Characteristics of mass communication

Assignment Paper 15

Mass communication & Media studies

Ajit A. Kaliya

M.A. Sem. 4

Roll No.1

Enrollment No. 2069108420170013

Batch: 2016-18

Email- kaliyaajitbhai@gmail.com
Department Of English, MKBU

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Characteristics of mass communication

What is mass communication?

Mass communication is the study of how people exchange information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time. In other words, mass communication refers to the imparting and exchanging of information on a large scale to a wide range of people. It is usually understood to relate newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio, television and film, even via internet as these mediums are used for disseminating information, news and advertising. Mass communication differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal communication or organizational communication, in that it focuses on a single source transmitting information to a large number of receivers. The study of mass communication is chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects the behavior, attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information.

Mass communication is the process of transmitting messages to a large number of scattered audiences.

Through mass communication, information can be transmitted quickly to a large number of people who generally stay far away from the sources of information. Mass communication is done through many mediums, such as radio, television, social networking, billboards, and newspapers. (Mass communication)

In mass communication source is type of the information. Is it ad, writing, show, or audio? Media is what sender uses for communication. It can be TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, website or anything which is effective for the selected information. By different kind of media this information reaches to the audience.

Characteristics of Mass communication:

Mass communication has its own characteristics. Mass Medias are powerful tools for sending information to the mass easily. People all around the world like it and using it. Advertisers and production companies know what people want and they serve accordingly. Mass Medias have proved themselves very useful. Let us see several characteristics of mass communication.

1. Omnipresent

2. Omnipotent

3. Intrusive

4. Attractive

5. Alluring

6. Heterogeneous audiences:

7. Use of electronic media and technology:

  

1. Omnipresent:

Meaning of omnipresent is to present everywhere. Mass media s is very popular. They are adopted by people from around the world. They are everywhere from this end of the earth to the opposite end of the earth. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, films, internet all these things can be found today in every country. And in a country city to village everywhere those things can be found. It is not a new thing. When new technology arrives in market people accept it. Today some mass Medias are very popular and people of all ages use them. For example, TV, mobile phones and internet. So advertisement companies, production houses and government can reach their messages to the large amount of the people at once. Today TV is everywhere. Popular shows reach to the mass at the same time. Newspapers are also everywhere. It gives same news to all different people. Today almost everyone have mobile phone in their hand. Many of them use internet.

So, all these mass Medias are everywhere. They can be found in every place. In house, in offices, in schools, in library, in hospitals, and everywhere. So, mass Medias are omnipresent.

2. Omnipotent:

Meaning of omnipotent is all powerful. Mass communication is very powerful. It has power to communicate with mass and make them believe what sender of the message want. If one person talks to other, it will not make effect but if same thing is said on any mass media then most of the people will start to believe. It is the power of mass media. That is why use of TV and newspapers for ads are increasing. Today door to door advertisement does not work. Use of mass media for communication is necessary to send message to the audience. One has to recognize power of mass communication. What makes mass communication powerful is that is combination of its other characteristics. It attracts people, it can reach at any place, it is present everywhere, and it has quality of excitement. Those features make mass communication very powerful. Most of the mass media today has audio visual quality. This characteristic is very powerful as it helps to reach the message to illiterate people also. Therefore mass communication is powerful enough to reach the message to mass.

3. Intrusive:

Mass media are intrusive. Means it can enter anywhere. For example TV and mobile phone. These tools have made their place in every house. Mobile phones are in every hand with internet. And an important thing is that these things are not forcefully applied but people have adapted those tools. It is humankind’s innate nature to adapt the things which they feel useful or entertaining. Gramophones, radio, audiotape, all were very popular at their time. Today TV, mobile phones and cinema are popular. TV shows, films and advertisements reach anywhere through mass Medias. So today message can easily enter anywhere and that is why mass media is intrusive.

