Paper 201: Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

  

Assignment

 

Paper 201: Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, M.K.Bhavanagar University.

Vachchhalata Joshi

Vachchhalatajoshi.14@gmail.com

Roll no – 20  

Words: 3068

Paragraphs: 24

Topic: Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World, Themes, and Women in the novel

 

 

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

_Tagore

 

The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore, takes place in Bengal, India, during the Swadeshi independence movement in the early 1900s. The story alternates between the viewpoints of three different characters, Bimala, Nikhil, and Sandip. Most of the story takes place in Nikhil’s estate, where the married Bimala and Nikhil live with Nikhil’s sister, Bara Rani.

 

 

The story begins with Bimala describing her relationship with Nikhil. She practically worships Nikhil, but she despises her sister-in-law, who often teases and insults her. Nikhil turns a blind eye to his sister’s treatment of Bimala. Rather, Nikhil wishes Bimala would see herself and him as equals and leave the home together occasionally. Nikhil is loosely involved in the Swadeshi movement, often funding various projects to help the local economy. In addition, he funds Sandip Babu, an Indian nationalist speaker whom Bimala suspects of taking advantage of her husband. 

 

Bimala and Nikhil see Sandip speak, and she is deeply moved by his charisma. Sandip stays with Bimala and Nikhil, and during dinner, he and Nikhil argue about the extent to which nationalism will help India. Bimala, in an unusual display of autonomy, sides with Sandip and disagrees with her husband, believing that movements must sometimes be informed by passions rather than temperance. Sandip compliments Bimala throughout the night and believes that she is the embodiment of India. After another argument with a similar outcome, Nikhil feels that he is becoming inadequate for his wife. Nikhil’s former school master and friend, Chandranath, arrives and encourages Nikhil to send Sandip away, but Sandip decides that Nikhil’s estate is the perfect place to do his business. Furthermore, he wants Bimala to be his Shakti, a woman to represent the Indian people.

Sandip considers how he will continue to manipulate and use Bimala, and he regularly meets with her in the sitting room to ask her advice. One day, he is stopped by a guard from entering the sitting room. The guard had been ordered by Rani to keep Sandip from entering. Sandip punches the guard to get through, and Bimala insists that the guard be fired, but Nikhil just assigns him to another part of the estate. Later, Sandip walks in on Bimala reading a book about sexuality, which greatly embarrasses her. He pretends not to notice, but when Nikhil comes into the room, Sandip says that Nikhil needs to read it and further attempts to make Nikhil uncomfortable by suggesting Bimala read it, although this does not upset Nikhil.

Bimala becomes more and more attracted to Sandip. She resolves to give herself over to him, but when they are together, her maid comes into the room, demanding pay and vowing to quit. Rani’s servant had insulted Bimala’s maid. Bimala confronts Rani and is reprimanded, which enrages Bimala beyond words. She goes back to her room where she sees keepsakes that remind her of Nikhil and falls, sobbing. Meanwhile, Sandip is concerned that he is becoming too soft, and he commits to the idea of sexually taking Bimala to assert his dominance.

As the Swadeshi movement gains momentum, the importation of European-made goods comes to be looked down on by the public. Nikhil sees that Bimala is slipping away, and for both their sakes, he believes he needs to free her from himself. He remembers when Panchu, a poor man, came to his house to repay coconuts that he had stolen from the estate years before. While Nikhil’s reaction was to change the system that made Panchu poor in the first place, Bimala’s concern was with their own security and wealth. This memory serves to show how different Bimala and Nikhil are ideological.

Nationalist students who have returned for the summer and joined Sandip’s cause argue with Nikhil about the foreign goods being sold in his market, but he refuses to place sanctions against his vendors. Meanwhile, Panchu’s wife dies of a disease, and he must purify himself with the Brahmins but does not have the money to do so. He leaves to wander the lands while Chandranath looks after his children. Panchu returns, and Chandranath offers him a loan, but eventually, Panchu is evicted and made to burn his possessions for selling found foreign-made goods for extra money. Nikhil offers to buy up some land and let Panchu stay there, but Panchu is concerned there will be more demonstrations against him.

Bimala confronts her husband about the European goods he allows to be sold in his market and asks him to establish an embargo, but Nikhil remains steadfast. Sandip begins supporting domestic terrorism, advising Amulya, one of his comrades, to sink the boat of a merchant who is importing foreign goods. He also asks Bimala to secure money for their cause: fifty thousand rupees. He suggests stealing it from her husband’s treasury. Even though he does not need this much, he believes this will give Bimala a sense of purpose, and costs are mounting: he must pay bribe money to the police, and he is further working to suppress the Muslim population. Bimala comes back to him to tell him that she cannot get that much money, and he lowers the sum to five thousand rupees.

