Vibha S Chauhan | Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi (original) (raw)
Papers by Vibha S Chauhan
Indira Goswami, May 3, 2022
Emotions and Actions of Revenge, 2014
My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focu... more My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focusing on community, myth and culture; socio-political systems; media and literary narratives – both written and oral – while discussing the immense possibilities of the complex ambivalence inherent in the concept of revenge in post-colonial countries like India that continue to witness the coexistence of social, gender, caste and regional inequities with " modern " political and economic democratic institutions rooted in the concept of the rights bearing individual. The " Khap Panchayats " or the community courts in the north Indian state of Haryana symbolize the revenge that patriarchal customary order continues to wreck on individuated choice of marriage partners challenging long-established caste norms in the name of honour. The perceived offenders are physically tortured-often to death-despite the legislative enactment of the Special Marriages Act 1954 that grants validity to marriages across castes and religions. Oral narratives about unnatural deaths of women who had the potential of threatening normative patterns of caste and gender dominate many community myths in the countryside of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over times immemorial, these women have been turned into goddesses worshipped over generations as an unending cycle of the retribution by families instrumental for their deaths Contemporary literature – especially in regional languages – represents ways in which the oppressed groups – especially women-subvert both law and political forces to legitimately empower themselves and take revenge for the silence and disempowerment imposed on them by the empowered groups. They themselves becomes active agents of personal vengeance and recompense making the moral necessity of guilt and retribution redundant in a socio-political order dependent for its existence on an individual " s power to vote in a desirable socio-political order. The paper hopes to investigate the different ways in which revenge and vengeance function in traditional as well as contemporary democratic societies to both reinforce as well as challenge the existing power structures through an interface between the individual and the state in post-colonial societies and its literary representations.
Literature For Our Times, Aug 17, 2007
The term ‘dalit’ literally means ‘the broken people’ and was formally coined at the Dalit literat... more The term ‘dalit’ literally means ‘the broken people’ and was formally coined at the Dalit literature conference that took place in 1958. It shifts the onus of the repressed status of low castes to the repressive high castes, as opposed to the earlier term “untouchables” that implied the existence of inborn impurity and pollution within the low-castes themselves. This shift in terminology from “untouchable” to “dalit” clearly indicates a shift in the perception of self by low caste groups and unveils the process of forging their new identities that challenge the dominant caste and social codes. The shift from the term ‘tribal’ with its colonial and derogatory connotations to ‘adivasi’ – literally meaning the original inhabitants - once again brings an element of dignity to the indigenous people. However, the two trajectories that dalit and adivasi literatures have traveled are very different from each other. While dalit literature is beginning to make a prominent space for itself within the realm of Indian literature, adivasi literature continues to be stuck in literary backwaters. While dalit literature is demanding the creation a new aesthetics of protest, adivasi literature is largely perceived as being tied to its primordial pastoral and natural existence. The truth however, is very different. Articulations of dissent and protest – especially against the existing mainstream developmental programmes - form the dominant content of a lot of ‘protest’ poetry and adivasi songs. The paper will attempt to discuss how this relative neglect of contemporary adivasi literature and increasing prominence of dalit literature is tied up with the democratic politics in India. Dalit literature won recognition only after the formation of the political group called Dalit Panthers in Maharashtra in 1972. Dalits acquired a much sharper political identity and bargaining power after the establishment of the Bahujan Samaj Party that claims to represent the dalits in the Indian political arena. The adivasis have still not been able to forge a prominent politically strong representative group. The paper hopes to investigate the dialects between literature and politics with special reference to the articulation of protest in adivasi and dalit literature.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 1999
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2000
My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focu... more My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focusing on community, myth and culture; socio-political systems; media and literary narratives – both written and oral – while discussing the immense possibilities of the complex ambivalence inherent in the concept of revenge in post-colonial countries like India that continue to witness the coexistence of social, gender, caste and regional inequities with " modern " political and economic democratic institutions rooted in the concept of the rights bearing individual. The " Khap Panchayats " or the community courts in the north Indian state of Haryana symbolize the revenge that patriarchal customary order continues to wreck on individuated choice of marriage partners challenging long-established caste norms in the name of honour. The perceived offenders are physically tortured-often to death-despite the legislative enactment of the Special Marriages Act 1954 that grants validity to marriages across castes and religions. Oral narratives about unnatural deaths of women who had the potential of threatening normative patterns of caste and gender dominate many community myths in the countryside of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over times immemorial, these women have been turned into goddesses worshipped over generations as an unending cycle of the retribution by families instrumental for their deaths Contemporary literature – especially in regional languages – represents ways in which the oppressed groups – especially women-subvert both law and political forces to legitimately empower themselves and take revenge for the silence and disempowerment imposed on them by the empowered groups. They themselves becomes active agents of personal vengeance and recompense making the moral necessity of guilt and retribution redundant in a socio-political order dependent for its existence on an individual " s power to vote in a desirable socio-political order. The paper hopes to investigate the different ways in which revenge and vengeance function in traditional as well as contemporary democratic societies to both reinforce as well as challenge the existing power structures through an interface between the individual and the state in post-colonial societies and its literary representations.
