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- Convenors:
-
Nicole Thiara
(Nottingham Trent University)
Mara Matta (University of Rome 'La Sapienza')
James Ponniah Kulandai Raj (University of Madras, Chennai)
- Location:
- 25H92
- Start time:
- 25 July, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
This panel explores subaltern narratives in South Asia with a focus on the question of continuities and discontinuities in subaltern politics of representation.
Long Abstract:
This panel will discuss contemporary self-representations of subaltern groups in South Asia. Literature, film and religio-cultural performances produced by subaltern groups such as Dalits and tribals, for example, try to find new ways of expressing subaltern subjectivities and representing communities. In producing new forms of self-representations, how do the subalterns attempt to overcome their situations of marginality? How do they rewrite their past memories of oppression? How do they subvert structures of domination: overtly or covertly or both? What kind of future vision and alternate world do subalterns script for themselves and for the nation at large in these narratives? What images, symbols, metaphors, myths, discursive and non-discursive practices of the past do they retain in their new narratives and what do they discard? How do they re-position and re-interpret them to fashion their self-portrait? In re-casting their self-image, in what ways do they negate, negotiate and benefit from processes such as modernisation and globalisation? The panel intends to explore how new subaltern narratives answer these questions by investigating them (i) in multiple socio-cultural contexts and sites of constructions (ii) from an interdisciplinary perspective employing literary criticism, critical and cultural theory and the methods of social sciences.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Nicole Thiara (Nottingham Trent University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will analyse G. Kalyana Rao’s novel Untouchable Spring that was originally published in Telugu with the title Antarani Vasantam in 2000. It will discuss the novel’s representation of subaltern art forms and explore the novel’s reception as a translated text.
Paper long abstract:
The paper will analyse G. Kalyana Rao's novel Untouchable Spring that was published in English by Orient Black Swan in 2010, translated from Telugu by Alladi Uma and M. Sridhar. This novel narrates the history of a Dalit family and community over several generations and in the process draws on and interrogates the narrative conventions of novel and history writing, of myths and oral story-telling. The paper will focus on analysing the way in which regional and Dalit art forms are represented in the text. It will also discuss the politics of translation and the text's reception by my undergraduate students in a postcolonial module at Nottingham Trent University.
Runa Chakraborty (Salesian College)
Paper short abstract:
This paper upholds the potentiality of Dalit women's life-narratives in subverting the dominant discourse and asserting the unique identity of Dalit women. .
Paper long abstract:
Abstract:
Title: Dalit Women's Life-narratives: An Affirmation of Identity
"Can the subaltern speak?" Controversies and critical discussions revolving round the issue of subaltern agency render this question an increasingly enigmatic one. My paper which deals with the life-narratives of Dalit women problematizes the issue as it upholds the immense potentiality that these narratives have in subverting the dominant discourse. Dalit women in India are often described as the "Dalits" among the Dalits since they are oppressed not merely because of their low-caste status but also because of their gender. Unfortunately, neither the Dalit movement nor the Women's movement in India addresses their problems adequately. However, I intend to show here how Dalit women negotiate with their situation of multiple marginalization and how they attempt to inscribe their 'presence' in the mainstream discourse which relegates them to the recesses of oblivion. Owing to the constraints of time and space, I will chiefly focus upon the life-narratives of Bama, Baby Kamble and Urmila Pawar though the scope of this paper will not be restricted to literary discussions of these texts only. Dalit women's life-narratives play a crucial role in advocating the unique identity of Dalit women which is not subsumed under the two broad categories-"Dalit" and "Woman". This paper which attempts to critically understand the nuances of the identity politics from a Dalit feminist standpoint acknowledges the journey of Dalit women from subjugation to celebration.
Key words: Dalit, Subaltern, Identity, Standpoint Feminism, Life-narrative.
Karthikeyan Damodaran (University of Edinburgh)
Paper short abstract:
During the post 1990s, migration and reservation paved way for economic development among Dalits of Southern Tamil Nadu, where they started to replicate the cultural idioms of dominant castes with public performances.This has helped in Dalit assertion and the politics of representation.
Paper long abstract:
As components of a broader struggle for equality in Tamil Nadu, Dalits (ex-untouchables) often challenge prevailing caste norms by replicating practices and conventions of locally dominant groups. This paper examines performative aspects of such struggles by focusing on guru pujas, public performances undertaken to pay homage to late social and political icons/leaders. As annual events these pujas have enabled Thevars, the local dominant caste, to showcase their community's strength and power through the appropriation of public space and the organization of mass rallies, flag hoisting ceremonies and related events. However, the same mode of public performance, which was integral to the public production and consolidation of the dominant caste as a political community, has been replicated by historically marginalized castes like Dalits. These performances provide a micro-lens to understand the dynamics of how local power is generated and made visible through a politics inscribed in space. Recent decades have witnessed increased competition over public symbols and the strategic location of caste-specific cultural signifiers - including competition over style and performance - and a heightened contest over the occupation of public space.
James Ponniah Kulandai Raj (University of Madras, Chennai)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses two instances of Dalit's aspiration for an egalitarian and inclusive India through their production of new idioms, symbols and narratives in the realm of religion.
