Thinking Activity: Postcolonial theory and Bollywood movies

 

Hello Readers,

Today I am going to discuss about Postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory is outdated but now has an even more necessary to play in making these links visible in the contemporary time. Because our mindset are still colonial and that’s why one or another way we continuously sing a song of white person or the white world and we feel privilege. Here is a study of Hindi movies in which postcolonial themes and concepts are presented well.

The Indian movie Lagaan which was directed by director Ashutosh Gowariker in 2001. The background of this movie is India was a colony of England in 1893. At that time, Indian people was endure poor and starving, also all the farmers in India have to pay lots tax to the British government for the protection of India. In this movie Captain Andrew Russell, the commanding officer of the Champaner are gas imposed high taxes (the meaning for Lagaan) on the people from the local villages due to the prolonged drought. Upset, the villagers are led by a young boy named Bhuvan, who begs the Raja to help. The Raja tells them, he is bound by British law and cannot help them. While visiting the Raja, the villagers witness a cricket match. Bhuvan mocks the game and gets into a fight with one of the officers. Russell immediately dislikes Bhuvan and makes a bet with him, stating he will cancel the taxes for three years if the…

Nationalism:

People is always emotional when Nation comes. Some time people became fool on nationalism. In this movie Indian people play cricket for their taxes. when nation history comes people get emotional or angry.

Post-Colonialism :

In India we see the effect of ruled. India get independence in 1947. we live in 12th century but we many ways follow them. IAS, IPS, Governor, many position till now not change. Indian national game is hockey but in India all people love cricket which is national game of England

 Situation of  subalterns:

           Subaltern means marginalization in caste, gender, race, etc by hegemony of power. Power position and elite class are discourse maker and other are inferior. This little beat concept about subaltern. So, in this movie we can see various aspects like gender, caste, culture through subaltern study. Through caste base, First there is one marginalized character his name is Kachra belong to lower class. Further, when Bhuvan elect Kachra in the village team then teammate deny to take him as team member because he is untouchable. Second subaltern in the gender role, gauri's character is marginalized. When Bhuvan looking for to make team then Gauri wants to play a game but her father ask her to do household work, and also all the women characters are passive in the movie. And third one is cultural marginalization. Here we can compare two women character one is Elizabeth is teaching the rules of cricket to win the bet for lagaan and otherside Gauri worship to God for victory. So, here we can say that movie portrayed Indian Culture and psychology inferior to British culture and psychology. fourth living manner and styel between both cultures also make superiority and inferiority. During that time people of lower cast has no reputation in society . People called them untouchable(achhut). People of upper cast treat them as a slave. Today also this untouchable people has same problem.In movie there was one character named Kachra. His name mentioned his cast and how was the mentality of people in society for this cast.When Bhuvan decided to take Kachra in his team other players were not ready to play with him because he was untouchable.Here we can see that the subaltern ' s situation . In India ,people have still that mentality for untouchable people, though we called ourselves Educated.

Patriarchy: 

As we all know that many Bollywood movie are based on patriarchal ideas. This movie also follow the tradition of our movies. If we talk about the patriarchal elements in the movie we first see the marginalization of women in the character untouchable lizabeth, Arjan's wife and sister, Bhuvan's Mother all are passive and voiceless. When Gauri wanted to play cricket then her father told her to do household work and said this is not women's work. second is Elizabeth, when he tries to help Indian cricket team and her brother come to know about that matter he also scold her and to made her aware to do not go to village. Third are Arjan's wife and sister who not come out outside from the home when the villagers dances outside because of Arjan's restrictions. And at last Bhuvan's mother also a voiceless even she is veteran and has power to handle all thing and give good suggestions to Sarpanch but patriarchal ideology never accept. Character of sardar also had burning desire to fight with Britishers and make India free from slavery . Bhuvan 's all action present  his patriotic spirit. They were ready  to sacrifice themselves for the nation.

Problematic name for the untouchablen :

In the film there is one character named "Kachra". He was untouchable and his name also eflects the unwantedness of the character. It was really very problematic.

