Date:
Location:
EMPIRE, NATION, FEDERATION: SOUTH ASIA’S FREEDOM IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
HARVARD-TUFTS CONFERENCE on the 75th ANNIVERSARY of INDEPENDENCE and PARTITION
Jointly sponsored by the Weatherhead Center and Asia Center of Harvard University and the Center of South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, Tufts University, and the concert by Zeb Bangash on October 8, 2022, at 6.30 pm supported by Presidents Bacow and Monaco.
Part 1: October 7-9, 2022, Part 2: April 7-9, 2023
Friday, April 7, 2023, ASEAN Auditorium, Cabot Building, Tufts University
4 pm: Welcome and Introduction by Ayesha Jalal
4.30 pm – 6.30 pm: Session 1 Despairs and Hopes of Democracy
Chair: Ayesha Jalal
"Prospects of Restraining Indian Authoritarianism at the Local Level" by Pranab Bardhan
“Hindu Nationalism and the Crisis of Indian Federalism” by Sumantra Bose
Discussant: David Ludden
7.30 pm: Conference Dinner for Invited Participants hosted by Tufts University
Saturday, April 8, 2023, Belfer Case Study Room, CGIS South 020, Harvard University
9.30 Breakfast and Coffee
10 am: Welcome and Introduction by Sugata Bose
10.30 am-12 pm: Session 2 Imperial and Anti-Colonial Ideas of Federation
Chair: Sugata Bose
"U Ottama, Asia, and Anticolonialism" by Sana Aiyar
Discussant: Aniket De
12.30 pm-2 pm Lunch
2 pm – 4 pm: Session 3 Rethinking Partition and its Aftermath
Chair: Ayesha Jalal
“Dialogue and Silence in Partition’s Shadow: The Muslim Question in Asghar Wajahat’s Fiction” by Neeti Nair
“Dialogue and Silence in Partition’s Shadow: The Muslim Question in West Bengal’s Public Discourse” by Semanti Ghos
Discussants: Sumantra Bose and Pranab Bardhan
7.30 pm Conference Dinner for Invited Participants hosted by Harvard University
Sunday, April 9, 2023, Cabot Building 7th Floor, Tufts University
10.30 am-12 noon: Session 4 Regional Identities Reconsidered
Chair: Kris Manjapra
“Rhetoric of Kashmiri Self-determination: Past and Present” by Shahla Hussain
“Vernacular Solidarities: Women’s Ethics Against Patriarchal Order in Sindh” by Shayan Rajani
Discussants: Chitralekha Zutshi and Neeti Nair
12 noon – 1. 30 pm Lunch for Invited Participants
2 pm – 3.30 pm A Roundtable on “Centralized State Power and Regional Resistance: The Post-Colonial Predicament” chaired by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal