Globalization and Gender, continued...
This was the public lecture that I gave during my Fulbright tenure at San Diego State University, California, U.S.A. in the Fall of 2011

 In fact, a widely held criticism of Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy is that she knew how to package Indian exotica in English, so that   her book  The God of Small Things sold a   million copies. I do not agree with this position. Roy’s book has an originality and a language texturing that really designate it as a brilliant piece of artistry.  Arundhati has demonstrated what earlier Indian novelist in English, Raja Rao, demanded English in Indian hands must do, i.e., infuse “the tempo of Indian life….even as the tempo of American or Irish life has gone into the making of theirs.”  I would also like to stress that all three women write novels because the novel is perhaps the global genre. And in spite of the loss of the concept of nation in contemporary times it is important to remember Timothy Brenan’s  essay, “The National Longing for Form”, at this point:

 It was the novel that historically accompanied the rise of nations by objectifying the “one, yet many” of national life,…But it did more than that. It’s manner of presentation allowed people to imagine the special community that was the nation .³

 Indrajit Hazra's book on Kolkata: Grand Delusions....
Some Observations, starting with his description of Sri Ramakrishna's relationship with Kali

Indrajit says on page 98,

'Ramakrishna's Ma Kali was a mother-child-sister-wife-lover-goddess all rolled into one, ready fo the picking'...

I wonder if Hazra ever read the Kathamrita or even the Lilaprasanga. Yes, I too agree that his relationship with Kali may be read as 'filial as well as eroticized'. The second because there are many references to Tantra and how the ascent of the devotee takes place through chakras where sexual imagery exists or may exist.

We all know that Freud's deep readings into the human pyshce, especially the male psyche, uncovered how mothers were the primary love objects of all men. Actually of all women too. It is primal love and also primary love. A reading of Toni Morrisons' Beloved will establish how a girl child may feel this love for her mother. The ghost child who comes back to Sethe, is obsessed with the mother in a semi erotic way....

Going back to Hazra. I have been reading the Kathamrita for years. I did not come to it naturally, in that it was not part of my family tradition. I have been raised more or less an Anglophile, which has given me some of my strengths, but also given me a vast ignorance about my own traditions, which I have had the chance to rectify, somewhat. Experiences that have given me the utmost joy..the discoveries, rediscoveries, new alignments and politics of culture..

I have never found any reference so far in the Kathamrita where Sri Ramakrishna talks about Kali as his 'sister'. Surely the incestuous categories may have been toned down a bit? And again, where is the reference to Kali as 'wife and lover'? Sri Ramakrishna would not have known the difference between the two!!

May be, Hazra is confusing Sri Ramakrishna's many references to Radha, who felt a deep sensuous delight even on seeing the Tamal tree, which reminded her of Krishna!

I can see why Hazra would see the relationship of Sri Ramakrishna and Kali from the 'erotic' angle of lover. Because Thakur has said that 'Brahmananda' is a million times more blissful and ecstatic than the erotic experiences that human beings know. And in the experience of 'Brahmananda', there is reference to both Kali and Krishna as the source of this 'ananda'.

Globalization and three South Asian women writers, continued....

   One could say that the attitude of the three Indian women authors(one of whom is diasporic, and eventually two ) is that of Chinua Achebe in his essay, “ The African Writer and the English Language,” in which he says, “ But for me there is no other choice. I have been given this language and I intend to use it.” The significance of this comment lies in the fact that the use of English as a medium for  creative writing is as hotly contested  in India  as it is in Africa.  Once again I use Achebe to sum up the position contra the use of English: “The real question is not whether Africans could write in English but whether they ought to. Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else’s? It looks  like a dreadful betrayal and produces guilty feeling.” The proponents of regional language literature hold that using English abets and furthers the global project of western hegemony, and it cannot be denied that there is some truth to this, since English affords writers access to a wider international market and provides for greater international visibility. For instance, Senegalese writer  Mariama Ba’s   book Une Si Longue Lettre is less read in French than it is read in its English translation So Long A Letter because as Christopher Miller points out it is academies in the West that determine which texts will be read, and which not.

