INTELLECTUAL ACTIVISM DE NOVO PERCEPTIONS ---LITERATURE, LIFE AND LAW

TASKS OF WRITERS-ARTISTS-INTELLECTUALS IN THE TIMES OF HINDUTVA FASCISM [With the unleashing of reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here. ]

"The argument of this essay is that identity—individual, moral, and political—is a formation of reason. I reject the Kantian view that a universal and impartial reason is called for. Rather, drawing on Indian theory, my claim will be that identities are fashioned from exercises of reason as derivation from exemplary cases, that it is the extrapolation from what I will call “local norms” which is distinctive of the rational formation of identity. For a book-length treatment, see my "Identity as Reasoned Choice" My working assumption is that contemporary debates about global governance and cosmopolitan identities can benefit from resources drawn from Indian discussion of public and practical reason, resources that have been developed in circumstances of intercultural pluralism and with an emphasis on consensual resolution of conflict. One of my aims is to demonstrate that parties with conceptions of the good defined by religious affiliation can nevertheless enter into an overlapping consensus. Recent themes in the recent work by Amartya Sen are examined and developed."

Resistance Literature: Theory and Praxis, 2020

Literature can be viewed as an access to spaces beyond our ultimate intellectual excavation which can dramatise our numbness, our subjugation in an act of resistance. The subaltern writers—systematically segregated from the ‘centre’— ‘pathetically plead’ to present the unsung personalities in their own works. Rather, they take initiative to resist the empirical exclusion of the marginal personalities by giving them representation in their literary genre. Such is the case with Mahasweta Devi, the renowned Indian Bengali fiction writer and socio-political activist. The present chapter tries to explore some outstanding literary works of Mahasweta Devi include Hajar Churashir Maa, Rudali, and Aranyer Adhikar in the light of resistance literature.

Better is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled‖ (The Buddha) Bhakti movement in India has been a path-breaking phenomenon that provided a solid shape and an identifiable face to the abstractions with the help of vernacular language. As a religious movement, it emphasized a strong personal and emotional bond between devotees and a personal God. It has come from the Sanskrit word Bhaj-‗to share'. It began as a tradition of devotional songs, hagiographical or philosophical-religious texts which have generated a common ground for people of all the sects in the society to come together. As counterculture, it embraced into its fold all sections of people breaking the barriers of caste, class, community, and gender. It added an inclusive dimension to the hitherto privileged, exclusivist, Upanishadic tradition. It has provided a very critical outlook on contemporary Brahminical orthodoxy and played a crucial role in the emergence of modern poetry in India.

Journal of Oriental Research Madras, 2021

The present paper basically deals with the historical introduction to literary protest and its theorization with respect to various literary theories. This I have tried to understand through a study of Kashmiri language literature of modern times. In order to fathom the meaning of a text in its true essence, it is necessary to analyze the text in its proper historical and social context. I have tried to understand the significance of the Kashmiri works that I came across during the period of my research through a Marxian approach. Terry Eagleton’s Marxism and Literary Criticism has proved significant for me to understand a text and the meaning behind it. I am trying to ascertain how the local literature depicted the political overtures of the period under study. In absence of the press until early 1930s, it remained the prerogative of the literati to subtly at some time and overtly at other times, respond to the different political developments of that period. The lack of advancement in press and print media also was responsible for the lack of development in many forms of literature like novel and short story.

This is our second joint introduction from the 2014 Sanglap issue (Vol 2: Issue 1) on Democracy, Resistance and the Practice of Literature.

Anglisticum, 2019

s we all know marginalized classes are those classes which have been considered as people of lesser importance by other groups those are in power or consider themselves superiors to them. When it comes to India then there are certain classes which are considered as marginalized i.e., Dalits, tribal. This list also includes, women and transgender. From time to time there have been debates on Dalits and other marginalized classes in the Indian social-political milieu and which keeps on going in the contemporary scenario as well. The word 'Dalit' is derived from Sanskrit word dalita that means 'oppressed'. If we take account of the Indian socio-cultural context then we see that 'dalits' refers to the untouchables and people below the three castes: Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vaishya and who have a long history of living. These people, who are called as Dalits in the Indian society have a history of being lived in subjugation under the high-classes of the Indian society. So they have been a marginalized, downtrodden and subaltern group from centuries. The fact is that if we discuss the term, 'marginalized classes' then India, being a patriarchal society then women also come in the category and they have been subjugated since centuries. One of the class which has very less discussed in history is the term 'transgender' which also need attention as it is also one of the most deprived one.In my paper, I am trying to discuss various writers and reformers who have given their lives for the noble cause of uplifting these marginalized classes in India.

Indian English Literature written during the pre-independence period and post-independence period is the representation of its periods, where more or less the writers penned down the social issues in their writings. Writers of every genre are the representatives of their age. Some worth mentioning authors of the contemporary period to be mentioned here like Salman Rushdie, Kamala Markandaya, Arundhati Roy, Mulk Raj Anad, Anita Desai, Manju Kapoor and many more of the contemporary literature who represents the age through their specific works. Their writing deals with the major issues of the society of every age. That is why the literature of earlier times cast a new picture of socio-political thought to the modern itself. Today our society faces tremendous problem under the influence of politics and power, which makes the innocent people its ladder to climb and to have the ripe fruit of development, and this issue directly or indirectly pepped out in the writings of the contemporary writers too. In this paper an attempt will be made to study the same in the writings of the Booker award winner, Arundhati Roy, for her debut novel "The God of Small Things". The study will critically analyze the major issues of the contemporary society upheld by the author to make her readers aware of the same, whereas it will also seek out the answer for it"s the power of the capitalist or the discourse of the dominating rule over our country that still persists in the form of socio political issues. The study will take into account her all short stories, essays, interviews etc. besides the novel that makes her more to be an activist rather than a mere novelist.

Asiatic, 2013

In this paper our analysis focuses on theorising "dissent" as a philosophical-political "moment" and studying the voice of "dissent" through the writings of Arundhati Roy. We argue through a close reading of Roy's texts that dissent is intrinsic to human thoughts and dialogues. Taking our cue from Robert Barsky's study of Noam Chomsky's life as a "life of dissent" and from Brian Martin's paper "Advice for the Dissident Scholar," in Thought and Action, Vol. 14, we argue that the term dissent is set in a complex interplay of multiple subjectivities. A dissenting voice is looked upon as a voice that goes against, rather than with the established norms of the society, and in extreme cases, is fiercely opposed. Taking these theoretical premises further into a praxical mode, we analyse Arundhati Roy's non-fictional works, and bring out the element of dissent, which is implicitly present in each of her essays. Roy's dissent, mainly political in nature, usually takes the form of scathing criticism -the expression of which is fearless and forthright. Our interpretation of Roy's works is in connection with the impact and the substantiality of her dissent.

India's intellectual discourse has been victim of secular communal binary and uses parameters and ideological frameworks of the Western intellectuals.