INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH: LITERATURE, LANGUAGE & SKILLS
Volume 8 Issue 3, October 2019 ISSN 2278-0742, www.ijells.com
October 2019
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Editor’s Note
Dear Readers & Contributors, Welcome to the October 2019 issue of IJELLS. We have a print ISSN, hence are foraying into print issues from this one on wards. We would like to honour all those who want to hold a copy and hear the pages rustle for a complete reading experience and a physical copy as a reminder of the published work. We present some very interesting reads. Share the digital copy with your peers and colleagues and subscribe for the physical copy on behalf of your Institution. Kindly mail us at editor.ijells@gmail.com to opt for any one of the following subscriptions. Online Subscription: Open access to the issue launched on the website. No Charge. Print Subscription: Postal delivery of the print version, of all the issues for a year to the address registered. Annual charge of Rs.2500/Unsubscribe: You shall not receive any further correspondence from us.
Happy Reading and Sharing!
Dr. Mrudula Lakkaraju Founding & Chief Editor
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Founding & Chief Editor Dr. Mrudula Lakkaraju, Department of English, Osmania University is trained from EFLU and a Doctorate from Osmania University. She prefers the designation of a trainer and a writer. She has presented several academic articles to international and national seminars, conferences, journals, and magazines. Casual and creative writing is also her forte. She is a prolific reader and writer. Her areas of interest are Post colonial Literature, Gender Studies, Film Studies, English Language Teaching, Contemporary Literature and Communication Skills.
Board of Editors
Dr. Thirunavukkarasu Karunakaran English Language Teaching Centre, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Dr. Isam M Shihada Al Aqsa University, Gaza strip
Dr. Ravi Bhushan Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana
Dr. G. Venkata Ramana, BVRIT, Narsapur
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Contents Editor’s Note............................................................................................................................................................02 Editorial Board .......................................................................................................................................................03 Contents....................................................................................................................................................................04
English Creative/Casual Writing Section Money Roshni Jaiswal…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………05
English Literature Cross-Cultural Encounter and Problem of Adjustment: a Study of Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting Anita Konwar …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………06 Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy: Contesting Historiography and Narrating Plural Truths K Geetha George ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….13 Self-refashioning and Belongingness in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef and The Sandglass Gurudev Meher…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………21 Sensuality and Sexual Freedom in Shobha De’s Womenfolk Mallavarapu Jhansi & Madupalli Suresh Kumar …………………………………………………………………………………………34 Feminist Interpretation of the Novel Yogmaya Purna Bahadur Kadel & Kamal Poudel ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….44 Folk Culture Rootedness in the Paintings of Mithila Santosh Kumar Singh ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….58 The Dynamics of Culture and Gender: Reflections in English Literature Vyshnavi Devi A ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……69
English Language Teaching ICT: An Indispensable Tool for Professional Students M. Sridhar & B. Srinivasulu,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,……..75 Setting Free ESL Learning from the Subjugation of Mother-Tongue Interference: A Distant Target to Hit Rajendra Rana ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...82 English Language Learning Competencies in Primary Level Education in Bangladesh: A Comparison between Curriculum and Implementation Mohammed Rashel Uddin & Sharmin Hena …………………………………………………………………………………………….…89 Author Profiles……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………..…….98
Cover Page Picture Courtesy: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/tags/fall-colours Page Margin Picture Courtesy: https://www.nicepik.com/search?q=autumnal+mood+color Picture on Page 5: https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/an-eternity-of-suffering-an-eternity-of-pain #NRJMDLA
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English Creative/Casual Writing Section Money Roshni Jaiswal
The invisible relative, grabbing her throat, Pushed the father away without any plot. Tears trickled down her cheeks, Earning and earning, the heart weeps. Childhood remembrance kept her alive, Still, the burning soul, ate her live. Craving for guts, struggled the voice, "Papa can you come?" DAMN the choice. The well-known answer, once more petrified, "It is alright�, Again she lied. She despises the chocolates, now, Since the sweeter carrier said "CHOW". Having the notes, bought the pleasures, Found nothing but some wincing measures. Countdown to vacations meant miserable now, The house owner left earlier, Wow! Leaning by bedside, in this room alone, She has the horror of getting forlorn, For, dad, the only man on whom she relies, Have played the trick to itemize. I wish you can hear what all I can't mutter, Want your warmth, not any shutter. Quite introduced to your selfless stuff, I am soaking with the pain, without any puff.
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English Literature Cross-Cultural Encounter and Problem of Adjustment: a Study of Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting Anita Konwar Abstract: Globalization has transformed this world into a ‗melting pot‘ where people irrespective of race, caste and creed can easily mix up with one other making the concept of universal brotherhood popular. Fasting, Feasting, a novel by Anita Desai shows the contrast between two cultures, the pious, longstanding customs of India standing for ‗Fasting‘ and the plentiful, luxurious customs of American culture representing ‗Feasting‘. Arun, bred in an orthodox Indian family, finds it difficult to adjust to American life. Like a stranger, neither does he see any way of assimilation nor does he try to find out any means of adjustment. The objective of this paper is to discuss the cross-cultural encounter and problem of adjustment in an alien culture in the light of Anita Desai‘s novel Fasting, Feasting. The methodology applied in the paper is analytical method. Key Words: Globalization, Melting Pot, Brotherhood, Assimilation, Adjustment
Introduction: Globalization has transformed this world into a ‗melting pot‘ where people irrespective of race, caste and creed can easily mix up with each other making the concept of universal brotherhood popular. In spite of the differences, man‘s curiosity to know about another culture knows no bound. Man‘s indomitable zeal encourages him to discover the unknown. So, he enters an alien culture to know its hidden aspects. At first this alien culture may be elusive and mysterious for him/her, but his unyielding mind could lead him to see the possibilities of adjustments. Fasting, Feasting, a novel by Anita Desai shows the contrast between two cultures, the pious, longstanding customs of India standing for ‗Fasting‘ and the plentiful, luxurious customs of American culture representing ‗Feasting‘. The contrast between the two cultures also stands for India, the economically backward land of scarcity, and America, the land of plenty. Arun, bred in an orthodox Indian family, finds it difficult to adjust to American life.
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Like a stranger, neither does he see any way of assimilation nor does he try to find out any means of adjustment.
Objective and Methodology: The objective of this paper is to discuss the cross-cultural encounter and problem of adjustment in an alien culture in the light of Anita Desai‘s novel Fasting, Feasting. The methodology applied in the paper is analytical method.
Analysis: In an alien culture, one has to face problems initially like Arun. In USA, Arun is not able to make friendship with his fellow students. In the classroom he feels alienated. He does not like the peculiar fashions of his fellow students. In order to avoid other students, he gets absorbed in his books and stays away from any further involvement with them. The assimilation of culture is not possible in case of Arun. He is even not able to adjust himself with his foreign roommate. His hostel roommate, a silent student from Louisiana is a chain smoker and the thick yellow smoke which causes asthmatic trouble for him. Being unable to communicate with each other, they remain like an undiluted mixture. At every step of this new life in Massachusetts, Arun feels like a stranger. He does not see any prospect of adjustment in this new culture. The sense of alienation envelops Arun when he listens to the sudden eruption of music across the campus. The sound of music only makes him aware of the gulf between his culture and the culture of this foreign land: ―Their very volume of the music created a fence, a barrier, separating him from them‖ (Fasting, Feasting, p.170). Arun is very much rooted in Indian culture. For him, these two cultures cannot meet. He avoids not only foreign students but also the small ghetto of his countryman. The truth was that he had no plans, only the hope that his time
in the US would continue
in this manner, that he could always share a cell of a room with a silent roommate who concealed his facial expressions behind a screen of smoke, that he would attend lectures where the lecturer never even learnt his name, and find food in a cavernous cafeteria where no one tried to sit beside him. (Fasting, Feasting, p.172) He seems to be an exceptional student who does not want to be included in any group. Away from home, now he enjoys the total freedom of anonymity, the total absence of relations, demands, needs, request, ties, responsibilities, commitments. He is happy to keep his self intact and would not like it to be polluted with anything else to lose its originality. 7 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Though he tried to live a life of recluse in America, this hope does not last long. At last, he is compelled to mix up with this alien culture. Now, the real problems arise in front of him. During the summer vacation, as there was no other means of accommodation he had to stay at Mrs. Patton‘s house on Bayberry Lane. Being the sister of Mrs. O‘Henry, the wife of the local Baptist missionary in India, Mrs. Patton came forward to accommodate Arun. The Baptist missionary was the vice-principal of the school; Arun had attended and had written a recommendation to help him win a scholarship in the states. The cultural assimilation is seen in Mrs. O‘Henry. Though a foreigner, after living in India for twenty years, she assimilates herself in Indian culture. She knows the food habits of Indian people. She writes down everything about the food habits of Arun to Mrs. Patton. Mrs. Patton is amazed by the food habits of Indian people. Both the novels Bye-Bye Blackbird and Fasting, Feasting are rooted in Desai‘s real experiences, but the treatment of cross-cultural theme is different in them. In Bye- Bye Blackbird, the Indian Immigrants have to face hostile situation in England. They are openly insulted. But in Fasting, Feasting, Arun does not try to mix up with the other foreign students. He likes to stay aloof. Even in Patton‘s family, all the family members treat him kindly except Melanie. His problems arise regarding his food habits. Yet, Mrs. Patton is so compassionate that she enquires about Arun‘s food habits and changes her taste to adjust herself with Arun‘s food habits. Somehow he (Arun) has found the one person in the land who is in the same position as he; that makes for comradeship, there is no denying that, but it does not necessarily improve anything.(Fasting, Feasting, p.162) Mr. Patton can cook meat, but Arun is a vegetarian. In Mr. and Mrs. Patton‘s kind behaviour with Arun, the cultural harmony is noticeable. Arun is against taking beef because in India the Hindus worship cows. Though Arun is in America, he still follows the Hindu ideals. He tells Mrs. Patton about Hindu ideals. But Mr. Patton‘s idea regarding beef is different. He says, ―Yeah, how they let them out on the streets because they can‘t kill ‗em and don‘t know what to do with ‗em... A cow is a cow and good red meat as far as I‘m concerned‖ (Fasting, Feasting, p.166). Here lie the cultural differences. Mr. Patton does not consider Hindu customs as ideal ones, but somehow Mrs. Patton gets interested in Hindu beliefs. Though Arun despises the food cooked by Patton, he has to compromise. In spite of his long stay with this American family, his Indianness bars him from changing his food habits. He remains a vegetarian. In Mrs. Patton, eagerness is seen 8 Volume 8 Issue 3
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regarding Arun‘s food habits. She hates beef but couldn‘t change her taste earlier because the other members of the family were against it. But now she has a companion and she promises to cook vegetables. Food habits show the difference between two cultures. Mrs. Patton purchases all kinds of vegetable items and asks Arun to eat whatever he likes. Arun‘s food habits again do not match with these items. He even cannot tell Mrs. Patton that these are not the foods that figure in his culture. He feels as if he faces the same situation here also. He is not able to escape. No, he had not escaped. He had travelled and he had stumbled into what was like a plastic representation of what he had known at home; not the real thing-which was plain, unbeautiful, misshapen, fraught and compromised-but the unreal thing-clean, bright, gleaming, without taste, savour or nourishment.(Fasting, Feasting, p.185) The situation is not different in this land. Arun has the same problems in America as the ones he faced in India. Mr. Patton does not like the idea of vegetarianism. When Mrs. Patton tells him about her trial, he ignores it. On the other hand, Melanie treats him like an intruder in their house. The cultural difference between the two countries is further seen when Arun considers himself to be physically inferior to Rod. This difference is due to the atmosphere in the family. The American boys and girls are so much conscious of their physique. The Indian boys nourished on pure vegetables cannot compete with them. Arun knows that he cannot compete with Rod, in jogging. He rejects Rod‘s offer. The physical power of Rod makes Arun feel inferior. This enhances the difference between the two cultures. He is again drawn back to his Indian self. Mrs. Patton helps Arun revive his Indian traditions. Arun prepares Indian dinner with Mrs. Patton. She watches Arun cooking Indian dishes and says, ―Now if more Americans ate that food, we shouldn‘t be making ourselves so sick-with heart disease and cancer and-and dreadful diseases all due to a terrible, terrible diet‖ (Fasting, Feasting, p.193). She praises Indian food and tries to assimilate herself in the Indian tradition. The hostility comes from her daughter, Melanie who is angry to see Arun in the kitchen. But Mrs. Patton forbids her from making offensive remarks about other people‘s food. Both Melanie and Rod make him feel inferior as if the colonizers are casting power over the colonized. Unable to have a sympathetic understanding of the other‘s ways, the West starts treating the East as opposite, alien and mostly inferior. To ensure a harmonious existence, each of the communities should be able to empathize with its other. Mrs. Patton is compassionate towards him. She is a 9 Volume 8 Issue 3
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motherly figure for him whose support gives him the courage to endure all the trouble. In Mrs. Patton‘s view, one‘s ability to empathize with the other depends on one‘s desire to know the other. Though there are cultural differences, the emotional needs of people are the same. In the Patton family, the children don‘t have time to dine with the parents. They have different meal times. So, Mrs. Patton fills the freezer all the time. She tries to get rid of her loneliness in Arun‘s company. The atmosphere at the Patton household takes Arun back to his Indian background. In Patton‘s family, no one knows what the other members are doing. Each one lives in his own world being ignorant of the other‘s needs. Mrs. Patton seeks solace in shopping and filling the freezer with different food items so that the other members may eat whatever item they like. Arun remembers that though at home in India, all the family members gather at meal time, he hardly feels them to be models of social and familial gathering because he could feel lack of affection in the attitude of his parents. There is more authority than affection: ―Papa chewing each mouthful like an examiner on duty, mama‘s eyes like bright beads, watching, his sisters perched in preparation to flap and fly, the only conversation permitted to do with the grim duty at hand‖ (Fasting, Feasting, p.197). Arun could see the connection between these two cultures as the trouble regarding eating is inherent in Patton‘s family also. Now, he could identify himself more easily with these foreign people. In the Patton family, Arun undergoes both the feeling of assimilation and difference. Melanie again treats him as the other when she asks her mother to give the scrambled egg to the cat or to Arun because she considers her mother‘s cooking poisonous. At another point of time, Arun is confronted with cultural disparity. Once Mrs. Patton sunbathes sitting on a deck-chair in the yard. Arun does not feel easy at the sight of Mrs. Patton wearing minimal clothes. In spite of the differences, the similarities are noticeable. In the Patton family too, Melanie undergoes the same problems, as his sister Uma back home. There is nobody to enquire after her needs, her tastes, and her feelings. Here also, Melanie feels neglected by her family members. There is a rebellious attitude in her nature. Arun sees this similarity as the bridge connecting the two cultures. Melanie in silent protest shows her outrage to Arun. Then Arun does see a resemblance to something he knows: a resemblance to the contorted face of an enraged sister who, failing to express her outrage against neglect, against misunderstanding, against inattention to her unique and
singular being and its hungers,
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merely spits and froths in ineffectual protest. How strange to encounter it here, Arun thinks, where so much is given, where there is both license and plenty. (Fasting, Feasting, p.214) In Arun‘s orthodox family, his sister Uma suffers from lack of parental affection and freedom. But in Patton‘s family Melanie has so much freedom. She has both license and plenty to enjoy. Yet, she is not happy. A cultural bonding takes place between Arun and the Pattons. In Mrs. Patton, there is respect for Indian culture. She gets interested in traditional medicines. She talks of a course at the Leisure Activities Center in Yoga, or astrology, but Mr. Patton is not happy with Mrs. Patton‘s interest and he growls at her interest.
Conclusion: In his essay entitled ‗Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences‘, Homi K. Bhabha argues that all cultural systems and statements are constructed in what he calls the ‗Third Space of Enunciation.‘ (The Post-Colonial Reader, P.209) Bhaba urges people into this space in an effort to open up the notion of an international culture ―not based on exoticism or multiculturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture's hybridity.‖ ((The Post-Colonial Reader, P.209) In bringing this to the next stage, Bhabha hopes that it is in this space ―that we will find those words with which we can speak of ourselves and others. And by exploring this ‗Third Space', we may elude the politics of polarity and emerge as the others of ourselves (The Post-Colonial Reader, P.209). By embracing the hybridised nature of cultures, the problematic binarisms that frame general notions of culture can be demolished. The cultural assimilation, indicated in Fasting, Feasting holds the promise of such a ‗third space‘ when Arun hands over the packet of tea and shawl sent from home to Mrs. Patton, she feels happy to have the gifts of a foreign land. The two different worlds are closely knit into one by a box of tea and a shawl. Asha Choubey aptly comments: ―Arun‘s wrapping the shawl around Mrs. Patton‘s shoulders seems to be the novelist‘s way of showing that though there are surface differences, somewhere deep down both the worlds are one.‖ (The Fiction of Anita Desai, p.93). Though, the novel speaks the story of two families across different cultures, yet the affinity lies in them. In spite of the differences in culture, language and life-style, the basic human problems are the same. Cultural integration may solve the crisis of identity faced by people across different cultures. Mike Featherstone writes: ―While cultural integration processes are taking place on a global level, the situation is becoming increasingly pluralistic.‖ (Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity, p.13) 11 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Works Cited
Bala, Suman and D.K. Pabby, eds. (2002), The Fiction of Anita Desai. 2 vols. New Delhi: Khosla Publishing House.
Bhabha, Homi K. (2009), The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. 2nd Indian Reprint.
Bill., Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, eds. (1995), The Post-Colonial Reader. London: Routledge.
Boehmer, Elleke. (2006), Colonialism & Postcolonial Literature.1995.New Delhi: OUP.
Culler, Jonathan. (2006), Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.1997.New Delhi: OUP.
Desai, Anita. (2000), Fasting, Feasting.1999.London: Vintage.
Featherstone, Mike. (1995), Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity. London: Sage.
