ग्रीटिंग कार्ड और राशन कार्ड (व्यंग्य): हरिशंकर परसाई

ग्रीटिंग कार्ड और राशन कार्ड 

(हरिशंकर परसाई)

मेरी टेबिल पर दो कार्ड पड़े हैं - इसी डाक से आया दिवाली ग्रीटिंग कार्ड और दुकान से लौटा राशन कार्ड। ग्रीटिंग कार्ड में किसी ने शुभेच्छा प्रगट की है कि मैं सुख और समृद्धि प्राप्त करूँ। अभी अपने शुभचिंतक बने हुए हैं जो सुख दिए बिना चैन नहीं लेंगे। दिवाली पर कम से कम उन्हें याद तो आती है कि इस आदमी का सुखी होना अभी बकाया है। वे कार्ड भेज देते हैं कि हम तो सुखी हैं ही, अगर तुम भी हो जाओ, तो हमें फिलहाल कोई एतराज नहीं।

मेरा राशन कार्ड मेरे सुख की कामना कर रहा है। मगर राशन कार्ड बताता है कि इस हफ्ते से गेहूँ की मात्रा आधी हो गई है। राशन कार्ड मे ग्रीटिंग कार्ड को काट दिया। ऐसा तमाचा मारा कि खूबसूरत ग्रीटिंग कार्ड जी के कोमल कपोल रक्तिम हो गए। शुरु से ही राशन कार्ड इस ग्रीटिंग कार्ड की ओर गुर्राकर देख रहा था। जैसे ही मैं ग्रीटिंग कार्ड पढ़कर खुश हुआ, राशन कार्ड ने उसकी गर्दन दबाकर कहा - क्यों बे साले, ग्रीटिंग कार्ड के बच्चे, तू इस आदमी को सुखी करना चाहता है? जा, इसका गेहूँ आधा कर दिया गया। बाकी काला-बाजार से खरीदे या भूखा रहे।

बेचारा ग्रीटिंग कार्ड दीनता से मेरी ओर देख रहा है। मैं क्या करूँ? झूठों की रक्षा का ठेका मुझे थोड़े ही मिला है। जिन्हें मिला है उनके सामने हाथ जोड़ो। मेरे राशन कार्ड को तेरी झूठ बर्दाश्त नहीं हुई। इन हालात में सुख का झूठी आशा लेकर तू क्यों आया? ग्रीटिंग कार्ड राष्ट्रसंघ के शांति प्रस्तावों की तरह सुंदर पर प्रभावहीन है। राशन कार्ड खुरदरा और बदसूरत है, पर इसमें अनाज है। मेरे लिए यही सत्य है। और इस रंगीन चिकनाहट में सत्यहीन औपचारिक शुभेच्छा है। ग्रीटिंग कार्ड सत्य होता अगर इसके साथ एक राशन कार्ड भी भेजा गया होता और लिखा होता - हम चाहते हैं कि तुम सुख प्राप्त करो। इस हेतु हम एक मरे हुए आदमी के नाम से जाली राशन कार्ड बनवाकर भेज रहे हैं। जब तक धाँधली चले सस्ता अनाज लेते जाना और सुखी रहना। पकड़े जाने पर हमारा नाम मत बताना। संकट के वक्त शुभचिंतक का नाम भूल जाना चाहिए।

मित्रों से तो मैं कहना चाहता हूँ कि ये कार्ड न भेजें। शुभकामना इस देश में कारगर नहीं हो रही हैं। यहाँ गोरक्षा का जुलूस सात लाख का होता है और मनुष्य रक्षा का सिर्फ एक लाख का। दुनिया भर में शुभकामना बोझ हो गई है। पोप की शुभकामना से एक बम कम नहीं गिरता। मित्रों की ही इच्छा से कोई सफल, सुखी और समृद्ध कैसे हो जाएगा? सफलता के महल का प्रवेश द्वार बंद है। इसमें पीछे के नाबदान से ही घुसा जा सकता है। जिन्हें घुसना है नाक पर रूमाल रखकर घुस जाते हैं। पास ही इत्र सने रूमालों के ठेले खड़े हैं। रूमाल खरीदो, नाक पर रखो और नाबदान में से घुस जाओ सफलता और सुख के महल में। एक आदमी खड़ा देख रहा है। कोई पूछता है - घुसते क्यों नहीं? वह कहता है - एक नाक होती तो घुस जाते। हमारा तो हर रोम एक नाक है। कहाँ-कहाँ रूमाल लपेटें।

