SSAI Annual Review 2014/15 www.soas.ac.uk/south-asia-institute SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 3 From the Director Professor Michael Hutt

Welcome to the 2014-15 Annual Review of the SOAS South Asia Institute, which records the main achievements of the new Institute’s first full academic year.

At SOAS we claim that our coverage of South A HEFCE research training grant also enabled us to Asia is distinguished by its breadth, its depth and take eighteen SOAS Masters students working on South its regional vision, and I believe that our activities Asia-related dissertations away to Cumberland Lodge in over the past academic year have demonstrated Windsor Great Park later in June for a two-day residential the truth of this claim amply and repeatedly. workshop on the use of South Asian languages in dissertation research. We intend to make both of these Indeed, it has been an extraordinarily busy year. The events regular fixtures in the Institute’s calendar. public launch of the Institute on 18 May was our biggest event, and this is reported separately on pages I made two visits to India during the year, which I report 4-5. In addition to this, we hosted and organised nine on elsewhere in this Review (see p.11). In July we were workshops and conferences (on topics as diverse as delighted to receive the gift of two very large Kalighat gender justice/injustice; religion and conservation; pata paintings from the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dalit Studies; Hindi-English bilingualism; and higher Smt. Mamata Banerjee, during her visit to . education in South Asia), more than twenty lectures and seminars, and a dozen film screenings, book The study of South Asia has been core to the SOAS launches, roundtables and ‘in-conversations’. A full mission throughout the first 99 years of its existence. The listing of events may be found on pages 20-22. South Asia Institute looks forward to providing leadership during the School’s centenary year and beyond. During Two members of the Institute secured funding from the the coming year we will continue to pursue new European Research Council for major research projects: opportunities to share our expertise more widely, with James Mallinson for his Hatha Yoga project (‘Mapping governments and the corporate sector in particular, Indian and Transnational Traditions of Physical Yoga and to raise funds for projects, posts and scholarships. through Philology and Ethnography’) and Francesca Orsini on world literature (‘Multilingual Locals and I am enormously grateful to Dr Tej Purewal and Ms Sana Significant Geographies: a bottom-up approach to Shah for being the best colleagues imaginable, and for world literature’). With ongoing projects on ‘Roads their invaluable contributions to our work during the and the Politics of Thought: ethnographic approaches year, and to Jane Savory for her steadfast support of to infrastructure development in South Asia’ and everything we do. Sadly, Sana, who has been with us ‘Asia Beyond Boundaries’, this means that academic since day one, took up a new position at Humboldt members of the Institute are now leading three major University in Berlin in August: she will be sorely missed, ERC-funded projects, and are involved in four. but we wish her well. I would also like to thank Lauren Welch and her colleagues in Development and Alumni The provision of multi-disciplinary research training Relations, with whom we have worked intensively and for postgraduate students working on South Asia is productively, and all the many colleagues, students, a priority for us, and we were delighted to welcome alumni and friends who have participated in and students from SOAS and other UK universities, and from supported our numerous initiatives over the year. France, Germany and India, to our graduate student workshop on ‘South Asia Cityscapes’ on 8 June. 4 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 5 South Asia Across Borders: Launching the South Asia Institute (May 2015)

The SOAS South Asia Institute was publicly launched before an overflowing Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre on 18 May 2015. The event began with speeches from Professor Nirmala Rao, SOAS’s Pro-Director for Teaching and Learning, and the Institute’s Director and Deputy Director, who explained the purpose, vision and aims of the new Institute.

The centrepiece of the event was a panel discussion The discussion then ranged across the challenges of the theme ‘South Asia Across Borders’. The panel and opportunities presented by demographic consisted of the SOAS Honorary Fellow Shiv Shankar growth, questions of economic development Mukherjee, who is a former Indian High Commissioner and educational provision, and the prospect of to the and former Indian Ambassador better relations between India and Pakistan. After to Nepal; Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Ambassador and a number of questions from members of the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in audience, including SOAS Honorary Fellow Michael New York; the writer, publisher and co-organiser Palin, Mishal Husain brought the proceedings to of the Jaipur Literary Festival, Namita Gokhale; a close with a cry of ‘South Asia Zindabad!’. and the author, journalist and Founding Editor of Himal Southasian magazine, Kanak Mani Dixit. Those who attended the launch will remember it as much for the contributions of our students and alumni The panel was expertly moderated by the broadcaster as for the speeches and panel discussion. As they arrived, Mishal Husain, who began by asking the panelists to guests were greeted in the foyer by the haunting music reflect on what united the countries and peoples of of the sarangi, played by a Music Department alumnus, South Asia. Maleeha Lodhi said that the world needed a Morgan Davis. The formal proceedings opened with new characterization of South Asia, and to move away a beautiful rendition of Tagore’s ‘O Je Manena Mana’ from the ‘three Cs’ of ‘curry, cricket and conflict’ to the by Sahana Bajpaie, a SOAS alumna who now teaches three more compelling Cs of ‘connectivity, creativity our courses in Bengali. Before the panelists took their and culture’. Shiv Mukherjee said that beyond the ties seats, we were treated to an electrifying performance of history and culture, South Asia was still conflict by a SOAS Masters student, Amrit Kaur Lohia, of her ridden, but that we were already seeing a new era of own adaptation of Amrita Pritam’s Panjabi poem Ajj democratisation in the region. Namita Gokhale cited Akhaan Waris Shah Nu. And finally Priyanka Basu, who U.R. Ananthamurthy in her reply, saying ‘the more you has recently completed her Ph.D on the kobigaan of search for unity the more you are struck by the diversity; Bengal, rounded off proceedings with an exquisite the more you search for diversity the more you cannot performance of classical dance in the Odissi style. forget the underlying unity’. In this respect, she said, The launch was followed by a reception in the Brunei linguistic borders were more important than political Left to right: Namita Gokhale, Kanak Suite, featuring drinks and food from the region. A lines. Kanak Dixit described much past scholarship Mani Dixit, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, video of the launch event is permanently archived on South Asia, rather than on individual nation states, Maleeha Lodhi, Mishal Husain as ‘the preserve of innocents, the befuddled and on the Institute’s website (www.soas.ac.uk/ssai) and romantics.’ This, he said, was why the SOAS initiative freely available to anyone who wishes to view it. was important. South Asia suffered from ‘a bifurcation of cultures’, he said: the Institute should give depth to the scholarship on connectivity and create new stakeholders in the concept, so that ‘the next bomb blast does not take us all back to where we started’.

