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Dipesh Chakrabarty - Habitations of Modernity, Essays in The Wake of Subaltern Studies PDF
Dipesh Chakrabarty - Habitations of Modernity, Essays in The Wake of Subaltern Studies PDF
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Dipesh Chakrabarty is professor of history and of South Asian languages and civilizations To
at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Provincializing Europe: Portcolon¡al ASHIS NANDY
7 hought and Historical Difference and Rethinking Working-Clan Hzrtory: Bengal
1890-1940- and
KRISHNA RAJ
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London in appreciation
© 2002 by The Universiry of Chicago
Al! rights reseeved. Published 2002
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Biblioteca Daniel Cesio Villegas
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 040302 1 2 3 4 5
Ir:ventario j(J(
ISBN: 0-226-10038-3 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-10039-1 (paper)
Chakrabarry, Dipesh.
Habitations ofmodernitv : essays in the wakc of subaltern studies /
Dipesh Chakrabarty ; with a forcword by Homi K. Bhabha.
3 9 0 5 i3 wr
Includes bibliographical referentes and índex.
ISBN 0-226-10038-3 (eloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-226-10039-1 (paper : alk. papa)
1. India-Historiography. 2. India Politics and governmcnt. 3. Social
justice-India. 1. Tide.
DS435 C46 2002
954'.007'2-dc21 75 4 06
2002019210
®The paper uscd in this publicaron meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Informaton Scicnces-Permanence of Paper fot Printed Libran
Materials,ANSI Z39.48-1992.
000IM
6 GovernmentalRootsofModernEthnicity 80
vü
VIII / ( >.TGSTS
Notes 149
Tndex 165
spoke each day, looking out opto the same bleached sky, Dipesh there
those gaps where emotions and insights have yerto find adequate forms
and 1 here, the distante between os measured by a telephone wire along
of speech? Tell os why suddenly your voice fails, and your passion Cakes
which wc threaded Che narratives of our lives and days. What we shared
shape, in Che inchoate, the interruptive, the contingent? And why is it
in [hose mcetings of everyday voices was a desire to be at honre in Che
that in that very fading of your voice we see you practice Che art of a
place and time in which we found ourselves. And that desire was no less
darker doubt in which your words bind us to a common history and a
true for being unrealizable. The uncannyhoming instinct that we shared shared conversation?
did not come from a belief, or a sense ofrelief, in Che sufficiency of our
My friendship with Dipesh has provoked [hese questions "in Che
present situations. Far from it. Wc were anchored in Che wayward mem-
name of that doubt which is Che inseparable part of our knowledge," and
ories of our making, and what drew us together in the midst of our jour- reading Habitations of Modernity now helps me understand them. The
neys was our desire to shadow each other, ro be each other's stranger
historian's practice of doubt, Dipesh suggests, must not be read merely
and friend, to share our different darknesses and doubts. No one has un-
as a heuneneutic of suspicion, peeling away Che protocols of disciplinary
derstood better than Joseph Conrad what compels Che joyous and diffi-
power to reveal Che presente of Che obscure, subaltern subject. This line
cult conversations of those who wander "over the face of Che earth, Che
of argument often leads to the injunction "Only Historicize" and seeks
illustrious and Che obscure, earning beyond thc seas our fame, our
to emancipare [hose who have been "hidden from history." But [hese
money or only a trust of bread." For it is they-or indeed we-who are
outlaws, [hese peoples without a history, are frequently delivered to his-
bound to each other, in history and story, "in Che name of that doubt
. tory by being marched through Che defiles of a secular modernity. When
which is Che inseparable parí of our knowledge" (LordJim, chap. 21).
they arrive at Che signposts ofprogress, they are shorn oftheir stories and
What is Che task of Che foreword written out of friendship, and cast in traditions; they are no longer hidden from history, but they have turned
Che conversarional mude?
into spectral figures, transparent testimonies to Che worldly triumph of a
The friend toros to the finished text in a spirit of dialogue that is con- secular capitalist moderniry. When modero world history contemplares
tingent, interruptive, insurgent. His purpose is to protect Che author
its achievements and transformations in this light, it fails to represen[ the
from Che embrace of Che sententious. For [here is always an urgen[, if in-
passions and perversities of those modernities that have a pre- or post-
visible, fine to be drawn between the author's sovereignrv and Che
colonial genealogy. In Che company of Ranajit Guha and Ashis Nandy,
writer's survival. This is Che jagged lifeline of the text that will be revived,
Dipesh argues that Che modero social sciences may develop philan-
long afrer thc work is published, each time it is read and reread. The au-
thropic pedagogies that seek to spread "scientific rationality, democratic
thor performs his histrionic gestures of sincerity and authenticity in or- politics, and modera aesthetics" (p. 39) across the world, but in so do-
der ro conquer the world with Che facility of Che phrasemaker or the ing, they endow themselves with a surveillant vision and a disciplinary
compass of Che mapmaker. The writer, on the other hand, risks his very
prescience, failing to understand that "[here are parts of society that re-
integrity and singulariry in order to touch a world that he can no more
main opaque to Che theoretical gaze of Che modere analyst.... [I]t
conquer [han he can master language. In disclosing what human history seems ... that cultural practices have a dark side. We cannot see finto
renders disjunct or diverse, the wrirer reveals a worldly knowledge that them, noteverywhere" (p. 45).
draws humaniry together in a practice ofdoubt, a kind of knowledge that
When Che glass of theory turras dark, must we abandon ourselves to
avises not hecause modero man knows roo much for trush to be re-
experience and pragmatism? Do we espouse a practice of doubt only
solved, but because "human kind cannot bear very much reality." The
when our speculative systems are defeated? Enter that historical and the-
conversational friend plays on such doubts and distinctions berween sov-
oretical darkness, Dipesh argues, free oneself and others from Che be-
ereignry and survival. And in so doing, he draws forth Che unquiet spirit nighted conditions of oppression, but also register a deep doubt about
of writing that haunts Che author's histrionic gesture. The task of the Che enlightened career of Che "self-inventing hero of modero life" (p. 46).
foreword is to ask, What, my friend, have you risked in this work? Are
The dynamic of darkness and doubt leads Dipesh ro probe what pro-
you willing to drive us beyond Che limit of our understanding and Che di- gressive historians have roo easily dismissed as the "problem of the un-
rective line ofyour reasoning? Are you declaiming these truths from Che
desirable pass" as it encroaches on contemporary politics. There is no
repose of your disciplinary divan, making disciples of os all? Or will you question that [hese dark cides of history-sati, child marriage, commu-
set us free to wander in [hose places that you leave open to the future-
nal violente, infanticide, poverry-must be transformed finto a growing
FORI'.tA'oUU / x111
XII j FoRF\4o], l,
"a mod e otrelating... in No hilo( hi Sto'leal a ti,¡ contingenr difternxela
democratic dialogue berreen empowercd groups and freer uadividuals. oeither reified nor erased hut negotiated° p 140;- that Dipe>h has
But the dream of a total root-and-hranch social nanstormation-be it brought to lite in his remarkahle hlunting of historo, mane human and
liberal, socialist, anarchist, or marxist- -e ven uc hen it is dreamed on be-
in -Itunrao habit ations.
hall of the righrs of the subaltern or thc oppressed, is parr of a political
imaginary that can onla think in terms of "the wltole called thc sea te" Homi K. 13habha
(p. 35 ). ]n resisting ihe sublatorv narrarives of statc-ccntered transccn-
dent histories and polirics, Dipesh dares us ro imagine a modal and
moral form ofpolitical agency ftxmded on thc suhaltern's °fragmentarV
and episodic" experience ofhistorv and citizenship:
.xv
ACICN( xvl In ,a\
xix
t 1 IU>t,t-( rtf)N / xxi
xx / IArR01,1 ( 1ION
specialist reader. The primarv questionc that moneare it are not peculiar
of weIl-hein„ lustice, gods, spirits, rcligion, magic, and so ora. This is ro India. Al ncc hcart ofthem al) arecertaiu problcros nuty sltared manta
not a case oí ncc so-called intrusion ot ncc tradicional loto clic rcalm of
postcolonial historiaras all ovar the woild. Hosv do wc think about cite
the modem. ¡'he subalte n ciasses are as caught up in modero insriru
global legacv of the }iurope.m 8nlightennunt in lands tar aun tion,
tions as thc middle and uppcr classes are And Chis is w-hat produces somc in or documcnt u❑ avFs .uo-t
rope geography or historv? How do >ve cnisio
ofthc most challenging questions of Indian modernity. heing modcrn that will speak to that wthich is shared across che world
How do wc, for instance, characterizc ncc intellectual worlds of clic as wcll as u> citar ,vhich belong, to humeo cultural divcrsitt? Hosv do
pcasant and che subaltern classes svho are our contcmporaries vet ,rhose wc resist che tendencv in our chinking to justito che violence that ac-
lile practicas consrantly challengc our "modern" distinctions bet,vecn companies imperial or criumphalist nxnnents of modanito? Hose do
che secular and che sacred, boceen che feudal and che capitalist, be- tve also construct critiques of popular violence citar have, frc,m umc ro
twecn che nonrational and che racional? The old imperial option of look- time, toro apart-and/or given birth to-communicies and nations ot
ing down on them through some version of che idea of backwardness has
modero times?
lost lis appeal. Increasingly, we want the process of democratization to My work has been associated for about tw o decades now witlr the Ox-
be itsclf democratic. The farther afield the process of democratization
ford Universiry Press series Subaltern Studies, launched in 1982 andar
ranges, and tic more radical thatprocess becomes, che more we are chal- clic intellecmal lcadership of Ranajit Guita. In the discussions that fol-
lenged to rethink our stance as self-conscious political subjects oí' lowcd che publication of these volumes, modernity, the nation-state, and
modernitv. che idea of history itself emerged as important atad controversiel Copies.
So how would one write of forms of modernitv that have deviated The risa of an aggressive, cultural nationalism in India in the 1980s-
from all canonical understandings of the term? Therc have been several a Hindu Right that deliberately targeted Muslim and Christian minori-
scholarly responses to chis question. Most revolve around contesting the des for discriminatory treaunent-understandably colored much ofwhat
idea that modernity has any necessary, ideal- 'pical form. Some scholars was said in these debates. Feeling besieged, Indian scholars ora che Left
prefer the label alternativa or plural modernities, while ochers write often pinned their hopes for che fttture to a purist allegiance to che tenets
about modernity at large.> These are useful, critical,ideas, but they still of Marxism and liberalism. They argued citar che "linguiscic" and "post-
leave us with the problem that we must first distinguish what modernity historiaras-along
structuralist" turra in the writings of Subaltern Studies
is before we can go on to determine what it is not. And che concept with che "critiques of modernity" developed by writers such as Ashis
modernity loses value as a concept if evervthing in che world is by defini- Nandy-played straight finto che hands of Hindu cultural nationalists.
tion modero (altcrnatively or not). Some, of course, question the value The critics of modernity, if thev can be so called, argued, ora che other
of che verv idea of modernity, but che word is all around Lis, and it may hand, that the ailments of India belonged to che pathologies of moder-
already be roo late to legislare its uses.2 nity itself. The debate, thus, became completely polarized, both cides
It is, of course, entirely possible that che word modernity has outlived elaborating murually exclusive positions encouraged by che contingen-
its utility as a rigorous concept and is naostly of rhetorical value in today's cies of political and social conflicts in India and feeding on similar ideo-
debates. Yct it is a word that we cannot do without in che everydav con- logically driven controversies in che universities of che West.3 But che po-
text of discussions of democracy and developmenc. It comes into use in
larization exaggerared the differences betwcen nce rwo sides.
che lame way as words like medieval or feudal circulare in ordinary speech. My purpose in this book is to suggest wavs of going hevond che ster-
as expressions of moral value. Premodern, backward, medieval-these ile opposition of entrenched black-and-N\ hite distinctions thar has been
historicist tropes survive in our rhetoric even when wc no longer un- produced by diese controversies. We'are al¡, one cvav or another, prod-
questioningly believe in che universalit or applicability of these ideas. ucís of world capitalism and the institutions, practices, and ideas that
But the rhetoric itself may be taken as a sigo that, in, spite of our con- have accompanied it. Whar is at issue in thcse essays is che veny sature of
temporarv intellectual incredulirv toward them, historicist or stagist ideas modernity in colonial and postcolonial India. India, one piar reasouabk
of history and modernin' are never fiar from our thoughts. Wc mu st, therc- argue, became decidedlr capitalist through tito period of British cale and
fore, engage and reengage our ideas about modernity in a spirit of con- afcer, hut Chis has not meanr the hegemony of bourgeois or liberal prac-
stant vigilance. tices in Indian social lifc. It is now aceepted almost universally citar che
This is where Chis book mav have a claim on che actention of che non
XXII / INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION / XXIII
electoral and populist aspeces of Indian democracy have encouraged
people tu challenge older hierarchies ofpower and status. But that does societies are not tabulae rasae. They come with their own plural histories
that have already been imbibed by their members through certain shared
not cocan that social relations and the relations of produdtion in the
country have become bourgeois or liberal in any recognizable way. To- dispositions, skills, competencies, and sentiments. Our use of negative
labels may be read as an índex of the problems of translation that we, ac-
day's India is more democratic if one considers the impact of universal
ademic intellectuals, encounter in describing Indian social acts through
adult fianchise on Indian public lile generally. More and more conflicts
rhe filler of European-derived social sciences and political philosophies.
in contemporary India gel caught up in political processes than ever be-
fore. A small, local conflict can burgeon loto a massive drama drawing These questions are taken up in rhe essays that follow. There is, as
loto its dynamics political parties, institutions, and personalities. Yet such, no one single argument to which the essays sum, but they contain
intersecting themes. 1 have found it convenient to collect the essays in
greater democracy does not mean that ehe rules of public debate in India
or rhe cultural codes for the expression ofauthority and power in every- three pares in order to highlight some of rhe themes addressed in them.
day lile are necessarily liberal or even nonviolent. Yes, Indian public life The flrst parí, "Questions of History," is organized around historio-
graphic debates. 1 begin with a "small history" of Subaltern Studies. It
is more democratic than before-and, in rhat sense, modero-but ir is
explains how Subaltern Studies carne to speak to certain problems of po-
flor thereby necessarily rendered more civil. Verbal, physical, and sym-
bolic violence underwriting relations of dominarion and subordination litical modernity and democracy in India and attempts to give a thumb-
nail sketch of the history of ehe series. The next two essays broaden the
are tu be seen in every deparement of life: from relations of production
to rclationships in rhe family. scope of the discussion by raising questions about rhe role of the past in
constructions of modernity in colonial countries. Sumit Sarkar's criti-
The ftmdamental problem ofhow one might characterize Indian mo-
eisms of Subaltern Studies and Ashis Nandy's critiques of rhe discipline
dernity has remained at the center of scholarly disputatioris on the sub-
of history, respectively, provide my starting points in these chapters.
ject. The labeling exercise on rhe part of rhe Left and the liberal intel-
The second part, "Practices of Modernity," contains essays ehat focus
ligenrsia has, on the whole, been an attempt to qualify categories
characteristic of European metahistories by attaching to them negative on specific cultural and institutional sites of modero India. 1 have in-
particles or prefixes. Not bou geois, not capitalist, not liberal, and so on- cluded here a speculative reading of khadi, rhe Gandhian dress of the
these have been our predominant ways of summing up Indian moder- male politician in India; an essay un the politics of civic consciousness (or
the lack thereof) visible in Indian public spaces; and a piece examining
nity. "Incomplete modernity" oran "incomplete bourgeois revolution,"
nhe governmental roots ofmodern ethnicity.
as sorne of rhe essays collected here will show, was the catchphrase of
Indian intellectuals on rhe Left in rhe 1970s and 1980s. Ranajir Guha's The third parí, "The Ethical and rhe In-Human," contain rhree es-
label-dovninance withour1bourgeoisj hegemony-was perhaps rhe most says working their way toward an appreciation of some of the ethical
successfid attempt of al] to find a positive way of describing the situation, dilemmas and ambiguities that arise when we write-as, indeed, we
hut, even there, rhe negative function of rhe word without can hardly be must-on behalf of projects for greater social justice. The first of [hese
missed. essays investigates rhe relation between law and narrative in the srructur-
ing of modem political desires. The final two essays relate tu the memo-
The negative labeling of positive phenomena is, ultimately, unsatis-
ries and politics of rhe popular violente that rocked British India when it
factory. But it cannot be ascribed to any failure of intelligence or erudi-
was divided in 1947 ro creare ehe modern nation-states of India and Pak-
tion. The problem, it has seemed to me for some time, lies in ehe very
istan. Both [hese esgays relate primarily to contemporary discussions in
categories of social science and political philosophy with which we think.
India of rhe significance ofthe Partition. I must acknowledge here a crit-
Unlike in rhe case of the categories of rhe mathematical sciences or other
icism that is ofen made of this discussion by Pakistani intellectuals that
disciplines that allow a formal presentation of problems, iris difficult for
Indian scholars tend to see rhe Parririon predominantly as a rragedy, miss-
social-science categories to attain a universality rhat is completely free of
ing rhe fact that,it gaye birth to rhe new nation of Pakistan. 1 do not
historical and contingent differences berween societies. While such cate-
think that 1 escape Chis criticism.
gories are cminently translatable across societies and should, indeed, be
so rranslated in rhe inrerest of social justice, they are also dogged by Some of rhe essays included here bear the birthmarks of the debates
problems ehat arise from such acts of translarion. This happens because within which they were boro I worked on these essays during rhe same
years I was working on my Provincialtzing Europe.4 There is, naturally,
XXIV / INIAODUCIION
3
" 1"s s1l "11 F / )
A SMMAIJ. i i i S I ( O Í R } ' oP SI "1
4 ) (:HAPTER O,Ar
gifts co 1ndia as tnüts of stru gglcs un-
daimcd, viere flor s<, madi British
following Benjamin's `small historc" of photographv, the narrativo hese dcrrakeo he che Iniians thenisdvcs. .
has a verv particular cnd in focas. 1 argue -ac,ainst crines srho have ad- cmagcd, 110t surpnsmgly_ as nce
\arionalism and c olonialism thus
rised othernise-ISI1v subaltern stLi iies could mesar he a mere repro detlninc nce ticld uf un ulcr n In
nvo majos arras (), researeb and debate
duetion in India of the ;_nglish rradition of wiiting °historc trom hc and 1970s. At ore estrene (lf t1111 drbatc seas
dian history in ncc 1960s o% Indina
lose." Seal, rebose 1968 Finugeucc
the Cambridge historian Anil
as che reork of a rtnv elite rcared in
Nation alism desscribed nationalism . Chis elite, as
¡¡le education institutiotts rhat the British ser 111) in India
SUBALTERN STUDIES AND DEBATES !N MODERN
Sial put it, 110111 "competed and collahorated" svith tire Britsh in thcir
INDIAN H,STORY
scarch for power and privilegc.a m tire collecnon
The academic subject called modern Indian histor_t, is a relatively reeeot A few vears later, this idea seas pushed to al' extreme
development, a result of research and discussion in various universities to which Seal, bis colleague lohn Gal-
Locality, Province, and Nation, .(, Their serit-
mainly in India, the United Kingdom , the United States, and Australia lagher, and a ponse of their doctoral students contrbuted
alter the end of British imperial rule in August 1947. In its early phase, ings discounted the role of ideas and idealism io history and foregrounded
this arca of scholarship boye all the signs of an ongoing struggle between an extremely narrow viese of what constituted political and economic
tendencies affiliated with imperialist biases in Indian history and a na- actors. They argued tlaat it seas the penetration
"interest " for historical
tionalist desire on the part of historians in India to decolonize the past. of the colonial state into the local structures of power in India-a move
Marxism seas understandably mobilized in aid of the nationalist project than by any altru-
prompted by the financial self-interest of the raj rather
of intellectual decolonization 3 Bipan Chandra ' s The Rise and Growth of , drew• Indian elites into
istie motives - that eentually, and by degrees
Economic Nationalism in India, Anil Seal's The Emergente of Indian che colonial governmental process. According to this argumenta the in-
Nationalism, A. R. Desai's Social Background of Indian Nationalism, volvement of Indians in colonial institutions set off a scramble among
opportunistically and around fac-
D. A. Low's collection Soundings in Modern South Asian History, the the indigenous elites, who combined -
many seminal articles published by Bernard Cohn ( now collected in An lines of patronage7 - to jockey ¡'(ir poseer
tions formed along "vertical "
Anthropologist among the Historian ), debates around Morris David and privilege within thc limited opportunities for self-role provided by
Morris's assessment of the results of British rule in India , and the work the Cambridge historians claimed, seas tltc real dy-
the British. Such (
of other scholars in the 1960s raised new and controversia ) questions re- namic of that which outside observers or naive historians may have mis-
garding the nature and results of colonial rulo in India.4 Did the imperi- taken for an idealistic struggle for freedom. Nationalism and colonialivn
. The his-
alist British deserve credit afrer all for making India a developing, mod- both carne out in this history as interdependent phenomena
ern, and.united country? Were the Hindu - Muslim conflicts that resulted tory of Indian nationalism, said Seal, "seas the rivalry benvecn Indian
in the formation of the two states of Pakistan and India consequences of its relationship with imperialism that of the mutual cliuging
and Indian ,
the divide- and-role policies of the British , or were they reflections of di- of two unsteady men of straw."s
visions internal to South Asian society? At the other extreme of this debate seas the Indian historian hipan
Official docmnents of the British government of India-and tradi- Chandra, in thc 1970s a professor at the prestigious lasvaharlal Nehru
history of
tions of imperial history writing - always portraved colonial role as be- University in Delhi. Chandra and his colleagnes saw Indian
ing beneficial to India and its people . They applauded the British for the colonial period as an epic batde benveen thc forces of nationalism
bringing to the subcontinent political unity, modern education institu- Drawing on both Marx's writings and Lado
and those of colonialism . , Chandra ar-
tions, modern industries, a sense of nationalism , the role of laca, and so American theories of dependency and underdevelopment
all develop-
on. Indian historians in the 1960s-many of whom had English degrees gued that colonialism seas a regressive force that distorted
and most of whom belonged to a generation that greca np in the final and poliry. The social, political, and eeonomle
ments in India ' s society poverty and
vears of British role-challenged that viese . They arguc (1 instead that ¡lis of post-Independence India-including those of mass
colonialism had had deleterious effects on economic and cultural devel- could be blamed on ncc political economay
religious and caste conflict -
opments. Moderniry and the nationalist desire for political unir, thev
6 / CHArI FR ()NF
ASMALL HLSFORY OF .SUAALYERNS IUDIES / 7
of colonialism. However, he saw nationalism in a different, contrasting cination with Maoism among many urban, educated young people in
light-as a regenerative force, as the antithesis of colonialism, some- India; the outbreak of a violent Maoist political movement in India
rhing that united and produced an "Indian people" by mobilizing them (known as the Naxalite movement), which drew many urban youths finto
for struggle against ehe British. Nationalist leaders such as Gandhi and the countryside in the late 1960s and early 1970s-all these and many
Nehru were the authors of such an anti-imperial movenient for uniry. other factors combined to alienate younger historians from the shibbo-
Chandra claimed that the conflict of interest and ideology between the leths of nationalist historiography. This alienation was further strength-
colonizers and the Indian people was the most important conflict of ened by the rise in popularity of peasant studies among Anglo-American
British India. AH others-whether of class or of caste-were secondary academics in the 1970s. All this historiographic discontent, however,
to this principal contradiction and were to be treared as such in histories
was still floundering in the old liberal and positivist paradigms inherited
of nationalism.9
from English traditions of history writing even as it was searching for a
Yet, as research progressed in the 1970s, there emerged a series of in- path toward decolonizing the field of Indian history.
creasingly serious difficulties with both these narratives. It was clear that
the Cambridge version of nationalist politics without ideas or idealism
would never ring true to scholars in the subcontinent who liad them- SUBALTERN STUDIESAS PARAD IGM SHIFT, 1982- 87
selves experienced the desire for freedom from colonial rule.10 On the Subaltern Studies intervened in this situation in 1982. Intellecrually, it
orher hand, the nationalist historian's story of there having been a
began on thevery terrainthat it was to contest: historiography that had
"moral war" between colonialism and nationalism wore increasingly its roots in the colonial education system. It started as a critique of two
thi n as rescarch by younger scholars in India and elsewhere brought new
contending schools of history: the Cambridge school and that of the na-
material to lighr. New information on the mobilization of the poor
tionalist historians. Both these approaches, declared Guha in a statement
(peasants, tribals, and workers) by elite nationalist leaders in the course that inaugurated the series Subaltern Studies, were elitist. They wrote up
of the Gandhian mass movements in the 1920s and 1930s, for example, che history of nationalism as the story of an achievement by the elite
suggested a strongly reactionary side to the principal nátionalist party, classes, whether Indian or British. For all their merits, they could not ex-
the Indian National Congress. Gyanendra Pandey at Oxford, David Har-
plain "the contributions made by people on their own, that is, indepen-
diman and David Arnold at Sussex (all of them later to become members dent ofthe elite to the making and development of this nationalism."13It
of the Subaltern Studies collective), Majid Siddigi and Kapil Kumar in
will be clear from Chis statement of Guha's that Subaltern Studies was
Delhi, Histesranjan Sanyal in Calcutta, Brian Stoddart, Stephen Hen- parí of an attémpt to align historical reasoning with larger movements
ningham, and Max Harcourt in Australia, and others elsewhere docu- for democracy in India. It looked for an antielitist approach to history
mentad the way in which nationalist leaders would suppress with a heavy
writing, and, in this, it had much in common with the "history-from-
hand peasants' or workers' tendency to exceed the self-imposed limits of below" approaches pioneered in English historiography by Christopher
rhe nationalist political agenda by protesting the oppression meted out
Hill, E. P. Thompson, E. J. Hobsbawm, and others. Both Subaltern Stud-
to them, not only by the British, but by the indigenous ruling groups as ies and the history-from-below school were Marxist in inspiration; both
weil.11
owed a certain intellectual debí to the Italian Communist Antonio
From the point of view of a younger generation of historians, whom Gramsci in trying to move away from deterministic, Stalinist readings of
R.anajit Guha, following Salman Rushdie, has called midnight'schildren,
Marx.14 The declared ami of Subaltern Studies was to produce historical
neither rhe Cambridge thesis propounding a skeptical view of Indian na-
analyses in which the subaltern groups were viewed as the subjects of his-
tionalism nor the nationalist-Marxist thesis glossing over-or assimilat- tory. As Guha put it once in the course of introducing a volume of Sub-
ing to a nationalist historiographic agenda-real conflicts of ideas and
altern Studies: "We are indeed opposed to much of the prevailing aca-
interesas betwecn the elite nationalists and their socially subordinate fol- demic practice in historiography ... for its failure to acknowledge the
lowers was an adequate response to the problems ofpostcolonial history
Subaltern as the maker of his own destiny. This critique lies at the very
writing in India .12The persistente ofreligious and caste conflict in post- heart of our project."1 s
Independence India; the war between India and China in 1962, which
But, at the same time, Guha's theorization of the project signaled
nade official nationalism sound hollow and evenrually gave risa lo a fas-
certain key differences that would increasingly distinguish the project of
()F SE'HN3CRN ST(l1)1J5 / 9
ASMAI 1 H111 ORY
S 1 CHA1'TP:It ONF.
mere survival of an anteceden[ pre-capitalist culture."2fl This was capi- Subaltern Studies from Che beginning. Postcolonial history was, thus,
talism, but a capitalism without capitalist hierarchies, a capitalist domi-
also a posmationalist forro of historiography.°
nance without a hegemonic capitalist culture-or, in Guha's famous
tcrms, dominante ivithouthegemony. Guha's quest for a history in which the subaltern was Che maker of his
own destiny brought into focus the question of the relation betwecn
texts and power. Historical archives are usually collections of docu-
SUBALTERN STUDIES AND THE REORIENTATION menis, texes of various kinds. Historians of peasants and other subaltern
OF HISTORY social groups have long emphasized Che fact that peasants do not leave
behind their osen documenis. Historians concerned with recuperating
Guha's tino formulations-that borh nationalism and colonialism were
Che peasant experience in history have often turned for help to the re-
involved in insrituting in India a rule of capital in which bourgeois ¡de-
sources of other disciplines: anthropology, demography, sociology, ar-
ologies exercised dominance without hegemony and that the resulting
chaeology, human geography, etc. In his well-known study ofnineteenth-
forros of power in India could not be termed prepolitical-had severa¡
century rural France, Peasants into Frenchmen, Eugen Weber provides a
implications for historiography. Some of these were worked out in Gu-
succinet formulation of [his approach: "The illiterate are not in fact mar-
ha's own writings and some in those of his colleagues. It is important,
ticulate; they can and do express themselves in severa) ways. Sociologists,
however, that we clarify [hese implications, for they are what made Sub-
altern .Stndies an experiment in postcolonial historiography. ethnologists, geographers, and most recently demographic historians
have shown us new and different means of interpreting evidence."31 In
Firsr of all, Guha's critique of the category prepolitical challenged his-
Che 1960s and 1970s, E. P. Thompson, Keith Thomas, and others turned
roricism by rejecting all stagist theories of history. If, as has been dis-
to anthropology in search of the experiences of che subaltern classes.31
cussed, the rerm prepolitical took its validity from categorizing certain
Guha's approach is interestingly different from that of [hese histori-
kinds of power relationships as premodern, feudal, etc., Guha's discus-
ans. He begins his ElementaryAopects by recognizing Che same problem
sion of power in colonial India resists such a olear distinction between
as do Weber, Thomas, Thompson, and others: that peasants do not
the modern and Che premodern. Relationships in India that looked feu- speak directly in archiva¡ documenis, which are usually produced by Che
dal when seen through a stagist view of hisrory were contemporaneous
ruling classes.33 Like [hese historians, Guha roo uses a diversity of disci-
with all that looked modern to the same point ofview. From Guha's per-
plines in Cracking the logic ofpeasant consciousness at Che moment ofre-
spectiva, however, Che former could not be looked on through geologic bellion. But he thinks of the category consciousness differently. In insist-
or evolurionist metaphors of "survival" or "remnant" without such his-
ing on Che autonomy of the consciousness of Che insurgent peasant, he
toricism becoming elitist in irs interpretation of the past.
does not aim to produce generalizations that sum up what every empir-
Subaltern Studies, then, was, in principie, opposed to nationalist his-
¡cal peasant participating in rebellions in colonial India must have
tories thar portrayed nationalist leaders as ushering India and its people thought, felt, or experienced.
out of some kind of precapitalist stage roto a world-historieal phase of Guha's critique of Che rerm prepolitical legitimately barred Chis path
"bourgeois modernity," properly fitted out wirh Che artifacts of democ-
of thinking, which, however well intentioned, ends up making peasants
racy: Che rights of citizenship, a market econorny, freedom of the press,
into relatively exotic objects of anthropology. Guha thought of con-
and thc rulo of law. There is no doubt that the Indian political elite inter- sciousness-and therefore of peasant subjecthood-as something im-
nalized and used this language of political moderniry, but this democratic manent in rhe very practices of peasant insurgency. Elementary Aspects is
rendency existed alongside and interlarded with undemocratic relation- a study of the practices of insurgenr peasants in colonial India, not of
ships of domination and subordination. This coexistente of two domains, a reified category called consciousness. The aim of the book was to bring
of polirics, said Guha, "was the índex of an importan[ historical truth,
out Che collective imagination inherent in che practices of peasant re-
thar is, Che failure of the bourgeoisie to speakfor the nation."29
There was, bellion. Guha makes no claim that Che insurgent consciousness that he
in fact, no unirary nation to speak for. Rather, the more important ques-
discusses is indeed conscious, that it existed inside Che heads of peasants.
tion was how and through what practices an official nationalism emerged He does not equate consciousness with the subject's view of himself.
that claimed to represen[ such a unitary nation. A critical stance toward
Rather, he examines rebel practices to decipher Che particular relation-
official or statist nationalism and its attendant historiography marked
ships-benveen clites and subalterns and among subaltems themselves
SU6A1,TE1l5 si i w1 S X17
As,,.Al1 1115E(itl' (1.
