South Asia News

Center for South Asian Studies University of Hawai‘i Spring 2004

Cowpath Crossings: Of Vitamins & Veils: Stories of Immigrant Indian An Interview with Dr. Doctorsin Muncie Maneesha Lal September 2003. by Himanee Gupta “Faizabad, that part of n March 19, Dept. of Political Science U.P. was quite far removed as part of its from the world.” O et ’ s start with a “his- “Then one day my father ye a r -round collo- Ltorical fact”: “People came in and said, ‘You quia series, the stopped being human in know that vice principal’s Center for South 1913. That was the year son. He got a scholarship for Asian Studies Henry Ford put his cars on 36,000 rupees–to go to joined the rollers and made his work- Am e r i c a . ’ That was the pin- Departments of ers adopt the speed of the nacle of achievement, going Ethnic Studies, assembly line. At first, abroad. …” Hi s t o r y , and workers rebelled. They quit What does such a story tell Wom e n ’ s Studies in droves, unable to accus- us? For starters, we see, in in presenting Dr. tom their bodies to the new Sa l e e m ’ s life in a relatively Maneesha Lal. pace of the age. Since then, pastoral part of , an Her talk — “"Of h o w e v e r, the adaptation imagined abroad: a cosmo- has been passed down: politan, sophisticated place Vitamins and we’ve all inherited it to where one finds one’s self Veils: Wom e n some degree, so that we and succeeds. America was Ph y s i c i a n s , plug right into joysticks where, as Abraham Ver gh e s e Tra n s n a t i o n a l and remotes, to repetitive tells it, doctors could “train Me d i c a l Dr. Maneesha Lal motions of a hundred in a decent, ten-story hospi- Research, and the ki n d s . ” 1 tal, where the lifts are actual- Framing of That quote, from Jeffr e y ly working”; “pass board- Osteomalacia in Late Colonial India” — analyzed how Eu g e n i d e s ’ Mi d d l e s e x , certification exams by one’s discourses about the veiling and seclusion of Indian speaks to an inter-crossing of own merit and not through women and debates about vitamin deficiency diseases immigrants and industrial- pull or bribes”; “practice real interacted to shape the identity of osteomalacia as a ization in the early twentieth medicine, drive a big car on ce n t u r y . decent roads, and eventually female malady in late colonial India. Beginning with a Now, let’s flash forward live in the Ansel Adams sec- discussion of the medical to the early twenty-first tion of New Mexico and research on osteomalacia INSIDE century. never come back to this conducted by British Director’s Message...2 2 “America?” wretched town …” women physicians in CSAS Colloquia...... 3 “ We lived in a very When Saleem left India the1920s, Dr. Lal went Photo Exhibit...... 4 remote part of India, you to seek out that imagined on to trace the disease's Letter from India....8 know,” recalls Saleem, a abroad, he was traversing a heightened visibility and Spring Courses...... 9 50-year-old plastic surgeon well-worn path: 25,000 evolution through the Spring Symposium....10 in Muncie, Indiana, in Faculty News...... 12 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 6 Director’s Note South Asia News 2 3 Spring 2004 Events Winning Against All Odds by Monica Ghosh CSAS Colloquia Series he Detroit Pistons and Sonia Gandhi—they ates with his Master's in Library and Information Texemplify the spirit that inspires the work of Sciences. As the Coordinator, he managed all the ebashish Bhattacharya is widely considered to the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the day-to-day activities of the Center, including sched- Dbe one of the world’s greatest living guitarists. Spring 2004 University of Hawai‘i: Winning against all odds. uling and publicizing the Colloquium Series. He A master of the extremely challenging North Indian Colloquim presentations As a Detroiter who now lives in Honolulu, I designed an excellent poster for the Spring raga, Debashish further stands out for his choice of remain loyal to my “hometown” teams. T h e Symposium, and has updated the Center's web- instrument—a direct descendant of the Hawaiian 2/12/04 Pistons took their motto “Hard pages, making new materials available steel guitar. Monica Ghosh (UH-Manoa) work pays off” and choreo- online and including PDF versions of First introduced to Calcutta by Hawai‘i-born What's Eaten You?: Transposing graphed the perfect performance the newsletter. Stu is both a friend and a musician Tau Moe in the 1940s, the Hawaiian steel Colonial Anxieties on Tigers against all the LA L a k e r s ’ m o v e s . colleague—working with him has been Today the Pistons are the NBA one of the best experiences I could ever 2/26/04 Champions. Under the leadership have. Congratulations to Stu and best Debashish & Subashish Bhattacharya of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress wishes for success in his career! Steel Guitar Comes Home: From Party won the election in India— In my work as the Director I am eter- Hawaii to India and Back the “largest democracy in the nally grateful for the enthusiasm, ener- world”—thereby displacing the gy, and vitality of the members of the conservative BJP g o v e r n m e n t , Executive Committee, who all take which Salman Rushdie rightly such pride in developing and support- called “extremists and ideo- ing the content of South Asian Studies logues.” Through the commit- Monica Ghosh programs at this University. This year Subashish and Debashish Bhattacharya ment and participation of the (standing) with we've had an excellent Colloquium a ffiliate faculty (some of whom Kamla Mankekar Series, which included visitors from serve on the Executive other universities (Maneesha Lal— has since been adopted by many Indian musicians. Committee), the students, and friends of CSAS, Trinity College); and our own faculty (Monisha But beyond his amazing musical abilities, the Center continues to strengthen support and Dasgupta —Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies). Debashish stands out in the Hindustani slide guitar 3/15/04 develop interest in South Asian Studies generally, The Spring Symposium this year, "Neoliberalism in community for the fact that he plays on several Dr. Lee Siegel (UH-Manoa) and expand those interests uniquely to connections South Asia: Culture, Gender and Labor," was the instruments of his own design, including the 22- Indra’s Net: A Performative with Hawai‘i and the Pacific. brainchild of S. Charusheela (Women's Studies), stringed Dev Veena. Incorporating elements of the Presentation On Indian Magic After two years as the Director, my work in this organized and arranged by a small planning com- veena, sarod, sitar and Arabian kannur, the Dev position draws to a close. This is a fine time for mittee, including Monisha Dasgupta, Kazi Ashraf, Veena allows an emotional range far beyond that of 3/19/04 me to move on and out, the