Machine Translation Activity

Thinking Activity: The Home and The world 

Hello Friends, 

I am Nidhi Dave Student of the department of English MKBU. This blog is response of my thinking Activity given by professor Yesha Ma'am. I am going to discuss about activities that we have done in reference to The Home and The world by Rabindranath Tagore. We did several activities like Text reading, Workshop on machine translation, Google translation of own creative writing, board work. So here i discuss about my machine Translation Activity.

My Writing: 

નથી શોધતી હવે હું ખુદને કોઈ બીજામાં

હું તો ખુદમાં જ ગુમ થવા લાગી છું

નથી અપેક્ષા, નથી લેવું, નથી માગવું

જુવો ને હું એટલે જ ખુશ થવા લાગી છું

નથી બનવું મારે કોઈની મંઝિલ

હું તો બસ એ મંઝિલે પહોંચવાનું પગથિયું બનવા લાગી છું

અરે ભૂલો ના તો કોઈ માફી પત્રો  હોતા હશે,

અરે માણસ છે

બસ માણસ ને માણસના નામે માફ કરવા લાગી છું

તું આ થઈ જા...... તું આમ થઈ જા......

બસ...... આ થવામાં શું રાખ્યુ છે.......?

અરે, હવે તો હું જે છું એ જ રેહવા લાગી છું.

 Translation in Bengali language:

আমার লেখা:

নিজেকে আর কারো মধ্যে খুঁজে পাই না

নিজেকে হারাতে শুরু করছি

আশা না করা, নেওয়া না, চাওয়া না

দেখো, তাই আমি খুশি হতে শুরু করছি

আমি কারো গন্তব্য হতে চাই না

সেই গন্তব্যে পৌঁছানোর জন্য আমি কেবল একটি ধাপ

হায়রে, ভুলের জন্য কোন ক্ষমা চাওয়া হত না।

হেই মানুষ

আমি শুধু মানুষের নামে মানুষকে ক্ষমা করতে শুরু করেছি

তুমি এই হও... তুমি সেই হও...

শুধু...... কি এটা ঘটতে রাখছে.......?

হায়, এখন আমি যেমন আছি তেমনই বেঁচে আছি।

Āmāra lēkhā:

Nijēkē āra kārō madhyē khum̐jē pā'i nā

nijēkē hārātē śuru karachi

āśā nā karā, nē'ōẏā nā, cā'ōẏā nā

dēkhō, tā'i āmi khuśi hatē śuru karachi

āmi kārō gantabya hatē cā'i nā

sē'i gantabyē paum̐chānōra jan'ya āmi kēbala ēkaṭi dhāpa

hāẏarē, bhulēra jan'ya kōna kṣamā cā'ōẏā hata nā.

Hē'i mānuṣa

āmi śudhu mānuṣēra nāmē mānuṣakē kṣamā karatē śuru karēchi

tumi ē'i ha'ō... Tumi sē'i ha'ō...

Śudhu...... Ki ēṭā ghaṭatē rākhachē.......?

Hāẏa, ēkhana āmi yēmana āchi tēmana'i bēm̐cē āchi.

If we read this translation, we found that it has lots of mistakes, some words are removed by translation machine, meanings of some words are changed, and the most important thing is machine translating words but it is not able to convey emotions of poem. Some where it also helped to understand translation of hard words which are translated well in Bangla language.

Machine Translation Workshop by Budhiditya Das  Ma'am:

We had a wonderful online session with Budhiditya ma'am. Budhiditya ma'am mother language was Bengali so she easily understood the Bengali language and also our class few students have done this machine translation activity in Bengali language. so ma'am easily connect that many translations are completely different from the original language. She give us very useful information about the transaction. It was amazing workshop we learnt many things.

And last we done one activity also that is we all the sem 3 students wrote our name in Bengali language. 

It was amazing workshop of us and we learnt many things in Bengali language it is unique way to learn a text. Thank you Yesha Ma'am. 

