Study on Chetan Bhagat’s Novels as a Commercial Fiction

Examining the Impact of Chetan Bhagat's Novels on Indian English Fiction

by Meena .*, Dr. Manisha Yadav,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 14, Issue No. 2, Jan 2018, Pages 665 - 670 (6)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

The 'Novel' as a scholarly wonder is new to India. Epics, Lyrics, Dramas, Short Stories and Fables have their good lineages, returning by a few centuries, yet it is amid time of minimal over a century that the novel, the since quite a while ago continued bit of exposition fiction has happened and flourished in India. Among the new young writers the most capable, is maybe Chetan Bhagat. With his novels, Five Point Someone What not to do at IIT (2004), One Night the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States – the Story of My Marriage (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), What Young India Wants (2012) and Half Girlfriend (2014), Chetan Bhagat has without any assistance reshaped the Indian English novels. Chetan Bhagat is a standout amongst the most perused fiction writers in Indian writing in English. He has composed six novels and one genuine taking all things together. His books have been sold in millions. Postmodern subjects are the major topical worries of his fictions like youth desires, love, sex, marriage, corruption, politics, education and certain different issues identified with urban working class society. In this article, we studied about Chetan Bhagat’s Novels as a Commercial Fiction.

KEYWORD

Chetan Bhagat, novels, commercial fiction, Indian English novels, postmodern subjects

I. INTRODUCTION

India has been a nation of occasions and activities. From the time immemorial India has seen incredible changes, new traditions, rebellions and changes as the outcome. People have continued originating from outside lands and settled here, making this their own land and including to the culture, tradition and language of this Indus valley human progress. A similar destiny has been met by the literature of this incredible and diverse nation. Be that as it may, literature has been the part and bundle of Indian culture and society as far back as the development of human advancement here, it started with the Vedas in oral structure and then with some rishis going ahead the literary scene of Indian culture the Vedas were gathered and composed. This later created from unadulterated spirituality to romance in type of Shakuntala composed by Kalidas with obviously a great deal of spirituality in it. European library merited the entire local literature of India and Arabia" the sudden need of going to English literature was felt, as so as to look at, one have to think about both the things altogether. The language which was acquainted with Indians just to raise the agents of organization before long started offering voice to the Indian feelings of revolt and outrage against frontier rule. After that the literature in English writing was so effectively thought out and created by Indians that it discovered its place in worldwide literature with Rabindra Nath Tagore getting the principal Nobel Prize in literature for "his significantly delicate, crisp and beautiful verse". Be that as it may, Indian literature has seen a sudden and intense change with the evolving social, political and monetary structure of India since 1990s. With youth taking the front seat in practically every one of the parts of developmental adventure of nation, literature has additionally been over taken by them .Hence shaping another type on literary landscape of nation, called commercial fiction. This Chapter investigations this rising new kind and its effect on readership and distributing industry. This is done in the light of works of Chetan Bhagat, the pioneer of commercial anecdotal pattern in India. Chetan Bhagat has constantly contacted after something new in his writings. His writings have constantly anticipated reality and introduced a genuine picture of life in India. Everybody can interface himself/herself to him the manner in which he conveyed what needs be which is seen effectively. He very skillfully shows his considerations in words so that they are

subjects from life at call center, secularism, and weight in the present education framework, bury – network marriages, corruption and a lot more however he has composed a handful of books. He has a tremendous fan following. His novels are ―tugs at the emotionsǁ instead of admonishes genuine abstract aspirations. He puts the realities hilariously and mockingly entrancing the readers. His writings have picked up the best inheritance of refined postmodernism literature by destroying the specialist of the West.

