A Study of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood in the Light of Chandra Talpade Mohanty: A Postcolonial Feminist Theory

Abstract

Mohanty is a prominent contemporary postcolonial feminist who demands women’s solidarity based on the common context of struggle against the hierarchical powers- colonialism, capitalism, racism and patriarchy. This study seeks to examine traces of colonialism, capitalism, racism and solidarity in Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood according to Mohanty’s postcolonial feminist theory.

Introduction

Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood narrates the story of a traditional woman, Nnu Ego, who knows her identity and its completion in having many children especially the boy one. Suffering from poverty, she knows herself rich, for she has three sons. It seems to her that she would have, according to Ibuza tradition, a comfortable old age due to her sons’ help. Having detailed Nnu Ego’s painful life in Lagos, a colonized city, the novel ends with her tragic death alone. Yet, far from being devoted to her children exposing her joys of motherhood, Nnu Ego dies, at the end of the story, a lonely death “with no child to hold her hand and no friend to talk to her. She had never really made many friends, so busy had she been building up her joys as a mother” (Emecheta, 2011,p. 224).

Through depicting the oppression and suffering Nnu Ego experiences in Lagos, Emecheta, indeed, highlights the effects of capital politics and colonial patriarchal regimes in Third World women’s marginalization and domination. In this regard, it seems that Emecheta’s novel is a practical instance of Mohanty’s theoretical ideology.

Are Women as a Homogeneous Group?

As the story of invisibility and marginalization of women who have no voice, Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, aims at rewriting an integral part of history which has been dismissed. Indeed, Emecheta seeks to speak for Ibuza women being multiply marginalized and oppressed by a colonial and indigenous patriarchal society. Mohanty (2003) stresses that it is necessary for Third World women to speak for themselves, to rewrite their history and to produce knowledge about themselves. She suggests that the important question is: who is speaking for Third World women and from what geographical location they are doing so? (p. 52). Hence, Emecheta, as a Nigerian woman, is the best person to rewrite the story of marginalization and suffering of Nigerian women and her novel is an essential source of knowledge about them.

In the novel, female figures are multiply victimized by oppressive forces of race, gender and class, though one cannot refer to them as a homogeneous group. In Mohanty’s argument, Western feminists in their problematic discussions of Third World women, ignoring the diversity among women, consider all the native women as a homogeneous group. However, women have different identity, history, struggle and everyday lives. In fact, “women are not as a singular monolithic subject. Even when they share the same culture, they are still different”. (Emecheta, 2011, p. 17)

That’s why she asserts that Third World women should rewrite their history based on women’s specific location and struggle and everyday lives. In this regard, Emecheta carefully delineates the diversity among native female figures through their resistance against the patriarchal oppression and domination. Western feminism does not mean "radical feminism based on which men are considered as women’s greatest enemy"(Alaei and Barfi 2014: 15). For instance Ona is a proud woman with a male power. Adaku, a representation of independent women, struggles for her independence and freedom. Nnu Ego, a traditional woman, accepts the superiority of man and she always tries to be a good daughter for her father, a good wife for her husband and a good mother for her children.

Adankwo is the representation of those women who have accepted their fate. Internalizing the patriarchal values and norms, she herself cooperates in the oppression of Nnu Ego and Adaku. Hence, regarding women as a category of analysis or, in other words, as a homogeneous group, as Mohanty (2003) suggests, “results in an assumption of women as an always already constructed group, one that has been labeled powerless, exploited, sexually harassed, and so on” (p. 23).

Colonial Policies and Women’s Recolonization

The Joys of Motherhood unfolds events in Nigeria during the period of time that it was invaded and colonized by British imperialism “in 1930 and moving forward to the time of independence from colonial rule” (Killam, 2004, p. 42). Killam (2004) asserts that until late 18century contact between Europe and Africa was limited to slave trade. But since 1780, a new interest appeared. They sought a market to offer their goods and to develop their religion in Africa. Through developing the theory of social Darwinism, this idea was formed by Europeans that they were superior. Therefore, they were responsible to give Africans identity, civilization, religion and rule. That was the way they justified colonial expansion in Africa. As a result, African formal colonization began from 1885 (p. 48).

Western countries establish themselves as the legitimate rulers of the orient, in other words, they believe that they have the power to build their empire. They are increasingly of the opinion that Third World people are in capable of self-government. Consequently, they have the right both to make rules for them and to control them and to bring about changes in their lives as well (Mohanty,2003, p. 71). The European invasion and colonization of Africa in the nineteenth century had anenormous impact on Nigerian history because it brought about a series of social, cultural, economic and political changes in Nigeria.

In the novel, Emecheta carefully depicts the way in which the colonial discourse brings about changes such as religious ones in Lagos through the institutions: “the workers are determined to be off only half a day in the week and that is on Sundays in order to attend the church. The marriage should be done in the church, otherwise; it is regarded as an illegal marriage. When Nnu Ego is pregnant for the first time, Nnaif become worry that he may lose his job because they didn’t marry in the church. Moreover, Nnu Ego, in the court, is told to swear by the holy Bible not by herchi”. (Emecheta, 2011, p. 217) Hence, Emecheta highlights how carefully West develops its culture and rules through the institutions.

