http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/bhattacharya/files/sen%20satyajit%20ray.

pdf (Web 15/11/10)

their livts rcflfcted on the sdccii, but to a Florida beach resort. Robin Williams individuality of each culture, Ray saw uo
except for derogatory remarks and cari- and Nathan Lane are longtime lovers reason for closing the doors to the out-
catures, the subject never arose. who live above a drag club {called The side world. Indeed, opening doors was
Then, in the 1960s, homosexuality be- Birdcage) that Williams manages aud an important priority of Ray's work.
gan to be an explicit, scriuiLs subject. where Lane is the drag star. Williams's In this respect, Ray's attitude contrasts
Dirk Bogarde in Victim (]96\) is cited as sou, the result of a yoiuhftil escapade, sharply with the increasing tendency to
the first star to play a hoiiiosexuHl. but arrives to tell dad that he is about to see Indian culture (or cultures) Iu highly
his character appears to the world as marry the daughter ol a rightist senator, conservative terms, to preserve it (or
straight. This dociiinentary sliglits the that Mr. and Mrs. Senator are coming to them) from the "pollution" of Western
flist major film about overtly gay men— diuner, and dad's homosexuality' mu.st ideas aud thought. He was always willing
Slairaisf (1969), directed by Stanley Do- be concealed. How to get away with the to enjoy and to learn from ideas, art
nen, with Richard Burton and RexHarii- masquerade—that's the one joke. forms, and styles of life from anywhere,
son as two aging gay lovers who have long I dou't think that the joke palled for in India or abroad.
li\ed togelhei. fiarrisoii .swishes arouncl. me just because it's my third time Ray appreciated the importance of
but Btirton plays humanely, compassion- aroiuid. William.s, a truly fuuny per- heterogeneity withiu local comnuuii-
ately. Tfie picture is not as good a.s the former, seems fettered. Lane, a self- tics. This perception contrasts sharply
original play, whicli I saw in f ,ondon. but enjoying actor, seems too unfettered. with the tendency of mauy commuuitari-
it was nonetheless a risk courageously The supposedly funny incidents at the ans, religious aud secular, who are will-
lakeu. dinner—the clumsy .servant who trips, ing to break up the nation into conimti-
the disastrous soup, etc., etc.—all seem nities and then stop dead there: "thus far
This relatively new, hard-won honestv' stock-company lumbei dragged out of and no further." The great filmmaker's
leads, alas, to The Birdcage (United Art- the storeroom. The director, once a vir- eagerness to seek the larger unit—to talk
ist.s). This is an Ameritau ac^iaptation of tuoso of comic material, is Mike Nichols, to the whole world—went well with his
La Cage AHXFollfs, which hegini as a Paris here leaden aud la/y. There's just one enthusiasm for uuderstaudiug the small-
play, became an amusing PVeuch film good touch: the film opens with a glide est of the small—the individuality, ulti-
(with two sequels that f missed), and was across the oeeau, right up on to the mately, of each person. From such a vi-
then converted into a Broadway musical, beach and into tfie drag club, right up to sion, I believe, we have much to learn
which retained the French setting. That the bar—all in one shot. A promising right now.
musical had a good score, but the basic start, soon betrayed.

T
joke—and basically there's only one— Well, why can't there be some dismal here can be little doubt
was elongated. Elaine May's screen adap- films about ihe gay scene? Heaveu knows about the importance that
tation stretches it even further. there have been thousands about hctcro Ray attached to the distiuc-
The setting is moved from St. Tropez life. " tiveuessolrukurcs. He also
discussed the problems that these divi-
sions create in the possibility of commu-
uication across ctiltural boundaries. In
Our Films, Their Films, he noted the im-
portant fact that films acquire "colour
Satyajit Ray and the art of universalism. fiom all manner of indigenous factors
such as habits of speech and behaviour,
deep-seated social practices, past tradi-
tions, present infiuences and so on." He
Our Culture, Their Culture went on to ask: "How much of this can a
foreigner—^with uo more than a cursory
knowledge of the factors involved—feel
and respond to?" He observed also that
BY AMARTYA SEN "there are certain basic similarities in
hiunan behavioiu- all over the world"

T
he work of Satyajit Ray pre- local culture (even the culture of a com- (such as "expressions of joy and sorrow,
sents a remarkably insight- munity, not to mention a region or a love and hate, anger, surprise and fear"),
ful undeistandiug of the country); and the great need for iuter- but "even they can exhibit minute local
relations between cultures, cultura! communication, attended by a variations which can only puzzle and per-
and his ideas remain pertinent to the recognition of the barriers that make turb—and consequently warp the judg-
great cultural debates in the contempo- intercultural communication a hard task. ment of^—the uninitiated foreiguer."
rary world, not least in India, f would A deep respect for distinctiveness is
like to pursue these Ideas, fu Ray's films combined, in Ray's vision, with a re- The presence of such cultural differ-
and in his writings, we find explorations coguitiou of internal diversity and au ences rai.ses mauy interesting problems.
of at least three general themes on cul- appreciation of the need for genuine The possibility' of communication is only
tttres and theii" interrelations: the impor- communication. Impetuous cosmopoli- one of them. Tbere is also the more
tance of distinctions between different tans have somethiug to learn from his basic issue of the individuality of each
local ciiltur<rs and their respective indi- focus on distinctiveness, but it is the cultiue. How uiight this iudividuality be
\idualities; the necessity of understand- growing army of communitarian aud respected aud valued, eveu as the world
ing the heterogeneous character of each cultural "separatists"—increasingly more grows steadily smaller and more uni-
fashionable in India and elsewhere— form? We live in a time in which many
AMARTYA SF.N is Lamont University Pro- that most needs to take note of the per- things are increasingly common, and the
fessor aud professor of economics and sistence of heterogeneity at the local possibility that somethiug important is
[ibilosophy at Harvard Uuiversit); An level and the creati\c lole of iutercul- beiug lost iu this process of iutegration
earlier version of tbis essay was giveu as tural and iiitercommunal conmuinica- has aroused uudei standable concern.
tbe Satyajit Ray Meuiorial Lecture iu (Jal- tion and learning. The individtiality of eultiues is a big
i utta in December. In emphasizing the need to honoi the subject now. and the tendency towards