Thank you.

Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: Why We So Scared of Robot/AIs?

Why We So Scared of Robot/AIs? 

This blog is response of my thinking Activity given by professor Dr Dilip Barad sir. Here i discuss about why we do Scared of Robot.

Robots have become an integral part of the manufacturing industry, but they’re also moving into other industries as well. As they continue to become a larger part of our society, people are voicing growing fears about them. Whether it’s a fear for their jobs, their lives, or something else entirely, it’s all built on a lack of knowledge. One the one hand, they see AI as one of the most fundamental transformative technologies that we have ever seen in the history of mankind, and on the other hand, that transformative power is something we should be scared of and be wary about. If AI is transformative, then it has the power to be transformative both for good reasons as well as bad. So here i discuss some video Short film of why we Scared of Robot. 

1, The first one is about babysitter robot who becomes so obsessed of the child that murders the murder. 

In this short film we can see that mother had a babysitter robot but at the long time they become obsessed and try to murder mother. These kinds of films try to scare us from technology , especially robots. So in this movie we find that humans installed some of the emotions in human beings and when Robots were not working properly we replaced them but we have included the same emotions like us. And it's normal that if we make something then as time passes it gets worse. Humans make robots that it's not harmful to peoples.So it seems that the media are not much connected with robots. They are not too kind with the robots and Al. Sometimes we Scared to watch this kind of film and this film was example of horrible.

2, The second one is on the iMom - Mom robot.

A mother leaves her kids to the care of a robot. Then an unexpected bond is formed. This spooky horror meets science fiction, humanoid technology is compared to false prophets in the Bible, as filmmaker Ariel Martin playfully depicts a dark future where automation encourages sinful indulgence and a lack of great parenting. 

In this film they used one mom robot- iMom. In it also we see that robot harm the humans. That iMom killed the child so it's seems more dangerous to take a robot as our safety and trust on them. So this type of stories play a vital role in the scaring for the robots.

We asked writer/director Martin what inspired The iMom: “I came across a photo of a baby interacting with a robotic arm and was struck by how it captured the idea of ‘man verses machine’, and wanted to take a narrative look at where technology is taking us as a society.”

3, The third is on Satyajit Ray's short story 'Anukul' (1976) - directed by Sujoy Ghosh

Sujoy Ghosh's short film Anukul is based on a short story of the same name, written by Satyajit Ray back in the year 1976.

The famous American historian and novelist, Henry Adams had once said, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." This line holds true for Satyajit Ray, filmmaker extraordinaire, whose works still form a great source of inspiration for modern-day filmmakers.

The story is set in a dystopian future when humans coexist with anthropomorphic robots. However, Ray didn't set the story in a futuristic timeline; he chose to build the entire narrative in a contemporary settings. And that is where the story excels and its effect remains unmarred by the strands of irrelevance or obsolescence.

A Hindi school teacher, Nikunj Chaturvedi (played by Shukla) buys an android named Anukul (played by Chatterjee) from a corporate agency based in Chowringee, Kolkata. The robot, programmed to do any human task without "overtime" and "holidays", thus becomes a part of Nikunj's household as a housekeeper and starts observing things and people around. Eventually, after some dramatic set of events, his relationship with his master changes in many ways and levels.So in this movie we found one retired man Nikunj and he wanted someone’s company so he purchased one robot. So that man faced some conflict with relatives and at the end we found that Anukul killed him. Nikunj never knew that his closest relative had expired. Also it's a rule coded in the robot that a second violent attempt will be faced by electrocution from that robot. Having a conscience is a dimension of our brain to think in the most logical way. Logic is all that computer has. In the middle Nikunj attempts to explain Gita as perceived by him. A rule and new learnings from Gita are the perfect match for self conscience.Several parts of the film are extremely faithful to Ray’s story, including fine details such as Anukul’s costume (a light-blue checked shirt and black half pants). Ghosh’s primary addition to the story is the typical humans-against-machines trope prevalent in science fiction.

