Professor Homi Bhabha, director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University and the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, is an acclaimed author of postcolonial studies. His works, particularly The Location of Culture , have transformed the study of colonialism.
How do you feel about receiving the Padma Bhushan?
I am deeply honoured and extremely pleased. It makes one proud to belong to a country that gives recognition to those like me who have deep familial and social ties in India but have lived much of their lives abroad. The high honour bestowed on me is an act of unusual generosity and establishes India as a country that looks beyond narrow national boundaries and considers itself a global player. By honouring those of us who have made our contributions internationally, the Indian government has demonstrated something for which India is famous — a cosmopolitan ethic of hospitality.
Does it hurt to see that the young today, in India and globally, are not interested in pursuing the Humanities? Why?
The speed of digital communication and the rate of technological innovation have revolutionised teaching and learning today. Long distance learning in “real time” allows students from across the world to participate in a shared educational experience that symbolises the capacities for new kinds of transnational solidarities and global communities. The “global classroom” is no longer a pipe dream. However, there are aspects of these important developments that have obscured the importance of the humanities. The close connection between these technological “tools” of education and the resources of industry sometimes results in a tendency to tie educational development to models of economic rationality and growth. This has led to the domination of data and quantification as a measure of ‘truth' in the knowledge economy. Traditionally, the social sciences and humanities shared many common values concerned with communal well-being, public virtue and ethical goods. Regrettably, this link has weakened and there is an unseasonable growth of quantification in the social sciences today.
There is also a widespread confusion between the access to “information” and the imparting of knowledge. The new technologies make tidal waves of information or “facts” available at the touch of a key. But to turn information into knowledge requires the process of “interpretation”; and interpretation requires us to be schooled in the methods and traditions of understanding: Close textual reading (whether it is a digital text or a hard copy) and a historical sense of context. Interpretation gives us insights into the cultural values that stand behind social facts. The humanities are all about judgment and evaluation, and without careful interpretation you can have neither.
You have passionately defended the Humanities and liberal arts for years. What steps should be taken to bring Humanities back into our focus?
We must understand the humanities in two ways. The humanities are a set of educational disciplines — literature, history, the classics, theology, philosophy; but the humanities also represent a world-view in which human values — justice, rights, freedoms, interests, inclusion — are the measure of progress and development. In this sense the humanities are neither quantitative nor qualitative — they are integrative. The humanities build knowledge through communities rather than on the basis of models. In their integrative role the humanities help to draw together various aspects of civil society, making connections between the spheres of education, civic associations, the media, trade unions and professional organisations. The humanities create affiliations between these various institutions of civil society by addressing the issues of evaluation, judgment and interpretation.
In an age when the internet connects people instantly in remote corners of the world, how connected are we in reality?
Yes, technologies like the internet provide unsurpassed connectivity — this is a great boon. The question is whether this widely shared technology is itself capable of producing “universal” values? Is there a universality implicit in connectivity? I don't think we can assume this at all. The internet may articulate a diverse range of cultural values, but interpretation is required to negotiate tensions, inequalities and injustices. We may get fast access to information but, as I've said, information is different from knowledge. So even if there is this vast amount of information available, it doesn't make us knowledgeable or understanding of other cultures and value systems.
You have varied interests — education, literature, art, philosophy. How do you resolve the differences?
I don't resolve or try to find coherence. I go for convergence. I try to explore how certain areas of education, literature, art and philosophy converge at certain points, certain places.
Are you working on a new book? What is it about?
The book I am currently working on is about contemporary artists from various countries with a colonial past. These artists are often in transitional spaces — struggling with post-colonial conditions, national interests and global assumptions. I am very interested in “transitionality” as a space of creativity and intervention. My interests in cultural displacements and hybridity also lead me to be interested in various styles of convergence — aesthetic, ethical or political.
What is the work that the Mahindra Humanities Center does?
The Mahindra Humanities Center (MHC) provides a locus at Harvard for interdisciplinary discussions among faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and the public. It currently sponsors lectures, readings, conferences, workshops and ongoing seminars on a wide range of topics. The idea is to encourage cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in a cosmopolitan setting. And through this, it aims to contribute to global thinking across the arts, culture, science and philosophy, incorporating social and humanistic concerns into the core values that inform the world of the professions. The MHC is the cross-roads of scholarly, intellectual and artistic dialogue across the campus, bridging divisions, departments and schools.