Paper long abstract:
Based on the fieldworks done in Tirunelveli and Dharmapuri Districts of Tamilnadu, this paper explores the initiatives of the subaltern Dalits in advancing their project of emancipation. By appropriating the religio-cultural resources of the common people, they tap into the libreative potentials of the folk religious domains of different religious traditions—be it Christianity or Hinduism-- to construct an alternative social world that is all-inclusive and egalitarian in character. Such a space cannot be produced without challenging the existing schemes of domination and exploitation. By continuing the age-old traditional religious practices and metaphors, they seem to conform themselves to the old. But by innovating new idioms but thorough old religious grammar, they subtly introduce new meanings by which they not only invert the old hierarchical and dominant relations but also thwart the reproduction of inequality in the social realm. By enacting the life of Jesus on the stage through the folk drama known as 'Masatra Ratham' (innocent blood), they depict Jesus' life as a crusade against the then practices of untouchablity and social exclusion. By bringing in Ambedkar's portrait into the sacred space during Kodai (refers to the folk religious festival in Southern Tamilnadu), the Hindu Dalits not only invented a new patron who, by virtue of being the chief architect of India's Constitution, has showed them a road-map for an egalitarian social order but also expressed their agency in substituting him for earlier figures who had no relevance to their project of emancipation.
Juergen Schaflechner (Freie University Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines current identity formations of Hindu communities in Pakistan on the bases of a micro study of a Hindu temple in Baluchistan
Paper long abstract:
The shrine of Hiṅglāj Devī is located in the desert of Baluchistan, Pakistan, about 215 km West of the city of Karachi. Notwithstanding its ancient history an annual festival at Hiṅglāj is a fairly recent event and was only "invented" in the mid 1980s. With the construction of a National Highway, that now - coincidentally - connects the former aloof desert shrine with an urban Pakistan, an increasingly confident Hindu community utilizes the place as a main center for religious performances and expressions. The Hiṅglāj Śevā Manḍalī (HSM), the local temple organization, is in charge of the events around the shrine since three decades. With an appeal to discourses of rationality and education the HSM influences perceptions of ideal "Hinduness" at the temple and, thus, has significantly changed the face of the pilgrimage to and the happenings at the shrine.
In this paper I will argue that the HSM - intentionally and unintentionally - helps to construct a hegemonic narrative of what it understands to be "proper Hindu behavior". This is made possible through the repeated exclusion of certain religious tropes and ritual performances during the annual gatherings in Hiṅglāj. The ability to construct such a "master narrative" mainly stems from its power to control information, practice and mobility at the temple. This paper examines the micro-mechanisms of Hindu identity formation in Pakistan today.
Rafique Ullah Khan (University of Dhaka)
Paper short abstract:
The literature by Dalits in Bangladesh inevitably distinct in the way it depicts the discrimination on the basis of the social stratification according to social, economic, political and cultural aspects.
Paper long abstract:
The literature by the people, who are considered to be belonged to the lower stratum of a society according to the dominant perception, don't always represent their own background. Even then, the society where exists any form of stratification on the basis of social, economic, political and cultural aspects, the literature of the people of the lower stratum is distinct and meaningful. We know there is inevitably an economic context behind social or economic stratification; and it has the impact as well. Often the literature reveals how the upper portion of the society maintains dominates over the lower one within linguistic and cultural framework. The literature here, in Bengali speaking people, who underwent turbulence under colonial regimes rather represents a collective will for emancipation. The literature pronounced the urge for emancipation. So it could combine all the people from every segment in the mainstream literature. The samples of Dalit literature in Bangladesh are very negligible in number. Another important stream of literature, more adjacent to the Bengali speaking people than other languages, is Chakma literature, has commenced much ago and now mainstreaming through processes. The literature of Chakma people shelved a collection of ideas out of the experiences. It is mainstreaming and has an underlying voice of resistance that concerns protection of the identity. A new stream of Chakma literature seems to be influenced by more modern ideas in the recent decades and it challenges the backwardness of the society.
Lipika Kamra (O.P. Jindal Global University)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I interrogate the problems that arise for researcher-mediated narratives of subaltern agency. I want to point to the ambivalences and limits of agency as a recurring concept in the study of gender and subaltern politics.
Paper long abstract:
In attempting to bring out subaltern narratives or subaltern voices, scholars often highlight the presence or the lack of agency. Agency has become one of the key theoretical tools to analyse subaltern consciousness and resistance. Likewise, much of the work on subaltern women in social movements, rebel organizations and in campaigns for social transformation often tries to look for the presence or absence of agency in women's narratives of 'emancipation' and 'victimisation' . In this paper, I interrogate the problems that arise for researcher-mediated narratives of subaltern agency. I want to point to the ambivalences and limits of agency as a recurring concept in the study of gender and subaltern politics. To make my argument, I draw on my field experiences among women in rural West Bengal who shape their lives and politics in the presence of left parliamentary parties, NGOs, Maoists and other organizations that claim to work for women's emancipation.
Virinder Kalra (University of Manchester) Navtej Purewal (Professor)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will examine a localized context of durgahs (tomb shrines) in contemporary northwest India in Punjab. These shrines are at the forefront of claims over religious space by dalit groups.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will examine a localized context of the ubiquitous presence of durgahs (tomb shrines) in contemporary northwest India in Punjab. After the partition of 1947 and politicized religious identities which virtually erased public worship at shrines associated with Muslim sacred practice, sufi shrines in Punjab have emerged in the twenty first century as a phenomenon of ritualized worship and attracting new followings of worshippers. The paper will argue that this exhibits a transformation of public spiritual practice as well as assertions of claims to visibility and symbolic ownership of the social land material landscape by marginalised groups. Contestations over management and lineages of spiritual authority in durgahs in the locality of Nakodar near Jalandhar shows how durgahs have become a part of dalit assertions of belonging in a region where land ownership and political power contestations over land are rife. Subaltern claims to space in this context are refracted through the legitimacy and authority conferred by a shrine space. In tracing the development of the Murad Shah shrine and subsequently the struggle for control of this site, the developments of alternative shrines in the same proximity provide a cogent example of the struggles over space that articulate caste and class politics in rural Punjab.