Urs Lindner gives a working paper on 'Imitation, Assimilation, Segregation. On B.R. Ambedkar’s Sociology of Caste'

Controversies on assimiliation are far from being an exlusively Western phenomenon. What is of particular interest in this regard is colonial India in the 20^th century, where assimiliation worked as a meta-narrative that could be mobilised accross the entire political gamut. This paper deals with the theoretical role of assimilation in B.R. Ambedkar’s sociology of caste. By a first step I will introduce three views on assimilation which are part of Ambedkar’s intellectual context, but of whom only the third one may be not far to seek: Sarah Simons’, Robert Park’s and Mohendras Gandhi’s. Subsequently I will turn to Ambedkar’s article on ‘Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development’ which elaborates on a paper presented in 1916 in the seminar of anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser at Columbia. This article is not only the sociologically most concise piece of Ambedkar’s critical analysis of caste; it also introduces assimilation as a counter-concept to imitation and segregation, as a ‘natural tendency’ that is blocked by the ‘unnatural institution’ of the caste system. By a third step I will trace the further development of the topic of assimilation in Ambedkar’s work and show how it was closely connected to the conceptualization and use of the metaphor of ‘social endosmosis’.

Priyanka Jha gives a working paper on 'The Gaze on Justice: Outlining a Genealogy of Ideas From Anagarika Dharmapala to Dr B R Ambedkar'

 This paper argues that the construction of the notion of justice vary with the way otherness is constructed. It argues for an inclusive notion of justice and shifting from constitutional normative construction of otherness to the construction of otherness within the civilizational ethical-existential values of Kshama (forgiveness), Karuna (compassion) and Atma Gyan (knowledge of spiritual self) drawn from Buddhism.

Drawing on the feminist discussion on ‘subtle invisibilization as injustice’ it is argued that the diverse epistemes present in the critical vernaculars and the colloquial traditions within India, that have been invisibilised by dominant discourse need to made available for a political discourse on justice.

It bring on board the works of four thinkers Anagarika Dharmapala (1873-1933), Dharmanand Kosambi(1876-1947), Ananda K Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) and Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) all who dynamically drew from Buddhism in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. They initiated the discourse of dignity and self worth based through the life and teaching of the Buddha, invoked as an Exemplar. This discourse preceded Navayana Buddhism as espoused by Dr B R Ambedkar.

These responses were invisibilised as ‘revivalist’ by the oriental and nationalist discourse. The category revivalist positioned Buddhism within the limits of historical time. When in fact it was concerned with the ‘return’ of ethical-existential values to guide a nation cleavaged and marred with inequalities and injustices within civilizational/ discursive formation. These thinkers worked extensively in bringing to the masses the different hues of Buddhism and its varied interpretations.

This has been done with the history of ideas methodology which attempts an overcoming invisibilisation, move beyond the western imagination and emerge out of the frames of oriental. This has been undertaken to clear the ground for discussion on a different idea of India

  

Biographical Details:

Priyanka teaches Political science in School of Undergraduate Studies at Ambedkar University in Delhi. She is presently a Junior fellow at the Max Weber Centre of Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany as part of “Religious Individualisation in historical perspective’ whereby she is working on Buddhism and making of idea of India. She is interested in doing history of ideas and  Political thought and theory.

Antje Linkenbach presents a working paper on 'The Power of Audibility: Contestation and Communication as Route to Cohesive Development'

Imagining ‘cohesive development’ as a new paradigm means turning away from a focus on economic growth and giving priority to an integrative, social perspective on development. The paper, therefore, focuses on three concepts – cohesion, difference, and development. In the first part the paper explores how these concepts are being defined and interpreted within the disciplines of sociology and anthropology, what are the relevant debates evolving around these concepts and how these debates merge in the paradigm of cohesive development. In the second part the article will draw attention to regionally and socially marginalized groups in India and their ‘capacity to aspire’. This section will reveal the plurality and heterogeneity of visions for a ‘good life’ and the ways how to shape the future. The paper concludes with reflections on the social and political conditions for audibility and parity of participation within the wider project of cohesive development.

