---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venugopalan K M <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:01:51 +0530 Subject: Fwd: Chithralekha Paper-your response in "Green Youth"mail list forwarded to me by a friend To: Ramki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venugopalan K M <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Feb 14, 2008 1:31 AM Subject: Chithralekha Paper-your response in "Green Youth"mail list forwarded to me by a friend To: Dileepraj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dear Dileep, This message is only an attempt to make known my response to your post; not intended to be posted to the Green Youth List, though I have no problem in case you like to share this with others who you choose . ".( i.e, disregarding the conscious claims and intentions of the authors)" I'm really unable to understand why you ,in the first instance, *disregard the conscious claims and intentions of the authors;* I also wonder by virtue of which elements of democratic practice you have a right to do so*. *This, in my opinion, is simply not fair while you engage with a seriously done research paper, evaluated by competent people keeping adherence to the academic standards. The arrogant trashing of the content even touches a paranoiac level, when you do it without offering any reason. Having been condemned to be totally worthless, it comes out of your hands with several tags attached on it based on pure fantasy of yours. There is a point of course there , when you are reminded of Chinese and European travelers.You may recall that many foreigners like Al-Baruni, Francis Buchanen, Barbosa had indeed stunned at the gross insensitivity shown by both the ordinary and the elite caste hindus to their fellow Indians of supposedly lower birth; I believe that in a similar situation, some one who by conscious choice wants to be outside this schema of unwritten rules of caste and gender, might experience being seen like pucca foreigners. I don't know if Jenny and Christy would agree...though (in my opinion) they've succeeded at least in their writing to invoke a feeling of foriegn..as someone keeping a calculated distance from this kind of celebration of* naattachaarams *of gender and caste. Perhaps there lies the strength of this paper, shortcomings like factual errors in giving names of places correctly etc, and other things apart.. Again, you may also recall (please), that many a "Malayali" only took more pride in their *mahakavi* defending the honour of the great nation against a foreign woman scandalising it, by talking ill of caste and gender...in fact,they became more proud of Vallathol Narayana Menon's poem ",Bharathasthreekalthan Bhavasuddhi"irrespective of the fact that it was a response to Katherine Mayo's(A Brit Woman) "Slaves of Gods" documenting the inhuman attitudes Gandhian volunteers and the caste-hindu people displayed toward widows and women of lower castes on various occasions.In fact, many of these (Malayalee) nationalists didn't even care to know what kind of content in writing actually prompted this awsome *desabhakti. *Dileep has invented certain things in the text as some residual stuff that might be useful for future researchers: (a) to (g) -[ privileges..to self-righteousness to prejudices..!!.]But these are nevertheless, only fringe benefits of the research ,the worth of which people like Dileep can understand and help guiding future researchers! What to say of such dismissive attitudes to research, esp against those in utterly bad taste to the desi habits, done by "foreign people" or people behaving that way? For the question directed at me by you in the GY post, I can say that I've been part of the left all through.The *socialist paatha* of 90s had consistently tried to bring to focus the question of caste and gender as part of the discourses taking place in the left circles here. I consider calling one a leftist not anything other than a compliment. The fact that myself and the other person(Subrahmanyan) who had worked with me in Socialist Paatha ,after openly expressing differences of opinion and being not able to get along together in an action front, which in turn simultaneously involved the sensitive issues of gender, caste and conventional left politics, speaks more than which you might be willing to understand. Why couldn't myself and a few others prevail upon the colleagues in the earlier committee(Pynur), what prompted us to convene another at Kannur at a much later stage etc.might not have been topics worthy of elaborate documentation for Jenny and Christy, but there is ample material in the paper suggesting the several turns and twists, ups and downs that the main agenda of Chithralekha's defence as a whole, had ultimately suffered. Any one who may be willing to pursue the study without yielding to skepticism ,unbiased and in a nonpartisan way (despite avoidable factual errors galore in it, on certain points that might be inconsequential to the conclusion of the paper )might see that all there!. Warmest regards, Venu.K.M -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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