From Partition
to Ayodhya Demolition
Lectures on Religion, Politics,
and Communal Conflict
in South Asia Since 1947
Organized by Linda Hess
Sponsored by:
South Asia Initiative
Asian Religions & Cultures Initiative
Department of Religious Studies
Stanford Campus Map
Parking at the Oval in front
of the Quad
For further information,
contact lionda@stanford.edu
Thursday, April 27
7:30 p.m.
History (Bldg. 200), Room 305
Gurinder Singh Mann
Sikhs Since Independence
Politics, Community,
Communalism
Dr. Mann is the holder of the
Kundan Kaur Kapany Chair in Sikh Studies, University of California,
Santa Barbara. His publications include The Making of Sikh
Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2000), The Goindval
Pothis (Harvard Oriental Series, 1996), Studying the Sikhs,
co-edited with J. S. Hawley (SUNY Press, 1993), Guru Gobind
Singh and the Legacy of Sikh Politics (an edited volume,
forthcoming), Early Sikh Tradition (forthcoming), and
The Sikhs of America (forthcoming).
Friday, May 5
4:30 p.m.
Asian American Activities Center (A3C )
Old Union Clubhouse
Presented jointly with Sanskriti
Yavar Abbas
Partition
Reflections of an Indian
Muslim Filmmaker
Yavar Abbas, who has been called
the Satyajit Ray of Indian documentary films, was a young man
in India at Partition--an event which has marked him profoundly
as a person, an artist, and a participant in history. In 1966,
while based in England, he produced India! My India!,
documenting his pilgrimage back to the places of his childhood
and youth and his reflections on the meanings of home and the
violence of carving up the country. It won the Marconi Prize
in Milan and has been televised all over the world. Since then
he has produced 20 films in India and other films in other locations,
winning many awards. He has been Films Consultant to the United
Nations and Chief of Films and TV for Third World Media. Mr.
Abbas will speak on Partition, and show one of the four half-hour
segments of India! My India!
Tuesday, May 9
7:30 p.m.
Building 70, Room 72A1
Venkajesh Murthy
Hindutva and National Renaissance
An RSS Worker's Perspective
on Recent Developments in India
Mr. Murthy has been a volunteer
in the Rashstriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for nineteen years,
in Bharat (India), Trinidad, Guyana, and the U.S. The lecture
will provide his perspectives on Hindutva, the Sangh Parivar,
and the Ayodhya temple issue, secularism, and the various challenges
faces Bharat.
Friday, May 12
7:30 p.m. lecture
followed by 8:30 screening of Earth
Annenberg Auditorium
Bapsi Sidhwa
Cracking India
The Novel and the Movie
Bapsi Sidhwa is widely acclaimed
as Pakistan's best fiction writer in English. Cracking India,
the third of her four novels, was the basis for Deepa Mehta's
powerful 1999 film Earth. Ms. Sidhwa's numerous prizes
and honors including the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest
national award in the arts; the Liberaturpreis (Germany); the
Bunting Fellowship (Harvard/Radcliffe); and the Lila Wallace-Readers
Digest Writers Award. Born in Karachi and raised in Lahore, Ms.
Sidhwa now resides in the U.S. where she has taught and been
writer in residence at Mt. Holyoke College, Brandeis, Columbia,
and Rice Universities.
Tuesday, May 16
12 noon
Building 320, Room 221
Mushirul Hasan
Partition Revisited
Prof. Hasan is Professor of
History, Jamia University, Delhi, and Visiting Professor, University
of Virginia. He is one of India's most eminent historians. His
many books include India's Partition: Process, Strategy and
Mobilization; Legacy of a Divided Nation: India's Muslims Since
Independence; and Nationalism and Communal Politics in
India, 1916-1228.
Thursday, May 18
7:30 p.m.
History (Bldg. 200), Room 305
Ram Rehman
Culture as the New Political
Battleground
Artists and Writers Confront
Communalism in the 1990s
Ram Rahman is a well-known photographer
and designer whose work has been featured in many
exhibitions, publications, and private collections in India,
Europe, and North America. He is a
founder-leader of SAHMAT, an organization of artists against
communalism formed after the murder of street theater artist
Safdar Hashmi during a performance in 1989. In 1993 he designed
the exhibition "Hab Sab Ayodhya" ("We Are All
Ayodhya") and accompanied it on a U.S. tour.
SAHMAT has organized many performances, art events, and publications;
its name refers to the
Hindi word "sahmat," meaning agreement or common-mind,
and is an acronym for Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust.
ADDITIONAL MORNING LECTURES
The public is welcome to attend
two lectures given as part of the course Religious Studies 114.
The lectures are at 9 a.m.in Bldg. 90, Room 92-Q (on inner Quad).
Wednesday, April 19
Prof. Ebrahim Moosa
Stanford University
Islam, Law, and the State in
South Asia
Monday, May 1
Prof. Linda Hess
Stanford University
Marshalling Sacred Texts
Tusi's Ramayana Enlisted in the Battle of Ayodhya
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