2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Nation (India)
Expert Group on Nation (India)
Group: Representations of India
Kim
- Crowded societies composed of very different ethnic and cultural groups that live in mixed communities or close proximity
- Less social tension between these groups than between single individuals (cf. Lurgan Sahib‘s hatred on Kim) or between different nations (cf. British vs. Russians in the Great Game)
- British colonial power ensuring harmony?
Untouchable
- High social tension between outcastes and upper castes
- Most prominent example: Bakha touches an upper caste member by accident (cf. p. 46)
- Outcastes forced to announce their approach when they leave their colony
- Social exclusion of other minorities apart from low-caste Hindus (e.g. Mohammedans)
- Injustice and discrimination exerted by upper castes
- Few exceptions (eg. the high-caste Hindu Charat Singh, cf. p. 105-110))
- Counter-movements (Only the Ghandian movement is portrayed in the novel!)
- Role of British colonial power in this conflict?
Midnight's Children
- Multiple ethnic and social groups
- At the beginning of the novel: relative peace between those groups
- Considerable change of this relative harmony as the plot unfolds
Group: Similarities and Contrasts in Kim and Untouchable
Kim and Bakha are symbols for the ongoing national change (Modern India)
- Kim is not in a caste and therefore behaves freely - Bakha is trying to life like a British Discussion result: - are Kim and Bakha passive or active acting towards the national change? - is their way of acting determined by the caste system? Discussion result: - The topic of Nation is closely connected to the term „Caste System“.