Report on the 35th Annual Conference on South Asia

by Rachel Weiss, Outreach Specialist

The 35th Annual Conference on South Asia was held October 20-22, 2006 , at the Madison Concourse Hotel in Madison, WI . Nearly 500 participants attended the conference from the continental US and Hawaii, Europe, and Asia. Presenters covered a broad range of disciplines ranging from archaeology, architecture, development, economics, film studies, history, literature, political science, and religious studies to exploring issues of diasporas, gender, globalization, labor, language, performance, text and violence. There were a total of 87 panels, 5 roundtables, and 5 film screenings selected for presentation.

This year in recognition of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, the Annual Conference on South Asia featured Sri Lanka as its theme. Various special events, panels and papers were featured. Included in these events were:

• Preconference, “Cinema of Violence: A Workshop on the films of Prasanna Vithanage,” organized by Caitrin Lynch
  
• Keynote lecture, Dr. Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University : “Buddhism and the Hunter:
  A Structural Interpretation of Sri Lankan History”
  
• Photographic slide show and discussion by Abby Robinson: “ Sri Lanka : Photos, Filmmaking, and Narrativity”
  
• Performance by Diaspora Flow: “The Space Between Thoughts”
  
• Moderated film screening of “No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope & Betrayal,” with Sharika Thiranagama
  
• 10 organized panels from various disciplines on Sri Lanka

The 35 th annual conference committee was chaired by Charles Hallisey (Assistant Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia (LCA) and Religious Studies). Other committee members were: Preeti Chopra (Assistant Professor, LCA and Visual Culture Studies), Donald Davis (Assistant Professor, LCA), Sharon Dickson (Assistant Director, Center for South Asia), Joe Elder (Professor, LCA and Sociology), Christine Garlough (Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Arts and Folklore Program), J. Mark Kenoyer (Professor, Department of Anthropology), Kirin Narayan (Professor, Department of Anthropology), V. Narayana Rao (Professor, LCA), Hemant Shah (Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications), and Aseema Sinha (Department of Political Science).

The conference was staffed by Emmanuelle Hernandez (Communications Specialist, Center for South Asia ), and Rachel Weiss (Outreach Specialist, Center for South Asia ).

 

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Preconferences:

The Conference on South Asia continues to provide an opportunity for scholars to organize preconferences around a given theme. In 2006, there were four preconference held on Thursday, October 19. Abstracts for preconferences are submitted online and reviewed by the conference committee for selection.

• The Nepal Study Center held the First Annual Himalayan Policy Research Conference at which eight sessions were organized around the following topics: Health and Education, Environment, Gender, Migration and Trafficking, Resource Conservation, Democratization in South Asia , Politics, Democracy, and Conflict I & II, and Development and Poverty Alleviation.
  

• The ‘Long’ 1950s in South Asia was organized by: Itty Abraham ( East-West Center Washington ), Kamran Asdar Ali ( University of Texas , Austin ), and Willem van Schendel ( University of Amsterdam ). The question posed at this preconference was what exactly is being transformed in the present conjuncture in South Asia . The organizers posed that one way of understanding it is to see it as the dismantling of complex political, economic and socio-cultural structures that were installed half a century ago, and their replacement by new structures and institutions that are still in gestation. We propose that we cannot understand the current transformations – dismantlings – taking place across South Asia without returning to the originary moment of post-colonial South Asia – the ‘long’ 1950s. For all its apparently self-evident (and even occasionally nostalgic) character, we believe that the 1950s are poorly understood in contemporary scholarship. For long, ideological fixities, nationalist histories, and limited access to archives and other documentary forms of evidence have made an independent and critical assessment of this period difficult; as a result, the 1950s have often been represented as a transitional period between political independence and the ‘real’ crises of the 1960s and after, across South Asia. This assumption clearly needs interrogation, and based on new scholarship that is now emerging, we may now be in a position to do so from a variety of disciplinary and analytic standpoints.
  

• The American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies sponsored, Cinema of Violence: A Workshop on the Films of Prasanna Vithanage. Prasanna Vithanage is Sri Lanka ’s premier filmmaker. “Cinema of Violence” included a rare U.S. screening of two of his most well known films, “Purahanda Kaluwara” (Death on a Full Moon Day, 1997,) and “Iramadiyama” (August Sun, 2003). The panel discussion was chaired by Anjali Arondekar (Assistant Professor, Feminist Studies, University of California , Santa Cruz ) and moderated by Geeta Patel (Associate Professor, Women's Studies, Wellesley). Discussants were be Neloufer de Mel (Professor of English, Cultural Studies, and Women’s Studies, University of Colombo), Caitrin Lynch (Assistant Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Olin College of Engineering), and Ranjini Obeyesekere (retired Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Princeton University).

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University offered the keynote address “Buddhism and the Hunter: A Structural Interpretation of Sri Lankan History,” for the 35 th Annual Conference on South Asia .

Dr. Obeyesekere received his Ph.D. from University of Washington in 1964. He has engaged in fieldwork in  Sri Lanka and  India . He is most interested in psychoanalysis and anthropology and the ways in which personal symbolism is related to religious experience; and European voyages of discovery to  Polynesia in the 18th century and after, and the  implications of these voyages for the development of ethnography. His books include Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Medusa's Hair, The Cult of the Goddess  Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (coauthor), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Making Karma. Nearly 400 conference participants attended the lecture.

