G N Devy
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The first volume of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India brings to the reader the journey undertaken in 2010, by a group of visionaries led by G. N. Devy to document the languages of India as they existed then. The aim of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India was to document these languages, spoken in India’s remotest corners. India’s towns and cities too have found a voice in this survey. What this journey did was to bring a ...
Performing Identities brings together essays by scholars, artists and activists engaged in understanding and conserving rapidly disappearing local knowledge forms of indigenous communities across continents. It depicts the imaginative transactions evident in the interface of identity and cultural transformation, raising the issue of cultural rights of these otherwise marginalized communities.
Contents: Introduction/K.K. Chakravarty. 1. The hyena wears darkness: ...
Painted Words is the first collection of its kind: writings in a rich variety of genres by Adivasis and denotified tribals. Culled from all over India, the selections include tribal versions of the Mahabharat and Ramayan, colourful legends, rhythmic epics, poignant songs, oral histories and a simple but chilling play depicting the routine exploitation of tribal citizens. Anchoring such fancies as a magical flower, a bed with golden legs and a girl who lights ...
Contemporary Indians", says G.N. Devy, "seem to be afflicted by a sense of amnesia in relation to literary history". The affliction is more severe, he feels, in the sphere of literary criticism, not only because older texts are generally unavailable, but also because modern India has lost touch with both the language and the ethos of the critical texts of ancient and medieval India. Students of Indian literature need to have access to India’s ...
Of Many Heroes' is an essay exploring the history of literary history in India during the last two thousand years. It examines various historiographical statements in ancient, medieval and modern India. It also examines the impact of the experience of colonising India on literary historiography in Britain. A brief account of some major twentieth century theories of literary history in the west is presented in the book in juxtaposition with an account of ...
The essays in this books focus on the inadequacies in the way adivasis have been looked at and thought about, resulting in their complete marginalisation and oppression. The essays are the result of the author’s deep involvement with tribal peoples, their cultures and literatures, and also with the problems they face in the ‘modern’ world. Interesting and pertinent questions are discussed-tribal aphasia, tribal silence in the face of the threat to their ...