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Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No. 1. (May 2020)
Social Distancing, COVID-19, and Experiential Narratives
ISSN: 0976-1861
Section: Contents
Contents
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020) ISSN: 0976-1861 Section: Contents | ||
SOCIAL DISTANCING, COVID-19, AND EXPERIENTIAL NARRATIVES | ||
ISSN 0976-1861 | May 2020 | Vol. XI, No.1 |
CONTENTS
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Editorial Bikash Sarma | v |
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Original Articles: |
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Covid-19 Pandemic and the Media: Gendering the Ordeal Suvradip Dasgupta | 1 |
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Covid-19 and metaphor for existence: Notes on Post-lockdown India within ‘home’ Bikash Sarma and Shruti Sharma | 20 |
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Despair and Homelessness in the face of Apocalypse: on Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan Anik Sarkar | 40 |
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Finding the ‘Reboot Code’: A Study on the Future of Indian Economy Post Covid-19 Pandemic Debarati Deb | 55 |
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Covid-19 and Domestic Violence: Reading Masculine Anxiety Ranu Sherpa | 73 |
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General Commentary: |
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Technology, Surveillance and the Pandemic Chawang Dorjay | 91 |
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Book Reviews |
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T M Krishna, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers By Shruti Sharma | 96 |
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Saba Hussain, Contemporary Muslim Girlhoods in Assam: A study of Social Justice, Identity and Agency in Assam By Shofiul Alom Pathan | 102 |
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Our Contributors | 106 |
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Notes to Contributors |
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Editorial
Bikash Sarma
Bikash Sarma teaches history of ideas and political history at the Department of Political Science, Salesian College, Siliguri.
Editorial
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.v-viii | Page: v-viii,
Section: Editorial
Editorial
Social Distancing, Covid-19, and Experiential Narratives
Bikash Sarma teaches history of ideas and political history at the department of Political Science, Salesian College, Siliguri.
With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, we have been travelling through turbulent viral times that brought us closer to a sequence of ‘phantasmagoric’ events—for several months now. These experiential and existential dilemmas paved the way for strands of thought and of debates on the thematic of modernity, on quarantine—physical and social isolation— palliative measures, the virulent nature of bio-politics, ways of reconfiguring the relationship between humans and disease/ epidemics, and numerous reflections on/of the self by the locked downs and ups.
The anxious modern-human today is compelled to create a simultaneous space of despair and hope as the unfamiliar non-human mutant replicates inside the human host. With this subjection of the modern human by the non-human mutant, the claim over transcendence of nature has become uncannier than ever. At a time when physical and social borders got epidemiologically fixated, the border crossing between history of pathology and social history has intensified. We, the locked-downs are anxiously turning the pages of these heterogeneous reflections—from digging in bookshelves to searching the world-wide-web and different genres of films—for a glimmer of hope. In epidemiological sense we are engrossed into volumes of medical history on epidemics and in socio-political sense connecting the pandemic from bio-politics of the state to individual solitude, isolation and repression—howsoever, miniscule to comprehend the dystopia.
This anxiety constantly reminds me experientially—and many of the readers would agree to it existentially—of Michel Foucault’s lectures at Collège de France and specifically his classic passage on “Panopticism” from Discipline and Punish. The passage details the methods of surveillance, quarantine and segregation of the population, in the case of plague epidemic in the seventeenth century France. Foucault through the plague epidemic—as a metaphor and as a real historical event—analyses the evolution of the ‘modern’ disciplinary regime of “differential distribution.”1
The archival description in Foucault resonate a model of the disciplinary mechanism that we are witnessing in the midst of the pandemic—as a co-relative to the medical and political discourse, as he writes, “[t]he plague-stricken town, traversed through-out with hierarchy, surveillance, observation, writing; the town immobilized by the functioning of an extensive power that bears in a distinct way over all individual bodies—this is the utopia of a perfectly governed city.”2
Suddenly, the historicity of the plague town in France is being lived through—possibly with the same level of fear and anxiety. As Bruno Latour recently commented: “...by remaining trapped at home while outside there is an extension of police powers and the din of ambulances, we are collectively playing a caricatured form of the figure of biopolitics that seems to have come straight out of Michel Foucault lectures.”3
However, it is the same space of quarantine that not just creates a hierarchy of control, surveillance and suspicion but also a hierarchy of people—with substance and little or no substance. Foucault indeed hints at the precariously segregated life-world—of our times:
Each family will have made its own provisions...If it is absolutely necessary to leave the house, it will be done in turn, avoiding any meeting. Only the intendants, syndics, and guards will move about the streets and also, between the infected houses, from one corpse to another, the ‘crows’, who can be left to die: these are ‘people of little substance who carry the sick, bury the dead, clean and do many vile and abject offices.’4
1 Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. by A. Sheridan, (New York: Vintage,1978), 199.
