INTRODUCTION The topic of the current research is ‘modern dilemma’ which the characters go through in the Indian great epic ‘Mahabharata’. Traditionally the authorship of ‘Mahabharata’ is attributed to Vyasa. The epic is traditionally ascribed by sage Vyasa who was an integral part of the events and also an eye-witness to many of the incidents which took place in the epic. Vyasa described it being as ‘itihasa’ which means history. His history also traces the relationship between the great teachers and their students of Vedic time which is mainly common as Guru- shishya parampara.
From that reason he writes this book to provide knowledge and understanding to the common people about culture and imperialism and how it was done in history. This book is split into four chapters: Overlapping Territories Intertwined Histories,Consolidated Vision, Resistance and Opposition, and Freedom from Domination in the Future. The first chapter provides an explanation of imperialism and culture while using historical stats about empires and colonies as supporting evidence. The author starts the essay with the poet T.S. Eliot’s statement that a historical sense makes people writers.
The anecdote belongs to general documents or practices firmly grounded in the historical travel narratives, penal documents, historical testimonies, confessional narratives. It enables the critic to discover in minute pieces of text the larger structures and operations of power, and to show how power extends its operations from minute anecdotes to the more complex texts embedded in a particular society or culture (1998, 133-134). Catherine Gallagher and Stephen Greenblatt proclaim
“It has science, religion, myth, nihilism, transcendental philosophy, Indian superstitions, logic, rationality and what not” (Tiwari 51). “The literary assets of the book lie in its delving deep into the mysteries created by bio-physical, meta-physical, geo-physical and trans-temporal images and Ghosh gives credibility to our world that contains the voice of logic and illogic, matter and anti-matter, science and anti–science” (Banerjee 125). Martin Kich finds the striking similarity between Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome and Dan Simmons’ first novel The Song of Kali. Simmons’ novel tells us the story of American poet who comes to Calcutta with his wife and baby in the search of Indian writer’s epic poem cycle about the Goddess Kali. When he arrives, he finds that the poet has disappeared under mysterious circumstances involving a cult that worships the Goddess Kali.
PROBLEMATIZING THE METONYMY OF REPRESENTATION IN GOPAL GURU’S ESSAY ‘HOW EGALITARIAN ARE THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN INDIA?’ ASSISTANT PROF. SAMBHU R.1, MR. AMAL TOMS 2 1Department of English Literature and Language, Mahatma Gandhi College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 2M.Phil Research Scholar, Department of English, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India ABSTRACT The article focuses on the political theorist Gopal Guru’s essay‘How Egalitarian Are the Social Sciences in India?’ in an attempt to demonstrate how the practice of theory and empiricism is divided on racial lines in the Indian academic scenario. It stresses the significance of bringing Dalit experience into the centre with reference to the practice of social theory by following the trajectory of Guru’s arguments. While social theory has become the prerogative of the upper classes, the so-called top of the twice-born, the marginalised sections of the society like the dalits have to content themselves with the pursuit of empiricism in social science disciplines. Guru’s essay critiques the cultural hierarchies that operate through academic institutions and analyzes why
Indian Sense and Sensibility of the Gandhian Myth in Kanthapura The topic of this thesis is “Indian Sense and Sensibility in the Fiction of Raja Rao”. Before we proceed further, it will be in the fitness of things to throw light on the words ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’. According to Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, ‘sense’ means: “a feeling about something important”1 (p.1392) and ‘sensibility’ according to this dictionary means: “the ability to experience and understand deep feelings, especially in art and literature”2. In this context, Indian sense and sensibility in the novels of Raja Rao means the novelist’s ability to ‘feel’ India as an important country and his ability to understand India as a nation and experience it not in geographical terms, but in physical, emotional, social, moral, religious, philosophical and metaphysical aspects of the life of people of India at large. The concept of ‘sensibility’ emerged in the 18th century Britain and was closely associated with the “studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered”.3 William Walsh in his book Indian Literature in English interestingly traces Indian sensibility in the language of R.K. Narayan.
In chapter 3, Mencius’s conception of the ethical ideal is presented based on the discussion of Confucius in the previous chapter; in addition to the four attributes, jen (仁 benevolence, humaneness), yi (義 righteousness, propriety), li (禮 observance of rites), chih (智 wisdom), Mencius’s idea of the unmoved heart/mind (不動心 pu tung hsin) attitude towards ming (命 decree, destiny) are also considered. After introducing the fundamental concepts, Shun begins further discussion and argumentation in remaining chapters. In Chapter 4, he investigates the relation between yi and hsin (心 heart/mind) in the context of Mencius’s disagreement with Kao Tsu and the Mohist Yi Chih; part of this discussion concerns Mencius’s response to the Mohist challenge. In Chapter 5, he deals with Mencius’s conceptions of self-cultivation, the restoration of political order, and the sources of ethical failure. Chapter 6, the last chapter, is on hsing (性 nature, characteristic tendencies) and Mencius’s claim that hsing is good, which contains Mencius’s response to the Yangist challenge and the differences with Hsün Tsu’s views on hsing.
The novel a passage to India published in 1924 revolves around the major theme or question of a possible friendship and co-existing between the British and the Indians. The novel is based on forester’s own travel experience through India, and is set during a time when the British colonial empire was on the brink of degeneration. Using the trial of Aziz, forester provides a deep insight into the complex world and relationship between the British and the Indians, a relationship which encompasses the complex struggle between the colonizer and the colonized. The structure of the plot is fairly simple, traditional, and straight forward. The novel consists of three major parts or structures which function as the foundation for the novels framework.
Some of the prominent ones are Traditionalism vs. Science, Traditional vs. Critical theory, domestic vs. international, east vs. west, Orient vs. Occident, First World vs. Third World, developed vs. developing, core vs. periphery, North vs. South and others. While there have been numerous studies on dichotomies (Gusfield 1967; Keohane 1998; Tickner 1997; Mudimbe-Boyi 2002; Newell 2005; Eckl and Weber 2007), majority of writings critique dichotomies for the negligence of the complexities of world politics which it tends to generalise in simple dualistic levels of abstractions. However, it is to be noted that despite its serious fallacies, scholars uses dichotomies, knowingly or unknowingly, in some form or the other. Study on dichotomy has not been fair to dichotomies, in the sense that none of the studies so far has come up with even one virtue of dichotomy despite its habitual use. Studies on dichotomies begin with criticism and suggest an outright rejection of its use or at least suggest de-dichotomisation.
Manipuri Ramkatha through Wari Leeba: A Dialogue between Text and Oral Renditions Ahanthem Homen Singh Research Scholar Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi Abstract: The paper seeks to highlight the dynamism of Indian Literary traditions which blurs the strict compartmentalization of written and oral traditions. Taking an instance from the Manipuri Ramayana in written text and its oral rendition through the narrative art of Wari Leeba, the paper tries to delineate the negotiation and interaction between the various forms of expressions in Indian literary scenario. From a detailed study of how the Manipuri Ramkatha tradition develops in Manipur to the way how Wari Leeba as a narrative art evolves