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Religion in Literature and Film in South Asia This page intentionally left blank Religion in Literature and Film in South Asia Edited by Diana Dimitrova RELIGION IN LITERATURE AND FILM IN SOUTH ASIA Copyright © Diana Dimitrova, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-62225-8 All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38396-2 ISBN 978-0-230-10552-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230105522 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Religion in literature and fi lm in South Asia / edited by Diana Dimitrova. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-38396-2 1. Indic literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures—India. 3. Religion in literature. 4. Myth in literature. 5. Religion in motion pictures. 6. Myth in motion pictures. I. Dimitrova, Diana, 1969– PK5410.R4R45 2010 891.4—dc22 2009041346 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company First edition: February 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Katie This page intentionally left blank Contents The Editor ix Contributors xi Note on Transliteration xv On Myth and Mythologizing: An Introduction 1 Diana Dimitrova PART I Religion, Myth, and Gender 1 Seeking God: Narratives of the Spiritual in Amrita Bharati’s Work and Hindi Poetry 23 Lucy Rosenstein 2 Who Is Afraid of Mı¯ra¯ba¯ı¯? Gulzar’s Antidote for Mı¯ra¯’s Poison 45 Heidi Pauwels 3 Religion and Gender in Bollywood Film 69 Diana Dimitrova 4 The Creative Modern and the Myths of the Goddess Mariyamman 83 Perundevi Srinivasan PART II Religion, Myth, and Politics 5 Constructed Religious Feelings and Communal Identities in Hama¯ra¯ S´ahar us baras by Gı¯ta¯ñjalı¯ S´rı¯ 95 Alessandra Consolaro viii ● Contents 6 Dharma Reconsidered: The Inappropriate Poetry of Arun Kolatkar in Sarpa Satra 131 Laetitia Zecchini 7 From Otherland to the Divine Land: Exile, Mysticism, and Secularism in K. B. Vaid’s Dard la¯ dava¯ 153 Anne Castaing 8 In the Face of Even Lesser Breeds: Reading Nayantara Sahgal with Indian Christians 171 Clara Joseph 9 Censorship, Social Reform, and Mythological Drama in Colonial India 191 Nandi Bhatia 10 From Kuruks.etra to Ra¯mara¯jya: A Comparative Analysis of the Star Personas of Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan 213 Sunny Singh Index 223 The Editor Diana Dimitrova obtained her Ph.D. in Modern and Classical Indology at the University of Heidelberg in 2000. She is Assistant Professor of Hinduism and South Asian Religions at Michigan State University. Her research interests are Hindi drama, Bollywood fi lm, bhakti Hinduism, and Hindu reform movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is the author of Gender, Religion and Modern Hindi Drama (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008) and Western Tradition and Naturalistic Hindi Theatre (New York: Peter Lang, 2004). Her recent articles include “The Treatment of Women and Gender in the Plays Asharh ka ek din and Adhe adhure by Mohan Rakesh (1925–1972),” in ToÞwa-e-dil. Festschrift Helmut Nespital (Reinbek: Wezler, 2001), “Of satis, Sitas, and Miras: Three Female Protagonists in Modern Hindi Drama,” in Heroes and Heritage: The Protagonist in Indian Literature and Film (Leiden, Netherlands: Research School CNWS, Leiden University, 2003); “The Indian Character of Modern Hindi Drama: Neo-Sanskritic, Pro-Western Naturalistic or Nativistic Dramas?” In Theology and Literature: Rethinking Reader Response (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); “Upendranath Ashk’s Play Tufan se pahle and Hindu-Muslim Cultural Hybridity,” in Voices from South Asia (Zagreb: Bibliotheca Orientalica of the Croatian Philological Society, 2006); and “The Development of Sanatana Dharma in the Twentieth Century: A Radhasoami Perspective.” In The International Journal of Hindu Studies 1, no., 1 (2007) 89–98, “Neo-Sanskritic and Naturalistic Hindi Drama.” Modern Indian Theatre (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). This page intentionally left blank Contributors Nandi Bhatia is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario. Her books include Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theatre and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India (University of Michigan Press and Oxford University Press, 2004), Partitioned Lives: Narratives of Home, Dislocation, and Resettlement (Pearson, 2008, co-ed.), and Modern Indian Theatre: A Reader (Oxford University Press, January 2009). She has also guest-edited a special issue of Feminist Review on “Postcolonial Theatres,” and coedited a special issue of Fashion Theory on “Fashion and Orientalism.” Additionally, her articles on colonial and post- colonial theatre, fi lm, and literature have appeared in Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, Centennial Review, Feminist Review, South Asia Graduate Research Journal, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, Gramma, and book collections. Anne Castaing obtained her Ph.D. at Inalco, Paris. She is a lecturer of Hindi Literature in INALCO, Paris. She edited an anthology of Indian Literature, Ragmala, Anthologie des littératures indiennes traduites en français (Editions L’Asiathèque, 2005), and coedited the book La Modernité Littéraire Indienne en question, which includes critical articles and transla- tions from Indian languages (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, forthcom- ing). She is also a translator of Hindi Literature: Intimités, a collection of poetry by Ashok Vajpeyi (Caractères, 2006); Lila, a novel by K. B. Vaid, translated with Annie Montaut (Caractères, 2005); “Musulmans, tous frères,” a story by Agyeya translated in collaboration (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming). Alessandra Consolaro obtained her MA in Sankrit at the University of Milan and in Hindi at the University of Turin, and her Ph.D. in History and International Relationships at the University of Pisa. In 1991 she received a Fulbright scholarship (University of Washington, Seattle). At xii ● Contributors present she teaches Hindi Language and Literature at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Turin. Her research interests include contemporary Hindi fi ction: critical study and translation; decolonization in South Asia and its relations with the standardization of modern Hindi language and literature; South Asian history (twentieth cen- tury, nationalism, and postcolonial); and colonial and postcolonial theory. Her recent publications (not including four research articles in Italian and translations of literary Hindi texts into Italian) are “Evaluating Contemporary Hindi Narrative in Italy: A Random Approach and the Perpetuation of Stereotypes.” In A. Monti and M. Goglio, eds., Streaming Up Memory In- Between Past and Present: A River of Words; Meeting the Indian Writers Alka Saraogi and Anita Nair (Torino: L’Harmattan Italia Paradoxa/Texts, 2004), 62–71; “Rag-Virag: A Drama of Attachment and Nonattachment.” In A. Monti, M. Goglio, and E. Adami, eds., Feeding the Self, Feeling the Way in Ancient and Contemporary South Asian Cultures (Torino: L’Harmattan Italia Paradoxa/Texts, 2005), 94–113. Clara A. B. Joseph is Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary. Her publications include The Agent in the Margin: Nayantara Sahgal’s Gandhian Fiction (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008), Theology and Literature: Rethinking Reader Responsibility (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and Global Fissures: Postcolonial Fusions (Rodopi, 2006). Her articles have appeared in journals such as World Englishes, Research in African Literatures, World Literature Written in English, and English Studies in Canada. She has been awarded an SSHRCC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Standard Research Grant for her current research on Christian literary works of India. She serves on the editorial boards of ARIEL and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing. Heidi Pauwels obtained her Ph.D. in Hindi in 1994 at the University of Washington. She is currently Associate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her main research interests are Krishna and Rama bhakti, esp. Sita and Radha as role models in Sanskrit and medieval texts and contemporary fi lm and television, and Nagridas alias Savant Singh of Kishangarh. She is the author of In Praise of Holy Men: Hagiographic Poems by and about Harira¯m Vya¯s (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2002) and Kr..sn. a’s Round Dance Reconsidered: Harira¯m Vya¯s’s Hindi Ra¯s-pañca¯dhya¯nı¯ (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1996) Her recent publications include Indian Literature and Popular Cinema: Recasting Classics (London; New York: Routledge, 2007), “‘Only You’ The Wedding of Rama and Sita, Past and Present,” in Ramayana Revisited (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 165–218; Contributors ● xiii “Is Love Still Stronger Than Dharma? What Ever Happened to Sita’s Choice and the Gopis’s Voice?” in Playing for Real: Hindu Role Models, Religion, and Gender (Delhi: Oxford University Press,