ALIF 18: Post-Colonial Discourse in South Asia

566 Pages·1998·9.75 MB·English

by  Ferial Jabouri Ghazoul

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Journal of Comparative Poetics
No. 18, 1998
POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN SOUTH ASIA
Guest Editor. Stephen Alter
Editor. Ferial J. Ghazoul
Assistant Editor. James W. Stone
Editorial Assistant: Walid El Hamamsy
Assistant: Dalia Mostafa
Editorial Advisors: Nasr Hamid Abu-Zeid, Stephen Alter, Galal
Amin, Gaber Asfour, Sabry Hafez, Barbara Harlow, Malak Hashem,
Thomas Lament, Doris Enright-Clark Shoukri, Hoda Wasfi.
The following people have participated in the preparation of this issue:
Tahia Abdel Nasser, Lila Abu-Lughd, Amjad Ahmad, Eqbal Ahmad,
Radwa Ashour, Maggie Awadallah, Michele Clark, Kate Coffield,
Walid Hamarneh, Salima Ikram, Samir Khalil, Nadia El Kholy,
Marwa Mansour, Mona Misbah, Laurence Moftah, James Napoli,
Shahnaz Rouse, Tawfiq Salih, Hasan al-Shaf i, Kenneth Suit, Robert
Switzer, Daniel Vitkus, Sayyid Yasin, Abdul Tawwab Yusuf.
Printed at : Elias Modern Press, Cairo.
Price per Issue: - Arab Republic of Egypt: L.E. 15.00
- Other countries (including airmail postage)
Individuals: $ 20; Institutions: $ 40
Back issues are available.
Earlier issues of the journal include :
Alif 1 Philosophy and Stylistics
Alif 2 Criticism and the Avant-Garde
Alif 3 The Self and the Other
Alif 4 Intertextuality
Alif 5 The Mystical Dimension in Literature
Alif 6 Poetics of Place
Alifl The Third World: Literature and Consciousness
Alif 8 Interpretation and Hermeneutics
Alif 9 The Questions of Time
Alif10 Marxism and the Critical Discourse
Alifll Poetic Experimentation in Egypt since the Seventies
AlifU Metaphor and Allegory in the Middle Ages
Alif 13 Human Rights & Peoples' Rights in Literature & the
Humanities
AlifU Madness and Civilization
Alif 15 Arab Cinematics: Toward the New and the Alternative
Alif 16 Averroes and the Rational Legacy in the East and the West
Alifll Literature and Anthropology in Africa
Correspondence, subscriptions and manuscripts should be addressed to
Alif, The American University in Cairo
Department of English and Comparative Literature,
P.O. Box 2511, Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
Telephone: [phone]; Fax: [phone] ( Cairo, Egypt)
E-mail: [email protected]
© 1998 The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
Dar el Kutub No. 4284/98
ISBN 977 424 486 9
Contents
English Section
• Editorial 5
Sudeep Sen: The Alexandrian Quintet 7
Stephen Alter: A Few Thoughts on Indian Fiction, 1947-1997.... 14
Shahab Ahmed: The Poetics of Solidarity: Palestine in Modern
Urdu Poetry 29
Paul Love: The Narrative of Migration: Nahal's Azadi in
Comparative Context 55
Hind Wassef: Beyond the Divide: History and National
Boundaries in the Work of Amitav Ghosh 75
Nandi Bhatia: "Shakespeare" and the Codes of Empire in India... 95
Jennifer Wenzel: Epic Struggles over India's Forests in
Mahasweta Devi's Short Fiction 127
Maggie M. Morgan: The English Patient: From Fiction to Reel... 159
Hassan Khan: The Modern Re-appropriation of Myth 174
Nicholas S. Hopkins: Gandhi and the Discourse of Rural
Development in Independent India 205
Mark Allen Peterson: The Rhetoric of Epidemic in India: News
Coverage of AIDS 237
Larry Goodson: The Fragmentation of Culture in Afghanistan.... 269
Bapsi Sidhwa: My Place in the World (Interview with Preeti
Singh) 290
Sabiha T. Aydelott: Memories of Faiz 299
• Abstracts of Arabic Articles 315
• Notes on Contributors 329
Arabic Section
• Editorial 5
Sudeep Sen: The Alexandrian Quintet 7
A. K. Ramanujan: Second Sight: Selected Poems (Translated
and introduced by Muhammad Afifi Matar) 13
Marie-Therese Abd el Messih: Myth of Lost/Regained: A
Pakistani Rereading of Andalusia 29
Esmat Abd el Wahab: Haroun and the Sea of Stories 55
Salwa Bakr: Salaam Bombay: On Underdevelopmen and
Desultoriness 59
Muhsin Jassim al-Musawi: The Cultural Confrontations of Aijaz
Ahmad 80
Timothy Mitchell: Subaltern Studies School and the Question of
Modernity (Translated by Bashir El-Siba'i) 100
Gayaytri Chakravorty Spivak: Subaltern Studies:
Deconstructing Historiography (Translated and introduced by
Samia Mehrez) 122
Ali Mabrouk: From Borrowing to Retrieving: Fazlur Rahman's
Islam and Modernity 157
Heba Handousa: From Fancy to Reality: Muhammad Yunus'
Reach to the Poorest of the Poor Igl
Gananath Obeyesekere: Portrait and Vision of a Sri Lankan
"Saint" (Translated by Eman El-Nouhy) Igg
Anita Desai: The Indian Writer's Problems (Translated and
introduced by Rasha Faltas) 197
Edwar al-Kharrat: Yearnings for Bygone Indian Encounters 202
• Abstracts of English Articles 209
• Notes on Contributors 223
Post-Colonial Discourse In South Asia
Fifty years ago, in August 15, 1947, British rule over the
