On Theorizing Indian Literatures and Cultures

         As a researcher in Indian literarures, languages and cultures, my interest in Semiotics of Culture as a theoretical framework developed by the scholars of the Tartu- Moscow School of semiotics especially Juri Lotman ( 1922-1993) stems from the fact that it:

I) Sees meaning as being essentially ‘translational’ and ‘culture’ as essentially multilingual  by underscoring the fact that no meaning-making system can exist in isolation or can be autonomous ( in contrast to Saussure) ……this core assumption makes it pertinent to Indian society which is mindbogglingly diverse and multilingual

II) sees literature (printed or oral or performative) as belonging to a expansive category of artistic texts thus going beyond the restrictive and colonial print-centric view of literature ..it can allow us to understand the dialogic and translational exchanges between the printed or oral literary texts and  texts from cinema, paintings, dance or music

III) is of significant theoretical relevance to Comparative Indian Literatures.  The notion of vertical isomorphism of the semiospheres existing in dialogic interactions with each other at multiple levels  allows us to conceptualize a heterogeneous and stochastic ‘Indian semiosphere’ ( and consequently Indian literatures as being generated by the Indian semiosphere)made up of multiple semiospheres like ‘Marathi’ or “Gujarati’ semiospheres and these semiospheres can be conceptualized as being heterogeneous and stochastic in their own right, interacting dialogically with one another, different spaces within and interacting dialogically with cultural traditions and cultural histories that are neither specific to Marathi nor Gujarati (Sanskrit, Prakrit,  Perso-Arabic, European, Chinese, and so on).

The notion of semiosphere can also equip us to describe the cultural mechanisms underlying what Dionyz Durisin terms ' interliterary processes'. 

Similarly one can conceptualize ‘South Asian Semiosphere’ or ‘Asian Semiosphere’ or a Planetary Semiosphere that generates ‘ world literature’.

One can also understand gender, class and caste as semiospheres. 

IV) is a radical model of cultural historiography

 

a) It sees cultural historiography itself as a narrative and translational activity involving retrospective narrative reconstruction (translation) of cultural history (which is primarily unpredictable and irreversible) into the explanatory languages of the present ( e.g Habermasian sociology , Butler’s gender studies, Foucauldian analysis of discourse, governmentality or biopolitics )

b) it is a model of cultural change that highlights  differential and non-linear modes of development of the diverse co-existing meaning-making systems…for instance fashion, food and caste change at differential rates and poetry using the poetics of the 1940s ( the Ravi-Kiran Mandal lyricism ) can co-exist with the poetry using the avant-garde poetics of 60s in Marathi

c) It is a model of cultural change that views mechanisms of cultural change as being primarily ‘translational’….. it views the underlying mechanism in the generation of ‘the new’ as being translational

V) It provides tools and ideas for practical criticism of texts and their contexts

 The notions of semantic tropes, ‘the text-within-text, plot , the idea of symbol as plot-gene, continuous- discrete ( visual to verbal) dialogics and so on.

VI)

 The mainstream academic cultural studies in India due to its excessive reliance on French, American and British theories (which are monolingual, deterministic in orientation) has failed to come to terms with multilingual and chaotic social and cultural realities of India . 

Its lack of  critical self awareness can be seen in the fact that as it criticizes modernity ( with the ideas of nation or science) as being universalist, Euro-centric and elite on the one hand it has no  issues  uncritically accepting  ‘ Critical Theory’ whose roots go back to Frankfurt or Birmingham or Paris as if they are non-universalist, non-Eurocentric and non-elite.

The mainstream academic cultural studies have become reductive as it sees ‘political interpretation’ as the absolute horizon for all interpretation’ (as Jameson puts it)…. and extremely predictable almost conventional.  However the conceptualization of culture in semiotics of culture  subsumes the political as it sees cultural as fundamentally i) heterogeneous ii) asymmetrical iii) chaotically dynamic and iv) constructivist in terms of epistemology and cognition (seeing semiotic systems as ‘modelling’ systems)…in a sense subsumes political to the cultural rather than reduce the cultural to the political.