16 / CHAI'TER 0 N r
others have made significant contriburions to the analysis ofcolonia¡ dis- It is not my purpose here to evaluate this debate, which I treat in
course.41, With this growing engagement tidith the works of Homi Bha- more detail in chapter 2. The point of this exercise has been to rebut the
bha,47 Gayatri Spivak, and Edward Said, Subaltern Studieshas emerged
charge that Subaltern Studieslost its way by falling into the bad company
as a project in conversation with postcolonial studies.
of postcolonial theory. Through a discussion of what Guha wrote in the
Where docs Subaltern Studies-both the series and the project-
1980s, 1 have sought to demonstrate some necessary connections be-
stand today? At the crossing of many different pathways, it seems. The twccn the original aims of the Subaltern Studies project and current dis-
original project has been developed and furthered in the work of indi- cussions of posrcoloniality. Subaltern Studies was not a case of rhe appli-
vidual members of the collective. David Arnold's study of British colo- cation to Indian material of methods of hisrorical research already
nialism in India in tercos of histories of contested bodily practices, Colo- worked out in the metropolitan Marxist tradition of history from below.
nizing the Body, David Hardiman's studies of the political and economic
It was in parr a product of chis lineage, but the nature ofpolitical moder-
culture of subaltern lives caught in emergent forms of capitalism in the niry in colonial India made this project of history writing nothing short
Indian state of Gujarat, The Coming of the Depi and
Feeding the Baniya, of an engaged critique of the academic discipline of history ftself.49
and Gautam Bhadra's study of a number of texts having to do with What distinguished the story of political moderniry in India from the
peasant socierv in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal, Iman o usual and comparable narratives of the West was the fact that modern
nishan, are examples of projects in which the possibilities of the original
politics in India was not founded on an assumed death of the peasant.
theoretical historiographic project are worked out and illustrated through The peasant did not have ro undergo a historical mutation into the in-
concrete, historical examples 48
dustrial worker in order to become the citizen-subject ofthe nation. The
At the same time, it must be acknowledged that Subaltern Studies has
peasant who participated in forms of mass-nationalist struggles against
exceeded the original historiographic agenda that it set for itself in the the Brirish was not a prepolitical subjecr. The formal granting of the
early 19SOs. The series now has, as 1 said at the outset, both global and rights of cirizenship to che Indian peasant alter the achievement of inde-
regional locations in the circuits of scholarship that it traverses. This ex- pendence from the British simply recognized his already-political na-
pansion beyond thc realms of Indian history has earned for the series ture. But this fact also meant that the imagination that could properly be
both praise and criticism. Much of the controversy follows, roughly, the called political in the Indian context did not conform to the ideas of
contours of the global and ongoing debate between Marxists and post- thinkers in the West, who theórized the political as a story ofhuman sov-
modernists.
ereignry in a disenchante,dworld. If the peasant was not prepolitical and
Like Marxists elsewhere, Indian Marxists charge that the postmod- was not to be treated simply as an object of anthropology, then the very
ernist valorization of the fragment in subaltern historiography hurts the history of the politicizarion of the masses in India showed that the polit-
cause of the nnity of the oppressed and helps Hindu extremists. Many of ical included actions that challenged the theorist's usual and inhefited
the Marxist opponents of Subaltern Studies
believe that such unity is separation berween politics and religion. It can be seen in retrospect that
aided by a social analysis that helps bring the different publics of the op- Subaltern Studies was a democratic project meant to produce a gencal-
pressed together by finding global and totaiizing causes behind their op- ogy of the peasant as citizen in contemporary political moderniry.50
pression.
Defenders of Subaltern Studies point out, in reply, that the public
sphere-in India and elsewhere-has fragmented under thc pressure of
democracy and that it cannot be united artificially by a Marxism that in-
sists on reducing the many diverse experiences of oppression and mar-
ginalization to the single axis of class or even to the triple axes of class,
gender, and ethniciry. Achieving a critical perspective on European
forms of knowledge, they would add, is pan of the interrogation of their
colonial inheritance that postcolonial intellectuals must carry out. Their
critique of nationalism, they would insist, has nothing in common with
the nationalist chauvinism of the Hindu parties.
Sl'OPopy 9N1>ItM jo VN.6A1/21
St EAJ:1 Ftir 1 ❑
20
22 / CHAPTER TWU
reject ¡t.14 The problem is, rather, that we do not have analytic cate- "Insofar as che Swadeshi age saw a determined though not entirely suc-
gories in our aggressively secular academic discourse that do justice to cessful effort to give che nacional movement a solid mass basis, che pe-
che real, everyday, and multiple connections that we have to what we, in riod can be regarded as a sort of test for che relevante of these opposed
becoming modern, have come to see as nonrátional. Tradition/moder- ideological trends in che work of nacional awakening."n This is Enlight-
nity, racional/nonrational, intellect/emotion-these untenable and prob- enment rationalism, indeed, but now (re)visiting che history of the colo-
lematic binaries have haunted our self-representations in social-science nized as a modernity dogma and wreaking intellectual havoc in its trail.
language since the ninereenth century. Sarkar's failure to give us any insighcs into the religious cha[ constantly
Andreu, Sartori's work on che nineteenth-century Bengali Orientalist erupts roto the political in Indian modernity is not a personal failure. It
and Indologist Rajendralal Mitra has recently drawn our attention to is a failure of hyperrationalism, a failure that marks the intellect of the
Chis problem. As Sartori shows, the split between Che analytic and che af- colonial modero. It occurs within a paradigm that sees science and reli-
fective is something that is itselfproduced by che colonial discourse and gion as ultimately, and irrevocably, opposed to each other.
that marks forever the speech of the colonized intellectual. Sartori has It is no wonder, then, that, to Sarkar and many other secular histori-
given ns a telling example of this phenomenon from che colonial period. ans of India, modernity in India has seemed "grievously incompleta."`
He quotes Mitra, writing in the 1870s, on che custom of "blood sacri- The 1970s Marxist critique of colonial India argued, as one respected
fice" in ancient India. The Orientalist in Mitra no doubt saw Chis custom historian put it, that "alíen rule and modernity are never compatible"
as barbarie and uncivilized. However, Chis ancient practice was in no and deduced, therefore, that what India had received as a legacy of the
sensc antiquated in Mitra's own times, And Mitra himself had had some colonial period could be characterized only as "enclaves" of modernity:
personal exposure to it. Yet he categorized his own, lived connection to
There were indeed variances in western European early modern
che ritual as parí of his affective, rather than racional or reasoning, self.
developments ... on a comparative scale. Yet each particular pat-
In a memorable passage at che end of an essay discussing the custom,
tern in western Europe was clearer and more spontaneous, and
he wrote: "The offering of one's blood to the goddess [Kali] is a me-
where foreign interferente could be resisted, more secular and ra-
dieval and modero rite.... The last time I saw che ceremony was six
tional than conditions in che previous period.... What is nor-
years ago when mv late revered parent, tottering with age, made the
mally described as modernity represents che superstructure of a
offering for my recovery from a dangerous and long-protracted attack
given culture, whose economic base is che emergente of capital-
of pleurisy. Whatever may be thought of it by persons brought up un-
¡sin. It is unrealistic to define a superstructure without its base, to
der a creed differentfrom that of che Indo-Aryans, I cannot Tecali to
expect che fruits of modernity without the uneven development
memory che fact without feeling the deepest emotionfor the boundless af-
and hardheaded exploitative practices of a European modernity
fection which prompted it" (emphasis added). ts
which often [in places like India] carne to tercos with feudal rem-
This strong spirit of hostility between the racional and che affective, or
nants ... and which took to colonialism for maintaining progress
henveen reason and emotion, characteristic of our colonial hyperra-
in ics capitalist development.I9
tionalism, has generally afflicted Indian Marxist historians' attempt to
understand the place of che religious in Indian public and policical life. This language of a "base and superstructure" Marxism was represen-
What else is chis bur an unreflexive (re)statement of che struggle of the tative of what would have passed for common sense in Indian Marxist
Enlightenment with superstition? Reason and truth on the side of de- historiography of che 1970s. For the purpose of chis discussion, how-
mocracy and humanism, faith-a "tissue of superstitions, prejudices and ever, 1 wish to highlight what this statement shares with Sarkar's under-
errors," as a famous philosopher of the Enlightenment put ¡t-on che standing of what it meant to be modera. True, modernity boro in Eu-
si de of tyranny.16 ropa had been productive of colonialism in India, but it still had a
This conflict, for Sarkar, structures che whole narrative of Bengali mo- discernable "progressive content" thatwas diluted in che colony because
dernity. He traces it "right through che nineteenth century from the ofunderdevelopment (remember that chis was also the period of depen-
days of the Atmiya Sabha and the Dharma Sabha [che 1820s]" and sees dency theory). This progressive content had in parí to do with "the ra-
it "continu[ing] at the heart of che Swadeshi movement just as in che cional outlook," "che spirit of science," "free inquiry," etc. "It is possi-
[Bengal] `renaissance' which had preceded and prepared the way for it": ble," wrote Barun De, "that some future historians ... might put the
28 / CHA PT E R Iwo sCNAI TERS IIISTORIPA ANI> ItA IION.-V .19.U / 2q
19th and carly 20th centuries at the end oía medieval pcriod of uneci= boas that are necessarily incompleto as though their incompleta ncss is
tainry, instead of the beginning of the ni odern pcriod, which still auairs raorhing but a hurtful bctraval ofhistorv-
os'io the thedivorld."-0 An attitudc of incredulity toward tlic metanarratives of thc liutopcan
"Modernity still asvaits us"-this is the refiain ot ncc hvpcrrational fnlightenment, hosvever, mov es us ti oin the register ot lanicnt ro that of
colonial modem. Why should niodernin- still await us ni India, more ironv. But, while that is oniv tic first stop, it prepares us tor opening up
than nao hundred vears afrer its career was launched in India by Euro- our histories to other possibiliries, some of which 111 ill consider in the fi-
pean imperialism? How long does it take fui an Indian to become mod- nal section of this essav.
crn? This historiographv nevar entertained thc possibilit v that what we
had, wrrts and all, ivas, indccd, our niodernit*. Historiaras wcrc prono to
UNREASONABLE CRIGINS OE REASON
think that what India possesscd as a result of colonial modernization 'vas
only a bad version of soniething that, in itself, was an unmixed good. Salman Rushdie ' s Midnight's Children contains a subplot that illustrates
The blame, it was decided, lay with colonialism. Colonialism stopped us how the problem of force or coercion may arise in the conversation be-
from being fully modern. Scholars would repeat Barun De's lament: we tween the so-called modera and the nonmodern and, indeed, how
are incompletely modern. Sumir Sarkar would open his Modern India, strategies of domination emerge as a neccssarv move to being to a close
published a decade after Barun De's cssay, on this elegiac note: India's is arguments in this conversation that cannot be settlcd through purely ra-
a story of a "bourgeois moderniry" that is "grievously incomplete"2i tional procedures. It is significant that the subaltern of this particular
The mourning will speak through Susie Tharu and K. Lalitha's impres- narrative ofmoderniry should be a woman.
sive and sensitively edited collection Wornen Writing in India.: Adam Aziz , the European - returned medical doctor who is also tic
grandfather of the narrator , Saleem Sitia¡ , inaugurares a nationalist proj-
Scholars who have questioned ... a linear or progressive under-
ect in his domestic life when he marries Naseem Ghani . As a modero per-
standing of history claim that the liberal ideals óf refonners [of
son, Aziz knows that women in Islam / tradition have been confined/
women's condition] could not have been realised under the eco-
unfree. He instructshis wife "to come out of purdah" and , as a demon-
nomic and political conditions of colonial rule, and warn against
stration of his will, burras her veils, saying : " Forget about being a good
applying such simple, linear narratives of progress to the study of
Kashmiri girl. Start thinking about being a modero Indian woman."
nineteenth century India. What appears as retrogressive in nation-
Naseem, later the Reverend Mother of Saleem Sinai ' s description, the
alism was not a conservative backlash, but the logical limits of re-
daughter of a Muslim landlord, is from the beginning portrayed as tradi-
formist programmes in a colonial situation that would never, as
tion herself.
Sumir Sarkar writes, allow more than a "weak and distorted" cari-
Readers of the novel will recail that , whcn Adam Aziz first encoun-
cature of "full blooded" bourgeois modernity, either for women
tered her as a patient in a conservative / traditional Muslim family, she
or for men.22
could be examinad only through a seven-inch hule in a bedsheet hcld
The Enlightenment's story of the struggle of scienee/rationalism over her body with only the relevant parí of her body made visible. The
against faith/religion-which in Europe produces all kinds of hybrid doctor fell in love with this fragmented body and discovered or—lly alter
solutions-gets repeated in India without attention to the process of their wedding the formidably traditional heart that beat within it. Their
translation and the resultant hybridities.23 For both cides of the equa- mutual incomprehension starts with their lovemaking , when, on their
tion are violated in translating them froin the European context into our second night, Aziz asks her " to move a little": `Move Ivhere?' she
past and present practices. The history of our hyperrationalism is not die asked. `Move how?' He became awkward and said, `Only move . 1 mean,
same as that of Enlightenment rationalism, and the practices that we like a woman ...' She shrieked in horror . ` My God v, liar have I niarricd?
gather under the narre religion do not repeat the history of that Euro- I know you European - returned men. You find terrible women and thcn
pean category of thought. Such transladons are by definition hybrid or vou try to make us girls be like them! Listen Doctor Sahib , husband or
incomplete. Ir may precisely be an irony of any modernist understanding no husband , 1 am not ... any bad woman."'24
of moderniry that we are constantiv called on to study with the purest of The barde continues throughout their marriage , Aziz conducting
categories that which is necessarily impuro and hybrid, to treat transla- it from the position of tlie knowing , willing, and judging subjcct of
30 / (HAPTER TWO
SURAt,TERN HISTORIES AND RATIONALISM / 31
Wherc can we, historians of a Third World countrv likc India, where HISTORY AS DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE WITH
the distinction benveen the founding and the preserving mudes of vio- THE SUBALTERN
loxc in the functioning of thc law is hard to sustain, anchor such facile
1 he task is not to tejen ideas of dcmocracv, devclopmcnt , or justice- hhc
optimism?s0 Thc process of making peasantsor individuals finto Indians
task is to think of forros and philosophics oi history that svill contributc
takes place everv dav belore out eyes. It is not a process with a single or
to struggles that aim to make the very process of achicving nccse out -
simple characteristic, nor is it without anv material benefits to the people
comes as democratic as possible . How do we make the suhaherns gen-
incolved. Bur, were we to conert particular benefits, sehich often do
uinciv the subjccts of thcirhistorv ? Surcly not bv assuming a pusition in
create prohlems in thcir turn, luto some kind of a grand narrativo of
which the ideal nature and shape ol modernin is decided h-onl thc ten
progress, it would leave us with a ten important and nagging problems-
heginning by historians or philosophcrs as intellectuals . "1hat would be
If a certain kind of colonizing drive is inheren t to the civilizi ng-modern-
inviting the subaltern to a dialogue in svhich his pusition was secondary
izing project, and if une were, in one's poinr ofview, to side uncritically
from the very heginning. 1 come now to what to me is the hardest part
with chis project, how would une crect a critique of imperialism? We-
of my argurrient, not least because 1 myself have not practiced what 1 am
ber's solution to chis problem does not solve anything: he says, in effect,
about to preach . 1 am trying to think my way toward a subaltern histori-
that it may be all right to practice colonialism on one's own people if the
ography that actually tries to learn from the subaltern. And 1 am also trv-
process brings in its train prosperiry for all. But that is getting the storv
ing to transcend the pusition that the early Subaltern Studies project
back to front, for the assumed purpose of this colonialism, in Weber's
took as its point of departure.
schema, was to make real the category one's own people. One cannot as-
Let me go back to une of thc fundamental premiss es of this essav. 1 do
sume into existente at the begirming of a process what the process is
not deny the immense practical utility of Left- liberal political philoso-
means to produce as its outcome. If Weber's sentiment has any political
phics. One cannot perforen effectively in the context ufmodern bureau-
validiry in France today, it means oniv that the colonizing process suc-
cracies-and , therefore, une cannot access the benefits that these insti-
ceeded in achieving this end, popularizing the story of progress (al-
tutions are capable of delivering-if une is nos able to mobilize one's
though that would be taking a Whiggish view of that history).
own identity, personal or collective , through the languages, skills, and
Let me repeat my point once more: if it is true that Enlightenment ra-
practices that these philosophics make possible . The very idea of distrib-
tionalism requires as its vehicle the modern state and its accompanying
utive justice requires that these languages and competencies - of citi-
institutions-the instrumenta of governmentality, in Foucault's terms-
zenship, of democraty , of welfare - be made available to all classes, par-
and if this entails a certain kind of colonizing violente anyway (however
ticularly those subordinated and oppressed . It means that, whenever we,
justifiable the violente might be from a retrospective point of view),
members of the privileged classes, write subaltern histories-whethcr
then une cannot uncritically welcome this violente and at the lame time
we write them as citizens ( i.e., on behalf of the idea of democratic rights)
maintain a critique of European imperialism in India except on sume
or as socialists ( desiring radical social change )- a certain pedagogical
kind of essentialistic and indigenist ground (e.g., only Indians have the
drive comes into play . We write, ultimately, as part of a collective effort
right to colonize themselves in the interest of moderninv). In the 1970s,
to help teach the oppressed oftoday how to be thc democratic subject of
Marxist historians in India and elsewhere-seeing themselves as inheri-
tomorrow.
tors ofthe European Enlightenmentyetwanting to distante themselves
Since pedagogy is a dialogue , even if it is only the tcacher's voice that
from the fact of European colonialism-tried out another solution. By
is heard-as Barthes once said, "Whcn thc teacher speaks to his audi-
fusing Marxism with depcndency theory, they sought to fetishize colo-
ence, the Other is always there , punctuating his discourse "- the subal-
nialism into a distinct socioeconomic formation, inherently productive
tern historv that is produced in Chis manner is dialogic . sl But, bv its very
of underdevelopment. The demise of dependencv theory has robbed us which is not to say that it is
structure , this dialogue is not democratic (
of that ground. Frankly, if Enlightenment rationalism is the oniv way in 1 would argue, a dia-
which human societies can humanize themselves, then we ought to be not of use to the subaltern ). To be open-ended ,
logue must be genuinely nonteleological; that is, une must not presume,
grateful that the Europeans set out to dominate the world and spread its
on any a priori oasis, that wbatever position out political philosophy/
message. Will our self-proclaimed rarionalist and secularist historians sav
ideology suggests as correct will be necessarily vlndicated as a result of
that?
34 / CHAIrr_a TWO SUBALr£2N HISTOftt£S AND t<ATIONALISM / 35
this dialogue. For a dialogue can be genuinely open only under one con- any wholes, what would fragments be fragments of?).34 Here, we con-
dition: that no party puts itself in a position where it canunilaterally de- ceptualize the fragmentary and the episodic as those which do not, and
cide the final outcomes of the conversation. This never happens between cannot, dream the whole called the state and must, therefore, be sugges-
the modero and the nonmodern because, however noncoercive the con- tive of knowledge forros that are not tied to the will that produces the
versation between the transcendent academic observer and the subaltern state.
who enters into a historical dialogue with him, this dialogue takes place Couched thus, my question sounds utopian. For the subaltern who
within a fteld of possibilities that is already structured from the very be- abjures the imagination of the state does not exist in a pure form in real
ginning in favor of certain outcomes. life. The subaltern classes around us are as invested in the benefits of
In pedagogical histories, it is the subaltern's relation to the world that modero institutions as are any other class, and it is only reasonable for
ultimately calls for improvement. The Subaltern Studiesseries was founded them to be so. Nor would it be realistic to argue that the peasant and
within this gesture. Guha's insurgent peasants, for instance, fall short in other oppressed classes as such are incapable ofeither comprehending or
their understanding of what is required for a comprehensive reversal of embracing ideas of a whole such as the state.
the power relationships in an exploitative sociery.32 And this was exactly 1 am simply using the quotation from Gramsci to point to a possible
the position of the man who gave us the category subaltern. For Antonio and alternative theoretical horizon. Imaginations of the whole, in that
Gramsci, readers will recall, subaltern named a political position that, by quotation, belong to a certain understanding of politics. These are sta-
itself, was incapable of thinking the state; this was a thought to be tist understandings, understandings in which the subaltern classes-in-
brought to that position by the revolutionary intellectual. Once the sub- deed, their very position of subalterniry-are read as such telling figures
altern could imagine/think the state, he transcended, theoretically speak- of misery and privation that che violente and undemocracy of the state
ing, the condition ofsubalterniry. looks like a small price to pay for the attainment, ultimately, of a more
While it is true that Gramsci developed a dialogic Marxism that aimed just social order. The pedagogical drive in histories written out of this
to take seriously what went on inside the heads of the oppressed, he was position aims tu instill or incite in the subaltern class (or its representa-
clear on what the subaltern lacked. His words bear repetition: "The'sub- tives) a desire to participate in this political imagination. But an element
altern classes, by definition, are not united and cannot unite until they of undemocracy remains in that, in the Gramscian formulation at least,
are able to become a `State.' ... The history of subaltern social groups is the imagination of the state (and other forms of the whole) has to be
necessarily fragmented and episodic. There undoubtedly does exist a ten- brought to the subaltern classes from outside themselves, for they are,
dency to (at least provisional stages of) unification in the historical activ- "by definition," as Gramsci put it, incapable of such imagination, being
ity of these groups, but this tendency is continually interrupted by the always kept divided by the ruling classes. How do we make the politics of
activirv of the ruling groups.... In realiry, even when they appear tri- politicizing the subaltern more democratic?
umphant, the subaltern groups are merely anxious to defend them- The quotation from Gramsci suggests one obvious line of thinking.
sclves" (emphasis added).33 Howsoever divided, the "historical activiry" of the subaltern classes al-
As I have already indicated, histories written in this pedagogical- ways has, Gramsci reminds us, "a tendency to ... unification." One way
dialogic mode are in fact inescapable. Wc live in societies structured by toward subaltern forms of democracy would be to foster this tendency
the state, and the oppressed need knowledge fornts that are tied to that and ground the modero state in it. This would be one legitimare fine of
realiry. Indecd, this must remain onc cntirely legitimate mode of pro- thinking.
ducing subaltern histories. Yet the problem of undemocracy remains ¡ti Gramsci's statement, however, also allows us to consider a contra-
the structure of this dialogue. Can we imagine another moment of sub- Gramsci perspective. It helps us ask a question that Gramsci does not
altern history, one in which we stay-permanently, not simply as a mat- ask. What would happen to out political imagination if we did not con-
ter of political tactic-with that which is fragmentary and episodic? sider the state of being fragmentary and episodic as merely disabling? If
Fragmentary, not in the sense of fragments that refer to an implicit a totalizing mode of thinking is needed for us to imagine the state theo-
whole, but in the sense of fragments that challenge, not only the idea of retically, what kind ofpolitical imagination and institutions could sustain
wholeness, but the very idea of the fragment itself (for, if there were not themselves on the basis of a thought that joyously embraced the idea of
sUBALit RN 14 1S rotoiS ASU ItXriONAI sat f 37
36 / CHAPI'1 R TW()
Che fragment? IRhc statist idea of Che political defined Che mainstream of not otean that Chis limit does not cxist at all. We know about its existente
indirectly, when We come across historical evidente that docs 'ot casily
political thought, then here mav be in alternative conceptual pole lo ir:
an idea of Che political Chas did not requise us to imagine totalities. fit our categories . To open ourselvcs to such disruptivc histories svould
requise us seriously to grant our social lile a constanr laek oftransparencc
There are difficultics here: most thought about social justice entails 1
with regard lo any one particular way ot thinking about ir. This is no
Che idea of equalinv in one fono or another. The state is oftcn idealized as
ground for Che rejection of Enlighrenment rationnlism. It is rather ro bc
an instrument for enforcing equalin-. What kind of (rnodern) social jus-
secare in the knowledge Chal investigative procedure embodving this ra
tice would one envisage as one embraced Che fragment? The question is through
Lit Che same time legitimare (from a perspecrice commitred lo notions of tionality gines us only a partial hold on our lives- and rhar roo
equality) and not legitimare (for a radical enmracing of Che fragment as necessuy , much-needed, ver inevitably poor translations.
Sarkar's fear that a critica¡ understanding of our intelectual inhcri-
poli tical-philosophical starting point svould mean that we 5\ 011[d not an-
tanees from Che European Enlightenmenr svould only help Che "fascist"
swer such questions in an a priori and systematic manner).
1 do not pretend to have all Che answers to the questions that come up Hindus is based on some spurious assumptions . Granted Chut European
fascism drew on a certain spirit of disenchannnent svith post-Enlighten-
here, but thinking the fragment radically changes rhe nature of the po-
litical agent whom we imagine. The subaltern, on Chis register, is no ment rationalism , but from Chis the reverse does not follow. One cannot
argue on Chis basis that everv critique of post-Enlighrenment rationali sm
longer the citizen in Che making. The subaltern here is Che ideal figure of
Che person who survives actively, even joyously, on Che assumption that must end up being fascist . If one could , we would have ro count strange
the statist instruments of domination will always belong co somebodv candidates among our list of reactionaries , and among theta svould be
such different people as Gandhi and Weber and, for our times, not only
elsc and never aspires to them. This is an ideal figure. No actual member
Michel Foucault but Jürgen Habermas as well. These thinkers remind us
of Che subaltern classes svould resemble what I imagine here. The ques-
tion is, Are there moments in the life practices of the subaltern classes that lo critique post - Enlightenmenr rationalism, or even modernirv, is
that would allow us to construct such an agent? The Buddhist imagina- not to fall into some kind of irrationalism . As Lydia Liu has recently re-
marked in her diseussion of Chinese history, "The critique of modernin,
tion once saw the possibility of the joyful, renunciate bhikshu (monk) in
has always been parí of the Enlighrenment legacy from Che Romantics,
the miserable and deprived image of Che bhikshuk (beggar). We have not
Nietzsche, Marx and Heidegger to Horkheimer , Adorno, Foucault,
yet learned to see the spectral doubles that may inhabit our Marxism-
inspired images of the subaltern. Derrida and even Habermas."37
It is also true that Che experience of fascism has left a certain trauma in
To go to the subaltern in order to learn to be radically fragmentary
and episodic is to move away from the certitudes that operare within the leftist intellectuals in the West . They have ceded lo Che fascists all mo-
gesture that the knowing, judging, willing subject always already knows ments of poetry, mysticism, and Che religious and mysterious in Che con-
struction of political sentiments and communities (however transient or
what is good for everybody, ahead of any investigation. The investiga-
inoperative). Romanticism now reminds them only of Che Nazis. Ro-
tion, in turn, must be possessed of an openness so radical that 1 can ex-
mantic nationalism in India has left us with another heritagc exemplified
press it only in Heideggerian terms: the capacity to hear that which one
by the life experiments of such stalwarts as Gandhi and Tagore . It svould
does not already understand.3S In other words, to allow the subaltern
be sad if we ceded this entire heritage to Che Hindu extremists out of a
position to challenge our own conceptions of totalities, to be open to
fear that our romanticism must be Che same as whatever Che Europeans
the possibility of our thought systems, with all their aspirations to grasp
produced under that narre in their histories and that our present blun-
things in their totali ', being rendered finire by Che presente of Che What, in-
other: such are Che utopian horizons to which Chis other moment of Sub- ders, whatever these are , must be Che same as theirs in Che past .
deed, could be a greater instante of submission to a Eurocentric imagi-
altetn Studies ealls us.36
What will history written in Chis mode look like? 1 cannot say, for one nation than that fear?
cannot write Chis history in a puye forro. The languages of Che stare, of
eitizenship, of wholes and totalities, thc legacy of Enlighrenment ratio-
nalism, will always cut across it. I was only pointing to a utopian line that
may weil designare thc limit of how we are trained to think. But Chis does
MODERNITY AND THE PAST / 39
Dj
hatcvcr else it may mean for those who do not explicitly set out to in-
tellectualize, a self-conscious embracing of mod- than anybody else in India, has drawn our attention to the questions that
ernity has since che middle of the nineteenth che very idea of tradition poses to all modernizers/cultural critics of the
century posed a question to the Indian intellec- subcontinent, I will endeavor to show how the question with which 1be-
tual. What does one do with or about those prac- gan-the problem of the undesirable pass-configures itself in Nandy's
tices of the past thatseem undesirable but chal work.
apparently refuse to die? Consider che undemo- Much of Nandy's admirable and powerfirl critique of modernity strikes
cratic and cruel practice of caste discrimination me as somewhat decisionist in spirit. By decisionist, 1 mean a disposition
or the practice of sati (self immolation by wid- that allows the critic to talk about che future and the past as though there
ows) among upper-caste Hindus in India. It is far viere concrete, valué-laden choices or decisions to be made with regard
from certain that these practices are extinct even to both. The critic is guided by his or her values as to what the most de-
in educated milieus (sati, of course, being far, far sirable, sane, and vise future for humanity should be and looks to che
less common than caste discrimination). Or try past as a warehouse of resources on which to draw as needed. This posi-
and imagine the nunierous instantes of everyday tion is connected to but attitudinally different from the revolutionary-
incidents when people in the subcontinent in- modernist position-chal of early Ambedkar, for instante, in his polemic
voke che supernatural, whether in newspaper col- against Gandhi about the (de)merits of caste-in which the reformer
umns on astrology or in the cause of a political seeks to bring (a particular) history ro nullity in order to build sociery up
movement. from scratch. Many modernizers have talked about scrapping the past al-
All academic intellectuals in India-like intel- together. Nandy's position, by contras[, is respectful of the past without
lectuals in many other Third World countries- being bound by it. It uses tradition but in a way that is guided by the cri-
would have grown up with such practices. These tique of the present that it has developed.
experiences may form che innocent stuff of child- In discussing Gandhi-in many ways, the person who comes closest
hood memories. But they may also be not so in- to his idea of a wise political leader-Nandy names his position critica¡
nocent after all. Tradition Cakes a murderous form traditionalism. Critical traditionalism, according ro Nandy, is different
when the supernatural event of images of the from uncritical adulation of past practices, a position that he finds illus-
38
su,oea^rrr ANn-Hr: rnvi /4'
40 ] CHAPTFR •rHI&LLI.
trated ni the writings ol Che Anglo-Sri Lankan intellectual Ananda Ken- volces from the pasr for fighting projecis that are modern and eontem-
ush Coomarasvvamv. Por Coomarasvamv, says Nandy, porarv. What makes the enterprise cthnocentric tur Nandy is ncc facr
that, unlike the nativo intormants oP the anth ropologist , those voiees
Tradition remains homogencous and undiffercntiated from thc cznnot talk hack or arguc svith rhe historian : " i.Isewvhere , 1 liase di,
point of view of man-made suffering. His defenec ofthe charming cussed the ahsolute and total subjeetion of the subjects of historv. who
theorv of sati, for example, never takes finto account its victims, Che can ncirher rabel against tlic present times no¡ contest the present Intel -
women tvho ofren died vvithour Che beneht nfthe theorv.... Such
pret ttions oi Che pasr." ' The point reccives elaborarion in an essav on
traditionalism rcactivcly demvstlfies modernity to remvstifv tradi-
Gandhi.
tions.... Likewise, one may concur u ith Coomaraswanrv that Che
untouchables in traditional India werc bettcr off than Che prole- Cribes of objectification Nave flor ofren noticed that the subjects ul
tariat in tlic industrial societies. But this would be an empty state- "scientific historv" are subjects irrevocable and perm;mently....
ment to those victimized by the caste system today. When many [T]here can be no transference , no real dialogue, perceived nuttu-
untouchables opt for proletarianization in contemporary India, is ality or continuiry between the historian and his subjects from
their choice merely a function of faulry self-knowledge? ... 1 am the subjects ' point of view . The historian ' s subjects are, afrer all,
afraid Coomaraswamy's traditionalism, despite being holistic by mostly dead .... One wonders if sorne vague awarencss of Chis
design, does flor allow a creative, critical use of modernity within asvmmetrv benveen the subjects and Che ohjects , and benvecn the
knowers and the known, prompted Gandhi to reject historv as a
traditions.
guidc lo moral action and derive such guidance from his reading of
Nandy's posirive examples are those of Gandhi and Tagore, arguably the tests and mvths.... Gandhi , like Blake and Thorcau before him,
neo best produets of Indo-British cultural encounter. Nandy sees Ta- defied this new fatalism [ i.e., Che idea of hisrorical lavvsj of our
gore's novel Gora as pointing lo "another kind of tradition which is re- times.4
flective as well as self-critical, whieh does not reject or bypass the experi-
ence of modernity but encapsulates or digests it." Gandhi he narres as Myth for history , tradition for moderniry, svisdom and intellect for
someone who "represented this concept of critical traditionalism ag- science and intelligence - Nandy's choices are clear. But they are, in my
gressively."r sense, decisionist . They do not share Che same ground with those of the
Clearly, then, scholars who have accused Nandy of practicing some Marxist or liberal revolutionary, for they are neither about a completely
kind of atavistic indigenism have read him incorrectly. His position is, in- willful rejection of the past nor about viewing history as a process of di-
deed, different from that of the revolutionary modernizer, but it is also alectical overcoming of the past . Nandy's choices may even sound con-
different from that of a so-called nativist. Critical traditionalists are criti- servative ( in the good sense of the term ). But one would be mistalcen lo
cal of post-Enlightenment rationalism as an overall guide to living, al- see Nandy as anything but a modern intellectual . For deeisionism, even
though they do nor reject science in toto: "The critical traditionalism 1 of his kind , entails the same kind ofheroic ss elf-invention that has charac-
am talking about does not have to see niodern seience as alien to it, even terized Che modern in Europe.s The theme of choice, albcit backed up
though it may see it as alienating.... Such traditionalism uncompro- by Che notion of wisdom rather than that of scientific objectivity, and in
misingly criticizes isolation and Che over-conccrn with objectivity, but it particular the continual construction in his writings of an ohject called
never denies the creative possibilities of limited objectivity. Ultimately, the fitture, an object without which Nandy's critique of Western moder-
intelligence and knowledge are poor-in fact, dangerous-substitutas nity would have no meaning , tells us that we are listening lo an intcllec-
tual who Cakes his bearings in Che world from concerns that are unmis-
for intellect and wisdom."2
This limited appreciation of objectivity leads to a theory of resisting takably modern.
enslavement to the discipline of history. "Liberation from Che fear of 1 want to suggest that what makes Nandv's critique of moderniry truly
childhood," writes Nandy in critiquing modern conceptions of life sto- interesting and powerful is a particular tension that sometimos breaks
ries of humans, "is also liberation from the more subtly institutionalized the surface in his writings . It is a tension benveen the decisionist, heroic
ethnocentrism towards past times." By ethnocentrism, he mearas tlic strand and certain other possible positions with regard lo tlic pasr that
process wherebv, in Che narre of objecrivity, the historian mobilizes do share the voluntarism of Che critica] traditionalist. These odaer posi-
42 / CHe PTE.R THREE MODERNITY AND THE PAST / 43
tions are not subject to the mutually exclusive binary of historical law For me, the interesting moment in Nandy's reflections on sati comes
(modern fatalism) versus mythopoeic fables. Nor do they offer us imme- when he recognizes an element uf duality in the attitude that intellectu-
diate choices about how to ¡¡ve, mainly because these are positions that als like Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, and Ananda Coo-
do not assume complete transparency of the object of investigation, maraswamy displayed toward the phenomenon of sati. They, Nandy
whatever that object may be-society, culture, tradition. In these posi- found, were appreciative of the values for which the practice was meant
cions, une gives up rhe assumption that more research or intelligence to stand in quasi-mythic, idealized representations of the past while (as
will help us dispel the opaciry in the object itself. Even the warmth of re- in che case of the Tagore family) they fought against the real practice in
spect that the critical traditionalist displays toward the past does not dis- their own times. This innovative distinction between the mythic sati and
solve the mist of perception here any more than does the light of scien- the historical sati is grist to Nandy's mill of critical traditionalism. It un-
tific reason. It is at these points that Nandy's sensitivities tease to suggest derwrites his injunction that, once moderniry has arrived and has in-
solutions such as critical traditionalism and become instead an invitation serted everybody in historical time, one should approach the myths of
to deepen our questions. 1 say this in a spirit ofgratitude, for it is, unfor- the past respectfully and use them to fight historical battles for a more
tunately, a rare moment in current lndian seholarship when, instead of just society. He writes: "This differentiation benveen sati in mythical
rushing to suggest that solutions are just around the corner if only we time and sati in historical time, between sati as an event (ghatana) and
would listen to the right-minded analysis, an intellectual actually allows sati as a systein (pratha), between the authentic sati and its inauthentic
the question to gather depth. offspririg, benveen those who respect it and those who organize it in our
1 see such a moment emerging in a controversial essay that Nandy times, is not my contribution to the understanding of the rite. These dis-
wrote in the course of the debate on sati that ensued in India after Roop tinctions were already implicit, for instance, in the writings of Ra-'
Kanwar, a young woman from the village of Deorala near Jaipur in Ra- bindranath Tagore, who was an aggressive opponent of sati as practised
jasthan, killed herself by becoming a sati in 1987. (The question of her in contemporary times, yet respectful towards the ideas behind it."7
agency is, naturally, hotly debated-albeit irresolvable.) Nandy's was an At first sight, this may look like a vindication of Nandy's strategy of
angry essay. The debates between Nandy and his supporters, on the one critical traditionalism. Yet the essay is interesting because the strategy ac-
hand, and sorne secular liberais and feminist intellectuals, on the other, tually breaks down in other places. How can one completely separate a
were heated exchanges in which each side sought to classif c and abuse positive interpretation of sati from a critical rejection of the action of be-
the other. Thus, Nandy called his opponents "Anglophile, psychologi- r coming sati? Why would such an interpretation not be an indirect and
cally uprooted Indians"; and they retaliated by writing about "attempts, unintended way of legitimating the act itself? How would one com-
usually from anti-Marxist, neo-Gandhian positions , lo re-establish the pletely separate myth from history? Why is a tradition entitled to respect
difference between us and them (the West) by taking a stand against the even when one does not agree with it? Its popularity is no clear answer.
values ofthe Enlightenment (reason, science, progress ) using a rhetoric Any strategist-politician in a political system where numbers matter
of anti-colonial indigenism." must reckon with that which is genuinely popular. But this does not
Nandy himself mentions-with justifiable relish-some of rhe criti- mean that the popular practice is respectable. One can perform, effec-
cism that his essay received on publication: "It was read as directly sup- tively but instrumentally, the language of respect in order to mobilize
porting sati and some, not knowing that I was not a Hindu, even found the masses . Nandy is not an advocate of the cynical or instrumental use
in it indicaron of Hindu fanaticism."6 The labeis traded were and are of respect. Nor do 1 read him as recommending the language of polite-
unhelpful. We have to argue against Nandy, for example, that no Indian, ness that many-not all-anthropologists use, which, in effect, says to
howevcr much an Anglophile, is thereby rendered an instance of a cul- the native, "Yes, I respect your beliefs, but they are not mine." This kind
rurally "uprooted" person. Anglophilia has existed in India as a plte- of respect is as shallow as the instrumental kind and, as we know, is often
nomenon of contemporary lndian culture. It is, culturally, as legitimate replaced by arrogante when the proverbial push comes to shove.
as any form of orthopraxy. Being Westernized is one way of being In- Some of Nandy's answers to the question why the tradition (as dis-
dian. Similarly, it ispatently absurd to suggest that Nandy could have tinct from the practice) of sati is lo be respected are couched in terms of
been in any way abetting che practice of sati. Even the few quotes from the desire not to be alienated. He asks: "What does one do with the faith
his writings that I have used here make clear how unfair that charge is. of millions of Indians that the soil that received the divided body of Sati
5101» RNrrY Ano ru i-. rar r / 45
44 / c1IAPTER THR1 1.
