Youth Festival - 2023

  "Man Bhavan"- મન ભાવન Youth Festival 2023

 The Youth Festival 2023 at Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University was like a huge party from November 3rd to 5th. The university, which is a big deal, hosted this amazing event. Let me tell you all about it!

The Physical Education Department, full of energetic people, guided the 31st edition of the festival called "Manbhavan Yuvak Mahotsav." This made the whole celebration even more exciting. The campus was buzzing with the energy of young people, and you could hear cheers, laughter, and the lively beats of creativity everywhere. The students at Bhavnagar University are so creative, and you could see it in the bright colors and imaginative things they made. It wasn't just a show; it was a big celebration of art.

Being part of planning and joining in the fun made me grow in a really cool way. We followed a well-made plan, making sure everything happened smoothly from November 3rd to 5th. It was like taking steps one after the other, and each moment was perfect. 

In simple words, the Youth Festival was a super exciting celebration at Bhavnagar University where everyone had a great time from November 3rd to 5th. The Physical Education Department made it even better, and being involved in the planning was a fun way to grow personally. The whole schedule was well thought out, making every moment special.

Theme of Youth Festival :-

The Youth Festival 2023 was really cool because it celebrated something awesome: "Nari Shakti Vandana," which means giving respect to the power of women. They got this idea from a new law made by important people in the government. The celebration was like shining a light on all the great things women do and how they make a big difference in everything.

The festival talked about the achievements and contributions of women from different parts of life. Imagine a big spotlight on women, showing how strong and amazing they are. It's like saying, "Hey, look at all these awesome things women are doing!"

This was not just a regular party; it was a special time to appreciate and recognize women. The festival wanted to make sure everyone knows how important and powerful women are in our world. It's like giving them a high-five and saying, "You're doing great, and we see it!"

So, the Youth Festival 2023 was like a big cheer for women. They made it special by focusing on the theme "Nari Shakti Vandana." It's like telling everyone that women are strong, and we should celebrate and respect them. It's a cool way to show that everyone, no matter if they're a boy or a girl, can do amazing things. The festival wanted to make everyone feel proud and happy about the awesome women in our lives.

Themed "Nari Shakti Vandana," the festival featured 32 competitions in Literature, Music, Fine Arts, Dance, and Theatre sections. Each section had a special name, adding a unique flavor to the event. It was a dynamic celebration of talent and creativity across diverse fields, making the festival vibrant and exciting. 

Kala Yatra :-

The festival started on November 2nd with "Kala Yatra," a day filled with many exciting themes. The English Department chose "Oppression to Freedom," and it told a really strong story. There were other cool themes too, like Chandrayaan-3 exploring space and Narishakti Vandana giving respect to strong women. . The route of the Kalayatra is from Samaldas Arts College - Central Solt - Atabhai Chowk - Rupani Circle - Sardar Nagar - Swaminarayan Gurukul - J.K Sarvaiya college.

Each theme had its own special story. Chandrayaan-3 celebrated India's space achievements and made sure to give credit to women. Narishakti Vandana showed how strong women are through goddess worship. Another theme talked about historical contributions, while ours focused on women's journey from tradition to modern success.

Our display showed the tough things women go through, from problems like child marriage to challenges at work. But it wasn't just about problems. We also celebrated women overcoming barriers in business, law, sports, and more. "Kala Yatra" wasn't just a show; it was a group effort to tell stories, make people feel things, and show the journey from oppression to freedom. Big cheers to working together, being committed, and having guidance that made our story connect with everyone. 

👉 The winners of the Kalayatra of 2023:-

1. The KPES college, Bhavnagar
2. Shri Swami Sahajanand college of commerce and management, Bhavnagar 
3. Sardar Patel group of colleges, Bhavnagar

Opening ceremony if Youth Festival:-

 

On November 3rd, the "Youth Festival" began with a dazzling inauguration, featuring esteemed guests like M.M. Trivedi, Sagardan Gadhvi, Hetal Mehta, Ami Upadhyay, and Bhartiben Shiyal. Two energetic students hosted the event, infusing the stage with contagious energy.