4. Attractive:

People adapt the things which they attract towards them. When advertisement company, film company or production company want to produce something and want to reach to the audience effectively, the first thing should be kept in mind that it should be attractive. People often do not buy the thing which they really need them or find useful but they see or buy the things which attract them. Different types of ads are capable to attract people because they know how to attract mass. Attracting mass is the first need to get benefit. If you fail to attract mass you will lose the audience. To attract mass sender uses different ways. For example if advertisement is in print media like poster or banner the colors of that should be bright and contrast with each other. Cartoons, TV serials, movies attract mass much. They serve people what they want. And so people attract toward them.

5. Alluring:

Alluring means quality of excitement. Mass communication has quality of excitement. How much the product will get success depends on how much it can excite audience. Audience will not rush to buy the product if advertisement is poor and does not excite mass. Cartoons are so much popular because it has quality to excite audience. Soap operas also are very popular because it has power to stick audience with TV. Social Medias are everybody’s favorite because everyday new entertaining or exciting stuffs can be found. Nobody likes boring things. The more the thing has quality of exciting others, the more it becomes popular. Mass communication has this quality of alluring others and that is why mass communication and different types of mass media are very effective today.

6. Heterogeneous audiences: The audiences of mass communication are not only large in number but also heterogeneous and anonymous in nature. Its audiences may belong to different ages, religions, sections and groups.

7. Use of electronic media and technology:

Mass communication relies on mechanical or electronic media to address large and diverse audiences. The media include radio, television, films, newspaper, posters, leaflets etc. Mass communication does not take place through face to face or telephonic conversation. Modern mass communication requires the use of various specialized modern technologies such as computer, computer network, fax, mobile phones, broadcasting media, printing devices etc. for effective preparation and distribution of message. (Characteristics of Mass Communication)

Conclusion:

Thus mass communication differs from other types of communications. It is very effective because of its different powerful characteristics. Mass communication is powerful to reach message to audience at once, it spreads everywhere, it can enter anywhere and reach to the remote places also, it is attractive, and it excites people. Because of these characteristics today mass communication is used by various purposes.

Works Cited

Characteristics of Mass Communication. 26 March 2018 <https://thebusinesscommunication.com/characteristics-of-mass-communication/>.

Mass communication. 24 March 2018. 24 March 2018 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_communication>.

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Character of beggar in 'The Swamp Dwellers'

Assignment Paper 14

The African literature

Ajit A. Kaliya

M.A. Sem. 4

Roll No.1

Enrollment No. 2069108420170013

Batch: 2016-18

Email- kaliyaajitbhai@gmail.com
Department Of English, MKBU

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Introduction

The Swamp Dwellers is a play that was written by Wole Soyinka and was published in 1958. In this play, The Swamp Dwellers, the main conflict is between the old and the new way of life in the Nigerian society and Africa in general. In Southern Nigeria, the individual was tightly bound to his society, and with the introduction of more modern ideas, this relationship was not quite as cohesive as it used to be. There are three main categories of characters: parents, corrupt priests and their followers, and individuals who are always moving and changing. In The Swamp Dwellers, Soyinka explores the controversial themes of power, social injustice, hypocrisy, tyranny, and balance for a functional society. (Chen)

In this play characterization is done in such a way that one character contrasts with one or other characters. There are seven major characters. Alu,  Makuri,  Igwezu, Kadiye, The Beggar, Awuchike and Desala. The two sons Awuchike and Igwezu contrast with each other, Alu and Desala are different from each other and The beggar contrast with Kadiye.

In the novel character of the beggar is one important character. He keeps positive energy in house and village while Alu aMakuri’s both sons are outside and while there are corrupt priests like Kadiye. It is character of hope and by this character Wole Soyinka teaches many things.

Character of beggar

In the play character of the beggar is most wise, optimistic, hard working and the one who do not believe in any superstitions at all. Through the character of the beggar Soyinka has also given the culture of the Nigerian society that guests are treated as god.

