by Vidya Venkat As I reminisce the Ph.D. fieldwork trip to New Delhi, the earliest memory that comes to mind is social activist Aruna Roy telling me about how she and her colleagues were described as “urban Naxals” by a right-wing Hindi language publication in Rajasthan. That term was originally used by the filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri in his 2018 book, which became wildly popular as a label for any left-leaning
by Magdalen Gorringe Gorringe writes the account covering Manch UK’s Meet the Artist digital series held during the critical period of the pandemic lockdown. South Asian Dance in the Pre-Digital Era Looking at a timeline within the last forty years, it is possible to evoke a different world of South Asian dance experience in the UK that could be disparate, lonesome, and left to unforeseen circumstances. Magdalen Gorringe reflects on five migrating women artists
by Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Had heard that every cloud has a silver lining! Aligarh Muslim University, and especially its Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, had never been technologically savvy. Most of its Faculty, as well as its students, have always been very conservative and laid back not only in their approach to life but also at adapting to the ways of the modern world. We have always been
by Dr Debojyoti Das Amid Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Richard Grove left us too early. Grove was a trailblazer and maverick who worked across archives in the British Empire to develop a fresh understanding of imperial science and environmentalism that developed out of colonial foot soldiers exploring natural phenomena in the colonies. The science of El Nino and environmentalism he argued, developed at the edge of empires and not in metropolitan quarters of continental Europe.
Lockdown Language by Dr Sanjukta Ghosh (SSAI) Faced with the pandemic, and likened to a war-like situation, the present scenario takes us back to the dialogues on mental health started a century ago in the trenches of the First World War. Not only did the flu affect healthy bodies in 1918, but the war-wounded soldiers also turned to regular music sessions for stabilising their mental health. Mental health is viewed
Manch UK launches Meet the Artist Compiled by Payal Ramchandani (Kuchipudi dancer) with editorial comments by Dr Sanjukta Ghosh (SOAS South Asia Institute) During the lockdown, many artists are keen to share their personal stories on social media as the language of art could be empowering and enable one to connect with the inner world of emotions. It has been particularly difficult for dancers who are used to practising in
by Nora Wuttke 1st of July 2020 “Don’t take buses or taxis; it is better to walk” – and all of a sudden, my physical world became very small. At the same time, an infinite digital realm overlaid everything with its expansiveness. The tensions and discrepancies between experiences in “my” world and the digital discourses (mainly spun from Europe and the US where death rates where rising and mental health
Michael Hutt All disasters play out in the aftermath of the critical event that has triggered them, and it is rarely possible to state categorically that any disaster aftermath has really come to an end. In most cases it is merely eclipsed by the events that follow it, as history moves on. Nepal is still recovering from the earthquakes that killed 9,000 people and destroyed over 800,000 domestic dwellings in
Avinash Paliwal and Edward Simpson ‘You are on mute’ and ‘Once all this is over’, phrases of the pandemic. We learn to do business over the internet, and look to the future as if it were as innocent as the past. These words typify transformations – big and small – in the way we live our lives. Lockdowns, curfews and social distancing have been brought in to restrict the spread
SSAI Artistic Director, Sanjukta Ghosh delivered a statement on the occasion of UNESCO International Mother Language Day 2020 upon invitation by H.E. Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh High Commissioner, at the commemoration of the ‘Bengali Language Martyrs Day’ on Friday, 21 February. Mother Language Day is part of a broader initiative “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world” as adopted by the UN General Assembly on May