एक डर भी है। सफलता, सुख और समृद्धि प्राप्त भी हो जाए, तो पता नहीं कितने लोग बुरा मान जाएँ। संकट में तो शत्रु भी मदद कर देते हैं। मित्रता की सच्ची परीक्षा संकट में नहीं, उत्कर्ष में होती है। जो मित्र के उत्कर्ष को बर्दाश्त कर सके, वही सच्चा मित्र होता है। संकट में तपी हुई मित्रता उत्कर्ष में खोटी निकलती मैंने देखी है। एक बेचारे की चार कविताएँ छप गईं, तो चार मित्र टूट गए। आठ छपने पर पूरे आठ टूट गए। दो कवि सम्मेलनों में जमने से एक स्थानीय कवि के कवि-मित्र रूठ गए। तीसरे कवि सम्मेलन में जब वह 'हूट' हुआ, तब जाकर मित्रता अपनी जगह लौटी।

ग्रीटिंग कार्डों पर अपना भरोसा नहीं। 20 सालों से इस देश को ग्रीटिंग कार्डों के सहारे चलाया गया है। अंबार लग गए हैं। हर त्योहार पर देशवासियों को ग्रीटिंग कार्ड दिए जाते हैं - 15 अगस्त और 26 जनवरी पर, संसद के अधिवेशन पर, पार्टी के सम्मेलन पर। बढ़िया सुनहले रंगों के मीठे शब्दों के ग्रीटिंग्स - देशवासियों, बस इस साल तुम सुखी और समृद्ध हो जाओ। ग्रीटिंग कार्डों के ढेर लगे हैं, मगर राशन कार्ड छोटा होता जाता है।

Naya Hukmnama ( The New Ordinance)

Naya Hukmnama ( The New Ordinance)

(IN HINDI)

किसी का हुक़्म है
सारी हवाएं हमेशा चलने से पहले बताएं
कि उनकी सम्त क्या है.
हवाओं को बताना ये भी होगा
चलेंगी जब तो क्या रफ़्तार होगी
कि आंधी की इजाज़त अब नहीं है
हमारी रेत की सब ये फ़सीलें, ये कागज़ के महल जो बन रहे हैं.
हिफ़ाजत इनकी करना है ज़रूरी और आंधी है पुरानी इनकी दुश्मन, ये सभी जानते हैं.
किसी का हुक़्म है
दरिया की लहरें ज़रा ये सरकशी कम कर लें, अपनी हद में ठहरें.
उभरना फिर बिखरना और बिखरकर फिर उभरना
ग़लत है उनका ये हंगामा करना
ये सब है सिर्फ़ वहशत की अलामत, बग़ावत की अलामत
बग़ावत तो नहीं बर्दाशत होगी.
ये वहशत तो नहीं बर्दाशत होगी
अगर लहरों को है दरिया में रहना, तो उनको होगा अब चुपचाप बहना
किसी का हु्क्म है
इस गुलसितां में बस अब एक रंग के ही फूल होंगे.
कुछ अफ़सर होंगे जो ये तय करेंगे, गुलिस्तां किस तरह बनना है कल का
यक़ीनन फूल यक-रंगी तो होंगे
मगर ये रंग होगा कितना गहरा, कितना हलका, ये अफ़सर तय करेंगे.
किसी को कोई ये कैसे बताए
गुलिस्तां में कहीं भी फूल यक-रंगी नहीं होते
कभी हो ही नहीं सकते
के हर रंग में छुपकर बहुत से रंग रहते हैं.
जिन्होंने बाग़ यक-रंगी बनाना चाहे थे उनको ज़रा देखो
के जब एक रंग में सौ रंग ज़ाहिर हो गए हैं तो वो अब कितने परेशां हैं, वो कितने तंग रहते हैं
किसी को कोई ये कैसे बताए, हवाएं और लहरें कब किसी का हुक्म सुनती.
हवाएं हाक़िमों की मुट्ठियों में, हथकड़ी में, कैदखानों में नहीं रुकतीं.
ये लहरे रोकी जाती हैं
तो दरिया कितना भी हो पुर-सूकून
बेताब होता है, इस बेताबी का अगला कदम सैलाब होता है.
किसी को कोई ये कैसे बताए
आग देखी है, धुआं देखा है.
दोस्तों हमने जहां देखा है.
हमने दरयाओं को थमते देखा.
हमने सहरा को रवां देखा है.
पासा पलटे तो पलट जाते हैं लोग
कौन कब क्यूं है कहां, देखा है
वो जो वायज़ हैं
वो जो वायज़ हैं उन्हें कल हमने, क्या बताएं के कहां देखा है.
ज़ल्ज़ला सा कोई लगता है ख़्यालो में है
एक वहशत सी अजब आज, ग़ज़ालो में है
कोई बुत जैसे के हो, ओढ़े हुए एक चट्टान
एक जवाब ऐसे छुपा अपने सवालो में है
एक दोस्त ऐसा, जिसे मुझसे मुहब्बत ही नहीं
एक दुश्मन मेरे चाहने वालों में है
बरसों की रस्मों-राह थी
एक रोज़ उसने तोड़ दी
होशियार हम भी कम नहीं
उम्मीद हमने छोड़ दी
उसने कहा कैसे हो तुम
बस मैंने लब खोले ही थे, और बात दुनिया की तरफ जल्दी से उसने मोड़ दी

