Rocznik Komparatystyczny


ISSN: 2081-8718     eISSN: 2353-2831    OAI
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Issue archive / 4 (2013)
Civilized/Barbaric? Changed Connotations in Indian Dalit Poetry

Authors: Meenakshi Bharat
University of Delhi
Keywords: comparative literature “civilization” and “barbarism ” Indian Dalit poetry Rabindranath Tagore Anu Namdeo Dhasal Sri Aurobindo Hira Bansode L.S. Rokade
Whole issue publication date:2013
Page range:14 (159-172)

Abstract

When, in 1922, British Orientalist, Sir John Woodroffe, published a book brazenly entitled, Is India Civilized? he enunciated the on-going palpable cultural tension between the “civilized” notions of culture with which the colonizer was associated, and the facile, dismissive identification of the native with the “barbaric.” But these received notions of civilization and barbarism are at odds with the indigenous ideas of the terms. With one of the oldest literate cultures in the world, the location of India in the contemporary world becomes very enigmatic. In this paper, I attempt a contemporary understanding of the terms in the context of poetry from India, both in English and the indigenous languages while trying to see the evolving connotations of the terms through time.
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