P-203 Assignment

Allegory in Robinson Crusoe

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- The Postcolonial Studies

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction

The question may arise in our mind that what is allegory?

An allegory is a narrative piece of art in which the authors use their characters, setting and plot to entertain by delivering moral lessons. Allegories were popular in England from the sixteenth century onward Robinson Crusoe is regarded as one of the finest allegories. Defoe must have been inspired by the allegories of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost. But the real inspiration behind Robinson Crusoe is undoubtedly Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, another class allegory.

In both the novels, The Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe life has been treated as a voyage of human soul. Life in both these novels is a probation. In the Pilgrim’s Progress a pilgrim, who is the human soul, makes his progress towards the House Beautiful. Likewise Robinson makes his voyage on sea, the Bhav Sagar, which must lead him towards his destination – the spiritual salvation.

G. H. Mair, while praising Robinson Crusoe and exalting it above The Pilgrim’s Progress writes :

“The Pilgrim’s Progress is begun as an allegory, and so continues for a little space till the story takes hold of the author….But the autobiographical form of fiction in its highest art is the creation of Defoe.”

👉Autobiographical Allegory

Generally the allegorical novels are the autobiographical by nature. Dickens in David Copperfield, Great Expectations writes about his own miserable life, as a childhood. Defoe writes his own life in Robinson Crusoe. Defoe had led a miserable struggling life. In the course of activities he was imprisoned and was even pilloried. And while he was in jail his wife and children starved. We can relate his imprisonment with Robinson’s imprisonment on the solitary island. The starvation of his family is expressed in the following lines :

“I had a dreadful deliverance. For I was wet, had no cloths to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me, neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger.” (Robinson Crusoe)

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously.

Robinson commits the disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. He is also punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive :

“O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.” (Robinson Crusoe)

👉Life as a Voyage

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played false, sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously. He must have repented for his dishonesty and wickedness to be forgiven. This we can read in the life of Robinson Crusoe. Robinson commits the sin of disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures, and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. Robinson is punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all, he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive: “O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.

He finds only a drowned dead boy. The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson repents for his wicked sin he committed against his father and God. He prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. Crusoe thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. He, who had pined to be cast on the island of despair, rejoices that he was brought to this place. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He feels that God has dealt with him bountifully, and He has still mercy in store for him. He can no longer feel indignant because he feels that his punishment is less in comparison to his sin. Crusoe enjoys mercies which he had not deserved and expected. He feels that only the providential wonders have brought him his daily bread. He now reconciles himself to the afflictions bestowed on him and thanks to God for showering blessings on him. Robinson, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God. He gets reconciled to God. His soul is saved and he has received the spiritual salvation he sought for. Thus Robinson Crusoe can be called the spiritual allegory.

👉Spiritual Allegory

The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. He thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He is fed as Elijah was fed by the ravens. He, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in The Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God.

Man has come to this world alone and he will depart one day from her comes empty-handed and goes empty-handed. Life is only an illusion. No one has any belonging to others. Life is Maya, a mirage. It slips from under our hands like sand. Ecstasy eludes here like horizon. True ecstasy can only be sought in the union with the Almighty. The island, the solitary island symbolises this loneliness, and our constant effort salvation.

👉Allegory of Isolation

This island also is an allegory of alienation. Apart from isolation man feels alienated. A person feels himself to be lone even amidst the crowd. We feel alienated because we find no one to share our ideas and feelings. Moreover, we feel lonely when we fall upon the thorns of life and bleed. Rarely does then anyone come to comfort us, to balm o sorrows. We feel that when we laugh the world laughs with us, but when we weep, we weep alone. The weeping of Robinson, the lonely weeping on the lonely, desolate island cannot be heard by anyone.

👉Allegory : Material Advancement

Defoe was a materialist. He was, like Bacon, practical and, like Locke, empiric. He indulged in fraud and dishonesty. He believed in amassing wealth. Robinson is another Defoe. Ian Watt calls him an economic individualist and Karl Marx in his Das Kapital regards him as a capitalist.

