Cast(e)ing and translating sex in the vernacular: the writings of Santram BA in Hindi

ABSTRACT

Santram BA (1887–1998), a Shudra caste reformer, wrote several articles and books in Hindi on sex and birth control, including translations of Mary Stopes’ writings, in the early twentieth century. This article places Santram’s vernacular writings in a larger historical context of the growth of print, which facilitated the widespread production of so-called obscene material as a commodity. Santram’s writings not only contribute in creating an archive for the study of sexual sciences, they also help in addressing the vernacular as a significant, if ambivalent, site for the reproduction, transformation and contestation around matters of sex. The article argues that Santram straddled multiple terrains, as on the one hand he drew from classical works on kamashastra, referring to them as beneficial sexual sciences, and on the other he relied on western sexologists to underline pleasure and desire as important facets of modern sexual life. Using the medium of vernacular and translation, Santram created spatial-intimate spaces to celebrate sexual relationships, not only conjoining the private–public, but also opening up an ancillary terrain of textures of touch and sexuality and registers of transgressive sexual norms.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual sciences
• vernacular
• caste
• obscenity
• print culture
• translation

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at an International Workshop on ‘Sex in Translation in Post/Colonial India: Vernacular Archives and Global Itineraries’, held at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, April 19–21 2018. The author is very grateful to all of the participants, especially to Rachel Berger, Ishita Pande, Anjali Arondekar and Douglas Haynes, for their perceptive comments, which have greatly helped in revising the article. The author wishes to further thank the two anonymous reviewers of Porn Studies for their insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Santram used his attainment of a bachelor’s degree as a kind of honorific.

2 Shudra is the lowest of the four varnas or ranks in Hinduism.

3 For some of the debates on the interrelationship between Sanskrit, English and Dalits, see Anand (1999).

4 For details of Santram’s life, see his autobiography (Santram 1963).

5 Santram went on to translate Ambedkar’s (1936) Annihilation of Caste into Hindi, and published it under the banner of the JPTM (Santram 1937).

6 A medieval Indian sex manual, composed in the eleventh or twelfth century CE.

7 An erotic treatise written most probably around 1000 AD by Buddhist scholar Padmashri.

8 Also see Tandon (1951, 307).

9 For details on the press, see Stark (2007).

10 The book went into more than 19 editions (see Santram 1963, 111). I saw the 13th edition of the book.