Chair of the History Department William Pinch has been teaching at Wesleyan for 20 years. He is currently teaching a seminar in Marine/Maritime World History, and his areas of expertise include the British and Mughal Empires, South Asia, and Religion and History. He took time out of his busy schedule to talk with The Argus about Urdu, being a third culture kid, and the best Indian food in Middletown.

 

RW: What are you reading right now?

WP: Well, I am reading two things. I am reading a book by Amitav Ghosh. It is part two of his trilogy on the opium trade. It is called “The River of Smoke.” I read the first one two years ago, which was called “The Sea of Poppies.”

 

RW: What in particular drew you to this series?

WP: Well, I am a big fan of his work. I’ve read most of his books, beginning with “In An Antique Land.” He does both fiction and nonfiction, but lately he’s been doing historical fiction. “In An Antique Land” was actually his first book, and it showed the history of the 12th century international world through the eyes of a merchant from Tunisia. I talked about this actually in my previous interview [with The Argus]. Anyway, the merchant ends up in India and purchases a few slaves. He marries a woman, and the book is about the search for the identity of one of his slaves, Boma. The book wove a traveler’s tale with his own experiences in the Middle East and in India. It shows the conflict between East and West. It is really a fascinating book. We had him here at Wesleyan about nine years ago for a week. He was fabulous. We were reading from his book “The Glass Palace,” and he gave a public lecture.

 

RW: Any plans on getting him back to speak here again?

WP: I’ve heard mumblings to that effect.

 

RW: It would be interesting as a sort of decade event, no?

WP: Absolutely. That’s a great idea.

 

RW: What else have you been reading?

WP: I actually just finished a great book by Schätzing called The Swarm. It has a science fiction plot that is based on intense scientific research on the oceans and environmental degradation in the oceans. It was translated from German. It was a best-seller in Germany. It didn’t do well here, but I hear it will be made into a movie soon. It actually features real oceanographers. It’s about how we understand the sea, and in particular, the future of the oceans. I’m interested in that because of my teaching. I do a course on maritime research.

RW: You’ve been at Wesleyan for 20 years. What aspect of the University has changed the most over your 20 years here?

WP: That’s a tough one. A sensitive question in some ways. Self-centered though this may sound, I think that what has changed the most is me, in terms of my own perspective. My own work trajectory has changed. Things look a lot differently to me today than it did 20 years ago.

I do know that I used to know a lot more people at Wesleyan. I find increasingly as I get older that I don’t know as many colleagues. As we get so busy, as we move through the ranks, we are drawn through so much administrative work. I am the chair of the department. I find I have less time interacting socially with my colleagues. I guess as you get older you have a lot more on your plate. You need to pace yourself. In terms of what has changed, I think the children culture has changed. I think there has been a change for the better. I live close to campus. I used to find there were a lot of loud parties. Students didn’t appreciate the fact that we were living in a community. This changed eight, nine years ago.

I find students now enjoy themselves in more positive ways. I think one of the big changes is the tree coverage, the presence of trees. We have lost some really beautiful trees. My wife is very into trees. Many of the trees were planted between 50-100 years ago, and we are losing many of them because of the storm and because they are dying. We need to make sure the treescape of the campus is maintained.

 

RW: Could this be achieved through more student projects?

WP: I think it’s great how students are getting involved through various projects, such as WILDWes. This is great for the students to get engaged in. You know, maintaining a campus’ grounds is a very physical job. And I know we are strapped for resources, but I feel we need to keep that up. I get very depressed in the winter because it looks like a battle zone, the way the snow plows tear up the turf. I feel like we could do a better job. See, this is what I meant about this being a sensitive subject.

 

RW: We could talk about what you are currently working on instead.