Robinson embarks on voyages not only for adventure but also for trade. He earns a lot of money in his first voyage to Guinea. He possesses, like Marlowe, an infinite immoderate passion for rising fast in life. On the island he brings from the stranded ship a lot of money which cannot buy even a pair of shoes. He bides his time for deliverance from almost the life imprisonment on the desolate only for collecting his material things. He goes mad and dizzy and almost like dying when he finds his wealth all around him.

Allegory of Colonialized

The Britishers founded colonies in almost half the world, including India. Robinson regards himself as the king of the island. Later when he revisits his island he claims half of the island as his personal property. Robinson Crusoe can be read on this line

Conclusion

To conclude we can say that an allegory implies double layer of meaning – literal and inherent with symbolic interpretation. It's very important part of literature.It is just like the innumerable waves formed when a stone is thrown into the water. Robinson Crusoe can be read on many levels.As we have seen earlier it can be read as an autobiographical story, as an adventurous story, as a picaresque novel, as a religious pilgrimage, as a parable of the Prodigal Son, as a moral treatise, as a conquest over Nature, as material advancement, as colonial expansion and as so many other things. Therefore Robinson Crusoe is a superb allegory.

References

• Parker, George. “THE ALLEGORY OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.” History, vol. 10, no. 37, Wiley, 1925, pp. 11–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24399567.

• Muzahid, Billah. “ROBINSON CRUSOE AS A RELIGIOUS ALLEGORY.” Academia, 2010,www.academia.edu/32563832/ROBINSON_CRUSOE_AS_A_RELIGIOUS_ALLEGORY.

• “ALLEGORY IN DEFOE’S ‘ROBINSON CRUSOE.’” Artlark, 2015, artlark.org/2021/04/25/allegory-in-defoes-robinson-crusoe.

P-202 Assignment

Peaceful Coexistence in Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- Indian English Literature-Post Independence

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

👉Introduction

Mahesh Dattani was born in Bangalore in 1958. He is an Indian English playwright, filmmaker, director, writer and actor. As a writer, he wrote several plays like Final Solutions, Tara, Dance like a Man, Thirty Days in September, Bravely Fought the Queen, The Big Fat City and others. He has known to be a modern playwright because he has contributed in making a substantial standing of the current time by attacking the burning problems that take over the view of publicity. In 1998, he has considered as the first English playwright to be the one who won the Sahitya Academy award. He gives a name for theatre, which is “A craft of communicating through the language of action”. He writes the plays by keeping in mind the stage directions.

 This assignment is to highlight and analyze the internal conflicts in the play. The center of discussion in this assignment is the religious tolerance as a platform leads to peaceful coexistence.As we all know that religious Plays vital role in any work of art or literature.In this novel also Dattani has portrayed religious conflict and communal conflict through the Hindu and Muslim community. Dattani’s Final Solutions reflects communal issues in which hatred and fears are aroused among individuals and varied, by the help of the sectarians, from one individual to another. It attempts to raise some questions as the main problem of this research to prove the main idea behind the positive effect of the religious coexistence in a society. What makes Dattani write this play? And what are the solutions that he suggests to end this communal conflict? Is there any story behind Dattani’s Final Solutions? What are the outcomes of the communal riots in India? While the main idea of this work focuses on the question; How can people achieve peaceful and progressive society?

This study aims to find out the spark of the religious racism in a community. It also seeks to find out the reasons and motifs behind Final Solutions. It seeks to study the final solutions that Dattani provides to put an end to the religious conflict, not only in India but also all over the world to bring about peaceful communities. As a way to compare it to Arabic literature, the study gives an example of peaceful coexistence in the Arab world. Thus, if the society achieves harmony and coexistence among religions the societies can be developed and progressed.

👉 Mahesh Dattani-Final Solution

 Mahesh Dattani remains one of the best and serious contemporary playwrights in Indian English Drama. He touches various aspects of Indian raises and society through his plays. Final Solutions is one of his plays that brought him "Academia Award" and it is a very meaningful play. It is first profound in Bangalore in 1993 and contains three acts. The play deals deeply with the issue of the historical past and lays its accolade in acknowledging the similarity of two religions and respecting their differences. In the present paper, a literature review made below to find out the critical articles and researches around Dattani’s Final Solutions.

Final Solutions is a play about communal riots in India and subordination of women who belong to three significant times in the history of India. Daksha/ Hardika belongs to three pre-independence period: Aruna, her daughter in law, belongs to independence period; and Smita Aruna’s daughter, is a contemporary, postindependence Indian woman. (507) Final Solutions discuses the conflict between two communal parties, how the Indian society treats woman as subordinate and keeps her in shadow without accepting any contribution from her. The play deals with three generations of woman; the first character (Daksha as Hardika) lived in pre- independence period while her daughter in law (Aruna) lived in independence period and (Smita) lived in post- independence period that represent the educated and contemporary girl.

👉 Peaceful coexistence in Final Solution:

 Dattani’s plays emerged as a new arrival in the range of Indian English drama in the late of twentieth century.

 In his plays, he raises various issues that people suffer in Indian society like identity crisis, homosexuality, communal tension, gender perception etc. Thus, his plays deal with contemporary problems. Because of that Dattani’s plays could be performed anywhere in the world.

Since it is an experiment in time and space and relates to memory, it is a play, which involves a lot of introspection on the part of the characters in the play and thus induces similar introspection in the viewers. It is an attempt to experiment with the chorus. It has been used in a style, which is called 'realistic stylisation'. The chorus represents the conflicts of the characters. Thus the chorus in a sense is the psycho-physical representation of the characters and also provides the audience with the visual images of the characters' conflicts.

Final Solutions is one of his well-known and commonly performed play. It is the fifth play by Dattani written in 1991 a year before the communal riots that happened in Bombay and it sparked because of damage of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhysa. The play performed first at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Banglore in 1993. It is in three acts attacking the conflict of communal violence and religious racism of modern urban Indian culture. In additions, it reflects the loss human weaknesses and identity, greed, selfishness, memory and suffering problems. The play takes a place around a Hindu family that helps and gives a refuge to Muslims boys.

👉Religious discrimination in Final Solution:

 Religious discrimination is also very important in the plays of Mahesh Dattani.His all okay signifies something special that is not signified in any other plays.This concept means a different treatment of a person or group for their particular beliefs especially related to religion, which they hold it. Therefore, these people have treated unequally either in law or in environment settings as housing or employment and consider as inferior among the majority religion. In addition, the concept of religious discrimination is associated to religious persecution; it includes cases, which are the most extremist forms in which it executed people for their beliefs perceived to be heretic. Regarding Dattani’s Final Solutions, there is a discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. Therefore, this discrimination leads to creating problems.

The history of India witnessed the horrible bloodshed because of partition on one hand and being independence on the other. Unexpectedly, the partition made in both communities hatred and people became wild. In addition, this bitter communal did not end and clashes started more by the development of time. The play Final Solutions has written very close to Babri Masjid destruction in 1992. Therefore, this play shows the response playwright to the demolition. Although, it is not just a paly which reflecting the Indian present but also deals with problems of hatred, the violence exploitation of communal riots and the position of the fanatics of the India in 1940s as compare with the present.

👉Role model of religious compromise

 Oman is an example of peaceful country as Oman is known to be one of the best religiously tolerant country. Though Islam is the official religion, but Oman also adopts citizens from different religions like Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha’ism and Sikhism. Historically, this behaviour of tolerance was among people in Oman before putting the rules for that. It is considered as a main rule nowadays that calls all people in Oman to follow it and live in peaceful coexistence. In addition, Oman’s basic law protects religious freedom and the discrimination on religion is forbidden because it is against the law in Oman. For centuries, Hindu community has been living in Oman and settling down in Muscat. Several of the families have shown their great contributions to the improvement of Oman. For instance, a young Hindu girl called Brinda Toprani who has been living in Oman since long time ago and some members of her family have been granted the Omani citizenship says: “We have been very fortunate to have lived in Oman and always found it very accepting in terms of celebrating festivals and following our faith”.iv Even the Christians have long history of living in Oman too. Alyssa Alexis is an American Christian who has been settling in Sur mentioned her perspective of people in Oman when she states: “I think Omanis are fairly tolerant of Christians, in general. Some seem to think Muslims and Christians are brothers and others have tried (in not-too pushy ways) to convert me. But, on the whole, they seem to accept that some foreigners who live here are Christian”. vThus, these two examples and we can find more those are considered as proofswhich emphasis that the religious freedom is something very important and highly valued in Oman and it is the main reason behind keeping Oman in the top of the list of peaceful countries.

👉Conclusion

 Religious compromise is important part for individuals within a society, particularly when there are varieties of people and cultures with different religious beliefs who live in a community. If the religious compromise is spread among people of a particular community, unity and harmony occur in a society that lead to peaceful coexistence and consequently this leads to a developed community too. Dattani’s Final Solutions is an example ofa community who shattered by the sectarians and unified by the moderates of the same community. Thus, Dattani’s thesis is quite clear that India is a country of several different religions and everyone needs to accept the others beliefs and religious rituals. But when the seniors forget this virtue of living and converted into sectarians, the conflict leads to unlimited troubles in which the new generation like Smita, Bobby and Javed endure it in their life. They are the victims of this communal conflict. Though they did not commit any sins but they had to suffer. The religious compromise, as Dattani calls for, is the only solution to end such conflict and bring about peaceful community.

Moreover, Dattani’s Final Solutions makes the receivers turn back to themselves and think about searching solutions to end this communal issue. As can be noticed, Mahesh Dattani speaks on behalf of the majority who has suffered in the society. This fears of the consequences made them moving around in the same circle, so this conflict remains the same in every new generation. However, Dattani tried to raise this issue to encourage people from different religions to avoid ignoring the others beliefs and try to live in harmony.

👉References

• Chennai. Gatt, D. (2012). Will there ever be a final solution? Mahesh Dattani’s final solutions revisited in the light of communal divide . Journal of English and literature, 3(6). Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/app/webroot/article/article1379517182_Gatt.pdf

• Dattani, Mahesh. (1998). Final Solutions. Bangalore: East – WestBooks

👉Websites:

• https://englishsummary.com/final-solutions-dattani

• https://www.karnataka.com

Paper- 201 Assignment

The Home and the World as a political novel

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- Indian English Literature-Pre Independence

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

👉Introduction

Rabindranath Tagore's novel The Home and the World (1916) is set in India during the early twentieth century, a time when England still held power over the country. Tagore writes each chapter from the perspective of either Nikhil, Bimala, or Sandip to reflect the political turmoil and lack of unity in India at the time the novel is set.

The Home and the World is set during the height of the Swadeshi movement, a boycott of British goods that was initiated in 1905 as a protest against Great Britain’s arbitrary division of Bengal into two parts. At first, Tagore was one of the leaders of Swadeshi, but when protests evolved into violent conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, Tagore left the movement. In The Home and the World, he explained why he did not approve of what Swadeshi had become.

The Home and the World as a Political Novel

Viewed purely as a social political novel, Tagore's The Home and the World seems to make a sharp distinction between two rival political impulses, Nikhilesh representing the pure passion for constructive work in swadeshi (nationalism), and Sandip its greed and destructive energy .Nikhilesh worships nothing but truth which is greater than the country, and which is alone all temporary crazes; for Sandip the success of the moment, no matter by whatever means it is the only thing that matters. For Nikhilesh, the Ideal is the principal ingredient in the real; for Sandip the Ideal is tolerable only when it is a means to the attainment of the Real. Bimala, the central character of the novel, who has been given a large number of autobiographical narratives than the other two principal characters, is torn between these two contending forces which exercise a powerful fascination over her mind. Nikhilesh’s passion for absolute truth reminds us of the sages of ancient India, and the dominating force in Sandip’s character is greed which is the lane of modern western nationalism. The novel has been regarded as an allegory, Bimala, standing for modern India, Nikhilesh for ancient India and Sandip for modern Europe.

The novel consists of twenty-three chapters, each of them a first-person narrative by one of the three major characters. The first and the last chapters are both labeled “Bimala’s Story,” thus emphasizing the fact that the young wife Bimala is the pivotal character in what is superficially a love triangle but, more profoundly, is a conflict between two points of view, one good, the other evil. The other two narrators are Nikhil, Bimala’s husband, a wealthy landowner with Enlightenment views and a benevolent nature, and Sandip, a charismatic but completely unscrupulous Swadeshi leader.

