Representations of the 1984 Tragedy in Punjabi Cinema: Ideology and Cultural Politics

Using medium of modern Punjabi language, this paper provides critical overview of the way in which Indian cinema has tried to grapple with the aftermath of the 1984 tragedy. The films analysed in this paper include two Hindi films Maachis, Hawayein, and three Punjabi films Des Hoyaa Pardes, Sadda Haq and Punjab 1984. The paper examines each film's underlying ideology, screen techniques and ultimately what it portrays through its narrative construction of the past. The Hindi films almost echo an ‘Indianist’ ideology – a nationalist perspective of Sikh youth rebelling against the state ultimately shown as misguided and purposeless, while Punjabi films with their more realistic linguistic and aesthetic presentation fall short of any sensitive portrayal of the tragedy. The paper concludes with some comments upon their comparative worth and weaknesses and the disjunction between the Bollywood productions and the Punjabi initiatives: the former as part of the Indian industry with its highly developed formulistic commercial orientation and the latter with little technical sophistication and resource-starved productions.     

‘Age-hardened alloy’ based on bulk polycrystalline oxide ceramic

We report here for the first time the development of ‘age-hardened/toughened’ ceramic alloy based on MgO in the bulk polycrystalline form. This route allows for the facile development of a ‘near-ideal’ microstructure characterized by the presence of nanosized and uniformly dispersed second-phase particles (MgFe₂O₄) within the matrix grains, as well as along the matrix grain boundaries, in a controlled manner. Furthermore, the intragranular second-phase particles are rendered coherent with the matrix (MgO). Development of such microstructural features for two-phase bulk polycrystalline ceramics is extremely challenging following the powder metallurgical route usually adopted for the development of bulk ceramic nanocomposites. Furthermore, unlike for the case of ceramic nanocomposites, the route adopted here does not necessitate the usage of nano-powder, pressure/electric field-assisted sintering techniques and inert/reducing atmosphere. The as-developed bulk polycrystalline MgO–MgFe₂O₄ alloys possess considerably improved hardness (by ~52%) and indentation toughness (by ~35%), as compared to phase pure MgO.     

Privacy of Moral Perspective

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - This paper attempts to delve into Wittgenstein’s unique notion of solipsism and its centrality in his proposal of transcendental ethics....     

The relative effects of competence and likability on interpersonal attraction

Undergraduate students in Singapore (N = 80) learned about the competence (low vs. high) and likability (low vs. high) of a future interaction partner and indicated their attraction toward that stranger. The effect of likability was two times as large as that of competence. Because of the additive effects of the two manipulated factors on attraction, the authors interpreted the preference for lovable fools over competent jerks as an outcome of a generalized supremacy of likability over competence.     

“Socialism of the soul:” Holocaust in Saul Bellow’s The Victim

Saul Bellow wrote his second novel The Victim at the Partisan Review group’s instance. In the aftermath of the Holocaust the PR group advocated the assimilation of the American Jews into mainstream American life for their future safety and prosperity. Keeping in view Bellow’s creative potentials and belief in Marxism/Trotskyism, the PR members asked him to educate the Jews in this matter through his fiction. Bellow treated the subject of Jewish assimilation in an allegorical vein, projecting the idea of universal brotherhood based on common human grounds. Here, a Jew, Asa Leventhal, behaves like a Gentile and a Gentile, Kirby Allbee, like a Jew as victim and victimizer of each other. Their repeated encounters mitigate their racial apprehensions and bring the two closer to each other. Both discover one into the other as his inescapable self, bound by a common human connection. Finally they make peace with each other, projecting Bellow’s allegory of inexorable cosmic kinship—“socialism of the soul”—despite their differences of blood, race and religion.