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India (1): Language

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What do you feel about reading them? ... Cheating: Manju's mother cheated, The Sweet Sixteen ... Chillum has no friend; cheats Krishna with his 'bank. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: India (1): Language


1
India (1) Language the Urban Migrants
  • Flute Music, Annamalai
  • and Salaam Bombay

Migrant populations flock to the outskirts of
cities to find work. (source)
2
Starting Questions
  • What are the common points among the three texts?
    And their differences?
  • What do you feel about reading them?
  • All about the lives of migrant laborers (clerks)
    in Indian cities, how they miss home, and how
    they get exploited by their bossesseen from
    different perspectives (of a migrant adult clerk,
    a migrant chaipautea boy--and a master).
  • Two concern the issue of language letter
    writing of hometown and two mention Ganeshthe
    bringer of success.

3
Outline
  • Background (1) Caste System
  • Background (2) Language
  • Tagore The Flute Music
  • R.K. Narayan Annamalai
  • Background (3) Bollywood
  • Salaam Bombay!

4
Background (1) Caste system
  • The main castes
  • Brahman (priest)
  • Kshatriya (ruler, warrior, landowner)
  • Vaishya (merchants)
  • Shudra (artisans, agriculturalists)
  • Harijan "outside" the caste system (once known
    as "untouchables") (source http//www.csuchico.e
    du/cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/india.htm )
  • Musicians-- Harijans (god's children) which
    used to be known as untouchables.

5
Caste system -- Determined by
  • race? In a verse from the first millennium epic,
    the Mahabharata, Brigu, the sage explains The
    brahmins are fair, the kshatriyas are reddish,
    the vaishyas yellow and the sudras are black.
  • by work The Hindus also believe that a man's
    varna is determined by his profession and deeds
    and not by his birth.
  • Varna (caste) came to signify an endogamic(?????)
    group, its members linked by heredity, marriage,
    custom and profession (source).

6
Caste system -- Today
  • Seen illegal since 1947
  • Two Indias the rich and the poor, not following
    the caste lines
  • In some villages, some lower caste people are
    still marginalized, and inter-caste marriage is
    still prohibited
  • In 1998, 60 people were killed by the Ranvir
    Sena, a self-styled armed militia of the
    upper-caste landed gentry, formed to crush the
    movements of Dalits (the untouchables) and
    agricultural laborers. 21 killed in 1999.
    (sources 1, 2)

7
Background (2) Language
  • No matter that
  • my name is Greek
  • my surname Portuguese
  • my language alien.
  • There are ways of belonging.

8
Language English literature in India
  • The Charter Act of 1813 East India Company's
    responsibility for native education
  • 1857 the Indian university system
  • After independence, English is no longer one of
    the 21 official language
  • Major languages Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam
    and Urdu each has more than 10 million speakers.

9
Narayans decision to write in English
  • We have fostered the language for over a
    century. . . And we are entitled to bring it in
    line with our own thought and idiom.
  • Speaking as the English language, he puts
  • I will stay here, whatever may be the rank and
    status you may assign meas the first language or
    the second language or the thousandth. You may
    banish me from the classrooms, but I can always
    find other places where I can stay. . . I am
    more Indian than you can ever be (93.)

10
Tagore Flute Music
  • 1. A man in poverty--
  • compared to a lizard (with Ganeshs picture
    stuck on the door)
  • Suffers from pay cuts, high train cost, and wants
    to save the cost of light umbrella full of
    holes
  • 2. His emotional life
  • The contrast between the busy city and his lonely
    room
  • Trapped in his office clothes
  • his girlsaved from him
  • 2. The function of flute music

11

R. K. Narayan
  • born in Madras in 1906
  • full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar
    Naranayanaswami
  • --gt1935 R.K. Narayan

12
Narayan the Writer
  • V.s. Naipaul (1999) He wrote about people in a
    small town in South India small people, big
    talk, small doings. That was where he began
    that was where he was fifty years later. To some
    extent that reflected Narayans own life. He
    never moved far from his origins. (The Writer
    in India)