She, indeed, echoes how women are subject to multiple oppressions by the intersection of oppressive forces of race, gender and class. Emecheta, in this regard, attempts to speak for the disenfranchised African women who are subjugated by the colonial patriarchal society. Due to their own contradictory sex, race, class and cast positioning, Third World women and women of color are subject to domination and exploitation (Mohanty, 2003, p. 64).

Through disclosing the abusive behaviors with which the colonial patriarchal society has oppressed and silenced the female figures in Lagos, Emecheta criticizes the effects the colonial patriarchal discourse has on the native patriarchy. In this regard, Loomba (2007) mentions: Colonialism intensified patriarchal oppression, often because native men increasingly disenfranchises and excluded from the public sphere, became more tyrannical at home. (p. 64)Being disempowered and humiliated by British master, Nnaif, as a washer man, “takes out his frustration on Nnu Ego” (Killam, 2004, p. 44). His master calls him “baboon” while laughing and repeating the word. Such a treatment echoes the extent to which West regards the “oriental other” (Morton, 2003, p. 87), as an inferior creature which reflects the stability and fulfillment oft hem. The British master treats Nnaif in a way that he “is denuded of any cultural or historical being” (p. 86). Here, Emecheta (2011) attempts to question Western humanism: Nnaif didn’t realize that Dr. Meer’s laughter was inspired by that type of wickedness that reduces any man, white or black, intelligent or not, to a new low; lower than the beast of animals, for animals at least respected each other’s feeling, each other’s dignity. (p. 42).

Capitalist Policies and Women Exploitation

Mohanty (2003) is on the opinion that the development of capitalism in the industrial countries followed by the racial “sexual politics of global capitalist domination and exploitation” (p.168) leads to a demand for cheap workers for its goal: more profit, accumulation and exploitation (p.169).This strategy is central to the development of capitalism. In this regard, the concept of “unskilled” work was a definition of work –for immigrant-which was given by racial capitalism. In her story, Emecheta questions such capitalist policy which leads to the immigration of many villagers, with no profession, to Lagos- a colonized city- to find job: It was difficult for man with no qualification to find work in the early 1940. In growing numbers they were leaving their village homes to look for jobs in Lagos, and this phenomenon was robbing many areas of their most able-bodied men. (Emecheta, 2011, p. 141) 

Black Women Solidarity: The Common Context of Struggle

Mohanty’s other important concept, women’s solidarity, can be traced in Emecheta’s novel, The Joys of Motherhood. While considering that African women’s lives are colonized and exploited by different factors such as capitalism, colonialism and indigenous patriarchy, Emecheta echoes the sign of African women’s solidarity based on “the common interests, historical location, and social identity” (Mohanty, 2003, p. 12).

Mohanty believes that Third World women’s solidarity or unity is based on the common context of struggle against power structures and the hierarchical discourses of racism, nationalism, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy which determine a political oppositional alliance among them. In describing the term “women of color”, Mohanty (2003) concludes that “this term designates a political consistency, not a biological or even sociological one” (p. 49). So, for he “unity of action” and “blackness” explore the common context of struggle among people of color and Third World women.

In Emecheta’s novel, Ibuza women have the monthly meeting in Lagos which marks the constructed solidarity among them. They help each other in order to both make life easier for themselves and have a life of their own. This statement is documented in the following extract. Whilst Nnu Ego suffers from poverty, other Ibuza women taught her how to start her own businesss that she would not have only one outfit to wear.

They let her borrow five shillings from the women’s fund and advised her to buy tins of cigarettes and packets of matches (Emecheta, 2011, p. 52). This quotation, moreover, discloses the common context of struggle among black women who are colonized and re-colonized by power structures. This common context of struggle, as depicted, determines their “political oppositional alliance” (Mohanty, 2003, p. 49) and constitutes their commonality. When Nnu Ego and her friend Cordelia quarrel, they soon decide that it was not worth excommunicating each other. There was far more to be gained by communication: “if the tongue and the mouth quarrel, they invariably make it up because they have to stay in the same head” (Emecheta, 2011, p. 63). When the cognition of human beings’ limitations becomes a mirror to man’s survival and development, [they] will not lose confidence to the uncertain future (Aziz mohammadi and Kohzadi 2014: 653).

Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and the Issue of Gender

Besides criticizing colonialism, capitalism and racism, The Joys of Motherhood points out the way in which women are silenced and oppressed by native patriarchy and, however, this oppression is not mediated by race and /or class. This is, by no means, in contrast with postcolonial feminist premise. Because the fundamental issue in the postcolonial feminist discourse is to consider the intersection of gender, class and race. The singular focus on gender and sexuality, as a source of women’s oppression, in terms of context, should be dismissed. "Black woman's sexuality is of tendescribed in metaphors of speechlessness, space, or vision, as a 'void' or empty space that is  simultaneously ever-visible" (qtd in Collins 2000: 123; Barfi and Alaei 2015: 13). Mohanty (2003)emphasizes that the crucial analytic difference between the white, Western, middle-class feminism and the Third World feminism is the “contrast between a singular focus on gender as a basis for sexual rights and a focus on gender in relation to race and / or class as part of a border liberation struggle” (p. 54).

