Author's Diction~Dr. Vipin Behari Goyal: July 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Indian Literature in Desi English

                       Indo-Anglian Poetry In Desi English

Sarojni Naidu
Sarojini Naidu



Nissim Ezekiel an Indian poet has ridiculed the manner in which English is used by Indians. Almost 10%  Indians know English as a second language. Naseem thinks that  one of the most common errors made by Indians is the use of Present Continuous Tense  instead of Simple present Tense. He thinks all who make mistakes in the use of grammar, syntax and use of idioms are half educated. Nissim had graduated from Bombay University in English Literature, so he had a right to think so. In his poems "Good-bye party to Miss Pushpa T.S". and  "Very Indian Poem in Indian English" explicitly speaks of his anti-Indianness.

The wives of India sit apart
They do not drink,
they do not talk,
of course,they do not kiss. (In India)

Kamla Das

Kamala Das another famous English poet of India has narrated her frustration in love and sexual relationship through her semi-autobiographical poems viz."In Love" and "An Introduction".

She was discarded by many critics for use of English Language. Her frustration is reflected in her following 
poem:

I am an Indian, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one. Don't write in English, They said,
English is not your tongue..... ("An Introduction")

Despite felicity of diction she has been accused of wrong and confused syntax due to perverse omission of the use of commas and inverted commas. A critic, though full of appreciation for my book Maya suggested that the book should have been written in Hindi. In words of Kamala Das:

Why not leave
me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousines,
Everyone of you ? Why not let me speak in
Any language I like?.....("An Introduction")

 R. N. Tagore  was awarded Noble Prize in Literature (1913) for his collection of poems "Gitanjali" . He composed his poems in his native language, Bengala and later translated them in English. He is primarily considered as a Bengali writer rather than an Indian English Writer.

Sarojini Naidu, who is popularly known as "Nightingale of India" was said to lack quality (intellectualism) in her poems.
'Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one"  .... ("Humayun to Zobeida")

According to Nissim Ezekeil "Sarojini knew nothing of the of the literary revolution taking place in English Poetry in the twenties and the earlier".

Taru Dutt who died at the tender age of 21 is said to be a poetic genius and is known as "The Keats of India". She spent many years in France and wrote poems and novels in French language also. Her poems viz. Savitri  and Lakshman are based on mythological stories of ancient India and sometimes lack universal human predicament.

In Post-Independence poets Jayant Mahapatra has used landscapes of  his native state of Orissa in his poems. He is Physicist turned into celebrated poet, confesses "You can see, I haven't read much poetry in my life. As a matter of fact, I haven't read any poetry until I started writing myself".

Sri Aurobindo is not only an eminent Indian English Poet but also a famous Guru and Yogi. In his poem "Life and Death" he says:

Desi English
Life, death, - death, life; the words have led for ages
Our thought and consciousness and firmly seemed
Two opposites; but now long-hidden pages
Are opened, liberating truths undreamed.
Life only is, or death is life disguised, -
Life a short death until by Life we are surprised.

Unfortunately, he too has been accused to use the English Language not as creators but as manipulator.

T. S. Eliot believed that the impersonality of poetry has its roots in value of traditions. I. A. Richards employed unique methods for textual and verbal analysis in his Practical Criticism  and The meaning of Meaning.

We can use their work to evaluate Indian English Poetry. However best thing would be to avoid any comparison and have more faith in desi English.

Soon we will cast a glance on the  prose written in Desi English.
Meanwhile, read two related posts



(Poetry Blog "This is about if")
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Marital Rape

                            The art of wooing is never rusty

dv,rape,marital rape

Those who are in habit to take their wives as granted are offended when they have to cajole and woo them like an infatuated school boy by flowers, cards, dinners and sweet talk to obtain something which once they thought was rightfully theirs.

Look at the whole Animal Kingdom. Do you find any other animal doing heinous crime of rape except man? Every time, every male has to woo the female to obtain a favor.

