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Indian Diaspora and Cultural Pluralism
--C V Padmaja
Edward B Taylor observes, “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Jayaseelam, 1999, p. 12). An Indian immigrant who migrates to different countries of the world has to encounter with different cultures; these cultures made India a country of pluralism. Nevertheless, plurality in Indian society is not the result of people moving into India, for India already had intrinsic plurality. The Hindu way of life with its umpteen philosophical systems and immense linguistic and literary diversities has given an Indian the advantage of being absorbed into any country in the world. The migrant cultures have only given the country a unique cultural enrichment that has been mutual. The paper attempts to show how the cultural pluralism which has spread in our country by different ethnic cultures—Jews, Parsis, Afghans and Turks and many more—has given a cultural advantage to our country.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Captivating Experiences of Discrimination, Disasters as Agents
of Change for Diaspora in Chitra Banerjee’s Novels:
Mistress of Spices, Queen of Dreams and One Amazing Thing
--Ritu R Agarwal
An attempt has been made in this paper to justify the fact that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni as a South Asian diasporic writer has through her novels tried to present the social evils of discrimination and disasters looming large over the countries in the form of man-made disasters like terrorism and racial discrimination and natural disasters like earthquakes. She has also tried to present the impact it creates on the psyche of the individuals resulting in an environment of distrust. Twenty-first century, though an age of globalization, radicalization and internationalization, still witnesses the narrow boundaries of caste, class, race and religion. Divakaruni’s Mistress of Spices (1997), Queen of Dreams (2004) and One Amazing Thing (2010) have been analyzed to present the fact that disasters do not just disunite but they also raise questions on the human existence and the need to understand and create bonds of friendship between nations to fight the challenges. Though discrimination and disasters create discord, they also give rise to an art of life management.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Theme of Survival in Margaret Laurence’s A Jest of God
--R Prabhakar
Margaret Laurence is a prolific and distinguished novelist hailing from Canada; she focuses on the predicaments of women and tries to give an identity to the Canadian women. The theme of survival occupies a pivotal place in the novels of Margaret Laurence who hails from Scots-Irish background of stern values and hard work and Puritanism. The theme of survival came up during the drought and depression of the 1930s and then the war. Dedication to social reform is the prime quality of Laurence. A Jest of God is one of the Manawaka novels. In A Jest of God, survival and freedom are predominant themes. Laurence portrays the horrible conditions of women in the process of struggle for survival in the mid-20th century in Canada. Akin to the theme of other Manawaka novels of Laurence, the same theme of survival continues to be central in A Jest of God which attempts to present the person’s determination to survive with some dignity that everyone carries until the end of life.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Language as the Badge of Nationality: Locating English in Sri Lanka
--Shruti Das
In postcolonial times, language has become synonymous with nationality. This notion existed even in pre-historic times. Each nation aspires to be a linguistic entity. This presumption is drawn from evidence in Europe, as native speakers are identified by their language, such as native speakers of French, German, and Italian are Frenchmen, Germans and Italians, respectively. The single national language theory which is a product of European historical experience is problematic in South Asia, which has shown that linguistic identity and national consciousness are synonymous. Mother tongue is sacred and is a vehicle for all national endeavors. In an expanding global scenario, the survival of economy and borders depend upon communication and comprehension, English becomes the most unavoidable vehicle. While critics most often focus on religion, region and nationality within South Asia, they rarely focus on the linguistic regionalism inherent in this region and the position of English language therein. In this paper, I have concerned myself with the problems of identity and survival of English as a language of literature inside an important South Asian country, namely, Sri Lanka.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Negotiating Silence and Speech as Manifestations
of Power in Poile Sengupta’s Mangalam
--K Jayasree
One tends to take for granted people’s ability to speak and express themselves, and more so in the security of one’s own home. But a reading of Poile Sengupta’s play, Mangalam quickly disabuses us of our illusions. It is a play that studies the kind of terror and manipulations that young girls have to brave even within their homes. This paper is an effort to study the various kinds of silences that a woman encounters as part of her subjugation and also the silences she adopts to subvert the hegemony of patriarchy. It also tries to understand why women allow themselves to be marginalized even after struggling to nurture and nourish their families, why they do not find the courage to form a community and gain support from each other. The play focuses on how close relationships become tools of subjugation and manipulation. It makes an effort to understand the construct of a society that allows positions of power and trust, within a family, to abuse those under their care. Using innovative techniques like play within play, chorus and same actors playing different roles, Sengupta tries to create an awareness of the dangers that lie unaddressed because they are seen as problems of the family. The play politicizes issues like rape, physical abuse, silencing and invalidation which have remained largely neglected on stage.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Bikshāpātra, a Telugu Playlet: Critiquing from a Marxist Perspective