APRIL 1,1996 T H E N E W REPUBLtC 27

the homogeni/alion of cultures, particu- and so, in examining the implications of liari iers of languages and translations) is
larly in some uniformly Western mode, culttu'al diversity; I must also take up this a frequenlly aired stispicion.
or in the deceptive form of "modernity," question. The problem is perhaps less extreme
ha.s been sharply challenged. Anxieties Even though he emphasized the diffi- in films, insofar as film is less dependent
of this kind have been expressed in dif- culties of intercultural communication, on language. People can be informed by
ferent forms in receni cultural sttidies, Ray did not take cross-cultural compre- gestures and actions. Still, our day-to-day
which floinish today in Western literary hension to be impossible. He saw tbe dif- experiences generate certain patterns of
and intellectual circles. There is an irony. ficullies as challenges to be stirmounted reaction and non-reaction that can be
perhaps, in the fact that so mtich of lather than as strict boundaries that mystifying foi" fbieign viewers who have
the critique of "Western modernity" has could not be breached. He did not pro- not had those experiences. The ges-
come straight from the West to the Third pound a thesis of "incommunicability" ttires—and the non-gestures—that are
World; but these qtiestions are being across culttiral boundaries; he argued quite standard, and "perfecdy ordinary,"
plentifully askt'd in contempoiary In- instead that we need to recognize the in India may appear altogether remark-
dia as well. Engaging arguments in this able when they are seen by others. Also,
direction have been presented by, diffictilties that may arise. And on the
larger suhject of preserving traditions words have a function that goes well be-
among others, Partha Clhatteijee, in The youd the information that they directly
Nation and Its Fragments (199^) and else- against foreign influencf, Ray was not a
convey. Much is communicated bv the
where, and in the literary, sociological cultui al conservative. He did not give sys- sotmd of the language, and the special
and anthropological writings of such tematic prioi ity to inherited ptactices. choice of words conveys a particular
diverse and forceful atithors as Ashis I find no evidetice in Ray's films or in meaning or creates a particular efff 11. As
Nandy, Homi K. Bhaba and Veena Das, his writings that the fear of being too in- Ray observed, "in a sound film, words
to name a few. These Iliieiiced by outsiders distui bed his equi- are expected to per-
approaches share, to fortn not only a narra-
varying extents, a tive but a plastic ftmc-
well-articulated "anti- tion," and "initch will
modernism," rejecting, be missed tuiless one
in particular, "Western" knows the language,
forms of moderniza- and knows it well."
tion, which Chatterjee
contrasts with the pre- Even the narrative
ferred form of what may be itiescapably
he calls "our moder- transformed by lan-
nity." Sometimes the guage barriers, owing
defiance of Western to iniances ihat are
cultural modes is missed in translations.
expressed in India I was reminded of
throtigh enunciations Ray's remark the other
of the unique impor- (lay when I saw Tin
tance of Indian culture Kan\a again, in Cam-
and the traditions of bridge. Massachusetts,
its communities. at a recent festival of
Ray's films (in their
At the broader level wonderful reissttes by
of "Asia" rather than Merc han t-I vory ) .
India, the separateness Wiien the obdurate
of "Asian values," and Paglee at last decides to
their distinction from write a letter to her
Western norms, has often been asserted, spurned httsband, she cotiveys her new
librium as an "Indian" artist. He wanted sense of intimacy by addressing him with
partictilaily in east Asia, from Singapoie to take full note of the importatice of a
and Malaysia to C^hina and japan. The the fatniliar form tumi, rather than the
pai ticular cultural background without formal afnii. This could not be caught in
invoking of Asian values has sometimes denying what there is to learn from else-
occurred in rather dubious political cir- the English subtitle. The ttanslatiun had
where. There is much wisdom. I think, to show her sign the letter as "your wife,"
cumstances. It has been used to justify in this "critical openness," including the
authoritarianism (and harsh penalties to cotivey this new sense of intimacy; but
prizing of a dynamic, adaptable world the Bengali original ibrm in which she
for alleged transgressions) in some east over a world that is constantly "policing"
Asian countries. In 1993. at the Vienna signs as "Paglee" but addresses him as
external infltiences and fearing "inva- tu?ni, is infinitely more subtle.
conference on human rights, the for- sion" of ideas from elsewhere.
eign minister of Singapore, along with
the ('hinese Eoreign Minister, cited the The difficulties of tmderstanding each Such difficulties cannot be altogether
differences between Asian and Euro- other across the boundaries of culture escaped. Ray did not design his movies
pean traditions and argued that "tiniver- are undoubtedly great. This applies to for a foreign audience, and the Ray fans
sal recognition of the ideal of human the cinema, btit also to other art forms, abroad who rush to see his films know
rights can be harmful if universalism especially literattire. The inability of that they are, in a sense, eavesdropping.
is used to deny or mask the reality of most foreigners, even of other Indians, This relationship between the artist and
diversity." The championing of "Asian to grasp the beauty of Rabindranath the eavesdropper is by now very well
values" has typically come from gov- Tagore's poetry (a failute that we Ben- established among the tnillions of Ray's
ernmental spokesmen and not from galis find so exasperating) is a good il- admirers aroutid the world. There is no
individuals opposed to the established lustration of this problem. Indeed, the expectation that his fihns are anything
regimes. Still, the general issue is impor- thought that these non-appreciating oth- other than those of an Indian director—
tant enough to deserve our attention; ers are being willfully contrary and obdu- and a Bengali director—made lor ii loc al
rate (ratber than being thwarted by the audience, antl the attempt to see what is

