E-LAUNCH RE-MARKINGS' 20th Anniversary Volume March 2021: A Day to Remember

 E-LAUNCH RE-MARKINGS' 20th Anniversary Volume March 2021: A Day to Remember

RE-MARKINGS and 18^th March: A Date with History

Nibir K. Ghosh

"Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future/ And time future contained in time past.” – T. S. Eliot

March 18, 1944 is one of the most historic day of India's independence struggle. On this day, Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose entered India crossing Burma border. It was a prelude to the INA’s victory against the British forces at Moirang. It was at Moirang that the flag of the Indian National Army was first unfurled on April 14, 1944. The INA Memorial Moirang reminds us of the noble sacrifices made by the INA soldiers under the charismatic leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

This day is no less historic for Re-Markings. It was on 18 March 2017 at Agra that our special number entitled Bose: The Immortal Legend of India’s Freedom, published in January 2017, was launched at Agra at a grand event in the majestic presence of Prof. Sugata Bose and numerous Bose scholars from various parts of India.

It is a happy coincidence that on this auspicious day we are all together to celebrate the 20^th Birth Anniversary of Re-Markings in the presence of historical figures like Prof. Sugata Bose, eminent Harvard University Historian, Chairperson NRB, Kolkata, former M.P. Lok Sabha, grand-nephew of Netaji, and the guiding light to Re-Markings. We truly miss the gracious presence this evening of Mrs. Zeenat Ahmed, wife and long-term companion to Col Mahboob Ahmed, Military Secretary to Netaji who is unable to be with us on account of mild ailment. Ahmed madam has enriched our special Bose number with her interview conducted by Tara Sami Dutt and Zara Urouj. We, my wife and I, had the pleasure of meeting her at Patna a few years ago.

No less historic is the presence of Mrs. Anita Auden Money, an educator and writer based in London. She is the maternal grand-daughter of Shri W. C. Bonnerjee, the first President of Indian National Congress. With great affection I announce the presence of Prof. Jonah Raskin from Santa Rosa, California who visited us in Agra a fortnight after we launched the Bose special number. On going through the volume, he instantly became a big fan of Netaji. Also with us is the video presence of Dr. Tijan M. Sallah, the leading poet of the Gambia and former World Bank executive.

On the cover of our 20^th anniversary number that is due for formal launch today we have an endorsement by the US National Book Award winner, Charles Johnson, that says “Re-Markings is India’s finest literary ambassador to the world.” In our midst today, I am proud to share the presence of many ambassadors of Re-Markings who are distinguished academics, critics, writers and poets and who have played a significant role in Re-Markings’ grand march to the 20-year milestone. Equally noteworthy is the presence of members of the Re-Markings’ great fraternity of readers and contributors bound by ties of brotherhood and friendship.

On behalf of the Editorial and Advisory board, it is my privilege and honour to welcome you all with feelings of love and gratitude to this momentous event.

Thank You.

Re-Markings 20^th Anniversary Special Number (44th Edition)

18th March 2021

E-Launch Address

Shanker A. Dutt

Launched in March 2002, Re-Markings has completed twenty enriching years of publication with its 20^th anniversary special number in March 2021, and today, we have gathered in times of masks, hand-washes and physical distancing in a digitally invented world to celebrate this significant milestone.

A number of literary and cultural journals have, over the years, provided space for the publication of scholarship in India. However, many of these have often struggled against the vagaries of quality, trying to find an appropriate balance between the excellence of established names and the need to create space for young researchers. Other qualities appreciated in a good literary journal are the value of the editorials, its ethical responsibility and the punctuality of its publication. These are three areas where Re-Markings has scripted its success.

Re-Markings is an international refereed biannual journal of English Studies that aims at providing a healthy forum for scholarly interpretations of multiple cultural texts as evidenced in literature, art, television, cinema and journalism with substantial focus on Contemporary Studies in English including translations and creativity. Its Chief Editor, Professor Nibir K. Ghosh, wrote rather poetically in the 10^th issue:

‘It is perhaps a happy coincidence that Re-Markings, like the equinoxes, appears in March and September each year. The vernal and the autumnal equinoxes set the globe in perfect gravitational balance and become the harbingers of the Spring of life and the fruits of its Autumn. I am optimistic that Re-Markings will continue to offer, through a clockwork precision of the biannual event, the hope and cheer that one finds in the songs of Spring and the music of Autumn’.

It is with this exacting precision of nature’s laws that one has to expect the arrival of Re-Markings and I cannot recollect an occasion to be disappointed. I stopped believing in magic almost 6 decades ago but when India Post delivered my 20th Anniversary special number in February, I entered my second childhood to re-discover magic. In my mind I re-wrote Shelley's wind inspired lines: 'If winter comes, can Re-Markings be far behind'?

Re-Markings has provided space for discussion and interrogation of cultural productions in English and brought together a band of critics and commentators from different parts of the world on a truly globalised forum for expression and exchange. If the journal enjoys the distinction of publishing contributions of celebrity writers and distinguished academics, scholars and researchers from over 80 countries of the world including Nobel, Pulitzer, U.S. National Book Award, Padmashree, Sahitya Akademi and other award winners, it is no less significant that it has given ample encouragement to newcomers and young scholars by introducing their work to the academic fraternity in the country and all over the globe.

While each issue of the journal provides a diverse range and variety of intellectual resources to its enlightened readers, special sections on V. S. Naipaul (March 2002), Communalism (September 2002), Racism (March 2003), John Steinbeck (September 2003), David Ray (March 2004), W.H. Auden (March 2007), and Doris Lessing (March 2008) have attracted considerable attention from academics and researchers worldwide.

Special numbers on Langston Hughes (January 2014), Bose: The Immortal Legend of India’s Freedom (January 2017), A World Assembly of Poets: Contemporary Poems (November 2017) and India: Diversities and Convergences (May 2018) have decisively enriched the Re-Markings’ treasure trove.

Re-Markings has a distinguished list of advisors: Dr. Charles Johnson, Professor Sugata Bose, Professor Morris Dickstein, Jayanta Mahapatra, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Shah, Prof. Jonah Raskin and Prof. Amritjit Singh.  These luminaries have enriched the journal with their regular contributions. The editorial collaborators along with Professor Ghosh, Dr. A. Karunaker, Dr Sunita Rani Ghosh and Sandeep Arora ensure production-quality and punctuality. These eminent personages contribute to the authenticity of the journal’s distinction and encourage qualities of scholarship, good writing and some remarkable creativity that one has come to associate with Re-Markings. Its outreach has been enhanced through its web version, created and aesthetically designed by Sandeep Arora, that provides convenient access to readers and scholars across the globe.

