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Volume VI No. III August 2018

ISSN 2320 – 9216

Alchemist (An International Journal of English & Interdisciplinary Studies)

Editor

Ravinder Kumar

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Prof. Cheryl Stobie,Department of English, University of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

Prof. Bedjaoui Fewzia, Head, British Literature and Civilization, Faculty of Letters and Human

Sciences, Djillali Liabes University of Algeria

Jean Philip Imbert, Lecturer, Comparative Literature, Dublin City University, Ireland

Rosalind Buckton-Tucker , Assistant Professor , English , College of Arts & Sciences , American

University of Kuwait

Prof. Michael M Van Wyk , PhD , South Africa

Dr. Bir Singh Yadav, Associate Professor , Department of English , Central University of Haryana,

India

Dr. Sanjiv Kumar, Associate Professor , Department of English, Central University of Haryana, India

Roya Yaghoubi , PhD, Lecturer, Islamic Azad University , Iran

Dr Malini Ganapathy, School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains, Malaysia

Prof. Dalia El-Shayal , Ph.D., English Department , Faculty of Arts Cairo University , Egypt

Rosle Awang , Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia

Takehito Kamata , M.P.A. , University of Minnesota , USA

Ms Rekha Garg , Assistant Professor, School of Engineering & Technology, Department of English, Central

University of Haryana India

EDITOR

Ravinder Kumar ESP Specialist Tabuk College of Technology

Harvard Visiting Scholar

Managing Director, Institute of Psychological Testing , India

Mobile: 91-7206568548 (India) Email: drraviathwal@gmail.com , alchemisttutorials@gmail.com

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Contents

Untranslatability: A Study of Metaphorical, Cultural & Structural Translation of Manto

by Khalid Hasan

Ravinder Kumar 6-9

The folk theatre of Uttar Pradesh in the light of classical canons of Indian dramaturgy and

performance

Dr Ravindra Pratap Singh 10-15

Feminism/s and cultures -an Indian and Nigerian Cultural Context

Wafa BERKAT 16-22

The Cultural Turn in Foreign Language Teaching

Imene BELABBAS 23-30

Post-Colonialism between Pre and Post Tragedy

Djamila MEHDAOUI 31-37

Globalisation and Diaspora of the Indian Identity: Analysis of The Man who Knew

Infinity by Robert Kanigel

Abdelkrim BELHADJ 38-44

The Surrealist Artist Leonora Carrington

Nadia HAMIMED 45-52

Articles on other disciplines

A Quantitative and Exploratory Study of the Changing Ideals and Challenges involving

Modern Olympic Movement

Ram Dayal 53-62

Citation Guide 63-64

Subscription Form

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Untranslatability: A Study of Metaphorical, Cultural & Structural Translation of

Manto by Khalid Hasan

Ravinder Kumar*

Introduction

Stories are the mirrors of society and these are a indicator that how much a writer has been sensitive in his

writings. Every now and then, writers emerge from society to plate untouched emotions in front of us.

These are those feelings which we do feel but seldom express in words as the way a writer expresses in

stories. Saadat Hasan Manto is one of such names who was born in village ,Samrala of Punjab , on 11

May 1912, and he died in Lahore , Pakistan , on 18 January 1955. He was not even forty three when he

died. It is a considerable question that how to read Manto in today’s context. Manto did many

experiments in his writings on man-woman relationship; these are all equally fit concurrently in today’s

society. In Wet Afternoon, Manto delineated an experience of a teenager through Masood. Masood is

learning from his house. The whole story is told by the metaphors used by Manto in his stories. Reading

Manto is an elevated experience for one seeing a painting for interpretation. And this “painting” expresses

deeply the story of partition between India and Pakistan. Therefore, The Stories of Manto can be

compared with the sculpture of a beautiful naked woman which is covered by a transparent white cloth

and this statue is transmitting sparks in twilight vision. Now, it is spectator’s valuation to which, the

preference would be given by –to an art or to an obscenity. The human relationships have been placed

through mirror transparency to the society by Saadat Hasan (1912-1955) in his short span of life. That is

why, he was liked by some intellectuals only. The way , Manto has personified flesh in his A Wet

Afetrnoon , that can be felt only. The flesh has been used by him in A Wet Afetrnoon as carrier to boost

energy and to give warm feelings. “When he had seen the vapour rising from the freshly slaughtered

sheep, he had experienced a strange pleasure, , experienced a certain warmth rise in his body”. (Khalid,3).

This is a scene from A Wet Afternoon, which collects strange feelings on mind. On the other hand,

Masood matures his experiences through the warmness of flesh. When on his return to home, he shares it

with his mother then his sister interrupts him and to do some favor for her. “ It was warm… come with

me first , my back is hurting badly…I will lie on the bad and you press the sore areas with your feet”.

(Ibid,5).It is matchless comparison between human-flesh and flesh of sheep. Kalsoom, Masood’s sister

might have understood “physical teen age-experiences” before him. Masood occasionally, presses her

sore areas of her body. “It was not first time he had pressed Kalsoom’s legs but never before had he felt

his way. His mind kept going back to butcher’s shop with that misty vapours” (Ibid, 7). Manto has used

flesh as metaphor with great sensitivity that can be controversial in society. Narang discusses the subject

matter of literature – any literature- Manto linked it up with the two most basic needs- he calls them

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hungers- of human life. (Bhalla, 72). Manto has not only used idiomatic language to define untold stories

between man and woman but he made literature lively also. The way, metaphors are used that aptly fit in

the construction of plot naturally. Boo, it is a complete experiment itself. It is perfectly significant in the

context of using metaphors. “Her odor was not artificial like perfume: it was strong like the physical

union between man and woman that is both scared and eternal” (Khalid, 68). Narrating a story through

the word like Boo, is a great literary excellence. This kind of real-sheathe can only be made by Manto

only.

Metaphors: Untranslatable Figures of Speech

It is to be understood that to translate metaphors is difficult to some extent. It is because of writing a

language in its contextualized form. In reality , it is to incarnate a new style while translating metaphors

from Source language (SL) to Targeted Language (TL). And one bad translator does badly exploitation

of a language. Asaduddin says “a bad and irresponsible translator can do great damage to a writer,

falsifying his image and distorting the true import and spirit of his works” ( Bhalla , 160). M.B. Dagut

did extensive study on this aspect of translatability of metaphors in his article published by Babel (1976).

He explained in his article about three types of metaphors. Dagut concluded that metaphors are unique in

nature and cannot be completely translated into TL. “It can be “reproduced” in some way. (M.B Dagut

1976: 21-3). “in Thanda Gosht” Hasan translated it as “Colder Than Ice.” Asaduddin emphasizes the

aspect of untranslatability “The story ends with phrase colder than ice” (Bhalla, 163). Khalid seems

helpless to translate the context in which Manto described the story. To evoke the feeling and this failure

can be seen easily by known of both languages. When a native reader of a source language reads the

translated version of that text, he feels somewhere being disappointed. It is not wrong to say that the

translated text seems unable to shudder.

Cultural & Emotional Aspect of Translation

One of the major problems in translating the original text is to translate the emotional aspect of the

original text. Where, it is tried to prove that “emotions are the spirit of the literature”, there, sometimes,

the same purpose gets defeated. It appears a major problem in the works of translations. As we know,

translation is a special type of communication. Translation creates a kind of parallel text that is produced

by through and in TL. This paper would examine the absolute limits of text beyond which, the text

cannot be translated from SL. The life style, dresses, and other cultural items in the SL that items are

completely missing in TL. There are some examples which are to be kept as it is by Khalid while

translating Manto. Some Words- like - गोश्त, सा, गा , मा ,जम ींदार, टोबा टेक ससींह , जो बोले सो निहाल सत श्र

अकाल, दरु फिटे मुींह, ठींडा गोश्त, एक-दम कीं डम, फकरपाि, बू - are to be kept as it is by Khalid in order to keep

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the reality of the text. Khalid tried his level best to translate various aspects of cultural-background, but,

he seems to be failed on the aspect of cultural-portability of sense. Khalid has translated works of Manto

that does not fit, culturally, contextually, and linguistically. In Wet Afternoon , गोश्त (Flesh) has been

used as metaphor. The word- गोश्त- brings the feelings that cannot be replaced by the word flesh. The

word - गोश्त- brings a kind of sensation that the feelings cannot be aroused by the word flesh. In TL, the

word flesh has many contextualized meanings which may have not carried the impact in the context of

Wet Afternoon. “गोश्त” is one of the important metaphors used in this story. Words - Flesh, Misty- are

arousing emotions and feelings in the minds of readers. The images are imagined by the readers will have

different in nature. The feelings of TL (English) of a native may take him to the cold-storage, where

hanging flesh of sheep. He will not imagine “butcher carrying a huge basket on his head” ( Khalid ,3) . A

Wet Afternoon can be understood by a person, who has been experienced by a village life. There is one

more example of lexical untranslatability. “upper the gur-gur the annexe the mung the dal of Guruji da

Khalsa and Guruji ki fateh …(Ibid,13). Here, the words have no intended meaning in English. One can

exploit ambiguous words for creating numerous effects. The important thing here is intentionality of

meaning of soul of the context. But when a native of TL reads it, he will have to go for reference. Here it

is a case of lexical-untranslatability. In A Wet Afternoon, the relationship of “गोश्त” with Masood is an

integral part in the story. “Flesh under his feet rippled from side to side” (Ibid, 7). Manto has made theme

centralized by the relationship of “गोश्त” with Masood at various levels.

Untranslatability on Structural Aspect

There are some grammatical hindrances occur while translation, which are syntactically relevant to the

original text, but difference in TL. Here are some examples like, टोबा टेक ससींह (Toba Tek Singh) , ठींडा

गोश्त (Colder Than Ice) ,बू (odor). It seems difficult to share a common association in

languages by two different human beings. In contemporary linguistics , it is assumed that no two

human beings can produce the same sentence structures in different languages. Asaduddin

asserts in his article that “ the translator’s misplaced zeal should not lead him to add information

for local colour or exotic appeal.” ( Bhalla, 171).

Conclusion

Khalid’s Translation is a work of artistic excellence to introduce Manto on international level.

Though this paper discussed the untranslatability of Khalid’s work on Manto on cultural,

structural and metaphorical levels, but we can’t ignore the value of translation from cultural

point of view. Translator has to shoulder the responsibility of ‘cultural-portability’ while

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attempting translation work. It becomes more challenging when the issue is related to regional

cultural language. Khalid’s work is of great importance in the field of research to highlight the

marginalised writers. I need to say that there are some technical issues in untranslatability where

translation gets defeated. It may be on Cultural , Structural and on Metaphorical levels.

References

Bhalla , Alok (Ed.) 2004. Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced

Study.

Dagut, M.B. 1976: “Can metaphor be translated?” Babel XXII.

Khalid, Hasan (Ed. & Trans.) 2008. BITTER FRUIT The Very Best of Saadat Hasan Manto. New Delhi:

Penguin.

* Ravinder Kumar is a Harvard Visiting Scholar, ESP speciailist at Tabuk College of Technology Saudi Arabia. He

may be contacted at drraviathwal@gmail.com.

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The folk theatre of Uttar Pradesh in the light of classical canons of Indian dramaturgy and

performance

Dr Ravindra Pratap Singh*

India is a land of rich dramatic tradition. Dramatic performances in conventional pattern find

their ideal in the Natyashastra which is understood as the earliest work on dramaturgy.

Attributed to Bharata (4th or 5

th century A.D), the Natyashastra provides the minutest of the

detail on the elements of drama, and its performance. The eminence of the Natyashastra is not

because of the fact that it is the first document on the subject, but that it is the first

comprehensive work like the Mahabharata, which packs together all earlier patterns and

philosophies on the subject. "The Natyashastra boasts something like that what is found here,

may be found elsewhere; but what is not here, cannot be found anywhere", says Adya

Rangcharya.

Introducing folk drama in a sequence with Sanskrit drama , Encyclopedia Britannica

states that, “after the decline of Sanskrit drama, folk theatre developed in various regional

languages from the 14th through the 19th century. Some conventions and stock characters of

classical drama (stage preliminaries, the opening prayer song, the sutra-dhara, and

the vidushaka) were adopted into folk theatre, which lavishly employs music, dance, drumming,

exaggerated makeup, masks, and a singing chorus. Thematically, it deals with mythological

heroes, medieval romances, and social and political events, and it is a rich store of customs,

beliefs, legends, and rituals. It is a“total theatre,” invading all the senses of the spectators.(

Calumbur etal. Encyclopedia Britannica). The folk drama in Uttar Pradesh (a state in north

India) is a parallel cult comprising the performances of Nautanki, Videsiya, Ram Leela, Krishna

Leela, Bahurupiya Swang and other social plays besides several other established cultural

traditions in popular forms. Nautanki is a folk form of drama . Videsiya shows a performance

with music and song . Swang shows action in the form of farce .Ram Lila and Krishna Lila

show the performances on the life and action of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna respectively. Their

performances usually draw the audience from folk and popular cultures, and therefore, they

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observe significant deviation from the classical tradition of dramaturgy and theatre in Hinduism.

To quote Kapila Vatsyayan , “the Ramlila in north India is …important theatrical genre which

provides an opportunity for the young and old, rich and poor to come together for 16 to 20 days

preceding the Dussehra to witness this vast pageant of human life. The dramatic spectacle varies

from place to place but everywhere two elements are common: the first in the theme which by

and large is selected from the Ramacaritamanasa of Tulsidasa (may be either slight or marked

deviations); and the other is tableaux –like framework where one moves from one static picture

to other”. (Vatsyayan, 112).

