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Inking the Identity: a Study of the Apatani Tradition of Tattooing through Bakhtinian Chronotope

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Shrestha Bharadwaj1 & Uttam Boruah2

1Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. ORCID: 0000-0002-0201-4452. Email: shresthabhardwaj112@gmail.com.

2Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. ORCID: 0000-0002-4862-1210. Email: uttamboruah2014@gmail.com.

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s29n1

Abstract

Known for their inked faces, the last generation of ‘tattooed’ Apatani women stands as a testimony of this obliterated tradition of tattooing the tribe practiced. Started as a mark of uglification, this practice later turned to be a cultural epitome. A symbol of beauty, it became the celebration of being a culture, a tradition, a strong woman and an Apatani. Outlawed in the 1970s, this tradition is today considered as grotesque and is now only a site of the exotic. The last practitioners of this heritage reside in desolation in the Ziro valley of Arunachal Pradesh, after which this endangered customary paragon goes into extinction. The present paper will try to analyze the tattooed Apatani octogenarian women as Bakhtinian Chronotope. Their spatial configuration will be examined along with the patterns of trauma and identity crisis. In this process Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque will also be analyzed taking into consideration the progressive Apatani frame of reference.

Keywords: Apatanis, Chronotope, Exotic, Grotesque, Tattoo, Trauma.

Towards Creating a Socially Sustainable Society amid COVID- 19 Pandemic: A Gandhian Perspective

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386 views

Neha Mishra1 & Anindya J Mishra2

1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. ORCID ID 0000-0001-8654-7581. Email- neha.mishra1293@gmail.com

2 Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. Email- anindya.mishra@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s26n5

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a threat to the entire humanity. It has affected society at large and has created a lot of chaos and uncertainty in the world. This has created the need to restore and establish social sustainability in the society. Social sustainability is viewed as a process for creating successful places that promote people’s well-being by understanding people’s needs and wants. Here, Gandhi’s comprehensive vision for society can be related to the sustainable development approach and the social dynamics prevailing in the society amid the pandemic. As the three pillars of sustainable development- environmental, economic, and social- are interlinked, Gandhi’s ideas and principles of value-based approach and ethical living hold good in sustainable development discourse. However, though Gandhian principles and concepts have been often viewed in environmental sustainability, it is least analyzed and understood in terms of social sustainability. Therefore, the paper tries to fill this gap by focusing on building a social aspect of sustainability amid the pandemic through Gandhian perspective. This paper analyses social sustainability in terms of (a) social equity, (b) social well-being, and (c) participation by all. In this context, his idea of “Sarvodaya” is significant as it deals with social welfare, which holds importance in current pandemic days. Apart from “Sarvodaya,” Gandhi also developed an integrated view of the individual, society, and state by focusing on social harmony based upon the moral principles- love, truth, justice, and non-violence, which hold importance even today.

Keywords: Coronavirus pandemic, social sustainability, social equity, social well-being, Gandhian perspective

A Pandemic Circumscribing another Pandemic: The Covid 19 World of Disabled Women

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433 views

Gokul S

Research Scholar, Department of English Literature, the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, gokulloyola13@gmail.com, ORCID id: 0000-0001-8969-1570

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s26n1

Abstract

Accessibility and inclusion have always been a major impediment in the lives of the disabled. As a result, their lives have always been ontologically nebulous from the gaze of the outside world. Covid-19 has brought new norms of normalcy and extrapolating social behaviour such as social distancing. Such a regimented form of behaviour has ossified even further the problems of inclusion and accessibility. The upsurge of the pandemic has further complicated the forms of social behaviour and thereby adding more to the disability of an already disabled. This paper aims to analyze the problems of this new behavioural norm by the espousal of a centrifugal outlook and multilateral imagination keeping the disabled as the focal point of discussion. It also explains vis-a-vis Foucault’s idea of Bio politics, the ways new norm installs amongst people a different kind of solidarity based upon a common idea of vulnerability.

Keywords: Pandemic, Disabled, Women, Accessibility, Inclusion, Bio-politics.

Resonance of Existentialism on Pandemic literature: An Introspection of Pandemic Literature of the Past

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452 views

Nencepreet Kaur

Research Scholar, Department of English, UILAH,Chandigarh University, Punjab, ramanperry@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1589-9154

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s25n3

Abstract

Literature has always been impacted by the abject state of thought of humans existing in a particular time and era. A sense of meaning, or forging an explanation evinced within literature during the cataclysmic contemporary crisis of the pandemic, definitely resonates within the existentialistic paradigms. Not addressing the effects this humanitarian crisis has had on humans in literature is akin to being in a bubble of time and being immune to the devastation all around. The pandemic which is arguably one of the most horrific disasters of modern times has nearly irreversibly affected the outlook, imagination and thinking of humans. It will definitely have an irrefutable impact on the literary discourse of modern times. The interactions during a crisis of such proportions, the various texts, practices, the socio-economic and political repercussions have an indelible impact on the way the literature of that time is doled out as literature effectively represents the society and its sentiments in general. The essence of the present times is survival, with death gaping at all within close quarters and this is the root of an existential way of living which reflects in literature as well. This can be ascertained by introspecting pandemic literature of the past and the purpose of this paper is to analyze the resonance of existentialism in pandemic literature.