Bimala knows that her husband keeps money that is to be donated in Rani’s name in a safe in his room. Bimala steals the key and takes packages of gold worth six thousand rupees to deliver to Sandip. Amulya is there, and she feels disgusted at herself and Sandip. Sandip goes to embrace her, but she pushes him into a table, briefly knocking him out. Sandip regains his senses and gathers the money, and Bimala is no longer seduced by him.

 

In the meantime, news stories are being published against Nikhil. Further, an unknown aunt of Panchu’s comes to claim any inheritance that was rightfully his. This is a sham, but no one is willing to speak on Panchu’s behalf. Chandranath eventually convinces the supposed aunt to leave, but there is still no guarantee that others will not come after Panchu.

Feeling extreme guilt, Bimala attempts to replace the money that she stole. She employs Amulya to sell her jewels and advises him against following Sandip. However, Sandip intercepts Amulya and takes the jewels back, delivering them to Bimala spitefully. Amulya offers Bimala six thousand rupees, as he stole it from a treasury earlier, but he will not tell her how he got it. She insists that he return the money. While he says this is impossible, he promises to make everything right for her and leaves. Sandip attempts again to win Bimala over with words, but she is beyond his control. Nikhil comes to tell him that he must leave, as Nikhil has decided he will be taking Bimala to Calcutta the next day. It is no longer safe for them, as there have been reports of Muslim uprisings.

Bimala makes cakes and feeds the house with them, and Nikhil packs with his sister. An inspector comes with Amulya, who has tried to deposit money back into the treasury. Amulya explains that Bimala’s wish has been fulfilled. Nikhil is afraid to ask about the robbery, as he does not wish to know Bimala’s connection to it. Later, at dinner, Nikhil and Rani ask Bimala if she has seen the safe key. She casually admits that she took the money, and little more is said about the matter. They are preparing to leave, but Chandranath comes to report that a neighbor’s house is under attack by Muslims, who are raping the women. Nikhil goes to help, while Rani and Bimala anxiously await his return. He returns carried in a palanquin with a potentially fatal shot to the head, and Bimala learns that Amulya has been shot in the heart and is dead.

Themes:

Moderation versus Extremism

Throughout the novel, characters like Chandranath and Nikhil almost religiously ascribe to moderation in all facets of life, whereas characters like Bimala and Sandip take more extreme approaches. For instance, early in the story, Bimala wants to burn her foreign dresses in solidarity with the Swadeshi movement. Nikhil suggests that she should simply store them away and focus on building up something rather than destruction, but Bimala responds that the excitement of destruction will help them build. This exchange seems to sum up the main conflict in the story: Nikhil attempts to make change through slow progress and moderation, whereas Sandip’s philosophy is to take through bloodshed what he believes to be rightfully his. This is also seen when Sandip talks about poetry versus prose. He says that Nikhil is interested in poetry, which deals in the world of abstractions and ideals. Poetry can also be interpreted in various ways. On the other hand, Sandip talks about prose as weapons that will help them attain their goal. There is no room for relativity or other opinions in Sandip’s approach.

 

While Sandip is the villain of the story, Nikhil’s commitment to what he sees as truth beyond Sandip’s fanaticism is still problematic. As Nikhil refuses to boycott European goods in his markets, he is suspected of siding with the enemy. At the end of the story, it is not entirely clear if he has been killed, but it is implied that he has been severely wounded. This occurs when Nikhil attempts to stop the abuse of women. His efforts to help were certainly valiant, but it was his moral commitment to a kind of moderation that ultimately ended in his (potential) demise. It may be that Tagore is warning us about the evils of extremism through the character of Sandip but also suggesting that too relative and moderate a stance can also be problematic, as it becomes unclear what one’s values truly are.

Tradition versus Progressivism

The Home and the World also explores the theme of tradition versus progressivism. This story takes place in the early 1900s during the height of British colonialism, when India was just beginning to reclaim its independence from the British. In the story, Nikhil’s approach to resistance anticipates Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement, which was a form of civil disobedience while building up Indian infrastructure. This is seen in Nikhil’s own investment of money into Indian banks or when Bimala offers to burn her British clothes early in the story, when she is still aligned with her husband’s ways of thinking. Burning clothes was also a form of emerging nonviolent protest at the time. We might say that this less passionate approach, driven by symbols, politics and economy, aligns with a postcolonial way of thinking.

Sandip, on the other hand, advocates for passionate bloodshed, and suggests that the history of the world is written in conquest after conquest. This is a more colonial mindset. The ways that Nikhil and Sandip approach resistance also show juxtaposition of thought that represents the new ways against the old ways of fighting.

The Roles of Women in Society

 

“Men can only think. Women have a way of understanding without thinking. Woman was created out of God's own fancy. Man, He had to hammer into shape.”