The performances of folk drama always present the freshness and candor of socio-

cultural thoughts. Mostly the performance of folk drama occur in the open. Different kind of

stages in round, square, rectangular shapes are found , and they have different kind of sets . All

the roles in Nautanki are played by men . In the Ram Lila the role of Rama and Laxmana is

played by boys under fourteen years of age. They are worshipped as God during the

performance. While comparing the folk performances with the established classical tradition of

dramaturgy, a big gap between two conventions is visible. In my earlier discussions and writings,

I have divided Indian folklore in the following categories:

(i) Folk Drama (Lok Natya)

(ii) Folk Lyrics (Lok Geet)

(iii) Folk Ballads (Lok Gatha)

(iv) Folk Tales (Lok Katha)

(v) Folk Sayings (Lok Subhashita)

These genres of folk literature have different sub-categories also. Since our forte is folk drama,

we can divide it in different sub categories like religious plays, social plays, secular plays etc.

The theories behinds folk performances, in the region, are still not well defined, and the reason

behind this gap is the unorganized performances of many a folk group. These performances

centre around the group of persons, especially ordinary working class people of a particular

region or age, tied together with the emotional, social, cultural and religious bonds. They may be

the members of the same family or specific social group. In a way, folk theatre can be taken as

the expressions of a social group residing in a particular region or in a country that has its

specific identity, and remains strongly tied with the emotional or cultural bond.

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Sometimes they show a deviation from the Sanskrit canons of performance or Abhinaya,

the management of stage and other spectacles. It is not because of the fact that they have any

sense of prejudice or bias but it is due to the acting and spectacle in the folk theatre. In the act of

Abhinaya, the Sanskrit works on dramaturgy prescribe a blend of physical activities, the

spectacle, and even the thought process during the performance of the play. Natya is a

comprehensive term, and covers the patterns of acting , dancing and music . Coomaraswamy

finds it “a deliberate art” where “nothing is left to chance; the actor no more yields to the impulse

of the moment in gesture than in the spoken word. When the curtain rises, indeed, it is too late to

begin the making of a new work of art. Precisely as the text of the play remains the same

whoever the actor may be, precisely as the score of a musical composition is not varied by

whomsoever it may be performed, so there is no reason why an accepted gesture-language

(angikabhinaya) should be varied with a view to set off advantageously the actor's personality. It

is the action, not the actor, which is essential to dramatic art. Under these conditions, of course,

there is no room for any amateur upon the stage; in fact, the amateur does not exist in Oriental

art.”(“Introduction”3). In Indian tradition of drama Abhinaya is a kind of pious act, and all the

abhinayas or performances are suggested to begin with proper invocation and Puja (worship) .

Neglecting this trend may bring disastrous ruin to the act. In Indian tradition “dance and drama

are so intimately fused that in texts like Harivansha and Karpuramanjari the expression used is

‘dance a drama’ to mean perform a play.”(Kantak, 66). The artists of folk theatre perform an act

of invocation and worship in the beginning, and it sustains overall the religious performances

like Ramlila and Krishnalila. In case of Nautanki , the serenity declines with the advancement of

acts and stage. In farce no canon is observed , and it focuses only laughter and popular

engagement.

The performer in the classical pattern of acting creates Bhava , Vibhava and Anubhava

on stage by his /her abhinaya which culminates into the Rasa. Performing these Anubhavas in

Abhinaya (acting) is not a very easy task, it warrants a perfect blend of physical and psychic

capability in the performer. They cannot be performed until the act finds emotional involvement

of the performer. Abhinaya, this way, in Indian aesthetics and dramaturgy holds a very scientific

and systematic pattern. In folk drama , mostly the artist come from unskilled background . They

are many times raw and original without any classical knowledge of the principles of acting .It

brings sometimes popular entertainment on stage, sometimes begets many prospects of

censorship and editing too , if we analyze it from the classical point of view.

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Rasa, is considered the object of abhinaya, and for the realization of rasa the Abhinay

focuses on the creations of vibhava-s and anubhava-s . There are eight Rasas , namely Hasya

(Laughter) , Karuna(sorrow), Raudra (anger), Vira (heroism, courage), Bhayanaka(terror or

fear), Bibhatsa(disgust), and Adbhuta(surprise/wonder) . Shantha (peace or tranquility) is

considered as the ninth Rasa.

In folk theatre of Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh , I have observed that the actors

present a beautiful corollary of Hasya (Laughter) , Raudra (anger), Vira (heroism, courage),

Bhayanaka(terror or fear), but the performance of the Bibhatsa(disgust),

Adbhuta(surprise/wonder) and Shantha (peace or tranquility) Rasa becomes feeble. Naturally

these rasas warrant more attention to create a situation on stage. The Bhavas are of two types- the

Sanchari and the Sthayi . “Love, humor, compassion, horror, the heroic, fear, repulsion, and

wonder are the eight Sthayi Bhavas. Dejection, lassitude, suspicion, jealousy, infatuation, fatigue,

laziness, helplessness, anxiety, confusion, remembrance, boldness, bashfulness, fickleness,

pleasure, excitement, heaviness, pride, sorrow, impatience, sleep, forgetfulness, dream,

awakening, intolerance, dissimulation, ferocity, desire, disease, insanity, death, fear and

guessing, these are the thirty three vyabhichari or sanchari bhava-s . (The Natyasastra , 54) .

The Bhavas give meaning to any expression.

In folk theatre I have seen quite rich proliferation of the Sthayi Bhavas like humor,

horror, the heroic and fear, whereas the Sthayi bhavas of love , compassion and repulsion stand

weak over there. Vyabhichari or sanchari bhavas like dejection, lassitude, infatuation, fatigue,

laziness, helplessness, anxiety, confusion, boldness, fickleness, pleasure, excitement, pride,

sorrow, impatience, sleep, forgetfulness, dream, intolerance, ferocity, desire, disease, insanity,

death are performed well

whereas suspicion, jealousy, remembrance, bashfulness, heaviness, dissimulation, awakening,

fear and guessing find weaker status in folk theatre in comparison to their existence in classical

performances.

The tone and tenor get molded under the impression of the Bhava. Any meaning

expressed by a Vibhava (stimulus) is made intelligible by “words, physical gestures and

Anubhavas (emotions). Anubhavas are the expressed emotions. The visual characteristics of any

feeling are their anubhavas. These are realistic qualities .The eight Anubhavas or Sattivika

Bhavas are mentioned as below:

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1. Stambha (Stupefaction): The actor performs this Anubhava by standing still .The body

remains static and unmoved. The eyes remain unseeing and limbs seem almost dead.

2. Sveda (Sweating): It is performed by showing the lack of breath or air. Different actions

showing the use or urge for fan, state of perspiration and aspiring for breath are shown on

the stage.

3. Romancha (Feeling thrilled): It is the representation of thrill. Romancha is portrayed by

“showing frequently as if the hair is on end, by plucking movements and touching the

limbs.” (Natyasastra , 76)

4. Svarabheda (Break in voice): “This is to be acted by stuttering in different voices.”

(Natyasastra , 76)

5. Vepathu (Trembling): “This is to be acted by quivering, throbbing and shaking

movements.” (Natyasastra , 76)

6. Vaivaranya (Pallor): “This is to be acted by pressure on the pulse and changing the

coloring of the face.” (Natyasastra , 76)

7. Ashru (Tears): The actor wipes the eyes again and again , and shows as if the tears are

coming out of the eyes.

8. Pralaya (Swoon or death): The actor is shown breaking up on the ground.

In folk theatre of Uttar Pradesh ,especially in Nautanki , the performance of the anubhavas or

Sattivika Bhavas like Svarabheda (Break in voice) and Vepathu (Trembling) requires more

polish .

This way, the folk performances in Indian theatre show a deviation from the established

tradition of performance in classical Sanskrit theatre. The folk theatre is not dependent on any

classical pattern of dramaturgy. It has its own candor, rawness and appeal.

Works cited and consulted

Bharatamuni: The Natyasastra .(tr . Adya Rangacharya . New Delhi: Munshiram

Manoharlal.1996.

Calambur Sivaramamurti, C.M. Naim,Balwant Gargi etal. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/art/South-Asian-artsAccessed September 11, 2018.

Coomaraswamy Ananda and Duggirala ,Gopala .(1917) The Mirror of Gesture Being the

Abhinaya Darpana . (Translation of Nandikesvara’s Abhinaya Darpana. ). Cambridge : Harvard

University Press. 1917.

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E. P. Horrwitz .(1912) The Indian Theatre: A Brief History of Sanskrit Drama. London: Blackie

and Son Limited . Online available at :

https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.102308/2015.102308.The-Indian-Theatre-Sanskrit-

Drama_djvu.txt

Kantak, V.Y. “Bharata and Western Concept of Drama” .In Kushwaha , M.S.Ed. Indian Poetics

and Western Thought. Lucknow: Argo.1988.

Kapur , Anuradha. ‘Lila’in Lal, Ananda.Ed. Theatres of India : A Concise Companion.New

Delhi: OUP.2009.

Singh, R.P. “Representative Folk Literature of Hindi Speaking North India” Spark International

Online Journal, Vol. IV, Issue VIII, August 2012. .

Vatsyayan , Kapila. ‘The Ramayana and Ramlila’Traditional Indian Theatre: Multiple Streams.

New Delhi: National Book Trust India.1980.

* Professor of English ,Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of

Lucknow-226007, rpsingh.lu@gmail.com

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Feminism/s and cultures -an Indian and Nigerian Cultural Context.

Wafa BERKAT.*

The term ‘Feminism’ was first used by the French dramatist Alexander Dumas in 1872 in

a pamphlet L’ Hommefemme. Feminism stands for the struggle or protest by women

against their continuing low status at work, in society and in the culture of the country.

Initially, in the western countries, women revolted to fight for emancipation and liberation from

all forms of oppression by the state, by society and by men. According to the World Book,

"Feminism is a belief that women should have economic, political and social equality

with men". In the same book we find that feminism also refers to a "Political movement that

works to gain such equality as economic, political and social.

The history of western feminist movement or feminism have been divided into three major

periods which the Feminist scholars termed as "Three Waves". The first wave refers to

the Suffrage Movement in the early Twentieth Century. started with the publication of Mary

Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" . It took place between 1860

and 1930 and this movement played a significant role in uniting the women of different

backgrounds. Women campaigned for suffrage and fought for their rights. The early feminists

such as Aphra Ben , Mary Stell , Elizabeth Candy Stanton, Margaret Fuller and Lucretia .

The second wave of Feminism started during the nineteen sixties when Women's Liberation

Movement grew out as the wide-spread radical protests by students, workers, blacks and

women especially in the USA and France. Women formed their own groups and raised their

voice against the secondary role of women. Eminent feminists who had played an important

role in women's liberation movement were Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949),

Betty Friendan (The Feminine Mystique, 1963), Kate Millet (Sexual Politics, 1969) and

Germaine Greer (The Female Eunuch, 1970). After 1970s, different groups of women were

fragmented and fission of women's movement had started after the recognition of the

complexities of women experience. The ‘universalist' claims of the 1960s have been

challenged by the women of working class, third world and Black Women. Thus, second

wave feminism dealt with inequality of laws, gender as well as cultural inequalities.

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From the year 1980 onwards, further changes were seen into political and critical realms in

the feminists’ point of view. The single term ‘feminism’ changed into ‘feminisms’.

Comparative models of parallel feminism from different cultures came into existence. This

can probably be called as Third-wave feminism which concerns about sexism and the

issues related to it. This strand sees sexual oppression as primary and fundamental.

Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing and defending equal

political, economic independence, social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women.

It is the pursuit of women’s rights within the society of India. Feminists in India seek gender

equality: the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health, education and

equal political rights. They also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's

patriarchal society such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow immolation known as

“Sati”. The history of feminism in India can be divided into three phases:

the first phase, beginning in the midnineteenth century, initiated when male European

colonists began to speak out against the social evils of Sati; the second phase, from

1915 to Indian independence, when Gandhi incorporated women's movements into the Quit

India movement and independent women's organizations began to emerge; it has been

marked by the foundation of the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) in 1917 by Annie

Besant. Other leading feminist figures may include: Bhikaji Cama, Vijayalakshmi Pandit,

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kriplani and Kasturba Gandhi and Kamla

Nehru. Sarojini Naidu, a poet and a freedom fighter, was the first Indian woman to

become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the

governor of a state in India.

and finally, the third phase, post-independence, which has focused on fair treatment of

women at home after marriage, in the work force and right to political parity. Mother

Teresa, Bachendri Pal, Kalpana Chawla, Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya Rai, Karnam Malleswari ,

Pratibha Patil , Meira Kumar are the few examples who significantly fought the position of

women .

Despite the progress made by Indian feminist movements, women living in modern India

still face many issues of discrimination. India's patriarchal culture has made the process of

gaining land-ownership rights and access to education challenging. In the past two decades,

18 | P a g e

there has also emerged a disturbing trend of sex-selective abortion. Feminism has altered

predominant perspectives in a wide range of areas within the country ranging from

culture to law. Feminist activists have campaigned for women's legal rights (rights of contract,

property rights, voting rights); for women's right to bodily integrity and autonomy, for

protection of women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape; for

workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; against misogyny; against

other forms of gender-specific discrimination against women.