Alex M. George is going to present a working paper on 'Diversity and Inclusion in Hindi Language Textbooks for Elementary Schools of Madhya Pradesh'

This paper explores how Hindi language textbooks address the issue of diversity and inclusion. These textbooks are prescribed by the Government of Madhya Pradesh and used in the state board elementary schools. In Madhya Pradesh people speak different languages such as Malwi, Nimadi, Bundelkhandi, Gondi, Korku, Bareli, etc. Nevertheless, Hindi is the only language of communication used in state board elementary schools as well as for all administrative purposes.

Many studies have highlighted the central role played by textbooks in school education in India. Textbooks are the only material used in classrooms. Hindi language textbooks are a compilation of different literary genres and writers. Through the process of selection of material in textbooks, there are worldviews and attitudes regarding caste, gender, religion, nation, etc which are highlighted. In this manner, textbooks become a cultural repository of select writings and worldviews.

Based on the analysis of elementary school language textbooks, this chapter shows, that the selection of content in Hindi textbooks is informed by a desire to strengthen children’s allegiance to a given understanding of citizenship and the nation which is centred around Brahminical Hindu ethos. Hence the textbooks passages portray romanticised notions of the past. It perpetuates the hierarchical social structures and makes the marginalised communities invisible. It fails to recognise the everyday discriminatory practices based on caste and gender biases, which find legitimacy within Brahminical Hinduism.

Dalits (15%) and Adivasis (21%) together form 36% of Madhya Pradesh’s population. Their cultures and practices are made invisible in the textbook.  It is only in recent decades that Dalit and Adivasi children have had access to schooling. Through the Hindi textbooks, these first-generation learners are encultured into a worldview which marginalises them. Textbooks are identified as the site of cultural capital. In the pursuit of social mobility through schooling, children have to contest with the cultural capital.

Juhi Tyagi is going to present a working paper on 'Radical peasant movements and the trajectory of capital: a comparison of cotton production in Warangal and Sabarkantha, India'

This paper attempts to answer the question of what, if anything, have radical social movements achieved for the poorest. Like most peasants in the Global South, those supported by radical movements nevertheless landed in the throes of capitalism, increasingly becoming immiserated wage labour.

Using the case of two provinces in India that had the presence and absence of a radical movement respectively, I undertake an examination of how radical social movements might shape the trajectory of the state and capital, and in turn, impact the conditions of labour.

Although both economies under consideration, I argue, transitioned to capitalist practices, in movement absent areas —  small and marginal farmers lacking a worker’s organization —  remained stuck in previous exploitative relations of production. In such areas, any break in labour conditions came only from random opportunities that arose in the local economy. In movement present areas, I find, although new relations of exploitation replaced old ones, an organizational structure of protest that had provided land and wage gains for the peasant class in the past, led to creating further contradictions between labour and the capitalists. This resulted in renewed protest cycles and an advancement in wage opportunities for the peasant masses. I conclude with what I see as the impact of armed social movements in the global south in creating ‘economies of struggle,’ where collective action organizing pays off in terms of improving peoples’ livelihoods and more significantly, in creating a protest infrastructure that can and does become deployed more willingly in labour-capital struggles.

Rimi Tadu presents a working paper on 'Understanding the State making process in the Eastern Himalayas'

