Writing Ordinary Lives

Author(s): M. S. S. Pandian
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 43, No. 38 (Sep. 20 - 26, 2008), pp. 34-40
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 IsJalîMilrfinPiâ-

Writing Ordinary Lives

way of knowing and interpreting-is less
abstract, less integrative, less transcendent,
less impartial, and less self-conscious
than the interpretive mode of universal
M S S PANDIAN
subject. Inhabiting domesticating space,...
she exhibits the less authoritative "femi-
Using the "discourse of My acknowledgement of the other is not nine" mode of engagement with the
something that I can do once and then be
participation", and drawing from world, one characterised as intuitive, ir-
done with. The suspicion of the ordinary
rational, particularistic, and practical
a narrative that speaks aboutseems to be rooted in the fact that relations
require a repeated attention to the most [Smith 1993: 14].
ordinary lives, two dalit textsordinary of objects and events, but our theo- The issues which Gopal Guru and other
throw light on various retical impulse is often to think of agency in
practices intellectuals inhabiting subaltern subject
terms of escaping the ordinary rather than a
that are the subject of interest descent
of into it.
positions raise such as the question of the

the social sciences. This is - Veena Das [Das 2007: 6-7]. arrogating power of theory over empirical
Life is essentially itself. in social sciences and the consequent
contrasted to mainstream - Talal Asad [Asad 1993: 290]. problem of hierarchies of knowledge
epistemology that is constrained within social science practices, are indeed

by mere objectivity, reducing, for an impassioned essay, 'How Egalitarian important and need to be engaged with.
Are the Social Sciences in India?', As Sankaran Krishna, drawing his insights
example, the study of caste to
Gopal Guru, one of the leading dalit from Michael Focault and Martin
variants rather than of the
intellectuals, writes, "It is frustrating, if Heidegger, notes: "Abstraction is an ines-
phenomenon itself. not tragic, for dalits to languish in raw capable analytical device that makes
empiricism" [Guru 2002]. According to knowledge practices possible in the first
him, "...Indian social science represents a place; without strategies of abstraction,
pernicious divide between theoretical the infinity of reality would overwhelm
brahmins and empirical shudras" (ibid: us. Yet abstraction is never innocent of
5003). Elaborating on this point, power - the precise strategies and methods
he continues, of abstraction in each instance decide what

aspects of a limitless reality are brought

Social science discourse in India is being
into sharp focus and what is left literally
closely disciplined by self-appointed juries
out of the picture" [Krishna 2006: 90].
who sit in the apex court and decide what is
the correct practice according to the canons. However, it is time to recognise that the
These juries decide what is theory and whatdomain of theory-making or the wider
is trash. It is a different matter that these
field of social sciences is constrained by its
canons lack authenticity as they are bor-
rowed from the west unreservedly. The apex own ground rules which often come in the
way of producing morally and politically
court in social sciences with its full bench in
enabling knowledge (s) about dalits and
Delhi keeps ruling out subaltern objections
as absurd and idiosyncratic at worst and other subaltern groups. Instead, those
emotional, descriptive-empirical and pole-
narrative forms which Gopal Guru char-
mical at best (ibid: 5004).
acterises as "raw empiricism" or what the
Based on these observations, Guru gate-keepers of social science theory des-
makes a plea that the dalit intellectuals
cribe as "emotional, descriptive-empirical
and polemical", can in most instances
should do theory that is morally and polit-
An initial version of the paper was presented atically enabling and not motivated by
enable such knowledge. As I shall try to
a conference on 'Subaltern and Citizen'
show, certain kinds of "radical empiri-
immediate temporal gains such as instan-
organised at the University of Emory, Atlanta, cism" can transcend the divide. between
taneous recognition in the academia.
in December 2007. 1 thank S Anandhi, Vijay
theory and fact and open up spaces for
While Guru's specific concern is about
Bhaskar, Rajan Krishna, Gyan Pandey, Simona
Sawhney, Sudipto Sen, Ajay Skaria, Ravi the location of knowledge and of dalits
alternative politics for subaltern groups.
Sriramachandran and Milind Wakankar for in social science practices, it equallyHere I take my cue from Guru's obser-
their comments which have helped me revise applies to other subaltern groups. Writing
vation that "dalits try to compensate for
the paper.
about how women's way of knowingtheoretical deficiency by doing brilliant
M S S Pandian (piathiaspandian@gmail.com) poetry" [Guru 2002: 5007]. It is my
the world gets conceptualised in western
is visiting fellow, Sarai programme, Centre for
"philosophical and religious discourses",
submission that brilliant poetry (and other
Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Sidonie Smith, for instance, notes, "Her
representational forms such as fiction,

