State of emergency (novel)
State of emergency is a novel by the Indian writer Nirmal Verma . The original title रात का रिपोर्टर ( rāt kā riportar ) was first published in Hindi in 1989 . The German translation was published by Draupadi Verlag in 2006 (translators: Hannelore Bauhaus-Lötzke and Harald Fischer-Tiné).
Table of contents
The story takes place in Delhi during the emergency regime of Indira Gandhi (1975–1977). Supporters of opposition parties and organizations are arrested by the thousands. Criticism is avoided through strict censorship. Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are suspended. In this atmosphere, the journalist Rishi is warned by a stranger that he is under surveillance by the secret service. As a result of this conversation, the protagonist's life is gradually thrown off course. He feels persecuted by strangers and anonymous phone calls and fears that he will soon be arrested. The external "state of emergency" only seems to bring Rishi's inner emotional state to the surface: the failed marriage with his depressed wife who is in the hospital, worrying about his frail mother, his monotonous life between home, research in the library and the Hospital. Gradually the protagonist alienates himself from his environment (boss, friends, his lover) and in the end even from himself. The issues of isolation, uprooting and the existential fear of the individual are exemplary for the Nayi Kahani movement, one of them The founder was Nirmal Verma in the 50s, and is reminiscent of the French existentialism of the 60s.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b http://www.suedasien.info/rezensions/789
- ↑ Hannelore Bauhaus-Lötzke: Foreword. In: state of emergency. Draupadi publishing house. 2006.