The Merchant of Venice bases its dramatic logic on the New Testament premise that you get what you give, and the play’s consistent enactment of this looking-glass logic creates a world in which mirroring is a major internal principle of order. The Indian philosophy, distilled in our Vedas, Puranas and Epics, speaks in almost the same vein. Shylock is cunning, cruel and implacable. For centuries, the Shylocks of India, in various garbs, have tried and succeeded partially, to get their pounds of flesh from their victims. Usury was condemned in the Elizabethan period but we, in India, still nourish it. Secondly, Shylock’s sense of Jessica is anti-human as well as antisocial. He is aware of her as of an item of inventory, as many father, in India, do with their daughters.
Bassanio must have learnt from Shylock’s example: a wrong, even a small one, is always a wrong and calls forth its own punishment automatically, for, as we shall see, in Dr. Agarwalla’s interpretation of the play, the law sleeps only until unoffended, when it reacts by reflecting the offence in kind. The law has no power to make anyone choose to do right, it can only punish those who do wrong. The Prince of Morocco, like any prince of yester-years, in India, is chivalrous, amorous, gracious and sexually virile. It was unkind of Portia to say uncomplimentary words for him but she, like white-skinned ladies, have always done so in the past and are doing it, at present. Thus The Merchant of Venice is as much relevant to Indians as it was and is to the English and to the World, in general. Dr. Shyam S. Agarwalla gives a new approach, a new presentation and a new direction to the reading and critical analysis of the play. At times, his critical examination of the play is unconventional, provocative but nonetheless educative. That marks him off from other Indian editors of The Merchant.
Dr. Shyam S. Agarwalla (b. 1943) M.A. Ph.D. started his teaching career in St. Xavier's College and Marwari College, Ranchi. Now, he is Principal, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia College, Ranchi. He has edited Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, has written Contemporary Indian and its Burning Problems, Angus Wilson and his Works and Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy: Search for an Indian Identity. His literary articles find places in leading literary journals, like New Quest and The Scorio, political articles in The National Herald, The North-East Times (in English) and The Jansatta, The Nai Duniya and The Rajasthan Patrika (in Hindi) and cultural and educational articles in Gandhi Marg and other leading journals and magazines. His writings are sharp, penetrating, provocative, clear and in flawless language.
