Ethnic Culture and Social Criticism in Manoj Das's Novel, ‘Cyclones’

The term ‘ethnic’ derived from the word ‘ethnicity’ refers to the aspect of being culturally distinctive. The term ‘culture’ is a key word in the definition of ethnicity. Social scientists use the word ‘culture’ to refer to the ways of living of people. Culture produces similar behaviours among most people in a particular society. In this study, culture indicates traditions and customs of the West Indian Orissa society, its predominantly Hindu religious rituals and its values and beliefs. This study is with reference to Manoj Das's novel, ‘Cyclones’. This study focuses on two important aspects: (i) ethnic culture and (ii) social criticism. ‘Cyclones’ portrays through the psyche of an educated Indian youth ‘the dying old order of an alien rule and the promised new order of the Swaraj struggling to be reborn.’ The realistic details presented in the novel are not merely imaginative exuberance, but are necessitated by contextual properties. The novel can be viewed as a social document in which the writer discharges the role both of a certain artist and of a social reformer.