Paper short abstract:

This paper will investigate the relative positions of dominance and resistance and will look at the relative position of dominance and resistance against the 'hidden' ideologies that steer the appraisal and acceptance of Hindi writing of the modern period.

Paper long abstract:

Dominance and resistance are not constant position in any society or cultural field. In Indian culture of the period just before and after Independence, several political movements and interests have intervened in the struggle for dominance in society, with the current globalisation and capitalist development of the last decades as a preliminary end result. During this tumultuous century of Indian modernity, the notions of dominance and of resistance have shifted positions quite a few times. The current paper will, on the one hand, analyze the relative location of these two poles, and perhaps also indicate constant factors which determines their coordinates. One can think of their orientation towards either worldly or transcendent values as one of these lines of force. Westernized vs authentic is another interesting opposition in this respect which has changed from being dominant to resisting, and back to dominant again. On the other hand, this paper will pursue an empirical path and look at texts which define significant markers of dominance or resistance in a given period. It will quote from the modernist period (Manto vs Premcand) and more recent writing.

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Paper short abstract:

After a survey of the numerous mock-myths and narratives of displaced gods and divines, I will discuss such satirical inversions with reference to the notion of counter-narrative and try to position and interpret satirical counter-mythology in modern South Asian literary culture.

Paper long abstract:

It is well-known that mythologies in modern (and also premodern) South Asia have time and again been challenged by counter-narratives in socio-political discourses of

self-assertion (e.g. by certain Bhakti authors, by the Dravidian movement, by Dalits,

Marxists, feminists etc.). But since the 19th century, the majority of literary

"counter-mythologies", I argue, is not of any such programmatic kind but rather belongs

to the unruly field of satirical and quite often humorous literature. It is part of one

specifically modern way of engaging with the realm of mythology on the part of mostly

(but not only) Hindu authors.

I propose to look into such diverse materials as Vedic hymns to the railway (Radhacharan Goswami), Shiva's visits to contemporary Chennai (Putumaippittan) or North Ireland (Jayanta V. Narlikar), Ganapati hiding his trunk under a burqa while travelling on a bus through post-Independence Maharashtra (C.V. Joshi), or a variety of anti-Ramayanas (Michael Madhusudan Datta and others).

In the ensuing analysis, I will discuss these satirical inversions with reference to the

concept of counter-narrative. After generally distinguishing various kinds of

transpositions and inversions I will try to position and interpret satirical counter-mythology in modern literary culture.

Paper short abstract:

Is the aesthetic pattern of Bengali popular films experiencing changes now? Are the nascent forms really posing challenges to the dominant politics of representation? How can it be conceptualized? This paper tries to address these questions considering the recent popular movements in West Bengal.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the aesthetic amalgamation of resistance of a sequence of political conflicts that have been taking place in West Bengal in the last few years. Interestingly, in a significant number of recent Bengali popular films, this impetus is allusively manifested. Here, I shall try to construct a frame of reference to reckon the process of traffic between the space of resistance and the domain of film aesthetics. For my discussion, I wish to take two recent films: MLA Fatakesto (2005) and Tulkalam (The Tumult, 2007). The first film portrays the emergence of a rowdy as minister and the other one deals with the issue of land-eviction.

Now, the questions are: Does the scaffolding of conflict narratives in these films challenges the ubiquitous hegemony of Bengali bhadralok (educated, cultured elite) archetype? Does it bear the notion of assertion of the governed? Are the metaphorical representations, use of violence as tactics, re-invented populist rhetoric now reinforcing a symptomatic assemblage?

To address the above, I shall apply the Rancierian scheme to locate the changes in the dominant aesthetic form. To revisit the historicity of the bhadralok culture, I would like to engage mostly with the readings of Partha Chatterjee. Also, Laclau's position on populist politics needs to be discussed here. Apart from that, I shall try to incorporate the outcomes of a number of field surveys done in 2007-08 to associate and to ground the theoretical formulation with the popular gesture of counter-hegemonic initiatives in the state.

Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the dramas of Urdu-Hindi playwright Upendranath Ashk. His oeuvre reveals a creative encounter of Urdu-Hindi literature with Western naturalism. It challenges current ideological hegemony and represents a contradiction in the cultural narrative of dominant literary discourse.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with the dramas of Urdu-Hindi playwright Upendranath Ashk. His work challenges current ideological hegemony and represents a contradiction in the cultural narrative of dominant literary discourse. It was received positively in the 1950s. After partition, in the period of the nationalization of Indian theatre, dramatists were required to emancipate themselves from Western influence and begin writing in the mode of either classical Sanskrit drama or Indian folk theatre. It was also the period when Urdu began to be associated with the cultural narrative of Islam and Muslims in South Asia, whereas Hindi was seen as the national language of India and as the language of Hinduism and Hindus. This shift in ideology led to a negative reception of Urdu-Hindi playwright Ashkk and his naturalistic dramatic production after the 1960s.

In the following I deal with Hindi drama from its beginnings until the 1960s. I emphasize the importance of Urdu drama and Western theatre for the origination and development of Hindi theatre. Next, I proceed to discuss the work of Ashk whose immense contribution to the field of Hindi drama was first honoured, but then neglected. I argue that his work shows a subtle blending of Urdu-Hindi Progressivism, the Western dramatic tradition, and the Hindu reform movements and is thus both modernist Western and modernist Indian in character. However, as Ashk did not write in the wake of the poetics of classical Sanskrit or Indian folk theatre, his work was considered antithetical to the dominant cultural narrative.

