Paper: 11; Module No: 30: E Text (A) Personal Details
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Paper: 11; Module No: 30: E Text (A) Personal Details: Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad Paper Coordinator: Dr. Bhandaram Vani S. N. Vanita Mahavidalaya, Hyderabad Content Writer: Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick University of Calcutta Content Reviewer: Dr. Bhandaram Vani S. N. Vanita Mahavidalaya, Hyderabad Language Editor: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad (B) Description of Module: Items Description of Module Subject Name: English Paper No & Name: Paper 11: Indian Literary Criticism and Theory Module Id/No: 30 Module Name: Bhalchandra Nemade and Nativism Pre-requisites: Objectives: Key Words: Indian Literary theory, Bhalchandra Nemade, Nativism, Indigenity 1 (C) Content of the Module/About the Module: This module talks about Indian nativism and Bhalchandra Nemade’s contribution in the discourse. This module introduce the context of the doctrine of nativism, it’s root, influence of Americanism or American nativism in Indian nativism, Bhalchandra Nemade’s major works etc. along with these, the module also talks about orientalism its relation with nativism, it talks about the limitations of the idea, and role of other marginal communities in receiving the idea of nativism. Nativism is also discussed from the point of view of anti-colonial aesthetics of the orients. This idea helps the literary practitioners to have different readings about colonial literature, marginal literature and also Indian indigenous literature or the literatures which were outside the influence of Europe. Introduction There is no East and no West, all is global. -Nemade In this era of globalization, it is very often argued that no cultural or literary elements are nativist rather they are global. Immense growth of technology and people’s access to it, no doubt offers knowledge of different cultural zones of the World. Neo-liberal economy successfully has commercialized cultural products of different regions and circulated those to the other parts of the world. But this is partial or very limited observation. It is not astonishing that all the parts of the globe is not equally represented in this era of immense technological growth. People, culture and the communities survive with their pasts, with their indigenous and traditional cultural beliefs and systems in different forms. If such practices do not happen so materially it still exists in collective memory of the community. The point here is the concept of globalization and the concept of the nativism is not exactly opposite two ideas and one does not ensure the absence of the other. To understand nativism in 2 culture, language or literature, we have to understand the historical development of one literature and its contemporary or current trends. But globalization is not the only force which makes people skeptical about locating the nativity in a certain cultural system but there were whole lot of other epistemological forces what have already changed the lives, thoughts and practices of the communities. Such as Colonialism, Imperialism, modernism etc. In different periods of history, such experiences challenged the nativist practices of the communities who have come across the historical phenomena. Birth of the Concept The idea of nativism emerged in 1835-45, in America and it was known as Americanism. Nativism as a concept was introduced in India during 1980s. It was introduced in India through English in India. Bhalchandra Nemade pioneer theorist of Nativism or Desivad says, “The task of preparing again a viable Indian Critical Tradition may not be possible unless all the systems of literature- productive, distributive and consumptive – are originally desi or nativistic” (Preface/ Nativism). Colonialism and colonial culture used to portray Indian culture as a “Low Value- Culture”. Nemade correctly established the point of beginning of his discussion in saying that, “It had been certainly a high-value culture till the seventeenth century which created Dara Shikoh, the Tej and Tukaram, to mention only a few”(9). Bhalchandra Nemade Bhalchandra Nemade, born in 1938 is a Marathi literary figure; his famous works are Hindu and Kosala, though he is widely known in India for his work on desivad. He is also honoured with the highest literary honour in India, Jnanpith Award 2014. Nemade was one of the pioneering figure in the post-1960s Little Magazine movement. Nemade’s contribution in the form of novel is ‘peerless’. His novel Kosala brought a new wave in Marathi novel and Marathi fiction has been influenced a lot with this work by Nemade (Nandgaonkar, Satish;). 