ABSTRACT
T Gopichand’s Telugu novel The Bungler, which was published around 1947, is the character study of a man from a feudal family who fails at everything he does and gradually squanders his family fortune. The author, being a follower of former Communist MN Roy, was not enamoured to the Congress-led freedom struggle. In his pessimism he looks at the store of traditional wisdom that Indians are equipped with as cultural capital – with the approach of nationhood – and sees that as inadequate, perhaps even worthless. But the novel itself is taken up with the protagonist’s psychological condition and his struggle for ‘happiness’. Although the author was personally involved in politics, he does not ask political questions and the novel’s interiority – being preoccupied with notions like happiness rather than those like justice and equality – is significant especially because there is politics within the protagonist’s family that never journeys outside to lead to larger questions. The novel can be read as symptomatic of the ‘interiority’ that is seen to afflict Hindus, which inhibits their participation in inter-religious dialogue, with those who believe in a God outside themselves. This is something that reoccurs in much of the other writing examined in this book.