28 THE NEW REPUBLIC APRIL 1,1996

going on in these films is a decision to traditional Indian films, \vhich attract "export promotion" is becoming a sti-
engage in a self-consciously "receptive" large atidiences, "do away wholly with preme value, who can deny such an
activity. [the] bothersome aspect of social iden- achievement?)
In this sense, Ray has tritmiphed— tification" and "present a .synthetic, non- In fact, the exploitation of the biases
and on bis own terms. This vindication existent society, and one can speak of and the VLilnerabilities of the foreign
of his belief that he will be inidcistood, credibility only withiti the norms of anchence need not he coucei iied specifi-
all the baiiiers notwithstanding, tells its this make-belief world." Ray stiggcsts that cally with the "love of the falsc-cxotic."
soniL'tliing ahotit the pos.sibilitv' ol tm- this feature "accotiuts for tbeir coiuitry- Exploitation can lake oilier form.s—not
derstandiug across culltira! boundaric's. wide acceptance." This is true; b\it this necessarily false, nor especially exotic.
It may be hard, but it can be done; and qtiality of make-believe also contribtites There is nothing false about Indian
the eagerness with which viewers with greatly to the appeal of these films poverty, nor abotit the fact—rt^markable
much experience of Western cinema to some foreign audiences, which are to others—that ludians liave learned to
flock to see Rav's films (despite the occa- happy to see lavish entertainment in live normal lives in the midst of this
sional obscurities of a privsentation tai- au imagined land. This is an easily poverty, taking little notice of the sur-
loied to an entirely different atidiencc) tinderstandablt' "success" slory: accep- rounding misery.
indicates uh;tl may be acroinplislicd tance abroad brings both reputation and
I'evenuf. (In contcmptnary India, where Tlie graphic portrayal of extreme
when theie is a williugne.ss lo go beyond wretchedness, and of heartlcssness
the bounds oi one's own t uUure.

S
at)ajil Ray makes an im-
portant distinction between
wlutt is or is not .sensible
uhcti oiie ti'ies to speak
ac ross a ( ultui'al divide, especially across
ilic divide biiwccn the West ;uui India.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
In \9riH. two years after Pathn Paiirhft/i UNITY A N D DIVERSITY TODAY
won the Special Award in C^anncs, and
one year after he won the Cirand Prix at E D I T E D BY
Venice for Aparafttn, Ray wrote tbc fol- ROBERT ROYAL
iow'ing. in an essay called "Pi-oblcms of a
Bengali Film Maker": "All of the debates currently
swirling around American pub-
There is no icii.son why we shinild nol cash lic life finally boil down to one
in on the (oreigncrs' curiosit\' aboiU the
Orient. Bin tliis must not [nean ]);u)dering
fundamental question: What
to their love of the falsc-fxotic. A great kind of a people do we want to
many notions aboni oiii' coiiiiiry and our be? Here is a book that deals
people have to be dispellctl. even limugh it with this question thoughtfully
may be easier and—liom a film point of
view—more pavinj; to sustain the existing and in depth, by authors with differing perspectives,"
nn tlis than to demolish them. — PETER L. BERGER

Ray was noi alone, of course, in ptn- "America was not so tnuch discovered as invented, and its
stiing stich an approach. There have invention is not a one time thing. This book critically exam-
been several other emint-nt directors ines some of today's proposals for tomorrow's America. The
from India who have essentially followed
the same rotite as Ray. A.s an old resi- debate is about the country your children and grandchildren
dent of Calcutta, I am protid of the fact will inherit, so close attention is recommended."
thai some of tbc partictilaih disliu- — RICHARD iOHN NEUHAUS
guished oties ha\c come—like Rav—
from this very city. (I ihiLik of Mriual Contributors: Robert Royal • Michael Barone • Glenn C. Loury
Sen. Riiwik Clhatak, Aparna Sen and
others.) Btu what Ray calls pandering to • Jim Sleeper • James Counts Early • Stanley Crouch • Mark
the "love oi the false-exotic" has clearly Helprin • Richard E. Morgan • Charles R. Kesler • Harvey C,
ic-mpted many other directors. Many Mansfield • Paul A. Rahe • Gerard V. Bradley • Terry Eastland •
Indian filtns that can fairly he called Edwin J. Delattre • George Weigel • Robert Wuthnow • Thomas
•"ciKei'tainment nio\'ies" ba\(' achieved
great success abroad, iiuluding in the C. Reeves • Gertrude Himmelfarb • Deal W. Hudson " Martha
Middle East and Africa, and Bombay has Bayles ' Frederick Turner • Peter Skerry • Juan Williams • John
lieeii a hig itiilticnce on ihe cinematic O'Sullivan
world in many cotmti it's.
It is not obviotis whether the imagi- ISBN 0-8028-0878-6 • 311 pages • Paperback • Si 7.00
nary scenes of archaic splendor shown
iti such "entertainment movies" should At your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521
be seen a.s mis-descriptions of the India FAX 616-459-6540
in which the)- are allegedly set ov AS an PUBLIC
(xccllcnt porliayal of some noiwxistfnt POLICY WM. B . EERDMANS
"•ncvi-r-iH-\'ei' land" thai is not to be con- CENTER PUBLISHING C O .
luscd with anv real (tmnti v. .'Vs Rnv notes 253IEFFERSONAVE.S.E./GRAND RAPIDS, Ml 4950J
in aiiolliff context, quite A few of these

