www.powerisinvisible.com Vinod Kumar Rawat, author of Knowledge-Power/Resistance: Beyond Francis Bacon, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Michel Foucault, cleared the PhD oral examination on September 4, 2015. The inseparability of Knowledge-Power/Resistance has been the major contribution.

1. PHD DEFENCE PRESENTATION
SPEAKER:
VINOD KUMAR RAWAT
THESIS SUPERVISOR:
PROFESSOR T. RAVICHANDRAN
DATE: 4 SEPTEMBER 2015
DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND
SOCIAL SCIENCES
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
KANPUR
Knowledge-Power/Resistance
in Indian Campus Fiction

2. Outline
 Ch. 1: Introduction
Knowledge, Power and Campus Fiction
 Ch. 2: Sovereign Power
Caste System and University Administration
 Ch. 3: Disciplinary Power
Class and Panoptic Professors
 Ch. 4: Bio-Power
Gender, Caste, and Resistance
 Ch. 5: Indian Campus Fiction
Textual Elucidations
 Ch. 6: Conclusion
The Future Campus Activities
 Bibliography
2

3. Campus Fiction/Novel
 Plato started Academy at Athens in Greece, Akademos-
Mythological Hero, Athena-Goddess of Wisdom
 Fiction: made up, imaginary characters and events (painting,
writing, film making)
 Novel: new, original, some reality
 Plot revolves around the microcosmic campus life of an
educational institute or university
 Chris Baldick: “A novel, usually comic or satirical, in which the
action is set within the enclosed world of a university (or similar
seat of learning) and highlights the follies of academic life.”
3

4. Campus Fiction/Novel ...
 Fanshawe (1828) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
 Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Slayer
 The Groves of Academe (1951) by Mary McCarthy
 Jeffery J. Williams:
 Campus Novel-students, comedies or dramas, adventures,
lessons, sports
 Academic Novel-mid life crisis plot, marriages, home, problems
with colleagues, real life.
 William G. Tierney:
 College Novels-autobiographies of Ex-students
 University Fiction-cultural representations of the university in
drama, film, and television
 Irving A. Yevish: Faculty Novels-academicians
4

5. Importance of Campus Fiction
 How predatory professors get in trouble
 Self delusion of the academy
 Tierney: teaching is unimportant, ignore classes, miss classes,
students as objects, have affairs with students
 Robert F. Scott: administrators are depicted as vain, arrogant
figures who alienate students, faculty, and staff and their co-
workers, seek to call attention through showy display of leadership
 How a proper professor should speak, behave, dress, think, write,
love, succeed, or fail
 Helps in understanding educational development and cultural
progress
 Complexities of academic life
 Authors are often academics (insider)
5

6. Indian Campus Fiction
 A. Madhaviah’s Thillai Govindan (1908)
 R. K. Narayan’s The Bachelor of Arts (1937)
 Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT (2004)
brought the genre to the forefront.
 Commercial fiction, Techie Lit, Mass Market fiction
 Shyamala A. Narayan: They write about life in IITs and IIMs,
 Experience of young MBAs
 Software professionals
 Call centres,
 20-20 cricket
 Kushalrani Gulab: Anything that doesn’t tax the brain too much,
can be read between the commercial breaks on TV, or for 20
minutes at the end of an office day—and relates to your own life
6

7. Authorpreneurship
 Low price: Rs. 65-250
 International publishing agencies
 Laptops, fiction writing software
 Self-publishing, print on demand
 No restrictions for grammar, plot
 Paid services: editing, marketing
 Creative writing workshops, courses
 Youtube videos, eBooks, internet
7

8. Social Observatories
“Thus the Christian School must not simply train docile children;
it must also make it possible to supervise the parents, to gain
information as to their way of life, their resources, their piety,
their morals. The school tends to constitute minute social
observatories that penetrate even to the adults and exercise
regular supervision over them” (Discipline and Punish).
8

9. Knowledge Factories
 Schools as a metaphor of womb
 Students prisoners, mentally challenged
 Produce good citizens (schools), skilled workers (ITIs), docile
bodies (IITs)
 Politicians:
 Minorities (teachers) are ruling over the masses (students)
 In-group loyalty and out-group hostility
 Agents:
 Government
 Capitalists
 Mafia
9

10. Knowledge
Nietzsche: Spark between two swords
10

11. Where is Knowledge?
 Bacon in 1597: “Knowledge is power”
 Empirical knowledge and utilitarian principle over aristocratic
blood
 Class of experts as power brokers
 Associated with post holders
 Knowledge For:
 White males in West, Twice-born males in India
 For knowledge:
 Look to politicians not the philosophers
 Observation, examination, documentation
 Hatred, struggles, debates
 Knowledge is not in books, degrees, publications
11

