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Papers by Rajorshi Das

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

This paper explores the ways in which Shyam Selvadurai's The Hungry Ghosts (2013) conforms to the... more This paper explores the ways in which Shyam Selvadurai's The Hungry Ghosts (2013) conforms to the national underpinnings of the Sri Lankan and by extension South Asian diaspora while simultaneously choosing mourning over rage as a way of living together. In his overt reliance on a mythical structure and Buddhist philosophy, the author betrays the entry of the homonational body as an ideal citizen within the complex geopolitical aspirations of South Asia where family and ethnicity are integral to the formation of self. Race and region therefore reign supreme over questions of desire and companionate bonding.

In Rama Retold (1954), a satiric retelling of the Hindu epic Ramayana, Aubrey Menen remarks – “T... more In Rama Retold (1954), a satiric retelling of the Hindu epic Ramayana, Aubrey Menen remarks – “There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third” (276). The contemporary Indian government invested in the task of nation building did not quite appreciate Menen’s right to offend and the book was abruptly banned in 1955, ironically by the champion of free speech, Jawaharlal Nehru. Menen’s text marks a significant rupture in India’s tedious affair with the figure of Ram as evident from its further politicization during the Ramjanmobhumi movement. By imagining the epic characters as less than ideal, Menen as an insider-outsider (born to Indo-Irish parents) not only questions the hallowed Gandhian notion of Ramrajya as an ideal democracy but also anticipates the making of a homogenous majoritarian nation-state that responds to irreverence and laughter with compulsory violence, administered by the state or otherwise. The purpose of my essay is to read Menen’s use of satire as a product of his queer anger that allows him to forge an intersectional alliance as also evident from his critique of British colonialism and caste hegemony in The Dead Man in the Silver Market. In Valmiki, Menen finds a comrade who was accused of killing a Brahmin and marginalized by their majoritarian worldview. He states: “generations of Brahmins have rewritten his (Valmiki’s) poem so that in parts it says the opposite of what Valmiki plainly intended…. I shall aim at reviving his attitude of mind” (6). Whether or not Menen’s alternate reading challenges the metanarrative and adds to the multiplicity of the epic, his sarcasm generates an anxiety of contagion ingrained in any monolithic understanding of myth or history. In this process, the “nation” itself becomes a product of surveillance and censorship excluding anyone or everyone who refuses to become the 'adarsh nagarik' (ideal citizen).

As one of the earliest writers from the Indian diaspora, Aubrey Menen’s alterity is a cumulative ... more As one of the earliest writers from the Indian diaspora, Aubrey Menen’s alterity is a cumulative product of his mixed ethnicity (as an Indo-Irish British citizen) and sexuality (as an openly homosexual writer who preferred Italy over Britain or India) that engenders his critique of all normative cultures. My paper looks at his later autobiographical writings like The Space Within the Heart (1970) where he reinterprets the teaching of the Upanishads to speak about care for the self. In doing so, he offers an intimate portrait of familial relationships that troubles his understanding of an identity that is in a constant state of flux.

Articles in Popular Media by Rajorshi Das

This spoof imagines a Zoom roundtable on intersectionality, led by key feminist scholars in Globa... more This spoof imagines a Zoom roundtable on intersectionality, led by key feminist scholars in Global North. The text is meant to summarize and complicate the genealogies and ruptures in feminist praxis while being alert to critiques from and hierarchies within feminist scholarship in Global South

Feminism in India, 2020

Academia, whether in the US or in India, is a deeply exclusive space available to a select few. T... more Academia, whether in the US or in India, is a deeply exclusive space available to a select few. These few are often picked and pruned on the basis of ‘merit’ which is a pre-legitimizing step toward any production of knowledge. Often liberal students in particular, perform wokeness in order to legitimize their scholarship or appear subversive on social media platforms. Currently, a PhD student in Iowa, I am guilty of perpetuating this performance by seeking to publicize my attempts to address my casteism and access points within academia and beyond. This piece of writing is an attempt to engage with fellow savarna / upper caste people by redoing the models provided by Devon W. Carbado and Peggy McIntosh. Of course, Hindu upper castes are diverse groups but as historically privileged communities, each one of us benefits by pushing Dalit and Bahujan voices in the margins.

The following article written in the aftermath of the violence perpetrated in and around Ramjas C... more The following article written in the aftermath of the violence perpetrated in and around Ramjas College and Delhi University North Campus in February 2017 tries to explore the ideology behind the refusal of female students to conform to the idea of Bharat Mata. As a witness to the violence, police complicity and subsequent protests by progressive bodies in campus, I shall argue that nationalism itself is a trap, relying on false binaries such as those of “national”/ “anti-national” to polarize university spaces and rein in all modes of dissent.

Book Reviews by Rajorshi Das

Liminalities , Dec 31, 2020

Anthropology Journal, 2021

Journal of Postcolonial Writing , 2022