International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science Volume 3, Issue 3, pp. 54-56, 2019. ISSN (Online): 2456-7361 54 http://ijses.com/ All rights reserved A Portrayal of Indian Modernities in Anita Desai‟s a Journey to Ithaca Boddupally Giridhar Faculty, Department of English, Central University of Karnataka, Karnataka Email address: giridhar boddupally@gmail. com Abstract—Recently, Modernity in Indian English novels as well as novelists are of scrupulous interest. As an epitome of Indian modernity, Anita Desai plays a central role in Indian fiction field. Generally, tradition refers to beliefs, customs and cultural practices that pass from one generation to another with their origin in some distant past. Modernity refers to contemporary behavior or way of doing things which can be viewed as fresh, new and modern. However, Indian culture is a blend of traditional values and the modern spirit. Tradition and modernity prevail side by side in India. Modernity is not altogether new in India. It prevailed since pre-colonial era to the present. Anita Desai's A Journey to Ithaca serves as a very good example for portraying Indian Modernity. Hindu traditions that are prevalent from past times are not totally homogenous; some of them have imbibed the spirit of modernity and have abolished several social evils that characterized them. However the modern society cannot break completely from old traditions. No society can do that. Indian society continues to live like two facets of a coin, that is, traditional and modern. What seems to have happened is we have accepted modernity in our professional work but we continue to be traditional in our lives. Modernity connotes „a certain type of culture whose quality is determined by rationality, the liberal spirit in its broadest sense, plurality of opinions and centers on decision making, autonomy on various fields of experience, secular ethics and respect for the private world of individual.‟ As Deshpande points out, social movements in human history are responsible for shaping the world order into an i mage that holds at present. Especially colonization has been one of the starkest forms of reshaping in India. It has altered the way we think and function, and have provided us with ideological frameworks and intellectual tools we apply while dealing any situation. Most of the Indian novels in English focus on this, starting from the trio writers, namely Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K Narayan. This paper focuses on the Indian modernities represented by Anita Desai. Keywords— Colonization. Modernity, pluralism, tradition. “- - - things exist in their essence even before they are materially realized and named.” -Milan Kundera I. INTRODUCTION Generally, tradition refers to beliefs, customs and cultural practices that pass from one generation to another with their origin in some distant past. Modernity refers to contemporary behavior or way of doing things which can be viewed as fresh, new and modern. However, Indian culture is a blend of traditional values and the modern spirit. Tradition and modernity prevail side by side in India. Modernity is not altogether new in India. It prevailed since pre-colonial era to the present. Anita Desai's A Journey to Ithaca serves as a very good example for portraying Indian Modernity. Hindu traditions that are prevalent from past times are not totally homogenous; some of them have imbibed the spirit of modernity and have abolished several social evils that characterized them. However the modern society cannot break completely from old traditions. No society can do that. Indian society continues to live like two facets of a coin, that is, traditional and modern. What seems to have happened is we have accepted modernity in our professional work but we continue to be traditional in our lives. Modernity connotes „a certain type of culture whose quality is determined by rationality, the liberal spirit in its broadest sense, plurality of opinions and centers on decision making, autonomy on various fields of experience, secular ethics and respect for the private world of individual.‟ As Deshpande points out, social movements in human history are responsible for shaping the world order into an image that holds at present. Especially colonization has been one of the starkest forms of reshaping in India. It has altered the way we think and function, and have provided us with ideological frameworks and intellectual tools we apply while dealing any situation. This paper attempts to identify modern aspects, which are being prophesized in contemporary society, in which it emphasizes particularly in the novel A Journey to Ithaca written by eminent Indian writer Anita Desai. Objectives: 1. It aims at the brief biography of the author and her contribution. 2. It aims at disclosing the modern aspects in the novel A Journey to Ithaca. 3. It also aims at the critical views given by various scholars. II. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anita Desai (1937- ) was born in India to a German mother and an Indian father. She is considered to be one of the finest of Indian writers in English who handled diverse themes. She added many novels to her canon. She is the mother of well- known booker prize winning author, Kiran Desai. Most of her themes are based on women‟s issues dwelling on the insides of the characters psychologically. Her chief concern is for the individual‟s quest for truth, freedom, meaning and value of life that provide spiritual nourishment to the self in a seemingly chaotic and meaningless world. She gives a new dimension to the genre of Indian writing in English by exploring the spiritual quest. Hence A. K. Bachchan says,