[Reader-list] Regarding NMML Workshop – 28 July 2012

[rohitrellan at aol.in]

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
cordially invites you to a Workshop
 
at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, 28 July 2012
in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building
 
on
 
‘APPROACHINGRELIGION AND CASTE BEFORE COLONIALISM:
                                                 CASE STUDIES AND BEYOND’ 
                                                
in collaboration with
Mr. Vikas  Rathee
Department of History,University of Arizona, USA
 
Abstract
The idea that present-day socialformations and ideologies of South Asia, including communities and conceptsbuilt especially around caste andreligion, are colonial constructions has always found scholarly detractors.The universalistic projects of secularism and modernity, underpinning thecolonial and postcolonial social formations, have had the breadth of vision toshape the histories of previous periods in Indian history as ‘ancient’, ‘earlyhistorical’, ‘early medieval’, ‘Buddhist’, ‘Hindu’, ‘Muslim’, ‘medieval’,  ‘Mughal’ and so on. In this sense, Indianhistory is more than linear time, because the history of every other epoch inIndian history is directly linked with the colonial period. Recentattempts to find European or Protestant roots for the secular and modern, leavehistorians of social formations prior to those of colonial South Asia withinteresting possibilities and challenges. In the first place, can we imaginethat there were universalistics ideologies that underpinned social formationsof the periods prior to colonialism? Subsequently, how can we identify anddefine such universalisms, which presumably defined the limits of ideology andsocial action in particular eras? How did these ideologies change overconcatenating social formations in the various epochs of Indian history? Doescolonial power over-reach in its academic avatar? Is looking at particularcontexts of historical events the only way out for a historian of pre-colonialIndia?
 
This workshop focuses on ‘religion’and ‘caste’, but it is inevitable that other themes would surface. The paperspromise to have methodological and empirical rigour, in order to address and gobeyond the issue of continuity/change in thought and society from thepre-colonial to the colonial period. 
 
Programme Schedule
 
9:00 - 9:05 a.m.                   Welcome by Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan, Director,NMML. 
 
9:05 - 9:35 a.m                     Key note address by Dr. Dominique-Sila Khan, Instituteof                                                  Rajasthan Studies,Jaipur . 
 
9:35 - 11:00 a.m.                  SessionI
 
Chair:                                    Ms. Anubhuti Maurya,  Department of History, Bharati                                                        College, University of Delhi.
 
Speakers:                                Mr.  Mohd. Moti-ur Rehman  Khan,  Department of History, PGDAV College, University of Delhi. 
                                                 ‘The  Institution of ‘Waqf’, and the ideas ofHumanism in    Northern                                              India during pre-colonial times’.
 
                                                Mr.VikasRathee, University of Arizona, Tucson. 
                                               ‘Some texts and contexts of the usage of theterm ‘Hindu’ in                                                  seventeenth-century North India’.
 
 
Discussants:
                                                  Dr.Najaf Haider, Centrefor Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University,  New Delhi    
 
                                                 Prof. Chander Shekhar, Departmentof Persian, University of                                             Delhi.
 
11:00 – 11:15 p.m.               TeaBreak
 
11:15 – 1:00 p.m.                 SessionII
 
Chair:                                Prof.Deepak Mehta,Department of Sociology,  Delhi    School of Economics, University of Delhi 
 
 
Speakers:-                        Dr. SandhyaSharma,Department of  History,     Vivekanand College, University of Delhi. 
                                               ‘Religionand  Religiosity in Mughal India: Some observations from                                             contemporary literarytraditions’
 
                                               Mr.Syed Faisal,Centre for Studies in Science,  Technologyand                                          Policy, Bangalore. 
                                               ‘Shah Waliullah’s Community of Islam’
 
Discussants:
           `                                   Dr. Meenakshi Khanna, Department of History, Indraprastha                                             College, University of Delhi. 
 
                                               Mr. Shah  Nadeem, Departmentof  History, SGTB Khalsa                                                    College, University ofDelhi
 
 
1:00 – 2:15 p.m.                   Lunch
 
 
2:15 – 4:00 p.m.               SessionIII
 
 Chair:                            Dr.Milind Awad,Department of English, Jamia Millia      Islamia, Delhi.
 
Speakers:                       Dr. DunkinJalki,Centre for Studies in Local Culture,      KuvempuUniversity, Shimoga.
                                            ‘On theOrientalist Fictions of Caste and Hindu Religion: The case of                                                          Lingayat tradition’ 
 
                                          Ms. Meera Viswanathan, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal                                                  Nehru University, Delhi. 
                                           ‘TheVajrasuci’s Contestation of Varna-Jati’
 
 
Discussants :
                                          Dr. Ranjeeta Dutta, Department of  History, Jamia Millia Islamia,                                       Delhi .
 
                                          Dr. Shonaleeka Kaul, Department of History,University of Delhi. 
 
 
4:00 – 4:30p.m.               Concluding Remarks andTea
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
__________________________________________________________________
All arewelcome but advance intimation will be much appreciated as it will help us witharrangements including lunch.
 
Thosewishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at: nmmldirector at gmail.com
 
Address:Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi.
Note:There is an elevator for the FirstFloor for those who may need to use it.