Sagardan Gadhvi, with his enchanting voice, cast a musical spell that captivated the audience. The Kalapath Group added to the magic with a Narivandana-themed Stuti, delivering soul-stirring renditions of "Jay Jay Jag Janni Devi" and "Aygiri Nandini." The guests not only graced the occasion but also shared insights into the National Education Policy 2020, highlighting its crucial role in holistic student growth. Their talks added depth and made the event thoroughly enjoyable.

The opening of the "Youth Festival" transcended a mere ceremony; it was a harmonious blend of talents, melodies, and enlightening discussions. As the curtains lifted on this grand celebration, the promise of vibrant festivities and valuable insights set the stage for an unforgettable experience ahead.

👉 YOUTH FESTIVAL DAY 1:-

The first day of the Youth Festival was filled with many different competitions. But before these competitions started, everyone had to sign up or register at the Amphitheatre. This is where people officially entered the competitions they wanted to be a part of. After everyone signed up, the Amphitheatre became the place where the big opening ceremony happened. It was like a grand party that got everyone excited for the fun events that were about to happen.  

• List of First Day competitions with Places

1. Quiz Competition at English Department (Round 1)

The Quiz Competition was super exciting, with fast thinking and knowledge clashing head-on! Let's quickly go through the best moments, where participants showed off their smartness, strategic thinking, and love for learning.

2. Mimicry at Amphitheatre

3. Bhajan at New Court Hall 

4. Skit at Atal Auditorium

Skit performances, both entertaining and thought-provoking, addressed issues ranging from superstitions and road construction challenges to cultural clashes and cybercrimes. The aim was not only to entertain but also to shed light on pressing societal problems that demand attention.

• On the spot painting at External Department

Hina from Semester 3 showcased her artistic flair in on-the-spot painting with the theme Celebration of Festivity, Salutations to Women Power.

• Folk Dance at Amphitheatre

• Ekanki at Atal Auditorium

• Sugam Geet at New Court Hall
• Poetry Making at English Department

 Introduction :-

In J. M. Coetzee's "Foe," there's a character named Susan who ends up on an island after a shipwreck. But here's the twist – it's not just her story. Coetzee shakes things up from the original tale, "Robinson Crusoe," and gives a voice to those who didn't get much say before. Susan hires a writer named Foe to tell her story, and suddenly it's like a story within a story. Foe becomes the one holding the pen, and things get interesting. He isn't just scribbling down what happened; he's also asking questions about who gets to tell the story and whose side of the tale matters. "Foe" becomes a bit like a detective story about storytelling itself, making us think about the words on the page and who's behind them. It's like Coetzee saying, "Hey, let's look at stories from a different angle and think about who gets to speak up in the narrative." So, "Foe" isn't just a regular story; it's a clever reimagining that makes us see storytelling in a whole new light.

In the vast sea of literature, two remarkable islands emerge from different time periods, yet connected by the thread of storytelling. Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," a classic from 1719, and J. M. Coetzee's postmodern reinterpretation, "Foe," published in 1986, invite readers to journey into the heart of narrative exploration. Let's embark on a simple and friendly comparative analysis, discovering the treasures hidden within these tales.

 

J M Coetzee's Foe

"Robinson Crusoe" introduces us to the adventures of a mariner named Crusoe, shipwrecked on a deserted island. It's like a grand adventure, filled with survival struggles, companionship with a man named Friday, and a whole lot of island DIY. But wait, there's more beneath the surface! Defoe, writing in the 18th century, couldn't escape the mindset of his time, sprinkling colonialist vibes throughout the story. Crusoe, the European guy, takes charge of the island and its native inhabitants, feeling all superior and stuff.

Now, let's fast forward to the 20th century, where J. M. Coetzee throws a twist into the classic tale with "Foe." Susan Barton, another shipwrecked soul, becomes the protagonist, and suddenly the narrative isn't all about Crusoe. Coetzee, like a literary wizard, shifts the spotlight, giving a voice to those usually left in the background—the island's native folks and Susan herself. You remember Friday, right? In "Foe," he's not just a sidekick; he's a character with thoughts, feelings, and his own say in the story. Coetzee's magic wand transforms "Robinson Crusoe" from a colonial narrative into a platform for questioning power and representation.

