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"THE ROUTE TO YOUR ROOTS": HISTORY, HINDU NATIONALISM, AND COMICS IN INDIA AND SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORAS SAILAJA VATSALA KRISHNAMURTI A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN SOCIAL & POLITICAL THOUGHT YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO MAY 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39020-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39020-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada IV Abstract This dissertation examines the popular cultural media and related ideological processes through which Indian and South Asian diasporic young people learn about history and develop a concept of national identity. It focuses on Amar Chitra Katha, a series of English-language comics developed in 1967 by editor Anant Pai to facilitate Indian students' learning about religion, history, and folk stories. The comics were widely read by Indian students throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and were also very popular among diasporic South Asian children. The research employs an interdisciplinary methodological approach, incorporating an ethnographic study of ACK readers with a historical, critical, and cultural analysis of the comics in the context of Indian and South Asian diasporic cultures. The first two chapters explore the comics within the context of Indian politics and visual culture. Chapter 3 examines the role of the comics in Indian politics and Hindu nationalist ideology (Hindutva), arguing that the comics present a mythohistorical image of India in which Hindu cultural and religious dominance is normalized and the past and present are often rendered indistinct. In this way, certain religious and political leaders are idealized as members of a lineage of nationalist heroes while others are excluded. V The comics are presented in an avuncular and innocuous media form, making them popular among children, caregivers and educators. Indian readers describe a strong sense of attachment to the comics and the figure of "Uncle Pai". The avuncularism of the comics lends them to co-optation by the Hindu nationalist movement. Chapter 4 reads Pai and the comics through the figure of the uncle in popular culture, exploring the connections between uncles and various nationalist constructions. For Indian students, the comics acted as a supplement to formal learning about history. In South Asian diasporas, the comics were often a key source of information in the absence of formal education about India. Through an exploration of the relationship between diaspora, nation, and history, the final two chapters show how, for diasporic readers, the texts work at the nexus of popular nationalist ideology, childhood nostalgia, and the construction of concepts of home and identity. vi Dedication To my grandparents, Mrs. Vatsala Jagannathan and the late Mr. Krishnamurti Jagannathan, who taught me that there is nothing more valuable than learning; and to Anderson, who with characteristic patience and love has seen me through many successes and challenges. Thank you for being my collaborator in the most important work of all. vii Acknowledgments My deepest thanks to my supervisor Himani Bannerji, and the members of my supervisory committee, Daniel Yon and Aran Mukherjee, for their patience, their interest, and their thoughtful comments and critique along the way. I thank them and the members of my examining committee, Ena Dua, AH Kazimi, and external examiner Deepali Dewan, for making the oral examination an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience. I also wish to thank all the members of the examining committee for understanding the pressures of my other timeline and due date. Research in India for this project was supported by a doctoral research fellowship from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. In Bangalore, I was affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society; I particularly thank Prof. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Mr. Nagaraj, and all the students at CSCS who took the time to share their thoughts with me about ACK and many other subjects. In Mumbai, Anant Pai and Padmini Mirchandani generously gave me their time to speak with me about Amar Chitra Katha. ACK and Tinkle have since been sold by IBH to an independent company, ACK-Media/Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd, and it is with the kind permission of that company and its Founder-CEO, Samir Patil, that the images from ACK and Tinkle are included here. Rajeev Balasubramanyam's willingness to share his thoughts with me made a valuable contribution to this work. I also thank all those around the viii world who allowed me to interview them anonymously for this project; their contributions have been invaluable. Thanks to Judith Hawley, program assistant in SPT, who has tirelessly fielded questions and resolved confusions, making it possible to navigate through graduate student life at York. I have been very grateful for the support of the York Centre for Asian Research, where I found a sort of home as a researcher. A special thanks to Peter Vandergeest and Shubhra Gururani for their support of graduate student work. There are a number of friends and family who have left an imprint on this work and who have made the long process of writing tolerable. I thank my parents, J. Krish and Krishna Kumari Krishnamurti, for their encouragement, and my siblings, Sairupa and Aran, who as occasional 'research assistants' have been generous with their help and their time. Anderson Rouse, as with all things, has been the rock beneath this work. I started my journey at York years ago with Stephanie Kelcey, and our lives have taken many turns together since; thanks for reminding me to focus and to remember to still have a good time. Shadi Eskandani supported me by providing copy-editing assistance, and has been there for me in many ways; as has Saira Chhibber, whose passion for learning and thinking is infectious. Keith Bresnahan, Dana Dawson, Ayesha Hameed, Rob Heynen, Kate Kaul, Kathy Kiloh, Molly Mann, Rabea Murtaza and Julie Petruzzellis have made my experience in SPT worthwhile, and I am very grateful for their friendship. There are many others I'd like to thank, and though it is not possible to name everyone here, I hope you all know that you have my deepest gratitude. ix Table of Contents Abstract iv Dedication vi Acknowledgments vii List of Tables and Illustrations xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Hindu nationalism, popular culture, and history 7 History, nationalism and visual culture 11 Amar Chitra Katha: an introduction 21 Scholarship on Amar Chitra Katha 25 Methodology 29 Outline of chapters 35 Chapter 2: Inside Amar Chitra Katha: history and review 38 Amar Chitra Katha: a brief history 39 Comics and South Asian visual culture 54 On the theory of comics 65 Imagining India: modes of representation in ACK 70 Telling stories: narratives and images 74 Aesthetics of gender 81 Race and caste 87 Representations of religious difference 93 Conclusion 109 Chapter 3: Drawing a Nation: myth, history, ideology 112 Epics and mythohistory 115 Nationalism and ideology 130 Hindutva and the politics of Hindu nationalism 141 Technologies of mythohistory: language and realism 151 Amar Chitra Katha biographies 161 Dayananda 161 Veer Savarkar 169 Nehru 175 Gandhi 181 X Ideological construction in the comic book narrative 184 Impacts of Amar Chitra Katha 187 Chapter 4: Chachas of the Nation: gender, ideology and avuncular education.... 194 Nations, capital, and uncles in the extended family 199 A Duck's your uncle 206 Uncle Pai: India's Walt Disney 213 The avuncularism of popular education 224 The Sangh Parivar - uncles of the nation 233 A textbook history 243 Comics, uncles, and ideas: conclusion 253 Chapter 5: Nationalism and Hindutva in South Asian