The Presents Cultural, Political and Moral Situation of India - Book Report/Review Example

TO BE MADE This semester, numerous papers and works were discussed. We have looked into cultures which honed political, mindset, governance with little touch of racism. These things are obviously have something to do with human society and the cultivation of it. Among those discussions and readings that made an impact into my life is the published work of Purnima Mankekar entitled Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India which tackles formation, birth and revival all in one of culture in the sub-continent of Asia. It further discussed the liberation of this nation in the post-colonial era of the Dutch. This book further tackled how this Nation flourished and absorbed some influences with regards to their former colonizers. In this study, there are a lot of things and theories that are done in order to compensate with the present cultural, political and moral situation of India in which they doesn't only seem to run the said country, but how did they influenced the world. In such cases, there things that really made my experience in tackling this book more exciting, that enhanced my interest in tackling the aforementioned subject. Of course there are conflicts and theories that have been formulated not only in dealing with the book but during my studies, I was able to formulated insights and theories that somehow prompted me to look for possible answers for such queries. After the continuous cycle of the query-and-search phenomenon, I come into a decision that indeed, there are a lot of determinants in order to know formation of culture and how they influence and drive others. TITLE TO BE MADE 2 For instance, a theory describes that India, somehow adopt some western culture perhaps in the field of arts as some of the ancient arts in India don't seem to have similarities but also a conflict rose up as some says that most of the Indian arts today do have ancient touch while some insist the uniqueness of the Indian arts. For instance, let us look into the TV and film industry of India, it is an established fact that I hold a name for it and Indian Films are most of the time pendulum of some juries in different festivals in the world. Indian Films indeed have gone a long way as many of the students and film enthusiast tend to go on this place just to study the aforementioned subject. But going back to the focal point on Ethnography of India, the description of this nation when it comes to art particularly in motion picture is nowhere to be found not until the late 1970's. These are just some of the things that are to be tackled in ethnography particularly about the above mentioned book. To make things more clearly, let us first delve into the definition of Ethnography. Wikipedia (2006) defined ethnography as " (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the genre of writing that presents qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. Ethnography presents the results of a holistic research method founded on the idea that a system's properties cannot necessarily be accurately understood independently of each other. The genre has both formal and historical connections to travel writing and colonial office reports. Several academic traditions, in particular the constructivist and relativist paradigms, claim ethnographic research as a valid research method." TITLE TO BE MADE 3 This means that definition clearly stated that it has something to do with the social phenomena. In my first example in the Indian films, it was defined that from social aspects of India comes the cultivation of the now-acknowledged Indian Films. In that example, the arguments that were presented were not just simple statements but they were studied by credible individuals before making such conclusions and take note that India and its people are the focal point of this that categorize the .book as ethnography. In the field of politics, it was stated that India is indeed a cradle of influential people that made an impact on earth's face. The likes of A.B. Vajpayee, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi are among those to name some, not to forget, Indira Gandhi. It was said and observed the whole world that Indian politicians really try to make an impact not by doing propaganda but by doing unusual acts that make them different to usual politicians. Perhaps, a generalization on how they were known and made a clear impact on how they project themselves not only to their constituents but to the eyes of the earth as well that these individuals knowing or unknowingly captured the limelight of politics not just in this nation but to the ends of the earth. There are also excerpts about Indian women with their perspective particularly on womanhood, their Idea on Liberalization and their belief on the so-called "Girl Power", in lay man's term. These are the things that were tackled in the book that not just enhanced my creative thinking but also, my logical reasoning as well. The writing of the book really lived true to its name and its description Ethnography That clearly defines culture and way of living in India. TITLE TO BE MADE 4 However, there were several conflicts encountered but I chose to delve with the major one and it pertains to "hasty" generalization of Indians most of the time. Indeed, the field of study happened in post-colonial India which is in fact the remnant of colonization is still there. The only thing at that time that Indians do have in common is they are facing uncertainty, not knowing what to do, with different attitudes towards life. Yes, it was clearly stated that in present (where it is still considered as post-colonial time) that the above mentioned traits are still evident. However, there are things that were just mentioned for the sake of consistency but failed to establish it. The early part of post colonial era for example is one of this. Majority of the claims and the studied culture and way of living of the Indians deals more in present times rather than plunging into the earlier part and connect those claims and arguments at present. Of course, if we are to deal with present a lot of similarities is present in Indians and it comprises their culture. However, it is also a common knowledge that there is always exemption to the rule, meaning there are still differences that contradict some of the claim about Indian culture in the author's perspective. Dealing with this kind of premise is indeed a complicated thing as most of us tend to agree that a culture is a representation of a certain thing as a whole of individuals in a certain place but it only applies to "common" trait and not the trait as a whole. TITLE TO BE MADE 5 In this case, Indians indeed should be addressed as such in order to have their distinctiveness as the subject matter to be studied and be written about. However, addressing them as such, connecting almost all of the trait, especially in the portion that deals with Indian women should be written in perspective as a sub-group from the Indian culture in order for the readers not go conclude that all of their doings represent the Indians as a whole, which in fact, if we are to delve with the culture of the Indians, it would be more likely different to compare with the sub-group which is the Indian women. In these cases, further studies with regards to the aforementioned subject would be more likely misleading as there are things that separate individual Indians to their culture as a whole. The book also deals with the influence of television in the lives of the Indians in honing their culture and having their distinctiveness. It is a common fact that television or any other forms of media can influence people and the world they revolve. However, in this part, which is the part I like the most, the writer was able to separate the Indians on how do they adopt those things that are present in television and how are they absorbed, the Indian way. This also paved the way on how films and television in India be known in all parts of the globe. Purnima Mankekar, a teaching fellow and an associate in Stanford University, the book enabled her to have numerous awards. The website stanford.edu (2006) cited that "Professor Mankekar's book entitled Screening Culture, Viewing Politics won the Kovacs Award from the Society of Cinema Studies and an honorable mention for the Sharon Stephens Award given by the American Ethnological Society. Purnima co-edited a book, Caste and Outcaste, with Gordon Chang and Akhil Gupta (Stanford University Press, April 2002). She is currently working on two book manuscripts." TITLE TO BE MADE 6 Indeed that part of the book that tackled Television is the only part that separate Indian culture among others. The definition and explanation on how Indian viewers are persuaded and influenced by television on post colonial era to the extent that Indians themselves have build a name for this industry with many people from other parts of the world were also persuaded to adopt the style of Indian films. All in all, tough there are a lot of conflicts that arise in this book, I still commend on how ethnography and its style of writing was followed and executed to present the culture of India in a specific timeframe. In this writing the symbolism of Indian people with their culture and surrealism with their way of living is a perfect match to give justice on ethnography on Indian culture. Primarily the existence of this monograph in line with ethnography is simple, to separate the culture that is being studied among others to further build and develop things to eradicate commonness in culture and define them in a way to have the culture's determinant, similarity with the other, or perhaps their differences in order to locate a certain parameter to call a certain culture, a culture. # References: 1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography 2) http://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthroCASA/people/faculty/mankekar.html Read More