Throughout the novel, there are various statements about women and the roles they occupy, many of them conflicting and potentially troubling. Early in the text, Bimala becomes a kind of “everywoman” as Sandip calls her the Shakti of the country—that is, someone who represents femininity in India altogether. Bimala’s feelings toward Sandip become complicated, and even as she grows to detest him, his charismatic nature often forces her to doubt herself. Women’s roles are frequently framed in terms of the idea of subservience: while Bimala’s husband wants her to be his equal, she feels she must worship him regardless of his “modern” views. It is additionally through subservience that she eventually reconciles with her sister-in-law, and she regularly bows to her husband and other men, taking the dust from their feet. It is unclear to what extent the novel—and Tagore—condone such a view of women’s roles.

Important to note is that many of the statements made in the text are from men’s point of view. In fact, it is Sandip, whose own opinions about women are notably misogynistic, who names Bimala the Shakti. He makes numerous troubling statements about women related to their impulsiveness and the idea that for a woman to truly be fulfilled, she must be giving to the men around her: “for men to accept is truly to give: for women to give is truly to gain.” In light of Sandip’s bigoted words, it seems Bimala represents his ideal of what a woman should be rather than an attempt to represent womanhood in general. 

In the final chapter, Rani suggests that living life again as a woman would be a curse: “I would not live my life again—not as a woman!” Here and elsewhere, this book suggests that the lives of women at this point in Indian history were difficult, not least due to the many social pressures they were obliged to observe. In this context, it becomes incumbent upon the reader to determine whether the statements in the novel about the nature of women reflect the character’s particular views or the broader culture’s values—or both.

The Blurred lines of “The Home and the World”

“Woman knows man well enough where he is weak, but she is quite unable to fathom him where he is strong. The fact is that man is as much a mystery to woman as woman is to man. If that were not so, the separation of the sexes would only have been a waste of Nature's energy.”

It should be of no surprise to anyone, that the socio-cultural barriers that keep women away from the labour force are numerous. The disparity in the education of women, the harassment that working women face, and the constant bias against working women are all contributing factors. What this shows us is that there exists a threshold between the home and the world, a dividing line, that many women are either not allowed or are too afraid to cross for a number of reasons. 

The question of this dividing line between the home and the world, the one that pushes to keep women either in or out, is certainly not a new notion. As far back as the 1900s, the participation of women in larger national and international events have been brought up every now and then, one such example being Rabindranath Tagore’s novel, Ghare Baire

Amongst Tagore’s vast oeuvre, Ghare Baire or The Home and the World, as it was titled in English, has one of his most nuanced female protagonists– Bimala. Bimala, despite her strong personality and spirited nature, is destined to live in the shadows of the menfolk around her, especially her husband, Nikhilesh. Despite Nikhilesh’s insistence that she find her own passion outside of him, it is only after the arrival of her husband’s friend Sandip, that she is able to find an identity for herself, different to that of a duty-bound wife. This is nothing short of scandalous, not just because Bimala is a married woman who finds herself completely taken in by a man who is not her husband, but also because she now desires for elements that constitute the world, alongside her home. 

Bimala’s story is perhaps as nuanced as those of many Indian women today – women who are bright and intelligent enough to make a change in the world outside but are confined to their homes due to the socio-cultural expectations placed on them. Yet, Tagore’s careful and deliberate compassion in the way he writes the character of Bimala pushes even the most moralistic reader to feel a twinge of empathy for this woman.

Amongst Tagore’s vast oeuvre, Ghare Baire or The Home and the World, as it was titled in English, has one of his most nuanced female protagonists– Bimala. Bimala, despite her strong personality and spirited nature, is destined to live in the shadows of the menfolk around her, especially her husband, Nikhilesh. Despite Nikhilesh’s insistence that she find her own passion outside of him, it is only after the arrival of her husband’s friend Sandip, that she is able to find an identity for herself, different to that of a duty-bound wife. This is nothing short of scandalous, not just because Bimala is a married woman who finds herself completely taken in by a man who is not her husband, but also because she now desires for elements that constitute the world, alongside her home. 

Bimala’s story is perhaps as nuanced as those of many Indian women today – women who are bright and intelligent enough to make a change in the world outside but are confined to their homes due to the socio-cultural expectations placed on them. Yet, Tagore’s careful and deliberate compassion in the way he writes the character of Bimala pushes even the most moralistic reader to feel a twinge of empathy for this woman.

 Works Cited

Anand, Shweta. “The Blurred Lines of 'The Home and the World' • Reading Room Co.” Reading Room Co. •, 8 November 2020, https://readingroomco.com/2020/11/08/the-blurred-lines-of-the-home-and-the-world/. Accessed 4 November 2022.

Tagore, Rabindranath. “The Home and the World Chapter Summaries.” eNotes.com, 3 July 2022, https://www.enotes.com/topics/home-world/chapter-summaries. Accessed 4 November 2022.

Tagore, Rabindranath. “The Home and the World Themes.” eNotes.com, 19 January 2013, https://www.enotes.com/topics/home-world/themes. Accessed 4 November 2022.

