Elections necessary for democracy: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Elections are “absolutely necessary” for democracy in every country, but the poor often become witness to the “show of power” in the name of balloting, said eminent scholar and Padma Bhusan awardee Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Chakravorty Spivak, a Padma Bhusan recipient and Professor at Columbia University, delivered a speech on the future of books, on the inaugural day of the Kolkata Literature Festival being held on the premises of 45th International Kolkata Book Fair on Friday and later interacted with media. “I have been to many countries. Elections are absolutely necessary for democracy. People should be allowed to go for democratic process. But at the same time people are witnesses to the show of power in the name of elections. Flaunting of power. I remember having asked a child in a remote village what election meant. He said election is a game, it means ‘maramari hobe’ (there will be a clash). I am not naming any particular place,” but it has been in some form or other in many places I had visited,” she told reporters to a question. She is involved in a project imparting basic education to children in a rural areas of West Bengal.

To another question about majoritarianism, the 80-year old literary theorist and feminist said, “yes it is there and I agree. But this is not the place to discuss about it.” “The whole world is so divided along caste and gender,” she commented in another context during her interaction with audience at the literary meet. The writer of seminal books like Can the Subaltern Speak and A critique of postcolonial reason, whose first book in Bengali was launched at the ongoing 45th International Kolkata Book Fair on Friday, said to a question “I am hopeful Bengali books will remain even after 100 years. In archaic forms may be needing some support.” “If you think as books are printed on paper, and papers decay after some time and books are discarded, does not same things happen to clothes. Don’t the garments get crumped. Do you stop wearing garments for that? The same logic applies for books,” she added. Chakravorty Spivak said she believes in teaching children in the way and language they understand and can connect and terms digital media as powerful as dangerous. “Facilitate them exerting their mind. Provide them with content and skill they like and can familiarise themselves,” she added. At a discussion Thought, Language and Boooks at the Kolkata Literature Festival, she said “I don’t consider myself as an intellectual. I am more of a classroom teacher.” Asserting that a book should be hugged by children, she said “My understanding about the topic is our general culture is ‘bhadralok’ culture. Within that, there is an intellectual group who read books.” Giving stress on hard copies and not soft copies for a student to practice, she said “I tell students not to use PDF format. I want them to write. After two years you should not be saying I have gone blank.” Asked by a young woman about the unaffordability of internationally known publications for students, she said “one of the way is to go for cheaper versions published here.” She described books as an instrument of love and not just learning.

Earlier, eminent Bengali writer Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay inaugurated the two-day Kolkata Literature Festival, the first in-person literary meet in eastern region in last two years. He spoke about the solitude, the struggle, the mental exertion of an upcoming writer “when he collects fragments of his experience about people and places and put up in writing at night when the stillness around greets him. If that writer becomes famous and more successful in later stages, is mobbed in a book fair and gives autographs, he is stricken by those images and cannot leave behind the process. Writing is not less exhaustive than physical labour of a worker.”