[Reader-list] Re: guidelines

[tarunksaint]

Hi there,
Thanks for posting the guidelines. I guess some of them apply to this former
contributor as well!

I received an unsigned communication from pp, with the header 'sorry'. I
read through it with disappointment, since one had hoped better sense would
prevail. Indeed, there is no recognition at all of the ethical principles at
stake as regards the the core issue-- attribution of motives and slander
directed at someone not able to defend herself in this public forum. The
form the purported 'satire' took was vicious and ugly, unwarranted by
anything in the original posting, which was my first in this forum. Indeed,
the commentators' failure to understand the complexity of the experiential
situation of Punjabi migrant families affected by Partition, then further
afflicted by the 1984 riots and recently Sept. 11, is doubly distressing,
given his admitted location in academia. The facile reduction of the
statement made in the poem For Papa to petty issues of tenure politics
demonstrates a lack of insight and empathy, compounded by the impertinent
use of the author's first name, and sly insinuations which accompanied this
direct address (Know thyself, as the adage has it, vis-a-vis the question of
authorial intention). Anarchy without responsibility, as another contributor
has put it, is simply unacceptable.

This impertinence has been on display before, vis-a-vis the posting about
UGC rules, which effectively silenced the person concerned, and more
recently in the context of discussion of the silence on Gujarat.
Furthermore, by attributing motives to senior academics who spent many years
in Delhi university before making the difficult decision to shift to the
USA, pp  repeats his earlier mistake, and shows a lamentable ignorance of
their background and training (one of the academics referred to spent long
and difficult years at Khalsa, not Hindu College, and has earned his present
positon by any reckoning through outstanding scholarship). It seems
indignation may have its functions after all, if it allows for the unmasking
of the sender of such occasional poison-pen messages on this list.

Resentment and jealousy have their outlets, and it is this along with the
disturbing alacrity to leap down others' throats that cyberspace facilitates
that prompts my decision to remain unsubscribed. There are certain norms one
believes in, and if others think otherwise and condone the abuse of a woman
author not on this list, well, I beg to differ. No justification in the name
of satire will do; literary criticism is about making the distinction
between puerile infantilism and honed articulations backed up by thought
processes which are open to evaluation and assessment.

I retract my statement about 'puny and frustrated intellects', as a
polemical expression written while angry. I certainly have no intention in
either reviewing pp's books to come, nor continuing what has degenerated
into a slanging match.
Finally, I would appreciate your sharing this message with the list. The
list has contributed to my understanding of various issues, and I wish it
well.  I hope this thread can be satisfactorily resolved. This will be my
last communication on the subject.
Enough said.

Regards,
Tarun