MCC LETTERATURA INGLESE I -II (L-LIN/10 CFU 8) Prof. Rossella Ciocca

1. MCC LETTERATURA INGLESE I -II (L-LIN/10 CFU 8) Prof. Rossella Ciocca

2. Beginning and ending of the British Raj. Colonial, imperial, and post-colonial India • The program will analyze the changed status of India from colonial dominion to pillar of the British Empire, to independent nation-state within the Commonwealth. In addition the course will provide a basic overview of the Subcontinent’s history from the pre-Arian age to the contemporary post-millennial phase. An important focus will be on the role of the novel, first as an imported genre and then as an indigenized, autochthonous literary form. The theoretical framework will provide some general tenets derived from cultural and postcolonial studies. In particular the students will read and analyze specific works by William Darlymple, E.M. Forster, Salman Rushdie, and Amitav Ghosh.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY • E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin Classics, 2005 (1924) • Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, J. Cape, 1981 • Amitav Ghosh, The Sea of Poppies, J. Murray, 2008 • William Darlymple, The White Mughals: Love & Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India HarperCollins, 2004 (BBC 4 Love and betrayal in India. The White Mughals, film suyoutube 59 minuti) • B.D. Metcalf and T. R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India, Cambridge U. P., 2002 • Catherine Lanone, « “I have long wanted to meetyou”: Elsewhere as Construct in E.M. Forster'sA Passage to India », Étudesbritanniquescontemporaines, 37 | 2009, 1–14. • Lata Mani, “Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India”, Cultural Critique, No. 7, II (Autumn, 1987), pp. 119-156 • Photocopies • Priyamvada Gopal, The Indian English Novel. Nation, History, and Narration, Oxford and New York, O. U. P., 2009 (Timeline, Introduction; Chapter1, 5, 8, Conclusions) per i non frequentanti

4. contents • 1. General Historical Background: from the Hindu Valley civilization to the neo-liberal present • 2. The British Raj • 3. The White Mughal (Darlymple). From ‘going native’ to the ‘civil lines’ • 4. The novel: from consumption to production • 5. The novel in the Public Indian Sphere • 6. Gramsci, Foucault, Habermas, Bhabha • 7. Amitav Ghosh on opium trade and sati • 8. 8. Epistemic violence and gender: Lata Mani • 9. The Clash of Civilization and the construct of the Other in E. M. Forster • 10. Midnight’schildrenrewritehistory

5. Primary texts Historical order William Darlymple, The White Mughals: Love & Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India addresses XVIII cent. Colonial India Amitav Ghosh, The Sea of Poppiesaddresses XIX cent. imperial India E. M. Forster, A Passage to Indiaaddresses XX cent. imperial India Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Childrenaddresses XX cen. independent India Publishing order • E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin Classics, 1924 • Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, J. Cape, 1981 • William Darlymple, The White Mughals: Love & Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India HarperCollins, 2004 • AmitavGhosh, The Sea of Poppies, J. Murray, 2008

6. Indian states

7. INDIA: MOSAIC OF IDENTITIES • LINGUISTIC VARIETY • Indian languages • 2 main families (+ 2): • Indo-European (Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi etc.) • Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam etc) • RELIGIOUS PLURALITY • Hinduism, Islamism, • Christian creeds • Sikhism, • Jainism, • Buddhism • Animism, • Parseesm (Zoroastrianism)

8. RELIGIOUS PLURALITY India has been described as a continent-sized mosaic. With its billionstrong, diverse, multireligious, multilingual, and multicultural population, it is a vast, complex, and confusing country. India is a secular state, but it is home to adherents of all the major religions. Hindus make up around 82 percent of the population, followed by Muslims at around 12 percent; Christians make up 2–3 percent of the population; Sikhs 2 percent; and Buddhists, Jains, and “others” (such as Parsis and Jews) another 2 percent of the population.

10. Religions in South Asia

11. Multilingualism • It is a plurilingual society with eighteen officially recognized or “scheduled”languages, thirty-three major languages, and a total of 1.652 languages and dialects that belong to four language families (Austric, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, and Sino-Tibetan) and are written in ten major scripts as well as a host of minor ones. Hindi is the main language, with around 40 percent of the population identified as Native Hindi speakers. Its nearest rivals are Bengali, spoken by 8 % of the population, and Telugu (also 8 %), followed by Marathi (7.5 %), and Tamil (6.5 %).

