Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Laughter and Subjectivity PDF
Laughter and Subjectivity PDF
Laughter and Subjectivity PDF
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern
Asian Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
AsianStudies34, 2 (2000), pp. 379-406. ? 200ooo
Modern Press
CambridgeUniversity
in theUnitedKingdom
Printed
Laughterand Subjectivity:
The Self-Ironical
Traditionin BengaliLiterature
SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ
"
Varnaparichay(Vidyasagar'sprimerforchildren)contrastsparticularly withthe
artisticallyimaginativetreatmentin Tagore's Sahaj Path (Tagore's primer,which
was based on an entirelydifferentpedagogictheory,and emphasizedthe factthat
childrenmustlearn to read the worldbothliterallyand artistically), thoughof late
thishas offendedthe anachronisticsensibilityof the leftistculturalcommissars.
12 Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar,Bhrantivilas
(1869).
'~ 'Bangala SahityePyarichandMitra',BR, ii, 862-3.
14 A good exampleof thisidea of exaltedcanonsis the topicofBankimchandra's
famousessayin literarycriticism,'Shakuntala,Miranada evam Desdemona'.BR, ii,
204-9.
'5 MadhusudanDutta's Meghnadbadh Kavya(1861) is an excellentexampleofhow
creativelywriterscould exploit the possibilitiesopened up by the conjunctionof
384 SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ
these two high canons. The narrativeis taken fromthe Ramayana,but is read
throughan invertinginterpretation whichowed muchto ParadiseLost.
16 KaliprasannaSinha,Hutom PencharNaksha,introduction.
" For an
interestingdiscussionon Bankimchandra'sview of the West, Tapan
Raychaudhuri,EuropeReconsidered (OxfordUniversityPress, Delhi, g99o).Partha
ChatterjeeanalysesBankimfroma different angle,NationalistThoughtandtheColo-
nial World.
LAUGHTER AND SUBJECTIVITY 385
philosophicprinciple.This made the offerof modernityimplicitin
their historydeeply paradoxical.Reflectionon colonial modernity
revealeda tragicdichotomy:eitherautonomywithoutmodernity or
modernity with the acceptance of It
subjection. was that sectionof
the Bengali intelligentsiawhich could not answer this question
simply,withoutcontradictionand regret,whichhad recourseto a
laughter.Those who could make simplerand less tragic
self-ironical
choicesdid not need thisformof self-understanding.'8The soundof
this laughtercould be heard fromBankim throughTagore's early
worksdown to the most enigmaticproductof the Bengali literary
enlightenment,Sukumar Ray (1887-1923), the creator of its most
admirednonsenseverse,a poetrywhichdid notmake sense in single
sentencesor versesbut capturedsome of the mostfundamentalhis-
toricalmeaningsof middleclass Bengali mentalitywhen seen as a
whole. Afterhis time, this formof self-ironicalwritinggradually
declines,spluttering in theworksofoccasionalimitators
ineffectually
in later generations.'9But afterthe arrivalof a leftistsensibility,
whichwas to dominateBengali intellectualism fornearlyhalfa cen-
tury and encourage it towardsenormous moral it dis-
simplifications,
appearedintothe untroubledcertaintiesofleftistpolitics.Bybecom-
ing entirely serious, one-dimensional,radically self-righteous,
Bengali literaryreflectionslowlylost its taste forthe ineradicable
contradictorinessofbeing.Its greattragedieswereno longerrelated
to subtleironiesof self-constructionor experience,but the winning
and losing of municipaland state elections.I shall discuss simply
three momentsof this tradition,startingbrieflywith Bankim,fol-
lowed by twoversesfromTagore and SukumarRay. In all of them
the centralfigureis of course the babu, the educated middleclass
Bengali,the image of intellectualperfection.
H. Bankimchandra's Kamalakanta
Pleasegrantmewealth,honour, fame,fulfil
all mydesires.Appointme
to highoffice, or a memberoftheCouncil.
a raja,maharaja,raybahadur,
If youcannotgrantthese,inviteme at least to yourat homesand dinners;
nominate me to a highcommittee or thesenate;makeme a justiceor an
honorary magistrate. Please takenoticeof myspeeches,read myessays,
encourage me;then,I wouldnottakeheedofthedenunciation oftheentire
Hindusociety.