Pistons and Sonia are and Stu Dawrs, and funded by the generosity of the a standard six-string Hawaiian steel. Dr. Maneesha Lal (Trinity College) winners, and I’ve been promoted at the library. S. G.J. and Ellen Watumull Foundation, and the Along with his brother Subashish (himself an Of Vitamins and Veils: Women S h a n k a r, Associate Professor in the English Sidney Stern Memorial Trust. acclaimed tabla master), Debashish came to the Physicians, Transnational Department, was unanimously approved by the Over the last two years, I have had the pleasure University of Hawai‘i in February as an Asian Medical Research, and the members of the Executive Committee as the of meeting and hosting some of the most dynamic Studies Freeman Fund Artist In Residence. Framing of Osteomalacia in incoming Director of the Center. Shankar has thinkers in South Asian Studies, including Gayatri (Additional support was provided by Tradex, the Late Colonial India served on the Executive Committee and with his Spivak, Keya Ganguly, Akhil Gupta, Satya National Organization for Traditional Music expertise the Center will continue to engage in Mohanty, and Dina Siddiqi. At the Library, I Exchange.) While here, the Bhattacharya brothers 4/02/04 critical discussions on issues relating to South A s i a believe my work as the South Asia Librarian has participated in a number of public events, including Dr. Monisha Das Gupta (UH-Manoa) and South Asian Studies. been greatly enriched by my experience as the two concerts, several seminars and a CSAS brown Owning Our Lives: South Asian Another person who will be moving on is Stu Director of CSAS. bag presentation titled Steel Guitar Comes Home: Immigrant Women, Law, and Dawrs, the Coordinator for the Center. Stu gradu- Aloha and best wishes for the summer. From Hawai‘i to India and Back. Rights Claims Exhibit South Asia News 4 5 Spring 2004 atthew S. Lopresti is currently a doctoral Mcandidate in the Department of Philosophy Photo Journals of India at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. This past year has seen him travel from Honolulu to London, all across India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Cambodia. Awarded a J. Watumull Foundation Scholarship nitially presented as part of the Center For ISouth Asian Studies’ Spring Symposium, for study in India in 2003, he traveled to Pune, “Photo Journals of India: Two Students' “Agra Sky”, Taj Mahal Maharashtra, where he lived with a host family Perspectives” went on to inhabit two floors of Agra, Uttar Pradash and studied as a language fellow in the American Photo: M. Lopresti Hamilton Library during the months of May Institute of Indian Studies' advanced Sanskrit summer language program. August took him and June. A collection of photographs taken by two from to Honolulu to London and back to graduate students, Matthew Lopresti and Delhi again. He finally unpacked his suitcases in Nicole Marsh, “Photo Journals” documented Bihar, where he was a Lecturer of Buddhist two separate travels through India. There were Philosophy and Field Research Advisor for Outside what was “Park Restaurant” American university students studying abroad three parts to the exhibit; One located on the (1954-1962) before Chinese through the Antioch Buddhist Studies program. first floor of Hamilton Library and two located Internment, Darjeeling on the fourth floor, in the foyer and reference He was in India for seven months and spent areas of the Hamilton Library Asia Collection. another five weeks exploring Southeast Asia. He “Cave #1”, Ajanta Caves has been interested in photography ever since Fardapur, Maharashtra traveling to Paris in 1999. Photo: M. Lopresti

n February, 2001, I joined my mother and “Iten other family members in India for a Crossings, cont. from Page 1 “The medical system in England hood, she had imagined an England family reunion, a wedding, and a journey into Indian medical doctors — along with was like a pyramid. If that many peo- of “fine clothes, nice dishes, books, the past. We stayed in Kolkata (Calcutta) for 20,000 scientists and 40,000 engi- ple started at the bottom, only one per- fashions.” Actually living in England nearly a week before heading by train to neers — had set up shop in America son could reach the top level. The rest came with the sad realization that Darjeeling. between 1966 and 1977, the year that had to go back to their countries. “abroad” was not how she had pic- “So we were thinking, ‘What shall tured it. But returning “home” was Growing up, I heard many stories of preferential immigration status for physicians ceased.3 we do? Once you’re done with your out of question. The only choice left Darjeeling's incomparable beauty, but also of the Mehendi Ceremony, day two of the “America?” says Malati, age 47, residency, that’s it.’ was to follow the path her husband’s four-day Punjabi Wedding, Kolkata painful events of my family's forced removal who grew up in Kanpur, not far from “And then one day Ravi hears two sisters already had taken. and internment following the China-India border Saleem’s Faizabad. from his sister in Detroit that there Onward to Am e r i c a . war of 1962. They were among the roughly “When I was little, I would read all are residencies available at Henry 2,500 Chinese-Indians interned after this two- my mom’s British magazines and Ford hospital. “So he goes there and * * * * * month conflict. s t u ff,” recalls Malati in October gets interviewed, and gets selected. In this paper, I talk story. I explore While we were in Darjeeling, we met several 2003. “So all I ever thought was He comes back to Scarborough, and a couple of stories, stories of two people who recognized my grandfather, mother ‘Hah, I need to grow up and go live says, ‘hey, we’re going to the U.S.’” immigrants who once resided within Henry Ford hospital in Detroit. Th e a couple hundred miles of each other and uncle. This was truly an amazing experi- in England.’” Malati and her husband, Ravi, left assembly line churns out another and found that their paths crossed as ence, and tears were shed on both sides as they India in 1984 so Ravi could take up immigrant take on the A m e r i c a n they came to be rooted in a town in began to fill the missing gaps. a residency at a hospital in Dream, a dream whose components, the Midwest. Talk story, a conversa- My photos are only a tiny reflection of this Scarborough, England. Four years some would argue, were assembled tional way of speaking popular in by Fordist culture itself.4 But in Hawai‘i, offers a mode to show how journey and place.” Boys at school, Tibetan Refugees l a t e r, their second son was born, —Nicole Marsh, April, 2004 Self-Help Centre, Darjeeling and opportunities for physicians, Ma l a t i ’ s story, a sub-theme surfaces: notions of neoliberalism, transnation- particularly foreign physicians, had loneliness, a feeling of an almost al capital, and global labor flows get forced displacement. From child- dried up. Continued on Page 13 South Asia News 6 7 Spring 2004