13
Narayan the Story-teller of village life
  • Id be quite happy if no more is claimed from me
    than being just a story-teller. Only the story
    matters, that is all. . . . But if a story is
    in tune completely with the truth of life, truth
    as I perceive it, then it will be automatically
    significant.
  • Presenting Mulgudi (an imaginary village) as a
    peasant community in (southern) India you see
    more concentrated life and you can see the types
    and forces of human relationships, activities,
    aspirations in greater details. (97)

14
Annamalai
  • Annamalai his views of his job, and of his
    master? And his masters views of him?
  • Annamalai Language How does Annamalai look at
    sending letters home? (e.g. the issues of
    village names, his use of English on the address,
    asking one to write and the other to address it.)
  • Annamalai home
  • narrative time and technique How does the story
    start? How does it end? Does the story follow a
    chronological order?
  • Can you think of any example in Taiwanese
    literature that is similar to this story?

15
Annamalai and his Master
  • Annamalai p. 117 a custodian of me and my
    property cannot intervene A at work p. 133
    take him as he was.
  • Annamalai at work
  • 121 vs. in the masters study
  • Simple-minded, dividing plants into the
    flourishing and the evil ones
  • balances the good and the evil p. 128
  • a lot of water and garbage on the plants p. 128
  • Stubborn and with self-contradictory reasoning129

16
Annamalai and his Master
  • Annamalai off from work
  • go for news but cannot comprehend a lot
    (Kannedy) (telepoon, trunk call long-distance
    call p. 132)
  • The episode of fowl killing ? his fear and
    dignity p. 135 ? his past

17
Annamalai and Home
  • Very far away p. 120
  • Keeps postcard connection, which is cheaper
  • Revulsion and curiosity? his brothers postcards.
  • As choice between home and work pp. 140-

18
Annamalailanguage race/class division
  • The postcards serve as connection between A and
    his home
  • linguistic hegemony English vs Tamil
  • When the master gets his letters, he is not even
    sure if it is from Annamalai.
  • As a whole, the story shows the distinct
    personality of this peasant worker, his sense of
    duty and honor, and an inevitable gap between him
    and the master.

19
Background 3 Bollywood
  • ????(Bombay, Mumbai)
  • ???????(Dream Factory)????,????(?????????),??????
    ,????,???????????????
  • ????????Meenakshi Shedde?????,???2002?????????????
    ,??942?,?????????650????????????????,??????????,?
    ????????????5????(???http//movie.cca.gov.tw/COLU
    MN/column_article.asp?rowid27 )?

20
Bollywood ????
  • ?????? Devdas
  • ???????Lagaan
  • ??Bollywood ??????????????
  • Salaam Bombay (????) -- ???????????,??????-????Go
    to Bombay, come back a hero.
  • Masala -- ???????? ??????????
  • Monsoon Wedding (????)--?????????,Punjabi
    ???????????
  • Desperately Seeking Helen -- ??Bollywood
    ???Helen, ??????????????

21
Outline Salaam Bombay!
  • BackgroundMira Nair the history of the
    production of Salaam Bombay.
  • Major Theme 1 Migrants in the city
  • Major Theme 2 family/comradeship and betrayal
  • Major Theme 3 Larger Social Forces
  • (Language Differences and Illiteracy
  • slums in Bombay, government inefficiency
  • Colonialism/tourism -- in the background)

22
Introduction to Mira Nair
  • Born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa in 1957 (middle
    class family)
  • Attended the University of New Delhi (Sociology
    and Theater)
  • Went to Harvard in 1976 (Sociology) (source)

23
Films by Mira Nair
  • Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979)
  • So Far From India (1982)
  • India Cabaret (1985)
  • Children of a Desired Sex (1987)
  • Salaam Bombay (1988)
  • Mississippi Masala (1991)
  • The Perez Family (1993)
  • Kama Sutra A Tale of Love (1997)
  • My Own Country (1998)
  • Monsoon Wedding (2001)

24
Salaam Bombay! History of Production
  1. Interviews of street kids in Bombay.
  2. Out of these interviews emerged a screenplay that
    was a composite of several lives.
  3. Then many of the children were enlisted for
    weeks in a daily workshop, not to teach them
    "acting" (for that they already knew from
    hundreds of overacted Indian film melodramas),
    but to teach them how to behave naturally in
    front of the camera. (source)

25
What happened to the children?
  1. "Our whole attitude was to meet them halfway and
    help them realize their own self-worth and
    dignity," said Nair in a recent interview with
    The Christian Science Monitor (12 Oct 1988,
    p.19). "We wanted to help them create
    opportunities they want for themselves."
    Responding to this respectful approach, some
    children entered school, some returned home to
    their villages, some got jobs, and some have
    stayed on the streets.
  2. Nair is using proceeds from the film to open
    learning centers for street children in both
    Bombay and Delhi. (source)

26
Salaam Bombay!
  • Awards
  • the New Director's Award at the Cannes Film
    Festival in 1988 an Academy Award nomination for
    best foreign film in 1989
  • Neo-Realism A departure from Bollywood Musical.

27
Salaam Bombay! Questions
  • How does Krishna go to Bombay? What is his first
    experience of it? (clip 1)
  • Why is he away from home? Why does he go to
    Bombay and what does he want to do there? (clip
    711 )
  • How does he relate to the people he meets in
    Bombay? (e.g. Manju, Sweet 16, Manjus mother,
    Chillum, the other street kids.) e.g. Why does
    Krishna fall in love with Sweet Sixteen?
  • Are there any traces of Bollywood musical
    influence in the film?

28
Major Theme (1) in Salaam Bombay
  • Migratory identity people drifted to the
    metropolis, lost in the crowd, e.g. shots of the
    train station
  • -- Chaipau his name (Krishna) no home address
  • -- Chillum completely lost (not trusting anyone)
  • ? hybrid culture and identity (e.g. Chillum,
    Manjus danceclip 3 Ms. Hawaii in the movie
    clip 6)

29
Major Theme (2) desire, betrayal and survival
  • Desire for home family
  • e.g. Krishna
  • -- tries to write home
  • -- needs 500 rupees so that he can go home
  • -- forms a family in Bombay (Chillum, the
    other children).
  • What about Manjus family?

30
Salaam Bombay The migrants in a city (2)
  • Manjus family
  • Baba child-abuser and pimp
  • Mother loving but cannot help
  • Manju lonely and in desperate need of love.
    (e.g. clips 8, 9, 12, 14)

31
Major Theme (2) desire, betrayal and survival
  • How do Krishna and the other kids survive?
  • Work as Chaipau ? taken advantage of by the other
    kids
  • Skin chicken, clean chicken coops ? fired by the
    boss
  • rob an old man, ? Krishna throws up money taken
    away by Chillum.
  • serve in a rich mans wedding party ? arrested by
    the police, money taken away.
  • For Krishna, it is a continuous process of loss
    and disillusionment.

32
Salaam Bombay a series of betrays
disillusionment
His wife
Baba
Manju
  • Chillum

Krishna
The other street kids
The Sweet Sixteen
The circus boss
33
Major Themes (2)
  • Comradeship, betrayal and rebellion/survival--
    Pattern of Repetition
  • Drug-dealing the death of the previous drug
    dealer, Chillum and then another Chillum.
  • Cheating Manjus mother cheated, The Sweet
    Sixteen
  • Some are self-destructive and some, surviving
  • Chillum has no friend cheats Krishna with his
    bank.
  • Krishnas setting fire as a way of rebellion
    against his brother, and then against the
    whorehouse
  • Finally, the major forces of frustration are
    those of society the government and the crowd.

34
Major Themes 3 Larger Social Forces
  • An urban tragedy characters with no names.
  • Why are Baba and his wife not named?
  • Why do people call Krishna Chaipau?
  • What roles do Krishna God play in this film?
    And the Chiller room? (clip 20, 22)
  • Who sends the two kids to Chiller room?
  • How is the chiller room presented?

35
Salaam Bombay social factors
  • State intervention Chiller Room
  • drug, prostitution and Bollywood
  • traces of collonial influence
  • cricket, tourists, statues, movies
  • Religion helpless. E.g. Ganesh

36
Salaam Bombay the ending
  • What do you think about the ending of Salaam
    Bombay? Is there any hope for the street
    children? What does the spinning top mean?
  • Can you think of any other film that is
    comparable to Salaam Bombay?
  • Children of Heaven ?????

37
Next time . . .
  • Womens experiences of Racial, Class and national
    divisionesp. childrens.

38
References
  • Roger Elbert. SALAAM BOMBAY!
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