The most common fears surrounding robots are often birthed from a lack of knowledge.

Thank you 

Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: The Final Solution by Mahesh Dattani   

Hello Friends, I am Nidhi Dave from the department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is a response to my Thinking Activity given by professor Vaidehi Ma'am. Here I discuss some questions from the play Final Solution by Mahesh Dattani.

Mahesh Dattani: 

Mahesh Dattani was born in Bangalore in 1958. He is an Indian English playwright, filmmaker, director, writer and actor. As a writer, he wrote several plays like Final Solutions, Tara, Dance like a Man, Thirty Days in September, Bravely Fought the Queen, The Big Fat City and others. He has known to be a modern playwright because he has contributed in making a substantial standing of the current time by attacking the burning problems that take over the view of publicity. In 1998, he has considered as the first English playwright to be the one who won the Sahitya Academy award. He gives a name for theatre, which is “A craft of communicating through the language of action”. He writes the plays by keeping in mind the stage directions. 

 He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award.His plays have been directed by eminent directors like Arvind Gaur, Alyque Padamsee and Lillete Dubey. 

Dattani teaches theatre courses at the summer sessions programme of Portland State University, Oregon, USA, and conduct workshops regularly at his studio and elsewhere. He also writes radio plays for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Bangalore.

About Play: 

This play is about the hindu family in Gujarat who save 2 boys from Muslim community and are under threat to be skinned alive if they don't hand over the Muslims boys to the hindu rioter, and those boys are Friends with the girl whom house they shelter in and one guy love that girl is the brother of her best friend and other guy is her best friend fiance. She got scolded for that her friendship with Muslims guys and she take a full stand against that comments we see the bitterness in the both communities and there responses and author show the true face of the society to us in a way we understand best. But ending show that there is not perfect solution to end this communal hatred but there is hope coming generation may able to vanish this thing finally in the coming years. As in the ending we see all three young members were enjoying the water shower on each other and all there is love between boy of Muslim community and girl of hindu family is the difference they have to cross to become one in this life. 

Thinking Task:- (Write any four)

1, What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?

Ans,  The play Final Solutions, written by Mahesh K. Dattani discusses the theme of communal riots, hatred and bitterness of Hindus and Muslims against each other. The plot is set in Gujarat (after the 2002 Riots). The communal hatred is at peak. It can be seen when we find Hindu mob chasing Javed and Bobby after knowing that they are Muslims.

Next, we also come to know other complex stories like love affair of Smita (who is a Hindu) and Bobby, Javed’s story of adopting extremist way, Ramanik’s grabbing of Javed’s land (after burning his shop) etc.

We find that Ramanik blames Javed and his community and vice versa. But deep inside, Ramanik’s conscience does not allow him to live in peace because of the sin which he committed in the past.

There is another issue which is discussed in the play. It is the orthodoxy which is inherited among the believers of every religion. They consider people from other communities as untouchables. Aruna’s denying Bobby and Javed from spending night at their home depicts this.

So, throughout the play, we find ample of problems and the playwright has not given any solution. Instead, he has let the audience to decide. Hence, the final solutions are, in real, no solutions to these communal problems. We people need to know what makes us hate others.

2, Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s “The Final Solutions” makes any significant changes in society?

Ans, Yes, i think That The Final Solution is changing in society. Mahesh Dattani is a well-known English playwright, actor and director of India. He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for Final Solutions in 1998.The theme of the play Final Solutions is to highlight human weaknesses, selfishness, avarice and opportunism. Woven into the play are the issues of class and communities and the clashes between traditional and modern life style and value systems. The problem of minorities is not confined to only Hindus and Muslims, it eats the peace of any minority community among the majority.

Final Solutions" has a powerful contemporary resonance and it addresses as issue of utmost concern to our society, i.e. the issue of communalism. The play presents different shades of the communalist attitude prevalent among Hindus and Muslims in its attempt to underline the stereotypes and clichés influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another. What distinguishes this work from other plays written on the subject is that it is neither sentimental in its appeal nor simplified in its approach.