In India, where several myths and traditional attitudes form the country’s culture, the latter

affects women ‘lives and values. Marriage at an early age has been traditionally prevalent in

India and continues to this day. Historically, child brides would live with their parents until they

reached puberty. In the past, child widows were condemned to a life of great agony, shaved

heads, living in isolation, and being shunned by society. Although child marriage was outlawed

in 1860, it is still a common practice. According to UNICEF’s "State of the World’s Children-

2009" report, 47% of India's women aged 20–24 were married before the legal age of 18, rising

to 56% in rural areas. The report also showed that 40% of the world's child marriages occur in

India.

Domestic violence toward Indian women is considered as any type of abuse that can be

considered a threat; it can also be physical, psychological, or sexual abuse. Domestic violence is

seen more as a private or family matter. In determining the category of a complaint, it is based on

caste, class, religious bias and race which also determine whether action is to be taken or not.

Many studies have reported about the prevalence of the violence and have taken a criminal-

justice approach, but most women refuse to report it. These women are guaranteed constitutional

justice, dignity and equality but continue to refuse based on their sociocultural contexts. As the

women refuse to speak of the violence and find help, they are also not receiving the proper

treatment.

Violence against women related to accusations of witchcraft occurs in India, particularly in parts

of Northern India. Belief in the supernatural among the Indian population is strong,

and lynchings for witchcraft are reported by the media. In Assam and West Bengal between 2003

and 2008 there were around 750 deaths related to accusations of witchcraft. Officials in the state

of Chhattisgarh reported in 2008 that at least 100 women are maltreated annually as suspected

19 | P a g e

witches. Furthermore ,Indian culture is characterized by honor killings which have been reported

in northern regions of India, mainly in the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar

Pradesh, as a result of people marrying without their family's acceptance, and sometimes for

marrying outside their caste or religion. Haryana is notorious for incidents of honor killings,

which have been described as "chillingly common in villages of Haryana".

Many cultural issues have caused the degradation of women in India to the point where women

have little value in society. This is demonstrated not only by the violence committed against

them, but also by the discrimination they face at every stage in their lives. They’re considered a

burden from the moment they are born. In 1994 the Indian government passed a law forbidding

women or their families from asking about the sex of the baby after an ultrasound scan (or any

other test which would yield that information) and also expressly forbade doctors or any other

persons from providing that information. In practice this law (like the law forbidding dowries) is

widely ignored, and levels of abortion on female fetuses remain high and the sex ratio at birth

keeps getting more skewed. Female infanticide (killing of girl infants) is still prevalent in some

rural areas. Sometimes this is infanticide by neglect, for example families may not spend money

on critical medicines or withhold care from a sick girl.

Indian Women are bound by dowry payments and socioeconomic factors favoring men, women

face endless discrimination from their families as well as from society. When a woman gets

married, her family has to pay a dowry or a price to the groom and his family. Depending on the

family’s social class, dowry payments can strain families financially. Most poor parents put all

their earnings and savings in to their daughter’s dowry. Others borrow money to meet all the

expenses, which may push many families into the trap of indebtedness. Due to the distress

inflicted by dowry payments, most families have feelings of resentments toward their daughters

and girls are unwelcomed in most families. In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry

Prohibition Act making dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However, many cases

of dowry-related domestic violence, suicides and murders have been reported especially in the

1980s.Widows are considered as worthless in the Indian society .They are treated poorly and

forced to wear white clothes.

African feminism is a type of feminism innovated by African women that specifically addresses

the conditions and needs of continental African women (African women who reside on the

20 | P a g e

African continent).It emerged in the 1990’s in response to its exclusion from second wave

feminism.

Throughout the continent of Africa, gender discrimination continues to be highly pervasive,

manifesting in different regions and in different cultures. In Nigeria, women are under-

represented in almost every sphere of social life including politics, commerce, agriculture,

industry, military and educational institution. A national feminist movement was inaugurated

in 1982, and a national conference held at Ahmadu Bello University. The papers presented there

indicated a growing awareness by Nigeria's university-educated women that the place of women

in society required a concerted effort and a place on the national agenda; the public perception,

however, remained far behind.

Women’s struggle in Nigeria is not a new phenomenon, during the pre-colonial and colonial

periods women in most parts of Nigeria have been involved in women’s movements. For

example, the Yan’taru Movement of Nana Asma’u, the daughter of the Sokoto Caliphate’s

founder in Northern Nigeria, and the Aba Women’s Resistant Movement in Southern Nigeria.

Most Nigerian feminist are the highly educated urban elites of the country, who are small in

number but vocal such as Amina Mama, Ayesha Imam and Obioma Nnaemeka and their

organisations such as the BOABA for Women’s Human Rights and the Women in Nigeria

(WIN) ,Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, Baliksu Yusuf, Bolanle Awe, Ogundipe-Leslie,

Saudatu Mahdi, and Joy Ezeilo,Osonye Tess Onwueme — Playwright., Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie — Writer. The backbone of their struggle is survival, survival to make a living out of

poverty and a high level of unemployment and underemployment.

There is no single culture in Nigeria, and the multiple cultures are very dissimilar. However,

there is what can be seen as a sort of universal belief and norms which are not exactly unique to

Nigerians but in some way they are magnified in a typical Nigerian especially in what is related

to women and the attitudes towards them. At the beginning of colonialism and Christianity, rigid

ideals about gender perceptions were imposed on the African mind. Thereafter, the woman’s role

has come to be limited to sexual and commercial labour; satisfying the sexual needs of men,

working in the fields, carrying loads, tending babies and preparing food.

In other words, the Nigerian society (both historical and contemporary) has been dotted with

peculiar cultural practices that are potently hurtful to women’s emancipation, such as

early/forced marriage, wife-inheritance and widowhood practices. As daughters self-identify as

21 | P a g e

females with their mother and sisters, and sons as males with their father and brothers, gender

stereotyping becomes institutionalized within the family unit. Also, the dominant narratives of

religion in both colonial and post-colonial Nigerian society privileges men at the detriment of

women, even in educational accessibility.

Various cultural values have historically contributed to gender disparity in education. One

prominent cultural view is that it is better for the woman to stay home and learn to tend to her

family instead of attending school. In Nigeria, more boys than girls participated in education

because the 'Nigerian tradition' was explained as a tradition that attaches higher value to a man

than a woman, whose place is believed to be the kitchen. In 2002, the combined gross enrollment

for primary, secondary and tertiary schools for female was 57% compared to 71% for males.

In northern Nigeria, archaic practices were still common. This process meant, generally, less

formal education; early teenage marriages, especially in rural areas; and confinement to the

household, which was often polygynous, except for visits to family, ceremonies, and the

workplace, if employment were available and permitted by a girl's family or husband. For the

most part, Hausa women did not work in the fields, whereas Kanuri women did; both helped

with harvesting and were responsible for all household food processing.

Urban women sold cooked foods, usually by sending young girls out onto the streets or operating

small stands. Research indicated that this practice was one of the main reasons city women gave

for opposing schooling for their daughters. Even in elite houses with educated wives, women's

presence at social gatherings was either nonexistent or very restricted. In the modern sector, a

few women were appearing at all levels in offices, banks, social services, nursing, radio,

television, and the professions (teaching, engineering, environmental design, law, pharmacy,

medicine, and even agriculture and veterinary medicine).

Women in the south, especially among the Yoruba peoples, had received Western-style

education since the nineteenth century, so they occupied positions in the professions and to some

extent in politics. In addition, women headed households, something not seriously considered

in Nigeria's development plans. Such households were more numerous in the south, but they

were on the rise everywhere.

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References:

BBC Monitoring (20 September 2013). "Indian media express anger over 'honour

killings'". BBC news

Blakely, Rhys (24 November 2008). "Witchcraft is given a spell in India's schools to remove

curse of deadly superstition". The Times.

Ganguly, Sumit (14 April 2012). "India's shame". The Diplomat. Retrieved 27 April 2012.

Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New

York,Routledge.

K.DASARADHI- Cultural Feminsim, ijellh.com/wp-content/.../11/33.-K.DASARADHI-paper-

final.pdf

Nmadu, T. (2000). "On Our Feet: Women in Grassroot Development", in Journal of Women in

Academics, Vol. 1 No 1, Sept. 2000, JOWACS Pp. 165-171.

Mahapatro, Meerambika; Gupta, R.N.; Gupta, Vinay K. (August 2014). "Control and support

models of help-seeking behavior in women experiencing domestic violence in India". Violence

& Victims. Springer. 29 (3): 464–475. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-12-

00045. PMID 25069150.

Obasi, E. (1997) 'Structural adjustment and gender access to education in Nigeria'. Gender and

Education, 19 pp 161-177.

Singh, Rao Jaswant (10 October 2008). "Branded witch, tribal woman forced to dip hands in hot

oil". The Times of India.

Staff writer (22 December 2008). "Fifty 'witches' beaten by mob". Sky News. Archived from the

original on 4 March 2016.

Women’s Struggle and the Politics of Difference in Nigeria by Dr Fatima L Adamu www.fu-

berlin.de/sites/gpo/tagungen/.../fatima_l_adamu.pdf.

*Wafa BERKAT is a doctorate student in the Didactics of English Literature at Tahri

Mohammed University, Béchar –Algeria .She may be contacted at salberkat@hotmail.com .

23 | P a g e

The Cultural Turn in Foreign Language Teaching

Imene BELABBAS*

In the 1970s a growing awareness of the aim of foreign language teaching developed the

learners’ dialogic competence of the audio-lingual and direct methods toward the development of

their communicative competence. The mastery of the linguistic structures of a foreign language

was no longer considered as the only necessary requirement for the achievement of

communicative competence. Learners had also to learn how to express certain language

functions using different language structures according to the situations where they found

themselves involved. This move was mainly the result of social and economic conditions in

Europe at that time. In the multicultural Europe of the 1970s and the 1980s when economic and

cultural exchanges were growing rapidly, people found themselves obliged to live in a country

culturally different from their own and to meet and talk to people with different cultural and

social values. It was therefore necessary for language educationists to find new ways to keep

pace with that situation.

The first step made in that direction was a symposium held in Switzerland in 1971 when an

agreement to work toward a common European syllabus for the teaching of foreign languages

was reached. That agreement stipulated that foreign language teaching had to set itself the aim to

develop the learners’ communicative competence and was reflected in a number of meetings and

published articles. That new direction in the teaching of foreign languages is known in the

literature as the communicative approach. This approach is based on the view that language is

mainly used for communication, and that linguistic competence is the knowledge about linguistic

forms and their meanings, and just one part of the general concept of communicative

competence.

Another equally important aspect of communicative competence is knowledge of the different

functions. Language is used to fulfill in different social settings. Hence the social aspect of

language, a long neglected component of communicative competence, is now granted greater

importance. Learners within this approach are taught how to greater use appropriate functions in

appropriate social situations and settings which indirectly gives them some knowledge about the

native speakers’ culture and their everyday lifestyles.

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Nunan (1991: 279) succinctly described the communicative approach and listed five basic

characteristics of communicative language teaching:

-an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language,

-the introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation,

-the provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on the language but also on the

learning process itself

-an enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing

elements to classroom learning.

-an attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.

In practice, however, the teaching of culture within this new framework remained on the

margin. The only visible sign of culture presence in foreign language teaching was the

replacement of the traditional literary texts with the so called authentic or nonliterary

texts. These were usually texts from magazines and newspapers which centered on daily life

themes. Unlike literary texts, the understanding of these new texts called upon some kind of

knowledge of the outside world. That new look at old “ things” paved the way for theme based

language teaching and allowed culture a step inside the foreign language classrooms.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a number of scholars were working toward more culture

oriented foreign language teaching programs and a new approach was launched, but this time

from Montpelier (USA) during the Northeast Conference which had as its central theme

‘Language-in-Culture’. The final report of this conference was a direct call for the teaching of

culture. Dodge wrote in the report:

“The Board of Directors of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign

Languages …was aware of the general surge of interest among class-room teachers in more

complete, accurate and realistic presentation of the “whole” language they teach. To teach what

words mean to people we must teach what the worlds of those people are like” (1972: 10-11).

In addition, many books were published, and most of them dealt with practical methods of

teaching about culture in relation to intercultural communication. Among these was Ned

Seelye’s book Teaching Culture: Strategies for Foreign Language Educators published in 1974.

In this book he described and recommended a number of techniques for teaching about culture

25 | P a g e

differences and intercultural communication. The general view about the teaching of culture

adopted in that book was one that can be described as historical. He apparently equated culture

with observable behaviour. For him teaching students a foreign language culture, as can be

inferred from the techniques mentioned above, consists mainly of understanding the different

forms of behaviour within a particular social group and then let them behave appropriately in

that group.

At approximately the same time in Europe, the scene was characterised by many political and

social changes. The European Common Market was in the making which engendered many

changes in peoples’ views of foreign language teaching. The labour movements and the new

economic needs within Western European countries created a need for more knowledge about

other countries. This in turn imposed a change in the content of foreign language syllabi and led

to a relativisation of the national stereotypes of the late fifties and sixties. Following that new

trend, the European Council set in 1971 a platform to further the development of the

communicative approach to foreign language teaching. The new platform aimed at meeting the

learners’ new needs but still was confined to such areas as language functions (Van Ek,

1975), notions, categories and situations (Wilkins, 1976). In Kramsch’s terms (1996:5): “the

cultural component of language teaching came to be seen as the pragmatic functions and notions

expressed through language in everyday ways of speaking and acting.”

