Book Review - Page 2

Andrews, Robyn & Anjali Gera Roy, ed. (2021). INR 1050 (Hard Cover). Delhi: Primus. 270pp.  ISBN: 978-93-90737-65-9.

Reviewed by
Kanchan Biswas
Ph.D Research Scholar, Centre for the study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi- 110067. Email id: kancha48_ssg@jnu.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 3, September-October, 2022, Pages 1-8.  https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n3.22

First published: October 27, 2022 | License: CC BY-NC 4.0

(This review is published under Volume 14, Number 3, 2022)
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This edited book with a foreword by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is the outcome of New Zealand India Research Institute project funding to focus on the Anglo-Indian community’s life experiences beyond metropolitans. It aimed to de-stereotype the image of the ethnic religio-cultural minority, who are prominently seen as standing testimony to exotic speech, dress, food and lifestyle. A further attempt has been made to question the constitutional ‘homogenized’ definition of the community. This book deployed ‘pluralism’ (foreword p. ix) to theoretically study the minority group. As Sekhar Bandyopadhyay wrote about the central argument, “…there is no single authentic version of an Anglo-Indian, despite a single constitutional definition” (p.viii).

This book has ten chapters, divided into three sections, the first section (five chapters) deals with the railway towns of Asansol, Kharagpur, Jabalpur, Jhansi and Secunderabad. The second section (comprising of two chapters) depicted the Anglo-Indians in the hills of Dehradun and Ranchi. While the last section (consisting of three chapters) discussed the lives of the Anglo-Indians in the port cities of Pondicherry, Cochin and Goa. The rationale behind choosing such sites is pragmatic because of relative lack of recognition of this area. However, the editors took note of the fact that a sequel would be a better option if more localities were to be incorporated. Nonetheless, the broader classification of sites and their selective representation has potentially de-mystified the idea of the ‘uniform identity’ of Anglo-Indians. The book primarily used a comparative method to juxtapose and analyze the life of the Anglo-Indians beyond the Metros. Not only spatial comparison, the authors have also used a temporal comparison to document Anglo lives ‘then’ and ‘now’.  Overall, ethnographic and historiographic methods are employed using four variables of age, gender, place and nature of employment.

In chapter one titled “Kharagpur: The remembered railway town of Anglo-Indian memory” Gera Roy used narratives, oral history methods and archiving online blogs to detour the idea of ‘nostalgia’ to understand the varied imageries of ‘home’. Theoretically, she invoked Blunt’s idea of ‘productive nostalgia’ and Foucault’s concept of ‘heterotopia’ to problematize the spatial history of Kharagpur, situating the fond memories of the Anglo-Indians. She used cartographical analysis to situate the Anglo residences downtown where ‘active othering’, ‘boundary maintenance’ and spatial segregation’ had been vehemently played out, which places the railway colony outside the ‘sacred enclosure’ of Hindu ritual space (p.25). With the passage of time, ‘rescription’ and reconstitution of spatial hierarchies took place with the establishment of IIT Kharagpur, which created new structures of privilege and domination. Her findings contested the idea of home (problematized home as a stable space, relationships, habits of life, etc.). She argued that the diasporic community of Kharagpur did not believe in the Hindu ideas of home (through the notions of Pitrabhumi and Punyabhumi); rather they created a symbolic meaning of home beyond geography through nostalgia.  Their home ‘converges on a succession of railway towns, boarding schools and holiday homes…’ (p.23). The railway networks created elaborate ‘kinship networks of identification’ and they consciously despise thinking or discussing the degeneration and degradation of Kharagpur localities in present times while the existing young Anglo-Indians experience ‘unhomely homes’ because of diminished economic status, exodus overseas, public discrimination and stigmatization of the community.

Chapter two is a coauthored article titled “Past and Present: Mapping the Anglo-Indian Journey in Kharagpur” by Catherina Moss, Ananya Chakraborty and Anjali Gera Roy. Moss being Anglo-Indian and Chakraborty a Bengali Brahmin collaboratively conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews across different age cohorts and picture portrayal methods to provide a holistic and balanced perspective of both an insider and outsider of the community.  The study aimed to gauge structural changes in landholding patterns affected by economic transitions among Anglo-Indians in Kharagpur town.  Old Kharagpur provided ‘comforting insularity’ to Anglo-Indians given the block-based quarters as residential units provided by the railways for its managerial staff. With the changes in job, the transition took from preferential employment opportunity to potential-based opportunity, the community faced a lack of security. Their diminishing status pushed them to reside in jholis in deplorable conditions. Older generation revisits their memories of South Institute which provided epicentre for all in-community socialization including ball dances, music, bar, jam sessions, games, etc. while, the present generation/ youth is more focused on education and employment, which pushes them to move out in nearby cities for better prospects. They experience transition in their social life, which led to a preference for voluntary assimilation (including dressing patterns and learning Hindi/Bengali languages) with other mainstream communities to maintaining distinctiveness and staying aloof. This chapter is exemplary of memory studies using picture portrayal and comparative methods. The printed pictures are of inferior quality especially in monochrome, causing interpretation difficult, while the temporal comparison of the golden past and destitute future is worth mentioning.