-जावेद अख़्तर

(IN ENGLISH TRANSALATION)
Someone has decreed
That all the winds
Must first
Announce their direction
Before blowing
The winds must first also inform
That when they blow what would be their speed
For, storms are no longer permitted
And all these ramparts that we have built of sand
These paper palaces that have been made
It is important to protect them
The storm is their old foe
As everyone knows
Someone has decreed
That the waves in the river
Must curb their rebellion
They must stay within their limits
Their dashing and rising and dashing yet again
Only to rise
It is wrong of them to be so wilful
It is nothing but a portent of madness
An augury of rebellion
A rebellion will not be tolerated
This madness will not be accepted
If the waves want to stay in the river
They must now flow quietly
Someone has decreed
That all the flowers will henceforth be of one colour
There will be some officers who will decide
How the gardens of tomorrow will take shape
Certainly the flowers will all be of one colour
But how deep the colour or how light
Will be decided by the officers
How is one to tell them
That in no garden anywhere are all the flowers of one colour
They cannot be
For, many colours live together hiding in one colour
Look at the fate of those who have
Tried to make their garden all of one colour
See how a hundred colours have seeped into a single colour
How troubled they are
How worried they look
How is one to tell them
When have the winds and the waves ever heeded anyone’s decree
The winds do not stay
In the clenched fists of the rulers
In prisons
And in handcuffs
When these waves are stopped
The river, no matter how placid
Becomes restless
And this restlessness is a step away
From a flood
How is one to tell them…

-Javed Akhtar

Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood : Lagan

Hello Monks.

I am Riddhi Bhatt. Student of English Department from MKBU. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is Thinking Activity : Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Postcolonial Studies(paper-203). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…
I am going to discuss postcolonial criticism in the popular Bollywood movie, ' Lagan'.So discuss some of the important aspects of the movie which reveal this theory.Before discussing postcolonial theory in this movie.  I would like to give you a brief indication about  what postcolonialism means.

Postcolonialism :

Postcolonialism, the historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of Western colonialism; the term can also be used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various forms of imperialism. Postcolonialism signals a possible future of overcoming colonialism, yet new forms of domination or subordination can come in the wake of such changes, including new forms of global empire. Postcolonialism should not be confused with the claim that the world we live in now is actually devoid of colonialism.

Postcolonial Study in Lagan :

"Lagaan" is an enormously entertaining movie, like nothing we've ever seen before, and yet completely familiar. Set in India in 1893, it combines sports with political intrigue, romance with evil."Lagaan" is said to be the most ambitious, expensive and successful Bollywood film ever made, and has been a box-office hit all over the world.

