I would like to share a memory from a course called Critical Theory and Organisational Applications. On that particular day, we were going to study the work of Fanon. Frantz Fanon is a theorist on race. He was born in French part of the Antilles (West Indies), a very influential figure in the fields of post-colonial studies and critical theory. In one of his most famous works, ‘Black Skin White Masks’, Fanon psychoanalyses the oppressed black man who is perceived to be a lesser creature in the White World they live in, and studies how they navigate the world through a pretend performance of ‘white-ness’. Particularly in discussing language, he talks about how the black person’s use of a colonizer’s language is seen by the colonizer as predatory, and not transformative, as kids they are taught to speak real French as opposed to Creole French. This phenomenon Fanon argues reflects a dependency that subordinates the black’s humanity. But today we’ll focus more on Fanon’s reflections on the ‘Imperfect Authentic and Questions of Race’.
We began the class by watching a scene from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, this scene involved Almeida and Dadi. Let that sink in for a while.
For most of us in that classroom, we wondered what this has got to do with race. The professor began by asking, “What is race? What is race in the imagination of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai? Perhaps, the imagination of race within Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is linked with the imagination of modernity. What is the nature of the encounter between Dadi and Almeida? Dadi says, ‘Angrez chale Gaye, Almeida chhod Gaye.’ Is Dadi racist when she suggests this? Is the act of ridiculing Almeida the colony talking back? These are the wrong questions to be asking about race, however”.
So how do we untangle this mess?
To not be oppressive in terms of racial imaginations is to celebrate imperfections. The moment we begin to chase perfection, we get entangled in questions of identity. The quest for perfection leads us to search for scapegoats. The scapegoat is often the racial other. It is the racial other who is preventing us from progressing. Therefore, when the question is asked, what is pulling India down? An immediate middle-class Brahminical response is that the reservation system is pulling us down. Look at the response carefully. It is not the caste system which is pulling us down. It is the reservation system that is pulling down. Thus, the reservation system becomes a scapegoat for all the inequalities amidst which we exist. We fail to annihilate caste. Instead, we are trying to annihilate the reservation system. With respect to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, therefore, what does the encounter between Dadi and Almeida signify? What are the conversations that are possible between Dadi and Almeida? There is a bit of a Tom and Jerry play between Dadi and Almeida.
Within the play of Dadi and Almeida, if their conversations are predictable, where is the space for imperfection? Almeida is cast as a character who is imperfect. Dadi is the paragon of virtue. Nationalist virtue. Dadi will begin the slow education and initiation of Almeida into a nationalist culture.
Therefore, Race is not merely the building of cultural stereotypes. Race is the experience that the only meaning of life is the journey from imperfection to perfection. It is also the experience that the grammar of this journey will be specified by the actor who has been unquestionably accepted as being culturally superior.
That day I reimagined what race could mean. We’re surrounded by such experiences, the self-other rhetoric pervades all imaginations of our formations including our names and families. Eventually, the racial metaphor dehumanises the other by contending that the racial other can never be authentically human.
Given the chance, I would love to work for Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. I want to tell you a story about a man who went on a pursuit to find the real happiness in life. First, he sought happiness in having a social circle of rich and famous; He eventually go bored of hollow pomp and show. Next, love but as he got to know his beloved he found none. His search ended when he discovered art. A life without art and creativity is meaningless and a company who values both is what I am looking for.
- Samyak Ponangi