In this sense, there should be an intersection between gender and race or class in order to be discussed; otherwise, it should be dismissed. Accordingly, gender, race and class are considered as relational terms. Mohanty (2003) also asserts that “to defined feminism purely in gendered terms assumes that our consciousness of being “women” has nothing to do with race, class, nation, or sexuality, just with gender” (p. 55). Accordingly, the postcolonial feminist politics together with black feminism cannot define the feminist principle without regarding this mediatio. Unlike other black feminists who merely struggle to expose African women’s racial oppression within the colonial society or the effects of racism on Afro-American women, Emecheta attempts to highlight black women’s oppression within the patriarchal Igbo society as well. Besides criticizing racism and the economic, political and cultural effects of colonialism on the disempowered African women’s lives, she, in her novels, criticizes the way in which the patriarchal tradition views Igbo women and dominant them. She goes further to give voice to the subaltern

African women through her female characters.

Regarding Emecheta’s new critical view, Bazin (1985) asserts that “Emecheta’s heroin Nnu Ego in The Joys of Motherhood ventures into feminist consciousness, the awaking of self to the inequities in Igbo cultures, such as son preference, polygamy, rigid sex roles, and a glorification of motherhood, which all render women powerless” (p. 155). It is in this context that Parekh and Jagne(1988) believe that Emecheta is regarded as “feminist rather than womanist” (p. 155). Yet, Emecheta never calls herself a Western feminist. Instead, she calls herself a feminist with a small 'f': Being a woman, and African born, I see things through an African woman’s eyes. I chronicle the title happenings in the lives of the African women I know. I did not know that by doing so I was going to be called a feminist. But if I am now a feminist then I am an African feminist with a small f. (Katrak, 2006, p. 17)

 Conclusion

The Joys of Motherhood, an extraordinary novel which unfolds the story of invisibility and marginalization of African women who have no voice, aims at reconstructing part of history which is dismissed. Buchi Emecheta, in her novel, manages to disclose women’s marginalization and oppression by both colonial and indigenous patriarchal regimes. Colonialism is obscurely demonstrated in The Joys of Motherhood. In the novel, native populations are obliged to make themselves compatible with those ideas and systems foreign to their own. Different factors such as foreign idealistic standards for education and conduct, Christianity, etc. endanger traditional culture. All levels of society including Nigerian families and individuals are severely affected by European idealistic standards. Nnu Ego has to search for a novel structure of joy while traditional culture attempts to continue in a world of Logos. Her Ego clearly stands for traditional thinking of her society. "Of course, this inclination to search for definite and find answers does not belong to mentality from the time humanity came into this world" (Mahmoudi et al., 2014: 635).Emecheta, indeed, echoes how women are subject to double oppression by the intersection of oppressive forces of race, gender and class. Moreover, she is going to highlight female sexual oppression, gender inequality and gender difference in Igbo patriarchy. She attempts to speak for the disempowered African women who have no voice of their own. Besides some writers such as Miriam Tlati and Ama Ata Aidoo, Emecheta, indeed, transcends the traditional way of representing black women.

References

Amott, TL., & Matthaei, j. (1996). Race, gender, and work: A multi-cultural economic history ofwomen in the United States. South End Press.

Alaei, S., Azizmohammadi, F., & Kohzadi, H. (2014). The Concept of Identity in Cat’s Eye from theViewpoint of Julia Kristeva. Anthropologist, 17(2), 627-631.

Alaei S., & Barfi, Z. (2014). Margaret Atwood in the Second and Third Waves of Feminism on theBasis of Julia Kristeva’s Theories. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences,(29), 13-21.

Azizmohammadi, F., & Kohzadi, H. (2014). The Impact of Anthropocentrism on NaturalEnvironment from the Perspective of Margaret Atwood. Anthropologist, 17(2), 647-653.

Barfi, Z., & Alaei, S. (2015). Western Feminist Consciousness in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys ofMotherhood. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 1(1), 12-20.

Bazin, NT. (1985). Venturing into feminist consciousness: Two protagonists from the fiction of

Buchi Emecheta and Bessie Head. Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women.Collins, PL. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd. ed. New York and London: Routledge.

Emecheta, B. (2011). The joys of motherhood. WW Norton & Company.

Katrak, K. (2006) The Politics of the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers. RutgersUniversity Press.

SITING TRANSLATION (HISTORY, POST-STRUCTURALISM, AND THE COLONIAL CONTEXT) by TEJASWINI NIRANJANA

SITING TRANSLATION (HISTORY, POST-STRUCTURALISM, AND THE COLONIAL CONTEXT) by TEJASWINI NIRANJANA

What is at stake here is the representation of the colonized, who need to be produced in such a manner as to justify colonial domination, and to beg for the English book by themselves. In the colonial context, a certain conceptual economy is created by the set of related questions that is the problematic of translation. Conventionally, translation depends on the Western philosophical notions of realize natation,  and knowledge. IS seen as something unproblematic, "out there"; knowledge involves a representation of this reality; and representation provides direct, unmediated access to a transparent reality. 

