Twentieth M. N. Srinivas Memorial Lecture
(Sponsored by Syndicate Bank)
to be delivered by
Prof. Janaki Nair
Former Professor, Modern History, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU
on
“Can ‘a Poem Show Direction Where there is None’? Querying Karnataka’s Historical Imaginaries”
on
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
at 4.00 p.m. (Coffee/Tea: 3.30 p.m.)
at J.R.D. Tata Auditorium, NIAS, IISc Campus, Bengaluru 560 012
Chairperson: Prof. Shailesh Nayak, Director, NIAS
Abstract: The reorganization of states on linguistic lines was seen as a fulfillment of the yearning of discrete linguistic publics for a protective and nurturing state-form for the language itself. But the history of state unification in Karnataka, and its post-1956 trajectory called that link into question. We could say, in the case of Karnataka, that the state preceded the nation, and that the Karnataka people-nation is still in the making. Is this an opportunity for hope or despair? Despite its rich classical, and its insurgent and innovative modern presence, is the Kannada language adequate to our democratic political existence, i.e. able to nurture the emergence of the citizen-subject? If not, what can take (or has taken) its place? Imagining the region as not merely a community of speakers of a language, but as simultaneously the unit of political and economic inclusion and democratic practice, to imagine it as a space of sustainable equality, enjoins us to critique existing historical imaginaries.
About the speaker: Janaki Nair worked at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, before she joined the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, as Professor, Modern History, until retirement in 2020. She has also been a Visiting Professor at Azim Premji University from 2020-22. Her teaching and research interests over the last three decades have included labour and urban history, the history of the law, and of visual culture and practices, as well as feminist history. A large part of her published work pertains to the Princely state of Mysore in the colonial period, and to contemporary Karnataka. Her published works include Mysore Modern: Rethinking the Region under Princely Rule (2011); The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore’s Twentieth Century (2005); Miners and Millhands: Work, Culture and Politics in Princely Mysore (1998); and Women and Law in Colonial India (1996). In addition, she has published widely in several Indian and international journals, co-edited several books, held visiting appointments in India and elsewhere, and has served on the editorial boards of journals such as Urban History and Journal of Women’s History. She also writes occasionally on contemporary Karnataka for newspapers and journals.
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ALL ARE WELCOME
For further information, please contact Dr. M B Rajani <mbrajani@nias.res.in>