Paper short abstract:

Some representative counter-narrative schemes in Hindi 'experimental' prose epitomize the literary projection of a new identity delineating in the context of modern society. Structural and stylistic devices reflect the authors' critical approach to literature and their own perception of reality.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims at investigating some representative counter-narrative schemes in 'experimental' prose: time expands becoming a stream of thoughts, as in Prakāśo by Kīrti Chaudharī, where the narration continuously shifts between the stages of waking and sleeping with dreams. In Ākāroṁ ke āspās by Kuṁvar Nārāyaṇ, the logical pattern of perception-thought-language loses its validity, since the protagonist resolves to abandon any external referent to create a world anew resounding in his mental and emotive dimension. Hegemony of action and dialogue collapses, as in Śānti haṁsī thī by Ajñeya, which develops in five minutes of pure meditation. Experimentalism epitomizes the literary projection of a new identity in the context of modern society. The authors, accustomed to insert methodological-aesthetic premises to their own productions from the Saptaka anthologies, keep alert in a constant self-observation during which they consider also the structural and stylistic devices that reflect their own perception of reality. Therefore we can scrutinize how they shape their experimental prose, questioning the relationship between reality and fiction, and making any normative constructions fall in a prevailing nonrepresentational and psychological style.

Paper short abstract:

The paper is on the Kashinath Singh's fiction and its enactment on stage and in film.

Paper long abstract:

Kashinath Singh (born 1937) is as one of the "four friends" one of the most prominent senior writers in Hindi literature and recently received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his recent novel "Rehan par Raghu". He is perhaps better known, however, for "Kāśī kā Assī", a longer fictional text in five part based on the dialogues of common people visiting Pappū's tea shop in the quarter of Assī at the Southern end of traditional Banaras, commenting anything from religious obscurantism to daily politics the world over. "Rehan par Raghu" focusses on modernization and changing values between the generations. An aging father from an UP village desperately tries to convince one of his two adult and well educated sons to return home in order to protect the ancestral land property. Deep inside he knows that his efforts are in vain, since the next generation has no understanding of the notion of inheritance. Kāśīnāth Singh's are counter-narratives to the dominating narration of progress and individualization. - A sketch from "Kāśī kā Assī" has been put on stage (script written by Aruṇ Pāṃḍey), ridiculing the interaction between foreigners and traditional Banarsis. Recently, a film under the title "Muhalla Assi" under the directorship of Chandra Prasad Dwivedi with Sunny Deol as main character has been produced.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes Kuṇāl Siṃh’s Romiyo Jūliyaṭ aur aṁdherā (Romeo, Juliet, and darkness) through Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of minor literature, as an example of deterritorialization of language.

Paper long abstract:

Romiyo Jūliyaṭ aur aṁdherā (Romeo, Juliet, and darkness) is a long short story/short novel by Kuṇāl Siṃh drawing its title from Jan Otčenášek's novel (1958), that was made available in Hindi by Nirmal Varmā in 1964. The explicit reference to Jan Otčenášek and Nirmal Varmā asks for a reading of the story also as a re-telling of the original plot. I will analyze this text through Deleuze and Guattari's concept of minor literature, as an example of deterritorialization of language. While Hindi is generally considered a majority language, having a hegemonic position due to its high status as official language, in this text it is contextualized in a totally different way, as the story is set in Assam. Issues of identity construction, multilingualism and minority subjectivity will be dealt with in the paper.

Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on the Hindi short story A-maanav ("Nonman", published in the 2010 collection Mitti ke log, "People of the soil") by S.R. Harnot, which focuses on the problem of ultramodernisation, leading to dehumanisation. Translation of the short story will be presented for group discussion.

Paper long abstract:

The short story A-maanav ("Nonman", 2010) by S.R. Harnot (born in 1955 into a dalit family in a small mountain village of the Shimla district) is set in a deserted village of India in the 25th-26th centuries. Ultramodern and advanced scientists spotted the site in satellite photographs. In the dense thicket covering the ruins they detected a human form like the one they had once happened to see on Mars. With the aid of machines, they discovered that it was a man of the 21st century, who was still alive. The image of 21st century India they had known from some surviving old books of history, had wholly changed. Where in the past corrupt politics and fanaticism had destroyed everything, a new generation was being born of 30- to 40-year-old men with a new brain, who were as experienced and knowledgeable as if they were many centuries old. All was mechanical. A team of five men set out in search of the old man. They landed with their flying saucer in the ruins that had been spotted. They had heard about grain, and wished to know if the old man still had grain, which they held as the secret of his longevity. The old man angrily accuses them of having destroyed a world full of life and generated nonmen. Nature takes a vengeance upon their ultramodern world - a crowd of ants surround the flying saucer, and drag it underground.

Paper short abstract:

The paper shall consider counter-narrative through a prism of the short story and its reception.

Paper long abstract:

The Tigress Hunts locates issues of the counter-narrative in fiction in South Asia on a complex matrix of gender, religion, ethnicity and political compulsion. The presentation shall aim to address the issues of violence by non-state actors and their representation in contemporary literature in the region through a combination of consideration of critical research and creative practice.