What makes "Foe" a literary rollercoaster is its dive into the sea of storytelling itself. Picture this: Susan hires a writer named Foe to document her adventures. Wait, what? A writer within a story? It's like storytelling-ception! Coetzee goes on to unravel the messy business of writing. Foe becomes a symbol of authorship, and suddenly we're not just reading a story—we're questioning who gets to tell it and whose voice gets heard. It's like having a backstage pass to the making of a narrative, revealing the quirks, biases, and dilemmas that come with the territory.

As we bounce between the 18th and 20th centuries, it's not just about survival on islands; it's about surviving the tides of time and societal changes. "Foe" stands tall as a critique and reimagining of "Robinson Crusoe." Coetzee doesn't just retell the story; he remixes it, challenging the established norms and making readers do a double take on the tales they thought they knew.

Imagine literature as a conversation, and "Foe" is Coetzee's response to Defoe. It's a conversation that echoes across the centuries, a friendly debate about who gets to shape the narrative and whose story matters. By giving a voice to characters silenced in the original, Coetzee pokes at the heart of storytelling, asking us to think critically about the stories we've grown up with.

In this literary adventure, survival isn't just about battling the elements on a remote island. It's about surviving the biases of storytelling, the dominance of certain voices, and the expectations that come with classic tales. Coetzee invites readers to be detectives, exploring the complexities of truth and representation. It's like being handed a magnifying glass to examine the words on the page and the choices behind them.

"Foe" doesn't just challenge "Robinson Crusoe"; it invites us to question our role as readers. It nudges us to be active participants in the storytelling process, urging us to navigate the twists and turns with a critical eye. Suddenly, reading isn't just a passive activity; it's an interactive journey where we ponder the choices of authors and the impact of their words.

In our exploration of these literary islands, we discover that stories aren't just tales spun for entertainment. They're mirrors reflecting the societies that birthed them, and sometimes, they need a little remixing to keep up with changing times. "Foe" isn't a rebellion against "Robinson Crusoe"; it's a friendly nudge, saying, "Hey, let's rethink how we tell stories. Let's consider whose voices we amplify and whose perspectives we explore."

As we bid farewell to our literary journey, we carry with us the lessons of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Foe." We've witnessed the evolution of storytelling, from the 18th-century seas to the 20th-century narrative mazes. It's a reminder that literature isn't static; it's a living, breathing entity that adapts, questions, and invites us to join the conversation. So, the next time you crack open a book, remember you're not just reading; you're stepping into a dialogue that spans centuries, where stories echo and respond to one another in a dance that transcends time.

Conclusion :-

In the end, comparing "Robinson Crusoe" and "Foe" is like exploring two islands in the vast sea of storytelling. Coetzee's "Foe" stands as a friendly challenger, shaking up Defoe's classic. It's not just about survival on an island; it's about surviving the tides of time and questioning who gets to shape the narrative. "Foe" invites readers to think critically about the stories we inherit and the voices that weave them.

Future of Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism :-

 Postcolonialism is an academic discipline that analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism speaks about the human consequences of external control and economic exploitation of native people and their lands. The term "Postcolonialism" refers broadly to the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture, and human identity itself are represented in the modern era, after many colonized countries gained their independence. Postcolonialism, the historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of western colonialism; the term can also be used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various form of imperialism.

                  

                       However, some critics use the term to refer to all culture and cultural products influenced by imperialism from the moment of colonization until the twenty-first century. Postcolonial literature seeks to describe the interactions between European nations and the peoples they colonized. By the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the world was under the control of European countries. At its peak in the late nineteenth century, according to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the British Empire consisted of "more than a quarter of all the territory on the surface of the earth: one in four people was a subject of Queen Victoria." During the twentieth century, countries such as India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Canada, and Australia won independence from their European colonizers. The literature and art produced in these countries after independence became the subject of "Postcolonial Studies," an area of academic concentration, initially in British universities. This field gained prominence in the 1970s and has been developing ever since. Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said's critique of Western representations of the Eastern culture in his 1978 book, Orientalism, is a seminal text for postcolonial studies and has spawned a host of theories on the subject. However, as the currency of the term "postcolonial" gained wider use, its meaning was expanded. Some consider the United States itself a postcolonial country because of its former status as a territory of Great Britain, but it is generally studied for its colonizing rather than its colonized attributes.

