Terrestrial Environments and their Histories in Modern India
An International Conference at Yale � May 1 & 2, 2009
Room 105, Anthropology Department, 10 Sachem Street
Conference Overview • Contact • South Asian Studies Home
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Friday, May 1
Session 1 • Inauguration • 2:30pm
Introductions/Announcements: K. Sivaramakrishnan (Yale University)
Opening Remarks: Mahesh Rangarajan (Delhi University)
Session 2 • Premodern States and their Agrarian Environments • 3:45pm
Chair: William R. Pinch (Wesleyan University)
Kathleen Morrison (University of Chicago) “Environmental History in South Asia: Transforming the ‘Precolonial’ Past”
Divyabhanusinh Chavda (Independent Researcher, Jaipur, India) “Lions, Cheetahs and Others in the Mughal Landscape”
Discussant: Paul Freedman (Yale University)
Saturday, May 2
Session 3 • Science, Nature, Empire • 8:30am
Chair: Mahesh Rangarajan (Delhi University)
Brian Caton (Luther College) “The Imperial Ambition of Science and its Discontents: Animal Breeding in Nineteenth-Century Punjab”
Dan Klingensmith (Maryville College) “Nature and Politics at the End of the Raj”
Discusssant: Michael Lewis (Salisbury University)
Session 4 • Nature and Agrarian Life • 10:30am
Chair: Peter Perdue (Yale University)
Asmita Kabra (Delhi University) “Conservation-induced Displacement of Adivasis & the Challenges of Agrarian Livelihood Restoration”
Arupjyoti Saikia (Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati) “Grazing, Forests and Political Space: Agrarian Conflicts in Colonial Assam”
Discussant: Nandini Sundar (Yale University)
Session 5 • Animals, Officials, and Other Subalterns • 1:30pm
Chair: Nancy Jacobs (Brown University)
Ghazala Shahabuddin (American University) “The ‘Tiger Crisis’ and the Response: Reclaiming the Wilderness in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan”
Meena Radhakrishna (Delhi University) “The Hunter and the Hunted: Nomadic Communities and Indian Conservation Strategies”
Discussant: Amita Baviskar (Institute of Economic Growth)
Session 6 • Comparative Commentaries • 4:15 pm
Chair: K. Sivaramakrishnan (Yale University)
William R. Pinch (Wesleyan University)
Peter Perdue (Yale Univeristy)
Nancy Jacobs (Brown University)