Partition of Bengal and swadeshi movement

Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi Movement As a part of Novel 'Home and The World ' 

Name: 

Divya Parmar 

 Paper no:

201

Roll no:

5

Enrollment no:

4069206420210024

Email id:

divyaparmar07012@gmail.com

Batch:

2021-2023 (sem 3)

Submitted to: 

S. B. Gardi Department of English.

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Introduction: 

The Home and the World is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, set against the political and logistical nightmares of India’s 20th century caste system. Although the story focuses on the dynamic of a marriage, which shifts when a shadowy outsider enters the lives of the couple much of the novel reads like a philosophical treatise. 

There are shifting viewpoints between the characters Bimala, Nikhil, and Sandip, and much of the book comprises their internal and external dialogues as they consider serious issues such as tradition, the roles of men and women in Indian culture, the nature of political change, the occasional need for violence in political activism, and other rhetorical exercises such as the weighing of the public good.  

Author: Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. 

He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.

Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution. 

About Novel : 

As the novel begins, Bimala is happy with her life. She has married a good, kind man who is educated and generous. She is content to worship him and accept his support in all things. What she does not feel, however, is excitement. When the political firebrand Sandip begins making speeches in their village, she is infatuated by his words, but also stirred by some of his political ideas. She thinks of him constantly. Sandip, who is only interested in pursuing his own desires and climbing the social strata, does nothing to discourage her interest in him. 

Her husband, Nikhil, sees what is happening, but is unwilling to intervene. Nikhil believes that, if one is committed to living morally and thoughtfully, one can accept whatever arises. He is sad that he feels like a burden to Bimala, but is determined to let her make her own choices. 

Bimala’s choices lead her to steal from Nikhil to raise money for Sandip’s cause, money that he keeps for himself. Overcome with shame at how she has allowed a man who now disgusts her to cause such havoc in her life, Bimala must try to save her marriage, support her country, and recommit herself to living by her conscience, not her passions. As village unrest turns to outbursts of violence, the characters are all changed by the decisions they must make. 

Published in 1916, The Home and the World is a critically celebrated work with themes that its author knows intimately. The novel is a striking example of the power of art (and artifice) to edify—or destroy—causes, relationships, and possibly an entire country.  

Partition of Bengal: 

The Partition of Bengal was the most important event in the history of Bengal. The Partition of Bengal was announced in 7 July, 1905 by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The work for which Lord Curzon earned an immortal fame was his Partition of Bengal. In January 1905, Lord Curzon was appointed Viceroy of India. Till the time of Curzon, the whole area covering Bengal, Bihar and Orissa remained under one administration. It was too big in size. The area of that province was 189,000 sq miles. Its population was nearly 78 million. Its population was nearly double the population of England. Bengal in those days was the biggest province of India. Lord Curzon thought it unwise to keep such a huge area as one province. 

In 1866, a devastating famine was appeared in Orissa. Millions of people died in that famine. Then British administration formed an inquiry team to find out the reasons behind the famine. According to the report given by the inquiry team, this Bengal province is too big in size. They have to face many administrative difficulties. Administration could not take proper steps in emergency situation due to the vastness and geographical structure of the province. 

In 1867 Sir William Grey and in 1872 Sir John Campbell informed the upper authority in England that it is quite impossible for a governor to rule such a vast province, Bengal. But the authority did not give any response to their report. The government announced the idea for partition in January 1904. The idea was opposed by Henry John Stedman Cotton, Chief Commissioner of Assam (1896-1902). 

Partition, most significantly, is a lesson in abject failure of understanding between two very large communities- Hindus and Muslims. Unbelievable as it may sound now, the Hindus, Muslims, Shikhs, Christians, and other communities lived side by side for hundreds of years, mostly in peace, at times in conflict, but not along the rigid communal divides that British rulers formulated to suit their “divide and rule” policy. It was started with the British desire to know the mix of the population that they were ruling. The 1871 census gave rise to an emerging sense of separate identities among the cultural, ethnic, and religious groups. This census attempted to list every Indian according to language, caste, religion, etc. As it happened, religious identities were attributed to groups when census takers were unsure because of the diverse and extremely intermingled nature of the religious practices that were being recorded. 

So suddenly one became a member of this or the other group or even religion, as labeled by the census official, without being personally aware of his or her transformation. But historically, religious and cultural practices had overlapped and gotten entwined between groups of people and it would be quite common that one village or groups of villages took up certain religious practices of another. On July 20th 1905, the first partition of Bengal along religious lines was approved in London by the Secretary of State of India.  

The decision Partition of Bengal was announced by Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India in July 1905. This partition came into effect in October 1905. Taking the eastern half of Bengal, namely, the Dacca, Chittagong, and Rajshahi division and uniting those with Assam, Lord Curzon Formed a new province, named as ‘Eastern Bengal and Assam.’ Dacca became the capital of the new province. The western half of Bengal with Bihar and Orissa remained as another province. Calcutta remain its capital. The area of the newly formed province was 106,504 sq miles and its population was 31 million and majority was Muslims. Sir Joseph Bampfylde Fuller was appointed as the Governor of this province. A managerial and a revenue board are also formed. But the Judiciary of the newly formed province was kept under the Calcutta High Court. The area of Western Bengal was 141,580 sq miles and its population was nearly 54 million and majority was Hindus. Sir Endro Frezer was appointed as the Governor of that province.  

The Swadeshi movement sprang out of the anti-partition movement, which was established in response to Lord Curzon’s plan to divide Bengal into two provinces. Moderates launched the Anti-Partition Campaign to put pressure on the government to stop the unjust partition of Bengal from taking place. 