34 September 20, 2008 CEE9 Economic & Political weekly

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 = PERSPECTIVE

autobiography and testimony) need not central to autobiography as a genre. In his Likewise, Gunasekharan's text too
be a compensation for the theoretical foreword to Vadu, Ravikumar, a well- recounts the ordinary and everyday. This
deficiency of dalits but could very well be known dalit intellectual from the Tamil includes events such as confronting at the
a compensation for the deficiencies of region, writes "[Autobiography] is con- midnight the village fortune-teller wjho is
dominant modes of theory-making in structed by means of the language of believed to be accompanied by fearsome
social sciences. Not bound by the evidentiary heroism by centralising a single person. ghosts, his father taking him to watch
rules of social science, the privileged Contrarily, a work of art remains an ex- plays staged during festivals, his free
notion of teleological time, and claims to traordinary feat of language" (ibid: 19). access to the local cinema hall since his
objectivity and authorial neutrality, these Thus, he alludes to non-autobiographical• mother worked at the ticket counter, fail-
narrative forms can produce enabling re- orientation of Vadu and invites the readers ing in mathematics at the high school ex-
descriptions of life-worlds and facilitate to judge this claim for themselves. amination, saving a child who had fallen
the re-imagination of the political. In the Now let me turn to the salient features into the local well, narrating film stories
rest of the paper, I tentatively unpack this of Karukku and Vadu as texts of "non- to the neighbourhood Muslim women who
claim by engaging with two dalit texts exemplary" lives. were prohibited from watching films, etc.
published in Tamil - Karukku by Bama First and foremost, what is extra- As in the case of Karukku, Vadu also gives
[Bama 1992] and Vadu by K A Guna- ordinary about Karukku and Vadu is theirdetailed descriptions of Gunasekharan's
sekharan [Gunasekharan 1995]. ordinariness. For one thing, both the texts, struggle against hunger and material dep-
contrary to the normal practice of publish- rivation: collecting fish and snails from
1 Dalit Texts
ing, do not employ the formal, grammati-the local ponds, gathering grass from the
cally-bound
Bama's Karukku was published in 1992. In Tamil. Instead, they use thevillage commons to be sold to Muslim
Karukku, Bama describes her village,colloquial
her Tamil with its regional andcattle-keepers, carrying death messages
childhood, her world of labour, education
caste inflections. While the upper casteof upper castes to neighbouring villages
readers could enter this language onlyand getting paid for it, and hunting field
in different institutions, untouchability
and caste discrimination encountered in with a degree of effort and with a sense ofrats and hares. In short, it is the unexcep-
them, her Christian upbringing, joiningunfamiliarity, these texts distance them- tional which animates these two texts.
selves from the formal and establish the
the Catholic order as a nun, and her sub-
sequent disenchantment and parting of
ordinary as their chosen domain. Three Strategies
ways with the church. While such a syn- In keeping with such a choice of One finds at least three strategies in these
language, the events which populate these texts that accentuate and underscore the
opsis of Bama's text would impoverish it to
resemble a regular autobiography, her's istexts are ordinary and belong to the every- self-conscious ordinariness of the lives
day. Bama's description of her childhood narrated. First, these texts bring into focus
autobiographical in only one of its orienta-
tions. As mentioned in the foreword to the and the world of dalit labour, which occu-those lives that will be treated, by thfe evi-

