Annual South Asia Center Affiliated Faculty Workshop, co-sponsored by CASI, the South Asia Center, and Penn SAS
If the last two decades of the 20th century produced some of the searing and critical accounts of nationalism both in the Euro-American and in the postcolonial world, the first two decades of the twenty first century has seen the growth of studies that are trans-national at its core such as oceanic, environmental, and, anthropogenic, to name only a few, which fundamentally challenges the centrality of the idea of the nation. Yet, arguably, in this moment, we are also witnessing a resurgence of nationalism around the world leading scholars to confront and explain the continued rhetorical, methodological, and political-economic imperative of nationalism in a world that asks us to be conscious of the planetary. In this interdisciplinary workshop, scholars working on the long 20th century of South Asia, engage and critically reflect on the ways in which the question of nation and nationalism intersect their research enquiries; an engagement that would reveal both the promises and limits of nationalism on the one hand and document its complex, troubling genealogies on the other.
August 10, 2023: 9:00am - 5:00pm
9 AM: Introductory Remarks
First Session: Territory
9:15 - 10:00: National Majorities, Global Minorities, Natasha Suresh Raheja, Cornell University.
10:00 - 10:45: Beyond Territory: Overseas Indians and the re-framing of the Indian Nation, Haimanti Roy, University of Dayton.
10:45 - 11:15: Break
Second Session: Identity
11:15 - 12:00: Bengal Undivided: Language and the Limits of Nationalism, Ahona Panda, Claremont McKenna College.
12:00-12:45: Belonging, Patriotism, and the Unrelenting Demand on Muslims to Prove Loyalty to the Indian Nation, Raisur Rahman,Wake Forest University.
12:45-1:45: Lunch
Third Session: Genealogy
1:45 - 2:30: Beyond the Nation: Hindutva Futures in the twenty-first century Vinayak Chaturvedi, Vinayak Chaturvedi | University of California, Irvine.
2:30-3:15: How Political is the Indian Constitution?, Arvind Elangovan, Wright State University.
3:15-4:00: Problem of the People: Indian Princely States and the Making of the Indian Nationalist Thought, Sarath Pillai, University of Pennsylvania.
4:00-4:15 - Break
4:15-5: Final Round of Discussions
6:30-8:30: Dinner for Participants