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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
READER'S GUIDE
ASSESSMENT PORTFOLIO
- Selection Check Test 2.2,
- Selection Test 2.2.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS PRACTICE BOOKS
- Writing 1.8, 1.10, 1.
- Language 2.52, 2.
PRER6ADINC; EXTENSIONS
Inform students that a major figure involved in winning India its independence from Great Britain was Mohandas Gandhi (1869- 1948), also called Mahatma, which means "great-souled." Gandhi's doctrine of nonviolent protest against British rule led to his repeated imprisonment but won him international esteem. He began negotiations for Indian independence with Great Britain in 1947 but was assassinated in
- Today, he is often considered the father of India. Encourage students to work in groups to research Gandhi's life or the lives of other historical figures who either supported nonviolent protest or were imprisoned for struggling against injustice. Possible figures to research include Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Nelson Mandela,
SUPPORT FOR LIP STUDENTS
PRONUNCIATIONS OF PROPER
NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES
Krish • na (krish'na) Na • li • ni (na le'ne) Pre • mil • a (pra mil'a) San • tha Ra • ma Rau (san'tha ra'ma rou) Zor • in • a « bad (zor in a bad)
"By Any Other Name" from Gifts of Passage by Santha Rama Rau
About the Author
SANTHA RAMA RAU 1923-
Santha Rama Rau was born in Madras, India. As a child, she lived in India and spent much of her time at the home of her grand- mother, who followed Hindu traditions. Her father was a diplomat, and when she was six, he was sent to England, where her family lived for many years. On returning to India, Rama Rau realized that she had become dis- tanced from her native culture. Her book Home to India is about her experience of returning to her native land.
INPiA
Rama Rau has also lived in South Africa; in ]apan, where she met her husband, an American writer; and in the United States, where she studied at Wellesley College and later lived in New York. Despite some initial disapproval from her family, Rama Rau decided on a writing career. Her first book was published in 1945. Her works include travel books, fiction, and memoirs.
About the Selection
For many years, beginning in 1858, the British ruled India. During this time, the government instituted sweep- ing changes in law, property distribution, and education. Learning English became important to people who wished to prosper under the British system. The beliefs and traditions of the two cultures differed greatly. In mat- ters as important as religion and social organization, as well as in the simpler issues of dress, food, and daily habits, British practices and Indian practices diverged. Over time, aspects of both societies were combined, although British culture dominated.
CONNECTIONS iiuiian Nationals »
"By Any Other Name" recounts an incident from Santha Rama Rau's childhood. In describing her experiences at a British school in India, she illuminates the conflict and cultural differences between the British and the Indians. The essay also explores the idea of identity. "By Any Other Name" was first published in The New Yorker and also appears in Rama Rau's autobiography, Gifts of Passage.
S
antha Rama Rau witnessed the independence of her country in 1947. Since 1818, when the British East India Company took control of the country, India had been under British rule and influence. The British government itself took con- trol of India in 1858. The Indian nationalist move-
ment began with the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. In the 1920s, Mohandas Gandhi began a nonviolent, non-cooperation movement. In 1919 and 1935, India obtained lim- ited powers of self-government, but full indepen- dence was not achieved until 1947.
204 UNIT TWO / THE S T R U G G L E A G A I N S T I N T O L E R A N C E
COALS/OBJECTIVES
Studying this lesson will enable students to
- relate to an autobiographical story about intoler- ance and prejudice
- explain why British influence remains in India
- define autobiography and dialogue and recognize these types of writing in their reading - write a personal essay about a childhood incident - write a critical essay about names and identity - identify errors in the capitalization of names of persons, occupations, and family members
How do you identify yourself? To what groups or classifi- cations do you belong? Have you ever been treated unfairly because of one of these classifications? Classifications might include gender, age, race, ability, financial status, or physical characteristics. Write about an experience you have had with discrimination.
