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.

 

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).