Postcolonialism in literature voices the aftermath of colonisation in a country, especially concentrates on the political and cultural independence of formerly subjugated people and themes such as colonialism and racialism. In short, Post colonialism commenced from the end of world war II. Post-colonial literature also concentrates on the psychological state of the colonised. 

Even after being freed from the powers of colonial forces the subjugated people still find themselves inferior. In Lagaan, there is a political resistance, a movement with an organised effort from a group of people to resist a power. It can either be a violent or non-violent method. The form diverse according to the period and type of people involved. In the movie, the villagers don’t indulge in any violent practises but they resist the political unfairness through a fair play of cricket. 

They demand justice through a fair playground. Though they are unfamiliar with the do and don’ts of the game, the spirit is untouched. They motivate other fellow villagers to join the cause and resist the imperial powers. In colonial period, it was not only military power but also the materialistic possessions that aided the British forces to oppress the native citizens. In light of this scenario, Indian men who were exposed to the colonial approachresulted in restricting the women folk. But modernity over the periodchanged the livesof these women and in the post-colonial period, they emerged as nationalist figure who didnot blindly imitate the western woman but rather indulged in the building of the nation’s progress with heroriental philosophies of spirituality. Here, the differences between the British woman and nativewoman lies in the very separation of materialism and spiritualism.

Also, in the movie, When Bhuvan returns after making the challenge, the villagers get angry with him. They are afraid that they couldn’t stand up to them and win a foreign game. In addition to that they will have to pay taxes. This shows the psychological impact that is made by the superior powers upon the Indians. They think that they have to remain silent and follow their rule. Escaping from the trap of these forces is nearly impossible. 

The organised cricket showcased in the movieis one particular farmer community’s response to British rule in India.Cricket nationalism is reproduced as a contrast from nationalistpolitics and the two are kept separate. Here, cricket is not a means of entertainment or a fun activity. In the eyes of Britishers it can be said so. But for the villagers, it is a game of survival. The Britishers enjoy each and every part of the game but the villagers are in a disturbed mental state. They have so much to lose when compared to the British officials. They try and practise hard to succeed in the game. This shows the desperation and dilemma of the villagers. For a small town in India, a game of cricket wouldn’t be an area of interest. They are struggling day and night for their survival and the country’s state is not much favourable to them. Hence, putting forward to them the concept of a challenge is irrational and humiliating at the same time.

The villagers were also colonized based on modernity. The Britishers live a life of luxury, using modernised products to make their life easier. On the other hand, the villagers have to work hard to even have the basic needs of their life. They use traditional utensils and methods to do their daily chores. When it comes to the game cricket, the official uses their expensive bats and balls made from excellent materials. The villagers have to make their own materials to practice and use. 

The extreme differences in lifestyle shows the aftermath of colonisation that led to the deterioration of living conditionsin the country. Even the clothes used by Russell sister portrays the British culture. She uses hats and umbrella to beat the scorching heat. She doesn’t have much labour to do and spends most of the time lavishly. In the case if Indian women, they are hardworking in nature. They have to walk miles to fetch water. They look after the family needs and are indulged in household activities which are exhausting. They help and support their husbands mentally. 

They aren’t educated as much when compared to the British women nor have a luxurious lifestyle. They are plain and simple, both in character and living. But the modernity was never an excuse for the villagers. Their resistance towards the colonial powers is an example. It is evident that they chose to fight and win the challenges with limited resources and talent. The spirit of unity is their greatest strength and weapon to win the challenge.

The analysis of the film in reference to the social, economic and political condition of the country imply that the imperial forces play a pivotal role in restructuring India. Through the Gandhian principle of Non-violence and other propaganda, the citizens have made an impactful change that later led to many such incidents. The film projects that we have been oppressed and subjugated for a long time that we almost forgot that we had our own voice. We were internally struggling but the fear of being oppressed made us silent. It also shows the class exploitation and bourgeoisie culture. Lagaan represents thousands of unsung stories that made a change in resetting the history of India.

