Salman Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival

So I read the Times of India a lot. We were asked to look for a news article from a local newspaper/source. The past few weeks there has been some drama building around Salman Rushdie's attendance of the Jaipur Literature Festival. (I am so mad it is not when I am going to be there. I will have to see if there might possibly be any while I am there. Although the summer probably means that there won't be.) (Although I suppose if it might be for the best because I think I am technically not supposed to visit the state of Rajasthan. Technically of course...<.<...>.>...) Recently things came to a head resulting in Salman Rushdie choosing to not attend the Festival. Basically there was a rumor that some Mumbai mafia dons were going to assassinate him if he came to India. So to for his own safety as well as to not disrupt the festival, he did not attend.

That was a terrible summary. I am interested in the implications for my project. Currently in the United States there are no officially banned books. At least not by the federal government, and I am 97% sure there are no books banned by state governments. I have been looking around online for a coherent list of books that are currently banned in India. Like most things with my research on India so far, reports are far and few between, and almost always conflict with each other. Anyhow, I am pretty sure at least these five are banned currently (although a few websites noted that even though they are banned, on a couple of them the government doesn't bother to enforce the ban):

The Satanic Verses
Mother India
The Lotus and the Robot
Rangila Rasool
Lady Chatterley's Lover

In almost every case that I have found, the reason for banning a book in India is that it in someway offends someone's religious sentiments, usually Hindu or Muslim sentiments. Usually it is not for specific obscenity, such as in the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover (which still seems kind of random to me). Most cases were instances where authors challenged popularly accepted dogma or portrayed religious figures or ideas in a more realistic or negative light. I think I am going to have to find a complete and accurate list of the books banned in India. I think individual states can have their own bans on books. This could be difficult.

Project/Research Questions

Okay. This assignment did not go at all as well as I would have liked. Not even close. I have been so dang busy! I mean, that is not really an excuse. I believe in the idea that you always have time for the things you want to do. I mean, except I really wanted to do this, but I had so much else to do. Anyhow, these are terrible, terrible questions. I realized as I sat down to work on this today that I don't quite understand the assignment and that I need a little more time/research to ponder this out. I am getting there. I think I need to just talk to a few people. Sarah, our new class teacher person will probably be good for that. Rachel has also offered to talk me through my project, which would be excellent. Actually if I just go to the field study office I would probably find someone I could talk to. Anyhow, I need to do that this week so I can finalize what I want to do. Right now I have like five similar, but competing ideas. I need to eliminate four. Also, I need to be able to write a research question that does not sound retarded like these ones do. I am not exactly sure how to pose these. I mean, if, for example, I wanted to do the one about Urdu, if my goal was just to survey what is there, how to I write that succinctly in one question? I am not sure if I could really find a good question until I had actually had access to the material. There is probably a very reasonable and logical way through all this and I will figure it out with help. I just need more time!
Anyhow, my questions are hiding behind the break. Do not look at them. I am posting them for reference only. I will post the actual real good one at some point in the future, hopefully sometime this week.

Twenty-Five Questions Round Three

I think it is round three anyways. I do not have as much time as I wanted to have/planned to have, but here goes nothing, I suppose.

Actually as an aside, I saw on another girl's field study blog that she wrote questions and then kind of just thought them out, like what she was thinking, associated questions in a paragraph following them. It was just stream of consciousness, I guess, like her just talking out the question in a paragraph afterwards exploring them. She only wrote like nine questions, but I like that format. I may do some of that this week and next week.

Anyhow. Here we go, for real this time.

1. What do Indians read?

2. What do they write?

3. Why do they read?

4. Why do they write? (I am not just taking up space; I think the distinction is important.)

5. Is more being written in English or in native languages?

6. Is there a difference in quality between modern Indian literature in English versus modern Indian literature in native languages?

7. What literary criticism exists in India?

8. What genres are written in each language?

9. What are the major themes explored in each language?

10. Are the people who write in English versus native languages different, or are there just authors who generally write in multiple languages?

11. How do publishing companies influence what is written and read?

12. Is there a difference in what is selected by foreign companies like Penguin versus local publishing houses?

13. Is there a perceived difference in quality between foreign and local publishing houses?

14. How does the reading selections among classes differ?

15. Does language origin have an influence on what people read? (e.g. first language Tamil speaker versus first language Telugu speaker)

16. Are there any books perceived to be “classics”?

17. Do they differ from what is commonly considered the Western “classics”?

18. How much does religion dominate/impact reading selection?

19. What is the Indian perception of those who read?

20. Is there a difference in the quantity of reading done by the rich versus the middle class versus the lower classes?

21. Has reading changed across generations in India?

22. Are there any banned books in India?

23. Do Indians mostly buy books, borrow them, check them out from a library, or buy pirated copies?

24. How does education impact how and what Indians read?

25. How does travelling abroad impact what and in which language Indians read?

Second Source

So I decided to just go with The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay. Part of that choice was time constraints, part of it was I actually kind of think it applies. The questions were definitely awkward to answer for this book, since it is not a scholarly source, per se. It will have great bearing on my project, however. So thus I think it works as a source. At least at the beginning. This weekend especially, and next week I am really going to focus on lining up some good sources from a more academic/methodological perspective. I will have to get into the archive of past projects to see what other people have done with similar topics and maybe use them as sources to analyze or maybe I can even cannibalize their sources to jump start my own research.

This weekend I am going to go through everything I need to do and what I want to do with this project. I am kind of struggling with figuring out what direction to go for research, since I am not exactly sure where to find scholarly sources and methodology on a project like this.

Anyhow, source दो after the jump.

Trying not to panic

I feel like all my blog titles sound like little cries for help lately. They aren't really, I just have no idea what to title a blog entry and I hate leaving them blank. Being faced with that little title line is so stressful. Actually sometimes it dissuades me from writing a blog entry. I crumble under the pressure of having to produce so many titles.


Anyhow, in light of not really knowing what to do, I have been searching through the few field study blogs that I know of to see if I can figure out what I am supposed to be doing. Luckily Matt Merrill who went to MacLeod Ganj or however you spell it posted what I think is the worksheet I am supposed to have filled out. As far as I can tell, this blog is the online portfolio? I have no idea. I will assume so.


Anyhow, so here we are. Here is my first analysis thingy. I am not terribly pleased with it. I do not think I go into enough detail. Now that they mention it, I would sort of like to go back and examine the sources they use in more detail as well as break down the themes/ideas in the book. Although I suppose that is basically the desire I already had when I decided I needed to re-read it. Oh well. And actually I won't make you read it, so if you want to, you can see it after the jump. Also they say I need tags. Blast it, I am not ready! Oh well, this weekend I shall do it, since I must, I suppose.