India (2): Language &
the Working Class
“Flute Music,” “Annamalai”
and Salaam Bombay
Migrant populations flock to the outskirts of cities
to find work. (source)
Outline
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Background (1): Caste System
Background (2): Language
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Tagore: “Flute Music”
R.K. Narayan: “Annamalai”
Background (3): Bombay & Bollywood
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Salaam Bombay
Background (1): Caste system
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The main castes:
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Brahman (priest);
Kshatriya (ruler, warrior, landowner);
Vaishya (merchants);
Shudra (artisans, agriculturalists);
Harijan "outside" the caste system (once known as
"untouchables") (source:
http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/sp
ring98/india.htm )
* Musicians-- Harijans (god's children) which used
to be known as untouchables.”
Caste system – Determined…
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by race? “In a verse from the first millennium epic, the
Mahabharata (摩訶婆羅多), Brigu, the sage explains: ‘The
brahmins are fair, the kshatriyas are reddish, the vaishyas
yellow and the sudras are black.’ [But] If different colours
indicate different castes, then all castes are mixed castes.“
by work: The Hindus also believe that a man's varna is
determined by his profession and deeds and not by his
birth.
Multiple meanings: it changes its meaning according to the
context it is used to denote “form, quality, class, category,
race, merit or virtue.”
Practically, Varna (caste) came to signify an endogamic
(同族通婚) group, its members linked by heredity, marriage,
custom and profession (source)
Caste system -- Today
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Seen illegal since 1947;
Two Indias: the rich and the poor, not
following the caste lines
In some villages, some lower caste
people are still marginalized, and intercaste marriage is still prohibited (e.g. The
God of Small Things);
In 1998, “sixty people were killed by the Ranvir Sena, a
self-styled armed militia of the upper-caste landed gentry,
formed to crush the movements of Dalits (the
untouchables) and agricultural laborers.” (source)
Exceptions . . .?
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A Life Less Ordinary --Baby
Halder, as a maid to an
anthropologist who
encourages her to write.
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail
& Rubina Ali from Slumdog
Millionaire 
Hollywood/Bollywood dream
Image course:
http://www.nytimes.co
m/2006/08/02/books/
02maid.html
Tagore: “Flute Music” –
Description of Poverty
1. State of poverty: A man in in small
room- Miserable living conditions
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The room (stanzas 1 5; “Decaying
walls, windows crumbling to dust in
places/Or strained with damp.” )
description of the alley (4th stanza)
compared to a lizard
2. Influences of poverty –
 Staying out to save the cost of light
(2nd stanza)
 his girl -- (3rd and last stanza)
Monsoon darkness
sticks in my damp room
Like an animal caught in a dead
trap,
Lifeless and numb.
day and night I feel strapped
bodily
On to a half-dead world.
The influences of flute music
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Kantababu – one of the Harijans?
Companion: The sound of it comes in gusts
On the foul breeze of the alley Sometimes in the middle of the night,
Sometimes in the early morning twilight,
Sometimes in the afternoon
When sun and shadows glitter.
Suddenly this evening
He starts to play runs in Sindhu-Baroya rag,
And the whole sky rings
With eternal pangs of separation.
Takes him back to his village.
Background (2): Language
“No matter that
my name is Greek
my surname Portuguese
my language alien.
There are ways of belonging.” (Eunice de
Souza )
Language & English literature in India
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The Charter Act of 1813 – East India
Company's responsibility for native education;
1857 – the Indian university system
After independence, English is no longer an
official language;
Major languages: Hindi, Tamil, Marathi,
Malayalam and Urdu each has more than 10
million speakers.
Narayan’s decision to write in English
“We have fostered the language for over a
century. . . And we are entitled to bring it in line with
our own thought and idiom.”
 Speaking as the English language, he puts:
“I will stay here, whatever may be the rank and status
you may assign me—as the first language or the
second language or the thousandth. You may
banish me from the classrooms, but I can always
find other places where I can stay. . . I am more
Indian than you can ever be” (93.)