The ideas were promoted through journals like Hitabadi, Sanjibani, and Bengalee, which wrote petitions to the government and held public gatherings. The split sparked protests in Bengal when the commitment to boycott foreign goods was made for the first time.

Swadeshi Movement Proclamation

A gigantic meeting was conducted in August 1905 at Calcutta Townhall, when the Swadeshi Movement was formally proclaimed.

1. The notion was spread that items like Manchester textiles and Liverpool salt should be boycotted.

2. The people of Bengal demonstrated strong opposition to the division by chanting Vande Mataram when it was enacted.

3. Amar Sonar Bangla was also written by Rabindranath Tagore.

4. As a symbol of unity, people tied Rakhis in each other’s hands.

Although the movement was confined majorly to Bengal, it spread to a few different parts of India:

In Poona and Bombay under Bal Gangadhar Tilak

 In Punjab under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh

In Delhi under Syed Haider Raza

In Madras under Chidambaram Pillai.

Economic Aspects of Swadeshi Movement

In terms of economics, swadeshi displays a nationalist-protectionist stance against foreign capital, as well as a desire to promote indigenous goods and encourage customers to use them even if they are more expensive than – or of lower quality than – imported goods.

In other words, the swadeshi sends out a patriotic call to people with cash and enterprise to pioneer indigenous enterprises, even if it means making a small or no profit in the beginning. Swadeshi, on the other hand, is not exhausted by the economic imperative alone.

Swadeshi concepts, which arose during the vibrant Swadeshi era and had their origins in a nationalist protectionist policy, looked beyond it and focused on everything Indian in all directions. Though swadeshi began as an economic movement, it quickly evolved into a comprehensive social, economic, political, and cultural ideology as a result of the interpretations given by such Indian thinkers as Bipin Pal, Aurobindo, Brahmabandhab, Rabindranath, Satis Chandra Mukherjee, and others during the swadeshi movement.

Swadeshi, therefore, evolved into a full-fledged philosophy, representing the political aspirations, economic demands, and cultural traditions of the Indian people in opposition to the British Power’s political dominance and imperialist economic strategy in India. 

Political Aspects of Swadeshi Movement

The Hindu Mela tradition of holding periodic exhibitions of swadeshi products was revived by the Industrial Association from 1893 onwards, and its 1895 exhibition is reported to have attracted 20,000 visitors. Since 1901, such industrial exhibitions became a regular part of the annual Congress sessions. At the height of the swadeshi movement in 1906, Jogeshchandra Chaudhury organized the Congress exhibition at Calcutta, and Lord Minto was invited to 14 inaugurate it.

The nationalists under the leadership of Tilak were trying to radicalize the ideology and programs of Congress at the risk of a hitter encounter with the right-wing elements while the latter was engaged in making use of the industrial exhibition, a part of the Congress session, to find favour with the Viceroy who had used the inaugural function to praise and pat ’honest swadeshi, implying mere promotion of indigenous industries as opposed to political swadeshi based on the boycott movement. 

The Radical Nationalists vehemently opposed the holding of the exhibition under 15 official patronage and they called for its boycott. Lord Minto’s homily on honest swadeshi created a convulsion in the Radical Nationalist press and platform. On the ideological plane, the Minto sermon was attacked by the exponents of the new thought pushing forward the rift and basic differences between the two schools of politics as to the interpretation and application of swadeshi. 

Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, stormy-petrel of the swadeshi movement, In an article on ’Homest swadeshi or the Vice-Roy’s hypocrisy’ published in his evening daily, the “Sandhye” of the 24th December 1906, exposed the concept of honest swadeshi, its ideological meaning, and its mendicant slant. He wrote: ‘’Honest swadeshi was explained by His Excellency as swadeshi dissociated from politics, the swadeshi which buys the cheapest thing in the open market, without discrimination between indigenous and foreign”. He described these words as mere ’’humbuggism and hypocrisy”. 

Word count : 2085

Image: 2 

Work Citation: 

Chowdhury, Partha. “Partition of Bengal of 1905.” Academia.edu, 3 Apr. 2018, https://www.academia.edu/36319161/Partition_of_Bengal_of_1905. 

Phantom, Pantom. “Different Dimensions of Swadeshi Movement.” ScoreBetter, 30 Nov. 2021, https://scorebetter.in/swadeshi-movement/. 

“The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913.” NobelPrize.org, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/biographical/.

Unit 11 Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement I ... - Egyankosh. https://blog.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/19925/1/Unit-11.pdf. 

Midnight's Childrens

Hello readers! I am Divya Parmar and I welcome you all to read my blog. This blog is response to the thinking activity which is given by Dr. Dilip barad sir. In this blog I will write about Summary of the novel, about the author and then I will answer the questions given as a task. 

Midnight’s Children, allegorical novel by Salman Rushdie, published in 1981. It is a historical chronicle of modern India centring on the inextricably linked fates of two children who were born within the first hour of independence from Great Britain. Exactly at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, two boys are born in a Bombay (now Mumbai) hospital, where they are switched by a nurse. Saleem Sinai, who will be raised by a well-to-do Muslim couple, is actually the illegitimate son of a low-caste Hindu woman and a departing British colonist. Shiva, the son of the Muslim couple, is given to a poor Hindu street performer whose unfaithful wife has died.

