FALL 2013
Identiteter i en globaliserad värld Möt hela världen på Museum Gustavianum den 16 november - det bjuds på allt från pekingopera till argentinsk tango. Under rubriken Identiteter i en globaliserad värld diskuteras länder och regioners självbild. Uppsala universitet bjuder in till en spännande dag med föreläsningar och roliga aktiviteter där olika länders syn på sig själva diskuteras. Hur pass lika eller olika är vi egentligen? Hur ser vi på oss själva? Vad innebär det egentligen att vara amerikan, ryss, kines, eller afrikan? Evenemanget arrangeras av forskargrupper knutna till de sju områdesstudier som finns vid Uppsala universitet: Centrum för Rysslandsstudier, Forumen för Afrika-, Kina-, Latinamerika-, Sydasien-, och Tysklandsstudier, samt av Engelska institutionen/Svenska Institutet för Nordamerika studier och Museum Gustavianum. _______________________________________________________________________________ Understanding Indian bhakti: The Comparative Analysis of Civilizational Diversity
Martin Fuchs (Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt)
_______________________________________________ A Series of Indian Art Films at Uppsala University ______________ 28 nov 2013 kl. 16:15 — 18:00 Lokal: 2-0026 Ines Fornell (Göttingen University (Tyskland)) The fictionalization of violence in contemporary Hindi literature For several decades India has frequently been tormented by outbursts of large-scale communal violence, especially between Hindus and Muslims. One of the most traumatic incidences was the destruction of the Bābrī Masjid by Hindu nationalists on December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya followed by a wave of bloody riots in many parts of India. Those events prompted several Hindi writers to deal directly or indirectly with the problem of Hindu nationalism and religious violence in a fictionalized manner. In my paper I will give a short overview of important Hindi novels and stories dealing with different aspects of communalism and communal violence in the 1990s. In this regard, I will mainly focus on the novel Kathāvācak (2001, The Story-teller) by Ābid Surtī which includes fictionalized scenes of the demolition of the Bābrī Masjid as well as the novel “Triśūl” (1993, Trident) by Śivmūrti which describes the effect of the Ayodhya incidents on the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims of a small North-Indian town. ________ Vilken roll spelar privata skolor för att utbilda fattiga barn i utvecklingsländer? Välkommen att höra skolforskaren Pauline Dixon föreläsa om hur entreprenörer axlar ansvaret för de fattigas skolgång när offentliga satsningar inte räcker till. I Lahore, Pakistan, köper hälften av familjerna i extrem fattigdom skolgång från privata aktörer, trots att de har tillgång till offentliga skolor som är gratis. I Indien ser det likadant ut, och i stora delar av Afrika pågår en boom inom den privata utbildningssektorn. Den främsta anledningen till att fattiga familjer aktivt engagerar sig i sina barns skolgång uppges vara låg kvalitet i de statliga skolorna. Vad kan Sverige dra för lärdomar av de privata aktörernas roll i utvecklings- och tillväxtländer? Pauline Dixons forskning vänder uppochned på invanda föreställningar om såväl hur valfrihet inom välfärden fungerar, som hur biståndspolitiken bör prioritera i val av samarbetspartners och kvalitetskriterier. Pauline Dixon är forskningschef för EG West Centre vid universitetet i Newcastle och betraktas tillsammans med sin kollega James Tooley som världsledande inom området om privata skolors roll i utvecklingsländer. Hon harägnat över tio års tid åt detta ämne och bedrivit omfattande fältstudier i framför allt Indien och i flera afrikanska länder. Dixon aktuell med boken International Aid And Private Schools For The Poor – Smiles, Miracles and Markets (2013). Frågor besvaras av Henrik Sundbom, projektledare på Frivärld, -------------------------- Book launch A Revolutionary in British India Prof. Gunnel Cederlöf Department of History Tuesday 15 October 15:00, Carolina Rediviva, Boksalen Kali Ghosh grew up in Bengal when the independence movement against British colonial rule spread like wild-fire. He came to political awareness during its “terrorist phase” in the 1920s, when the leading Congress movement leaders were either jailed or withdrew from the larger scene. He was one of the many disillusioned young men and women who found no other way to battle the British than violence—Kali Ghosh himself became particularly good at making explosives.