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Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy: Contesting Historiography and Narrating Plural Truths K Geetha George
Abstract With the rise of post structuralism and postmodernism, the literary texts became sites that produce multiple meanings. They present the plurality of truth. Post colonialism initiates decolonization and generates the urge to retell the consciously silenced history of the margins. Postmodernism problematises the objective nature of history. It rejects the notion of history as a unitary past. The postmodern critics question the certainty and fixity of history. This paper is a perspective on how Amitav Ghosh, a contemporary Indian English author, presents the multiplicity of history and plurality of truths in his Ibis Trilogy. Amitav Ghosh makes effective use of historiographic metafiction as a mode to retell history in fiction in his Ibis Trilogy. The retelling of the dominant versions of history by experimenting with the narrative technique is what Ghosh does in this trilogy. Ghosh gives multiple perspectives of the history that is recorded. The muted voices that tell their stories are thus seen to be retelling the history. The counter narration contests the historiography and thus asserts that there is no single truth or dominant history. The conclusive nature of historical knowledge is challenged as Ghosh focuses on multiple interpretations and plural truths and thereby contest the objective notion of historiography. Keywords: Counter narration, Historiographic Metafiction, Plurality
The Indian English novelists of the postmodern period find the history written by western historians incomplete. Post colonialism calls for decolonization and asserts the need to retell the history of the marginalized. Postmodernism problematises the objective nature of history. The postcolonial attempt to retell the past moved to re-structuring and re-reading of texts. The conclusive nature of history is contested with the multiplicity of interpretations. Indian English writers from the beginning of postcolonial era onwards have engaged themselves in the act of retelling the dominant versions of history. Amitav Ghosh, a contemporary Indian English writer, explores the multicultural world and presents the multiplicity of history and present the plurality of truth in his Ibis Trilogy. He makes use of historiographic metafiction as a mode to retell history in fiction so as to represent the voices from the margins. 13 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Looking back into the past through fiction thus becomes a way of raising questions about historiography. According to Stephen Slemon: the common pursuit of many postcolonial texts is to proceed beyond a ‗deterministic view of history‘, by revising and re-appropriating, or reinterpreting history as a concept, and in doing so to articulate new codes of recognition, within which the acts of resistance, those unrealized intentions and those readings of conscious history as rendered silent or invisible can be recognized as shaping forces in a culture‘s tradition. (159) The voices that seek representation have multiple stories to narrate, for ―there are only truths in the plural and never one Truth; and there is rarely falseness per se, just other‘s truths‖ (Hutcheon, Poetics 109). This leads to the narration of multiple histories. The postmodern critics question the certainty and fixity of history. The subjective interpretation of facts provides different interpretations of history. Hayden White suggests that ―the historical sequence of facts can be emplotted in several ways, so as to provide widely different interpretations of these events‖ (Metafiction 39). The conclusive nature of history is contested with the multiplicity of interpretations. Linda Hutcheon argues that ―contemporary histories not only deal with the de-centring of the present subject, from the position of knowledge and meaning, but also with the interrogation of the past from excentric positions‖ (Poetics 57). Hutcheon argues that ―postmodernism reinstalls historical contexts as significant and even determining, but in so doing it problematizes the entire notion of historical knowledge‖ (Poetics 89). As Hutcheon emphasizes, postmodernism problematizes history and questions issues concerning narrative form, intertextuality, strategies of representation, the role of language, the relation between historical fact and experiential event, and, in general, the epistemological and ontological consequences of the act of rendering problematic what was once taken for granted by historiography and literature (Poetics xii). Linda Hutcheon names this postmodern process of problematizing of history in fiction as historiographic metafiction. Historiographic metafiction challenges and renders unstable any stable notion of historical knowledge. History rewritten from the perspective of those on the margins is presented in the form of fiction and this question the idea of history‘s subjectivity. The history-fiction interface with blurred borders is used to problematize the authenticity of history using parodist representations and self-reflexivity. The postmodern Indian English writers have 14 Volume 8 Issue 3
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combined postmodern narrative techniques with the postcolonial attempt at de-marginalizing history to represent the self. The last three decades have witnessed the publication of many novels that suit the notion of historiographic metafiction. To retell the past from the perspective of the marginalized, Ghosh uses the form of historiographic metafiction. In Shadowscript: An Interview to First City, Ghosh remarks: ―The difference between the history, historians write and the history, fiction writers write, is that fiction writers write about human history. It's about finding the human predicament; it's about finding what happens to individuals, characters‖ (30). In his metafictions, Ghosh contests the master narratives of colonial history and rewrites history to narrate the tales of the human predicament. The fixity of history is problematised when plural truths are traced to present the multiplicity of history. The multiple histories that are narrated subvert the colonial notion of history as conclusive and assert the plurality of truth. Amitav Ghosh focuses on the multiple interpretations of recorded history in the three books, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire which constitutes the Ibis Trilogy. He presents a motley array of characters that render counter narrations of various recorded histories of a period from 1839-1842. The multiplicity of history is presented through individual stories that proliferate into alternative histories. Each of these books of the trilogy presents alternate narrations of history of various arenas: the opium cultivation, trade and its devastating effects that led to Opium wars; the indentured labourers and their diasporic life; hybrid identities that struggle for existence; the history of imperial colonialism, brutal caste systems that deteriorated the culture of India, the fall of old economic order and the rise of new global world order and the connections it made across India and China. In Sea of Poppies, the first book of the Ibis Trilogy, Ghosh combines history and anthropology in the tale of the production and transport of opium and the migration of indentured labourers across the black sea. He uses the form of epic narration to tell the tale that is to grow into the trilogy. River of Smoke, the sequel to Sea of Poppies continues the narration of the history of the opium trade in South Asia. This novel, a blend of history, adventure, romance and a study of culture and language, narrates the story of the diasporic existence of the indentured labourers who crossed the black waters. In Flood of Fire, the final book of the series, all that was building up gets culminated as Ghosh gives a distinct depiction of opium‘s role in funding the establishment of the British imperialistic Empire. This novel retells the history of British expansion in Asia which was purely driven by the desire for power and greed. In the Sea of Poppies, the schooner Ibis and the crew occupies 15 Volume 8 Issue 3
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the narrative, in River of Smoke, Anahita takes centre stage. In the Flood of Fire, Hind and its crew become the narration. Sea of Poppies has a large cast of characters who make their own history and contribute to the collective history that is narrated in the novel. Deeti‘s story of female oppression, Kalua‘s story of caste discrimination, Neel‘s story of the landed zamindars, Paulette‘s story of cultural misfits and Zachary‘s story of apartheid are among them. Their individual stories make up the collective history that is the central narrative of the novel. In River of Smoke the story of the Diaspora narrated by Deeti; Neel‘s recollection of the exile‘s agony in his struggle to survive against the odds; the letters of Robin Chinnery, a hybrid in the Diaspora world present the world of mismatches; Bahram‘s story of the opium trade and Ah Fatt‘s story of the opium dens are some of the truths we find that contest the accepted history. Sea of Poppies fictionalizes two great historical events of the 19th century: the cultivation of opium as a cash crop in Bengal and Bihar for the Chinese market, and the transport of Indian indentured workers to cut sugar canes for the British on such islands as Mauritius, Fiji and Trinidad. Set on the threshold of the first opium war, the novel challenges the colonial narration of history. The central narrative is the story of the mass migration of Indians as indentured labourers to the Mauritius islands. The socio-economic and political conditions that led to it get a parallel narration through the multiple voices that Ghosh brings in to the novel. They include the history of the Indian villages where opium was forcefully cultivated. The histories of the seafaring, slave trade and botanical research are also narrated in the novel. Serang Ali, the lascar who had a past of piracy, questions the legitimacy of the slave trade. Paulette, an orphan daughter of a French botanist, narrates the history of botanical research in colonial India. The multiethnic and multilingual world of the seafarers of the nineteenth century is exposed in this story. The tale from the perspective of the colonizer is narrated through Benjamin Burnham, an unscrupulous British merchant, who is also a firm believer in free trade and an evangelist. For him, ―free trade is a right conferred on Man by God‖ (Sea 106). He considers the opium war as a war for ―principles.‖ Baboo Nob Kissin, Burnham‘s Bengali agent who believed that he was undergoing a spiritual metamorphosis, tells the tale of the English Babus who benefited from the British rule. Captain Chillingworth embodies the iron fist rule of the British colonizer who kept the divisions of caste and class firm and intact on board. He is assisted by Subedar Bhyro Singh, the native Indian overseer in charge of maintaining discipline among the migrants. Ghosh not 16 Volume 8 Issue 3
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only combines history and fiction but also provides a detailed anthropological study of the life and culture of colonial India. The novel serves as a comprehensive portrayal of Indian lifestyle, culture and tradition of the early 19th century. The history of the British opium trade in China before the First Opium War is delineated in River of Smoke. Ghosh follows the story to Canton in China, where the opium is sold. The Chinese authorities try to prevent the illegal import of the drug, which has inflicted a plague of addiction on the Chinese population. The devastating impact of opium on the people called for a ban on the opium trade. The rule was further enforced by the Chinese emperor in 1838. The history of free trade, the conflicts of trade relations between Britain and its colonies, the end of the shipbuilding industry in India, the deportment of Napoleon Bonaparte to Helena islands and the founding of island cities like Hong Kong are among the issues of historical significance that come through the novel through the perspectives of Bahram Modi. The Indo Chinese culture of Canton and also the world of literature and trade in Canton are revealed from the multiple perspectives of Neel, Ah Fatt and Serang Ali. Deeti narrates the story of the migrant settler, and the botanist‘s world opens up through Paulette. In the Flood of Fire, the vexed colonial history of Opium trade and Opium war of 1839 gets further narration through the spectacular tales of the array of characters that Ghosh caricatures. Ghosh presents a period from 1839-1842 and reworks in a fiction mode the legacy of colonialism and the global connections among people of different histories and culture. The global economy that got transformed with the opium war is traced as Ghosh unfolds the story of strugglers and survivors in the final book of the trilogy. All these characters are in a way thwarted by their connection with the opium trade. The characters who travel on Hind are in search of answers, adventure and money. The history of Chinese drug regulation, emergence of China into a world economy and the lucrative civilizing missions in distant lands and the development of Asia as a global economy are retold in this fiction. The various characters who are pulled in to the vortex of wars for tumultuous transformation of global economy and world order include Kesri Singh, Deeti‘s brother, an Indian soldier in British Army who is torn between conflict of loyalties; Zachary, the mullatto who transforms into man of the times as he spares no opportunity to ride up the ladder of economic success; Shireen Modi, Bahram Modi‘s wife who transforms from an orthodox Parsi widow to a woman who travels across the seas to claim her deceased husband Bahram Modi‘s financial losses in opium trade and also to meet her husband‘s half Chinese son; Ah Fatt, the half Chinese son of Bahram Modi, whose new identity is that of a drug dealer who 17 Volume 8 Issue 3
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works for Freddy Lee; Mrs Burnham whose scandalous personal life unveils the prejudices and pretensions of the colonizers world; Neel, a skilled translator and a disgraced Raja in exile, awaiting employment in Guangzhou and a reunion with family; Jodu who gets imprisoned and transforms into a committed Muslim and Paulette Lambert, the Botanist‘s daughter, who reunites with Zachary after the transformations. The history of unrest between Britain and China, the British acquisition of Hong Kong and the endorsement of free trade are narrated from multiple perspectives and questions the historical notions that lead the markets to triumph over morality. Ghosh challenges the dominant history in this book as he fetches out multiple interpretations on notions of free trade, religious domination and racial power struggles that led to the expansion of the British Empire over the Asian continent. The establishment of capitalism by war and power and the emerging of the India and China as prospective nations also come through the plural truths and counter-histories in Flood of Fire. The cultural history gets retold as Ghosh gives detailed descriptions of food, dress, rituals, practices and beliefs of the people of China, colonial India and the imperial world in these books. In Sea of Poppies, the drawings of Deeti and others in the memory temple provide a graphic representation of history and become instances of parallel narration. In River of Smoke Neel‘s Crestomathy becomes a record of the language of the 18th-century trade relations. Robin Chinnery‘s tracing of the painting of Golden Camilia is another counter-history in the world of Botany. Historiographic metafiction introduces historical personages into the narrative of the novel. In Sea of Poppies, Zachary‘s recollection of Fredrik Douglass introduces a historical personage to the fiction. In River of Smoke, the Fanqui Town, the Foreign Enclave in Canton witnesses the historical, economic, and political events that are featured in the novel. The historical persons that Ghosh brings into the novel are Commissioner Lin, George Chinnery and Charles King. The novel also recalls Bahram and Zadig‘s visit to the island of Helena and introduces the deported emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In the last book of the trilogy, the grandfather of Former American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Warren Delano is seen as one among the opium merchants in China. William Jardine, the 19th-century Scottish opium trader who established the Jardine Matheson in Hongkong also appears in Flood of Fire. Ghosh has experimented with the formal features of the novelistic genre in his novels. He blurs the distinctive borders between disciplines. Intertextuality is yet another aspect of metafiction that is used in the novels to re-present history. Many of Ghosh‘s novels bear intertextual allusions in their titles. The memories of Zachary on Douglass have a reference to 18 Volume 8 Issue 3
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the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The title Sea of Poppies alludes to the title of Derek Walcott‘s poem ―The Sea is History.‖Journey to the West, a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Chenger Bahr'en, is referred to in River of Smoke as a book gifted to Ah Fatt by his father, Bahram Modi. Ghosh has used self-reflexive comments on the act of storytelling and historiography. Histories differ, and so do stories. Amitav Ghosh attempts to give multipleperspectives of the history in this counter narration in his Ibis Trilogy and thus contests the historiography to assert the plurality of truth. The reasons may be political, canonical or ideological, yet the dominant history gets contested as the multitude of characters narrate their stories or truths per se to establish the multiplicity of truth and thereby negate the notion of singular truth.
Bibliography
Dhawan, R. K., ed. The Novels of Amitav Ghosh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1999. Print.
Dixon, Robert. "'Travelling in the West': The Writing of Amitav Ghosh." Journal of Commonwealth Literature 31.1 (1996): 3-24. Print.
Ghosh, Amitav. Author Interview Australia: Harper Collins Publishers, n.d. <http://www.harpercollins.com.au/author/AuthorExtra.aspx?displayType=interview&aut horID=50016773>.
---.Interview with Tom Ashbrook, 'On Point', NPR. with Tom Ashbrook. On Point. Boston's NPR News Station. 13 Oct 2011. <http://www.amitavghosh.com/interviews.html#gpm1_4>.
---.River of Smoke. Delhi: Penguin India, 2011. Print.
---. Sea of Poppies. Delhi: Penguin India, 2008. Print.
---. The Calcutta Chromosome: ANovel of fevers, delirium, and discovery. Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1996. Print.
---. The Circle of Reason. India: Penguin, 1986. Print.
---. The Glass Palace. Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 2000. Print.
---. The Hungry Tide. Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 2004. Print.
---. The Imam and the Indian: Prose Pieces. Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 2002. Print.
---. The Shadow Lines. Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1988. Print.
Hawley, John C. Contemporary Indian Writers in English: Amitav Ghosh. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. 19
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Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988. Print.
---."Historiographic Metafiction: Parody and the Intertextuality of History." Intertextuality and Contemporary American Fiction. Ed. O'Donnell, P., and Robert Con Davis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 3-32.Print.
---. ―‗The Pastime of the Past Time.‘: Fiction, History, Historiographic Metafiction,‖ Genre. 1987. Vol.20. No. 3-4. 285-306. Print.
Slemon, Stephen and Helen Tiffin, After Europe Critical Theory and Postcolonial Writing. Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1989. print.
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Methuen, 1984. Print.
White, Hayden. "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact." Canary, Robert H and Henry Kozicki (ed). The Writing of History. Madison, 1978. 41-62. Print.
---. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973. Print.
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Self-refashioning and Belongingness in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef and The Sandglass Gurudev Meher Abstract: Romesh Gunesekera in his fictional manoeuvres has tried to revive alternative ways of seeing and living the world, seeking anchorage in a foreign land in a diasporic situation which enables the characters to rethink the notion of nationalism, home and belonging. Gunesekera‘s novels such as Reef and The Sandglass allow us to re-examine the dynamics of cultural representation enacted through multiple diasporic movements across the globe that is informed by various postcolonial upheavals which collapse the spatial and temporal boundaries of identification, and help evolve a re-configurated version of identity, focussing on the idea of self-refashioning, to resist transcultural marginalization. The paper thus demonstrates the manners in which the novelist, in his first two novels such as Reef and The Sandglass explores this idea of de-territorialisation and the resulting rhetoric of refashioning with great poetic subtlety and depicts the ambiguity of displacement while exposing the intrinsic insubstantiality of homeland and monolithic belongingness in the narrative of the sequestered self. Key Words: Home, Belonging, Identity, Memory, Diaspora, Rootedness Romesh Gunesekera‘s works primarily draw upon the ever-confounding issues of home, immigrant experiences, the unsevered connection between the time past and the time present, and the problematic of nostalgia and loss. In his novels, he seeks to represent the process by which the diasporic subjects are able to nourish and sustain self-images of survival in an alien environment, traversing the restrictive rigidity of identity and belonging in which the notion of ‗home‘ becomes an emotional construct rather than be circumscribed by territorial borders, national identity and mono-cultural rootedness. In this narratological domain memory plays a pivotal role in shaping and reshaping of one‘s belongingness connecting the fragmented diasporic past with a yet unsettled presence. Gunesekera as a diasporic writer seeks to recreate and reconfigure the inner landscape of belonging once uprooted from his original homeland ―for it is through a journey into the incommensurable spaces within memory itself that these writers enact individual passages, which can no longer be sustained by the recognition of any easily identifiable or firm boundary lines whether of tradition, language, place or time‖ (Nasta 212). As identity is firmly grounded in the vast 21 Volume 8 Issue 3
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abysses of our psychic process, memory plays a crucial role in individuation and selfidentification of the diasporic subjects. It assumes an emotional dimension and moves beyond the merely spatial and temporal boundaries. As Rosemary Marangoli George has powerfully claimed: Today, the primary connotation of ‗home‘ is of ‗private‘ space from which the individual travels into the larger arenas of life and to which he or she returns at the end of the day: And yet, also in circulation is the word‘s wider significance as the larger geographic space where one belongs: country, city, village, community. Home is also the imagined location which can be more readily fixed in a mental landscape than in actual geography. The term ‗home country‘ suggests the particular intersection of private and public and of individual and communal that is manifest in imaging a space as home. (9) Susheila Nasta describes writers like Gunesekera as ―birds of passage‖ (212) whose locations are always in a state of flux, refigured and reconfigured by the confluence of individual and collective memories and desires projected into the obsequious phenomenon of time. Seeking to cartograph the modalities of home from a range of possible locations both within and without England, Gunesekera steps into an unexplored landscape of mind untrodden yet by the contemporary writers of Diaspora by ―‗making memory‘ itself the subject of fiction‖ (Nasta 213) and re-articulation of identity: ―In so doing, the sounds of their voices echo like those of migrant birds, whose perennial flights into other skies mark and name the permeable boundary lines of those immigrant histories which have always existed, to evoke the title of Paul Gilroy‘s most recent study of ‗homelessness‘ and Diaspora, ‗between camps.‘‖ (Nasta 212-13) In his novels such as Reef and The Sandglass Gunesekera successfully explores the idea of re-territorialisation from the fragmented condition of the lived reality in terms of emotional reconstruction of home subverting the assumed spatial and temporal borderlands. These novels prefigure a diasporic condition which connects the immigrant perceptions of the host land with loss and nostalgia of the homeland, integrating the disjunctions, compressions and conflictions of the past with the present to reconfigure the inner landscapes of the protagonists as liberating ways of survival away from the original home of rootedness. It presents an amalgamated experience of multiple consciousnesses informed by the inherent ambivalences in the individual cultural spaces which symbolize the shifting idea of identity
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within the differential matrix of language that is indelibly coloured with fractions of mutilated memory. As Nasta contends: . . . the multiple layers of a diasporic subjectivity are inscribed through a precarious journey into the gaps within the symbolic realm of discourse itself, where writing becomes the ‗territory of loss and memory‘ and the act of narration enables the possibility of a ‗re-return to selfhood through [a] dialogic and interrogative encounter‘, that is both a confrontation with an ‗internal / external other‘ as well as the ‗site‘ of an existential and ‗unfulfilled journey home‘. . . . Although echoes of home are still discernible in these texts, the lines of their cultural and linguistic parameters constantly shift as their chimeraic contours flow in and out of other landscapes, other histories which reconfigure and disrupt the longing for such stable anchorage points. (Nasta 214) Gunesekera‘s debut novel Reef tells the moving story of Triton, a young and efficient chef who is steered into the service of Mister Salgado, a marine biologist and a Sinhala intellectual experimenting with the movement of the sea and the disappearing reef which poses a threat to the equilibrium of the island. The narrative unfolds itself in flashbacks as Triton gives vent to his imagination from his current stay in England where he has immigrated to establish himself as a restaurateur to the memorialisation of his childhood in Sri Lanka. Triton in his self-refashioning like the coral reef raises himself from ordeal to glory and becomes a favourite of his master unperturbed by the bloody political and ethnic violence that has afflicted the serene life of the beautiful island since the late 1950s. Although Triton becomes Salgado‘s alter-ego, in the new land, to which they migrate; while the master is attentive to his exiled existence, the servant learns to adjust himself to the new environment and carves out a new identity and home of his own. Whereas Salgado has to return to the island defeated, ―summoned by a desire to hold on to a lost dream and memory of a lost love‖ (Nasta 214), Triton, the orphaned figure, successfully integrates himself to the new society he seeks to be assimilated with: ―It was the only way I could succeed: without a past, without a name, without Ranjan Salgado standing by my side‖ (180). Triton is wholeheartedly committed to his survival in the host land and attempts to transmute his makeshift existence by an alternative dream, and transforms his tiny snack shop into a big Sri Lankan restaurant and becomes a leading restaurateur at Earls Court in London.
