Srivastav and English's Degree of Awareness

Srivastav is the very model of the priggish official. He is totally utilitarian about language stating that “English should just be a vehicle of communication ”(59). How could it be anything else? It really is a question of how richly one wants to communicate. Srivastav also latter states that learning English gives confidence. This certainly isn’t the case for Agastya. This little rant of Srivastav must make him just wonder even more, “who the hell is this fool?”. I mean the guy is totally unreflective. The best example is that statement that it is inevitable that English will fade from India (or the administrative service) in three generation. It has been almost 4 generation since independence and no sign of English taking a back seat as the language of the elite. I mean the novel was written in the 1980s so it is not such an incredible statement maybe more reflective of a generational gap but still kind of an ignorant reparation of the party line.

I agree it disturbing that Agastya doesn’t argue back. However this gap between Agastya and Srivastav is more predictable and reasonable than the larger gap that Agastya seems to see between himself and the world. He seems more brilliant and observant than most anyone in the novel. The reality of this might be questionable but I feel pulled in by that lingering (adolescent) assumption most college kids pick up. However this assumption if not out rightly challenged becomes increasingly irrelevant for Agastya. This alienation seems fueled by Agastya lack of “the pride of the self-made man” that Srivastav possesses.

I got the ideal of bad faith wrong last class but I do think it is safe to say Agastya is in bad faith. He won’t make a choice and he lets Srivastav tell him he is “an unavoidable leftover”(60). Yet one gets the creeping feeling that this accusation is right on. And that one of the very few wise things Srivastav fills in the picture even further. In saying that the feeling ambivalence, shame, or anger about the past (or injustice) is much easier than doing the work to address it. Agastya allows feelings of ambivalence, shame, or anger that more often than not he obscurely realizes to paralyze him. And that is no better than Srivastav lack of reflection or even affect concerning the past.