Papers by Somjyoti Mridha
Caietele Echinox, 2024
A Passage to India (1924) by E. M. Forster is a significant modernist novel and emerged as a benc... more A Passage to India (1924) by E. M. Forster is a significant modernist novel and emerged as a benchmark for representing the colonial world. The novel is simultaneously embedded within the "ideologies of the Raj" and orientalist framework mediated with modernist ethos that determined the dynamics of representation. Forster challenges the certitudes of empire building and utilitarian values of Victorian and Edwardian England in crucial ways. This paper interrogates the contradictions in Forster's literary aesthetic of modernism and political ideology of imperialism. This paper also explores the conflicted relationship between the colonial state and Indian nationalism in the context of early twentieth century India.
Life in the Brackish Delta, 2023
Translation of Aparesh Mandal's short story Nonadanger Manush (Life in the Brackish Delta)
Journal of English Department, Vidyasagar University, 2023
Kashmiri Anglophone literature written in the aftermath of armed conflict in Kashmir valley has e... more Kashmiri Anglophone literature written in the aftermath of armed conflict in Kashmir valley has evolved as a significant corpus since 2002. Owing to Kashmir valley's status as a 'disputed integral', literary narratives from Kashmir contest/challenge the dominant ideological and discursive practices of the Indian nation state. Most of the Anglophone Kashmiri literary narratives, barring a few written by Kashmiri Pandit authors, are politically/ideologically supportive of the formation of a distinct 'Kashmiri' nation. Their accommodation within the larger rubric of Indian writing in English is possible only by accommodating dissent as a salient feature of the genre. This paper charts the trajectory of development of Anglophone Kashmiri literature and situates them within the broader rubric of Indian writing in English. It engages with seminal questions such as, what constitutes Kashmiri Anglophone literature or how contesting identity/ nationalist discourses constitute distinct genres of national/regional literatures. Though Anglophone Kashmiri literature emerged in the twenty-first century, they accord considerable narrative space to the foundational moment of cartographic reorganization of the Indian sub-continent. This paper critically engages with the representation of political events of 1947 as narrated in recent Anglophone Kashmiri literary narratives like Curfewed Night (2008) by Basharat Peer, The Collaborator (2011) by Mirza Waheed, Our Moon has Blood Clots (2013) by Rahul Pandita and The Half-Mother (2014) by Shahnaz Bashir. The paper dissects the narration of the 'Kashmiri' nation contra Indian nation in these literary narratives. The paper endeavours to cull out a 'Kashmiri' perspective on discourses foregrounding Indian nationhood within these literary narratives, thereby exploring the possibilities of accommodating dissent within the ambit of Indian writing in English.
The Meghalayan (Newspaper), 2022
Reclaiming the nationalist credential of early Indian English Poetry.
This paper interrogates the construction of the Kashmiri Pandit community as a Marginal/Minority ... more This paper interrogates the construction of the Kashmiri Pandit community as a Marginal/Minority community in the context of the conflict situation in Kashmir and their subsequent exodus. The paper primarily draws upon the recent Kashmiri Pandit literary narratives published in the aftermath of the conflict.
The IACLALS Journal, 2019
Recent literary representations of Kashmir conflict have been ideologically bifurcated along nati... more Recent literary representations of Kashmir conflict have been ideologically bifurcated along national/religious/regional lines. Most literary narratives cater to socio-political constituencies which their authors represent, symbolizing the polarization of Kashmiri society since the 1990's. Literary narratives have either consciously or unconsciously, emerged as propaganda tools for validating communally motivated perspectives on Kashmir conflict. Apart from theoretically engaging with the concept of 'Post-Truth', this paper addresses the problems of representing an ongoing conflict, establishing "Post-Truth" as the aesthetic-political condition which facilitated literary renderings of Kashmir conflict in the last decade. This paper also engages with the utility/relevance of literature in the contemporary world and challenges the commonsensical notion that literature or the humanities somehow challenges or acts as an antidote to "Post-Truth".