Nikhil and Sandip have extremely different views for the growth of the nation. Nikhil demonstrates these beliefs in him marrying Bimala, an "unattractive" woman because of her skin color. In the novel, Nikhil talks about disliking an intense patriotism nation, "Use force? But for what? Can force prevail against Truth?" On the other hand, Sandip has contrasting views for the growth of the nation believing in power and force, "My country does not become mine simply because it is the country of my birth. It becomes mine on the day when I am able to win it by force". The contradicting views of Nikhil and Sandip set up the story and constructs an interesting dilemma for Bimala. Unfortunately for Nikhil, he has already tried to show Bimala the outside world, and stir some sort of emotion within her since the beginning of the novel, and failed. Sandip possesses great oratory skill, that wins Bimala over simply because of his passion and ferocity, something that her husband may lack.

 Irving Howe, in his discussion of the nature and types of novel, defines a political novel as a work of fiction ‘in which political ideas play a dominant role or in which political milieu is the dominant setting.’ Now, what Howe implies is that a political novel treats some political events of significance in a politically based situation. Naturally, this genre includes political thoughts, confrontations and problems. In fact, materials here are political, situations have a political background, characters, even if imaginary, have political conceptions and ideologies. Of course, it should be admitted here that Tagore’s The Home and the World satisfies all the above mentioned requirements and hence its claims to be a political novel seems to be just and relevant.

 The background of Tagore’s novel is based on the wide canvas of the national uprising of 1905, particularly in Bengal. The partition of Bengal by British rulers in 1905 and its consequent repercussions – the Swadeshi movement and boycott of foreign goods, the indiscriminate burning of foreign goods and clothes, anarchical agitations, political plunders and secret murders- are all included in its purview. Even the oppression of the British rulers and the fanatical activities of the extremists find a brilliant representation in Tagore’s fiction.

From page one of the novel, the love and union between Nikhil and Bimala is illustrated as something sacred. Nikhil proved throughout the story that he was undeniably devoted to his wife. He proved this first by marrying a woman who hailed from a poor family, along with accepting her darker skin. He made great effort to not only educate her, but also for her to understand her place in the world and not just her place in the captivity of their house. He shows his love by giving her freedom. Bimala also adores her husband, but in a less material manner. This is demonstrated in Bimala's daily ritual of "taking the dust", an Indian ritual of reverence not usually performed by a wife to her husband.

Due to Bimala's extreme devotion to Nikhil, in the beginning of the novel, the union between the two of them is seen as one that cannot be broken. However as, the story progresses, Bimala is slowly overcome by her feelings for Sandip. She eventually realises that she has found in Sandip what she longed for in Nikhil, fierce ambition and even violent defence of one's ideals. Her deep desire for Sandip led her to completely break her sacred union with Nikhil, going as far as to steal money from her household funds. Sandip shows his love for Bimala through idolisation. This idolisation comes about due to her freedom, though.

It is really to be admitted that the political flame of 1905 steers the story of The Home and the World. The story starts with the quiet, happy conjugality of Nikhil and Bimala. Their home was all peaceful, amorous and congenial. All that Nikhil desired was to bring his wife out of the narrow home to the wide world in order to know her more fully. However it was Sandip’s arrival, his intoxicant political views and his personal enchantment that stirred Bimala’s serene centre- her home – and brought her out of to the whirlwind of politics in the wide world outside. She was fascinated by Sandip’s stirring speeches and Swadeshi slogans and also by his romantic adoration of her as Mother India. Again Sandip was crafty enough to bring a stir among the young generation of Nikhil’s area. In other words Sandip and his associates lit up the political fire with noble intention but unfortunately the fire spread in a destructive manner.

Truly, there is nothing to question the Swadeshi background of Tagore’s novel. Yet questions may be raised about the actual political scenario of The Home and the World. The politics of Swadeshi is deeply rooted in the centre of the work and spreads its boughs and twigs all over the story. Still the movement is not dominant in its real flame and fervour. Except Sandip’s catchy, agitative speeches and the reckless burning of foreign clothes at his incitement, The Home and the World presents no scene worth mentioning of the Swadeshi movement. The history of political unrest and the desperate conflict between the English rulers and the poor ruled of India is absent in Tagore’s artistic canvas. Nothing of the country- wide revolt by the young patriots, the fearless acts of terrorism and the glorious selfsacrifice by many dedicated souls has got a space in the novel. Therefore judged from this very angle, it remains impossible to group The Home and the World together with the classic political novels like War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities and The Mother.