In his 2002 editorial  Dr Ghosh wrote, “What is, therefore, needed is an effective forum which can function as a repository for a coherent system of thoughts and ideas. I strongly believe that in addressing specific issues and concerns central to the human predicament, Re-Markings will play a seminal role,’ and in continuation with that idea he further writes:

‘a good work of art invariably leaves its indelible markings on the shifting pages of time. It may or may not offer solutions to the problems that beset mankind but its sublimity lies in the way it contributes not only to the profound understanding of the age in which we live but also in making us aware of our private fears and insecurities, our joys and hopes’.

And, indeed, the prophecies of twenty years ago have manifested over time in meaningful dialogue with texts. Umberto Eco spoke of written texts as being machines to generate interpretations. Readers from different cultural contexts and personal backgrounds engage with texts in different internal dialogues revealing multiple meanings. The author thus is relegated to being a controlling devise as readers vie for space to interpret and explain. It is this valued space that Re-Markings provides. The canvass of Re-Markings is varied and vast, comprising articles on canonical and marginal representations of human experience. In the editorial of twentieth anniversary edition Professor Ghosh writes, 'In these times of crisis, upheavals and cataclysmic changes we must accept the fact that the personal and the political are inextricably intertwined and that no policy of isolation is possible. As responsible citizens of the world, it is incumbent upon us to rise above our own limited interests and objectives and become empathetic to the oppression, poverty, discrimination, trauma, violence, bigotry, pain and suffering that we witness all around us.'

He quotes T. S. Eliot as an instrumental testament to Re-Markings, 'to do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life'.

It assumes special significance in an age of considerable bitterness and despair, when the world seems to be ideologically partitioned, when development and progress have many, often contradictory definitions and core human needs are subservient to lifestyle choices, it compels us to engage with literature and the kindred arts in search of understanding.

Some years ago, commenting on Re-Markings, I had written to Prof. Nibir Ghosh: ‘it must be a daunting task to publish a journal with the editorial responsibility of sorting out variable quality and the publisher's jugglery to balance finance and production. I really liked the honesty with which you have written the editorial in the March 2006 edition of Re-Markings. Often we do not problematise, question or challenge received knowledge  because we are daunted by the reputations and the linguistic magic of what we read. You have taken the lid off manufactured mysteries in a short but telling editorial. Many congratulations for the excellent work you are doing’. Today, as the twenty- year milestone is crossed, it is a pleasure to reiterate what I had written and state that Re-Markings is getting better with each passing equinox.

I wish to conclude with a sample of the Salman Rushdie magic in his Commencement Address for Bard College, New York:

'For in the years to come, you will find yourselves up against gods of all sorts, big and little gods, corporeal and incorporeal gods, all of them demanding to be worshipped and obeyed - the myriad deities of money and power, of convention and custom that will seek to limit and control your thoughts and lives. defy them; that is my advice to you. Thumb your noses; cock your snooks. For as the myths tell us, it is by defying the gods that human beings have best expressed their humanity.'

I am optimistic that Re-Markings will continue to express the best of humanity.

                                                                                                             

20^th Anniversary Celebratory Number of Re-Markings

Anita Auden Money

I am very glad to be taking part in this Zoom meeting to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary Number of Re-Markings and appreciate its international range and particularly the balanced approach of Nibir Ghosh.  His essays in Mirror from the Indus, provide an antidote to what appears currently to be a very immature trend in reaction to Colonialism, Race and Gender that is creating a false reality that divides rather than unites people in a period of turmoil where COVID reminds us of our universal kinship in susceptibility to a virus.  

His essay on Tagore points out how much Tagore disliked a narrow Nationalism and, I quote, “strove to remain far above the narrow confines of the nation-state debate that seems to flourish in the academia today. If he desired to share India’s message of cultural synthesis with the rest of the world, he also ascertained the need for India to incorporate others’ messages into her own cultural repertoire.”  The essay on Kipling also offers a fuller understanding of Kipling’s views on the East and West which are really best understood in relation to individuals rather than to races and this is a key to the question of prejudice.

I was introduced to Nibir Ghosh and Re-Markings by a friend of mine - Shanta Acharya, a poet, writer and more unusually an investor, and was delighted that Nibir appreciated and admired my uncle W. H. Auden.  As I am half Indian (my mother Sheila Bonnerjee was Bengali, and my father John Auden, Wystan’s brother, worked for the Geological Survey of India), I wanted to feel that India could understand Wystan. Nibir’s book W.H Auden: Therapeutic Fountain published in 2010 does indeed illustrate a genuine sympathy and understanding and the Re-Markings Commemorative Issue that was published in 2007 to celebrate Wystan’s birth Centenary also showed a wide appreciation. 

As many of you are aware,  Wystan has been subject to  a good deal of criticism of his later work both here in the UK and in America, some of it justified  as no writer or poet develops without making mistakes, but showing a great lack of understanding of what he was trying to achieve. 

In A Certain World, Wystan’s commonplace book which gives a very good picture of what interested and inspired him, he says in the section ‘Writing’: “What the poet has to convey is not ‘self-expression’ but a view of reality common to all, seen from a unique perspective, which it is his duty as well as his pleasure to share with others. To small truths as well as great, St. Augustine’s words apply:  The truth is neither mine nor his nor another’s; but belongs to us all whom thou callest to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account it private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it.”  

As to how he was going to apply this to poetry he writes elsewhere: “The ideal at which I aim is a style which shall combine the drab sober truthfulness of prose with a poetic uniqueness of expression.”  He did not find this easy and in a letter to a friend, speaking about ‘Thanksgiving for a Habitat’ he comments: “To keep the diction and prosody within a hairsbreadth of being prose without becoming it is a task I find very difficult” 

Auden is lucky to have Edward Mendelson as his Literary Executor who has also written so wisely about him, John Fuller, poet and academic, who wrote the Commentary and introduced his work to a number of his students at Oxford. There are also a variety of poets and writers whose appreciation of the later work matters – to name  a few  and apologies to those not mentioned  –  Peter Porter,  Hongbin Liu (the Chinese poet who has been published in Re-Markings in The World Assembly of Poets), Grey Gowrie, Glyn Maxwell (whose understanding of Auden was influenced by Derek Walcott), Lachlan Mackinnon, Hamish Robinson who gave an excellent talk at The National Theatre in relation to Alan Bennet’s ‘Habit of Art’ pointing out that  Auden’s poetry was ‘in the profoundest sense liberal, a poetry released from poetic theologies and free to draw its sustenance from all sorts of profane sources,’ and Alexander McCall Smith whose ‘What W. H. Auden Can Do For You’, is a personal appreciation. It is good also to read Thekla Clarks ‘Wystan and Chester’, and Humphrey Carpenter and Richard Davenport-Hines’ biographies.

Wystan in a letter to my father written in 1941 said: “Every ohm of private happiness and decency is, I am convinced, a political asset to the world.” This belief in the individual as unique and the need for individuals to take responsibility is a key to understanding Wystan’s deep concern for humanity.

