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Coolitude is a term referring to the cultural interaction of the Indian or Chinese diaspora, and any migratory episode seen through its variegated aspects. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... The term: diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. ... Migration occurs when living things move from one biome to another. ...

It is first and foremost engaged in a transcultural process, articulating imaginaries and cultures far from essentialist points of view. Transculturation is a term coined by Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

It is better understood when set against History, as it charts a poetics of complexity.

Abolition of slavery

When slavery was abolished in 1834, namely in Mauritius, (though dates may differ in other areas), the settlers and planters of various countries required a cheap working force to continue labour-intensive crops, mining and railway installations. The emacipated slaves had started pressing for high wages and many considered working the land as a stigma of the brutal episode of slavery. The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... 1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Settlers are people who have travelled of their own choice, from the land of their birth to live in new lands or colonies. ... Planters Peanuts Planters is an American snack food company, best known for its peanuts and the Mr. ...

After experimenting with Bretons, Lorrains, Normans, Malagasy, African and Japanese indentured workers, the ruling class finally decided to hire coolies mainly from India and China. Breton can refer to: The Breton language A person from Brittany Author André Breton This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Norman conquests in red. ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... Indetured servitude is when a persons passage to America is payed for an American Colonist and then the foreigner must work for the american for a certain amount of time (usually 7 years) and then the person is free to do what they please. ... Coolie refers to unskilled laborers from Asia of the 1800s to early 1900s who were sent to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, North Africa and the West Indies. ...

A wave of migrations was to last for almost a century, taking labourers to Mauritius, Réunion, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, East and South Africa, the West Indies and Guyana, among other countries affected by the coolie trade, which Hugh Tinker called "a new form of slavery". The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... The coolie trade started after slavery was abolished in the 1840s. ...

These displacements were to have a lasting effect on the demography, languages, politics and cultures of those lands, and entailed profound new definitions on identities. Map of countries by population Population growth showing projections for later this century Demography is the statistical study of human populations. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... In mathematics, an identity is an equality that remains true regardless of the values of any variables that appear within it. ...

Therefore, while exploring this first phase of uprooting as enhanced by the crossing of the kala pani (the taboo of crossing the black sea in Hinduism), coolitude focusses on the multiple facets of displacements, violence, hybridity and mosaic visions linked to this form of migration based on a five year contract and initiating wages in the wake of slavery.

From dereliction to Relation

In the turmoil of the post-slavery period, the colonial societies were modelled by the the first phases of creolisation, namely between the Europeans and White owners and mostly Black emancipated groups, namely the mulattoes, who evolved creole language or creolese. But language and literature being modes of social ascension, the mixed segments of the population and the emancipated had no choice but to resort to the most prestigious languages of the former masters to express their repressed selves. In general, the word colonial means of or relating to a colony. In United States history, the term Colonial is used to refer to the period before US independence. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Creole language. ... Emancipation means becoming free and equal; the term can be used in various contexts: historically, a slave becoming free by being set free by the owner (manumission), voluntarily or in accordance with laws requiring it after a certain time or in certain cases, thereby becoming freedman (e. ... The word Creole is an adaptation of the Castillian-Spanish word criollo, which came into English from French between 1595 and 1605. ...

Therefore, many variegated forms of cultural spheres became existent in food and religion, for instance, though it was mainly the Catholic religion which was enforced on the uprooted African. It was mostly a binary relation, reminding one of the Hegelian master/slave dialectics. However, a form of creole thought and cultural resistance were to be observed in this competition for recognition, as delienated in the novels of Maryse Conde, Raphael Confiant in the French West Indies, and of Marcel Cabon or Loys Masson in Mauritius. In this environment, a new comer arrived. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Broadly speaking, a dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a disagreement. ...

The coolie was the third term of the relation, and as such, complicated the creolisation process.

Therefore, he/she suffered from exclusion and were to be engaged in a forced or ambiguous relation, because the former slaves considered him/her as an "ally of the master', as he/she came to work for wages that were inferior to the demands of the emancipated. As for the masters, the indentured was no more than an object fitting in their vast taylorized economy boosting mass consumption in Europe, engaged in the industrialisation period. It has been suggested that affluenza and anti-consumerism be merged into this article or section. ... A factory in Ilmenau (Germany) around 1860 Industrialisation (also spelt Industrialization) or an Industrial Revolution is a process of social and economic change whereby a human society is transformed from a pre-industrial (an economy where the amount of capital accumulated per capita is low) to an industrial state (see...

Even though some spaces of intercultural relations were initiated, the coolie felt marginalised. Cross-cultural communication looks at how people, from differing cultural backgrounds, endeavor to communicate. ...

Thus, many descents of the indentured clung to the notion of indianity, referring to the lost original country, India, which they retrieved as they could. With the passsage of time, however, those groups started to think of a mosaic form of identity, sometimes torn between two or more cultures religions and languages. Indianity was a concept used to resist acculturation in the indentured period. ... Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. ...

As a result, in many countries, indianity was no longer relevant to account for this type of in-betweenness, as indianity referred primarily to a nationality and the reality was far more complex in the host countries.

Many descents of indentured have started to think of themselves as Fidjians, Mauritians, Martinicans, while keeping references from India, experimenting new forms of diversity.

From poetry to poetics

A concept was needed to fill the gap as far as this complex identity was concerned, instilling an aesthetics and an imaginary in keeping with contemporary researches on multiculturalism and transculturalism, among other postcolonial and postmodern theories. The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ... Disambiguation page Complex number Concept in Social Theory ... Multiculturalism is an ideology advocating that society should consist of, or at least allow and include, distinct cultural groups, with equal status. ... Postcolonial theory is a literary theory or critical approach that deals with literature produced in countries that were once, or are now, colonies of other countries. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century...