--GRK Murty
G V Krishnarao (1914-1979), a Telugu poet, playwright, novelist, shortstory writer, literary critic and translator, like many ancient Sanskrit play writers, borrowing an incident—Vy-asanishkramana, exit of Vy-asa from Kasi—from Srinatha’s Kasi Kha. n . d a and tweaking it in such a way that it reflects modernity in terms of ‘dialectical materialism’, wrote Bikshapatra, a three-act Telugu playlet. It was translated into all the sixteen Indian languages and was broadcasted by All India Radio under its ‘National Program of Drama’. An attempt is now made in this paper to trace how the playwright achieved universal validity for his dialectic interpretation of a puranic-incident to drive home the fact that even an aristocratic and the towering personality like Vy-asa could not escape the pangs of hunger—hunger for physical gratification and the hunger for truth, self-analysis, and ideation, all culminating into a reasoned exposition of the complex relationship between “infrastructure and superstructure spectrum” without of course, losing sight of Indian aesthetics.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Towards Better Vocabulary Proficiency:
Research Trends in the Area of Vocabulary Teaching
--Pushpa Nagini Sripada
The paper is descriptive in nature. It reviews literature in the area of vocabulary teaching. It traces how frequency word lists were prepared during vocabulary control movement, research in the area of word knowledge and teaching, vocabulary learning strategies, and vocabulary tasks types that can be developed for deeper processing of words when the research is carried out by the scholars. The paper covers the research that had been carried out before the explosion of ICT tools. The review would be of great help to the scholars doing research in the area of vocabulary teaching.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Prospero’s Chimera of Indulgence:
The Subaltern in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
--Papiya Lahiri
The paper seeks to study Prospero’s wish-fulfilling fantasy as the monarch of all he surveys with none to dispute his right, accomplished through the services of Ariel and Caliban. Prospero is charged with a colonial spirit aggravated and strengthened by his deep study of magic used adeptly, to make his slaves perform sundry tasks—from domestic chores to avenging his enemies. The chimera of Prospero’s spectacular vision comes alive at the cost of bondage of the subalterns—Ariel and Caliban—bringing fruitful results to the wizard. Master’s severe mental/physical tortures and acrimonious treatment form the subalterns’ saga in The Tempest. To accomplish the heuristic activities of his mind, Prospero enforced enormous tasks on Ariel and Caliban, threatening them with severe punishment and everlasting confinement if they failed. Protest by these two victims, who facilitated the realization of all Prospero’s fantasies, from creating the magic tempest at the outset till the final errand is served, is suppressed with strict temper and icy conscience. The paper addresses the psychological and political combat of colonial master and his slaves spelling out how the imbalance of power between them fulfills Prospero’s fantasy, reflecting the politics of power as well as the mental setup and attitude of both the oppressor and the oppressed, having involved the audience in the act of witnessing the play. The paper focuses on the growth and development of the situation that ultimately makes Prospero arrive at the point of renunciation of magicwand seeking refuge in forgiveness and reconciliation.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Interview:
Keki N Daruwalla and This Craft of Verse
--Amitendu Bhattacharya
One of India’s finer and better known poets, Keki N Daruwalla’s first book of poetry Under Orion was published by the Writers Workshop, Calcutta, in 1970. Since then he has brought out twelve volumes of poetry. He has also published several short stories and his debut novel For Pepper and Christ appeared in 2009. He is the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984 and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia in 1987. Daruwalla was born in 1937 and earned his Master’s degree in English Literature from Government College, Ludhiana, Punjab University. In 1958, he joined the Indian Police Service and is presently serving as Member of the National Commission for Minorities. He lives in Delhi. This interview was video-recorded at the Educational Multimedia Research Center of the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, when Keki Daruwalla visited the campus as an invited speaker for the 3-day International Conference “Unveiling a Secret Agreement: Revisiting the Contours of English Studies” organized by the University’s Department of English Literature from November 19 to 21, 2012.
© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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