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Nativism The term "nativism", basically, has political connotations. For example, in the 19th century USA, there were movements by groups (Know-Nothing Movement etc) that opposed granting of citizenship/civil rights to immigrants. These groups firmly believed that Anglo-Saxon settlers alone were the true Americans and were supposedly under threat from the growing influx of Central European and Asian immigrants. Similarly, the 1857 uprising in India is looked upon as a manifestation of nativistic sentiment against the British colonisers.
Nemade’s four essays in this book deal with the various aspects of nativism, the need for ushering in cultural-literary resurrection, if not full-fledged renaissance, and the danger of it becoming an instrument of xenophobic jingoism. Even as he highlights the richness and sophistication of our literary traditions — especially the Marathi — Nemade does not hesitate from pointing out some of the drawbacks/limitations of Marathi literature — particularly the novel. He debunks the very idea of universalism by asserting that all literary works in the world are essentially nativistic. His disdain for Indian writers in English and their ignorance of the indigenous literary output is understandable. However, while it is true that language is the vehicle for transporting a culture to more prosperous vistas, perhaps some of these writers with hybrid sensibilities feel that there is a need for exploring the possibility for modifying or even replacing this vehicle with a more efficient one. At the same time how does one hybridise, let alone replace, our oral literary traditions? Is Nemade — and others of his ilk — mere survivalist or is he a credible builder/visualiser of alternatives to the Anglo-American dominated universalism? Only time will tell.
It is not easy to make others understand your point of view. Sometimes even your simplest utterances are misunderstood. You wonder what went wrong. Often the fault lies with the speaker rather than the listener. After all, communicating is an art that requires dollops of scientific inputs. This comes in handy in the competitive business world where every word needs to be communicated with great care and clarity. In case you feel that your communication skills are not up to the mark here is a self-help book by an author claiming to be an expert in the field.
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As an offshoot of
political nativism the cultural-literary nativism began to manifest
itself around the globe. India is no exception, although given our
tolerant ethos, the trend has not been as strong as in some other
countries. Nevertheless, there is a significant number of
intellectuals in the country who firmly believe that most of our
modern indigenous literature underscores the necessity for asserting a
realistic ethnic identity in the face of politico-cultural
imperialism. This has led to the practice of producing indigenous
literature in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali etc.
The Gentle Art of
Getting your Own Way