Unfortunately this winter break did not have anything in the way of exciting travels for me. But others were much more lucky.
Kerim and Shashwati, for example, have been doing interesting stuff in India. Read Kerim's posts on Dehradun, Denotified tribes (especially that one), and Adivasis.
Elck (Vernacular Body) also has been in India, and has great posts on it. I especially liked the post on Bombay.
And Ms. World has been all over Southeast Asia. There are a number of good posts there, so I'll just link to her whole blog.
And you should also read this week's bit from Fareed Zakaria (not a blogger, but I found his latest through Manish, who is one) has been in Delhi and Chennai recently. He is impressed -- to an extent -- at what's happening business-wise and otherwise. (Manish is less pleased... read his post too)
IndiBloggies nomination; and Year in Review
I've been nominated in three IndiBloggies categories. It's the Indian version of the more U.S. focused "Bloggies." If you're so inclined, you can vote for me.
Though I'm grateful to be nominated (thanks especially to Nitin) I must say I do feel these awards things are a little strange. I'm nominated in the same category as Om Malik, whose blog is a high-tech oriented, "industry" news-aggregator produced by a professional journalist, and Tsunami Help, which is less a blog than it is a massive news and information aggregator (they've gotten 1.5 million hits in about 10 days!). We are talking about comparing a professionalized apple (Om), a massive humanitarian orange (Tsunami), and in my own personal case, a very small, brainy grape.
Another problem: I hardly write exclusively about things related to India. I'm deeply interested in India, and I spent two weeks traveling around there this past summer, but I'm firmly attached to the soil (really, the pavement) of the I-95 corridor of the eastern United States. And my range of interests extends to all kinds of non-India-ish things. This is really a cross-category blog, not an "India blog," or an academic blog. (Then again, I am hardly alone in this.)
In lieu of begging for votes, this might be a good opportunity to review what in fact happened in 2004, which was a very busy year with regard to the Indian Subcontinent and its various diasporas. In addition to the Tsunami, there were historic elections and some major intellectual/academic controversies. There were some depressing anniversaries (Bhopal, Indira Gandhi's assasination, Operation Bluestar, communal violence against Sikhs). And there was Behzti. Here are some of what I consider to be the better more substantial posts related to Indian politics, literature, and film that I've written from the past year:
I enjoyed talking about Suketu Mehta's new book, Maximum City, which is probably the main "must read" book about India published in the U.S. this fall. I responded particularly to Mehta's point about naming and re-naming in "Bombay." Another promising young writer and critic whose work I praised in this blog is Amitava Kumar.
I closely followed the Behzti controversy, involving the Sikh community in England. I even posted a short story I wrote, inspired by the events. On Sikh issues, I also posted a consideration of the 20th anniversay of Operation Bluestar.
I provided short reviews of Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide and Hari Kunzru's Transmission.
My post on Agha Shahid Ali tried to take an original approach to this sometimes neglected figure.
I've been following the ongoing trials and tribulations of Indian secularism, including the debates on Triple Talaq, and the half-hearted reforms of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board. I've also provided some background on communalism.
I've been following the implementation of the Hijab and Turban ban in France, and have posted my critique.
I've talked about a couple of big controversies this past year in the Indian intellectual scene. One is the controversy surrounding Hinduism Studies in the U.S., especially the vehement attack on Wendy Doniger instigated by Rajiv Malhotra. See parts 1 and 2. I've also responded to the controversy around V.S. Naipaul's support for the Hindu right, which is seemingly out of keeping with his historical self-identification as an atheist and a rootless cosmopolitan.
I followed the upheaval of the Indian elections back in May, and wrote detailed profiles of Manmohan Singh as well as President Abdul Kalam.
On a lighter (but not that much lighter) note, I've written about my experiences DJing Bhangra parties, here, here, and here.
And amongst my reviews of Hindi films, I put a fair amount of thought into my review of Yuva, which I think is an extraordinary film by India's best commercial filmmaker.
All in all, a very busy year in Indian subcontinent happenings, and also, therefore, in India-related postings on this blog.
Thanks to everyone out there for reading, linking to me, and commenting.
Though I'm grateful to be nominated (thanks especially to Nitin) I must say I do feel these awards things are a little strange. I'm nominated in the same category as Om Malik, whose blog is a high-tech oriented, "industry" news-aggregator produced by a professional journalist, and Tsunami Help, which is less a blog than it is a massive news and information aggregator (they've gotten 1.5 million hits in about 10 days!). We are talking about comparing a professionalized apple (Om), a massive humanitarian orange (Tsunami), and in my own personal case, a very small, brainy grape.
Another problem: I hardly write exclusively about things related to India. I'm deeply interested in India, and I spent two weeks traveling around there this past summer, but I'm firmly attached to the soil (really, the pavement) of the I-95 corridor of the eastern United States. And my range of interests extends to all kinds of non-India-ish things. This is really a cross-category blog, not an "India blog," or an academic blog. (Then again, I am hardly alone in this.)