WP: Yes. Well, I am doing a talk later on this month at Stanford on world history and the oceans and the future of global conflict. It is about how the future was envisioned in the past and what that tells us about what our future might look like. I am also a fellow in the think tank at the College of the Environment right now. I am thinking of writing a history of the sea, and next year I am planning to go to India. I have been working some years on the history of 1857, which was when the mutiny rebellion against British-Indian rule happened. I have many proposals on what I will do during my sabbatical next year. I am hoping to spend a year in India.

 

RW: How many times have you been to India?

WP: I was born in India and raised in India and Pakistan until I was about 15. My father was part of the United States Information Service, which is now a branch of the State Department. We moved around a lot in India, and I’ve been back many times since then. I also went back to do my dissertation work, and to study Urdu. I actually grew up speaking a mixture of Hindi, English, and Urdu. I needed to hone [my Urdu] for my research skills in the early 80s. I have been back three times in the 90s, and I’ve been back twice in the past decade. It has been five years since I’ve visited India, which has been the longest I’ve been away since the early 70s. This has been something that’s bothered me. I need to reconnect with the place. Being chair has taken me away from that. I love sitting in archives and going out into towns and villages and discovering private collections.

 

RW: Do you feel as if India is your home?

WP: Yeah, in some ways I do. I know sociologists from the 50s and 60s came across a particular term to describe this. I know your parents are part of the State Department. Did you grow up overseas at all?

 

RW: Yes. This is actually my first time living in the United States.

WP: Then you would know. The term is called a “Third Culture Kid.” I realized this term encompasses me. My siblings and I are now focused on living in North America, but we realize that our formative years were in South Asia. Those were our happiest memories. You know, people read the newspaper about Karachi, Pakistan, and people think “what a hellhole.” But for me, those were the happiest days of my life. We had an incredible community from all over the world. It was a mixed school and community. You sort of realize that that is not a typical upbringing. You develop strategies you don’t realize while growing up. I don’t know if you’ve moved around a lot, but we moved constantly. Are you familiar with USIS?

 

RW: No, I actually am not. Has it been folded into the State Department?

WP: Yes. My father used to refer to it as Cold War propaganda, telling the world about the wonder of US life. USIS ran American libraries and cultural centers and research centers. They are a bit like the British council. India was its largest mission. We moved around a lot in South Asia. My dad was very good with languages. In those days, they tended to keep people in the same area. Now, they transfer people more readily. I don’t know if this is the case with your family?

 

RW: Well, we divided most of our time between Africa and Europe.

WP: Yes, the tendency now is to move around. We had two or three year “tours.” The lexicon is so evocative, isn’t it? Because you move around so much, you are really being torn out of your environments. For one, you are being placed in these nurturing communities. However, it is destabilizing as you realize as adults that as children we had built walls around ourselves. By the time we got to the US, we found it was very difficult to make friendships. After a certain number of times being torn out of your social friendships, you develop strategies of coping. It took a long time to overcome that.

 

RW: So you’re saying it is easy to meet people and talk to them, but it isn’t so easy developing lasting friendships with them?

WP: Yes. It is difficult to create emotionally more lasting relationships, because you haven’t developed the skills. Or if you have, they’ve left such wounds because you’ve had to leave them behind. It is like growing up in the British Empire in India. In the latter part of the 19th century, British officials would not raise their children in India. After the age of three or four, they would send them to boarding schools in England. And that was a very formative experience for Kipling, for instance. There was a lot of literature on Kipling’s youth. He was really damaged goods, but it contributed to his incredible talents.

 

RW: I want to end on a light note. After living in India for so long, you are probably used to Indian cuisine. Do the restaurants in Middletown compare in any way to the food you experienced there?

WP: Yes, in some ways. Udupi Bhavan is great. I wasn’t raised on South Indian cuisine because I was mostly in the North, but Udupi Bhavan is very enjoyable. And my wife loves it as well. My wife buys the Dosa prep from the grocery next door. That is a wonderful grocery store. I don’t know if any of the students know about it, but it is a real gem. The owners are a wonderful couple. Haveli is also great. I go to Haveli more than my wife does.