Jailed and deported to England, he met a Swedish woman, journalist and translator, in London. She encouraged him to write down his memories and, in the form of an autobiography, his reflections on a crucial and formative period of anti-British movements in India were ready as a manuscript already in 1939. Now, 74 years later, it has come into print.
It is a unique manuscript and rare account of a young mind in the movement, far from the biographies of the leading Indian nationalists. It is now published as Kali Ghosh, The Autobiography of a Revolutionary in British India (New Delhi: Social Science Press 2013). The manuscript will be donated at the seminar to the archived collections of Uppsala University.
Introduction by Prof. Gunnel Cederlöf, Department of History, Uppsala University.
Please note: This event is held at Carolina’s Bookhall/Boksalen where certain security regulations are in place. You therefore need to send an email to Maria Berggren Maria.Berggren@ub.uu.se, latest on the day before the event, and she will make sure your name is on the list of participants. Participants meet in the Entrance Hall at Carolina Rediviva.
Wednesday 16 Oct. 13:15-15:00 “The Eastern Indian Ocean Trading World” Forum for South Asia Studies Rila Mukherjee, Professor of History and Director of the Institut de Chandernagor, India. Plats: Engelska parken Eng 2/1024 This lecture will elaborate the global flows across the eastern Indian Ocean world until c. 1600. This part of the ocean includes the vast water-body stretching from Sri Lanka (central Indian Ocean) through the Bay of Bengal, the Java seas, the Melaka and Sunda Straits, and into the China seas. Although being a ‘trading world’, the lecture will highlight the cultural flows—the circulation of people (traders, officials, pilgrims, scholars), commodities (trade), objects (gift/tribute), deities (maritime goddesses), art styles, and ideas (religion). The research on which the lecture is based has developed in dialogue with scholars on sub-regional systems within the Indian Ocean. Starting from Abu-Lughod (Before European Hegemony: The World System 1250-1350, 1989) and Chaudhuri (Asia before Europe, 1990), they are: Hall (‘Ports-of-Trade, Maritime Diasporas, and Networks of Trade and Cultural Integration in the Bay of Bengal Region of the Indian Ocean: c. 1300-1500’, JESHO, 53, 2010), Flores (Sea of Ceylon, ‘Portuguese Entrepreneurs in the Sea of Ceylon (Mid-Sixteenth Century’ in Sprengard and Ptak, eds., Maritime Asia: Profit Maximisation, Ethics and Trade Structure,1994) and Mukherjee, ed., (Oceans Connect, 2013). OTHER LECTURES by Rila Mukherjee : Monday 14 Oct. At 13:15-15:00 “Writing a Water History: New directions for historical research” Historiska seminariet and Mind and Nature, universitetshuset sal VII This presentation will chart the shifts in studies on the Indian Ocean: from maritime studies to oceanic studies and water based studies. It will take new directions in research into account, as for example artefact histories and object biographies. It will also elaborate new spatial conceptions, such as how to integrate the uplands into maritime studies – what is called upstream/downstream interaction – to bring new regionalisms into play. The difficulties of writing a water-based history pose particular challenges to researchers. Can we write a truly water-based history without taking into account the shores that give a waterscape definition (Pearson, 2012)? ------ Rila Mukherjee is Professor of History and Director of the Institut de Chandernagor, India. Among her publications are Strange Riches: Bengal in the Mercantile Map of South Asia (2006), Merchants and Companies in Bengal: Kasimbazar and Jugdia in the Eighteenth Century (2007), and Oceans Connect (2013).