Maneesha Lal, continued from page 1 Monisha Das Gupta (MDG): I was very interest- been done on the history of tropical medicine, which is and I just got fascinated with culture and its effect 1930s and 1940s, paying particular attention to shift- ed in your comment that this was a new field in a growing field: People who have been historians in on individuals and how societies were organized. ing problems of diagnosis, etiology, and treatment. terms of South Asian history. Who are the other peo- medicine have been interested in the development of Especially because of my bi-cultural background: It She also argued that osteomalacia—a disease charac- ple working in it? tropical medicine and how the establishment of entities was a way of thinking about those issues in a way terized by a softening of the bones — provides a ML : There are people like David Ar n o l d — h e ’ s pub- like the London School of Hygiene and Tro p i c a l I’d never thought of them before. unique lens through which to examine the paradoxical lished a book called Colonizing The Body; there’s also Medicine are linked to imperial concerns. At the time, I didn’t think I’d really focus on role occupied by British women in the racially strati- Mark Harrison, who wrote Public Health in British MG: And actually here in Hawai‘i, tropical medi- India. I took some courses in anthropology and fied and gender segregated Indian medical profession, India. There’ve been people who’ve published articles cine is the big interest... found I was more interested in those issues. I a role that yet gave them access to national and on particular aspects of women and midwifery: MDG: I was thinking that people working in worked in a bio-chemistry lab for a while and found transnational networks of medical research. In addi- Geraldine Forbes, a well-known women’s historian, Hawaiian and Pacific Studies here might have found that I really didn’t like that, and then I took a won- tion, Dr. Lal showed how—at a time when seclusion edited The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen, which was your talk interesting because of derful class taught by Jean was increasingly contested in imperial, translated by Tapan Raychaudhuri. the missionary presence and the Comaroff called “Medicine and nationalist, and feminist discourse and It’s a fascinating memoir of a colonial connections. … C u l t u r e ” — s h e ’s a medical practice—osteomalacia illustrates the Bengali woman who was a widow.. . MG: Yes, there is the connec- “Gender hasn’t anthropologist as well. I worked rising influence of Western medical Medical education was stratified in tion between Hawai‘i and the on anorexia nervosa in the U.S., evidence as Indian feminists seized India—there were different levels U.S., while in places like Fiji, really been a on the kinds of metaphors and such evidence to bolster their own of degrees available. The five-year there is the link with South Asia themes that were present in the demandsfor purdah's reform. was the MBBS, but there were peo- during this period of heavy central theme in way it was represented in popular Dr . Lal received her Ph.D. in History ple that were also trained as hospital movement among indentured magazines like Glamour and and Sociology of Science at the assistants. So Haimabati Sen was laborers, and all of this going the history of People. It was just fascinating the University of Pennsylvania, and at the trained at somewhere near the hos- back to Britain. way they presented the patient time of her presentation was a visiting pital assistant level, and she worked ML: There have been studies medicine that’s before and after—this was in professor at Trinity College. She has at Lady Dufferin hospital—one of these hospitals that published several articles and book chapters on medi- by people like Ralph 1985, just when anorexia was was set up under the Dufferin Fund—but she faced a been done.” cine in colonial India and is currently working on her Schlomowitz and Lance Brennan, becoming really prominent. That book manuscript, Pu r dah and Pathology: Wom e n lot of discrimination. We find that many of these on diseases that accompanied made me think ‘maybe I want to Physicians in Colonial India. The following conversa- women were entering into the public sphere at a time some of the indentured laborers. I teach a course do something different,’ so I switched to that in the tion took place immediately after her talk, and includ- when that was still relatively rare. Even in women’s called “Disease, Medicine and Empire,” but there we end of my junior year; then I wrote my B.A. honors ed CSAS Director Monica Ghosh and Dr. Monisha hospitals, initially under the Dufferin Fund patients start from the Columbian exchange, looking at the thesis on the naming of anorexia in late Victorian Das Gupta, associate professor of Ethnic Studies and had to be inspected by male civil surgeons, which ef fects of 1492, how the old and new worlds came Britain. Women's Studies at the University of Hawai‘i. caused a lot of problems because women physicians to g e t h e r , and the effects of smallpox, particularly on Again, there wasn’t a South Asia focus, but after Monica Ghosh (MG): Your talk was very inter- would have promised their purda patients that purda eliminating the indigenous population. And then we college, I went to India for a year. It was from there esting, and I think you’re coming from a very dif- would be followed, and then sometimes men would look at some of the diseases associated with the slave that I thought I would go back to graduate school to ferent perspective—it seems the potential is there come on the wards and they often weren’t as sensitive trade, and we look at the development of tropical combine history of medicine, science, South Asia, for a great deal of other work on the topic, too. to those requirements. So women physicians negotiat- medicine as a specialty—the setting up of these insti- women and gender—[laughs] that’s what I wrote in Maneesha Lal (ML): There are some students in ed that issue quite often. tutions, medical missionaries, the role of women my applications. graduate school who are getting interested in this, and So there are articles here and there, but the few books physicians … but I haven’t focused on Hawai‘i actu- Much of the work on the history of medicine in India there are some people working on it, but the challenge and edited collections like David Ar n o l d ’ s and Mark al l y . has been done by anthropologists: People like Charles I think is to have a history of medicine perspective, as Ha r r i s o n ’ s have really focused on general kinds of top- MG: How did you develop your specialization? Leslie and then Paul Brass wrote important