Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 13:52:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: sumathy-AT-wsu.edu (Sumathy Sivamohan)
Subject: Re:Spivak and Hindu society


To Amit,

If you would show me the place/s where Spviak says that Hindu society
should be taking  charge of sati it would be easier for me to eplain my
possition.

For now I would say is that Spivak does not believe in the "existence" of a
Hindu society let alone in their taking charge. What she says is that the
very notion of Hindu is an orietnlaist colonialist discursive strategy in
which "Hindu" nationalist thinking and other forms of colonial
(postcolonial?) thinking participated.  I  can't for the life of me figure
out how how you came to understand her poistion as something that she
herself has criticised.  For instance in her view the subaltern as woman is
what is missing in colonial and postcolonial historiography.

In other words both english society and "hindu' societies were reproducing
each other while the woman's body  is caught between a "violent shuttling
between tradition and modernity"  (Quoting from memomry). The  langauge of
tradition  and modernity erases the dynamic figure of the woman.  this
leads to the violence of the  body, a particular bodily performance-
suicide.

About the English language,
is it so important that I use English to converse with you? What strikes me
as significant  is that I dont  speak Sinhala (the languge of a large
number of people in Sri Lanka)  very well and also that Tamils and most
Muslims in Sri lanka speak Tamil and yet have been iving in "communal"
enmity in a lot of the regions at least for the past 10 years or so.  How
does this relate to my conversing with you in English over in America and
reading Spivak in English?   Yes, that is an interesting question and that
is the violence that I  referred to in my touchy post.

I didn't quite understand what you were after:  We speak English and use it
to further our careers or whatever. So?

My question is why shouldnt we? Is there some ownership issue ivolved here?

Is English somebody's property that I am allowed to touch like the blonde
talking  plastic doll my  friend had when I was little that I would beg to
hold for a few minutes even though I never cared for dolls very much?

what else do we have to be grateful for?

Jesus Christ?
Karl Marx?
Shakespeare?
My phd advisor?
Mother Theresa?
Diana (the princess version)?
the people who emplyed me as TA?
American immigration?
Global gun runners who help prolong the war in Sri Lanka so that I could be
in the States?
Bill Gates?
White people for putting up with such ingratitude?















sumathy




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