One may be the bravest soldier in one's regiment, received compliments from officers and peers, and received the best comments for the bravery, but if such a soldier fail to convey his bravery in the bravest manner like killing a terrorists in an encounter, even the bravery of such a brave soldier will pass unnoticed and unrewarded.
Same applies to literary, historical and professional deliberations and presentations. Clear show and honest presentation must be there by the soldier in a professional and brave manner in the records of the regiment, and the sooner the soldier achieves this formula, the better it is for his regimental growth on the professional front.
Translators are not the language-mechanics but they are the gate-keepers of aesthetics, they are not the looters of originality but they are the baskets of human emotions being transferred from one basin to another river-bed.
(Subodh Sarkar, ‘EDITOR's NOTE', Translations and the New Mandarins', Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, No. 263, May/June 2011, vol LV No.3, p-7)
Communication skills and language are very important in professional career and work place dynamics and growth and these qualities, skills and command can make a new character or expert, in the same manner skills and expertise in translation, script writing and history writing can make a new character, can give new interpretation to any book and kill the original character or interpretation.
For example in 1960 a famous movie Mughal-e-Azam, was produced by Shapoorji Pallonji and directed by K. Asif. After this movie, so many new interpretations came about Emperor Akbar and his life. Noted eminent, secular, communists and Muslim scholars created altogether a new Emperor Akbar. A ruthless, brutal and fanatically anti-Hindu Emperor Akbar was replaced by kind, secular, romantic and humanist Emperor Akbar. Not only was this, a new romantic but imagery Queen Jodha Bai also created to show Emperor Akbar as a secular king to show Hindu-Muslim unity and prove the superiority of Muslims over Hindus.
Similarly, in 1963 a very famous film Taj Mahal was made and written by A.K.Nadiadwala and directed by M.Sadiq, based on the historical legend of the love of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. As per the legend, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in fond memory for his beloved seventh wife Mumtaz Mahal. But in this blockbuster creation a new Shah Jahan was created and really brutal, womanizer anti-Hindu Shah Jahan went into oblivion.
In the present scenario, literature, as well as film, presents a distorted image of reality, for both these media of expression, tend to glamorize violence and sex to become more saleable and popular.
(Sumitra Kukreti, GLORIFICATION OF CRIME IN LITERATURE AND FILM: THE GODFATHER VS INDIA'S BANDIT QUEEN', Film and Literature, Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.Publications, New-Delhi, 1997, P-127.)
To avoid such controversies and distortions, some unchangeable characteristics, based on realities should be given to the script writers and directors before-hand before making any such historical movie, so that coming generations must get a true picture of the history. The concerned must ponder over the subject before initiating such important projects. This will be of great help to convey the history correctly.
They are actually launderers of ideas and history. Recently in a very scintillating speech famous MP, Meenakshi Lekhi branded such writers as ‘Intellectual mercenaries'.' Such faulty creations only add to confusion and controversies. The writers and translators must keep in mind that it certainly goes a long way to have efficient and effective, but honest communication with the audience and readers. The coming generations of readers and viewers monitor the effect of the performance or the text and significantly contribute to the factual presentation of any historically important character.
This is the age of social networking sites. One cannot hide the reality, about any character or text from the readers for a long time. As in the case of eminent secular historians, now nobody believes their versions. They are subject to mockery. This is the worst type of anti-intellectualism or as famous Victorian poet Matthew Arnold wrote in Culture And Anarchy as ‘Philistine'.
One must make a list of important events before taking them up as projects. It is a very important quality to depict the things honestly. It is very good to show some extra merit in the script or in the book but blatantly ignoring the historical facts may not go down well with the audience or the readers. It is understandable that now a day everyone tends to be a bit more informed when dealing with such creations. But one must be honest in one's professional life.
Same confusion and controversies were created when the secular and communists groups tried to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan. For Hindus and nationalists, Tipu Sultan was an anti-Hindu fanatic ruler who was responsible for slaughtering thousands of Hindus and razing Hindu temples. But in the famous television serial ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan,' written by Bhagwan Gidwani, Tipu Sultan was shown as a secular ruler, who fought against British rule in India. Secularists and communist describe Tipu Sultan, as the first freedom fighter, died for the independence of India. He was renamed as ‘Tiger of Mysore' by them.
