Latest news with #Chaudhuri
Scroll.in
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘A new route for thinking': Four writers on ten years of Amit Chaudhuri's ‘Literary Activism'
In 2014, writer and academic Amit Chaudhuri wrote the mission statement on ' literary activism ' – as the starting point of the project. It began in 2014 with a series of annual symposia with Ashoka University. Its aim was to create a space for the kind of discussion on creativity no longer available in mainstream contexts (literary festivals, book launches) or in academic ones (conferences, classrooms, monographs). Chaudhuri writes, 'The idea of the symposium arose from a number of impulses: firstly, the belief that it's no longer enough for writers to simply devote themselves to 'creative' practice and teach or study creative writing and have nothing to do with the conceptual underpinnings of their writing and their lives, any more than it is for academics in literature departments to simply produce monographs and shut out the problem of writing itself. Secondly, there's been a feeling among many that there's an urgent need for a conversation, and a forum, that goes beyond what you hear or encounter either at a literary festival or an academic conference. To achieve this one has to, on the one hand, eschew celebrity and book signings in favour of dialogue and response; on the other hand, steer clear of the closed professionalism of the conference and open out the conversation to people from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds who have a stake in the discussion.' He got in touch with academics, novelists, poets, translators, and publishers and offered them the opportunity to speak on the subject in a way that they wouldn't. This established a pattern: an annual two-day symposium in India, and a one-day spin-off on the year's theme at another location: twice in Oxford, and once in Paris. Since 2018, the symposiums have been supported by Ashoka University. The Literary Activism website features a section called ' Magazine ', in which new writing – essays, poetry, fiction – and art and videos are uploaded. Chaudhuri adds, ''Literary activism' is interested in the place of creative (whatever the genre or art-form) and critical practice today. […] A unidirectional flow – say, from London or Delhi or Calcutta towards Brooklyn – drains the life-blood for all involved. Making the flow go in other directions is essential not for the sake of balance, but for the intellectual viability of these practices.' In 2023, Literary Activism, a new publishing imprint of the Centre for the Creative and the Critical at Ashoka University, partnered with Westland Books to publish three books a year under a collaborative imprint. The collaborative imprint publishes books on literature in English and in translation from other languages. The first book to be made available to the readers was Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's Book of Rahim & Other Poems. While launching the imprint, Chaudhuri had said, 'The new imprint, 'literary activism', is meant to carry forward new ambitions in the realm of publishing. The imprint wishes to recall that art and writing are not synonymous with the generalised academic discipline called the 'humanities': they have an angularity to it, and to the social science perspectives the humanities are now subsumed under. The 'literary activism' imprint wishes not only to publish good writing, but to pursue this angularity.' In the following conversation, poet and literary scholar Charles Bernstein, journalist Jonathan Cook, writer and academic Laetitia Zecchini, and novelist and academic Saikat Majumdar talk about the importance of the project and how it has affected the creative–cultural concerns of their own writing since its inception more than a decade ago. What were your first thoughts when you heard about the Literary Activism project? Charles Bernstein (CB): That it was necessary. 'Activism' is often associated with politics and surely political activism is necessary. But so is literary activism – conscientiously challenging the shibboleths and conformity that dominate literary awards, reviewing, and habits of attention. Jonathan Cook (JC): Amit Chaudhuri is a friend and former colleague of mine. When he joined the University of East Anglia, we had some wide-ranging discussions about the state or states of contemporary literature. Out of these discussions, Chaudhuri's analysis of the impact of both the marketplace and the academy on a certain way of writing and reading literature emerged. That analysis remains as pertinent now as it did ten years ago. Laetitia Zecchini (LZ): Amit Chaudhuri once remarked that his first novel was born from the desire to write about a young boy's 'sense of escape and freedom' in Calcutta. This may well be Chaudhuri's deepest impulse, and the driving force behind ''Literary Activism'. Through this project and platform, that is what he has given himself, and what he has given others as well: a sense of escape and