Behind these qucstions líes a iargtr issue Howv does a nuxicrn inrel-
constitutes che sacred land of India?" Once again, thcre scems ro be no
Icctual rhink about che N\a\, a culture mav hace clahorated a series ol' al-
reason svhv a minority position, svhidt is rhe onk place from ^v hich re-
tics for itscif from practicas olí cruelt.• and violencc Sati is one example;
formers can begin, niust be described as alienated. Cine can cnipathi7e
i blood fcud could be another. Hcre, 1 am del ihcratcla avoicling Nandy'5
and still genuinch' disagrec. If che anst'er is in terno ofa humanist ¡,lea
more practica) formulation of the question, AFhat does out do? and ask-
tor respect for different lile svorlds, thcn it is not olear how that answer
ing instead, How does one rhink? Doers svill hace to ans cr their qucs-
would suit the strategv of critical tradirionalism for ir must be reman-
tions practicaliv, in tercos of the specific historical opportu fines as ailahie
bered that rhe aim of this srrategv is ccentualiv to build a more justsoci-
to them, and that is whv ncc options of a Tagore or a Cnonnvaswamv
crv, as NandK explains repcatediv in his Tradirions, Iienuni', arad Uro- i
ntav nor be availablc to us l although t his is no reason lúr noi considcring
piar. There is no guarantee that rhe lile world rhat one respecrs tviii rruiv
nccir examplcs earehdlv Resides, nay location in rhe United States
bend itself to such a project.
ntakes irpretentious for me to consider the practica) question. But, as an
Nandy recognizes a problem here, but the recognirion is not ver ex-
academic-intellectual from India, 1 can join Nandy and bis colleagues in
plicit. His critique of the violencc of thc extreme modcrnizets is persua-
sive. Yet the grounds for the respecrful attirude that he recommends to-
1 che shared project ofthinking about India,
In answering Chis question, 1 Cake mv cue from a perceptive rcmark of
ward tradition are nor olear when we are confronted with a cultural
Nandy's. "Every culture," he saos, "has a dark side": "Sari in che kali
monstrosirv such as sati. Because he does flor yet explicitly confront che
issue that the past has produced at this point for his problematic-how yoga is an actualization of some of che possibilities inherent in rhe darker
side of India's tradicional culture, oven if chis actualization has becn
tú combine a respectful attirude toward tradition with che search for che
made possible by the forces of modernity impinging on and seeking ro
principies with which to build a more just society-the dilemma breaks
subvert che culture. After all, the tradition of san exists only in some cul-
out into a plethora of practica), policv-related qucstions. Commenting
tures, flor in all; the kind of pathological self-expression displayed by
on che ambiguities and impracticalities contained in a bill recently passed
some cultures in South Asia is not found in ochar parís of che world."9
in che Indian parliament-with assistance from feminisrs-banning any
kind of glorification of sati, Nandy launches finto a series of powerful but Nandy's use of che word dark is obvioruly relared to his use of rhe
word patholopy. I grant hico that use, although 1 will note that ir is just as
rhetorical questions:
normal for human beings ro contraer a disease as it is for them to seek a
cure (i.e., to seek restoration to some kind of a normal, although not
How far can or should glorification of sati go? ... Does che new
necessarily normalized, body). One might rhink of cultures in similar
law mean that children will nor read about or admire Queen Pad-
tertns. Whether modern or not, cultures will have pathological aspects,
mini's self-chosen dearh in medieval times? Does it mean that that
just as Nandy argues, and some of our choices may be between patholo-
part of the Mahabharata which describes Madri's sati will now be
censored? What about Rabindranath Tagore's awe-inspiring, re- gies.
spectful depiction of sati and Abanindranath Tagore's brilliant in- But I want to read the work dark in its more literal sensc. Dark is
where light cannot pass; it is that which cannot be illuminated. There are
vocation of the courage, idealism, and tragedy of sati in medieval
parís of sociery that remain opaque to che theoretical gaze of the mod-
Rajasthan? Do we proscribe their works roo ... ? What about
em analyst. Why a history of cultural practices will scize on a particular
Kabir ...who constantly uses che "impulse to sati" as an image of
practice-espeeially a practice of eruelty and/or violente-and elabo-
surrendering one's ego ro God[?I ... Does one ban che celebra-
rare many of its own themes around it is a question that cannot be an-
tion of Durga Puja or, for that matter, Kalidasa's Kumarasam-
swered by the social sciences. It is also in Chis literal sense, then, it scems
hhava, [sincel both celebrare che goddess who committed sati? Do
ro me, rhat cultural practices have a dark side. We cannor see luto rhem,
we follow che logic of che two young activists who were keen to get
che Ramayana declared unconstitutional? ... That these questions nor everywhere.
In saying Chis, then,1 oppose the liberal modernists, whose investig',t-
may not in che furure remain merely theoretical or hvpothetical is
tive methods, not only treat the iuvestigator as transparent, but also as-
made obvious bv the fact that che Indian History Congrcss felt
sume that socierv itsclf is such a transparent object that thcy can look
obliged to adopt a statement critical of che TV Ramayana in its
finto its heart and find an explanatorv kev (in class, patriarclav, technol-
1988 convention.8
1
46 / CHAPTER THREE
MODERNITY AND THE PAST / 47
9
1018 Khadi and the Political Man
of the committec, Anilisaran Rav, svore, asa svmbol of bis des Otion lo
he re is not te) explore its semantic rango. 1 si mply want to he gil] H ¡de ti
that seas Leasicr,
tifving a particular semiotic of corruptiont that, for Indian politicians the cause of n-adeshi (econoniic nanonalism ), lzhadi
coarser, and harsher and, hencc, harder lo wear This difference lee¡ lo
( usually mes 1, has something to do svith their bodies.
animated exchanges among otber naemhers od dre committec, sebo srcre
Thcrc is a strongGandhian seuiotie ruar still ciradares in Indias pub-
often highls' critical of hose's sarronal preferences. The storr gocs that.
lic lile and marks die public mas-the politician-out from others'llie
most general uniform tor the respecrable public serrana'e India is the sa- refcrring to this differcntial use of khadi among nationalists of rho sanee
rank, and using the language of homeopathy, svhich beeame popular m
fari suir for the politician, hosacver, it has Leen, from the time betbre Lr
Bengali nationalism, Saratchandra quipped one eday. "'ion see, sve hace
dependence, svhite khadi, rhe coirse, honiespon corten thar Gandhi
all different kinds hete. A litt1c varietc is a good thing Anil[ batan Ras 1 is
popularized in ¡he 1920s, lis svmbolism, as entended ni tlic ofticial/
huxcdccd pct c"lit
nationalist rhetoric, is olear. Thc svhilc of khadi symbolizcs ¡he Hindu the naothcr tinctnrc [of khadi], w hile arar [ Bosc] is tiro
idea ufpurity (lack of blemish, pollution), its coarseness an identihcation dilution, don't you understand?"4
svith both simplicity and poverty; together, they stand for the politician's
Today, the joke is different_ The attainment ofindependence and the
capacity to renounce bis own material well-being, to make sacrifices marginalization of any practice of Gandhian politics have made khadi
less a matter of conscious discussion. While khadi persists, its nieanings
(tYm) in the public/national interest. Khadi indicares the person's ca-
have lost the richness ofthe times of struggle against British rule. It now
pacity to serve the country.
represents either thoughtless habit or-if the decision te) wear khadi
Gandhi's own gloss on khadi, provided in 1921, mobilized all these
meanings and added, in a characteristic nationalist touch, sume essential is clearly conscious-callous hypocrisy. The image of a political leader
Indianness as well: "I know that many will find it difficult to replace their from a 1994 issue of the magazine Sunday captures the lose association
foreign cloth all at once.... In order, therefore, to set the example, 1 that people now see benveen the donning of khadi and the ¡Ilegal acqui-
sition of wealth.5 It documents something about the routine cynicism
propose to discard at least up to the 31st of October my topi (cap) and
vest, and to content myselfwith uniy a loen cloth and a chaddar (shawl) with which we now read the khadi that adoras the body of the political
whenever found necessary for the protection of the body.... 1 consider man. Thus, khadi, once described by Nehru as "thc liverv of freedom"
and by Susan Bean as the "fabric of Indian independence,"e now stands
the renunciation to be also necessary for meas a siga of mourning, and a
bate head and a bate body is such a siga in my part of the country."t unambiguously for the reverse of its nationalist definition. The khadi-
Gandhi also claimed that this divestment aligned him, symbolically, clad politician is usually seen today as "corrupt," khadi itself as a dead
giveaway, as the uniform of the rogue, as something like the hypocritical
"with the ill-ciad masses.... [I]n so far as the loen cloth also spells sim-
plicity let it represent Indian civilization."2 Emma Tarlo has quite rightly gesture of one who protests too much.
póinted out that it would be a mistake to assume that there was unto one In terms of the semiotic of corruption in modere Indian public life,
meaning to khadi and that that meaning was available to every Indian in then, there already exists a reading of khadi-no longer as "purity" and
"renunciation," but now as "corruption" and "ehieverv." Given that
a transparent way. She adduces many pieces of evidente from thc writ-
bribery is commonplace in Indian public life, this interpretation is more
ings of Gandhi and bis follosvers to suggest that there was confusion
than reasonable-especially considering the pretense, ni which politi-
about, as well as criticism of, the significante of khádi in Gandhi's own
cians regularly engage, of making public their animal incomes and the
time.' Khadi, she argues, worked practically for out nationalist politi-
value of their estates (much was made of this after Mrs. Gandhi's death)
cians because various kinds and designs of khadi cosed be used, not only
or of announcing, on the assumption of ministerial office, that thev will
to express different understandings of its nieanings, but to make social
accept only one rupee per month in salary. The hypocrisy of ehe gesture
distinctions visible as wcll.
There is a telling and humorous storv about Chis in the historv of the
is only too ttansparent. Therefore, sve cannot contest the semiotic that
nationalist movement in Bengal. The story involves the Bengali novelist allows us to interpret khadi as shameless hvpocrisv.
Saratchandra Chattopadhyay and the nationalist Icader Sarat Bose and 1 agree with rhat reading. Yet it does not explain why khadi, or at lcast
the color white, remains the most visible aspect of a mate Indian potiti-
their respective attitudcs toward khadi. When he esas, a mcmber of the
cian's attire. The question is, Whv does such a transparently Inypocritical
Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, Sarat Bosc preferred to wear
gesture persist even today? Why do politicians do that svhich fools
khadi thatwas fine, stylish, and case on the body, while another member
54 / CHAPTER FOUR
KHADI AND THE POLITICAL MAN / 55
nohody? In other words, if 1 assume that che hypocrisy of khadi is visible through an aet of reading certain everyday practices constitutive of che
to everybody, then its (effective) purpose cannot be to deceive people mainstream. What makes Chis exercise legitimare is che fact that existing
into thinking well of che wcarer. What has been read as a transparentges- interpretations of why so many mate Indian politicians wear khadi or
ture of hypocrisy must, then, because of its persistente, be amenable to white are inadequate, as I have already explained. What is argued here is
another reading. 1 will, therefore, read che Indian politician's uniform, that, while khadi may legitimately be read as merely an Indian instante
khadi, as if it were not meant to convince, as if it were meant (possibly of a problem that is a universal feature of modern politics-che corrupt
unconsciously) to serve an entirely different purpose. politician-as continuous use by men in Indian public life also sustains
Let me clarifv Chis point. Of course, it is true that-in the same way in another reading, one that addresses desires for alternative constructions
which we are always half conscious of things that we do through habit- of che public sphere, constructions that illustrate the heterogeneity of
whcn a politician wears khadi, he is aware of what he is doing. But, just cultural practices that gives Indian modernity its sense of difference.
as we do not consciously control all che messages carried by all our ac- Ifthere is to be a condensed imagination of alternative public life to be
tions, che politician wearing khadi is not always aware of al¡ che messages read through che khadi-clad body, it cannot but be an imagination
thathe is communicating. Consider che Hindu action of worshiping a strongly tied to Gandhian politics. And, here, one last word of qualifica-
god or goddess. There are many rituals involved in a puja (worship) that tion is in order. Although much of what 1 discuss could be extended to
havc ncither literal nor scriptural meaning. Yet they are nor meaning- wornen active in public life, 1 contemplate mainly che figure of che male
tess-even if therr meaning cannot be verbalized. And we communicate politician. There are two reasons for this: First, although there is a history
[hese meanings when we practice [hese rituals-even if we are unaware of women politicians wearing khadi or eotton saris in political life, study-
of [hose meanings and, therefore, have no control over them. ing their case would require us to focus more attention on differenees in
One mav view che ritual wearing of khadi by malo Indian politicians in che way in which nien and women operate in che Indian political sphere.
a similar manner: nor as conscious and hypocritical (one can, 1 think, Second, che majority of India's dominant politicians are still, alas, men.
reasonably assume chat no one would opt for a course of action that Also, as will become clear in what follows, a critical parí of the argument
communicates precisely that which he is seeking to hide), but as a series connects khadi to an analysis of che cultural location of che middle-class
of messages circulating in public lile but nor intentionally eommuni- male body in Indian public life under British rule. My expression the body
cated. This can happen only if certain notions about khadi or about refers to an abstracted, generalized body. But che body discussed here is
politicians wearing white are common and ingrained enough to be in male because an Indian woman could not have used and exposed her
circulation in che public consciousness. In other words, just as one can body as a symbol in che same way in which Gandhi did.
decode social or cultural convention, reading it as a highly condensed
statement of some social ideal (whether consciously held or nor), one
can in che same wav decode che convencional wearing of khadi by politi- THE BODY OF THE PUBLIC MAN:
cians-by asking what kind of notions about che ideal form ofpublic life THE COLONIAL CONTEXT
(since politics is, broadly speaking, rules for conducting a sociery's pub- There is a reason for beginning with che question of che body. For che
lic life) are embodied in che wearing of khadi. use of che body was central to che way in which colonialism operated, che
Khadi is my excuse for thinking about alternative conscructions of British being che first to introduce che idea thac che body and character
che values ofpublic life-and, in particular, aboutways in which hetero- were intimately connected. The Gandhian understanding of khadi musc
geneous possibilicies are both opened up and closed off-in che moder- be placed squarely within che semiotics of che body in British colonial
nity that is che legacy of colonial rule. What is of interest here are alter- rule in India and che possibilicies thus unfolded. Colonial modernity was
natives to the kinds of public life that capital-lately, multinacional fundamentally concerned with domination. The British use of the body
capital-havc helped us think. While speaking of alternatives, I have no in constructing a modern public life in India reflected that relation. In
as-ver-unrealized or unrealizable future in mind. We are talking about creating a public culture based on che [heme of racial superiority, how-
alternative practices of modernity as they are lived now, at chis tnoment ever, che British confated character and physical strength, claiming to
of history. These alternatives, as we imagine them, are not autonomous have an excess of both, unlike Indians.
of or separare from mainstream politics. We can describe them only The idea of character itself, it seems to me, was connected with cor-
Kl/ADt ANt-i u F rouTicAI. MAN / 57
56 / CHAPTP:R FOFA
the most important reason, in his understanding, was the practice of late Gandhi goes on to quote a "doggerel of the Gujarati poet Narmada"
marriage. It explained v.hy ir. Europc a man was stili considerad young that was popular " amongst us schoolboys ." The verse captures the colo-
at forry and a fifry-year-old woman not described as old. By contrast, a nial nationalist understanding of the role of the body in the construction
Bengali was pass his youth at thirty."13 of political power:
There was, however, a critical difference berween British imperial and
Indian nationalist understandings of the category character as applied Behold the mighty Englishman
to public life. Whereas the British saw it as something embodied and, He rules the Indian small
therefore, inherited-a ruling-race argument-nationalists saw it as a Because being a meat-eater
universal and, hence, translatable idea, a collection of precepts and tech- He is five cubits taII.14
niques that could be learned and, therefore, made finto an object of ped- Many of the colonial-indeed, modem-concerns about character,
agogy. Vidvasagar's Jibanchariy for instante, saw nothing problematic
however, were to remain with Gandhi. He accepted and advocated the
in presenting to Indian schoolboys an assortment of "characters" taken peed for discipline and integriry in public life . Observers have com-
at random from world history. Thus, schools became a critical site for ac- mented on the determination with which he submitted himself to the
quiring character-textbooks, classrooms, playing flelds, and gymnasi- ryranny of the clock. His management of public money with scrupulous
ums became the arenas where character was both discussed and im- honesty also owes something to modern notions of the public and of the
bibed.
accountability of che public man.15 His lifelong interest in both public
health and civic consciousness also marks him out as quintessentially
modern.16
THE BODY AND CANDHI'5 DESTRUCTION
But the critical move that set him apart from both imperialists and
OF THE PRIVATE (other ) nationalists was the way in which he eventually carne to separare
Gandhi's understanding of the body of the public man cannot be dis- the question of character , not so much from the body, as we shall see, as
cusscd in isolation from this colonial dynamic. It is easy to see that his from the issue of sheet physical strength , where the imperialista as well as
early experiments with mear eating were fundamentally influenced (if many of the nationalists liad located it. Instead, Gandhi grounded the
notinspired ) by a nationalist question that troubled many Asian cultures question of the character of the public man in what we would regard to-
in the nineteenth century: Were the Europeans stronger because they day as the issue of sexualiry , in overcoming the power of the senses. This
ate beef? ( Indeed, so many non - Buropean nationalists have asked this is what gives the Gandhian political body its special charge.
question , and thereby promoted che eating of beef, that one might be Let me summarize the Gandhian argument about the relation be-
tempted to ask, Is the cow the worst victim of European imperialism?) tween the body and nonviolence . 17 Aggression , Gandhi seems to be sav-
Gandhi, thus , records the argumenta of a mear - eating friend that con- ing, is inseparably connected ro male lust. (Gandhi saw female sexuality
vinced him to try goat: as passive .) Nonviolence involved love toward all and depended critically
ora one's capacity to destroy self-love. One ' s sexual desires are at the core
A wave of reform vas sweeping over Rajkot at the time when 1 first of one's self- love; therefore , nonviolence requires a joyful acceptance of
canee across Chis friend . He informed me that many of our teachers
celibacy. Gandhi ofren made a model, for both mera and women, of the
were secretly taking mear and wine. He also named many well- ideals ofsacrifice and suffering : " Hinduism will remain imperfect as long
known people ... as helonging to the same company ... and he
as men do not accept suffering . . . [and] withdraw therr interest in the
explained it thus: "We are a weak people because we do not eat pleasures ofhfe."18 There was , to his mirad , a direct relation between this
mear. The English are able to rule over us , because they are meat- "withdrawal from pleasure " and swaraj (self-rule ), his word for free-
eaters. You know how hardy 1 am, and how great a runner too. It dom: "The conquest of lust is the highest endeavor of a man's or a
is because I am a meat-eater . Meat-eaters do not have any boils or woman's existence . And without overcoming lust, man cannot hope to
tumours, and even if they sometimos happen to have any, they heal rule over self, without rule over se1f, there can be no Swaraj.... No
quickly."
worker who has not overcome lust can hope to render any genuine ser-
V. , 61
fí HAD!ANI I t I IF POLI 11,
einpt , or hypocritical ritual, tor we would then llave to think of the In-
dian aoters as enormously gullible. 1 Nave, the refiere, read it as che si te ot
tic desire for an altcrnative modernin, a desire madc possible bv the
contingencies of British colonial role, now impossihle ot realization un-
der tire conditions of capitalism, vet circulating insistently wirhin are
evcrydav object of Indian public life, che (male ) politician's uniform. 1
do not think that kladi convinces anvbodv anv longer of the Gandhian
convictions ofthe wcarer, but, itnn' reading of it bas am point Yo ir, rhen
its disappearance, sucre that Yo happen, svould signifv tire demise of a
deeper structurc of desire and svould signal Indias complete integration
into the circuits of global capital. QUE Of Garbage, Modernity, and
the Citizen's Gaze
ntjl Salman Rushdie and bis followers arrived ore the scene in,¡ nade
65
66 / CHAI'TFR FIVE
OF GARBAGE, MODERNITY, AND THE CITIZEN'S GAZE / 67
cocan a non-Indias person. The outsider here is the ubscrver svho docs
modifv its hours. So lit tic piles of svaste tood, aspes, ami vegetables crap,
rnot inhabit she eoneeprual or thcoretical 1}amcsvork of clic actor svhom
and peelings lay in individualistie autonomv near the kerb from ose
he or she observes. It is tic obscrcing position that 1 'ave tagged here as
ssveeping time to another."O
Roth Gandhi's and Chaudlhuri's are narionalist commans deploring modernist, and 1 shall return larerto shc qucstion ot she relation betssrcn
modernism and ethnosociologv.
the absence of a cittzen culture on she parí of she peopie 1'hev are also
My ami in Chis essav is to eontest anci critique ['ese modernist read-
at she samc rime atrempts (employing vcrv different rhetorical devices)
ings of uses of opera space in India bv opposing ro thcm ccrrain struc-
ro inculcare in their hvporhetical Indian readers a sense of civie lile and
nualist speculations based on a preliminarv-, al](¡ bv no mearas exhaustive,
public intcrest. Yet, as we all knovv, Indian historv hears a constanr testi
study of some of shc relevant historical and anrhropological material. I
mony to a gap that persists wcll roto shc present day, benvecn she mod-
am aware of the limitations of seructuralist methodologv and also ofthat
ernist desires inherent in imperialist/nationalist projects of social re-
which arises from she somewhat ahistorical character of mv argument.
form-and 1 shall later argue the complicity of d c social sciences as well
This essav is in the nature of a beginning, with all the rentativeness that
in Chis-and popular practices. The complaint about popular blindness
beginnings entail. A deeper and more convíncing analvsis would no
in India toward dirt and disease has nos lost any of its force (although, as
doubt need to locate she argmnent in a more historically grounded con-
a slander ora some eternally condemned Indian character, it no longer
text.
circulates much).
1 should also clarifv that a major aim ofthis exercise is methodophilo-
Nita Kmnar's sensitive-and, in the present context, understandably
sophieal. It is to show, through a critical reading of some aspects of Ku-
somewhat coy-ethnosociology of the artisans of Banaras reports Chis
mar's otherwise excellent ethnosociology, that, when it comes to questions
blindness: "These same galis [laves] are notorious among visitors for be-
relating to health, that is, to life rather than death, she nonbourgeois
ing dark, narrow, tortuous, filthy and even dangerous.... None of shc
subaltern citizen is always already condemned in our social seience, how-
Banarasis themselves ever described their galis as anyaf these things-.. .
ever sympathetie the stance of our ethnography. As social scicntists, we
Queries about their rather `unsanitary conditions' could elicit no re-
ahgn ourselves with those who want to build citizen cultures. The moral
sponse because these ideas seemingly fell outside Banarasis' conceptions
consequences of wanting to do otherwise can, as some of Kunaar's most
of their cits ... Most ignore the master altogether, as'they do most gov-
ernment offcers.... Men ofren told me that one aspect of the overall honest remarks berras', be excruciatingly painful.
friendliness and conveniente of she city was that they could urinate
wherever they liked. This, 1 realized after months of unwilling observa- LOCATING DIRT: SOME STRUCTURALIST SPECULATIONS
tion, was notan exaggeration."10
Since 1 have allowed nryself she speculative freedoms of a structuralist,1
While Kumar is careful to distante her prose from that of the public-
shall begin by taking a leaf out of Mary Douglas's cclcbrated book on
health inspector by putting quotation marks around unsanitary condi-
dirt and start with she proposition that che problem of dirt poses; in
tions, and while she reports, perceptively and with good humor, a mis-
match benveen, say, che modernist view of she cuy and she urbanism of turra, the probleni of she ourside . 12 For, whether we are talking about
radioactive waste from she industrialized countries or the vvaste of a
the Banarasi, her description of thegalis, of she supposed ineapacity of
household or village in India, she dirt can go only to a place that is des-
the Banarasi to respond to questions of sanitation and heálth, invests she
modernist complaint (about popular blindness to these questions) with ignated as outside. It is this problem ofthe outside that 1 vvanr to explore
a certain degree ofobjectivity. This is precisely she objectivity of she out- in Chis section of the essav. Lct us begin aith she probleni of household
sider, which is the only position from which an aggressively modernist rubbish.
The fact that she dirt goes out ofshc hoose iniplies a boundary be-
observer can speak on this subject. (lt nmtters little.for mv argument
tween shc inside and she outside This boundary docs not simple dclin-
whether she particular speaker is white skinned or brovvn.) As Tbomp-
cate a hygienic space where cleanliness is practiced. Housekeeping is also
son says of the passage from Naipaul quoted earlier: "Oitly she outsider
mean[ to express the auspicious qualities of she mistress of thc house-
can see that all of India is she Indian's latrine. It is all ton easy as an out-
hold, her Lakshmi - like nature that protects the lincagc finto which shc
sider to spot tire Indians' conspiracy of blindness."1 t
I should clarifv, however, that, unlike Thompson, 1 do not by outsider has niarried .' 3 As outsiders who musa be reccived finto shc bosom of shc
70 / CHAPÍF.R FIVE
OF GAREAGE, MODERNITY, AND THE Cl rIZEN's GAZE / 71
patrilineal and patriarchal family, women are particularly subject to the
the next village, and in Chis way che baleful influence of the goddess is
rimals ofauspiciousness. For, in Chis conception, the outsider always car-
transferred to a safe distance." The worship of Pedamma also included
rics "substances" that threaten one's well-being. The "negative qualities
activities that ritually inscribed village boundaries.20
and substances that may afflict persons, families, houses and villages," as
Catanach has written of Punjab villages where, during the plague
Gloria Goodwin Raheja has recently noted, are seldom "one's own":
scare of 1896-98, "the village site [was] surrounded with a cirele ofstakes,
they achieve their "entry" through lapses in the performance of auspi-
with demons' heads roughly carved on top to serve as supernatural
cious actions. "All forros of inauspiciousness are said to originate in enti-
guardians."21 More contemporary evidente comes from Ralph Nicho-
ties and events that are `different' and `distant' from the person or other
afflicted entity," writes Raheja; "they are alien."14 Auspicious acts pro-
las's study of the smallpox goddess Sitala in southwestern Bengal, where
worship rituals include the taking out of processions that circumambu-
tect the habitat, the inside, from undue exposure to the malevolente of
late the village "planting flags where paths cross the village borders, or
the outside. They are the cultural performance through which Chis every-
otherwise bounding the village before her [Sitala's] puja is begun."22
day inside is both produced and enclosed. The everyday practice of clas-
Diane Coccari has studied similar processes in urban Banaras-the Bir
sifying certain things as household rubbish marks the boundary of this
babas who act as boundary gods of neighborhoods: "The deity is de-
enclosure.
scribed as 'the god' or 'the protector of the neighbourhood.' ... There
Nirad Chaudhuri's cultural puzzle thus contains themes that, I sug-
are hundreds of Bir ... shrines in the city.... Like the village deities,
gest, pervade Indian popular culture. The figure of the outsider as trou-
blemaker was strongly conveyed by the Santal term diku so prominently
the urban Bir control the boundaries of their domains, especially with
used in the rebellion of 1855.15 In the Munda country, jealousy, which
regard to the exit and entry of the intangible agents of illness, misfor-
tune and disease."23
is seen as corrosiva of communal bonds, is attributed to mischievous
If the house, thus, is only an instance of a theme general co South
outsiders.1ó Hatred of people conceived of as outsiders is a universal fea-
Asia-an inside produced by symbolic enclosure for the purpose of pro-
ture of so-called ethnic conflict in India and elsewhere.17 Correspond-
tection-what, chen, is the symbolic meaning of the outside, which can,
ingly general is the practice of enclosing a place as a gesture of protec-
indeed, be rubbished?
tion. The more-enduring boundaries-such as the wall of a fort city or a
mohalla-of course also signify ownership and authority, but that is not
To answer this question, T shall Cake the bazaar as the paradigmatic
forro of the outside. The bazaar, the street, and the fair (mela), it seems
a point that 1 will pursue here.l8 The general connection, however, be-
cween the mohalla and the insider/outsider division of identity is widely to me, have for quite some time formed a spatial complex in India.
accepted in che literature. '9
Streecs, for good or bad, all too often become, effectively, bazaars, and
metas combine the different purposes ofpilgrimage, recreation, and eco-
Out nonmodernist ways of handling disease are replete with these
nomic exchange.24 1 take the bazaar as a space that serves the needs of
themes of the enclosed inside and the exponed outside. Only a few ex-
transportation as wcll as those of entcrtainment and the buying and sell-
amplcs are necessary to make the point. Whitehead's well-known study
ing of goods and services. 1 am aovare that there have been different
of the village gods of south India makes several connections between
kinds of bazaars in India, going by different names (hats, mandil ganjes,
boundaries and their protective power. "The boundary-stone of the vil-
etc.), and varying in their fimctional specializations.25 1 also ignore the
lage lands is verv commonly regarded as a habitation of a local deity, and
interesting problem of connections between the bazaar and the struc-
might be callada shrine or symbol with equal propriecy," writes White-
tures and relationships of power in its vicinity.
head. Thc propitiation of the cholera goddess at Iralangur (Trichinopoly
The bazaar of which 1 speak is obviously an abstraction of certain
district) or of Pedamma, an epidemic goddess ofthe Telugu country, in-
structural characteristics that, to my mind, define the experience of the
volved, in both cases, symbolic enactments of che village boundary. In
bazaar as a place. Everyday linguistic practices involve and permit such
che former case, it was the duty of a washerman to place, at the end of che
an abstraction-in the Bengali language, for instance, the word bajar
propitiation ceremony, the offerings to the deity "at the pointwhere his
(bazaar) is ofren used in a metaphoric way to represent an outside to
village border[ed] on the adjoining village": "The deity is thus propiti-
ghar-shangsbar (the way of the householder, i.e., domesticity); thus,
ated and carried beyond the village limits. The villagers of the adjacent
prostitutes are called bajarer meye (women of che bazaar) to distinguish
village in their turn carry the karagam [the offerings] to the border of
them from gharer meye (housewivcs or women of the household). In chis
Or (IARRA( 1,, YiODIJtV I'1'l, ANI 11.111 (11171 N'5 CIAR.1'.