APRIL 1, 1996 T H E N E W REPUBLIC 29

towards the downtrodden, can itself be plex reality, with immense heterogeneity music. In his posthumously published
exploited, especially when supplemented at every level, it is not the picture of book. My Years mith Apu: A Memoir, Ray
by a goodly supply of viciotis\'illains. At a a stylized East meeting a stereotypical recollects:
sophisticated level, stich exploitation can West, which has been the stock-in-trade
be seen even in Salaam Bombay.', the won- of so many recent writings critical ol 1 became a lihii fan while still at school. I
derfully successful film by Meera Nair. "Westernization" and "modernity." Ray avidly read I'icturegon anfl Photoplay, neg-
Nair's film is powerfully constructed and emphasized that the people who "in- lected my sttidies and gorged myself on
deeply moving; and yet it mercilessly habit" his films are complicated and ex- HolKwood gossip purveyed by Hedda Hop-
per and l.oiiella Patsons. Deanna Durbin
exploits not only the viewer's sympathy tremely diverse: became a favourite not only because of her
and sentimentality, btit also her interest looks and her obvious gilts as an actress,
in identifying "the villain of the piece" Take a .single pro\iiite: Bengal. Or, belter
hut because <jf her lovely soprano voiec.
who might be blamed for all this suffer- siill. lake lhe city of Calcutta where 1 live
Also firm favourites were Fred A.staire and
and work. Accents here vary between
ing. one n<'ighlK)iirlK»od and anoiher. Every
(Ihiger Rogers, all of whose lilms I saw sev-
Since Salaam Bombayl is full of villains, educated Bengali pcppcr.s his native eral times just to learn the Irving Berlin
and of people totally lacking in sympathy andjerome Kern tnnes by heart.
speech with d sprinkling of English words
and any sense of justice, the catises of and phrases. Dress is not standardized.
the suffering portrayed in the film begin Although women generally prefer the

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to look easily comprehensible even to sari, men wear clothes which reflect the ay's willingness to enjoy
distant foreigners. Given the lack of style of the thirteenth century or tonform and to learn from things
humanity around these Indian victims, to the directives of the latest Esi/uirf. The happening elsewhere—in
contrast hetween the rich and the poor India or abroad—is plenti-
what else can you expect? Nair's kind of is pioveibial. Teenagers do the twist and
exploitation draws simtiltaneously on fully clear in how he chose to live and
drink Coke, while the devout Brahmin
the common knowledge that India has takes a clip in the Ganges and chants his
what he chose to do. (In addition to
much stiffering and on the common mantras Lo the rising sun. Ray's own autobiographical accouius in
comfort—for which there is a demand— Our Films, Their Films and My Years with
in seeing the faces of the "baddies" who It is important to note that the native Apu: A Memoir, his involvements in ideas
are causing all this trouble, as in, say, culture which Ray stresses is not some and arts from elsewhere are discussed in
American gangster movies. (This easy pure vision of a tradition-bound society, some detail in Andrew Robinson's Satya-
reliance on villains is less present in but the heterogeneous lives and commit- jit Ray: The Inner Eye, which appeared in
Nair's subsequent film. Mississippi Ma- ments of contemporary India. The In- 1989.') When Ray describes what he
learned as a student at Santiniketan,
sala, which raises some important and dian who does the twist is as mtich there where he studied fine arts at Tagore's
interesting issties of identity involving ex- as the one who chants his mantras by the distinguished center of education, the
Ugandans of Indian origin in the United Ganges. elements from home and abroad are
States.) At a more mundane level. City of well mixed together. He learned a great

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Joy does the same with Calctitta, with he recognition of this het- deal abotit India's "artistic and musi-
clearly identified villains who have to be erogeneity makes it im- cal heritage" (he got involved in In-
confronted. mediately clear why Ray's dian classical music, aside from being
focus on local culture can- trained to paint in traditional Indian

B
y contrast, even when Ray's not be readily seen as an "anti-modern" ways) and "far-eastern calligraphy" (par-
films deal with problems move. "Otir ctilture" can draw on "their ticularly the tise of "minimtmi brush
that are just as intense ctilture" and "their cultuie" can draw on strokes applied with niaxinuun disci-
(such as the coming of the "otir culture." The emphasis on the cul- pline"). VVTien his teacher, NandaUil
Bengal famine in Ashani Scinkel), the ture of the people who inhabit Ray's Bose, a great artist and the leading light
comfort of a ready explanation through films is in no way a denial of the legiti- of the Bengal school, tatight Ray to draw
the presence of villains is avoided. In macy of the interest in things originat- a tree ("Not from the top downwards. A
Ray's films, villains are remarkably rare, ing elsewhere. Indeed, Ray recollects tree grows up, not down. The strokes
almost absent. When terrible things with evident joy the time when Calcutta must be from the base upwards . . ."),
happen, there may be nobody clearly was full of Western (incltiding Ameri- Bose was being critical of some Western
responsible. And even when someone can) troops, in the winter of 1942: conventions and introducing Ray to the
is clearly responsible, as Dayamoyee's styles and the traditions of Ghina and
father-in-law most definitely is responsi- Calcutta now being a base of operations of Japan. (They got the tree right, Bose
ble for her predicament, and ultimately the war, Chowringhee was chock-a-block had decided.)
for her suicide, in Devi, he, too, is a vic- wiih GIs. The pavement book stalls dis-
tim, and by no means devoid of humane played waier-thin editions of Life and Time,
features. \'i Salaam Bombay! -And City of Joy and lhe jam-packed cinema showed the Ray does not hesitate to indicate how
ultimately belong in the "cops and rob- very latest films from Hollywood. While I strongly Father Panchali—the profound
bers" tradition (except that there are no sat at my office desk . . . my mind btizzed film that immediately made him a film-
"good cops" in Salaam Bombay!), the Ray wilh the thoughts of the films I had been maker of international distinction—was
films which portray tragedies have nei-
seeing. I never ceased to regret that while infiuenced by Vittorio De Sica's The Bicy-
I had stood in the .scorching summer cle Thief. He saw The Bitycle Thief W\lhm
ther cops nor robbers. Ray chooses to sun in tlie wilds of Santiniketan sketching
convey something of the complexity of three days of arriving in London foj- a
umu! and palash in ftill bloom. Citizen Kane brief stay, and noted: "I knew immedi-
social situations that makes such tra- had rome and gone, playing for jtist three
gedies hard to avoid, rather than to sup- ately that if I ever made Father Fanchali—
days in the newest and biggest cinema in and the idea had been at the back of my
ply easy explanations in the greed, the Calrntta.
cupidity and the cruelty of "bad" people. mind for some time—I would make it in
While Satyajii Ray insists on retaining This interest in things from elsewhere the same wav, using natural locations and
the real cultural features of the society bad begun a lot earlier. Ray's engage- ttnknown actors." Despite this influence.
that be portrays, his view of Indian-even ment with Western classical music goes Father Fanrhali, ot course, is a quintcs-
his view of Bengal—recognizes a com- back to his youth, and his fascination senlially Itidian film, in subject matter
and in style, and yet a major inspiration
with films preceded his involvement with

