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______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ Programme ______________________________________________________________________________________ BHARATASAMAY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ______________________________________________________________________________________ INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH ______________________________________________________________________________________ 21–23 November 2012 ROOM NO. 105 MAHA CHULALONGKORN BUILDING CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY ______________________________________________________________________________________ Jointly organised by Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University Indian Studies Center of Chulalongkorn University Chula Global Network Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University Embassy of India, Bangkok ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ วันพุธที่ 21 พฤศจิกายน 2555 (Wednesday 21 November 2012) (16.00–20.30 น.) วรรณกรรมอินเดียทีเ่ ขียนเป็ นภาษาอังกฤษกับผู้อ่านชาวไทย (Indian Writing in English and Thai Readers) (session conducted in Thai) 16.00–16.30 16.30–18.00 ผูอ้ ภิปราย / Speakers: ลงทะเบียน (Registration) “คนไทยอ่านนิยายอินเดีย” (Thais Reading Indian Novels) (1) อาจารย์ภาวรรณ หมอกยา (Ms Pawan Mogya) (นักวิชาการอิสระ / Independent Scholar) (2) รองศาสตราจารย์ ดร. สุ ธาชัย ยิม้ ประเสริ ฐ (Associate Professor Suthachai Yimprasert, Ph.D) (ภาควิชาประวัติศาสตร์ คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์ มหาวิทยาลัย / Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University) (3) ดร. แพร จิตติพลังศรี (Phrae Chittiphalangsri, Ph.D) (ภาควิชาวรรณคดีเปรี ยบเทียบ คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย / Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University) ผูด้ าเนินรายการ / Moderator: ผูช้ ่วยศาสตราจารย์ รองรัตน์ ดุษฎีสุรพจน์ (Assistant Professor Rongrat Dusdeesurapot) (ภาควิชาภาษาอังกฤษ คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย / Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University) ______________________________________________________________________________________ 18.00–20.30 Distinguished Lecture: “Multilingual Contexts: The Indian Novel in English” Radha Chakravarty, Ph.D (Gargi College, University of Delhi) Welcome Dinner (invited guests only) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday 22nd November 2012 (08.30–12.00) Session One: Opening Ceremony and Keynote Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ 08.30–09.00 09.00–09.10 09.10–09.20 09.20–09.30 Registration Introduction to the Conference Associate Professor Nattama Pongpairoj, Ph.D Acting Head, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University Welcoming Remarks by Professor Pirom Kamolratanakul, M.D. President, Chulalongkorn University Address by H.E. Anil Wadhwa 09.30–09.35 09.35–10.30 10.30–10.50 10.50–12.00 Ambassador, Embassy of India, Bangkok Inauguration of the Conference by Lighting of the Lamp President of Chulalongkorn University and the Indian Ambassador Keynote Address: Where China and India met: Canton (Guangzhou) in the 18th and 19th centuries Amitav Ghosh Tea/Coffee Break Amitav Ghosh: A Dialogue With Wasana Wongsurawat, Ph.D Lecturer, Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University and Verita Sriratana, Ph.D Special Lecturer, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University MC: Anupama Masali PhD. Candidate, Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University ______________________________________________________________________________________ 12.00 – 13.00 Thai Lunch (invited guests only) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday 22nd November 2012 (13.00–16.30) Session Two: Re(-)membering Landscapes: Loss, Travelling and (Re-)imagined Cartographies of India ______________________________________________________________________________________ Paper presenters: 1. Entering Anita Desai’s “Realm of Freedom”: Technology of Place and the (Re-) Mapping of Self and ‘India’ in Games at Twilight Verita Sriratana, Ph.D Special Lecturer, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University 2. Dwelling in Travel: The Other Cosmopolitanism in Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss Charturee Tingsabadh, Ph.D Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University 3. Imagined Homelands: Fractured Domesticities in Disparate Histories in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth Maria Rhodora G. Ancheta, Ph.D Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters Discussant: Carmen Wickramagamage, Ph.D (Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) Moderator: Mini Krishnan (Editor-Translations Oxford University Press/ Member, National Translation Mission) ______________________________________________________________________________________ 18.00–20.30 Dinner hosted by the Embassy of India, Bangkok (invited guests only) Inaugural Dinner Address: “My Journey as a Writer” Vikas Swarup (Diplomat and Novelist) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Friday 23rd November 2012 (09.00–12.30) Session Three: Indian God(desse)s of Small (and Smaller Things): Mythical Figures as/and the Subaltern ______________________________________________________________________________________ Paper presenters: 1. Re/covering the Subaltern Subject in Indian Fiction Texts: Mahasweta Devi, “Phoolan Devi” and Arundhati Roy Carmen Wickramagamage, Ph.D Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2. “India is Indira and Indira is India?”: Representations of Indira Gandhi in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance Carina Chotirawe, Ph.D Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University 3. Mythologising History, Historicising Myth: The Plays of Girish Karnad K.M. Chandar Professor, Department of Studies in English, University of Mysore Discussant: Mini Krishnan (Editor-Translations Oxford University Press/ Member, National Translation Mission) Moderator: Verita Sriratana, Ph.D ______________________________________________________________________________________ 12.30–13.30 Lunch (invited guests only) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Friday 23rd November 2012 (13.30–17.00) Session Four: The “Bharat Mata” of Culture through the Tides of Time: A Cross-Cultural and CrossTemporal Dialogue ______________________________________________________________________________________ Paper presenters: 1. “Too Asian, Not Asian Enough”: Contemporary British Indian Writing from Hanif Kureishi to the Present Hisae Komatsu, Ph.D Research Fellow, Hokkaido University, Japan 2. Conditionality, Non-Self, and Non-Attachment in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide: A Thai Buddhist Reading Darin Pradittatsanee, Ph.D Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University 3. “Fruit of a Mutual Realm”: Exploring Voice, Tradition and Identity in the Poetry of Daljit Nagra Tony O’Neill Lecturer, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University Discussant: K.M. Chandar Professor, Department of Studies in English, University of Mysore Moderator: Lawrence Surendra (Professor, University of Mysore, India) ______________________________________________________________________________________ 17.00–17.30 Tea/Coffee Break ______________________________________________________________________________________ Friday 23rd November 2012 (17.30–19.00) Session Five: Reflections on Indian Writing in English ______________________________________________________________________________________ Speakers: 1. Rewriting India for the World: The Power of Translation Mini Krishnan Editor-Translations Oxford University Press/ Member, National Translation Mission 2. A Stylistic Analysis of Salman Rushdie's Fiction Manisha Bose, Ph.D Bharatamedhi, Indian Studies Center of Chulalongkorn University 3. Self Discovery and Culture Specific Writing Pushpa Surendra (Independent Scholar) 4. A Secularism for our Times: Exploring the Fissures of Class and Religion in Meher Pestonji's “Pervez” Anita Balakrishnan, Ph.D Department of English, Queen Mary’s College, Chennai Moderator: K.M. Chandar Professor, Department of Studies in English, University of Mysore ______________________________________________________________________________________ 19.30–20.30 Valedictory Address: “Looking East-From the Land of the Morning Sun” Jahnavi Barua Writer ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Should there be any queries about the programme of Bharatasamay International Conference on Indian Writing in English, please contact Carina Chotirawe, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, or carina.c@chula.ac.th PAPERDRAFTS Pleasedonotquoteorcitewithout permissionfromtheauthors. Thedatasetemployedhereisaworkin progress. 2 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Contents Pages Thursday22ndNovember2012(13.00–16.30) SessionTwo:Re(‐)memberingLandscapes:Loss,Travellingand (Re‐)imaginedCartographiesofIndia EnteringAnitaDesai’s“RealmofFreedom”:TechnologyofPlaceandthe (Re‐)MappingofSelfand“India”inGamesatTwilight VeritaSriratana DwellinginTravel:TheOtherCosmopolitanisminKiranDesai’s TheInheritanceofLoss ChartureeTingsabadh ImaginedHomelands:FracturedDomesticitiesinDisparateHistories inJhumpaLahiri’sUnaccustomedEarth MariaRhodoraG.Ancheta Friday23rdNovember2012(09.00–12.30) SessionThree:IndianGod(desse)sofSmall(andSmallerThings): MythicalFiguresas/andtheSubaltern Re/coveringtheSubalternSubjectinIndianFictionTexts: MahaswetaDevi,‘PhoolanDevi’andArundhatiRoy CarmenWickramagamage IndiaisIndiraandIndiraisIndia?”:RepresentationsofIndiraGandhi inSalmanRushdie’sMidnight’sChildrenandRohintonMistry’s AFineBalance. CarinaChotirawe MythologizingHistory,HistoricizingMyth:ThePlaysofGirishKarnad Dr.K.M.Chandar Friday23rdNovember2012(13.30–17.00) SessionFour:The“BharatMata”ofCulturethrough theTidesofTime:ACross‐Culturaland Cross‐TemporalDialogue TooAsian,NotAsianEnough;contemporaryBritishIndianwriting fromHanifKureishitothepresent HisaeKomatsu 4 5 25 42 61 62 87 88 103 104 3 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ “FruitofaMutualRealm”ExploringVoice,TraditionandIdentityin thePoetryofDaljitNagra TonyO’Neill Friday23rdNovember2012(17.30–19.00) SessionFive:ReflectionsonIndianWritinginEnglish RewritingIndiafortheworld:thepoweroftranslation MiniKrishnan SecularismforourTimes:ExploringtheFissuresofClassandReligionin MeherPestonji’sPervez. AnitaBalakrishnan Biodata 134 153 154 178 186 4 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Thursday22ndNovember2012(13.00–16.30) SessionTwo: Re(‐)memberingLandscapes:Loss,Travelling and(Re‐)imaginedCartographiesofIndia 5 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ EnteringAnitaDesai’s“RealmofFreedom”:TechnologyofPlaceandthe (Re‐)MappingofSelfand“India”inGamesatTwilight VeritaSriratana DepartmentofEnglish ChulalongkornUniversity Abstract AnitaDesai’s“India”canbereadasawayofthinkingor,toappropriateHeidegger’s term and concept, a “technology” through which one constructs and deconstructs, orients and disorients, one’s sense of place and identity. Desai’s India, as a “technologyofplace”,demonstratestheHeideggerianstrugglebetween“earth”and “world”. It demonstrates the moments of convergence and negotiation of one’s “concrete place” of present circumstances and one’s “abstract place” of past memories,oftherealandtheimagined,ofthesecularandthespiritual.Iproposein thispaperthatGamesatTwilight(1978),Desai’sfirstshortstorycollection,reflects how the short story genre, which has its roots in the oral tradition and its associationstoBritishcolonialism,fittinglyprovidesananecdotalframingdevicefor revisionarymappingsofIndiaanddemonstratesDesai’s“scene‐making”technique, toappropriateVirginiaWoolf’sterm,whichneverfailstochallengeorto“de‐scene” India, as in “making a scene” with the popular notion of India as a mere exotic fantasyorasiteofspiritualpilgrimage.Whenreadtogetherasawhole,Desai’sshort stories weave into a collage of snapshots, which is rich in variety and multi‐ dimensional. These scenes and sketches of “India” confirm and contradict each other,castingthereadersintheroleofthedetachedvoyeurasmuchasthatofthe intimate voyageur. Desai’s endeavour to simultaneously distance and reach out to thereaders,makingthemfeel“unhomely”whilemakingthemfeelathome,isoneof theremarkabletraitsofIndianwritinginEnglish.Eachreader,regardlessofhis/her imagination and experience of India, is treated as a “newcomer”, to use Raja Rao’s term in his foreword to Kanthapura (1938), constantly crossing threshold after threshold of mental transformation. Far from being the ultimate destination, Anita Desai’s“India”,her“realmoffreedom”,liesintheveryprocessoftransformation,of Deleuzian“becoming”.Itliesintheendlesspossibilityofrethinkingandre‐mapping one’sunderstandingofselfandplace,whichiselegantlypromisedandplayedoutin hershortstories. 6 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Onceyouhavetoldthetruth”,AnitaDesaiassertsinaninterview,“youhave brokenfreeofsociety,ofitsprison.Youhaveenteredtherealmoffreedom”(1990: 976).GamesatTwilightandOtherStories,Desai’sfirstcollectionofshortstories,can be read as part of her endeavour to depict the many “truths” about “India”. As a place andas anexperience unique toeach individual, Desai’s India simultaneously confirms and resists its popular images and stereotypes. Desai’s “truth” about “India” sets India free from the “prison” of fixed meanings and opens up a new horizon ofthinking possibilities.The Indiain Desai’s short stories stands formore thanamereexoticfantasyorasiteofspiritualpilgrimage.Itstandsformorethan the colonial heat and dust,1the serene countryside and the high‐rise city flats. Far from being a fixed space, Desai’s “India” can be read as a liminal space,2or a thresholdofsignification,apointtowhichIshallreturninthenextparagraph. 1ThisisanintendedallusiontoRuthPrawerJhabvala’snovelHeatandDust,whichwontheBooker Prize in 1975, three years before the publication of Anita Desai’s GamesatTwilight. The recurrent motifofaWesternwomanwhotravelstoIndiaonaquesttodiscoverherselfandtouncoverthelife story of another significant female figure can also be seen in Desai’s short story “Scholar and the Gypsy”,whichispartoftheGamesatTwilightcollection,andhernovelJourneytoIthaca,whichwas publishedin1995. 2TheLatinetymologicalrootof“liminal”is“limen”,whichmeans“boundary”or“threshold”(2011: 1). 7 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Games at Twilight was published in 1978. The collection comprises eleven short stories which can be read as “sketches of India” drawn from intimate depictionsofdomesticscenesandofchildhoodfantasiesanddisillusionments.Each storydepictsacharacter’s“liminalcondition”,whichisdefinedinClaireDrewery’s book ModernistShortFictionbyWomen:TheLiminalinKatherineMansfield,Dorothy Richardson,MaySinclairandVirginiaWoolfas“apreoccupationwithnegotiatingand transgressingboundaries”(2011:1).“GamesatTwilight”and“PineappleCake”can, forinstance,bereadasminiaturebildungsromans,coming‐of‐agestoriesofchildren whoarepainfullyforcedtoleavetheirchildhoodcomfortzonesinordertocomply withthegamesofgrown‐ups.Inthesestories,bothmicrocosmicandmacrocosmic landscapesofIndiaaredepictedthroughtheeyesoftwochildren.Theshedandthe lawn are described from the perspective of the nervous Ravi and the Bombay harbourisseenfromtheperspectiveofthedistressedVictor: Let out of the taxi, Victor looked about him at the wonders of Bombay harbourwhiletheelderstriedtobepoliteandyetnotpaythetaxi.Hadhis fatherbroughthimhereonaSundayouting,withaferryboatrideandafresh coconut drink for treats, he would have enjoyed the Arab dhows with their muddysails,theshipsandtankersandseagullsandtheGatewayofIndialike a coloured version of the photograph in his history book, but it was too unexpected.(1998:53) Bombay harbour, once associated to Victor’s happy memories of outings with his father, is now transformed into a place of confusion by the appalling behaviour of theadultswithwhomhecomesintocontact.Apartfromhissenseofplace,Victor’s senseofselfbecomesmuddledashewitnessesdeathataweddingreceptionandis appalledbyhismother’sandotherguests’indifferencetowardsthedeathofafellow human being. Like the Bombay harbour in “Pineapple Cake”, the India in Desai’s shortstories,Iargue,canbereadasaliminalspacewhichtriggersthe“conditionof liminality”,definedas: [A]statesignifyingchangefromoneplaceorstatetoanother;afleetingsense ofbeingthatrendersallwhoexperienceittemporarilyoutsidethestrictures of social convention and the norms of measured space and time. Paradoxically, however, whilst such a moment is apparently intangible, it is alsosimultaneouslyhabitable.(2011:1) “Sale”, “Private Tuition by Mr Bose”, “A Devoted Son” and “Pigeons at Daybreak”, in particular, simultaneously reflect and challenge the gender politics embeddedwithinthespatialdividebetweenthe“masculine”publicsphereofwork and commerce and the “feminine” private sphere of housework and child‐rearing. Theseshortstoriesalsocapturethepressurewhichrestsmainlyonthemenofthe family: “After all, he [Mr Bose] must continue with his private tuitions: that was whatwasimportantThebabyhadtohavehisfirstpairofshoesandsoonhewould beneedingoranges,biscuits,plastictoys”(1998:14).ItisevidentthatMrBoselooks longinglyathiswifeandchild,wantingtobeapartofthekitchen’sprivatesphere instead of working and being daily exposed to the crude reality and mischievous students: Then, seeing the boy [Mr Bose’s student] disappear down the black stairs – thebulbhadfusedagain–hefeltitdidn’tmatter,didn’tmatteronebitsince it left him alone to turn, plunge down the passage and fling himself at the 8 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ doorposts of the kitchen, there to stand and gaze down at his wife, now rolling out purees with an exquisite, back‐and‐forth rolling motion of her hands,andhisson,tryingnowtomakeaspoonstandononeend.(1998:14) The desperate artist in “Sale”, on the other hand, dreads to think of his wife who anticipatesthenewsofsuccessfulpurchasesofhispaintings: Attheendofthepassageanotherdoorstandsopen:itislikeawindoworan alcoveilluminatedbythedeepglowofthefire.Therehiswifesits,kneading dough in a brass bowl, with her head bowed so that her long hair broods downtohershouldersoneithersideofherheavy,troubledface...Thechild sitsonthematbesideher,silent,absorbedinthemysteriesofalong‐handled spoonwhichheturnsoverwithsoft,waveringfingersthatareunaccustomed totheunsympatheticsteel...He[theartist]looksatthem,holdinghisbreath till it begins to hurt his chest. Then the knocking is resumed and his wife, hearingit,raisesherhead.Sheseeshimthen,atthedoor,likeadoghanging about, wanting something, and immediately her nostrils flare. ‘Can’t you answer the door?’ she cries. ‘What’s the matter with you? It must be them [potentialpatrons]–thisisyourchance.’(1998:41‐42) BothMrBoseandtheartistbearthesamebread‐winner’spressureofhavingtofeed theirfamilies.ItisthisplightsilentlysharedbybothmenandwomenofIndiathatis rarelyenvisioned.ThesestoriesrevealthesideofIndiawhichonemightnotexpect to see. The difficult relationship between the carer and the cared for, which is reflected in “A Devoted Son” and “Pigeons at Daybreak”, also reveals the “truth” behindthepaintings,captionedastitled,oftheIndiaofdevotionandserenity.The pictureofasuccessfulsonwhorelentlesslytakescareofhisfatherandthepictureof an old couple enjoying the view of the Jumna river from the rooftop at dawn are nothing like Desai’s stories of fathers and husbands being made to stay alive in a living‐dead condition or her stories of sons and wives being compelled by their sense of duty and tradition to keep their fathers and husbands alive in every way theycan,evenifdoingsogoesagainstthewishesofthecaredfor: He[fatherofthedevotedson]gaveonepushtothepillowsathisbackand dislodgedthemsohecouldsinkdownonhisback,quiteflatagain.Heclosed hiseyesandpointedhischinattheceiling,likesomedireprophet,groaning, ‘Godiscallingme–nowletmego’.(1998:81). Suno in “Studies in the Park”, Bina in “The Farewell Party” and the young musicianin“TheAccompanist”,inparticular,arecharacterswhooccupythesubject position of the marginalised “other”, respectively as the black sheep of the family coming to terms with the meaning of his filial obligations, as the aloof and introvertedwomanfindingitdifficulttoassimilateintoherlocalcommunity,andas thesonwhodisappointshisfatherbychoosingnottorealisetheprospectofbeinga greatmusicianandbychoosing,instead,tobecomealoyalunderdogaccompanist: Thenoneofthem[friends]–Ajit,Ithink–said,‘Bhai,youusedtoplaysowell. Yourfatherwassoproudofyou,hethoughtyouwouldbeagreatUstad.He used to tell us what a great musician you would be one day. What are you doing, sitting at the back of the stage, and playing the tanpura for Rahim Khan?’ 9 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Noonehadeverspokentomeinthismanner,inthisvoice,sincemyfather died. I spilt tea down my lap. My head gave an uncontrolled jerk, I was so shocked.(1998:65) In“ScholarandGypsy”and“SurfaceTextures”,thequeststomapandremap one’ssenseofselfandone’ssenseof“India”canbeseenplayedoutintheconflict between Pat and Dave’s different notions of India as well as in Harish’s fanatical obsessionwithtexturesanddetails:“Outsidethetownthelandwasrockyandbare andthiswasHarish’sespecialparadise,eachrockhavingasurfaceofsuchexquisite roughness, of such perfection in shape and design, as to keep him occupied and ecstaticforweekstogether”(1998:39). Apart from the content of Desai’s short stories, of which I have provided a brief overview, the short story genre itself tends to be regarded as occupying a liminalspaceoran“in‐between”andambivalentstatusinthehierarchyofliterary genres.Theshortstorygenre’s“in‐betweenness”isoftendefinedanddeterminedby its shorter length. My argument finds its resonance in Thomas H. Gullason’s “The ShortStory:AnUnderratedArt”: Theshortstoryhaskeptpacewiththemodernityofthenovelbybecoming modernitselfataboutthesametimeinthe19thcentury,asseeninthework ofAntonChekhovandGuydeMaupassantinEurope,andEdgarAllanPoein America. Many readers still have, however, an old‐fashioned picture of the short story: a rambling, simple, balladlike narrative, a public, oral art, the propertyofthestorytellerandhiscommunity.Thepresent‐dayshortstoryis mainlyaprivateart,betweenwriterandreader,anditisassophisticatedas the novel, with as great a concern for craft, for technique and style, and for complexity of emotions and ideas—all presented, of course, on a miniature scaleYettheshortstoryisstillrunningapoorfourthtothenovel,poetry,and drama.(1976:14) However,Iwishtoplacemyemphasisonthegenre’sambivalence,whichliesinthe notionthatashortstory’sbrevityisalsoitsstrength: Onecriticismoftheshortstoryasaformhasbeenthat,unlikethenovel,itis tooshortforreaderstogetinvolvedin,butthisshorterlengthisactuallyone of the strengths of the form when the reader is responsive to the way the authoruseslanguagetocreateaworkofart.Everydetailaddstotheunityof the final impression, so no aspect of the story can be extraneous or can detractfromthesingle,vividimpressionofthewhole.Languageisoftenused onthepageofastorywiththeforceandstrengthofpoetry.Writersofshort stories may forego the comprehensiveness of the novel but, like poets, they canimpressuponthereadertheunityoftheirvisionoflifebyfocusingona singleeffect. (1983:3‐4) For Virginia Woolf, “scene‐making” (1989: 122), which involves such an act of “focusing on a single effect” (1983: 4), is where the strength of a short piece of writing lies: “Here I conceive my story – but I’m always conceiving stories now. Shortones–scenes–”(1982:3).In“ASketchofthePast”,Woolfalsostatesthatthe 10 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ intensity of scenes from her past compels her to capture these moments which “surviveundamagedyearafteryear”(1989:122)inwriting: Butwhateverthereasonmaybe,Ifindthatscene‐makingismynaturalway of marking the past. Always a sense of scene has arranged itself; representative;enduring. This confirms me in my instinctivenotion: (it will not bear arguing about; it is irrational) the sensation that we are sealed vesselsafloatonwhatisconvenienttocallreality;andatsomemoments,the sealingmattercracks:infloodsreality;thatis,thesescenes—forwhydothey survive undamaged year after year unless they are made of something comparativelypermanent? (1989:122) Though Anita Desai’s short stories were not written in the form of memoirs like Woolf’s “A Sketch of the Past”, the sharp intensity of scenes in GamesatTwilight demonstrates the significance of short story as a liminal genre of contrasts. My argument can be further elaborated if one takes into account the history of the BritishshortstorygenreanditsstrongassociationstotheBritishEmpire. InAnAnthologyofColonialandPostcolonialShortFiction,BaldwinandQuinn bring to the fore the crucial role which nineteenth‐century short story writers, particularly Rudyard Kipling, played in promoting and enhancing the colonial enterprise: The height of British consciousness about its colonies and their political, economic, and military value coincided with the emergence of the British short story and one of its first great practitioners, Rudyard Kipling. His storiesofIndia,threecollectionsofwhichwerepublishedin1888,madethe Empire—and the sacrifices and dangers of those who kept it—an everyday reality to ordinary Britons. Moreover, Kipling and many authors who followed him kept the question of Empire before the British public, sometimes extolling it, sometimes questioning it, but almost always romanticizingitasalocusofexoticadventure.(2007:3) InKipling’s“TheManWhoWouldBeKing”(1888),forexample,Indiaisportrayed almostasaninfernoofmoralandphysicalcorruption.Thiscanbeseenreflectedin thedescriptionoftheprotagonist’strainjourneyacrossIndia: ThebeginningofeverythingwasinarailwaytrainupontheroadtoMhow from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget which necessitated travelling not Second‐class, which is only half as dear as First‐class, but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, which is Eurasian,ornative,whichforalongnightjourneyisnasty,orLoafer,whichis amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy from refreshment‐ rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and buy sweets from the native sweetmeat‐sellers, and drink the roadside water. That is why in hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the carriages dead, and in all weathersaremostproperlylookeddownupon.(2007:78) 11 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Kipling’sIndiaisdepictedasah(e)avenfor“Loafers”(78),bothnativeandcolonial. Among colonial opportunists are Peachey Carnehan and Daniel Dravot, two white menwhoplantosetthemselvesaskingsofKafiristan: “‘Iwon’tmakeaNation,’sayshe[DanielDravot].‘I’llmakeanEmpire! Thesemenaren’tniggers;they’reEnglish!Lookattheireyes—lookattheir mouths.Lookatthewaytheystandup.Theysitonchairsintheirown houses.They’retheLostTribes,orsomethinglikeit,andthey’vegrowntobe English...Wheneverythingwasshipshape,I’dhandoverthecrown—this crownI’mwearingnow—toQueenVictoriaonmyknees,andshe’dsay:“Rise up,SirDanielDravot.”Oh,it’sbig!It’sbig.Itellyou!(2007:95) ThesearethewordsofDravot,afirmbelieverinthesupremacyoftheempireand Englishness.ThoughthedemiseofbothCarnehanandDravotattheendofthestory canbereadasahintofKipling’scriticalawarenessofthelimitationsofthecolonial discourse and the British empire, the short story’s intense focus on scenes of microcosmic community of colonial expatriates in India and beyond can nevertheless be regarded as propagandic in its emphasis on the superiority of English men and the empire. The short story is therefore a fitting genre for Anita Desai’spostcolonialrevisionofKipling’sIndia,whichhasbeen(re)presented“asa locusofexoticadventure”(2007:3).Itismypropositionthat,farfrombeingafixed place,Desai’sIndiacanbereadasawayofthinkingor,toappropriateHeidegger’s term and concept, a “technology” through which one constructs and deconstructs, orients and disorients, one’s sense of place and identity. Desai’s India, as a “technologyofplace”,demonstratestheHeideggerianstrugglebetween“earth”and “world”. It demonstrates the moments of convergence and negotiation of one’s “concrete place” of present circumstances and one’s “abstract place” of past memories, of the real and the imagined, of the secular and the spiritual. I shall elaborate my argument in my textual analyses of the three selected short stories fromDesai’sGamesatTwilightcollection:“GamesatTwilight”,“ScholarandGypsy” and“Sale”. “Games at Twilight” is set in a hot afternoon. The children, all siblings or cousins, feel restless indoors and so scramble outside the house to play a game of hide and seek. Raghu, described by Ravi as “that hirsute, hoarse‐voiced football champion” (1998: 7) with “long, hefty, hairy footballer legs” (1998: 4) has been made an “It”, whose duty is to hunt others. Ravi, the smaller and younger one, wantingsomuchtowinthegameaswellaswintheacceptanceofhispeersandof his older siblings and cousins, finds an unusual hiding place: the damp and dark stockroomshed.Ravichoosestoslipintotheshedforsafety,fightingawayhisfear ofdarknessandofcrawlinginsects: Ravi had never cared to enter such a dark and depressing mortuary of defunct household goods seething with such unspeakable and alarming animal life but, as Raghu’s whistling grew angrier and sharper and his crashing and storming in the hedge wilder, Ravi suddenly slipped off the flowerpotandthroughthecrackandwasgone.(1998:5) Attwilighttime,whenherealisesthathecaneasilywinthegamebytouchingthe den,Ravifinallyburstsoutintotheopenspace,shouting“Den,Den,Den”(1998:8) 12 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ andexpectingtoclaimvictory.Hehastobedisappointedasthenatureandrulesof thechildren’sgamehavechanged.Hideandseekhaslongbeenforgottenandnew gameafternewgamehasbeenplayedasafternoonlapsesintoevening: It seemed to him that he could hear them chanting, singing, laughing. But what about the game? What had happened? Could it be over? How could it whenhewasstillnotfound? ... All this time no one had remembered Ravi. Having disappeared from the scene,hehaddisappearedfromtheirminds.Clean.(1998:8‐9) The adults and the other childrenhave taken no notice of his disappearance. Ravi, disillusionedandcrushedbyhisdefeat,layswithhisfaceonthegroundindespair: “Hefelthisheartgoheavyandacheinsidehimunbearably.Helaydownfulllength onthedampgrass,crushinghisfaceintoit,nolongercrying,silencedbyaterrible senseofhisinsignificance”(1998:10). Thereisajuxtapositionoftwodifferentplaces.Theshed,whichisportrayed asbotharefugeanda“darkanddepressingmortuary”(1998:5)inRavi’seyes,is juxtaposedwiththelawn,whichisanopenspaceportrayedasthechildren’ssocial andcompetitionarena.Here,Iproposethatananalysisofthetwoplacesandtheir starkcontrastsdepictedin“GamesatTwilight”canputtoquestionthestereotypes ofIndia. Firstofall,theshediscomparedtoawreckedcityleftafteraterribleplunder, smellingoffear: Butnexttothegaragewasanothershedwithabiggreendoor.Alsolocked. No one even knew who had the key to the lock. That shed wasn’t opened morethanonceayearwhenMaturnedoutalltheoldbrokenbitsoffurniture androllsofmattingandleakingbuckets,andthewhiteanthillswerebroken andsweptawayandFlitspayedintothespiderwebsandratholessothatthe wholeoperationwaslikethelootingofapoor,ruinedandconqueredcity. ... Itwasdark,spookyintheshed.Ithadamuffledsmell,asofgraves.Ravihad once got locked into the linen cupboard and sat there weeping for half an hourbeforehewasrescued.But atleastthathadbeenafamiliarplace,and evensmeltpleasantlyofstarch,laundryand,reassuringly,ofhismother.But theshedsmeltofrats,anthills,dustandspiderwebs.Alsooflessdefinable, lessrecognizablehorrors.(1998:4‐5) Theshed,whichisdescribedasaplacefrozenintime,untouched bythechanging present,can,forinstance,becomparedtothenotionofIndiafrozeninthetimeof RigvedaandBhaggavadgita,thenotionofIndiaasahistoricalandspiritualrefuge. However,theshed,whichisdescribedasaplaceofdanger,canalsobecomparedto thenotionofthefearfulandmenacingIndiaofviolenceandtheexoticunknown,of 13 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ruins and jungles.1The lawn, on the other hand, is an open space of the present, definedbyrapidchangeandmutability: Thegameproceeded.Twopairsofarmsreachedupandmetinanarc.The childrentroopedunderitagainandagaininalugubriouscircle,duckingtheir headsandintoning ‘Thegrassisgreen Theroseisred; Rememberme WhenIamdead,dead,dead,dead…’(1998:9) Ravifeelslostandbecomesdisillusionedwhenheventuresoutofhishidingplaceto the communal area, where human indifference and the notion of inevitable death areintroduced.If,likeRaviinthiscoming‐of‐agestory,onesubscribestoandgrows complacentwiththestereotypeofIndiaasaplacefrozenintime,onecanlosetouch oftherealityofIndia’schangingpresent. It is this shed of eternal and unchanging imagined place, the popular stereotypes of India as a place of spiritual and intellectual pursuits, which Desai makes use of, satirises and dismantles in another short story from the collection. “Scholar and Gypsy” tells a story of how Pat and Dave come to terms with themselves and with their different concepts of India. Dave, a sociology student, snugly believes that the essence of India lies in the company of the people he mingleswithincitieslikeBombayandDelhi:“Helookedsoright,sofittingonthe Bombay streets, striding over the coconut shells and betel‐stained papers and the fish scales and lepers’ stumps. ‘You could hardly come to India and expect it to be cool,Pat’”(1998:108).Hiswife,Pat,findsitoverwhelminglydifficulttosurvivein urbanIndia.Thetorturethatis“India”manifestsonbothphysicalandpsychological levels. She not only feels that the city of Bombay is as menacing as “wild jungles” (1998: 112), but also loses consciousness at a dinner party in Bombay, unable to takeinthechaosandbarbarismsheperceivesIndiatobe: It was at the Gidwanis’ dinner later that week that she collapsed. She had begun to feel threatened, menaced, the moment they entered that flat. Leavingbehindthemthebetel‐stainedwallsoftheelevatorshaft,theservant boysasleeponmatsinthepassage,theclusterofwatchmenandchauffeurs playingcardsundertheunshadedbulbinthelobby,theyhadsteppedontoa black marble floor that glittered like a mirror and reflected the priceless statuarythatsailedonitssurfacelikeshipsofstone.(1998:110‐11) Delhi,forher,isadried‐upcorpse,abarrenland: Delhiwasdryer.Itwasdryasaskeleton.Yellowsandseethedandstormed, then settled on wood, stone, flesh and skin, brittle and gritty as powdered 1TheSundarbansinAmitavGhosh’sTheHungryTide(2005),insimilarmanner,isportrayedasboth amenacingwildernessandabenignrefuge,asplaceofmythicallegendsandpoliticalconflict.Itcan beread,Ipropose,asamicrocosmicrepresentationoftheIndiaofspiritualityandviolence,of dreamsandrealitycombined. 14 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ bone.Treesstoodleafless.Redflowersblazedontheirblackbranches,golden and purple ones burgeoned. Beggars drowsed in their shade, stretched unrecognizable limbs at her. I will pull myself together, Pat said, walking determinedly through the piled yellow dust, I must pull myself together. (1998:112) Dave, who perceives himself as a scholar, an intellectual supposedly more sophisticated than his wife, advises Pat to “pull herself together” by experiencing Indiaonlythroughhermind,herintellect,notthroughherbody: ‘Butyoucan’tletclimategetyoudown,dear,’Davidsaidsoftly,inorderto express tenderness that he hardly felt any longer, seeing her suffer so unbeautifully, her feet dusty, her hair stringy, her face thin and appalled. ‘Climate isn’t important, Pat – rise above it, there’s so much else. Try to concentrateonthat.’(1998:112) Dave’s attempt is to no avail. No matter how hard Pat tries to perceive India as a landofartandculture,sheneverthelessexperiencesonly,inherhusband’sview,the non‐intellectual, uninformed aspects of what she perceives to be the barbaric and primitiveurbanIndia: That afternoon she went round the antique shops of New Delhi, determinedtotakeaninterestinIndianartandculture.Shelefttheshopping arcadeafteranhour,horrorrisinginherthroatlikevomit.Shefeltpursued by the primitive, the elemental and barbaric, and kept rubbing her fingers togethernervously,recallingthosegreatheavybosomsofbronzeandstone, the hips rounded and full as water‐pots, the flirtatious little bells on ankles andbellies,thelong,slyeyesthatcurvedoutofthevoluptuousstonefaces, not unlike those of the shopkeepers themselves with their sibilant, inviting voices. Then the gods they showed her, named for her, with their flurry of arms, their stamping feet, their blazing, angered eyes and flying locks, all thunderandlightning,revengeandmenace.Scrapingthepaperytipsofher fingerstogether,shehurriedthroughthedustbacktothehotel.Backonher bed,sheweptintoherpillowforthelosthome,forappletreesandcows,for redbarnsandswallows,foricecreamsodasanddrive‐inmovies,allthatwas innocentandsweetandlost,lost,lost.(1998:113) David’slastattemptto“civilise”PatbypersuadinghertoseeIndiathrough hisso‐called“scholarlyeyes”andfeelsathomeinIndiaistotakehertoManali,ahill station inHimachal Pradesh, near Kulu Valley. Here, Desai reveals the ironyof the story.Patseemstobemagicallytransformedbythenaturallandscape,whileDavid, surprisingly,withersaway: [S]hestoodatthewindowwithsomethingstrongandactiveintheswingof herhipsandafervourinhernewlypinkandwashedfacethathehadalmost forgotten was once her natural expression – in a different era, a different land. ... 15 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ‘Aren’t you funny?’ he commented. ‘I take you the length and breadth of India,Ishowyoupalacesandmuseums,jewelsandtigerskins–andallthe time you were hankering after a forest and an orchard and a village. Little Gretchenyou,littleMartha,hmm?’ ‘Doyouthinkthat’sallIseeinit?’sheenquired,andhedidnotquitelike, quite trust her sudden gravity that had something too set about it, too extreme,likethatofafanatic.Butwhatwasshebeingsofanaticalabout–the country life? A mountain idyll? Surely that was obtainable and possible withoutfanaticism.(1998:120‐128) ThestoryofanAmericanwomantransformedbythesublimenatureofIndiaseems acliché.However,Pat’stransformationisfarfromsimplistic.Evenifonesubscribes tothemostpopularstereotypeofIndiaasalandofspiritualismandmysticism,of theoccult,orofundyingreligions,Desaidemonstratesthatonecannot“essentialise” or give fixed meanings to religion, let alone India as a place. Each individual experienceslife,aswellasmomentsoffaith,ofbeliefanddisbelief,inhisorherown differentways.Dave,thescholar,failingtocomprehendthechangesinPat,isunable tofathomthenotionthattheessenceofIndiacannotbefoundinbooks.Theessence or, rather, the non‐essence of India bases solely on how one comes to terms with oneselfandwithone’splace,onhowonedealswithwhatMartinHeideggerrefersto as “thrownness”, or Geworfenheit, which means “being thrown into circumstances” and into topos. Dave is unable to comprehend how his wife maps and remaps her subjectivity in conjunction with the surroundings of India as “earth”, a physical place,andIndiaas“world”,2animaginedterrain: ‘Thisisn’tliketherestofIndia,Dave.It’scometomeasarelief,asanescape from India. You know, down in those horrible cities, I’d gotten to think of Indiaasonehorribletemple,bursting,crawlingwithpeople–peopleontheir knees, hopeless people – and those horrible idols towering over them with their hundred legs and hundred heads – all horrible...’... ‘and then, to walk throughtheforestandcomeuponthis–thislittleshrine–it’slikeescaping from all those Hindu horrors – it’s like coming out into the open and breathingnaturallyagain,withoutfear. 2In “The Origin of the Work of Art”, Martin Heidegger differentiates two places: “earth”, what I understand as “concrete place” or physical backdrop of all happening, and “world”, what I understand as “abstract place” or imagined space of meaning and discourses. Heidegger illustrates theactivestrugglebetween“earth”and“world”inananalysisofVincentVanGogh’s1886paintingof apairofshoes: From the dark opening of the worn insides of the shoes the toilsome tread of the worker staresforth.Inthestifflyruggedheavinessoftheshoesthereistheaccumulatedtenacityof herslowtrudgethroughthefar‐spreadingandever‐uniformfurrowsofthefieldsweptbya rawwind.Ontheleatherliethedampnessandrichnessofthesoil.Underthesolesstretches the loneliness of the field‐path as evening falls. In the shoes vibrates the silent call of the earth,itsquietgiftofripeninggrainanditsunexplainedself‐refusalinthefallowdesolation ofthewintryfield.Thisequipmentispervadedbyuncomplainingworryastothecertaintyof bread, the wordless joy of having once more withstood want, the trembling before the impending childbed and shivering at the surrounding menace of death. The equipment belongstotheearth,anditisprotectedintheworldofthepeasantwoman.Fromoutofthis protectedbelongingtheequipmentitselfrisestoitsresting‐within‐itself.(2011:101) 16 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ... ‘...Iwonderedifitwastheirreligion.Ifeel,beingBuddhists,they’redifferent fromtheHindus,anditmustbesomethingintheirbeliefthatgivesthemthis – this fearlessness. When I come to this shrine and sit and think things out quietly, I can see where they get their strength from, and their joy...’ (1998:128‐29) PathassaidallthiswhilestandinginfrontofaHindushrine.InDave’seyes,hiswife is utterly confused to the extent of sounding ridiculous. However, Desai demonstrates that it is Dave who is confused and must be ridiculed because he cannotlookpastthelabelling,thefacadeofsymbolsandsignsystem.AHindushrine is,forDave,aHindushrine,nothingmore.Indiais,forDave,theIndiahetriesand failstorepresentinhissociologythesis,nothingmore.Affixingessenceandlabelof meanings in order to propagate what Virginia Woolf refers to in ARoomofOne’s Ownas“anuggetofpuretruthtowrapupbetweenthepagesofyournotebooksand keeponthemantelpieceforever”(1998:4),Davefailstolookbelowthesurfaceof language to the dynamic place‐becoming and subjectivity‐becoming. It is fixity he sees,notfluidity: ‘... Don’t you know? You’re sitting outside a Hindu shrine, this is a Hindu temple, and you’re making it out to be a source of Buddhist strength and serenity!Don’tyouevenknowthattheKuluValleyhasaHindu population, andtheshrinesyouseehereareHindushrines?(1998:129) The irony manifests itself more clearly in the extremity of the couple’s transformation.WhileDave,disgustedwiththeIndiancountrysideandtheWestern tourists he sees, decides to return to the city to finish up his thesis, Pat insists on staying and living, according to Dave, a nomadic “gypsy” life among her fellow Europeanhippiesshehasmet: ShehadfoundaplaceforherselfinthecommuneatNasogi.Itwaswhatshe wasmeantfor,sherealized–notgoingtopartieswithDavid,buttolivewith other men and women who shared her beliefs. They were going to live the simple life, wash themselves and their dishes in a stream, cook brown rice andlentils,prayandmeditateintheforestand,attheend,perhaps,become Buddhists – ‘A Buddhist, you crackpot? In a Hindu temple?’ He spluttered – butshecontinuedcalmlythatshewassuretofind,intheend,somethingthat couldnotbefoundonthecocktailroundsofDelhi,Bombayoreven,forthat matter,LongIsland,butthatshewaspositiveexistedhere,intheforest,on themountains.(1998:137) At end of the story, Dave is shown to be imprisoned within the realm of facts, tautologyandtaxonomyaswellaswithinhisownnarrow‐mindedness.Hisconcept ofIndiais,liketheshedintheshortstory“GamesatTwilight”,lifelessandfrozenin books even though his version of India is paradoxically set in urban India of the present.Pat’sconceptofIndia,despiteitsappearanceofaclichéofIndiaasalandof spiritual pilgrimage, proves to be more profound and more complex in its explicit 17 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ andsimplisticshallownessthanDave’s.WhenDavederidesherplans,viewingthem withdisdain,shelashesoutathisignorance: ‘Working on a thesis?’ she screeched derisively. ‘Sociology? The idea of you,Dave,whenyou’veneversomuchaslooked,Imeanreallylooked,into thesoul,theprana,ofthenextman–isjusttoo,—’shesplutteredtoastop, wildlythrewherhairaboutherfaceandburstout‘You,youdon’tevenknow it’s possible to find Buddha in a Hindu temple. Why, you can find him in a church,aforest,anywhere.Doyouthinkhe’sasnarrow‐mindedasyou?’she flung at him, and the explosiveness with which this burst from her showed howhisderisionhadcutintoher,howithadfesteredinher.(1998:137‐38) Inthesamewaythat,takingintoaccounttheintertwinedhistoriesandphilosophies ofBuddhismandHinduism,onecan“findBuddhainaHindutemple”(1998:137), one can also find India not only in books, not only in cities or villages. India has many faces and is a place which is constantly in the making, a living place which movesandthrivesindirectrelationtooursubjectivitymappingandremapping. In “On a Thousand Plateaus”, which is based on an interview in 1980, Giles Deleuze posits that an individual is composed of intersections of the “lines” of experiences: Whatwecalla“map,”orsometimesa“diagram,”isasetofvariousinteracting lines(thusthelinesinahandareamap).Thereareofcoursemanydifferent kindsoflines,bothinartandinasocietyoraperson...Wethinklinesarethe basic components of things and events. So everything has its geography, its cartography, its diagram. What’s interesting, even in a person, are the lines thatmakethemup,ortheymakeup,ortake,orcreate…Differentsortsofline involvedifferentconfigurationsofspaceandvolume.(1995:33) InmyinterpretationofDeleuze,anindividualisdefinedinrelationtothe“concrete place” of society, of physical places as well as webs of connection and interaction between oneself and others. Apart from society, an individual is also defined in relation to the “world”, to appropriate Heidegger’s term, of private thoughts and emotions. The lines of an individual’s intellect and physical sensations are intertwined and also linked with those of other individuals, thereby producing a meshornetworkoflineswhichformacollectivesociallandscape.Thecartography ofaperson’ssubjectivityconstantlychangesitsshapeasnew“lines”ofexperiences areaddedintohis/her“identitymap”.Thecartographyofasociety,oracollective mental and physical landscape, likewise, dynamically shifts its outline when the identitymapofasocialmemberbecomesreconfigured.ThisDeleuziancartography of“becoming”,Ipropose,dynamicallydefinesandredefinesIndiainDesai’swriting. ThelandscapeaswellastheconceptualisationofIndiachangesitslinesandoutlines accordingtothelinesofone’scartographyofexperienceandexistence.Herewesee how the cartographies of Dave and Pat, and also of the readers of this particular shortstory,shapeandreshapethecartographiesofIndia. Since self is mapped and remapped according to an individual’s changing experience with place, with society, I believe that place cannot be a fixed essence. 18 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Place, I suggest, can be regarded as Martin Heidegger’s “technology”, “a way of revealing” (1977: 12), a way of constructing as well as deconstructing meanings. IndiainDesai’sshortstoriescollection,Ipropose,canberegardedasatechnologyof place. Intheformationofmytechnologyofplacetheoreticalframework,Iborrow the term “technology of place” from Irvin C. Schick in his book TheEroticMargin: SexualityandSpatialityinAlteritistDiscourse:“Isuggestusingthetermtechnologyof placetodescribethediscursiveinstrumentsandstrategiesbymeansofwhichspace is constituted as place, that is, place is socially constructed and reconstructed” (1999: 9). However, my concept of “technology of place” departs from Schick’s notion of space as an abstract and empty terrain to be socially and semantically “constituted as place” (1999: 9). I propose that there are two elements which, through their constant clashes and negotiations, form what I call “technology of place”, or a mode of place‐formation and transformation. They are Heidegger’s “earth”,or“concreteplace”,placeexperiencedthroughthesenses,andHeidegger’s “world”, or “abstract place”, place imagined and re(‐)membered. Each of these is complex and dynamic in its inherent potential to constantly transform or merge itself into the other. While drawing on Schick’s coinage and concept, for my purposes,Iattributewidermeaningto“technology”thanSchickdoesinhismeaning oftechnologyasonly“discursiveinstrumentsandstrategies”(1999:9).Rather,asI shall illustrate, I propound that “technology” means not only a product but also a production of knowledge and understanding, a simultaneously constructive and deconstructivewayofthinking. Tobeginwithabasicdefinitionoftheterm,“technology”iscomposedoftwo Greekwords:téknē(1966:906),meaning“art”or“craft”,andthesuffixlogíā(1986: 270), meaning “speech” or “discourse”. “Technology”, which is by definition a combinationof“craft”and“discourse”,islikewiseasimportantastheproductionof allformsofarts,fromthe“moretangible”artforms,suchassculpturesorpaintings, to the “less tangible” art forms, such as writing or even thinking. The connection between“technology”andtheartsisalsoemphasisedinHeidegger’sstatement:“We mustobservetwothingswithrespecttothemeaningofthisword.Oneisthattechnē isthenamenotonlyfortheactivitiesandskillsofthecraftsman,butalsoforthearts of the mind and the fine arts. Technē belongs to bringing‐forth, to poiēsis; it is somethingpoietic”(1977:12‐13). I draw my inspirationfrom Michel Foucault and Martin Heidegger, thinkers on technology whose ideas are relevant to my discussion of “technology of place”. But due to space and scope limit, I shall discuss mainly Heidegger’s concept of technology which I adopt and apply in my paper. In “The Question Concerning Technology”, Heidegger begins his argument by referring to the common idea of technologyasatooloraninstrument: The manufacture and utilization of equipment, tools, machines, the manufacturedandusedthingsthemselves,andtheneedsandendsthatthey serve, all belong to what technology is. The whole complex of these 19 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ contrivancesistechnology.Technologyitselfisacontrivance,or,inLatin,an instrumentum.(1977:4‐5) Asameanstoanend,technologyisacontraptionbuiltonthe“concealment”ofits own workings. For example, how domestic radiators operate through thermal energytransfermightnotbeofimportancetouslayusersaslongasweknowhow to set them to work for our own comfort with a turn of the knob. The radiator’s complex operation system is not only physically concealed beneath the device’s smoothoutersurface,butalsorenderedabsentinourminds.Isuggestthatthisis Heidegger’scontrivance(Einrichtung),whichcreatesanillusionofcontrol,whathe terms an “Enframing” or “setting in place” (1977: 5) of the mind. To return to the radiator example, because the logic of the radiator’s mechanical or engineering theory of operation is concealed, we are “enframed” or “set” to think that this technologicalinstrumentisfullyunderourcontrol.Heat,whichisexudedfromthe gadget at the mercy of our touch, seems to be infinitely at our disposal. This prioritising of our comfort might make us oblivious to the consequences of using technology which, in the case of radiators, involve environmental issues, for example, excessive energy consumption or global warming. Technology, for Heidegger, might be a tool for comfort. However, it might also be a hindrance. Its danger lies in its potential to conceal as well as to make users complacent about what “truth” is: “The rule of Enframing threatens man with the possibility that it could be denied to him to enter into a more original revealing and hence to experience the call of a more primal truth” (1977: 28). What “truth” is, for Heidegger,canbe“broughtforth”throughtheactof“revealing”: Bringing‐forth brings hither out of concealment forth into unconcealment. Bringing‐forthcomestopassonlyinsofarassomethingconcealedcomesinto unconcealment. This coming rests and moves freely within what we call revealing[dasEntbergen].(1977:11‐12) The paradox which lies within Heidegger’s notion of technology is that, while technologyisamodeof“concealing”truth,itissimultaneouslyamodeof“bringing forth” or revealing truth. To return to the radiator example, we might not realise until the technological device in question breaks down that we do not have any controlovertheworkingsofourradiator.Technologycanfunctionasaninstrument or an insignia of human’s victory over nature. However, it can also function as a reminderthathumans’superiorityovernatureisnothingbutanillusion:“Thewill tomasterybecomesallthemoreurgentthemoretechnologythreatenstoslipfrom humancontrol”(1977:5).Thedeconstructivetendencyoftechnologythatcanlead tothequestioningofpreconceivednotionsandvaluesis,accordingtoHeidegger,its “saving power” (1977: 28). Quoting the lines of the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin, “But where danger is, grows/The saving power also” (1977: 28), Heideggerasserts: Iftheessenceoftechnology,Enframing,istheextremedanger,andifthereis truth in Hölderlin’s words, then the rule of Enframing cannot exhaust itself solely in blocking all lighting‐up of every revealing, all appearing of truth. 20 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Ratherpreciselytheessenceoftechnologymustharborinitselfthegrowthof thesavingpower.(1977:28) Becauseartcanbeseenasbotharepresentationoftruthandasearchfortruthinits own right, I subscribe to Heidegger’s assertion that it is in art that one comes to understand the “essence” of technology, its malignant function to conjure up illusionsanditsbenignfunctiontoquestionandchallengesuchillusions: Because the essence of technology is nothing technological, essential reflectionupontechnologyanddecisiveconfrontationwithitmusthappenin arealmthatis,ontheonehand,akintotheessenceoftechnologyand,onthe other,fundamentallydifferentfromit. Sucharealmisart.(1977:35) Drawing on Heidegger’s statement, literature or, in this case particularly, Anita Desai’s short stories can be regarded as the “realm of art” through which “technology”,asimultaneouslyconstructiveanddeconstructivemodeofthinking,is examined in my paper. It can be inferred from my textual analyses of “Games at Twilight” and “Scholar and Gypsy” that the concept of “place” can be seen constructedanddeconstructedthroughthetheoreticalframeworkof“technology”.I also argue that it is through Desai’s short stories that one comes to see the “technologyofplace”ofIndiaasarepresentationorinstrumentofpowerand,atthe same time, as a mode or technique of critical questioning and re‐thinking: “The closerwecometothedanger,themorebrightlydothewaysintothesavingpower begin to shine and the more questioning we become. For question is the piety of thought”(1977:35). Foucault’s concept of “technologies of the self” as modes of self‐formation and transformation is closely connected with my concept of technology of place becausetoknowordefineoneselfistobeacutelyawareofone’splaceandposition: the “concrete place” and the “abstract place”, where one exists or which one occupies.Intermsof“concreteplace”orphysicallocation,onetendstoturntoone’s hometownorhomecountryinordertoanswersuchbasicquestionsas“whereare youfrom?”Thewayinwhichthequestion“whereareyoufrom?”becomesalmost identical to the question “who are you?” shows that sense of identity is deeply intertwinedwithsenseofplace.AsIhavementioned,placeisnotonlya“concrete place”, or a physical location. It is also an “abstract place”, or a representation, a signifierloadedwithmeanings,imagesandstereotypesthroughwhichoneformsan ideaofoneselfandothers. The dividing line between the “concrete” and the “abstract”, the “real” and the “imagined”, in my “technology of place” concept is nevertheless porous and ever‐shifting. The “concrete place” of sensory reception, physical places experiencedduringone’sactualvisit,canbeturnedintothe“abstractplace”ofthe imaginationthroughone’smemory.Likewise,“abstractplace”,blueprintsofutopia and dystopia, can also be turned into “concrete place”, for example, through architecturalpractices.When“concreteplace”,orSoja’s“Firstspace”(1996:6)ofthe physical world, and “abstract place”, or Soja’s “Secondspace” (1996: 6) of the 21 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ imagination,clashandcombine,theresultisanalternativespaceofandforcritical thinking and rethinking of the very process of critical thinking. This alternative “real‐imagined” space is defined by Soja as “Thirdspace”: “a third existential dimension is now provocatively infusing the traditional coupling of historicality‐ socialitywithnewmodesofthinkingandinterpretation”(1996:2‐3).Iproposethat mytechnologyofplaceconceptcanalsobeusedtoexplaintheprocessof“creative recombination and extension” (1996: 6), a mental activity of thinking and re‐ thinking our understanding of place, which simultaneously gives essence to and destabilises“place”asaconcept: Thirdspacetoo can be described as a creative recombination and extension, one that builds on a Firstspace perspective that is focused on the “real” material world and a Secondspace perspective that interprets this reality through“imagined”representationsofspatiality.(1996:6) My emphasis on Heidegger’s notion of “technology” in my “technology of place” conceptdemonstratesthatSoja’s“newmodesofthinkingandinterpretation”(1996: 3) can be brought about by the very technology which conceals and, at the same time,revealsplaceinthemaking.InAnitaDesai’scase,technologyofplacereveals Indiainthemaking. ThemelangeoftheoriesIhavelaidoutcorrespondstothenotionofplaceas beingsimultaneously“concreteplace”and“abstractplace”,physicalandimagined, which Desai refers to as the “drawing of the landscape which is also an inscape” (1988:537).Myargumentwillbeillustratedinananalysisofthefinalselectedshort storyfromtheGamesofTwilightcollection.“Sale”beginswithaloudbangingonthe door of a poor landscape painter’s house. The painter awaits his three potential patrons,whohaveexpressedtheirinterestsinpurchasingsomeofhispaintings: Theretheyare,atthedoornow,banging.Theyhadmethim,writtenanote and made an appointment – and here they are, as a direct result of all, rattling. He stands on the other side of the door, in the dusk‐mottled room, fingeringanunshavenchinanddroppingcigarettebuttsonthefloorwhichis already littered with them. There is a pausein the knocking. He hears their voices – querulous, impatient. He turns and silently goes towards the inner doorthatopensontoapassage.Hepushesitajar,quietly,holdinghisbreath. Attheendofthepassageanotherdoorstandsopen:itislikeawindoworan alcoveilluminatedbythedeepglowofthefire.Therehiswifesits,kneading dough in a brass bowl, with her head bowed so that her long hair broods downtohershouldersoneithersideofherheavy,troubledface.(1998:41) As voyeurs, readers are given a glimpse of another interior, the artist’s “inscape” (1988: 537) which is both menacing and benign, namely, his domestic life and the ever‐presentdemandstomakemoneytoputfoodonthetableandfeedhiswifeand son.Whenoneofhispotentialpatrons,awoman,coaxeshimintotalkingabouthis landscape paintings, and when he finally takes his mind off the heavy demands imposedbythedomesticsceneandthepresenceofhisworriedwifeinit,hebegins toshowhisvisitorshisbestpaintings.Everybodyseemstolookpastthestateofthe artist’s house, past the chaos and mess that form his room. They can only see the 22 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ beauty of the landscape, of the floras and faunas which look “real”. However, this magicalmomentoftheRomanticsublimeisshowntobespoiledandinterruptedby the artist’s shocking confession: “‘No, no, it is not real. I am a city man, I know nothing about birds’” (1998: 44). As it turns out, the landscape which the artist paintedisan“abstractplace”,animaginedlandscape.Theflorasandfaunasareall conjuredup.Hehasneverseenwithhisowneyestheplacesthathepainted,northe plants and animals that he captured on canvas. Their existence has been invented purelyinhismind: ‘Ah,’she[oneofthepotentialpatrons]cries,hurryingtotheshelftopullouta picture. ‘What are they?’ she asks him, gazing first at the flowers that blaze acrossthedirtypaper,thenathim,coaxinghimfortheirsecretwithanavidly enquiringlook.‘Notcannas,notlotuses–whatcantheybe?’ Hesmilesathercuriosity.‘Nothing,’hesays.‘Notrealflowers–justanything atall.’(1998:43) Itisasiftheartistisanomnipotentcreatorofhisartworld,agodwhopartsthesky andtheearthandchartsanalternativelandscapeaswellascreatesanewspeciesof plants and animals. This is, in fact, even a higher art form than what the patrons expectfromastarvingartist.Theartist’sartreflectsanartofcreating,ratherthan anartofrepresentingreality.Hisartistictalentsarehighlightedbythefactthathe possessesnotonlythepowertocreatebutalsotheimaginationtoturnhisshabby realityintosomethingbeautifullysublime: ‘But you know everything about birds! And flowers. I suppose they are birdsandflowers,allthesemarvellousthings.Andyourpaintingsarefullof them.Howcanitpossiblybethatyouhaveneverseenthem?’ He has to laugh then – she [one of the potential patrons] is so artless, so completelywithoutanyvestigeofimagination,andsocompletelyunlikehis wife.‘Look,’hesays,suddenlybuoyant,andpointstothewindow.Shehasto standonhertoestolookoutofthesmallaperture,throughthebars,andthen shegazesoutwithalltheintentnessshefeelsheexpectsofher,atthedeep, smoke‐ridden twilight wound around the ill‐lit slum, the smoking heaps of dung‐fires and the dark figures that sit and stand in it hopelessly. Like fog‐ horns, conch shells begin to blow as tired housewives summon up their flagging spirits for the always lovely, always comforting ritual of evening prayers.Shetriestopiercethescenewithhersharpeyes,tryingtoseewhat he sees in it, till she hears him laughing behind her with a cracked kind of hilarity.‘Thereyousee–mybirdsandmyflowers,’hetellsherclappinghis handsasthoughenjoyingapracticaljokehehasplayedonher.‘Iseeatram– andthatismymountain.Iseealetter‐box–andthatismytree.Listen!Do you hear my birds?’ He raises his hand and, with its gesture, ushers in the eveningvoicesofchildrenutteringthosecriesandcallspeculiartothetimeof parting,thetimeofrelinquishingtheirgames,beforetheyentertheirhomes and disappear into sleep – voices filled with an ecstasy of knowledge, of sensation drawn to an apex, brought on by the realization of imminent 23 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ departureandfarewell:voicespanickywithlove,withlament,withfearand sacrifice. The artist watches the three visitors and finds them attentive, puzzled.‘There,’hesays,droppinghishand.‘Therearemybirds.Idon’tsee them–butIhearthemandimaginehowtheylook.Itiseasy,no,whenyou canhearthemsoclearly?’ ‘You are a magician,’ says the quiet man, shaking his head and turning to a crayon drawing of pale birds delicately stalking the shallows of a brooding sea.‘Lookatthese–Ican’tbelieveyouhaven’tactuallypaintedthemonthe spot.’(1998:44‐45) Sadly,fortheartist,thepotentialpatronsdecideagainstpurchasinghispaintingsat theend.Theychangetheirmindsuponhearingthatthelandscapepaintingstheysee and admire so much are not “real” in their definition. This is ironic since Desai’s readers know, while the patrons fail to see, that the artist is creating something purer than landscape paintings. Instead of a replica or a representation of place, whattheartistcreatesisanimaginativelandscape,his“world”and“abstractplace” builtuponthefragmentsofhisgrimreality.Apartfromartinthemaking,thisshort story also reveals “technology of place” in the making. It exposes not only the constructednessofplace,butalsotheabsurdityofhowprejudicesareformedasa resultofone’sholdingontoone’spreconceivednotionofplaceasafixedentity,an unquestionable“essence”. AnitaDesai’s“India”,inGamesatTwilight,isnotafixedentity.Indiahasno absoluteessence.Placeisbothasignifiedandasignifier,alandscapeandacounter‐ landscape.Itisbothaphysicalterrain,whichisdynamicandchanging.Itisalsothe veryprocessofmentalmappingandremappingofthatterrain.Desai’sIndiaisboth anentityandatechnology,orawayofthinkingandrevealing.Itisbothaprisonof fixedmeaning,fromwhichonemustlearntobreakfree,andanever‐changingrealm ofcreativefreedom,whichconstructsanddeconstructsitsownrepresentations. References “A Secret Connivance”. (1990) TimesLiterarySupplement. 