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Critiquing 21st Century Creative Violence: Tagore’s Concord (Milan) and Harmony (Samanjaysya) Imagining “One World”

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164 views

Ayanita Banerjee (Ph.D)

University of Engineering and Management.New-Town, Kolkata. West Bengal. Email: abayanita8@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.30

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 Abstract:

Modern science, acclaiming the success of the creative human brain as ‘progressive changes’ in the 21st century continues to prosper through prominent images of scientism, ingestion, cartelized capitalism, chemistry and rocket technology to name a few. Introspecting the 21st century from the given nexus, we are quite likely to conclude that it has remained a century when the human destructiveness has reached its creative pinnacle. ‘Creative progression’ disguised under the garb of SARS COVID-19 is currently ransacking mankind, resulting in mass genocide, destruction of cultures and worldviews. The creative human self now remains predisposed with the activation of low-grade mental illness. depression, anxiety and trauma. Tagore’s ‘creative self’ with a magisterial rebuke had always protested the prevalent dominant theories of violence and counter- violence down the time line. His philosophical vision intertwined with the humane self of ‘being’ instead of ‘becoming’ counterpoises this ‘creative enigma’ of scientific and material human progression even to this day. Standing on the threshold of the 21st century we earnestly look forward to reminiscence Tagore’s vision of Concord (milan) nurturing the “living bonds in a society” and brewing Harmony (samanjaysya) as the “wholeness and wholesomeness of human ideals” to provide a remedy for re-thinking the possibilities of “One World” (my italics) defined in terms of ‘becoming’ instead of ‘humane -being’.

 Keywords: Tagore, creative violence, mechanization, concord, harmony, one world

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The Era of Environmental Derangement: Witnessing Climate Crisis in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

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435 views

Nupur Pancholi1, Sanjit Kumar Mishra2

1Research Scholar, Department of Applied Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. E-mail: npancholi@as.iitr.ac.in, nupurvpancholi@gmail.com
2Professor, Department of Humanities & Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. E-mail: sanjit.mishra@hs.iitr.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.29

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Abstract

Drawing on Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island (2019) together with his nonfictional The Great Derangement (2016), the article strives to present that while advancing endless desires, human-centric culture and the idea of ‘good life’ drive climate change and environmental deterioration. It seeks to enumerate the devastating consequences of changing climatic conditions and degenerating ecosystems and their cumulative impacts on the humankind and non-human world. It aims to locate how human life at the margins has been affected by these cataclysmic consequences through analysing Ghosh’s Gun Island. It attempts to show that human interventions had significantly fuelled the global climate crisis in the seventeenth century, decoding the myth of Bonduki Sadagar that Ghosh identifies in Gun Island.

 Keywords: Climate change, human-centric culture, the idea of ‘good life’, environmental derangement, myth of Bonduki Sadagar

Locating Women in the Naxalbari Movement: A Story of Resistance and Fabrication of the Individual Female Identity

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291 views

Pritha Sarkar

Research Scholar; Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; spritha353@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.28

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Abstract

The objective in this paper is to explore the role of women in the Naxalbari movement by studying how a woman resists all the patriarchal authorities and carves her own space in a male-dominated movement through The Naxalites: A Novel (1979), a representative text on the Naxalbari movement in Indian English Literature. The Naxalbari movement (1965-1975) is the first peasant revolution within twenty years of Indian Independence that initiated in a small village named Naxalbari situated in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Though there have been many scholarly studies on the movement, the representation of women and their experiences in the texts on the movement in Indian English Literature has not yet been traversed upon. The paper, therefore, addresses this gap by studying the movement from the feminist standpoint through one of the representative texts. While on one hand, historical records show how women had been frontline warriors in the initial phase of the movement only to be marginalized with the spread of the movement; on the other, none of the chronicles on the movement recognizes the role of women and their contributions in it. Through the text of The Naxalites: A Novel, this paper engages with such problematic and contradictory location of women through the portrayal of a female character who attempts to change the whole direction of the movement with the aim to make it more sustainable. Thus, the paper tries to analyze women as a subversive force within the movement who represent the critical voice against the patriarchal framework by suggesting an alternative modus operandi while staying within the folds of the movement.