Amrit Kaur Lohia 6 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 7 SOAS South Asia Institute Research Themes MA Intensive South Asian Studies

1. Resources Under Pressure. 4. Interactions and Interventions We wish to foster an understanding of South Asia in our students that The finite nature of natural resources presents pressing in the Arts. is of the greatest possible depth and sophistication, and is based upon challenges to the sustainability of the environment Creative expression and South Asia’s cultural industries for future generations. South Asia’s people face reflect how South Asian societies interact, respond and cultural and linguistic fluency as well as advanced training in an academic a significant shortage of replenishable water and intervene through artistic mediums. For example, the discipline. We have intellectual and academic resources to achieve this mass food insecurity, exacerbated by both rapid Bollywood film industry and the region’s burgeoning economic growth and climate change. Our specialists ‘art house’ cinema all voice cultural analysis and which exceed those of any other British university. in development studies and anthropology focus critiques of society. SSAI researchers working in media, on pressures on land, the environment and food music, film studies and anthropology investigate Such a potent combination of skills cannot be ‘In 2014, we were able to offer 2.5 fully funded HEFCE and water supplies; the delineation of private and the production, distribution and consumption of public space; the relationships between agriculture, acquired at undergraduate level in any UK university studentships to students on this degree. The number of films; urban soundscapes; literary festivals; and other than SOAS. Nor can it be imparted within applications we have received for 2015 entry suggest nutrition and health; the effects of climate change; patterns of broadcasting, listening and viewing. and the development of infrastructure and roads. the framework of a conventional British one-year that demand for this unique SOAS Masters degree Masters programme. Hence the launching in 2014 will increase significantly in the years to come.’ 5. Lineages of knowledge and power. of the Institute’s flagship taught programme, its 2. Citizenship, Rights and Inequality. In 2016 we will also welcome the first cohort of students The means by which power is exercised, and the tools two-year MA Intensive South Asian Studies. Imperatives to address social and economic inequality onto our MSc Contemporary India Studies: please see it uses, are widely understood to rely not merely upon This programme will produce graduates who are our website for further details of this new degree. run across the South Asia region, raising questions force but also (and perhaps more significantly) upon about how governments and communities are equipped for research at doctoral level, under systems of knowledge. The exploration of lineages the expert supervision of one or more of our responding to local and global discourses of inequality of knowledge and power is a strength of the SSAI, and exclusion. Debates on caste and gender-based sixty-five South Asia-focused academics, or for given SOAS’s long tradition of critically analysing professional roles in or relating to the region. violence and injustice and the rights of religious historical and contemporary trajectories of power. minorities and migrants continue to raise questions Our historians research topics including South Asian During their first year of study at SOAS, students about political rights in South Asia and in South urban modernities; South Asian knowledge systems; take two compulsory courses (one being a Asian diaspora communities around the world. SSAI pre-colonial regional identities and non-metropolitan course in Bengali, Hindi, Nepali or , and the scholars working in the fields of law, history, politics, cultures; and justice in the pre-modern period. other ‘The Politics of Culture in Contemporary development studies and migration and diaspora South Asia’), plus two disciplinary courses studies focus on inclusion and exclusion on the 6. Prospects for the Indian economy. chosen from a list of approved options. basis of gender, caste, language and differing ability; migration networks and regimes; the understanding The fast-growing Indian economy is included in After this first year of study at SOAS, students spend one of political rights; and labour and social movements. the BRICS group along with Brazil, Russia, China semester (August-December) at a university in the region and South Africa, and is amongst the G-20 major with which we have a student exchange agreement. 3. The Politics of Culture and Religion. economies, according to the WTO. Our economists This is to continue their study of the language they and our specialists in financial and management studied at SOAS during their first year, to take other The cultural realm transcends many facets of South studies focus on India in the global economy; changing Asian societies and calls for sophisticated linguistic Masters-level courses, and to gather materials for their patterns of trade specialization and public finance; dissertations. In exchange for this, SOAS hosts study and cultural analysis. Religion, in particular, shapes technological and strategic interactions between the evolution of mainstream processes and politics visits by PhD students from the partner university. Indian firms; formal and informal lending; labour- Are you interested in our MA or MSc? (whether by overtly representing religious identities management relations; and Special Economic Zones. or merely utilizing religion to mould vote banks and Please contact: publics), while also existing on the fringes and margins of society in other forms. Our political scientists and SOAS Student Recruitment Office, historians and our specialists in language, literature, Ground Floor, Main Building and religion research constructions of national and SOAS, Russell Square, religious identities; the exercise of Indian soft power; London WC1H 0XG textual production and circulation; the creation of publics across regions and periods; popular Telephone: +44 (0)20 7898 4700 religious movements; and linguistic hybridity. Email: [email protected] Website: www.soas.ac.uk/sro/ 8 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 9 Recent Achievements by SSAI Scholars