The powerful presentation is an asset but one being tactful and honest while ensuring that you do not twist the history for somebody's vested interests. Owing to stressful environments at work, it is important that the writer must say the right thing at the right time. Doing so avoids future confusion and controversies and establishes the associations, demonstrates thoughtfulness and credibility. In case one is forced to write things which are not based on facts, the best way to tackle that pressure is to ignore such needs and refuse to get involved in such projects.
The Manusmrti (Sanskrit: मनुस्मृति), also met the same fate. Manusmrti is the most important, most reputed and most studied legal text among the many Dharmaśāstras of Hindus and Hinduism. Seeing the death and importance of the Sanskrit text it was the first Sanskrit text translated during the British rule, by Sir William Jones, in 1794. Manusmriti is also called the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra or Law of Manu. But after translation Manusmriti was badly criticized by secularists and caste-ists although it is a different matter that most of the critics of Manusmriti do not know even the A-B-C of Sanskrit. Now Manusmriti is a highly abused and criticized text.
There is no denying the fact that the enduring value of literature lies in its universality of appeal. Every reader of a literary masterpiece brings to it a richness of interpretations which springs of the quality of his own sensibility. The work acquires value to him for its lights up the dark corridors of his soul and gives him a chance to air his views on the meaning of life and destiny. But Narasimhaih also points to a danger inherent in such an approach. Critics may adopt a "fragmentary" approach and see a work of art only as a wish-fulfillment of their own frustrated dreams and desires.
(ENGLISH STUDIES IN INDIA, CULTURE AND COMMITMENT ASPECTS OF INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, BHAGWAT S. GOYAL, SHALABH BOOK HOUSE, MEERUT, U.P., p-65)
One must have gleaming ideas but nobody is allowed to distort the facts or history. Such gimmicks cannot work for a long time. One is bound to be exposed. The honest and effective presentation is the key to building trust, reputation and healthy environment.
In this category of creation on new characters, the name of Bhim Rao Ambedkar is most apt. Ambedkar never was a victim of caste discrimination. He had his schooling at the Army school, run by the British government. Later on, he shifted to Elphinstone College. Gayakwad ruler of Baroda, Sahyaji Rao-III, financed his higher education. He also had his education in America. After coming back from the US, Ambedkar was appointed a secretary to the King of Baroda. Bombay Governor Lord Sydenham helped Ambedkar to obtain the job as a professor of political science at the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Bombay. So Ambedkar had a very comfortable life.
Though this simplistic position on biography and autobiography was shared by theorists of the two genres in the past, in the context of the kind of debates that contemporary theory has witnessed on such question as the discursive distinction between fact and fiction, the constitution of subjectivity in auto/biography, the truth status of the claims made by the auto/biographer and the overall generic specificity of auto/biography, one might find it difficult to accept the position that the self in the past is an uncontested subject. This is not a purely theoretical debate. Sometimes people, including writers, can feel deeply mortified by the images that fellow writers create in the name of auto/biography.
(‘Translation as Hoax: Art, Othering and life Writing', P.P. Raveendran, Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, 237, Jan-Feb 2007, Vol. LI, No.1, Pp191-92. )
Due to the vote bank politics in India, secular leaders and caste leaders found Ambedkar as the most powerful mascot to get the votes of Dalits. They changed everything related with the life of Ambedkar. He was re-canonized as a poor, oppressed and struggling Dalit icon replacing all the real facts about his life. The reality was that Ambedkar was the son of a British army officer. Ambedkar's ancestors had for long been in the employment of the army of the British East India Company. His economic condition was quite good and he was very well cared by a Brahmin teacher during his schooling and higher education was looked after by King of Baroda, the Gaekwads. In his political career, he was very well supported by Britishers and heavy weights of Congress.
The question that remains to be answered is,' Should literature or a work of art be censored?' The answer is ‘Yes'. Despite our right of the freedom of speech and expression, certain control is necessary. This freedom can be abused very easily. This concept of freedom combines the ideas of right and duty.
(Madhumalti Adhikari, ‘CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE: LAW AND IMPLICATIONS', CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE', Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 1998, P-6.)
CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE', Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 1998.
CULTURE AND COMMITMENT ASPECTS OF INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, BHAGWAT S. GOYAL, SHALABH BOOK HOUSE, MEERUT, U.P.
Film and Literature, Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.Publications, New-Delhi, 1997.
Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, 237, Jan-Feb 2007, Vol. LI, No.1, Pp191-92.
Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, No. 263, May/June 2011, vol LV No.3.
Same applies to literary, historical and professional deliberations and presentations. Clear show and honest presentation must be there by the soldier in a professional and brave manner in the records of the regiment, and the sooner the soldier achieves this formula, the better it is for his regimental growth on the professional front.
Translators are not the language-mechanics but they are the gate-keepers of aesthetics, they are not the looters of originality but they are the baskets of human emotions being transferred from one basin to another river-bed.
(Subodh Sarkar, ‘EDITOR's NOTE', Translations and the New Mandarins', Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, No. 263, May/June 2011, vol LV No.3, p-7)
Communication skills and language are very important in professional career and work place dynamics and growth and these qualities, skills and command can make a new character or expert, in the same manner skills and expertise in translation, script writing and history writing can make a new character, can give new interpretation to any book and kill the original character or interpretation.
For example in 1960 a famous movie Mughal-e-Azam, was produced by Shapoorji Pallonji and directed by K. Asif. After this movie, so many new interpretations came about Emperor Akbar and his life. Noted eminent, secular, communists and Muslim scholars created altogether a new Emperor Akbar. A ruthless, brutal and fanatically anti-Hindu Emperor Akbar was replaced by kind, secular, romantic and humanist Emperor Akbar. Not only was this, a new romantic but imagery Queen Jodha Bai also created to show Emperor Akbar as a secular king to show Hindu-Muslim unity and prove the superiority of Muslims over Hindus.
Similarly, in 1963 a very famous film Taj Mahal was made and written by A.K.Nadiadwala and directed by M.Sadiq, based on the historical legend of the love of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. As per the legend, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in fond memory for his beloved seventh wife Mumtaz Mahal. But in this blockbuster creation a new Shah Jahan was created and really brutal, womanizer anti-Hindu Shah Jahan went into oblivion.
In the present scenario, literature, as well as film, presents a distorted image of reality, for both these media of expression, tend to glamorize violence and sex to become more saleable and popular.
(Sumitra Kukreti, GLORIFICATION OF CRIME IN LITERATURE AND FILM: THE GODFATHER VS INDIA'S BANDIT QUEEN', Film and Literature, Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.Publications, New-Delhi, 1997, P-127.)
To avoid such controversies and distortions, some unchangeable characteristics, based on realities should be given to the script writers and directors before-hand before making any such historical movie, so that coming generations must get a true picture of the history. The concerned must ponder over the subject before initiating such important projects. This will be of great help to convey the history correctly.
They are actually launderers of ideas and history. Recently in a very scintillating speech famous MP, Meenakshi Lekhi branded such writers as ‘Intellectual mercenaries'.' Such faulty creations only add to confusion and controversies. The writers and translators must keep in mind that it certainly goes a long way to have efficient and effective, but honest communication with the audience and readers. The coming generations of readers and viewers monitor the effect of the performance or the text and significantly contribute to the factual presentation of any historically important character.
This is the age of social networking sites. One cannot hide the reality, about any character or text from the readers for a long time. As in the case of eminent secular historians, now nobody believes their versions. They are subject to mockery. This is the worst type of anti-intellectualism or as famous Victorian poet Matthew Arnold wrote in Culture And Anarchy as ‘Philistine'.
One must make a list of important events before taking them up as projects. It is a very important quality to depict the things honestly. It is very good to show some extra merit in the script or in the book but blatantly ignoring the historical facts may not go down well with the audience or the readers. It is understandable that now a day everyone tends to be a bit more informed when dealing with such creations. But one must be honest in one's professional life.
Same confusion and controversies were created when the secular and communists groups tried to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan. For Hindus and nationalists, Tipu Sultan was an anti-Hindu fanatic ruler who was responsible for slaughtering thousands of Hindus and razing Hindu temples. But in the famous television serial ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan,' written by Bhagwan Gidwani, Tipu Sultan was shown as a secular ruler, who fought against British rule in India. Secularists and communist describe Tipu Sultan, as the first freedom fighter, died for the independence of India. He was renamed as ‘Tiger of Mysore' by them.
The powerful presentation is an asset but one being tactful and honest while ensuring that you do not twist the history for somebody's vested interests. Owing to stressful environments at work, it is important that the writer must say the right thing at the right time. Doing so avoids future confusion and controversies and establishes the associations, demonstrates thoughtfulness and credibility. In case one is forced to write things which are not based on facts, the best way to tackle that pressure is to ignore such needs and refuse to get involved in such projects.
