Partha Chatterjee, "A Relativist View of the Indian Nation," Oct 9, 11am - 1pm EST

Preetha Mani Discussion

Please join the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) at Rutgers University for our Fall 2020 Distinguished Lecture event:

Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Columbia University

Friday, October 9, 11 am - 1 pm (EST) 

"A Relativist View of the Indian Nation"

Research in the last three decades on the print literatures in the various Indian languages has revealed that the consciousness of the people as constituting a nation was deeply grounded in the emergence in the 19th and 20th centuries of the regional vernaculars as standardized print languages. But the identity of the people-nation in each region had constituent features that were not the same everywhere. At the same time, the identity of a linguistic community as a people was located within a larger identity of belonging to the Indian nation. This paper argues that while there is a real construct of the Indian nation, it looks different when viewed from the perspective of each regional language. There is no language-neutral perspective available. Hence, one must accept a relativist view of the Indian nation.

Venue: Zoom

Advanced registration required at  https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIocOygqTopH9Wm016IClDlPmiz8von1B0g.

For more information, please contact Preetha Mani at preetha.mani@rutgers.edu

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Dear all,

It was recently pointed out to me that the Zoom link I provided earlier brings up an error message. Please find a corrected link in the re-posted announcement below.

Thank you,
Preetha Mani

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Please join the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) at Rutgers University for our Fall 2020 Distinguished Lecture event:

Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Columbia University

Friday, October 9, 11 am - 1 pm (EST)

"A Relativist View of the Indian Nation"

Research in the last three decades on the print literatures in the various Indian languages has revealed that the consciousness of the people as constituting a nation was deeply grounded in the emergence in the 19th and 20th centuries of the regional vernaculars as standardized print languages. But the identity of the people-nation in each region had constituent features that were not the same everywhere. At the same time, the identity of a linguistic community as a people was located within a larger identity of belonging to the Indian nation. This paper argues that while there is a real construct of the Indian nation, it looks different when viewed from the perspective of each regional language. There is no language-neutral perspective available. Hence, one must accept a relativist view of the Indian nation.

Venue: Zoom

Advanced registration required: https://www.amesall.rutgers.edu/news-and-events/events/icalrepeat.detai….

For more information, please contact Preetha Mani at preetha.mani@rutgers.edu.