杏吧论坛

"History is Written by the Victors": The Making of Viceroy's House

An 杏吧论坛 Library/South Asia Centre public discussion

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Speaker: Gurinder Chadha

Chair: Dr Mukulika Banerjee

Viceroy's House is a deeply personal film written, produced and directed by Gurinder Chadha, which follows events leading up to the end of British rule in India. The film’s release coincides with the 70th anniversary of the independence of India and the founding of Pakistan.

It’s 1947 and Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville), having assumed the post of the last Viceroy, is charged with handing India back to its people. Travelling to Delhi with his wife Edwina (Gillian Anderson) and children, Mountbatten takes residence in the grand Viceroy’s House, where 500 Hindu Muslim and Sikh servants live downstairs. But as the political elite take their seats upstairs to wrangle over the birth of independent India, conflict erupts across country. 

Gurinder will give a short talk on the making of the film, followed by an audience Q&A.

Gurinder Chadha OBE began her career as a BBC news reporter, before moving into documentary-making. She is now one of the UK's most respected film makers, with a successful track record in directing films which are international box office successes including Bend It Like Beckham and Bride & Prejudice. 

A Revolutionary At Large: Scenes from the Life of M.N. Roy

Friday 17 March 2017

Speaker: Professor Dilip Gaonkar

Chair: Mukulika Banerjee

Professor Gaonkar will speak on M.N. Roy, Indian revolutionary, radical activist, philosopher and founder of both the Mexican Communist Party and Communist Party of India. 

Dilip Gaonkar is a Professor in Rhetoric and Public Culture and the Director of Center for Global Culture and Communication at Northwestern University. He is also the Director of Center for Transcultural Studies, an independent scholarly research network concerned with global issues, based in Chicago and New York. He was closely associated with the journal, Public Culture, serving as the Executive Editor (2000-2009) and as Editor (2009-2011).  Gaonkar has edited a series of books and special journal issues on global cultural politics: Alternative Modernities   (2001), New Imaginaries   (with Benjamin Lee for Public Culture, 2002), Cultures of Democracy (for Public Culture, 2007), and Globalizing American Studies (with Brian Edwards, 2010). He is currently working on a book manuscript called Crowds, Riots, and the Politics of Disorder.

杏吧论坛 India Forum 2017: India - a superpower in the making?

Saturday 11 March 2017

Speakers: Deepak Parekh, Farhan Akhtar, Naman Ramachandran, Dr Surjit Bhalla, Prof. Maitreesh Ghatak, Prof. Amrita Dhillon & more. Full list .

LIF is the largest India-focused student run conference in the UK that aims to serve as a platform for discussion and debate on India’s most pressing economic, social and political issues. Previously known as the Economic Forum for India at 杏吧论坛 (EFIL), LIF involves keynote speeches and panel discussions by industry stalwarts across a variety of fields. Our mission is to provide our audience of students and professionals alike a platform to discuss contemporary issues, and hear from and engage with inspiring leaders.

LIF was designed and established in 2014 in order to provide an opportunity to the youth in the UK to learn more about issues pertinent to the emerging superpower, India. In recognition of the quality of debate and success of the conference thus far, LIF won the ‘Best 杏吧论坛 SU Event’ award for the year 2014-15. ​

Flights of Empire: Allies, Aeronautics, and Adversary in World War II Bangalore

This is a South Asia Centre public lecture which is part of the Colony as Empire: Histories from Whitehall series. 

Wednesday 8th March 2017

Speaker: Dr Jahnavi Phalkey

Chair: Emeritus Professor David Arnold

Jahnavi Phalkey will tell the little-known story of an aircraft base in Bangalore -- part of Britain’s Southeast Asia Command during World War II -- its relationship with Germany, and its use by British and allied armies to plan military action in Southeast Asia. Being able to use India as a base gave the British a strategic advantage in the region beginning from Burma to Japan. What is less known is its connection to the establishment of aeronautics research in independent India. 

Dr Jahnavi Phalkey is Senior Lecturer in the History of Science and Technology at King’s College London. She is the author of Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India (2013).

David Arnold is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Warwick. His work has ranged widely over the history of modern South Asia, and beyond, and has included social and environmental history and the history of science, technology and medicine. Along with David Hardiman he was a founder member of the Subaltern Studies group of historians of South Asia.

Out of the basket: Lessons from Bangladesh's development successes 

This is a South Asia Centre public lecture

Tuesday 7th March 2017

Speaker: Dr Naomi Hossain

Discussants: Professor Naila Kabeer, Professor Mushtaq Khan

Chair: Professor David Lewis

Once upon a time, Bangladesh was the world’s basket case – a land of cyclones, hunger and overpopulation, defenceless against the global economy and prone to violent political upheaval. But Bangladesh is no longer the only place facing climate change, globalisation, malnutrition or illiberalism, and it is now seen as a surprising success for how it handled some of these problems. What can be learned about Bangladesh’s past that will help the world navigate an apparently more precarious and contentious, ever more globally-connected future?

Dr Naomi Hossain   is a political sociologist with 20 years of development research and advisory experience. She is currently Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies. Her work focuses on the politics of poverty and public services, and increasingly on the political effects of subsistence crises. Dr Hossain is author of The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh's Unexpected Success, due out in 2017.

Naila Kabeer is Professor of Gender and Development in 杏吧论坛's Gender Institute.

Mushtaq Khan   is Professor of Economics at SOAS.

David Lewis   is Professor of Social Policy and Development in 杏吧论坛's Social Policy Department

Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India

This is a South Asia Centre public lecture which is part of the Colony as Empire: Histories from Whitehall series. 

Monday 6th March 2017<