Keywords: Women, Movement, Patriarchy, Female Identity

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The Dislocations and Transgressions in Bhajju Shyam’s The London Jungle Book (2004)

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185 views

Shikha Singh

PhD Scholar, Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, shikha52_llg@jnu.ac.in, ORCID: 0000-0003-0255-8289

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.27

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  Abstract

The paper explores the multiple transgressions and border-crossings elaborated in the visual travelogue The London Jungle Book (2004), by Bhajju Shyam, a Pardhan-Gond artist and produced by Tara Books, an independent artists’ collective specialising in experimental visual literature. The paper discusses the cultural history of “Pardhan-Gond art” and the dislocations and relocations of the art form in the contemporary art world. The paper argues that the personal experience of the artist appears to reflect these shifting categorizations, movements and locations of performance of the art form. The images and metaphors of displacement and transgression have varied connotations in the visual travelogue as they reveal the complex mechanisms of travel and mobility in the contemporary world. The text also articulates the response of the artist to the social, political and economic conditions surrounding the production and circulation of his art, through reimagining his homeland, his cultural ties and his own identity. In a paradoxical sense, the experience of travel and mobility does not symbolise the uprootedness or detachment of the artist, but it brings into effect, with more immediacy, the cultural identity and ties of the artist, as a Pardhan-Gond artist, in the contemporary art world. Furthermore, the materiality of the crossover text challenges the notions of media, genre and readership, associated with the picturebook format, destabilising the categories and assumptions associated with the literary genre.

Keywords: Pardhan-Gond art, Bhajju Shyam, Tara Books, tribal art, book illustration.

The Bidayuh People of Sarawak Borneo: Ritual and Ceremonies

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412 views

Awang Azman Awang Pawi1 & Chali Ungang2

1Associate Professor of Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email Id: awangazman@um.edu.my, awangazman@gmail.com. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4939-2706

2 Research Scholar of Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email Id: charlieungang@yahoo.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.26

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 Abstract

This study aims to analyse the role of rituals and ceremonies of the Bidayuh tribes in Sarawak Borneo as a way of life of the Bidayuh people. Therefore, the cultural history of the Bidayuh people as well as the function and influence to the entire community which becomes the pride and identity is analysed. The data were taken from the Bajo asal (traditional songs), girite Bidayuh damba (stories and legendary), and the exploration and preview of the authenticity of the role in the manifestation of the Bidayuh culture and tradition in the numerous villagers through dynamic modernization.  The content analysis was used to identify the rituals and ceremonies of the ethnic group. With this regard, emic perspective approach was applied to the study of the description of Bidayuh ritual, focussing on the internal elements and their functions in the Bidayuh society area in Bau, Padawan, and Serian division of Sarawak. Among the findings of this community is how important it is to preserve their beliefs to make sure the management of paddy fields are always cared for and preserve abundant harvests, apart from the ‘guardians’ to safe keep the peace of the village. The function and preservation through the ritual and ceremonies as their weltanschauung, influences the peasant society in that area. The study is highlighted to ensure people that the existence of the ritual and ceremonies is still implemented in the modern era as a part of the ancient heritage in Borneo Island- Sarawak.

.Keywords: ritual and ceremonial process, customs and traditions, Bidayuh culture, Sarawak Borneo

Consciously eco-conscious: An eco-conscious re-reading of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Moon Mountain as young adult literature

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296 views

Narendiran S1 and Dr. Bhuvaneswari R2

1Research Scholar, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vandalur – Kelambakkam Road, Chennai-600127, Tamilnadu, India. Email: narendiran10@gmail.com. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9280-9178

2Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vandalur – Kelambakkam Road, Chennai-600127, Tamilnadu, India. Email: bhuvanadoss@yahoo.co.in. ORCID iD: https:// orcid.org/0000-0003-4660-7118

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.25

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Abstract

A better physical environment is quintessential for a comfortable life; this conscious of environment has been one of the post-world-war effects. The predominance of colonialism is accompanied by exploitation of forest and environment.  Since then, land is nothing more than a resource that conferred wealth and materials for the colonizers. The depletion of forest for agriculture and urban development is a historical phenomenon. It is then aggravated by industrial revolution and colonization. The legacies of colonialism have influenced the mindset of the colonized. Recently, the scarcity of the resources and climate change are the rising concerns of the world. This is mainly because of the humans’ insensitivity towards nature and literature plays an effective role in spreading the need for being eco-conscious. This article highlights the role of young adult narratives in spreading social awareness and interprets the classic Indian young adult novel Moon Mountain by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, which has symbolic references offering ecological insights. The journey of the protagonist through the African continent is critiqued to highlight the enfeeble consciousness about the natural ecology of an individual who seizes material development. This study partly brings out how the colonial legacies continues to influence the contemporary environmental challenges, and discusses the literary relationships between nature and youth influence readers’ attitudes towards the contemporary anxieties such as climate change and related environmental crises.