Any Other Name
n
SANTHA RAMA RAU
A
t the Anglo-Indian day school in Zorinabad' to which my sister and I were sent when she was eight and I was five and a half, they changed our names. On the first day of school, a hot, windless morning of a north Indian September, we stood in the headmistress's study and she said, "Now you're the neiv girls. What are your names?" My sister answered for us. "I am Premila, and she"—nodding in my direction—"is Santha." The headmistress had been in India, I sup- pose, fifteen years or so, but she still smiled her helpless inability to cope with Indian names. Her rimless half-glasses glittered, and the precarious bun on the top of her head trembled as she shook her head. "Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. Suppose we give you pretty English names. Wouldn't that be more jolly? Let's see, now—Pamela for you, I think." She shrugged in a baffled way at my sister. "That's as close as I can get. And for you,"
she said to me, "how about Cynthia? Isn't that nice?" My sister was always less easily intimidated than I was, and while she kept a stubborn silence, I said, "Thank you," in a very tiny voice. We had been sent to that school because my father, among his responsibilities as an officer of the civil service, had a tour of duty to perform in the villages around that steamy little provincial town, where he had his headquarters at that time. He used to make his shorter inspection tours on horseback, and a week before, in the stale heat of a typ- ically postmonsoon 2 day, we had waved good-by to him and a little procession—an assistant, a secretary, two bearers, and the man to look after the bedding rolls and lug- gage. They rode away through our large gar- den, still bright green from the rains, and we turned back into the twilight of the house
1. Zorinabad. City in India 2. postmonsoon. After a tropical stonn
WORDS
FOR EVERYDAY USE
pre • car • i • ous (pre ker'e as) ad]., uncertain, insecure in • tirn * i • date (in tim'a dat'} vt., make afraid pro • vln • rial (pr6 vin' shal) adj., of or like rural country
Why does the headmistress say she makes the change that she does? What is the real reason she makes this change?
»Y ANY OTHER HAMS 205
READER'S JOURNAL
If students cannot remember a time when someone discriminated against them or find such memories too painful to write about, students may write about stereotypes and why they are limiting. They may also write about people they know who have transcended the classifications others have placed on them.
ANSWERS TO GUIDED READING
QUESTIONS
9 The headmistress says that she changes the girls' names because English names are "more jolly." The real reason she makes this change is that she is unwilling or unable to learn foreign names, even though she has lived abroad for fifteen years.
L
SPELLING AND VOCABULARY WORDS FROM THE SELECTION
abruptly accordance incomprehensible insular intimidate palpitate peevishness precarious provincial
rigid sedately siesta solemn tepid valid veranda wizened
VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
D
« The vase teetered on its precarious perch at the edge of the table.
- An unfriendly teacher can intimidate a new student.
- The new student was surprised by the provincial attitudes held by the school in this small village.
as though it were swallowing several times quickly. The lessons were mostly concerned with reading and writing and simple num- bers—things that my mother had already taught me—and I paid very little attention. The teacher wrote on the easel blackboard words like "bat" and "cat," which seemed babyish to me; only "apple" was new and incomprehensible. When it was time for the lunch recess, I followed the girl with braids out onto the veranda. There the children from the other classes were assembled. I saw Premila at once and ran over to her, as she had charge of our lunchbox. The children were all opening packages and sitting down to eat sandwiches. Premila and I were the only ones who had Indian food—thin wheat cha- patties, 5 some vegetable curry, and a bottle of buttermilk. Premila thrust half of it into my hand and whispered fiercely that I should go and sit with my class, because that was what the others seemed to be doing. The enormous black eyes of the litde Indian girl from my class looked at my food longingly, so I offered her some. But she only shook her head and plowed her way solemnly through her sandwiches. I was very sleepy after lunch, because at home we always took a siesta. It was usually a pleasant time of day, with the bedroom darkened against the harsh afternoon sun, the drifting off into sleep with the sound of Mother's voice reading a story in one's mind, and, finally, the shrill, fussy voice of the ayah 6 waking one for tea. At school, we rested for a short time on low, folding cots on the veranda, and then we were expected to play games. During the hot part of the afternoon we played indoors, and after the shadows had begun to lengthen
and the slight breeze of the evening had come up we moved outside to the wide courtyard. I had never really grasped the system of competitive games. At home, whenever we played tag or guessing games, I was always allowed to "win"— "because," Mother used to tell Premila, "she is the youngest, and we have to allow for that." I had often heard her say it, and it seemed quite reasonable to me, but the result was that I had no clear idea of what "winning" meant. When we played twos-and-threes that afternoon at school, in accordance with my training, I let one of the small English boys catch me, but was naturally rather puzzled when the other children did not return the courtesy. I ran about for what seemed like hours without ever catching anyone, until it was time for school to close. Much later I learned that my attitude was called "not being a good sport," and I stopped allow- ing myself to be caught, but it was not for years that I really learned the spirit of the thing. When I saw our car come up to the school gate, I broke away from my classmates and rushed toward it yelling, "Ayah! Ayah!" It seemed like an eternity since I had seen her that morning—a wizened, affectionate figure in her white cotton sari/ giving me dozens of urgent and useless instructions on how to be a good girl at school. Premila followed more sedately, and she told me on the way home never to do that again in front of the other children. When we got home we went straight to Mother's high, white room to have tea with
5. chapatties. Indian flat bread 6. ayah. Indian nursemaid 7. sari. Long piece of cloth traditionally worn as the principal outer garment by Hindu women
WORDS In • com • pre " hen • si ' We (in' kam'pre FOR hen'sa bai) adj., not understandable EVERYDAY si • es • ta (sS es'ta) n., brief nap or rest taken U5E after the noon meal
ac • cord • ance (a kord' 'ns) n., agreement wiz • ened (wiz'and) adj., dried up, shriveted se • date • iy (si dSt'le) adv., caimly, quietly
Why doesn't the narrator understand [he meaning of winning? What difficulty does this cause her?