Saleem represents modern India. When he was 30, he wrote his memoir, Midnight’s Children. Shiva is destined to be Saleem’s enemy as well as India’s most honoured war hero. This multilayered novel places Saleem at every significant event that occurred on the Indian subcontinent in the 30 years after independence. Midnight’s Children was awarded the Booker McConnell Prize for fiction in 1981. In 1993 it was chosen as the best Booker Prize novel in 25 years. 

Salman Rushdi: 

Salman Rushdie, in full Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, (born June 19, 1947, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), Indian-born writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues by means of surreal characters, brooding humour, and an effusive and melodramatic prose style. His treatment of sensitive religious and political subjects made him a controversial figure. 

Rushdie, whose father was a prosperous Muslim businessman in India, was educated at Rugby School and the University of Cambridge, where he received an M.A. degree in history in 1968. Throughout most of the 1970s he worked in London as an advertising copywriter. His first published novel, Grimus, appeared in 1975. Rushdie’s next novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), a fable about modern India, was an unexpected critical and popular success that won him international recognition. A film adaptation, for which he drafted the screenplay, was released in 2012. 

Summary of the novel: 

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Midnight’s Children Summary

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children begins as narrator Saleem Sinai urgently tells the story of his life. Born at the exact moment of India’s independence from British rule, Saleem is inescapably “handcuffed to history,” and his own fate is intertwined with that of his nation. Saleem’s entire body is cracking, crumbling under the stress of “too much history,” and he is slowly dying, disintegrating into “(approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, necessarily oblivious, dust.” Saleem must work fast if he is to tell his story before he dies, and he begins with his Kashmiri grandfather, Aadam Aziz. 

Aadam has just returned to Kashmir from medical school in Germany, and he is disillusioned with his traditional Indian life. One morning, while kneeling to pray, Aadam strikes his nose on the ground, and three small drops of blood escape from his nose. From that moment, he vows “never again to bow to any man or god.” Soon, Tai, the old boatman, alerts Aadam to the illness of Naseem Ghani, the daughter of a local landowner. Arriving at the Ghani’s, Aadam finds Naseem hidden behind a large sheet with a small hole cut in the center, and he is made to examine her through the opening. Over several years and many illnesses, Aadam and Naseem fall in love and are finally married, and the two prepare to move to Agra for Aadam’s new university job. 

In Agra, Aadam and Naseem are witnesses to Mahatma Gandhi’s hartal and the violence of the British military, and in the aftermath of a massacre, Aadam befriends the Hummingbird, a Pro-Indian Muslim politician who inspires optimism throughout Agra. Aadam also meets Nadir Khan, the Hummingbird’s private secretary, and after the Hummingbird is murdered by assassins, Nadir takes refuge under Aadam’s floorboards, much to the dismay of his wife Naseem, known in her marriage as Reverend Mother. While living under the floor, Nadir falls in love with Aadam’s daughter, Mumtaz, and the two are married, spending three blissful years together underground. Ultimately, it is discovered that Nadir is impotent, and he is forced to divorce Mumtaz, who is left heartbroken. Mumtaz soon remarries Ahmed Sinai, who changes her name to Amina, and the two move to Bombay after she becomes pregnant. 

Ahmed and Amina buy a mansion from William Methwold, a British colonist who is preparing to return to London after India’s independence, and they quickly move in, living amongst the Englishman’s belongings and customs. Growing increasingly pregnant, Amina goes into labor on the eve of India’s independence, along with another pregnant woman from Methwold’s Estate named Vanita, the wife of a poor accordionist who entertains the residents on the estate. Both women give birth at the stroke of midnight; however, Vanita dies shortly after, leaving her infant son, Shiva. Alone with the two children of midnight, a midwife named Mary Pereira switches the nametags of the children, effectively replacing rich with poor, in her own “private act of revolution.” In the days following, Mary’s guilt is so severe that she offers her services to Amina Sinai as an ayah to care for her infant Saleem, and she readily accepts. Mary returns to Methwold’s Estate with the Sinais, where she continues to keep her secret for several years before finally blurting it out, a victim of her own guilt. 

As Saleem grows, it is clear that he is not a normal child. He grows too quickly, he rarely blinks, and after an accident in his mother’s washing chest, he begins to hear voices, made possible by his large, congested nose. The voices in Saleem’s head are the voices of the other children born during the midnight hour of independence, the “metaphorical mirror of a nation,” who each also happen to be endowed with different magical powers. Saleem attempts to organize the children, creating a forum for them in his mind, but their prejudices get the better of them, and they are unable to band together. Ultimately, it is Shiva who succeeds in dividing the children, and Saleem is left helpless.

Saleem continues to grow and moves with his family to Pakistan. As civil unrest brews leading up to the Indo-Pakistani War, he is again left helpless as bombs from an air-strike kill his family. In the chaos of the bombing, Saleem is hit in the head by an airborne spittoon, causing him to forget his name and identity. Saleem is soon drafted into the Pakistani army and he witnesses unspeakable events, finally running away into the jungle to avoid further violence. When he emerges from the jungle, the war is ending, India is victorious, and Saleem is still not sure who he is. During a celebratory parade, he runs into Parvati-the-witch, a fellow child of midnight who immediately recognizes Saleem. The two fall in love, and when Saleem is unable to father her children, Parvati puts a spell on Shiva, and he soon impregnates her. He quickly loses interest (as he always does where pregnancy is concerned), and Parvati is free to marry Saleem, who has agreed to father her unborn child.