Somnath Batabyal is editor of Rachel Dwyer celebrated Stefanie Lotter co-organised David Mosse won the award for Navtej Purewal organised a John Stevens was interviewed the recently published book the release of her new book and presented a paper at the 13th Best Book in Hindu-Christian workshop in February on gender for NTW Europe television, Environment, Politics and Bollywood’s India: Hindi cinema Nepal Study Day, an event ran Studies for his monograph, justice and injustice in South Asia discussing his research on Keshab Activism: The role of media as a guide to contemporary by SSAI in collaboration with the The Saint in the Banyan Tree: with respected academics and Chandra Sen and Bengali. He (Routledge, 2014), which India (Reaktion Books, 2014) Britain-Nepal Academic Council. Christianity and Caste Society activists, including Kavita Krishnan also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s explores how the discourse of with launches in London and She also presented a paper at in India (University of California and Tanika Sarkar. She authored In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg, environmental politics is being across India (Delhi, Mumbai, the ‘Weapons in Anthropology Press). His book was the focus a letter to the Independent, discussing Rabindranath Tagore, shaped by media and related Bengaluru, Chennai). She Museums’ conference at of a panel at the American signed by academics, activists and gave a public recitation technology across the world. also edited four volumes on the Horniman Museum, Academy of Religions conference and voluntary sector signatories, of a Tagore poem in honour This past year, Somnath has also Bollywood, a Routledge Major London, and at the ‘Cultural in San Diego, November 2014. which was cited as part of of the Chief Minister of West written book chapters on the Works Collection (2015) and Elites in Contemporary India’ David also published the book the parliamentary debate that Bengal during her visit in July. 2014 Indian elections and urban co-edited Key Concepts in conference in Arhus, Denmark. Caste and the Conundrum resulted in the defeat of the UK environmentalism in Delhi. Modern Indian Studies (Oxford of Religion and Development Criminal Amendment Abortion University Press, 2015). She in India (Routledge, 2014). Bill in February 2015. Navtej Simona Vittorini published published two chapters in edited has been invited to several a review of Chris Ogden’s volumes. In addition, Rachel public lectures and workshops Crispin Branfoot’s exhibition on James Mallinson has been Indian Foreign Policy: helped organise several events in the UK, the Netherlands, Linnaeus Tripe, the pioneering awarded an ERC Consolidator Ambition and Transition in the in SOAS, including the visit and the US. In addition, she Victorian photographer of south Grant worth €1.85m to conduct Francesca Orsini has been journal Commonwealth and of the Hindi film director and published two articles (in the India and Burma in the 1850s, a five-year project on the awarded an ERC grant for a Comparative Studies (2015) producer, Vidhu Vinod Chopra. IDS Bulletin and the Journal was on display at the National history of yoga entitled ‘The project entitled ‘Multilingual and co-edited a book chapter of Ritual Studies) and a book Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Hatha Yoga Project, mapping locals and significant in Competing Visions of India chapter on Pakistan’s Christians. the Metropolitan Museum of the history of transnational geographies: a bottom-up in World Politics: India’s Rise Art, New York and the Victoria physical yoga through philology approach to world literature’, beyond the West (Palgrave, 2015). and Albert Museum, London and ethnography’. The project comparing north India, the throughout the year. He also started in Autumn 2015. Maghreb, and the Horn of Africa, delivered talks on aspects of and incorporating scholars and Tripe’s photography at the Burzine Waghmar was recently writers in Morocco, Ethiopia, Rahul Rao was awarded a elected to the governing body of Madras Institute of Development India, UK and France. Francesca Leverhulme Research Fellowship Alessandra Mezzadri has the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Studies and Yale University.Crispin Peter Flugel organised the 17th recently co-edited Tellings and for a project entitled ‘Out of published several articles and which will be celebrating its has recently been awarded a Annual Jaina Studies Workshop Texts: Music, Literature and Time: Temporal anxieties of papers this year based on her centenary in 2016. He delivered Leverhulme Research Fellowship at SOAS on Jaina Tantra and the Performance in North India queer postcoloniality’. The research into sweatshop regimes a paper at the 113th session in order to continue his research 15th Annual Jaina Lecture at (Open Book Publishers, 2015) project will investigate themes and labour practices in the Indian of the Human Rights Council, on the construction, renovation SOAS, delivered by Prof Alexis with Katherine Scholfield (King’s of memory, history and futurity garment industry. Her papers UN, Geneva on the on-going and conservation of religious Sanderson (Oxford) on ‘The Jaina College London) and co-edited in the work of queer movements have appeared in Competition Baloch insurgency. Throughout architecture in south India in the Appropriation and Adaptation After Timur Left: Culture and in Uganda, India and the and Change, Development the year Burzine has given 19th and early 20th centuries. of Śaiva Ritual: The Case of Circulation in Fifteenth-Century Anglophone Caribbean. Rahul Viewpoint, CDPR and she media interviews on a range Pādliptasūri’s Nirvāņakalikā’. He North India (Oxford University has published three journal has written articles for New of South Asia-related topics. also co-organised with Professor Press, 2014) with Samira Sheikh articles (in Journal of Eastern Internationalist, The Conversation Nalini Balbir (Sorbonne, Paris) the (Vanderbilt University). She African Studies, London Review UK and Open Democracy. Philippe Cullet organised a 16th World Sanskrit Conference has additionally published two of International Law, International in Bangkok, at which he chaired workshop on Mining, Law and chapters in edited volumes. Feminist Journal of Politics) and Richard Widdess delivered the Jaina Panel. He recently Equity in May 2014, centred two book chapters this year. this year’s Alfred Hook Lecture published Jaina Scriptures around lessons from India. at the Conservatorium of and Philosophy (Routledge, He also organised three Satoshi Miyamura published Music, University of Sydney 2015), with co-editor Olle workshops on climate change two book reviews this year: on ‘Cognition and South Asian Qvarnstrom (Lund University). and groundwater management one in the Economic and music’. In June, he assisted with the National Law University Political Weekly of Emmanual Pasquale Scaramozzino Nigel Poole is currently in organising a Music Day in Delhi (NLUD). In August, Philippe Teitelbaum’s Mobilizing Restraint: recently published the results researching agriculture and support of the Department of gave a special lecture for the Democracy and Industrial of his investigation with nutrition value chain linkages Music, Kathmandu University, School for Legal Studies at Conflict in Post-Reform South economist Antra Bhatt into the with the DFID-funded multi- Bhaktapur, Nepal, which suffered Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Asia, and one in Commonwealth relationship between federal institutional LANSA research structural damage in the April- University. He is currently & Comparative Politics of George transfers and fiscal deficits programme in South Asia, May earthquakes. Richard was drafting a comprehensive water J. Kunnath’s Rebels from Mud in India during 1990-2010 covering , India, recently elected a Fellow of the law for the State of Rajasthan. Houses: Dalits and the making in Public Finance Review. Jonathan Goodhand secured Pakistan and Afghanistan. British Academy, in recognition of Philippe co-edited Sanitation of the Maoist revolution in funding from the ESRC for Nigel has been implementing his outstanding research. Richard Law and Policy in India – An Bihar. He has presented on a major project entitled with local partners an exercise published an article entitled introduction to basic instruments the industrial restructuring Amrita Shodhan published an ‘Borderlands, Brokers and mapping agriculture and ‘Orality, writing and music (2015) and published a book of labour in India at a recent article entitled ‘The Sidi Badshah Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka and nutrition stakeholder and in South Asia’ in Musicology chapter on water regulation Economics Department Seminar of Western India: The Politics Nepal: War to peace transitions policies in Kabul and four Today (2014) and a chapter and public participation at the University of London. of Naming’ in the Journal of viewed from the margins’. Provinces of Afghanistan. on Newar Devotional Music. in the Indian context. African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage (2015). 10 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 11 SOAS South Asia Institute in the Media Alumni: Taking the South Asia Institute to India

