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).