Again on the basis of the stark contrast between Nikhil and Sandip Tagore’s The Home and the World has suffered much criticism from the contemporary Swadeshi leaders. Contextually Bipin Pal commented, “Rabindranath had not understood the essence of Swadeshi itself.” However, a reasonable analysis of the novel establishes a different truth. It is then we confront the fact that, the author is not speaking against Swadeshi. Rather he is speaking for those poor natives who suffered the extreme as a result of the propagation of the movement which dealt with the destruction of their livelihood. The question is not then, how far Nikhil and Sandip are real historical personages. What is important here is that Tagore by the means of his novel originally intended to show the negative aspect of the movement, which had been given birth by sincere patriotic thoughts. The novel therefore remains as it does a specimen of Tagore’s remarkable understanding of the fragility of the destructive temperament, during the Swadeshi era. Herein Nikhil’s comment seems to be the most relevant since he in the course of the novel acts as Tagore’s spokesman- “you should not waste even the tenth part of your energy in the destructive excitement.”

Work Citated:

Datta, Sandip Kumar. Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and the World: A Critical Companion. Anthem Press, 2005 

Tagore, Rabindranath. The Home and the World. Edited by William Radice, Translated by Surendranath Tagore, Penguin Classics, 2005.

Thinking Activity: Media, Power. and Truly Educated Person

Media, Power. and Truly Educated Person

👉The word Culture is itself undefinable term, no one can define culture but can gives its related meaning, it can touch its margin by poviding various description of cultural studies.

👉It is hard to define cultural because it has different definition at different places and everyone has their own culture which can not be denied and also defined so, it is also hard to bind cultural studies in one particular definition. Cultural studies is also very hard to understand. It always breaks the difference between high and low, it puts everything under same umbrella. It needs deep thinking and if you fail to dig deep, cultural studies also fails.

👉Second thing is, it always looks critically at power and that makes cultural studies “politically incorrect” and it will become hard to survive between majority of “politically correct” and “Right wingers”. It is impossible to talk about cultural studies without the study of power and media. Now a days media is one of the element which control our perceptions and power also uses media. So, by studying media and power we come to know how power works over media.

Power

👉Power plays a vital role in the study of culture. Without power the study of culture is incomplete, and power is connected to the extensive use of media.

There are six main sources of civic power:-

i) Physical forces

ii) Wealth

iii) State action

iv) Social norms

v) Ideas

vi) Numbers

Physical power controls harmful behavior to the society. In this fast growing world now everything is possible with money so if you have wealth, you have power. We are living in democracy and we elect some one to take decisions in favor of people but that decisions also control us. Social norms are the things which don’t have any official law but it creates their own laws as per their comfort or thinking. Ideas also have power, if you have interesting ideas the people will start be with you and it also talk about the 6th power the numbers of people which supports your idea and have one voice with you and you have power.

Power is everywhere around us. To read power, one has to start thinking about the things which happens around them. Think how it happens and which type of power is working behind it. After having habit of doing this one can understand the power and also can save themselves from the trap of power.

There are three laws of Power:-

i) Power is never static

Power is keeps on moving, it never be static. and it goes from one hand to another with the passage of time. For example the minister of politics keeps on changing, some have five year of time span to rule and afterwards there is no power in their hand. 

ii) Power is like water

Power is like water and it flows in different direction according to its velocity,

iii) Power compounds

Power is keeps on multiplying.

Media

Noam Chomsky gives five filters about mass media:-

i) Media ownership

The endgame of all mass media orgs is profit. It is in there interest to push for whatever guarantees that profit.

ii) Advertising

Media costs more than consumers will pay; Advertisers fill the gap. It isn't just that the media is selling you as product, they are also selling advertisers a product.

iii) Media Elite

-Government

-corporation

-big institution

All such elites know how to influence Media. They make themeselves crucial to the process of journalism. And if someone wish to challenge the power they will directly push towards the margin.

iv) Flack

A publicity agent, when the story is inconvenient for the powers, then we will see the flack machine in action. Flack normally does these three things given below:-

-discrediting sources

-trashing stories

-diverting the conversation

v) The common enemy

To manufacture consent ( permission or agreement to do something) we need an enemy, a target. That target may be communism, terrorism, immigrants, a boogeyman to fear helps, correect public opinion.

