Vishnu Wagh's controversial Sudirsukt

[Augusto Pinto]

Vishnu Wagh might have been laid low by the heart attacks he suffered last year but if reports like the one in today's The Navhind Times (attached) are anything to go by, then his brain is as sharp as ever.

Apparently his new collection of poems Sudirsukt which is set to win an important literary award from Goa Konkani Akademi has landed itself in a raging controversy for targeting the Saraswat community.

Obviously Saraswati like Uday Bhembre will accuse Wagh of stoking social tensions. Incidentally Bhembre is no innocent when it comes to doing the same himself with targets like English language protagonists and the Church but he doesn't like the screws being turned on him and his own.

I don't think that this uproar would have much effect if there wasn't a grain of truth in it. It's significant that the charge against Wagh comes from the NT which is widely seen as a promoter of Saraswat interests.

Augusto

[Frederick Noronha]

On 15 August 2017 at 18:19, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Vishnu Wagh might have been laid low by the heart attacks he suffered last year but if reports like the one in today's The Navhind Times (attached) are anything to go by, then his brain is as sharp as ever. 

Apparently, the book was published in 2013. FN

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[Augusto Pinto]

Here are some rough translations of a couple of the snippets from Sudirsukt given in the NT.

Swami

Their Swami
Sits in their 'mathas'
Sits in their temples
And on their people alone
Stamps his 'mudra'.

XXX

Photographs of their Swami
Along with their people
Are printed
In their newspapers.

XXX

In their Swami's name
Prizes are instituted
And awarded to their own people.

XXX
(A 'matha' is a kind of Hindu monastery. A 'mudra' is apparently a kind of a seal that is heated by a swami and used to brand a devotee's arm or stomach.)

The Difference

They eat fish
We eat fish.

XX

They booze
And we booze.

XX

They fuck women
We fuck women too.

XX

They bathe
And we also bathe.

XX

After they bathe
They become pure
We however
Remain polluted.

Augusto







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[V M]

Amazing. Please translate more, Augusto!

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[Augusto Pinto]

Sent from my iPhone

On 16-Aug-2017, at 12:49 AM, V M <vmi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Amazing. Please translate more, Augusto!

Dear VM

I'm glad you liked the translations which I posted here without giving having anyone else to vet them.

I too think Wagh's poems are pretty powerful in their sustained deployment of irony and sarcasm if the few examples cited in the NT article are indicative.

When I read the NT article I got the impression from the references to 'extreme and insulting language'; 'threatening the social and communal fabric'; 'filthiest language' and so on, I thought that Wagh's Sudirsukt was all crude pornography.

However the snippets that I've translated indicate that although those who understand the context within which Wagh wrote may understand the targets of his ire the poetry isn't dependent on the caste context and jells with anyone who has experienced injustice.

BTW VM you recently wrote a passionate essay in the TOI critiqueing the abuse of Hansda Shekhar. 

I guess you realise that the attacks on Vishnu Wagh by the likes of Uday Bhembre are akin to those which try to intimidate Hansda.

As curator of GALF along with Mauzo I feel you guys should make Sudirsukt the centrepiece of GALF 2017.

Best 

Augusto 

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[FM N]

"After they bathe
They become pure
We however
Remain polluted."

Neat.

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[V M]

Thank you, Augusto. Already working on this! In the meantime please
translate more, if you can. It's obvious these pithy, acerbic poems
have a lot of literary merit...

Warmly, VM

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[alan machado]

Thanks Augusto.

like a bursting suppurating boil 

Any idea where I could get a copy?

Alan

Augusto

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[Frederick Noronha]

On 15 August 2017 at 19:23, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here are some rough translations of a couple of the snippets from Sudirsukt given in the NT. 

After they bathe
They become pure
We however
Remain polluted.

Just for my understanding, would one read this as a protest against some past or continuing form of ritual 'purity', or a wider comment against domination/hegemony in an in-egalitarian society?

My feeling is that religion and caste (in all its shapes) tends to be extra complex in Goa. As the report below suggests, the Bahujan communities have been attempting to build up alternative centres of religious hierarchies:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/4004/swamis-marriage-upsets-sect-followers.html

Swami's marriage upsets sect followers in Goa

Last updated: 23 May, 2009

Devika Sequeira, Panaji: 23:08 IST

His decision to take a bride has set off an acrimonious debate

The recent marriage of a Hindu spiritual head in Goa has divided his large flock with some of his followers publicly asking him to step down, saying he has lowered the sanctity of his position.

P P Brahmeshanand Swami’s decision to take a bride has set off an acrimonious debate within the Padmanabh Sampradaya, Goa’s largest bahujan samaj sect. A public meeting at Ponda was called for the priest to relinquish charge of his spiritual duties after his May 12 wedding became public. The swami, in his early 20s, heads the Tapobhumi Mutt in Madkaim, South Goa.

The Padmanabh Sampradaya does not forbid its religious heads from marrying. But the present swami was expected to remain detached from his family and other ties because of his anointment at a very early age, say followers. He came into the position at the age of 18 after the death of the hugely popular Brahmanand Swami in 2003. 

Mockery of the sect

It was understood that he would have to break off relations with his family, and not to have any attachments that would lower his spiritual authority, says Marathi writer, politician and core member of the sect, Vishnu Wagh. 

Brahmeshanand’s decision to move his family into the mutt, host a huge wedding for his sister and import creature comforts such as air-conditioner into the spiritual abode make a mockery of the sects core beliefs, says Wagh. 

Goa’s bahujan samaj made up largely of the bhandari samaj, the kharvis (fishing community) and some others set up a branch of the Mumbai-based Padmanabh Shishya Sampradaya here to break away from the stranglehold of the upper castes over the Hindu priesthood. A number of non-brahmins from Goa were sent to Nasik by the sect to do religious studies in Sanskrit for the first time, says Wagh.
DH News Service

[Augusto Pinto]

Dear Alan

I went to Goa Konkani Akademi and was surprised to find that they had no copy for sale.

It's surprising because the book isn't likely to have sold out so fast. Also given that the book is supposed to be shortlisted for a GKA prize they should have kept copies available.

If you want a copy of this Devanagari script book maybe you'll have to contact the publisher Hema Naik, Apurbai Prakashan, Volvoi, Ponda, Goa.

In the meantime I would like to inform you that from conversations with friends in the Konkani movement I learnt that there is a huge amount of politics, personal as well as caste-linked involved with the award proposed  to be given to Sudirsukt.

Apparently Vishnu Wagh has had a love-hate relationship with the Konkani movement and it's protagonists.

I've heard him being called a traitor, a turncoat and a snake among other epithets.

Now the problem with Sudirsukt is that there are a variety of issues involving both the author and the work. I'll try to sort them all in a future post.

Best 

Augusto 

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[JOAO FERNANDES]

The saraswat community of Goa don't want other community literature to come up, particularly those literature which is against them or which expose their misdeeds/falsities  or the literate which put their literature flat. 

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[Augusto Pinto]

Yes Joao, you're quite right.

Here's another poem by Vishnu. Be warned that he isn't the most feminist writer around.

Transparency 

An actress 
Who worked in hot films

Got the ticket of the ruling party 

And stood for elections...

She won

And became a representative 

In the Assembly 

XX

Since then 

Democracy has become transparent 

XX

Whenever she got up to speak 

There was an uproar in the House 

And tearing each other's clothes 

The other representatives 

Became naked.

