Vachanas As Caste Critiques Orientalist Expression of Native
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Vachanas as Caste Critiques Orientalist Expression of Native Experience Ph.D. thesis submitted to MANIPAL UNIVERSITY Dunkin Jalki CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURE & SOCIETY (Affiliated to Manipal University) BANGALORE—560061 September 2009 Bangalore 29 September 2009 Declaration I, Dunkin Jalki, do hereby declare that this thesis entitled Vachanas as Caste Cri- tiques: Orientalist Expression of Native Experience contains original research work done by me in fulfilment of the requirements for my Ph.D. degree in Cultural Studies from the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, and that this report has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma in this or any other institution. This work has not been sent anywhere for publication or presentation purpose. Dunkin Jalki Bangalore 29 September 2009 Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (Affiliated to Manipal University) 29th Main, Poornaprajna HBCS Layout, Uttarahalli Bangalore 560061 Certificate Certified that this thesis entitled Vachanas as Caste Critiques: Orientalist Expres- sion of Native Experience is a record of bonafide study and research carried out by Mr. Dunkin Jalki under my supervision and guidance. The report has not been submit- ted by him for any award of degree or diploma in this or in any other university. Dr. Vivek Dhareshwar (Supervisor) l Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana (Member, Ph.D. Committee) Dr. Sitharamam Kakarala \ (Director) in Acknowledgements My journey as a PhD student has been a prolonged one: almost 10 years of wandering and two doctoral researches. I left the first one unfinished and the second one has bore this dissertation. Here I’m writing the “Acknowledgments” wondering how I can even say ‘thanks’ to all of them who have walked along with me, taught me to walk, given me strength, tolerated my nonsense… Technically, the period of four years that I spent doing my first-incomplete PhD in EFLU (formerly CIEFL), Hyderabad, is a loss of four years. But the lessons that I learnt are worth the years I lost. Many people helped me in all aspects of an eventful life in Hyderabad: from my first acquaintance with spoken English, table tennis, ‘caste politics’ to those daily doses of lectures in feminism, studies in homo- sexuality, cinema studies…! Thanks to all my teachers and friends over there: Mahasweta Sengupta (my doctoral supervisor of the first and unfinished PhD), Susie Tharu, Satish Poduval, Satya Narayana, Jayasrinivasa Rao, Jai Kumar and Balasubra- manian. A special thanks to D. Venkat Rao. Had I found his support and friendship while I was in Hyderabad itself, probably I wouldn’t have come to Bangalore. Life in Bangalore, however, changed my perceptions about life, people and of course research itself. I owe a significant personal and intellectual debt to three per- sons who taught me what research is and the excitement of research: Vivek Dharesh- war, my doctoral supervisor, for introducing me to the great body of knowledge – the Vachanas; for helping me to find my Allama, Sharifa, Ramana; for tolerating my aca- demic shortcomings; and for teaching me to climb the shoulders of some of the great- est thinkers and view the world from there. Some of the fondest memories of my re- search career are the saddest moments when he used to send my drafts back the ump- teenth time with lengthy comments and make me feel as if I have just begun my PhD. Narahari Rao for those Socratic walks and Education Workshops that laid the early foundations. And Balu (S.N. Balagangadhara) for his concept maps, classes, long per- sonal discussions, those long email-conversations, which have gone on to shape both my research and life. iv Many thanks to all my teachers at CSCS: Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Tejaswini Niranjana, Mrinalini Sebastian, S.V. Srinivas and Sitaramam Kakarala. A special thanks to my second reader, Tejaswini Niranjana. Her comments and suggestions have not only sharpened the arguments but have also made them more presentable. Without her kind suggestions and corrections this dissertations would have been much more flawed and weaker. Thanks also to Maheshwari, Pushpa, Nagesh, Padma, Pradeep, Bharathi, Sujaya and especially Nagaraj, for their generous helps in adminis- trative and technical matters. I cannot forget the long walks with Ashok Dhareshwar that used to end up in a coffee shop usually. I’m grateful to him for bearing the expenses of my accommoda- tion in Bangalore for over a year and, more importantly, for making time to read my dissertation even before I could ask him. Thanks to M.G. Hegde for helping me in my visits to libraries at Karnataka University and Karnataka