Lakha and Elizabeth:

As both these characters are doing injustice with their nation, still there are so many difference between them. Elizabeth is helping Bhuvan for the sake of fair justice with Indians, without any selfish motive. On the other hand Lakha was in love with Gauri(beloved of Bhuvan) and in jealousy he did wrong thing by revealing each and every secret of his team to the Britishers. Their Karma is same but their motif is different.

Cricket :

Cricket is the Metaphor of Post colonialism. In this film it also seen as the symbol of fear and freedom. All the villagers don't know how to play the cricket. if they loose in the match they have to pay three times more text. but it is also symbol of hope and freedom. if they win the match they should not pay text for three years so they have bright future ahead.  Cricket is normality metaphor of  post colonialism because to get the freedom they  have to play cricket which is not known by any Villagers. But villagers defeat Britishers in their own Game.

Unity in this movie :

Director highlights or present the main characteristic of India that is 'unity in diversity'.  The cricket team which was made by Bhuvan included member from all religions and ideologies. Sikh, muslim, brahmin, untouchable etc. He is not doind any type of injustice with any memeber and treted each member equally. Therefore, there is unity in diversity.

Teamwork and Leadership:

  teamwork and leadership is main aspects of this movie, we can say that this is major factor of this film. Leadership is not an easy task, leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompasses the ability of an individual or organization to lead or guide other individuals and teams. Similarly, Bhuvan also tries to buildup team for the betterment of the village so he tries everything to make unity in the team for the battlement.

 Rang De Basanti :

Rang De Basanti is 2006 Indian Drama film written , produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The literal meaning of the title can be translated as ‘ Paint me with the colors of the spring’. The story is about British documentary filmmaker who is determine to make film on Indian freedom fighters based on a diary entries by her grandfather, former officer in Indian Imperial police. It’s like play within play narration and framed narrative is artistically edited in black and white sequences of history and present situation. Men to act in her film. They don’t take it seriously but after experienced that emotion and feeling of patriotism by living in rural Punjab acting being more effective and lively. Rang De Basanti celebrated violent path and the Gandhian path breakers like Azad Bhagat Singh, Bismil, Khan and Durgadevi.

The intersecting of time, history, narrative and subjectivity unfolds an intermeshed trajectory of notions about history's role in shaping views about nationalism and identity in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's popular film, Rang De Basanti. This movie  addresses a confluence of the pedagogic and the performative modes of history in relation to nationalism and modernity in the film. History, taught via return, is experienced as otherness and eventually performed via a remediation of this otherness, thereby making it relevant to contemporary times. Offering diverse theoretical arguments about history and its narration, I also propose that history, although laden with mimetic impulses and desires for the male characters, excludes the women from mimetic agency. A Levinasian reading of the film's conclusion ultimately resolves the confines of historical determinism and reveals an aesthetic of mimeticism premised on ethical desire for transformative imperative that effectively displays history's otherness as well as its subjective performance.

British and Indian :

             The film is rich for both colonial as well as post colonial critics to unearth the meanings. Somehow, it seems that the colonial hangover is more powerfully captured than post colonial awareness. When we look at this film as postcolonial way we find some interesting things but for that we have to open our eyes and think critically then and then we observed at micro level. In the movie when British female protagonist She came on Indian airport at that time how Indian people gathered to meet her with excitement, so it’s shows Indian mindset and the impact of white person on our mind. There are two point of views to look this movie Outsider and Insider. When outsider sees the act of bribe it’s illegal for them but in India, it become normal for us.

When Sukhi is shot, DJ is genuinely surprised that they are being attacked with bullets. Earlier as they hug each other, they sincerely believe that they will only go to jail after having their voice heard by the nation. This plan echoes Bhagat Singh's plan when he discusses with Azad how they should cause an explosion in the parliament and have their voices against British imperialism heard; Bhagat Singh believed that they could have a huge impact with this strategy. Karan Singhania and DJ, likewise, believed that they would be able to bring the real story of the cause of Ajay's death.There are many other echoes of history voiced in the lives of contemporary actors. The candlelight vigil, observed in memory of Ajay Rathod, at India Gate is reminiscent of the candlelight pledge taken by the Indian nationalists against British imperialism.