Books by Vibha S Chauhan
It is quite likely that you have met someone like Kirpa, the protagonist of Ganga Jamuna Beech (B... more It is quite likely that you have met someone like Kirpa, the protagonist of Ganga Jamuna Beech (Between the Ganga and the Jamuna). A woman whose speech carries the distinctive flavour of the village she grew up in but whose long sojourn in the city has contributed an idiom that makes it even more expressive. A language that is living proof of her life's journey, which has meandered as much as the two rivers between which she finds herself poised. And it is Kirpa's unaffected yet robust voice that is perhaps the most striking aspect of this remarkable debut novel. As you listen enthralled to Kirpa's life story you relive those momentous sixty years with her, participate in her arduous progression from the familiar, comfortable world of the village to the bewildering, threatening milieu of the city where her husband lives and works. Kirpa's dilemma is one many women of her generation faced, at the time when modern education was throwing up barriers within families and the feudal structure was beginning to unravel in northern India, but that makes it no less poignant. Born in a family of zamindars in eastern U.P. Kirpa is married to Bhrigu Narain Singh at an early age. While the transition from parental home to that of the in-laws is comparatively painless, her problems begin when her husband joins the police and is posted in Benaras. Bhrigu Narain wants her to accompany him there, but Kirpa is unable to conceal her fear of the unknown. Her short-tempered husband takes this as a personal rejection. He leaves her behind with his family and more or less ignores her existence. Though it was common for men who worked in cities to visit home periodically and father children, he does not even establish conjugal relations, leaving Kirpa in a strange limbo. Torn between the comfort zone of the traditional life she is accustomed to, and the terrifying new ways Bhrigu Narain wishes her to adopt, Kirpa is compelled to embark on a painful odyssey to regain her husband. His family provides all the support she needs to accomplish this goal. First her brother-in-law and his wife accompany her in an abortive foray to Benaras, where things do not work out. But when he is posted to distant Delhi, Kirpa is confronted with the worst. She learns that he is ...
Book Reviews by Vibha S Chauhan
Indira Goswami, May 3, 2022
Emotions and Actions of Revenge, 2014
My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focu... more My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focusing on community, myth and culture; socio-political systems; media and literary narratives – both written and oral – while discussing the immense possibilities of the complex ambivalence inherent in the concept of revenge in post-colonial countries like India that continue to witness the coexistence of social, gender, caste and regional inequities with " modern " political and economic democratic institutions rooted in the concept of the rights bearing individual. The " Khap Panchayats " or the community courts in the north Indian state of Haryana symbolize the revenge that patriarchal customary order continues to wreck on individuated choice of marriage partners challenging long-established caste norms in the name of honour. The perceived offenders are physically tortured-often to death-despite the legislative enactment of the Special Marriages Act 1954 that grants validity to marriages across castes and religions. Oral narratives about unnatural deaths of women who had the potential of threatening normative patterns of caste and gender dominate many community myths in the countryside of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over times immemorial, these women have been turned into goddesses worshipped over generations as an unending cycle of the retribution by families instrumental for their deaths Contemporary literature – especially in regional languages – represents ways in which the oppressed groups – especially women-subvert both law and political forces to legitimately empower themselves and take revenge for the silence and disempowerment imposed on them by the empowered groups. They themselves becomes active agents of personal vengeance and recompense making the moral necessity of guilt and retribution redundant in a socio-political order dependent for its existence on an individual " s power to vote in a desirable socio-political order. The paper hopes to investigate the different ways in which revenge and vengeance function in traditional as well as contemporary democratic societies to both reinforce as well as challenge the existing power structures through an interface between the individual and the state in post-colonial societies and its literary representations.
