Indian Drama 2010 : Subjectivity in Performance: Issues of Identity in Post-Independence Indian Drama

Indian Drama 2010 : Subjectivity in Performance: Issues of Identity in Post-Independence Indian Drama

Workshop Snaps

Prof. Jancy James, Prof. Sieghild Bogumil and Prof. Chandra Mohan

Prof. Dorothy Figuiera inaugurating the International Workshop

The two day International Workshop on Curriculum Development for Comparative Literature organised by the Department of Comparative Literature(CUK) was inaugurated by Pro. Dorothy Figuiera.

Chandrabhan Prasad writes on DCL in Pioneer

Sunday, March 21, 2010 New Delhi Today's Issue	Home ePaper
Show Time Townhall Nation Landmark World Moneywise Books Sports Columnists Forecast Editor's Mail
STATE EDITIONS | Bhopal Bhubaneswar Ranchi Kochi Lucknow Chandigarh Dehradun	MAGAZINES | Agenda Foray

FORAY | Sunday, March 21, 2010 | Email | Print | Chandrabhan Prasad Recently, I visited “God’s Own Country”, Kerala. This State is more of a painting than a landmass with vegetation all over.I was visiting Kerala Central University on the invitation of Dr Raghavan Vellikkeel, a faculty at the Department of Comparative Literature. The subject of discussion being “Englishing Dalits”, I was tempted to accept the invite. Inaugurated by the visionary Vice Chancellor Prof Jancy James, there were fantastic presentations from celebrated scholars like Dr Sanal Mohan, (MG University, Kottayam), Prof M Dasan (Kannur University), Dr V B Tharakeswar, (EFLU, Hyderabad), D Shyam Babu (RGF, Delhi), and Ms Meena Kandasamy (Anna University, Chennai), whom I describe as the “Goddess of Dalit poetry”. Organised much better than seminars in premier institutions in Delhi, the subject was introduced by Dr Prasad Pannian, a young faculty at the University. Dr K Joseph, another faculty, played a key role in organising the event. High in attendance, students demonstrated a great amount of intellectual rigors. So much so, that D Shyam Babu, Dr Tharakeswar, and I were required to have another session with students the next day. The seminar was a grand success as it deconstructed the notion of Dalits’ ‘Mother Tongue’. Subsequent speakers detailed how Dalits spoke dialects and that mainstream languages — Hindi, Malayalam, Telegu, Kannad, and Tamil — were never Dalits’ mother tongues. With no bondage of mother tongues, Dalits can, therefore, be easily dispassionate with native languages and passionate with English. English is neither caste abuse loaded nor with any caste-loaded prejudices. A consensus had arrived. As usual, I had requested Dr Raghvan, who apart from being a thinking scholar is also a great host, to take us to a few Dalit inhabited villages around Kasaragod district where the university, in its formative stage, is located. My request required that I would prefer visiting Dalit families involved in agricultural sector as farm workers. We were taken to Kannur district where some farming, as the organisers had assumed, still existed. Escorted by the ever-energetic CK Vishwanath, D Shyam Babu and I visited a Dalit hamlet of 12 families. We were disappointed as none were in farm work. “Where is farm work left in Kerala?” asked an elderly Dalit. “Neither are we interested anymore in farm work,” he added. I was not surprised when told that in Kerala, too, bullocks have been replaced by tractors in the State’s rice bowl areas such as Palakkad. I was told as to how massive labour shortage has forced farmers to shift their cropping pattern. Back in Delhi, I did a bit of research and found how fast India’s cropping pattern is changing. In the year 1980, 801,700 hectares of land in Kerala was under paddy cultivation, which fell down to 276,000 hectares by 2006. Production of rice fell from 13 lakh tonnes in 1980 to 6.3 lakh tonnes in 2006 despite many high yielding varieties now being sown. Due to changing cropping pattern, areas under food crops fell from 37.5 per cent in 1981 to 12.5 per cent in 2006. Uttar Pradesh is losing its top slot to Maharashtra in producing sugar. The cane acreage in the State is falling at an alarming rate — from 2.85 million hectares in 2007-08 to 2.14 million hectares in 2008-09. Hit by socialism, Kerala has turned into a Western Union economy as people are betraying the “God’s Own Country.” Moving away from farm to non-farm work is gaining currency, and workers are fleeing Bihar and Uttar Pradesh countryside as well causing a massive labour shortage forcing farmers to shift their cropping pattern. Extreme desire to escape from farm work, and the economic expansion driven opportunities in urban centers, in less than a decade, there will be fewer hands left to work in farms in most parts of northern India. A great crisis is awaiting India where the country may witness a massive fall in production of rice, sugar, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables. Most crops requiring hands for harvesting will be replaced by wheat. As evident in this year’s budget, and intellectual response to it, India’s planners, policy makers and opinion creators seem completely unaware of. What seems clear is that, in its intellectual life, India has weakened even more. The country’s intellectual reflexes are much slower than the pace of transformation. India’s intellectual poverty is far more worrisome than the poverty of its citizens. Heavy investment in new farm machines can save us from a big food crisis which appears quite real.