Forum for South Asia Studies Seminar: Middle Class Education and Religion in 19th Century Colonial Bengal Thursday 24 October, 14.15-16.00 Engelska parken, Eng 9/1017 (from gate 3H take the stairs up right after Karin Boye’s library) “Debates on Women’s education in nineteenth century Bengal: Its form and content” --------
The Indological Department, Institute for Linguistics and Philology in collaboration with the Forum for South Asian Studies, Uppsala University invites:
Place: Engelska parken, 4-2007 Phenomenology from the outside:Bodily being and flourishing in the earliest Indian medical text, the Caraka Saṃhitā
Ram-Prasad Chakravarthi is Professor of Philosophy at Lancaster University. His main research interests are the theories of self and theories of consciousness in Hindu philosophy and Indian thought, religion and politics, and comparative Indian and Chinese philosophies. Among his book publications are:Knowledge and Liberation in Classical Indian Thought, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2001; Eastern Philosophy, Weidenfield and Nicholson London, 2005; Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge: Themes in metaphysics, ethics and soteriology, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007; Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gita Commentaries, Bloomsbury, Academic 2013. -----
A Series of Indian Art Films at Uppsala University Place: Ihresalen (Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H) at 17:15 on Wednesdays
Free entry 16.10. Gandhi (1982) Biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Inydian revolts against British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest. Director: Richard Attenborough. Writer: John Briley. Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Candice Bergen. 30.10. Water (2005) The film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi. It focuses on a relationship between one woman, who wants to escape the social restrictions imposed on widows, and a man who is from the highest caste and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Director: Deepa Mehta. Writers: Anurag Kashyap (dialogue), Deepa Mehta. Stars: Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Seema Biswas. 13.11. Umrao Jan (1981) In Faizabad, British India, Daroga Dilawar is sentenced to several years in prison after Amiran's dad testifies against him. After his discharge around 1840, he extracts his vengeance by abducting Amiran and selling her to a brothel. It is here Amiran will be re-named Umrao Jaan. Years later, Umrao has grown up and is an accomplished poetess as well as an extraordinary dancer. She has many patrons, chief amongst them are Nawab Sultan and his father. The young Nawab is smitten by Umrao's beauty and her poems, but is finally forced to marry a girl of his mother's choice, leaving behind a heart-broken and devastated Umrao, who seeks solace in the arms of Faiz Ali and finally elopes with him, only to find out that he is a wanted bandit, and is shot down and killed by some guards. Umrao re-locates to Lucknow where she establishes herself as a Poet and dancer, but is hunted down by brothel-keepers, Gohar Mirza and Husseini and brought back, where she is told that she must marry Gohar. Watch what Umrao does to escape from being married against her will, and her attempts to try and find her way back to her parents. Director: Muzaffar Ali. Writers: Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa (novel), Shama Zaidi (screenplay). Stars: Rekha, Farooq Shaikh, Naseeruddin Shah.
27.11. Monsoon Wedding (2001) A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India. Director: Mira Nair. Writer: Sabrina Dhawan. Stars: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty. _ Organizer: Prof. Heinz Werner Wessler, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University in collaboration with the Forum for South Asia Studies
1. During September Uppsala guests the cultural Festival Incredible India. Forum for South Asia Studies is co-organizer of some of the events. Click here for the program. 2. Special event in connection with the 100th Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Price in Literature Panel Modern Asian Culture Unknown: Uncovering South Asian Life Time: 15.00-16.30, Monday, September 30, 2013 Venue: Uppsala University, Engelska Parken, Thunbergsv. 