Contemporary Urban Reality: A Critical Study of Upamanyu Chatterjee's the Mammeries of the Welfare State

The present paper is an attempt to explore the contemporary urban realities in Upamanyu Chatterjee's novel The Mammeries of the Welfare State. Literature is termed as the mirror of society because it projects the influence of the contemporary age while depicting human nature. A writer is the creator as well as the creature of the age in which he exists and works because he portrays certain virtues for the people to emulate and Upamanyu Chatterjee is no exception. He is one of those writers who excel in depicting the contemporary social and political situations. He has given a vivid account of bureaucrats, politicians and raised many issues like corruption, loss of values, lack of true human relationships, sexual perversion, mental tension, housing problems in urban areas etc. His novel The Mammeries of the Welfare State, the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award winner, is a sequel to his first debut novel English, August: An Indian Story. It beautifully presents the Indian bureaucracy's proneness to corruption and moral turpitudes and leaves no opportunity to mock the entire administrative as well as political world. He is a social realist and doesn't believe that literature should only be for enjoyment rather he firmly believes that literature should confront the facts of actual day today life. His novels are written in a humorous style but they are a bitter satire on Indian Administrative service and corrupt politicians.