The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness

Dullah Sahib,

You seem to have difficulties with understanding qualifiers. My response was that state university faculty has traditionally maintained a critical stance of governmental policies. That is exactly the point of a democratic and secular education. This is why on one hand Sharon Olds can teach at a state uni, but REFUSE an invitation to read at the White House.

That is one gray area you have done your best to avoid acknowledging.

#100 so you do agree that there are institutions funded by governments that hire left leaning intellectuals and let them work for betterment of marginalized communities. Thank you. That is what many of us has been trying to say for 100 posts. As for ``....federal govt continues to try to cut the programs, funding...`` I can bet there are millions of people in India and some in federal govt of India that did not want this award be given to AR...similarily like feds try to cut...indian govt probably tried to not give award to AR. Goodness persists along with evil. That has been my point all along.

it may be unconvincing to you because you are already convinced of your self-righteousness and us/our being better than them paradigm. If there is difference between situation described by you and AR case, it is only difference between getting recognized with one time meagre amount of few thousand ruppes versus making ones livelyhood of a government funded institution for life.

Dulla Sahib,


Most of academia critiques government policy-this is one characteristic that distinguishes a ``democracy``-free speech. Public universities have to a great extent, hired and tenured the talented left leaning students of the sixties. These intellectuals have developed the movements that distinguish higher learning today-our mission statement IS to DIRECTLY empower the largest numbers of marginalized communities in the US. The analogy you are making to PUBLIC US STATE UNIS and the Sahitya Award is unconvincing because the federal govt continues to try to cut the programs, funding and services that are involved in teaching literacy to marginalized citizenry. The faculty are quite cognizant of this battle, thank you.

Sadna,

I understand your point. I`ll see if I can research writers who have accepted and refused the award and see if they have commented on their decisions.

The whole argument is on wrong premise. it assumes that all branches, organziations and institutions associated with a national government are equally evil and each one of them share the blame for others. Truth is far from this. While branch A of a govt can be totally cruel and anti-people, another branch B may be most justful in the world. We see it all the time, if it were not so, it would be hard for Samina to live under a Bush regime, be gainfully employed, eat and live healthy.

Same is true about the Indian case. I agree with AR that many of the policies of Indian government and many of its actions have been anti-people(or some people), many parts of this Govt are corrupt and it needs million improvements in its policy and work it does, but that does not mean there are not parts of it..or institutions funded by it that are not doing good in India.

Samina`s thinking is all black and white and refuses to see the grey shades even though they may be just under her own chin. I asked her a hypothetical question and she refuses to answer it in her diabolical rhetoric about anti-establishment..or even give an hypthetical answer. She thinks AR has been the only first and last revolutionary ever took birth in India.

There are over 25 languages and hundreds of writers associated with Akademi...some of these have spent their lives struggling against Government policies and continue to do so. Have written not one novel or 2/3 books but many dozens of books about the people they live amongst. Point is when they accepted Akademi awards they did not accept it because of money or it is given by Indian govt but because it has become a symbol of recognition by the country...a literary tradition of Indian writers. It is not a Govt Akademi but an Indian Akademi...if money is coming from Government budget, it is afterall money of Indian people. In AR`s case money is not the issue either, she could take and distribute the money away to poor beggers just outside the akademi building in less than half an hour.

Saminasha #96
I am not that concerned about Arundhati Roy` choice to accept or reject the award. My layman`s view is that the Akademi is likely to keep her award for her until one day she accepts it. So she will get her point and they will get theirs as well. These give and takes happen in a free society and she is part of it.

The misrepresentation of the Sahitya Akademi is what bothers me more. To call it pro-repression in its intent is going much too far, according to me.

Sadna,

But clearly you recognize that the decision to accept or turn down an award is based on several factors. We could go down the list of recipients who have refused the Sahitya Award and research what their reasons were.

all the best!

Saminasha#92
I don`t know the answers to those. You tell me how many of those things has the Sahitya Akademi done? If you ignore everything being told to you about the Sahitya Akademi by many posters here, what can I do?

Saminasha #89

The Indian situation is much more complex than the American one, in case you haven`t noticed. In India traditionally the arts and crafts flourished because of royal or temple patronage.

Post-independence, the government has stepped in to fill the gap and prevent these arts and crafts from disappearing altogether. This has been part of reasserting ourselves after being under foreign rule. India is essentially a poor country where purchasing power is poor and if govt puts Indians` own taxpayer money into these things, it is only acting as an instrument of the people`s aspirations about their own language and culture when it does so.

As for the answers to your questions -

Must a writer accept an award given by a governmental institution that has been responsible for destructive polices levelled against innocent citizen populations?

The said government institution the Sahitya Akademi is not engaged in destruction, it is engaged in constructive work.


Does an award given to artists coming from communities marginalized by national govt. policies have legitimacy to those artists and communities? Why or why not?