In sum, no mention of teaching culture or cultural knowledge was made. Reference to the term

‘culture’, though in an ambiguous way, was first made in Germany. Scholars like Manfred

Erdmenger and Hans-Wolf Istel who were involved in the teaching of English as a foreign

language assigned ‘Landeskunde’ a different function: that of helping a foreign language

learner to achieve communicative competence. He wrote on this issue:

“It is the global aim of foreign-language teaching in terms of the Landeskunde aspect… to help

the student attain communicative competence in the situations arising from his future roles

as consumer of real and ideal products of the foreign country, as a traveler abroad and as

someone who has contact with foreigners in his own country, and to awaken in

him a willingness to adopt an attitude and to negotiate.”(Erdmenger et al, 1973:40)

Thus, it seemed that everything within foreign language teaching during the seventies, both in

Europe and America, worked within the confines of the language system. Apart from the interest

26 | P a g e

to know foreign languages and about foreign countries, little attention was given to teaching

culture within language.

Foreign language learners had to wait for another decade or so before teaching culture as

a part of their foreign language programs. This took place toward the end of the 1980s when the

teaching of culture revolved around the anthropological concept of culture. Due to the

technological developments during that decade, the visual aspect of culture became as

important as its interpretive aspect which dominated the debates about culture in the 1970s.

Video technology made it easy for language teachers to present the learners with films and

documentaries. Learners at that time were given the opportunity to see culture in action, i.e. more

visible asp0ects of culture were at play in the foreign language classrooms.

Among the leading figures at that time were Melde (1987) in Germany, Zarate (1986)

and Galisson (1991) in France, Byram (1989) in Great Britain and Damen (1987) in America.

Helped by the significant developments of anthropological studies in the USA, these scholars

and others came to realise the close relationship between language and culture and many

claimed that the only way to realise this interrelationship was through language teaching.

As a result, a move toward a more practical conception of culture was under way and theme

based language teaching was then initiated. That approach presented skills in the context of a

particular societal or cultural theme that was relevant to the lives of the learners who were then

required to get involved in critical discussions. That anthropological approach focused less on

language structures and more on cultural meanings

Evidence for the change of language teaching can be found in the newly published or

republished books about the teaching of language and culture. Notable there was Louise

Damen’s book entitled Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension in the Language Classroom in

which a holistic functionalist view of culture was adopted which in turn led to a new

rapprochement between language and culture.

The move toward a holistic and functionalist approach in the teaching of culture in the USA did

not leave European academic debates unaffected. At nearly the same time, the traditional

European terms ‘civilisation’ and ‘landskunde’ were replaced by new terms like ‘culture’. This

change in terminology was mainly motivated by the ongoing process of European integration.

Such a change can be seen in reference made by European scholars to the anthropological

findings reached in America. American anthropologists like Geertz (1973) and his emphasis on

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the natives’ self-perception and symbolic systems were often cited by the active members of the

European Council for Languages.

This change in terminology, together with the empirical research projects on the cultural

dimension of language and the learners’ needs and attitudes, contributed to a change in foreign

language teaching. These projects, mostly carried out by active scholars within the European

Council for languages such as Van Ek (1986 and 1987), marked the end of the

aforementioned ‘banal nationalism’ which had characterised Europe in the preceding two

decades. Teaching foreign languages then became more culture oriented.

Interest in culturally oriented language teaching gained stronger grounds during the 1990s.

Teaching culture pedagogy became part of foreign language pedagogy and made a

breakthrough in governmental agendas. The result included a number of European

Council’s publications on foreign language and culture teaching, conferences held in

different European countries and transnational workshops organised by member states of the

European Council for Languages which devoted their efforts to the teaching of culture (AILA

congress in Amsterdam 1993 and the project entitled ‘Language Learning for

European Citizenship’ implemented during the 1990s).

One of the most influential documents published by the Council of Europe which has had an

outstanding influence on foreign language teaching policies in Europe is the Common

European Framework of Reference for Languages ( 2001). Expressed in this document is the

view that language is integrative and pragmatic in orientation. This document was later on

supplemented by a transnational project entitled ‘The European Language Portfolio’ which

aims, among other issues, are to promote intercultural learning and the development of

intercultural awareness and intercultural competence (Ibid).

Among the scholars, who through their work, contributed to this state of affairs were: Kramsch

with her book Context and Culture in Language Teaching published in 1993, Byram with his

Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence published in 1997, and

Starkey with his article World Studies and Foreign Language Teaching published in (1991). All

these scholars helped to give foreign language teaching a pragmatic, contextual and cognitive

orientation.

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The dimension of teaching culture within or along foreign language teaching is deeply rooted

within the western academic tradition. Culture in foreign language teaching started with a

‘language for reading’ (Grammar Translation Method), moved to a ‘language for travelling’

(direct method, audio lingual Method and the communicative Methods) and ended with a

‘language for intercultural citizenship’ as stated by Byram (1997). In the course of this short

historical account, two approaches were explored. The first viewed teaching culture as a pure

linguistic discipline and the second approached it from an interdisciplinary point of view by

relating it to other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology. These differences in

conception and practices in teaching culture were summarised by Stern (1983:81) as follows:

“The perspectives of language instruction have changed along with the role of languages in

society and changes in the intellectual climate ...Language teaching is principally an art which

through the ages has pursued three major objectives: artistic-literary, and philosophical.

Those broad aims have, in different periods in history, been emphasised to varying degrees.”

(Stern 1983:81)

Accordingly, the teaching of foreign languages was approached from a variety of

perspectives. It was taught through linguistic analysis, as a vehicle for artistic creation and

appreciation and as a form of communication. The history of foreign language teaching and

greater importance attached to culture gave birth to new views and practices, namely that social

practices are shaped by linguistic structures (Sapir, 1970) and that language use is the result of

social practices. Hymes (1972) clearly showed that language and culture are closely related.

These views incited foreign language teaching practitioners to make a move from teaching

culture along with language to teaching culture within language or as culture. Indeed, teaching

language and culture regards one main problematic, i.e. to reach linguistic and cultural

competence to a greater extent.

References

- Byram, Michael Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence.

Multilingual Matters.1973

-Chastain, Jessica. Developing Second Language Skills. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich.1988

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- Damen, Louise. Culture learning: The Fifth Dimension in the Language Classroom. Reading,

MA, Addison Wesley Publishing Company.1987

- Dodge, James W.Language –in- culture. Reports of Working Committees, Northeast

Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. New York: MLA Material Center.1972

- Erdmenger, Manfred. the Foreign-Language Classroom: A Cognitive Methodology,

Braunschweig.1973

- Galisson, Robert. Où va la didactique du Français langue étrangère ? In Etudes de

Linguistique Appliquée, no 79, Paris, Didier Erudition.1990

- Geertz, C.. Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.1973

- Hymes, Dell. communicative competence in J.B Pride and Holmes editions. Sociolinguistics.

Selected Readings. Harmondsworth: Penguin.1972

- Kramsch, Claire. The Cultural Component of Language Teaching.1986

http://www.spz.tu-darmstadt.de/projekt_ejournal/jg-01- 2/beitrag/kramsch2.htm.

-----------------------. Context and Culture in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press.1983

- Melde, Michell. Teaching- and -Learning Language and Culture, Multilingual Matters, no

100.1987

- Nunan, David. Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers. London: Prentice

Hall.1991

- Sapir, Edward. Culture, language and personality, University of California Press.1970

-Seelye, H. N.. Teaching Culture: Strategies for Foreign Language Educators. Skokie: National

Textbook Co.1974

-Starkey, Hugh. World studies and foreign language teaching: converging approaches in

textbook writing, in Byram Michael, 1991 Mediating languages and cultures, Multilingual

Matters.1991

- Stern, H.H.. Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching, Oxford University Press.1983

30 | P a g e

-Van Ek, J. . Objectives for Language Learning. Volume I: Scope. Strasbourg: Council of

Europe, Council for Cultural Co-operation. 1986

_________.. Objectives for Foreign Language Learning. Volume II: Levels. Strasbourg: Council

of Europe, Council for Cultural Co-operation.1987

---------------. Systems Development in Adult Language Learning: The Threshold Level.

Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Council for Cultural Cooperation.1975

- Wilkins, D. . Notional Syllabuses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.1976

- Zarate, Geneviève . Enseigner une culture étrangère , Paris, Hachette.1986

*Imene Belabbas is a part time teacher at DLU of Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria. She teaches spoken

and written English and is interested in TEFL and intercultural education. She can be contacted

at; belabbas.imene@gmail.com

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Post-Colonialism between Pre and Post Tragedy

Djamila MEHDAOUI*

Many colonized countries as India or Algeria, shared a common destiny of a cloudy past

and a dark history full of complete exploitation of lands, resources and people. Enslavement,

indentured labour, slavery, torture, distortion and migration were the terrorist machine that

coerced many indigenous populations to let their flesh and blood, separate the soil where they

were born, weaned and nursed, leaving the smell and the savor of the lands that they were

always associated with as “mother” and “home”. They severe their families, parents and children

to scatter toward ambiguous direction into the world. The hitherto silenced and muffled found

themselves in front of unavoidable evil that impose them to different sorts of domination,

exploitation, European languages, cultures, ways and styles of dress. During the so-called

civilizing missions, the indigenous cultures were the imprisoned broadcasting which was obliged

to stop twittering and recording its chants. These cultures were under the mercy of the unknown

fate of the European rule. They were usually between the hammer of marginalization and the

anvil of suppression; being highly sidelined, and deeply denigrated by the hand of the “lord”

who claimed his superiority, uniqueness and originality in knowledge, declaring that the only

master who deserves existence is, of course, the powerful, though the parameters of power were

determined by his logic and whims. These ghostly colonizers misled themselves by dictating

wrong justifications for their sinful project so that the sense of shock would be totally absent in

front of the whole population. They often dare to classify these newly settled territories in the

column of societies existing “outside the world’s memories and histories”, unable to speak, walk,

think or realize any simple step without their cleverbrain. Thus, the action of civilizing “the

barbaric forest” and “the handicapped”, who has no ability to function physically, mentally or

socially, was by a quick leap of brutal violence that lead to crippling traumas against those who

hold up the label of resistance and the great flag of challenge, creating a large space for the

marginalized that was highly wrapped and united with an acute sense of exile, rootlessness and

alienation.

Today the post-colonized people open their eyes on the so-called ended age of the colonizer.

His evil deeds and figure, therefore, colonialism which was expected to enlighten the native’s

skies and pathways with the fruits of his brought civilization. Unfortunately, with all its

32 | P a g e

connotations, was a panorama of unimagined tragedies, unforgotten traumas of physical and

psychological violence, terrible grief and shameful hostility that opened myriads of wounds in

the psychology of the oppressed, from amnesia, lack of confidence ,dispossession, shame,

humiliation and the deep sense of inferiority. Their traces are existing till now as a deep scar that

narrates its shocking and horrifying story spontaneously by letting everyone feels the hurt of pain

and the groans of the sore in every angle and area , in every moment and at any time. This

violent storm attacked suddenly homes, looted fortunes and treasures, the worst, it violated

bodies and minds. It forced those people to change their “timeless selves” into up–dated ones

and obliged them to alter their “old-fashioned” religions, languages and traditions into civilized

dress and enlighten garment. Therefore, under a sustained shots gun, the bullet of irremovable

legacy and the spurious veneer of civilization, the post-colonized ills and endemics grow into

unhealed sores; the identity of the natives becomes a devoid of small parts, their ignorance to

their roots, belonging and origins aggravated, their impure national cultures and scattered

languages become stated in “the in-between” where a great “ post –tragedy” and “post-drama”

took place.

Post-colonialism, therefore, appears as a rising sun, a ray of brightness and a new breath to dispel

every stain of darkness, to overthrow every fallacious mask and break every lie created and

circulated in the Western settings and contexts. Post-colonialism, as a counter revolutionary logic

and cultural thought, deconstructs every moiety resulting from the clash and the violent

confrontation between those who deemed themselves as civilized and those who were put in the

margin, representing the emblem of the “subaltern”.

Post-colonialism from the pre to the post, is a revolutionary tool and benevolent image to say and

declare non-whiteness, non-Europeanism and non-living under the roof of colonial practices and

evil ideologies .Thus, is the meaning of the term “post” intertwined with the period that covers

the era of “the phantom” or only refers to the period of its departure after a tremendous journey

of blood, amnesia, shattered dreams and terrible pain? Therefore, if we take into consideration

that the prefix “post” refers to a period that is after colonialism and its misdeeds, this will lead us

to interrogate about the humanity of the natives that was completely eroded during the colonial

period, the acts of dispossession, uprootment and the psychological darken traumas resulting

from colonialist’s violence and their brutality. Are these practices reckoned? Are they taken for

granted? Is the idiocy of the evil reprehensible? Are the long centuries of blood, death and the

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psychological wounds put in the window of neglect without being convicted? Moreover, what

about our ills from the colonial era? Have they been healed and erased? Gregory Derek’s book

refers to an important issue which deserves to be taken into consideration by saying we are living

a “colonial present». Thus, the neo-colonial period and the present realities are the major concern

since they are still burgeoning from the same womb and the same vein of the colonizer, giving

birth to new fetuses, who have the same qualities, dimensions, forms and risks as the departed

civilizer.

