer Spacks, Patricia Ann: Novel beginnings; Experiments in Eighteenth Century English Fiction, Yale Guides to English Literature, 2006.
- Watt, P. Ian: The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, California University Press, California, 1957.
- Joe Bray, Alison Gibbons, Brian Mc Hale ed. The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature, 2012.