[Reader-list] Indo-centrism On Sarai

[Madhumita Lahiri]

Hi Swadhinji and Naeemji,

I use the Hindi honorific because using no honorific at all feels unseemly.

I wanted to interface a rather stupefying question i got yesterday -- from a
smart young Indian-origin student at a prestigious US university:
    "Is there a difference between Bengal and Bangladesh?"
I answered yes (there is a geopolitical difference), then no (the cultures
are not entirely separate), and then yes (but there are significant
historical differences) and then just, what?

Because the question, while seemingly simple, is a rather difficult one to
tackle.

I work on South Asian expressive culture -- particularly, the interface
between popular film and what is thought of as 'high' literature -- and i
work in Hindi, Bengali, and English. While my project is Indo-centric --
because of a focus on the transnational reception of the Kolkata- and
Bombay-based film industries -- as a student of language and literature i
want to work in linguistic units, not primarily in geopolitical ones.

BUT, the question is: To what extent do you feel that it is a valid move to
(claim to) work in/on/about 'Bangla,' given that the project will tilt
towards Indian films? Does the claiming of a linguistic category end up
erasing important geopolitical and historical differences -- or does it work
usefully against the seemingly pervasive insistence on state-based
distinctions, which are only 60 years old in our context?

And what is one to do with the reality that South Asian language boundaries,
somewhat like South Asian regional boundaries, are constantly shifting and
responding to political imperatives, as well? (The Hindi/Urdu wallahs
certainly know this one well!)

Best wishes, and hopeful for a response,
Madhumita


On 9/9/07, Swadhin Sen <swadhin_sen at yahoo.com > wrote:
>
> Dear all
>
> The ubiquitous silence of  the  sarai subscribers  about Naeem's mail is
> noteworthy.
>
> 'Freedom of speech' is always entwined with the power relations. We may
> send mails after mails to sarai. Yet, it doesn't mean that we will be heard.
> In liberal version, the act of writing and act of speaking assumes the
> action of other parties in taken for granted terms. The weak and
> marginalized may be permitted to speak and write; but this agency doesn't
> inhere the act of listening and consequent corrective measures.
>
> How will 'we', the non-Indians, interpret this action (in term of
> refraining from acting and/or participating in the debate)?
>
> Thanking all,
>
> Swadhin
>
> Swadhin Sen
> Archaeologist
> &
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Archaeology
> Jahangirnagar University
> Savar, Dhaka
> Bangladesh
> Ph. 88 01720196176 (mobile)
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: S.Fatima < sadiafwahidi at yahoo.co.in>
> To: Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com>; reader-list at sarai.net
> Sent: Saturday, September 8, 2007 3:37:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indo-centrism On Sarai
>
> No, no... we won't talk about Bangladesh and Pakistan.
> Aren't those regions part of the Akhand Bharat. I hope
> you know what akhand means. You better start learning
> Hindi or else you would be branded anti-national. You
> are a security threat to our Rashtra. You are a
> Bangladeshi.
>
> (Sorry Naeem - that wasn't real me. I think being on
> the Sarai list I am slowly turning into a Patriotic
> Indian, which practically means being a Gaurav shali
> Bharatiye and no longer respecting other cultures and
> languages).
>
> By the way, they were exchanging Urdu couplets, not
> Hindi. Since when has Urdu become Indian?
>
>
>
> --- Naeem Mohaiemen <naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > There are many members of Sarai who are neither
> > Indian, nor
> > Hindi-speakers.  But Indian members of Sarai seem so
> > oblivious to
> > their Indo-centrism that they presume that we will
> > be able to, or want
> > to, follow debates that are at this point even
> > written entirely in
> > Hindi (I refer to recent posts where entire couplets
> > are posted in
> > Hindi w. no translation).
> >
> > This comes at the cost of many other debates that
> > could possibly
> > happen.  I've witnessed items posted regarding
> > Bangladesh sinking
> > without a trace/response.  Recently, particular
> > "Indian" topics have
> > generated hundreds of replies, drowning out all
> > else.  The only time a
> > Bangladeshi cultural producer (Taslima Nasreen) gets
> > debated is when
> > what is at stake is how she was treated in India.
> > Only when Taslima
> > is a vehicle to debate Hyderabad values, Indian
> > secularism, etc does
> > she become a person of interest.
> >
> > Bangladesh/Pakistan/or elsewhere in South Asia does
> > enter into other
> > discussions-- as a foil.  To insert immigration into
> > the debate, and
> > of course the ultimate insult that can be flung at
> > Suddha is that "he
> > is no longer in Bangladesh".
> >
> > This weekend, I was talking to Manosh Chowdhury, who
> > has just returned
> > from Japan to Dhaka. Unprovoked he started talking
> > about how "we" is
> > used unquestioningly on Sarai to mean "Indian".
> > Even "South Asian"
> > means "Indian", or at least everything non-Indian is
> > through the prism
> > of the "center".
> >
> > But it's a bore to be the resident scold, or a
> > token.  I fear
> > eventually most who feel suffocated by the recent
> > endless debate (a
> > debate which is often between a few individuals,
> > sometimes even
> > one-to-one, and yet it gets sent to the entire list)
> > will have
> > Manosh's reaction.  They will drift away, exhausted.
> >
> > As Jeebesh pointed out, it takes very little time to
> > destroy a
> > cyber-community that has been built up painstakingly
> > by Sarai over the
> > years.  Tyranny of the few threatens to do just
> > that.
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