Command at Mount Sinai

Tuesday, Nov. 25, was the feast day of St. Catherine, patroness of a monastery at Mount Sinai. (See entries for that date.)

“In a landmark essay,* the anthropologist Bernard S. Cohn showed how the command of language† could become the language of command.‡“

— “Right formula for a nation in the making,”
     by Asad Latif

* “The Command of Language
    and the Language of Command,”
    Subaltern Studies IV, pp. 276- 329

† B.S.

“I think writing about people in science and math is a way we can pay homage to genius and people we admire.  And it’s a way of saying, ‘You may be smarter, but I have the last word, I control you.’ “

— Ira Hauptman, author of a play, “Partition,” about the mathematician Ramanujan and the culture of India

‡ No B.S.

NY Times, Saturday,
Nov. 29, 2003:

B. S. Cohn,
Expert on Culture
of Modern India,
Dies at 75 

CHICAGO, Nov. 28 — Bernard S. Cohn, who spent his life studying and writing about British influence on modern Indian culture and society, died here on Tuesday….