DLA, Agra, 1 January, 2014
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furkar vko’;drk gSA
Nibir K. Ghosh with Jonah Raskin
Global Community & Cultural Connections
Jonah Raskin
I do not remember how long I have known Nibir Ghosh or how long I have written for Re-Markings, though I do remember meeting the editor in California on a lovely summer day.
We spent a pleasant afternoon together. I met his wife. We had
something to drink. We enjoyed the view. I had no expectation that our
brief rendezvous would lead to what I consider a productive literary
relationship. I know that it has been good for me. I hope that it has
been good for Re-Markings. It must be because Nibir invites me
to write for the journal and publishes what I write, too. My
connection to the journal is personal. I don’t think that I would go on
writing for it year after year
if I did not know Nibir and respect his work. I probably wouldn’t
write for it if it were published in, say, Seattle, Washington, or
Orlando, Florida. I write for it because it’s published in India and
printed in India, and because most of its contributors are Indians.
Writing for Re-Markings gives me the feeling that I am part of a literary community that is halfway around the world from where I live in California.
This is important to me. To fully explain why I would probably have to
tell the story of my life and times. Suffice it to say that I want to
be part of a global community and to have cultural connections to
India.
Re-Markings
is one of my major literary lifelines. Writing for the journal keeps
me connected to Nibir and it gives me the sense that I’m connected to
readers, teachers, and writers in India. I understand how difficult it
is to be an editor. It has enabled me to appreciate Nibir Ghosh’s role
as editor of Re-Markings which is now celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary -- a long time for a journal to go on publishing creative, brilliant and original articles. Bravo Re-Markings. Kudos to Nibir Ghosh and everyone else who contributes. I extend my hand in greetings and celebration.
- Jonah Raskin serves on the advisory board of Re-Markings and is a regular contributor. Chair of the Communication Studies
Department at Sonoma State University, California, U.S.A., he is the
author and editor of books about Jack London, Allen Ginsberg, and the
literature of the British Empire.
v
Celebrating Cross-cultural Conversations
Tijan M. Sallah
I am a latecomer in my association with the journal, Re-Markings,
but I see much to admire in its intellectually vibrant pages and much
to be hopeful about in valuable efforts to foster global scholarly and
intellectual conversations on culture, politics and the new literatures
in English. With its twenty-fifth issue, Re-Markings can claim to be a confident establishment, comfortable in its roots and its ambitions. I see great promise in Re-Markings – in the ideas of peace and social justice
through literary discourses that are flowing through its pages—and in
the wonderful platform it is providing for the world's literati and
thinkers to converse with one another about their literatures and
cultures, and the underlying connections. The world is one – this is
even more obvious when one considers the earth from a cosmic
perspective. It has become closer with cross-border technology and
information flows. Distances are being compressed by technology.
Cultures, long separated by the hindrances of geography, are now
meeting and speaking with other, and in that conversation are finding a
common denominator – the amazing similarity and humanity between them.
The world has become closer because journals such as Re-Markings are helping that happen. I wish Re-Markings another 25 years of success. May it continue to be more vibrant as we age.
- Dr. Tijan M. Sallah
is Gambian poet, writer and biographer. An economist by training,
he has taught economics at several American universities before
joining the World Bank, where he manages the agriculture,
irrigation and rural development program for East African
countries.
v
Creating A One-world Atmosphere
James R. Giles
I
have had the privilege of publishing criticism and fiction Re-Markings
over the years. The experience has been pleasant and rewarding in
each case. The submission process has been thoroughly professional, and
the appearance of my materials in the journal has been clean and
attractive. I am grateful for my association with such a diverse and
important international journal. I have profited from looking over the
other materials in the issues of the journal in which I have been
fortunate enough to appear. The critical essays have been consistently
provocative and informative and the creative pieces fascinating. Mr.
Ghosh is a talented and energetic editor devoted to
making Re-Markings a wide-ranging and challenging journal. I congratulate Re-Markings
on its anniversary issue and look forward to its future contributions
to the scholarly and creative communities. It is the kind of
publication that truly creates a one-world atmosphere.
- Dr. James R. Giles is Presidential Teaching Professor of English at Northern Illinois University, U.S.A.
v
Beyond Canonical Boundaries
Walter S.H. Lim
With the launch of Re-Markings'
25th celebratory issue, I wish to congratulate Dr. Nibir Ghosh for his
leadership and vision in anchoring an important journal in South Asia
that deals not only with local and Asian literary and sociocultural
matters but also with international cultural relations in a globalized
world. While Re-Markings identifies New Literatures in English
as its special area of emphasis, indicating the journal's instinct to
move beyond the boundaries of the canonical, its ecumenical spirit is
evident in its coverage of subject matter as diverse as American
literature, comparative diasporic literature, and the topicality of the
Nobel prize for literature. I recall well my involvement with Re-Markings
through Dr. Ghosh's invitation for me to contribute articles on
Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Li-Young Lee, two first-generation Chinese
American authors from Southeast Asia, and on the award of the Nobel
literature prize to Mo Yan. As we enter the second decade of the
twenty-first century and become part of an inescapably interconnected
world, we find ourselves also at a historical moment in which
valorizations of nation-centered literatures are questioned by writings
that embrace hybridity, internationalism, and the breakdown of
compartmentalization. It strikes me that Re-Markings' openness
to the implications of transnational literary production and cultural
interactions positions it as a journal of deep relevance for those of us
who embrace the idea of the importance of world
literatures. Re-Markings will continue to resonate in the twenty-first century.
