V12n3 2020 India and Travel Narratives - Page 4

Travel through Remote Terrains: Tibet in Focus

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Kiron Susan Joseph Sebastine

MPhil Research Scholar, Dept. of English and Languages, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. ORCID: 0000-0002-0621-0303.Email: kiron.susan@gmail.com.

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.11

Abstract

As Ramana Maharshi a twentieth century mystic reflects, travel is not just physical journey from one place to another but also subliminal from one thought to another. The outer journey implies meaning only when it is accompanied by an inner journey. Travel writing incorporates everyday explorations along with cultural mappings, musings and meditations on the encounters experienced in the course of the travel. Travelling solo on an impulse; out of the natural curiosity that life brings, is the delight of living the journey. This paper does a comparative analysis of Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s On A Truck Alone, To McMahon (2018) and Vikram Seth’s From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1990). Both the authors journey through remote territories and terrains while maintaining their focus towards the Roof of The World, Tibet. While the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution in China occupies the centre stage in Seth’s travelogue, the soreness of the Indo China War shrouds a permeable veil in Sen’s work. The paper further explores the thin line between pleasure and adventure keeping in mind the gender binaries in travel writing. The human imagination is a no-man’s land that encounters the prickles of political hostilities and the precarious suspicions of the state machinery. The human dimensions of the territorial borders annihilate the joys of travel as an experiment in freedom. Travel acknowledges the constant fluidity of the cognitive entities, the rejection of the familiar and the embrace of the unfamiliar.

Keywords: Travel writing, Subliminal, Cultural mappings, Self-writing, Freedom

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Visa-Free Travel to Sri Kartarpur Sahib: Historic Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism from Indian Punjab to Pakistan Punjab

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Taranjeet Kaur Chawla,1 Rayaz Hassan,2 & Daljeet Kaur3

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan-India. ORCID id: 0000-0002-5336-1964. Email id: ms.kaur011@gmail.com

2 Associate Professor & Head of the Department, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Manipal Universirty Jaipur, Rajasthan-India. Email id: rayaz.hassan@jaipur.manipal.edu                                                                                          

 3Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Pali, Rajasthan- India. Email id: drkaur247@gmail.com  

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.09

Abstract

Kartarpur, the holiest shrine in Sikhism located across River Ravi in Pakistan, was founded in 1504 CE by Guru Nanak, the first guru of Sikhism, who also established the first Sikh commune there. This time, the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak was celebrated as the road to prosperity of the region. In November 2019, the government of India and Pakistan opened a Kartarpur corridor linking two significant Sikh shrines, namely Sri Dera Baba Nanak Sahib located in Indian Punjab and Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, located in Kartarpur, Pakistan. The visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims through the Kartarpur corridor became a historic pilgrimage for both countries. Earlier scholarly research focused on symbolism, politics and impact on India-Pakistan relations with the construction of the Kartarpur corridor. The present study aims to examine the significance of the Kartarpur corridor among Sikh devotees and explores how Kartarpur as a site for religious tourism develops the region’s economic growth and boosts the tourism industry on both sides. Adopting a mixed methodology, the study collected data through quantitative and qualitative research methods with primary and secondary sources followed by data analysis. It tries to establish symbolic importance of the Kartarpur as historic pilgrimage and religious tourism to generate economic connectivity between both countries and offers overarching importance at both national and international levels.

Keywords:  Economic connectivity, Historic pilgrimage, Kartarpur corridor, Religious tourism.

