Skip to main content

Critical Intimacy of Ashish Nandi and Edward Said


Change is a universal as well as subtle phenomenon. And a person who loves inertia is levelled as a 'reactionary'. I have heard many a times that one should be progressive enough, like changing colours, adapting in a way Darwin imagines in his phenomenal work, "The Origin of Species". What I find about Edvard Said and Ashish Nandi is totally opposite to the idea of 'progressivism', if I may say so. Both thinkers represent a school of thought which does not like the "hegemony of western thought". They disapprove a particular way of thinking mostly found in western schools of thought, like the rationalization and humanization of various structures, be it Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Modernism, or Post-Modernism. They don't like looking Asian, African, or Arab world in perspective of 'European progressivism'. Their project is simple; Edward tried to establish 'Orientalism' while re-reading and re-inventing the "historical traces", to refer Antonio Gramsci, to engrave a lost picture, a lost narrative, a repressed trace, in the graveyard of progressive historicism. Orientalism was the master project which never soothed the eyes of moral and intellectual progressivism. Edward was levelled as a 'reactionary'. Levelling is after all easier way to lynch the very growth of budding ideas. That is how the plethora of schools are developed underneath a few branch. 

Ashish Nandi is read more in West than East. We don't have time to think beyond Modernism and Post-Modernism! Ashish Nandi is known for his comment on corruption in India which created turmoil in newsroom studios. He became the subject matter of editorialisation and condemnatory politics after his remarks for he had apologized, and promised not to do so in future. That is how I came to know about him. Indian intelligencia does not have time to reflect on his works, particularly "The Intimate Enemy". This work is my favorite. I believe this book is one of the best imaginations, transcends the "wall of reason", in search of better alternatives, better future, beyond the hyphenation of present, past, and future, a timeless creation, which is not consciously programmed. Such kind of matrix hardly happens in life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Imagination

Student: I want to excel in my life. Over the years, my graph of success is achieving a new height. I am doing hard work to become one of the smartest and richest persons on the Earth. Teacher: Wonderful! Who is  achiever and what is achieved? Student: I am the achiever. My name and fame are shining day by day.  Teacher: Who is this ‘I’? What is the material by which it is produced? Student: I is the ego which is the agent achieving successes and facing failures. Teacher: Whether ego is real or imaginary? Student: It is made of name, form, and function. Teacher: Whether name, form, and function are eternal?  Student: No, they are changing. Teacher: Anything changes does it exist? Whether these are real or merely fictitious images appearing and disappearing before the sightscreen of mind? Student: They are the images constructing my identity as a person. Teacher: Well said! What is the stuff by which these images are made of? Who is maker and what is made? Student: They ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का

पढ़ता हूँ हर एक दिन एक ही पन्ना, हर दिन हज़ार ये मालूम पड़ते हैं। जबसे होश संभाला है एक ही पन्ना सवांरते आया हूँ, लोग इसे ज़िन्दगी कहते हैं। इसपे लिखे हर एक लब्ज़ जो मेरे मालूम पड़ते हैं, ना जाने कितने जुबां पे चढ़े होंगे। आज हम भी कुछ पल के लिए ही सही इसके सारथी हैं, जाने से पहले कुछ रंग मेरा भी इसपे चढ़ जाए, बस इसीलिए एक ही पन्ना बार बार पलटता रहता हूँ। हर कोई अनजाने किताब की तलाश में बाहर निकलता है, जिसका हर एक पन्ना वो ख़ुद है। जब ख़ुद के रंग को समझ ही ना पाया, तो भला इंद्रधनुषी किताब के क्या मायने हैं? अस्तित्व में ना जाने कितने पन्ने बिखरे पड़े हैं, बस एक से ही अवगत हो जाऊँ, उसके हर एक शब्द को चुनता जाऊँ, कुछ पल के लिये सही, पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का।
1 comment
Read more

Human's Rationality: Its Unfree-Freedoms

Cosmic energy is moving into various forms and patterns, its quest is to become, what Arthur Schopenhauer called 'will to live'.  (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1818). He is explicit that: “Thus the will to live everywhere preys upon itself, and in different forms is its own nourishment, till finally the human race, because it subdues all the others, regards nature as a manufactory for its own use. Yet even the human race...reveals in itself with most terrible distinctness this conflict, this variance of the will with itself…”. Every ‘will to become' is a movement, encompassing the history of past and future; the degree of rationality and its gradation are normativized by thoughts as hierarchy of souls and monads. Human being as likeness and image of God possess the highest truth, indeed! In fact, human being is the only species who possess and owns the truth, it is the only mode of being who puts truth at stake, constructs its horizons and claim of legitimacy and illegitimacy, defi...
Post a Comment
Read more