SAGAR
SAGAR
Sponsored by:
Center for Asian Studies
University of Texas at Austin
(All members from The University of Texas at Austin)
James Brow, Janice Leoshko, Sagaree Sengupta (Faculty Advisors)
Stephanie Brown, Roger Conant, Keila Diehl, Roger Goodding, Sarah Green, Aisha Ikramuddin, Valerie Ritter
Sagar is published biannually in the spring and fall. The editor is responsible for the final selection of the content of the journal and reserves the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication. Articles presented in the journal do not represent the views of either the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin or the Sagar editors. Responsibility for the opinions expressed and the accuracy of facts published in articles and reviews rests solely with the individual authors.
Requests for permission to reprint articles should be directed to the individual authors. All correspondence regarding subscriptions, advertising, or business should be addressed to Sagar care of the Center for Asian Studies, University of Texas, Campus Mail Code F9300, Austin, Texas 78712-1194.
Not printed with state funds.
Sagar does not discriminate on any basis prohibited by applicable law including, but not limited to, caste, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Sagar editors would like to thank the following people for their advice and guidance: Martha Harrison, Patrick Olivelle, Karla Renaud, Gregory Schopen, and Sarah Wimer. We are especially grateful to Richard Lariviere for his vision, his support, and his inspiration.
Editorial Note
This issue of Sagar highlights the research of students studying South Asia at the University of Texas at Austin. Sagar encourages submissions from all students working in this field. Methodology articles from faculty are also welcome.
by Nandi Bhatia
Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" can be interpreted as a novel that articulates the hegemonic relations between the colonizer and the colonized during British rule. Through contrasting images of Kim, a sahib, and Hurree babu, an educated native, Kipling constructs functional dichotomies in which the position of the Other is subordinated. In this paper, I situate the construction of Kim's and Hurree babu's identities within the context of the British Empire and examine the historical underpinnings of the process that generated hierarchical representations in Kipling.
by Leah Renold
For over a quarter of a century Mohandas K. Gandhi maintained a close friendship with G. D. Birla., a wealthy industrialist, who was Gandhi's chief patron. This article explores their relationship which reveals some of the less well-known aspects of Gandhi. Despite popular perceptions of Gandhi, he was neither a social nor economic revolutionary.
by Richard B. White
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is widely recognized for his prominent role in improving the status of India's Untouchables. An important factor in his rise is his family's military background. This article explores how military service resulted in the accrual of benefits to Ambedkar's caste, the Mahars of Maharashtra, that otherwise would have been unavailable.
by Geetika Pathania
As the forces of liberalization sweep through the world, the opening of economies, and hence markets, provides an increasingly receptive context within which the trade of cultural products is carried out. The success of Hong-Kong-based Satellite Television Asian Region (STAR TV), which, in 1991, started direct broadcasting via satellite to Asia, has underlined the attractiveness of these Asian markets to the corporations of the media-saturated West. The mainly American programming which arrived without any prior consent of national governments has also demonstrated the ambivalence with which governments are viewing the manifestations of the foreign capital that they eagerly seek. This research paper attempts to examine how the liberalization of national economic policies favorable to foreign investment in India has softened the reception of foreign-backed media industry products, with a consequent shift in Indian cultural policy.
by Gail Minault