In lieu of begging for votes, this might be a good opportunity to review what in fact happened in 2004, which was a very busy year with regard to the Indian Subcontinent and its various diasporas. In addition to the Tsunami, there were historic elections and some major intellectual/academic controversies. There were some depressing anniversaries (Bhopal, Indira Gandhi's assasination, Operation Bluestar, communal violence against Sikhs). And there was Behzti. Here are some of what I consider to be the better more substantial posts related to Indian politics, literature, and film that I've written from the past year:
I enjoyed talking about Suketu Mehta's new book, Maximum City, which is probably the main "must read" book about India published in the U.S. this fall. I responded particularly to Mehta's point about naming and re-naming in "Bombay." Another promising young writer and critic whose work I praised in this blog is Amitava Kumar.
I closely followed the Behzti controversy, involving the Sikh community in England. I even posted a short story I wrote, inspired by the events. On Sikh issues, I also posted a consideration of the 20th anniversay of Operation Bluestar.
I provided short reviews of Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide and Hari Kunzru's Transmission.
My post on Agha Shahid Ali tried to take an original approach to this sometimes neglected figure.
I've been following the ongoing trials and tribulations of Indian secularism, including the debates on Triple Talaq, and the half-hearted reforms of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board. I've also provided some background on communalism.
I've been following the implementation of the Hijab and Turban ban in France, and have posted my critique.
I've talked about a couple of big controversies this past year in the Indian intellectual scene. One is the controversy surrounding Hinduism Studies in the U.S., especially the vehement attack on Wendy Doniger instigated by Rajiv Malhotra. See parts 1 and 2. I've also responded to the controversy around V.S. Naipaul's support for the Hindu right, which is seemingly out of keeping with his historical self-identification as an atheist and a rootless cosmopolitan.
I followed the upheaval of the Indian elections back in May, and wrote detailed profiles of Manmohan Singh as well as President Abdul Kalam.
On a lighter (but not that much lighter) note, I've written about my experiences DJing Bhangra parties, here, here, and here.
And amongst my reviews of Hindi films, I put a fair amount of thought into my review of Yuva, which I think is an extraordinary film by India's best commercial filmmaker.
All in all, a very busy year in Indian subcontinent happenings, and also, therefore, in India-related postings on this blog.
Thanks to everyone out there for reading, linking to me, and commenting.
Power99 Controversy: The Question of "Racism"
In college (and even in grad school, as I recall), we used to have debates about whether you could be "racist" if you happened to be black. Most of my African American friends at the time said no, it doesn't make sense to use that term. The argument goes something like this: the systematic victims of oppression can instigate it themselves, but when they do it it's something less severe than when members of a majority community do it. To describe that species of behavior, my friends tended to use the term "ignorant" (or the more vernacular "ign'ant"), which is also derogatory, but nowhere near as strong.
I used to be sympathetic to that argument, but I'm less so now. Does the language a Power99 DJ used (listen to the MP3 of it here -- it's recently been pulled off the station's website) reflect systematic anger and hostility that "racism" requires? I tend to think so. Does it reflect unequal relations of power? Yes -- a call-center worker in India is not likely to have any legal standing to take action in response. Is it therefore "racism"? Is it a "hate crime"? I tend to think so, but I also think it doesn't matter much whether we use the race/hate idiom or not. It may not be "racism," but it is a racial insult, as it singles out a group behavior. It may not be a "hate" crime, but it is a crime in our current legal system. Libel and slander are crimes (they always have been) even though they are "just speech."
The term the DJ repeatedly used is "rat-eater." (He also used a misogynist term [B---], which is no better.) But "rat-eater" -- where does that come from? Like a lot of racial codes, it's a strange insult, something ugly that seems to have more to do with the DJ's own twisted imagination than with the person -- people, really -- he was trying to insult. It seems to be tied to anti-Chinese and anti-Phillipino insults (Dog-eater, etc.), which stand-up comedians still often throw around, especially when cracking jokes about Chinese restaurants. At the least, the insult is misapplied (similar to when Sikhs are hit with "Bin Laden" insults). But it seems more correct to say in this case that the insult makes no sense whatsoever; it's incoherent.
That too doesn't lessen its offensiveness. Contrary to the commonly held belief that racial insults are based on some kernel of truth, I believe it doesn't matter whether the attribute he's referring to has any basis in anthropological reality. Indeed, the specific content of racial insults (or any insults) doesn't matter; it's the relationship of power between the parties involved, and the the motive and form of the delivery that count. DJ Star meant to insult, and if you listen to the hurt in "Steena's" voice on the MP3, you can tell that it worked. The association of the insultee with a group behavior, however poorly defined or understood by the insulter, does give it its racial edge. Also, he knows that he won't be held accountable for what he's said, and that she isn't in a position to return the insult with one of her own.