XX

Augusto 

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[Frederick Noronha]

Unrelated to this thread... or is it? Dorothy Figueira reminds us that there's a lot of myth making going on in such issues, on many sides. (Apologies for having to paraphrase Trump in another context.) FN

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aryans-and-others/

Aryans and Others

How Europeans and Indians deployed myths regarding ancient Aryans in their various reform and nationalist projects.

397

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By: Express News Service Written by Dorothy M Figueira | Updated: March 13, 2015 3:08 pm

Are recent claims to past and present Indian exceptionalism any different from those of Dayananda, Tilak, or Vivekananda? (Illustration by: Pradeep Yadav)

My study begins by charting the initial discussions regarding the Aryan in the work of Voltaire and his quest for an Aryan urtext in the Ezour Vedam. Voltaire sought in India a sophisticated culture as far removed as possible from that of the ancient Hebrews. In this respect, ancient India provided him with an alibi in the true sense of the term, an elsewhere upon which he could superimpose his critique of the Judeo-Christian tradition.The figure of the Aryan has captivated literary imagination in both India and the West since the classical era and provides a fitting subject of inquiry for comparatists who wish to examine its cross-cultural emplotment. However, from a solely literary perspective, identifying the Aryan is a challenging task, since the texts used to delineate this figure are elusive; they function as absent authorities, often evoked but rarely cited. Moreover, the Aryan is not just the figure that historians and linguists have sought to isolate, situate and follow in its migrations, but has also been the subject of myth-making. Myths regarding the Aryan have been wielded to deconstruct identity and construct new social forms. In my book, Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorising Authority through Myths of Identity, I examine how the Aryan myth is a shared myth in Europe and in India from the Enlightenment to the modern era.

As canonical Sanskrit texts were gradually translated into European languages and disseminated, 19th-century mythographers sought to read the history of the Aryans through their myths. Aryan India was cut to fit the Romantic ideals of a revealed monotheism and the development of a people’s unique character, and their gradual degeneration. With the appearance of Max Mueller’s edition of the Rig Veda and his voluminous commentary, the Aryans were no longer merely Europe’s distant cousins. Their textual presence finally confirmed the existence of a tradition as old as (if not older) than that of the Bible. In the West, this “discovery” of the Aryans through the Veda effectively displaced the Jews from their central position on the world stage. The Jews could now be assigned a subaltern role in history. For the remainder of the 19th century, this myth of the Aryan was employed to construct an ideal imaginary past for Europe. It fostered nationalism and, in the process, identified a mythic scapegoat in the figure of the Jew. The Jew and the Aryan would now become the operative dyad, as seen in the work of Nietzsche, Gobineau, H.S. Chamberlain, and finally in the ravings of Nazi ideologues.

At roughly the same time that the European Romantics were speculating about their imaginary Aryan ancestors, the Hindu reformer Raja Rammohan Roy was laying the foundation for the Brahmo Samaj with translations of Sanskrit scriptures into vernacular languages. In order to affect his reform, Rammohan Roy felt that this literature needed to be liberated from its Brahmin custodians. Toward this end, the raja sometimes even rewrote texts to depict an ideal Aryan past in which certain religious practices (such as idolatry and sati) did not exist. With his translations, he established rules for textual validity and corrected the excrescences that he felt had led to extreme practices. The raja’s reform strategy was subsequently emulated by Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, who also sought to make Sanskrit canonical sources available to a wider range of believers by developing a series of interpretive strategies to extricate Vedic revelation from its hermeticism and ritualism. In order to portray the Aryans as sophisticated, Dayananda “translated” the Veda to show that they had knowledge of telegraphy and chemistry. The myth of the Aryan Golden Age promulgated by both these Hindu reform movements set the stage for the development of Hindu nationalism.

By the time of Tilak, an ideal portrait of the Aryan had been activated to foster national self-esteem. Like Dayananda, Tilak attributed to the Aryans knowledge of science and technology. As valiant survivors of an ice-age glacial catastrophe in the Arctic, the Aryans travelled from the North Pole to civilise the world. Tilak’s Aryans were so advanced that they survived this migration and brought their considerable skills (and their scriptures) to the lands they invaded. Vivekananda would further develop this theme of racial and cultural superiority. Unlike other Indian reformers, Vivekananda did not limit his campaign to the domestic front but exported it abroad. It was before Californian and Chicagoan society matrons that he detailed his vision of an Aryan future grounded in a racialist argument. In this glorification, it was clear that the Brahmin descendants of the Aryans would be the only true beneficiaries of this myth-making.

Jyotirao Phule and B.R. Ambedkar, however, recognised that these various theories needed reinterpretation in order to locate the struggles of the oppressed castes within the historical perspective of the Aryan conquest of India. Phule began by revising the Aryan invasion theory to define culture by its subculture. He turned the myth of the Aryan back upon the elite, by taking just those strengths and virtues attributed to the Aryan by Western Orientalists and Brahmin reformers and transferring them to the lower castes. Instead of appealing to an Aryan Golden Age, Phule called for the reestablishment of an alternative mythical age — a non-Aryan Golden Age during the reign of King Bali. More importantly, by challenging the myth of a utopian Indian past, he introduced the new category of reason into the discussion.

Ambedkar began his mission where Phule left off. Ambedkar started by challenging the authority of the Veda as the source of Aryan identity. He called into question its canonicity and infallibility and rejected its racial portrayal of the Aryans. He also questioned textually based social reform that clearly served the needs of the privileged, lettered castes. Ambedkar concluded that all privileged-caste Hindu speculation regarding the Aryans was nothing but a strategy devised to support Brahmin superiority, justify their overlordship over non-Brahmins and satisfy Brahmin arrogance. In their anti-Aryan polemics, both Phule and Ambedkar launched a radical attack on Hindu revivalism, codified as it was in the elite myth of the past.

Valorising the irrational in myth was (and is) symptomatic of the same disease that enables the irrational to flourish in politics. It is this “underside” of myth that my book examines: how Europeans and Indians deployed myths regarding the ancient Aryans in their various reform and nationalist projects. In both the East and the West, the resulting conclusions were, unfortunately, the same. If you did not possess Aryan blood, you could not be civilised and those peoples identified as non-Aryan “others” needed to be neutralised or even destroyed. Phule and Ambedkar saw the danger inherent in the Aryan myth, challenged it, and sought to debunk it.

If someone had told me when I was writing this book that its thesis would be relevant today, I would have been surprised. But as I assess the present situation, I am astonished by the degree to which its thesis resonates today. I never envisioned that the Aryan myth could be resuscitated so easily, as in those instances when the elected leader of a secular India discusses the genius of the ancient Indians having knowledge of plastic surgery, aeronautics and reproductive technology; or when, on a recent visit to New York, he praises the superiority of modern diasporic professional Indians. Are such recent claims to past and present Indian exceptionalism any different from those of Dayananda, Tilak, or Vivekananda? The myth of Indians inhabiting a Golden Age of technological and moral advancement is the same. It has its believers, as recent events have demonstrated. In light of this ongoing deployment of the Aryan myth, our task becomes clear. We must remember the work of Phule and Ambedkar, and look to their legatees to challenge this mythmaking and offer a counter-narrative.

Excerpted from the preface to ‘Aryans, Jews ,Brahmins’ (2015) published by Navayana. Figueira is professor of comparative literature at the University of Georgia, US.

[alan machado]

Frederick

Did you know that the earliest swastika symbols come from the Ukraine? Also Aryan heritage plausibly belongs to the Sintashta/Arkaim culture at the southern foothills of the Urals? Some Russians are now claiming it as their own! Hitler will be turning over if Goebels tells him this.  

