Other paper
readers who took up seminal issues of nativist discourse included Avadesh Kumar Singh
("Working Towards a Theory of the Indian Novel"), Raj Rao ("Critique of
Nativism") and Kirti Agarwal ("Inherent Hazards of Narrating the Nation").
A large number of paper presenters however opted for a safer middle course in their
analyses of the works of Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, Rama Mehta, Kiran Desai, etc.
If one had looked forward to fiery and passionate debates on the topology of
"inside, us: outside, them", and the indigene vs alien dichotomy, the post-paper
discussions were a disappointment. The Mumbai audience of college teachers remained
passive and mute leaving participants to debate moot points among themselves.
Mala
Pandurang
Cultural Studies
Workshop, 1999
In these times of coalescing of older disciplinary boundaries and the incipience
of new ones, what a Cultural Studies Workshop should do is to generate introspection and
reflexivity about one’s own disciplinary assumptions and practices. The Annual
Workshop organised by the Centre for Social Studies, Calcutta (CSSC) at Khajuraho, Madhya
Pradesh (21–25 Jan), brought together scholars and researchers from a wide range of
disciplines: Sociology, History, English, Fine Arts, Anthropology, Economics, Film Studies
and even Medicine.
In the discussion that centred on Public Cultures, Partha Chatterjee (CSSC)
pointed out how Haberman’s theory on the emergence of the public sphere in the 18th
century overstates the case as does his theory of the subsequent decline of the public
sphere from an arena of participation to one of consumption. Vivek Dhareswar (CSCS,
Bangalore), introduced Rawls’ notion of Political Liberalism dealing with matters
concerning social justice and basic societal structure as a corrective to the problems
liberal ideology encounters vis a vis multiculturalism in the public sphere.
Indira Chowdhury (Jadavpur University) took up the case of Indian Writing in
English to examine the issue of Representation. Madhav Prasad’s (CSCS) presentation
charted out the route by which |
T
‘representation’ that started out as an aesthetic term historically becomes a
political term and pointed to the merging of the aesthetic and the political in the
‘Star System’ in South India, whereby film stars turn politicians.apati
Guha-Thakurta (CSSC) examined the representations of the erotic sculptures in Khajuraho
through colonial and postcolonial times. Janaki Nair’s (CSCS) presentation on
identities and their deployment placed before the participants the problem of
‘representation’ where caste and gender are imbricated as in the recent debates
around the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Most of the presentations by the junior researchers either directly or
tangentially touched on issues of identity, representation, public culture. Sanal
Mohan’s (School of Social Sciences, Kottayam) paper addressed the issue of religious
conversions of lower castes in colonial times and saw Missionary discourses as sites for
the construction of the notion of equality. Manohar Reddy’s (CIEFL, Hyderabad) paper
showed the colonial imperatives at work in C P Brown’s construction of Telugu
literature. Praveena Kodoth’s (University of Hyderabad) paper "Courting
Legitimacy or Delegitimizing Custom? Sexuality, Sambandham and the Debate on Marriage in
Late-colonial Malabar" was rich in empirical data as well as in analysis. Nikhila
Haritsa’s (Bangalore University) more polemical paper "Traumatic Journeys?
Revisiting Partition in the 90s" problematized some of the recent interventions into
Partition history and the political implications of such descriptions of Partition as
`trauma’, `perversion’ and so on. V B Tharakeshwar’s (Kannada University,
Hampi) paper "Travel Writing: Empire Writes Back?" problematized Partha
Chatterjee’s theoretical framework for analyzing Indian Nationalist discourse, and
showed how the theory’s claims of pan-Indian applicability fall short of
understanding the phenomenon of the formation of Kannada nationalist identity. Deeptha
Achar’s (MS University, Baroda) paper showed how the `national’ child in
educational discourse is urban, upper class, upper caste, male and Hindu, while Sarada
Natarajan (MS University, Baroda) presented a paper on Art History and its pedagogical
practice in India.
Hindi films
since the 1970s, Battala literature in colonial Bengal, Ayurveda, Diabetes in
colonial times, developmental trajectories and implications of Bangalore city were some of
the other themes explored. |