Saleem continues to grow and moves with his family to Pakistan. As civil unrest brews leading up to the Indo-Pakistani War, he is again left helpless as bombs from an air-strike kill his family. In the chaos of the bombing, Saleem is hit in the head by an airborne spittoon, causing him to forget his name and identity. Saleem is soon drafted into the Pakistani army and he witnesses unspeakable events, finally running away into the jungle to avoid further violence. When he emerges from the jungle, the war is ending, India is victorious, and Saleem is still not sure who he is. During a celebratory parade, he runs into Parvati-the-witch, a fellow child of midnight who immediately recognizes Saleem. The two fall in love, and when Saleem is unable to father her children, Parvati puts a spell on Shiva, and he soon impregnates her. He quickly loses interest (as he always does where pregnancy is concerned), and Parvati is free to marry Saleem, who has agreed to father her unborn child.

As Parvati goes into labor, civil unrest in India continues and Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minster, declares a state of emergency. Parvati finally gives birth to a son but, sadly, she is killed. At the same time, Saleem is kidnapped by Shiva and dragged in a van, where he is taken, along with the other children of midnight, and forcibly sterilized during Mrs. Gandhi’s sterilization program. Finally, Indira Gandhi’s Emergency ends, and Saleem and the other children of midnight are released from their imprisonment. Saleem soon finds his son and he moves back to Bombay, where he discovers that Mary Pereira is the owner of a local pickle factory. As Saleem finishes the telling of his story, he decides to begin telling his future, and he starts with his wedding to Padma, his companion and audience for the telling of his story. Padma and Saleem are to be married in Kashmir; however, before they are, Saleem finally succumbs to the cracks in his skin, and he crumbles into six hundred million pieces of dust.

As Parvati goes into labor, civil unrest in India continues and Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minster, declares a state of emergency. Parvati finally gives birth to a son but, sadly, she is killed. At the same time, Saleem is kidnapped by Shiva and dragged in a van, where he is taken, along with the other children of midnight, and forcibly sterilized during Mrs. Gandhi’s sterilization program. Finally, Indira Gandhi’s Emergency ends, and Saleem and the other children of midnight are released from their imprisonment. Saleem soon finds his son and he moves back to Bombay, where he discovers that Mary Pereira is the owner of a local pickle factory. As Saleem finishes the telling of his story, he decides to begin telling his future, and he starts with his wedding to Padma, his companion and audience for the telling of his story. Padma and Saleem are to be married in Kashmir; however, before they are, Saleem finally succumbs to the cracks in his skin, and he crumbles into six hundred million pieces of dust. 

➡️ Narrative Technique (Change made in film Adaptation )

Midnight's Children is a 2012 film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Ronit Roy, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta,the film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.

We have read the summary of the novel in the above section. So let's look upon that factor where narration is changed in film adaptation.

finds that his father has still not accepted him. Mary realises that the only way to make amends is by telling his parents about the swapping of the name tags at birth. Enraged by this, Saleem's father forces him to undergo an operation on his enormous and constantly dripping nose.

Some years later the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 starts, during which Saleem's parents are killed when their house is bombed. Being injured in the bombing, he suffers a memory loss and wakes up in 1971. He is then enrolled in the army for his sniffing skills and becomes part of a crew sent to fight in East Pakistan which, with the help of India, becomes Bangladesh. Still suffering amnesia, he joins a celebrating crowd including victorious Indian soldiers led by Shiva, now a war-hero owing to his powers, and also some magicians from India including Parvati-the-witch. Recognising Saleem she calls to him, breaking his spell of amnesia, and introduces him to snake charmer Picture Singh, the magicians' leader. On hearing of Saleem's tough journey Parvati takes him to the conjurers ghetto in New Delhi, smuggling him over the border in her basket of invisibility. They fall in love but Saleem, ambitious to do something big, leaves Parvati giving an excuse that he can't marry her because he is impotent. Realising the futility of his ambitions he returns but finds Parvati is expecting a baby by Shiva, whom she had summoned to visit her by casting a spell. Saleem says he will raise it as his own son and the baby, named Aadam, becomes one of many forming the next generation of magical children being born at the moment of the declaration of Emergency by the PM Indira Gandhi.

The PM, an ardent believer in horoscopes, is advised that the Midnight's Children have powers that are a threat to her supremacy, and so under the guise of a sterilisation programme she orders their incarceration. Shiva, leading the project and in search of Saleem, bulldozes the entire ghetto (killing countless) and captures Saleem. Under torture Saleem gives information about the other children, who are soon incarcerated and sterilized to drain their powers. The Emergency ends when the PM is defeated in an election, the children are all simultaneously released and Shiva dies in a road accident as he attempts to flee the country pursued by authorities for his crimes. Saleem finds his son living with Picture Singh, who tells him Parvati died in the ghetto clearance. Reunited, the three have lunch at a restaurant where Saleem realizes the chutney he is eating is similar to the chutney his ayah Mary used to prepare for him in childhood. He obtains the address of the Bombay-based chutney company and they set out to find it. There Saleem and Mary, the company's owner, are overjoyed to be reunited and the film concludes as Saleem's son, Aadam, utters his first-ever word. 

When we compare both narratives we find following changes in film adaptation: 

In novel we find first person narration by Saleem Sinai and the another character Padma who presented as listner but the chracter of padma is missing in movie.

In novel padma is one of the important character. She is Saleem's loving companion and caretaker, and she will become his fiancée at the end of the novel. but this part is missing in movie adaptations. 

➡️ Characters (How many included and how many left out?) 