More on this later if there is interest

Alan

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[alan machado]

Thanks Augusto

I will be incommunicado for a day or two as the flat is being painted and computer will be disconnected. But will revert later as this is a topic of interest. Have been reading up a lot on the origins of Konknni and Konknni speakers- it is so, so complex. hunter gather local languages, Dravidian, outer and Middle Indo Aryan. Let me see if I can put together a plausible hypothesis. It will remain so until some younger talented individuals take it further. 

My reading also involves the peopling of Goa. Am exploring if it can be taken beyond desk work- that depends on the support I can muster. The Sarasvat traditions are the most recent and most potent attempt at forming an exclusive identity. In the process other communities have been sidelined 

I recently discovered that my paternal genes belong to J-M172- links me to Aldona and the migrations from the Fertile Crescent. There are good reasons to believe a relatively major input took place around 4200 years ago when a 300 year drought afflicted the region from Egypt to our Indus. 

My maternal is M4- that links me to the Out of Africa event- M4 is found in Saudi Arabia, Gujarat, and the Andamans-the Southern Coastal Route the first modern humans took out of Africa.

   

Meanwhile attaching a PhD thesis for digestion. Have you read Mascarenhas's genetic study of the Pai's of Loutalim? R1a but via Bolan Pass- possibly same route as my ancestors

Alan  

On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 10:29 PM, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes Joao, you're quite right.

Here's another poem by Vishnu. Be warned that he isn't the most feminist writer around.

Transparency 

An actress 
Who worked in hot films

Got the ticket of the ruling party 

And stood for elections...

She won

And became a representative 

In the Assembly 

XX

Since then 

Democracy has become transparent 

XX

Whenever she got up to speak 

There was an uproar in the House 

And tearing each other's clothes 

The other representatives 

Became naked.

XX

Augusto 

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[augusto pinto]

Dear Alan 

Thanks for the thesis which I'll look at later.

You may be quite correct in your hypothesis  but I suspect that this wouldn't cut much ice with Vishnu Surya Wagh who is the subject of this thread, or if at all it does then just to confirm his gut feelings.

I'm going to provide you with a rough translation of 'Sudirsukt' which is the title poem of his collection of the same name. I stress that it is a rough draft because I haven't had an opportunity to vet it with someone who can check my interpretations, and here and there I've resorted to some guesswork. Nevertheless I'm confident that this draft will give you a good idea of the thrust of the poem. However it's difficult to imitate the rhyme and rhythm of Konkani so the poem might appear a bit prosaic. But that's the problem with translation: if you don't attempt it the reader who doesn't know the source language doesn't have a clue.

Incidentally Sudirsukt could be rendered as The Song of the Sudirs. Suktas comes from the Sanskrit meaning well spoken, and referred to Vedic hymns. It's ironic in a way that Wagh uses Vedic models for he is pretty scathing about Vedic culture in general.

Augusto.

Sudhirsukt

 

I'm a Sudhir

My grandfather was dumb

And my father was somewhat deaf 

I'm an original settler of our land 

Where outsiders have filled their stomachs 

But I'm forever starving. 

This land deserved to be 

A fountainhead of wisdom 

Instead it became the Kashi of the south 

On account of that Parashuram…

The moment I hear his name

I get enraged

He's the one who first brought to Goa

The worm of casteism!

 

XX

 

It seems Parashuram fired an arrow 

Into the sea and it receded

Repeating this tale year in and year out 

They cheated the Bahujan Samaj  

Through this lie they wanted to establish

That this land was created by them

You sinners: if you were the first here

Then who were the Mahars, Bhandaris, Kharvis, Pagis,

Gawdas, Velips, Dhangars, Kunbis:

Who were they?

To make this land fertile 

They gave their sweat and blood 

Yes, yes:

They are us Sudhirs.

XX

You saved your lives by eating 

The fish from the River Saraswati

To eat more fish did you need 

To gobble up this land of Gomant?

 

XX

 

You uprooted the original culture 

Of the non-Aryans

And where once were immaterial Gods 

There you installed stone idols

 

XX

 

We could drive away stupors and fall into trances

Walk through fire

We'd speak face to face

With forms of nature itself that were alive 

But you with your Vedic customs

Tore apart the umbilical cord with our environment

You wiped out the 

The gods and goddesses of nature we worshipped

And opened temples

For idol worship 

 

XX

 

Whosoever came to power 

You wormed your way into their favour 

And by becoming Kulkarnis and Nadkarnis

You obliterated our names from the records 

And in time you became the landlords 

And we became your servants

Since then we've been wearing out 

Our lives for your sakes 

Yes, yes

We are exactly those Shudras.

 

XX

 

On your shoulders the sacred thread 

We wore our threads around our waists.

We exhausted our energy 

Gathering your sheaves of paddy

And silently we ate 

Fallen, leftover grain. 

Being servants we were powerless

Slaves of your daily wage 

We swept your verandas

And from our foreheads dripped a lifetime of diamonds

Yes, yes

We are those Sudhirs

 

XX

 

We have no swamis

And we have no mathas

The sanctum of the temple is closed to us

God lies in your fist

With all your differences you are all one 

Whether horizontal or vertical 

The caste marks on your foreheads

That indicate your Mahajanship suit you well

You lean against the temple pillars 

While the rath is carried on our shoulders 

You can enter the sanctum sanctorum

While we hang around outside 

All the Prasad is yours by right 

In our leaf

For generation after generation 

Came pittances

Yes, yes

We are the Sudhirs.

 

XX

 

Placing barriers around people 

You ate the best fish 

You travelled on regal roads 

Our paths were full of potholes 

To serve the gods 

You said you built temples

But besides the temples

You built harems

Those serving the gods

You turned into devadasis

What does the stone idol know of all this

You indulged yourselves to the brim 

The overwhelming power of religion 

Made you so arrogant 

You even created

A society even lower than that of the Sudhirs 

O unfortunate caste!

The world has now changed.

And like phoenixes from the ashes

They are rising in the sky 

But the memories of your misdeeds 

Creates even now

A terrible wound in my heart

Yes, yes

We are Sudhirs!

 

XX

 

Like oxen you rounded us up

And yoked us

And after the harvest was brought in

You kicked us in the arse

In the fields we expended sweat

You counted the cash

Even your piss is sweet 

Our blood is bitter!

You were really shrewd: 

We kept wetting our loincloths 

While you ate the thigur!

Yet you did have fear

Of our fists turning hostile

So you brutally slashed off

The veins in our wrists

Yes, yes

We are Sudhirs 

 

XX

 

Perhaps you thought 

Our ancestors were idiots

Who on dark footpaths 

Nobody would show a torch

We rusted as you trampled us underfoot 

You turned us into dregs like of cashew juice

And boiling the sap of our lives

You distilled liquor out of us

Everything was in your favour

A dumb grandfather, a deaf father 

Their tradition was of hopelessness

Buried in a cemetary today 

This gives us the courage to fight

Yes, yes, 

We're Sudhirs 

 

XX

 

Tearing up our old clothes 

We’ve formed a new incarnation In our hearts 

With lamps of our eyeballs

We’ll light candles of moonlight 

We want an open dawn

We're fed up of these dark nights!

For us the Shambhukalo mantra

The writing of Tukaram

The light has become a lamp

With the voice given by Bhim!