In his address in 1951 to the “Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom” Wystan  reminds that there are two parallel realities - Nature and History:

The natural material world, the physical world, the world of mass, of number, not of language. A world in which freedom is indeed consciousness of necessities, a world in which justice means equality before the law of physics, chemistry, physiology. 

The historical community of persons, the world of faces, the world of language where necessity is the consciousness of freedom and justice is the command to love my neighbour as myself, that is to say, as a unique, irreplaceable being. 

Unreality comes when either world is treated as if it were the other one. I think this is part of the problem now.

 

Bringing the World Together: 20^th Anniversary Milestone

 

Tijan M. Sallah

 

2020 was a sad year—so much lives perished, got harvested by the grim reaper. Mainstream and social media bristled with news about the Corona Virus. COVID, COVID everywhere—grim headlines assaulted us—breakfast, lunch, dinner.  Uncertainty and fear went viral.  It is truly a malignant year, perhaps best described as Annus Horribilis.  

But all is not gloom and doom.  As we get diminished by the somber news and the countless funerals globally, there are anniversaries to celebrate: the discovery of efficacious and hopefully safe vaccines— Pfizer’s and Moderna’s and Astra Zeneca’s, as well as promising new therapies.  Beyond that are also the continued bright signs of the joys of life: the musical, the visual and the literary arts. The world has witnessed major trials this year, but it is not about to end. The sun is still rising. Just look out in the morning.

In this spirit of optimism, I am excited about the twentieth anniversary of Re-Markings, a literary and cultural publication that brings the world together through creative and critical oeuvres that celebrate the cultivation of humane impulses and the triumph of the human spirit. The world has in the past few years been usurped by authoritarian and nativist leaders across the globe preaching a vile nationalism. They want to erect walls rather than build bridges. They want to imprison rather than unleash the human spirit. They simplify complex problems and pit the innocent against each other. They deny science, including climate science—and withdraw to crude atavism.  I am reassured by platforms like Re-Markings where dialogue triumphs over tone-deafness, where our common humanity is celebrated over the hereditary differences of tribe, belief or geography. Twenty years might be youth for a human life but a significant, non-trivial milestone for a literary publication.

 The INA, Netaji Subhas Chnadra Bose, Abid Hassan & E-LAUNCH of 20^th Anniversary Re-Markings’ Volume

Address by Chief Guest

Sugata Bose

I thank you very much Prof. Nibir Ghosh. First of all, may I congratulate Professor Ghosh and everyone associated with Re-Markings on the publication of this wonderful 20th anniversary celebratory number. It was very good to hear Jonah Raskin and Anita Auden Money. It is so wonderful that Re-Markings has had special issues on Doris Lessing and W. H. Auden. No historian of the 20th century can afford to not cite W. H. Auden. He has a brilliant poem on every major historical event to have occurred in the last century including, of course, on partition which Ayesha Jalal and I quote in full in our book Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy.

The 18^th of March is of course a red-letter day in South Asian history. On march 18^th 1944, the Indian National Army moved into North-eastern India towards Imphal and Kohima. With "Chalo Delhi" on their lips, the Azad Hind Fauj crossed the Indo-Burma frontier and carried the armed struggle for liberation onto the Indian soil. They marched singing their battle song "kadam kadam badhaye ja." Step by step they would advance until the Indian flag fluttered over the red fort of Delhi. On that historic occasion, Netaji issued a lyrical order of the day in which he dwelt on the theme of sacrificial patriotism:

“There, there in the distance-beyond that river, beyond those jungles, beyond those hills lies the promised land—the soil from which we sprang—the land to which we shall now return. Hark! India is calling! India’s metropolis Delhi is calling! three hundred and eighty-eight million of our countrymen are calling. Blood is calling to blood. Get up, we have no time to lose. Take up your arms. There, in front of you, is the road that our pioneers have built. We shall march along that road. We shall carve our way through the enemy's ranks or if God wills, we shall die a martyr's death. And in our last sleep we shall kiss the road that will bring our Army to Delhi. The road to Delhi is the road to Freedom. Chalo Delhi."

The INA soldiers were ecstatic to be on Indian soil, and journalists reported scenes of jubilation and camaraderie as they closed in on Imphal and Kohima.

My father Dr. Sisir Kumar Bose invited Abid Hassan, a very close aide of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, to deliver the Netaji oration in Calcutta 51 years ago, on January 23^rd 1970. That morning Abid Hassan delivered his beautifully crafted and deeply moving Netaji oration titled “The Men from Imphal.” He had chosen to foreground in his oration the harrowing retreat of the brave soldiers of freedom after their march to Delhi had been halted at Imphal. In one brilliant paragraph, he portrayed the character of the army of liberation to which he belonged:

"What a group we were and ours was but a unit among many of its kind in our army. I felt proud and I feel more proud today that I belong to it. Baluchis were there among us and Assamese, Kashmiris and Malyalis, Pathans and Sikhs and Gujaratis. Proud members of classes called the Martials and those still then denied reputation for martial valor but who proved in battle that they could, by their deeds, claim equal honour. Every region in india was represented. Every religion and every caste mixed inseparably together, not only in bigger formations but even in small platoons and sections. Each unit being a living tribute to the unity of India. We had our different private faiths and we had our different languages but, in our purpose, and in our political belief, we were a well-knit, determined and indivisible whole.”

Once they reached Mandalay, Netaji came to meet them. The Sikhs oiled their beards; the Punjabi Muslims, the Dogras and Rajputs twirled their moustaches. We the indiscriminate, Abid Hassan said, “put on as good a face as we could manage." As Netaji spoke to them, their weariness seemed to depart and they felt refreshing new blood circulating in their veins. Abid Hassan understood the essence of his leadership: "he was all we had as our leader to whom each one of us however humble meant something and who to us all meant everything. He belonged to us, to us all of the Azad Hind movement and entirely without any compromise." Abid Hassan then flashed back to October 1943 to illustrate the meaning of “without any compromise” by telling the story of Netaji's visit to the Chateau temple in Singapore. He had turned away the Head Priest saying, "What, come to your temple where even Hindus of other castes are not permitted entry, not to speak of members of other communities who are equally near and dear to me?" He agreed to go when the High Priest returned with an invitation to an Indian national demonstration. When we came to the temple, Abid Hassan remembered, "I found it filled to capacity with the uniforms of the INA officers and men and the black caps of South Indian Muslims glaringly evident. The memory I retain is one of an invigorating music as that of a symphony dedicated to the unity of the motherland. That music sustained him during his travails on the battlefield."

