Journal Entry for 4/27 (Thursday)

MK Gandhi, from Mind Swara:

The reading talks India’s freedom and machinery. The author notes that indian people need to be free of english political and economic rule in order to free themselves. Author uses interesting analogies to describe relationships and explain his arguments such as “if master’s house is to be dismantled, it cannot be done with master’s tools” (Gandhi, 200). The people of India need to break away from cultures and ways imposed by the Englishmen such as machines and materialism in order to be free. However, I think this would be hard to break away from cultures imposed by other people if it has been around and adopted for so long. In class we talked about how there is no one culture, there are many different variations. Each culture adopts certain things and change certain aspects, creating a new culture. There is no clear distinction or boundary. But the author here is saying that in order to be free, one country cannot use anything the higher authority has imposed. Author also mentions the term Swaraj which means self-ruling. When we see a problem, we need to act on it and try to fix it rather than just sitting still and observing.

The author also discusses the concept of machinery. Machinery is the reason to India’s impoverishment. I thought it was interesting how the author portrayed the machinery not only as a symbol of modern civilization but also as a representation of great sin. The more implementation of the mills, the more Manchester was reproducing in India. The author acknowledges the presence of mills and machinery, however preventing the increase in mills will help free the country.

C.L.R James from Beyond a Boundary:

James discusses the debate of cultures of resistance and cultures of oppression. I thought it was interesting when the author notes that he did not join and choose to follow codes within culture, he was just brought up into it. It shows, how most of the time we do things just because that is how we were taught and grew up with. Relating back to Stuart Hall’s notion of how culture defines the framework of how things should be and how there is constant struggle b/w conformity and resistance. The author includes examples of resistance and conformity in different aspects of culture such as education, family, and sports. James’s example of cricket demonstrates one. The team is made up of a diverse group of children that come from many different kinds of families and background. Yet, when they are on the playing field, they are united, and obey umpire's decision without questions even if it can be unfair. They learn to play for the team rather than just thinking about themselves. This is how they were taught and brought up, therefore they conform to the rules. However, the author mentions forms of resistance as well as students cheat and go against school codes.