INTERTEXTUAL MYTH AND POLITICAL ALLEGORY: REIMAGINING INDIANNESS IN THAROOR'S THE GREAT INDIAN NOVEL

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 8 INTERTEXTUAL MYTH AND POLITICAL ALLEGORY: REIMAGINING INDIANNESS IN THAROOR’S THE GREAT INDIAN NOVEL Dr. R. Kiruthiga Head Department of M.A English Nallamuthu Gounder Mahalingam College, Pollachi https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17287442 Abstract Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel (1989) represents a remarkable confluence of myth and political satire, deploying intertextual strategies to critique the postcolonial Indian state and reimagine national identity. By retelling the Mahabharata through the lens of twentieth-century Indian politics, Tharoor uses allegory, parody, and metafiction to challenge the coherence of nationalist historiography. This paper explores how myth is interwoven with political allegory to construct a hybrid narrative space, where Indianness emerges as a contested and fluid idea. Through close readings and theoretical insights from postmodernism and postcolonialism, the paper examines how Tharoor constructs a self-reflexive narrative that questions the authority of both epic tradition and historical truth. Keywords: Intertextuality, political allegory, Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel, nationalism, myth, historiography, hybridity Introduction In The Great Indian Novel, Shashi Tharoor executes a bold literary experiment that blends mythology with political history. By rewriting the Mahabharata as a parody of Indian politics from the colonial era to the post-Emergency period, Tharoor creates a polyphonic narrative that blurs the boundaries between past and present, myth and history, fiction and truth. The title itself is a pun, suggesting both a rewriting of India’s national epic and a satire of the modern Indian novel. This paper argues that the novel’s intertextual engagement with the Mahabharata serves as more than a narrative gimmick. Rather, it is a critical strategy to interrogate the foundational myths of Indian nationalism. Using theories of postmodern historiography and cultural hybridity, the paper explores how Tharoor’s novel offers a radical reimagining of Indianness as a dynamic, fragmented, and pluralistic concept. Review of Literature Scholars have long recognized the postmodern and postcolonial dimensions of The Great Indian Novel. Nalini Natarajan reads the novel as a "parodic national epic" that deconstructs India’s sacred narratives. Linda Hutcheon’s concept of historiographic metafiction, which highlights the self-conscious blending of history and fiction, is especially useful for analyzing Tharoor’s narrative strategies. Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity also informs this analysis, particularly in understanding how the novel constructs Indianness as a product of colonial and indigenous influences. Tabish Khair emphasizes that Tharoor’s work challenges Eurocentric genre boundaries, while Meenakshi Mukherjee focuses on the novel’s ironic mode of narration as a means of resisting nationalist idealism. Collectively, these perspectives suggest that The Great Indian Novel is a unique postcolonial text that reconfigures literary and political traditions through intertextual engagement. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 9 Myth and Intertextuality: A Palimpsestic Narrative Tharoor’s novel is structured in 18 books, mirroring the 18 parvas of the Mahabharata, and features characters who are allegorical stand-ins for real political figures. For example, Ved Vyas is both the narrator and a symbol of intellectual lineage, Gangaji represents Mahatma Gandhi, and Priya Duryodhani is a thinly veiled depiction of Indira Gandhi. “In the beginning, there were the epics, and everything else followed including politics.” This palimpsestic narrative creates a multilayered text where myth and modernity intersect. Tharoor’s use of intertextuality is not limited to naming conventions; it permeates the plot structure, moral conflicts, and character development. The novel thus becomes a metafictional commentary on how myth informs political identity in postcolonial India. Political Allegory and Satirical Critique The novel turns India’s modern history into a mythic saga, using allegory to criticize the failures of leadership and the disillusionment with post-independence politics. The Emergency, represented through the authoritarian rule of Priya Duryodhani, is portrayed with biting irony. “The Age of Darkness descended not with a roar, but with the clicking of typewriters and the silence of censors.” By mapping mythic conflicts onto political episodes, Tharoor reframes the idea of nationalism. The novel mocks the sanctity of political figures, portraying them as fallible, egoistic, and power-hungry. This satirical tone destabilizes heroic myths surrounding the freedom struggle and questions the legitimacy of political authority. Rewriting Indianness: A Hybrid Cultural Identity Tharoor’s novel articulates a vision of Indianness that is neither homogenous nor essentialist. Instead, it is portrayed as a hybrid construct, shaped by colonial encounters, indigenous traditions, and global modernity. “India is not a monologue. It is a chorus of contradictions, a plurality of voices that refuse to be silenced.” This view aligns with Bhabha’s concept of the "third space," where identity is negotiated and rearticulated through cultural hybridity. Tharoor’s blending of Sanskritic vocabulary with contemporary political discourse exemplifies this fusion. The narrative thus resists both colonial mimicry and nativist purity, offering instead a fluid and evolving national identity. Conclusion Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel stands as a landmark in Indian English literature, not only for its formal inventiveness but for its ideological audacity. Through intertextual myth and political allegory, the novel exposes the constructedness of both national history and cultural identity. It invites readers to question the myths they inherit and to embrace a more nuanced, pluralistic understanding of Indianness. In doing so, it reclaims the epic form for postcolonial critique, demonstrating the enduring power of narrative in shaping and reshaping the nation. Works Cited Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994. Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Routledge, 1988. Khair, Tabish. "Postcolonial Parody: Writing at the Interstices of Empire and Nation." Postcolonial Text, vol. 2, no. 4, 2006. Mukherjee, Meenakshi. The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English. Oxford University Press, 2000. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 10 Natarajan, Nalini. "Narrating the Nation: Indian Politics and Postcolonial Allegory in Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel." Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 28, no. 1, 1993. Tharoor, Shashi. The Great Indian Novel. Penguin Books, 1989. Mali, R. S. (2024). “Political Allegory in the Literary Works of Shashi Tharoor,” ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 5(7SE), 250–254. Kumar, Mohit & Hooda, Neelam (2024). “Myth and Politics of Nationalism: A Postcolonial Reading of The Great Indian Novel,” ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 5(6), 425–432; DOI: 10.29121/. The Adaption of Self-Reflexivity and Metafiction Approach to Myth and History in Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel: A Post-Modernist Study Exploring the Interplay between Myth and History in Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel (IJFMR) “Treatment of Nationalism in Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel” (REDVET Journal) “History, Myth and Allegory in Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel,” Academia.edu The Mythification of Contemporary Political History and the Rise of a Despot in The Great Indian Novel”,