II. COMMERCIAL FICTION

The methods for generation for literature in English have seen huge changes in India since the late 1980s. A striking proliferation of both free and international publishers has occurred. In connection to Indian English literature, the present period of development can be followed back to the autonomous distributer Ravi Dayal's prosperity with Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines (1988), and to the setting up of Penguin India in 1985. A relating expansion in classifications and genres of such literature has clearly happened. Inside the Indian market, Indian "commercial fiction" in English has verifiably been the primary zone of expansion, while "literary fiction" in English, as much a market classification as commercial fiction, and interpretations from Indian dialects have turned out to be increasingly shifted and various as well. The Indian commercial fiction in English which flows prevalently inside the nation can be viewed as sensibly unmistakable from the "literary fiction" in English which has a bigger than Indian nearness. Nor are, be that as it may, commonly impenetrable or select zones. In spite of various endeavors to portray these terms according to content – as though messages have immanent characteristics of commercialness and abstractness – both are conceivably comprehended as market-drove classifications. [Gupta: Chapter 6] Both bode well as far as speaking to and envisioning explicit sorts of readership, and being planned, publicized, circled and talked about or ignored accordingly. For the most part, literary fiction clearly has more prominent international perceivability and is every so often viewed as contemporary with "Indian English literature" fundamentally. This is so particularly outside India however sometimes inside India as well, in academic circles and establishment cultural talks. Normally, this does not imply that all Indian literary fiction has such international perceivability; much that is distributed thusly, even beneficiaries of Sahitya Akademi grants, don't go far in the Indian market and travel impassively abroad. Be that as it may, accomplishment in literary fiction is estimated by writings which have coursed well in a more extensive Anglo-American market, and have viewed as matter of internal interest. It is devoured principally inside India, seen to show a sort of "Indianness" that Indians acknowledge, and isn't intended to be taken "genuinely" or viewed as "literary". Literary fiction is the decent public face of Indian literature in English abroad and at home, while commercial fiction is the gossipy bistro of Indian writing in English at home. There is a quality of chivalry about the expert of the publishing professional relevant Indian fiction in English. They show up at the bleeding edge of literary creation, while academic analysis shows up afterward. Particularly in connection to commercial fiction, publishing professionals progressively partake of a kind of more noteworthy creation: they appear to talk as writers of a commercial field of literary generation and gathering in which the prompt writers – the functional writers of commercial fiction – contribute subsidiarily. Publishing professionals are apportioned their own record and story as super-authorial figures through interviews and addresses and epitomize a much-examined development industry (much as call-center workers accomplished for the Indian redistributing industry as of late). Publishers sometimes talk candidly of their more grounded feeling of initiation in India than their counterparts may feel somewhere else. In the wake of moving from Bloomsbury UK to Random House India, distributer Chiki Sarkar [2009] in this manner found that she is having "so much fun" since she can choose what sorts of books she wants to distribute and then discover writers for them and reasonable media inclusion. By method for repartee, Aditya Sudarshan [2010] opined that "Indian publishing needs to get less fun" since "kitsch" was start to command the Indian English fiction records – not on the grounds that readers or writers essentially need it, yet "in light of the fact that our editors felt like it". At any rate, while the academic master places Rushdie as ancestor of contemporary Indian literary fiction in English, the publishing master appoints Chetan Bhagat, the equivalent for commercial fiction. Things being what they are, a 2007 report in The Hindustan Times watched: "For what reason did we quit looking down on commercial writing? The appropriate response, state publishers, can be found in two words: Chetan Bhagat". [Gulab: 2007] And, comparably, an article from The Telegraph opined: It's not as though Indian writers‘ never written commercial fiction. [… ] But this never formed into a collection of work. That has changed as far back as smash hit creator Chetan Bhagat hit the scene. [Dua: 2009]