Post-colonialism, therefore, is an imaginative space created by the voiceless where naked

humans in terms of power submerge the world histories and memories in a way that an armed

people who are sophisticated with modern machines cannot do it. It was /is an inner revolution

that explodes and scatters to every geography tasted the venom of civilization to re-affirm and

celebrate the transparency of the other by a modest “ push of stylish and elegant sympathy”; to

overthrow the higher gifts of idiocy that undermine every “ sterile” spiritual and cultural value

in the colonized lands. The colonizer was never the heart of civilization. The so-called civilizing

machine of the colonialist’s actions was to justify and legitimate his violent deeds and storm that

disseminate every leaf in the colonized lands, because without this justification, colonialism

would appear appalling and odious. But on the contrary, colonization is very far from the sacred

and the pure sense of civilization where the civilizer would be the site of higher sentiments,

precious values, ideologies of good will and a cup that gathers all sorts of people whatever their

directions are divergent.

Colonization, thus, was a brutal machine in terms of durability, criminality and stupidity; it

uncivilized the colonizer himself and, instead of sophisticating his mind and spirit, it undermines

him through the act of brutality that leads him to the periphery, savagery and wildness. The ship

of the colonizer and its commodity were never filled with civilization, but its cargo was always

overstuffed with hatred and malice towards the innocents while its captain was the heart of

malevolence. One may wonder, thus, to see very developed nations to associate savagery,

barbarism and primitivism with people who are unique in their difference, original in their

identity and civilized in their own way of thinking and behaving. In this respect, on the other

side, the process of stereotyping is itself very distant from the feature of civilization which denies

and rejects fixity in judgment.

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Besides, if the colonizer implements these manufactured descriptions and features over the

colonized to hold an easy control over the natives, Buruma and Margalit (2004) refer to the fact

that the West misses lots of principles, values, and moral lessons of intellectual agency. The

worst it ignores a larger side of humanity which is the pillar when one relates himself with

enlightenment, progress and civilization. Thus, through language and war, post-colonialism

contains strong roots and veins that narrate a story of long history of resistance and vigilance. It

retrieves hope in the “subaltern’s histories”, gives self-esteem to all those marginalized,

oppressed, fragmented and silenced voices to yell against the stamps of the occupier and

denigration to articulate the other, stand proudly without feeling inferiority or shame in front of

“the civilized”. Indeed, it breaks the heavy line drawn between the colonizer and the colonized,

tackling many important issues that refer to the residue of the mask of the civilizing missions that

is brought on heavy white ships with those “black captains".

Post-colonial literature, on the other hand, is a space of bleeding pens, minds and hearts; gathers

all those who were slaughtered by the knife of the Western civilization, those who were between

the gallows of the imposed Christian’s values and the guillotine of the European’s “reason

d’être”, and those who smelled and tasted the bitterness of the grief. It is a space of artistic

imagination and empathy, armed by resistant and challenging agenda through the act of

remembering individual and collective trauma in attempt to shrink its resurgence and resurrect

the torn pieces and shreds to wake up from the silent burial.

Post-colonial literature appears as an armed protest against the rising bargains in a world that is,

so laden with thorns, obstacles and obscurity. It emerges, as the bullet that explodes an inner

revolution existing so long years inside the colonized man. It is a penetrating upheaval to assert

the richness, the transparency, rightness and the legitimacy of indigenous cultures by awakening

pride and more recognition in their own way of “being and becoming”. Post-colonized people in

their turn, through their precious and the fabulous production, have received great amount of

attention and the heed they have for so long ages throughout history been missing.

Post-colonial literature is narratives of a sad bird forced to stop twittering which enables us to

listen to multi-cultural belonging, aesthetic of his plurality of voices, brave transgressed modes

to liberate every imprisoned angel from the “collective amnesia. It is a simple way to say that

colonialism is highly reprehensible and the binary oppositions and divisions of “East” and

“West” are hardly an old brand that need to be revisited” par excellence”.

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Post-colonial literature is the new white ships transmitted to all Europe and the world as whole to

make it clear that there is “neither East nor West”. Thus, the more we pay attention to that the

more we realize the human factor, which is the pillar for any successful civilization and civilized

people.

Post-colonial writers as Anita Desai in India or Assia Djebar in Algeria, filled with pleasure, new

breath for struggle and eager to retrieve self-esteem, confidence in their abilities, thirsty to

recover their torn halves languages, traditions, myth and cultures. Indeed, they were enthusiastic

to erase the debunking of cultural past, sought reclamation of native culture through the

celebration of indigenous weight and values. Bearing the burden for renewing quest for native

roots and distinct worthy history, self-identity and trueness of being in a totally non-European

way.

Through feminine writing, women have challenged the roots of traditional femininity, they have

for so long ages been embracing. Through their pens, women could launch their hitherto silenced

voices and turned inward cry against the evil ideologies that keep them inside houses and corners

serving the masculine needs. Thus, they make their voices heard in every corner and angle in the

world through the heavy messages and issues they sent, especially in challenging the caste of

superiority that embraced men as citizens and women as refugees. By being the victims of both

colonization and misogynistic societies that are so obsessed with male ideologies, they never

care for this double colonization, they have revolted and struggled in a vigorous rebellion, thirsty

for liberation from the past constraints to regain devoured right, rejecting to be a fertile ground

for patriarchy and oppression or exploitation.

The colonial language is a high way, an evil tool and a risky arm to bury the natives in the

cemetery of “the other”; therefore, the colonial language should be “a fundamental site of

struggle” (Bill Ashcroft et al, 1995). These writers embrace hybridity and view the colonizers

language as a fountainhead of power, energy and potential for change, and adapt mimicry as a

new process of ambition and rebellion to stand face to face with the European discourses. Homi

Bhabha (1985) was right when he views that the process of imitation is a shot gun that weakens

and debilitates surely the colonialist’s spirits, selves and of course their certainty and self

confidence; “the colonialist’s self confidence becomes weak and even become impressed”

(Gilbert, 1996).

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The act of colonization for the imperial project was never limited to exploiting the colonized

people, lands and resources. But, worst, it passed this evil practice to such severe colonization

that is clearly seen in pinning the post colonized mind, body and identity in a fixed, steady and

immutable cage. This trick device is based deeply on unchangeable stereotypes, fed by the

colonial settings, texts and even beliefs. The perpetuation of the metropolitan enterprise in

constructing such stable premises and the fact of believing it as an objective and universal truth,

created no room for the colonized subject. On the contrary, it limited it between the borders of

domesticity and aboriginality, being usually pinned between the points of savagery and

barbarism. Therefore, in the eye of the colonizer, the colonized subject cannot surpass these

drawn agenda and spaces. However, the national identity was one of the major challenges and

combat of the postcolonial theorists and writers, as they were surprised to see their identity

fragmented and highly forged under the colonial practices and discourses. The post-colonized

man finds himself always in the column of the “other”. Identity, therefore, was the main

ingredient and the bread that feeds post-colonial studies and subjects and enriches its principle

dishes and cups with the smell of ambition and defiance toward the construction of an authentic

self.

While freedom was thought to be brought by the colonizers on white ships under the big lie of

“civilization”, the colonized’s physical liberty and mental autonomy were under the civilized’s

feet. Yet, strong “third space” took place between pre and post tragedy, and many problems of

identity, culture, language and religion are still born from the same seed of colonialism that

contaminate the purity of the post-colonized reality. Post-colonial writers, therefore, act as

representative, spokespersons and third world interlocutors, giving voice to those who have been

traditionally silenced, broken, fractured and fragmented, in an attempt to liberate voices that have

been longer wrapped in slavery, racism, violence, and the tyrannical and oppressive constraints

of the past. Colonial projects have not been ceased through the expansion of territories and

wealth. But, myriads of people were robbed from their culture, and their language has been

dismantled, their history forged and real identities splitted. Consequently, post-colonial writers

soared highly the flag of challenge and resistance and addressed many issues of race, hybridity,

language, identity and stand face to face to the drastic impact of the colonial experience.

References

37 | P a g e

-Ashcroft,Bill .(1995).“Constitutive Graphomony”. The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ashcroft,

Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin eds. London: Routledge.

-Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin.(2002). The Empire Writes Back: Theory and

practice in post-colonial literatures. 2nd ed. London: Routledge,

-Bedjaoui, Fewzia. (2010). ‘Towards a Definition of Postcolonialism’. In Revue des Lettres et

Science Humaines. Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences. Djillali Liabes University, Algeria.

-Bhabha, Homi. (1985). “Signs taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority

Under a tree Outside Delhi’’. Critical Inquiry 12:144-65.

-Buruma, Ian. and Avishai, Margalit.(2004).Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Ene-mies.

London: Penguin

-Gilbert H, Joanne T. (1996). Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics.London:

Routledge Press.

-Hall,Stuart. (1996). Who Needs Identity? in S. Hall and P. du Gay(eds.) Questions of Cultural

Identity. London: Sage.

-Loomba, Ania. (1998).Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge,

-Wa Thiong’o, Ngugi. (1981). Writers in Politics: Essays. London: Heinemann Educational

Books Ltd.

Djamila MEHDAOUI is a Teacher of English at the Secondary School of Saida, Algeria. She is a

Second Year Doctorate Student at Djillali Liabes University, Sidi Bel Abbes. She can be

contacted at: djamilamehdaoui@gmail.com

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Globalisation and Diaspora of the Indian Identity: Analysis of The Man who Knew Infinity

by Robert Kanigel

Abdelkrim BELHADJ*

Introduction

This work is not a focus on a plot analysis of a cinematographic achievement; The Man Who

Knew Infinity was selected because it is based on true events. This work is an exploration of a

real world excerpt. It aims at treating concepts of diaspora and globalisation in their theoretical

foundation, giving them new shades of meaning related to individual real life manifestations.

The content of this paper hypothesises the relationship between Diaspora and Globalisation, in

terms that Globalisation is a new luxury state of diaspora, missing feature of displacement. It

also ejects individual struggles and sufferings far from home land, facing all types of pressures

and oppressions. The sense of empowerment set on the creation of the native space in a foreign

place was the only alternative for the spiritual welfare.

Diaspora

A very significant idea should be mentioned at this level: the term diaspora with capital D and

singular form is used as a special reference to the Jews experience. However, if the word is

uncapitalized it describes other refugee or immigrant communities (Cohen, 2008:1).The

expansion of diaspora was not only as a term, but it became the topic of several books and

scientific studies.The1960s witnessed works on the Jewish diaspora, unlike 2002 where most of

the works were about different diasporas and there were only two books out of 20 highlighted the

Jews situation. (Brubaker, 2005: 14).

The classical meaning of diaspora gradually changed and extended to describe the dispersion of

other populations such as Armenians, Africans, and Irish (Cohen, 2008:1 and Kenny,

2013:21).From 1980s onward, Diaspora became more commonly associated with a large

population movements and acquired several connotations. Thus, it was used as a metaphoric

designation, for all those individuals and communities who were expatriates, expellees, political

refugees, alien residents and immigrants, particularly after the Second World War and the Cold

War (period after the end of colonisation in some countries, the beginning of struggles as in

Vietnam, Korea and Palestine).

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Many social scientists and researchers are still attempting to define the term of diaspora and

introduce an appropriate explanation of this term from different perspectives, namely that of the

cultural and social belonging. Diaspora involves dislocation in terms of a significant crossing of

territorial borders. This refers especially to a physical migration (Dufoix 2008:1) of people who

share a particular aspect and carry with them their own heritage. Diaspora refers to communities

who share a same national, religious, or ethnic identity life outside homeland."We come to

understand diaspora as something objectively present in the world of today with regard

something else in the past –the place.of origin"(Axel,2004:28) .Diaspora is a process of

adaptation or adoption of a new state ; it is possible to change because of the surrounding

atmosphere that includes various events and attitudes. It is a regular influence which forms

within individuals a new space, or it may reform the old space that involves old records of

traditions and cultural patterns.

Description of The Indian Diaspora

The aim of this passage is to display available characteristics of diaspora in TheMan Who Knew

Infinity, and reasons of man's displacement .To do so, a very concise diachronic description can

manage to some extent to eject the targeted notions, that of, today diaspora reasons that are

largely different from the old ones.

The Indian immigration of labour overseas during British administration until present day has

continued. The Indian diaspora of the ninetieth and twenties centuries consists of four waves.

The first wave includes emigrants, many Indians such as indenturers, contract labourers, and

traders who are known as Indian Merchant ( Bhat and Bhaskar, 2007:90 ). During the colonial

period, many diasporic groups moved toward European countries, because of the demand of

labour. It was accentuated by the expanding colonial economy, the growing oppositions to

slavery, and its eventual abolition by England in 1833, and the inability of the European

countries to meet the shortfall in labour by deploying their own labour force on the one hand. On

the other hand, poverty and despair oblige Indians to leave their homeland and miss connection

with it. This population may be named old diaspora (Ibid).

After the independence of India (1947), a large population moved to different destinations of the

world as West of Europe. Most of them are skilled and keep active relationship with their origin

and culture , as the majority still keep representing their traditions in the host countrie among

40 | P a g e

,namely England .Additionally, another wave of Indians come toward West countries and the

Gulf during the 1960s and 1970s. The last category of immigrants includes labour force, semi-

skilled and unskilled (Ibid: 91, 92). They are members expatriate Indians. Differently, nowadays

witnessed high skilled Indian emigrants who are known as engineers, scientists, information

technicians, and professionals ,and went not only to one country but multiple places because they

are demanded by several developed nations .TheMan Who Knew Infinity represents such

characteristics of today immigrants waves.