THANK YOU.............. 

Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood : Rang De Basanti

Hello Beautiful People...
I am Riddhi Bhatt. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is Thinking Activity : Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Postcolonial Studies(paper-203). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…
I am going to discuss postcolonial criticism in the popular Bollywood movie, ' Rang De Basanti'.So discuss some of the important aspects of the movie which reveal this theory.Before discussing postcolonial theory in this movie.  I would like to give you a brief indication about  what postcolonialism means.

Postcolonialism :

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power.

At times, the term postcolonial studies may be preferred to postcolonialism, as the ambiguous term colonialism could refer either to a system of government, or to an ideology or world view underlying that system. However, postcolonialism (i.e., postcolonial studies) generally represents an ideological response to colonialist thought, rather than simply describing a system that comes after colonialism, as the prefix post- may suggest. As such, postcolonialism may be thought of as a reaction to or departure from colonialism in the same way postmodernism is a reaction to modernism; the term postcolonialism itself is modeled on postmodernism, with which it shares certain concepts and methods.

Rang De Basanti : 

Rang De Basanti (Color me Saffron) tells us the story of Caucasian and Hindi speaking, British filmmaker, Sue, who comes to India to make a documentary on India’s revolutionary and legendary freedom fighters, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Ashfaqullah Khan who were instrumental in India’s struggle against the British.He five Indian youngsters she chooses to play the revolutionaries are.. The group of friends is at first unable to relate the characters they portray.

Characters in movie :

1. Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni), a Hindu fundamentalist with olitical aspirations; 

2. 
   Daljit Singh called DJ (Aamir Khan), a Punjabi guy who is also an ex-student of the university and uninterested in the life outside the universities’ gates; 

3. Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), a rational Muslim ; 

4. Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) , a fun loving guy primarily interested in women; 

5. Karan (Siddharth) a rich kid who dreams of settling abroad and shares an estranged relationship with his father; and 

6. Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) , a youth activist who is engaged to a patriotic pilot Ajay (Mad-havan).
   

Sue’s first meeting with the friends is disrupted when members of a Hindu polit-ical party (youth-wing) clad in ‘saffron’ clothes and led by Laxman Pandey object to the partying habits of college students. The attitude of the Hindu party workers in RDB has been compared to the actions of the ‘Shiv Sainiks’, a radical Hindu political group, whose members not only oppose western culture but also the presence of Muslims in India
Sue, who is impressed by the bonding between the friends, requests them to act in her film. However, Sue’s idea is rejected by the friends who find it hard to relate to the concept of nationalism. Even the patriotic Ajay is unable to change his friends’ opinions on this subject and accepts defeat. This scene gained immense popularity among audiences for capturing the disillusionment and angst of the urban, middle class in post independent India.Mehra by capturing the mood of the urban, middle class in India augments the socio-cultural realism experienced by the viewers in RDB. This aspect serves to enhance realism at the level of recognition in the above sequence.

The farewell party of Ajay where DJ, Aslam and Karan get into a dispute with Ajay over the futility of sacrificing one’s life for the country. While Ajay argues that one’s nation is worth dying for, the others in the group disagree with Ajay because they find India’s corruption and bureaucracy unworthy of their patriotic allegiance. Ajay who is disturbed by the perspective of his friends tries to reason with them by telling them that, “while it is easy to criticize the political system it is not so easy to take the responsibility to change practices in society”. Ajay advises his friends to stop critiquing the government and join politics or the army to make a difference in society or prove their allegiance to the nation.
Ajay’s death and the subsequent lathi charge by the police are the turning points in movie uses these incidents to comment on political corruption and the recent police atrocities on student protests in India.To highlight the same,  yet again re-creates the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in which we  observe the defence minister ordering the massacre on helpless people, one of whom is Ajay. The second Jallianwala Bagh sequence is also shot in black and white tones except for splashes of red to depict the spilling of human blood. Mehra uses the intellectual montage style of editing to draw parallels between the ruthless British soldiers of the past and the corrupt Indian politicians of the present.