Anti Colonialism:

                        The political struggle of colonized peoples against the specific ideology and practice of colonialism (see colonization). Anti-colonialism ANTI-COLONIALISM 11 signifies the point at which the various forms of opposition become articulated as a resistance to the operations of colonialism in political, economic and cultural institutions. It emphasizes the need to reject colonial power and restore local control. Paradoxically, anti-colonialist movements often expressed themselves in the appropriation and subversion of forms borrowed from the institutions of the colonizer and turned back on them. Thus the struggle was often articulated in terms of a discourse of anti-colonial ‘nationalism’ in which the form of the modern European nation-state was taken over and employed as a sign of resistance (see nation/nationalism).The sometimes arbitrary arrangements of colonial governance – such as the structures of public administration and forums for local political representation – became the spaces within which a discourse of anti-colonial nationalism was focused and a demand for an independent postcolonial nation-state was formed (see Anderson 1983; Chatterjee 1986, 1993). Anti-colonialism has taken many forms in different colonial situations; it is sometimes associated with an ideology of racial liberation, as in the case of nineteenth-century West African nationalists such as Edward Wilmot Blyden and James African us Horton (ideologies that might be seen as the precursors of twentieth-century movements such as negritude). Conversely, it may accompany a demand for recognition of cultural differences on a broad and diverse front, as in the Indian National Congress which sought to unite a variety of ethnic groups with different religious and racial identities in a single, national independence movement. In the second half of the twentieth century, anti-colonialism was often articulated in terms of a radical, Marxist discourse of liberation, and in constructions that sought to reconcile the internationalist and anti-elitist demands of Marxism with the nationalist sentiments of the period, in the work and theory of early national liberationist thinkers such as C.L.R.James, Amilcar Cabral and Frantz Fanon,(see Fanonism, national liberation).Such anti-colonial, national liberation movements developed the Marxist idea of a revolutionary cadre to explain the crucial role of the European (colonial) educated intelligentsia in the anti-colonial struggle. These movements argued that the peasant/proletarian needed to be led to a practice of liberation – through various stages of local and national affiliation – by a bourgeois élite who would eventually, in Cabral’s dramatic formulation, ‘commit suicide’ by developing a popular and local social practice in which they would be assimilated.

Apartheid:

                        An Afrikaans term meaning ‘separation’, used in South Africa for the policy initiated by the Nationalist Government after 1948 and usually rendered into English in the innocuous sounding phrase, ‘policy of separate development’. Apartheid had been preceded in 1913 and 1936 by the Land Acts which restricted the amount of land available to black farmers to 13 per cent. But in 1948 the Apartheid laws were enacted, including the Population Registration Act, which registered all people by racial group; the Mixed Amenities Act, which codified racial segregation in public facilities; the Group Areas Act, which segregated suburbs; the Immorality Act, which illegalized white–black marriages; and the establishment of the so-called Bantustans, or native homelands, to which a large proportion of the black population was restricted. Theoretically, the establishment of the Bantustans was supposed to provide a solution to the racial tension of South Africa by providing a series of designated territories or homelands in which the different races could develop separately within the state. But since the white minority retained for themselves the bulk of the land, and virtually all of the economically viable territory, including the agriculturally rich areas and the areas with mining potential, it was, in practice, a means of institutionalizing and preserving white supremacy. Since the economy required a large body of non-white workers to live in close proximity to white areas, for which they provided cheap labour, the Group Areas Act led to the development of specific racially segregated townships, using low-cost housing, such as the notorious Soweto area (South West Townships) south of Johannesburg. Under the same Act, people of African, Cape Colored or Indian descent were forcibly removed from urban areas where they had lived for generations. The notorious and still unreconstructed District Six in central Capetown, bulldozed and cleared of its mixed race inhabitants under the Act, is an often cited example of this aspect of apartheid policy. The policy of segregation extended to every aspect of society, with separate sections in public transport, public seats, beaches, and many other facilities. Further segregation was maintained by the use of Pass Laws which required non-whites to carry a pass that identified .APARTHEID 14 them, and which, unless it was stamped with a work permit, restricted their access to white areas. The term apartheid acquired very widespread resonance, and it became commonly used outside the South African situation to designate a variety of situations in which racial discrimination was institutionalized by law. An extreme instance of this is when the post-structuralist philosopher and cultural critic Jacques Derrida employed the term in an influential essay, suggesting that it had acquired a resonance as a symbol that made it an archetypal term of discrimination and prejudice for later twentieth-century global culture (Derrida 1986).

