RE-MARKINGS 50TH CELEBRATORY NUMBER
September 2024
While each new milestone is indicative of landmarks on the journey we undertake, it also provides us an opportunity to remember with gratitude all those who made the journey memorable.
I am delighted to GREET, WELCOME and CONGRATULATE all our fellow-travellers to this 50th issue of Re-Markings in a span of 23 years of the publication. The invaluable contributions of Celebrity writers, noted academics, avid researchers and our worthy readers - hailing from different parts of the world - have been a constant source of strength and encouragement. Thank you one and all.
Am sharing with pleasure the cover of the forthcoming September 2024 issue, exquisitely designed by Sandeep K. Arora. The complete issue can soon be accessed on the journal website www.re-markings.com
Happy reading, friends!
EDITORIAL
Since the dawn of civilization,
the toughest challenge before mankind has been to proclaim with certainty the
existence of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent entity
called God. Writers, poets, saints and philosophers have deliberated upon the
above subject since time immemorial to formulate, in their own way, the form,
shape and function of the creator, preserver and destroyer entrusted with the
responsibility of ensuring that all is well on earth. John Milton states in the
Invocation to the Heavenly Muse in Paradise Lost that his purpose in creating the
immortal epic is to “assert eternal providence and justify the ways of God to
men.” Milton’s resolve brings to the fore the eternal dilemma related to questions
of good, evil, faith, justice, truth, and free will that have engaged the human
consciousness in individual as collective capacities.
In keeping with the epic
tradition of Homer and Virgil, Milton does follow the structural requirements
of the genre but in terms of the subject chosen Paradise Lost is
decidedly unique. Milton’s epic goes beyond Hippolyte Taine’s concept of
literature being centred around “race, milieu, and moment” to embrace what is
universal and eternal in time and space. The conflict here is not between heroes
battling for kingdoms and empires but between Satan, the manifestation of Evil
in multifarious shapes and forms, and God, the embodiment of truth, justice,
compassion, mercy and love. It may seem ironical that Satan’s portrait, painted
with exquisite touches of artistic perfection, at times overshadows the
invisible power and splendour of God. Satan’s qualities of leadership marked by
his carefully worked out speeches to uplift the spirit of his fallen army, his guile
in devising strategies to perpetuate evil, his steadfastness in hating God,
whom he considers his sworn enemy, and his courage “never to submit or yield”
creates a doubt in the minds of readers whether Milton had intended to make an
incarnation of evil the hero of Paradise Lost.
On the plane of ground reality, it
is customary to celebrate the symbolic triumph of good over evil by destroying
mythological effigies amid religious festivities. I call it symbolic because we
seem to have become used to seeing the regular conquest of the power of good by
that of evil in our day-to-day experience of life and events around us. When submerged
in despair by the corrupted currents of the world, we cannot help doubting the
existence of a supremely divine authority sitting in judgement to punish the
evil and reward the good. When Satan himself acknowledges the power of God
while lying in torment in the ever- burning fire of Hell, he knows the futility
of a one-to-one combat with divinity. Yet, as wisdom prevails upon him, he
refuses to beg for mercy and decides to use his foresight and intelligence to
fight a war by proxy against God’s creation. Consequently, Satan appears in the
Garden of Eden disguised as a serpent and tempts Eve, with charming flattery,
to eat the ‘forbidden’ fruit. Eve succumbs to the temptation little realizing
that she would be transgressing the Will of the Creator in the process.
When we witness the unholy and
extremely powerful nexus between Lord Mammon and Lord Mafia succeeding in their
nefarious designs, we have little choice but to patiently bear what Hamlet
calls “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” in a spirit of helpless
resignation. Be it an event of global import like the Russian invasion of
Ukraine or ‘insignificant’ incidents like inebriated teenagers crushing, with
their super-luxury vehicles, youngsters in the prime of their life and career
or scores of ‘devotees’ dying in a stampede while seeking blessings of some
self-proclaimed divinity, we have to believe that the ‘serpents’, with all the
instruments of evil at their command, will continue to assert their power and
affluence in dominating societies and nations.