72 / CHAPt en PIv Y-
genation occurs. All that do not belong to the inside (family/kinship/ particular markets. Belonging to che poorest sections of the bazaar pop-
community) he there, check by jowl, in an unassorted collection, violat- ulace, these entertainers "moved from one hat to another" without "a
ing rules of mixing: from feces to prostitutes. It is, in other words, a regular schedule," not only thereby violating the codes offamiliariry and
place against which one needs protection. trust, but also deriving from this violation itself the mysterious attrac-
Some of the devices mean[ to provide such protection are bodily and tions of their presence as srrangers 4r
personal, ranging from the mark of kaajal (collyrium), which little chil- It is, therefore, easy to see why roaming the streets of the neighbor-
dren are given to protect them from the evil eye, to subh naam (auspi- hood is a pleasurable activiry for most Indian men. (I say men advisedly,
cious narre), which all uppcr-castc Hindus use in dealing with outsiders for the pleasure is gendered even when it is not class specific.) As Kumar
and formal situations. Ofren, the community-forming rituals of enclo- says of her Banarasi respondents: "In their free time, they like to indulge
sure are thenuelves replicated in the bazaar. Shopkeepers will use their in ghumna-phirna: to stroll in che galis, wander in the bazaars, hang
own rituals for marking che area of the shop as enclosed space. Some of around the ghats, visir temples, Cake in the ambiente of the evening
[hese strongly resemblc housekeeping activities: worshiping a deity lights, crowds, bustle, and activiry. But if you ask them what they like to
(Ganesh rather [han Lakshmi since Ganesh is the lord who removes ob- do bes[ in their free time, it is, to go outside."42 Or, as Paj Chandavarkar
stacles); sweeping with a broomstick the area of the street immediately says of che textile workers of Bombay: "Street life imparted its momen-
adjacent to the front of the shop.36 The more permanent traders in a tum to leisure and politics as well.... Thus, street entertainers or the
particular bazaar sometimes even develop a sense of communiry and pa- more `organised' tamashaplayers constitured the working man's the-
tronize a single bazaar temple 37 Speech and face-to-face interaction atre. The street corner offered a meeting place."43 The bazaar or the
have to do, as we have leen, with overcoming the mistrust of the out- street expresses through its own theater the juxtaposirion of pleasure
sider in a space where transactions are contingent on trust. The inside/ and danger that constitutes the outside or the open, unenclosed space.
outside dichotomy, therefore, is a matter of constan[ performance in the The street is where one has interesting, and sometimes marvelous, en-
exchanges of the bazaar. counters. Even when nothing out of che ordinary happcns, the place is
The duality of this space is inescapable. It harbors qualities that still pregnant with possibility. And such pleasures are, by nature, trans-
thrcaten one's well-being (strangers embodv [hese qualities). Yet it pro- gressive because they are pleasures of the inherently risky outside.
vides a venue for linkage across communities (linkages with srrangers).
Speech and direct interaction produce such solidariry. The bazaar or che
chnwk is, as Freitag has noted, often the most public of arenas in Indian DIRT, CAPITALISM. ANDTHE LOGIC OF CITIZENSHIP
cities-public in the sense of "publiciry"-and has, for that reason, This analysis is admittedly parcial and incomplete . To refine it , 1 would
hosted traditionally colorful religious/political spectacles involving need to accommodate within my argument the subtle and critical dis-
large numbers.38 The connection between the chowk, the bazaar, and tinctions that have been made in different regions of India berween, say,
the spectacle of public events is also drawn by Kumar in her study of Ba- the road and che bazaar. I have also ignored dif ferences between differ-
naras.39 And Guha has recently drawn out attention to the importante ent kinds of bazaars or between different kinds of pathways . Nor have I
of rumors, that is, speech par excellence, in che political mobilization of paid attention to che very distinctive constructions of communal space
peasants.40 Spaces like the bazaar are, as Guha shows, central to the dis- thar che Gaste svstem, with its varied rules of puriry and pollution, can
seminarion of rumors, which goes some way toward explaining why riots create. Studying che roles assigned in Indian villages to Gastes associated
or rebellions often start in the bazaar. with dirt would be ofparticular relevante in this regard. Also, the idea of
Ambiguiry and risk are, thus, inherent to the excitement of the the outside would have been modified by the kinds of changes in the ex-
bazaar. Punalekar's survey of tribal markets in che Surat-Valsad arca gives perience of public space that British rule created . Besides, as movements
a striking example of this. Here, people who specialize in providing en- such as "temple entry" or "breas [ eloth" agitations in south India in che
tertainmcnt at the bazaar are often those who are trusted che leas[ "Ac- late nineteenth century and the early twentieth would suggesr, che de-
robats, rope walkers, snake charmers, singers and mimics," as well as cline oflandlords ' privare control over roads must have brought to many
owners of performing monkeys and bears, gamblers, and others who a new sense of public space . In a fascinating analysis of Muslim reactions
performed in these bazaars, all were, Punalekar notes, ofren srrangers to to British rule in north India, for instante , Faisal Devji has recently
' pc. tt} ^7
OP GAIi13AG1 ', . SiuIi}..R><TlY, ,ANn-l 1b: t'I IILPA
the academic observer's is often one between the nonbourgeois peasant- epitaphs for che gravestones of dying and defeated concepts and prac-
citizcns and [hose who want to inhabit a bourgeois-modern position, tices, to help preserve them as objectified knowledge . This objectified
and, in this'var, analysis is not neutral. knowledge is what Kumar ealls a knowledge ofthis culture in itself. Todo
At the end of her book, in an impressive spirit of self-criticism that in- anvthing else would be untrue to our own concerns for prolonging life,
dicts the rest of the work, Nita Kumar offers a very telling story. She calls the fear of death and the desire for preservation on which moderniry is
it "The Limits of Ethnosociology." 1 want to consider this story in founded. This is why, as Rey Ileto has remarked in the context of the
bringing this essay to an end. "As my research proceeded," writes Ku- Philippines, "nationalist writers ... fiad it impossible to interrogate the
mar, established notion that among the blessings of American colonial rule
was a sanitary regime which saved countless Filipino lives."54
1 found myself understanding my informants and their world with
Can modern knowledge transcend Chis concern with prolonging lives?
progressive sensitivity, and paradoxically, also understanding how
1 suggest that it cannot but that we can at least recognize it as the (his-
this world should be shunned and condemned as "lower-class" torical) condition within which we speak and ask of Kumar's dilemma,
and "backward." ... The dilemma became partly clear to me on
How is the subject of this quandary produced ? Through what historical
the death of one of my favourite informants, Tara Prasad.... [H]e
process of subject formation did long life , good health , more money,
passed awav of mysterious ailments, regarding which, including small families , and modera science come to appear so natural and God
the exact symptoms, and even the location, whether in the chest or given?
the stomach or the legs, his family was frustratingly vague. This
Kumar's dilemma is tcio real to be trivialized . And I have no easy an-
was of course the same "vagueness" glorified by my informants in swers. In my younger and more citizenship - minded days , 1 once told a
other contexts, and by me in subsequent reporting of these con- nine- or ten- year-old hoy in Calcutta not to throw rubbish in rhe srreet.
texts. It was however clear that he had fallen victim to ... poverty "Why not?" he asked, as he proceeded to throw the rubbish anyway. "I
and ignorante.... He had been killed by the filthy galis and mo-
suppose you like to think that we live in England , don'[ you?" This essay
hallas of Banaras; the very same which are extolled by indigenous is a troubled and overly delayed response to that defiant question.
Banarasis as beyond any considerations of stench and garbage... .
I clearly reach the limits of ethnosociology here, for death matters
to him and his family in a different way than it does to me, and 1
have no sympathy for their way.52
This is a rare moment of honesry, one in which the ethnosociologist,
committed, by her training, to understanding the "nativos" on their
own terms and without prejudice, confronts the political responsibility
of that commitment. Should such subaltern citizens have the freedom to
die in their ignorante, or should we interven with our knowledge and
the police? Let us follow Kumar to the very end of her journey: "1 do not
tare for my informants' lifesryle in che way they do. 1 want rhem to live
longer, enjoy better health, earn more, beget fewer children, and, out of
place as it sounds,learn of modern science. 1 do not know how best their
culture can be encouraged to coexist with such development, but, how-
ever it does happen, a precondition will be a knowledge of this culture in
itself"5s
In this battle of the bourgeois moderns versus the subaltern citizens
(thosc who have not imbibed a bourgeois outlook on matters of public
hcalth and personal hygiene), the violente of Kumar's dilemma reveals
to us the purpose of our knowledge. It is, not to adjudicate, but to write
5 01 N E1 l1Fü O y / 81
(;oV FltNN4i NI ill. 1<00 1
in thcort'-in
important that we creare an Archimcdcan point-at Icast
. Today's under-
orden to have a longer - terco perspectiva on our problems
standing of svhat is practica! peed flor constitutc our philosophic al horr
iCwe jet it do so, s s e submit, cuco inside our heads, ro u hat alrcadv
short revicw that 1 shall present he re of thc history of nixicrn
exists. -1 he
a dictum bv a
governmental practices in India is oitcrcd in tic spirir ot
( m reproduang u, 1 re
great thinker ot rhe huropean Enlightcnmcnt
bar arguc as madi as vou svnnt
verse thc order of his statement "Obcv,
and about svhat vou srant"
r Is clic
Ifa pristine tinco of libcralisni l the Indias svord I
, thc othcr
danger besctting thc analysis of contcmporarv racism m India
8o
82 ( CIAPFER SIX
GOVERNMENIAL ROOTS OF MODERN ETHNICITY / 83•
will come the maturiry that nations with an older sense of their history
presumably possess: "To awaken to history is to tease to live instinc- that the "popular belief that the `Hindus' never indulged in religious
persecution" is simply untrue.s
tively. It vas to begin to see oneself and one's group the way the outside
world saw one; and it was to know a kind of rage. India was now full of This ancicnt history is something that 1 neither discuss nor deny in
this ragc. There had been a general awakening. But everyone awakened this essay, for my point is different. Something has fundamentally changed
first to his own group or community; every group thought itself unique about both Hinduism and cante since British rule and particularly since
in its awakening; and every group sought to separate from the rage of other the beginning of the twentieth century. The change can be crudely but
simply described using the example of Gaste. We know from anthropolo-
groups."4
Within India, too, the same law of oversight rules, for racism is thought gists and historians of the so-called caste system that there were no
of as something that the white people do to us. What Indians do to one strong systemic rules guiding caste identity; this could be a matter of ne-
another is variously described as ¿ommunalism, regionalism, and caste- gotiation between individuals and groups. Marriage rules and rules of
ism, but never as racism. There are, of course, particularly Indian twists commensaliry could change within one's own lifetime or over genera-
to this story, and it is also true that modern racism, properly -speaking, tions, depending on factors such as social, economic, and geographic
has social-Darwinist connotations and should not be conflated with eth- mobility. In other words, caste sociery operated as a nonstandardized
nic prejudice. Yet, for me, the popular word racism has the advantage of system, and rules guiding caste transactions would have required a sen-
sitiviry to context.
not making India look peculiar. A relative of mine wanting to sell a plot
of land near Calcutea was recently told by the local Communist leaders Just as the British sought to give India a standardized legal system,
that he could, indeed, sell his land, but not to Muslims. How is that any they also attempted to fix and officialize collective identities (such as
different, 1 world want to know, from an English landlady asking, on be- caste and religion) in the very process of creating a quasi-modern public
ing told on the phone the narre of a prospective tenant, "Is that a Jewish sphere in India.6 The concept and the institutions that make up the pub-
Kahn ora Pakistani Khan?" (both varieties being, to the landlady's mirad lic sphere-a free press, voluntary associations, avenues for uncensored
at least, undesirable). debate and inquiry in the public interest-are modern Europe's intel-
In focusing on the theme ofcontemporary Indian ethnic intolerance, lectual and practical gists to the people whom they considered less fortu-
1 will argue that the experiment of nation making in India shows how nate than themselves and at whose doors they arrived as civilizing impe-
modem problems of ethnicity cannot be separated from modern mearas rialists. My point is that modern problems of Hinduism and Gaste are
of government and communication. My emphasis, in other words, will inseparable from the history of this modern public life in India, which
be on the way in which the development of a modern public-political life che British instituted and the nationalists preserved in what they thought
were the best interests of che country.
in India has called finto being constructions of both Hinduism and Gaste
that do not admit of such simple binary distinctions as Salman Rushdie's
character invokes: secular/religious; liberal/fundamentalist; nationalist/ MODERN GOVERNMENTAL PRACTICES IN INDIA:
communal. A BRIEF HISTORY
But flrst let Inc try to anticipate and forestall a few misunderstand-
ings. It is not my intention to deny the traditions ofviolence that existed British rule in India lasted from 1757 to 1947, a little short of two hun-
in India hefore British rule. There are recorded instantes of Hindu- dred years. The most fundamental and far-reaching innovation that the
Muslim tensions during the precolonial period. Historians and anthro- British introduced to Indian sociery was, in my view, the modern state-
pologists are agreed that the brahmanic claim to ritual supremacy was not a nation-state, for that was what the nationalist movement created,
seldom accepted without challenge by other social groups, including but a modern state nevertheless. One symptom of its moderniry was that
those whom wc know as the untouchables: -Citing examples from the pe- its techniques of government were very closely tied to techniques of
riod between the seventh and the twelfth centuries of Hindu sects de- measurement. From surveys of land and crup output to prospecting for
stroying Buddhist and Jaina monasteries and sometimes killing the minerals, from measuring Indian brains (on behalf of the false science of
nionks, the eminent historian Romila Thapar has usefully reminded us phrenology) to measuring Indian bodies, diets, and life spans (thus lay-
ing the foundations of physical anthropology and modern medicine in
L1OVFFNMHNI:AL. 1<001S ( 1F M0111 RN 11I INICII'S 8;
84) ( HAiTFR SOX
India), the British had the length in,¡ brcadth of India, its history, cul tempts to use lasa for social cnginceri nñ ncc idea, for instancc, that
punishmentshould be in proportion to the crime committed or thc util
ture, and socicty, mapped, classified, and quantlfied in detall that was
itarian ami of des ising a socicnthnt maximizas the pleasure of nce maxi-
nothing but precise evcn svhen it svas svrongheadcd. I he most dramatie
examples of this govet-nmcntal conecto svith nicasuremeti t were the de nium number of peoplc - all speak a language borrosved f}um naathc-
cennial Indian censuses, che first of evhich vas published in 1872. Since matics and the natural sciences ( not surprisingly , given clic connection
the British did not go to India in search of pure knowlcdge, all these betwecn Enlightenmcnt rationalism and scientific paradignis . The 179(1
American censos liad to do with che idea of proportionalic y ni che sphere
studies ss-erc produced in the cause and in the proccss of governing In-
dia, and it is this pcrvasive marriagc hctwcen government and mcasmre- ofpolitical representation . Ideas of corrrsyondence , propo;-nonn (itr, and
ment that 1 take as something that belongs to the deep structure of che so ora mark Rousseau ' s rhoughts on equality . 1y'ithout diem , and svirh-
imagination that is invested in modero political orders.7 Without num- out the numbers that thcy produced , che equal - opportunin legislation
bers, it would be impossible to practica burcaucratic or instrumental ra- of our own period would be unworkablc . A gcneralized acconnting
mind-set is what seems to inhabit modernicv.
tionality.
As the representatives and the inheritors of the European Enlighten-
This is not to say that premodern government had no use for nutn-
bers. The Mughals gathered statistics on produce, land, and revenue, ment, che British brought these ideas to India . It is, in fact , one of the
ironies of British history that the British became political liberals at
among other things. William the Conqueror ordered the survey that re-
honre at che same time as they became imperialists abroad. British policy
sulted in the Domesday Book (1086). Historiaras of demography talk
about ancient censuses conducted in such distant and disparate places as in India was forever haunted by this contradiction . While the British
svould not grant India full self- government until 1947, they were oteen
China, Rome (che word census itself being of Latin origin), and Peru.
concerned about being fair to che different competing sections that,
But Chis information was, on the whole, haphazardly collected and sel-
in ehcir view, made up Indian society, sections that they had identif ed
dom updated with any regularity.
The systematic eollection of statistics in detail and in specific cate- early on on the basis of rcligion and caste . A count made of che popu-
gories for che purpose of ruling seems to be intimately tied to modern lation of Bombay in 1780, for instancc , divided che population into
ideas of government. The history of the very discipline of statistics car- "socio-religious contmunities ." 10 In che eighteenth century, British am-
ateur historians ofen portrayed India as a society weakened by its inter-
nes Chis tale. The word statistic has, erymologically speaking, the idea of
na! religious and cante divisions , an understanding shared later on by In-
statecraft built into it. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary tells us that, "in
early use," statistics was "that branch of political science dealing with ehe dian nationalists themselves.
eollection, elassification, and discussion of facts bearing on che condition Understandably, then, categories of caste and religion dominated che
censuses that che British undertook in India. At every census , people
of a state or community." Gottfricd Achenwall, who, as Jan Hacking in-
were asked to state their religion and caste-in tnarked contrast, as thc
forms us, was the first to coin che word statistics, intended it to imply a
American historian Kenneth Jones has pointed out, to what che British
"eollection of `remarlcable facts about the state."'s Wlaile che census it-
self is an old idea, the first modern census was, according to some schol- did at home . Religion, says Jones, was never an importan category in
the censuses conducted in Britain during che period between 1801 and
ars, taken in the United States in 1790 and che first British census in
1801. The Indian censuses were not to appear until late in che nine- 1931. Only once , in 1851, were the British asked about religious affilia-
teenth century, but the East India Company caused quite a few regional tion, and answering che question was optional . rr Counting Hindus,
censuses to be taken before that period. Muslims, Sikhs , and untouchables, then, became a critical political exer-
cise, particularly in che nventieth century, as che British began to include
Measurement is central to our modern ideas about fairness and j ustice
and how we administer them-in short, to che verv idea of good gov- Indian representatives in che country ' s legislative bodies in ven mca-
ernment. Foucault has emphasized in severa! places-especially in bis es- sured doses.
What made che census operations critica! was that, in trying to be fair
say on "governmentality"-how this has been critically dependent on
"che emergente of the problem of population" in che eighteenth cen- referces , che $ritish made the process of political representation "com-
tury and, therefore, connected to che development of the other impor- munal": seats in che legislative assemblies were earmarked for diffferent
tant science of the same period, that of economics.v Benthamite at- communities according to ideas ofproportionaliry . Nationalists like Nehru
86 / CHAPTER SIx GOVERNMENTAL AOOT5 OF MODERN ETHNICITY / 87
and Gandhi abhorred this process and the ideology that governed it, of persons or by my observations about official statisrics. The claim
namely, communalism, a word that still leads a stigmatized existente in of dynamic nominalism is not that there was a kind of person who
India and works as a surrogate for racism.12 They pointed out, with carne increasingly to be recognized by bureaucrats or by students
some justice, that it was invidious to treat untouchables as a community of human nature but rather that a kind of person carne into being
separate from the Hindus. at the lame time as the kind itself was being invented. In some
A language-based definition of political communities would have cases, that is, our ciassifications and our classes conspire to emerge
seemed more natural to them, but post-Independence Indian history hand in hand, each egging the other on.14
has shown that language is no surer a guide to ethnic identity and inter-
The Indian political scientist Sudipta Kaviraj has pursued a similar ar-
ethnic peace than is religion. Heads have, since the 19S0s, been regu-
gument with regard to the history of "communitics" in pre-British and
larly broken in the subcontinent over linguistie issues, the liberation
British India. In pre-British India, says Kaviraj, communities had "fuzzy"
war of Bangladesh in 1971 being only a dramatic example of the process.
boundaries; in British India, they became "enumerated."15 By fuzzy,
Political leaders of the Muslims and the untouchables, on the other
Kaviraj means vague boundaries that do not admit of discrete, either/or
hand, felt much happier going along with the British-devised arrange-
divisions. Census or official enumerations, however, give os discrete
ments until the final decade before Independence and Partition. Of par-
kinds ofidentities even if particular identities change, as, indeed, they of-
ticular importance in the Indian story is the category scheduled caste-
ten do, over time. For the purpose of affirmarive action, a scheduled-
which the British comed in 1936 (and the government of India has re-
caste person is a scheduled-caste person is a scheduled-caste person.
tained)-so called because it referred to a schedule of particularly disad-
The distincrion that Kaviraj draws is parallel to one that Hacking
vantag'ed castes that was drawn up for "the purpose of giving effect to
draws in his attempt to finda path somewhere between the epistemo-
the provisions of special electoral represeptation in the Government of
logical obstinacies of the nominalist and che realist positions: "It will be
India Act, 1935."13 It represents a pioneering attempt at affirmative
foolhardy .. to have an opinion about one of the stable human dichot-
action. omies, male and female. But very roughly, the robust realist will agree
Historians and political scientists studying modern India have re-
that theremay he what really are physiological borderline cases, once
cently made several attempts to understand what happened to ethnic
called `hermaphrodites.' The existente of vague boundaries is normal:
identities through this process of a quasi-modern, albeit colonial, state
most of us are neither tall nor short, fat nor thin. Sexual physiology [i.e.,
instituting, through modere means of measurement, a structure of po-
the categorical structure of sexual physiology] is unusually abrupt in its
litical representation tied to notions of proportionality. What, in other divisions."16
words, did the census do to identities? Historians and anthropologists of
The kernel of Kaviraj's argument is that che post-Enlightenment gov-
colonial India Nave reported a social process akin to sbhat Tan Hacking
erning practices that the British introduced in India and that entailed
calls dynamic nominalism: people carne to fit the categories that the counting collective identities in an all-or-nothing manner enabled peo-
colonial authorities had fashioned for them. Hacking explains dynamic
ple to see and organize themselves in the light of [hese categories. 1 shall
nominalism thus: quote here at some length Kaviraj's own gloss on these tercos as all my
knowledge of Indian history as well as my lived experience of India corn-
You will recall that a traditional nominalist says that stars (or algae pel me to agree with him. Kaviraj writes:
or justice) have nothing in common except our names ("stars,"
"algae," "justice"). The traditional realist in contrast finds it amaz- Communities were fuzzy in two senses. Rarely, if ever, would peo-
ing that the world could so kindly sor[ itself into our categories. ple belong to a community which would claim to represent or ex-
He protests that there are definite sorts of objects in it ... which hausr alt the layers o£their complex selfhood. Individuals on suit-
we have painstakingly cometo recognise and classify correctly. The able occasions could describe themselves as vaisnavas, Bengalis or
robust realist does not have to argue very hard that people also more likely Rarhis, Kayasthas, villagers and so on; and clearly al-
come sorted.... A different kind of nominalism-I call it dy- though al¡ these could on appropriate occasions be called their
namic nominalism-attracts my realist self, spurred on by theories sama] [society/community] ... their boundaries would not coin-
about the making of the homosexual and the heterosexual as kinds cide.... [Their identity]' would be fuzzy in a second sense as well.
,;OVERNMEN IAl tuxrrs or moraran ArO Ntc n^ / 89
88 / Clim,1I R six
ness is too cumples for tire rulos that govern tire logic of representat{on
To sav their comtunity is fuzzv is not to sav it is imprecisa On the
in modero public lile, where identities, however numerous orad inter-
appropriate occasion, everv individual syould use bis cognitive ap-
nally differentiated theta may be, must cach remain distincrand dise ate
paratus to classih anv single person he interacts syith and place hico
in ti e competitive lace for goods and services that the tate and civil so
quite exactly, and decide if he could eat with hit, go ora a journey,
ciety mas offer. Itis this pressure, svhich is essentfally ¡[le pressure that
or arrange a marriage into his fámily. It was therefore practically
modern political orders produce, that Icd mane Indian leaders to prn
precise, and adequate to the seale ofsocial acti0n. But it svould not
fess simplistic, homogencous ethnic dentities in public lile, disregard-
occur to an individual to ask how many of thena there'vete in the
ing al¡ the heterogencity and diversity of Indian social practicc> These
world, and what if thev decided to act in cuneen.
sucre categories bv whieh fesy Icaders actually lived their primo are lisos.
When ve look back now at India in the 1870s and 1880s, it hecomes
I would lilce to modih Kaviraj's incisive analysis in one respect, how-
clear that tire era of modern, competitive, governmentally defined eth-
ever. The movement from fuzzv to enumerated communities did not
nic identities familiar to us in liberal democracies had already arrived.
represent a complete change of consciousness. In their everyday lives, ¡ti
The peculiarity of colonial Indian history lay in the fact that these iden-
negotiating tire spheres of friendship and kinship, say, Indians, like hu-
man beings everywhere, are comfortable with the indeterminacies of tities were based on religious categories because of a certain degrec of
reification of these categories by the British. (But, even if the British liad
ethnic identities and share none of the tenaeity with whieh social scien-
picked language as a mark ofdistinction in this multilingual country, the
tisis and governments hang on to the labels that inform their sense of
both analysis and action. Yet the very existente of administrative cate-
result would have been the same.) Bv the 1890s, Hindu and Muslim
leaders were quoting census figures at cach other to prove whether thev
gories of ethnicity-whether one is looking at the international leve) or
had received their legirimate share of benefits (such as cmployment and
at developments within a country-suggests a modern, public career for
education) from British rule. The risa of modern caste consciousness
ethnic tags, a national identity being its highest forro. It is, of course,
shows a similar concern for tire measurement of"progress" in public life.
within this sphere that tire identity of being Indian or Hindu or Muslim
or scheduled caste takes on a new political meaning, .I'his meaning re-
The famous anti-Brahman "manifiesto," produced in Madras in 1916 by
members of tire non-Brahman cante in forming a new political party,
sides alongside, and is interlaced with, the more fuzzv sense of commu-
owed its rhetorical force to the statistics that the government had col-
nity.
lected to demonstrate a Brahman monopoly of tire civil service. t s
The late-nineteenth-century censuses and other similar institutions,
Demography was pressed into the service ofsuch ethnicjealousies be-
then, reconstituted the meaning of community or ethnicity and gave In-
tween Hindus and Muslims or between castes by severa) authors who
dians three important political messages, all of which are entirely com-
used the censuses to make their points. One example of this process, dis-
patible with liberal political philosophy as we know it. These messages
cussed bv Kenneth Jones, is a set of articles published by a Bengali au-
were (1) that communities can be enumerated and that in numbers lies
thor, U. N. Mulherji, in 1909 (a time in Indian history when the Mus-
political clout; (2) that the social and economic progress of a commu-
lims were being given reserved seats in tire legislaturc bv tire British). 1 n
nity can be measured, in the case of Indian censuses, in terms of share in
this series, entitled "A Dving Baca" Mukherji used tire census data from
public life (education, tire professions, employment, etc.); and (3) that
the period 1872-1901 to demonstrate, to tire satisfaction of roan Hin-
this enables governments and communities to devise objective tests for
dus, "that within a given number of years all Hindus would disappear
the relative backwardness or otherwise of a community.
from British India." In doing this, writes Jones, Mukherji "was actually
Indians were quick to learn thc art of participation in this public
followi ng the lead of M. J. C. O'Donnell, Census Commissioncr of Bcn'
sphere. They learned, as we all do when we want to take advantage of
gal for 1891, who had calculated `the number ofvears it would take the
equal-opportunity legislation, that modern governments have limiten
Hindus to altogether disappear from Bengal if Muhainmadan mercase
intelligence and that their principies of distributive justice require sim-
ple, homogencous, sharply delincated identities, the kinds that pass- went on at the rato itw'as doing.'t>t9
Let us put acide for the moment what to our ears mas sound racist in
ports bear. While identities can proliferate and have a tendency to do so
under the pressure of tire politics of democratic representation, tire these remarks. My point is that the social assumptions on whieh the clas-
sification and organization of census figures rested were fundamentally
cense of multiple identities that propels individuals in their evervday-
90 / CHAPI ER SIX GOVERNMENTA[. ROOTS OF MODERN ETHNICITY / 91
modern: they showed India to be a collection of communities whose lower castes of India, both dirring and after British rule, have, in a sense,
progress or backwardness could be measured by che application of some done no more than apply this sensibility to their public, political lives.
supposedly universal indices. That is exacely how che modern world of
nation-states is structured: it is a united but internally hierarchized world
ETHN1CITY AND/OR THE NATION
where some countries are described as measurably-or shottld 1 say im-
AN IRONIC PERSPECTIVE
measurably?-more advanced than others. This structure of relations
has che nature of what scientists call fractals or self-similar patterns: it is But, of course, they have done more than that. Were India simply a place
capable of reproducing itself at many different levels-between nations, where ethnicity is contained within che liberal structure of competitive
bctween modern ethnic groups, between perceived races, and so on. It is pluralism, it would not Nave made news, and 1 would not be discussing
what constitutes the liberal idea of competitive pluralism. As the French it today. Ethnic strife in India has resulted in che deaths of hundreds of
historian Lucien Febvre once reminded us, as an idea it has been with us thousands in che past hundred years. Recent skirmishes in Assam, Pun-
since the second half of che eighteenth century.20 It was packed into the jab, and Kashmir have been particularly deadly. What, then, is che differ-
idea of civilization, a word that che French started to use in the 1760s ence between che recent Western and che contemporary Indian experi-
and that soon found its way into the English language to provide che no- ence of ethnicity?
blest justification for England's work in India. What che difference is carne to me forcefully in 1989 when 1 received
The word civilization has long since fallen out of favor-wc preferred a (forro) letter from che Australian prime minister encouraging me to
to talk about progress in che nineteenth century and development in the become an Australian citizen. In that letter, che prime minister went to
twentieth-but che idea of a united world with an internally articulated some trouble to spell out what it means to be an Australian. It is not che
hierarchy measurable by some universally agreed on indices has remained color of your skin, or your religion, or che language that you speak that
with us. How strongly che Indian middle classes internalized Chis idea is makes you an Australian, he said. It is helieving in freedom of speech, in
suggested by che following quotation from a Bengali book of morals freedom of association, in everyone having "a fair go," etc. This letter
that was published in Calcutta about 140 years ago for consumption by prompted me to subject myself to some imaginary tortures-of che
children. Notice how che world is seen as both one and hierarchic, che Geoffrey Robertson kind 22 For example, 1 asked myself, If chis is alI
observable differences in standards of living between countries being- there is to being an Australian, then what would be my proper patriotic
to make a conscious gesture toward the idea of measurement-propor- response if Australia ever went ro war with a nation that professed che
tional to their "total nacional efforts": "Countries where people are same liberal values bur was much better equipped to protect them and,
averse to labor ... are uncivilized. The Aboriginais ofAmerica and Aus- hence, by definition, to protect my Australianness as well? (Of course, a
tralia as well as che Negroes are still in chis stare. They live in great hard- Margaret Thatcher would argue that a liberal-democratic country would
ship without adequate food and clothes, and they do not save anything never start a war and that che question is, therefore, moot! )
for bad times.... The Germans, che Swiss, che French, che Dutch, and Alitcle reflection made it clear that che prime minister was speaking in
che English are the most industrious nation/races [ jatil of che world. a historica context that afforded him one rare luxury: he felt no pressure
That is why they enjoy che best circumstances among all nation."21 to spell out what made Australians different from other people. The let-
Use of such language today would be offensive, but there is a homol- ter was, by implication, relegating cultural difference to che sphere ofthe
ogy berwcen what Chis children's primer said and che sensibility that personal. If pressed, a liberal would no doubt tell me that-as che
nlákes of che modern industrialized nations a model for che rest of che British Muslims who burned lije Satanic Verses at Bradford were ofren re-
world to follow. Wc all partake of chis sensibility, and 1 am no exception. minded-ethnicicy can find a place in public life so long as its expression is
All 1 am saving is that Chis sensibility, what we hold to be common sense in conformity with che core values of che nation (as defined by che state).
with respect to these matters, is undergirded by che mechanisms of che Ethnicity funetions here under che aegis of equal-opportunity principies,
modern state and the universal requirements of governmentality, che in che forro of a pressure group-in my case, an Indian Association that de-
sane mechanisms that influence out constructions of competitive blocs mands things like time slots on Australian public radio or funding for com-
of ethnicicv in che public sphere. Hindus, Muslims, che scheduled and munity schools as part ofliberal-pluralist multiculturalism.