12. NORTH-SOUTH LINGUISTIC DIVIDE • In a north-south divide between the northern Indo-European languages and the southern Dravidian languages (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam), the speakers of the latter group comprise just 22 percent of the total Indian population. Thus in the mosaic of Indian diversity, no single language has an outright majority, but Hindi dominates

14. Indo-Arian and Dravidian

15. PLURAL but RIGID SOCIAL STRUCTURE • Caste: endogamous group or collection of groups bearing a common name and having the same traditional occupation, sharing the tradition of a common origin and common tutelary deities. • BRAHMANA (priests; today intellectuals and managers) mouth • KSHATRYA (warriors and kings) arms • VAISYA (land owners, traders) legs • SHUDRA (hand workers, peasants, servants,) feet • Outcast people: • dalit (broken, oppressed) • Harijan (God’s son) introduced by Gandhi

16. Modern India is divided into large social collectivities such as dalits, tribals, “backward”castes, and “forward” castes. Traditional Hindu society was structured around the hierarchical four-fold caste system known as varna: at the top were the Brahmins, the elite caste of priests, scholars and the interpreters of the Sanskrit sacred texts; just beneath them were the Kshatriyas, the caste of kings and warriors; the third caste was that of the Vaishyas, or traders and merchants; below them were the Sudras, the caste of artisans and peasants. The first three castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas today constitute the “forward” castes. However, there is yet another caste known as untouchables, so called because they were considered “polluted”, and hence any “polluting” physical contact between the forward castes and the untouchables was scrupulously avoided. Today, the untouchables and other depressed castes and tribal communities comprise the various “backward” castes.

17. The backward castes constitute about 20 percent of the Indian population, and many are still engaged in their traditionally assigned tasks of disposing of garbage and waste matter, as well as taking care of the dead—providing firewood for cremation ceremonies, lighting the cremation pyre, and disposing of any dead animals in the Village. However, the caste system is like a Honeycomb with each stratum in the caste system further fragmented into self contained regional, even local entities known as jatis. Often there is little interaction between jatis of different regions. Thus the Brahmins of northern India have little to do with the Brahmins of southern India, and likewise the Vaishyas of eastern India have little to do with the Vaishyas of any other Indian region.

18. Twenty-five years after Indian independence, in the 1970s, the dalits spurred two notable movements: the Dalit Panthers and dalit literature. The former was a short-lived political movement inspired by the Black Panther movement in the United States, and the latter was a blossoming of writing by dalits on the dalit experience. Most of the writing is in Marathi verse and prose, and there are just a few translations into English. The backward castes, along with other oppressed minorities such as tribals and some Muslim communities that have been identified as backward castes, have become powerful political entities in modern Indian democracy. The various communities in contemporary Indian society are now classified as the forward or upper castes, the dalits or scheduled castes (SCs), the other backward castes (OBCs), and the tribals or scheduled tribes (STs), all of whom (except the forward castes) benefit from positive discrimination with a percentage of seats reserved for entry to higher educational institutes and job reservations in the public sector. (p.34) Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) dedicated a large part of his life to the eradication of “untouchability,” which he considered a blight on the face of Hinduism. He renamed this fifth group the Harijan, or “children of God.” The upper-caste Hindus, Gandhi said, must make amends for the atrocities they had perpetrated on the lower castes over the centuries. The great Harijan leader Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891–1956), generally known as “Babasaheb,” who qualified for the bar at Gray’s Inn and received his doctorate from the London School of Economics, was a member of the backward castes and a key figure in the drafting of the Indian Constitution written in 1950.

19. Despite Gandhi’s efforts at social reform, Ambedkar did not believe that the Hindus would ever change their attitudes towards the Harijans, and he formed the Scheduled Castes Federation in opposition to the Congress. He also urged his caste members to embrace another religion, and in 1956, Ambedkar, along with 200,000 members of the backward castes, embraced Buddhism. The backward castes are also known as dalits. Dalit means “broken,” “reduced or ground to pieces” in Marathi.

20. The division of society into four ‘colours’ or castes (Varna) was developed in the Vedic period. (described in Manu’s code).The God Brahma created the primeval man from clay. The 4 varna derived from his limbs.

21. Origins of the system of castes Main literary works of the Vedic period(ancient age, c. 1600-600 B.C.) Rig-Veda (hymns, prayers and spells) Upanishads (explanatory comments on sacred texts) Mahabharata and Puranas (epic narrations)

22. The main story of Mahabharata deals with a conflict several generations long over dynastic succession in the Bharata family that is told in about 24.000 stanzas. The epic in its textual form contains numerous interpolated commentaries on matters of religion and philosophy, genealogy, history, folklore, and myth that quadruple its length to about 100.000 stanzas. Through oral transmission the epic saw an almost never-ending accretion.

