Modern South Asia Workshop

Schedule

Saturday, April 5

9.00-11.00 AMWelcome & Opening RemarksAshwini Deo, Yale University

Politics of Visual Representation
Chair: Kedar Kulkarni, Yale University
Discussant: Durba Mitra, Fordman University

Kena Wani, Duke University, “Public Statuary and the Politics of Affect: The Case of Ambedkar Statues and the Dalit Politics of Representation in Mumbai”Sravani Biswas, Syracuse University, “Maulana Bhashani as an Icon: Politics of Representation and Popular Rebellion”Ranu Roychowdhury, University of Chicago, “Shaheed Minar: Photography, Social Commitment, and the City 1977-91”

11.15-1.15 PMTexts and Practices of Readings
Chair: Asiya Alam, Yale University
Discussant: Avishek Ganguly, Rhode Island School of Design

Courtney Sato, Yale University, “The Idea of Asia: Pan-Asianism in the Intellectual Thought of Rabindranath Tagore and his Interlocutors”Rahul Gairola, University of Washington, “British (Di)visions: Transreligious Alliances in Anita Desai’s ‘Clear Light of Day’ & Khushwant Singh’s ‘Train to Pakistan’ ”Ritwik Bhattacharya, Princeton University, “Hariprasad Shashtri and the Post-historical Novel”

2.30-4.30 PMState Society Relations in Post Colonial Context
Chair: Sadia Saeed, Yale University
Discussant: Uday Chandra, Max Planck Institute

Roger Begrich, University of Bassel, “Difference as a Mode of Belonging. Adivasis, Alcohol, Religion and the Law”Yelena Biberman, Brown University, “Military Capacity and State Outsourcing of Violence: Pakistan’s Military Campaigns in East Pakistan (1971) and Baluchistan (1973-77)”Harry Fischer, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, “Shifting Authority, Channeling Democracy: Transforming Water Management in the Indian Himalayas”

Sunday, April 6

9.00-11.00 AMConstructing the City-Space
Chair: Rajashree Mazumder, Yale University
Discussant: Sheetal Chhabria, Connecticut College

Chitra Venkataramani, Johns Hopkins University, “Unsettled Visions: Public Participation and the Making of the New Development Plan in Mumbai”Tariq Rahman, University of Oregon, “Between Worlds: Imagination and a gated Community in Bhakkar, Pakistan”Gayatri Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, “The City, the Commons and a Community”

11.15-1.15 PMSelf and Religious Subjectivities
Chair: Asiya Alam, Yale University
Discussant: Andrew Quintman, Yale University

Yael Lazar, Duke University, “A Temple in Your Phone: Hindu Darśan and Mobile Media”Merin Shobhana, Laurier-Waterloo University, “The Sufism of Bawa: Islamic Mysticism in Contemporary Sri Lanka”SherAli Tareen, Franklin & Marshall College, “The Politics of Freindship on Colonial Muslim India”

2.30-3.30 PMClosing RemarksSadia Saeed, Yale UniversityAsiya Alam, Yale UniversityRajashree Mazumder, Yale University