Where Are We Heading?

Years back, as a student of English literature, I got the opportunity to read a long English poem, “The Waste Land.” The poet was T.S. Eliot. Dividing the poem into sections, the poet vividly delineated the position and crisis of the twentieth-century man through it. Man has been living in a cursed land. Wherever the eyes can see, there are only crowds, and man is losing his identity in the sea of crowds. In such a state of affairs, the poet feels frustrated and suffocated. Though towards the end of the poem the poet can see a ray of hope, his overall pessimism in the poem has been subject to much criticism in different circles. Not only T.S. Eliot, but also many other poets of his time have reflected the crisis of the twentieth-century man on a note of pessimism. The aftermath of the First World War seems to have left a negative impression on the minds of most poets of the time. We can very well quote a few lines from another notable poem, “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats, in this context:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the Falcon cannot hear the Falconer. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.”

In this poem also, the poet focuses on the crisis of man of his time. God may be the Falconer, and man may be the Falcon. Man is sent by God to this world with a purpose. But he has moved so far that he is now not in a position to listen to Him or the centre. Nothing is in order. Everything is topsy-turvy. Nobody is under any control. These poets have been subject to much criticism for such poems. But the fact is that this is not unreal. Even the ordinary man is aware of the circumstances around him. But this has no effect on him. On the other hand, it hurts the minds of poets and writers. Imagination takes them to the remote past. They try to search for a picture of the present and, at the same time, a ray of hope. There is mention of such cursed lands or countries in ancient civilizations of the world. There are also examples of cursed lands in our Shastras and Puranas. The cursed land is affected by the anger of Varun. There are no rains. The trees and plants get dried up. There is drought. There is a hue and cry everywhere. The Munis and Rishis take recourse to Yagya to appease the gods. Rains come, and there is an improvement in the situation. In our scriptures, there is mention of Anga Desha, which was affected by a famine for twelve years and became cursed. At long last, King Romapada invited Saint Rishyashringa, who performed a Yagya to appease Varun, the rain God. There were rains, and happiness returned to the kingdom. King Romapada gave his daughter Shanta in marriage to Saint Rishyashringa. T.S. Eliot is believed to have been inspired by the legend while writing “The Waste Land,” though there are many allusions to Western myths and legends in the poem. W.B. Yeats also made use of symbols, myths, and legends in his poem to denote the ills of his contemporary society and the crisis of man.

The present society seems to be undergoing such a cursed state. Population is on the increase. The fertility of the soil is on the wane. The underground water level is going down. The environment is getting polluted. Irregularities can be seen in the environment and season change. Due to the melting of ice and icebergs at the North and South poles, the water level of the seas is rising gradually. Rivers around the world will gradually dry up within a short span of time, according to reports. No doubt we have made a lot of progress. Science has improved our life to a considerable extent. But at the same time, it can hardly be denied that we are slowly but surely moving towards a cursed state. Evils like violence, trouble, disorder, corruption, regionalism, and fanaticism are on the rise in society. The forest cover is decreasing. There is an imbalance in the environment. Temperature is rising gradually. Deserts are being formed. The ozone layer in the atmosphere is being depleted, and through the pores, the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun are reaching the atmosphere. What can be a more cursed state than this? This is the story of the outer world and the environment. The mentality of man has not lagged behind. He thinks that only he is learned. What he says and does is right. Others just stand nowhere near him. He is getting higher education only to get a job. He is bent on earning money after getting the job. He thinks of himself first. Let the nation or country go to the dogs. There are crowds everywhere: chowks, ATMs, and ticket counters. How could he finish his work first? He has no respect for others’ work and time. The position of the twenty-first-century man is in no way different from that of the twentieth-century man. It is even worse. Both outwardly and internally, degradation reigns supreme. There is still room for improvement. Man can improve upon himself and also take steps for the upliftment of the world around him. Otherwise, the poet will again write, “There are seas of crowds everywhere. Man seems to be losing his identity in the vast crowds of the cursed land.”

(The views expressed are the writer’s own)

Mr. Prafulla Kumar Majhi,

Retired Asst. Director, A. I. R, is an eminent Scholar and freelance writer in English & Odia. His areas of interests are sociocultural, economic, literary, historical and analytical studies and writings.

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