The Manusmrti (Sanskrit: मनुस्मृति), also met the same fate. Manusmrti is the most important, most reputed and most studied legal text among the many Dharmaśāstras of Hindus and Hinduism. Seeing the death and importance of the Sanskrit text it was the first Sanskrit text translated during the British rule, by Sir William Jones, in 1794. Manusmriti is also called the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra or Law of Manu. But after translation Manusmriti was badly criticized by secularists and caste-ists although it is a different matter that most of the critics of Manusmriti do not know even the A-B-C of Sanskrit. Now Manusmriti is a highly abused and criticized text.
There is no denying the fact that the enduring value of literature lies in its universality of appeal. Every reader of a literary masterpiece brings to it a richness of interpretations which springs of the quality of his own sensibility. The work acquires value to him for its lights up the dark corridors of his soul and gives him a chance to air his views on the meaning of life and destiny. But Narasimhaih also points to a danger inherent in such an approach. Critics may adopt a "fragmentary" approach and see a work of art only as a wish-fulfillment of their own frustrated dreams and desires.
(ENGLISH STUDIES IN INDIA, CULTURE AND COMMITMENT ASPECTS OF INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, BHAGWAT S. GOYAL, SHALABH BOOK HOUSE, MEERUT, U.P., p-65)
One must have gleaming ideas but nobody is allowed to distort the facts or history. Such gimmicks cannot work for a long time. One is bound to be exposed. The honest and effective presentation is the key to building trust, reputation and healthy environment.
In this category of creation on new characters, the name of Bhim Rao Ambedkar is most apt. Ambedkar never was a victim of caste discrimination. He had his schooling at the Army school, run by the British government. Later on, he shifted to Elphinstone College. Gayakwad ruler of Baroda, Sahyaji Rao-III, financed his higher education. He also had his education in America. After coming back from the US, Ambedkar was appointed a secretary to the King of Baroda. Bombay Governor Lord Sydenham helped Ambedkar to obtain the job as a professor of political science at the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Bombay. So Ambedkar had a very comfortable life.
Though this simplistic position on biography and autobiography was shared by theorists of the two genres in the past, in the context of the kind of debates that contemporary theory has witnessed on such question as the discursive distinction between fact and fiction, the constitution of subjectivity in auto/biography, the truth status of the claims made by the auto/biographer and the overall generic specificity of auto/biography, one might find it difficult to accept the position that the self in the past is an uncontested subject. This is not a purely theoretical debate. Sometimes people, including writers, can feel deeply mortified by the images that fellow writers create in the name of auto/biography.
(‘Translation as Hoax: Art, Othering and life Writing', P.P. Raveendran, Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, 237, Jan-Feb 2007, Vol. LI, No.1, Pp191-92. )
Due to the vote bank politics in India, secular leaders and caste leaders found Ambedkar as the most powerful mascot to get the votes of Dalits. They changed everything related with the life of Ambedkar. He was re-canonized as a poor, oppressed and struggling Dalit icon replacing all the real facts about his life. The reality was that Ambedkar was the son of a British army officer. Ambedkar's ancestors had for long been in the employment of the army of the British East India Company. His economic condition was quite good and he was very well cared by a Brahmin teacher during his schooling and higher education was looked after by King of Baroda, the Gaekwads. In his political career, he was very well supported by Britishers and heavy weights of Congress.
The question that remains to be answered is,' Should literature or a work of art be censored?' The answer is ‘Yes'. Despite our right of the freedom of speech and expression, certain control is necessary. This freedom can be abused very easily. This concept of freedom combines the ideas of right and duty.
(Madhumalti Adhikari, ‘CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE: LAW AND IMPLICATIONS', CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE', Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 1998, P-6.)
CENSORSHIP AND LITERATURE', Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 1998.
CULTURE AND COMMITMENT ASPECTS OF INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, BHAGWAT S. GOYAL, SHALABH BOOK HOUSE, MEERUT, U.P.
Film and Literature, Ed. K.K.Sharma, K.K.Publications, New-Delhi, 1997.
Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, 237, Jan-Feb 2007, Vol. LI, No.1, Pp191-92.
Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New-Delhi, No. 263, May/June 2011, vol LV No.3.
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