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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Andhra Pradesh
By Our Staff Reporter
HYDERABAD, AUG. 6 . The third day of the Commonwealth Writers' Triennial began with the noted theorist, Aijaz Ahmad, speaking on `Nation in the Age of Empire,' continued with paper presentations and concluded in an evening of readings by Girish Karnad, Jayanta Mahapatra and K. Satchidanandan. Drew Hayden Taylor, a Canadian `native' Indian, regaled the audience with readings from his comedies and other works. Prof. Ahmad stressed on the uniqueness of Indian nationalism, saying India was perhaps the only nation in the world that had no single language and was at ease with the multiplicity of languages within its boundaries. "I tremble with excitement at the sheer audacity of the project to move towards modern industrialised nationhood with about two dozen linguistic groups," he said. He argued that despite its proven dominance, Brahmanism never became a hegemonic force in India as its language, Sanskrit, remained out of bounds for women and lower castes. "Sanskrit, therefore, was no one's mother-tongue and the father-tongue of only upper caste men," he said. He said non-Sanskrit languages became vehicles of communication for those who periodically rose against brahmanical dominance, Indian civilisation thus developing a multitude of languages. It was this historical context that enabled Indian nationalism, as it emerged during and in contest with British colonialism, to be so plural and inclusive, he said.
Religious nationalism
Prof. Ahmad divided the different forms nationalism takes into two broad categories -- those that foreground common citizenship as the basis of the nation, and those that foreground a common cultural identity. Despite India's largely successful experiment with secular, citizen-based nationalism, religious nationalism has been a constant presence and threat, he said. On the reasons behind religious and cultural chauvinism in India taking on the garb of nationalism, Prof. Ahmad said that part of the ambiguity was due to the use of the word `India' to connote both an ancient civilisation and a modern nation.
Topics of discussion
Sessions on Friday included discussions on gender and women in the nation, the challenges of publishing literary journals, "ghostly metaphors in post-colonial cultures," films and the media in national culture, globalisation, and alternative sexualities.
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