My Articles using Semiotics of Culture for Indian literatures :
 i) Indian Writing in English
ii) Indian Poetry in English
iii) Namdeo Dhasal and Dalit Literature
iv)  Modern and Modernism in Gujarati
v)  Avant-garde Gujarati literature
vi) Poetics and Politics of Self-translation

References:

Lotman,Juri. Culture and Explosion. Ed. Marina Grishakova. Trans. Wilma Clark.Berlin and New York. Mouton de Gruyter. 2009. 

--- “On the semiosphere.” Translated by Wilma Clark.  Sign Systems Studies 33.1, 2005

---‘ The Text within the Text’ . (1981) Trans. Jerry Leo, Amy Mandelker , PMLA, Vol. 109, No. 3 (May, 1994), pp. 377-384

---“ Technological Progress as a Problem in the Study of Culture”, trans.  Ilana Gomel Poetics Today, Duke University Press Vol. 12, No. 4, National Literatures/Social Spaces (winter, 1991), pp. 781-800. 

---Universe of the Mind. A Semiotic Theory of Culture. Bloomington/ Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1990. 

---‘Culture as Collective Intellect And Problems Of Artificial Intelligence’, trans. Ann Shukman, Russian Poetics in Translati0n,  No. 6, 1979, pp 84-96

---‘ The Poetics of Everyday Behaviour in the Eighteenth Century Russian Culture’, Translated by Andrea Beesing from “Poetika bytovogo povedeniia v russkoi kul’ture XVIII veka,” Trudy po znakovym sistemam, no.8 (Tartu, 1977), pp.65-89.

Masculinity, Modernity and Other Miseries: Kiran Nagarkar's Cuckold

I have only one word to describe it.Stunning. I havent read anything like this before. I don't know why I did not read it sooner.Superbly dramatic in treatment, full of wicked twists and turns in its plotting, amazingly passionate, imaginative and heartbreaking, it is one of the best novels written by an Indian novelist. Nagarkar has put in an impressive amount of research into this novel. It is way better than the `NRI  and imported' navel-gazing 'diaspora exile' horseshit fiction euphemistically named as the post-colonial Indian novel. It is far better than pseudo-intellectual  wordplay and phoney `India' of Rushdie and company, which keeps po-co theory happy academicians contented. It bears no signs of what Meenakshi Mukherjee terms as "anxiety of Indianness", or colonial hang up of any sort. It does not deliver what the western readers want: a consumer friendly India which reinforces the existing stereotype image of India.

The story is about a hopeless love triangle, ` the stuff for a bad nautanki'. One angle of the triangle, the woman named Little Saint or Greeneyes ( more widely known as Meerabai)  is of one of the greatest poets on the sub-continent , the third angle of the triangle is none other than the Bhai of the Whole Universe Himself a.k.a Jagadish a.k.a the God with thousand names, and the angle from which the story is told is of an unknown figure in Indian history, the Cuckold, the Prince of Mewar, Maharaj Kumar, the narrator.

Maharaj Kumar is essentially an anachronism: a modern man trapped into a feudal society of 16th or 17th century Rajasthan. The narrator achieves immediacy by his predicament and by his colloquial, and ironic wit. He is living in a society which glorifies manhood, death in battlefield, bravery and machismo to no end. Maharaj Kumar appreciates none of these values. His role model, ironically, is the Bhai who he feels is having a steamy affair with his wife. The Bhai, also known as Ranchod,  we all know did not mind turning his back to  his enemy and running away from the battlefield for strategic advantage. Maharaj Kumar doesnt mind using some of the Bhai's strategies in politics and battlefield. Maharaj Kumar defies all conventions in personal and public life. He is interested in sewage systems of his town and acquiring newer technology in the battlefields, instead of living on jingoism of Rajput bravery. His military strategies are absolutely non-Rajput and ahead of times. Maharaj Kumar's stratagems seem to belong more to Kiran Nagarkar's ancestor - Shivaji- rather than the Rajputs who preferred to take huge armies head on  rather than retorting to guerrilla surprise attack-and escape tactics. Thus he invites sneer, contempt and charges of not being manly enough from his contemporaries.He is stigmatized as a cuckold, a `ball less man' in his personal as well as political life.
He is not a `good' man. He beats Greeneyes, he tries to rape his wife on the very first night and consequently injures his member. Virgins terrify him. He fails to `rise to the occasion' on the first night of his second marriage to another woman, who goes into the arms of his more `manly' brother Vikramaditya, thus getting cuckolded twice. The Prince goes on to dress as Krishna at night to win over Greeneyes, who one day dresses him in woman's clothes and she becomes Krishna herself as part of Bhakti frenzy!  This Maharaj Kumar is a victim of the patriarchal society as he fails to conform to the established norms of masculinity. He is humiliated on all fronts. Interestingly, Maharaj Kumar takes it with calm stoic irony, without self pity or melodrama. Kiran Nagarkar, a film actor himself, manages to enter the role of Maharaj Kumar and speak to us with great intimacy and humour. His story is an heart breaking story of a brilliant man caught in an old world which is to go away and the new world which is yet to be born.