About the beggar

The beggar is not a native of the swamp. He is from Bukanji in North Nigeria and a Muslim. He is tall and straight and blind. He loses his crops and walks to the south for land to cultivate. Though he is blind he believes in hard work instead of short cuts. (The swamp dwellers)

Blindness of the beggar: what is suggests?

Soyinka presented character of Beggar as a blind figure. His blindness can be read in many ways. It is the play focusing on life of one family so if beggar had been portrayed who can see, it would not have make much difference. But blindness, his thoughts and comparing it with others brings out some important ideas Wole Soyinka may wanted to convey to the readers.

The blindness of the beggar suggests high spirituality. Others have eyes but cannot see truth and are fooled by corrupt priest Kadiye while the beggar has inner eyes which can see the truth and do not believe in superstitions. He also explains others not to believe in Kadiye. There is a contrast between Makuri and the beggar. Though Makuri has eyesight, he cannot detect the mystery that his family is being beguiled, deceived by the corrupt Priest. But though the beggar is deprived of eyesight, his spiritual light is so powerful and penetrative that, he can detect the bulk of the Priest out of his voice. This means that, he can guess that the Priest is consuming their fresh crops by means of false rituals. (Wole Soyinka’s Art of Characterization in the Play The Swamp Dwellers)

Beggar is the symbol of new light, new thoughts who do not believe what is shown to them but who question. Beggar has just opened Igwezu’s eyes to make him reason. Suddenly he questions the function, and duty of Kadiye and his involvement in the repeated cycles of suffering that the swamp dwellers find themselves. Soyinka created both characters to be a weighing balance between true worship and co modified worship; he uses the beggar to reveal the consequences of religious commodification on Igwezu and the villagers who refuse to ask questions until the arrival of the Beggar. At this point one can say that the society needs people like the Beggar to get rid of religious commodification because the arrival of the Beggar made Igwezu realize that Kadiye is only using them to achieve commercial and economic goals; hence, he agitates and complains in rhetorical questions:

IGWEZU: Yes is it not strange that his skin is tender? Is it not strange that he is smooth and well preserved?

BEGGAR: Is he fat, master? When he spoke, I determined a certain bulk in his voice.

IGWEZU; Ay, he is fat. He roles himself like a fat and greasy porpoise. (Nwosu and Marchie)

The Beggar reveals this to us as he asks yet another strong question:

BEGGAR: Does the priest live well? Is the serpent well kept and nourished

IGWEZU: You may see for yourself. His thighs are skin full of palm oil

BEGGAR: How does the serpent fare in times of dearth? Does he thrive on the poisonous crabs? Does he drink the Ooze of the mire?

Blindness of the beggar also suggests virtue of hard working. On one side Kadiye is healthy man but do not want to work at all while on the other hand in spite of his blindness beggar do want to live by begging. He believes in hard work. When the servant of the priest gives a coin, the beggar keeps his bowl upside down. He had been doing farming but because of draught he had to leave his village in search of land. So, his blindness also inspires readers to do hard work instead of taking short cuts or believing in fate.

Thus, blindness of the beggar is very suggestive.

Christ figure

The beggar is presented as Christ like figure. He is a spiritual man, he is full of hope, and he is moral and advises people in right way. He is symbol for salvation. The beggar also gets treatment as he is God. In Yoruba Custom, stranger is considered as god. The character of beggar introduce by Soyinka as „Christ figure who introduce a completely new force, a new way of thinking into the hidebound society of the village” (18). It is the reason beggar gets the special treatment from the Old Couple,

“Alu squats down and washes his feet. When this is finished, she wipes them dry, takes a small jar from one of the shelves, and rubs his feet with some form of ointment.”

