South Asia News

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

Cowpath Crossings: Of Vitall1ins & 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 qui te far removed as part of its from the world." O year-round collo­ et's start with a "his­ "Then one day my father L torical 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 America.' That was the pin­ Departments of ers adopt the speed of the nacle of ochievement, going Ethnic Studies, assembly line. At first, abroad .... " History, and workers rebelled. They quit What does su ch a story tell Women's Studies in droves, unable to accus­ us? For starters, we see, in in presenting Dr. tom their bodies to the new Saleem's life in a relatively Maneesha Lal. pace of the age. Since then, pastoral part of India, an Her talk - "" Of however, the adaptation imagined abroad: a cosmo­ h as been pas sed down: politan, sophisticated place Vitamins and we've all inherited it to where one finds one's self Veils: Women some degree, so that we and succeeds. America was Physicians, plug right into joysticks where, as Abraham Verghese Transnational and remotes, to repetItIve tells it, doctors could ''train Medical Dr. Maneesha La! motions of a hundred in a decent, ten-story hospi­ Research, and the kinds."! taL where the lifts are actual­ Framing of That quote, from Jeffrey ly working"; "pass boarcl­ Os teomalacia in Late Colonial Indi a" - analyzed how Eugenides' Middlesex, 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 reficiency diseases immigrants and industrial­ pull or bribes"; "practice real interacted to shape the irentity of osteomalacia as a ization in the early twentieth medicine, drive a big car on female malady in late colonial India. Beginning with a century. decent roads, and eventually 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 century. never come back to this conducted by British "America?" wretched town ... " 2 women physicians in "We lived in a very When Saleem left India the1920s, Dr. Lal went remote part of India, you to seek out that imagined on to trace the disease's know," recalls Saleem, a abroad, he was traversing a heightened visibility and 50-year-old plastic surgeon well-worn path: 25,000 evolution through the in Muncie, Indiana, in Continued on page 5 Continued on page 6 South Asia News 2

Winning Against All Odds by Monica Ghosh he Detroit Pistons and Sonia Gandhi-they ates wi th his Master's in Library and Information T exemplify the spirit that inspires the work of Sciences. As the Coordinator, he managed all the the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the day-to-day activities of the Center, including sched­ University of Hawai'i: Winning against all odds. uling and publicizing the Colloquium Series. He As a Detroiter who now lives in Honolulu, I designed an excellent poster for the SITing remain loyal to my "hometown" teams. The S ymposi urn, and has updated the Center's web­ Pi stons took their motto "Hard pages, making new materials available work pays off' and choreo­ online and including PDF versions of graphed the perfect performance the newsletter. Stu is both a friend and a against all the LA Lakers' moves. colleague-working with him has been Today the Pistons are the NBA one of the best experiences I could ever Champions. Under the leadership have. Congratulations to Stu and best of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress wishes 'for success in his career! Party won the election in India­ In my work as the Director I am eter­ 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 government, 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 ment an d participation of the (standing) with we've had an excellent Colloquium affiliate faculty (some of whom Kamla Mankekar Series, which included visitors from serve 0 n the Executive other universities (Maneesha Lal­ Commi'ttee), the students, and friends of CSAS, Trinity College); and our own faculty (Monisha the Center continues to strengthen support and Dasgupta -Women's Studies and Ethnic Studies). develop interest in South Asian Studies generally, The Spring Symposium this year, "Neoliberalism in and expand those interests uniquely to connections South Asia: Culture, Gender and Labor," was the wi th Ha wai 'i and the Pacific. brainchild of S. Charusheela (Women's Studies), After two years as the Director, my work in this organized and arranged by a small planning com­ position draws to a close. This is a fine time for mittee, including Monisha Dasgupta, Kazi Ashraf, me to move on and out, the Pistons and Sonia are and Stu Dawrs, and funded by the generosity of the winners, and I've been promoted at the library. S. G.J. and Ellen Watumull Foundation, and the Shankar, Associate Professor in the English Sidney Stern Memorial Trust. Department, was unanimously approved by the Over the last two years, I have had the pleasure members of the Executive Committee as the of meeting and hosting some of the most dynamic incoming Director of the Center. Shankar has thinkers in South Asian Studies, including Gayatri served on the Executive Committee and with his Spivak, Keya Ganguly, Akhil Gupta, Satya expertise the Center will continue to engage in Mohanty, and Dina Siddiqi. At the Library, I critical discussions on issues relating to South Asia believe my work as the South Asia Librarian has and South Asian Studies. been greatly enriched by my experience as the Another person who will be moving on is Stu Director of CSAS. Dawrs, the Coordinator for the Center. Stu gradu- Aloha and best wishes for the summer. 3 Spring 2004

CSAS Colloquia Series

ebashish Bhattacharya is widely considered to D re one of the world's greatest living guitarists. A master of the extremely challenging North Indian raga, Debashish further stands out for his choice of instrument-a direct descendant of the Hawaiian steel guitar. First introouced to Calcutta by Hawai 'i -born musician Tau Moe in the 1940s, the Hawaiian steel

