Analysis Of Ruth Jhabvala's A New Dominion

Margaret is one of the trio self seekers in A New Dominion. In comparison to Lee she is both, more definite in her deliberations and absolutely serious in searching spiritual solace in India. In the beginning of the novel one sees her in the form of compulsive visitor, always sure and never losing the sight of her purpose. Like Lee, before finding a life guru, she spends a lot of time in trains and buses to know the country and the people of India. The essence of her deliberate wandering is“....but she wants to find herself deepest essence where she is not only Margaret but what there is beyond and including Margaret”(AND P 27).

She visits various places in India and longs for;”What she wants is a life guru...someone to inspire her,-snatch

Putting to fictional use the technique she had learned in writing for film(26) Ruth Jhabvala structures her novel like a play. Beginning with a cast of characters, she divides it into three Acts each composed of several scenes. There is more action here than in her earlier novels and a predominance of dialogue. Yet, the over-all impression is one of American edition Travellers suggests, A New Dominion is built around many journeys – physical and spiritual. A strong sense is conveyed of ceaseless travel leading nowhere. Laurence Fallis describes the prevailing atmosphere of the novel in terms that make it analogous to a nightmare journey of the soul.

The dramatic personae move within the framework of a plot that is like a slow train to India: there is the noise and confusion of the departure, and the fatigue of a midnight arrival, all of which provide the illusion of a think is what Jhabvala is trying to tell us: we are all travelers on a train going nowhere. We come, we go and only India remains.(Aruna P 199) This last is conveyed most powerfully through the consciousness of the tourist Raymond who comes up against something unfathomable and unchangeable, every time, in all his encounters with India. R.S.Pathak points out Jhabvala portrays various types of seekers after the realization of the self. Faced with a series with a series of crises her characters are in a perpetual for identity ( Arvind P

The tragedy in the novels of middle phase rises from the intimate interactions of the expatriate women with the Indians in post – independence era since there is no more any shielding protection of the colonial officialdom of British imperialism. The brutal rape of Lee, the seduction of Olivia and her step – granddaughter are some symbolic portrayals of the disparity between the romantic illusions that in turn could provide them nothing but sexuality betrayal and falsehood. In portraying the subjugation of the European women by Indian lover’s husbands or the spiritual gurus Jhabvala hints at the moral and spiritual degradation in modern India. The search of the expatriate women for love beauty or spirituality ends in their victimisation at the hands of male rapacity and they are in a predicament of self – destructive commitments or flight for survival. It is observed that even the spiritual heritage of India has lost its glory in Jhabvala’s world of fictional India because the spiritual and aesthetic seekers also face traumatic experiences. No doubts since antiquity the Indian spiritualism has been shining far above the philosophic deliberations of the