It advances the objective candour of a social scientist while presenting a mosaic of diverse attitudes towards religious identity that often plunges the country into inhuman strife. Yet the issue is not moralised, as the demons of communal hatred are located not out in the street but deep within us. 

3, How are the beginning and the end of the movie? Do you feel the effect of communal disturbance in the movie?

Ans, The title makes audience members ask themselves, “Are there solutions to religious communalism?” 

The communal virus has always played a mischievous role in this pluralistic society. In the beginning of the play we see Hardika opening her diary after four decades and writing a dozen pages more. Her words, “Yes, things have not changed that much” sound so philosophical and true. Communal virus has made this sub-continent to suffer quite often. Ram Ahuja in his sociological work ‘Social problems in India’ defines Communalism as follows:

Communalism is an ideology which states that society is divided into religious communities whose interests differ and are, at times, even opposed to each other. The antagonism practiced by the people of one community against the people of other community and religion can be termed ‘communalism’.”

The play Final Solution is not a mere ‘one more addition’ to the literary works that deal with communal conflicts, but an honest attempt at sensitizing the public about the dangers of prejudice and discrimination based on one’s race, ethnicity and religion. Discrimination, per se, need not be absolutely bad. But it can be truly fatal if it’s based on deadly prejudice. The playwright has given a brilliant title, which indicates that there are solutions to seemingly irresolvable problems. However, the playwright, neither taking an escapist route nor presuming to offer ‘the final solution’, confronts the burning issue with an amazing neutrality and courage of conviction. Therefore, the play cannot be studied merely as a clash between Hindus and Muslims represented by Ramnik Gandhi, his family members and Hindu Mob/chorus and Bobby, Javed and Muslim Mob/ Chorus on the stage. 

4, Does education make any difference? Comment with the reference to the women characters.

Ans, Yes, education make difference. We have four women characters in the play. Daksha, Hardika, Aruna and Smita.They make realization that women are not a shadow of male. Today woman is making her spaces. She has a better understanding of realization of identity both inside and outside the family. A woman of liberal ideology views the situation as an individual and constructs the image of life beyond the specified ideology of religious and community-based prejudices. She retains the power to change the conventional thinking and to make better realization of her hidden potentials. She wants to take decision for herself and if it is right she can protest against those agencies who are responsible for her sublimation. 

In the play Final Solutions, Dattani represents the three female characters – Hardika, Smita and Aruna. He adopts an innovative narrative technique and the major dramatic events float through the consciousness of Hardika, the grandmother in Gandhian family. The dramatic conflict springs and develops through the reflection of Hardika whose consciousness remains rooted in the horrible events of partition that took place forty years back. The dramatic narration shifts between the present to 31st March 1948 when Hardika, the grandmother was a young girl of 14, known as Daksha and in her reflections she concludes that nothing as has changed and prejudices of communalism are haunting their consciousness continuously. In her diary entry, she mentions:

After forty years … I opened my diary again. And I wrote a dozen pages before. A dozen pages now. A young girl childish scribble. An oldman’s shaky scrawl, yes the things have not changed that much. (Act I)

Education give us vision to see beyond rigidity, and help to break religious barriers. It will help in full development of person.In the character of Smita, Hardika and Aruna, Dattani admits that women have greater consciousness and deeper realization of communal and religious identities. 

Thank you 

Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: Foe 

Foe by J. M. Coetzee 

Hello Friends, I am Nidhi Dave from department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is response of my Thinking Activity given by professor Yesha Ma'am. Here i discuss about the some questions answers from the novel Foe by J.M. Coetzee. 

About the Novel: 

Foe is a 1986 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway. Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story, unfolded as Barton's narrative while in England attempting to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction. Coetzee revisited the composition of Robinson Crusoe in 2003 in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. 

