Review of a Hindi Novel ‘Maila Aanchal’ by Fanishwar Nath Renu

After a decade I read a Hindi novel and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The novel is based in the pre-independence era, though published in 1954. The kind of characters it has described are difficult to find these days even in villages, but when you think of a village it is these kinds of people who come to your mind; simple, impulsive, can easily be swindled if someone asks for something in the name of god. Though the people have changed a lot, the poverty that has been described in the novel is still prevalent in that part of Bihar. The Koshi river continues to create havoc in that part and it was that very area that was worst effected in the floods of 2008 in Bihar. I remember the lines from my school text book that said that as Hwang Ho River was China’s sorrow, Koshi River was Bihar’s sorrow.

The novel tells the story of a village in eastern Bihar. At one side of the village is Nepal and a few paces away is Pakistan; some part of the story goes after partition as well and at that time it was Pakistan only, not Bangladesh. The terms that are being used in the novel are completely indigenous to that area and I think anyone who has no idea about Bihari lingo would be able to grasp it only after finishing at least 75 pages.

It starts with the usual caste politics and how people are not willing to sit with the people of so called lower caste. Then a doctor comes to the village whose caste could not be determined as the people who looked after him had found him abandoned in earthen pot in a river. The daughter of the head of the village falls in love with the doctor and in the course of time the relationship couldn’t remain platonic. But in the end everyone accepts the relationship and the novel ends on a positive note.

If you are looking for a lot of twists and turns then the novel is not for you but as far as the description of that era is concerned, it is highly recommended. You read the novel and you would come to know how difficult the life was during those times and how superstition ruined the life of people.