'Duffer Sir' reflects on nation and identity

One of the books in the History for Peace Tracts series by Seagull Books is writer, poet, and translator Jerry Pinto's Thinking Aloud.

- SAURABH SHARMA

One of the books in the History for Peace Tracts series by Seagull Books is writer, poet, and translator Jerry Pinto's Thinking Aloud. Each volume from this series aims to "grapple with what is and prepare for what is likely to be, as a nation, as a people, as a community, as individuals". While the title of the book is unobtrusive and casual, something one says when they're not necessarily sure about their unprocessed trains of thought, the book's content invites readers to think of, principally, identity formation from interesting tangential routes.

The three essays that comprise this book are updated versions of talks Pinto delivered at conferences organised by History for Peace, an initiative of The Seagull Foundations for the Arts. In the first, titled "Bollywood and the Idea of the Nation," Pinto proposes using the movies made (largely) in the Hindi language as a prism to witness how a nation is built. He submits this fragment of a song from Kismet (1943): "Door hato eh duniyawalon, Hindustan hamara hai," then asks, "How did the British censor allow it?" Answer: "Because the producer and director argued that while the Second World War was raging, the message was directed at the Axis powers: 'We are saying this to Japan. We are saying this to Germany. They will come and attack us. We don't want them here.'"

This "strategic duplicity" was no longer needed in the 1950s. "At this point in time, the nation is equated with motherhood," writes Pinto, citing Mother India (1957). Suffering, penance, sacrifice, and morally upright actions were required to nurture a nation. Equally, it is upbringing and positionality that inform opinions, which is why Pinto writes, "Iconographically, the image of Radha [from