Colonial Discourse:

COLONIAL DISCOURSE 

This is a term brought into currency by Edward Said who saw Foucault’s notion of a discourse as valuable for describing that system within COLONIAL DISCOURSE 36 which that range of practices termed ‘colonial’ come into being. Said’s Orientalism, which examined the ways in which colonial discourse operated as an instrument of power, initiated what came to be known as colonial discourse theory, that theory which, in the 1980s,saw colonial discourse as its field of study. The best known colonial discourse theorist, apart from Said, is Homi Bhabha, whose analysis posited certain disabling contradictions within colonial relationships, such as hybridity, ambivalence and mimicry, which revealed the inherent vulnerability of colonial discourse. Discourse, as Foucault theorizes it, is a system of statements within which the world can be known. It is the system by which dominant groups in society constitute the field of truth by imposing specific knowledge’s, disciplines and values upon dominated groups. As a social formation it works to constitute reality not only for the objects it appears to represent but also for the subjects who form the community on which it depends. Consequently, colonial discourse is the complex of signs and practices that organize social existence and social reproduction within colonial relationships. Colonial discourse is greatly implicated in ideas of the centrality of Europe, and thus in assumptions that have become characteristic of modernity: assumptions about history, language, literature and ‘technology’. Colonial discourse is thus a system of statements that can be made about colonies and colonial peoples, about colonizing powers and about the relationship between these two. It is the system of knowledge and beliefs about the world within which acts of colonization take place. Although it is generated within the society and cultures of the colonizers, it becomes that discourse within which the colonized may also come to see themselves. At the very least, it creates a deep conflict in the consciousness of the colonized because of its clash with other knowledge (and kinds of knowledge) about the world.Through such distinctions it comes to represent the colonized, whatever the nature of their social structures and cultural histories, as ‘primitive’ and the colonizers as ‘civilized’. Colonial discourse tends to exclude, of course, statements about the exploitation of the resources of the colonized, the political status accruing to colonizing powers, the importance to domestic politics of the development of an empire, all of which may be compelling reasons COLONIAL DISCOURSE 37 for maintaining colonial ties. Such is the power of colonial discourse that individual colonizing subjects are not often consciously aware of the duplicity of their position, for colonial discourse constructs the colonizing subject as much as the colonized. Statements that contradict the discourse cannot be made either without incurring punishment, or without making the individuals who make those statements appear eccentric and abnormal.

Commonweal Literature:

                                                                                                                      COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE broadly, the literatures of the former British Empire and Commonwealth, including that of Britain. In practice, however, the term has generally been used to refer to the literatures (written in English) of colonies, former colonies (including India) and dependencies of Britain, excluding the literature of England.(The term has sometimes included COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE 44 literatures written in ‘local’ languages and oral performance; and it has been used to include the literatures of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.) The rise of the study of national literatures written in English (outside Britain) begins with the study of ‘American ‘literature. But those literatures that came to be collectively studied as literatures of the Commonwealth were beginning to be considered within their own national contexts from the late 1940s onwards. However, the concept of ‘Commonwealth Literature’ as a separate disciplinary area within English studies began in the early 1960s in both the United States and England. In the United States it was formulated as the study of literatures written in a ‘world’ language in Joseph Jones Terranglia: The Case for English as a World Literature (1965), and as Commonwealth literature in A.L. McLeod’s The Commonwealth Pen (1961), a work dedicated to R.G. Howarth whose comparative grounding in South African and Australian literatures had proved inspirational for a number of early Commonwealth Literature scholars. The journal World Literature Written in English began in 1966 and was appearing regularly by 1971; its precursor, the CBC Newsletter, was published from 1962 to 1966;a division of the MLA (ethno-centrically entitled ‘World Literatures in English outside the United States and Britain’) was constituted in the early 1960s. In England the first international Commonwealth Literature Conference was held in Leeds in 1964 and the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies formed. (The Leeds meeting followed conferences held at Makerere, Uganda, on the role of English as an overseas language, and at Cambridge, England, on the teaching of English literature overseas).The Journal of Commonwealth Literature began in 1965 and the third major journal devoted exclusively to theory and criticism of commonwealth literatures was published in 1979 (the journal subsequently became a leading journal in establishing the shift to the use of the term post-colonial literatures). Contemporary post-colonial studies represent the intersection of Commonwealth literary studies and what is usually now referred to as ‘colonial discourse theory’. Commonwealth post-colonial critics, less engaged by Continental philosophies than colonial discourse theorists, initially concentrated their energies on rendering creative writing in English in Commonwealth countries visible within a discipline of literary studies whose assumptions, bases and power were deeply and almost exclusively invested in the literatures of England (or at best the United Kingdom). In fighting for the recognition of post-colonial Commonwealth writing within academies whose roots and continuing power depended on the persisting cultural and/or political centrality of the imperium, and in a discipline whose manner and subject matter were the focal signs and symbols of that power – British literature and its teaching constantly reified, replayed and reinvested the colonial relation – nationalist critics were forced to conduct their guerrilla war within the terms and framework of an English literary critical practice. In so doing they initially adopted the tenets of Leavisite and/or New Criticism, reading post-colonial texts within a broadly Euro-modernist tradition, but one whose increasing and inevitable erosion was ensured by the anti-colonial pressures of the literary texts themselves. Diaspora:

DIASPORA 

From the Greek meaning ‘to disperse’ (OED).Diasporas,the voluntary or forcible movement of peoples from their homelands into new regions, is a central historical fact of colonization. Colonialism itself was a radically diasporic movement, involving the temporary or permanent dispersion and settlement of millions of Europeans over the entire world. The widespread effects of these migrations (such as that which has been termed ecological imperialism) continue on a global scale. Many such ‘settled’ regions were developed historically as plantations or agricultural colonies to grow foodstuffs for the metropolitan populations, and thus a large-scale demand for labor was created in many regions where the local population could not supply the need. The result of this was the development, principally in the Americas, but also in other places such as South Africa, of an economy based on slavery. Virtually all the slaves shipped to the plantation colonies in the Americas were taken from West Africa through the various European coastal trading enclaves. The widespread slaving practiced by Arabs in East Africa also saw some slaves sold into British colonies such as India and Mauritius, whilst some enslaving of Melanesian and Polynesian peoples also occurred in parts of the South Pacific to serve the sugarcane industry in places like Queensland, where it was known colloquially as ‘blackbirding’. After the slave trade, and when slavery was outlawed by the European powers in the first decades of the nineteenth century, the demand for cheap agricultural labour in colonial plantation economies was met by the development of a system of indentured labour. This involved transporting, under indenture agreements, large populations of poor agricultural labourers from population rich areas, such as India and China, to areas where they were needed to service plantations.. The development of diasporic cultures necessarily questions essentialist models, interrogating the ideology of a unified, ‘nature’ cultural norm, one that underpins the centre/margin model of colonialist discourse. In countries such as Britain and France, the population now has substantial minorities of diasporic ex-colonial peoples. In recent times, the notion of a ‘diasporic identity’ has been adopted by many writers as a positive affirmation of their hybridity.

Marxist, Queer, Feminist theory

 

• Intoduction :-

Marxism is both a social and political theory, which encompasses Marxist class conflict theory and Marxian economics. Marxism was first publicly formulated in the 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution. Marxian economics focuses on the criticisms of capitalism, which Karl Marx wrote about in his 1867 book, Das Kapital.

It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program. There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various socialist movements, particularly before 1914. Then there is Soviet Marxism as worked out by Vladimir Ilich Lenin and modified by Joseph Stalin, which under the name of Marxism-Leninism (see Leninism) became the doctrine of the communist parties set up after the Russian Revolution (1917). Offshoots of this included Marxism as interpreted by the anti-Stalinist Leon Trotsky and his followers, Mao Zedong’s Chinese variant of Marxism-Leninism, and various Marxisms in the developing world. There were also the post-World War II nondogmatic Marxisms that have modified Marx’s thought with borrowings from modern philosophies, principally from those of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger but also from Sigmund Freud and others. 