30 THE NEW REPUBLIC APRIL I,I996

fb|- il came iVom an lialian fitni. Tlu- Ital- pean malliematics has been pai'ticulaily .Aryaliliata called it iirdhfi-jyti ("balf-rhord")
ian innuciKC (lid iiol make Pdlhn I'nii- significant in the development olwhal is And jyn-nrdhn (Vhorfl-half'), and dicn ab-
'V^r;//anylhiiig Dihcr llian an Indian film: now called Weslern malhemalics. These breviated the term by simply iisiiig jya
il siniph' hcipfd to make il a girat Indian connections are beatitifully illusirated by ("fbord"). From jyn tlie /\jabs pboiu'lically
Him. the origin of tbe term "sine" in Western di'iivcci i'lbit, which, IVillowiiig Aialiic prac-
trigonometry. tice ofOmitlinjf vowels, was writlcn as y&
How jibu. aside fioiii its tt-chiiical signifi-

T
he growing tendency in Ihat modern term came to India
cance, is a meaningless word in Aiabic.
toiitcmpoiary India lo through the British, and vet in its gene- Later writers who tame across jh as an
ehanipion the need ibr sis ihere is a remarkable Indian compo abbrcvialion lor the meaniiigle.ss word
iin iiuligeiious cultuie thai nent. Aryabhata, an Indian mathemati- jdin snbslittitcd jmb in.sifad, wbich contains
has "resisted" external innncnees and cian and astronomer who iive<l in the ibe same leiiers, and is a f^ood Arabic
borrowings lacks credibility as well as fifth and early sixth centuries, discussed word iiieaiiinj^ 'Vo\'t'" or "bay." .Still later,
cogency. Il has become quite common the concept of "sine." and called il ;v«- Gherardo olCremoiia (ca. 1150), when he
lo cite the foreign origin of an idea or nrdha, or "half-chord," in Sanskrit. Erom made his translaiions from ihe ;\rabic,
a tradition as an argument against its there ihe term migrated in an interest- replaced the /Viahian jad) by its I^tin t-quiv-
alent, sinus [meaning a cove oi a bay], from
nse, and this has been linked to an anti- ing way, as I loward Eves describes in An whence came otn' present word \inf.
inctdernist priority. 'Iluis, even a social Itilwdticlioii lo the Hisloiy of Malhemalics:
analyst a.s actite as Partlia Chatterjee
finds it possible to di.sinis.s Benedict
Andeison's thesis linking nationalism
and 'imagined connntmities" by refer-
ring to the Western origin of that "mod-
tilar" form:
1 IKIVI.' (UK' cciiiral objertitiii lo Andcisoii's
iirf^iiiiu^rii. irrKiiionalisiiis in die rest of Llif
wnilcl liiivc lo ilioo.sc llifii' inKi<tinp(l com-
iniiiiiiy from c('i"l;iiii "mocinlar" loi ins ;il-
rcady iiiiidt' available U) ihcin by Kunipt'
and the Aiiieririis, wh;ii do liirv have li-tt lo
imagine?

Anderson's concept ol "the nation as

an imagined commnnitv" may or may
not have much to commend it (I think
tbal it docs); but the fear that its West-
ern origin would leave ns without a
model that is our "own" is a rather pecti-
liai* concern.
Indian culture, as it has evolved, has
always been prepared to absorb mate-
liais and ideas from elsewhere. Satyajit
Kav's heterodoxy is not ont of line with
otn' tradition. Even in matters of day-to-
da\' living: the fact that the t bili. a basic
ingiedieiit ol traditional Indian cooking,
was brought to India by the Portuguese To Rule Jerusalem is a study of the intertwining of reli-
fi'om the "New World" does not make gion and politics, exploring the city as simultaneously
Iiuiian cooking any less buiian. Indeed,
chili has now become an "Indian" spice. an ordinary place and an extraordinary symbol. Roger
Of fouise. cultiual influences are a two- Friedland and Richard Hecht examine how Jerusalem
way process: India may have acquired IS doubly divided, on the one hand between Israelis
the chili Ironi abroad, but we have also and Palestinians, each of whom ground their national
given the world the benefits of our culi-
naiy tiaditions. Wbile landoori came identities in the city, as well as within each nation be-
liom the Middle East to India, it is in its tween those wbo put primacy in the democratic decisions of their nations and
Indian form that tandoori has become a ihosc who would yield to a higher divine law. They explore how Jerusalem has
staple Biitisb diet. In London last sum-
mer I heard something described as figured as a battleground in conflicts over the relation between Zionism and
being "as English as daffodils or chicken Judaism and berween Palestinian nationalism and Islam. Based on hundreds of
likka inasala." interviews with powerful players and ordinary citizens over tbe course of a decade,
The mixuue of traditions that under- this book evokes the ways in which these conflicts are experienced and managed
lie ibe major intellectual developments in the life of [he city.
in the world dictates strongly agaitist lak-
iug a "national" (or "regional" or "local" 44046-7 Hardback $39.95
or "commtmity-based") view of these de- ill hiwkstores or from
\'elopments. The role of mixed heritage
in a stibjett such as mathematics, for C^ A A/f TITJ T"nr^Tr lowest 20th street, New York, NY 10011-4211
example, is well-known. The interlink- V^-^-LVl-DlVXiy^jX:/ Call toll-free 800-872-7423. MasterCardmSA accepted.
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APRIL 1,1996 THE NEW REPUBLIC 31