I try and keep a thick skin about most things, but this hits home, partly because for two years I listened to that radio station all the time on my way to and from work (that and NPR). It's virtually an institution in Philly; everyone knows Power99. It has the biggest audience, and huge influence over the Philadelphia music scene. People who've grown up there have likely listened to the station for their whole lives.
Well, from now on it's all Terry Gross, all the time for me. And following Anna's lead, I'm sending in a letter of protest to the station, requesting an apology from the DJ.
I used to be sympathetic to that argument, but I'm less so now. Does the language a Power99 DJ used (listen to the MP3 of it here -- it's recently been pulled off the station's website) reflect systematic anger and hostility that "racism" requires? I tend to think so. Does it reflect unequal relations of power? Yes -- a call-center worker in India is not likely to have any legal standing to take action in response. Is it therefore "racism"? Is it a "hate crime"? I tend to think so, but I also think it doesn't matter much whether we use the race/hate idiom or not. It may not be "racism," but it is a racial insult, as it singles out a group behavior. It may not be a "hate" crime, but it is a crime in our current legal system. Libel and slander are crimes (they always have been) even though they are "just speech."
The term the DJ repeatedly used is "rat-eater." (He also used a misogynist term [B---], which is no better.) But "rat-eater" -- where does that come from? Like a lot of racial codes, it's a strange insult, something ugly that seems to have more to do with the DJ's own twisted imagination than with the person -- people, really -- he was trying to insult. It seems to be tied to anti-Chinese and anti-Phillipino insults (Dog-eater, etc.), which stand-up comedians still often throw around, especially when cracking jokes about Chinese restaurants. At the least, the insult is misapplied (similar to when Sikhs are hit with "Bin Laden" insults). But it seems more correct to say in this case that the insult makes no sense whatsoever; it's incoherent.
That too doesn't lessen its offensiveness. Contrary to the commonly held belief that racial insults are based on some kernel of truth, I believe it doesn't matter whether the attribute he's referring to has any basis in anthropological reality. Indeed, the specific content of racial insults (or any insults) doesn't matter; it's the relationship of power between the parties involved, and the the motive and form of the delivery that count. DJ Star meant to insult, and if you listen to the hurt in "Steena's" voice on the MP3, you can tell that it worked. The association of the insultee with a group behavior, however poorly defined or understood by the insulter, does give it its racial edge. Also, he knows that he won't be held accountable for what he's said, and that she isn't in a position to return the insult with one of her own.
I try and keep a thick skin about most things, but this hits home, partly because for two years I listened to that radio station all the time on my way to and from work (that and NPR). It's virtually an institution in Philly; everyone knows Power99. It has the biggest audience, and huge influence over the Philadelphia music scene. People who've grown up there have likely listened to the station for their whole lives.
Well, from now on it's all Terry Gross, all the time for me. And following Anna's lead, I'm sending in a letter of protest to the station, requesting an apology from the DJ.
Music Suggestion: Lascivious Biddies
Biddies4ever. Also, they have a blog. Try listening to the excerpt from Famous, for instance...
File Under: Ironic feminist jazz/cabaret
File Under: Ironic feminist jazz/cabaret
Blog roundup: Tsunami
This week's "Indian Blog Fair". Check out especially Amit Varma and Dilip D'Souza. Amazing stuff...
Another film review: Swades
Swades was one of the most hyped Hindi films of the year. It has some merits, but it is essentially a rather grand failure.
Written and directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, who also wrote and directed the international hit Lagaan, this was expected to be a big hit both in the international and domestic markets. Like Lagaan, the film had a huge budget. Also like Lagaan, there is a pointedly "uplifting" message about Indian society (the film's title means "one's own country," and is an allusion to a famous anti-colonial agitation in Bengal in the early 1900s).
The premise of Swades is a little hard to swallow. Shah Rukh Khan plays a NASA engineer in Washington DC, who goes back to India to find the nanny who raised him after his parents were killed in a car accident. He finds her in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, cared for by her daughter Gita (Gayatri Joshi -- a fashion model making her screen debut). He wants to bring her back to the U.S. with him, but along the way he falls in love with Gita and takes an interest in furthering the Development of the village.
Positives: The emphasis on caste, merely a token presence in Lagaan, is here spelled out in much greater detail. Also central to the film are the many difficulties involved in bringing modern amenities to India's backward villages; one of the climactic moments in the film involves the installation of self-sustaining electricity. (Just as the NASA framing of the film seems to be an allusion to deceased astronaut Kalpana Chawla, the hydroelectric power sequence is certainly an allusion to Narmada.) And there are a couple of dynamite songs ("Yeh Tara Woh Tara") from A.R. Rahman.