International Workshop Invitation

National Symposium Invitation

The Frontal View of the Central University of Kerala

National Symposium: Englishing Dalits

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF KERALA
Department of Comparative Literature Organises

National Symposium

"Englishing Dalits: Questions of Caste, Colonialism and Nationalism"

on 11 March 2010 at

Central University Conference Hall
from 10:00am to 05:00pm

The symposium is conceived as a bouquet of invited lectures by eminent academicians/intellectuals/activists.

Prof. Jancy James (Hon'ble VC, Central University of Kerala) will inaugurate the symposium.

Courtesy for Image: bog.shashwati.com

Lectures By:
1. Prof. Kancha Ilaiah (Osmania University, Hyderabad)

2. Dr. Chandra Bhan Prasad (Author/Activist, New Delhi/UP)
3. Dr. D. Shyam Babu (Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi)
4. Prof. M. Dasan (Kannur University)
5. Dr. Sanal Mohan (MG University, Kottayam)
6. Dr. V. B. Tharakeswar (EFLU, Hyderabad)
7. Ms. Meena Kandasamy (Writer/Anna University, Chennai)

Venue: Central University Conference Hall.

A Brief Background to the Theme of National Symposium:

One more controversial deification has occurred in India. Some Dalit groups have literally started to idolize and worship English—the language. This act is definitely the first of its kind in the history of entire human civilizations. The language is now an object of worship, not only the medium. After a careful marshalling of relevant historical data, here, English is foregrounded by Dalits as the tool of liberation. Officially, this socio-linguistic campaign was ‘inaugurated’ in a meeting of Dalit intellectuals and likeminded people, on 25 October 2006 in New Delhi. The day has its own historical importance and the selection of the day too was deliberate—it was the birthday of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, whom some Dalits hail as the “Father of Indian Modernity”. On the occasion, a portrait of English—the Dalit Goddess, painted by Dalit artist Shanti Swaroop Baudh, was also ceremoniously, rather religiously, unveiled. The galaxy of Dalit intellectuals assembled on the occasion also designed and resolved on a four-point programme:

i. All newborn Dalits/Adivasis will hear A...B...C...D… as the first sounds from their parents;

ii. All newborn Dalits/Adivasis will first see the picture of their Goddess English;

iii. All Dalits/Adivasis will have their own Bhagawati jagaron [a religious procession] of Goddess English on 25 October – the day Macaulay was born; and

iv. For complete emancipation, Dalit/Adivasi parents ought to give English education to their children at all costs – if necessary, work for more hours, borrow money, sell jewellery, even mortgage property.

Language being the most sensitive index of one’s identity, any debate on language has to be rightly problematized. While debating English, which is often perceived as a colonial legacy, how the caste question gets intermingled is a new turning point. In the present day socio-political context of social inequity and exclusion, Dalits and Adivasis believe that Goddess English is all about emancipation. ‘Worshipping the English Goddess’ is designed to be a mass movement against the caste order and the local languages; because Indian languages are, allegedly, more about prejudices, discrimination and hatred and less about expressions and communications. This movement draws intellectual inspiration from the earlier declarations like: ‘Through English, casteism can be destroyed and brahminical teaching can be hurled away’ (Savitribai Phule); ‘English is the milk of lioness’ (B.R.Ambedkar); ‘Dalits can use English as a weapon’ (Namishray); ‘…the vernaculars have been colonised by Sanskrit for thousands of years.’ (Omvedt); and ‘English speaking Dalits are less disrespected’ (Chandra Bhan Prasad). In addition, there is a boycott call against almost all vernacular languages of India. The ideological undercurrents and political repercussions of this particular piece of Dalit discourse are highly debatable.