• Marxism and Literature

    Chernyshevsky, who lived before Marx laid the foundation of Marxist theory on literature. He developed a purely materialistic view of art that placed art subordinate to reality. He believed that the highest beauty is that which man sees in the world and not that which is created by art. He viewed art only as an empty amusement. The basic premise of Marx’s view on art is not much different. Marx views art as subordinate to society. It is just “one of the forms of social consciousness”. Marx also believes that “art is not created in a vacuum”. It needs a society for its existence. 

       Marx and Engels authored another work – The German Ideology (1845 –46) – that brings out some other important concepts of Marxism; especially connected to ideology. The dominant ideology of any period is the product of the socio-economic structure of that period. That is to say, ideology originates from class-relations and class-interests. Ideology is a ‘superstructure’ with its ‘base’ in contemporary economic system. Literature is part of the cultural ideology and therefore it is only a ‘superstructure 

• What Marxist critics do -

1. They make a division between the 'overt' (manifest or surface) and 'covert' (latent or hidden) content of a literary work (much as psychoanalytic critics do) and then relate the covert subject matter of the literary work to basic Marxist themes, such as class struggle, or the progression of society through various historical stages, such as, the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism. Thus, the conflicts in King Lear might be read as being 'really' about the conflict of class interest between the rising class (the bourgeoisie) and the falling class (the feudal overlords). 

2. Another method used by Marxist critics is to relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the author. In such cases an assumption is made (which again is similar to those made by psychoanalytic critics) that the author is unaware of precisely what he or she is saying or revealing in the text. 

3. A third Marxist method is to explain the nature of a whole literary genre in terms of the social period which 'produced' it. For instance, The Rise of the Novel, by Ian Watt, relates the growth of the novel in the eighteenth century to the expansion of the middle classes during that period. The novel 'speaks' for this social class, just as, for instance, Tragedy 'speaks for' the monarchy and the nobility, and the Ballad 'speaks for' for the rural and semi-urban 'working class'. 

4. A fourth Marxist practice is to relate the literary work to the social assumptions of the time in which it is 'consumed', a strategy which is used particularly in the later variant of Marxist criticism known as cultural materialism. 

• Ecocritical :

Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature.

• What is the ecocritical theory?

Eco-criticism is a study of culture and cultural products (art works, writings, scientific theories, etc.) that is in some way connected with the human relationship to the natural world. Eco-criticism is also a response to needs, problems, or crises, depending on one's perception of urgency.

# Ecocriticism in movies:

Climate change and the environmental issues today have brought to our notice the need to address them, create awareness, and take corrective actions. In India, Bollywood has a massive potential to reach out to the masses and create awareness about the same. It has the power to influence people’s actions and thus make a difference. The films can represent environmental issues and community problems efficiently and convey to the people the aftermath of their current deeds.

• Kadvi Haava :

This film is inspired by true events from the drought-prone Bundelkhand region. In this film, the village of Mahua is affected by scanty rainfall, barren land, crop failure, and climate change. All these factors add-up to farmers in debt. Farmer suicide becomes a frequent occurrence as they aren’t unable to pay back the debt. In this setting, a blind old farmer makes a pact with the debt recovery agent to save his son from the debt trap. This movie is a precise depiction of how climate change ends up killing people and their morals.

• Jal :

The film tells the story of two villages in Rann of Katch and their quest to

find water. A young man named Bakka has a skill of divining water spots in the barren lands. A Russian woman comes here in search of flamingos native to Kutch. To her dismay, the number of flamingos had reduced because of water scarcity. Thus, she, Bakka, and a team of ecologists set to find water. With this backdrop, the movie highlights how lack of water leads to forming classes and strain people physically and mentally. 

• Sherni :

The man vs. animal conflict can be narrated in several ways. The deep, dark jungle can be romanticised and turned into a battlefield for a heroic tale of a saviour standing against the many stakeholders who threaten to tilt the balance of the fragile ecosystem. Or it can be viewed through a realistic lens that appears deceptively simple, like director Amit Masurkar does in Sherni . The title refers to a man-eating tigress on the prowl and also alludes to the divisional forest officer Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan). She isn’t an archetypal screen heroine who roars her way out of murky waters, but is understated and determined to navigate the mundaneness of her government job to assert herself.