12. Sovereign and Bio Power
 Conventional Power:
 pen, money, weapons, chairs, rules, laws, regulations,
constitution, institution
 Sovereign Power:
 Right to take life or let live
 Physical punishments, beheading
 Imprisonment in dark places
 Bio-power:
 Make live and let die
 Birth-rate, longevity, public health
 Control of the population
 Discipline of the body
12

13. Foucauldian Notion of Power
 Power is in “action” [it incites, it induces, it seduces, it makes
easier or more difficult] of one that affects the action or conduct
of others. . . on their existing, present or future actions
 Power is invisible
 Freedom is necessary
 “Power-knowledge”—in controlling we know, in knowing we
control (Michel Foucault 1974)
13

14. Panopticon
 A prison model of obtaining power of mind over mind (Jeremy
Bentham 1787)
 All seeing: (Pan: all), (Opticon: observe)
14

15. Invisible Gaze
15

16. Prisoner in Panopticon
16

17. Tower is Visible Power is Invisible
17

18. Tower is Visible Power is Invisible . . .
18

19. Panopticon Versus Educational Institute
 Prison cell: hostel room
 One prisoner per cell: one student per room
 Watch tower: faculty building
 A relay of guards:
 student representatives
 HEC members
 counselling team
 Transmit information to the inspector at the top:
Warden/Deans/Director (visible and verifiable),
BOGs/President/Capitalists (invisible and unverifiable)
19

20. Self-monitoring
20

21. Disciplinary Power
 Mental violence (invisible)
 Rules are above humans
 Democratic societies
 institutions (IITs)
 Normalization (depression, suicidal thoughts)
 Individualization (alone in the crowd)
 Facility is a trap (internet, clubs, gymnasium)
 Power is positive (pastoral power: parents)
 Power is productive (deadlines)
21

22. Resistance
 Where there is power, there is resistance
 If there is light, there is shadow
22

23. Knowledge-Power/Resistance
23

24. Fictional Example
“Pratap [Singh Thankur] had come into IIT under the Scheduled
Tribe quota. His name had sounded unequivocally upper caste to
me . . . I heard somewhere that lower caste people sometimes
did that, take on upper caste names, to hide their original caste.
While we were together at IIT, I never brought it up, simply
believing the rumour that floated by me in the course of an
otherwise forgotten conversation” (Bagchi Above Average 164).
“. . . I sometimes thought about it on my own, feeling like I was
doing something progressive and laudable by spending time with
a person whose shadow my ancestors would have avoided. It was
much later that I realized that I was the only one who called him
Meena. Pratap and the others always called him Girdhari”
(Bagchi 167).
24

25. Fictional Example . . .
“See, the standard just keeps falling every year. Our admission criteria are just not
strict enough (Bhagat Five Point Someone 9)”
“And respect the grading system. You get bad grades, and I assure you – you get
no job, no school and no future. If you do well, the world is your oyster. So,
don’t slip, not even once, or there will be no oyster, just slush (Bhagat 11).”
Ryan: “I think this is jail. It really is. Damn jail.”
Alok: “Maybe you’re forgetting that you’re in IIT, the best college in the country.”
Ryan: “so you put students in jail?” Alok: “No, But you expect a certain
standard.” Ryan: “This is high standard? Working away like moronic drones
until midnight. ManPro yesterday, ApMech day before, Quanto today. . . It
never ends (Bhagat 14).
“At IIT it seemed, like in the carrom room, the accepted rule it wasn’t who you are
but what you could do that mattered. This rule was not just unwritten, it was
unspoken as well” (Bagchi 165).
25

26. Fictional Example . . .
Professor Dutta: “For example, these two girls here in the first row
are clearly different from the rest of the class – comprising of
boys like outliers in a data sample.”
Tanu feels: He was crossing the line of discrimination based on
gender, but then he was only citing an example. I kept quiet.
Dutta continues: “As outliers, are the maximum or the minimum
values in a data sample, these girls will either shine exceptionally
or fail miserable”
Tanu: “How unfair of Dutta to discriminate against us”
Divya: “Yet, I am glad that we are girls; the boys’ hostel is more
than two kilometers away.” (Mittal Heartbreaks & Dreams! The
Girls @IIT 14)
26

27. Fictional Example . . .
Professor Dutta: . . .talked about how he had been trying to crack a
new theory. He was on the verge of making a breakthrough, but
his funding had been suspended by people high up the ladder
who thought he was no good. . . . he had asked, “What will you
do? . . . You are such a bright girl. Yes, a girl at IIT. A definite
outlier. Will you rot here?” (60)
Sweeper: “First they drove that kind fellow to death, and now they
are telling the police they don’t know why he committed suicide.”
Tanu: “I could barely breathe. Dutta had ended his life. How could
that be? He used to be after ours.” (Mittal 59)
27

28. Significance of the Study
 Inseparability of Knowledge, Power and Resistance
 Teaching is an exercise of power
 Artificial power versus natural power
 Foucauldian analysis of Campus Fiction
 All SCs and STs are not untouchables
28