14‐20 September 1990, 972‐976. Baldwin, D., and Quinn, P. (eds.) (2007) An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial ShortFiction. Boston:HoughtonMifflinCompany. Bliss, C. (1988) “Against the Current: A Conversation with Anita Desai”. MassachusettsReview29, 521‐537. Charters, A. (ed.) (1983) TheStoryandits Writer:AnIntroductiontoShortFiction. NewYork:St.Martin'sPress. Deleuze, G. (1995) Negotiations, 1972‐1990. Trans. Martin Joughin. New York; Chichester:Columbia UniversityPress. Desai,A.(1998)GamesatTwilightandOtherStories.London:Vintage. Drewery, C. (2011) Modernist Short Fiction by Women: The Liminal in Katherine Mansfield,Dorothy 24 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Richardson,MaySinclairandVirginiaWoolf.Fernham:Ashgate. Gullason T. (1976) “The Short Story: An Underrated Art”. Short Story Theories. CharlesEdwardMay.Ed.Ohio:OhioUniversityPress,13‐31. Heidegger,M.(2011)“TheOriginoftheWorkofArt”.BasicWritings:fromBeingand Time(1927)to TheTaskofThinking(1964).Ed.DavidFarrellKell.Foreword.TaylorCarman. Oxon: RoutledgeClassics. ‐‐‐. (1977) “The Question Concerning Technology”. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. Trans with Intro. William Lovitt. New York: Harper&Row,3‐35. Kipling,R.(2007)“TheManWhoWouldBeKing:BrothertoaPrinceandfellowtoa beggarifhebefoundworthy”.AnAnthologyofColonialandPostcolonialShort Fiction. Eds. Dean Baldwin and Patrick J. Quinn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,77‐102. “‐logy suffix” (1986) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Ed. T.F. Hoad.Oxford:Clarendon. Schick, I. (1999) The Erotic Margin: Sexuality and Spatiality in Alteritist Discourse. London;NewYork:Verso. Soja, E. (1996) Thirdspace: Jouneys to Los Angeles and Other Real‐And‐Imagined Places,Cambridge,MA.;Oxford:Blackwell. “technic noun” (1966) TheOxfordDictionaryofEnglishEtymology. Ed. C.T. Onions. Assist.G.W.S.FriedrichsenandR.W.Burchfield.Oxford:Clarendon. Woolf, V. (1998) A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas. Ed. with Intro. Morag Shiach.OxfordWorld’sClassics.NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress. ‐‐‐. (1989) “A Sketch of the Past”. Moments of Being. Ed. with Intro. Jeanne Schulkind.2nded.London:Grafton,72‐176. ‐‐‐.(1982)TheDiaryofVirginiaWoolf.Vol.3,1925‐30.Ed.AnneOlivierBell.Assist. AndrewMcNeillie.Harmondsworth:Penguin. 25 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ DwellinginTravel:TheOtherCosmopolitanisminKiranDesai’sThe InheritanceofLoss ChartureeTingsabadh DepartmentofComparativeLiterature ChulalongkornUniversity Abstract Recentpostcolonialstudieshaveinterrogatedtheconceptofhometotakeaccount of the issues of migrancy, deterritorialization, travelling cultures, and cosmopolitanism raised by globalization studies. The concept shifts from home as placeoforiginsandidentityinnarrativesofnation‐makingandidentityrecoveryto home as multiple locations. Particular concern is focused on the figure of migrant, problems of homelessness and home‐making to highlight the inequities of globalizationanditsentanglementinthelegacyofcolonization.Thispaperexamines KiranDesai’sinterrogationoftheseissuesinhernarrativeofthemigrantexperience inhernovel,TheInheritanceofLoss.Itarguesthat,bygroundingtheseconcernsin the material realities of the migrant’s everyday life and in the geo‐political specificitiesofplace,Desaioffersacritiqueoftheuniversalismofcosmopolitanism as applicable to a privileged few, and gestures towards a “glocal” approach to the “Other”cosmopolitanism. 26 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ‘Home’ has always been an important critical concern in postcolonial studies. As a term that mediates between space and place, ‘home’ demarcates stable locality and boundaries,andinveststhemwithstrongemotivenuancesrangingfromorigins,belonging, identity,family,historytomemory.Togetherwithitscognate‘homeland,’thetermcarries ideologicalandculturalsignificance associatedwith‘community’and‘nation.’Assuch,the concept plays a crucial function both in the discourses of colonization and decolonization. Muchhasbeenwrittenaboutnarrativesof‘home‐making’tolegitimatecolonialsettlement andboundariesandabouteffortsbypostcolonialsubjectstoretrieveculturalmemoriesand repressed histories through narratives of ‘homeland’ by which to reclaim origins and identity. Given the new world order where national and cultural borders are crossed by global transnational systems of late capitalism, travelling cultures and migration, the concept of stable boundaries has been increasingly interrogated. Taking the migrant as a metaphor of the postcolonial subject, Bhabha claims “unhomeliness” (1994: 9) to be a paradigmatic condition of postcolonial “border lives” (1) whose hybridity contests the identitarianfixitiesofhegemonicnationalideologies.CitingFanon,Bhabhaarguesfortravel, theactofmobility,asametaphoroftheself‐inventingpostcolonial“unhomely”subject(8). From a different, theoretically‐inflected, perspective, Deleuze and Guattari proclaim the postmodern subjectivity to be “rhizomic,” deterritorialized, subversive of origins and endings(1987:25).Evenstayingputispartoftheglobalflowofgoodsandinformation,as Rey Chow likens the user of the internet to a postmodern traveller, who, “while sitting in onespot…isnolongerareaderorwriterinthetraditionalorevenpoststructuralistsense butapassenger‐in‐transit,whosesedentarinessisafactorofhis/herrapidmotionsthrough time and out of time” (1991: 171). In this scenario, Kaplan observes, dwelling—being at home,andmobilitybecomeone(1998:139). With the recent turn towards cosmopolitanism, travel is given a more globally nuanced significance as a metaphor for the cosmopolitan subject as, in Appiah’s words, “a citizenoftheworld”(2006:xv),whoseopennessandcommitmenttouniversalhospitality andcommonhumanitytranscendsnationalandculturalloyalties.Appiahextolstheglobal flows of information and travelling cultures as an enabling condition for fostering the cosmopolitanawarenessandethics:“theworld‐widewebofinformation—radio,television, telephones, the Internet—means not only that we can affect lives everywhere but that we canlearnaboutlifeeverywhere,too.Eachpersonyouknowaboutandcanaffectissomeone to whom you have responsibilities” (xiii). Indeed, hybridity, migrancy, deterritorialization, and cosmopolitanism are highlighted as common concerns in postcolonial debates to reroute postcolonial interventions towards the theoretical perspectives of globalization studies.“Tobeglobalisfirstandforemosttobepostcolonial,”saysKrishnaswamy,“andto bepostcolonialisalwaysalreadytobeglobal”(2008:3). If hybridity, migrancy, and travel are the prevalent paradigms of postcolonial interventions, not all critics are celebratory of their enabling conditions. In his influential “TravellingCultures,”JamesCliffordcontendsthattravelisaproblematicconcept: In a contemporary register, to think of cosmopolitan workers, especially migrant labor, in metaphors of ‘travel’ raises a complex set of problems. The political disciplines and economic pressures that control migrant‐labor regimes pullstronglyagainstanyoverlysanguineviewofthemobilityofthepoor, usually nonwhitepeoplewhomustleavehomeinordertosurvive.The traveller, by definition, is someone who has the security and privilege to move about in relativelyunconstrainedways.This,atanyrate,isthetravelmyth.(1997:34) 27 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Breckenridge et al go further to argue that the ‘universalist’ cosmopolitanism may be availableonlytoprivilegedfew,andpointouttheproblemsofhomelessness,inequality,and hostility that prevail in the metropolitan spaces and in the extreme margins of the global systems: Thecosmopolitanismofourtimesdoesnotspringfromthecapitalized“virtues”of rationality,Universality,andprogress;norisitembodiedinthemythofthenation writlargeinthefigureofthecitizenoftheworld.Cosmopolitanstodayareoftenthe victims of modernity, failed by capitalism’s upward mobility, and bereft of those comfortsandcustomsofnationalbelonging.Refugees,peoplesofthediaspora,and migrantsandexilesrepresentthe spirit of the cosmopolitical community. (Breckenridgeetal2002:6) ContraAppiah’scosmopolitanhospitality,Gikandiobserves,“globalizationdoesnotdemand that we engage with the Other in any substantive sense” (2010: 31). Any critical effort to understand the complexities of migrancy must take account of the migrant’s material and culturalconditionsthattheynegotiateintheireverydaypracticesaswellasthecompeting and conflicting claims of local loyalties and adopted allegiances. This requires a “glocal” perspective, one that attends to the differentiated histories of colonization and decolonizationthatarere‐enactedinthemigrant’slivedrealtiesandinhis/her“rhizomic”1 patterns of dispersal.Above all,itisto beattentivetothequestionof“dwelling”:howthe migrant seeks to ‘make home’ while homeless, to be rooted while in transit. As Clifford pointsout,“oncetravellingisforegrounded…,thendwelling,too,needstobereconceived— nolongersimplythegroundfromwhichtravellingdepartsandtowhichitreturns”(1997: 44). Indeed, on this question of “dwelling”, some critics argue that, given the existential mobilityofmigrants,theircontingentrelationstoplace,andtheparticularitiesofmigrants’ circumstances, their home‐making efforts as well as experience of homelessness must be embodiedandgroundedinthemigrants’subjectivities(Ahmedetal2003:2). Itisthistensionoftravelanddwellingthatpertainstotheexperienceof“victimsof modernity”thatKiranDesaiexaminesinTheInheritanceofLoss.Asuccessfulbeneficiaryof cosmopolitan globalization, she is also a keen observer of the inequalities of consumer‐ driven multiculturalism, as well as the legacy of colonization that continues to affect the down‐trodden of the postcolonial present. In an interview with McGee, she stresses her interestindifferent“waysofleavingandwhyweleave”(2010:34).Thenovelshuttlesback and forth among different locations, between past and present, insisting upon the commingling of the global and the local, and upon the connections between the legacy of colonization and the contemporary realities of globalization. It also moves back and forth among the different trajectories of the protagonists, linking their subjectivities and their entanglementswithinthecoloniallegacyandglobalization.Inthisregard,Ahmed’scallfor the need to attend to the enduring legacy of colonization and its entanglement with the practices of globalization that migrants must negotiate in their ‘homing’ efforts is particularlypertinent.Thetitleofthenovelmaybereadasexpressiveoftheentanglement manifest through “the collective memory of suffering…embodied through the minutiae of everydaylife,andoftendomesticactivities,thatunfoldthroughandrefashionmemoriesof 1.ThetermisusedinthesenseproposedbyAshcroft,whoputsadifferentspinonitfromDeleuze and Guattari’s sense of subversive marginalized “minor” subject. According to Ashcroft, the postcolonial“space‐clearinggesture”isdifferentfrompostmodernism:“postcolonialdiscourseisthe discourseofthecolonized,whichbeginswithcolonizationanddoesn’tstopwhenthecolonizersgo home. The postcolonial is not a chronological period but a range of material conditions and a rhizomicpatternofdiscursivestruggles,waysofcontendingwithvariousspecificformsofcolonial oppression”(2001:12) 28 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ lossandviolence.”2Itistheexperienceoftravelandthetraumaofdwellingintravelforthe displacedoftheEmpire,inparticularformigrants,theOtherofcosmopolitanism,thatwill beexamined. Rightfromthestart,thenotionofhomeassecureboundedspaceandaplace ofstableidentityandbelongingisinterrogated.Thenovelopenswithadescription of Kanchenjuga, viewed from Cho Oyu, a former colonial residence and now home foraretiredjudgeoftheIndianCivilServiceandhisorphanedgranddaughter.The mountainandthelandscapeareenshroudedby“mistmovinglikeawatercreature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths,” so impenetrable that the soaring snow‐capped peak of Kanchenjuga is only “briefly visible above the vapor” (1).3Nor does the house, in a state of crumbling decay, providecomfortandprotectionfromthemist.Thehouse’sstonewalls,“severalfeet deep,” make it colder than outside, and its interior is soon submerged by the invading mist that obliterates all solid forms, “the gray had permeated inside, as well, settling on the silverware, nosing the corners, turning the mirror in the passagewaytocloud”(2–3). Desai’s unhomely landscape has been described as, in Didur’s word, “a counterlandscape”(2011:48)thatcritiquesthelegacyofcolonization.AccordingtoDidur, BritishtravellershadlongbeenattractedtotheHimalayanregions,drawnbythesublimity of the mountain ranges that inspired a sense of awe and adventure. Through the conventionsofpicturesqueaesthetic,theHimalayanhighlandswere‘domesticated’intravel descriptions, and, through the establishment of hill stations, transformed into replicas of romanticizedruralEnglandthatcontributedtotheromanceofthehillstationsas“homein the hills” (Kennedy 1996: 88). The popularity of the hill stations, Kennedy points out, dependeduponalargenumberofnativelabourasdomesticservants,agriculturalworkers, shopkeepers,andothers(1996:8).AsMitchellhasargued,thesemioticsofrepresentation of the imperial picturesque ensured that the ideological and the material operations of colonial power were exercised and concealed through what he calls “the certificate of the Real”(1994,2002:15)thatdisguisedtheseprocessesas“natural”featuresofthelandscape. Anysignoflabour,ifadmitted,mustbemadetoconformtothepicturesqueconventionof idealized rustic life (Barrell 1980: 5).4In the context of the hill stations, the evidence of labour that ensured the operations of the hill stations was erased from the spaces of the picturesque, confined to segregated quarters away from the comfortable existence of colonialhomes(Kennedy1996:8). ThecrumblingconditionofChoOyu—nowanotso‘greathouse’—testifiesto thedeclineyetlingeringlegacyofthecolonialpicturesque.Itsmock‐Tudorinterior reflects the preference for homely English architectural models for recreating the romance of the hill stations: “the door was dark, almost black, wide planked; the ceilingresembledaribcageofawhale,marksofanaxstillinthetimber.Afireplace 2. Megan Warin and Simone Dennis, “Telling Silences: Unspeakable Trauma and the Remarkable PracticesofEverydayLife,”TheSociologicalReview2008,56.2:100–116. 3.Citationsofthenovelaretakenfromthe2006editionprintedbyGrovePress. 4.Fordiscussionsofthepicturesquelandscapeasarepresentationofideologicalandsocialcontrolin theeighteenth‐andnineteenth‐centuryBritain,seeBermingham(1986)andBarrel(1980).Forthe importanceofthepicturesqueinmappingtheperipheriesofempireandturningthemintocolonial ‘home’,seeMitchell(1994,2002)andShum(2001). 29 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ madeofsilveryriverstonesparkledlikesand”(32).Yetthenovelquicklyexposes thehiddensideofthisillusionof‘home’: Asalways,thepriceforsuchromanceshadbeenhighandpaidforbyothers. Porters had carried boulders from the riverbed—legs growing bandy, ribs curvinginto caves,backs intoU’s, facesbeing bentslowly to look always at the ground—up to this site chosen for a view that could raise the human heart tospiritualheights.(13) Thepowersthatdeformedthelabourers’bodiesalsodeformedthejudge’ssubjectivity.Itis the“sensibility”inscribedinthearchitecturethatattractedthejudgetothehouse:“hefelt he was entering a sensibility rather than a house” (32). Inhabiting the sensibility of the housemeantinhabitingthesensibilitythatdefinedtheviewofthelandscape:“heknewhe could become aware here of depth, width, height, and more elusive dimension. Outside passionately colored birds hopped and whistled, and the Himalayas rose layer upon layer untilthosegleamingpeaksprovedamantobesosmallthatitmadesensetogiveitallup, empty it all out” (32). The judge’s picturesque sensibility, however, is no mark of his aesthetic taste; rather, it marks the trauma of humiliation and exclusion that he suffered duringhislegaltrainingintheheartoftheEmpirethatlefthimwithanembitteredhatredof everythingIndian,includinghimself,andatortureddesiretoemulateEnglishness.Itishis Indiannessthatwouldbe“emptiedout”byinhabitingthe“sensibility”ofChoOyu. Intheenvironmentofimperial tristesseatChoOyu,thejudge’s“sensibility” requirestheservicesofthecook.Theirrelationshiprecreatesthecolonialrelations ofthehillstations.Fooddefinesthisrelationship.Justasthejudge’sgastronomical fastidiousnessdefineshistraumatizedEnglishness,so,forthecook,cookingangrezi khana marks his subordination to the colonial order.5As with the colonized labourers’bentbodies,thecook’spostcolonialbodybearsitsmarks: Apovertystrickenmangrowingintoanancientatfast‐forward.Compressed childhood, lingering old age. A generation between him and the judge, but youwouldn’tknowittolookatthem.Therewasageinhistemperament,his kettle,hisclothes,hiskitchen,hisvoice,hisface,intheundisturbeddirt,the undisturbedsmellofalifetimeofcooking,smoke,andkerosene.(21–22) Thecook’shutisnobetter,“buriedunderaferocioustangleofnightshade”(15)with the“farendofthegarden”astoilet.Sohumiliatingwasthisabjectpovertythatthe cook was driven to invent stories about the judge’s “lost glory” (63) of heroic participation in the Indian struggles for independence that he told rival poor domesticworkerstogivehimself“afeelingofself‐respectevenashepickedoverthe vegetables being sold cheap and considered rebate melons” (63).6 Yet these tall stories were poor substitutes, compared with “toaster ovens, electric shavers, watches, cameras, cartoon colors” (62), floating images of modernity of the global 5. In her study of Anglo‐Indians, Alison Blunt draws attention to food as an important discursive markerofcolonialidentity.BritishcolonialsstronglycriticizedAnglo‐Indians’preferenceforhighly spicedfoodas“unwise,”harmingBritishvirilityandenergy(2005:36). 6.McClintockarguesthatpovertywascriminalizedandracializedintheVictorianbourgeoisethosof domesticityaspartofthedisciplinaryregimethrough“theinstitutionalizationoffear”tosafeguard thesanctityofthewhitebourgeoisbody(1995:43‐46).Kennedypointsoutthatinthehillstations beggarsandvagrantswereregulatedand“expelledasameasureofcourse”(1996:195–196). 30 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ presentinthecommoditycircuitsoftheeconomicproductionandconsumptionof desirethatinhabitedhisnightlydreams. Forthecook,his“desireformodernity”(62)isnotonlyadesireformaterial successandfutureprosperity,butitisadesireforafuturehomewherehecouldlive out a comfortable old age, surrounded by his family: “Eventually Biju would make enough,andthecookwouldretire.Hewouldreceiveadaughter‐in‐lawtoservehim food,crick‐crackhistoes,grandchildrentoswatlikeflies”(19).Travelbecomesa meanstowardsthisself‐refashioningandhome‐making.ItisBiju,hisson,whowas expectedtocarryoutthismission.Thecook’saspirationisembodiedinthefamily photographsproudlydisplayedinthecook’shut: Two photographs hung on the wall—one of himself and his wife on their wedding day, one of Biju dressed to leave home. They were poor‐people photographs,ofthoseunabletoriskwastingapicture…Biju…inthispicture lookedfrozenlikehisparents.Hestoodbetweenpropsofatapeplayeranda CampaColabottle,againstapaintedbackdropofalake,andsoonthesides, beyondthepaintedscreen,werebrownfieldsandsliversoftheneighbors,an arm and a toe, hair and a grin, a chicken tail frill, though the photographer hadtriedtoshootheextrasoutoftheframe.(15–16) Incontrasttothecook’s“fewbelongings”ofbrokenthrown‐awaybric‐a‐bracs,these “studio”photographsaretalismansofhomethatturnthecook’sdilapidatedhutinto animaginaryhomelyfamilialspace.Inparticular,theconfigurationofthephotoof Bijuenactsthecook’simaginary,withthefetishesoftravelmovedforwardbefore the picturesque lake here reduced to a mere “painted backdrop” and the brown fieldswithitstokensofimpoverishedvillagelifebeyondtheframe.Thephotograph also straddles an advertisement in which Biju is frozen, displayed like consumer products that act, in Bhabha’s words, as the “fetishization of … the elsewhere” (Clifford 1997: 42–43) that construct Biju’s identity as global migrant and as the embodiment of the cook’s fantasy of future prosperity. Yet, even in this proud artifice, poverty cannot be “shooed” away. These “extras” will dog Biju’s travel to fulfillhisfather’sdreamof‘home.’ Biju’s struggle as an illegal migrant in cosmopolitan New York brings into sharp focus the traumas of migrant life. If, for Clifford, the motel, along with the airport,isaspaceof“discrepantcosmopolitanisms”(1997:36),itisinthenovelthe restaurant where food travels, as do consumers and workers that prepare it (Masterton2010:422).Thesediscrepanciesaremirroredinthehierarchyofspatial and biopolitical divisions of, in Desai’s description, affluent “first‐world up on top” and impoverished “third‐world twenty‐two steps below” (25–26). In highlighting the divisions, Desai critiques the marginalization of migrants in the U.S., thereby exposingthemythoftheU.S.asalandofopportunityandmulticulturalism.Sharpe argues that ‘postcolonial’ critics of the U.S. have privileged the histories of white settler colony and minorities’ struggles for civil rights against racism, and thereby overlookeditsimplicationinthehistoryofoverseasimperialismandneocolonialism aswellasitsracismagainstimmigration(1995:181–183).Shealsopointsoutthat the capital‐driven ethos results in “bipolar” divisions of immigration whereby 31 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ migrantswithnecessaryprofessionalskillsandculturalcapitalarepreferred(194). Thus,inthislandofopportunity,Biju’ssmellandskincolourmarkhimasaliento his Italian employers who prefer Eastern European migrants who “might have somethingincommonwiththemlikereligionandskincolour,grandfatherswhoate curedsausagesandlookedlikethemtoo”(54).Thefetishesoftravelthatmakehim pursue the dream of wealth and home are those that are closely tied to the global networksofinequalitiesthatmakehimandhisfatherpoor.Thusmarginalized,Biju becomesamemberof“theshadowclasswhoarecondemnedtomovement”(112), whose mobility, so Biju discovered soon after his arrival, reflects their precarious lives: This was what happened, he had learned by now. You lived intensely with others, only to have them disappear overnight, since the shadow class was condemned to movement. The men left for other jobs, towns, got deported, returnedhome,changednames.Sometimessomeonecamepoppingarounda corneragain,oronthesubway,thentheyvanishedagain.Addresses,phone numbersdidnothold.(112) As Clifford says, cultural, economic and political factors affect different ways of travel,experiencesandspatialpractices(1997:35).Thus,forBiju,NewYorkisnota cosmopolitan city of glitz and affluence as it is for Clifford’s bourgeois travellers whose itineraries are “dictated by political, economic and intercultural relations” (1997: 35); nor is it Derrida’s “city of refuge” (2001:16) governedby the ethos of hospitalitywhereallmigrantsmayfindwelcome.Rather,itisacityofrefusewhere Biju joined the homeless drifting in the urban wasteland that both drew and alienatedhim: Biju was so restless sometimes, he would barely stand to stay in the skin. Afterwork,hecrossedtheriver,nottothepartwherethedogsplayedmadly inhanky‐sizedsquares,withtheirownersinthefracaspickingupfeces,but towhere,aftersinglesnightsatthesynagogue,long‐skirted‐and‐sleevedgirls walkedinanold‐fashionedmannerwithold‐fashioned‐lookingmenwearing blacksuitsandhatsasiftheyhadtokeeptheirpastwiththematalltimesso astonottoloseit.Hewalkedtothefarendwherethehomelessmanoften sleptinadensechamberofgreenthatseemedtogrownotsomuchfromsoil asfromafertilecitycrud.Ahomelesschickenalsolivedinthepark. Every nowandthenBijusawitscratchinginahomelymannerinthedirtandfelta pangforvillagelife. “Chkchkchk,”hecalledtoit,butitranawayimmediately,flusteringred in the endearing way of a plain girl, shy and convinced of the attraction of virtue.Hewalkedtowherethegreenranoutintoatailofpilingsandwhere menlikehimselfoftensatontherocksandlookedoutontoadullstretchof NewJersey.Peculiarboatswentby:garbagebarges,pug‐nosedtugboatswith theirsnootspushingbig‐bottomedcoalcarriers;otherswhosepurposewas notobvious—allrustycranes,cogs,blacksmokeflaringout.(91) Desai’s narrative of Biju’s dislocation allows her to examine the associated issue of the diasporic Indian identity. Again the restaurant functions as a “contact 32 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ zone”whereculturalidentitiesgrapplewitheachotherandculturalboundariesare challenged. Soon after his arrival, Biju was ill equipped to deal with the heterogeneousgroupofmigrantworkerstowhomhewasexposed.Thearrivalofa Pakistani migrant enabled him to recover his certainty through reconfirming culturalstereotypes: DesisagainstPakis. Ah,oldwar,bestwar— Whereelsedidthewordsflowwithaneasethatcamefromcenturies ofpractice?Howelse wouldthe spiritofyourfather,yourgrandfather,rise fromthedead?(25). Yetthiscomfortingwisdom,alongwithBiju’spaternalisticbeliefthat“surelyIndians werebetterliked”(24),wassooncontradictedwhenhelearnedoftheIndophobia directed at Indian diasporas from fellow migrant workers in other kitchens. Biju’s perceptionoftheIndiandiasporicidentityiscomplicatedbyhisencounterswiththe elite Indians. An instance of these is the group of the newly‐arrived “English– speakingupper‐educated”(56)accountantstudentstowhomhedeliveredthestaple Chinese takeaways of egg foo yong and hot‐and‐sour‐soups.7Their wealth and cultural capital allows them to transcend cultural boundaries through embracing western liberal interests, taste, and multiculturalism, and to cross class and caste barriers by fashionable radical activist engagement. While Desai implies that this capital‐driven mobility is inaccessible to illegal migrants such as Biju, she complicatestheircosmopolitanismbypointingoutthediscrepanciesbetweentheir self‐identification and their location within the broader US cultural context: “they were poised; they were impressive; in the United States, where luckily it was still assumedthatIndianwomenweredowntrodden,theywerelaudedasextraordinary” (56). The tension between their desire “to be gentry” (55) and the subtle discriminationtowhichtheyaresubjectreflectsthecomplexnegotiationsthatthe post‐1965 upper and middle class Indian migrants had to make. According to George, the Indian migrants’ insistence on the “Indian‐American” category is a refusal to be marginalized and “mistaken” as “black” through subordination to the racial code of the ‘multicultural’ U.S (1997: 31). More importantly, it is “a way of carryingoverthe‘invisible’privilegesofclass(andoftenofcaste)thatsuchpersons enjoyedinthesubcontinent”(1997:32).Inthenovel,thecontradictionintheelite Indianmigrant’spositionisreflectedinDesai’ssubtleironythat,whilehighlighting the girl’s eager display her liberal sympathy for Biju, also hints at her anxiety to maintainthesocialgapbetweenthem: “Dhanyawad. Shukria. Thank you. Extra tip. You should buy topi‐ muffler‐gloves,tobereadyforthewinter.” 7.InadiscussionofChinesetakeawaysinBritainasaspaceofcontactzone,DavidParkerarguesthat multiculturalism is often a “desire of digestible difference which is simultaneously gendered, racializedandsexualized,”(2000:80)whiledisavowingsocial,culturaldifferencesandsubsequently politicalrightsofmigrants(78). 33 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ The shiny‐eyed girl said it many ways so that the meaning might be conveyed from every angle—that he might comprehend their friendliness completely in this meeting between Indians abroad of different classes and languages,richandpoor,northandsouth,topcastebottomcaste.Standingat thatthreshold,Bijufeltamixtureofemotions:hunger, respect, loathing. (56‐7) Biju’s exclusion from the Indian diaspora also entails the potential risk of losing cultural identity. As Werbner says, various forms of organized cultural productionsuchasreligiousandeducationalactivities,orartisticcreativityareways in which diasporic communities maintain their distinctive identity and engage in their transnational connections with their homelands (2000: 8). As an illegal migrant, Biju cannot participate in these civic diasporic practices. Worse still, the constantpressuresofpovertycanmeancompromisinghisreligiousbelief.ForBiju, itwasastarkchoiceof“Holycowunholycow.Jobnojob”(151),whenhewasforced toworkatanall‐steakrestaurantwhereheenduredthedailyordealofsearingsteak andservingittoglobe‐trottingIndianbankerswhowantedto“getaggressiveabout Asia”(151).Anotheraspectofthisthreattoculturalidentityisthecommodification ofculture.IfBijusoughttorecoverthe“narrowpurity,”attheGandhiCafé,an“all‐ Hinduestablishment”(155),hewassoondisappointed.Ashefoundout,“purity”as practiced here, means “no Pakistanis, no Bangladeshis” (155). When it comes to food, however, capitalism applies, as Harish‐Harry proudly boasted: “We were practicing a highly evolved form of capitalism long before America was America” (161–162). Cultural identity gives way to capital as food is commodified as authentic, “the real thing, generic Indian” (161), along with reified stereotypes of Indiannesslike“Krishnaandthegopis,villagebellesatthewell”(161).Accordingto Clifford,“authenticityissomethingproduced,notsalvaged,”primarilyby“removing objects and cultures from their current historical situation” (1988: 250, 228).8At the Café, “unadulterated” (164) Indian food was consumed by the “half ‘n’ haf crowd” of Indian students and their American friends, as well as by the “Indian‐ White combination[s]” on their romantic outings, whose display of exotic multiculturalismwasquicklydebunkedwhentheysuccumbedtotheextrahotfood theyordered.Thepowerrelationsthatderacinate,manufacture,andconsumefood as“authentic”alsogovernthehandsthatpreparethefood,“allillegal”(162),whose “freehousing”amongthepotsandpansintherat‐infestedkitchenwasinreturnfor low wages and “donkey days” of long hours of work. The “deep rift” in Harish‐ Harry’s hyphenated name emblematizes the ruptured cultural identity that reinforces and is produced by the economic and social inequities that Biju had alreadyexperiencedinhisencounterswiththeeliteIndians.“Therewasnopurity in this venture. And no pride,” Biju was forced to admit to himself, “he had come hometonoclarityofvision”(165). 8. According to Deborah Root, “authenticity is the currency at play in the marketplace of cultural difference” (1996: 78; cited in Huggan 2001: 158). Both Root and Clifford strongly argue that the manufacturing of cultural difference serves important ideological reasons for a dominant culture suchascontainingperceivedthreatstoculturalintegrity. 34 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ The violence of the Gorkhaland agitation throws Biju’s homelessness into a crisis. The telephone call to his father reveals the difficulty of communication and theemotionalgulfthathaveintervenedbetweenfatherandson:“hecouldnottalk tohisfather;therewasnothingleftbetweenthembutemergencysentences,clipped telegramlinesshoutedoutasifinthemidstofthewar”(255).Evenhisnostalgic imaginingoftheplace—“hecouldimagineallitsdifferenttextures,theplumageof banana, the stark spear of the cactus, the delicate gestures of the ferns” (252)—is broken by the sheer force of the monsoon: “a gale of static inflicted itself on the space between father and son” (253). Indeed, it is the swelling sense of “homing desire” (Brah 1996: 180) on this occasion and subsequent more anguished imaginings of home that compelled Biju to face up to a frightening sense of his homelessness and a painful realization of the emotional importance of familial relationshipanditsfragility: If he continued his life in New York, he might never see his pitajiagain. It happenedallthetime;tenyearspassed,fifteen,thetelegramarrived,orthe phonecall,theparentwasgoneandthechildwastoolate.Ortheyreturned andfoundthey’dmissedtheentirelastquarterofalifetime,theirparentslike photograph negatives.… for affection was only a habit afterall, andpeople, they forgot, or they became accustomed to its absence. They returned and founded just the façade; it had been eaten from inside, like Cho Oyu being gougedbytermitesfromwithin.(255) AsBijupainfullyrealized,itwasnotonlythephysicaldistancethathadintervened betweenthem,butthereificationofthefamilialrelationintorepetitionsofclichésof theAmericandreamofhome‐makingintheircorrespondence: Theyallgrewfatthere… The cook knew about them all growing fat there. It was one of the thingseveryoneknew. “Areyougrowingfat,beta,likeeveryoneinAmerica?”hehadwritten tohissonlongago,inadeparturefromtheirusualformat. “Yes, growing fat,” Biju wrote back, “when you see me next, I will be myselftentimes.”(256) Similarly,forthecook,hissenseofhomeisdisruptedbytheviolence.Caughtinthe brutal crushing of the Gorkhaland protest, he was wrenched out of the colonial narrativeofthehillstationthathehadinhabitedinhiseverydayactivities: This place, this market where he had bargained contentedly over potatoes, and insulted, yes insulted, the fruit wallah with happy impunity, … this place where he resided secure in the knowledge that this was basically a civilized place where there was room for them all; where he had existed in what seemedasweetnessofcrabbiness—wasshowinghimnowthathehad beenwrong.Hewasn’twantedinKalimpongandhedidn’tbelong.(305–306) 35 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Worse still was the fear of losing his son that the violence induced, and the realization that their relationship had been a mere extension of his own material ambition: “At this moment, a fear overtook him that he might never see his son again—Thelettersthathadcomealltheseyearswereonlyhisownhopewritingto him.Bijuwasjustahabitofthought.Hedidn’texist.Couldhe?”(306). WhatpossibilitiesofhomearetherethenforBijuandthecook?Whatishomeand whereisittobelocated?AsBiju’sbroodingsuggests,thequestionshingeon“habit,”here associated with home and relationship. Habit implies an affective relationship that is groundedineverydaypracticesthatgiveasemblanceoffamiliarity,stability,andcontinuity to‘home.”Ahmedetalarguethat,“theaffectivityofhomeisboundupwiththetemporality ofhome,withthepast,thepresentandthefuture,isanon‐goingprocess…partandparcel of the daily practices of making home” (2003: 9–10). In this light, home is not only relational, but also a dynamic configuration of shared experiences, memories, habits, expectations that form the basis of and are renewed in intimate and on‐going intersubjectivities of everyday practices, and which extend beyond the mere physical boundaries of location and place. 9 Place, too, becomes a factor of this relational configuration,adynamicconstructthatispartofawayofinhabitingplace.Itistheabsence ofthisdailyaffectiverelationshipthat,forBijuandthecook,reifiestheirsenseofhomeinto “afaçade,”andtheirrelationshipandmemoriesinto“photographnegatives”and“habitsof thought.”Forthem,then,remakinghomeinvolvesre‐configuring“habits,”tobeengagedin notasarecoveryoflostplenitude,butasre‐memberingoftheaffectsthatmakeupwaysof inhabitingthedailyexperiencesofhome. Biju’s re‐membering of habits has a significant ideological dimension. A look at Bourdieu is useful for this purpose. ‘Habit” is associated with “habitus” and with “habitation.” For Bourdieu, “habitus” is “the durably installed generative principle of regulated improvisations [which produces] practices” (1977: 78). It is the largely unconscious process of embodied socialization of values, narratives, ideas, and desires producedbyculturalinstitutionsas“culturalcapital”thatformtheobjectiveconditionsof everydaypracticesbymeansofwhichindividualsinhabitsocialspaceandinteractinsocial relations.10 As Ashcroft argues, Bourdieu’semphasis on habitus as practices of inhabiting social relations and social space makes habitus itself “a relational practice,” (2001: 160), allowinganindividualto“improvise”practicalchoicesofsomeofthe“culturalcapital”ofa dominant ideology from his or her own habitus in strategies of self‐fashioning. Thus, for Ashcroft, Bourdieu’s concept of habitus enables postcolonial subjects to re‐inscribe the narrativesofcolonizationthatareembeddedintheeverydaypracticesofplacetheyinhabit. bellhooks’scontentionofhomeforpeoplewhohavebeendislocatedbytheirexperiencesof colonization is one instance of this re‐inscription: “home is that place which enables and promotesvariedandeverchangingperspectives,aplacewhereonediscoversnewwaysof seeingreality,frontiersofdifference”(1991:148) 9.SeeAshcroft(2001)foraviewofhomeforpostcolonialsubjectsaswaysoninhabitingplacebased ona“dense”and“intense”“rhizomicpatternofrelationships”(159).“Place,”inthislight,”ispartof this“rhizomic”pattern,adynamicconstructandnolongeraphysicalspace. 10. For a useful introduction to Bourdieu’s related concepts of habitus, cultural field and cultural capital, see Jen Webb, Tony Schirato, and Geoff Danaher (2002). See also Ashcroft’s stimulating application of Bourdieu’s idea of “habitus” to the concept of place as “rhizomic,” mobile construct. (2001). For a discussion of Bourdieu’s concept of “reflexivity” as a strategy of negotiating and resistingadominantideologythatisnotnecessarilyprivilegedtothe“culturalcapitalofclass,andhis influenceondeCerteau,seeWebbetal(2002:49–61). 36 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Biju’sreturntoKalimpongthenispartandparcelofthis“labour” of“home work” (Ahmed et al 2003: 10) to find a new way of inhabiting place. Seen in this light,theGorkhalandcrisisisenabling,challengingthedominantcolonialnarrative ofplaceandrenderingKalimpongaliminalspacewhereallclaimstohomecanbe contested and negotiated (Ferguson 2009: 42). For this purpose, Desai’s counterlandscapereturnstounsettlethecolonialnarrativethathasentrappedboth Bijuandthecookintheirfearofabjectpoverty.Hangingontothemetalcarapaceof thejeepduringhisridethroughthedangerousmountainousterrainovertheTeesta, “an insane river” (341), Biju re‐experienced the precariousness of life lived in the locality: “he looked down over at oblivion, hurried his vision back to the gouged bank. Death was so close—he had forgotten this in his eternal existence in America—this constant proximity of one’s existence to nearest destination.” Multiple landslides not only add to the danger but make sure that roads are impassable:“inplaces,theentiremountainhadsimplyfallenoutofitself,spreadlike a glacier with boulders, uprooted trees. Across the destruction, the precarious ant railoftheroadwaswashedaway”(346).ItisinDesai’sdescriptionofthedifficult and endless task of maintaining the road that a new significance is invested in labour.Thenarratorsays: The work of recarving a path through this ruin was, of course, usually contactedtoteamsofhunchbackmidgetmenandwomen,rebuildingthings stone by stone, putting it all together again each time their work was rent apart, carrying rocks and mud in wicker baskets attached to bands around theirforehead,staggeringloonywiththeweight,poundingonhulkingriver boulders over and over for hours with hammers and chisels until a bit chipped off, then another bit. They laid out the stones and the surface was tarredagain.(346–347) As with the earlier description of the curved‐bodied colonized workers, Desai’s forensic details underscore the back‐breaking labour to which abject poverty reducesthese“hunchbackmidgetmenandwomen.”Yetitistheirresiliencethatis hereemphasized.Theindispensabilityofthislabourwastacitlyacknowledgedwhen BijuandtheGorkhamenwereforcedagainandagaintoclamberoutofthejeepand push the boulders aside. Indeed, it is while Biju endured the rocky ride that he “remembered how, as a child, his father had always made him walk across newly spread pitch whenever they encountered some, in order to reinforce, he said, the thinsolesofBiju’sshoes”(347).Here,Biju’smemoryofthehardshipofpovertyis vividly underscored, but it is also enlarged by his recognition of his father’s inventiveness. It is this emerging sense of labour and of familial relationship as a source of value and human dignity, however fragile and hard‐won, that is encapsulated in the moving “homecoming” moment in the final scene of the novel whenBijuarrivedatChoOyu: Againthegaterattled. “I’llgo,”saidthecookandhegotupslowly,dustedhimselfoff. Hewalkedthroughthedrenchedweedstothegate. 37 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Atthegate,peepingthroughtheblack,lacewroughtiron,betweenthe mossycannonballs,wasthefigureinanightgown. “Pitaji?”saidthefigure,allrufflesandcolors. Kanchenjuga appeared above the parting clouds, as it did only very earlyinthemorningduringthethisseason— “Biju?”whisperedthecook— “Biju!”heyelled,demented—(357) The emotional charge of the moment of recognition—anxiety, fear, hope, and delight,isbrilliantlycapturedinthehesitationandsurprisewithwhichfatherand sonaddresseachotherandreconfirmtheirloyalty.Tobesure,povertyhauntsthis finalscene,for,robbedofallhismeagresavings,Bijuarrivedhomedestituteandthe cook had just been violently beaten by the judge for failing to find Mutt the dog whichhadbeenstolenduringthecrisis.Theviolencetheyhadbothsufferedmakes clearthattheirnewly‐wonsenseof“home”wouldalwaysbetestedagainstthedaily strugglesforsurvivalintheprecariouslifeofthepoor. The novel’s final scene, however, does hint at transformative possibilities. Biju’smomentofhomecomingwaswitnessedbySai,whohadearlierbeenhorrified by the severe beating of the cook. A resident of Cho Oyu and the judge’s granddaughter,Saienjoystheprivilegesofthelocaleliteandthe‘picturesque’way ofinhabitingplace.Yet,asthechildofthejudge’sdispossesseddaughter,shesought escapefromanunhappyrelationshipwiththeJudgethroughfantasiesoftraveland homemediatedbybooksandthe NationalGeographic, aswellasthrough her brief romanticrelationshipwithGyan,animpoverishedGorkhastudent.Forherasforall the elite residents of Kalimpong, the Gorkhaland uprising ruptures her narrow comfortableprivilegedviewofplaceandherfantasiesoftravelandhomeintowhich Gyanhadbeendrawn.Italsobroadensherawarenessofthelargerhistoriesofthe colonial legacy and its inequities of which she is a part: “life wasn’t single in its purposeoreveninitsdirection….Thesimplicityofwhatshe’dbeentaughtwouldn’t hold. Never again could she think there was but one narrative and that narrative belonged only to herself, that she might create her own mean little happiness and livesafelywithinit”(355).11Itisthisnewly‐acquiredrecognitionthatinformsher response to the reunion of Biju and the cook. As witness, Sai is forced to acknowledge their familial loyalty that reveals them as the separate Other, independentoftheirservicesthatthey,throughclassdifferences,hadbeenobliged to provide, and which had rendered them a familiar part of her daily life. Equally 11.MyreadingofSai’scosmopolitanawarenessdiffersfromSabo(2012:375–392),whoseesSaias being Desai’s narrative awareness through her embodying “engaged perspective” that transcends nationalandracialbordersandseeksconversationsacrossdifferentspacesandcultures”(384).Sai’s “cosmopolitan”outlookisnotgiven,butratherdevelopedthroughherexposuretotheviolenceofthe GorkharisingthatdisruptshernarcissisticrelationshipwithGyan. 38 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ important, the moment forces her to recognize the hardships of dislocation they were willing to risk that she, in her secret desire for the cook’s affection and sympathy,hadbeenunwillingtorecognize.AcomparisonwithSai’searlierresponse tothenewsofBiju’spreparationstotraveltoAmericaisrevealing …whenhehadvisitedKalimpongforthatdoomedinterviewwiththecruise ship,shehadfoundherheartshakenbytherealizationthatthecookhadhis ownfamilyandthoughtofthemfirst.Ifhissonwerearound,hewouldpay onlythemostcursoryattentiontoher.Shewasjustthealternative,theoneto whomhegavehisaffectionifhecouldnothaveBiju,therealthing. “Yippee,”shehadshoutedwhensheheardofhisvisa.“Hiphip hooray.” (205). WithSai’sconsciousnesstransformedandbroadened,theclosingsceneregistersher new response to the troublesome landscape that had entrapped her. The narrator says: Sai looked out and saw two figures leaping at each other as the gate swung open.The five peaks of Kanchenjuga turned golden with the kind of luminous light that made you feel, if briefly, that truth was apparent.Allyouneededtodowastoreachoutandpluckit.(357) Inthismomentofepiphany—perhapstheonlyoneinthenovel,themeaningofthe picturesque significantly changes. Here, both Biju and the cook are together, not separateasintheearlierstudiophotographs;theyarealso“leaping,”notfrozen,at thecentreofthelandscapeandnotmarginalized. Sai’s“truth,”howeversignificant,isnottheendofthematter.Byjuxtaposing Biju’sdifficulthomecomingwithSai’smomentofrecognition,Desaihighlightsboth the discrepancies and the entanglement of their different modes of dwelling in travel.Insodoing,shewarnsagainstatoocelebratoryviewoftravelasameansof freedomandself‐invention,andstressesthecostsofdislocationandhomemaking.If cosmopolitanawarenessinthefinalsceneseemstobepromisedtoSai,andnotto Biju,Desaitherebyemphasizesthelimitsofcosmopolitanism.Sai’smomentoftruth is therefore not only a moment of liberation from the confining narrative of colonization, but also and more significantly a moment of ethical responsibility: of recognizingthatcosmopolitanismisrootedinthelegaciesofcolonizationandinthe asymmetriesofthematerialrealtiesofglobalizationthatmarginalizethepoorand the culturally different. In this way, Desai seems to be gesturing towards what Gikandicalls“aredemptivenarrative”(2003:26)ofglobalizationthatmustberead inacontrapuntalrelationshipwiththenarrativeoftheprecariouslivesofthe“not yetquitecosmopolitan”(2003:23)subjectswholiveinthemarginalspacesofthe metropolis and along the extreme boundaries of the global systems of trade and transnational connections. It is perhaps through this contrapuntal reading of the “other cosmopolitanism” that a move towards a more equitable and glocal cosmopolitanawarenessmaybeenvisioned. 39 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ References Ahmed, S., Castañeda, C., Fortier, A‐M. and Sheller M. (eds.) (2003) Uprootings/Regroundings: Questions of Home and Migration. Oxford and NewYork:Berg. Appiah,K.A.(2006)Cosmopolitanism:EthicsinaWorldofStrangers.NewYorkand London: W.W.Norton.&Company. 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(2010) ReroutingthePostcolonial:New DirectionsfortheNewMillennium.AbingdonandNewYork:Routledge. 42 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ImaginedHomelands:FracturedDomesticitiesinDisparateHistoriesin JhumpaLahiri’sUnaccustomedEarth MariaRhodoraG.Ancheta,Ph.D DepartmentofEnglishandComparativeLiterature UniversityofthePhilippinesatDiliman This paper proposes to read Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection Unaccustomed Earth (2008) as instances of fractured domesticities and domestic fractures. This paper aims to examine how the apparently quiet, normal, routine intimate family moments and relationships Lahiri features in these stories are ways by which Bengali‐Americansexhibittheirowndiasporicsubjectivities. While the stories focus on American‐Indians living apparently affluent, upper‐ middle class American lives, the shifts in relationships, generations, and literal geographic movements could be tracked as ways to “build hybrid realizations” (cf. Katrak)ineverydaylifeasim/migranthistories,especiallyinaSouthAsiansense. Thispaperproblematizes,too,theUnitedStatesandIndiaas“imaginedhomelands”, thereby reckoning with Unaccustomed Earth’s characters not only as hybrid identities but as liminal ones, as identities negotiating transnational migrant histories and conditions for which concepts of Americandomesticity are seen as a possiblepalliative. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ In 1988, Bharati Mukherjee wrote an article in The New York Times BookReview entitled “Immigrant Writing: Give Us Your Maximalists”, and in it, Mukherjee “demand[ed] to know who speaks for ‘the new Americans’ from non‐ traditional immigrant countries” (qtd. in Rao 271). P. Mallikajurna Rao sees this question as a relevant one “in the context of mainstream American fiction which does not deal with the lives of minority Americans who have considerably altered theculturallandscapeofAmericainrecenttimes”,anddescribesMukherjeeasbeing “sourthatthesepeople,inspiteoftheir‘sophisticationandstruggleandhungerto belong’,havenotfoundaplaceinAmericanfiction”(270‐271). Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories about Indian‐Americans written some twenty‐odd yearsafterMukherjee’sphenomenalsuccesswithDarkness,Jasmine,andWifecould be seen now as a response to this question posed by Mukherjee decades earlier. JhumpaLahiri,ofcourse,“wonthePulitzerPrizerightoutofthegatewithher2000 debut collection, The Interpreter of Maladies”, and Ian McGillis, in examining her latest collection Unaccustomed Earth, states that “… Lahiri has answered the questionofwhereshecouldpossiblygofromtherebydoingbasicallymoreofthe same,onlybetter. Thesubjectshehasmadeherown‐theadjustmentpainsofBengaliswholeftIndia in the 1960s and '70s for lives of academic and professional prominence in the American northeast…” is extended now “… through a subtle and by no means 43 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ completeshiftoffocus[toanexaminationof]thelivesofthosepioneers'children, thefirst‐generationAmericans”(McGillis) UnaccustomedEarth(2008),Lahiri’scollectionofstoriesfollowingthecritical successesofTheInterpreterofMaladies(1999)andTheNamesake(2003),continues to …revisit themes concerning cultural displacement, only with a different focus. The eight stories in this collection revolve less around the dislocation Lahiri's earlier Bengali characters encountered in America and morearoundtheassimilationexperiencedbytheirchildren‐‐childrenwho, whileconsciousof,andself‐consciousabout,theirparents'old‐worldhabits, vigorously reject them in favor of American lifestyles and partners (WashingtonPost). Where earlier Indian‐American/ South Asian literary texts and narratives “dealt with issues emanating from the gap between expatriation and assimilation”(Rao271),Lahiriexploresthe“Indianness”thatisnegotiatednotnow inthebitterdislocationsofnewimmigrants,notinthetheoreticalclashesofbeliefs andtraditions,butmappedintheterrainofeverydayAmericanlife.Theprojectof thispaperisnotjusttoprovethatquestionsof“homeland”arealwaysinterwovenin hyphenated Americans’ lives, but to seek to examine how the apparently quiet, normal,routineintimatefamilymomentsandrelationshipsLahirifeaturesinthese stories are ways by which Bengali/Indian‐Americans exhibit their own diasporic subjectivities. While the stories focus now on Indian‐Americans living apparently affluent, middle/ upper‐middle class American lives, the shifts in relationships, generations, and literal geographic movements could be tracked as ways to “build hybridrealizations”(cf.Katrak)ineverydaylifeasim/migranthistories.Thismakes of these moments instances of fractured domesticities and domestic fractures, and thesemomentsoffractureandriftbecomesomuchmorepoignantwhenseeninthe lightof,orintheclarityof,specificitiesofdomesticpractices,suchasfamilyhabits, quotidianroutines,instancesthathavetowithfood‐‐‐cookingandeating,drinking, keeping house, gardening, traveling, raising children, using language to tell and exchangestories.Thesearetheactsoftheeverydayinwhichquestionsofalienation anddis‐identity,andinthispaperIshallexaminethreestoriesinwhichtheseareso poignantlywoventhroughwiththeinterrogationofhowbeingIndianintheUnited Statesnecessarilycomplicatesandindeedchangesthenatureandapprehensionof homeandhomeland. “UnaccustomedEarth”:‘Flourishinginotherbirthplaces’ ThetitlestoryinthiscollectionfocusesonRuma,thirty‐eightyear‐oldlawyer turnedstay‐at‐homemom,marriedtoanAmericanhedgefundmanager,Adam,and borntoIndianparents,thefathernowaretiredpharmaceuticalresearcherandthe mother recently deceased from what should have been a routine gallstone operation.We findinthis narrative the juxtaposition of characters of which Lahiri seems to employ so evocatively, and here, the complications of loneliness and isolationareexploredinthegenerationalriftbetweenRumaandherfather.Ruma 44 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ has decided to leave her working life and take care of her young family, her son Akashandanotherontheway,andkeephouseinSeattlewheresheandAdamhave relocated their family, and while this seems to be the logical solution‐‐‐ “…Adam’s newjobcamethrough,withasalaryenoughforhertogivenotice.Itwasthehouse that was her work now…” (Lahiri 6), this use of the house and housekeeping as retreatisreallyawaythatRumahaschosentocopewithhermother’sloss:“…After the two weeks Ruma received for bereavement, she couldn’t face going back. Overseeing her clients’ futures, preparing their wills and refinancing their mortgages,feltridiculoustoher,andallshewantedwastostayhomewithAkash, notjustThursdaysandFridaysbuteveryday”(5). The story patently focuses on Ruma’s unease with her father’s impending visittoherWashingtonhome,butthisreallyisonlypartofthewholeundercurrent ofdisconnectionwithwhichRumaisplaguedthroughoutthenarrative.Oneofher worriesishowtodealwithherfatherasadaughter,andastheownerofthisnew homethatheisvisiting.Ruma’sdistressstemstoofromfeelingsofinadequacywhen faced with her father, not having been close to him, and “never [having] spent a weekalonewithhim”(6),anindicationofthetraditionalhierarchyobservedinthe Indian households Lahiri describes in all of her stories, in which fathers are portrayed as detached heads of the families, and mothers are depicted as more involvedwiththechildren.Ruma’sanxietyalsohas,moredeeply,todowithhaving toaskherfathertolivewithherfamilynowthathermotherhaspassed,adutyto whichsheonlyhalf‐heartedlysubscribes,becauseshereally …feared that her father would become a responsibility, an added demand,continuouslypresentinawayshewasnolongerusedto.Itwould meananendtothefamilyshe’dcreatedonherown:herselfandAdamand Akash,andthesecondchild….Shecouldn’timaginetendingtoherfatheras her mother had, serving the meals her mother used to prepare. Still, not offeringhimaplaceinherhomemadeherfeelworse…”(7) This sense of duty is what remains of the “Indian” in what otherwise is an Americanwoman:“…sheknewherfatherdidnotneedtakingcareof,andyetthis veryfactcausedhertofeelguilty;inIndia,therewouldhavebeennoquestionofhis notmovingwithher…”(6;myitalics).Inthestory,Rumaisdebilitatedbyagnawing and amorphous unease that apparently only had this difficult father‐daughter relationship as its fulcrum, but I think Ruma is really suffering from a psychic bifurcationofwhichsheisunaware,oroneforwhichshehasnoname.Hermother’s deathisthecatalystofthisdepression,andwhileitappearstobeapersonalgrief, Ruma’sidentificationwithhermotherismoreprofound,asherisolationinherown home and “home state”, echoes her lack of mooring from a self that she knew intimately,ayoungerselfthattookherIndiannessforgranted.Herfatherhadsold theiroldhouseafterRuma’smother’sdeath,andthiswasahousethatRumaknew, …withtheroomshermotherhaddecoratedandthebedinwhichshe likedtositupdoingcrosswordpuzzlesandthestoveonwhichshe’dcooked, wastoobigforherfathernow.Still,thenewshadbeenshocking,wipingout hermother’spresencejustasthesurgeonhad”(6). 45 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ThiserasureofhomeextendsnowtohernewhomeinSeattle,whereherisolationis soironicallyemphasizedbyherdailytasksthataresomarkedlypartofanAmerican routine: “…having to fill the car with gas, making sure there was air in the tires. Thoughshewasgrowingfamiliarwiththeroads,withtheexitsandthemountains and the quality of the light, she felt no connection to any of it, or to anyone” (34). Herpicturesquehouse, a home so close to the lake… a large window in the living room framing the water, beyond the dining room … a screened‐in porch with an evenmorespectacularview:theSeattleskylinetotheleft,andstraightahead, the Olympic Mountains, whose snowy peaks seemed hewn from the same billowingwhiteofthecloudsdriftingabovethem…”(14), that she and Adam had begun to furnish “…slowly with …simple expensive sofas coveredwithmutedshadesofwool,long,lowbookcasesonoutwardlyturningfeet” (14), seems to have become less a showcase with her father’s visit, as Ruma, “showing it off to her father… felt self‐conscious of her successful life with Adam, and at the same time felt a quiet slap of rejection, gathering from his continued silence,thatnoneifithadimpressedhim”(15‐16). PeterSchwengercitesMerleau‐Pontyandhisnotionofchiasmus:definingit as "…a body‐world relationship… recognized, [and] there is a ramification of my bodyandaramificationoftheworldandacorrespondencebetweenitsinsideand myoutside,betweenmyinsideanditsoutside"(Schwenger).Thisparallelingofthe psycheasahouseinterior“…invadedfromthestartbystructuresrangingfromthe primal dynamics of the senses to family romances, to cultural and political assumptions,andallofthesestructuresstructur[ing]thepsycheinturn…theinside is the outside, the outside is the inside…” (Schwenger) Ruma suffers not just a rejection, as she does an estrangement‐‐‐ her identification of herself confident in the routines, the tasks, the duties, the spaces of her daily life is undercut almost phenomenologically: her personal and ethnic relationships are scrutinized now through an “experience of objects and spatial relationships”, in which enclosures (house interiors, gardens) influence the ways by which she materializes loss, growth, separation (cf. Bachelard in Schwenger). Ruma evinces an “unstable chiasmus between exterior and interior”, with “that interior betray[ing her], … narrow[ing] claustrophobically until what had been the security of enclosure became an oppressive and terrifying threat…” (Schwenger), or at the very least, a causeofemotionalupheaval. Ruma, as an adult Indian‐American woman, making a home for her family, hasalsobeguntomoveawayfromthecertaintyaffordedherbyherearliercareer, andwithherfather’svisitbeginstoacknowledgelacks,fallingshortofhervaluation of herself as a householder and as a mother: she begins to notice Akash’s stubbornness,andwhileonlythree,“…shealreadyfelttheresistance,theprofound barrier she assumed would set in with adolescence… Akash would throw himself withoutwarningontheground,thebodyshe’dnurturedinsideofherutterlyalien, hostile…”(Lahiri10).Rumaalsobeginstofeelguiltyfor 46 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ …lack[ing]thedisciplinetosticktoBengali…Bengalihadneverbeena languageinwhichshefeltlikeanadult.HerownBengaliwasslippingfromher.Her mother had been so strict, so much so that Ruma had never spoken to her in English…On the rare occasions Ruma used Bengali anymore…she tripped over the words.Andyetitwasthelanguageshehadspokenexclusivelyinthefirstyearsof herlife(13;myitalics). Akash’s youthful frankness [“I hate that food” (23)] turned him, in Ruma’s eyes, “…into the sort of American child she was always careful not to be, the sort that horrifiedandintimidatedhermother:imperious,afraidofeatingthings…”(23). Even cooking became an act fraught with a struggle to confront her Indian legacy, as her Indian cooking becomes a remembrance not just of her mother’s culinary prowess, but a description too of how this domestic task is imbued by embedded traditional expectations of an Indian homemaker even outside of India, andofhowRumaherselfhasadaptedIndiancookingtoherownAmericanneeds. Where “her mother had never cut corners; even in Pennsylvania she had run her household as if to satisfy a mother‐in‐law’s fastidious eye” (22), Ruma, when she cookedIndianfoodforAdam…couldaffordtobelazy…do[ing]awaywithmaking dalorservedsaladinsteadofachorchori…anditwasinsuchmomentsthatRuma recognized how different her experience of being a wife was” (22). Where Ruma’s mother “…had been an excellent cook… Ruma’s cooking didn’t come close, the vegetablesslicedtoothickly,thericeoverdone…”(22). LauraAnhWilliamsaverswhatJenniferHosaysabout food [being] a critical medium for compliance with and resistance to Americanization, a means for enacting the ambiguities of an Asian‐ethnic identitythatisalreadyinaconstantstateofflux… For writers, food may also function autobiographically to enact identities that are always unstable and in flux… cooking constructs a sense of identity, interrelationship, and home that is simultaneously communal and yet also highlypersonal(Williams). ThewaysbywhichRumaattemptstogetAkashtoaccustomAkashtoIndianfoodby “poach[ing] chicken and vegetables with cinnamon and cardamom” (Lahiri 23), or serving her father Darjeeling tea with milk and sugar, and a plate of Nice biscuits which he “associated deeply with his wife‐‐‐ the visible crystals of sugar, the faint coconut taste‐their kitchen cupboard always contained a box of them…” (18), are evocations of “… both home and displacement, abundance and lack, well‐stocked American cupboards as well as a certain hunger” (Williams). Williams posits that “for transplanted, racialized subjectivities, culinary practice may be a comfort as wellasabittersweetact,asurrendertopressurestoassimilateandanarticulation of difference”. Williams proceeds to comment on “Lahiri's stories often deny[ing] narrative closure, making them slightly unsettling and difficult to swallow, yet her foodways open up spaces in which marginalized identities generate a sense of agencyanddifferencewithtransformativeandproductivepotential”(Williams). 47 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ We find a parallel isolation in Ruma’s father, not only because he equally suffersthelossofhiswifeafterherdeath,butbecausehehasdealtwithimmigrant anxietythroughouthislifeinAmerica.UnlikeRuma’s,andAdam’s,attempttoshape theirSeattlehomeintoonethatwillintimatelyembodytheirhopesfortheirfamily, Ruma’s father viewed American dwellings with nervousness and worry, especially asanewimmigrantworkingonhisPh.D.inbiochemistry,rentingacheapapartment inNewJersey(cf.Lahiri28).Ruma’sfather’shistorywithhousesinAmericaisnot onemarkedbyprideofownership.TheapartmentinNewJerseywascramped,the rooms smelling of cooking, the bedrooms dreary (29), the house he eventually “…bought in the suburbs with willow trees in the backyard with rooms for [Romi and Ruma] and a basement filled with their toy [was] a flimsy structure that he always feared could burn down from the flare of a match” and “was nothing …comparedtowhereRumanowlived…”(29).ThisdismalviewofAmericanspaces isexaminedbyJudithCaesarinLahiri’sfiction,andCaesarstatesthat ifinmuchmainstreamAmericanfictionthehouseistheprisonfrom selffromwhichonemustescapetodiscoverthespiritofAmerica,inLahiri thehouseiswherethespiritofAmericaresides.Theknowledgeoftheselfis part of the spirit of America that did not expand westward but burrowed inward, a countermovement, against the stream, but part of America all the same(Caesar). AndifthisisanIndian‐AmericanvaluationofAmericaasadomesticspace,forthe immigrantIndian‐Americanfather,Americanhomesarenowonlyseenaswitnessto akindofpsychicinjury.ThiscouldbeexplainedbyTogashi’sargumentthatlooksat the process of migration as involving “injury to an immigrant's central organizing fantasyofhimselforherself,whichwasformedbeforeimmigration”(inTummala‐ Narra).WhileRuma’sfatherisafirst‐generationimmigrantand“…first‐generation immigrants’pre‐immigrationnotionsoftheadoptivecountrymayevokefeelingsof hope,excitementandanxietyrelatedtotheshapingofanewsenseofselfinanew, idealized cultural environment” (Tummala‐Narra), we find in Ruma’s father only a fractured sensibility about his stay in America. He appears to have succeeded as a workingprofessionalinAmerica,makinggoodforhimselfandhisfamily,buthelets onthathisfamilylifewasmarkedbydisaffection,feelingcondemnedandresented by Ruma, “…never telling Ruma his side of things, never saying that his wife had been overly demanding, unwilling to appreciate the life he’d worked hard to provide...”,beingreminded“…oftheearlyyearsofhismarriage,theyearsforwhich hiswifehadneverforgivenhim”(Lahiri40). Thiscouldexplainwhy he did not want to be part of another family, part of the mess, the feuds, the demands, the energy of it… he did not want to live again in an enormous house that would only fill up with things over the years, as the children grew, all the things he’d recently gotten rid of, all the books and papersandclothesandobjectsonefeltcompelledtopossess,tosave…(53) 48 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Theliteralemptinessofthehousethatheprovidedforhisfamilyistestamenttothe father’s belief in “…the deterioration that inevitably took place in the course of a marriage”andthat“…theentireenterpriseofhavingafamily,ofputtingchildrenon thisearth,asgratifyingasitsometimesfelt,wasflawedfromthestart”(54‐55). Tummala‐Narra states that immigrants have “fantasies of visiting the home country post‐immigration” as a nostalgic reconnection with an idealized known culturalenvironment”,butRuma’sfatherdoesnotharboranysuchnostalgia,ashe understands all too well the repudiation of the Indian concept of duty while one turns“American”:hesayshedoesnotexpectRuma“totakehimin”,ashehimself abandonedhisfamilybackinIndia when his own father was dying [and] when his mother was left behind... there was no question of his moving the family back to India, and also no question of his eighty‐year old widowed mother moving to Pennsylvania.Hehadlethissiblingslookafterheruntilshe,too,eventually died.