Chapter three titled “Other Places, Other Spaces: Jabalpur and Jhansi” by Deborah Nixon attempted to illustrate anachronistic elements of small-town life among Anglo-Indians, with a specific focus on their adaptive nature, fluid identities and the challenges of the community. Nixon used interviews to document narratives, anecdotes and memories influenced by nostalgia, to locate contemporary lives in small cities. She also used the Photo elicitation method to invoke memories among the respondents. Unlike photo portrayal, which is more like photo ethnography—as Susan Sontag argued that photographs are tools of seeing, the Photo elicitation method actually targets the respondents to dive deep into memories. This method acts as a memory aid and helps in collecting rich qualitative data. Nixon also used a register of nostalgia to take account of lament, adjustment and survival of the community. Theoretically, she used Lionel Caplan’s idea of ‘performing identity’ to show, how Anglo-Indianness is depicted through bodily posture (sitting cross-legged), appropriate dress (skirts for women and trousers for men) and having a Christian name. While with time and westernization, such identity gaps are narrowed, the boundaries of communities became porous and the population turned diminishing. She used the phrase ‘a holy mix up’ (p.83) to identify the heterogeneity of the community. Further, she contrasted the lives of two domiciled Europeans, one who lived like nawabs and the other living by means of community donations, depicting two sides of the community. This chapter very well analyzed the Anglo-Indian attitude towards change, which simultaneously operates with resilience towards their culture.

Chapter Four titled “Asansol Anglo-Indians: Buying into the Nation? “ by Robyn Andrews was already published as a chapter in Pardo, I., & Prato, G. B. (Eds.). (2018). The Palgrave handbook of urban ethnography. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. By means of Survey and ethnographic data, Andrews investigated the idea of citizenship among Anglo-Indians in Asansol. Her key research questions were: why do the Anglo-Indians in Asansol have higher home ownership and higher levels of tertiary education? She also explored how an increase in economic capital impacted their idea of nationhood. Her findings countered the popular notion of ‘culture of migration’ among them. She conducted 28 informal interviews and analyzed the data into two sections. In the first section, she pointed out the reasons ‘why they could buy’, which includes, inheritance, finance flow from the gulf, retirement funds, internal migration and growth of high-rise apartments which led to property purchase. While in the second section she analyzed ‘why did they buy?’, which includes key reasons like the ‘idea of security’, marital accentuations and sense of identity, the idea of staying back which instigated motives for buying property and also proximity to the church which determines their residential preferences.  The most noteworthy analysis Andrew draws was ‘remedying the sense of stuckness’ among Anglo-Indians, through ownership of comfortable and secure homes. This led to political participation opening up avenues for exercising power and agency in public spheres and religious institutions alike. At the concluding end of the chapter, Andrews goes on to discuss the ambivalence of challenges and acceptance amongst the community. She argued that some Anglo-Indians lived in India for ages but lacked the feeling of Indianness, while on the other hand, some recognized India’s diversity and secularism, which makes them secure a place for themselves. On these notes, Andrews is optimistic that home ownership has the strategic potential to burgeon a sense of citizenship among Anglo-Indians.

Chapter five is the last chapter of this section, titled “Voicing a Return: Exploring the impact of the BPO sector on the Anglo-Indian community in Secunderabad”. This chapter was already published as an article in IJAS in 2016. Upamanyu Sengupta documented the evolution of perception regarding the shift in the socio-economic landscape of Hyderabad. Further, mapping the adaptation process of the community toward the changing job market. He also analyzed the workplace environment and the experiences of discrimination faced by Anglo-Indians in BPO. Surveys followed by focused group discussions were employed to collect data. The samples were disaggregated according to the age group to locate the ‘earlier’ and ‘later’ perceptions (Temporal comparisons drawn and analyzed). However, in the table of comparison, the two age cohorts are mistakenly printed as the same, which makes the interpretation incomprehensible. His findings suggest that a dialectic movement in the economic realm took place. Decades of marginalization, followed by an IT boom provided hope for the community because of their proficiency in English, but soon it resulted in a competitive market which led to a sense of defeat amongst the community. This deficit to capitalize lucrative employment was due to a lack of identity politics, absence of group activism and missed opportunity to mobilize, while for women, disparaging and offensive remarks along with ‘ethno-sexual indexing’ create a deterrent towards considering BPO employment. Sengupta further pointed out the ‘invisible hierarchy’ based on jobs, where call centre employees are regarded as the ‘new low-income group’.  He argues that BPO employment is perhaps a ‘launching pad’ for youth entrepreneurs.