29. Limitations of the Study
 Translated works of Foucault:
 power-knowledge as knowledge/power
 Cultural difference:
 caste system in India
 Several theses on Indian Campus Fiction
 Market flooded with campus fiction
 Movies dealing with campuses
 Census-2011 (religious community) was not released at the time
of thesis submission in 2014
29

30. Future Research
 The mis/representations of reserved category, minority,
administration or female students in Campus Fiction
30

31. Select Bibliography: Primary Sources
 Bagchi, Amitabha. Above Average. New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2007. Print.
 Bhagat, Chetan. Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT!. New Delhi:
Rupa & Co., 2007. Print.
 Chowdhury, Siddharth. Day Scholar. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
 Das, Soma. Sumthing of a Mocktale: At JNU where Kurta fell in Love with
Jeans. New Delhi: Srishti Publishers, 2007. Print.
 Joseph, Manu. Serious Men. New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2011. Print.
 Mittal, Parul A. Heartbreaks and Dreams: The Girls at IIT. New Delhi:
Srishti, 2010. Print.
 Natarajan, Srividya. No Onions Nor Garlic. New Delhi: Penguin, 2006.
Print.
 Raheja, Tushar. Anything for You, Ma’am: An IITian’s Love Story. New
Delhi: Srishti, 2006. Print.
 Ray, Satyajit. Bravo! Professor Shonku. 1974. Trans. Kathleen M.
O’Connell. Calcutta: Rupa & Co., 1986. Print.
31

32. Select Bibliography: Primary Sources
 Foucault, Michel. Archaeology of Knowledge. Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith.
London: Routledge, 1972. Print.
 ---. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Al Sheridan. New
York: Vintage Books, 1979. Print.
 ---. Foucault Live: (Interviews, 1961-1984). Ed. Sylvere Lotringer. New
York : Semiotext(e), 1996. Print.
 ---. Power: Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984 Volume 3. Ed. James D.
Faubion. London: Penguin, 1994. Print.
 ---. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977.
Trans. Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham, and Kate Soper. Ed.
Colin Gordon. New York: Pantheon, 1980. Print.
 ---. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College De France, 1975-76.
Trans. David Macey. Eds. Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana. New
York: Picador, 2003. Print.
 ---. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Vol. 1. Trans. Robert Hurley.
New York: Vintage Books, 1978. Print.
 ---. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry 8.4 (1982): 777-795. Print.
32

33. Select Bibliography: Secondary Sources
 Anderson, Christian K. “Campus Life Revealed: Tracking Down the Rich
Resources of American Collegiate Fiction.” Rev. of The American College
Novel: An Annotated Bibliography, by John E. Kramer. The Journal of
Higher Education 80.1 (2009): 106-113. Print
 Blackburn, Sara. “The Academic Novel: A Faint-Hearted Genre.” Change
7.7 (1975): 55-56. Print.
 Brown, Wendy. “Power after Foucault.” The Oxford Handbook of Politics.
Ed. Robert T. Goodin. New York: OUP, 2006. 65-84. Print.
 Chomsky, Noam., and Michel Foucault. The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On
Human Nature. New York: New Press, 2006. Print.
 Fullerty, Matthew H. G. “The British and American Novel. The
‘Professorromane’: The Comic Campus, the Tragic Self.” Diss. George
Washington U, 2008.
 Gayathri Devi, U. “Intellectual Pretensions and Reality in Select Indian
English and Tamil Campus Novels.” Diss. Pondicherry University, 2011.
33

34. Select Bibliography: Secondary Sources
 Narayan, Shyamala A. “Recent Trends in Indian English Fiction.” Commonwealth:
Essays and Studies 31.2 (2009): 5-14. Print.
 Porter, Archie Lavelle. “The Over-Education of the Negro: Academic Novels, Higher
Education and the Black Intellectual.” Diss. City University of New York, 2014.
 Showalter, Elaine. Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and its Discontents.
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
 Shridevi, P. G. “Campus Novels in Indian English Literature: A Study in Themes and
Forums.” Diss. Karnataka University, 2013.
 Thottam, Jyoti. “Techie Lit: India’s New Breed of Fiction.” Time entertainment.
Oct., 30, 2008. Web. 31 July 2013.
 Tierney, William G. “Academic Freedom and Tenure: Between Fiction and Reality.”
The Journal of Higher Education 75.2 (2004): 161-177. Print.
 Ushamani, M. “Ambition and Hypocrisy in Academe: A Study of Select American
Academic Novels.” Diss. Pondicherry University, 2010.
 Williams, Jeffrey J. “The Rise of the Academic Novel.” American Literary History
24.3 (2012): 561-589. Print.
 Yevish, Irving A. “The Faculty Novel.” The Georgia Review 25.1 (1971): 41-50. Print.
34

35. 35