Marriage is one of the most important institutions created by society which is eroded day by day as human intellect and wisdom is evolving. We are able to perceive and changed the law accordingly. How far we can go socially and legally to control a relationship  between two grown up individuals which begins and ends on the same bed every night.

Marriage is for woman the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution. ~Bertrand  Russell, Marriage and Morals.

Any act that affects two individuals physically, mentally or socially and is nonconsensual is an offense.

Colonial countries were governed by laws enacted by their master countries. They framed different laws for each colony depending upon their backwardness. Unfortunately, those  countries are still unable to revise their laws in parity with advance countries. The politicians are publicly giving statements, "It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context."

Now is the time when human civilization must consider to make uniform laws applicable all over the world, irrespective of geographical boundaries, cultural heritage, religion and dogmas.

Any crime is a crime against humanity and human values are same all over the world.
In the US some states have separate and lesser punishment for marital rapes (though thankfully all states have accepted it as a crime), are also examples of  social hypocrisy. If at all different, marital rape is more severe crime than other rapes since it is also breach of trust between two individuals.

The Indian Law is still struggling to define the extent of assault & parts of anatomy of the female organ, while whole civilization has taken a leap and is unanimous about it.
Literature has repeatedly pointed out that marital rape is done by husbands who suffer from some type of deficiency, inferiority or complex that they want to compensate.
Here is famous paragraph:

“He swung her off her feet into his arms and started up the stairs. Her head was crushed against his chest and she heard the hard hammering of his heart beneath her ears. He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs he went in the utter darkness, up, up, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over and kissed her with a savagery and a completeness that wiped out everything from her mind but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers. He was shaking, as though he stood in a strong wind, and his lips, traveling from her mouth downward to where the wrapper had fallen from her body, fell on her soft flesh….She tried to speak and his mouth was over hers again. When she awoke the next morning, he was gone.The man who had carried her up the dark stairs was a stranger of whose existence she had not dreamed. He had humbled her, hurt her, used her brutally through a wild mad night and she had gloried in it…. Rhett loved her! At least, he said he loved her and how could she doubt it now?”

— Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind(New York: Scribner, 2011): 871.

Ponder over it, till next time you read about "Ten ways to avoid marital rape." Suggestions are welcome !

Read more at Author's Diction

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Monday, July 13, 2015

Games Spouse Play

                  Ten things to do when you feel ignored



MARITAL RELATIONSHIP, LITERATURE



In ‘Who is afraid of Virginia Wolf’’ By Edward Albee, the author has shown the hollowness of the society. Two couples play many different games in one night. That is one of the best American dramas. In actual life this drama is always going on. The games are different for each couple.

In ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ By D. H. Lawrence, Constance and her crippled husband Clifford Chatterley play games with each other. The emotional neglect by husband inflames physical desires of Connie and she is hurt because her husband is more aristocrat than her.

The Judiciary is unanimous that 'emotional neglect' of a wife or husband is a sort of mental cruelty. Some examples can be quoted,

1. If the wife does not serve food on dinner table, she is considered to be neglecting domestic duties
2. If the husband while going to office does not bid farewell (no hug, no kiss not even smile) to his wife, he is guilty of emotional neglect.

What is there between husband and wife, which cannot be classified as mental cruelty, if seen from a certain angle.

Look at Anna Karenina in the great novel by Leo Tolstoy. She could neither ignore the cold behaviour of her husband nor the advances made by flamboyant Count Vronsky. The main plot and sub plot of the novel are an excellent example of the games spouse play.

Whether it is ‘no-fault’ divorce law of US or section 13 (B) of Hindu Marriage Act that permits divorce by mutual consent, the society is unable to sustain the institution of marriage and has made it convenient for couples to walk out of wedlock even without any paltry ground.

Just because they did not learn the tact to ignore the things without tentamounting to emotional neglect.
It is best to ignore the trifle, but it is not good to emotionally neglect the spouse. They have a moral obligation to pamper the Ego of each other once a while.

Ten things to do when you feel ignored:

1. Go by Old Testament law of ‘Tooth for Tooth’. Ignore 'being ignored'.

2.  Act normal, even if your mind is storming. After all world is stage and we all are actors (William Shakespeare).

3. Be more aggressive while talking on the phone or with vendors. Rebuke anyone on a fake call. It is not only catharsis for your own self, but also puts your spouse under psychological pressure.

4. Wear your best dresses or change your wardrobe (ignore your credit crunch). A well dressed woman has more self confidence, more self-esteem and makes spouse jealous of her. Love me or hate me, but you can’t ignore me. Right?
5.  Be extra cordial to the friends of your spouse.

6. Pretend to pray even if you don’t believe in God, like in Tall man Small Shadow. It puts off even hard nuts and they crack.

7. Bed is the best place for reconciliation.

8. Only insecure persons emotionally neglect. Search for the cause of that insecurity and mend it.
9. Do not involve your friends in the game you are playing with your spouse. You will only worsen the situation.
10. Some mental cruelty may strengthen the nuptial bond when reconciled.

Finally, remember ‘Gone With the Wind’. How tactfully Rhett Butler ignored Scarlet by mocking her and eventually  tries to win her by indifference and cruelty. Scarlet obsessed by Ashley scorns the men and wins them.

Miracles of emotional neglect are yet to be explored.

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India



Saturday, July 4, 2015

Trial of Killer Robot

News: Robot kills a worker in Volkswagen Factory

            


machine, artificial intelligent


(Trial Room of a Court in Germany, where Judiciary is inquisitorial)


Judge: Mr. Robot, do you plead, guilty
Robot: No, Your Honor, I am innocent
Judge: (addresses to Public Prosecutor): Prosecution may proceed.
PP: Mr. Robot we have substantial evidence against you that you have committed a murder deliberately.
Robot: What is that proof?
PP: CCTV footage.
Robot: But that's a machine like me. That would be self-incrimination.
Judge: He is right. Mr. PP
PP: But your honor, that machine may have same genre like all Homo Sapiens , but they have different Mother (boards).
Judge: Alright, shows us the film.
A screen and projector are set up in court and a video clip is shown in which Robot claps a man from the neck and strangles him to death and then throws him on a board.
PP: Is that not you, Mr. Robot?
Robot: Looks like me, but I am not sure. Can you focus on id numbers.
The video clip is replayed and id is stilled and focused. Robot acknowledges that it is him.
PP: Why did you kill him?
Robot: He walked into my territory. I had no intention or motivation to kill him. Moreover, as per Master-Servant theory the Engineer who programmed me is responsible for this killing.
Judge: Did he programmed you to kill?
Robot: I was infected by virus so I could not differentiate in living and non living.
Judge: Who is responsible for the virus?
Robot: My parents. That is the company that produced me.
The GM of Robotics Company was summoned to the court. He stated that when he supplied the Robot it was in perfect working condition.  The Virus can affect man and machine equally. Robot has indicator for virus and should have been treated immediately.
 The System Engineer of the car company was summoned and he admitted that Robot was indicating a virus.

PP: Why you did not cure the machine immediately?
System Engg.: The assembly line had to be stopped for that. I reported the matter to GM through the channel, but he said orders are urgent and production cannot be stopped.
Judge: Did you explain that it may cause a death?
System Engg.: Not categorically, since I was not sure. I told him certain sensors are not working and Robot would not function normally.
GM of the car company was summoned. He confessed that matter was reported to him. He was hard pressed by the Board of Directors to achieve the target so he did not stop production.

The trial is going on. The Robot is still behind the bar. Board of Directors has announced a meeting to decide strategy if they are booked for Culpable Homicide.
Meanwhile, please express your opinion on the issue.


© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India