DUJES (Dibrugarh University Journal of English Studies), 2021
The paper proposes to engage with two postwar British novels Kingfishers Catch Fire (1953) by Rum... more The paper proposes to engage with two postwar British novels Kingfishers Catch Fire (1953) by Rumer Godden and The Kashmir Shawl(2011) by Rosie Thomas and explore the politics of representing colonialism and its demise in the context of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Though Kashmir wasn't a part of the British territories in India, it came within the ambit of British hegemony under the Dogra regime and its representation is marked by typical colonial mindset since the mid-nineteenth century. The primary objective of the paper is to provide a postcolonial reading of these two novels in order to deconstruct their inherent colonial bias and decode the cultural politics of the 'persistence of Empire' in postwar British literature. The paper will focus on the cultural politics of representing Kashmir and its people within the larger narrative of Empire and its imminent dissolution. It is evident from these narratives that in spite of their 'good intentions', all the British characters expose their sense of superiority and social one-upmanship in their interaction with Kashmiris. These narratives written in the aftermath of the Second World War and the dismemberment of the British Empire in South Asia play a crucial role by evoking nostalgia for the Raj during a period when British influence in the international arena was on the wane. This paper will also explore the cultural politics of nostalgia for the Raj in the context of these two novels.
Cerebration: The Literary Journal, 2020
The paper looks at the politics of representation undertaken by the Netflix movie Bulbbul. The pr... more The paper looks at the politics of representation undertaken by the Netflix movie Bulbbul. The primary focus of the paper is to dissect the ideological bias in the representation of colonial Bengal.
Yendai, 2018
A very basic overview of the Kashmir Situation.
DUJES, Dibrugarh University Journal of English Studies, 2019
The Paper interrogates the dynamics of cinematic representation of Kashmir Conflict taking into a... more The Paper interrogates the dynamics of cinematic representation of Kashmir Conflict taking into account movies from Bollywood and beyond.
The NEHU Journal, 2015
This paper primarily engages with Kashmir Pandit narratives that have transpired after the commun... more This paper primarily engages with Kashmir Pandit narratives that have transpired after the community was evicted from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990's. The outbreak of armed struggle for Azadi in Kashmir in the 1990's led to the complete breakdown of the social fabric of Kashmir. Indiscriminate attacks on prominent Kashmiri Pandits and creation of a general atmosphere of fear and intimidation finally forced the Pandits to leave the valley. Based on select narratives exploring the themes of identity, belonging and exile of the Kashmiri Pandits, this paper proposes to examine the politics of these narratives in the context of the Hindu fundamentalist discourses among the Kashmiri Pandits.
Books by Somjyoti Mridha
The Poetics and the Politics of kashmiriyat: A Study of Mirza Waheed's The Collaborator and The Book of Gold Leaves, 2021
This volume studies the representation of religion in South Asian Anglophone literature of the tw... more This volume studies the representation of religion in South Asian Anglophone literature of the twentieth and twenty-frst centuries. It traces the contours of South Asian writing through the consequences of the complex contesting forces of blasphemy and secularization. Employing a cross-disciplinary approach, it discusses various key issues such as religious fundamentalism, Islamophobia, religious majoritarianism, nationalism, and secularism. It also provides an account of the reception of this writing within the changing conceptions of racial "Others" and cultural difference, particularly with respect to minority writers, in terms of ethnic background and lack of access to social mobility. The volume features chapters on key texts, including The Hungry Tide, The Enchantress of Florence, In Times of Siege, One Part Woman, Anil's Ghost, The Book of Gold Leaves, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, The Black Coat, and Swarnalata, among others. An important contribution to the study of South Asian literature, the book will be indispensable for students and researchers of literary studies, religious studies, cultural studies, literary criticism, and South Asian studies.
Book Reviews by Somjyoti Mridha
Scroll, 2022
Book Review of The Black Magic Woman by Moushumi Kandali
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Papers by Somjyoti Mridha
Books by Somjyoti Mridha
Book Reviews by Somjyoti Mridha