Obituary: Govind Bahadur Malla "Gothaale" (1921-2010)

Obituary: Govind Bahadur Malla "Gothaale" (1921-2010)
TKP, 17-Dec-10
By Ujjwal Prasai

Imagine a child born and brought up in a home from where a famous literary magazine was published and whose father was a writer, editor, and publisher of the same magazine. The home was regularly visited by other writers who interacted rigorously about the state of literature in Nepal and about the ways to develop it, and it was but obvious that he would grow up listening to them. The natural path the child would follow would be that of writing.

That child was none other than the acclaimed writer Govind Bahadur Malla, who many knew also as Gothaale. He grew up under the tutelage of his father Riddhi Bahadur Malla who edited and published the magazine Sarada—often heralded as a milestone in Nepali literature. Sarada first came out in 1934 and served as a space for many in the Nepali literary firmament of the time, becoming a platform for writers to hone their talent. No wonder that Gothaale once said in an interview, “Siddhi Charan Shrestha inspired me to write; Gopal Prasad Rimal infused modern consciousness in me; and Laxmi Prasad Devkota taught me the importance of hard work.”

Gothaale, who passed away on Monday after a long battle with asthma and anaemia, was regarded as one of the foremost writers of the human condition. He drew from the zeitgeist of his time, speaking out against the tyranny of the Rana regime when needed, and commenting on his native Newari culture later. He was 89.

The nom-de-plume of Gothaale has an interesting story behind it. Malla once submitted a short story Usko Bhaale—a contemptuous take on the Rana regime—for publication to Bhawani Bhikshu, who was then-editor of Sarada. Bhikshu was scared that the Ranas wouldn’t let Malla go unscathed, and decided to publish the story under the pseudonym Gothaale (cowherd).

Gothaale didn’t look back after that. In a long and illustrious career, he brought out masterpieces like Pallo Gharko Jhyal (1959) and Ma Jujuman (1959) and plays like Chyatieko Parda (staged in 1988). His death has been described by litterateurs and critics alike as the end of the Gothaale era. Critic Tulsi Bhattarai says, “Gothaale brought modern consciousness in his writings and added to what B.P. Koirala and Bhawani Bhikshu were trying to do with their writings at the time.”

Gothaale was always put on the same pedestal as B.P. for his presentation of the human psychology. But that would be undermining his understanding of Nepali society. Gothaale was among the first writers to infuse Freudian psychoanalysis in Nepali literature; his novel Pallo Gharko Jhyal being the perfect example. The novel tells the story of a man who starts loving a woman whom he usually sees in the window of his neighbour’s house; the woman has recently married the owner. Gothaale depicts the mental state of both the characters and describes how the relation between them intensifies as time passes, ultimately resulting in the woman rejecting her own husband. The novel, which caused uproar at the time of its publication, weaves the two characters’ psychologies in a simple and lucid way.

B.P. was a master at writing about sexuality within a conservative Nepali society, whereas Gothaale perfected his craft by taking up social issues, especially those of Kathmandu’s Newar community—the community he belonged to. “Most of his characters are from the Newar community of Kathmandu; he wrote about someone who owned a bhatti pasal (local wine-bar) to about those who had mouja (farmlands) in the Tarai,” says theatre director Sunil Pokharel. In Ma Jujuman, Gothaale presents the mental state of a village-shopkeeper Jujuman who is overly self-conscious of his reality and his social state, someone who is constantly troubled whether he fits in, and ultimately loses his self in this dichotomy.

Gothaale’s plays are equally successful in infusing modernity into Nepali writing while depicting social and psychological issues. “Gothaale was influenced by modern playwrights like Ibsen and Chekhov. He was able to give a totally unique and modern outlook in his works,” says cultural critic Satya Mohan Joshi. As Pokharel says, Gothaale was one who was aware about the “social realities” around him and peopled his plays and stories with “subaltern characters.” While the playwright Bal Krishna Sama wrote philosophical dramas, Gothaale focused on the subaltern and presented their psychological states.

As a person, Gothaale was very studious. Joshi remembers him as someone who spoke little but thought and wrote more. Gothaale loved solitude so he used to leave for his farm in Saptari reading books of Ibsen, Maupassant, Chekhov, and Shakespeare. He was quoted as telling journalist Devendra Bhattarai, “I used to carry a dictionary and read Shakespeare, though with great difficulty.” He also read a lot of Premchand’s and Sarad Chandra’s Hindi writings. This reading habit helped him break free from traditional trends of Nepali literature. During Gothaale’s time, people subscribed to the view that prose and plays weren’t literary writing. Most writers at the time focused on writing poetry—Mahakabya or Khandakabya. But the influence of the Western and Indian writers played a vital role in shaping Gothaale’s worldview that celebrated modernity.

The last book Gothaale wrote was Dui Praani whose manuscript was submitted to Nepal Academy in 2000. The book hasn’t been published yet.

Gothaale, who experimented and brought a new taste to Nepali literature, is no more with us. But he has left his writings behind which will remain a treasure trove for many generations of Nepali readers. A very important fact that Gothaale established, something every aspiring writer should realise, is that one should always strive for newness. In doing so, he continued what Devkota has once said as a suggestion to upcoming writers: “Repetition of a work along the same lines has no meaning.”