The beggar arises consciousness of the people. The beggar represents new wisdom because he comes to the swamp with solution that will help the suffering of the swamp dwellers under the consequences of religious commodification perpetrated by the priest of the Serpent of the Swamps Kadiye. He gives solutions of their problems. He says, “But if a man is willing to take a piece of ground and redeem it from the swamp-will they let him? If a man is willing to drain the filth away and make the land yield cocoyams and lettuce-will they let him” (Nwosu and Marchie)

Beggar's Christlike presence stands as symbol of expiation and enlightenment. His brilliant suggestions about land reclamation are intended to guide the indigenes on how to solve the problem of flood without relying on external forces. As Igwezu's mentor, he prompts him to discover the venality of the Kadiye and also his own naivety. The Beggar's ideas in the play represent Soyinka's ideals of individual lone-act of- courage in the effort of saving humanity whenever such an individual possesses the will and the resources. Eldred Jones writes that: this act of salvation is not a mass act; it comes about through the vision and the dedication of individuals who doggedly pursue their vision in spite of the opposition of the very society they seek to save (Theme of mire and salvation)

The play ends with Beggar’s words of hope. He says, “The swallows find their nest again when the cold is over. Even The bats desert dark holes in the tress and flap wet leaves with Wings of leather. There were wings everywhere as I wiped my feet against your threshold. I heard the cricket scratch himself beneath the armpit as the old man said to me ….[The door swings to The beggar sighs, gestures a blessing and says] I shall be here to give Account. [The oil lamps go out slowly and completely. The Beggar Remains on the same spot, the moonlight falling on him through the Window. (WOLE SOYINKA’S PLAYS: THE LION AND JEWEL, THE SWAMP DWELLERS & THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO)

So, in this play the character of the blind beggar resembles Christ in many ways.

New way of thinking

The blind beggar is a thinker. He does not believe in whatever. He questions the wrong ideas and persuades others also to question. He is the only person in the play who questions Kadiye and his ways. He tries to explain people not to believe in Kadiye.  The beggar is not superstitious. He cannot believe that, there is any supernatural being in the name a serpent God, who possesses land. The Beggar in his wisdom asks Makuri an important question which Makuri and the swamp dwellers all these years failed to ask themselves.

In the end of the play Beggar at least opens the eyes of the Igwezu. He questions Kadiye and stop to believe in his fake serpent God. So, beggar’s views and thoughts are very different than his surroundings. He seems the mouthpeace of the playwright.

Positive force of the life

Blind Beggar’s entry in the play is at the very crucial time. Igwezu had gone into the debt, his wife and brother had betrayed him, moreover his crop has been divested by the flood. At such a time the beggar enters with faith and determinism to support morally collapsed Igwezu. His words not only pacify Igwezu but enliven his hopes in life. He becomes a mentor for Igwezu and the villagers. He provides brilliant suggestions about land reclamation that guide the people to solve the problem of flood without relying on external forces. He questions the validity of swamp serpent, and in that way brings enlightenment in the lives of flood afflicted people. (Ingole)

Conclusion

Thus, character of Beggar is not minor character in the play. He has very much importance. He is He is symbol of new thinking, spirituality, morality, hard work, hope and brotherhood. Through his character Soyinka tries to say many things to reader.

Works Cited

Chen, Sonia. The swamp dwellers background. 9 July 2017. 17 March 2018 <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-swamp-dwellers>.

Ingole, Kaiash M. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION IN SOYINKA’S THE SWAMPS DWELLERS. April 2014. 19 March 2018 <http://oldrol.lbp.world/UploadArticle/81.pdf>.

Nwosu, Canice and Chinonye Marchie. From Worship to Commodification: Wole Soyinka and Sanctity of the Sacred. June 2015. 19 March 2018 <http://ijaahnet.com/journals/ijaah/Vol_3_No_1_June_2015/7.pdf>.

The swamp dwellers. 19 March 2018 <https://sites.google.com/site/theswampdwellers/the-beggar>.

Theme of mire and salvation. 19 March 2018 <http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/64512/9/09_chapter%203.pdf>.

Wole Soyinka’s Art of Characterization in the Play The Swamp Dwellers. 14 October 2012. 18 March 2018 <https://literacle.com/wole-soyinkas-art-of-characterization-in-the-play-the-swamp-dwellers/>.

