Spring 2007 | Fall 2006 | Summer 2006 | Spring 2006 |Fall 2005| Summer 2005 | Spring 2005

February 8, Noon-1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"The Changing Horizon of Human Rights in Sri Lanka : The Ethnic Conflict, the Role of the Supreme Court and the influence of International Law"

Sumudu Atapattu, Associate Director, Global Legal Studies Initiative, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lecture is co-sponsored by Global Legal Studies Center.

In Sri Lanka the on-going ethnic conflict provided the context for many human rights violations ranging from disappearances to extra-judicial killings and from torture to arbitrary arrest and detention. Both sides to the conflict were responsible for these violations. The foundation for these violations was consolidated by the emergency regulations promulgated under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 and a state of emergency which was effective in the country for many years. With the change of administration in 1994, the new government promised to change the culture of impunity and to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. With this the human rights scenario slowly changed with many people resorting to the fundamental rights jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This presentation discusses these developments particularly through the lens of one particular judgment which had far reaching consequences in the fundamental rights jurisprudence in the country – Wimalenthiran’s case.

Sumudu Atapattu is the Associate Director of the Global Legal Studies Initiative at UW Law School. She has a Master of Laws Degree and a PhD Degree from Cambridge University , UK . Prior to coming to Madison , Sumudu taught for many years at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo and also worked as a Consultant to the Law & Society Trust, a leading human rights organization in Sri Lanka . She has many publications and her book entitled Emerging Principles of International Environmental Law was published recently by Transnational Publishers, New York .

February 15, Noon-1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective" 

Robert Frykenberg, Emeritus Professor, Department of History

Whether viewed from an analytical or from an historical perspective, the question of whether the ideology of "Hindutva" is a melding of Hindu fascism and Hindu fundamentalism has been posited.  That "Hindutva" is a profoundly religious and profoundly, even aggressively political form of nationalism, seems are clear.  From earliest glimmerings of its inception, its supporters seem to have combined ambiguity with confrontation, compromise and contradiction -- as tactical devices for achieving long range corporatist designs, for gaining paramount power and imposing a totalistic agenda upon all of  India .  The agenda of ‘Hindutva’ Ram Rajiya it aims to forge One Nation (in One State ), One Culture, One Religion, and One Language.  In Lord Rama’s Name, a single ‘Hindu Nation’ for the whole Indian Continent must be ruled by precepts of Arya Dharm, or Sanãtana dharma.   Sanskriti icons, norms, and symbols, invoking cosmic and eternal verities of Vedic Law must be reflected in principles on which this Nation must stand.   Under this regime, a changeless social structure -- "Four Colours (Chatur Varnya), as manifest in varnshrãmadharma -- must maintain and preserve each birth or caste (jãti) community within its rightful rank, status, and strata of relative purity or impurity.  Birth and Earth, Genomes in Sacred Blood and Molecules of Sacred Soil, are to determine every person's place within an all-encompassing and cosmic "World Order" (Vishwa Dharma).

Dr. Frykenberg was born and reared in India , trained in America and Britain (Ph.D., London [SOAS], 1961), he has been at Wisconsin in 1962.  His Guntur District, 1788-1848: A History of Local Influence and Central Authority (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), initiated a localistic, "bottom-up", Indocentric approaches to India 's history.  Similarly, his Land Control and Social Structure in Indian History (Madison 1969; New Delhi 1978), Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia (Madison, New Delhi: 1977, 1981), and Delhi Through the Ages (New Delhi, Oxford 1986, 1993), broke new ground in the historiography of India .  The same can be said for many articles, chapters, and essays in scholarly journals and volumes, among which some can be listed:

"The Concept of 'Majority' as a Devilish Force in the Politics of Modern India," Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, XXV:3 (November, 1987), 267-274;
 
 "The Emergence of Modern 'Hinduism' As a Concept and As an Institution: A Reappraisal With Special Reference to South India," Hinduism Reconsidered (Heidelberg: South Asia Institute, 1989),  1-29, edited by Gunther Sontheimer and Hermann Kulke (republished in New Delhi: Manohar Books, 1997),  82- 107;
 
"Constructions of Hinduism At the Nexus of History and Religion," Journal of  Interdisciplin­ary History, XXIII: 3 (Winter 1993), 523-550;
 
"Hindu Fundamentalism and the Structural Stability of India," in Fundamental­isms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance (Chicago: 1993), 233-55; and "Fundamental­isms in South Asia: Ideologies and Institutions in Historical Perspective," Accounting for  Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements (Chicago: 1994), 589-614 [The Fundamentalism Project], edited by Martin E. Marty and R.Scott Appleby.

"Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective," Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions (London : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, In Press), edited by Robert Mallett.

