Subject: Re: Indian vernacular: To Cyberdiva
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 10:26:57 -0400



well Thomas - I agree with you - we need more questions, more dissent  -
the famous "problematizing" - with the institutionalization and
commodification of westernized "postcolonial intellectuals" - we might grow
complacent.


Who has the privilege of calling what they say/write Theory? Who has the
access to spaces of Theorization? Are we giving enough access to our
"subjects/objects of study" and in what way - who speaks and who is
silenced in the name of "postcolonial Theory" - these qs are not new or
just mine and yours - they have been asked and continue to be, I guess.

r


At 5:17 PM -0500 8/6/00, Thomas Palakeel wrote:
>Cyberdiva,
>
>Indeed, the main reason I try to write about regional languages of India
>is to be out there
>in the poco-space, as a pointer, inviting interested parties to enter the
>lush growths right
>next to the proper field of post-colonial studies. What am I saying? There
>are all these
>literatures, very old ones and new ones, all cultural expressions of vast
>unknown human populace,
>almost all with histories of colonialism (Western colonialism is just one
>of them, not even the most recent), and perhaps, these literatures need to
>be "kept" in mind, in our discussions and our writings
>and other pontifications.
>
>(I am feeling a little naughty: I wonder whether "the poco studies proper"
>is better described as a well-manicured golf-course; so clean and so
>easily reminding one of a corpse that has just been prepared by the
>mortician, ready for the viewers! If at all I am problematizing a location
>for "postcolonial studies" as our beloved Cyberdiva suggested, it is to
>the wild
>weeds and the unkempt bushes beyond the golf course, not easy to enter,
>not "nice" either, not inviting.....)
>
>Thomas Palakeel
>
>
>Cyberdiva wrote:
>
>> As I implied in my last response to Josna's response to you - is this
>>not the problem of location for "postcolonial studies" as a field?
>>
>> r
>>
>> Thomas Palakeel wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > I was expecting there would be a volley of responses from readers of
>>various regional literatures of India. Why the silence? (Shamelessly I
>>admit, I am one of those readers (Malayalam) and I ought to be making my
>>own voice heard. Instead, I think, it is much more interesting if I just
>>challenged everyone else to respond.
>> > Aren't there any natives out there? Are they all Englishwallahs who
>>can't read
>> > any of those "vernaculars". One of the most interesting observations
>>Arundhati Roy
>> > made on her wonderful Charlie Rose appearance was that in India most
>>people don't really know any language, although too many claim they know
>>English and many other regional languages. Guess what Charlie Rose asked?
>>How come all these wonderful English stuff coming out of India? Are the
>>Indians doing that good of a job with education? (something to the
>>effect.)
>> >
>>
>> ****************************************************
>> Radhika Gajjala
>> http://www.cyberdiva.org/
>> http://www.cyberdiva.org/stuff.html
>> http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/4425/
>> http://moo.hawaii.edu:7000/599/
>>
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>
>
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Radhika Gajjala

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