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Introducing the role of memory in the refurbishment and refashioning of individuality, Ranjan Salgado, at one point in the novel alerts Triton of its omnipotence: ―You know Triton . . . we are only what we remember, nothing more . . . all we have is the memory of what we have done or not done; whom we might have touched; ever for a moment‖ (180). Triton is able to construct a home for himself in the host land. While Salgado is forced to return to his promised homeland trapped by his memory, Triton uses his memory as a survival strategy to reconfigure his inner self as a step towards erecting his ‗imaginary homeland‘. However, Salgado‘s longing for his homeland inspires and activates Triton‘s legacy of nostalgia in a highly symbolic patterns of diasporic existence who can never escape the backlash of memory and the call of the collective unconscious. As Salman Rushdie writes in his novel Shame: All migrants leave their pasts behind although some try to pack it into bundles and boxes – but on the journey something seeps out of the treasured mementoes and old
photographs, until even their owners fail to recognize
them, because it is the fate of the
migrants to be stripped of history, to
stand naked among the scorn of strangers upon whom they see the rich clothing, the brocades of continuity and the eyebrows of belonging. (Rushdie Shame 63-64) Triton thinks that erasing the claims of the past by being nameless is a step towards merging into a diasporic cosmopolity which resists the sustenance of authenticity. For Triton, to exist without a past is a means of survival in a foreign land like England which eases and diminishes his oriental connections. In the words of Jayawickrama, ―the ‗cosmopolitan‘ becomes a deferral of particular identity in favour of an undefined sense of belonging‖ which rather needs ―a dilution and consumerization of the identities and sense of history imagined in youth‖ (12). Triton at this crucial point summarizes his definition of the diasporic self: ―I was learning that human history is always a story of somebody‘s Diaspora: a struggle between those who expel, repel or curtail–possess, divide and rule–and those who keep the flame alive from night to night, mouth to mouth, enlarging the world with each flick of a tongue‖ (174). In the diasporic setting of England the immigrants have to shed their petty differences in order to cope and survive with the new found world because the reaction is not against a particular place but a virtual space in the mind which is to counter and this space as Triton acknowledges is ―without a past, without a name‖ (180). While Salgado returns to his native land with his dreams shattered, Triton devises and discovers new modes of existence to 24 Volume 8 Issue 3
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survive is a new alien surrounding. On Salgado‘s departure from England Triton wonders as to whether the sea there, ―shimmering between the black humps of barnacled rocks, mullioned with gold bladder wrack like beached wholes . . . snuffling and gurgling‖ is the same as the ―coral-spangled south coast back home‖ (172). An inquisitive Triton questions Salgado: ―Do all the oceans flow one into the other? Is it the same sea here as back hom‘‖ (172)? Salgado replies that ―The earth has spun with its real stars under a beautiful blue robe ever since the beginning of time. Now as the coral disappears, there will be nothing but sea and we all return to i‘‖ (172). Triton‘s curiosity is proverbial for ―are we not all refugees from something? Whether we stay or go or return, we all need refuge from the world beyond our fingertips at some time‖ (174). According to Susheila Nasta, this deconstruction of the essentialist cultural and national myths ―sets up an implicitly radical dialogue with the landlocked binaries of a colonialist historiography‖ (215). According to Nasta, the line taken from Shakespeare‘s The Tempest, ―of his bones are coral made‖ that serves as the epigraph of the novel ―signals Gunesekera‘s broad metaphysical concerns: a preoccupation with the effects of the passage of time, of loss, and the role of the imagination in the transformation of individual human lives‖ (215). The novel in its core introduces the note of ―universal permeability‖ between cultures and spaces ―linking the two worlds of London and Sri Lanka in Triton‘s developing consciousness, a space where ideas can ‗flow freely‘ as stories and memories germinate like seeds and migrate from one mind to another‖ (Nasta 215). The metaphor of the coral reef is thus central to the developing tensions in the novel and one of the unifying features in the text which proffers ―connections and reconstitution‖ (Nasta 215) creating an impression of continuity with change and eternal transformation of ideals that inform the life of the common humanity. As Richard Eder rightfully observes: Coral is Salgado‘s passion and the book‘s central metaphor. A coral reef is alive, but only at its skin. Its billions of tiny organisms multiply and build on the surface, leaving their calcified bodies as the reef‘s mass. The violence of politics and change, in this image, destroy the living integument while seeking to give it more vital forms. Civilization is at the surface, not deep down; destroy the surface and the life that preserves it will die. Gunesekera‘s point, like his coral, is not calcified but alive. (1) Mr. Salgado strives to restore the fast vanishing reef but to no avail owing to the internal strife and in-equilibrium that inflict the country‘s public life. The reef itself works as 25 Volume 8 Issue 3
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a metaphor for Sri Lanka herself which once used to be a peaceful country, remarkable for her beauty and grandeur, is now torn within by the incessant political strife and disruption. The reef becomes a suggestive symbol not only of an ―irreparable human loss‖ but also a constitutive impulse of self-refashioning in the transformative politics of a fragmented diasporic past ―creating a palimpsest of a diasporic history built on the remembered stories of individual lives, which mutate and transform like polyps on the Sri Lankan reef‖ (Nasta 215). Ranjan Salgado thus regrets: You see this polyp is really very delicate. It has survived aeons, but even a small change in the immediate environment . . . could kill it. Then the whole thing will go. And if the structure is destroyed, the sea will rush in. The sand will go. The beach will disappear. That is my hypothesis. You see, it is only the skin of the reef that is alive. It is real flesh: immortal. Self-renewing. (48) Like the polyps, the rich but fragile culture which the two have known and were born into is at the verge of utter imperilment and has perished in violence with the distorting web of change, but there is an impulse of the eternal renewal ever glowing in their souls which will exacerbate a sense of strongly cemented belongingness to the human world wherever they go. Life must continue to exist and prosper howsoever much modification it is undergone through. Susheila Nasta has delicately summed up this established parallel between the coral reef and the human life proposing a ‗fluid terrain‘ on which migrant histories and individual identities are constantly made, unmade and remade: As Gunesekera is keen to show us the umbilicus of language, symbolic vessel of the human imagination, is like the skin of the reef itself: a delicate container not necessarily punctuated by arrivals or departures, or by willed acts of physical emigration or immigration, whether from the histories of Diasporas lived within or imagined outside his native Sri Lanka. It is, rather, a fluid terrain defined by the ‗sea in our loins‘, a space which calls, as Ian Chambers has put it, for a ‗dwelling in language‘, rather than in ‗place‘, where the shifting boundaries of time and geography enable the creation of migrant histories and identities that are ‗constantly subject to mutation.‘ (216) In his second novel, The Sandglass Gunesekera in a Rushdian fashion portrays memory as fragmented, the mirror which is broken- mutilated beyond repair and flawed by an elliptical narrativization, yet instantiating the ways to the recognition that ―it is perhaps only memory that is left to define the migrant‘s true home‖ (Nasta 228). The complex time-scales 26 Volume 8 Issue 3
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of the novel helps Chip, the narrator to unravel his reminiscences of the seventeen years he has known the Ducal family. The novel meticulously knit together the fragments of memory that slip into the untrodden landscapes of the curious mind. Chip becomes a moving symbol of the endless quest for identity endeavouring to explore the unity from a long aborted diasporic past in an orphaned ambience of eternal anomaly. Characters in the narrative move endlessly between homeland and host land entailing a fluid itinerary of diasporic existence. Pearl, after spending forty years of her life in a yellowing flat in London, still craves for homely sentiments and shares with Chip stories from her Sri Lankan home. Despite temporary consolation and release from the political feud and social turmoil of the homeland, through the life that is lived in London, Sri Lanka remains the most promised land for the dislocated characters which enamours them forever. Prins hoping to enact a new home in the lost city returns ―to his dreamland by then, thoroughly fed up with his mother, his brother, the family and England. He had gone promising never to come back: an emigrating immi-grant‖ (82). The novelist in delineating the diasporic life of the protagonist reflects on the difficulties a diasporic artist encounters in the recreation of home and home culture in addition to the danger of dislocation in the adaptive host land. The various narrative techniques employed by Chip as a narrator lead to the creation of the ―surrogates for his representations of a past lost‖ (Nasta 228) and dawn a realization upon him about the ―rooms of memory‖ they have spawned (226). Gunesekera‘s larger concern in the novel, in this manner, combines a highly suggestive mode of representation of a parentless, undecided projection as a symbol of the diasporic existence. Susheila Nasta in this connection writes: The Sandglass seems to ‗fit‘ with a number of features characteristic of the late twentieth-century novel of diasporic reclamation. For it is a novel which painstakingly charts the history of a life knitted together by the fragments of memory and the previously ‗untold‘ stories of a diasporic past. It is a past which is meticulously reconstructed, covering two countries, the dynamic histories of two families, and stretching by the end across three generations. . . . Chip becomes the repository for a quest, which only seems to relate obliquely to his own location and the ‗orphaned fragments‘ of his ‗aborted past‘. (229) Gunesekera‘s enterprise, in this manner, seeks to destabilize the historical registers and foregrounds the spatial-temporal incommensurability of the migrant‘s position, and dislocates the imaginative territoriality into a point beyond the mere historical reclamation. 27 Volume 8 Issue 3
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The idea of home and belonging, in this de-territorialized dialectics, as Nasta suggests reveals is ―a preoccupation with the representation of an interior landscape of desire, a longing to enter the symbolic as a narrative journey‖ (213). Diasporic writing as exemplified by Gunesekera then is the expression of an immediate impulse to re-enact and reconstitute a diffused cultural order. As judiciously claimed by Minoli Salgado: Gunesekera‘s work reminds us that writing is not simply a place to live – a refuge from the violent clash of incommensurable realities – but also constitutes a regenerative means of addressing social and cultural disjunction. In displacing the past the novel also displaces destiny, opening the door for a future outside political violence in a para rational logic that works
alongside
real political events. For as Andre Brink has suggested, ‗only by dreaming and writing the impossible can life be made possible once again‘. (165) The novel The Sandglass portrays the complexity and multiple modalities of ‗home‘ that is reconfigured through a summative negotiation of identity in relation to the lives lived in England and Sri Lanka. Gunesekera‘s writing is characterised by a haunting flavour of the home country which activates in the diasporic individuals a sense of longing that forces them to revive and re-establish their urge of belonging to re-actuate their idea of identification. The characters in The Sandglass at different levels are engaged in enacting their respective imaginary homelands through the meshes of memories and simmering silences that are left unanswered or deferred in a differential equation of redefining the lost sense of identification as ―unravelling the ways in which the discontinuities of time past and time present collapse spatial and temporal boundaries‖ (Nasta 216). The Sandglass literally refers to a mechanical device to measure the flow of time which comprises two inverted glass bulbs vertically joined by a narrow passage through which sand trickles at a certain pace from the upper bulb to the lower one. When all the sand is accumulated in the lower bulb, the sandglass is inverted and the process of measuring time beings anew. The hourglass thus concretely suggests the time present as being between time past and time future. It becomes a symbol to recapture time – it not only symbolises the manner time fleets but also the common everydayness of life which acts as a connective link between the past and the present through the ―repetitive experiences, attitudes and practices that both maintain themselves and alter across the wider stretches of time that make up . . . human history‖ (Mulhall 178). As Susheila Nasta writes for the British Council in Home Truths: 28 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Gunesekera‘s major preoccupation . . . is less with questions of psychic or physical displacement engendered by his character‘s diasporic histories than with exposing the artist‘s dilemma of representing such histories, caught as they are through memory and filters of the lens of time. And if, as is the case in The Sandglass the borders between time and space appear
to
be
indistinct, this is not only due to Gunesekera‘s deliberate refusal to set up such artificial divisions, but also due to the narrative‘s implicit interrogation of how the process of writing from memory itself blurs such categories. (231) The sandglass then becomes a fitting metaphor to represent these changes wrought in the memories of these diasporas desirous of a narrativised reclamation of the past as suggested by Gunesekera himself: ―Sand is free moving, opaque and porous . . . glass is hard transparent and non-porous. But there is a point, albeit at a different melting point when they are one and the same‖ (qtd. in Nasta 231) Stuti Goswami rightly observes that: . . . the sand dunes, like rolling sea waves in the upper glass bulb reflect the paradox that besets the novel. The paradox of infinitude within a glass case. Of life‘s finitude. Of silence in ripples across a miniature desert. The paradox of the offspring of the Ducals recounting borrowed memories of the history of the Vatunases, who probable had, and has a hand at the steady de-territorializing of the Ducals from their land with an outsider sharing, storing and recounting memories of the Ducals–the paradox of a witness–an eye–of just one eye that sees–only partially – and that is silent (silenced) as in this work that can only see but not speak, for it is immersed in the sand. . . . Like the two glass cases joined by the aperture, the past and the future connected by the present. But, as in The Sandglass, the three realms (dimensions) transient, ever-changing ever flitting. The novel thus seeks to address the complexities informing the notion of home and belonging that is viewed as a transformative negotiation of identity in relation to the experiences and emotions encountered in Sri Lanka and England. The fractured memories of a diasporic past and a desire to reinvent colour the displaced lives of the individuals in their restless quest for self-re-actuation. Memory and desire, therefore, play an important role in the process of individuation and are intricately interlinked with one another as Uma Parameswaran argues: ―both occupy the same space and evolve to the centre; but the centre is located in a sense of exile, in a place that never was and hence the perpetual interplay, and 29 Volume 8 Issue 3
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endless torment‖ (Writing the Diaspora 321). Prins Ducal‘s life is endlessly tormented not as he arrives in London to accomplish his mother‘s funeral but by the unaddressed questions of the past which he seeks to unravel with his friend Chip. Chip, on the other hand, is tormented with the secrets which he keeps about Ducal‘s family and is painfully encountered with the task of chronicling the bits and pieces which vaporously exist in the mist of his mortal mind. There is strong emphasis on the flitting movements of time as the spatial displacements wrought the lives of the characters with alternation beyond repair and an isolated Pearl feels ―the world . . . did not change much from place to place; not as much as it changed with passing time. It‘s time that wreaks havoc with us, you know. Plays hell with everything‖ (51). Her rejection of the homeland is triggered by the temporal and emotional isolation that trapped her life with a hostile ambience and her questing for a new life in England is essentially motivated by an innate urge to belong – to feel at home in London where she spent the happiest moments of her life with her husband. Pearl‘s shifting to London is a manipulative strategy to disown a strained past and to reclaim the cherished ‗island‘ of the mind. As Chip, at one point, in the novel, introduces the theme of reclamation, establishing a parallel between Pearl and Ravi‘s idea of immigration: ―That was how Pearl came to England. In love with a shadow in her head that she couldn‘t quite focus on until she got here. Perhaps Ravi was simply repeating her own journey to England, but with different coordinates‖ (64). In Pearl‘s life, however, the political turmoil of the land which results in the mysterious accidental killing of her husband Jason registers an emotional calamity in her life which furthers her dislodging from the homeland and seeking refuge in England. On the other hand, Prins‘ rejection of the ‗mother‘ for the sake of the ‗motherland‘ embodies his quest to unravel the mysteries of a strained past troubling him endlessly as an inferno of his questing mind, allied with an economic concern to cash on the constricted condition in his homeland ―by making money out of painting, tourism out of terrorism‖ (41). As Prins put it: ―You have to escape and go where you can find yourself, or you stay and transform what is around you until it becomes your own‖ (37). Unlike Prins‘, the predicament of Ravi is instituted by a physical isolation and emotional ostracism which he encounters in his long stay in America. His brown skin and appropriated English accent turn out to be the White man‘s burden which shock and startle the Americans he confronts: ―My brown skin face was a bit of shock. . . . It was extraordinary. . . . In this country, it is my skin that people notice, that goes in front of me, everywhere. People look at me and they see darkness first. Even my shadow seems darker to 30 Volume 8 Issue 3
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them than theirs‖ (65). Ravi‘s ‗Trishanku‘-like position lands him nowhere – A Sri Lankan by birth, living in London and then migrating to America – fragments his person into multiple consciousnesses – each of his roles being incompletely realized as ―unfinished identities‖ (qtd in Braziel and Mannur 50) As Charu Mathur in his paper ―Home as an Emotional Construct‖ observes: This results in a consumptive uncertainty regarding the construction of selfhood. The ambiguous identity leads to a hazy relationship with location so that the feeling of belonging becomes problematic. Ravi‘s passion for collecting travel tickets is indicative of this unstable relationship with land while his reluctance to leave ―home‖ reveals a fear of dislocation. Ultimately, finding no place where he could feel at ―home‖, he gets his own ticket out of life. ―It‘s a question of memory... should we remember things as a way of learning, or forget them as a way of healing?‖ Wonders Gunesekera. (30) Gunesekera thus crowds his novels with people seeking anchorage in a new land where they can feel at home restructuring their idea of home in the dialectics of territoriality. Spatial and cultural boundaries are traversed to find an enunciative space – the ‗third space‘, to use a Bhabhasqean register of discursivity – that mediates the national and the diasproic while addressing the situatedness or otherwise of cultural determinants which reinstate and redefine the divergent contours of home & belonging. Minoli Salgado emphasises this mediation as revealing ―the resistance of the nation to openness while simultaneously insisting upon its subjection to transactional practices:‖ In the fields of literary and cultural analysis, such mediations demand a form of de-territorialisation that is based upon our ability to re-situate ourselves – to move into dislocated spaces and find alternative origins and sites of belonging in them. It also requires us to both resist and acknowledge the centrality of closure; to retain an enduring
belief that it is both necessary and
possible to reclaim our multiple pasts without being claimed by them. (172) Reconfiguring identity in terms of homing and belonging thus involves a series of subtle negotiations, moving back and forth in emotional allegiances and memories, pushed and pulled by multiple influences from multiple places, value systems and culturalities which inform the lives of the diasporans, with a certain fluidity in which they find themselves perpetually deferred from the lands of their origins – their respective so-called comfort zones. Gunesekera‘s protagonists therefore, keep on asking the Rushdian question: ―[Is] it possible 31 Volume 8 Issue 3
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to be – to become good at being – not rootless, but multiply rooted? Not to suffer from a loss of roots but to benefit from an excess of them?‖ (Rushdie Joseph Anton 72) As Charu Mathur powerfully feels: The ―home‖ is structured on new linkages and circumstances of habitation as a requisite for survival. It exists on a constantly shifting axis driven by a desire to reshape whilst exposing the fictionality of all ―homes‖. The territory of ―home‖ is circumscribed as much by mental geography as by its representation in spatial and temporal terms. In Gunesekera‘s work, there is movement well beyond the stereotypical vision of a narrative of reclamation to a foregrounding of the impact of troubled Sri Lankan history and the rooms of memory they have spawned. The fundamental concern is a need for constant deferral, for ―home‖ is an emotional construct constituted by memories and desires that question their own terms of reference and making of history. (30) Gunesekera, in his novels, thus problematizes the concept of diaspora by deconstructing the binaries between the home and the world, linking the global with the local in the differential dialectics of a cosmopolitan culture to engender the boundaries of home with an increasingly porous and shifting structure. As Nasta meaningfully argues: ―the sandglass is a potent symbol both for death and for life, for absence and presence, a conduit by which the artist can briefly hold the transformations wrought in human lives by passing of time. For the act of writing ‗flashes up‘ its own revelation when they are least expected, lunching the writer and reader alike into a differently framed space‖ (232). Self-refashioning in this narrativized space becomes an act of evolving permeable relationships with the perceived world and beyond, and to exacerbate the inner landscape of mind with the contextual reconfiguration of cultural details, in a fluid poetics of transactive transformation.
Works Cited
Braziel, K and Mannur, A. Theorising Diaspora. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
Eder, Richard. ―Cooking up a Storm: A Servant Keeps It Together in a Disintegrating World: REEF, By Romesh Gunesekera (The New Press: $20; 190 Pp.).‖ Los Angeles Times. 19 Feb. 1995. Web. 09 May 2017.
George, Rosemary. The Politics of Home: Postcolonial Relocations and Twentiethcentury Fiction. U of California P, 1996. 32
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Goswami, Stuti. ―Silence in the Sandglass.‖ Academia.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2017.
Gunesekera, Romesh. Reef. Penguin Books, 2014.
______. The Sandglass. Penguin Books, 1999.
Jayawickrama, Sharanya. ―Consuming Desire: Identity and Narration in Romesh Gunesekera's Reef.‖ Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduate in English 8 (2003): 1-19.
Mathur, Charu. ―Home as an Emotional Construct in Romesh Gunesekera‘s The Reef and The Sandglass. Asiatic 6.1 (2012): 25-31.
Mulhall, Stephen. Heidegger and Being and Time. Routledge, 1996.
Nasta, Susheila. Home Truths: Fictions of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain. Palgrave, 2002.
Parameswaran, Uma. Writing the Diaspora: Essay on Culture and Identity. Rawat, 2007.
Rushdie, Salman. Joseph Anton: A Memoir. Random House, 2012.
______. Shame. Random House, 1983.
Salgado, Minoli. Writing Sri Lanka: Literature, Resistance & the Politics of Place. Routledge, 2007.
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Sensuality and Sexual Freedom in Shobha Deâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Womenfolk Mallavarapu Jhansi & Madupalli Suresh Kumar Abstract Shobha De as an author attempts to show her feminist attitude while depicting her female protagonists in her books. A more extensive assessment of her work uncovers her dissent against the great old picture of the woman who can't live the manner in which she needs to and do things the manner in which she needs to. The protagonists in her books are explicitly unencumbered and free masterminds who have been named as New Women. These supposed new ladies are considerably more physically dynamic and substantially more firm than their moms. The new lady is a mix of physical opportunity, sensuality and stamina with women's activist self-assurance and conventional household womanliness, a lady who can consolidate joy, vocation and marriage. Keywords: New Women, Sensuality, Sexual Freedom
The protagonists in Shobha De's novels makeover their fortunes; all of these new women endeavour to look fabulous by getting in shape and burning through cash in back rub parlours. They attempt to look and act uniquely in contrast to the customary and conventional ladies. They want others to go gaga over their looks by which they attempt to draw in folks. It gives them gargantuan delight when individuals fall head over heels in love with them and they are least worried about it. Shobha De doesn't have faith in depicting her ladies as love slaves or simple mates assisting others at home. Shobha De as an author attempts to reflect or depict her women's activist attitude while depicting her female protagonists in her books. A more extensive assessment of her work uncovers her dissent against the great old picture of the woman who can't live the manner in which she needs to and do things the manner in which she needs to. The protagonists in her books are explicitly freed and free masterminds who have been named as New Women. These supposed new ladies are considerably more physically dynamic and physically firmer than their moms. The new lady is a mix of physical opportunity, sexuality and stamina with women's activist self-assurance and conventional household womanliness, a lady who can consolidate joy, vocation and marriage. They are anxious to take an interest in joy as they would do in play, work and so on. Every one of Shobha De's courageous women, be it Karuna, Aparna, Mikki, Alisha or Asha Rani are insubordinate present-day Indian ladies who challenge the conventionality of social taboos. They are not the same as the explicitly insensible Indian lady which is very 34 Volume 8 Issue 3
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opposing to most Indian male authors who feel that sex is as upsetting subjection to man's longing fundamental so as to have posterity. Shobha De's ladies challenge this customary set up in the general public. Her ladies are undeniably progressively confident, oppressive and striking in contrast with men. They are not accommodating, and blameworthy of their undertakings. Sujata, in Sultry Days (1994) is a whore, who does what her mind says. This gives her pleasure. Life is characterized without anyone else her very own terms. At the point when Asha Rani, in Starry Nights (1991) the acclaimed courageous woman of Bollywood chooses to stop films out of the blue when she is at the pinnacle of her profession just to live with a kindred co-star, Akshay Arora, her mom attempts to discourage her from doing it. At that point, she contends along these lines in "Money, money, money. That is all you consider. â&#x20AC;Ś I'm tired of being your cash machine. I've done what's necessary for everyone you, Sudha and others - now I need to live for myself. (106) Asha Rani structures implicit rules for herself who is free from the recommended sex rules and sexual limitations. This shows obviously that ladies in Shobha De's books can't be constantly underestimated that they will be loyal and generous little girls to their folks. They will positively revolt when their personal circumstance is in question. They may face barriers. Nonetheless, they are brilliant enough to overlook them and break these obstacles skilfully and prudently and develop out of it easily. The author has depicted her female characters so that the readers get an unmistakable image of her goals. She has attempted her best to uncover the ordinary and profound s aspect of the general public which she believes is in a powerless state. Subsequently, she has comprehended the human mind which has made her investigate the well-established traditions which hold back a lady from doing certain things which she gets a kick out of the chance to do yet can't due to the unbending bonds she is limited with. Women in a privileged society have no worry about the public. The idea of profound quality emerging out of affection for one another is viewed as obsolete. The female characters in Shobha De's books have faith in breaking the well-established customs of getting a charge out of existence with pre-marriage slings and extra-conjugal flings. Shobha De dives in extra into the hearts of the unencumbered, privileged ladies in contemporary Indian culture. Sex and erotic nature are a slice of life and so as to acknowledge life one needs to confirm arousing quality. A lady doesn't consider reliability or love ethics while looking for delight. Shobha De delineates ladies in their real nature. They are depicted as what they really 35 Volume 8 Issue 3
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are and not what they ought to have been. In this way, genuine delight is characterized contrastingly for various individuals. It might mean voluptuous sex for certain ladies while it might be delicate touch and arousing adoration, lovemaking as depicted among Mikki and her significant other Binny Malhotra on the twilight night in his place before their marriage. The new idea of joy imagines total sexual freedom which is joined by monetary opportunity; uncontrolled energy is looked for by Shobha De's ladies as joy. Social principles have consistently been unforgiving on ladies in India. It is defended that a man as a free being can have extra conjugal undertakings. The general public doesn't frown upon those men who leave their better half at home and sleep with either whores or prostitutes by paying them in real money or kind. Nobody tries to consider the lady who is forlorn in her home hanging tight for her significant other who doesn't come many evenings. What she would do in such circumstances? She can't end her life or ruin herself by crying. A lady is socially not complete without the presence of man in her life and she is prohibited to have any sexual contact with any man other than her better half. Her craving for a sexual relationship is subjected to the enthusiasm of the general public, not on her individual inclination. Thorough taboos of our general public deny ladies to have any kind of sexual contact by violating the inflexible laws of marriage in India. Anyway, women in Shobha De's books are progressive enough to proceed with their excursions and issues without making a big deal about the wedding collusion of their accomplices. These ladies are sure and are sensible enough to legitimize their relationship. This relationship is best displayed in the connection between Asha Rani and Akshay Arora in Starry Nights (1991). The courageous women are not prepared to comply with the shallow social standards which are made by men. Shobha De's ladies set out to move around and look for joy with anybody they like to conquer their psychological weariness. The general standard expressed by the general public for a lady is to show herself as a functioning member in sexual collusion. She is instructed not to display her sexual hunger and to take an interest strikingly in exotic exercises. Under this servile position, she doesn't need to express her sexual urge which is viewed as something against the social taboos. Shobha De's ladies outline their own way of life by breaking these social standards of the general public. While expounding on ladies, she doesn't need to be unreasonable in light of the fact that she includes herself totally while composing books and depicting her ladies as different characters which she couldn't have acknowledged whether she had expounded on male characters.
