Release of My Books

Official Release of My Books

 Held in Inaugural Function of Jointly Organized Two National Conferences on Agro Tourism and Naxalism In Shivaji Mahavidyalaya Udgir on 23/03/2013

Published by Authors Press, Gnosis and Access, New Delhi

And officially released at the auspicious hands of

Hon’ble Vijaysinha Mohite Patil

(Ex Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra State),
&

Hon’ble Ashokrao Patil Ekambekar

Hon’ble Adv.C.P. Patil 

Hon’ble R.A.Pawar

Hon’ble Vikram Kale

Hon’ble Babasaheb Patil

Hon’ble Principal Dr.S.T. Patil

and others

At our Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir on 23/03/2013

NEW BOOKS OF 2013

Pages xix + 326
ISBN 9788172737061

The politics of gender which determines everything, including language and literature and the recent trends in feminist criticism has moved towards gender studies. Elizabeth Abel argues, “Sexuality and textuality both depend on difference”  and realizing the fact that the entire consequence of female oppression is caused by female “difference” these critics have decided to move beyond “difference” itself.  So now the politics of gender identity has come into the scenario, replacing the entirely female perspective and it serves as an umbrella term providing coverage to other areas too. Now male critics who desire to pursue feminist criticism and even the “Queer Study” group comes under this broader concept.

Julia Kristeva has provided an adequate analysis of how feminism has progressed through stages to finally reach the fluidity of gender identity. She states that feminism began with liberalism when women demanded equality; then came the radical feminists who rejected patriarchy and called for separatist matriarchy and finally they rejected both concepts and was asking for “gender identity”. Thus, feminism starting in true sense with Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, proceeded through varied phases to reach the phase of Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990).

The Present book desires to address the politics of gender identity from the authentically Indian perspective, and that too in the arena of English theatre.  Indian drama and theatre has always exhibited a close symbiotic relation between genre and gender though literary feminism was quite late in evolving. The reason obviously was that theatre was a more public arena and hence a restricted medium for the females. The males of course, took up the cudgel on behalf of the females, and we have early playwrights like Krishna Mohan Banerji (The Persecuted), Michael Madhusudhan Dutt (Ratnavali, Sermistha, Is This Called Civilization?) who presented women as iconic images of perfection and subjugation. They were followed by Tagore and Sri Aurobindo who in the truest sense propagated the cause of women. Bharati Sarabhai and Swarnakumari Devi were the earliest of female dramatists though their voices remained muffled.

But female centred issues began to occupy the stage with the development of the IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Movement) which became operative since 1943 and it preceded an era of theatre festivals and workshops committed to the cause of women. Few examples are Yavintika, a women’s theatre festival organized by a Hyderabad based group, “Voicing Silence”, Gendered Theatre by M.S. Research Foundation,  Akka, the National Women’s theatre festival held in Mysore and so on. All this interest focussed upon the feminist cause resulted in a plethora of plays being written with women at the centre. Vijay Tendulkar and Mahesh Dattani are two great names in this perspective. They wrote and are still writing plays which expose the hypocrisy and mistreatment meted out to the female population through generations.

Female directors, once a rarity, now occupied the forefront and names like Ipsita Chandra, Chama Ahuja, Usha Ganguli, Sheila Bhatia, B. Jayashree, Arundhuti Raje, Nadira Babbar, Anuradha Kapur, Amal Allana became household names. They were supplied with regular plays by another female brigade comprising of names like Polie Sengupta, Dina Mehta, tripurari Sharma, Uma Parameswaran, Manjula Padmanabhan, Zahida Zaidi etc. Thus Indian Theatre and Literary Feminism both became the demand of the hour and it all propagated the “politics of gender identity”.

The essays in this book address these multiple aspects of gender identity and feminism and open up doors for varied speculations. The dramatists considered are from Kalidasa to Dattani and provide as broad a spectrum as possible.

True to the process, the pattern of evolution from ancient times to the post-modern period is studied in depth and it proves Indian English thetre to be a powerful aspect of literary feminism. The politics of gender and identity is the mantra of modern India and its authenticity is the gospel of this book.

It is our firm and ardent belief that the readers of this book will enjoy and benefit from these essays, and the book itself will prove to be a substantial contribution to the study of politics of gender, identity and authenticity of feminism and Indian theatre in English.  

Pages xxiv + 390

WORLD ENGLISH LITERATURE: BRIDGING ONENESS 

(2013) ISBN 978-81-7273-705-4 

Literature, as Jean-Paul Sartre writes in his famous essay “What is Literature?” (1949), is a phenomenon that is extremely difficult to define, and he cautions the critics neither to read quickly nor pass judgements on any publication before they have first had understood the concept of ‘literature’. In simple terms, however, the English word ‘literature’, derived from the Latin ‘litterae’ denoting ‘letter’, can be understood to indicate ‘the art of written work’, and is often not confined to published sources. The four major classifications of literature are poetry, prose, fiction, and non-fiction.

This critical anthology has been titled World English Literature: Bridging Oneness. The scopes of the entire title are numerous, and hence deserve a very brief clarification. The conglomeration of three words ‘World’, ‘English’, and ‘Literature’ may result in a term that is quite complex for suitable elucidation. After the Western imperialistic ventures against the African, Asian, and South American countries especially between the 16th and 19th centuries A.D., the connotations of the apparently-simple word ‘world’ have increased multifariously. Following the 1952 classifications by Alfred Sauvy, numerous nations are presently being confronted with four ‘world’ divisions:  the ‘first world’ – a term of privilege indicating the capitalistic European and North American nations; the ‘second world’, indicating the communist and socialist including Russia and some nations of South America; the ‘third world’ usually used derisively to indicate the economically-underprivileged and apparently-unaligned Asian and African nations almost all of which are former colonies of European powers; and, the ‘fourth world’, which, according to George Manuel, should be effectively used to denote comparatively unexplored nations of indigenous people. Therefore, the signifier ‘World English’, even in the second half of the 20th century, might have produced multiple signified – ‘collections of English publications from the first world’, ‘leftist English writings by authors of the so-called second world’, ‘postcolonial writings by litterateurs of the third world’, or ‘the foruth-world writings’. The subtitle ‘Bridging Oneness’ may come as a relief for the perplexed readers and critics: it suggests that the principal aim of the present anthology is to attempt the establishment of a literary union between the writings from these different ‘worlds’.

