The ‘Nation’ and the ‘Other’: A Study in Difference

The transition from patriotism and sense of community to the creation of the distinct political community in early twentieth century was through an imaginative interpretation of history in the writing of Dwijendralal Roy (1863–1913), a poet, dramatist and composer of Bengal. Imagination through creative ‘use’ of history had been directed to underline the location of time and space of an emotive community. By this, one could retrieve, criticize and create this emotion through time and space, its definitiveness continuously shifting, evolving, through family, country and community. In the process of creating a nation the notion of the ‘other’ was necessary. This other with all its cultural connotations was found in the stereotypes of ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ in opposition to ‘Rajput’ and ‘Hindu’. It is through these oppositional levels and the interplay of these oppositions that a new nation state could be formed. The notion of Muslim rule as the external enemy was created whose historical function was to provide the occasion for a heroic battle in which virtue could be highlighted. Even within this tradition of writing Dwijendralal brought in a strong note of moderation. There is neither a very powerful tendency to praise everything ‘Hindu’, nor look down upon Islam, which sometimes created apparent contradiction. Where there is valourization of the Rajputs in the ‘Rajputs plays’ it has been placed in the context of the Mughals as the ‘other’. But in the study of the Mughals in the ‘Mughal plays’ there is a concentration on the family and kinship. Both the types are set in about the same time frame yet the values stressed on are different. An analysis of Dwijendralal’s ‘historical’ plays brings into focus an attempt at rewriting history to transcend history as a discipline with its boundaries of time and space, intertwining facts and imagination, through real and created characters to establish the need for a universal ethos.