What offers a ray of hope in
such gloom is Milton’s conviction that God prefers as His abode “Before all
Temples th' upright heart and pure,” a view that resonates the idea put forth
by Kabir, the Sufi saint, in one of his verses: “O Servant, where dost thou
seek Me?/ Lo! I am beside thee./ I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am
neither in/ Kaaba nor in Kailash/: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in
Yoga and renunciation/ If thou art a true seeker, thou shall at once see Me.” (I.I 13, One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Tr.
Rabindranath Tagore)
Thus, all we need to do is look
within. God is and will remain invisible unless the good lying dormant in us
comes out and compels us to stand with the good and the just without fear of
any backlash whatsoever. Evil has a ready nexus because it offers lucrative
packages of immediate encashment value whereas the good offers nothing
lucrative in material terms. Yet, when even a rare event shows good and justice
triumphant it jolts us out of our amnesia and we momentarily begin to ponder
over our own stand and values in life. Unfortu-nately, when the moment passes by,
we return to the imperatives of our day-to-day existence and find comfort in
indifference to the suffering of others.
Before concluding, I deem it a
privilege and honour to greet and congratulate one and all with this
celebratory 50th edition of Re-Markings that marks the completion of
23 years of our publication. This unique volume showcases the journal’s
commitment to address issues like race, caste, class, colour, gender, religion,
language, democracy and dictatorship. It is heartening to see in these valuable
offerings how celebrity writers, academic luminaries, noted historians,
activists and scholars affirm that the struggle against the forces of evil must
continue no matter how small the gain. Rather than indulge in shadow-boxing
with adversities and calamities, it is worthwhile to be seriously involved in exploring
ways and means to enhance the tribe of the ‘good and the righteous’ so as to
reduce the predominance of evil and, thereby, make the world better.
Nibir K. Ghosh
Chief
Editor
CONTENTS
Honoring the Form – Charles
Johnson
/ 7
Viewpoints from California – Jonah Raskin
Richard Wright and the Haiku Blues – Ethelbert Miller / 21
Conversation with Renowned Visual Historian and Filmmaker Ken Burns on His Our America: A Photographic History - Robin Lindley / 25
The Delinquent Devotee: Jejuri’s Mock-Mystical Turns - K. Narayana Chandran / 36
Why Dalit Literature Matters – Shanker Ashish Dutt / 51
The Clash of Civilizations and Problematic Interpretations - Abdul Shaban / 65
The City of Light, Dust and Ashes – Rajesh Sharma / 71
Language Endangerment: Threats, Challenges and Solutions - Prasannanshu / 77
Why Do We Write? – Deena Padayachee / 88
Nibir K. Ghosh / 91
Tread Softly Stranger: The Glass Menagerie – An Analysis - Shernavaz Buhariwala / 101
Role of Local Languages in the Spread of Indian Spiritual Wisdom - Bhavesh Chandra Pandey / 108
Understanding the Silencing of Nature: An Ecocritical Reading of Literature – R. P. Singh / 112
Transformation of 'Gypsy Archetype' through Children's Literature: Rumer Godden's The Diddakoi - Anchal Meena & Smita Jha / 118
Tao’s (Dis)Possessed Utopias: A Study of Metaphors and Symbolic Allegory in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed - Brahamjeet Singh / 126
Intersection of Memory, History and Culture in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Novel By the Sea -Khushnaaz Mansoori / 133
Poetry
Tanjong Katong – Cyril Wong / 144
Review Essay
Between
Art and Resistance: Poetry, Translation and Reading -
D. J. Singh / 150
Book Review
Krupa
Sindhu Nayak’s Going Beyond – S. P. Swain / 156
Mapping the Mind, Minding the Map. Ed. Basudhara Roy and
Jaydeep Sarangi – Navleen Multani / 158