Sue's encounters with the locals is liberated from historical colonial relationship, despite her wall of photos, maps, and writings with her grandfather's diary. However,rather than merely signifying a neo-colonial Orientalism, Sue's fascination with Indian history, lan-guage, and culture offers proof of the potential commercial viability of an "Indianness" that can be transmitted; her presence in the movie as a near Indian demonstrates the global reach of Bollywood through the inclusion of the Western subject as protagonist. This particular Bollywood iteration of mo- dernity, the colonial paradigm of "going native" transforms into the transnational paradigm of "going global." Here is an India seemingly liberated from history, a history that only Sue, an outsider, seems to covet.
Here I also want to talk about one article's some point that argue about postcolonialism in arnd De Basanti that.....
Jann Dark has argued that the white woman's association with capitalism and modernity in Rang de Basanti, Lagaan, and Indian advertisements, buttresses the dominance of the Indian male and affirms nationalist constructions of gender. Dark suggests that romance with the white woman offers a form of redemption for the various humiliations the Indian male suffered in the colonial dynamic and offers a fantasy of symbolic wholeness á la Frantz Fanon. Indeed, this introduction of the British woman in both Lagaan and Rang de Basanti harkens back to the imperialist romances popular in the 1980s, based on the novels of E.M. Forester and Paul Scott. Both David Lean's film Passage to India and the television series Jewel in the Crown highlight the British woman's consumption of Indian culture and the perils of such erotic consumption. In these films, the erotic gaze of the British woman is correlated directly to the punishment of the Westernized Indian man, who is jailed and beaten for his purported sexual aggression against her. The eroticism in these romances depends on the sadomasochistic degradation of the Indian male linked to the British woman's excessive, misplaced, and ultimately impossible desire. Renato Resaldo has perhaps the most blunt description of the "paradox" of "imperialist nostalgia" that plays out in these romances: ( "The Anti-Colonial Revolutionary in Contemporary Bollywood Cinema" )

THANK YOU........

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hello Monks...

I am Riddhi Bhatt. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is about Sunday Task on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Postcolonial Studies(paper-203). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie :

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction.She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature",particularly in her second home, the United States. Adichie, a feminist, has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014).Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017) and Notes on Grief (2021).In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.

1) Did the first talk help you in understanding of postcolonialism?
The first talk is about the danger of a single story. Adichie explains that if we only hear about a people, place or situation from one point of view, we risk accepting one experience as the whole truth. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" Ted Talk, in July 2009, explores the negative influences that a “single story” can have and identifies the root of these stories. 

Here She also talked about that It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. 

Adichie shares two primary examples to discuss why generalizations are made. Reflecting on her everyday life, she recalls a time where her college roommate had a “default position” of “well-meaning pity” towards her due to the misconception that everyone from Africa comes from a poor, struggling background (04:49).

She said "Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story. "

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. 

(Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” TEDGlobal, TED, 23 July

2009)

2. Are the arguments in the seconds talk convincing?

Adichie's TED Talk argues that "feminist" isn't a bad word and that everyone should be feminist. She begins with a brief anecdote about her friend Okoloma. She said that she  decided to call myself "a happy feminist." Then an academic, a Nigerian woman told her that feminism was not our culture and that feminism wasn't African, and that she was calling herself a feminist because she had been corrupted by "Western books." Which amused her, because a lot of her early readings were decidedly unfeminist. she thinks she must have read every single Mills & Boon romance published before she was sixteen. And each time she tried to read those books called "the feminist classics," she'd get bored, and she really struggled to finish them. But anyway, since feminism was un-African, she decided that she would now call herself "a happy African feminist." At some point she was a happy African feminist who does not hate men and who likes lip gloss and who wears high heels for herself but not for men. 

Men have testosterone and are in general physically stronger than women. There's slightly more women than men in the world, about 52 percent of the world's population is female. But most of the positions of power and prestige are occupied by men. The late Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate, Wangari Maathai, put it simply and well when she said: "The higher you go, the fewer women there are." In the recent US elections we kept hearing of the Lilly Ledbetter law, and if we go beyond the nicely alliterative name of that law, it was really about a man and a woman doing the same job, being equally qualified, and the man being paid more because he's a man.So in the literal way, men rule the world, and this made sense a thousand years ago because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the most important attribute for survival. The physically stronger person was more likely to lead, and men, in general, are physically stronger. Of course there are many exceptions. (07:17)

A feminist is a man or a woman who says, "Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it. We must do better." The best feminist I know is my brother Kene. He's also a kind, good-looking, lovely man, and he's very masculine. 

(Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi." We Should All Be Feminist"  TEDGlobal, TED,December 2012)

3. What did you like about the third talk?

" Be courageous enough to accept your life

 as messy, your life is not always

 perfectly matching to your ideology."

It was very interesting to know about Chimamanda African author with voice of Marginalized people. Presenting very new and fresh thought about feminism and importance of truth in post-truth era in this third talk.

"Whenever you wake-up

That is your morning, what matters is you wake up."

The point is that intent matters, that context matters. Somebody might very well call me Chimichanga out of a malicious desire to mock my name, and that I would certainly not laugh about. But there is a difference between malice and a mistake.

4. Are these talks bringing any significant change in your way of looking at literature and life?

Yes...It is change my view that I always believe that literature is always for reading but after watch this video and  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's talk it's change my mind toward the literature. My perception has totally changed. Also I can understand that whatever is happening near us is also literature. She said that what is the point of culture? I mean there's the decorative, the dancing ... but also, culture really is about preservation and continuity of a people. In my family, I am the child who is most interested in the story of who we are, in our traditions, in the knowledge about ancestral lands. My brothers are not as interested as I am. But I cannot participate, I cannot go to umunna meetings, I cannot have a say. Because I'm female. Culture does not make people, people make culture. So if it is in fact true -if it is in fact true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we must make it our culture. Its very interesting.

THANK YOU......

Thinking Activity : Shashi Tharoor and Dark Era of Inglorious Empire

Hello Monks,

I am Riddhi Bhatt. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is about Thinking Activity on Shashi Tharoor and Dark Era of Inglorious Empire. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Postcolonial Studies(paper-203). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, first published in India as An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, is a work of non-fiction by Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician and diplomat, on the effects of British colonial rule on India. The book has won widespread acclaim and won Tharoor the 2019 Sahitya Akademi Award and the 2017 Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award. So let’s know more about Shashi Tharoor and his book.

Shashi Tharoor :

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, writer and a former career international diplomat who is currently serving as Member of Parliament. He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology and All India Professionals Congress. Tharoor is an acclaimed writer, having authored 18 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981, which are centred on India and its history, culture, film, politics, society, foreign policy, and more related themes. He is also the author of hundreds of columns and articles in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and The Times of India.

Here we are talking about An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. And points to ponder out.

• His speeches videos are 

Speech at Oxford Union

Looking back at the British Raj in India: The University of  Edinburgh

Exclusive interview by Karan Thapar On His book  "An Era of Darkness."

About British Colonialism in India in His New Book ' An Era of Darkness'

1. Write on key arguments in Shashi Tharoor's book - " An Era of Darkness".

Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness, is one breathless read. In it, he aggregates all the arguments required to establish that British colonial rule was an awful experience for Indians and he does so with a consummate debater’s skill. His book is, in fact, an expanded take on British exploitation of India that famously carried the day for Tharoor in an Oxford debate not too long ago.

According to Tharoor, there was nothing redeeming in British rule of our country. What India had to endure under them was outrageous humiliation on a humongous scale and sustained violence of a kind it had never experienced before. In short, British rule was, according to Tharoor, an era of darkness for India, throughout which it suffered several man made famines, wars, racism, maladministration, deportation of its people to distant lands and economic exploitation on an unprecedented scale. An indignant Tharoor even demands a token restitution and public apology from the British for all the harm they had caused India. This is something, as his debate established, wildly popular in India.

• The makers of India

Kartar Lalwani’s very well researched book, The Making of India — The Untold Story of British Enterprise, is a compelling account of the great infrastructure the British created in India — the railways being one of the most important ones.

In writing this book, it is obvious that instead of being even-handed, Tharoor has chosen to present the arguments against British rule in India with strength and force, and he is right in doing so. Until An Era of Darkness came along, there was no single work that clearly and unambiguously catalogued all the harm done to India under British rule.

