The prototype of the "andaje gombhir" Bong: The politics of the armchair intellectual

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If you are at all conversant with Bengali culture, you are likely to have come across the "andaje gombhir" Bengali.

The term "andaje gombhir" is contextually Bengali, one that is difficult to translate literally into English. Roughly, it translates into the "know-it-all" pretentious intellectual-performing Bengali that has an expert opinion on every subject and is entitled to pass such opinion, irrespective of her/his expertise.

For instance, the andaje gombhir Bong will tell you autoethnography is an useless a-theoretical fad, one that is anti-intellectual. When you ask the andaje gombhir Bong to elaborate on that opinion, she/he will have nothing of substance to back up the statement, except to perform a serious intellectual-appearing face. The non-verbals will tell you that as a mere mortal, your asking for backing for the claim, is out of line.

The andaje gombhir Bong will declare that your question about theorizing social class in interrogating postcolonial theory is uneducated, because you know, you don't really know the theory. When you then ask the andaje gombhir Bong to offer some arguments to back up her/his dismissal of the class question, he/she will tell you, you need to go do the readings. When you ask for the readings, you will be told with greater vigour, "Go do your readings."

The "andaje gombhir" phenomenon is specifically Bengali. Yet, it translates across contexts.

Consider the instances when you witness the performance of intellectualism that specifically is held up to shut down questions. What is often universal in such performances of intellectualism across contexts is the shutting down of arguments.

The work of shutting down of arguments maintains the status quo.

In Bengal, the performance of andaje gombhir intellectualism keeps intact the status and power of the intellectual class, while keeping the discursive space closed to critiques.

The work of the culture-centered approach, committed to a politics of communicative equality, is constituted in direct resistance to such performances of intellectualism. In working in solidarity with communities at the margins, culture-centered interventions seek to decenter the very position of expertise held by the intellectual.

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