Literature For Our Times, Aug 17, 2007
The term ‘dalit’ literally means ‘the broken people’ and was formally coined at the Dalit literat... more The term ‘dalit’ literally means ‘the broken people’ and was formally coined at the Dalit literature conference that took place in 1958. It shifts the onus of the repressed status of low castes to the repressive high castes, as opposed to the earlier term “untouchables” that implied the existence of inborn impurity and pollution within the low-castes themselves. This shift in terminology from “untouchable” to “dalit” clearly indicates a shift in the perception of self by low caste groups and unveils the process of forging their new identities that challenge the dominant caste and social codes. The shift from the term ‘tribal’ with its colonial and derogatory connotations to ‘adivasi’ – literally meaning the original inhabitants - once again brings an element of dignity to the indigenous people. However, the two trajectories that dalit and adivasi literatures have traveled are very different from each other. While dalit literature is beginning to make a prominent space for itself within the realm of Indian literature, adivasi literature continues to be stuck in literary backwaters. While dalit literature is demanding the creation a new aesthetics of protest, adivasi literature is largely perceived as being tied to its primordial pastoral and natural existence. The truth however, is very different. Articulations of dissent and protest – especially against the existing mainstream developmental programmes - form the dominant content of a lot of ‘protest’ poetry and adivasi songs. The paper will attempt to discuss how this relative neglect of contemporary adivasi literature and increasing prominence of dalit literature is tied up with the democratic politics in India. Dalit literature won recognition only after the formation of the political group called Dalit Panthers in Maharashtra in 1972. Dalits acquired a much sharper political identity and bargaining power after the establishment of the Bahujan Samaj Party that claims to represent the dalits in the Indian political arena. The adivasis have still not been able to forge a prominent politically strong representative group. The paper hopes to investigate the dialects between literature and politics with special reference to the articulation of protest in adivasi and dalit literature.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 1999
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2000
My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focu... more My paper attempts to analyze the varying though inter-penetrating discourses of area studies focusing on community, myth and culture; socio-political systems; media and literary narratives – both written and oral – while discussing the immense possibilities of the complex ambivalence inherent in the concept of revenge in post-colonial countries like India that continue to witness the coexistence of social, gender, caste and regional inequities with " modern " political and economic democratic institutions rooted in the concept of the rights bearing individual. The " Khap Panchayats " or the community courts in the north Indian state of Haryana symbolize the revenge that patriarchal customary order continues to wreck on individuated choice of marriage partners challenging long-established caste norms in the name of honour. The perceived offenders are physically tortured-often to death-despite the legislative enactment of the Special Marriages Act 1954 that grants validity to marriages across castes and religions. Oral narratives about unnatural deaths of women who had the potential of threatening normative patterns of caste and gender dominate many community myths in the countryside of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over times immemorial, these women have been turned into goddesses worshipped over generations as an unending cycle of the retribution by families instrumental for their deaths Contemporary literature – especially in regional languages – represents ways in which the oppressed groups – especially women-subvert both law and political forces to legitimately empower themselves and take revenge for the silence and disempowerment imposed on them by the empowered groups. They themselves becomes active agents of personal vengeance and recompense making the moral necessity of guilt and retribution redundant in a socio-political order dependent for its existence on an individual " s power to vote in a desirable socio-political order. The paper hopes to investigate the different ways in which revenge and vengeance function in traditional as well as contemporary democratic societies to both reinforce as well as challenge the existing power structures through an interface between the individual and the state in post-colonial societies and its literary representations.
It is quite likely that you have met someone like Kirpa, the protagonist of Ganga Jamuna Beech (B... more It is quite likely that you have met someone like Kirpa, the protagonist of Ganga Jamuna Beech (Between the Ganga and the Jamuna). A woman whose speech carries the distinctive flavour of the village she grew up in but whose long sojourn in the city has contributed an idiom that makes it even more expressive. A language that is living proof of her life's journey, which has meandered as much as the two rivers between which she finds herself poised. And it is Kirpa's unaffected yet robust voice that is perhaps the most striking aspect of this remarkable debut novel. As you listen enthralled to Kirpa's life story you relive those momentous sixty years with her, participate in her arduous progression from the familiar, comfortable world of the village to the bewildering, threatening milieu of the city where her husband lives and works. Kirpa's dilemma is one many women of her generation faced, at the time when modern education was throwing up barriers within families and the feudal structure was beginning to unravel in northern India, but that makes it no less poignant. Born in a family of zamindars in eastern U.P. Kirpa is married to Bhrigu Narain Singh at an early age. While the transition from parental home to that of the in-laws is comparatively painless, her problems begin when her husband joins the police and is posted in Benaras. Bhrigu Narain wants her to accompany him there, but Kirpa is unable to conceal her fear of the unknown. Her short-tempered husband takes this as a personal rejection. He leaves her behind with his family and more or less ignores her existence. Though it was common for men who worked in cities to visit home periodically and father children, he does not even establish conjugal relations, leaving Kirpa in a strange limbo. Torn between the comfort zone of the traditional life she is accustomed to, and the terrifying new ways Bhrigu Narain wishes her to adopt, Kirpa is compelled to embark on a painful odyssey to regain her husband. His family provides all the support she needs to accomplish this goal. First her brother-in-law and his wife accompany her in an abortive foray to Benaras, where things do not work out. But when he is posted to distant Delhi, Kirpa is confronted with the worst. She learns that he is ...