flY ANY OTHtfi NAME 207
VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
D
« The menu items were incomprehensible to me until the waiter explained them.
- In the heat of the day, Indian children slept, taking a pleasant siesta.
- Many American civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, jr., were in accordance with Mohandas Gandhi's system of nonviolent protest.
- After working many years in his fields, the farmer's face was wizened by the wind and sun.
- While I always wriggle in my seat, my sister sits sedately.
ANSWERS TO GUIDED READING
QUESTIONS
» The narrator has always been allowed to win because she was the youngest. She gets a reputation as a bad sport for following the example she has been taught.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
AND ACTIVITIES
Encourage students to discuss the following questions: In what ways does the English school create prejudice against traditional Indian customs? What does the narrator wish to do after seeing the way her classmates are dressed? Why is the narrator unable to respond when asked to state her name? Why might a word like apple be totally incomprehensible to the narrator? How are the lunches that Premila and the narrator bring different from the lunches of other students? Why won't the Indian girl share the narrator's food even though she looks at it "longingly"? Why might a school such as the narrator's have a damaging effect on its students' identities? If you were in the narrator's position, would you try to "fit in" with the English way of life promoted at the school, even if it meant giving up some of your traditions? ANSWERS Responses will vary. Students may say that the school encourages students to model English behavior and aban- don Indian traditions. The narrator wishes to abandon Indian clothes and wear a cotton dress. She has been given a new English name and is unsure which name the teacher wants to know. Apples aren't native to India, so the narra- tor would be unfamilar with this fruit. Premila and the narrator have traditional Indian food, and the other children have sand- wiches. The girl may be afraid of seeming different from the rest of the children. The school is encour- aging students to reject a part of their own heritage.
TEACHER S EDITION 207
INTEGRATED SKILLS ACTIVITIES
LANGUAGE LAB Quotation marks are used to enclose a direct quotation, or a person's exact words. They are not used to enclose an indirect quotation, or a reworded version of a person's words. Identify an example of each on this page of "By Any Other Name." Then rewrite the following sentences, punctuating and capitalizing both direct and indirect quotations correctly.
- My mother asked me "whether I enjoyed my first day of school."
- I said it was confusing, Mom. What does apple mean?
- Premila told Mom that "She had a test next week."
- I wanted to know "What a test was."
- Premila said you won't have to worry about tests for several more years.
ANSWERS
- My mother asked me whether I enjoyed my first day of school.
- I said, "It was confusing, Mom. What does apple mean?"
- Premila told Mom that she had a test next week.
- I wanted to know what a test was.
- Premila said, "You won't have to worry about tests for several more years." *• Additional practice is provided in the Essential Skills Practice Book: Language 2.52.