Meena1* Dr. Manisha Yadav2

of Indian commercial fiction in English is broadly recognized. Regardless of the fitness of Bhagat's forebear status (his Five Point Someone was distributed in 2004, while Shobhaa De's Socialite Nights, 1989, and Anurag Mathur's The Inscrutable Americans, 1991, have solid spearheading claims for the contemporary commercial fiction field), the career of his novels typifies the sort of generation and course that this part is worried about. According to Bhagat's publishers Rupa, their other fruitful books move 40-50,000 duplicates. [Fernandes: 21] However, this achievement in the domestic market isn't reflected in the international passages of Bhagat's novels. Five Point Someone (2004) did not discover a co-publication bargain abroad. Because of news-fuelled consciousness of re-appropriating in Britain and the United States, One Night @ the Call Center (2005) did, and was co-distributed by Transworld Publishers (UK) and Ballantine Books (USA) in 2007. Vast internet sellers outside India, for example, Amazon USA and Amazon UK, have reliably demonstrated unobtrusive sales rankings for both. Bhagat's novels have to a great extent gotten away academic consideration. He gets a coincidental mention in a commentary in Rajan's 2011 review of post-Midnight's Children novels; and even in Tabish Khair's 2008 [59-74] outline of "Indian mash fiction in English", Bhagat neglects to show up. Normally, Bhagat's work has gotten productive broad communications consideration and various audits in Indian broadsheets and magazines. These are consistent in questioning Bhagat's "literary" achievement: With the arrival of his third book [… ] Chetan Bhagat has made one thing very clear. He truly is certifiably not an incredible writer. This shouldn't come as news to the Indian literary establishment. [Menon: 71] Similarly, such reports have been ceaselessly struck by the way that his novels move very the same number of duplicates as revealed. Bhagat's work has gotten some broad communications consideration outside India, the tone of which justifies itself with real evidence. Bhagat was acquainted along these lines with readers of The Guardian: "He is the greatest moving writer in English you've never known about" [Ramesh: 2008]; and with the following to Observer readers: "For (Indian) people (of the "redistributing generation"), there is just a single writer: Chetan Bhagat, who?" [McCrum: 2010] Whether in India or somewhere else, the tone says that it doesn't generally make a difference to us what Bhagat composes, we would not get much from reading his writings; what is important is that they perused him prolifically – those Bhagat readers in India. These different readers are by prosperity, and their reading Bhagat symptomatizes something. They are described in literary highlights as another sort of readership. According to a New York Times article: Mr. Bhagat probably won't be another Vikram Seth or Arundhati Roy, however he has true cases to being one of the voices of a generation of working class Indian youth confronting the decisions and dissatisfactions that accompany the possibility of developing wealth. [Greenlees: 2008] All who have expounded on Bhagat, in India or somewhere else, concede to this: the Chetan Bhagat "phenomenon", in a word, has something to do with white collar class youth in India, and something to do with India's developing opulence and nearness in a globalized world and subsequently fortified feeling of national/nearby identity. Bhagat is a hint of a greater challenge of Indian commercial fiction in English. Much that can be said about the tip applies to the ice shelf by and large. Various excited reports have showed up around the turn of the 2010s about the proceeding with "blast" in English language fiction in India. These register a fast proliferation of commercial fiction along the lines of "genre" classes: analyst fiction, science fiction and dreams, chick lit, romances, campus novels, realistic novels, and so on. Separations among makers and customers are noted in these: for example, how much both international publishers and autonomous publishers are advancing genre fiction, and which classifications are offering particularly well or are yet to achieve their maximum capacity. A developing gap between commercial fiction for Indian readers and literary fiction for Indian and international utilization is sporadically seen, and sometimes it is proposed that interest in delivering the last is maybe enduring. The incredible dominant part are cheery about such a dunk in literary fiction and celebratory about the development and capability of commercial fiction.

III. COMMERCIAL FICTION AND CHETAN BHAGAT

Indian experience with English is absolutely the result of provincial control and their need of practical and effectively accessible representatives. Be that as it may, Indians have kept up their temperance of pleasing whatever comes to them from foreign lands and have made the language a fundamental part of their culture and utilized it for speaking to themselves. The English language has