About the author:  

John Maxwell Coetzee(born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates. Coetzee moved to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2006.He lives in Adelaide. 

1, How would you differentiate the character of Cruso and Crusoe? 

Ans,   

“I would gladly now recount to you the history of the singular Cruso, as I heard it from his own lips. But the stories he told me were so various, and so hard to reconcile one with another… age and isolation had taken their toll on his memory, and he no longer knew for sure what was truth” (Coetzee, 11-12)

This quote from Coetzee’s Foe is the readers first introduction to any aspect of Cruso’s character in the book. The beginning of Foe is told from the first-person point of view of Susan Barton, and because of this, the reader is aware of Susan’s inner thoughts as she arrives on the island. When Susan first lands on the island she has her first encounter with Friday. Susan first refers to Friday as “the Negro”, but then just one page later she references, to the reader, that his name is Friday. Since Friday is mute, Susan cannot know of his name unless she had previous knowledge of who he is, or the author assumes the reader knows who Friday is. This is when I first begin viewing Foe as an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe.

While Friday retains the same name in Foe as in Robinson Crusoe, Robinson Crusoe’s name is changed to “Cruso” which marks the first in a series of differences between the character of Cruso(e) in Foe and Robinson Crusoe. Cruso’s lack of journaling is a stark contrast to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe is much less passive and senile in regards to his own development on the island. Crusoe kept a painfully detailed account of every action he does on the island in a journal he updates daily. In this journal, Crusoe meticulously records every step for all of the tools he crafts, and he writes about his own progress with his newly acquitted relationship with religion. This Robinson Crusoe is much more in tune with his own reality and interested in his own accomplishments than Foe’s Cruso. This is also evident in the number of tools and objects that Robinson Crusoe makes in comparison to Cruso. Robinson Crusoe fills his multiple homes with various types of pots, tables, chairs, fences, and even a canoe. All of these items Crusoe builds are to improve and aide in his growth on the island, and he must be mentally sharp in order to build these items. Cruso in Foe has not put any effort towards building tools, as he only has a bed when Susan arrives at the island, and from the quote, it seems like he may not have the mental capacity to build these tools. Although Cruso does builds many terraces, he exclaims that they are for the future generations and not himself.

One explanation for the difference in mindset and mental stability in the two Robinson Crusoe’s may be that in Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe felt that his island life had more value than Cruso did. Before becoming stranded on the island, religion wasn’t a focus in Robinson Crusoe’s life, and he frequently sinned; such as when he disobeyed his father. After becoming stranded on the island, Crusoe began to read the bible and incorporate God into his daily thoughts and actions. Crusoe expressed deep regret for his sinful past, and often attributed hardships to a lesson from God. This newfound life style gave significant meaning to Crusoe’s daily actions as they represented growth in his faith, and a positive change in character. For Cruso, the island did not lead him to make any significant changes in his character or ideals. Therefore, his daily actions had less significance to him, and when his reality and sense of self began to slip away from him he was not concerned.

2,  Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe. 

Ans,  Defoe used Friday to explore themes of religion, slavery and subjugation, all of which were supposed to a natural state of being at that time in history, and Coetzee uses him to explore more strongly themes of slavery, black identity, and the voice of the oppressed. In neither book is Friday left simply to be a character, he is instead always used as a device through which the reader can explore other topics..

‘Your master says the slavers cut [your tongue] out; but I have never heard of such a practice… Is it the truth that your master cut it out himself and blamed the slavers?’  

                   (Coetzee, J.M, ‘Foe’.) 

