National Conference on Dalit Art and Imagery

Depiction and aspiration through visual imagery

The movement of Dalit arts and imagery began concomitant to Ambedkar anti-caste civil right movement between early 1920’s to mid 1950’s. It gathered visible recognition in the early 1990’s drawing the attention of international who began to conceptualize and discuss the same more clearly only in the 2000’s. The movement through Art and Imagery captured various dimensions of the Dalit experience and history with untouchability, exclusion from society the hierarchies of the caste system, oppressive religious summons etc. What qualifies as Dalit Art and Imagery is a subject of negotiation but the importance of its role in providing insights into the social transformation needed for a casteless society are evident.

Prof. Gary Tartakov is an eminent international author, among the first academics who began to capture and ideate creatively the movements’ conscious on various public platforms. The recent Oxford University Press book Dalit Arts and Visual Imagery is a series of articles showcasing and discussing various distinct depictions themed on the Dalit movement in India. This landmark book has brought to the limelight the Dalit Art and Imagery movement and highlighted various aspects.

This National conference will draw together artists, writers, activists, academics, policy makers and other persons concerned with the arts and literature from across the nation. To be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Convention Centre from the 4^th to the 6^th of March 2013 from 10 am. Central to this conference will be the launch of the book and an exhibition of Dalit Art from leading Dalit artists showcasing their work.

We invite student papers for a panel entitled ‘Dalit in Popular Imagination’ to be held on the second day of the conference. The papers can be from a range of topics relating to Dalit expression and representation in terms of art, cinema and literature. The last date for the submission of abstracts is the 18^th of February. Abstracts are to be sent to: sap.ces@gmail.com.

Ahdaf Soueif at the CES

The Indian World(s) of Indian English Literature

March 14-15, 2013

 

Indian English Literature has had a history of reception in India where it has been questioned on every count but mainly on account of its authenticity – whether the language can ever be capable of representing Indian realities. There has also been a history of reaction from Indian English writers and critics. Interestingly, influential anthologies of Indian English poetry have been titled anthologies of Indian Poetry, almost as if it is only in English that you get India; recently an anthology has gone beyond the borders and called itself an anthology of English poetry. For quite some time now Indian English literature has been represented outside India by Diasporic writers and has come to be almost synonymous with their works.

 

However, we have always had a strong body of writing that takes part in the construction of the contexts and the contestation of Indian spaces and makes its place in various worlds that constitute India. Indian English literature is one of India’s many literatures. It is not only politics or social life that Indian English literature shares with other Indian literatures but also aesthetics, attitudes to language and the sense of the literary. Indian English works have not just experimented with Indian literary forms, they have also situated themselves in the continuities of Indian literatures.

 

It would be fruitful to study Indian English literature in conjunction with other Indian literatures including in terms of the market and popular genres. How does Indian English literature construct or mediate with Indian world(s) in newer genres, and in newer media?

 

It is time to study Indian English literature in terms of its Indian world(s) and we hope that the conference will provoke further thinking in the area. 

 

Abstracts of 250 words to be submitted by February 14^th to sap.ces@gmail.com