 

Plenary Session

The plenary session, “The Future of Secularism in South Asia ,” was organized by Anuradha Needham (Professor, English, Oberlin College ) and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan (Distinguished Visiting Global Professor, New York University ). The speakers included:

• Amrita Basu , Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Political Science , Amherst College
• Vasudha Dalmia , Professor of South & Southeast Asian Studies, University of California-Berkeley
• Javed Majeed , Senior Lecturer of School of English and Drama, University of London
• Aamir Mufti , Associate Professor of Comparative Literature , UCLA
• Anuradha Needham , Professor of English, Oberlin College
• Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology, University of Edinburgh

Performances

Vocal Music from South India

B. Balasubrahmaniyan’s ensemble performed following the keynote address. Musicians included B. Balasubrahmaniyan , voice, (Adjunct Instructor, Music, Wesleyan University ), Dr. David Nelson , mridangam,(Artist in Residence, Wesleyan University ), and Jayshankar Balan, violinist .

 

The Space Between Thoughts

Choreographer: Pradeepa Jeevamanoharan
Visuals: Chamindika Wanduragala
Video: Annelize Machado
Dancers: Pradeepa Jeevamanoharan and Annelize Machado

Presented by Diaspora Flow which is a Minnesota-based Sri Lankan American nonprofit arts organization connecting communities of color through artistic expression. "The Space Between Thoughts is a performance installation involving dance, visual art, video and music. The choreography is a fusion of classical South Asian dance with modern and yoga, creating a new style of movement. Our artistic goal is to create visually and with movement, the reality in our minds, which has been shaped by diverse influences. We want to acknowledge the generational connections that make us who we are. A passing down of knowledge/experiences/desires as well as intersection of space between our personal dreams/influences and what we were born into. This space recalls ancestral memory, a sense of discovery, primal relationships and deals with the inability to articulate with words, the feelings, frustrations and wonderment of such complex connections. What we hope to achieve is an artistic representation of the inarticulated spaces in our minds when dealing with culture, dreams, and carving out new paths." For more information about the artists, please visit www.diasporaflow.org.

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Association Meetings

As in past years, many organizations and associations have scheduled meetings and receptions at the annual conference. The following associations conducted their board meetings, board of trustees meetings, and general business meetings at the 2006 conference:

American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS)
American Institute for Sri Lanka Studies (AISLS)
Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies
Rajasthan Studies Group
South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI)
South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA)
South Asian Muslim Studies Association

Reception

The American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) and Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) hosted a reception on Saturday evening for their members and conference participants.

 

Film Screenings

The conference committee reviews films for screenings at the conference. The following films were selected:

• From Africa to India : Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean

Directed by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy (2003, 74 min). Screening and discussion moderated by Dr. Henry Drewal (Professor, Art History, UW-Madison).

• Haro Hara: Pilgrimage to Kataragama

Directed by Samuel Holt (2006, 75 min). Screening and discussion moderated by the director.

• No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope & Betrayal

Directed by Helene Klodawsky (2004, 74 min). Screening and discussion moderated by Sharika Thiranagama, the daughter of Dr. Rajani Thiranagama who the film is about. Sharika plays her mother in the film.

• On the Road with the Red God: Macchendranath

Directed by Kesang Tseten, filmmaker, Kathmandu , Nepal (2005, 72 min). Screening and discussion moderated by Dr. Bruce Owens (Associte Professor, Anthropology, Wheaton College ), who served as an ethnographic advisor on the film.

• The Sidi Malunga Project: Rejuvenating the African Musical Bow in India

Directed by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy (2004, 42 min). Screening and discussion moderated by Dr. Henry Drewal (Professor, Art History, UW-Madison).

• Voices of the Sidis – Two Documentaries

  We’re Indian and African (22 min) and Ancestral Links (26 min)

  Directed by Beheroze Shroff (2005). Screening moderated by the director.

   

  Special Exhibition

  
  “The Art of African-Indians” patchwork quilts by the Siddis of Northern Karnataka was on display and for sale throughout the conference. The exhibit explored the rich quilt making tradition among the Siddis, descendants of early African immigrants to South Asia and enslaved Africans brought to Goa on India 's west coast by the Portuguese. Today the Siddis live in villages scattered in the thick forests and high plains south of Goa . While they have adopted, adapted, and preserved many aspects of Indian cultures, Siddis have also retained and transformed certain African traditions. In the visual arts, one such tradition stands out--the patchwork quilts known as kawandi. The exhibition was arranged by Henry Drewal (Professor, Art History, UW-Madison).

  
  Book Exhibit

  A large book exhibit featuring university presses, independent publishers, and non-profit organizations provided an outstanding selection of South Asian publications available. While many of these were returning exhibitors, some were new to the conference:

  • American Institute for Pakistan Studies (AIPS)
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Duke University Press
  • Indiana University Press
  • Freethinkers, LCA Graduate Student Organization
  • New York University Press
  • Nomad Productions
  • Oxford University Press
  • Routledge
  • SAGE Publications
  • South Asia Summer Language Institute
  • The Scholar's Choice
  • The Sigur Center for Asian Studies
  • Wisconsin College Year in India/Nepal

  
  

Abstracts

Abstracts from the Annual Conference of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 are now available online. They can also be purchased in hard copy for $10.00.

 

Next Conference

The 36 th Annual Conference on South Asia will be held on October 11-14, 2007 . Please visit the website for the registration and to see the schedule: http://southasiaconference.wisc.edu

 

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