Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: Future of Postcolonial studies: 

I am Nidhi Dave a student of Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is response of my Thinking Activity given by professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir. Here i am discuss about some questions answers related to postcolonial studies. 

Postcolonialism: 

According to the dictionary…

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power.

CONCLUSION: GLOBALISATION AND THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES:

Conclusion: Globalisation and the Future of Postcolonial studies this article is taken from Ania Loomba’s Colonialism/Postcolonialism. This article is about the impact of postcolonialism in the 21st century.Article's beginning from the talking about the most terrible events of 11 September 2001, the so called global war on terror, and the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, it is harder than ever to see our world as simply postcolonial.

Globalisation, they argue, cannot be analysed using concepts like margins and centres socentral to postcolonial studies. Today's Economies, politics, cultures and identities are all better described in terms of transnational networks, regional and international flows and the dissolution of geographic and cultural borders, invoked paradigms to suggest which a are radical familiar breakto postcolonial critics but which are now with the narratives of colonisation and anti-colonialism.

Michal Hardt & Antonio Negri :'Empire':

Significantly, the book that has most famously made thiscasehas done so by describing our contemporary global formation in imperial terms.Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire argues that the contemporary global order has produced a new form of sovereignty which should be called 'Empire' but which is best understood in contrast to European empires:

In contrast to imperialism, Empire establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely on fixed boundaries or barriers. It is a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressivelyincorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers. Empire manages hybrid identities, flexible hierarchies, and plural exchanges through modulating networks of command. The distinct national colors of the imperial map of the world have merged and blended in the imperial global rainbow.

                       (Hardt and Negri 2000: xiii-xiii)

We see that the Empire argues, whereas the old imperial world was marked by competition between different European powers. Hardt and Negri suggest that the new Empire is better compared to the Roman Empire rather than to European colonialism, since imperial Rome also loosely incorporated its subject states rather than controlling them directly. Here we can also see the argument that global mobility of capital, industry, workers, goods and consumers dissolves earlier hierarchies and inequities, democratizes nations and the relations between nations, and creates new opportunities which percolate down in some form or another to every section of society. 

One of the other important critics Arjun Appadurai also claims about this globalization. In his work "Modernity at Large", catalogs of 'multiple locations' and new hybridities, new forms of communication, new foods, new clothes and new patterns of consumption are offered as evidence for both the newness and the benefits of globalization. 

Here Klaus Schwab observes that, "Globalization 4.0 has only just begun, but we are already vastly under - prepared for it".

Globalization has both positive and negative effects. Critics of globalization do not deny the fact of the transformative powers of the phenomenon, or the many ways in which it indeed marks a departure from the old world order. There is no doubt that globalization has made information and technology more widely available, and has brought economic prosperity to certain new sections of the world. Everybody is only consumers in the Market. Here P. Sainath (Palagummi Sainath) observes, far from fostering ideological openness, has resulted in its own fundamentalism. 

Market fundamentalism destroys more human lives than any other simply because it cuts across all national, cultural, geographic, religious and other boundaries. It's as much at home in Moscow as in Mumbai or Minnesota. A South Africa - whose advances in the early 1990s thrilled the world - moved swiftly from apartheid to neo-liberalism. It sits as easily in Hindu, Islamic or Christian societies. And it contributes angry, despairing recruits to the armies of all religious fundamentalism. Based on the premise that the market is the solution to all the problems of the human race, it has its own Gospel : The Gospel of St. Growth, of St. Choice......  P. Sainath

If the earlier period of colonial globalization simultaneously integrated the world into a single economic system, and divided it more sharply into the haves and the have nots. So the new empire both facilitates global connections and creates new opportunities, and entrenches disparities and new divisions. 

Here is another report from 'The New York Times' (Friday October 17, 2003) speaking of huge demonstration in La Paz which defied military barricades to protest a plan to export natural gas to the United States: 

Globalization is just another name for submission and domination' NICANOR APAZA, 46, an unemployed miner, said at a demonstration this week in which Indian women… carried banners denouncing the International Monetary Fund and demanding the president's resignation. ``We've had to live with that here for 500 years, and now we want to be our own masters.'

