Critiques and Concepts
In the
second session of the morning, Meenakshi Mukherjee's paper on "The Rajmohan
Syndrome" contextualized the one novel written in English by Bankimchandra Chatterjee
before he turned to writing his great works in Bengali, and provoked an extended
discussion on the eternal question whether Indian writing in English is any the less
authentic than in the (other?) Indian languages. K.C. Belliappa's paper on "The Role
of the Half-caste in Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmy Black Smith: A Critique
of White Racism" analysed the issue of racial discrimination against Australian
aborigines and the inadequacy of an assimilationist view as against the novelist's plea
for a radical restructuring of white institutions.
In the
afternoon session, Harish Trivedi argued a case for "Reconstructing Commonwealth
Literature" through a recognition of the multilingual literary culture of many of the
Commonwealth countries, and through integrating a study of the literature produced in
English in these countries with the literatures produced in other indigenous languages
such as Bengali or Gikuyu. O.P. Joneja followed with "A Critique of Postcolonial
Theory" especially as propounded in the book The Empire Writes Back; he
himself favoured an approach through what Raja Rao has called "double
consciousness." Ranu Vanikar chaired this session as well as the previous one.
Valedictory
The
conference concluded with the valedictory session presided over by G.N. Devy. C.D.
Narasimhaiah gave an impressive and moving account of the progress of the Association
under his chairmanship right since its inception in 1974. He then proceeded to announce
his retirement, and proposed the election of Meenakshi Mukherjee as the new chairperson
and of Harish Trivedi as the new secretary. This proposal was unanimously adopted.
Meenakshi Mukherjee said she was fully conscious of the responsibility of carrying on a
tradition so ably nurtured by CDN for nearly two decades. She also proposed the election
of S.K. Sareen as Treasurer of the Association; this too was unanimously adopted. |
The annual conference of 1993 was a notable one for several reasons. The announced theme
of the conference, "Critical Approaches to Literatures of the Commonwealth," was
taken up not only in some papers, especially on the second day, which addressed this theme
directly and explicitly, but it also permeated many other presentations including notably
the Panel Discussion on the first morning, in which the interpretation of Commonwealth
literature (in this case represented by Indian writing in English) with the various Indian
literatures kept coming up in a variety of ways. As a consequence, the traditional
parameters of Commonwealth Literature were seen to be be defined and extended in a radical
manner, and the co-existence of other non-English literatures seen as a source of
enrichment for it.
At one of
the tea-breaks between sessions, G.N. Devy told some participants a delightful story of
what happened when he and some colleagues went to see the Mayor of Baroda to request him
to host a dinner for the participants. The Mayor heard them patiently for half an hour,
then turned to his secretary and asked in Gujarati, the only language he knew, "Who
are these people? and what do they want?" The secretary interpreted, "They are
English teachers. They want food." "Oh, give it to them!" said the Mayor
kindly. This could be a parable for our times, of how Indian literature may feed and
nourish literature written in English.
The
retirement of C.D. Narasimhaiah and of K.C. Belliappa (who had served as the secretary for
nearly as long) constituted a major landmark in the history of the Association. The
physical transfer of the office of the Association from Mysore to New Delhi may result in
some reorientation in a larger sense as well, but that remains to be seen; it is a matter
of good fortune, meanwhile, that CDN continues as a member of the executive committee and
Dhvanyaloka remains available as an incomparable resource centre. The enthusiasm and
commitment evident in the proceedings of the conference throughout, especially on the part
of many of the younger scholars, was equally a good and encouraging sign, the more so for
being at the same time robustly self-critical. |