We've taken the shastras to straighten them out

On all sides has begun an outcry

For a great battle

Yes yes 

We are Sudhirs

 

XX

 

If you have the guts 

Come before us

We’ll crack your skulls

In a flood of public humiliation!

For the first time in centuries 

Our mobs are now incensed

They want reparation

And they’re banging on your door...

With tilaks of blood on their foreheads

A holy fire is burning away the darkness

Our bodies in a trance, our loins girded up

We've become mad pirs…

And we'll show your Brahminism

Our strength in public…

And all who are with us

Will see that our fortunes are reversed 

Not because we're Sudhirs 

But just to live like human beings…

Just to live like human beings… 

We're… the bravest of humankind

We're Sudhirs! 

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[Frederick Noronha]

Former BJP MLA's poems take potshots at Goa's caste-elite, stir controversy 

By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar  |  IANS  |   Published: 21st August 2017 08:04 PM  |   Last Updated: 21st August 2017 08:04 PM   |   A+A A-   |  

Vishnu Wagh

Sudhir Sukta, a collection of poems by a former BJP legislator, which takes graphic and at times raunchy potshots at the state's influential Goud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) community, has brought to fore faultlines in Goa's relatively insidious but omnipresent caste hierarchy.

Vishnu Wagh, a prolific, award-winning writer and poet, is currently recuperating following a massive heart attack which he suffered last year, but his book, published by Goa-based Apurbai Prakashan in 2013, has struck controversy now after it was finalised for a state award.

Poet Sanjeev Verenkar, a jury member, objected to the book being finalised for the Goa Konkani Academy award and argued that the government shouldn't endorse literature which is laced with vulgarity, slams a particular caste and is derisive of women.

Justifying his decision to leak the decision of the three-member jury, comprising Nilba Khandekar, Sonali Chodankar and himself, before a formal announcement, Verenkar said that while poets and writers had the freedom to write and even incorporate "vulgar" language in their text, the government should not endorse such writing with state awards.

"I agree, leaking the result (declaring Wagh the winner) is unethical, but my intention was the greater good. The poems are critical of a particular community and have potential to stoke communal tension. Poets are free to write what they want and there should be no compulsion on it, but a government agency shouldn't endorse such vulgar, reckless writing," Verenkar told IANS.

Wagh has been critical of the caste-oriented social order and right-wing politics. His literature has often reflected this contour of thought.

In Sudhir Sukta, for example, a poem, Farak (Difference) expresses angst against Goa's caste elite, the GSBs.

Sample this: They eat fish/We eat fish too/They drink alcohol/We drink it too/They f... women/We f... them too/They bathe/We bathe too/But after bathing/They emerge pure/But we continue to be impure/Or else, how could they/Walk into the sanctum sanatorium and touch God?/And we/Can only catch a mere glimpse from the outside/Before getting edged away/There is a difference between them and us.

The consistent refusal by managements of popular Goan temples to allow non-Brahmins into the sanctum sanctorum, has often triggered outbursts against the GSB community, which, though small numerically, occupies key positions in state politics, administration, business, literature and academia.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a GSB himself, had released Sudhir Sukta in 2013, a book which Verenkar says lacks context, apart from being "vulgar".

"It abuses women and Saraswat Brahmins. In literature, even if you use vulgarity, it has to be relevant to the context," Verenkar maintained.

Another poem in the 152-page book, which Verenkar objects to, is Sanddh (Opportunity), a sexually-explicit conversation between a low-caste man and his upper-caste female lover.

The book's publisher, Hema Naik, a Sahitya Akademi award-winning author herself, maintained that freedom of speech allows writers and poets to express their angst and feelings.

She denied that Sudhir Sukta derides a specific caste but also underlined that exploitation of lower castes by upper castes over the centuries is a fact.

"It is his personal opinion. He has the freedom to write what he wants. There is no basis to the allegation that the book targets a specific caste. But isn't it a fact that upper castes have exploited those below them over generations?" asked Naik, whose Apurbai Prakashan has published more than 100 titles over the past over three decades.

While Goa Konkani Academy president Prakash Vazrikar maintained that the winner's name is still in "sealed cover", the controversy has attracted the ire of the GSB community's intelligensia.

"If awards are given to something that is a threat to society, then that would directly mean encouragement to it, and nothing else," well-known writer Uday Bhembre said after the controversy erupted.

But others like Kaustubh Naik, Wagh's nephew and a research scholar at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, beg to differ.

Strongly condemning the vilification of Wagh, Naik said the poems mirror the narrative of late Namdeo Dhasal, a radical Dalit poet and Padma Shri winner from Maharashtra.

"Award or no award, it does not change Wagh's stature as one of the most influential modern poets from Goa. The poems' texture resembles the poetry of Dhasal and it entirely rejects the Brahminical sense of aesthetics and profanity," Naik claimed.

http://www.indulgexpress.com/culture/art/2017/aug/21/former-bjp-mlas-poems-take-potshots-at-goas-caste-elite-stir-controversy-3195.html

[alan machado]

Augusto Thanks

This is gut wrenching!!!

Will respond in more detail sometime later. 

Alan

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[Augusto Pinto]

Here's another of Wagh's rockets which reminds me of Lucio Rodrigues's 'To Kon'nallo'.

Secular 

At first 

I wasn't aware 

Of the techniques they used to identify caste.

One day I went to a friend's home.

In the veranda sat an uncle.

We were introduced.

XX

Wagh? So you're one of us, son!

Uncle said chuckling.

I was confused.

XX

Still, to clear any doubts 

He asked-

"You must be related to the Kamat Waghs of Ribandar"

"No", I replied.

"Then you must be from Karwar."

"No. We're from Goa itself."

"Really? From where?"

"From Dongrim."

"So you must be the Mahajan of the Ram temple."

"No. Our goddess is a Sati."

XX

Even after speaking so much

Uncle wasn't sure - so he asked-

"Okay so who is the god of your clan, tell me ?"

I replied, "Siddhanath!"

"Of Shiroda?"

"Yes."

"Which means... you aren't a GSB!"

"No Uncle, we're Bhandaris."

XX

Uncle laughed aloud. He began to say-

"Don't be offended. I just happened to ask.

We don't believe in caste and creed. Come, have your tea.

You know: the greatest loss to Goa

Has resulted from these caste divisions.

Who's Brahmin? Who's Sudhir?

What meaning do these differences of caste and creed have?

'We should be secular

We must have a casteless society, you know?'"

XX

Uncle in the hope 

Of getting a reply, kept watching.

My head was bent

But as I drank my tea

My gaze got affixed on 

The sacred thread on Uncle's shoulder.

Sent from my iPhone

On 23-Aug-2017, at 2:39 PM, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here's a portion of Wagh's The Family, which I presume is his tribute to the Congress Party of which he was once a member.

The Family 

India is my country.

I have great admiration for my country.

For the ruling party 

Running this country I have more admiration 

And for the great leaders of that party 

I have even greater admiration!

And for their families 

My admiration knows no bounds!

XX

I don't use my father's name 

My grandfather's name doesn't come to mind easily 

I've no idea who my great grandfather was

So don't even talk about my great great grandfather.

But I know the names 

Of the dead of the family of my leaders 

By heart.

I sing praises to this great family.

I am the devoted servant of all the customs 

And traditions of this great family.

This family has given so many leaders to this country 

That no other family has given 

This is my confident belief!

XX

My party 

Does not believe in family rule

This is also what I greatly admire!