Abid Hassan returned to us and stayed at our home in 1976 and we interviewed him over three days. On the basis of that interview, my mother wrote a long-form article “The Memory of a Soldier.” Krishna Bose's diary which I was reading the other day, contains an important entry on March 14 1976, regarding the tape recording session that day. Abid Hassan says, she notes on 17^th August 1945 in Saigon, he would have accompanied Netaji and Netaji himself wished so but because of military protocol, Colon Habibur Rahman was asked to go. He was senior anyway, all of them were to follow him shortly so they did not realize that it would become a matter of such importance at the moment.

Jonah Raskin mentioned Ravi Shankar so I should tell you that during this period of the interview on March 15 1976, Pandit Ravi Shankar came to see the Netaji Museum, Netaji Research Bureau, from where I am speaking today and we showed him around. On January 23^rd of that year, he had presented a wonderful birthday concert for Netaji performing the ragas Shayamkalyan Charukeshi and Machhkhambhak on the occasion of the second International Netaji Seminar that year. The first one had been organized by my father in 1973. Since this is the 20^th anniversary of a journal, I thought I’d read to you a letter that Abid Hassan wrote to my father about the Netaji Research Bureau's new journal The Oracle in 1979: "My dear Sisir, thanks ever so much for sending me a copy of The Oracle. You have brought it out very well indeed, much better than I expected. But then you are always so thorough and painstaking attending to all my minute details, just like your uncle and it is the drudgery of attending to details that pays dividends in the end. I know so many people envy you when success is achieved but, of course, they are not there to help you with a hand at the wheel pulling the cart out when it is stuck in the mire. How many years day in and day out have you been attending to the Netaji Seminar. It is, thanks mainly to your efforts, that it has now turned out to be a veritable scholarly research institute." I know that not only Nibir Ghosh but also the team around him, attend to the details and that is what makes Re-Markings such a wonderful journal.

51 years ago, Abid Hassan had, in his Netaji oration, referred to these frustrating times "when India again seems to be a house divided against itself." The times have turned even more ominous now and in human acts that Abid Hassan deplored, are becoming an everyday reality in today's India. His oration was, in Sisir Kumar Bose's words, a moving affirmation of the revolutionary faith given to us by our leader. Abid Hassan had closed his oration with a message of hope "the people of India will accept any leadership provided the call remains the same and the call cannot be but forget not that the grossest crime is to compromise with injustice and wrong."

I know Nibir had made a special request to me to end with a little bit of music. Now as he was about to proclaim the formation of the Azad Hind government, Netaji asked Abid Hassan to get the national anthem Jan Gan Man rendered in Hindustani, so that soldiers of the Azad Hind fauj could appreciate the meaning of Rabindranath Tagore's song. In Singapore Abid Hassan got the lyricist Mumtaz Hussein compose the Hindustani song in three verses, rather than five of the original. Ram Singh Taku wrote down a band score based on the original tune. Mumtaz Hussein did not attempt a translation but sought to capture the spirit of Tagore's song: "joyo hey" naturally became "jaya ho" long before A. R. Rahman made "Jai Ho" famous, the world over. The first verse that mentioned several place names bore a strong resemblance to the Bengali lyric. A comparison of the second verse evoking unity, which is not part of today's national anthem, gives a clear sense of the connection between the Bengali original and the Hindustani version.

Tagore had sung:

অহরহ তব আহ্বান প্রচারিত, শুনি তব উদার বাণী
হিন্দু বৌদ্ধ শিখ জৈন পারসিক মুসলমান খৃস্টানী
পূরব পশ্চিম আসে তব সিংহাসন-পাশে
প্রেমহার হয় গাঁথা।

The Azad Hind version went thus:

"सबके दिल में प्रीत बसाए
तेरी मीठी वाणी
हर सूबे रहने वाले
हर मज़हब के प्राणी
सब भेद और फ़र्क मिटा केसब गोद तेरी आ के
गूँथें प्रेम की माला"

So, I really do hope that Re-Markings will play a role in binding, not just all of the communities of India but all of the communities and peoples of the world with a garland of love, through their literary pursuits which has always been both politically engaged and ethically informed.

Thanksgiving

Sandeep K. Arora

Finding appropriate words is a difficult task when the heart is full of gratitude. The gracious presence of each one of you on this historic occasion has made the event a thing to remember for years to come. Thanksgiving can never be a formality when we are celebrating 20 glorious years of a journey marked by a sense of belonging and companionship.

On the cover of our 20^th anniversary number we have an endorsement by the US National Book Award winner, Charles Johnson, that says “Re-Markings is India’s finest literary ambassador to the world.” We attribute such accolade to the association of a vibrant community of writers, scholars, academics and avid readers who have given their very best to make Re-Markings an epitome of excellence invariably  committed to values and ideals.

The presence of Prof. Sugata Bose as the Chief Guest has been truly inspirational. His missionary zeal to “reclaim patriotism from the chauvinists, religion from the religious bigots, and politics from the corrupt” is in perfect sync with the Re-Markings mission statement. Prof. Jonah Raskin has always been an integral part of Re-Markings like its logo. It has become difficult to imagine any issue of the journal without his characteristic writings. Ms. Anita Auden’s presence in our midst will remain a fond remembrance for the Auden admirers in India. Dr. Tijan M. Sallah’s words echoed his unstinted love for Re-Markings. As always, Prof. Shanker A. Dutt feelingly shared his lucid narrative of friendship with our journal.

On behalf of Re-Markings I deem it an honour to thank one and all for sparing your valuable time to be with us today.

As one who has been intrinsically bound by ties of love to Re-Markings since its very inception in March 2002, I am optimistic that we all will continue to travel together to ever new destinations to do what is useful, to say what is courageous and contemplate what is beautiful in quest of a better world.

A special word of thanks go to Mr. Saurabh Agarwal for his technical assistance and guidance in conducting the event with much perfection.

 

 

 

 

                               Special Presence

Dr. Deena Padayachee, Dr. Abdul Shaban, Dr. Asim Siddiqui, Dr. Santosh Gupta, Dr. Mini Nanda, Dr. Muniba Sami, Mr. Debasish Chakrabarty, Mr. S.B. Chemburkar, Dr. Sunita Rani Ghosh, Mr. Adnan Ahmed, Mr. Imran Ahmed, Dr. Sukalpa Bhattacharya, Dr. Maya Vinai, Dr. Namita Sethi, Dr. Ajit Mukherjee, Dr. Gunjan Chaturvedi, Dr. Ranjana Mehrotra, Dr. Sudhir K. Arora, Dr. G.L. Gautam, Dr. Seema Sinha (BITS, Pilani), Dr. Tanya Mander, Dr. Charu Mathur, Saurabh Agarwal, Dr. Roopali Khanna, Raja Pandey, Anjali Bhadauria, Sharbani Roy Chowdhury, Dr. Stuti Prasad, Dr. Arati Biswal, Dr. Priti Verma, Dr. Namita Sethi, Insha Iftikhar, Dr. Pramila Chawla, Dr. Mukesh Vyas, Mr. Dheeraj Goyal, Dr. A Karunaker, Dr. Babita Kar, Dr. Suman Swati, Dr. Archana Prasad, Dr. Mandeep Mann, Dr. Rajan Lal, Dr. Shrikant Kulsrestha, Dr. Manju Rani, Mr. Anil Sharma, Dr. Ujjwala Thatte, Dr. Ashoo Toor,

  

            RE-MARKINGS Youtube Channel

Am sharing with immense pleasure the RE-MARKINGS Youtube channel so lovingly created and designed by our Executive Editor Sandeep K. Arora coinciding with the historic E-launch of Re-Markings’ 20th Anniversary issue on March 18, 2021. This provides us with new avenues for bringing together contributors, readers and admirers of Re-Markings from India and worldwide on yet another vibrant platform for discussion and dissemination of ideas central to human concern. 