WOLE SOYINKA’S PLAYS: THE LION AND JEWEL, THE SWAMP DWELLERS & THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO. 19 March 2018 <http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/148339/7/07_chapter%202.pdf>.

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'The white tiger' as an axe and x-ray

Assignment Paper 13

The New Literatures

By: Ajit A. Kaliya

M.A. Sem. 4

Roll No.1

Enrollment No. 2069108420170013

Batch: 2016-18

Email- kaliyaajitbhai@gmail.com
Department Of English, MKBU

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What would be your answer if you are asked what the duty of literature is? Or why literature is for? One may say literature is for arising feelings, one may say literature should show reality, one can say literature is just for entertainment. Well, there is no certain answer. Literature has no specific functions. Literature can be just for entertainment also or it can put you in deep philosophical questions. It can be totally real or total fantasy. Now how far is it right to criticize a book by its representation of reality of a nation? Isn’t it foolishness to expect only good things from literature or any kind of art? This happened when Aravind Adiga’s debut novel ‘The White Tiger’ won 40th man booker prize in 2008. Some people criticized it because it portrays dark side of India. Here are some negative reviews I gathered from The telegraph. 

• "I felt the book took us back three decades," said folk art expert Ritu Sethi. "It had every stereotype going in it. The BBC used to show nothing but cows on the roads for years. We're back to that with this book." 

• Others criticised the novel for being dull and demeaning. Author and playwright Manjula Padmanabhan dismissed it as "a tedious, unfunny slog". 

• She agreed that much of the recent hype about India as an emerging superpower was dishonest and complacent but asked: "Is this schoolboyish sneering the best that we can do?" 

• Having bought the book, affluent Indians may shift uncomfortably in their seats. The daily inhumanity shown by the rich towards their domestic staff in The White Tiger is something of which many will realise they too are guilty. 

• "I used to hate Naipaul for talking contemptuously about India, about how cleaners mop the floor in restaurants by crouching and moving like crabs and all that talk about Indians defecating in the open," said a freelance editor, Anjali Kapoor. "Adiga is the same, focusing on everything that is bad and disgusting." (Dhillon) 

The reason behind criticizing this book is very simple. Because they are not rooster coops. I don’t think any of them have experienced poverty or even seen poverty. We see what happens when political leaders of other country visit India. Political leaders hide poverty and slums and let others see only richness and light. But reality does not change by hiding it. Those who criticize The White Tiger on the basis of portraying bad picture of India are like the politicians who try to hide reality. Politician can do it but how can one expect that from an author? Or maybe it is just matter of experience. They don’t know what the problem is? Living in big houses , moving in car, dining in five star hotels and then thinking all are happy and wealthy is lack of seeing around and observing. They cannot see reality hidden behind curtains. There is more literary answer by Frantz Kafka to those who except only praising from literature. 

Kafka says, “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief.” (Aleph) 

Quite striking definition of literature. Isn’t it? That is what Kafka wanted from literature. Shock, pain, unrest. Aravind Adiga did the same. You see reviews above. They are shocked. So, ‘The white tiger’ is great literature as per definition of Kafka. 

But what has Adiga written that stabs readers like an axe. What Aravind Adiga did is he inspects the Indian society. Not just by looking outside only but looking deep inside. Like x-ray. He finds lot many diseases and tells about them. Let us see some examples. 

• And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. (Adiga) 

• Which black river am I talking of—which river of Death, whose banks are full of rich, dark, sticky mud whose grip traps everything that is planted in it, suffocating and choking and stunting it? Why, I am talking of Mother Ganga, daughter of the Vedas, river of illumination, protector of us all, breaker of the chain of birth and rebirth. Everywhere this river flows, that area is the Darkness. 

• And then I understood: this was the real god of Benaras—this black mud of the Ganga into which everything died, and decomposed, and was reborn from, and died into again. The same would happen to me when I died and they brought me here. Nothing would get liberated here. 