2 Ibid,198.
3 Bruno Latour, “Is This a Dress Rehearsal”, Critical Inquiry Blog, 23rd March 2020. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/is-this-a-dress-rehearsal/
4 Foucault, Discipline & Punish, 195-7. Emphasis added.
The selves that would be let to live and those if not let to die; be abandoned or be unleashed with the brute power of the state/family upon their body. Controlling the itineraries of migrant workers—‘sanitizing’ them with chemicals like sodium hypochlorite—and a new wave of domestic violence within home are not just a testimony to the precarious existence of the mere biological bodies, but is evidence of the bodies being trapped into a gendered, casteist, classist, and epidemiological discourse. The biopolitical and biocultural production of the bodies are vindicated by the discourse on contagionism and social isolationism. These bodies are not deprived of politics and culture through suspension, but rather their reworking through medico-technical-social fallacies. The invocation of the metaphor for diseased and dangerous human bodies in the garb of exception is a known phenomenon—as far as the history of epidemics is concerned.
It is with these concerns that the Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences decided to publish a special issue on the current pandemonium, underlining differential impacts of Covid-19.
Suvradip Dasgupta in his paper “Covid-19 Pandemic and the Media: Gendering the Ordeal” draws a critique of the epidemiological reconstruction of gender dichotomy propagated through the ‘Covid portals.’ Taking cue from post stucturalist feminism(s) he attempts to demystify the media’s act of gendering produced in conjunction with gendered medical discourse.
Bikash Sarma and Shruti Sharma in their paper “Covid-19 and metaphor for existence: Notes on Post-lockdown India within ‘home’” attempt to understand the latency of existential defeatism and existential recovery within the Covid-19 reconfigured home. By engaging with the autobiographies of a solitaire of the past and the experiences and expressions of contemporary locked down selves, the paper tries to understand the erasures and silences in the discourse on the self and solitude, and the (im)possibility of tactical manoeuvres on part of the silenced bodies within the quarantine induced domesticity in India.
Anik Sarkar in his paper “Despair and Homelessness in the face of Apocalypse on Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan” re-conceptualizes despair and homelessness through the medium of films in the context of the current pandemic situation. He attempts the introspections through his own quarantine induced self.
Debarati Deb in her paper “Finding the ‘Reboot Code’: A Study on the Future of Indian Economy Post Covid-19 Pandemic” assesses the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian economy. With a careful review of existing literature on political economy the author provides—what she calls a ‘reboot code’—for a post-Covid-19 Indian economy.
Ranu Sherpa in her paper “Covid-19 and Domestic Violence: Reading Masculine Anxiety” develops an empirical case to analyse the co- relatives of Covid-19 domesticity and rising cases of domestic violence. Citing several crucial reports on these factors the author reflects upon this renewed masculine psyche that gave rise to intimate partner violence within the regime of social distancing.
Shruti Sharma in her commentary “Covid-19 and Cricket: Playing with the Contagion and/of Caste” metaphorizes the paradox of licking the leather (cow hide) cricket ball in light of the Covid-19 ICC regulations. The author juxtaposes the rough/tattered side to the shiny one that is nurtured by players using their saliva, mapping this distinction on to the social distance between the producers and production spaces of the commodity and the consumers/players and spaces of play.
Chawang Dorjey in his commentary on “Technology, Surveillance and the Pandemic” reflects upon the regime of surveillance and epidemic diseases. Drawing upon a Foucauldian genealogy he makes us rethink the connection between governmentality and the current viral times.
Articles
COVID19 Pandemic and the Media: Gendering the Ordeal?
Suvradip Dasgupta
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.1-19
Cite: Dasgupta, Suvradip. “Covid-19 Pandemic and the Media: Gendering the Ordeal.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.1-19.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.1-19 | Page: 01-19,
Section: Articles
COVID19 Pandemic and the Media: Gendering the Ordeal?