My party's family rule 

Is set out on democratic lines

Of this I have even greater admiration!

XX

Sent from my iPhone

[V M]

Really excellent poems. Thanks very much for translating + sharing, Augusto...

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--

[Augusto Pinto]

Here's another powerful polemic by Wagh:

Castes

Here nobody asks

About the other's caste 

But everybody knows 

Who's who

XX

That's a Gawda, that's a Bhandari,

That's a Kharvi, that's a Chari,

That's a Vani, that's a Devli,

That's a Kunbi, that's a Gawli,

That's a Madval, that's a Kansar,

That's a Mhalo, that's a Kalaikar,

That's a Maratha, that's a Satarkar,

That's a Chamar, that's a Mahar,

That's a Shet, that's a Kumbhar,

Everyone knows each other 

XX

Castes don't spring up just like that 

On someone's lips

But like mynas

Stay in Mugren

In everyone's stomachs.

XX

At least we are okay 

Among them there are castes within castes 

Some are the horizontal kind 

Others are the vertical 

And besides 

There are walls between walls 

This one's a GSB, that's a Kudaldeshkar,

That's a Chitrapur, and the other's a Bardezkar

XX

Are the priests at least one?

Among them too some are Chitpavan 

Some Dravid, some Padhe,

And some Kirvont

XX

People have castes 

Do castes have people?

Hunger has no caste 

Does caste have hunger?

Every caste has some desire 

Some agony 

But does desire and agony 

Have any caste?

XX

All praise to the son of a cunt

Who invented caste 

And on humanity's corpses

Built fences.

Sent from my iPhone

[Frederick Noronha]

This is beginning to sound like a one-sided, David-versus-Goliath battle (and who would really venture out to defend caste privilege, anyway?). So, I'd like to play devil's advocate here, and suggest that it's not all that cut-and-dry.

Such battles also have a lot to do with politics, power, privilege, critiquing and justifying the hegemony of old and neo elites in post-1961 Goa, the changing equations with power, and the like. 

For instance, see:

http://www.heraldgoa.in/details.php?n_id=92264

Wagh and Caitu come down heavily on tiatrs [12 AUGUST 2015]

BJP legislator Vishnu Wagh came down heavily on the tiatr fraternity of Goa, accusing them of false allegations on BJP-led state government through tiatr and songs. Highlighting the matter on the floor of the House, Wagh said, “I feel bad to see when artists use MoI against the government and BJP. There should be vigilance on tiatrists as that raises false allegation on BJP.”

Meanwhile Independent MLA Caitu Silva demanded censorship on tiatr, claiming opposition politicians are paying tiatrists to create false allegation against the government through this method. “Tiatrists are given money by politicians to make false allegations on the government. Churchil did so much of scam; why is there no tiatr or song on him? I request the government to enforce censorship on tiatrs because they are doing such things.” 

[Frederick Noronha]

On 19 August 2017 at 08:23, alan machado <alan.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Augusto...

   

Meanwhile attaching a PhD thesis for digestion. Have you read Mascarenhas's genetic study of the Pai's of Loutalim? R1a but via Bolan Pass- possibly same route as my ancestors 

Dear Alan, 

Urmila Patil's thesis is interesting indeed, and offers a range of insights and wide number of details. 

Two issues though (1) It tells us about the relationship among various Brahman sub-castes, but not among them and the non-Brahman section of the population. This could have been more interesting in the context which we're debating, but obviously that was not the focus of this thesis. (2) Secondly, it quotes and relies on some of the books written in the early post-colonial phase, and amidst a rather nationalistic-tinged discourse. How accurate these might be, and what would be their correspondence with reality, is anyone's guess. To take back 20th century ideas of nationalism and 'protecting religion' to Shivaji's times might not be realistic, but in the 1960s and 1970s, a lot of writing followed the 'nationalistic' mode.

But thanks for pointing to an interesting text.

FN

[Frederick Noronha]

Just to continue on this thread....

I've known Vishnu for quite some time now, and at least from my college days. While I studied at Xavier's and Dempo's, he was at Dhempe's. Inspite the distance, there was a slightly shared interest in extra-curricular activities, and we shared some common friends in activism (including the late Thalmann Pereira).

Later on, we both landed up in the media, he on the Marathi side, and me in English. Even though I was working from the Herald then (whose Rajan Narayan was spearheading the Konkani side of the language bitterness), I was largely not caught up with the prevailing paranoia about those supporting the cause of Marathi in Goa. In fact, it was possible to discern even then that there were wider issues behind their demand, going beyond just the issue of language and about caste and challenging hegemony in some limited way. It was probably not as irrational as made out to be by the Konkani camp.

While in the media, I was in awe of Vishnu's many talents. Not only did he ascend to editorship (if I recall right) while still in his 20s, but he was about the only editor-cartoonist-literary personality-dramatist whom I had come across, all rolled into one. When he fell out of favour with the Gomantak as editor, he set up a paper of his own, which I recall was a tabloid called something like Gomant Varta (I could be mistaken).

I recall once going along with a couple of other journo colleagues to Mandur (or was it Azossim?) for an almost-midnight staging of a Vishnu play that mocked the ideology of Hindutva religiosity-based fundamentalism, even while it was staged in a temple (a common cultural space for Hindu Goa, and at times a contested space, one might say).

But then, what I found it hard to comprehend was Vishnu's ability to blast the BJP, and then, some years later, slip in to being their candidate for the San Andre constituency. Or, for that matter, his stances against communalism accompanied by a willingness to be part of the rather chauvinistic BBSM and some saffron alliances which ruled Goa, besides defending their role against tiatrists though he was a dramatist himself. Likewise, his fight against caste and casteism, going hand in hand with at the same time wanting Bahujan youngsters to learn Sanskrit. This almost seemed like an if you can't join em, beat them (apologies for distorting the original proverb) policy.

I feel that cliches and easy arguments sometimes shroud the understanding of Bahujan politics in today's Goa. The manner in which this was unveiled here, amidst the contentious times of the 1960s, and the way it was used to paper over differences to build a ruling coalition, does tend to confuse the issue a lot. Sometimes, one gets the impression that concepts like "Bahujan" were appropriated from earlier leaders like Phule and the Dravidian movement (not the term, but the concept) only to be misapplied in Goa.

FN

[Augusto Pinto]

Sent from my iPhone

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[Kaustubh Naik]

The newspaper was called Vartaman. 

[Edwin/Diana Pinto]

Actually, when I read Augusto’s translations of Vishnu Wagh’s poems, I too was swept off my feet by their raw emotion. But the voice I heard was not that of a firebrand leader demanding his rightful place in society, but one of plaintive longing to be part of what he was ostensibly raging against. In the backdrop of his strange and contradictory political choices and perplexing stands, I guess this could have well been the case. I suppose generational wounds to the self esteem take their own time to heal.

Diana

[Augusto Pinto]

Bad Words

By Vishnu Wagh

Father used to every now and then 

Fire bad words...

Grandfather it seems would always 

Converse in bad words...

Our elders

Didn't know 

Any language 

Besides bad words.

XX

But because 

Grandfather and great-grandfather spewed bad words 

They were thoroughly frightened of them.

XX

We got educated 

And through education we became civilised 

We moved among them 

And forgot the bad words 

XX

Since then 

Our claws were snapped off

By us, ourselves.

XX

Now they aren't 

Afraid of us...

Why you may ask?

Well they have trained us so 

We can't fire bad words.