As Jacques Derrida suggests, the concepts of metaphysics are not bound by or produced solely within the "field" of philosophy. Rather, they come out of and circulate through various discourses in several registers, providing a "conceptual net-work in which philosophy itself has been constituted."2 In forming a certain kind of subject, in presenting particular versions of the colonized, translation brings into being overarching concepts of reality and representation. These concepts, and what they allow us to assume, completely occlude the violence that accompanies the construction of the colonial subject.

In creating coherent and transparent texts and subjects, translation participates-across a range of discourses-in the fixing of colonized cultures, making them seem static and ~n-changing rather than historically constructed. Translation functions as a transparent presentation of something that al-ready exists, although the "original" is actually brought into being through translation. Paradoxically, translation also pro-Vides a place in "history" for the colonized. The Hegelian conception of history that translation helps bring into being endorses a teleological, hierarchical model of civilizations based on the "coming to consciousness" of "Spirit," an event for which the non-Western cultures are unsuited or unprepared. Translation is thus deployed in different kinds of dis-courses-philosophy, historiography, education, missionary writings, travel-writing-to renew and perpetuate colonial domination.

In the final chapter, with the help of a translation from Kannada, a South Indian language, into English, I discuss the "uses" of post-structuralism in post-colonial space. Through-out the book, my discussion functions in all the registers-philosophical, linguistic, and political-in which translation "works" under colonialism. If at any point I seem to dwell on only one of these, it is for a purely strategic purpose". This work belongs to the larger context of the English" that is a consequence of the impact of structuralism and post-structuralism on literature studies by the civilizing mission of colonialism is still propagated by discourses of "literature" and "criticism" in the tradition of Arnold, Leavis, and Eliot. These disciplines repress what Derrida, in the words of Heidegger, calls the logocentric or ontotheological metaphysics by which they are constituted, which involves all the traditional conceptions of representation, translation, reality, unity, and knowledge. 

My study of translation does not make any claim to solve the dilemmas of translators. It does not propose yet another way of theorizing translation to enable a more foolproof "method" of "narrowing the gap" between cultures; it seeks rather to think through this gap,. this difference, to explore the position in . of the obsessions and desires of translation, an thus to describe the economies within which of translation. My concern is to probe the absence, lack, Or re ression of an awareness of asymmetry and historici in several kin sown ng on rans a on. tough Euro-American literary modernists such as Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Samuel Beckett persistently foregrounded the question of translation, I have not discussed their work, since it has, in any case, been extensively dealt with by mainstream literary critics, and since the focus of my interrogation is not poetics but the discourses of what is today called "theory."

My main concern in examining the texts of Jones IS not necessarily to compare his translation of Sakuntala or Manu's Dharmasastra with the so-called originals. Rather, what I pro-pose to do is to examine the "outwork" of Jones's .translations the prefaces, the annual discourses to the A SIatic Society, his charges to the Grand Jury at Calcutta, his letters, ad his "Oriental" poems-to show how he contributes to historicist, teleological model of civilization that, helps construct a powerful version of the "Hindu" .that tater writers of different philosophical and political persuasions incorporated into their texts in an almost seamless fashion.

The sign of origin, for Derrida, is a writing of a writing that can only state that the origin is originary translation. Metaphysics tries to re appropriate presence, says Derrida, through notions of adequacy of representation, of totalization, of history. Cartesian-Hegelian history, like the structure of the sign, "is conceivable only on the basis of the presence that it defers and in view of the deferred presence one intends to re appropriate" (SP, p. 138). Here Derrida points to historicism's concern with origin and telos and its desire to construct a totalizing narrative. "History," in the texts of post structuralism, is are press force that obliterates in a chain that includes meaning, truth, presence, and logos. We shall see later how Walter Benjamin, in a similar critique of monolithic histories, instead uses materialist historiography as a means of destabilization. Derrida's critique of representation is important for post-colonial theory because it suggests a critique of the traditional notion of translation as well. In fact, the two problematics have always been intertwined in Derrida's work. He has indicated more than once that translation perhaps escapes "the i\ orbit of representation" and is therefore an "exemplary question."90 If representation stands for the re appropriation of If.1 presence, translation emerges as the sign for what Derrida y would call "dissemination."91 We must, however, carefully f' interrogate the conventional concept of translation that be-longs to the order of representation, adequacy, and truth.

Clearly, the notion of hybridity, which is of great importance for a Subaltern critique of historiography as well as for a critique of traditional notions of translation, is both "ambiguous and historically complex." 96 To restrict "hybridity," or .A\' what I call "living in translation," to a post-colonial elite is to deny the pervasiveness, however heterogeneous, of the transformations wrought across class boundaries by colonial and neocolonial domination. This is not to present a meta-narrative of global homogenization, but to emphasize the need to reinvent oppositional cultures in non essentializing ways. Hybridity can be seen, therefore, as the sign of a post-colonial theory that subverts essentialist models of reading while it points toward a new practice of translation.

HOW TO CHOOSE A RESEARCH TOPIC?

HOW TO CHOOSE A RESEARCH TOPIC?

