The
late teens to early twenties perhaps constitute the period of major choices in
life. While you traverse on the path of higher studies, your world-view,
philosophy of life and your aims-all get crystallised. Though multiple agents
may influence your life and decisions, somehow there are some who have much more
long-lasting impact. My own case is no different. In an era when India was
undergoing one of the most tumultuous changes after independence, causing much
of philosophical ambiguity as well as conflicting visions for someone like me, Prof.
Gopala Sarana emerged as an anchor that could help reconcile with all the
differences. One may argue that the discipline of anthropology has inherent
capacity to integrate pluralism (don’t we call it the ‘science of leftovers’?),
but in an environment obsessed with syllabus and prospectus (like any state
university, the University of Lucknow was also the victim of this malaise), it
takes a lot of courage to help develop a culture of debate, discussion and
critical analysis. That perhaps is one of the many achievements of
Prof. Gopala Sarana during his leadership at the Department of Anthropology.
Prof. Gopala Sarana during his leadership at the Department of Anthropology.
I
distinctly remember my first important brush with this culture of debate. It
was a discussion on the difference between custom and law. The city of Lucknow
hitherto known for its composite culture was witnessing its steady erosion in
the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which culminated in the demolition of
the Babari Masjid. The horror of distrust and communal belligerence fueled by
leaders who had nothing to do with Avadh or for that matter with Lord Rama or the
first Mughal king was challenging
collective conscious (if there was one left!). And in his discussion Prof.
Sarana started criticising the domineering attitude of Western development thinkers.
Unable to stand the contradiction, I asked him: ‘Don’t you think the same
attitude exists here, where we try to belittle everything coming from a tribal
group and claim superiority of the Sanskritic thought? Don’t slogans like ‘Ek
dhakka aur do, Babari Masjid tod do‘ reflect the spirit of domination of the
upper caste Hindu North Indian?’ It ensued into a dialogue between the two of
us where interestingly all the other students were just bemused spectators (one
of them complained afterwards of wasting the time of the class). We finally had
to cut it short when we both realised that we need to get back to ‘syllabus’!
This debate did not end there though. I kept going to meet him and express my
views in his cabin. Despite being overworked (which he always was in my view
but not in his own), he always had time to hear me. What a privilege to have an
intellectual of his caliber as your sounding board! He even read and commented
on a long response I had written on the book ‘Indian Controversies’ authored by
the pamphleteer Arun Shourie (adjective courtesy Ramchandra Guha) in which this
great scholar as per Madhu Trehan’s understanding had shown his utter lack of
understanding of his own religion. To my surprise and relief Prof. Sarana
agreed with my views. It was nothing but respect that he commanded-and
interestingly never demanded!
One
of our first exposure to academic research and writing used to be through the
weekly seminars where the MA students had to present a review of literature
based paper which was generally followed by critical discussions (except on
papers related to linguistics). This maybe a usual practice in many universities
but was unique to the Department of Anthropology at Lucknow University). His
greatness was in making us realize the sheer simplicity of academic writing.
Given the paucity of latest books in the University, he used to share his own
books with us for the seminar papers. It was so empowering to realise that one
was capable of comparing views of E.A. Hoebel and Max Gluckman or be critical
of Kathleen Gough’s definition of marriage by referring to scholarly works and
not mere text books. Perhaps the most liberating experience in academics!
Despite the diversity of branches and topics, Prof. Sarana was the unifying
force, playing the supervisor, the devil’s advocate and even the learner (I
still remember his urge to know more about HLA testing from a student majoring
in physical anthropology). My own paper on linguistic communities and special
parlances was kind of ripped apart and maybe that is why I am still so obsessed
with linguistic and discursive approaches!
Many
of the university inmates associated Prof. Sarana with idiosyncrasies and obstinacy.
But it is perhaps the combination of these two that has benefited us the most.
His first strong belief was that it is the first year of undergraduate studies (BA-I)
that is the most important and hence all the good professors should teach the
same. Secondly, the syllabus was never to be a slave of resources including
absence of requisite number of faculty members. Effectively, this meant a broad
spectrum of students and subjects he had to cater to. His day would start with discussing
evolutionism or functionalism with an undergraduate class, law or politics with
another then move to linguistics for MA-I, advanced theory for MA-II and then ethnography
for final year of graduation. Then would be the time of meeting him for books
and seminars and in effect he was always involved with students. It took a toll
on his research and publications. As one of the few Indians who contributed to
anthropological theory, he perhaps did not have a point to prove to the world.
But in this ‘publish or perish’ scenario, he steadily was no longer in the
reckoning despite his great contributions, especially to reinterpretation in
anthropology. Another idiosyncrasy associated with him was his obsession to
teach all papers in Hindi. It is this obsession that perhaps gave us one of the
best books on prehistory in Hindi which he co-authored with the legendary DN
Majumdar. The sheer creativity in adapting archeological terms to Hindi is remarkable.
From shalkan for flaking to uhapohatmak itihaas for conjectural
history-I do not know how many such Hindi terms were coined by him!
At
some crucial moment in life, I gave up my post-graduation in anthropology and
moved to human resource management. But the experience with Dr. Sarana had more
or less decided the career path for me: it had to be academics. When I sometimes
reflect on my own teaching style, I realise that it is neither a good B-school
professor nor a good sociologist (the discipline in which I finally ended up)
who is facilitating the sessions. It is actually a very poor emulation of Prof.
Sarana that is being thrust on the students as their instructor. He remains the
one who shaped the academic perspective and professional values for many of my
seniors, batch mates and juniors. There is no dearth of academicians who are
doing great in their field and owe a lot to him. His is an example perhaps very
similar to the sociologist Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji, who despite his limited
publications, left an indelible impact on several generations of sociologists through
his lectures and class interactions.
I
hardly could interact with him after my shift to sociology. On an occasional
meet, he would encourage me to work hard on my thesis, read more and focus on
publications. He had retained his wry sense of humour and remained critical of
those who compromised with academic integrity and spent time in networking. I
moved out of Lucknow in due course and used to occasionally hear about how he
was more or less moved into oblivion by the academic circles. This was the time when he published his last
major book Explorations in Method and
Theory in Anthropology.
Around
two years back I got the news of his death. The memories of those four years of
association flooded my mind and countered all my comforts of the materialistic
world in a B-school. In this confusion there was at least some respite. His
teaching had given me the courage to seek ‘social-cultural’ in every aspect. I
was hence fortunate enough o got a chance to teach subjects like social
development, cross-cultural management and management learning through history
and art. It is as if his spirit pervades when many of his students teach in the
class. I definitely was lucky to be in
the right department at the right time. Even in my own mediocrity, I always see
hope of betterment due to the self-confidence given by Prof. Sarana.