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and once Chief Economist at the world Bank, also uses the phrase 'market fundamentalism' in his critique of globalization as it has been imposed upon the world by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) :

The international financial institutions have pushed a particular ideology - market fundamentalism - that is both bad economics and bad politics; it is based on promises concerning how markets work that do not hold even for developed countries, much less for developing countries. The IMF has pushed these economics policies without a broader vision of society or the role of economics within society. And it has pushed these policies in ways that have undermined emerging democracies. More generally, globalization itself has been governed in ways that are undemocratic and have been disadvantageous to developing countries, especially the poor within those countries. Joseph E. Stiglitz

Example of Films: 

The Reluctant Fundamental:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist". The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012 political thriller drama film directed by Mira Nair. It is based on the 2007 novel of the same name (The Reluctant Fundamentalist) by Mohsin Hamid. The film is a post-9/11 story about the impact of the terrorist attacks on one Pakistani man and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them. Mohsin Hamid's novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, engages with the complex issues of Islam and the West, fundamentalism and America's War on Terror. As a “counterhistory” to post-9/11 Islamophobia, the novel contests common notions of terror as an unreasonable ideology of retribution and redemption by exposing the trajectories of imperialism. Analyzing The Reluctant Fundamentalist from the political perspective of a 9/11 novel, we can rethinking on the Clash of Civilizations theory and to elucidate the linkages between new American imperialism, fundamentalism, globalization and terrorism.

Ghayal Once again:

The conflict of who witnessed Murder of RTI activist against multi-business owner Bansal. In the movie we can see the effect of globalization. It is a 2016 Indian action drama film written and directed by Sunny Deol. It is a direct sequel to the 1990 film Ghayal. It is directed, written and headlined by Sunny Deol who again plays Ajay Mehra. Four teenagers accidentally record a murder involving a famous personality and fall into trouble as a result. Ajay, a journalist, decides to help them in their quest to defeat the murderers. 

Madaari:

Again this is a very interesting film to see in the context of globalization. It is a 2016 Indian social thriller film directed by Nishikant Kamat. It is produced by Shailesh R Singh, Madan Paliwal, Sutapa Sikdar, and Shailja Kejriwal and co-produced by Nishant Pitti from Easemytrip.The conflict between common man (father whose child died in bridge crash) and nexus between construction company and politicians.

Sonali Cable:

This is a film about privatization. Sonali, who runs an Internet providing agency in Mumbai, gives her all to save her business when a large corporation, Shining Broadband, tries to maintain its monopoly in the city. A conflict between a girl who runs local tv/internet cable service vs giant company 'Shining' which started providing broadband.

 CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES. 

This article begins with the claim of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “‘no longer have a post-colonial perspective. I think postcolonial is the day before yester-day’ (Spivak 2013: 2).

Now it is time when postcolonial studies are very interested in ecology. Dipesh Chakrabarty finds that all his ‘readings in theories of globalization, Marxist analysis of capital, subaltern studies, and postcolonial criticism over the last twenty-five years’ have not prepared him for the task of analyzing the ‘planetary crisis of climate change’ (2009: 199).

Vandana Shiva has exposed the connection between colonialism and the destruction of environmental diversity. She argues that the growth of capitalism, and now of trans-national corporations, exacerbated the dynamic begun under colonialism which has destroyed sustain-

able local cultures; these cultures were also more women-friendly, partly because women’s work was so crucially tied to producing food and fodder. Other feminist environmentalists are more sceptical of such an assessment of pre-colonial cultures, which, they point out, were also stratified and patriarchal; however, they agree that questions of ecology and human culture are intricately linked. Especially in the so-called third world, they state, one cannot talk about saving the environment while ignoring the needs of human lives and communities (Shiva 1988; Agarwal 1999).

So now it is time to think about ecology. It is about displacement. Humans become greedy and they constantly harm ecology. So in post colonial studies there is one concern about displacement and here is something about this term. So what is displacement ? 

“It is about losing a river. Losing access to clean, safe, drinking water…losing land that is watered richly…losing the grass that your herds grazed on. Losing your cattle. Losing the milk that came from your cattle…losing honey and herbs…losing the right to protest when somebody in a uniform shows up to set fire to your home. What else was left to lose?”

