In Times of Siege —English Novel of Contemporary India:
In Times of Siege, Githa Hariharan's English novel of contemporary India appeared in 2002 when the B.J.P. led coalition government of P.M. Atal Bihari Bajpai was in power. The Indian National Congress and the left parties were in opposition. In post - colonial India, the constitution framed virtually by the Congress and other members of the Constituent Assembly from native states and other parties on elected or nominated basis promulgated a Secular Democratic federal Union. National consciousness in the European style was unknown India has been for centuries before the British rule in 1818, a geographical expression. North India , by and large , formed the Mughal Empire from 1526 to the British rule in 1800 A.D. South India from River Narbada to Cape was under native rulers . The Mughals made Persian the official language, whereas regional languages- Telegu, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and others flourished in different states. National consciousness in the European style was unknown. Feudalism, multi - culturalism and religious segregation or fanaticism dominated with cast system, a specific feature of bulk of Hindu society. Islam and later Christians introduced Monoist faith.
In India without a common religion, cultural confusion worse confounded:
Education till the advent of the modern age with British rule in nineteenth century was all over the world was in the domain of religion organised as the Church or faith as in Islam. In Europe the Church unified people culturally, the conflict in modern age was more political and material than religious. In India without a common religion, caste, communalism and feudalism or authoritarianism (monarchical rule) made cultural confusion worse confounded. The British colonists introduced after 1835 , a uniform administration for whole of India and European liberal education with English as official language replacing Persian , Sanskrit and regional languages, though the native languages were not counted.
Education as a national policy was to perpetuate the colonial rule:
Education as a national policy came into being though its objective was to perpetuate the colonial rule. The Western System of liberal and scientific education with Universities and technical and professional institutions transformed the horizon of knowledge in India. Since 1850's universities and educational institutions brought in a new middle class in Indian society cutting across all barriers, social, religious or cultural. In post - colonial India the role of education and universities have further increased as a vital source of national integration. Religious fanaticism or fundamentalism is considered as a dangerous threat to secular democracy, and multi - cultural and multi - lingual diversity of India. P.M. Nehru thought that secular India is the only way to keep that Indian diversity intact. Communalism and fundamentalism are serious threat to the unity of India. India is a vast land with big population and multi-party system. The left, the Rights or the centrists have different approaches and viewpoints. Githa Hariharan's view point in the novel expresses Nehru's concern against extremist fundamentalism amongst Hindus. In 1999, after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1990’s, B.J.P. coalition government came to power.
The religious stand to the educational policy would seriously imperil the unity of India:
In democracy, national policy including education can be coloured in favour of ideology of the party. R.S.S. (a cultural Hindu group) carries great weight in B.J.P. So the liberal intellectuals as well as the left apprehended that the government could be about fundamentalist changes in Universities and educational institutions. The religious stand to the educational policy, the author believes, would seriously imperil the unity of India or its diversity. This fear is brought out by Khushwant Singh, in ' The Hindustan Times ' when he states reviewing the novel, “Hariharan writes with anguish, pain and anger about what is happening into our country ....”
Significance of the title:
With anguish, pain and anger about what the title, 'In Times of Siege’, shows her anguish because Githa knows the education and university is aided by the government in India. The government of India could control the education. It has power of censorship, so the ' Siege ' implies it could influence freedom of expression as well as suppress ' plurality of view. The danger is obvious. So the setting of the novel is University of Delhi ( Open University or IGNOU ) and the chief protagonist is a Professor of History and his lecture on Basava , a twelfth century reformer poet of South India which creates the crisis . The trouble - makers are a group of self - styled fundamentalists, 'Itihas Suraksha Manch.’ The group terms the lecture as an insult to Hindu revivalism. It was a misrepresentation of the poet, who was a saint. So Professor Shiv Murthy should apologise for hurting religious sentiments and withdraw the paper. Fifty two years old intellectual and middle class elite is least prepared to face the open confrontation with extremists. The crisis deepens with media airing it and the university also gets divided. The writer scoffs at the spineless and escapist bourgeois bureaucrats, when the chairman succumbs to the extremist pressure and advises Murthy to apologise and revise the paper to null the storm.
Murthy's life Shiv Murthy, a feeble person finds himself intimidated. He is at the center of the issue. Emotionally attached to his father, a disgruntled freedom - fighter, who left his home never to be seen again on the earth in 1962, like Basava in 1168 A.D. He is confused and undecided. He knows that his lecture was based on research and truth, but the pressure is that he should forgot truth and history and apologise.
Meena- the requisite flicker of inspiration:
Meena, young radical woman fighter from another discipline in crutches for broken knee, reluctantly accepted as his ward provokes him sexually, in crisis urges him to take up the challenge. Oppression in political life or a form is bad and dangerous. Silence and withdrawal would worsen the threat. A sagging human being finds the requisite flicker of inspiration from twenty four years old girl and diffident naive Murthy is transformed to a real man.
The novel ends with the departure of the young Meena free from her crutches. The professor has resolved to fight, but the consequences of the resolve are left to the imagination of the reader. The plot begins as sensuous tale of sick ward, Meena with a plastered crutch for healing a broken knee and an old middle aged professor of history. , whose wife has gone to Seattle to visit his young daughter , but the author soon turns the romantic tale to its theme of danger of fundamentalism in India to its secular democratic liberal political structure . In historical evolution of Indian democratic system, the B.J.P. coalition in next general election (2004) was defeated by the Congress led UPA under P.M. Manmohan Singh and the fear of 'Siege' turned out to be a mirage.