Lying on the Postcolonial Couch: The Idea of Indifference

342 Pages·2002·3.08 MB·English

by  Rukmini Bhaya Nair

Lying on the Postcolonial Couch
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Lying on the Postcolonial
t h e i d e a o f
Couch
i n d i f f e r e n c e
Rukmini Bhaya Nair

University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis / London
The cover image is from a painting by the late Ganga Devi, Madhubani artist,
from her “Cancer Series.” The author and the publisher acknowledge the co-
operation of the artist and of Dr. Jyotindra Jain, director of the Crafts Museum,
Delhi, in arranging its use here.
Copyright 2002 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nair, Rukmini Bhaya.
Lying on the postcolonial couch : the idea of indifference / Rukmini
Bhaya Nair.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8166-3365-7 (HC : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8166-3366-5
(PB : alk. paper)
1. India—Politics and government—1947– 2. Apathy—India.
3. Postcolonialism—India. I. Title.
DS480.84 .R79 2002
302'.17—dc21
2001006448
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.

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For my aunt Maya Bhaya,
who rescued Nehru’s papers
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Part I. Interlocution: The Arrangement of Couches
1. Reading Texts, Resurrecting Cultures 3
Colonial Poetry in India (1757–1857)
2. The Pedigree of the White Stallion 41
Postcoloniality and Literary History
3. Translation as a Speech Act 69
Twelve Versions of One Subversive Verse
Part II. Circumlocution: The Institution of Indifference
4. Glossolalia 103
The Dissimilar Twins of Language and Literature
5. Multiculturalism 118
Other Worlds in Edgar Allan Poe and Satyajit Ray
6. Colonization 155
OmerosSails between the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean
Part III. Delocution: The Sacralization of Subjects

7. Acts of Agency and Acts of God 179
Postcolonial Narratives of Disaster
8. The Testament of the Tenth Muse 201
Toward a Feminist Sensibility
9. A Fatwa against Indifference? 225
Of Shamianas, Death, and the Platonic Censors
Postscript 250
Notes 255
Index 289
Acknowledgments
Although this book seeks to understand the phenomenon of indifference
as it has infiltrated the culture of the Indian subcontinent, it owes most
to those who were not indifferent: Michael Toolan, Julianne Statham,
Stephen Greenblatt, Meenakshi and Sujit Mukherjee, Marshall and Jane
Brown, Richard and Mary Rorty, Tom Lockwood, Rob Weller, the late
R.P. Gupta, Yashodhara Bagchi, Sajni Kripalani, Sita Narasimhan,
Ashok Mitra, Sujit Poddar, Samir Kangsabanik, Jyotindra Jain, Vijay
and Kaveri Nambisan, Srinivas Aravamudan and Ranji Khanna, Dagni
Bredersen, Nicole De Wolf, Arun and Poornima Kumar, Ramchandra
Gandhi, Hiten and Anju Bhaya, Devaki Bhaya, Arthur Grossman,
Diana and Nick Bridge, Aditya Behl, Nisha Grover, William Da Silva,
Shubha Chakraborty, Amit Bhaya; Lucia, Bruce, and Wlodka Robertson;
John and Rani Drew, William Murphy, Carrie Mullen; B.M., Kamala,
Vijayanka, Viraj, and Ranjit Nair; Rajesh, Sheeba, and Farhad, as well as
the two anonymous reviewers who assessed my manuscript so generous-
ly. I thank all those, friends and exemplars, who have made a difference
to the writing of this book.

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