Lingayat Education campus (Belgaum). He has always been more enthusiastic about my work than I have. Thanks to Indira Chowdhury for those useful discussions on some or other aspect of my re- search over her wonderful meals. My stay (or rather my tenure as the Research Coordinator) at the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures (CSLC) provided me with the time I needed to complete this work. The warmth of human relationship that I found here in my younger friends – Santhosh, Kavitha, Mahesh, Praveen, Shankarappa, Nagashilpa and Vani – have gone on to improve the quality of my work. I would like to thank particularly Rajaram Hegde and J. Sadananda for making my stay in CSLC smooth, cherishing and useful, not just with their affection and encouragement but also by provoking me to ponder some of the key issues discussed in the dissertation. Thanks also to all my friends, for those cherishing moments that added colours to the otherwise straining research life: Sujith, Rajeev, Sahana, Teena, Bitasta, Lak- shmi Arya, Shanmukha, Indudhara. A special thanks to Meera Moorkoth and Ambika for their generosity and friendship. I’ve benefited enormously from the company of friends at Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Ghent, Belgium): Ja- kob, Thomas, Sarah, Raf, Nele, Marianne, Esther and Dharmesh. A special word of mention must be made of my co-researchers, Sufiya Pathan, Polly and Meera Ashar. They have been a great source of feedback and support over the years. Discussions with them have helped besides their refreshing and cherishing company. A special thanks to Sufiya Pathan for her magnanimous help in the last few v months before the submission. She has corrected and re-re-re-corrected this disserta- tion incessantly. I am deeply grateful for her efforts, without which this dissertation would have looked rather dull. Special thanks are due to Parvati Sharma, Prajna Suresh and David Bond for reading the thesis (or some of its parts) in its various stages and providing useful comments and corrections. Many thanks to Sushumna for various reasons: for walking along… all along, for teaching me that loving to learn is learning to love. Slow as I am in these matters, I took all these years just to understand what she meant. The present form of this disser- tation owes much to her affection, meticulous corrections of drafts of my chapters and useful suggestions over the years. Finally, my parents and sisters. I am grateful to all of them for many things: for not letting me to feel even for a moment that I, as an eldest (and the only) male child at home, was supposed to bear many conventional responsibilities. They were most happy to let me wander around without earning and without fulfilling my famil- ial responsibilities, and, on top of everything, to often go around irradiating them with my philosophising sermons! More importantly, they have let me do my research. It is to their enduring affection and care that this dissertation is dedicated. ☺ Dunkin Jalki <[email protected]> vi Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... iv Introduction: Colonialism and its Impact on Indian Traditions.............................1 I. Studies in Colonialism............................................................................................3 II. Vachana Interpretations and the Colonial Impact...............................................18 III. Structure of the Dissertation ..............................................................................23 Chapter 1: The Vachanas as Caste Critique ...........................................................28 I. Logical Inconsistencies in Vachana Theories ......................................................38 II. Statistical Appraisal of Vachana Theories ..........................................................45 III. Casteism and Brahmans.....................................................................................63 IV. Three Readings of the Vachanas .......................................................................77 Chapter 2: A Story and an Attitude.........................................................................91 I. Two Components of Modern Vachana Scholarship.............................................93 II. Reading a Vachana as a Poem and as a Symbol ...............................................106 Chapter 3: The Lingayats and their Tradition through History.........................125 I. On European Views of the Lingayats and Lingayat-British Relations ..............126 II. From Travelogues to Research Articles............................................................132 III. Historical Beginnings of Modern Lingayat Scholarship .................................154 Chapter 4: The Lingayats and their Tradition in the Modern Period................175 I. Discontents of the Present