Suvradip Dasgupta is Assistant Professor (English) at Salesian College Siliguri. He was awarded PhD by Jadavpur University in 2018 for his thesis entitled ‘Masculinity and Nationalism in Bengal: Studies from the Novels of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Thakur’. His areas of academic interest include Gender, Masculinity, Translation, Literatures and Cultures of Bengal.
Abstract
“Death touches the spring of our common humanity,” and so has the covid-19 pandemic. There is hardly a country or a region that has been able to escape its vicious touch. Despite the unique, varying contexts that the pandemic has given rise to in different parts of the globe, the present scenario is also characterized by certain common features. One such significant observation towards which the global media is pointing is based on (binary) gender distinction. Since early April, the internet has been flooded with reports of how men are more prone to death due to covid-19 in comparison to women. The manner of media representation, my paper argues, is also a reinstatement of the male/female gender binary.
The paper analyses this particular drift in the media in conjunction with the postfeminist philosophy of thinkers such as Judith Butler and Tina Chanter whose works point towards a horizon where the accepted notions regarding gender binary and the materiality of the body do not hold. Besides, the paper also analyses how the media is accepting certain notions as ‘given’ and thus operating from a deep seated patriarchal premise that is inconceivable without the gender binary and gender roles.
Keywords: Media representation, sex-gender system, masculinity, post-structuralist (deconstructive) feminism.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Covid-19 and metaphor for existence: Notes on Post-lockdown India within ‘home’
Bikash Sarma & Shruti Sharma
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.20-39
Cite: Sarma, Bikash, and Shruti Sharma. “Covid-19 and Metaphor for Existence: Notes on Post-Lockdown India within ‘Home.’” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 20–39. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.20-39.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.20-39 | Page: 20-39,
Section: Articles
Covid-19 and metaphor for existence: Notes on Post-lockdown India within ‘home’
Bikash Sarma teaches history of ideas and political history at the department of Political Science, Salesian College, Siliguri.
Shruti Sharma is a doctoral candidate with CSSSC, Kolkata. Her research interests include Critical geography and gendering of sports.
Abstract
The paper attempts to understand the existential defeatism and the recovery of existential meanings that the uncanny Covid-19 pandemonium enacted under the regime of social distancing. The quarantine from the public not only created a dialectics of home and the world but also re-enacted estrangement upon the gendered bodies within the same home metaphor. By engaging with the autobiographies of solitaire of the past and the experiences and expressions of contemporary locked down selves the paper tries to understand the erasures and silences into the discourse on self and solitude and the possibility and impossibly of tactical manoeuvres on the part of the silenced bodies within the quarantine induced domesticity in India.
Keywords: Covid-19, home metaphor, Rousseau, everydayness, gendered bodies.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Despair and Homelessness in the face of Apocalypse: on Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan
Anik Sarkar
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.40-54
Cite: Sarkar, Anik. “Despair and Homelessness in the Face of Apocalypse: On Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan on Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 40–54. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.40-54.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.40-54 | Page: 40-54,
Section: Articles
Despair and Homelessness in the face of Apocalypse: on Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan
Anik Sarkar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Salesian College, India. His recent works include a chapter titled “I am a Tree Leaning: Neocolonialism, Eco-consciousness and the Decolonized Self in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing”, in a book, upcoming from Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield; a chapter titled “Between Horror and Hunger: Reflections on the Medical Poems of Miroslav Holub”, upcoming in a book from Vernon Press, Delaware and a chapter on “Murakami and Videogames” for a book Ready Reader One, forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press. His work of fiction The Man who Sold Diseases, was published by Juggernaut Books, New Delhi, in 2018.
Abstract
Lars von Trier’s Melancholia is about Justine and her apparent “schizo-” melancholy, one that shares its name with the planet about to crash on earth. While, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s drama Leviathan, something in-between grandiose and morbid hopelessness is Hobbesian; in the sense that power is monarchically vested but unlike the treatise, rights are not safeguarded and no freedom is guaranteed. It is a retake on the “Book of Job”, but prayers are undertaken with cynicism as the lead character, Kolya’s house is wrecked (literally and symbolically) we find a Church erected in its place while the camera pans to a picturesque landscape wary of the pervasive political corruption and endless human suffering in its immediate vicinity. As individuals are sloshed in vodka and boats lie wrecked on the shores of the city, skeletal remains of a whale mark the enormity of “Leviathan” from which there is no escape.