Kindly share, like and subscribe to the channel and remain in touch with Re-Markings. 

https://youtu.be/03LnbHiRym8 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, the Indian Renaissance Man & Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning

 

Shaping Spaces for Multiple Equalities: Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, 

the Indian Renaissance Man

Shanker Ashish Dutt & Zaara Urouj

Biographical and historical studies have portrayed Ishwarchandra Bandopadhyay as a pre-eminent figure in the Bengal Renaissance. While the context of his education, professional life and socio-educational activism were located in Bengal, the latent inequalities that he challenged were pan-Indian. His passionate campaign for the Hindu Widow Remarriage despite belligerent opposition led to Lord Dalhousie finalising the bill that led to the legislation of the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act in 1856. Hence, he is being recast as an Indian Renaissance Man as his ideas and campaigns impacted the entire subcontinent, then a part of the Empire.

Vidyasagar’s pluralism melded the richness of the Indian knowledge system with the empiricism of the West and therefore he did not uncritically vilify English influences as was a common practice among the orthodox bhadraloks in 19^th Century Bengal. Enumerating the positive off-shores influences modified with irony that occasionally carried a considerable weight of social satire, he had stated at a social gathering: “On the whole, I feel that we have received three good things from the English. The literature of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Sir Walter Scott and others that we have got from them – do not under-estimate their value. Second gain – ice. In the searing heat of summer, put one piece of ice in a tumbler of water, and your relief is immense. And the third is sliced bread.... You laugh at what I say? But tell me, did we have anything comparable to sliced bread in our country before? Soak a slice of bread in a bowl of milk and have it, and you will be full, and you will also not fall ill. The third advantage cleverly satirises orthodoxy as bread was largely produced in bakeries run by Christians and Muslims and hence was a prohibited item in Hindu orthodox households. (Chaudhuri, The Telegraph Online 12^th July 2020)

Born in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family, where hierarchy was the social norm, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar built spaces for multiple equalities. With or without him, the Bengal Renaissance would have certainly taken place but his credibility lies in the fact that he dared to transform Hindu society from within and brought out remarkable changes in the thought process of the people not by denying the al-ready existing beliefs but by interpreting them in a new manner. Neither poverty nor the erroneous beliefs of Indian Shastras could stop him from becoming the man he was destined to be: a social reformer and an educationist of rare distinction. An epitome of egalitarian com-passion, modesty and simplicity, he was a man grounded to the earth but blessed with a mind that was open to the pursuit of truth and the stark social realities. At a very early stage in his life, he realised his responsibility towards society and he dedicated his entire life to uplift the disadvantaged communities and helped enable women’s agency at a time when patriarchy was deepening its roots.

Vidyasagar carried forward and indigenised the social and educational reforms begun by The Serampore Quartet comprising William Carey, Joshua Marshman, William Ward and Hannah Marshman who believed in ecumenical pragmatism (Daniel 171), an egalitarian vision and edu-cation as an instrument of equality and justice. They founded schools for the girls in order to impart western education to them (Chatterjee 121). These schools were the first of its kind in Calcutta and the efforts of the Serampore Quartet was instrumental in their development. William Carey prepared books like A Grammar of the Bengalee Language, Iitihaasmala, Kathopokothon, A Dictionary of Bengali Language and the translations of the Bible in Bengali and several other Indian vernaculars as a part of the curriculum. They adopted the Serampore system of native education, encouraging knowledge in history, science, geography and mathematics apart from the general 3 R’s i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic – a blend of the traditional and modern, giving special importance to orthography and grammar of Bengali and English languages.

Vidyasagar was influenced by the outlook and liberal thoughts of Ramkrishna Paramhansa (Ghosh 44). His personality was forged with utmost dedication to his education and later his profession, vast knowledge in eastern and western disciplines, devotion to his parents, morality, mercifulness, kindness, empathy, cooperation, unconservative attitude, a heart filled with regret to the then situation of women and a vision to give Indian educational system a modern perspective. He is well known for his educational and social reforms throughout the world paving the way for introducing the modern education system in India. His linguistic, educational and social activities, which he was committed to from his early life till his death, are remembered by Indians from that time to the present day.

In 1839, he graduated in law examination conducted by the Hindu Law Committee. His education at Sanskrit College saw him amassing considerable knowledge and mastery in a number of shastras or disciplines – kabya (poetry), alonkar (rhetoric), Vedanta (vedic litera-ture and anthology), smriti (philosophy of law), nyaya (logic, science and jurisprudence), and jyotish (astronomy) (Bani, Alam 15). The title of ‘Vidyasagar’, meaning the ‘ocean of knowledge’, was conferred upon him by Michael Madhusudhan Dutt, who later with great affection addressed him as Vid. It is said that he derived strength from the knowledge and used it as a powerful instrument to eradicate the evils prevailing in the society namely child marriage, gender discrimination and other social taboos.

Having worked in the Education Department and having observed the education system very closely, he decided on radical educational reforms. He favoured English and Bengali as mediums of learning alongside Sanskrit and wanted to offer students a wider range of subjects and thus broaden their horizons, to inculcate critical and lateral thinking in examining European and Indian knowledge and practices side by side so they could apply their own judgement in discovering the truth for themselves. He was influenced by Western thoughts and was indeed one of the modern thinkers of his time along with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen and others. In addition to his responsibilities as the Principal of Sanskrit College, he travelled around Bengal in the capacity of Inspector of Schools witnessing the pervading darkness, stark realities and superstitions in which people of Bengal lived in the absence of education. He realised that it is only Education that can help in liberation and emancipation of people from the prevailing injustices and inequalities in the society. He opened twenty schools in just 60 days followed by thirty schools exclusively for girls’ education. He also established a normal institution for making competent teachers for these schools. He opened thirty-five schools for girls between 1857 and 1858. The significance is under-pinned by the realisation of the Bengali educated class of “the importance of female education for bringing social reformation and reformers like Roy, Vidyasagar and Radha Kant Deb endorsed education for girls. This was generally linked to caste taboo and superstitions among the Bengalis about sending girls to school. But now the new orientation toward Western ideas and missionaries resulted in the development of native female schools.” (Dutta 32) One of his major contributions was the establishment of Calcutta Metropolitan Institution for higher education which is now known as “Vidyasagar College.” He also was directly involved in the establishment of “Calcutta Female School” with the help of Drinkwater Bethune in 1849. Now it is called “Bethune School.” He has also made his valuable contribution in education through his writings. He wrote many text books, translated books, biographical books and was a continuous writer contributing to different magazines.

