[Reader-list] Seminar: Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent (Kolkata)

[Tasveer Ghar]

For those in Kolkata:

UGC sponsored Two Day National Level Interdisciplinary Seminar on
Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent

Organised by the Departments of English, Philosophy and Political Science
December 7 and 8, 2010
		
Venue : 	Centenary Hall, Kadambini Bhavan, Bethune College
Convenor : 	Dr. Gopa Gupta, Head and Associate Professor, Department
of Philosophy
Co-Convenors: 	Dr. Sima Kundu, Associate Professor, Department of
Political Science
Shuchismita Mitra, Assistant Professor, Department of English

Religion and faith have always been, and continue to be, vital aspects
of the phenomenon we call popular culture. This is of special
relevance in the Indian sub-continent, a region well-known for its
popular religious cultures and forms. The aim of this seminar is to
explore the pathways of these at once diverse and overlapping
discourses and practices, focusing on their historical, political and
ethical implications; their relation to mainstream and canonical
components. The latter strategy is of crucial importance in a
socio-political analysis of the complex body we identify as culture,
since the relative positioning and shifts of cultural practices within
any society throw critical light on the notion of culture itself - the
way it is conceptualised in different contexts and at different
moments, the politics behind such formulations, and the fissures
submerged under a seemingly homogeneous term. The complex hierarchy of
faiths and cultural practices in the Indian sub-continent
simultaneously highlight and conceal the way identities have been
engendered, and are constantly being (re) invented. We seek to
investigate the multiple ethical and political histories of these
negotiations, in particular, the bearing these have on the idea of a
unitary identity, which, in its turn, is part of contemporary popular
perception. The various syncretic traditions, the departures from
official versions of religion and culture, the reasons and effects of
such alienations, are germane to our project of studying
identity-formation in this region. The increasing entanglement of
aggressive religion and exclusivist politics in this area makes it
imperative to be aware of the marginalisation of popular local forms.
Whether rural or urban, in the form of oral or print literature, in
the performing arts such as folk theatre and music, in popular media
such as television or film, or in the visual arts, sub-continental
ideologies are constantly being debated and impacted upon by religious
ideologies. The influence of religion on culture and of culture on
religion assume central importance in this context, and our purpose,
in particular, is to bring out the ethical and political fallout of
such power-knowledge transactions in this region.

Seminar Schedule

	Day One 	
	December 7, 2010 	
	10.00 A.M.-10.45 A.M. 	Registration
  	10.45 A.M. 	Welcome Address by Dr. Manjusha Sinha Bera,
Officer-in-charge, Bethune College
	11.00 A.M. 	Inauguration of Seminar and Exhibition
  	11.20 A.M. 	Keynote Address by Professor Gautam Bhadra,
Rabindranath Tagore National Fellow
	12.20 P.M.-12.30 P.M. 	TEA
	12:30 P.M. 	Prof. J. L. Shaw, Senior Lecturer, Department of
Philosophy, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
	01:30 P.M.-02.15 P.M. 	LUNCH
	02:15 P.M. 	Prof. Prasanta Ray, Professor Emeritus, Departments of
Political Science and Sociology, Presidency College, Kolkata.
	
	Religion and Popular Culture in the Metropolis
		
	03.15 P.M.-03.30 P.M. 	TEA
	03.30 P.M. 	Panel Discussion: In the Name of God
	
	Panel Coordinator:
Dr. Rachana Chakraborty, Associate Professor, Department of History,
Calcutta University.
	Panelists:
Tajuddin Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Purulia College, The Road Less
Travelled: Seeds of Islamic Feminism in Early 20th Century Indian
English Fiction by Muslim Women.

Abdullah al-Mamun, Research scholar, Centre for Studies in Social
Sciences, Kolkata, God Willing: The Politics of Islam in Bangladesh.

Asmita Das, M. Phil. student, Dept. of Cultural Studies, English and
Other Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Bollywood, Identity and
Religion.
		
	04.20 P.M. 	Exhibition

  	Day Two 	
  	December 8, 2010 	
  	10.30 A.M. 	Yousuf Saeed, independent researcher and film-maker,
Director of Tasveer Ghar, a digital archive for documenting South
Asia's Popular Culture.
  	  	Depicting the Saintly Miraculous Powers in Muslim Poster Art of South Asia
  	11.30 A.M.-11.45 A.M. 	TEA
  	11.45 A.M. 	Dr. Madhuja Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Department
of Film Studies, Jadavpur University

Early Talkies and the Question of Bhakti: Gender, Love and Modes of Subversion
  	12.45 P.M.-01.30 P.M. 	LUNCH
  	01.30 P.M.-03.00 P.M. 	Paper presentations by scholars
  	03.00 P.M.-03.15 P.M. 	TEA
  	03.15 P.M. 	Lecture-demonstration by Kalika vocalist of Dohar, a
group of folk musicians and cultural activists.

     Vote of Thanks


http://www.tasveerghar.net