JNU | RTI | Directory | Contact Us | Emergency Services | List of Holidays
-A A +A

CSSS is organizing a lecture by Bidhan Chandra Dash

CSSS is organizing a lecture by Bidhan Chandra Dash

Event End Date
Event Title
CSSS is organizing a lecture by Bidhan Chandra Dash
Event Details

Centre for the Study of Social Systems
School of Social Sciences

CSSS Colloquium

Bidhan Chandra Dash
(Assistant Professor, AmbedkarUniversity Delhi)

Will be presenting a paper on

The Metaphor of 'Village' and the Predicament of Dalit Discourse

Date & Time: April 6th, 2017 (Thursday), 3.00 pm
Venue: CSSS Committee Room (Room No: 13), SSS-II

Abstract: While the collective conscience in India has always been nostalgic about the "Indian village" life as natural, innocent and therefore authentic, the Dalit leadership has shunned the village as 'a sink of localism, den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism'. Although, Ambedkar supported movements and policies against landlordism, he was less optimistic about any transformative potential of Indian villages. He viewed the Dalit labour in rural India as essentially a "problem of exit". However, contrary to Ambedkar's wishes the Dalits, even today, are overwhelmingly located in rural areas, predominantly work as agricultural labourers, dwell a wretched life; and face socio-economic and political suppression, as well as, cultural mutilation. Examining some of the major incidences of violence against Dalits in contemporary rural India, this article advocates for a discursive engagement with metaphor of village itself as a site for potential emancipatory politics. Such engagement within the 'Dalit Discourse' is not only urgent but also emergent, particularly in the context of globalization, in which, the metaphor of village returns as an ultimate antidote to the evils of modernity.

Bio: Bidhan Chandra Dash is Assistant Professor at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. He completed his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, on Dalit Movement and Globalization, focusing on the role of media and information flows across organizations and networks. His research interests are in the areas of new social movements, Dalit discourse in the new media networks, Cultural globalization, identity assertions and conflict in contemporary India. Dr. Dash has been associated with several government-assigned projects on community studies with special focus on Scheduled Castes. His recent area of focus is violence on Dalits and the modern judiciary of 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.