👉Noam Chomsky is talking about mass media and how mass media controls the perceptions of large numbers of populations. In our day to day life who decides how certain things works. Well, seemingly it is the government but behind that it is mass media or news papers, news channels which control our perception. We blindly believe what news channels telling us but, before showing any news to us news channels also filters the news. They decide what to show and what not to show, they decides how debates are going to end, in a way every certain things which news channels are showing is pre-decided and planned or we an say scripted. Media controls the elite group of population and it makes us think in a way which they want.

👉At last they are talking about that what actually is being truly educated person and as Noam Chomsky says, “Its not important what you cover in class, its important what you discover”. It is about to inquire and create constructively, independently without external controls. Truly educated person has the spirit of questioning, they don’t accept what comes to them they question in a certain way to identify the fact.

So, this is how power controls media and media controls us but the work of truly educated person is not to believe everything first question then believe what comes your understanding says.

Thank you....

Thinking Activity:The Culture of Speed and Slow Movement

The Culture of Speed and the Counter Culture of Slow Movement

When we talk about technology it is always helping us in one and another way.As we know that it is helping us in each and every steps Whenever we go whatever we come across, there might be some functions that connects thorough technology. It has made our life tremendous fast and more efficient. Ranging from kitchen appliances to home entertainment gadgets like televisions, home theater system, CD, DVD and Blu-Ray players, disc jockey mixer (DJ Mixer), various video game machines; medical and healthcare equipments like sphygmomanometer, treadmill, nebulizer; to communication devices like smartphones and computers. Right from the thinkers to manufacturers and distributors of these technologies are the people who are in power. As a consumer society, we are influenced by their marketing and advertisements and we attract towards the products and we purchase them. Thus consumerism works. In this blog we shall see how the term technoculture came into being and what are the concept of speed and slow movement.

Click here to follow the blog link given by Dr. Dilip Barad.

Paul Virilio - Dromology

The word Dromology is derived from Greek noun 'Dromos' which is used for race or racetrack. With this meaning in his mind he coined the term Dromology which means "Science of Speed" According to Virilio Speed became the soul agent of progress. He further said that…..

"There was no industrial revolution, 

only Dromocratic Revolution, 

There is no Democracy only Democracy, 

There is no Strategy only Dromology."

With the help of technology and computers we can communicate with people from any corner within no time. But Virilio is Critical of thought and said that technologies distorting 'Real' reality by replacing real time and space with "Virtual Realities."

A German sociologist, Ulrich Beck propounded the term Technoulture in his book Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. He further explains how risk theory works in various cultural artefacts like, in cyber world we find computer anti-virus software are sold on the grounds of risk and threats of bug attacks. Things which are governed by risk becomes the risk society. Beck explains that risk are not real but they are about becoming real. When a certain risk is predicted, it is just an assumption of future incident. But when risk becomes real it becomes a disaster or catastrophe.

It can be said that today's society is risk society. People are constantly acknowledged with several risks through various mediums. These risks are majorly health related. Several examples of risk society can be taken such as the industry of edible oil. The manufacturer of sunflower oil might highlight the hazards and risks of heart attack by consuming other edible oils such as groundnut oil, til oil etc. The television watchers will accept the theory of risk explained by the company and purchase sunflower oil. Costumer will also do mouth publicity for that oil company, by emphasizing on the risk of heart attack, and will also say the benefits of using sunflower oil.

The another example can be taken of toothpaste. Numerous companies are there in the market which sell their toothpaste through various gimmicks such as the element of salt in the toothpaste. One more example of risk society is the risk of losing touch with the world. Especially dating sites and social media sites are the most frequent in using such risk factors to increase their viewers and users.

We are constantly connected with business and related things.Many times we read quote as given below in business sector 

"Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme related documents carefully."