(Lahiri29) WhileRuma’sfatherpaintsthisabandonmentasabetrayalonhispart,admittingat thislateperiodinhislifethat“…he…hadturnedhisbackonhisparents,bysettling inAmerica.Inthenameofambitionandaccomplishment,noneofwhichmattered anymore, he had forsaken them” (51). This the reason why India as the home country is not fantasized about as “a means of coping with the losses that accompanyimmigration”(AinslieinTummala‐Narra).Wherenostalgiafunctionsas apossiblerecapturingofanelementofone’slifeinthehomecountrytoallowoneto “temporarily reunite one with the past in fantasy” (Tummala‐Narra), the father’s clear‐ eyed but wistful and poignant realization is that this reunion is not now a possibilityandthatthroughhisownfault,hehaslefthimselfbereftoffamily,bothin the home country and in the United States, by shirking filial duty and paternal affection.His ownlocationonAmericansocietyprovidesnobufferbetweentheself and the impersonal world, no larger circles of family or friends, to validate the reality of [the] intimate relationships. The outside world is all there is beyond[his]ownsmallworldofself” (Caesar). McGillisoffersanotherperspectiveofRuma’sfather’sdistanceandisolation thatsupportstheportrayalofthefatherassolitary,andheasksifit“could…bethe modern, Westernized daughter who craves the family connection” by offering her fatheraplaceinherhome,“…whilethewidowedfather,nowfreetotravelandnot yetreadytogiveupontheideaofromance,wantstobeunencumbered?”McGillis rightlylooksatthisas“alienation…cut[ting]bothways”,andmoretragically,states that “the gap betweenthe first‐generation Americans and theirparents isinmany waysevenwiderthanthatbetweentheparents'AmericanlifeandtheIndiatheyleft behind”(McGillis).Integral,too,tothisalienationisthefather’sacceptancethatlife inAmericalackedsolidity‐‐‐inAmerica,helearnedthehardlessonthatonecannot assume anything. His wife’s death was a series of pat assumptions based on certainties: 49 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ …the assumption that the procedure would go smoothly, the assumptionthatshewouldspendonenightinthehospitalandthen returnhome,theassumptionthatfriendswouldbecomingtothehousetwo weekslaterfordinner,thatshewouldvisitFranceafterthat.Theassumption thathiswife’ssurgerywastobeaminor trial in her life and not the end of it…(Lahiri31). One site in which we see this struggle for, and reliance on, certainty and control,isinthewayRuma’sfathercultivatesgardens.Hehelps Rumalaydowna gardenduringhisvisittoherhome,andevenashejustarrivedatRuma’shome,he alreadynoticesthedismalstateofRuma’sgarden.Hewatersthedelphiniums,and pronounces that “…they won’t survive another day” (16). He surprises Ruma by going to the nursery and buying “…bags of topsoil, flats full of flowers, a shovel, a rake…ahose(43),andtransformingwhatwasbaregroundto …a modest planting, …slow‐growing myrtle… phlox under the trees, twoazaleabushes,arowofhostas,…clematis…,andinhonorofhiswife,a smallhydrangea.Inaplotbehindthekitchen,unabletoresist,healsoputina fewtomatoes,alongwithsomemarigoldsandimpatiens…hespacedoutthe delphiniums,tiedthemtostalks,stucksomegladiolabulbsintotheground. Hemissedworkingoutside,thesolidfeelingofdirtunderhisknees…(48‐49). Ruma’s father finds steady footing in planning and shaping this garden, domestic actsthatholdinabeyancethelonelinessanddistancehefeelsevenwhileonavisit withfamily.JudithCaesarwritesthatAmericanwritersdeemhousesasatropefor “…confinement within one’s ego, or confinement within a set of conventions that denyintimacy andindividuality”,and therefore the characters which inhabit these spaces look at life as located outside, not within these (cf. Bachelard in Caesar). Inside Ruma and Adam’s well‐appointed house, Ruma’s father literally and figuratively felt ambivalence and uneasiness, and outside in the garden, this unmooringisreplacedbypurposefulnessandbelonginginthiscontrolledspace. The garden is bounded space at its most specific, and Ruma’s father sees it bothasareminderoffecundityandabundance‐‐‐Ruma’sfatherfavoringavegetable garden more than he does a flower one, remembering how, when he and his wife entertained, they cooked with potatoes and other vegetables from their backyard, andhadmorethanenoughtogiveawaytofriends(49).Thegardeniscertainlyasite of productivity and fertility, and “…Ruma’s father makes provisions for the well‐ being of his bereft daughter in the only way he can: toiling in ‘unfriendly soil’” (Chakraborty). Butthisproductivityandfertilityisnowjuxtaposedagainsttheagingandcreeping decrepitude Ruma has begun to observe earlier, when her father watered Ruma’s dying plants, carrying the kettle “…slowly and carefully… taking oddly small steps, andforthefirsttimesincehisarrival[Ruma]sawthatinspiteofhiscleareyesand skin,herfatherhadbecomeanoldman”(17).Gardensandgardeningareatypical tropeforthecyclesofgrowthanddecay,butinRuma’sfather,thisnurturingspace literallybecomesonethatispoignantlyalliedtoerasureandeffacement.Evenwhile 50 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ hecultivatesandcreatesagardenforRuma,heisalreadyanticipatingitslossand death: while “the garden was coming along nicely”, he saw this as “… a futile exercise… He could not picture his daughter or son‐in‐law caring for it properly, noticingwhatneededtobedone.Inweeks…itwouldbeovergrownwithweeds,the leaveschewedupbyslugs…”(48).Thisprojectionrendershiscultivationuseless,an enterprisedoomedtofailureandforgetting.Thisultimatelyconnectstohisavowed detachmentfromthehomeandallitsdetritusinhisoldage,andparallelshislackof faithincertaintiesandsoliditiesinAmericanlife. Theincipientdisappearanceofthegardenalsoemphasizesthecycleofdeath inhisownfamily.Thehydrangeainhonorofhiswifewasatendertouch,thatRuma doesrealizeafterherfathertakeshisleave,butthegardenisasiteofmourningand losstoo,ashesaysthat“…whenhethoughtabouthisgardenwaswhenhemissed his wife most keenly” (49). We can ally this view of gardens and gardening by Ruma’s father to what Mridula Chakraborty calls the “thematics of rooting and routing…. nativeness /foreignness and hybridity, distance and parting… ultimately deathinabsentiaandcopingwiththeremainsofloss…”(Chakraborty). Finally, Ruma’s father’s apparentdistrust ofAmerican certainty and control is tacitly juxtaposed against the vagaries of fate and supernatural interventions in Indianlife,towhichwereallyseenoreferenceinRuma’sfather’sAmericanlife,thus underscoringforustheconsiderationofthefather’s“Americanness”.Duringhisvisit to Ruma’s home, he brings up the subject of Ruma’s work, and tries to pin her to returningtoit.HecouldnotunderstandRuma’snewlifetrack,andseesherdecision to wait until “the new baby starts kindergarten” (36) as a waste, and counters: “…They won’t be young forever, Ruma… then what will you do?... You’ll be over forty.Itmaynotbesosimple”(36).Ruma’sfathercontinues:“…Workisimportant, Ruma. Not only for financial stability. For mental stability… Self‐reliance is important, Ruma… Life is full of surprises. Today, you can depend on Adam, on Adam’sjob.Tomorrow,whoknows…”(38;myitalics)Thesestatementsthatevince belief in the value of work as anchor to self‐worth and self‐identity, and in self‐ reliance and independence makes of Ruma’s father more American than a green cardornaturalizationcan,becausehehastakeninthemarrowofAmericanness:the belief in work as a palliative for anything, and self‐reliance as self‐definition. This identification with the American spirit seals his uneasy transplantation to this “unaccustomedearth”. WehadnotedearlieronRuma’sfatherasbeinghimselfpsychicallyinjuredby his migration to America, but we see proof of this rift from India as “desh”, as country or nation (cf. Wiltz) withering away and becoming inscribed only by the incidenceofcolor(andatsomepointinthestoryRumaremarksthat“withhisgray hairandfairskinhecouldhavebeenpracticallyfromanywhere”[11]),ashetakes on,consciouslyornot,aninteriortransformationthatremoveshimfromIndiaand roots him in America, even while he travels to places elsewhere, other than India itself. Ruma and her father in this story negotiate a “post‐mortem” life‐‐‐ both are scarredbythemother’sdeathmorethantheycaretoadmit,orperhapsevenmore thantheyrealize,andtheirreturntothenormalciesofdomesticityandeverydaylife onlyservetohighlight“mourningwhatremainsoflosthistoriesaswellashistories 51 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ of loss” (Eng and Kazanjian in Chakraborty). Death extends so profoundly into Ruma’s and her father’s lives, not just as the bereaved, but in the injured, fissured Indian/Bengali‐American psyches they nurse: in the absence of her mother, Ruma losesananchorinherIndianheritageandappearstoskimnowonlythesurfacesof her American existence, unable to moor herself in her new life in Seattle with her youngfamily,unabletoreconnectfullywithherfather,leavingthisrelationshipto dwindle to distance and disconnection. Ruma’s father, in turn, suffers his wife’s death and with this, separation from the certainties for which he lived his life: family, heritage, nation/s. Chakraborty states that “death becomes a loss that is inseparablefromotherlossesofdiasporiclife(ofname,nation,home,language,and of the other)… [and] … becomes the locus at which immigrant life enacts its poignancyandephemerality…”.Shecontinuesthat …death…forLahiri’smigrants…end…memoryin[the]land where immigrants have been able to realize their dreams as Americans and their dreams as Indians but are unable to manage their nostalgia: the ache and longing (algos) to return home (nostos). In Lahiri’s fiction, death in the adoptedlandbecomesasiteforfixingandrootingthemigrantintohisorher adoptedcountry,aclaimfinalandirrefutable;therebyturningthequestion, “Whereareyoufrom?”into“Wherewillyoudie?”(Chakraborty) “OnlyGoodness”:thetypicalandtheterrifying Where in “Unaccustomed Earth” Lahiri explored generational dislocations, her story “Only Goodness” examines the downward spiral of fraternal bonds in Indian‐American families, complicated by the demands of “superachievement” and “upwardmobilityexpectedoftheseupper‐middleclassIndianfamilieswhichmade good in America” (McGillis). The juxtaposition of the lives of siblings Sudha and Rahul Mukherjee intersect along lines of rivalry in excellence, their excellence signalingthesuccessoftheirBengaliparents. Thisburdentoexcelispartofaninheritanceoffilialpiety,andSudha’sand Rahul’ssuccesseswerereflectionsofthesuccessoftheirBengaliparents:Sudhawas salutatorian of her high school class (Lahiri 130), “…studied diligently, double‐ majoring in economics and math…”, later “…getting a master’s in international relations”(129),thentoLondon,togeta“secondmaster’sattheLondonSchoolof Economics”(132).Theseareoutstandingqualifications,butherbrotherRahulwas deemed to be more admirable‐‐‐ where Sudha “only” went to Pennsylvania, Rahul gotaplaceatCornell;where“Sudha…struggledtokeepherplaceonthehonorroll”, “…Rahul never lifted a finger, never cracked a book unless it appealed to him, precocious enough to have skipped third grade” (130). This was a game of one‐ upmanship,butwhilethesewillhavecatastrophicconsequences laterinthestory, we are seeing these scholastic feats, and the later rebellion and descent to mediocrity, on Sudha’s and Rahul’s parts, as filial responses to a sad kind of parenting that not only demanded perfection, but one that abetted this rivalry. SudhaandRahul’sBengaliparentswereimmigrantstoAmericafromLondon,andin America“foryears,theyhadcompared[SudhaandRahul]tootherBengalichildren, 52 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ told about gold medals brought back from science fairs, colleges that offered full scholarships”(129).SudhaandRahul’sfather …clip[ped]newspaperarticlesaboutunusuallygiftedadolescents‐‐the boywhofinishedaPhDattwenty,thegirlwhowenttoStanfordattwelve‐‐‐ and tape[d] them to the refrigerator. When Sudha was fourteen her father hadwrittentoHarvardMedicalSchool,requestedanapplication,andplaced itonherdesk(129‐130). This desire for perfection used the totems of success‐‐‐ medals, advertisements, applicationforms‐‐‐ as a carrot‐and‐stick method to keep Sudha and Rahul intow. The visible artifacts were meant to encourage the siblings to excel, but these also were approved standards the parents tacitly indicated as acceptable qualifications not just to arrive at American success, but to court a favorable place in their affections. This is a logical assumption here, given the way Rahul was prized by the parents, more than Sudha was: “They bragged about [Rahul’s] school, more impressed by it than they’d been with Penn” (129), they “threw a party, inviting nearlytwohundredpeople,…boughtRahulacar,justifyingitasanecessityforhis life in Ithaca” (129). With Rahul’s acceptance to Cornell, their parents pontifically pronounced“Ourjobisdone”(129),asthoughSudha’ssuccesseswereatrialrunfor thisultimateprize. ThisinequalityinthewaySudhaandRahulweretreatedcanalsobeseenina patheticdismissaloftheyoungSudha,who,whenhermotherwasundergoingbirth pains in their Boston house, tried to comfort her mother, only to be rebuffed and told,“Goaway!...Idon’twantyoutoseemethisway…”,“…inatonethathadstung” (134).AmongSudha’s“firstsustainedmemoryofherlife”atagesix,wasbeingleftat thehomeofherparents’Bengalifriendsastheywenttohospitalforherbrother’s birth,“…Sle[eping]onacotinaspareroomcontainingnopermanentfurnitureother thananironingboardandaclosetdevotedtocleaningsupplies”(133‐134),having “no Frosted Flakes for her to eat, only toast with margarine…” (134). These memoriesofphysicalandemotionalprivationareconcretizedby,andin,domestic spacesandobjects,andwhilethesememoriesmaybeseenastrivialandchildish,do formindelibleimprintsthatshapedSudha’srelationshipwithherparentsprimarily asauthorityfigures. Sudha’s familial status, and the way she is treated by her parents, is also sealedandcomplicatedbyherparents’ownmigrationexperiences.Wespokeofan imprinting of loss, rejection, and detachment in Sudha’s early life, but in the same mannerthatwealliedthislackintheirAmericanlifetohermemoriesofdomestic occasions [parties] and loci [empty tables, bare cupboards] and objects [washers and dryers] (cf. 134), we note that there already are patterns of experiencing this privationasinterwovenintotheirfamilylifeasnewIndianimmigrantsinLondon, where“…halftherentals…inthesixtiessaidWHITESONLY…”(135),where“noneof Sudha’s toys …made it on the journey across the Atlantic; no baby clothing or 53 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ beddingorkeepsakeofanykind”,wherethefewbabypicturesshehadweretaken bytheirBengalilandlordinBalham,namedMr.Pal(134‐135). Inconsequence,SudhawasdrawntoAmericanhomes,“…crammedandpiled withthings…”(134),andwithRahul’sarrivalsoughttorecreatethisnurtureofher brotherbyequatingthiswithabundanceanddisorder,revelingin …his lotions and diapers heaped on top of the dresser, stockpots clatteringwithboilingbottlesonthestove…movingherthingstoonesideto make space in her bedroom for Rahul’s bassinet, his changing table, his mobile of stuffed bumblebees… stuffed white rabbit… countless photographs…(134‐135). In addition to this preference as thought‐patterning, Sudha saw in objects the conveyance andtheaffirmationofanAmericanstatus,as,inlookingoutforRahul, “…she was determined that her little brother should leave his mark as a child in America”(136;myitalics).SheensuredthistransformationtoAmericannessnotby wayofverbalexplanations,butbywayofartifactualconfirmation: …Shesoughtoutalltherighttoysforhim,scavengingfromyardsales the Fisher Price barn, Tonka trucks, the Speak and Say that made animal sounds, and other things that she’d discovered in the playrooms of friends….askedherparentstobuyhimthebooksshe’dbeenreadbyherfirst teachers,PeterRabbitandFrogandToad…”(136). This adherence to American life by way of underscoring identification with this newnation as home is emphasized by the patronage of objects valorized by the society,whosebrandnamesaremetonymiciconsthatsignalpleasureandaffluence. These are assisted by Sudha’s move to provide for Rahul an entry to American traditions‐‐‐ marking the seasons with the appropriate appliances and accoutrements:askingherparentstoasemblelawnsprinklersandswingsetsforthe summer, “elaborate Halloween costumes, turning [Rahul] into an elephant or a refrigerator,whilehershadcomefromboxes…”(136). Sudha’sturntoAmericanobjectsandpractices,andherassenttostandards of success set by her Indian parents, which are seen as primary necessities to assimilate in American life, may also explain the way Sudha is treated by her parents, in contrast to the indulgence with which Rahul is dealt. The parents’ apparent disregard of Sudha’s struggle for excellence, taking this matter‐of‐factly, the almost maternal concern Sudha has taken to exercising over Rahul, are manifestationsof“shiftsinstatusandaffiliation”that“canbehighlydisorganizingto one's sense of identity, both for children and adolescents”, as they “did not have a choiceinthedecisiontorelocatetoanewcountry”Tummala‐Narra).Thismannerof locatingandre‐locatingone’ssenseofselfpalliatesloss …commonly experienced by immigrants, including separation from family and friends; reduced access to language, cultural conventions, food, places of worship, familiar objects and social surroundings; and climate changes. These losses are especially salient for non‐European immigrants. 54 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ They may experience hostility in the new, adoptive country, which imposes new social categories… in the United States (Comas‐Diaz qtd. in Tummala‐ Narra). WenotedearlierhowSudhasufferedinanunfaircomparisonwithRahul,andwith otherBengali‐AmericanchildrenintheUS,butonewaytolookatthistreatmentis to realize, too, that migrant parents “…must engage in a process of cultural adjustment simultaneous with that of their children” and that they are forced to adopt“newsetsofrulesandstandardsinthenewcountry”(Tummala‐Narra).This createsmisgivingsanddoubtsaboutchangesinbeliefsandpracticestheimmigrant hastoaccepttobeabletoassimilatein“mainstreamsociety”,thusresultingin,and repudiating, “immigration‐induced anomie” (Mendlovic et al qtd in Tummala‐ Narra). Thenarratormademuchoftheparents’difficultlifeinBerlinandLondon,in whichtheywere“…uprootedadventurersfromIndiawhoarriveinAmericareadyto work hard and become assimilated… cling[ing] to beloved cultural traditions but heartily embrac[ing] the Western world's wondrous opportunities for happiness and success” (USA Today). In America, however, “… they were stuck…aware that theyfacedalifesentenceofbeingforeign…InWayland,theybecamepassive,wary, the rituals of small‐town New England more confounding than negotiating two of theworld’slargestcities”(Lahiri130). SudhaandRahul’sparentsrespondedtothechallengesofimmigrationby“… [relying] on their children, on Sudha especially” (130). Sudha became the family’s conduittoAmericanlife,“…explain[ing]toherfatherthathehadtogatherupthe leavesinbags,notjustdragthemwithhisraketothewoodsoppositethehouse…” (138), “…she, with her perfect English, who called the repair department at Lechmeretohavetheirappliancesserviced”(130).Sudhaappearstohavetakenon astrangestatusintheirhome:sheisachildofIndianparentsandobediencefrom her was an expectation, but she is also the liminal, unbound character here, living now in between Indian and American worlds, negotiating “'culture shock' and discontinuity of identity” (Garza‐Guerrero in Tummala‐Narra), “…disorganization, pain, frustration…” (Grinberg and Grinberg in Tummala‐Narra) in the vagaries of contemporary everyday life, and thus taking on a strangely equitable and sympathetic role in this Indian‐American family’s life. She “regarded her parents’ separation from India as an ailment that ebbed and flowed like a cancer“(Lahiri 128), inwhich, she has become some kind ofwilling and necessaryconduit. Rahul has no such sympathetic gaze for these immigrant woes, pragmatically, if disrespectfully, stating that “’…no one dragged them here… Baba left India to get rich,andMamarriedhimbecauseshehadnothingelsetodo’”(138). One review of Lahiri’s UnaccustomedEarth puts loss at the center of these stories (USA Today), and the earlier part of this reading focuses on parenting and child‐rearing,adaptationstomigration,asdomesticbackdropstothisstoryofloss. Thisstory,though,whileachronicleofSudha’scontinuousworktowardscholastic andprofessionalexcellence,isalsoachronicleofRahul’sslideintoalcoholismand 55 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ obscurityasanAmerican.WearesurprisedatRahul’sdissipationofthisAmerican promise,hisdescenttomediocrityaresultofalcoholism,whichLeeMhatrenotesis aproblemrarelydiscussedinIndianfamilies,orinliterature(Mhatre). Thenarrative’sinnocuousbeginning,SudhainnocentlyintroducingRahulto alcohol,first“fromakeg”(Lahiri128),andlatertosecretpurchasesofsix‐packsat the local liquor store (128), already foregrounds Rahul’s tragedy, and Sudha’s complicityinit.Sudha’ssporadicvisitstothefamilyhomeinbetweenhercollege studies saw her initially strengthening her bond with Rahul by indulging his requests for her to do the liquor store runs in the beginningand later, unwillingly keepingthesecretofthisimbibing,“anadolescentconspiracybetweenbrotherand sister” (McGillis). But Rahul’s drinking spirals out of control, and Rahul at Cornell beginstogetC’s,andthenisfinallyexpelledashisaddictiontoalcoholescalates,and heloseshisinterestinstudying.He“drift[s]inandoutwithoutexplanation…waiting tablesparttimeataseafoodrestaurant”(Lahiri139),later“managingaLaundromat inWayland…”(151).Sudhawatchedhelplesslyasherbrothermaintainedastateof sullen denial. Not only did Rahul live at home, he became the focus of Bengali community gossip, who “…prayed their own children would not ruin their lives in thesameway”(151),theposterboyfor …what all parents feared, a blot, a failure, someone who was not contributing to the grand circle of accomplishments Bengali children were makingacrossthecountry,assurgeonsandattorneys,orwritingarticlesfor thefrontpageofTheNewYorkTimes(151). Lee Mhatre focuses only on the cluelessness of the Indian parents of their son’sproblem,butMcGillisrightlyremarksonthe“shameofunderachievementand alcoholism”asbeing“alltheworseforbeingplayedoutinacommunityunequipped to acknowledge it, let alone deal with it (McGillis). Here, the Bengali community’s views are a verbalization of what Sudha and Rahul’s parents tried to avoid, the inutilityofthetransplantedIndianmigrant,towhichnowRahulhasbeenledbyhis alcoholicexcesses.Hisparents,aswellasBengalicommunity,seeRahul’sproblemas a result of “too many freedoms, too much having fun… life wasn’t about fun…” (Lahiri143),andnotasadiseaseofwhichheneededtobecured.AndwhileRahul’s failures are explained here within Indian discourse, we should not forget that this failure and the chronicle of this addiction and its effects exist within a white dominantculturewhoseexpectationofindividualsofcolorarenolessstringentor judgmental. Rahul’s self‐destruction influences and creates its own community of loss, too,andSudha,andherparents,becomethecasualtiesofRahul’slackofcontrol.His parents suffer from their “…refusal to accommodate such an unpleasant and alien fact, [the] need to blame America and its laws instead of [their] son… In their opiniontheirchildrenwereimmunefromthehardshipsandinjusticestheyhadleft behind in India…” (144‐145), and Rahul’s defiance is, for them, a consequence of Americanization and a betrayal of their belief that America would make them prosper.Rahul’salcoholicparanoiaruinsSudha’sweddingtotheEnglishmanRoger byquarrelingwiththeirfatheratthereception,andgivingreintohisdespisionof 56 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thismiddle‐classlife,andifhewerehonest,ofhimself,and“..Sudhacouldnotforgive Rahul for what had happened, those dreadful minutes he stood at the microphone the only thing she remembered when she looked at the photographs of her reception…”(158). His departure and self‐imposed disappearance meant rupturing this family, andmoreparticularly,hisfraternalalliancewithSudha.Whenhedoesresurface,he appears to have been cured of his addiction, and to have cleaned up and turned a new leaf over. He also tries to reconnect with Sudha and finally apologizes to her, andfindshersettledinLondonwithanewbaby.SudhawelcomesRahulbackinto herandhernewfamily’slife,andwhileinLondon,RahulhelpsSudhatakecareof her baby Neel, brings Neel to the zoo, cooks for Sudha and Roger. And just when RogerandSudhabegintotrusthim,andSudhaappearstogetoverherdoubtsabout his sobriety, Rahul slips monumentally and drinks himself to stone‐cold oblivion, after he offered to babysit, and let Sudha and her husband enjoy anight out.They returntothehousetofindNeelsittinginatubofwater,leftbyhimselfindangerof drowning,andRahulpassedoutininebriation.Thisdestroyswhateverrelationship SudhaandRahulhadrebuilt,andasSudhaexpelsRahulfromherhome,shesuffers from the irreparable fracture of this fraternal bond. Even more profoundly, she suffersfromthederangementofherhome, notonlybecauseofthefrightoverthe near‐disastertheyfacedwhichRahul’salcoholismcaused,butbecausethedirestof these problems is the “…husband who no longer trusted her, … the son whose cry nowinterruptedher,…thefledglingfamilythathadcrackedopenthatmorning,as typicalandasterrifyingasanyother”(173).Sudha’sreturntohereverydayfamilial lifeafterRahul’sunforgivablelapseismarkednotbyfamiliaritywiththeknownbut bythecreationofasceneofunrecognizableterror.Thefinalsceneofthenarrative shows her “… taking out a packet of Weebix, heat[ing] milk in pan… clip[ping a balloon’s] ribbon with scissors and stuff[ing] the whole thing into the garbage…” (173). Sudha is oppressed by thisterror as her knownworld explodes, juxtaposed againstthedemandsofhousekeepingandchild‐rearing.Theclippingoftheballoon’s ribbon,theballoonamementotheirzoovisit,appearstobeamindlesstask,butthis is really all that is left of Rahul’s possibility of salvation‐‐‐ perhaps a fake rehabilitation,goodintentions,achanceforamendment.Theballoonsymbolizesthe normalcy of solvency, of sobriety, of family, versus a concatenation of losses in Rahul’s,andnow,Sudha’s,life. IpositthatpartofSudha’slossisalsoonethatrelatestoourearliervaluation ofherhabitofnurture,first,ofRahul,andnowofNeel.Allthecaresheexpendedon Rahulwasrenderedmootbecauseofwhatsheseesasaslackeningofherjudgment and her betrayal by Rahul’s weakness. But she herself, ironically, was the cause of Rahul’saddictiontoalcohol,andthisreflexiveguiltisalsopartofthisloss(sheasks him:“IsIme?[172]).This“traininginmothercraft”thatisnecessary“becauseitis onlythroughthisthatmotherswillbeabletoprovide[us]withidealcitizens(Verma inThapar‐Björkert),soobviouslyfeltshortinthissituation.ThatRahulendedupa menace to their family exhibited her own failure as a mother, so evident in the dangerinwhichsheputNeel,howeverinadvertently. 57 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ShankarandSrikanthspeakofthe“desperatelonelinessandalienationofthe postcolonial immigrant…who can no longer live in the native homeland, and yet despondently searches for new communities…” (379). In Rahul this takes onmore interiorand smaller circles, as he attempts to rediscover the lostself in the native “homeland”,notthegeographicalIndia,butIndiaandAmericainthetopographyof memory and community in the form of Sudha, and now his nephew Neel and brother‐in‐lawRoger.HisreconnectionwithhissisterSudhaisan“imaginedreturn home”, and while he is not a first‐generation Indian immigrant, he is not immune from“thelongingforhomethatareessentialtounderstandingimmigrants'identity transformations.Thislongingforhomeisworkedthroughinanimmigrant'sactual visits to the home country and re‐creation of home in the adoptive country” (Tummala‐Narra).InRahul,asasecond‐generationIndian‐American,wecanargue thatthe“homecountry”isreallytheUnitedStates,butthehomecountryforRahulis a composite of American and Indian traditions, practices, spaces, acts, and visiting Sudha is a “re‐creation” of this home. His betrayal of this community meant exploding all fantasies he has of home and adoptive country, and a severing of all tiestohomeandidentity.(cf.Tummala‐Narra). Conclusion Jasbir Puar speaks of the “…South Asian other’s identity…as directly oppositional to white culture‐‐‐‐defined not by the self but by the dominant white other”(130).InreadingJhumpaLahiri’sshortstories,theoppositionbetweenIndia astheoldhomelandandtheUnitedStatesastheadoptiveandadoptedlandseems tometobemorefraught.IadoptPuar’sdefinitionofthefirst‐generationimmigrant SouthAsianwomanasonewhoseidentificationis“primarilywith…birthplace”,and the second‐generation “… is completely and directly ‘identified” by relational discourses of difference‐‐‐ white/black… East/West… timid/independent… freedom/security”(130).Itisinthissecond‐generationofIndian‐Americans/South Asians in the US that we find complicated intersections of just what constitutes “home”. I posit that the characters that we have seen in these stories‐‐‐ Ruma and her father, Sudha and Rahul ‐‐‐have to contend with Indianness within familiar, domestic sites, because the selves of color, the immigrant selves that provide the oppositionherearenowalsothemselves‐‐‐theyarethemselves“thedominantwhite other”,evenwhileassecond‐generationimmigrants,theydo“…navigateboththe traditionalvaluesoftheirimmigrantparentsandthemainstreamAmericanvalues oftheirpeers”(Chotiner). Lahiriadmitstowritingabout“…growingupbrownand"foreign"inatown where white was the predominant theme had its challenges. There was the persistent feeling of other, not American enough, not Indian enough, of constantly straddling fences, stretching identities”(Wiltz), but we also ironically note in these storieshow“Indianness”seemedtobeerasedintheapparentlyordinary,therefore “universal”, “white” dilemmas. Indeed, in examining Abraham Verghese’s memoir aboutbeinganIndiandoctorinruralKentucky,ShankarandSrikanthcometothis view: 58 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ An immigrant who is a doctor, who plays tennis, drives a Datsun Z, and who accompanies his wife, however reluctantly, to look for a house to purchaseisnotthestuffofoppositionalliterature.Verghesedoesnotfitthe roleofanethnicvictim,adeprivedracialbeing…”(382). M.K.Naik,innotingthealienationofthecontemporaryIndianpoetinEnglish, statesthattheIndianwriterinEnglishsuffersfromalienationnotonlybecausehe writesinEnglish,becausehefindshimselffarremovedfrom“thevastruralmasses but also with traditional religious and cultural beliefs and values”, and “mostly belongstotheurbanorsemi‐urbanmiddleclass”(76)Wemayextendthistowriting by second‐generation Indian immigrants like Lahiri, who peoples her stories with “ordinary”Indian‐Americans,whohavetogotowork,whostudyandgetadvanced degreesinurbanorsemi‐urbancenters,whose“Asian‐Americanness”doesnotliein “bitterness and anger in a kind of political activist model” (Hongo in Shankar and Srikanth382).ItisatthiscruxthatwefindthevalueofLahiri’simaginationofthe Indian‐American’shomelandnotnowintheovertstrugglesbetweengeographiesof belonging,butinthere‐view,andare‐focusoftheeverydayandofthedomesticas sites of identity creation and affirmation, moving away from the “too‐easy implementationofmulticulturalism”(Palumbo‐LiuinShankarandSrikanth383). Sucheta Mazumdar in her afterword to Contoursof theHeart (1996), asks: “DoesmyidentityhavetobeconstructedbywhatIhaveinheritedandnotbywhatI havestruggledtomakeofmyself?AmIdoublydoomedbymygenesandcountryof origin?…”(inShankarandSrikanth383).Indelineatingthelivesofmiddle‐classor elite, educated Indian‐Americans, Lahiri complicated the ways by which we could understandtheIndian‐Americanexperience,andthussherespondstothisquestion by Mazumdar by painting “homelands” and “heartlands” as imagined spaces. In Lahiri’sstories,wefindapowerfulcomplicationoftheIndian‐Americanexperience by portraying these lives as firmly entrenched withineverydaypractices, in which domestic acts, traditions, artifacts interrogate the interstices of these disparate historiesandexperiences. WorksCited: 1.Caesar,Judith."AmericanSpacesInTheFictionOfJhumpaLahiri." EnglishStudiesInCanada31.1(2005):50‐68.AcademicSearchComplete. Web.29Oct.2012. 2.Chakraborty,MridulaNath."LeavingNoRemains:DeathAmongTheBengalis InJhumpaLahiri'sFiction."SouthAtlanticQuarterly110.4(2011): 813‐829.AcademicSearchComplete.29Oct.2012. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=67238720&si te=ehost‐live 3.Chotiner,Isaac.“JhumpaLahiri”TheAtlanticMagazine.April2008:n.p.Accessed29 October2012.Chakraborty,MridulaNath."LeavingNoRemains:DeathAmongThe Bengalis InJhumpaLahiri'sFiction."SouthAtlanticQuarterly110.4(2011): 59 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 813‐829.AcademicSearchComplete.Web.29Oct.2012. <!‐‐AdditionalInformation: Persistentlinktothisrecord(Permalink): http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=67238720&si te=ehost‐livehttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/04/jhumpa‐ lahiri/306725/ 4.Lahiri,Jhumpa.UnaccustomedEarth.NY:Knopf,2008.Print. 5.McGillis,Ian."AlienationcanCutbothWays;JhumpaLahiri'sStoriesFocuson Immigrants'Children."TheGazetteApr052008ProQuestCentral. PROQUESTMS.29Oct.2012 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/434637353?accountid=141440>. 6.Memmott,Carol.“Lahirileavesno'Earth'untilled”.ReviewofUnaccustomedEarth.USA Today.Section:Life,5d.2008.AccessedOct29,2012. http://support.ebsco.com/help/?int=ehost&lang=&feature_id=MLA 7.Mhatre,Lee."UnaccustomedEarth."Confrontation102/103(2008):202‐205.Academic SearchComplete.29Oct.2012. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=36315373&si te=ehost‐live 8.Naik,M.K.StudiesinIndianEnglishLiterature.NewDelhi:SterlingPublishers,1987.Print. 9.Puar,JasbirK.“ResituatingDiscoursesof‘Whiteness’and“Asianness’inNorthern England:Second‐generationSikhWomenandConstructionsofIdentity”NewFrontiers inWomen’sStudies:Knowledge,Identity,andNationalism.MaryMaynardandJune Purvis,eds.London:Taylor&Francis,1996.127‐150.Print. 10.Rao,P.Mallikarjuna.“BetweenExpatriationandAssimilation:AStudyofBharati Mukherjee’sJasmine”IndianFictioninEnglish.P.MallikarjunaRaoandM.Rajeshwar NewDelhi:AtlanticPublishers,1999,270‐278.Print. 11.Schwenger,Peter."OutsidetheInterior."EnglishStudiesinCanada31.1(2005):1‐9. ProQuestCentral.PROQUESTMS.29Oct.2012 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/205833387?accountid=141440>. 12.Shankar,LavinaDhingraandRajiniSrikanth.“SouthAsianLiterature:‘OfftheTurnpike’ ofAsianAmerica”PostcolonialTheoryandtheUnitedStates:Race,Ethnicity,and Literature.AmritjitSinghandPeterSchmidt,eds.Mississippi:UofMississippiP,2000, 370‐387.Print. 13.Thapar‐Björkert.“Gender,ColonialismandNationalism:WomenActivistsinUttar Pradesh,India”NewFrontiersinWomen’sStudies:Knowledge,Identity,and Nationalism.MaryMaynardandJunePurvis,eds.London:Taylor&Francis,1996. 203‐219.Print. 14.Tuck,Lily."ExilesonMainStreet;Cultures‐‐andFamilies‐‐ClashinJhumpaLahiri's NewStoryCollection."TheWashingtonPostApr062008:WBK.6.ProQuestCentral. PROQUESTMS.29Oct.2012 15.Tummala‐narra,Pratyusha."TheImmigrant'sRealandImaginedReturnHome." Psychoanalysis,CultureandSociety14.3(2009):237‐52.ProQuestCentral. PROQUESTMS.29Oct.2012. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/216519169?accountid=141440>. 60 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 16.Williams,LauraAnh."FoodwaysandSubjectivityinJhumpaLahiri'sInterpreter ofMaladies."MELUS32.4(2007):69,79,156.ProQuestCentral.PROQUESTMS. 29Oct.2012 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/203692529?accountid=141440>. 17.Wiltz,Teresa.“TheWriterWhoBeganWithaHyphen:JhumpaLahiri,Between TwoCultures”WashingtonPost.October8,2003:C01.29October2012.< http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp‐dyn/A59256‐ 2003Oct7?language=printer> 61 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Friday23rdNovember2012(09.00–12.30) SessionThree: IndianGod(desse)sofSmall(andSmaller Things):MythicalFiguresas/andtheSubaltern 62 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Re/coveringtheSubalternSubjectinIndianFictionTexts: MahaswetaDevi,‘PhoolanDevi’andArundhatiRoy CarmenWickramagamage DepartmentofEnglish UniversityofPeradeniya Peradeniya SriLanka. SincethepublicationofGayatriSpivak’sarticle,“CantheSubalternSpeak?”,interest hasintensifiedinthequestionsheraisesregardingsubalternspeechinthatarticle. AlthoughSpivak’spiececameinthewakeofaninterventionthatsoughttohighlight theneglectedaspectofgenderinthewritingsofIndianhistoriansofthesubaltern studiescollective,1thepieceremainstodateoneofthemostinfluentialwithregard to writings on the post‐colony, where the nexus between literature and socially transformative praxis remains strong despite cautionary remarks by theorists like Aijaz Ahmad à la Frederic Jameson on assuming too neat a fit between literary representation and nation‐state politics in so‐called Third World literatures.2 Spivak’s question regarding subaltern speech is deceptively simple: given the fact thatallattemptsatrepresentingthesubalternarejustthat,i.e.,representations/re‐ presentations, how does the elite intellectual who is passionate about bringing people pushed to the peripheries of structures of power, both socio‐economic and discursive, make room for the voice consciousness of the subaltern? Spivak’s answer to the question that she herself raises—Can the Subaltern Speak?‐‐is howevernowherenearasclear,notclear,maybe,partlybecauseoftheopaqueness ofthewritingsheiscelebratedfor.Soshesaysinthefinalparagraphtotheessay: “Thesubalterncannotspeak.Thereisnovirtueingloballaundrylistswith‘woman’ asapiousitem.Representationhasnotwitheredaway.Thefemaleintellectualhas acircumscribedtaskwhichshemustnotdisownwithaflourish”(104). Thisstatement,despiteitsseeminglyunambiguousassertionoftheimpossibilityof subalternspeech,isreallynotthatfinal.Thoughthefirstsentencelaysoutasimple ‘no,shecannotspeak,’Spivakgoesontoqualifythatbleaknegationinwhatfollows. First,sheprovidesareasonwhythesubalterncannotspeak:representationhasnot witheredaway.Shethenposesachallengetotheelitefemaleintellectual:shehasa “circumscribed task” vis‐à‐vis the subaltern that must not be disowned with a flourish. We need therefore to navigate back from these final lines into the dense 1 The basic outline of her argument can be found in the introduction, titled “Subaltern Studies: DeconstructingHistoriography,”thatshewritesforthevolumeofsubalternstudiesessaysselected andeditedbyRanajitGuhaandSpivak(SeeSelectedSubalternStudies,NewYork:OxfordUniversity Press,1988,3‐35).Itisherethatshefirstintroducesthedifferencethatgendermakestosubaltern experience.Itisfleshedoutinherlandmarkessay“CantheSubalternSpek?” 2Theno‐holds‐barredcritiquebyAijazAhmedofFredericJameson’sarticle“ThirdWorldLiterature intheEraofMultinationalCapital”istoowellknowntorepeathere.Thosewhoarenotprivytothis exchange,seeFredericJamesonin“ThirdWorldLiteratureintheEraofMultinationalCapital,”Social Text,15(Fall1986): 65‐88andAhmed’sresponsein“James’RhetoricofOthernessandtheNationalAllegory,”SocialText, No.17(Autumn,1987),pp.3‐25. 63 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thicketsofSpivak’sargumentinprevioussectionsoftheessayinordertofigureout whatshemeansbytheimpossibilityofsubalternspeechandthecircumscribedtask that female intellectuals must not eschew. First of all, her determination that the subaltern cannot speak is made in the context of her remarks on two French philosophers, Foucault and Deleuze, who despite doing pioneering work in deconstructing the myth or illusion of the Sovereign Subject of the West, nevertheless exempt the “worker” or “the anonymous subject in revolution” from thiscritique.FromwhatDeleuzeandFoucaultsayin“Conversation,’themassesare NOTdebilitatedinspeechorself‐expressionbytheroleofideologythatreducethe Sovereign Subject of the West to merely “pluralized subject effects.” So they say, accordingtoSpivak:“themassesknowperfectlywell,clearly...theyknowfarbetter than [the intellectual] and they certainly say it very well” (69). In her critical intervention,Spivakadmitstobeingsurprisedatthe“unquestionedvalorizationof theoppressedassubject”implicitinsuchstatementsandthe“willedignorance”that fails to acknowledge the “role of ideology in reproducing the social relations of production” (69) which make the self‐aware and sovereign subject equally impossibleforthesubalternitisfortheeliteintellectual.Highlightingthe“limitsto representational realism” which prevent any theorist, however, benevolent, from capturingthe“reality”ofthe“other”,beitworker,criminalortheinsane,inmodes of expression, Spivak insists that the radical critic attend to the double session of representation: representation as proxy or speaking for and representation as re‐ presentation, for which her example is a portrait (71), which makes access to the purevoice‐consciousnessofthesubalternanelusive,ifnotimpossible,pursuit. But does this mean that, to return to the question with which we began, that the subalterncannotspeakandthatattemptsbyeliteintellectualsandactiviststoenter intoatransactionwithherisfutile?Spivakdoesnotfullyruleoutthepossibilityof subalternspeech,whichhingesonthewillingnessofeliteintellectualandwriterto speakto“thehistoricallymutedsubjectofthesubalternwoman[orman]”3.Sheonly makes it a far more risky and tortuous enterprise or quest as evident from two examples of subaltern speech she cites: one, the phenomenon of subaltern insurrections against British rule in colonial India and, two, the case of Bhuvaneswari Bhaduri, the Bengali female insurgent, who worked with the Indian NationalArmy[INA]againstBritishruleinIndia.Firstofall,citingRanajitGuha’s writings on the insurgent subaltern of colonial India,4Spivak refuses to see the Subaltern as an ‘essence,’ seeing him/her as essentially the “demographic difference” between the total population of a particular region or context and the elite—a status that makes the “subaltern subject … irretrievably heterogeneous” (79).Ifthesubalternisanirretrievabledifferenceandnotanessenceandifaccess to her consciousness is always mediated, never pure, how does the benevolent intellectualevertouchbasewiththesubaltern?Basingherselfontribalrebellions 3ToquoteGayatriSpivakinfull:“Inseekingtolearntospeakto(ratherthanlistentoorspeakfor) the historically muted subject of the subaltern woman, the postcolonial intellectual systematically ‘unlearns’femaleprivilege”(“CantheSubalternSpeak?”91). 4SheisreferringhereessentiallytoGuha’sanalysisoftheSantal[whichisatribeinIndia]rebellion duringthe British colonial period in his essaytitled “The Prose of Counter‐Insurgency” included in SelectedSubalternStudies,Ed.GuhaandSpivak,pp.45‐89. 64 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ during the British colonial period, Spivak suggests that the intellectual see the “utterance” of the ‘sender’, in this instance the subaltern, in the ‘elaborations of insurgency, where the text of insurgency serves as a “counterpossibility” or as a pointer, never as a proxy, to the irretrievably lost or heterogeneous subaltern consciousness(82).5AsimilarpointismadeinrelationtoBhuvaneswariBhaduri, theBengaliinsurgent,whereagainSpivakcautionsthereaderagainstseeingher“as amodelofinterventionistpractice,”butonlyasan“example” that“illuminatesthe socialtextinhoweverhaphazardaway”(103).BhuvaneswariBhadurikillsherself. Whatmadehertakeherownlifehoweverremainsobscuretodate,thoughmultiple theoriesofhersuicidehavebeenfloated.Allthatisknownisthatshewaitedtillthe onset of menstruation to kill herself, thus eliminating at least one obvious speculationaboutherdeath:outcomeofillicitpassion(103).Thus,whiletheexact reason for her death, hence perfect access to the gendered subaltern’s consciousness,willforevereludeus,herseemingintentiontodelaysuicidetillthe onsetofmenstruationpointsinhoweverimperfectawaytowardsthepresenceofa gendered subaltern consciousness because Bhaduri appears to have wanted to eliminate one obvious reason for her death. It is these pointers to or traces of subaltern being or consciousness that the elite intellectual will ever have, never unmediated access to subaltern consciousness. Keeping Spivak’s cautionary remarksonthepossibilityofsociallyengagedeliteintellectualsconnectingwiththe subaltern in mind, in what follows, I look at texts by three Indian women authors ArundhatiRoy,“PhoolanDevi”[theauto/biographicalsubject]andMahaswetaDevi thatsignifyanobviousdesiretoilluminatethecounter‐possibilitythatissubaltern consciousness, attending at the same time to unforeseen pitfalls that, rather than “recover” subaltern speech, may instead foreclose that possibility due to the mediatorymechanismsofideologyortextualconventions. ArundhatiRoy’sTheGodofSmallThingsiswithoutdoubtgivenovertotherecovery ofsubalternconsciousnessandpraxis,boththematicallyandintermsofstructure, as seen from the way the novel revolves around the tragic saga involving several subalternpairs:RahelandEstha,thetwins,andAmmuandVelutha.Firstofall,the retrospective narrative (which is given over to the recovery and reconstruction of whatreallyhappenedbackthen)notonlyawaitsthereturnofthenow‐adulttwo‐ eggtwins,itenshrinesasitsfinalepisodethetransgressivelovebetweenAmmuand Velutha, thus dissociating or shielding the rememoration of that love from its terrible aftermath. The naaley or “tomorrow” with which the story ends thus steadfastlyrefusestodeclareitselfonthesideofcautionagainstthosewhoviolate ancient love‐laws, holding out instead the hope of a yet another tryst between the lovers on the morrow that refuses to calculate consequences. At the heart of the ancient love laws that declare their union taboo are caste laws regarding touchability‐‐asysteminwhichVeluthaandAmmutoohadplayedtheirrolesinthe early years by exchanging gifts without touching. In contrast is the final scene of love‐making where Velutha and Ammu uninhibitedly touch each other, thus 5Whatisimportantisthattheseseemingly“spontaneous”rebellionswerenotpartoftheorganized resistanceoftheIndianNationalistMovementgivenleadershipbythelikesofGandhiandNehru(for more information, see Ranajit Guha in “The Prose of Counter‐Insurgency” included in Selected SubalternStudies,Ed.RanajitGuhaandGayatriSpivak,pp.45‐89. 65 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ breaking free of the age‐old norms ensuring ritual purity that stipulated who “shouldbeloved,howandhowmuch”:“Sheunbuttonedhershirt.Theystoodthere. Skin to skin. Her brownness against his blackness. Her softness against his hardness. Her nut‐brown breasts … against his smooth ebony chest. She smelled the river on him. His particular Paravan smell that so disgusted Baby Kochamma. Ammuputouthertongueandtastedit,inthehollowofhisthroat.Onthelobeofhis ear. She pulled his head down toward her and kissed his mouth” (316‐17). Not stoppingatgivingnarrativeprominenceandspacetothelovethatwasineveryone’s interest to suppress, the adult twins in turn violate the love laws by engaging in incestuouslove‐making,anactthatisalsoanattempttoexpiatetheguilttheyfeelat their own role in bringing about the tragedy, the terrible ‘yes’ of identification by EsthathathadcondemnedVeluthatocertaindeathinpolicecustody.Whilethereis nojoyortriumphalisminthisattemptatrecuperatingloss,“Exceptperhapsthatit wasalittlecold.Alittlewet.Butveryquiet.TheAir…”(310‐11),itexpressestheir empathy with the two adults who had paid a terrible price for their transgressive love:“OnlythatonceagaintheybroketheLoveLaws.Thatlaydownwhoshouldbe loved.Andhow.Andhowmuch”(310‐11). Yet the twins claim the terrible tragedy to have only one victim: “Esthappen and Rahel both knew that there were several perpetrators (besides themselves) that day.Butonlyonevictim.Andhehadblood‐rednailsandabrownleafonhisback thatmadethemonsoonscomeontime”(182).AndthatisVeluthawhoisdescribed in one place as the “God of Loss, the God of Small Things” (210). Why is Velutha namedtheonly“victim”ofthetragedy?WhynotAmmuandthetwinswhoselives toowereruined,withthetwinsseparated,Estha“returned”andAmmuleftaloneto dieatacheaphotelroomatanagewhichisdefinitelynot“viable”or“die‐able”(13)? Is it that despite their own subalternization, on account of gender in the case of Ammu, and age in the case of the fatherless twins, it is to some extent negated throughtheirimperfectperchintheelitehierarchyduetocaste,classandeducation that Velutha lacks as a member of the Untouchables? Ammu is a case in point. Ammu may lack locusstandi [or “Locusts Stand I” as Rahel puts it] to her family’s propertybecauseofChristianpersonallawsthatseverelycurtailadaughter’srights toinheritancefromherfamily6butshehasameasureofpowerthatenablesherat least to register her protest at what she calls “our wonderful male chauvinist society” (56) which denies her equal rights. Her caustic voice that mocks and challenges the hallowed pieties of her society moreover provide an outline of a womanwhoseself‐destructivegesturethereforecomesasnosurprise.Thetwinsin their narrative reconstruction of what happened therefore often quote her as a 6 Through Ammu’s character, Roy is referring to the injustice of Christian personal laws in Kerala underwhich daughters used to be entitled to aquarter of the son's share, or INR 5000, whichever wasless,ifthefatherdiedintestate.Arundhati’smotherMaryRoychallengedtheconstitutionalityof this law in the Supreme Court because she too had little claim to the family property under the Christian Personal Law that governed property rights among Syrian Christians in Kerala when she returnedtoherfamilyhomeasadivorceewithhertwochildren.In1986,inresponsetothecourt caseinitiatedbyMaryRoy,theSupremeCourtruledthatdaughterswereentitledtoanequalsharein their father's property. And what's more, they made it retroactive. However, Mary Roy suffered ostracism and opposition during and after this case (from “Who’s Who” on SAWNET, South Asian Women’sNetwork). 66 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ strongauthorityfigurewhoseopinionsnotonlyactasamoralandpoliticalcompass in their lives but in the reader’s too as s/he too tries to locate her/himself in the narrative.NotewhatshehastosayaboutChacko’sMarxistsympathies:“Untilthen, atParadisePickles,Comrade!Comrade!(asAmmuputit)hadbeennomorethana harmless game played outside working hours” (114). The parenthetical insertion, “asAmmuputit,”isasureindicationthatAmmuremainsthemusethatshapesthe ideologicalbentofthenarrative.TheirreverentAmmuisevenunafraidtostickout like a sore thumb in refusing to play the polite and ingratiating sister‐in‐law to Chacko’smuchawaited(ex‐)wifeMargaretKochamma.WhenMargaretcomments, inherignorance,onKochuMaria’swayofgreeting:“Howmarvelous!....It’ssortof sniffing!DotheMenandWomendoittoeachothertoo?”,itisAmmuwhosecaustic voice we hear: “Oh, all the time!”…. That’s how we make babies” (170). Ammu is thusa“suicidebomber”(44).Indestroyingherself,wittinglyorunwittingly,shenot onlydestroysthelivesofherlovedonessuchasthetwinsbutalsobringsdownan age‐oldedificeofpowerandprivilegebuiltontheinherentdifferencebetweencaste Indians and Untouchables, as captured in the revulsion expressed by Baby Kochamma—“How could she stand the smell? Haven’t you noticed, they have a particular smell, these Paravans?” (75)‐‐and by Inspector Thomas in his choice epithetforAmmuasaveshya(10)forhavingaloverelationshipwithaParavan. Velutha does not have as central a place in the narrative as either character or narrator. Yet the “cost of living” is the highest in his case. He pays for the transgression with his life at the hands of a Touchable police force intent on “…inoculating a community against an outbreak” (293). Our final most heart‐ rendingimage ofVelutha is at the lock‐up of the Kottayem police station: “He was naked,hissoiledmunduhadcomeundone.Bloodspilledfromhisskulllikeasecret. Hisfacewasswollenandhisheadlooklikedapumpkin,toolargeandheavyforthe slenderstemitgrewfrom.Apumpkinwithamonstrousupside‐downsmile”(303). IntherepresentationofVelutha,thecastesubaltern,ArundhatiRoy,theeliteauthor clearly keen on subaltern resistance, faces a particularly stiff challenge: how to accessthevoiceconsciousnessofasubalternwhosesubalternstatushastodowith his ‘untouchable’ status in a caste hierarchygoverned by the rules of ritual purity. So,wearetoldthatagenerationagothat“they[theUntouchables]werenotallowed to touch anything that Touchables touched. Caste Hindus and Caste Christians. Mammachi told Estha and Rahel that she could remember a time, in her girlhood, when Paravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian Christians would not defile themselves byaccidentallysteppingintoaParavan’sfootprint”(71).Theritualpuritythatisthe centraltenetofthecastehierarchyrequiresthatthe“difference”beencapsulatedin physicalormaterialterms:compartmentalizationoflivingquarters,prohibitionson covering the upper torso, avoiding physical contact in order to safeguard against contamination. It is that physical or material dimension to caste laws that Ammu andVeluthaviolateordefywhentheyengageinintimatesexualrelations:“…oncehe was insider her, fear was derailed and biology took over…” (317). But, paradoxically, the physical or material basis to Velutha’s subalternization that the storychallengesthroughintimatesexualrelationsbetweenAmmuandhimisalsoin dangerofreinstatingandreifyingVeluthaaspurelyphysicalentityorbody,whose 67 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ subjectivityhaslittleornoroletoplayinthetragicandfailedinsurrectioninwhich he plays a part. He remains instead a somewhat enigmatic being that the twins “loved by day” and their mother “loved by night” (44). And that loving assumes moreoftenthannotaphysicalmanifestation. Letmeexplain:bothRahelandAmmu,throughwhoseeyesVeluthaismostlyseen, see him in terms of his physicality. For example, Rahel’s first reference to and recollectionofVeluthaisonhervisittotheChurch,uponherreturntoAyemenemas an adult, when she contemplates the artwork on the ceiling of the Church: “Rahel thoughtofthesomeonewhohadtakenthetroubletogouptherewithcansofpaint, white for the clouds, blue for the sky, silver for the jets, and brushes, and thinner. Sheimaginedhimupthere,someonelikeVelutha,barebodiedandshining,sittingon aplank,swingingfromthescaffoldinginthehighdomeofthechurch,paintingsilver jetsinabluechurchsky”(8;emphasisadded).ThoughatributeispaidtoVeluthain hiscapacityasartist,itisaccompaniedbyareferencetohisbody:“barebodiedand shining.” This is similar to Ammu’s observation of Velutha as she watches him arrivingbyboattokeeptheclandestineappointmentwithher:“hemovedsoeasily throughit.Asshewatchedhimsheunderstoodthequalityofhisbeauty.Howhis laborhadshapedhim.Howthewoodhefashionedhadfashionedhim.Eachplank he planed, each nail he drove, each thing he made had molded him. Had left its stamponhim.Hadgivenhimhisstrength,hissupplegrace”(316)—adescription thatreducesVeluthaasbeingtothedimensionsofhistrade,averydangerousmove in a situation where caste too has often been justified as a value‐neutral occupational segregation of people—in that sense, a form of structural functionalism. Both Rahel and Estha lovingly memorialize Velutha and locate his identity in particular through a ‘lucky leaf from the birthmark [on his back] tree (that made the monsoons come on time)” (182). In their scenes of love‐making, Ammubringshimtolifeintermsofhisphysicaltouchability.Togivejustasample: “Ridges of muscle on his stomach rose under his skin like divisions on a slab of chocolate….Heheldherclose,bythelightofanoillamp,andheshoneasthoughhe hadbeenpolishedwithahigh‐waxbodypolish”(205).Ultimately,theirattemptsto bridgethegapthatseparatethemfromhimdoomhimtodeathwheretooVelutha appearsasamangledheapoffleshthatdisappearsfromEstha’seyeswhenthelight bulbisturnedoff.TheyhavenotmanagedtounmoorVelutha,inthatsense,from the reduction of the ‘untouchable’ self to his/her physical frame, thus denying Velutha as subaltern an interiority that would make him/her what Derrida might call tout‐autre or “quite other” (qtd. in Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, 89). Indeed, they only impress that even more on his being as in this beautifully ironic description of Rahel seeking Velutha out when she finds herself sidelined by the “Welcomehome,SophieMol”drama:“Thefrothofherstifffrockpressedroughlace flowersintoVelutha’sback.Laceflowersandaluckyleafbloomedonablackback” (169). The question is: was there any other way for Velutha to register his protest or resistance to the caste laws than through insurrectionary or forbidden love, the physical intimacy of which makes caste Christians like Mammachi and Baby Kochamma shudder? The novel offers another tantalizing possibility, that of communism,butwhichispresentedasfraudulentinitspromisesofegalitarianism 68 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ andequality.Inalongsectionrunningtoseveralpages,whichintermsofnarrative technique is at odds with the rest of the novel because for once the omniscient narrator intervenes to offer her comments, we are told in an authoritative voice what is wrong with Communism in Kerala: “The real secret was that communism crept into Kerala insidiously. As a reformist movement that never overtly questioned the traditional values of a caste‐ridden, extremely traditional community. The Marxists worked from within the communal divides, never challenging them, never appearing not to. They offered a cocktail revolution. A heady mix of Eastern Marxism and orthodox Hinduism, spiked with a shot of democracy”(64‐67).AijazAhmadhasalreadytakenRoytotaskforherratherone‐ sided representation of the Party that fails to recognize the tangible positive outcomesofCommunistPartyruleinKerala,whichIwillnotrepeatindetailhere.7 Instead, I will confine myself to the alternative that the Party offers to Velutha, withintheframeworkofthenarrative, in terms of leaving behind his ‘untouchable’ status. At the March, where Velutha is spotted by Rahel carrying a flag, he is also spottedwearingawhiteshirt,awhiteshirtthatnotonlycovershis“blackbodywith itsleaf‐shapedblackbirthmark”(76)butsignifiesasea‐changeinhisconsciousness regardingwaystochallengehissubalternstatus:“Inawhiteshirtandmunduwith angryveinsinhisneck.Heneverusuallyworeashirt”(68).Althoughheistheonly other card‐carrying member of the Communist Party in Ayemenem except for ComradePillai,thePartyoffershimanavenuetochallengeage‐oldhierarchiesand injustices through organized political action. In being lured out of such collective action towards private resistance via illicit or forbidden love, Velutha as Comrade Pillai points out had forgotten that the “Party was not constituted to support workers’ indiscipline in their private life” (272). Though the burning down of the ParadisePicklesandJamsFactorybythelocalpartycadreispresentedasComrade Pillaikillingtwobirdswithonestone,ultimatelyonlythePartybelatedlystandsup forVelutha’srightsasahumanbeingbyprotestinghisdeathinpolicecustodyatthe behestofcasteChristians.Iseethewhiteshirtthereforeasasymbolofthecover— the security of collective membership and organized resistance—offered by the Party as well as a symbol of resistance since upper body attire was forbidden to Untouchables in the caste system. By recognizing Velutha at the March, not only doesRahelblowhiscover,shealsouncovershimasdesirablesexedbodyforAmmu: “Themanstandingintheshadeoftherubbertreeswithcoinsofsunshinedancing onhisbody,holdingherdaughterinhisarms,glancedupandcaughtAmmu’sgaze” (167). The attractionto Ammu denies him the clear‐cut boundary between friend andfoethatthePartyoffers:“She’soneofthem,’hetoldhimself.Justanotheroneof them. He couldn’t. She had deep dimples when she smiled. Her eyes were always somewhereelse”(204).AndinhisrelationshipwithAmmu,hegivesup,alongwith theshirt,thecoverorshieldoftheParty,becomingliterallyabaredandnakedbody thatAmmusavorsfortheresistanceitsignifiesagainstLoveLaws:“Shecouldhave 7 Aijaz Ahmed, while acknowledging Roy’s novel to be the most accomplished novel by an Indian author,faultedherforpanderingtoanti‐CommunistsentimentsinherrepresentationoftheParty’s achievementsinKerala("ReadingArundhatiRoyPolitically,"inArundhatiRoy‐‐CriticalPerspectives, Ed.MurariPrasad,NewDelhi:PencraftInternational,2007).Amongthebest‐knownpositivefallouts ofCommunistPartyruleinKeralaareabove‐averageliteracyratesandamoreequitablemale/female sexratio. 69 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ touchedhisbodylightlywithherfingers,andfelthissmoothskinturntogooseflesh. Shecouldhaveletherfingersstraytothebaseofhisflatstomach.Carelessly,over those burnished chocolateridges”(205). As the caste Hindus andChristians close ranks with the assistance of the caste Police force of Ayemenem to contain an “outbreak”beforeitbecomesan“epidemic,”Veluthaisreducedtoamangledheapof flesh. Though his quietly confident “we’ll see about that” to Mammachi when dismissedfromhisjobimpliesanattempttotapthePartymembershiptochallenge the dismissal, it is reduced to nothing but empty rhetoric in the face of Comrade Pillai’s labeling of the action as a “private indiscretion.” Velutha remains in the process an irreducibly heterogeneous consciousness of which we only have scatteredglimpsesasinhisinvariablekindnesstothechildrenorinhisadmissionof taboofeelingsfor.ThepathoforganizedresistanceofferedbytheCommunistParty becomesyetanotherinstanceofa“roadnottaken,”itspromiseblownawayinthe cold night air on the river bank where Ammu and Velutha meet for their ill‐fated tryst. The elite attempts at recovery of the gendered subaltern take a whole other turn with Phoolan Devi, a real life bandit, who has bagged for herself the title of the BanditQueenintexts,visualandwritten,abouther.Thenumberofbookswritten on her‐to date‐‐five—and the film by award winning director Shekhar Kapur who appears to specialize in queens royal and bandit—attest to the irretrievably heterogeneousandalwayselsewherestatusofthesubalternsubject.8Ifnot,why somanybooksaboutapersonagewhoselifehasbeenlivedinthepubliceyeand whose story has beenrecountedadinfinitum ininnumerable media accounts, thus eliminating the need for further biographies and autobiographies? This is all the more puzzling when one recollects that the subject is an illiterate peasant woman who rose to fame through banditry. The numerous textualizations of Phoolan as auto/biographical subject therefore offer us fascinating examples of that always difficult encounter between elite intellectual and subaltern subject and the ever elusivepursuitofsubalternspeechandsubjectivity.Intheinterestoftime,Ilookat only two written texts in this paper—Mala Sen’s India’s Bandit Queen and the autobiographyofPhoolnDevititledTheBanditQueenofIndia‐‐thatunderscorevery powerfully the ever elusive pursuit of the subaltern subject and subaltern voice‐ consciousness. Intellingthelife‐storyofPhoolanDevi,bothwriterstakeastheirvantagepointor pointofarrival,herstatusasfemalebandit.Inthatsense,theyarenodifferentfrom manyotherbiographiesandautobiographieswhichtakeastheirnarrativeimpulse “howIhavecometobewhereIam.”Forboththetexts,thecompellingquestionis thefollowing:“howdidapoor,illiteratelow‐casteMallahwomancometobeoneof 8While thefirst bookon PhoolanDevi appeared in1984, thelast waswritten asrecently as 2010, years after her death. In between, 3 other books have been written, one even claiming to be an autobiography.Whatismoreimportant,afilmcametobemadein1994byaward‐winningdirector Shekhar Kapur on Phoolan Devi titled Bandit Queen. Kapur is also famous in the world of international film for his two period films on the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth: the award‐ winning Elizabeth (1998) and its sequel Elizabeth: The Gold Age (2007). Kapur’s Bandit Queen too baggedseveralFilmfareawardsintheBestPicture,BestDirectorandBestActresscategoriesamong others. 