Keywords: Contemporary Crisis, Pandemic Literature, Existentialism.

The Film Life of Pi as a Multimedia Tool in English Language Classrooms of Engineering Colleges in Gujarat- An ESP Approach

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413 views

Barnali Chetia1 & Dharna Bhatt2

1Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Information Technology Vadodara. ORCID: 0000-0003-3243-2361.  Email: barnali@iiitvadodara.ac.in

2Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Information Technology Vadodara. ORCID: 0000-0001-9495-0346Email: dharnapandya@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s23n6

Abstract

 ESP advocates the designing of special courses instead of one multi-purpose course, to suit the needs of different courses of students. The curriculum of English as a course in Engineering Institutes differs from other disciplines in Arts, Commerce and Science colleges. Use of films as a multimedia tool and as an ESP approach in English classrooms of Engineering Institutes has become inevitable. For many students, films are their initial contact with English-speaking culture and a fun way to relax and also learn at the same time. The present study tries to examine the use of films as a multimedia tool in the English language classrooms of Engineering Institutes of Gujarat. The film Life of Pi by Ang Lee is considered as a major instrument for the present study. The study was conducted on a sample of 315 students pursuing their B.Tech in different Government Engineering colleges of Gujarat, India. The study was accomplished by using the survey and observation method. The survey questionnaire was used as a major instrument for the data collection of the study. The results suggests that Films as a teaching tool motivates student to learn English in second language classrooms and also helps them to understand and enhance their second language skills.

Keywords: ESP, Second Language Acquisition, Multimedia, Life of Pi

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner: Unveiling the Trauma of Adolescent Boys Trapped in Afghanistan’s Culturally Legitimised Paedophilia-‘Bacha Bazi’

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2.6K views

Pallavi Thakur

Assistant Professor, SHSS, Sharda University, Greater Noida. Email: pallavi.thakur@sharda.ac.in                                                                                     

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s9n5

Abstract

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a powerful narrative on ‘Bacha Bazi’, “same-sex pedophilia restricted to adult men and adolescent boys” (Powell, 2018, p.1), prevalent in Afghanistan. When marginalisation of Afghan women became the nucleus of major studies , especially during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Hosseini unveiled in The Kite Runner, the gruesome Afghan culture of ‘Bacha Bazi’ that disintegrates a boy’s social and sexual identity. ‘Bacha Bazi’ is not consensual rather coercion hence is equivalent to rape and reflects the grotesque violation of Afghan male children’s human rights. While the world viewed Afghanistan as a land of incessant wars, tribal conflicts, violence and female exploitation, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner provided a startling insight into ‘Bacha Bazi’ and its implications on Afghan boys. The novel reveals the socio-culture domain of Afghanistan and ethnic rivalry playing an instrumental role in the existence of Bacha Bazi. In the light of the above discussions, the present paper examines   the deleterious effects of Bacha Bazi on Afghan male children. It elucidates the psychological trauma of adolescent Afghan boys that evolves out of the sexual abuse and new androgynous identity imposed on them.

Keywords: Bacha Bazi, Sexual slavery, ethnicity, con?icts, androgyny, poverty, rape

Narrative Strategies of Decolonisation: Autoethnography in Mamang Dai’s The Legends of Pensam

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564 views

Samrita Sinha

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sophia College (Autonomous). ORCID: 0000-0003-1021-4988. Email: ssengsophia@gmail.com, samrita.sinha@sophiacollege.edu.in

   Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s18n4

Abstract

According to John Quintero, “The decolonisation agenda championed by the United Nations is not based exclusively on independence. It is the exercise of the human right of self-determination, rather than independence per se, that the United Nations has continued to push for.” Situated within ontologies of the human right of self-determination, this paper will focus on an analysis of The Legends of Pensam by Mamang Dai, a writer hailing from the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, to explore the strategies of decolonisation by which she revitalizes her tribe’s cultural enunciations. The project of decolonisation is predicated on the understanding that colonialism has not only displaced communities but also brought about an erasure of their epistemologies. Consequently, one of its major agenda is to recuperate displaced epistemic positions of such communities. In the context of Northeast India, the history of colonial rule and governance has had long lasting political repercussions which has resulted not only in a culture of impunity and secessionist violence but has also led to the reductive homogeneous construction of the Northeast as conflict ridden. In the contemporary context, the polyethnic, socio-cultural fabric of the Northeast borderlands foregrounds it as an evolving post-colonial geopolitical imaginary. In the light of this, the objective of this paper is to arrive at the ramifications of employing autoethnography as a narrative regime by which Mamang Dai reaffirms the Adi community’s epistemic agency and reclaims the human right towards a cultural self-determination.