3H Lecture hall: house 7, sal 0043 (on the floor under the restaurant Matikum, see map below). Speakers: Nirmalendu Goon (Bangladesh), Ruby Rahman (Bangladesh), Muhammad Samad (Bangladesh), John Y. Jones (Norway) and Anisur Rahman (Bangladesh) Moderator: Dr. Ferdinando Sardella, Director, Forum for South Asian Studies, Uppsala University. Organized by the Forum for South Asian Studies at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Daghammarskjöld Program-Voksenåsen, Oslo, Litteraturcentrum Uppsala, Studiefrämjandet i Uppsala län and Networkers SouthNorth About the speakers: NIRMALENDU GOON Born in 1945, Nirmalendu Goon is one of the most popular poets in Bangladesh, known by many for his accessible verse in an age where Bangla poetry has become increasingly complex. Goon was one of the few people who openly protested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination in 1975 in a period when even mentioning Mujib was considered dangerous. His first book of poetry was published in 1970. Since then he has published forty-five collections of poetry and twenty collections of prose. Part of the generation of poets of 1960s, Goon's poetry contains stinging criticism of the nouveau riche and a touching description of the contrasting fate of the masses. www.bokmassan.se/en/news/nirmalendu-goon/ Prof. MUHAMMAD SAMAD Muhammad Samad was born in 1956 in a remote village in the Jamalpur District of Bangladesh. Dr. Muhammad Samad is Professor of Dhaka University. An eminent social scientist Dr. Samad has taught twice as a visiting Professor at the Winona State University, Minnesota, USA. He has worked as a Fellow of Katherine A. Kendall Institute of International Social Work Education, USA in 2009. Currently he is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS), Dhaka, Bangladesh. The first collection of poems, Ekjan Rajnaitik Netar Menifesto (Manifesto of a Political Leader), was published in 1983 and won him the Bangladesh Trivuj Literary Award for young poets. He has subsequently published several works of poetry and received a number of awards for his contribution to Bengali poetry and literature which has made him widely known and celebrated. Among the awards are Jasimuddin Literary Award, Jibanananda Das Award and the Sukanta Literary Award. Samad has served as General Secretary of the National Poetry Council of Bangladesh from 1997 to 2001. www.bokmassan.se/en/news/muhammad-samad/ RUBY RAHMNAN She was born in 1946 in Dhaka, then in East Bengal, the third daughter in a middle-class, urban, literary family. She was much influenced in childhood by her grandfather, who composed and performed songs; and by her mother, who was a devoted reader of the work of Rabindranath Tagore, and who wrote poetry and sang Rabindrasangeet (the songs of Tagore). Several of her sisters also wrote, sang and performed—two sisters are popular singers in Bangladesh; another sister is a well-known journalist. She studied at Dhaka University, receiving a B.A. with Honours in English, Psychology, and Bengali; and an M.A. in English. After her marriage, she lived with her husband and their two children in Lalmatia, a middle-class neighborhood of central Dhaka, near the university. For over thirty years she taught English at the Government Commercial College in Dhaka, and she has served on the Bangladesh national review board for textbooks and educational curricula. www.bokmassan.se/en/news/ruby-rahman/ Dr. JOHN Y. JONES He heads the Dag Hammarskjöld Program in Oslo, actively involved in South Asian questions internationally. He holds PhD on American Jews literature from Oslo University. He has published many essays at different international journals including UN publication and edits journals and books. He was one of a two-member delegation who submitted the proposal for Nobel Peace Prize for Bradley Manning this year. He has also edited the publication I Raise My Head Beyond This World featuring poems by visiting Bengali poets marking the 100 years of the Nobel Prize awarded to the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1913. ANISUR RAHMAN Author and journalist Anisur Rahman was born in Bangladesh in 1978. He writes in both Bengali and English, and debuted in 2003 with the poetry collection Empty Glass. Due to several years of political reprisals in Bangladesh, he currently lives in Uppsala, Sweden, where he also was a guest writer 2009-2011. 2011 he received a scholarship from Natur & Kultur. Sex årstider [Six Seasons] is Anisur Rahman's first collection of poems in Swedish. Apart from a few poems from his earlier books, the book contains newly written poems from the past few years. As a playwright Rahman has done work for the Swedish Radio in 2012. --------
SPRING 2013