February 22, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

Cancelled

“Discerning Propriety: Rethinking Hindu Ethics through the Quotidian”

Leela Prasad, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Indian Religions, Duke University

Dr. Prasad will draw on her recent book that explores how ethics is experienced as a lived tradition in Sringeri, a well-known Hindu pilgrimage town in southwestern India . In this talk, she will discuss conversationally-shared stories about everyday acts and dilemmas and a narrative performance tradition about idealized conduct, to elaborate on how the notion of propriety is central to ethical thinking and practice. Connecting 11th century Sanskrit literary theory of dramatic propriety to contemporary oral poetics, she argues that appropriateness in everyday life--both as a poetic and a principle--is critical to conceptions of the auspicious and the dharmic, and ultimately to moral persuasiveness.

 

March 8, Noon - 1pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"After the Deal: How Far can the Indo-US Strategic Partnership go after the Civilian Nuclear Deal?"

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Senior Correspondent of the Hindustan Times

Lecture co-sponsored by the Asia Society and the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE)

Mr. Pal Chaudhuri will discuss the motivations of the interest groups in the US and India who supported the recent bilateral civilian nuclear agreement point to an ambitious agenda for the Indo-US strategic relationship. Domestic politics and a lack of a consensus on future relations in both countries are likely to constrain these agenda in the short-term.

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri is the Bernard Schwartz fellow at the Asia Society and Senior Correspondent of The Hindustan Times. He was previously an editorial writer for The Telegraph and The Statesman of Calcutta.

Pramit has a BA in history from Cornell University . In the past several years he was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the University of Maryland - College Park ; media fellow at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy; South Asia fellow at the Henry Stimson Centre in Washington DC , and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University 's South Asia department. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Mont Pelerin Society, the Liberty Institute of New Delhi and the Aspen Institute Italia.

Pramit has written widely on India 's foreign and international economic policies. He is a regular talking head on Asian television and radio stations. This year he has spoken at the Aspen Institute World Economy Conference, the Centre of Independent Studies annual consilium in Australia and at Singapore 's Institute for Southeast Asian Studies.

Pramit is based in Asia Society's New York headquarters this year. The focus of his work will be U.S.-India relations, India ’s role in a globalizing world, and the role of technology and innovation in the new Asia .

 

March 15, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"Is He in Heaven or in Hell? The Elusive Husband in the Newar Mythology of Marriage"

Christoph Emmrich, Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada

Narratives surrounding childhood rituals for Newar girls in the Kathmandu Valley tell us about multiple marriages as prerequisite for the final marriage to a mortal husband. Depending on the narrator, the handbook or the sequence of the ritual performance, the girls subsequently and alternatively engage with Shiva's ascetic bachelor son Suvarnakumara, the fire god Agni, a gandharva, the Five Buddhas, a mysterious being called the khyah and, finally, the sun god Surya. This talk looks at the prescriptive, performative and discoursive context of each possible pairing, to determine how the construction of serial religious practices and the role of changing divine agents have historically worked hand in hand to bring about the transformation of girls into women.

Christoph Emmrich, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto , Mississauga , was born in Amman , Jordan , acquired his PhD in Classical Indology at the University of Heidelberg in 2004 and has worked on the philosophy of time in canonical Theravada Buddhist and Digambara Jaina literature. His current research is on handbooks prescribing childhood rituals for girls among the Buddhist Newars of Lalitpur, Nepal .

 

March 22, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"Traps and Escapes: Folklore and Folk Artists in Post-Independence India"

Sadhana Naithani, Assistant Professor at the Centre of German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Dr. Sadhana Naithani, Assistant Professor from Centre of German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University is Visiting Associate Professor in Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

for the Spring Term 2007. Her PhD dissertation was a study of German folksongs and her post-doc researches since 1995 have explored the relationship between colonialism and folklore research. She is the author of  “In Quest of Indian Folktales” (Indiana University Press 2006) and her current research concerns the post-colonial and post-modern aspects of folklore.

Film Screening: 1 - 3 pm
Following Sadhana Naithani's talk Joe Elder has asked recognized filmmaker Sudheer Gupta  to show three of his recent films dealing with the survival of contemporary performing folk artists in India:

- Rajasthani child folk artists (33 min.),
- Extraordinary painter/singer: Manohar Deolalikar (33 min.),
- Street performers in Delhi (28 min.).

Everyone is welcome to stay for the films and to talk about them with Sudheer Gupta. Refreshments will be served.

March 27, 4 pm
240 Varsity Room, Union South

"A multicultural extravaganza celebrating Central, Southwest, South, and Southeast Asia"

Enjoy an evening of fun and entertainment as you find yourself in a colorful and exciting world of dance, drama, exhibition, fashion, music, poetry and more... Savor sampling of ethnic cuisine for free. Free tickets available at the Memorial Union Box Office or Van Hise 1238, starting March 16. For more information, please call 608-262-3012 or email ctkoerber@wisc.edu

Sponsored by the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia , WUD Global Connections, Global Studies, Center for South Asia , Center for Southeast Asia, Center for Russia , East Europe, and Central Asia, and LCA Graduate Student Association

April 12, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

“The Death of a Warlord, 3 June 1804 ”

Vijay Pinch, Associate Professor of History, Wesleyan University

Anupgiri Gosain was one of the most successful warlord-commanders of the eighteenth century.  He was also a Saiva ascetic.  He died suddenly near Banda, on 3 June 1804 .  Pinch will examine varying accounts of the circumstances surrounding his death, and through them problems of religion, empire, and history in India .