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Thinking Activity, Shashi Tharoor works

Hello Readers,

 Today  I am going to discuss in politic leader and writer of Shashi Tharoor and his works. So let's start..

Shashi Tharoor is a member of the Indian Parliament and also a columnist, author, human rights activist, and a former UN envoy. He served in the UN for 29 years. He is passionate about politics and has been writing for newspapers, like Washington Post, The Times of India, New York Times, The Hindu and many more. He has also written fiction and non fictions, which have also been translated into many languages. He is known as a compelling speaker and has won many awards.

There are some videos related with this topics under below.

1. Speech at Oxford Union.

2. Looking back at the British Raj in India: The University of  Edinburgh.

3. Exclusive interview by Karan Thapar On His book  "An Era of Darkness."

4. About British Colonialism in India in His New Book ' An Era of Darkness'.

                  

                     

                      

              

1) Write on key arguments in Shashi Tharoor's book - An Era of Darkness.

 Shashi Tharoor recounts this story with painstaking detail, with statistical backing, and with a mirror in hand, one which he calls a rear view mirror, to take the British to the time of their atrocities and to the Indians, to remind them what is the price of their freedom.Shashi Tharoor's ‘An Era of Darkness’ in eight chapters initiated as a debate held in Oxford where the distinguished Indian speaker made a case for why Britain owed a reparation to India. The amount that Tharoor asked for was not in the form of a percentage of Britain’s GDP, or a large chunk of pounds, but what he asked for was one pound a year for the next two hundred years and a simple apology. He said that the apology would go a long way. So this  video went viral, because it was by an Indian, on British soil, in one of the most renowned institutions in the world, reminding the British of what they had done and why they shouldn’t be proud about it.

Shashi Tharoor Say's  an era of darkness for India, throughout which it suffered several manmade famines, wars, racism, maladministration, deportation of its people to distant lands and economic exploitation on an unprecedented scale. An indignant Tharoor even demands a token restitution and public apology from the British for all the harm they had caused India. This is something, as his debate established, wildly popular in India. 

That British rule in India

 Tharoor tells us, perfected a policy of divide and rule, breaking treaties at will and making war and looting with impunity. His views regarding the plunder and pillaging caused by the British rule are accurate He has done thorough research supported by statistics. He gives us a true insight about the dark side of the East India company. And that India would have emerged united, strong, modern and literate without British help and that claims to the contrary are false and made by apologists for British rule.

2) Write critique on both the films with reference to postcolonial insights.

“The Black Prince"

The true story of Duleep Singh, The last Sikh prince of Punjab is placed on the throne at five, but when India is annexed to the British, he is sent to England and never allowed to return to his home. “The Black Prince,” written and directed by Mr. Raz, never finds a rhythm. Worse, Duleep (Satinder Sartaaj) remains a handsome cipher, brooding in the shadows of his own story until, upon occasion, someone thinks to ask, “What troubles you?”

His troubles are many: He was forcibly taken from Punjab as a boy and has lived in exile in England, where he has become a Christian like his guardians. And though Queen Victoria (Amanda Root, wasted) has taken him under her wing, Duleep wants to see his mother again. And he wants to be a Sikh. And he wants to rule Punjab.

Victoria & Abdul

In her latter years, Victoria, the Queen of England and Empress of India (Judi Dench), found solace in the company of an Indian clerk Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), who went on to become her Urdu teacher, spiritual adviser and closest confidant. Based on Shrabani Basu’s book on this extraordinary true story, Ali Fazal, also worthy of accolades and awards, for his superb performance as Indian servant Abdul Karim. His performance is actually rather captivating, The Queen was taken under his spell and as a viewer so was I. Such an intriguing, fascinating character, probably unlike any other man she'd ever encountered. Superb production values throughout, the film was visually dazzling, sumptuous settings, jaw dropping costumes, this was a treat for the senses. A film is meant to move, and allow for escapism, when it can educate as well.

The narrative reduces Abdul to being a mere spectator and that’s its biggest flaw. Also, the film falters as it abruptly changes gear and transforms into a tedious tragedy from a cross-cultural comedy.