articles on well as women’s history, women and gender, and ics—they’ve been the first forays into this question. ML: I went to University of Chicago as an under- Ayurveda. So there have been those works that have social and cultural history of South Asia. Trying to David Ar n o l d ’ s book has chapters on smallpox and graduate, where I started out as a Chemistry major. been very useful. Charles Leslie has done some very integrate those is not so easy; and then also looking at plague and cholera—some of which he published as I really liked chemistry, but I was also very interesting work on how Ayurvedic medicine—how, as wh a t ’ s happening in Britain. … articles—and it talks some about the women’s medical intrigued by a course I had called “Self, Culture and it adapted to the Western medical model, there were MG: Yes, whatever you do raises all these ques- movement but very briefly, just a few pages. Gender Society.” It was just amazing: We were reading certain groups that tried to keep it very pure and resis- tions that are almost impossible for a single project ha s n ’ t really been a central theme in the history of Marx, Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams—keep in ted any kind of adaptation or integration with western to take on, but they open up that door. medicine that’s been done—not even in the work that’s mind this is as freshmen—we read most of The Gift, medicine, while others were more promoting a kind of

Continued on Page 13 Letter From India South Asia News 8 9 Spring 2004 Hindustan Kaise Hai? resemblances. This generic com- from the music and the clothing and awash in the ridiculous. In by Isaac Souweine monality gives license for the to the regional identities and reli- disgust, you insist that you don’t cautious employment of cate- gious ideologies are over-d e t e r - belong here, that your high-mind- industan kaise hai (How is frame of reference, and with it a adrift, either speechless or else gories like religion and politics mined and culturally embedded ed ideals about inter- c u l t u r a l HIndia)? The question is part of yourself, pulsates in phe- capable of speaking only rudi- and economic development, in ways that restrict your compre- exchange or global consciousness deceptively simple, the answers nomenal exchange. mentary sentences of consterna- or ganizing principles that help hension. Thus, you come to are nothing but arid delusions. predictably flaccid, propped up by Of course, things do settle tion: “Ye kya hai” (what is this)?; prevent sensory overload. Wh a t ’ s appreciate the sounds of the And yet somehow it is in these the interpretive crutch of cliché. down after a while; with experi- “Maim kaun hum” (who am I)? more, globalization is daily veena but never figure out when very moments of darkness that a ence comes familiarity and even That which troubles and eludes reducing the magnitude of cultur- to raise your hand in praise; you certain sense of honesty and a modicum of comfort. You get you is deeply entwined with the al difference by increasing global master the grammar of Hindi but humility arise to recharge and used to things: the pressing heat, richness of human culture in all of tr a f fic in all manner of ideas and never get any of the jokes. reinvigorate you. Purged of ebul- the stark landscape, the chaotic its massive facticity. You have images; India for a westerner is Perplexity of the sort you find lient romanticism but holding fast roadways, the ubiquitous tem- come to understand and engage not quite the absurdly fantastic here can be productive, cathartic, to a considered idealism, you find ples. But if this process of accul- with India but the task overwhelms and utterly removed outpost it spiritually enriching; it can also the strength to persevere in an turation is reassuring, it also por- you, for this ‘India’ that you covet once was. But in the end, diffe r - be frustrating, disconcerting, enterprise whose very elusiveness tends more substantial chal- spans dizzying landscapes of ence still rules the day, a fact that oppressive. At its best, such per- is perhaps its greatest virtue. lenges ahead; beyond mere sur- meaning, from the tangible physi- turns you into a stranger who is plexity generates breakthroughs vival lie the pitfalls of compre- cality of climate to the vast sweep strangely in between, too of insight, at its worse, sheer Isaac Souweine’s travel abroad hension, interaction, meaning. If of human activity: religion and involved to simply let go of the paralysis. But perhaps these two was funded in part by a J. anything, adaptation exacerbates politics and warfare and agricul- need to understand, too removed poles are not as dissimilar as they Watumull Scholarship for the your coming difficulties; by ture and art and architecture and so to be capable of mustering satis- first appear. India leaves you del- Study of India, which he was Holi in front of the reducing superficial difference it on. Hundreds of millions of people Jagdish Mandir in factory explanations. Everything uged by the incomprehensible awarded in Spring 2003. Udaipur, Rajasthan. highlights fundamental disconti- implicated in vast networks of cul- nuity: between you and this tural practice constructed upon on place; between you and different layers of complex historical fact: Fall 2004 Courses Comforting abstractions have been visions of yourself; between you ES 360 Immigration to Hawaii TR 12:00-1:15 M. Das Gupta and the world. exchanged for oppressively con- ES 380 Field work in Ethnic Studies TBA M. Das Gupta crete facts, and a corresponding You came toting clichés, styl- ES 418 Women and Work W 1:30-4:00 M. Das Gupta ized portraits and catch phrases, loss for words. Not that your pre- HNDI 101 Elementary Hindi MWF 8:30-9:55 TBA but now you know better, know conceptions simply vanish upon HNDI 201 Intermediate Hindi MWF 3:00 - 5:30 TBA arrival; without them there could something of the feel or taste or IP 373 Vedic Hindu Mythology MW 2:30-3:55 R. Sharma sound behind the glib phrase or be no constructing of yourself and SNSK 181 Introduction to Sanskrit TR 9:00-10:15 R. Sharma your environment, no being “you telling story. Your clichés begin to SNSK 281 Intermediate Sanskrit TR 11:00 - 12:15 R. Sharma in India.” But whereas before these sound rough and passé; their The Holi is set aflame. SNSK 381 Third-Level Sanskrit MW 10:30-11:55 R. Sharma smug tone catches in your throat categories and concepts played in PHIL 750 Seminar in Indian Philosophy M 12:45-3:15 A. Chakrabarti an autonomous world of thought, and mars the appearance of your POLS 339 Feminist Theory MWF 10:30-11:20 S, Charusheela printed page. Easy words reveal the collective effect is bewildering. now they are kept busy and breath- REL 662B Indian Religions W 12:30-3:00 R. Lamb less assembling and integrating a their brute intentions of synopsis Moreover, that