70 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thebestknownfemalebandits,BanditQueennoless,onaparlocallywiththeRani ofJhansiandinternationallywithAngelaDavis,MaeWestandthefemalepartnerof BonnieandClyde?9HowdoesshemovefrombeingtheultimateOutlawto,asIput it,theultimate“Inlaw,”asshedoeswhensheiselectedtoIndianParliamentorthe Lok Sabha from the Samajwadi Party? Moreover, judging by the multiple biographiesonPhoolan,itisasubjectthatrefusestoexhaustitselfininteresttoan elite audience who can afford to purchase the book, particularly when written in English. Ofthetwobooks,India’sBanditQueenbyBritishjournalistMalaSenacknowledges both implicitly and explicitly the collaborative and, hence, the necessarily fraught and provisional nature of subject‐constitution. There is a reason: at the time Sen arrivesinIndiatodoherresearch,PhoolanDeviisliterallyinprisonandaccessto her,evenforshortvisits,severelylimited.Thebookinfactbeginswithadescription of her quest for the elusive Phoolan through meetings with several government functionaries, including police and district commissioners, in which she seeks unsuccessfullytoobtainpermissiontovisitPhoolan.Failure meansthatSenmust depend on a whole series of clandestine meetings, visitors, and indirect contact throughfamilyandfriendstoaccessherstorythesourcesforwhich,giventheillicit natureoftheenterprise,sheneveracknowledges,sayingonlythat:“Unabletoread orwriteherself,shehasdictatedherstorytoavarietyofpeoplewhocanputpento paper.Irefertothesewritingsasherprisondiaries”(xxiii).Givenherlackofdirect accesstoPhoolan,sheconcedesthat“Togetherwehavetriedtountanglefactfrom fiction.Still,Iamawarethathere,inIndia,theimaginationrunswildandthestory changes as it is told and retold!” (xiv). However, despite the incarceration of Phoolan, or perhaps because of it, Sen is able to construct a richly nuanced and complexaccountofthepeopleandthefactorsthatshapedthestoryofPhoolan’slife thatpoignantlydemonstratehowidentityformationisacollectiveactandthelittle controltheautobiographicalsubjecthasonthelineamentsandtrajectoryofherlife. A good example is Sen’s interviews with Inspector Chaturvedi , who played a key roleinthemuchhypedupsurrenderofPhoolanDevitotheState.Theturmoilon thepoliticalfront,includingthepersonalinterestofIndiraGandhiintheissuewhich givestheInspectorafreehandinnegotiatingthesurrender,theinter‐staterivalry between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh that nearly botch the surrender, his ownpersonalvulnerabilityifthenegationsweretoturnsour,aredimensionstoher capture that Phoolan herself is not privy to but which determine not just the conditions of the surrender but the very possibility of a safe surrender. The dramatic suspense of the narrative is indeed heightened at the point where Sen detailstheeventsleadinguptothesurrenderfrombothChaturvedi’sandPhoolan’s point of view (202 and 204). Of particular interest is Inspector Chaturvedi’s fear that Phoolan, excitable as she is, may pull out at the last moment creating both a personal setback for him as well as a political fire‐storm in the state of Madhya Pradesh. 9AccordingtoSen,tee‐shirtscarryingherfaceareavailableorwereavailableatBrixtonMarketin the80salongsidethefacesofwell‐known“wildwomenofthewest.” 71 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Mala Sen is also not interested in presenting Phoolan Devi as exceptional female individualist. Both in the preface to the text and in the text proper, she therefore takes care to locate Phoolan’s story in the history of the thuggee in the Chambal valley, including the local myth that has it that the river Chambal was cursed by Draupadi.Hence,havinggivenapowerfuldepictionofthedesolateChambalvalley, shesays:“Inthisdesolatelandscapeofsandandthorn,peoplehaveforgenerations settled their own scores, taken their own badla—revenge—killing and maiming in the name of God and justice. Phoolan Devi is a product of this cruel and harsh environment” (xxiii). We see too that in Mala Sen’s rendition, Phoolan’s rise in statureasbandithasasmuchtodowithnewdevelopmentsincastepoliticsinthe region(144)aswithherpersonalabilitiesorcharisma.Thathistoryandthatorigin, Sen shows, trigger stereotypes about Phoolan among the elite government functionaries elsewhere such as the DIG Pathak who calls Phoolan Devi “a female Heathcliff’andregardsthebadlandsoftheChambalValleythroughtheinterpretive lenses provided by T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” (21). Moreover, as she drives through the hot, dusty valleys of Madhya Pradesh in quest of her subject that is Phoolan, Sen begins to experience viscerally the conditions that would produce someone like Phoolan: ‘Driving through the scorching heat of Madhya Pradesh, [I] understood the frantic feeling of thirst and the importance of water. … I was beginningtounderstandthelifethatPhoolanDevihadled”(19).Allofthiscreates an empathy for Phoolan in Sen that she manages to convey in her biography of Phoolanandwhich,inthatsense,isasmuchabouttheeliteauthorSenherselfasitis about Phoolan, the gendered subaltern, who has been transformed into a violent femalebanditbyforcesbeyondhercontrol.Inturn,theelitereaderofthetexttoo can empathize with the conditions that produce bandits like Phoolan although Phoolan herself never comes across as the coherent, self‐aware subject who has perfectcontroloverthetrajectoryofherfateorhernarrative. Mala Sen’s biography is also keen to highlight the specific sociopolitical and historicalconditionsthatmakespeechpossible.Thisisparticularlythecasewhere Phoolan Devi has to refer to the sexual violence she has suffered. The narrative includestwospecificinstances:one,atthepolicestationafterhercousinMayadin’s falseaccusationofrobberylandsPhoolaninthepolicelockupandthesecondinthe villageofBehmaiwheretheuppercasteorThakurgangleaderSriRamsubjectsher to gang rape after Vikram Mallah’s death. On both occasions, she refuses to name “rape,”sayingonlythat“Theyhadplentyoffunatmyexpenseandbeatthehellout ofmetoo”(61)whenaskedifshewasrapedonthefirstoccasionand,ofthesecond, “Those people really fooled with me” (125). Speaking of her reluctance to give explicitarticulationtoherexperienceofrape,whichPhoolancallsherdishonor,Sen thencontextualizesPhoolan’sreluctanceintermsofwhatrapevictimsalloverthe worldfeel(125):areluctanceto“name”rapebecauseofsocialstigma.Inthatsense, the biography always makes it clear that Phoolan’s is no exceptional fate. Sen showshowtypicalandreplicablethecircumstancesarethatpushedPhoolantoalife ofbanditry.Indeed,speakingofPhoolanaschildbrideandthedifficultiessheand herparentsfaceduetotheirinabilitytoprovideanadequatedowry,Sencomments onhowPhoolanisunawareofthefermentinwomen’srightsinIndiainthe1970s, though she is a living example of the inequities and practices that energized the 72 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Indian activists on subjects such as child marriage, dowry deaths and in‐law ill‐ treatmentatthattime(53‐54).Indeed,inIndia’sBanditQueen,itisnottillChapter4, titled“HoraField,”thatweactuallyhearPhoolan’svoice.Bothherstoryandherlife arethereforetheproductofforcesnotalwayswithinhercontrolandgrasp.Even thedisputeovertheHorafieldpre‐datesherarrival:“Ihadoftenheardmyparents say that the lawyer asked for too much money and where would the money come from? I remember asking my mother, ‘Who is a lawyer? Why does he ask for money’?AndfromherIlearntthisstory.” The Bandit Queen of India, subtitled “An Indian Woman’s Amazing Journey from PeasanttoInternationalLegend,”ontheotherhand,adoptsadiametricallyopposite style ofnarration andstructure to India’sBanditQueen by Mala Sen. Adopting the straightforwardautobiographicalmodeofnarration,itclaimsasitsauthorPhoolan Devi herself though in small print appear the names of two others‐‐Marie‐Therese CunyandPaulRambali‐‐prefacedbythepreposition“with”thoughthenatureofthe ‘with’ is never fully unpacked for the reader. In that sense, it is one narrative on PhoolanDeviwherethesubjectofthenarrative,Phoolan,seeminglyauthorsherself in the tradition of testimonials or testimonios. In giving an explanation in the “Introduction” as to how Phoolan could author her own story given that she was unabletoreadandwriteinherownlocallanguagesletaloneinEnglish,Rambalihas thistosay:“Phoolansignedhernameatthebottomofeachpage,theonlywordshe knewhowtowrite”afteratranslatorreadbacktohereverypageofthenarrative and after having being given an opportunity to correct and clear up confusing contradictions”(xii).Thisisimportant.Oncebefore,havinginitiallygivenapproval tothemovieonherlifebyShekharKapur,titledBanditQueen,Phoolanhaddeclared herselfunhappywiththefilmversion,evenobtainingacourtinjunctionagainstthe film that temporarily stopped its screening in India. This time around such an eventuality is being eliminated by obtaining the authenticating seal of Phoolan on every page. However, my intention in this paper is not therefore to validate The Bandit Queen of India as the definitive account of Phoolan’s life that offers unmediated access to the voice consciousness of the gendered subaltern that is Phoolan,buttoaskwhetheranytext,subjectasitistothedemandsorconventions of text‐making or composition, can ever fully approximate the lived reality of a historical subject. A text is just that: a text or a weave governed by its own principles of design. Thus despite the authenticating imprimatur of Phoolan that places the narrative in the true story mode, questions remain regarding how ‘authentic’or‘truetothelifeofPhoolan’thestoryisifweremindourselvesofthe provisionality of subject‐constitution where pluralized subject effects replace the authenticsovereignsubject.Inthecaseoftestimonialsortestimoniosthisreminder isespeciallyinstructive,whereexpectationsregardingno‐holds‐barredaccesstothe subjectisespeciallyhighandthusdisappointment,whenthisisnotthecase,equally intense. Themostwell‐knowninstanceofsuchdisappointmentinrecenttimesisthecaseof the indigenous Guatemalan woman activist Rigoberta Menchu whose testimonio 73 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ achieved international fame when translated into English from the original10as I, Rigoberta Menchu. Having created waves as the authentic testimonial of a quintessentialsubaltern,aSouthAmericaninsurgentfromanindigenousgroupand victimofgovernmentexcess,itturnedoutthattheaccountwaspartlyfictitiousthus raising questions about the possibility of authentic or true‐to‐life accounts of the subaltern. While a similar critique is possible of The Bandit Queen of India, the intention here is not so much to hold up to the light of day the veracity of the account using some litmus test comprising “facts” but to highlight the problem of subalternvoiceconsciousnessthatSpivaksopotentlyraisesinherarticle.Inother words, do we have access to the pure unmediated voice consciousness of the genderedsubalternjustbecauseCunyandRambalitakeabackseatinordertolet Phoolan take the pen to tell her own story? In comparing India’s Bandit Queen published in 1991, when Phoolan was in prison facing the dreaded prospect of extradition to Uttar Pradesh hanging over her, with The Bandit Queen of India published in 2003 when Phoolan is already out of prison in accordance with the terms of surrender and a Member of Parliament from the Samajwadi Party, my intention is to highlight the always provisional and changeable nature of identity andsubjectconstitution(inthisinstance,subjectalsotothepassageoftimebecause Phoolanwasstillaliveatthetimeofcomposition)andhencethealwaysmediated and scattered access to subaltern speech or voice consciousness even when the subalterninquestionisashighprofileasPhoolanandthebasicingredientsofher story as much in the public domain via films, documentaries and numerous newspaperarticlesashersis. First,letuscontemplatethefirstpersonnarratorwhoadoptsavoicethatshowsher already in control of the lineaments of her story if not of her fate and life. The controlisclearbothinthetoneandintheselectionandarrangementofscenesfrom her life that serve the function of explainingher eventual point of arrival: India’s mostfamousfemalebandit.Thenarrativebeginswithasceneofmaritalrapetitled “Prologue”:therapeofthe12yearoldchildbridePhoolanatthehandsofher29‐ year‐oldhusbandPuttilal.Inplacingattheforefrontofherstory,thushighlighting, thegenderedoppressionofPhoolanatthehandsofherhusband,thestoryreduces Phoolan’soppressiontohergender,thussuppressingordowngradingthecomplex combination of class, caste and gender that determineshow she was treated. One good example is the dispute over the horafield, which has Phoolan’s father pitted againsthishalf‐brother,wherethepowerfulinthevillagesidewithPhoolan’suncle and cousin, despite the fact that they are all of the same Shudra caste, the only differencebeingclassortheaffluenceofthehalf‐brotheragainstthepovertyofher own family. In Sen’s text, both in relation to the horafield and the neem tree, the 10Thetestimoniowassupposedlyco‐writtenwithFrenchpsychoanalystElizabethBergos‐Debrayand hencewasoriginallytitled:MeLlamoRigobertaMenchúYAsíMeNaciólaConciencia.Thetitlepage givestheauthorasRigobertaMenchuandBergos‐Debrayasthe“editor.”Menchuwentontowinthe NobelPeacePrize. 74 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ propertiesindispute,weseethispotentcocktailofclass,casteandgenderatwork tooppressPhoolanandherfamily.InTheBanditQueenofIndia,however,Phoolan is more often than not the sexed subject whose oppression is more often than not exclusivelytheresultofhergender.Thisisparticularlyinstructivewithregardto her experience of rape or sexual humiliation which she had earlier hesitated to “name”.Indeed,onereasonshetriedtostopthescreeningofthefilmBanditQueen by Shekhar Kapur was its too explicit sex scenes: “How can they show a film like this? This is all a business.”11 Indeed, Arundhati Roy’s now well‐known scathing critique,titled“TheGreatIndianRapeTrick,”ofKapur’sfilmonPhoolanobjectedto justthat:makingrapetheoverridingmotifinPhoolan’slife.Callingthemovie“your run‐of‐the‐mill Rape n’ Retribution theme that our film industry churns out every now and then”, Roy argued that Kapur turned Phoolan of the film into the quintessential raped woman.12However, this is exactly how Phoolan represents herselfinTheBanditQueenofIndia:rapehasnowbecometheoverridingmotifthat determines the course of her lifeand of her actions. Now she is unafraidtoname “rape”, not shying away from classifying the types of sexual violations she suffers including sodomy at the Police Station when she is incarcerated on a trumped up charge (195‐97). Indeed, having begun the text with a prologue that refers to her firstexperienceofrapeatage12atthehandsofher29‐year‐oldhusband,Puttilal, shedevotes,lateroninthenarrative,some7pagestoanothersceneofmaritalrape atthehandsofthesameman(98‐105).Where,earlier,shehadshiedawayfrom any direct references to the male organ, now she is not shy to refer to the penis, callingit,onmorethanoneoccasion,“serpent”asin“Icrushedhisserpent”(280). LetmebeclearhoweverthatthepointhereisnottoaccusePhoolanofengagingin distortion for the purposes of self‐fashioning, where she is now the proverbial vengeful woman, but to highlight the point that self‐fashioning is inevitable as circumstanceschange.AndinthecaseofPhoolan,circumstanceshavechangedby the time TheBanditQueenofIndia is published. As a politician and a member of parliament,Phoolanhashadtimetolearnaboutthelargerpictureofoppressionand deprivation in India of which she is just another manifestation, albeit an extreme one.But,assomeonewhohasmanagedtobeattherapofpossiblejail‐timeinUP, sheistriumphantanditisthatnoteoftriumphorsurvivalagainstalloddswehear consistentlyinthebook.Thisishowsheputsitinthe“Epilogue”: 11 The film was halted from screening in India for a while under a court stay order that cited the “Indecent Representation of Women Act” (1986). It was due in large part to Phoolan Devi’s own dissociation of herself from several of the events described in the film, especially the graphic portrayalsofrape.Shelatersaidthefilmwastrueexceptthe“vulgarbits”(SeeMadhuKishwar,The BanditQueen[Review],Manushi,84(Sept‐Oct1994),34‐37). 12PriyamvadaGopalinanuancedarticleonthefilmtitled“OfVictimsandVigilantes”hassuggested that Roy’s reaction was excessive. As Gopal sees it, and I agree, the rape scenes are not mere replicationsofthesame.Eachsceneofrapeisnotonlydifferentfromtheothersasscenesgo,butis alsodifferentintermsofitsfunctionandobjective.Oneexample,whenBabuGujjarrapesPhoolan,it ishisbarebuttocksthattheviewersees,notherbody.Moreover,duringthegangrapeatBehmai, Phoolanin terms of consciousness iselsewhere, seeking solace in theloving face of Vikram Mallah whoisbythendeadbutwithwhomshehadexperiencedtrueloveandcompanionship. 75 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ So many people had spoken for me without me ever having been able to speak for myself. So many people had taken my photo and distorted it for their purposes. So many people disdained the little village girl, who was torturedandhumiliated,butstillnotcrushed. …. Now, for the first time, a woman from my community has been able to tell the truth about her life and testify in public to the injustice we all had to suffer.Itwasmyhopethatmytestimonialwouldgivehelptoothers,other women, my sisters who have been humiliated, and my brothers who are beingexploited. Iwantedtoprovethatweallhaveourhonour,whateverourorigins,our caste,thecolourofourskinoroursex. Iwantedrespect. …. Istillhardlyknewhowtoreadorwrite,butIknewbetterhowtosee,hear andunderstandthepeopleandthingsofthisworld”(496‐97). Theexcerptaboverevealsinnouncertaintermsthetwinmotivationsorprongsof Phoolan’snarrative:itisnotamerecatalogueoftheinjusticesandoppressionsthat turned her into one of the most fearsome female bandits of Indian history but the narrativeofawomanwhowishestoplaceherstoryofcourageoussurvivalagainst alloddsintheserviceofmillionsofotherwomenandmenlikeherwhoarevictims ofsystemicoppressionintheformofcaste,classandgender.Inthatsense,thetext can be categorized as “representation” in the first sense in which Spivak uses the term in “Can the Subaltern Speak?” She wishes to speak for and thus raise awareness regarding the discriminations and oppressions suffered by others like her.ButmypointisthatPhoolan’snarrativeinTheBanditQueenofIndiaisalsore‐ presentationinthesecondsenseinwhichSpivakusesit:atextthatisgovernedand, in that sense, mediated by textual conventions governing testimonios or autobiographies. Thus the story of survival, which opens up the space for her to speak, inevitably generates atone ofexceptionalism. What enabled herto survive when millions of others have failed? What turned her into not just a mere female banditbutbanditqueen?Inherretrospectivenarrativerecountedfromthevantage point of not just the most famousoutlaw inmodern Indian history but Member of Parliament,sheiskeentohighlightthedifferencebetweenherselfandotherwomen folk of similar circumstance: “My mother was right, I wasn’t like other girls. I couldn’t let myself be beaten and humiliated without even a whimper of protest” (177). Thus while her experiences may be replicable, her reactions are not. She fights backas when she does herCousin Mayadin who torments her or the village chiefPradhanandhisdaughters.Shedoesnotalwayscalculateconsequence.Nor doessheminceherwordsincondemningwomenwhosubmitwithoutastruggleto their victimization. So in one incident involving a village chief or Pradhan whom 76 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Phoolanpunishesfortakingsexualadvantageofyoungvillagegirls,shescoldsthe girlstooformeeklyagreeingtosleepwithhim.“Weretheyallcowards,everylast oneofthem?WasItheonlyonewhorebelled?”(411).Inturn,shebecomesthe protector, a living breathing Kali or goddess of vengeance, for all such exploited women:“That’swhy,wheneverIheardit,Icrushedtheserpenttheyusedtotorture women. I dismembered them. It was my vengeance, and the vengeance of all women” (397). She is not afraid to set herself apart from even her own parents: “Their rage was never sufficient to fight those who held bundles of rupees in one hand and long sticks in the other” (122). The criticism is especially harsh against herfatherwhosemottoaccordingtoPhoolanis:“Behumble,andbesuretotouch the feet of anyone who give you work” (155). Nor is she afraid to show that her questioning of the status‐quo extends to God: “I wanted to find “the God who decidedIwouldbeborninthisvillageontheplains,nexttotheriver”(6).Insteadof anunseenandanonymousGod,sheinfactturnstoDurga:“Iprayedlikemyfatherto Durga,thefiercegoddesswhorodeonatigerthroughtheendlessnight.Shewasthe onlyoneIwantedhelpfromnow.Iaskedhertoshowmehowtoslaydemonsasshe had done, and to give me a stick too so I could fight back” (37). The exceptional femaleindividualistwhoisunafraidtosurvivealoneisclearinthefollowingextract where, alone in the jungle after her gang has disbanded, she says, “For companionship I had the monkeys, the bears and the wild cats…And the peacocks keptmecompany,speakingtomealldaylong”(435). The exceptionality of Phoolan is not limited to the contents of her speech. The Phoolan of TheBanditQueenofIndia has access to a vocabulary, tone and style of narration that indeed show the distance she has traveled from her humble beginnings as an illiterate peasant woman. Indeed, the rhythm and tone of voice hereresemblethatofatypeofnarrativeproducedbythesecondwaveoffeminism in the West that according to Rosalind Coward adopts the thematic of “How I became My Own Person.”13 This narrator can adopt an uncompromising tone towardschildmarriage:“Hewasgoingtobegivenaneleven‐yearoldgirltodowith ashepleased”(79).Shecanreacharhetoricalheightthatcanpowerfullyconveythe heinousnessoftheact:“Iwasnohigherthanthebeardofabillygoat,scrawnyasa cat, and nervous as a squirrel in a tree that a crowd of people are trying to force down” (81). The rhythms of narratives of survival inflect her narrative too: thus, after fighting back against the Pradhan and his daughter, “I began to laugh too, despite the pain, and the blood that covered me. I felt better: retaliation had deliveredmefrommyrage”(161).InrelivingherrelationshipwithVikramMallah, sheturnsamateurlinguistwhocancommentondialectaldifferences:“Manyofthe words[inVikram’sdialect]weredifferent,andIhadtroubleunderstandinghim.I didn’tknowthewordloveintheirdialect.Ithoughtitmustbesomethingtoeat— because it was something you gave, something sweet and delicious from the way theysaidit.ButIunderstoodhisgestures”(264).Andshereachestheheightsof romanticfelicityindescribingherloveforhim:“Hewasapartofme,partofmysoul andpartofmybeing”(331).Thefearless,articulatePhoolanofTheBanditQueenof 13Cowardofcoursegoesontosuggestthatthis“discovery”or“achievement”wasmoreoftenthan notprojectedinpurelysexualtermsintheWestinkeepingwiththethematicsofsexualliberation thatshapedthesecondwaveofthewomen’smovementoftheWest(RosalindCoward,40). 77 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ India is thus in many ways the anti‐thesis of the cowering, inhibited, nervous PhoolanofIndia’sBanditQueen. Thestory[mayIsaythe“fiction”or“construct”?]thatisPhoolanthusatteststothe unstable nature of identity constitution and its always provisional nature. Only a few facts remain constant between the two narratives: the experience of marital rape,thesceneofabductionbythebandits,andthecircumstancesthatledtoBabu Gujjar’sdeath.Infact,onlyonefact/utteranceisreportedalmostverbatiminboth narratives: that is, what Phoolan says when she comes out of hiding in order to preventherlittlebrotherShivNarainfrombeingtakeninherstead:“IamPhoolan. Killmeifyouwantbutleavemybrotherandmyfamilyalone”(India’sBanditQueen, 69)and“I’mPhoolanDevi.Killmeifyouwanttobutlethimgo!”(TheBanditQueen ofIndia,232).Inthatsense,onecouldaskwhethertheessenceofPhoolanistobe locatedinaffect:theloveshebearsforherbrotherthatremainsconstantdespitethe vicissitudes of her life.14 And of course, despite newspaper accounts quoting eye witness statements to the contrary, she consistently refuses to place herself at the scene of the massacre of 22 Thakur men in Behmai. Differences strike the reader more than the similarities. In the second narrative, a father‐in‐law plays a major rolewhereasheisabsentfromIndia’sBanditQueen.Herrelationshipwithcousin Kailash has now undergone a drastic transformation. In the first, there was a romanticinvolvementwhichisgivenprominenceinthemovieversionbyShekhar Kapuraswell.Inthesecond,heisreducedtoyetanothertypicalmaletryingtotake advantageofhervulnerabilityandinnocence.Therelationshipwithhersecondin command, ManSingh,toohasundergoneadrasticchangeforthe worse.Heisno longerpresentedashertrustedcompanionbutassomeoneunreliable.Itisclearly subsequent developments in their relationship, where Man Singh and others had agreedtorepatriationandjailtimeintheUttarPradesh,whichinfluenceherhostile representation of Man Singh. Even more important are the scenes of rape. While shehadshiedawayfromevenusingthewordrapeinthefirstnarrative,sheisnow unafraidtogivegraphicandlong‐drawn‐outdescriptionsofhersexualhumiliations. Particularlyinterestingistheaccountofhersexualhumiliationatthepolicestation. InSen’saccount,shehadbeenheldaloneatthepolicestation.Inthesecond,sheis heldtogetherwithherfatherandheisprivytoherhumiliation.Shealsoelaborates on and dramatizes the scene of her surrender. In the second, she adds several dramatic touches among which are the announcer’s supposed blunders in announcingthemuch‐anticipatedmomentofsurrender.Whereheshouldannounce thatPhoolanDeviwouldnowsurrendertotheChiefMinisterofMadhyaPradesh,he inadvertentlyannounces,accordingtoher,thattheChiefMinisterwouldsurrender to Phoolan! Not stopping at that, he almost says that the government of Madhya Pradeshhadagreedtoherconditions,ratherthanthatshehadagreedtosurrender ontheirterms!Thereisnowaytochecktheveracityoftheseelaborateddetailsof thesceneofsurrender.Noristhattheintentioninthispaper.Whatisimportantis to show a more confident Phoolan in the second narrative who is both free and unafraidtoexpand,fleshoutandevenexaggerateherstory,whichgoestoshowthe 14Spivaktoosuggeststhatwelookforthe“womanindifference,”inhercase,Douloti,intheshort story“DoulotitheBountiful,”inthedisplayofaffectasevidencedinherrelationswithmotherand uncle(see“TheWomaninDifference,”OutsideintheTeachingMachine,80). 78 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ futilityofattemptstopindowntheauthenticsubalternsubject.Onlytheoccasional traceorutterancecanpointtoherpresenceoutsidetheorbitsofnarration. However, one detail shows how elusive the pursuit of authentic subaltern speech and voice consciousness are. In the introduction to the account that Cuny and Rambaliclaimwas‘read’andapprovedbyPhoolan,thereisaslippagethatthreatens tounraveltheprojectwhichattemptsanauthenticsubalternvoice.Thishastodo with Phoolan’s caste where Rambali says: Phoolan Devi “was born into one of the lowest castes—solow,itwasevenbeneaththeBrahminicalorder. She didn’t exist, unless it was to perform harsh or unpleasant chores or to satisfy the lusts of men belongingtowealthiercasts.Phoolan’sfirstandperhapsgreatestcrimewastodefy thisancientsystem”(ix;emphasisadded).ThisexplanationofPhoolan’scastestatus showsalevelofignorancethatisnotjustalarmingbutembarrassing!Firstofall,in thecastehierarchyofIndia,theBrahminsoccupythehighestposition,havingbeen born,accordingtopopularbelief,fromBrahma’shead.Phoolanasamemberofthe Shudracaste,andwithinitthesub‐casteofmallahsorthefishers,isnotamemberof the lowliest group, that unenviable position being assigned to the outcastes or Untouchables.Moreover,thelanguage,“solow,itwasevenbeneaththeBrahminical order,”showsthatRambalihasnonotionofthecastesysteminIndiabecausethat phrasesuggeststhatBrahminstooareaverylowlycastewhenitisnot.Moreover, such a representation of caste, in Phoolan’s case, is not quite true to the complex lineaments of her oppression, which began with a dispute between her father and hishalf‐brother,andinthatsense,hadasmuchtodowithclassascaste.Thus,her first and greatest crime was not ‘defying” the ancient system of caste but of demandingherfamily’srightfulshareofinheritanceandspeakingagainstavillage level administrative system that sided with the rich cousin against her own poor father. In the same introduction, Rambali also tries to reduce Phoolan’s complex grievance to just her gender, a theme that drives the action in the autobiography: ‘Rape,beatingsanddeathwasthesilentlotofmillionsofpowerlessgirlsinIndian villages”(xii).Whileitmightbethecasethatgenderdidcreateadoubleortriple jeopardyinthecaseofpoor,lowcastewomen,itisthecombinationofcaste,class and gender that explains the particular trajectory of Phoolan’s oppression and transformation into a female bandit. Indeed, the domination of bandit groups by thakurs or upper caste men had as much to do with her woes as a bandit as her gender!Thus,whilereducingherstorytooneofgenderedoppressionmayenhance its marketability internationally where there is a dedicated readership for such stories, this single‐issue oppression fails to approximate the complex trajectory of Phoolan’slife.PresentingPhoolanasagenderedessenceistodenyherthestatusof the subaltern, which connotes the difference between the total population and the elite,orthe“womanindifference”asSpivakputsinanotherofheressays15.Here Phoolan presents herself or is presented as the self‐aware and coherent sovereign subject who can name the cause of her oppression. There is nothing elusive and obscureabouther. 15SeeGayatriSpivak,“WomaninDifference,”OutsideintheTeachingMachine,NewYork:Routledge, 1993. 79 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ In that sense, both the activistauthor Arundhati Roy and the “authors” of Phoolan Deviarestumpedbytheinescapablefactofrepresentation,theinevitablemediation vialanguageandtextualconventions.MahaswetaDevi,ontheotherhand,appears conscious of this fact. Hence, rather than engaging in futile resistance to such mediation,sheself‐consciously,evensatirically,projectssubalternsubjectswho,like the elite subjects, cannot resist interpellation through hailing (à la Louis Althusser).16Inthatsense,morethantheauthorsoftheothertextsdiscussedsofar, MahaswetaDevioccupiesaliminalspacebetweeneliteauthorandsubalternsubject becausehertextshavetheirplaceinwhatSpivakcallsa“textileofactivism”thatis at the service of subaltern subjects (“Afterword,” Imaginary Maps, 201). 17 Mahasweta’sshortstory“TheBreastGiver”isagoodexample.Theprotagonistof the text, Jashoda, is described as a “professional mother” or wet nurse who must keep on bearing children in order to prevent breast milk supply from drying up since she depends on wet‐nursing or a form of surrogate mothering to support herselfandherfamily.Havingborne30childrenandreared50,shehoweverdiesin theendofbreastcancer,notoneofherchildrenbyhersideatherdeath.Though Jashodaasprofessionalmotherunderminesoneofthemostsentimentalinstitutions ofIndiansociety,Motherhood,sheisnotpresentedasthesubjectinrevolutionwho sets out self‐consciously to dismantle the institution of mothering. She is neither feministnorproto‐feminist.Thereasonissimple:shehasnochoice:“Jashodanever had the time to decide whether she could or couldn’t tolerate motherhood. Interminable motherhood was the only way she could keep her large family alive. She was a professional mother; it was her career” (25). Her husband’s disability dictates her choice since he cannot now support his family as the conventional gendered division of labors dictates. But “professional mothering” does not lead Jashoda to question the pieties that surround the symbol of Mother in her society. Instead,sheisonlytooeagertoexploititssymbolicpotential.Inconversationwith others,shethuspresentsmotheringasnatural.Tohermaster’swife,whoemploys Jashoda for the job of wet‐nursing her grandchildren, she comments: “Women are made to have babies… Here I am, a baby every year. Is it affecting my health or drying up the milk?” (41). She is also not above an occasional jibe at her master’s daughters‐in‐law for so willingly giving up the sacred role of mothering: “Isn’t it a terrible sin for a tree to refuse to bear fruit?” (44). She does not see through the ideologicalreproductioninherentincomparisonsthatpresentheras“mothertothe whole world” (39) or as an incarnation of the mother goddess Simhavahini (42). Jashoda does not challenge or resist the stereotypes because she is very much a subjectproducedbythatsystem.Onlytheauthorrecognizestheroleofideologyin subject formation: “Jashoda was a true example of Indian womanhood. She was typical of a chaste and loving wife and devoted mother, ideals which defy intelligence and rational explanation, which involve sacrifice and dedication stretchingthelimitsofimagination,andwhichhavebeenkeptaliveinthepopular 16 See Louis Althusser in “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation), “Lenin and Philosophy” and Other Essays, Tr. Ben Brewster, Monthly Review Press, 1971. 17 Mahasweta Devi is as well‐known for her many acts of political intervention on behalf of and in collaboration with members of the low‐caste and tribal communities as for her creative writing featuringsubalternsubjects. 80 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Indian psyche through the ages, beginning with Sati, Savitri, Sita right down to NirupaRoyandChandUsmaninourtimes.Seeingsuchawoman,everyTom,Dick and Harry knows that the ancient Indian traditions are alive and kicking. Old sayings celebrating the fortitude of women were made to describe such females” (32).Thenarrator’sironictonewhichbordersonlevitypreventsthereaderfrom resortingtopathosasameansofidentifyingwithJashoda.AswithBertolBrecht’s MotherCourage,wefeelalienatedfromJashodaandaredeniedtheopiumofpathos which, while enabling us to connect with Jashoda, would have prevented us from askingdifficultquestionsaboutthesentiment‐ladeninstitutionofmotherhood. If Jashoda does not resist the role of ideology in reproducing the conditions of production” (Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” 70), in this instance, the ancient myths and Bollywood movies in producing Indian womanhood as chaste wife and devotedmother,whereissubalternvoiceconsciousnesstobelocatedinthecaseof Jashoda? It is to be located in what Spivak calls her “utterance” that points to the irreducibledifferenceofthegenderedsubaltern.ThusalthoughJashodaseesherself as“atrueexampleofIndianwomanhood,”sheisnot.Inhercase,thoseconventional understandings of motherhood and wifehood are turned on their heads because numerouschild‐bearingisnotnecessarilyasignofaffectorofthematernalinstictin hercasebutofeconomicneedsincethemilksupplydependsonit.Breastmilk,in her case, has become thus a pure commodity divorced from affect though in the original Bengali the term for breast milk is maa‐er dudh, which means mother's milk.”18 Thus breast milk is dissociated from its supposed origins in mother love which subtend its special or hallowed status in cultural iconography, becoming insteadjustoneotherbodilyfluidthatcanbeputupforsaleunsentimentallyinthe marketplace. Jashoda may be complicit in this radical revision but she is not its consciousandradicalarchitect.Similarly,thetitleStanadayini,theliteraltranslation ofwhichis“breastgiver”.Inusingthealienatingphrase“breastgiver”forJashoda rather than the more familiar, reassuring and sentimental titles of wet‐nurse or fostermother,MahaswetarefusestolocateJashodainthelongestablishedtradition oflovingandprotectivewet‐nursesorfostermotherswhostepinunquestioningly to take therole of mother—the most famous in theIndian traditionbeing Krishna andhisfostermotherNandaranitowhichareferenceismadeinthetext.19Inthat sense, Mahasweta also refuses to present Jashoda’s practice in sentimental terms that turns child‐bearing and –rearing, particularly, breast‐feeding, into labours of lovethatarenotcontaminatedbymonetaryconsiderations.InthecaseofJashoda, necessityforceshertogiveher‘breast’tosomanyfosterchildren.Inthatsense,the breasts are simply “tools of her trade” (60): no romantic sentiments attach 18 I am grateful to Shampa Biswas of Whitman College, USA, for supplying me this information. Interestinglyenough,thetermfor“breastmilk”inmylanguage,Sinhala,issimilar:maukiri,which translatesintoEnglishas‘mother’smilk.’ 19InhertranslationofMahasweta’sshortstory,Spivakhaschosentoretaintheflavoroftheoriginal by titling her story, “Breast Giver” (See, Spivak, “Breast‐Giver,” In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, New York: Routledge, 1988) while Ella Dutta translates the title as “Wet Nurse” in her translationofthesamestory(SeeTruthTales,editedbyKaliforWomen,NewYork:FeministPress, 1990). 81 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ themselves to those breasts. In the end, her “trade” takes its toll on the breasts themselveswhenshediesofbreastcancer(61).Thetitlebreast‐giverthuscarries connotationsofsacrifice. In the process, conjugal relations too undergo a radical revision: Kangalicharan is nowaprofessionalfather(39)inadditiontobeingassignedtheroleofwomaninthe standard domestic economy: “house‐wife” (46). He prepares the food. Thus, the carefully constructed wall or boundary between the reproductive sphere or home where non‐monetary sentiments of affect or love determine social relations, and a publicworldwhichcomestoholdeconomicorincomegeneratinglabors,collapses revealinghowuntenableandtenuousitis.Thebourgeois‐dictateddivisionisofno validity to the Jashodas of the world, for whom mothering as a labor of love is an unaffordable luxury because they turn breast‐milk, that particular sign of mother love,intoan“affordableluxury”forthewealthy.Nothavingbeenabletosecurethe affection and loyalty of either husband or children to her by performing labors of love,Jashodathusfindsherselfabandonedattheendwhenher“usevalue”isover. Shediesalone,dramatizingthebittertruththattheself‐consciousnarratorcansee butshecannot:“Itisn’teasytobeamother.Justhavingakidsisn’tenough”(39). Whileitwouldbeeasytoresorttotheshorthandof“class”tonamethisdifference, Jashodaisnotourconventionalclasssubjectorproletariat.Her“work”thatbrings thenon‐incomegeneratinglaborofchild‐bearingand–rearingtotherealmofwork failstoremainwithinandthusreifyconventionalclassificationsanddivisions.20She isthusanexampleofthegenderedsubalternwhoisneverfullyaccessiblewithinthe orbits of representation or conventional iconographies but whose necessity‐ triggeredutterancepointstoher“difference”orherexistenceelsewhere.Jashoda’s status as “professional mother” also marks her absolute apartness from and inaccessibilitytothebourgeoisnormofsentimentalmotherhoodbecauseherstatus isoneproducedornecessitatedbythem:first,bytakingupbreast‐feedingorwet‐ nursing,shefreesthebourgeoisdaughters‐in‐lawoftheHalderginihouseholdfrom perpetual breast‐feeding which would alter their “shapes” for the worse (41); secondly, she is declared redundant as a wet‐nurse when they cry halt to innumerable child‐bearing altogether by resorting to modern contraception (43). Thewindsofchangedonothavethesamebenefitsontheeliteandthesubaltern! In her short story, “The Funeral Wailer,” Mahasweta Devi brings her critique of affect or sentiment to the center of her narrative. Affect (or sentiment), of which tears are the predominant sign or symbol, is what Sanichari supposedly lacks: she doesnotcryatthedeathsofhermother‐in‐law,husbandandson;nordoesshecry when her grandson runs away from home to join a circus. What is worse, she resorts to tears to earn a living by becoming a funeral wailer or professional mourner by wailing at the funerals of affluent families in her neighbourhood. Considering the special status that tears have in society as a signifier of genuine emotion or affect, Sanichari’s inability to shed tears for her loved ones and her abilitytoturnontearsforthosewithwhomshefeelsnoempathysetherapart.It 20Forafascinatingreadingoftheshortstory,seeGayatriSpivak’s“ALiteraryRepresentationofthe Subaltern:AWoman’sTextfromtheThirdWorld,”InOtherWorlds:EssaysinCulturalPolitics,New York:Routledge,1988. 82 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ moreover signals her difference from a bourgeois world where starting from the 19thCentury“sentiment”or“affect”becomesthedrivingforceormainmotifofboth socialrelationsandfictionasevidenced,forinstance,intheemergenceofthenovel ofsentimentofwhichCharlesDickenswasamajorproponent.21Sanichari,thepoor outcastewomanforwhomsentimentortearsevenatthedeathofalovedone,like herbelovedsonBudhua,becomesexorbitantthusbecomesbythatveryinabilityor failure“ex‐orbitant”toanelitesociusorpolityconstructedaroundaffect. Again, the question is why cannot Sanichari shed tears for her kin? The reason is economic necessity. She had “no time” we are told to cry or to indulge in the “useless”sentimentofweepingthatwouldputnofoodintheirstomachs.Whenher mother‐in‐lawandhusbanddiedshehad“notimetocry”because,havingpaidfor thefuneralritesforthedeadinthecaseofherhusband,“shehadtoworksohard dayandnightjusttokeepthemfromstarving”(208).Andnothingmatters“inthe dailybattleagainsthunger”(209).Atthedeathofherbelovedson,sheagainhasto “work nonstop to arrange for his cremation” and to support herself and her grandsonsothat“sheagainhasnotimetocry”(211).Therepetitionof“notimeto cry” presents ‘weeping’ or ‘mourning’ itself as something luxurious that can be affordedonlybytheaffluent.Asinthecaseof‘leisure,’timetoocanbeatapremium forthosepressedbywant!Theapartnessoralienationfromtheelitediscourseof sentimentandaffectisonlyreinforcedwhenshetakestowailingatthefuneralsof upper caste and affluent landlords to earn a living. Her neighbor Dussad Ganju underscorestheirreduciblewedgethatseparatestherichfromthepooronceagain viaresorttosentiment:“I’mnotaskingyoutoshedforBhairabSinghthetearsthat youcouldnotshedforBudhua.I’mtalkingofcryingaswork,forearningmoneyand food. You’ll see, you can do it just the same way you can cut wheat and carry the loads” (217). Dulan’s new moral universe is determined by the imperatives of hungerwheresuchpiousdifferentiationsbetweenwagedworkandlaboursoflove donotapply:“forthestomach,doinganythingisright”(216).Hismoralrelativism hasitsownunconventionallogic:“That’snotplayingtrickswithgods.Ifyouthinkit isatrick,thenitis.Ifyoudon’t,thenitisn’t”(216).Therelativismextendstothe “whores” or randis of the community who are actually poor women sexually exploitedanddiscardedbytherichandpowerfuloftheregion.DulanGanjurefuses to consign them to the ranks of “fallen” women recognizing that they had become randismerelyto“feedthemselves”(218).Conventionalmoralityitselfthusbecomes an unaffordable luxury in the face of soul‐destroying hunger and poverty. So Sanichari tells her friend Bikhni when the latter expresses reluctance to join Sanicharibecauseherlittlegranddaughtermightmissheratnightandstartcrying: “she’llgetusedtoit(214).There’snovalorizationofaffecthere. Yetthestorydoesnotunequivocallydeclare“sentiment”or“affect”thepropertyor prerogativeoftheaffluent.Iftherichcanaffordtocrybecausetheyarenotpressed 21Indeed,in19thfiction,“sentiment”oraffectasmoralforceandplotresolutionwasquiteokay;it wastheexcessthatwasdeploredascapturedintermssuchas“tear‐jerkers”oraslachrymose.The powerofaffectorpathostomovereaderstowardssocialactionwasamplydemonstratedinthecase of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which has been credited with having had a hand in persuading (White) middle class Americans to regard slavery as a heinous practice requiring imminentabolition. 83 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ bythedemandsofthestomachtogetonwiththebusinessoflivingasSanichariis, theydonot.Instead,theywhodonothavetearsfortheirdeadnowpurchasetears or mourning by hiring funeral wailers, the number of wailers at the funeral an opportunitytoengageinoneupmanshipagainstothereliteintheregion.Itshows thatinthecrasspursuitofwealthandmaterialgain,onemeansforwhichisthrough theexploitationandoppressionofthepoor,theyhaveultimatelylosttheabilityto feel,evenfortheirownkin!AsDulanpointsout,“Whensomeonediesinourhomes, thenearonescry.Inrichhomes,motherkillssonandsonkillsmotherformoney. Whenthereisadeath,thenearonesaretoobusytakingpossessionofthesafetocry forthedead”(216).IncontrastisSanichariwhomaynothavethetimetocrybut whoisnotdevoidofsentiment.Shejustcannotaffordtoindulgetheminherdaily battleagainstpovertysuchas“herdreamofbuildingalifearoundBudhua”or“her fonddreamofsittinginthesunonwintermorningswithhergrandchildandeating chickpea flour and gur with himfrom the same bowl…” (209). If her tears,as she claims,are“burntout”itisduetothedailygrindofpoverty.22 The ending to the story, which has Sanichari attend the funeral of Gambhir Singh, with a hundred randis from the Tohri marketplace including Gamhir Singh’s illegitimatedaughterGulbadan(whohadbeenturnedoutofdoorsbyGambhirfor turningdownhisnephew’srequestforsexualfavors),undoubtedlyreachesacomic high note. This is especially so when the nephew notices Gulbadan among the wailers, who winks at him mirthlessly even as she wails louder than before in a showofmourning.SoSanichariandherbandofwailerstakepossessionofGambhir Singh’srottingcorpsesayingthat“theMaliknowbelongstous”evenastheaccounts keeper and nephew look on in dismay as their inheritance withers away in this displayofostentatiousmourning.YetMahaswetaistoopragmatictoassigntothe subalternsubjectinresistance,i.e.,Sanichariandherbandofprofessionalmourners, a pure unadulterated triumph. If the new‐fangled fashion of hiring large bands of professionalmournersbenefitsSanichariandherwailersandhelpsthemwardoff hunger,itisnotwithoutitscost:“Themaliksrecoveredtheiroverspendingfromthe hidesoftheDusadandGanjuandKolpeasantsanddebtors”(223).Theendingthus rules out the possibility of a triumphant romantic resolution, which would be implausibleinacontextwhereentrenchedcasteandclassnormsaretoopowerful tobedislodgedovernight.Thus,itisSanichari’sownkind,thefellowpoor,whoare exploitedtobalancethecost‐benefitsheetoftherich.Inthatsense,Sanichariisno subjectinrevolutionwho,likeMoses,canleadtheoppressedoutofEgyptontothe Promised Land of equality. The “difference” or “otherness” created by the conditions of poverty is not erased by the end of the story. If at all, it is further highlighted. By refusing to present Sanichari as victim, the response to whom is conventionally packaged in pathos, the author forces us to critically view the conditionsofsubjectconstitution,inthisinstance,poverty. 22GayatriSpivakhowevercautionsthereaderagainstrelyingtoomuchon“affect”tofindapointof connection with the gendered subaltern. Speaking in the context of her reading of Mahasweta’s “Douloti the Bountiful,” she says what is often seen as “sweetness”, “virtue,” “innocence” and “simplicity”inpeopleis“internalizedconstraints”thatpreventthembecoming“organicintellectuals” (“Translator’sPreface,”ImaginaryMaps,xxvii). 84 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Spivak’s challenge to elite intellectuals thus denies them refuge in pious pronouncementsandsimplisticformulationsinthedifficultattempttoopenuplines of communication with the subaltern muted by the dominant trajectories of representation.Inher“Translator’sWord”toacollectionofMahasweta’sstoriesin ImaginaryMaps,shesuggestsan(im)possibleloveastheonlywaytotranscendthe impediments to such a transaction. Yet, referring to Mahasweta’s story, “Pterodactyl,” she describes the moments of communication as tenuous and provisional since the elite and the subaltern are destined to move along parallel lines. In the texts under consideration in this paper, we see the authors adopting different modes of representation to transcend the divides—material and figurative—that separate the elite from the subaltern. In Roy’s The God of Small Things, this attempt takes the form of a truly (im)possible love. In the auto/biographical renderings of Phoolan’s life, the authors resort to different strategies to account for the transmutation of an illiterate peasant woman into India’smostfamousBanditQueen.Mahaswetaresortstoalienationastechniquein ordertohighlightboththeveryrealfactofhungerthatseparatesthesubalternfrom the elite and the inescapable mediation of ideology that blocks access to the pure voice‐consciousness of the subaltern. The “inevitable heterogeneity” or the “irreducible difference” of the subaltern (as Spivak would put it) however makes recoveryofsubalternconsciousnessalwaysfraught,sometimesleadinginfacttothe unintentional reinstatement of essence, as evidenced in Roy’s novel or Phoolan Devi’sautobiographyTheBanditQueenofIndia.The“circumscribedtask”facingthe female intellectual might then be the unsentimental recognition of this subaltern difference that would prevent the collapse of the one into the other. Perhaps Mahasweta’sstoriesgesturetowardsthispossibility. 85 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ WorksCited Ahmed,Aijaz,“James’RhetoricofOthernessandtheNationalAllegory,”SocialText, No.17(Autumn,1987),3‐25. ‐‐‐, "Reading Arundhati Roy Politically," Arundhati Roy‐‐Critical Perspectives, Ed. Murari Prasad,NewDelhi:PencraftInternational,2007,21‐44. Althusser, Louis, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation), “Lenin and Philosophy” and Other Essays, Tr. Ben Brewster, MonthlyReviewPress,1971. Coward,Rosalind,“TheTrueStoryofHowIBecameMyOwnPerson,”TheFeminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism, Ed. Catherin BelseyandJaneMoore,NewYork:BasilBlackwell,1989,35‐49. Felman,Shoshana,“WomenandMadness:theCriticalPhallacy,TheFeministReader: EssaysinGenderandthePoliticsofLiteraryCriticism,Ed. Catherin Belsey and JaneMoore,NewYork:BasilBlackwell,1989,133‐55. Gopal, Priyamvada, “Of Victims and Vigilantes: the ‘Bandit Queen’ Controversy,” Thamyris:MythmakingfromPasttoPresent,4.1(1997),73‐96. Guha,RanajitandGayatriSpivak(eds.),SelectedSubalternStudies,NewYork:Oxford UniversityPress,1988. Guha, Ranajit, “The Prose of Counter‐Insurgency,” Selected Subaltern Studies, Ed. Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, New York: Oxford University Press,1988,45‐89. Jameson, Frederic, “Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capital,” SocialText,15(Fall1986):65‐88. Kapur,Shekar,BanditQueen[film],KochLorberFilms,1994. Kishwar,Madhu,TheBanditQueen[Review],Manushi,84(Sept‐Oct1994),34‐37. Mahasweta Devi, “The Funeral Wailer,” Tr. Kalpana Bardhan, OfWomen,Outcastes, PeasantsandRebels:ASelectionofBengaliShortStories,Edited,Translatedand withanIntroductionbyKalpanaBardhan,1990,206‐229. ‐‐‐,ImaginaryMaps:ThreeStoriesbyMahaswetaDevi.TranslatedandIntroducedby Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, New York: Routledge, 1995, “The Author in Conversation”:ix‐xxiii,“Translator’sPreface”:xxiii‐xxxi,and“Afterword”:197‐ 205. ‐‐‐, “The Wet Nurse,” Tr. Ella Dutt, Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by Women WritersofIndia,Ed.KaliforWomen,NewYork:FeministPress,1986,25‐63. Menchu, Rigoberta, Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchú Y Así Me Nació la Conciencia, Ed. Elizabeth Bergos‐Debray, Translated into English as I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, Tr. Ann Wright, London: Verso, 2009 (first Englishtranslationpublishedin1984). 86 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ PhoolanDevi,withMarieThereseCunyandPaulRambali,TheBanditQueenofIndia: AnIndianWoman’sAmazingJourneyfromPeasanttoInternationalLegend,New York:TheLyonsPress,2006(firstpublished2003). Roy,Arundhati,TheGodofSmallThings.NewYork:RandomHouse,1997. Roy,Arundhati,“TheGreatIndianRapeTrick”,SAWNET—TheSouthAsianWomen’s Network.RetrievedNovember,2011. Sen,Mala,India’sBanditQueen,NewDelhi:HarperCollins,1993. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, “Breast‐Giver,” In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics,NewYork:Routledge,1988,222‐241. ‐‐, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Colonial Discourse and Post‐Colonial Theory, Ed. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994,64‐104. ‐‐‐, “A Literary Representation of the Subaltern: A Woman’s Text from the Third World,” In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, New York: Routledge, 1988,241‐269. 87 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ India is Indira and Indira is India?”: Representations of Indira Gandhi in SalmanRushdie’sMidnight’sChildrenandRohintonMistry’sAFineBalance. CarinaChotirawe,Ph.D AssistantProfessor DepartmentofEnglish,FacultyofArts,ChulalongkornUniversity Abstract AsthedaughterofJawaharlalNehruandasIndia’sfirstwomanprimeministerand onewhoisrememberedforherforcefulandauthoritativeruleIndiraGandhiisan important figure in literary representations of post‐ independence India. In much the same way that she is literally the daughter of one of the founding fathers of modernIndiashealsoachievediconicstatusandidentifiedasaMotherIndiafigure. ThispaperarguesthatthisambivalentattitudeisreflectedbybothSalmanRushdie and Rohinton Mistry both of whom allude to Indira Gandhi quite explicitly to the pointwheresheisbecomesanactualcharacterinMidnight’sChildren(1980)andA FineBalance(1995).Thispaperarguesthatwhatmightbeperceivedasnegativeif not misogynistic representations typically connected with female leaders in past and modern history is reflective not only towards the threat to India’s prized notionsoffreedomanddemocracybutalsothefearofmodernityplayedoutinboth novels where male figures become victims of her drastic family planning policies. Depicting the Indian nation as a corpus, Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children suggests Indira Gandhi and the Emergency has rendered the country impotent and fragmented while Mistry’s A Fine Balance portrays its main protagonist Dina as possiblysuggestiveofanalternativemotherfigureinasurrogatefamilywhetheror nottheyarebloodrelatives. 88 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ MythologizingHistory,HistoricizingMyth:ThePlaysofGirishKarnad Dr.K.M.Chandar ProfessorofEnglish UniversityofMysore It is said that history locates itself in the domain of ‘time’; Myth, and by implication,folktalesandsuchotherdiscourseslocatethemselvesinthedomainof ‘space’. Though all discourses address themselves to the question of ‘time’ and ‘place’itisveryrarethatadiscourseaddressesthesetwoquestionssimultaneously butthenatureandcharacterofeachofthesepredetermineswhichdomaingetsthe thrustandemphasis.Inhistory‘time’and‘place’locateextremelycrucialissues.In otherwords,morethan‘what’happened,‘when’didittakeplacetakesthepointof emphasis.Similarly,inmythandfolktales‘where’didtheeventtakeplaceiscrucial than‘when’.Thus,inmythsandfolktalesthereishardlyanyreferencetotime–the referentiality recedes to the background whereas the spatial reference is made explicit in the very beginning of the narrative itself. Thus most of the myths, mythical tales and folktales acquaint the reader/listener as to where one has to locate this discourse – be it Ayodhya or Rishyamukha mountains or Sri Lanka. RavanathuslivesinSriLankawhereasRama’sabodeisAyodhya.Therecanbeno doubt in this location. Such stories only say “Long ago…” and they do not make explicit‘when’.Contrarytothis,Tipu’sfinalbattle,thelastMysorewarwasfoughtin theyear1799.Thus,thetimescaleisperfectlyestablished.Thiscanbeexpressedin graphicscale: Buttheproblemariseswhenawriterchoosesforhisthemeaneventfrom the past (history) or space scale (myth, folktale). A literary discourse is simultaneouslylocatedintimeandspace.WhatKarnaddoesisthereforeextremely interesting because he dabbles with the two constraints of space and time in his worksashedeliberatelychoosesthemesfromhistoryandfolklore.Butthequestion 89 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thattauntsandengagesthereaderatthelevelofabstractioniswhatishidingwith thesetwodiscourses?Howdotheymergeinatotallydifferentdiscourse?Andthisis whereonehastostarttheexplanation. It appears myth and history occupy two extreme points of reference in the spatio‐temporal scale; in history, chronicled history, the temporal scale is predominantandinmyth(andcertainlyfolktales)thespatialscalesbecomecrucial. Thus,inanymythicaldiscourseorfolklorists,thereishardlyatemporalreferentiality tostartwith–thesenarrativesaregenerallycharacterizedbyeithernotreferringto thetime‐frameattheopeningofthenarrativeortoindicateattheverybeginningof the narrative itself to point out at the helplessness of the narrator to reveal the contextualtime‐frame.Butthespatialrealmoccupiesthecentralstage.Thenameof thelocation:thevillage,provinceandcountryareindicatedandsometimeseventhe contemporary referential points are made known. Thus, the mythical land of the Khamakya is indicated and even established in the narrative as the present day Assam/Ahom.However,sometimesinthefolk‐narratives,onecanseethatthisspatial scaleismuchdifferentfromthegeographicalspatialscaleasthisinvolvesadifferent set of coding principles. Thus, myths and folktales are generally characterized by a spatialplacementtoindicatetheirrefrentialityandcharacteristicfeatureofglossing overthetemporalframework. WhatKarnaddoesinhisplaysbasedonhistorysuchas‘TaleDanda’,‘The DreamsofTipuSultan’and‘Tughlaq’isto‘extend’thespatialdimension.Generally thepointofemphasisinhistoricalplaysisontemporalscaleor‘when’ithappened: ‘Tale‐Danda’issetin12thcentury;‘Tughlaq’inthe14thCenturyMughaleraand‘The DreamsofTipuSultan’in18thcentury.ThespatialdimensionsattributedbyKarnad tothesethreeplaysareKalyanin‘Tale‐Danda’;DelhiandDaultabadin‘Tughlaq’and Srirangapatna in ‘The Dreams of Tipu Sultan’. Hence all the three plays locate themselves in spatio‐temporal domain. Though the events take place in the respectiveplacesoftheplays,thepossibilitiesarethattheycanoccuranywhereat anypointoftimeandbecomeuniversal.Karnadpresentsthetimescaleoftheplays along with extending the spatial dimension by attributing the contemporary relevance. Thus Karnad has addressed the question of both time and place in his plays based on history wherein both temporal and spatial dimensions get intertwined,butfinallytheemphasisisontimescal;.andinplayswhicharelocated in the ‘spatial’ dimension, such as ‘Hayavadana’, ‘Nagamandala’ and ‘Agni Mattu Male’ is to extend their dimension. A Graphic representation of such an enterprise wouldbe: 90 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Thus one finds interplay of the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic in Karnad’splays.Byexploringtheparadigmatic,intermsof‘time’andthesyntagmatic intermsof‘space’,whatKarnaddoesisto‘historicize’timeand‘temporalize’place. In other words, with Girish Karnad, there is always this attempt at extending the frontiersoftime–temporalintermsofmyths/folktales(whosemaincharacteristic, asalreadynotedisit’scontextualizingin‘space’andspatialintermsofhistorywith itsemphasison‘time’).ItisthisdauntingtaskthatKarnadattempts,andsucceeds, in varying degrees in the plays based on myth (folktale), and history. It is also significanttonotethatin‘TheDreamsofTipuSultan’(whichismuchclosertousin terms of time – two hundred years in Indian history is minuscule) Karnad’s achievement has been debatable. Perhaps the reason for this is that though it is based on ‘history’, too much of it’s ‘spatial’ realm confronts us – Tipu’s palaces, paintings,the fort and all thesemonuments stare us in the face the way Tughlaq’s andBasavanna’s,forvariousreasons,donot.Onereasonforthisisthatbecauseof 91 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ his eccentricities, Tughlaq is hardly a historical presence and Basavanna of ‘Tale Danda’hastranscendedinto‘mythical’space. Inotherwords,thesetwototallydifferentattemptsdescribetwodifferent kindsofpatternswhichaspireto‘coalesce’atahypotheticalpointinspaceandtime. This pattern, needless to emphasize, is in terms of the paradigmatic (time) and syntagmatic(space).ItisworthrecollectingDoctorow’sobservationhere: “History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew.Butwhatmostpeoplethinkofashistoryisitsendproduct, myth.”[Interview] Meenakshi Mukherjee asserts: “the conscious use of myth is an easily recognisedliterarydeviceandpartofamoderntrend”[p.133]Thisconscioususe of myth is a technical device used by many contemporary writers. Writers use myths,mythicalsituationsorcharactersinamoderncontexttothrowlightonthe predicamentofcontemporaryman.KarnadhasderivedstoriesfromtheRamayana, theMahabharata,thePuranasandtheVedas.Bringinginastorywithinastory/play withinaplayorpausingtonarrateaparabletodrivehomeapointarecharacteristic devices made use of by Karnad in his plays. When we look at all the nine plays of Karnaditcanbenoricedthat:hisplaysaretraditionalinthesensethathisuseof myths, folktales has made his plays traditional and modern as they have the contemporary relevance. His stories are derived from well‐known epics or myths. Hisuniquenessliesinhissubtlereflectionuponthepresentthroughtheparlanceof thepast.Karnadhasmirroredtheplightandconflictofmodernmanwiththeuseof myth and history. Though his themes are derived from mythology, history and folklore,hisworksmakeacommentaryonnotjusthumansituationsalonebutalso on the socio‐political events in India today. If ‘Yayathi’ echoes generation gap, the decline of Tughlaq’s idealism recalls to mind Nehru’s era, even as Basavanna’s situationatthehandsofhisdisciplespointsatthecommunalandcasteisttrendsin thecontemporaryIndiansocio‐politicalsituation. ItisKarnadwhohasbroughtforthanevolutioninthefieldofplaywriting.In thesameinterviewhesays: “The times have changed. Kalidasa to me appears too remote, too classical, too perfect. As for Tagore’s plays, they are rather pallied – exactly like the Shantiniketan School of Painting where the figures are staid, two‐dimensional and totally bloodless. It appears that today each one of us has to definehisorherowntraditionbeforeanygreattraditiongets evolvedeventually.”[Ahuja] Karnad iterates that folktales also have a classical dimension. He reflects in thesameinterview: “Well, after my ‘Hayavadana’, I found myself being invitedtoallsortsofseminarsrelatedtofolkforms,andthen I was offered Homi Bhabha fellowship to work on the folk theatreofNorthKarnataka.Itwasallsoeducativeformeand 92 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ultimately brought home the realisation that there was no differencebetweenfolkandtheclassicaldrama:theaesthetic principles are the same. The basic thing I discovered is that thesubjectofanyplayhastobethehumanspirit.Usingfolk as a mere aesthetic device –with no further exploration of what it is to be human – does not attract me. It is not the questionofgarnishingtheplayswithmusic,colouranddance –thatishowsomeofourplaywrightshavetriedtocoverup their sloppiness. Of course, folk forms do have certain intrinsic advantages. The folklorist framework subverts classicalnotionsaboutourholycows;throughtongue‐in‐the‐ cheekirony,folktalesmakefunofrulers,priests,evengods– withoutoffendingeventhepuritans.” A. K. Ramanujan used to say the moment Girish Karnad grasps a myth or a folktale,hismindstartsinterpretingitinmyriadways.Karnadhastheuniquegiftof borrowinganoutlinefromoneoftheseancientresources,placingthemnexttothe contemporary reality and ensuring that these two realities illumine each other. In addition,hepullsoutalessknownaspectofhistoryandseesitinatotallydifferent lightthantheoneothersareusedto.Thisisnottosayallhiseffortshavebornethe desiredfruitbuttheattemptshavebeenpainstaking. Whenhistoryandmythremainmeremythandhistory,theydevelopanaura of sacredness around them – this ensures a kind of impenetrability around which, due to the nature of its sacredness, resists penetration. It is the single‐handed achievement of Karnad that he not merely pierces through the sacred sheath but bringsthisdiscoursewithallitschaosandconfusionthus,onefindsthatthereisan attempt to de‐mythifythe mythological boundaries and in a way de‐sanctify them, profanethem,ifyoulike. So is the case with history whether it is Tughlaq or to a lesser extent Tipu, thereisanattempttode‐historicizehistoryinthetwomajorplays.Thisis,tocertain extent,trueof‘Tale‐Danda’becauseitisasmuchabouthistoryasitisaboutmyth– whatmakestheplayagreatplayisthatallthethreedomains –history,mythand folktalebecomeintertwinedandrevealnewerpatternsalmostlikeakaleidoscopeof life. Thus, Tughlaq is not merely a Mughal emperor but also a human being with conflicts and dilemmas. Raibhya, Bharadwaja and Yavakrita are sages and also humanbeingswithhumanfrailtiestoboot.Aravasu,aBrahmin, becomesanentry intotheclassattheotherextremeendofthesocialscale–however,hisstateasa partofahunter,forest‐dwellerscaleismorehuman.Itisinterestingtonotethatthis classallthedramaticqualitiesoneassociateswithfineartsasitisfullof‘lifeforce’. Onecanalsoperceive,inthechoiceofKarnad’smaterialfortheplays,amovement from the modern to the post‐modern sensibilities. This is very apparent in the treatmentKarnadmetesouttothemythologicalthemessuchasthatofold‐ageand youthin‘Yayathi’. Theactofreadingmythsislikerevisioningthem,itisanactoflookingback, ofseeingwithfresheyesandnewapproach.Karnad’s‘Yayathi’whichisaderivation 93 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ fromthe‘Adiparva’oftheMahabharataacquirescontemporaryrelevancewithafew changes Karnad has brought about to name a few: invention of Chitralekha’s and Swarnalatha’scharacter;introductionofPuruasYayathi’sfirstwife’sson.Theplay openswithPuru’shome‐comingwithhisnewlyweddedwifeChitralekhaforwhich grand preparationsare made.Aquarrel ensues between Devayani and Sharmishte leading to the unravelling of the old enmity between the two, culminating in the union of Yayathi and Sharmishte. The King is cursed by Shukracharya, Devayani’s father,toanuntimelyoldagewithareprieveaddedthathecangetbackhisyouth only if someoneis ready to exchange his old age. Nobody except Puru is ready for such an exchange only to find an escape from the responsibilities of life. He often tells his father that Chitralekha married him only because of the family name – Chandravansha – “They honoured Chandravansha. They honoured your fame, not me.ItlookedasthoughChitralekhawasmarriedtoyou,notme.”