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.