Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time: Fwd: Fw: Dalit Studies Week at Shimla

Friday, March 5, 2010

Fwd: Fw: Dalit Studies Week at Shimla

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: rajkumar hans <rajkhans@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 11:49 AM
Subject: Fw: Dalit Studies Week at Shimla
To: Palash Biswas <palashbiswaskl@gmail.com>

sorry, one of your email id did not work. sending it the second time. 'hope you get it.

Dr Raj Kumar Hans

Fellow,

Indian Institute of Advanced Study

Rashtrapati Nivas

Shimla - 171005 India

Cell: +91-92185 35278

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: rajkumar hans <rajkhans@yahoo.com>
To: Palash Biswas <palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com>
Sent: Fri, March 5, 2010 11:41:47 AM
Subject: Dalit Studies Week at Shimla

Dear Palash,

It was nice to talk to you on phone the other day. It is just at an informal level that i am communicating this message to you. My proposal for the dalit study week met the approval and the date given is 20-25 July 2010. i would like you to cover the Bengal ground as far as dalit studies are concerned. though you could be the best judge of what you finally present. i am pasting below part of the proposal i had submitted for the purpose for you to get a broad idea and purpose of the meet.

Dalit Studies Week

Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla

The interface between dalit activism and academia in the last two decades has given way to a growing body of works on Dalit Studies. It is essentially inter/multi-disciplinary in character for posing and exploring new questions, methods, and paradigms. Dalit as a concept and category has opened up new possibilities of critical understanding around conceptual categories of exclusion and marginality for disciplinary practices. Posing a challenge to the existing order, it propels the initiatives for the creation of an alternative paradigm as well as reconfiguring the contours of everyday life. Caste, religion and land as determinants of relations of power and subordination, as sources of oppression and humiliation are central to the understanding of dalit life-worlds. The establishment of Dr. Ambedkar Chairs and Centres in different universities and educational institutions has played its role in sensitising the academics towards Dalit Studies but even after two decades of Dalit Studies in existence in the academia it is still in an amorphous state, on its cross-roads. It is important that stocktaking is done, reviews are made and a roadmap is sketched for the future of Dalit Studies. A week of intensive presentations, discussions, and reflections by a small group of 20 dedicated scholars is called for that purpose.

Over the last few decades the debate around 'who speaks for the subaltern?' has raised questions of 'representation' and 'authenticity'. While suspicions have been expressed by internal voices against non-Dalits' writings, not even sparing the genuine and sympathetic thinkers, there has also been the conventional mode of patronage and attitude of condescension on the part of the other side. Besides serious work having seen the light of the day in the past there has also been a spurt in the production of knowledge for the sake of promotions as also for the market. A balanced approach demands an open-minded/ended and inclusive reception and participation for a progressive onward journey. The 'exclusions' cannot be countered by 'exclusions'; organic dalit intellectuals could be more aware of the dangers of exclusionary practices. Dalit studies cannot but consciously address the subconscious of not only the oppressed but the oppressor as well. The rethinking and reimagining seem already in place and a week's meeting of minds is bound to trigger new ideas for charting the new road.

looking forward to listen from you,