Guest Lecture Series - I: An Overview of Literatures in English

Dr. Benet gave the maiden guest lecture of this academic year, today at 11 am, on “Preparing for UGC-NET: A Panoramic View of Literatures in English”.

Excerpts from his lecture: 

Our mind has a way of connecting and associating information. How do we retain pieces of information, and string them together in order to have them recollected in the long run, forms the basis of preparing for any competitive examination.

There are two types of Principles in Memory: One is, the remembrance principle. I ask you and you are quick to respond. The second is the Recognition principle. You look at the answer in print and then you recognise the answer. It really helps if you can raise your memory from recognition principle to the remembrance part.

History of English Literature and History of Literary Criticism are both inseparable. Hence it is important to develop a historical sense of chronological time. Look out for major schools, major writers, major genres etc in your preparation.

'Another Cosmopolitanism' - Ashis Nandy in conversation with NS Madhavan

Ashis Nandy needs no introduction. One of those able few who have the guts and the spine to go threadbare against the establishment (yep, you may call him – antiestablishmentarian if you want), and provide alternate perspectives on cosmopolitanism and traditionalism.

N S Madhavan again is one writer who defies the diktats of the demagogue and seeks to be daring and outspoken in his views – to ‘leave the beaten track behind’ and carve a niche for himself by moving away from tradionalist representations in media and society.

When these two litterateurs indulge themselves in a rendezvous, it indeed is one rendezvous of sorts, and well, the literati are on cloud nine.

Yes, it was indeed a memorable day at the ‘Let’s Talk’ event today, which saw two great luminaries walk the talk on “Another Cosmopolitanism”.

the MC paved the way for the talk by justifying the title for the day: "Why should one speak on cosmopolitanism, of hospitality, of quiet systems: more so in the current context, where we see events of violence and enemity, of hostility instead of hospitality, of conflict instead of coexistence". 

Ashis Nandy observed that, each community has a preconceived notion that they are the best and hence they have a kinda blinkers that make them pass negative comments about the other community. They should also know that the other community also thinks on the same line about them. At the same time, people are accustomed to living with differences, and hence the spice of life.

N S Madhavan lamented the fact that there was a great influx of migrant labourers into Kochi in recent years from Bengal, Bihar and Assam. The people of Kochi had condemned them to ;death by ignorance’, which is a deplorable fact. Hence, these migrants go to the boat jetty, hop onto a boat, go to the park,  and return without talking to the locals. This is mainly because we have shut them out, although we cannot do without them. This is an example of ‘silent apartheid’ he observed.

Both spoke at length about the history of Kochi, about the secular fabric of the nation, and how the secular fabric is being threatened by present political developments, which, according to them, are a serious scar on India’s plurality.

To be contd…

Indian Identity - Critical Summary

“Indian Identity” – Shashi Tharoor

Introduction

Shashi Tharoor is the author of Nehru: The Invention of India, and former under secretary general of the United Nations. In this essay, Tharoor argues that in a secular country like India, everyone of us can be categorized as a minority, when we consider them in relation to their individual standing in society. As such, the essence of India lies in its plurality and it is forged in diversity, which has caught the world’s imagination and of which we Indians should be really proud of.

Kannada Script in Hindi on Independence Day

When India celebrated the 49th anniversary of its independence from British rule in 1996, its then prime minister, HD Deve Gowda, stood at the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort and delivered the traditional independence day address to the nation. Eight other prime ministers had done exactly the same thing 48 times before him, but what was unusual this time was that Deve Gowda, a southerner from the state of Karnataka, spoke to the country in a language of which he did not know a word. Tradition and politics required a speech in Hindi, so he gave one - the words having been written out for him in his native Kannada script, in which they made no sense.

An Authentication of Pluralism in India

Reading a Kannada Script in Hindi on the Nation’s Independence Day is almost inconceivable elsewhere, but it was a startling affirmation of Indian pluralism. For the simple fact is that we are all minorities in India. There has never been an archetypal Indian to stand alongside the archetypal German or Frenchman. A Hindi-speaking Hindu male from Uttar Pradesh may cherish the illusion he represents the "majority community". But he does not. As a Hindu, he belongs to the faith adhered to by four-fifths of the population. But a majority of the country does not speak Hindi. And, if he were visiting, say, my home state of Kerala, he may be surprised to realise that a majority there is not even male.

Hinduism: No Guarantee of Majorityhood: Reasons

According to Tharoor, when the stock Hindu male mingles with the polyglot, multicoloured crowds thronging any of India's major railway stations, he will realise how much of a minority he really is. Even his Hinduism is no guarantee of his majorityhood, because caste divisions automatically put him in a minority. (If he is a Brahmin, for instance, 90% of his fellow Indians are not.)

