The Devadasis of South India: Performing Shame in Shame

…shame effaces itself; shame points and projects; shame turns itself skin side out; shame and pride, shame and dignity, shame and self-display, shame and exhibitionism are different interminglings of the same glove. Shame, it might finally be said, transformational shame, is performance.[i] And shame is not only performance; shame is often also a performative identity thrust upon an individual, a group or a nation. As shame also closely intermingles with respectability, I argue through the course of this paper how identities are formed, transformed and even subordinated within the performative…

The Body and Its Memories: The Trauma of Partition in Hayavadana

‘You cannot engrave on water, Nor wound it with a knife Which is why The river has no fear of memories’ – Girish Karnad, Hayavadana The midnight of August 14, 1947 witnessed a separation that defined lives thereafter. The body of a nation was split and sundered – the union of India split into Pakistan, India and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh). While families were separated, the nations’ body stored their memories, which were spatialized and brought forth through numerous cathartic writings and art practices in the post-Independence days.…

The trees outside my library

Thursday, January 31, 2013 An incredible surge of emotions choke me. My throat keeps gurgling, as if this mammoth lava of emotions is struggling to erupt through my lungs, through my windpipe, bringing forth all that has been building up inside for days. Unnamed emotions, unnamed worries, stress, pressure, I can go on, trying to name that unnameable ‘thing’. Language fails me. I’m mute. I’m crying. As I rush out of the library to avoid being seen, I sit right outside. It’s almost dusk. The sun has just set. The…