Examples:

Kerala restricts Pepsi:

In another very important example of environmentalism and postcolonial studies we can see the accident of Kerala restricts Pepsi from over using ground water. Kerala to restrict use of groundwater by Pepsico; traders may stop sale of Pepsi, Coke. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan welcomed the move of traders and said the government would extend support to the initiative to check the threat to exploitation of water, pollution and lifestyle diseases. With Kerala in the grip of a severe drought, the government today said it will further restrict the use of groundwater by soft drink major Pepsico at Palakkad even as traders have planned to stop the sale of Pepsi and Coca Cola in the state.

Sherni:

This movie discusses how one tiger is stuck between that place where industrial development was grown up. The story goes like this tiger became the talk of town and politicians use this for upcoming elections. One forest officer called Vidhya tries to save a tiger and send them to a zoo and one professor helped her and at the climax of the movie we found that at the middle there is a mill. Tiger is not able to cross it and that’s why she is stuck.  

Chakravyuh:

Chakravyuh (transl. Wheel formation more idiomatically puzzle) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Prakash Jha starring Arjun Rampal in the lead role with Abhay Deol, Esha Gupta, Manoj Bajpayee and Anjali Patil in supporting roles. Chakravyuh aims to be a social commentary on the issue of Naxalites. The first theatrical trailer of Chakravyuh was released at midnight on 16–17 August 2012. The film was released on Durga Puja.Chakravyuh released in 1100 cinemas in India. Despite being well-praised, the movie failed to attract an audience.

Dhruv Bhatt's Tatvamasi:

The novel remains totally aloof from the agitation in the villages and around Narmada Dam by school activities.

Dhruv Bhatt belongs to Baht those writers who may not be considered as the historians,the interpreter of contemporary culture and the prophets of their people.such writers do not concern themselves with social themes.

Narmada Bachao Aandolan: 

When the Sardar Sarovar Dam was built on Narmada river, some environmentalists carried the Narmada Bacho Aandolan. If we look at contemporary literature written in that time, there is even no reference of this event in Dhruv Bhatt's work "Tatvamasi". The novel remains completely aloof from the agitation in the village and around Narmada Dam by social activists. 

This is the understanding of both articles.

Thank you 

 

Words: 2,152

Thinking Activity

Sunday Reading: Talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Hello friends, 

I am Nidhi Dave a student of Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is response of my Sunday Reading Activity given by professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir. Here I am disscus my learning outcomes from these talks. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. Before her birth, Adichie's family lost nearly everything as a result of the Nigerian Civil War. She was raised in Nsukka, near the University of Nigeria. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics and later became the deputy vice chancellor of the university. Her mother, Ifeoma Aidichie, was the university's first female registrar. Adichie is the fifth child in a family of six children. Her family is of Igbo descent. 

Adichie, a feminist,has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Zikora (2020) and Notes on Grief (2021).In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.She was the recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize in 2018.

1, Talk on importance of Story / Literature: 

In this talk - Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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

The “Danger of a Single Story”, a 2009 TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie, a young Nigerian author. 

Whether we're conscious of it or not, stories influence our understanding of other people and places. In July 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED talk presentation about her experiences as related to her concept of the 'single story.' Adichie describes the 'single story' as a narrative that presents only one perspective, repeated again and again. She asserts that the danger of the 'single story' is that it can result in perspectives based on stereotypes. 

it’s about the danger of a single story. Adichie explains that if we only hear about a people, place or situation from one point of view, we risk accepting one experience as the whole truth. 

Adichie grew up in Nigeria. In her presentation, she describes herself as a long-time storyteller and early reader. The children's books that were available to her then were British and American. 

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete,” Adichie says in the video. “They make one story become the only story.”

Instead, she explains, we must seek diverse perspectives — and in turn, writers must tell our own stories. Telling the stories that only we can tell, about our experiences, hopes and fears, helps break down the power of cliches and stereotypes.

From her own childhood writing featuring only blue-eyed children frolicking in snow — because though she had never seen snow, all her books included it — to her American college roommate’s confusion that an African could speak English, Adichie explores the power of stories:

“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity."

 Last she end with this, I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. 

2, We Should All Be Feminist: 

Nowadays, the word “feminist” is frequently used as a derogatory term and thrown around as an insult. Many people are under the impression that to be a feminist, one must abhor men, must hate housewives, and must not wear makeup. Strangely, none of these are what defines a feminist. A feminist is an individual who believes in the equality of both sexes, as argued by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk, We Should All Be Feminists. 