which appears WS 151 Intro to Women’s Studies TR 9:00-10:15 M. Das Gupta cum possession; you are remind- from a distance as a coherent rush of sensory input: sights and WS 361 Women and Intl Econ Developmnt MWF 9:30-10:20 S. Charusheela ed forcefully about the urg e whole is actually riven with fault- smells and sounds and everywhere WS 418 Women and Work W 1:30-4:00 M. Das Gupta a visual field punctuated by bright toward ownership that lies deep lines and points of contestation; WS 439 Feminist Theory MWF 10:30-11:20 S. Charusheela within the quest for knowledge. In what you can’t comprehend turns and shocking difference, from the ASAN 202 Intr Asian Studies: S/SE Asia MWF 12:30-1:20 B. Andaya unflinching stares of the people to moments of seeming clarity, you out to not even exist. ASAN 393 Field Study: South Asia TBA R. Trimillos repudiate your accumulated stock Humanity is a kind of enor- the enticements of the exuberant ASAN 624 Culture and Colonialism T 3:00-5:30 M. Sharma of facile understandings, but this mous family, such that human signage. Expanding, combining, APDM 418 Costumes/Cultures of S & SE Asia TR 10:30-11:45 TBA rearranging, solidifying: your only leaves you feeling alone and cultural worlds bear deep family Spring Symposium South Asia News 10 11 Spring 2004 Maneesha Lal Cont. from Page 7 these? THURSDAY, 4/15: syncretic vision, saying they M L : There were paper Neoliberalism in South Asia: 9-10:30 a.m.: KEYNOTE ADDRESS should be teaching western copies in the library of the Dina Siddiqi (Columbia University) medicine in some of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Culture, Gender and Labor 10:45-12:15: PANEL #1 Ayurvedic medical schools. now there are many of them Chair: And of course Ayurvedic revi- at the Wellcome Institute, Kazi Ashraf (UH-Manoa) talization adopted a lot of history, including Akhil Gupta (Stanford and then the National Library Presenters: institutional forms of western University), Dina Siddiqi (Columbia University), of Medicine in Delhi also has Anthony D'Costa (U n i v . of Was h i n g t o n ) : medicine. Paula Chakravartty (U-MASS Amherst), Purnima "Transitioning to a New Regime of Capitalist But some of that work real- several copies. The archival Mankekar (Stanford University), and a host of Regulation: The Interplay of State, Labor, and ly didn’t put these individuals record is very scattered: I’ve others. A further, previously unanticipated benefit Capital in West Bengal" and things into careful histor- been working on three conti- of the Symposium is the fact that, following his Purnima Mankekar: (Stanford): ical context—they didn’t nents, using medical mis- visit in April, Akhil Gupta has expressed interest "Love in the Era of Economic Liberalization" necessarily rely on historical sionary archives, medical in serving as a Freeman Visiting Faculty member Kalindi Vohra (UC Santa Cruz): archives. Th a t ’ s what histori- school archives and archives in Fall 2005. "The Limits of Capital: Others' Organs as the ans are starting to do now, in libraries. It’s been an enor- Below is the complete listing of participants and Last Commodity" and its really a growing, mous amount of work—a lot events from this year’s Symposium. 2-4 p.m.: Film screening: My Son The Fanatic vibrant field—there are a lot of detective work in piecing Introduced by Vimal Dissanayke (UH-Manoa) of younger scholars who’ve things together from diffe r - KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: gotten interested in India, ent sources. • Akhil Gupta (Professor of Cultural And FRIDAY, 4/16: there are a lot of edited col- MG: Your project not only Social Anthropology, Stanford University): 9-10:30 a.m.: KEYNOTE ADDRESS lections that are coming out, talks about the practice, but "Theorizing the State After Liberalization." Akhil Gupta (Stanford University) so I think there’s a lot of also about the research that’s Paula Chakravartty • Dina Siddiqi (International and Public Affairs, 10:45-11:45 a.m.: PANEL #2 potential. But gender is still going on. … Columbia University): Chair: somewhat marginal, and the ML: Yes, and then also "Globalization, Sexual Harrassment and S. Krishna (UH-Manoa) looking at the development n the 1980s and 1990s, South Asian countries work of women is somewhat Worker's Rights in Bangladesh." Presenters: of institutions. We don’t even adopted neoliberal policies that led to increased ma r gi n a l . I • Paula Chakravartty (Assistant Professor of S. Charusheela (UH-Manoa): have a basic history of this: foreign investment, export-oriented economies, MDG: So then did you Communication, U-MASS Amherst): "Competing Modernities: Neoliberal Reform There are so many questions and cuts in public spending.With these transfor- come across osteomalacia by "High-Tech India: Labor, Liberalization and and Women's Work in the Informal Sector" that are there, and there’s not mations, South Asia has become increasingly going through the archives? Transnational Politics” Ashwin Raj (UH-Manoa): really scholarship to rely on. enmeshed in global and gendered flows of culture ML : No, the way I came "'Good' Governance: Nirvana in an age of Now that’s growing, and and labor. across it was that for one of Global Capitalism." t h a t ’s why my project is The 21st Annual Spring Symposium of the the chapters in my book I 2-3:30 p.m.: KEYNOTE ADDRESS more possible now than it Center for South Asian Studies took place on wanted to focus on medical Paula Chakravartty (U-MASS Amherst) was before, because now Thursday and Friday, April 15-16, 2004. This research—what was going on, 3:45-5 p.m.: PANEL #3 there are some interpreta- year’s Symposium was titled “Neoliberalism in what kinds of research they Chair: tions that one can argue with South Asia: Culture, Gender, and Labor.” Among were doing. I looked through Monisha Das Gupta (UH-Manoa) or build on or challenge. Th a t other questions, the gathering was meant to assess a lot of the files of The Journal Presenters: really wasn’t the case just 10 what localized responses have been generated by Robina Bhatti (): "The Heart of : of the Association of Medical years ago. So it’s really the rise of neoliberalism in the region. Popular Culture in " Women in India. This was a dynamic. And it’s the same Thanks to the generous support of the G.J. and Himanee Gupta (UH-Manoa): "Cowpath journal that started in the early thing with the development Ellen Watumull Foundation and an additional Crossings: Stories of Two Indian Immigrant 20th century, and it published of women and gender histo- $5,000 grant from the Sidney Stern Memorial Doctors From Muncie" news of the profession and all Dina Siddiqi, Paula Chakravartty, ry — i t ’ s just exploded. It’s Trust, the Center was able to assemble one of the Pavitra Sundar (University of Michigan): kinds of things that they were Monisha Das Gupta, Nandita Sharma just fascinating and really most diverse groups of keynote speakers and and S. Charusheela (from left) "Mit Jaave Jo Takraave: Hindutva Ideology fighting for. ex c i t i n g . paper presenters in the Symposium’s two decade during a break in the proceedings. and the Warrior Citizen in Lagaan" MG: Where did you find South Asia News 12 13 Spring 2004