subcontinent came to an end as the nations of India and Pakistan were
formed, shattering one of the cornerstones of empire. Twenty-five
years later Pakistan split in two when the people of Bangladesh
revolted and declared their independence. This geographical region,
commonly known as "South Asia," also includes the neighbouring
countries of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The historical
and cultural ties that bind these nations together are infinitely
complex, reflecting traditions that go back to the earliest origins of
civilization. In many ways the heritage of the subcontinent is as
densely knotted as a Kashmiri carpet, producing a multitude of
interweaving patterns. During the past half century of freedom,
writers and scholars have tried to understand the forces of coherence
and disintegration which have emerged in South Asia since
independence. Issues arising from the residual effects of colonialism
— Partition, sectarian violence and linguistic antipathies — have oc-
cupied a central place in this discourse, along with the unfortunate
abuses of nationhood such as political and economic corruption, social
disparities, the unequal distribution of wealth and the plight of
minorities.
Ironically, the extended crisis of British imperialism, which
lasted over a century, served to unify the subcontinent in many ways.
But even as that colonial experience forged a newfound concept of the
nation state, irreconcilable contradictions and conflicts spread
throughout the region. Separatist movements, religious
fundamentalism, caste warfare and an unconscionable betrayal of trust
by those in power, both elected and unelected officials, have left
innumberable questions to be answered.
This issue of Alif does not attempt to address all facets of this
discourse but it explores a considerable variety of themes and
problems that exist in contemporary South Asia. The articles selected
offer perspectives on poetry and fiction, popular culture and
mythmaking, as well as the enduring resonance of Gandhian rhetoric
and philosophy. Writers included in this edition confront
environmental degradation and social injustice, post-colonial
interpretations of Shakespeare and the terrifying plague of AIDS,
perhaps the first truly global epidemic. Despite the undeniably serious
problems which afflict the people of South Asia, there is also much to
A//fl8(1998) 5
celebrate after half a century of independence. Just one example, the
vitality and diversity of languages, including English, which has been
adopted into the culture. The fiftieth jubilee has also brought with it
renewed efforts at reconciliation between India and Pakistan. Beyond
the disputed borders there is a pervasive sense that the subcontinent
has finally emerged from lingering shadows of the British Raj,
asserting a new and ascendant identity, through art and literature,
music, film and popular culture.
Alif, a multilingual journal appearing annually in the Spring,
presents articles in Arabic, English and occasionally French. The
different traditions and languages confront and complement each
other in its pages. Each issue includes and welcomes original articles.
The next issues will center on the following themes:
Alif 19: Gender and Knowledge: Contributions of Gender
Perspectives to Intellectual Formations.
Alif 20: The Hybrid Literary Text: Arab Creative Authors
writing in Foreign Languages.
Alif 21: The Lyrical Phenomenon.
A/I/18 (1998)
The Alexandrian Quintet*
Sudeep Sen
*In place of the customary epigraph that opens issues of Alif, the
Journal chose to reprint these poems written by an Indian poet after a
visit to Alexandria. This encounter brings together South Asia and the
Arab World.
Alif: Journal of Comparative poetics thanks Sudeep Sen and his
publisher for permission to reprint these five poems which appeared in
a recent volume: Sudeep Sen. Postmarked India: New and Selected
Poems. London: HarperCollins, 1997.
(1998)
Visiting Cavafy
Cavafy, when you called me,
I was afraid to negotiate
the ungeometric alley-ways
that led me to your house.
When I finally got there,
you weren't there in sight.
Your rooms, vacantly crowded
with words and parchments
of your own prize — your gift
and your love for the sea,
its waves on which words
themselves rolled, scattering surf.
Out on the streets, when we
walked together singing ballads,
you were only interested
in the nubian boys you sighted —
their wide beautiful eyes,
their tender earth-coloured
bodies that shone its youth
in that blinding salt-edged light.
For all I did and all I said
let them not search to find
Note: "For all I did and all I said/let them not search to find who I am" is
taken from the poem, "Concealed" by Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933),
translated by Minas Savvas (Chicago Review, 1969).
8 A/I/18 (1998)