This study is based on my doctoral research study on the local history of an event called Kure Chambyo, where a large group of Tanii men of Arunachal Pradesh had led an attack on the Indian military outpost called Kure near the Tanii homeland. What is interesting to note about the event is that not only in official government records the narratives of the event is almost non-existent, even the locals have never commemorated the event. While the post-Kure Chambyo occupation and oppression carried out by the Indian administrators in the Tanii valley still remain as painful memories among the elderly members of the community, the younger generations are hardly aware of the event. This event was never commemorated or retold. When I discussed with people, it is not seen as a proud memory but as a moment of ‘foolish and barbaric’ act by older and traditional Taniis. Some spoke about the event as if it questioned their sense of patriotism towards India.
This project aims to critically engage with the state formation processes in Arunachal Pradesh during the early period (1950s-1980s) For various reasons such as its geo-political location of this state, it is placed as a critical region for India. As a result it carried out a highly controlled national integration policy which has completely transformed the diverse ethnic communities from autonomous and state-less communities to a state citizen. And this happened in a very short span of time. Through a complex political and social processes, the region was integrated with India, and its people socialized to state system despite their autonomous past. However, what follows along with such state socialization is the sense and consciousness towards power and authority in one hand and the realization of powerlessness and subordination by people who are dominated and controlled.
In this working paper I am trying to problematize this national integration policy carried out in Arunachal Pradesh. While national integration on itself might not be a problem but the way it was carried out by a powerful state over a community whose consent was never taken to begin with. Raising these questions are important for the critical history of each of these communities and for the reality of nation-state of India, and for understanding the nature of the state. In this paper I have not answered any of the questions but just earmarked them and pointed out how they might look like.

Aditya Malik gives a working paper on 'Hammira: Inception of a History'

The paper has two parts each representing truncated, though I hope interconnected, versions of longer chapters and themes that I plan to explore in a book I am writing for De Gruyter. In the first part of the paper I discuss the historical and literary context(s) of the Hammira-Mahakvya and its main protagonist, Hammira, with a view to showing that contrary to Indian nationalist historiographies of the second half of the 20th century, the texts under consideration do not represent a conflict between Hindus and Muslims but rather rivalries and friendships between scattered ethnicities and clans competing for political control in northern India between the 11th-16th centuries. Moreover, I aim to show that the social category of the Rajput (‘prince’, ‘warrior’ etc.) that crystallizes in the 15th-16th centuries transcends both ethnic and religious compartmentalization by signifying attributes, qualities and ethical values that once internalized by an individual could be expressed through heroic action regardless of caste or religious affiliation (i.e., by both Hindus and Muslims). The second part is more conceptual in nature springing from the fact that the Hammira-Mahakavya originates in a dream presented to the author of the text by the dead hero whose life and deeds lie at the center of the ‘great poem’ (Sanskrit: mahakavya). The question that arises here is whether history with its fundamental concern with empirical evidence, facts and what is considered ‘real’ can originate in the subjective, inner world of dreams or what is considered ‘unreal/imaginary’. Is the ‘unreal’ or imaginative fabric
equally or more important here than the ‘real’, empirical structure? While history concerns itself with the past, it is also obvious that not all statements about the past are considered to be history. It is only when the past is presented to us – ‘constructed’ one could say – in a particular manner that it becomes ‘history.’ Not every statement or perspective of the past therefore qualifies as history. But how exactly does history get constructed, particularly in the Indian/South Asian context? What does it mean to think about the past? Where is this thinking about the past located? Moreover, what does thinking and, in particular, imagination mean in the Indic context? Can history begin in a dream?

Beatrice Renzi is going to present a working paper on 'Intersectional perspectives on Dalit women and justice: Exploring the systemic interlinkages between patriarchy, caste and class'

The paper takes stock of present day conditions involving violence against Dalit women. It strives to unpack the many normative systems shaping Dalit women’s social positionalities and their lived realities of justice. The analysis is focused on gaining an understanding of the ordinary every-day context within which systemic violence and its normative frames of reference are inscribed. By positioning the field of investigation at the intersection between questions of gender, caste and class entangled within locally contextual dynamics of power, the paper aims to illustrate how the understanding of violence and justice changes if it is viewed from Dalit women perspectives and how this view alters our assessment of the potentials and constraints facing democratic institutions and the rule of law in contemporary India. This also represents a methodological choice which seeks to highlight how a seemingly liminal analytical perspective becomes central in illuminating some of the pivotal junctures that help to explain the workings of a system as a whole.

Elena Borghi gives a paper on '“Unaided by men, they will discover their own strength”. Margaret Cousins, the Women’s Indian Association and the formulation of new gender norms in late-colonial India (1917-27)'

The paper is part of the project on which I am working as an ICAS fellow. The project is about Indian first-wave feminism, a tag designating the organised women’s movement which developed in the first decades of the 1900s. In particular, the project looks at the gendered norms and emotions governing the two main associations that constituted firstwave feminism in India—the Women’s Indian Association (1917) and the All-India Women’s Conference (1927).

