A Real Threat to Research and Safety

Any woman* considering dissertation research in India should read Audrey Truschke's recent essay** and take it seriously. As a scholar working in science studies, cultural heritage management, and architectural/landscape history, I've run up against the limits of what can be said without threat of a masculinist Hindutva retaliation. While my personal safety has never been threatened (that I know of), I have certainly done a lot of self-censoring when applying for visas, pursuing certain research topics, and publishing on certain topics. I thought long and hard before publishing my article on Ayodhya, and I had to take multiple deep breaths before publishing an article that undermines the myth of Jaipur as a Hindu city (city plan).

My dissertation research will probably never make it into book form, but that may be just as well, as interpreting Jai Singh's observatories as sites of an exclusively Hindu science is just not possible. Certainly earlier Hindu/Sanskrit texts played a role, especially early in Jai Singh's explorations, but arguably, Islamic and then European texts were more important during the era of design and construction.

I don't know what kind of risk I'd be willing to assume to see my book published. Professionally, I'm not dependent on it for promotion and advancement, so having my book pulped like Wendy Doniger's wouldn't necessarily hurt my career. But it would hurt personally, tremendously, beyond what I could express.

Knowing the problem is the first step: be aware of what's going on. Solving the problem is the second, third, fourth, and fifth step. Men, support your more vulnerable colleagues at home and in the field. Think about how networks that are so valuable to your research may be failing to help your female colleagues. If your voice is being heard, use it for change. Listen to the women with whom you work.

*Really, this warning is for everyone working in South Asian studies, but women, trans, and non-binary people are definitely more at personal risk.

**Thank you to the scholar who shared this essay via the ACSAA network this morning.

AIIS Digital Scholarshipt Grants

Reposted from the American Institute of Indian Studies:

The American Institute of Indian Studies is pleased to announce the launch of its Digital India Learning (DIL) initiative and invites proposals that demonstrate a sustained use of digital methodology and resources in the exploration of a research topic focused on India. AIIS welcomes projects at all stages of development, including pilots at a preliminary stage of conception, that foster the digital production and dissemination of knowledge about India; that promote the creation and use of digital resources and media for the study of India; and that promote digital collaboration across disciplines including, and especially, between the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. Award funds can be used to supplement current projects supported by other grants, but the budget should clearly explain what portion of the project will be supported by the AIIS award.  Award funds may not be used exclusively for hosting a conference or workshop, but convenings that are necessary to help advance a project are allowed if the purpose is explained in the narrative. Anticipated outcomes may include but are not limited to digital material and publications, reports, teaching resources, online exhibits, digital infrastructure, and software.

AIIS is offering two grants, each for $12,500. A proposal for a project can be submitted by one principal investigator applicant or a team of two or more principal investigators in collaboration. Projects do not need to involve travel to India. Eligible applicants include faculty, as well as non-faculty professionals at institutions of higher education in the United States. Applicants from community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions, and institutions which do not have established South Asian studies programs are especially encouraged to apply.

Applicants should submit their application in the form of a single pdf, by email to aiis@uchicago.edu The application deadline is September 15, 2020.

When COVID-19 Impacts your PhD Fieldwork

Ru-Yin Lu was conducing Ph.D. research in Arunachal Pradesh when the pandemic made itself known. When do you decide to leave a research site? How do you decide to leave?

A brief aside: I was studying Russian at Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University when the the U.S. shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf. It was an anxiety-ridden time for me--it was difficult to get news or hear any commentary that wasn't drenched in Cold War rhetoric. There was no easy way to contact family or friends in the U.S. I imagine those Soviet days = Stage 1 of what this scholar experienced. No easy thing.

Read more: Ru-Yin Lu, When COVID-19 Impacts your PhD Fieldwork.

The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India

Here is an exciting new book! Why this book excites me: while these scientists aren't unknown to other physicists, they are not very often the focus of English-medium (Eurocentric) text books, despite the cosmopolitan, transnational practice of science. Having typed that sentence, perhaps we can say that Bose is the exception, though it is more because of the pairing of his name with Einstein's. (How many Americans know who Raman is, despite the Nobel Prize?) I suspect fans of early quantum physics, but I'm more interested in the sustenance of "Indian science" under a colonial government.

The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India

Somaditya Banerjee

ISBN 9781472465535

Routledge, May 26, 2020

Hardcover, 202 pages

From the publisher:

"This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category "bhadralok physics" is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination. The term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific research.

The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as "cosmopolitan nationalism," which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation."

South Asian Newspapers at the Library of Congress

Gujarātī [microform] = The Gujarati.  Cover of January 2, 1881 issue.  Library of Congress Asian Division.

More from the Library of Congress:

The research guide for South Asian Newspapers at the LOC is now live.

The guide contains lists of more than 275 newspapers on microfilm in Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and other South Asian languages that are available in the Asian Reading Room, as well as English newspapers from South Asia in the Newspaper and Current Periodicals Reading Room.

This guide was produced by the Asian Division's South Asia reference staff, along with Andrew Kerr, a volunteer working with the South Asian collection during the spring of 2019, and Iris Yellum, Library of Congress Junior Fellow during the summer of 2019.

See: https://guides.loc.gov/south-asian-newspapers

LOC South Asian Collections Webinar

Hat-tip to AIIS for sharing information about an upcoming webinar. The Asian Division at the Library of Congress will be offering a free introduction to its South Asian collections on November 21, 2019. ADA accommodations are available.

Direct link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-the-south-asian-collection-webinar-registration-79419218019

How Kelsey Utne Does History

Contingent Magazine has a new series on how historians work. First up: "How Kelsey Utne Does History". Utne is a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell, working on the politics of human remains and the memorialization of death in late colonial India. In the spring, she's teaching a writing seminar called "Landscapes of Death: Memorials, Monuments, & Massacre Sites."

Direct link: https://contingentmagazine.org/2019/10/31/how-kelsey-utne-does-history/