Up and coming events at the King’s India Institute- this September
All the events organised by the King’s India Institute are free.
RSVP is not needed unless mentioned on the event listing.
Events in September 2015
(1969, dir. Mani Kaul, Hindi with English subtitles)
Indian Modernisms film series at The Tagore Centre for Global Thought
Date: 21 September 2015
Venue: Anatomy Lecture Theatre (K6.29), Strand Campus, London
Time: 6.30-9pm
Our first screening in the Indian Modernisms series. A dusty road in rural Punjab. Each day, Balo waits at a bus stop for her husband, Sucha Singh, a long-distance truck-driver, to collect his lunch. Sucha pays his wife no attention – yet she remains strangely devoted. One day, as trouble befalls the family, Balo fails to deliver her husband’s lunch. Mani Kaul’s debut feature, which has been compared to Bresson and Tarkovsky, is arguably the first consistently formal experiment in Indian cinema since D.G. Phalke’s ground zero works of the 1910s. Introduced by Tanya Singh, with a post-screening discussion with Salil Tripathi and Dr Valentina Vitali (UEL).
Speaker: Prof Itty Abraham (National University of Singapore)
Date: 23 September 2015
Venue: Small Committee Room (K0.31), Ground Floor, Strand Campus, London
Time: 5.30-7.30pm
Why do countries go to war over disputed lands? Why do they fight even when the territories in question are economically and strategically worthless? Drawing on critical approaches to international relations, political geography, international law, and social history, Professor Itty Abraham addresses these important questions and offers a new conceptualization of foreign policy as a state territorializing practice.
(1977, dir. Yukt Film Cooperative, Marathi with English subtitles)
Indian Modernisms film series at The Tagore Centre for Global Thought
Date: 28 September 2015
Venue: Anatomy Lecture Theatre (K6.29), Strand Campus, London
Time: 6.30-9pm
The second screening in the Indian Modernisms series. A decadent feudal regime in Western India on the eve of European colonisation. Nana Phadnavis, the ‘Maratha Machiavelli’ and first minister of the Peshwa court, enlists a new Chief of Police and spymaster – Ghashiram Kotwal, played by Om Puri in his debut role – to manipulate local Brahmin elites and the encroaching British. A child-king is enthroned, the Ghashiram rises and falls, but the brutal exploitation of the populace remains unchanged. Introduced by Chinmay Sharma (SOAS), with a post-screening discussion with Dr Martin Brady (KCL).
Book launch: Christophe Jaffrelot – The Pakistan Paradox
Speaker: Prof Christophe Jaffrelot, with Dr Farzana Shaikh (discussant)
Date: 29 September 2015
Venue: Council Room (K2.29), Strand Campus, London
Time: 5.30-7.30pm
Professor Christophe Jaffrelot launches his new book, The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience (2015, Hurst & Company) – a fresh political history of Pakistan that explains the resilience of the state and its people and how both persevere against the odds. The launch will be chaired by Dr Rudra Chaudhuri (King’s College London) with Dr Farzana Shaikh (Chatham House) as discussant, and will be followed by a drinks reception.