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The Indian Village: Romantic Images versus Historical Realities Lecture A South Asia Centre Public Lecture as part of the '100 Foot Journey Club' (#100FJC) Speaker: Sumit Guha Chair: Ed Simpson 6th June 2016 6:30pm - 8:00pm Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HF Bernard Cohn identified the ‘village view of India’ as one of the important strands in the understanding of the subcontinent. Village India was the title of an important book by McKim Marriott, and even today the village is the elementary unit in official efforts at decentralization of government. The “village view” of India came to be embodied in the publications of agrarian administrators, and a few missionaries like William Wiser. They paid exceptional regard to the organization of economic life, the conditions of agricultural production and rural institutions. Its darker side was well understood by Dr B.R. Ambedkar who famously described it as a “den of ignorance, narrowmindedness and communalism”. A new, revised, ‘village view’ of Indian society – one sensitive to inequalities of power and portents of change gradually emerged from research after Indian independence. But it is noticeable that all the scholars who have studied this problem have assumed that the village organization is itself a relatively unproblematic structure – arising perhaps out of the functional needs of isolated rural life. This talk will offer a more nuanced, historical view of the diversity and the historical evolution of Indian rural society through two millennia. The event is free to attend and open to all. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present A South Asia Centre Public Lecture Speaker: Sumit Guha Chair: Tirthankar Roy Tuesday 7th June 2016 6:30pm - 8:00pm Alumni Theatre, NAB, LSE, 54 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LJ Sumit Guha will be giving a public lecture based on his book ‘Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present’(Brill 2013), which tracks the long history of the practices amalgamated under the label of caste and shows their connection to changing patterns of social and political power down to the present. It frames caste as an involuted and complex form of ethnicity and explains why it persisted under non-Hindu rulers and in non-Hindu communities across South Asia. The lecture is open to all however there are a limited number of places, so please email [log in to unmask] to confirm your attendance. Click the link for more information about the LSE South Asia Centre http://www.lse.ac.uk/southasia Follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/SAsiaLSE Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lsesouthasia ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * * To unsubscribe: please log on to jiscmail.ac.uk, and * * go to the 'Subscriber's corner' page. * * ***************************************************************