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Reflections on the Imagining Sanskrit Land Project Patrick Mccartney Journal: Global Ethnographic Publication Date ǁ April 2018 ǁ No

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Reflections on the Imagining Sanskrit Land Project Patrick Mccartney Journal: Global Ethnographic Publication Date ǁ April 2018 ǁ No Reflections on the Imagining Sanskrit Land Project Patrick McCartney Journal: Global Ethnographic Publication Date ǁ April 2018 ǁ No. 4 ǁ Published by: Emic Press Global Ethnographic is an open access journal. Place of Publication: Kyoto, Japan ISSN 2186-0750 Global Ethnographic and Emic Press are initiatives of the Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD). © COPYRIGHT GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHIC 2018 0 Notes from the Field Reflections on the Imagining Sanskrit Land Project Patrick McCartney t has been a bit over two years since I was I have previously published a few in the small hamlet of Jhiri. So, these articles on Jhiri. A public interest article is I ‘Notes from the Field’ are a little dusty. available here (McCartney, 2017a), while a However, they are a reflection on my time linguistically-oriented article (McCartney, before, during and after conducting this 2017b) and anthropologically-focused article fieldwork, which I conducted while I waited (McCartney, 2017c) followed. I am also for my PhD dissertation to be proofread by slowly making a low-budget documentary my supervisors. I stayed in a ‘Sanskrit- series. Here is the first episode, which speaking’ village in Madhya Pradesh, India, documents the task of looking for the village. during the summer months of 2015. These I still remember the trepidation prior to notes do not focus on the sociolinguistic going to the middle of Madhya Pradesh in reality of spoken Sanskrit in this village, late April. Before I ventured off into the which was the focus of the fieldwork. Rather, unknown, I had spent most of February, they focus on the personal challenges I faced March and April 2015 in the air-conditioned preparing, entering and being in the field. comfort of a friend’s apartment in the embassy district of Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, where I had been writing the final draft of my PhD thesis. As the temperature increased each day, my interest in leaving these comforts declined considerably. The comforts served as a retardant to literally getting off the couch and venture forth to do fieldwork. Photo 1: Old door Photo 2: Acharya Tiwari (right) 1 Patrick McCartney Initially, my biggest problem related to supremacists, to foster. I tried to specifically the ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ village of Jhiri was collect linguistic data related to Sanskrit’s that the village was impossible to locate, vitality in relation to how it survives within a which was basically due to limited and complicated linguistic ecology. imprecise information. I decided, finally, just Jhiri has only two Brahmins, out of a to go to Rajgarh district and see what might population of approximately 600, most of happen. I had been thinking about this village whom are from the Sondhiya caste. for a few years, since I came across it on my Therefore, how might the Brahminical search for information about ‘Sanskrit- Sanskrit language, in a rural village in India, speaking’ villages. Initially, like many people, evolve as a natural, as opposed to an artificial, I wanted it to be true. I noticed that most of language? What stages of imperfect learning, the websites, news articles and blog posts all if left unchecked, might result in a creole- seemed to be copying and pasting from each type hybrid between the first language(s) of other. This made me even more curious about the inhabitants and the revived Sanskrit? the veracity of the truth claims that ‘everyone I just turned up, unannounced at dusk, speaks fluent Sanskrit’. Either people in Jhiri one day, and hoped that people would uncritically consume these stories as simply at least let me stay the night. Instead of ‘true’, or, instead, they are dismissed. These staying only a few days, I ended up staying wide-ranging opinions are fascinating. Why just over one month. My intention was to do people feel the need to believe these spend this month visiting as many ‘Sanskrit- stories are true, or not? speaking’ villages as possible in Madhya There is an interdisciplinary blind spot Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, related to spoken Sanskrit. Currently, I know Uttarakhand, and Haryana. But, I felt of no other academic research into the compelled to stay. The more I learnt about the ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ village phenomenon. community, the more fascinated I became. Since Srinivas (1952, 1955, 1956, 1989), We became friends, almost instantly. It was several works have been written on the topic hard to leave, in the end. of