When we watch any film adaptation on particular novel we find so many changes. Film adaptation made with purpose of entertainment that's why sometimes so many things added and so many things can replace also. Hear in film adaptation of Midnight's Childrens, we find this characters are missing or left out in the film.

Sonny Ibrahim 

Commander Sabarmati and Laila Sabarmati 

Thinking Activity on Cultural Studies

Hello readers! I am Divya Parmar and I welcome you all to read my blog. This blog is a response to the thinking activity which is given by Dr. Dilip barad. In this blog i will cover the points like what is cultural studies and what is the role of power, Midia and Truly Educated person. 

What is Cultural studies? 

To understand cultural studies we have to understand first what is culture?

"the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic" (Merriam Webster) 

culture, behaviour peculiar to Homo sapiens, together with material objects used as an integral part of this behaviour. Thus, culture includes language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, and ceremonies, among other elements. (britannica) 

 

Cultural studies is a field of theoretical, political, and empirical engaged culture analysis which was initially developed by British academicians in the late 1950s, 60s and 70s. 

It has been taken up and transformed by many scholars in different disciplines around the world. Cultural studies are acknowledged today as interdisciplinary subjects and sometimes as anti-disciplinary. 

A cultural study is an innovative multidisciplinary field of research and teaching investigation of ‘culture’.

 It creates and transforms the individual experiences, everyday life, social relations and power. In research and teaching the culture is understood as the human expressive, symbolic activities and distinctive ways of life.

 

 It combines the studies of social sciences and humanities in order to draw methods and theories from literary studies, sociology, communications studies, history, cultural, anthropology and economics. It addresses new questions and problems of today’s world. 

It is devoted to understanding of the processes in societies and diverse groups with history, community life, and the challenges of the future.

Power in Culture: 

In a narrowly defined version of cultural studies, the typical questions have been about the production or organization of meaning as a site of power. 

Cultural processes are important and interesting because they are a medium through which powerful social relationships are played out and in which possibilities for social betterment are opened up or closed down. A typical way of posing ‘power questions’ has been in terms of identity, especially where identity is seen as a problematic issue, and where individual and collective identities are understood as being always created under social pressures. 

The cultural question can be asked differently. Implicit in the culture-as-power issue and the questions that arise from it is the idea that everyone participates, however unequally, in the cultural process of making meanings and fixing and shifting identities.

 Yet the best known definition of the cultural, and perhaps still the dominant one in everyday use, tends to narrow the cultural field down to specialized, often elite, ‘high cultural’ practices and products which are distinguished from ‘common culture’ and which are ‘owned’ by experts or privileged groups. 

Video : 

In our regular life we are following one or another system which is made by someone who is in power. So what is power? Power is something we are often uncomfortable talking about! That's especially true in civic life, how we live together in community. In India we follow democracy. Democracy means something which can be ruled by people or period. When we talk about power, the term arrives is to control something or someone! Whether it is life, rights, belief, thinking process, choice to live life or we can say that freedom of state of mind. 

The question comes from where Power comes from? How is it exercised? And what can we do to become more powerful in public life? "Power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do" whether it is family, relationship or workplaces! 

Civic Arena: 

Power means getting a community to make the choices and take the actions that you want. Here we find six major or specific sources of civil power. 

1 . Physical Force : So the first civic source is physical Force and capacity for violence. Control of the means of force, whether in the police or a Militia. 

2 . Wealth: The second core source of power is wealth. Money creates the ability to buy results and to buy almost any other kind of power. 

3 . State Action: The third of power is state Action, government. This is the use of law and bureaucracy to compel people to do or not to do certain things. In democracy the people are there to give Power position to the government. In dictatorship, state power emerges from the threat of force, not consent of the governed. 

4. Social Norms: The fourth type of power is social norms or what other people think is okay. Norms don't have the centralised machinery of government. They operate in a softer way, peer to peer. They can certainly make people change behaviour and even change laws. 

5 . Ideas: The fifth form of power is ideas. An idea, individual liberties, say or racial equality, can generate boundless amounts of power if it motivates enough people to change their thinking and actions. 

6 . Numbers : The six sources of power are numbers, lots of humans. A vocal mass of people creates power by expressing collective intensity of interest and by asserting legitimacy. 

How does power operate? 

There are three laws of power worth examining. 

Power is never static 

Power is like water 

Power Compounds 

What is the role of Media in Culture? 

The impact of social media on culture cannot be overestimated. It had a great influence on the cultural changes in the society so that the role of men and women has been defined by the mass media. In the process, it affected both intercultural and international communication. Many people globally have been trying to understand the meaning of culture and its influence on how human beings behave. So, how does the media influence culture and society?  

Learning about other cultures through the media can create some stereotypes which can be negative at times. The media plays an important role in educating the people and making them familiar with some cultures so as to avoid stereotypes. Examples of stereotypes that have been created by the media include portraying Muslims as terrorists and Africans as illiterates.

By educating the people about different cultures and emphasizing on the positive aspects, the media can play an important role in constructing the cultures of different societies across the world and in the process avoiding prejudice and stereotyping. The mass media has got a large audience that gives a lot of power to influence many societal issues. The media advocates for social concerns and enables communication and exchange of positive cultural values among different societies. The mass media presents information about a particular region of culture to the whole world and it is therefore very important for the information to be properly investigated before presentation. Global sports such as the World Cup enjoy a lot of following across the world and the media has the power to influence many cultural aspects during such tournaments.

