The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘We don’t understand language of dissent from margins of society’

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Monday, Jul 27, 2009
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‘We don’t understand language of dissent from margins of society’

Special Correspondent

Book of essays by Magsaysay Award winner K.V. Subbanna released

‘We dismiss dissent that is not accessible to us as irrational’
The book, translated into English, is edited by Manu Chakravarthy

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Fresh thoughts: (From left) Ashis Nandy, political and culture critic; U.R. Ananthmurthy, writer; Manu Chakravarty, writer; and Ramachandra Guha, historian, at the release of a book of essays by K.V. Subbanna in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: The tendency to classify all forms of resistance into a few standard categories has robbed us of the ability to understand voices of dissent from the margins of society, said well-known political and culture critic Ashis Nandy.

He was delivering a lecture here on Sunday on “The Untamed Language of Dissent” after releasing a book of essays by the late K.V. Subbanna, theatreperson, writer and Magsaysay award winner.

Mr. Nandy pointed out that our inability to understand the resistance of tribal communities to the agendas of progress and development was a prime example.

Tribal dissent

While the Maoist ideology had found its base in the tribal corridors in India, the language of dissent of the tribal communities was different from that of the radical left. We do not grasp the distinction because we have failed to “open a dialogue” with the vast population of tribal communities uprooted by development projects.

“We dismiss dissent that is not accessible to us as irrational, unethical and even stupid,” he said.

Mr. Nandy argued that forms of dissent had remained more untamed and vibrant in our regional languages, which were free from the pressure and intervention of hegemonic, global knowledge systems.

The writings of Subbanna — who remained in the village of Heggodu, built a cultural institution there and wrote in Kannada — was an instance of such dissent, he added.

Jnanpith award winner U.R. Ananthamurthy recalled his long association with Subbanna. The bond had enriched him and saved him from remaining merely an “elitist English teacher”, he said.

The book of essays translated into English, “Community and Culture”, has been edited by N. Manu Chakravarthy and published by Akshara Prakashana, Heggodu.

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