book by Mark, a Jesuit priest, "At the firstpies a substantial part of Karukku, is a dentiary practices of social sciences, as
sight it reads like a history of a village.case in point. Bama's childhood comes to unworthy and trivial. They do not signify,
From another angïé, it reads like an auto-life in a series of cameos - childhood so to speak, anything more than their
biography. From yet another angle, it ordinariness. Before I move on to offer
games the children played and left behind
reads like a brilliant novel." In other instances from Karukku and Vadu to illus-
at different stages of their lives, the festi-
vals of the Christian calendar - Easter,
words, Karukku crosses over genre bound- trate this textual strategy, it is important
to remember that the act of naming and
Christmas and New Year - in which they
aries. It is neither history, nor autobiogra-
writing out things, events and lives as
partook year after year with much excite-
phy, or fiction; yet it is all of them at the
same time. ment, sharing of game meat brought trivial
to is an act of power in the practice
of social sciences. As Michel-Rolph
Gunasekharan's Vadu published in 2005 the village by men who habitually forayed
is no different. While it strings together a into the adjacent hills accompanied byTroullot rightly notes, "The triviality
number of events from his life such as his hunting dogs, and so on. In the same vein,
clause. . .forbids describing what happened
struggle for education, rich Muslims pay- Bama's account of the world of dalit labour
from the point of view of some of the
people who saw it happen or to whom it
ing his school fees, caste-based humilia- journeys through a impersonal but detailed
tion in classrooms and elsewhere, life in description of arduous, underpaid and happened... with the exercise of that
power, "facts" become clear, sanitised"
the dalit hostel, his budding career as a unpaid work that dalit men and women
[Trouillot 1995: 115-16].
professional singer and so on (which are self- perform - ploughing, manuring, sowing,
consciously designated as "experiences"), weeding, harvesting, digging wells, collec-In Karukku, we encounter Ponthan, the
consummate village thief who could
it violates the canons of autobiography ting firewood, baking bricks, etc. In this
by not being a heroic and progressive , thick description, which interweaves dodge even ayyankatchipadai (the march-
ing battalion of demons, big and small,
journey of self-realisation or personal righteous indignation at the downgrading
who will deliver sure death to anyone who
achievement. After all, to be an untoucha- of exacting physical labour and simultane-
encounters them), Kaaman, the village
ble (i e, to be treated as less than human) ous pride in the skill involved in it, Bama's
is to lack the agentive autonomy that is own presence is merely anecdotal. idiot whose skill in cooking gruel is as