He commenced the process of education with his first book of alphabet (Part I and Part II) called Barna Porichoy first published in 1855 which laid the foundation of Bengali prose. Vidyasagar was a source of inspiration for Bengali writers such as Tekchand Thakur, Pyarichand Mitra and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Indeed, Tagore revered him as 'the father of modern Bengali prose'. He also translated a number of Sanskrit works to Bengali and wrote biographical notes on numerous noteworthy personalities in the history of the world so the young generation could be inspired. His notable literary contributions include Banglaar Itihaas (1848), Jivancharita (1849), Shakuntala (1854), Mahabharata (1860), Seetar Vanavas (1860), Bhrantivilaas (1869), Oti Alpa Hoilo (1873), Aabaar Oti Alpa Hoilo (1873), Brajavilaas (1884) and Ratnopariksha (1886). (http:// bengalonline. sitemarvel.com/vidyasagar.html)

Though Vidyasagar was not financially very sound, he was philanthropic from his student life. He would feed the poor and needy and buy medicines for the sick from the money received through scholar-ships and even borrowed money from others for his altruism. He opened the doors of Sanskrit College to lower caste students that was previously exclusive to only the Brahmins; he nursed sick cholera patients, went to the crematorium to bury unclaimed dead bodies, dined with the untouchables and walked miles in darkness to take urgent messages to people who would benefit from them. This was the beginning of his life as a social reformer. He was deeply affected by the inequalities in the society such as polygamy, ban on widows from remarrying, child marriage, gender inequalities, keeping them away from the light of education and depriving them from property rights. When he tried to call for dialogue to discuss social matters, he was rebuked and his efforts were rejected in the name of dictates of Hindu Shastras. He received threats of physical violence and death from the orthodox and narrow-minded priests but he stood fearless and continued his work with determination and diligence. Conducting extensive research into Hindu scriptures and Puranas he tried to explain that there was nothing evil in a widow’s remarriage and polygamy which was in practice unacceptable as it was an evil. He published two separate volumes on remarriage of widows and another two volumes on polygamy citing from the scriptures and explaining the validity of his arguments (https://biographypoint.com). These include Bidhobabivah (whether widows should remarry) the first exposure (1855), Bidhobabivah – the Second Book (1855), Bahubivah – (whether polygamy should be banned) the first exposure (1871), Bahubivah – the Second Book (1873) and Balyabivah (flaws of child marriage). To prove that his compassion for widows was not empty rhetoric as some might have assumed, he married his own son off to a widow. He compiled a list of 'distinguished' polygamous Calcuttans and another for surrounding districts. It is an infernal statistic that a considerable number of men on those lists married up to 80 times, often under-age girls, and yet were unable to control their boundless thirst for lust. (http://www.deshforum.com/showthread.php?tid=949)

In earlier times, widow remarriages would occur sporadically only among progressive members of the Brahmo Samāj. The prevalent custom of Kulin Brahmin polygamy allowed elderly men – sometimes on their deathbeds – to marry teenage or even prepubescent girls, supposedly to spare their parents the shame of having an unmarried girl attain puberty in their homes. After such marriages, these girls would usually be left behind in their parental homes, where they might be cruelly subjected to orthodox rituals, especially if they were sub-sequently widowed. These included a semi starvation diet, rigid and dangerous daily rituals of purity and cleanliness, hard domestic labour, and close restriction on their freedom to leave the house or be seen by strangers. These hapless widows were prohibited (as spiritual sanc-tion) to abstain from consuming meat, fish, onion and garlic. Every day, they had to rise before dawn to conduct their diurnal religious rituals, bathe in icy cold water and wrap a clean white sari around their wet bodies without drying themselves, and pick fresh flowers with dew-drops, to offer prayers to the Gods. By custom, they were the last ones to eat in the household, or went without food observing various religious fasts. They had to dress in plain white cotton saris and re-main with their heads tonsured for the rest of their lives to render them unattractive to other men. (http://swpust2015.blogspot.com/2016/06/ ishwar-chandra-vidyasagar-as-social.html) Some widows would even be evicted from their homes or sent to religious places like Varanasi or Vrindavan, supposedly to pray and purify themselves, but in reality, they frequently ended up as prostitutes, rape victims and unsupported mothers. Unable to tolerate the ill treatment, many of these girls would run away and turn to prostitution to support themselves. Ironically, the economic prosperity and lavish lifestyles of the city made it possible for many of them to have quite successful careers once they had stepped out of the sanction of society and into the demimonde. In 1853, it was estimated that Calcutta had a population of 12,718 prostitutes. (http://www.deshforum.com/showthread.php?tid=949)

Vidyasagar took the initiative in proposing and pushing through the Widow Remarriage Act XV of 1856. He fought with the conservative society in the 19th century and influenced the Government to enact the Widow Remarriage Act which was legalized on 26^th July, 1856. He also established the Hindu Family Annuity Fund to help widows who could not remarry; he took the initiative to finance many such widow re-marriage weddings, often getting into debts himself. To stop poly-gamy among the Kulin Brahmins and child marriage, the Civil Marriage Act was passed in 1872. His contribution in the uplift of the women by eradicating blind superstitions and tortures in the name of rituals will be always in the heart of the women. (Ghosh 46)

Vidyasagar was one of the earliest in India to realize that modern science was the key to India's future. He translated into Bengali the English biographies of some outstanding scientists such as Copernicus, Newton, and Herschel and sought to inculcate a spirit of scientific inquiry into young Bengalis. A staunch anti-Berkeleyan, he emphasized the importance of studying European Empiricist philo-sophy (of Francis Bacon) and the inductive logic of John Stuart Mill. He said, “Education does not only mean learning, reading, writing, and arithmetic, it should provide a comprehensive knowledge.” (Alam 14)

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar managed to continue the social reformation movement that was started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy by picking it up from where he left. A staunch believer of humanity, he brought revolution in India especially in the uplift of the women and education system of Bengal. While Raja Ram Mohan Roy represented the new aspirations and the earnest work of the first generation of his country-men in the nineteenth century, Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar reflected their arduous endeavours in the second (Mitra I). The influx of western knowledge, art and culture as well as advanced moral values enriched the mental horizon of Bengal liberal intelligentsia. Playing a pioneering role in expanding modern education and social mobilisation during the nineteenth century Bengal that spread to the other parts of India, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar not merely confined himself to the role of a sermonizer towards spreading education within the superstitious notions engrossed in the Hindu community through their native language, but also engaged himself in the practical field of social changes that led to the beginning of the modern India. (Alam 12) He believed that there is no other religion and goodness than another person’s welfare.