With the rapid proliferation in the socio-cultural and economic powers of principally Asian nations – especially those of China and India – in the last two decades of the 20th and first decade of 21st centuries A.D., implication of the term ‘world’ has undergone a change once again. Presently, there is no longer any perceptible polarisation. Not only have the former colonising nations like England, France, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, have become economically weaker, their military strength, and hence the strength to alter histories of nations, have dwindled to a considerable level. The communist nations have ceased to be a major alternative bloc. Countries with indigenous people – especially Australia and Peru – have been steadily advancing efficient litterateurs, some of whom have received several international awards. The People’s Liberation Army of China is now the world’s largest military force, while the Indian Army is presently the world’s largest standing volunteer army. The demarcations between the first, second, third, and fourth worlds have been demolished. So have been the segregations in their respective literatures, and hence the necessity of ‘bridging’ respective literatures from these countries.

In the 21st century, the deciders of world fate even in early 20th century, especially England and France, have identifiably lost their power to influence global culture. On the other hand, numerous Third World inhabitants – especially Indians – have successfully permeated the Western segregatory socio-cultural curtains, compelling the English Office for National Statistics to predict in October 2005 that by A.D. 2031, England is scheduled to become a cultural colony of India. Interestingly, and paradoxically, in such changed circumstances, the term ‘world’ has re-begun to indicate the multicultural union of nations all throughout the globe, and ‘World English Literature’ now indicates those publications and literary works that are popular in both the West and the East – the Euro-American and the Afro-Asian nations. ‘English’, in the middle of the title, may simply be interpreted as a medium to ensure that the published literary works reached as many readers as possible.

It may also be asked here that why English is still relevant as a literary language, and why this critical anthology should deal with ‘world literature’ written only in ‘English’. The language of mainly the inhabitants of imperialist Britain, English became the most popular language of the world – though not with the largest number of speakers – by 1922 when the British Empire, as Angus Maddison and Niall Ferguson note, was spread approximately over thirty-three and a half million square kilometres – a quarter of earth’s total land area – and dominated around four hundred and fifty eight million people, one-fifth of world’s total population in the decade of the 1920s. Even in the early-21st century, English, in its different forms and intonations, is spoken by approximately two billion people worldwide. In India, from where the present critical anthology is being published, approximately one hundred and thirty million people speak English. There are different official languages of India, but the most infallible medium for communication between people of different states is undeniably English. Throughout the world, English is spoken in one hundred and twenty six countries. As briefly mentioned earlier, English is among the ‘safer’ language options for attracting wide readership, and even in the 21st century, English is one of the more preferred languages for literary exercises.

The English imperial domination of India for over three hundred years had galvanised its populace to learn, speak, and use English abundantly. In the 19th century, especially, the English colonisers had began to train Indians in English so that they could be deputed to draft or complete imperialism-related administrative paper-works, leading to the proliferation of the usage of the diminutive ‘writers’: the English-educated and British-collaborating Indian clerks. However, with such socio-political and intellectual movements like the Bengal Renaissance, the First Indian War of Independence, and armed anti-imperial struggles especially in Bengal, Maharastra, and Punjab, these very English-educated Indians became potential sources of threat to English imperialists. It was also during this period that the transformation of the English language from a colonisers’ tongue to a medium of effective communication across the linguistically-diverse Indian regions began. Nationalists could register their anti-English sentiments in the imperial tongue so that the inhabitants of Kerala or Andhra Pradesh, for example, could effectively understand what an anti-imperial intellectual from Maharastra or Bengal was trying to protest. Numerous regional works, some of them anti-imperialist and most of them critiques of the English rule, came to be translated into English and strengthened the Indians’ opinion against their colonisers. Even efficient and popular literary works from around the world – especially Germany, Russia, and France – were translated, and the Indian commoners could understand the anti-domination sentiments of the 18th-century enlightened Germans, anti-Tsarist Russians, or the indignant third-estate-communities of France. These entire intellectual strengthening of opinion would culminate in the Indian independence of 1947. Even after Independence, Indians, deeply read in famous literary works of different countries of the world in original or translated forms, have continued to contribute quality literature in English, and terms like ‘Indian Writing in English’, ‘Indo-Anglian Literature’ or ‘Indian English Writings’ suggest an alternative form of the usage of the English language where the so-called ‘pure’ or ‘traditional’ English words are replaced by different Indian phrases or terms, especially from Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. In a fast-changing cultural and intellectual scenario in India, one can only comprehend the importance, relevance, and necessity of studying world literatures in English.