 Given the cultuial and intellectual iti- atnusing bm profoundly serious short values." aboin which so much is now
terconnections. the question of what is story "Kartar Bhoot" ('The (Ihost of the being said by the authorities in a niun-
"Western" atid what is "Eastern" (or "In- Leader"), in which the wishes of the ber of east Asian coinitrie.s? These argti-
dian") is often hard to decide, atid the respected but dead leader make the lives ments, used in Singapore and China,
issue can be discussed only In dialectical of others impossibly constrained. appeal lo the differences between "Asian
terms. The characterization of ati idea as values" atid "Western values" to dispute
"purely Westerti" or "purely Indian" can the importance of hutnan rights and

T
heix' is a similar issite, to
be very illusorv. The origin of ideas is which I referred earliet, press freedotns in Asian comitries. The
not the kind of thing to which "purity" about the role of "moder- resistance to Western hegetnony—a per-
happens easily. nity" in contetnpoiaiy In- fectly tespectable eattse in itself—takes
dia. The recent attacks on modernity the form, under this interpretation, of
(especially on a "modernity" that is seen justifVing the suppression of join tialistic

T
his issue has some practical
importance now. given the as coming to India ftom the West) dtaw freedotns and the violations of eletnen-
political developments of gready on the literature of "post- tary political and civil rights on the
the last decade, including modernism" and on similar approaches grounds of the alleged unimportatice of
the increase in the strength of political that have been quite inlluentia! in Wcst- these freedoms in the hierarchy of what
parties locnsing on the Indian—partic- erti literary and citltural circles, atid in are claitned to be "Asiati valnes."
ularly the Hindu—heritage. There is India, too. There is something interest-
an important aspect of anti-modeinism. ing in this dual role of (he West, the

T
here are two problems with
which tends to question, explicitly or colonial metropolis supplying ideas to this mode of reasoning.
implicidy, the emphasis to be placed on post-colonial intellectnals to attack the Eirst, even if it were shown
what is called "Western science." If the influence cjf the eolonial metropolis; but that freedoms of this kind
challenges from traditional conservatism there is no contradiction here. This dual have had less importance in ;\sian
grow, this can become qtnte a threat to role does suggest, however, that the thought atid tradilion than in the West,
scientific edncation in India, affecting mete identification of the Western coti- this would still be an uncotivincing way
what voimg Indians are en( «nn aged to nections of an idea cannot be enough to of justilyitig the violation of these free-
learn, atid how mtich emphasis is put on damn it. The critics ol "modernism" doms in Asia. To see the conflict over
science in the genetal cm ricttlum. often share wiih the advocates of "mod- huniati rights as a battle hetweeti West-
ernism" the belief thai being "tnoderti" ern liberalism and Asian authenticity is
The reasoning behind this "anti- is a well-defined concept-^they are for
foreign" attitude is flawed in several to cast the debate in a form thai distracts
"it" and we are against "it." Bttt this type attention ftom the central qttestion:
ways. First, so-tailed "Western science" is of idetitification is not at ail easy, given
not the special possession of Europe What is right, what tnakes sense, in con-
the historical rof)ts—the lotig and tan- temporary Asia? The history of ideas, in
and America. It is true that, since tite gled roots—of recent itilellectttal devel-
Renaissatice, the Itidustrial Revolution, Asia and in the West, cannot decide this
opmetits, atid given the tnixttnx- of ori- issue.
and the Enlighteument, most scientillc gins in ihe genesis of the ideas and the
progress has occurred in the West; bui tnethods that are typically taken to char- Second, it is by no means clear that
these scientific developments drew sub- acterize modernism. historically there has been systematical-
stantially on earlier work in mathemat- ly greater importance attached to free-
ics and science done by the Arabs, the The point is not that all tiiodern dom and tolerance in the West than in
Chinese, the Indians, and others. The things are good, or that there are no rea- Asia. Individual liberty, in its contem-
term "Wcsterti s( ience" is misleading in sons to donbt the wisdom of tnany devei- porary form, is a relatively new notion
this respect, and misguided in its ten- optnents that are jnstifled in the natiie of both in Asia and in the West; and while
dency to establish a distance between modernity. Rather, the poitit is that the West did get to these ideas earlier
non-Western people and the pitrsuit of there is no escape from the critical (tbrough developments such as the
mathematics and science. Second, irre- scrutiny of ideas, nortiis and proposals, Renaissance, the European Enlighten-
spective of the location of the discover- no tnatter whether they are seen as pro- ment the Industrial Revolution, and so
ies and the inventions, the methods of modern or atiti-modern. When we come on), the divergence between the ctLl-
reasoning used in science and mathe- to decide what policies to stipport in turcs is relatively recent. In answer to
matics give them sotne independence of edncation, health care, or social security, the question, "at what date, in what cir-
local geography and cultural history. To the modernity or the non-tnodernity of a cumstatices, the notion of individual lil>
be sure, there are itnportant issiies of proposal is neither here nor there. The erty ... first becatne explicit in the
local knowledge, and of the varying per- relevant question is how these policies West," Isaiah Berlin has remarked that
spectives regarding what is or is not would actually affect the lives of people. "I have found no convincing evidence
important; but there is still much of Similarly, when faced with communal of any clear formulatioti of it in the
substance that is shared in methods of tensions in cotitemporary India, there is ancient world."
argumetit, demonstration, and the scrti- much to be gained from reading the tol-
dny of evidence. The tertn "Western sci- erant poetTis of Kabir, or studying the This view has been disputed by
ence" is misleading in this respect, too. political priorities of Akbar, in contrast Orlando Patterson in Freedom, Volume I:
Third, our decisions about the futiue with, say, the intolerant approach of Freedom in the Making of Western Culture.
need not be parasitic on the past we Atuangzeb. The discritnination among His historical arguments are interesting
have experienced. Even if there were no ideas must be made in tertiis of their and forceful; but his thesis of a freedom-
Asian or Indian component in the evolu- worth, not oti the basis of some claim centered tradition in the West in con-
tion of contemporary mathematics and that Kabir or Akbar was "more mod- trast with what happened elsewhere
science—this is not the case, but even ern" or "less modern" than Aurangzeb. seems to depend on attaching signifi-
if it were the case—their importance in Modernity is tiot otily a bewildering cance to particular elements of Western
contemporary India need not be deeply notion, it is also largely irrelevant as a thought without looking adequately for
undermined for that teason. Rabindra- measure of merit or demerit in assessing comparable elements in non-Weslern
nath Tagore nicely illustrated die tyr- contemporary priorities. intellectual traditions—for example, in
amiy of being bound to the past in his the fairly extensive literatnres on politics
What about the specialness of "Asian and governance in Sanskrit, Pali, Chi-

