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Narrating the Past in Kashmir Place, Genealogy, and Tradition

Narrating the Past in Kashmir Place, Genealogy, and Tradition

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Narrating the Past in Kashmir Place, Genealogy, and Tradition
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<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences</strong> a Lecture <strong>Narrating the Past in Kashmir Place, Genealogy, and Tradition</strong> <strong>Chitralekha Zutshi</strong> Associate Professor of History, The College of William and Mary, Virginia, USA <strong>21st April 2015</strong> This talk details the characteristics of the long tradition of historical writing in Kashmir. Focusing on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century tazkiras and tarikhs, it outlines their relationship to Sanskrit texts, and discusses their articulation of place and the ways in which they defined tradition and religiosity. It also looks at the circulation of tropes and stories from these narratives in the Kashmiri oral and performative domains. The talk ends with the state of Kashmir's historical tradition in the contemporary period and the changes wrought on it in the context of contestation and conflict. Chitralekha Zutshi is Associate Professor of History at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA), and the author of Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir, and Kashmir's Contested Pasts: Narratives, Sacred Geographies, and the Historical Imagination.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

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