Sumit Guha and University of Washington Press

Sumit Guha (UT-Austin) has a new book out from University of Washington Press: Ecologies of Empire in South Asia, 1400–1900 (July 2023). I'm intrigued by the strength of UW's South Asia catalogue. Their Global South Asia series (edited by Padma Kaimal, K. Sivaramakrishnan, and Anand A. Yang) just grows more impressive, and it's been fun seeing how the various titles intersect. I can't quite keep up with it, but I've leaned a lot on Sugata Ray's Climate Change and the Art of Devotion since it came out.

I always thought my book manuscript was destined to be sent to Duke or UChicago. Then the reality turned out to be that I'd always be one chapter away from finishing it and would send it nowhere. But every time I look at the UW Press website, I wonder if there's a way through that last chapter because that's the cohort I would want to join.

Anyway, back to Sumit Guha: a review of his previous book, History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000, also from UW Press, appeared on H-Net reviews his month, courtesy of Ramya Sreenivasan. My one real thought about this is that my own scholarship sags when it comes to Marathi-language sources, and I feel this most acutely when I'm writing/thinking about Sawai Jai Singh when he is outside the bounds of Amber/Jaipur, let's say the Malwa sojourns. This isn't what's keeping me from finishing my book, obviously, but I do sometimes wonder how different this last chapter would look if I'd spent as much time in Maharashtra as I had Rajasthan back in the day.

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta Archive

Hitesranjan Sanyal Memorial Collection: Centre’s Urban History Documentation Archive

(https://cssscal.org/archive.php)

The digital archives of the Urban History Documentation Archives of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences available for open access: Most of the printed documents archived by the CSSSC are available online for unrestricted access in collaboration with University of Heidelberg, The Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library and the Center for Research Libraries. The process of uploading of rest of the content is moving ahead and they will be available either on CrossAsia or on Endangered Archives Programme server soon.

• Open-access resources include:
• Bangla books and periodicals (19th, 20th c.)
• Assamese periodicals
• Newspaper: Jugantara Patrika (Calcutta, Bengali, daily: 1937 - 1980)
• Newspaper: Amrita Bazar Patrika (Jessore/Calcutta, bi-lingual / English, bi-weekly / daily: 1872 - 1890; 1892 - 1905; 1911; 1919 onward)
• Newspaper Jangipur Sambad (4242 issues)
• Sanskrit manuscripts from Santipur Bangiya Puran Parishad
• Chuchura bartabaha from the collection of Sisir Bani Pathagar
• books and periodicals from the collection of Dr. Shyamal Bera
• Nihar, the celebrated weekly newspaper from Nihar Press
• Books, periodicals, manuscripts from Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha (Bengal Buddhist Association)
• Periodicals from Sadharan Brahmo Samaj Library (Kolkata)
• Books and mss from Birsingha Vidyasagar Memorial Hall Rural Library (Medinipur) and Rajnarayan Basu Smriti Pathagar (Medinipur)
• Census of India reports from 1872 to 1951
• Journal of the National Indian Association

(see https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/discussions/8346650/centre-studies-social-sciences-calcutta-archive-and-its-open for Rajarshi Ghose's original post)

India, the Portuguese and Maritime Interactions

 

 

H-net book review for:

 

Pius Malekandathil, Lotika Varadarajan, Amar Farooqui, eds. India, the Portuguese and Maritime Interactions: Vol. I: Science, Economy and Urbanity. Delhi: Primus Books, 2019.

From Malabar to Coromandel — The Future of Deccan Heritage, Art and Culture

 

The pandemic has been brutal, nowhere more than India, but one small benefit has been the number of online meetings that have been available for wider participation. I'm still sad that Madison had to be cancelled, and truly disappointed that the SAH annual conference in Seattle was cancelled in March. But I've been able to listen to a lot of lectures and presentations I would have otherwise missed if all meetings had been held in person.

This is just to say: this webinar series from the Deccan Heritage Foundation looks amazing.

From Malabar to Coromandel — The Future of Deccan Heritage, Art and Culture

Seminars and lectures co-organized by the Deccan Heritage Foundation, the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, and the HH Sri Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Foundation, Mysore, presenting the pioneering work of scholars in various cultural fields from both the Northern and Southern Deccan regions of India.