Please forward this mail to all who you think should know about this event.

For organizing Committee.

International Workshop on Curriculum Development

Department of Comparative Literature
in collaboration with
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE ASSOCIATION OF INDIA (CLAI)
announces
International Workshop
on
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
SCOPE AND CHALLENGES

Dates: MARCH 25-26, 2010 (Thursday and Friday)
Venue: Conference Hall, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod

In our fast shrinking world, no student of literature can limit her/his pursuit of scholarship to a single literary culture. For sometime now, it has also been generally accepted that the range of inquiry of a true literary scholar must include comparative studies of expressions other than different literatures, such as fine arts, performing arts, film etc. Comparatists in our times give great importance to theoretical acumen and the ability to consider different arts and sciences concurrently.
The interdisciplinary nature of the field of Comparative Literature has led comparatists to show active interest in the areas of translation studies, sociology, critical theory, cultural studies, media studies, history and the like. As a result, designing the curriculum for Comparative Literature programmes within universities has become a major challenge. In principle, scholars drawn from several departments may develop such a curriculum. However, this eclecticism may lead to the charge that Comparative Literature is still ill-defined, or that comparatists can easily fall into dilettantism, because of the broad scope of their work. There are also apprehensions about this breadth affecting the ability of researchers in this area to find employment in the highly specialized environment of the academia and the career market at large.
While such questions loom large before us, nobody can overlook the significance of including Comparative Literature programmes as an essential component under the Humanities in our higher education centres. In view of these, the Department of Comparative Literature, Central University of Kerala, is organizing a two-day international workshop on the topic, “Curriculum Development for Comparative Literature: Scope and Challenges” on 25-26 March 2010 at Kasaragod.
The intensive workshop will feature 10-12 specially invited resource persons, who will make academic presentations on selected topics.
Dr. UR Anantha Murthy - Inaugural Address
Dr Amiya Dev: Guest of Honour
Dr. Ipshita Chanda (CL: Methodology and Challenges in the Indian context)
Dr. Dorothy Figieura (CL: Methodology and Challenges in the US context)
Dr. Sieghild Bogumil (CL: Methodology and Challenges in the European context)
Dr. Harish Trivedi (CL and World Literature)
Dr. AK Singh: Comparative Poetics in India
Dr. Chandra Mohan (CL and the Social Sciences)
Dr. Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee (CL and the Humanities)
Dr. MV Narayanan (Comparative Performance Studies)
Dr. Hema Nair (CL and Women's Writings)
Dr. Rizio B Yohannan (CL and Translation Studies)
Dr. Meena T Pillai (CL and Film Studies)

Ms. Mini Chandran of the OUP has agreed to be at the open forum. Due to some other engagements, Dr. K Satchidanadan is not able to participate, but he is our resource person for INDIAN LITERATURES, and has sent us points for discussion in this area. The workshop will conclude with a Kootiyattam performance by renowned artiste Margi Madhu.
This Workshop is conceived as the first in a series of academic initiatives to create a platform for active debate that would bring out creative suggestions and recommendations to make the best possible curricula for Comparative Literature programmes in Indian Universities. Apart from the discussions after the presentations, there will be an open forum in the evening of the second day of the workshop where other panelists will also participate in the discussions. We plan more of such explorations in the days to come.

Coordinators
Dr. Rizio B Yohannan: 09406192947
Dr. Prasad Pannian : 09446460202
Dr. Joseph Koyippally: 094956833616
Dr. Vellikkeel Raghavan: 08089746089

.

The Bekal Visit

Students with Faculty at the Bekal Fort


We took our students to the Bekal Fort the other day. It was a promise postponed several times!! After the busy schedules of the First Semester, it was a relief both for the teachers and students. The Historical Bekal Fort stood magnificent in the evening light.




