LOVE VISHRAMA AND MALTI, CHAKRADHARA AND HERTY.
LOVE VISHRAMA AND MALTI, CHAKRADHARA AND HERTY.
Anniversary of the Indian antifascist novel.
Irina Glushkov.
SIXTY years ago, in September, 1939, in two weeks after the beginning
The Second World War, one of the Bombay publishing houses has published
Product under the name "Battlefield". It was the first in
Histories of the Indian literature the antifascist novel; on a cover a name of the author
No, on the title page there was a dedication - "Mademoiselle Rollan".
The criticism has apprehended the novel otstranenno, having counted its translation and having noted
Broken contours of structure of the text and shocking liberty in the description
Relations between the man and the woman - the Indian and the German Jew. Already with
The novel has been republished by a name of the author in some years after the termination
The war which have singed though also far from European crossroads, but recognised
Belligerent party India: as the British colony it delivered on
Fronts of the Second world natural and human resources. Called author Vishram
Bedekar.
Having returned to India after two years spent in Europe, the hero of the novel
CHakradhar it is unexpected for itself does not hurry to meet with native, and,
Testing strange opustoshennost and even shame from own feebleness,
Stops in number of one of the Bombay hotels. In some days
Solitary life, thumbing through pages of the English-speaking press, he learns, that
The passenger of a steamship "British princess", delivered him on
The Indian earth and headed to Shanghai, was lost, having rushed to the sea; in
To the same to "the Chronicle of incidents" it was informed on the spoilt corpse of the young
The German, found out in wood near Berlin. Names of victims - Herty Vajn and
Charles Frantsa - appear acquaintances CHakradharu, and it starts to stir in
Memories history odinnadtsatidnevnego travel on "the British princess",
Which majority of passengers Jews deported from Germany were.
CHakradhar rather cynically estimates the amorous fastened by a steamship
Relations, but unexpectedly finds out, that itself has seriously taken a great interest Hertoj.
Sincerely cracked tragical last and unknown future, Herta
Gradually thaws in company Chakradhara and step by step tells to it
Events of last years lives in fascist Germany: how destroyed the house
Her father - the veteran of the First world as it has lost job and remained without
Money with sick mother on hands, as its groom Charles Frants, thoroughbred
The Aryan when she left Germany, has not dared at station to it
To come nearer, but has passed a note which was there and then selected by people in shape.
CHakradhar sees, how the command derisively-contemptiously concerns Jews
The ship, consisting basically from Italians, also it is amazed, that among
Travelling Indians some consider German Jews really
Guilty of all troubles of the third Reich - "do not ask, that they have made,
Is better ask, that they have not made ". The life appears through penetrated
Terrible opposition of people - racial, konfessionalnym, household;
Arguing on the relation to Jews, already passengers-Indians unite in groups on
To dividing religious sign on Hindus and Moslems.
In Bombay CHakradhar receives some letters from Herty - she still tries
To find forces, that, having lost everything including it, to begin a new life.
Last letter comes simultaneously with a newspaper hot.
The author of novel Vishram Bedekar has returned to India in July, 1939, not having finished
Training at cinema school in England: approach was felt
Wars, and leaving European waters of court have been hammered driving off;
Bedekaru have hardly got the ticket for the Italian steamship sailing from
Genoa. In the Bombay port he was met by the wife - the Indian writer and
Public dejatelnitsa Malti Bedekar. Before departure to England their experience
Joint life it was estimated in two days. The initiator of their acquaintance and
The subsequent matrimony was Malti (inconceivable to the Indian measures
Behaviour!) - already being known, she has paid visit Bedekaru,
Debuting as the author of the play "Daughter Brahmy" created on motives
Hindu mythology. The general interests were found out in them, both were strongly
Are carried away Romenom Rollanom (for Bedekara in general defining in perception
Any new person at that time there was its relation to Romenu Rollanu) -
Bedekar did not let go "Jean Kristofa", and Malti raved Anett from
"The fascinated soul". In general, they felt adherents, and
After a while their intellectual opjanennost the friend the friend has passed
In the sensual. On December, 30th, 1938 they have got married, and on January, 1st, 1939 -
Have left: Bedekar has gone to England, and Malti remained in the homeland,
Having received as the state employee purpose for one of high posts. After
Returnings from mother country Bedekar it has unexpectedly appeared in a role of the husband of the
Wives: it had position, the solid salary and a name, at it - except one
Plays and steams-three of unsuccessful attempts of film direction - anything.