The second section of the book discusses the life of Anglo-Indians in the hills. Chapter six titled, “Educators of the Doon Valley: Dehradun’s Anglo-Indians” by Robyn Andrews used ethnography to study the field sites of Dehradun and Mussoorie. Her rationale behind the focus on Dehradun was due to the numerical strength of Anglo-Indians in this region. Her sample is a mixed cohort of teachers, former military officials, bankers, entrepreneurs, etc. for a comprehensive study of the local community. Andrews attempted to demonstrate the contemporary role of schools in Dehradun. Her findings are vast and elaborate. Through interview excerpts, she indicated the insatiable importance of Anglo-Indian schools due to English medium education, with sports inculcation and social skills that teachers impart, followed by western manners, etiquette, speech, dress, behaviour, etc. Andrews studied three prominent schools of the region and noted the school’s role in nurturing cultural events of the community (like Easter, Christmas, ball dance, parade, etc.) and providing physical space for socializing activities, which have in turn strengthened community bonds. Although she mentions that Anglo schools have 40% reservation for Anglo-Indians and also provide free education to all Christians (see St. Jude’s School, p.148), she did not discuss how the minority community would benefit, if they are treated at par with other Christians. She also found that, unlike the popular conception, Anglo-Indians in Dehradun are better off financially (associated with schools) and contribute to a comfortable lifestyle (compared to major cities). She likewise traced the ‘small counter-flow’ of Anglo Indians in Clement Town in search of employment in schools, opening bakeries, joining AIAIA’s roles etc.

In Chapter seven titled “Negotiating Culture and identity: Anglo-Indian community in Ranchi”, Afrinul Haque Khan conducted survey interviews across three generations of Anglo-Indians in Ranchi, using simple random and purposive sampling methods. This chapter was earlier presented at a conference and published as an article in IJAS in 2016. Khan tried to identify patterns of identity formation and means of identity preservation among Anglo-Indians in Ranchi. He used conceptual frameworks of Vikki Bell’s ‘performative achievement’ amongst many others cited.  His findings suggest Anglo-Indians as a very quiet community lacking agitation and continuously participating in the incomplete project of identity formation. Anglo-Indians who arrived in the 1970s and 80s mainly rendered education. In the course of time, they lost distinctiveness and came closer to Indian roots. Their ties with the community weakened and exhibited pronounced cultural disintegration, while, in an attempt to preserve culture and provide ‘visible continuity to their reality’, they resort to religious participation and rituals. The chief identifiable difference between tribal Christians and Anglo-Indian Christians is the use of the English language in the British style. Khan also noted the varying degree of Anglo-Indianness, exhibited through community associations and memories of past life and culture. He further pointed out older generations’ affinity towards the west and younger generations’ acceptance of Indian customs. Finally, he discussed the pulls and pressures of the transforming social milieu, which situates them in a paradoxical state of identity preservation on the one hand and identity assimilation on other hand, leading to a sense of disintegration and alienation.

The third section of the book, comprising chapters dealing with port cities, starts with chapter eight titled “Pondicherry Anglo Indians into the fold” by Cheryl Ann Shivan and Robyn Andrews. This mind-boggling chapter discusses the issues of complexity of identification due to the region’s long socio-political history which leads to varied accentuations and population composition. Using Historiographic and ethnographic perspectives, the authors attempted to draw upon the demography of the town to classify the population into mixed descent, creoles and indigenous population. As opposed to the long-standing claims stating the absence of Anglo Indians in Pondicherry, this study has pointed out through historical records, marriage registries and cemetery records; the presence of Anglo Indians for a long. Sivan has particularly drawn upon the historical accounts of trade commerce and marital ties which led to the building of a multi-ethnic community in Pondicherry. Andrews reflected upon the key research questions which address similarities shared by Anglo Indians in Pondicherry with the rest of the country as well as documenting the differences. Further looking into the Tamil and French influences on Anglo-Indians’ day-to-day life. Most importantly the chapter explores the impact of All India Anglo-Indian Association’s absence until recently. The findings of the study suggest that the population can be further classified into French Indian creoles and Franco Indians (natives) who had opted for French nationality. French nationality status was the chief avenue to leave for France, while those domiciled in Pondicherry were assured continued service in their profession without complying with new rules and regulations, rendering them more prosperous than members of the same family but having Indian Citizenship. While Tamil was used as an interlocutor for communication between the French and English since both groups learnt the local language, the ‘Sunday Masses’ used to be conducted in French and Tamil, until recently. While Anglo Indians in Pondicherry and English masses irrespective of their own Parish. Socialization between the Anglo Indians and creoles was considerably high because of their shared western culture; while relative distancing and othering took place with the Franco Indians who were basically Tamilians with French citizenship. Most Anglo Indians who started inhabiting the town post-1960s were already members of Villupuram branch of the India Anglo-Indian Association. With internal migration from the suburbs, many Anglo Indians had been born and brought up in Pondicherry since then. In 2011 with the petitioning of English language masses, the Anglo Indians marked their presence. Soon AIAIA shifted its branch head office to Pondicherry which aided the revival and revitalization of Anglo Indians within the community fold and further prevented their assimilation into mainstream India.