4. "Democracy and Foreign Policy in India" by Christian Wagner, Thursday May 2, 2013, 15:15-17:00. Venue: hus 2 sal 0076, Uppsala University, Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H India is often emphasizing its common democratic values in its relations with the EU and the United States. This raises the question of how far the promotion of democracy has become an instrument of India's foreign policy as it is the case with Europe and the U.S. The lecture will first look at domestic changes in India's democracy and its implications on foreign policy. The second part will look at India's attempts to promote democratic processes. Christian Wagner works at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a research and analysis institution between politics and academics, and one of the most renowned institutions of its kind in Germany. For a presentation, seehttp://www.swp-berlin.org/en/scientist-detail/profile/christian_wagner.html
5. COLLOQUIUM: "Area Studies at Uppsala University" Venue: hus 2 sal K1028, Uppsala University, Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H, Tuesday May 21, 2013, 13:15-16:45 Challenges and Convergence in Researching South Asia" Uppsala University has recently initiated interdisciplinary regional research forums and the Forum for South Asia Studies is one of them. The colloquium will stimulate reflection and discussion about the development of area studies in the 21st century, and the opportunities it holds for Uppsala University. Program 13:15-14:00 Keynote speech: “Reinventing Area Studies: A continuing challenge and opportunity” Prof. Roger Jeffery, University of Edinburgh Abstract Area studies, an invention of the post-World War II world, has had to fight off two different challenges. One, from the disciplines, focuses on the absence of core theoretical frameworks, and the ‘messiness’ of inter-, multi- or cross-disciplinary work. The other, from public intellectuals, focuses on the (mis)-use of area studies in the pursuit of global power politics, in particular (but not only) by the USA. With particular reference to the study of South Asia, I will argue that reinventing area studies is a worthwhile and valuable activity, and set out some thoughts about the role of area studies in the contemporary world. 14:00 – 15:00 Panel discussion Challenges and Convergence in Area Studies. Prof. Margareta Fahlgren (Vice-rector for the Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences), Dr. Hans Blomqvist (Department of Government), Prof. Roger Jeffery, moderator Prof. Gunnel Cederlöf (Department of History). The panel will discuss Uppsala University's initiatives for internationalization and area studies, the challenges involved in interdisciplinary studies and the potential for developing area studies in the future. 15:00-15:20 Coffee 15:20-15:50 South Asia Scholars Reflect over the Research Theme “Constructing Identities”. Prof. Heinz Werner Wessler (Philology and Linguistics), PhD student Pawel Odyniec (Philology and linguistics) and Dr. Ferdinando Sardella (Theology). 15:50-16:20 Building Bridges: Cooperation between the Humanities and Medicine in South Asia Studies. Prof. Gunnel Cederlöf (Department of History) andDr. Birgitta Essén (Department of Women's and Children's Health) 16:20-16:45 Concluding remarks FALL 2012 ___________________ AREA STUDIES AT UPPSALA UNIVERSITY Gustavianum (Akademigatan 3) Saturday, 17 November 2012 Vad vet man om Sverige i andra länder? Vad uppfattas som typiskt svenskt? Och hur har denna sverigebild uppkommit och förändrats? Vid Uppsala universitet finns hög kompetens om världen omkring oss. Här bedrivs undervisning och forskning om kultur, historia och samhällsförhållanden på de flesta kontinenterna. Den 17 november erbjuds rika möjligheter att möta och lyssna till forskare med inriktning på världen omkring oss. Dessutom presenterar de olika områdesstudierna sig själva med bokbord och andra aktiviteter. I en serie mini-föreläsningar kommer just frågan om omvärldens syn på Sverige att diskuteras. Vad består de olika sverigebilderna i Afrika, Kina, Latinamerika, Ryssland, Sydasien, Tyskland, och USA av? Vilken roll spelar IKEA, Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, den svenska välfärdsstaten och de svenska köttbullarna? Dagen avslutas med en paneldebatt om vad en sverigebild egentligen är och hur man kan arbeta med att skapa en. I denna debatt deltar både forskare och företrädare för Svenska institutet. Dagen arrangeras av forskargrupper knutna till de sju områdesstudier som finns vid Uppsala universitet: Centrum för Rysslandsstudier, Forumen för Afrika, Kina, Latinamerika, Sydasien, och Tysklandsstudier, samt av Engelska institutionen/SINAS och Museum Gustavianum.