Even though both these films are surprisingly different in every other aspect, they centre on annihilation; one on the proper sense of the term: complete destruction, the later on the massacre of justice, rights and freedom. Also, “despair” and “isolation” follow one another in close coordinates that reveal the hopelessness of situation and a pervasive condition of “homelessness” - in Melancholia the symbols are strikingly evident while in Leviathan they are literal and obvious. This paper would aim to critically navigate through these films, analysing and comparing them while assessing their connections to “despair” and “homelessness” evident in the running year of the pandemic.
Keywords: Despair, homelessness, cinema, pandemic, hope.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Finding the ‘Reboot Code’: A Study on the Future of Indian Economy Post Covid-19 Pandemic
Debarati Deb
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.55-72
Cite: Deb, Debarati. “Finding the ‘Reboot Code’:A Study on the Future of Indian Economy Post Covid-19 Pandemic.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 55–72. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.55-72.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.55-72 | Page: 55-72,
Section: Articles
Finding the ‘Reboot Code’: A Study on the Future of Indian Economy Post Covid-19 Pandemic
Debarati Deb is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Studies, Salesian College, Siliguri and is presently pursuing PhD from the University of North Bengal. Her area of research interest includes Finance and Economy.
Abstract
The covid-19 pandemic has not only brought the fear of losing lives but also the financial threat to the world economy. Since the time Lockdown 1.0 has been imposed in India on 23rd March 2020, the economic condition of the country has shaken. The Indian economy has been hit by the pandemic in the worst ways possible concerning consumption, manufacturing, exports and capital flows. There is no doubt that before the pandemic which triggered from China, India has been growing based on these four pillars. This present shock that all human beings have encountered and experienced is broad and deep and has certainly put the world economy into a major setback. However, on the positive note, if challenges can be turned into opportunities backed up by government support, it is worthwhile to mention that the economy will not be the same post-pandemic. The world economy will revive dealing with the “new normal” leading to a “new horizon”. The objective of this research paper is to critically analyse the various dimensions of the Indian economy dealing with the pandemic crisis. The economic areas that are fighting the crisis and struggling hard to revitalize will be evaluated to find positive magnitude. The research work will be based on secondary data and will focus primarily on finding out ways to achieve the “reboot code” for Indian economy post covid-19 pandemic.
Keywords: Pandemic, world economy, Indian economy, covid-19, crisis.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Covid-19 and Domestic Violence: Reading the ‘Masculine Anxiety’
Ranu Sherpa
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.73-84
Cite: Sherpa, Ranu. “Covid-19 and Domestic Violence: Reading Masculine Anxiety.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 73–84. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.73-84.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.73-84 | Page: 73-84,
Section: Articles
Covid-19 and Domestic Violence: Reading the ‘Masculine Anxiety’
Ranu Sherpa has completed her Masters from North Bengal University, Siliguri in the year 2019. She is presently working as an Assistant Professor in Salesian College Siliguri in the Department of English. Her research interest is Gender and Women Studies and Postcolonial Literature.
Abstract
pandemic has thrust us, is a significant and rapid spike in cases of domestic violence. Over the past few months, there have been umpteen reports of domestic violence. And, as if by default, the victims in almost all such cases are women. Isolation, social distancing and avoiding public space are some of the basic precautionary steps during these viral times. Quite paradoxically, this isolation and distancing allows the socially marginalised and subjugated class to be an easy target. The masculine psyche considers such time as a threat to their identity and in order to regain power and have control in their relationship opts for violence and develops a hostile attitude in order to claim their superiority The paper would try to analyse and reflect upon the important aspect of the ‘masculine psyche’ as it operates within patriarchy and show how this physical restriction and loss of the public sphere creates a sense of anxiety within that masculine psyche, with violence towards their partner as an unfortunate, yet unmistakable, manifestation of this anxiety.
Keywords: Pandemic, isolation, social distancing, masculine psyche, domestic violence.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Covid-19 and Cricket: Playing with the Contagion and/of Caste
Shruti Sharma
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.85-90
Cite: Sharma, Shruti. “Covid-19 and Cricket: Playing with the Contagion and/of Caste.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 85–90. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.85-90.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.85-90| Page: 85-90,
Section: Articles
Covid-19 and Cricket: Playing with the Contagion and/of Caste
Shruti Sharma is a doctoral candidate with CSSSC, Kolkata. Her research interests include Critical geography and gendering of sports.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Technology, Surveillance and the Pandemic
Chawang Dorjey
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.91-95
Cite: Dorjay, Chawang. “Technology, Surveillance and the Pandemic.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 91–95. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.91-95.
