Introduction:-
The Second Chapter of International Conference (24-26 March 2018) on “Retrieving the Voices from the Margins: Thinkers/Writers of Modern India” is intended to focus on critically examining the relevance of the vision of those modern Indian thinkers/writers/artists whose dharma-centric world-views as represented in their works/texts have so far been neglected in the domain of cultural/literary studies in contemporary Bharat/India. In the first chapter of the Conference which was held at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (11-13 August 2017) in collaboration with Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, the emphasis was on the critical examination of the worldviews of the thinkers of modern India whose civilizatioanlly and socially significant vision remains hitherto occluded or ignored in the dominant academic discourses in India. In the second IIAS Shimla Chapter of the Conference, due emphasis will be laid on the significance of the interrelated literary, cultural and philosophical worldviews of the hitherto neglected writers/thinkers of modern India in contemporary socio-cultural contexts.
Objectives and Significance of the Conference:-
- To critically examine voices and worldviews of the hitherto marginalized/neglected Indian writers/thinkers having a bearing on literary/cultural studies at present with special reference to such issues as identity, nation/nationalism, class, caste, gender, ecology, literature, language, culture and society etc). Even the hitherto less or unexplored aspects of the works of some of the major modern writers/thinkers, having a bearing on the above issues may also be analysed.
- To focus on, how in the works of the hitherto ignored modern writers, the modern is re-inscribed and reconstructed in accordance with polycentric Indian wisdom traditions.
- To critically analyse the significance of the world-views of the hitherto ignored modern Indian writers in contemporary literary/cultural/social/political/ecological contexts.
Suggested Themes:-
The invited scholars are expected to critically examine the continuing significance of the works of the hitherto neglected Indian writers/thinkers in contemporary contexts such as :
- Redefining the modern in accordance with Indian knowledge traditions/epistemologies.
- Cultural and textual poetics and politics of representing nation/nationalism/post-nation/global.
- Trajectories and tendencies of representations of gender/caste/class/identity/ecology/the sacred and the secular.
- The need for the conceptualization of a holistic “dharma-centric”(righteousness-oriented) transformative poetics and politics to reorient literary/cultural studies.
- Significance of the worldviews of the hitherto marginalized voices and visions today- in national or global contexts.
The speakers may focus on any unexplored aspect of the works of such modern writers/thinkers/ katha-vaachakas ( the list is not exhaustive as it is only illustrative) as, to give only a few examples, as Dean Mahomet, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee ( hitherto less or unexplored aspects), Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj, Pandita Ramabai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gandhi, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sister Nivedita, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Dr Rammanohar Lohia, Narayana Guru, V. D. Savarkar, Dr B R Ambedkar (hitherto less or unexplored aspects), Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Sumitranandan Pant, U. R. Ananthamurthy, Ananda Coomaraswami, Mahadevi Verma, Jaishankar Prasad, G.M.Muktibodh, Ramadhari Singh Dinakar, Gopinath Kaviraj, Premchand, Vidya Niwas Mishra, Yashadev Shalya, Vasudev Sharana Agrawala, G. C. Pandey, Phanishwaranath Renu, Baba Nagarjun, Nirmal Verma, S.H.Vatsyayana Agyeya, Vijay Tendulkar, M.T.Vasudevan Nayar, Shrilal Shukla, Sharad Joshi, Harshankar Parsai, Qurratulain Hyder, Rahi Masum Raza, Shamsur-Rahman Faruqi, Asghar Ali Engineer, Narendra Kohli, Rewa Prasad Dwivedi, Ramesh Chandra Shah, Mukund Lath, S.L.Bhyrappa, Gopinath Mohanty, M.T.Vasudevan Nayar, Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore, Jaimini Roy, Gurdayal Singh, Bhalachandra Nemade, B.S.Mardhekar, Arun Kolatkar, Fakirmohan Senapati, Subramanya Bharathi, V.Basheer, O.V.Vijayan, Sant Shri Morari Bapu, Acharya Mahaprgya, Swami Rambhadracharya, Shri Ramesh Bhai Ojha, Swami Awadheshanandaji, Pandit Madhusudan Ojha, Pandit Motilal Shastri, Dharampal, Namdeo Dhasal, Arjun Dangle, D.R.Nagaraj, Sharankumar Limbale and others. There will be special focus on the significance of the contributions made by Kapil Kapoor, Rajiv Malhotra, Makarand Paranjape, Ramesh Chandra Shah, David Frawley, Koenraad Elst, Ram Swarup, Sitaram Goel, and others.
No of Days and Sessions:-
Days: Three (24-26 March 2018)
Sessions:- Total Six Sessions excluding the Inaugural and Valedictory Sessions
Tentative Sessions;
24 March 2018: Inaugural Session ( 9-11 AM)
First Academic Session: Towards a Transformative Indian Poetics: Literary and Cultural Theories and Practices
Second Academic Session: The Local, the National and the Global: Alternative Articulations
25 March 2018:
Third Academic Session: Interrogating Caste and Gender: Towards Swaraj
Fourth Academic Session: Rearticulating the Sacred: The Sacred and the Secular
26 March 2018:
Fifth Academic Session:- The Ecological Imperative: Voices from the Margins
Sixth Academic Session:- Culture- in- Performance
Conveners:-
- Professor Chandrakala Padia, Chairperson IIAS Shimla and Professor, Dept of Political Science Banaras Hindu University Varanasi (U.P.)
- Professor Sudhir Kumar, Professor of English, DES-MDRC,Panjab University Chandigarh-160014
Outcome of the Conference:-
The papers read/ presentations made during the two chapters of the International Conference will be duly edited in the form of two volumes to be submitted to IIAS for publication after the second chapter of the Conference. The Introduction to the proposed 2-Volumes will be written by the two conveners after the collection of papers presented in both the chapters of the Conference.
The proposed two-volumes will highlight the significance of the world-views of those modern Indian writers/thinkers whose significance has yet not been properly understood and recognized. In this sense, the proposed two-volumes will add to the field of literary and cultural studies in India -opening up further scope of research and learning.
A limited number of participants will be invited for the seminar. We especially encourage young scholars to apply. Those interested in participating should send an abstract (200-250 words maximum) of the proposed paper on any aspect related to the theme note, with special reference to any Indian Writer/Thinker/Indian Literary- Cultural Theory along with their C.V. to the following Email ID:
Link:
http://www.iias.ac.in/event/retrieving-voices-margins-thinkers-writers-modern-india
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