  Globalization and gender: Three South-Asian  women writing in English in contemporary times

Globalization refers to the complex interflow and interchange of capital,people, goods and particularly   “cyber  technology  that have now transformed the world into the cliché ridden term, the global village. Summing up Roger Rouse’s arguments  in his  own essay, “Globalization, Again,” Ali Behdad says  that according to Rouse  globalization means complicated circuits of exchange due to the border crossings of people, “the interconnectedness and interdependence of trade and monetary systems, marked by diasporic identities and fluid communities“ According to most historians the global era goes back to Columbus’s journey to the new world in 1492, the period beginning western hegemony in the world,but some historians like Janet Abu-Lughod however, put the date back two centuries, arguing that     a complex and intricate system of exchange and trade existed between Rome, China and India even in the 13^th century.   Be it as it may, the global order or culture that we know today  is  characterized by denationalization and yet warring ethnic identities,  the breakdown of the concept of the nation state, fragmented and confused national and cultural identities and also the dominance and supremacy of the English language which will be our concern in this paper here.

Photographs not taken...

1.     Crows bathing in water. In the water that overflew from a park tap.

2.     Two groups of birds—shalik (shrike) and dull grey brown ones with patches of blue at the tail end,  having a party on the lake grounds.

3.     A man bathing the bound area of a tree, on the sidewalks of Southern Avenue.

4.     A man with a cycle which had many white jute bags hanging from the handles.

5.     A young crow tentatively reaching out to the world through its beak, in a tree nest, that I happened to see as I went over the Chetla bridge.

6.     Two sparrows on the electric cable close to the bridge.

And now the ones that I did take.... 

Infinite variety in the metropolis that is Kolkata. Home to so many people. So many people.Sub- economic and sub -ethnic layers. So many time frames and consequently so many world views. 

So many values and evaluative systems..

And of course, gender norms. The drama always unfolds over gender norms. The constitution of women’s being/subjectivity/ontology/identity/agency by what society thinks. 

So many womanhoods in India/Kolkata. I doubt the West can offer so rich a spectrum.

Je jona Gauranga bhoje shey hoi amar praan re...

He/ She who worships Gauranga is my life!

I had taken videos and photos for a Kirtan project I had. I never got to complete it. But it was a grand experience to go out to Mayapur and Nabadweep during Dol. The greatest revelation was the Vaishnav Manipuri temple in Nabadweep where 400 persons from Manipur had come this Dol, to celebrate Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's birthday/anniversary..
I made the acquaintance of Rajkumar Ranajit who was kind enough to share some of his videos with me. I had kept them as priceless additions to my project. However, I didn't do it. Therefore, I am going to share some of them..
It is true I don't want to live at either Mayapur or Nabadweep. But Nabadweep is still resonant with a powerful energy. I salute the ground that Mahaprabhu walked on. I salute the Manipuri Vaishnavites who carry on a tradition so far from their native region..

(Wish I knew how to upload the pics)

Jeevandevata

Not exactly Rabindranath Thakur's 'Jeebandevata' but along those lines--feelings that have developed over time..

The highest intelligence is to feel for other people. One must have an 'intelligent heart' as my friend, Rumki (many years back) used to say. Love and feeling for all forms of life. A keen tenderness. The holiness of things. The Vedic seers and later those of the Upanishads spoke of how Brahman inhered in everything--so, respect all forms of life and life expression.

It is this that Wordsworth speaks of in Tintern Abbey:

And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.'

Rabindranath says,

'ghashe ghashe pa phelecchi/boner pathae jete....nadi te mor rakta dharai legecche taar taan..;

Tai, Christ says, 'treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself'.

Vivekananda says, 'They only live who live for others'

Rabindranath again, 'era por ke apon kore/aponar e por.

The multiple discourses of the Ramakrishna Kathamrita



Have wanted to write on Sri Girish Ghosh for a long time. The essay is just not getting written. But in the meantime, looking through the Kathamrita one finds so much..

Today's post: 

The conflict of Faith and Reason/Science? The founders of Hindu College, Mr David Hare, Raja Rammohun Roy and others,  had all felt that training in scientific methodologies of thought were essential for the nation/race to progress. Turning one's face away from Science, from its benefits, looking away from utilitarian models of social organization, were wrong.

There was the founding of scientific associations at this time, there was writing in scientific journals, the founding of scientific journals. Akshay Kumar Dutta wrote scientific articles and so did Radhanath Sikdar, a Derozion. Mahendralal Sarkar, Thakur's doctor was the founder of the Indian Cultivation of Science.

On October 25th, 1885, there is discussion on scientific subjects at Shyampukur, in Thakur's room.

Thakur asks the doctor how he would explain 'bhava' which is like a state of alcoholic intoxication.

The doctor replies that the action stops in the 'nervous centre' all the 'energies of the brain' are directed towards the 'medula oblongata' which is at the head of the spinal cord or the nervous system. If that gets affected, Life stops...