Boston, on a project on “The recherche en sciences humaines Faculty News Crossings, cont. from Page 5 American, somewhat pastoral, and Idea of Hometown.” et sociales," in which parts of his Faculty News Kazi K. Ashraf (School of embedded in daily life. resolutely typical: Muncie. Monica Ghosh (South Asia audio-visual field collections Architecture) presented a paper, The stories I tell are gleaned from I know this town well. It is where Librarian, Hamilton Library; from Nepal will be archived. stories that were told to me last fall, I grew up. My own cowpath “Taking Place: The Notion of $4,600 in Summer 2004 to devel- outgoing CSAS Director) pre- A series of "conversations" with as I did dissertation fieldwork. Th e through life took me there at age Landscape in Kahn’s op online course materials for IS sented a paper titled "What's Dr. Maskarinec regarding his la r ger project explores the relation- three, when my family became the Architecture,” at the sympo- 331 Science and Culture (to be Eaten You?: Transposing Nepal research, which were ship between the growing populari- first Indian family in Muncie, arriv- sium Engaging Louis I. Kahn: of fered in Spring 2005) focusing ty over the past two decades of a ing there in 1966. Although I have Colonial Anxieties on Tigers" filmed last fall at the Maison A Legacy for the Future, Yale on cultural studies of science, Hindu nationalist political move- not lived in Muncie since 1981, it on February 12, 2004, in a talk des Sciences de l'Homme, are University, 2004. He also pre- including the intersections of sci- ment in India and the establishment has loomed large in my imaginary sponsored by the UH-Manoa web-posted at: http://e-semi- sented a paper, “Where Is ence, gender, and the environ- since the mid-1960s of an affl u e n t , for decades, at least partly because Department of English and co- otics.msh-paris.fr/opales/collo- mostly immigrant Indian communi- it is the only place where I can Architecture,” at the ARCASIA me n t . sponsored by the Centers for ques/colconv/entretien/introduc- ty in the United States. However, stake some sort of claim to roots. (Architects Regional Council South Asian Studies and Pacific tion.asp?idcol=161 The site while this transnational political Yet, roots or routes, as the work Asia) Seminar Globalization During his sabbatical (Fall movement is an important aspect of of James Clifford, Paul Carter, Paul Island Studies (SHAPS-UHM). includes clips from Dr. and Asian Architecture, in 20 0 3 ) , Lee Siegel (R e l i g i o n this project, looking at it empirical- Gilroy among many others sug- From March 4-7, 2004 she Maskarinec's films of Nepalese Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2003, and a Department) was a resident fel- ly is not the intent. Rather, I am gests, are complex affairs. Wh e r e attended the Annual Meeting of shamans. paper, “Sundarnagar: The City low at the Rockefeller more interested in viewing the truth you’re from ain’t necessarily where the Association for Asian claims that have arisen about that you’re at; what’s rooted-ness to in Cinematic and Architectural Fo u n d a t i o n ’ s Villa Serbelloni in Studies (AAS) in San Diego. Ja i s h r ee Odin co-edited with relationship discursively and in some is routed-ness to others. All of Imagination,” at the 32nd Bellagio, Italy. He was one of Peter Manicas a collection of examining how they may or may us who grew up – as young immi- Annual Conference on South thirty-three featured authors at During fall 2003, Gr eg o r y G. essays, Globalization and Higher not intersect with memories and grant adults – with the community Asia, at the University of the Internationales other stories that emerge through and those of us who grew up – as Ma s k a r i n e c (Department of Ed u c a t i o n (University of Hawai‘i Wisconsin, Madison, 2003. Literaturfestival in Berlin, and conversations with immigrant Muncie-raised South Asians – in Family Practice and Community Press, 2004). The volume In addition, he produced a web was a speaker and panelist at the Indians and their descendents. the community knew the Indians Health, John A. Burns School of includes an essay by her on profile on the city of Dhaka for South Asian Literary and Th e a t e r Thus, the project might be defined always were here, in our own imag- Medicine) was an invited schol- “New Technologies and the as a narrative about narratives. It inaries, at least. Yet, that here was a the Architecture League of New Arts Festival in Was h i n g t o n , ar in the "Milieux, Sociétes et Reconstitution of the University.” looks at narrative as a device that, little like that hollow in the old York’s web project, D.C. He lectured on and per- Cultures en Himalaya" Division Ja i s h r e e ’ s recent publications like discourse, conveys meaning schoolyard oak tree: a secret pro- www.worldviewcities.org; formed traditional Indian street and at stories that, like sedimented tected from dominant view. of France's Centre National de la include: “Lalla and the Kashmiri served as a juror for the AIA magic at the Academie de Magie forms of knowledge, construct Saleem and Malati are two of Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Shaiva Tradition” in The Val l e y Honolulu Design Award, 2004; in Paris and at Williams College truths that are situated, contingent, approximately forty participants in There he worked toward com- of Kashmir: The Making and 5 continues as member of the in Massachusetts. His essay on and contestable. In this sense, I the project. Both, as noted, came to pleting his next volume of Unmaking of a Composite invite you to read the stories I tell as, Muncie from the north-central Advisory Committee for Hawai‘i was published by Nation Nepalese Shaman Oral Tex t s (t o Cu l t u r e, Eds. T.N. Madan and Michel de Certeau suggests, provid- Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, tra- Shangri La, The Doris Duke Books in John Leonard’s Th e s e be published by Harvard Aparna Rao (Berghan Books ing a “decorative container of a nar- versing the immigration route via House, and the Islamic World United States: Original Essays 6 University Press in 2004). He Pub, forthcoming); “A Lotus in rativity for everyday practices” th a t the relatively affluent path of medi- Arts Initiative; and continues to by Leading American Writers on interrelate with and/or contest large r cine. Saleem, arriving in 1983, is was simultaneously guest pro- the Mud: Relevance of Lalla’s write a column, “On Cities,” for Their States Within the Union. discourses