Représentations et pratiques de la citoyenneté en Asie du Sud : Programme de l’équipe, janvier-juin 2012, Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CNRS-EHESS), 190 avenue de France, 75013 Paris

Programme des séances

Le 30 janvier, de 15h30 à 17h30, salle 638

(Séance conjointe avec l’équipe « Industries culturelles indiennes. Scènes artistiques et littéraires)

 Figuring the political: graphic novels on Ambedkar and Phule

S. Anand, éditeur, Navayana

Présentation : In spite of the failure of the Indian popular cultural industry to address the significant issues raised by the anti-caste movement, whose messages have remained confined to ghettoized, lower caste based audiences, two recent  graphic novels have sought to bring the political message to mainstream audiences. “Bhimayana”, a graphic nonfiction work on the life and experiences of the "untouchable" leader B.R. Ambedkar, formulates this message through an innovative aesthetics, with the brilliant art work of two accomplished tribal artists.  "A Gardener in the Waste Land", on J. Phule, the 19th century ideologue of the anti caste movement, associates the story by a contemporary feminist, and the art work of a modern urban artist. After a presentation  by S. Anand, the publisher of Navayana, the discussion by D. Vidal (IRD, CEIAS) and N. Jaoul (CNRS, IRIS) will question this tentative aesthetic reconfiguration of the subaltern subject, and of Indian citizenship at large.

As an independent publishing house that focuses on anticaste issues, the independent publishing house Navayana has taken the  graphic novel along less-travelled roads. Bhimayana, a graphic nonfiction work on the life and experiences of B.R. Ambedkar, has sought out audiences who have hitherto overlooked or ignored the significance of Ambedkar and of caste in our society. It throws attention on the ways in which the 'public' has been constituted by relegating questions of caste and figures like Ambedkar to the 'parochial'. Crucial to the Bhimayana enterprise is the art work of Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam, accomplished pardhan gond artists, who recast the figure of the Ambedkar and of dalits in uniquely symbolic ways.

In the latest graphic novel on Phule, a contemporary feminist, Sirividya Natarajan and a modern urban artist, Aparajita Ninan, frame an 1873 text in an irreverential, postmodern style. During this presentation, S. Anand, publisher of Navayana, will reflect on how and why such radical renderings of these transgressive figures not merely find new publics for the stories it seeks to tell, but also remake the public itself.

Le 10 février, de 13h à 15h, salle 640

(séance conjointe avec l’équipe « A la frontière, autour et au-delà »)

Les réfugiés en Inde sont-ils des étrangers comme les autres ?

Julie Baujard, CEIAS

Le 15 mars, de 14h à 16h, salle Thorner (662)

Acting from the slums: challenges of aesthetics mobilizations and construction of spaces of insurgent citizenship

• Nicolas Bautès UMR ESO/CEIAS
• Discutante : Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal

Le 10 avril, de 10h à 12h, salle Thorner (662)

(séance conjointe avec l’équipe l’équipe « A la frontière, autour et au-delà »)

Guest-worker policies of the Gulf countries: no citizenship

Radhika Kanchana, CERI

Le 15 mai, de 10h à 12h, salle Thorner (662)

Emotional pasts: Questions for Indian political culture

Arundhati Virmani, EHESS

Le 12 juin, de 10h à 12h, salle Thorner (662)

Cities and Citizenship - New Political Subjectivities

Vyjayanthi Rao, New School for Social Research, New York

Contact:

Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal : tawalama@ehess.fr