The Indian gothic

Abstract

The word Gothic usually brings to mind haunted castles, werewolves, isolated mansions, and a certain forbidding architecture, among a host of other associations. The term Gothic has usually been seen as confined mainly to places far away from the Indian subcontinent. Yet it is important to recall that the Gothic occurs in literature other than from the cultures of Europe or the United States. Outside of the USA, yet still on the North American continent, is found Southern Ontario Gothic, a subgenre of the Gothic novel that employs the use of the bizarre and the grotesque typical of Gothic tales. Similarly, literature from twentieth century South Africa displays Gothic traits. This literature was born of the anxiety of political, social, and cultural upheavals the country went through, resulting in the triumph of democracy over oppression in 1994. However, it is interesting to see that old bungalows of the British Raj in India also carry a Gothic feel. The sahibs, or Englishmen, who traveled across the plains and the hills of the Indian subcontinent often stayed at these dak bungalows, as they were called, and many a tale is told of the eerie happenings within. Many writers of the Raj have made reference to these bungalows, which also find a place in local folklore. This chapter looks at the dak bungalow as one of the spaces that is essentially the Indian Gothic. It draws on literary as well as historical accounts of this space and sees how it is simultaneously Indian and British. Furthermore, the essay examines the presence and role played by women in the context of the dak bungalow. Thus, the essential aim of this chapter is to show the place that the Indian Gothic occupies in both literary and real-life accounts of the writers of the Raj.