Dalit Cultural Identity Politics in the 21st Century
Workshop, Uppsala University, 15 November 2012, time: 10:15-17:00 Universitetshus, seminarierum 3 (Biskopsgatan 3) Forum for South Asia Studies/Dept. of Linguistics and Philology Recent research on Dalit discrimination is shifting away from strictly human rights issues towards cultural aspects of Dalit identity. The rediscovery and redefinition of cultural identity is usually understood to follow the incentive from subaltern and postcolonial studies. “De-Brahmanizing History” (Braj Ranjan Mani), however, lies on the borderline between the academic and the political world. The workshop will try to develop a scope on shifting patterns of Dalit discrimination and emancipation in the cultural field. 10:15 Greeting and Introduction (Heinz Werner Wessler) 10:30 Mirja Juntunen (Aarhus, Denmark): The Formation of Dalit Identity and the Politico-economic Conditions in Uttarkhand versus Eastern UP in the 1950s as Reflected by Two Dalit Writers: Omprakash Valmiki and Tulsiram 11:00 Andrew Morton (Uppsala/Stockholm, Sweden): Tulsiram and Dalit autobiography in the 21st century. 11:30 Ruth Manorama (Chennai, India): Dalit Emancipation and the Identity of a Dalit Activist12-13 Lunch break 13:00 Sukumar Narayana (Delhi, India): Constructing Dalit Identity: The Thoti's Stick 13:30 Heinz Werner Wessler (Uppsala, Sweden): A rediscovery of Dalit subaltern narrativity 14:00 Hans Magnusson (Stockholm, Sweden): My Identity as a non-Indian pro-Dalit-Activist 14:30 Walter Hahn (Stuttgart, Germany): My Identity as a non-Indian pro-Dalit-Activist 15:00-15:30 break 15:30 Eddie Rodrigues (Mumbai, India): Dalit identity politics and the Caste discourse in Western India: Rethinking the strategy of emancipation 16:00 Meena Dhanda (Wolverhampton, England): Certain Allegiances, Uncertain Identities: the fraught struggles for recognition of dalits in Britain 16:30-17:00 Final Discussion. Further Participant: Eva-Maria Hardtmann (Stockholm, Sweden)
FORUM FOR SOUTH ASIA STUDIES LECTURES Myth and literary imagery of rock Christiane Schaefer Dept. of Linguistics and Philology
7 November, sal 2-0023, time: 15.15-16.45 Engelska Parken, Uppsala University Mountains and rocks are not only ingredients of some of the most prominent cosmogonic myths in the earliest Vedic text, the Rigveda, they are also integral parts of the Rigveda’s literary imagery. The poetic language of the hymns reflects conflicting notions: on the one hand mountains are described as spaces of protection, nurture and stability, on the other hand they are depicted as unsteady, undependable and treacherous. Christiane Schaeferis currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University. Her research interests are mainly in the field of Vedic linguistics and literature, Tocharian, and language contact in Central Asia. __________________________
FORUM FOR SOUTH ASIA STUDIES LECTURES Technological Education in a Colonial Context: Bengal Engineering College in late Nineteenth Century India
1 November, time 14.15-15.45, Sal 1-1060, Department of History Thunbergsvägen 3 A, Engelska Parken, Uppsala
Development of engineering education in Bengal is a major area of historical research and investigation. It has multifaceted aspects on which our research has mainly focused on. In much of colonial India, Bengal was the core area of all round development especially in the field of education. For the requirement of the British Raj in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was necessary to create professional people in the fields of various engineering services, medical and survey operations. Bengal Engineering College (hereafter B.E. College) was a pioneer institution (the subcontinent’s second oldest, only next to Roorkee Engineering College) which provided professional people in various engineering branches. Founded in 1856, B.E. College had great impact on the social, political, economic and cultural realms and on other science institutions in the country. However, engineering education in India in the late nineteenth century was directly related to ‘the colonial expansionist programme’ and was imposed from above without any educational demand for it at that point in time. Both the quantitative and qualitative growth was very limited in the late nineteenth century. Secondly, the colonial context of engineering education in India in the second half of the nineteenth century is specially made clear by some extant materials on the origin and operation of B.E. College during the period. The close relationship of the development of technical education in Roorkee Engineering College and B.E. College in the beginning and with Cooper’s Hill