But here's where it gets odd. More than Lagaan, this film feels like an old-fashioned 'social reform' film from the 1950s. (One thinks of the paeans to collectivized farming in Mother India, for instance.) Swades argues for: do-it-yourself Development, take Repsonsibility here and now, and don't stay Abroad too long making money. Nice sentiments, all.
But those sentiments seem to be out of touch with today's audiences. In an era of video-phone underage sex scandals, making a film this self-consciously naive seems risky, if not stupid.
Lagaan was equally preachy and hackneyed, but it had cricket for its saving grace. (There aren't very many Hindi movies that involve the sport, oddly enough; it was a novelty in more than one sense.) Perhaps it can be said that Swades fails because it has a picturesque village in need of Uplift without a cricket match at the center to divert audiences from all the heavy dogmatism.
That's not to say I don't agree with the idealism of Swades. I myself share many of those all old-fashioned sentiments...
And I think the recent explosion of concern for the victims of the Tsunami within India shows that civic responsibility is very much alive and well there.
Trivial Post #1: Sideways and Closer
We saw Sideways (last night) and Closer (a couple of weeks ago). Both are Oscar-contenders, and both can be placed in the "arty divorce drama" genre. I liked them, but was left feeling a little hollow in both cases.
On the positive, I appreciated the quality of both films. They are unquestionablly intelligent and nicely shot. Closer has some beautifully taut dialogue, and an interesting play between symmetry and asymmetry in the plot that would do Tristan Todorov proud. And Sideways has moments of neurotic, offbeat genius, usually involving the spilling of wine or the travails of flabby middle-aged masculinity. Also, Paul Giamatti's performance as the depressed wine aficionado and failed writer is a pretty classic -- the schlemiel sublime. (There were half a dozen moments when the dialogue reminded me of my own life: "So what's your book about? When's it coming out? Can I read it?" Argh)
That said, I found both films a little depressing. In contrast to romantic comedies and bildungsroman (coming-of-age) stories, divorce dramas are about coming to terms with a life that is somewhat less than expected. It's an important lesson, to be sure, but I still recoil from this type of film at an involuntary, emotional level.
I'm not sure where my faint sense of disdain for these films is coming from; three years ago I'd probably be raving enthusiastically. It's possible I've lately been corrupted by too many sunny Hindi films, which are almost always "comedy" (in that they end in a marriage), even when they have a serious component. Or maybe the American art house obsession with chronicling squandered intelligence (a tradition that goes back to Woody Allen, and before) has always been basically a waste of time, but it took me until now to notice it.
I prefer Before Sunset -- which I would happily watch again -- to either of these films.
On the positive, I appreciated the quality of both films. They are unquestionablly intelligent and nicely shot. Closer has some beautifully taut dialogue, and an interesting play between symmetry and asymmetry in the plot that would do Tristan Todorov proud. And Sideways has moments of neurotic, offbeat genius, usually involving the spilling of wine or the travails of flabby middle-aged masculinity. Also, Paul Giamatti's performance as the depressed wine aficionado and failed writer is a pretty classic -- the schlemiel sublime. (There were half a dozen moments when the dialogue reminded me of my own life: "So what's your book about? When's it coming out? Can I read it?" Argh)
That said, I found both films a little depressing. In contrast to romantic comedies and bildungsroman (coming-of-age) stories, divorce dramas are about coming to terms with a life that is somewhat less than expected. It's an important lesson, to be sure, but I still recoil from this type of film at an involuntary, emotional level.
I'm not sure where my faint sense of disdain for these films is coming from; three years ago I'd probably be raving enthusiastically. It's possible I've lately been corrupted by too many sunny Hindi films, which are almost always "comedy" (in that they end in a marriage), even when they have a serious component. Or maybe the American art house obsession with chronicling squandered intelligence (a tradition that goes back to Woody Allen, and before) has always been basically a waste of time, but it took me until now to notice it.
I prefer Before Sunset -- which I would happily watch again -- to either of these films.
Happy New Year, Anyways: Tsunami and MLA
At MLA, I spent a lot of time late at night in my hotel room just watching footage of the devastation in South Asia. I was initially angry that this could have happened in an era of immediate global communications, but the more I read, the more I think that preventing something this widespread would not have been easy. I was also a little concerned initially that the Indian government, in a show of misguided bravado, was turning down foreign aid (see Amit Varma), but now they've moderated that stance. And I'm impressed at what people like Amit and my friend Rajeev (who is involved with ASHA) are doing. Amit has already gone to Chennai to help; Rajeev is also going south sometime soon.
Good luck, guys. All I can do right now, I'm afraid, is send in my $50. Which I just did, to AIDIndia.
