The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness

#66
Correction - literacy in 1954 was 18%.

Samina #80: Of course Samina Ji, that was implied in my acceptance condition, but I am not the subject of the offer here. Let us focus on AR, Gul SAHIB and morality virgins. Please explain your remarks without the use of Ebonics.

Now what does `giving a fig` mean in CUNY language? Offering a fig-leaf to cover nudity is a face saving device. Do you support terrorism and do you approve of AR sleeping in the enemy`s bed?

Let me explain how I paraphrase your remarks.

`` AR is a great writer and this frees her of any moral restraints to not pose with terrorist honcho like Gul SAHIB. Any one who criticizes her for that is a morality virgin and a patron of Hustler magazine``

Is this what you meant?

I think Saminasha and perhaps Ms Roy are just confused about this simple question- is a government-funded institution which encourages literature in India`s many languages anti-colonial, colonial, post-colonial?

Is an institution whose mission it is to prevent native languages and `subaltern narratives` in them from dying out or becoming extinct, anti-colonial, colonial, post-colonial, modern or post-modern in tendency ?

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?

Let us confuse the issue further. I think Mr Satchidanandan, the secretary of the Akademi is a leftist in tendency(I am not sure). So repeat the above questions keeping that in mind, assuming that the minute he joined the Akademi to carry out its above mandate, he didn`t lose all moral right to leftism.

(I did my best but someone can help me by rephrasing with the right theoretical, deconstructionist, marxist or academic jargon ).

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.

To me that reveals that she is not a one-dimensional person, as some would like to believe…and expounding on that makes one see things from the perspective of content as opposed to merely a credo.

As I mentioned in the latter part of the article, she represents something besides herself. If her articulation of ‘injustice’ is being lauded, then one should not rubbish it merely because it comes with a price tag of only Rs.50,000. I won’t even get into the bit about whether accepting an award is ‘good manners’ because I did not suggest it anywhere. However, the display of good manners isn’t exactly something to be sniffed at, just as dissenting is not.

Those of us who are more aware of the people who have won the awards in the past will realise that Ms. Roy does not have to get into a huddle with them, because they are all different people. A Vijay Tendulkar has broken every rule and been unsparing of the establishment, and anyone who has watched Mahesh Dattani’s ‘Final Solutions’ on stage will know just how chilling the portrayal of the riots was.

In fact, Tendulkar has traversed the whole spectrum from tribal exploitation, to police atrocities, to auctioning of women to the situation of devdasis. He has hit out at the establishment through the voice of the common people.

It is common knowledge that he has been threatened often.

And, yes, he too has been called shrill and an eccentric! And he is not a woman…

My position on Roy as a writer and activist has been clearly enunciated in an earlier article for which I provided a link at the beginning, so the issue here is not about her in these personae. It is the leftists and activists who talk about brotherhood/sisterhood/comradeship. Therefore, she really would not be belittled in any way if she stood along with some other dissenters and accepted the award.

If she speaks as an Indian, she should not look down on it. There have been several wonderful posts here on the Akademi, so there is more information available now. The organisation is not run by Narendra Modi or Bal Thackeray or the saffron brigade or mullah mafia. It is not run on a day-to-day basis by any government functionary.

I have not implied that Roy’s is a publicity stunt – but I have raised some questions. They also work as answers.

Thanks for the discussion. I do believe that getting amused is the first step towards better understanding. Googling ‘Sahitya Akademi’ is a fine beginning…

Samina, just keeping on blowing the horns of anti-establishment does not count for great thinking..keep that up. I have not seen any new ideas in your posts other than repeating the same thing about govt this govt that. yesterday you could`t even spell ``Sahitya`` properly even if your life depended upon it but you already knew it was a front of government to buy artists and writers.


I was going thru the recepients from Punjabi literature and I can spot about half a dozen hard core naxalites/marxists and another dozen and half leftists in the list of total 44 over last 50 years. I will assume same is the case with other languages. Some of them suffered on the hands of the government for holding extreme leftist views and also acting on them...suffering as put behind bars, discriminated in jobs and even tortured by police.

No one is asking AR to change her decision. She has made it. I think it is inconsistent with her professed claims. People are free to cricize her for this. Nothing more to this saga.

Since you are supporting her in this decision - chor naloN panD kahli - why don`t you answer this hypothetical scenario:

suppose I am furiously anti-Bush and fanatically anti-American imperialism how should I feel about getting my paycheck every week from an employer who claims that it is ``the third in the ranking of federal grants and awards received``? Is Bush administration trying to buy me indirectly by supporting my employer and hence my employment? Am I compromising my ideals?

Even though it does not matter at all, for once I agree with FV..

Arundhati Roy`s crusade appears to be heading towards a confusing direction. On one hand she is ok with accepting hugs from people (read `white people`) who may be contributor to world problems that she is crusading against. On other hand, she is trying to project herself higher than her compatriots (Is is because they are not white enough?)

It would have made sense if she rejected ``brooker`` because those prizes are usually meant to promote western idea of ``good`` and ``bad``...

Regards

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?

#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.

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?

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,

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

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?

``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.

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?

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?

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!