Final Solution

 

Final Solutions

Mahesh Dattani is an Indian director, actor, playwright, and writer. He wrote such plays as Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man, Bravely Fought the Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Tara, Thirty Days in September, and The Big Fat City. He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akadami Award.

The theme of gender discrimination is dominant in the drama. It circles around the grave and traditional issues of gender bias. The issue of cultural discrimination and injustice against women has been elaborately and comprehensively dealt by Dattani in the play.

Mahesh Dattani's Works :

His plays deal with gender identity, gender discrimination, and communal tensions. The play 'Tara' deals with gender discrimination, '30 Days in September' tackles the issue of child abuse head on, and 'Final Solutions' is about the lingering echoes of the partition.

Basically, this play Final Solutions is based on the communal riots and there are many stuffs which can be examine under the various aspects like minority vs majority, Hindu vs Muslim, past vs present, liberality vs bigoted etc. And it has story of a Gujarati family.

Here I would like to put some observations of the play by various literary figures.

In her analysis of the play, Deepali Agarwal observes:

Mahesh Dattani puts the eternal question with his play Final Solutions that every now and then rankles our consciousness – are human beings really humane. It propels us to perennial problems as to what’s that we should have priorities – our religion, our perennial ideals or our compassion for other human beings. (Agarwal, Deepali: 81)

Alyque Padamsee (Directed of the play) comments:

As I see it, this is a play about transferred resentment. About looking for a scope goal to hit out when we feel let down and humiliated. Taking your anger on your wife, children, or servants is an old Indian custom. This is above all a play about a family with its simmering undercurrents.” (Padmasee: 161)

1.)What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?

When we see the title of the play “Final Solutions”. We find that at the very first look we can assume that it could be the solutions of some issues or it can be the interpretation of salvation of souls even. But it is about hatred and bitterness of Hindus and Muslims against each other. In the play we can see that there many issues around the characters and the plots its selves. Communal crisis happening there and it has started and it is still going on so there was no final solution to stop it and flawlessly it will go on. So we can say that author has given the title in the paradoxical way like we find that there must be a solution but in the play we see there is no such finalized solution to get rid of these kind of crisis.

2.)Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s “The Final Solutions” makes any significant changes in society?

“The Final Solutions” is the dealing with the burning social and communism riots. There are the characters and they representing various aspects of it. The mob or chorus are representing the hatred towards majority and minority. Or somehow it is symbolizing the whole society and it’s psyche towards one and another. The play has come into the year of 1993 but when we look at the present time scenario, we still feel the same things but in the different ways may be. So, if people are having courage to change the society and the way to treat each other, to behave in a such manner, to learn from the literature then only it can be helpful to the society in the better way. Because this the attempt that can make us aware that how we are threatened and having hatred in people’s hearts.

Hardika, in her diary entry, she mentions:

After forty years … I opened my diary again. And I wrote a dozen pages before. A dozen pages now. A young girl childish scribble. An old man’s shaky scrawl, yes, the things have not changed that much. (Act I) .The dialogue itself speaks a lot.

5.)Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?

At certain points we feel Ramnik is a liberal thinker and at some points we don’t agree even to our own arguments. Like when we became ready to rescue these both the Muslim boys and even the family members were his against so at that time, we feel his liberality but when the truth reveals at the end we feel very opposite of that same person. When there is the revelation period we find him not liberal rather than we feel him as selfish because ultimately he was doing this kind of help to these boys for himself only cause he only knew the truth so he wanted to be free from that prison of thoughts and acts.

3.)How are the beginning and the end of the movie? Do you feel the effect of communal disturbance in the movie?

An innovative narrative technique + The major dramatic events

It starts with recalling the past within the present. We can say the third act is the climax of the story. When it witnessed the truth behind everything. There is the dialogue of the Chorus also shouts, “Our future is threatened. There is so much that is fading away. We cannot complement about the glorious past seeing us safely through.” (Act III)

So there is communal disturbance we feel at both points.

Thinking Skill Workshop

  Hello Readers!! Here is my blog for the special event and which was the workshop for Thinking Skills by the very good resource person Prof. Milan Pandya. Milan Pandya is a teacher, trainer, and educator in the field of Thinking Skills i.e. Critical, Creative, and Design Thinking, English Language Teaching & Communication Skills. With more than 12 years of teaching experience, Mr. Pandya has authored 02 books and presented and published a number of research papers in national and international conferences and journals. He has taught/trained in numerous Universities/Institutions training more than 30,000 people in Thinking Skills across the world. Mr. Pandya has BA & MA in English Literature, M.Phil. in English Language Teaching (ELT) & his Ph.D. involves study into Online Teaching, Communicative Competence & Critical Thinking. He currently holds the position of Vice President of Advancement at Critical Thinking Solutions company in Ontario, Canada, and teaches at multiple colleges such as Conestoga and Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada.