[p.33]Chitralekha isperhapsaperfectparalleltocontemporarywomenwhoarelogicalandpowerful to reason out issues. In Chitralekha, Karnad incorporates the very concept of a consciouswomanwhostrivestomakeherspaceandvoiceheard.Thisisevidentin her logical argument with Yayathi that since her husband’s youth is with him, he shouldacceptherashiswifeandwhenrejectedbyhimshedecidesthatitisbetter for her to commit suicide than to make any meaningless sacrifice. The ability to universaliseanindividual’spredicamentoffersKarnad’splaysaworld‐wideappeal. The philosophical reflection is the self‐realisation of Yayathi: a realisation of the futilityoflifewhichdawnsonhimafterChitralekhaconsumespoisonanddies.He alsorealisesthatloveandlustareinsatiableandtheonlywayoutistorenounceit. Hegivesupeverythingandgoestotheforestforpenance.TheexchangeofYayathi’s youthwiththatofhissoncomesoutsidetherealmofrealismorthenecessityofa contemporary setting. Thus Puru in ‘Yayathi’ becomes a symbol of modern ages’ angst of the anxiety of human predicament borne out of solitude and sense of abandonment. Thus the question that Puru asks when confronted with the incomprehensibledeathofhiswife,“whatisthemeaningofthis,ohGod,what’sthe meaning?”becomesthecryofawholenewage,anewconsciousnessitself.Aparna Dharwadkar remarks, “The myth validates the father’s authority and the son’s obedience, reinforcing the counter‐oedipal logic of filial relations in Hindu mythology.”[Pp.15‐16] ‘HittinaHunja’or‘Bali–theSacrifice’isbasedonthe13thCenturyKannada epicJanna’s‘YashodharaCharitha’.Theplayisaboutlove,jealousy,desire,betrayal, violence,sacrificebetweenmenandwomen.Itisacombinationofintimatepersonal relationshipsandreligiousbeliefandpractice.Thecharacters–theKing,thequeen, theKing’smotherandtheMahoutarenotgiventheirrespectivemythologicalnames – Yashodhara, Amruthamathi, Chandramathi and Ashtavakra by Karnad though Amruthamathi’s and Ashtavakra’s names are mentioned once in passing. The deliberate missing out of names perhaps attributes universality to the characters. They are viewed as human beings who prevail everywhere at any point of time. Chandramathi,thequeenmotherintheoriginalstory,suggestsananimalsacrifice as an amendment to the moral transgression committed by Amruthamathi. When the King follows his mother’s suggestion, Amruthamathi does not react to the sacrificebutsilentlynursesrevengeagainstherhusbandandkillshimbypoisoning. 94 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ The queen in Karnad’s play courageously argues and condemns the sacrifice. The King’s decision to agree for a mock sacrifice of a dough cock contrarily brings courageinthequeentocounterargueandjustifyheradulterousrelationshipwith theMahout.Thequeensuccessfullyachieveswhatsheaspiresforasherright.Her adulterous relationship with the Mahout is fully willed, and she is totally guiltless about it though she violates the frame of caste and class. Aparna Dharwadkar considers that “More than any other female character in Karnad’s drama, she is a transgressive presence, deprived of conventional feminine roles by chance and circumstance, but self‐possessed and cerebral enough not to surrender to the pressuresofconformity.”[Introduction.xxxiv]TheQueenmotherisvindictiveand possessivetowardsherson.Boththewomen,thequeenandthequeenmothertryto establishanupperhandinrelationtoman(theKing).Thetwomen–theKingand theMahoutofferacontrast–theKingiscultured,sensitive,braveinthebattlefield butimpotent.OnthecontrarytheMahoutisuncultured,crude,amoralandpotent. These two sets of men and women offer a perfect parallel to each other. Aparna Dharwadkar remarks: “…the radical disparities between the Mahout and the royal couple underscore not an egalitarian message about the union of a queen and her servant, but the eventual irrelevance of thatact to the long‐term disequilibrium of theroyalmarriage.”Althoughtheplayposesadulteryasoneofthethemes,thechief concernofKarnadisperhapstoshowthe“legitimationofviolenceinritualpractices that individuals (such as the queen mother) regard as private acts of faith and worship.”[Dharwadkarxxxv]Hencethemainissueoftheplayisnotadulterybuta spiritual rift between Jainism – which denotes sympathy, mercy, compassion and mainly non‐violence – and the idealisms of Kshatriyas – courage, valour, sacrifice, violenceetc. Themiracleofthetreasuryaccountin‘Taledanda’hasarationalexplanation. ‘Nagamandala’doesnotdependuponanysuchmiraclenorisKarnadinterestedin providingapseudo‐scientific,rationalbasisforamiraclethere.Karnadcompletely abandonsrelianceuponsuchacriteriain‘TheFireandtheRain.’Themiraclesinthe playofrains,ofGodsanddemonsarejusttherewithouttheplaywrightattempting to create a rationale for their presence but what he does is slightly alter the perspective of not merely we, the readers/audience watching them but of the mythological process itself. As already commented upon, the so‐called sages and scaredspheresturnouttobenotmerelyprofanespacesbutbecomedevilishspaces. But what remains over and above all these concaves is the space Art‐theatre providesintheplay.Theplaytobestaged‘IndraVijaya’bytheactors–theliminal spaceinthesocietalspectrumhasaninterestinginterloperinthefigureofAravasu. Itishewhomanagestotravelinallthethree‘spaces’theplaydramatises.Ironically enough, it is the ‘Shudra’ space that provides the maximum stability in terms of human and humane action. That the presentation of this profane play is in conjunctionwiththesacredspacewheretheParjanyaYagnaistakingplaceiswhat makesthecontrastmagnificentanddynamic. In the play within the play, ‘Indra Vijaya’ there is the dramatization of the duel between Indra, the king of Gods and the demon Vritrasura. The Indra in the playisrebornateverynewproductionoftheplayjustashedisappearsattheendof the play. The time scale of a play, of theatre, is different from that of the world 95 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ aroundasittranscendstheconfinesofhistory,recreateshistoryandcontemplates how history can be modified or at least re‐chiselled. It appears Karnad has been morethansuccessfulinhisattemptsatre‐chisellingofthethemeshechoosesfrom history,mythandfolktale. In‘TheFireandtheRain’KarnadreconstructstheworldoftheHinduancient pastandweavesastoryofsacrifice,lossandpassioninthecontextofVedicritual, spiritual training, and the social and ethical differences between human beings whicharestillclosetotheirorigin.Karnadhastheabilitytoimproviseaplotthough itisderivedfromancientmythsandfolktales.Hehasreflectedinaninterviewabout hisselectionofthestoryof‘TheFireandtheRain’andsaidthatthestorywasnot known to many. Karnad learnt from Ramachandra Rao that there was rivalry in Hindu traditional society about how to approach God. It is during this discussion thatKarnadgotanideathatactorscanapproachGodthroughtheatre.Karnadsays: “…the idea occurred to me that Aravasu, the main characterin‘TheFireandtheRain’mustbeanactor.Anactor can only approach God through theatre. That was how the conceptoftheatrecamein‘TheFireandtheRain’.Thiswasnot in the Mahabharata. The concept was mine. So you see, once given a plot, I can improvise the plot!” [Chakravarthy, Priya Ganapathy] Using the myth of Yavakrita, in chapter 135‐8 of the Vanaparva in the Mahabharata and the story of Indravijaya, a story of antiquity, Karnad presents ideasandhumanrelationships:man‐woman,father‐son,brothers‐brothers,friends‐ friends,man‐gods,man‐devil,uppercaste‐lower‐castetodepictvariousemotions. May it be knowledge from penance or through hard academic endeavours, if knowledge that is acquired is misapplied, the consequence can perhaps be destructive. Yavakri acquires universal knowledge from Indra after a decade of penance, which he misuses. Karnad brings about close connections between the principal characters and gives them fresh dimensions: he makes Vishaka and YavakriformerloverswhocontinuetobesoevenaftersheismarriedtoParavasu. Vishaka:Iamamarriedwoman. Yavakri: I know you are. The first piece of news to greet me on my return was that you had married Paravasu. And I was shattered. But it was silly of me not to have expected it. Ten years is a long time…. Ten years ago I swore to you that I would not look at another woman. I kept my word. [p.119] Her marriage with Paravasu is a contract for a year’s sensual gratification. Paravasu abandons her to the care of Raibhya and “the relationships between the threearestartlingintheirlovelessnessandmalevolence.”[Dharwadkarxvii] Twobrothers–ParavasuandAravasu–offerastrikingcontrast.IfParavasu’s life is that of discipline and sacrifice, Aravasu represents a life of instinct and 96 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ emotion. Paravasu is a self‐centred brother who unduly holds his brother Aravasu responsibleforpatricide.RaibhyaandYavakrihavelowerethicalvalue. Thus the play offers a perfect parallel to the modern context providing contemporaneity to an ancient myth for love, lust, revenge, rivalry, envy. It means thataworkofart,beitmythological,whenparalleledwithcontemporarysituations, achievesthecapacitytotraverseintothefuture,gainingclassicdimension.Karnad’s worksareundoubtedlyclassicsastheyeasilytraverse,evenwiththeirmythological theme,notonlyintothecontemporarycontextbutalsotravelfarintothefuture. ‘Tughlaq’dramatisestheconflictbetweentheidealandtheactualandwhen that cannot be satisfactorily resolved, leads to violence both physical and mental. ThusTughlaq,theNawab,whostartsasadreamer,apoetwhowantstochangethe course of whole history becomes a tyrant in the process. As he starts opting more andmoretowardscrueltyandviolence,hebecomesmoreandmoreintolerantofthe differentdimensionsofhisownpersonality.Eachkillingthatheengineersfollowsa ruthlesseliminationofapartofhisownhumanpersona,ofapoetandadreamer, withtheresultthatTughlaqbecomesanexistentialherowiththeterrorofexistence stalkinghim.Hecloseshiseyesattheendoftheplayandasanindicationthateven hispersonalGodhasabandonedhimandwakesupwithanagonisedstarttohear thecallforprayers,Namaz. ThePlay‘Tughlaq’engagesitselfwithSultanateperiodknownasthe‘golden age’whichbringsforthIslamasapoliticalandculturalforceinIndia.Karnad’splay isavalidre‐enactmentofthepasthistoryinwhichhedepictshistoricalcharacters– Barani,Najib,SheikImam‐ud‐dinandalsothestepmother–withhisself‐invented fictionalcharacters–AzamandAzizthuscombininghistoryandfiction,inthesense thatthereisapossibilitytoseetheflashesofTughlaquiattitude–callousyetwell‐ meaningincontemporarypoliticalsituationsalso. The pre‐modern history of India also holds the drama of modernity. ‘Tale‐ Danda’ opens to us the history of the religion turning against itself. Karnad addresses the issue of caste with the background of religion in this play. The situations in the play offer not only the crisis of the past but also the present as communal and caste violence of the twelfth century can be identified with the presentduetothefactthatcasteandcommunalismprevailinthepresentpolitical violence. Aparna Dharwadkar observes that “…the relevance of ‘Tale‐Danda’, like that of ‘Tughlaq’, appears over‐determined and inexhaustible and both plays have takenoncautionaryandpropheticqualitiesofasimilarkind.”[Introductionxiii] In ‘Tughlaq’, the problem of two majority and minority religions: Hinduism and Islam, turn against each other. In ‘Tale‐Danda’, the majority religion turns againstitself.Karnadkeepsthingssuchaspoetic,devotionalandmysticfeaturesin the background to present the problem of caste. The violence emerging out of religious conflict depicted in ‘Tale‐Danda’ is not within the majority religion; it spreads everywhere thereby the pervasiveness of religious conflict and violence is made clear. If in ‘Tughlaq’ there is the dramatization of the personal destructive forces the Sultan unleashes, in ‘Tale‐Danda’ what was private moves over into the public domain. The conflict, therefore, is much more clear in terms of private – 97 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ public,Basava‐Sharana,religion(faith)politicaldialectic.Asheisalsoacreationofa newhistoricalawareness,thevaluesembeddedinthatawarenessassumeagigantic proportionwhichBasavannacanhardlycontrol.ItistothecreditofBasavannathat herealisestheexplosivepowerofthereligiousmovementhehassetup.Theplay, thus deals with the crisis of caste and religion, as the events in the play are nevertheless like an elucidation of the present crisis as Karnad tries to coerce an identity between communal and caste violence and establish that “the effects of intra‐religiousconflictareverysimilartothoseofinter‐religiousconflict.”[13]The contemporaneityisthusestablishedastheconflictbetweencasteandreligionsare eternalproblems. If ‘Tughlaq’ and ‘Tale‐Danda’ deal with pre‐colonial Indian history, ‘The DreamsofTipuSultan’confrontsBritishcolonialism.TipuSultanisaheroicfigure who stands as a symbol for anti‐colonial resistance. The play depicts a major transitionalmomentinIndianhistorywheretheEnglisharealmostrestlesstotake over and try every means to defeat the native rulers who are equally challenging. TheEnglishconspirewiththenativesupportersoftherulersanddrivethemagainst their own leaders resulting in the trusted person betraying the King. Nadim Khan whoorderstheclosureofthedoorsofthefortisatraitorwhichreflectsthepresent daypoliticalsituationalso. Karnad’sthematicargumentisevidentthattheEnglishsetthemembersof the native ruling elite against each other using the strategy of divide and rule and succeeded in India along with their superior weapons and warfare. It is not only because of the superior power of the English Tipu fails, it is also because of the internal non‐co‐operation and misunderstanding. Aparna Dharwadkar is of the opinion that: “the image in the play of a polity in crisis, both because of internal dissentions and the presence of a powerful alien adversary, carries the contemporary problems that had made the history of ‘Tughlaq’ and ‘Tale‐Danda’ politicallyrelevantinpresentdayIndia.”[Introductionxxiii] Karnad was drawn towards a story in the ‘Kathasarithasagara’ because of thescopeitofferedfortheuseofmasksonthestage.ItwasthenKarnadplannedhis ‘Hayavadana’ using masks and folktale of antiquity but still sustained the interest and offered an intellectual and visual treat to the urban audience. Karnad’s ‘Nagamandala’ and ‘Hayavadana’ both have folktale base with variations. ‘Nagamandala’hasinfluencefromtwooraltalesKarnadhadheardfromhisteacher A.K.Ramanujan. The first story is about the lamps that congregate in a dilapidated temple;thesecondisaboutacobraintheformofaman(husband)whovisitsthe woman (the wife). The ‘story’, in ‘Nagamandala’ is personified as a woman who speakstotheaudiencecomprisingtheplaywright,towhomkeepingawakeonefull nightismandatoryinordertosurvive;andthe‘flames’arepersonifiedasgossiping women.Thesetupsuccessfullycombinesthehumanandthepersonifiedinanimate objects creating an imaginative world. Karnad is a perfectionist in creating an imaginary world through fictionalising things such as ‘story’ personified as a woman, ‘flames’ personified as gossiping women, ‘Dolls’ talking etc. The play is aboutgenderrelationsandpatriarchaldomination. 98 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Whenthesnake,intheformofAppannavisitsRaniatnightsasalovingand caringhusband,Ranidoesnotwonderaboutthechangeinhisbehaviour–rudein themorningandlovinginthenight.Karnadhasreflectedonthisaspectthus: “A.K.RamanujantoldmethestoryofNagamandala,where thestiff,rigidanddominatinghusbanddisappearsduringtheday andreturnsinthenightasasnakewhenhebecomestrulyalover, caringandallthat,asifhewastwodifferentpersons.Thisisthe true experience of an Indian housewife in a joint family system. See how magical and how folkish the whole thing is, but the problem itself is not magical. How beautifully it can be shown Through a folk story or a play, instead of ‘modernising’ it.” [Chakravarthy.PriyaGanapathy] From then onwards Rani’s world becomes beautiful, romantic and endearing. Interestingly enough, pregnancy is the outcome of such a fanciful relationship.ThemomentAppannalearnsaboutRani’spregnancy,seeksaproofof herfidelity.Itisnotmerepatriarchalpower,atthesametimequestionsofmorality, fidelity and chastity are also involved. The superstitious belief takes a stronger footing than morality or reality. Moreover, the herb that Kurudavva asks Rani to dispense to Appanna is something that needs to be accepted as it is without questioning.TheherbalpotionwhichRanipoursontheanthillplaysmiracle.The restoftheactionoftheplaysimplyfollowsandAppannaisleftwithnochoicethan to accept her as chaste and as the traditions of the folktales go, they lived happily everafter.Karnadoffersalternativeconclusions–one,happyandtheother,tragic. BasedontheconventionsofYakshagana–useofmasks,music,dance,talking dollsandflames–Karnad’s‘Hayavadana’isaphilosophicalreflectiononidentityand reality. The story about switched heads in the 12th century Sanskrit collection, the Kathasarithasagarainterestedhimasitofferedpossibilitiesfortheuseofmaskson the stage. Though the exchange of the heads of Devadatta and Kapila offers a temporary solution to the mind‐body conflict, when each one’s body reverts to the original self the problem returns denoting eternal imperfection in the lives of men. Karnadcombinesthedivineandtheanimalrealmsofexperience:LordGanesha,the elephant‐headedhuman‐bodiedGod,knownasVigneshwara,destroyerofobstacles, Godofallauspiciousbeginningsisanembodimentofperfection.Ontheotherhand Karnadhasintroducedthehorse‐headedman,Hayavadana,whofindshimselfinan incomplete state – neither a complete man nor a complete horse. He craves for completenessperhapsasaman,butasthelogicgoes–theheaddeterminesthebody – he becomes a complete horse. If the story of Hayavadana poses the problem of incompleteness, the story of Devadatta, Kapila and Padmini poses the problem of identity. The function of both the stories is to subject the whole play to define the “conventions of folk performance to ironic scrutiny.” [Dharwadkar xxxviii] Besides posing the identity crisis, the play also emphasis women in the sphere of marriage providing them the freedom for self‐expression, fulfilling their desires may it be withinorwithouttheframeofmorality.PadminiandRani’sadulterousrelationships are unwilled and temporary and their desires are fulfilled through supernatural intervention unlike the Queen of ‘Hittina Hunja’. Though Chitralekha does not get 99 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ whatshewants,shecanundoubtedlybeplacedinthegroupofwomenwhocreatefor themselves a space for expression. Women in all these plays get men they cannot rightfullyhave.IfVishakagivesintotheadvancesofYavakri,Nittilaibreaksthetribal norms of marriage leaving her husband only to join her former lover Aravasu. If Chitralekha commits suicide, Nittilai is murdered. The main feature of folk‐plays is fertilityandmotherhoodwhichcanbedissociatedfromfidelity. Karnad’s‘Anjumallige’isaplaywhichisdifferentfromtherestofhisplaysin thesensethathisotherplaysarebasedonmyths,traditions,conventionalfolktales, history etc., If his ‘The Dreams of Tipu Sultan’ depicts Srirangapattana during the British rule in India, ‘Anjumallige’ is about Indians in England. It is a cross‐cultural, cross‐racial story in which many Indians are settled in England where they have Englishfriends,wivesandalsofoes.IfKarnadusesmythsandfolk‐tales,inhisother plays as basis to provide a contemporary parallel, in this play though the set up is modern and set in England, he draws lines from Rig Veda as support todiscuss the theme of the play ‐ incest. Karnad quotes the first conversation between Yama and Yami,fromtheRigVeda(10.10).YamaandYamiaretwinswhereinYami,thesister lovesYama,herbrotherandinviteshimtobed.Yamadeclinesherofferandsaysthat hedoesnotwanttocommitasin.Karnadderivesthenameofthefemaleprotagonist of the play ‘Anjumallige’ from Yami and calls her Yamini which echoes the name of Yami. She joins him in England on the pretext of joining a course in painting and develops intolerance when she sees Julia and Sathisha together. Spliting the relationshipofJuliaandSathishashebefriendsDavid,atruckdriver,muchbelowher statusandevenhasphysicalrelationshipwithhim.David,whohatesIndianswhoare academically much ahead of people like him and also those Indians who befriend whitewomen,isathoroughrepresentativeofthedominantEnglish: David:Youpeoplecomehereandenjoyalot. Yamini:(notunderstanding)who? David:YouBlacks!Car,houseandthatwhitegirl! ……. ......... Yamini:WhichisyourcollegeDavid? David: Which college? (Smiling) All our colleges are reservedforoutsiders.Thenwhereisthecollege for us, natives. We natives have to slog from morning till evening in mines, die in factories because we should make way for you Pakistani pigstofillourcolleges,tosnatchourgovernment jobs,andallowourwomentobe…. TakinganoverviewofKarnad’splays–basedonmyth,historyandfolktales– it is evident that Karnad successfully blends the timeless and the temporal. His juxtaposition of myth and history and folklore reveals his conscious effort in workingtowardsanewIndiandrama.Hisplaysbasedonmythandfolklorebecome 100 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ timelessinthesensethattheircontemporaryrelevanceprovidesevidencethatthey areunaffectedbythepassingoftimeorbychangesinfashion.Theplaysbasedon myths find themselves an acceptable place in the present and future due to their contentfindingitsrelevance.Mythtraversesinthespatialrealmwithundetermined pasttothetemporalduetoitsrelevance.Thestoryof‘longago’becomesthestoryof thepresentandalsoofthefuture.Therebythejourneyofmythneverends.Itgoes onandontomeetthepresentandfuture.Thusthespatialscalealwaysmergeswith the time scale. Both meet at points in the present and future. So is the case with history. History, with its fixed past tours to the present and to the future gaining relevanceatalltimes. Thusspaceandtimemeetatalltimes.Therebytheplaysbasedonmythand history achieve classic dimension with which each reading and each production providesfreshsignificanceandfootagetoKarnad’splays.Byusingmythinhisplays Karnadsuggeststhepossibilityofexploringsuchotherinnumerablestoriesthatour mythologiescanofferfor“amythalwaysreferstoeventsallegedtohavetakenplace long ago. But what gives myth an operational value is that the specific pattern described is timeless; it explains the present and the past as well as the future.” [Levi‐Strauss.P.209] His historical plays are cautionary and prophetic enabling people to get an insightintotheirlives.EdwardCarrrightlyremarksthatthedualfunctionofhistory is“toenablemantounderstandthesocietyofthepastandtoincreasehismastery overthesocietyofthepresent.”[p.35] Karnad is undoubtedly an acclaimed playwright who has represented the rich culture,heritageandtraditionofIndiaglobally.Thecultureandtraditionwhichare deep‐rootedinhisintellectualengagementisapparentinhisworkswhichresultsin carrying out the same to the next generation and generations to come. His plays encompasstherichIndianmythological,stories,historicaleventsandfolklore. WorksCited Ahuja,Chaman.InterviewwithGirishKarnad.“Iamtryingtocreateatraditionofmy own.”TheTribune.21stMarch1999.30thAug2006. <http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/ppmar21/sunday/view.htm> Amur,G.S.“ModernKannadaDrama.”EssaysonModernKannadaLiterature. Bangalore:KarnatakaSahityaAcademy,2001. Carr,EdwardHallet.WhatisHistory?NewYork:RandomHouse,1961. Chakravarthy,M.N.PriyaGanapathy.“TalentandLuckyoucannotmanipulate;India’s illiteracyisashame;Butforacting,I’dhavetowritelikeShobaDe.”TheIndian Express.21stDec1998.30thAug2006. <http:///www.cscsarchive.org/MediaArchive/art.nsf/(docid)/A875B327F1856 46B6525694000.....htm> 101 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Dharwadkar,Aparna.Introduction.CollectedPlaysVol.1and2.ByGirishKarnad. NewDelhi:OxfordUniversityPress,2005. Eliot,T.S.“TraditionandIndividualTalent.”EnglishCriticaltexts,16thCenturyto 20thCentury.Ed.Enright,D.J,ErnestDeChickera.NewDelhi:OxfordUniversity Press,1962. Foucault,Michael.Power/Knowledge:SelectedInterviewsandotherWritings1972– 1977.Ed.ColinGordon.Trans.GordonColin,LeoMarshall,JohnMepham,Kate Soper.NewYork:PantheonBook,1980. Levi‐Strauss,Claude.StructuralAnthropology.Trans.Jacobson,ClaireandBrooks GrundfestSchoepf.NewYork:BasicBooks,1963 Mukerjee,Meenakshi.“TheTwiceBornFiction”.MythasTechnique.NewDelhi: HeinemannEducationalBooks(India),1971. PressTrustofIndia.“Theatrewillsurvive:Karnad.”TheIndianExpress.28thMarch 1999.30thAug2006.<http://www.indianexpress.com/res/w eb/pIe/ie/daily/19990328/ile28016.html> Bibliography “IndianMythologyDaresBack…”IndianDivinity.24.2.2004. http://www.webonautics.com/mythology/mythology.html “MythinthenineteenthandtwentiethCenturies”.TheDictionaryoftheHistoryof Ideas.24.1.2005.http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi‐local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3‐40 Abrams,M.H.AGlossaryofLiteraryTerms.Bangalore:EasternPress(Bangalore) Pvt.Ltd,2004 Achebe,Chinua.“AnImageofAfrica:RacisminConrad’sHeartofDarkness.”Heartof Darkness,AnAuthoritativeText,BackgroundandSources,Criticism.Ed. RobertKimbrough.London:W.W.NortonandCo.,1988. Agha,Leila.Take‐HomeMid‐TermPartI.JacquesDerrida’sphrase…14.10.2004. http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Literature/21L‐ 451Spring2004/6D47E10C‐91DF‐4A23‐88CC‐ FC40B376D181/0/agha_midterm.pdf. Ahuja,Chaman.InterviewwithGirishKarnad.“Iamtryingtocreateatraditionofmy own.”TheTribune.21stMarch1999.30thAug2006. <http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/ppmar21/sunday/view.htm> Ahuja,Chaman.InterviewwithGirishKarnad.“Realism,amyth”.TheHindu.27th Feb2000.30thAug2006. <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/02/27/stories/09270351.htm> Amur,G.S.“GirishKarnad’sNagamandala:ATechnicalTriumph.”EssaysonModern KannadaLiterature.Bangalore:KarnatakaSahithyaAcademy,2001. 102 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Amur,G.S.“ModernKannadaDrama.”EssaysonModernKannadaLiterature. Bangalore:KarnatakaSahityaAcademy,2001. AnAgeOldTale.IndianExpressfrontPage.2.3.2004. http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19991201/ile01056.html Ananthamurthy,U.R,Prasanna,GirishKarnad.“GirishKarnad,ThePlaywright: Discussion”.IndianLiterature.Volume169. Ananthamurthy,U.R.“Hayavadana”.Sannivesha:VimarsheMathuBiduLekhanagalu (Kannada).Bangalore:HeggoduPrakashana,1974. Ananthamurthy,U.R.IndianLiteratureinEnglish.Ed.C.D.NarasimhaiahandC.N. Srinath.Mysore:Dhvanyaloka. Ananthamurthy,U.R.Prasanna.GirishKarnad.“GirishKarnad,thePlaywright–A Discussion”.IndianLiterarature:169.Bangalore:KarnatakaSahityaAcademy. Andrade,Gabriel.TheTransformationofKinshipintheNewTestament. Anthropoetiecs112005No1.19.6.2006. http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1101/ap1101.htm AnnaiahGowda,H.H.“IndianPlaysandPoemsinEnglishKarnad’s‘Tuglaq’and Ramanujan’sReltaions”.TheLiteraryHalfYearlyVol.XIVNumberOne. January,1973. AnnaiahGowda,H.H.IndianDrama.Mysore:Prasaranga,UniversityofMysore,1974. Ashcroft,Bill.GarethGriffiths.HelenTiffin.TheEmpireWritesBack.NewYork: Routledge,1989. Ashoka,T.P.“GirishKarnadAwaraTaledanda”(Kannada).PusthakaPreethi.Puttur: ShobhaProcessPrinters,1993. Baghesree.S.“VisionaryDreams”.TheHindu.15thJuly2004.24thOct2004. 103 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Friday23rdNovember2012(13.30–17.00) SessionFour: The“BharatMata”ofCulturethrough theTidesofTime:ACross‐Culturaland Cross‐TemporalDialogue 104 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ TooAsian,NotAsianEnough;contemporaryBritishIndian1writingfromHanif Kureishitothepresent HisaeKomatsu,Ph.D ResearchFellow, HokkaidoUniversity,Japan. 1.WhoistheBritishAsianWriter? To examine the British Asian writings, firstly, in this paper I will introduce the diversityofcontemporaryBritishAsianwriters,itintendstoanswerthefollowing question; who is the British Asian writer? Secondly I will address the relations between the writers and the demand from market, considering the British Asian writing asa brand. Lastly, this paper will demonstrate the prospects of the British Asianwritingasalabel. Sulman Rushdie and Hanif Kureish could be considered the ‘pioneers of British Asian literature’. These two are the key figures of it. Most of young Asian writers confessthattheyareprofoundlyaffectedbyKureishiwhoseearly90sworkssuchas Buddhaofsuburbiaandmybeautifullaundrettefirsttimeeverrepresentedthelifeof Asian‐immigrantsinEnglandfirsttimeever. In the new millennium, alongside the widespread acceptance of multi‐ethnic cultureinBritishsociety,therehasbeenanincreaseinthenumberofyoungAsian‐ origin,newgenerationwriters.Amongofthemthemostfamousandpopularwriters are Hari Kunzuru and Nadeem Aslam. Hari Kunzuru was born in London to a Kashmiri Pandit father and a British Anglican Christianmother. His first novelThe impressionist (2003)2had a £1 million‐plus advance and was well received. The ImpressionistissetinBritishIndiaanddescribesthejourneyofayoungmanwhois searchinghisidentity.NadeemAslamimmigratedtoLondonwithhisparentswhen he was a boy. He did a debut with Mapsforlostlovers3in 2004 and it was highly praised. His works are set in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Pakistani community in BritainanddescribesMuslimworld. There are many writers of the same generation and south Asian origin. Here I confine myself to introducing only a few famous and popular writers. Gautam Malkani was born in Hounslow; his mother is a Ugandan of Indian descent. He studied at Cambridge and worked at the Financial Times. In 2006 he did a debut withLondonstani4,whichwastheboy’sbildungsromanandthenovelachievedgood success. Itwas much talked about its unique writing style with full of street slang. 1SincethisconferenceisonIndianwritinginEnglish,IusethetermBritishIndianwritingtomytitle forconvenience.HoweverinthispaperIwillrefertonotonlyIndianoriginbutalsoPakistanand Bangladesh,sohereafterthetemBritishAsianisusedinsteadofBritishIndian.BritishAsianisaterm usedtodescribeBritishcitizenswhodescendedfrommainlySouthAsia,suchasIndian,Pakistanand BangladeshandalsoIndiancommunitiesfromUgandaandotherEastAfricannations. 2HariKunzuru,TheImpressionist(London:Penguin,2003) 3NadeemAslam,Mapsforlostlovers(London:Faber,2004) 4GautamMalkani,Londonstani(London:FourthEstate,2006) 105 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Besides,thisnovelwasmuchtalkedaboutbeforeitsreleaseduetothehugeamount moneypaidfortherightstothebook.NilpalSinghDhaliwalwasborninGreenford toparentsfromPunjab.Aftergraduatingcollege,hestartedhiscarrierasjournalist with BBC. Now he writes articles for The Guardian and The Times as a freelance journalist. He has been staying in India for the last three or four years and contributing to the major Indian magazine Tehelka, too. His debut novel Tourism5 was described as ‘a bracing debut that sizzles with sexual and racial tension. Brilliant. A terrific book6.’ Bali Rai was born and grew up in Leicester. After graduating from South Bank University, he made debut in 2001. His first book, (un)arrangedmarriage7, created a grate sensation and won many awards. He is a very active writer for teenager with around 30 books. The most of his novels are dealingwithBritishAsianteenagers.Rani&Sukh,oneofhiswork,becameaset‐text forGCSEin2010. ZahidHussainisaBritishPakistaninovelist.HewasborninLancashireandgrew up in Blackburn. He commands several languages including Arabic, Urdu, Gujarati, French,SpanishandTurkey.Hisdebutnovelthecurrymile8issetinManchesterand describes intergenerational rivalry between father and daughter. Sarfraz Manzoor immigratedtoBritainwhenhewas2yearsoldwithhismotherandbrotherstojoin theirfatherwhohadleftPakistanin1963.HestudiedatManchesterUniversityand SalfordUniversity.In2007hepublishedamemoir,GreetingsfromBuryPark;Race, Religion,Rock‘n’Roll9anditwasreceivedwell. Therearewomenwritersaswell.ZadieSmithwasborntoaJamaicanmotherand an English father. She studied English literature at Cambridge University. Her first novel Whiteteeth10describes a Bangladeshi family among the main characters and coversbroadthemessuchasmulticulturalism,religion,minority,politics,andrace etc.Itwonmanyawards.MonicaAliwasborninDhaka,BangladeshtoaBangladeshi fatherandEnglishmother,movingtoBolton,Englandattheageofthree.Herdebut novel BrickLane11was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. It followsthelifeofaBangladeshiwomaninLondon.Itwasadaptedintothefilmin 2007andcausedcontroversywithintheBangladeshicommunityinBritainbecause of the negative portrayal of people in the community. Kia Abdullah was born in LondontoBangladeshiparentsandgraduatedfromUniversityofLondonwithafirst class honors Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. She contributed the GuardianandhasbeenworkingwithBBC.Shehaswrittentwonovelsandherfirst novel was criticised by the Bangladeshi community due to its description of drugs andsexwithinthecommunity.ShelinaZahraJanmohamedwasbornandbroughtup in north London andeducated atOxford university. She isthe author of memoir, LoveinaHeadscarf, about her 10 years quest for a husband through the arranged 5NilpalSinghDhaliwal,Tourism(London:Vintage,2006) 6DailyTelegraph 7BaliRai,(un)arrangedmarriage(London:RandomHouse,2001) 8ZahidHussain,TheCurryMile(SuitcasePress,2006) 9SarfrazManzoor,GreetingsfromBuryPark;Race,Religion,Rock‘n’Roll(Bloomsbury:2007) 10ZadieSmith,WhiteTeeth(HamishHamilton,2000) 11MonicaAli,BrickLane(Doubleday,2003) 106 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ marriageprocess12.JanmohamedhaswrittenarticlesforTheTimes,TheGuardian, TheNational,focusingonIslamandcurrentaffairs. These new generation writers are the so called 1.5 generation or second generationofimmigrant.Amongthemtherearesomecommoncharacteristicssuch as; most of them are educated at prestige universities. Most of them are of mixed raceorhavingmixedracerelationships.Itshouldbenotedthatmanyoftheirnovels swungpublicopinionnotonlybecauseoftheirartisticvalueitself,butotherfactors, such as fatwa, huge amount of contract money and backlash from a certain communityetc. 2.‘BritishAsian’asabrand/label Now let’s consider the labeling issue, that is, British Asian as a brand or label. Thereissomegapbetweenthequestionsof'WhoamI?'and'AswhoamIsupposed to write or sell the book?'. The former is related to an identity issue and latter, marketing issue. Nowadays there are great number of India origin writers in England and moreover, aiming atthe multi‐cultural society, the British Asian label gainssomuchpopularityasneverbefore.Toconsideraboutthebrand,firstofall,I will show the changes of the representation of Asians in literary works with a historicalbackground.ItshowshowhaveBritishAsiansbeenrepresentedinnovels. Since the late 1960s, there has been great tension regarding racial issues in Britain. Hanif Kureishi recalls his schooldays in the 1970s being surrounded by skinheadsandracistteachers13.InthosedaysAsianboyswereconsideredas'poor atthemacho'andalsowidelyconsideredlackingincourageorwillingnesstodefend themselves. However from the late 1980s, the situation has changed. The new generationofAsiansdidnotacceptbeingjustpassiveandrefusedtobeseeninthat way any longer. They rejected the stereotypical image from outside and started to raisethevoicefrominside. It is remarkable that since the late 1990s the way of representation of ethnic cultures have become more diverse. Earlier, they saw homeland culture as being inferiortohomecultureanddeniedthevalueofit.Theysufferedundertheconflict between these two cultures. Here 'home' refers to the country of one’s actual residence namely Britain and 'homeland' means the country from which one or one’sancestorsimmigratetoBritain,namelyIndia.Butrecentlyanewtrendwhich positively re‐evaluates ‘homeland’ culture with pride became conspicuous. And notably, with an exclusive attitude. For instance, we come across Islamic fundamentalistsinsomenovelslikeMySontheFanatic(1997)byHanifKureishiand White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith. In both novels, the Islamic fundamentalists amongthesecondgenerationofimmigrantinBritainaspireforasenseofunityor senseof'we',andtheyexcludeothersviolently. 12ShelinaZahraJanmohamed,Loveinaheadscarf(AurumPress,2009) 13HanifKureishi,`TheRainbowSingh’,inMyBeautifulLaundretteandOtherWritings(London:Faber andFaber,1996),p.73. 107 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Enteringanewmillennium,wecanseethechangingofthemainthemeinAsian novels. Before their main theme was identity crisis or crush related to the dichotomies such as BritainandIndia, Westand East, Christ and Islam and parent generation and youth and so on. Now the stories start to be more personal, more trivialandordinary,aswecancallstoryabouteverydaylife.Ofcoursethishasnot yetshiftedcompletely.Searching‐selfstorystillisandwillalwaysbenarrated.But one thing that can be said is that the roots issue is now not the biggest theme anymorebutoneofthevariousthemes. NowadaysitisremarkablethatBritishAsianliteraturehasbecomepopularand been accepted well among contemporary British society. Several works won prestigiousliteraryawardsandmanyofstorieshavebeenfilmedandturnedintoTV dramas.Theseleadtheirwritingstosuccessinthemainstream.Whatisthereason forthisboom?WhosupportstheseBritishAsianwritings,orBritishAsianbrand? To answer these questions, we can find many cultural activities of Asian community.Amongtheactivities,wecantaketheonlinemagazineasarecenttrend. Forexample,DesiBlitsisoneofthemostpopularwebsitesamongAsiancommunity. It launched in 2008 aiming at community development and consists of various useful articles, information of cultural and social activity and interviews with professional Asians in various fields. It frequently features Asian writings and writerswithbookreviewsandinterviews. Besides this, ‘The Asian Writers’ is another special website which launched in 2007 aiming to inspire the next generation of British Asian writers. They organize programmes, launch literary prizes and publish new writings by British Asian writers, both online and in print. We can see several and huge supports for the developmentofAsianwritingsbytheseprizesandfestivals. We should also observe this Asian writing boom from outside the Asian communityandweshouldanalyzethetendency.Howaretheyacceptedbyreaders andpublishersinBritishsociety?Whatisexpectedforthe‘BritishAsian’brand? Inthenewmillennium,especiallyafter9/11and7/7,Asianwritingsstartedto draw attention as stories from inside the Asian community. British society, which has been dominated by the white middle class, expect for British Asian writers to revealhiddenworlds.Therefore,wecansaythewritersareexpectedtowriteabout theAsiancommunity.Iftheywroteaboutotherthemestheirnovelwouldnotmeet readers’ expectations and they would give rise have bitter comment. For instance MonicaAli’sAlentejoBlueissetinPortugalanddealingwithnothingaboutBengali community.Acritiquestatesthatreaderscan’thelpwishingthatAlihadchosento write about somewhere she knew better14 . Let’s take another example. Kia Abuddulah’ssecondnovelisapsychologicalcrimethrillerandagainwritesnothing about Asian community or Muslims. But in spite of that, most advertising copy of thisbookis‘fromyoungMuslimauthor’withherprettyprofilephoto.Besides,not 14NatashaWalte‘Continentaldrift’,TheGuardian20May2006. 108 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ onlythethemesbutalsoauthorsthemselvesareexpectedtobeandquestionedifhe orsheisauthenticAsianornot. Re‐considering the popular Asian writers of today, we would find that their attributes such as high education, mixed‐race, mixed race relationships and exotic beauty are not typical Asian. It is quite interesting to observe that many of these writerswhoarecreditedwithtellingtypicallyAsianstoriesareinfactatypicaland exceptional. Then one more question would come how the writers themselves react to this ‘authenticity’ or British Asian label? The writers' attitudes toward this label are ambiguous. Mostly they feel uncomfortable about it. Some of them criticize the awardforAsianwriters15.Othersreactsharplyagainstsomeinterviewswhichover‐ emphasizetheauthor’sethnicity.SomewritersreluctantlyagreetoutilizetheAsian label but, they are not happy enough. They cannot helpfollowing their publisher's strategytoselltheirbooks. Besides Dhaliwal’s attitude is interesting. Although he refuses the Asian labels, heisunhappytoseethatotherwritersareconsideredasauthenticAsian16.Dhaliwal has several times attacked fellow British Asian writers saying that all of them are Oxbridgeelitesfromthemiddle‐classandtheyareseekingtoimpresswhitepeople insteadofaddressingthestreet‐levelreality.Bycontrast,Dhaliwalinsists,hehimself writesfromthestreet‐level,thatisthecoalfaceofBritishmulticulturalismtherefore heistheverypersonthatcanreallyrepresentBritish‐Asiancommunity17.Healleges hisauthenticityastheAsianwriter.Inthisway,theAsianwriterscannotstayaway fromthisBritishAsianlabel.Whetherstrugglingwiththelabel,theyhavetofaceit. Thisauthenticityissuewouldleadtoanotherproblem.Sometimesthislabelmay cause overvaluation of the British Asian novel. If the writer comes from the new generationAsian,herorhisworkistendtobetoutedexcessivelythatitisavoice frominsideandreflectstherealAsianyouth.Asanexamplewecantaketwonovels, one is Londonstani and the other is Foxy‐T18. Both are set in an Asian community around London and write about the young generation’s life in the community. Londonstani is Gautam Malkani’s debut novel in 2006. It shed light on the sub‐ culture of the Asian gangs in Hounslow, West London and is written entirely in streetslangthatconsistsofamixtureofPunjabi,HindiandEnglishandcontainsa lotoftext‐speakandlyricsofAmericangangsterstyleofrapandhip‐hop. Belowaresomesamplesgiven. 【example1】theleaderHardjitchallengestheunacceptablebehaviorofa fellowcountryman: 15Dhaliwal,‘Gosh,brownandtalented?Super’TimesOnline16April2005. 16AnitaRoy,‘RudeandRuderBoys’interviewwithNirpalSinghDhaliwalinTehelka22July2006. 17Stacy‐MarieIshmael,‘Arealpage‐turner’interviewwithDhaliwalinKALMagazine,SamLeith, ‘Notebook’interviewwithDhaliwalinTelegraph3April2006. 18TonyWhite,Foxy‐T(London:faberandfaber,2003) 109 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Wat’swrongwid’chyu,salakutta?U2embararass’dtobadesi?Embarrass’da yourownculture,huh?Thingis,uisactuallyanembarrassementtodesis. Bet’chyucan’tevenspeakyomothertongue,innit.”(p.22) 【example2】thenarrativepartbyJas(thisnoveltakesthestylethatthewhole storywasnarratedbyJas): Proudame?Youfuckinshouldbe.Ipracticedthatlineahundredtimesinfronta mybedroommirroranahundredfuckintimesinfrontathebathroommirror. SometimesIpractiseditasJohnnyDepp,sometimesasPierceBrosnan, sometimesasBradPitt.ButintheendIwentwiththiscrossbetweenAndy GarciaanShahRukhKhancositjustworkedforme.(p.149) Asseenabove,notmerelythedialoguepartbutthewholenarrationofthisnovel adapts non‐standard English, which is the street slang. Londonstani was highly estimatedforits‘uniqueandnew’writingstyleandsettingofnovel.Severalcritics praisedthatit‘revealsaBritainthathasneverbeforebeenexploredinthenovel’19. However, a novel written in this very ‘new and unique’ style had been already published3yearsbeforeLondonstani.ThisnoveltitledFoxy‐TsetintheBangladeshi communityinEastEndLondon,isnarratedinthestreetlanguagecalled‘Banglish’ spoken by the children of Bangladeshi immigrants which is a mix of English, CockneyandBengali. Belowaresomesamplesgiven. 【sample1】onegangmakesathreatagainstanewcomer; “Listenmanmeagobackhomeonbusinessforacoupleadayinitandiftheyis happyfeyoustopthereanddosecurityiscoolbutyouaintgosellweedyouhearme star.ComenowmeknowsayyouwasjustgofecheckRed‐Eyeinit.Givemethat weedstar.”(p110) 【sample2】narrationofashopwhichisthecentralsetofthisstory; Trust me everyone knowed Ruji‐Babes cousin init through him use fe drive her unclearoundonhimbusinesscallonlynowherunclegonebackhomethenishim aroundtheareadoingthemthinklikecollectrentandtaxoffallthemshop.When him come over E‐Z Call one a them like him mate or whatever what was usually drivewouldstayoutsideinthecareorwhateverandotheronewouldgoinandlook through the books for like an hour and the stand up and shake his head an go….. (p.7) Thisnovelwasalsowrittenentirelyin‘Banglish’.SincethewriterTonyWhitewas notAsianbutawhite,thisnovelwasneitherconsidered‘thevoiceofAsianyouth’, nor much talked about. And Foxy‐T was named on a list of lost masterpieces 19Bookdescriptionofamazon.ukhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Londonstani‐Gautam‐ Malkani/dp/0007231768 110 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ deservingalargeraudiencein200620.SeveralAsianwriterscriticizetheAsianlabel for being burden on their literary activity. But as previously seen, the label may converselyaddsomeextravaluetotheirnovels.TheBritishAsianlabelmaycause overvaluationofBritishAsianwritings. Like it or not, British Asian writers cannot be free from this label, at least as of now.Theyhavenootherchoicethantostrugglewithit.'TooAsian,notAsianenough' publishedlastyearwouldofferususefulinformationknowaboutwriters’struggling with this label. This is an anthology of young British Asian writers and the editor herselfisanAsianwriter,too.TheeditorstatesthatmanyBritishAsianwritershave begun to feel the pressure to continue to write with the British Asian brand or British Asian label. For them the label has now become stifling. This anthology containsmanystorieswhichmightusuallynotbepublished.Perhapsbecausetheir contentorapproachdoesn'tfittheexpectationsofthelabel,thesestoriesmightbe consideredtooAsianornotAsianenough.Writingtheirstoriesfromtheinside,they are trying to avoid British Asian image, Asian formula which is imposed from outside.Theychallengethelabel,broadit,changeit,andmakeitnew21. 3.WhereistheBritishAsianlabelgoing? What is the prospect of the British Asian brand now? Where is the label, the brand, going? It willremain as it is or loseits power? To consider these questions let’s take other ethnic minorities in Britain for comparison. I would take British Chinese.Theydefinitelywillgainpowereconomicallyandpoliticallyinthesocietyin thenearfuture.Buttheydon’tseemtohavenorwanttohavecollectiveidentityyet. So far it is not certain whether they will establish the collective/group identity as British Chinese. Let’s take Kazuo Ishiguro, a British of Japanese origin, as another example. No one would deny his style is very British. He is not selling himself as OrientalnorBritishJapanese.Thisdiversityofidentityshowsusethnicityisnomore certainandstabletoestablishalabel. Then what would be the alternative value? In our consideration the diversity of identityorsenseofbelongings,mostremarkableobjectofobservationwouldbeso called ‘British Muslim writers’. Already several Muslim writers have strengthened theirsenseofbelongingstoreligiouscommunity,butnottoaregionalone.Inmany writingsbyMuslimwriterspublishedinBritaininthe2000s,theydefinethemselves not as British Asian, but whether as a Pakistani and / or Muslim. The British Sociologist Tariq Modood writes his family’s personal shift of identity: they were considered as Pakistani in the 60s and 70s then as Asian in the 80s, and at last as Muslim in the 90s22. The theme of Muslim writing itself has recently become newsworthy and the British Muslim has become an object of great interest. The 20SrfrazManzoor,‘WhydoAsianwritershavetobeauthentictosucceed?’intheguardian30April 2006 21KavitaBhanot,‘Introduction’inKavitaBhanot(ed)TooAsian,notAsianenough(London:Tindal StreetPress:2011),pp.vii‐xii. 22TariqModood,MulticulturalPolitics:Racism,EthnicityandMuslimsinBritain(Edinburgh: EdinburghUniversityPress,2005)p.4. 111 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ interesttoknowthecommunitythathasbeenlittle‐knownandmarginalizeduntil nowhasincreased.NowBritishMuslimlabelisindemand23. Another phenomenon to indicate the demand is the boom of autobiography by Muslims. There is proliferation of autobiographical memoirs by young British writers of Muslim heritage after 9/11 and 7/7. Ranging from GreetingsfromBury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor(2007),ThemakingofMr.Hai’sdaughterby Yasmin Hai of 2008,toLoveinheadscarfbyShalinaZahraJanmahomed2009,andZaibaMalik’sWe are a Muslim, please 2010, most of them are written by British journalists of Pakistani heritage. Those memoirs narrate the authors’ personal histories, from their parents’ arrival in England to their establishment of successful careers in journalism. In their narratives we would see social, cultural and political issues related to race, faith, and class; such as the1989 Rushdie affair,the 9/11in 2001, andthe2005Londonbombs. ThisBritishMuslimbrandissupportedbyseveralorganizationsandawardsas British Asian brand. Let’s take Muslim Writers Awards as an example. It was founded in 2006 in Britain, product of partnership between Penguin Books, Puffin BooksandInstituteofEnglishStudies.Itspurposeistopromotepromisingwriters from the Muslim community. This award inaugurates local literary organizations suchasManchesterMuslimwriters,LancashireMuslimwritersandsoon. Naturallywewouldhaveseveralquestionsaboutthislabel.Firstofall,whatdoes itmeantobeBritishMuslim?MuslimswhowerebornintheUK? WhoareBritish citizensorresidents?ThenwhatshouldweconsiderMuslimwritings?Isitpossible tohaveaMuslimperspectiveevenifthewriterisnotaMuslim?Orifthewriteris secular, agnostic, atheist or comes from other religious communities, then can we call him or her a Muslim writer? Is it valid to categorize literature according to religiousidentity?Inthecaseitisnotvalid,istheideaofusingethnicityorregional identitytocategorizeliteratureacceptableasalternatives? Itshouldbenotedthattheseterms,labelsorbrandshavelargelybeenfoisted onthemfromoutside.Nowletmetalkaboutbiggerandwiderlabels.Let’stakethe labelofmigrationliteratureordiasporaliterature.Itissaidthattheselabelwere made to distinguish migration / diaspora literature from the ‘orthodox’ English literature. But, now the population of the new generation of immigrants is increasing and the border between immigrant and citizen is becoming more and more blurred. Immigrants are changing into be citizen. The ‘migration literature’ might change its shape and name, according to religious identity instead of the geographicaloriginofthewriters.Oritmightbesplitintomuchmoresmallgroups or fragments. Or the label of migration literature might be rejected as irrelevant. Willitsurviveasaliterarygenre,orbeabsorbedbyworldliterature? 23BritishMuslimFictions(ClaireChambers,PalgraveMacmillan2011)isanexampleofresearcheson BritishMuslimwritingsoftoday. 112 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Conditionality,Non‐Self,andNon‐AttachmentinAmitavGhosh’sTheHungry Tide:AThaiBuddhistReading DarinPradittatsanee,Ph.D AssistantProfessor DepartmentofEnglish,FacultyofArts,ChulalongkornUniversity Therivers’channelsarespreadacrossthelandlikeafine‐meshnet,creatinga terrain where the boundaries between land and water are always mutating, alwaysunpredictable.... There are no borders here to divide fresh water from salt, river from sea. Thetidesreachasfarastwohundredmilesinlandandeverydaythousandsof acres of forest disappear underwater, only to reemerge hours later. The currentsaresopowerfulastoreshapetheislandsalmostdaily—somedaysthe watertearsawayentirepromontoriesandpeninsulas;atothertimesitthrows upnewshelvesandsandbankswheretherewerenonebefore.(6) The above passage is the depiction of the archipelago of the Sundarbans on the India -Bangladesh border in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. One of the striking features of the tide country is the interpenetration of entities which are normally perceived as different from each other: fresh water / sea water and river / sea. The passage also highlights the power of the tides that compel the constant transformation of sea into land and vice versa, thus calling our attention to the fact that physical reality at the tide country is always in flux. The indeterminate nature of the Sundarbans not only incessantly eludes our attempt to impose our conceptual framework upon the place in order to firmly grasp its stable meaning but also challenges such permanent geographical categories as land and water that we humans employ to make sense of the planet. Critics have paid special attention to the centrality of the landscape’s undecidability to the interpretation of the novel as a whole. For example, in “The Postcolonial Uncanny: The Politics of Dispossession in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide,” Pramod K. Nayar argues that the tide country, characterized by its “intellectual uncertainty,” “delusion and secrecy,” constitutes “the postcolonial uncanny” as perceived by visitors such as Kanai and Piya (91-94). Postulating that “the postcolonial uncanny in Ghosh is the working-out of the issues of knowledge and power,” Nayar examines the relations of this uncanny landscape to the issue of epistemology and the cross-cultural interactions between “Westernized, metropolitan, technology-reliant” visitors and the dispossessed locals (91, 97). He cogently contends that “the postcolonial uncanny” can be transformed into a safe home by those whom he calls “the indigenous canny,” the locals such as Fakir and their “mystic, mythic knowledge” (91). Another example is Lisa Fletcher’s “Reading the Postcolonial Island in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide.” Focusing on “Ghosh’s representation of the interstitial space of the Sundarbans” as unstable and unpredictable, Fletcher argues that the novel raises “key issues” in island studies in its blurring of such binary oppositions as land/water, insider/outsider, fact/fiction, and scientific/literary (712). The novel suggests that “any individual’s comprehension of a locality and its history is contingent on multiple vectors of identity and thus always partial and vulnerable to 113 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ change” (11) and that “a multiplicity of perspectives” is indispensable for any attempt to enhance one’s understanding of islands, which are intrinsically mutable (9). Similarly concentrating on the representation of the Sundarbans as indeterminate and elusive, my reading of The Hungry Tide in this paper however takes on a different approach. As a Buddhist, I found the novel, especially its portrayal of the mutable landscape, strikingly reminiscent of the Buddhist notions of impermanence (anicca), nonself (anattā) and conditionality (iddappaccayatā). As Buddhist philosophy postulates, phenomena are inevitably marked by three characteristics; it is subject to constant change (anicca), thus causing suffering (dukkha), and empty of any permanent essence (anattā) (Harvey 1990: 50-51, Payutto 1982: 67-78). The three characteristics are interwoven with the notion of conditionality. The notion teaches that the emergence, existence, and cessation of all things depend upon the concurrence of conditions as explained by the Buddha in the following formula: When there is this, that is; With the arising of this, that arises. When this is not, neither is that; With the cessation of this, that ceases. (Payutto 1994, 4)1 Conditionality or, as Peter Harvey puts it, the notion that “all things, mental and physical, arise and exist due to the presence of certain conditions, and cease once their conditions are removed” is also the fundamental principle for the Buddhist explanationofthetwelvestagesthatbringaboutentrapmentin,andliberationfrom, sufferinginthecycleofbirthanddeath,whichisknownasthenotionofdependent origination (paticcasamppāda). (Harvey 54, see also Keown 269). More significantly, Buddhism postulates that conditionality is the nature of everything. Referringtoconditionalityas“thelawabovealllaws,”BuddhadasaBikkhuexplains thatnothingisnotsubjecttothislaw(333‐368).2Conditionalityaccountsforthe three characteristics of all existence. That is, if the arising and ceasing of things hinge upon causes and conditions, they are always subject to change and thus suffering. As Buddhist scholars point out, this notion is connected with the interrelatedness of all things and the notion of non‐self: as “all things exist dependentofdeterminants,”theyare“inter‐relatedandinter‐dependent”andthus haveneither“intrinsicentity”nor“enduringexistence,notevenamoment”(Payutto 1994,14;seealsoHarvey54)).Inotherwords,asDamienKeownstates,thenotion ofconditionality“dovetailswiththeteachingofno‐self”(269).Justas“[t]henot‐self teaching...isprimarilyapracticalteachingaimedattheovercomingofattachment” (Harvey 1990; 52), the teaching of conditionality aims at deconstructing our perceptionofrealityashavingpermanentessenceandalsoatundoingourtendency for attachment. Kulapahana elaborates on how the discernment of conditionality willleadtospiritualliberation: When [a person] responds to that world of experience with his understanding of conditionality his responses will not be rigidly predetermined....Abandoningpassionorcraving...,hisactionswillbe dominated by dispassion . . . . , and more positively, by compassion . . . for himselfaswellasothers....Therecognitionofthepossibilityofreplacing 114 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ignorance...withwisdom...andcravingandgraspingwithdispassionand compassionleavestheindividualwiththecapacitytoattainfreedom.(486) InBuddhism,aprofoundinsightintoconditionalityasthefundamentalnatureofall things constitutes right seeing, one of the eightfold path toward enlightenment or nibbāna(Harvey2007;333).Itenablesonetofathomthetruenatureofrealityas constantlychangingandwithoutanyessenceforonetoclingto. As I see it, the notions of impermanence andnon‐selfareembeddedintheopeningdescriptionoftheSundarbans.Thisisthe place where “the boundaries between land and water are always mutating, always unpredictable.” Not only are the lines dividing land from water impermanent but incessant mutability at this place also induces us to question the stability of disparate entities such as river/sea or land/water. Due to the powerful tides, the islandsareconstantlychangingtothepointthatonecannolongergraspwhatone perceivesastheir“essential”nature.The“epicmutability”(128)oftheSundarbans manifests itself preeminently in front of the human eye, awakening us to the fact thatourperceptionofrealityandevenrealityitselfarealwaysprovisional.Aneven morevividimageofthiseeriemutabilityisthatofthecreationofnewlandbythe tideandtherapidgrowthofamangroveforestontheisland:“Whenthetidescreate newland,overnightmangrovesbegintogestate,andif the conditions are rightthey can spread so fast as to cover a new island within a few short years” (7, emphasis mine).Thisdescriptionpointstoimpermanenceandtheprovisionalityofphysical reality at the Sundarbans, and also the fact that the tides, the agent of change, deprivetheplaceofanyfixedquality.Moreimportantly,theclause“iftheconditions are right” suggests that the concurrence of conditions account for the arising and ceasing of the natural or geographical entities. Thus the reality of conditionality is also embedded in this landscape. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the novel celebratesnewpossibilitiescreatedbytherealityofimpermanenceandnon‐self.In the chapter “An Epiphany,” Piya discovers the peculiar behavior of the Sundarban Orcaella,thecoastaldolphinsthatcongregateinapoolonadailybasis.Observing that the Sundarban dolphins congregate “twice each day” whereas “their Mekong cousins did once every year,” Piya thus proposes a new hypothesis that the Sundarban dolphins “adapt their behavior to this tidal ecology” by “compress[ing] theannualseasonalrhythmsoftheirMekongrelativessoastofitthemintothedaily cycleoftides”(104).AnexistingstudyontheSundarbanecosystemexplainsthatits uniquenesscausesthemiraculouscreationofmultifariouslifeforms: Thisproliferationofaquaticlifewasthoughttobetheresultoftheunusually varied composition of the water itself. The waters of river and sea did not intermingleevenlyinthispartofthedelta;rather,theyinterpenetratedeach other,creatinghundredsofdifferentecologicalniches,withstreamsoffresh water running along the floors of some channels, creating variations of salinity and turbidity. These microenvironments were like balloons suspended in the water, and they had their own patterns of flow. They changed position constantly, sometimes floating into midstream and then waftingbacktowardtheshore,attimesbeingcarriedwelloutinseaandat others retreating deep inland. . . . This proliferation of environments was 115 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ responsible for creating and sustaining a dazzling variety of aquatic life forms—fromgargantuancrocodilestomicroscopicfish.