All about the human condition
Ratno Dholi, a selection of Gaurishankar Joshi’s (Dhumketu was his pen name) short stories, translated from the Gujarati by Jenny Bhatt, is among the best short story collections to have emerged from India in years. It features refreshingly robust plots and a powerfully realistic depiction of rural Indian society, with its complex interplay of caste, class and gender. The 26 stories in this collection were chosen from each of Dhumketu’s 24 volumes of short stories.
The translator writes in her introduction, “Had this writer been more widely translated and read, his stature and skill as a pioneer of the literary shortstory form in Gujarati would have been acknowledged as equal to that of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Tagore, and Premchand in their respective cultures and languages.” Most readers would agree. Dhumketu was staggeringly prolific: according to the introduction, he wrote over 500 short stories, “twenty nine historical novels, seven social novels, numerous plays, travelogues, essays, literary criticism, and memoirs, not to mention the painstaking translations of writers and poets like Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore...” Dhumketu was a giant of Gujarati literature.
What strikes you first of all, is his power of observation and creative inclusion: the short stories touch upon each stratum of rural society, from the poorest labourer to the biggest landowner, from young girls to old men, and people of various castes. Usually, they face difficult circumstances. And usually, these circumstances stem from the natural operations of rural Indian society.
Against these realistic backdrops, the characters find themselves in archetypal situations: a son’s longing for his father’s attention and love, a father’s yearning to hear news of his daughter, the lure of adultery squaring off against the motivation to be loyal in marriage. These make for powerful plots, which Dhumketu handles with sensitivity. The author punctures the myth of an idyllic Indian rural society, and does so in a manner that delights and edifies. What does it say about Indian society that Dhumketu’s mission in most of these stories is to generate compassion for the people at the receiving end of society’s malice? Plenty of the author’s protagonists are girls or women negotiating their arduous way through exploitative circumstances. But they are not victims. Dhumketu evokes compassion, not pity for his protagonists.
Of course, these stories were selected by the translator, and so reflect her sensibilities as much as the author’s. It would be a mistake to suppose, however, that Dhumketu wrote only of the society that he saw. The story The Rebirth of Poetry is essentially a parable but can also be read as speculative fiction. It deals with a society that has eradicated disparities in social and economic status and abolished creations of the imagination in order to create a scientifically regulated, harmonious society. This story asks, ‘What is the human condition?’ The English translation is reasonably fast-paced, and eminently accessible. The occasional use of words and interjections typical to Gujarati lend a conversational tone to the work. The language approximates the way that many Indians speak. Of course, this means that in some places, the translation appears as such. Sample this sentence: “Everything appeared new-new to him.” For the most part, however, most readers might imbibe the text with delight, as I did. This is an essential read.