Papers by Dr. Rizwan Akhtar
Jeremy Bentham’s concept of Panopticon introduced the notions of complete regulation, discipline,... more Jeremy Bentham’s concept of Panopticon introduced the notions of complete regulation, discipline, and observance. It is an official way of accomplishing procedures of coercion and surveillance to ensure a structured working of an edifice of discipline. Correspondingly, the notion of discipline, Foucault believes, serves as a method of power employed to control the society. Surveillance is a seminal discourse in literary fiction which often assumes the repercussive nature of political events as tropes of discursive hegemony therefore this paper explores the concept of Panopticon as a monumental apparatus of power depicted in George Orwell’s 1984.
Qawali is an Islamic devotional form of music invented and re-appropriated mainly by Chishtiyya S... more Qawali is an Islamic devotional form of music invented and re-appropriated mainly by Chishtiyya Sufi order in the Indian sub-continent. Ever since qawali is an integral part of samma (ceremony). Thought not strictly limited to but a qawali is often performed at shrines. Sufis who came to sub-continent used qawali as a medium of intra-faith communication with local population. Not so surprisingly Sufis also produced literature, mainly lyrical poetry, on themes such as divine love, reunion, and miraculous interceding powers of the last apostle Muhammad (PBUH). Consequently, qawali emerged as a form of music eulogizing divine love and love for the last apostle. Sufis patronized qawali and samma because they anticipated the value of music in Indian culture. This paper argues that qawali is a catalyst to spiritual ecstasy, and even a culturally pluralistic audience is spiritually swayed by its quintessentially Islamic appeal and content. However, what distinguishes the spiritual music ma...
In 1947, the partition of the subcontinent engendered geographical and psychological boundaries. ... more In 1947, the partition of the subcontinent engendered geographical and psychological boundaries. Anita Desai incorporates the event of partition in her novel, Clear light of day, thereby, showing the effects of partition on the different religious groups of the Indian sub-continent. This research aims toexplore chronotopal politics in Hindu Indian culture incorporating Muslim traits in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Dayas a nexus for Indo-Pak dialogue.Chronotope is a study of time and space. The objective of the research is to deconstruct the spatiotemporal ramifications of the event of partition in a bid to pose dialogic possibilities, as time and space make up the 'whole entity'. As this 'whole entity' of India is sliced by the act of partition, Desai portrays cultural integration in the space of India through a dialogue between time and space. The timelessness of Art and Literature is surveyed in the open space of the alternative paradigm of the novel. This area with reference to partition literature has not been explored and according to this research bears dialogic possibilities between two opposing forces, India and Pakistan. M.M. Bakhtin's theory of chronotope in conjunction with dialogism is used to analyze configuration of time and space politically. The concept of chronotope is used to identify the dialogic possibilities in the novel as it uses space as a literary trope of real and imagined dislocation of communities within the ambit of the relio-political dialectics of partition at the time of division. This research will open avenues for future researchers exploring traumatic experience of spatiotemporal dislocation.
Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South, 2013
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Papers by Dr. Rizwan Akhtar