Pick a (manageable) topic that interests you

Try to pick a topic that you find interesting. This will ensure the research process is as engaging and fun as possible. Ask yourself: What am I curious about? What questions do I have? What topic would I like to learn more about? [If you’re still not sure, think of 3 things that interest you, even if you don’t think they relate to your class. You might be surprised at the connections you can make!]

Also consider: How long does my research paper need to be? Choose a topic that seems appropriate for the length of the paper. For example, “American Literature of the 1950s” is too broad of a topic for a university research paper. You could write a whole book on that topic! “Depictions of Advertising in American Literature of the 1950s” is a more manageable topic to start with.

Be flexible Understand that choosing a research topic is a cyclical process. No topic should be set in stone. Be prepared to change your topic as you search for information, read about your topic, and learn more.

Learning

Choose a topic

Read 

Search

Search for information on your topic

Search for information resources, such as scholarly articles and books, in the library catalogue and relevant databases. What do you find? If you find too many information resources, your topic might be too broad. To make your topic more specific and narrow, try to zero in on a single aspect of your topic. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help narrow your topic:

 Could you focus on a more specific region, time period, or group (age, gender, ethnicity)?

 Could you focus on a specific aspect of your topic? (eg. Instead of just video games, how about video games and socialization?)

 Can you narrow your topic to a specific problem or question? (eg. Instead of just video games and socialization, how about “how do first person shooter games affect adolescents’ ability to learn social behaviours?” )

Narrow your topic and search again.

If you cannot find enough information resources, your topic might be too specific. To broaden your topic, consider removing some of your criteria from your research topic. For example, instead of investigating the use of Instagram by university students at funerals, you might broaden your topic to the use of Instagram by university students at funerals. Alternatively, you might need to adjust the keywords you have been using – talk to a librarian for help! Broaden your topic and search again.

Read about your topic

As you read through your chosen information resources, you will learn more about your topic. In response to what you learn, you may wish to tweak your topic further. Don’t be afraid to change your topic to reflect what you read. Begin writing Even while you’re writing, your topic may change slightly. In many ways, writing is a way of thinking through your topic. As you write—and think—you may decide to refine your topic to better reflect the content of your research paper.

Guidelines to help guide the topic selection: 

1. The research topic should be one in which the student is interested, but not one about which the student is already an expert. If a student has been a diabetic for ten years, worked closely with the Juvenile Diabetes Association, and has been a volunteer in the children’s diabetic ward in a local hospital, he or she probably knows a great deal about the subject juvenile diabetes. Unless that student pursues a new approach to diabetes, that topic may not yield much new learning. 

2. The research topic may be one that requires cumulative knowledge across grade levels and content area. It should be a natural outgrowth of interest and combined skills of all, or most content areas. For example, a student who researches the changes in the ozone layer is using cumulative knowledge from at least English, math, science, and history. 

3. The research topic is challenging to the student academically and creatively. The student should take care not to choose a topic that is limited to relatively simple ideas or one that has little application or extension possibilities. The topic should require an academic and creative stretch/risk. 

4. Preliminary research may be helpful. By reading about a certain topic, the student may expand his/her areas of interest. Possibilities for new areas of exploration may surface. It may be wise, therefore, to explore the possibilities for personal interviews, informal surveys, empirical observation, etc., before making a final topic selection. 

5. Students should avoid choosing topics that might involve expenses they are not prepared to handle. For example if the research involves travel or long distance calls, the student may want to make another choice. If the product that grows out of the research will require materials, the student may want to make another choice. Remember, the student is not required, encouraged, or advised to spend money in order to complete the Senior Experience. Expenditures will not enhance the evaluation of the Senior Experience. 

6. Students should avoid choosing topics that might endanger themselves or others. For example, experiments which are potentially explosive or activities such as handling poisonous snakes are not appropriate. Remember that the student must have Experience Proposal approved by the Senior Experience Capstone Steering Committee and Faculty Advisor prior to beginning the Experience. 

7. The research topic should be one that is broad enough to allow the student access to enough information, yet narrow enough to make the research scope reasonable. For example, a student choosing the career cluster Health Science would find it impossible to include everything about health science (home remedies, history of emergency services, the treatment of burns, how to stop bleeding, evolution of first aid courses, etc.) On the other hand, a student choosing to research The Application of Band-Aids to Skin Abrasions probably will not find enough information. A better choice would be Bandaging for Sports Injuries.

Simple strategies for evaluating potential research topics

It is quite common for undergraduate psychology students to develop a list potential research topics. The difficulty arises when students must choose atopic from their list, and develop a research proposal. Often students ask me if they can submit two or three proposals, with the hope that I will inform the of the best idea and therefore make the decision for them. Supervisors are generally not in a position to do this, as it is unethical for anyone but the student to make this decision – this decision-making is, in itself, part of the research process. The following are three very essential questions that you can ask yourself regarding your potential research topics, as illustrated in Figure 3.1.

1. Does the topic elicit interest and curiosity in you? The first decision you should make regards how you actually feel about the topics on your list, and whether you could stick with the topic through to the completion of a research project. It is very important that the topic you choose is of interest to you and that it also elicits curiosity within you. Your interest and curiosity should manifest themselves by adding to your enthusiasm about your project, and therefore have the potential to act as a powerful motivational device.