32 THE NEW REPUBLIC APRILI,I996

nese, Arabic and oilier _
In tlu' leading ol ihc Wt'slcin iiadi-
tiuii that st't's il us tin- nalural liabital
ol iiidi\i(liial freedom and poiilical de-
mocracy, there is a tendency to extra-
polate backwards irom the pre.sent. Val-
Religion
ues that the European enli^htenineiit
and ottier i'e]ati\ely reteni developinetils
in Public life
ha\e made common and wtdespiead (an
scarcely be seen as part of the long-run
A Dilemma for Democracy
Western lieritage, as if they wcvc cx-
•'This btxjk puts forward the most sophisticaU'd and subtle
perienced in ihe West over [iiillennia. RONALD F trcainitn! availabk- on the rt'lation hfiwcc-ii religion and
hi spec ific contexts in the Westei n classi- THIEMANN poliiiL.s aiul i.liurt.li (synajiojiue. m<».s(|uc. leniplc) ;tnd statf.
cal tiadition, ot course, there have been A TweiUieth rhicniann has taken our inipovfri.slicd discourse on tbcse mat-
championings of freedom and toler- Centurv Funil Mt)nk ters to nvw h(-l}ilils and liiglitT grountl."^Cornel Wesl,
anee. t)iit mucli the same can be said of author of Race Matters, and professor in the Faculty of
many parts of the Asian tradition as Arts and Sciences and in The Divinity School, Harvard
well—not least in India, with the ar- University
liciilations associated uiih Aslioka's in- "|Thii-mann| moves lowartt a tonimon t;rotind with some
set i pi ions. Sluidiaka's drama, Akbai's ol llic new consenativc objections io libenil points of view."
pronouiiteinents, or Kiibir's poetry, to —Michael Novak, director of social and political studies
name jnsl a few examples. at the American Enterprise Institute
It is true that tolerance has not been •'Wist-, ihoiiyluful, and infused with a deep understanding
advocated by all in the Asian traditions. ol tile American past . . Read it and understand the neces-
Nor lias that toleiance typitalK covered sary ccntr.ilit\ ot relijiion in llie public life ot this dem(KTatic
I.SHN()-H"Hi(W)()9-,-^ republic,'—Hodding c:arter III
everyone (ihf)ngh some, snch as Ashoka, Cloth.S'S'i.OO
in the third cenlnry lid. did insist on ISHN()-H^8.l()-(.I()-- Ronald K Thiemann is dean of the Harvard Divinity School.
complelely niii\'crNal (olerance, witliotit I';i|XTbnck,$l''.9S 1/ IXHihsl'irvs. iir fnini
any exception). Btit nuieli the same can
be said ab<jut Westeiri traditions as well.
There is little evidence that Plato oi' GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Augtistine were more tolerant or less P.O. Box 4866, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211-4866
aiitboi'ilarian ihan Confucius. Aiislolie Phone: 410-516-6995 FAX: 410-516-6998
eerlainh' did write on ihe imporlaiu e oC
freedom, liut women and slaves were
excluded from the domain of his con-
cern. Ilie allegedly sharp connast be-
Does this Asian model outperfonii famous Europeati liixunj pens?
tween Western and Asian traditions on
the stibjeet of freedom and tolerance is
based on very poor history. And the
jy
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authoritarian aigument based on the
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I a r ^^ c
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liberties in contemporary Asia. back, "however, as with so majiy other nice tliinj^s, is that the price of FIII i y a m a
these luxury peas is awfully high. It's easy to spend S15() or more on PL'n iiold:.
one of them. Our Asian Iriends aided by advanced German silicon

