NinetynineCAT 2023 Slot 1 VARC RC Passage 2 Q5–Q8
A reading comprehension passage from the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT 2023 Slot 1, with 4 questions (RC · Society, History & Politics). Answers are CAT's official key.
The passage
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting – land-focused and inward-looking.
My new book "Writing Ocean Worlds" explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. . . . Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking – full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They are all very different – from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader's mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. . . .
The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. . . .
For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay. . . . It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.
This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. . . . African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that of the wider world.
For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting – land-focused and inward-looking.
My new book "Writing Ocean Worlds" explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. . . . Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking – full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They are all very different – from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader's mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. . . .
The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. . . .
For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay. . . . It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.
This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. . . . African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that of the wider world.
Question 5
All of the following claims contribute to the "remapping" discussed by the passage, EXCEPT:
- Athe global south, as opposed to the global north, was the first centre of globalisation.
- Bthe world of early international trade and commerce was not the sole domain of white Europeans.
- Ccosmopolitanism originated in the West and travelled to the East through globalisation.
- DIndian Ocean novels have gone beyond the specifics of national concerns to explore rich regional pasts.
Answer: (C) cosmopolitanism originated in the West and travelled to the East through globalisation. RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ
Solution
- The remapping centres the world 'in the interconnected global south': globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean (A), non-European traders and sailors (B), and an outward-looking move beyond national questions (D).
- C says cosmopolitanism started in the West and travelled East, the reverse of the passage's 'southern cosmopolitan culture'. It cannot contribute to the remapping.
Question 6
Which one of the following statements is not true about migration in the Indian Ocean world?
- AGeographical location rather than geographical proximity determined the choice of destination for migrants.
- BThe Indian Ocean world's migration networks were shaped by religious and commercial histories of the region.
- CThe Indian Ocean world's migration networks connected the global north with the global south.
- DMigration in the Indian Ocean world was an ambivalent experience.
Answer: (C) The Indian Ocean world's migration networks connected the global north with the global south. RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ
Solution
- The passage stresses 'south-south interconnection' among East Africa, the Arab coasts and South and East Asia, so saying the networks connected the global north with the south (C) is not true.
- A is supported (distant ports were better connected than nearby inland cities), B by the 'largely Islamic space' and trade, and D by migration shown as 'abandonment rather than adventure'.
Question 7
On the basis of the nature of the relationship between the items in each pair below, choose the odd pair out:
- APostcolonial novels : Border-crossing
- BPostcolonial novels : Anti-colonial nationalism
- CIndian Ocean world : Slavery
- DIndian Ocean novels : Outward-looking
Answer: (A) Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ
Solution
- B, C and D pair a subject with something the passage actually ties to it: postcolonial novels supported anti-colonial nationalism, the Indian Ocean world had slavery ('slavery is rife'), Indian Ocean novels are outward-looking.
- Postcolonial novels were described as 'land-focused and inward-looking'; border-crossing belongs to the Indian Ocean novels. So A is the odd pair.
Question 8
All of the following statements, if true, would weaken the passage's claim about the relationship between mainstream English-language fiction and Indian Ocean novels EXCEPT:
- Amost mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel and adventure.
- Bthe depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by an Orientalist imagination of its cultural crudeness.
- Cvery few mainstream English-language novels have historically been set in American and European metropolitan centres.
- Dthe depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by a postcolonial nostalgia for an idyllic past.
Answer: (A) most mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel and adventure. RC · Society, History & Politics MCQ
Solution
- The claim: mainstream English fiction is centred on Europe/US, Christianity and whiteness, while Indian Ocean novels offer a southern, non-white, Islamic world with an active Africa.
- A says mainstream novels privilege the Christian, white experience, which supports the claim instead of weakening it.
- B and D undercut the positive depiction of Africa; C denies that mainstream fiction is set in Western metropolises. All three weaken it.