Tharoor admirably fills the gap by holding a mirror to the British, and the West, that they have a case to answer. And answer they must, as old imperialisms, with renewed vigour and with the same specious ‘civilising’ arguments, have never really ceased devastating the world, from faraway places like now well-forgotten Grenada and present-day West Asia and the Middle East.

• Looted with impunity

Everything the British did in India, Tharoor asserts, was for their own benefit and never for that of the Indians. They also had, Tharoor tells us, perfected a policy of divide and rule, breaking treaties at will and making war and looting with impunity. Tharoor is right, of course. There are few Indians who would not have heard of the treachery that enabled Clive to triumph at Plassey or of the incredible amounts of ill-begotten wealth the East India Company officials hauled back with them to England.

There was scant appreciation, Tharoor tells us, of India’s contributions in men, material and money, to the wars that the British fought within India and overseas, especially the two World Wars.That British rule in India was bad in parts has never been denied by anyone, least of all by the British. Their archives are full of accounts of British depredations, covering the entire period of their rule in India. Several of their historians have brought out the suffering the British inflicted on India and Indians throughout their rule of our country. What Tharoor, however, seeks to establish through his book, is that British rule was unremittingly rotten and indefensible by the standards of its time and ours. He makes his points with bare-knuckle indignation and irresistible passion.

Tharoor mourns the annihilation of a gentle social order across the country which he believed was sustained through dialogue and held together by consensus. He also condemns the introduction of harsh and formal legal systems by the British, replacing much kinder, more accessible and personalised traditional ones. In his book, Tharoor is particularly derisive of parliamentary democracy, asserting that what was fine for a small number of people of a much smaller country, is wholly unsuited for a large and raucous one like our own.

“No wonder that the sun

never set on the British empire

because even god couldn’t trust the English in the dark.”

He also talk in First speech that “To speak lightly og sacrifice on both sides as analogy was used here ‘A burglar comes into a house ransacked the place stubs his toe.’ and you say well he there was a sacrifice on both side that is not acceptable” He also questioned the issue of a moral debt that British need to pay for 200 years of ruling India. He write about Nationalism  and difference between nationalism and patriotism then and now also.

   Tharoor says that in Nationalism in that day is an inclusive Nationalism. It embrassesed in everybody's country in any background, religion, language, cast...Today's Nationalism is narrow minded one.

2. Write critique on both the films with reference to Postcolonial insights.

✅The Black Prince :

"What you seek is all gone now, my black Prince"

 'The Black Prince' is a story of Queen Victoria and the Last King of Punjab, Maharajah Duleep Singh. His character as it evolves, torn between two cultures and facing constant dilemmas as a result. His relationship with Queen Victoria will be the most impactful relationship in the film, the Queen representing the English culture he was drawn into. The Black Prince begins a lifelong struggle to regain his Kingdom. It takes him on an extraordinary journey across the world.

The last King of Punjab, Maharajah Duleep Singh's kingdom was one of the most powerful and prosperous kingdoms of the 19th century before it was annexed by Britain. Placed on the throne at the age of five, he was robbed of his legacy by treason at the hands of trusted courtiers. He was then torn away from his mother and taken to England by the British at the age of fifteen. While in England, he was introduced to Queen Victoria, who took an immediate liking to him, calling him The Black Prince. Meeting his mother again after thirteen years, the Maharajah is awakened to the realities of his former life in Punjab. He then begins the arduous journey to regain all that was lost, and re-embrace the faith of his birth, Sikhism. As the character of Maharajah Duleep Singh evolves, is torn between two contrasting cultures - his royal ancestry from the Kingdom of Punjab as its last King, set against his upbringing in the UK as he embarks in a new journey of exile, away from his mother. Duleep Singh's lifelong journey to regain his identity, dignity, and Kingdom took him across the world but his struggle was not met with success. He never won the chance to set foot again in his own land of Punjab. So, in a Postcolonial perspective .... Duldeep Singh himself free to live with Britishers but he is colonized by his mind. That he didn't do anything according to his mind. He always colonized by that british people who always wants to kept him with under their rules.