The Jewel in the Crown is India

Often, when we, from the United States, begin to talk about colonial imperialism, the topic presents a conundrum not easily sorted out.  Examples from Franciphone Africa, China and its occupied territories, the mess left in South Africa, Brits in India, and (if we are brave enough to talk about it honestly) British in the US resulting in the genocide of Native Americans.  The topic overflows with examples of brutality, racism, oppression, servantry, power, control, and economic development.  If we're lucky, the discussion doesn't stop at the floodgates of guilt that quickly bubble up depending on how much one has thought about the topic of one's social identity and come to terms with these dynamics.  Isn't it?

One of the books (or sets of books) the students can choose to read before coming to India is the Raj Quartet by Paul M. Scott.  Jewel in the Crown is the first, but also the title of the miniseries that has been called the best miniseries of its time. 

Literary works of art - novels of the best storytelling and intrigue.  What makes a good story?  Lots of characters that you can identify with - characters with tragic flaws, ones that you fall in love with along with the storyline, ones that you hate because you see them one dimensionally until the secret behind them is revealed, and even then, you hate them a little bit for their cruelty.  Historical fiction works in this way - giving context of the time period (In JITC's case, 1942 - 1947 in India) by following characters along their journeys.  Characters that may or may not have actually existed at the time, but it doesn't matter.  The characters are telling the story of the history. 

Themes: Social commentary - Brits in India, or the history of Brits in India juxtaposed with India's own history, or the powerlessness to interact with it - power dynmaics and how they play out - WWII - Independence - Muslim/Hindu conflict -privilege - 'home' - graciousness/manners - drinking - love and how quickly or slowly the interaction takes place - taboos of sexuality -trust -...

I noticed how the characters never call each other out on their shit.  They just kind of bear it, sometimes to 'vent' to someone else about the behavior or decide what to do about it, but never to their faces.  (Example, Merrick, Susan's insanity)  Misunderstandings frustrate the viewer.

Colonialism is like a bad marriage - filled with frustration, angst, abuse, exploitation, joy, and sometimes love. 
Most of the Indians portrayed in the series are servants, sometimes cunning and stealing, sometimes supporting their Memsahibs perfectly.  Lady Chatterjee, Nawab and his family, and Hari Kumar have substantial roles.  It is quite skillful of the writer/director to spend such a time with Hari and Daphne creating an intense connection with them, then tragedy strikes.  They are not in the series physically for the rest of the episodes, but they hover in the storyline as a reminder of the ambiguity of disaster, unfortunate events, questions of identity and love; they ARE the main storyline, even though we finish with the Laytons and Ahmed's fate.  Hari and Daphne are the ominous bookends to the story, reminding the viewer that complications and dissapointment are the themes of the work.

Each episode includes actual wartime footage from WWII telling the story from the Indian/British perspective of the time.  Sarah, Merrick, Guy, and other characters are fully engaged in the security forces at different levels.  The footage brings reality to the stories of the characters and helps the viewer understand what the context is for their lives during each episode.  Another technique used is the ambiguity of the ending of each episode, sometimes in flames, sometimes just quietly ending without fanfare sneaking up on the viewer creating a feeling in me of expectation, tragic anticipation, or frustration at times.  There is no happy ending.  This solidifies the view that colonialism is like a bad marriage.

Pandit Baba, Gandhi/Nehru,

First Draft.

Indian Federalism

The Economist talks about the different separatist movements here happening in India, most notable the Gorkhas living in West Bengal who have been "at" the Gorkhaland movement since the 70's (check facts)

With states created as recently as 2000, Indian government seems to pay attention to the needs of disenfranchised ethnic groups and listen to their struggles presuming that creating a separate states does indeed address the needs of these communities.

At what cost? What is the goal of Indian nationalism? How does this impact the region economically?

How does India's bent toward balkanization of the country show an example for Nepal who's government is trying to address the same issues?

More than One Story

Power, stereotypes, and seeing them and others as more than one dimension.

What other examples are there - personal?

Good for - FSS session about perspectives, facilitation (in English) about stereotypes, unpacking assumptions, looking at others in a new light.

Thoughts about Travel

50 Quotes about travel.

Sometimes these are good - sometimes they make me think of who gets to travel, and how much of a luxury travel is, and how the people who are quoted saying these things are thinking about expanding their homogeneous surroundings because they live in a culture that has been homogenized so they have to go out and seek Exotic things in order to make themselves feel special, just like everyone else.

Of course, me included.  I like saying, in response to where do you life, "I live in Nepal." It makes me feel special.  and then I get to pay attention to that.

Wondering how to use this for teaching...

Ethnicity and Seperatist Movements

Basques in Spain from CNN - Basque Movement (est. 1959) labeled a terrorist group by the US.

Maoists (Naxals or Naxalites) in India from CNN - Suspected terrorist activity in northeastern India.  These guys have been at it since 1960.

Big Question always arises with students as we are trying to understand the idiosyncracies of the Maoist movement here in Nepal (official est. 1996) - What is the connection between these self-proclaimed separatists?  Do they have similar goals? methods? are they connected by anything other than morphed ideology from Mao's Cultural Revolution in China?  How closely are they following traditional Maoist ideology?  Are they taking cues from each other?

Sanjib ji was telling me the other day that it was only just recently that the Naxalites in India had formally acknowledged the Maoists here in Nepal as a group they could look up to and emulate as they had truly been able to reform government and strive toward the goals set by their ideologies. 

Remains to be seen, no?

Self Concept and Identity

Greg from IDP shares some insight from Yale research on concepts of self and identity:

We used to think that the hard part of the question "How can I be happy?" had to do with nailing down the definition of happy. But it may have more to do with the definition of I. Many researchers now believe, to varying degrees, that each of us is a community of competing selves, with the happiness of one often causing the misery of another.

 IDP post here includes many book suggestions for further reading about identity concepts in Buddhism