Subashish and Debashish Bhattacharya

has since reen adopted by many Indian musicians. But beyond his amazing musical abilities, Debashish stands out in the Hindustani slide guitar community for the fact that he plays on several instruments of his own design, including the 22- stringed Dev Veena. Incorporating elements of the veena, sarod, sitar and Arabian kannur, the Dev Veena allows an emotional range far beyond that of a standard six-string Hawaiian steel. Along with his brother Subashish (himself an acclaimed tabla master), Debashish came to the University of Hawai 'i in February as anAsian Studies Freeman Fund Artist In Residence. (Additional support was provided by Tradex, the Natiorial Organization for Traditional Music Exchange.) While here, the Bhattacharya brothers participated in a number of public events, including two concerts, several seminars and a CSAS brown bag presentation titled Steel Guitar Comes Home: From Hawai'i to India and Back. lExJblibit South Asia News 4

Photo Journals of India

nitially presented as part of the Center For I South Asian Studies' Spring Symposium, "Photo Journals of India: Two Students' Perspectives" went on to inhabit two floors of Hamilton Library during the months of May and June. A collection of photographs taken by two graduate students, Matthew Lopresti and Nicole Marsh, "Photo Journals" documented two separate travels through India. There were Outside what was "Park Restaurant" three parts to the exhibit; One located on the (1954-1962) before Chinese first floor of Hamilton Library and two located Internment, Darjeeling on the fourth floor, in the foyer and reference areas of the Hamilton Library Asia Collection.

, 'In February, 2001, I joined my mother and ten other family members in India for a family reunion, a wedding, and a journey into the past. We stayed in Kolkata (Calcutta) for nearly a week before heading by train to Darjeeling. Growing up, I heard many stories of Darjeeling's incomparable beauty, but also of the Mehendi Ceremony, day two of the painful events of my family's forced removal four-day Punjabi Wedding, Kolkata and internment following the China-India border aol~."'.il1'101'I war of 1962. They were among the roughly 2,500 Chinese-Indians interned after this two­ month conflict. While we were in Darjeeling, we met several people who recognized my grandfather, mother and uncle. This was truly an amazing experi­ ence, and tears were shed on both sides as they began to fill the missing gaps. My photos are only a tiny reflection of this journey and place." Boys at school, Tibetan Refugees -Nicole Marsh, April, 2004 Self-Help Centre, Darjeeling pflorol ~. "'.iI~ 5 Spring 2004

atthew s. Lopresti is currently a doctoral M candidate in the Department of Philosophy 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 for study in India in 2003, he traveled to Pune, a Maharashtra, where he lived with a host family "Agra Sky", Taj Mahal Agra, Uttar Pradash and studied as a language fellow in the American Photo: M. Lopresti Institute of Indian Studies' advanced Sanskrit summer language program. August took him from Delhi to Honolulu to London and back to Delhi again. He finally unpacked his suitcases in Bihar, where he was a Lecturer of Buddhist Philosophy and Field Research Advisor for American university students studying abroad through the Antioch Buddhist Studies program. He was in India for seven months and spent another five weeks exploring Southeast Asia. He ''Cave #1", Aj anta Caves has been interested in photography ever since Fardapur, Maharashtra traveling to Paris in 1999. Photo: M. Lopresti

Crossings, cont. from Page 1 'The medical system in England hood, she had imagined an England Indian medical doctors - along with was like a pyramid. If that many peo­ of ''fine clothes, nice dishes, books, 20,000 scientists and 40,000 engi­ ple started at the bottom, only one per­ fashions." Actually living in England neers - had set up shop in America son could reach the top level. The rest came with the sad realization that between 1966 and 1977, the year that had to go back to their coun tries. "abroad" was not how she had pic­ preferential immi§ration status for "So we were thinking, 'What shall tured it. But returning "home" was physicians ceased. we do? Once you're done with your out of question. The only choice left "America?" says Malati, age 47, resid~ncy, that's it.' was to follow the path her husband's who grew up in Kanpur, not far from "And then one day Ravi hears two sisters already had taken. Saleem's Faizabad. from his sister in Detroit that there On ward to America. "When I was little, I would read all are residencies available at Henry my mom's British magazines and Ford hospital. "So he goes there and * * * * * stuff," recalls Malati in October gets interviewed, and gets selected. In this paper, I talk story. I explore 2003. "So all I ever thought was He comes back to Scarborough, and a couple of stories, stories of two 'Hah, I need to grow up and go live says, 'he~ we're going to the U.S.'" immigrants who once resided within in England.'" Henry Ford hospital in Detroit. The a couple hundred miles of each other Malati and her husband, Ravi, left assembly line churns out another and found that their paths crossed as India in 1984 so Ravi could take up immigrant take on the American they came to be rooted in a town in a residency at a hospital in Dream, a dream whose components, the Midwest. Talk story, a conversa­ Scarborough, England. Four years some would argue, were assembled tional way of speaking popular in 4 later, their second son was born, by Fordist culture itself. But in Hawai 1, offers a mode to show how and opportunities for physicians, Malati'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

