So, an Indian walks into a club

Some of the best moments in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India are when the Indian "natives", no matter how affluent they may be, are not allowed entry into the clubs reserved for the British. These scenes in the novel clearly demarcate the public/private zones that keep people separated from one another. The clubs represent power, money, racial superiority, among others. They are also very gendered zones, in which women have their own special areas and are not allowed in other parts of the club. Mrinalini Sinha has this excellent piece on clubs in colonial India, in which she discusses how these clubs were a way for Europeans, no matter what their nationality, to make a "home" within the space of the club. Drawing from and extending Habermas' notions of the public sphere, she examines the centrality of the clubs as integral to the making of the "colonial public sphere", where the colonizer was uniquely marked as "clubbable" and "recognized the potential clubbability of the colonized" (492). There was, as Sinha argues, a separation of spheres -- keeping Indians and women out. These clubs traditionally were "gentlemen's clubs", had separate spaces for women, often called the "Hen-house" (498). I don't want to dwell for too long on Sinha's article, but there's this great moment in her essay when she traces the etymology of the club: "the etymology of 'club' -- which derives from 'cleave,' meaning both to split and to adhere, that is, 'uniting to divide' -- nicely captures its ambivalent political function in the colonial India" (504). This, she argues, leads to a "specific enactment of 'whiteness" in colonial India (ibid). It's important too, that clubs were symbols of expressing and replicating British national culture during the colonial period. So, what does it mean when these same clubs continue to thrive in the postcolonial period? My uncle and aunt belong to The Gymkhana Club and the Delhi Golf Club. Both of these clubs have a long history, going back to the early 20th century, although the latter did not gets its current nomenclature till sometime in the 1960s. I have linked above the Madras Gymkhana Club because the site for the one in Delhi apparently "may harm my computer". Hmmm.... Anyway, my uncle has this joke that if you want to become a member of the Gymkhana Club, you have to sign up well in advance of your birth and for the Golf Club, as soon as you're out of your momma's womb. B

All this aside, I will say that walking into either of these clubs is really taking a walk into history, even if that history is evidenced by the peeling wallpaper, faded paints, and old waiters in black and white serving ware... something right out of a Raj novel. The club scene raises some really fascinating questions about postcoloniality and national identity in India, and I've been trying to research the topic, but no luck yet. I will say though, that they are beautiful places in their own way. The Delhi Golf Club has a bar that looks really cool, with red vinyl booths that I would love to try out sometime. Oh yeah, another interesting point of note: last week, my aunt, uncle, Alisa, and I went there and there was this notice of default prominently displayed on a bulletin board. These were members who had not paid their dues this year!!!! Public humiliation! I love it!