MALINI | Class 11 English notes

MALINI Summary in Short

MALINI | Class 11 English notes

The poetic play ‘Malini’ by Rabindranath Tagore is a story of love and hatred. Love in its pure form is a pervading and all compassionate. But often the world, petty selfishness assumes the name of law and rules the world with hatred.

The play takes place in the sacred land of Kashi. It begins with Malini standing on the balcony looking towards the empty street. Meanwhile, the queen comes to convince her. However, Malini is very much rigid in her determination. She wants to spread a new creed of love, truth, and equality in society demolishing the wall of racial feelings. As she has been educated by Buddhist monks, the queen believes that her mind has been spoiled and diseased. Even the king shouts at her for following the wrong track of new creed in the society. Malini doesn’t get moved away by the threat of the king. Meanwhile, a group of Brahmins. Led by Kemankar, appear in front of the palace demanding Malini's banishment. However, Supriya a learned Brahmin doesn’t agree with the group. He believes that Malini is innocent and she should not be given banishment at all. A hot discussion takes place between Brahmins and Supriya who finally become ready to abandon the group that believes in the principle of power and number. Anyway, Supriya is convinced by Kemankar. Later, Malini appears there when the Brahmins are making invocation to the goddess. It is Kemankar who clarifies that she is just a king’s daughter. But, Brahmins in the group take her side leaving Kamankar alone. At this, Kemankar decides to go to a foreign land and to bring an army from there against her.

In the second act, Supriya goes to support Malini disclosing all the secrets. However, he needs the release of Kemankar as for the gift from the king. Kemankar is arrested and brought in the chain in the palace between Supriya and Kemankar about their innocence and guilt. Ultimately Supriya gets ready to sacrifices his life for the sake of their friendship. He is killed by Kemankar hitting him with a chain on his head. At this, the king loses temper and asks for his sword to behead Kemankar. The play ends with Malini asking for an excuse for Kemankar.

1) Sketch the character of Malini.

Answer:  Malini is the central character of the play with the same name. Although she is a Hindu princess, she had been educated by Buddhist monks. She wants the spread of new creed of love, truth, and equality inland of kasha which has been ruled over by priests for a long time. As the new message of love and truth is not accepted by Brahmins, they feel that Malini has stood against them. In fact, Malini wants to tie everyone in a string of love and truth with equality by demolishing the wall of the racial feeling of superiority and inferiority.

Malini is the incarnation of divine power within her. So, in spite of extreme threat by the king and the demand of banishment from Brahmins, she doesn’t move away from her determination. She is very much assured of the fact that truth will ultimately come out to be victorious. It is with the help of her divine gift, she is able to win the heart of those Brahmins who stand against her. Malini is equally and embodiment of love, truth, and equality. Her principle is that evil should be defeated by virtue. In fact, activities like violence, crime, revenge; bloodshed and so on are against her principle. It is, therefore, sticks to excuse of Kemankar till the very end of the play. She knows that humanity can run have existed only with the help of love and truth.

2) Do you think that Supriya in the play is a betrayer? Give reasons to support your answer.

Answer:  Supriya seems to be a betrayer out warty. But, if we observe the play, he stands out like a flower of truth and friendship as a whale. In fact, as a learned Brahmin, he was in a great dilemma between truth and friendship. It was not easy for him to abandon and adopt another one. If he were a betrayer, he would have asked for the gift from the king instead of the excuse of Kemankar for disclosing the secret. Similarly, he would not have become ready to sacrifices his life for his friends.

Supriya and educated Brahmin perform a dual role at the same time. He could prove himself as a virtuous and true friend at the same time. It is, therefore, he can’t be called a betrayer.

3) Sketch the character of Kemankar and Supriya and show how they are different from each other.

Answer:  Kemanker and Supriya both hold a significant role in the poetic play “Malini” by Rabindranath Tagore. Although both of them are educated Brahmins having sound knowledge about their own scriptures and religion, yet they differ from each other in their concept.

As for Kemankar, he is a rigid Brahmin who can’t move away from his determination at all. He believes that Brahmin should always prevail over other religions in the land of kasha. In fact, he is blind or die-heart support of his own religion, Hinduism. Moreover, as a learned Brahmin, he knows very well that revolution can Beg if the women stand as the enemy. So, he is quite well known about the trick and principle of revolution before compelling the people into it. He is such a strong by nature that he feels an excuse from the enemy as a big insult upon his personality. So, he is ready to sacrifices even his life rather than getting excused at the hand of the king for him, betrayal should be awarded death. So, he does not even slightly hesitate to take the life of Supriya.

As for Supriya, He equally a learned Brahmin. However, he is not a blind supporter of his religion. Like his friend, Kemankar. He takes truth and love to be the body of all religions like Malini much more than following the principle of his own scriptures blindly. To him, the scriptures of Brahmin are based on marrow and self-center opinion. He does not also believe in the principle of determining truth by force and number like Kemankar. Even if he is ready to support Malini, yet he is a true friend by nature. He is not in a position to defile. his own personality of a learned Brahmin and true friends at any cost. So, he performs dual outs to remain neutral for both Kemankar and Malini.

4) The play ends with Malini's words “forgive Kemankar”. Do you think the king will forgive Kemankar?

Answer:  The poetic play, “Malini” is a story of love and hatred. Malini, the central character, desires to spread a new creed of love and truth in the land of Kashi. Although she knows that it is difficult and it has agitated. The Brahmins, yet she does not take away from violence. Even favors her simply because he understands that she is a true embodiment of love and truth. It is Malini and Supriya, although the king loses his temper and asks for his sword to behead Kemankar, it can be expected that he will take a moderate path of excuse on Kemankar.

King knows very well that Malini is very much rigid in her determination. She can go the extent of abandoning even the palace to fulfill for an extension. In fact, she has already left the palace and gone to live with Brahmins. So, the king does not want to lose his daughter once again going against her principle. The king is also well aware of the fact that Malini does not desire for violence in order to suppress violence. He also understands that Kemanker is not an ordinary Brahmin. He is a learned Brahmin and the leader at the same time, who carries the sentiment of the Brahmins of Kashi. So, the punishment on the part of Kemankar by the king would not be easily accepted in the Hindu kingdom. Moreover, the king might have thought that with an excuse for Kemankar. He could put the Brahmins in favor of Malini and himself, which is not possible through the principle for tit for tat.