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CHS is organizing a lecture by Ravikant

CHS is organizing a lecture by Ravikant

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CHS is organizing a lecture by Ravikant
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Centre for Historical Studies
School of Social Sciences

invites to a lecture

Popular Intermediations : Listening to Cinema on Radio
(1930s-70s)

Ravikant
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

19th April, 2017 @ 3pm

Abstract: The paper outlines a social history of popular cinephilia as a listening experience in South Asia. At one level, it explores the layered complementarity between the two media forms evidenced in the thematic visualisations of radio – as a physical object, a listening instrument and a broadcasting institution - on the Hindi film screen across the middling decades of the last century. At another, it tries to capture the hiccups in the bilateralism by re-describing the monopoly of public broadcasting as it was represented, challenged and contested in diverse journalistic, broadcasting and listening registers, modes and practices. Using the auto/-biographies of professional broadcasters published in Hindi, it then takes a closer look at their curatorial creativity. Typically, since these autobiographies are collective affairs, inclusive of listeners' tales, experiences, and interactions, it finally makes a few preliminary suggestions about the figure of the listener.

About the Speaker: Ravikant is a bilingual historian, writer, and translator. He read, researched and taught modern Indian and world history in various colleges of Delhi University before joining the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), as Associate Professor. His collaboratively edited books include Translating Partition: Stories, Essays, Criticism with Tarun Saint (2001); Deewan e Sarai 01; Media Vimarsh; Hindi Janpad (2002), Deewan e Sarai 02: Shaharnama with Sanjay Sharma (2005); His collaborative filmography includes Andaz Prodeuction's Kali Shalwar (2001). Ravikant's doctoral work, 'Words in Motion Pictures: A social History of Language of 'Hindi' Cinema', naviaged inter-media sites such as print, broadcasting, and web in effort to offer creative connections between these media forms and their diverse publics. He also works for the Indian Languages programme at CSDS and its peer-reviewed journal Pratiman.

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.