The Politics of Impurity: Special Lecture by Prof Niladri R. Chatterjee

The Department of English of The Bhawanipur Education Society College organized a special lecture delivered by Prof. Niladri R.Chatterjee, of Kalyani University, on 5th of April, 2023 for its Undergraduate and Postgraduate students. The lecture was held in the college premises, in Room 129-A. It was attended also by faculty members of the Department of English.

Mr. Soumyajit Chandra, Faculty of the Department of English introduced the esteemed speaker and a formal welcome was extended to him by Ms. Sonal Kapur, Assistant Professor, Department of English. Several students joined the lecture after a formal registration.

The lecture began with the speaker’s extensive discussion on ‘binaries’ and the creation of binaries. Prof. Chatterjee then mentioned how social stigma, impurity and untidiness come to be associated with some sexual identities. With this, he turned his discussion towards queer identities and the politics of the representation of queer identities in society. Additionally, Prof. Chatterjee also emphasized the need for Feminism, charted the history of the Feminist movement, Stonewall Riots and talked at length about the decriminalization of Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code. He also refuted all kinds of binaries and stated that all identities are, in fact, non-binary and therefore, all-inclusive.

In the course of his very engaging talk, Prof. Chatterjee then talked about the concept of ‘rhizome’ propounded by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to underscore the idea of being in the middle – or ‘intermezzo’ which, according to Prof. Chatterjee, would help one to understand queer or non-binary identities. That identities are not fixed or rooted to a singular worldview was focused on.

In the last segment of his lecture, Prof. Chatterjee drew a very interesting reference to the queerness of Shiva and Vishnu (Mohini) as explicated in Indian mythological iconography through Ardhanariswara. He talked in great detail about the queer Harihara, and Ayappa, the queer child of Harihara (Hariharaputra) to substantiate his idea of queer identities, thereby emphasizing that post-structuralist thought enables us to contest the idea of set identities that are often binary in nature. Finally, he mentioned Homi K. Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ which helps one to understand the politics of polarity and evade it successfully.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session in which students engaged with the speaker in an intelligent discussion. Dr Gargi Talapatra, Head of the Department of English, then thanked Prof. Chatterjee for his visit and lecture.

The event was followed by tea for students and online feedback forms were circulated among them. Students enjoyed thoroughly which made the lecture a grand success.