created and adapted by the verifiable powers. Impersonation has been the power behind its birth, as far back as its birth it has experienced different and radical changes from minor impersonation, it turned into the voice of revolution and the agent of down trodden and minimized people and now it is an unmistakable voice with its own space in globalized world. The Indian literary situation has experienced the stages of-Historical romance, Socio – Political realism, Existential quest, Feminism, to post-modern methods of writing. In addition, as any literature would, changing trends of Indian culture with globalization and society are being spoken to by Indian literature. The ongoing blast of redistributed business and foreign investment looking into India has changed the budgetary chances of young and urban Indians thus absolutely changing their lifestyle. The areas of society started profiting by these monetary freedoms in the mid 1990's and this have been depicted by creators through their characters who are middle class, yearning youth. There works spin around the lives of taught, urban, English-talking tip top. Many of the novels are set in India's chief educational institutions, or fictionalized variants of them or in what are by and large known as IT empowered workplaces — call centers, banks, or business process outsourcing companies (BPOs). Subsequently, bringing forth another sort of genre called Commercial fiction which is inverse to traditional and in the hand, literary fiction. The two are same to the extent fiction is concerned still they are posts apart. Fiction was just accessible as "literary" or "foreign" fiction which was intended for and available to littler and chose gathering of people. In spite of the fact that commercial fictions were known and created by foreign writers years prior, it is route back when Agatha Christie started writing murder, mystery and romance and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made the world referred to character of Sherlock Holmes as ahead of schedule as 1886, however in India, the novels were a greater amount of literary twisted and were composed for a reason with stylized and literary language which obviously was far from a significant part of the Indian populace who still face issue with English language. To be progressively exact and precise with Bhagat hitting the ground, there developed the sub-genre called graduated class or campus novel. As far back as his first book has turned into the success; he has turned into the youth icon. The phenomenal accomplishment of Bhagat has offered ascend to another time that will without a doubt be called Bhagat's period in Indian writing in English. Despite the fact that the purposes for his prosperity are till date 2010, Time magazine named him as 'one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World'. It would appear that a life out of dreams, a clothes to newfound wealth story. The reason that Chetan Bhagat saw such a colossal achievement and brought home the bacon out of writing in a nation where making living out of writing was a fantasy, is that he had clicked with the nerves of Indian youth who is experiencing an intense change. From one perspective, the urban youth is having an extreme time in adapting up to the globalization and westernization of India and the traditional familial and societal set up and values, though then again the village youth is really confronting the issue in adapting up to quick moving city life and English come as a nightmare to them and so do English fiction. Bhagat has prevailing with regards to evacuating this stunningness and fear and made the English fiction accessible and understandable for all by utilizing basic and undemanding language. Anyway the commercial fictions are unique in relation to literary fictions from various perspectives and so is their effect on readership and publishing industry. In this charged situation Chetan Bhagat has filled in as touching off apparatus. His works and achievement has given another viewpoint to the universe of creators and publishers. The real points on which the commercial fiction contrasts from literary fiction are: Language and Style, Purpose, Publishing Industry, Aspiring Authors, and Marketing Industry. Any literary work is judged and qualified based on its language, style and story methods. They have been the pointers for the work to be named as "literary" or "commercial". Literary language on one hand, praises verbosity, simplicity is the ornament of the commercial language then again. Chetan Bhagat while writing his works religiously follow the standard of language for commercial fictions. He rejects the standard utilization of grandiloquent style of writing. His language is basic, clear and effectively extensive even to the peruser with non-literary foundations. A pundit with literary twisted of mind will call his language unliterary, practically terrible rather than straightforward. He utilizes basic, short and extremely Indian sentences to build up his story. He influences his characters to talk in recognizable language to the peruser. He may not be utilizing Hinglish, as he state, however the language is utilized so that it clicks with the flawed language of youth which now a days is mix of slangs and Indianized English. It is his utilization of language and style that takes his readers on simple and agreeable ride. One needn't bother with a word reference while reading his novels. This grabs the main skip method for learning vocabulary and

Meena1* Dr. Manisha Yadav2

a blemish, no learning methods no reading by any stretch of the imagination. There is not something to be learnt by the youth aside from some senseless things as what could occur in IIT, love, marriage and pre-marriage loss of virginity. His works makes the readers reject and disregard the utilization of word reference, language and classics. It turns out to be increasingly perilous since he focuses on the youth as his readers and characters. He influences his novels to represent the Indian youth, their ineptitudes of achievement and vulnerability against the system. A young peruser experiences his novels and appreciates them as he is himself the hero of the novel. After Chetan Bhagat and his peers hit the field there are more people now into reading the English fiction which generally would have not been conceivable. Because of all the analysis the Indian commercial fiction has gotten the writers shield themselves by saying that they are working towards improving the reading propensities for youth. As Durjoy Dutta says, "Just stories that they like to peruse can take them back to books and our essential spotlight ought to be on the best way to make people read, not on choosing what they should peruse." Some way or another they overlook that once dependent on this sort of reading they will never have the capacity to peruse and welcome the literary great books, with respect to reading literary fiction they will require out and out new kind of molding and understanding of psyche. This really will habituate them permanently to commercial fiction, indeed making us out of the worldwide race. There were times when Chetan Bhagat was rejected for his first book by many publishers on account of unliterary language and un-esthetically created plot of the novel. He was given possibility just by one of his friends who consented to print thousand duplicates, that too after rehashed requests of Bhagat. Nonetheless, his first novel was an enormous achievement and throughout the night Bhagat turned into the legend of publishing industry. The unparalleled achievement of this novel was an eye opener for the publishers and a question mark for faultfinders. Why a straightforward story of three friends of IIT was so valued by India where number of readers is practically insignificant, is a question still to be illuminated. Is it the story of the actualities about IIT, one of the difficult to achieve dream destination of young India or allowing pre-marriage sex with power which requested the young India, is as yet uncertain question, yet one thing is without a doubt and that is he moves and that is sufficient for publishing industry. commercial fiction. The broad accomplishment of commercial fictions constrained the serious canons like Penguins to shed of their pride and bounce into this advantageous scene without sitting idle so Penguin thought of Metro Reads, Random House delivered Ebury Press. This came as a favor for creators like Rashmi Bansal, Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Dutta, Ravi Subramanium, Preeti Shenoy who have been picked by these huge houses. The pundits may ask what, why, when, how however reality is that Chetan Bhagat has changed the essence of publishing industry. He and his troop has made the Indian publishing businesses present felt all around.