freedom for those of us who feel a certain dissonance or discomfort with particular fields, discourses and platforms, and with the hierarchy of values they reinforce. In my case, the academic world which increasingly rewards visibility, citation counts, self-promotion (and self-importance!), buzzwords and 'buzz-genres'! But once academia is dictated by arithmetic success, quantitative impact, and competition – once it becomes a field of power in a sense – it doesn't just lose its purpose, it also becomes tedious. Saikat Majumdar (SM): I knew Amit Chaudhuri for quite a while by that time and also knew of his discontent with the literary culture of our time trapped between the dishonest commercialism of the mainstream and the narrow instrumentalism of academia. So it was exciting to see him launch a series of interventions to do something different. What made you agree to be part of the project? Were there intersections of intellectual ambition and creative-critical concerns between your work and the Literary Activism project? CB: I admire the work of Amit Chaudhuri, as an essayist and literary activist as much as a poet and novelist. We saw the strains of 'literary activism' in each other's work. Coming perhaps from different cultural spheres, East and West, we found we had more in common than those closer to hand. So, this gives me confidence that we can have a non-national exchange, and I use that word rather than trans-national or even international. We are beside one another. JC: I liked its openness to a variety of contributions from writers, academics, artists, film-makers, etc, and the resonance of the topics chosen for each of the symposia. I have a long-standing interest in the relations between the creative and the critical in my work as a critic and biographer, so, yes, there were many intersections. I felt we needed a new way of thinking about literature and its value in a period after the dominance of literary theory and the emergence of creative writing as a university discipline. The Literary Activism project offered a route into this new way of thinking. LZ: What I find so compelling, so necessary about the literary activism platform/project is that it has also restored a sense of delight: the delight in listening to one another and in thinking together; the delight in witnessing the unfolding of critical thought and minds; the delight in paying close attention to texts and to voices, and the delight in the discovery and the encounter of many new texts, voices, personalities; the delight also in being able to say, or hear and share: 'I don't give a damn' (remember: ' f*ck storytelling '!) SM: As a writer who is part of academia, but also someone who works in the literary sphere run by mainstream presses and newspapers, this felt personally connected to me. As someone who writes novels, scholarly criticism, literary essays and op-ed articles, I've long ceased to see any difference between the critical and the artistic. They are for me simply different genres of imaginative writing, such as poetry, prose, and verse. The Literary Activism seemed to feel the same way, and brought together people who felt likewise. Why do you think the Literary Activism project seemed urgent, timely and necessary ten years ago? What has it achieved, if anything at all, in these ten years? CB: In my most recent book, The Kinds of Poetry I Want: Essays and Comedies, I included several key works from Literary Activism: three short works of poetics and a long essay 'Up Against Storytelling' that comes in response to Chaudhuri's conference on that subject. So 'Literary Activism' has become one of the main forums for my work. JC: See above for my thoughts about timeliness and urgency. It has created a space between the academy and the marketplace where there can be serious, witty, open-minded thinking about what it means to write now and what needs to be resisted if a certain idea of literary value is to be both defended and developed. LZ: Chaudhuri has been able to gather around him a community of wonderfully talented people who, precisely, do not take themselves seriously, but who delight in each other's company. It's also in many ways a community of friendship. In the symposia that he organises, there is a real spirit of conviviality, and there is often humour as well, but it never comes at the expense of the gravity and sometimes the difficulty of certain questions and discussions. For me, that space of 'escape and freedom' – even just knowing it exists and persists: 10 years! – has been deeply sustaining. SM: Literature is the most intellectual of all art forms and the most artistic of all intellectual discourses. Consequently, literature and creative writing have easily found a core place at the university, amidst academic disciplines – more than filmmaking, visual or performative arts. This has also made it vulnerable to the malaises of academia. On the other hand, as an art form (at least in principle if no longer in reality), it has also inherited the ailments of the free market