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Shobha De's ladies have discovered different methods for looking for delight and they don't stop for a second to plan their very own demeanour and conduct which may change from their partners. They are for the most part urban ladies who give less or no significance to the ethical quality and otherworldliness. They need to be free from the setup sex jobs and sexual limitations of the customary society. They need to appreciate indistinguishable rights from men. Men view their ladies as wares that can be brought or sold at their very own terms and conditions, make ladies move to their tunes, and shape them in the idea of conventional servility and make them stand compliantly and endure inwardly, hence ladies are made to endure and they need to endeavour hard to find the human in them. Sex contributes a great deal in giving delight to the ladies in Shobha De's books. The author feels that sex is ought not to be loathed or something to be feared. She has spoken about the magnificence of sex and the change it gets to the lives of people. She has spoken about sex in the accompanying manner in Snapshots (1995): "Sex is never again the most feared and disdained three-letter word in India, is sufficient to celebrate."(3) In the urban world, a cutting edge lady attempts to do whatever rings a bell, goes to any degree to determine joy of her own. Its best case can be found in the novel Starry Nights, where the heartthrob of millions, ruler of Bollywood, Asha Rani attempts to define delight in crushing men and the most feared weapon that she uses is the bed. Men can't overlook her once she heads to sleep with them. Her bed mates range from Kishen Bhai to Akshay Arora to Abhijit, to Jay to Jojo and she even got to entice her dad's companion in a plane. Once in a while, men got terrified of her spell yet they couldn't avoid setting off to her for enjoyment and once they went, they were caught. Asha Rani wanted to pulverize them, According to her, the bed can be considered as a war zone where the fight goes between two human bodies and it's a clash of scholarly ones. Asha Rani won each time this fight was battled. Men abhorred her, scorned her yet had a craving for her. This combat zone gave Asha Rani erotic delight and she adored it without a doubt. She is contrasted with a hoodlum who is an extremely beautiful lady in the war zone which is viewed as the bed. Asha Rani's own methodology is that she would most importantly pass judgment on her foe's characteristics and she had skill in it. After that when she hits the hay with him, she utilizes every one of the stunts that would make him free out to him and along these lines giving her everything that delights on the planet. Asha Rani's wellspring of pleasure was men and the game she delighted in playing is lovemaking. Age was not in the least a bar for lovemaking. She had sexual experiences with 37 Volume 8 Issue 3
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men of his dad's age and men who were youthful enough to be her child-like Amar who was an exceptionally youthful and promising star and in reality, she had fancied for him in a split second in the wake of gathering him just because when they were as one for a film. She had even prescribed his name to the executives to cast him opposite her. To state that he was so urgent to proceed with an inadequate scene of their motion picture along these lines in Starry Nights (1991 It was Amar who wished her on her birthday when she was considering Akshay as he didn't wish her by any stretch of the imagination. When he rang her and mentioned to come over and go through the night with her, she promptly consents to his proposition and invites him by wearing a little and energetic T-shirt and attempted to entice enough by pulling the neck of her outfit off one shoulder. At last, they wound up with sensual lovemaking in her bedroom. This has demonstrated a point that the ladies in Shobha De's accounts have made it extremely certain that they wish to make a mind-blowing most like men with no obstruction. Shobha De has attempted to depict a man- woman liaison which might be intense yet they can offer joy to the courageous woman simultaneously. Not just this during the lovemaking now and then its men who ask them not to stop and deny them of the joy. It was Asha Rani who started the lovemaking when she was with Akshay and she utilized different stunts to stimulate him and give him delight which consistently ended in sexual fulfilment and she prevailing with regards to doing it generally in light of the fact that after the lovemaking process, Akshay was a battled man. The conventional Indian lady attempts to change her inclination with her man yet it is the exact opposite with Shobha De's ladies. They are autonomous and free from moral or social confinement. Asha Rani realized that Akshay was hitched with two children and was a family man yet she didn't consider saving him from luring him and the writer has investigated every possibility to portray the warm and personal lovemaking scenes between Asha Rani and Akshay Arora. Asha Rani discovered delight in the liaison of Akshay. She had dropped all the shooting timetables to be with him on his birthday and they celebrated his birthday erotically in his vacation hotel. The individual she recalled most was on her birthday was Akshay Arora. Not just that, Asha Rani was so frantic about the physical closeness with him that even the maltreatment by his better half, open affront didn't trouble him. The main thing that made a difference to her was Akshay and is sleeping with him. She generally trusted that open door will win him once more into her life. She at long last got an opportunity in the rainstorm when she was going for shooting and met Akshay in the rush hour gridlock. He was induced and she succeeded and 38 Volume 8 Issue 3
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what pursued next was peaceful lovemaking in his Holiday motel in Starry Nights (1991) "Their lovemaking was extraordinary. No gnawing, ripping at or furious enthusiasm. Akshay was delicate and unfrenzied. Asha Rani didn't feel much like a tigress herself. They barely talked." (102) The women in Shobha De's books don't dismiss female sexuality. Or maybe they display a diverse frame of mind towards sex to challenge the systemic perspectives and underestimated perspective on human sexual conduct. It makes these ladies dismiss the exacting social condition that makes the ladies really aware of each little joy which might be enthusiastic or emotional. It is an extremely normal component in Shobha De's books that practically the majority of the ladies experience sex with more than one individual. Their dismissal of sexual morality structures a slice of their test to the man-centric lifestyle that presents certain controls on ladies' conduct. These ladies' guilty pleasure in freak sexual conduct, their frame of mind towards sexual scruples and their utilization of hindered language make their dissent against the male-centric framework. The ladies appear to help the extreme women's activist proposition of supplanting the male-centric lifestyle. Strength over the man-centric framework in our general public offers rise to sexual upset which has brought about making the ladies strong, wild and hearty. Their exercises and musings demonstrate their conviction that an extreme change is important to make the present framework suitable for ladies and give some space of presence to ladies. Shobha De's women characters are blunt about their appearance of sexual want by reprimanding the sexual morality which is basically appointed for ladies in the male-centric framework existing in India. Their reference to the sexual demonstration in unambiguous terms breaks the customary picture of ladies that shows her as a compliant, mild, quiet and tame. The author's striking articulation in regards to sex is unmistakably noticeable from the accompanying lines of Snapshots (1995): "We don't expel it. We don't think that it's filthy. Sex doesn't compromise us. I'm not reluctant to fuck. I feel frustrated about all you ladies holding tight so urgently to obsolete thoughts of virtue, ethical quality, virtuousness. It is despicable." (226) Sometimes Shobha De has been charged with commercializing ladies while communicating sex in a much-explained detail yet she has attempted to battle for the reason for ladies and has drawn out the part of sex since she feels that ladies are underestimated even as far as sex. They are slaves in the hands of their spouses by making them fulfil their 39 Volume 8 Issue 3
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requirements at whatever point they need it. They get unfeeling and inconsiderate even in lovemaking and receive happiness in return. Shobha De has depicted men determining joy by tormenting a lady by beating their bare body with trackers or harming them with making wounds and giving them torment. In this way, the author has depicted her ladies so that they are explicitly freed and use sex without anyone else terms. In the novel Sisters (1992), Shobha De has referenced that ladies can make men give them what they need. For instance, in the accompanying lines she has discussed the delight which a recently married spouse should feel when she is with her significant other: His mastery and creative mind were unfathomable as he energized her in a hundred distinct ways, contacting, licking, smacking, suckingâ&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;Ś he turned her over, he stood her up, he had her on each of the fours, and he even had her topsy- turvy with blood hurrying in a spout into her head. It was incredible, pleasurable, yet a little frightening."(174) Shobha De has referenced that a lady can get joy notwithstanding when she is giving up to a man against her desires. She appreciates with her dissents like the accompanying depiction in Sisters (1992): "Mikki didn't have the opportunity to do anything other than relish the horde physical sensations clearing over her flexible body as she gave up to this man who was currently her significant other. There was no obstruction left. What's more, she was glad. What's more, they had defied every one of the guidelines and each forbidden that she had ever known. She felt freed, uninhibited and stirred to the point of crude abandon." (175) Shobha De has given the impression in her books that a lady can be a searcher of joy at the same time. They need it in different ways and the man who gives them utilizing various stunts is especially appreciated by them. They adore these men and can do anything for them. After Mikki got the sexual fulfilment from her significant other before marriage, she quickly got hitched to him without giving doubts to her choice. Repudiating the legend that ladies ought to docilely comply with their spouses during the lovemaking process, Shobha De's ladies are forceful and once in a while become explicitly vicious to destabilize the possibility of male mastery. Accordingly, we can say that the idea of delight for Shobha De is a complete sexual break with no goal of constancy. Her ladies love to encounter pre-marriage sexual experiences, post conjugal issues, and love to investigate the taboo regions which are characterized by the unbending standards of the general public.
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In her novel Second Thoughts (1996), Shobha de has attempted to make a point that a lady who is shrunk to a dead body, rationally tormented by her better half, has no privilege to ruin her life. She gave her courageous woman another measurement by presenting her with another man who could fill her existence with shades of satisfaction and give her the joy which she was so frantic for. Maya was an alluring little youngster from Kolkata who came to Bombay in the wake of getting hitched to Ranjan who is a bank official. Ranjan checked out her as a lady and had never thought about her interests. He never attempted to discover the purpose of Maya's misery. He was under the suspicion that giving four full dinners was all that anyone could need for her and she should be appreciative for what he was accomplishing for her. Notwithstanding when Maya made advances to him in bed, he scorned by saying that he required time for it. The section of Nikhil carried another importance to Maya's life. He was a fourth-floor neighbour and was a college student. He may not be keen on essences yet he had aced the speciality of spellbinding ladies. Maya could quickly feel the distinction Nikhil brought to her life. When he said that she looked crisp and delightful in a blue sari, she began wearing increasingly more of blue shaded sari. His quality itself brought satisfaction which originated from inside the heart. She began taking consideration about her cosmetics, wore crisp saris, brushed and cleaned up her hair and conveniently put sindoor on the separating of her brow and attempted to look lovely ordinary foreseeing his landing whenever. She was astonished in their first experience when he attempted to investigate his eyes and grinned. She says in Second Thoughts (1996):"But Nikhil without a doubt influenced me and one piece of me didn't â&#x20AC;&#x17E;approve.â&#x20AC;&#x; This was strange â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a recently hitched lady staring off into space about a neighbour's young child." (45) Pangs of heart offer path to the grand inclinations of the spirit in this novel. Extramarital undertakings are respected with all the more understanding and adaptability. On the off chance that a lady receives joy in return, she doesn't spare a moment in getting a charge out of it. She believes it to be a ventilator which gives quality of sustenance to a spirit that is being choked in a despondent encompassing called destiny. Maya is especially mindful that Nikhil is the other man in her life. She additionally realizes that by tolerating his idea of fellowship it would be a demonstration of infringement of moral and social code. One day when Ranjan, her better half was on a visit, Maya got the chance to go on an excursion with Nikhil to Malabar slopes in his bike. She enabled herself to be delighted in and cherished in the association of Nikhil where she felt the excellence and joy in her life. She concedes along these lines: "I was prepared to bounce on Nikhil's 41 Volume 8 Issue 3
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motorbike and bid goodbye to my unsatisfying existence without the smallest lament. The decision was startlingly mine."(241) At long last, the lovemaking scene delineated by Shobha De between Maya and Nikhil (374) is portrayed as the statures of delight experienced by Maya. It was depicted as smooth, delicate and easy. One day Nikhil went to her home and reported it was his birthday and without allowing to Maya to respond, he grasped her and the writer has written in expanding subtleties what trailed this along these lines:" But Nikhil's mouth secured mine delicately. His eyes were closed and his hands were in my chaotic hair with the bundle getting captured in the tangles" The kiss between Maya and Nikhil is depicted by Maya as so complete and centred in the following manner: "It was a kiss that included Nikhil's general existence. A kiss so centred, so complete. I gave up to its delicate direness despite the fact that my psyche was on mundanities like the washerwoman appearing sooner than expected. â&#x20AC;&#x2022;(376-77) The ladies in Snapshots need to appreciate life and give in effectually to sex which demonstrates the ladies' soft spot for sex and their sexual happiness throughout everyday life. Discussing sex and taking interest in sex situated discussion gives them monstrous delight. That is by all accounts the main point of talk when ladies are in the organization of ladies. Since satisfaction in life is the prime intention of these exclusive class ladies, they attempt to voice against the customary standards of the general public and the joint family framework. The ladies are exceptionally decisive and need to complete two things one after another. That implies they need to ask the relative to avoid their ways and simultaneously, they need their spouses to do what they need him to do. Urbanized Indian ladies carry on with their very own life and are unconcerned to oneself selected watchman of social qualities. They have full oversight over their sexuality and play a risky round of defeating men. Joy is experienced by the two people from inside in spite of their social and mental requirements. Sentiment, sex and excitement give harmony and joy in light of the fact that the couples have been in a fight, they are exhausted and experience the ill effects of treachery. Inside an exhausting relationship, sexual capers might be the main prevalent talk that features the subject of ladies' suggestive delight. De's ladies are disappointed and troubled in sexual servitude in the hands of men. Men are not interested in ladies' uniqueness, affectability and emotions. These ladies are casualties of betrayal and uncertain relationship which makes these ladies look for joy outside their marriage. These ladies are looking for individual flexibility. They express their 42 Volume 8 Issue 3
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outrage by falling back on what may be named as unscrupulous acts like enjoying extramarital undertakings. Along these lines, the writer has attempted to demonstrate a point that a lady is autonomous to such an extent that she doesn't need to rely upon a man for looking for joy consistently. She can likewise discover her choices where she can dispose of a man out of her life as she has effectively done while looking for financial autonomy and marriage.
References:
Barche, G.D. The Fiction Of Shobha De JaydipsinhDodiya, ed. New Delhi: Prestige. 2000
De, Shobha. Snapshots. New Delhi: Penguin India. 1995
--. Starry Nights. New Delhi: Penguin India, 1991
--. Second Thoughts. New Delhi: Penguin India, 1996
Shukla, Bhaskar. Feminism and Female Writers. Book Enclave.2007.
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Feminist Interpretation of the Novel Yogmaya Purna Bahadur Kadel & Kamal Poudel Abstract The present study entitled Feminist Interpretation of the Novel Yogmaya is an attempt to identify and analyze feminist issues in terms of gender discrimination; women‘s position in society, inequality, patriarchy, and gender roles in the fiction Yogmaya. The survey research design under qualitative approach has been adopted to accomplish this study. This study embodies ten different extractions as samples to analyze and interpret the issues in feminism. The required data were collected using purposive non-random sampling procedure and observation checklist guideline as a tool for this study. The data have been analyzed and interpreted descriptively. The findings were: there are extreme discrimination, inequality, and intolerable domination by patriarchal society; the girls are taught to be obedient, wellmannered, and submissive to men and family authority from early childhood so as to satisfy all the requirements of male and the practices of male dominated society for their entire lifetime. Key words: Feminism, Gender Discrimination, Inequality, Patriarchy, and Perspective
Introduction Feminism is one of the significant literary aspects to visualize the underlying issues, facts, details and realities concerned with women in the verbal communication, conversation, talk, formal treatment of a subject etc. in speech or written texts. According to Madsen (2000, p. 200), ―Feminism deals with women and their status in society and asks questions about oppression, consciousness and gender‖. Feminist perspective evaluates the manners how the issue prioritizes the political, social, cultural, economic, psychological and religious domination against women. The authentic establishment of feminism is said to have existed from the Women‘s Liberation movement of the 19th century (Green & Lebihan, 1996). Feminism enormously raises the voices for the similar rights of the women in the society, nation and even the universe. It primarily sheds lights on the domination and the exploitation of the females by men in the patriarchal society. Because of the patriarchal society, system and superstitions, women have been regarded as subordinate position in the societies. Yogmaya is a Nepali fiction authored by novelist Neelam Karki Niharika. Yogmaya has been awarded by the most prestigious award given for literary genre in Nepal ‗Madan Puraskar‘ of the year 2074. The very fiction has raised the several issues concerning the 44 Volume 8 Issue 3
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dominance, discrimination, inequality, oppression, exploitation, and negligence and so on of the then society and which in turn, seem to remain similar to the present society in altered forms and styles. However, this fiction primarily begins its plot development rooted in the issue related to female in eastern part of Nepal. In the initial phase to middle part, it enormously strikes the mind of the readers by the issues, challenges and problems confronted by Yogmaya. Afterwards, the fiction widens its veins towards the multiple issues that can be analyzed from the eyes of feminism. This study is delimited to the feminist perspective in the novel Yogmaya.
Objectives of the Study To identify the issues of feminism in terms of gender discrimination, oppression, male dominance, womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s position in society, inequality, patriarchy, gender roles in Yogmaya.
Research Questions 1. What are the issues of feminism in terms of gender discrimination, oppression, male dominance, woman's position in the society, inequality, patriarchy, gender roles in this novel? 2. How does the novel Yogmaya increase issues of feminism in the society?
Literature Review In the fiction, â&#x20AC;&#x2014;when Yogmaya was born, there was a huge restriction on women within the boundaries of their home or family. But, Yogmaya is able to lead and inspire lots of people to stand up and raise the voices against an oppressive regime and the social norms of that time. She is also capable of observing the root causes of problems and offer solutions to move ahead for a better future and prosperity, not only for women but also for all aspects of society. Based on Yogama's life, the struggle for ending every kind of discrimination in the society is included in the fiction. The very fiction has raised the several issues concerning the dominance of men over women, discrimination, inequality, oppression, exploitation, and negligence of women in the then society. However, this fiction primarily begins its plot development rooted in the issues related to female at that time. In the initial phase to middle part, it enormously strikes the mind of the readers by the issues, challenges and problems confronted by Yogmaya. Afterwards, the fiction widens its veins towards the multiple issues that can be analyzed from the eyes of critical of feminism. But, as this study is delimited to the feminist perspective in the novel Yogmaya, Yogmaya is represented as the lead character 45 Volume 8 Issue 3
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in the fiction. The lead character Yogmaya is also found to be addressed by the names Maya/Mayadvi or Thulihajur in the initial phase of fiction and from the middle part respectively. In the fiction, there are characters like; Tulasaka Baa, Tulasa, Giri, Padamlal, Devilal etc. who play the significant roles. Similarly, the conversation, story, act, sequence, scene, meaning and so on by the language of characters differ individually for whom they are expected to address in the fiction. Therefore, I also felt the necessity to study the language usage critically. Further, I wanted to interpret and raise the awareness that how such usage of language in conversations, actions, events and act sequences of the fiction are creating inequalities among people in the societies. Especially, I had selected the fiction Yogmaya for this study to bridge the gaps and analyze ideologies, power, and superstition etc. in relation to the modern society.
