Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India

217 Pages·2015·2.399 MB·English

by  Michele Friedner

Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India

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Valuing Deaf Worlds
in Urban India
MICHELE FRIEDNER
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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Friedner, Michele, 1978–
Valuing deaf worlds in urban India / Michele Friedner.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 7061– 7 (hardback) — ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 7060– 0 (pbk.) —
ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 7062– 4 (e- book (web pdf))
1. Deaf— India. 2. Deaf culture— India. 3. People with disabilities— India. 4. Sociol-
ogy of disability— India. I. Title.
HV2863.F75 2015
305.9'0820954— dc23 2014040074
A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for
this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2015 by Michele Friedner
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106
Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is
“fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http:// rutgerspress .rutgers .edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
In memory of Shmuel Yochanan Friedner
For Jamie and Saffron

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Naming and Translation Practices xv
Introduction: Deaf Turns, Deaf
Orientations, and Deaf Development 1
1 Orienting from (Bad) Family to (Good) Friends 27
2 Converting to the Church of Deaf Sociality 53
3 Circulation as Vocation 77
4 Deaf Bodies, Corporate Bodies 101
5 Enrolling Deafness in Multilevel Marketing Businesses 125
Conclusion: India’s Deaf Futures/Reorienting the World 151
Appendix: Key Concepts from Indian Sign Language 163
Notes 167
References 181
Index 191
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I
am immensely grateful to my deaf friends and interlocutors in Bangalore and
elsewhere in India. Spending time with them—i n their schools and homes, on
buses, in coffee shops and cafés, and in other social spaces—h as been a joy. I
thank them for their patience, sense of humor, and love. I thank them for put-
ting up with my many questions and my sometimes incomprehensible Indian
Sign Language. I especially want to thank the people who in this book I call
Chetan, Sushma, Narayanan, and Radhika. The four were generous guides who
have become dear friends. I have wonderful memories of long conversations,
cooking delicious meals, and traveling through Bangalore with them; their con-
tributions to my research have made this a richer book (and they have made my
life richer as well).
My first introduction to India’s deaf worlds was through the wonderful women
at the organization that I call the Delhi Deaf Women’s League. These women have
provided me with endless hospitality, encouragement, and support every time I
return to Delhi. I can feel them cheering me on, urging me to finish this book, and
teasing me for being so timid at times. I only wish I were able to spend more time
at this organization, with these women.
I was extremely fortunate to be generously welcomed by almost all of the
nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and churches with which I inter-
acted. Administrators, human resource executives, and pastors permitted me
to attend classes, training sessions, and worship services; hang out in computer
rooms and workplaces; and they granted me interviews. I owe much to these
organizations. The person whom I call Jaisel Ahuja was one of the first deaf Indi-
ans whom I met, and he was very generous with his contacts both before and
during my years in India; indeed, it was he who introduced me to many of the
organizations and people with whom I subsequently worked, and he has become
a dear friend over the years. The person whom I call Atul Deshmukh has also
been a wonderful guide to India’s deaf worlds, and I thank him for his gregari-
ous personality and constant honesty. Ruma Roka and Arun Rao have been very
helpful over the years and have warmly welcomed me into their organizations
and their lives.
ix