- Dr. Walter S.H. Lim is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the National University of Singapore.
v
Voice of Vibrant Democratic Participation
Jane Schukoske
Congratulations
to Chief Editor Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh, Editor A. Karunaker, Executive
Editor Sundeep Arora, and the editorial staff, advisors, contributors,
readers and other supporters on the publication of the 25th issue of
the journal Re-Markings, a forum for cross-cultural literary analysis, creative writing, review and other features. As a refereed journal, Re-Markings
sets a high standard for its authors and provides consistently high
quality to its readers. In India and abroad, this journal promotes
reflection and intellectual engagement with others.
Facing
rapid changes in how and with whom we communicate, we can appreciate
and model the contribution of writing to the making of meaning and to
the understanding of others. Literary analysis provides a vehicle for
examining the meaning of stories in their social and political context.
Such analysis is of growing importance in our plural societies in
which we encounter so many stories and contexts.
Re-Markings
engenders cross-cultural dialogue that promotes mutual understanding.
This value of the Fulbright exchange program remains relevant since its
inception in India in 1950. Inviting colleagues to seriously engage
with academic policy debate, Dr. Ghosh often writes Re-Markings’
editorials that situate the volume within the context of timely
institutional issues. These include the interpretation of academic
freedom and the need for inclusion in curriculum of the many voices of
vibrant democratic participation. The journal thus celebrates not only
literary analysis and creative writing, but also the challenges of
teaching about literature and the values it conveys.
There is something delightfully fresh about Re-Markings.
After I read my issue, I always have the urge to write. I send my
sincere hope and best wishes for a long life of the journal!
- Jane Schukoske,
former faculty, University of Baltimore School of Law, served as
Executive Director of U.S. Educational Foundation in India, New
Delhi. She currently is CEO of S.M. Sehgal Foundation, Gurgaon,
Haryana.
Nibir K. Ghosh at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, America's National Cultural Center, at Washington, DC, with participants from all over the world at the International Fulbrighters conference
Cultural Blueprints and Better Architecture for Living
E. Ethelbert Miller
Many
years ago I wrote about the importance of a common language holding
people together. The heart does not need to pursue translation - it
only needs to love. There are no borders or boundaries when a poem is
read. I think what Nibir Ghosh has done with the journal Re-Markings over
the years is the equivalent of providing us with cultural blueprints.
Any discussion of literature should remind us that we are human and
have the capacity to do good in the world. I was happy to contribute a
few words about the novelist Chinua Achebe in a recent issue of Re-Markings. It was Achebe who taught us that "all the stories are true." The work Nibir has been doing with Re-Markings
over the years explores this idea. Literary criticism serves as an
overcoat protecting one from the rain of ignorance. Magazines build
community. India has always been at the center of world culture. In Re-Markings east
once again meets west. The result is not just intellectual cultural
exchange but the establishment of a better architecture for living.
- E. Ethelbert Miller
is Board Chair of the Institute for Policy Studies (a progressive
think tank in Washington, D.C.) and the director of the African
American Resource Center, Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
-
v
Creating Literary Camaraderie
Anisur Rehman
The act of bringing out a journal is not a random act if one knows what one wishes to do and how. When Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh initiated his project he knew as much. His editorial in the first issue of Re-Markings
(Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2002) spelt out his aim in unambiguous terms:
“The avowed purpose of the present endeavour is to create a climate of
opinion congenial to critical inquiry and intellectual debate.” I
understand Dr. Ghosh made his choice with good discretion and with
better reason in order to achieve the best that he could.
In
India, academic journals have had their short and long lives and have
served short-term and long-term purposes, but none has stood the test
of years like Re-Markings, and none has survived the trials of
editorship like Dr. Ghosh. Over a decade, this journal has emerged as a
forum for socio-literary exchanges.
Re-Markings is now a formidable mehfil of
writers, critics, commentators, reviewers, and readers—all brought
together in the true spirit of companionship. During all these years, I
have seen the scholars growing with the growth of this journal and I
have seen them making way for the new ones to join. As I have watched
this, I have also wondered if there was something special that kept them
together. I did not have to strive hard for an answer; it lay in their
striving to grow with each other to create what I should like to call a
literary camaraderie deserving certain respect. While Re-Markings
gave them a platform, they found their mooring and all of them,
together, made a cumulative impact in the domains of literature,
society, art, and culture that every generation, and every age, strives
to build in its own inimitable way.
My association with Re-Markings
has two facets: academic and personal. I made my tiny contributions
now and then but when I look back while writing these lines I realise
how little have I really delivered between then and now. I wish I could
do more.
- Dr. Anisur Rahman is Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
v
Hope of Redemption
Jitendra Narayan Patnaik
Unlike
scores of Indian literary journals which are regularly irregular in
terms of the periodicity of publication or which die down after a few
issues or turn into business houses that facilitate smooth passage
through the corridors of Ph.D industry, Re-Markings comes out
without fail in March and September every year, is marching gloriously
into its silver jubilee number and is ruthlessly scrupulous about the
quality of articles selected for publication. Kudos to Nibir and his
team for making all this possible. Journals like Re-Markings do
offer some hope of redemption from the depressingly poor quality of
research and teaching in most of the institutions of higher education
in India.
- Dr. Jitendra Narayan Patnaik is UGC Emeritus Fellow, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack (Orissa).