Another aspect Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie focuses on in this personal essay is the usage of the term ‘feminism’. Some people oppose the idea of feminism by calling themselves ‘humanist’. To quote the author here, “Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender”. 

The word feminist invariably is weighed down with negative interpretations. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shared a incident when she was called a feminist in her childhood by her male best friend. “It was not a compliment. I could tell from his tone – the same tone with which a person would say, ‘You’re a supporter of terrorism."

She encourages us to dream of a world that is just and that has men and women who are happier because they are true to themselves. 

Adichie then focuses on the wage gap and the gendered nature of economic power. In Nigeria, for instance, it's assumed that any woman with money has gotten that money from a man.

Adichie concludes by saying that people do a great disservice to both men and women by teaching them to adhere to strict gender roles. 

3, Talk on Importance of Truth in Post - Truth Era. 

We are living in the world of 21st century. Post-modern era in which people are highly sophisticated and love to do Showoff and also putting down their moral values. So, Chimamanda said that telling lies is telling lies to yourself. A few years ago, I spoke at an event in London. The English woman who was to introduce me had written my name phonetically on a piece of paper. And backstage she held on tightly to this paper while repeating the pronunciation over and over. I could tell, she was very eager to get it right.

And then she went on to the stage and gave a lovely introduction and ended with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chimichanga.”

I told — I told this story at a dinner party shortly afterwards. And one of the guests seemed very annoyed that I was laughing about it. “That was so insulting”, he said, “that English woman could have tried harder.”

But the truth is she did try very hard. In fact, she ended up calling me a fried burrito because she had tried very hard and then ended up with an utterly human mistake that was the result of anxiety.

So, the point of this story is not to say that you can call me Chimichanga. Don’t even think about it.

The point is that intent matters, that context matters. Somebody might very well call me Chimichanga out of a malicious desire to mock my name, and that I would certainly not laugh about. But there is a difference between malice and a mistake.

We now live in a culture of calling out, a culture of outrage, and you should call people out. You should be outraged. But always remember context and never disregard intent 

Whenever you wake-up  

That is your morning, what matters is you wake up.

So, It is very interesting to know about Chimamanda African author with voice of Marginalized people. Presenting very new and fresh thought about feminism and importance of truth in post-truth era.

Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: Midnight's Children 

I am Nidhi Dave student of Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. Here i wrote my understanding of my thinking Activity. This blog is response of my thinking Activity given by professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir. Here i am write about the ans of Midnight's Children film Screening. 

Midnight's Children: 

To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world."

        —Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children. 

Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive.

Midnight's Children sold over one million copies in the UK alone and won the Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. In 2003 the novel appeared at number 100 on the BBC's The Big Read poll which determined the UK's "best-loved novels" of all time.

About Author: 

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie[a] CH FRSL (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent.Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. 

About film ‘ Midnight’s children’ 

Midnight's Children is a 2012 film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Ronit Roy, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.

The film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. The film was also a nominee for Best Picture and seven other categories at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards, winning two awards.

1,Narrative technique (changes made in film adaptation - for eg. absence of Padma, the Nati, the listener, the commenter - What is your interpretation?)

 

Ans,  This novel and the Film adaptation both narrative techniques are different and also both the story and film adaptation also different because both the way the listener and speaker are different.

The narrative style is us pickled with lots of masala of chutney. Indian chutney, Indian masala being added into that when we see that aspect also in a story.

Salman Rushdie uses many narrative techniques in their story. Let's discuss it. And he also used Western Postmodern Devices And Indian (Eastern) Oral Narratological Methods.

Russian Dolls  

Russian Dolls we can see that these dolls are doll within the doll and it is going with like story within the story so it can be apt metaphor for it.

Chinese Boxes

In literature a Chinese box structure refers to a frame narrative, a novel or drama that is told in the form of a narrative inside a narrative, giving views from different perspectives. Examples like Mary Shalley's Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness.

Indian Oral Narratological methods Panchatantra

In the Panchatantra, there are the stories of animals (Fables) to teach the princes of the King Sudarshan and Amarshakti like three sons named Bahushakti, Ugrashakti and Shakti.

Vishnu Sharma (Brahmin) is there to teach them the morals and lessons to helping them to build up the ability of ruling because they were the dumb by their early childhood. Here the story is told in the frame and within the frame. 

Kathasaritasagar: 

In the Kathasaritasagar, there is story also multiple layers of story within a story.