The South Asia Institute provided expert commentary and analysis on The SSAI Director made two trips to India in 2015. On the first, in February, a range of topics and issues pertaining to South Asia during 2014-15. he was joined by Matthew Gorman, Director of Development , Alumni and Through pieces written by academics in both print media and electronic External Engagement and together they visited Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai sources, alongside citation of scholars providing expert opinions, the South to introduce the new South Asia Institute to alumni, offer holders, business Asia Institute makes its members’ expertise more readily available to a wider leaders, philanthropists and friends of SOAS, and to both longstanding and public, through engagement with the media and beyond. Some examples potential new partners. of our commentary follow. In each city, friends of SOAS hosted alumni gatherings One of the SSAI’s aims is to enhance and deepen at which Michael Hutt gave a presentation on the SOAS’s relationships with institutions of higher learning Politics Contemporary Society vision and aims of the new Institute. Each was very well in South Asia. A notable achievement of the two trips attended and convivial and we were glad to welcome has been the finalisation of a new student exchange Dr Subir Sinha, Senior Lecturer in Institutions and Dr Navtej Purewal has been a frequent commentator in several other SOAS academics (Lawrence Saez, agreement with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Development ,was frequently cited on various political the British press on the issue of sex selective abortion, Philippe Cullet, Rachel Dwyer) to these gatherings. Delhi, and the signing of a new MoU with Presidency issues in India, providing commentary on the authenticity particularly discussing the amendment to the UK’s University in Kolkata. Michael Hutt also paid visits to the of politicians (BBC World Service), government Abortion Act 1967 in February 2015 (The Independent, Every one of the alumni to whom we spoke during this National Law University, Lady Shriram College, Ambedkar censorship (Times of India), and on the victory of Vice). Dr Purewal also appeared on BBC Newsnight tour had warm memories of their time at SOAS, and University and the South Asian University in Delhi, a Muslim party in district elections in Maharashtra talking about gender selection. Dr James Mallinson, several informed us that it had completely changed Presidency University and the West Bengal Government (Wall Street Journal). Lecturer in International Lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Studies, their lives. All were enthusiastically supportive of the in Kolkata, and Jnanapravaha in Mumbai to explore the Relations, Dr Sutha Nadarajah, commentated on the has featured on BBC broadcasts, discussing the first School’s decision to further develop its engagement scope for new collaborations in teaching and research. implications for Sri Lanka’s domestic and foreign International Day of Yoga in June 2015 and in a BBC with and academic focus on India and South Asia. Very interesting meetings were also held with senior relations of the presidential elections and a change documentary about his ordination as a mahant at the officials at FICCI (the Federation of Indian Chambers in government early in 2015 (Bloomberg). Kumbh Mela at Nasik. Professor Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Commerce and Industry), CII (the Confederation of of Indian Cultures and Cinema, has commented widely Indian Industries), the Association of Indian Universities, on Bollywood and Indian film culture (Live Mint, The Social and Environmental Issues the Delhi Rotary Club, the Indian Council of Cultural Hindu, The Guardian, NRCQ). Professor Gurharpal Relations, and the INLAKS Foundation, and with the Following the devastating earthquakes in Nepal, Singh, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, British Council and British High Commission in Delhi Professor Hutt was widely cited on the damage commented on the relationship between food and faith, and the Deputy British High Commission in Kolkata. to historical sites and architectural treasures (The focusing on Sikhism (BBC World Service) and appeared Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Live Science, Taipei on Channel News Asia offering analysis of India’s role Times). Professor Edward Simpson, Professor of Social in World War II and the impact on post-war India. Anthropology, also described potential reconstructive efforts in Nepal (BBC Radio 4, La Tribune), drawing upon Culture and Languages his published research on disaster and development in Gujarat, western India. Other significant and varied Chair of the Centre for the Study of Pakistan, Dr Amina issues have provided opportunities for commentary Yaqin, provided expert commentary for the BBC on by SSAI members, both in terms of writing individual the role of music in Muslim culture and daily life, pieces and in providing expert opinions. Dr Alessandra broadcast on both BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Mezzadri, Lecturer in Development Studies, has written Service. Languages and literature have featured widely several pieces on sustainability and ethics in the textile in print and electronic media this year. Professor Almut industry (New Internationalist, Open Democracy), as Hintze, Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism, well as being cited in the Huffington Post. Dr Bhavani appeared in several Indian newspapers in relation to Shankar, Professor of International Food, Agriculture, her taught language course of Avestan (Indian Express, and Health has written on the unsustainability of palm Pune Mirror). Mr Rakesh Nautiyal, Senior Lector in oil and Dr Subir Sinha commented on the heatwave Hindi, was featured in a BBC Radio programme, that afflicted India in May 2015 (BBC World Service). commenting on the languages spoken in India today. Dr John Stevens, Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow, provided analysis on a BBC Radio programme on Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. In addition, Professor Michael Hutt and the SSAI featured as part of extensive coverage of SOAS’ memorandum of understanding agreement with the West Bengal government, including academic cooperation on South Asian studies and to advance the study of Bangla, taught at SOAS since its foundation (The Times of India, Forbes). 12 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 13 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship Reports Visiting Scholars’ Reports

Mari Miyamoto, Newton Hemjyoti Medhi International Fellow 2014-2016 PhD, Assistant Professor 2015 for me started with the workshop entitled ‘Religion, Department of English and Foreign Environment and Global Concepts of Conservation’ Languages, Tezpur University, Assam organized by myself with the very helpful support Email: [email protected] of my SSAI colleagues. We received many positive responses to the call for papers from scholars in the For information on how to apply for the Charles UK, the United States, Australia and Japan. We were Wallace Trust Visiting Fellowship, please visit: also able to invite a scholar from a leading Bhutanese www.soas.ac.uk/south-asia-institute/fellowship/ institute to contribute, and overall the workshop created a new alternative academic network of scholars from Anthropology, Geography, Biology and Religious SOAS always seemed the place to Study who share an interest in this field. Given the March-June, 2015 opportunity, I am hoping to further extend and enrich be for a South Asianist. In India, of the intellectual network and develop a theoretical My stay went very smoothly thanks to the efficiency of framework to tackle the issues that were raised. the SSAI colleagues. I realized how diverse the research course, I hardly call myself one: we interests of SOAS South Asianists are, ranging from work on gender history, vernacular During 2015 I was given the opportunity to present my environment and everyday life in Bhutan to questions research at conferences including IAHR and DSA, and of multiculturalism and in Britain. Though literature, the public sphere and so to develop my thoughts about the interaction between my office room was ready with a beautiful view of a religion and democracy, with help from the disciplines Magnolia in full bloom, I must confess that I spent much on— but location does shift the axis of religious study and development studies. A book of my time in the British Library. My research on a of our perspective and I was eager chapter describing the cultural politics over conservation women’s weaving cooperative society in colonial Assam and religion in Bhutan appeared during the year. has been immensely enriched by the extensive material to experience this as I embarked on I could access there. The vast reservoir of reports on The activities of the SSAI have been always attractive Nishtha G. Singh, Visiting Scholar cooperative societies I consulted for Assam, Bengal the CWIT-SOAS journey. and stimulating for me. I attended and chaired and Punjab renewed my perspective on the dynamics panels at the SSAI graduate workshop and the In my year as a Visiting Scholar at SOAS during 2014- of cooperative societies, from the ideological swadeshi Apart from the great academic environment that Nepal Study Days organized at SSAI this year. The 15 I had multiple opportunities to discuss my work programme to the political economy of a colonial SOAS provided, every day brought something new in presentations by young scholars at both workshops with several of the School’s South Asianists, including society. I had the privilege of sharing my research at London, and staying at the nearby Indian YMCA brought were especially challenging and I found many Francesca Orsini, Shabnum Tejani, Navtej Purewal, a seminar at SOAS on 29 April and I really appreciated many benefits. Strolling along/against the crowd in new ideas about research topics on South Asia. Roy Fischel, and Michael Hutt. With these scholars, Central London while I could leisurely walk back from both learned and intellectually generous, for the first the interest with which the audience engaged with my Although my time in SOAS is now drawing to a presentation. I also presented a paper at the Writing the library or office seemed like a dream, and the time I found people under “one roof” (SOAS) who had best way to discover the nuances of a historic city. close, I would like to try to maximize and use this an encyclopedic knowledge of the sources I have Women’s Lives Conference at Bath Spa University in opportunity to develop my study of one of the rare April, which provided an opportunity to connect with used in my research; the period of history I work I had the rare privilege of seeing the Vrindavani Vastra and great spheres for scholars in the world. researchers from different universities across the UK. on; many helpful suggestions regarding the multiple (a seventeenth century Vaisnava sacred tapestry woven My search for women interveners in colonial Assam literatures I might situate my work in; and advice in Assam) now housed at the British Museum Store took me from the Private Papers of Lady Reid at the about how I might go about publishing it. Meeting at Blythe House. I am grateful to the CWIT Secretary British Library to the Papers of Barbara Bruce at Bradford and discussing research and scholarship with scholars Richard Alford for his interest in my research and for University and eventually to the archives at the Centre at SOAS was the high point of the time spent here. arranging this visit. I would also like to thank Mari of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Miyamoto, Sana Shah, Michael Hutt, Tej Purewal and In the past year I was able to ready two articles In between these trips I attended seminars, talks, and Jane Savory, and my friends Lipika Deka, Diganta for publication (both under review), and to start exhibitions at several institutes, such as the Feminist Nath and Niyor of Loughborough University. a new research project—‘Mobile City: A History Classics Revisited Seminar at Goldsmith College, One of Delhi Through its Taxi and Auto Trades’. This trip would not have been possible without Hundred Years of Women’s International League for my parents taking turns to look after Anwesh, I presented my research at the SOAS South Asia Peace celebration at Queen Mary College, not to who turned eleven while I was away, my husband history seminar, and at Shiv Nadar University, mention the completely diverse range of seminars that Dinesh’s long distance management, and our help India. I also chaired a panel at the SSAI’s South were being held at SOAS every single day: one was spoilt Rina’s care of the kitchen. Last but not least, I would Asia Cityscapes Conference in June 2015. for choice between a talk on a seventeenth century like to thank the Charles Wallace India Trust and art dealer and electoral politics in Bangladesh. I had a the South Asia Institute, SOAS for giving me this wonderful time chairing a session and participating in the opportunity to visit and connect with UK academia. SSAI’s South Asia Cityscapes graduate workshop in June. Tezpur, 23 July, 2015. 14 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 15 Academic Members