Sent from my iPhone

On 28-Aug-2017, at 2:25 PM, Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Augusto Pinto]

What do you want to judge: Vishnu Wagh the person/politician or Vishnu Wagh the poet?

The answer to this question will determine how one assesses Sudirsukt.

I've been watching in amusement at the manner in which some grandees on Goa Book Club have been huffing and puffing up their egos and trying to compare themselves to Wagh, and in order to belittle his poetic writings, have tried to muddy the waters by dragging in some extraneous conversations from the Assembly which have nothing to do with his poems.

Pathetic.

But even otherwise Vishnu Wagh has been the victim of people who aren't clear about how poetry should be read. This primarily includes the Goa Konkani Akademi who are indeed the principal culprits for the controversy over Sudirsukt.

Let me explain: GKA is split down the middle as regards to how they should receive Sudirsukt. 

I have noticed at least three main camps. 

One belongs to those who are mainly Saraswat in ethnicity (like Uday Bhembre) although there may be others of different castes who are sympathetic to them and who feel that Wagh's work should be suppressed because they feel uncomfortable with one of the major themes of his work: ie the upper caste dominance of Goan society.

Secondly there are those who think that the book contains powerful poetry. But they are against Wagh the man and Wagh the politician. 

Thirdly there are those who share Wagh's ideological affinities with the Bahujan Samaj.

For those who aren't aware, Vishnu Wagh has had a chequered relationship with the Konkani movement- being part of it at an initial stage, but moving away from it later when he began to perceive that it it was being dominated by the Saraswats in particular and the upper castes in general.

Hence a lot of his writing is in Marathi although he never totally abandoned Konkani. Sudirsukt represents Wagh's return to his Konkani roots as the poetic foreword to the collection indicates.

When he was estranged from the Konkani movement Wagh had written fiercely against icons of Konkani such as Shenoy Goembab. The writing was informed by a sense of caste injustice perpetrated by the upper castes.

As a result of this many among the GKA simply could not stomach Vishnu Wagh being given an award by the very institution that he has spewed much venom upon.

Vishnu Wagh is not a good man as far as quite a few Konkani protagonists are concerned. He hence should be consigned to oblivion. But what about his poems? 

If they are good Konkani poems should they not be appreciated and promoted and celebrated?

(To be continued...)

Augusto

Sent from my iPhone

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[Augusto Pinto]

Let us consider a 'counterfactual': 'Reseach reveals that William Shakespeare was a serial child rapist whose exploits puts Dr Baba Gurmeet Ram  Rahim Insaan distinctly in the shade.'

If tonight the above assertion becomes a fact then does this mean that the magnificent body of work that Shakespeare constructed including tragedies like King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth; comedies like As you like it, A Midsummer's Night's Dream; poems like his Sonnets among many other literary works should be immediately withdrawn from educational syllabuses and otherwise be junked and condemned?

I'd like to assume that very few of you would change your opinion of Shakespeare despite the damning revelation about his character.

I brought this matter up in the context of the criticism that Vishnu Wagh's Sudirsukt is being subjected to. The general thrust of this criticism goes like this: since Vishnu wasn't a good man as he wasn't consistent in his behaviour as a person; since Vishnu was an untrustworthy politician given his many about-turns - his poetry can't be good. And even if his poetry is good we should shun Vishnu Wagh because he is a bad person.

I'd like to suggest that this kind of an attitude is an awful way of judging the worth of a literary work.

Around the 60's and 70's the dominant form of literary criticism followed the principles of the New Critics. I'd like to suggest that despite some of the drawbacks of the New Critics their manner of approaching literature would be one that can best assess Sudirsukt.

To reduce the New Critics' ideas to a bare minimum- what they basically said was that a poet should be judged by a close and careful reading of her poems. Extraneous statements should be ignored even when they are made by the writer herself.

If we take this approach to understanding Wagh's poetry then we should concentrate on the poems in Sudirsukt leaving all else aside.

(To be continued...)

Augusto 

Sent from my iPhone

[Frederick Noronha]

On 29 August 2017 at 23:26, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Let us consider a 'counterfactual': 'Reseach reveals that William Shakespeare was a serial child rapist whose exploits puts Dr Baba Gurmeet Ram  Rahim Insaan distinctly in the shade.'

If tonight the above assertion becomes a fact then does this mean that the magnificent body of work that Shakespeare constructed including tragedies like King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth; comedies like As you like it, A Midsummer's Night's Dream; poems like his Sonnets among many other literary works should be immediately withdrawn from educational syllabuses and otherwise be junked and condemned?

I'd like to assume that very few of you would change your opinion of Shakespeare despite the damning revelation about his character.

That is a straw-man of a counterfactual, because it's so 

obviously unrelated to the issue.

On the other hand, let's say what if someone could make a case to show   

that Shakespeare wrote for mostly illiterate audiences, not 

for 21st century college kids who yawn when he's discussed.

Or that his words were meant to be spoken or heard, not read. 

That understanding his language quickly turns into a drawn out 

and confusing affair. That the suppositions of those teaching

Shakespeare are written back in essays as facts. That

good ol Uncle Bill can make even British students feel stupid,

instead of  empowered. Then, could that just possibly be the basis

for a discussion on Shakespeare's relevance in today's India? 

Around the 60's and 70's the dominant form of literary criticism followed the principles of the New Critics. I'd like to suggest that despite some of the drawbacks of the New Critics their manner of approaching literature would be one that can best assess Sudirsukt.

To reduce the New Critics' ideas to a bare minimum- what they basically said was that a poet should be judged by a close and careful reading of her poems. Extraneous statements should be ignored even when they are made by the writer herself.

If we take this approach to understanding Wagh's poetry then we should concentrate on the poems in Sudirsukt leaving all else aside. 

For one, New Criticism, by now, is actually quite old!

So would be those which followed it -- Feminism,

structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstructionist theory,

New Historicism or Receptions studies -- in lesser or greater

degree.

If you want to adopt an approach which is politically   

"uncontroversial", adopted not without reason,

at the peak of the Cold War, then New Criticism 

might make sense. But my hunch is that you guys

noticed Vishnu Wagh's 2013 work possibly because of the political

points it was making, and the (political) controversy over it

in a section of the press. So why pretend that the author's  

intention, the historical and cultural contexts, and the reader's

response (from Bhembre and Verenkar, to Pinto and Menezes)

are wholly irrelevant here?

FN

[Edwin/Diana Pinto]

On 29-Aug-2017, at 3:06 PM, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

What do you want to judge: Vishnu Wagh the person/politician or Vishnu Wagh the poet?

 

Wouldn’t you agree that Vishnu Wagh the person/politician and what he stood for have much to do with Vishnu Wagh the poet? How can we reduce something as creative and intimate like a poem to mere academics as the New Critics advise?  I for one, believe that one cannot divorce any creative endeavour from the soul or spirit that has given birth to it. And what we are at any given point in time, has an intense influence and bearing on what we create. In like manner, what each reader perceives in a poem, will also have much to do with each one’s perception, shaped by his or her personality and influences.  For instance, Shakespeare has never been my cup of tea. But perhaps that has more to do with me than with Shakespeare. And you are right Augusto. Whatever SHakespeare might have been, it doesn’t mean that his literary and other works should be withdrawn from the educational syllabuses. But that is for schools and colleges. If we keep on restricting our perception to the academic dimension only, then I at least feel that we lose lot of the richness available and lose out on evolving into increasingly integrated personalities.

