Leafing through the pages

CHENNAI'S NEAR-INSATIABLE love for debate and discussion has yet another space for intellectual exchange and mental stimulation - the Oxford University Press showroom on Anna Salai. It was the venue last Wednesday, August 8, for a get-together of academics and others interested in reading, and the few drops of rain that fell just as invitees entered, must surely be a good augury for its progress and success. The book chosen for discussion was Tabish Khair's 'Babu Fictions.'

Susan Oommen from the Department of English, Stella Maris College, started off the evening using her opening remarks to present an idea of the book which many in the audience were not familiar with. She called Khair's work a brilliant Marxist interpretation of recent English writing in India within a framework of alienation between the two poles of the Babu, with the associations of educated, English-speaking, privileged minority versus the Coolie, the native outside this circle of privilege and often, exclusivity.

A lively discussion followed on several aspects of English writing in India including translation, the Indianised English that has come to be accepted as a vehicle for Indian writing, the effects of ideology-based interpretations of literature and the dangers of labels defeating the objective of mainstreaming what are now seen as subaltern perspectives - the Dalit view for example, or the Feminist (using this term almost as a synonym for women's writing rather than as a strictly radical ideology in itself). One often finds these days, that the desire to highlight certain hitherto ignored or unvoiced themes as a genre, tends to isolate these claims further whereas literature, like music, ought to move towards a widening of intellectual and cultural space.

The evening was a promising beginning though the haste with which it had to be organised imposed certain limitations - the most glaring of them, of course, being members' inability to lay hands on the book and, therefore, to have a better-focussed discussion. However, it is heartening to hear from the organisers that the space is open for more such evenings and that several more events are to follow. Since the move these days is towards diversity in everything, an interdisciplinary approach using film, and theatre too, whereever appropriate, might yield interesting results and a richer experience.

VISA RAVINDRAN

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