 Keywords: Eco-consciousness, Habitat, Young, Adult, Environment, Nature

Defining Hindustani Raga Musicians and Their Relative Intra-Statuses: An Analytical Study

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Pragya Pyasi1 and Sanjoy Bandopadhyay2

1Assistant Professor, Department of Music, University of Hyderabad. Email: pragya@uohyd.ac.in

2Professor, Department of Music, Sikkim University. Email: sitardivine@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.24

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Abstract

Two very widely used terms, ‘musicians’ and the ‘musicians’ statuses’, are commonly applied labels across the music fraternity, where Hindustani Raga Music [HRM] is no exception. In HRM, there are no objectively laid definitions of these two expressions. In different music cultures, musicians’ statuses were seen from the societal, economic, and based on the roles played in music production and rendering. The intra-status, a musicians’ relative position within the same group, is not clearly defined. The formal texts of HRM also do not categorically define a musician. In India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, people use the words vAggeyakAr, kalAvant, mirAsI, kasbi, AtAi, zauqI, and others, but these terms do not categorize musicians within the periphery of a specific musician’s close circuit; these words do not point to intra-status. The current investigation used the DELPHI method to find some objective answers to defining musicians and their intra-status. The HRM Experts from different parts of the world with an average HRM association of 39.11 years joined this investigation. The research exercise systematically generated an objective definition of HRM musician and suggested methods for defining HRM musicians’ statuses.

Keywords: Musician, definition, status, Hindustani Raga Music

Codifying the Oral Traditions, Resisting the Colonial Machinery: A Study of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller

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196 views

Babita Devi1, Divyajyoti Singh2, Satinder Kumar Verma3

1Research Scholar J. C. Bose University of Science & Technology, YMCA, Faridabad Haryana. Orcid Id: 10000-0002-9699-864X

2Associate Professor, J. C. Bose University of Science & Technology, YMCA, Faridabad Haryana

3Assistant Professor, S.D. College Ambala Cantt. Haryana

E-mail: 1babitakpunia@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.23

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Abstract

Leslie Marmon Silko is one of the most important Native writers of America. The remarkable thing about her writings is that they never move away from tradition of her ancestors. She uses her writings to preserve and resuscitate the culture of the Natives and for that purpose, she uses the oral tradition of her people. Her writings serve both purposes: they codify the Native culture and traditions and at the same time they maintain the originality of the oral tradition. Storyteller, for instance, is one book that transcends the generic limitations posed by the Euro-American tradition. The codification of the oral tradition at the same time becomes a site for resistance to colonial policies. By codifying the oral tradition, she makes it more durable so that it is available for future generations and at the same time she exposes the reality of the colonial institutions. The book contains fiction, poetry, history, autobiography and photographs of the family. The book may seem like an interesting assortment of different genres, but it also carries an important message that it is the vitality of the culture of the Natives that has allowed them to survive against the colonial juggernaut. The paper is a study of Leslie Marmon Silko’s book Storyteller.

Keywords: Story, culture, oral tradition, whites.

Creating an Alternate Canon: Achebe to Obioma

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221 views

Virender Pal

Assistant Professor of English, Institute of Honors and Integrated Studies, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra, Haryana, India.

Email: p2vicky@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.22

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Abstract

Chigozie Obioma is a novelist of Nigerian origin who has published two novels so far. He has been hailed as an ‘heir to Chinua Achebe’ the master African novelist. The comparison of Obioma with Achebe is obvious because both of them belong to the same tribe, but what is more important is that Obioma seems to carry from the point where Achebe left. In his debut novel The Fishermen, Obioma foregrounds the problems that plague postcolonial Nigeria. In the novel, he confirms that whatever Achebe prophesied about the future of Nigeria has come true. Like his illustrious predecessor, he is critical of colonial institutions that have decimated the national culture of Nigeria. The paper is a study of Obioma’s novel The Fishermen.

Keywords: Nigeria, Christianity, Obioma, Achebe, Fishermen.

Laughing with and about Death? Werner Bergengruen’s Philosophical and Literary Approaches

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188 views

Albrecht Classen

The University of Arizona. Email: aclassen@arizona.edu

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.21

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Abstract

Werner Bergengruen (d. 1964) was one of the most popular German authors from ca. 1930 to at least 1970, but his reputation has faded a lot, and there are only a few scholars who are still engaged with his works. In his collection of novels, Der Tod von Reval, however, Bergengruen developed a fascinating range of literary reflections on death as people in this Baltic city (Reval, today Tallinn) had experienced it throughout their history. Drawing extensively from medieval and early modern legendary accounts, this author translated in a highly meaningful manner the fundamental experience of death into an existentialist process profoundly informed by humanist values.

Keywords: Werner Bergengruen; Der Tod von Reval; life and death; historical narratives; Baltic literature

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