My panel. I did have a good time at MLA, managing to put things out of my mind for a few hours a day. The best part: I ran into many old friends, an astonishing number of whom seem to be on the job market right now. I also waved at many casual academic acquaintances (the people at whose badges one has to quickly glance). And I went to some great panels. My own panel, if I may say it, rocked -- excellent papers, well-delivered. As chair, I didn't have to do much, though I did throw in some contrarian-sounding, "devil's advocate" points in the discussion to keep the audience awake. (I am growing increasingly contrarian...) The panelists and I have also been chatting about doing something more with the idea the panel was about. (So if you're also not happy with the term "South Asian Literature," let me know and I can keep you in the loop on the further developments.)
Milton and Donne. I went to some panels completely outside of my field, just to see. The best was a panel on "Literature and Religious Authority" in 17th century writing, mainly John Donne and John Milton. I had trouble following the twists and turns in Milton's "anti-prelatical" texts, but I loved one of the papers on Donne, whose style reminds me of the Persian/South Asian ghazal. (It's not surprising, since Donne is a follower of Petrarch, who was himself, I believe [but could not immediately confirm] influenced by Medieval Islamic poetry.) I also had lunch with a small group of Miltonists (one of whom is a colleague at Lehigh), which was intellectually pretty high-powered.
A little gripe: It's always impressive to me that there are so many people in this profession who are so learned, and smart. I wish we spent more time and effort working on how to talk to each other.
A little snark: I also went to a couple of dreadfully boring panels. One speaker (in the middle slot), who was a very well-known, senior person, went on so long that he actually didn't leave time for the third speaker! The chair was too afraid to stop him. Very, very bad behavior.
And a response to John Strausbaugh: It's a tradition that someone in the mainstream media writes a piece trashing the MLA, in all its sequined glory. This year, the honors go to John Strausbaugh, of the New York Press. I'm not concerned to refute Strasbaugh, and I'm certainly not outraged, but I do want to point out two things: 1) all of his best quotes come from earlier Scott McLemee pieces on the same phenomenon (retread!), and 2) most MLA papers have incredibly boring titles, and are in fact, incredibly boring to all but specialists (real geeks like me).
Does anyone want to do a panel at next year's MLA on the mainstream media's obsession with MLA panel titles? Interested, McLemee?
No meetup for me. I missed the lit-blogger meet-up, as there was a panel on secularism in South Asian literature that I wanted to go to at the same time. But I gather from Chuck Tryon and GHW that six people showed up -- pretty good! There is also a little article on the meet-up already.
And now it's New Year's Eve, and I'm back in Connecticut, trying to muster up the energy to get back to work. Or have a good time at some party... Or something.
Good luck, guys. All I can do right now, I'm afraid, is send in my $50. Which I just did, to AIDIndia.
My panel. I did have a good time at MLA, managing to put things out of my mind for a few hours a day. The best part: I ran into many old friends, an astonishing number of whom seem to be on the job market right now. I also waved at many casual academic acquaintances (the people at whose badges one has to quickly glance). And I went to some great panels. My own panel, if I may say it, rocked -- excellent papers, well-delivered. As chair, I didn't have to do much, though I did throw in some contrarian-sounding, "devil's advocate" points in the discussion to keep the audience awake. (I am growing increasingly contrarian...) The panelists and I have also been chatting about doing something more with the idea the panel was about. (So if you're also not happy with the term "South Asian Literature," let me know and I can keep you in the loop on the further developments.)
Milton and Donne. I went to some panels completely outside of my field, just to see. The best was a panel on "Literature and Religious Authority" in 17th century writing, mainly John Donne and John Milton. I had trouble following the twists and turns in Milton's "anti-prelatical" texts, but I loved one of the papers on Donne, whose style reminds me of the Persian/South Asian ghazal. (It's not surprising, since Donne is a follower of Petrarch, who was himself, I believe [but could not immediately confirm] influenced by Medieval Islamic poetry.) I also had lunch with a small group of Miltonists (one of whom is a colleague at Lehigh), which was intellectually pretty high-powered.
A little gripe: It's always impressive to me that there are so many people in this profession who are so learned, and smart. I wish we spent more time and effort working on how to talk to each other.
A little snark: I also went to a couple of dreadfully boring panels. One speaker (in the middle slot), who was a very well-known, senior person, went on so long that he actually didn't leave time for the third speaker! The chair was too afraid to stop him. Very, very bad behavior.
And a response to John Strausbaugh: It's a tradition that someone in the mainstream media writes a piece trashing the MLA, in all its sequined glory. This year, the honors go to John Strausbaugh, of the New York Press. I'm not concerned to refute Strasbaugh, and I'm certainly not outraged, but I do want to point out two things: 1) all of his best quotes come from earlier Scott McLemee pieces on the same phenomenon (retread!), and 2) most MLA papers have incredibly boring titles, and are in fact, incredibly boring to all but specialists (real geeks like me).
