Mein Likhti Hoon

Finnish academic Joel Kuortti conducted a fascinating dialogue with Indian writers. Benita Sen reports.

If writing is the W word, it encourages more such in an analysis. Who, for instance, Writes. Or, taking it further, Who Writes What, in Which language, Where and Why?

And if that reminds you of the endless references to the contexts that you tortured your English teacher with, uh huh, you’re way off the mark. This is more about a discussion on an interesting intellectual exercise published by Stree, Tense Past, Tense Present (Rs 450) edited by Finnish academic Joel Kuortti.

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Kuortti earned his Ph D from the Finnish University of Tampere for his work on Salman Rushdie and is obviously fascinated by Indian writers in English, both living in the country and scattered around the diaspora. Because, while the choice of Githa Hariharan, Shama Futehally and Shashi Deshpande is more with it, he sets aside the temptation of settling for plummy ‘star’ writers like Arundhati Roy and Manju Kapur to interview Anuradha Marwah Roy, Mina Singh, Lakshmi Kannan and Anna Sujatha Mathai.

The exercise is without pretensions, since Kuortti is honest enough to explain his raison detre, "I don’t claim to tell the truth about these writers. I’m just trying to comprehend in my own way."

The result, apart form this collection of excerpt and interview, is a bibliography of 144 Indian Women Writers in English (phew! that’s a whole lot of descriptors for a wordsmith). Of course, as panelist and writer Rimi Chatterjee said, "marketing executives slot you," but then, where would such discussions be, without them?

The 1st Dialogue session, experimenting with social issues discussed at a bookstore after pertinent play readings.

The interviews, kept in their original Q & A format, gives Kuortti - sidelined for most of the heated panel discussion – the chance "to hear the writer’s voice." And since a writer speaks both through the spoken and written word, he wisely included the excerpts.

The issues that drove him to undertake this exercise were three: the evolution of English language in India, the experience of the woman as writer and finally, feminism in India. What strikes most is the consistent assertion by virtually all his interviewees that they would rather not be considered feminists. Perhaps what that construes is not so much a denial of concern for women’s issues as a pan-humanistic approach to life, a struggle against being pigeonholed and pushed into the sidelines.

As for writing in English, it is not so much a conscious decision either way, or a calculated move across the chessboard of creativity to be heard where "it matters’, but a felicity with the words that drives most in the choice of the medium.

While the literary merit of the authors quoted or of their selected excerpts may be open to debate, some of the most pertinent comments came from Bani Basu, an author who writes in her mother tongue, or if one is to slot her, an Indian Woman Who Writes in Bengali. "Literature is not about theorising, so it is no use discussing literature. Literature is about creativity. It actually doesn’t matter if you choose a language that is not your mother tongue. It only proves, you can use that language creatively… What you write is more important than the language you write in."

You’d think, coming from a Woman Writer, that would have put the lid back on the discussion, but of course, in the city of joy of words, both written and spoken, it certainly didn’t!