The fact that this question is never answered, and that all attempts to force Friday to communicate fail drastically leave the reader wondering whether the slavers that captured Friday removed his tongue, or whether that was done by the colonialist Cruso, who felt there was ‘no need of a great stock of words’, (Coetzee, J.M, ‘Foe’). ‘In a little time I began to speak to him; and teach him to speak to me… I likewise taught him to say Master; and then let him know that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No and to know the meaning of them’. Coetzee was asserting that it was not his right to give voice to an oppressed black character, and let Friday stand for the victims of apartheid and slavery, where Defoe (due to the beliefs of society at his time) believed that it was right and natural for Crusoe to claim the position of Master to Friday, and to speak for him. Friday in Foe’s work, in standing for the victims of apartheid and slavery, is a black African character ‘he was black, negro, with a head of fuzzy wool’ (Coetzee’s Foe), whereas Crusoe’s Friday, not standing for those causes, is portrayed as being an anglicised version of a Caribbean man, who ‘had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance’. The representation of Friday in these two texts is vastly different, and one could hardly believe that the two were in fact the same character. With different histories, and different personalities, in fact all both have in common is playing the role of the non-white slave in the text, to serve a literary purpose, in both reflecting the views of wider society towards non-white people, and in showing the development of other characters. 

3,  Is Susan reflecting the white mentality of Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)? 

Ans,  Susan Barton, the narrator in Foe, finds herself shipwrecked on a desolate island with a man named Robinson Cruso. It does not take long for Barton to recognize her status on the island after she tells Cruso her story of being washed ashore. She says, “I presented myself to Cruso, in the days when he still ruled over the island, and became his second subject, the first being his manservant Friday” (Coetzee 11). Throughout the novel, even long after Cruso’s death, she describes the island as “Cruso’s island.”

The tone of the novel feels consistently, though ambiguously, ironic. There are various elements that contribute to this subtle facetiousness; one of them is Susan Barton’s chipper and self-assured storytelling. She is the unexpected, female revisionist of a classic male tale. She is a character who has been edited out of the iconic novel. Her story, which has been silence and repressed, casts a whole new light on Robinson Crusoe’s adventures, bringing in the traumas and brutalities of colonialism. With Susan’s revision of Robinson Crusoe, we are forced to consider the realism of Robinson Crusoe, the violent realities upon which the fantasy lies. The slave’s story is perennially repressed. But through Susan, a female version is coming to light. The irony of this version is in Susan’s flippant tone in respect to her own story. Her attitude toward her own trauma is entirely casual. It is no thing to have survived what she has survived. Until the end of the novel, her intention has not been to illuminate a repressed version of events; rather, it has arguably been as sensationalist as Foe’s. Until the final chapters, her plan has been to sell an exceptional tale.

Although Susan Barton is the voice of the novel, she is not the main character because she is most concerned with telling the story of “Cruso’s island.” J.M. Coetzee is a male author who uses the voice of Barton to convey a deeper understanding of Defoe’s male character, Robinson Crusoe. As a woman, she is used as an instrument to further define the characters and story of Robinson Crusoe. The beginning of the novel is focused on Cruso and his island, while the end of the novel is focused on Barton defining her relationship with Cruso and also her relationship with Friday. Through her meek subservience and her role as the supporting actress to the ever-present figure of Robinson Cruso, Susan Barton’s voice is lost. Coetzee uses her as merely a device to relay the stories of Cruso and Friday. 

Thank you 

Words: 1,737

Thinking Activity

Thinking Activity: Sultana's Reality: 

Digital Narrative : Sultana's Dream

Hello friends I am Nidhi Dave student of Department of English. This thinking Activity given by professor Yesha Ma'am. Here i discuss about some questions of Sultana's Reality. 

1. Concept of Andarmehel – the universe of Women

2. Observation of females and their connection with books.(Colonial education movement)

3. Compare both narrative technique

Sultana's Dream

Rokeya Sakhawat:

Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain is remembered as the greatest Muslim feminist and a pioneer of women's Liberation movement in India. Despite Icoming from a highly conservative Muslim family, she went on to become a writer and educationalist with a great zeal in social reform to help women play a greater part in society. She was popularly known as Begum Rokeya.