about post-colonial M u n c i e ’s sole plastic surg e o n . fessor of Anthropology at the Verses” in Ma n u s h i (O c t o b e r the Dhaka-based English daily, L’Amour dans une langue morte , migration and transnational capital Malati, arriving in 1994, has been University of Paris X (Nanterre), 2003); “Embodiment and The Daily Star. a French translation of his novel flows. Doing so would recognize an pursuing a degree in counseling; her where he presented a series of Narrative Performance” in interviewing of narrativity — the husband, Ravi, is a kidney special- His current publication and Love in a Dead Language, was lectures on Himalayan culture, Women, Ar t, and Tec h n o l o g y telling of stories — and discourse — ist. Both Saleem and Malati have research projects include com- published by Editions Philippe language, medicine and religion. (M I T Press, 2003); and a book the process through which truths are raised children in the United States pleting the manuscript of a Picquier in Paris. And his novel, constructed. to adult age: Saleem’s eldest daugh- He was also an invited partici- re v i e w , “Does E-Moderating an forthcoming book, The Last Love and Other Games of The stories I share both here and in ter is a sophomore in college; pant of the Maison des Sciences Active Classroom Make?” In On Hut: A Study in Asceticism and Ch a n c e, was issued in paperback the larger project are set in a small- Ma l a t i ’ s eldest son is getting ready de l'Homme's project "Les the Horizon (2003). She received Architecture, and working with by Penguin Books in January. town famous for being all- to start medical school. In many archives audiovisuelles de la a Sloan Foundation Awa r d Continued on Page 14 Jyoti Puri, Simmons College, South Asia News 14 15 Spring 2004

Crossing, continued from Page 13 ways, one might regard the political In Saleem’s story, every crisis turns plastic surge r y . He arrived in Muncie human race that you do need someone for a completely non-work related the assembly line.” and economic circumstances that rout- into an opportunity. The last-minute in 1983. of your own background eventually,” m a t t e r ? In a seemingly parallel script, Ravi ed these two families to Muncie as approval of his visa gets him into “I wanted to practice in a medium- she says. “Trust me; that’s how it goes.” Approximately five months after my states: “The worth of an immigrant si m i l a r . However, their recountings of America, just in time. A delay that pre- sized town, a place with good “W e were like, ‘Oh, so there’s at least interview with Kamal, I posed that rests only in what he can do to that experience differ quite markedly. ceded it forced him to finish his med- o p p o r t u n i t y. one; someone called Gupta here.’ An d question to Ravi, the 51-year-old hus- improve the life of a local person. For Saleem, the “cowpath” to ical degree, allowing him to spend the I bo ught a R e a d e r’s Digest then we were staying at a hotel. It was band of Malati. That’s really all that we’re worth. As America was a path away from intel- next several months in America look- almanac to find ou t the populatio n like so derelict. No one arranged big “The answer to that question,” Ravi long as I am useful to the hospital, I lectual frustration. Once he arrived, he ing for a hospital where he could do his of various places. I found out gatherings. The hospital didn’t know said, “is once in our own neighbor- am a good doctor. If I grow older, if I never looked back. Going back would training in general surge r y . By contrast, there was a university here; a ho s- that we would want to … now, it is so hood. Once or twice every year am no longer able to carry out my have meant a practice in a remote place, Ma l a t i ’ s story resounds with diffi c u l t y . pital. I comp ared values an d di f ferent. The moment Ravi hears in the because of some neighborhood gath- tasks, they won’t care. They’ll just where the only medications available In Detroit, her husband did a fourth res- Muncie came out as the best place hospital that there’s someone with erings. In ten years, I can count two find someone else.” for dispensation were vitamin pills and idency – following years of grueling, to practice plastic surg e r y. Indian roots, he goes all out to call up other instances, where someone has At first, the workers rebelled. Then, treatments for diarrhea. For Malati, the on-demand service in Kanpur, New U n i v e r s i t y, medium sized town, the community and say, ‘Come. Come called us out of an interest in friend- they learned to adapt. cowpath was a journey marked by Delhi, and then in England. From there, l a rge sing le h ospital, so m any to our house; we’ll all eat together. ship. In both cases, these people had “I know a doctor, an Egyptian,” says loneliness and displacement. “We did it it was several more years of service in s u rgeons but no plastic su rg e o n s . Th e r e ’ s a new person.’ Just to make traveled a lot, were familiar with Ravi. “When he falls into these the hard way,” says Malati, ruefully, as rural Kentucky, then Lexington, and “I decided, ‘that’s the place I’m going them feel at home, to give them a real India … moods, he buys himself cars to com- she recalls how her husband’s around- finally the lure of secure employment, to go.’But I had not seen Muncie.” taste of the Indian part of the communi- … Maybe it’s because we don’t eat fort himself.” the-clock residency requirements once in Muncie. He drove from Chattanooga, took the ty . Otherwise, why do you pick Muncie, meat. Maybe that makes it more diffi- What do you do? I asked. prompted her three-year-old son to ask, Di f ficulty is what she insists creates exit off Interstate 69 to Highway 32. if you don’t know that there’s anyone of cult.” Ravi responded: Work. “I work; it’s “Mom, what does Dad look like?” ch a r a c t e r . “We really struggled,” she The road was narrow; all rural, nothing. your own kind here?” Embedded in Ravi’s response is a my way of not having to think about recalls. “We reached … this stage in “I’m driving,” he says. “It’s barren. It’s That need for community runs deep sense of personal alienation, and these things that we’re talking about.” * * * * * life the hard way. It probably gave us April, the leaves haven’t yet started strong in Malati’s story. Saleem, loneliness that, unlike the gendered dif- Saleem boarded a plane bound for better values. Not to take anything for coming. It looked very depressing.” h o w e v e r, downplays it. “Indian com- ferences one might encounter between Boston in early 1977. It was either granted is one of them.” The quality of the hospital, the pres- munity? I didn’t even think of it; I Malati and Saleem, seems to converge January 6 or 7. Every seat on the air- ence of a four-year research university, d i d n ’t have family. I didn’t even with his wife’s