Triumph of love in the shadow of the Raj
Arun Gaur

Lilamani: A Study in Possibilities
by Maud Diver. Edited by Ralph Crane. Oxford University Press. Pages XXII+363. Rs 375.

MAUD Diver (erroneously printed ‘Driver’ in the header of three crucial chronology pages) first published this novel in 1911 with a different title, The Awakening. Its plot is pretty straightforward and presents a variant of the Raj fiction. Lilamani, of a high-caste Rajput noble family, escapes to France, accompanied by her father. Her exotic charm sets aflutter the heart of an English baronet, Nevil Sinclair, who paints her portrait. After sometime the two get married. They live in Italy for a while where, inspired by his Indian bride's narration of Oriental mythology, Sinclair visualises an ambitious series of paintings on the ordeals of Sita. An urgent telegram forces them to shift to England where Lilamani faces new racial prejudices and finally triumphs over them.

The authorial voice in the novel seeks a balance between the worlds of the coloniser and the colonised. There are discussions between Sir Lakshman Singh (father of Lilamani) and Nevil Sinclair, between Lilamani and Audrey Hammond (her tutor/caretaker), and among the members of the Sinclair clan, about the problems of the inter-racial marriage.

The novel is divided into three parts — The Seed, The Blossoming, The Fruit. The six paintings of Sita which parallel Lilamani's sufferings chasten Sinclair himself to such an extent that he eagerly awaits the birth of his child — The Fruit — declaring to Lilamani: "You have given me a new spirit of understanding in so many things, my Sita Devi; and six months ago I confess I shrank from the idea of a son handicapped by the stigma of mixed blood. But now — you being his mother — I refuse to admit the stigma." This is the authorial voice.

How could Lilamani as well as Nevil Sinclair avoid exploitation in the West? One possible answer is that marriage for Lilamani was a submission in love, a form of religion, and thus a powerful tool. Her silence and sufferings, were a supreme expression of oriental compassion that overwhelmed any selfish onslaughts. The other possible answer is that the pair was ardently supported by the carriers of numinous forces — the visionary painter Andrea Martino, the humanistic novelist Cuthbert Broome, and the other creatures of refined passions — Christina (Nevil's younger sister) and Mrs Despard. These forces, along with the sanctified interpretations of childbirth, sati, fasts, feeding, and bathing in the Hindu world of Lilamani, gave power to the couple to resist the racist views of Lady Jane Roscoe (Nevil's elder sister) and others like her.

These factors helped Lilamani triumph over and even exploit whatever small possibility there existed of sharing power in the Sinclair household at Bramleigh Beeches. There she could have the cultural/religious dominance over the West by establishing a Hindu shrine in a Christian household. She could also exercise moral dominance over almost everyone around her, including her husband, through her spirit of sacrifice.

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