Maneesha Lal, continued from page 1 Monisha Das Gupta (MDG): I was very interest­ 1930s and 1940s, paying particular attention to shift­ ed in your comment that this was a new field in ing problems of diagnosis, etiology, and treatment. terms of South Asian history. Who are the other peo­ She also argued that osteomalacia-a disease charac­ ple working in it? terized by a softening of the bones - provides a ML: There are people like David Arnold-he's pub­ unique lens through which to examine the paradoxical lished a rook called Colonizing The Body; there's also role occupied by British women in the racially strati­ Mark Harrison, who wrote Public Health in British fied and gender segregated Indian medical profession, India. There've been people who've published articles a role that yet gave them access to national and on particular as~cts of women and midwifery: transnational networks of medical resean;h. In addi­ Geraldine Fornes, a well-known women's historian, tion, Dr. Lal showed how-at a time when seclusion edited The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen, which was was increasingly contested in im~rial, translated by Tapan Raychaudhuri. nationalist, and feminist discourse and It's a fascinating memoir of a practice-osteomalacia illustrates the Bengali woman who was a widow ... rising influence of Westem medical Medical education was stratified in evidence as Indian feminists seized India-there were different levels such evidence to bolster their own of degrees available. The five-year demandsfor pumah's reform. was the MBBS, but there were peo­ Dr. Lal received her Ph.D. in History ple that were also trained as hospital and Sociology of Science at the assistants. So Haimabati Sen was University of Pennsylvania, and at the trained at somewhere near the hos­ time of her presentation was a visiting pital assistant level, and she worked professor at Trinity College. She has at Lady Dufferin hospital-one of these hospitals that published several articles and book chapters on medi­ was set up under the Dufferin Fund-rut she faced a cine in colonial India and is currently working on her lot of discrimination. We find that many of these book manuscript, Purdah and Pathology: Women women were entering into the public sIDere at a time Physicians in Colonial India. The following conversa­ tion took place immediately after her talk, and includ­ when that was still relatively rare. Even in women's ed CSAS Director Monica Ghosh and Dr. Monisha hospitals, initially under the Dufferin Fund patients had to inspected by male civil surgeons, which Das Gupta, associate professor of Ethnic Studies and re Women's Studies at the University ofHawai'i. caused a lot of problems because women physicians Monica Ghosh (MG): Your talk was very inter- would have promised their purda patients that puma esting, and I think you're coming from a very dif­ would be followed, and then sometimes men would ferent perspective-it seems the potential is there come on the wards and they often weren't as sensitive for a great deal of other work on the topic, too. to those requirements. So women physicians negotiat­ Maneesha La} (ML): There are some students in ed that issue quite often. graduate school who are getting interested in this, and So there are articles here and there, but the few books there are some people working on it, but the challenge and edited collections like David Arnold's and Mark I think is to have a history of medicine perspecti ve, as Harrison's have really focused on general kinds of top­ well as women's history, women and gender, and ics-they've been the first forays into this question. social and cultural history of South Asia. Trying to David Arnold's rook has chapters on smallpox and integrate those is not so easy; and then also looking at plague and cholera-some of which he published as what's hap{ening in Britajn .... articles-and it talks some about the women's medical MG: Yes, whatever you do raises all these ques­ movement rut very briefly, just a few ptges. Gender tions that are almost impossible for a single project hasn't really been a central theme in the history of to take on, but they open up that door. medicine that's been done-not even in the work that's 7 Spring 2004 been done on the history of tropical medicine, which is and I just got fascinated with culture and its effect a growing field: People who have been historians in on individuals and how societies were organized. medicine have been interested in the development of Especially because of my bi-cultural background: It tropical medicine and how the establishment of enti ties was a way of thinking about those issues in a way like the London School of Hygiene and Tropical I'd never thought of them before. Medicine are linked to imperial concerns. At the time, I didn't think I'd really focus on MG: And actually here in Hawai'i, tropical medi­ India. I took some courses in anthropology and cine is the big interest. .. found I was more interested in those issues. I MDG: I was thinking that people working in worked in a bio-chemistry lab for a while and found Hawaiian and Pacific Studies here might have found that I really didn't like that, and then I took a won- your talk interesting because of derful class taught by Jean the missionary presence and the Comaroff called "Medicine and colonial connections . ... Culture"-she's a medical MG: Yes, there is the connec­ "Gender hasn't anthropologist as well. I worked tion between Hawai'i and the really been a on anorexia nervosa in the U.S., U.S., while in places like Fiji, on the kinds of metaphors and there is the link with South Asia central theIne in themes that were present in the during this period of heavy way it was represented in popular movement among indentured the history of magazines like Glamour and laborers, and all of this going People. It was just fascinating the back to Britain. Inedicine that's way they presented the patient ML: There have been studies before and after-this was in by people like Ralph been done." 1985, just when anorexia was Schlomowitz and Lance Brennan, becoming really prominent. That on diseases that accompanied made me think 'maybe I want to some of the indentured laborers. I teach a course do something different,' so I switched to that in the called "Disease, Medicine and Empire," but there we end of my junior year; then I wrote my B.A. honors start from the Columbian exchange, looking at the thesis on the naming of anorexia in late Victorian effects of 1492, how the old and new worlds came Britain. together, and the effects of smallpox, particularly on Again, there wasn't a South Asia focus, but after eliminating the indigenous population. And then we college, I went to India for a year. It was from there look at some of the diseases associated with the slave that I thought I would go back to graduate school to trade, and we look at the development of tropical . combine history of medicine, science, South Asia, medicine as a specialty-the setting up of these insti- women and gender-[laughs] that's what I wrote in tutions, medical missionaries, the role of women my applications. physicians ... but I haven't focused on Hawai'i actu- Much of the work on the history ofmedicine in India ally. has been done by anthropologists: People like Charles MG: How did you develop your specialization? Leslie and then Paul Brass wrote important articles on ML: I went to University of Chicago as an under- Ayurveda. So there have been those works that have graduate, where I started out as a Chemistry major. been very useful. Charles Leslie has done some very I really liked chemistry, but I was also very interestingworkonhowAyurvedicmedicine-how,as intrigued by a course I had called "Self, Culture and it adapted to the Western medical merlel, there were Society." It was just amazing: We were reading certain groups that tried to keep it vel)' pure and resis­ Marx, Freud's Interpretation of Dreams-keep in ted any kind of adaptation or integration with western mind this is as freshmen-we read most of The Gift, medi cine, w bile others were more promoting a kind of