Economic & Political weekly Q3S3 September 20, 2008 35

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PERSPECTIVE =

good as
attacked that
the dalits as Keeranur,
during Bama's child- of Thoovur, Virathakandan,
any
settlement, Oodan,
hood are not specified; the dalit headman
Chokkapadappu, Ananthur, Vadathirukai, a
who could tease his flute into brilliant etc, are so ^differentiated in the way
who hid himself in her house to escape the
music, etc. Similarly, Gunasekharan recol-
raiding policemen remains unnamed; the
they are represented that they carry very
little marks of distinctiveness. In other
Catholic priest of the village, an upper
lects and brings to life a number of people
caste partisan, goes unnamed; the schools
whose lives are marked by nothing extra- words, one can substitute these names, yet
ordinary: Joseph and Daniel, who ferry
and the college where Bama experienced
come with, by and large, the same cameos
caste discrimination remains unnamed;
pigs to the village on their bicycles from of events and stories. There are, however,
the nearby towns to be slaughtered during two exceptions in Vadu. They are the
the nunnery and its residents, once again
festivals such as Deepavali and Christmas,
steadfast believers in caste, go unnamed.
towns of Illayankudi, where Gunasekharan
Davamani, who enters an upper caste In Vadu, we do not know the name of the experienced the warmth of friendship
dalit hostel warden who cheats the stu-
konar house-using the ruse of being pos- with Muslims, and Madurai, where the
sessed, and Farook who travels ticketless intensity of untouchability was never as
dents of their government-given ration, of
to Villupuram town in a Madras- the village headmen who extracts work
in villages.
bound train and returns with a stolen from dalit students who seek his signature The third of the textual strategies which
cash of 2,000 rupees. The "repeatability" animates Karukku and Vadu is related to
on the scholarship form, and of the man
and the "non-exemplary" modes of life who temporarily loses his son during thea way time is yet again manipulated to
lived by these characters slow down temple festival. Such a shroud of anony-invest events of the past with a "now and
the historicity of time and recover time
mity frees events, persons, and places of
here" quality. For one thing, events nar-
as though it is immutable. In othertheir claim to distinctiveness and renders rated in them come with no explicit details
them commonplace. They can be any- of when they took place. Even when time
words, these texts capture the eternity
of certain kinds of past as persisting where
in and anytime. Once again, time gets is marked, it is indecipherably fuzzy. The
the present. marked here as if it is unchanging. allusion to time is made in such phrases as
The second textual strategy which gives This is a textual strategy which we find "When I was studying in school..." or
more in Karukku than in Vadu. In compar- "During Christmas celebrations..." More
Karukku and Vadu a further depth of ordi-
nariness is erasing specificities of places
ison to Karukku, Vadu specifies places and significantly, events do not, for most part,
and events and masking them with a veil
persons more often. Yet it manages to pro- follow a linear time grid. They unfold as a
duce the veil of anonymity. For instance, montage of fragments going back and
of anonymity. The village in Karukku goes
unnamed; the upper caste Saliyars who
the villages which appear in Vadu such forth in time. In effect, this produces a