Travel and Writing in the Period of ‘High Imperialism’: Hajj Pilgrimage Narratives by the Begums of Bhopal

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Shafana Shaffi

Assistant Professor, Department of English, T.K.M. College of Arts and Science, Kollam, Kerala. ORCID: 0000-0001-9337-1449. Email: shafanashaffi11@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.08

 Abstract

This paper aims to study narratives by two Indian Muslim women – the formidable Begums of Bhopal – who travelled to Mecca for pilgrimage in the latter half of the nineteenth and the early decade of the twentieth century.  It attempts to trace the notions of imperialism and femininity that guide the women narrators and study as to how these personal narratives fit into the larger framework of colonial enterprise without intending to do so. Also by adopting a unique style that was at once in compliance with power structures like imperialism but that which resisted others like patriarchy, the Begums’ succeeded in fashioning their narratives as a powerful tool to portray their selves as faithful subjects of the Raj and who were also the rightful rulers of Bhopal. The texts, by bearing in mind the intended audience and the expected reception, are as much the products of the time as they are of the author’s personal intentions.

Keywords: travel, pilgrimage narratives, colonialism, Western male narratives, femininity, Other

No Man’s Land: Reading Travel Accounts In Pilgrimage Sites in Shanku Maharaj’s Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna

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Smitasri Joy Sarma

Research Scholar, Tezpur University, Assam. Email: smitasrijoy05@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.07

Abstract

India is the land of 330 million deities, where religious establishments serve as landmarks for postal addresses, where people unite and divide on the pretext of religion, where every milestone involves religious ceremonies, where every birth, marriage or death undergoes holy rituals, or as Bengal endorses the nation’s spirit as “Baro Mashe Tero Parbon” (13 festivals in 12 months). Though the nation speaks of religious diversities, India in the common psyche upholds Hinduism and its practices. In the Western literary bank, India is marked with sacred heritage that draws people to stimulate their spiritual, pursuing solace and the surreal. The legend of Shravan Kumar echoes the existing and common affair of pilgrimages in India that today proves as commercial, in fact as a lucrative sector. This paper endeavors to explore an Indian travel narrative in a pilgrim site through a close textual analysis of Khagendra Narayan Dutta Baruah’s Assamese translation of Shanku Maharaj’s Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna (1962), originally written in Bengali in 1959. The text, though woven as a travelogue in a pilgrim site ventures to celebrate the humane, along with the divine. It evokes the reiterated statement of the journey as primal to the destination. The voice while capturing the ethos of India with all its nuances simultaneously dismantles and in fact challenges the conventional and romanticized vista of travelling, particularly in precarious sites. In India, treading the holy spaces despite usually accompanying itineraries can unravel into adventure as the lines blur between such accounts and otherwise.

Keywords: travel, pilgrim, pilgrimage, journey, nature

 

Bengali Hindu pilgrims and travellers to the Himalayas from the late 19th to the late 20th century

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Nilanjana Sikdar Datta

Former Associate Professor of Sanskrit, Dumdum Motijheel College, Kolkata. Email: nil_sd54@hotmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.06

Abstract

Bengali travel narratives have a rich repertoire of works that focus on travel as pilgrimage undertaken to the Himalayas, especially to the famous holy shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath and to Kailasa and Manas Sarovar. This paper focuses on the changing nature of Himalayan pilgrimage down the centuries. The first part discusses two lesser known pilgrimages to the Himalayas where two monks of the Ramakrishna Mission order, namely Swami Akhandananda and Swami Apurvananda undertake their journey in 1887 and 1939 respectively. Their travelogues were published many years later by Udbodhan Karyalaya, the official mouthpiece of the Mission. In both the narratives we get details of the travails of travelling in those times with very little financial security and material comfort. The second part of the paper discusses issues raised by Umaprasad Mukhopadhyay in his travelogue Pancha Kedar where he tells us how, with changing times, the manner of travelling to the same holy places have undergone remarkable changes. The discussion then focuses upon another observation by the famous writer Narayan Sanyal who in his book Pather Mahaprasthan laments the demise of the original trekking routes of the pilgrims. In 1986, Saroj Kumar Bandyopadhyay visited Kailasa and Manas Sarovar and his narrative describing his month long package trip vouches for the changes that both the pilgrim and the pilgrimage had undergone to the same places almost half a century later.

Keywords: pilgrimage, Himalayas, trek routes, multifarious observations, Kailasa, Kedarnath

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Beyond the Boundaries of Kochi: a Study of Raja Veera Keralavarma’s Travel Narrative to Kashi

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Niveditha Kalarikkal

Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. kunjikavu@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.05

Abstract

Pilgrim narratives constitute a significant number of travel narratives which appeared in Sanskrit, English and various Indian bhashas in the 18th and 19th centuries. Raja Veera Kerala Varma IV, who ruled the erstwhile princely state of Kochi (Cochin) in South Western India, wrote an account of his pilgrimage to Kashi (Benares) during the years 1852-53. This travelogue in English was later translated into Malayalam by M. Raman Namboothiri and was published as Kochirajavinte Kashiyatra (The Cochin Raja’s travel to Kashi) in 2013. The ‘travel notes of the Raja of Kochi’ which was available in the form of his personal journal describes his meetings with many British officials and common people on the way, in addition to sketching the varied geographies and religious places that he visited during the 220 days long pilgrimage. The Raja who started his pilgrimage from Trippunithura was accompanied by a royal retinue which included his tour manager, a white medical doctor named Bingle and a few other servants. Veera Kerala Varma, later referred to as the ‘Maharaja who passed away in Kashi’ had an untimely death due to smallpox and his travel narrative reached Kochi along with his physical remains. This paper attempts to do a close reading of the travelogue to reveal the inquisitiveness of a Raja who had close associations with the British administrators, as one who attempted to step out of the boundaries of his kingdom with an ethnographic intent. The description of people and their cultural practices that were different from his own ‘country’ can also throw light on how a member of the 19th C English educated Indian elites looked upon newly evolving territorial identities, scientific advancements and public institutions that were being established through colonization.

Keywords: pilgrim narrative, cultural boundaries, writing home, territorial identities, colonialism and technology, modern self

First Travel Narrative in Telugu: A Study of Yenugula Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra

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M. G. Prasuna

Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, ORCID: 0000-0001-5034-0992. Email: prasuna@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.04

Abstract

Yenugula Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra(1838) is considered the first book written in the genre of travel writing in Telugu. A seminal work, it faithfully reflects and records the social, religious, political and economic life of people in those times, along with aspects of tradition and culture. A well-recognised scholar of his times, Veeraswamaiyya embarked on his journey to Kasi (Varanasi) in May 1830 from Chennapatnam (Chennai). He travelled for 15 months and 15 days and returned to Chennapatnam on September 3rd, 1831. He wrote about his experiences of travelling through Tirupati, Kadapa, Kurnool, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jabalpur and Allahabad to reach Kasi. On his return journey, he travelled across Patna, Gaya, Calcutta, Puri, Ganjam, Simhachalam, Machilipatnam and Nellore, and finally reached Chennapatnam. His journey was unique because he took along with him, nearly 100 people consisting of his family, friends and servants. A travel of this scale needed meticulous planning. It could have been extremely challenging and adventurous to travel through unknown territories. These journeys had to be made by walking on foot and sometimes in a palanquin, carried by servants.  According to Hindu belief, Kasi is the place where one attains moksha or liberation, and freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth. Hence, it is considered an important spiritual destination. This work is a storehouse of information and reflects the author’s keen observation. This paper will explore the historical, cultural, social, economic and religious significance of Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra.

Keywords: Travel writing, Kasi yatra, pilgrimage, Telugu

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Travelling another Country: An Exploration into Travel Writings by Bhojpuri Speakers of India

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Jullie Rani

Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067. Email: jullie.jnu@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.03

Abstract

Travel writings by Bhojpuri speakers of India define stories of pain and separation, survival of lives in difficult situations and the aspect of being together as a group.  In the nineteenth century, Bhojpuri speakers from India were sent to countries such as Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, Surinam, and Guyana to work at sugar plantations under a five year agreement during the British rule. These Bhojpuri plantation workers were called girmitiya. In this context, this paper seeks to address issues of Bhojpuri diaspora, defining newer discussions towards political, social and economic and cultural spheres of their lives in another country, through an analysis of travel literature written by them.  Ample travel literature has been written by Bhojpuri speakers who went and settled in the respective countries to which they were sent, also called Bhojpuri diaspora. The aspect which makes this work different is that this paper specifically analyzes works of travel to another country written by Indian Bhojpuri speakers and not literature written by Bhojpuri diaspora.  The literary works analyzed here are written originally in Hindi and Bhojpuri namely– Fiji mein Kabir Panth ka Udbhav aur Vikas (Development of Kabir’s stories in Fiji) by Dr Kamta Kamlesh, Pravasi Bhojpuri ka Antardwand (Dilemma of the Bhojpuri diaspora) by Rasik Bihari Ojha, Pravasi Bhartiya kaha aur kitne (Number and location of the Indian diaspora) by Dr Prakash Chandra Jain and Bhojpuri kshetra ki jatiya pehchaan (Caste identity of Bhojpuri region) by Dr Shri Vilas Tiwary.

Keywords: Travel Literature, Pre-Independent Period, Indian Diaspora, Bhojpuri Speakers.

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Generic Shifts in Women’s Travel Writing between Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Bengal

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Shrutakirti Dutta

PhD Scholar, Department of English, Jadavpur University, West Bengal, India. Orcid: 0000-0002-6781-9307. Email: shrutakirtidutta.93@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.02

Abstract

Women’s travel writing in Bengal proliferated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century through the popular form of serialized publications in journals such as Bharati (1877), Dasi (1892), Prabasi (1901), among others. However, to perceive this rich output of travel literature as a single, homogenous genre would be fallacious. Travel writing in this time undergoes several generic modifications as it journeys through the turn of the century. Through my paper I would like to trace these shifts within Bengali women’s travel narrative using the stretch of aryavarta as the anchoring landscape. From Prasannamae Debi in 1888 to Nanibala Ghosh in 1933, these travellers from Bengal travel to the north and north-west regions of India, mapping the same landscape but within diverse narrative frameworks, and in so doing, dramatically (and one could argue deliberately) alter the land they wish to represent. Their subjective position as women writers further inform and complicate their work, as do the contemporary political framework of the time they respectively inhabit. What the reader is left with can conservatively be termed travel writing, but can equally and with ease inhabit the roles of memoir, political writing, ethnographical study, among others.

Keywords: Travel Writing, Colonial Bengal, Women’s History, Hindu Revivalism, Aryavarta

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Emergence of Secular Travel in Bengali Cultural Universe: Some Passing Thoughts

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Simonti Sen

Professor of History & Director in the Directorate of State Archives, West Bengal. Email: sensimonti@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.01

Abstract

This paper by no means presumes to provide a comprehensive analysis of the genesis and ramifications of Bengali travel consciousness either in thematic or chronological terms. It only seeks to highlight certain key aspects of Bengali ‘secular travel’ culture as it germinated in the colonial period. The term Bengali specifically implies the world of Hindu bhadralok and bhadramahila from where emerged the earliest writers of ‘secular’ travel accounts. This is of particular interest because travel, apart from pilgrimage, had no sanction within the traditional Brahamanical orthodoxy. The same cannot be said of the Islamic paedia, which was favourably inclined towards travel. Yet in the colonial period Bengali Muslims did not, in general, produce travel narratives of the ‘secular modern’ variety. One outstanding exception will be considered in this article. Travel among Bengalis took different forms. While there grew a tradition of travel within the country and producing books on them from the early eighteenth century, books on journeys to Europe and different eastern countries received the attention of publishers towards the end of nineteenth and early twentieth century. All these narratives are replete with binaries, such as we/they, home/ world and similar other usual tropes of articulation of ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’. The essay will end with a brief discussion of Deshe Bideshe (account of Kabul from 1927 to early 1929) by Syed Mujtaba Ali, which was quite exceptional in terms of both content and mode of ‘telling’.

Keywords: secular travel, Bengali society, colonial period, binaries of vision, Hindu bhadralok

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