Does anyone want to do a panel at next year's MLA on the mainstream media's obsession with MLA panel titles? Interested, McLemee?
No meetup for me. I missed the lit-blogger meet-up, as there was a panel on secularism in South Asian literature that I wanted to go to at the same time. But I gather from Chuck Tryon and GHW that six people showed up -- pretty good! There is also a little article on the meet-up already.
And now it's New Year's Eve, and I'm back in Connecticut, trying to muster up the energy to get back to work. Or have a good time at some party... Or something.
Trinkat Island: Before and After
These are satellite photos from Trinkat, an island in the Andaman chain (part of India).
Very, very bad news
A massive tsunami, triggered by an even more massive earthquake, has hit South India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. 6,600 are known to be dead already.
It's going to be hard to concentrate on literature for the next few days. If anyone hears about ways to send relief/aid to the folks affected, please email me and I will post it here. In the meanwhile, I'm hoping (praying) that it doesn't get worse.
Ok, off to the MLA.
It's going to be hard to concentrate on literature for the next few days. If anyone hears about ways to send relief/aid to the folks affected, please email me and I will post it here. In the meanwhile, I'm hoping (praying) that it doesn't get worse.
Ok, off to the MLA.
South Asian Literary Association Meeting
I'm checking out for a few days along with everyone else, but I just got a last-minute request to post the schedule for the South Asian Literary Association (a noble group with an unfortunate acronym!), which meets parallel to the MLA, generally the day before. They currently don't have a web site that I know of, so consider this the official SALA website!
Ok, got to go!
Those of you who live in the Philadelphia area or are planning to
attend the Modern Language Association Convention from December 27-30,
may be interested in the South Asian Literary Association's activities,
which are being planned in coordination with the MLA: first, our annual
conference and business meeting on December 26-27, and then our two
sessions at the MLA on December 28 and 29th respectively. At the
conference, Rajini Srikanth will be our Plenary Speaker, and Ved Mehta
will be receiving our Lifetime Achievement Award. See details below and
for more information, please contact Lavina Shankar
[lshankar@bates.edu] or Josna Rege [jrege@mtholyoke.edu].
THE FIFTH ANNUAL SOUTH ASIAN LITERARY ASSOCIATION (SALA) CONFERENCE
“TRANSNATIONALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS”
is being held at the Holiday Inn, Historic District, in Philadelphia
from the 26 th- 27th December 2004.
Address: 400 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Tel: 215-923-8660
The Conference features a challenging array of presentations that touch
on a wide range of issues: postnational geographies and linguistic and
literary re-inscriptions; negotiating dislocations and translating
cultures; exploring counterhistories and carving new radical spaces; as
well as queering the subaltern and recontextualizing Dalits. The
presentations explore the issue of revisioning gender, caste, and class
politics, in the context of Hindutva, hybrid identities, and
mushrooming call centers. The papers touch on the most recent literary
productions to emerge from South Asia, both regionally and
transnationally, including the exponential success of Bollywood in
America.
The Conference offers an opportunity to explore the many different
ways in which literary, non-literary and cinematographic texts, both
reflect and wrestle with the hegemonic and resistant narratives of
transnationalism. We hope that this Conference will shed some light on
the social, political, cultural, and economic disjunctures and
dislocations that are elided by the utopian promise of
transnationalism.
Rajini Srikanth, author of The World Next Door: South Asian American
Literature and the Idea of America, and coeditor (with Lavina Shankar)
of A Part Yet Apart; South Asians in Asian America, and Contours of the
Heart (with Sunaina Maira), is the featured speaker at the Plenary
session on 27th December from 5:15 -6:30 and will be reading a paper:
“Grandiose Ambitions and the Literature of South Asian America.”
This year's SALA Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to well
known writer Ved Mehta, author of 24 books, including Face to
Face(1957), Portrait of India(1970), Daddyji, (1972), Mamaji(1979),
Continents of Exile: The Ledge Between the Streams (1977), Sound
Shadows of the New World(1986), Dark Harbor (2003), and The Red Letters
(2004).