IV. CONCLUSION

So on the off chance that the commercial creators are focusing on youth, at that point they have motivation to do that. In addition, the man alongside his counterparts has demonstrated his technique right and the publishing business is seeing a blast. As far back as Bhagat came into the writing scene the publishing business has been revolutionized from numerous points of view. Today, India is the third-biggest distributer of English language books. Chetan Bhagat might be denounced by literary pundits for many things however he had been granted for his extraordinary accomplishment by titles like The Paperback Messiah (Perur), The Game Changer, The Trendsetter, The Golden Goose (Sarkar). Alongside all the above impacts Bhagat's phenomenon has made another obvious and exceptional effect on the Indian fiction world. With so many Publishers approaching, the market has turned out to be open and wide for many, yearning creators. Besides with glimmering accomplishment of Bhagat's five novels, the young India has started trusting that writing a book is certainly not a troublesome assignment. His over oversimplified language and far from societal set up plot helps in creating certainty among youth that to compose a book they simply need to realize how to doodle on the paper and make a few sentences and have a story of possess. Bhagat's commendable achievement is the explanation for such an expansive number of maturing writers, It is he who have made English fiction reading and writing both much moderate and available assignment for everybody in India. In spite of the fact that it has helped in teaching trust in hopeful creators however it has again befuddled the psyches of young India in which each IIT or IIM graduate with his very own love story or a friend and some information of English language will in general discover another Chetan Bhagat in himself.

(2011). The New Age Best Seller and the literary taste of Budding Book Lovers: A devaluation of One Night @ the call center, Bhopal, Naveen Samajik Shodh, p. 29. 2. Ramesh, Randeep (2008). ―Author‘s Mass-Market Success Upsets Indian Literati‖, The Guardian. 9 October, 2008. Print. 3. Saldanha, Arun (2002). ―Music, Space, Identity: Geographies of Youth Culture in Bangalore‖, Cultural Studies, 16: 3. 2002. Print. 4. Sarkar, Chiki (2009). ―Why Indian Publishing Is So Much Fun‖, Seminar: Literary Landscapes Issue, August (2009). Print. 5. Sudarshan, Aditya (2010). ―Indian Publishing Needs to Get Less Fun‖, The Hindu Literary Review. July 4, 2010. Print. 6. Henry C. Lewis, (ed.) (2007). Best Quotations for all occasions‗, Kalyani Publisher, New Delhi.P.N-176,2007) 7. http:/specials.rediff.com/news/2007/aug/06slide5.html 8. H.M Williams (1976). Indo-Anglian Literature 1800-1970: A survey, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1976, 34 9. R. Parthasarthy (1987). Tradition and creativity: Stylistic Innovations in Raja Rao,ǁ Larry Smith(Ed.)Discourse Across Culture: Strategies in World English London Prentice Hall, 1987,157. 10. Anjaneyulu T. (1998). A critical study of the selected Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, Manohar Malgonkar and Khushwant Singh, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers, 1998.

Corresponding Author Meena*

Research Scholar of OPJS University, Churu, Rajasthan