Many ideas concerning male and masculinity have been constructed by the media. The media portrays a man as brave and without emotions and women as fearful and emotional in television programs and movies. The media forms the idea of a real man in the society as the one who is aggressive and financially stable. Women are portrayed as housekeepers and the children grow up with this information. 

The media highlights different values and norms and the possible consequences of failing to adhere to societal norms and values. Through the media, society is able to learn how to behave in different circumstances according to one’s role and status. The media helps in portraying models of behavior that are supposed to be followed by the society and its members. 

the media has a very important role in shaping our culture. The media has promoted globalization and in the end people from different nationalities and cultures are able to exchange values and ideas that are beneficial to their lives.

The mass media and the internet have greatly contributed to cultural construction of many societies across the world and therefore making them become very important agents of socialization. The mass media agents such as the television, internet, films and radio have been very instrumental in promoting socialization by providing a perfect platform for exchanging ideas and opinions on various issues that affect life. Networks have also been able to affect different cultures across the world.

Some of the issues highlighted in films and movies are always fiction but society tends to practice them in reality which has led to some serious consequences. Networks and organizations have made the world become a global village. Networks and organizations will no doubt continue to influence the culture of many societies since there is so much information being passed across different networks and organizations. The media will continue to influence people’s way of life both in the present and in the future. 

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My Daughter Joined a Cult

Hello everyone! I am Divya Parmar and I am writing this blog to present my reading upon the documentary: "My Daughter Joined a Cult" by Discovery+ so first of all we will see the superstition environment in india. Then I write my reading upon the documentary. 

Superstition environment in india:

India is a large south Asian country with billions of people belonging to different castes and creeds with different social and cultural background and socioeconomic class. Here, people have different views, beliefs, perceptions, and knowledge about different situations. 

Superstition in India is considered a widespread social problem. Superstition refers to any belief or practice which is explained by supernatural causality, and is in contradiction to modern science.Some beliefs and practices, which are considered superstitious by some, may not be considered so by others. The gap, between what is superstitious and what is not, widens even more when considering the opinions of the general public and scientists.

Superstitions are usually attributed to a lack of  education. But, in India educated people have also been observed following beliefs that may be considered superstitious. The literacy rate of India, according to the 2011 census is at 74%.The beliefs and practices vary from region to region, with many regions having their own specific beliefs.The practices may range from harmless lemon-and-chilli totems for warding off evil eye to serious concerns like witch-burning. Some of these beliefs and practices are centuries old and are considered part of the tradition and religion, as a result introduction of new prohibitory laws often face opposition.

Psychologists and anthropologists suggest that Individuals who follow superstitious practices do so to cope with misfortune and uncertainty and to make sense of a complex world.Other research has suggested that superstitious beliefs can endure if the probability of them being exposed as untrue is low. If there is always some chance of a bad outcome when following superstition and some chance of a good outcome when not, an individual might never realize that it is untrue and continue to follow it. Even though the world has faced many changes and development in the field of science and technology, the belief of the people over superstitions still exists in society.

About documentary: 

In 2019, Netflix released a documentary feature, Bikram: Yogi, Guru & Predator, detailing the many sexual misconduct allegations against popular yoga guru Bikram Choudhury. A year later came Bad Boy Billionaires, which singled out the shady dealings of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Subrata Roy. A damning portrait emerges of another absconder, Nithyananda, in the three-part documentary series My Daughter Joined a Cult, which streams on discovery+. Using news footage, a lot of it from local media in Karnataka, talking heads of ex-devotees and journalists, and video bytes of the godman’s sermons, the show tracks the quick rise and subsequent fall of Swami Nithyananda. 

“The moment you sit in front of me, enlightenment starts,” says Nithyananda to his audience. It is one of the many declarations the godman makes, which leave us questioning what made people fall for him. His legion of followers includes influential and wealthy people, who are unnamed, and like many Indian spiritual gurus he has his share of foreign devotees. There are accounts from followers-turned- whistleblowers. The most insightful voice here belongs to an anonymous woman whose experience suggests that Nithyananda knew how to target the vulnerable and make people commit to him so much that they’d be ready to sever ties with their families. 

Nithyananda’s two-faced ways are revealed best by Sarah Landry aka Sudevi, his social media manager, and Jordan Lozada through their recollection of goings-on in the ashram, which include verbal abuse and beating of disciples as well as demands to ramp up the videos propagating his teachings and increase the enrolments for his inner awakening programme. Landry and Lozada do as the boss orders with a video segment called “Keeping up with the Kailashians”, in which they dress up in saffron robes and chronicle their lives in the ashram.

The series often runs like a well-edited Wikipedia entry as it documents the key events in Nithyananda’s controversial life—the foremost being the “sex tape” which rubbishes his claims of being a celibate; accusation of rape from erstwhile follower Aarthi Rao, and the sudden death of a young woman at his ashram in Bidadi near Bengaluru. These hardly deter his followers, who instead launch a malicious campaign against his detractors. What the series is low on are nuggets on his origins, the lapse which led to his escape from India, apparently without a passport, and Kailaasa, a country he reportedly founded and is currently based in. A quick search on Google tells you that it can be accessed only through chartered flights. 

Nithyananda is not the only one missing. The series begins with footage of Janardhan Sharma and his wife searching for their two daughters, who they believe are held against their will by the swami at his ashram in Ahmedabad. "I am very happy here. I am not kidnapped,” says Nanditha in a video call with the media, rejecting her parents’ claims. Sharma’s two daughters are yet to be found. While most of his former followers are busy critiquing him, Jansi Rani is one of the few to call out her own follies. Rani’s 24-year-old daughter died of a heart attack in the ashram under mysterious circumstances. “He told us the sun rose because he appeared,” she says. “All of us were crazy.” Many continue to be under his sway watching his videos and supporting him as he hides in Kailaasa, a place few can pinpoint on a map and where the self-proclaimed ‘Paramashivam’ continues to preach. 