Rajender Kaur (Rhode Island College) and Pennie Ticen (Virginia
Military Institute) Conference Co-Chairs
2004 SALA CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Sunday, December 26th
4:00-5:00pm Registration
5:00-6:15 Session 1 (1APostnational/Transnational: The Blurring of
National Boundaries; 1B-Reinventing Genres, Recontext-ualizing
Historical Moments)
6:15-7:45 Dinner on your own
8:00-10:00 Hamara Mushaira
Monday, December 27th
7:30-8:00 Registration
8:00-9:15 Session 2 (2A-Poetry Across Shifting Regional and Linguistic
Contexts;
2B-Redefining Home and the World)
9:30-10:45 Session 3 (3A-Gender and Transnationalism;
3B-Exploring Counter Histories, Inscribing New Transnationalisms)
11:00-12:15 Session 4
(4A-Translating Cultures, Negotiating Dislocations; 4B-Carving New
Radical Spaces)
12:15-1:15 Lunch on Your Own
1:15-2:30 Session 5 (5A-Exploring the Limits of Translation and
Interpretation; 5B-Contemporary Refigurings: Debating Religion,
Sexuality and Gender)
2:45-4:00 Session 6 (6A-Language in a Transnational World;
6B-Recontextualizing Dalits)
4:15-5:15 Session 7: Plenary Session
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5:15-6:30 SALA Business Meeting/ Lifetime Achievement Award presented
to Ved Mehta
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6:30-7:30 Social Hour/ Cash Bar at the Holiday Inn Historic District
8:00-10:00 Conference Dinner (seating is limited)
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SALA SESSIONS, MLA 2004:
Wednesday, 29 December
436. Varieties of South Asian Feminism
12:00 noon-1:15 p.m., Tubman, Loews
Program arranged by the South Asian Literary Association Presiding:
Hena Ahmad, Truman State Univ.
1. “The Hindu Right and the Rhetoric of Feminism: The Fate of
Secularism in The Moor's Last Sigh,”
Lopamudra B. Basu, Graduate Center, City Univ. of New York
2. “Toward a New Theory of Gender? Indian Feminist Fiction, 1993-2003,”
Josna E. Rege, Five College Women's Studies Research Center, Mount
Holyoke College.
3. “South Asian Feminism and Film,” Jaspal Kaur Singh, Northern
Michigan Univ.
4. “South Asian *American* Women's Lit,” Lavina Dhingra Shankar, Bates
Coll.
Thursday, 30 December
762. Race, Caste, and Class in South Asian Literatures
1:45-3.00PM., Washington B, Loews
Presiding: Anushiya Sivanarayanan, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville
1. “Race and Class: Reflections on Chitra Divakaruni's Short Fiction
and Poetry,” Bruce G. Johnson, Univ. of Rhode Island
2. “Gopinath Mohanty's Paraja: An Intertext on 'Tribal Problem,'” Amiya
Bhushan Sharma, Indira Gandhi Natl. Open Univ.
3. “The Unspeakable Limits of Caste: A Reading of Bhabani
Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers and He Who Rides a Tiger,” Rajender
Kaur, Ridgefield, CT
4. “The Bhil Woman's Plums: Dalit Counter-Offerings in 'Times of
Siege,'” Cynthia Ann Leenerts, George Washington Univ.
Ok, got to go!
RIP Narasimha Rao
PV Narasimha Rao has died. He was Prime Minister of India between 1991 and 1996. He presided over the liberalization of the Indian economy, the razing of the Babri Masjid, terrible riots and bombings in Bombay, and a generally not-so-great time for India.
He was also the first Indian Prime Minister to be convicted of corruption, though the conviction was later overturned. In the messy, generally amoral world of Indian politics, it's not the worst of all possible crimes (indeed, I suspect Rajiv Gandhi was guilty of much worse). And the prosecution against him probably had more than a little to do with the fact that the Opposition, which came to power later, had a bit of a grudge against him.
See BBC obituary. Also see the Narasimha Rao page on Wikipedia (already updated!).
On the bright side, he held the country together. He was part of the freedom struggle in the 1940s. He translated novels from Telegu to Hindi. And he himself wrote a book called The Insider that I have long been curious to read.
History might forgive his failings, especially since he and then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh started a process of change that has made a big difference in Indian life. Here's a little bit from Salon:
[link]
He was also the first Indian Prime Minister to be convicted of corruption, though the conviction was later overturned. In the messy, generally amoral world of Indian politics, it's not the worst of all possible crimes (indeed, I suspect Rajiv Gandhi was guilty of much worse). And the prosecution against him probably had more than a little to do with the fact that the Opposition, which came to power later, had a bit of a grudge against him.
See BBC obituary. Also see the Narasimha Rao page on Wikipedia (already updated!).
On the bright side, he held the country together. He was part of the freedom struggle in the 1940s. He translated novels from Telegu to Hindi. And he himself wrote a book called The Insider that I have long been curious to read.
History might forgive his failings, especially since he and then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh started a process of change that has made a big difference in Indian life. Here's a little bit from Salon:
The two men [Rao and Manmohan Singh] wrought a financial revolution in a nation where Soviet-style economic policies had long held sway: slashing subsidies, launching the partial privatization of state-run companies and inviting in foreign investors. They also dismantled what was known as the "license raj," the vast, complex system of regulations that forced businesses to get government approval for nearly any decision -- often at the cost of enormous bribes.
In a 2004 interview with NDTV television, Rao said he had no choice but to launch the reforms.
"There was nothing more to do. You had no money, you were going to become a defaulter within two weeks," he said. "Once you become a defaulter your entire economy, your honor, your place in the comity of nations, everything goes haywire."
