Chapter : 5. Novels, Society & History
The Problem of Being Modern
(b) The Problem of Being Modern :
Novels often spoke to their readers about the real world Social novelists often created heroes and heroine with ideal qualities, who their readers could admire and imitate. In many novels written during the colonial period, the ideal person successfully deals with one of the central dilemmas faced by colonial subject : how to be modern without rejecting tradition, how to accept ideas coming from the West without losing one's identity.
(i) Chandu Menon portrayed Indulekha as a women of breathtaking beauty, high intellectual abilities, artistic talent, and with an education in English and Sanskrit, Madhavan, the hero of the novel was also presented in ideal colours. He dressed in Western clothes. But, at the same time, he kept a long tuft of hair, according to the Nayar custom.
(ii) The heroes and heroines in most of the novels were people who lived in the modern world. Under colonial rule, many of the English-educated class found new Western ways of living and thinking attractive. But they also feared that wholesale adoption of western values would destroy their traditional ways of living Characters like Indulekha and Madhvane showed readers how Indian and foreign lifestyles could be brought together in an ideal combination.
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