Globalisation and Diaspora

Some aspects of Globalization helped diaspora to re-emerge. First, a worldwide economy based

multinational companies that licenses more noteworthy network, the development of

undertakings and the promotion of new experts and administrative agents. In this manner

changing fashions a corporate identity, and that opens doors to diasporas. Second, new types of

worldwide relocation, that empower constrained authoritative connections, family visits, remain

abroad staying .Thus, is perceived as restricted to perpetual settlement and the elite appropriation

of the citizenship of a goal nation. Third, such changes gave birth to the improvement of

cosmopolitan sensibilities in numerous worldwide urban areas, and accordingly, to the increase

heightening of exchanges, and cooperation between the distinctive people in the world.

Yet, these aspects are absents in The Man Who Knew Infinity .I may only hypothesise for the first

reason related to corporate identity, but in the abstract side. The aim of the sample was not at all

for concrete achievements but for moral and intangible values: that of self glory, and scientific

realisations.

Analysis of Racism

Racism is considered as a conviction, that human qualities and capacities are characterized by

their race, or the idea that a race is superior than the other one as White and Black. In Britain,

racism was widely spread because of the lot of minorities and ethnic groups. Indians are one of

them. They suffered a lot from the bad treatment of some British. The Race relations Acts

enacted were to protect immigrants from discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, skin colour,

nationality or sex.

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The protagonist Ramanujan in his life in Britain experiences racism and that is what we see in

The Man Who Knew Infinity many times. The first scene shows British racism, when the British

professors are waiting Ramanujan. One of them said:"It is criminal when being these Indians…"

(00:25:14). Ramanujan is then thumped to the ground and kicked a few circumstances, the blows

arrival outline. In another scene an address, desirous of Ramanujan's scientific splendor, says to

him:" little wog, let me disclose to you something. You don't pull a trick like that in my

class"(00:35:58). We see also at (00:54:55) a group of previous Cambridge students, soldiers in

uniform, draws Ramanujan closer. One says:" Look its identity, the little wog, the freeloading

little blackie". Therefore, Ramanujan was rejected to be a fellow at Cambridge by the British

members of the Faculty because of the ethnic prejudice at university in the period of the First

World War. British members are disagreeing to nominate Ramanujan for the fellowship at

Cambridge because he is an Indian. They did not treat him according to his skills in

Mathematics, but to his race being an Indian from a poor family. The socio-economic situation

has an influence on the consideration of the others, especially in the relationship of British with

Indian, based on my observation through my experiences with Indian families, while I was in

Malaysia (March and December 2016). There is a community in India called white Indians. They

are rich, and were closer and familiar to British traditions and life style during the second ruling;

the majority of this category is living in North India (notice that the protagonist is from the

South)

Analysis of the Religious Cultural Identity

Indian cultural identity can be seen in their way of living, which includes language, religion,

food, values, and customs. Indians as any ethnic group feel proud of their culture and traditions.

They practice their traditions in their country of origin and outside their homeland they

perpetuate their cultural patterns.

Based on my conversations during my visits to little India and Hindu temples in Kualalampur

and Malacca (Malaysia), religion is considered as a foundational aspect of the Indian culture.

The major religion of Indian population is Hinduism, which is the oldest one in addition to

Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. However, all the Indian religions have same common rituals,

practices, and stress on the importance of God, the Supreme Being. Indians believe in God and

the efficacy of Prayers. They spend more time in pursuit of religion, like prayers, rituals,

pilgrimages and fasts than any other people in the World do .

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Throughout the film there are many scenes which describe Indian religious practices, namely

worship or Pujain Hinduism. It is a religious ritual acted by Indians every morning after bathing

and dressing. Ramanujan as an Indian performs such worship in the morning in his personal

room at Cambridge .He puts sculptures of the gods and sits in front of them. Then, he closes his

eyes, and concentrated on them. The first scene shows Ramanujan’s worship in his room, when

he arrives to Britain and when in his room for the first time he takes sculptures from his

bag(00:27:42) and practices his religious ritual before he starts his class(00:28:15).In another

scene, when he wakes-up on his first day at Trinity College, Ramanujan practices the worship

(00:42:20). Ramanujan was devoutly religious and tried to keep himself like that in India which

reveals features of his Indian religious identity

Food is also another trait of Indian culture. It is influenced by religious, cultural choices, and

traditions. It is an important part of Indian culture, playing a great role in everyday life.

Hinduism does not unequivocally disallow eating meat, but rather it does firmly prescribe

ahimsa – the idea of peacefulness against all living things including animals. As a result,

numerous Hindus lean toward a vegan or lacto veggie lover way of life, and techniques for

nourishment creation that are in congruity with nature, merciful, and deferential of other living

things. That is why most of them are vegetarian and in The Man Who Knew Infinity Ramanujan

is represented as being vegetarian too.

Reformation or formation of human traditions can be evaluated in daily food attitudes. If man

cannot show resistance to keep respecting religious or traditional prescriptions, this can be

considered as an index of a total integration within the host community. It may be also seen as

the rejection of the traditional or religious background. This analysis is not a rule, but just a

social index that may reveal the reformation of immigrants attitudes. The access to the new

culture is not perceived as being converted to a new cultural space, but as an action of modernity

and globalisation.

Analysis of Place and Space

The relationship between man and home place is always a sign of empowerment. Man is

strongly attached to what he is used to lay his eyes on since his birth. Diaspora, almost and

especially the first generation created a space on the host land; they tried hard to empower

43 | P a g e

themselves through the creation of private and public space in order to continue struggling for

the reason of the diasporic situation.

In this sense, I can imagine globalisation coming over our spaces in the homeland, as i can

imagine an immigrant bringing with him a small space to a totally different space, resisting to

conserve that space around him and to transfer it to the next generation, creating a minority that

claims for much respect. This scene is truly the struggle of globalisation and glocalisation; the

ruling of human nature creating balanced and hybrid spaces in different places.

Analysis of Relativism

The rejection of the space is not a value judgment about the British culture. The Man Who Knew

Infinity has not manifested against moral or ethical system. Ethics varies from one culture to

another. However, the philosophical theme has not brought esteem to one of the struggling

cultures. But it ejected a strong sense of belonging in a world of pluralism. Thus the idea of

rejection is accompanied by acceptance of the place and tolerance in the present. This

complexity introduced both instability and uncertainty. The notion of no return can be the only

item considered good in the view of Ramanujan, since from the beginning the idea of return was

present in the space, creating a permanent hope.

Relativism comes in different ways, which have many uses and functions. In the film, relativism

can be understood in the act of return. The protagonist moves to Britain and spends five years

just to publish his findings in Mathematics; he builds a "relativism" to the host land. However,

when he returns to his original country, he breaks this relativism. He shows a possessive position

at the end of the film: the act of return provides a sign of cultural relativism. In Britain, it was

very difficult for Ramanujan to give his relativism to the host country. He chooses to return and

relate individual performance to his culture. His feeling is a sign of loyalty to the Indian culture.

This choice solved the problem of moral responsibilities toward his people, giving glory to his

culture in his own cultural original space from a different place.

Conclusion

The context of diaspora versus globalisation is not limited to the westernisation of the world or

dislocation. However, the alternative of the past in the present or the space in the place was the

main focus of this article to bring different notions to the meaning of diaspora .conservativeness

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.Showing a high degree of belonging is not a simple relativism based feeling, rather it is a

psychological constant struggle that aims to create a scope for the past among waves of the

present .In addition, the space creation does not require only past respect and esteem, but also

future achievement, as well as a purpose for individuals leading for the survival of their cultural

identity and belonging.

References

Axel, B .K." The Context of Diaspora". Cultural Anthropology. 19.1.American Anthropological Association

,(2004).20-26. Print

Bhat , C and Bhaskar .T.L.S, "Contextualising Diasporic Identity :Implication of Time and Space on Telugu

Immigrants”, Global Indian Diaspora, Exploring Trajectoires of Migration and Theory . Amsterdam University

Press, (2007).89 -117. Print

Cohin, R .Global Diaspora an Introduction, the USA and Canada: Routledge (2008). Print

Dufoix, S. Diaspora, Berkeley: University of California Press,(2008). Print (First Published in French 2003)

Brubaker, R. “The Diaspora" Diaspora, Ethnic and Racial Studies 28.1. Taylor and Francis :( 2005) .1-19.Print

Kenny,K.Diaspora : AVery Short Introduction. USA: Oxford University Press, (2013).Print

*Abdelkrim Belhadj started to teach at Djillali Liabes University of Sidi Bel Abbes in 2017. He

is writing his PhD dissertation on Indian Globalisation, Modernity and Traditions. He can be

contacted at: belhadjabdelkarim@gmail.com

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The Surrealist Artist Leonora Carrington

Nadia HAMIMED*

At first, literature by women was being recorded in Britain as far back as the old age (18th

century). There are instances in the 18th century of catalogues of women writers,

including George Ballard's Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain who have been

celebrated for their Writing or Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, and Sciences (1752). Most

of this literature was in the form of diaries, autobiographies, letters, protests, stories, and poems.

When women noted down, they touched upon experiences rarely suggested by men, and they

wrote in different ways about these experiences. They wrote about childbirth, housework,

relationships with men, and friendships with other women. They spoke about themselves as girls

and as mature women, as wives, mothers, widows, lovers, workers, thinkers, and rebels. They

also referred to themselves as writers and the unfairness against them and the pain and courage

with which they faced it.

However, most women literature before 1800 as Aphra Behn (1640-1689) did not see their

writings as a feature of their women’s experience or an expression of it. Writing was not an

acceptable profession for women. There were women who were interested in women’s writings,

and women writers often knew and praised each other’s works. But all these women as Fanny

Burney (1752-1840) were dependent upon men because men were the critics, the publishers, the

professors, and the sources of financial support. Men had the power to praise women’s works, to

bring them to public attention, or to ridicule or to doom them, too often, to obscurity. From about

1750 English women began to make inroads into the literary market place

(http://www.encyclopedia.com/), but writing did not become a recognizable profession for

women until the 1840s.

In the light of much recent research it would appear that women have in fact been able to delimit

and to develop a literary tradition (Caws, Raaberg, Kuenzly, 1991:100). This progress is not only

on the basis of traditional forms and themes, but also on the basis of what gave shape to their

lives.

Elaine Showalter in 1991 has depicted four models of women’s writing: biological, linguistic,

psychoanalytical, and cultural (Caws, Raaberg, Kuenzly, 1991:100). According to her biological

difference can be highlighted by deconstructing literary symbols of the body. Linguistic

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difference s revealed in a woman’s use of multiple registers. Psychoanalytic difference is visible

in a difference of theme, for example mother/daughter affiliations. Yet, the cultural aspect is

represented by women’s muted groups often occupying what Showalter calls ‘’Wild Zones’’

(Caws, Raaberg, Kuenzly, 1991:100). In addition, of these models the cultural has been most

engaged with history. From this stand point the Surrealism movement must be seen as the most

engaged in culture and art.

Carrington shared the Surrealists' keen interest in the unconscious mind and dream imagery. To

these concepts she offered her own unique mélange of cultural influences, including Celtic

literature, Renaissance painting, Central American folk art, medieval alchemy, and Jungian

psychology.

Thus Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the mid-1920s, and is best known for the

visual artworks and writings of the group members. The works feature the element of surprise,

unexpected juxtapositions and the use of non sequiturs. The Dada movement greatly influenced

the development of Surrealism as a twentieth century form art. Many Surrealist artists and

writers, such as Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), regard their work as an expression of the philosophical

movement first and foremost with the works serving merely as an artifact.

The male surrealists as André Breton (1896-1966) expected women to be their muse. The male

surrealist artists regarded their female counterparts as a muse who is a child, insane or an erotic

object and not one that represents an equally creative and capable artist. The male surrealists did

not want to embrace the independent work of their female counterparts. Thus, any surrealist

woman was forced to find ways of expressing her art beyond the confines of male expectations.

The response by the women of the Surrealist movement to the refusal by their male counterparts

to acknowledge the urgency and independence of women is quite evident in the artistic work of

the women of Surrealist movement. These women use animal imageries to resist and counteract

male control that is associated with the machine imagery.

However Carrington used hybrid figures that are half-human and half-animal. Through this

signature imagery, she explored themes of transformation and identity in an ever-changing

world. Carrington's work touches on ideas of sexual identity but avoids the frequent Surrealist

stereotyping of women as objects of male desire. Instead, she drew on her life and friendships to

represent women's self-perceptions, the bonds between women of all ages, and female figures

within male-dominated environments and histories.

47 | P a g e

Carrington was responsible of co-founding of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Mexico,

talking often about the “legendary powers” of women and the need for them to take back their

rights. She often depicted her thoughts on women and feminism in her work. She is the last

surviving member of the inner circle of Surrealists from pre-war Paris, and in the art world her

status is legendary, as being a key figure in the Surrealist movement as a women defying

surrealists’ principles.

She was the last of the great surrealists. Her paintings can be found in the collections of the

Prado Madrid, New York, in Buenos Aires, Washington, the Guggenheim in Venice, Tokyo and

Mexico City. She significantly influenced the painters Max Ernst and Remedios Varo. In Mexico

she is a household name, where before her death she was regarded as the finest living painter.

Salvador Dali called her “the most important female artist”. In 2005 her painting The

Juggler sold for the highest price ever paid worldwide for a living surrealist painter. She was

also a wonderful writer and her comic novel The Hearing Trumpet is a riot of English irony

(www.edwardbindloss.wordpress.com/tag/leonora-carrington/). It is a narrative, written in the

1950s, that uses magic realism long before Marquez. She wrote an absurdist and fantastical play

called The Invention of Mole (1957), and also collaborated with Octavio Paz. Björk sings praises

of Carrington’s humour and lawlessness. Between 1937 and 1940 she wrote literal and surrealist

fairy stories in French that were circulated in Surrealist publications.