Continued on Page 13 South Asia News 8 Hindustan Kaise Hai? by Isaac Souweine "llindustan kaise hai (How is frame of reference, and wi th it a adrift, either speechless or else .IIIndia)? The question is part of yoursel f, pulsates in phe­ capable of speaking only rudi­ deceptively simple, the answers nomenal exchange. mentary sentences of consterna­ predictably flaccid, propped up by Of course, things do settle tion: "Ye kya hai" (what is this)?; the interpretive crutch of cliche. down after a while; with experi­ "Maim kaun hum" (who am I)? ence comes familiarity and even That which troubles and eludes a modicum of comfort. You get you is deeply entwined with the used to things: the pressing heat, richness of human culture in all of the stark landscape, the' chaotic its massive facti city. You have roadways, the ubiquitous tem­ come to understand and engage ples. But if this process of accul­ with India but the task overwhelms turation is reassuring, it also por­ you, for this 'India' that you covet tends more substantial chal­ spans dizzying landscapes of lenges ahead; beyond mere sur­ meaning, from the tangible physi­ vi val lie the pitfalls of compre­ cality of climate to the vast sweep hension, interaction, meaning. If of human activity: religion and anything, adaptation exacerbates JX)liti cs and warfare and agricul­ your coming difficulties; by ture and art and architecture and so Holi in front of the reducing superficial difference it on. Hundreds of millions ofpeople Jagdish Mandir in highlights fundamental disconti­ implicated in vast networks of cul­ Udaipur, Rajasthan. nuity: between you and this tural practice constructed upon on place; between you and different layers of complex historical fact: Comforting abstractions have been visions of yourself; between you exchanged for oppressively con­ and the world. crete facts, and a corresJX)nding You came toting cliches, styl­ loss for words. Not that your pre­ ized portraits and catch phrases, conceptions simply vanish upon but now you know better, know arrival; without them there could something of the feel or taste or be no constructing of yourself and sound behind the glib phrase or your environment, no being "you telling story. Your cliches begin to in India." But whereas before these sound rough and passe; their The Holi is set aflame. cate gories and concepts pIa yed in smug tone catches in your throat an autonomous world of thought, and mars the appearance of your now they are kept busy and breath­ printed page. Easy words reveal the collective effect is bewildering. less assembling and integrating a their brute intentions of synopsis Moreover, that which appears rush of sensory input: sights and cum possession; you are remind­ from a distance as a coherent smells and sounds and everywhere ed forcefully about the urge whole is actually riven with fault­ a visual field punctuated by bright toward ownership that lies deep lines and points of contestation; and shocking difference, from the within the quest for knowledge. In what you can't comp-ehend turns unflinching stares of the people to moments of seeming clarity, you out to not even exi st. the enticements of the exurerant repudiate your accumulated stock Humanity is a kind of enor- ' signage. Expanding, combining, of facile understandings, but this mous family, such that human rearranging, solidifying: your only leaves you feeling alone and cultural worlds rear deep family 9 Spring 2004 resemblances. This generic com­ from the music and the clothing and awash in the ridiculous. In monality gives license for the to the regional identi ties and reli­ disgust, you insist that you don't cautious employment of cate­ gious ideologies are over-deter­ belong here, that your high-mind­ gories like religion and politics mined and cuI turall y embedded ed ideals about inter-cultural and economic development, in ways that restrict your compre­ exchange IT global consciousness organizing principles that help hension. Thus, you come to are nothing but arid delusions. prevent sensory overload. What's appreciate the sounds of the And yet somehow it is in these more, globalization is daily veena but never figure out when very moments of darkness that a reducing the magnitp

Fall 2004 Courses ES 360 ,,­ Immigration to Hawaii TR 12:00-1:15 M. Das Gupta ES 380 Field work in Ethnic Studies TBA M. Das Gupta ES 418 W 1:30-4:00 M. Das Gupta HNDII MWF 8:30-9:55 TBA MWF 3:00 - 5:30 TBA MW 2:30-3:55 R. Sharma TR 9:00-10:15 R. Sharma TR 11 :00 - 12: 15 R. Sharma i MW 10:30-11:55 R. Sharma M 12:45-3:15 A. ChakIabarti MWF 10:30-11 :20 S, Charusheela W 12:30-3:00 R.Lamb TR 9:00-10:15 M. Das Gupta MWF 9:30-10:20 S. Charusheela W 1:30-4:00 M. Das Gupta MWF 10:30-11:20 S. Charusheela B. Andaya R. Trimillos M. Sharma TBA South Asia News 10

