Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Hindu : Literary Review / Tribute : Fabulist among the communists

The Hindu : Literary Review / Tribute : Fabulist among the communists: "Blurring boundaries:Jose Saramago.
The death of José Saramago (1922-2010) doesn't escape its sombre irony. It is a final punctuation mark inthe life of a writer who wrote in unpunctuated, seamless sentences. The man who designated the writer as an apprentice and his characters as masters, was ultimately forced to quit his training at the ripe age of eighty seven. Nevertheless, in tune with his working-class roots, Saramago kept his tryst with productivity as diligently as his respiratory illness worked against him." Full Text

The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Reviving the true Hindu ethos

The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Reviving the true Hindu ethos: "I want to redefine the concept of what it is to be Hindu. Earlier the various groups of people were arranged horizontally but after Buddha in the Brahminical period it became a hierarchy, a rigid system. Once, Hindus meant all the people living on this side of the Sindhu/Indus river. But now ‘Hindu' has become a word in the hands of Hindu fundamentalists, it has become a matter of shame to call yourself a Hindu, this is something quite oppressive for me, I should be proud to call myself a Hindu. I know Hinduism has been non exploitative, has absorbed everything and everyone. If you confine the concept of a Hindu to a vegetarian, Brahminical, sacred thread wearing person that is not proper. Hating other communities, especially Muslims, is not a part of Hinduism. Hindus are intimate with Muslims and we have developed a unique culture with that, all over the world. I want to bring the pendulum back to the old non-exclusive and inclusive type of Hinduism" Full Text

The Hindu : Literary Review : Religion and the imagination

The Hindu : Literary Review : Religion and the imagination: "Religion has nothing to say on the question of origins. And on the question of ethics, whenever religion has got into the driving seat on that question, what happens is inquisition and oppression. So it seems to me not just uninteresting, but not valuable to turn to religion. I don't want the answers to come from some priest. I would prefer them to come from the process of argument and debate. And the first thing you accept in that situation is that there are no answers, only the debate. The debate itself is the thing from which flows the ethical life" Full text