her, and I immediately climbed onto the bed and bounced gently up and down on the springs. Mother asked how we had liked our first day in school. I was so pleased to be home and to have left that peculiar Cynthia behind that I had nothing whatever to say about school, except to ask what "apple" meant. But Premila told Mother about the classes, and added that in her class they had weekly tests to see if they had learned their lessons well. I asked, "What's a test?" Premila said, "You're too small to have them. You won't have them in your class for donkey's years." She had learned the expres- sion that day and was using it for the first time. We all laughed enormously at her wit. She also told Mother, in an aside, that we should take sandwiches to school the next
day. Not, she said, that she minded. But they would be simpler for me to handle. That whole lovely evening I didn't think about school at all. I sprinted barefoot across the lawns with my favorite playmate, the cook's son, to the stream at the end of the garden. We quarreled in our usual way, waded in the tepid water under the lime trees, and waited for the night to bring out the smell of the jasmine. I listened with fas- cination to his stories of ghosts and demons, until I was too frightened to cross the garden alone in the semidarkness. The ayah found me, shouted at the cook's son, scolded me, hurried me in to supper—it was an entirely usual, wonderful evening. It was a week later, the day of Premila's first test, that our lives changed rather
WORDS tep " id (EeP '^) Gt*/< lukewarm FOR EVERYDAY USE
208 UNIT TWO I THE S T R U G G L E /1C/UNST INTOUS/INCE
VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT T "'"I • The surface water of even the iciest ponds becomes tepid after a few months in the sun.
ANSWERS TO GUIDED READING
QUESTIONS
*] She was indifferent to the unpleasant incident in the school because it happened to the uninteresting girl called Cynthia.
RESPONDING TO THE SELECTION
Students may also wish to discuss why the narrator remembers this incident so vividly and the effect it may have had on her in later years,
ANSWERS FOR
REVIEWING THE SELECTION
RECALLING AND INTERPRETING
- Recalling. The narrator and her sister have their names changed by the headmistress. The narrator feels that the entity known as Cynthia is not really related to her in any way. Interpreting. This change demon- strates that the British had diffi- culty with Indian words and cus- toms. The British seem to lack respect for Indian people and cus- toms.
- Recalling. Santha notices that the other Indian children are wearing cotton dresses instead of Indian attire. She also notes that they eat sandwiches instead of Indian food. Interpreting. Santha wishes she were more tike the other children. She wants to ask her mother if she can wear a dress to school,
- Recalling. Santha runs to her ayah, shouting. In the evening she plays outside with the cook's son and does not think about school at all. It is a normal evening for her. Interpreting. Santha does not like school. It disrupts the normal pat- terns of her life. She also feels removed from school because she is known as Cynthia there.
- Recalling. Premila leaves the school because the teacher makes the Indian students sit at the back (cont.)
What was the narrator's attitude toward this incident? Why did she feel this way?
Mother said, "Do you suppose she under- stood all that?" Premila said, "I shouldn't think so. She's a baby." Mother said, "Well, I hope it won't bother her."
Of course, they were both wrong. I under- stood it perfectly, and I remember it all very clearly. But I put it happily away, because it had all happened to a girl called Cynthia, and I never was really particularly interested in her. •
Responding to the Selection
What do you think about Premila's decision to leave the school? Do you think that doing so was a good way to handle the problem? How would you have reacted had you been in her place? Discuss these questions in small groups, or role play situations in which you explore different ways in which Premila could have responded.
Reviewing the Selection
R E C A L L I N G.
- What happens to the narrator and her { sister on the first day of school? What effect does this change have on the narrator?
- What differences does Santha note J between herself and the other Indian children at the school?
- What does Santha do at the end of the school day? What does she do in the evening?
- What reason does Premila give for leaving the school and not returning?
S Y N T H E S I Z I N G I
I N T E R P B E T I N G *mmmmMimmiemmmimiM
What does this change demonstrate about relations between the British in India and the Indians?
How does Santha feel about the differences between herself and the other Indian children?
How does Santha feel about school? Why does she feel this way?
Is Santha bothered by this incident? How do you know?
- What does this essay reveal about the relationship between British culture and Indian culture during Rama Rau's childhood?
210 UNIT TWO / THE STRUGGLE ACAIHST INTOLERANCE
ANSWERS FOR REVIEWING THE SELECTION (CONT.)
of the room with desks between them, saying she must do this because Indians cheat. Interpreting. Santha says that she is not bothered by this incident because it happened to a girl named Cynthia. The incident did make an impression upon Santha, however, as shown by her inclusion of it in her autobiography. SYNTHESIZING Responses will vary. Possible responses are given.
- The relationship between Indians and British is strained when it exists at all. Examples of this include the mother's unwillingness to send her children to a British school, the British names forced upon Santha and Premila, the separate seating of Indian and British students, the fact that a friendship between a British child and an Indian child is inconceivable, and by the teacher's comment that Indians cheat.
