Call for Papers on Gandhi

CALL FOR PAPERS for an edited book on Thinking through Gandhi: Examining a Century and a Half of Literary and Cultural Discourse

Acclaimed historian, Ralph Buultjens, in the year 1984, wrote of M.K. Gandhi: Thirty-five years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ there was no indication that Christianity would emerge as one of the great spiritual forces of history. Around 450 BC, three decades after the death of Confucius, nobody could have predicted how influential his ideas would eventually become. And around 1915, thirty years after Karl Marx, the communist movement seemed doomed to be an inconsequential political aberration. Perhaps, then we are too near Gandhi to evaluate his impact on history. As we remember, honour, celebrate, and pay homage to the Father of the Nation on his 150th birth anniversary this year, we are perhaps no better equipped in temporal terms to assess the influence of his ideas. However, from the vantage point of a hundred and fifty years, it is amply clear that no public figure of the twentieth century had as significant an impact on the affairs of his day as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The undisputed leader of one of the greatest anticolonial revolts of his time, the name of Gandhi remains ideologically woven into every strand of twentieth century Indian socio-cultural life, and though he was greatly averse to the idea of a ‘Gandhism’ and to that of leaving his cult behind him, seven decades after his death he continues to be resurrected in political, literary, and cultural discourse, and to have an unprecedented afterlife, both within the nation and without. Though never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in his lifetime despite being nominated five times for it, the United Nations in the year 2007 decided to honour Gandhi by declaring his birthday as the ‘International Day of Nonviolence’. An inspiration to such impressive minds as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela, the legacy of Gandhi, however, remains hotly contested. Both admirers and detractors abound and ideological debates continue to actively flourish with Bapu at the centre, richly proving Nehru’s words that Gandhi’s influence also extends “to those who disagree with him and criticize him.”

Dr. S M Yahiya Ibrahim and Dr. Basudhara Roy of Department of English, Karim City College, Jamshedpur, extend a warm invitation to scholars and academics nation- wide to write on the impact, influence, and relevance of the persona, thought, and contribution of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi through a critical examination of the literary and cultural discourse stemming from him in the last one century and a half. The book looks forward to reviewing the life and afterlife of Gandhi through his presentations and representations in literary and popular culture in India and abroad, and invites papers for the following broad areas: Gandhi Writing Writing Gandhi M.K. Gandhi was a prolific writer. Though Gandhi was no creative writer Ambidextrous, he could write with both himself, the creative literary output of his era hands though he usually preferred his left. A was distinctly marked by his ideological tireless journalist, author, orator, translator, influence, and literature from every linguistic and letter-writer, Gandhi’s writings stagger pocket of India bears traces of a Gandhian not merely by their bulk but by the immense consciousness. While much has been said wealth of the ideas that they offer, and the of Gandhi’s influence on Indian Writing in clarity and precision with which they are English, Gandhi as theme, motif, character, expressed. This session invites papers that or ideology permeates literature in most focus on Gandhi’s imagination, philosophy, Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, political thought, socio-cultural principles, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, and religious values, and his inimitable stylistic Assamese, to name just a few. This section looks forward to examining representations approach through an avid textual of Gandhi in literature, both from India and engagement with Gandhi’s writings. abroad.

Gandhi in Cinema Gandhi in Popular Culture National and international cinema, over The resurrection of Gandhi in and through the years, has played a pivotal role in popular culture in the last two decades or interpreting Gandhi for the popular so has been overwhelming. Gandhi has imagination. From historical featured in comic and graphic novels; in reconstructions of Gandhi’s role in classical and rap songs; in MTV episodes national politics, to analyses of his and Youtube videos; and in caps, khadi assassination, to imaginative fashionwear, souvenir mugs, pens, transcreations of his life, cinema has keychains and t-shirts to the extent that been one significant sphere where our youth literally wear Gandhi on their Gandhi has been repeatedly de- sleeves. He has been idolized, idealized, mahatmized and viewed as a lampooned and continues through every creative engagement, to be imagined in a representative of the ordinary humanity myriad new ways. This section looks that he stood for, life-long. This section forward to papers that enthusiastically invites papers that deal with national and engage with representations of Gandhi in popular culture. global cinematic representations of Gandhi in any form.

The following thematic History areas, though in no way Politics restrictive, are suggested: Economics Religion Gandhi Philosophy and Ecology Geography Education Children’s Literature Indian Writing in English Indian Literature World Literature Stylistics Postcolonial Theory Subaltern Theory Gender Theory Translation Journalism Diaspora Cinema Iconography

Looking forward to your participation through your research papers for this book which will be published by a reputed publisher. Kindly mail your abstracts first (in Times New Roman, Font 12, line space 1.5) in latest MLA format either to [email protected] or [email protected] latest by 30th July 2020. Only select contributors will be intimated to go ahead with the final paper. Dr. S. M. Yahiya Ibrahim Dr. Basudhara Roy