The term was devised in Cale d'étoiles-Coolitude (Azalées Editions, La Réunion, 1992) by Francophone poet Khal Torabully, to chart the coolie's voyage, giving a mosaic twist to this recollection, and insisting on the centrality of the sea voyage, which goes beyond the taboo of the kala pani, forbidding of the sea voyage in Hinduism. Look up Francophone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... Khal Torabully, a Mauritian and French poet, is closely associated to his concept of coolitude. ... Coolie labourer circa 1900 in Zhenjiang, China. ... Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hinduism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Coined from the word coolie and in lexical analogy with the neologism négritude, coolitude diverges from the latter in many vital fields . Coolie labourer circa 1900 in Zhenjiang, China. ... A lexicon is a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i. ... A neologism (from Greek νεολογισμός νέος [neos] = new; λόγος [logos] = word) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Négritude is a literary and political movement developed in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and Léon Damas. ...

Indeed, Torabully worked on a non-essentialist poetics, enlarging the coolie's experience to a vision expressing the meeting of languages and cultures, much in keeping with a neobaroque, postmodern and poststructuralist construction and Derridian deconstructions. Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ... The foyer of the Paris Opera, built by Charles Garnier Neo-baroque is a term used to describe artistic creations which display important aspects of Baroque style, but are not from the Baroque period proper. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and...

This concept describes the present relationships in various fields wherein the Indias (or mosaic India) are related to other human spaces, through cinema, literature, fashion or other activities. Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... The term fashion usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression, but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or may not apply to all. ...

As such, the poetics of coolitude represents the development of a Humanism of Diversity in the wake of the coolie trade and is relevant in current intercultural researches. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Diversity is the presence of a wide range of variation in the qualities or attributes under discussion. ... The coolie trade started after slavery was abolished in the 1840s. ...

A vision of the world with ahimsa and non-violent philosophy

Coolitude is also used in France and in many countries as a "cool attitude', to denote an aesthetic relation fraught with non-violence, which echoes one of the potentialities of the term. Indeed, it relates to a non-violent attitude at the core of Torabully's poetics, in keeping with the ahimsa of Gandhi, which is a way of showing respect to the most derelict members of a society, to the pariah of History, to any harijan or dalit without the voice of his/her presence. By giving a voice to the indentured, irrespective of creed colour and race, coolitude offers a vision of human relations which confronts the intricacies and challenges of identity and alterity Nonviolence (or non-violence) is a set of assumptions about morality, power and conflict that leads its proponents to reject the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political goals. ... Nonviolence (or non-violence) is a set of assumptions about morality, power and conflict that leads its proponents to reject the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political goals. ... Ahimsa (अहिंसा ) is a Sanskrit term meaning non-violence (literally: the avoidance of violence - himsa). ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી), called... Look up Pariah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In South Asias caste system, an untouchable, dalit, or achuta is a person outside of the four castes, and considered below them. ... In the Indian caste system, a Dalit, often called an untouchable, is a person who does not have any varnas. ...

Coolitude thus charts an open, diverse and peaceful attitude to otherness. Besides the tasks of retrieval propounded by this concept, this concept exposes the desire of building a dialogue between the descents of slaves, of indentured and other social components who have too often been cut off from this humane necessity. As such, it is instrumental in fostering greater understanding of human migrations in contemporary societies where cultures and imaginaries meet in the wake of globalisation. The Otherness is a malevolent force present in several of the novels by F. Paul Wilson. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Indetured servitude is when a persons passage to America is payed for an American Colonist and then the foreigner must work for the american for a certain amount of time (usually 7 years) and then the person is free to do what they please. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... Globalization is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange. ...

This poetics is symbolised in the coral imaginary or identity. The coral imaginary or identity is a poetics of relation combining cultural diversity and biodiversity, two paradigms of high relevance in contemporary societies. ...

Reference

• Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora (with Marina Carter, Anthem Press, London, 2002) ISBN 1843310031

See also

• Coolie
• Coral imaginary
• Homi Bhabha
• Edward Said
• Creolisation
• Postcolonialism
• Postmodernism
• Subaltern
• Baroque
• Jacques Derrida
• David Dabydeen
• Gayatri Spivak

Coolie labourer circa 1900 in Zhenjiang, China. ... The coral imaginary or identity is a poetics of relation combining cultural diversity and biodiversity, two paradigms of high relevance in contemporary societies. ... Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is a postcolonial theorist, currently teaching at Harvard University, where he is the Chair of the Program in History and Literature. ... Edward Wadie Said (Arabic: ‎, translit: ) (1 November 1935, Jerusalem &ndash 25 September 2003, New York City) was a well-known Palestinian-American literary theorist and outspoken Palestinian activist. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Creole language. ... Post-colonialism refers to the intellectual field opened up by Edward Saids book Orientalism. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated as Pomo or PoMo) is a term used in a variety of contexts to describe social conditions, movements in the arts, economic and social conditions and scholarship from the perspective that there is a definable and differentiable period after the modern, or that the 20th century can... A subaltern is a military term for a junior officer. ... Block quote For other uses, see Baroque (disambiguation). ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... David Dabydeen (Born December 9, 1955) is a Guyanese critic, writer and novelist. ... Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a deconstructive literary critic and theorist of Indian extraction. ...

External links

• Article in Unesco Courier :

[1]

• Transoceanic echoes: coolitude... an abstract :

[[2]]

• Coolitude by Anthem press : [[3]]

• [(fr) Biographie][4]

• Créolité, Coolitude, Créolisation: Les imaginaires de la relation.

[[5]]

• Présentation de la thèse de Véronique Bragard :

[6]

• Article sur la coolitude en anglais : [7]