as we have moved through neoliberalism. These peculiar features and locations of literary culture made the Literary Activism project timely ten years ago – and it remains timely 10 years later as both academic and free-market cultures continue to move through transformative crises in the 21st century. Already facing this transformative crisis early in the 21st century, literature had more identity problems than one could imagine, and the Literary Activism project had put its fingers on several of them. It has certainly achieved the reality of a persistent set of interrogations. I would love to see it taken up more organically by different stakeholders in literary culture worldwide. What are the things you'd like to see Literary Activism being involved in? JC: I'm not sure it needs to be involved in anything but its own development. There is a valuable website called Creative/Critical and an associated book imprint. It might be worth connecting with them to raise the profile of the thinking underway in the Literary Activism project. But I don't want to lose the polemical edge of Literary Activism. The danger of market hyperbole is matched by the bland conformity of academic discourse. The LA project successfully resists both. What are your thoughts, if any, on the Literary Activism imprint? CB: The books extend the work of the meetings and the website is a necessary way. Because, in the end, books still serve to ground our discourse. JC: It strikes me as a valuable initiative. SM: I think we are becoming people with rapidly receding literary and cultural memories. We're now ruthlessly presentist, and almost immediately, ruthlessly futurist too. But literature and culture are nothing without the past, and memory and affection for it. One key thing the Literary Activism imprint does is to revive thoughts, archives, and books that we need to remember and re-remember. This is something I tried to do with a column I wrote for the Los Angeles Review of Books from 2020 to 2022, 'Another Look at India's Books'. The books published in the new imprint are exquisite, and the plainness of their covers is a bold statement. What does the Literary Activism project – and its timeline – say about our literary culture? CB: We are in a post-post-colonial world. Those of us working with 'Literary Activism' are peers engaged in exchange. For me, that means learning more about West Bengali literature and culture, and more generally Indian culture – beginnng to have a deeper and more resonant sense of the full resources of 20th century thinking and poetics. So then, in the 21st century, I am less hamstrung by the pervasive parochialism and underdevelopment of American culture. 'Literary Activism' wakes me up to the world. JC: The marketisation of literature and writers continues with very little understanding of what might be lost in this process. Since the Literary Activism project began this has been increasingly informed by the presence of social media and, more recently, AI. In the process a certain kind of literary experience is likely to disappear. We need to resist this disappearance and the Literary Activism project offers a way of doing so.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Reel Life: NFAI preserves the 8mm world of Jai Dordi Vakil
Discarding doesn't come easy to Delhi-based ethnomusicologist and archivist Shubha Chaudhuri. Which explains the boxes of vintage sarees and a suitcase containing black-and-white family photographs, some featuring faces even her 98-year-old mother cannot recognize. It took years, but she finally managed to clear out the Colaba flat of her mother's "pretty, practical and proper" elder sister, Jai Dordi Vakil, who passed away in 2022, two months shy of 100. Among the belongings, Chaudhuri—executor of her aunt's estate—uncovered a projector, Ganeshotsav slides, various untitled frames, and most notably, reels of 8mm and Super 8mm home movies that have now found a home at Pune's National Film Archive of India (NFAI). A popular amateur film format introduced in the 1930s, 8mm was compact, affordable and easy to use, making it the go-to medium for home movie makers long before digital video became accessible. Described by NFAI as "a window into mid-20th-century life," the reels chronicle a life well-travelled and quietly documented. "I don't know what's on the reels or what condition they're in," says Chaudhuri. "But I'm sure there's travel footage and shots of military planes that could be of interest," she adds, having donated the archive with help from her friend, architect-filmmaker Nachiket Patwardhan. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Ready for a Glow-Up? [Get Your Reading Now] Undo Glow-Up Packages from $15 [Sign Up] Undo Affect Your Future Now! (Book Today) Undo You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai Born in 1922, Vakil studied at St Xavier's College in Mumbai, learned French and later worked at the Indian embassy in Brussels. During a posting in Delhi, she met Air Force officer Jamshed Dordi, her future husband. Together, they travelled widely—across Africa, Japan, Italy, Hong Kong, Austria, Nepal and Bhutan, and within India to Gir, Bharatpur, Kashmir, Goa and Mahabaleshwar—footage of which now survives on her 8mm reels. Though not a professional filmmaker, Vakil—whom NFAI calls an "amateur filmmaker"—had a cinematic eye. "She was technically oriented. She would repair her own car," says Chaudhuri. "While she loved documenting her travels, she couldn't pursue a career in the visual arts as life kept her moving." Safaris, American highways, European streets--her flashgun lapped it all up. "She didn't have children. Whenever my mother and I visited, she'd set up the projector and play her films," says Chaudhuri, who also found a box of alphabet cutouts used to paste titles onto the reels. "Home movies offer glimpses into domestic and communal experiences," says Prakash Magdum, managing director, NFDC-NFAI. "They're fragments of memory, capturing cultural and emotional landscapes across time and class." Preserving such material isn't easy. "Celluloid often arrives with an unknown history—how it was stored, whether it was rewound or handled well," explains Magdum. "We stabilize and preserve it under archival conditions." Once digitized, curated excerpts may be made accessible to students and researchers. "We're already collaborating with cultural institutions and looking to expand engagement," says Magdum. Vakil's story is a reminder that the visual history of Indian cinema is shaped not only by stars and studios but also by women with cameras and quiet curiosity. "She put in effort labelling slides, camera gear, old photos," says Chaudhuri. After Jamshed's death in 1995, Vakil—who loved Western classical music and concerts—seemed to withdraw. "She had stopped labelling things after 2015. Though she had four cupboards full of pretty clothes, she would wear the same ten pairs. " Vakil visited Iran with friends, and once came to Delhi, recalls Chaudhuri. But that was that: "She wasn't one to travel solo."
Scroll.in
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Podcast: The radical legacy of the 19th century ‘Young Bengal' movement
In October 1843, a European journal in Calcutta noticed a group of educated Bengalis, graduates of the city's Hindu College, and savagely mocked them. They were 'cutting their way through ham and beef, and wading to liberalism through tumblers of beer'. The object of the magazine's satire, Young Bengal, was a group that did, indeed, gain infamy for their hard drinking and a propensity to fling beefsteaks into the houses of orthodox Brahmins. But, as Rosinka Chaudhuri notes in India's First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire, there was much more to this group than their dietary and drinking habits. Young Bengal constituted the first generation of modern Indians, individuals who espoused liberty, equality, secularism, and a more representative form of government. They set a template for progressive reform that resonates in India even today. In this episode of Past Imperfect, Chaudhuri provides a corrective to this maligned and misunderstood cohort. Members of Young Bengal entered the Hindu College in the late 1820s and were taken under the wing of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, a masterful instructor who was only a few years older than them. Under Derozio's guidance, they pored over the works of John Locke and Thomas Paine, recited the verses of Milton and Byron, and began questioning everything in the world around them. Derozio died tragically young, at the age of 22, but his students kept alive his love of liberty and a penchant for heterodox ideas. Parents were not so pleased about this. As Chaudhuri tells us, many irate fathers, horrified at their sons' rejection of caste and Hindu rites, went so far as to drug and abduct them, hoping to cast them as far away as possible from the gates of the Hindu College. Such tactics, however, did not quite go to plan. By the early 1830s, Young Bengal was establishing newspapers which broadcast their reformist ethos. Members were busy laying the foundations for a much bigger movement which included schools, a learned society, and what Chaudhuri believes is India's first political party. The very name Young Bengal, applied retrospectively to the group, reflected their modern, cosmopolitan outlook: it was a nod to Young Italy and Young Ireland, idealistic nationalist groupings in Europe. They certainly gained international attention. An American bookseller, learning of their interest in Thomas Paine, arranged for shipments of his works to be dispatched to Calcutta, where students offered five times the market rate for copies. But Young Bengal's most notable international project was helping convince George Thompson, a celebrated British campaigner for abolition and Indian political reform, to visit Calcutta. In 1843, Thompson worked with Young Bengal to establish the Bengal British India Society, a political body committed to 'extend the just rights and advance the interest of all classes' in India. In fora like the Bengal British India Society, these Bengalis did not simply pontificate about things like free speech and equality. They prized a very public demonstration of these ideals. Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee delivered a speech which was so condemnatory of British colonial rule that the Hindu College's principal cut him off and publicly accused him of treason (members of Young Bengal, in turn, condemned the principal for his behavior). Radhanath Sikdar, a mathematical genius and the first man to ascertain that Mount Everest was the highest point on earth, filed a case against the white magistrate of Dehra Dun for mistreating coolies. As could be expected, these confrontations triggered deep resentment and opposition. Sikdar was hounded by colleagues at his place of employment, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. These colleagues subsequently scrubbed Sikdar's name from the story of how the highest mountain in the world gained its title. A resentful Sikdar chose early retirement, deliberately relocating beyond the frontiers of the British Raj to the French enclave of Chandernagore. Aside from irate parents, many other Indians took umbrage at how the group flouted the norms of traditional Hindu society. Observers as far away as Bombay and Madras surveyed their activities with a mix of incredulity, outrage, and admiration. And, beyond the beer and beef, one other thing stuck to Young Bengal: the notion that they were a failure. What did they accomplish, after all? Radical open-mindedness did not quite take off beyond their small circle. The Bengal British India Society went bust in a few years. By the late 19th century, even other educated Bengalis, men like Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Michael Madhusudan Dutt, were heaping scorn on the group, criticizing their overtly Westernised manners and mocking their excesses. Chaudhuri regrets this turn against Young Bengal, but acknowledges that it had a very long influence. To this day, historians have been wary of studying the cohort, seeing it as somewhat of an embarrassment. A book like India's First Radicals, therefore, is long overdue, a much-needed chapter in the longer story of modern India's genesis. While that chapter included its share of alcohol and red meat, it was also marked by courage, a love of truth and a burning desire to make India a better society. Dinyar Patel is an associate professor of history at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai. His award-winning biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism, was published by Harvard University Press in May 2020.
Miami Herald
10-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
At a tense town hall, Democrats offer a peek at their messaging on Trump's ‘Big Bill'
Despite what Republicans say about the merits of the so-called 'big, beautiful bill,' they are not eager to talk about it in public forums. Democrats, however, can't wait to discuss the highly unpopular legislation with their constituents. On Tuesday night, two Wake County Democrats, state Sen. Jay Chaudhuri and state Rep. Tim Longest, got that chance. Their town hall had been scheduled in advance of President Donald Trump's July 4 signing of the bill, but the timing turned out to be, in Chaudhuri's words, a 'fortuitous' opportunity to hear voters' concerns and shape a Democratic response. After the town hall drew what Chaudhuri considered a strong crowd of about 50 people on a summer night, he said, 'I think Donald Trump just handed state Democrats some of the best messaging.' During the event, he also credited another Republican with helping with the Democratic narrative. Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina's senior senator, voted against the bill after speaking on the Senate floor. 'For anyone who listened to Tillis' speech, I think that was as thorough an analysis as you will find,' Chaudhuri said. 'He came to the conclusion that, bottom line, the 'big, beautiful bill' will cost the state, at the best case scenario $26 billion over 10 years, $32 billion, worst case scenario scenario.' The two lawmakers tried to make the event at the Pullen Park Community Center a nonpartisan discussion of how the loss of federal aid will complicate a state budget that's already strained by past and planned tax cuts. Heba Atwa of the nonprofit NC Budget & Tax Center gave a presentation on the effects the new federal law will have on Medicaid and the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. But there was no missing the political dynamics behind the painful combination of the Republican-controlled General Assembly reducing state tax revenue and Republicans in Washington cutting food assistance and access to medical care. The questions from the audience made the political tone clear. One woman asked, 'What plans do Democrats have to regain control of the legislature?' Another said she feels the nation is 'in a car with no brakes and we're heading toward a precipice.' Another felt overwhelmed by the volume of divisive issues coming out of the Trump administration. She told the lawmakers, 'There's always been things to oppose, but not at this pace.' Chaudhuri said he and other Democrats may hold town halls in Republican districts, but the most persuasive message will come from those most affected. 