Clearly,thereare two levels of meaningin this false hymn.At the
firstlevel, thereis a caricatureof both the collaboratingbabu and
the Britishwho conferhonourson him. Characteristically, Bankim
goes straightto the heart of the matter,cuttingthroughthe pre-
tences.Only in appearanceis colonial societya realmwherecareer
is open to talent; in fact,colonial administrationdoes nothingto
encouragemerit.The Englishmancan giveanythinghe likesliterally
to anyone:it is the arbitrariness of his conferments thatis emphas-
ized,whichmakesthebabu's supplicatory selfabasementits entirely
propercomplement.High honourin colonialBengal is hardlyrecog-
nitionfordesert,publicserviceor ability,butofcompetitiveservility.
ColonialismendowstheordinaryBritishofficial withmysticalpowers
of nomination:he can name anythinginto existence;and the essen-
tial pointis to be so named by the rightauthority. The Englishcan
rename all social and moral descriptions.3'In all this, the babu's
adoptionof reformand rationalismis shownforwhat it is. He is
a rationalistout of opportunism, and entirelyunclear about how a
rationalistargumentis to be grounded.He would do all the right
things-accept modernity, break tradition,adopt altruism-always
forthewrongreason-not because he can showor believethatthese
are the rightcourseof actionbut because the Britishconsiderthem
praiseworthy. The babu's adoptionof westernrationalismis funda-
mentallymarkedand taintedby thisheteronomy. Two typesof acts
3 Bankimwrotean immortal
satireon thisprocessoftheriseofa Bengalito
eminencein the colonialworldin hisMuchiram (188o), BR, ii, 1 13-
GuderJibancharit.
28.
LAUGHTER AND SUBJECTIVITY 391
" Rabindranath
Thakur, Manasi (Visvabharati, Calcutta, 1967), 126-30.
394 SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ
34
Gurumaraliterallymeansmurderingthe teacher;tikeis a commentary. Guru-
mara is standardlyused to describea student,gurumarachela. Here this clearly
means commentarieswhichexceed/destroythe texts.'Bangavi',Manasi,
140-5.
LAUGHTER AND SUBJECTIVITY 395
ives. We shall see later that there is also a complementary logic of
belonging which is set in motion in these critiques of the babu. This
would be a logic of belonging to the 'others' to those who have been
conquered, disenfranchised,dispossessed.
Let us compare another storyfromTagore's next work,Sonar Tari
(1893).35 This poem, too, is fundamentallysimilar to Bankim's ori-
ginal travestic writingin two respects: it is a nonsense storyand its
subject is the babu. The ruler of a mythical kingdom was once
troubled by incomprehensible dreams. Along with his ministers and
subjects, he lives in a meaningful,not a causal world. Dreams there-
fore must be taken seriously,not laughed offas illusions. They must
also be uncoded correctly.In the king's dreams three monkeys pick
lice lovinglyfrom the royal hair, but they slapped him if he stirred.
At intervals the nit pickers uttered a mysteriousslogan: 'hing ting
chhat'. In his bewilderment, the king, like modern governments,
turned to scholarly consultants. Savants from several countries and
continents are called in, including several from Europe. They tryin
their differentways, but fail, and some of them are given punish-
ments that must appear somewhat disproportionalto what was after
all an intellectual failure. A humorous Frenchman was left to be
devoured alive by dogs for suggesting that the complex of sounds
was devoid of meaning but not of a certain aural melody.
The riddle, as one can expect, remains unsolved until a scholar
arrives fromGaud, trained by Europeans, but already surpassing his
masters,jaban panditdergurumarachela.36The relevant sequence then
follows:
At thishourarrivedthe scholarfromGaud,
trainedbyforeignmasters,onlyto surpassthem.
Bareheaded,shabbilydressedto the pointof beingshameless
his clothesthreatenedto slip offhim at times.
So thinhe was thatpeople could doubthis existence
whichwere of coursedecisivelydispelled
as soon as the wordsbegan to emerge.
Indeed, theworldwonderedat howso muchof sound
could be producedbyso slighta machine.
Arrogantly he asked:
what is the subjectof dispute?
I could say a fewwordson the subject
40 Literally,a residentofMadras.
41
42
PejorativeformforOriya.
Bangalwas used to referpejoratively
to residentsofeast Bengal; but thisinsult
was heartilyreturned.West Bengal people were similarlycalled ghati.
398 SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ
was
45 Aboltabol translatedtwice,oncebySatyajitRay,and morerecently bySukanta
Choudhury, cf'The BlightyCow',Selected
Nonsense
ofSukumar Ray (OxfordUniversity
Press,Delhi, 1987), 41.
46 Babu, in SukumarRay, Khai Khai. Sukumar Rachanavali(Patra's Publication,
Calcutta, 1985), 33-
400 SUDIPTA KAVIRAJ