The paper focuses on the experience of the Women’s Indian Association (WIA), the first pan-Indian women’s organisation and one of the main actors composing first-wave feminism in early-twentieth century India. The WIA was crucial in the propagation of anti-imperialist, nationalist stances, and often constructed such stances as the main goals behind women’s proactive participation in the world outside their homes. The WIA’s message depicted women’s subjugation as a metaphor of India’s political subjugation, and the improvement of women’s condition as a prerequisite for and a necessary step towards the country’s emancipation from colonial domination. It was mainly within this broader framework, therefore, that the WIA promoted women’s education and independent initiative. While historiography has tackled these aspects, other, more subtle contributions of firstwave feminism have been overlooked. The following pages point in that direction. They contain some preliminary considerations on the role of the WIA and the main driving force behind it, Margaret Cousins, in the construction of an alternative system of feeling and emotional climate, which the women participating in the movement were encouraged to espouse. The first section of the paper introduces Margaret Cousins. It sheds light on her thinking and life trajectory, on which she arguably grounded the understanding of gender roles and women’s position that informed the message of the WIA. The second section looks at the WIA as an organ trying to shape a community governed by a peculiar emotionology; and the last section sheds some light on the reception of the emotional norms spread by the WIA through the experiences of some of the women who engaged with the association in the very first phase of its existence.

Angelika Malinar is presenting a working paper on 'Karmic history, politics and the synthesis of “East” and “West”: Annie Besant (1847-1933) on Hinduism'

The research focusses on European women as interpreters of Hinduism in the colonial-modern period. The interpretation of Hinduism as well as the “woman question” were prominent arenas of the political-cultural debates that characterised the entangled history between India and Europe at that time. From the last decades of the nineteenth century onward women not only in India, but also in Europe participated increasingly in the debates about Indian religion and society. Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Margaret Noble (1867-1911), for instance, did not only pursue their own spiritual interests, but were also actively engaged in socio-political and educational projects. In doing so they challenged constructions of gender and regimes of power both in India and Europe which resulted in complex biographies as well as in various. While their political activities received some scholarly attention, their interpretations of Hinduism did not. One reason for this is that these interpretations were often seen as intellectually irrelevant or mere apologetics. This view seems to be based on the application of certain paradigms in the interpretation of female agency and individuality in the colonial context. The European women were considered as being either mere mouthpieces of “Indian Gurus” or agents of imperialism (even when they saw themselves fighting against it). Such unilateral views of colonial history have been challenged in recent years by emphasizing the entangled, multi-layered interactions between Indians and Europeans as well as the complex personal relationships they entertained. In following this approach, I shall explore the individual biographies, the social and political networks of the European women and the larger intellectual contexts of their interpretation of Hinduism. The paper focusses on Annie Besant and deals firstly with some theoretical issues and in the second part discusses certain features of Besant´s interpretations of Hinduism.

Jana Vogl presents a paper on "The fragile reputation of women: Women, sexuality, conflicts"

In this paper, I present the first half of a chapter of my PhD thesis, where I ask how women intervene in a case of (severe) sexualized violence in a slum in Chennai, South India. Whereas the second half of the chapter asks how women interact with the police and “the law”, the first half – which I present today – concentrates on understanding how women frame the incident of sexualized violence in their narrations. I argue that the way they narrate the incident – as having happened to a woman who was “good” although she had (an) affair(s) and as having transcended the legitimate amount of suffering every woman faces commonly in her live – the incident is rendered a matter worth of public intervention (by the common people, potu makkaḷ, ūr makkaḷ) as opposed to a “family matter”. This way of framing the incident, however, is not without contention, especially among male inhabitants. Thus, I argue more specifically that the incident is made a “women's issue” by transformation of the common narrative form of the female lament (Kalpana Ram) into a source of solidarity amongst women.