Schedule

NOVEMBER 2020
November 13th at 13.00 GMT
Pushkar Sohoni (IISER Pune), The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India. Discussants: Marika Sardar (Aga Khan Museum) and Vivek Gupta (University of Cambridge) (Book Discussion)

• November 27th at 13.00 GMT
George Michell (Architectural Historian, DHF) "Art and Architecture of the Badami Chalukyas"

DECEMBER 2020
• December 11th at 16.00 GMT
Richard M. Eaton (University of Arizona) India in the Persianate Age: 1000—1765
Discussants: Alka Patel (UC Irvine) and Roy Fischel (SOAS, University of London) (Book Discussion)   

• December 18th at 13.00 GMT
Annapurna Garimella (Art, Resources and Teaching Trust) "The Square and the Rectangle: Design Transformations and Architectural Renovation between the 14th-16th Centuries in Vijayanagara"

JANUARY 2021
• January 8th at 13.00 GMT
Emma Flatt (UNC Chapel Hill) The Courts of the Deccan Sultanates: Living Well in the Persian Cosmopolis
Discussants: Evrim Binbaş (University of Bonn) and Subah Dayal (NYU Gallatin) (Book Discussion)

• January 22nd at 16.00 GMT
Anna Lise Seastrand (University of Minnesota)"Image and Imagination: Wall Paintings in Early Modern Southern India"

MARCH 2021
• March 5th at 13.00 GMT
Evrim Binbaş (University of Bonn) "The Idea of Sacral Kingship between Islamic and Turco-Mongol Concepts of Politics"

To learn more, visit the Deccan Heritage Foundation website (https://www.deccanheritagefoundation.uk/events/webinars/about) or write to deccanheritagefoundationindia@gmail.com.

 

South Indian Paintings

This is well outside my field of expertise, but this new resource for South Indian paintings seems like a nifty and necessary effort. Created by Anna L. Dallapiccola, John and Fausta Eskenazi, and Mr. C. Ganesan, this project documents South Indian murals (primarily in Tamil Nadu) that are threatened by vandalism and decay.

From the authors' description:

"We would like to share this collection of splendid murals with as many fellow enthusiasts, students, scholars, and travellers, as possible. The aim of this documentation is not only to provide a tool for further research on South Indian painting, but mainly to make the art world aware of this endangered cultural heritage and to encourage not only scholarship, but also restoration and conservation works."

See more at South Indian Paintings (https://southindianpaintings.art/)

 

Surviving the Pandemic in South Asia

Surviving the Pandemic in South Asia: A Panel Discussion with Anita Patil-Deshmukh, PUKAR; Imran Ahmed, Shakti Foundation, and Usman Javed, Mazdoor Dhaba

On Monday, September 28, at 9 a.m. EDT, the Rutgers South Asian Studies Program is hosting an event on COVID-19 in South Asia, with presentations from NGO leaders working with those most affected by the pandemic. Anita Patil-Deshmukh from PUKAR (Mumbai), Imran Ahmed from the Shakti Foundation (Dhaka), and Usman Jawed from Mazdoor Dhaba (Delhi) will speak, followed by a Q&A session.

For more information, see https://southasia.rutgers.edu/news-events/upcoming-events/eventdetail/88/-/surviving-the-pandemic-in-south-asia.

To register to attend, see http://bit.ly/SurvivingthePandemic-Registration

 

Partha Chatterjee: A Relativist View of the Indian Nation

 

Professor Partha Chatterjee will be speaking as part of the Rutgers AMESALL Distinguished Lecture Series, on Friday, October 09, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. EDT.

Talk abstract: Research in the last three decades on the print literatures in the various Indian languages has revealed that the consciousness of the people as constituting a nation was deeply grounded in the emergence in the 19th and 20th centuries of the regional vernaculars as standardized print languages. But the identity of the people-nation in each region had constituent features that were not the same everywhere. At the same time, the identity of a linguistic community as a people was located within a larger identity of belonging to the Indian nation. This paper argues that while there is a real construct of the Indian nation, it looks different when viewed from the perspective of each regional language. There is no language-neutral perspective available. Hence, one must accept a relativist view of the Indian nation.

For more information, see https://www.amesall.rutgers.edu/news-and-events/events/icalrepeat.detail/2020/10/09/79/-/amesall-distinguished-lecture or contact Prof. Preetha Mani (preetha.mani@rutgers.edu).