Just a Poem that is Read and Forgotten!

(This write-up got published in ThinkLet Journal, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), in the March 2020 issue.)

They say, it is the postmodern era
There is a complete concoction of objects and ideas
This new anarchy has challenged the elite!
But, wait –
Slavery, Indentured Labourers,
Colonialism, Neo-colonialism,
Imperialism, Neo-liberalism,
Marxism, Capitalism
And other isms –
Are we done?
A fat cheque from an MNC,
A flat in Electronic City,
Waking up to GMT -5 in India,
Driving a General Motor,
Giving a new meaning to staple food,
Appropriating a foreign tongue,
Questioning when it is convenient,
Unintentionally awaiting another problem –
It is not the land that they are after,
Not people, not material,
It is a capital of a different kind:
The knowledge capital!
Are we teaching or preaching?
Are we creating or manufacturing?
A generation bred in the illusion of revolution
It is this anarchy we have come to love,
Which no longer teases us out of thought
For generations to come, it is winter forever
Immersed in brooding thoughts
While mankind awaits in vain for the Second Coming
Looking through this heap of broken images
In search of tranquility in the shattering of ideals.

What is Literary Criticism?

(This write-up got published in ThinkLet Journal, Jain University, in the November 2018 issue.)

“Read not to contradict, and confute; not to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others are to be swallowed, some few to be chewed and digested.”

- Francis Bacon

It is important to understand ‘criticism’ before pinning down on defining ‘literary criticism’. There are two ways of reading a text, one is to simply read and move on to the next text, and the other is to read the given text and evaluate. In both the cases, readers frame their impressions, however, it is a little vague and abstract in the former, and quite accounted for in the latter. Criticism calls for a trained judgment, therefore, its genesis is in questioning. Nothing remains sacrosanct to criticism, and it subjects everything to the closest scrutiny.

Literary theory and literary criticism are terms used quite interchangeably. There is an overlap in what each of them intend to do. The differentiating aspect is that literary theory compiles a set of principles, and is usually general, while literary criticism is practical application and focuses on individual texts. Literary criticism refers to the analysis and interpretation of a given text, which takes into account the nature and function of literature and literary theory, to arrive at an evaluative judgment. A judgment of this sort comes through comprehending a text by applying intrinsic and extrinsic criticism, where the former examines if meanings are naturally there within the text and the latter investigates if meanings are made with extraneous variables such as social, economic and political.

Literary criticism attempts to investigate the structural and thematic design of a literary text, and also examines the text in its contexts. This provides a different perspective of looking at the given text, and which invariably allows the text to grow inviting more questions and thorough judgments.

Reality Check

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the July 2017 Issue.

The field of research is nothing less than a true and thorough ‘reality check’. It opens up to new vistas of learning and simultaneously crushes one’s ego and brings the individual down to earth. An ideal research culture demands one to ‘unlearn’ several things and to learn afresh as the journey proceeds. The minimalistic knowledge that we come with must be enhanced meticulously, and research guides the student to travel through reading in a systematic way. By the word, systematic, it means that a researcher cannot read just for the sake of reading. Research calls for a focused reading. In order to unearth the latent meanings, it is a must for a researcher to engage with a text critically.

As the research journey takes forward, the researcher will learn that what he/she knew was only a drop in an infinitely vast ocean of knowledge. If this epiphany occurs to the researcher, then he/she will certainly be able to find solutions to problems or at least would come up with negotiating factors to work around the problems that exist in his/her respective research discipline. Research enhances the horizons of learning and knowledge building, but one must surrender to the superiority of books, for books are the only entities that can make one feel small in the right way.

An eighteenth century English poet, Alexander Pope, has rightly said in his An Essay on Criticism; 

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
In the above lines, “Pierian spring” is considered to be the fountain of ‘knowledge’, and one must drink its waters to the fullest, or never bother to go near it. A researcher must be an eternal learner, if not, he/she is sure to be doomed in the name of charlatanism.