Neoliberalism in South Asia: Culture, Gender and Labor

history, including Akhil Gupta (Stanford University), Dina Siddiqi (Columbia University), Paula Chakravartty (U-MASS Amherst), Purnima Mankekar (Stanford University), and a host of others. A further, previously unanticipated benefit of the Symposium is the fact that, following his visit in April, Akhil Gupta has expressed interest in serving as a Freeman Undergraduate Visiting Faculty member in Fall 2005. Below is the complete listing of participants and events from this year's Symposium.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: • Akhil Gupta (Professor of Cultural And Social Anthropology, Stanford University): "Theorizing the State After Liberalization." Paula Chakravartty • Dina Siddiqi (International and Public Affairs, Columbia University): "Globalization, Sexual Harrassment and n the 1980s and 1990s, South Asian countries Worker's Rights in Bangladesh." adopted neoliberal policies that led to increased I • Paula Chakravartty (Assistant Professor of foreign investment, export-oriented economies, Communication, U-MASS Amherst): and cuts in public spending.With these transfor­ "High-Tech India: Labor, Liberalization and mations, South Asia has become increasingly Transnational Politics" enmeshed in global and gendered flows of culture and labor. The 21st Annual Spring Symposium of the Center for South Asian Studies took place on Thursday and Friday, April 15-16,2004. This year's Symposium was titled "Neoliberalism in South Asia: Culture, Gender, and Labor." Among other questions, the gathering was meant to assess what localized responses have been generated-by the rise of neoliberalism in the region. Thanks to the generous support of the G.J. and Ellen Watumull Foundation and an additional $5,000 grant from the Sidney Stern Memorial Dina Siddiqi, Paula Chakravartty, Trust, the Center was able to assemble one of the Monisha Das Gupta, Nandita Sharma most di verse groups of keynote speakers and and S. Charusheela (from left) paper presenters in the Symposium's two decade during a break in the proceedings. 11 Spring 2004

THURSDAY, 4/15: Maneesha Lal Cont. from Page 7 these? syncretic vision, saying they ML: There were paper 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 10:45-12:15: PANEL#l Ayurvedic medical schools. and Tropical Medicine and · Chair: And of course Ayurvedic revi- now there are many of them Kazi Ashraf (UB-Manoa) talization adopted a lot of at the We llcom e Institute, and Presenters: institutional forms of western then the National Library of Anthony D'Costa (Univ. of Washington): medicine. Medicine in Delhi also has "Transitioning to a New Regime of Capitalist But some of that work real- several copies. The archival Regulation: The Interplay of State, Labor, and ly didn't put these individuals record is very scattered: I've Capital in West Bengal" and things into careful histor- been working on three cooti­ Purnima Mankekar: (Stanford): ical context-they didn't nec- nents, using medical mission­ "Love in the Era of Economic Liberalization" essarily re·ly on historical ary archives, medical school Kalindi Vohra (UC Santa Cruz): archives. That's what histori- archives and archives in "The Limits of Capital: Others' Organs as the ans are starting to do now, and libraries. It's been an enor­ Last Commodity" its really a growing, vibrant mous amount of work-a lot 2-4 p.m.: Film screening: My Son The Fanatic field-there are a lot of of detective work in piecing Introduced by Vimal Dissanayke (UB-Manoa) younger scholars who've got- things together from different ten interested in India, there sources. FRIDAY, 4/16: are a lot of edited collections Your project not only 9-10:30 a.m.: KEYNOTE ADDRESS MG: Akhil Gupta (Stanford University) that are coming out, so I think talks about the practice, but there's a lot of potential. But also about the research that's 10:45-11:45 a.m.: PANEL #2 Chair: gender is still somewhat mar- going on ... , S. Krishna (UB-Manoa) ginal, and the work of women ML: Yes, and then also Presenters: is somewhat marginal. looking at the development S. Charusheela (UB-Manoa): MDG: So then did you of institutions. We don't even "Competing Modernities: Neoliberal Reform come across osteomalacia by have a basic history of this: and Women's Work in the Informal Sector" going through the archives? There are so many questions Ashwin Raj (UB-Manoa): ML: No, the way I came that are there, and there's not "'Good' Governance: Nirvana in an age of across it was that for one of the really scholarship to rely on. Global Capitalism." chapters in my book I wanted Now that's growing, and 2-3:30 p.m.: KEYNOTE ADDRESS to focus on medical that's why my project is more Paula Chakravartty (U-MASS Amherst) reseatch-what was going on, possible now than it was 3:45-5 p.m.: PANEL #3 what kinds of research they before, because now there are Chair: were doing. I looked through a some interpretations that one Monisha Das Gupta (UB-Manoa) lot of the files of The Journal can argue with or build on or Presenters: of the Association of Medical challenge. That really wasn't Robina Bhatti 0: "The Heart of Pakistan: Women in India. This was a the case just 10 years ago. So Popular Culture in Lahore" ~oumal that started in the early it's really dynamic. And it's· Himanee Gupta (UB-Manoa): "Cowpath 20th century, and it published the same thing · witb . the Crossings: Stories of Two Indian Immigrant news of the profession and all development of women and Doctors From Muncie" kinds of things that they were gender history-it's just Pavitra Sundar (University of Michigan): fighting for. exploded. It's just fascinating "Mit Jaave Jo Takraave: Hindutva Ideology MG: Where did you find and really exciting. and the Warrior Citizen in Lagaan" South Asia News 12

