Sahdev Luhar teaches English language in College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Vaso. He has authored three books (one co-authored) and several research articles. His areas of interest are narrative studies, translation studies, folklore studies and contemporary Indian English. He is also interested in translation from Gujarati to English and vice versa. His translated work includes poems, literary research articles and ethnographies. Recently he is documenting the folk narratives of Gadaliya Luhar community of Gujarat to understand the process of framing the identity by those cultural groups, who have lost their memory as a consequence of the cultural amnesiac attacks. Supervisors: Advisor
The main purpose of this monograph is to indicate the condition of English studies in the Indian ... more The main purpose of this monograph is to indicate the condition of English studies in the Indian universities and to provide any remedy.
This monograph serves as a brief introduction to literary canon studies, a critical approach that... more This monograph serves as a brief introduction to literary canon studies, a critical approach that evaluates text as an amalgamation of literary and aesthetic values. The notion of literary canon has undergone revision time-to-time to pace with contemporaneous change in the sociocultural practices. It also advocates an independent status of the post-1980s Indian English fiction as a literary canon. The six essays of this monograph deal with the constituents of literary canon as well as the Indian English literary canon, role of language in canon formation, role of canon in nation building, diverse literary canons of India, and the association of theory, social movements and literary canon formation.
The literary canon implies the evaluation or estimation of certain literary texts as the most imp... more The literary canon implies the evaluation or estimation of certain literary texts as the most important during a particular time. The canon is not merely a set of texts; it is a set of standards, evaluative procedures and values. Belonging to a canon confers a guarantee of literary greatness. A canon is formed, by a particular group, to channelize cultural hegemony over others, or, can be constructed, by a governed group, to bring about cultural symmetry. The rise of diverse literatures in English in different parts of the world after the colonial rule of England was the consequence of an urge to articulate a cultural equilibrium or an urge to strike back. The process of canon formation is also a focused and bigoted act, and is always carried out to accomplish certain self-centred objectives. It is commonly accepted that canon formation is executed to accomplish or naturalize certain ideological functions. In the sphere of Indian English literature, Indian English fiction after the end of the 1980s has emerged as a new “canon”. This book looks into the process of literary canon formation in Indian universities, and examines such fiction as an alternative literary canon and as an anti-imperialistic response to the British literary canon. The book ascertains the anti-imperialistic design involved in forming the canon of post-1980 Indian English fiction, examines the gradual emerging trends in such fiction, and discerns the role of language, culture, and native ethos in the formation of a canon. It also differentiates post-1980s Indian English fiction from British fiction, bhasa fiction, and even from pre-1980s Indian English fiction.
Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's imp... more Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important writings on education and duties of student-teacher have been compiled and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa in two books Basic Education (1951) and Towards New Education (1953) as well as some of his essential writings such as Hind Swaraj (1909) and others. Gandhi proposed a humanistic approach to education. He believed education aims at building character, and hence it is the duty of a teacher to provide value-based education – an education that moulds human morally. He opined that education can play an effectual role in developing a wholesome human personality capable of removing all social vices and building a social order wherein man can live in harmonious way with others. For him, education is a potential instrument of man-making and social engineering and therefore he transmitted that education should draw out the best in the child – body, mind and spirit – for developing peace loving human personality. The ideas of Gandhi were not implemented in education system due to some practical problems but now the time has arrived to follow the Gandhian philosophy if we want to survive and create an independent India. In this way, this paper explores the ideas of Gandhi once again and makes an appeal that the teacher and students should be responsible towards the future of country
Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel... more Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel and Fiction, though many have disregarded these polarities. This paper is an attempt to unearth these differences. Novel is defined on the basis of its quality of realism, whereas Fiction originates from imagination. The ‘fragile’ differences which one finds in ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ imagination, the same kind of the dissimilarities are there between ‘fiction’ and ‘Fiction’. Whereas ‘fiction’ insinuates the idea of generic element, ‘Fiction’ is used to suggest generic form. The first alludes to ‘quality’, while the later to the ‘form’. The ‘fiction’ refers to mental process, whereas the ‘Fiction’ is the product made of this mental process. Drawing references from some illuminating texts on the topic, the present paper discovers the basic five differences between Novel and Fiction. To read this article online, open in html page. You may also...
Centred on a famous canonical Hindi fiction by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), Godān (1936), which ... more Centred on a famous canonical Hindi fiction by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), Godān (1936), which means ‘a gift of a cow’ and on contemporary Dalit fiction by Roop Narain Sonkar, Sūardān (2010), which means ‘a gift of a pig’, the present article discusses how the hegemonic Indian myths are destroyed and recreated as a subversive response to caste ideology. Godān, which can have a parallel to a popular Hindu myth of a ritual of gifting a cow which, as it is believed, guarantees moka (salvation) after mtyu (death), is condemned by Sūardān, which, in its turn, backs its assault by presenting a parallel myth of pig. Thus, the present article illustrates how the canonical literary texts are revisionized and re-appropriated by the vidrh writers using adaption techniques similar to the postcolonial strategies of ‘writing back’.
Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel... more Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel and Fiction, though many have disregarded these polarities. This paper is an attempt to unearth these differences. Novel is defined on the basis of its quality of realism, whereas Fiction originates from imagination. The ‘fragile’ differences which one finds in ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ imagination, the same kind of the dissimilarities are there between ‘fiction’ and ‘Fiction’. Whereas ‘fiction’ insinuates the idea of generic element, ‘Fiction’ is used to suggest generic form. The first alludes to ‘quality’, while the later to the ‘form’. The ‘fiction’ refers to mental process, whereas the ‘Fiction’ is the product made of this mental process. Drawing references from some illuminating texts on the topic, the present paper discovers the basic five differences between Novel and Fiction. To read this article online, open in html page. You may also download the PDF copy of this article. You ...
Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts
Community literature, here, refers to a body of oral literatures by the diverse ethnic groups of ... more Community literature, here, refers to a body of oral literatures by the diverse ethnic groups of India that speak thousands of indigenous languages. Many less explored indigenous groups with living oral traditions are found in India but their orality is not yet documented. In our attempts to find such cultural groups, we came across many cultural groups that are being ignored because of their small population, lack of political backup, lack of governmental upliftment policies, socio-economic conditions, or lifestyle. The cultural groups that are being referred to here are not the communities that live in tribal or forest areas but they are groups of people that live among us in our cities or villages. These groups mainly consist of migrating populations whose members wander here and there to earn their livelihood. These are the cursed communities in the sense that they have been ignored by all – by the government itself and also by the dominant cultural groups. In this paper, we try...
Focused on the cultural memory of the Gādaliya Luhār community in Gujarat, this article discusses... more Focused on the cultural memory of the Gādaliya Luhār community in Gujarat, this article discusses ways in which oral traditions and cultural memory among nomadic groups in India shape the identity of a community under the challenge of cultural amnesia. The Gādaliyā Luhārs claim Rājpūt status and close association with the kings of the Mewar region of Rajasthan, but experienced double cultural amnesia, first under the Mughals and later in the British Empire, which affected their identity. The article seeks to assess the authenticity of the community’s assertions of cultural memory in the light of some historical documents and asks to what extent cultural memory through oral narratives can be taken as valid evidence for understanding the cultural identity of a specific community.
Literary studies has never been a neutral process of imparting aesthetic knowledge but has proved... more Literary studies has never been a neutral process of imparting aesthetic knowledge but has proved itself an institutional mechanism of cultural (re)production. Since its inception, English literary studies has been engaged in forming the hegemonic cultural practices in India. Earlier it was a tool of cultural domination in the hands colonial rulers, today it is an institutional stratagem to construct a kind of cultural elitism. Literary syllabus is never impartial accumulation of literary texts but it is an ideological apparatus of someone's vision. It been observed that departments of English in India are passing through a crisis – many of their postulates which were once considered self-evident and universal are questioned and challenged. In the wake of the western critical theories with their antifoundational and anti-essentialist notions, what has been commonly accepted as essential 'knowledge' is now subject of hermeneutic reassessment. There is a cry for the paradigmatic shift in the pedagogical practices. It is essential to realise that hubbubs over the literary canon that usually centre around what is included and excluded in literary curricula really signify more profound political, economic, and cultural relations and histories. With these preposition in mind, the present paper seeks to address the following queries: What role do the department of English perform in reproducing culture? What are the cultural and ideological implications of university syllabi for literary studies? What is the cultural relevance of what has been sold as “required knowledge”? And who has the responsibilities of designing the best syllabus for the students and how it has been regulated?
Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important w... more Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important writings on education and duties of student-teacher have been compiled and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa in two books Basic Education (1951) and Towards New Education (1953) as well as some of his essential writings such as Hind Swaraj (1909) and others. Gandhi proposed a humanistic approach to education. He believed education aims at building character, and hence it is the duty of a teacher to provide value-based education – an education that moulds human morally. He opined that education can play an effectual role in developing a wholesome human personality capable of removing all social vices and building a social order wherein man can live in harmonious way with others. For him, education is a potential instrument of man-making and social engineering and therefore he transmitted that education should draw out the best in the child – body, mind and spirit – for developing peace loving human personality. The ideas of Gandhi were not implemented in education system due to some practical problems but now the time has arrived to follow the Gandhian philosophy if we want to survive and create an independent India. In this way, this paper explores the ideas of Gandhi once again and makes an appeal that the teacher and students should be responsible towards the future of country
The main purpose of this monograph is to indicate the condition of English studies in the Indian ... more The main purpose of this monograph is to indicate the condition of English studies in the Indian universities and to provide any remedy.
This monograph serves as a brief introduction to literary canon studies, a critical approach that... more This monograph serves as a brief introduction to literary canon studies, a critical approach that evaluates text as an amalgamation of literary and aesthetic values. The notion of literary canon has undergone revision time-to-time to pace with contemporaneous change in the sociocultural practices. It also advocates an independent status of the post-1980s Indian English fiction as a literary canon. The six essays of this monograph deal with the constituents of literary canon as well as the Indian English literary canon, role of language in canon formation, role of canon in nation building, diverse literary canons of India, and the association of theory, social movements and literary canon formation.
The literary canon implies the evaluation or estimation of certain literary texts as the most imp... more The literary canon implies the evaluation or estimation of certain literary texts as the most important during a particular time. The canon is not merely a set of texts; it is a set of standards, evaluative procedures and values. Belonging to a canon confers a guarantee of literary greatness. A canon is formed, by a particular group, to channelize cultural hegemony over others, or, can be constructed, by a governed group, to bring about cultural symmetry. The rise of diverse literatures in English in different parts of the world after the colonial rule of England was the consequence of an urge to articulate a cultural equilibrium or an urge to strike back. The process of canon formation is also a focused and bigoted act, and is always carried out to accomplish certain self-centred objectives. It is commonly accepted that canon formation is executed to accomplish or naturalize certain ideological functions. In the sphere of Indian English literature, Indian English fiction after the end of the 1980s has emerged as a new “canon”. This book looks into the process of literary canon formation in Indian universities, and examines such fiction as an alternative literary canon and as an anti-imperialistic response to the British literary canon. The book ascertains the anti-imperialistic design involved in forming the canon of post-1980 Indian English fiction, examines the gradual emerging trends in such fiction, and discerns the role of language, culture, and native ethos in the formation of a canon. It also differentiates post-1980s Indian English fiction from British fiction, bhasa fiction, and even from pre-1980s Indian English fiction.
Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's imp... more Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important writings on education and duties of student-teacher have been compiled and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa in two books Basic Education (1951) and Towards New Education (1953) as well as some of his essential writings such as Hind Swaraj (1909) and others. Gandhi proposed a humanistic approach to education. He believed education aims at building character, and hence it is the duty of a teacher to provide value-based education – an education that moulds human morally. He opined that education can play an effectual role in developing a wholesome human personality capable of removing all social vices and building a social order wherein man can live in harmonious way with others. For him, education is a potential instrument of man-making and social engineering and therefore he transmitted that education should draw out the best in the child – body, mind and spirit – for developing peace loving human personality. The ideas of Gandhi were not implemented in education system due to some practical problems but now the time has arrived to follow the Gandhian philosophy if we want to survive and create an independent India. In this way, this paper explores the ideas of Gandhi once again and makes an appeal that the teacher and students should be responsible towards the future of country
Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel... more Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel and Fiction, though many have disregarded these polarities. This paper is an attempt to unearth these differences. Novel is defined on the basis of its quality of realism, whereas Fiction originates from imagination. The ‘fragile’ differences which one finds in ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ imagination, the same kind of the dissimilarities are there between ‘fiction’ and ‘Fiction’. Whereas ‘fiction’ insinuates the idea of generic element, ‘Fiction’ is used to suggest generic form. The first alludes to ‘quality’, while the later to the ‘form’. The ‘fiction’ refers to mental process, whereas the ‘Fiction’ is the product made of this mental process. Drawing references from some illuminating texts on the topic, the present paper discovers the basic five differences between Novel and Fiction. To read this article online, open in html page. You may also...
Centred on a famous canonical Hindi fiction by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), Godān (1936), which ... more Centred on a famous canonical Hindi fiction by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), Godān (1936), which means ‘a gift of a cow’ and on contemporary Dalit fiction by Roop Narain Sonkar, Sūardān (2010), which means ‘a gift of a pig’, the present article discusses how the hegemonic Indian myths are destroyed and recreated as a subversive response to caste ideology. Godān, which can have a parallel to a popular Hindu myth of a ritual of gifting a cow which, as it is believed, guarantees moka (salvation) after mtyu (death), is condemned by Sūardān, which, in its turn, backs its assault by presenting a parallel myth of pig. Thus, the present article illustrates how the canonical literary texts are revisionized and re-appropriated by the vidrh writers using adaption techniques similar to the postcolonial strategies of ‘writing back’.
Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel... more Novel is not what Fiction is. There are some essential and qualitative distinctions between Novel and Fiction, though many have disregarded these polarities. This paper is an attempt to unearth these differences. Novel is defined on the basis of its quality of realism, whereas Fiction originates from imagination. The ‘fragile’ differences which one finds in ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ imagination, the same kind of the dissimilarities are there between ‘fiction’ and ‘Fiction’. Whereas ‘fiction’ insinuates the idea of generic element, ‘Fiction’ is used to suggest generic form. The first alludes to ‘quality’, while the later to the ‘form’. The ‘fiction’ refers to mental process, whereas the ‘Fiction’ is the product made of this mental process. Drawing references from some illuminating texts on the topic, the present paper discovers the basic five differences between Novel and Fiction. To read this article online, open in html page. You may also download the PDF copy of this article. You ...
Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts
Community literature, here, refers to a body of oral literatures by the diverse ethnic groups of ... more Community literature, here, refers to a body of oral literatures by the diverse ethnic groups of India that speak thousands of indigenous languages. Many less explored indigenous groups with living oral traditions are found in India but their orality is not yet documented. In our attempts to find such cultural groups, we came across many cultural groups that are being ignored because of their small population, lack of political backup, lack of governmental upliftment policies, socio-economic conditions, or lifestyle. The cultural groups that are being referred to here are not the communities that live in tribal or forest areas but they are groups of people that live among us in our cities or villages. These groups mainly consist of migrating populations whose members wander here and there to earn their livelihood. These are the cursed communities in the sense that they have been ignored by all – by the government itself and also by the dominant cultural groups. In this paper, we try...
Focused on the cultural memory of the Gādaliya Luhār community in Gujarat, this article discusses... more Focused on the cultural memory of the Gādaliya Luhār community in Gujarat, this article discusses ways in which oral traditions and cultural memory among nomadic groups in India shape the identity of a community under the challenge of cultural amnesia. The Gādaliyā Luhārs claim Rājpūt status and close association with the kings of the Mewar region of Rajasthan, but experienced double cultural amnesia, first under the Mughals and later in the British Empire, which affected their identity. The article seeks to assess the authenticity of the community’s assertions of cultural memory in the light of some historical documents and asks to what extent cultural memory through oral narratives can be taken as valid evidence for understanding the cultural identity of a specific community.
Literary studies has never been a neutral process of imparting aesthetic knowledge but has proved... more Literary studies has never been a neutral process of imparting aesthetic knowledge but has proved itself an institutional mechanism of cultural (re)production. Since its inception, English literary studies has been engaged in forming the hegemonic cultural practices in India. Earlier it was a tool of cultural domination in the hands colonial rulers, today it is an institutional stratagem to construct a kind of cultural elitism. Literary syllabus is never impartial accumulation of literary texts but it is an ideological apparatus of someone's vision. It been observed that departments of English in India are passing through a crisis – many of their postulates which were once considered self-evident and universal are questioned and challenged. In the wake of the western critical theories with their antifoundational and anti-essentialist notions, what has been commonly accepted as essential 'knowledge' is now subject of hermeneutic reassessment. There is a cry for the paradigmatic shift in the pedagogical practices. It is essential to realise that hubbubs over the literary canon that usually centre around what is included and excluded in literary curricula really signify more profound political, economic, and cultural relations and histories. With these preposition in mind, the present paper seeks to address the following queries: What role do the department of English perform in reproducing culture? What are the cultural and ideological implications of university syllabi for literary studies? What is the cultural relevance of what has been sold as “required knowledge”? And who has the responsibilities of designing the best syllabus for the students and how it has been regulated?
Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important w... more Gandhi held very high conception for student, teacher and education. Most of Gandhi's important writings on education and duties of student-teacher have been compiled and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa in two books Basic Education (1951) and Towards New Education (1953) as well as some of his essential writings such as Hind Swaraj (1909) and others. Gandhi proposed a humanistic approach to education. He believed education aims at building character, and hence it is the duty of a teacher to provide value-based education – an education that moulds human morally. He opined that education can play an effectual role in developing a wholesome human personality capable of removing all social vices and building a social order wherein man can live in harmonious way with others. For him, education is a potential instrument of man-making and social engineering and therefore he transmitted that education should draw out the best in the child – body, mind and spirit – for developing peace loving human personality. The ideas of Gandhi were not implemented in education system due to some practical problems but now the time has arrived to follow the Gandhian philosophy if we want to survive and create an independent India. In this way, this paper explores the ideas of Gandhi once again and makes an appeal that the teacher and students should be responsible towards the future of country
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the department of English perform in reproducing culture? What are the cultural and ideological implications of university syllabi for literary studies? What is the cultural relevance of what has been sold as “required knowledge”? And who has the responsibilities of designing the best syllabus for the students and how it has been regulated?
the department of English perform in reproducing culture? What are the cultural and ideological implications of university syllabi for literary studies? What is the cultural relevance of what has been sold as “required knowledge”? And who has the responsibilities of designing the best syllabus for the students and how it has been regulated?