spoken Sanskrit. This includes: Nakamura From Delhi, I took a train to Gwalior (1973); Aralikatti (1989, 1991); Hock & where I stayed with a Couchsurfing friend Pandharipandhe (1976); Hock (1983, 1991, and his family. A few days later I took a bus 1992); Pandharipande, (1991, 1992, 1995, to Guna, where I spent the night. The 1996, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013); and Hastings manager of the motel was convinced he knew (2004, 2008). Probably, however, the most where Jhiri was located. He organised a cogent overview of the success and failure of driver to escort me to Jhiri, which was spoken Sanskrit is Deshpande (2011). apparently ‘only three hours away’. We I find it interesting to explore, not only literally drove around in circles that day, the politics involved in the reclamation of backwards and forwards, stopping at this variant of the classical language, but also countless dusty intersections to ask for its acquisition as a second language. This is directions. It seemed many people had heard directly involved in the political theology in of this village (‘jo Sanskrit walleh gaon; that which Sanskrit is embedded, which demands Sanskrit village’), but no one seemed to a lexical and grammatical purity for the know exactly where it was. My experience moral, cultural and political reformation it is with asking for directions in India is that no said, by ethno-nationalist Hindu one generally wants to admit they don’t 2 Global Ethnographic 2018 know. They would rather just tell you Sanskrit teachers and convince them to start something. teaching Sanskrit again. I really wanted to stay My driver started to get annoyed. A few out of this situation. It seemed not my place to times he told me we should just turn around intercede. But, following repeated requests, and return to Guna. At one point, quite late in when the time felt right, I asked Acharya Tiwari the day, he explained that the bus in front of why he and his wife no longer taught Sanskrit, me was definitely going to Jhiri. So, as he and if they had any plans to restart the project. implied, I could just get on that bus and he He replied, smiling as always, ‘Right now, we could go home. I asked him, ‘How do you are just too busy with caring for our children, know that bus goes to Jhiri when you don’t and I have my other teaching work outside the even know where Jhiri is?’ He kept driving in village. I don’t know if the Sanskrit will restart silence. Eventually we arrived. There was no here, or not’. sign that said, ‘Welcome to the Sanskrit- speaking village of Jhiri: An ancient world, India’s own Jurassic Park’. Photo 4: Rooftop During my stay, I slept on the roof of a Photo 3: Gheesha Lal (left) and two friends three-storey building. Below, on the ground floor, the stable was full of buffalo. During Gheesha Lal, a tall, lanky, young man, the summer months, the coolest place to approached. His beaming smile disarmed sleep was on the roof. It was even too hot for me, as he briskly walked over to the car and the mosquitoes this time of year. One did not stuck his head inside the window. I spoke to need a blanket. To freshen up each morning, him in Sanskrit. He, in turn, smiling, I would go down to the 44-gallon drum next resplendent in his paan-stained singlet, to the toilet and buffalo, and, in the darkened responded in Sanskrit, which included an corner on the ground floor, pour cool water emphatic wiggle of his head. We became over me to wash away the dust-encrusted instant friends. Gheesha Lal would often take sweat from my itchy body. The buffalo me on trips around the district on his slowly warmed to me. There was not much motorbike. Having unloaded my bags from light down on the ground floor, apart from the car, Gheesha Lal led me up the main what came through a skylight. The sound of street to the home of the two Sanskrit buffalo chewing cud, and their primal grunts teachers. Exhausted and relieved, I waited and huffs they made in that hot, dark room, there and spoke Sanskrit with the husband haunt me a little bit. and wife team. In my third week in the village, during the evening celebrations of a wedding, I was asked by a couple of the villagers to speak with the 3 Patrick McCartney people were certainly not interested in being interviewed or filmed, and stayed inside their homes when I was present, I generally had more of an issue with keeping people out of the frame while recording, or not using up all my battery power and memory on taking a seemingly infinite number of selfies with everyone who requested them. Initially, some people were quite hesitant; however, the Photo 5: Buffalo roam majority were not, and, over the weeks that I was there, the people (and the buffalo) My first evening involved being taken became more familiar with me. This enabled around to meet the important people in the at least some of the problems with trying to village.
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