College in England later is clear from these materials. The colonial context of the engineering education in India and England is thus highlighted. The history of technical education in India during the periods 1856-1886 and 1886-1908 is to be especially studied in this context. The present paper makes an attempt to focus on the nature of multiple colonial connections in the very limited development of engineering education in India in the late nineteenth century. Arun Bandopadhyay is currently Nurul Hasan Professor of History and formerly Dean of the Faculty Council for Post-graduate Studies in Arts at the University of Calcutta. He previously taught at BenarasHinduUniversity, Varanasi and Visva-BharatiUniversity, Santiniketan and served as Visiting Fellow in JawaharlalNehruUniversity, New Delhi, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris and Uppsala University, Sweden. His research interest covers a wide range of areas: agrarian history, business history and history of science and environment. His published works include The Story of Jessop (Calcutta, 1988), The Agrarian Economy of Tamilnadu, 1820-1855 (Calcutta, 1992), History of Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore: Two Hundred Years of Ordnance Factories Production in India (New Delhi, 2002), Tribes, Forest and Social Formation in Indian History (edited with B.B. Chaudhuri, New Delhi, 2004), Documents on Economic History of British Rule in India: Eastern India in the Late Nineteenth Century, Part I:1860s-1870s (edited with Amiya Kumar Bagchi, New Delhi 2009) and Documents on Economic History of British Rule in India: Eastern India in the LateNineteenth Century Part II: 1880s-1890s (edited with Amiya Kumar Bagchi, New Delhi, 2011). He is also the Executive Editor of The Calcutta Historical Journal. He was the Secretary of the Indian History Congress during 2009-2012. -------- Forum for South Asia Studies lectures ECOLOGY, LANDSCAPE, AND CONSERVATION
Mukul Sharma is an independent scholar and writer, and holds the position of South Asia Regional Director of Climate Parliament. He has worked in relation to a wide spectrum of the South Asian society – government agencies, media, research organizations and international agencies. May-Britt Öhman, PhD in the History of Science and Technology, works at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University. She leads the project “DAMMED: Security, Risk and Resilience around the Dams of Sub-Arctica”, researching hydropower in relation to ecology, social life and identity formation among the Sámi. __________ Other relevant events related to the theme ECOLOGY, LANDSCAPE, AND CONSERVATION
Ecology, Landscape and Polity: A Longer View of India’s Environmental History Mahesh Rangarajan, prof. of history, New Delhi 2 October at 14:15–16:00, English Park Campus, the Geijer Hall Co-organised by the Department of History and CEMUS (Centre for Environment and Development Studies) __________
Forum for South Asia Studies lectures ECOLOGY, LANDSCAPE, AND CONSERVATION Conservation and Community Engagement: Critical Questions from India Lecture by Mukul Sharma 4 October at 13:00–15:00, English Park Campus, 6/0031 Co-organised by the research node Mind and Nature, and the Forum for Africa Studies
Forum for South Asia Studies lectures Political tolerance in India - results from the heartland Prof. Sten Widmalm Department of Government Time: Thursday 13 September, 15.15-16.45
FREE ENTRY Sten Widmalm will present some of the first research results from the TOLEDO project (co-authored with Sven Oskarsson). The project is intended to shed light on what determines levels of tolerance and intolerance among citizens who live in areas that differ in measures of economic prosperity or in degree of ethnic pluralism, or in states in differing positions on the continuum from authoritarian rule to democracy. This presentation will focus on survey results from India. Standard assumptions about tolerance have been tested, such as those relating to the influence of literacy, class, gender, membership in civic organizations, levels of social capital, interpersonal trust, and religious and political affiliation. Widmalm will also discuss the influence of party membership (BJP and Congress (I)) and contextual variables such as the character of state institutions, their level of democratic performance, and varying degrees of cultural or ethnic pluralism. ___________________
Forum for South Asia Studies lectures Incredible India cultural festival: “Bollywood and beyond…” 100 years of Indian film making
Organised by the Forum for South Asia Studies. FREE ENTRY
Bollywood celebrates 100 years in 2013. Lectures and discussion.
