Nuances of Dissidence

There is tension in the interviews done by Githa Hariharan, a prize-winning storywriter, to focus on the clear and present danger to liberal values hovering in the air, and the complexities of dissidence in this diverse and vast country. She lets the interviewees reflect on the complicated issues which they are busy sorting out even as they stand up against discrimination, oppression, and each one of them protests in her and his own way. Revealing insights are to be found in the reflections of the interviewees, almost in an introspective mood. Hariharan’s world view emerges from the credo forged in the late-1960s and in the 1970s—the personal is political. The radical dimension of the formulation has smoothened out over the decades, and it has now become the liberal article of faith. The interviews then become more than statements of protest. There is a large element of reflection. For example, the fiery feminist and Leftist of Telugu letters of the 1970s and 1980s Volga says, ‘Modernity—what a puzzle it is, and how colonialism and its cultural imposition have given us the runaround with the word! I think we are still trying to figure out what modernity actually means’ (p. 206). Volga is determined to fight inequality, but she is aware of the complexities of thought and situation. But that does not in any way impede her thought and action. She has a working definition which is sufficient: ‘My vision of a modern woman? She is a simple, and honest woman who understands the power structures of contemporary society. This modern woman steps forward to fight inequalities in whatever form she chooses.’