Revolution 2020
Thinking Activity
Welcome readers! This blog is written as a part of thinking activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, from Department of English, MKBU. This blog deals with Chetan Bhagat's fifth novel Revolution 2020 in the paper of Contemporary English Literature. This Novel Published in 2011. As a part of this thinking activity, we are assigned three questions from this novel and I will give answers of given questions. That questions are given below.
1. Social realism of corruption in Private education system.
2. Contemporary relevance of Raghav's journalism [The YouTuber / Social media journalism in today's India]
3. Do you think that an opportunity of a good novel is wasted because the story is told from Gopal's perspective? can it be better narrated from Raghav or Aarti's perspective? How Would it be better if it was narrated from Raghav or Aarti's perspective?
R{ƎVO⅃}UTION TWENTY20
Chetan Bhagat
'Revolution 2020 : Love, Corruption, Ambition' is a 2011 novel by chetan Bhagat. Its story is concerned with a love triangle, corruption and a journey of self - discovery. It tells the story of three friends - Gopal, Raghav and Aarti. Gopal, the protagonist of the novel dreams of making something big in life but he finds himself entangled in corrupt practices while trying to achieve his goals. Raghav, his friend is passionate about bringing social changes in the society and fighting against corruption through Journalism. Aarti, the girl they both love, becomes a symbol of their conflicting desires and aspirations. The novel - Revolution 2020 delves into the complexities of relationships and the challenges faced by the youth in contemporary India, ultimately questioning the meaning of success and the pursuit of one's dream in a society plagued by corruption and inequality.
Chetan Bhagat :-
Chetan Bhagat born on 22nd April, 1974 is an Indian Author, columnist, and You tuber. He was listened in Time magazine's list of world's 1000 most influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films.
Bhagat grew up in a traditional punjabi Hindu family. His father served as a lieutenant in the Indian Army, and his mother worked as a scientist. He claims to have been an average student at 15. His love for writing began during his school years. He used to write articles for the literary magazine of his school and seeing his name printed on the magazine as a writer encouraged him to continue writing.
He graduated with B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995. He also pursued a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing, from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad ( IIMA) and graduated in 1997.
Chetan Bhagat is the author of thirteen blockbuster books. These include ten novels – Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes Of My Life (2008) , 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014), One Indian Girl (2016) The Girl In Room 105 (2018), One Arranged Murder (2020), 400 Days (2021) and three non-fiction titles— What Young India Wants (2012) Making India Awesome(2015) and India Positive (2019). Chetan’s books have remained best sellers since their release.
Apart from his writing career, He was a celebrity judge on the dance reality show named Nach Baliye , season 7. Apart from that he was also seen in Netflix's series 'Decoupled.' Chetan Bhagat is also a Youtuber. His youtube channel provides motivations to young Indians. He launched a podcast show Deeptalk with chetan Bhagat where he invites accomplished guests for a conversation about how they made it big in life.
Chetan Bhagat is also very much famous as a motivational speaker.
His Novels :-
- Five points Someone (2004)
- One Night at The Call Centre (2006)
- The 3 Mistakes of my Life (2008)
- 2 States (2009)
- Revolution 2020 (2011)
- Half Girlfriend (2014)
- One Indian Girl (2016)
- The Girl in Room 105 (2018)
- One Arranged Murder (2020)
- 400 Days (2021)
Five of chetan Bhagat's novels have been adapted into films :-
- Hello (2008) – Based on the book "One Night at the Call Center"
- 3 Idiots (2009) – Based on the book "Five Point Someone"
- Kai Po Che!
- 2 States (2014) – Based on the book "2 States"
- Half Girlfriend (2017) – Based on the book "Half Girlfriend"
Non - fiction :-
- What Young India Wants (2012)
- Making India Awesome ( 2015)
- India Positive ( 2019)
Revolution 2020( R2020) :-
“Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys.
One wanted to use his intelligence to make money.
One wanted to use his intelligence to start a revolution.
The problem was, they both loved the same girl.”
R2020 has addressed the issue of how private coaching institutions exploit aspiring engineering students and how parents put their lifetimes earnings on stake for these classes so that their children can crack engineering exams and change the fortune of the family. While a handful accomplish their dreams, others sink into disaster. The author stated that the novel is based on the "rampant corruption" apparent in the Indian educational system, with the choice of Varanasi as a setting emerging through "a special connection to the city" following his visit. He further said "it is one of our oldest cities, and people there now have modern aspirations. I thought the contrast would be interesting. The city also has a lot of character.
Author Chetan Bhagat says the idea of his latest work ‘Revolution 2020’ emerged because of the rampant corruption in the education sector which affects millions of youth.
The novel - Revolution 2020 is set in kota and Varanasi. Time - 1996 to 2011. It narrates Gopal's story from 10 year old school kid to 26 year young director of Ganga Tech college.
1. Social realism of Corruption in the Private education system.
Answer :- Chetan Bhagat in his novel, mostly chosen the themes which are happening in the contemporary society, particular Indian
society. They includes modern education system in India,
Indian corrupt political system, problem of students,
parents attitude towards their wards, Students’ longing for
coaching classes, etc. His novel mostly deals with the life
and problems of youngsters. Here he stresses on corruption
in the educational field. Revolution 2020 is a critical novel on corruption in Indian education system and coaching classes for competitive exams in India.
Gopal - represents lower Middle class family.
Raghav - represents Middle class family.
Aarti - represents Upper class family.
Thus, this core group of characters presents a Metro city from the filthy rich to the marginalized poor. Corruption is one of the major theme of this novel. The life of students at Kota is very hard. They
spend a lot of hours on study. The realistic theme of
students’ life is given here. Bhagat writes about a day in
the life of aspiring students in Kota :
'I could call myself a true Kota ite a month into moving there.
Like thousands of other
students, my life now had a
rhythm. Career Path resembled
a school, but without the fun
bits. Nobody made noise in
class, played pranks on one
another or thought of bunking
classes. After all, everyone had
come here by choice and had paid a big price to be here …'
'Lectures
started at two in afternoon and
went on until nine in evening.
After that students rushed home
to eat dinner, and do the ‘daily
practice sheets’, a set of ten
problems based on the current
lesson … I went along with
madness, not so much because
of the zeal to prepare, but more
because I wanted to keep
myself busy. I didn’t want
Kota’s loneliness to kill me.'
The novel is an ambitious with a bunch of
characters and themes, set in Indian city. The story moves
from Varanasi to Kota and again to Varanasi. Moving
from place to place, Bhagat’s characters keep floating in
the novel and do not stick to one incident. They keep
achieving their goals, trying to link up plot of the novel but
too little avail. Bhagat has tried to reveal the mind of his
characters. The author in the
novel has given minute details of corruption in Indian
politics, administrative, and educational system.
Corruption has burrowed Indian political, social, and
educational system. Talking about corruption Chetan
Bhagat says ;
'In India, one question is
constant: why isn’t corruption
going away? The question
baffles the educated middle
classes. Why is a reasonable,
universal and noble demand for
an honest society so difficult to
achieve in a democracy? And why is it that corrupt parties
win election time and time
again.'
MLA shukla is a political leader and most corrupt man of Varanasi. He was the only one who helped Gopal in finding private institution and also taught him that how to pay people. On the other side, Raghav is the protagonist and Journalist who fights against corruption and wants India as the corruption free
country. Corruption not only made hole in Indian political
system but has also spread in educational system.
Indian parents are extra careful about the future of
their children. Gopal’s father wants his son to be an
engineer from India’s top most colleges. His father is a
retired teacher and involved in a court case against his
elder brother. Gopal in his first attempt for AIEEE fails to
score the required marks. After getting known Gopal’s low
score his father does not talk properly with him. Gopal
tells his father that he wants to do B.Sc. His father cannot
control his anger and says ;
Gopal, “who gives a good job to
a simple graduate? ''
Parents and teacher who without seeing their son’s
ability send him to Kota. Prateek tells Gopal.
“Most of us can’t
crack these tests, basic probability. But who will drill it
into our parents’ head?”
Raghav’s father is not interested
in NIT and tells his son to do engineering from IIT. The
hopes of Indian parents are bigger than their children. Chetan Bhagat makes Raghav’s character as one of the
most idealistic characters among his all the characters as
he has put his own views through this character. Raghav in
the novel plays the role of an activist who wants to bring
change in Indian society by eradicating the corruption. He
for the sake of society declines his job offer of and
joins as a reporter at newspaper agency. His inner desire does not
keep him quiet so he starts his own newspaper, Revolution
2020.
'kota now had small coaching shops to coach you to get into the top coaching classes. from there, you would be coached to get into an engineering college.'
The novel criticizes how private coaching classes for courses such as IIT, JEE exploit aspiring students. Indian parents put their hope and desires on relying these private coaching classes that is why their children can crack tests and they bring change the fortune of their middle class family. The novel - Revolution 2020 explores the reality of the private coaching industry which thrives on corruption and scams. Ambitions or aspirations of youth is the important theme that the novelist handled in this present novel.
Raghav aspires for his desire that he wants to be social reformer. His aspirations to change the world through
social reformation and movement. He wants to see the society as a corruption free society. He
thinks that his article on Ganga cleaning scam brings somewhat changes in the political system. In the very beginning of the novel Aarti and
Gopal love to each other but in the middle of the story, she was attracted towards Raghav who has cracked IIT JEE exam in his first attempt. But he does not want to do engineering. He wants
to be journalist. Raghav said that 'Journalism is my passion.' Raghav attempts to change the world through his first article published in newspaper ;
What do you say about a society whose top leaders are the biggest crook? What do you
do in a system where almost anyone with power is corrupt? India has suffered enough.
From childhood we are told India is a poor country. Why? There are countries in this world
where an average person makes more than fifty times that an average Indian makes. Fifty
times? Are their people really fifty times more capable than us? Does an Indian farmer not
work hard? Does an Indian student not study? do we not want to do well? Why, why are
we then doomed to be poor?
Raghav wants to change in Indian society. He thinks that one day his articles would bring
change in Indian political system, in private coaching institutions as well as in private colleges.
Many private colleges’ owners have no degree in the respective fields but they opened colleges
and earned large amount from their institutions. So, he decides to work as a journalist to remove
corruption from the society. Chetan Bhagat elaborates the social evils, political issues, corruption and problems of youth
generation through this present novel. The novel mainly focused on love, corruption and
ambition. He illustrated the theme of love with different attitudes and shades.
To Conclude, Chetan Bhagat's novel Revolution 2020 focused on the theme of social issues, realism and it also highlights on social evils and unfair practices. It deals with the aspirations of youth, the problem of unemployability, youth struggled for their ambitions and the scenario of the private coaching institutions.
2. Contemporary relevance of Raghav's Journalism. [ The Youtuber / Social media Journalism in today's India].
Answer :- “Revolution 2020” is an attempt to highlight the corruption rooted in India’s education
system and bring out the anomaly of education. The fiery activism of Raghav who wants to
bring about a change in society through journalism, despite having graduated as an
engineer. He says that ;
“This has to stop. We have to clean the system. Che Guevara, the great
revolutionary, once said, ‘Power is not an apple that falls from a tree into your lap. Power
had to be snatched from people who already have it.’ We have to start a revolution, a
revolution that resets our corrupt system. A system ,that shifts power back into the hands
of the people and treats politicians like workers, not kings.”
Raghav, who gets admission to IIT, turns to be a sort of
idealist. Even though he gets a job, he turns to journalism as the way to clean up the
society. He gets a partial success, but has financially drained. He can only circulate his
publication “Revolution 2020” less than 500 copies. Yet he can bring out the secret deals
of Shukla and succeeds in sending him to jail. That affects the future of Gopal as his
business deals are also closely connected with the politician. But Gopal realizes that
Raghav’s path is right and sacrifices his love for Aarti and makes her turn away from him.
She finally selects Raghav. The narrative is unbalanced because it is being narrated by
Gopal, so all the characters that grace this novel are told as what they mean to Gopal. But
Raghav ends the story still hoping for a bright corruption free nation. Raghav’s strength is that he is very intelligent, sincere and also ambitious. It is
through him Chetan Bhagat tries to convey his message.
Life is not all about making
and working just for the sake of earning money. One has to follow his dreams; this is the
message brought out through Raghav.
Raghav is the most inspiring character in “Revolution
2020”. Though Raghav had good academic profile and is selected in many colleges he gave
up all those offers just to become a journalist and through his writings he decides to root
out the evils from his corrupted city or nation as a whole. He is ready to bring a revolution against everything corrupt and
wrong happening in the society. He strongly believes that someone has to stand up against
the system to reform the society. The character of Raghav wants to expose the corrupt education system, the profit making private education sectors and issues of bribes, etc.
“Revolution 2020. That’s his goal. That India must have a full-blown revolution by
2020. Power will be the youth. We will dismantle the old corrupt system and put a new one
in place.”
Independent Journalists :-
1. Karan Thapar :-
Karan Thapar is an Indian Journalist, news presenter and interviewer working with The Wire. Known for his aggressive interviews with leading figures, Karan Thapar has navigated through various media houses since 1981. His unyielding questioning even made waves during an interview with the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, showcasing the impact of fearless journalism.
2. Ravish Kumar :-
Ravish Kumar is an Indian Journalist, author and media personality. He was the senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. Ravish Kumar stands as a beacon of true journalism, reporting on the ground realities and issues faced by ordinary Indians. His sharp insights and integrity have earned him the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, and his term ‘Godi Media’ has become a household term for media channels driven by political and corporate interests.
3. Punya Prasun Bajpai :-
Punya Prasun Bajpai is an Indian Journalist. He has worked at several news networks in his career. An accomplished journalist and writer, Punya Prasun Bajpai’s in-depth knowledge of Indian politics is evident in his body of work. Notable for his program ‘Masterstroke,’ Bajpai left ABP News due to perceived government pressure, showcasing his commitment to unbiased reporting.
Punya Prasun Bajpai on You tube
4. Abhisar Sharma :-
Abhisar Sharma is an Indian Journalist, Television news Anchor and Author. A seasoned journalist and anchor with a career spanning from 1995 to 2018 in mainstream media, Abhisar Sharma has since transitioned to freelance journalism. His outspoken and emotional approach to reporting, notably in instances like discussing the tragic death of a small Muslim child, reflects a deep concern for the country’s well-being.
5. Devanshi Joshi :-
Devanshi Joshi is a news anchor who worked in Nirmala News and Sandesh (Gujarathi news company). She is also a senior producer of the company. Moreover, she runs a news-based YouTube channel.
Rajdeep Sardesai is an Indian News Anchor, reporter, Journalist and Author.
7. Shyam Meera Singh :-
Shyam Meera Singh is an Indian Journalist and Youtuber. He was working with Aaj Tak, but was fired from Aaj Tak because he did tweet critical to PM Narendra Modi.
He was awarded with connecting alumnae of the year from Indian institute of Mass communication. He also started his own Youtube channel in May 2022.
8. Dhruv Rathee :-
Question 3 :- Do you think that an Opportunity of a good novel is wasted because the story is told from Gopal's perspective? Can it be better if narrated from Raghav or Aarti's perspective? How would it be better if it was narrated from Raghav or Aarti's perspective?
Answer :- Chetan Bhagat's novel - Revolution 2020 is told from the perspective of Gopal. He himself is the narrator of the story. Chetan Bhagat - Author of the novel is present as a character. Gopal belongs to poor family and his father was a Farmer. Gopal is a character who faces various challenges and moral dilemmas throughout the plot. By doing corruption Gopal becomes the director of Ganga Tech college. When we read the story from Gopal's perspective and point of view, the narrative may lack depth and seriousness as R2020 comes under the classification of popular literature and it lacks high seriousness and sincerity.
Raghav Kashyap is an idealistic character who is passionate about bringing change in society. He belongs to upper class family and cracked JEE exam in first attempt. But, followed his passion and becomes journalist as he wants to bring change and reformation in the society. If the story is told from Raghav's perspective, as a reader we might get a deeper insight into his motivations, struggles and societal issues.
Looking at the story through Aarti's perspective could given us a different view of the love triangle. Her character, even though important in the love story. Seeing things from her side could shown us more about her feelings, thoughts and the tough choices she has to make between two men who want her. But, In my views Narrating the story from Aarti's Perspective, readers can only know about her love relations rather than anything else. But, Three of these characters from Chetan Bhagat's novel Revolution 2020 Played very important role.
Gopal's Perspective - Corruption
Aarti's Perspective - Love
Raghav's Perspective - To Bring Revolution
Through these characters we can understand that they are connected with each other and presented the core concern of the novel in their own unique and different way.
Conclusion :- To Conclude, Revolution 2020 is a thought provoking novel that explores the deep - seated corruption and lack of opportunities in India's education system and society at large. Through the stories of its main characters, Gopal, Raghav and Aarti, Chetan Bhagat highlights the struggles faced by the youth in pursuing their dreams and aspirations.
While the characters Journeys are fictional, the underlying issues addressed in the book resonate with the harsh realities faced by many young Indians.'Revolution 2020' is a compelling novel that leaves the reader with a sense of hope for a better future, if corrective measures are taken to the existing system.
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