Anthropology Dr Feyzi Ismail Professor Bhavani Shankar History History of Art Dr Stefanie Lotter Dr Stephen P Hughes Senior Teaching Fellow Professor of International Food, Dr Michael W. Charney and Archaeology Teaching Fellow Expertise: NGOs and social movements, Agriculture and Health Expertise: Nepali society and culture; Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology Reader in South East Asian and politics and development in Nepal and Expertise: Analysis of economic drivers Dr Crispin Branfoot museology; social and cultural Imperial History Expertise: India, especially the South Asia, global protest and change, of over- and under-nutrition, nutrition Senior Lecturer in South Asian Art anthropology of the Himalaya; elite Tamil-speaking south, and Sri Lanka: alternatives to neoliberalism and transition, dietary policy evaluation, Expertise: The history of Buddhist and Archaeology studies; heritage studies popular cinema, media theory, historical societies in South and Southeast Asia and imperialism impact assessment and the role of Expertise: Architecture, sculpture and Email: [email protected] anthropology and visual anthropology of culture, technology, and warfare in Email: [email protected] agriculture in enabling better nutrition painting in South Asia, especially in colonial Africa and Asia Email: [email protected] and health southern India; pilgrimage and sacred Dr David Lunn Dr Jens Lerche Email: [email protected] Simon Digby Postdoctoral Fellow Professor David Mosse Email: [email protected] geography; material religion; colonialism Reader in Agrarian and Labour studies and material culture Expertise: 19th and 20th century Hindi Professor of Social Anthropology Dr Roy Fischel Expertise: India; labour, social movements Dr Subir Sinha and Urdu literature; cinema; music; Lecturer in the History of South Asia Email: [email protected] Expertise: India, especially Tamil and globalisation; labour and the ILO; Senior Lecturer in Institutions and journalism; north Indian literary history; Nadu and adivasi western India; labour and caste in India; agrarian Development Expertise: History of precolonial South Dr Heather Elgood, MBE intellectual history; literary translation caste and religion, dalit politics, Asia, in particular Muslim polities and political economy Expertise: South Asia: institutions of Course Director of the Diploma in Email: [email protected] vernacular Christianity, environmental societies; the Deccan, 1300-1700; South Email: [email protected] development, NGOs, social movements; Asian Art Asia and the early modern Muslim world history, common property resources, the environment, common property Expertise: Persian, Jain, Sultanate and Dr James Mallinson indigenous irrigation, participatory rural Dr Alessandra Mezzadri institutions and resource use Email: [email protected] Mughal manuscript painting; ritual arts Lecturer in Sanskrit and development, aid agencies, anthropology Lecturer in Development Studies Email: [email protected] of Hinduism Classical Indian Studies of development Dr Eleanor Newbigin Expertise: International trade, global Expertise: Sanskrit, Poetry and Senior Lecturer in the History of Modern Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] commodity chains; production networks Ethnography of Yoga South Asia Dr Caroline Osella and industrial systems; informality and Economics Email: [email protected] processes of labour informalisation; Expertise: History of modern South Reader in Anthropology with Languages and Cultures inequality and social structures of Professor Mushtaq Khan Asia, particularly the transition to Mr Rakesh Nautiyal reference to South Asia oppression; gender, feminisms and Professor of Economics independence; gender, family and law in Ms Sahana Bajpaie Senior Lector in Hindi Expertise: Kerala, South Asia, South Asian colonial and post-colonial India Teaching Fellow in Bengali reproduction; the political economy Expertise: South and South East Asia: Expertise: Hindi language diaspora: ethnophysiology, concepts of of the garment industry; the political institutional economics and political Email: [email protected] Expertise: person, gender, ethnicity, psychology and economy of India economy; the economics of rent seeking, Email: [email protected] anthropology Dr Amrita Shodhan Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] corruption and patron-client networks; Professor Francesca Orsini Email: [email protected] late industrialisation and the state Senior Teaching Fellow Dr James Caron Professor Peter P Mollinga Professor of Hindi and South Email: [email protected] Expertise: Nineteenth century Lecturer in Islamicate South Asia Asian Literature Dr Parvathi Raman Professor of Development Studies transformations in western India; Expertise: in South Asia; Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology Dr Satoshi Miyamura gender, caste and community in law Expertise: Hindi Literature; North Indian Expertise: South Asia, Central Asia; Afghanistan and Pakistan; Lecturer in the Economy of Japan and governance; histories of partition literary cultures; Hindi; Urdu Expertise: The Indian Community in comparative political sociology of water Indo-Persianate sociocultural history; India/Palestine Email: [email protected] South Africa; Politics and identity in South resources and development; technology Expertise: South & East Asia, particularly transnational non-Western history; Africa; African and Asian Communities and agrarian change; boundary work India and Japan; development Email: [email protected] activism and social movements Mr Krishna Pradhan in Britain; Political and cultural issues in in natural resources management; economics; labour economics; Email: [email protected] Senior Lector in Nepali Diaspora Studies; Historical anthropology; interdisciplinary social theory institutional economics; labour- Dr Shabnum Tejani Philosophical issues in anthropology Senior Lecturer in the History of Expertise: Nepali Language Email: [email protected] management bargaining; research Professor Rachel Dwyer Modern South Asia Email: [email protected] methods in economics Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema Email: [email protected] Dr Paolo Novak Expertise: Nineteenth and twentieth Email: [email protected] Expertise: Hindi Cinema; Indian popular Mr Naresh Sharma Professor Edward Simpson Lecturer in Development Studies century social and intellectual history, culture; Indian film; Hinduism; new Professor of Social Anthropology Dr Pallavi Roy particularly of the Bombay Presidency; Senior Lector in Urdu and Hindi Expertise: Trans-nationality with particular middle classes; Mumbai/Bombay; Gujarati Lecturer in International Economics communalism and nationalism in India; Expertise: Urdu and Hindi language Expertise: Islam in South Asia; politics, reference to migration; refugee regimes; language and literature; Gujarati diaspora debates around secularism and ethnography, and society of Gujarat; social borders and NGOs Expertise: policy; infrastructure; esp UK and East Africa; comparative Email: [email protected] theory and the western Indian Ocean; religious intolerance Email: [email protected] political economy Indian literature Dr John Stevens the ethnography of reconstruction after Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] catastrophic natural disasters Dr Nigel Poole Email: [email protected] Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow Email: [email protected] Senior Lecturer in Development Studies Professor Michael J Hutt Expertise: The interconnected histories Expertise: Agri-health and nutrition, Financial & Professor of Nepali and of modern West Bengal, Bangladesh and natural resources and food value chains, Management Studies Himalayan Studies and Director, Britain; comparative religion and political Development poverty reduction SOAS South Asia Institute theology in India and Britain; postcolonial theory; the historical construction of Professor Pasquale Expertise: Nepali literature; Professor Jonathan Goodhand Email: [email protected] gender, race, class and nation; social, Scaramozzino the Nepali media; Nepali politics; Professor in Conflict and Dr Navtej K Purewal cultural and transnational history Development Studies Professor of Economics Bhutanese refugees Deputy Director, SOAS South Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Expertise: South and Central Asia; Asia Institute Expertise: Macroeconomics; fiscal policy; complex political emergencies, applied econometrics Dr Amina Yaqin Expertise: Feminist scholarship and Mr Aishwarj Kumar humanitarian aid; NGO capacity building, Senior Lecturer in Urdu and gender in South Asia, including female Email: [email protected] Teaching Fellow aid, conflict and development Postcolonial Studies feticide and routes and barriers to Expertise: Hindi language Email: [email protected] girls’ education; sociology of religion, Expertise: Urdu language and literature; Email: [email protected] particularly popular religious practices post-colonial literature and theory; and contemporary transgressions of gender studies; South Asian literatures religious boundaries in the region of in English; feminism in a Third World Punjab across India and Pakistan context; gender and politics in Pakistan Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 16 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 17