In chapter 9 titled “The unique history and development of Cochin’s Anglo Indians”, Brent Howitt Otto discussed the ‘emergence, growth, change and persistence of Anglo Indians in Cochin over five centuries’. He provided a detailed historical account of the Portuguese Era marked by trade and evangelization showing the alignment between religion and economy with the accommodation of separate Christian sects (Roman Catholic and St. Thomas Christians) for material benefits. The Portuguese also encouraged marriages (with natives) over concubinage yeah providing incentives for the same. However, the pre-condition or preference for marriage was based on descent (birth) and skin colour particularly amongst the merchant class; also the compulsion to convert to Christianity before marriage. Such marital accentuation gave birth to Mestiços (children of mixed descent). With the decline of the Portuguese and the arrival of the Dutch, the Mestiços were expelled to Goa or the hinterlands of cochin. Those Anglo Indians born and brought up within the city lived in Portuguese cultural world while those of the hinterlands were nurtured in Malayali cultural and linguistic world. The judge anticipating social economic collapse soon called back the Mestiços providing inducements, which led to the growth of another set of mixed population of Mestiço women intermarrying Dutch men. The author named this mixed community as the Eurasian community which is akin to the Creole population as discussed by Andrews in the previous chapter. While with the advent of the English era and another set of mixed community evolved between the British soldiers marrying Mestiços & Eurasians. Tracing such a complex and long history of encounters and accentuations, Otto argues that “be it Portuguese, Dutch or English – there was no purity of dissent among the mixed community” (p.216). Britain’s direct bowl over company territories and a fast-transforming railway and telegraph networks lead to ‘Anglicization’ of Cochin (by importing more British people for the posts). On the other hand, Malayalam and Portuguese language dominated the local trade, agriculture and economy. Otto’s findings suggest that cultural and linguistic Gulf counters the notion of Universalized English-speaking Urban Anglo-Indian stereotypes. He also pointed out the identity fractures between Anglo Indians of North and South. In the North, the Anglo Indians do not own houses nor learn the local language and are associated with AIAIA. On the contrary, in the south, the Anglo Indians have ownership of home and are open to mastering the vernacular language and are mostly affiliated with UAIA (since AIAIA which predominantly focuses on biological origin and linguistic practices as criteria for membership).

Finally, in the last chapter of this section and the book titled “Anglo Indian returnees’ reverse migration to Goa” Andrews draws upon multiple theories on migration and return migration to understand why and how Anglo Indians return to Goa. Drawing upon ethnographic research on the collection of life histories, Andrews discussed three case studies to analyze her key findings. All three case studies specify holding OCI (overseas citizen of India registration) which allowed easy reverse migration to Goa. Other noteworthy factors include economic reasons like financial comfortability and sufficiency of funds to purchase a home in Goa; climatic considerations both in Goa making it a lucrative tourist destination for visits as well as adverse climatic conditions in the West which leads to health problems among older generations. She also discussed the problem of ‘fitting in’ in their adopted country (due to facing cultural differences, and workplace discrimination) which led to unhappiness. Andrews argues that reverse migration is not because of ‘returning home feeling’ (like nostalgia) because these returns take place decades after immigration. Hence going back to the same neighbourhood, same people, and same family friends is far from a possibility. Rather, she coins the concept of ‘Ethnic capital’ (p. 239) which allows them to capitalize on the opportunity to come back, unlike foreign citizens, who are allowed visas for a restricted period. This enables them to have a secure future and reclaim their place of birth. Further, the AIAIA assists the incoming Anglo-Indians to resettle and aids in community-building process.

This extensive saga explored various dimensions of the community in small towns and cities, ranging from identity issues, socio-cultural transformation, migration, memories, citizenship issues, changes in employment and so on. Attentively written and meticulously researched, this book is a comprehensive reader on the Anglo-Indians, which interrogated the existing literature and refuted the exoticized stereotypes of the community. On close reading, a second volume of the book is much needed and awaited, which would include other vibrant sites like McCluskie Ganj, Kalimpong, Chandan Nagore, etc. Wider scholarship on issues like Orphanage, and intra-community discrimination (derogatory nomenclature of Teswas i.e. mixed progeny of Anglo-Indians and other communities) needs attention. Many of the chapters were published previously and this makes the reading repetitive and outdated from 2021 onwards, because of the political transformation, where the constitutional provision for the representation of the Anglo-Indians in the Indian Parliament has been withdrawn in 2019. The scenario of the Anglo-Indian response to this exclusion demands attention. Another repetitive element in the book is the constitutional definition of the community, which is over and again discussed in many chapters. However, the considerable accommodation of various methods in this volume, like photo elicitation to revive memories is worth mentioning. It is a unique methodological contribution towards the study of any community historical approach by invoking memories of the past. Further, developing theoretical and conceptual categories like ‘ethnic capital’ adds to the contribution of this book to contemporary scholarship. Otherwise, this book is a must-read for scholars and any reader interested in urban ethnography, community studies, sociology, anthropology and other branches of social sciences.