• Feminist:

When the term feminism first entered English toward the mid-19th century, it meant “feminine qualities or character,” a sense no longer in use. (Its companion term, feminist, also entered the language around that time, but it is not certain whether it was then used to mean anything other than “feminine or womanly.”)

 However, toward the end of the 19th, both feminism andfeminist unambiguously took on their modern meanings related to equal rights for women. Activists of the late 19th and early 20th century, now considered to be first-wave feminists, campaigned for women’s right to vote, or suffrage , and members of the movement were known as suffragettes or, more generally,suffragists. Even though the termfeminist was not widely used during this period, there also were broad-ranging efforts to advance women’s right to work outside the home, to freely enter professions, and to own property.

Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave.

• Kahaani :

Kahaani, starring Vidya Balan as a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in Kolkata, has cult status as one of the best thrillers ever to be made in India. A strong script and pitch perfect acting, make this an unmissable movie.

• English Vinglish :

English Vinglish marked the return of the inimitable Sridevi to the silver screen. As a housewife trying to maintain her self-respect even as she is put down by her family members, she stole our hearts, and even though we are miffed that she didn’t just dump her wholly unworthy husband, we cannot leave this movie out of this list!

• Gulab Gang :

Gulab Gang, (only loosely based on the real life Gulabi Gang), pits two of our favourite actresses, Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, against each other, as it offers a lesson on how women sometimes are the footsoldiers of the patriarchy. It has been widely criticized for reducing feminist ideas to “masala” tropes, but Juhi Chawla’s superlative performance as a devious politician, makes this movie worth a watch.

• Mardaani :

Rani Mukherjee received much praise for her role as the undaunted cop, Shivani Shivaji Roy, who is in pursuit of a child trafficker. A very mainstream cat and mouse thriller, Mardaani brought the shadowy world of child trafficking to the attention of the masses.

• Queer Theory :   

Queer Theory is field of critical theory that emerged in early 1990s. Feminist challenges to the idea that gender is part of essential self and upon gay and lesbian studies close examination of the society constructed nature of sexual act and identities. Feminism was contrast between sex and gender - Queer Theory offers the view that all identities are social construction.  

• What is Queer Theory : 

n approach to literary and cultural studies that rejected traditional categories of gender and sexuality critical theory that emerged in 1990s. It is not only sexual desire but it is emotional desire. Queer Theory does not concern itself exclusively with homosexuality - it is about all forms of identity. 

• What lesbian/gay critic do?

1. Identify lesbian/gay episodes in mainstream work and discuss them as such (for example, the relationship between Jane and Helen in Jane Eyre), rather than reading same-sex pairings in non-specific ways, for instance, as symbolising two aspects of the same character (Zimmerman). 

2 . Set up an extended, metaphorical sense of 'lesbian/gay' so that it connotes a moment of crossing a boundary, or blurring a set of categories. All such 'liminal' moments mirror the moment of selfidentification as lesbian or gay, which is necessarily an act of conscious resistance to established norms and boundaries.  

Example : 

• Dostana movie:-  

The act of sex is rarely seen, let alone alluded to, despite how sexual the movies can seem with bare-waisted women and shirtless men are dancing about every ten minutes or so. Until I did some research, I honestly did not think there were any Indian (Bollywood or not) movies which positively portrayed homosexuality. I mean, homosexual intercourse between consenting adults was decriminalized in India in July 2009 (one and a half years ago). So, where does one go to figure out what queer Bollywood films are out there and popular? Well, I go to my family, and the only movie they thought of as having gay characters or themes was Dostana from 2008.

• Margarita With A Straw (2014)

Directed by Shonali Bose, this movie showcases the life of a teenager with cerebral palsy. With an empathetic approach during Laila’s adventures in foreign lands, this movie also takes us through the journey of discovering her sexuality. It helps to remind you that you aren’t alone and gives you the reassurance you rightfully deserve.

• Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan :

Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar attempt to discuss the deep-rooted homophobia and stigma around it, in Indian families. This movie touched on all the hard-hitting topics around homophobia with light humour. The perfect amount of jokes made the movie entertaining to watch without losing the true theme and nature of the movie.