Marginalia
RK Debbarma
RK Debbarma is a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Pol Science, University of Hyderabad.
Previous Post
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What is in the (Sur)name? "Nothing", "Manythings" [3/8/2010]
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Let me begin with something as sundry as 'name'. My thinking with 'names' began last year. I was at Singapore airport, waiting for boarding to Manila. A man sitting next to me, asked about Philippines (his first visit). I told him, it was my first visit too. Then he asked me, "What are you?" That question stumped me. I figured he wanted me to tell him my nationality. So I said 'I am an Indian'. He looked surprised and said, 'but you dont look like an Indian'. I controlled my urge to ask him 'how an Indian looks like'. Instead told him that, I belong to the geographical margin of Indian nation-state where identities are confusing.
In Manila, similar problem awaited me. On the first-day morning, one of the participants (I was there to attend a workshop, on Orality and History, at the University of Philippines organised by South-South Exchange Program for the History of Development and South-east Asia Studies and Regional Exchange Program), searching for the scholar from India glanced towards me and enquired if I have met the person concern. The question baffled me. I smiled and joked "is there any philosophical possibility that I am able to meet me?" The confusion originated from the reason that I had an Indic name but did not look like one.
Names tell many things. Name of a person or name of place are the texts written on the body. I was named Rhaikwchak (a legendary general during the manikya period) by my great grandfather. Later, when I was admitted to village school, the headmaster (a Bengali) changed my name to Ram (a Hindu mythological ruler or god). As if this change was not enough the Christian missionaries gave me a new name, 'Francis' (a catholic saint). Behind these name-changes lies deep-seated ideology of silencing. In the opinion of the Bengali headmaster to attend school implies stepping into gateway of civilisation. Therefore, I must reject my indigenous name and adopt a new name from Hindu pantheon. To the Christian missionaries to be .........
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Margin, Memory, and Tring [8/29/2009]
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The margin, in very rudimentary sense, refers to the blank space marked out, where the act of writing does not take place. The margin is blank, unimportant and meaningless space (of the white paper) to the person doing the writing, or inscribing to be more precise. The writer silences the margin. It is an act of silencing.
Margin does not exist on the white paper alone. Margins can appear in any form of text. Text can also refer to landscape, monuments, events, identity etc It refers to any form of site where something can be written and given meaning. In fact, even the human body is a site. Example, when former Tippera rulers subdued the Jamatia rebels (1860s) and the Reang rebels (1940s), the rebels were captured and their heads were shaven, forced to wear sacred thread, change names etc... These are forms of writing (texts) on the body. Another example, Christian missionaries re-name the converts and impose new Christian names purportedly implying born again.
Like the human body, geographical space is also a site. Example, Tripura, with clearly demarcated boundary, is also a site, a place. The state, or those who control the state, must inscribe notions (text) or idea of Tripura onto the site. Other contending notions of Tripura is silenced, or pushed to margin. The state decides statues of which (whose) heroes to be erected, what kind of monuments to be constructed, what past should be invented, which sacred spots be promoted etc All these acts consist is silencing and marginalising other realities or texts.
Marginalisation also occurs in the production of memories. The power to decide what kind of memories are to be produced, circulated and sanctioned rest with the state. Very often, those who dominate the state would push contradictory or opposing production of past or memories to the margin. The demand for recognition or revival of Tipperah Era and the celebration of Tring need to be seen in this perspective. These are other w .........
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