2. Is the topic worthwhile?

It is very important that you pick a topic that is worthwhile. As already noted in Chapter 2, poor science is unethical. It is unethical to ask people to participate in your study if it has little or no likelihood, because of poor conceptualisation and design, of producing meaningful results or furthering scientific knowledge. If your topic is not worthwhile, not only is it unethical, but you are also failing to satisfy the requirements of meaningful results with theoretical and practical implications. Hence, you will fail to meet the full requirements for an under graduate project in psychology, and you will ultimately loose precious marks. If the examiner of your project reads your project and thinks ‘well so what’, then you have not met the full requirements of your psychology project. It is important to note that it is your responsibility to come up with valid topics that are worthwhile. Your supervisor’s role is to guide you through there search process, not to generate topics for you.

3. Is the topic do-able?

As recently noted, it is of paramount importance that the topic for your project is feasible. You must make critical decisions regarding whether you will be capable of collecting primary data to answer your potential research question. For example, students are often interested in topics related to psychopathologies, such as schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders, however, at undergraduate level, it is not appropriate or permissible to gather information from such a sample, due to the code of competent caring for example. A topic that Irish students are often interested in is the prison service. They may want to investigate in-mates’ quality of life, or they may be interested in the prison staff. At undergraduate level, students have great difficulty in gaining access to such sensitive samples, regardless of the aims of their study. Some students, due to family connections etc., go through the process of getting per-mission to get into such places, and can spend numerous weeks waiting for a response, which is usually ‘no’. Precious time is lost, which would have been saved by making critical decisions as mentioned above. It is also important to decide whether you would have enough time to gather the information and carry out your analyses. Undergraduate students, for example, often do not have the time or resources to invest in participant observation studies, and should settle for some other method of inquiry that suits their research goals. Once you have narrowed down your list of topics, the next step in setting down the foundations for a successful psychology project is to develop your research question.

The Role of the Research Proposal

Your research proposal describes what your proposed research is about, what it is trying to achieve, how you will go about achieving it, what you find out, and why it is worth finding out (Punch, 2001). Often undergraduate students under-estimate the importance of the research proposal, and fail to see the vital functions that it serves. 

Introduction – literature review

The literature review is generally incorporated into the introduction. The main purpose of this section is to provide the necessary background or context for your research problem. The framing of the research question is the most crucial aspect of the research proposal. If you frame your research question in the context of a general long-winded literature review, the significance of your research question could ultimately be lost and appear inconsequential or uninspiring. However, if you frame your research question within the framework of a very focused and current research area, its importance will be markedly apparent.

Corruption in Education System in Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020, Love, Ambition, Corruption

Corruption in Education System in Chetan Bhagat’s  Revolution 2020, Love, Ambition, Corruption

Revolution 2020 is the story of three friends from Varanasi. The life story is predictably a love story or rather a love triangle involving Gopal and childhood friends Raghav and Arti. The three protagonists belong to different classes. Gopal is poor, Raghav is middle class while Arti is well off. The novel is just a love story as while speaking to India Real Time (IRT) Bhagat himself states, “But, frankly, when you read the book you see it's not so political. It's still 80% love story and the rest is about the issues I am talking about. „Revolution 2020‟ is something that is very close to my heart…”5 But if you focus on the background, activities, and all other minor aspects, you will find that the story starts from corruption though it seems to be a joke or students‟ hobby. Stealing and eating the cake of Arti shows the intention of both Gopal and Raghav. Gopal wants to eat whole while Raghav says, “Don't take the whole thing. It's not fair…. Cut it into two. Take one, leave the other.”(R 9-10) They commit a mistake to leave the chocolate stained ruler on the seat by which they are caught. This is the practice in all corruption and illegal matters in which the convict leaves some sign. This episode resembles with Shukla's episode where he is caught and punished like Gopal.

Though opening new educational institutes indicates to spread education and reduce corruption but even the thought of starting such institutes is not without corruption. The motive of the capitalists, represented philanthropic and charitable towards the society and career of students, focuses on only lucre and stinginess. Chetan Bhagat, being a capitalist warns the society not to be fully corrupt especially in the field of education. Talking to India Real Time (IRT) he says, 

“I saw corruption at almost every level. While I am a capitalist at heart and I have no problems with commercialization as such, I believe that while it's okay if education becomes a profitable business, it's not okay if it becomes corrupt. You can make money…everybody makes money, but the moment you enter into a corrupt mindset, it has dangerous 

consequences – especially in education. If you have corruption in education, you end up with a whole generation that is not trained properly.”

The Ganga Tech, represented as one of the biggest institutions and predictably to be a well reputed university, is founded on corruption and disputed land. The land on which it is situated is usurped forcefully and illegally from Ghanshyam, Gopal's uncle, though it is a justification to him. Here everyone waits for his opportunity. Not only the capitalists but the professionals are also second to none to cash their chance. In the initial procedure to establish the Ganga Tech they had to grease the different palms at every step.