Section: Article
Abstract
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.91-95| Page: 91-95,
Section: Articles
Technology, Surveillance and the Pandemic
Chawang Dorjey is an MPhil candidate at Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Book Reviews
T M Krishna, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers, (Chennai: Context, 2020), pp 366, Rs 799, Hbk, (ISBN: 9789389152180).
Shruti Sharma
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.96-101
Cite: Sharma, Shruti. “Book Review: T M Krishna, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 96–101. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.96-101.
Section: Book Reviews
Book Review
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.96-101| Page: 96-101,
Section: Book Review
Book Review
T M Krishna, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers, (Chennai: Context, 2020), pp 366, Rs 799, Hbk, (ISBN: 9789389152180).
Shruti Sharma is a doctoral candidate with CSSSC, Kolkata. Her research interests include Critical geography and gendering of sports.
Sebastian & Sons can be read as an exploration of the everyday and ordinary unfolding of social relations—particularly that of caste—in the process of the production of sound for the primary percussion instrument of the Carnatic stage, Mrdangam.Mrdangam is believed to be avedavadyam (Vedic instrument) (p.187), however it is only in the 1920s and 1930s that male brahmins appropriated the instrument into the Carnatic music world and instituted their dominance thereof. The instrument is a cylindrical two-faced drum. The hollow cylinder is made of the wood from a jackfruit tree and the two faces/frames are made of three layers of hides (p.3). The journey of the Mrdangam from the raw materials—collected from forests and slaughterhouses, and assembled at the maker’s homes and workshops—to its finished form, in the player’s puja room or the stage has been descriptively unpacked in this book. Krishna does this by bringing together narratives of Mrdangam makers from different regions in Southern India but predominantly Thanjavur, “the cultural nerve centre of Tamil Nadu” (p.6) with an extensive focus on Sebastian’s family—who are from the Dalit Christian community—and within it the master of makers, the magical Parlandu. The modality of collecting the narratives is that of personal—telephonic and face to face—interviews. Krishna has called the book project a documentation of the lives of ‘invisible keepers’ of the tradition of Mrdangam making and has relied primarily on oral history and memory of the makers and a few players. Through the book, Krishna also provides an intense description of the material process of producing the Mrdangam, and a reader might feel the need to go through the highly skilled process twice over to get a grasp of it.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Saba Hussian, Contemporary Muslim Girlhoods in Assam: A study of Social Justice, Identity and Agency in Assam, (New Delhi: Routledge, 2019), pp 148, Rs. 9340, hbk, (ISBN 9781138606449).
Shofiul Alom Pathan
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.102-105
Cite: Pathan, Shofiul Alom. “Book Review: Saba Hussain, Contemporary Muslim Girlhoods in Assam: A Study of Social Justice, Identity and Agency in Assam.” Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 11, no. 1 (June 6, 2020): 102–5. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.11.2020.102-105.
Section: Book Reviews
Book Review
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XI, No.1 (May 2020)
ISSN: 0976-1861 |DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.11.2020.102-105| Page: 102-105,
Section: Book Reviews
Book Review
Saba Hussian, Contemporary Muslim Girlhoods in Assam: A study of Social Justice, Identity and Agency in Assam, (New Delhi: Routledge, 2019), pp 148, Rs. 9340, hbk, (ISBN 9781138606449).
Shofiul Alom Pathan is doctoral candidate with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. His research interests include questions of identity and violence in contemporary Assam
The larger project that Hussain has undertaken in this book is to understand the subjectivities or subjective possibilities available to understand Muslim girls in Assam and how they negotiate with those in their everyday life. These subjectivities are interrogated among school going girls through inquiring educational policies, taking narratives of teachers and parents. Hussain’s book appears to be a timely intervention in several aspects. She takes up a hitherto unexplored anthropological issue. In the existing body of academic literature, Muslim subject and subjectivities are discussed more in terms of politics/political rather than as a subject matter of anthropological enquiry. There is a lack of understanding of Muslim female subjectivities in Assam and Hussain’s intervention is an in-depth analysis to bridge that gap. There exists a multiple and intersecting differences among Muslim females in Assam in terms of class, and linguistic identity, along with the ‘popular’ native muslim/migrant Muslim binary. Hussain considers these multiple and crucial aspects while interrogating the subjectivities of Muslim school going girls in the town of Nagaon, Assam.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International