In addition, Carrington has the distinction of being the only woman whose work, one of her short

stories, was included in Andrè Breton’s Anthology of Black Humor 1940 (one of only two

women and the only English writer, save for Swift, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Cravan). First

published in 1939, Carrington was then twenty-two years old. The story which Breton

chose, The Debutante, was written during 1937-1938, her first two years in France, where she

lived in Paris and then St-Martin-d’Ardèche with the well known surrealist artist Max Ernst. The

Debutante was one of the six short stories published in 1939 in her collection The Oval Lady,

along with seven collages by Ernst. These early stories reveal an extraordinary talent, which

Breton had the perspicacity to recognize. In the introduction to his anthology, he defines ‘‘Black

humor ’’ primarily by what it is not :it is ,he says : ‘‘the mortal enemy of sentimentality.

Humor’’, he goes on, quoting Léon Pierre-Quint ‘‘is a manner of affirming, through the absolute

revolt of adolescence and the interior revolt of adulthood, a superior revolt of spirit ’’ (Breton,

1940:356)

48 | P a g e

In one of her short stories The Debutante (Carrington, 1938:44-48) a young girl befriends a

hyena. At a ball given in the girl’s honour the hyena masquerades as the girl. Her disguise is

affected by the hyena wearing the girl’s clothes and by her using, as a mask, the face of the girl’s

maid whom the hyena kills for that purpose. The disguise is discovered because of the hyena’s

smell. In this story, the person narrator, the young girl, and the animal remain discrete entities

but are presented as potentially interchangeable (only to be distinguished by their smell) and as

joined by a sense of mutual support). In another story, The Oval lady (Carrington, 1938:37-43)

the eponymous heroine, also known as Lucretia, has a rocking horse with whom she plays. In the

course of playing, the protagonist seems to learn the features of horse simultaneously; the

wooden horse appears to come to life (Carrington, 1938:37-43).

The art of Carrington and her fictions and paintings alike are filled with revolt, both explicit and

subtle, evoking those rebellions of her own earlier years. These qualities epitomize her short

stories, which offer Carrington’s characteristics grisly humor as a means of conveying certain

autobiographical elements in a story which mocks human and societal limitations while

presenting in a totally understated manner: the possibility of human-animal transformation.

Carrington’s stories thus feature protagonists framed in transgressive terms, resisting the

boundaries and categorization which determine what is human, animal, lifeless or animated. Her

writings of the period (1937-1940) share the trait of conjoining a female human being with an

animal.

Carrington’s characters resist conformity and convention. Her stories of the period (1937-1940)

in particular offer family romances in which ‘bad father’ battle with recalcitrant female children

who do not wish to submit to their law. Through their allegiance to the natural, specifically, the

animal world, the female children encode and enact their resistance. But the effectiveness of this

resistance is questionable. Carrington’s short stories thus document two issues: the desire of the

young female to escape from social strictures and the paternal law, and the inability of the

protagonist to achieve this unequivocally and effectively. One might argue that the latter is a

function of how the protagonist seeks to bring about liberation. Exchanging one father figure, for

instance, does not help the change in the status of the child as a child. Similarly, the allegiance to

and fusion with animal figures do not alter the sense of otherness which is meant to alleviate

Carrington’s characters. By their very construction, these characters are forever being pulled

49 | P a g e

back into a world of conflicting claims and demands on the self, made both by that self and by

others. As a result they remain in a state of transition.

According to Carrington, animals symbolize the instinctual life with the forces of nature. The

Hyena, cited above in her story The Debutante, represents the productive world of the night and

the horse turns out to be an image of rebirth into the light of day and the world beyond the

looking glass. This symbolic link between the unconscious and the natural world substitutes the

male surrealists’ reliance on the image of woman as a link between man and the marvelous.

Therefore Carrington utilizes animal characters to challenge patriarchal principles within both

the Surrealist movement and in society as an entirety. By means of their union with the animal

world, characters obtain a more stable identity outside the conventional dual opposition between

men and women . Animal characters serve as figures in a metalanguage through which

Carrington communicates her aversion for social convention and paternal control.

Carrington’s art is that of sensibility rather than hallucination, one in which animal guides lead

the way out of a world of men who do not know magic, fear the night, and have no mental

powers except intellect. One can clearly see this in Leonora Carrington's work where animals

reveal themselves to be forces of nature. In Whitney’s Chadwick article Leonora Carrington:

Evolution a Feminist Consciousness (1986), she discusses the effect of the blurring of the line

between human and animal (Chadwick, 1986:37).

By transforming her characters into animal/human hybrids, Carrington eliminates the need for

the male gender by providing the female protagonist with an equal but opposite counterpart to

take the male’s place in the universal union of opposites, which is the goal of the hermetic

tradition. Thus animal personage are ‘‘symbolic intermediaries’’ (Chadwick, 1986:38) between

the conscious world and ‘‘the female wild zone’’ (Ibid). Carrington puts the animal in the role

of the femme-enfant, ‘‘replac(ing) male Surrealists’ reliance on the …woman as the mediating

link between man and the Marvelous’’ (Ibid).

Carrington suggests to redefine the image of the femme-enfant, the child who plays the role of

innocence, seduction and dependence on man, and transforms this woman into a being who,

through childhood worlds of fantasy and magic, is capable of creative transformation through

intellectual rather than sexual power. She consistently incorporated the theme of hybridity into

her work throughout the course of her career. Her most memorable works invariably depict

50 | P a g e

women and animals together, with the animals in the role of metaphorical amanuensis,

communicating difficult and profound experiences.

The woman artist considers animal alteration to be a blessing, a site of weightiness, and she

chose the horse as her imagined symbol. She drew from ancient representations of the horse as a

powerful goddess during a time when the Freudian horse meant surging masculinity. By means

of this rebellious reclamation of the gendered horse, she effectively broke down gender codes.

This humanlike utilization of animals and disturbing of gender codes expose gender as self-

naturalized, a mask we put on in that same way Carrington utilizes the horse as her feminine

symbols: Gender is chosen and worn. For her, animals symbolize the instinctual life with the

forces of nature.

Moreover it is worth mentioning that Carrington was very aware of and supported feminist

issues. In particular she championed the newly established women's movement: in the early

1970s she was responsible for co-founding the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico. She

frequently spoke about women's "legendary powers" and the need for women to take back "the

rights that belonged to them". As to Surrealism André Breton and many others as involved in the

movement regarded women to be useful as muses but not seen as artists in their own right.

Carrington was embraced as a femme-enfant by the surrealists because of her rebelliousness

against her upper-class upbringing. However, she did not just rebel against her family, she found

ways in which she could rebel against the surrealists and their limited perspective of women and

mocks established order and this imposed hierarchy through her use of masking strategies and

hybrid configurations. She voiced the concerns of many women artists of her time, defying

surrealist male assumptions and developing techniques for the expression of her artistic creative

pulses.

Declining to be forced or limited by expectations or conventional restraints, Carrington’s

developed practice has made her an inspiration to a lot of current artists working across a variety

of mediums. Her best work teems with passion and ferocious self-investigation in her rebellion

against the privilege of her upbringing. At times she seems an unreliable witness to the facts of

her own life, but chiefly because she is such a reliable witness to its emotional content.

In May 2011, the artist Leonora Carrington died at the age of 94, after what was considered as a

remarkable life. Described as ‘the last great living surrealist’ by the Mexican poet and activist,

Homero Aridjis, she remained active as a painter and sculptor throughout her life, and continued

to inspire younger generations. Carrington was inhumed in Mexico City's British Cemetery in

51 | P a g e

late May. Her sarcophagus was covered with the flag of the adopted country whose naturalized

citizen she had become. When she passed away, the Mexican art historian Teresa del Conde

commented that the fact that Carrington had spent so much of her life in Mexico had been

profoundly "enriching" for the country.

Given Carrington's English-Irish background and the fact that she spent formative time in and

absorbed so much from many different places and cultures: England, France, Spain, Mexico she

is recognized as one of modernism's prototypical global artists. In the interim, nevertheless, this

artistic innovator, who once said that she did not have time to be anyone's muse and that she was

too busy rebelling against her family and learning to be an artist, has taken the secrets of her art

with her to her grave. Looking ahead, the fact that some of its most intriguing mysteries may

remain forever unsolved might just turn out to be one of the most compelling aspects of her

artwork toward which one must confess, requires respect and ‘‘admiration’’.

Bibliography

Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art..London : Lund

Humphries Publishers Ltd .

ewzia.(2014).Towards an Understanding of Post -Colonialism and Feminism” in

Literary Oracle of Orissa, Vol.1, Issue 1, India.

ndré.(1999).Manifestoes of Surealism . Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan

Press.

Breton.A.(2001).Anthology of Black Humour.Translated by Mark Polizzotti. Monroe, OR:City

Lights Books.

99).Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London:

Taylor & Francis Ltd.

House of Fear .United States:Penguin Books Ltd.

The Oval Lady. Santa Barbara, California: Capra Press .

The Hearing Trumpet. London : Little, Brown Book Group.

Caws, Mary Ann.(1991).Surrealism and Women. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Chadwich,Whitney.(1985).Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. Boston:

Little, Brown and Company, 1985.

Chadwick.W.(1986).Leonora Carrington: Evolution of a Feminist Consciousness. Women's Art

Journal , Vol. 7, No. 37-42.

Leonora Carrington: The Mexican Years:1943-1985 .New York:

Vendome Press.

Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation. Cambridge

Massachusets: MIT Press.

52 | P a g e

.Surrealist Women:An International Anthology. London: The

Athlone Press.

Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness. Princeton : University of

Chicago Press.

irginia.(2002).A Room of One’s Own. New York: Penguin Classics; New Ed.

*Nadia HAMIMED is a Teacher / Researcher at Tlemcen University, Algeria. She is a Second

year Doctorate Student at Djillali Liabes University, Sidi Bel Abbes. She can be contacted at:

nadia.anglais@yahoo.fr

53 | P a g e

I. INTRODUCTION

The mere name ‘Olympics’ brings to our mind colourful ceremonies, and contestants

marching down with their flags representing their national doves, balloons and most of all the

lighting of the Olympic flame. The feeling of excitement that suffuses each person and learns is

contagious. There is a saying that to be an Olympic champion is to walk with God a gateway to

immortality for sportspersons. The legacy that Olympics and Olympians possess today has been

a result of long evolution. Next section discusses the evolution and evaluation of modern

Olympic movement.

II. MODERN OLYMPIC MOVEMENT: EVOLUTION AND EVALUATION OF THE

OLYMPIC LEGACY

Since inception of the modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens (Greece), it has

undergone a paradigm shift over a period of more than a century. It originated with the purpose

of inculcating physical and moral qualities, sense of aesthetics, ethical and spiritual value and

educating young people, through the spread of philosophy of amateurism which is free from

vices of racial discrimination, any country’s domination, corruption, doping menace and political

interference.

Ancient as well as modern Olympic movement was envisaged to promote Peace and

Stability among Nations of the World as there could be no other neutral way of confluence of the

countries rising above the barriers emanating from economic, political, cultural or/and religious

underpinnings. Though the ancient Olympic Games were primarily started as a part of a religious

festival in honour of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses but with time sport

overshadowed the cultural and religious motive and developed as the secular and neutral

adhesive, for which today’s Olympics is known for.

1 Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India. Contact No. (91)9896703144, (91)9729016642

Mail ID: mahiwal1981@gmail.com

A Quantitative and Exploratory Study of the Changing Ideals and Challenges

involving Modern Olympic Movement

Ram Dayal1

54 | P a g e

Ancient Olympics was an occasion where citizens of various Greek city states used to

assemble, where they used to share their values and ideals, celebrate their victories, discuss

important political issues and even forge political and military alliances which brought benefits

and glory not only in sport but in political, military and economic arena as well.

Though arguments are put forward against the modern Olympic Games on the question

of amateurism (and professionalism) of athletes. This is not a cause of concern as ancient athletes

regularly received prizes worth substantial amounts of money. Our first glimpse of organized

Greek athletics is in the 23rd book of Homer's Iliad, where Achilles organizes funeral games for

his friend Patroklos wherein each of the eight events contested on the plain of Troy, material

prizes are offered to each competitor.

Evidence suggests that there were no amateur athletes in ancient Greece, but there were

no professional athletes either, for there was no distinction between the two categories, all were

simply athletes. The concept of "amateur athletics," developed in the 19th century AD, would

have been very foreign to the ancient Greeks since the winning of a valuable or prestigious prize

was an important part of being an athlete.

Before the revival of modern Olympic Games the educationists’ and other luminaries of

the developed countries began comprehending the value of sports activities in human life and

enlarging its role and contribution towards the international community. During this phase which

is considered a link between the murky past and uncertain future of sports competitions, a great

theologian Martin Luther observed that only a strong body could help the mind in its quest for

piety. He also spoke about the amusing and moral value of sports. Educational theorists such as

Da Filtre in Italy, Comenius in Czechslovakia and Mulcaster in England affirmed the

contribution that sports could make to the learning process, both by improving the physical

health of the pupils as well as by promoting the development of an integrated personality.