Brief Introduction of the Parameters Feminism comes into existence through the struggle for women's right against the injustice carried out in the society. In human history, women‘s existence is observed through male point of view as a result of which women are always considered as secondary. Kaplan (1998, p.6) remarks feminism as ―Feminism has developed…a political language about gender that refuses the fixed and trans-historical definitions of masculinity and femininity in the dominant culture‖. (Green & Lebihan, 1996, p. 229) In addition to this, the basic aim of the feminist theory is to understand certain aspects of gender difference and gender inequality. Considering the aspects of feminism, it concentrates on the various themes. This study for feminist critical discourse analysis is developed from the ideas of Fairclough (1992), Lazar (2007) and other various scholars. To make this study more meaningful, we have set the five different parameters to analyze and interpret the issues of feminism. The brief introductions about those five parameters are presented as follows: Gender discrimination means unequal treatment or perception of an individual based on their gender. It takes place because of socially and biologically constructed dichotomies of inequality and chromosome respectively. Such biasness affects the understanding of people. According to Wardhaugh (2002, p. 309), ―Gender is social construction (but heavily grounded on the sex) involving whole gamut of psychological, social and cultural differences between males and females‖. Therefore the present study also sheds light upon this issue of gender discrimination more importantly among various issues in feminism 46 Volume 8 Issue 3
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In the society, women are given secondary status making them inferior to men in multiple areas viz. decision making, leadership, participation etc. of human life. In this regard, Singh (2014) argues that equitable participation of women in politics and government is essential to build and sustain democracy. Women‘s involvement in mainstream political activity has important implications for the broader arena of governance in any country. So, it concentrates on the promotion of women‘s rights in the society. Considering the position of women in society, it tremendously attempts to understand the aspects of gender difference, how they have caused gender inequality and try to terminate the differences. Under this parameter, women‘s conditions in the society from the fiction Yogmaya been analyzed. All women in our societies are not provided with synonymous right and opportunities as of men. Women are left behind the common framework of human civilization, prestige, opportunity, liberty, and priority in our societies (Lazar, 2007), Due to which inequality between male and female is in high level. Inequality is the state of being biased in terms of status, rights, and opportunities. It is a concept very much at the heart of social justice theories. This very parameter under feminist analysis attempts its best to disclose the ground reality of inequality to terminate or equalize the position of both women and men synonymously in all spheres of human life. Patriarchy means male supremacy, to societies where men as a group dominate mainstream positions of power in culture, politics, business, law, military, society and policing, for example, societies like ours. In addition to the above extraction, patriarchy emphasizes male rule, male dominance and male superiority in a whole community, society and even a whole world. Due to which females are still confined to the four walls of the house, no matter what we have progressed theoretically about feminism till the date. Gender means the categorization of people into male, female or in neuter category. But such division is largely depended on the biological features which are usually determined before the birth. According to Thomas and Wareing (2001, p. 66), ―Gender refers to social category which is associated with certain behavior‖. In addition to this definition, when people are discriminated on the basis of such gender based behavior, prejudices take place. And feminism tremendously resists this biased behavior in accordance with gender role. In societies women are to take care of children and houses as for that men‘s role is to earn money (Braunstein & Folbre, 2001; Monagan, 2010; Demirbilek, 2007). The role of women in patriarchal family, society and social environment shapes and affects women‘s labor. 47 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Methodology Researchers used qualitative descriptive approach for analysis and interpretation of data. Survey research design was adopted to collect data since data were collected from the fiction Yogmaya non-randomly. The nature of descriptive approach is exploratory and openended. It deals with multiple realities. The basic elements of this research are words or ideas since it is grounded on interpretative nature. This study is based on content analysis. Content analysis is used to determine the presence of certain words, concepts, themes, characters or sentences within texts or sets of texts to quantify this presence in an objective manner as it is defined by Ojha and Bhandari (2017, p.139). The population of this study was the discourse extractions related to female issues from the fiction Yogmaya. Fourteen extraction as samples have been selected through purposive non-random sampling procedure. In order to successfully complete this study, observation checklist as a tool has been used to collect data. Kumar (2005, p.119) defines observation as a purposeful, systematic and selective way of watching and listening to an interaction or phenomena as it takes place.
Discussions and Results Being based on the data gathered from the fiction Yogmaya. Data are analyzed and interpreted in terms of five different parameters, viz. gender discrimination, inequality, gender roles, status of women, and patriarchy. For this, of the extractions are kept under each parameter in order to arrive in newer findings of this research. Similarly, while translating Nepali cases into English researchers have focused on the gist of the cases and elaborated them in light with the theoretical issues of feminism. Below is the analysis and interpretation of the data gained from the fiction Yogmaya.
Gender Discrimination Gender discrimination is one of the significant aspects within feminist theory of literary criticism. It is the term that causes the distinctions between male and female, especially in terms of their roles, reputations, positions and responsibilities in political or commercial contexts. Hāmīā'imā'īmānchhēāphnāḍōlibāṭabhitri'ēkōgharabāṭabidānapā'īniskanubha nēkōkātrōmābēridāmātrahō.Natrajēparēpanisahēraibasnuparchhadēkāgharā.
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{We, the women are only get freed without permission of home only when we die. Otherwise, we should tolerate everything happening in husband’s home. } (p. 96). The women are kept in proper control and should also tolerate everything happening either bad or good at the home where they are married to. In other words, the women are told to be much more disciplined and obedient to manage the household tasks from the day they get married in life. Women are not allowed to make their choices and interests on their own rather they should go on satisfying all the needs and demands of the entire family members to fulfill little bit of their desires as Badiama tries to convince Maya in the fiction. Besides, they should endure everything and expected to get freed only when they are dead. It displays the absolute discrimination between male and female due to the gender factor. Below is another sentence showing the similar gender discrimination as: Ēklīawalājanānālā'ībāchchnadinnayōsamāj.Jahājā'ūśāntikōsāsphērnapā'udin au.Jēparchhasāmanāsangaigaraulā,him'matgara. Phērayastāpahiran. {This society doesn’t permit single, helpless woman for living. You even cannot breathe peacefully wherever you go. Whatever happens we will face together. Throw such clothes. Pluck up the courage.} (p. 113). This sentence depicts how the society and its people make discriminatory behavior and domination to the single women because of being gender. Here, the lead character Maya is being convinced to revolt against traditional norms and values, because the societal periphery did not let her live peacefully. She is requested to change her white clothes for making her strong and also capable of tackling the unnecessary domination, because wearing the white clothes symbolizes any woman who wears white clothes is a widow. And such single women face lot of challenges and harassments because of being a widow. The men who are also single after their wife‘s death do not confront such hardship which exhibits the gender discrimination between male and female by the society. Women’s Position in Society The roles of women, treatment done to them and distinctions made on the basis of gender-oriented features determine the women‘s position in society. Under this sub-heading, the positions and aspects of gender biasness and their sources of cause are analyzed and interpreted from the fiction Yogmaya. For this, extractions concerning the issue of women‘s position in society are derived out of the novel Yogmaya as follows: 49 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Chhōrībigārnēāmāhun.Dēkōgharkhānachhāḍībhāgīākīchhōrīlā'īMā'itīmāāśra yadinamilchha?Anikhānchhanchhōrīlēghar?Ajhaṭā'ukāmānachaḍhāMāyākīām ā. {Mothers spoil their daughters. How can she stay in her parental home leaving her husband’s home? How is she supposed to take care of her home then? Mays’s mother, don’t pamper her.} (p. 98). According to aforementioned extract, it shows the women‘s position in a negative way in the society. Here, Maya‘s mother is accused for pampering Maya by her father. When Maya could not continue the marital relationship and escaped back to parental home, she was a bit little sympathized by her mother. But her decision did not make any sense. This shows that the distinction in women‘s position as subordinate to men in the society. Next extraction related to similar issue is as follows: Bā-āmālā'īnabhēṭītyahīmarinēbhōbhannēlāgyō.Rō'irahē. Gharakōbuhārtansahananasakēraē'uṭīJēṭhānīparnēlēāphnōśarīrphālēkī thin. {I thought I would die there without meeting my parents. I wept on. A Jethani (sister-in-law) killed herself being incapable of undertaking the household chores.} (p. 90). In this extract, the lead character Maya shows the torture confronted by another woman of the same society. This strongly depicts that women are better to be dead rather than to be unable for conducting domestic chores successfully. It shows the women‘s position in society is valueless that‘s why the society accepts even the death of women when they kill themselves being unable to manage the home effectively. Another example related to women‘s position in society is presented as follows: Hērchhōrīgharkhānasajilōhudaihunna.Buhārtansahananaparnēkunbuhārīlā'īh ōlā? Sabaikōustaihō. Bha'ēbīs-unnā'is. Aba ā'indāyastōgaltīkahilēnagarnu. Ṭikērabasnuparchhabābaidēkāgharā..... {Look daughter, it is so hard to manage domestic chores. Who do you think who is not supposed to do domestic chores? Everyone has almost the same case. Never make such a mistake now onwards….} (p. 103). In accordance with the above mentioned extraction, females are taught for being polite, tolerable, obedient, punctual and submissive to the authority either at husband‘s home or parental home. Here, Maya‘s mother attempts her best to convince Maya to remain positive despite the problems and challenges she had faced in her husband‘s home. She not 50 Volume 8 Issue 3
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only attempts to convince Maya but also requests not to make any mistake in husband‘s home onwards. This shows the discriminative behavior upon females that they are told to endure every sort of problems in life. Besides, Maya had to be understood but rather her mother suggests her daughter to conduct household tasks more carefully and further says everyone has almost the same case to make her silencing the domination done to her instead. The case mentioned below also advocates the women‘s position in society as: Manlāgdōgarnus.Mailēbhanēkōsunēkōkahilēpōhōra?Ō bēlāpanityatiṭāḍhānadimchhōrībhandāṭarēkōhō'ina. Mājābīā'imā'īkōkēchalchha? {Do as you like. Have you ever heard my words? Even then I told you not to marry the daughter far away but you neglected. Who listens to this worthless woman?} (p. 105). In this case, women are shown as subordinate to men in the society. Similarly, it also depicts that women are incapable of making righteous and meaningful decision in their lives which in turn nothing except the biasness made to them. In the extract above, Maya‘s mother tried to suggest some ideas and thoughts to her husband but he did not listen to his wife. It displays that women are worthless and incapable for making meaningful decision at the time of need. This also questions the existence of women, what they are born for as a consequence of distinction made for being female gender. The extract below is another representation of women‘s position in society as: Mastanidā'unapā'unupani ta karmamailēkhīlyānupardōraichha ta dulahī! Kēgarnuēkapaṭakbhāgyābāṭaṭhagi'ēpachisabaitirabāṭasadhaiṭhagi'irahanērachharapō. {Bride, you should be fortune enough to have a sound sleeping. What can be done! Once you are cheated by fate, everyone keeps cheating you.} (p. 109). According to the aforementioned case, it shows the women‘s tragic situation in the society. This further clarifies that the women are exploited everywhere once they are cheated by fate as well. In other words, women even cannot have sound sleeping as per their individual interests and wishes. Moreover, women are criticized and evaluated with societal norms and values to determine their character and perceptions upon as represented in the fiction Yogmaya, while the men do not encounter such challenges, so it is the discrepancy made on women‘s public and societal position due to gender factor as given in the novel.
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Inequality represents the differences done against females in terms of unequal life, domestic abuse, sexual violence and private and individual matters as mentioned in the fiction Yogmaya. Therefore, this is one of the significant parameters to analyze the issues of inequality in accordance with the fiction Yogmaya. Hāmīchhōrījātiakṣarasangakhēlnapā'i'ēnakēgarnu? {I too was reared up playing in mud from birth to now, I played with mud, what to do? We daughters never got chance to play with alphabets!} (p. 71). Regarding the extraction above, it clarifies that how the females were unequally treated then, at the time of Yogmaya. It means females were only supposed to perform household tasks without letting them expose to outer world and education from the four walls of house and domestic chores. Here, when Maya‘s daughter-in-law, Ganga requests her sister Maya not to involve in weeding the plants, Maya replies Ganga that she was never allowed for schooling. She further adds that she always played and reared up with mud altogether. She could not do anything because she was a girl. And girls were restricted by societal and religious misbelieves. This depicts the unequal behavior done to females as mentioned in the fiction. This can be understood more clearly by the similar case as given below: Kina bhāgīhiḍēkī? Di'ēkīchhōrī, kasailā'īnabhanīgharbāhirapā'ilārākhnahunchha? TailēāphnākhuṭṭāmābancharōhānisaNānī..... {Why did you run away? How can the married daughter step outside the home secretly? Daughter, you trapped yourself in problem…..}(p. 94). In accordance with the aforementioned extract, it represents that females are not permitted to step outside the home without informing their parents or elder brothers for unmarried and husbands for married ladies respectively. If they go against this predetermined norms and values practiced by the society, females are accused as characterless, disobedient, stubborn etc. and as a consequence, they are not accepted by the family and society. Here, when Maya goes back to her parental home escaping from her husband‘s home, she is being warned for crossing the boundary by a neighboring woman, Badiama. This shows that women are habituated for tolerating the inequality. For this, when Maya attempted to revolt against this biasness, she herself was not supported by another women, being a women in itself.
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Patriarchy According to this parameter, the undermined and dominated women‘s autonomies and equalities by patriarchal society are analyzed. For this, eight of the issues concerned with patriarchy are extracted from the fiction for their analysis and interpretation in order to reach in meaningful findings and conclusion for this research study. Bhōlityatrākāmchhansut aba.Tulasākābālēē'uṭōgōḍālēbistārōghachēṭēratēlghasirākōmērōhāthatā'ē..... ….dubaigōḍāēkṭhā'ujōḍēraḍhōggarē. {Sleep now; there are lots of work for tomorrow. To remove my moisturizing hands, Tulasaa’s father slowly pushed with a leg.......Then, I bowed down at his feet.} (p. 30). In this extract, women are portrayed as subordinate to men, while they are also taken as work machine who primarily takes all the responsibilities of household tasks. In addition to this, Ganga‘s husband orders his wife to sleep earlier instead of completing the woks of following day and have the proper rest for. Here, Ganga fulfills the duty of massage and also bows down at both feet of her husband before she goes for sleeping. This indicates the discrimination caused by the patriarchal ideology and practice that the women are supposed to make as much services as possible to satisfy their husbands, whereas the same human body of women is neglected and imposed extra work pressure on females. In the same way, the following extraction also helps us to understand more clearly about patriarchal discrimination as: Gōtrasārēraarkālā'īdi'ēkīchhōrīunarukaisampattibhai.Uṭhā'ēralyā'unamilyō?S abailē t khā'ēkaichhanghar.Kāmgarēramārinthyōra? {The married daughter is her husband’s property now. Can she be brought back? At least, everyone has managed their home. She wouldn’t have died even if she had worked somewhat.} (p. 104). The sentences above present the women as no longer the matter of concern to their parental home once after they are married off by the family. Similarly, women are expected to do all the domestic chores to manage their home as if it is the only duty of females to maintain their household tasks. Here, when Maya goes back to her parental home, being unable to manage her home due to extra work load, she is scolded very badly by her father. Instead of sympathizing and advocating the wrong doings of daughter‘s home, her father did not understand the situation. Rather accuses his own daughter for being incapable of 53 Volume 8 Issue 3
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managing extra work pressure. This is all due to the discriminations made on females in terms of patriarchal ideology and its practices. The following example also clarifies similar issue as: In accordance with this parameter, the discriminations made in terms of gender role and societal perspectives to foster those prejudiced behaviors that are analyzed and interpreted. It means, gender based biasness between males and females are explained in this section. For this, eight of the extractions are derived from the fiction Yogmaya to analyze gender concerned issues as given below: Ghās-dā'urālā'ījaṅgalpasēkāmāthigā'ukāpānch-sātchhōrībuhārībhārīli'ērapharkidābāsaghārītalaPadhērāmābisā'ēkārachhana.. {The five-seven daughters/daughter-in-laws of the upper village had entered the jungle for grass and fire woods. They were having a rest in Padhero (public place to collect water), below the bamboo bush........} (p.133). With reference to the above extraction, it indicates that women are made only for physical labor in the family. Similarly, women are also represented as talkative as these are women‘s inborn qualities to dominate them due to gender factor. For this, five to seven daughter and in- laws are bringing grass and firewood to their homes to fulfill their domestic tasks. Further, they are having a rest on the midway to their home where they are making criticisms of Maya, which signals the biasness caused due to gender. Below is next example of gender related discrepancy as: Amrisākōnayākuchōbanā'idi'ēkāthēTulasākābālē.Chalannagarīrākhēki.Tyahīj hikērakunādēkhikasērlā'udailagīdailōnērathupārē…..... {Broom, made of Amliso, tied by Tulasaa’s father was kept unused. I took the same broom and swept the floor from one corner of the room to the door and heaped there.......} (p. 32). Here, the given extract advocates the women‘s roles as sweepers, cleaners, and helpers etc. to perform daily household activities for maintaining the family. In addition to this, women have to perform these tasks as women are only made for those works at any cost. This sort of discrimination is understood and pertaining in the society since Ganga is doing all those domestic chores herself as mentioned in the fiction Yogmaya. In the same way, the following sentences also clarify the how the gender roles as:
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Conclusion The existing research was a qualitative study to analyze and interpret the issues concerned with feminism in terms of the aspects; gender discrimination, inequality, women‘s position in society, patriarchy, gender roles, and political and social factors in the fiction Yogmaya. For this study, forty-eight different cases have been analyzed and interpreted in order to arrive in findings and conclusion being based on the objectives of the study. The prejudices done to females in the family and society are interconnected with different aspects. Women are made biased for and about. Gender discrimination is one of the integral components that give birth to unjustifiable restrictions between males and females from the critical eyes of feminist perspective as in the fiction Yogmaya. Gender discrimination has caused the wrongful deeds made upon females being concerned with culture, religion, tradition, rituals, identity, language, and social life of women. Similarly, inequality brings the restrictions to the freedom and socialization of females both in family and society. People in patriarchal society do not want females to have liberty, open choices, independent decision making for prosperous lifestyle, and women‘s position in the society as free bird and their equal and meaningful identity that suits women‘s independence. In the similar vein, patriarchal concepts and practices does not allow women to preserve their existence and originality for what women actually are. In addition, the distinctions between males and females are made in terms of their behaviors and biological features. And the women‘s roles and liberties have been confined within the four walls and peripheral environment of home from the outer world.
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Folk Culture Rootedness in the Paintings of Mithila Santosh Kumar Singh
Abstract This article delves into the deep connection between Maithili culture and its expressive Mithila painting while doing so it finds the root emerging all the way from Vedic tradition to the current age of cultural studies where each and every nook of the society gets artistic touch here through the folk painting of Mithila. It further maneuvers the way external culture has interacted across the historical periods yet how the original tradition mouthpiece the folks through their cultural communication. This piece of writing also comments on evolutionary phase of the painting and its varied interpretations basing on natives‘ ardent voice. Keywords: Hindu Scriptures, Agrarian Life, Castes, Kohbar & Aripan
Introduction The depiction of Mithila painting on the walls and floors of mud houses of Maithils reveals visual tradition of the land. Mithila was well known in the ancient time because of Janak‘s court (philosophical discussion), in the middle age due to Vidyapati‘s padavali (song) and in the modern age by Mithila painting. The source of this art is surrounding nature and religious scriptures which developed since Vedic age. Traditionally, this is women‘s art whose creativity transferred from one generation to another as the measurement of their literacy for family life. In addition, the association of this painting with religious, cultural and social occasions made it both celebratory and narrative in character. Moreover, it is the product of interaction between higher and lower castes and therefore represents the culture of the community. Not only the literature but also the materials available for colours and brush for the painting have made it deeply rooted in the land of Mithila. Moreover, the confined location of Maithili women detained it within the four walls of their homes for centuries. Likewise, Mithila painting expresses oral, traditional and typical phenomena of Maithili folks.
Discussion/Analysis Agrarian way of life was already in practice before the migration of Aryans from the Indus Valley. ―Aryans migrated northeast into the prosperous ancient kingdom of Videha. History records that Videha was colonized by the Aryans under Chief Videgha Mathava 58 Volume 8 Issue 3
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some 4000 years ago‖ (Chavda 26). The division of work took place between men and women where men had to accomplish the work outside their home and the women had to take hold of the interior tasks. In the course of their work, women began to decorate their house, inspired from the surrounding nature; hence, flora and fauna came to be depicted. Likewise, knowledge of different kinds of art became the measure for women‘s creativity and it began to transfer from one generation to another. The painting drawn by women was blamed for having sensual and aesthetic sense only; therefore, it was not given high profile. But the art drawn around the Vedic altar by men had high profile because it was drawn to appease Gods and Goddesses for public welfare. As a result, women also incorporated their depiction with religious, cultural and social practice for the well- being of the common folk of the region. Similarly, it was drawn to appease local deities on every auspicious occasion throughout the year. This tradition began to take deep root when a woman‘s craving for religiousness and an intense desire to be one with God. Likewise, this folk painting became medium for observer to the benevolent deities as well as means for cultural transmission. Similarly Sage-king Shirdhawaj Janak commissioned artists to decorate his palace in his daughter‘s (Sita) marriage. The detail description of this art writing is mentioned in Valmiki‘s original 3rd century BCE version of the Ramayana and in the magnum opus ‗Ramcharitramanas‘ (1633) composed by saint Tulsi Das has mentioned in Bal-kand (description of Ram‘s childhood) line number 212 ―when Ram and Laxman were going to Sita‘s swamber (for marriage) with their preceptor (Guru) Vishawamitra then they found that the town of Mithila was decorated with beautiful paintings‖.
