FAKRUL ALAM is Professor of English at the University of Dhaka. His publications include: Reading Literature in English And English Studies in Bangladesh: Postcolonial Perspectives (Dhaka: writers.ink): Rabindranath Tagore and National Identity Formation in Bangladesh: Essays and Reviews (Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 2013)
This paper focuses on some of the writings of Karl Marx on India in English toindicate something ... more This paper focuses on some of the writings of Karl Marx on India in English toindicate something of the extent of his astonishing knowledge of the subcontinent’spolitical and socioeconomic history, and to highlight the incisiveness of his critiqueof British rule in India. In the process, it attempts to show Marx’s (and FriedrichEngels’) sensitivity as well as understanding of the plight of Indians under theEast India Company’s rule, and his quite overt and powerful denunciation ofBritish excesses during the Sepoy Mutiny. In addition, the paper underscores theimportance of these writings for us in South Asia, and stresses their continuingrelevance in our time. It also emphasizes Marx’s mastery of details of Indian history,land laws, and topography. Moreover, it accentuates the rhetorical persuasivenesswith which he makes his case against British rule in India and underscores hiscommand over English prose. The paper ends by suggesting that all postcolonialscholars dealing with the sub...
How good is Tagore’s English prose’? If Tagore himself is to be believed. not good at all! And ye... more How good is Tagore’s English prose’? If Tagore himself is to be believed. not good at all! And yet, it must be remembered it has his own 1912 English renderings of his poems in prose, Gitanjali (Songs Offerings) that brought him instant worldwide recognition. It is important to note too that Tagore continued to produce memorable works in English every now and then for almost three decades. We have to only think of a letter like the one he wrote renouncing his knighthood or works such as Nationalism or The Religion of Man ourselves that his achievement in English prose is by no means negligible. Indeed, within a few years of his Gitanjali work, Tagore indicates in a letter that he had actually begun to overcome his limitations and to savor “the wonderful power” of English prose (letter to J. D. Anderson). In the last decade of his life, he was even willing to concede that his prose had managed “to attain some quality of permanence” after the initial help and advice he had got from pe...
Our flight to Delhi had been delayed by a few hours. As a result, when we – three academics from ... more Our flight to Delhi had been delayed by a few hours. As a result, when we – three academics from the University of Dhaka – arrived at Delhi’s India International Centre at quarter past five on the 27th of March, 2009, for “Utsav” (the four day festival celebrating Rabindranath Tagore in the twenty-first century), we had missed the inaugural event, “Upasana,” a rendering of a Sanskrit hymn set to music by Tagore himself. However, we had still managed to get the tail end of the second part of the inaugural session. This was the part dedicated to Tagore’s devotional songs – “Music Under the Trees” as the Utsav brochure put it – sung soulfully by Laisa Ahmed Lisa. The ambience – GandhiKing Plaza – was perfect for the works of the poet-composer for whom nature was sacred and the source of all inspiration. The lush green lawn named after the two twentieth-century apostles of non-violence next to the entrance driveway of the Centre seemed to have soaked Lisa’s solemnly sweet rendering of T...
It is no accident that the rise of the Indian English novel in the 1930s coincided with the ferme... more It is no accident that the rise of the Indian English novel in the 1930s coincided with the fermentation of Indian nationalism evident in the sub-continent throughout the decade. As M. K. Naik observes succinctly in his compact A History of Indian English Literature: "the Indian English novel of the period was deeply influenced by the epoch-making political, social and ideological ferment caused by the Gandhian movement" (152). Thus Mulk Raj Anand deals with untouchables and race relations in his fiction of the period, and Raja Rao depicts a South Indian village stirred up by the nationalistic movement in Kanthapura. Engaging such issues gives a vibrant quality to the novels of these two writers and introduces a distinctive tone of engagement with social and political events in the Indian English novel. But how does R. K. Narayan's fiction register the increasingly agitated emotions of Indians who were in a constant state of excitement at this time due to the burgeonin...
This paper focuses on some of the writings of Karl Marx on India in English toindicate something ... more This paper focuses on some of the writings of Karl Marx on India in English toindicate something of the extent of his astonishing knowledge of the subcontinent’spolitical and socioeconomic history, and to highlight the incisiveness of his critiqueof British rule in India. In the process, it attempts to show Marx’s (and FriedrichEngels’) sensitivity as well as understanding of the plight of Indians under theEast India Company’s rule, and his quite overt and powerful denunciation ofBritish excesses during the Sepoy Mutiny. In addition, the paper underscores theimportance of these writings for us in South Asia, and stresses their continuingrelevance in our time. It also emphasizes Marx’s mastery of details of Indian history,land laws, and topography. Moreover, it accentuates the rhetorical persuasivenesswith which he makes his case against British rule in India and underscores hiscommand over English prose. The paper ends by suggesting that all postcolonialscholars dealing with the sub...
How good is Tagore’s English prose’? If Tagore himself is to be believed. not good at all! And ye... more How good is Tagore’s English prose’? If Tagore himself is to be believed. not good at all! And yet, it must be remembered it has his own 1912 English renderings of his poems in prose, Gitanjali (Songs Offerings) that brought him instant worldwide recognition. It is important to note too that Tagore continued to produce memorable works in English every now and then for almost three decades. We have to only think of a letter like the one he wrote renouncing his knighthood or works such as Nationalism or The Religion of Man ourselves that his achievement in English prose is by no means negligible. Indeed, within a few years of his Gitanjali work, Tagore indicates in a letter that he had actually begun to overcome his limitations and to savor “the wonderful power” of English prose (letter to J. D. Anderson). In the last decade of his life, he was even willing to concede that his prose had managed “to attain some quality of permanence” after the initial help and advice he had got from pe...
Our flight to Delhi had been delayed by a few hours. As a result, when we – three academics from ... more Our flight to Delhi had been delayed by a few hours. As a result, when we – three academics from the University of Dhaka – arrived at Delhi’s India International Centre at quarter past five on the 27th of March, 2009, for “Utsav” (the four day festival celebrating Rabindranath Tagore in the twenty-first century), we had missed the inaugural event, “Upasana,” a rendering of a Sanskrit hymn set to music by Tagore himself. However, we had still managed to get the tail end of the second part of the inaugural session. This was the part dedicated to Tagore’s devotional songs – “Music Under the Trees” as the Utsav brochure put it – sung soulfully by Laisa Ahmed Lisa. The ambience – GandhiKing Plaza – was perfect for the works of the poet-composer for whom nature was sacred and the source of all inspiration. The lush green lawn named after the two twentieth-century apostles of non-violence next to the entrance driveway of the Centre seemed to have soaked Lisa’s solemnly sweet rendering of T...
It is no accident that the rise of the Indian English novel in the 1930s coincided with the ferme... more It is no accident that the rise of the Indian English novel in the 1930s coincided with the fermentation of Indian nationalism evident in the sub-continent throughout the decade. As M. K. Naik observes succinctly in his compact A History of Indian English Literature: "the Indian English novel of the period was deeply influenced by the epoch-making political, social and ideological ferment caused by the Gandhian movement" (152). Thus Mulk Raj Anand deals with untouchables and race relations in his fiction of the period, and Raja Rao depicts a South Indian village stirred up by the nationalistic movement in Kanthapura. Engaging such issues gives a vibrant quality to the novels of these two writers and introduces a distinctive tone of engagement with social and political events in the Indian English novel. But how does R. K. Narayan's fiction register the increasingly agitated emotions of Indians who were in a constant state of excitement at this time due to the burgeonin...
My presentation will take a comprehensive and critical look at the concept of cultural translatio... more My presentation will take a comprehensive and critical look at the concept of cultural translation. It will argue that thinking of it as Talal Asad did in his 1986 essay, " The Concept of Cultural Translation " when he used it to indicate how anthropologists necessarily translate the language of " primitive " cultures for use in academia is too restrictive. It will suggest that to have the term conceptualized as Homi Bhabha did in discussing The Satanic Verses to privilege hybridity as the inevitable and not undesirable condition of diasporic people is also to be too restrictive. My paper will suggest instead that the concept of cultural translation can be most useful when conceived in terms of the root meaning of the word " translation " , that is to say, as the movement of ideas borne in languages from one part of the world to another in paradigmatic moments of history when we witness the phenomenon of cultural transformation. I intend to show how the concept can benefit from Walter Benjamin's idea about the transformation of the target language through literary translation, Edward Said's notion of " travelling theory " and James Clifford's take on " travelling cultures ". Ultimately, cultural translation, I hope to show, is the way in which the world has been redressing itself again and again after the fallout it has been enduring after Babel. FAKRUL ALAM is an academic, a literary critic, essayist and editor as well as a translator from Bengali. He is
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