3)  Summarise Ngugi Wa Thiongo's views in 'Introduction: Towards the Universal Language of Struggle' - from 'Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature'. 

Ngugi Wa Thiongo who was an African Writer & Professor of English Literature and language in Africa. Ngũgĩ dedicated Decolonising the Mind "to all those who write in African languages, and to all those who over the years have maintained the dignity of the literature, culture, philosophy, and other treasures carried by African languages."Ngũgĩ describes the book as “a summary of some of the issues in which I have been passionately involved for the last twenty years of my practice in fiction, theater, criticism, and in teaching of literature…” Decolonizing the Mind is split into four essays: “The Language of African Literature,” “The Language of African Theater,” “The Language of African Fiction,” and “The Quest for Relevance.” In this material here has a new context and the ideas a new focus. This leading African writer presents the arguments for using African language and forms.

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Thinking Activity Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Hello Readers, 

   Today I am going to discuss about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her works. So this task given by our professor followe this task.

Introduction :

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. She grew up on the campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her father was a Professor and her mother was the first female Registrar. She studied medicine for a year at Nsukka and then left for the US at the age of 19 to continue her education on a different path. She graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Communication and Political Science. She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in African History from Yale University. She was awarded a Hodder fellowship at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year, and a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University for the 2011-2012 academic year. In 2008, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, Haverford College, Williams College, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, SOAS University of London, American University, Georgetown University, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Northwestern University.

Ms. Adichie’s work has been translated into over thirty languages.Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), won the Orange Prize. Her 2013 novel Americanah won the US National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. She has delivered two landmark TED talks: her 2009 TED Talk The Danger of A Single Story and her 2012 TEDx Euston talk We Should All Be Feminists, which started a worldwide conversation about feminism, and was published as a book in 2014. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017. Her most recent work, Notes On Grief, an essay about losing her father, has just been published. She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015. In 2017, Fortune Magazine named her one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Ms. Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, where she leads an annual creative writing workshop.

1. Did the first talk help you in understanding of postcolonialism?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Says in TED video The Danger of single story. And he srat this session and her speak this line..... I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger of the single story." I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an early reader, and what I read were British and American children's books.she tells a many short deferent story but this story is incompeted and very dangerous. 

 So, The Danger of a Single Story" is really dangerous and terrible for a person to know only single story about culture, people, country, things, places etc. Most of the people have a single point of view for such things and they considered it as true and highest. So the possibility of misunderstanding grow from the single story. Adichie give very interesting examples from her own life..Like during childhood she has single story for British-American literature. Then she had a single story for Fide's family and at U.S. Her roommate had.a single story for African people. Her roommate became shocked by the English speech of Adichie because American people think that no one can stand near to their position. Adichie said that how we are treated from childhood to see things only from single visions while there multidimensional way to see the real world. These things are deeply carved on our mind too use only one perspective to look at the world. 

2. Are the arguments in the seconds talk convincing?

In this video she  mentioned her own experiences. And she give to  feminine definition her own words.she Say's.she was a schools time at that time her get to highest score. So her become a monitor but sir Say's only for boys become a monitor so second position of boys and he become a monitor in my class. "We Should All Be Feminists is a personal, eloquently-argued essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah". Here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often-masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

3. What did you like about the third talk?

In this  video I would  like the views of Adichie and I truly appreciate her perspective analysis of Post truth. This is a must watch video. She observes that generally, people in the twenty first century has a lot of things around them to get confused or rather to believe in it so easily that sometimes, it may happen that the information they carry may be not pure or correct. So, from the whole broken glass, truth is like the mini pieces of that glass, it doesn't corry the whole potential to be a sole and complete entity but it's a collect I tire and life?

4. Are these talks bringing any significant change in your way of looking at literature and life?

 yes, these talks bringing significant change in my  way of looking at literature and after reading and listening to Chimamanda I can understand that whatever is happening near us is also literature.Literature has broad sense we can get from anything like watching and reading both are necessary for a Literature. We can see the world in larger picture instead looking from only one perspective.

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