Video clip of Sarah Landry's confession of cult :

 

Another points to notice from documentary: 

The title speaks to the predatory behaviour of self-styled godmen towards young individuals, and the stories in the docu-series map how this grooming takes place. A viewer who is not clued into how religious cults work may wonder what compelled parents to hand over their children to a religious organisation, giving up control and access entirely. The godman in My Daughter Joined a Cult earned the trust of parents — who saw him as the pole star of their lives — and presented himself as a father figure without any need for romantic or sexual attachments. 

The second and third episodes in the docu-series are a study in absurdity. Rather conveniently, Nithyananda dismisses the notion of ‘karma’ as being legitimate: “Karma means that the effect of our actions will come back to us in the future, is a myth. There is no CCTV recording going on in the cosmos… where your actions will be bringing suffering to you in the future. God is not playing the game of judge.” In the series, we also learn that a summons from the court does not reach the godman, because his security team quite literally does not allow it to pass. When a TV journalist attempts to be a medium for the summons by carrying it with him at a press conference held at the ashram, he is chased out before he can even finish reading it. 

The unwavering support and devotion that Nithyananda enjoyed would not exist if it weren’t for a carefully constructed self-mythology. The godman at the centre of My Daughter Joined a Cult not only commodified faith but also himself. One of the many manifestations of this is his devotees taking selfies with standees of his image. Saraiya remembers another story concerning a devotee who claimed they were healed of an acute health issue because of the godman’s mere touch. The docu-series paints a picture of how Nithyananda changed his appearance over the years; as his hair grew out, he also increasingly presented himself as a pathway to enlightenment, and Shiva himself. “A coupon code for God,” as Saraiya aptly puts it. 

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An Aestroger's Day

Hello readers! I am Divya Parmar and I warmly welcome you all to read my blog. This blog is a response to the thinking activity on a short story  by R. K. Narayan. In this blog I will write about R. K. Narayan secondly i will write about the summary of the short story “An Astrologer's Day" after that question-answers as a part of thinking activity. 

About R. K. Narayan : 

R.K. Narayan, in full Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan, original name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, (born October 10, 1906, Madras [Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English. 

Reared by his grandmother, Narayan completed his education in 1930 and briefly worked as a teacher before deciding to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys. That book and much of Narayan’s later works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi. Narayan typically portrays the peculiarities of human relationships and the ironies of Indian daily life, in which modern urban existence clashes with ancient tradition. His style is graceful, marked by genial humour, elegance, and simplicity. 

Summary of the short story: 

‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is a story from the Indian author R. K. Narayan’s 1943 collection Malgudi Days. The Malgudi of the collection’s title is a fictional city in India, where all of the stories in the collection take place. The opening story in the book, ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is about an unnamed astrologer who is confronted by a stranger who questions his abilities. 

The story is about a man who makes a living as an astrologer, sitting under a tree in a busy street every day and offering to tell the fortune of any passer-by who is willing to pay for him to do so. However, the ‘astrologer’ in reality knows little of the stars, and instead tends to rely on shrewd guesses, cold reading, and letting his clients talk for long enough for him to gain enough background to their lives in order to create the illusion that he somehow knows things about them which they have not told him. 

He also tends to tell them things which he senses they want to hear, knowing that people are more likely to be willing to hand over money to someone who tells them positive things rather than someone who delivers bad news. One night, as he is preparing to head home having finished his evening’s work, the astrologer spots a man and invites him to sit with him and have his fortune read. However, the stranger calls into doubt the astrologer’s abilities, and challenges him. He will give him an anna (one-sixteenth of a rupee) but if the astrologer’s answer is unsatisfactory, the astrologer must pay him the anna back, with interest. 

They negotiate, and the stranger agrees to pay the astrologer eight annas if he gives him satisfactory answers, but the astrologer must give the stranger more than that if he fails to prove his talents.

After an unpromising start, which fails to impress the stranger, the astrologer correctly identifies that the man was stabbed and then thrown into a well, where he was left for dead. He also tells the man his name, Guru Nayak. When Nayak asks the astrologer when he will meet the man who tried to kill him so he can exact his revenge, the astrologer replies that the man died four months ago in a far-off town.

The astrologer then tells Nayak to return home to his village and never leave again. If he does this, he will live to be a hundred. Nayak is only too happy to agree to this, revealing that he only left his village to try to locate the man who almost killed him. Now he knows the man is dead (the astrologer tells him he was crushed under a lorry), he is satisfied.

When the astrologer arrives home to his wife, there is a twist. It turns out that he was the man who attacked Guru Nayak and left him for dead. This is how he knew the man’s identity. He was able to throw Nayak off the scent and save himself from the man’s vengeance, using his authority as an astrologer to advise the man to return home. 

Video clip of the movie : 

Question - Answer: 

1 . How faithful is the movie to the original short story? 

After reading the summary and watching the video clip we can compare both the things. The starting movie is faithful to the story. Midday startup of Astrologer's Day. Astrologer talked about so many things to his customers. Same like the story, in movie astrologers also talk about marriage, money and tangles of human ties etc. After the whole story continues as it is. 