(104‐105) In this delineation, the Sundarban ecosystem is the vivid embodiment of mutability and non-self. The interpenetration of sea and river waters results in the emergence of various ecological niches. Due to the mutability of this place, these microenvironments constantly change, thereby bringing into existence “a dazzling variety of aquatic life forms.” What is further implied in the odd behavior of the Sundarban dolphins is that in such a place where everything hinges upon constantly changing conditions, an ability to “adapt” (104) is indispensable to one’s survival. Seen from a human perspective, adaptability entails the attitude of non-attachment.Concurring with Fletcher that instability is the intrinsic nature of the Sundarbans, this paper would like to extend this argument further. Reading The Hungry Tide in light of Buddhist philosophy, it will argue that conditionality and non-self are evident not only in the physical realm but also in social realms of ideologies, identities, and human interactions and that these Buddhist principles are also embedded in the narrative itself. While Nayar argues that Ghosh suggests the “humanistic vision” which blends “the spiritual mystic” and “the technological modern” at the novel’s end (110), my paper will offer a nuanced reading of the novel, contending that The Hungry Tide recommends the attitude of non-attachment which is founded upon a discernment of conditionality and non-self as an alternative approach to human existence and interactions. More particularly, the novel deploys nature—the landscape of the Sundarbans and the tides—as an agent of change that cautions humans against their tendency to fiercely grasp at certain views, perceptions, or ideologies. As an embodiment of the Buddhist concepts, The Hungry Tide thus serves as an expedient means that helps disrupt the reader’s tendency to fixedly cling to certain views, concepts, or perceptions of reality. Conditionality of “Environmentalism”: A Cetologist’s Epiphany at the Sundarbans In addition to the portrayal of physical reality at the Sundarbans as embodying the principles of impermanence, conditionality, and non‐self, the novel suggeststheworkingoftheseprinciplesinsocialrealms.Thesectionwillexamine the social dimension of these Buddhist concepts as exemplified in Piya’s environmentalideologies.Asitfocusesonthenovel’scritiqueoftheprotagonist’s adamant attachment to her Western brand of environmental ideologies, it argues thattheideologiesaresubjecttothelawofconditionality,thusdevoidofpermanent substantialitythatoneshouldclingto.Moreover,thenovelhighlightsotherformsof environmentalideologiesthanWesternones,asillustratedinthelocals’relationship tonature.AsIwillargue,thenovelsuggestsanattitudeof non‐attachmentwhich entails open‐minded tolerance for difference. At the very beginning, The Hungry TidepresentsPiyaastheprimeproductoftheWesternenvironmentalistdiscourse. Strongly committed to her mission for the preservation of nature, this Indian‐ American cetologist travels all over the world to conduct research on marine mammals and save dolphins from human exploitation. Her passionate belief in ecocentric environmentalism can be seen as her religion and Piya herself as a martyr. She refers to her trip to Calcutta as a “catecean pilgrimage” (188). Upon 116 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ respondingtoKanai’squestionofwhethershewillbewillingtodiefordolphins,she says: “If I thought giving up my life might make the rivers safe again for the Irrawaddy dolphin, the answer is yes” (249). It is important to note that Piya’s Westernenvironmentalismisfoundeduponherbeliefinthepowerofscienceand technology in unveiling the mystery of nature. Her faith in technology is saliently evidencedbytheimageofallkindsofinstrumentssecurelytiedtoherbody,ranging fromaGPSmonitor,arangefinderandadepthsoundertobinoculars.Inaddition, her genuine concern for the natural world is tinctured with her desire for human mastery of the knowledge of nature. When she is able to capture an image of her closeencounterwithadolphinwiththeGPSmonitor,sheisdescribedasfilledwith “asenseoftriumph”aswellasherdelighttoseethatthedolphinsarereproducing (95).ThenovelpresentsPiya’sfierceattachmenttoWesternenvironmentalismand how her experiences in the Sundarbans call into question the validity of these ideologies once they are applied to reality in this particular place. Piya’s adamant beliefinnature’sintrinsicvalueasindependentofhumanscanbeclearlyseeninthe scene when she risks her life in her fanatic attempt to stop an enraged mob from killingablindedtiger.DespiteKanai’sexplanationthatthistigerhas“beenpreying on this village for years,” Piya is still unable to discern the reality of the locals’ strugglesforsurvivalagainstthreatsofdangerouswildlife.Herstatement“Thisis an animal” hints at her respect for the non‐human world and her single‐minded resolve to preserve it. Moreover, she imposes her environmental ideologies upon otherswhensherunsawayfromKanaiinordertoseekFokirwithafirmbeliefthat shewillgethelpfromthefishermanwhoisgiftedwithintuitivesensitivityforthe naturalworld.However,PiyaishardhitbysheerdisappointmenttoseethatFokir ishelpingthevillagerstosetthepennedtigeronfire.InFokir’sview,“whenatiger comesintoahumansettlement,it’sbecauseitwantstodie”(244). The ensuing conversation between Piya and Kanai demonstrates how ecocentricideologieshavebeensodeeplyingrainedinPiya’swayofthinking.Kanai remindsPiyathatFokirisnot“somekindofgrass‐rootsecologist,”but“afisherman” who“killsanimalsforaliving”(245).However,Piyaisstillperturbedbythescene of the locals killing the helpless tiger. She considers this act as primitive, “like something from some other time—before recorded history” (248). Moreover, the appalling“horror”forheristhefactthatitispartofthedailylivesofthelocalssuch asFokirandHoren.AsKanaiputsit,“they’velearnedtotakeitintheirstride”(248). EvenwhenKanaipointsoutthatinthisparticularcasehumansufferingsarecaused by the tigers and poses a question “Isn’t that a horror too—that we can feel the suffering of an animal, but not of human beings,” Piya’s ecocentrism cannot be undermined. She simply replies: “everywhere in the world dozens of people are killedeveryday—onroads,incars,intraffic.Whyisthisanyworse?”(248).Piya’s onlyconcernisthepreservationoftheendangeredtigers. Her attachment to ecocentrism, as opposed to anthropocentrism, significantlylimitsherrangeofvision.Allinfrontofheristhevalueofendangered specieswhereasrealityabouthumansufferingsbecomesherblindspot.Piyaisnot cognizantthatasanecologistsheiscomplicitinthisactofhorror.Kanaiexplains howtheybothareinvolvedinthepoliticsofWesternenvironmentalisminIndia: 117 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Because it was people like you,” said Kanai, “who made a push to protect the wildlife here, without regard for the human costs. And I’m complicitbecausepeoplelikeme–Indiansofmyclass,thatis,–havechosen to hide these costs, basically in order to curry favor with their Western patrons.It’snothardtoignorethepeoplewho’redying–afterall,theyare thepoorestofthepoor.”(248‐249) PartofwhatKanaiisreferringis“ProjectTiger”launchedbyPrimeMinisterIndira Gandhiinthelate1970s.InstigatedandfinanciallysupportedbytheWWF(World WildlifeFund),thisprojectaimsatcreatingtigerreservesindifferentpartsofIndia, including the Sundarbans. As Kanai’s statement suggests, the preservation of the endangeredspecieswaspartofthepoliticsbetweenpostcolonialIndiaandtheWest and it is conducted at the expense of the lives of the impoverished (Clark 127, HugganandTiffin186,“TigerQuestions”).NotonlyisPiyaunawareoftheadverse impact of Western environmentalism upon the marginalized but she is likely to romanticize nature and human‐nature relationships. For example, while she realizes that Fokir fishes in prohibited areas, she is incapable of connecting the problemofthelocalswhosesurvivaldependsontheuseofnaturalresourceswith thepracticeofpreservationenvironmentalismthatiswithout“regardforthehuman costs.” Her awareness of the fisherman’s poverty tends to be clouded by her romanticviewofhisclosenesstonature. In addition, the novel juxtaposes Piya’s voice with the voice of Kusum, Fokir’s mother, who represents the Morichjhãpi refugees. First fleeing to India after the East Pakistan genocide and laterremovedtoagovernmentresettlementcampintheforestsofDandakaranya, thesedalitrefugeesfledtosettleintheislandofMorichjhãpi(104‐115).However,in itsattempttokeeptheislandfromhumanhabitationaspartoftheWWFprojectto preserve endangered tigers, the government persecuted and eventually massacred thousands of the refugees. As Rajender Kaur points out, this project for tiger preservationunderIndiraGandhi’ssupportwas“anexampleoftheinsensitivityof neocolonial environmental schemes that override the concerns of local people” (Clark127).Inthenovel,Kusumwhowasinsearchofahomejoinedtherefugeesin fightingagainstthegovernment.AsrecordedinNirmal’sdiary,shesharedwithhim herreflectionuponthe“crime”ofbeing“justhumanbeings,tryingtoliveashuman beingsalwayshave,fromthewaterandthesoil”(217): It was to sit here, helpless, and listen to the policemen making their announcements,hearingthemsaythatourlives,ourexistence,wereworthless thandirtordust.‘Thisislandhastobesavedforitstrees,ithastobesavedfor itsanimals,itisapartofareserveforest,itbelongstoaprojecttosavetigers, whichispaidforbypeoplefromallaroundtheworld.’Everyday,sittinghere with hunger gnawing at our bellies, we would listen to these words over and overagain.Whoarethesepeople,Iwondered,wholoveanimalssomuchthat theyarewillingtokillusforthem?(216‐217) Kusum’s painful feeling is caused by the wilderness preservation discourse that privileges non‐humans over human beings. In light of the sufferings of the dispossessed,Westernenvironmentalismbecomesaformofimperialistoppression. 118 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ It is then an attempt to impose certain Western ideologies upon lives of people in India. Kusum’s story may also serve as a cautionary lesson for good‐intentioned activists like Piya who are however unbendingly attached to their ecocentric ideologies.InitscritiqueofPiya’sadamantattachmenttoenvironmentalismandits inclusionofthevoiceofthosevictimizedbytheseideologies,thenovelsuggeststhat the wilderness preservation discourse which originates under specific circumstances in America may not be applicable on Indian soil. This idea is confirmed by Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez‐Alier’s point about the distinctionofenvironmentalismsinthenorthernandsouthernhemispheresintheir book entitled Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South. The former partakesofvaluesproducedinthesocietyofaffluencewhereasthelatterwhichthey call the “environmentalism of the poor” should be founded upon the reality of povertyandnecessityforsurvival(qtd.inHeise59).Morespecifically,Guhapoints out in “Toward a Cross‐Cultural Environmental Ethics,” that “while the dominant environmental philosophy in India is agrarianism, in the United States it is wilderness thinking” (438). Even within India, he advocates what he calls “ideological plurality” (1988, 2578) found in divergent environmentalist movements. Jettisoning the totalizing dominance of the Western ideologies, the notionofvarietiesofenvironmentalismcarefullyexaminesbothspecificconditions whichinformcertainenvironmentalphilosophiesandtheconditionsofsituationsto whichcertaintypesofenvironmentalismscanbeapplied. Atthesametime,thenovelpresentsthebackgroundofwhatmaybecalled Fokir’s “environmentalism,” revealing a different set of complex factors and conditionsthatshapeshissenseofplaceandhisintimaterelationshipwiththelocal and its non‐human inhabitants. His “environmentalism” is informed by local folk beliefsthatwerepassedontohimfromhisancestorsthroughhismother,Kusum. ForFokir,Garjontolaisnotonlyanactualplacewherehegrowsupbutisalsothe embodiment of his mother who tells tales and sings songs about it. Moreover,his intuitiveknowledgeofthedolphinsfindsitsoriginnotinactualcreaturesbutinthe storiesthathelearnedfromhismother:“Asforthebigshush,thedolphinswholived in these waters, I know about them too, even before I came here. These animals werealsoinmymother’sstories”(254).Hisenvironmentalismisalsogroundednot onlyinthephysicalworldbutalsointhespiritualone.Hebelievesthatthedolphins were“BonBibi’smessengers”whoconvey“newsoftheriversandkhals”(254).Tied to this belief in the spirit world and the existence of Bon Bibi is the bequeathed knowledgeFokirneedsforhislivelihood:“he[hisgrandfather]toldher[hismother] that if you could learn to follow the shush, then you would always be able to find fish”(254). TheHungryTidethuscautionsagainstdogmaticattachmenttoideologiesand also reveals the conditionality and non‐self of these ideologies. The novel suggests that Piya’s Western environmental ideologies are merely one of the provisional conceptual frameworks that are subject to change and modification. As the novel reminds us, far from being a universal or totalizing way of thinking about human‐ naturerelationships,theseideologiescomeintoexistenceduetotheconcurrenceof certaincausesandconditions.Assuch,theyaredevoidoffixedessenceandsubject tochange.Theyarenotuniversaltruths,butmerelyconstructeddiscoursesthatone shouldbecautionednottoblindlyclingtoorimposeuponothers.AsPiyarealizes 119 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ afterhertraumaticexperienceinthedestructivestormthat“[she]do[es]n’twantto dothekindofworkthatplacestheburdenofconservationonthosewhocanleast affordit,”sheoptstoinvolvelocalfishermeninherprojectandmakessurethatthe Badabon Trust benefits from it (327). Her decision marks the beginning of her change. Once she learns to let go of her fierce attachment to her ideologies, she is abletostepbeyondtheoppositionofecocentrismandanthropocentrismandthusto discern the interdependence of humans and non‐humans. The novel seems to insinuatethatwhileonemaystillneedcertainideologiestoholdonto,one’sattitude should be that of non‐attachment as one should be willing to put them to test, modify them, or even let go of them, depending on changing conditions. This attitude, together with an awareness of the provisionality and multiplicity of ideologies/perspectives, is also conducive to “eco‐cosmopolitanism,” which Ursula K. Heise defines as “an attempt to envision individuals and groups as part of planetary‘imaginedcommunities’ofbothhumanandnonhumankinds”intheworld wherethelocalandtheglobalareintricatelyinterwoven(61). ADreamer’sIdealismintheTideofTime In The Hungry Tide, Piya’s attachment to her Western environmentalism is interestinglypresentedinparallelwiththatofNirmaltohisidealism.Asthenovel primarilyfocusesontheinitiationofPiyaintothemutablerealityoftheSundarbans, theembeddednarrativepresentedintheformofNirmal’sdiarypresentsthestory of an old schoolmaster who believes himself in pursuits of idealism as he was involved in the Morichjhãpi refugees’ struggle. As this paper argued in the preceding section, the novel pits Piya’s Western environmental ideologies against different forms of environmentalism in order to bring to one’s attention the multiplicity of environmentalism as well as its conditionality and to suggest the dangers of fierce attachment to certain ideologies. Focusing on Nirmal’s idealism, this section continues to examine the conditionality and non‐self of ideologies. It specifically demonstrates how the novel sheds the light of conditionality on blind attachment that it cautions against, treating it with non‐attachment and non‐ judgmentalism. That is, while the novel presents Nirmal’s blind idealism, it also shows that his attachment to idealism arises due to certain conditions. Moreover, thenovelpresentshowNirmal’sdiary,theembodimentofhisunbendingidealism, can,thirtyyearsafterhisdeath,bringaboutKanai’sandPiya’sbetterunderstanding ofrealityattheSundarbans.Timeandchangingconditionscanrenderfruitfulthe seed that originated from Nirmal’s futile idealism. In other words, the novel suggeststhatattachmentitselfissubjecttothelawofconditionality. Fromthebeginningtotheendofhislife,Nirmalhasbeenamanofidealism who is in love with poetry and the idea of revolution. As a professor of English literature in Calcutta, he was known as “a leftish intellectual and a writer of promise” (64). Nilima, his wife and his former student, was first attracted to him becauseof“thelightofidealisminhiseye”(64).However,heispresentedasaman ofthought,notofaction.Afterbeingdetainedforhisparticipationinaconference organizedbytheSocialistInternationalinCalcutta,helosthiswilltolive.His“frail” temperamentthusthrewhimontotheresponsibilityofhiswifewhocomesfroma 120 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ respectablefamilydedicatedtopublicservice.Throughherfamily’sinfluence,she managedtosecurehimapositionofschoolteacherinLusibari.Hewasprofoundly fascinated with Sir Daniel Hamilton, the “idealistic founder” (66) of the Hamilton Estate in Lusibari who bought an expanse of the Sundarbans with a dream to transformitintofertilelandandbuildanidealsocialistsocietywherethereexists noclass/castedivisionnorexploitation.Attheendofhislife,afterhisretirement, hebecameobsessedwithKusumandtheMorichjhãpirefugees’struggleandhoped to employ his teaching ability to contribute to what he perceived as the concretizationofthepeople’srevolutionaryspirit. However, Nirmal was unable to turn his idealism into action. As his wife criticizes him, “you live in adream world—a haze of poetry and fuzzy ideas about revolution” (178). Moreover, she also points out his unbending attachment to idealism in her conversation with Kanai: “Men like that . . . can never let go of the idea:it’sthesecretgodthatrulestheirhearts”(100).Nirmal’sstrongattachmentto idealism is evident in Nirmal and his wife’s first encounter with Lusibari where “hungerandcatastrophewereawayoflife”(67).Thecouple’sdifferentreactions present them as foils to each other. While Nilima attempted to understand the situation by talking to local women, all Nirmal could do was to “read and reread Lenin’s pamphlet without being able to find any definite answers” (67). As Kanai pointsout,hisunclewasnotsomuchattachedto“politics”asto“words”(233).His attachmenttowordsisclearlyseenagainwhenNirmalwascaughtwiththeproblem of categorizing as “class” the local women who were forced to cope with life after their husbands’ death: “Workers were a class, he said, but to speak of workers’ widows as a class was to introduce a false and unsustainable division” (68). His fixation with language is contrasted with his wife’s practicality as she cares not “whattheywere”butwhatshecoulddotohelpthem(68).Herhumanitarianismled tothefoundationoftheWomen’sUnionandtheBadabonTrust.Evenatthispoint, Nirmal did not support her projects due to his obsession with language: “for him they [his wife’s efforts] bore the ineradicable stigma of ‘social service,’ shomaj sheba”(69).Hiscontributioncanthenonlybeintherealmoflanguageashegave thenametotheTrust. His blind attachment to idealism induces him to live a life of self‐delusion, unabletoclearlyseehimselfandhisworld.Forexample,inhisdiaryherevealshis “despondency”(130)afterhisretirementfromthepositionasaheadmaster.Dueto hisstrongattachmenttohisidealisticenvisioningofhimselfasagreatpoet,hewas unabletorealizehisvalueofhisthirty‐yearworkasateacher.Instead,heconceived ofhimselfasapoorloserwhoabandonedhisloveofreadingandwritingandcould only see his failure as opposed to his wife’s success. Moreover, as a man with an “aversiontoservility,”Nirmalbelievesthathetreatsthelocalswithan“egalitarian” attitude (134). He, however, was not cognizant of his cultural bias as during the boat trip to Kumirmari with Horen, he dismissed Horen’s first‐hand experience of the tide country and his folk beliefs as nonsensical and insisted upon the West, as exemplified by Bernier’s Travels, as the authoritative source of knowledge. Furthermore,perceivinghimselfasa“historicalmaterialist,”heregardsthestoryof Bon Bibi as “false consciousness” and criticizes the locals as superstitious, “prefer[ring]theimaginarymiraclesofgodsandsaints”to“thetruewondersofthe 121 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ realityaroundhim”(84,233).Lastly,hisattachmenttotheideaofrevolutionfinds itsfinalexpressioninhisinvolvementwithKusumandthecauseoftheMorichjhãpi refugees.Whilehewasobsessedwiththisnoblecause,hiswifesawitnotasbeing charged with the revolutionary spirit, but as the plain reality that the refugees simply “wanted a little land to settle on” (100). Nirmal’s idealization of their struggleisfoundeduponhisdesiretobepartofrevolution.However,hisdreams were shattered by his realization that he was of no use to these refugees and that theirstrugglewouldendinfailure.Thisdisappointmentseemstheculminationof his life’s “failures.” As he writes, “I became aware as never before of all my unacknowledged regrets” (158). His life thus ends with despair and mental instability. While the novel presents Nirmal’s attachment and its adverse effect upon him,itsimultaneouslyinvitesthereadertolookathisflawswithunderstandingand sympathy.InhistalktoPiyaabouthisuncle,Kanaigroundshisuncle’sidealismon hispassionforlanguageandpoetry,asshowninhisfascinationwithRainerMaria Rilke’spoetry.AsKanaiseesit,Nirmal’syearningforrevolutioncomesfromaline from Rilke: “life is lived in transformation” (187) and to him, Kusum became the embodimentofthispoeticideaoftransformation.Hefurtherexplainsthattheodd contradictions of “Marxism” and “poetry” in his uncle “were typical of his generation”(233).Presentedassuch,Nirmal’sidealismcanbeseenascreatedby the combination of his poetic temperament and the socio‐political and cultural makeupofhisowntime.TheBuddhistnotionofconditionalitythusenablesusto penetrateintotherigidityofNirmal’sattachmentandextendoursympathy,rather thanharshjudgment,tothismanwhosedreamsseemedtobewasted. However, Nirmal’s idealism, albeit futile during his lifetime, left its seed to yieldfruitinthemindsofKanaiandPiyathirtyyearslater.Heleftalegacyofhis idealismintheformofadiarytoKanai.DuringtheMorichjhãpievent,whenhewas unabletodoanythingtostoptheimpendingdisastrousendoftherefugees’fight,he decided to record the story of Kusum who, for him, embodies the notion of revolution.Asheputsit,“perhapsIcanmakesureatleastthatwhathappenedhere leaves some trace, some hold upon the memory of the world” (59). That he intended to have Horen pass this diary on to Kanai demonstrates his hope to immortalize the revolutionary spirit. He entrusted this narrative of idealism to Kanaibecausehewas“certainthat[Kanai]willhaveagreaterclaimtotheworld’s ear that [he] ever had” (230). His uttered hope that Kanai’s generation will be “richerinideals”(230)bespeakshisfirmfaithinidealism. It is interesting to note that the seed ofNirmal’s idealism, like that of SirDaniel Hamilton’s, does not yield that same fruit as initially intended. In Sir Hamilton’s case, even though his idealistic dream to build a Utopian society at the Sundarbans would never come true,theportrayaloffertileLusibariatthetimeofKanai’ssecondvisit,asopposed tothebarrennessofthelandwhenNirmalandNilimafirstmovedthere,insinuates thatSirHamilton’sinitialefforttotransformthetidecountryeventuallyyieldsome fruits,whicharedifferentfromwhatheenvisioned.Likewise,despitethefailureof hisidealisminthe1970s,Nirmal’sdiary,asthecrystallizationofhisidealismandhis firm faith in poetry and language, will, thirty years later, play a significant role in bringingaboutKanai’sandPiya’sbetterunderstandingoflifeattheSundarbans. 122 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ KanaigraduallyreadsNirmal’sdiaryinthecourseofhisandPiya’sjourneyat the Sundarbans. To a certain extent, the diary may influence Kanai’s responses to some situations. For example, his discussion with Piya after the tiger scene about the problems of environmentalism in India and his attempt to stimulate Piya to sympathizewiththeimpoverishedwhoselivelihoodshingeupontheuseofnatural resourcescanbeseenasbeinginfluencedbythestoryhereadinthediaryaboutthe painful struggle of Kusum and the Morichjhãpi refugees. More significantly, this diaryrecordsNirmal’sexperienceatGarjontolawherehewas“enthralled”notonly by a recitation chanted by Horen to pay respect to Bon Bibi but also the ability of Fokir who was illiterate to recite the prayer (203‐206). His observation that the recitation “was a strange variety of Bangla, deeply interpenetrated by Arabic and Persian” confirms his idea that “the mudbanks of the tide country are shaped not onlybyriversofsilt,butalsobyriversoflanguage:Bengali,English,Arabic,Hindi, Arakanese and who knows what else?” (204‐205). This episode in the diary bespeaks not only Nirmal’s fascination with language and poetic imagination but also his admiration of the tide country as a meeting place of cultures, faiths, and religions.Nonetheless,onemayasktowhatextentthisadmirationenabledNirmal toseethroughhisownprejudiceinhisinteractionswiththelocals.Itisworthyof note that thirty years later, under changing factors and conditions, the idealism of Nirmal the dreamer which is encapsulated in the diary has undergone transformation. Since Kanai is unable to understand the meaning of Fokir’s song andtranslateitforPiya,herewritesthestoryaboutthesongwhichwasrecordedin his uncle’s diary and offers that piece of writing to Piya as a gift. While Nirmal’s narrativeinthediaryfocusedmoreonhisfascinationwiththelinguisticandliterary construction of this recitation and does not express much attention to Kusum’s statementthat“thesewordshavebecomeapartofhim[Fokir],”Kanaiinterpretsthe narrativeanditsemphasissomewhatdifferently.AsKanaiexplainstoPiya,“Nirmal recognized also that for this boy those words were much more than a part of a legend:itwasthestorythatgavethislanditslife”(292).Thisstatementsuggests that Kanai transfers the mystery of the words to the land and that he sees the mysteryasembodiedinFokirhimself.Furthermore,thisknowledgeaboutthesong whichhepassesontoPiyaisoneofthefactorsthatenablehertobetterunderstand Fokir’ssenseofplacethatisintricatelytiedtothefolkstories.Togetherwithher life‐changing experience in which Fokir sacrifices his life to protect her during the cyclone, this knowledge about factors and conditions that give rise to Fokir’s differentsenseofplaceinducesPiyatostepbeyondherrigidattachmenttoWestern environmentalism and recognize the plurality of human relationships with the naturalworld.Therefore,itcanbeseenthatNirmal’sattachmenttolanguageand imagination which proved futile during his lifetime, is transformed under new conditionsthirtyyearslaterandbringsaboutfruitfulchangesinnotonlyKanaibut alsoPiya,enablinghertostartdisengagingherselffromheradamantattachmentto herideologies. 123 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Beyond Power Struggles: Buddhist Conditionality and Postcolonial Interactions TheHungryTidesituatesNirmal’sandPiya’sattachmenttotheirideologiesin the history of India. As Nayar points out, the novel reveals not only “the failed colonization by humans” of the Sundarbans but also “the inadequacy of the postcolonial state to provide a safe ‘home’” for “dalits, minorities and other marginalized”(89).Nayararguesthatthenovelis“Ghosh’scritiqueofthepoliticsof possession/dispossession”(89).Inthisnovel,oneclearlywitnessesdiscrimination, oppression,anddominationofdifferentkindsthattakeplaceondifferentlevelsin postcolonialIndia—rangingfromthehistoryoftheBritishcolonizationofIndiaand the story of the Morichjhãpi refugees in the 1970s to injustice done to the dispossessedinthe2000s.Moreparticularly,itispossibletoconsiderthenovelas partly joining the attempt of the Indian “Subaltern Studies Group” to “produce historical accounts in opposition to the dominant versions” by restoring subaltern voicesintopublicawareness(ChildsandWilliams37). Thispaperconcurswiththeexistingcriticismwhichhighlightsthepoliticsof postcolonialinteractionsinTheHungryTide.However,itwouldliketore‐examine theinteractionsofPiyawithFokiraswellasthoseofKanaiwithMoynaandFokir. While,asRobertJ.C.Youngpointsout,“[p]ostcolonialcritiquefocusesonforcesof oppressionandcoercivedominationthatoperateinthecontemporaryworld”(11), this paper will argue that the novel presents the protagonists’ unique interactions with the locals, the interactions that cannot be easily subsumed under this postcolonialframework.Instead,thenoveldepictsinteractionsthatarebasedon,or foster, the characters’ shared sense of humanity, emphasizing specific conditions thatgiverisetotheinteractions.GivenGhosh’sstatementthathedoesnotwantto be labeled as a “post‐colonial” writer (Mondal 2), this paper attempts to contend that the novel may caution against an attachment to the dominant postcolonial critiqueandthusaproclivitytoimposethepoliticsofpowerstrugglesuponcross‐ culturalinteractions.Morespecifically,thepaperwilldiscusshowtheSundarbans, the embodiment of change and instability, and factors or conditions in the protagonists’ lives and interactions with the locals here play a crucial role in promptingthemtorealizetheslipperinessofwhattheyperceiveastheiridentities. The principle of conditionality functions to debunk the solidity of the postcolonial framework,therebyrevealingthathumaninteractions,likeotherthingselse,cannot befixedlydefinedbyanytotalizingconcepts. The novelhighlightsPiya’srealizationoftheinstabilityofheridentityasa“foreigner”in herveryfirstencounterwithlocalsintheSundarbans.Atthenovel’sbeginning,Piya isperceivedbyKanaiataKolkatatrainstationasa“foreigner”whois“notIndian, exceptbydescent”Herforeignnessisinscribednotonlyonher“posture”butalso on “the neatly composed androgyny of her appearance” which Kanai describes as “outofplace,almostexotic”(3).Thenovelthencallsintoquestionthestabilityof thisidentityasaforeignerinascenewhensheisonthesamesteamercontrolledby Mej‐daandaforestguard.Mej‐dawhoisdressed“exactlyasshewas,inbluepants andawhiteshirt”ridiculesherwith“acuriouslittlepantomime”tosuggestthatthey are almost identical twins except “the organs of language and sex” (29‐30). This obscene disrespect awakens Piya to the reality that her present situation deprives 124 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ her of her foreignness on which she relied unawares for protection during her cetaceanexpeditionselsewhere: ShehadnotrealizedthenthatontheIrrawaddy,asontheMekongandthe Mahakam, she had also been protected by her unmistakable foreignness. It waswrittenalloverherface,herblack,close‐croppedhair,thesun‐darkened tintofherskin.Itwasironicthathere–inaplacewhereshefeltevenmorea strangerthanelsewhere–herappearancehadrobbedheroftheprotection. (30) Piya’s situation at the Sundarbans changes her identity and brings about her vulnerability. The novel’s representation of Piya’s “foreignness” suggests that this quality is not permanently fixed on her but that in reality, her possession of this qualityisimpermanentanddependentontheconcurrenceofcertainconditions.In the Sundarbans, she has come to realize how her identity is not essentially characterizedby“herunmistakableforeignness.” In addition to implying the notion that human identity is unstable as it is complicatedly constructed by conditions, the novel also presents the unique interactions of Piya and Fokir that transcendthepostcolonialframeworkofpowerstrugglesinrelationtothespecifics of conditions that give rise to them. On the one hand, Piya is not without some stereotypical view of the locals. Despite her respect for Fokir, she associates this localfishermanwithnature,viewinghimasbeingmysticallyimbuedwithinstincts tocommunicatewithdolphins.WhensheimaginesFokir’spastbasedonwhatshe heard from her father, she creates an image of Fokir as a child living in a natural environment. Her tendency to associate the locals with primitive nature and childhoodisalsoaccompaniedwithherromanticizedviewofpoorpeasantsinthe countryside: “although they were poor their lives did not lack for warmth and companionship:itwasafamily...inwhichwantanddeprivationmadepeoplepull togetherallthemoretightly”(131).Moreover,herattempttousethefisherman’s local knowledge to enhance her research project may be seen as similar to the colonizer’sintentiontobenefitfromthecolonized. On the other hand, the novel also creates specific conditions that open up possibilities for postcolonial interactions which are necessarily based not upon powerstrugglesbutonthesharedexperiencesofhumanexistencethataresubject to suffering and longing for love and understanding. Piya is presented as a South Indian‐Americanwomanwithapainfulpast.Herchildhoodwastraumatizedbyher parents’endlessquarrelswhichshetriedtoavoidbyhidinginthecloset“toshutout thosesounds”(78).Thisperiodofthequarrelswasthenfollowedbyhermother’s seclusion from the family and later by her suffering from cancer. Moreover, her parents,whowantedtoerasetheirroots,nevertoldheranythingaboutherIndian “heritage”(79).Sheisthusdeprivedofa“home”whereshecanenjoyherparental loveandunderstandingaswellastieswithherculturalroots.Moreover,theonly love relationship she had with a man in Cambodia ended with his betrayal, which promptedhertolearnto“getusedtotheideaofbeingon[her]own”(259).Theonly genuinecommunicationshecanachieveseemstobewithdolphins.Herdedication toherworkascetologistmaybereadasanattempttoseekloveandintimacywhich arelackinginherinteractionswithhumans.AsshetellsKanai,herfascinationwith 125 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thefirstOrcaelladolphinoriginatedwhenshemetastrandeddolphininCambodia. She spent days feeding the dolphin whom she named Mr. Sloane and tried to find ways to take it back to the river only to find out that it was sold for trade. Her devoted care for the dolphin may point to the care that she herself has always longedfor.Herstatementthat“Isweartoyouitrecognizedme”indicatesherneed forthecreaturetoconfirmherexistence(252,emphasismine). As discussed earlier, the trip to the Sundarbans awakens Piya to a sense of hervulnerability.FokiristheonewhoplaystheroleofacaringprotectorforPiya. When she falls into the river, he saves her from drowning and resuscitates her. LaterwhenPiyareflectsuponthismoment,sheremembersthatshetriedtomove awayfromhishand“untilsheunderstooditwasnotapredatorthathadtouchedher butahumanbeing,someoneshecouldtrust,someonewhowouldnothurther”(92‐ 93).Inadditiontothisfeelingoftrust,Piyafeelsthatwhilesheisinhisboat,Fokir shows his respect. For example, he provides private space for her to change her clothes. More importantly, Piya’s description of his treatment reflects her appreciationofthefisherman’skindness: Itwasnotjustthathehadthoughttocreateaspaceforher;itwasasifhehad chosentoincludeherinsomesimple,practicedfamilyritual,foundawayto let her know that despite the inescapable muteness of their exchanges, she was a person to him and not, as it were, a representative of a species, a faceless, tongueless foreigner. But where had this recognition come from? (60) In a sense, this “recognition” is reminiscent of the one that Piya joyfully received fromMr.Sloane,thedolphininCambodia.Furthermore,Fokirrecognizesheras“a person” and includes her as a member in his family ritual. In addition, in this situation,theinnocentpresenceofTutul,Fokir’sson,enableshertotrustFokireven more.Assheputsit,“sheknewthatifitweren’tforhimitwouldhavebeenmuch harderforhertoputhertrustinacompletestrangerasshehaddone”(54‐55).She seestheboyas“herprotector”(55).InthemidstofdangersintheSundarbans,the fatherandhissonthereforesupplyherwithasenseofsafetyandafeelingofbeing partofafamilyorahome. Piya’striptotheSundarbansprovidesherwithanopportunitytoreturnhomeeven though she does not feel at home here nor bond with this place. Similarities betweenherparents’cultureandthatofFokir,amongotherthings,bringbackher past.AsshefeelsthatFokirincludesherintohisfamilyritual,itisinterestingtosee thatsheassociateshisbelongingsandactivitieswiththoseofherparentsathomein Seattle. The texture of the printed sari thatFokir uses to create her private space reminds her of the saris that hermother wore at home(60). Thecheckeredcloth thatFokirprovidesasatowelisagainreminiscentofthecloththatherfatherused and did not want to throw away (73). Finally, the smells of food that Fokir cooks forceuponher“thesmellsofhome”(81).His“flyingfingers”alsoremindherofher mother’s cooking hands (80). In this scene, Piya feels “as though she werea child again, standing on tiptoe to look at a clutch of stainless‐steel containers lying arrayed on the counter beside the stove” (80). In this boat, “those images of the past”which“werealmostlosttoher”re‐surfaceinhermind(81). 126 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ In each of the scenes in which she connects the atmosphere of Fokir’s boat withthatofherparents’home,sherecallsmemoriesaboutpainfulordissatisfying experiences with them. For example, she describes her mother’s “faded graying saris”asasourceofherhumiliationwhenshebroughtfriendshome(60‐61).Her father’sclothalsocausedhersadnessaboutthecontradictionwithinherfatherwho wantedtodestroythememoriesofhismotherlandbutwhoinsistedonkeepingthis “old and tattered” cloth. Moreover, the word for the cloth, “gamchha,” that she learnsfromFokirbringsbackthememoriesofhertraumaticchildhoodexperience oflockingherselfupinaclosettoshutupthesoundofherparents’quarrellingin Bengali (78). Even more aggressively, the smells of her mother’s kitchen used to followhereverywherelike“domesticatedanimals”sorelentlesslythatshereacted by“fight[ing]back...againstthemandagainsthermother”(81). However, these images somewhat fade away as they re‐surface in Piya’s memories. More particularly, Fokir functions as the person who wards off “the phantoms”ofthesmellsthatPiyaissoapprehensiveof.WhenPiyarunsawaytothe bowfromwhatsheperceivesasattacksfromtheghostlysmells,Fokirfollowsherto offerherfood.WhenPiyatriestorefusethefood,Fokirdoesnotforcethefoodon her. On the contrary, he is described as “accept[ing] her refusal with a readiness thatsurprisedher”andhegivesthefoodtoTutulinstead.IfPiyaassociatesFokir withherparent,hethenfunctionsasaparentwhooffersloveandunderstanding. Inreality,Fokirperformsthemultiplerolesofafellowhuman,afriend,anda surrogateparentforPiya.3Notonlydoeshesaveherlifewhentheyfirstmeetbut healsoprotectsherasifshewereanotherchildofhisallalong.Hewatchesoverher andTutulwhoaresleeping,hugsherwhilesheisshivering,andcautionsheragainst thedangersofwildanimals.Therefore,Fokircanbeseenastakingtheprotective role that her own parents failed to fulfill. Moreover, in the powerful storm in the Sundarbanshesacrificeshisownlifetoprotecther.Inaddition,whilePiya’sfather denied her Indian cultural legacy, Fokir is able to fill this lack by bequeathing his knowledgeoftheriverandthedolphins’habitattoPiya.Lastly,whilethesoundsof Bengali words evoke painful memories in Piya’s mind, Fokir’s song functions as a lullaby that healsPiya’s mindand enables her to understand the oneness between her surrogate mother and the land. Undoubtedly, Piya is drawn to Fokir and wholeheartedlytrustshimandalsowantstoimmortalizehislegacyafterhisdeath. In this encounter between Piya, a cetologist from a civilized technology‐basedcenterandFokir,apoorlocallivingonthemysticalmargins,there is thus a concurrence of various conditions such as their familial and cultural background, Piya’s childhood experience, their being put together in the Sundarbans, and the unexpected torrential storm that gives rise to a genuine relationship that is founded upon respect, trust, and love. Similarly, the novel also depictsKanai’sstrangeencounterwithFokirandthenaturalenvironsonGarjontola. Thislife‐changingexperiencenotonlyallowsKanaitodiscernhismindmoreclearly butalsosignificantlyawakenshimtoimpermanence,instability,andconditionality in his sense of self, thereby lessening his arrogance and his pride in the ability to comprehendtheworld. Atthenovel’sbeginning,Kanaiispresentedasa wealthycosmopolitaninterpreterfromNewDelhiwhosearroganceisaccompanied withacomplacentattitudetowardeverythingaroundhim.WhenPiyafirstcatches sightofhim,shenotices“theself‐satisfiedtiltofhisheadandtheunabashedwayin 127 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ which he stared at everyone around him, taking them in, sizing them up, sorting themallintotheirplaces”(8).Healsotakesgreatprideinhisabilitytospeakfive languages.Moreover,histendencytoflirtwithwomenisillustratedbyhisapproach to Piya and his invitation for her to visit him at Lusibari with a hope to enjoy “whatever pleasures might be on offer” (14). His interactions with the locals are similarlycharacterizedbyhisself‐importanceandhiscondescensiontowardthem. His encounter with Fokir and the natural environs at Garjontola, however, forces upon him a harsh lesson that dismantles his self‐importance and shatters the illusion of what he assumes to be his identity. The two men’s interactions can be generally characterized by the politics of power struggles. Kanai is patronizing, ratherrude,andthroughhisuseofthefamiliarsecond‐personpronoun,sometimes treatingthefishermanasifhewereachild.AsforFokir,hetriestokeepdistance fromKanai,remainingsilentmostofthetime.Inthescenewherethetwomenare alone together at Garjontola, the novel particularly depicts the conditions of their interaction.The“heatandhaze”of“thesteamingmidday”theregeneratesastateof torpor(263)inwhichKanaidreamsaboutFokirandPiyatravellingtogether.The presenceoftigersontheshoreoftheislandisthetopicoftheirconversation.While Kanai expresses his ridiculing disbelief toward the fisherman’s warning that the tigerscometolookatthehumans,Fokirwhomayfeeloffendedthrowshimaseries ofchallenges,rangingfromgraspingKanai’shandandplacingitonthebackofhis necktofeelhisfear,daringhimtogocloserintotheislandtofindthetigers,asking himwhetherheisagoodmansinceagood‐heartedmanwouldhavenothingtofear atthissacredplace,toreplacingtherespectfulpronounformwiththefamiliarone thatKanaicondescendinglyusedwithhim.Inthissituation,Kanaiisaggravatedby theintimatetouchwithFokir’sbodyandwhatheperceivesastheman’s“mocking” tone(268).Themuddygroundfurtherincreaseshisangerashehelplesslyfallsinto the mud. At this moment, swear words flow out from his mouth. Appallingly, he realizes that his anger comes from “sources whose very existence he would have denied: the master’s suspicion of the menial; the pride of caste; the townsman’s mistrust of the rustic” (269). Whereas Kanai has long conceived of himself as a sophisticated gentleman, this intense encounter with Fokir and the uncanny environsontheislandinduceshimtomeetface‐to‐facewithhisotherundesirable side.Furthermore,asheviolentlyrefusesFokir’soffertohelp,hiseyecontactwith FokirgiveshimapeculiarvisionofwhatFokirseesinhim: [I]twasasthoughhisownvisionwerebeingrefractedthroughthoseopaque, unreadableeyesandhewereseeingnothimself,KanaiDutt,butagreathost ofpeople–adoublefortheoutsideworld,someonestandinginforthemen whohaddestroyedFokir’svillage,burnthishomeandkilledhismother.... In seeing himself in this way, it seemed perfectly comprehensible to Kanai whyFokirshouldwanthimtobedead–butheunderstoodalsothatthiswas nothowitwouldbe.Fokirhadbroughthimhere...becausehewantedhim tobejudged.(270) In this passage, Kanai is prompted to put himself in Fokir’s position and perceive realityfromhisperspective.HediscernsthatinFokir’seyesherepresentsdeadly enemies from “the outside world” who oppress him and his ancestors. This 128 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ discernment may also enable Kanai to realize the excruciating afflictions that his ownclass/castehasinflicteduponthemarginalized.Thisrealization,togetherwith hisshockingdiscoveryofhisowninterredfeelingofantagonismtowardthelower caste,maygalvanizehimintorealizingtheshamefulvanityofhisownprideandhis reprehensible proclivity to treat these people with so much condescension. His encounterwithFokirinthestrangeconditionsattheSundarbansthenprovideshim withanopportunitytoexamine,andmakejudgmentof,himself. Thiseye‐openingexperience,followedbyhissheerterrorfromwhathebelievesto behisencounterwithaSundarbantiger,significantlytransformsKanai.Piyafinds thechangeincredibleasshecontrastshermemoriesof“thecertaintyofhisstance and the imperiousness of his gestures” on the train with his “halting, diffident manner”afterthetraumaticevent.Kanai’sdecisiontoreturntoLusibariandNew Delhi on the following day and his statement that “This is not my element” (275) demonstratehisinabilitynotonlytocopewiththerealityattheSundarbansbutalso to maintain his sense of self as a confident sophisticated gentleman here. This statementalsoimplieshisrealizationabouttheinstabilityofthisassumedidentity. Afterall,theidentityheassumesasexclusivelyhisisnotinherentinhim,butitis brought into existence by certain conditions. This interpretation is illustrated by Kanai’sinvitationforPiyatovisithiminNewDelhiandhisstatementthat“Iwant youtoseeme–onmyownground,intheplacewhereIlive”(276).Heneedsthe rightplaceandconditionsinorderforhisassumedidentitytobeconstructed.This realizationoftheimpermanence,non‐self,andconditionalityofhisidentity,gained fromhisencounterwithFokirandthephysicalenvironsoftheSundarbans,finally results in his sense of humility. As he confesses in a letter to Piya, “I had always pridedmyselfonthebreadthandcomprehensivenessofmyexperienceintheworld. ...AtGarjontolaIlearnedhowlittleIknowofmyselfandoftheworld”(291). NarrativeofNon‐AttachmentintheTideofChange Examining the scene of the fatal storm and its aftermath, this section attempts to argue that the narrative at the novel’s end interestingly disrupts the reader’s tendency to settle into, or be attached to, certain fixed ideas.4 In other words,thenarrativeitselforchestratestheworkingofthelawofconditionalityand impermanence,tryingtoinculcateanattitudeofnon‐attachmentinthereader.The novel’snarrativeaboutthetorrentialstormpresentsthisaspectofthenaturalworld asanactiveagentofchangeandunpredictabilitythatisbeyondhumancontrol.Piya and Fokir are caught together in a boat while the storm is about to break. In the beginning,PiyacalculatesthatthewindisfavorableforthemtoreturntoGarjontola inafewhoursbeforetheoutbreakofthestorm.However,itisonly“astheminutes creptby”thatherexpectationisdismantledbyaradicalchangeinthewindspeed and direction (304), which places them in a situation when they are desperately hardhitbystrongerwindsandtallerwaves.Thenoveldeploysthissimilarpattern ofhowwhatseemspossibleorcertainisdisruptedbyanunexpectedchangeinthe sceneinwhichPiyalosesherbackpack.Duetothestorm,Piya’sbackpackisblown intotheairandfortunatelykeptinplacebecauseofprotectionfromtheboat’shood. 129 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ PiyaandFokirlatersuccessfullysecureitbyusingropeto“[binding]ittightlytothe bamboohoopsofthehood”(306).However,thisattemptisnullifiedwhenthehood istornawayfromtheboat.Theimageof“thewholeunlikelyassemblyofobjects– thehood,theplasticsheet,thebackpackwithallitsequipment,itsdataandKanai’s gift – [being] carried so far off as to become a small speck in the inky sky” (307) suggestsnotonlyhumaninabilitytotakecontroloveranythinginthisconditionbut also the impermanence and uncertainty of life, which the violent storm of the SundarbansmagnifiesanddisclosesrightinfrontoftheeyesofPiyaandthereader alike.Itisalsoimportanttonotethattheideasorsituationsthathavebeenearlier establishedinthenovelaredismantledattheendbothduringandafterthestorm. Forexample,inhisnarrativeabouthisexperienceofacyclonein1970,Horentells Kanaithatwhile“threehundredthousandpeoplehaddied,”heandhisunclewere abletosurvivethenaturaldisasterbyusing“gamchhasandlungistotiethemselves to the tree” (288). This story seems to establish the reader’s expectation that the same method should be helpful to Fokir and Piya who also resort to this local wisdom. However, in the different condition of the storm that Fokir and Piya experience, the sari that they use to bind themselves to the tree can help protect only Piya whereas Fokir who uses his body as “a shield” to cover Piya’s body is fatallyhitby“anuprootedstump”(323).Furthermore,onewillseethatwhilethe novelstressestheterrifyingfiercenessofSundarbantigersthatclaimhumanlives, the image of the tiger that Piya and Fokir spot during the storm becomes the one thatisharmlessanditselfassaultedbyfear.Itsimply“watch[es]them,”“twitch[es] itstail”andmovesaway.Piyaevenimaginesthatifshetoucheditscoat,shewould feel“thepoundingofitsheart”(321). Another important example that illustrates how the narrative instills the attitude of non‐attachment relates to the dichotomy of modern science and local knowledgethathasbeenevidentthroughoutthenovel.Atfirst,thenovelseemsto privilegethelatterovertheformerasascientistequippedwithadvancedequipment like Piya relies on the local fisherman’s skills and his knowledge of the river and dolphins. However, the novel later depicts the blending of science and local knowledge in a scene in which Piya uses the GPS monitor to detect the river with Fokir’shelp.Attheend,thelocalwayofusingtheclothtosaveoneselffromastorm failswhereastheGPSmonitorenablesPiyatofindherwayoutofthestormbackto Lusibari.Eventually,itisherhand‐heldmonitorthathelpsretrieveallofthedata lost with the backpack. Again, the novel highlights how Piya sees the data as the embodiment of Fokir’s life and wisdom. While critics such as Nayar argue for the integrationofsciencewithmysticallocalknowledge,thispaperfurtherarguesthat anattitudeofnon‐attachmentisalsosuggested.Neithersciencenorlocalwisdom nor even the blending of two can be fixedly set as a totalizing framework in the pursuits of knowledge or solutions of problems. Instead, one’s choice of these differentoptionshingesuponconditionsandrelatedfactors. In the changing tide of life, the death and loss are replaced by healing and restorationatthenovel’send.AnewprojectthatPiyainitiateswhenshereturnsto Lusibaridemonstratesasignificantchangeinherattitude.Herfierceattachmentto ecocentrism is superseded by her realization of the importance of both dolphin preservationandlocals’livelihood.ThatshetriestoinvolveNilima’sBadabonTrust intotheprojectalsoshowsherconsiderationforthewell‐beingofbothhumansand 130 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ non‐humans.Moreover,thatthedatashewillemployinthenewprojectoriginated from Fokir’s knowledge and were retrieved by modern technology implies the possibilityofintegratingsciencewithlocalwisdom.However,whilethismayserve as a new foundation for her to build her project upon, it is important to point out that the novel’s end stresses the attitude of non‐attachment. Piya’s reference to Lusibarias“home”andherstatementthatforher“homeiswheretheOrcaellaare” implythehealingofhermindandthustheabilitytoeventuallyfindherselfahome, albeitinanunconventionalsense(329).Concurrently,itpointstoheraffirmedlove of dolphins which is now tinctured with her ability to embrace change. Likewise, Nilima’s statement that “[f]or me, home is wherever I can brew a pot of good tea” (329)hintsatthewoman’sabilitytocontentedlyadaptherselftopossiblechanges aswell.Thetwocharacters’commentsthussimilarlyindicatetheiradaptabilityand attitudeofnon‐attachment. Conclusion In an interview with Hasan Ferdous and Horst Rutsch, Ghosh mentions culturalgapsandsubsequentdifficultiesforinteractionsinaglobalizedworldand points to “the possibility of deep communication,” as exemplified by that between PiyaandFokirwhoareunabletospeaktoeachother”inTheHungryTide(48‐49). Insuchaworldwherehumanidentitiesandinteractionsarehighlycomplicated,an awarenessofthetransience,conditionalityandnon‐selfofallthings,togetherwith anattitudeofnon‐attachment,maybebeneficialforhumans’attempttounderstand themselvesandtheworld.JustasBuddhistphilosophypostulatesthattheprinciple of conditionality pervades everything, so The Hungry Tide presents the pervasivenessoftheprincipleinnotonlythephysicalrealityoftheSundarbansbut alsointhesocialrealityofthecharacters’ideologies,senseofself,andcross‐cultural interactions, as well as in the narrative itself. Applied to humans’ ideologies and senseofself,thenotionofconditionalityenablesonetoseethroughtheseemingly solidityoftheseentitiesandunderstandthatanybrandofideologiesoranysenseof identity is merely a construct created by certain conditions in a particular context and thus subject to transformation. Moreover, the novel accentuates the possibilities of cross‐cultural interactions that transcend the postcolonial frameworkofthepoliticsofoppressionandresistance.Itcallsattentiontothefact that human interactions, like other things else, are subject to the law of conditionality and impermanence. Similar to Donna Haraway’s feminist notion of situated knowledge that “resists fixation”and emphasizes “the webs of differential positioning” (196), this awareness of conditionality and the attitude of non‐ attachment can be used as an antidote to self‐righteousness, attachment to views, and imposition of those views upon others. Simultaneously, it can help foster respectfordifferenceanddiversity,possiblyleadingtoaharmoniousco‐existenceof all beings. Lastly, in TheHungryTide in which the narrative enacts the message it conveys,nature,ormorespecificallythe“epicmutability”oftheSundarbans,playsa crucialroleinconstantlyteachingthelawofimpermanence,conditionality,andnon‐ self to human beings, making them realize the incomprehensibility of reality and thusthelimitationoftheirabilitytocomprehendanything.Withthisdiscernment, 131 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ onetheninterpretsRilke’sline,“Lifeislivedintransformation,”assuggestingthat life should be humbly lived with awarenessof mutability, leading to an attempt to treatoneselfandtheworldwithmoretolerance,understanding,andcompassion. Endnotes 1.Scholars’translationsoftheformulaslightlyvary.Kalupahanatranslatesthe formulaasfollows: Whenthisispresent,thatcomestobe; fromthearisingofthis,thatarises. Whenthisisabsent,thatdoesnotcometobe; onthecessationofthis,thatceases.(1976:28) 2.ReferringtopassagesinthePaliCanon,Payuttoexplainsthattheprincipleof conditionality“wasdescribedbytheBuddhaasanaturallaw,afundamentaltruth whichexistsindependentlyofthearisingofenlightenedbeings”(1994:1).An exampleofthepassagesis“WhetheraTathagataappearsornot,thiscondition existsandisanaturalfact,anaturallaw;thatis,theprincipleofconditionality” (Payutto1994:1). 3.TheauthorwouldespeciallyliketothankAjarnPuckpanTipayamontrifor suggestingthepointaboutthemutablemultiplicityofFokir’srolesinhis interactionswithPiya. 4.Asforthispointofinterpretation,theauthorispartlyinfluencedbyProfessor LangdonHammer’sreadingofWilliamCarlosWilliams’s“ARedWheelbarrow”in on‐lineOpenYaleCourses. Acknowledgements TheauthorofthepaperwouldespeciallyliketothankAjarnWilliamWhortonand AjarnPuckpanTipayamontriforkindlytakingtimetoreadthepaperandgiving usefulsuggestions. 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BruceEvansBangkok:BuddhadhammaFoundation,1994.Print. ‐‐‐.Buddhadhamma(inThai).Bangkok:MahaChulalongkornRajaVidhayalai,1982. Reprint1995.Print. “Tiger:QuestionsYouMayNeedAnswersto….”WWF.Web.18October2012. Young,RobertJ.C.Postcolonialism:AHistoricalIntroduction.Malden,MA: Blackwell,2001.Print. 134 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ “FruitofaMutualRealm”ExploringVoice,TraditionandIdentityinthePoetry ofDaljitNagra [Rough Draft] TonyO’Neill Lecturer DepartmentofEnglish,FacultyofArts,ChulalongkornUniversity Abstract: Nagra’s “A Black History of the English –Speaking Peoples” is many things; firstlyitspoetry,secondlyitshistoryandthirdlyitsdrama;writteninverse,alluding tohistoryandpresentedinfiveacts.Thesubjectisbothhistoryandthepresent,a factembodiedinthesetting,SamWannamaker’sGlobe,areconstruction,locateda fewminuteswalkfromthesiteofShakespeare’soriginalGlobetheatreonthesouth bankoftheRiverThames.Thepoem’suseofpresentism,oritsreadingofthepastin termsofthepresent,isimportantinthatitaffordsadifferentviewofEngland’spast from that “sanitized” version of English heritage which is attached to national identityforEnglishpeopleasdeterminedbythemanagersofEnglishculture.What makesNagra’shistory‐poemdifferentisthatitoperatesusingawiderfranchisethan theEnglishpeople.InsteadNagra’shistoryisthatoftheEnglish‐speakingpeoples,a heterogeneous body who far outnumber their linguistic ancestors, the English people.Assuchthepoemoffersa‘Black’,incontextmeaningauthentic,accountof English history from the fragmented plural perspective of the English‐Speaking Peoples. Introduction: “ABlackHistoryoftheEnglish–SpeakingPeoples”isapoemthatrespondsto the anxieties staged in earlier Nagra poems such as “Booking Khan Singh Kumar” and “Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation, the Catch 22 for ‘Black’ Writers…”,poemsinwhichthe‘Black’poetwritinginEnglishvoicedanxietiesabout theprecisenatureofthecriticalacclaimhisworkreceivedamongtheBritishpublic. ThisreflexiveelementcharacteristicofNagra’sworkalsoplayswithinarichgarden ofintertextualliterary‐historicalallusionsthatpresentEnglishhistoryinadifferent lightthanthatintendedbyMatthewArnoldwhenhespokeof“sweetnessandlight” or beauty and truth as embodied in English culture. In “A Black History of the English–SpeakingPeople”thelightofthepresentisturnedonthetradition,alight informedbythepluralhybridperspectiveoftheEnglish‐SpeakingPeoples,andwhat comesofthisinspectionisknowledgethattheheritageofEnglishculture,isredolent ofrootsmiredinEngland’sdubiousacquisitionoftheworld’swealth. 135 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ThefocusofthispaperwillbeNagra’spoem“ABlackHistoryoftheEnglish‐ Speaking Peoples” from the collection Tippo Sultan’s Incredible White Man Eating TigerToyMachine!!!(2011).Aspartofthebackgroundtodiscussionofthepoemthe paperwillfirstoutlinethedebatesurroundingthetransmissionofEnglishcultureas it developed in England in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In further preparationabriefoverviewofNagra’spoeticswillidentifysomekeyfeaturesofhis work using examples from his earlier collection Look We Have Coming to Dover! (2007) and his latest Tippo Sultan’s Incredible White‐Man‐Eating Tiger Toy‐ Machine!!! (2011). Then analysis of “A Black History of the English‐Speaking Peoples” will discuss Nagra’s employment of a new voice, that of the English speakingpeoples,torenderanalternativehistoryofEngland’sriseanddecline.Itis a voice which speaks back to tradition in a way that exposes the weakness of an unquestioning faithin“sweetness and light”or the unfailing superiority of English culture. PARTI:TraditionandIdentity:Macaulay,Arnold,Orwell,Eliot Before exploring Nagra’s poetry it is necessary to say something about traditionandidentityinasmuchasitconcernsEnglishliterature.Amongthefigures whohavestirredtheongoingdebateonwhatconstitutesEnglishcultureandhowit shouldbetransmitted,twoaredirectlyalludedtoinNagra’s“ABlackHistoryofthe English‐Speaking Peoples”: Thomas Babington Macaulay (“Macaulay in mind”, “the redofMacaulay’smap”51)andMatthewArnold(“sweetnessandlight”53).Lurking in the background are literary figures like W.H. Auden (“necessary murder” 50), GeorgeOrwellandT.S.Eliot. ThedebatearoundculturehasofcoursealwaysimpingeddirectlyonEnglish literature and the questions of which texts best comprise a canon suitable for transmission of English culture whether in the colonies or at home. Indeed, in the contextofNagra’spoetry,theEnglishcanonisoftenfiguredasawell‐tendedgarden, the ornamental kind, and as gardening involves intervention in the landscape, the clearingofweeds,andthecontrolofrebellion,itcanbeamirrormetaphorforthe processofEmpireitself. In the second half of the nineteenth‐century Matthew Arnold’s thoughts on tradition, culture and English identity appeared in the collection Culture and Anarchy.ThereheadvocatedthestudyofEnglishliteratureasameansofinstillinga traditional sense of national identity, then at threat from both the decline in religiousbeliefandtheriseinpowerofthemercantilemiddleclass(1869).Aspoet Arnoldpresentedafamouslydarkvisionofthefutureintheclosinglinesof“Dover Beach”: And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. InArnold’sviewthefailuretoproperlypreserveandtransmitEnglishculture unleashesanarchy.ThelocationforthepoemDover,facingCalais,whatusedtobe 136 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ part of England’s realm The setting figures the island of England as a bastion at threatfromwithoutbutreadytodefenditssovereignty.Darkforcesmayloomover England’sshoresbutArnoldmaintainsthatinthedefenseofAlbion,associatedwith the White Cliffs of Dover, English Literature, a mainstay of English culture, can provide a bulwark against anarchy from within and from without. Arnold’s belief was that culture, or the best that had been said and thought, could provide the necessary“sweetnessandlight”orbeautyandtruththatcouldstaveoffanarchyby enabling the pursuit of human perfection. The source of the best that has been thoughtandsaidwasofcoursewhattheTraditionorArnold,asaschoolinspector, deemed the best. Through education English culture would help firm up national resistancetoforeigninterventiononEnglishsoil. Aswellasbeentoutedasaninstrumentofnationbuildingathome,English literature had already been deployed overseas as a means of converting imperial subjectstoanEnglishpointofview.EarlierinthecenturyMacaulayhadhadawider vision of the role of English Literature. For Macaulay, English literature could be used to civilize the colonized by creating a class of intermediaries who although Indian in blood and colour would be English in language and culture and able to transmitEuropeansciencethroughitstranslationintothevernacularlanguagesof thewiderpopulationofIndia.ThesameprocesswouldalsohelplinkEnglandwith itssettlercoloniesbycreatingawiderwebofEnglishspeakersthroughthenative populations of English colonies. Macaulay’s famous Minute (1834) in which he champions the body of English Literature, both arts and science, as a means of absorbing the native elitesamongthe colonies, led to the English Education Act of 1835whichwouldnotonlydetermineeducationalpolicyintheRajbutalsoprovea template for similar programmes across the Empire. Macaulay’s championing of English as the language of education across the empire was based on supreme confidenceinthesuperiorityoftheEnglishLanguageandLiterature: It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extantinallthelanguagesoftheworldtogether(12). There were both idealistic and practical reasons for both employments of English literature. The best that had been thought and said was of course a very narrow category rather the universal it was claimed to be. The canon, English literature, considered suitable for both the national and imperial project was comprisedofBritishwriters,mostlymaleandcertainlyallwhite,andtheworksof Ancient Rome and Greece. English literature, according to Matthew’s prescription againstanarchy,wasmeanttoforgeasenseofnationalunityespeciallyamongthe rising mercantile middle‐class or Philistines in Arnold’s nomenclature. For Arnold thereforeEnglishliteraturewascloselyboundupwiththepreservationofnational identity.IncontrastMacaulay’sexportofEnglishculturehadmorepracticalreasons. ForMacaulay,Englishliteraturewasboundupwithinfluencingthethinkingofthe colonized. Identity was a secondary issue. Facilitating communication within the EmpirewastheprimaryreasonfortheexportofanEnglisheducation. 137 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ InthetwentiethcenturytheAmerican‐turned‐EnglishpoetT.SEliot,inhis“A Note on Culture and Politics” (NotesTowardtheDefinitionofCulture 1948), shared Arnold’sbeliefthatreligion,namelyChristianity,wasnecessarytothetransmission of culture. In fact this was where Eliot thought Macaulay had gone wrong. Eliot attributesblameforthefailureoftheRajtoitseducationpolicy,whichininculcating an appreciation of English culture and tradition among the Indian elite, fatally neglected to include the essential ingredient, religion, namely Christianity (90‐91). Eliot’s argument was that without Christianity the necessary role of religion in culture and its transmission was negated because through an English education nativeeliteshadbeentaughtskepticismtowardtheirownculture’sbeliefsbutbeen offered no nourishing replacement. This spiritual vacuum, in Eliot’s terms, prevented total assimilation of native elites and thus created the conditions for anarchyanddissolutioninthecolonies: Thecause[ofwhatEliotdubsthe“partialsuccessofwesternization”]liesin thefactthattherecanbenopermanentcompromisebetweentheextremesof anexternalrulewhichiscontenttokeeporderandleavethesocialstructure unaltered, and a complete cultural assimilation. The failure to arrive at the latterisareligiousfailure.