Geetanjali Shree, Trans. Daisy Rockwell, Tomb of Sand, Penguin India, 2022, p.738, INR 700. ISBN: 9780143448471

Reviewed by 
Dr Sharmila Narayana
Professor, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. Email: sharmila.narayana@christuniversity.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 3, September-October, 2022, Pages 1-3.  https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n3.14

First published: October 14, 2022 | License: CC BY-NC 4.0

(This review is published under Volume 14, Number 3, 2022)
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International Booker prize winner for 2022, Geethanjali Shree’s novel, Ret Samadhi translated as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell, is about borders – between genders, religions and nations. The story, set in Northern India, is about the eighty-year-old protagonist, Ma, who recovers from deep depression after her husband’s death and much to the consternation of her children, expresses the desire to travel to Pakistan – to her roots and thus reclaims her identity as Chandraprabha Devi. Ma’s travel is also a journey into her own self, opening doors and scaling walls, hitherto unknown.

The book is divided into three sections, indicating three phases of Ma’s life – the first section is titled ‘Ma’s back,’ and it focuses on her life after her husband’s death and her daily routine before that. The readers are also subtly made aware of the patriarchal structures in place in this house. The extensive use of metaphors like walls, doors and borders clearly indicates the confined life of women.  Ma has spent all her life taking care of the family that she now lays, “back to the world, as though dead” (Shree, 2022,p.39). This section concludes with Ma deciding to shift to Beti’s house for a while, moving away from Bade (eldest son), with whom she had been residing all along.

The second section titled ‘Sunlight’ begins with Ma entering Beti’s house. The one sentence in the beginning, “this is the door that opens to reveal a world created by Beti alone” says it all. The darkness, doors and walls in Bade’s house give way to light and colours. “The sunlight arrived each morning, kissing Ma’s face…and the two of them would sit and gaze affectionately at each other” (Shree, 2022,p.248). The sounds of peace and the quiet chirping of birds prevail. Ma sips her morning tea ‘as though drinking in a bird’s song’ (Shree, 2022,p.267). Ma and Beti enjoy each other’s company and bond well. Rosie Bua, the transgender, brings in a ‘fresh gust of wind’, (Shree, 2022,p.310) with her regular visits. As the section concludes,  Ma takes the strong decision to travel to Pakistan.

Section three titled ‘Back to the front’, commences with Ma and Beti reaching the Wagah border. The various partition narratives mentioned in this section, take the readers through the trauma of partition and Ma’s past is slowly unveiled. Ma relives her childhood and the sorrow of separation from loved ones. She rediscovers herself as Ali Anwar’s Chanda. The story concludes with Beti ‘leaping out of the window, filled with longing’ (Shree, 2022,p.732).

Tomb of Sand easily falls into the genre of partition literature and revolves around the life of Ma, who suddenly becomes conscious of her needs and desires and decides to live on her own terms. The novel begins by talking about borders… “ this particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please” (Shree, 2022, p.11). The first section of the book is replete with strong metaphors like walls, doors and windows, clearly indicating the borders between men and women.  Ma, Bahu and Beti – the characters in the novel could be the mother, daughter-in-law and daughter of any Indian household, leading a mundane existence, confined within the walls and doors of a house, ‘invisible even in moments of stillness’ (Shree, 2022, p.37).

The novel traces the transformation of Ma, who was just a tomb of sand, toiling for the family till eighty, deciding to fly away like the wishing tree, ‘gliding into her own arteries and aerosols’ (Shree, 2022,p.56). In fact, travelling with Ma to Pakistan, seeing her zeal, Beti wonders, “When did I become me, and am I me, or have I become Ma?” (Shree, 2022,p.465). Beti is in awe when she gets to see a Ma, who is totally different from the person that she used to be at home, where “everyone’s breath flowed through her” (Shree, 2022,p.19). The journey to Pakistan is also a time for introspection for Beti when she actually gets to know Ma and the realization dawns on her as to how progressive her mother is.

Ma’s bonding with the transgender Rosie, is viewed suspiciously by her own ‘progressive’ children, revealing middle-class hypocrisies.  As the narration meanders through the traumatic events of partition to the present, the author also sarcastically touches upon all major socio-political issues in India, till date –  religious intolerance, communal riots, episodes of lynching by the cow vigilantes, Buddhism, political manipulations, problems of minorities and strong engagement with environmental issues, arising out of massive urbanisation.

Shree has crafted a story richly woven with images, symbols and metaphors that speak volumes, unspoken. The form and structure of the novel are quite different. The story is narrated from multiple perspectives, with strokes of magical realism splashed here and there.  Some chapters are just a few sentences, while two pages of another chapter are just one sentence. The casual way of narration makes the story highly relatable to Indian readers. The story does not progress in a linear manner and is a beautiful compilation of scattered thoughts and some loud thinking. The chapters are strewn with images from nature – earth,  birds, flowers and animals- that at times the reader just feels the sheer magic of poetry. The powerful animal imagery reminds one of Ted Hughes’ poems. Through subtle sarcasm, Shree depicts the intensity of discrimination practised in Ma’s house, as in “shouting is a tradition, an ancient Indian custom upheld by eldest sons” (Shree, 2022,p.45).

