My Too (Many) Cents

“साहित्य समाज का दर्पण है” - Munshi Premchand In this term paper, we conceptualize caste as a specific particularity of a drive to stratification. We locate this general urge as an outcome of a phenomenological orientation against ‘the real’ and map the specific manifestation to ways in which caste is performed and constituted. Within this field, we consider the specific experiences of producing caste. We focus on three parts of this experience, namely hate, apathy and self-monitoring which we then understand through an interpretive and stylistic analysis of the works Ijjat by Narayan Gangopadhyay , Kafan by Premchand and Nayi Reet by Ajay Navaria.  Stratification In this section we try to understand a psychological movement that can be seen as a contributor and also an abstraction to caste - stratification and the forming of hierarchies.  While many psychologists have debated over essentialist claims such as whether dominance hierarchies are an essential offshoot of human bio...

(done as part of literature and the ethics of telling a story term paper 2) Introduction "Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor." — Alexis Carrel The word ethics derives from the ancient Greek word ἦθος (êthos) which originally meant something close to "character", "custom" or "habit". In this term paper we first show how ethics is a continuous process, a dialogue between interacting individuals and communities. Utilising this understanding, we critically analyse the movie Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and Atin Bandyopadhyay's Kafir as media pieces that exhibit this "practice" of ethics in varying circumstances, viz. the community and justice for Ek Ruka Hua Faisla , and the individual and religion for Kafir . This paper is organized to shape this idea of ethics and trace its genealogy in the first section, and then analyse some specific aspects of the given works and how they interact with t...

Ajay Navaria's Unclaimed Terrain is a harrowing account of the juxtaposition of financial mobility and social stratification. But I'll probably analyse that in a term paper sometime soon. Today, I want to talk about the conversation I had with my ethics professor after the class. There's a prisoner dilemma at play when you are part of the hegemonic class in a social structure. How do I trust those pitted against me to not misuse the power they wrest? I suppose it is emblematic of understanding your own apathy.  As a political being, there is a dilemma at play in pledging your solidarity to a political movement. What if the consequences roll out of your hands? Is it precisely your demands that it's trying to meet? What is the cosine similarity between what you want and what the movement wants?  There are of course a substantial number of people in any movement who want the ruckus and the chaos. They thrive in the rioting, because there is no existential depth to their gr...