Facebook today reminded me of my reading 3yrs ago "Empire of Things: How we Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First". It is a great book. Highly recommended if you, like me, are interested in understanding the history of our buying habits.
+
Somewhere in the book i read about the Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki. That made me spend some time on Tanizaki's book "In praise of shadows" and his other works, "Naomi" in particular.
In the eyes of Tanizaki, those who wantonly embraced Western ideas and practices were behaving foolishly.
+
Tanizaki does not renounce Westernization per se; he simply challenges the new Japanese youth to evaluate the concepts and practices linked to Westernization more judiciously and intelligently
+
Tanizaki's Naomi is a criticism of the irrational deification of things Western. Tanizaki
Tanizaki critiques this behavior through the character of Jōji who sacrifices his self-worth when he comes across both things Western and things perceived to be such.
+
The character of Jōji is a caricature of those who fell victim to the above tragedy, the result of which Tanizaki asserts can only be a debilitating inferiority complex.
+
The novel ends with this line ""There's nothing to be done when one loses confidence in one's self"
+
It is fascinating to see a parallel between him and what Viswanatha Satyanarayana (విశ్వనాథ సత్యనారాయణ) did in just about the same age.
+
Even Viswanatha wrote about this irrational deification of everything western. He wrote about the debilitating inferiority complex too. And through every single word he wrote he was asking us to rediscover our self and regain the lost confidence in our own self.
+
We sidelined Viswanatha calling him Brahminical. Before we appropriate a caste bias onto him we need to understand his stellar critique of the influence of colonialism on the colonised. Tanizaki helped me appreciate Viswanatha all over once again when I read this first
+
Good to recollect old reading occasionally. Used to share it with friends before. Here I share with known and unknown strangers hoping it piques the brains of some.
I wasn't aware of this piece of history!!
From the chapter "Under the Curse of Gold - Kerala's Gold Boom and the Exit of Vishwakarma Goldsmiths" in this book "In search of Vishwakarma - Mapping Indian Craft Histories - Edited by Vijaya Ramaswamy"
+
"State as an 'Apparatus of Capture' also played a dubious role in denigrating the well-to-do position goldsmiths enjoyed till mid twentieth century.
+
The Gold Control Act declared by the Indian state in 1963, and repealed only in 1990, was the most crucial state intervention that changed their status fundamentally.
Facebook reminded of 2019 reading memory - Jerry Mander's
"In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations"
+
"European doubts about the peoplehood of Indians extend back to the murderous explorations of Hernando Cortez in the mid 1500s, among the Indians of Central America and Mexico"
+
"The fate of the Indians became the subject of fierce disagreements within the Catholic Church"
- TRS government announces sops for Reddy corporation. 1800 crores grants. Subsidies on farm instruments.
- Send back Brahmins to Russia's Volga river says Chattisgarh CM's father
- TRS government working towards depositing 10 lakhs into the accounts of 16800 beneficiaries as a part of Dalit Bandhu scheme
- R Krishnaih gives a clarion call for a B.C Bandhu scheme on similar lines as above in a meeting with B.C Kula Sangham / caste society leaders
+
Rajaka (washerman) sangham calls for a Rajaka Bandhu scheme in a meeting commemorating Chaakali Ailamma, the Telangana movement leader from the Rajaka community.
Interesting discussion. I read something similar yesterday in Prof A Raghuramaraju's book "Modernity in Indian social theory" (check the pic). And this where I have some disagreements.
We are obsessed with this idea of "social evils" or as Prof Raghuramaraju remarks "Deep defects within society that may have enabled the possibility of colonialism"
This explains the utter lack of agency for philosophers and thelologians in our times. Actually there aren't too many great philosophers we produced in India in the past few decades!
From "The Menace Of The Herd: Or, Procrustes At Large"
+
"While reverence is paid to the sciences because they are useful the philosopher is rather looked upon as a joke. He ranks almost as low as the theologian..."
+
"... This attitude is thoroughly justified when we bear in mind that the scientist who only deals with means can hardly become a menace to the ochlocratic "way of life" like the philosopher or the theologian who deals with the ends of
our existence"