just FYI: my professor, Diana Eck (at Harvard) when introducing the
dramas of Kalidasa to our class, noted that to find a comparison in
English letters, one might say, that Shakespeare is the Kalidasa of
England.
Now when you write that the reverse statement was heard by you very
commonly, I just have to wonder how this fit into the larger scheme by
which the English literary curriculum developed in India. I know this is
off the scope of this list, but it may interest you to know that the
study of "English Literature" was established in the Indian curriculum
*before* it was part of the curriculum in England. Why? Because the
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English had to demonstrate to the Indian students the cultural
superiority of English literature. If you want to read more about it,
Prof. Gauri Viswanathan has researched this and written a book _Masks of
COnquests: English Literary Studies_ (title may not be exactly correct).
just an interlude -- back to writing about identity and dramatic
performance in the Natya Sastra.
-- Aravinda
p.s. thanks to all of you who helped me with my paper on Dalit
literature. I referred mostly to the Marathi sources but I am looking
forward to reading more of the telugu works during the vacation. What I
wrote about was the role of literacy and literary education within the
Dalit liberation movement, and compared the perspectives of Dalits and
non-Dalits with respect tho this issue.
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"Waiting for a job, I passed the first year of an M.A. in English
Literature. It was just an excuse to keep myself occupied. " -- Kumud
Pawde, "The Story of my Sanskrit" http://www.columbia.edu/~ap191
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