Carolyn Brown Heinz
mentions, ―contemporary Mithila art is a direct descendent of paintings mentioned in the Ramayana‖ (29). King Janak had also nominated the ladies scholar Gargi and Maitriya for the decoration of nuptial chamber where marriage would take place (ManojPande, Personal Interview). In this way, folk painting of Mithila got royal recognition formally in Janak‘s court. Since this time two prominent paintings of Mithila (Aripan and Kohbar) spread among common folks‘ life representing their cultural outlook. And this practice is still prevalent in Mithila during marriage ceremony and other occasions. Among sixty four types of arts described by Vatsayan in his book ‗Kamsutra‘, knowledge of painting was compulsory for ladies to practice. Shashibhushan Chaudhary opines, ―The Bhagwata refers to the Maithilas in general and says that they were skilled in the knowledge of the artman‖ (qtd. in Rakesh 89). Similarly, Kalidas‘ Meghdut describes the 59 Volume 8 Issue 3
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paintings of lotus and conch on the entrance walls of Yaksha (one of the characters). There were beautiful decorations on the nuptial chamber of newly married Yaksha. Likewise, Banvat‘s famous epic ‗Harsacharitam‘ mentions the depiction of paintings in the nuptial chamber of Grahbarma. In the same way, the fourteenth century scholar, Jyotirishawar has appreciated the tradition of folk painting in his popular book ‗barna-ratnakar’. There are numerous references by the poet Vidyapati (A.D.1350-A.D.1450) to this art form where he has composed songs from female perspective (Radha) that has proved a source of encouragement for the ladies artist to depict Radha-Krishna and Krishna Ras Leela (dance). Thus, literature of the region also supplied thematic content for the paintings to flourish according to the changing time. Despite several invasions (Vajji confederacy, Gupta, Pal, Karnat, Sen) women continued to paint because the art was integrated in their daily life. And it was revived during Karnat (1097-1325) period (Golden age) until Muslim invasion (Gyasuddin Tuglak). People had to migrate from Mithila to different kingdoms due to cultural attack by Muslims. Consequently, Maithili painting (culture) spread in the surrounding states. But locally the painting was patronized by Oinwar (1353-1527) and Khandwala (Darbhanga) dynasties. In this regard, Carolyn Brown Heinz writes, ―undocumented 1919 paintings for the marriage of the daughter of Maharaja Rameshwar Singh—to demonstrate the importance and quality of wall paintings among all strata of Brahmans‖ (1). At local level, Hindu rulers influenced in the preservation and practice of Mithila painting (for 600 years) that established the tradition of painting in all the festivals, occasions, and celebrations. Thematically Mithila painting reflects spiritual and material philosophy progressed through the ages. The symbols used in folk art convey both religious and secular motive of Maithils. For example, on the one hand, elephant conveys lord Ganesh, on the other hand, it suggests prosperity and female productivity, horse symbolizes masculinity and Sun, fish expresses fertility and God Vishnu, tortoise sexuality and Vishnu as incarnation of tortoise, lotus as tenderness of female body and Goddess Laxmi(Goddess of wealth). In this way, every symbol denotes natural and supernatural being. Hence, Mithila painting is a multifold form of Shaiv, Shakti and Vaishnav tradition which reflects cultural tradition of the region. Caste division as the Maithili social structure though began in the beginning as work division among people; later on it divided people in the society in the name of social reformation. In this context, Chavda reviews:
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After the Aryan migration from Iran around 2200 B.C., the caste structure among the nomadic inhabitants of the Indus Valley became well established. According to Hindu theology, four varna (divisions) developed from the deity, the mother goddess. The Brahmans (priestly class) evolved from the mouth of the deity, while the Kshatriyas (warrior-nobility class) were sup-ported by her arms. Her thighs supported the Vaishyas (business class), while the Sudras (lowest class) were born from the feet. (26) This division provided upper castes to have easy access to the scriptures and their interpretation according to their own interest. Hence, upper castes depicted religious content from the epics in their paintings whereas lower castes portrayed the surrounding nature, flora and fauna and daily activities on the mud walls of their huts. Kohbar (wall drawing) and Aripan (floor drawing) are two distinguished art forms practiced among secluded upper castes women who could not develop many variations in their paintings but developed a sophisticated style. In this context, Betty LaDuke evaluates: "the experience expressed in their work evolves from geographical isolation and both spiritual and functional needs as well as to stylistic limitations which have evolved over a long period of time" (17). Basically kohbar is an original painting of Kayastha women who draw it in the nuptial chamber using red and black colours and stout lines depicting lotus at the centre and bamboo just near the lotus. In a personal interview, Bindu Karn, a Maithili artist says that the entire range of painting is in the pond from which lotus grows up and the face depicted at the top of the lotus is Goddess of water which is there to bless newly married couple for successful conjugal life. Similarly, Sunisha et al. opine: The Hindu Goddess of good fortune and abundance is known as kamala, â&#x20AC;&#x2014;she who dwells in the lotus or Lakshmi, she who fertilizes the soil for agriculture, she is believed to promote health, fertility, long life, and prosperity. The Hindu bride is believed to be an incarnation of the goddess Kamal or Lakshmi. (5) The interpretation of lotus symbol of the kohbar painting seems convincing because Maithili culture is sublime and it is always depicted for the well- being of the participants. Other prominent symbol is bamboo which is abundantly found in the region that denotes progeny of the couple. Soon after marriage bride and groom were expected to have children as the marker of flourishing married life. Elephant along with pot on its head is the place where bride worships Gauri (consort of Shiva) after her marriage in the presence of only one male (her husband) and other attendants. Since her childhood, a girl worships Gauri 61 Volume 8 Issue 3
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to be blessed with good husband. Kohbar painting depicts trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh) and sun and moon for their blessing, long life, and coolness even at the time of adversity. Likewise, fish, tortoise, and naina-joginare also depicted in the Kohbar painting. Neel Rekha assesses, "the entry of jogin culture in upper caste households was an important evidence of the interaction of upper castes with subaltern beliefs and practices"(8). Therefore, Mithila painting is solely based on Maithili culture irrespective of castes and binds people together for collective identity. However, many writers (Archer, Vequaud, LaDuke, Campoli, Anand, Kapadi) interpret Kohbar painting from western perspective (Freudian) that seems superficial connotation of the age old painting. Furthermore, Jyotindra Jain observes: â&#x20AC;Śthe entire kohbar motif, with its roots, stem, and proliferating leaves, is the symbol of the bride or the female but is not, as some scholars have it, her yoni or sexual organ, as the lotus plant motif represents female fertility, the bamboo grove motif epitomizes the male regenerative energy, though not the male sexual organ as some writers suggest. (55-7) Hence, the symbols used in the painting do not imply the same thing for different writers. On the one hand, some writers convey surface meaning depending on context whereas some other writers suggest deeper meaning according to the underlying philosophy of the society. The phenomena of whole life are depicted in the painting. The holistic view point of Mithila painting adjoins it with the life cycle of people in the society where each object transmits meaning according to the quality they possess. Ramvaros Kapadi comments: ...the symbols used in the Kohbar tell the story of whole life cycle. Bamboogrove signifies male regenerative power, lotus-leaf indicates female sexual organ,
clove
means
environmental
freshness,
vermilion
symbolizes
immortality to husband, betel-leaf and nut characterizes male and female sexual organs, fish is the symbol of fertility, tortoise for lovers' union, SunMoon for life generating energy, parrot signifies love affair, wisdom and progress.(105) In this way, Mithila painting reflects not only a particular aspect of Maithili culture but also the social vision that is associated with the surrounding material life.
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The empty place within the outline of the portrait considers bad omen, therefore, they are filled even with the insects, aquatic, and amphibians to denote the creatures that are coliving with human beings to show the importance of ecosystem. Ramniwas Pandey asserts: Three most popular things drawn in Maithil paintings are: a. Kohbar; penis penetrating vagina, b. Aripan; magical circle that shows the concept of Universe according to Tantra and it further accomplishes religious and social activities, and c. Scenes related to Puran (Hindu scripture) and Hindu myths(126). The content related to marriage, tantric phenomena, and Hindu Gods and Goddesses are popular in Mithila painting. While portraying them, artists insert several symbols to articulate the inherent message of the portrait. Without the knowledge of Sanskrit scripture simply by observing the Hindu temples one cannot opine the true message to the society which is prevalent since the ancient period. In this context, Heinz quotes W. G. Archer, ―circles and rods: these were surely sexual symbols; he probably had in mind the lingam and yoni found widely in Hindu temples‖ (15). But Heinz again writes, ―painting life forms that proliferate rapidly represents the hope is that the new couple will similarly reproduce quickly‖ (15). Hence, the interpretation of the Kohbar painting for the happy and successful conjugal life is one of the remarkable points to be made. The alien paradigm made to infer the meaning of the native seems faulty for the original meaning where one‘s voice is blocked in the name of one‘s methodology. Neel Rekha supports: It has also shown how western scholars in Mithila interpreted Maithil art from alien paradigms and created a romanticized history. Women‘s voices got silenced in the process. Maithil painting has been used as a lens to understand local, regional and national cultural politics. Interpretations internalized and articulated by the artists themselves complicate our understanding of Maithil art. (19) The main artists of Mithila painting are women whose voice counts a lot while interpreting the works of art. In this context, mostly the western writers have used their local technique to infer the meaning of the culture at distant land from them. This really does not justify the cause of construing the meaning by silencing the voice of original people in the field. Thus, the holistic approach of Maithili painting is always praiseworthy where all
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account of Maithili life is demonstrated through the pictures portrayed on the village walls, courtyard, and nuptial chamber in Maithili society. In this matter, Rewatiraman Lal remarks: Generally the works of art are performed in three types: Wall painting, canvas drawing, and floor writing. Kohbar writing and family shrine decorating custom is very ancient. This type of illustration is mainly related to Pauranic documents as well as contemporary matters, natural life, and social facts are also included in the same portrait. Basically, Kohbar writing wishes for the betterment of newly married couple in their conjugal life. (115) As the stem which roots the lotus leaf to the bottom of the pond to denote how life is rooted deep down somewhere in mother‘s womb. So is the case with the newly married couple whose first and foremost responsibility is to celebrate life after giving birth to other life which is the central message of the entire Kohbar painting. The Aripan painting, derived from Sanskrit ―Alepan‖ (meaning ―to smear‖), is quite auspicious in the whole Mithila region. It basically refers to smearing the ground with cow dung and clay for ritual purification. This Tradition of Aripan is found in Grihyasutra (Hindu scripture)
Brahmapuran
(Hindu
Scripture)
and
Naisadha
Charitra
(Hindu
scripture).Vidyapati (Maithili poet) appreciates its full blossom design in his Padavali (Songs).This form of painting is deeply rooted in Maithili culture; it has geometrical shape that implies its connection with the tantric element. It is mostly drawn at the thresh-holds and court yards to appease the deities for agricultural productions, protection from malevolent nature and for the well-being of the family members. Ram Dayal Rakesh quotes Pupul ayakar: The art of the Alpana (Aripana) in Mithila is a women‘s art born of unconscious and ancient knowledge, potent with power and energy, to be used by women as the mark of the auspicious for the worship and adornment and protection of the earth. (111-12) The tantric element which is based on geometrical drawings appeases Goddess Kali (Goddess of Destruction) for the protection from malevolent nature. The theme of these paintings mainly revolves around the mythological characters. Rarely does one see them without religious implication. The paintings are largely devoted to female deities Durga, Kali, Gauri, Sita and Radha. Goddess Durga atop her tiger is a common representation. Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of wealth, is common to the repertoire of Mithila symbolism. Among the male deities Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Ram, and 64 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Krishna are more commonly depicted. Trees, birds and animals are extensively used in combination with other ritual and religious paintings. The snake goddess is also very often depicted in the paintings. Hence, Mithila painting reflects the importance of natural and supernatural elements in the life of common people in Mithila. The painting evolved through the ages because of its dependence on the local colour and materials. Brahmin women use vibrant colours locally extracted from different plants and collected from different places in the vicinity whereas Kayastha women focus on lines and use only red and black colours nominally. They make brush from the bamboo twig and wrap cloth at the top for filling the colours and make it sharp for drawing the lines. Similarly, Dalit women also draw the secular paintings using the same materials the upper castes women do. In this context, Kailash Kumar Mishra argues: The artists rely on nature for colours. It provides them with a wonderful range of natural hues derived from clay, bark, flowers and berries. The colors are usually deep red, green, blue, black, light yellow, pink and lemon. As the deep colours create mood, they have an important role to play. For instance, energy and passion find expression through the use of red and yellow, as monochromes crash over large surfaces of the painting. Concentration of energy is best reflected in red, while green governs natural leaves and vegetation. (98) But it had limitation in the sense that artists had to wait for particular colours because some of the materials were not available in all the seasons. Hence, colours set different mood, energy, and passion and the viewers derive meaning according to the formulation of colours in the painting.
Conclusion Mithila painting is deeply rooted in Maithili culture and in some respect it even goes beyond the Vedic tradition and seems to have continued from the Indus valley civilization or cave painting from the ancient age. And despite its interaction with several foreign cultures due to political invasions in the region, it has uniquely preserved its identity quite suitable to the land. Moreover, it has not developed at once rather has evolved through the ages incorporating all the changes that took place (political, literary, occupational) in the region. Although the meanings of the symbols are rooted in Holy Hindu scriptures, its interpretation has been changing through the shifting age. But the analysis of the native is paramount 65 Volume 8 Issue 3
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regarding their culture, history and art. There are tribal paintings at every corner of the globe but the ethnic painting which is solely the women‘s domain is peculiar in the land of Mithila. Likewise, Mithila painting is based on the age old beliefs of ordinary people of Mithila. Illustrations
Fig.1: Uma Devi’s Durga on mud wall; source: photo taken by Santosh Kumar Singh in 2019
Fig. 2: Poonam Kumari Das’ decorated house with Mithila Painting photo taken by Santosh Kumar Singh in 2019
Fig. 3: GodawariDutta’sKohbar Painting (2018); source: Artist’s Own Collection. Photo by Santosh Kumar Singh
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Fig.4: Pinki Das’ Garland Exchange Painting (2018); photo taken by Santosh Kumar Singh
Fig.5: Anuradha Devi’s Aripan on mud wall (2019) photo taken by Santosh Kumar Singh
Fig.6: Dukhani Paswan’s Dashahara Narrative (2018); photo taken by Santosh Kumar Singh
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Works Cited
Chavda, JagdishJ."The Narrative Paintings of India's Jitwarpuri Women." Woman's Art, Inc. 11.1 (1990): 26-8.
Heinz, C. B. (2006). Documenting the Image in Mithila Art. Visual Anthropology Review , 5-33.
Jain, Jyotindra. Tradition and Expression in Mithila Painting. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1997.
Kapadi, Ramvaros. "Mithila Lokchitrama Nepali Sanskritiko Chintan‖. Mirmire (2013): 147-152.
Karn, Bindu. Personal interview. 7 Feb. 2015.
LaDuke, Betty. "Traditional Women Artists in Borneo, Indonesia and India‖ . Woman's Art Inc. (1981): 17-20.
Lal, Rewatiraman. "Mithilako Lok Kala: Eka Drishti." Sayapatri (2012): 114-19.
Mishra, Kailash Kumar. "Mithila Paintings: Women's Creativity Under Changing Perspectives." Indian Folklore Research Journal (2003): 93-103.
Pandey, Manoj. Personal interview. 14 March 2019.
Pandey, Ramniwas. "Mithilako Itihas ra Kalapramparaharuko Parichaya." Sayapatri (1998): 120-29.
Rakesh, Ram Dayal. Janakpur: The Sacred Jewel of Nepal. Kathmandu: Safari Nepal, 2005.
Rekha, Neel. "From folk art to fine art: changing paradigms in the historiography of Maithil painting." Journal of Art Historiography (2010): 1-20.
Sunish et al. "Traditional to Contemporary." Jackfruit Research & Design (2010): 1-6.
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The Dynamics of Culture and Gender: Reflections in English Literature Vyshnavi Devi A Abstract The study of Gender is multidimensional; as it crosses the bounds of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and organizational development. Gender is known to be socially constructed and is learned through social interactions and influences of people around us. Culture definitely plays a major role in the determination of gender. In order to determine gender identity and gender representation we need to distinguish between ―gender‖ and ―sex‖. Gender derived from the Latin word ‗genus‘ meaning kind or race refers to the psycho-social aspects that are constructed by culture whereas sex derived from the Latin word ‗sexus‘ refers to biological aspects of masculinity /femininity . It is relevant that while discussing gender stereotypes one must consider both these terms. From the moment a child is born he or she is assailed with messages of what it means to be ‗boy‘ or ‗girl‘. Masculinity for male and femininity for female are embedded in their gender (socially constructed) and not in their sex( biological). However the ‗culture‘ as determinant factor varies in respect of female or male behavior. As for instance, women in Saudi Arabian culture are not allowed to drive cars whereas women in the US enjoy the freedom to drive cars. So gender is looked at differently across different cultures and through different time periods. A few literary texts have been examined to reflect a deeper understanding of gender and culture. Key words: Gender, Culture, Sex, Masculinity, Femininity.
Introduction Sex and Gender The study of Gender is multi-dimensional, as it crosses the bounds of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and organizational development. Gender is known to be socially constructed and is learnt through social interactions and influences of people around us. According to WHO, Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men such as norms, roles and relationships between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and is subject to change. Culture definitely plays a major role in the determination of gender. In order to understand gender identity and gender representation, we need to distinguish between ‗gender‘ and ‗sex‘. Derived from the Latin word ‗genus‘, Gender refers to the psycho-socio-cultural aspects that are constructed by culture; whereas sex derived from the Latin word ‗sexus‘ encompasses the biological aspects 69 Volume 8 Issue 3
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of masculinity / femininity. While analyzing Gender stereotype it is necessary to consider both these terms. From the moment, a child is born he or she begins to be assailed with messages of what it means to be a ‗boy‘ or a ‗girl‘. Masculinity for male and femininity for female are embedded in their gender (socially constructed) and not in their sex (biological). However, culture as a determinant factor varies in respect of female or male behavior. As for instance, women in the Saudi Arabian Culture are not allowed to move without a veil whereas women in the US enjoy the freedom to wear whatever they desire. So gender is looked at differently across different cultures and different time periods. Gender stereotypes generally associated with men, embody industriousness whereas those associated with women encompasses expressiveness. The traits encouraged for women include being warm, emotional whereas for men it is leadership, assertiveness and independence. The hierarchical power associations between male and female have resulted in gender discrimination, which further culminates toward marginalization and exploitation of women. This distinction between genders is actually constituted by the society; – not necessarily by the writers who presented them, but constructed by the culture they belong to. Looking Back Social and cultural discourses of various literary periods have represented women as the oppressed and they have either to confront this through assimilation or subversion. Simon de Beauvoir in ‗The Second Sex‘ (1949) mentions that woman is a social construct. She addresses women as ‗Angels of the House‘ who remain constrained by the misogynist notions of the society. Kate Millet in ‗Sexual Politics‘ (1971) uses the term ‗politics‘ referring to power structured relationship where power is vested with the male folk and invariably reinforced through literary texts. Evolving with different periods the depiction of women in literary texts has witnessed several changes:; from Jane Austen‘s seemingly demure heroines on to Helen Fielding‘s mouthy Bridget Jones, a modern day reworking of ‗Pride and Prejudice‘. During the Victorian age, women were marginalized and treated as vulnerable and weak compared to their male counter parts. Anne Bronte challenged this gender system, by providing the readers with a strong female heroine, who blatantly defied laws and norms of the day by leaving her abusive and fearful husband for an independent existence. It was during the Edwardian age that the female started getting out of their homes during wars. According to Anita Nair literature has always been ambivalent in its representation of women. Good women were those who accepted societal norms, be it Elizabeth Bennett of ‗Pride and Prejudice‘ or Jane in ‗Jane Eyre‘. 70 Volume 8 Issue 3
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The American Chapter: From the perspective of American literature it is observed that the women were mostly confined to their home front. Elizabeth Barret Browning and Kate Chopin are the female writers who raised the feminist issues and women‘s rights in England and in the United States. Browning was a British Victorian Period artist and during that time females were not expected to show interest in politics, literature and art. They were isolated by men; either husbands or fathers. Yet, Browning, as a female artist, was always interested in the position of women in society and reacted against the standardized social norms. The poet was strongly against slavery and her father‘s authority. She wrote many poems about social issues, child labour, immortal love, human and women‘s rights. The women in majority of the American plays are shown as wives and mothers who do not leave their homes during the course of the play. The major female characters in Trifles, The Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, and Fences are all wives and mothers and they are dominated by the male characters. Linda in Death of a Salesman is silenced in her own home by not being allowed to participate in conversations with Willy, and she represents the most silent of all women. Linda's behavior characteristics are in keeping with the traditional image of a passive and dependent woman. She provides comfort to Willy when he is feelslow, and as the center of Willy's domestic world, she cooks, cleans, does the laundry, and is the loving mother to his children. . Linda enables Willy to be great, and as Porter (1979) noted, Linda "stays in her place, never questioning out loud her husband's objectives and doing her part to help him achieve them" (p. 39).The plays of Tennessee Williams' often depicted the suppressed frustrations of women who remained disillusioned in their lives. In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha's views about women and careers, although verbalized in the dialogue, are viewed as deviant behavior by the other characters, and they often fail to listen to her comments. She is symbolically silenced when Ruth counts her capable of working to meet the house payments. The term ‗feminism‘ is a global sociocultural movement that aimed at the freedom of women from male domination in the patriarchal society. This movement was fought for issues related to women like gender discrimination, male domination, oppressive culture, domestic violence, sexual harassment, liberation and empowerment of women. It swept across the world and brought tremendous changes in the status of women. Feminist approach in modern and postmodern literature was first inaugurated with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft‘s A Vindication of the Rights for Women (1792) and it brought revolution in the women‘s issues as its goal was to establish equal political, economic and social rights and equal opportunities for women. 71 Volume 8 Issue 3
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The Indian Context In the context of India If Gender is viewed from the socio-historical perspective, we find that the quick urbanization of the Indian Society has brought immense changes in the contemporary Indian life. Therefore, feminism as a movement in India is not entirely an influence of the West. It has its indigenous roots. ―The idea of self does not exist in observation. It is deeply rooted in one‘s awareness of one‘s body and is moulded by sociocultural patterns.‖ [Jasbir Jain]. Indian English fiction writers, especially Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Bharthi Mukherjee, Githa Hariharan, Kamala Markandaya, Shobha De, Arundhati Roy, Mahashweta Devi, Nayantara Sahgal et al. delved deep into the psyche of the female characters and projected various images of women in varied cultural perspectives. The postmodern Indian women writers created a pattern of new study because they dared to shatter the myth of a male dominated social system and laid a firm foundation in the realm of female studies in the Indian Literature in English. During the period of Indian reformation, the glory of women emerged under the banner of ‗New Woman‘. The new woman was a reversal not only of the western woman but also different from the common or lower class woman who were considered as vulgar and quarrelsome. In the cultural context, media exercises an important role to play by creating two images of woman – good and bad. Good women are generally depicted as pretty, caring, deferential and focused on family matters. The other image is represented as hard, cold, aggressive – like the witches and mean stepmothers of the Shakespearian plays and Children‘s literature. The most glaring examples of portrayal of women as ‗sex‘ objects occur in music videos on MTV, greatly influenced by the consumerist culture of the West. The literary forms have undergone corresponding shifts and have impacted the gender. Sashi Tharoor, Salman Rushdie, Sashi Deshpande, Bharti Mukherjee and Shobha De have beautifully highlighted these changes in their works. Feminism with its thrust on women‘s concerns, has also brought a major change in the contemporary Indian English. Women writers in particular seem to consciously focus on women‘s experiences, shifting their positions from the periphery to the centre. Instead of submissive, docile and passive women we find assertive and aggressive women characters. In their effort to find a viable space in the patriarchal society these women explored different aspects of female sexuality and advocated a redefinition of gender roles. In this regard the new aspects of women‘s experiences in the novels of Manju Kapoor, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, Bharti Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shobha De and others. These novelists beautifully depicted the challenges, aspirations and conflicts of the new women. The 72 Volume 8 Issue 3
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language used by the characters in such novels includes satire, irony and humor. Most of Desai‘s works unfold the complexities of modern Indian culture while highlighting the issue of protection of self–identity as individuals. The very concept that woman needs something more than just food, clothes and accommodation is aptly illustrated in Desai‘s ‗Cry the Peacock‘. Deshpande‘s ‗That long Silence‘ expresses silence of the women protagonists faced by Jaya. Like Desai and Deshpande, Bharti Mukherjee too presented the social status of women as the ‗second sex‘. In almost all her novels she raised her voice against gender inequality. Spivak in ‗Can the Subaltern speak?‘ shows his concern for the silenced women of the third world. Thus various images of women as traditional, liberated, immigrant, sensitive, self-sacrificing and emotional are subsumed in the characterization of women. In the recent times the novels such as Chetan Bhagat‘s One Night @the call centre and Shruti Saxena ‗Stilletos in The Boardroom‘ explore the tension between traditional gender roles particularly those of domestic women and those required by contemporary global workplace that are in conflict with traditional values and practices.