Law Media and Film Dr Rahul Rao Dr Ulrich Pagel Library & Professorial Research Dr Samia Bano Dr Somnath Batabyal Senior Lecturer in Politics Reader, Languages and Religions of Information Services Associates Expertise: International relations theory, Tibet and Central Asia Senior Lecturer in Law Lecturer in Media and Development critical theory (especially postcolonial Expertise: History of Buddhism in Tibet, Mr Burzine K Waghmar Professor Peter Robb Expertise: Muslim Family law in the UK Expertise: South Asia with a focus on and queer theory), comparative political Mahāyāna Buddhism, Kanjur Studies, Senior Library Assistant Emeritus Professor and Europe, Family Law, Multiculturalism, India; transnational news spheres with thought, gender and sexuality, South Asia Vinaya, Religions of Central Asia, (Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services) Expertise: The history of modern South Citizenship, Islamic Jurisprudence and a special focus on India; Development Email: [email protected] Tibetan, Sanskrit Email: [email protected] Asia; early Calcutta, c.1780-1830, Indian Human Rights, Feminist and Critical discourse in India and its articulation in Email: [email protected] agrarian history, especially Bihar and Social and Political Theories, Issues mainstream and alternate news forums; Professor Lawrence Sáez Mrs Farzana Whitfield Eastern India concerning the rights of Muslim women environmental politics. Professor in the Political Economy of Asia Dr Theodore Proferes Subject Librarian and Gender Equality Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Expertise: International political economy, Senior Lecturer in Ancient (South Asia & Development Studies) Email: [email protected] Dr Murali Shanmugavelan comparative political economy, Indian Religions Email: [email protected] Professor Werner Menski emerging markets; energy security; fiscal Expertise: Vedic language and religion; Emeritus Professor Professor Philippe Cullet Senior Teaching Fellow federalism; South Asia Indian philosophy Expertise: Classical and modern Hindu Professor of International and Expertise: India; Tamil Nadu; caste (and Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Visiting Scholars law; Muslim Law; Laws of South Asia; Environmental Law media); Dalits; mass media; critical Family law; Comparative law; South Expertise: Law and environment, media theory; mobile phones; digital Dr Mari Miyamoto Dr Simona Vittorini Professor Gurharpal Singh Asians in the UK; Immigration law; law and natural resources, intellectual media practices including mobile apps; Newton International Fellow Senior Teaching Fellow Professor in Inter-Religious Relations Ethnic minorities property, water, human rights, ethnography of communication and and Development and Dean, Faculty of Expertise: Bhutan; cultural politics of international law, India media; social anthropology Expertise: Nationalism; South Asian Email: [email protected] politics; modern Indian politics Arts and Humanities environmentalism; global political issues; Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Tibet; secularism Email: [email protected] Expertise: Politics; Religious Studies; Mr Alexander Fischer Development; Politics and Corruption; Email: [email protected] Sikh studies; multiculturalism; Lecturer in Law Music transnationalism and development Expertise: Constitutional and Study of Religions Professor Richard Widdess Email: [email protected] Research Associates Comparative Public Law, Constitutional Dr Peter Flügel Professor of Musicology Dr Sanjukta Ghosh Theory, Federalism, Law and Courts, Law Reader in the Study of Religions Dr Sarah Stewart and Politics, Laws of South Asia Expertise: History and theory of Indian Lecturer in Zoroastrianism Research Associate classical music, dhrupad, Newar music Expertise: Jaina Studies; South Asian Email: [email protected] History & Culture; Anthropology & Expertise: Zoroastrianism, with particular Expertise: Modern South Asia (nineteenth of Nepal, historical ethnomusicology, century to present day, with focus on Dr Vanja Hamzić analysis of musical performance, Sociology of Religion reference to the living tradition in Iran and India. the Bengal Presidency, modern West Lecturer in Law cognitive approaches to music, music Email: [email protected] Bengal and Bangladesh); agrarian and Email: [email protected] Expertise: Islamic Law; Laws of South and meaning, music and religion Dr Jan-Peter Hartung food policies; rural-urban linkages, commodities and consumption; Asia (esp. Pakistan), South East Asia (esp. Email: [email protected] Reader in the Study of Islam Dr Vincent Tournier histories of scientific knowledge and Indonesia) and the Arab World; Legal Seiyu Kiriyama Lecturer in Expertise: Intellectual History of Islam with practices, press and public sphere; Anthropology; Legal Historiography (esp. Buddhist Studies Seljuk, Mamluk, Ottoman and Mughal Politics & special reference to South Asia and the socio-economic and cultural histories wider Persianate World, Political Islam, Expertise: Buddhism in Ancient and Early Law); Human Rights Law; Gender, International Studies of migration, urbanisation and heritage Sexuality and Law; Legal Theory; Law of later Islamic Philosophy and Theology Medieval South Asia practices Tort; Family Law; Law and Aesthetics/Art; Dr Rochana Bajpai Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Global Law/Governance Senior Lecturer in Politics Dr Sîan Hawthorne Dr Cosimo Zene Dr Mara Malagodi Email: [email protected] Expertise: Contemporary political Lecturer in Critical Theory and the Reader in the Study of Religions Research Associate theory, particularly multiculturalism; Professor Martin W Lau Study of Religions Expertise: Anthropology of religion, theory methodology, particularly political Expertise: South Asian laws and politics, Expertise: Narrativity; Cultural Memory; in the study of religions, continental Professor of South Asian Law ideologies; modern Indian politics especially Nepal, India and Pakistan; Religion and Gender; Feminist philosophy, Gramsci and religion, comparative constitutional law; law and Expertise: Laws of South Asia; Email: [email protected] comparative environmental law, Historiography; Postcolonial theory; intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, conflict; human rights Postsecularism and gender; Intellectual minorities (Dalits), mysticism and heresy, Islamic law Dr Sutha Nadarajah Email: [email protected] history in the study of religions non-Western Christianities, Mediterranean Email: [email protected] Lecturer in International Relations Email: [email protected] anthropology; South-Asia (India, Dr Avril A Powell Expertise: International Relations theory, Mr Mayur Suresh Bangladesh), Sardinia, world philosophies Emeritus Reader, Department of History international security; global public policy; Professor Almut Hintze Lecturer in Law Email: [email protected] Expertise: Islam in South Asia; Mughal North-South relations; civil wars; peace Zartoshty Brothers Professor history; Muslim-Christian relations Expertise: Anti-terror laws; law and processes; peacebuilding; securitized of Zoroastrianism anthropology; legal theory (particularly development; politics of the ‘War on Email: [email protected] Expertise: Indo-Iranian philology; on theories of emergency legality); Terror’, international financial regulation Zoroastrian literature and religion sexuality and gender identity in South Asia Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Dr Matthew J Nelson Reader in Politics Expertise: Politics of South Asia, Politics of Islam, Islam and democracy Email: [email protected] 18 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 19 Centre for the Study of Pakistan Report Centre for Study of Pakistan – Event Listing September 2014 – August 2015