N I I Ai R0Oa s aP Molnacu E•riI NI([ tr / $
92 / CHAPTFR SIx
As Talal Asad has shows ¡n his discussion of dhe Rushdie aftá¡r, there parties to ccntverr1linduism ¡Tiro a strong, monolithic, and militant reli-
gion liase given mane Indian Muslims and (h ri stians u rde rsrand ah le
are lridden demographic assumptions bcitind this posirion, particularly
that ofa continuous dominante of a Europeas-dcrivcd, if nor an F?nglish- pause.
Likc ncetLrmcr Soviet Union, India rcmains in part_ alrhough unh' in
spcaking, wajority-as Of cocarse, ose must also take finto account partic-
ular Australian institunons-rhe wclfare state, a rclatively prosperous part, an imperial strucnuc hcld together by srrong tcndencics toward
economv, the srructure of rhe Ausrralian Labor Parn, rhe official policv centralism. Unlike rhe former Soviet Union, howcver, rhose centralist
ofmulticuituralism, crc_ ruar havc historieally playcd a role in manag- tendencies exisr within, and must svork through, a democraric political
srructure that also gises che stare more popular legitimacv and un,rv than
Ing ethnic conflicr in public life. [ hat Australia would be able to retain
Chis mulricultural tolerante oferhnicin° in public lile ifthe cultural dom- nce Stalinist srates evcr liad. Ltdians havc ut insestmcnt in electoral
dcmocrac}, as was proved bv nccacure popular rescnrmcnt of ncc Emer
inance of its Anglo-Celtic or at leasr European majority serte evcr sen-
gency declared by Mrs. Gandhi during rhe period 1976-77. Set rhe ¡de-
ously rhrcatened is far from cerrain.
Modere ethnic conseiousnesses in India have been fashioned under ological seene has changed.
circumstances inwhich the politics ofcultural difference has been ofpre- This eentralizing tendency was most powerhrlly exprcssed in the ¡de-
eminent value. The quesnon of Indian unity has never been settled be- ology of Jawaharlal Nehru, which represented some kind of consensus
yond doubt or disputation, nor has there been any one, culturally homo- among rhe political elite. This ideology, called in India secularism, drew
geneous and dominant majority ethnic group that could both dominare heavily on rhe Western liberal herirage to argue for a separation between
and effectively claim to represent all lndians (at least until Indepen- religion and the ideas •that governed public lile. In India, svhere a reli-
dence-one might argue that the Hindu extremist party, the Bharatiya gious idiom and imagination had always been very strongly present, this
Janat, Party [rhe BJP 1, has been trying to develop such a position for ideology never described the actual culture of political practice. Bur, so
itself, precisely bv denying the heterogeneity that characterizes Hin- long as rhe nacional leadership lay in rhe hands of a tina cure reared ni
duism). The British cobbled a political India togetherfor reasons of ad- and respectfil ofthe British traditions ofpolities, rhe everyday religious-
ministrative conveniente. The nationalir question was muddled from ness of Indian political culture could be kepí separare froni rhe decision-
the beginning. In the public sphere that rhe British created, there was no making boards of rhe government. The custodial nature of rhis elite was
one, universally agreed on "Indian" ethnicity. The struggle to produce a reflected in the uniry of rhe Congress Parry, in which Nehru ahvavs re-
serie of cultural unir, against the British made mainstream Indian nation- mained a Bonapartist figure.
alism culturally Hindu. The Muslim search for Pakistan emphasized Islam. The combination of demography, democracy, and political growth in
The lower castes' struggle for social justice produced anti-Brahmanism. India has ensured that the policical elite is no longer riny. There are no
After Independence, in che 1950s and the 1960s, rhere were the tribal Bonapartist figures in India today. Nehruvian secularism, a Glose cousin
communities of che Nagas and the Mizos on che northeastern frontier of of Western liberalisni represented now by Marxists and che Lefr-liberals
the country that had to be bludgeoned finto becoming Indian. in India, is on rhe defensive (remember Salman Rushdie's character talk-
The past fifreen or avenry vears have seen an explosive combination ing about rhe battle lines?).
Why Chis has happened will require a different analysis. But it should
of democracy and demography. The Indian population has almost tre-
bled sine Independence. The growth and diversity of the middle class be clear from rhe preceding discussion that rhe problem of competitive
may be judged from rhe fact that, while at Independence there was con- and official constructions of ethnicity is a feature inherent ¡n modera
civil society. In the best of cines, one expects to find lawful, bureaucratic
sensus that the number of important languages was fourteen, there are
means of resolving there tensions. Even then, rhe mobilizarion ofethnic
now daily newspapers published in atore than sevenry-eight languages 24
sentiments always risks spilling over ¡tito racism in public places, as
This middle class has tasted consumerism, and rhe result has been an in-
widely reported incidents of harassment of che Ausrralian Muslims dur-
creased cense of competition in urban life. The secessionist movements
ing rhe Gulf War would confiran. There are, however, other tintes in his-
in Kashmir and parís of rhe northeast have gained in strength in recent
tory when bureaucratic solucions lose thcir appeal. The difference here ¡s
vears. Caste-particularly the Indian policy of positive discrimination in
flor due to a total opposition berween fascism and liberalism as political
favor of the lower castes-has ofren been an extremely contenrious issue
pltilosophies. The difference here is ¡Ti historical context. Imagine che
in public life. And che latest attempts by the extremist Hindu political
94 / CHAPIER SIX
GOVERNMENTAL ROO 1-5 OF MOMEAN ETHNICHY / 95
conflict benveen the Bengali Muslim sense oferhniciry and Pakistani na-
of narrative consensus in which everybody or every group knows who or
tionalism in what was, before 1971, East Pakistan. Clearly, a model of
what chey are and Chis knowledge is shared by che institution that ad-
pluralism that recommended thac all signs of cultural difference be mat-
ministers well-bcing.
ters of private belief became untenable in that situation. Kashmir today
In other words, che existing models of modern political and eco-
represents, for many, a similar situation.
nomic institutions handle che question of cultural difference in identity
The point is that, as 1 have argued, the very structure of modern gov-
prccisely by fixing and freezing differences into divisions that are not
ernmentaliry carries with it the secds of competitive constructions of
permeable (a Hindu cannot be a Muslim) and thus are amenable to mea-
ethnicity. Whether [hose seeds will ever gcrminate and bloody conflict
surement and enumeration. Even ifwe moved from che idea of allocarive
spring forth is a mattcr of the particular moment of history that one in-
justice to that ofprociedural justice in che sphere of discribution, as John
habits. This is not a counsel of despair. But it is a plea for our political
Rawls did in his classic A Theory ofJustice, we would still have no way of
analysis to be informad by a larger sense of irony.
handling differences in identities. Rawls's search for "justice as fairness,"
Advocating che cultivation of a sense ofirony about che civilizing nar-
as readers of that famous text will know, led him to posit an "original
ratives of modernity does not imply political passivity. The relation be-
position" (a perspectival position, really, as he himselfexplains) in which
nveen philosophical positions and political action is seldom straightfor-
individuals met without any conception of their social or class loca-
ward. Not only is there no alternative to action-we are condemned to
tions-that is to say, as humans from whom all differences had been ab-
act politieally in Chis world Whether we want to or not-but the subject stracted away.25
who acts, and is mobilized to act in the face of events, is also more than
Even leftist intellectuals who try to modify Rawls's arguments in or-
an intellectual-philosophical subject. Action involves emotions, memo-
der to infuse a more self-consciously political life finto his theory find it
ries, tastes, feelings, will, asid values-and these things have histories
difficult not to universaliza a discinetion that is historically very particu-
over which we have much less control [han we have over our consciously
lar, that is, che distinction between public and private. Chantal Mouffe's
thought out philosophical positions. I have been irreversibly condi-
attempt to move away from che Rawlsian position of holding on to che
tioned by che histories of my childhood, my education, and my social-
idea of an original rational agreement and, instead, to ground democ-
ization (all influenced by British and nationalist critiques of Indian soci-
raey in a permanent state of disputation (lince there can no longer be a
ce) to be revolted by such practicas as sati, female infanticide, human
"single idea of a substancial common good") is instructive in this regard.
sacrifica, and thagi-to use che names by which British colonial dis-
Pluralism here is seen as possible on che condition that che political is de-
course described (always inaccurately) and condemned Indian (yet an-
finad around a minimum shared agreement, that "che principies of che
other name) civilization-whatever my theoretical underscanding today
liberal-democratic regime qua political association"-"equaliry and lib-
of their problematic histories. How, in what mode of action, Chis revul-
erty"-be defined as che "common political good." As Mouffe clarifies:
sion will express itselfdepends on particular situations and che opportu-
"A liberal-democratic regime, ifit must be agnostic in tercos of moraliry
nities that 1 read checo as presenting.
and religion, cannot be agnostic concerning political values since by def-
What, then, is che relation between this critique and political or state
inition it asserts the principies that constirute its specificiry qua political
policies that might be established to combar racism under conditions of
association, i.e., che political principies of equafiry and liberty. "26
modernization? First, this critique is about the limits of poficy making
Where, then, will be che place for moraliry and religion in this
under present institucional arrangements. I have argued that, given che
(post)modern, socialist idea ofliberal-democratic politics, one that ac-
connection benveen governmentality and measurement, both che mod-
cepts disputation as a foundation for democracy-or, indeed, for any-
ern nation-state and civil sociery necessarily set up certain competitive
thing else that is not parí ofthis minimum shared political good? Mouffe
semctures of identiry chrough che very distributive processes over which
is clear on this: these ideas will exist as "private" belief, che sphere of pri-
thev preside. The question, Distribution among whom? always takes
vacy implicitly defined in such a way as to be incapable, by its very defini-
identities for granted. Identities here are not seen as porous. In fact,
tion, of endangering che institutions that embody "che political princi-
identities are not mcasurable or enumerable except on che assumption
pies of equaliry and liberty."27
that their houndaries are abrupt and not vague. In che language of dis-
What eise can an intellectual thinking out of Indian history do but
trihutive justice, identities represen[, at any one point of time, some kind
experience a sense of irony at what European political theory offers us?
l:<)\ Ei<NMItNTAi. R<)OTS oF MUDICIIS I.Ti lSICIII / 97
96 / cuAI TvR SIN
luaow that two of the finest products of the Indo Briti.sh eulrural en
On the une hand, thcrc are the actually existing institutions rhat admin-
counter of the ninetecnth centurv, Gandhi and l agore, experimentcd
ister our In es both in India and outside. 1 he verv administration of (eth-
wirh both fácets of this struggle at diffcrent moments of thcir Incs. It
nic; identities bv the actually existing civil-political institutions needs, as
cultural and othcr kinds of diffcrences are to be talcen and ncgoti ated se-
I Nave shovvn, thc sa nc hxed, discrete categorie, tltat racisrs of a11 colore thc tu//c loo,
use. fhe oniv difference is in idioni -hureaneacies use a certain imper- riously , thcn sve also necd institutions thar can handlc
vvith which idcntiticsare built.'l hc existing inAiw tions in eharge of pro-
sonal, unemotional language, vvhilc racist mohilization in puhlic lile in-
ducing and idnainistcriog prosperity do not do that.
volves an explicit use of cmotions as wel l -1) ti t this diflercncc a super-
ficial and depends on historical context. Governnicnrs ssill, in moments
of crisis, use both.
On the other hand, whether arguing from a purely liberal position of
a Rawls ora postmodernist, socialist position ofa Mouffe, critics ofthese
institutions cannot but resurrect the model of a human heing who holds
on to a cultural distinction between the puhlic and the private as a con-
dition for tolerante and pluralism. But is this distinction universal? Is it
universal even in the West? Does political emancipation (I borrow the
expression from the young Marx's essay "On the Jewish Question") te-
quite us to universalize the experience and skills of a particular group in
modern European historv? Must we all become humans who are able to
objectifv their relation to the supernatural, the divino, or the nether-
world luto stateable belicfs and who are able to categorizo thesc beliefs
as privare?
The politics of being human differ between and within cultures. We
are not impervious to one another, but that does not mean that the dif-
ferences are not real. Some pcople in India possess the modern sense of
privacy as it has developed in thc historv of the middle classes in the
West. Many do not. The importante of kinship in Indian society sug-
gests other paths of social change. Ifwe swallowed a theory-hook, line,
and sinker-that made tolerante and pluralism contingent on the idea
of private belief, we would only move further away from our social real-
ities than Rawls does from his by his theoretical maneuvering.
The writing of Indian historv, then, must subscribe to nvo struggles.
One is to document and interpret for contemporary needs the different
practices of toleration and pluralism that already cxist in Indian soci-
ety, practices that are not critically dependent on the universalization of
the distinction public/private. The other is to help develop critiques of
already-existing institutions and the theoretical assumptions that lay be-
hind them, for the struggle against the murderous and self-proclaimed
Hindus of todav must, in the long run, also be a struggle for new kinds
of political and economic institutions for the management of public
life-institutions that do not require for their everyday operation the fic-
tion of cultural identities with fixed, enumerable, and abrupt bound
aries. Nobody has the blueprints for suda institutions, although we do
acro oaononoacro cro o auooncncnc 1
SEUE^ The Subject of La-,v and thc
Subject of Narratives
l o
102 / CHAD 1 ER SEV EN
SUBJECT OF LAW AND SUBJECT OF NARRATIVES / 103
Enlighccnment had no monopoly on the idea ofcruelty. The attempts of structionists have argued for a long time thar vo¡ce ¡s no indicaron of di-
Akbar and other Muslim rulers to stop sati are well-known. There is also sco presente. But che veis- act of listening tu people orients us-opero
indircet but obvious evidente in che fact that most svidosys did not Nave us up--to their presente, hosvccer elusive rhe marta- of presea ce Hay- be
to become satis. Similar-IN, see know of attempts betbre Vidvasagar's to trom a philosophical point ofciew. This orienration is u-bat 1 hace eallcd
get voung widows renarried. Ir cannot, therefore, he argued tliat people here the act oí confronting suffering, of f-ncing. AVritiug Cou,lled 111 lile
had to svait for the coming of either the British or Wcstern/modem legal and universal language of rights and cirizenship arases the historv
ideas of cruelty in orden to attain dhe capacite to be revolted bc torture in syhich acts of fáciug the sufferer, confronting the scene of oppression,
otear. Yet, without suclt a proeess of confrontation of oppressiou, thc
and oppression.
We should note, bou es-a-, that Rammohun and Vidvasagar proposed idea of che rights-bearing citizen cannot become a realinv. 1 ru rn toss.u-d
significantly difherent solutions. Rammohun sought che solution in prop- widows' own testimonv ¡n order to see hose diese testimonies were pro
crty (his position being that, if widows were given the right of inheri- duced and collected in a specific period ¡n Bengali historv so that the
tance, people would treat them fairly), Vidvasagar in remarriage (bis po- widow could one day be subsumed ¡tito the figure of che citizen. For
sition being that widows should be given a renewed claim on che male there to be an effective history of citizenship, the gesture of facing che
power ofprotection). Another way in which to view the difference is that particular, 1 argue, must supplement che fixed and universal gaze of the
Rammohun sought a proscriptive law (hanning sati), Vidvasagar a per- law. The recording ofwidows'voiees-by publishers, readers, critics, in-
vestigators-allows us to see che many different social spaces from which
missive law (allowing remarriage).
Two rypes of history are being enacted here. First is the historv of clic citizen-subject ofmoderniry emerges in this particular historv.
modernity, of the puhlic sphere, of modern ideas of cruelty, which is en-
capsulated in che move toward legislation. Then there are che histories LISTENING FOR VOICES
embodied in che feelings of compassion that Ratnntohun or Vidvasagar
felt when personally confronted with the horrors of Bengali widow- While widows were and are parí of the evers,day experience of Bengali
hood. These other histories are what they, or 1, would share with others kinship and were made che subject of legal -social reform and fictional
before and after them who felt horrified by torture but did nor necessar- writing by progressive thinkers of che last century, there are very few
¡ly think of che law or rights as che remedy. 1 am nor fixing for eternity generally available testimonies from che widows themselves. 1 discuss
these structures of feeling, nor do 1 want co equate lawwith history by here a small number of cases - those of Saradasundari Devi (1819-
suggesting that che nineteenth-century legal refornts represent a sharp 1907 ) and Nistarini Devi ( 1832 / 33-1916 ), both ofwhom left autobi-
divide in che history of our familial emotions, separating sóme "medi- ographies , as well as some others reported in Kalyani Datta's "B.ai-
eval" callousness from a "modern" sensitivity. I am simply applying some- dhyabya kahini " ( Tales ofwidowhood), which consists of a few brief and
thing like a process of elimination. First there were pre-British histories anecdotal life histories collected in che 1950s and 1960s.'
and structures that were perfectly capable of producing compassion in There is, of course, no question of this small sample being ¡n any-sta-
people. What comes alter che British is a specific connection beteveen tistical cense rcpresentative . Nor do I want to suggest that che sad stories
suchsentiments and che more citizenly dispositions (ineluding che desire discussed here would have been true of cverv Bengali widow . Widow-
to legislare). 1 want to isolate che teso groups of histories to raisc-buc hood has long been glorifled in che patriarchal myths of Hindu Bengali
nor necessarily sobe-a problem about representation and political in- middle - class eulture as a path of extreme self - renunciation , and mane
widows have earned unquestionable fámilial authoriw preciscly by sub-
tervention.
In raising Chis problem, 1 use women's restimonv rather than men's. jecting themselves turbe prescribed regimos ( Rammohun Rov ' s mother
What men-Ratnmohun or Vidvasagar-wrote was airead\, addressed hersclfbeing a well-known example ). The nature of Bengali domesticity
to the law. They provided che language in which chestate could hear and has also changed ( influenced by such factors as women's education and
understand, as well as intervene in, che expression of súffering. What entre ¡tito puhlic lile , che subsequent decline in che number of child
wwomen, on che other hand, wrote, is nor ahvays addressed to che state. Ir brides, and che advent ofthe institution ofthe love match, among other
is true that testimonv from rhe widows themselves does nor in any aav things ), a fact of which diese cases and my analvsis here do nor take ade-
guarantee unmediated access to their experience ofoppression. Decon- quate account.
io6 / t HAPTER SEVEN SUBJECT OF LAW AND SUBJFCr OF NARIUTIVES / 107
Yet there is no question that widowhood exposes women to some real beads, and carrying my [own] kamandulu [ sacred water pot]....
vulnerabiliry in a patriarchal, patrilocal system of kinship where they re- Now 1 eat at almshouses ... [ and] accept invitations from any-
main, until their sons marry and they achieve che status of mother-in- one.7
law, symholic outsiders to che bonds of brotherhood that they enter as
The deprivation caused by che denial of pleasurable food is captured
wives. Widowhood marks an absolute state of inauspiciousness in a
in che testimony of one Gyanadasundari, whom Datta met sometime in
woman (who has brought death to a member of che brotherhood). Po-
1965. A child widow who had, in fact, never met her husband, she was
tentially malevolent, she is considered to be an outsider who can be re-
sent to her in-laws to spend che res[ of her life as a widow, "I entered che
deemed only bv the lifelong performance of rituals of extreme atone-
kitchen," she says, speaking of her daily round of activities,
ment. This is particularly trueof a widow who has no son to protect her.
While che rituals of widowhood are glorified in che scriptures and in immediately after my morning bath [to cook for] Chis large family.
much of Indian literature as self-renunciation, and while they may, in- By che time 1 was finished, it would be late afternoon. A room full
deed, in many cases, express, on the parí ofthe wornan, a capaciry for o£ cooked food-I cano[ describe how hungry che smell of rice
self-abnegation, che stories recounted here reveal che torture, oppres- and curry made me feel. Sometimes 1 felt tempted to put some in
sion, and cruelcy that often, if not always, accompanies che experience of my moueh. But my [deceased] husband's aun[ told me che story of
widowhood. As a Bengali widow herself said: "A woman who has lost how once che wife of so-and-so became blind from eating stealth-
her father, mother, husband, and son has nobody else leff in the world. ily in che kitchen. Stories of chis kind helped me control my
It is only if others in che household are kind that a widow's life can be hunger. Every day I would pray to Kali: Mother, please take away
happy. Otherwise, it is like being consigned to a hell pit."6 my greed. Perhaps it was through che grace of the goddess that 1
Fundamentally, whatever their theological significance,.the rituals of gradually los[ any appetite I had.
Hindu Bengali widowhood are aimed at achieving one effect: che denial
Widows, she added, were allowed only one meal a day, a meal that could
(or renunciacion) on che parí of che widow of enjoyment or pleasure,
contain at most only a certain few fried vegetables: lentils, pulses, and
whethcr material, physical, or emocional. The most obvious exptessions
spinach. "Cauliflower, beetroot, eggplanc," and "half che winter vegeta-
of [hese rituals are remaining celihate, not eating mear, fasting fre-
bles" were disallowed as "foreign."s
quently, and marking che body (by, e.g., not wearing jewelry, shaving
What stands out in [hese narratives is che close connection between
one's head or wearing one's hair cropped, and wearing white saris with
che cruelty that they exemplify and che question of entitlement to affec-
no, or just a black, border).
tion/protection in che Bengali extended family. Being a widow often
A graphic case of a woman robbed of her possessions is that of Indu-
entailed a distinct loss of status and a consequent loss of chis entitlement.
mati (born ca. 1872), a young widow of a zamindar (landlord) family
Nistarini Devi, a child widow of che las[ century who depended on her
who decided to live in Banaras on a monchly allowance from che estate
late husband's brother for survival, reports how even che servants "fol-
and was cheared out of her inheritance. In Indumati's words (che accu-
lowed my brother's wife" in treating her with disdain: "I was given no
racy of Kalyani Datca's reportage is not really an issue):
food at night. If 1 asked che servant co chop some wood for me, he
1 gathered that my monchly allowance was Rs 250. But che man- would say: `Do it yourselY"9
ager of che estate put only Rs 50 in my hand, saving that Rs 200 The entitlement to affection/protection is, however, not in che na-
svere being credited to my account in his office every moneh.... ture of a general claim; iris notan entitlement to just anybody's affection
Six months liad barely elapsed when my allowance began to or tare. Whether such a general claim can be sustained anywhere is de-
shrink- Too many lawsuits [he pleaded], too much revenue unreal- batable, but it is citar that che Bengali widow's testimony does not
ized. At las[ 1 defaulted on che house rent. The monchly allowance evince a desire for che kind of treatment that, say, either che state or che
kepí shrinking ... until it reached che figure of Rs 10. 1 left che market can accord. The entitlement to affection is claimed from a partic-
large room 1 had been renting for a room that cosí Re 1.... In che ular, and in that sense irreplaceable, source-che late husband's family.
early days 1 was highly conscious of theidanger of pollution. 1 used It should not, however, be assumed that che particularity of this claim
to go about all twenty-four hours in a tasar sari, wearing rosary arises from a modern sense of individuality. The quality of affection/
SUEJECT O PIALA A NI) S URILLCI OI NARRXI'1y1S / 109
justification in Furopean Enlightcnment thought. TI-te problem with and given. What makes nce htlrt u nbearable is that rhe giver of affeetion
Enlightenrnent thought is not that it gives ns visions of emancipation/ is not a generalizable, homogenizcd entity. In orher syords, it has nono
freedom shas cannot be realizad fdr evervbodv (this is, indeed, a prob- of the structure of ahstract, general homogeneity that makes tire ques-
1cm-chis is, in a sense, nce problematic of distrihutivc justiec-bus not don ofthc production-distribution of a comnxnlity i think of \larx's 11u-
a crucial thcoretical une in this context as it produces, as a solution, on)\ tic) n of abstractlabor1 oreren ofsueh a bourgeoisconcept as rigbtsonte-
the noble, but predictable, effort to generaliza the benefits to al¡ i. Situ- thing amen3blc Lo rhe role ofeithcr rhe state or ncc nmrket. I bar is also
ated ni colonial modernities, out response is more complex. We cannot syhc law or theory cannot address it directh as iris as el f is based on rhe
ignore tic ideas of justice and freedom that are contained in the political idea ofthc abstract, general, homogenizcd tiriten and his rights and du
theorv of rights and citizenship, for, whether or nor diese rights can be des.
enjoyed by all, rhe emancipatory visions undedying them forro ethical Affecrion works on a contrarv principie, that of radical ¡tico duation.
horizons rhat, for all their problems of global claims and universalisms, Let me hasten Lo add that 1 am not necessarily universalizing any ex-
shape all conversations within rhe aeademy, which remains my immedi- treme forro ofindividualism. The irreplaceable, concrete otherwhose af-
ate audience. One always speaks within these visions. fection is sought by the sufferer is not necessarily an individual in anv
Colonial histories, however, sensitize us to rhe paradox that has at- modern sense. It could be, as 1 have said before, a concrete, specific kin-
tended all historical attempts Lo ground in rhe violente of the modern ship connection, a particular nerwork of relationships that is addressed
state the Enlightenment thinkcrs' promise of happiness and justice for in thewidow's complaint. Indutitati's hurt at Kalvani Datta's behavior-
all. This paradox is the fact of imperialism, rhe fact that the modern state visiting her only a day before she was Lo leave Banaras-was nor depen-
has always operated, whether inside or outside Europe, by producing its dent on Datta's individualiry. The narrativa of their meeting produces
own colonized subjects whose consent Lo irs rule is never won by pure compassion here only ifwe imaginatively inhabir rhe affective field ofkin
persuasion; violente or coercion always has a role to play. Whether it is rclations within which Indumati and Datta mes. Dialogic narrative, the
the law or theories of citizenship, they all work by abstracting and sm- telling of a story, wherher biographical or fictional, thus works on rhe
thesizing identities and do not allow for rhe radical alteriry of the other. principie of rhe irreplaceable social rather ehan the general abstract social
The Bengali widows' cry for affection is not a cry for general affec- of rhe law or theory and, in this way, positions the reader face-to-face
tion, that is, affection from anvbody and everybody. The problem of the with the victim of cruelty whose face always carnes the injunction: Thou
state is solved by a theory of general affection such as Gandhi's repres- shalt not kill. This is what makes narrative a political force in a sphere
sive, and remarkably Christian, doctrine of universal love. The very same that law or theory can never reach. Let us listen co Levinas again:
entitlement that causes the widow to ask for affection from her in-laws
The face is exposed, menaced, as if inviting us to an act of violente.
makes her vulnerable to their acts of cruelty. The cal] is neither for rights
At the same time, the face is what forbids us Lo kilt.... The first
nor for a self-denying universal emotion. As Levinas says: "The relation-
word of the face is ... "Thou shalt non kill." It is an order. There is
ship between men is certainly the non-synthesizáble par excellence....
a commandment in the appearance of che fase, as if a master spoke
Interpersonal relationship ... is nota master of thinking the ego and thc
to me. However, at the same time, rhe face of rhe Other is desti-
other together, but to be facing. Thc true union or truc togetherness is
tute; it is rhe poor for whom 1 can do all and to whom 1 owe all.
not a togetherness of synthesis, bus a togetherness of face Lo lace." He
And me, whoever I may be, bus as a "first person," 1 am he who
conrinues: "Politics must be able in fact always Lo be checked and criti-
finds the resources to respond Lo rhe call.23
cized starting from rhe ethical.... This would be a responsibiliry [for
the other] which is inaccessible in its ethical advenr, from which one Narrative, rather rhan theory/law, reproduces us as this first person.
does nor escape, and which, thus, is rhe principie of an absolute individ- Tagore's letters and interviews explaining and justifying his literarv
uation."22 efforts connect knowledge/intervention to themes of intimacy and
The hurtful and cruel withdrawal of affection, then, can cake place love. Referring to his short stories as expressing a knowledge of Ben-
only within relationships that bear Chis dualiry of which Levinas read rhe gali lives, he spoke of rhe "intimare hospitalin°" that he had once en-
face as a classic expression. In other words, affection can be withdrawn joved in the Bengal countryside. "People say of me," he complained in
olily in those very particular nerworks that also allow it to be generated his old age, `He is rhe son of a rich family, ... ohar would he knosv of
114 / LIIAI'TER SEVEN
villages?' 1 can say that the people who say this know even less than 1 do.
What do they know? Can one ever know from within the inercia of habit?
Real knowledge comes from love.... 1 have looked at Bengal villages
wish unccasing love, and it is that that has opened the door of my
heart."24
1 do not mean to deny the importance of law and theories of citizen-
ship. Thcy help creare new spaces for human struggles for dignity. Also,
as 1 nave already said, there was a certain complementarity in the social
functions of che law and thc novel in Bengali moderniry. My purpose is
to contemplare narrative, as distinct from abstract theory, as a form of
political intervention. The law-state combine has a history, and it is che
historv of imperialism, of che arrogant invasion of che other. There may
be particular contexts in which such invasion may, indeed, seem justifi-
EIGN1 Memories of Displacement
able. In most cases, however, this invasion will produce intractable prob- The Poetry and Prejudice of Dwelling
lems of ethics. The Gandhian solution of absolute love, on the other
hand, works on the assumption of an abstract equality of human beings
for whom love must be felt universally and equally. That this requires
certain kinds of cruelty-torture-the renunciation of enjoyment both m emory is a complex phenomenon that reaches far beyond what nor-
by the self and by others-is something borne out by Gandhi's life itself. I I I mally constitutes a historian's archives, for mem-
The politics ofcruelty/tenderness cakes os into face-to-face relations, ory is much more than what che mirad can re-
where identities are radically individuated and therefore irreplaceable. member or what objects can help os documenr
Narrarive points to a sphere of modernity that seems more compatible about the past. It is also what we do not always
wish che ethics of being face-to-face with the victim of suffering. Yet we consciously know that we remember until some-
build civil-political spheres on theories that view che social in terms of thing actually, as the saving goes, jogs our mem-
abstract, homogeneous units. While these theories do make formal equal- ory. And there remains the question, so much
ity possible either berween commodities or between citizens, they will discussed [hese days in the literature on che In-
never be adequate to che demands of che politics of cruelty/affection a dian Partition, of what people do not even wish
that define and dominate the life processes of family and kinship. The to remember, che forgetting that comes to our
quescion is, Can we imaginatively bring finto being modern civil-political aid in dealing wish pain and unpleasantness in
spheres tounded on che techniques of che dialogic narrativa even as we Iife. t Memory, then, is far more complicated [han
live and work through those built on the universalist abstractions of po- ■ what historians can recover, and it poses ethical
litical philosophy? e challenges to che investigator-historian who ap-
proaches che past wish one injunction: Tell me
all.2
A set of essays that 1 propose to discuss here
a turras fundamentally on this quescion of che dif-
ference between history and memory. The essays
were first serialized in the Bengali newspaper Ju-
gantar beginning in 1950 and collected in 1975
in a book called Chhere ashagram (The aban-
doned village) under the editorship of Dakshi-
naranjan Basu, a journalist in Calcutta 3 The
115
ntrnaoicnis OF DISPlAC!MLS i / 117
116 / CHAPTER LiGHr
narres of rhe authors oí rhe individual essavs are nor mcntioned in the rhe narraron arad his audience. Yet it cannot be a luso oricist versituu of rhe
hook, nor do sve have am- idea oí the authors' age or gcnder, alrhough pass, one that aims ro díffuse rhe shock of thc traumatic bv explaininc
one would suspeet, froni rhe stvlc of svriting, rhar, svidi one exception, ass av rhe element of the unexpeeted. Lcr Inc explain.
thcv are tren. The authors reeount thdr mentories of their nativo vil- VVhat makes a historical narrative-a narrarive that Ieads up lo nce
lages-sixt -severa in all trom sume cighreen districts in East Bengal. evean in question, explaining whv it happcned and ss-hv it happencd
Written in rhe afrermarh of rhe Partition, thesc essavs capture ncc sense svhen it did possible? Thc event itsclf must bc open to explanatiom
ofrragedv ruar rhe division ofthe couno-v represented ro these authors. What cannot be explained belongs ro the marginaba of history aeei-
This arrirude uvas more 1 lindu rhan Muslim, for, ro mane, if nor most, of dents, coincidentes, and concurrentes that, svhile important to rhe nnr-
thc Muslims of East Pakistan, 1947 ss-as, flor orla about Partition, but rative, can never replace the strucuure of causes lor which nce hisrurian
also abour freedom_ frcedom from borh ncc British and the Hindu rul- searehes.