The epic sweep of the novel reveals very vividly delineated cast of unforgettable characters, apart from Maharaj Kumar. His dad Rana Sanga, Kumar's scheming step mother Karmavati, Kumar's two wives, his mistresses,his friend Mangal and the nemesis, Badshah Babur, for whom Kumar feels affinity and who is about to change the history of the subcontinent forever. The plot is full of sinister intrigues, suspense, and very wicked and unexpected turns which keep you glued to the book. The end, of course, is as unexpected as it goes. Nowhere does one get bored by sheer number of pages.

The research is extremely meticulous and thorough. The battle strategies, court intrigues,games, religious and social customs, mores , research into town planning, espionage, cultural mores  are described with all vividness and freshness. It is a model for those who want to write historical fiction. It succeeds as fiction, first and foremost, and the historical research in no place jars or bores the reader. A must read for the readers who don't get carried away marketing hypes or are bored by Booker hyped `canned India' type novels and for those who feel that the great Indian novel in English has not yet arrived.

The novel can be contrasted with Nagarkar's Ravan and Eddie which is bawdy and hilarious celebration of the power of Mumbai over the lives of people.

The novelist who showed great promise as the writer of Saat Sakam Trechalis in Marathi with his intensity, craftsmanship and dramatic story telling skills ,has delivered his very best in English. The novel also is reminiscent of Nagarkar's colleague and friend Arun Kolatkar's treatment of history, myth and legend in his poetry.

Read more reviews of Cuckold by clicking the links below:
i) At Amazon
ii) At Goodreads

The Aging Caliban

I was in Pune for a national seminar on Indian Writing in English and in English translation and guess who came for the key note address? Our good ole' Nemade! He is the Asharam Bapu of Marathi literature. I saw him for the first time. He looked so pitiable that if I had seen him earlier, I would not have said nasty things that I have said about him. He was gloriously inane and went around flogging around the non-existent bush for an hour or two and said absolutely nothing. He said hilarious things like,`Bilingualism is a disease. Monolingualism is health' and such similar things. Well, he said all these things in English. This guy has made his living teaching English and chairing the Tagore Chair of comparative literature at the University of Mumbai. He did his MA in English, instead of Marathi. I think it is hypocrisy that is a disease and not bilingualism or multilingualism. An Aging Caliban is a pitiable creature, especially when he goes round in circles like a dog trying to catch his own tail. I felt sorry for him. May God of Tukaram confer peace upon him and may he be reborn in the 17th century in his next birth.

Otherwise the conference was as good as or as bad as any other conferences of the kind. The older teachers of English looked like as if they were teaching a fifth standard classroom and the younger teachers were equally superficial in their pursuit of more fashionable trends. Boring. I don't see any hope for the Eng. Lit academia.