It does have legitimacy in that its recognition of marginalized communities means that the national govt. is acknowledging their marginalization, trying to end their marginalization and bring them into the mainstream.

Does the awarding of marginalized artists lead to the co-opting of their (in Roy`s case) social criticism? What does canonization confer?


Mahasweta Devi has worked with marginalized tribal communities and her Jnanpith Award was taken as a recognition of her work, and of the marginalized she worked with. Whether she chose to be coopted after she was awarded is/was her own choice as it will be Arundhati Roy`s.

To what extent is a governmental institution become legitmized by the artists they award viz the larger institutional policies of marginalization

I don`t understand why you say that an insitution publishing literature and giving awards to writers constitutes legitimization of marginalization.

You are also mistaken in giving too much significance to a honor which btw is being conferred on her not the reverse. You might not know about it but the Sahitya Akademi needs no legimitization from Ms Roy.

In India the bigger the problem you talk about, the more important for you become part of the solution instead of eternally bellyaching. If a govt-funded institution. gives you recognition or opportunity, on what basis do you shun it if you really care to be an instrument of change? Leave aside an award which basically only confers recognition and respect for what you have been saying. Suppose tomorrow Ms Roy is offered a position in the Akademi, what would you tell her to do?

``I do not believe in this ‘Arundhati Roy – right or wrong’ attitude. I am glad I can admire her literary qualities and agree with many of the issues she stands for and yet question her refusal of this award. ``

This is the most common-sensical, politically unbiased perspective.

Sadna,


In the spirit of interrogation:

1. How many assasinations has Doubleday sponsored?

2. Has Doubleday funded the imprisonment and torture of marginalized or dissenting writers?

3. Has Doubleday refused the inclusion of marginalized Indian citizen writers into publishing based on their identities or writing skills and marketability? Which is worse?

4. Does Doubleday have a publically stated mission statement that explicates their publishing policies?

5. How many marginalized, imprisoned, and tortured writers has Doubleday published?

6. How many South Asian dissident women writers has Doubleday published?

7. Is the consumption of texts penned by these writers indicative as acceptance of social criticism against the government of India?

Sadna,

Well done! I am glad to discuss this with an equal, lol!

Let me go all anti-colonial on Ms Roy and Saminasha :).

``Who is helping along the interrogating of the illegitimate establishment, those trying to preserve the diversity of India`s linguistic traditions or those in favor of letting the said diverse traditions die out due to mischance and the market forces?``

Same market forces which made Ms Roy a successful author btw. Does Ms Roy represent the big publishers` multinational establishment, who are particular about publishing only those authors who will make them hefty profits and pay for their golf vacations in the Bahamas and retirements in Florida, and not what some tribal in India wants to say?

Is Ms Roy trying to sabotage on these multinationals` behalf, the anti-colonial anti-capitalist vernacular literature economy in India which challenges the power of these multinationals and is upholding local rights against literary colonialism?

In her snubbing the Sahitya Akademi jury but not the Booker Prize jury, are we infact witnessing Ms Roy promoting the American Penguin/DoubleDay colonization of Indian literature market like the East India company colonized India by cutting our thumbs and monopolizing our instruments of defense, production and interrogation?

Is Saminasha preparing us for this colonization by telling us how unworthy we are to award prizes to authors just like the British prepared Indians for colonization by teaching them the myth of Indians being a subject race since time immemorial?

Are jury members who are Marathi/Malayalam writers in India coming from families without running hot water at home ( during the power cuts anyway) more of establishment figures for Ms Roy than jury members who are leftists in US literary circles but iving in Manhattan high rises or multi-million dollar homes in the suburbs ?

hehe. It is fun playing the victim interrogator to Saminasha`s establishment

Sadna,

No, I am not ``confused`` about your reframing of this debate. I do think you`ve asked some excellent questions.

Here are some for you:

Must a writer accept an award given by a governmental institution that has been responsible for destructive polices levelled against innocent citizen populations?

Does an award given to artists coming from communities marginalized by national govt. policies have legitimacy to those artists and communities? Why or why not?

Does the awarding of marginalized artists lead to the co-opting of their (in Roy`s case) social criticism? What does canonization confer?

To what extent is a governmental institution become legitmized by the artists they award viz the larger institutional policies of marginalization?

#87 see if the Royal Society would make her a fellow Arundhati Roy would jump to it. (after all it is not indian) Or the Royal Society medal for her work - I am sure she would turn in London resplendent in her Sari (woven by 1000`s of woemn on the bread line specially for her).

My question to you is this: Is the Royal Society a govt institute? Is it something which the Govt uses to co-opt people?

Your answer to this (the above on RS) would be very enlightening and revealing. Please donot hesitate to answer. The first para is just irrelevant to my question to you.

re: 85

Dulla Sahib,

Are you trying to say that because tortured and imprisoned writers accepted the SAHITYA (are you quibbling over spelling? Loser move, that) that the award is now acceptable?

Are you even capable of registering the irony of your notion?