30 October 2014 7 March 2015 21 April 2015 Over the year the Centre for the Study of Seminar Literature Festival Photography Exhibition Pakistan (CSP) hosted and organised twelve The role of private electronic media in Spring Literature Festival: Cultural The Art of Integration ‘Islam in ’s radicalising Pakistan Confluences green and pleasant land’ seminars, an international literature festival and a Speaker: Dr Kiran Hassan Alev Adil, Ikhtisad Ahmed, Rukhsana Photographs by Peter Sanders Discussant: Dr David Taylor Ahmad, Ahsan Akbar, Somnath Batabyal, photography exhibition. Partners we have worked Howard Brenton, Naomi Foyle, Aamer 5 May 2015 13 November 2014 Hussein, Tariq Mehmood, Laksmi Panel Discussion with include both academic and non-academic Pamuntjak, Sadaf Saaz, Minoli Salgado, Seminar Mirza Waheed You’ve seen the bad news, now see the constituencies, including the Muslims, Trust and Part of the Muslims, Trust and Cultural good - The Art of Integration Cultural Dialogue project at the University of East Dialogue Research Project: 16 March 2015 Peter Sanders, Farah Pandith, Navid Positioning Sufiana Kalam at Bradford Seminar Akhtar, Imam Monawar, Shaykh Babakir London, the British Pakistan Foundation, the City Literature Festival Pakistan’s Counter-terrorism Policy 13 May 2015 Irna Qureshi and Syima Aslam post-Peshawar: Is it Working? Circle, Samosa, and Ajoka theatre. Seminar Ayesha Siddiqa and Huma Yusuf 27 November 2014 Remembering Tahira Mazhar Ali: Seminar Democracy, Feminism and Social Our seminars this year included a high profile panel 26 March 2015 Movements in Pakistan Shahid Nadeem, discussion with the renowned Urdu playwright Sharia and the blasphemy law in Seminar Ajoka Theatre Pakistan: a lawyer’s perspective Amin Mughal, Ammar Ali Jan, Dr Anita Shahid Nadeem of the adaptation of his Urdu play The Global and the Local in the Arts: Mir, Ayesha Siddiqa ‘Dara’ for the London stage. The panel included the Naeem Shakir Translating Pakistan’s vibrant cultures comedian Atif Nawaz. This partnership event brought Anwar Akhtar, Shahid Nadeem, Aatif 21 May 2015 Amina Yaqin: Chair of CSP 11 December 2014 CSP together with three non-HEI partners, the British Nawaz and Amina Yaqin Seminar Pakistan Foundation, the City Circle and Samosa. Seminar The one-day literary festival, organised in partnership Sponsors: City Circle, British Pakistan Part of the Muslims, Trust and Cultural with our Professorial Research Associate Aamer Hussein How about Electric Shadows: the art Foundation, the Samosa and CSP Dialogue Research Project: In the CSP/MTCD occasional seminar series Dr of the story and research students from SOAS and UCL, brought The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: together writers from a number of cultural backgrounds Sadia Toor gave a talk on Pakistani liberals and the Professor Aamer Hussein war on terror and the organisers of the Bradford Pakistani liberals and the War on Terror whose work interrogates the nature of culture and Saadia Toor intercultural experience. The keynote address was Literature Festival Irna Qureshi and Syima Aslam 8 January 2015 delivered by the playwright Howard Brenton, who spoke spoke on the power of Sufiana kalam and trust Seminar on the centrality of art and the freedom of speech, building amongst Asian communities in Yorkshire. Part of the Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue Research Project: and the daytime readings were complemented by An ongoing series of panel discussions engaged with an evening of Spoken Word performances by young current events in Pakistan: we organised a seminar on The vanishing wrestler: illegality and criminal mediation in urban Pakistan artists in the JCR. Throughout the day music from Pakistan’s counter-terrorism policy post-Peshawar and South Asia was showcased by the DJ Omer Tariq. a memorial evening in honour of the women’s rights Dr Paul Rollier (UCL) Our second major event was a photography exhibition campaigner Tahira Mazhar Ali. The panel reviewed entitled ‘The Art of Integration: Islam in England’s Green the demise of the left in Pakistan and reflected on and Pleasant Land’, hosted in partnership with MTCD, the killing of the activist Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi. the Brunei Gallery and the internationally renowned Other seminars included coverage of Sharia and photographer Peter Sanders. The exhibition, which has blasphemy laws in Pakistan by the lawyer Naeem already toured more than 64 locations around the world, Shakir, the role of the private electronic media in is a visually poetic reminder that Muslims have been framing radicalisation narratives by Dr Kiran Hassan, part of British life for well over a century. It showcases a and neighbourhood strongmen and the culture variety of people including physicians, scholars, writers, of illegality in urban Pakistan by Dr Paul Rollier. teachers, calligraphers, rock and roll icons, graffiti In the past year CSP has strengthened its ties with an artists and police and captures Muslim architectural international group of academics, HEIs, community influences in Britain. A panel discussion on ‘You’ve seen organisations, charities, and with the Pakistan High the bad news, now see the good’, organised as part Commission. The Centre provides a much needed forum of the programme of events around the exhibition, for SOAS PhD students working on Pakistan and supports featured Navid Akhtar (CEO Alchemiya), Farah Pandith the unique MA Study of Contemporary Pakistan. Our (Special Representative to Muslim communities in work is supported by the South Asia Institute and the US), Shaykh Babakir (Radical Middle Way), Imam we continue to work closely with the SSAI team. Amina Yaqin, Howard Brenton, Peter Morey Monawar (Oxford Foundation), and Peter Sanders. 20 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 21 SSAI – Event Listing September 2014 – August 2015