In the business and corporate world, this quote is often found at the bottom line of any mutual fund company's documents.So we can say that  the entire business sector is running on the base of risks. Some amount of money is invested in a business and there is no certainty to gain profit. Everything is dependent on the other factors such as market capitals, gold prices, foreign exchange, crude prices per barrel, people's temperament towards fashion, entertainment and their daily requirements.

👉Concept of speed and slow movement

In the era of doing everything fast and first, this slow movement tries to explain to retain the connection with nature and humans among whom we live by. Journalist Carl Honore explains with very agreeable statements that the world needs re-connection with itself. 

Reference:

(1)Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, John R. Willinghan. 'A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature'. 5th Indian Ed. OUP. New Delhi. 2007.

(2) Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. 2nd ed., Viva Books, 2011.

(3) Barad, Dilip. “Slow Movement.” Slow Movement, 7 Feb. 2020, dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2020/02/slow-movement.html.

Thinking Activity:Why We So Scared of Robot/AIs?

Why We So Scared of Robot/AIs?

It is within human nature to fear the unknown. And regardless of how much debate there is around artificial intelligence, most of it still remains mysterious. We can find that recently in the technology industry have been talking about why the potential applications of artificial intelligence could be something we should be worried about. Their argument comes from two different places. One the one hand, they see AI as one of the most fundamental transformative technologies that we have ever seen in the history of mankind, and on the other hand, that transformative power is something we should be scared of and be wary about. If AI is transformative, then it has the power to be transformative both for good reasons as well as bad. 

Stephen Hawking once said that: 

"The development of artificial intelligence can end the human race." (Source: BBC interview, 2014.)

Stephen Hawking also stated that:

"There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take control. We urgently need to create direct connections from a computer to the brain, then computers can increase human intelligence instead of being in opposition."

Here I am going to discuss about the short movies which has some story line connected with Robots.

This video is about the robot and human.How robot is connected with a human child and when mother replaces them he comes back to revenge like a human comes. This is the reason  why we don’t trust the day technology becomes great enough to where humanity actually starts using robots for any purpose.Everything man made is flawed. And an error like this could actually occur giving the robot free will somehow...This is why people shouldn’t depend on technology too much but it will be so advanced one day of course people are always gonna wanna choose anything that makes things easier for us in life. Which is great, but to a certain extent. Like NOT choosing a robot to do a human’s job. Like using robots as baby sitters or anything else to help with around the house as easier convenience for us...We DON’T need to rely on technology like that when humans are the always the clearer choice. They wouldn’t or couldn’t ever somehow malfunction like robots could one day. This could be the possible future.

This is a short movie about iMom.The whole video revolves around the concept of corruption through replacing humans with artificial intelligence. The imom is not necessarily evil, as pointed out in a conversation between the Sam and imom, Sam is the sheep(innocent) and the imom is not the wolf (evil). Same is the sheep because he is a child who is oblivious and naive. The imom really is neither because the wolf is the mom, who bought into the world of technology and artificial intelligence, and the humans who created, and sponsor it. The imom is just a product who knows neither good nor bad and ended up doing evil (killing baby) but it was from humanity's sin of relying so much on robots. I see this as a reflection as when Eve was tricked by the snake and bought into the evils and sin by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. She persuaded Adam to eat it and eventually both were kicked out of eden. The snake are the humans promoting technology that replaces humans, and, eve is the imom and adam is sam.

Thank You.

Thinking Activity:Cyberfeminism

Cyberfeminism - AI and Gender Biases

Cyberfeminism is a feminist approach which foregrounds the relationship between cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. ... The term was coined in the early 1990s to describe the work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, exploring and re-making the Internet, cyberspace and new-media technologies in general.

1. Kirti Sharma: How to keep human bias out of AI?

In this video Kirti Sharma talk about human bias regarding AI. Emotion and bias have always been one of the most controversial topics of AI. That is because of an unintentional premonition due to bias in training data. Furthermore, things like sexist/racist steps taken by humans have a similar effect on AI models.

Although we can control AI in today’s date, its power will rise dramatically in the future. If we embed a bias in current AI systems, then it’ll leave us with two options.

• To redesign complete technology.
• To surrender the minorities up to decisions made by AI.

Therefore, it's completely up to us whether we want to keep human bias away from it or not.

2. Robin Hauser: Can we protect AI from our biases?

Our experience of cyber space and women's identity.