[Reader-list] Indo-centrism On Sarai
Swadhin Sen
swadhin_sen at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 13 00:04:21 IST 2007
Dear Madhumita
Although your mail addressed both me and Naeem, my personal
sketchy remarks on your questions are as follows:
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?
-
I do not endorse the position which assumes that
‘linguistic categories’ could be conceptually separated from ‘geopolitical and
historical’ differences. I am skeptical about success of your intention to
‘work in linguistic unit’ (and not primarily geopolitical ones). I think the
‘linguistic units’ are enmeshed into ‘geopolitical ones’. It does not matter whether
our state based distinctions are 60 years old or not. Because, even before the
partition, there were variations in the languages of West and the East (Now
Bangladesh). I want to view language as a representative system in which
question of power and authority are crucial for cultural and political
transactions and translation. The variations of dialects of Bangladesh
are stereotyped, homogenized and distorted in mainstream films and electronic
media of West Bengal. Bhanu Bandopadhaya was pioneer in
the sarcastic and comical representation of the dialect of East
Bengal or East Pakisthan or present Bangladesh.
The continuation of the same practice is common in Taliwood films and Soaps
& variety shows in E-media of Kolkata.
-
The question of whether a linguistic category end up
erasing… differences’ is not very interesting for me. Rather I am interested to
question the conditions that destroy older categories and construct newer ones
for legitimizing various ways and means of domination and control. Most
notably, I think, the parties (or agents) involved with these reconfiguration
processes are unequal in their power to borrow, insert and translate. ‘State’
(more precisely modern state) act as a universal condition in these unequal
exchanges where ‘we’ (and you) cannot act as autonomous and sovereign subject
(as it is usually taken for granted in liberal ideals).
-
Now if I take India
and Bangladesh
(or west Bengal and Bangladesh)
for example we may find that while we the Banglaeshis are optionless consumers
of the film and media representations from Hindi and Bangla (kolkata version)
domain, the people from the other part of the boundary are not. The statist
conditions controlled by various legal and juridical and as well as ideological
apparatuses do not give us (and you) any other options to choose from. You can’t
see the mainstream films and visual narratives produced in different mediums of
Bangladesh.
Your vision and horizons of arguments, thus, are subjected by inequality where
we are active only in the selection from those which we are permitted to do.
-
I contend that your question regarding the validity of
working on/about Bangla films should be rethought from the above
problematization.
-
The inequality is also applicable within a state also.
For example, in Bangladesh
the ethnic nations (not tribes, or ethnic minorities) are subjected to the same
statist and nationalistic processes of reconfigurations. They are bound to
speak Bangla, but we are not bound to speak Chakma, Shaotali, Rakhain and many
other languages.
-
From a predominantly liberal terrain, we may optimistically
believe in and call for the erasure of differences. But the complexly
articulated state (and multicorporate) apparatus (from education sector to Job
Market, from agricultural products to coca-cola) constructs newer differences
and boundaries.
Under these circumstances, I am not very much interested in
some sort of liberal proclamation of erasing differences among languages,
cultures and states. I am more hopeful about the critique of the formation
differences.
Interestingly, the affairs with Tasleema Nasreen can also be
viewed in the framework of the inequality. I
think Naeem’s points on Taslema were not taken into proper theoretical
and political account by the members who responded with a predominant liberal world view of everything. I will try to address the issues in another mail.
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!)
-
I hope to touch upon this part of question in future. To comment briefly, the boundaries are being reconfigured and redefined (as I have argued above) off course. Unfortunately and apologetically I am not in a position to profess on what one should do about it!
I hope this response will stir more arguments,
Wishes
Swadhin
Swadhin Sen
Archaeologist
&
Assistant Professor
Department of Archaeology
Jahangirnagar University
Savar, Dhaka
Bangladesh
Ph. 88 01720196176 (mobile)
----- Original Message ----
From: Madhumita Lahiri <ml49 at duke.edu>
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:58:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indo-centrism On Sarai
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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