In the book Makers of Indian Literature, Sarkar says that Ramendra-sundar Trivedi looked upon Vidyasagar as a giant of a man and wrote: “There exist instruments of a kind called microscopes that make small things look big. Physics has indicated [conversely] a big thing may be made to look small, but such a device is hardly ever used…. The people around us, who usually pass as big, suddenly get dwarfed if an account of Vidyasagar’s life is placed by the side of any of them.” (Sarkar 39)

In 1857, the Revolt against the East India Company was to radically alter the administrative and cultural relations between the coloniser and the colonised subject. With organic and structural changes in colonial policies of reform, the bhadralok began to protect and promote their traditional customs. The 38-year-old Vidyasagar left government ser-vice a year later citing exhaustion and increasing disappointment with British policy. Yet he remained active until his death, aiding malaria patients, caring for widows and orphans, and pursuing his work as an author and reformer. Plagued by poor health and disappointment, he retreated in 1873 to Karmatanr in western Bengal, where he built a home and provided homeopathic care to the tribal population. (Hatcher Instagram@Harvard Magazine May June 2014) An epitaph penned by Tagore, etched in marble below a modest bust of Vidyasagar at Karmatanr, reads: “The chief glories of [his] character were neither his compassion nor his learning, but his invincible manliness and imperishable humanity.”

Celebrating historical figures does not mean that we deify them, inviting persons of importance, usually those from the political class, to put marigold garlands on designated dates on their bust to the aplause of onlookers and a photo opportunity for a self-seeking media. It means to walk the talk; to emulate the words and deeds of nobility; to cultivate egalitarian compassion toward the anonymous ‘other’; to resist the human hubris that sanctions the repetitive wrongs of history and to uphold dignity, justice and equality. In emulating Vidyasagar, we can do our bit to express our humanity.

WORKS CITED

Banu, Dr. A. and Alam, S. (June, 2016). Influence of western know

ledge and cultures upon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and his philosophy of education. International Journal of Education and Psychological Research, 5(2), 12-18. Retrieved fromwww.ijepr.org.

Chatterjee, Sunil Kumar. William Carey and Serampore. Sheoraphuli, 2004.

Chaudhuri, Rasnika. “The Unexpectedness of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’. The Telegraph Online.2020.

Daniel, J. T. K. “Ecumenical Pragmatism of the Serampore Mission.” IJT 2 (2000): 171 – 177.

Dutta, Sutapa. British Women Missionaries in Bengal 1793-1861. Anthem Press, 2017.

Ghosh, Roni (July-September, 2018). “Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s Contribution in the Development of Bengali Language and Literature and its Relevance in Present Context.” Asian Review of Social Sciences, 44-49, Retrieved from www.trp.org.in.

Hatcher, Brian A. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar: Brief Life of an Indian Reformer: 1820-1891. Intsagram@Harvard Magazine, May-June 2014.

Luca, R. (19th March, 2018). Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Biography, Social Reforms and Quotes. Retrieved from https://biographypoint.com

Mitra, S. C. Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, A Story of his Life and Work. Ashish Publishing House, 1975.

Sarkar, Ramatosh. Ramendrasundar Trivedi (Makers of Indian Literature), Sahitya Akademi, 1993.

http://www.deshforum.com/showthread.php?tid=949

http://bengalonline.sitemarvel.com/vidyasagar.html

http://swpust2015.blogspot.com/2016/06/ishwar-chandra-vidyasagar-as-social.html

·        Dr. Shanker Ashish Dutt, former Professor & Head, Department of English, Patna University, Patna, has been Chairman, Bihar Sangeet Natak Akademi. Writer and editor, his publications are in areas of Cultural Studies and Libera-tion literature. He has been a U.G.C. British Council and American Centre resource person for English Studies and has lectured and chaired seminars at various eminent institutions. He has also distinguished himself as a theatre actor and director. 

·        Zaara Urouj is Ph.D. Research Scholar in the Department of English at Patna University, Patna.

Re-Markings Vol. 20 No.1 March 2021. pp. 44-51.

Copyright Nibir K. Ghosh 2021.

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Overcoming Disaster: Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning

Saurabh Agarwal

Literature based on World War II reveals to us the horrific carnage that were unleashed on the Jews in Nazi Germany and forces us to think whether a parallel to such an act could have existed in the annals of the history of mankind. Writers, through their works, fictional and non-fictional, time and again have provided us with “the accounts and facts of the events” (17) that were suffered by millions of prisoners who led life in sub-human conditions and were subjected to mass brutality which may put even the barbarism of uncivilized world to shame. But, as Victor Frankl, remarks, Man’s Search for Meaning is a book that takes us to “hopeless, meaningless world” (52) where attempts were made to preserve the sanity in the state of utter despair. The book is ranked by Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books in America. The original English title of this work was “From Death-Camp to Existentialism.”

Victor Frankl’s fame stands on his widely read Holocaust testimony, Man’s Search for Meaning (originally published in 1959). Born in Vienna in 1905, Frankl was the founder of a school of psychotherapy known as logotheraphy, an existential form of analysis he described as therapy through meaning. He, from his first-hand account of his days in the concentration camps, has chosen to bring forth a book which seeks to overpower the pain and suffering with inherent love for life by treating them to be the integral part of it. The book resonates and follows the philosophy which embodied in the words of Nietzsche, “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How” (84). It explores the meaning of life when life itself is nothing but misery without end. It is in the opening passage that the author states that this book” is not concerned with the great horrors, which have already been described often enough (though less often believed), but with multitude of small torments” (17). The book resets the capacity of humanity to undergo suffering and be able to retain ability to love and survive. “Auschwitz – the very name stood for all that was horrible, gas chambers, cremations, massacres” (22) – is where author has been brought to and enslaved. Conditions at the camp in which he and his fellowmen are made to live may not be fit even for the animals. Devoid of their identity through a system which reduced a person to just a number, one thousand five hundred prisoners were put up in a shed that had the capacity to accommodate only two hundred. A diet of a few ounce of bread and a pint of watery pea soup were given to sustain their body which is subjected to hard labour in harsh climatic conditions; for clothing, they were given “uniform of rags which would have made a scarecrow elegant by comparison” (33). Unprovoked beating by Capos and no news from family are factors enough to drive any person to terminate his own life by running into electrified barbed wires. The prisoners at these camps look at them-selves not as an individual but as “only a part of an enormous mass of people; his existence descended to the level of animal life” (60). In their earlier part of lives they may have occupied prominent positions in the society but in camps they would barely mention that. Here the structure of society has taken new shape with Capos occupying the helm.  