Conceived within a sense of trauma and tragedy, hosvever, these es-
ing elasses 4
My aim is to understand the relation between memorv and identits. says maintain a completely different relation to rhe event called the Par-
Arad, in doing so, it is necessary to remember the context. There is no tition. Their narratives do nor lead up to it; it remains fundamentally in-
getting around the fact that rhe Partition was traumatic for those com- explicable. Nothing here of rhe Hindu-Muslim conflitt that historiaras
pelled to leave their honres, the experience being marked by forced evic- find so useful in explaining rhe Partition-no trace of the by-nowv famil-
tion, physical violente and humiliation, and rhe sexual horassment and iar tales of landlord-peasant or peasant-moneylender conftct to which
degradation of women. The Hindu Bengali refugees who wrote these historians of communalism in the subcontinent have normally turned to
essays were faced with making new lives for themselves in the diffieult answer the question, Why did the Muslim population of East Bengal
circumstances of the overerowded ciry of Calcutta. Much of rhe story of rurn against its Hindu neighbors? Nothing, the narrators claim, could
thcir various attemprs to settle down in rhe different suburbs of Calcutta have prepared them for rhe ethnic hatred to which they were subjected
is about squatting on government or privately owned land and about re- in what they considered to be their homeland. The essays express a cense
active violente by the police and properryowners.s The sudden influx of of stunned disbelief that something like the Partition could happen at
thousands of people into a ciry where services were already stretched to all, that people could be cut off so suddenly and cruelly-and so com-
their limirs could not have been a welcome evenr. It is possibie, there- pletely-from rhe familiar world of their childhood.
fore, that these essays were written in order ro creare a positive emo- The claim is, indeed, that what we have here is that which cannot be
tional response in rhe ciry toward the refugees. explained. The writers of these essays were all caught unawares by the
It is clear, however, that the essays were committed to conveying a calamiry of rhe Partition. One refrain running through all rhe essays in
shared structure of Bengali sentiment through rhe grid of which the ir- Chhere ashagram is how inexplicable it all seas-alter years of peaceful
revocable fact of Hindu-Muslim separation in Bengali history and rhe and friendly coexistence, neighbors rurned against neighbors, friends
trauma surrounding the event could be read. To re-creare in print the air rook up arras against friends. How did this come to pass?
of sentimenrality and nostalgia that pervaded rhe notion of the lost This is rhe question that haunts Chhere ashagram. As the following
home was rhe task that these essays set themselves. Not surptisingly, quotations from it will show, nor only was rhe Partition seen as inexplic-
therefore, they drew on modes that had already been used to portray rhe able, but it was also seen as signifying rhe death of rhe social:"
Bengali village, and, in particular, rhe villages of East Bengal, in Bengali
literary and nationalist writings. Dhirenbabu used to teach us history.... He had been rhe head-
There is a particular aspect of rhese memoties thar concerns us here: master of our Jaikali high school for rhe last fesv vears.... Even a
rhe sense of trauma and its contradictory relation to rhe question of the short time ago, 1 had heard that he was still in the village. 1 saluted
past. The narrarive structure of rhe memorv of trauma works ora a prin- his courage on hearing Chis.... But, to nw surprise, he turned up
ciple opposite to that of any historical narrarive. At rhe same time, how- in my office one das' and told me abour his plight. He and bis cont-
ever, if memory is to be that of trauma, it must place rhe event, rhe cause panions were attacked by the friends of rhe very srudent who had
of trauma-in Chis case, the violente accompanying Partition-within a advised him ro leave while he still commanded respecx. Eventually,
past that gives force to rhe victim's elaim. This past must be shared by he managed to extricate himsclf and bis family in exchange for m'o
118 / CHAPTE2 EIGHT MEMORES OF DESPLICEMENT / 119
hundred rupees , thanks to some mediation by his favorite student, the other day? Why does man avoid man today like beasts? Can't
and crossed the Padma to come to Calcutta . But the simple- we forget meanness, selfishness, and fraudulent behavior and re-
hearted teacher from a village school remained in a state of shock: trieve [the sense of] kinship? ... Was our kinship based on quick-
What was this that had happened? How did it happen? AB these sand? Why would it disappear into such bottomless depths? (Ram-
questions crowded his mirad. The age of Ekalabya is now in the bhadrapur, Faridpur; pp. 155-56)
womb of a bottomless past; we all know that it will not return. But I am today a vastuhara [a homeless person] in chis city of Calcutta.
still it was unthinkable that, ni the land of the newly independent 1 lave in a relief camp. Some in Chis camp have contracted cholera.
Pakistan , it is the guru who would have to pay the student.... Yet A vastuhara child died of pox this morning when 1 received a
Chis happened , and who can tell if [his will not be the permanent handful of flattened rice. I do not dare to approach the "relief
rule in the kingdom of shariat? (Bajrajogini , Dhaka; p. 7) babu," who only gets roto a rage if 1 try to say something. 1 do not
Hindus, Muslims , Sikhs, Christians , have always treated women ask why this has happened.... At the time of our leaving, 1 asked
with respecta what is [his that happened today? ( Shonarang, Dhaka; for [a loan of] the boat that belongs to the grandson of Nurshvabi
p. 57) without realizing that he also had turned against us. We tiptoed
our way under the cover of darkness from Patia to Chakradandi.
How could chas land become soniebody else's forever ! Just one (Bhatikain, Chittagong; p. 194)
line drawn on the map , and my own honre becomes a foreign
country! ( Binyapher , Mymensingh ; p. 66) And our Muslim neighbors? For aeons we have lived next to them
sharing each other's happiness and suffering, bus did they feel the
True, my home is in a country to which 1 have no relation. The slightest bit of sadness in letting us go? Did it take only the one
house is there , the village is there, the properry exists , bus 1 am blow of the scimitar of politics to sever forever the kinship that had
homeless today. The suffering of somebody who has had to leave been there from the beginning of the eras? (Ramchandrapur, Syl-
his home can be appreciared only by a person with a large heart. her;pp.235-36)
... Man, the son of the immortal one, knows no happiness to-
On the day of the Kali puja [worship] we used to take care of the
day-pleasure , securiry, peace , love, and affection have also left the
land with us . On all four sides exist the filthy picture of mean in- sacrificial goats, carefully feeding them ¡caves of the jackfruit tree
trigues. Where have the images of the olden days-of happy and and carrying them ... and stroking them all day. But we never felt
easygoing people and villages-disappeared ? ... Who has stolen any pain at the moment when we pushed toward death these crea-
our good qualities ? When will we be delivered from this crisis of tures rhat we had looked after with so much care all day. We were
civilization ? ... What happened was beyond the comprehension not old enough to explain then these contradictory qualities of
of ordinary human beings . By the time they could [ even] forro an the mirad, but today it surprises me a los to think about it. [But]
idea [of the situation ], the destruction was complete . ( Sankrail, isn't that what has happened all over Bengal? (Bheramara, Kustia;
p.293)
Mymensingh ; pp. 88, 91)
Why was thc innocence of the mirad banished afrer so many days of This very ascription of an inherent inexplicability to the even[ of the
living together ? Why did the structure of the human mirad change Partition is what gives these essays their pathos. They are more like the
overnight ? ( Sakhua, Mymensingh ; p. 101) unwilling and uncontrollable recall of a victim overtaken by events and
less like the reminiscences of one in narrative control. And this, 1 sug-
Who would have thought shas che country would be engulfed in gest, is the first importan[ distinction to be noted between history and
such a fire ? Brothers fight and then make up with each other, but memory (for the Rengali bhadralok, the respectable middle classes) of
the common person had no inkling that the single spark of the day
che Partition in Bengal. History seeks to explain rhe even[; the memory
would stars such a conflagration . ( Kanchabali , Barisal ; p. 122) of pain refuses the historical explanation and sees the even[ as a mon-
Who is the conspiratorial witch whose [ black] magic brought strously irrational aberration.
dcath to the cordial social relations that were to be seen even only These are undoubtedly essays written in the spirit of mourning, parí
MEMORIPS OP DISPI A( FMEN 1 / 121
Izo / ( HAPTER EIGnT
nf che collecrive and public grieving through which rhe Hindus who bis foundations, And, sinec Chis is not a desirablc state, it can conzc about
were displaced from East Bengal carne ro tercos wich their new condi- only° through rhe application offbrce or through some grave misfortune.
tions in Calcutta. Yet sve nuist remembcr that Chis grieving seas being For che to maintain conn ecti otis svith one's vastuhh¡ta acioss gen-
publicized in print, perhaps in tic cause of rhe politics of reigee reha crations is a sigo ot good fortunc, a fortunc that itsclfou es somcrhing u)
bilitation in WestBengal in rhe 1950s about which Prafiila Chakrabarti tic auspicious blessing of one's ancestors.
has written in bis Thc Margirawl Men. This mourning had, therefore, tic This idea of borne cuas extended during rhe coursc of tic nationalist
political tasé ofgarnering sN mparhv bvspeaking, ar Icast in thcory, to rhe mo%ement roto che idea of che nzotherland, Bengal becoming tic narre
entire readership of tic Bengali press. Onc central concern of these es of a parí of rhe world made sacred bv ncc hahitation diere of the anecs-
says svas to generalizo the sense of mourning over tic Partirion of Ben- tors of rhe Bengali people. To become an udvastu is, dios, to I all s ictim
gal. It seas important to argue, therefore, that tic loss of borne cuas flor to an extreme curse. And, if this curse hefalls people through no fault of
something that affeeted only those who were aetually displaced; the their own, thcy deserve rhe sympathy and compassion of others.
Bengali people as such had lose their horne; nothing short of their cense This can, indeed, be taken as the language of self-pity. But, when a
of what it means to have a borne had been called roto crisis. refugee spoke in chis language, hespoke for che nation. "I recall," wrote
one contributor to Chhere ashagram, "that about twelve years ago,
when a household in our village lost their only son, Deben, my grand-
THE LANGUAGE OF HOMELESSNESS mother remarked in sadness, `What a pity; diere is nobody left to light
There are rwo Bengali words for refugee: sharanarthi, meaning, literally, the lamp at Sarada's bhité [this being an auspicious ritual of middle-class
someone who secks refuge and rhe protection (sharañ) of a higher Hindu well-being]. Today, every Hindu family in East Bengal, even if
power ( including God ); and udvastu, meaning someone who is home- they are blessed wich sons, is bereft of people cubo might have lit rhe
less, but homeless in a particular cense, che word vasto ( horne), a San- lamp at their bhité" (Dhamgar, Dhaka; p. 30).
skrit word of Vedic vintage , carrying a special connotation. Monier- To achieve Chis effecc of speaking for che Bengali nation, che essays in
Williams defines vastu as meaning , among other things, " rhe Bite or Chhere asha gram have recoursc to a particular kind of language, one
foundation of a house ." 7 In Bengali , the word is often combined with thac combines che sacred with che secular idea of beauty to produce, ul-
the word bhita (or bhité), which ts connecced to the Sanskrit word bhitti, timately, a discourse about value. These are narratives that must demon-
meaning "foundation ." The idea of foundation is in turn tied co the idea strate that something ofvalue to Bengali culture as a whole has been de-
of "rnale ancestry." And the result is that che combined word vastuvita stroyed by che violente of che Partition. The idea of borne herc must
reinforces che association benveen patriliny and the way in which one's signify value. The native village ¡spictured as both sacred and beautiful,
dwelling or borne ts connected to the conception df foundation. One's and it is Chis chas makes communal violente an act of both violation and
permanent borne is where one's "foundation " is (the subject of this defilement. Muslim violente is seen here as an act of sacrilege against
intagination being, undoubtedly , rnale). everything that stands for sanetity and beauty in rhe Hindu Bengali un-
The Bengali language has preserved Chis sense of distinction henvecn derstanding of what home is.
a temporary place of residente and one's foundational home, as it were, There are four narrative elements that help achieve a mixture of rhe
by using two different words for a house, basha and bar¡. Basha is alsvays language ofthe sacred wich that of aesthetics, thereby producing a mod-
a temporary place of residente , no matter how long one stays there; ern idea of cultural value. The first clement is patriliny, che ancestral con-
one's cense of belonging there is transient . Bar¡, on rhe other hand, is nection, chatwhich gives che native village its sacred nature. Worshiping
where one ' s ancestors have lived for generations . When it comes to ritu- rhe land of che village is equivalent to worshiping one's ancestors. The
als marking lile-cycle changes ( such as marriage ), middle -class Bengali other three elements-rhe idea (and, hence, rhe relics) ofanriquity, con-
Hindus of Calcutta often refer no che ancestral village in explaining nections that che individual village may have had with recent nationalist
where their bar¡ is even if their basha bears a Calcutta address.s Bar¡ is history, and modern secular literary descriptions of che bcaurs' of rhe
,liso interchangeable with desh, a word signifying one's native land. landscape ofrural Bengal-are all provided by rhe language of secular
An udvastu, then-the prefix ut- signifying " off" or "outside" or aesthetics, and all are identifiably modern in character. Takcn as a w-hole,
"raised" ( evicted )- is someone who has been physically removed from Chis is a combination in which rhe sacred can be separated froni rhe acs-
122 / CIAPTER EIGHT MEaIORIES OP DISPLACEMEN'r / 123
thetic only with difficulty. But one thing is clear: what was seen as valu- An obscure ...village though it is, Gomdandi is a veritable part of
able is also what played finto the politics of ethnicity. Nothing in this historie Chattagram [Chittagong].... Insofar as can be gathered
combination had anything much to do with the Muslim pasts of Bengal. from history, it is observed that my ancestor Madhabchandra
Muslims are mentioned in these essays; indeed, their depiction is critical Majumdar, exasperated by the oppression of the bargi [Maratha
to the depiction of an idyll. But their traditions are not parí of the sacred raiders], left Bardhaman for Chattagram nearly two hundred years
or of the beautiful. In the next three sections, I demonstrate these ago and founded a setdement there in the village of Suchia north
propositions by presenting further quotations from Chhere ashagram. of che river Sankha. Sometime later ... Magandas Choudhuri carne
to his farro in Gomdandi village and built a homestead there....
The villagc that is more valuable thangold, where my forefathers had
THE DISCOURSE OF VALUE 1: ANCESTRY, PATRILINY, grown up for sevengenerations,10 where is that village lost today?
AND THE SACRED Where is Gomdandi today, and where am I? (Gomdandi, Chitta-
The quotations that I have chosen to demonstrate the narrative associa- gong;pp.195,197)
tion beaveen the sacred and patriliny are, on the whole, self-explanatory. But no friends stopped us, and no Muslim neighbor told us not to
Thcy require, therefore, only minimal framing. The village is variously go, the day we, driven by the need to save our honor and life and
seen as some forro of a mother figure or mother goddess. This idea of the with no fixed destination, left forever the sacred land of our place
mother, often evoked in describing the writer's sense of attachment to of birth where our forefathers for seven generations had had their
the land, is not, however, a matriarchal conception. Fundamentally, bhité. (Ramchandrapur, Sylhet; p. 235)
thesc excerpts express che religious sentiment of bbakti (devotion). As 1
have discussed elsewhere,9 Bengali nationalism-and nationalism in We did not want to think that we might have to leave the village.
Yet we had to leave and come away. Everybody did their las[ act of
other parts of India-did make bhakti into a modera political sentiment.
The activity ofren used for expressing that sentiment was puja, the act of obeisance on the day of our deparrure-at the foot of the Tulasi
worshiping. All the quotations that follow in this section express bhakti, tree [a sacred plan[ hringing well-being to the Hindu homestead],
in the deity room, even at the door of the cowshed. My old aunt
and some produce thc gesture of puja as well:
would not leave che threshold of the deity room; her tears and the
In this urban life humming with the sound of work, a message of sadness of the moment wetted my heart too. The village, associ-
grecting from a fricnd reached me one evening.... He had just ated with the many memories of my forefathers, was like a place of
returned from [having spent some time in] the lap of the village in pilgrimage to me. On that last evening, 1 prepared myself for the
which we were both born. The question he asked as soon as we departure with a respectful salute in the direction of the village, my
met was: "I have brought this ultimate treasure for you back from mother. (Anuitabazar, Jessore; p. 241)
desh; can you guess what it might be?" . . . Eventually, he surprised
I wonder, will it not ever be possible to go back to the lap of the
all by handing over to me a clod of clay. This was from the soil of
mother we have left behind? Mother-my motherland-is she
my bhité, the "Basu-house," sacred from the blessing of my father
truly somebody cise's now? The mind does not want tu under-
and grandfather. This soil is my mother. The sacred memory of my
stand. (Dakatia, Khulna; p. 257)
forefathers is mixed with this soil. To me this was not just of high
value-ir was invaluable. 1 touched this clod to my forehead. This
is no ordinary dust. This clay is moist today with the blood that has THE DISCOURSE OF VALUE II: ANTIQUITY, HISTORY,
been wrung out of Bengal's heart. (Bajrojogini, Dhaka; p. 1) AND NATIONALISM
For seven generations we have been reared on the affection and It is understandable that the remembered village derives some of its
grace of this land; perhaps our yet-to-arrive progeny would have value from the associations that it can claim with the nation's antiquity
one day nade this land their own. But that hope can feel only like and with the anticolonial struggle. The point to note is how unself
a dream today. (Khaliajuri, Mymensingh; p. 73) consciously this association becomes Hindu . Even this historical mcm-
V111(]RI1 s o ); I5I5PI 9 (l.MI 2l / 12,
124 / CHAI"I'1'It PJGHT
orv fractures along ethnic fines. Nothing in svhich rhe Muslims can take 1he svell-lcnown educator Dr. Prasannakunrar Rav arad tic once-
pride features in these accounrs. The stvle oí kariting exhibired is undis- famous doctor of Caleurta Dr. Dsvarkanarh Rav sucre bot li borra in
tinguished and predicrable, bur it derives from a recognizahle genre- Chis villagc 1t seas in chis village that Pandir lirishnachandra Sarba-
rhe literatura ora local historv that Hindu Bcngali authors began Lo pro bhauma, a logician oí vore belonging lo the svhole of Blkrampur
duce from the late nineteenth centurv on. and the neighboring regions, lived in a thatched hut, teaching Sal) -
-^Vell-known and established scholars such as Haraprasad Shastri and skritro the students oí his tol [a traditional school lo¡ learning San-
Dineshchandra Sen sucre the intellecrual godfathers ofthis tradirion. As skrit]. (Shubhaddhya, Dhaka; p. 42
a general rulo, 1-lindu landlords, susall and big, fúnded these projects, Thc history ofmv villagc is rhe history of place. Irs historical her-
while villagc local-historv enthusiasts acted as so many research assis- itage naakcs it great.... It contains the ruins of rhe Bucldhist pc
tants.1 I Nationalist institutions like the Bangiva Sauna Parishad stood riod.... The successfill svomen and usen oí this village come ro
at the apex oí the proccss that produced [hese nationalist local histories mirad. Some oí the people from here have become famous profes-
oí Hindu Bengalí achievements. sors, some ICS [Indias Civil Service officers], while some have
The spontaneity oí [iris effort bears testimony to the nationalism expe- gone to Europa as representatives oí indepcndent India. (Shona-
rienced by these scholars and their patrons. Mixing recent and ancient his- rang, Dhaka; pp. 54, 59)
tory with hearsay, archaeological evidente with mythical texts and stories,
Banaripara occupies a special place in [the annals oí] al] the politi-
[his literature produced a foun oí the past that was to be judged deficient
cal agitations, from the Swadeshi movement oí 1905 to the non-
by the more professional oí historians. 12 Yet it represetited the most pop-
cooperation and the civil-disobedienee movements. Thc contribu-
ular forro that the past took in the Hindu nationalist imagination.
tion oí this village to the freedom struggle oí rhe country is trulv
The following quotations from Chhere ashagram represen[ the con-
great. The sixteen-year-old Bhabani Bhattacharya, who gavie bis
tinuing hold oí this tradition on the language oí mourning used by the
life to the hangman for trving to kill the then governor [Mr.] An-
refugees:
derson ata place called Lebong in Darjeeling in 1934, was an un-
The narre of Bajrojogini is unforgettable in the historv oí Ben- selfish son ofthis village. (Banaripara, Barisal; p. 108)
gal.... This is the place oí birth oí [the] ancient scholar Dipankar
Mv village has remained blessed and sacred ever since it received
Srigyan Atish.... The historical village oí Rampal nexr door-che
the touch ofthe sacred feet oí Netaji Subhashchandra [Bose]. (Ga-
seat of the Sena kings-is without any beauty todas'.... 1 had lis-
bha, Barisal; p. 113)
tened to speeches by the Congress leader Surya Sen at the time oí
[the] noncooperation [movement]. (Bajrajogini, Dhaka; pp. 3, 5) Iris said that it was during the reign oí the emperor Shahjahan ...
that the Bosu family settled here. Under the protection o£ Kan-
Sabhar, my village, is one oí the main centers oí commerce in the
darpanarayan, the Bhuians oí Chandradwip, a great and civilized
district oí Dhaka. In her breast she carries centuries oí indestruc-
society, grew up in the neighboring villages oí Gabha, Narottam-
tible historv, fading skeletons of ancient civilizations:... It was
pur, Banaripara, Ujirpur, Khalishakota, and so ora. (Kanchabalia, Ba-
here that the lamp oí [learning of] Dipankar Srigyan was lit first; it
risal; pp. 118-19)
was here that bis education started in the house oí the guru. Sab-
har then was a city oí supremacv, the capital oí Raja Harishchan- Many, instead oí going to Navadweep, world come to the world-
dra, adorned with all kinds ofwcalth. (Sabhar, Dhaka; p. 10) conquering pandit oí this village, Jagannath Tarkapanchanan....
1 have heard that some oí the stone images and stone inscriptions
Dhamrai, a place oí pilgrimage. In the very ancient days the San-
oíNalchira have found a place in the Dhaka Museum. (Nalchira,
skrit narre was Dharmarajika. The modern narre of Dhamrai was
Barisal; pp. 141-42)
derived from the Pali name Dhammarai. Truly, the people oí
Dhamrai were mad about religion. But what is rhe result o£ so Navadwcep, Bikrampur, Bhatpara-the place ofour Kotalipara is
much cultivation oí dharma? The people oí Dhamrai are them- inferior to none among these jesvels oí the crown oí brahmanical
selves without a dham [place]! (Dhamrai, Dhaka; p. 19) knowledge in Bengal. (Kotalipara, Faridpur; p. 148)
12( / CH.APTE2 EIGHT
MEMO1tIE5 OF DISPLACEMENT / 127
This young Brahman named Rajaram Bay features as a footnote to that the essays in Chhere ashagram emphasize, but it is an eternal pre-
the history of Bengal. By the sheer force of his arms, Rajaram ...
sent. The village lives in an idyllic present into which erupts the beast of
founded the scttlement of this Khalia village. Gradually, his thatched
ethnic hatred. The writers of the essays are not the first to create this idyl-
hut was converted into a seven-winged palace. Only a fourth of
lic, pastoral picture of the Bengali village. Quintessentially a product of
that huge palace exists today. (Khalia, Faridpur; p. 164)
cities (nlainly Calcutta), a picture of the ideal Bengali village had been
1 Nave mentioned che copper inscriptions of Kumar Bhaskar ... developing since the 18SOs, when a host of nationalist writers such as
discovered only two miles away from our village. The Kushari Bankimchandra Chatterjee and, later, Rabindranath Tagore drew on new
River described in those inscriptions still fiows past our village.... perceptions of the countryside to create, for and en behalf on the urban
From this may be gauged the antiquity of the ... villages in this middle classes, a powerfially nostalgic and pastoral image of the generic
arca. (Ramchandrapur, Sylhet; p. 236) Bengali village. Thus, the older basha/bari distinction was rewritten finto
Senhati is one of the famous villages of East Bengal.... There is a a much larger opposition between the city and the countryside. 1 do not
saving that Ballal Sena made a gift of rhis village to his son-in-law llave the space lo develop the point here, but a few words may help set
this literary convention in context.13
Hari Sena.... It was Hari Sena who named it Senhati. The book
Digvijaya prakasha says that Lakshman Sena established a town A cultural division between the western and the eastern parts of Ben-
gal appears to be an old phenomenon. The name EastBen.qal as used to
called Senhati near Jessore.... Be that as it may, we now no longer
need history; Senhati today exists in its glory. I am a son of that vil- designare a geographic division may llave been of modern colonial and
administrative origin, but the languages and the ways of life of the peo-
lage. That is what makes me proud. (Senhati, Khulna; p. 248)
ple of the eastern side of Bengal were long an object of amused con-
The village is self-sufficient. lis name is Ghatabari. The little river tempt for those of the western side, who called the easterners bangals
Atharoda fiows past it. A few miles away is Bhangabari, the birth- (men from the East). We know, for example, that the great Bengali Vais-
place of the poet Rajanikanta Sen. Raja Basanta Ray is the person nava leader Chaitanya of the late fifteenth, early sixteenth century re-
whose name is unforgettable in the history of this village.... The portedly entertained his mother alter his travels in the East by deliber-
ruins of his palace are still there in the village next door. (Ghata- ately mimicking the manners and speech of the bangal.14
bari, Pabna; p. 277) This tradition, in which the bangal features as the butt ofjokes, does
What 1 llave heard about the history of the village is this. Sal¡, the not surface in Calcutta until well into the 1850s, by which time the city
goddess, killed herself on hearing Daksha [her father] speak ill of is expanding under European rule and people from the castern side are
her husband [Shiva] .... One of the fifty-one pieces [ofher body] beginning ro move there in large numbers.15 Texts produced before
fcll on this obscurevillage Bhabanipur in north Bengal. (Bhabani- that time-for example, Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay's ICalikataka-
pur, Bagura; p. 303) rnalalaya (1823)-can be found that center on a character who is a
stranger to the ways of the city, but, in them, the stranger is not made to
Let me tell you the history of the name Boda. Budhraja built a big speak in the bangal accent.'6 By the 1860s, however, the
fort and a royal palace oven two square miles. With the passage of bangal
emerges as a standard figure offun on the Calcutta stage, one the most
time, a temple was built at the fort, the temple of the goddess
famous characters being that of Rammanikya in Dinabandhu Mitra's
Budheswari.... Gradually, the name Was transformed in ordinary temperance-inspired play Sadhabar Ekadashi (1866). Rammanikya im-
speech to Bodeswari, and from that carne Boda. (Boda, Jalpaiguri;
nlortalizes the pathetic attempts of the country bumpkin desperate to
p. 315)
transform himself into the city sophisticate. His self-pity struck a chord
with the cense of marginality that migrants from East Bengal felt in a
THE DISCOURSE OF VALUE III: THE IDYLLIC VILLAGE, Calcutta dominated by the dandy descendants of the residents of the
BENGALI PASTORALISM, AND LITERARY KITSCH western halfofthe province: "I llave caten so much rubbish, yeti cannot
be like a Calcuttan. What llave 1 not done that is not Calcuttan-like? 1
Apart from the glories brought about by the village 's antiquity and its
llave gone whoring, Liude my woman vean fine dhoti [the normal sign of
participation in the life of the nation , there is also a prcsent of the village
a widow], consumed biscuits from European houses, imbibed bandil
,v, r:M(Htl Es oF Ix9'I A( 1 r / t 29
128 / CHAPTER EIGHI
I liad sat outside for barely fiftecn minutos vesterdap when masivo
[brandv] -' et in spite ofa] l rhis 1 could flor be kalkatta - like! What use is
clouds collected in the western skv-verv dense, disorderlv dudds,
rhis sinning bode? Let me throw mvsclf into rhe river ; let me be Caten bv
lit up here arad there bv stealthy raes of light lalling ora them-just
sharks and crocodiles." 2a
as wc scc in somc paintings uf storms.
P>oth hefore and altor Independence , Chis image of lile man from East
Bengal has supplied much of rhe urban humor of Calcutta. Somenmes, Nirad Chaudhuri's self-conscious discussion ofthe Bcngali landscape
in fact,gifred artists from East Bengal llave used this to their advantage. and his experience oí ir in the 1920s shows tilo snme dtanges to bc stil1
The pioneering Bcngali stand - up comedian Bhanu Banerjee , who made under w°av a fesv decades on. Chaudhuri's d,scussion is estrcmclr asare
a career in lile 1940s mid 19SOssclling precisely thoaccent at which Cal- oí rhe reccnt origins of rhe practico of seeing lile Bengal o)uno-vside as
cutrans loved to laugh, is a case in point . ' e But some sígnificant changes beaunfill. "The curious thing was," °rues Chaudhuri, "that the P,en-
in the cultural location of East Bengal began to take place in tilo 1880s galis taken collectively showed no awareness of rheir natural environ-
as an emergent Bengali literary nationalism started to work our-in thc ment, not even of their great rivers." He adds: "Generally speaking,
poetry and music of Bankimchandra Chatterjee , Rabindranath Tagore, when modern Bengalis acquired a feeling for rhe beauties of narure thcv
and others - an image of Mother Bengal as a land of bounrv. Accompa- showed it by a vicarious enjoyment of those described in rhe source of
nying all this was rhe idea of a Bengali " folk" situated in rhe countrvside their new feeling, namely, English literature. Thus English and Scottish
and evincing , as against rhe artificiality of rhe city of Calcutra , rhe quali- landscapes in their imaginative evocation became rhe staple of rhe enjov-
ties of the Bengali "heart " ( another categorv essential to the romanric ment." Chaudhuri's own experience of coming to grips with tilo land-
nationalism of rhe pcriod).19 scape of Bengal shows rhe modernity of rhe landscape question ni Ben-
The village, as opposed to the city , became lile true spiritual honre of gali history. Indeed, one could arguc that nationalist perceptions of rhe
rhe (urban ) Bengali. The riverine landscape of East Bengal was as critical Bengal landscape owed much to rhe labor of cultural workers such as
to rhis development as were new wavs of seeing that landscape , includ- Chaudhuri himself, who writes:
ing the influence on the Bengali imaginative eve of Sanskrit literature,
classical Indian music, and European writing, painting , and photogra- When 1 grew up 1 began ro pul rhis question to mysélf: docs the
phy. Two inajor literary and intellectual figures-Tagore and Nirad Bengali landscape have any beauty? ... 1 could not be sure....
Chaudhuri- should suffice as evidence . Tagore's Chhinnapatrabali, a But one day I had an experience which I can regard as conversion
colleccion of letters written during the 1880s and rhe 1890s when his in rhe religious dense. That was in 1927 during that ver' last stay at
dudes as landlord torced him to travel extensively in East Bengal, can Kishorganj. 1 was always in rhe habit of taking long walks, and on
easily be read as one of the first literary efforts in modern Bengalí prose that day 1 was strolling along rhe railwav embankment northwards
to deploy the Western notion of perspective when describing the land- from Kishorganj. Afrer 1 had gone about three miles 1 suddenly
yet another stereotype of Bengali rural sociecy. Bengali villages, so often pects of the Bengali landscape, for instante, a great river (and 1
described as abodes of peace, now became the obstacle to Bengali en-
have journeyed in boas and steamer on all the big three), the rice
lightenment. Factionalism, casto-based exploitation, and malarial dis-
fields either in their green or in their gold stretching out to the
cases carne to be seca as the predominant characteristic of life in rural horizon and bollowing under strong winds, the bamboo clumps or
Bengal, making villages the ideal scene for nationalist development the great banian Cree, there was not one occasion when I did not
work.22 Yet the softer image, located in the lush water-washed landscape lose my sense of being a viewer only and became one with [hese
of East Bengal, remained and was celebrated, for instante, in Jibana- scenes like Wordsworch s hoy.
nanda Das's sonnet cycle from che 1930s Rupashi Bangla (Bengal the
1 shall never forget one such occasion. It was 14 April 1913,
bcautiful).23
that 1 was going front Goalundo Ghat to Narayanganj in the river
A compromise bctween these two images of the Bengali village-the steamer Candor ... 1 had just read about Turner's paintings in a
idyllic pastoral haunt of the nationalist imagination and the fallen social
book.... The glow of his paintings, visualized by imagination,
space calling for nationalist reform-was reached in Bibhutibushan
seemed to he on the wide landscape all around me.26
Bandyopadhyay's famous novel Pather panchali. Published in 1927, it
spoke to a dearly held urban image of the generic Bengali village-a Tagore, of course, was a landlord visiting the countryside on business,
place, it is true, marked by suffering, poyerty, and, sometimes, a mean- Chaudhuri a salaried clerk visiting his family in East Bengal during holi-
ness of spirit, but yet the abode of somevery tender sentiments of inti- days. But, in either case, as in the case of so many other members of the
macy, innocence, and kinship. This was the Bengali village transformed Bengali bhadralok, it was a matter of accommodating the village and the
by modern cultural values. The exact geographic location of the village country in the rhythm of urban life, in which the village and holidays
of Nischindipur, in which the story of Pather panchali unfolds, was not were intimately associated.
relevant to the way in which Bengali readers appreciated the story. As Chhere ashagram repeats [hese urban-pastoral associations that in-
Suniti Chatterjee, the noted linguist, said of the novel: "I have always formed the Bengali sense of a beautiful life, a life that, the authors of the
lived in Calcutta, but I have affection for the village. I feel that Nischin- essays said, was never theirs in the city. These associations appear, not as
dipur is familiar to me. Likewise, the story of Apu and Durga [the pro- so many masterpieces of Bengali writing, but as hackneyed expressions
tagonist and his sister] seems to be out own, even though we have grown derived from Tagore and other sources, as pieces of literary kitsch aimed
up in the city."24 at the shared nostalgia of the city's educated Hindu middle classes (the
It is not surprising, then, that journeys to East Bengal, to the coun- bhadralok). In other words, Chis memory places the idyllic village squarely
tryside, should be a major feature of the literature dealing with the in the middlc of the 'country/city question as it had evolved in Cal,
beauty of the Bengali landscape. For, as I have said, the perception was cutta's urban culture. Here, too, the beauty of the village is often tied to
urban. Tagore's eyes often trame the countryside through the window travel by boas and to the rhythms of holidays in the lives of urban work-
of the boas on which he traveled the countryside. He was capable of re- ers or smdents, the holidays coinciding with religious festivals. 1 repro-
alistic and critica( descriptions of rural life, but the eye that produced the duce yet another long string of quotations to illustrate how pervasive
following description saw the village from a distante: "Now, aher a long [hese sentiments are:
time, being seated near the window of my boat,1 have found some peace
I remember the days of autumn. How long people would wait the
of mind.... 1 sit in a reclining position by the sido of chis open window.
whole year for Chis season to come. And what preparation! The
I feel the touch of a gentle breeze caressing my head. My body is weak
people who lived atar were returning home. Every day, new boats
and slothful having suffered a prolonged illness, and this nursing by na-
would come and ¡ay anchor on the banks of the Dhaleshwari. We
ture, calm and soothing, feels very sweet at chis time ."25
boys would crowd the [riverside]. For a few days, Gangkhali was
Travel-by boat-is a major motif in Nirad Chaudhuri's appreciation
full of people. And everybody would renew their acquaintances.
of the Bengali landscape as weil:
(Shabhar, Dhaka; p. 12)
Consciously,1 never credited Bengal with beautiful landscapes. Yet The steamers on the Narayanganj line would leave Goalundo ..
when I passed through one or other of most commonly seen as- and stop at Kanchanpur. The wind on the Padma would carry to
,ti}-.MOK l s OF DI5l'IA, 1.5110 r / 133
132 / CHAI`TP.R 1 11;111
The puja [holidays on account of religious festivals] are close. At Where was the place of che Muslim-or , indeed, of people who were not
this time of che year, every year, the mirad vearns to go back Lo Shi- Bengalis-in this idyll ? Did che Bengali home that tire village was sup-
laida[ha]. As soon as we got off at the Kustia station, our hearts posed to be not have a place for che Bengali Muslims? The language of
would fill with an immeasurable sense of joy. (Shilaidaha, Kustia; kinship is one of the means by which the other is absorbed luto the idvl-
p. 28t5) lic and hannonious village. Muslims participated in tire Hindu festivals
and, thus, were narratively absorbed roto che imago of the eternal Ben-
1 especially remember todas' che days of the Durga puja [svorship].
gali folk. The boatmen and other Muslims treated Hindus with civility
Every year 1 would impatiently look forsvard tu these days. A few
and are, hence , placed within the plcasures of che imagined communal
days before che puja I would leave Calcutta for the village. The dis- life of the village. Even the marketplacc is seen as an extension of this
tance seemcd unending. The moment 1 set foot in che village sta- natura ofthis re-
clon alter the long journey, 1 fclt like a king. Who am I in Calcutta? harmony . As che following quotations show, che idvllic
membered village performed a particular function in the narrativa srruc-
1 am only one among the innumerable ordinary meo. In my vil-
134 / CHAPEE R EIGFII
MEMORIES OF DISPLACEMENT / 135
ture of these memories of the Partition. If the village was always an
but often he would receive [gifts] of homegrown fruir and vegeta-
abode of perfect ethnic harmony, che eruption of Muslim hostility to-
ward the Hindus could only ever be a shocking and entirely unreason- bles. Even today 1 consider them [the Muslims mentioned] the
closest of my relatives. For so long we Hindus and Muslims have
able break with the past. The idyllic picture of che village helped enlarge
che trauma of violente and dislocation: lived together like brothers-we have aiways felt a strong connec-
tion with everybody.... But today? (Dakatia, Khuina; p. 258)
There was a woman who belonged to che Muslim communiry of a
distant village. We called her Madhupishi [Auntie Madhu]. It was In Chis idyllic home, it is che Muslim of the Muslim League who
said that she had no family. She would often come to our house. crupts as a figure of enigma, as a complete rupture from che past, a mod-
We were apparently all she had-there is no counting the number ernist dream of "junking the pass" gone completely mad, a discordant
of times she would say this. Never did che thought arise in our image on a canvas of harmony. The following description of a Muslifn
man called Yaad Ali is typical:
minds that Madhupishi was Muslim. She would often bring us pre-
sents from her house or fruir and herbs from che field. We would They used to build the image of the goddess on our chandiman-
reccive them with eagerness and joy. Not only this. A group of Bi- dap [che courtyard of a well-to-do Hindu household used for
hari people, villagers from Bihar, . . . had become people of this communal worshipl. Close to the time of che pujas, three potters
village, sharing our soul.... Are they still there in my village? ... would be at work lace into the night, working by che light of
In our childhood we noticed that the Muslims' joy ar Durga puja lanterns. Until the time they were overwhelmed by sleep, a crowd
was not any less than ours. As in the Hindu households, new ofchildren ... would sir there making many demands [ on che por-
clothes would be bought in their houses too. Muslim women ters]: "Brother Jogen, could you please paint my old dolí? ... My
would go from one neighborhood to another to see che imagen [of horse has a broken leg, Brother Jogen, could you please mend it?"