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 in its pervasiveness. Let me cite a few
depletio but telling episode from Vadu illustrates
instances from Vadu: Gunasekharan gets
and glos
this well. Gunasekharan's cousin, Mayandi,
of
slapped by an upper caste cont
man for coming
the first medical graduate from his family,
too close while walking on the narrow
itself in
works as a doctor in Madurai town. Upper
Thus
bund of a paddy field; when he buys unfer-caste men from his village go topa
this hospi-
mented palm juice in the village, it istal at times of illness whichth
time cannot be
now. In
cured locally. A doctor in white coat
served to him in disposable palm leaf cups fol-
that
and not in any metal vessel; and when he lowed by nurses, he gets thaddressed by
goes to nearby villages to announce upperthese men as "doctor brother". The kin-
theory
caste deaths, he will be fed on a disposable
present- ship term "brother" is important here. It
palm leaf plate which he himself has
Let me
frees Mayandi from his untouchable iden-
untouch
to produce (ibid: 45, 55-56, 71). Alluding
tity momentarily and he gets notionally
to untouchability's everydayness, Guna-
nation integrated into the upper caste family. Yet, f
sekharan writes, "Whichever village you
when they leave for their villages after
2 enter, the first
Wri getting cured, they return to the old
question that is asked is
For derogatory bo
"what [caste] do you [belong to]?" (ibid: mode of address when talking
socially 45); and "In our country, village is caste,to him [Gunasekharan 1995: 91-92].
is a source of intense humiliation. Recall- caste is village". With a sense of irony, he The everydayness and the repeatability
ing her schooldays, Bama, for instance, adds, "Gandhi loved villages a lot" (ibid: 91).of untouchability in these texts places it
notes, "time and again, my physical train- outside the time of history.1 That is, un-
Routine
ing teacher and class teacher would come touchability and caste emerge here as if
to the classroom or the school assembly Bama's tone of narration is similar. The they are immutable in time. As Bama
and ask the dalit children to stand up for practice of untouchability plays itself outnotes, "Wherever you go, whatever have
some reason or other. . . They would record as a routine: an upper caste woman refus-you studied, it seems this caste will not
leave you that easily" [Bama 1992: 18]. Or
our names... It is humiliating to stand in es to sit next to her in a bus; dalit children
front of about 2,000 children with bowed have to do all the physical work in the as Gunasekharan's grandfather informs
heads - as if we have committed some school such as watering plants and sweep-us in Vadu, "As time changes, caste audacity
ing the compound; Bama being falselyincreases. When are they [the upper
crime" [Bama 1992: 17]. Gunasekharan's
experience was similar too: accused of plucking coconuts from the castes] going to change?" [Gunasekharan
1995: 80]. These are indeed statements of
school and being told that she has shown
"How many parayans are there in this class?
Lift your hands. How many are pallans?her "parayar mentality"; and the parayar incomprehension. In other words, caste
community's decision not to allow womenand untouchability cannot be made sense
Stand up. I will count. As soon as the class
of (as
gets over, come over to the office and pick upto go for films since they get harassed by in theorisation) but has to be en-
the scholarship forms. You should fill up the
upper caste men [Bama 1992: 14-15, 47]-dured in its bewildering practices. While
forms and return them to the office within a
incomprehension affirms the irrationality
Both the texts talk extensively of how spa-
week", the class teacher would announce. It
is hard even today to imagine how small tial
I practices in the village regulate andof caste and untouchability, the act of
felt in front of everybody in the classreproduce caste on a day-to-day basis.endurance works here as an ethical and
[Gunasekharan 1995: 29]. There are separate streets for differentpolitical move of waiting for the upper
castes to understanding this irrationality.
It is a language of affect - not reason -castes, separate bathing areas in the vil-
that can give these experiences theirlage pond for upper castes and dalits, and These texts are indeed aware that the
meaning. Despite such public humiliation,separate cemeteries and churches forirrationality of untouchability can touch
voicing the untouchable identity in theupper castes and dalits. the upper castes too. Both Karukku and
public is the moral and political option If untouchability and caste reproduceVadu contain several instances of this poli-
themselves by repetition, its violencetics of hope. For the sake of brevity, let me
chosen by these two texts. What I am con-
cerned with here are the specific modes could be disclosed, as evident from draw one instance from each of the texts.

Karukku and Vadu, only by means of em- Despite the practice of caste discrimi-
of this voicing chosen by Bama and
Gunasekharan. phasising its everydayness. As Bama nation in the school where Bama studied,
remarks, "Wherever you go, whatever you she has other things too to write. She joy-
If announcing one's untouchable identity
in the classroom and undergoing humilia-have studied, it seems caste will not leave ously notes, "I studied well and stood first
us"; and "It is a caste [parayars] born to
tion was a routine that repeats time and in the class. Hence all children spoke to
again, the practice of untouchability else-labour. However much you labour [you me nicely... My teachers and the [Catholic]
get] every day [only] the same gruel, the sisters who taught me praised me. They
where too is, according to Karrukku and
Vadu, an everyday routine and not an ex-same gruel made of broken rice, and the treated me with affection. I was thrilled. I
ceptional event. The montage of descrip-same dried fish curry" (ibid: 18, 44-45). was asked to teach other children who are
tions found in these texts are continuallyEven in situations where caste seems to not good in their studies. Because of my
disappear, it quickly resurfaces. A small teaching they scored good marks. I was
interspersed with stories of untouchability