PROGRAM Introduction by Heinz Werner Wessler, prof. of Indology at Uppsala University. Lecture by Ajit Rai (New Delhi), a leading cultural journalist that has presented a number of international film festivals in India. Special guest is TV-producer Anuj Garg (New Delhi).
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CULTURAL FESTIVAL The ”Incredible India” cultural festival is held in Uppsala for the second year in a row, 8–18 September 2012. Last year it hosted 40 different events all over the city and attracted about 10 000 visitors. The 2012 festival is again organised by Kulturum with support from many public and private organisations. The programme includes art and photo exhibitions, concerts and dance performances, lectures, screening of Indian films, Indian cooking and much more. See the full program of the festival at http://www.kulturum-uppsala.se/india_eng.htm ____________________________________________
SPRING 2012Forum for South Asia Studies lecture7 May 2012, 15.15-17.00, Main University Building (universitetshuset), Sal VIII Climate, Polities and the Making of a Citizen:Founding an Empire on India’s Northeastern FrontiersProf. Gunnel Cederlöf Department of History, Uppsala University In public debates for most of the last century, North East India remained a region at the far end of the state, cut off from the ‘mainland’ and the larger markets, and haunted by violence. It has carried legacies of colonial governance into the present of government being unable to subdue and domesticate people and landscape within the larger polity. This secluded position of the region has a comparatively short history. The interest in mineral wealth of the hills, and of connecting Bengal (and India) with the large markets in China was a major driving force behind the British East India Company’s advance eastwards. Commercial prosperity and private returns pushed forward Company initiatives to establish de facto control of the territories argued to be included in the diwani grant of 1765 providing extensive revenue rights over large territories. The British Company sought to reopen, not close the commercial overland routes to the east. This talk focuses on conflicts involved in establishing colonial governance and will elaborate on three themes and their interrelatedness. Firstly, the larger region’s climate and natural disasters sent shock waves into the EIC in the late 18th century. Survey reports and weather observations using new scientific methods reflected a landscape out of human control. When the neighbouring autonomous polities were drawn into dependent relations to the EIC in the 1820s and 30s, forms and political settlements were significantly different. Already from the earliest subjugation of territories and people, colonial rule on the EIC’s ‘North Eastern Frontier’ formed into dual polities under one government. _________________________________________Forum for South Asia Studies lectures18 April 2012, 13.15-15.00, Main University Building (universitetshuset), Sal VIII The Microfinance Impact:Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme in IndiaDr. Ranjula Bali Swain Department of Economics, Uppsala University Microfinance has enabled a positive change in the lives of the poor, by allowing poor around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. With its mission 'to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural prosperity through effective credit ______________________________________
Forum for South Asia Studies lecture25 January 2012, 14.15-16.00, Main University Building (universitetshuset), Sal IV Rural Social Transformation in (South) India: Pitted Against Collective action?Prof. G K Karanth The lecture focused on Indian rural society, which for decades has been perceived to be ”hard” to change. Recently though, it has started to show symptoms that it is beginning to be more similar to its urban counterparts in several respects. This process appears to be happening more rapidly than ever before. Historically, rural communities have proved to possess greater internal interdependence, and ‘everyday’ life has been characterised to a larger degree by collective action. Today, however, several economic and political changes have started to undermine their ability to preserve these vital processes. Not only the contexts for such a participative collective action have been rapidly transforming, but also a number of institutions that facilitated them have disappeared. Factionalism based on political loyalties and economic individualism, rather than collective interests, seems to be the new dominant feature of rural communities. During the academic year 2011/12, G K Karanth, Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Study of Social Change and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, is the second Visiting ICCR Professor at Lund University. He arrived in mid-September 2011, and is hosted by the Department of Sociology. Prof. Karanth has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, and his main research fields are Peasant Economy and Society; Caste and Social Stratification; Rural-Urban Linkages; and Sociology of Development. He is the second Visiting ICCR Professor at Lund University. |
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