1609, 2020

SSAI Sanglaap: Arts and Culture series

By Sunil Pun|September 16, 2020|Culture, General, India|0 comments

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

0909, 2020

Remembering Richard Grove: Life and Legacy/ Scholar Humanist by Dr Debojyoti Das

By Sunil Pun|September 9, 2020|Culture, Environment, General, History|0 comments

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.

1607, 2020

The Heartbeat of the Mind: Conversation with the Tabla Maestro Pandit Bickram Ghosh by Dr Sanjukta Ghosh (SSAI)

By Sunil Pun|July 16, 2020|Bangladesh, Culture, General, Media|0 comments

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

0907, 2020

The Language of Lockdown Arts

By Sunil Pun|July 9, 2020|Culture, Gender, General, History, India, Media|0 comments

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

1206, 2020

Doing Ethnographic Research during Covid-19 at Myanmar’s Main Public Hospital by Nora Wuttke

By Sunil Pun|June 12, 2020|Civil Society, Conflict, Culture, Development, Environment, General, Myanmar|0 comments

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

2408, 2017

Memories of Partition – 70 years on by Farzana Whitfield

By rk24|August 24, 2017|Conflict, Culture, India, Pakistan, Politics, Religion|0 comments

Farzana Whitfield is the subject librarian for South Asia and Development Studies at SOAS. Here she looks back on her family’s personal experience and memories of Partition. This article has previously appeared on SOAS’s library blog. This August marks 70 years of India’s independence from British rule (15th August) giving birth to 2 nations- a Hindu majority India and a Muslim majority Pakistan (14th August). Subsequently there were 3 wars between

1508, 2016

‘Jaffna University, Sri Lanka – when entitlement is rejected’ by Annemari de Silva

By Rosa Vercoe|August 15, 2016|Conflict, Culture, Education, General, Sri Lanka|0 comments

Annemari de Silva is Chevening Scholar to SOAS reading for an MA South Asian Area Studies, major in the Politics of Culture in Contemporary South Asia. On the 16th of July, a clash between students at the University of Jaffna erupted over the inclusion of Sinhalese cultural spectacles in the welcome event. Established in 1974, Jaffna University is located at the heart of the Tamil majority North of Sri Lanka. Although

1307, 2016

‘The pathologies of trust and distrust in Pakistan’ by Amina Yaqin

By Shreya Sinha|July 13, 2016|Conflict, Culture, General, Pakistan, Religion|0 comments

Amina Yaqin is Senior Lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia, SOAS. The recent assassination of the renowned qawwali singer Amjad Fareed Sabri in the name of piety in Pakistan has revived the question of the permissibility of music in Pakistani culture. Sabri was shot on June 22nd 2016 by attackers on a motorcycle while he was driving his car in Liaquatabad,

3003, 2016

SSAI News: Opening of the Everlasting Flame Exhibition at the National Museum, Delhi

By Jennifer Ung Loh|March 30, 2016|Culture, General, India, Religion, SSAI|0 comments

A SOAS Exhibition organized in collaboration with the British Library, National Museum of Iran and UNESCO Parzor Foundation, Delhi The Everlasting Flame Exhibition, which is currently ongoing at the National Museum in New Delhi, was inaugurated on 19 March 2016. The exhibition was originally produced by SOAS, University of London, in 2013. In 2016, to mark SOAS’ centenary year celebrations, the exhibition has been taken to Delhi. Dr. Najma Heptulla, Hon’ble Minister for Minority

2501, 2016

‘Bengal in London’s East End’ by Sanjukta Ghosh

By Jennifer Ung Loh|January 25, 2016|Bangladesh, Culture, General, History, India|0 comments

The celebration of Bengali history in East End conjures up a picture different to how we imagine the community gleaned from the pages of a widely read fiction Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, where the nostalgic memory of Bangladesh’s paddy fields fuses with life’s chores in the East End. Amidst the iconic curry houses marking out the generation of food entrepreneurship and labour of Britain’s Bangladeshi community, the streets near the