A Different History

Question 1

Summary and background information

Answer 1

• Talks about the affects of colonization or globalization - - Talks about the loss of culture that comes with globalization and the loss of part of our history as we reject the teachings of the old culture and of our old heritage. It could be for this reason that she decided to name the poem A Different History.
• Sujata Bhatt’s multicultural perspectives on language, culture, art and history expressed in her poems originate in her own life experiences.
• written this poem describing the British colonization days when the British oppressed the Indians.

Question 2

Themes

Answer 2

• Colonisation/globalisation
• Culture
• Gods/Religions

Question 3

Structure and literary techniques

Answer 3

• Lines 9 to 14 and notice the indentations of the lines => accentuate the action described. Similar to when you kick a book, the sentence suddenly shifts to the right, lam a book hard on a table or toss it carelessly across the room you move the book
• Indentation of second stanza => first stanza = unaffected by globalisation, maintained original culture, second stanza = epresents those who chose to migrate and are bound to or favour the expat or international or western culture
• Free style=> saying that her opinion belongs to her and she just wishes to express them onto the world or
• Assonance (wood, book, room, foot) => arrest readers’ attention

Question 4

Word analysis (Stanza 1)

Answer 4

• “Great Pan is not dead”. God of nature, the only god that dies. “He simply emigrated to India”, people usually migrate to places that will be more beneficial => praise India. As he is the god of nature => India has to beautiful to attract
• “the gods roam freely, disguised as snakes or monkeys” => foreigners blend with local people => imply the multi-god culture. Relates to globalisation as foreigners (gods) are allowed to move freely and they do not separate themselves (disguised) from local people (snakes or monkeys) => the foreigners would eventually become part of the society.
• “every tree is sacred” => shows divinity of the area
• from 2 quotations above => indicate the Indian respect toward nature which is represented as gods.
• Repetition of “sin” to state things that are terrible to do. Contrast with “sacred”.
• “You must learn how to turn the pages gently without disturbing Sarasvati”. Sarasvati is God of Arts. Books must be respected and used in a way that makes the god happy
• “Without offending the tree from whose wood the paper was made”=> Trees must not be insulted. They sacrifice their life for art and we should appreciate what they have done for us to be happy
• Overall, Indian culture is respected

Question 5

Word analysis (Stanza 2)

Answer 5

• First 4 lines => oppressor = British => addressing the loss in language. Because of globalization, they are now speaking the tongue of the foreigners, which is English. By doing this, they are destroying their heritage and culture. A form of mockery saying that that ‘by speaking
  language of the enemy, we have already given up
  mentally’ => murdering the Indian culture
• Last part of stanza => caused a lot of
  unrests in a country that was otherwise very happy
  before, was tortured physically and mentally => brutality => the next generation will grow up in that strange
  language => demonstrates the despair in the heart of the
  poet. Language = identity of a person => identity loss
• ‘the unborn grandchildren’ which allows the readers to understand that mother tongue dies => they die as well

Question 6

Irony

Answer 6

Poem is in English => poet = “unborn grandchildren” => shows the dynamism of language, and how the language itself can change identity (from unacceptable language of the oppressors to accepted language of the youth).