(I am using the Udbodhan edition of the Kathamrita, 23rd Impression, 2007, page 946)

I would be happy if my readers pointed out mistakes and responded with comments. I also have no idea who they are...

Rabindranath Tagore's Bhagini Nivedita (translated) concluded..

Sati’s love for Shiva was enormous, gigantic, overwhelming and overflowing. Hence she could subject her graceful body and her consciousness to the ardors of an extremely difficult tapasya or spiritual labor.  This labor involved standing on one foot, going without food and withstanding the continuous heat of fire, for the length of the tapasya. Nivedita too, was like Sati. The kind of spiritual labor she subjected herself to, was practically unbearable. Her Sati like state involved living in a house of a particular lane, where there was no breeze in the summer. The nights were so hot that she passed many nights without sleep. However, she ignored all the pleas made by her doctor as well as her friends to abandon that house. She allowed herself the daily and constant discomfort of doing without the amenities and habits that she had enjoyed from childhood onwards, and yet passed her days happily. That she did not move away from this spiritual labor, and withstood the many stresses of daily existence, was because her commitment to India’s well being was absolute and complete, and not a momentary fad. The Shiva that exists in each human being is the Shiva that this Sati (Nivedita) worshipped. What worship (sadhana) could be more difficult than worshipping Shiva, in the inner Kailash temples of the hearts of her ‘people’?

As the legend goes, Shiva came to Sati in disguise, and said, ‘Oh beautiful Lady, who aspires so spiritually, is Shiva worthy of the penitence and spiritual trials that you are putting yourself through?’ ‘He is poor, old, taciturn, and kind of odd in his ways’. The angry Sati replied, ‘What you say may be true, but it is in Him that my entire being is concentrated in every possible way’.

Is it possible that once the consummation of her love takes place in Shiva, Sati will be able to live according to the superficial norms dictated by youth, beauty and external form? Sister Nivedita’s mind was also always replete with the overflowing joy of having surrendered her being to Shiva. She had seen Shiva in the poor of India, and instead of turning up her nose at their apparent lack of beauty, like some people, she fell in love with them and garlanded them with the flowers of her eternal life.

We saw this incredible Sati like figure in our midst. Such a life removed all cobwebs of skepticism and lack of faith in our minds. Her life made us realize that Shiva truly resides in the human being, in the huts of the poorest of the poor, and in the abandoned and marginalized. That person who through the power of her own exalted feeling, penetrates the veils of ugliness that poverty creates and the loathsome effects of uncivilized habits, to see the eternal beauty and wealth of Shiva in peoples, sees the splendour and the magical beauty of the Ultimate Truth. This Beauty transcends the beauty of one’s child, one’s most precious possessions and indeed even one’s ultimate concept of what ‘beautiful’ might be. She overcomes fear, self interest, is indifferent to questions of comfort, she destroys old patterns of inhibiting thought, and does not spare a single thought for herself

Sister Nivedita or Bhagini Nivedita, continued..

There are some people who are really not much affected by many things. Their lack of sensitivity protects them. But Sister Nivedita was not like that. She was gifted with an extremely sensitive nature and a very fine discrimination. Assaults to her taste or habit were painful to her. Our inherent tamas, which manifested itself in our lethargy, carelessness and callousness, our lack of cleanliness and discipline, as well as our lack of desire to improve ourselves, both in and outside the home, gave her constant pain and sadness. However this challenge to her sensitivity and sensibility every single moment of every single day, did not succeed in damping her spirits and defeating her.  She emerged victorious in this tussle.

Sati’s love for Shiva was enormous, gigantic, overwhelming and overflowing. Hence she could subject her graceful body and her consciousness to the ardors of an extremely difficult tapasya or spiritual labor.  This labor involved standing on one foot, going without food and withstanding the continuous heat of fire, for the length of the tapasya. Nivedita too, was like Sati. The kind of spiritual labor she subjected herself to, was practically unbearable. Her Sati like state involved living in a house of a particular lane, where there was no breeze in the summer. The nights were so hot that she passed many nights without sleep. However, she ignored all the pleas made by her doctor as well as her friends to abandon that house. She allowed herself the daily and constant discomfort of doing without the amenities and habits that she had enjoyed from childhood onwards, and yet passed her days happily. That she did not move away from this spiritual labor, and withstood the many stresses of daily existence, was because her commitment to India’s well being was absolute and complete, and not a momentary fad. The Shiva that exists in each human being is the Shiva that this Sati (Nivedita) worshipped. What worship (sadhana) could be more difficult than worshipping Shiva, in the inner Kailash temples of the hearts of her ‘people’?