[link]
"I"ll take two of those": The Cloned Cat, Sukumar Ray, and Putu
Let us begin small: I'll take two of those.
In other Cat news, there is also Putu, whose world-domination schemes have finally come to light after five months, not of mere "cat-blogging," but rather the much more philosophically challenging blogging-as-cat. Putu is, I believe, a Bengali cat, but Putu's gender is a secret. Is it possible Putu is really two cats, one male, one female?
Speaking of mysterious Bengali cats, I was reading randomly in The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature, and I came across Sukumar Ray, a highly prolific writer of surrealist children's stories in the 1910s and 20s. He was part of the Presidency College circle of Bengali intellectuals in Calcutta, and he was the father of acclaimed film maker Satyajit Ray (who even made a film about Sukumar in 1987--I haven't seen it). Ray spent some time in England, where he studied printing technology, which enabled him to make some beautiful illustrations for his books [example]. He seems to have been a bit of a Bengali Lewis Carroll!
Today I have an excerpt for you from The Topsy-Turvy Tale (1921). In Bengali, the story is called Hajabarala or Ha-Ja-Ba-Ra-La -- six Bengali consonants arranged at random. I gather (from Amit Chaudhuri) that in Bengali the phrase is still synonymous with 'muddle' or 'jumble'. Here is an excerpt:
Yes, isn't it. Note that it's not that the cat was hiding under the handerchief. The cat became the handkerchief!
Anyway, more Sukumar Ray:
The Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray, which you can get from Amazon.
The best biography of Sukumar Ray I've found on the web
Times of India link
Excerpts from Abol Tabol (in Bengali)
Another Sukumar page, with a helpful bio.
Poems (in English, followed by Bengali): Khichuri, Woodly Old Man, Mustache Thievery
More poems:
Three poems
The King of Bombaria
Stew Much
Lots of Bengali poems (in Bengali)
In other Cat news, there is also Putu, whose world-domination schemes have finally come to light after five months, not of mere "cat-blogging," but rather the much more philosophically challenging blogging-as-cat. Putu is, I believe, a Bengali cat, but Putu's gender is a secret. Is it possible Putu is really two cats, one male, one female?
Speaking of mysterious Bengali cats, I was reading randomly in The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature, and I came across Sukumar Ray, a highly prolific writer of surrealist children's stories in the 1910s and 20s. He was part of the Presidency College circle of Bengali intellectuals in Calcutta, and he was the father of acclaimed film maker Satyajit Ray (who even made a film about Sukumar in 1987--I haven't seen it). Ray spent some time in England, where he studied printing technology, which enabled him to make some beautiful illustrations for his books [example]. He seems to have been a bit of a Bengali Lewis Carroll!
Today I have an excerpt for you from The Topsy-Turvy Tale (1921). In Bengali, the story is called Hajabarala or Ha-Ja-Ba-Ra-La -- six Bengali consonants arranged at random. I gather (from Amit Chaudhuri) that in Bengali the phrase is still synonymous with 'muddle' or 'jumble'. Here is an excerpt:
It was terribly hot. I lay in the shade of a tree, feeling quite limp. I had put down my handkerchief on the grass: I reached out for it to fan myself when suddenly it called out, 'Miaow!'
Here was a pretty puzzle. I looked and found that it wasn't a handkerchief any longer. It had become a plump ginger cat with bushy whiskers, staring at me in the boldest way.
'Bother' I said. 'My handkerchief's turned into a cat.'
'What's bothering you?' answered the Cat. 'Now you have an egg, and then suddenly it turns into a fine quacky duck. It's happening all the time.'
I thought for awhile and said, 'But what should I call you now? You aren't really a cat, you're a handkerchief.'
'Please yourself,' he replied. 'You can call me a cat, or a handkerchief, or even a semi-colon.'
'Why a semi-colon?' I replied.
'Can't you tell?' said the Cat, winking and sniggering in a most irritating manner. I felt rather embarrassed, for apparently I should have known all about the semi-colon.
'Ah!' I said quickly. 'Now I see your point.'
'Of course you do,' said the Cat, pleased. 'S for semi-colon, p for handkerchief, c for cat -- and that's the way to spell "Spectacles!" Simple, isn't it?'
Yes, isn't it. Note that it's not that the cat was hiding under the handerchief. The cat became the handkerchief!
Anyway, more Sukumar Ray:
The Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray, which you can get from Amazon.
The best biography of Sukumar Ray I've found on the web
Times of India link
Excerpts from Abol Tabol (in Bengali)
Another Sukumar page, with a helpful bio.
Poems (in English, followed by Bengali): Khichuri, Woodly Old Man, Mustache Thievery
More poems:
Three poems
The King of Bombaria
Stew Much
Lots of Bengali poems (in Bengali)
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