Antifascist novel Vishrama Bedekara has grown from family quarrel and
Oppressed self-respect: "I never earlier
Assumed, that the man in the house can occupy the minor
Position ". He has told about it in the autobiography" Two birds on one
Tree ", left in 1984, and somehow, having given in on my inquiries during time
One of our infinite conversations, has specified some details frankly, with
Unprofitable frankness for the author (the history of creation of the novel intertwined with
Additional intrafamily collision, as for that moment at Bedekara
There were at once two wives - the illiterate rural woman, on which it,
On orthodox Hindu custom, married in boyhood and
Which vein together with his parents in remote small town, and educated
Extravagant Malti, printing the novels under a man's pseudonym):
"Somehow we have sat down to have dinner. Conversation has come about novels Malti. By then
All only about them also spoke. They were indeed good. Naturally, the wife
Overflowed pride. Especially I liked its two first books, but
To praise directly in the person language did not turn. However at least some words
To tell it was necessary: I all the same ate its bread. On it as though something
Has found, and she has asked straight: "And you read" the Thawn dream "? This novel
She has written after the story "On a swing". I have responded: "Read, and what?" -
"Yes anything especial, but you have not said a word about him, here I and have asked".
Here to me in a head the idiotic thought has come to place all points over "i". "Than
It is less to speak about this book, the better, here I and was silent ". -" That you have
In a kind? "-" and that it from herself does not represent anything. The publisher - the husband
Your sister, here he also has decided to earn additionally on your popularity and
Has provoked you. And you have fallen a victim ".
Malti has thrown in heat, its person became crimson, then she has turned pale to
Blue, and to me it has reminded a gas ring - when to a gas stream gets
The spark, flame flashes and is torn every which way, changing colours. Malti,
Probably, has thought: "All praise, and it? For the present only gets used to
Joint life, therefore mostly keeps mum. And itself that has written?
One and only pesku, and that has died in half a year after
Prime ministers! Moreover messages from England, full of spelling errors! ", and
Aloud with a call has told: "to Stir easily. At first itself make, and then
Speak ".
In its remark I should hear jeers. Never in advance you know,
What effect those or other words can make. They take off in itself,
And then as unexpectedly disappear, having created something unpredictable. I have solved
Immediately to write the novel and to show Malti, on what I am capable. I seconds
Did not doubt, that at me it will turn out. Next day I took a pencil with
By paper also it was closed in a room. I wrote some days, but furtively.
Hardly Malti came back from service, I put by papers, and as soon as it
Left, again was accepted to job. On the conceived 15-16 days have left, after
That under the pretext of a trip in Umravati to the father I have gone to Bombay. There I
Has met Hari the Squanderer (the publisher. - I.G.) also has given the manuscript, having warned,
That at the publication the name of the author anywhere should not be mentioned. In a month
There was a book. I waited. Somehow time Malti has shown me my own novel and
Has briskly started talking: "it is remarkable! You read?"-"is not present, did not read. I
Has written ". -" You? You indeed have written it? "-" you unless to me have not told:
At first prove business, and then stir? And I have made on the contrary ". In the book was
Dedication: "Mademoiselle Rollan".
In India "Battlefield" already it is considered classics, but
Estimate it really readers could only years through ten after
The ends of war. The novel more than ten times was republished, has been translated with
marathi (the native language of the author) on the basic Indian languages and at last on
English; modern critics mark surprising freshness and juiciness
Product language. In an epilogue to new editions the author recognised, that
Has broken many spatial and time frameworks - for example, letters Herty,
Sent through onboard mail in different points of a route, could not in any way
So immediately to reach Bombay and, having appeared in hands CHakradhara to aggravate
Its feeling of personal fault - not only before Hertoj which it is powerless
To help, but also before its other compatriots - floating on
"To the British princess", already lost in torture chambers of Gestapo and doomed on
Fast б destruction. Still big, however, prophetical, liberty Bedekar has shown
Concerning terms of the beginning of war (I will remind, the novel was created in August 1939
!): the owner of German passport Herta is deprived possibility to descend with
Steamship in Bombay, one of ports of British Empire, as "England
Is at war with Germany "- news about it overtakes
"The British princess" in the middle of a route. To the politician mass and
Purposeful destruction (not deportations) the Jews, spent in
Germany since 1933, Bedekar has presented in the concentrated kind
Through histories not only most Herty, but also Martha, Kajtelja and other refugees
(Though and to escape it was possible only at the very beginning of nazi board).