William R. ('Vijay') Pinch is Professor of History at Wesleyan University and the author of Peasants and Monks in British India (Berkeley 1996) and Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cambridge 2006).

 

April 19, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

"Conflict of the Archives and Counter-Signing Memories:Towards A Critical Humanities"

Venkat Rao, Professor School of Critical Humanities Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, and Visiting Professor, MIT

Archives articulate memories.  Memories are intangible; whereas, archives gather materialized memories.  Two distinct kinds of memories bind and unbind, continue and discontinue the phenomenal and non-phenomenal relations and existences in the world.  One set contains externalized and objectified memories, which are the work of the hand and face.  The other set figures the enacted and embodied memories that circulate across all sorts of materialities and whose relays are intractable and indeterminable.  Lithic or glyphic technologies make possible the archivation of the work of the hand and a-lithic “technologies” (gesture and speech) articulate the work of the face.  Civilizational differences can be tracked on the basis of modes of archival articulations.  European colonialism can be examined as initiating a colossal conflict of the archives – conflict between lithic and a-lithic technologies. 

This presentation is an initial attempt to grapple with culture-specific articulations of memory.  Specific themes such as how memories affect conceptions of texts, what is the relation between memory and techne or technology, mourning as a yearning for a future of memory and the problem of possessing memories or owning inheritances will be addressed.  For the purpose of demonstration specific “texts” from the narrative, visual and performative, or image, music and textual traditions of India will be drawn.  This presentation is a part of a larger work on mnemocultures of India.  The larger work is aimed at rethinking teaching and research in the humanities – counter-signing memories of critical humanities, from the context of India

 

Tuesday, April 24, 5:30 pm
336 Ingraham Hall

Prasanta Chakravarty, Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, India.

"Practice as Renunciation: The Anarchist Milieu and the Archaisms of Aurobindo Ghose."

Dr. Prasanta Chakravarty works at the cusp of political philosophy and literature. He received his doctoral degree from SUNY, Buffalo majoring in Comparative Literature. His book "Like Parchment in the Fire: Literature and Radicalism in the English Civil War" (Routledge, NY & London, 2006) has been published recently.

He is currently working on his fothcoming work on political theology in fin-de-siecle India, to be published by Sage in 2008. Prasanta is especially concerned with the ethical fallout of radical extemist thought and action in politics. Such radical monism was not only an interesting phenomenon
in nationalist India, but also a potent force--both in theory and practice--in reacting against a certain variety of liberal ideology in South Asia in the
current context. This particular talk will zero in on Aurobindo Ghose as an exemplar in this regard.

 

April 26, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

“Akbar's World”

Andre Wink, Professor, History Department, UW-Madison

Dr. Wink will talk about his forthcoming biography of the Mughal emperor Akbar (forthcoming, One World Publications, Oxford , 2007) an what it is like to write biographies, more particularly about major Muslim figures of the past.  

Professor Wink received his PhD from University of Leiden . His research interests focus primarily on India and the Indian Ocean area in the medieval and early modern age. Among his many publications are: Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya (Cambridge, 1986);

Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World , 3 Volumes (Leiden, Boston, Oxford, New Delhi, 1990-2004).

 

May 3, Noon - 1 pm
206 Ingraham Hall

“Indian Literature(s) in English Translation and the Discourse of Resistance and Representation”

Anisur Rahman, Professor of English, Department of English and Modern European Languages, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

As the title shows, in this talk professor Rahman will discuss issues of resistance and representation with reference to Indian text and their English translation. Although Indian literatures have been widely translated in the past, the act of translating India has become a serious academic engagement in the recent past. Considering this great tradition of translation, he will discuss how the questions of contextualization, theorization and canonization need attention in the fast changing literary scenario, more especially the postcolonial scenario representing a new literary culture.

Dr. Anisur Rahman is Professor in the Department of English and Modern European Languages, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He works in the areas of postcolonial literature and literary translation. He has researched in the literatures of India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. His publications include Form and Value in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel, Expressive Form in the Poetry of Kamala Das, New Literatures in English: Tradition and Modernity in the Literatures of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He has extensively published translations of poetry from Urdu to English and vice-versa. Fire and the Rose is his anthology of modern Urdu poetry in English translation and Translation: Poetics and Practice is the volume of critical studies he edited with reference to the Indian text and context.

top of page