• Inside, you will find an image of a saffron-colored creature, half man half monkey: this is Hanuman, everyone's favorite god in the Darkness. Do you know about Hanuman, sir? He was the faithful servant of the god Rama, and we worship him in our temples because he is a shining example of how to serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion. These are the kinds of gods they have foisted on us, Mr. Jiabao. Understand, now, how hard it is for a man to win his freedom in India. 

• What traditional Indian village is complete without its blue-movie theater, sir? 

• Government program gave every boy three rotis, yellow daal, and pickles at lunchtime. But we never ever saw rotis, or yellow daal, or pickles, and everyone knew why: the schoolteacher had stolen our lunch money. 

• Once, a truck came into the school with uniforms that the government had sent for us; we never saw them, but a week later they turned up for sale in the neighboring village. 

• Go to a tea shop anywhere along the Ganga, sir, and look at the men working in that tea shop—men, I say, but better to call them human spiders that go crawling in between and under the tables with rags in their hands, crushed humans in crushed uniforms, sluggish, unshaven, in their thirties or forties or fifties but still "boys." But that is your fate if you do your job well—with honesty, dedication, and sincerity, the way Gandhi would have done it, no doubt. 

• The judges? Wouldn't they see through this obviously forced confession? But they are in the racket too. They take their bribe, they ignore the discrepancies in the case. And life goes on. 

• The greatest thing to come out of this country in the ten thousand years of its history is the Rooster Coop. 

• A school where you won't be allowed to corrupt anyone's head with prayers and stories about God or Gandhi (Adiga) 

I think these are enough examples to find out why many people do not like this book. But the question is doesn’t it reality? Of course it is. Every morning we open newspaper, all news of corruption, scams, murder, rape, dowry, suicide, and all. Don’t we see children dying in government hospitals and government doing nothing? Don’t we see in police stations instead of arresting criminal victim is harassed? And there is much behind newspapers. Real dark side of India. They don’t get chance to speak. Only few people speak whose bellies are full and all start to believe that all are happy now. The novel like this is mouth piece of those who never get the chance to speak. 

Aravind Adiga succeeds to get x-ray image of India. Here is what Aeavind Adiga says why he wrote this novel. 

This is the reality for a lot of Indian people and it's important that it gets written about, rather than just hearing about the 5% of people in my country who are doing well. In somewhere like Bihar there will be no doctors in the hospital. In northern India politics is so corrupt that it makes a mockery of democracy. This is a country where the poor fear tuberculosis, which kills 1,000 Indians a day, but people like me - middle-class people with access to health services that are probably better than England's - don't fear it at all. It's an unglamorous disease, like so much of the things that the poor of India endure. 

I would like to end this assignment with quote of Aravind Adiga himself. 

"At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society. That's what writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens did in the 19th century and, as a result, England and France are better societies. That's what I'm trying to do - it's not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination." (Jeffries) 

Works Cited

Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. New York: Free press, 2008.

Aleph, Faena. FRANZ KAFKA ON READING: AN AXE THAT BREAKS THE FROZEN SEA INSIDE US. 23 August 2016. 21 March 2018 <http://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/franz-kafka-on-reading-an-axe-that-breaks-the-frozen-sea-inside-us/>.

Dhillon, Amrit. Indians fear Aravind Adiga's 'The White Tiger' says too much about them. 18 October 2008. 21 March 2018 <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3222136/Indians-fear-Aravind-Adigas-The-White-Tiger-says-too-much-about-them.html>.

Jeffries, Stuart. Roars of anger. 16 October 2008. 21 March 2018 <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/oct/16/booker-prize>.

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Codes of ethics in journalism

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Codes of ethics in journalism from Ajit Kaliya

Symbolism in 'The Swamp Dwellers'

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Symbolism in 'The Swamp Dwellers' from Ajit Kaliya

Globalisation in 'The White Tiger'

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Globalisation in 'The White Tige' from Ajit Kaliya