T
he debate about "Asian val- •tioiigh ink to
cartridf^e technology, have created tlieir own v'crsion of these lux-
ues" draws attention to an ury peiis.Tliey iire equally pleasing and quite similar in appearance, iinnv a ivry loii}i
important issue underlyiTig heft and feef. They fiave the same hi-lacquer finish, the samt? hue—kmi^ enough
attempts at generalizations fine gold-tone accents and the same goid-plated clip as those to write a short
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.ihoul Kasi and West, about Europe and ing tip provides silk-smooth, effortless writing. It will never your literar\i require-
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APRIL 1,1996 THE NEW RHPLBLIC 33

the tailor-made form of some immense and Lord Ki^ishna revivified a desolate the "dizzying cotitrasts"—is far from what
opposition between, say, the West and prinee wiih the words of ihe Gita} One can be found in labored generalizations
India, with relative homogeneity inside cmild dt) exciting things here, using the about the unique and fragile purity of
each. great mhiictic uadilioii of the Ktilliakali. as "our culttire," and in the vigorous pleas
The problem is even greater, of the Japanese use their Noh and Kabuki. Or to keep "our culttire," "our modernity,"
would you rather stay where you are, right
course, when there are attempts at gen- in the present, in the heart of this mon- immune from "theii" culture," "their
eralizations ahout "Asian values." Asia is strous, teeming, hewildering rit)', and try lo modernity." In our heterogeneity, and in
where ahotit 60 percent of the world's orchestrate its diz/ying contrasts of sight otir openness, lies otu" pride, not otir dis-
entire population live. There are no and sotiiid and milien? grace. Satyajit Ray taught us this, and the
quintessential vahies that apply to this lesson is profoundly important for India.
immensely large and heterogeneous The celebration of these differences— And for Asia, and for the world. •
population, which separate them out as a
group from the rest of the world. Those
who have written on the importance of
cultural divisions have been right to
point to them, and yet the attempt to see
these divisions in the over-aggregated The twentieth-century saga of Man^s Sperber.
form of A dichotomy between East and
West conceals more than it reveals.
Indeed, even generalizations about a
single religious community within India
(the Hindus or the Muslims), or about a
single language group (the Bengalis or
A Hero of His Times
the Punjabis or the Tamils), can he BY TONY JUDT
deeply misleading. Depending on the

T
context, there may be more significant ile conventional history of Manes Sperber was otie of them. He
similarity between groups of people in Europe in the twentieth is not very well known in the English-
different parts of the country who come centtiry begins with the reading world; he wrote mainly in Ger-
from the same class, have the same polit- collapse of continental em- man, occasionally in French. His major
ical convictions, or pursue the same pro- pires in the course of the First World War. work of fictioTi, Like a Tear in Ibf Ocean,
fession or woik, and that similarity can From Lenin's revolution in 1917 there which appeared in 1949, is a very long,
hold across national boundaries as well. arose a vision that in time came to seem semi-atitobiographical roma}) a r/^/and
People can be classified in terms of the only alternative to the descent into not widely read. Its stibject matter is a lit-
many different criteria, and the recent fascism of mtich of ihe civilized world. tle like that of the early novels of Andre
tendency to emphasize some contrasts Following the heroic strtiggles of the Sec- Malraux: it dissects the thoughts and the
(religion or community) while ignoring ond World War and ihe defeat of fascism, actions of small gronps of intellectuals,
others has overlooked important differ- the choice for thinking people seemed revolutionaries and conspirators adrift
ences even as it has capitalized on oth- to lie betweeti coinmtinism and liberal in the century. L'nlike Malratix, however.
ers. democracy; bnt the latter was polluted for
many by its imperialist ambitions, by the
sell-serving character of its democratic All Our Yesterdays

T
he difficulties of communi- proclamations. Only at the end of the by Manes Spcrher
cation across cultures are century, in our own day, has communism,
real, as are the normative too, lost its last shreds of credibility, leav- Volumf 7; God's Water Carriers
issues raised by the impor- ing the field to an tmcertain liberalism translated hyJoachim Neiigioschel
tance of culttiral differences; but these shorn ofconfidence and purpose. (Holmes & Meier, 156 pp., $'25.95)
difficulties do not require us to accept
the standard divisions between "our cul- That is the history of our centtiry, as it Volume 2: The Unheeded Warning,
ture" and "ilieir culture." Nor do they seemed, and seems, to many in its time; 1918-1933
give us reason to overlook the demands and only in retrospect, and slowly, have iranslated by Harry Zohn
of practical reason, and of political and its deepei- and more convoluted patterns (Holmes & Meier. 216 pp.. $27.9"))
social relevance, in favor of faithful- and meanings been unraveled and ac- Volume 3: Until My Eyes Are
ness to some alleged historical contrasts. knowledged, by scholars and partici-
Closed With Shards
Wiiich brings us back to Satyajit Ray. pants alike. But there is another history
of our era, a "virtual history" of the twen- iranslaied hy Harry Zohn
His delicate portrayal of the very differ- (Hohiies & Meier, 26^^ pp., S34.95)
ent types that make us what we are can- tieth century, and it is the story of those
not be matched. men and women who lived through the
Reflecting on what to inchide in bis century and also saw throitgb it, who Sperber was never attracted to "historic
films, he posed the problem beautifully: tinderstood its meaning as it ntifolded. personaUties" of the left or the right.
There were not many of them. They did Indeed, the elegiac mood of his book,
Whai should you put in vour films? What not need to wait for 1945, or 1989, to and its iiitellecttial tcjne, is more reminis-
can you leave oiil? Would you leave the ciiy know what had happened and what it cent of Arthtir Koestler in Darkness at
behind and go to the village where cows had meant, to see beyond the illusions. Noon or Victor Serge in The Case of Com-
graze in ilu- endless fields and the shep- For various reasons, they saw across the rade Tul(iyn), two other ex-communists
lieid plays ihe iluic? You can make n film veil earlier. Most of them are now dead. obsessed with their former allegiatice.
lieie ihai would be pine and fresh and Some of them died ycjting, paying dearly
have Lhe deliraic rhythm of a boatman's for their disqtiieting perspicacity'. A strik- But Sperber was an influential man in
snug. Or would you radier go batk in ingly large Tnimber of these clear-sighted his day. He was a tnember of thai bril-
time—way hack [o ihe Epics, where the voyagers throngh the century were Jews, liant fellowship of exile in post-war Paris
gods an<t the demons look sides in ihe many from east-central Europe, that included Czeslaw Miiosz, Kotjelen-
great battle where hiother killed hrother ski, Ignazio Silone, Boris Sonvarine,

34 T H E N E W REPUBLIC APRIL 1,1996