34 | Subaltern Studies, a State of Play
This panel invites papers discussing the concepts and researches in the field of Subaltern Studies. We propose four topics for discussion: the boundary between history and anthropology, critics of Subaltern Studies, Subaltern Studies outside of India and new fields for the study of subalternity.
35 | Talismanic Writing: Powerful Texts
This panel explores how powerful signs, symbols and formulae enable texts to act in the world. Interdisciplinary approaches to the decipherment and analysis of talismanic writings will engage multiple overlapping fields of meaning, including the aesthetic, affective, religious, and historical.
37 | The Bhagavad Gita – Modern Interpretations, Cross-Cultural Perspectives
This panel explores from various disciplinary perspectives the Bhagavad Gita in modern contexts and as a transnational document. Papers are invited dealing with modes of its reception and with reinterpretations among modern-day philosophers, politicians, spiritual leaders, writers etc.
38 | The History of Emotions as a New Disciplinary Direction for South Asian Studies (In Memoriam Anne Monius)
We can no longer justify talking about the history of religion, intellectual history, connected history, and other histories of South Asia without including the history of emotions, which promises to open up a new disciplinary direction for South Asian Studies.
39 | “Thus It Is Said...”: The Role of Scripture in Legitimising South Asian Sectarian Communities
This panel calls for current research on the formation of religious traditions in South Asia with a focus on scripture. It explores how scripturalisation and the various processes it involves has helped establish communities within authoritative rubrics during their critically formative years.
40 | Urban India: Social, Spatial and Political Trajectories
This panel explores the social, spatial and political evolution of India’s cities in the neoliberal era. The papers engage diverse disciplinary perspectives on the urban milieu and its relationship to broader socio-political trajectories, drawing together case studies from across contemporary India.
42 | Vernacular Literary Magazines and the Shaping of Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia
Focusing on vernacular literary magazines in colonial and postcolonial South Asia, this panel aims to assess both their impact on modern vernacular literature, their relevance as historical sources and their role in the cultural, social and political construction of modern South Asia.
43 | Vernacular Mahābhāratas in Text and Performance
This panel will explore the multitude of Mahābhārata retellings in vernacular languages in all genres, from “classic” texts, to performances, to popular media, including versions from Muslim, Jain and other communities, and ritual performances from diverse regions of the Subcontinent and beyond.
44 | ‘Vernacular’ Theorisations of ‘Literature’ in Modern South Asia
The panel discusses 'vernacular' theorisations of literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. We ask what ‘modern’ ideas of literature, literariness, and literary history were and how they were generated by synthesizing disparate vocabularies – Sanskritic, Persianate, Western – in inventive ways.
45 | Vernacular Grammars
This panel focuses on the phenomenon of “vernacular grammars,” i.e., grammars written for languages other than Sanskrit, in precolonial South Asia. We will try to define this phenomenon and trace out important patterns, connections, and developments across languages and regions.