23. Indian HistoryANCIENT INDIATraces of man from early PaleolithicAryan invasion theory (recently questioned): about the middle of II millennium B.C. India was invaded from northwest by the Aryans who established in the subcontinent a unifying civilization. The gradual change of color from light to dark skin as we move southwards fits in with a pattern of invasion which gradually pushed the previous populations before it.On the other hand modern excavations brought to light the existence of urban civilizations, antedating the Aryan period, extensively devoted to trade with Mesopotamia (about 2500-1900 B.C.)

24. INDUS VALLEY OR HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION

25. MOHENJO DARO

26. The Aryansoriginal home possibly south Russiapastoral and agricultural people living in villagesmade no attempt to occupy the cities they overcameinferior in material civilization superior in political and military organization

27. ARYAN INVASION OF INDIAARYAN MIGRATIONS

28. ARYANS AND DRAVIDIANS

29. The Aryan civilization moved eastwardSanskrit emerged as national languageVI century B.C. end of the Vedic period, a new intellectual and spiritual climate see the rise of Buddhism and Jainism327-25 B.C. Alexander the Great’ s invasion in North-west India

30. ALEXANDER the Great’s invasionof India

31. 180 B.C. – 200 A.D. foreign invasions in northern India (Greeks, Parthians, Tukhara)III century classical age of Indian civilization Literature, art, science and philosophy evolved the forms they were to retain in successive yearsNorthern India was reunited under the dynasty of the Guptas.

32. Gupta’s dynasties Gupta reigns Classic art

33. 650-1200 A.D. Dynastic rivalries, northern India was divided into a number of separate states (the Arab conquest of Sind in 712 was merely an episode and it was not until Islam had been firmly established in the area of modern Afghanistan that the Moslem conquest of India became possible)

34. ISLAMIC INDIAXIII- XVI cent. The Sultanate of Delhi was ruled by 5 successive dynasties (Metcalf, p.11- 15) In XIV cent. the sultanate attained its greater extent reaching Kashmir. After that it began to decline and divide into different regional reigns. Incursions led by Tamerlane occurred in 1399.

35. Sultanate of Delhi

36. Mughal India 1526 beginning of the Mogul Empire Babur descended from Tamerlane and Jenghiz Khan, his ambition was to recover the territories of the vast Mongolian empire. Ousted from central Asia he had to take refuge in Afhganistan from which he attacked India. At his death in 1530 he controlled the greater part of northern India.

37. Phases of Mughal empires

38. Akbar (1556-1605)was the greatest Mogul emperor extending his dominions, practising a conciliatory policy towards Hindu subjects

39. Taj mahal, regal tomb and the red fort of Agra Shah Jahan (reigns 1627-1658, imprisoned by his son 1658-1666) patronized culture, the arts and architecture

40. Aurangzeb (1658-1707) is considered the chief cause of the decline of Mogul empire for his political as well as religious intolerance and bigotry. Hindus were excluded from public office, some of their schools and temples were destroyed, the tax on non-Moslems was reintroduced.

41. The successors were puppets controlled by favourites and court factions, Northern India was invaded by Nadir shah of Persia (Peacock throne and Koh-i-Nor diamond were ransacked). Foreign invasion were not the causes but the symptoms of Mogul decline.

42. Babur the conquerorand the decadent last emperor

43. Mughal islamic art Mosaics, majolica miniatures

44. Mughal Art(refined court life) watercolor

45. COLONIAL INDIA: european settlements Portoguese India • The quest for India wasbegun by Portugal. In 1498 Vasco da Gamaanchored off Calicut, in 1500 Cochinbecame the first trading headquarters in India, Goa became the capital of Portuguesepossessions.

46. British empire

47. British Raj

48. British Raj in XIXth century A mix of direct and indirect rule

49. The English East India Company wasestablished in 1600. In the first halfof XVII cent. itobtainedvariousconcessionsfrom the Mogul Empire: first trading postswere Surat, Agra, then Calcutta and later on Bombay. The commercial settlementsweresoonfortified. Rivalryarosewith the Portuguese, defeatedby the English fleet. • In XVIII cent. the Europeanrivalswere English, French and Dutch. Gradually the East India company emergedas the dominant authority: itwasabletoobtain the concessiontocollect and administer the revenues in Bengal, Bihar and Orissapaying the emperoranannualtribute.

50. IndianMutiny Or IndianRebellion • Indian Mutiny 1857 • the great revolt of the Bengal native army led to transference of government to the crown. Due to many causes it was accompanied by rebellion of the population and some of chieftains. The pretext for revolt was the introduction of a new rifle whose cartridges, lubricated with pig’s and cow’s grease, had to have their ends bitten off by the sepoys.