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The story of an epic and its afterlife in nationalist vernacular literary cultures

The story of an epic and its afterlife in nationalist vernacular literary cultures

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The story of an epic and its afterlife in nationalist vernacular literary cultures
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<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences </strong> a Lecture <strong>The story of an epic and its afterlife in nationalist vernacular literary cultures</strong> <strong>Shail Mayaram</strong> Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi <strong>21st October 2015</strong> The talk will present part of a larger ethnography of transitions of Indian nationalism. It will examine the journey of a literary narrative concerning the twelfth century encounter between Prithviraj Chauhan and Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghuri. It will analyse how a popular version of the encounter available in the P?thviraja-raso became iconic in a series of vernacular literary cultures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and was read as epitomising the Hindu-Muslim relationship. Shail Mayaram is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Publications include, Against History, Against State: Counter perspectives from the Margins; Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity; coauthored, Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi Movement and the Fear of Self(1995). Edited volumes are The Other Global City and Philosophy as Samvada and Svaraj: Dialogical Meditations on Daya Krishna and Ramchandra Gandhi and co-edited, Subaltern Studies: Muslims, Dalits and the fabrications of history. She has worked on subaltern pasts and moral imaginations of peasant, pastoral and forest-based communities, living together in the city and on nationalism and decolonizing knowledge. Israel as the gift of the Arabs: Letters from Tel Aviv is her most recent book and her current research project examines contestations between Sufis and Salafis

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.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.