She was born in 1880 in an orthodox Muslim family in the village of Pairabondh in Rangpur district. During her time, English education was not considered fit for English education and therefore, she remained confined at home along with her sister to study Arabic. It was her brother who taught her English and Bengali and inspired her to write. Rokeya was married off at an early age of 16 to Syed Sakhawat Hossain, the deputy magistrate of Bhagalpur in Bihar. He supported Rokeya and propagated the idea that education among women is the best way to cure ills of the society. 11 years later Syed died and Rokeya founded a school for girls in Bhagalpur in the memory of her husband.

She was also a great novelist of her time who wrote about the injustices faced by Bengali Muslim women. In her writings, she condemned the oppression of women conducted in the name of religion. Some of her notable works include Sultana's Dream (1905), Padmarag (1924), Motichur (1903) and Abarodhbasini (1931). All her writings put forward the idea of humanism.

Sultana's Dream: 

Sultana's Dream is a 1905 Bengali feminist utopian story written by Begum Rokeya, also known as Rokeya Sahkawat Hossain, a Muslim feminist, writer and social reformer from Bengal. It was published in the same year in Madras-based English periodical The Indian Ladies Magazine.

As the first magazine in India established and edited by a woman for women, the periodical was an ideal fit for Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's "Sultana's Dream," one of the earliest science fiction stories written by a woman. In Rokeya's feminist utopia, women rule the world as society lives peacefully and prospers through their inventions of solar ovens, flying cars, and cloud condenser, which offer abundant, clean water to the population of "Ladyland." And the men, who are deemed "fit for nothing, are shut inside their homes.

Sultana's is a woman's dream world where women get to be in charge for once in a futuristic society called Ladyland where men are disenfranchised and women are privileged with good educations and good jobs. This may seem like aggressive feminism, but it really isn't; in order to make sense of the confrontational tone of the novel, the reader should know about Purdah, the Muslim practice of rejecting women from religious practice. The Purdah is what Begum Rokeya is mostly criticizing, which should help to bring some of the novel's religious ideas into focus.

1. Concept of Andarmehel – the universe of Women: 

Beginning with the meaning of what is Andar mahal; Andar mahal or inner chambers is also known as Zenana, it is a part of a house for the seclusion of Women. The very first chapter of ‘Sultana’s Reality' talks about Andar mahal ‘an inner world of their own’. One of the essential aspects of this story is the presentation of women as educated leaders of the land during a time when education, especially the knowledge of English was imparted to men. The reform movements taking shape during this period, discussed women education in the context of them being suitable wives and mothers (Hasan,2012) ‘Sultana’s Dream’ makes a departure from this thought, illustrating women education as a necessity in order to make them responsible citizens rather than commendable housewives, for the gradual progress of the country. It is interesting to note how Rokeya presents this entire departure of thought and practice as a right of women to education rather than a privilege. She further illustrates Ladyland as a country where women education is must, presence of all-girls’ schools and colleges and marriages are not before the age of twenty one. This endorsement of women education and them running the country acts as a demonstration of woman power over male dominance. However, the avenue of education has a larger political context that is delineated through the use of language in the story.

Andar mahal can be considered to be a universe of women because it was the only place where they were safe from the men. In a compact, caged place, they were free to dance, sing, enjoy, writing poetry, gossip about husbands and making jokes on them. this is the story of the Andermehel.

2. Observation of females and their connection with books.(Colonial education movement) 

The use of English language in writing the story acts against the ‘linguistic colonialism’ (Alam, 2006:xv) prevalent during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With the advent of the East India Company, and subsequent British Rule over Bengal and the rest of India, English as a language was introduced in the curriculum to make indigenous people accustomed to the language and able for official work (ibid:182). But, this English education was mostly restricted to a part of the society, majorly Hindus whereas Muslims especially the Muslim women were restricted from it. Sayyid Ahmed Khan started a socio-cultural movement to introduce English education for the Muslims, so that they did not lag behind (Sevea,2011), similarly Rokeya was also involved in campaigns arguing for English education for women (Hasan,2012:190 from Hossain, 2006:491). During this time, her learning English, and publishing a story about an utopian land in English, familiarizes the concept of educated women and demonstrates the need for education of women. It also establishes English as a language being used by a native woman for creation of literature and not for official work. However, education is not the only issue that has been highlighted in ‘Sultana’s Dream’.

