P. G. Wodehouse - Why do most Indians love his works?
Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta.
Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad.
Vijayawada, Cuttack, Ranchi.
No city or town in India will be without a P.G. Wodehouse club of some kind. Started by an ardent fan during his/her college or career years. It is more a matter of default for most English reading Indians to have read a number of works by Wodehouse. Perhaps not everyone ends up being a steady, long timescale fan - but, most do. A fraction might read Wodehouse as a necessary staple diet of reading, that youngsters in India are expected to go through, and then - move on to other reading habits? No, this fraction moves out of reading habits, altogether.
But, scratch any Indian with a continuing habit of reading and a Wodehouse fan lurks underneath.
Why? Why do we Indians turn out to be such steadfast fans of Wodehouse? Any forum or group of Wodehouse fans is quite likely to be having a largish representation of Indians. Just walk into the friendly and active yahoogroups of Wodehouse fans - Blandings and Wodehouse India.
While asking this question, one may also keep in mind, the thought that Indian Literature down the ages, could not claim humour as one of its strengths. However, the fact that patterns of language were a passion with anyone with an interest in learning, is evident from many examples. Even science writing in India, from the times of Arya Bhata to those of Jai Singh, were governed by the need to have a reverence for the structure of language in which ideas were expressed. That did not augur well for the development of Science itself (which would have to fight its way out of language needs). But, it certainly throws some light on the fact that creation of unexpected ripples and avenues of sentence patterns, superposed on an underlying systematically-woven language-lattice, would speak to Indians. Speak volumes, in fact. This could be one reason why India has such a loyal resource of Wodehouse fans.
Sashi Taroor talks about the flood of letters in every English language newspaper in India, after the death of Wodehouse - a reflection of the intensity of love felt by so many Indians, for the master. For the most part, this was a one-sided love. There is very little evidence of any preoccupation with India, anywhere in the Wodehouse canon. That was, and is, immaterial to the Indian fans - the absence of India and/or any Indian context in the works of Wodehouse. It is those language patterns that are so enticing.
I enjoy reading Wodehouse for two main and many auxilliary reasons. One of the primary reasons is the unexpected
avenues of humour that Wodehouse takes one through - while using the English language in an
unorthodox manner. Unorthodox manner yes, but, the underlying structure making
it clear that language is a very dear friend of the writer.
A very clichéd phrase or word - used in a hilariously inappropriate context, for instance?
We have Gally egging Freddie Threepwood to commit the rash act of removing the Empress from her sty, and place it in his cousin Veronica's
bedroom -
Brushing away Freddie's protests, Gally, very inappropriately twists a clichéd
phrase and asserts - "It would be rash, not to"
Something like that.
Another reason for an intensity of interest I have, in reading Wodehouse, is from the fact that
reading a single page of Wodehouse, carefully, would be an introduction to so much of Literature,
history and culture - who knows what references - sometimes outrageously woven into the narration,
may be encountered as we read through any part of the Wodehouse Canon?
Such careful reading makes us treat as old and comfortable friends - Stout Cortez of Keats,
the Ancient Mariner, Abou Ben Adhem, Hamlet, Macbeth and the rest of the Bard's creations,
the good news of Browning's travelling in the reverse direction - from Aix to Ghent, the
siege of Kanpur turning itself into the seige of Lucknow, the list is endless.
Why, I even made friends with a rather unknown astronomer Wilhelm Dollen - while
reading the Small Bachelor - thrown together with Hipparcus, Tycho Brahe, Regiomontanus and many other well known names in
the history of Astronomy. A mix of Astronomers and their instruments, purely for the fun value that could be drawn out of such a
mix, could only have been concocted by Wodehouse.
Acknowledgements : Many useful and fun discussions in the Blandings and WodehouseIndia yahoogroups as well as off group discussions with many friends in these groups. More detailed acknowledgements in the Credits and Acknowledgements page.
You are visitor number: