Departmental Research Seminar (2020. 05. 18., 17:30)

May 18, 2020

Dear All,

our Departmental Research Seminar series will continue on this Wednesday (18 May), from 17:30! Our lecturer will be Sanjukta Das Gupta (Associate Professor at the Department of Oriental Studies of Sapienza University of Roma), who will hold his presentation on "History or Tradition? Exploring Adivasi Pasts in 19th Century Jharkhand, India". Join our Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85487732234?pwd=VUJKanJQVFlrOGljMFVjdU5SeFU2Zz09 (Zoom meeting ID: 854 8773 2234, password: 0k5DEH).

"Scholars of colonial and post-colonial India have widely agreed that the earliest Indian manifestation of history as a rational-positivist discipline occurred in the nationalist historiography of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The British colonizers’ use of history as a tool of self-legitimation rested on the stereotypical assumption that India lacked a proper historical consciousness. This should not, however, erase other possible forms of historical memory which existed in pre-colonial times. By dealing with 19th-century representations of the past centred on the history of villages and clan genealogies, this lecture stresses the need to acknowledge oral traditions prevalent among the Adivasi or tribal people of Jharkhand as repositories of a distinct historical awareness."

Category: 

Share