The Joy of Reading "Under the Chestnut Tree in Tavistock Square AFTER reading "Untouchable"

When we were first given "Under the Chestnut Tree in Tavistock Square" to read, I read it dutifully and, if the truth be told, found little to engage my interest. At that point, I had no clue who Mulk Raj Anand was, was not that acquainted with "Passage to India" nor the stance that Forster took toward India within the novel, and had only Leonard Woolf's rather magnanimous and even-handed voice in "The Village in the Jungle" to aid in understanding the tone of this three-way conversation. Re-reading the essay this week was a joy, for here, reincarnated in that tone, is Bakha from "Untouchable!" I remember mentioning that Leonard Woolf seemed to be very present within certain sections of "The Village in the Jungle." I feel the same way about Anand being present in "Untouchable" (of Hurston being present in "Their Eyes...") I know that in the visual and other artistic genres, modernism relaxed the formal need for withdrawal and objectivity and instead advocated a new sort of subjective immersion where art and artist (and sometimes audience) overlapped and even fused within the artistic process. Is this a trait of modernist literature as well? I find it plausible--even if based upon the limited titles we have read. I could not say that Sherwood Anderson was divorced from his characters and their stories--nor any of the others previously mentioned. In this account under the chestnut tree, Anand reflects the practiced obeisance that Bakha MUST reflect in "Untouchable" but there is that hint of rebellious irony in tone and language that Anand suffuses Bakha with that makes the reader grin at times in spite of the horrific situations presented in "Untouchable." During the whole calling-by-first-name scenario, we see Anand gradually asserting his right (just as Bakhi does)to the point of writing " 'Leonard,' I said gauchely." Is it that same self-reflexive awareness and tone(that author immersion within his own creation) which helps Bakha emerge as his own person in spite of his lot in life--to not seem such a victim of circumstance and caste? Within this essay, Leonard Woolf seems to acknowledge that cross-over of identity--author to creation--when he a speaks of Kipling. In the dialogue, Anand says, "I hear Kipling was bullied by the prefects in school?" Leonard answers, "I am sure quite a few of his young CHARACTERS (my emphasis) are cruel because he never matured." Interesting!