The author had ensured his survival by enduring the suffering that came to him within the world fenced by barbed wires. This discovery of his new self in the “world which no longer recognized the value of human life and human dignity, which had robbed man of his will and had made him an object to be exterminated” (60) and “he thought of himself then as only a part of an enormous mass of people; his existence descended to the level of animal life” (60). Frankl’s work attempts to chalk out a road map which is to be seen as “effort to save his self-respect” (60) and regain the “lost feeling of being an individual, a being with a mind, with inner freedom and personal values” (60).

The signs that people are giving up faith abound. It is under these in-humane conditions that Frankl begins to see a pattern for survival through “delusion of reprieve” (20), revisiting past, revival of spiritual and moral being, looking for cultural escapes, humour and seeking bliss in trivial beauty. Frankl says, “In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as delusion of reprieve. The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so bad” (23). But then these shreds of hope don’t come easy in the grim times; they have to be sought out and though however small, have to be looked at as if magnified many times. This is seen when author clings to the image of his beloved wife, talks to her and seeks respite in the thought that one day he will be united with her, though simultaneously he is aware of the reality that she may not be alive. These lines reveal the epiphany he experiences through this fancy: “A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers” (48). Frankl’s longing for his wife obviously preoccupied him during his internment and eventually led him to have semi-mystical experiences. As he says, “The guard passed by, insulting me, and once again I communed with my beloved. More and more I felt that she was present, that she was with me; I had the feeling that I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers. The feeling was very strong: she was there” (52).

Love for the important person in life who had existed in the world outside the camps became a pivotal point around which one could rally all his emotions which would have eventually gone dormant in the environment so frigid that didn’t leave any other though but of death alive:  

The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment” (49).

Through this he had developed an escape mechanism which brought to him temporary respite from the heat of reality and through these fantastical musings he wove himself a rope of hope to cling to. These thoughts became his sanctum sanctorum which helped him preserve his sanity. This was done simply by revisiting the past. He terms it as “intensification of inner life” (50) by letting him escape into the past. The following statement by Frankl exemplifies this:

When given free rein, his imagination played with past events, often not important ones, but minor happenings and trifling things. His nostalgic memory glorified them and they assumed a strange character. Their world and their existence seemed very distant and the spirit reached out for them longingly: “In my mind I took bus rides, unlocked the front door of my apartment, answered my telephone, switched on the electric lights. Our thoughts often centered on such details, and these memories could move one to tears” (50).

The fearsome surroundings of camps, the torture at the hands of Capos and SS, impending death and filth in which the inmates dwell have smashed their ability to rejoice in art and nature. These trips down the memory lane had a therapeutic effect on the author and his inner ability to perceive joys in small things was restored. If one looked at the inmates watching the mountains of Salzburg, while being transported from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp through barred windows, one “would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty” (51). Similar experience of watching the changing colours of sky during sunset are used by Frankl as the “last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death” (Ibid.)

In concentration camps it should have been moronic to be thinking of entertaining oneself through any form of art. But for the author, who was on good terms with the Capo, because of certain service he had rendered, he comes to see crude form of art in the camps. On certain days the Capos “came to have a few laughs or perhaps to cry a little; anyway, to forget. There were songs, poems, jokes, some with under-lying satire regarding the camp. All were meant to help us forget, and they did help” (53). The effect of these activities was such that some of the prisoners missed their daily portion of food.

It is important to note what Frankl says about art: “Generally speaking, of course, any pursuit of art in camp was somewhat grotesque. I would say that the real impression made by anything connected with art arose only from the ghostlike contrast between the performance and the background of desolate camp life” (53).

Another strong link that Frankl discovers to keep himself connected to life was humour. Like art, humour in the times of war can be ephemeral but he saw it as “another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humour, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds” (54). Journey in a train, which is so cramped that a person can take turns to squat “on scanty straw which was soaked with human urine,” (56) ended up in the camp without gas chamber or chimney had inspired prisoners to crack jokes and share a laughter in spite of the knowledge that new ordeals awaited them. Frankl collates these rare pleasures, which may be as scant as two in several months, in the balance sheet of good memories.          

There had been episodes where people succumbed to state of despair so deep that no amount of punishment or beating would bring them out as they lay in their own dirt and filth. It is mentioned that once cannibalism too had broken into the camp. Thus, Frankl has this realisation that the hope is the biggest factor that keeps a person going in the face of suffering. An individual has to come to terms with the sufferings for they are his own and no one else can suffer in his place: “Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand” (85).

It is evident that only the person who enjoys highest degree of sadism could have been able to perform the tasks assigned to them. Frankl has rightly questioned the “psychological make-up of the camp guards” (91) who could bring themselves to perpetuate the kind of crimes we see being committed. But here too, Frankl shows a balanced view where he refuses to classify them strictly as good and bad: “From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of ‘pure race’—and therefore one occasionally finds a decent fellow among the camp guards”(94).  

Frankl does recount helping several prisoners who were suffering from typhus though he is without any medical amenity at his hand. It is his perusal of an active life at typhus ward that makes him realise, “if there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete” (76). In a significant statement Frankl tells us that it is we ourselves, who permit others to “rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become moulded into the form of the typical inmate” (75).

Frankl’s work can be seen to be germinated out of pain that is intricately linked to the horrors of war and crime on humanity perpetuated in name of protecting nations, race and religion. Emptiness of the cause that can be seen in the life of concentration camps doesn’t leave the psyche of inmates unscathed. Their lives after being released from the camps were never the same. Many went to their homes to discover the fact that the individual in whom they had vested all their hopes and dreams was no longer there in the world. Their ability to integrate with the outer world had been marred by the torture they had undergone in the camps. Many of them had come to acquire the sadistic tendencies of their predators and would unflinchingly inflict pain to others as a justification to what they underwent. For many the sub-humane treatment that was accorded to them left their dignity in shreds.

It was Frankl’s existentialist approach that helped him find meaning in an oppressive and dehumanized situation. His testimony is full of many uplifting statements which form the basis of the popularity of this book. His solution relied upon the promotion of attitudinal values where he claimed that even in extreme circumstances, one can overcome apathy to find meaning in suffering.  Through his work, Victor Frankl, not only shows the way employed by him for coming to terms with his experience but lays down the strategies for persons who need to resolve their psychic turmoil through the events in life on which any human may not be having control.

WORK CITED

Frankl, Victor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. Rider, 2008. 

·        Saurabh Agarwal, a Management graduate, is an Agra-based entrepreneur and freelance writer.

Re-Markings Vol. 20 No.1 March 2021. pp. 119-124

Copyright Nibir K. Ghosh 2021.

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