Historiographic Fiction as a Postmodern Tool to Criticize the Contemporary Indian Politics: An Analysis of Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Abstract
One of the distinguishing features of literature is its ability to interconnect various schools of studies and discourses for a better understanding of the events which happen in the society. This paper particularly specializes in this aspect of literature that it makes a postmodern harmonious intermingling of history and literature, for a political awakening of the readers by analysing the novel Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi and tries to find this particular intermingling nature of history and literature and its use as a postmodern tool to criticize the nature of contemporary Indian politics. By blending the two parallel stories of the two protagonists from two different eras- Chanakya and Gangasagar Mishra, Ashwin Sanghi foregrounds historiographic fiction as a postmodern tool to criticize the Indian political scenario by comparing and contrasting the ancient and the modern Indian politics. The book offers a return to the ancient cultural heritage of India with its religious beliefs, mythical tradition, and its customs. The history of ancient Bharath and the history of Chanakya repeats itself in the postmodern era with a slight change in terms of the cultural context. Through the use of historiographic fiction Ashwin Sanghi criticizes the postmodern Indian politics to develop itself as an independent entity, which continues to follow the traditional methods of rules put forward by the greatest leaders of Ancient Bharat. This paper tries to prove that the novel, as a historiographic fiction, puts light on the modern Indian political situation by repeating Chanakya's strategies through his postmodern avatar Gangasagar Mishra, who happens to be a postmodern Indian political persona trying to preserve the historical past by recreating it in the contemporary Indian cultural context.
Citations
IRE Journals:
Geethu Madhusudanan
"Historiographic Fiction as a Postmodern Tool to Criticize the Contemporary Indian Politics: An Analysis of Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 4 2025 Page 813-817
IEEE:
Geethu Madhusudanan
"Historiographic Fiction as a Postmodern Tool to Criticize the Contemporary Indian Politics: An Analysis of Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(4)
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