Economic & Political weekly 1333 September 20, 2008 37

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PERSPECTIVE =

of lacking agency and being in a passive

very happy" (ibid: 17). Gunasekharan narrat-
state, but its work of agency often has a
ed a similar story. While he was studying MANOHAR
in college, he participated in a singing
profound ethical dimension [Asad 2003:
competition. As his name was announced,
chapter 2].
RESCUING THE FUTURE
upper caste boys shouted at and jeeredIn short, in Karukku and Vadu, the
him - for he belongs to an untouchable
everyday, the ordinary, a temporality that Bequeathed Misperceptions in
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Thus, it is the language of affect - disgust, of coevalness",2 we can immediately locate
for our complete catalogue please write to usât:
pain, anger and degradation - that cap-a teleological scheme at work in Srinivas'
tures the intense everyday violence of comparative analysis. The teleology moves
caste. Here the language of pain works asfrom lower caste practices to sanskritisa-
an act of persuasion and appeal. Enduringtion to westernisation. Setting caste as the
pain and suffering is not necessarily signs other of the modern, it thus locates the

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 time of caste in forms of
the "distancing"
past. In that one finds indistress
other words, of his fellow-caste
it is persons but
a residue or a Srinivas' formulation
leftover which havewill
that because
signifi- of his concern about
disappear
as time marches cant
on. Letfor
implications me add
dalit and that
subaltern this is
the steady deterioration in efficiency and the
not somethingpolitics.
unique to
I mark here two such the
distancingsquestion of in acade-
fouling of interpersonal relations
caste. The teleological time
- the first, relating affect mic circles
of ofsocial
to the language and the administration - both
sciences
cannot but mark the time of other
and the second, to authorial neutrality results of a policy of caste quotas. As one
subaltern
with a strong attachment to Mysore, I could
groups such asand
peasants, indigenous
objectivity that is demanded by social peo-
not but be affected by the manner in which
ple and the sciences. It was thanks
unlettered as to Edmund
that Leach of the past.
conflicts between castes prevented concen-
Let me compare
that M this temporal
N Srinivas, who distanc-
spoke all the time tration on the all-important task of develop-
ing of caste from the
about caste in never about his ing
present
general but the economic resources
found inof the state for
M N Srinivas' theoretical scheme
own, spoke of his caste identity. In a re- the benefit of allthe
with sections of its population
(ibid: 152-53)-
manner in which Karukku and Vadu deal view of Srinivas' Caste in Modern India,
with time. By not engaging in teleological Leach called his sanskritisation model This quick abandonment of his caste
time but using montage as a way of evok- "brahminocentric" and taunted him identity and the language of affect signals
ing a feeling of "here and now", Bama and whether his interpretation would two
havemodes of distancing. The first one is
Gunasekharan, as we have seen, reduce been different if he were a sudra [Srinivas
related to the question of what can be the
the pastness of caste and recover it as an 1992: 148]. The incitement of Edmund
appropriate language for social science
discourse.
ethical and political question of immediacy. Leach prompted Srinivas to concede his Can one talk of one's distress

In contrast, being a residue from the past own caste identity. He wrote, and the bitterness of others as the source

in M N Srinivas' scheme, the question of
caste loses its political and ethical imme-
diacy. Thus, the sense of immutability and
the consequent angst and moral appeal
cannot belong to the teleological time of
social sciences but only to other forms
of temporalities.
Here Dipesh Chakrabarty's formulation
on the institutionalised discourse of
history as a discipline is the most helpful. relatives, and I could not help being sensitive
He writes, "So long as one operates within
the discourse of 'history' produced at the
institutional site of university, it is not pos-language of affect find articulation ahere.
of one's theory? One cannot since it vio-
...my stressing of the importance of the
lates the criteria of neutrality and objec-
Backward Classes Movement, and of the role
tivity.
of caste in politics and administration, are This is precisely why M N Srinivas
very probably the result of my being a had to abandon the language of affect and
South
Indian, and a Brahmin at that. The principle
foreground a language of "common good"
of caste quotas for appointments to posts in
in terms of efficiency and development. As
the administration, and for admissions to
Trouillot rightly notes, "A fetishism of the
scientific and technological courses, pro-
facts still dominates history and the other
duced much bitterness among Mysore Brah-
mins. Some of these were my friendssocial
and sciences. It reinforces the view that
any conscious positioning should be
to their distress (ibid: 152).
rejected as ideological. Thus, historian's
Significantly, his caste identity and a is officially unmarked: it is that of
position
nonhistorical observer" [Trouillot 1995:

sible simply to walk out of the deep collu-While references to "bitterness among 151]. In contrast, being unconstrained by
sion between 'history' and the modernis- Mysore brahmins", some of them being such
hisclaims to objectivity, Karukku and
ing narratives of citizenship, bourgeois "friends and relatives", and his "beingVadu
sen- could partake in a language of affect
sitive
public and private, and the nation state."3 to their distress" makes his and
state- produce morally and politically
This collusion between modern state andment one of profound honesty and affect, informed appeal to upper castes.
The second mode of distancing which is
social science practices is precisely whathe also talks of his caste and regional iden-
evident here is a result of the social science
vetoes out the everyday and the ordinarytity openly. In certain ways this is a state-
as the candidates for theorisation [Guhament which shares the language of practice
texts of discerning the so-called real
2002]. What Chakrabarthy writes of like Karukku and Vadu. Yet being a from
socialappearances. That is, what is being
studied needs to be made sense of and
scientist, he cannot stay with such a state-
history as a discipline is applicable to other
explained.
ment for one too long as it comes in
social sciences as well, at least in varying the There is no space for incom-
prehension or astonishment in social
degrees. The exception can only be, asway of authorial neutrality and objectivity.
Tzvetan Todorov argues, certain kinds of He has to distance himself from such science practices. This is perhaps why in
ethnology [Todorov 1995: chapter 1]. After language to claim detachment from what M N Srinivas' theorisation, caste has to be
he theorises.
all, all of them, in their self-description, are dealt with not on its own terms but re-

"modern" disciplines. In other words, be- As soon as M N Srinivas confesses his duced to other variants such as efficiency
caste identity (with the caveat of "very and development.4 Significantly, this is
ing a professional sociologist, M N Srinivas
cannot escape the seduction of teleologi-probably") and participates in a language precisely the moment in his theorisation
cal time and its consequences. While socialof affect, he hastens to enfeeble them. In wherein the everyday and ordinary are
the place of his sensitivity to the distress shown the door. Karukku and Vadu stand
sciences can theorise non-teleological forms
of temporalities, its own time cannot be of the Mysore brahmins, now he presents in sharp contrast to these modes of dis-
but secular and teleological. a range of things that has nothing to do tancing. In both the texts, the authors are
In addition to the "temporal distancing"with caste as such. His real concern was both actors as well as narrators. Thus
not motivated by his caste identity or the there is no space for detachment. The
of caste from the present, there are other

Economic & Political weekly Q2H September 20, 2008 39

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 PERSPECTIVE =

truth of caste becomes

The discourse experiencing
of participation, by its very it.
the 'other' in space by the 'other' in time... and the
articulation of cultural differences in chronologi-
What is definition,
more, has the space to accommodate
standing outside the
cal hierarchies" lan-
[Mignolo 1995: xi].
guage of reason, and account
theyfor these. Thus, Karukku and
could 3 See Chakrabarti
simply (2000: 41). See also Guha (1997).
express
astonishment at caste and invite others 4 This act of transcoding caste into something else
Vadu could bring to life the prosaic and such as eugenics, division of labour, and hygiene
to join them. In other words, makingthe everyday, play around with temporality has a long tradition [Pandian 2007: 37-40]; see
also Menon (1999).
sense of caste in this context work as without being constrained by secular 5 Quoted in Clark (1998: 147).
making it, while astonishment becomes teleology,
a indulge in the language of
tool of unmaking. affect, employ astonishment and bewilder-
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Alyson Waters, University of Minnesota Press,
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par- and London.
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take in teleological time. They do. But the pointMichel-Rolph
is, (1995): Silencing the Past:
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The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

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