Diana

 

 

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[Jeanne Hromnik]

I agree with Augusto regarding literary merit. 

In the South African context, one is puzzled why July's People, a work of considerable merit by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, was withdrawn from the high school syllabus in 2011. Among other reasons, it was said to have failed to make an outright condemnation of racism.

Literature is one approach to 'reality'. In other words, through plays and poems and novels we try to understand murder, caste, domination. racism, etc as they play out in the material world outside of literature. I suppose this occurs irrespective of the literary merits of the particular piece of writing. It is not necessarily the case that the better the writing, the better the insight into actuality and fact.

It doesn't matter whether Shakespeare was a murderer. But I suppose it does matter if the plays suggest that forms of murder, fratricide for example, were acceptable or commonplace in historical times.

Jeanne

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[Augusto Pinto]

I will be contemptuously ignore our grandee's verbal flatulence in response to what I've been saying so far especially given his utter incompetence of our grandee when it comes to actually reading Sudirsukt, the book in question.

To return to the subjecthis flatulence is the result of swallowing long Wikipedia articles on literary criticism without any attempt to digest them. Given the utter incompetence of our grandee when it comes to actually reading Sudirsukt, the book in question.

To return to the subject: how does a reader experience Sudirsukt?

Sudirsukt begins with a poetic foreword ('Prastavana') that is an allegory of Wagh's intellectual journey. It begins with the poet asserting that he has found his mother. 

He describes how he was torn apart from that mother and how his situation was like that of Krishna who was born to Devaki but brought up by his foster mother Yashoda. 

He writes that he too was brought up by an aunt (obviously Marathi) who treated him to a variety of liberating influences from Tukaram to Ambedkar and from literary forms from bhajans to nataks.

However when the children of the aunt began saying:

'We took you in and brought you up

Now for the rest of your life 

You must remain our vassal'

he realised that it was time to break away from this slavery.

In another section he describes his search for his mother (Konkani) after a seer tells him she has been imprisoned. And he joins a movement to liberate this mother. However at the moment when this is achieved he realises that she has been appropriated by a few who use her for their own ends:

'Outside the village in a huge palace 

Sentries wearing red livery 

Stood guard outside her door.

In the name of the mother 

They began publishing journals 

And thronging literary sammelans and conferences

They spoke unceasingly 

But they left my mother dumb.

They kept singing praises of her

And in her name 

Bagged all the awards.

Wagh goes on to tell of how he gets reunited with his mother. 

This allegorical preface speaks of the chequered history of the Konkani language but more particularly of the manner in which one caste enchained the language to their own dialect.

In effect Wagh opens up a discourse on the direction in which the language must proceed, a discourse which had been frozen by the narrow terms of the Romi-Devanagari script controversy.

Sent from my iPhone

[Jeanne Hromnik]

I think that Frederick (our grandee) is interested in the question of literary merit vis-a-vis context.

As am I.

(Jeanne)

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[Augusto Pinto]

Sudirsukt's opening poem is My Language which begins:

"It existed.

My ancestors 

Had a language.

And compared

To what you and I speak

It was forward-looking and sophisticated 

And both technologically savvy as well as occult in orientation 

Such was our language."

XX

"Our ancestors 

Spoke this very language 

Not only with human beings 

But with Nature 

And the Gods of Nature."

After establishing that his ancestors had a powerful language he then complains:

"Our ancestors 

Didn't do one thing.

For the language that swayed on their lips

They never stitched the underwear 

Of a script to cover her up.

As a result their language 

Remained naked 

And as she roamed around naked in the forest 

One day she got lost."

XX

"Lost-

That's what our ancestors said.

But that was a lie.

Our ancestors' language wasn't lost in a forest...

Those who came along with Parashuram 

From Kashmir or Bengal

While chopping off forest cleanings

Chopped off our language as well.0

XX

"They only knew to mutter mantras

Our ancestors on the other hand 

Would dialogue with Nature."

XX

Later the poet says: 

"Our ancestors..."

"Would speak to their face 

Seeing this they began to fear...

And they connived

To make our ancestors dumb.

They built temples,

They installed idols,

They set up the procedures for performing pujas...

They learned how to write language 

And slowly, 

Slowly

They killed our language."

XX

"Today these same ones tell us:

This is your mother-tongue 

Work for it!

Take her to victory!

Install her on the throne!"

Wagh goes on to say that although their language was the one that was heard in the trances and voices of the seers of his community, he laments that this powerful medium was lost because of writing which the upper castes introduced.

"But they began to write their speech 

Their language was brought into books 

And our language 

Remained jungly."

The poet ends by writing that he will now begin to search for his lost language and that search will need to have him necessarily fall into a trance.

This opening poem of Wagh's collection reinforces the message of his foreword. 

For ages, Goa was fed pablum to the effect that this territory belonged to the elite, meaning the upper-castes and upper-classes.

There simply was nothing in the literature till now to indicate that the majority of the population had been deprived of their rights.

Wagh's writing breaks the mould because he forcefully places in public the grievances of the deprived, something that had never been done in a literary manner before. It becomes a manifesto of the Bahujan Samaj.

Having said this: is his writing a monotonous harangue against the Saraswats?

If we read the range of issues that Wagh raises in this collection then I'd think not.

(To be continued...)

Augusto 

Sent from my iPhone

On 30-Aug-2017, at 11:20 AM, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

I will be contemptuously ignoring our grandee's verbal flatulence in response to what I've been saying so far especially given the utter incompetence of our grandee when it comes to actually reading Sudirsukt, the book in question.

Our grandee's flatulence is I suspect the result of swallowing long Wikipedia articles on literary criticism without any attempt to digest them. 

[Frederick Noronha]

In this, Vishnu Wagh (September 2013) counters and discusses the [then contentious] issue of giving prizes to Romi-script Konkani by the Kala Academy, which he headed. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgxQqzfpwNY

Among those discussing the issue (I think) are Prakash Kamat, Sanjiv Vernekar, and Sandesh Prabhudessai.

One would need to read between the lines to appreciate what he (and the journos) are saying here.

FN

PS: Are the prizes for Romi being given now, or has this proposal been given a quiet burial?

[Albertina Almeida]

But I think the question that also arises, Jeanne, is what is this thing called literary merit? Who within our casteist and sexist society is wanting to impose their definition of merit? Who is setting the criteria for this 'literary merit' and how?

albertina

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[V M]

Really appreciate the ongoing translation project, Augusto. Please
keep them coming. These are easily the most impactful poems from/about
Goa in a very long time. Truly wish Eunice de Souza were still around,
as she would most certainly have appreciated, reacted and responded...

PS. This language poem is particularly wonderful!

VM

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[alan machado]

I know very little of Wagh's political or social background; so will not venture into any discussion there.

This poem, like some of the others, has a deep germ of truth, a truth hidden, suppressed, and lost for generations. It has however survived, and as I read further into the origins and evolution of Konknni, it appears like a gleam of reflected light from something long hidden under dirt and dust, now uncovered. 

Konknni has many, many layers; the earliest will take us back to a time much before the arrival of the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian families which have swamped South Asia's older languages. We are a long way from knowing them. Research by scholars like Southworth, Witzel, Masica, Krishnamurthy and others may uncover more of that gleam. Recently, Tensing sent me some very interesting articles on his work. But there is a lot more; and many more repetitions of the Konknni story in other corners of our land, in the mountains, forests, and plains of the centre, south, and east. 