15 October 2014 19 November 2014 13 February 2015 Film Screening and Q&A Britain-Nepal Annual Lecture Symposium in partnership with Birth 1871: History, The State and The Britain-Nepal Academic Council 2014 the LSE Gender Institute Arts of Denotified Tribes of India Annual Lecture: Tilaurakot-Kapilavastu: Symposium: Gender Justice/Injustice in Dakxinkumar Bajrange (Director) New Archaeological Discoveries in the South Asia: Feminism, Protest, and the Nepal’s Terai Neo-Liberal State 16 October 2014 Professor Robin Coningham Convenors: Navtej Purewal and Kalpana Round Table Wilson (LSE) and Various Speakers Awaaz: South Asia Network Roundtable 28 November 2014 Discussion - Caste and Development British Association for 20 February 2015 under the Modi Government South Asian Studies 2014 Workshop Subir Sinha, Vrinda Grover, Pragna Patel, Annual Lecture Religion, Environment and Global Suresh Grover ‘Only connect…’ Interdisciplinarity, Concepts of Conservation in South Asia South Asian Studies and Gender Convenor: Mari Miyamoto (SSAI, 23 October 2014 Professor Patricia Jeffery Newton International Fellow) and Book Launch and Various Speakers Panel Discussion 1 December 2014 24 February 2015 Battles Of The New Republic: A Book Launch and Film Screening in partnership Sangat Dialog Punjab Contemporary History Of Nepal Panel Discussion Prashant Jha and Ian Martin Bollywood’s India: Hindi Cinema as a with South Asia Solidarity Guide to Contemporary India Group Monthly meetings to explore Punjabi poetry through time. 29 October 2014 Rachel Dwyer (Author), Faisal Devji, Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai 9 March 2015 5 May 2015 Seminar Charlie Henniker Session 1: Baba Farid and Shah Session 3: Kabir The ‘rare infliction’: The Great War Gender Justice/Injustice in South Asia Hussain and the abolition of flogging in the 10 December 2014 9 June 2015 Indian Army Seminar 7 April 2015 Session 4: Bulleh Shah Radhika Singha The Crucible of Revolution: what it Session 2: Baba Nanak means to be a Nepali Maoist 7 July 2015 12 November 2014 Bhaskar Gautam (SSAI Visiting Scholar) Seminar Session 5: Shah Hussain The Ekta Parishad’s Campaign for Rights 19 January 2015 to Land and to Resources in India Book launch and PV Rajagopal Panel Discussion 20 March 2015 20 April 2015 Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Workshop Film Screening and 18 November 2014 Mosque: A Collaborative Ethnography of Narratives, histories and categories: Q&A with Director Seminar hosted in partnership War and Peace in Eastern Sri Lanka Critical paradigms and new directions The Monsoon Oracle: Dialectics beyond with South Asia History in Dalit scholarship reason and rationality Jonathan Goodhand, Jonathan Spencer, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rachel Dwyer, Department Humeira Iqtidar, Alan Keenan, Professor Ram Rawat and Professor Shrenik Rao (Director) Michael Hutt Rupa Vishwanathan History and Memory in the Making of David Mosse Delhi’s Indo-Muslim Urban Identity, 22 April 2015 22 March 2015 c. 1800-1900 12 February 2015 Film Screening and Festival in partnership with Nishtha Singh (SSAI Visiting Scholar) Panel Discussion Q&A with Director Reflections on gender violence, Tongues on Fire : The struggle for love and neoliberalism and the Hindu Right. Women in the Media: Film festival survival. Bangladesh 1971 A panel discussion with Tanika Sarkar programme, including the Bollywood and Kavita Krishnan Director Farah Khan (Director) and Salil Tripathi (Author) Tanika Sarkar and Kavita Krishnan 27 March 2015 29 April 2015 Talk Seminar In Conversation with Vidhu Vinod Chopra The weaving cooperatives of the Mahila Samitis in late colonial Assam, India 16 and 17 April 2015 Dr Hemjyoti Medhi (Charles Wallace India Britain-Nepal Trust Visiting Fellow, 2014-2015) Academic Council 13th Nepal Study Day 2015 22 | SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 SSAI ANNUAL REVIEW 2014/15 | 23 SOAS South Asia Institute Key Staff

Michael Hutt (Director) Muslim South Asia Research Forum (MUSA) ‘Big Star, Rising Star’ Speaker Series Modern and contemporary Nepali literature is Michael Hutt’s home ground. He is interested in developing a sociological Bringing together established academics and early career researchers in conversation. approach to literature and in using literature as a lens through which to view social, cultural and political change. 20 March 2015 29 April 2015 22 May 2015 Corruption and Development: Music, Art, & Power in India Going West: Persian Students and Navtej Purewal (Deputy Director) Between Citizen and State in post Dr Katherine Schofield (King’s College Shahs in Imperial Europe 1947 India and Pakistan London) and Dr Chloe Alaghband- Professor Nile Green (UCLA) and Dr Navtej Purewal’s research interests are concerned with Professor Sarah Ansari (Royal Zadeh (University of Cambridge) David Motadel marginality, inequality, power/subversion, and social Holloway, London) and Dr Daniel (University of Cambridge) change, particularly in light of neo-liberalism’s expansion Haines (University of Bristol) and penetration into all aspects of South Asian social life.

12 May 2015 10 June 2015 Film Screening and Panel Seminar Discussion in partnership with Locating tourism in Kathmandu: 1965-1980 Centre for Gender Studies Dr Mark Liechty The World Before Her Professor Francesca Orsini, Dr Navtej 17 June 2015 Purewal, Akanksha Mehta Seminar Muslims and Family Planning in India: 18 May 2015 Myths and Realities Launch of the SOAS South Dr SY Quraishi (Representative on the Indian Asia Institute Election Commission) Join the SSAI South Asia Across Borders 27 June 15 Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Namita Gokhale, Punjab Research Group The South Asia Institute welcomes individuals and Maleeha Lodhi, Kanak Mani Dixit, Mishal groups with an interest in South Asian studies who Husain (Moderator) Workshop would like to get involved with our activities. The Politics of the Social and Beyond: 27 May 2015 Hegemonies, Resistances and Negotiations There are several ways of getting involved: Workshop Convenors: Navtej Purewal and Pippa Virdee Hinglish: Social and Cultural Dimensions (De Montfort) and Various Speakers • As a Student: The SSAI runs our own two-year of Hindi-English Bilingualism in MA Programme, MA Intensive South Asian Studies Contemporary India and (from 2016) a new MSc in Contemporary India Convenor: Professor Francesca Orsini Studies. SSAI members also supervise PhD students Contacting the SSAI and Various Speakers working on a range of subjects relating to South Asia. We hold seminars and workshop specifically Email: Email us at [email protected] to 8 June 2015 for students. receive our weekly e-bulletin. Graduate Workshop • As a Public Member: We hold many events free Telephone: +44 (0)20 7898 4390 South Asia Cityscapes: Social, economic and open to the wider public, including our regular and cultural transformations seminar series events (Wednesday evenings) and Facebook: Like us or follow our page at Sangat Dialog Punjab (Monday evenings). Join up www.facebook.com/SouthAsia.SOAS to the e-bulletin and receive regular updates about Twitter: Follow and interact with us: @SOAS_SAI our activities. • As a Visiting Scholar or Research Associate: We Webpage: www.soas.ac.uk/south-asia-institute/ welcome applications from interested scholars Blog: blogs.soas.ac.uk/ssai-notes to join the SSAI. Contact the Institute for further information. Address: SOAS South Asia Institute Fourth Floor, Brunei Gallery SOAS, University of London Graduate Workshop, Cumberland Lodge Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG