Emergent Voices: South Asia InstitutePakistan in the 21st Century The University of Texas at Austin September 21-22, 2012 NEWSLETTER AVAYA AuditoriumFALL ACES 2013 2.302

The South Asia Institute, University of Texas “I’ll Beat Around” by Asma Mundrawala, Austin 2012, digital print, 24” x 34” This workshop brings together recent scholarship on Pakistan from a range of disciplines. The presents: discussion will open up new avenues of dialogue and debate based on themes from urban history, cultural politics, to art and aesthetics and social movements. While rethinking the dominant paradigm in North indianPakistan studies, the workshop will introduce new perspectives that showcase the dynamic and changing Musical folk theaternature of Pakistani society. NAUTANKI INDALParticipants HARAN : • Asad Ahmed, Harvard University (THE ABDUCTION • OFIftikhar INDAL) Dadi, Cornell University Performance by Devendra Sharma’s Swang• Will andGlover, Nautanki University Mandali of Michigan • Matthew Hull, University of Michigan • Humeira Iqtidar, Kings College London Directed by Dr. Devendra Sharma • Aamir Mufti, UCLA Under the guidance of Guru Pandit• Naveeda Ramdayal Khan, Sharma Johns Hopkins University • Tahir Naqvi, Trinity University • Rochona Majumdar, University of Chicago • Paula Newberg, Georgetown University • Farina Mir, University of Michigan • Sameera Raja, Gallerist and Curator • Nada Raza, Curator, Iniva • Cabeiri Robinson, University of Washington • Sadia Shirazi, Architect and Curator • Karin Zitzewitz, Michigan State University

South Asia Institute • voice: 512.471.3550 • fax: 512.471.3336 • www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/

south asia institute the university of texas at aust

in

Swang-Nautanki is one of the most popular operatic performance traditions of northern India. Before the advent of Bollywood (Indian film industry), Nautanki was the biggest entertainment medium in the villages and towns of northern India. Often, 25,000 to 30,000 people would gather to watch Nautanki performances. Friday April 26, 2013 Nautanki’s rich musical compositions and humorous, entertaining storylines hold a strong influence over rural 7:00 pm people’s imagination, and even after the spread of mass media, a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 can be seen at the top Texas Union Theater Nautanki performances. (UNB 2.228)- UT Austin 2247 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78713

Free and open to the public South Asia Institute • voice: 512.471.3550 • fax: 512.471.3336 • [email protected] • http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/ Letter from the Director

Dear Colleagues, Students and publishing articles and books, receiving grants and Friends, international recognition has made the South Asia program one of the best in the country. It can all be Another eventful year for attributed to the combined hard work and dedication the South Asia Institute and we that the faculty and students bring to the study of South keep on remaining busy with Asia at UT Austin. seminars, talks, outreach events This past year we have again been successful in and grant applications. Our receiving another one million dollar Federal Grant. 2012-2013 year started with Housed at the South Asia Institute, the grant allows two major conferences, one for a three year exchange program between UT’s on Pakistan and the other on Buddhism in South Asia. Butler School of Music and the National Academy of The Fall 2012 seminar series was dedicated to Professor Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi, Pakistan. The Patrick Olivelle’s contribution to South Asian studies, program will bring students from NAPA to UT to learn Religion and Society in Traditional India. This was aspects of the Western Classical tradition with a focus followed in the Spring semester with a series, Discourses on music theory, voice training and conducting. This on Masculinity and Violence in South Asia. Both these is in addition to the ongoing exchange program with series were well attended and brought senior and junior the Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Rawalpindi. scholars from a range of disciplines to UT, Austin. The In addition to these two large grants we have received year ended with an amazing Nautunki performance ample funds from various supporters in the community of the play, Indal Haran, for the community at large. to conduct K-12 workshops on India and South Asia. Unfortunately two of our senior colleagues and stalwarts Looking ahead SAI will be applying for the Title in the field of South Asian studies, Patrick Olivelle and VI grant this year. We all need to work together to make Katherine Hansen, decided to call it a day in May of this a successful grant and I am looking forward to your 2013. Luckily both will remain in Austin during their support. Lastly, let me thank our staff colleagues for retirement and we will be blessed with their continued their dedication, hard work and enthusiasm for all that presence in our community. they do for South Asia Institute. Thank you. South Asian studies at UT has added four new senior faculty members in Government (Newberg), Regards, History (Chatterjee and Guha) and Asian Studies (Davis) to its roster. We have the good fortune to have another South Asian Studies Librarian, Mary Rader, who has an added portfolio of global studies coordinator. Kamran Asdar Ali The new hires, students receiving fellowships, colleagues

In this Issue... Letter from the Director ...... 1 Kathy Hansen’s Curtain Call...... 10 Faculty, Student & Alumni News ...... 2 Newly Emeritus Patrick Olivelle...... 11 SAI Welcomes New Faculty...... 4 K-12 Outreach...... 15 Recent Publications by Faculty...... 6 SAI Collaborates with Other UT NRCs...... 15 Ayesha Jalal’s new book on Manto...... 6 K-12 Educator Workshops...... 15 Rethinking Gandhi...... 7 SAI to partnership with NAPA...... 17 Emergent Voices...... 8 Boundaries of Buddhism...... 17 Hindi Urdu Flagship Report...... 9 Call for Papers: SAGAR ...... 18

1 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 Faculty, Student & Alumni News

Faculty and a six-month fellowship from by Houston’s biggest South Indian the International Institute for Asian language school, the Greater Houston Prof. David J. Eaton, of the Studies in Leiden, the Netherlands. Tamil School. LBJ School of Public Affairs continued Both fellowships will support his Prof. Martha Ann Selby, the partnership between UT-Austin writing of the results of his fieldwork. the Chair of the Department of and the United Nations’ Institute for Prof. Keeler has also written an essay Asian Studies, received a Fulbright- Training and Research (UNITAR) for an edited collection about using Nehru Senior Research Fellowship by sponsoring two graduate courses fiction, memoirs, and film to teach for the 2013-14 academic year. She through the UT-Austin University anthropology is spend eight months in Chennai, Extension and the UNITAR where she will translate the fiction of Afghanistan Fellowship Program Dr. Afsar Mohammad’s new contemporary Tamil writer D. Dilip for Afghan-national executives in book, entitled “The Festival of Pirs: Kumar. Selby will also assess the government, universities, and civil Popular Islam and Shared Devotion current literary scene in Chennai and society. The two courses were held in South Asia”, was published by the write a brief history of post-1947 Tamil in April-November 2011 and April- Oxford University Press in 2013. literature. November 2012, respectively. In Dr. Mohammad is a lecturer in the addition, Prof. Eaton was the co- Department of Asian Studies. His book recipient of the American Society for deals with localized forms of Islam and Dr. Jishnu Shankar Public Administration’s 2012 James offers a theoretical perspective on the contributed a chapter titled “From W. McGrew Research Award for the making of new Muslim groups that Liminal to Social in the Modern Age: policy analysis and policy impact of define themselves as “true” Muslims. Transcendent Sacrality and Social his edited monograph, Title Insurance Science in the Aghor Tradition,” in Regulation in Texas: Challenges and Dr. Patrick Olivelle’s new the book “Lines in Water: Religious Opportunities. volume, King, Governance, and Law Boundaries in South Asia”, Syracuse in Ancient India, was published by the University Press (2013. The book is Prof. Lalitha Gopalan, of Oxford University Press in 2013. Dr. edited by Eliza F. Kent and Tazim R. the Department of Radio, Television, Olivelle is an Emeritus Professor of the Kassam. Film, received three prestigious grants Department of Asian Studies. for the next two years: the Tagore Prof. Cynthia Talbot, of the Fellowship from The Ministry of Dr. Sankaran Department of History, received a UT Culture, Government of India; the Radhakrishan was the chief guest Humanities Research Award for 2013- Senior Long Term Research Fellowship for an annual day event organized 15 for a new project, entitled ‘Noble from AIIS; and the Fulbright-Nehru SAI Mourns the Loss of Public Affairs Professor Shama Gamkhar Senior Fellowship. Shama Gamkhar, an associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, died Prof. Rupert Snell presented along with her husband in a plane crash in Georgia on August 4, 2013. The South a paper “New Directions in the Asia Institute extends its deepest sympathies to her Teaching of Hindi in the United States” family and friends. at the European Hindi Conference at Fifty-four year old Gamkhar joined the LBJ the University of Valladolid, Spain. On School in 1996 and taught public finance and finance June 20, 2012 the President of India, and financial management. She had recently served as Pratibha Patil, presented him with the graduate adviser for the Master of Public Affairs degree George Grierson Award for service to program. Hindi by non-Indians at a ceremony at Gamkhar was an expert in environmental Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. economic policy, focusing on climate change and pollution abatement. Her research interests included Prof. Ward Keeler, of the fiscal federalism, transportation finance, and municipal Department of Anthropology, spent bond markets. She served as the co-editor of the Annual August 2011 through July 2012 Review of American Federalism published by Publius: The Journal of Federalism. She living and doing fieldwork in two also published regularly in peer-reviewed journals. Buddhist monasteries in Mandalay, Gamkhar earned an M.Phil. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Myanmar (Burma). He has received Delhi University, before receiving her Ph.D. in economics from the University of a three-month fellowship from Maryland at College Park. Faculty and students knew her as a warm and generous the Asia Research Institute of the colleague and mentor. Saif Shahin National University of Singapore

South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 2 Lineages in the Making: Writing for 2013-2014. As a research fellow, the country while living in a Burmese Warrior Histories in Mughal India, Noman plans to write his Ph.D. Theravada Buddhist monastery. Bodh 1590-1690.’ dissertation. His Ph.D. research Gaya is known as the traditional investigates how post-9/11 financial location for the historical Buddha’s Prof. Kamala Visweswaran, surveillance has influenced upon enlightenment underneath a bodhi of the Department of Anthropology, mercantile practices in contemporary tree. Matthew will be teaching one is teaching Fulbright in Sri Lanka Pakistan. The ethnographic research course, “History of South Asian next year. Her edited book, Everyday was conducted in Pakistan largest Buddhism” and will serve in several Occupations (University of wholesale bazaar, Bolton Market, support roles such as advising students Pennsylvania Press), was published in in Karachi, (2011-2013), and in developing an independent study April 2013. She has also been selected concentrated largely on the customary research project and in weekly to serve on the Editorial Board of networks of informal money transfer meditation reflection meetings. Feminist Studies. system. Emily Ernst was awarded two Dr. Herman Van Olphen, Eric Nordstrom received full fellowships for 2013-14 namely – The Professor Emeritus of the Department CLS (Critical Language Scholarship) American Institute for Indian Studies of Asian Studies, gave the keynote funding for his study in India this Language Fellowship and the Boren address at the annual celebration summer. The scholarship included Fellowship. She received the Boren of Hindi Divas (“Hindi Day”) airfare, tuition, room/board, and a Fellowship to study Urdu in Lucknow, organized by the Hindi Secretariat stipend to cover typical expenses India. in Mauritius on January 10, 2013. during the program. While in Mauritius, he also spoke at Stella Wojdyla received the the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, DAV Matthew D. Milligan, a German Academic Exchange Service College, and the Hindi Speaking PhD Candidate in Asian Languages Scholarship for 2013-14. Union. In December 2012, he spent and Cultures, has been chosen by two weeks at the Mahatma Gandhi Antioch University to be an Adjunct Dean Accardi was awarded International Hindi University in Instructor for the 2013 Buddhist the Asian Studies Continuing Vardha, Maharashtra, India. During Studies in India study abroad program Fellowship. His research focuses on his stay, he presented a paper at a in Bodh Gaya, a small pilgrimage the relationship between religion and conference on Hindi curriculum village in the province of Bihar in the state in early modern Kashmir, and worked with Hindi teachers northeastern India. The program especially how asceticism and bodily from various countries to prepare provides a semester of rigorous discipline contribute to ideas of a curriculum for foreign students academic study for American sanctity, authority, and power. studying Hindi at the Hindi University. undergraduate students from all over Dan Rudmann and Vibha Congratulations to the 2013-2014 Shetiya received the Graduate Students FLAS Awardees! School Continuing Fellowship award. Elliott McCarter, has Academic Year 2013-2014 Awardees: successfully defended his dissertation • Elizabeth Bolton, Radio, Television, Film, Urdu Emilia Bachrach and and is currently teaching Hindi at • Charlotte Giles, Asian Studies, Urdu Suzanne Schulz were awarded Emory University. • Eben Graves, Ethnomusicology, Bengali the ACLS/Mellon Dissertation • Andrea Gutierrez, Asian Studies, Tamil Completion Fellowship for 2013- Saif Shahin, a doctoral • Kathleen Longwaters, Asian Studies, Urdu 14. ACLS-Mellon Dissertation student at the School of Journalism, • Jacob Hustedt, Radio-Television-Film, Hindi Completion Fellowships support won three awards for his research • Farhana Maredia, Asian Studies, Urdu a year of research and writing to papers: a top student paper • Colin Pace, Asian Studies, Marwari help advanced graduate students in award from the International • Aaron Sherraden, Asian Studies, Malayalam the humanities and related social Communication Association, as well • M. Keely Sutton, Asian Studies, Malayalam sciences in the last year of Ph.D. as a top student paper award and a dissertation writing. The total award top paper in an open competition Summer 2013 Awardees: of up to $33,000 includes a $25,000 award from the Association for • Charlotte Giles, Asian Studies, Urdu stipend plus additional funds Education in Journalism and Mass • Andrea Gutierrez, Asian Studies, Tamil for university fees and research Communication. • Jacob Hustedt, Radio-Television-Film, Marathi support. In addition, Dissertation • Kathleen Longwaters, Asian Studies, Urdu Completion Fellows are able to Noman Baig has been • Kevin Mann, Engineering, Urdu apply to participate in a seminar awarded a prestigious dissertation • Farhana Maredia, Asian Studies, Persian on preparing for the academic job writing fellowship at Max Planck • Colin Pace, Asian Studies, Hindi market. Institute in Gottingen, Germany,

3 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 Colin Pace was awarded Alumni She is teaching courses on modern a three-year National Science South Asian History and Women and Foundation (NSF) Graduate Mubbashir Rizvi Islam in South Asia. Fellowship. (Anthropology PhD 2013) joined the Anthropology Department Laura Brueck is now teaching Peter Knapczyk is now at Georgetown University. His as Associate Professor of Hindi in the teaching Hindi at University of dissertation “‘Masters Not Friends’, Department of Asian Languages and Colorado, Boulder. He is a PhD Land Labor and Politics of Place Cultures at Northwestern University, student in Asian Cultures and in Pakistan” is a historical and Evanston, Illinois. Languages and his research examines ethnographic study of a landless the literary, religious, and political peasant movement in Punjab, Gardner Harris is the impact of the Urdu marsiyah (elegy) in Pakistan. At Georgetown, Mubbashir Director of South Asian Religion early modern India. is teaching courses on environmental and Art at the Shraman South Asian anthropology, state and citizenship in Museum and Learning Center Jonathan Seefeldt, a the postcolonial context, and a field Foundation. The Shraman foundation graduate student in Asian Studies, is methods course. is a non-profit located in Dallas, teaching English at Woodstock School TX with the mission of collecting, in India. Woodstock School is the Asiya Aslam started her preserving, displaying, interpreting oldest international boarding school postdoctoral fellowship at Yale and facilitating the study and in Asia that offers a world-class college University. Asiya Alam received her discussion of South Asian culture and preparatory education to students PhD in 2013 from the Department of history, with a primary focus in India. from around the world. Asian Studies. Her research focuses on the debates and discussions Brian Boitmann founded concerning family and marriage a non-profit called ‘Acts of Sharing’, among Muslim communities in which helps connect people to all the colonial north India from the late- things they may be able to temporarily nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. borrow from other members of the community. SAI Welcomes New Faculty Indrani Chatterjee Chatterjee earned her doctorate in 1996 from the Professor, Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Indrani Chatterjee has written and taught for London. She has published extensively. Her latest book, two decades on issues of slavery, sexuality, and family Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages, and Memories in modern South Asian history, weaving together of Northeast India (Oxford University Press, 2013) subaltern, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives. “Both studies the peculiar conditions under which modern at the undergraduate and graduate level, my teaching Indians produced amnesiac histories of northeastern is an attempt to raise questions about the past of the India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, subcontinent that my own teachers did not or could not Mizoram, Tripura). In her next monograph, she will track answer,” she told SAI. the gendered nature of capitalism in the eastern part of That philosophy is the Indian subcontinent in the eighteenth and nineteenth reflected in the two courses centuries. that Chatterjee, who has Chatterjee said she is excited about being associated moved to UT-Austin after 12 with the South Asia Institute. “I would like to work with years at Rutgers University, others involved in South Asian studies at UT to find taught in Fall 2013. Slavery common inspiration and enthusiasms,” she said, “and to & South Asian History build upon core strengths of this Institute.” looked at how destitute people, orphans, debtors, Don Davis and criminals have been Associate Professor, Department of Asian incorporated into social Studies and political institutions in the subcontinent. A seminar Don Davis, a leading scholar of the history of on Postcolonialism familiarized students with strands Hindu law, returns to teach at his alma mater 13 years of political philosophy by locating them in particular after earning his doctorate. Much of his research relates moments in anti-colonial struggles. to Dharmaśāstra, a textual corpus in Sanskrit that deals South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 4 with social life in ancient and medieval India, including like to develop both graduate and undergraduate courses religion and law. He is especially interested in Malayalam in environmental history and the history of language, language and Kerala, which serves as the historical and among other topics,” he said. regional context for his work. Guha has published extensively on South Asia’s Davis’s teaching is intimately tied with his research. economic and social history. His book, Beyond Caste: He comes to UT after Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present, will nine years at University of be published by E.J. Brill this year. He recently edited a Wisconsin-Madison. “At special issue of the Medieval History Journal (vol. 14, UT, I hope to offer advanced no. 2) on the theme of literary cultures of frontier zones seminars on Hindu Law and from 16th century Mexico through the Mediterranean to Comparative Religious Law, eastern Burma. lecture courses on Hinduism After earning his doctorate from the University of and Jainism, and reading Cambridge in 1981, Guha began his teaching career at courses in a variety of Sanskrit St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He comes to UT Austin after genres,” he told SAI. In Fall nine years at Rutgers University. “The presence of the 2013, he taught History of (South Asia) Institute is one of the most important reasons Hindu Religious Traditions, for my decision to move to UTexas-Austin,” he said. “I followed in Spring by an Introduction of Pūrva-Mīmāmsā look forward to learning more and working with others.” (Ritual Hermeneutics) and Ethics and Scholarship in the Study of Asia. Paula Newberg He is working on a monograph titled The Practice Clinical Professor and Fellow of the of Hindu Law, which categorizes the practical legal Wilson Chair institutions of classical Hindu law and traces its historical Paula Newberg’s work looks at the intersections development in practice down to the present. He is also between human rights, democratic governance, and editing and contributing to several volumes, including the foreign policy in crisis and transition states, with Oxford History of Hinduism with Prof. Patrick Olivelle, particular focus on South and Central Asia. A scholar and who recently retired from UT. practitioner with wide-ranging experience in multilateral “I am keen to participate in and contribute to the and nongovernmental organizations, Newberg served as longstanding Seminar Series and regular conferences Special Advisor to the United hosted by SAI,” Davis said. “In addition, I hope to use SAI Nations in Asia, Europe and resources and prestige to promote and secure the study of Africa. Prior to coming to UT- South Asian languages at UT and nationally.” Austin, she was the director of the Institute for the Study Sumit Guha of Diplomacy at Georgetown Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial University. Professorship in History Newberg has written Sumit Guha studies the social and economic history extensively on constitutional of medieval and modern South Asia, focusing on western development and jurisprudence and central India. Lately, he has been interested in the in Pakistan, the politics of assistance in and to conflict historical evolution of identities and the political, cultural, and post-conflict states, and rights in conditions of and linguistic processes that shape them. “My general insurgency. Her current interests include governance approach is interdisciplinary,” he told SAI. “I believe that in the evolving Gulf/Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean region; history should draw on both treason and sedition in modern South Asia; and new humanities and natural and rights regimes in South and Southwest Asia. She writes social sciences to deepen our for Yale Global Online and is an advisor to a number of understanding of the past.” nonprofit organizations working in the fields of rights and This Fall, he is teaching democracy. two graduate courses: one As Fellow of the newly established Wilson Chair surveys the long history of the at UT-Austin, she will be creating curricular, training, Indian subcontinent, the other archiving and policy programs with institutions in South focuses on problems faced Asia, with an initial focus on Pakistan. At Columbia, in historical research via the Johns Hopkins, and Georgetown universities, she taught scrutiny of the sources and graduate courses on comparative foreign policy, rights and historical writings on the 1857 Indian uprising. “I would international affairs, international politics of conflict, and 5 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 the international politics of South Asia. At UT Austin, selecting materials for the library collections, creating she teaches courses on rights and the state in modern online tools so they can discover publications, teaching South Asia, and the politics of complex emergencies in them how to use research and reference tools, and so on.” South Asia and beyond. In recent years, Rader has focused on enhancing intra- and inter-institutional collaboration. “While large Mary R. Rader research libraries such as that at UT have millions of South Asian Studies Librarian & materials in their collections, Global Studies Coordinator they obviously don’t have Mary Rader blends years of experience working everything,” she said. as a South Asian Studies bibliographer with first-hand Collaboration allows libraries knowledge of South Asia. Since graduating with a Master’s “to diversify and expand the degree in library and information sciences from UT- offerings made available to and Austin 15 years ago, she has worked at the Chicago Public preserved for researchers.” Library, the University of Michigan, and the University Rader is excited to be of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, she has a graduate working with the UT South degree in International Studies (South Asia) and has spent Asian Studies community. years studying Tamil in Tamil Nadu, India. She said that as a Global Studies Coordinator, “I’m eager She now returns to her alma mater as a South Asian to establish connections across the area studies centers Studies Librarian and Global Studies Coordinator. “My on campus and within the libraries in hopes of raising focus,” she told SAI, “has been to help library users access profiles and creating collaborations to the benefit of the information they need for their work -- be that by international/area/global studies generally.”

Recent Publications by Faculty

Sumit Guha, Kamala Visweswaran, Afsar Mohammad, Heather Hindman, Professor, Department Associate Professor, Lecturer, Department Assistant Professor, of History Department of Anthropology, of Asian Studies Department of Anthropology, Department of Asian Studies Department of Asian Studies SAI presents Ayesha Jalal’s new book on Manto If storytelling is an instinctive human activity, then fiction can offer a deeply humanistic approach to understanding politics and society, both present and past. That is the approach taken by Ayesha Jalal, a Macarthur Fellow and the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University, in The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Life, Times, and Work Across the India-Pakistan Divide (Princeton 2013). Jalal draws upon the stories, essays, and letters of Sa’adat Hasan Manto (1912-1955), a giant of twentieth-century Urdu literature, to explore the human dimension of the communal violence that engulfed the subcontinent before, during, and after the 1947 Partition. The book was launched on April 11 at a reading organized by the Hindi-Urdu Flagship Program and the South Asia Institute. Jalal read extensively from the book, demonstrating how Manto’s piquant prose, as much as his tumultuous life and relationships, shed light on one of the most turbulent times in subcontinental history. Later, she engaged in a discussion on the tension between fact and fiction with the audience at the Meyerson Conference Room, comprising The University of Texas at Austin students, faculty, and staff as well as members of the Urdu-speaking community from Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. (continued on p. 18)

South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 6 Spring 2013 Seminar Series Raises Questions on Masculinity and Violence

Men and maleness have been relegated to the margins of South Asian gender studies until recently, as have studies on conceptions of violence and their link with manliness. Can we speak of a hegemonizing masculinity in any era of South Asian history, or have there always been a range of competing masculinities? When is violence justified or even necessary, and who is sanctioned to apply it? And, most especially, to what extent does manliness require a male body to engage in physical aggression against others? An interdisciplinary slate of speakers addressed these and related questions during a seminar series in Fall 2013, organized by Prof. Cynthia Talbot of the Department of History. The series explored a variety of South Asian discourses on masculinity and violence spanning the past thousand years, with speakers drawing on a broad range of visual and literary material from different regions of the subcontinent. Beginning the series was Daud Ali from the University of Pennsylvania, who examined the courtly discourse on masculinity found in the Sanskrit literature of early medieval India. Munis Faruqui of the University of California, Berkeley discussed how the Persian notion of manliness, or javanmardi, may have shaped the actions of the Mughal emperor. A third historian who participated in the series was Janaki Bakhle of Columbia University, speaking on the valorization of violence in the Marathi writings of V. D. Savarkar, the Hindu nationalist thinker. Syed Akbar Hyder of UT-Austin provided a more literary perspective in his paper on how gender and violence shaped the work of the twentieth-century Urdu writer Qurratul’ain Haider. Looking at Hindi pulp fiction of the day, Laura Brueck of the University of Colorado-Boulder spoke on gendered and racialized violence in detective novels (and on their book covers). Another session of the series featured Kamala Visweswaran, of UT-Austin, in dialogue with the independent filmmaker Anand Patwardhan on the intersection of masculinity and violence in Patwardhan’s documentaries, including the well-known Raam ke Naam. Their conversation was followed by a screening of Patwardhan’s latest film, Jai Bhim Comrade, which highlights the musical and theatrical performances of Dalit activists in Maharashtra calling for social justice against recurrent oppression. Prof. Cynthia Talbot

Rethinking Gandhi from a Gramscian perspective

south asia institute On April 24, the South Asia Institute hosted a book the various texts that frame his the university of texas at austin Please join the South Asia Institute launch for The Mahatma Misunderstood: The Politics and rethinking of the place of Gandhi in celebrating Snehal Shingavi’s new book: Forms of Literary Nationalism in India. Faculty from across and Gandhianism in modern Weds. April 24th 5:00pm the university attended to celebrate and learn more about Indian literature and politics. Meyerson Conference Room (WCH 4.118) this new book by English Professor Snehal Shingavi. The He noted the challenges he book examines several texts written in the era of Mohandas faced in writing critically about a Gandhi that directly and indirectly address and shape the figure whose image has come to mythology of Gandhi as ‘Mahatma.’ subsume historical realities, and The event began with Dr. Shingavi introducing his the difficulty of dealing with the complexities of Indian nationalist path to this topic. He offered humorous anecdotes about “The Mahatma Misunderstood” studies the relationship between the production of novels in late-colonial India and nationalist agitation promoted by the Indian National Congress. The volume examines the process by which novelists who were his struggles through the dissertation process that many politics for a contemporary critically engaged with Gandhian nationalism, and who saw both the potentials and the pitfalls of Gandhian political strategies, came to be seen as the Mahatma’s of the graduate students in the audience found insightful audience. Shingavi explained how standard-bearers rather than his loyal opposition. South Asia Institute • voice: 512.471.3550 • fax: 512.471.3336 • [email protected] • http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/ and motivating. The author then discussed how he chose the work of Marxist scholar Antonio

6: 20: Seminar Series: Anne Seminar Series: Martha Selby, 23: 15: Feldhaus, Arizona The University of Texas The Mystical Flute of Pandit Pakistan Music Festival State University Hariprasad Chaurasia

S E P T E M B E R

19: 28: 12: Job Talk by Indrani 21-22: Conference – Religious Pluralism Publishing in Asian Studies Chatterjee and Global Studies: A Journal Conference - Emergent Voices: In Europe and Asia: Conditions, Editor’s Perspective Pakistan in the 21st Century Modes, and Consequences 20127 South Asia Institute Newsletter 2012 Fall 2013 Gramsci helped give shape to his argument about how construction not only of a canon of South Asian literature but Gandhi’s contemporaries were able to misread or occlude his also the narrowness of nationalist politics – past and present. explicit political statements to place him at the center of their She commented on the lack of attention given to women and own, often internationalist and socialist, agenda. vernacular writers in studies of Indian nationalist literature, Two respondents, Barbara Harlow from the and yet saw much in Shingavi’s against-the-grain techniques English Department and Kamala Visweswaran from of reading in reintroducing these understudied authors the Anthropology Department, provided comments and their contributions to politics in the colonial and post- and reflections upon their reading of The Mahatma colonial eras. Misunderstood. Dr. Harlow reflected on how Shingavi’s The event ended with a lively discussion of the place of reading of texts by Raja Rao and Ahmed Ali gave her new the Gandhi myth in both South Asia and the West as well as insight into these authors, as well as the remaking of the alternative readings of the authors that Dr. Shingavi’s book Gandhian image. Harlow praised the book’s careful attention explores. Prof. Heather Hindman to political nuance and textual beauty. Dr. Viswewaran’s response focused on the problematic

Emergent Voices: Pakistan in the 21st Century

This workshop brought together recent Pakistan is paid to other perspectives and other histories that scholarship on Pakistan from a range of disciplines. The could update us about how people, with all the uncertainties discussion opened up new avenues of dialogue and debate in their lives, struggle to retain a modicum of dignity and based on themes from urban history, cultural politics, create opportunities to live decent and meaningful existences. to art and aesthetics and social The workshop took on this scholarly movements. The workshop introduced Emergent Voices: challenge and the papers represented new perspectives that showcase the Pakistan in the 21st Century the multiple layers of Pakistan’s history dynamic and changing nature of Pakist September 21-22, 2012 in order to bring it out of the Muslim ani society. The discussions took into AVAYA Auditorium ACES 2.302 nationalism, gender discrimination, account how Pakistan today stands at security studies/Islamic threat a critical juncture in its short history paradigms ---- important as they may of existence. It also acknowledged the be ---- within which Pakistan studies is larger picture consisting of increasing constantly placed. Islamist radicalism, domestic insurgency, Professor Aamir Mufti (UCLA) social and economic crisis, the nascent gave the keynote address on Faiz instability of the democratic experiment, “Revolution’s Late Style: Dialectics of the perpetual threat of military that in Multitude in Faiz Ahmed Faiz”. The most cases informs how the rest of the paper developed the idea of how Faiz 2012, digital print, 24” x 34” x 24” digital print, 2012, Asma Mundrawala, by Around” “I’ll Be turned to the question of the nature world views and imagines the country. This workshop brings together recent scholarship on Pakistan from a range of disciplines. The discussion will open up new avenues of dialogue and debate based on themes from urban history, cultural politics, to art and aesthetics and social movements. While rethinking the dominant paradigm in of the historical present, a “moment” Further, work on 20th century Muslim Pakistan studies, the workshop will introduce new perspectives that showcase the dynamic and changing history in South Asia has generally nature of Pakistani society. characterized by the “lateness” of its Participants:

engaged with the question of Islam and • Asad Ahmed, Harvard University • Aamir Mufti, UCLA emergence. Mufti argued that Faiz’ • Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University • Tahir Naqvi, Trinity University • Will Glover, University of Michigan • Paula Newberg, Georgetown University poems rearticulated the hope for with tropes such as female seclusion, • Matthew Hull, University of Michigan • Sameera Raja, Gallerist and Curator • Humeira Iqtidar, Kings College London • Nada Raza, Curator, Iniva Muslim revivalist movements and • Naveeda Khan, Johns Hopkins University • Cabeiri Robinson, University of Washington human emancipation and found a new • Rochona Majumdar, University of Chicago • Sadia Shirazi, Architect and Curator questions pertaining to the creation • Farina Mir, University of Michigan • Karin Zitzewitz, Michigan State University language for its articulation, precisely of Pakistan. In this schema very little in the aftermath of the collapse or

south asia institute attention in academic scholarship on South Asia Institute • voice: 512.471.3550 • fax:the university 512.471.3336 of texas at austin • www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/ containment of revolutionary politics worldwide.

4: 8: 22: Meet the Writers of Nazar In and Out of Place: Kirin Narayan on Ethnography and • Tibet Artists’ Travels in the Literature Buddhism in South Asia Contemporary Art World

O C T O B E R

5: 12: Symposium – Out of Place: Tibet, Travel Talk – The Evolution of the City of Bombay and Buddhism in the Early 20th Century • • Talk – Detachment, Attachment, and Buddhism in South Asia Attention in Buddhist Burma 2012South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia2012 Institute Newsletter 8 Hindi Urdu Flagship Report

Like the other Language Flagship department, Asian Studies. This abstract development programs in universities across the US, the Hindi Urdu has now been matched by a very appropriate spatial one, Flagship program (HUF) at UT Austin has a mandate to in that the HUF headquarters have moved from Rainey bring students to professional levels of fluency while also Hall into the W.C. Hogg building, sharing a corridor pursuing a major in a discipline of their choice. This is done with Asian Studies itself. Thanks to this initiative by through a specially augmented sequence of language and Asian Studies chair Professor Martha Selby, HUF staff culture courses. The penultimate year is spent at the Hindi and instructors are now housed in close proximity to one and Urdu centers of the American Institute of Indian another and to the rest of the department. Studies in Jaipur and Lucknow respectively; the AIIS Every silver lining has its cloud, and HUF is very teachers, under the direction of Dr A.N. Singh (Hindi) sorry to lose its Media Coordinator Jonathan Seefeldt, and Dr Ahtesham Khan (Urdu), help bring the languages who has moved to a teaching post in India. Jonathan alive in ways that cannot be achieved on a campus has been at the heart of our operations from the outset, in central Texas. The India program is energetically his expertise in both Hindi and electronic media having overseen by Professor Akbar Hyder, whose visits to the made him a key member of the HUF team. Although he Indian centers focus on curriculum development and has contributed in countless ways to the development the setting-up of professional internships to match the and management of the program, his main legacy is individual students’ interests. our outstanding website, hindiurduflagship.org, whose The academic year 2012-13 has seen an increase in collection of innovative teaching materials, recordings, the number of students beginning their language study ab filmed lectures, and many other features is a treasure initio, contrasting with earlier years in which most recruits trove for aficionados of Hindi and Urdu worldwide. joined with an existing background in Hindi or Urdu — Prof. Rupert Snell typically from a ‘Heritage’ context. This broadening of the student constituency is a very welcome development, and follows the strenuous efforts of Assistant Director Selina Keilani and Administrative Associate Kristine Anderson to bring HUF to the attention of freshmen as or before they join the university. One of the ways in which HUF addresses the broader community of South Asianists in UT is by inviting visitors from the worlds of Urdu and Hindi to give public talks here on campus. This year, for example, historian Ayesha Jalal (Tufts University) visited HUF to launch her new book The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Life, Times, and Work across the India-Pakistan Divide. Further reflecting its commitment to the study of language use in wide- ranging real-world contexts, HUF also hosted a seminar entitled Languages of Law and Justice in Hindi and Urdu, an event organized in conjunction with the South Asia Institute. These events attract substantial audiences. In the last two years HUF has been overhauling its curriculum to maximize efficient symbiosis with its parent

1: 8: 16: Seminar Series: Mark Seminar Series - 12: Gender Symposium Southern College Donald Davis, The FLAS Informational Session • University of Wisconsin for Students Middle East and Muslim Societies Working Group

N O V E M B E R

7: 9: Seminar on Buddhist FLAS Informational Session for Advisors • Talk – 14: manuscriptology by Jens Mahayana Buddhism: Rhetoric of Emptiness by Jens The Monarch as Saint: A Connected Braarvig Braarvig • Two films by Ashish Avikunthak History of Safavid Iran and Mughal India 20129 South Asia Institute Newsletter 2013 Fall 2013 Kathy Hansen’s Curtain Call

During the final weekend in April, UT April 28th was a party hosted at their home by Kathy South Asia Institute and Dept. of Asian Studies bid and Carla Petievich and sponsored by the South Asia farewell to Prof. Kathryn Hansen, who retired as of June Institute. Attended by students, staff, colleagues and 2013. Hansen began her career at UT Austin in 2000, non-UT friends, it was a warm and enjoyable affair. migrating from the East Coast But the most exciting part of the weekend to take up the Directorship of was the Nautanki performance of Indal Haran by a the Center for Asian Studies tremendously accomplished troupe of ten amateur (which later became the South actors from California, directed by Dr. Devendra Asia Institute). After serving Sharma of Fresno State University. Dr. Sharma, in for four years in that capacity, addition to being a scholar of North Indian Theatre, is she became a regular member himself an heir to Nautanki tradition (his father and of the Asian Studies faculty, grandfather were both famous performers). This was where she has taught a variety the U.S. debut performance of one of the most famous of graduate and undergraduate and popular plays in the Nautanki oeuvre. Nautanki’s courses over the years in distinctive style of song, dance and dramatic recitation Performance Traditions of South Asia, Gender and excited and delighted the entire audience, many of Sexuality, Hindi literature, and Visual Culture. whom knew no Hindi but still reveled in its rich manner To mark the occasion, a number of former of expression. Guests from Pakistan’s Fatimah Jinnah students and colleagues from around the country Women University, with whom UT has a new faculty convened in Austin to honor Kathy by presenting an exchange program, also had the rare opportunity of array of symposium papers that were either inspired witnessing a drama genre about which they had only by or informed by Kathy’s work. Still other friends heard in the past, as it has disappeared entirely from and colleagues, former class fellows and collaborators Pakistan since Partition. from the course of her long career, came to Austin Hansen’s interest in Nautanki emerged organically to give her a rousing sendoff from her doctoral work in Hindi into retirement. The quality literature, where she studied of the papers, and the ensuing the novels and short fiction of discussions between presenters Bihar’s Phanishvarnath Renu, and audience members, was very who had been a leading light in high and made the weekend the mid-20th century Anchalikta as intellectually stimulating as (borderland, regional) literary it was celebratory. A special movement. In one of Renu’s best- highlight was the 2013 issue of loved stories, Teesri Qasam (The UT’s peer-reviewed graduate Third Vow), a bumpkin bullock- student publication, SAGAR: a cart driver transports a nautanki Journal of South Asian Studies. actress to a regional fair. From this Dedicated to Kathy, it contains developed Kathy’s curiosity, and many fine translations as well as then fascination, with Nautanki. a thoughtful, sensitive interview with Kathy by Suzanne Similarly, her Nautanki work led Hansen to L. Shulz about her career and concerns as a translator. exploring other theatre traditions, especially Parsi Following the day-long symposium on Saturday, Theatre, which was India’s first commercial theatre

11: 31: Monks and Mandalas – 23: Talk - Finding a Place for Asoka by Janice Leoshko Reception and Discussion with Social Discourse Aboard and Cynthia Talbot Tibetan monks the Hindi Urdu Flagship Event in honor of Patrick Olivelle and his new book ‘Reimagining Asoka – Memory and History’

J A N U A R Y

12: AIM South Asia - Teacher 24: Training Workshop on Tibetan Seminar Series - Steven Lindquist, Buddhism Southern Methodist University 2012South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia2013 Institute Newsletter 10 and a direct precursor of Hindi films. She has written representation in South Asian cultures. articles on many aspects of South Asian theatre and Kathryn Hansen earned her doctoral degree from performance over the years, including an annotated the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978 and translation from Hindi of Somnath Gupt’s 1981 Parsi began teaching later that year at the University of British Thiyetar: Udhav aur Vikas (Parsi Theatre: its Origins Columbia, leaving in 1994 as a full Professor to return and Development) and Amanat’s 1853 Indar Sabha to the U.S.A. In the six years between leaving Vancouver (The Court of Indra), credited as the first Urdu- and settling at UT Austin, Hansen worked for two language drama, written and performed in Lucknow years at the National Endowment for the Humanities at the court of Wajid Ali Shah. Culminating some in Washington, D.C. as a Program Officer in the 20 years of research, Hansen’s combined translation, Translations and Subventions departments; followed by theatre scholarship, theories of representation and Visiting appointments at the University of Chicago and cultural history in her most recent book, Stages of Life: Rutgers University. Indian Theatre Autobiographies (Permanent Black In retirement Kathy expects to stay active as a 2011). At the center of this work are translations of the researcher and author, and has already launched into autobiographies of four major theatre figures, two female several projects, one of which will be a website-archive impersonator actors and two influential playwrights. of materials collected over the years on Indian theatre in Through these translations from Hindi and Gujarati order to provide a resource for other scholars. Hansen immerses her readers in the world of Parsi Prof. Carla Petievich theatre, also reflecting on notions of the self and self-

Homage to Newly Emeritus Patrick Olivelle

Comments from Janice Leoshko, Associate Professor, activities especially remarkable. Not only did he secure Dept. of Art & Art History: additional funding for a fulltime outreach position at a South Asia studies at UT was already well time when many universities still filled these positions established by the time that Patrick Olivelle served with graduate student assistantships, he actively as its Director (1994-2000), a period during which participated in its programs. One good example is a he also served as chair of the Dept. of Asian Studies series of workshops for faculty from smaller institutions (1994-2007). While the quality and quantity of Patrick’s who wished to enrich their courses. These workshops publications and numerous awards, grants and included presentations by UT faculty prestigious visiting professorships are well known, less to demonstrate and discuss ways recognized are the myriad ways in which South Asian to integrate South Asia material studies developed under his direction. For instance, into college curriculum. Often he helped to create the South Asia Research Series, these workshops overlaped with co-published by the South Asia Institute with Oxford scholarly symposia in order to University Press. Thirteen volumes have so far appeared, increase exposure to emerging or ranging in subject from Richard Solomon’s Indian controversial questions in the study Epigraphy (1998) to The Classical Mughal Literature of of South Asia. Mughal India by Allison Busch ((2011). Patrick’s interest in broad Perhaps because I served as Associate Director audiences has continued, most from 1996-2000, I find his support for outreach spectacularly demonstrated by the recent international conference that we co-organized with Professor

12: 7: 21: 28: Talk and Photo Exhibition – The 23: Seminar Series - Daud Ali, Seminar Series – Syed Talk - Sanjeev Uprety, Human Cost of India’s Race for Teacher Training Workshop University of Pennsylvania Akbar Hyder, University of Tribhuvan University, Development by Priyanka Borpujari on Bhutanese-Nepali Texas at Austin Refugees Nepal

F E B R U A R Y

25: 8: 22: Talk - ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and Torture in American Discourse Conference – Impunity, Justice 14: Talk - Andrew Nelson, University by Prof. Ramzi Kassem • and the Human Rights Agenda Seminar Series – Laura Brueck, of North Texas University of Colorado – Boulder Talk – Post Globalization Challenges to Environmental Governance in India by Prof. Kanchi Kohli 201311 South Asia Institute Newsletter 2013 Fall 2013 Himashu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University) whether on a trip to Korea to secure a million dollar entitled, “Ashoka and the Making of Modern India.” endowment, or in his office warding off dastardly raids Five institutions in the US and India contributed funds to entice colleagues away to some other university, or to the conference. Held in New Delhi in 2009, it was in the parking lot bemoaning this or that state of the attended by many Indian scholars and students as well as university. I remember also his generous advice and participants from nine other countries. Large audiences encouragement while I was working on a 4-year book- also attended the associated public lectures by Romila writing project. The task was daunting and the light at Thapur, Richard Solomon and Gurcharan Das. The the end of the tunnel was nowhere in sight. At every volume that resulted from this conference has just gone turn, Patrick was a rock-solid, cajoling, generous source into its third printing by Oxford University Press. For of encouragement. He took time even when ideas being me it is the double focus of this conference and book— bantered about were far afield from what he would that examines the ongoing reassessment of evidence otherwise be working on. related to this third century BCE monarch as well as the Patrick Olivelle is a colleague who has greatly significance in historical memory of Ashoka for later enriched our lives. I am fortunate to count him as a times that demonstrates the remarkable character of friend and proud to have served on the same faculty Patrick Olivelle’s interests and with him. abilities. Comments from former Comments from Sheldon student Steven Lindquist, Ekland-Olson, Rapoport Associate Professor, Dept. Centennial Chair in Liberal of Religion, Southern Arts: Methodist University If you are lucky, I recently had you come across colleagues the privilege of and friends who simply arranging and editing a stand out. They inspire, they Festschrift in honor of generate admiration, they Patrick Olivelle entitled provide engaging, thought- Religion and Identity in provoking conversations, and they are a joy to be South Asia and Beyond which was published by Anthem around. Patrick’s is one of those fortunate friendships Press in 2011. I am happy to be able to announce the for me. We worked together on many fronts. We Fall release of a paperback version of this honorary built programs, organized conferences, convened for volume which, given the publishing market today dinner, and secured endowments. I can’t remember for such books, speaks to Patrick’s wide-ranging and any occasion, whether personal or professional, when continuing influence. Fittingly, the paperback edition the oft-used and deeply important cliché, he leaves the will also be released in India, something that Patrick has world a better place than what he found, did not apply to actively sought for all of his major works. Patrick. Though any hierarchy is always tinged with the The Department of Asian Studies at The self-interest of the author, I do not think it at all untrue University of Texas would not exist were it not for the to say that Patrick is one of a very few Sanskrit scholars steady, frequently wise, and often whimsical hand of in North America who has made a profound impact on Professor Olivelle. There were bumps in the road, the study of Sanskrit language and literature and on the there were opportunities to be grasped, there were field of Religious Studies. Part of this is, of course, due budgets to be balanced. What I recall while writing to the care and precision with which he has carried out this tribute is what pleasure it was to work with Patrick, his many works (whether monographs, critical editions, (continued on p. 18)

1: Welcome Reception for FJWU 21-22: scholars Discussion - The Feeling Body

M A R C H

7: Seminar Series - Anand Patwardhan, independent filmmaker, 25: with Kamala Visweswaran Professional Development Screening of film Jai Bhim Comrade by Anand Patwardhan Workshop for Graduate Students 2013South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia2013 Institute Newsletter 12 Pakistani Scholars Spend First Semester at UT Austin

The South Asia Institute hosted four two courses, one on the Pakistani scholars over the Spring 2013 semester as anthropology of health p art of its partnership with the Rawalpindi-based and illness and the other Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU). Shazia on managing data in Hashmat, Raheela Mushtaq, Najam-us-Sahar, and qualitative research. Shahla Tabassum Later, SAI Director collaborated Dr. Kamran Asdar Ali, with mentors at Assistant Director Dr. The University Rachel Meyer, and Asian of Texas at Studies department’s Dr. Heather Hindman visited the Austin, writing FJWU campus. During the May 27-June 4 visit, Dr. and presenting Ali co-taught ‘Managing Data in Qualitative Research’ research papers with Najam-us-Sahar, while Dr. Hindman co-taught and co-developing ‘Performing Gender’ with Tabassum. Both Dr. Ali courses that they would now teach at FJWU. and Dr. Hindman collaborated on a workshop for During their stay, the FJWU faculty members M.Phil. and Ph.D. students at FJWU on developing worked on a wide range of research projects with research groups. Dr. Meyer worked FJWU’s education the help of their department faculty, respective mentors. “Visiting FJWU gave me a different perspective on the conducting classroom Hashmat’s projects challenges faced by the women we hosted here at UT, as well observations and included ‘Image as what a unique and special institution FJWU is,” visiting schools. of Pakistan among Dr. Heather Hindman “Visiting FJWU American People’ gave me a different and ‘Role of Pakistani media in enhancing democratic perspective on the challenges faced by the women we values in emerging markets.’ Tabassum’s research looked hosted here at UT, as well as what a unique and special at transgender communities, while Najam-us-Sahar institution FJWU is,” Dr. Hindman said. “That many focused on women and Sufi music. All four Pakistani of the professors were scholars also presented their work at the March 18-22 simultaneously pursuing International Journal of Arts and Sciences conference their own graduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mushtaq’s education and struggling paper, for instance, looked at the depiction of female in to make the transition Pakistani art by prominent contemporary male painters. between student and In addition, these scholars developed courses teacher was something I in their respective areas to co-teach with UT-Austin had not fully understood faculty at FJWU. Hashmat developed a course on before visiting.” ‘Film & Television Stardom and Celebrity’ to explore Dr. Hindman said that she found the enthusiasm Pakistan’s film, television, and music industry stardom of FJWU students and their eagerness to learn quite and celebrity culture. Tabassum’s course, ‘Performing amazing. “I think after visiting FJWU we all have a Gender,’ will shed light on the life of people who better idea of how both intuitions can benefit from the identify themselves as transgender, transsexuals, partnership and spaces where there is the most effective and transpersonalities. Najam-us-Sahar developed room for collaboration,” she said. Saif Shahin

4: 11: 15: 18: Talk - Buddhism in Burma by Dr. Erik Book Launch – Ayesha Jalal’s Talk - The Shimmering Seminar Series 24: 26: Braun • Talk - Mountbatten, Nehru, ‘The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Landscape: Mobility and - Munis Faruqui, Book launch - Snehal Performance: Nautanki Ambedkar and the Independence of Life, Times and Work across the Rootedness in Indigenous University of Shingavi’s The Mahatma - Indal Haran (The India by Prof. Sir Christopher Bayly India-Pakistan Divide’ India by Kaushik Ghosh California-Berkeley Misunderstood Abduction of Indal)

A P R I L

12: 19: 25: 27: 9: Musicology/Ethnomusicology 16: Talk - Gender and Violence in Religious Seminar Series Tribute to Kathryn South Asian American Division Colloquium Series - Professional Contexts: Differential Comparisons of - Janaki Bakhle, Hansen Digital Archive Lecture Biography | Genealogy | History: Development Ancient Greece and Early Modern India by Columbia University & Reception with Samip Hindustani Music History Making Workshop for Graduate Dr. Florence Pasche Guignard Mallick by Prof. Daniel M. Neuman Students 201313 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 UT-FJWU Partnership: A Personal View

On January 16, 2013, I along with my three event became an opportunity to share the research colleagues arrived at The University of Texas at Austin activities being carried out in Pakistani institutions. under the UT-FJWU partnership with expectations of Furthermore, this knowledge exchange enhanced the learning and gaining valuable experience in research. learning of scholars. Upon my arrival, the very Having gone to the United States, it was first thing I noticed was inconceivable for us to leave without visiting some of the the warmth and hospitality country’s major landmarks. Among the places we visited of the South Asia Institute were the Grand Canyon and Lincoln Memorial. The (SAI) staff. They welcomed people we met were helpful and welcoming. Although us with open arms and there is much talk of an American prejudice against helped us adjust to a new Muslims, especially against women who cover their environment and begin our heads, I found little of that during my four-month stay. work. The accommodation Instead, people behaved with utmost decorum and provided to us was more seemed genuinely interested to know more about us. than adequate, and the Indeed, they were far more respectful than most people university’s transportation system was reliable and I have met while traveling to other Asian and European comfortable. countries. During my stay I attended two courses in We also went to a number of museums to get a Anthropology, which helped me polish my pedagogy better sense of American culture and history. The National and assessment skills. Both the instructors and the Museum of the American Indians piqued my attention students showed a deep interest in Pakistani culture. the most, as I found many similarities between Native This spurred me to carry out a research project on American and Pakistani culture. It was particularly useful one of the most important and most loved aspects of as it was related to my field i.e. cultural anthropology. Pakistani society – traditional music. My study focused This exchange of knowledge continued with the visit of UT faculty members to Pakistan in May 2013. “My colleagues and I used the UT library We coordinated a workshop on Qualitative Research system extensively. The virtually endless Methods and a course on Gender Issues using their resources available to students are expertise. This helped in the exchange of ideas regarding social issues and research activities carried out by the incomparable in enhancing creativity, critical students doing their research projects. The UT team also thinking, and diversified exposure.” visited different schools to observe the education system Najam-us-Sahar in Pakistan. This will increase community engagement and collaboration with academic institutions. on women’s representation in Sufi music as well as Through this exchange program I got the the influence of this music on emotions, particularly opportunity of those who are not familiar with the language and to meet and musical traditions of Pakistan. participate in a The participants in the study listened to two different panel discussion versions of a Sufi song, by a female and a male singer with the US respectively. This was a first-time experience for them, but Secretary of they showed interest and were eager to listen to more. State, John Kerry, They also reported a diverse range of emotions, from during his visit happiness and joy to melancholy and sorrow. The study to Pakistan in also gave me the opportunity to represent Pakistan’s rich August 2013. In cultural heritage in the United States. this meeting, it My colleagues and I used the UT library system was refreshing to note that America is funding many extensively. The virtually endless resources available to educational programs across Pakistan, hence giving students are incomparable in enhancing creativity, critical countless opportunities to the youth, which in turn will thinking, and diversified exposure. The program was generous benefit the relationship between these two countries. enough to financially support our conference presentations Najam-us-Sahar at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This international South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 14 K-12 Outreach SAI Collaborates with Other UT of important topics in World History and US History. Podcast topics are drawn from the new World History NRCs on K-16 Initiatives and US History Standards—The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)—for K-12 social studies Over the past year the South Asia Institute courses in Texas, and are tied to specific objective and has continued to partner with other organizations at goals set in the standards to help educators prepare their the University of Texas to conduct outreach among students for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic educators in the state and beyond. As part of the Readiness, or STAAR™ exams. They are meant to be a Hemispheres consortium, SAI organized a summer resource for both teachers and students, but can also be institute themed Untangling World History for enjoyed by anyone with an interest in history. educators across Texas. Hemispheres, the international Each podcast is accompanied by documents outreach consortium at the University of Texas at and supplemental readings Austin, offers a broad related to the topic. In End of educational program to Colonialism in South Asia, increase knowledge and Snehal Shingavi (English) understanding of South examined the nature of British Asia, the Middle East, colonialism in South Asia Russia, Europe, Latin and its lasting legacy sixty America, and Eurasia. The years after decolonization. summer institute aimed to help social studies teachers Patrick Olivelle (Asian Studies) tackled the Gupta and gain necessary background knowledge to prepare their Maurya Empires in The Era Between the Empires of students for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Ancient India. Through Inside the Indian Independence Readiness (STAAR) exam. Movement, Bhalodia shed light on one of the most Aarti Bhalodia (South Asia Institute) gave a pivotal and traumatic events of the 20th century. presentation on Nationalism and Regionalism in India Sutton’s The Buddha and His Time helped the listener and Keely Sutton (Asian Studies) gave a talk on Why understand the historical Buddha and the era in which the Buddha was Different: The Emergence of Buddhism he lived. South Asia Institute is going to continue its in the Indian Context. Participants took home maps, collaboration with 15 Minute History and record more photographs, and primary source documents that they podcasts on diverse topics of interest to educators and could use for classroom activities with their students. the general public. Dr. Aarti Bhalodia Bhalodia and Sutton’s presentations introduced teachers to the latest research on South Asia and brought their attention to new topics that can be introduced in the classroom. In their evaluations the teachers had K-12 Educator Workshops Focus following to say: “Very interesting insight into the development of India after independence. My students on Himalayan Region of South will be very interested. The maps were excellent;” “This Asia provided a lot of info on India’s make-up that I was severely lacking;” “I learned some new content and In Spring 2013, SAI hosted two workshops that ways of teaching Buddhism which will improve my focused on the Himalayan region of South Asia. The classroom.” Feedback from participants reminds us of first workshop, held in January, served more than 25 the importance of such educator training programs as teachers who specialized in language arts, social studies high school teachers are expected to include material and arts education. The training coincided with an from South Asia in their World History curriculum. exclusive presentation of Tibetan Buddhist Art at The Another outreach program that the South Asia Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibit explored the rich Institute has partnered with is 15 Minute History. art and religion of this fascinating region through five Hemispheres and Not Even Past, a website produced by mandalas and three thangkas dating from the 15th to the faculty and students of the History Department at 20th centuries. the University of Texas at Austin, came together in Fall UT faculty, Oliver Freiberger, (Religious Studies 2012 to launch the 15 Minute History podcast series. and Asian Studies) and Janice Leoshko (Art History This project is devoted to short, accessible discussions and Asian Studies) introduced the development of the

15 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 Refugee Resettlement Program), Erica Schmidt (Refugee Services of Texas), Peggy Robinson (AISD Refugee Family Support Services), who shared information on their services and other resources to help educators better serve students from the refugee community. The workshop was also designed for all K-12 educators interested in producing young global citizens in central Texas, who have cultural knowledge and awareness of the Himalayan region of South Asia and diaspora/refugee populations in their own communities. Participants emphasized the value of the workshop for creating cultural understanding in a diverse classroom. In the words of an AISD Language arts and Social Studies educator, “The maps and information on Bhutanese-Nepali culture and religions provides me Buddhist religion and art in Tibet. The day concluded with more insights into my refugee students’ lives. I with an in-depth tour of the exhibition, “Into the Sacred intend to share this information with parents, teachers City: Tibetan Buddhist Deities From the Theos Bernard and administrators. I also intend to share information Collection.” Educators also had the opportunity to with students. My objective is to create a culturally view the on-site creation of a 5-foot sand mandala in diverse classroom where all people feel comfortable.” the museum’s Rapoport Atrium by monks from the This training event included more then 40 Drepung Loseling Monastery, and attend a lecture on participants, who were ESL educators, and other the significance of the teachers, who have Bhutanese-Nepali refugee students sand mandala. in their classrooms, as well In post-workshop “The maps and information on Bhutanese- as social studies teachers. feedback, one art Nepali culture and religions provides me with Talks by Heather Hindman, teacher from Kiker (Asian Studies at University more insights into my refugee students’ lives. I of Texas) and Andrew Elementary envisioned intend to share this information with parents, significantly expanding Nelson (Anthropology at on a lesson she already teachers and administrators.” AISD Educator the University of North uses with her students, Texas) covered Language, “As an art teacher I am always looking for cross-cultural Religion, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Nepal and connections.” She planned to share the background Bhutan” and History of Bhutanese-Nepali Migration information on Buddhist art and Tibet, provided by and Political Conflicts in Nepal and Bhutan in the last the presenters in her Mandala lesson – “without the Century”. The day ended with a presentation “Bhutanese knowledge gained in this workshop, I would just be Refugees Rebuild in Texas” by Mary Kang, an Austin- asking my students to create a circular design.” based Photojournalist who has documented the lives The second workshop held in February focused on of the refugee community in central Texas and a Q&A Bhutanese-Nepali refugees. The workshop was planned session that included members of the Bhutanese-Nepali at the request of Austin ISD Refugee Family Support community in Austin. Dr. Rachel Meyer Services. The aim was to inform Austin-area educators about the plight of these refugees, and provide them with information about this community and the history and culture of the Himalayan region. The greater Austin area is experiencing an influx of refugees who have been through decades of struggle, transit and discrimination in the Himalayan region. Many of those arriving have been living in refugee camps for more than a decade, including large numbers of youth. There are currently more than 500 Bhutanese-Nepali refugees in Austin. The workshop began with a panel discussion on “Refugee Resettlement and Supporting AISD Refugee Students” that included Mamadou Balde (Caritas ©Photos on this page courtesy of Mary Kang

South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 16 Butler School, South Asia SAI to host conference on the Institute to partner with Pakistani boundaries of Buddhism arts academy South Asia Institute will organize a conference entitled Buddhism’s Boundaries next year Faculty members at the Butler School of (Feb. 28–Mar. 2, 2014) that will discuss historical Music will mentor visiting musicians and scholars from instances of how boundaries between Buddhism and Pakistan’s National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) other religions in South Asia are determined. Ronald under a new three-year partnership. The University of Davidson (Fairfield University), Robert DeCaroli Texas at Austin’s South Asia Institute (SAI) will facilitate (George Mason University), Christoph Emmrich (University of Toronto, Canada), Oliver Freiberger (UT Austin), John Holt (Bowdoin College), Janice Leoshko (UT Austin), Claire Maes (Ghent University, Belgium), Anne Monius (Harvard University), and Patrick Olivelle (UT Austin) are expected to participate in the conference. General topics for the discussion will be the form and location of such postulated boundaries; the ways in which they are constructed and interpreted by the actors; the motives and intentions behind the boundary- work (religious, social, political, economic, etc.); and the analysis of the thus-constructed religious identity and its relation to other identities (linguistic, spatial/regional/ the exchange of scholars as well as a series of lectures, national, gender, class, etc.). Other important subjects training sessions, and performances planned under the expected to be discussed include the possibility that program, which gets under way in Fall multiple, even conflicting 2013. boundaries are drawn by NAPA was established in Karachi in different actors in one 2005 to teach performing arts and music and the same historical to students to preserve the country’s rich situation, and that cultural heritage. The partnership will boundaries are unstable focus on building the creative capacity of NAPA teachers and students by providing and shifting over time. skills in music composition, music theory, The goal of the orchestration and training in areas such conference will be to refine as piano, voice, string instruments and the methods for the analysis of practice of conducting. religious boundary-work A total of 12 scholars from NAPA and identity construction. will visit the BSOM during the duration of This may give reason the partnership to work with the school’s to reconsider the actual faculty members and students. The first subject matter of Buddhist group of four NAPA scholars is expected to Studies and, more arrive in Spring 2014. Butler school faculty generally, help scholars members working under the program will of religion scrutinize how also travel to Pakistan in three groups. they distinguish “religions” In its last year, the program will focus historically. on developing a joint ensemble comprising students and faculty from the Butler school and NAPA. The ensemble is expected to perform in both the United States and Pakistan. The partnership was made possible by a grant of nearly $1 million from the US Department of State/United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

17 South Asia Institute Newsletter Fall 2013 (continued from p. 7- Ayesha Jalal book launch) (continued from p. 12- Homage to Patrick Olivelle) Manto’s life and work, Jalal said, present a starkly or translations). His impact is also due to his ability to different perspective on Partition from what historical write in an exceptionally clear manner that engages a studies, including other humanistic approaches, are wide audience, of both classicists and the wider audience used to. “A lot of the memory studies literature that of Religious Studies, and I believe this is a distinctive tries to focus on the human dimension of Partition is quality as well in his teaching at all levels. actually affirming conflict along the lines of religion,” she While others might highlight different aspects explained. “Manto shows this was not necessarily about of their interactions with him, I imagine that many religion, but had a very nuanced individual dimension.” of his graduate students will see overlap in my own This nuance lies in understanding how collective experiences. During my time at UT-Austin (1998-2005), human action is guided by the interplay of social Patrick was an ideal advisor, not only in my specialized circumstance and individual choice. “Nobody is study in Sanskrit literature, but also in advocating for inherently murderous, circumstances make you so,” Jalal and professionalizing all graduate students who worked said. “He (Manto) is looking at the external dimensions with him in whatever capacity. When organizing this that do resonate in a human being at a particular time Festschrift, which consists of articles by those who were and lead that person to commit murder. Even at that both his direct and indirect students over the decades, I moment, the individual is not vcompletely devoid of his was amazed at the reach of his influence. The research or her humanity.” in these articles ranges from work on classical Sanskrit Jalal is fascinated by the moral subtext in Manto’s literature to modern Indian politics, religion, and allegedly “obscene” literature. “He is trying to show literature; from South Asia to several contributors on to you what you are repulsed by is also a part of you,” East Asia. she said. “You can’t reject and pass judgment on a Patrick always strongly encouraged his students prostitute who lives in squalor. There has to be some to broaden their perspectives beyond their chosen part of you that tries to understand why this exists. He is focus. Part of this was undoubtedly pragmatic, due to telling people that they are responsible for some of that the extremely limited number of positions for Sanskrit s qu a l or.” scholars, but it also reflected his strong belief that Introducing her at the book launch, UT Austin’s South Asianists of all sorts need to be able to speak Prof. Syed Akbar Hyder said, “Jalal’s books have to each other, even when languages, literatures, time helped us to remedy the blindness and blind spots periods and methods are quite distant. Patrick’s overall of history. She has engaged modern South Asia at its professionalism and genuine interest in his students most interesting turning points.” The Pity of Partition and his colleagues impressed upon me the value of is yet another instance of her intimately humanistic collegiality and broad engagement in academia, and it is historiography. Saif Shahin what I now try to practice in my own career. Call for Papers: SAGAR Sagar: A South Asia Research Journal was established in 1993 and is published annually by The South Asia Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Sagar publishes innovative academic writings in the humanities and social sciences of South Asia, as well as critical translations of texts from South Asian languages to English. Full-length articles and translations for our annual print issue are blindly evaluated by an editorial board of advanced scholars in the field. Online essays are blindly evaluated by an editorial collective of UT graduate students in consultation with our faculty board. The editorial collective coordinates all submissions. SAGAR publishes full-length articles and translations every Spring and online essays throughout the year. Guidelines for Submission: Manuscripts should follow the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Entire essays, including block quotations and notes, should be double-spaced. Remove any identifying information so that submission is suitable for anonymous review. (1) Full-length research articles should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words and should include a one-paragraph article abstract. (2) Original translations should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words and preceded by a 300-600 word introduction that contextualizes the text or excerpt. (3) Online essays should be 1500 words or less, and where applicable should include images and/or links to relevant images and recordings to which you are responding. Please submit electronic copies of papers saved as Microsoft Word files. For more information please see our website: http://sagarjournal.org/ or email [email protected].

South Asia Institute Newsletter South Asia Institute Newsletter 18 The University of Texas at Austin South Asia Institute 120 Inner Campus Drive, Stop G9300 Austin, TX 78712-0587 USA

Giving to the South Asia Institute We invite all individuals who are interested in South Asian Studies to support our institute. Our goal is to facilitate multidisciplinary education and research. Your tax-deductible gift to the South Asia Institute will help us fulfill a number of objectives, including: • Sponsoring special guest lecturers, conferences, and symposia on campus • Creating student study abroad and summer internship opportunities • Funding graduate student fellowships • Supporting the South Asia Research Journal • Expanding the Institute’s public engagement Visit http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/Giving.php to donate online or return the donation card below.

Yes, I would like to contribute. Please find enclosed my Name on card: contribution of $______. Card number: I wish for my gift to go toward: ___ Faculty and Student Research Expiration Date: ____ /____ / ______Public Engagement ___ Language Programs Signature: ___ I have enclosed a check (payable to the The University of Texas at Austin) ___ I would like to receive the SAI eBulletin ___ Please charge my credit card: Email address: ___ Visa ___ Mastercard ___ American Express ___ Discover

South Asia Institute – voice: 512.471.3550 – fax: 512.471.3336 – [email protected] – www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/ southasia – skype: southasiainstitute – twitter: UT_SAI – facebook: http://www.facebook.com/utsouthasia?ref=hl