The eighteenth century brought in it the age of reasoning. A great philosopher Rousseau

advocating the naturalism in education with strong importance on health and the unity of mind

and body said that games and sports were seen to have real therapeutic value taking from man all

the dangers inclinations that spring from idleness. So to be nineteenth century, Friedrich John

sought to restore national morale through a system of outdoor gymnasia. Regrettably, it was not

fully endorsed by the German government. However, human ingenuity devised exercises that

could be performed in a limited space. As a result, a strong interest in gymnastics was thus

55 | P a g e

conceded to the United States and Canada. The British government also did not like the

combination of regimented gymnastics and heavy political discussions. During the course of

same century, North Europe also developed strong interest in gymnastics. The pioneers were

Salzman(1744-1811) and Ling (1776-1839). Ling became the principal of the world famous

Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm in Sweden. The Swedish gymnastics system

was less political than German. The main four objectives of this school were pedagogy, therapy,

military preparations and aesthetic development, with an emphasis on free hand exercise rather

than on apparatus work.

In Britain, sports continued in socially stratified pattern. The upper class enjoyed hunting,

riding and dancing whereas the people of other classes had to satisfy themselves with the games

suitable for village ground and industrial streets. However another new feature for the upper

middle class was the opening of public Rugby School. In this school, sport was pursued with

strong idealism; all pupils were taught of fair play and gallant defeat. Barriers of class were

maintained in rigid distinctions between amateur and professional players.

Historians may dispute the novelty of the idea. Over the centuries, some Greek villages

had continued to hold what were described as Olympic contests. It is on historical record that

two Olympic games were organised by the Greeks and Evangelos Zappas (a Greek living in

Romania), in 1859 and 1870 but they were unsuccessful in their mission. But before his death,

zappas donated lot of money to re-establish the Olympic Games in Greece. Equally the ‘Paisian

Directoire’ had attempted to establish an Olympic celebration on champs de Mars at the end of

the eighteenth century.

However, the scope of a wealthy Baron Piere de Coubertin’s (1863-1937) plan far over

shadowed those of his predecessors. He was stimulated by German success in excavating the

Olympic site, conceived the yet more ambitious project of reviving the games. In one of his

writings, he writes with nationalistic fervour “Germany has brought to light what remained of

Olympia. Why should not France succeed in restoring its glory?”

The seed of the de coubertin’s idea was conceived when he was twenty three, but at first

he moved cautiously, fearing that such an ambitious project would provoke both hostility and

scorn. After seven years of patient preparations, a congress was called at Paris in the spring of

1893, under the auspices of the Council of French Athletic Sports Club. The organisers were the

56 | P a g e

Baron and his friend C. Herbert, secretary of the British Amateur Athletic Association and

Professor W.M.Slone of Princeton University.

The principal objective of the trio was top secret, the confessional reasons for the meeting

being the defence of amateur sport against the evil of professionalism and the clarification of the

rules governing amateur status.

In the process of pressing for the reinstatement of the games, de Coubertin was strongly

influenced by the idea of Victorian England, the ‘Muscular Christianity’ of Kingsley, and the use

of athletics in moral training, as preached by Dr Arnold of Rugby School. His speeches

consistently stressed the search for physical beauty and health through a perfect balance of mind

and body, the healthy drunkenness flow of the blood nowhere as intense and wonderful as in

bodily exercise, and the value of sport in upholding social democracy and international

fraternity.

To begin with, de Baron included all forms of competitive exercise widely used in the

modern world. However, in order to limit the games to a manageable size he proposed excluding

certain regional sports such as cricket and baseball. Further, to manage the games economically,

he set the ideal size of the games. In any case the number of individual participants, team

sportsmen and spectators should not exceed twelve hundred, two hundred to five hundred and

ten thousands respectively.

The Baron accepted the greek tradition that the games were in a sense, a religious rite or

ceremony, true religion being found not in the sacrifice made by the athlete at the altar of Zeus,

but rather in spiritual preparedness, an inner feeling of the devotion to an ideal greater than the

athlete himself, as expressed in the Olympic oath, “Dishonour would not lie in defeat, but in

failure to take part”

The promotion of social peace and justice was also a promising scope offered by

Olympic Games. Further, Baron firmly opined that the Games could break down barriers not

only between classes, but also between nations; “Let us export rowers, runners and fencers, there

is the free trade of the future”. Equally, differences between rival athletics fact ions could be

resolved – the German could learn to appreciate the finer points of Swedish gymnastics and the

Englishman could come to enjoy American football.

57 | P a g e

III. DOPING MENACE

Doping is a Modern Olympic phenomenon where professionalism and hunger for fame

has overshadowed amateurism and ethics. As mentioned in the Tables I and II the number of

drug tests conducted and the number of doping cases recorded has been extracted from

the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) Jan. 2014 report "Factsheet: The Fight Against

Doping and Promotion of Athletes' Health.". The data for the number of drug tests conducted and

the number of doping cases recorded for 2010 were obtained from the World Anti-Doping

Agency's publication "Report of the Independent Observers: XXI Olympic Winter Games,

Vancouver 2010." The data of summer Olympics reveals that number of doping cases were

highest in Athens Olympics in 2004 followed by Beijing Olympics in 2008. Highest percentage

of doping cases was found in Montreal Olympics in 1976 followed by Los Angeles Olympics in

1984. In case of winter Olympics, highest cases of doping were reported in 2002 and 2006 winter

Olympics held in Salt Lake City, USA and Turin, Italy respectively.

Table I: Doping Cases in Summer Olympics@

Year Place # of

Drug

Tests

# of

Doping

Cases

Reported

% of

Doping

Cases

Reported

2012 London,

England

5,051 9 0.18%

2008 Beijing,

China

4,770 25* 0.52%

2004 Athens,

Greece

3,667 26** 0.74%

2000 Sydney,

Australia

2,359 11 0.47%

1996 Atlanta,

USA

1,923 2 0.10%

1992 Barcelona,

Spain

1,848 5 0.27%

58 | P a g e

1988 Seoul,

S. Korea

1,598 10 0.63%

1984 Los

Angeles,

USA

1,507 12 0.80%

1980 Moscow,

Russia

645 0 0.00%

1976 Montreal,

Canada

786 11 1.40%

1972 Munich,

Germany

2,079 7 0.34%

1968 Mexico

City,

Mexico

667 1 0.15%

----- Total 26,900 119 0.44%

*The 25 positive results include 14 people and six horse-doping cases initially, followed by an

additional five people identified post-Olympics.

**The IOC's report states that "the cases recorded covered not only adverse analytical findings

reported by the laboratory, but also violations of the anti-doping rules, such as non-arrival within

the set deadline for the test, providing a urine sample that did not conform to the established

procedures, and refusal to comply with the procedures or to deliver urine."

Table II: Doping Cases in Winter

Olympics@

Yea

r

Place # of

Drug

Test

s

# of

Dopin

g

Cases

% of

Dopin

g

Cases

201 Sochi, not yet available

59 | P a g e

4 Russia

201

0

Vancouve

r, Canada

2,149^

3 0.14

%

200

6

Turin,

Italy

1,219 7 0.57

%

200

2

Salt Lake

City, USA

700 7 1.00

%

199

8

Nagano,

Japan

621 0 0.00

%

199

4

Lilleham

mer,

Norway

529 0 0.00

%

199

2

Albertville

, France

522 0 0.00

%

198

8

Calgary,

Canada

492 1 0.20

%

198

4

Sarajevo,

Bosnia

424 1 0.24

%

198

0

Lake

Placid,

USA

440 0 0.00

%

197

6

Innsbruck,

Austria

390 2 0.51

%

197

2

Sapporo,

Japan

211 1 0.47

%

196

8

Grenoble,

France

86 0 0.00

%

----- Total 7,783 22 0.28

%

^The World Anti-Doping Agency's publication "Report of the Independent Observers: XXI

Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver 2010" states that the IOC collected 36 additional blood

60 | P a g e

samples for Athlete Biological Passports, which are "based on the monitoring of an athlete's

biological variables over time to facilitate indirect detection of doping on a longitudinal basis,

rather than on the traditional direct detection of doping." These data are not included in the table.

IV. OLYMPIC GAMES AS INDICATOR OF ECONOMIC POWER IN THE PRESENT

WORLD

Rather than spirit of sports, economics of sports is more relevant underpinning. Changes

in medal tally over a period of time and its correlation with the changing geo-political structure

have been evaluated quantitatively using regression analyses, which have yielded statistically

significant relationship among variables.

In today’s scenario, geo-political clout could be associated with the economic well being

of a country. Therefore, in our analysis, GDP data of 126 countries of the world in US$ has been

used to evaluate its correlation with the medal tally of these countries in all modern Olympic

games taken together. In this analysis, medal tally in both summer and winter Olympic game

both have been used.

Correlation coefficient for the data of total medal tally and GDP in US$ of respective

countries is 0.84.

Table III: Results of Simple Linear Regression

Sr.

No

.

Variab

les

Constant

s

Coefficie

nts

t –

value

1 Y1, X1 3.009E-

5

0.313 3.667

2 Y2, X2 6.871E-

6

0.864 19.08

1

Where,

Y1 =Number of medals won by selected countries in all modern summer Olympic games.

X1=GDP in millions of US$ for the year 2016 by International Monetary Fund.

61 | P a g e

Y2= Number of medals won by selected countries in 2016 summer Olympic games.

While analysing, medal tally of only modern summer Olympics has been considered and

winter Olympics medal tally has been excluded as all countries participating in winter Olympics

participate in summer Olympics but all countries participating in winter Olympics do not

participate in winter Olympics. Moreover, conduction of winter Olympics is a relatively recent

phenomenon.

The simple linear regression analysis as shown in table I reveals that there is a significant

relationship between Gross Domestic Product of a country and the Medal won at the Olympic

Games. It indicates that performance at the Olympic Games is directly proportional to financial

resources in the country. Thus it reveals that Olympic platform is for all countries but most of the

countries have to remain content with participation only as the countries with less financial

resources can’t afford to train their athletes as the rich countries can do. Trained coaches, sports

dieticians, sports equipments, technologies and infrastructure can only be related to the economic

wellbeing of a country. Olympic games can never be same and secular to all countries when few

countries are preparing for breaking the Olympic records and world records because they have

ample resources. On the other hand other countries are struggling to meet the minimum

standards put forward by Olympic event just because these countries don’t have ample resources

for sports development. Well, how this can happen, as basic needs of life come first in these

countries and not the medals won at the Olympic events. Nonetheless the participants who get

included in the Olympic squad in economically underdeveloped countries comes from the upper

strata of the society and from the class which can afford the expenses of the coaching and

preparation in developed countries. Olympic Games cease to be a universal and cosmopolitan

phenomenon when the starting line for the athletes is not same for all (in terms of economic

resources).

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2. Ajmer Singh Dr. Essentials of Physical Education, Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, 2007, 582-

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3. Kamlesh ML. UGC-NET Digest physical education.2nd edn, 2, Khel Sahitiya Kendra, New

Delh, 2012, 460-464.

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4. Francis Antony. Encyclopaedia of Sports Records. Sports Publication, Ashok Vihar, New

Delhi, 1997, 15-45.

5. Kamlesh ML. Foundations of Physical Education, Metropolitan Book Co. Pvt. Ltd., New

Delhi, 2002, 314- 321.

6. https://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicathletes.shtml

7.http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004420

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Citation Guide

Editor: Ravinder Kumar

Address: HN 1410, Sector 3, HUDA, UE, And Kurukshetra-Haryana (India) 136131

Email Address: alchemisttutorials@gmail.com Contributors may contact the editor for advice on publication if they wish – email above.

Otherwise the following

guidelines are offered:

CONTRIBUTIONS

The Journal takes the following:

• Short articles and essays 2000-3000 words

• Research Reports

• Notes

• Letters to the Editor re published articles

• Book Reviews

AUTHOR’S DETAILS

New authors are asked to submit the following with their paper:

• Details of their academic qualifications

• Their current place of work – title, address

• A head and shoulders photograph of themselves

• Their email address

SUBMISSION

All articles must be submitted by email

FORMAT

Contributors are asked to observe the following format where possible:

Title: 14pt Times Roman Font

Name: Author’s name and brief biography

Body: 10pt Times Roman Font for text

9pt Times Roman Font for tables

References in text: Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA,

2003.

Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of the Article.” Name of the Scholarly Journal Volume.Issue (Date):

first page-last page.

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of the Newspaper Article.” Title of the Newspaper Date, edition:

SectionPagenumber+.

“The Title of the Article.” Title of Magazine Date: page number. Name of the Library Database:

Name of the Service. Name of the library with city, state abbreviation. Date of access <URL>.

64 | P a g e

www.ravinderravi.com AJH (Alchemist Journal of Humanities)

Ravinder Kumar

Alchemist Journal of Humanities

H.N. 1410, Sector 3, Urban Estate , kurukshetra, Haryana –136131 (India)

Phone: 0091 720 6568548

E-mail: alchemisttutorials@gmail.com

Call for papers in upcoming issue of Alchemist Journal of Humanities (AJH)

Interestingly, contemporary studies, including literary studies, study of dalit-

literature, subaltern literary theory, women studies, cross-cultural studies, and other

innovative ideas related to interdisciplinary subjects are being installed into the syllabi

of Universities across the country. Research is becoming more demanding and

publishing of research papers during PhD course have become integral part to validate

the originality of work. Keeping this in the mind, here AJH will provide an opportunity

to budding scholars to publish their research papers on monthly peered review

journal.

65 | P a g e

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