Conclusion The second decade of the 21st century has opened up profound economic, social and cultural changes; however such change does not signify wholehearted rejection of the old. This has been reflected in these two novels. From the above analysis, two conclusions can be drawn. First is that the gender division between characters have become sharply marked over the last hundred years. But that difference weakened steadily as we moved forward to the present era. The actions and attributes of characters are now less clearly sorted into gender categories. Gender is thus less insistently marked by the end of the 20th century than it was in 1840s.However till date, the reality is that despite the cultural changes inequality persists in the Indian society. The Dalits, underprivileged and the poor women are still becoming victims and have not fully succeeded to become part of the literary creation.
References Beauvoir de Simone The second Sex 1949, (translated by H.M .Parshley Penguin 1972 Bhagat Chetan 2014 One night @the call centre Rupa Publications New Delhi Bhasin Kamala 2000 Understanding Gender, New Delhi Bronte, Anne. (1996). The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. London: Penguin classics books. 73 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Eagleton Terry 2000 The Idea of Culture, Oxford (Blackwell publishers‘ ltd.) Friedan Betty The feminine Mystique 1963, W.W. Norton. Jain Jasbir Ed. Women‘s writing ―Text and Context Rawat Books New Delhi Millet Kate Sexual Politics 1970, Rupert Hart –Davis U.K Nussbaum Martha .C and Glover Jonathan (Ed) 1995 Women, Culture and Development‘ USA OUP Porter, T. E. (2000). Our Townas an American myth. In T. Siebold (Ed.), Reading on OurTown. (pp. 66-75). San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Saxena Shruti, Stilettos in the Boardroom Zubaan Publications 2009 New Delhi Spivak Gayatri 2010, Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea (English, Paperback, Rosalind C. Morris).
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English Language Teaching Title: ICT: An Indispensable Tool for Professional Students M. Sridhar & B. Srinivasulu
Abstract Information and communication technology (ICT) is an indispensable tool to the professional students in the globalised world. Using different tools to project their skills has become mandatory in present market, in the process of moving ahead in the competitive world one has to keep abreast of his ICT skills besides ones subject skills. A developing country like India has to compete with the developed countries like America and other countries. However, government of India promotes research and development but genuine research is very less in India, with the support of ICT, it can be possible to reach the research requirements that are not available in some fields. Especially, in the Telugu states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh pupil depend on hard copies than technological source, which highly requires for further development of the research and enhancing knowledge. However, they are trained satisfactorily in technical and conceptual skills; they lag in human relation skills and communication skills. English Language Teaching (ELT) in India has given least importance. The teachers of English have to be very careful in creating creative curriculum for the global needs with the support of ICT. Still, in some areas people are not aware of ICT which include even today is social media like Face Book; Watts up etc., Higher education ought to be geared to accomplishments of social transformation, economical growth and national integration. A radical transformation in education system is highly required to reach the expectations of the global market to strive to enrich the life of the community to encourage the entrepreneurial ship in India. Key
words:
ICT,
ELT,
Globalisation,
Tool,
Accomplishment,
Transformation,
Entrepreneurship.
Introduction: Globalization
is
marked
by
technological
developments
and
increasing
interconnectedness that makes communication across the world faster. Because of teachers said to, the number of world organizations and transnational corporations entering all the trading in the local markets. A developing country like India is competing in the globalised market to develop indigenous technology with developed countries to promote the economic 75 Volume 8 Issue 3
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interest of the nation. The government of India promotes research and enhances indigenous technology. In the recent years, the two Telugu states have successfully expanded technical education to keep abreast of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This has excelled in a large number of engineering graduates passing out from the colleges every year Besides, the measures steps need to be taken for the proper utilization of the services of these engineers to achieve the goals of the economy to expand technical education and produce large number of engineers. However, the employers look for managerial skills, which include technical, conceptual and inter personal skills but fresh engineers find employment in the production/manufacturing, communication and service sectors. Hyper-competitive and globalized economy where the potential employers seek a combination of skills in the new recruits. Though they are trained satisfactorily in technical and conceptual skills, they lag in human relation skills and communication skills. Communication skills are rated as the most important, since negotiation is an important aspect of any field. As human relation skills comprise communication skills, motivation skills and leadership skills, often young engineers, despite their expertise and competence in the subject areas, fail to be effective communicators. Technical education will be more effective with the communication skills and corporate skills.
ELT in India: English teaching has a history of two hundred years in India, from 1759 by the East India Company. Though it has gained great significance after Macaulay's minute, 1835, it is motivated to bring about social transformation. The purpose of motivating is to create a body of clerks to assist in the administration of the country. Despite English played a vital role to unite the Indians for the freedom struggle. A section of the Indian political class resisted the introduction of English education and the existing facilities for oriental and vernacular instruction are retained. It is a kind of three-language formula in colonial India. While English is taught as a subject in more number of schools and is the medium of instruction in a few, oriental and vernacular education continued to be encouraged. During this time, the study of English in India, unlike in England, is devoted to the study of classical literature when the learning of English 76 Volume 8 Issue 3
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should have been used for the transfer of 'useful knowledge'. (Krishnaswamy and Sriraman, T. 1995) The Grammar Translation method has continued to be adapted for teaching English in India, when English language teaching undergoes a drastic change in Europe. The study of teaching methods and procedures in language teaching assumed a central role in applied linguistics. Sir Charles Woodâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s Dispatch notes in 1894 that English can be a suitable medium at higher level of Education are a sound knowledge is a prerequisite to seek admissions into University. However, at lower levels, English is not felt so necessary and Indian languages could still continue as the media of instruction. Michael West who is working for the Indian Education Service in Bengal in 1920s, made an extensive study of English Language needs in India. He has published a lengthy report, `Bilingualism, with a special reference to Bengal' in 1926, West has recognized that vocabulary is one of the most remarkable aspects of learning foreign language because of the emphasis on reading skills which is a goal of studying foreign language. West carried out needs analysis in which he has advocated developing practical information in reading, which would enable Bengalis to have access to the technological knowledge needs for economic development. He has proposed different ways to improve reading texts for children. The attitude of the Indian society towards English remains indecisive. But English, a neutral language with no regional or ethnic base seems to be preferred as the official language. The Kothari Commission has reemphasized the need for the three language formula in 1966. The Commission has observed that though English cannot serve as a link language for a majority of Indians. It continues as a library language and as a medium of instruction in all the major universities. The Commission has also recommended that special units be set up for teaching English as a language skill, separate from teaching its literature. The restoration of English to its old status is reflected in the three language formula as modified by the Education Commission (1964-66). In the Lower Primary stage from Class I IV the mother tongue or regional language would be the medium of instruction. At the Higher Primary stage from Class V to VIII, though the mother tongue or regional language would be the medium of instruction, Hindi or English would be an additional subject. For classes VIII to IX, in addition to the instruction of subjects given in the mother tongue or regional language, Hindi and English were also introduced in the areas of speaking non-Hindi. In addition to the subjects instructed in the mother tongue or regional language, English and a 77 Volume 8 Issue 3
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Modern Indian language other than Hindi would be taught. Though both Indian languages and English are the media of instruction at school and university levels, English is the highly important medium of instruction in higher technical education adapted by national institutions. English continues to be a passport for higher technical and professional education and high-level appointments in public and private fields. English also serves as a link language for the people of different states within the nation. Hence, the demand for English education has of late led to a phenomenal growth of English medium schools in the urban areas.
ELT in the Telugu States: In the Telugu states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, there are regional medium schools as well as English medium schools. The states follow a three-language formula. While Telugu is the medium of instruction and is the first language, Hindi is the second language and English is a compulsory subject since it is the associate language. All instructions are in the mother tongue in the primary classes, i.e., from class I to class V in the regional medium schools. Hindi and English are introduced as separate subjects in class VI. In the schools of English medium, the language, that is, the mother tongue is taught right from class I. Hindi has become the second language, is taught from class III. In intermediate, both groups of students follow the same course book for English in addition to study a language, which can be the mother tongue or any other language of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; choice. In degree course, students have English as a compulsory subject in the first two years of their study in addition to one optional language as general English. In an undergraduate course of Engineering, English is a compulsory subject in the first year. An attempt is made to improve the communication skills of the students in this course. As we have looked at the place of English in the educational system, it is the time now to turn towards the necessity for English in technical education. It is needed to examine the goals of higher education, history, relevance and rationale for the expansion of technical education and the philosophical /educational orientation of technical education.
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Aim of Higher Education: Higher education ought to be geared to accomplish the requirements of social transformation, economic growth and national integration. The goals and objectives of higher education as stated in Challenges to Education (1972) are: i)
a radical transformation of the education system so as to achieve its fundamental objectives of cultivating new knowledge and promoting a scientific and rational outlook and temper.
ii) to train competent men and women with a commitment to basic human values, social purposes and national development. iii) to strive to enrich the life of the community around through the diffusion of culture and through the solution of problem by the application of science, technology and learning (Challenges to education 1972) It is highly needed to plan for a system of technical education that is capable of meeting the challenges of new human, social and technological situation in this context.
History of Technical Education: In the form of survey schools technical education has begun in India in 1794. It is started with the certificate programmes and extended to diplomas and then to Bachelor's degree in the second half of the 19th century. The 50s of the 20th century has seen the momentous of the post-graduate courses. Though the technical or engineering education has started off with four colleges of engineering, one each at Madras, Roorkee, Howrah and Pune, Independent India has 100 industrial training institutes, 53 polytechnics, and 38 colleges of engineering. Post-graduate education in engineering has begun after independence, during the early 50s, followed by doctoral programmes. The 50s, 60s and 80s has seen the expansion of technical education. There is a recession in employment opportunities towards the end of the 60s. Consequently expansion is slowed down, but the demand by private entrepreneurs proved that human resources are insufficient and this has motivated the entrepreneurs to start polytechnics and colleges that are self-financing institutions. Initially, the trend has begun with Karnataka in the 70s and is spread to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and later to Tamilnadu. The 80s and early 90s has witnessed the establishment of a phenomenally large number of polytechnic colleges, engineering colleges,
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pharmacy and institutions of management courses run on a self-finance in all these four states. The inception of Information and Software Technologies has increased the demand for engineering studies and encouraged the excessive expansion of colleges of engineering in Andhra Pradesh during the 90s. The sudden boom in the field justifies this expansion. Though the late 90s has seen rough times and the uncertainties of the job market has left many undergraduates high and dry opportunities in 2003. The emergence of the new work order has been making new demands on the employees seeking a combination of skills in which the use of language becomes an indispensable tool of the workers function. Hence, equipping undergraduates with the skills required to face the tough competition of the job has become challenging.
Conclusion Therefore, the function of an engineer is to seek co-ordination in the use of resources, tools, energy and labour and imbibe them in a productive entity to achieve the said mission in a given time. Technical education needs to inculcate among the students of engineering in a scientific and rational outlook and temper. Finally, engineering education needs to be given a new orientation to achieve all these goals. It should equip the young graduates with the skills, incentives and facilities to participate effectively in the whole process of industrial development and technological advancement. Web based technologies in language learning remain not an option but a complementary component in reinforcing effective classroom activities. Suggesting teachers to avoid being skeptical about the use of web in language teaching and begin to reevaluate their teaching methods. The web resources can assist teachers if it is seen not as a replacement for their work but as a supplement to it. Exposure to such a new, creative learning environment paves way to a unique learning atmosphere.
Hence, the institutions of engineering and technology must achieve to: i)
encourage entrepreneurial skills in engineers,
ii)
promote consultancy work and research sponsored by industry.
Emphasis should be laid on self-reliance and the development of indigenous technology because foreign technology has several inherent drawbacks such as 80 Volume 8 Issue 3
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i)
high price of imported technology,
ii)
unsuitability to local conditions hindrance to the development of indigenous technology,
iv)
perpetuation of dependence on foreign technology and expertise (Challenges to Education :1972)
References
Varghese, C. Paul. (1998). Teaching English as a Second Language. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers.
Kress, G. (2003) Literacy in the New Media Age. London: Routledge.
McPherson, S.J. (1991). The Effects of Meta-cognitive Strategy Training with Computer Assisted Instruction for Vocabulary Acquisition by students with Learning Disabilities. Dissertation Abstract International, Vol. 52, No. 6.
European School net ‗ERNIST ICT School portraits‘ Publisher: European School net, Editor: The Netherlands Inspectorate Education. Accessed at: (including summary version) http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/school_innovation/best_practice/ernist_school_ portraits.cfm
Sherfield, Robert, M. Montgomery, Rhonda, J and Moody, Patricia, G. (2010). Cornerstone Developing Soft Skills. New Delhi: Pearson.
Sweet, Henry. (1964). The Practical Study of Languages. London: OUP
―Techterms.Com‖ The Tech Terms Computer Dictionary – 2005 – 2010. http://www.Techterms.com/definition/ict.
Tannen, D. (1989). Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogues and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
UNESCO. (2002). Information and Communication Technologies in Teacher Education: A Planning Guide. UNESCO Publications.
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Setting Free ESL Learning from the Subjugation of Mother-Tongue Interference: A Distant Target to Hit Rajendra Rana
Abstract Language Acquisition is different from Language Learning. MT is acquired in an informal setting where as L2 and other-tongues are learned in a formal setting with specific person, place, time-table fixed in a formal class-room setting.MT Acquisition is easier as compared to L2 and OT learning. In the process of ESL learning situation through the gate way of L1 there is MTI which is a major linguistic factor. There is the gravitational pull of MT that the undergraduate learners suffer from in Odisha. It‘s the most dominating linguistic factor that affects the undergraduate learners‘ ESL learning situation at degree level in the state. Odisha was the first state of India to have been formed on the first April 1936 with Odia as its MT or L1.Besides Odia other varieties like Sambalpuri-koshali have their rooms here. English is treated as ESL and Hindi/Sanskrit as TLS/H. English is taught as a compulsory subject. Importance of English is increasing by and by as a window language, as official language, as medium of instruction, as a lingua-franca, as an international/global
language, as a
language of trade and commerce etc .So there is priority of ESL learning situation in school, college and university. While learning ESL in undergraduate level there is the permeation of MT. It‘s obvious, it can‘t be checked. Keywords: MT (Mother-tongue), L1(First Language), L2 (Second Language), OT (Othertongue), ESL (English as Second Language), MTI (Mother-tongue interference). MT interference is a dominating linguistic factor that affects undergraduate learners‘ ESL learning in Odisha. While the importance of the
MT can never be undermined, MT
interference in ESL learning may lead to syntactical and phonetic errors that in turn affect intelligibility. Language, maybe MT, LT or OT, is a means of spoken and written communication with the dual motto of understanding the speaker and expressing the self. Replacing English syntactical structures and phonetic symbols with those in the MT can have very disastrous effects. Over generalization of grammatical rules affects ESL learning situation. For example, in the prepositional phrase ‗on the table‘, the noun is at the end, it is preceded by the article and the article is preceded by the preposition. If this phrase is
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translated into Odia or any other Indian language, the structure is just the other way round (noun-article-preposition). Even college teachers at many places adopt bilingual method while teaching English and other subjects. They are often obliged to take the help of MT and Hindi in the class-room situation. They often use Odia for the convenience of the learners. They feel bilingual method is the most appropriate. Most of the college teachers in their off hours in the college interact in the MT informally putting aside English. Only a few teachers make it a practice to speak in English outside the classroom. Consequently, learners get a very little scope to find themselves familiar with English. It‘s the naked reality form small towns to cities. Conducive ESL situation is marred by this. Mushrooming of private coaching centers and tutorials has worsened the situation in Odisha. Parents and guardians too add fuel to this flame by encouraging their wards to go on with this maddening pursuit. Bi-lingual approach is followed as per the convenience of the learners. Again the same principle is followed in private-tuition. Majority of the tutors prefer bilingual approach where the gravitational pull of MT is found. It‘s erroneously learnerfriendly, so far as the use of MT is concerned. Use of Mt to teach ESL leads to MT interference. Odia is the language of home and of market throughout the state. Most parents are not educated enough to talk in English and they watch only Odia/Hindi serials, movies, news etc. Other sources of MT interference are undergraduate learners‘ interaction with peers, friends and class-mates. Communicative teaching of ESL is affected by the excessive use of MT Odia with peers, friends and class-mates. Permeation of MT interference is found through the college teachers who are the role models for learners in speaking English. Though there are university guidelines to use English inside the class-room during the class-hour, ratio of using English
and the said
guidelines stand pole apart. There is appearance versus reality. This is the ground reality realized from the actual class-room situation of the degree colleges. Reading skill in ESL learning is affected by MT. The undergraduate learners like Odia books as a fascination for MT. Habit of reading English books is very poor. In case of personal letter writing, official correspondence, report writing for club, association, organization, institutions etc majority of undergraduate learners prefer English instead of MT and are not confident of writing English. So ESL learning is affected. For official correspondence, they use mainly two languages: Odia and English. It‘s a positive sign 83 Volume 8 Issue 3
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that most of them prefer English but a matter of regret is that the standard OS English is very poor. It‘s due to the MT interference. In fact they feel comfortable with MT in such cases as well. Consequently ESL learning receives a step-motherly treat. It‘s an age of Smartphone Communication through SMS, Whatsapp chatting, messenger in Facebook is done in MT though the script of English is used here. Comparatively there is less use of English; they feel at home with MT. Again MT has a dominant role in literary co-curricular activities like speech, debate, quiz and essay-writing competition. They are more interested in creative activities for which Odia is preferable to them. They have less inclination towards English. It is due to the gravitational pull of MT. The University Guidelines stick to English medium in examinations but most of the examinees prefer Odia option as they feel comfortable with it. So there is creeping of MT in it. Rural and suburb undergraduate learners go for Odia medium while sitting for the university examinations. Neither any guidelines nor any kind of persuasion can undo their propensity to MT. There is MT interference in different aspects of ESL learning like phonology (pronunciation). Their speaking part is affected by MT interference. So they can‘t reach up to RP level. Another aspect is syntactic (grammatical) area of difficulty the undergraduate learners suffer from. They commit grammatical error consciously or unconsciously due to MT interference. They also face semantic (sense) problem. Sense or meaning differs from context to context. They often fail in their interpretations. It‘s because of MT interference. They develop unscientific and irrational attitude towards speaking English. They frequently make mistakes while speaking English. They feel there is no need of speaking English as they could manage with MT. Their friends, peers and juniors may laugh at their speaking English.
Pedagogical Suggestions: Mother tongue is a vital linguistic factor in ESL learning. Giving importance to mother tongue leads to mother tongue interference in ESL learning. All the undergraduate learners should see that ESL learning is in no way affected by mother- tongue interference. Translation approach should scarcely be followed with the target of learning Second Language English. ESL learners of multilingual setting cannot avoid mother- tongue. But they should be intelligent enough in handling the multilingual situation. Direct approach in place of grammar-translation method should be adopted by the degree college teachers again; college teachers should motivate them for ESL learning as far as practicable. A conducive 84 Volume 8 Issue 3
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English environment is essential. Language ability of the learner is the most important linguistic factor that influences ESL learning situation. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are four vital aspects of language acquisition. It is found that learners feel
neglected in English as compared to L1 and L3. Language
teachers should take care of them. Development of all the four basic skills of English is to be ensured. The Government should lend a helping hand to the colleges concerned for the opening of language lab, smart lab etc. Efficient and experienced language teachers should be appointed. College authorities and teaching staff should take care of learners collaborated for a conducive environment of ESL learning. Giving priority to mother- tongue and other tongues, at the cost of ESL learning cannot give good result. Special care should be taken for ESL learning. Frankly speaking, problems are found in learners, teachers, colleges and system etc. Sorting out problems and their remedies should be made accordingly. A collaborative effort of students, teachers, parents, college authorities and government is a must so as to promote a suitable ESL learning situation. Direct method of teaching should be preferred. Learners can get utmost knowledge through direct approach. Teachers should be the role-model in speech, accent, voice modulation, and syntactic, semantic, lexical items and all the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Maximum use of English will serve the purpose of an effective communication. Teacher centered-teaching should be replaced by learner-centered teaching. In other words, unipolar method of teaching should be replaced by bi-polar interactive or communicative method of teaching. Education should not be commercialized. Quality education should be encouraged. It is high time we bothered about the deterioration of education. Interaction with the learners and some of their friends reveals that the company the learners keep often regulates ESL learning situation. Interactive or communicative ESL learning can also be possible with friends. Thus, it is good if the learners organize debates, discussions, extempore speeches, mock interviews in English. Reading English books will enhance vocabulary, understanding ability or comprehension skill or reading skill of learners. Book reading habit a good way to enhance ESL learning.
