Dr Rita Kothari re-defines, expands and transcends comfortable notions of nations, regions and its languages in her new book Memories and Movements.
The definition of nation is generally perceived to be static, however, the thinking minds and agile hearts often knock down these man- made zones in search of something unusual. And this very search is the real force that drives Dr Rita Kothari’s writings. Kothari is associate professor, humanities and social sciences department, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar.
The crux of new book Memories and Movements
Kothari’s new book launched today at Crosswords by eminent sociologist Dr Ghyanshyam Shah, writer Achyut Yagnik and Gandhi scholar Tridip Suhrud is a social and cultural history. This book speaks to cultural historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists. As Kothari explains, “In this book, I have attempted to dig out the cultural history of Gujarat and have questioned the seriousness we attach with the notions of territories, borders and boundaries.”
The book is a capturing biography of Banni. Located in Kutch (Gujarat), this local pocket offers a multi-layered identity to what constitutes India. And Banni becomes a symbol which stands for the rest of India in terms of social change. Kothari with this narrative illuminates what mosaic that is India especially within the pockets where Banni lives.
The notion of borders expanded
Kothari is passionate to re-examine the idea of regions, communities, languages and roles of Partition. Kothari is a Sindhi married into a Gujarati family and her unique juxtaposition allows her to introspect into various comfortable and static concepts and notions like borders. In an attempt to preserve her identity and legacy as a Sindhi, she has been able to intensely feel the statelessness, displacement and process of migration. As Kothari puts it, “The experience of migration of Sindhis has never been focused at. And my work Border of Refuge that published in 2007 is an attempt to understand ramifications of migration on the lives of Sindhis and their process of settling down in Gujarat.”
Genre of Kothari’s works
Kothari writes cultural histories – a new format of telling history through stories, folk tales and community tales. And why not a novel form? Kothari explains, “Novel form doesn’t come to me naturally. I cannot suspend the reality, thinking process and hardcore anguish within sphere of pure imagination that a novel form requires.” Kothari’s writings revolve around the theme of partition and how it rocked the normal lives of peoples on both the sides of the nations. She has studies and narrated the tales of partitions the way Hindu families felt and the way Muslim families felt them across the borders in her works Burden of Refuge (2007) and Un-bordered Memories (2009)
Background of previous works
Her journey as a researcher started in 1995 and her work was entirely focused on theory and practice of translations. She has two poetic anthologies on her name. Of these, one is translated poetry of 100 Gujarati poets and the other Coral Island is collection of poems by Niranjan Bhagat. Her major work in translation is The Step Child which is translation of Angadiyat by Joseph Macwan. In 2001, her doctorate research work took a major turn and she focused on practice and politics of translations. She researched on the role of English language for creating cultural representations in her book Translating India.
Once there was a land with no borders, where people were free to come and go. Also there were communities without a bounded identity. All this was lost when the state imposed rules of territoriality and the drive towards social profiling insisted on clear-cut demarcations. Rita Kothari’s tale is how elasticity became fixity. She is an imaginative narrator as well as a very gifted translator of life and culture at the margins of Gujarat.
– Jan Breman, Emeritus Professor, University of Amsterdam
