| Title | : | ರಂಗನ ಮದುವೆ | Rangas Marriage |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1910 |
ರಂಗನ ಮದುವೆ | Rangas Marriage Reviews
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Sweet short story.
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Read English Translation For School and hated it
Problemetic content
Basically, an adult man marries a 11 year old cause he "luves" her. She's a literal kid sir. wtf are you even thinking? I have no idea who the heck thought it would be a good idea to put this in an english textbook.
Honestly, if we are going to read problematic literature (which I have no interest in doing but apparently the author of our textbook does), it should at least be addressed that this is problematic and morally wrong. What are the students learning if they are being told to read this?
The last line of chapter (the author addressing the reader)
You were not bored, I hope?
Nah, just wanna vomit you know .. -
A fleeting look upon the setting, to start with -- 'Ranga's Marriage' is set in the pastoral background. The narrator belongs to Hosahalli, a famous village situated in the former state of Mysore.
The narrator seems to be significantly self-righteous of his village and talks so vividly of it and its people.
Hosahalli is to Mysore state what the sweet 'Karigadabu' is to a festive meal. Hosahalli has all the features of an archetypal South Indian village. The people speak Kannada. It does not have many people who know English. They can't appreciate even such simple words like 'change' in English.
Ranga's father is the only one who sends his son to Bangalore to study. Ranga's homecoming is a great event. People fear that modern English education takes away their caste and culture. They rush to have a look of Ranga. An old woman runs her hand over Ranga's chest and the sacred thread the 'janewara'.
She declares that he has not lost his caste.
Generally, people in Hosahalli are gullible. Child-marriages seem to be common.
Ratna is a pretty girl. She is just eleven but the narrator considers her to be the just bride for Ranga. Like all villages, the people of Hosahalli believe in astrology and horoscopes. Astrologers like Shastri can be tutored and influenced with no trouble to suit the occasion.
The village has its share of mango trees and creepers. Like every Indian village, it has a pond. To sum up, Hosahalli is a representative South Indian Kannada village.
When the English came to our land, they did not bring the industrialisation alone. They carried with themselves their culture, their religion and their language to our home. We, who had been ruled by the Slaves and the Moguls for centuries were now about to face yet another foreign dominance, which was to leave an impact on us that was to live forever in the future.
The biggest of all influences was the language English.
Even after so many years of independence, we Indians are not able to pull ourselves out of this inferiority complex. They ruled our nation once and now even after so many decades, they rule our minds. We deem those substandard who do not know the English language. It is nothing but a language after all, why feel so pompous about it when it is not even ours.
Yes it is a global language and it is good to know foreign languages, however we must treat a language as language only and not as a status symbol.
This falsehood has been reflected very well in the story.
The narrator, Shyama, showed how when Ranga returns from Bangalore, after completing his studies, the way people anticipated his return and the excitement on knowing that Ranga now knew English, “a priceless commodity”.
They all wanted to see if there has been any change in Ranga after studying English in Bangalore. However, there was no change or little in Ranga's personality. He even did the conventional namaskar to Shyama by bowing down and touching his feet.
Shyama, the narrator of the story ‘Ranga’s Marriage’ is also the central character. His style of narration evokes a lot of humour in the story. He is an aged gentleman and refers to himself as a dark piece of oil cake. He is overpoweringly in love with his village and the villagers and rambles persistently while describing it.
He is a fanatical observer of his surroundings and uses a colourful style of narration. He feels it is outrageous to use English words in the native tongue. He is a good judge of people and regards Ranga as a generous and caring fellow.
He is conservative at heart and feels unhappy at Ranga’s decision to remain single. He means well and his intentions are good. He plans to get Ranga married. He calls Ranga when Ratna was singing. He also arranges a meeting with Shastri whom he had tutored thoroughly. He had decided that Ratna would be a suitable bride for him.
He is a shrewd contriver as he tells Ranga that Ratna was married. This he does in order to rouse Ranga’s desire for the unachievable.
The account of the village of Hosahalli evokes some humour in the story. The narrator and Ranga’s visit to the astrologer and their conversation produce a few comic moments in the story.
To conclude, we can say that it is true that the Indian society has evolved way beyond what has been portrayed in the story. The way Shyama arranged Ranga's marriage is not how it happens in the modern times.
Children today do not want to stay dependent on their parents or elders to choose their life partners. They now want to take control of their lives. They take the lead and decide themselves who they want to spend their lives with.
The society has opened up to love marriages.
However, it should be noted that love marriages are not modern, this culture has existed since times immemorial. Many cases of love marriage can be traced back in the history.
Shakuntala did love marriage (gandharva vivah) while Sita and Draupadi chose their partners on their own (swayamavar).
Hence, it is difficult to say whether arranged marriage is an old tradition or love marriage. Now that we have been independent for decades and have moved far ahead of Medieval and Modern India, it can be observed that the culture of arranged marriage is returning.
Hence, we can be sure of at least one thing that these are trends that come and go and people follow what is in fashion. -
I've criticised Ranga's Marriage on my blog. You can check it out.
https://www.shivsangal.online/2018/02... -
Simple and short, Ranga's Marriage makes for an interesting read for many reasons. First, it cleverly encloses all minute details of the time when English was still an alienated language. Second, it gives a glimpse of how young, educated minds were trying to free themselves from the traditional norms and yet found it hard to break their minds free from them because of its strong roots. Iyengar has wonderfully captured the very essence of his time, an independent country with its puzzled citizens.
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This was an incredibly AMAZING STORY. I am an 11th grader reading it as one of my chapters.
Those who think Ranga marrying an 11-year-old is wrong... look at the year this was written.. everything was normal at the time.. we can't change the past.
Finally, I'd like to make an observation. EXTREMELY AMAZING SUPER INTELLIGENT BEAUTIFUL SMART IMAGINATION SKILLS are required to read this. -
Literally the worst piece of text my school could make me read.