The editors of the present critical anthology have taken an all-inclusive approach – at achieving ‘oneness’ – to ‘world literature in English’ – written in or translated into the former imperial tongue. Their principal insistence is on acquainting teachers, researchers, and post- and undergraduate students with different aspects of literary works written in English in its different ‘regional’ forms as well as in the ‘traditional’, or, if we are allowed to use the term ‘original’ avatar. This anthology contains critical approaches to works by writers from as diversified nations as England (Edward Morgan Forster, David Herbert Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Leopold Hamilton Myers, Graham Greene, and William Golding) – for no critical anthology of English writings would be successfully completed without incorporation of literary works by the inventors and popularisers of the language itself, Ireland (George Bernard Shaw), India (Mulk Raj Anand, Kamala Markandaya, Mohan Rakesh, Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, Jayanti M. Dalal, Anita Desai, Arun Joshi, Chitrita Banerji, Rohinton Mistry, Amitav Ghosh, Sharankumar Limbale, and Kiran Desai), Australia (Jack Davis), Nigeria (Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe and Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka), the United States of America (Arthur Miller, Edward Franklin Albee III, Philip Roth, and Kenneth Elton Kesey), Canada (Margaret Atwood), Kenya (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o), and South Africa (Nadine Gordimer), among others. As far as the Indian writers included in this anthology are concerned, Banerji, Mistry, Ghosh, and Kiran Desai – presently the permanent residents respectively of the U.S.A., Canada, the U.S.A., and the U.S.A. – can no longer be called ‘Indian writers’ in strictest sense of the term. They have become world-citizens – endeared to the reading public by both their artistic excellence and description of poignant reality. However, all these writers – with the exception of those belonging to the United States of America (itself an English colony until the 1780s) – are symbolically united by their belonging to countries collectively known as the ‘Commonwealth of Nations’. And, in a sense, World Literature in English: Bridging Oneness is a collection of critical approaches to different superior specimens of American and Commonwealth writings.

The term ‘Commonwealth of Nations’ has an imperialistic connotation: it indicates a congregation of England and its former colonies. However, in the postcolonial literary milieu of the 21st century, the phrase itself has become an anti-imperialistic term: it indicates the common strength of the erstwhile colonised-nations which have congregated themselves to posit socio-economic and artistic challenges against their former imperial centre – England – which finds itself surrounded by its rapidly-developing former colonies. The Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four countries, and is a forum for a number of non-governmental organisations, which strengthen the shared culture of the Commonwealth that extends through common sports, literary heritage, and political and legal practices. Due to this, Commonwealth countries are not considered to be ‘foreign’ to one another, and neither are their litterateurs who are bound together by common colonial, social, educational, and cultural experiences. It is therefore possible that several common aspects might be traced in publications, for example, by Forster, Achebe, Markandaya, Atwood, and Thiong’o. Such possibilities of commonality weave together the diverse critical essays included in the present anthology.

At Dr. B. A. M. University, Aurangabad… for a Ph. D. Viva voce in English

Just came back from Dr. B. A. M. University, Aurangabad after conducting a Ph. D. Viva-voce as an external referee. Enjoyed a very healthy and scholarly discussion generated during Viva. Prof. Dr. S.B. Deshpande (Chair), Prof. Dr. K.G.Ranveer, my friends Dr. Mustajib Khan, Mrs. Mehrunnisa Pathan, Mr. Anand Ubale, Balali Navale actively participated in discussion. Researcher Mr. Rajpankhe’s defense was wonderful. Mr. Rajpankhe (Now Dr. Mukund Rajpankhe) and Principal Dr. Samad Shaikh (Research supervisor) deserve a big congratulation. Felt very happy to meet and interact with Prof. Dr. Deshpande, Prof. Dr. Ranveer, Dr. Bharat Handibag (Dean, Arts Faculty), Principal Dr. F. A. Siddiqui, Dr. Mustajib, Mrs. Mehrunnisa and my student Vishnu Patil and few more friends and students. 

(These snaps are taken by my friend Mr. Jogdand and my student Vishnu Patil)

Inaugural Function of English Literary Association-2012-13 held on 9th October, 2012

Snaps of Inaugural Function of English Literary Association-2012-13

Held on 9th October, 2012 at Auditorium of Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir

Chairperson

Dr. S. T. Patil

(Principal, Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir)

Inaugurator

Dr. L.S. Deshpande

(Former Head, Department of English

P.N College, Nanded)

Chief Guest

Dr. Shailaja Wadikar

(Faculty, Department of English,

School of Language, Litrature & Cultural Studies

S.R.T.M.University , Nanded

Invitee

Dr. Arvind Nawale, Head,  Department of English & Faculty   

Release of my 3 more books at Solapur university.

Photos of official  release of my 3  books i) Nation with Discrimination: Literary Voices from the Subalterns ii) Rhyming with Reasons and iii) Global Responses to Literature in English published by Authorspress and ACCESS,  New Delhi  at the auspicious hands of  Hon'ble  Vice-Chancellor Dr. Babasaheb Bandagar, Hon'ble Registrar Capt.,Dr. Nitin Sonje, Hon'ble Director, BCUD, Dr. R. N. Shendage, and in presence of Dr. T.N. Kolekar, Dr. Smt. Annie John, Dr. Deepak Nanaware & Dr. S. V. Shinde of Solapur university.

My New Critical Book is released....

Nation with Discriminations: Literary Voices from the Subalterns

ISBN 978-81-921254-5-9

 Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network. The book is also available online on flipkart, infibeam, alibris,  amazon, snapdeal,  ebay, Southasiabooks and so on

First Published in 2013 by GNOSIS, New Delhi-110  016

ABOUT BOOK

Exploitation and subordination are innate human tendencies. From times immemorial, there has been hegemony of power, culture and gender in the universe. Discriminatory treatment of a vast global population has been justified on the basis of caste and colour. In most parts of Asia and Africa, this is the root for discrimination. According to UNICEF and Human Rights Watch, caste discrimination affects an estimated 250 million people worldwide. Discrimination is the detrimental treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors toward groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. They have been treated just like third-grade citizens. This bias and discriminatory treatments towards Marginal and subaltern groups affect growth of individuals, society and Nation as well.