My paper was on a comparative analysis of Indian Writing in English and in English translation from the point of translation studies. My paper provoked a lot of discussion. According to Madhurita it was because people understood my paper.The discussion, however, was not regarding my paper but on basics of translation. The same old debates regarding `loss' of translation, transcreation and how will you translate... kind of elementary things. I said the idea of `loss' or `gain' in translation is relative to the position of the observer. If you know the source language then a translation from that language will probably always look like a loss and if you don't know the source language, that is you are the person for whom translation is done, than any translation however `bad' is a gain. People are unable to understand relativity. They think their location is absolute. Then there were questions regarding `transcreation' and I replied that there is no need to float this word as the idea of creativity and divergence from the source text is already implict in the term translation. Then there was this senior gentleman who claimed to have read `the latest' in translation studies and that there was this term `transcreation' which was applied to freerer versions. I said that I did not mind if someone uses this term but I do not see the point of using it and that ` rewriting' is a pretty good term as it is more inclusive of various forms of cross cultural interactions. I also said that the term translation has many meanings and was more of a metaphor a trope. The senior gentleman who had read the latest did not understand what is a metaphor or trope. So much for his seniority and his latest reading of translation theory.

There were questions about the role of translator and strategies of translation. I replied that how one translates will depend on why one wants to translate and who you are translating for. Madhurita asked me which analogy or trope will I use for translation between two bhashas. I said that the Sahitya Akademi uses the term `aadan pradan'. I said that translation between the bhashas does not mean that there is no inequality between the languages and I gave example of the Bengali and the Odiya languages. Come to think of it, a metaphor for translation between the bhashas can be ` cross border terrorism'. But overall, I enjoyed my trip as I could catch up with friends and relatives.

The Ghati in his Ghats

The ghati is in his ghats. In Panchgani after a long time. I am here for a national seminar on Postmodernism in Indian Fiction in Phaltan and I grabbed up this opportunity to catch up with Shirish and Nanda at Panchgani.

Panchgani is the land of five plateaus a ravishing tourist spot in Maharashtra and my association with this place is well over fifteen years since Nanda and Shirish joined Sanjeevan Vidyalaya as art teachers. There were times when I almost come here every year in my vacations. Now after my marriage this is the second time that I am here. I love this place for its silver oaks, schools, dense rain forests, its plateaus, valleys and mists. If you are a student here it is an entirely different world here and I would have loved to study here.

Arrived at Pune in the morning at around eight. I had boarded Indore Pune express after completing Amogh’s birthday bash yesterday. In a nostalgic mode, I asked myself how emotionally close I am to Maharashtra though I have not actually stayed here for a stretch of time. The earthiness and ordinariness of common people in Maharashtra is different from the counterpart world in Gujarat. Though I have always considered myself a ` Gujarati’ person speaking Marathi, I felt that it is Maharashtra which gives me that at home feeling. It is strange not to belong to either world.

Will leave for Phaltan, the land of Nimbalkars tomorrow morning for the conference and I am going to talk about `postmodernism’ in Indian fiction in English. My argument would be the postcolonial novel of Rushdies and Diasporas is not the true postmodern novel, because the postmodern spirit, as discussed by Lyotard is the true non-conformist avant-garde art which does not play it to the gallery. The Post colonial novel is novel which is to use Vilas Sarang’s phrase, ` prisoner of market place’ and prey to international fads. The themes of migrant experiences, diasporas, national allegories, colonial experience etc are done to death by the post colonial novel. I will talk about Suniti Namjoshi and Vilas Sarang as people who truly embody the postmodern spirit.

The previous blog entry was about reduction in medication and increase in physical exercise. But a week ago I went to consult pulmonologist regarding why I feel out of breath after climbing stairs. He did lung test and diagnosed `moderate to severe’ asthma and put me on a heavy dose of steroids and strict diet regime. The medication has unsettled me completely. My sleep hours have diminished but I feel more energetic and productive. But breathlessness shows no sign of improvement even today.

During the first week of medication, the doctor said that I would feel extra hungry and I would have cut down on sweets, fried, salty and spicy stuff. Ashwini put me on salad diet and after a week I shed almost seven to eight kilos of water! Now I am worried if I wont undo the loadshedding and become unmanageable....

I don’t know what lies in store for me in the future. Asthma has definitely returned to haunt my life in more serious ways after I moved to Baroda. And I am groping in the dark to latch on to something…… anything…