Bara

by U.R. Ananthamurthy, Chandan Gowda (Translator)

Ajji, can I have some water? … Just a few drops will do, Ajji. With the searing sky above and the blistering earth below, like cactus the people of this parched terrain are determined to stay alive. Emaciated children scurry along, dejected farmers pawn their ploughs, weary women sleep on empty stomachs…. Would those perishing now have died anyway? Or is hunger calling them away prematurely? Filled with social concern, Satisha, the district commissioner, wants to help the afflicted. But he is caught between the politicians who are unwilling to declare the district drought-hit and the murky local realities where a religious outfit strives to protect cows, the desperate youth hold a deity responsible for the failed rains and petty activists seek to secure their own interests. Can the idealist Satisha win the game where corrupt politicians are rolling the dice and stand by his conviction to help the afflicted? Written during the Indian Emergency, Bara depicts the tortuous realities of Indian democracy and captures the political and moral dilemmas of the educated middle class.

Genres: India

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2016

About the author

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy was a contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language and is considered as one of the pioneers of the Navya movement. He is the sixth person among eight recipients of the Jnanpith Award for the Kannada language, the highest literary honor conferred in India. In 1998, he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India and in 2013, he was nominated for Man Booker International Prize.

Ananthamurthy's works have been translated into several Indian and European languages and have been awarded with important literary prizes. His main works include Samskara, Bhava, Bharathi Pura, and Avasthe. He has written numerous short stories as well. Several of his novels and short fictions have been made into movies.

Most of Ananthamurthy's literary works deal with psychological aspects of people in different situations, times and circumstances. His writings supposedly analyze aspects ranging from challenges and changes faced by Brahmin families of Karnataka to bureaucrats dealing with politics influencing their work.

Reviews

[Teenu Vijayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a short story has so much to offer!!
Makes you think hard about disparities in society and how being righteous might not necessarily get you the results or outcomes you want to see.
Even though your heart might want something else, circumstances often places you at crossroads where you can't help but go for the choice that might not be the one you would stick by.
Loved reading the translator's insights so much!!

[Phalgun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any system or a theory of a sufficient complexity created isolated from the real world only approaches reality asymptotically. Furthermore, when those systems or theories are also presented as holistic explanations or solutions to some particular subject they are even more averse to heterogeneity. In Bara, the heterogeneity consummately explored is the one of the Indian society and the system that we see inefficiently shouldering the burden of the often overlooked, tribalistic aspect of heterogeneity is representative democracy.

Being a caste based, color conscious, culturally complex, linguistically rich and religiously divided nation, India is inarguably very heterogeneous. That fierce heterogeneity, along with the schooled pride intertwined, deeply embeds a sense of otherness in unity within the psyche of the Indian ethos, creating paradoxically a very community based yet distinctly divisive identity. That form of identity in the people that Sathisha, the protagonist and also the district commissioner of the small town that the story is set in, governs is obviously apparent in several instances, but its existence and its obstinacy in the face of self-harm every single time elicits in him only one of two reactions, befuddlement and frustration. Bara uses that recurring event as a vehicle to convey the quiet immaturity of the idealistic approach to politics, a naïve belief that rationalization, good faith and reason will inevitably lead to widespread support and the elimination of division. A criticism of leftist politics comes in the form of Bhimoji, an old community leader who believes in nothing but the direct action of the ones being oppressed, with no space left for negotiation or tactics. His character is oftentimes at odds with Sathisha, as befit their respective ideologies. The saffron brigade too is critiqued through the actions of a collective of cow devotees. An ostensibly low hanging fruit, but in lieu of the state of the nation then and now, perhaps not low hanging enough. Thus the characterization of every single person in Bara is deliberately ostentatious in its purpose, the ideals they represent stark in their faces, but that choice serves to strengthen the potency of the storytelling process in the book rather than diminish it.

However, the crux of Bara’s brilliance lies not in the clash of the aforementioned ideals or the interaction of their representative characters but in the subtle, cogent theme of the untenable nature of the system that comprises them. It’s a theme woven into the fabric of the plot, delivered furtively unto the reader through the depictions of the characters. It asks, how does a system built on the foundation of electors acting in their and their community’s self-interest guarantee their adherence to that choice? The myriad devious natures and goals of the competing successful ideologies in India intermixed with the resignation of the governed to the stagnancy of their state, their actions betraying the inhalation of the corrupt and only form of representation that they have known proves that the present system has failed to find an answer to that question. Bara, in a brief ninety pages, presents that conclusion as starkly as a book possibly can.

5 stars.

[Bhavya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bara is a really short story but has quite an impact especially if one is in the government service. The book very delicately though not directly tries to question the system which includes politics, administration as well as the personal life and choices of those in the public life. The subtle yet significant impact of the choices and idealism on the relationship of the protagonist and his wife is thought provoking. The moral dilemma of being idealistic at the cost being labelled inefficient is a hard truth the field officers face. The transition of poor and drought stricken people into the violent mob is a reality check for those public servants who take people for granted. Many a times, those in the public service may trigger such a violent act but once initiated, it goes out of control even from those who started it. Like Samskara, the ending of the book is left to the reader's imagination.

[Mayolla nazareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant short read , a true Gem...

[Agam Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time read a book by Kannada writer(jyanpeeth winner). An amazing story of the dilemma faced by an administrator during emergency and fighting drought (thus the name of the book, Baṛa). The best part was the interview of the writer at the end explaining each and every instance of the story. A nice, small and smooth read.

[Shaan K SaiDh · Rating 2 out of 5]

It tells the story of a draught-prone Karnataka village and the power dynamics of the bureaucracy. A short novel of 65 pages, but an eye-opener..

[Vani Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is excellent, thought-provoking and highly relevant in the Indian (and global?) political context. Ananthamurthy picks apart ideologies skilfully and demonstrates how people cannot easily be lumped together, well before the rise of postmodernism (this book was written in 1976).

I thought Satisha's characterization was particularly poignant - he reminded me of my more idealistic leftist friends, and his inner conflict is something that I have often spent long periods thinking about. It is interesting, though a little clichéd, to watch his familial life fall apart because of his commitment to his ideas.

I would recommend that anyone with an interest in politics and/or social change read this, if nothing else then to challenge your assumptions.