Why animals? Why now?

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the May 2017 Issue.

Animals have had the greatest share of space on this planet. They were here even before our species came into being. It is unfortunate to see man becoming the center of all and the ecology highly imbalanced. 

When studying about the different representations of animals in different texts written by different writers, the one question that always crops up is: "Why look at animals now?" It appears to be a straightforward question until one makes a sincere attempt to learn the latent meaning. 

"Everywhere animals disappear. In zoos they constitute the living monument to their own disappearance." - John Berger

Anthropomorphism has been integral in the building of the relationship between humans and animals. The need for man to be in the center has created a barren space where animals are gradually disappearing form their spheres, and in this new solitude, anthropomorphism makes man doubly uneasy. Animals now are made commercially available in the form of toys and artifacts, and this commercialization carries different symbolic representations (often stereotyped) which are affecting the human-animal relationship.

Most of the literary works have used and still use animals as tropes; they are primarily used as part of the setting, and Ecocriticism, one of the emerging literary theories, is concerned with this. The real animals are marginalized, and bringing them to the critical center is indeed the need of the hour.

Intellectual Fascism

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the March 2017 Issue.

Research culture in India has come a long way, but it has developed along, in the timeline of growth, the culture of ‘intellectual fascism’. Intellectual fascism is considered an arbitrary belief that people with ‘good’ traits (such as intelligence and creativity) are superior to those who possess the ‘bad’ traits (such as stupidity or lack of artistry). The post-colonial India has adopted several of the methods and governance from its colonial masters, and currently our nation is not just being westernized, but it is being ‘westoxicated’. It was colonizers then, and now the neo-colonizers who have and are imposing the aspect of supremacy. This trait of showing supremacy is deeply embedded in many aspects, and the field of academia too has become a victim of this mentality.

Isn’t ‘improving the human condition’ one of the motives of education?

Research should be the guiding force for a student to pursue the truth. But, research culture is deviating from its main purpose into the ugly shadows of hegemony. Intellectual autonomy which is the ideal of thinking for oneself has become a mask for intellectual fascism. Students are made the knowledge commons, and are made to modify and streamline their thought processes to the way the commercialized education systems require. As students, we are prone to let our mental lives become invaded by legions of half-truths, prejudices and propaganda. And sadly this has surfaced in our research cultures as well.

In order to curb this problem, one must engage in a thorough intellectual inquiry, and seek to be educated and further educate others. Research is but a cultural practice which enables humans to seek knowledge and truth, and this can happen if one pays heed to cultivating good character in the process. Faux-experts must surrender to the intellectual power of the truly wise; charlatanism must find an end and actual purpose of education must spread wide.

Research - Curious and Curious-er!

This write-up got published in "Thinklet" online journal, issued by Jain University, in the December 2016 Issue.

Research is quite an abstract term if we were to define it philosophically. Ever since our stepping into the world of knowledge acquisition by choice, we have been closely acquainted with research. We might not have used the word in exact, but we have broadened our horizons of learning through curiosity. Inevitably we have shifted our priorities from revelations to reason. Here's an interesting joke to substantiate my previous point;

A man stumbles into a deep well and plummets a hundred feet before grasping a spindly root, stopping his fall. His grip grows weaker and weaker, and in his desperation he cries out, "Is there anybody up there?"

He looks up, and all he can see is a circle of sky. Suddenly, the clouds part and a beam of bright light shines down on him. A deep voice thunders, "I, the Lord, am here. Let go of the root, and I will save you."

The man thinks for a moment and then yells, "Is there anybody else up there?"

Hanging by a root has a tendency to tip the scales toward reason. The journey of research enables a researcher to firstly question all the universal truth claims. This is the attitude that a formal research degree aims to inculcate in researchers. We must therefore be at the edge of the cliff, and our arguments must be framed based on thorough groundings, for research is but a form of knowledge that enhances further learning.