Baital - Pachisi:

Twenty-five stories are there. These are the stories of legends within the frame story, from India. Basically, this is the story of Vikram Aditya promising a sorcerer that he will capture Vetala. Then the story starts with one frame. 

There is also the story of Sihasan Battisi and in that also many stories exist. As all thirty-two dolls tell the stories.

Alif Laila – Arabian Nights:

In this story we find references of Arebian nights, which is a story about the one thousand one hundred stories in that book. Here we can find many examples and connect it with our narrative because here the speaker Shahrazad is telling the stories to the listener Shahryar, same like in Midnight’s Children, the speaker Saleem and the listener Padma.

Ramayana and Mahabharata:

 

Valmiki is the narrator of Ramayana and Ved Vyasa is the narrator of Mahabharata. We find that Ramayana and Mahabharata both are books related to story within a story .

In the movie ‘ Midnight’s Children’ so many changes had been made by the director. So many characters are not included and there is also a slight change in narrative technique also. In the original text the story is told by the protagonist himself and the story is listened to by Padma. This technique is connected with Bharatmuni’s ‘ Natya Shastra. It means here Saleem is Nat and Padma is Nati. In film adaptation this method is changed and here Saleem tells the story but the audience plays the role of nati. This is a narrative technique of midnight's Children.

2, Characters (how many included, how many left out - Why? What is your interpretation?

Ans, Here are the Characters in the movie...

• 
  
  
• 
  
  

• Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai
• Shriya Saran as Parvati
• Siddharth Narayan as Shiva
• Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child)
• Anupam Kher as Ghani
• Shabana Azmi as Naseem
• Neha Mahajan as Young Naseem
• Seema Biswas as Mary 
• Charles Dance as William Methwold
• Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie
• Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz
• Soha Ali Khan as Jamila
• Rahul Bose as Zulfikar
• Anita Majumdar as Emerald
• Shahana Goswami as Amina
• Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa
• Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh
• Shikha Talsania as Alia
• Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan
• Sarita Choudhury as Indira Gandhi
• Vinay Pathak as Hardy
• Kapila Jeyawardena as Governor
• Ranvir Shorey as Laurel
• Suresh Menon as Field Marshal
• G.R Perera as Astrologer
• Salman Rushdie, Narrator 

Here is the list of characters from the novel who didn't appear in the film.

•  Padma
• Sonny Ibrahim
• Commander Sabarmati
• Lila Sabarmati
• Homy Carrack
• Alice Pereira
• Nalikar Women
• Ramram Sheth 

Here, we find that Padma is the most important character in the novel but in the film her character is not included and there he uses Parvati as the main character. So, we find lots of different characters in novels and films also. 

3. Themes and Symbols (if film adaptation is able to capture themes and symbols?)

Ans,      Themes :

1,Truth and Storytelling:

Self-proclaimed writer and pickle-factory manager Saleem Sinai is dying—cracking and crumbling under the stress of a mysterious illness—but before he does, he is determined to tell his story. With the “grand hope of the pickling of time,” Saleem feverishly pens his autobiography, preserving his stories like jars of chutney, searching for truth and meaning within them.

2,British Colonialism and Postcolonialism:

Born at exactly midnight on the eve of India’s independence from British colonialism, Saleem Sinai is the first free native citizen born on Indian soil in nearly a hundred years. After a century of British rule, in addition to a century of unofficial imperialism before that, Saleem’s birth marks the end of a two-hundred-year British presence in India. Using their considerable power and influence, the British impose their Western culture and customs onto the Indian people, suppressing and erasing India’s own rich culture to such an extent that, even after their official exit, an undeniable Western presence remains. The postcolonial India of Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children underscores the difficulties of navigating a cultural existence that has been largely erased and permanently altered by a foreign, dominant power. 

3, Sex and Gender:

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is a harsh critique of the gender-related power struggles of postcolonial Indian society. After generations of purdah—the belief that Muslim and Hindu women should live separately from society, behind a curtain or veil, to stay out of the sight of men—postcolonial women are encouraged to become “modern Indian women” and remove their veils. 

