Religious Strain in the Short Story Angry River by Ruskin Bond

Religious Strain in the story Angry River

By

Abha Sirohi 

Research Scholar, A.K.P. G. College, Hapur (Ghaziabad)

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Ruskin Bond attempts to analyze human psychology in his short stories; He deals with the elemental and impulsive life of man. He tells the stories objectively and beyond all these things his stories shows goodness of man’s heart and his faith in the Supreme power. He has innate power to produce the influence of one’s emotions, sounds and sights that thrills the senses of other man; it is due to his profound faith in God. As a writer he has put goodness of man and dignity of human self above all considerations this is the reason sometimes our heart is filled with pleasure and a sense of spiritual satisfaction. 

Ruskin Bond is a writer of children and when we talk about children a sense of innocence creeps over our mind. The bent of mind of the author takes it in a religious way; he wants to show us innocence of nature, the basic decencies of God. God creates and nourishes us with innocence without any partiality, in return He needs only our dedication, but most of the times we ignore this fact due to our business, our careless attitude:-

“in worrying about own distress, they had forgotten about the island, in the middle of the river. The river was very angry now, rampaging down from the hills and thundering across the plains...” ¹⁶⁵

Ruskin Bonds children stories are very famous in all over world. Some of his popular stories are Blue Umbrella, Untouchable, Panther’s Moon, Time Stops at Shamli and Angry River. The story Angry River portrays the work of nature. How nature affects our lives? What He (God, the Supreme power) wants from us? How should we treat and preserve the nature. The story is a pathetic description of a family of remote area, where no one can imagine about survival.

The Angry River is the story of a girl Sita who lives with her grandparents on a lonely island in the middle of a river.  The story illustrates the life in the lap of nature, which is a symbol of simplicity and naturality. Bond has narrated the opening lines of the story in a very beautiful way:-

       “In the middle of the river, the river that began in the mountains of the Himalayas and ended in the bay Bengal there was a small island.” ¹⁵³

The characters of the story reflect a different aspect of life. They have a different theory about various objects, sometimes the views are full of myths and superstitions; for example the Peepal tree is described as:-

“ A sacred tree, the Peepal, the abode of spirits, good and bad... ‘Do not yawn when you are sitting beneath the tree, Grandmother would warn Sita, her ten-year-old granddaughter, ‘and if you must yawn always snap your fingers in front of your mouth. If you forget to do that, a demon might jump down your throat!”

Bond believes in essential worth and goodness. He has a firm faith in God and knows that we are not true to the expectations of the Supreme power but He always keep watching us, He is the Ultimate power who protects us from every evil, pain and difficulties. Only with His help we can come out of every pain:-

  “And as the tree moved out on the river and the little island was lost in the swirling waters, Sita forgot her fear and her loneliness. The tree was taking her with it. She was not alone. It was as though one of the gods had remembered her after all.”

The river in the story symbolises God, it means that the river is a part of nature and in this way we are a part of nature, a part of Supreme power and we will have to flow in that direction where it will lead us:-

“we cannot fight the river when it is like this, we must go where it takes us’... ‘Sometimes the river is angry and sometimes it is kind!’ said Sita. ‘We are a part of the river’.”  

Ruskin Bond emphasizes and highlights the problems of modern times in a religious way. We are not careful about nature and this ignorance is not good, the decay of nature symbolises the lost of moral values, character and goodness. Sometimes it is difficult to know about the purpose of nature behind every task:-

             “she had always loved the river. Why was it threatening her now? She remembered the doll and thought, ‘If I can be so careless with someone I have made, how can I expect the gods to notice me?” ¹⁶⁴

He represents nature as God and now-a-days the man is not following the path of truth, and the path of goodness which would lead to us near God, it is been proved that somehow He is angry with us. If he can create us than He is the Ultimate power who is supposed to show us the right path. Through these types of natural disasters like flood He wants to show us that we are wrong on our part:-

“ Thunder rolled down from the hills. Boom---boom---boom... The gods of the mountains are angry, said Sita. ‘Do you think they are angry with me?’ ‘Why should they be angry with you? asked Mumta. ‘They do not need a reason for being angry. They are angry with everything and we are in the middle of everything!” ¹⁶⁰

On one side where the nature is angry with us Bond conveys this message that behind every object of nature there lays the ray of Supreme God, on the other side as sacred forms of God he emphasizes that Nature is the ultimate soothing power, He is the only source who can provide rid from our grievances. He is responsible for our well being whether He want to give us pain or relief it is His choice, Who is always observing us:-

“we are so small- do you think they know we are here?’ ‘Who knows what the gods think? ‘But I made you, ‘said Sita, ‘and I know you are here.’ ‘And will you save me if the river rises?’ ‘yes, of course, I won’t go anywhere without you Mumta.” ¹⁶⁰

God wants that we should listen to the call of time that is back to Nature, back to God and preserve the moral values and character. As a writer we find that Bond is highly inspired by God Krishna and he believes in the myths related to the image of Krishna. In this story he describes lord Krishna in this way:-

“grandmother had looked after her (Sita), had gently touched her fevered brow, and had told her stories—stories about the gods—about the young god Krishna, friend of birds and animals, so full of mischief, always causing confusion among the other gods. He made the god Indra very angry by shifting a without permission. Indra was the god of clouds, who made the thunder and lightning, and when he was angry he sent down a deluge such as this one” ^160-161

In the story grandmother describes Sita the image of Krishna as the leaves of Peepal tree:-

“the Peepal had beautiful leaves and grandmother likened it to the body of the mighty god Krishna—broad at the shoulders, then tapering down to a very slim waist.” ¹⁵⁴

When Sita caught by the flooded river a boy named Krishna protects her life in this way Bond wants to show us that Supreme power is responsible for our safety. Sita got compelled to think that preserver of her life is actually god Krishna or somebody else as she was told that Krishna can provide the rid from every grief and suffering, she thought:-

“ he looked blue in the moonlight, the colour of the young god Krishna, and for a few moments Sita was confused and wondered if the boy was actually Krishna.” ¹⁵⁴

Bonds simple representation of human relation with Supreme power looks more realistic than any other writer. Sita feels safe herself with the boy Krishna, when this boy plays the flute for her she feels an eternal joy in that:-

“And the music carried her away again, into the land of dreams, and they were riding on the bird once more, Sita and the blue god. And they were passing through the clouds and mist, until suddenly the sun shot through the clouds.” ¹⁷¹

The story is full of enthusiasm for life; he has tried to convey that life is progressing to the higher level because the people are leaving their morals and value, their duties. The experience we gain during our life helps us in our spiritual progress:-

“she did not know it then, but some  of the moving forces of our lives are meant to teach us briefly and go their way...” ¹⁸⁴

Thus in his own words we can conclude that spiritualism is not merely ritual, but a type of art of living. The zest of his work is victory of nature, victory of truth over falsehood and evil. As a writer he achieved sublimity by treating nature as sacred form of God. He has tried to convey that firm faith and believe in Supreme power can lead us towards our goal but simultaneously the efforts are equally required on our part. He wants to say, in any situation we should not lose believe over Him because He is the preserver of our life, we will overcome from all the sufferings if He is with us:-

‘so you both fought, ‘said the old man with a nod of satisfaction. ‘You did not go with the river. You did not leave everything to the gods’. ‘The gods were with us, ‘said Sita”.¹⁷⁵

So it was Bond’s perfection as a short story writer to show us the basic decencies of Supreme power otherwise it is not easy to transmute such expressions into art.    

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References:

The Angry River by Ruskin Bond published by Penguin Books India Ltd.





Date:  26Nov 2006