[Reader-list] Rajni Kothari Annual Lecture by Shahid Amin

[Praveen Rai]

*Centre for the Study of Developing Societies*
**invites you to the Rajni Kothari Annual Lecture


*Community Formation and the Recognition of Difference: *

*the Image of a Turkic Warrior in Gangetic Folklore*
by *Shahid Amin*

Wednesday, 6 February 2013, 6 pm
CSDS Seminar Hall,
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054

*Rajni Kothari Annual Lectures* are instituted in honour of the CSDS
Founder Director Professor Rajni Kothari. Earlier speakers in the series
include Professors Sudipta Kaviraj, Gananath Obeysekere, Rounaq Jahan,
Abdellah Hammoudi, Charles Taylor and Arif Dirlik.

Difference is seen today not as impeding the development of the democratic
process, but rather as a key characteristic of the Indian polity. Problems
generally arise when we try to narrate the conflicts of the past as
anything other than the life histories of segregated groupings. This is
specially the case with the ‘fact’ and ‘memory’ of the Turkic conquest of
Northern India, epitomized most notably in the figure of Mahmud of Ghazni.
The lecture takes up the career of a ‘fictional’ nephew of the Sultan to
illustrate the process of difference-based community formation (of devotes)
across denominational divides over the past seven centuries.

Shahid Amin is currently Professor of History at the University of Delhi.
Among his publications are: *Event, Metaphor, Memory: Chauri Chaura*,
1922-1992 and *Writing Alternative Histories: A View from India*. He is the
editor of *A Concise Encyclopedia of North Indian Peasant Life*, the
co-editor, with Gyan Pandey, of *Nimnvargiya Itihas, Bhag Ek, Bhag Do*, and
has also written the Hindustani dialogues of the feature film Karvan,
directed by Pankaj Butalia.

Best

Praveen Rai
Academic Secretary
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29, Rajpur Road
Delhi - 110054
Phone: 91-11-23942199
Fax: 91-11-23943450
www.csds.in