'I actually believe that the best voices are those of the people who are impacted,' he said. 'These are the stories that have to be pushed out.' Longest said opposition can't simply come from Democratic lawmakers. It must come from the public. 'I do not doubt that the volume of comment he received persuaded Sen. Tillis to vote against the 'big, ugly bill,' ' Longest said. 'It was not, ultimately, at the end of the day research, or any lobbyists, it was hearing from ordinary North Carolinians about the effects this was going to have on our state.' Ellen Beidler, a retired nurse, left the event in a somber mood. She saw what happened to people who lacked health insurance before Medicaid was expanded, some of them finally coming in for medical care after their cancer had reached a late stage. Now she worries that people will be returned to that vulnerable condition. 'I'm really heartbroken over what's happening to health care,' she said, 'We're all connected and we're all going to get hurt.' Chaudhuri said that health care concerns will be at the center of Democrats' messaging and at the center of Republicans' dilemma over the legislation. 'You're going to take away their chemotherapy coverage for cancer in order to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, and create a huge fiscal deficit in the process?' he said. 'What part of the bill actually resonates with the public?' The legislation was not resonating Tuesday night, but the early town hall suggests it is alarming the public – and energizing the opposition.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Not all AI stocks are winners, bonds could be a hedge against volatility: BlackRock Strategist
The artificial intelligence trade has powered markets to record highs this year, but not every AI stock will come out on top, cautions one of BlackRock's (BLK) top strategists. Gargi Pal Chaudhuri, chief investment and portfolio strategist for the Americas at BlackRock, says investors need to start getting more selective within the AI space as tariff risks rise and earnings season kicks off. 'We're thinking about investing actively, even within the AI theme,' Chaudhuri said in an interview on Yahoo Finance's Open Bid. 'Given these tariffs headlines that are going to continue to play out over the next few months, we think there are going to be winners and losers within the space.' After a first half filled with surprises, from a deepening global rate divergence to a broadening of the Magnificent Seven rally, investors can't assume the same playbook will work in the second half of 2025. One under-the-radar hedge, she says, is in bonds, particularly inflation-linked securities like TIPS and STIP, which can help shield portfolios if sticky inflation reemerges or new tariffs begin to bite. Chaudhuri suggests the need for a better toolkit to handle the downsides of tariffs and rate swings, especially since they hit different areas and industries. 'Allocating to the inflation-linked space, especially at the very long end of the curve, can be a really good addition to a portfolio right now,' Chaudhuri said. The comments come as Wall Street is recalibrating its expectations for rate cuts. After pricing in just one or no cuts earlier this year, some investors now expect two by year-end, thanks to softer inflation data and a cooling labor market. Chaudhuri said rate cut hopes, combined with low expectations for the upcoming earnings season, have helped steady market sentiment even as risks mount. Read more: How the Fed rate decision affects your bank accounts, loans, credit cards, and investments 'After the incredible Q1 earnings season, expectations are low,' she said. 'Many are expecting certain areas, such as tech and software, particularly AI names, to beat." Chaudhuri added that while many equity markets could broadly go higher in the second half, the path won't be smooth. On Monday, Trump posted letters impacting 14 countries on tariffs, with rates ranging from 25% to 40%. The president warned that there will be no extension to the tariff negotiation deadline of Aug. 1. The call for more active positioning is echoed in BlackRock's broader midyear strategy. The firm's analysts argue that market outcomes are increasingly being shaped by policy decisions, from rate policy to fiscal spending, rather than just corporate fundamentals. For now, the mood heading into the second half is about thoughtfulness. 'Sure, maybe equity markets can go higher. But you really have to pick your spots,' Chaudhuri said. Francisco Velasquez is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. He can be reached on LinkedIn and X. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