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R. K. Narayan--biography
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born in Madras in 1906
full name: Rasipuram
Krishnaswami Ayyar
Naranayanaswami
-->1935 R.K. Narayan
under his friend and
mentor Graham Greene’s
suggestion.
Lifelong correspondence
with Greene
Narayan the Writer
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V.s. Naipaul (1999): “He wrote about
people in a small town in South India:
small people, big talk, small doings.
That was where he began; that was
where he was fifty years later. To some
extent that reflected Narayan’s own life.
He never moved far from his origins.”
(“The Writer in India”)
Narayan the Story-teller of village life
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“I’d be quite happy if no more is claimed from
me than being just a story-teller. Only the
story matters, that is all. . . . But if a story is
in tune completely with the truth of life, truth
as I perceive it, then it will be automatically
significant.”
“you see more concentrated life and you can
see the types and forces of human
relationships, activities, aspirations in greater
details.” (97)
“Annamalai”—narrative
perspective and plot
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narrative time and technique: How does the
story start? How does it end? Does the story
follow a chronological order?
narrative point of view – Annamalai’s master
letters within the story: What do they tell us?
“Annamalai”—narrative perspective & plot
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Plot:
beginning—reception of a letter
Flashback – A with him for 15 years
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about his habits
About how he comes to help him move (122-)
About his past and present conflicts
Ends with Annamalai’s departure
narrative point of view – Annamalai’s master:
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cannot be sure of the letter communication (118),
not showing trust him in the beginning (126) or at the
end.
shows enough respect for A; knows that he cannot
change him, that they have two different value
systems.
“Annamalai”--regional color and
rustic people
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How does Narayan characterize Annamalai
and the peasant community in (southern)
India ?
Can we call “Annamalai” a story of regional
color?
Can you think of any example in Taiwanese
literature that is similar to this story?
Annamalai—a migrant worker who
returned home
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illiterate, concealing his last name– (121), name not
as a label for identification (close-knit society)
Leaving home for work (125), while maintaining a
strong but practical link with his family (one letter a
month) (131--postcard)
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A’s past –
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migrant worker collecting dung in the forest
working in a tea garden (135-)
drafted and sent to Penang, its rubber
plantation (136)
Annamalai—his knowledge, logic
and ignorance
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Good at gardening but uneasy in the master’s study.
(122)
 Stubborn about his work (126 -129) following his
own principles, logic or whims. (133)
Keeping himself updated on world news. (Kannady –
glass 130) (trunk call 132)
“Annamalai”—his dignity and
value
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the lady’s bird stolen as a revenge  his selfdefense (134-35)
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the sheep + lamb episode (136-)
the tailor episode (who owes him money 13839) –insists on renewing the bond
leaves for the family, insists on not being a thief
(144)
“Annamalai”—language
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language and class
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linguistic hegemony: English vs Tamil (p. 119)
Means of communication: letter, telephone
Mira Nair and Salaam Bombay
Outline
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Bombay & Bollywood
Mira Nair & the history of the production of
Salaam Bombay.
Major Theme 1: Migrants in the city
Major Theme 2: comradeship and betrayal
Major Theme 3: Other Social factors
(Language Differences and Illiteracy;
slums in Bombay, government inefficiency;
Colonialism/tourism -- in the background)
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Salaam Bombay vs. Born into Brothels vs.
Slumdog Millionaire
Next Time
Introduction to Mira Nair
Born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa in
1957 (middle class family)
 Attended the University of New
Delhi (Sociology and Theater)
 Went to Harvard in 1976 (Sociology)
(source)
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Films by Mira Nair
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Salaam Bombay (1988)
Mississippi Masala (1991) –Indian immigrants
in relations to Afro-Americans
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1997) based on
an Indian classic
Monsoon Wedding (2001) Indians and
immigrants
[Vanity Fair (2004) ]
The Namesake (2006) Indian immigrants
Salaam Bombay! History of
Production
1.
2.
3.
Interviews of street kids in Bombay.
Out of these interviews emerged a screenplay
that was a composite of several lives.