Advertising One’s Ethnicity and Origin

If caste and language complicate the notion of Indian identity, ethnicity makes it worse. Most of the time, an Indian's name immediately reveals where he is from or what her mother-tongue is: when we introduce ourselves, we are advertising our origins. Despite some intermarriage at the elite levels in our cities, Indians are still largely endogamous, and a Bengali is easily distinguished from a Punjabi. The difference this reflects is often more apparent than the elements of commonality. A Karnataka Brahmin shares his Hindu faith with a Bihari Kurmi, but they share little identity with each other in respect of their dress, customs, appearance, taste, language or even, these days, their political objectives. At the same time, a Tamil Hindu would feel he has much more in common with a Tamil Christian or a Tamil Muslim than with, say, a Jat from the state of Haryana with whom he formally shares the Hindu religion.

India in 1947: A New Creation

What makes India, then, a nation? As the country celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence today, we may well ask: What is an Indian's identity?

The prime exponent of modern Indian nationalism, Jawaharlal Nehru, would never have spoken of "creating Indians", because he believed that India and Indians had existed for millennia before he articulated their political aspirations in the 20th century. None the less, the India that was born in 1947 was in a very real sense a new creation: a state that made fellow citizens of the Ladakhi and the Laccadivian, divided Punjabi from Punjabi and asked a Keralite peasant to feel allegiance to a Kashmiri Pandit ruling in Delhi, all for the first time.

Indian Nationalism: the Nationalism of an Idea

Under Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Nehru, Indian nationalism was not based on any of the conventional indices of national identity. Not language, since India's constitution now recognises 22 official languages, and as many as 35 languages spoken by more than a million people each. Not ethnicity, since the "Indian" accommodates a diversity of racial types in which many Indians (Punjabis and Bengalis, in particular) have more ethnically in common with foreigners than with their other compatriots. Not religion, since India is a secular pluralist state that is home to every religion known to mankind, with the possible exception of Shintoism. Not geography, since the natural geography of the subcontinent - framed by the mountains and the sea - was hacked by the partition of 1947. And not even territory, since, by law, anyone with one grandparent born in pre-partition India - outside the territorial boundaries of today's state - is eligible for citizenship. Indian nationalism has therefore always been the nationalism of an idea.

India: Sustained by a Pluralist Democracy

It is the idea of an ever-ever land - emerging from an ancient civilisation, united by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy. India's democracy imposes no narrow conformities on its citizens. The whole point of Indian pluralism is you can be many things and one thing: you can be a good Muslim, a good Keralite and a good Indian all at once. The Indian idea is the opposite of what Freudians call "the narcissism of minor differences"; in India we celebrate the commonality of major differences. If America is a melting-pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.

India: One Land Embracing Many

So the idea of India is of one land embracing many. It is the idea that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, colour, conviction, culture, cuisine, costume and custom, and still rally around a consensus. And that consensus is around the simple idea that in a democracy you don't really need to agree - except on the ground rules of how you will disagree.

Conclusion

According to Shashi Tharoor, the true identity of India lies in its plurality and in its celebration of diversity. The sight in May 2004 of a Roman Catholic political leader (Sonia Gandhi) making way for a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) to be sworn in as prime minister by a Muslim (President Abdul Kalam) - in a country 81% Hindu - caught the world's imagination. India's founding fathers wrote a constitution for their dreams; we have given passports to their ideals. That one simple moment of political change put to rest many of the arguments over Indian identity. India was never truer to itself than when celebrating its own diversity.

"The Eloquent Sounds of Silence" - Critical Summary

The Eloquent Sounds of Silence - Pico Iyer

Introduction

God’s one and only voice is silence, says Melville. Pico Iyer brings out the importance of silence in his essay “The Eloquent Sounds of Silence” by singing paeans to silence. According to Pico Iyer, when people go on retreat, to a high place and feel the warmth and joy of being lifted up in a cool and secure place far away from the madding crowd, they start to recite the standard litany: that silence is sunshine, silence is rapture, silence is golden, etc. But silence is not so easily won. Moreover, before rushing off to the hills, it is essential to remember that fool's gold (i.e the easily obtained iron pyrite) is much more common and that gold can be obtained only by a great amount of hard work, since it has to be dug out with great care and effort, from other substances. Such is the case with silence.

Silence is the Consecration of the Universe

According to Herman Melville, all profound things and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence, and hence silence is the general consecration of the universe. Just before his death, he came forth with his final utterance -- the luminous tale of Billy Budd - and showed that silence is only as worthy as what we can bring back from it.

Silence is Spiritual

We have to strive a lot to earn silence, and then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence in our lives. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink below ourselves into a place far deeper than mere thought allows. In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.

It is no coincidence that places of worship are places of silence: if idleness is the devil's playground, silence may be the angels'. It is no surprise that silence is an anagram of license. And it is only right that Quakers all but worship silence, for it is the place where everyone finds his God, however he may express it. Silence is an ecumenical state, beyond the doctrines and divisions created by the mind. If everyone has a spiritual story to tell of his life, everyone has a spiritual silence to preserve.