Ma’s name is only revealed towards the end of the novel, when she reclaims her identity, as Anwar Ali’s Chanda. Characters are described in detail so that one can almost feel their presence around. The youngest son’s inability to laugh and the way Shree engages in this description indicates how strict adherence to customs and traditions could impact men too. In another chapter, she says, “the state of families is rather like that of the city of Delhi” (Shree, 2022,p.187) and goes into a detailed comparison of the two. The style of narration lures the readers to stay hooked to the book, unravelling the twists and turns, as the journey to Pakistan progresses.

Daisy Rockwell’s translation needs special mention in this context. She has successfully captured the ethos of Ma’s home, without compromising on its flavour. Be it the broken sentences frequently used, or the unstructured flow of words, Rockwell has captured the music and poetry of Shree’s language. For a book that abounds with images and metaphors, layered with subtle sarcasm, the translation would have been a daunting task. However, Rockwell has aesthetically managed the recreation of the ‘English dhwani’ (Translator’s note, 2022,p.735) of the original Hindi version.

Tomb of Sand is not a tragic story about partition, rather, it is an unforgettable tale of the triumph of humanity, inclusivity and plurality. This is what makes it different from other partition pieces of literature of our time. The novel, through the strong character of Ma demonstrates “anything worth doing transcends borders” (Shree, 2022,p.12).

Bolpur: Birutjatio Sahitya Sammiloni, 2021. 150 pp. Rs. 375. ISBN: 978-81-953067-3-2

Reviewed by
Somdatta Mandal
Former Professor of English, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Email: somdattam@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 2, April-June, 2022, Pages 1-3.  https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n2.27

First published: June 27, 2022 | License: CC BY-NC 4.0

(This review is published under Volume 14, Number 2, 2022)
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For a literary, art critic, as well as a painter who has specialized in drama criticism, Tapati Gupta dons many hats. Her latest contribution is a wonderfully rich collection of poems that she had been writing over time across decades, and after being confined at home for a long period of time, especially during the lock-down months, they have at last seen the light of day. These poems, according to the Foreword written by the renowned poet Bashabi Fraser, “have moved from the private notebook to the public sphere” and have provided her readers with different emotions that according to Gupta’s own words played “hide and seek between the inside and the outside that rattled our lives all through the lockdown months.” Though including many pre-pandemic poems as well, the poems in this collection overall provides release “from micro-time in micro space” and along with several paintings, “enabled her to remain positive throughout those dark days” (iv).

There is no particular order in which Gupta presents her poems to the readers. They evoke different emotions ranging from anger and anguish to love and peace. But as readers, we find several categories under which they can be broadly classified. The first and foremost group is on familial relationships. In ‘Ma’, she evokes her mother by remembering the all-encompassing affinity with her as a true friend – “You give me company still wherever I am.” Similar feelings come out for her father where she longs for him in his absence, remembering “a long-cherished bondage” (‘To My Father’). In another poem she specifically remembers the details of her daughter’s birth in Ashar, June 16, 1980 and in ‘Pain,’ after remembering different kinds of pain, she admits, “one pain that makes me endure is the pain of missing you in my arms, my daughter.”

As an English teacher specializing in drama, it is expected that some of her poems will discuss or mention this genre. Referring to the story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in a long poem titled, ‘Agamemnon,’ she begins by addressing him directly, “When last in Greece I met you Agamemnon/ looking at the ruins of your own estate,” and then goes on to state” “The curse over your dynasty Agamemnon/ has done a good deed.” Explaining the reason for it she succinctly adds —

            “We prefer drama and art and poetry

            and think it is politically and intellectually correct

            to think like this.

            You made great art to happen,

            so better to live and do and die as you did

            and still be Agamemnon.”

There are several poems which Gupta wrote while touring different places of Europe and the Middle East. The titles of these poems are self-explanatory – ‘Istanbul Memories,’ ‘Ultramarine Istanbul’ (“Why did you squeeze that tube of ultramarine/onto that line of land?”), ‘Dolphins in the Bosphorous,’ ‘Rider on the Waves,’ ‘The Ottoman Hamam,’ where “the whiteness struck with its moon-haze.” In Europe she is moved by ‘Da Vinci by the Loire,’ ‘Piraeus in the Twilight,’ ‘Eiffel Tower,’ ‘Notre Dame,’ ‘Paris at Night,’ she remembers Vienna and the Danube, the ‘Night Train to Barcelona,’ and in ‘Tagore in Mykonos’ she narrates the story of an old woman and Greek men who are enamoured by the poet’s music though they could not understand the song’s meanings. Along with touring different places, she also writes about the birds, animals and nature she witnessed there. Thus, we get a long poem on the seagull obviously inspired by Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach and says, “You are ready to take off/with your wings coloured by golden dreams” (‘The Young Seagull’) and another one where she praises the lifestyle of the condor which she saw while driving down from the skiing resort in Valle Nevado in Chile (‘Condor in the Andes’). She even invites the reader, “Come I will take you into the desert.” Willunga, Adelaide in Australia also finds a place in the anthology. Closer home she even records her experiences after visiting the crematorium at Tarapith.

Personal emotions also play a significant role in many of Gupta’s poems. In ‘Twenty Years From Now,’ she feels “the world may be a little better because/ I was important in the life of a student.” In ‘The Identity Card,’ she states, “Today I lost my identity/and found my many selves” and then she goes to a dream world. Later she gets out of it and says, “When morning dawned I was back again/in the old worn world of cold rationality/ My lost identity lay there beside my first cup of tea.” In another interesting poem called ‘Elusive,’ she declares –“Elusive poetry, do not elude me” and then states, “Poetry I have no time for you/but do not go away/ wait till I finish watching the grand show.” In ‘Birthday Thoughts,’ she exclaims, “Thank you! My friends for making the day so different.” She longs for all the lost things from her life, “When will be the day that will/bring back all the lost times” (‘Lost’).

Towards the end of her collection comes a series of poems based on experiences of being cloistered at home during the pandemic situation. These poems are very moving and express real-life situations as poetically as possible. A couple of poems had been inspired by the death of the veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee. In ‘The Other Room’ she mentions people going in but not coming out at all. The poem on the hundreds of miles that the migrant workers had to walk to reach home after the lock-down was declared, is extremely moving, especially as it is accompanied by a pencil sketch (‘The Walk.’) In ‘Bodies Everywhere,’ we read about harsh reality where “instead of melodies and flowers/he finds blood stench everywhere.” In the long poem entitled ‘Monologue 2020’ the poet begins with a question, “Who am I?/Just a unit in time”. Her soul searching goes on throughout the poem and she blames mankind for neglecting nature too much and “covidising the world” and ends with these lines – “May you re-achieve the zenith of perfection/ but do not forget me, the dauntless 2020 /build me a memorial with grass flowers and thorns.” In the last poem in this collection, the poet watches three birds circling and playing with each other outside and then writes, “From my window I watch/ till they enter and peck me urging me /to make the distant near/ nearer and nearer till I become one /with those who want to remember me” (“Epilogue”).

Dedicated to her husband Swapan Gupta, who was always the first listener of her poetic musings, the multifarious nature of subjects and styles of the poems makes this book interesting to read. The world is brought alive through the different kinds of poems which are often stylistically quite different from one another. The aesthetically pleasing cover image titled “Inspiration” done in oil on canvas and along with several other poems that are accompanied by illustrations from her own repertoire of paintings, the book is a must read for everyone as the poems evoke the ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ as well as the Wordsworthian dictum of ‘emotions recollected in tranquility.’ Fraser rightly compares Gupta’s poems with Wordsworth Lucy poems, content to hide behind a mossy stone undiscovered but brimming with truth, life and colour. After this first book of poems the reader will expectantly wait for the next volume.

Somdatta Mandal, critic and translator, is Former Professor of English, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.

Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance builds upon and departs from the 2010 book chapter in which some theoretical issues between translation and metaphor have been foregrounded. By developing the methodology initiated in the chapter, St. Andre? in the book further testifies it by applying it to the translation issues that surfaced in the historical Sino-Western interactions…

Publisher: University of Hawai‘i Press. Date of Publication: 2018. Language: English. ISBN: 9780824875305

Reviewed by

[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] Cao Qilin ^{[wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]}

Department of English, University of Macau

Rupktha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.20

Received: 5 Mar 2021 | Revised: 17 Mar 2021 | Accepted: 22 Oct 2021 | First Published: 5 February 2022

(This review is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
FULL-TEXT PDF CITE
Book Review: Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance by James St. Andre?

Ever since the renewal of interest in metaphors prevailed in the mid-20th century, related research has empowered metaphors to possess more theoretical implications rather than to function as mere linguistic representations. The following decades bear witness to how metaphors are integrated into contemporary academic discussions and what roles the metaphor theory, having been continuously practised and enriched, plays in dealing with cognitive, linguistic, and sociocultural issues. Relevant works of importance are not only limited to more classic ones, such as Metaphor and Thought (1979) edited by Andrew Ortony, Metaphors We Live By (1980) written by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, but also those more recently published, such as Stern Josef’s Metaphor in Context (2000), and Denis Donoghue’s Metaphor  (2014). Given this academic context, St. Andre?’s Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance is another worthwhile attempt in venturing the frontier of metaphor theory by conceptualizing translation with metaphors, during which an academic model is set for employing metaphors to theorize a particular discipline and to investigate specific disciplinary cases.

James St. Andre? is the Chairman and Associate Professor of the Department of Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research mainly focuses on the translations from Chinese into English and French between the 17th century and 20th century. His early contribution in combining translation with metaphors could be traced back to the 2010 book he edited entitled Thinking Through Translation with Metaphors. A variety of metaphors are adopted in this book to reconceptualize translation, and the chapter contributed by St. Andre?, titled “Translation as Cross-Identity Performance”, is tellingly the pilot study of the book that is the subject of this review.

Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance builds upon and departs from the 2010 book chapter in which some theoretical issues between translation and metaphor have been foregrounded. By developing the methodology initiated in the chapter, St. Andre? in the book further testifies it by applying it to the translation issues that surfaced in the historical Sino-Western interactions. A judicious thoroughness is carried out in elaborating the mythological taxonomy inspired by the typology of cross-identity metaphors, i.e., blackface, whiteface, passing, drag, mimicry, and masquerade. This taxonomy not only showcases another academic route to overcome the problem of theoretical compatibility between translation studies and gender studies but also unravels its pertinency and qualification to examine relevant Sino-Western translations between the 17th and 20th centuries.

This taxonomy also serves as the structure of the book by treating individual metaphors as a conceptual lens to chronologically look into relevant translations. The translations of St. Andre?’s enquiry are mostly those translated by Westerners before China and Western countries had large-scale interactions. Translations of this period did not serve to enhance communication, the function that translations commonly perform by following faithfully the source text; rather, they legitimized themselves by gloating over the suspicious achievements they made in overcoming the linguistic barriers and therefore enjoyed the plausible privilege to betray the rules of being faithful, inviting different forces to achieve varied goals of their concern. In this sense, as the connection between the source text and the target text has been largely disconnected, a new space is opened to metaphorize translations of this period as acts of changing identities. Under this observation, this book’s theoretical building and research scope are tightly tied up, and the content, as shown below, is appropriately situated.

In the book, the author begins his investigation with the 17th and 18^th century Oriental tales prevailing in the West by proving those tales as meaningful others to ridicule (blackface) or compliment (whiteface) the Western self. Oriental tales, in the name of translation, are thus argued to be the yardstick to which the Western countries were self-measured. In the second chapter, the earliest Western translations of The Sorrow of Han are considered as passing, through which the author argues that both the French and English translators employed Chinese characters and pronunciations to justify their translations as authentic against the reality that the demand for authentic translations was escalating. The next chapter moves to translation as drag, emphasizing the more radical alteration entailed by relevant translations. These translations are found to convey a kind of Chineseness to their Western readers, and this Chineseness, as St. Andre? argues, was accessorized and dragged by the Western conventional concepts about China. The next part of translation as mimicry unravels how the Western sinologists attempted to mimic the sight and sound of Chinese, during which the Chinese was plausibly more thoroughly perceived by the West in terms of linguistic differences. In the final part of thinking translation as masquerade, two Chinese translators, i.e., Gu Hongming and Lin Yutang, are argued to follow but also derail the Western conceptions about China to establish their own Chinese identity. Compared to the previous chapters, this chapter concentrates on the Oriental side which ponders anew the issues of how the Oriental translators could masquerade themselves for innovating Orientalness while conforming to the Western conventions.

As reviewed above, translation, as a practice of linguistic shifting, has been compared to behaviours of changing make-ups, costumes, and accessories in the field of gender and performance studies. The value of this comparison is not a mere similarity between linguistic shifting and appearance changing but the commensurability between these two practices of reconsidering relevant identity issues brought forth by the act of crossing. While in this book crossing undeniably refers to the linguistic switch from Chinese to Western languages, its underlying meanings are more closely related to the agents who enacted the behaviour of crossing and the contexts in which translations as cross-identity practices happened. The agents and contexts, as told by the book, were mostly Western; therefore, the emphasis of this book is on how China was conceptualized by the Western. In doing so, it elucidates not only how the discourse of China was developed in the West through translation, but also how the West projected Western values and purposes on translation to cater to the Western imagination of China as the other. In this sense, the novelty of this book is its embodiment of how the Oriental was more Orientalised and the Chinese became more Chinese in the Western perspective, and how the Western identity was constructed and reinforced through translations of Chinese texts, even though many parts in the translation were fabricated.

Conceptualizing translation as cross-identity performance does not confine its discussion at the linguistic level; instead, it attempts to metaphorize these linguistic features as performative techniques which impose great influences on identity-shaping. What matters in thinking translation as cross-identity performance is who initiates the performance under what contexts for what audience. This approach is more about the way translation functions in the target area for target readers, which neatly avoids some clichéd discussions resulting from the overwhelming concerns about the source text. But, meanwhile, the deficiency of this tendency is admittedly obvious. The way of emphasizing the target end and therefore including those texts which are not authentic translations but are accepted as translations would be easily trapped in the danger of diluting the nature of translation.

Overall, this book offers insights into the translation issues of translating China for the West and should be considered as a meaningful practice of integrating translation with metaphors and of moving both metaphor theory and translation studies further. Not only the practitioners of translation studies, but also the students interested in Chinese literature, language, and history are potential target readers of this book.

References

Donoghue, D. (2014). Metaphor. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press.

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Ortony, A. (ed.) (1979). Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

St. Andre?, J. (2018). Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

St. Andre?, J. (ed.) (2010). Thinking Through Translation with Metaphors. New York: Routledge.

Stern, J. (2000). Metaphor in Context. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Cao Qilin is currently a PhD student in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau. His research interests include translation studies, cultural studies, and intercultural studies.