The term ‘subaltern’ is used in postcolonial theory. Some thinkers use it in a general sense, to refer to marginalized groups and the lower classes, a person rendered without agency by his or her social status. Others, such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak use it in a more specific sense. She argues that:

“….subaltern is not just a classy word for oppressed, for Other, for somebody who's not getting a piece of the pie....In postcolonial terms, everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism is subaltern- a space of difference. Now who would say that's just the oppressed? The working class is oppressed. It's not subaltern....Many people want to claim subalternity. They are the least interesting and the most dangerous. I mean, just by being a discriminated-against minority on the university campus, they don't need the word 'subaltern'...They should see what the mechanics of the discrimination are. They're within the hegemonic discourse wanting a piece of the pie and not being allowed, so let them speak, use the hegemonic discourse. They should not call themselves subaltern” (Spivak.1994).

Dalit Literature, Subaltern Literature or Marginal Literature are complex and controversial terms to explain. But commonly it may be called as ‘Literature of Oppressed’ as it is a literature of pain, suffering, agony and protest.  It has emerged as a thought provoking, ever widening branch of literature in recent days. It deals with the oppression, suffering, psychological turmoil, ambers to overcome the indignities, shed off the backwardness, encompassing the world canvass comprising of the human values of love, aspirations, fulfillment of human needs and appeal to be treated as human being.

The words dalit, subaltern and marginal though complex and different terms refer commonly to the people who are oppressed and discriminated  because of their caste, creed, culture, race, colour, gender or religion. So the literature dealing with such oppressed people should not be categorized as literature produced by those who belong to such category. It is not ‘castiest’ literature but human literature. It can be produced by anyone who believes in human values and dignities. This ‘Literature of Oppressed’ reflected the striving of such people to gain their self-respect, dignity as a human being. Even today in the 21st century they encounter the twin tragedy of social exclusion and violence. Even the most educated emit the venom of untouchability and treat them in a prejudiced way.

The question of subalterns made a host of literary scholars restless and compelled them to ponder over this. Many writers and scholars postulated their views in their own retrospective and tried to unearth the latent concept. This anthology Nation with Discrimination: Literary Voices from the Subalterns echoes this world ridden hegemony through the diverse intellectual and analytical studies of literature across the nation at the hands of multifaceted voices from the various colleges and universities.

The volume is an endeavour to bring before its readers the vast area that Dalit, Subaltern and Marginal Literature has traveled in its journey since beginning. The contributors seriously contemplated on the problems of the outcaste, downtrodden, enslaved and untouchables and urged to make them suitable equivalent with others so that they can join in mainstream of the socio-economic, cultural, modern and civilized society. The shackles of the social evils even in 21st century have not been broken. On paper we can remove untouchablity but the centuries old disgust is still practiced in the society. In order to remove all these shackles, the present intellectual and analytical studies of this literature across the nation at the hands of various colleges and universities scholars will surely help.

New Book...

The present Anthology contains thirty critical papers and one interview dealing with the poems of Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, A.K.Ramanujan, K.N.Daruwala, R.Parthasarthy , Jayant Mahapatra, Chitra Divakaruni, Sanjukta Dasgupta, Mamta Kalia, Eunice de Souza, Agha Shahid Ali,  D.C. Chambial, Syed Ameeruddin, Rajbanshi, lmtiaz Dharker, Dr. A.P. J Abdul Kalam and Dr. A. Padmanaban, Chitra Banerjee   Divakaruni, Shiv K. Kumar, Vikram Seth   and a few others, names both familiar and unfamiliar, writings both explored and unexplored, and in all fairness these papers reflect the perceptions, preferences, prejudices and evaluations of the respective scholars. A proper reading of these critical presentations makes this amply clear that the topics are quite diverse and comprehensive and the manner in which they have been considered brings out the authors’ point of view with dexterity and conviction. It is indeed highly pertinent to discuss contemporary Indo-English Poetry in terms of Ethics and Identity, for this kind of approach does bring out new areas of thought and exploration.

The problem of ‘identity’ in relation to the Indian writing in English has been debated upon for quite a long time now, and yet all this debate leaves something palpably wanting, for the concept of identity takes us straightway to our understanding of Indian Sensibility and of Indianness in Indo-English literature. It is true that this problem springs basically from the use of the so-called ‘alien’ language that is English, in Indian Literature. However, the matter is not as simple as it looks. We may dismiss the flippant charge that English is an ‘alien’ language by stating with due firmness that the erstwhile Colonial or Imperial language is by now one of the accepted Indian languages. Nevertheless, we have to probe deeper and discover the implications of Indian sensibility or Indianness as it finds expression in Indian writing in English. ‘identity’ ‘sensibility’ and ‘Indianness’ are very subtle ,elusive and comprehensive terms,   for they partake not merely of the vehicle of expression  but also of Ethnicity and community, culture, religion, philosophy, history , sociology and anthropology. It is in the light of these vast- ranging disciplines that we may at best try to understand and explain the connotative value of these terms, concepts or ideas. Along with the Indian identity and ethos reflected in Indo-English poetry,  few scholars responded to theme of identity crisis, alienation, rootlessness, existential longing of poets and so on. Such papers are also considered in present anthology.

The term ‘ethics’, as we find it in the title of the book, does have its own significance and meaningfulness. A casual or perfunctory approach to the problem of ethics would not serve our purpose. In a changed and changing world and society, ethics, like tradition, can never remain a static proposition, and naturally so it has to undergo suitable modifications or transformations from time to time. Once again, at this point we come to a continuum of historicity with alterations. What was ethical earlier is not so in the contemporary times and likewise what was unethical in the past has come to acquire new dimensions and perspectives. In the present age of globalization which may be defined also as a living manifestation of East-West encounter, ethical values and standards cannot and should not remain fixed. In the world of literature, whether in Indian writing in English or in regional literatures, these problems are bound to have their necessary impact on the literary creation of our authors, be they poets, novelists, playwrights, or the tellers of short stories. Contemporary Indo-English poetry, luckily enough, is a living and vibrant phenomenon, and an equally living and dynamic assessment of this particular kind of literary creation has been tried to be made in the papers collected, with due and prolonged consideration, in the present anthology.

Present book covers several writers and involves several minds. It is our firm and ardent belief that the readers of this book will enjoy and benefit from these essays, and the book itself will prove to be a substantial contribution to the study of contemporary Indian Poetry in English.   

On the Fringes: Marginalised Voices in English Literature

On the Fringes:

Marginalised Voices in English Literature

ISBN 978-81-7273-657-6

AuthorsPress, New Delhi

 Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network. The book is also available online on flipkart, infibeam, alibris,  amazon, snapdeal,  ebay, Southasiabooks and so on
First Published in 2012 by Authorspress, New Delhi-110  016

As stated in the Post-Colonial Studies Reader, “Literary Resistance (LR) . . . can be seen as a form of contractual understanding between the text and the reader . . . buttressed by a political and cultural aesthetic at work in the culture. And Resistance Literature (RL) . . . can be seen as that category of literary writing which emerges as an integral part of an organised struggle or resistance for national liberation.”

With both the categories of LR and RL as the backbone of the Postcolonial theory, we know that domination is the mother of resistance and the forces of power-play. Resistance is very much conditioned by those very socio-political forces that it seeks to challenge. The birth of the Post-Colonial theory, underlines two important points:

1) Domination and resistance are mutually interdependent;

2) The Will to Power is central to both.

The difference between LR and RL is subtle and important.  If Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak explores the issue of the “subaltern voice” in one of the foundational texts of Postcolonial Studies: “Can the Subaltern Speak?” and notes that any attempt to recover the voices, perspectives and subjectivities of the socially outcaste is heavily compromised. We also have Frantz Fanon and of course, Homi Bhabha who argue in favour of the pathos of ‘cultural confusion’ so that it can be used as a strategy of political subversion. Notions of the orient “Other” and European “Self” throughout the world- and questions of identity back home and the world over have been effectively tackled by writers like Bhisham Sahni, Shashi Tharoor, Amrinder Kaur, Taslima Nasreen, Manjushree Thapa, Mahasweta Devi and of course, writers of the Dalit literature in India.  Whether it be an analysis of Tawfiq Awwad or Mongane Serote, or our very own Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, their writing put forth the marginalised subjectivity in literature. How far have the marginalised voices reached? Can they still not speak? Do other social/cultural theories offer a way out of this silence/confusion? How have the marginalised been portrayed in Literature? The present anthology On the Fringes: Marginalised Voices in English Literature attempts to explore such marginalize voices and the problem involved in crushing or establishing the “oppressive power structures”.  

From Bondages to Emancipation: Women in English Literature

From Bondages to Emancipation:

Women in English Literature

ISBN 978-81-7273-656-9

 Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network. The book is also available online on flipkart, infibeam, alibris,  amazon, snapdeal,  ebay, Southasiabooks and so on

First Published in 2012 by AUTHORSPRESS, New Delhi-110  016



ABOUT BOOK

For all we know, we inhabit the ‘postmodern’ society, where voices clash, react and converge only to split into a cacophonic harmony of new and emerging trends that influence lives as well as cultures. Yet, when it comes to the audibility of women’s voices in the amalgam of sounds, the volume is rather low---is it that they still do not have a voice?...or is it that they speak and we fail to hear them?

Working for women through various platforms gave us both these experiences and it was while ruminating on such issues, the idea of this book From Bondages to Emancipation: Women in English Literature germinated. The experiences of women reflected in literature and the myriad interpretations of those reflections by both men and women readers, seemed to be an interesting opening towards the unlocking of their urges and longings for emancipation through the media of pen and paper. Whether it be the discussion of literary theories or an analysis of literary characters, this book has made an effort to catalogue the power of women’s expressions---both reading and writing. This analysis purports to break the stereotypical belief systems that convince us that the burdens of power are too great to seek and the happiness of powerlessness is too great to leave. The prisons of predictions are broken through efforts that seek to enhance and glorify the individual destinies of women through literature.

If writing in one’s mothertongue can be alternatively deciphered as the continuatin of the idea of a female linguistic/literary heritage; a discussion of alternate models of sexuality seems to openly threaten the ideal of heteronormativism (the idea/belief that heterosexuality is the norm from which any sexual behaviour deviant is condemned as un-natural, immoral and “queer”.) In all forms there registers a strong sense of what Adrienne Rich called the “Lesbian Continuum”, which is nothing but an all-encompassing space wherein all relationships between women, sexual and non-sexual, find articulation and strength. Well, at all levels (and dealing with all forms of feminist articulations) the one thing that perpetually haunted our minds was the defining of women’s creativity as resistance and art...defining it so that the “newly found feminist” thinker in our women readers ( and to quiet an extent in the males as well) would not feel guilty...guilty of being a bad cook, guilty of being a bad mother...or the guilt of being a writer in the first place...when the vegetables were waiting to be washed in the kitchen! Writing is therapeutic, for the researcher as well as the author...and this volume aims to present in a coherent form the pressures of both various bondages  and resistance, both through a reading of the presented texts and their analysis...so that we might once again be able to possibly find a way to women’s voices...women’s emancipation! This was our attempt and we hope this volume turns out to be as such!!

Dr. Arvind M. Nawale

                                              -Dr. Sheeba Rakesh 

Feminine Fragrance: Reflections on Women’s Writing in English

Feminine Fragrance: Reflections on Women’s Writing in English

ISBN 978-93-81030-28-8.

GNOSIS, New Delhi

Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network. The book is also available online on flipkart, infibeam, alibris,  amazon, snapdeal,  ebay, Southasiabooks and so on
First Published in 2012 by GNOSIS, New Delhi

Indian writing in English has been acclaimed around the world for its innovation, radical new approaches to the art of storytelling and reworking of language. While the older generation continues to produce literary masterworks, a newer generation of writing talent has emerged, ensuring that the fount of imagination in the country has not run dry. Women writers in India are moving forward with their strong and sure strides, matching the pace of the world. We see them bursting out in full bloom spreading their own individual fragrances. They are recognized for their originality, versatility and the indigenous flavor of the soil that they bring to their work. The works of women novelists in English mirror the exact realistic picture of contemporary world where innocence is suffocating in the ‘blood- dimmed tide’ of corruption, where women are supposed to be just a doll in the hands of men, where there is a prevailing sense of gender discrimination in an average house of India, where the helpless women have to bear the brunt of patriarchal domination.

One evident trait among all the contemporary women writers in Indian writing in English is the revolutionary spirit with which they strive to write. Indian women English writers have quietly and confidently gone about putting to shape their literary endeavors letting the product do the talking, which it has done most eloquently, establishing Indian English Literature as an inextricable part of Indian literature. Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Nayantara Sahgal, Shobha De, Manju Kapur , Shashi Deshpande, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bapsi Sidewa, Anjana Appachana, Sumathi Sudhakar, Suniti Namjoshi, Jhumpa Lahiri, Veena Paintal and Nargis Dalal have added new dimensions and depth to Indian fiction in English. In the exploration of the consciousness or the psychological state of human mind, Anita Desai has been appropriately compared to the powerful British fiction writer, Virginia Woolf. These women writers particularly shared experiences of Indian women in general and presented them into fictional form. Women’s inner-self, their agonies, their pleasures are better and more truly depicted by the women novelists. The reason may be the flowering of the educated women who began to feel an increasing urge to voice their feelings.

The present volume Feminine Fragrance: Reflections on Women’s Writing in English, is intended to focus on some of the latest perspectives on noted Indian Women Novelists. This volume comprising twenty-four scholarly papers offer a critical appraisal of some of the outstanding Indian women writers works and gives varied and analytic interpretation of their work. Above all the volume provides the whole critical and historical perspectives that have made it a commendable scholarly engagement. It marks a significant contribution to academic research on both women’s writing and Indian English literature.

New Book Panorama of World Literature

Panorama of World Literature

ISBN 978-81-7273-653-8

AuthorsPress, New Delhi      

Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network. The book is also available online on flipkart, infibeam, alibris,  amazon, snapdeal,  ebay, Southasiabooks and so on

First Published in 2012.

Blurb

If World literature is the sum total of the whole thing ever written, we have to pact not only with an never-ending array of texts but also with a plethora of local histories and competing literary cultures, which may not have anything bordering on an overall history even if such a mass of literary bits and pieces could be mastered and presented.World literature refers to literature from all over the globe, including African literature, American literature, Arabic literature, Asian literature, Australasian literature, Caribbean Literature, English literature, European literature, Indian literature, Latin American literature, Persian literature, Russian literature and so on. Although anthologies on "World Literature" have often used the term to market a largely European canon, the past three decades have given rise to a much more expansive conception of literary interest and value. Recent books such as David Damrosch's What Is World Literature?, for instance, define world literature as a category of literary production, publication and circulation, rather than using the term evaluatively. A multitude of scholars wrote on writers across the World and contributed to bring out this anthology. Though it cannot present the entire treasure of World literature, it will become successful in archieving the desired goal of the research scholars.

The present anthology Panorama of World Literature puts together incisive and highly rated articles on almost all the important writers of literature across the world. It includes perceptive and analytical interpretations of literary scholars.

Global Responses to Literature in English ISBN 978-81-7273-652-1

 My New Book Global Responses to Literature in English with Dr. Amrendra Sharma, Dhofar University, Oman

ISBN 978-81-7273-652-1

Editors
Capt. Dr. Arvind M. Nawale
Department of English,Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir, Dist: Latur (M.S.) India
Dr. Amrendra K. Sharma
Department of Languages & Transaltion,Dhofar University,
 Salalah, Sultanate of Oman.

New book Insights into Indian English Fiction and Drama

New book

Insights into Indian English Fiction and Drama

ISBN 978-81-921254-3-5

ACCESS, New Delhi

English literature is an established genre in India with about a 150 years’ history, and recently, along with the global migration of Indian people as the result of the economic liberalization, we see not only the domestic writers but also a great many NRI  writers publishing their work in their countries of residence. Their works are very useful in promoting the interest in and the understanding of Indian culture by English-speaking people. Indian English literature originated as a necessary outcome of the introduction of English education in India under colonial rule. In recent years it has attracted widespread interest, both in India and abroad. It is now recognized that Indian English literature is not only a part of Commonwealth literature, but also occupies a great significance in the World literature. Today, a number of Indian writers in English have contributed substantially to modern English literature.

It is generally agreed that the fiction and drama are the most suitable literary form for the exploration of experiences and ideas in the context of our time, and Indian English fiction and drama occupies its proper place in the World literature. There are critics and commentators in England and America who appreciate Indian English novels and dramas. Indian writers of fiction and drama discovered a whole new world. Indian English novelists and dramatists defined the area, and brought the Indo-Anglian novel and drama within hailing distance of the latest novels and dramas of the West. They established the suppositions, the manner, the concept of character, and the nature of the themes which were to give the Indian novel and drama its particular distinctiveness.

The present anthology puts together incisive and highly rated articles on almost all the important Indian novelists and dramatists in English. It goes on to include  perceptive and analytical articles on the renowned novelists and playwrights  such as Arundhati Roy, R.K Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Arun Joshi, Arvind Adiga, Anita Desai, Makarand Paranjape, Shashi Despandey, Rohinton Mistry, Shobha De, Chetan Bhagat, Amitav Ghosh, Badal Sircar, Tendulkar, Indra Parthasarathy, Girish Karnad,  Mahesh Dattani, Mohan Rakesh and so on

National Conference on Peace and Harmony in Literature held at Nehru College, Hubli during 7-8 Feb 2012

National Conference on 'Peace and Harmony in Literature' 

held at Nehru College, Hubli during 7-8 Feb 2012

GCC Banglore International Conference on "Recent Trends in Literature: A Global perspective" 27-28 Jan 2012, Banglore

GCC Banglore International Conference on "Recent Trends in Literature: A Global perspective" 27-28 Jan 2011, Banglore

At releasing of first issue of Thematics Journal of Commomnwealth Literature, A Peer-Reviewed International journal, (ISSN 2250-3803) with Professor Dr Avadesh Kumar Singh, Dr Ashok Hunbadi (Dharwad University), Ramesh Chavhan (Chief Editor),  Prof. Dr D. T. Angedi (Chief Editor, Deccan International Peer-Reviewed Journal For English Literary Studies, )  , Dr. P. Kannan (Dharwad University) and Prof Dr Payel Dutta Chowdhary (GCC, Banglore)

A Literary Interview of Sharankumar Limbale

Dr. Sharankumar Limbale: A Dominant Literary Voice Striving for Liberty, Justice and Humanity for Dalits

A Literary Interview by Capt. Dr. Arvind Nawale

“Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's thoughts and movements inspired me to write.  

 The pains and pangs of Indian Dalits are subjects of my literature. I stand for   human dignity. The world of oppressed is battlefield for me.”  

    - Sharankumar Limbale

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The Present interview is published in my book Nation with Discrimination, ISBN 978-81-921254-5-9, ACCESS, NEW DELHI

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Sharankumar Limbale (b. 1956), a well-known Dalit activist, writer, editor, critic and  author of 40 books is one among the most renowned Dalit voices in India. Most of his writings are in Marati and translated into English and other languages. At present, he is working as a Professor Regional Director (Pune Division) of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik. He is a good academician as well as a writer and he occupied so many positions till date. He is an illustrious writer and his writings mostly rest on the Dalit struggle and identity. He is known for his poetry, short stories and particularly for his master-piece, autobiography Akkarmashi (2004). His autobiography is written in Marati language and translated into Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Punjabi, Gujarathi, Malayalam languages. Anyhow, it caught the attention of the world especially after translated into English as The Outcaste by Santhosh Bhoomkar. He got many awards and won the wider acclaim from the public for his literary talents. His critical work Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Studies  (2004) is considered as a  most resource book on Dalit criticism. He is a member of many academic and cultural organizations and many scholars did and engaged in active research on his writings. He won prestigious 14 awards for his literary and social contribution. His other books include Udrek [poetry collection], Bahujan, Zund, Hindu, Upalya,[ novels] Dalit Brahman,[ short stories] Dalit Sahityache Saundarya Shastra[ criticism] and so on.

Email: sharankumarlimbale@yahoo.com

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AN: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Please tell us a little about yourself. Who is true Sharankumar Limbale? Dr. Sharankumar Limbale, a Professor or Sharankumar Limbale a Dalit writer.  Which Limbale you love most?

SL: Sharankumar Limbale as an author. I love my writing because of it’s commitment to the movement and masses. I am writing for social change. It is my responsibility being an author and born as dalit. I am tightly fastened with expectons of downtroddens. I can’t survive witout masses. I am not human being but a living weapon. I am a war. My writig is a battlefield. It is my noble duty to write for dalits.

AN: Who/what made you want to write?

SL: Thoughts of Dr. Ambedkar and dalit movement inspired me to write. Atrocities against dalit made me to react. My writing is reaction against brutal and unhuman caste system. Equality, freedom, justice, democracy are streams of my blood. I never tolerate injustice against common man irrespective of his caste. I want to see a beautiful Nation without exploitation, corruption and atrocities. From thousands of years dalits are neglected. Now we are aware of our rights and power. Dalit literature is a manifesto of our movement. My life is part and parcel of dalit movement. Movement is MY LIFE.

AN: You are one of the major voices in Dalit literature. How Dr. Ambedkar’s writing and thoughts influenced on writer in you? Can you say about your journey as a Dalit writer?  Apart from Dr. Ambedkar, who else has made an impact on your writing?

SL: I am writing from my school days but it was an immitaion of high caste authors. It was not true feelings. I came in contact with dalit movement in my youth and I am changed totally. This change is new birth for me. It made me to march towards masses. But it is true the writing of Marathi progressive writers influenced me in my college days to think.

AN: What books have most influenced your life most?

SL: An Annihilation of Caste by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Golpeetha by Namdev Dhasal and Baluta by Daya Pawar. These books are search lights in my life.

AN: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

SL: I want to be an author. It was  my lovable dream. But dalit movement made me dalit writer. Now I can’t write imaginative, false and entertainment literature.

AN:  Will you please tell us something about your childhood memories? How was your parentage and bringing up all about? Is this background flowered writer in you?

SL: I have written my autobiography The Out Caste: Akkarmashi. It is published by oxford university press. Please see it. I have written everything in it. It is not an autobiography of a person but a social document of dalits. It is helpful to understand me as well as dalit community and its struggle.

AN: What inspired you to write your much acclaimed autobiography, The Outcaste?

SL: My different and defamed life story. Daya Pawar wrote his autobiography named Baluta and then Laxman Mane wrote his autobiography Upara. These two books are well received and debated. There was need to come forward and to continue this literary form. This was the beginning. I feel to place me on public front because my life has social meaning. It is the example of dalit community how they are harassed. I have written this book for social cause.

AN: How did you come up with the title The Outcaste?

SL: I, translator Santosh Bhoomkar and editor Mini Krishanan of this book decided the title. It is matched the original Akkarmashi.

AN: How your family helps in your writing,

SL: No.... no. they are uneducated. I took help from my friends. I had discussed with them when I was writing. This was beginning period. No one knows how to write and what to write a dalit autobiography. Daya Pawar was pathfinder. We followed him.

AN: How your family members react on your confessional mode of writing? Was there no disliking on your confessional mode?  For example- You described in your The Outcaste in very frank language how you are outcaste, your childhood where you and your fellow Dalits were brazen out with grinding poverty and hunger as well as rank inequity by high-caste Indians. You described bigoted incidents in your public school where you and other Dalit children were expected to accept leftover food from the high caste children. You also were not allowed to draw water from public wells. You had to wait for high caste people to draw the water for you and pour it into your hands or cups. You exposed about how Dalit women have been either beguiled or forced into sexual encounters with high caste men.  The high caste men, who think touching a Dalit might "pollute" them, never think themselves ‘polluted’ while raping a Dalit woman. What were reactions of your family and relatives after publication of book?

SL: At the first time of publication, I had been attacked by every one of my family and community. When my autobiography received and well debated I became a hero, then the resistance became normal.

AN: Is any distressing/embarrassing experience you faced after publication of The Outcaste?

SL: Before publishing the book only my villagers were known that I am an outcaste boy. Even today sometime I faced ill-treatment especially in marriage engagement of my children, but not in movement and social life.

AN: Are experiences depicted in your writing based on someone else you know, or events in your own life?

SL: Movement is person for me, friend for me, society for me, life for me and mother for me. I have depicted only the movement.

AN: Name few others that you feel supported you outside of family members.

SL: My friends. Suryanarayan Ransubhe, Nishikant Thakar, Laxman Gaikwad, N. M. Shinde, Hrishekesh Ayachit and others.

AN: Are you feeling optimistic about the possibilities for creating social change through your literary work? Do you think it’s important for writers to be socially active?

SL: Yes.

AN: What is your biggest struggle with your writing?

SL: Time is the biggest struggle.

AN: What are some of the unexpected and notable responses to your writings?

SL: The great writer Amaruta Pritam, Kamaleshwar, Rajendra Yadav, Ramnika Gupta, Alok Mukharjee, Arun Mukharjee, Hon. Sushilkumar Shinde, Ajit Kour are the persons who admired me always.

AN: You got many awards and won the wider acclaim from the public for your literary talents. That's really great! How have your life and/or your relationship with writing changed since such awards?

SL: No ...no. Awards are only recognitions. Awards can help to reach public at large but can’t change writing process. I am not writing for any awards. I am writing for social cause.

AN: With the growing translation of works by Dalit writers from various regional languages into English, Dalit literature is on the edge to attain a national and an international attendance as well as to masquerade a major defy to the traditional concepts of what forms literature and how we read it. What do you think about it?

SL: We have to understand caste system of India, and then we can understand dalit literature in true sense. But it is impossible for every reader. Literature is a mirror of society. One can understand the social structure of Indian society which is based on discrimination and inequality thorough dalit literature. No one can read dalit literature for the entertainment. It is a literature of social cause and for social change. Reader can know social reality about Indian dalits thorough dalit literature. One can take inspiration to struggle against injustice in his life. Dalit literature is a noble message to live and let live as human.

AN: What do you think of future of Dalit literature?

SL: Whenever there is caste system and inequality in society dalit literature will be there to defend human values.

AN: What do you think the future holds for a Dalit writer?

SL: We should think to rebuild beautiful and progressive India. We should work together to minimize the age-old gap between dalit and non dalits. We should prepare to ready for new changes because of globalization. We should talk on national problems. We should talk on population, unemployment and command man. We should talk on brotherhood and sisterhood.

AN: What aesthetic considerations should be taken into account in interpreting Dalit writing?

SL: I have explained in detail in my book Towards An Esthetics Of Dalit Literature published by Orient Longman.

AN: Is it appropriate to apply to Dalit literature, the criteria used in assessing the work of non-Dalit writers generally, and high-caste Hindu writers in particular?

SL: Why not? How can we compel literary critics to follow our parameters? One can use his criteria to assess dalit literature. It is another way to understand the dalit literature. It will help us to know other side of our literature and we should welcome our critics. This is the healthy way. We should welcome and appreciate our critics. It is the need to assess the dalit literature on base of art, but no one dare

AN: Your novel, Hindu translated from the Marathi into English, mirrors present-day conflicts in India and intensely demonstrates the negations within most individuals, their negotiations, densities  and the plight of women who suffer gender discrimination regardless of their caste. Please tell where did the seed for this novel come from and how did you develop it?

SL: I have written trilogy. Hindu is second novel in this trilogy. I want good translator to translate this trilogy.

AN: What kind of criticism you longs to have on your writing?

SL: Very welcoming, encouraging and supportive.

AN: What are you working on now? What can we expect soon?

SL: I am writing in Marathi. Only Marathi readers can read me soon.

AN: Thanks. Let your pen run and should keep on running for issues around you. All the best for your future literary ventures.

- Capt. Dr. Arvind Nawale