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The Romance of Revolution: literature, gender and anticolonial militancy in colonial India.

The Romance of Revolution: literature, gender and anticolonial militancy in colonial India.

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The Romance of Revolution: literature, gender and anticolonial militancy in colonial India.
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<strong>Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study </strong> second in the series of Fellows' Seminars 2016 <strong>on 8th February 2016</strong> by <strong>Ania Loomba</strong> Catherine Bryson Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia on <strong>The Romance of Revolution: literature, gender and anticolonial militancy in colonial India.</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> This talk is drawn from my forthcoming book which explores how progressive and communist women shaped a new political subject in India, contesting and appropriating Gandhian, liberal-feminist, and European left-wing models of womanhood. In this paper I discuss the gendered mores of the revolutionary nationalists in Bengal, juxtaposing the lives and writings of women such as Kalpana Dutt, Pritilata Waddedar, Bina Das, and Kamla Das with representations of them in influential novels of the time.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.