(91) ApartfrommaintainingthelinkbetweencultureandreligionEliotwasapowerful articulatorof the immanence of tradition inall poetry of significance. In anearlier essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919), Eliot stated that “No poet, no artistofanyart,hashiscompletemeaningalone.Hissignificance,hisappreciationis theappreciationofhisrelationtothedeadpoetsandartists”(SelectedProseofT.S. Eliot38).WhatEliotimpliedwasthattobeinductedintothecanonapoemwould havetodefertothecanonwhetherconsciouslyornot.Tohave“significance”andbe appreciated it was therefore necessary for the poet to write within, in today’s parlance,theintertextualweboftheEnglishcanon. TheTraditionhoweverdidnotescapecriticism.Inthe1930sGeorgeOrwell in an essay entitled “Inside the Whale” famously attacked W.H. Auden’s use of the phrase“necessarymurder”inthelatter’spoem“Spain”.WhatOrwellwasobjecting to was the callous attitude implied in the Auden’s diction. Orwell’s conclusion was thatsuchaphrasecouldonlycomefromsomeonewithnophysicalknowledgeofthe referent, i.e. cold blooded murder in the name of the greater good. In Orwell’s characterization, Auden, as a celebrated poet, and upholder of tradition, had the pamperedsecuritythatallowedhimtowriteinsuchacallouswayaboutthekindof killingthatisdoneinthenameofthegreatergood.OrwellwasupbraidingAudenfor the poet’s flirtation with Communism and the aims of Stalinist foreign policy. However, Orwell was also attacking the tradition itself as the work and study of cossetedindividualsfarremovedfromthematerialeffectsofrhetoricinaction. Unlike Orwell, what Eliot, Arnold and Macaulay all shared was faith in the superiorvalueofEnglishculture.Eliotwasrightinsayingcultureandfaithcouldnot be uncoupled. The faith that proved strongest however in influencing Empire was not religious alone but faith in the superiority of English civilization. The imperial mindset therefore shaped the debate on culture as its proponents all assumed the 138 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ superiority of English culture on the world’s stage and argued for its proper preservationandtransmission. Inthe21stcenturysuchamindsethasmuchlessforce,evenamongEnglish peopleformanyofwhomafaithinEmpirehasbeenshakenbyeventsofthesecond halfofthetwentiethcentury.AsforEnglish‐speakingpeoplestheirvaryingpositions allowformultipleviewsofEnglishhistory.Thustheimperialmindsethasbecome redundantmanysectionsoftheEnglishpopulationandthewiderfamilyofEnglish speaking people. If Arnold could step into the present for a moment he would probablyviewEnglishcultureasnevermoreinneedofdefendingthanrightnow. Thetraditionalstanceregardingthevalueofthecanonhasbeenchallenged inthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturyespeciallybypostcolonialcritics exploring the links between English culture and Imperialism. Their exploration of the canon has uncovered embarrassing carbuncles protruding from some of the mostillustriousbranchesofthecanon.Amongthecanonicaltextssubjectedtothe lightofthepresentareRobinsonCrusoe,TheTempest,JaneEyre,MansfieldParkand Heart of Darkness. The purity of these canonical texts has been undermined by examinationsofhowsuchtextsnotonlyreflectedthenormsofimperialideologybut may have even reified such norms making literature amenable to serving the colonizer’s purpose of implanting English ideology in the minds of the colonized elites.Clearlythecanonismiredinpoliticsandthishelpsexplainwhyitmakesthe idealsubjectforNagra’spoetry.AsaBritishpoetofIndianAncestryNagraisaware thatadmissiontothecanonhastodatebeenthepreserveofawhiteelite,anditis their values that have shaped the canon. Nagra’s work develops a form of meta‐ poetryorreflexivemodeinwhichtograppledirectlywiththestandardsimposed bytradition. PARTII:Nagra’spoetics 1.Reflexivedevices AreflexivequalityinNagra’spoetryisevidentinseveralpiecesfromhisfirst collection, Look we Have Coming to Dover! . In particular “Booking Khan Singh Kumar” and “Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation, the Catch 22 for ‘Black’Writers…”aretwopoemswhichforegroundtheissueofEnglishidentityas appliedto“Black”poetssuchasNagra,whosepositionwithregardtothetradition in English culture is always affected by their foreign ancestry. Nagra, himself the child of Indian immigrants to England, uses the critical success of his poetry as a weapon with which to provoke doubt in his audience’s mind concerning the sincerityoftheirapplauseandappreciation. In “Booking Khan Singh Kumar”, Nagra likens the canon to a tree: “Will I flameonthetreethatyourcanonhasstoked/WillIthistleattheholewhereabull‐ dog cocked” (2007 6). The image hints at the irreverence with which the poem surveysthetraditioninEnglishpoetry.AtthesametimeNagra’sreputationwithin Englishliteratureiswellestablished.Hehasbeentherecipientofvariousplaudits and awards from the literary establishment including the Forward Poetry Prize in 139 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 2004forhispoem“LookWeHaveComingtoDover!”andin2007forhiscollection ofthesamename.HisworkispublishedbytheillustrioushouseofFaberandFaber andhehimselfhadeditedcollectionsofpoetryandjudgedpoetryawards. The reflexive discourse within his poetry, however, problematizes the successofNagra’sworkbyturningonitsaudienceanassumedvoice,thatofKhan Singh Kumar, which, while ostensibly airing a poet’s self‐doubt, challenges the audiencetoexaminetheirownmotivesinexpressingappreciationofEnglishpoetry by non‐whites. The same reflexive voice of the poet, Khan Singh Kumar, questions whether both he and his audience are in fact complicit in the niche marketing of poetrybynon‐whitewriters: Didyoumakemeforthegapinthemarket DidImakemeforthegapinthemarket. (20076) As for critical acclaim, the voice of Khan Singh Kumar is cynical of the motives behindtheacclaim.HesuggeststhatthepublicpatronageofBlackwritersmayitself besomeformofexoneration,achancefortheEnglishestablishmenttoalignitself withsocialandpoliticaltrends: Doyoumedalyourselveswhenyoumeddlewithmytype (20077) Thepoemendswiththemostdirectquestionofall: Morethanyourshell‐like,yourclackapplause Whatbothersiswhetheryou’llboomeifIballs OutofIndian! (20077) Khan Singh Kumar, or Nagra, is asking whether he will only ever be accepted as a “ghettopoet”(6),asjustanotherrepresentativefromthegapinthemarket.Inother wordswouldhisworkhavebeennoticedbytheEnglishpublicifitwerestrippedof allreferencestohisIndianheritage,weresuchathingpossible?Theaudienceisat the very least discomfited by such questions and at worst conscious of egg on its face. The rhyming of “balls” and “applause” underscores the poet’s sly mockery of theirappreciationassomewhatshallowandworthless. This reflexive voice of the poet who engages his audience directly is a recurring feature in Nagra’s poetry and invariably invokes issues relating to TraditionandIdentitywithrespecttoreceptionofthenon‐whiteartist. Another strategy at work in the Nagra’s poetry is the donning of masks throughwhichhespeaksin“Punglish”,ahybridformofEnglishandPunjabiusedin 140 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ the many dramatic monologues in which Nagra frankly mimics the “immigrant” English of his parents’ generation, but it is often the Punglish speakers who say somethingthatreversestheirsubjugationandprovokessearchingquestionsamong the poet and his audience. An example is the father figure, Kabba, in “Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation, the Catch 22 for ‘Black’ Writers…”. The speakerisKabba,ataparent‐teachermeeting,complainingabouttheGSCEEnglish literature“antology”hissonisexpectedtostudy.KabbaquibblesoverPart2ofthe anthologywhichfeatures“PoemsfromUdderCulturesandTraditions”(200742).In Kabba’s view, poetry by English‐speaking peoples from other cultures is being ghettoizedorattachedtotheEnglishcanonasanappendage,somethingperipheral. InareflexivemovementthevoiceofKabbagoesontounmaskhisson’steacheras Nagrathepoetandthengiveshimatongue‐lashingforthequestionablepracticesof hisvocationasapoet: Yooteachersarelike disDalgit‐Bulrammickeying […]sovutdicoconutdo–tooshytouze hisvoice,heplotme as‘funny’,oratype,evenvurse– soheeisusedinBritishantologies– hehideindiswhitey‘fantum’English,blacked, tomakemesound‘poreign’! ofmeasKabba.[…] (200742‐43) “Dalgit‐Bulram”formsanintratextuallinkwithMrBulram,anotherofNagra’smasks whoappearsinseveralpoems.ThroughKabba,Nagraisabletoreflexivelycritique hisownperformancerole.Asa“coconut”,abrownpersonwithawhiteinside,the Punglish poet is accused of traducing his Indian heritage in order to amuse an Englishaudienceandgainadmittanceintothevicinityofthecanonasrepresented by poems from other cultures and traditions in “British antologies”. Kabba also accuses Nagra of hiding behind his black masks as if the British born Indian poet were afraid of speaking to his audience without the mask of mimicry. The claim echoes“BookingKhanSinghKumar”wheretheblackpoet,KhanSinghKumar,asks what it would be like if, stripped of his native skin, he was to speak without any Punglishorallusiontohisheritage: MustIwearonlymasksthatdon’tsitforaBrit WouldyoublushifIstrippedfrommynativeskin (2007,6) 141 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Stripped of his Punjabi heritage would he still garner the same acclaim? The appreciative audience, presumable white, is wrong‐footed and asked to justify its applause,tomaketheaudienceawarethattheirappreciationitselfcanbeaformof strait‐jacket,onethatlimitsthepoet’screativity,oratleastnarrowsitsexpression intoparticularchannels.Italsocanmaketheaudienceuncomfortablyawareofthe hierarchy they occupy in relation to the poet whose ancestry is foreign. Their patronage and acclaim fall under suspicion of racism. Are they enabling transmissionoftheBlackpoet’sworkortrammelinghimintoaghettowhereitcan be more easily managed, in other words inducted into the anthology ghetto of “PoemsfromUdderCulturesandTraditions” (2007, 42)? Such audience constraints onthepoetareperformedliveinNagra’spoems.Thereaderisrepeatedlyaddressed inreflexivecommentarythatuncoverstheepistemologyatworkinthetransmission andreceptionofpoetrybypoetsfromotherculturesandtraditions.The“antology’s” subtleformofexclusionthroughinclusionoccludestherealitythatEnglishcultureis itself composed of other cultures, cultures that are not appendages but integral to Englishcultureitself,justasthehistoryofEmpireisinextricablefromthecultural artifacts of which English identity is made up of i.e. the tradition in English literature. What role does Nagra’s identity as Indian play in the reading public’s reception and appraisal of his work? What kind of a bias is revealed in answering this question? The themes that emerge from Nagra’s reflexive devices include existentialquestions,inparticularquestionsaboutthepoet’sidentityandtheissues thatintrudewhenthetraditionisinvoked.Intheprocess,theaudienceisfrequently apostrophized, and the theme is often an interrogation of the audience’s own motives and an undermining of their acclaim. There is then the possibility of the reader feeling sheepish about their applause. But this humiliation can initiate the reader into a deeper appreciation of the tradition within poetry and an encounter withfundamentalquestionsaboutwhywereadwhatwereadandhowithasshaped theworldofEnglish‐speakingpeoples.Answerstothesequestionscanbefoundby lookingatthecanonfromadifferentpointofview.ItcouldbearguedthatNagra’s reflexiveanxietiesaboutquestionsofacceptancebythetraditionareactuallystaged anxietiesusedtoexposethecanontoaclosereappraisal. The critical stance towards the canon is very apparent in Nagra’s second collection,TippoSultan’sIncredibleWhiteManEatingTigerToyMachine!!!. Here his reflexivecommentaryrehearsestheformeranxietyofthemarginalpoetbutgoesas far as to almost baulk at the idea of his accepting an invitation into the canon, consideringthenatureofitsrootsin“themanorialslime”(52). 2.FieldofAllusions Nagra’s work is to date has been notable for its rich tapestry of literary allusions. Nagra’s first collection LookWeHaveComingtoDover!proliferated with referencestothecanonincludingworksbyWilliamShakespeare,OliverGoldsmith, RudyardKipling,D.H.Lawrence,W.H.AudenandGeorgeOrwell.Thesameistrueof his second collection Tippo Sultan’s Incredible White‐Man‐Eating Tiger Toy‐ Machine!!!.AssuchNagraostensiblyobservesTradition’sstipulationthatpoetryof 142 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ anyrealworthorsignificanceisalwaysconsciouslyentwinedwiththecanon(Eliot 1919, 38). Nagra’s intertextual method, however, heightens the aforementioned reflexiveaspectofhispoetry,astheframeofreferenceitworkswithinincludesthe canonortraditionofEnglishliterature.Thusissuesofidentityastheypertaintothe Blackpoetarebroughttotheforeevenmore. PartIII:Analysisof“ABlackHistoryoftheEnglishSpeakingPeoples” 1.Title The title is the tip of the iceberg. It is easy to misread the poem’s title so attention should be paid to its components. In the first place, “English‐speaking Peoples” is not the same as the English people. English‐speaking peoples is a broader category that subsumes the English people. The English‐speaking peoples aremostlyunEnglishandtheyfaroutnumberEnglishpeople.Withthisinmind“A BlackHistoryoftheEnglishSpeakingPeople”servesasanessentialframingdevice as it initiates a radical reorientation toward the past. Historiography has always beenselectiveandnonemoresothanthatproducedfordomesticconsumption.An alternativehistorywouldbethattoldfromthepointofviewoftheEnglish‐speaking peoples,thoseforwhomanEnglishtongueisalegacyofEmpire.Assuchthepoemis history viewed from a rich and varied multifaceted (and not necessarily unified) perspective.Moreoveritoffersaripostetothedoubtsairedinearlierpoemssuchas “BookingKhanSinghKumar”and“KabbaQuestionstheOntologyofRepresentation, the Catch 22 for ‘Black’ Writers…”. By adopting a transhistorical, transnational subject, Nagra demonstrates how to step out of the strait‐jacket of audience expectations as foregrounded in the staged anxieties of earlier work where his poeticaliases,Kabba,andKhanSinghKumar,affectedanidentitycrisis,onlytoend by poking fun at the audience themselves. In “A Black History…” Nagra rations his quota of references to his specific heritage and assumes the voice of English‐ SpeakingPeoples,anentitythattranscendsnationalidentityandoffersabird’seye view of English history. It is as if Nagra has abandoned his strategy of individual masksandassumedamantleorcoatofmanyhues. Thesecondcomponentofthetitleisitsannouncementofa“BlackHistory”. “Black” can connote the dark matter of which the poem is composed as well as describe the character of the humour that lightens the poem. However, the word blackasin“BlackHistory”alsoplaysagainstwordsinthepoemsuchas“sanitized” (V12)and“bleached”(IV1).Wherewhitesuggestsawhitewashorcensorshipblack must mean authentic. So, in one sense the poem can be proposing an “authentic” history to counter the “white” version of history produced for domestic consumptionandnationalbonding. 2.Setting Thesettinggoesbacktotherouteofthecanon.JustasGreekandRomanArt are often traced from the theatre of ancient Athens, the history of Modern English 143 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ has its parallel in the open air London playhouses of the late sixteenth and early seventeenthcentury.Liketheancienttheatre,thetheatreofShakepeare,theGlobeis identifiedwithsunlight,theafternoon,whichwastheonlytimeofdayperformances couldbeheld. The historical time frame is clear from the setting. Shakespeare’s Globe theatre invokes London of the Early Modern Period, the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, except it’s a reconstruction of the past, Samuel Wanamaker’s Globe, locatedinthevicinitybutnotonthesiteoftheoriginaltheatre.Theimpetusforthe present day reconstruction came from an American, one of the English‐speaking peoples and also a close cousin of the English people. Wanamaker’s Globe as the setting of “A Black History of the English Speaking Peoples” is a reminder that all historyisareconstructionortobemoreaccurateaversionofthepastandisalways decentredbythepresent. Wannamaker’sGlobeisademocraticvenue;bothonstageandinthepit,the English‐Speaking Peoples are present in all their hues. The Globe is the eye, the origin of the language that conquered a world and created the English Speaking‐ Peoples.The performance on stage is possibly Henry V,especially consideringthis wasthefirstplayonWannamaker’sstagewhenitopenedin1997.Thetimingcould implynotjustanotherdayatthemodernGlobebuttheopening,theinauguration, thereturnofShakespeare’stheatreinthephysicalsense,withitsgalleriesfornobles andpitforgroundlings,amuchmoreinclusivetheatrethantheindoorplayhouses that soon replaced the open air theatres of Shakespeare’s heyday and in doing so restrictedcultureanditsdevelopmenttoanupperclassaudience. 3.Structure ThepoemisarrangedinfivepartsindicatedbyRomannumerals,resembling editors’impositionofafiveactstructureonShakespeare’splays.Ifeachverseisin some sense an act, it is safe to assume some form of chronological order or least trajectory, aware always that within a transhistorical framework there are anachronismsasthepoethasthelibertyofmovinginandoutofthepastatwill. English history has long been an English version of the past. Now we are introducedtoamuchmorecomplexversion,thatoftheEnglish‐speakingpeople’s. In this shift in point of view the poet can address the past from a multifaceted perspective. The Five Acts are all soliloquies in the sense in the sense that they represent interior or private thought. It’s difficult to gauge unity in their delivery. They maybe different subjects or different shades of one subject, the poet, who is andisn’tidentifiablewithNagra.Thislackofunitypointstothecorefactthatunity would imply the resolution of historical conflicts among English‐speaking peoples. Thereforedisunity isa truereflection of the subject, the English‐speaking peoples. At the same time Nagra’s playful reflexive interjections never let us forget his authorial presence. The disunity also goes against the grain of tradition especially theArnoldianconceptthatliteratureespeciallyShakespeareandtheGreekClassics 144 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ could help in forging or solidfying English national identity. In today’s Britain, peopled as it is with settlers from all over the Empire the question of national identityremainsavexedissueofteneruptinginviolence.Therealityisthatisthat closeupEnglandisatapestryofvariegatedhuesreflectingtheformerreachofthe Empire. Today’s Empire is confined to a much smaller portion of the globe, more cramped.InEnglanditself,EnglishpeoplearebeingsupplantedbyEnglish‐speaking people, whose approach to identity is through citizenship laws unmediated by Englishculture. ______________________________ I would like to continue by doing some digging in the five sections or plots into which Nagra’s garden is divided well aware that borders are porous within the transhistorical framework; aware also that this can only be a preliminary of excavationoftherichsoilinwhichNagrahasplantedhisgarden. ACTI TheSpeakerisatthereconstructedglobeandthelocationprovokesareverie whichtracestheinfluenceofEnglishtheatreontheformationofEmpire.Notonly didShakespearebecomeanimportantingredientintheforgingofanationalidentity but his work would play a central role in the origins of English speaking peoples throughthespreadofEnglisheducation.Itisfittingthereforethatthespeakerisat reconstructedGlobeonthesouthbankoftheThamesnearthesiteofShakespeare’s original. The site of the old open‐air theatre was itself a liminal zone in the late sixteenthcentury,aslargeopenairplayhouseswereusuallybuiltoutsidecitylimits. ItispossiblethekingonstageinthefirststanzaofPart1isHenryV,asthis was the play the reconstructed Globe opened with in 1997. At the same time the kingonstagemightbegenrefigurerepresentingthecentralfigureinShakespeare’s history plays. For instance, in Part III of the poem the king “whose suffering ends himagogatthestars”resemblesLear. Inthethirdandfourthstanzathestagetheatreisconflatedwiththelecture theatreandbotharelinkedwiththeriseofEmpire: BetweenthebirthandthefireandrebirthoftheGlobe thevisionsofAlbionledtoaRuleBritannia all‐conqueringfleetsthatarousedtheatres forlecturesonHottentotsandcraniology whilstEdenwasparadedinKew. oftrade‐winds‐and‐Gulf‐Stream (50) 145 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Thetimeperiodistheearlydecadesoftheseventeenthcentury,(1599‐1614).The speaker is arguing that the history plays staged at the period may have awakened Englishpatriotism,especiallyafigurelikeHenryV.ThevisionsofAlbionpresented on stage played a role in the English quest for domination and the fleets that returnedtheworld’swealthtoEnglandalsofedthegrowthofthenaturalsciences with exotic specimens for like of Kew Gardens. However, out of acquisition of the globe also grew a science that categorized humans accordingto a racial hierarchy. This racial science was also fed with human specimens from the all conquering fleets,individualssuchasSarahBaartman,aKhoikhoiwomanwhoAfricanphysique wasexhibitednakedinLondonandelsewhere.Craniologyalsoplayedaroleinracial science by purporting to demonstrate a racial hierarchy through a favorable comparisonofEuropeanskulldimensionswiththoseofotherraces.Clearlyscience playeditspartinarticulatingstandards. AtthispointitiswelltorecallMacaulay’sMinuteof1835,whichlaysoutin practical terms that the purpose of funding the teaching of English language and literature in India, is so that a bilingual class of Indians could transmit European knowledge by translating English science texts into the vernacular languages of India. As the poem points out this European knowledge included science that has nowbeendiscredited,inparticulartheworkofracialscientists.Lookedatthrough the lens of this poem, McCaulay’s rhetoric begins to look foolish. It undermines a claim in his prescription for the Anglicization of India that the English language is best suitable for education because it contained, “full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man” (12). If the aim was to spreadEuropeansciencethenallusionsinthepoempointtohumiliationsinthefield of science such as the development of scientific racism. At bottom, European knowledge,scienceinparticular,wasoftenflawedandshapedbyideology.Whatis ironicforMacaulaywhowishedtotransmitEuropeanscienceisthatthefirstActof thishistorypoemisfilledwithembarrassingmedicalpracticesoftheeighteenthand nineteenthcenturynowclassedaserroneouspseudoscience. If poetry is akin to digging then Nagra’s “A Black History of the English SpeakingPeoples”isnotableforthenumberofallusionshehasplantedwithinthe bordersofhisverse.Apartfrompropernameallusionstherearealsofragmentsof quotations marked off by italics. Often it’s Nagra’s arrangement of allusions that allow fresh impressions of the past. For example, in stanza 4, Auden’s infamous phraseofthe1930s“necessaymurder”is‘positioned’between“Mayflower”[people fleeingEngland]and“Windrush”[peopleacceptinganinvitationtoenterEngland]. TheinsertionisareminderthatStalin’sruthlesscrushingofdissent,whichOrwell claimedwasimplicitlycondonedinAuden’sphrase,wasatsomelevelnotunlikethe colonizer’s treatment of the cultures it subjugated. They both required a detached and secure perspective from which one could approve cold‐blooded killing in the name of a greater good. Such a detached position is of course that of those at the centre,thecountersandplotterswhointimesgonebyoccupiedthebuildingsgreat and small that lined the banks of the Thames, those who drafted the Empire by keepingtheireyeonthegreatergood.SimilarlycitizensofEmpirewereataremove from the realities on the ground at the frontier of British expansion. The cost to 146 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thoseonthereceivingendofimperialismwasalwaysglossedoverintherhetoricof Empire.Thentherewerethemanagersofculturewhosetaskwastopersevereand passona“sanitized”versionofthepast. ACTII ThebackgroundtoActIIistheMayDayprotestsof2000inLondonwhenWinston Churchill’s statue was defaced by protestors who were following a tradition of marching against capitalism also calling for the return of the commons or public space. televisedclashesrepeattheflagofabookburning Churchillandallthatshockandawe andMayDay’sMohican (51) With TV more prominentthan stageineveryday culture the street becomes more significant as a stage in which to mount protests against authority. The term “televised clashes” is ambiguous. It echos the language of soccer coverage but it suggests the way global media have made war a 21st century spectacle for anyone withaT.V.;“shockandawe”isadirectreferencetothemilitarydoctrineemployed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq: the idea of sapping the enemy’s will to fight through sheeroverwhelmingforce.Theterminologyisrelativelynewbuttheprocessinvites easy comparison with the ideology of the imperialists. Amid the clamour of war echoingbetweenthetheatreofthestreetandthatoftelevision,thespeakerisspun back to a moment watching a performance at Wanamaker’s Globe. The actor on stage reminds him of Paul Robeson, the first African‐American actor who played Othello at the Savoy theatre in 1930. Watching “the actor as king, from the cast of masterfulRobeson”(51)suggests thespeakeriswatchinganAfricanintheroleof king rather than a general, like Othello. This onstage hybridity is itself reflected in make‐upoftheaudience:“Thecrowd,too,seemahotchpotchfromthepacts/and sectsofourebbandflow”(51).Thisobservationpromptsafurtherreflectiononhis ownancestorsandtheroletheymayhaveplayedinassistingthestabilityofEmpire foreconomicgain: […]Myforbearsplayed theirpartfortheEmpire’squid proquobyassistingtheruleanddivideoftheirilk. Asforthevocationofpoet,thespeakerisquicktocastdoubtsonhisownmotives: [..]AmIanoblescruffwhohopesaproud academymightcanonize hispoemsfortheirfaithincanonicalallusion? 147 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ (2011,51) The cynicism of the speaker is all the more pronounced when it is recalled that canonicity is an outstanding feature of Nagra’s work. As with his colour, do his prolificallusionstothecanonexplainhishighprofileasapoetfromothercultures? The “proud academy” no doubt T.S. Eliot who maintained that all poetry of any worthwaslinkedtothetradition.Eliotspokeofthistraditionasanorganicwhole, hence comparisons of the canon with a tree. “Booking Khan Singh Kumar” uses a tree to represent the tradition of the canon. The tone of these lines points to an effectoftheprivilegingofthecriterionofcanonicity.Thekeepersofthecanonmight be more receptive to artists with a classical English education. The question then arisesastohoweasilyreferencetothecanonmightoutweightalentinjudgingwhat toawardorpublish.ThereisalsothequestionoftowhatextentEliot’sconceptof traditionwouldseemtoreinforceclasscontroloftradition.Reverenceofthecanon requires long study and that luxury has always been available to the elite. If knowledgeofthecanonisarequisite,thenpoetswillcomefromtheupperechelons, thecossetedrealm,Orwellcriticized,thatproducesthekindofartistlikeAudenwho canconceiveofaphraselike“necessarymurder”. Thepoet’smainattention,however,isonMacCaulay.Theredswathesofthe earth as displayed in colonial era maps not only marked territorial control of the globe but also the reach of Macaulay’s influence. The reference to the map chimes with the composition of the audience. Among the crowd there are many hues of English‐speakingpeoplesfromallcornersoftheglobe: Thecrowd,too,seemahotchpotchfromthepacts Andsectsofourebbandflow. The audience are a stew of peoples, thrown together, diverse, but united by appreciation of Shakespeare. What can the Tradition mean for them, the English‐ speaking Peoples excluded by colour or ancestry? Does the English language still convey an English identity or is it malleable? Can Shakespeare be wrested from tradition and made speak for the people. The ambience of Wanamaker’s Globe seemstosuggestthattheanswerisyes.PerhapsreflectingsympathywiththeMay DaymarchersActIIendsonadefiantnote.Thespeakerassertshisrighttodonthe languageofShakespeare: Ismyvoicephoneyovertheseoft‐heardbeats? Wellifmyvoicefeelsvexatious,whatcanIbut praythatitreignBolshiethroughpuppetryand hypocrisyfullofgung‐hofury! (51) Reclaiming Shakespeare also rhymes with the aspirations of the protestors to reclaimpublicspaceorthecommons. 148 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ACTIII It’sdifficulttogaugethetoneinthissection.Itmaybethespeakerhaschangedor identifiesmorecloselywithhismasters,theEnglish.Thefirststanzaintroducesthe word “corruptions” referring to Shakespeare’s use of artistic license in rendering Englishhistoryforthestage.Anothertypeofcorruptionissuggestedattheendof thissamesection: […]nowwe’reboundtothewheels ofglobalpower,weshouldtendthemanorial offendingtheoutcastswhofringeourcircles. slime–legacy (53) In stanza 3 Churchill is reprised in the incorporation of infamous remark aboutMohattmaGhandiwhomhedescribedasa“half‐nakedfakir”butthisquoteis preceded by “T.E. Lawrence” at the beginning of stanza 3. Stanza 2 ends with the word‘turncoat’suggestingsomeonewhochangesallegianceinaflash.Isthespeaker then someone more complicit than others in“assisting the rule and divide oftheir ilk” (II, 51). Even if the speaker is a turncoat he or she is also one of the English‐ speakingpeoplesandthereforebelongsinthepoem. ACTIV InActIVthetoneofthefirststanzasuggeststhespeakerisEnglish: Whobelievesinableachedyarn?Wouldweopenly admittheLivingstonespiritturnedKurtz,ourflag isaunionofblackandblue (52) Does “we” also include the English? It should do, they too are English‐speaking peoples.BesidesexclusionoftheEnglishwouldonlyreplicatethesocialmechanism being criticized. Livingstone here stands for the conscience of Empire, the doctor whoexploredtheDarkContinent,whetherornotconsciousthathisexplorationsof thegreatwaterwaysofAfricawouldpavetherouteforthenextstepincolonization. What ultimately came of Livingstone’s pioneering work was the Kurtz spirit, the rubberplantations,theviolentenforcementofthecolonizer’scontrol,alludedtoin “blackandblue”(52). Inthesecondstanzathespeakersuggests“Comingclean”orowninguptothe factthathistoryasnarratedbyEnglishtraditionhasalwaysbeena“yarn”,madeup or bleached to remove the bloody origins of global greatness. The second stanza endswithaking“agogatthestars”,possiblyLearwhosemisplacedpowersended upputtinghimoutofhouseandhome. 149 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ ACTV The final Act takes place when the performance ends and the speaker is strolling toward Westminster as the afternoon light fades. A wave of optimism has accompaniedhimfromtheGlobewherehehastasted“thefruitofamutualrealm”. ThesettingsunisreflectedontheRiverThames,sourceofBritannia.Theghostsof merchantshipshoveronthewater: yetsoftlytonightthewatersofBritanniabobble withflotillaofteaandwhitegold cottonandsugarandthesweetness‐and‐light. With the exception of the last item the flotilla of commodities bobbing on the Thames all include products that played a pivotal role in the growth of Empire. In some sense they represent the concrete spoils of empire whereas the last item, “sweetness and light” is less material. “Sweetness‐and‐light” was what Matthew ArnolddubbedthebeautyandtruthinherentinEnglishlanguageandculture.Inits currentsetting,itstandsfortheexportofEnglishculture,whatwasgiveninreturn forwhatwastookoftheworld’swealth. In the second stanza the sinking sun triggers imagery associated with red. Bloodlettingagainechoes“necessarymurder”,thecostinhumanlifetotheswelling of Empire but it may also serve as further example to add to the list of European pseudoscience begun in Part I of the poem, as bloodletting can also denote Europeans’widespreaduseinthepastofbloodlettingforcurativeeffects. “red‐faced Suez” stands for the moment of humiliation when England imperial aspirations had to take second place to interests of its cousin and new Empire,theUnitedStatesofAmerica.InthisstanzathelossofSuezisthesignalfora rapid ebbing of Macaulay’s map as decolonization is put into effect.. The thin red line,representedbythe“bagpipeclamouring”oftheHighlandRegiment,retreatsin rapidorder.WhatisleftaretheEnglishspeakingpeoples. The poem ends with lovers gazing from the London Eye, itself a revolving observation deck looming over some of Empire’s most important institutions. However,theloversaresurveyingthetrueinheritorsofEmpire,the“multinationals lyingalongthesanitizedThames”(53).Thespeakerisawareisthatheislookingat the same old Thames, source of the Empire, but dressed in new clothes, with new names.ThiswealthconcentratedalongtheThamesiscenturiesoldandincludesin itscofferstheprofitsofpiracy,slavery,drug‐runningandothernefariousbusiness. Now that the racial barriers are down, now that it’s no longer a shock to have an AfricanplayOthello,it’sa“sanitised”Thamesthatmeetstheeyeofthetourist.The wordsanitizeddoesnothavegoodconnotations;itsuggestscensorship,thecleaning up of a past indiscretion, distortion. Contrast with “purified” a word with positive connotations. How much of England’s real history is being occluded despite the growingmultiracialmake‐upofthepopulation?Thisisthequestionthefinalsection leavesuswith. 150 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ PartIV:Conclusion In his first collection Nagra confronted his audience asking what would happenifhestrippedfromhisnativeskin.Wouldtheystilllistentohimwithoutof hiscolourbadgemarkinghimasanimmigrant?Thequestionisprovocative;itbites thehandthatfeedsit.“ABlackHistory”demonstrateswhatcanhappenwhenNagra rations markers of his Punjabi hertitage. His voice rises into a chorus, that of the “outcasts” III, English‐Speaking peoples. Using this perspective the poet is able to bringtraditioncentrestageandviewitfrommultipleperspectives. TheironyofArnold’sterm“sweetnessandlight”isthatEnglishculturecan bedistastefulfromthepointofviewofEnglish‐speakingpeoples.Bysweetnessand light Arnold meant beauty and intelligence as represented by English culture, in particularitsliterature.Englishspeakingpeoplewhoreturntothecanonoftenfind light but not the kind Arnold anticipated. Instead of beauty and intelligence or sweetness and light modern examinations of canonical texts have uncovered disturbinglinkswiththeideologyoftheirtimes,inparticularthosetextsamongthe canon which bear directly on issues involved in the growth of Empire. Reading Defoe’sRobinsonCrusoewefindthattheprotagonistofchildhoodadventurestories wasactuallyaplantationownerandactingasabrokerforfellowplanterswishing purchaseslaveswhentheshipcarryinghimsankandhecameashoreonadeserted island.EdwardSaidhasmeditatedonthesignificanceoftheWestIndiesplantation lurking uncomfortably in the background of the Bertram family of MansfieldPark. While enjoying the sweetness and light it is unsettling to discover Mr Bertram, otherwise an ideal patriarch is a slave owner, and his wealth evident in the sumptuous surroundingsofhisestateisbasedonrevenuefromhisplantation.It’s difficulttouncoverAusten’sintention.Wasshereflectinganeverydayfactoflifein hersocietyorwasshetryingtounderminehercharacter?Orhassheletslipabias thatwascommoninherday,thefactthatslaverywastoleratedprivatelyandsome ofthewealthiestplantationownerswerealsomembersoftheEstablishment,close togovernmentandpower.Austen’sportraitofherageisaccuratebutunsettlingfor those expecting sweetness and light. Instead they encounter “the manorial slime” (52). Questions like these about canonical texts have often led to defence of the dead author as if their morality were on trial. This is because it is not just the identityofanauthorinthenationalheritagethatisunderattack,itistheidentityof Englishness that is under threat. English identity, the nation was to be forged throughculture.Wheniconswithintheculturecomeunderattacktheidentitythey forgeditselfbecomesdestabilized.TheseunsettlingreadingsbetrayArnold’svision, the idea that the best that man has thought and written be passed down the generationsthrougheducationandhisfaiththatthosetextsheselectedwouldoffer sweetnessandlight.ThosetextsarenotsimplyArnold’sthebestbutambassadorsof their times. As they encode the ambience of their times its necessary any reading from the present interrogates the ideology reflected in the texts whether through representationsoromissions. 151 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ The iconoclastic approach to the history of England is inevitable when subjectedtothepluralperspectiveofEnglishspeakingpeoples.Whatstandsoutare notthemomentsofpridewovenintonationalhistoryofEngland,buttheblunders, gaffs and embarrassments, betrayals and violence that tell a different story of England.ThisalteriorviewofthepastislikeWannamaker’sGlobedecentred. It also offers a perspective on English history that transcends the limitations of traditional accounts constructed for domestic consumption. Low points are picked out with relish: Auden’s support for Communist Russia, Churchill’s mouth, the retreatfromSuez,thelaunderedmoney,thegreatfloweringofbuildingsalongthe Thames whose roots were the wealth of Empire, slavery and domination. Nagra’s Blackhistoryisolatesthesemomentsofshameandembarrassmentinthehistoryof England’srisetoglobalEmpire. The “English‐Speaking Peoples” is a category which transcends traditional meta‐narratives associated with English history, one characterized by subjugation by empire and then withdrawal. This one‐way narrative ignores the effect of the subjugatedonthesubjugatorespeciallyintheebbstageofempire.Themeldingof cultures, the emergence of hybrid voices and the complex interplay between the former colonizer and the former colonized makes questions of identity especially linkedtoinheritance.FortheEnglishspeakingpoetwhoseancestralrootsareinthe former Empire, but whose birth has been on English soil identity remains a contestedarena but unlike a mimic maneagerforacceptance into the company of the English, the race of Albion, the British‐born subject blackened by his ancestral roots is arguing that it is time the very concept of Englishness be broadened and BlackBritishasatermbecomeredundantandEnglishcultureassumeitsvariegated hue,notwhite,notblack. Bibliography Arnold,Matthew.CultureandAnarchyOUP2006 …“DoverBeach”.TheNortonAnthologyofPoetry.5thed.NewYork: Norton,2005.1101.Print. Auden,W.H.“Spain”Boehmer,EllekeEmpireWritingOUP1998 Eliot,T.S.NotesTowardtheDefinitionofCultureFaberandFaber ... SelectedProseofT.S.EliotFaberandFaber Griffiths,Jay“Diary:theMaydayprotestinLondon”(2000).LondonReviewof Books22June2000. Gunning,Dave“DaljitNagra,FaberPoet:BurdensofRepresentationandAnxieties ofInfluence.”TheJournalofCommonwealthLiterature43:3(2008)95‐108. Web.8Aug.2011. 152 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Huggan,Graham.ThePost‐ColonialExotic:MarketingtheMargins.Londonand NewYork:Routledge,2001.Print. Innes,C.L.AHistoryofBlackandAsianWritinginBritain.2nded.Cambridge: CambridgeUP,2002,2008.Print. ‐‐‐.TheCambridgeIntroductiontoPostcolonialLiteraturesinEnglish.Cambridge: CambridgeUP,2007.Print. Macaulay,Thomas.B.MinutebytheHon'bleT.B.Macaulay,datedthe2nd February1835.Web.<http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/ history/primarydocs/education/Macaulay001.htm> Nagra,Daljit.Look,WeHaveComingtoDover!London:Faber,2007.Print. … TippooSultan’sIncredibleWhiteManEatingTigerToyMachine!!! London:Faber,2011.Print. Orwell,George“InsidetheWhale” Said,EdwardCultureandImperialismLondon:Vintage,1994.Print. 153 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Friday23rdNovember2012(17.30–19.00) SessionFive:ReflectionsonIndianWritingin English 154 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ RewritingIndiafortheworld:thepoweroftranslation MiniKrishnan Editor‐Translations,OxfordUniversityPress(India) “Closer than the bond shared by those who have the same mother is the one madebythosewhosharewords”–14thcenturyTelugusaying. Ninety‐nineago,RabindranathTagore’sGitanjalianimperfecttranslation,wonthe only Nobel Prize awarded to an Indian. Ever since, many Indian writers have felt thattheymightbesaidtohave“arrived”onlyiftheyappearedinEnglish.Justasone isfacelessifoneisn’tonFacebookanddoesn’texistifonedoesn’thavearationcard, translationintoEnglishhasbecomethepassporttoaglobalizedAnglophoneworld. Logically, from English to other languages is the further hope of most writers and theymightwellberight.Andthuswehavethatmarvelouschurningintheopposite direction of colonization: Indians recasting, relocating, rewriting their literature in theacquiredlanguageandenrichingthetargetlanguage.Thisindustry,whichisone ofthefastestgrowingsegmentsinEnglishpublishinginIndia,isnotonlynecessary for us to interpret ourselves to ourselves but to invite readers outside India to a deeperunderstandingofourstupendouslysubtlesociologyandpsychethanmight beavailableinthetextswrittendirectlyinEnglish. Paying attention to a country’s translated texts is necessary because language is aboutidentityandwhatcanbepsychologicallymorevitalthanthat?Canwehopeto understand the world if we do not understand ourselves? Loss of literature in our languagesislossofheritage,lossofmemory,lossofhistory,lossofacommunity’s storiesandfinallyalossofself.Wedon’twishtoloseourselvesandwewouldliketo be understood better in other parts of the world. Hence, the title of my talk: RewritingIndiafortheworld. ComingasIdofromasubcontinentwheremostpeoplearepolyglots,acountrythat has 22 recognized languages,122 regional lanaguages,four classical languages,countlessdialects,possiblyevenmorethanAfrica,whereevenilliterates in border areas speak at least two languages, for me it is extremely interesting to watch two social language‐shapes emerging— English by Indian writers, and the English employed to translate the experience of Indian literary writing. Today’s Indians are, after all, the descendants of the scholars of Nalanda University, the familiesofthosewhocollaboratedwithPersianandBritishlanguageinterventions, people who survived the barbarities of Nadir Shah, picked up dictionary‐making from the Portuguese and Germans; they are the great‐great‐ great‐ great…grandchildrenofthetradingpopulationswhowelcomedthefirstArabsailors ontheWestcoastofSouthIndialongbeforetheProphetwasborn.Wearenothingif not a translating nation. With English being the world’s most studied second‐ language, as it fiercely beats off its rivals and reigns unchallenged as the main international academic language, it seems entirely appropriate to launch writers 155 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ from our national languages into this parallel language world which demands no visasandrecognisesnoborders.Let’stakealookatthelinguisticmapofIndia Image1NationalTranslationMissiontableoflanguages Multilingual India: The Range – 1,576 rationalized mother-tongues; – 1,796 other mother-tongues; –14 major writing systems in use Source: National Translation Mission We’vespentthepastthreedayslisteningtotheimpactofEnglishwrittenbyIndians who do not need to be translated because they’ve already translated themselves. MostofthewriterswhowriteonlyinEnglishcannotreadasingleIndianlanguage. Even if they can, they do all their reading in English. The users of this cultivated language number just 3 % of the entire Indian population: a third of which population by the way, is illiterate. Now this does not mean that these millions of Indiansuntouchedbylearninglackintelligenceorculture.Thispeasantbodywhose strength is feared by technocrats and policy‐makers is hardly or not at all represented by Indian writers in English. Most Indian writers in English are city‐ based,urbanorientedandhavenoexperienceatallofruralIndia.IfatallthatIndia appearsintheirbooks,itisasabackdropandnotwiththecentralforceoftheland behindit;thusthesewritersdonotknowwhatitistoownland,whatitistolose land, work on the land, create from the earth. All civilization has proceeded from land‐values‐culture‐language. So I would now like to take you all by the shoulder andturnyouaroundverygentlytolookinanotherdirection.I’dliketosaythatif youdonotreadtheIndiclanguageliteraturesinTranslationitislikelookingatonly onesideofastatue.ThelinguisticfactofourlivesisthatEnglishisnotourmother‐ tongue:notyours,notmine.Itisanacquiredlanguagewhichwe’velearnedtouse andfunctioninwithsomeskill.Ithasnogeographicbaseandhasnowordsformost ofthematerialaspectsofourculture.Icangiveyouanynumberofexamplesbutwill hopethatthiswillcomeupfordiscussionlater. 156 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ BeforewegoanyfurtherIdliketoputittoyouthattranslationismankind’smost intense attempt to share inner worlds by breaking down barriers raised by ignorance of the other’s language, identity and emotions. Translation isn’t only aboutliterature.Livingaswedointhetwelfthyearofthenewmillennium,bynow, weknowthattechnologyisnotgoingtosavetheworldandthatoursolutionshave tocomefromthehumanspirit.Coulditbethatsomeofthosesolutionsoriginatein the intercultural synergy that lies in the black‐box of the translator’s mind? There wouldhavebeennoRenaissance,Asiawouldneverhaveemergedfromhermiddle agesnorwouldtheBiblehavebeenavailableasweknowittoday,ifithadn’tbeen for translators, the creators of “contact literature”. They are the inventors of alphabets and the middlemen of history. Those experiences that die locked up in someofthemostdevelopedlanguagesofAsia,andthatareopaqueeventofellow IndiansarereleasedthroughtranslationsinEnglish. I don’t know how many mother‐tongues are represented here but we share the worldwideweb of English which can either help us to rebuild the Tower at Babel, completing our understanding, or send us toppling over. I would like to give you instances of both. But first… how much of our incredibly complex culture are we able to convey through a language that is much younger than our 1000‐year old languages? This becomes important when Literature ceases to be mere elitist self‐ indulgenceorentertainmentbutaltogethersomethingelse.Literaturehasskipped nimblyintothegapsbetweenwomen’sstudies,sociology,andculturalstudies,and many texts from our culture are emerging as study materials. In 1990 the Tata Institute of Social Sciences compiled an anthology titled Short Stories for Social Work Education and divided into sections (1) Insights into Indian Family and Community Life, (2) Indian Social Problems. It also has a Teacher’s Manual. One other facet of Indian life the rise of the lower castes is documented in their autobiographiesandnovels,notablytheworksoftheDalitwomanwriter:Bama Image2coveroftheTatabook Image3coverofKarukku Image4coverofVanmam Ithinkwewillallagreethatoneofthenotableadventuresofthepast50yearsorso hasbeenthecontactofworldcultures,theiremergingperceptionsofeachotherand the shaping of ‘mutual images’. Indian universities have papers on American Literature, Australian Literature, Commonwealth Studies, and there are whole papersonIndianliteratureincountrieswhereagenerationagopeopledidn’teven know where India was, on the map. On the one hand you have the hegemony of a fewworldlanguagesandsomeancientlanguagesbecomingextincteveryyearand ontheother,wehavethescienceofneurolinguisticssayingthatthemorelanguages you know the greater your capacity to make sense of your surroundings and experiences because every language carries with it a different world. Since it isn’t possibletomastermorethanoneortwolanguagesinalifetime,themorelanguages youaccessthroughthelanguageyoudoknowwell,thericheryourinnerthesaurus, thebetteryourunderstandingofcomplexissues 157 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ HowisIndianliteraturedoinginthisglobalsituationwhichcarriesanimbalanceas part of its perplexing challenge to the survival of our diverse and traditional cultures? What are publishers like myself and so many others trying to do with translated texts from the many Indian languages into English? We believe in the poweroftranslationtoconveywiththedoubleforceoftwolanguages,themeaning andmessagesoftheoriginal. Agrowinglistoftranslatedtexts(seriousliteraryworksthatrecordthegrowthof regional genius) from Indian languages into English, is enriching the latter and promoting the former in a space where it was previously invisible and therefore unrecognized and unacknowledged. These texts are influencing a new kind of printed language and powering an illusion that we are walking through an Indian landscape and listening to Indians. As a translation is developed from an Indian language text, what we usually see are valiant experiments to fuse two language culturesinanon‐Atlanticcountrytomovetowardsalanguagewhichitselfwasbuilt fromconfluencesofdifferentword‐stocks:Latin,French,GermanandAnglo‐Saxon. HereareveryshortpassagesfromUrduandBengali,bothfrombooksIpublishedin 2003 ThereisanUrdulegendthatitwasthepeacockthathelpedSatantoentertheGarden ofEden. “WhenAllahMianfoundouthewasveryangry WhenheexiledAdamandEvefromtheGardenhealsoaskedthepeacocktogetout. IwasupsetwhenIheardthestoryandfeltsorryforthepeacock.Onceuponatimehe usedtositonthewallofParadiseandnowhesitsonthewallofourfence.WhenItold Dadimathisshereplied “Yesson,thatiswhathappenswhenweareexiledfromourcourtyards.Nowallhecan doisfindsomethingtositon‐‐‐anywallaroundanycourtyard—oranytreeorhill wherehecanfindafoothold” Image5Chronicle Image6ThreeSidesofLife TheCalloftheSea BaniBasu My sister was always at my mother’s side, fixing buttons, making button holes, hemmingtheedges,stretchingouttheyardsofsilkforhertocut,helpingoutinevery possibleway. Myfatherwouldlistengravelytoherremonstrations.Buttheverynextafternoon,he wouldcomehomesweatingprofusely,callingouttome, ‘Tuneee…Tun…Tuneeeee!’ 158 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ AndasIleaptovertohisside,hewouldhandmeapacket, ‘Justseewhetheryoulikethis,Tuni?’ AndoutwouldpopaheavenlywhitefrockofSwisssilk,withtinyembroideredrosettes. I would hold the dress close to my face, breathing in its scent, a doll‐like picture of ecstasy,floatinginanoceanofhappiness.Andjustatthatmoment,mymotherwould makeanappearance, ‘What’sthis?Wheredidyougetthatdressfrom?Itmusthavecosttheearth!’ ‘FromtheNewMarket.’ ‘OhGod!Howmuchdiditcostyou?’ ‘Doyoulikeitornot?Whydoyougoonharpingontheprice?’ ‘Ofcourse,it’spretty.Butthepricemustbeequallyso.’ ‘Forty‐fiverupees.’ ‘Wha…a…t?Wecouldhavegotherthreedressesforthatamount. Howwillwe…’ ‘Ugh!Shutup,willyou? ‘Andthat’snotall.Shewilldemandshoesandsocksandribbonstogowithit.’ Bengaloriginal:‘Samudra’ TranslatedbySaumitraChakravarthy HereisasampletranslatedfromtheKonkanilanguage.Itdescribesthedivlidance that is part of the rituals that follow a harvest. A mysterious thing about this languageisthatitisspokenalldowntheKonkancoastbuthasnoscriptofitsown.It iswritteninKannada,Marathi,Devnagiri,MalayalamandRoman. TheUpheaval PundalikN.Naik Nanustoodintheopenspaceinthemiddleflankedbytwootherboys.Hewasdressed as a woman in a saffron sari and a shiny red blouse edged with gold. Long earrings dangledfromhisearsandareddotwasetchedonhisforehead,asvibrantasthesun. The women stared in admiration as he slowly bent forward and picked up the brass lampwithitssevenflamingwicksswimminginoil.Heplaceditcarefullyonhisheadas Master struck a few chords on the harmonium and the song began. Nanu’s feet kept time to the music and the bells strapped to his ankles chimed softly. His hands wove gracefulpatternsintheairasheleanedforwardandthendrewbackagaindrawing gaspsofadmirationfromtheassembledcrowd. 159 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Savlo Master took out a copper coin and placed it on the ground in front of the boy. Nanuwould nowlie prone and pickit upwith his tongue, balancingthelamp onhis headallthewhile,followingwhatMastersaid.Everyheartgrewheavywithfearand theveinsoneveryone’sneckgrewtautinanticipationaseachftheonlookersimagined the lamp to be balanced on his own head. Salvo Master sat in front, nodding encouragementandurgingtheboyon. Nanu lowered himself carefully to the ground, bracing his shoulders as he strove to balance the weight on his head. His tongue inched forward in search of the coin as everyone’seyesremaintransfixed.Itwasattheverylastmoment,whenhistonguehad almostreacheditsgoalthatNanu’snecktwitchedconvulsively,hisheadfellforward, andeverythingbeforehimturneddark. ‘It’sfallen!Thelamp!’ ‘OhGod!Onhisback!’ TranslatedfromKonkanibyVidyaPai Image7‐coverofUpheaval Sincewearemeetingatatimewhencommunicationsbetweencountriesisbreaking down,Translationassumesgreatimportance.WouldyougotoaChristianwedding dressed in rainbow colours? No. Because we know that black is the colour of mourning in that faith. Similarly one wouldn’t go to the havan or pooja space at a Hindu wedding dressed in black. Why? We know the signals. We know what is inappropriate. Sofor atrue understanding ofa culture, the indigenous writing,art and poetry of that land, is vital. In it lies the code of that civilization or at a less intenselevel,culturalmarkers.Ifyoudon’taccessthoselanguagesyouaremissing something.Somethingveryimportant. Inallcontemporarywritingaqualitythatisgreatlyvaluedisuniversality.Whilethe universality of language in which memory can be stored is a quality specific to humanbeings,theparticularityofsounds,wordsandword‐ordersandthelawsof sentence patterns is what distinguishes one language from another. And this is intimatelylinkedwithculturalhistory.Writtenliteraturefromaparticularlinguistic region is not transmitted through universality but through particularity. A Korean willneversay“Idliketohaveanapple”Shewillonlysay“Itwouldbenicetohave an apple”. Similarly there are innumerable very dense culture specific patterns in Indian languages which if you miss altogether would impoverish your understandingofthecountryanditspeople.So…sotheburdenofmypresentation is that to accept only Indian writing in English as the preferred representation of Indiaistorefusetolookbeyondthecornerofabeautifulcarpet.Youwillmissthe restofthepiece. Therefore…translation…. About 30 years ago a British journalist named Don Taylor traveled through India andsaid,“Itdoesnotoftenseemlikeonecountryandyetthereisaresilienceabout 160 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Indiawhichcarriesanassuranceofsurvival.Thereissomethingwhichcanonlybe describedasanIndianspirit.”Thoughalltheparameterspointtoacollapseofsucha country, we seem to be hanging on The story of our survival is so full of contradictions that Churchill said that if India can be called a country then the Equator can also be so described. Our social preoccupations run along four or five axes— *caste **language, ***religion, ****class, all operating both singly and in tandem. People of the same faith speak differentlanguages.Tothesefourcentralaxesoneshouldaddafifththatcutsright across them—***gender. We are too complicated, too confusing‐‐‐ a nation one mightsay,thatisunnatural.Butwecontinuetosurvive.Howarewesurvivingand why are we surviving and don’t we wish to know more? From our writers in the regional languages and their translators we get snapshots and stories about ourselves. Here is an excerpt from a woman writer in Kerala. Her name is Sarah Josephandshespear‐headedthewomen’smovementinthe1980s,challengingthe very language of patriarchy and saying that it denigrated women so casually. She also stripped bare the hypocrisies in one of the oldest Christian societies in the world.I’veselectedanexcerptthattalksofreligion,classandcaste. “Da,aren’tyouthesonofthatTheredya?” TheVicaraskedManikyanwhenhewasin theseventhstandardandhadgonetotheparsonagealongwiththechildrenwhowere to receive their first communion. The request that he too be allowed to receive the communiondiedonhisquiveringlips. TheVicar’squestionandtonehurtManikyan. “Mymother’snameisThresia.” “Pha!Youupstart!Thresia?SincewhenhasaconvertstartedcallingherselfThresia?” TheVicarbelieveditwasnotforconvertstousethenamesofupper‐casteChristians. Not Thresia, but Theredya. Not Ousep, but Athuppu. Not Devassi, but Dehathi. As Manikyanwasabouttoclimbtheflightofstepswiththeotherchildrenfortheirfirst communion,theVicarstoppedhim. “Youjustwaitthere.Don’tcomeupanddefiletheplace.” (TranslatedbyValsonThampu,2009winnerofanationalaward) Image8 ThequestionofcasteandcasteismanitemuniquetoIndiaandseennowhereelse onthisscale,isnoteasytodismantlebecauseitisthemainprincipleoforganization onwhichIndiansocietyisbuilt. 161 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ WhatdoIwant? MadduriNageshbabu Iwantalittlebreeze aglassofwater somewarmth alittleskyinthisdungeon alittlelandformeinthiscountryofmine Willyougiveit? Iwantrealcitizenship Willyougiveit? WhatdoIwant? Iwantyou Iwantroominyourheart Iwanttoeatinyourhouse Iwantyoutocometomyhutandtalkmarriage withmydaughterforyourson Iwantustoberelatives. Doyouwanttocome? TranslatedfromTelugubyVelcheruNarayanaRao ListentoapoemwritteninAssamiya WhatWereWeTalkingAboutJustNow? NilmaniPhookan Whatwerewetalkingaboutjustnow? Aboutstonebeinghard,watercold, Aboutfireburning Andpeacocksspreadingtheirplumes Aboutwhattheworldsfirstdawnwaslike Andwhyasweetfruitbecomesbitter Themomentitisinthemouth 162 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Abouttheskyflaringup Likealiveember Justfourminutestomidnight Abouttheearthslowlyturningtosand Andtheshadowofbambooclumps TurningtoashTranslatedfromAssamiyabyDBBezbarua Theburningproblemsofpoliticalandethnicdivisionsarealsowonderfullytackled inregionallanguages.AsgharWajahatwritinginHindidescribesapost‐Godhrariot campinGujaratanddescribeshowtheDevilhimselfvisitsitandretreatsinshame sayingthatevenhewouldn’tinflictsuchpainandhumiliationonmankind. This brings me to the fact that very few Indian writers in English have taken the trouble to tackle religion and philosophy directly connected with it (except Tulsi Badrinath who is of mixed origin and who describes herself as a UP‐Gujarati‐ MaharashtrianforwhomChennaiishome).OctavioPazsaidthatIndiaismadeupof three great civilizations Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Another two world religionshaveoriginatedinIndia.Youmustsurelyhavenoticedthestrongabsence ofreligiousthemesinthewriterswehavebeendiscussing.Yet…askanyonewhohas spentanytimeinIndiaandtheywilltellyouthatthoughtheConstitutionissecular it is a deeply religious society. Should this not be reflected in writing from the subcontinent? Some of the best portions of Arundathi Roy’s book are set in the templewheretheKathakaliplaytakesplacebutthereisaculturalfalsehoodinthat scene. Infactsomethingelseishappeningwhichscholarsmightfindoutbyandby.Many Indian writers in English are soaking up regional –language experiences through translationsandcarom‐shootingthembrilliantlyintotheirtextsthatareoriginally in English. What they mismatch is the context : for instance, Aravind Adiga in The WhiteTiger attempts an analysis of the dark worlds of Bihar and Gurgaon and the novelultimatelyrestsonthecredibilityofthevoiceofitschiefprotagonist,Balram Halwai.WhatwehearfromhimisnotNorthIndianspeakbutaseriesofexpressions that simply don’t add up, given his origins. He describes his office as a hole in the wall and ‘kissing some god’s arse’ an expression that doesn’t exist in any North Indian language. On one occasion he sneers “They are so yesterday”. You see how falsethisis?ButthepeopleontheBookerjurywillnotknow.Howwillthey?What we are dealing with is someone who has no sense of the texture of the Indian vernacularyetclaimingtoproducearealistictext.Imustthereforeadmittoasense ofgrimironywhenIreadthecitationtheTheWhiteTigerreceived.Itcongratulates thewriteronbrilliantlycapturingtheunderbellyofthelandandwritingthepain‐ and‐poverty of India for a readership that has no experience of it. (And wouldn’t wantto,first‐hand.) And finally here is Padma Sachdev the leading Dogri woman writer describing Kashmirsarcastically.DogriisalanguagespokeninJammuandKashmir. 163 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Come,letusdivideupthemoon Wehavedivideduptheearth Wehavedividedupthesky Wehavedividedupthegods Wehavedividedupthepriests Wehavedividedupthemosques WehavedivideduptheShivalayas Mostoftheworkisdone Comeletusnowdivideupthemoon intosmallpieces (translatedfromDogribyKaranSingh) IdliketoclosebypresentingaventurecalledIndianLiteratureAbroadthatthe MinistryofCulture,GovernmentofIndiahasundertakentoarrangethetranslation ofsomeofourleadingcontemporarywritingfromIndiclanguagesintowhatis calledthesixUNESCOlanguages English French Spanish Chinese Arabic Russian ThefirstoftheselanguagesisbeingtakencareofbytheEnglish‐languagepublishers ofthecountryandtheMinistryofCultureisreadyandwillingtoassistthetransfer selectedtextsandwritersintotheotherlanguages.Theteamconsistsof poets,writers,academicsandeditor‐publisherslikemyself.IfaThaipublisherwould liketomoveanyofthesebooksintotheirlanguage,Indiawouldbehappytosupport theirefforts. Thankyouverymuch StylisticAnalysisofSalmanRushdie’sShameandMoor’sLastSigh ManishaBose,Ph.D My concern in this paper is Stylistic Analysis of Rushdie’s Shame and Moor’sLast SighandbeforeIbegintheanalysisIwouldliketopresentmyviewsonwhatImean byStylisticAnalysis. 164 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Stylistics is currently a battlefield of contending theories. It is an ambiguous but respected term with various agreements and disagreements attach to it. Most linguists have tried to define stylistics, leaving no distinction between Linguistics andStylisticswhichcausesambiguitiesandidentitycrisesforStylistics.Whenone thinks of the word style the first thing that comes to our mind is the choice and individuality.Theauthor’styleisaboutthechoicehemakestowritehisbook,which markshisindividuality. This choice of the writer includes what to write and how to write, the choice of theme and language in other words the choice of form and content. Form and contentareinextricablepartswhichdefineastyleofatext.Theycomplementeach other. AcriticlikeRolandBarths1givesimportancetoformalaspectandfeelsstructureis the only thing present in the writing. I differ on this view. Structure is one of the many things present in writing. A sentence is interweaving of several codes i.e. linguistic,symbolic,rhetoricalcode.Allthesecodesareusedtoexpressthecontent. Stylistics does not and cannot ignore language but that is not its only concern. Withoutthesystemoflanguagenocommunicationcantakeplace.Authormanifests his thoughts through language. Therefore language and his thoughts both are concernofStylistics.Languageisimportantasafunctionalentitynotexclusivelyas formalsystem. Anauthorchisels,polishesthelanguagetoexpresshisinnerworld.Helinguistically creates theme, milieu, character and the era. How creatively he express his imaginationlinguisticallyishischallenge.Aliteraryworkisanamalgamationofthe conscious and the subconscious pole. When one studies a work of art, one studies thewritingoftheauthorandanartistatwork.Theauthorssometimeshavetouse thelanguagebeyondthecodetoexpresstheirperceivedsenseofreality.Theyuse syntacticandparadigmaticvariations,foregrounding,deviations,ungramaticalness, phonological patterning to enhance the lexical patterning to enhance the desired effect. Literary language has a distinctive feature called literariness. The literariness of a work as Jan Mukarovsky2 describes is the maximum foregrounding of the act of expression, the act of speech itself. The foregrounding device is called ‘deviations’. This deviation is an important part of author’s style. It is important to note that if thesedeviationsdonotaddtothemeaningofthetextthentheyarenotqualifiedto bestylemarkerssincetheywouldaddnomeaningtothetext. These deviations though not generated by English Grammar are still understood. The reason is that firstly the linguist variations do not occur randomly but are patternedwithregularlinguisticfeaturestoformawhole.Secondlytheauthordoes not ignore the code on which he depends on. So there exists a link betweencodes and meaning otherwise readers could never understand. These choices form the stylisticdevice.Thesedeviationsareobservedandinterpretedtounderstandatext. AsVerdonkputsit 165 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Style does not arise out of a vacuum, but its production purpose and effect are deeply embedded in context in which reader and writerplaytheirdistinctiverole.