Chetan Bhagat has always been very cautious and aware with most of the issues related to the society. That's why he always represents him through the articles published in the newspapers. Bhagat writes in his article, “Many of us unfortunate enough to be educated and emotionally invested in our country are in pain these days. We see our nation being plundered and mismanaged by the politicians in power.”

Undoubtedly the increasing number of private institutes is giving a good opportunity to those students who fail to get admission in IITs or government colleges. The students can earn a degree of their choice through these colleges. Of course this private sector is playing a good role in educating the students but they fail to maintain the quality education. In this reference Bhagat writes in his article „The Bootlegging of Education‟, 

“Thousands have opened up in the last decade. In NCR alone, there are over a hundred MBA colleges now. With such proliferation quality standards vary widely across these institutes. While there is demand for them given our large student pool, what they are teaching and what students are learning is another matter. To ensure quality, the government has put in place procedures like elaborate approval processes and regular inspections. However, these are abused and corruption is rife. Many private college owners have personally admitted to me they had to pay bribes at every stage of opening the college- from getting land and building approvals, to approving the course plan and to set fee structures. Corruption in the private education sector is such a norm that nobody in the know even raises an eyebrow anymore.”

Gopal is completely novice about the system, but the brokers are available everywhere. Bedi knows the whole system and how to settle matters. To establish the institute files are just copied and pasted as he himself says, “It is standard stuff, taken from earlier applications.”(R 137) Initially they had to bribe to VNN (Varanasi Nagar Nigam) to get permission for construction.

Babus are also exposed to be very expert in taking bribe and in bargaining. Sinha, the deputy-corporator in VNN takes a huge amount only for the approval to open the college. In this bargaining Gopal asks Sinha, “No concession for Shukla ji?” Sinha says, “This is already half of what I take.” Gopal says “Eleven?”… Then Sinha aptly says, “Twelve and a half. Done! Do not embarrass me before my big brother.”(R 140) The corrupt people have two faces. In spite of allured for money they want to show them dead honest. Sometimes these people opt the worst methods of giving bribe. When the bulldozer comes for demolition, Shukla ji advises Gopal, “…Put the notes in an empty cement bag, topped up with sand…His colleagues should not see it. He has a solid reputation.” (R 193)

Fraudulence of Gopal's mind crosses all the barriers when he convinces Arti by saying “I'll print you a degree if you want, you do not even to attend classes.” (R 148). It is not only one Gopal in Revolution 2020 but so many Gopal's are there in every society who corrupt the system and discourage the diligent students and encourages the frauds.

Generally we anticipate changes from others not from us. We cannot gestate the revolution or a great change in the society until and unless we change our mind because “…the revolution begins at home. Society changes only when individual family norms are challenged.” (R 149) All these changes are possible by the inner urge not by imposing forcibly. Now-a-days the people especially the parents do not understand the passions and ambition of their youngsters. They try to obtrude their will on them as in case of Gopal his father wants to see him as an engineer. That's why he forces him for the preparation of AIEEE or JEE and sends him to Kota for coaching while Gopal is not interested. He simply wants a degree from Varanasi and wishes to earn money as only earning money is his passion. But Arti clarifies here, “That's not passion. That's ambition.”(R 150) Gopal's father is the representative of most of the fathers of today. 

Revolution 2020 also suggests that revolution is possible only by our own efforts and inner urge. Firm determination, honesty towards ourselves, dedication for work, and persuasion in the right direction can lead to desired destination and we can do many impossible works. But we have to pay the price for everything as Raghav has to pay a big cost for his revolution. It is his passion to write for media that he rejects the best opportunity offered by Infosys and works as a reporter in Dainik, a well reputed paper. He has to suffer many times severely. He is expelled from the Dainik office due to a corrupt conspiracy. Later on he establishes his own small press but it is also ruined. He pays this cost only for being fair and in the trial to make the society fair. But due to his firm determination he does not lose heart. In this reference Mr Barack Obama, the present president of USA, quotes, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." In another quote he emphasizes on inner consciousness, passion and firm will power, "Yes, we can. Yes, we can change. Yes, we can."10

Teachers are thought greater and more important than everyone in our society. Kabirdas, a famous Hindi poet and social reformer, mentions the teacher greater even than the God but now the system, from top to bottom, has corrupted each and all. All the people, professionals or capitalists, concerned with the education system focus on the money only and forget their moral duty. In the very beginning Prof M C Srivastava is appointed as a dean of the new established college. After an apt and open bargaining he was settled for a one lakh cash seventy thousand cheque package per month. Immediately he offered to help them hire other faculty, for salary ranging from thirty to eighty thousand a month depending on experience and the degrees they possessed and very cunningly says, “I‟ll charge ten thousand per hire as search fee, apart from my salary…I will come to campus three days a week…I am the dean, that is why three days. Else, once a week is enough.” (R 157) Now the strategy for admission is planned. Everything, mentioned in the novel, is very practical in context of present scenario of education system. New appointed dean Srivastava suggests Gopal, “Did you fix the principals?” (R 158) Though Gopal is amateur with this system but he is receptive and quick to espy the situation. He asks Bedi if they will have to bribe the principals. At this Bedi utters, “Yes. But never say that word, especially to school principals. Anyway, it is a straightforward calculation. We give them ten percent of the fee we take for every admission.” (R 159)