sense of uprootedness. craft was filled. With Indian doctors. * * * * * and the willingness – albeit a grudged think that much about money. I just For Saleem – a Muslim from Faizabad, 1 Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex All were bound for America. And all willingness – to grant the foreign plas- wanted to do surgery on my own; to the sister city to Ayodhya – imagining (New York: Picador, 2002), 95. were racing against time. The third-cat- Scholarship on memory suggests tic surgeon hospital privileges con- be my own boss.” India as home comes with a growing 2 Abraham Ve rghese, “The egory immigration preference that the that what one chooses to remember vinced Saleem to follow through with insecurity for the safety of himself and Cowpath to America,” New Yorker, United States had granted to foreign and what one chooses to forget is a his plan. He moved to the city with his * * * * his wife, and, more significantly for the 73:17 (1997), 74. physicians between 1965 and 1976 was highly selective yet uneven process. wife, and opened an office. His wife This paper, presented initially at a numerous members of his extended 3 Niti Bhan, “Community Profile: ending; the American economy no Keya Ganguly’s work on immigrant sat in the front, and he filled the file Center for South Asian Studies sympo- family who still reside in his home Indian Americans,” Asians in America longer had a need for that kind of labor. memories further argues that this selec- cabinets with folders, empty folders, in sium at the University of Hawai‘i, town, a community made increasingly Project. Saleem had been told by a visa officer at tivity contains a gendered component.7 order to appear professional. Slowly, explains very little. But through the volatile by the growing politicization of 4 See, for instance, Mark Rupert’s the embassy in Delhi that he needed to In making this point, Ganguly argu e s he built a practice. use of talk-story it hopefully shows Hindu-Muslim tensions. Ravi – a Hindu discussions of Fordism in Pr od u c i n g be in the United States by January 9. that the construction of self emerge s “I didn’t know a single soul,” he quite a bit, about how themes of from Kanpur – thinks of home in much Hegemony: The Politics of Mass Otherwise, it would be too late. almost inherently through a gendered says. “I just opened my shop.” neoliberalism, late capitalism, gen- more nostalgic terms. Even his Indian P roduction and American Global “It was an Alitalia flight. We had a positioning of the self within power Malati recalls driving with Ravi into dered memories and transnational friends in Muncie, he says, are not the P o w e r (Cambridge: Cambridge layover in Rome; they told us that the relationships, and that these relation- the city. They were going down flows enact themselves in individuals same as his friends at home. That lone- University Press, 1995). Boston airport was closed because of ships, once defined, continue to ener- McGalliard Avenue, a major thor- who were, from early adolescent mem- liness seems to play out against a back- 5 Donna Haraway, M o d e s t a snowstorm. I panicked.” gize the constitution of self in narra- oughfare, when they spotted a bill- or y , always already transnational. drop where he has come to realize that Witness@Second Millennium: Malati also recalls arriving in tive. In this light, let’s look at how board. “Suddenly, we saw, ‘Gupta I wish to conclude with one final an immigrant is measured in terms of Female Man Meets OncoMouse ( N e w America amid a snowstorm. “We flew Malati and Saleem each remember Hobby Center.’ And I said, Gupta-ji is s t o r y, drawn from interviews with use-value. That, in turn, magnifies a York: Routledge, 1997), 230. to Detroit. It was a horrible, black their first encounters with Muncie. here? And we were both like, ‘Yes! two other research participants. One sense of dehumanization that appears to 6 Michel de Certeau, The Practice night. The plane wasn’t given permis- Saleem did his homework. He com- There’s someone called Gupta. Must of them, a 60-year-old immigrant intensify with the acceleration of capital of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University sion to land. We thought, ‘Oh God, pleted his general surgery training at a be an Indian.’” whom I’ll call Kamal proposed in flows. of California Press, 1984), 70. what are we letting ourselves in for?” hospital in Eastern Pennsylvania. The existence of a Gupta-ji made mid-November that I ask my inter- Recall Jeffrey Eugenides words: 7 Keya Ganguly, “Migrant Identities: From there, he went to Chattanooga, Malati feel as if she could make viewees the following question: How “People stopped being human in 1913. Personal Memory and the Construction * * * * * Tennessee, to do a special residency in Muncie her home. “It’s a fact of the many times have you been invited to That was the year Henry Ford … of Selfhood,” Cultural Studies 6 : 1 dinner at the home of a non-Indian made his workers adopt the speed of (1992), 27-50 SOUTH ASIA NEWS STAFF servedin a number of important Monica Ghosh civic institutions, including a last CSAS Director stint as the Head of the Delhi Stu Dawrs CSAS Coordinator Commission for Women. She is currently writing her memoirs, Contributions of articles, book reviews which talk about growing up and and commentaries are welcome. Please living in what is now Pakistan, send them to us at [email protected] going to school in Lahore and coming to Delhi around the time We also thank those who have supported of Partition. In addition, the book the Center with monetary contributions will cover her work as a journalist in recent years. These funds provide a interviewing such luminaries as flexible resource to supplement our (rap- idly declining) university operating Che Guevera, Martha Graham, budget and permits us to augment our and Eleanor Roosevelt,and inter- South Asia activities. amla Mankekar is a well- acted closely with some of the Kknown journalist and femi- leading politicians in India. Your tax-deductible contributions are nist activist. A pioneer in her On Saturday, April 17, as part greatly appreciated and can be made field—she was one of the first two of this year’s CSAS Spring payable to University of Hawai‘i women working for an English- Symposium, Kamla Mankekar Foundation Account No. 130910, c/o language newspaper in India—she read from her memoirs during a Center for South Asian Studies, Moore eventually rose to the rank of edi- private reception in her honor. 411, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, For more on this year’s HI, 96822 USA. tor of the magazine section of , and subsequently Symposium Please see page 10.

Center for South Asian Studies School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies Moore Hall 213 1890 East-West Road University of Hawai‘i-Manoa Honolulu, Hawai‘i, 96822 USA