Splashing Waves: The Bekal beach

Dr. Koovakkai introduces modern library system to PG studetns

Dr. Koovakkai in the class

The CUK libraian Dr. Dineshan Koovakkai had a two-hour interaction with the postgraduate students of the Department of Comparative Literature on how to use a modern library for research as a part of the course on Academic Writing.

His presentation centered around how to effectively retrieve information gathered in a modern library, facilities in the CUK library, Dewey Decimal Classification System it uses, CUK library website which lists many open access academic sites for books and journals, and Library Science in general.

The First Public Interface Programme of CUK

Prof. Jancy James and Prof. Paula Richman

Launch of Central University of Kerala – Public Interface Programme (CUK-PIP)

The Central University of Kerala (CUK) launched its First Public Interface Programme with the inauguration of the Katha series of public lectures and events based on the theme of ‘Narrative,’ planned by the Department of Comparative Literature, School of Languages and Comparative Literature.

Katha I: Ramayana and Other Stories, was inaugurated by our honourable Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jancy James on 22nd January 2010.. The inaugural session featured well-known scholar and writer, Prof. Paula Richman, (William H Danforth Professor of South Asian Religions, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA). Prof. Richman delivered a public lecture (Katha Lecture Series – I) on “The Unique Ramayana Traditions of South India.” This talk was based on Prof. Richman’s most recent work, Ramayana Stories in Modern South India: An Anthology.

During the post-lunch session, Prof. MN Karassery delivered a lecture on “Literary Traditions of North Malabar.” Professor Karassery’s talk acted as a prelude to the cultural evening that began with readings from the Mappila Ramayanam (original and translation) by Prof. MN Karassery and Prof. Paula Richman. (Mapplia Ramayanam is an Islamic Ramayanam, in the Muslim dialect of Northern Malabar, which was popularised by Hassankutty (“the Mad”) who wandered about singing it aloud)

Katha I celebrated the vital role of ‘story’ (katha) in moulding societies and cultures. Stressing the comparative nature of the programme, we brought together various narratives – oratory, poetry, photography, docu-film, puppetry – into the single frame of Katha I. This celebration of the narratives included a a docu-film (20 minutes) on Cockfight (a favourite sport of warrior tribes and people living in the coastal Tulunadu region, that has its mention in the literature of the Sangham Age, and is acknowledged as one of the sixty-four arts); Photography Exhibition on Kambala or Buffalo Race (played to show gratitude to the gods, who protect the crops from destruction); and the staging of Yakshagana Bombeyattam (puppetry in the style of Yakshagana, an audio-visual folk art popular in the southern parts of coastal Karnataka and northern Kerala) featuring the story of “Narakasura Vadham” from the Bhagavatha.

See the story in The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/01/19/stories/2010011956360400.htm

First Republic day celebrations in CUK

"Our flag will remain high...," sang our students in an elegantly simple ceremony in front of the temporary building of the university at Nayanmarmoola, Kasaragod.

The vice chancellor Dr. Jancy James raised the national flag at 7:30 am in front of the CUK crowd of teachers, students, administrative staff and security personnel. Dressed equally elegant in her simplicity, she was eloquent about the vision and the future of the university:

Dr. Jancy James, the Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Kerala raising the national flag in front of the temporary campus (26.01.2010)



"It is the simplest of all Republic days that I have participate in as an official. Nevertheless, it is no less. Maybe, it means much more as we make history here. It is the first celebration of the Republic day in the history of the Central University of Kasaragod. The first Independence day of India and the first Republic Day of India were also simple affairs. However, when our nation the 60th Republic Day today, we have very elaborate programmes that fit the image of our strong nation. As we are in the process of forming the future of India--the precious students who are wholeheartedly present here, I feel that we are also making history in the temporary campus. It will grow to become a great institution of learning that India will be proud of, and one for which Kerala can always hold its head high."


In the small function that followed, students, teachers and administrative staff participated. Songs, distribution of sweets and a hearty breakfast followed. The spirit of togetherness characterised the simple function. Hope it will remain as strong in the years to come.