On 13-14th August 2022, We had a workshop for thinking skills which was by Prof. Milan Pandya sir. It was extremely enriching as well as hard nuts to cracked. Many things were discussed there like,

Critical thinking and Creative thinking,

Critical Thinking and Creative thinking both are having it's own values like the Creative thinking can lead us towards the ideas which are not chewed and also having it's worth within itself. and to examine that we use the critical thinking.

Skeptical and doubtful

Logical, rational and scientific

The Speaker also mentioned the great philosopher Socrates. I wanna put here the quote by this man,

"I know you won't believe me but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others" - Socrates. Might here he wants to said before he made statement because he is saying that you will not believe me that means he is gonna say something which is not ordinary sort of things. And from his style to expression we can come to know in which level or manner he has used. and he said the excellence is to act of questioning things and also we can have critical corner by only the corner of questioning by various perspectives and flexibility.

Further the speaker gave the definition of critical thinking and that the core I found for myself, 'Thinking about thinking, in order to improve thinking'. Here the act of thinking is fir the act of improving the thinking process that how we think in certain kind of patterns and flows.

Also, he talked about 'Facts' and 'Opinions' by their nature. As per understanding of that Facts are those which are not going to changed ever, and Opinions are those which can change anytime.

"If something is true, What else has to be true in that"


Possible and Plausible

The crux of all Or the flame for me was that slide which was containing.

"Your teacher might be wrong. Learn to think for yourself".-Tao Te Ching

Milan sir talked about it very clearly, How we can think and how we should think for ourselves rather than not believing in the things which are told to us and taught to us by the teachers. 

Thought Experiment

In this slide, we can see that there are so many objects together that come out. And we had done the activity of it too. It was kind we have to find out various categories the objects can be put under that. And we found it's like a limitless thoughts process that is going on and on in our brain and we can find more and more categories. Which were like very different and so many.

Then there was those hard nuts that we were not able cracked very easily. In that sir gave scenario to us and we have to think a lot with like lot of struggle even. By that we got the glimpse of how criticism and creative thinking skills are difficult to have. And also at very last he told that It's the life skill not only thinking skills. Because "You are what you are, because of Thinking"

Bunch of thanks to Dr. Dilip Barad sir for organized this wonderful workshop and also to resource person.

THANK YOU!

Dromology

 🕮Hello Readers, Here is an outcome of the What is dromology term coined by Paulo Virilio.

Concept of Speed in Dromology

Dromos is an Ancient Greek noun for race or racetrack, which Virilio applied to the activity of racing. It is with this meaning in mind that he coined the term 'dromology', which he defined as the "science or logic of speed“. Dromology is important when considering the structuring of society in relation to warfare and modern media. He noted that the speed at which something happens may change its essential nature, and that which moves with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower. 'Whoever controls the territory possesses it. Possession of territory is not primarily about laws and contracts, but first and foremost a matter of movement and circulation.'

To say today that speed is obsolete is an untruth as obvious as that which consists in praising slowness. Speed, we are still captured by speed. At the beginning of human history, there was only slowness – the slowness of life in an agricultural society. Speed was created by people - merchants, soldiers, industrialists, scientists, engineers, computer scientists, bankers, etc. The present-day Identification with the speed may lead us to many different conclusions.

This applies particularly to those devices and equipment that we use every day - from cars and Velcro over Fast Food and email, to our computer and particle accelerators. Their formation is understood as a response to the clearly defined need, and their further development is a useful improvement. In today's life, it only speeds that count, and nothing else. The question of how much speed one needs and what rate of acceleration is tolerable for the economy, society, and environment, remains unanswered. Speed began to gain positive value in the late 19th century. Dromology by P. Virilio seeks to analyze the ways that were crucial for the development of speed. He asks how the principle of acceleration in Central and Western Europe arose and explains the origin and method of spreading “various triggers of speed”. Virilio’s theory shows the far-reaching extent to which speed conquered all and everything over the centuries: transportation and production, peace and war, men and women, urban and rural areas, work and leisure time, and arts and commerce. Virilio clearly shows us how the principle of acceleration of the word has taken root in the professional and private lives of individuals and societies in both good and bad sense, and how it has changed and continues changing our standards, values, perceptions, and mentality. The development of high technical speeds would thus result in the disappearance of consciousness as the direct perception of phenomena that inform us of our own existence. Cinema is not a seventh art but an art that combines all of the others: drawing, painting, architecture, music, also mechanical, and electrical works, etc.

Paul Virilio is a contemporary French theorist who has amply discussed the significance of speed and technology in the postmodern era. Through a close reading of Cosmopolis and Virilio’s theories, the present paper aims to contribute to current criticism of DeLillo’s postmodernist fiction. While much of the criticism of Cosmopolis has focused on its premonitory quality concerning 9/11 and its relationship to American popular culture, there is no comprehensive discussion of the postmodern city in light of Virilio’s ideas concerning speed and technology. The current paper offers a discussion. An attempt is made to read DeLillo’s representations of the postmodern city in terms of Virilio’s views on technology and dromology as well as the related concepts of telepresence and disappearance.

To understand Dromology more clearly watch this video:

Dromology by Virilio (There are 16 videos of dromology watch all of them to understand it thoroughly)

I found this term is based on speed as referred to in sir Dilip Barad's Blog.

Queer Theory

 Queer Theory

“We’re here. We’re queer.”

Queer Theory emerged as Gay and Lesbian Studies which in turn was the academic wing of the gay rights movement. Literary and cultural studies that focused on sexuality as a key category were an offshoot of a wide. Ranging Social and activist movements through the 1960s and early 1970s. The Stonewall Riots of 1969- provoked when police raided new yorks stonewall tavern a popular eating place for Gays- may be described as the origin of the gay liberation movement. Organization like Gay Liberation Movement (GLM) Gay Activists Aligns (GAA), aids the coalition to unleash power (ACT UP) to sort legal medical social freedom and rights for Gays and Lesbians. Queer theory drew upon the experiences of these movements while adding philosophical and critical insights into the nature of the body. The Geography of sexuality and the question of sexual identity. 

The queer theory looks at the history of cultural representation of the Gay / Lesbian as deviant seek or criminal while foregrounding sexuality as an important category of critical analysis when dealing with cultural text. Queer theory moves quickly to literary analysis and activism because it shows how cultural representation contributes very real material oppression of homosexuals.

Queer Theory Looks at :

1) The general construction of sexuality in discourses of medicine law or religion

2) Popular representation of Gay or Lesbian 

3) The public understanding of alternate sexualities

4) Institutional structures that undergird popular representation of homosexuality.

5) The 'Hidden History of Homosexual writing and representation.

6) The link between sexuality-based oppression and other discriminatory form suggest patriarchy and Racism.

7) The Geography of sexuality with specific reference to the Ghettoization of Gays and Homosexuals

Queer theory seeks to,

1) Destabilize essentializing identities 

2) Racist Heterosexual cultures through carnival transgression and parody.

3) Bent-essimilatinist 

4) Be co-sexual: men and women are on equal footy, the term Queer is now used to mean both Gays and Lesbians.

5) Promote the demand and fight for sexual justice as part of social justice.

6) use the aids crises to reflect on the practice of homosexuality and better aids-driven homo-phobia. 

“💮Be who you are💮”

The Sexual Turn

Criticism uses one or more categories to examine texts. These are usually, gender, race, class, and nationality. Sexuality strangely has been seen as a category that exists only in the form of the men-women relationship. People looking at relationships in the novel or the short story focused only on this kind of sexual relation, passing references or biographical information about authors who seemed to have had extremely close ties with men were ignored or seen as marginal to the main theme and relationship.

The marginalization of the non-heterosexual theme or character in literature was an index of the homosexual relationship in society all over the world. Heterosexuality was a norm and homosexuality was the deviation/perversion that deserved medical treatment and imprisonment.

Michel Foucault and the Discourses of Sexuality

A significant moment in lesbian and gay studies was the work of Michel Foucault, especially in the History of sexuality volumes. Foucault theorized sexuality as located within structures and discourse of power. he was thus able to provide, for the first time, a concerted approach to the so-called natural marginalization of  queer sexuality by arguing that certain forms of sexuality were constructed as unnatural and evil and its practitioners placed under surveillance.

• the sexuality of children was subordinated to that of adults , who were to monitor any 'preversions' like masturbation .
• a list of preversions began to be formulated . the homosexual was now a symbol of disorder .
• a medicalization of sexuality was on as doctor and scientists sought to provide a pathological basis for pervesions. 
•  a comparatmentalization of sexualities begin to be visible. sex was restricted to cwrtain ages , relationship,times and spaces. age ,practice , relationships and space . sexuality outside these norms was identified as prrvesion and illness. 

Gay pasts, gay futures 

Gay and lesbian writing now constitute a substantial body of work. Extensive critical writing on the area and institutional presences from sociology literary studies cultural studies psychology and history. 

past texts and future politics 

Central to the project of queer theory is the retrieval of gay and lesbian pasts in the form of history, autobiographies, memories, and fiction queer therapists argue, as we have seen, that mainstream literary culture has effectively reduced gay-lesbian presences from canon. margrate crukshank writes. 

we feel a special regen about the work of lesbian studies because so much of our past has been lost. Sometimes editors and biographers hid the truth, and sometimes families destroyed evidence of lesbian Herstory Archives were actually rescued from trash cans on New York City Sidewalks.

Retrieving gay-lesbian texts is central to queer studies because it provides a history of not only queer pasts but also to the modes of exclusion that have ensured the marginalization of the queer.

 Queer Subcultures

Along with the political reading of queer texts or queer readings of apparently heterosexist texts a key element in queer studies today is an exploration of queer subcultures.

Queer theory suggests that gay-lesbians culture can be seen as a subculture to the heterosexual mainstream one.  Camp, drag , transvestitism and cross-dressing are modes of subcultures. cross-dressing deglamorized the ultra-feminine stars andmasquerade draws attention to the role playing and constructed masculinity of the body. Such subcultures appropriate the icons , signs and aura of the mainstream culture to.. 

a) Show their constructedness 

b) Subvert them as icons of carnival

c) highlight the gayor lesbian angle to masquerade.

Bulter's theory of gender and the subject treats the subject as a process, a performative act where gender "occurs" only through therepitition of particular acts- and argument that suggests the subject is never a stable cogent entity.

Queer Dispora

In terms of popular culture and mass media culture the queer is already all over the world. Movies like Philadelphia and Fire now have global audiences . Is there a global queer linkage that makes such films popular? and if so ,how or why is it important in terms of a new politics of sexuality and race?

In many cases , as illustrated by Hanif Kureishi , Shyam Selvadurai, Suniti Namjoshi and Leela Gandhi , migration enables the asian or black queer to escape the claustrophobia of their original home/nation.

Queer theory now accounts for transnational identities and linkages. Grewal and Kalpan arue that the efforts of contemporary sexuality studies ignore the histories of diverse political economies and forms of governmentality. We need to look at form of gender and sexual differences in medieval china and Islam in order to understand the subject positions today. One more crucial dimension to a transitional queer identity that builds communities across racial identities exists in global tourism. Men and Women from 'First World nations travel to 'third World nations to alternate sexual experiences. Queer identity has become a consumer product in the age of global tourism. Once again race and sexuality are closely aligned: and, as always, favors the white gay or lesbians over dark-skinned ones. 

A Few LGBT icons we need to know about them

Until 2018, homosexuality was illegal and punishable in India. Although the draconian law, which demanded up to life imprisonment for anyone committing sexual acts “against the order of nature”, was scrapped four years ago, a truly inclusive society remains a distant dream. The LGBTQ+ community still faces stigma, violence, and legal difficulties. However, some of the country’s most famous personalities, from sports to the film industry and media to business, are trying to change the status quo.

1) Prince manavendra singh Gohil

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil is India’s first openly gay royal. An exceptional ambassador of the LGBTQ+ community, Gohil knew he was gay since he was 12, but had to stay in the closet for decades. By the time he came out at 41, Gohil had endured shock therapy, conversion therapy, forced marriage to a woman, and expulsion from his inheritance. His revelation about his sexuality triggered a nationwide scandal as homosexuality was illegal in India in 2006.

Though the backlash must have been traumatizing and depressing, it did not stop him from living his true self and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights through his charity Lakshya Trust. In 2018, when India’s Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality, Gohil opened up 15 acres of palace grounds to build a shelter for vulnerable gay and transgender people.
Today, he is fighting for issues like same-sex marriage, the right to inheritance, the right to adoption and a ban on conversion therapy.

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Feminism

 “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”

Feminism is both a political stance and a theory that focuses on gender as a subject of analysis when reading about cultural practices and as a platform to demand equality, rights, and justice. Feminism's key assumption is those gender roles are predetermined and that women are trained to fit into those roles. This means roles like 'daughter 'or 'Mother' are not natural but social because the women have to be trained to think, talk, and act in particular ways that suit the role.

The feminist literary and cultural theory draws a link between:

The representation of women in art and the real, material conditions in which they live.

The feminist theory argues that the representation of women as weak docile innocent seductive or irrational sentimental is rooted in and influences actual social conditions, where she does not have power is treated as a sex object, or procreating machine has fewer political and financial rights, and is abused. Feminism, therefore, is a worldview that refuses to delink art from existing social conditions and practices. It explores the cultural dimensions of women's material life. Feminist literary-cultural critics assume that cultural texts such as cinema, TV soap, opera music, and painting parallel, and duplicate real-life power struggles between genders. Cultural texts naturalize the oppression of women through their stereotypical representation of women as weak vulnerable, seductresses, obstacles, sexual objects, or procreating devices.

Gender Turn: Mary Wollstonecraft and The Rights of Women

The changing levels of literacy and cheaper publishing with the arrival of printing in early modern Europe meant that more women read about others' lives, and wrote about their own. However, European feminism as a theory might be traced back to the eighteenth-century writings of Mary Wollstonecraft.

In an age where the labour of men was privileged over that of women, Wollstonecraft provided the first major theoretical exploration of gender inequality.

In her vindication of the rights of women, Wollstonecraft rejected the established view that women are naturally weaker or inferior to men. The unequal nature of gender relations she proposed was because lack of education kept the women in a secondary position. she proposed women must be treated as equals because they play a crucial role in society, namely, bringing up children.

While Wollstonecraft was radical in seeking education as a means of improving women's position in society, she was hesitant to upset the gender hierarchies. Wollstonecraft for instance believed that men did have superior virtues . Education as Wollstonecraft saw it was about 'improvement'. But she did not see it as a means of overturning hierarchies of power. Thus, she believed that education should instill a love for domestic life. In effect, then Wollstonecraft was proposing a clear distinction between genders. 

Margaret Fuller: Women's Education and Reform 

In USA MargaretvFuller's activism and writings especially her WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY can be seen as a parallel origin for western feminism. Like Wollstonecraft, Fuller believed that education was the means of emancipation for women. Education, employment, and political rights were her key planks and she championed these throughout her life. She extended her concerns with gender roles and unequal power relations to classes. she supported prison reform and was one of the first to seek solidarity between African Americans and women seeing both as the victims of a racist-sexist social structure. She suggested that anyone who supported the cause of the Blacks would support the women's cause. 

Virginia Woolf: Authorship, Androgyny

In the twentieth century, the novelist Virginia Woolf provided the first critiques that we can recognize as marking feminism as we know it today. In words like A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN and THE THREE GUINEAS, Woolf explored gender relations . one of the first writers to develop a women-centric notion of reading and education Woolf argued that the patriarchal education systems and reading practices prevent women, readers, from reading as women. 

Wolf also argued that authorship itself is gendered. The language available to women is patriarchal and inherently sexist. But the woman author had no other language at her command is forced to use this sexist language that does not capture the women's experience. Diction, realism, and linearity order the literary modes that have been promoted as 'true' aesthetics are al male - generated.

Simone De Beauvoir and Existential Feminism 

De Beauvoir argues in her most famous work the second sex that man is able to mistify women his mystification and stereotyping argued was instrumental in creating patriarchy she argued that women in term of this stereotype were thus instrument of their own oppression. She further argued women were always the negative of the man. Where man was the ideal the norms and women is deviant or the other who sought perfection by trying to be as much like that man as possible. Women are measured by the standards of men and pound inferior. This is the process of othering where women will always be seen not as independent or unique but as variations and flawed versions of the male.

 Simone De Beauvoir's major insight was that there is no essence of women, a woman is constructed as such by men and society. 

As she puts it: One is not born sex and social gender are not accidental : Patriarchy makes use of sexual differences so as to maintain inequality between men and women 'Patriarchy' argues that biologically speaking women are unequal to men. An argument that naturalizes inequality as a pre-ordained condition of biology itself. De Beauvoir argues that while sexual differences are real and unalterable they can not be the grounds for injustice and inequality.

Sex and Gender 

Sex and gender do not mean the same thing within feminist studies the first moves in making this distinction were made in second-wave feminist thinking. This moves also marked a shift from the biology-based argument about male and female to a more socially centered one.

The Social Construction of Gender

The feminist cultural theory calls for distinguishing between sex and gender. As we have seen in the previous section, the french feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was an early proponent of the social constructionist view of sex and gender.

Sex is biological and includes anatomy and physiology. The reproductive systems of men and women are biological but they are invested with particular meanings through a social process. 

Now take the values associated with the biological act of child-bearing :

♀Motherhood becomes a symbol of the true"Female".

♀It becomes a central role for women to perform.

♀Nurturing a child is the woman's natural job. 

Now as an example of Feminist Criticism I've chosen Wide Sargasso Sea written by Jean Eyre

“THE WIDE SARGASSO SEA”, a multi-layered and complex novella by the Caribbean writer Jean Rhys is specifically written from the perspective of a ‘creole’ woman, Set in wild, magical Jamaican scenery, in the aftermath of emancipation. Anoinette Mason, the woman in the novella is a small supporting character in “JANE EYRE” by Charlotte Bronte.

In Bronte’s novel, the above female character is named Bertha Mason is introduced to Jane Eyre the protagonist, in the latter half novel as a mad woman in the attic and remains as an undefined character till the end of the novel. Mr. Rochester, the main hero of the novel was dubiously married to a West Indian woman when he went to visit his estates in the Caribbean colonies when he was young.

Readers get the evidence of women’s voices being suppressed in the novella when Christophene is ordered to leave the house as she opens her mouth against Rochester’s oppressive behavior towards Bertha. The dominance of the colonizer country could also be seen as a patriarchal society whereby widow remarriages were not allowed. The woman is portrayed as a figure that constantly fights for her own independence but is forcibly pushed to follow the traditional roles delineated by societal norms. Rochester not only asserts his rights by dumping her sensuality but also her very identity, by changing her name to bertha. In addition, when he takes Antoinette to England, Thornfield Hall, the place where they put up after marriage symbolizes similar European cultural supremacy.

Rhys further celebrates the idea that a woman constrained within such a society can never break the set ties. Even if she wants to negate those objectifying views she has to negotiate the sufferings caused by such domination. Her psychological disintegration and descent towards madness is a journey that ultimately becomes the mirror opposite to that of the wholesome goodness of the innocent Jane Eyre, as depicted by Bronte.

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