Keywords: Decolonisation, Autoethnography, Northeast India, Displaced, Epistemic Agency

The Lioness Defending Her Clan in the North East: A Study of Ecospiritual Elements in Mamang Dai’s Fiction

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826 views

Meghamala Satapathy1 & Ipsita Nayak2

1PhD Research Scholar, KIIT Deemed to be University; Email: satapathymeghamala@gmail.com; ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3519-766X

2Assistant Professor in English and Research Supervisor, KIIT Deemed to be University; Email: ipsita.teacher@gmail.com; ORCID ID:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4584-7470

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s18n1

Abstract

Ecospirituality signifies spiritual evolution in consequence of one’s response to ecological stimuli. Mamang Dai is a powerful tribal voice from the North East India who has explored in depth the theme of Ecospirituality in her books. The article explicates those ecological attributes manifested in Dai’s works which form an integral part of the spiritual voyage of her characters. In an attempt to define the term ‘Ecospirituality,’ a review of existing literature has been placed at the beginning which is followed by discourse analysis of the five works of fiction which Dai has to her credit. All the arguments put forth in the article are substantiated by textual evidence from her books. The analysis of the said texts is followed by a conclusion suggesting a way forward. The present study examines the elements of Ecospirituality in Dai’s ‘fictional’ works alone hence the exclusion of her books of non-fiction. It shows how a slew of ecospiritual elements are identifiable in the fictional outputs of Dai and yet the theme demands more elaborate treatment due to the advent of new theoretical constructs.

Keywords: Ecospirituality, North East, Ecospiritualism, Mamang Dai, ethnography, folklore, Deep ecology, topography, ethnic identity

“Colonize and Cholerize”: an attempt to decipher the ambiguity of the literary representation of the cholera epidemics in Nineteenth Century India

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324 views

Arijit Goswami
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Gorubathan Government College, Kalimpong, E-mail: arijit.goswami80@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s16n1

Abstract

The modus operandi of categorising European and especially British authors as representative of the hegemonic colonial enterprise that subjugated the Indian sub-continent for nearly two hundred years is a common analogy while dealing with the colonial era. The seemingly simplistic logic is problematised, when a British author, closely related to the ruling administrative set-up voices dissent, whereas the colonised intelligentsia fails to register minimal protest in their literary works. The article would try to decipher the anti- orientalist discourse with special reference to the literary representation of cholera epidemics in Fanny Parkes’s Wanderings of a pilgrim in search of the picturesque (1850), during the patriarchal-colonising enterprise in vogue and envisage to compare Lal Behari Day’s Folktales of Bengal (1883), which fails to express the reality of an epidemic-devastated land and displeasure of the commoners towards the ruling class for their inept handling of the epidemics.

Keywords: Colonization, Cholerize, Dissent, Anti-orientalism

Women at Crossroads: Reconfiguring the Gender Roles in Select Indian Genre Fiction

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361 views

Puja Chakraborty1 & Krishanu Adhikari2

1Faculty member, Dept. of English, Malda Women’s College. Email: puja6014@gmail.com

2Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Kandra Radhakanta Kundu Mahavidyalaya. PhD Scholar, Dept. of English, University of Hyderabad. Email: krishanu26489@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s15n2

Abstract

The inherent discursivity, entailing the composite category of ‘The third world women’ hinges on many contentious contours of female subjectivity, its genealogical and teleological subservience and submission to patriarchy, and the subsequent re-assertion of their identities and different female roles within the given rubric of patriarchal capitalist social order of the former colonies through strategic subversion, vis-à-vis negotiation of certain patriarchal ideals.The select novels, i.e. Anuradha Marwah Roy’s The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta  (1993) and Advaita Kala’s Almost Single (2007); from the discursive category of Indian genre fiction narrate two intersecting stories of two middle class Indian women, who have migrated to Delhi in pursuit of empowerment and to transcend the circumscribed trajectories of parochialism and stereotypical tropes of patriarchal order. Drawing inferences from these two texts, the present paper would like to look into the ethical question of women’s empowerment in India, so as to ‘problematize’ the much appropriated subversion of gender roles, through a ‘palimpsestic’ assertion of female subjectivity , as evidenced in the seemingly divergent experiences of the two protagonists, within the unstable contexts of a postcolonial nation. Having engaged with the contested notion ‘female consciousness’, the paper further seeks to examine the veracity of such changes in the lived experiences of the women within the ever-shifting paradigms of ‘post-national’ and ‘post-globalization’ Indian milieu, while being placed against the multifaceted impediments, faced by them to bridge the two extremes; personal and professional affairs. Last but not least, the paper would also seek to shed some light on the equivocality, bordering the genealogical and generic classification(s) of the ‘genre fiction’, often under the charade of ‘literary aesthetics’ and critical/wide reception of these literary narratives.

 Keywords: Third-World Feminism, Neoliberalism, Women empowerment, Indian middle class women, Indian genre fiction.

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