Looking at the past with new eyes
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From colonialism to biography one interesting reads in Kannada...
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Gatha-Kathana by Rajaram Hegde
Anandakanda Granthamale, Rs. 160
The principal causal explanation for most of the major turning points in modern Indian historiography has been attributed to colonialism. The claim that colonialism decisively damaged a buoyant, varied pre-colonial economy, that it constructed religious communalism, and in the recent studies, colonial history also appears to have created caste from the infinitely flexible and accommodative order of the pre-colonial times is now a familiar story. One of the important, if indirect consequences ensuing from the Orientalist critique of colonial knowledge has been the long overdue plea that relations of culture and power before colonials need to be systematically theorised. Locating oneself in the post-colonial context, the essays in this collection are essentially an exploration in techniques and ideas associated with the writing of history or historiography.
The ten chapters of this book are either lectures or conference papers between 1999 and 2005. They are an attempt to restore historical agency to Indians in the making of modern history. Though written for varied occasions, a certain unity binds the collection. Blurring the disciplinary boundaries of history and literature, the book attempts a cogent re-articulation of one's sense of the past in and through them. Certainly the 20th century India, the focus of most essays in the book, literary writing is seized upon as evidence to be advanced in the major debates of the time concerning cultural identities, art, language ideologies, civilizational hierarchies and nationalism. Literary writings of Kuvempu, Shivarama Karanatha, Byrappa and Masti are discussed for their historical sense and nationalist frames. What emerges is a nuanced presentation that raises important theoretical questions about applying modern cognitive frameworks to pre-modern worlds. Illustrating this is the essay on the "Rajavali Kathe" of Devichandra which the author uses to pose a challenge to Eurocentricity of certain basic categories of nation-state, modernity and indeed history itself.
The book, by a historian writing in Kannada is well argued and is indispensable for those interested in Karnataka (read Indian) history, culture and politics. However, at a time when the trends of over-concentration of the colonial presence seem to be dominating the historiography, perhaps at the cost of sounding reactionary, it may here be mentioned that there is today a need to re-evaluate the colonial element in modern Indian history in order to help us appreciate the limits of colonial hegemony and to understand more precisely the locus of Indian agency and energy in the colonial context. It is perhaps necessary to move beyond derived discourses.
SUDHA SITHARAMAN
Well-told story
Gandurina Garime: G.Hanumantharao
By Dr. D. Javaregowda, D.V.K. Murthy Prakashana, Rs. 75
The volume under consideration is the 34th biography written by D. Javaregowda. Professor G. Hanumantharao (1898-1974), the central persona of this elegantly written biography, was a close associate of the author in the University of Mysore. Professor Rao's love of Kannada has endeared him to Dejagow.
The book, in a way, is a "double biography" as it also recollects the tragic life of Rao's mother, Bhagirathamma, who became a widow at the tender age of fifteen. Thanks to the support given by her parents, she has enough guts and grit to educate herself. She becomes a school teacher and inspires her son to move up the academic ladder under the guidance of her enlightened parents.
Hanumantha Rao pursues his studies diligently, obtains a Master's in Philosophy and becomes a lecturer in the famed Maharaja's College. Here the leading scholars of the times were his colleagues. Hanumantha Rao's contribution as the Director of the Publication Division of the Mysore University stands out as he translated the intention of his highness Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar into actuality by introducing the knowledge produced in the University to the common man through "Extension Lectures". Rao's attempt became so successful and popular that the then Principal of Maharaja's College presented a paper at Oxford on the "Extension Lectures" of the Mysore University which drew the attention of the scholars gathered there and came to be famously known as the "Mysore Experiment". As the founding-editor of Pustaka Prapancha, a monthly journal brought out by the Teachers' association of the University in the beginning and subsequently by the Adult Education Council for 23 years, he rendered yeoman service to society by introducing new writers and new topics to extend the horizons of the Kannada language. Dejagow, the author of the present biography worked with him from the beginning as a member of the Editorial Board and later on served in the capacity of the Editor for twenty four years replicating the good work of the pioneer.
Dr. Rao underlined the importance of orderliness, discipline, altruism, scientific temper, respecting other religions, upholding freedom, progressive thinking, and eschewing casteism and untouchability. For him, family was the pivot around which all other pursuits of an individual revolved. But he took care to marshal his journey with absolute detachment. The beneficiaries of his detached service have saluted him silently and have acknowledged how an individual's sacrifice results in a wave of goodwill.
This biography once again establishes the truth that only those who know what pain is can alleviate the sorrows of others. The last sentence of the biography is the ideal note on which this review should also end: "When we remember the many splendored glory of Hanumantha Rao's achievements, which definitely daunts an ordinary spirit, the eternal truth embedded in the dictum `the ultimate goal of all striving is to attain absolute self-abnegation' gets once again established in the consciousness of the people. The grateful people will make an honest attempt to follow his ideals."
C. NAGANNA
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