2. After watching the movie, has your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed? 

As we know, when a part of literature is turned into a movie or video it gives visual effects and is more real or more interesting. Same as in this movie we find that some movie elements, social elements are portrayed very well in comparison of story. 

3 . Do you feel 'aesthetic delight' while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If not, Can you explain with reason? 

When Astrologer is not allowed by guru Nayak to play psychological human mind tricks! Which was everytime played by astrologer… at that time for a while astrologer denayed but after he accept the challenge and we can luck or good fate of astrologer he able to mannage his respect. 

4 . Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story?

Yes! Any visual things always create more effect and drag reader or viewers to more close to actual literature. Same hear in story visual make more effective and interesting which attrect our mind and make better understanding of story. 

5 . Was there any particular scene or moment in the story that you think was perfect? 

In the end where astrologer confess his crime in front of his wife that was the perfect scene according to my point of view. 

6 . If you are the director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of the movie based on the short story "An Astrologer's Day" by R. K. Narayan? 

If i have chance to direct this movie, first of all i want to make it more fulfull things in astrology and after that i want to make chnage in last. And it is like Astrologer's confession front of guru Nayak. Then it is open for audience to conclude that what should guru Nayak behave….

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Wide Sargasso Sea

Hello readers! I am Divya Parmar and I warmly welcome you all to read my blog. This blog is a response to the thinking activity which is given by yesha ma'am. In this blog first I will discuss about The "Wide Sargasso Sea" and after that a short introduction about writer. Among the four points, I have chosen the first topic 'Postcolonialism: Postcolonialism: Postcolonial response to Jane Eyre. Hope this blog will help you to read Postcolonial responses. 

"Wide Sargasso Sea" 

Wide Sargasso Sea, novel by Jean Rhys, published in 1966. A well-received work of fiction, it takes its theme and main character from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The book details the life of Antoinette Mason (known in Jane Eyre as Bertha), a West Indian who marries an unnamed man in Jamaica and returns with him to his home in England. Locked in a loveless marriage and settled in an inhospitable climate, Antoinette goes mad and is frequently violent. Her husband confines her to the attic of his house at Thornfield. Only he and Grace Poole, the attendant he has hired to care for her, know of Antoinette’s existence. The reader gradually learns that Antoinette’s unnamed husband is Mr. Rochester, later to become the beloved of Jane Eyre. 

  

Much of the action of the novel takes place in the West Indies. The first and third sections are narrated by Antoinette, the middle section by her husband. 

Jean Rhys :

Jean Rhys, original name Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, (born August 24, 1890, Roseau, Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indies—died May 14, 1979, Exeter, Devon, England), West Indian novelist who earned acclaim for her early works set in the bohemian world of Europe in the 1920s and ’30s but who stopped writing for nearly three decades, until she wrote a successful novel set in the West Indies. 

The daughter of a Welsh doctor and a Creole mother, Rhys lived and was educated in Dominica until she went to London at the age of 16 and worked as an actress before moving to Paris. There she was encouraged to write by the English novelist Ford Madox Ford. Her first book, a collection of short stories, The Left Bank (1927), was followed by such novels as Postures (1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1931), Voyage in the Dark (1934), and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). 

After moving to Cornwall she wrote nothing until her remarkably successful Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a novel that reconstructed the earlier life of the fictional character Antoinette Cosway, who was Mr. Rochester’s mad first wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Tigers Are Better-Looking, with a Selection from the Left Bank (1968) and Sleep It Off Lady (1976), both short-story collections, followed. Smile Please, an unfinished autobiography, was published in 1979. 

What is 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 theorists and historians have been concerned with investigating the various trajectories of modernity as understood and experienced from a range of philosophical, cultural, and historical perspectives.

 They have been particularly concerned with engaging with the ambiguous legacy of the Enlightenment—as expressed in social, political, economic, scientific, legal, and cultural thought—beyond Europe itself. The legacy is ambiguous, according to postcolonial theorists, because the age of Enlightenment was also an age of empire, and the connection between those two historical epochs is more than incidental. 

 Postcolonialism: postcolonial response to Jane Eyre

Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the best-known literary postcolonial replies to the writing of Charlotte Bronte and a brilliant deconstruction of what is known as the author’s “worlding” in Jane Eyre . The novel written by Jean Rhys tells the story of Jane Eyre’s protagonist, Edward Rochester. The plot takes place in the West Indies where Rochester met his first wife, Bertha Antoinette Mason. Wide Sargasso Sea influences the common reading and understanding of the matrix novel, as it rewrites crucial parts of Jane Eyre. 

The heroine in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea , Antoinette Cosway, is created out of demonic and bestialic Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre. Rhys's great achievement in her re-writing of Bronte's text is her creation of a double to the madwoman from Jane Eyre . 

The heroine of Wide Sargasso Sea, the beautiful Antoinette Cosway, heiress of the post-emancipation fortune is created out of the demons and bestialic Bertha Mason. The author transforms the first Mrs Rochester into an individual figure whose madness is caused by imperialistic and patriarchal oppression. The vision of Bertha/Antoinette as an insane offspring from a family plagued by madness is no longer plausible to the reader. 

Although Bertha Mason and Jane Eyre seem to be enemies and contradictory characters in the Victorian novel, many critics find several similarities between the two heroines, their life and finally between Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea . Seeing Jane Eyre and Antoinette Cosway as sisters and doubles is very popular with some critics who dealt with the works of Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys. Nevertheless. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her essay “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism” also appreciates Jean Rhys for telling the story of Bertha Mason through the Creole perspective, but she criticises the author for marginalising the native inhabitants of West Indies.