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How writers explore emotions, and heuristics. Two tales from Kannada Literature.

How writers explore emotions, and heuristics. Two tales from Kannada Literature.
Traumatic experiences caused by the epidemics are intense, and their scarring memories are long-lasting. Also, the epidemics bring a significant shift in the value systems, thus, changing the fabric of the society. Every individual who survives the epidemics and faces the newly established reality carries all these haunting memories and tries to cope with the situation in their own ways.

One of the cardinal features of behavioural economics is the use of cognitive shortcuts or heuristics for making quick every day decisions. Literature reflects on the everyday and the inner life of the brain to expose paradoxes of everyday life. We are still living through a pandemic which keeps on changing the contours of everyday life.

This article attempts to look into various socio-cultural dimensions of the bubonic plague epidemic in the regions of Mysore Province of India during the Colonial Era through the lenses of Kannada Literature. Kannada is one of the major Indian Classical Languages. During the 20th Century, the scope of Kannada Literature got enhanced, and many notable literary works based on the themes of critically evaluating the society, culture, and beliefs were produced. Creative literature captures many such pieces of information which may not be available in the formal and scientific sources of knowledge. Analysis of such works sheds light on several unexplored dimensions of the epidemics.

Dr. S.L. Bhairappa (1931-) and Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy (1932-2014) are the two eminent Kannada writers who included Bubonic Plague as a prominent theme in their work. Dr. Bhairappa depicts his personal experiences of the Bubonic Plague outbreak in his novel Gruhabhanga. He narrates the actual experiences in his Autobiography Bhitti. Dr. K Shivarama Karanth’s novel Bettada Jeeva also contains a similar portrayal. In this novel, Dr. Karanth narrates the story being the protagonist. In this novel, the protagonist (himself) goes to the hilly areas of the Western Ghats region and contracts Malaria. In the foreword of the novel, the writer explains that the story of Bettada Jeeva is based on his real-life experiences (Karanth, 2018a). Whereas, in Samskara by Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy, the Plague epidemic has been presented symbolically. Here, the writer narrates the story from an observer’s perspective.

“I had to do this metaphorically, for I did not want the elders to know what I knew. Metaphors serve as hiding places for writers of all ages–certainly for writers like Dostoevsky in the Tsarist Russia.” (Ananthamurthy, 2014)

‘Samskara’ is one of the influential literary works in Kannada Literature written by U R Ananthamurthy. Published in 1965, this novel portrays a south Indian village during the early 20th Century A.D. The plot of the novel has the outbreak of bubonic plague as the central factor and various social and moral value shifts caused by it. This novel is one of the well-thought efforts to symbolise the diseases and epidemics in criticising the sheer naivety of the society and the dangers of approaching such severe issues with a narrow-minded approach. This literary work employs the outbreak of the Bubonic Plague as a tool to evaluate and criticise the stagnant mindset and the resistance to modern knowledge. The impact of the epidemic shakes the rigid socio-culture structure and offers a new possibility of a new, inclusive social system. Fundamentally, there is not much difference between the upper and lower social strata in the way of responding to the disastrous events. Instead of verifying the original cause of such events, they immediately conclude that the supernatural powers are unraveling their wrath because of some wrongdoings.

Whereas Sahukara Manjayya, from the neighbouring village who is more liberal and modern in his approach, identifies the reason for the deaths and the unexplainable deaths. He takes necessary measures such as fumigation for eradicating the mice, getting the family members inoculated, and moving away from the house if required (P. 19, P 83). Unfortunately, the rest decide to continue with their religious interpretations. No one pays attention to the announcement of the plague outbreak in a nearby city in the south-central part of Karnataka and the necessary precautions to be taken. Despite the repeated announcement, people still continue to carry on with the religious fair and ignore the instructions (P. 99). The author narrates this in the following manner;

“People listened to the announcement curiously. Afterward, they continued with their exploration of various forms of entertainment at the fair. They tasted the colourful soda drinks, ecstatically laughed at the dance of the monkey….” (P. 99)

A difficult situation like an epidemic can uncover various hidden versions of people and can cause whole new forms of interpersonal dynamics. Few may become completely insensitive and merciless; few may make sacrifices to help others. The precarious situations generated by the epidemics may lead to new differences between individuals or may mend the existing quarrels.

While Samskara employs the plague outbreak to depict the dangers of overly conservative belief systems and being immune to new information, Gruhabhanga, authored by Dr. S.L. Bhairappa (1970), narrates the plague outbreak situation with extraordinary vividness and utmost intensity. As mentioned in the opening note of this work, Gurhabhanga is not an intellectual or critical discourse, but it looks at life in its raw and natural form. The entire account of the plague outbreak portrayed in the novel is extracted from the writer’s personal experience and, with this quality, Gruhabhanga maintains its uniqueness. Dr. Bhairappa mentions the precedents for this work and the devastation faced by his family due to the plague epidemic also in his autobiography Bhitti (P. 22). In Gruhabhanga, the plague outbreak starts in a small village of the south-eastern part of Karnataka, then known as Mysore Province. The death of mice gets reported from the dwellings of the shepherds in the town. This goes mostly unnoticed until the disease spreads to areas of the village where the people from the upper class reside. Parvathi, the elder sister of the central character, Vishwa, gets infected with Bubonic Plague. The villagers consider the disease to be an evil goddess ‘Sunklamma’ or ‘Plague Mariamma’. With this notion, many villagers turn towards their gods and goddesses and seek protection from the illness (P. 296). Rodents dying in large numbers was considered to be the clear indication of the arrival of the evil goddess ‘Plague Maramma’. The villagers carried the firm belief that those who don’t please the evil goddess, and worship her in a proper way would be destroyed by her wrath. Everyone in the village should abandon their houses and stay outside the village in temporary shelters for the duration of ‘Plague Maramma’s’ stay within the village, which usually lasted for approximately three months. This notion further intensified with the occult preachers exaggerating the evil powers of ‘Plague Maramma’ (P. 53).

Plague was mainly a recurrent phenomenon during the early 1900s. The outbreaks used to take place most regularly with an interval of two years, sometimes even lesser. Other issues like famine, irregular rains, and various other diseases further intensified the ill effects of the plague epidemic. It is worth noting that, as per the health office reports, during the 1920s, Mysore State recorded the highest number of plague infections. The haphazard planning without appropriate response strategies by the provincial Government worsened the situation.

It is necessary to admit that this is just an act of scratching the surface. An in-depth analysis of each of the works quoted in this write-up will discover many new dimensions of the epidemics and various responses towards them.

Creative literature can capture and communicate the various hidden or somewhat neglected dimensions and dynamics of the epidemics. The applied sciences, social sciences, and data sciences do explore and explain epidemics comprehensively. However, they fail to appreciate the psycho-socio-cultural aspects, including individual experiences. It is imperative to include creative expressions such as literature, poetry, folklore, and cinema if we try to study the effect of epidemics on human beings. The individual experiences of grief, angst, confusion, helplessness, loneliness, determination and hope caused by the epidemics can be sought through the means of creative expressions. Literature can help us cope with the aftermath of the pandemics, it overshadows the loss and makes sense of the survivor’s guilt.

Thank you for reading The Behavioural Review!

Poornaprajna Kulkarni is a R&D Manager, and a trained Applied Psychologist.

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