Durga]. (Shabhar, Dhaka; pp. 8, 13) "You children, don't talk when it is time for work!"-Yaad AL
The moment the college closed for che summer vacation, 1 rest- would scold the children from che other side of che courcvard.
lessly anticipated my return home to che village. Barisal is ftill of ... Don't you listen to these rascals Mr. Pal; concentrare on
waterways. When would the steamer arrive at che Gaurnadi sta- painting; afrer al], Chis is all God's work," Yaad Ali would advise Jo-
tion?-with what anticipation 1 would look forward to it. As soon gen. But, even hefore we left the village, we noticed that Yaad had
as 1 reached theghat, Shonamaddi, the [Muslim] boatman, would changed. He is a leader of che Ansars now. He would not even say
smile his ever-familiar smile and say, "Master, so you have arrived? che narre of a Hindu god; he now explains Islam beautifully!
Come, 1 have brought my boat. Of course, 1 knew that you would (Kherupara, Dhaka; pp. 27-28)
come today!" (Chandshi, Barisal; pp. 131-32)
The story ofYaad's transformation into an activist Muslim and the ut-
The Goddcss Kali was a live [potent] goddess in this region. Peo- ter incomprehensibiliry of that phenomenon to che authors of che essays
ple used to come from many distant villages to worship [her] ... of Chhere ashagrarn give us a clue to the problem of this discourse of
sceking fulfillment of their desires. I have seen Muslim brothers value within which the Hindu authors sought to place their Muslim
make piedges [to che goddess] with folded hands.... I cannot re- brothers. As instantes of public memory, theee essays eschew che low
cale seeing an instante of devotion to Kali that was so independent language of prejudice and produce, instead, a language of cultural value.
of caste or religion. (Shonarang, Dhaka; p. 58) The home that the Hiridu refugee has lost is meant to be more than just
his home; it is the honre ofthe Bengali nationaliry, die village in which in
"Babu, so you have come back to the village?" asks the Muslim
the 1880s nationalist writers had found che heart of Bengal. And chis il-
peasant out of an ordinary sense of etiquette.... A strong, pun-
lustrates a fundamental problem in che history of che modern Bengali
gen[ smell assails my nostrils as 1 approach che house ofSyed Mun-
shi. He works both as a kaviraj [an ayurvedic doctor] and as a nationality-the fact that Chis nationalist construction of home was a
Hindu home.
teacher.... He got cales whenever anything happened to small
It is not chal che Muslims did not share any of chis language-afrer ale,
children in our village. There was no demand for "visits" [feos],
che nacional anthem of Bangladesh is a song of Tagore's that powerfully
,M I.MORIF_S O' 11JSPIA (1 NILN'T / 137
136 / (HAI'TER 1'1CHl
and in moments of crisis, not only do our values play a role in producing
exp'resses Che nostalgia that 1 have diseussed. The point is, rather, thar,
a cense ofhome, a cense ofcommunity among ourselvesand wirh orhers,
for all tic talk of harmonv bctsvicen Hindus and Muslims, not a single
but rhev can also stop us froni hearing what Clic other might be saving lo
sentencc can be found in Chhere asha gram suggesting Che value for
us lit thar moment. My argumcnt, then, is not one that recommcnds che
both Hindus and Muslims) of Islamic ideas of Che sacred. AVhat can be
"homclessness" of the modero; 6cing at borne is not somcthing that wr
found are passages ehat conceive of an East Bengal deprived of a vibrant
choose at " Poctically, man dwclls - - true, but svtthln Clic po-
Hindu community as dcad (and Chis at a time when tic Muslims of East
etrv lies rhe poison of inescapable prejudice, all Che more unreeogni zable
Bengal svould have beca savoring thcir newfound independence):
bceause it comes disguised as valuc.
The villages, markets, scttlemcnts, ofEast Bengal are todav speech-
less and without life, their consciousness sviped out bv Clic horrors
of the end of time 1 kalpanta: Che measure of a dav in the life of Che
supreme Hindu god, Brahma]. In that land of "thirteen festivals
in twelve months" [a Hindu Bengali saying], no conch shell is
sounded marking Che advent of Che darkness of evening, no ulula-
tion in the hesitant voice of thc housewife is to be heard on Thurs-
day evenings, the time for the worship of [Che goddess] Lakshmi.
The ektara [a musical instrument] is silent at the gatherings of the
Vaisnavas, Che string of thegobijantra [an instrument played by
bauls] has perhaps acquired rust, while mice and cockroaches have
probably built thcirworlds cutting into the leather of the drums of
the devotees of Harisabha [place for Hindu devotional singing].
(Kherupara, Dhaka; p. 22)
In other words, without the sense of a Hindu home, East Bengal is re-
duced to an cene emptiness!
This is where Chhere ashagram leaves us, with the central problem of
Che history of Hindu Bengali nationality. Hindu nationalism had created
a sense of home that combined Che sacred with Che beautiful. And, even
though this sense of home embodied notions of the sacred, it was not in-
tolerant of Che Muslim as such. The Muslim-that is, the non-Muslim
League Muslim, the Muslim who did not demand Pakistan-had a place
in it. But the home was still a Hindu home, its sense of the sacred con-
structed through an idiom that was recognizably Hindu. And no thought
was given to what it might mean for a Hindu to be a guest in a Muslim
home similarly constructed, one embodying Islamic notions of the sa-
cred, as did the demand for Pakistan.
It is in this sense that what speaks of shared cultural values in the es-
says in Chhere ashagram also speaks, ultimately, of prejudice. In treating
the Bengalí Muslim's ethnic hatred as something inherently inexplicable
and, hence, profoundly shocking, Che essays refuse to acknowledge their
own prejudice. 1 say this to underline Che intimate relation that necessar-
ile exists between values and prejudices. When unattended bv critique,
I HE IN-FUMAN AND THE ETHICAL / 139
gals, while the older natives of Calcutta, who identifled more with the
western parí of Bengal, were calledghotis.t Theghotis rooted for a rival
and older soccer team, the Mohun Bagan Club.
We had not heard about academic critiques of essentialism in [hose
days, so bangals andghotisproceeded to elaborare and ritualize their dif-
ferences wirh the enthusiasm of peoples whom anthropologists some-
times call warring tribes. We both spoke Bengali, but with different ac-
cents; we loved the Hilsa fish, while they loved prawns; our songs were
set to different Lunes; our traditions of courtesy were different, and
nizing this violente as also belonging to the self that speaks. "Some-
through a paradoxical set of images and metaphors that speak of the
how," sas s Butalia, "whcn we speak of che violente of Partition, we do death of the human.
not touch the violente within ourselves."3
This paradox cannot be resolved. We cannot produce narratives that
It is clear that the inhumanity of collective. violence is, afrer all, hu-
relive and celebrare the momenr of inhumaniry even though we can all
man. The inhuman is in human and, in that sense, is better written as
in-human. Yet both fictional and autobiographical depictions of vio- imagine the boastful stories of cruelry that would have circulated among
men who killed in the days of the riots. But they are like the well-known
lence that was nothing but social consign it to a time and space marked,
yet suppressed stories of barbarism of yesterday that underlie today's ci-
paradoxically, by an assumed death of the social. "You see," said Krishna
viliry in every sociery. That barbarism is a practice of a certain kind of so-
Thapar talking to Menon and Bhasin, "we did not do less to the Mus-
cial, one that can be written about only as though it signified the death
lims-we liad also become such bruces.... We lost all humanity." Or
of the social. Faced with such banality of evil, the question arises, Why
you Nave the trope of what 1 call thingification. (Commodification
remember? Is not remembering potentially dangerous? Is not murder-
would be a special case of thingiñcation.) Women were sold, said the for-
ous violence better dealt with simply by forgetting it? Butalia tackles this
mer activist Kamlaben Patel, "in the séme way that baskets of grapes or
question head-on. She writes: "Over the years, despite many uncertain-
oranges are sold or gifred."4 In conversation with Butalia, Patel said: "I
ties, I have become increasingly convinced that while it may be danger-
found it difficult to believe human beings could be like this. It was as if ous to remember, it is also essential to do so-not so that we can come
the demons had come down on earth." Butalia herself resorts to the
to terms with it but because unlocking memory and remembering is an
nonhuman image of the thing to capture the moment when the other-
essential parí of beginning the process of resolving, perbaps even of for-
ing ofothers becomes absolute: "The transformation ofthe `orher' from gerting."s
a human being to the enemy, a thingto be destroyed before it destroyed
So the call to memory is a plea for a talking cure. And, as in the case of
you, became the all-important imperative."s Kavita Daiya has uncov- all talking cures, there is no guarantee that the cure will be permanent. It
cred a similar series of rhetorical moves in representations of Partition vi- is an ethical call. Tris a call that issues from one's immersion in the pres-
olence in fiction and film. Stories such as "The Woman in the Red Rain-
ent, amid violence, as one asks the question, How do 1 comport myself
coat" or "Colder than Ice" by Manto, for example, portray the desire for
toward the politics of difference? The new histories of the Partition and
"ethnic sexual violence" by reducing women to mere bodily rhings,
sometimes even dead bodies.b its attendant violence depart from older social-science histories in abjur-
ing aspirations toward social engineering. When we recognize the banal -
These narratives ofPartition violence, then-to use words once writ-
ity of evil, we do not look for utopian blueprints of social orders from
ten by Sartre-"lay claim to and deny the human condition at the same
which the evil ofviolence will be eternally banished. The call to remem-
time," such is the contradictorv explosiveness of their rhetoric? It is ob-
ber that Butalia, Menon and Bhasin, Pandey, and others issue is not in
vious that, for all the rendering of the human roto a mere thing that col-
search of permanent, a priori solutions to the ways in which modernity,
lective violence may appear to perform, the recognition by one human
governmentaluy, and their institucional arrangements can exacerbare
of another as human is as fundamental precondition. It is humans who che in-human. What animares conten]porary investigations of the mcm-
torture, rape, oppress, exploit, orher humans. We cannot do these things
to objects. We cannot call objects Muslim or Hindu except in reference ories of che violence of 1947 and beyond is che question of how to live
with difference todas
to thcir relation to humans. Humans can torture orher live beings, but
It was with this larger question in mind that 1 made the distinction
they do not do so in a collective spirit of historical revenge. That is why between proximity and identity. 1 see the distinction illustrated by che
it must be said that, even in denyingthe humanity of the victim of vio-
memories incired to speech by the new historians. Depending on the cir-
lence, the perpetrator of violence and torture does, to begin with, rec- cumstances surrounding them, both the practices of proximity and those
ognize che victim as human. In Chis unintentional practice of mutual hu-
of identiry can kill us or save us.
man recognition lies che ground for the conception of proximity. The
Sometimes, I see both principies embodied in che same narrarive. Con-
denial of che victim's humanity, thus, proceeds necessarily from this ini- sider. che story of a tahsildar [holder of an administrative office] in the
cial recognition of it. Tris che very perverse nature of chis recognition of
western Punjab as told ro Menon and Bhasin by Dayawati Kalra of Gan-
one human by another rhat [he language of memories seeks to capture
dhi Vanita Ashram in Jalandhar. This man "would Cake Hindu young
TIIF IN-IItTMAN ANU TnL LtHI( AL / 145
144 ) ClIAPTEIk NINI':
termarried, the rest was fine").t I Yet Butalia cites the case of a Bir Ba-
men from thc camp and kilt them." Surely, this act was Lo do with extir- hadur Singh for whom such practices ofproxinaity, in retrospect, lool:cd
pating that whieh seas not identical to rhe self. Yet, ¡si an opposite gesturc
likc exclusionarv politice of identity : "Ties Muslims i svould eat ¡si our
of making the diffetent the same, rhe sane man rrcated an abducted houses but sve would not eat in thcirs and this is a had thing, whidt 1
non-Muslim svoinan "like a daughrer for over a vear. Onlc syhcn no nnc
nosc realizo. lf thev svould come to our houses sce svould hace two un-n-
came tur her did he suggest marriage to pis son. No one else svould hace sils in une comer ofthe huirse, and w e svould tcll theni, pide riese up aud
done so much. He ss as honourable." A more complicated case is that of
eat in thena; thev svould then svash them and kcep them asido and tbis
a svoman-"k hose ro blenon and Bhasin s hcn thec
Sras soda a terrible thing. This'vas tic rcason Iakistan seas eicated...
met hila in Jammu in 1991 This non-Muslim svoman liad been torced
Al! out dealings scith nccni svere so loss that 1 am esto ashamed Lo sao
into a Muslini family-an example, we couid sao, ofthe pracrice of iden-
n.,, 12
tity tending to kill. We are told that she "lived on in Pakistan, liad txko
There is no gainsaying tire fact that rhe larger political context of
sons and tour daughters and commanded great respect in her family and
1947 influenced one's reading of diese practices. Think of Beth Roy's
comtnuniry." Yet "she liad complete freedom, ... didn't believe in Is- documenting a rural riot betwecn Hindu and
Some Trouble with Cows
lam, was not obliged to read tire Qoran or say her namaaz. But her nahte
Muslim peasants in East Pakistan soon after Independence. Surely, it was
was changed to Sarsvar Jahan. "9 In this instante, practices boro of iden-
the larger political fact of Pakistan having been established that encour-
tity clearly gave way-within historical limits-to those of proximiry in
aged the Muslim peasants involved in Chis conflict to say to their Hindu
the beart of the new family that was once foisted on her. neighbors, "Wc won't allow any Hindus to stay here," and tire Hindus
The new studies of the memories of Partition violente are salutary in
to say, "Wc won't allow any Muslims to stay this side of the nver. We'll
reminding us that there is no a priori way of resolving, apead of any con- push them to the other side."13 There is, in that sense, no "small voice
crete investigation, ehether rhe practices of proximiry are necessarily of history" autonomous of rhe larger political sphere.14 But the prac-
better tiran those of identity, or cite versa. Uncovering the patriarchal tices of proximiry and identity still wrestled in many narratives as possi-
violente and undemocracy of rhe Indian and Pakistani governments'
blealternative ethical ways of relating to diffcrence. They do not admit
program to recover "abducted women" and restore them to their fami-
of resolutions that are free of all contexts.
lies, Menon and Bhasin effectively use tire universalist and allegedly un- But, in bringing this essay to a close, let me repeat here a story from
marked identity of the citizen to produce a cogent feminist critique of the life of the noted Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen. It is a story that 1
the program. They write: "The process of recovery, of putting abducted have recounted elsewhere, but it is relevant to the issues under discus-
women back into place, was not eonceived by the state as a relationship
sion.
of women as missing citizens of rhe new state (if so, it would hace en- Sen grew np in rhe 1920s and 1930s in a nationalist Congressite fam-
dowed them with civil rights); rather, it chose to treat them as missing ily in Paridpur, His family did not shun the company of Muslims. Once,
members of religious and cultural communities on whose behalf choices says Sen, his oldest brother, then a high school student, showed their
had to be madc."10 father a poem written by a Muslim boy from his class. Moved by rhe
As this particular example illustrates, tire ethical space within which I
writing, Sen's father encouraged his son to invite this boy home. Thc
am seeking to locate the practices of identity asad proximiry is never com- young Muslim poet carne, was befriended by tire family, asid, in Sen's
pletely autonomous of the larger political field of governments, political words, became one of them: "My eldest brother brought his friend home.
parties, movements, and other institutions. Some practices of proximity, The boy turned up with his feet covered with dust, a pure pcasant boy.
for instante, fell into disrepute once tire larger movements for nation- The nickname of this poet was Sadhu. He would move in and out of our
alisms, democracy, and social equality took hold,of people's imagina- household as though he were a boy of this family. It was afrer 1 had grown
tion. Menon and Bhasin quote a Hindu woman who saw the past as a up a litrle more that 1 came to know that he was not out brother.i15
time of peace in whieh practices of proximiry and nonidentiry did not This poet, Sen reveals, was nene other than the famosas and gifted
necessarily give offense. She said, speaking of the pass of Hindu-Muslim Muslim Bengali poet Jasimuddia. Bur Sen's narrative lets us see hose a
relations in the Pnnjab: "Roti-beti ka risita nahin rakhte the, baki saab crisis set in, threatening to undermine this bond of putative kinship as
theek tha" (Menon and Bhasin give a somewhat Christian-sounding tire demand for Pakistan gathered strength. Jasitnuddin was nos: unaf-
translation of this sentence: "We neither broke bread svith them nor in-
146 / CHAPTER NENE
fected by the sentiments growing in the minds of many Bengali Mus- THE IN-HUMAN ANn THE ETHICAI, / 147
lims. Nor, from an opposing point of view, was Sen's father. Sen writes: Chis kind, Sen's stands witness to a historie Hindu Bengalí deafness to
Thcre were no communal troubles in Faridpur. But Hindu-Muslim che cali of the other. This deafness was as constitutive of ethnic distance
conflict was on the rise in other places and had an impact on Farid- as may be che more explicit elements of violente. It was a mark, indeed,
ofone's participation in che politics ofethnicity. To be deaf to che cal) for
pur as well. The grown-ups had ro be a little careful therefore....
1 noticed that a certain Hinduness asserted itself in my father justice in Muslims' historical demand for a home embodying their own
whenever there was a communal conflict somewhere else. There imagination of dwelling was to express prejudice, however silent that ex-
pression may have been.
would be furious arguments and counterarguments. And Jasimud-
din would argue taking the side of Muslims. One day Jasimuddin In saying chis, 1 do nor mean to blame the Hindus, in particular those
said to my mother, "Mother, ifit is true that I am one ofyour sons, who were displaced, for their cup of suffering was more than full. 1 my-
why do you leed me searing me outside? Why is it that you never self grew up around such suffering, as did many of my contemporaries. I
let me sit with your sons to eat from che same plate?"I6 mean, rather, to emphasize che importante of being sensitive ro the
larger field o£the political within which che ethical must be situated. As
It is Scn's narrative resolution of the emocional impasse that this mo- 1 have said, there is no way of choosing benveen identiry and proximiry
ment creares that allows us to see the contestation berween the practices in an a priori manner. But lcr me end wirh a personal anecdote about che
of proximiry and those of identiry. He continues: "My mother found practice of proximiry in a post-Partition context. It suggests, I think,
herself in difficulry. What Jasim said was nor untrue after all. But Eny that che relation benveen identiry and proximiry is nor one of an either/
mother was helpless. She explained to him that she had no objection to or qualiry
having him sic inside while feeding him but that rhe servants of the 1 rock my parenrs to Bangladesh in 1991 to visir my ancestral homes
household would flor accept [his arrangement. Her eyes glistening with on both sides. My parenrs had nor been back since che Partition. We
tears, she said, `Sadhu, you may nor know this, but it is 1 who washes up went to che village in Bikrampur where Iny father spent his childhood
after you"'v
and later his holidays when he studied and worked in Calcutta. We dis-
This is a poignant moment in stories of Hindu Bengali generosity. covered that che Muslim family that used to work for my father's family
The Hindu Bengali mother, who acts as a critical nodal point in che af- was in occuparion of che house. They had lived there since Indepen-
fective structure of kinship, speaks here for Hindu liberalism (in a loose, dence. Their first worry was that we might have come back to reclaim
nor a doctrinal, sense) in acknowledging the cal) for justice in the griev- property. They
were a little tense in che beginning. The old man in che
ance o£the Muslim person whom she has recognized as her son. At the family was my father's age and remembered our family. He remembered
same time, she pleads helplessness, blaming-like men everywhere have some of che weddings thar took place in that house. The first thing he
done at many critica) moments in che history of modernity-tradition said, to che consternation of his family, was: "AII chis is yours. You can
and unreason, now allegedly embodied in che subaltera characters of the Cake it back if you want." That was che field of [he political coming finto
household, che ignorant servants. But she does nor stop there. Tearfully, our conversations. Once we assured them, however, that we had come
she makes a claim on che Muslim's sentimenr the mother has both ac- simply to see rhe house, rhat 1 lived outside India and had no practical in-
cepted and transgressed difference for che sake of her feelings for her terest in acquiring properry in Bangladesh, they relaxed. And then a
Muslim son. Why would nor the Muslim reciprocare? space opened-up for what 1 have called
the practice ofproximity, that is,
Yer, however full of pathos chis gesture may be, there is a deafness to che practice of relatiüg to historical and contingenc difference by ac-
che other that srructures her question from within. Jasimuddin, che knowiedging and negotiating it.
Muslim in Sen's story, was declining che role of good guest in a house- They asked us to sic down in che garden outside che house. My
hold that defined itselfas Hindu. He was asking for a change in che rules mother was wirh che women of [he household. A number of curious
rhat defined hospitaliry and that decided che question of who was in the children had thronged around us. The old man's son, a politically active
position of offering it. Was he within his rights ro do so? It is Ibis larger member of che local village council, was keeping a courreous but cau-
political question that goes unacknowledged and undiscussed in che tious eye on che proceedings. And [he question arose about che seating
Hindu response in Chis story. Like numerous Hindu Bengali stories of arrangement. They had two comfortable chairs out and one nor-so-
comfortable stool. Whoever sat on che stool would also be at a lower
1 48 / CH HAT'T LA Ni NI
level than those on the chairs. i Le old finan offered me and mv father the
two chairs and made a gestare of taking the stool for himself, saving,
"You are the masters, vou should sit on the chairs." Mv farher immedi-
ately countered saving, "No, no, those davs are gone; wc are flor masters
and servants. You should sir on the ehair." The situation carne to a suc
cessfül resolution through mv saving, "But vou are both old and senior
to me; it is 1 who should sit on the stool." Fvervbodv found thar accept-
able. Wc had each acknowledged differenr kinds of difference, and even
inequalities and equalities, without letting them give offense, We had, in
other words, suceessfully negotiated some verv historical and contingent
differences. My parents and 1 returned that evcning with verv pleasant
memories of the generous hospitality offered to us by the Muslim family.
I know that this resolution was contingent and temporary. It would
not havc happened if we werc therc in the larger political field and made
a claim en the property. The larger field of thc politiGal exists, and we, as
individuals, are rarely in a position to choose it. We find ourselves in it,
we feel called no it, and we try to mold it to the extent that we can. But I NTRO D U CTI ON
the political does not exhaust or foreclose the space of the ethical. Purely 1. Sce che thoughtful discussions in Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, "On Alterna-
political and sociological histories ofren lose themselves in the impulse of 11, no. 1(1999): 1-l8; Arjmt Appadurai, Moder-
tive Modernidcs," Public Cultura (Minneapolis: Lnivervnv of Min-
causal analysis and, thus, in the designs of utopian social engineering. nity at Larga: Cultural Dimensions nf Globalization
The new historians of the Partition remind us of the profound banality nesota Press, 1996), in particular, chaps. 1 and 5; and Lisa ROM, "Rethinking
Culture, Power, Place: Expla-
of evil. Their focus is on the normal and the everyday. The category of Modernity: Space and Factory Discipline in China," in
ed. Akhil Gupta and James Fcrguson (Durham,
the everyday has now received a positive and theoretical valorization nations in Critical Anthropology,
N.C.: Duke Universiry Press, 1997).
through our readings of Henri Lefebvre and Walter Benjamin and the 2. My position is, thus, somewhat different from that adoptad in Brumo La-
like. The new histories of the Partition point to the irruptions into the (trans. Carherine Porter [New York: Harvcster,
tour's Wc Have Never Been Modern
moment of the everyday of the practices of both proximity and identity 1993]).
in the politics of difference. Thc explorations of.history and memory 3. Aijaz Ahmad's in Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures(London: Verso, 1992)
is a good example of such polarizad debate betwecn Marxism and postmodernism.
show that only a capaeity for a humanist critique can create the ethical
4. Dipesh Chakrabarry, Provincializing Europa:PostcolonialThoughtandHistor-
moment in our narratives and offer, not a guarantec against the preju- (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Universiry Press, 2000).
ical Difference 2d ed. (Chicago. Universin° of
dice that kills, but an antidote with which to fight it. Historv must, like
5. See Hannah Arendt, '17)e Human Condition,
literature and philosophy, imbibe Chis spirit of critique. Chicago Press, 1998).
CHAPTER ONp.
1. Arif Dirlik, "The Aura of postcolonialism:Thed World Criticism in the Age of
P. Mongia
Contemporar_v Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, ed.
Global Capiralism," in
(London: Arnold, 1996),302 . One-Way so-cet
2. See Walter Benjamin, "A Small Historv of Phorogrnphv," in
trans. Edmund jephcott and 1Cingslcy Shorter (London: Nc s
and Other Writings,
Left Books, 1979). -
3. Ser my discussion of the relation benveen nanonalism and Marxism ¡ti htdian
After the End of'Hittor_v, ed. A.
historiography in "Marxism and Modera india," in Marsurn, Theory,
Ryan (London: Collins & Brown, 1992), 79-84. Sanjev Seth's
(Delhi: Saga, 1995) provides a
Politics '171e Ciase of Colonial India
an d Nationalist
149
150 / NOTES r0 PACES 4-9
NOTES To PACES 9-17 / 151
good analysis of che historical connections between Marxist thought and nationalist
ideologies in British India. 18. E. J. Hobsbawm , Primitive Rebele Studies in Archaic Forros of Social Move-
4. Sce Bipan Chandra , Tire Rise and Growth of Economic Nacional jo» in India: mentin che Nineteenth and Tiventieth Centuries (Manchester: Manchester Universiry
Economic Policies ofIndian Nacional Eeadership , 1880-1905 ( Delhi: People Press, 1978), 2.
' s, 1969); 19. See Ranajit Guha,ElementaryAspects ofPeasantlnsurgency in Colonial India
Anil Sea], The Emergente ofIndian Nationalism :
Competition and Collaboration in
che Later Nineteenth Century ( Cambridge: Cambridge Universiry Press, 1968); A. R. ( Delhi : Oxford Universiry Press, 1983), chaps. 1 and 2.
Desai, S ocial Background ofIndian Nationalism ( 20. Sea[, Emergente ofIndian Nationalism, 1.
Bombay: Asia , 1966 ); D. A. Low,
cd., Soundings in Modern South Asian History ( Canberra : Austrahan Naconal Uni- 21. Guha examines and critiques such Marxist positions in "TheProseofCounter-
versiry Press , 1968 ); B. S. Cohn, Insurgency," in Selected Subaltern Studies, ed . Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty
An Anthropologist among che Historiaras and Other
Essays ( Delhi: Oxford Universiry Press, 1988 ); Spivak (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988 ), 45-86.
and Morris David Morris and D. Ku-
mar, eds., Indian Economy in che Nineteenth Century: A Symposium 22, Guha, Elementary Aspects, 75.
( Delhi: Indian
Economie and Social History Association , 1969). 23. Ibid., 6.
5. The subtitle of SeaPs Emergente of Indian Nationalism 24. Hobsbawm , Primitive Rebel, 3.
refers to the two
themes of competition and collaboration. 25. Guha, ElementaryAspect, 6.
6. See John Gallagher , Gordon Johnson , and Anil Seal , eds., 26. Guha, "On Some Aspects," 4.
Locality, Province,
and Nation: Essays ora Indian Politice, 1870-1940 ( Cambridge : 27. Ibid., 5-6.
Cambridge Univer-
siry Press, 1973). 28. Ranajit Guha , "Colonialism in South Asia : A Dominante without Hege-
mony and Its Historiography," in Dominante without Hegemony : History and Power
7. In contradistinction to che so-called horizontal affiliations of class.
in Colonial India (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Universiry Press, 1997 ), 97-98.
8. Astil Sea[, "Imperialism and Nationalism in India," in ¡bid., 2-
9. Sec Bipan Chandra , Nationalism and Co lonialism inModern India 29. Guha, "On Some Aspects," 5-6.
( New Delhi:
Orient Longman , 1979). 30. This aspect of che project later carne to be developed by Partha Chatterjee,
Gyanendra Pandey, and Shahid Amin ( sce che discussion below).
10. As one respected Indian historian wrote responding to the work of the Caro-
bridge scholars : " Once, not so very long ago , 31. Eugen Weber, Peasants finto Frenchmen : The Modernization ofRural France,:
to countless Indians nationalism was a
fire in the blood " ( Tapan Raychaudhuri , " 1870-1914 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Universiry Press, 1976), xvi.
Indian Nationalism as Animal Politics,"
Hsttorical fournal22 , no. 3 [1979]: 747-63). 32. See E. P. Thompson on experience: "A category which, however imperfect it
11. See Gyanendra Pandey, The Ascendancy of che Congress in Uttar Pradesh, may be, is indispensable to the historian , sine it comprises mental and emotional re-
1926-1934:: A Study in Imperfect Mobilization sponse, whether of an individual or of a social group, to many inter-related events"
(Delhi: Oxford Universiry Press,
1978 ); Majid Siddigi , Agrarian Unrest in North India : ("The Poverry of Theory; or, An Orrery of Errors," in The Poverry of Theory and
The United Provinces, 1918-
1922 ( Delhi: Vikas , 1978 ); Kapil Kumar , Peasanes in Other Essays [London: Merlin, 1979], 199). See also Keith Thomas, "History and
Revolt. Tenants, Landlords, Anthropology," Past and Present, no. 24 (April 1963): 3-18.
Congres, and che Raj in Oudh, 1886 -1922 ( New Delhi
: Manohar, 1984 ); David
Arnold, The Congress in Tamilnadu : Nacional Politics 33. See Guha, Elementary Aspects, chaps . 1 and 2.
in South Asia, 1919-1937
(New Delhi: Manohar , 1977); Histesranjan Sanyal, Swarajer Pathe 34. Guha's own reading strategies are spelled out in "The Prose of Counter-
( Calcutta: Pa-
parus, 1994 ); and David Hardiman , Insurgency" and are implicit throughout ElementaryAspects.