4, Identity and Nationality: 

From the moment Saleem Sinai is born on the eve of India’s independence from Great Britain, he becomes the living embodiment of his country. Saleem is India, and his identity metaphorically represents the identity of an entire nation; however, Saleem’s identity is complicated and conflicted. A nation, generally understood as the same people living in the same place, only loosely applies to India’s diverse population. Instead, multiple religions, languages, and political beliefs divide postcolonial India into a nation of very different people living in the same place, making one unifying national identity virtually impossible. Saleem—and by proxy, the country he represents—is one of many characters within Midnight’s Children struggling with a conflicted identity, through which Rushdie ultimately argues against the creation of a single unifying national identity for the newly independent India. 

5, Fragments and Partitioning

Following their 1947 independence from British rule, India begins to break up in a process known as partitioning. British India splits along religious lines, forming the Muslim nation of Pakistan and the secular, but mostly Hindu, nation of India. India continues to fracture even further, dividing itself based on language and class. Meanwhile, Saleem Sinai, the living embodiment of India, is also cracking—and dying. 

Symbols:

There are very interesting symbols given in the entire novel that are considered as allegories of India. So some children are born at midnight and then India is also born at midnight. Saleem Senai who is the protagonist and who is born at midnight with whom India’s story is also described.Whatever happened in the novel has actually happened in India but it is interpreted in a different way. The events that happened, it’s real events that happened in India. Salman Rushdie’s Way of looking , it may not be fair and He says that when we read meta narratives of the past we also have to believe.

Interesting Symbols in Film:

1, The Silver Spittoon:

Normally spittoon is used for spit but here it used as memory of something but the memory itself become an amnesia. Stroke of it over Saleem become the reason his lost of memory. Amnesia and Memory become debatable point. What we remember, how we remember, what is made to forgotten is very interestingly happening through out literature also.

2, Nose:

Fantastic Elements like Different sense of smell, children who born on that same night can meet through this sense and only who can call them who is born exact at 12.00 pm of night, others can only participate and in this Nose is symbolically presented here India’s nose- culture, heritage, history with flight. Father not believe in all that and operation of nose closed the door of that meetings for forever. 

3, Magic Realism:

Magic Realism is something which is part of people’s life and that is become unique style of writing in literature. This style came not from western Writers, who believe in pure realism. They believe that Novel should be written with realism . Canon of literature is when we look at novel it says that it should be reality otherwise it is known as romance.

Magic realism is part of plot and style of movie. It shows lived experience of people of third world country under colonizers. In movie Parvati who knows magic called by people as witch. Because they think magic is craft of illusion. Parvati used to believe in her magic. She has one disappear box also which she used to save Saleem and her child. There is every time absurdity in marriage. Science and superstition has simultaneously shown in the movie.

4, Pickles:

Pickles are repeatedly mentioned in Midnight’s Children, and while they are often viewed as a phallic symbol, they are generally representative of the power of preservation within Rushdie’s novel. Saleem is the manager of a pickle factory, and he preserves pickles and chutneys each day. He also attempts to preserve his own life story like the pickles in his factory. Saleem largely manages to preserve his life through storytelling, offering a bit of immortality to a dying man, and he also labels and stores each chapter he writes in a pickle jar, so that they may be read later, by his son for example. This connection between pickles and the preservation of stories endures until the very end of the book, when Saleem ceremoniously labels his very last pickle jar as a way of closing out his story and his life as a whole. 

4. The texture of the novel (What is the texture of the novel? Well, it is the interconnectedness of narrative technique with the theme. Is it well captured?)

Ans, Midnight’s children’ consist the theme like  The Single and the Many The Unreliability of Memory and Narrative Destruction vs. Creation. The film is not told in chronological order, but it is told in flashback. When Salim remembered something he told the audience and listener. And then come back to real life from that flashback. Whole story is told by Salim and listener are Padma but the film Salim are story taler and the audience are listener. 

5, What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening? 

Ans, My experience after watching this movie is very good, as there are a lot of events in this movie that are woven with real life. This movie tries to show what the situation was like with imagination and history. Speaking out against politics was a big challenge. Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi at that time. It was not an easy task but writing such a novel in the face of politics at that time was a big challenge. Which Salman Rushdie has done. Salman's midnight children novels have become very popular. This novel tells the same story but the way of telling the story changes. So like reading this novel. There is a lot of adaptation in the film so I love watching this film. 

 

Thank you. 

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Thinking Skills Workshop

Thinking Skills Workshop by professor Milan Pandya.

 This blog is response of my thinking Activity given by professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, In this activity i have discussed about my two days learning experience of Thinking skills workshop.