Indo-Aryan and Dravidian families appear in South Asia from only around 4,000 or so years ago. So what languages were spoken here before that, from the 70,000 years or so when modern humans first stepped on our land? Some things are obvious: they were hunter-gatherer languages spoken by people close to nature. They had no need for any other vocabulary, for instance farming and pastoralism and all the technology, religion, and traditions connected with it. They had no need to create myths to legitimise appropriation and domination. They had no need to reinforce their deep roots to the land. They were an intimate part of the natural world, a world that farming, industry, and urbanisation has destroyed. The little gleam of uncovered light is being covered by forces that are too huge, too powerful, that cannot be resisted.

That, I think, is where Wagh's anguish lies; I cannot, but share it.     

Alan

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[V M]

Albertina raises most important questions, the perennial "elephant in
the room." So, "what is this thing called literary merit? Who within

our casteist and sexist society is wanting to impose their definition
of merit? Who is setting the criteria for this 'literary merit' and
how?"

I will endeavour to offer some - perhaps slightly disjointed - answers
to these questions, considering I've already tabled my judgement of
merit, "these poems are clearly amongst the most significant
contemporary contributions to Goa's literature, as well as an all-time
landmark achievement for Konkani poetry"
(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Vishnu-Surya-Wagh-and-The-Worm-of-Casteism/articleshow/60250391.cms).

1) At some level, any judgement is an imposition of values that may
not congrue with the artist's intentions or motivation. But just like
the work itself, you can actually take or leave the assessment. I do
agree it becomes problematic when there are power relations at work,
like cultural gatekeepers, canon-builders, and would-be censors. All
three factors are at play with regard to Wagh's ouevre, and - to be
honest - in my preliminary judgement as well.

2) However, in my view, literary merit is NOT entirely nebulous, or a
free-for-all, or "just a matter of taste.' There are many quantifiable
elements - such as originality and/or quality of expression, style,
and also subject matter. In this regard, Wagh scores very high. In my
opinion, what he writes about ( his place within Goan culture) and how
he writes about it (pithy, soulful verse full of bravado and panache)
are both quite exceptional. There are others in India who have written
from similar angles - in my TOI op/ed I mentioned Namdeo Dhasal and
Meena Kandasamy - but no one from Goa has bared his all in such a
winning, instantly relatable manner.

3) Which brings us to the x-factor that makes Wagh's contribution so
formidable. That is historical context and significance. If there were
many other poets/writers who had written from this angle from Goa, we
(certainly I) would perforce wait for painstaking, refined
translations, and the reactions of other translators to what has been
accomplished, and only then consider the poems by the kinds of
criteria mentioned above). But that simply isn't the case. There
aren't such poems or poets, at least none in Goa's public realm
(though here I admit my own exposure is mostly via translations, and
by references from others).

To sum, Wagh's uniqueness makes him extremely important - this
includes cultural and social perspective, as well as his chosen style
- and that significance is undeniable, whether or not you, I or the
Navhind Times likes what he writes about, and how he writes it. To
cap, of course, there's also taste. For me, the poems that Augusto has
translated here have been sheer delight. They have given me immense
pleasure, as well as less definable but very real sensations. I'm also
learning a lot from them, much of which I suspected but never had a
chance to confirm. I find myself deeply grateful to Wagh for
accomplishing this work.

VM

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[Jeanne Hromnik]

Vivek identifies wonderfully well the main elements in this discussion: literary merit (' ... quantifiable

elements - such as originality

​[... etc]​'

 ; power relations; ​quality of translation; historical context and social and cultural perspective. 

The latter

​, however, also arises from outside ​

​the literary work

, independent of the

​work although focused on it. With this perspective, one can ban/remove a meritorious novel like Nadine Gordimer's (July's People) because it does not adopt the 'correct' stand on racism.

Coming back to Shakespeare (are there really students who yawn in face of the great tragedies?), it seems that, historically, Macbeth was a good and wise king, who ascended legitimately to the throne and ruled successfully for 17 years! That's the historical and social context derived from outside Shakespeare's great play.

Jeanne

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[Augusto Pinto]

The Fearless Warrior 

As Lok Sabha was fighting 

My son watching 

Doordarshan's coverage said

To his mother-

Aai aai, look

When our Baba 

Is in Delhi 

He fights like a fearless warrior 

XX

But tell me why 

When he's back home he's such a funk

Who gets beatings at your hands 

And who sits in a corner 

And weeps?

XX

Gandhi

After showering flowers 

At the Rajghat memorial 

They all shot off

XX

The Mahatma's deployment of truth

Has been swept away in the flood of politics

XX

Gandhi's photo remains 

On currency notes

XX

In the chaos of a theatre queue

Someone said-

I realised how great Gandhi was

After watching Munnabhai!

Sent from my iPhone

[Tony Martin]

"Apparently, the book was published in 2013." says FN. 
I thought by now 'Saint' Fred is a guy seasoned enough to know that all good literary works are timeless. Does the publishing dateline 2013 take anything away from an award-worthy literary work?

Tony Martin
 

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 7:35 PM, Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 15 August 2017 at 18:19, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Vishnu Wagh might have been laid low by the heart attacks he suffered last year but if reports like the one in today's The Navhind Times (attached) are anything to go by, then his brain is as sharp as ever. 

Apparently, the book was published in 2013. FN

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Tony Martin

Teacher (Angle HSS) 

Freelance journalist,  
Galgibaga, Canacona

[Augusto Pinto]

Dear Alan

The line of thinking that you talk about (ancient hunter - gatherers who were superseded by the aryan pastoralists) is one that has been known in outline for a while and I suspect Wagh was aware about this. Your project seems to be to ferret out the details of the changes in language and power over the ages.

What Wagh in his work seems to have done is to challenge the hegemony of those who have comparable recently established their power over the territories that comprise Goa.

The ancestors of Wagh and his fellow Sudhirs did not have had the gumption to create an ideological grid from which they could challenge the hegemony of their conquerors. Hence the Sudhirs remained what they were, idiots whose brains are located in their knees as it were.

But although there have been essays which delve upon the issue, it took as late as 2013 for what Wagh does: create a manifesto for the injustice suffered by Sudhirs in Sudirsukt and I dare say this is what makes his writing stunning.

Augusto 

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[Frederick Noronha]

Brother Tony,

It's late out there, and you're missing the point... 

I was responding to what Augusto wrote: "Vishnu Wagh might have been laid low by the heart attacks he suffered last year but if reports like the one in today's The Navhind Times (attached) are anything to go by, then his brain is as sharp as ever." 

Everyone here knows that Vishnu Wagh has been unwell for quite some time now.

I was only making a correction of fact: the book could not have been written after his heart attacks, because it was already published in 2013. (This has got nothing to do with the timelessness of good literary works or otherwise.)

FN

On 31 August 2017 at 22:05, Tony Martin <tonyma...@gmail.com> wrote:

"Apparently, the book was published in 2013." says FN. 
I thought by now 'Saint' Fred is a guy seasoned enough to know that all good literary works are timeless. Does the publishing dateline 2013 take anything away from an award-worthy literary work?

Tony Martin
 

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 7:35 PM, Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 15 August 2017 at 18:19, Augusto Pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Vishnu Wagh might have been laid low by the heart attacks he suffered last year but if reports like the one in today's The Navhind Times (attached) are anything to go by, then his brain is as sharp as ever. 

Apparently, the book was published in 2013. FN

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_/  फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎

_/  Frederick Noronha +91-9822122436

_/  (Please SMS if you can't get through)

_/ 

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 

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