Boston, on a project on "The recherche en sciences humaines Idea of Hometown." et sociales," in which parts of his Kazi K. Ashraf (School of Monica Ghosh (South Asia audio-visual field collections Architecture) presented a paper, Librarian, Hamilton Library; from Nepal will be archived. "Taking Place: The Notion of outgoing CSAS Director) pre­ A series of "conversations" with Landscape in Kahn's sented a paper titled "What's Dr. Maskarinec regarding his Architecture," at the sympo­ Eaten You?: Transposing Nepal research, which were sium Engaging Louis 1. Kahn: Colonial Anxieties on Tigers" filmed last fall at the Maison A Legacy for the Future, Yale on February 12, 2004, in a talk des Sciences de I'Homme, are University, 2004. He also pre­ sponsored by the UH-Manoa web-posted at: http://e-semi­ sented a paper, "Where Is Department of English and co­ otics.msh-paris.fr/opales/collo­ Architecture," at the ARCASIA sponsored by the Centers for ques/colconv/entretienlintroduc­ (Architects Regional Council South Asian Studies and Pacific tion.asp?idcol=161 The site Asia) Seminar Globalization Island Studies (SHAPS-UHM). includes clips from Dr. and Asian Architecture, in From March 4-7, 2004 she Maskarinec's films of Nepalese Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2003, and a attended the Annual Meeting of shamans. paper, "Sundarnagar: The City the Association for Asian in Cinematic and Architectural Studies (AAS) in San Diego. Jaishree Odin co-edited with Imagination," at the 32nd Peter Manicas a collection of Annual Conference on South During fall 2003, Gregory G. essays, Globalization and Higher Asia, at the University of Maskarinec (Department of Education (University of Hawai 'i Wisconsin, Madison, 2003. Family Practice and Community Press, 2004). The volume In addition, he produced a web Health, John A. Burns School of includes an essay by her on profile on the city of Dhaka for Medicine) was an invited schol­ "New Technologies and the the Architecture League of New ar in the "Milieux, Societes et Reconstitution of the University." York's web project, Cultures en Himalaya" Division Jaishree's recent publications www.worldviewcities.org; of France's Centre N ati onal de I a include: "Lalla and the Kashmiri served as a juror for the AlA Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Shaiva Tradition" in The Valley Honolulu Design Award, 2004; There he worked toward com­ of Kashmir: The Making and continues as member of the pleting his next volume of Unmaking of a Composite Advisory Committee for Nepalese Shaman Oral Texts (to Culture, Eds. T.N. Mada~ and Shangri La, The Doris Duke be published by Harvard Aparna Rao (Berghan Books House, and the Islamic World University Press in 2004). He Pub, forthcoming); "A Lotus in Arts Initiative; and continues to was simultaneously guest pro­ the Mud: Relevance of Lalla's write a column, "On Cities," for fessor of Anthropology at the Verses" in Manushi (October the Dhaka-based English daily, University of Paris X (Nanterre), 2003); "Embooiment and The Daily Star. where he presented a series of Narrative Performance" in His current publication and lectures on Himalayan culture, Women, Art, and Technology research projects include com­ language, medicine and religion. (MIT Press, 2003); and a book pleting the manuscript of a He was also an invited partici­ review, "Does E-Moderating an forthcoming book, The Last pant of the Maison des Sciences Active Classroom Make?" In On Hut: A Study in Asceticism and de l'Homme's project "Les the Horizon (2003). She received Architecture, and working with archives audiovisuelles de la a Sloan Founda tion Award Jyoti Puri, Simmons College, 13 Spring 2004

JFm~UIlnfry N ®w~ Crossings, cont. from Page 5 American, somewhat pastoral, and embedded in daily life. resolutely typical: Muncie. $4,600 in Summer 2004 to The stories I tell are gleaned from I know this town well. It is where develop online course materials stories that were told to me last fall, I grew up. My own cowpath for IS 331 Science and Culture as I did dissertation fieldwork. The through life took me there at age (to re offered in Spring 2005) larger project explores the relation­ three, when my family became the focusing on cultural studies of ship between the growing populari­ first Indian family in Muncie, arriv­ science, including the intersec­ ty over the past two decades of a ing there in 1966. Although I have not lived in Muncie since 1981, it tions of science, gender, and the Hindu nationalist political move­ ment in India and the establishment has loomed large in my imaginary environment. since the mid-1960s of an affluent, for decades, at least partly because mostly immigrant Indian communi­ it is the only place where I can During his sabbatical (Fall ty in the United States. However, stake some sort of claim to roots. 2003), Lee Siegel (Religion while this transnational political Yet, roots or routes, as the work Department) was a resident fel­ movement is an important aspect of of James Clifford, Paul Carter, Paul low at the Rockefeller this project, looking at it empirical­ Gilroy among many others sug­ ly is not the intent. Rather, I am gests, are complex affairs. Where Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in more interested in viewing the truth you're fro main' t n ecessaril y where Bellagio, Italy. He was one of claims that have arisen about that you're at; what's rooted-ness to thirty-three featured authors at relationship di scursively and in some is routed-ness to others. All of the Internationales examining how they mayor may us who grew up - as young immi­ Literatutfestival in Berlin, and not intersect with memories and grant adults - with the community was a speaker and panelist at the other stories that emerge through and those of us who grew up - as South Asians - in South Asian Literary and conversations with immigrant Muncie-raised Indians and their descendents. the community knew the Indians Theater Arts Festival in Thus, the project might be defined always were here, in our own imag­ Washington, D.C. He lectured as a n arrati ve ab out narratives. It inaries, at least. Yet, that here was a on and fetformed traditi onal looks at narrative as a device that, little like that hollow in the old Indian street magic at the like discourse, conveys meaning schoolyard oak tree: a secret pro­ Academie de Magie in Paris and and at stories that, like sedimented tected from dominant view. at Williams College in forms of knowledge, construct Saleem and Malati are two of truths that are situated, contingent, approximately forty participants in Massachusetts. His essay on and contestable.5 In this sense, I the project. Both, as noted, came to Hawai'i was published by in vite yo u to read the stories I tell as, Muncie from the north-central Nation Books in John Leonard's Michel de Certeau suggests, provid­ Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, tra­ These United States: Original ing a "decorative container of a nar­ versing the immigration route via Essays by Leading American rativity for everyday practices ,,(j that the relatively affluent path of medi­ Writers on Thei r States Within interrelate with and/or contest larger cine. Saleem, arriving in 1983, is Muncie's sole plastic surgeon. the Union. L'Amour dans une discourses about post-colonial migration and transnational capital Malati, arriving in 1994, has been langue morte, a French transla­ flows. Doing so would recognize an pursuing a degree in counseling; her tion of his novel Love in a Dead interviewing of narrativity - the husband, Ravi, is a kidney special­ Language, was published by telling of stories - and discourse­ ist. Both Saleem and Malati have Editions Philippe Picquier in the process through which truths are raised children in the United States Paris. And his novel, Love and constructed. to adult age: Saleem's eldest daugh­ Other Games ojChance, was The stories I share both h ere an d in ter is a sophomore in college; the larger project are set in a small­ Malati's eldest son is getting ready issued in paperback by Penguin town famous for being all- to start medical school. In many Books in January. Continued on Page 14 South Asia News 14