(VerdonkP6)3. Language has a vast potential to express various emotions individually and simultaneously. As Buhler4establishes in his tri‐modelof language function is that language is at once Symbol (information and text centred), Symptom (self expression and speaker centred)and Signal (persuasion and hearer centred). A writerexploitsallthefunctionsoflanguageintheurgeofselfexpression.Aliterary text carries various perspectives. Function of stylistics is to understand the perspective which is beyond establishing the relation between sentences. The link betweenStyleandlanguagefunctionestablishesStylistics. Stylistics never received the attention it deserved. It got caught in the shackles of linguistic theories. At the turn of 20th century the scholars were preoccupied in givingscientificstatustoHumanities.Thestructurallinguistdevelopedthescientific ideal and took it to the extent that they found meaning messy. Chomsky’s transformational generative grammar further damaged Stylistic analysis, ignoring thefunctionalaspectoflanguageandgivingutmostimportancetotheformalaspect ofthelanguage. Literaryphenomenacannotbereducedtopurelylinguisticdimension.Toputitin Riffaterrer’sword No grammatical analysis of a poem can give us more than the grammarofthepoem(Riffaterrep206)5 StylisticAnalysisisconcernedwiththepragmaticfunctionofthelanguage.Stylistic Analysis analyses the system of language and moves beyond it to analyse the emotions, intension, and point of view along with the language. The so called scientific theories of linguistic analysis cannot dominate art. Stylistics is study of language as an art while linguistic is study of language as a medium of communication. Sentence is the upper limit of the magnitude if linguist analysis while Stylistics operates higher than sentence level establishing its compatibility with the total work of art. Stylistics has its own view point though it studies the same object i.e. linguistic material. Therefore to make Stylistics a division of linguistic is to limit its scope, aim and method. Modern Western Linguistics represented by de‐Saussure, Bloomfield and Chomsky have been primarily concernedwithLanguage(langue)whilethestudyoftext(parole)hasonlyreceived lipservice. ReaderisaveryimportantfigureinStylisticAnalysis.Reader’sintuitiontorealise the context of the written text isvery important. Any literary analysis cannot be a lifeless, mechanical activity. Stylistic Analysis is an interaction between the reader and the text. The reader synchronises the text and completes the process of communicationstartedbytheauthor. Thustherecannotbeonemeaningofanyliterarytext.Literatureandforthatmatter any art are expression of individuality. Though art arises from the existing social realities they cannot be pigeon holed. The meaning of literature is therefore 166 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ unsettling and indefinite. Different analyst will have different perspective. This reinforces the beauty of art. There are certain guidelines a stylistic analyst can follow in analysing a text. Most importantly the analyst must have an intuition to discover the multi‐layer text and the essential experience (which comes through education) to understand the meaning of the text. Following are certain observationswhichshouldbemadewhiledoingtheStylisticAnalysisofthetext. 1.Thegenreofthetext 2.Thelinguistobservationinthetext 3.Theanalystmustknowtheauthor’sbackgroundthathasinfluencedhisstyle 4.Whatfactorshaveinfluencedhiswriting? 5.Thepoliticalsocialbackgroundmentionedinthebook 6.Thehistorical,politicalbackgroundduringwhichthebookwaswritten 7.Readingthebookoftheauthor’scontemporaries 8. Reading the other works of the author for better understanding of the text concerned 9.Theallusions,inter‐textualitymentionedintheauthor’stext Each author has his own personal language which his reader must understand. Analysismeansunderstandingthewholelinguistic,poetic,culturalexperienceofthe work in totality. The above mentioned list is only a guideline. Each analyst will discovermorequestions;addnewanswers,thusaddingvaluetothetext. SalmanRushdie MrRushdieneedsnointroductionintheliterarycircleandhealsooftenmakesnews in the non literary circle. This paper analyses two of his novels Shame and Moor’s Last Sigh but without mention of Midnight’s Children Rushdie’s work sounds incomplete. In 1980 arrived Midnight’s Children and it changed the scenario of IndianWritingInEnglish.HewroteanovelwhichwasanIndianperspectiveonthe end of colonial rule. He combined epic, fable, national events, family saga, advertising,films,myth,wit,andhumourandwroteadazzlingnovel.Thegreatest StylisticfeatureofthenovelwasthatinsteadofadoptingIndiatofittheprevailing English idiom and style, Rushdie adopted English to fit India. First time an Indian English Novel appeared without footnotes, glossaries, explanations sounding confidentinindianizingthelanguageofEnglish.HeusedHindi/Urduwordswithout italicsexhibitinggreatprideinmulticulturalismofthesubcontinent. Midnight’sChildren had a great impact on Indian English novels in more than one way.FirstlyaremarkablenovelwaswritteninIndianWritinginEnglish,secondly thewriterbeinganexpatriatewasverycomfortablecallinghimselfIndian,thirdly, HewroteonIndiainacompletelynewapproachandfourthlynovelreceivedacclaim internationally. 167 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Rushdie has written eight novels so far but Midnight’sChildrenremains his most astounding work. The reason for this is because it was also his whole hearted endeavour to quench his thirst to establish and assert his Indian self. Rushdie left BombayforfurthereducationtoEnglandandhisparentsshiftedtoPakistanselling their house in Bombay, against Rushdie’s wishes. He felt a deep sense of rootlessness.This Bombay boy needed back his sense of belonging with India. As RushdiewritesinJosephAntonabouthimself: HeneededtomakeanactofreclamationoftheIndianidentityhe had lost, or felt he was in danger of losing. The self was both its originanditsjourney.(p54).6 His novels are a part of postmodernist history today. Fictional writing can now belong to pre or post Rushdie ambience not only in Indian Writing in English but alsoincontemporaryworldliterature.Heisalsoconsideredanimportantexponent of postcolonial literature through his work. His style is a combination of various postmodernist devices like magic realism, ekphrasis, palimpsest and postcolonial literature’s pre‐occupation with ‘identity’, ‘roots’ and as ‘co‐owners’ of the English language. A phrase used by Rushdie theEmpirewritesback7is veryconspicuous in hislanguageandtheme. RushdieisaveryspecialcaseaspointedbyChristopherReinfandt,whoenjoysthat statusofone ofthecosmopolitanchampions of westernpostmodernismononehand and non western postcolonial writer on the other hand.8 Postcolonial and postmodernists writings are not opposed to each other but they have mutual concernsbecausetheybothdeconstructthegreatnarrativesofthemodernculture of the west. While postmodern theory dismantles Universalist models of signification,thepostcolonialtheoryregretsEuro‐centricdiscourse. Rushdie’snovelsarepalimpsestwithmanylayersofmeaning,blendinggenresand theories. They are not only multi‐layered but also multi dimensional rejecting singularity.InImaginaryHomeland9assertsthatimmigranthasadualadvantageof knowingtwonations‐ the one inwhichhe has migratedfrom and inwhich hehas migratedto.And,secondlydistancingfromhomelandgivestheimmigrantsaclearer perspectiveandnewanglestounderstandhishomeland.ItisreportedwhenMartin Amis,oneofthemostbrilliantcontemporarynativeBritishnovelistswasonceasked whatitwasthatRushdiehadandhedidnot,hehadpointedlyanswered: India.ItwasthisIndiarepresentedinitsmajorlanguageHindi‐Urdu which Rushdie seemed to want to interpolate into his English as a strategyforconqueringit,ratherasaTrojanHorse.(Amis,TheNew York)10 StylisticAnalysisofShame Shame was published a year after Midnight’s Children and the two narratives are radically different from each other. Yet they have certain similarities in terms of major themes and construction. Rushdie has used postmodernist and postcolonial stylisticdevicetoportraypoliticalallegoryofPakistan. 168 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 1. ToexposetheculturalabsurdityofPakistanin20thcentury,Rushdieusesfairy‐ tale analogy where political allegory is very lucid. His narrator elucidates the Metafiction of the novel. Patricia Waugh has pointed out Metafiction lays the linguistic basis of the alternative worlds constructed in literary fictions (Waugh 100)11.ThenarratorofShamecreatesalinguisticworldveryovertlytryingtobe covertabouttheidentityofthecountryheistalkingabout.Thetrickynarrator reveals ever thing in a thinly veiled manner that is supposed to be censored depicting the repressive regime. This makes the novel a very good read. Sometimestheseauthorialvoicesareusedasareminderofthefictionalityofthe text whenever too much political similarity takes over. They are also used to justify the various meanderings of the author from the story‐ line. There is a deliberateconfusioncreatedbytheauthorbythinningthelinesofdemarcation betweenhimselfandthecommentator.Rushdie’snarrativestyleusesauthorial intrusiontocommentonspecificissuesorcharactersandatoncealsowarning thereaderstonotformopinionorpassjudgements.AsRushdieputsit, Sometimestheauthoristhewriterofthestory,sometimesheislike the reader of the story and I thought he was quite valuable in producingshading(Rushdie)12. ThenarratorpersonavoicesRushdie’sopinionandcontrolsthenarrationwhich isnotinchronologicalorder,jugglingbetweenpast,present,fictionandreality. ThenarrativestrategysometimesremindsthereaderofStern’sTristamShandy. The narrator confesses, warns, reveals and sometimes argues with the reader thusmakingthenovelanenjoyableread. 2. Rushdie uses gossip and rumours as a style which enhances his Indian story tellingtraditionwhichsubvertstheofficiousnessofhistoryandalsosubvertsthe formalstatusoflanguage.Streetpanwalas,thewomenofthehouseareahuge knowledgebankofalternateHistory.Charactersarepresentedbasedongossips likeofShakilsisters,incidentslikeZenobia’sdisappearanceorBabur’sdeathare informedthroughrumoursandgossip.Acountrywherecensorshipistheorder oftheday,rumourandgossipsdepictreality. 3. Shame foregrounds in an allegorical stylistical frame the corruption, authoritarian and repressive policies. The Third world writers practise their ownpostmodernformulaasenumeratedbyTimothyBrenan,humorousparodies ofthecurrentandidentifiablepoliticalvillainsisanimportantcharacteristicofthe Third World practicener of postmodernism.(Brenan 141‐142)13. The narrator of Shame exposes the suppressive strategies of nation building. The source of instability is fore‐ grounded in the novel through the metaphors of translation andpalimpsest. ......settling down on a partition land, forming a palimpsest on the past.Apalimpsestobscureswhatliesbeneath.TobuildPakistanit was necessary to cover up Indian history, to deny that Indian centuries lay just beneath the surface of Pakistan standard time. Thepastwasrewritten,therewasnothingelsetobedone.(87) 169 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ InthelightofPakistanipoliticsofnationbuilding,alsoentailsrewritingthepast sensorthepresentthereality.Rushdieinterweavesthissuccessfullythroughthe portrayalofpoliticianslikeIskandarHarappa,militaryleaderRazaHaiderand how the religion governs their messy affair, thus controlling the fate of the nation. 4. Rushdie uses parody and satire to intensify his narrative style. In the age of postmodernismparodyhasanimportantroletoplay.Itisnotmereimitationto induce fun, but it has expanded itself as a form to become the critic of the society. This expands the interpretation of Shame. In the novel verbal parody often incurs laughter and at the same time thought provoking. Raza Haider’s dark circles, behaviour of contemporary top brass officials, virgin iron pants Arjumand Harappa (parodied as Benazir Bhutto, Bilquis and her father (parodiedtheworldcinematicmotive)areafewexamples.Rushdiepresentsthe Pakistani society in a very effective satirical style. Bribery, development of Karachi’s“defencecolony”,votemanipulationisalldepictedthroughsatire.An immoralcharacterlesspersonlikeIskyHarappabecomesanationalleader.The author asks rhetorically “didanymansacrificemoreforhispeople?Hegaveup cock fights, bear fights, snake and mongoose duels, plus disco dancing, where he hadwatchedspecialcompilationsofthejuiciestbitsfromin‐comingforeignfilms. (125) RazaHaiderraisesthemoraleofthearmybyloosingwrestlingmatchesagainst them hilariously depicts the immaturity of the Pakistani Army. Public censorship in society is monitored via spies by the government, the system of Bariamma’sbigotryareafewotherexamplesofsatireusedasastylisticfeature onShame. 5. Another important stylistic feature of Shame is Rushdie’s mixing of reality, fantasyandthegrotesque.Hejugglesbetweenrealityandfantasy.Hebeginsthe novelinafantasticmodebymixingQandPakistanandthecharacterisationof theShakeelsisters.Thezenithofmagicrealismisdepictedwhenonesistergets pregnant; the other two also conceive and have the same symptoms. Magic realism is combined with grotesque in depicting Raza’s death in the hands of Shakeel’s sisters. Sufiya Zenobia and Omar Khayyam are the greatest stylistic achievementsofthenovel.Thislovestorycanbere‐interpretedasBeautyand the Beast fairytale motif and Rushdien style of postmodernist feminism. It subverts the Eurocentric fairytale with post colonial concerns. Sufiya characteristic in an exaggerated fantastic mode is used to depict the shameful deedsthesocietyenforcesonitspeople.Whensheisbornsheisexpectedtobe aboy,hermotherisembarrassedbyhergender.Shedevelopsbrainfeverand becomes retarded as if to take revenge from her parents for gender discrimination. She is married to an ugly, much older doctor. This is an exaggeration of the predicament of girls of that part of the world who are subjected to marry much older men. Rushdie uses a unique stylistic device to create Sufiya. He creates her like a collage from newspaper clipping ( p 115‐ 118). She is a sum of three newspaper incidents of honour killing, girl molestationandautoignitionoffireduetoShame.SufiyasymbolisestheShame 170 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ of her family, Islamic society, political condition which retards the growth of millionslikeher. Omarisanintelligent,brightmanwhoselfeducateshimselfandfinallybecomes adoctorbutfrombirthheisavictimofthesociety.Hisidentityisincomplete;he is never told about his father. He becomes a beast in Isky’s company but mellowsdownwhenhemarriesSufiya.Rushdiesubvertsthetalebyconverting theBeauty(Sufiya)intoBeast.ThisPostmoderniststyleisverythoughtproving andreadercentred. 6. Rushdie’sdepictionofwomeninShameenhanceshispostcolonialconcernsfor the marginalised and the suppressed. Though the narrator claims it is a masculine story the women take the centre stage. Women cannot be ignored whenastoryiswrittenaboutthesociety.Rushdie’stalesunfoldstheirsagahow each one even in a privileged class is exploited. Shakeel sisters are victim of their father’s domination who does not even educate them and gives them no exposure.Bilqusisthrownin’forestofnewrelatives‘whereshealwaysremains amohajirforthem.Sheismadetofeelashamedofproducingagirlchild.Naveed isvictimofherhusbandwhosubjectshertohavetwenty‐sevenchildrensince precautionisagainstIslam,whofinallykillsherself.RaniHarrappaistheworst victim in the hands of her husband and Arjumand Harrapa though least exploited is made to feel conscious of her female identity and made to believe thattobesuccessfuloneneedstobeaman. 7. InShamelikeinallRushdiannovelsthereadercomesacrossleitmotif,symbols, irony and metaphors at every turn, enhancing the writing style. These form veryimportantstylisticfeature.Violenceisusedasaleitmotifwhichworksasa symbolisminthenovel.Throughoutthenovelviolenceisdescribedwithoutany hesitation. Murders, mysterious death bodies found, the three incidents that make Sufiya, Sufiya’s attacks are all described in a grotesque way. Pakistan literalisesviolence. HomeisusedasaleitmotifbyRushdie.AhousegivessecuritybutShakeelhouse “labyrinthine mansion” (13) symbolises loneliness, claustrophobia. Omar and laterBabarfeltthestiflingair. Purda is defined in Shame as garment of womanly honour. It is used very ingeniously in the novel depicting the plight of women in Islamic oppressive society. Purda is imposed on women and it also symbolises to hide their exploitation from the world. The most brilliant use of Purda is seen in Rani Harappa’sshawlsasameansofselfexpression.Hersuppressionfindsavoicein theartofembroideringtheeighteenshawls.Itisher“epitaphofwool”inwhich Rushdiebrilliantlyfuseshistoricalandliterarymotif. Sense of inversion is used symbolically at personal and historical level. This depiction is a postcolonical, postmodernist stylistic feature. Omar Khayyam from his birth to his end loses his ability to see reality. Probably this is what drawshimtoSufiya.Pakistanasanationisalsoavictimandoriginatorofthe inversionoflife.Itconstantlytriestoinverthistory. 171 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 8. Languageformsoneofthemostintegralstylisticfeaturesofthetext.Linguistic innovationisRushdie’sforte.ThoughthelanguageofShameisnotasdazzlingas Midnight’sChildren, still it has the Rushdian charm. Rushdie is describing and oppressivecountryofhisdislikeandthereforeresortstousingabusivelanguage as a stylistic feature to depict violence, angst, censorship, thus subverting the officiousnessofthelanguage. He uses Urdu words creating an Urdu speaking environment in English. For exampleZennana,maidan,patang,Bazaar,Takalluf,Loo,Mohajir,Dhobi,etc. Urdu words are clubbed with English words, for example fatherji, lothajug, napaakunclean. Rushdie generates onomatopia effects with typically Hindi Urdu sounds. For exampleTharaap‐tharaap,Fatakh,TobahTobah,ekdumfatafat. Hejoinswordstoformacomicpolysyllablesandasanattentionseekingdevice. Forexampledoyouthinkso,whichwhichwhich,longago,plaintosee. Rushdie parodies many Urdu words such as “Ansukiwadi” ( valley of tears), “Khasi ki rani” ( queen of cough), “Raddi, bekar, phisaddi” ( Trash, useless, laggard) TheoxymoronicphrasesarebroughttostylisticeffectsbyRushdie.Forexample doomedglory,imperiousgloominess,bittersweet,deliciouswickedness,impotence ofpower. ProverbsareusedbytheauthorwhicharedirectHindiUrdutranslationswhich areforexampleabetrayalofsalt(NamakHarami),noseintheair(Naakuche). Some Urdu phrases are used in English translation i.e. what to tell you? ( Kya bataonaapko?) Rushdie has coined some phrases disregarding the grammatical rules for example unimportantJamshed,newlyorphanedgirls,actressymanner,unclothed bychange,mothnibbledlandofgod. Rushdie varies the sentence length to suit his style of writing in a very distinctive manner. He writes very long subordinated sentences disregarding conventionalmannerandwhenthereaderisexasperatedwiththeinformation, readingthelongsentence,averyshortsentencefollowsit.Thelongestsentence RushdieusesinthenovelisthedescriptionofRaniHarappa’sshawls(191‐195). ParenthesisisanotherstylisticfeatureoftenusedbyRushdietogivehintsabout future,extrainformation,gossipenhancingtheoralnarratology. StylisticAnalysisofMoor’sLastSigh Moor’s Last Sigh is Rushdie’s first novel after fatwa. It is another postcolonial, postmoderniststyleofRushdie’stextsetmostlyinBombay.Thenovelextendsthe chronologyofMidnight’sChildrentoencompassmorerecenthistoricaleventsandat 172 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thesametimetracesbackintimethepoliticaleventofthetwentiethcenturyIndia withearlierworld‐historicalmoments‐theSpanishre‐conquestofGranadain1492, The expulsion of Jews and Moor from Catholic Spain in the fifteenth century, the founding of the spice trade between Europe and India the Portuguese colonial expansion in the fifteenth century. This novel is a darker, more pessimistic representation of Indian notion as compared to Midnight’s Children which was writtenfifteenyearsago. 1. The novel presents a re‐ imagined history of India as the author traces the protagonist’sdescendents.Bydoingsohebringstolightthepalimpsestnature ofIndianhistory. Christians, Portuguese and Jews; Chinese tiles promoting godless views; pushy ladies, skirts‐not‐saris, Spanish Shenanigans, Moorish crown...can this really be India?(87) Rushdie’s protagonist is belongs to Portuguese‐ Catholic and Spanish Jewish community. Moor belongs to a microscopic minority and by establishing his hybridism;Rushdieinhisownstylerefutessingularity. 2. WhileMidnight’sChildrencelebratesBombay’ssecularidealsofIndiannation,in Moor’s Last Sigh there is a shift in author‘s stance in India’s secular homogeneoussociety.HeisdisillusionedbecauseBombayburnsunderthefire of fundamentalism. Those who hated India, those who sought to ruin it, would need to ruin Bombay (351).What happened in Bombay is compared to Nasrid dynastyinGranada.HischaracterizationofRamanFieldinginspiredbythereal lifecharacterofBalThackeray,whodistortsthecosmopolitanismofBombayto propagateregionalismandreligiousfundamentalism.Rushdie’spre‐occupation ofwritingagainstdictatorshippost‐fatwahasbecomemoredetermined.People join Fielding’s Mumbai Axis for different reason and he exploits them. In Midnight’sChildrenhe blames Indira Gandhi for suppressing the people but in thisnovelheblamesthepeopleforgettingexploitedbypeoplelikeFeilding.We havechoppedawayourlegs,weengineeredourownfall.(372) 3. Rushdie uses palimpsest as another stylistic device in a brilliant manner. Palimpsest works as a novelistic device and as a textual strategy at various levelsinthenovel.India’snationalhistoryisPalimpsest.Aryan,Moguls;British culturehasconstructedthepalimpsestmodernIndia.Theideaofthesemultiple presencescontributesinIndiannationalidentity. Heusespalimpsesttodepictthevariouslayerofcorruption.BehindAbraham’s face there are other hidden faces of underworld, corruption, arms and drug dealing.Thecityitself,perhapsthewholecountry,wasapalimpsest,underworld beneath over world, black market beneath white... (184).Rushdie show in the novel that criminalization exists in every layer of the society. It has gripped Bombayfilmindustry.Mafiarulesartaswell.Aurorausesliteralpalimpsestin herpaintingswhichsymbolisesthespiritoftheage.Moortakesalongjourney toSpaininsearchofhismother’spaintinganddiscoversthepalimpsestreality of his father who was behind his mother’s death. This fitted very well in the 173 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ textureofthenovelsthemeoflayeredreality.Themotifofpalimpsestisusedto create Uma Saraswati’s character. Moor was unable to see the layer of her realityandevilintensions. 4. Rushdie subverts the portrayal of mother India. Subdued, traditional, religious mother dedicated to husband and her children is a big idea in India. This concept was further popularized the Hindi movie Mother India. Rushdie subverts this concept through the characterization of Moor’s mother, Aurora. RushdieleadsthereadertocomparetheconceptofmotherinthemovieMother IndiatoAurora.TheyearIwasborn,MehboobProduction’sallconqueringmovie Mother India‐three years in the.....hit the nation. (137) Rushdie uses a great stylistictooltodrawthecomparisonandsystematicallybreakingtheimage.He evenarrangesafictionalmeetingbetweentheactorsofthemovieandAurora. AurorademandedherhusbandtoconverttoChristianitytomarryherwhileitis usually other way round. Conventional mother India is a dedicated wife while Aurorapaysbackherhusband’sinfidelitybyhavingaffairsherself.Oneofthem perhaps is with Nehru (176‐17). She drinks alcohol and becomes abusive. She treatsMirandaandLambajanlikepetsandenjoysflirtingwiththem.Shenever loved her children asMoor says in the inimitable Rushdie Style that she loved herchildrenlessperhapsshecreatedthemwithAbraham.Shenamedherkids frivolouslyoncartooncharacterswhileIndianmotherslookfornamesofgods. She only breast feeds Moor because he had abnormalities. This has Freudian Implication that Rushdie has handled cleverly. She tells the Nargis, the Mother India star who in real life married her reel life son:Whatsexylivesyoumovie peopleleadofy:tomarryyourownsons,wowie.(137).HerpaintingsofMooralso revealhersexualimpulse,Oedipuscomplex.Inoneofthethreemoorpaintings the one in which she portray herself as Desdemona and her son as Othello, is sexuallyquiteexplicit. 5. Rushdie accommodates multiple devices in his narrative structure. Myth, fairy tale, family legends, Hindu religious allusion, cartoon, pop culture, surreal fantastic, literary fantasy, allusion to Indian history, tales of Moor and Jews of Spain,artisticdream‐likevisionareallbeautifullywoveninnarratingtheMoor’s tale.Hisuseofmythexpandsthethemeandscopeofthenovel.Thereissome beautiful example of revelations, like the blue Chinese tiles in the synagogue whichunfoldspasttoFloryandtoAbrahamisoneoftheexamplesofRushdie’s marvellous art. By including multiple stories, multiple styles integrating multiplecatogories,hesuggestthatthereisnoonesingleorordinarystorybut thereareonlystoriesandstylespolishedandfascinatedbymanyre‐telling(11). Rushdie combines cinematic style of Hindi movies. Action unfolds like a suspensemovie.RealityofUmaSaraswatiandAbrahamisbroughttolightina dramaticsuspensemanner.Rushdierevealsmysteryafter,unveilingthehidden facesofthecharacter.VascoMirandacomesacrossasacomicminorcharacter butintheendturnsoutasthemainvillain.ThismultiplicityofstyleinMoor’s LastSighisthemoststrikingstylisticfeature. 174 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 6. Rushdie with a whole new weapon in his linguistic arsenal he plays a cultural gamemakinghisbookanenergetic,lyricalandenjoyableread.Hisfirstperson narrativeprovideshimavastscopeforlinguisticinnovation. Hetriestocreateanoralspeecheffectbyleavingthewordsincomplete.i.e(you mustjudgeforyourselveswhetherAbraham wasapotentfelloworI’m).(139)His distinctive style of using punctuation brings the oral effect i.e...... Ninemonths before I was born (175) or ....The hand you can only see clearly in your dreams (154). Rushdie uses very long subordinated sentences replete with information, thus breaking from the grammatical rules. He makes use of parenthesis very often. Heusesitforvariouspurposeslikepilingupextradetails,forjugglingbetween pastandfuture,forare‐cap.Healsousesittoremindthereaderthathisstoryis openended,it’stheirdiscretiontobelievehimornot. HeaddsacolloquialflavourtotheEnglishlanguage.Hisverbplayinthespeech of Epifinia, Belle and Aurora is a striking stylistic feature. The use verbs like killofy,maddof,thinkofy,tiltoed He uses vernacular word and phrases like mirch masala, khallas, lafanga, badmash He is very innovative in creating Hindi phrases with English suffix i.e. Bombay Duckedme,tikkakababed He quips at the Hindi /Urdu pronunciation of Englishi.ePhunforfun,polisfor police He uses non sensical back‐up words like pudding‐shudding, art‐shart, ladies‐ ledastocreatetheIndianEnglisheffect. Headdshyphenstocreateadistinctiveoraleffectforexampleshock‐but‐not‐so‐ shocked,by‐the‐way‐excuse‐me SometimeshewritesphraseswithoutanypunctuationlikeNehruGandhiJinnah Patel,Richmanpoor‐manbeggarmanthief He creates a combination of Hindi/Urdu words i.e. Super mazza, respectful pranam,Insaansoup Rushdie’s wordplay makes this novel linguistically exciting. He coined innovativephraseslikemaddermoysel,parentalabsolutism,virginally‐quacking, triumphalism,pepper‐love Very few writers nationally or internationally match his sense of humour .He calls the manager of Kerala spice company Mr. Elaichipillia, Mr. V.S Mirchandalchini and Mr. Tejpattam. He says about Lady Mountbatten If Dickie was the roy then my dear she was certainly the Vice (176). Rushdie handles serioussituationswithhumour.Hehilariouslyparodiesvariousnurseryrhymes tosuithischaracterisationandsituationandmakingastatementofpostcolonial 175 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ take on the colonial language. BobyShaftogonetosee(11),Rowrowrowyour boat(11),IamthegrandoldDuke(165),ABCD(179)areparodied. He quotes kathak tukda (Tat,tat ta deegay21),an Indian classical dance to enhance his writing. Rushdie quotes Gandhiji’s prayer RaghupatiRaghav...(53) Without any explanation asserting hispostcolonial self. At every few para the readerdiscoversdazzlinglinguisticinnovation.AmongallRushdie’snovelsafter Midnight’sChildren,Moor’sLastsighremainsthemostbrilliantlinguistically. Conclusion The stylistic approach of a literary text should explain the meaning of the text. Matter and manner both merge to form the text as a whole. The language, theme, genre, narratology, characterization and every other choice made by the author formsthestylisticfeatureofaliterarytext.Thispaperhasbrieflytriedtoanalysis ShameandMoor’sLastSigh. With this analysis we can conclude that Rushdie’s novels have postcolonial, postmodernist style where combinations of style are at work i.e. ancient/modern, fact/fiction, eastern/western, and realistic/ fantastic. The hybrid English which he innovatesestablishesastylethatcompelsthereadertonoticethecolonialwriterathisbest. AlongwiththepostcolonialconcernRushdiereducestheothernessthatEnglishcarrieswith itsinceitsadvent. RushdielovestheIndianstorytellingtraditionandusesitnotonlyinthetwonovels analysedinthispaperbutinallhisnovels.HislatestbookJosephAntonwhichisa memoirusesthesimilarstyle.Thisgivesthenarratorvastscopefornarration.He usesmythsandmythologiestoexpandhisstyle.Hereimaginessometimessubverts history,mythstocreatesomethingnew.InhislastnovelEnchantressofFlorencehe triestobringtogetherMogulIndiaandsixteenthcenturyFlorencetogether. Allhisworksarecritiqueofanykindoffascismorfundamentalideas.Heusessatire and humour to handle many serious personal and historical issues. His wit and humourcanonlybecomparedtoG.VDessani’sAllaboutH.Hatter. Rushdie’sloveforBombay(hehaswrittenthreenovelsbasedonBombay)extends toHindifilmindustry.Oftenallusionsaremadeofthemoviesandthemoviestars. Heconsidersitbeasymbolofsecularismandsubversion.Healsofeelsthemovies areagreatsourceofpreservinghistoryandsymbolizesimaginativefreedomlikethe literature. Rushdie uses cinematic technique of flashback, long shots, close‐ups, voiceovertoenrichhisnovel. GreateststylisticdeviceRushdiehashisIndianyarn.Rushdie’sattitudetowardshis rootsalsosetshimapartfromwriterslikeJhumpaLahiriandV.SNaipaul. Naipaul calls Indian paintings and architecture broken and impure while Rushdie perceives it as palimpsest and novel. Naipaul writes in his book India:AWounded civilization14, Indiablindly swallowsitspast(116) He feels, Indianomorepossesses IndianhistorythenitpossessesIndianArt(117).NaipaulfeelsIndiawasalandwhere 176 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ millionmutineershadcausedagreatlossofitspastandadisillusionedfuturestares atit.SalmanRushdiefeelsthatIndiaisanenigmawithenergy,duetoinvasionifit lostsomethingitgainedsomething.Ithasthusattainedmultiplicity.Rushdiewrites, Iagreewithmyselvestocallallofthem‘me’.Thisisthebestwayto grasptheideaofIndia(179)15. He believes India is the most innovative national philosophy to have emerged in post‐independenceperiod. Rushdie is sometimes accused of alluring the west by singling the exotic Indian reality in his writing on India. Firstly, Rushdie has a very large number of Indian audience in his mind for whom he writes. The kind of witty jokes he targets on corrupt politicians, allusions like Mogamboishvillian, colloquial rhymes like Suche sarucheandnames like Mr Ellaichipilli can only be enjoyed by Indian audiences. Secondly, India by nature is exotic. From river to stone everything has a myth attachedtoit.Chutney,korma,pickleisallapartofIndianreality,ifthewestfindsit exotic,anditisuptotheirdiscretion. RushdietoocriticisesIndiabutwithunderstanding.Ifhesoundsdisgustedwiththe corruption and the system, he at the same time writes for the marginalised. He reactstoeveryIndiancalamitybeitsocial,politicalorreligious.Heconfessesinan interview,ifItakeprideinIndia’sstrengththenIndia’ssinsmustbemineaswell16 Rushdie’s hybrid, multiple, palimpsest style of writing is like hybrid, multiple, palimpsest nation called India whom he feeds on for stories. He derives his style from the nature of the nation, the horn of plenty, the enigma called India. Thus Stylisticsasadiscourseincludessocio–culturalhistory,literarytradition,linguistic effect.Alltheseaspectsareanalysedtointerpretthemeaning.Stylisticsconfirmsthe belief that the literatures is not form alone but at the same time a set of values arising out of the context. Salman Rushdie’s work is the best demonstration of contemporarynotionofstylistics. NotesandReferences 1. Roland Barthes. Style and its Image in Literary Style‐A symposium (ed) Chatman,OUP,1971,P36. 2. MHAbrahams.AGlossaryofLiteraryterms.PrismIndiaEdition6th,274. 3. PeterVerdok‐Stylistics.OUP,1980,6. 4. Quoted from Suresh Kumar‐Stylistics and the Language Teaching. NewDelhi:KalingaPublications,2003,13. 5. M.Riffateres.StylisticContext.London:Methmen,1960,207‐18. 6. SalmanRushdie.JosephAnton.London:JonathanCape,2012,54. 7. EmpireStrikesBackisphraseoriginallyusedbyRushdie,ashewaspunning on’EmpireStrikesBack’,ThefamousAmericanT.Vshow. http://130.104.156.162/bulletin/c2empire.html 177 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ 8. Christopher Reinfandt.What’s the use of stories that Aren’t Even True:Salman Rushdie as a text case for literature and Literary Studies Today. Literature in Wissenchaftandunterrricht31.(1998):75 http://wissenchaft/unterricht/English/webpage/LiteraryStudies1998.html 9. Salman Rushdie. Imaginary Homeland‐Essays and Criticism (1981‐ 91).London:Granta,Books,1992.22 10. Ian Hamilton. The First Life of Salman Rushdie. The New Yorker, 25 December1995. 11. PatricaWaugh.Metafication.London:Rutledge1984,100. 12. Salman Rushdie. Novelist in Interview. Mark Currie(Ed).London: Longman, 1995,81. 13. Brenan Timothy.Salman Rushdie and the Third world.London:Macmillean,1989,141‐142. 14. V.SNaipaul.AWoundedCivilization.London:Picador,2002,116. 15. Salman Rushdie. Step Across the line. Collected Non‐fiction 1992‐ 2002.London:Vintage,2002,179. 16. Interviewin‘TheGuardian’ (www.books.guardian.co.uk/departments) 178 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ SecularismforourTimes:ExploringtheFissuresofClassandReligionin MeherPestonji’sPervez. AnitaBalakrishnan AssociateProfessorofEnglish QueenMary’sCollege,Chennai. Traditionallyassociatedwiththeprivatizationofreligionandtheseparation of the state and the church, secularism has been reinvented in the modern Indian nation. One of the primary strands of the this ideology has been Nehruvian secularism which was strongly influenced by western genealogies. In a country permeatedbyreligiositysuchasIndia,thecompleteseparationofthepoliticaland religious spheres, espoused by Nehru, has not been feasible. The ideal of a plural anddiversenationmarkedbyitspeacefulcoexistenceandcommunalharmonyhas proved to be untenable. The problems caused by the elisions and ambiguities of Nehruvian secularism have created the conditions necessary for a thorough overhaulofhisideas.Oneofthemajordirectionsthischangehastakenhasbeenthe emphasisonthereligiouswayoflifepositedbyGandhiasaroutetowardsamore tolerantsociety.ThevarioustheoreticalperspectivesonsecularisminIndiavacillate betweenthesetwopolesinordertoredefinesecularismforourtimes. Donald Smith, one of the earliest scholars of secularism in India provides a tripartite structure for the discourse of constitutional secularism. He states that in theliberaldemocratictradition,secularismdoesnotmerelyrefertotheprincipleof separation of state and religion but has to be understood in terms of three interrelatedcomponents:freedomofreligion,equalityofcitizenshipandneutrality towards all religions in that it seeks not to be identified with a particular religion, nor seeks to promote or interfere with religion. Smith acknowledges that such a complete separation of state and religion has not been perfectly achieved in any country. PriyaKumar,believesthatSmith’sprincipleofneutralityraisessomeissues “since India is not a theocratic state….it can also be viewed as having many anomalies or “problems”‐ the most obvious of which is the continued existence of separatepersonallawsfordifferentreligions‐whenviewedinthelightofSmith’s formulation”(21). Kumar believes that a reformulated notion of the principle of neutrality could be useful for ensuring the reasonable coexistence of disparate religiousgroups.Shesuggeststhat“wereturntoNehru’snotionofasecularstate and consider its continued significance for present‐day India, despite its current disreputewithanumberofscholars”(21). In contrast, Gandhi’s views on secularism have resonated strongly in the workofmanyintellectuals.The‘alternativemodernity’thatGandhistrivedforwas basedonaprofoundlyreligiousviewoftheworld.Hebelievedthatareturntotrue religionwasabsolutelynecessaryandthatitsvaluecanbeseenwhenitiscompared to the ills of modern civilization. Neelam Srivastava refers to Gandhi’s stance as ‘religious secularism’ which underscored the value of tolerance on the part of the 179 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ majority,theHindu’stowardstheminoritycommunities.Hesuggestedanovelway to deal with sectarian violence, through satyagraha or passive resistance. Thus Gandhi does away with the notion of right attached to tolerance and brings in the notionofdutyfromareligiousperspective,thatofdoingone’sdutybyone’sbrother. SrivastavaremarksthatGandhifashionsaninclusiveandpluralisticviewofIndian society from a non‐secular perspective, if only to remind ourselves that religion is notdogmaticbutcapableofdiversepositions. OneofthemostvociferouscriticsofNehruviansecularismisT.NMadanwho presentsabriefviewofthechallengesfacedbysecularismintheIndiancontext.To himmodernitymeanspeopleshouldhavemaximumfreedomandtheyshouldhave arangeofoptionstochoosefromespeciallyregardingtheirownlifestyle.Inshort, oneshouldhavecompletecommandorresponsibilityoveroneself,whichisoneof the important connotations in the process of secularization. To Madan it is sheer moralarroganceonthepartofminoritiestopreachsecularismtothemajorityand also political folly, because the political leaders fail to recognize the importance of religion,whichgivesthemtheidentityintheirsociallifeandgivesmeaningtotheir life. He feels secularism is inappropriate to Indian culture because this culture includesthesecularbeliefsofallthereligionsanditcannotbeprivatized,becauseit is a way oflife. Demands from the western educated elite to remove religion from the public sphere since it is irrational and to replace it with modern, rational, scientifictemperinducestheconflictbetweenthescientificsecularismandreligion. This sparks off violence between various religious groups leading to the rise of fundamentalismandfanaticism.Secularismhasnotfulfilleditsindentedrole;rather achieved the opposite. Instead of marginalizing religion, it allows the religion to permeateeverysphereoflife.Madanisconcernedabouttheincreasingcommunal violence in recent times. The rise of fundamentalism, fanaticism and revivalism of Hinduism is not due to religious zealots alone but also due to staunch secularists who strongly advocate the wall of separation and disregard the very presence of religioninhumanlifeandsociety.TotacklethisproblemMadanputsforwardtwo remedies: one is through tolerance which is advocated by all the religions in the south Asian region, the other is to reformulate the definition of secularism as appropriatetotheneedsofIndiansociety,thusdelinkingitfromitsWesternroots. AshishNandy,whocallshimselfananti–secularist,categorizesreligioninto ‘religionasanideology’and‘religionasafaith’.ForNandy,faithmeansreligionas“A wayoflife,atraditionthatisdefinitionallynonmonolithicandoperationallyplural” and by ideology he means religion as a subnational, national or cross‐national identifierofpopulationcontestingfororprotectingnonreligioususuallypoliticalor socio economical interests (322). The modern state prefers religion as ideology rather than religion as faith which means domination of science and preference to scientificmanagementoverreligion.Thepublicarenahasbecomeacontestedspace forscienceandreligion.Heattachestwomeaningstothewordsecularism,oneisthe commondefinitiongiveninthedictionarythatisthestrictseparationofchurchand the state and another one in India is equal respect for all religions. He draws our attentiontothefactthatGeorgeJacobHolyoakewhocoinedthewordsecularismin 1850 advocated a secularism accommodative of religion and whereas his contemporary Joseph Bradlaugh’s secularism rejected religion and embraced 180 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ science.HeisconvincedwiththefactthoughthedominantIndianmiddleclasshails scientific secularism, the majority of Indian people follow the accommodative meaning. He analyses the reason for the failure of old ideology of secularism in India.Hebelievesthatwhenthepowereliteofthesocietydonotbelieveinsecular politics,whenthelinebetweenthepublicandtheprivatefadesaway,religiongains entry through the backdoor. This explains the communalization of politics, reservations based on religion, caste, Babri Masjid riots, mobilization of religious supporters,andformationofreligioussupportgroups.NandyagreeswithMadan’s view that the increase in religious fundamentalism and fanaticism is due to the dissociation of religion from public life. He remarks that for many Indians today, secularism comes as a package which is inclusive of development, science and nationalsecurity.Modernistelitesinthemodernnationstatetendtolookatreligion and all forms of ethnicity as a hurdle to the development of the nation and they believe religion poses danger to the advancement of technology and political management.Heillustrateshispointbydrawingananalogybetweenthissituation andcolonialrule.Hesays, The new nation –states in many societies tend to look at religion and ethnicityinthewaythenineteenthcenturycolonialpowerslookedatdistant culturesthatcameundertheirdomination–atbestas‘things’tobestudied, engineered, ghettoized, museumized or preserved in reservations, at worst, as inferior cultures opposed to the principles of modern living and inconsistentwiththegameofmodernpolitics,scienceanddevelopmentand thereforedeservedlyfacingextinction.Nowonderthatthepoliticalcultures ofSouthAsiabegantoproduceaplethoraofofficialsocialscientistswhoare the perfect analogies of the colonial anthropologists who once studied the ‘Hindoos’andthe‘Mohammedans’onbehalfoftheirkingandcountry.(342). Heusestheterm‘internalcolonialism’forthisstateofmind.Anystatelinked internalcolonialismisdoomedtoinciteviolence.HecallsGandhiandhimselfasanti – secularists in the sense, if the proper scientific meaning of the term is applied. BecauseforNandy“toaccepttheideologyofsecularismistoaccepttheideologiesof progressandmodernityasnewjustificationsofdominationandtheuseofviolence tosustaintheseideologiesasthenewopiatesofmasses”(343). NotedanthropologistStanleyTambiah,raisesobjectionstoNandy’spointof view. He questions Nandy’s allegationsthat planners and investigators of religious and ethnic violence are representatives of bureaucratic rationality. He points out thatoneoftheweaknessesofNandy’sessayisthathehasfailedtogivereasonsfor the communal leaders ‘whole hearted commitment to revive religious fanaticism. Further,TambiahdoesnotagreewithNandy’sdistinctionbetweenreligionasfaith practiced by most non modern Indians and religion as ideology as practiced by westernizedmiddleclassesandelitebureaucrats.Hesaysthepointofdepartureis notbetweenreligionasfaithandreligionasideologybutthe“non‐problematicease of transition from every day coexistence to mobilize violence, through the stimulationprovidedbymassmediapropagandistmessages,appealingtocollective identity and simultaneously to expectations of hope and identity formation and 181 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ anxieties or fear about an uncertain future, that we have to map and delineate”(444). HementionstwoareasofconsensusamongIndianintellectualswhetherthey support the removal of religion from the public or recognize that in India religion permeatesallwalksoflife.ButbothsidesagreethattraditionalHinduismpracticed inIndiaispluralistandtoday’sHindunationalism“isadistortionandperversionof Hinduism because it has politicized religion, mobilizing and exploiting religion instrumentally for political ends, thereby making it a divisive force providing no meetinggroundforfollowersofdifferentfaiths”(445).Heidentifiesmanyreasons forthepresent‐daycrisisofsecularism,butforemostistheambiguousnatureofthe IndianconstitutionandtheNehruvianviewofstateneutralitytowardsallreligions. Bothhavefailedtogivedirectionstothestateonhowtoimplementthisneutrality, whendisputesamongdifferentreligiousgrouparise. This theoretical exposition focuses on just a few of the perspectives on secularisminpostcolonialIndia.Ihopetoconsiderthoseaspectsofsecularismthat willunderscorethepossibilityofpeacefulcoexistenceandethicalconducttowards thereligiousandsocial‘other’.NeelamSrivastavabelievesthat“religiosityhasbeen actively discounted in the construction of a secular ethical subject in the contemporary polity” (26). According to Tabish Khair this is the reason for the associationbetweenthesecularIndiansubjectandtheIndiannovelinEnglish,with theconsequentelisionofthesubalternpointofview.TheuseofanovelbyaParsi woman writer opens up a space for a dialogue with the subaltern worldview, allowing an exploration of the fissures in society and drawing attention to the fundamentalist agenda of Hindu nationalism and the terrifying consequences of communalviolence. The first novel of Parsi social activist, journalist and writer Meher Pestonji, Pervez (2003)traces the awakening to social consciousness of its protagonist, the eponymousPervez.Theauthor’ssocialcommitmentisverymuchinevidenceasshe explores the impact of such watershed events in recent Indian history such as the Babri Masjid demolition, the concomitant1992 riots in Mumbai and the riots in Godhra in Gujarat on the lives of ordinary people who are affected by them. Pestonji’sprimaryfocusinthenovelisonthepostBabrimasjidriotsinMumbaiin 1992 and the anarchy and suffering that they unleash among the underprivileged. ThecentralcharacterofthisnovelisPervez,ayoungParsiwomanwhogrewupin Bombay but moved to rural Goa after marrying a Goan singer. Her marriage falls apartbecauseofherhusband'sinfidelityandPervezreturnstoBombaytofigureout her life. In the process, she reconnects with Naina, her friend in Kalina who is a socialist. Through Naina, Sidharth (Naina's fiancé) and their network of friends, Pervez is compelled to understand Marxism, social activism, and religious fundamentalism through the lens of her own life experiences. As the political tensions around the Babri Masjid issue develop, Pervez begins to examine and experiencereligious,economic,culturalandpoliticaldifferences.Shenegotiateslife inamongthewealthy,successfulfriendsofherbrother,intheslumsofDharavi,and intheprogressiveuniversitysettingofKalina.Pervezdiscoversthehiddenrealities and hypocrisies in each setting and recognizes that communal riots are fueled by 182 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ more than differences of religious ideology. Essentially, Pervez is a novel of ideas whichchallengestheprevailingdefinitionsofsecularismandusestheprotagonistas avehicleforpoliticaldebate. Meher Pestonji uses her own experiences as a social worker and activist in Bombay,torecreatethecomplexitiesofpolitics,historyandsocietyinpostcolonial Indiainthe1990s.ThroughtheevolvingconsciousnessofPervez,Pestonjiisableto carryoutatrenchantcritiqueofthesupposedlyneutralParsicommunity,smugin theirupperclasssocialmilieuandunwillingtoengagewiththepowerfulforcesof communalismandfundamentalismunleashedinthecountryafterthedemolitionof the Babri Masjid. The author’s ire is also equally directed at those Indians who assuagetheirguiltwithsuperficialgesturesandablinkeredperspectiveoncurrent events. SensitizedtopovertybyherlifeasaworkingclasshousewifeinGoa,Pervez, onherreturntoBombayperceivestheaffluentlifestyleofherarchitectbrother,his fashion designer wife and their friends in a different light. She becomes acutely aware of the hypocrisies, complacency and condescension that enable them to overlookthestarkeconomicinequalitiesofIndianlifeinthe1990s.Pervezbecomes completely disillusioned with her superficial life in the plush environs of her brother’s antique and crystal –filled flat. She decides to move to the blue‐collar suburb of Kalina and pursue a master’s degree in psychology. In Kalina, she rekindles her close friendship with Naina, and through her social activist fiancé, Sidharthmeetsothersofhisgroup.Atfirst,Sidharthiscontemptuousofhersocial commitmentandherespousalofthecauseoftheunderprivileged,believingherto be a socialite ‘slumming’. Gradually, Pervez gets involved in the sensitization programsofthegroupinDharavi,aBombayslumandearnsherspursasatruly“de‐ classed”humanbeing. FromherdistantvantagepointinKalina,Pervezisabletoseeherformerlife fromanobjectiveperspective.Sheseeshersister‐in–law,Dhun,takerefugeinthe purportedneutralityoftheParsicommunity,tododgehersocialresponsibility.She parrots the Zoroastrian maxim of ‘Good words, good thoughts and good deeds’ to assert the superiority of her religion. Yet, when she is required to be charitable towards an indigent aunt, she retreats in horror. Meher Pestonji is equally censorious of her brother’s Hindu associates. She vilifies business such as Chawla andDesai,who,secureintheirwealthlookuponthesufferingsofslumdwellersasa spectator sport. Through these telling portraits, Pestonji reveals the dodges practiced under the guise of Nehruvian secularism by some Indians, even four decadesafterindependence. TheoperationofAshisNandy’s‘religionasideology’,religionasatoolused by the elite sections of society to protect political or socio‐economic interests, is seen in the communal divide within Dharavi and the ensuing violence after the demolitionoftheBabriMasjid.Pestonjiseemstohintthatitistheoperationofsuch politically motivated forces in India that is causing so much indefensible violence, mostly targeted at those who will not benefit in any way from this upheaval. The novel may be read as a forceful critique of such political movements that have 183 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ created divisions of class and religion where none existed previously. Pervez’s compassionandunconditionalempathyfortheeconomically‐disadvantagedvictims ofsuchcommunaltensionsfinallyearnhertherespectofSidharthasa‘de‐classed’ individual.ShebefriendsayoungMuslimboyMunawar,whowastobeinstrumental indeprivingherofherillusionslater. Perhaps the novel’s greatest strength lies in its narrativization of recent Indian history, thereby reconfiguring a certain event from a subaltern viewpoint. Subalternstudieshistorianshavehailedthese‘historiesfrombelow’thatchallenge themodulardepictionsofelitisthistories.Pestonjiusesajournalisticperspectiveto present a stark, realistic account of the Mumbai riots in 1992. Pervez becomes accidentallyinvolvedinthepost‐BabriMasjiddemolitionriots.ShegoestoDharavi tovisitMaggieAunty,anauntofherformerhusband,whomshehadrunintoona previousvisit.WhilesheisthereMaggie’sHinduneighbor’sailingwifedies.Despite the tension ridden atmosphere, the indomitable Catholic woman tries to make funeralarrangements.Atthisjuncture,amilitantMuslimmobthreatensMaggieand triestopreventthefuneralcortegeleaving.HiddeninMaggie’sloft,Pervezrealizes that Munawar is the leader of the mob. She courageously prevents him from torchingtheHinduhousebutistorturedbyhisvolteface.Hercourageinadversity isalsoseenwhenshesavesasmallchildseparatedfromhisparentsintheriot.She alsodisplaysgreatcourageinexposingaShivSenaterroristwhotriestoposeasa socialactivistforthetelevisioncameras.ThroughthesedepictionsPestonjishows thathypocrisyisnotthedomainofonlytheaffluent,butcutsacrossallreligionsand classes.Thenovelistthroughsuchnarrativestrategiesemphasizesherownsecular credentials. A significant narrative encoding underscores the dichotomies of class in contemporary India. Pestonji situates the riot within the Dharavi slum, though the repercussions were evident all over Mumbai. Through this strategy she imposes a geography of suffering over the city. The author also locates all the scenes of violence in Mumbai in Dharavi. This subtle encoding serves the purpose of emphasizing that it is the economically disadvantaged who bear the brunt of communal violence and who are often brainwashed into becoming its main perpetrators.Thedepictionsofthe1992riotsarefilteredthroughtheconsciousness ofPervez;hergrowingpoliticalawarenessbecomesthemajordevicepropellingthe narrativeforward.ThepronouncedclassdichotomyinIndiansocietyatthetimeof theriotservestounderscoreAshisNandy’scontentionthatthesplitbetweenthose who hail scientific secularism that distances itself from religion and those who supportasecularismthataccommodatesreligion,ispremisedonclassdifference. Thepeacemarchesthattakeplacealloverthecityaftertheriotsemphasize thecosmopolitanqualityofMumbai.Whensheseesherbrothermarchingalongside a worker “she felt convincedthat the battleagainst communal hatred transcended class.Anddemandedcoordinationbetweenclasses.Whatrolecouldsheplayinthat process?”(Pervez108)Aftermanysuchmarchesandpeaceinitiativescalmreturns toMumbai,butnotbeforesomethingvitalinitsessenceislostforever. 184 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Thenovelendswiththenarrativizationofanothercrucialhistoricalmoment in an epilogue, set 10 years later. On February 27, 2002, some Muslims, it was alleged,hadattackedandburntsomebogiesoftheSabarmatiExpressattheGodhra railway station in Gujarat. The train was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, the site of the Babri Masjid‐Ramjanmabhoomi dispute. This incident provokedwidespreadattacks,presentedasretaliatoryviolence,againstMuslimsin Gujarat.Pervezisnowaprofessorofpsychology,activelyinvolvedinsocialcauses. Sidharth, now a journalist, goes to Gujarat in the aftermath of the incidents at Godhra . There he tries to investigate the links between the government and the attacks on Muslims after Godhra. After sustaining a near fatal bullet injury, when caught in the crossfire, he returns to recount tales of horrific violence: Muslims beingroastedalive,gangrapes,wombs beingtornandfetusesrippedout,families beingtornapartandwildrumoursbeingcirculated.Themajordifferencebetween these riots and the ones in Mumbai, ten years earlier, lies in the depiction of the police.WhereasinthenarrationoftheearlierincidentthepolicemeninMumbaihad maintainedaneutralstance,inGujaratpoliceareshownasactivelycolludingwith the perpetrators of the genocide against the Muslims. This seems to suggest the directpoliticalmotivationbehindtheviolenceinGujarat.Thenarrationoftheriots in this section stand apart from the earlier account, as Pervez experiences them through Sidharth. They lack the urgency and impact of the descriptions of the Mumbairiots.Pervezisolderandlessimpressionablenowandthereisatouchof despair in her anguish. Her previous idealism is carried forward by her students who accompany her to the relief camps in Gujarat and try to counsel and help the traumatizedvictimswiththehealingpowerofmusic.Theysingsongsthatcallupon theLord,AllahandBhagwantorestorepeaceandharmony. In the final analysis, Pervez is a disturbing novel in its depiction of the shockingviolencethatcanresultfromtheintertwiningofthediscoursesofpolitics andreligion.Itforcesthereaderstoexaminetheirownconvictionsregardingsocial privilege,religion,secularismandtolerance.Thefinaldenouementseemstosupport the non‐monolithic, pluralistic view of religion advocated by Ashis Nandy, whose ownviewsaredeeplyinfluencedbyGandhiansecularism.Thenovelchallengesthe viabilityoftheseparationofpoliticalandreligiousspherespositedbythediscourse of.Nehruviansecularism.PestonjidepictsanIndiawherereligionispartofthewarp and weft of life and capable of generating murderousness and mayhem. Perhaps a solutiontothisimpasseliesinthefosteringofhumancontact;aninterpretationof tolerance not in the sense of accepting something foreign and disagreeable, but in theGandhiansenseofdoingone’sdutybyone’sbrother.Besidesthis,anemphasis onethicsratherthanthediscourseofrightswouldenablethepeacefulcoexistence ofamultireligiouspopulationincontemporaryIndia. References: Kumar,Priya.LimitingSecularism:TheEthicsofCoexistenceinIndianLiteratureand Film. NewDelhi:PermanentBlack,2008. 185 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ MadanT.N.“SecularismanditsPlace.”RajeevBhargavaed.SecularismandItsCritics. NewDelhi:OxfordUP,1998.297‐320. Nandy,Ashis.“ThePoliticsofSecularismandtheRecoveryofReligiousToleration.” RajeevBhargavaed.SecularismanditsCritics.NewDelhi:OxfordUP,1998. 321‐344. Pestonji,Meher.Pervez.NewDelhi:HarperCollinsP,2003.Srivastava,Neelam. SecularisminthePostcolonialIndianNovel.Abingdon,Oxford: RoutledgePublishers,2007. Tambiah,S.J.“TheCrisisofSecularisminIndia.”RajeevBhargavaed.Secularismand ItsCritics.NewDelhi:OxfordUP,1998.418‐453. 186 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ Biodata 187 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ VeritaSriratana,Ph.D. Verita Sriratana is a 2006 recipient of the Anandamahidol Foundation Scholarship undertheRoyalPatronageofHisMajestytheKingofThailand.VeritagainedherB.A. degree (First Classs Hons. and Gold Medal for Highest Achievement) in English LiteraturefromChulalongkornUniversity.ShegainedherM.A.degree(Distinction) in Colonial/Postcolonial Literature in English from the University of Warwick and herPh.D.degreeinEnglishfromtheUniversityofStAndrews.Herresearchinterests include modernist literature, Woolf studies, postcolonial literature, subaltern studies, phenomenology, Martin Heidegger, and theories of space/place. She has published articles on Scottish‐Canadian diasporic fiction, Virginia Woolf and the weather,VirginiaWoolfandBuddhism,andVirginiaWoolf’smarginaliaandessay‐ writing. Verita currently teaches courses on modernist literature and Indian literature in English at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. She is also currently working on a monograph entitled Mapping That Alluring Land and the LighthouseofWomen’sExperiences:BoženaSlančíková(Timrava)andVirginiaWoolf as Pioneers of Slovak and British Feminist Modernism, part of a research project funded by the National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic and in collaboration with the Department of English Language and Literature and the Department of Slovak Language and Literature, Faculty of Education, Comenius UniversityinBratislava,wheresheisduetotakeupherpositionasapostdoctoral researcherinFebruary2013. ChartureeTingsabadh,Ph.D. Charturee Tingsabadh is a lecturer in Department of Comparative Literature, ChulalongkornUniversity.ShewasawardedaKing’sScholarshiptostudyforaB.A. in English and Related Literature at the University of York, England and later a Harvard‐Yenching Scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree at University College London. Her interests include British and European modernity and modernism, postcolonial literary studies, especially South African and Francophone Caribbean fiction.ShehasjustcompletedherresearchonEuropeantravellingwritingsofSouth AfricaandisnowworkingonthecolonialdiscourseofsentimentalityonAfrica. MariaRhodora,Ph.D. Dr.Maria Rhodora Ancheta is associate professor at the Departent of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Phillippines at Dilliman, teaching Americanliterature.HerentryintothestudyofSouthAsian‐Americanworkscomes by way of teaching classes in American multicultural literatures. Her areas of interest are humor studies, everyday life and domestic cultures, sociology of the bodyaandtheBakhtiniancarnivalesque. ShewaspastresearchfellowattheCenterforPopularCulturalStudiesatBowling Green State University at Bowling Green, Ohio, and was fellow of USIS Summer Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She was also Visiting ProfessorattheNationalHuaqiaoUniversityinQuanzhou,China.Sheisarecipient of the University of the Philippines Faculty Centennial Award Grant Association of 188 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ thePhilippines.ShehaspublishedonhumorandPhilippineandAmericancultures, andamongherlatestpublicationsis“FatinthePhilippines:The‘Freakish’Bodyand ItsInscriptioninPhilippineHumor”,intheanthologyCrossingCulturalBoundaries: Taboo, Bodies, Indentities published by the Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Her book, National Humor: Reading Filipino Humor in Popular Cultural Forms, is forthcomingfromUniversityofthePhilippinesPressin2013. CarmenWickramagamage,Ph.D. CarmenWickramagamageteachesEnglishattheUniversityofPeradeniya,SriLanka. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Hawaii at Manoa for her researchon“figurations”oftheThirdWorldwomaninthenovelsofAnitaDesaiand BharatiMukherjee.Shehasco‐authoredabookonV.S.Naipaul’stravelwritingand published articles on R.K. Narayan, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Jean Rhys and ShyamSelvadurai.ThoughherformaltrainingisinthefieldofEnglishstudies,she is passionate about the status and rights of Sri Lankan women and takes every opportunityofferedtospeakupandwriteonwomen’sissues.Intherecentpast,she haswrittenonwomen’srightsinthecontextofthearmedconflictinSriLankaand theroleof SriLankanmediainsociallytransformativeactionwithregardtoclass, caste, ethnicity and gender. She is also a translator. Her translation of a Sinhala novel into English as Metta: A Story about Love was awarded the Prize for Best Translation into English in the Creative Writing Category at the (Sri Lankan) State LiteraryAwards2012. CarinaChotirawe,Ph.D. Assistant Professor Carina Chotirawe is an English Literature lecturer at the DepartmentofEnglish,FacultyofArts,ChulalongkornUniversity.ShehasaPh.D.in EnglishfromUniversityofHawaiiatManoa.HerareasofinterestincludetheEnglish novel,BritishandAmericandrama,postcolonialliteratureandgenderandcultural studies. K.M.Chandar,Ph.D. K.M.ChandarisaProfessorofEnglishfromUniversityofMysore.HehasaPh.D.in EnglishLiteraturefromUniversityofMysore.HisprofilehasbeenrecordedinWho iswhoinIndianLetters, published by SahityaAcademy.His area ofinterestinclude myth‐making as a post‐colonial phenomenon and post‐modernist developments in theory. HisaeKomatsu,Ph.D. HisaeKOMATSUisprojectresearcheratHokkaidoUniversity.AfterstudyinginNew Delhifor4years,shewroteadissertationtitled‘StriAsmitaKiKhoj,HindiKshetra Men Striyon Dvara Stir‐Vimarsh 1857‐1947 (Quest for identity, Women’s issue narrated by women in Hindi speaking area, 1857‐1947) and obtained Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru Unviersity in 2007. Her doctoral dissertation will be published from India soon. Her field of specialization is Hindi literature and Indian cultural 189 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ studies. Her recent research interest is the self representation of Indian women, especiallytheirnarrativesinHindimagazinesduringmodernperiod.Besides,sheis recentlyworkingonthecontemporaryBritishIndianliterature,examiningwriter’s view on the question of ‘authenticity’ and their sense of belongings. SheisamemberoftheJapaneseAssociationforSouthAsianStudies(JASAS)andthe BritishAssociationforSouthAsianStudies(BASAS). Herrecentpublicationsinclude, “WomenofVirtue:acasestudyofJanadeviBajaj(1892‐1979).”InImagingIndia ImagingJapan,AchronicleofReflectionsonMutualLiteratureeditedbyUnita SachidanandandTeijiSakata,NewDelhi,2005. “TellmewhatLoveis:astudyof“Love”inearlytwentiethcenturyIndianwomen’s narratives”,inComparativeStudiesonRegionalPowersNo.11HokkaidoUniversity 2012 “Speaking about Desi: the sense of belongings in contemporary British Asian writers”,inComparativeStudiesonRegionalPowersNo.12,HokkaidoUniversity(in printing) DarinPradittatsanee,Ph.D. DarinPradittatsaneeiscurrentlyteachingattheEnglishdepartment,FacultyofArts, Chulalongkorn University. Her areas of interest include 19th‐century American literature, environmental literature, and literature and religion/spirituality. She is theauthorofInSearchofLiberation:BuddhismandtheBeatWriters(2007). TonyO’Neill,Ph.D. TonymO’NeillwasbornandraisedintheRepublicofIreland.HestudiedPhilosophy and English at University College Galway and subsequently completed an MA in Commonwealth Literature at the University of Leeds in England. He is currently teachingatheDepartmentofEnglish,FacultyofArts,ChulalongkornUniversity. MiniKrishnan Mini Krishnan is Editor‐Translations,Oxford University Press (India) where she sources and edits fiction, plays, autobiographies and biographies from 12 Indian languagesintoEnglish.Sofarshehasedited43full‐lengthtranslationsfiveofwhich havewonnationalprizesfortranslationandareprescribedreadinginuniversities. She is also Member,National Translation Mission and Member, Indian Literature AbroadaMinistryofCultureinitiativetopromoteIndianwritersinthesixUNESCO languages. Moreover,sheisamemberofFocusGroupforPeaceEducation,National CouncilforEducationResearchandTraining ManishaBose,Ph.D. ManishaBoseisaBharatamedhifromIndianStudiesCenterofChulalongkorn University. 190 BHARATASAMAYINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON “INDIANWRITINGINENGLISH” ______________________________________________________________________________ AnitaBalakrishnan,Ph.D. AnitaBalakrishnanisAssociateProfessorofEnglishatQueenMary’sCollege, Chennai.HerareasofinterestareAmericanliterature,postcolonialliteratures, criticaltheoryandecocriticism.Shehaspublishedwidelyininternationaland nationaljournalsandanthologies.Sheisontheeditorialboardofseveralnational andinternationaljournals.