Thinking Skills

On 13 to 14 August 2022 we had a guest lecture by milan Pandya sir. Milan Pandya is a Teacher, Trainer and Educator in the field of Critical, Creative and Design Thinking Skills, English Language Teaching, Communication Skills, Humanities and Social Sciences. With more than 12 years of teaching experience, Mr. Pandya has authored 02 books, presented and published a number of research papers in national and international conferences and journals. He has taught/trained in numerous Universities/Institutions training more than 30,000 people in Thinking Skills. He has been involved in developing courses and conducting workshops in Thinking Skills, Communication, Humanities & Social Sciences, Philosophy, Ethics & Soft Skills. Mr. Pandya has BA & MA in English Literature, M.Phil in English Language Teaching (ELT) & his Ph.D involves study into Online Teaching, Communicative Competence & Critical Thinking.

   

 In this lecture first sir talked about critical thinking and Creative Thinking. Thinking Skills are life skills. Everyone is not able to perfect thinking skills to think differently, so sir , in a very effectively said the definition of thinking skills. Sir said about three thinking skills 

Logical  

Rational

Scientific 

Critical thinking is, Thinking about thinking, in order to improve thinking'. 

 And sir also said that we think so we note only improve our thoughts but also develop our personality.

Then sir  say about 'Context'

'Context is Everything'

"If something is true, what else  has to be true."

Then sir talked about Fact, the fact note changes because his identity is totally based on things so that's why fact can not be changed. Then also sir talked about Possible and Plausible. How possible and plausible are different from each other. Lastly, sir talked about Qunon Theory.

Some Examples of Thinking Skills

This first example is about the advertisement this advertisement is about lux soap in this advertisement heroine talk about the 3% prophet of money. But we know that she charged much money of this advertisement. she talked about 3 or 4 % prophet on this advertisement this all are the fake news.

In this example we have not find any wrong things but as we read the image we find some wrong things. This is an example of the popular serial Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. In this image the female protagonist is not able to wearing a sari in her own way hand but she able to create beautiful and perfect hair style her own hend how that is possible. So we find that, that is basic concept of thinking skills. 

This is the recent tweet by Satish Shah, Indian flag of 1942. If we know the history we realize that this flag was selected as the national flag after independence. But as a Film actor he is free to make that type of mistake and no one can tell him anything but also others follow him to his work but as a celebrity he also check the correct information and then tweets that type of important information for the nation. That is work on thinking skills that we find some wrong things easily.

Then sir gives some another example also like,  The book Discovery of India by Jawahar Lal Nehru and some movie example also like Joji movie and COCO.

"Your teacher might be wrong, Learn to think for yourself."

On the second day of the workshop 14th August sir came with the games in which we have to show our creativity and thinking power because sir said that critical thinking is always practice it because nobody born in critical thinker.

This is amazing thinking Activity i called because we start with simple question that how many categories we seen this image and then we find many categories and then connect the dots each other and find many interesting things like,

We find categories ( Food, Vegitables, clothes, spots, Money, electronics, religion,  etc)  

Books name: Home And The World, Gun Island.

Things that moves round : Grinder, World, Clock.

Things that move up to down : Rocket, Plane. 

Red colour: Apple, Slide, boll, car etc.

Movie name

Bollywood songs

Adam and Eve story 

Shakespeare's play : Hamlet, Macbeth.

Metaphor in literature.

'An apple of my eyes.'

Then sir also introduced some other activities to explain that seeing things in a way that others can not able to see is what called creativity. He show several pictures like brush, and Spectacles and told students to find all possible uses of that objects and students identify also all the object. Then sir told about the basic nature of critical thinking and his four important part.

Person

 Press (Environment)

 Process

 Product

Then last sir talked about one activity that is Thought experiments. That activity sir gives us to a one train situation and then he says about the situation. That activitys basic concept is how we help others person in his hyper situation and how we decide which person dies or not.Then other students ask the questions to sir and he said that how we find a solution this all the questions. Lastly our session ended with vote of thanks by the students. 

These two day's it was great days to us because we learnt lots of things from him and now I can say that I personally many differently understand all these things.

So the outcome of this workshop is that now I am able to understand the thinking Skills of anything. Thank you Dilip Barad sir. And Thank you Milan Pandya sir for this amazing session. It was the best learning experience for all the department students. 

Thank you