Degeneration in Bihar pains scholar no end

PATNA: The society in Bihar is in acute turmoil, feels renowned literary critic and writer Amitava Kumar. Associate professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Amitava was on a short visit to his hometown Patna.
Stating that the society here has undergone an incredibly distorted advancement, he said the signs of progress have been marred by degeneration."If you become a succesful entreprenuer, you run the risk of being kidnapped," he said. Citing another example, Amitava said internet revolution in Bihar has assumed an altogether different dimension. "Internet cafes here eventually take the perverse form of cyber brothels," said the author of award-winning novel, Passport Photos.
Amitava said though Bihar has witnessed social development in the last 10 years, the people of the state are nonetheless trying to assert themselves in a void.
As a writer, Amitava says that Patna has always occupied his imagination. His point of view towards the city in which he grew up has been changing over the years. In his book, Bombay-London-New York, he writes, "When I wrote of Patna it was with new eyes, I had encountered through films, books, and newspapers..."
In a lecture session at Patna University on Thursday, he advised the students to record every thought and feeling in words. Stressing the need for developing reading as a habit, Amitav said the worldview undergoes a paradigm shift after one starts reading extensively.
In an exclusive chat with TNN, Amitava said NRIs are also responsible for fomenting militant nationalism in India. The Indian diaspora, he said, has always indulged in cheque book activism and hate funding. Agreeing to Benedict Anderson’s theory of Long Distance Nationalism, Amitava was critical of Yankee Hindutva being followed vigorously by the NRI community. The VHP claimed to have collected $4 billion for the Ram mandir by mobilising the NRIs all over the world, he said. "When the Ram mandir movement was at its peak, some of the NRIs sent gold bricks to the right wing groups in India," he said.