• Topic : Rushdie’s view in his essay “Hobson-Jobson”

• Name : Urvi Bhatt • Paper Name: The Postcolonial Literature• Paper No: 11• Sem : 3• Roll No: 31• Enrolment no: PG13101005• Submitted to: Department of English Maharaja

Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Salman Rushdie

• Born on 19th June, 1947 in Bombay.

• Kashmiri Indian who is British citizen

• Genre is Magic realism, Satire, Post colonialism.

• Subject of writing are Historical criticism and Travel writing.

• Famous for his essay and novels.

Rushdie’s works

“Midnight’s Children”(1981) “The Satanic Verses”(1988) “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”(1990) “Joseph Anton: A Memoir”(2012) “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”(1999) “The Moor’s Last Sing”(1995) “Imaginary Homelands”(1991) “ The Enchantress of Horence”(2008)

Essay Hobson - Jobson

• Yule and Burnell looking for their dictionary

• Assimilation of adopted foreign words to the sound – pattern of the adopting language

• Henry Yule was a retired Bengali engineer and the other is Arthur Coke Burnell was an English scholar in Sanskrit.

Meaning and origin

• The shorter title of “ Hobson – Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo- Indian words and phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, historical, geographical and discursive….”

A historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words

Ter

ms from Indian Languages

Hobson – Jobson is

• First publish in 1886• Edited by William

Crooke in 1903• Holds over 2000

words

About the essay

Title of the essay

• Referred to the ceremonies of the Morning of Maharram.

• Origin its corrupted by British of “ Ya asan! Ya

o Sain!”• Cried by Shia Muslims

“ Ya asan! Ya o

Sain!”

Hobsseen Gossen

Hossy Gossy

Hossein jossen

Hobson -

jobson

A Migrant

Rushdie compares

‘Migration’

‘Translation’

to

The Migrant A Muslim in India

An Indian in Pakistan

A Brown man in Britain

He has been in the unique position of

forever being

Rushdie’s problem

“Sometimes we[migrant writers] feel we straddle two cultures, at other times, that

we fall between two stools.” -Rushdie

• Imaginary Homelands is being engaged in a personal conversation by the author.

• Postcolonial writer• Criticizes colonial mindset of British• Prophetic vision makes him a global person.

• This essay Rushdie tells us how a dictionary with Indian words for colonizers use came into existence.

• Conversing face to face with us.• English and Indian languages words

mingled with each other.

Content in essay

“These thousand- add pages bear

eloquent testimony to the

unparalled intermingling…”

Rushdie considers the

matter of dictionary like

this

Testimony

• Rushdie also talks about Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Sanskrit based in English words. E.g.

Shampoo Massage Champo Chapna

Mixed words

“The chief interest of Hobson- Jobson… in the richness of what one must call the Anglo-Indian language… that language which

was in regular use just forty tears and which is now dead.”

Chief interest in Hobson- Jobson

Some interesting origin of words:

Macheen

Maha-Cheen

Great China

Chiz

Cheese

Some distorted words:

Snowrupee • Authority

Poggle • A Madman

Dam In India comes from Damri

British India had absorbed some Indian words like:

Jadoogars

Puckerow

Samjao

Sorcerers

Look out

To make understand

Some examples Mixture of Indian and English words- Hinglish are;

• “While having tiffin at the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgree on my daungarees and had to go to gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a Coolie.”

• “I was buying Chutney in the bazaar when a fhug who had escaped from the Comskey ran amok and killed a box- wallah for his loot, creating a hallabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny.”

Conclusion

• Rushdie seems against the distortion of words.

• He gave us some interesting notions behind the word formation in English and Indian languages.

Email ID: bhatt.urvi22@gmail.com