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CSSS organises a lecture by Khuraijam Bijoykumar Singh

CSSS organises a lecture by Khuraijam Bijoykumar Singh

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CSSS organises a lecture by Khuraijam Bijoykumar Singh
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Centre for the Study of Social Systems

School of Social Sciences

 

CSSS Colloquium

 

Khuraijam Bijoykumar Singh

(Assistant Professor, SCSNEI, JNU)

 

Will be presenting a paper on

 

LAND, SITES AND IDENTITY AS CONTESTED TERRAINS:

Spatial Politics of Hinduism and Sanamahi Religion in Manipur

 

Date & Time: August 21, 2018 (Tuesday), 3.30 pm

Venue: CSSS Committee Room (No: 13), SSS-II

 

Abstract: In the present context of Manipur, which is one of the Union Indian States, there are two dimensions of this strategies — the “Meitei nationalism” driven by Hinduism on one hand and “Sanamhism” (pre-Hindu religion of the Meiteis) on the other hand each of which has its own strategies and politics. Thus the present territory of Manipur becomes a contested space for many socio-religious groups and political space they claim is a set of relationships, which include the land, sites and identity that cannot be reducible to one another. Therefore, land, religious sites, territory and identity become contested among various socio-religious and ethnic communities. To claim this physical space as a legitimate space exclusively for one’s own, they utilize mythology, rites and ritual as significant legitimatizing sources of their claims. The the present paper is an attempt to examine the contemporary spatial strategies of the Meiteis who followed Hinduism and Sanamahism. It also examines how such spatial strategies in both the cases attempt to translate the facts of social geography into a matter of faith, belief and ultimately shaped their history.

Bio: Khuraijam Bijoykumar Singh teaches at the Special Centre for the Study of North East India (CSNEI), JNU. Before joining this centre he taught Sociology of Education at North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE), Shillong, a constituent unit of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi. His areas of interest includes social context of education and culture, religion, peasant studies, identity and state formation in North East India.

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.