“Then many of the children were enlisted for
weeks in a daily workshop, not to teach them
"acting" (for that they already knew from
hundreds of overacted Indian film melodramas),
but to teach them how to behave naturally in
front of the camera.” (source)
What happened to the children?
1.
2.
3.
"Our whole attitude was to meet them halfway and help them
realize their own self-worth and dignity," said Nair in a recent
interview with The Christian Science Monitor (12 Oct 1988,
p.19). "[We] wanted to help them create opportunities they
want for themselves." Responding to this respectful approach,
some children entered school, some returned home to their
villages, some got jobs, and some have stayed on the streets.
Nair uses proceeds from the film to open learning centers for
street children in both Bombay and Delhi. (source)
The film’s interviews
Salaam Bombay!
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Awards:
the New Director's Award at the Cannes
Film Festival in 1988 an Academy Award
nomination for best foreign film in 1989
Neo-Realism; A departure from Bollywood
Musical.
Salaam Bombay!: Questions
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How does Krishna go to Bombay? What is
his first experience of it? (clip 1)
Why is he away from home? Why does he
go to Bombay and what does he want to do
there? (clip 7;11//chap 8, 11—41:00 )
How does he relate to the people he meets
in Bombay? (e.g. Manju, Sweet 16, Manju’s
mother, Chillum, & the other street kids.) e.g.
Why does Krishna fall in love with Sweet Sixteen?
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Are there any traces of Bollywood musical
influence in the film?
Major Themes in Salaam Bombay
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Migratory identity: people drifted to
the metropolis, lost in the crowd, e.g.
shots of the train station
-- Chaipau: his name (Krishna); no home
address
-- Chillum: completely lost
 hybrid culture and identity (e.g.
Chillum, Manju’s dance—clip 3; Ms.
Hawaii in the movie clip 6/chap 4, 6
21:00 )
Salaam Bombay: survival
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How do Krishna and the other kids
survive?
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Skin chicken, clean chicken coops;
rob an old man,
serve in a rich man’s wedding party
Major Themes in Salaam Bombay
Desire for home
e.g. Krishna
-- tries to write home
-- needs 500 rupees so that he can go
home
-- forms a “family” in Bombay (Chillum, the
other children).
 What about Manju’s family?
Salaam Bombay: The
migrants in a city (2)
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Manju’s family—
Baba – child-abuser and pimp (chaps
12, 15 )
 Mother –loving but cannot help
 Manju– lonely and in desperate need
of love. (e.g. clips 8, 9, 12, 14//chap
13, 14)

Salaam Bombay: a series of
betrays
Baba
His wife &
Manju
Chillum
Krishna
The other
street kids
The Sweet
Sixteen
The circus
boss
Major Themes (2)
Comradeship, betrayal and rebellion/survival-- Pattern
of Repetition:
 Drug-dealing: the death of the previous drug dealer,
Chillum and then another Chillum.
 Cheating: Manju’s mother cheated, The Sweet Sixteen
Some are self-destructive and some, surviving
 Chillum – has no friend; cheats Krishna with his “bank.”
 Krishna’s setting fire as a way of rebellion against his
brother, and then against the whorehouse
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Major Themes 3: Social Factors
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Why are Baba and his wife not named?
Why do people call Krishna Chaipau?
What roles do Krishna God play in this film?
And the “Chiller room”? (clip 20, 22)
Who sends the two kids to Chiller room?
How is the chiller room presented?
Salaam Bombay: social
factors
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State intervention: Chiller Room
drug, prostitution and Bollywood
traces of collonial influence:
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cricket, tourists, statues, movies
Religion: helpless. E.g. Ganesh (ending)
Salaam Bombay and the other two films
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What do you think about the ending of
Salaam Bombay? Is there any hope for
the street children? What does the
spinning top mean?
The ending of Slumdog Millionaire
Born into Brothels – Suchitra(27) Avijit
(34:16)
References:
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Roger Elbert. SALAAM BOMBAY!
Next week: stories of 3 girls and a
young woman
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During the time of partition -- in Earth;
Over the issue of marriage in “Gainda”