Author: Bruce Bennett
Susan Cowan/Santosh K. Sareen
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Asha kanwar/ Bruce Bennett/ Susan Cowan et all
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 202
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788172238483
Description
Despite a shared history of British imperialism, and commonalities like the English language, a democratic polity and a craze for cricket, Australians and Indians know very little about each other. Of Sadhus and Spinners attempts to correct this with a range of stories that trace the chequered history of interactions between the two nations.
From John Lang's 'The Mohammedan Mother' (1859) to Yasmine Gooneratne's 'Masterpiece' (2002), the stories in this anthology foreground a varity of literary responses to Indo-Australian encounters. There are stories here of Australian visitors to India who face not only physical hardships but also challenges to their image of themselves as democratic and egalitarian, and tales that indicate the Australian’s fascination with the figure of the guru.
Also included are stories about and by Indians-immigrants to temporary visitors-in Asutralia. While ‘Kumari’, by pioneering writers Mena Abdullah, reveals racial prejudice in rural Australia, Manik Datar’s ‘My Sister’s Mother’ brings the comedy of cultural difference into play in the setting of a suburban kitchen.
Thoughtful, exploratory and often just wide-eyed in its observation of strange new worlds, the anthology provides insights into an array of fascinating cross-cultural encounters-emotional, physical and spiritual-between Australia and India over the past century and a half.
Contents
Introduction
1. The Mohammedan Mother
JOHN LANG
2. Our Nearest Great Country
ALFRED DEAKIN
3. The Soul of the Melon Man
MARY C.ELKINGTON
4. My Friend, the Maharajah
LOUIS ESSON
5. Black and White
R. FRANCIS STRANGMAN
6. The Khyber Pass and a Kidnapping
MOLLIE SKINNER
7. A Democrat on the Ganges
MANNING CLARK
8. Mrs James Greene
ETHEL ANDERSON
9. Kumari
MENA ABDULLAH AND RAY MATHEW
10. Sadhus and Sahibs
CHRISTOPHER KOCH
11. The Clothesline in the Himalayas
VICKI VIIDIKAS
12. Meeting Mister Ghosh
HAYDN M. Williams
13. The Elephant Stop
G.S. SHARAT CHANDRA
14. The Strange Business at Bombay and Madras
DAL STIVENS
15. Passage from India
GEOFFREY BEWLEY
16. A Foot in the Stream
DAVID MALOUF
17. The Guru
SATENDRA NANDAN
18. Monsoon
INEZ BARANAY
19. Maisie Goes to India
JOAN LONDON
20. My Sister’s Mother
MANIK DATAR
21. A Pocket Full of Stories
SUJATHA FERNANDES
22. Masterpiece
Yasmine Gooneratne
Notes on Contributors
Notes on Editors
Copyright Acknowledgments