Modernity and Material Culture in Bengali Cinema, 1947-1975
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-20-2011 12:00 AM Alternative Be/longing: Modernity and Material Culture in Bengali Cinema, 1947-1975 Suvadip Sinha University of Western Ontario Supervisor Nandi Bhatia The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Suvadip Sinha 2011 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons Recommended Citation Sinha, Suvadip, "Alternative Be/longing: Modernity and Material Culture in Bengali Cinema, 1947-1975" (2011). 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Alternative Be/longing: Modernity and Material Culture in Bengali Cinema, 1947-1975 (Spine Title: Alternative Be/longing) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Suvadip Sinha Graduate Program in English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Suvadip Sinha 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners _____________________ _ ________________________ Dr. Nandi Bhatia Dr. Joel Faflak Supervisory Committee _________________________ Dr. Carole Farber _________________________ Dr. Matthew Rowlinson ________________________ Dr. James Miller ________________________ Dr. Stephen Slemon The thesis by Suvadip Sinha entitled: Alternative Be/longing: Modernity and Material Culture in Bengali Cinema, 1947-1975 is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ________________ ______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract My Ph.D. thesis, which engages in a dialogue with the recent body of scholarship on alternative/multiple modernities, postcolonial studies, Marxism and thing theory, has two main objectives: first, I examine how the transition of post-colonial India from a primarily feudal to a capitalist form of economy facilitated a historical-materialist relationship with things, objects and commodities; and second, I argue films belonging to the Bengali parallel cinema genre enable an examination of how this relationship challenges and ruptures the singularly hegemonic narrative of modern capital. Covering critical historical junctures like the decline of feudalism in late-colonial Bengal, post- Independence Nehruvian India and the political upheaval during the Naxalite movement, I analyze Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar (1958) and Pratidwandi (1971), Ritwik Ghatak’s Ajantrik (1958), Tapan Sinha’s Harmonium (1963), Mrinal Sen’s Interview (1971), and Rajen Tarafder’s Palanka (1975) to argue that these films represent an audacious retort against the paradigm of Eurocentric, commodity-laden modernity by conceiving of a material imagination that operates outside the purview of capitalism. Avoiding the temporal binary between modern/colonial and pre-modern/pre-colonial, this thesis further contends that in order to understand modernity in its historicized and spatialized diverseness, it is important to conceptualize the multiplicity of material cultures in post- colonial contexts. Although colonialism has been perceived as the reason for the import of capitalist modernity in India, I show that these films, in conjunction with the emergent leftist politics in India from 1950s to 1970s, deploy an aesthetic of modernism and a visual economy, which enable the imagining of a postcolonial material agency that appropriates and subverts concepts like fetishism, labour, and commodity that are associated with the traditional market economy. Keywords: Postcolonialism, Material Culture, Indian Cinema, Modernity, Commodity Fetishism, Thing Theory, Nationalism iii For Prakash Mitra (1953-1971), who gave his life for dreaming … iv Acknowledgements The words and pages of this dissertation bear the pleasurable burden of gratitude. I would like to begin by thanking Dr. Nandi Bhatia. As a supervisor and the Chair of Graduate Studies at the Department English, she provided immense support for this project. Nandi read this thesis with tireless persistence to give suggestions, comments, and criticisms without which I would have never been able to reach the finishing line. I express my intellectual debt to Dr. Matthew Rowlinson for reading the thesis carefully and giving his valuable feedback. Matthew pointed out arguments in my writing even when I was not aware of their presence. My interest in modernity owes its origin to the excellent graduate seminar, “Fugitive Cities: Modernism and the Urban Fantasmic,” with Allan Pero. I thank Allan for creating such a space for intense intellectual dialogue. The funding for my research was provided by Western Graduate Research Scholarship, Graduate Teaching Assistantship and Graduate Research Assistantship. I also received much needed financial support through Mary Routledge travel scholarship, GTA and SOGS bursaries. I thank Leanne Trask, Vivian Foglton, and Beth McIntosh at the Department of English, for solving all the bureaucratic problems. Leanne deserves special thanks for answering all my questions, important and inane alike, with unfaltering patience. People at the D.B. Weldon library at Western, Robarts and UTSC libraries can never be thanked enough. I strongly believe that our academic audacity owes its origin and end to these endlessly helpful people. I will always remain grateful to my classmates and colleagues at the Department of English at Western for creating a friendly and intellectual atmosphere. Amber, Ann, v Maria deserve special thanks for their friendship. I want to thank Alia Somani for extending warmth of friendship since my very first moment in the department. She also read parts of this thesis and gave her critical response. Avisekh Banerjee helped me re- live those foregone days of youth. Siddhartha, Somak, Debasmita, Shubhra, and Avirup, I will always cherish our days of co-existence, sober and inebriated. Almost each and everyday I wait to indulge in uncalculated insanity with them. I thank Jo Sharma, Dan Bender, and their little girl, Mili, for making Toronto a friendly and sumptuous place. Dan also read a chapter of this thesis and provided important feedback. Sometime during the regimented grammar lessons, P.C. Dalal, my late English teacher, made me believe that books are prized possessions. Returning from the Calcutta Book Fair to show him my accumulation gave birth to the book-collector in me. Dr. Franson Davis Manjali, my teacher from JNU, opened up new and challenging academic possibilities. I am not sure if he would approve of this; yet, I will go ahead to express my metaphysical nostalgia for those groggy, inter-subjective morning discussions with him. Although family members do not wait for thanks, it is always soothing to share this sense of achievement with them. This thesis is influenced by my father, Ajoy Sinha, who remains childishly obstinate in his effort at accumulating nothing, and my mother, Shipra Sinha, who has made boundless sacrifices for me, in ways I cannot even imagine to explain. Baba and Ma, all of this could not even begin without the audacious journey you embarked upon with me. Your rebellion against the logic of capital during those uncertain days started it all. My sister provides an unfathomable connection with stability in her own ways. My grandmother, Shantilata Sinha, loves me more than anything and anybody. When I told him that my dissertation deals with the Naxalite movement, my vi Mejomama, Pradip Mitra, replied, “You will only write.” I want to thank you for showing my own bourgeois limitations, for your exemplary passion for political activism and for initiating me into the idea of a different world. Nida, no mere words, no meager thanks, no paltry gratitude. To our impermanent and imperfect transgressions. vii Table of Contents Certificate of Examination……………………………………………………………….ii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………….iv Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………........v Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………….viii Introduction: Material Culture, Postcoloniality, and Modernity…………………………1 Chapter 1: Consumption, Ownership and the Experience of Modernity: Jalsaghar, Harmonium and Palanka……………………………………………44 Chapter 2: Anomalous Overlaps: Modernity, Machine and Primitive Fetishism in Ritwik Ghatak’s Ajantrik……………………………………………………102 Chapter 3: Dialectic Belonging and Arrival of a Revolution: Mrinal Sen’s Interview...155 Chapter 4: Postcolonial Flanerie, Urban Modernity and the Gaze of Revolution in Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi………………………………………………….207 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………259 Curriculum Vitae: Suvadip Sinha………………………………………………………287 viii 1 Introduction Material Culture, Postcoloniality, and Modernity From the collections