Our ‘Alumni
Meet’, held at our Alma Mater Dayanand Arts College, Latur on 25/05/2013, made
me nostalgic. The days we had spent
together in the campus were recollected. The meet was a blend of meeting old
batch-mates, recollecting memories and enjoying speeches and cultural treat
followed by dinner. All the batches of alumni have been invited to share/mark
their journey on occasion of Golden Jubilee Celebration of our Alma Mater to be
held on 1 June 2013 in special presence of His Highness the President of India
Shree. Pranab Mukherjee. There were about 500 alumni who made this meet a huge
success. A huge chunk of them, of course, were from M.A. (English, Marathi,
Hindi and Pub.Adm.) batches. Felt very happy to meet and share with my friends
and classmates Dr. Anand Kulkarni, (BoS member, Pune University), Dr Dhananjay
Deolalkar, (Elphinstone College, Mumbai), Principal Dr. Anita Mudkanna (Andur),
Dr. Chaya dapake (Osmanabad), Urmila Dharashive, Dr. Pandurang Shitole, Dr.
Balasaheb Bhosale (Latur),. Also met to Suryakant Kapase, Lahu Shewale, Dr.
Sunil Salunke, Dr. Shahuraj Mule, Dr. Srikant Andhare (Dy Registrar), Dr.
Pradeep Suryawanshi and other friends and batch mates. I wish a grand success
to Golden Jubilee Celebration of my Alma Mater.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
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
Tuesday, January 1, 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.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
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)
Friday, October 12, 2012
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
Sunday, October 7, 2012
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.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
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.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
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.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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
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
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
Thursday, March 29, 2012
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
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.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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.
Monday, March 26, 2012
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 .
Capt. Dr. Arvind M. Nawale
Department of English,Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir, Dist: Latur (M.S.)
Dr. Amrendra K. Sharma
Department of Languages & Transaltion,
Saturday, March 24, 2012
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
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 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)
Monday, December 19, 2011
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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