3 What is Nativism? Nativism1 is an idea or practice or policy to re-conceptualise, revisit, re-discovering one’s native identity, culture, etc. It is an idea to establish against immigrants2. It is a practice to resist against the colonial, imperial forces and also against the cultural hegemony of globalization. Nativism is perceived as weapon to a dying culture or the culture which is threaten or to the culture which is hegemonised. In Indian context it is said that nativism teaches about what India needs most to serve her languages and cultures. It claims that the historically colonized and globalized Indian culture needs pity towards it. It demands for a methodology and individual’s responsibility to save a culture, orality, tradition and folklore in its own way. Nativism is search for a method which must be emerged from the culture within. It is an alternative method to write history of a community or nation and the historiogrsaphy must be constituted within the nation or community’s practice or knowledge. In Indian context nativism is to offer an alternative way of reading India’s past, culture, literature and languages. And this way must be non-colonial and non-globalised. Concept of Nativism Another scholar in the field of Comparative Literature, Translation and Indian Literature, Indranath Choudhury put nativism in different way. His argument is nativism is not an obsession towards one’s past but it is a method of comparative study; it is comparative tool to have better 1 “Oxford dictionary (available at oxforddictionary.com as on August 6, 2012) defines nativism as ―a return to or emphasis on indigenous customs, in opposition to outside influences.‖ Yourdictionary.com defines nativism as ―the revival or preservation of a native culture.‖ Webster‘s dictionary (available at http://www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/nativism) defines it as ―the revival or perpetuation of an indigenous culture especially in opposition to acculturation.‖ Online dictionary available at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ nativism puts it as ―the policy or practice of preserving or reviving an indigenous culture.‖ The University Desk Encyclopedia defines nativism as turning in of a country or society towards its own culture through movements rejecting foreign influences, ideas or immigrants…‖ (717) 31 World English Dictionary available at http://dictionary.reference.com/ browse/nativism defines it as ―the policy of protecting and reaffirming native tribal cultures in reaction to acculturation”. For further information please follow the link, from where the above text has been quoted. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/36591/6/06_chapter2.pdf 2 http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nativist 4 understanding about one’s own literature. According to Choudhury, “Here, it should be remembered that Nativism is not an obsession with roots. Instead, it is a concept which has come to challenge the very idea of Eurocentric modernism and internationalism – the tendency to compare every literary text / trend with some Euro-American product” (as said by Indra Nath Choudhuri in his welcome speech at a seminar on Desivad in Indian Literature organized by Sahitya Academy in collaboration with the Centre for Creative Writing and Publication, IIT, Kanpur in 1995.). (Nativism: Essays in Criticism, 2). According to him nativism is a dialectic relationship between self and other. Self is reclaiming one’s desi identity and other is different from one’s desi identity. But desivad is different than the narrow nationalism and a peaceful co- existence between desi and other is possible. There is a power relation in the context of desivad also. This power relation is not a power relation of different but the opposites. When a community tries to bring changes in other community-life this is obviously a power relation. Makarand Paranjape, another scholar of nativism defines nativism, as a form of indigenism whose agenda can be summed up as a cry for cultural self-respect …. (Nativism: Essays in Criticism, xii). And here is the importance of nativism as an anti-colonial method of reading the literature of ex-colonies. But he also describes nativism as an aggressive and militant way to rediscover one’s nativeness. Though Paranjape also observed nativism as one’s right to live with the cultural past what one inherits. Why Nativism Nemade, in the beginning of his book raised few points about desivad what helps us to understand the why of nativism. He said, “Kalidasa is the Shakespeare of India, Valmiki is the Homer of the East, and ‘foreign signifiers became a primary base of our linguistic signs in literary criticism’. But who was the Tukaram of West, or what was the Ajanta or the Mahabharata of the West?” (Nemade, Bhalchandra;). According to Nemade, - Each culture has its desi modernity, native modernity - Being native means being attached to a particular place. - To nativistic in order to survive. 5 - Native principle is fundamental to literature. - The regional may be thought of only as subset of the nativist. (14) According to Makarand Paranjape, desivad or nativism is a militant or aggressive form of that passive and self-evident quality of desipana or nativeness, that is, the value of being desi or native, which value is inherent in any cultural object, belief or practice and which implies the natural state of sustaining the status quo. Nativism is thus establishing of one’s right to exist as one is (Nemade, Bhalchandra;).