Crossing, continued from Page 13 for?" From there, he went to Chattanooga, ways, one might regard the political Tennessee, to do a special residency i n and economic ciocumstances that rout­ * * * * * plastic surgery. He arrived in Muncie ed these two families to Muncie as In Saleem's story, every crisis turns in 1983. similar. However, th eir recoun tings of into an opportunity. The last-minute "I wanted to practice in a medi­ that experience differ quite markedly. approval of his visa gets him into um-sized town, a place with good For Saleem, the "cowpath" to America, just in time. Adelay that pre­ opportunity. America was a path away from intel­ ceded it fooced him to finish his med­ I bought a Reader's Digest lectual frustration. Once he arrived, he ical degree, allowing him to spend the almanac to find out the popula­ never looked back. Going back would next several months in America look­ tion of various places. I found out have meant a practice in a remote ing for a hospital where he could do his there was a universi ty here; a place, where the only medications training in general surgery. By oontrast, hospital. I compared values and available for dispensation were vitamin Malati's story resounds with difficulty. Muncie came ou t as the best pills and treatments for diarrhea. For In Detroit, her husband did a fourth res­ place to practice plastic surgery. Malati, the cowpath was a journey idency - following years of grueling, University, medium sized town, marked by loneliness and displace­ on-demand service in Kanpur, New large single hospital, so many ment. "We did it the hard way," says Delhi, and then in England. From surgeons but no plastic surgeons. Malati, ruefully, as she recalls how her there, it was several more years of serv­ "I decided, 'that's the place I'm going husband's around-the-clock residency ice in rural Kentucky, then Lexington, to go.' But I had not seen Muncie." requirements once prompted her three­ and finally the lure of secure employ­ He drove from Chattanooga, took the year-old son to ask, "Mom, what does ment, in Muncie. exit off Interstate 69 to Highway 32. Dad look like?" Difficulty is wh at she ins ists creates The road was narrow; all rural, nothing. character. "We really struggled," she "I'm driving," he says. ''It's barren. It's * * * * * recalls. "We reached ... this stage in April, the leaves haven't yet started Saleem boarded a plane bound for life the hard way. It probably gave us coming. It looked very depressing." Boston in early 1977. It was either better values. Not to take anything for The quality of the hospital, the pres­ January 6 or 7. Every seat on the air­ granted is one of them." ence of a four-year reseaoch university, craft was filled. With Indian doctors. and the willingness - albeit a grudged All were bound for America And all * * * * * willingness - to grant the foreign plas­ were racing against time. The third-cat­ tic surgeon hospital privileges con­ egory immigration preference that the Scholarship on memory suggests vinced Saleem to follow through with United States had granted to foreign that what one chooses to remember his plan. He moved to the city with his physicians between 1965 and 1976 was and what one chooses to forget is a wife, and open ed an office. His wife ending; the American economy no highly selective yet uneven process. sat in the front, and he filled the file longer had a need for that kind of labor. Keya Ganguly's work on immigrant cabinets with folders, empty folders, in Saleem had been told by a visa officer memories further argues that this order to appear professional. Slowly, at the embassy in Delhi that he needed selectivity contains a gendered compo­ he built a practice. to be in the United States by January 9. nent'? In making this point, Ganguly "I didn't know a single soul," he Otherwise, it would be too late. argues that the construction of self says. "I just opened my shop." "It was an Alitalia flight. We had a emerges almost inherently through a Malati recalls driving with Ravi layover in Rome; they told us that gendered positioning of the self within into the city. They were going down the Boston airport was closed power relationships, and that these McGalliard Avenue, a major thor­ because of a snowstorm. I pan­ relationships, once defined, continue oughfare, when they spotted a bill­ icked." to energize the constitution of self in board. "Suddenly, we saw, 'Gupta Malati also recalls arri ving in narrative. In this light, let's look at Hobby Center.' And I said, Gupta-ji is America amid a snowstorm. "We how Malati and Saleem each remem­ here? And we were both like, 'Yes! flew to Detroit. It was a horrible, ber their first encounters with Muncie. There's someone called Gupta. Must black night. The plane wasn't given Saleem did his homework. He com­ be an Indian. '" permission to land. We thought, 'Oh pleted his general surgery training at a The existence of a Gupta-ji made God, what are we letting ourselves in hospi tal in Eastern Pen ns yl vania. Malati feel as if she could make 15 Spring 2004