Telling about scale segregatsii Jews in Germany, including about
Will lock to sit on park benches and to visit public toilets, Herta
Recollects, how it, trying to save as the person, all the same has dared
On infringement and at night, secretly, it is literally on two seconds has concerned edges
Benches in square, and then captured by horror ran on dark streets,
Blown by a wind: "all is forbidden To me. But why this wind so it is free
Touches my body? He unless does not understand, what I the Jew? "And when
By steamship Herta and CHakradhar, realising absence at them the general future,
All the same do not resist to a mutual attraction CHakradhar does not speak to it
Usual phrase of lovers: "You are very beautiful today", but "You are similar today
On the person ", and Herta blossoms with happiness. Accepting inevitability
Separations with CHakradharom, Herta sobs, having buried in knees of the already almost
Mad mother: "Mum, you should protect me, look what wind in this
Lives, I will not transfer it! ".
In autobiography Bedekar recollects, that when it came back from England
In India, by a steamship together with it 100-150 Jews floated; it extremely
Suffered from their stories, and he was smothered by fury from own powerlessness. On
To its novel, certainly, it is impossible to restore history of the beginning the Second world
War or Holocaust history, but author's art fiction
kontaminiroval all knowledge and guesses of a situation in Germany also it is certain
Has anticipated much from this, that subsequently it has been created in the European
The literature and cinema. Having condensed a plot brightly flashed and interrupted on
Launch by feeling, the author has, of course, enclosed in CHakradhara one more shred
Own torments, not knowing (during novel creation), whether it will be saved them
With Malti love (CHakradhar, in particular, states doubts in
Expediency of a love match).
Those years at Bedekara, undoubtedly, the professional prevailed
Cinema vision: the novel world consists of accurately selected details
- Bend of a neck, breed of clothes, colour of ocean; the interior is skilfully recreated
Steamship persons of the people surrounding the author on travel also are traced
From England to India P.Bedekar eventually becomes one of the best
Continuity writers and film directors of a serious Indian cinema,
Absolutely unknown in Russia. In "Battlefield" a narration
That is conducted from the first person when CHakradhara overflow emotions from
The third. This "a running reference point" Bedekar then will brilliantly embody
In the autobiography "Two birds on one tree" which will receive all most
Prestigious Indian literary awards (the autobiography name is cast
Parable from Mundaka-upanishady in which it is told about two birds,
Sitting on a life tree: one is in cares of livelihood, and another
Indulges in contemplation and as a result gets spiritual experience). Bedekar on
All life will save a powerful creative potentiality and it will be recognised by the patriarch
At once in several directions, it will acquire many enemies and envious persons and
Will get rid of an inferiority complex before Malti Bedekar.
Vishram Bedekar was born in 1906 and has died in 1998 Till last instants
It remained beautiful, wise and spiritually strong; it it was impossible
To name the old man - it was elegant in all movements of already weakening body and
It is acute in the most trivial statements. Devjanostotrehletnjaja Malti -
"Mademoiselle Rollan" - remained one. Bedekar to me has somehow told, that
Critics quite often reproached Malti that its heroines improbably
Are initiative and naporisty, that they are through invented and do not bear in itself anything
Indian, "they are unnatural first of all all as one
Run in love affairs forward men ". Malti laughed during it
The story, and then they have together played before me in persons their scene
Acquaintances - Malti came, and Bedekar moved back in a corner. Lived together 60
Years, they, certainly, understood, that are not eternal. When Bedekar has died, the grief
Malti has expressed absolutely on-indijski: it was torn to make sati -
Self-burning on a funeral fire of the husband. It, of course, have not admitted.
By the way, in the novel "Battlefield" Herta actively searches
Rapprochements with CHakradharom, thereby reminding of aggressiveness and most Malti,
And its heroines.
//* an information Source: the Independent newspaper, 2.09.99
//* Reg. Nom. - 1090900016.07-------------------------------------------
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