The dream sequence in the story acts as an imagery towards the preservation of environment and hints at the ecological mismanagement carried on by the imperial power. In Ladyland, there are no road or railways, there is on the contrary a green carpet on which people walk. Unlike colonial Bengal, where men think horticulture to be a waste of time, it is of immense importance here and there is no use of coal or chimneys in the kitchen as cooking is done using solar power, hence pollution is controlled. This entire structure of Ladyland might be read as a territorial metaphor to reflect a shift from the colonial pattern of land use. 

Through ‘Sultana’s Dream’, Hossain unfamiliarizes the familiar, signaling towards the emergence of a new-world free from dominance of power. Her focus on the purdah, women education and English language becomes a marker of the nineteenth century reform movements carried on for women education. Additionally, Sultana’s Dream remains one of the first stories to be authored in English by a women in colonial times (Tharu,1991:340), thus making a distinct mark in the oeuvre of Indian Literature in English. 

3, Compare both narratives of Sultana's Dream and Reality.

Sultan's Dream is the story of the utopian world, while Sultana's reality is the prequel of Sultana’s Dream. The imagining of feminist utopia focuses on whether a gender equal utopia can exist. A world without patriarchal oppression and gender binaries which is beyond the violence gender itself produces within the lives of people, a feminist utopia imagines a world without gender binaries and gender discrimination.

The story constantly reminds the reader of the social and religious customs plaguing women’s emancipation. She focuses on women’s need to attain more education and challenge customs like child marriage and Purdah system. Rokeya draws information from her own childhood memories where women including her mother and other female members of the family observed the Purdah system and the way her sister was married off before the age of fifteen. Through the story, she attempts to bring the issues that hindered women’s emancipation. She comments on the same through highlighting the sexual transformation of Purdah system from being about seclusion of women to male seclusion.

Through Sultana’s Dream which was written during colonial rule, Rokeya attempts to highlight the relevance of equality, women’s education and freedom. In addition to this, Rokeya through this story, quite successfully ridicules patriarchal oppression faced by Muslim women.

Sultana’s Dream is based on an imagined Ladyland where women Can access public spaces unrestricted by social or religious customs.

However, for a 21st century reader, at first glance the story may seem as recreating structures of domination and inequality but it focuses majorly on how the adversities of patriarchal oppression impacted the lives of Muslim women in the late 19th century. Sultana’s Dream is a feminist utopia as it attempts to challenge patriarchal oppression by providing women with a lesson on self determination and worth. 

Sultana’s Dream hardly questions the discrimination perpetuated through gender binaries. It attempts to make sexual role reversals in which men are shown as the inferior sex. However, it narrowly questions the violence and discrimination perpetuated through the category of gender. Since, it provides a critique of patriarchy and the affect of it on women’s lives but barely examines caste and class backgrounds in perpetuating inequalities and discrimination among individuals. 

Thank you 

Teacher's day celebration

Hello everyone, as we know 5th September is celebrated as Techers' day. on this day generally students enact their teacher and take their place in class (in Schools). we students of Department of English celebrate it in unique way. (suggested and guided by our Head of Department Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.

We celebrate Teachers' day virtually. For the celebration of this day we are supposed to create whole content. we make a small lecture video, a google quiz and provide an auto- generated certificate to all to respond to quiz. a way of future teacher, teacher for digital world is being shaped in this process. This year we are also adding our video on a ed. ted platform as an educator.

I am participating in Teachers' day and making a video on Quality Short story by John Galsworthy. 

Here is my Short Video lecture:

Please attempt a small Google quize link is given below.

https://forms.gle/GNkBHaJM6j2FVbDH6

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