Muncie her home. "It's a fact of the dinner at the home of a non-Indian ... made his workers adopt the speed hu man race th at you do need so me one for a completely non-work related of the assembly line." of your own background evenrually," matter? In a seemingly parallel script, Ravi she says. "Trust me; that's how it goes." Approximately five months after states: "The worth of an immigrant "We were like, 'Oh, so there's at least my interview with Kamal, I posed that rests only in wha t he can do to one; someone called Gupta here.' And question to Ravi, the 51-year-old hus­ improve the life of a local person. then we were staying at a hotel. It was band of Malati. That's really all that we're worth. As like so derelict No one arranged big "The answer to that question," long as I am useful to the hospital, I gatherings. The hospital didn't know Ravi said, "is once in our own neigh­ am a good doctor. If I grow older, if I that we would wan t to ... now, it is so borhood. Once -or twice every year am no longer able to carry out my different. The moment Ravi hears in the because of some neighborhood gath­ tasks, they won't care. They'll just hospital that there's someone with erings. In ten years, I can count two find someone else." Indian roots, he goes all out to call up other instances, where someone has At first, the workers rebelled. Then, the community and say, 'Come. Come called us out of an interest in friend­ they learned to adapt. to our house; we'll all eat together. ship. In both cases, these people had "I know a doctor, an Egyptian," There's a new person.' Just to make traveled a lot, were familiar with says Ravi. "When he falls into these them feel at home, to give them a real India ... moods, he buys himself cars to com­ taste of the Indian part of the com mun i­ ... Maybe it's because we don't eat fort himself." ty. Otherwise, why do you pick meat. Maybe that makes it more diffi­ What do you do? I asked. Muncie, if you don't know that there's cult." Ravi responded: Work. "I work; it's anyone of your own kind here?" Embedded in Ravi's response is a my way of not having to think about That need for community runs deep sense of personal alienation, and these things that we're talking about." strong in Malati's story. Saleem, loneliness that, unlike the gendered dif­ however, downplays it. "Indian com­ ferences one might encounter between munity? I didn't even think of it; I Malati and Saleem, seems to converge 1 Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex didn't have family. I didn't even with his wife's sense of uprootedness. (New York: Picador, 2002), 95. think that much about money. I just For Saleem - "a Muslim from Faizabad, 2 Abraham Verghese, "The wanted to do surgery on my own; to the sister city to Ayodhya - imagining Cowpath to America," New Yorker, be my own boss." India as home comes with a growing 73: 17 (1997), 74. insecurity for the safety of himself and 3 Niti Bhan, "Community Profile: * * * * his wife, and, more significantly for the Indian Americans," Asians in America This paper, presented initially at a numerous members of his extended Project. Center for South Asian Studies sym­ family who still reside in his home 4 See, for instance, Mark Rupert's posium at the University of Hawai'i, town, a community made increasingly discussions of Fordism in Producing explains very little. But through the volatile by the growing politicization of Hegemony: The Politics of Mass use of talk-story it hopefully shows Hindu-Muslim tensions. Ravi - a Production and American Global quite a bi t, about how themes of Hindu from Kanpur- thinks of home in Power (Cambridge: Cambridge neoliberalism, late capitalism, gen­ much more nostalgic terms. Even his University Press, 1995). dered memories and transnational Indian friends in Muncie, he says, are 5 Donna Haraway, Modest flows enact themselves in individuals not the same as his friends at home. Witness@Second Millennium: who were, from early adolescent That loneliness seems to play out Female Man Meets OncoMouse memory, always already transnational. against a backdrop where he has come (New York: Routledge, 1997), 230. I wish to conclude with one final to realize that an immigran t is meas­ 6 Michel de Certeau, The Practice story, drawn from interviews with ured in terms of use-value. That, in of Everyday Life (Berkeley: two other research participants. One tum, magnifies a sense of dehumaniza­ University of California Press, 1984), of them, a 60-year-old immigrant tion that appears to intensify with the 70. whom I'll call Kamal proposed in acceleration of capital flows. 7 Keya Ganguly, "Migrant mid-November that I ask my inter­ Recall Jeffrey Eugenides words: Identities: Personal Memory and the viewees the following question: How "People stopped being human in Construction of Selfhood," Cultural many times have you been invited to 1913. That was the year Henry Ford Studies 6:1 (1992),27-50 SOUTH ASIA NEWS STAFF selVedin 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 ajoumalist in recent years. These funds provide a intelViewing 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. TZ"" amla Mankekar is a well­ acted closely with some of the ~nown 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 fie1d-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 the Times of India, and subsequently Symposium Please see page 10.

Center for South Asian Studies School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies Moore Hall 223 1890 East-West Road University of Hawai 'i-Manoa Honolulu, Hawai'i, 96822 USA