Corruption has changed the motive of the posts also. Higher posts are the symbol of dignity, reputation and responsibilities or capabilities but now-a-days people acquire them not because of dignity but for the income purpose. Here the posts are not achieved; they are bought only to earn money not to show the capability. Bedi tells Gopal about the UGC and AICTE inspectors, “University lecturers from government colleges are appointed as inspectors. Of course, since it is such a lucrative job, the lecturers have to pay bribe to become one.”(R 138)

AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) inspection means the true inspections of the infrastructure and the system whether it is able to provide education to the students or not. They really focus on the shortcomings of the system not for the improvement or upliftment of education system but to increase the amount of the bribe and the management tries to attract their attention towards papers, breakfast or lunch and distracts their focus from the drawbacks. When the inspector asks, “How many lathe machines are there in your machining lab?” (R 165) and wishes to inspect them manually, Srivastava, the dean perturbs his mind by saying, “Eight… we will take a round later… why walk around in the heat?” (R 165)When Bhansali, a member of inspection team, asks about the qualifications of Gopal, he answers perplexingly, “I have built this college… I have hired the best faculty.” (R 165) and Srivastava interrupts and escorts them out. After the lunch they are given envelops the real fulfillment for approval. When Srivastava asks Gopal about the amount of money provided to them, Gopal says, “Two for Yadav, and twenty five each for the rest,” (R 166) Even then Srivastava enforces, “Make it fifty for Bhansali” (R 166) only to get the approval soon.

If you talk corporate, they will talk about a serious shortage of talent. On the other hand students say that there are not good jobs. Obviously the students are not being trained properly to meet the demands of the globalised world. Almost everybody agrees to this fact that there is something missing in the system. One side is not responsible for this corruption. The management wants to earn money without fulfilling the basic requirements of the institute and the officials or the concerned persons take the benefit of the situation. Mostly the leaders or the capitalists are more responsible for this critical situation of corruption. Shukla ji, the MLA and trustee of the college, tells Gopal, “If we had a straightforward and clean system, these professors will open their own colleges. Blue chip companies and software firms could open colleges. The system is twisted; they don‟t want to touch it. That is where we come in.” (R 166)

Government's no profit allowed policy for private institutes is one of the biggest reasons of 

corruption. These private institutes are restricted by government and technically they cannot make money. The government presumes that there are innumerable people who are ready to invest a huge amount of money in setting up good college but this is a flawed and stupid assumption that they will spend this money for no profit. Apart, the corrupted leaders or the capitalists turn their black money into white in this process and through the ingenious methods like fake payments to the contractors and over inflating expenses they get a return on their investment. This is why “Ex-academics, world class corporate and honest people will never touch private education, for they do not want to pay bribes at every stage and devise shady methods to bypass no profit rules.”

The headlines of Revolution 2020 also invoke the people and the matter he writes attacks on corruption directly or indirectly by exposing the inappropriate approvals and illegal construction “Farms are turned into colleges…Colleges will soon have malls next door. Politicians mean to protect us and prevent all this, are often the culprits…We have proof to compare the vast difference between what is allowable and what VNN approved…” (R 190-191) Gopal does not understand the passion and motive of Raghav and interprets wrongly. That's why he thinks that “He is taking revenge.” (R 191) Another article „Because Enough is Enough‟ of Revolution 2020 focuses on the reality of the society including corruption and its solution, 

“…top leaders are the biggest crooks?...where almost anyone with power is corrupt? India has suffered enough. Why?...Does an Indian farmer not work hard? Does an Indian student not study? Do we not want to do well? Why, why are we then doomed to be poor?...We have to clean the system…„Power is not an apple that falls from a tree into your lap. Power has to be snatched from people who already have it.‟ We have to start a revolution, a revolution that resets our corrupted system. A system that shifts power back into the hands of the people, and treats politicians like workers, not kings.” (R 205)

Thus corruption in education system might be the worst curse for the people of any nation. It is the education which can make or mar the future of the whole country. Revolution 2020, very practical to the present scenario, exposes all the loop holes of our modern education system. If the same system continues longer, the huge number of youth will be unemployed. Undoubtedly these institutes will provide the students the best degrees which will prove all in vain. Bhagat also advises his readers as well as the government, 

“I have nothing against commercialization of education. Commerce and business are a good thing. However, when it comes to education, it needs a sense of ethics and quality. Good people must be incentivized to open colleges. Say, by a simple policy fix like allowing private institutes to make a profit. This would mean companies like Infosys and Reliance might open colleges, perhaps on a large scale, as shareholders will approve the huge investment required. If these companies open colleges at least they will be of a certain standard. Competition can ensure that the ability to make profits never turns into greed. But if the business model is sustainable, many good players would be attracted to this sector.”

REFERENCES

Bhagat, Chetan, Revolution 2020 Love, Corruption, Ambition, (Rupa Publication India Pvt. 

Ltd., New Delhi), 5th Impression 2011, Preface.

Bhagat, Chetan, Revolution 2020 Love, Corruption, Ambition, (Rupa Publication India Pvt. 

Ltd., New Delhi), 5th Impression 2011, Preface.