Peasant Nacionalista ofGujarafi Kheda District
(Delhi: Oxford Universiry Press, 1981 ). See also the essays in D . 35. To be fair, not only does Thompson ("The Poverry of Theory," 210, 222)
A. Low, ed., Con- write about " voices clamour [ ing] from che past"-" not the historian ' s voice, please
gress and che Raj ( London: Heinemann , 1977).
observe; their [ i.e., the historical characters '] own voices"- but he also has much to
12. See Ranajit Guha, introduction to A Subaltern Studies Reader, ed.
Ranajit say about how historian interrogate their sources in order to listen to the lost voices
Guha ( Minneapolis : Universiry of Minnesota Press, 1998).
13. Ranajit Guha, " On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India," of history.
in Subaltern Studies I. Writings on South Asían History and Soeiety, 36. This is best exemplified in Guha's "The Prose of Countcr-Insurgeney." See
ed. Ranajir Guha
(Delhi: Oxford Universiry Press, 1982), 3. also Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, introduction to Guha and Chakravorty Spivak, eds.,
Selected Subaltern Studies.
14. See Antonio Gramsci, "Notes on Italian History," in Selections from the
Prison Notebooks, cd. and trans . Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New 37. On this retirement, see Guha's introduction to Subaltern Studies VI (Delhi:
York: International , 1973). Oxford Universiry Press, 1988).
15. Ranajit Guha, preface to Subaltern Studies IIL Writings ora Indian History 38. Edward Said, foreword to Guha and Chakravorty Spivak, eds ., Selected Sub-
and Society, ed. Ranajit Guha ( Delhi: Oxford Universiry Press, 1984), vi¡. altern Studies, v.
16. Ranajit Guha , " On Some Aspects•of the Historiography of Colonial India," 39. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiog-
in Selected Subaltern Studies, ed . raphy," in Guha and Chakravorty Spivak eds ., Selected Subaltern Studies, 3-32.
Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (New
York: Oxford Universiry Press, 1988), 3-4. 40. Rosalind O'Hanlon, "Reeovering the Subjecn Subaltern Studies and Histo-
17. Ibid., 4-5. ries of Resistance in Colonial South Asia," Modern Asian Studies22 , no. 1 (1988):
189-224.
NOrrsr1) PACES 19-27 / ' 53
165
166 / 1NDF,X
INDEX / 167
Bhadra, Gautam, 18, 21
sciousness , 89; untouchables, 40, 85,
bhadralok, 101, 1 19, 131, 163n. 27 "Conventions of Despair" ( Ramanujan), disease: boundaries against, 70-71; epi-
86
Bhanu Govenda Jahar Asistant (film), 20 demics, 76; Indians' alleged blindness
Catanach, I. J„ 71
140 Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish, 40, 43, to, 68; in Western perceptions of India,
ccnsuses , 84, 85, 86, 88, 89
Bharatiya Janata Parry (BJP), 92, 141 45 65. Ser also public healtit
Chaitanya, 127
Bhasin, Kamla, 140, 141, 142, 143-44 Cornwallis, Lord, 56 distributive justice, 33, 94, 112
Chakrabarti, Prafulla, 120
13idyanídhi, Yogcshchandra Ras, 163n. 27 corruption: baksheesh, 56; bribery, 53; diversiry, 141
Chamhcrs, Robert and William, 57
biograplty 57 character associated with, 55-56; in domination : in conversation between
Chandavarkar, Raj, 75
Bir, 71 Indian public life, 51- 52; khadi associ- ntoderniry and the nonmodern, 29-
Chandra, Bipan, 4, 5-6
hody, rhe: capitalist obsession with, 77; in ated with, 53 30; Guha on subordination and, 10,
character: corntption associated with, S5-
colonial conrcxt, 55-58; and Gandhi's Critica[ Events (Das), 1,41 11, 12- 13. See aleo violente
56; literatura popularizing connection
destruction ofthe prívate, 58-62; lit- critica) traditionalism , 39-40, 42, 43, 46 Douglas, Mary, 69
between body and, 56-57; nationalisms
erature popularizing connection be- cultural difference, 91, 92, 94, 95 Duff, Alexander, 24
un, 58; schools as sitas for acquiring,
rween character and, 56-57; and non- cultural nationalism, xxi Dutt, Michael Madhusudan, 57
58
violcncc, 59-60; training of, 57-58 cultura¡ relativism, 21 "Dying Race, A" (Mukherji), 89
Chatterjee, Bankimchandra , 127, 128
Bombay, 65-66 dynamic nominalism, 86-87
Chatterjee, Partha, 17, 139, 15ln. 30,
Bñrderr and Boundaries ( Menon and Daiya, Kavita, 142
152n, 46
Bhasin), 141 Das, Jibanananda, 130, 162n. 23 East Bengal: bangals, 127, 138-40; Cal-
Chatterjee, Saratchandra, 129-30
Bosc, J. C-, 25 Das, Veena, 140, 141 cuttan image of, 127-28; landscape of,
Chatterjee, Suniti, 130
Bose, Nirmal, 61 Datta, Kalyani, 105, 106,
106,107 , 108,110- 121, 128-31; lirerature on travel in,
Chattopadhyay, Saratchandra, 52-53
Base, Sarat, 52-53 11, 113 130-31; seen as empry without Hin-
Chaudhuri, Nirad, 67-68, 70, 76,128,
boundaries: fuxay boundaries, 87-88; he- De, Barun, 27-28 dos, 136; songs of, 140. Ser also
129,130-31
neccn insidc and outslde, 69-70; in "Deconsaucting Historiography" (Spi- Bangladesh ; Bengali villages
Chaudhuri, Nirmalendu, 140
Partition of Bcngal, 145; protective vak), 17 East Bengal Club, 138, 139
Chhere ashagram ( Baso ), 115-37; on an-
power of, 70-71 deconstructionism ,17-18, 104-5 East India Company, 56, 84
tiquiry ofBengali villages, 123-26; on
Butalia, Urvashi, 140, 141-42, 143, 145 defecation, 66, 67 East Pakistan . See Bangladesh
Bengali villages as idyllic, 131-33; on
Dcleuze, Gilles, 17 Elementary Arpects(Guha), 10, 11, 15-
Bengali villages as sacred and beautiful,
Calcutta: ancestral village as bari in, 120; democracy : democratization as democratic, 16
121-22; cm Muslims, 122,133-37;
Chaudhuri on lack ofcivic conscious- xx; history as democratic dialogue with Emergente ofIndian Nationalism, The
on Partition as inexplicable , 117-19
nes, in, 67-68, 76; East Bengal as seen the subaltern , 33-37; India as, xix, (Seal), 4, 5, ISOn. 5
Chhinnapatrabalí ( Tagore ), 128-29
in, 127-28; Hindu Bengalí refugees xxii; nationalism and, 14 Enlightenment colonizing violente and,
civilization, 90
in, 116, 138-40; Wellesley's street dependency theory, 32 32; critiques of rationalism of, 21-22,
Cocean, Diane, 71
policy for, 66, 77 Derrida, Jacques, 31, 37, 46 37; faida and rationalism opposed by,
Cohn, Bernard, 4, 159n. 7
Cambridge historians, 5, 6, 7, 8 Desai, A. R, 4 25, 28; law-state combine justified in
"Colder than Ice" (Manto), 142
"Can the Subalrern Speak?" (Spivak), 17 development, xix, 90 rerms of, 111-12; legacy in lands far
colonialism : the body in context of, 55-
capitalism: discipline of, 12; Gandhian val- Dcvi, Nistarini, 105, 107 from Europe, xxi; on nature of modef-
58; British portrayal of, 4; Chandra on,
ues contrasted with those of, 63; Cuba Devi, Saradasundari, 105, 108-10 nity, xix
5-6; en dirt and disorder of India,
on colonialism and, 13-14; in India, Devji, Faisal, 75-76 epics, 57
76-77; Guhaon, 13-14; hyperra- dharma, 12
xxi-xxii; modernity as superstructure tionalism and the colonial modem, epidemics, 76
to capitalist base, 27; old pleasures ex- dialogue: dialogic narradve, 113, 114; his- cqualiry, 36, 95
22-29; Indian historians on, 4-5; as
changed for pleasures of, 77; peasants tory as democratic dialogue with the Erikson, Erik, 60
inherent in moderniry, 32; and nation-
in transition to, 10-12, 19; practica) subaltern, 33-37 ethnicity : administrative categories for,
alism seca as interdependent, 5, 14; vi-
alternativas ro lacking, 80; public difference : cultural, 91, 92, 94, 95; Hindu 88-89; dynamic nominalist concep-
olence in, 112
health required by, 77 widows and problem of differend, 111; tion of, 86 - 87; ethnic strife in India,
commodification, 142
caste sysrem: Ambedkar on, 39; Brahmans, plurahsm, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96; polities 91; fuzzy boundaries of, 87- 88; gov-
communalism , 86, 117
89, 92; castes associated with dirt, 75; of, 141-48 ernmental roots of modern, 80-97;
communines : administrative caregories
conflict between castes, 81; modem diku, 70 language as basis for , 86, 89; and
for, 88; fuzzy boundaries for, 87-88; Dirlik, Arif, 3
public sphere affecting, 83; positive nationality, 91-97; in Partition of
socio-religious communities, 85
discrimination in favor oflower castes, dirt bazaars as dirty and disorderly, 67, Bengal, 122 , 124, 133-37. See afro
compassion, 103-4
94; as rehtsing to die, 38; scheduled 76; cases associated with, 75; as going racism
confessional autobiography, 60-61
castes, 86, 87, 88; socio-religious com- ourside, 69 ; Indians' alleged blindness ethnocentrism, 40-41
Construetian ofCommurtaltsm in Colonial
munitics, 85 ; statistics and casto con- to, 68; in Western perceptions of India, European Enlightenment See Er""-'
North India, Thc (Pandey), 17
65, 66, 76. Ser also rubhish ( garbage) ment
INI) /169
168 / INUt=s
im dlcctuals, ambivalent reiati, in tn thc
err-rt.Studiei, 7- 14; histor1-fronrhdow
Ei'enb Memore, Metapí,,, Am¡nu, 17 subordination, 1 0 , 1 1 , 1 2 - 1 3 ; Elz- pase „t, 3S-; 9
appatac11, 7, 8, 16; humanit camine
ever day, the, 148 anrntnre A .Pertr, I0, 11, 1 5- 16; and mml 94
required in, 148; mcmon contra-ttcd
Ya cmpla r-v Bioarapdm t Cha ml ers i, 57 geiden questions in S' ubalrern Studies.
svitlt, I15, 119; Naipaul on aakcniniz
17; in hiscnriographic paradigin shift lains, 82
ro, 81 -82;:1andv un. xxiii, 40 41;
fase, thc, 112, 113 of Suba/cer+t Sntdfrr, 7-14_on pcasinr Jasimuddin, 14, -46
post E ni igistenmcni rational'sus and
facing. 105 rebdlions, 9, 10, 34; tlic political re Jihaneharat (b'idvt tga(', 57. 55
subaltern histories, 2(1-37. Suba ¿terso
fvscum,21_ 37,93 defined 0v, 9-11; on tire prcpohtical, ]unes, Kenndh, 85, 89
Sruddzrand debates in modem 1 ud ian,
Fcbcrq 1_ucien. 9(1 9,11-12,14,15,"The frase of Jipa nt ar f ncsvspap e r. ll
-}-7; Subaltern Sutdier and reorienta
hlut 14(1 Counter ln watoes; 151n 21,on justlcc disrribu tivq 94 112; a' fa
rían of, 14- 16
Foueaulr, Tlidrel- on conlcss;nn and thc runutrs, 7 } and Gtbalt rn Srndies. xxi
Hnbhouse, L. 1., xix
modem SUbjece, 60; and mtique of 16; on vouuge eeneranonofhlsrori -
l Iobsbateni, Er¡e, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12
post Enlighrenntcne rationalism, 37, ans, 6 Kali, 26, 119, 134
homdessmss, che language (1!, 12(1-22
155n. 5; on discipline and goventmen Kadikatakamalalaya Q3andv' npadhvny 1,
taliry, 12, 32, 84, 159n. 7; on epi- Habermas , 1 ürgen, 37 127
identities-: fixed boundaries assumed for, Kalra, Dayawati, 143-44
demics and police, 76; genealogical Hacking, lan , 84, 86-87
94-95; memory and idenuty, 116;
method of, 31; and Spivak, 17 halla, 77 Kanwar, Ro-p, 42
proximiry versus identiry , 140, 142,
fragmentary, ehinking ehe , 17, 34-36 Harcourt, Max, 6 Kashmir, 91, 92 , 94, 141
143-48. Ser also ethniciry
Freitag, Sandria, 74 Hardiman, David, 6, 18 Kaviraj, Sudipta, 87-88
Hegel, Georg Willaelm Fricdrich, 26, 81, llcro, Rcy, 79 Keshub Sen, 109
imperialism. Ser colonialisna
Gallagher, John, 5 153n,16 khadi, 51-64 ; Bengalí nationalisms wcar-
"In Defense of ehe Fragment " ( Pandey),
Gandhi, Indira, 53, 93 Heidegger, Martín, 36, 37, 154n. 35 ing, 52-53 ; corruption associated
17 with, 53; Gandhi popularisang, 52;
Gandhi, Mohandas : and Ambedkar on Henningham , Stdphen, 6
India. Anglophilia in, 42; Banaras , 66, 68,
Gaste, 39; in anti-imperial movement, Hill, Christopher, 7 Nehru on, 53 ; politieians wearing, 52-
71, 78; Bombay , 65-66; British intro-:
6; autobiography of, 60-61; the bode Hinduism : as administrativa category, 88, 55, 62 - 64; purirv symhohzcd by, 52
ducing modern stare in, 83 ; capitalisni
and destruetion of tire privare he, 58- 89; in ccnsus data , 85; festivals in Ben- King, Anthonv, 73
in, xxi - xx!¡; centralizing tendencies in,
62; un character, 59; on communal- gali villages , 133; Hegel on, 81; kinship, 96 , 108, 133, 145-46
93; cultural nationalism in, xxi; as
¡sm, 86; as critica¡ traditionalist for Hindu- Muslim conflict , 81, 82, 117, IGshwar, Madhu , 156nn. 17, 21, 159n 6
democracy, xix, xxii; dirt and disorder
Nandy, 40; and critique ofpost- 134, 141 - 47; Indian intellectuals as Iuostermaier , Klaus, 81
associated with , 65, 66, 76; govem-
Enlightenment rationalism , 37; on bis- hosule tu, 25 ; modern public sphere knowledge , posttnodern critique of, 17-
mental roots of modern ethnicity, 80-
tory, 41; khadi popularized by, 52; on affecting, 83; Mukherji ' s "A Dying 18
97; historiographic paradigm shift of
mear eating , 58-59; modemity of, 62; Race" on, 89 ; nationalism as culturally Kumar, Kapil, 6
Subaltern Studieg 7 - 14; khadi and the
on nonviolence , 59-60; on selfishness Hindu, 92; and Partition of Bengal, Kmnar, Nita, 68 , 69, 75, 78-79
political tiran in, 51 - 64; tiren dominat-
of Inflan , 67,76; on sexuality, 59- 116-48; proximiry and idcntity of
ing politics of, 55; moderníry of, xxii,
61, 156n. 21; on universal love, 112, Hindus and Muslims, 140 , 142, 143- Laird, Michael, 24
27-28; open space as used in, 65-79;
114 48; religious persecution by, 82-83; as - Lakshmi,69 ,74, 136
Partition , xxiii; peasant revolts in
Ganesh, 39, 74 supersdrion tu colonialists , 24-25; in I.alitha, K., 28
British , 9-10; the pulitical defined
Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar, 149n. 1 Swadeshi movemenr , 23. See adra caste language: as basis for ethniclty. 86, 89; di-
with raspee[ to, 8-11, 19; population
garbage. Ser rubhish ( garbage) svstem; Hindu Right vergir' of Indian, 92
growth since Independence , 92; puhlic
Ghalib, 76 11indu Righ t , on ilienafion of lidian sec- Latour, Bruno, 149n- 2
health in, 77, 158n . 51; religion and
Gora ( Pagorc), 40 ular intellectuals , 25; Bisarativa Janata law, social intervcntion through, 111- 14
politics in, 22-24, 26-27; subaltern
governmenr Foucault on governmcntal- l'arty, 92, 141; ¢itiques of Enhghten- I efhbvre, Heuu, 148
classes in, xix - xx; Subalteru Studies
ity, 12, 32, 84, 159n . 7; and tneas'ure- mcnr rationalsm and, 21, 37; Muslims Levinas, Fmmanuel, 112, 113
and debates in modern Itistory of, 4-7;
ment, 83 - 84, 94; modem practices in and Chris[ians fcaring, 92-93; politics 1.1u, Ledo, 37
traditional practices in, 38 -47; uniry
India, 83-91 ; social intervcntion and religion mixed bv, 22 Locality, Province, and Naerou (Gal4,1g1cr,
of, 92; violente in, xxii, xxiii . Ser aíro
through late, 111-14; thestate as hlstoticism, 14, 16 5ohnson, and Sea!), 5
Bengal
founded on violente, 102, 112 histore, 1-47; British introducing ¡ rito li- Low, D. A., 4
India: A Miílion Mutinier Now (Naipaul),
Gramsci, Antonio , 7, 34, 35 dia, 56; criticisms of discipline of, xxi,
65-66,67,81-82
Guha, Ranajit on eolonialism , 13-14; in xxiii ; as democratic dialogue with tire Madntyre, Alasdair, 101
Indian National Congress, 6, 93
critique of European forms of knowl- subaltern , 33-37; explanation In, 117, Mahabharata, 57
Indumati, 106 - 7, 108,113
edge, 17; on dominancewithouthege- 119; Hegel on Hindus lackjng , 81; bis- Malabari, B. M., 102
in-hum 'anitv, 142
mony, xxii, 14; on domination and toriograph ie paradigm shifr of Subal-
170 / INDEX
INDEX / 171
Manto, Saadat Hassan, 142 mothedand
, Bengal as, 121
Maoism, 7 Mouffe Oldenberg, Veena Talwar, 76 postcolonial studies: Dirlik 's critique of, 3;
,
Marxism : capitalism and power fused by, Mughals,Chantal,
84
95, 96
open space ( outside )r caste system and, 75;
postcolonial critique as posmationalist,
13; and dependency thcory, 32; Gram - as exciting , 76; Indian use of, 65-79; 17; Subaltern Studier and, 14, 18, 19
Mukherji, U. N., 89
seis dialogic , 34; and history - as necding to be Lamed , 76; protection postmodernism , 17-18, 21
from- multiculmralism, 91, 92
below approach , 7, 8, 16; Indian na- Muslim League required in , 73-74; rubbish rhrown Prakash, Gyan, 17, 152n. 46
, 135, 136
tionalists using, 4; on peasant revolts, Muslims : ourside, 67 - 68, 76, 79; streets, 71, prejudices , values and , 136-37
as administradve category, 88 73, 75, 77. See also bazaars
9, 10; un postmodernism , 18 ; ora re li - premodern, the, xix, 14
gion, 25; Subaltern Studiesand, 3, 7, 89; and British communalist poliey , 85 , Orientalism, 81 prepolitical consciousness , 9,11-12,14,15
10,21 86; Hindu-Muslim conflict, 81, 82, Ostor, Akos, 72, 73
117,134,141- 47; and Parrtion of privacy, 61-62, 77
Mavaram, Shail , 17, 152n. 46 othering, 141 privare sphere, 95, 96
Bengal,116 , 121,122, 124, 133-37;
measurement , government and, 83-84, Other Side nf Silence, The (Buralia), 141 progress , xix, 90
94 proximiry and identity ofHindus and, omside , Ser open space (outside)
140, 142, 143- 48; rulers opposed to "Prose of Counter [ nsurgency, The"
medieval, che, xx
sati, 104 (Guha), 151n. 21
Meghnadbadh Kavya ( Durr), 57 Pallisamaj (Chatterjee), 129-30 Provincializing Europe (Chakrabarry),
melar 71, 76 Pandee Gyanendra: cal¡ to remember of, xxm-xiv
Naipaul, V. S ., 65-66, 67, 81-82
memory : history contrasted with, 115, 143; The Construerion ofCommunal- proximiry, versus identity, 140, 142, 143-
Nandy, Ashis, 38-47 ; critica ¡
119; and identity, 116; of Partidon in traditional- ism in Colonial North India , 17; "In
ism of, 39-40, 42 , 43, 46; ora dark side 48
Bengal, 115 - 48; as potentially danger- Defense of che Fragment," 17; on public health : capitalism requiring, 77;
of cultures, 45; decisionism of, 39, 41;
ous, 143; as talking cure , 143; of nonfoundationalist history, 152n. 46; epidemic control, 76; Gandhi's con-
history criticized by, xxiii, 40-41; as
trauma, 116; ofviolence , 141-45 on Partirion , 140, 141; and posmation- cern with, 59 , 62; in India , 77, 158n.
modern, 41 ; modernity criticized by,
Menon, Rin,, 140, 141, 142, 143-44 alist critique , 17, 151n. 30; on reac- 51; as modero concern, 66
xxi, 41; on sati , 42-45; Traditiong
middle elass: bhadralok , 101, 119, 131, rionary side of narionalism , 6; Remem-
7Yranny, and Utopia, 44 public sphere: Hinduism and casto al-
16311. 27; growth and divcrsiry of In- bering Parcition, 141 fected by, 83; religion and morality ex-
narrative, social intervention through,
dian, 92 Pantalu, Viresalingam, 102
110-11,113-14 cluded from, 95, 96
Midnght's Children (Rushdie), 6, 29-30 Partition in Bengal, 115-48; as inexplica- Punalekar , S. P., 73, 74-75
narionalism : Bengali narionalisrs wearing
Mill, J. S., xix ble, 117-19; the languagc ofhome-
khadi, 52 - 53; and Bengalí villages, Punjab, 91
Mitra, Dinabandhu , 127-28 lessness, 120 -22; violence in, 116,
123-26; and bhakti, 122 ; Cambridgc
Mitra, Rajendralal, 26 141-45; women in, 116;141,142, racism: communalism as, 86; ethnic mobi-
Modern India (Sarkar), 28 historiaras ora, 5, 6; Chandra on, 6; ora
144 lization and , 93; fixed ethnic categories
characrer, 58; and colonialism seco as
modernity : accounting mind-set in, 85; Panel, Kamlaben, 142
interdependent , 5, 14; cultural , xxi; as required by, 96; Indians denying, 82
British introducing modern state in In- Patherpanchali (Bandyopadlryay), 130 Rahcia, Gloria Goodwin, 70
culmrally Hindu in India, 92; on dirt
dia, 83; colonizing drive in , 32; cri- peasants : cirizenship granted to , 19; docu- Ramanujan , A. K., 20, 153n. 13
and disorder of India, 76 - 77; Indian
tiques of, xxi , 37; defining , xix, xx; rbentary evidente not Ie& by, 15; Ramayana, 57
Nacional Congress , 6,93; Marxism
dominarion in conversation with che modernity employed in struggles of, Ranade, M. G.,102
employed by, 4; and mass movements,
nonmodern , 29-30 ; forms of, xx; 30; religion and political action by, 22; rationalism : colonizing violence and, 32;
6; Subaltern Studies criticizing nation-
Gandhian, 62 ; Guha rejecting clear revolts by, 9-11, 34; rumor, in mobi- critiques of, 21-22, 37; hyper rational-
alas[ hi stor i ography, 7, 8, 14-15, 17
disnnction between P remodern and, lization of, 74; in transition to capital- ism and che colonial modem , 22-29;
Natianalist Thnught ,d k,, Colonial
14; hyperrationalism and rho colonial World ism, 10-12, 19; violence in making in- and religion , 25, 153n. 10; subaltern
( Chatterjee), 17
modern, 22-29 ; of India, xxii , dividuals of, 32
27-28; nationalitg ethniciry and, 91-97 histories and post- Enlightenment, 20-
in nationalist historiography , 14; prac- Peasants into Frenchmen (Weber), 15 37. See also reason
tices of,49 - 97; scicntific oudook asso Nation andrlts Fragmenta,The(Chattcr-
Pedamma, 70, 71 Rawls, John, 95, 96, 160n-25
- ice), 17
ciated with , pluralism, 90 , 91, 94, 95, 96
25; and subaltern dase,, Naxalite movement, 7 Ray, Anilbaran, 53
xix-xx; as superstrucmre to capiral¡sr political, che che ethical as situatcd in,
Nchru, Jawaharlal , 6, 53, 85-86, 93 Ray, Dinendranath, 163n. 27
base, 27; aire¡ tradicional practices , 147-48; khadi and che political man, Ray, Jahar, 140
38- Nicholas , Ralph, 71
47; violence 51-64; politics pfdifference, 141-48;
accompanying xxi, 31- nominalism, dynamie, 86-87 Ray, Saryajit, 163n. 24
32,44 prepolitical consciousdess , 9, 11-12,
nonmodern , the, xix, xx, 29-30 Raychaudhuri, Tapan, 57-58, 150n. 10
mohalla, 70 14, 15; religion and politics, 22-24,
nonviolence, 59-60 reason: emotion opposed to , 24, 26; un-
Mohun Bagan Club, 139 26-27; subaltenu as political actors, reasonable origins of, 29-32. See a/o
Monier- Wllliams, Sir Monier, 120 Norris, Christopher, 21
8-11, 19,22 narionalism
Morris , ea M h 1"s o n
9 ara, political philosophy : practica ) mili,, of
, 31 O'Donnell, M. J. C., 89 "Reconciliation and lis Historiography:
Morris, Morris David, 4 Lefa-liberal, 33; translating categories
O'Hanlon, Rosalind, 17 Some Preliminary Thoughts"
of, xxii-xxiii (Chakrabarty ), 153n. 50
INDI / '173
172 / IN ➢ FX
goesduns lacking in, 17; historio- oliesen developmcnr Ihurdcs, I I
Seal, Anll, 4, 5,9 10 l dnetvr <fLalifinma Slntn ( . n v , " I l i s -
refupees, Bergali words f ir, 120 g r a p h i c 1 gndigm sl,itt ol --14; on
vlarrvm 93 t... otC nsaousnes pa gr.^m, 21
r ltnvisnl, adtural, 21 world, 4 4 ; subaltern' rtc2e h^l .40, 85 86
religi an Bength village seco tssacred, Sdrered Snholrrrn Sttidiu Kluha and Spi- curld, \tarzism md, 7, 10,,31; ....
121 22, 1 36; liuddhisna 3682, in 16 l- narlnitali r historiogr tphs cnucited ho. winntion-60.68
cutsusdata 80, dharma,] Jams, 82; Dinc h Ion ra 163n. 2-
124, 7, 8, 14 1 L sine 1968- 16-19,
liberaldcrnocraricc regimes as agnostic Sen, Mrinal 145-47 , 18, 19, values I r 1 üe s and, 136-37
and pc t c Ic mal scu líes 14
elmeerníng 9b, M arxi st rol canon of, evuaCty, C andlai n 59 61 , 1 S6n- 21 rcading emphasized ln, 16; and re- l'idra tg 1 varchandnL 5S_ 102,
25; and polio s, 22 24, 26-27: ratio Shastri, Hara rasad, 124 oncnta n fhisan v, l4-I6,small 103, 1041553-10
nalism and 25, 153n - 10, u<ularisna, Sh erring, \l. A., 66 histor at 3-19; transeending poim nf villages 1 ngalr St liengali sdln s
93, Sikhs- 4 141 sollo religious Siddigi, Alajid_ 6 deparanc if, 33; unorthr,dox povric n violen accumpans ing m 1 non nr_
communines S., , al), Secalso Hin- Sikhs, 85, 141 on 1 ct( os, 16 31 32. 44; in s 1 nnlsm, 1 I f rgcr
duism; Musltms; rituals Singh, Bir Bahadur, 140 ting 1-13; Gandhi on nonv oler e..
snbject , ti,,, 17, 60, 62 agamst hilillo Bengalí
Remembering Partition (Pandee), 141 Siraj-ud-daulah, 56 - S7 , 22-23,24,26-27, 59 60,
S,adcshi movcmcnt
Aire and Growth ofEconomic Nationalirm Sitala, 71 125, 129 refugees, 116; Hindo religiotu pcrse-
in India, The (Chandra), 4 Skaria, Ajay, 17 cntion , 82-83; in India , xxü, xxd1, 91;
Swadethi Mopement i n Bengal, 'rho
Smith, Preserved, 25 ), 22 (nhumamty ofcollective, 142; memo-
rituals : of auspiciousness , 70; of enclosure, (Sarkar
74; meaning of, 54, 63; ofwidow- Social Background of Indian Nacional am ries of, 141 -45; casing Partition nf
xxi, dar
hood,106 (Desai), 4 , 43, 44, 163n. 27 Bengal, 116, 141- 45; popular ,
Tagore, Abanindranath founded on, 102, 112
Robertson, Geoffrey, 91, 160n. 22 social justice , 36, 102 state a,
Tagore, Rabindranath : Bangladcshi na-
Rofel, Lisa, 149. 1 social reform, law versus narratiee in, 101- , 135-36; on Vívckamnda, Swami, ;758
[ional anthem as song of
Romantics, 37 14
Bengalí villages , 113-14, 127, 128,
social science , translating categoties of, 128-29; Weber, Eugen, 15, 31, 32, 37
Rousseau , jean Jacques, 85 130, 131; Chhinrnapatrabali ,
Rog Beth, 145 xxii-xxnt , Wcllesley, Lord, 66, 77
on fiction and social improvement
Ros', Rammohun, 25,102, 104,105 Sume Trouhle wieh Cows (Roy), 145 40; Nandy tan, 40; and Ro- Whitehead, Henry, 70
111; Gora, , 43, 44, ,,dows: affecnon and protection w'ith-
rubbish ( garbage ), household rubbish, 69- .Soundinat in Modcrn South Arias Hiatory
ntantie nadonalism , 37; on sati
70; as thrown outside, 67-68, 76, 79 , 111 drawn from, 107-10, 112, 161n. 10;
(Low'), 4 45; widows in works of
Spengemann , William, 61 14; in patriarchal
rumors, 74, 76 Tallo, hirma, 52 cruelty co, 101-
Rupashi Bangla (Das), 130, 1627.23 Spivak, Gayatri, 17, 18 ,142 myrhs, 105; remardage for,1(14, 111;
Thapar, Krishna
Rushdie, Salman : making Indian intellec- Sri íanka, 141 Thapar, 1 rltuals of, 106; sati, 38 , 40, 42-45,
7, 2
tual ferment visible to outsiders, 65; Standing , Hilary, 157n. 16 , 28 102-3, 104; testimonies of, 105-L0;
Tharu, Susie, 1 7
Midnight's Children, 6, 29-30; The statistics, 84-85 vulnerahility of, 106, 109
thingification, 142
Satanie Verses, 80, 82, 91, 92, 93 Stoddart, Brian, 6 "Woman in the Red Raincoat, The"
Thomas, Keith, 15
strangers , 70, 72- Tho E. P., 3, 7, 8, 15, l6, 151nn. (Manto), 142
, 144; mothcrs-
sacred, the , 121-22, 136 streets, 71 , 73, 75, 77 35 women : abduacd women
3 2, 35 Miehael, 68 as nodal points in kinship structure,
SadhabarEkadasht ( Mitra ), 127-28 subaltern classcs: documentary evidente
Thompson, 146; in Pardnon ofBengal , 116, 141,
Said, Edward, 16,18 not left bv, 15; domestic servants, 146;
torture, 142 rostitutes, 71, 74; and ritu-.
historlography of, 8; history as demo- t, 142, 144 =P
Sanval, Histesranjan, 6 tra diodo : and all - pas 4 , 43 46;
Saraswad , Swami Davanand, 25 cradc dialogue e•ith, 33-37: as inca- 42, 43, 46;
re- als ofauspicíousucss , 70. Si',' alro wíd-
rradídonalism, 399-4Q,
Sarkar, Sumir. on critiques ofEnlighten- pable of thinking the state , 34-35; in-
speet for , 43-44, 46 oses India (Tharu and
ment rationalism , 21, 37; on Indian tervening with our knowledge for, 78- i Nandy), W
Tradicione, Tyranny, and Utopia
secular intellcctuals and religion, 25; 79; logies of hierarchy and oppression O I eso arl , 28 t
44
on Indias moderno, as incomplete, of, 10; and modernity, xix-xx; arad the
trauma, memory of, 116
28; Modern India , 28; on religion and poliitical, 8-11,19, 22; post-Enlight- The(Norris), 21 Zizek, Slavoj, 63
Truthofl' ostmodernism ,
polidcs, 22-24, 26-27; Subaltesm enment rationalism and histories of,
Studiescriticized by, xxiii, 21-22; The 20-37; tendency to unification in, 35.
Swadeshi Movernent in Bengal, 22 Ser also peasants
Sartori, Andrew, 26 Subaltern Studier series : criticisms of, 17-
Sartre, Jean - Paul, 142 18, 21; and cultural nationalism, xxi;
Satanie Verse, 77,e (Rushdie ), 80, 82, 91, current posidon of, 18; and debates in
92,93 modern Indian historv, 4-7 ; and dc-
sati, 38, 40, 42-45, 102-3, 104 construcnonism and posrmodernism,
scheduled castos, 86, 87, 88 17-18; 1Jidik's critique of 3: gender