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The syllabus designers, text book makers, curriculum framers should prepare books to cater to the requirement of the readers. Libraries should be equipped with good and useful reading materials. Teachers should motivate the learners for use of
English in official enquiry and
official correspondence as well, which will not only facilitate language learning but also will be useful in their future. Teachers should be inspirational. Sampling can be shown to them. If SMS sending takes place in English, the recipients will feel obliged to respond in the same language. SMS sending can provide a field for ESL learning. They can even get pleasure in e-mail sending and face book chatting. They can learn English informally. The prime responsibility of the teachers lays writing the words, phrases, expressions on the blackboard and allowing the pupils to take notes. It can help their writing skill grow. Class-notes preparation has a great impact on ESL learning. They can supervise the learners while writing. Writing in English can help them to develop their language skills. Parents and teachers should motivate them for writing in English. Teachers should give them scope through wall magazines and college magazine. Learners can improve their creativity from school and college level. A balance is to be maintained in ESL learning .MT should not interfere. Both MT and ESL can be learned side by side. There should be harmony between them. One should not be affected while learning other. So that ESL learning can be taken place properly. To sum up, MT Interference is a great threat to the promotion of ESL learning situation among undergraduate learners in Odisha. It should be checked .L1 Acquisition is completely different fromL2 or ESL learning situation. Both L1 and L2 acquisition and learning can‘t be done side by side. Proper care and attention must be paid by adopting direct method of teaching. There must be collaborated effort among the undergraduate learners, language teachers, school college and university authorities, parents guardians and the elites of the community for the growth and of L2 and for the creation of a conducive atmosphere of ESL learning in Odisha multilingual setting. Then time will come when MT interference will be checked by and by. Priority will be given to ESL and its learning through MT will come to an end. Each language is unique and beautiful because of its singular syntactical, semantic and phonetic traits and so is English. Tea is ‗taken‘ in English ‗drunk‘ in Odia and ‗eaten‘ in Bengali and Assamese. So use of MT may lead to substandard or nonstandard ESL. It‘s a myth prevailing among teachers and parents that use of Mt leads to better understanding; it 86 Volume 8 Issue 3
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rather creates learning handicaps in all LSWR skills. Recourse to Mt while teaching ESL creates learners who are not capable of using the English language comfortably even after learning it for several years. A human being learns the MT in a span of about 5 years. This is clear indication that with a listening of about two years and practice of about three years one can achieve a reasonable level of accuracy and fluency. Exclusive use of English in teaching and learning of ESL leads to effective communicative competence and the syntactical, semantic and phonetic characteristics of MT rarely intrudes into the target Language.
Works Cited:
A. Primary Sources
An exhaustive questionnaire eighty-one questions eliciting responses from the undergraduate learners of English in degree colleges in Odisha .
Interviews taken to the teachers teaching English at degree level in the state of Odisha.
B. Secondary Sources
Abercrombie, D. ―Problems and Principles: Studies in Teaching English as a Second Language, London: Longman‘s Green Publishers, 1957, print.
Agnihotri, R.K. and A.L. Khanna (eds). Second Language Acquisition: Socio-Linguistic Aspects of English in India. New Delhi: Sage, 1994. Print.
Ansary, Iqbal A. Indian English in Use of English: Verities of English and their Uses. Diss. CIEFL, Hyderabad, 1978. New Delhi: New Statesman Publishing Company, 1978. Web. <http://www.efluniversity.ac.in.>.
Dash, M. The Needs for English in Orissa. Diss. CIEFL, Hyderabad, 1977. Web. <.http://www.efluniversity.ac.in.>.
Ellis, Rod. The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford applied linguistics. 10th ed.New York: OUP, 2003.Print.
Fabri, Charles. History of the Art of Orissa. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1974. Print.
Kachru, B. Braj. The Indinization of English: The English Language in India. New Delhi: OUP, 1983. Print.
Krashen, S.D. ―Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Pergamon Press, 1981. Print. 87
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Krashen, S.D. and F. Terrel. The Naturl Approach: Languae Acquisition in Classroom, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983.
Krashen Stephen, D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. California: University of California, 2002. Print.
Panda, S.C. New Aspects of History of Orissa. Vol.III. Sambalpur: P.G. Dept of History, Sambalpur Univ., 1981. Print.
Samantray, Kalyani. Academic and Research Writing: A Course for Undergraduate and Research Students. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd., 2015. Print.
Vergese, C. Paul. ―Teaching English as a Second Language‖. New Delhi: Sterling, 1989. Print.
C. Webliography
http://www.dheodisha.gov.in
http://www.efluniversity.ac.in.
http://www.eltai.in.
http://www.englishforum.com
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English Language Learning Competencies in Primary Level Education in Bangladesh: A Comparison between Curriculum and Implementation Mohammed Rashel Uddin & Sharmin Hena Abstract: The study focuses on the English Language Learning (ELL) competencies that included into the primary curriculum and its implementation in the classroom setting. Data from real classroom setting has been collected to know the real situation. Primary curriculum has been observed to find out the ELL competencies. 12 teachers from 12 government primary schools have been interviewed to know the challenges they faced during their ELL activities. A convergent Parallel mixed method design was followed in the study where both qualitative and quantitative data are designed to triangulate the findings from different sources. Result shows a gap between curriculum competencies and implementation process. Most of the teachers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t know anything about the primary curriculum and its competencies and they feel that the allocated time for their classroom activities is not enough to perform properly to achieve the goals of quality primary education. Keywords: English Language Learning, Competencies, Primary Level Education, Curriculum Implementation
1. Introduction: According to Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) 2018, there are 1, 34,147 primary schools (25 types) in Bangladesh that providing education to 1, 73, 38,100 students (Girls: Boys- 50.75: 49:25) by a total number of 6, 85, 400 teachers (Female: Male- 62.25: 37.75). This huge sector of education is organized and managed by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education where DPE plays an important role to coordinate field level education with the ministry. The National Education Policy 2010 is the latest and widely accepted education policy in the history of Bangladesh and it describes curriculum as the heart of Education. The primary level Curriculum 2012 is a competency based curriculum where 29 competencies have been listed out and it is expected that all students who will complete the circle of primary education will achieve all those competencies. Competency number 9 in the primary curriculum is for English language learning that is aimed to acquire and use the basic skills of English as a foreign language. To achieve this competency there are 31 subject based 89 Volume 8 Issue 3
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terminal competencies specially design for English subject of the primary curriculum. These terminal competencies are divided into 181 classes-wise attainable competencies and 235 learning outcomes for the total circle of primary education. Assessment plays a vital role not only for ensuring quality teaching-learning, but also for measuring the achievement of competencies. Billah (2010) stated that assessment in an integral part of learning which determines learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s progress and also guide teachers for the betterment of course of action. But Ali (2011) found that, there is a big gap between the curriculum guidelines and that of actual assessment practices in the Bangladeshi education system. So, it is very important to know the situation of English Language Learning (ELL) in reality, especially the relationship between competencies of ELL and its practices in the real classroom settings. The main objective of the study is to examine the relationship between curriculum defined competencies and its practical implementation in English language learning at the primary level classroom of Bangladesh during the formative assessment. The result shows that, although it is expected to cover all three domains of learning (Cognitive, Psychomotor and Affective) but the national primary curriculum of Bangladesh only covers cognitive and psychomotor domains. Another finding of the study reveals that, teacher in the classroom only assesses cognitive domains of learning during the formative assessment and most of the time they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t focus on the psychomotor and affective domains. Very interestingly knowledge and comprehension sub-domain has been given priory and application got less focuses during the practical assessment system. Finally, it could be stated that the higher order skills of English language learning are not being practiced during the classroom activities in the primary level education in Bangladesh. 2. Research Questions: To achieve the core objectives of the research further task will be to find out the answer of the following research questions1. What is the relationship between curriculums defined ELL competencies and ELL Skills? i.
What are the curriculum defined competencies for achieving ELL skills?
ii.
How ELL competencies are related to the Language Learning Skills?
2. How curriculum defined ELL competencies are being assessed through formative assessment during classroom activities? I.
What are the main focuses of ELL competency assessment at primary level? 90
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To what extent t h e curriculum defined English competencies are important for assessment?
III.
What are the challenges faced by the teacher to assess competencies in ELL classrooms?
3. Literature Review: Curriculum is the blueprint of the total education system of a country. In Bangladesh, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) formulate and develop the curriculum for the primary level education. The Primary Level Curriculum 2012 is a competency based curriculum and it provides all necessary instructions to achieve the quality primary education. Although the idea of competency wasfirstintroducedinAmericainlate1960 in teacher education programs and was later adapted for other professional education and vocational training programs in the UK and Germany, but in Bangladesh competency-based education provision was introduced in 1992 with 53 competencies, which were modified into 50 competencies later in 2000 (Nath, Roy, Dutta & Hossain, 2007).The present curriculum contains three types of competencies- terminal competencies, class-wise attainable competencies and learning outcomes. 4. Methodology: A convergent Parallel mixed method design was followed in the study where both qualitative and quantitative data are designed to triangulate the findings from different sources (Decuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2017). Data were triangulated to get in-depth insight. For collecting both types of data, at first 12 (Twelve) schools were selected through criterion sampling based on two criteria: 1. The school should be the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) managed Government Primary School; because it covers more than half of the (56.37%) primary schools in Bangladesh (DPE, 2018) 2. The Grade-V English teacher of that school must receive training from English in action; because English in action provided professional support for English teacher most recently (Karim & Mohamed, 2019). Grade-V Classroom and teacher of that school were selected because this is the terminal level in those Primary schools. Data were collected through classroom observation, teacher interview, and document analysis method (Curriculum and items of the assessment). An observation schedule was followed to collect data from the real classroom setting and a semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the teachers. Data were analyzed quantitatively (frequency and percentage) and qualitatively (descriptively). Then those data were triangulated on the basis of relevant themes. 91 Volume 8 Issue 3
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5. Result and Discussion: 5.1 Curriculum Defined Competencies: The only competency (9th among 29 competencies) that has been listed in the primary curriculum for English Language Learning (ELL) is- to acquire and use the basic skills of English as a foreign language. The four skills that are essential for learning a language are listening, speaking, reading and writing. There are 31 terminal competencies found in the English part of primary curriculum that are divided into four skills of English language learning are listed belowTable 5.1: List of curriculum defined competencies based on 4 skills of ELL
ELL Skills
Terminal Competencies
Listening
1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3.
Speaking
Reading
Writing
to recognize basic English sound differences, stress and intonation. to understand simple commands, instructions and requests and carry them out. to understand simple questions and statements. to listen to, understand and enjoy simple rhymes, poems and stories. to use English sounds, stress and intonation appropriately. to exchange greetings and farewells and to make introductions. to ask and answer questions. to recite rhymes and poems. to say the names of the days of the week and the months, and to tell the time. to talk about simple things and actions. to give instructions, commands and to make requests. 8. to take part in conversations on topics related to studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; daily life. to read aloud texts with proper pronunciation, stress and intonation. to recognize and read both cardinal and ordinal numbers. to read the names of the days of the week, the months and the time. to read aloud poems with proper stress and intonation. to read silently with understanding paragraphs, stories and other text materials. to read instructions and carry them out. to recognize punctuation marks and read accordingly. to write non-cursive and cursive letters both capital and small. to write cardinal and ordinal numbers. to write words, phrases and sentences using non-cursive and cursive letters both capital and small. 4. to write figures for words and words for figures. 5. to use punctuation marks. 6. to use capital letters. 7. to write the names of the days of the week and the months, and to write the time. 8. to write words, phrases and sentences correctly. 9. to take dictation. 10. to write short and simple compositions. 11. to write simple personal letters. 12. to fill in simple forms.
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5.2 Domain and Sub-domain based analysis of curriculum defined competencies for ELL: It was found that all 31 competencies of ELL cover only cognitive and affective domain and their sub-domain. There were no competencies that cover the psychomotor domain of learning. The below table shows the detail distribution of competencies-
Table5.2:Domain and Sub-domain base analysis of curriculum defined competencies
Terminal
Cognitive
Affective
Knowledg Comprehensio Applicatio Competencies e Listening Speaking
n
Reading
Receiving Responding
n 3
1
Total
1 Phenomen to
1
4
4
2 phenomena
a
7
8 7
Writing
2
2
7
Total
3
13
11
27
1
1
12
3
31
4
Table 5.2 shows that Most of them (27outof31) have a relation to the cognitive domain which covers three sub-domains (knowledge, comprehension, and application). Very few of them (4outof 31) are related to the affective domain which covers both receiving phenomena and responding to phenomena. 5.3Terminal Competencies that are practiced during formative assessment: Three types of tools (Classroom observation schedule, Class test and Semester examination questionnaire) have been used to determine the competencies that have been practiced during formative assessment of the classroom activities. It is found that about 62% of the competencies are related to different sub-domain of under cognitive and affective domain, but rest 38% of competencies are not practiced by the teacher during the formative assessment in the ELL classroom.
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Table: 5.3-Terminal competencies assessed by the teacher during ELL classroom activities
Terminal
Cognitive Comprehension Application
Knowledge Listening Competencies Speaking Reading Writing
Phenomena to 1
2
Total
0
Affective Receiving Responding
1 4 1
3
8
9
3
1 phenomena
5 4 7
1
19
6
17
1
Total
2
The above table shows that majority competencies (17 out of 19) which relate to Comprehension and Application sub-domains under the Cognitive domain are being assessed through the formative assessment. Very few (only 2 out of 19) of the competencies have relation with affective domain. 5.4 Item analysis during formative assessment: Teacher used different items during their formative assessment in the ELL classroom activities, class test and semester examination. A later discussion will focus on the items that are used by the teacher during the ELL classes. 5.4.1: Classroom Assessment: A total of sixty-eight (68) items are used in classroom assessment. All of the items are cognitive domain based. The majority of the items (50 out of 68) are covering knowledge sub-domain, however, the competencies which have relation with these items did not cover knowledge sub-domain only. Figure: 5.1-Sub-domain base analysis of classroom assessments' item 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
50
13 5 Number of Competencies
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
5.4.2 Class Test: Only 2 teachers out of 12 take class test during their ELL classroom activities. It is found from their item analysis that they used a total number of 33 items to assess their students ELL skills. The total number of each class test was 50.
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Figure 5.2: Number of Items in the class test 0 2 6
25
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
About 75 % of the total items that used in the class test relate to comprehension sub-domain the percentage of items that relate to knowledge and application sub-domain is19% and 7% accordingly 5.4.3: Semester Examination: A total of 100 marks is allotted for each semester examination. A total of 60 items have been found. The distribution of items and marks has been displayed belowFigure: 5.3-Sub-domainbase analysis of semester examination’s items and mark distribution
No. of items 60 40 20 0
36
41
17
Marks 34
25
7
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
No. of items
36
17
7
Marks
41
34
25
Most of the items (36 out of 60) are related to knowledge sub-domain and marks also distributed more (41) for these items. Some of the items (17outof60) have the relationship with comprehension sub-domain and thirty –four (34) marks have been distributed for these items. Few items (7outof60) are related to the application and twenty-five marks are distributed for these items. Moreover it was found from teachers‘ interview that although they prefer application sub-domain than comprehension and knowledge sub-domain but they only use cognitive domain based items to assess student‘s knowledge. 95 Volume 8 Issue 3
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5.5 Major Challenges: It is found from the teachers‘ interview that 5 out of 12 teachers have their knowledge about the primary knowledge and the majority of them don‘t have any idea about it. The teacher has idea primary curriculum says that the source of knowledge is sub-cluster training and C in Ed program. The teacher without having any knowledge about the primary curriculum indicated that there is no curriculum available in their school and they never saw it. Although some teachers have the idea about primary curriculum, they don‘t know anything about the newly developed current curriculum. Teachers also face challenges during the formative assessment because of lack of knowledge about competencies. Teachers‘ also indicated the time limitation and language proficiency as their challenges during the assessment. 6. Conclusion: The primary level curriculum of Bangladesh covers the cognitive and affective domain, but there is no competency that is related to psychomotor domain. So, there is a gap between curriculum defined competencies and learning domains. Also teaches in the ELL classroom assesses only 19 out of 31 competencies during formative assessment (Classroom assessment, Class test and Semester Examination). So, there is another gap between curriculum defined competencies and real practices. Teachers are facing different challenges to overcome the difficulties. Therefore, it is necessary to establish strong relationship between curriculum competency and real classroom activities. Without having a clear idea about the curriculum and its competency teacher will not be able to perform their duties properly. Therefore, it is very essential to provide necessary training and access to information for the attainment of knowledge about the national curriculum and its directions. Gap between curriculum and real filed should be removed and strong relationship between policy and implementation must be established to achieve the ultimate goals of quality primary education in Bangladesh.
References:
Ali, M. (2011). Teachers’ and students’ perspectives on English language assessment in the secondary English Language Teaching (ELT) curriculum in Bangladesh (Master‘s Thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand). Retrieved from https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/6210/thesis_fulltext.pdf;sequence=1
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Billah, M. (11 January, 2010). Assessment is a Learning for Teachers Also. Retrieved 13September, 2012 from http://www.bdeduarticle.com/assessment
Decuir-Gunby, J. T. & Schutz, P. A. (2017). Developing a Mixed Methods Proposal- A Practical Guide for Beginning Researchers. SAGE Publications: Singapore.
Directorate of Primary and Mass Education (DPE), Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (2018). Annual primary School Census-2018. Monitoring & Evaluation Division, DPE, Mirpur-2, Dhaka, Bangladeshhttps://mopme.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/mopme.portal.gov.bd/pub lications/94bae6a1_e544_4411_ad5d_bcf98f350758/Final%20Draft%20Annual%20Prim ary%20School%20Census-2018.pdf
Karim, A., & Mohamed, A. R. (2019). Examining the Impact of an English in Action Training Program on Secondary-School English Teachers‘ Classroom Practice in Bangladesh. The Qualitative Report, 24 (3), 441-469. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol24/iss3/2
Nath, S. R., Roy, G., Dutta, N.C. & Hossain, A.(2007). Achievement of Primary Competencies: A Comparison between Government and BRAC Schools. BRAC Center. Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Author Profiles Ms Roshni Jaiswal is a law student in Symbiosis International Deemed University, Nagpur. During her high school days, literature interested her most of all the other subjects. The budding author started her journey with a blog three years back which encouraged her to keep writing and prospering in life. Dr Anita Konwar is an assistant Professor in the Department of English, Sonari College, Charaideo, Assam. She was awarded MPhil and PhD from Dibrugarh University, Assam. She has contributed research papers and articles in different academic and research journals at state, national and international level. Her research interests include Women Studies, Indian English Fiction, Commonwealth Literature & North-East India Studies. Dr Geetha George K is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at St Marys College, Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad, Kerala. She has a doctorate in English language and literature from MG University. Her areas of expertise include Postcolonial studies and Cultural Studies. She is passionate about literature and arts. Dr Gurudev Meher is an Assistant Professor at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha. His specializations include Postcolonial Criticism, Diaspora Studies and Translation. His current research project is on diasporic writing and translation of Odia fictions into English. Mallavarapu Jhansi is a teacher at the Government High School, Rajahmundry Dr M Suresh Kumar is Professor of English at Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur Dr. Purna Bahadur Kadel has been teaching as an associate professor at Central Department of Education, Tribhuvan University. Mr. Kamal Poudel who has been teaching in private and public institutional organizations for a couple of years is very enthusiastic and energetic researcher in the field of literature and ELT. Dr. Kadel and Mr. Poudel have conducted researches in the field of applied linguistics collaboratively. Both of them have analyzed and interpreted the novel Yogmaya through the critical discourse perspective. Dr Santosh Kumar Singh works as a Post Graduate Teacher at Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya (Campus) in Bhaktapur, Nepal. He specializes in Social Semiotics & Mithila Painting. Vyshnavi Devi A, works at Department of English, UPGC Subedari, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Telangana. Dr M Sridhar is an Associate Professor Of English at Gurunanak Engineering College (Technical Campus) Ibrahimpatnam. He has sound experience in teaching. Dr B Srinivasulu is an Assistant Professor of English at B V Raju Institute of Technology, Narsapur, Medak. He has published more than 10 articles in different ELT journals. He has 15 years of experience in teaching English and 5 years experience in research. Dr Rajendra Rana has been teaching English in the P.G Department of English Government College (Autonomous) Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi, Odisha as a guest lecturer since 2014. As a 98 Volume 8 Issue 3
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research scholar many scholarly articles go to his credit. He is an avid reader and an experienced teacher of English literature and language. Mohammed Rashel Uddin is currently doing his PhD in Hiroshima University, Japan. Earlier he has annexed his Master of International Cooperation Studies from the same institution. Sharmin Hena is a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s student of Hiroshima University, Japan. She is working as an Instructor (General) under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education in Bangladesh.
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