Imperialism and International Law

Abstract

I will argue that there is an intimate relationship between capitalism, imperialism and international law that accounts for the fact that the structure and process of international law have always disadvantaged third world peoples, especially its subaltern groups. Old imperialism or colonialism influenced its development in a fundamental way and was succeeded by neo-colonialism and now global imperialism. I will identify the key features of international law in the era of global imperialism.

  Speaker:  Prof. B. S. Chimni

Centre for International Legal Studies, SIS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 30^th January 2014 (Thursday), 4:00 pm

Birth of Art: Philosophizing the Myth

Abstract

There are a lot of discussion about the origin or more significantly manifestation of Art in Indic tradition. All the discussions reveal the same fact that Art is the manifestation of our own Heart. Reality creates herself through Art. Indic tradition sees Art as Yoga. Here, Yoga is a means of achieving harmony or unity of consciousness or mental concentration to overlook the distinction between the subject and object.

Citrasūtra a section of Visnudharmottara Purāna, Citralaksana of Nagnajit speaks about the divine origin of Art in a form of painting. There are also much more contexts about the divine origin of Art. Whether we see these stories as a myth, or in other way it is a fact that they convey the essential truth that how Art is revealed or gets manifestation. 

Later Indian philosophers drawing inspiration from these myths philosophize the birth of Art. The presentation seeks to unfold the scenes of unbroken Indic tradition of stories of birth of Art and their philosophy.

                          

               

      Speaker:  Dr. Mayank Shekhar, Senior Research Fellow,
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 5^th December 2013 (Thursday), 4:00 pm

Is there something called the ‘Indian’ theatre?

Abstract

India has a vibrant culture of performances and theatres from tribal to folk to proscenium to street-theatre to amateur performance-genres. The history of Indian theatre has been written in terms of shastras, archeological evidences, documentations and colonial ideological ‘trappings’. After Independence, debates revolved around the idea of the ‘theatre of the roots’, with the National School of Drama being established as a training institution. With it began the process of problematizing the idea of the ‘national’ theatre. This paper attempts to open up the discussion regarding the writing of history of the Indian theatre. It also deals with the development of theatre in post-independent India and attempts to make a case for the existence of many Indian theaters rather than the idea of the singular Indian theater.

Speaker:  Gourab Ghosh, Research Scholar, CES, SL & CS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 28^th September 2013 (Saturday), 5:00 pm

Whatever happened to the Rupee

Abstract

Since early May 2013, there has been a significant fall in the value of the Rupee vis-a-vis the Dollar leading to a historic low at 67 rupees per dollar a few days back. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement appears to have caused a free fall in the value of the rupee, or so the RBI would have us believe. But the Indian Rupee has been falling in value quite consistently since August 2011. What are the factors behind this free fall? Are they domestic or are they international? Could it have been controlled? Can it at least now be controlled? These are a few questions that this talk would attempt to discuss. 

Speaker:  Dr. Rohit, Assistant Professor, CESP, JNU

Venue:  SSS-I Committee Room, JNU

Date and Time: 12^th September 2013 (Thursday), 4:00 pm

The Voice of Vyāsa: Viewing the Mahābhārata as an itihāsa

Abstract

The Mahābhārata has been interpreted differently by various scholars. Some consider it as a text whose layers should be separated to find out an historical kernel, some view it as a synthetic whole. It has been variously seen as a history of the Kurus, as a literary creation based on the śānta rasa, as an extension of Indo-European mythology, or as a Brahmanical reaction against heterodox religions. However, a careful survey of the text, by analyzing its internal evidence and comparing it with other corroborative sources may be useful to historically locate the history of its text-creation in various stages by various authors.

In that history, a very significant factor seems to be its attributed author, Vyāsa. The paper tries to show the intricacies of that attribution which is crucial for the text’s assertion of a new philosophy of behavioural fitness and ability over the crystallizing Brahmanical notion of hereditary varṇa. The paper also discusses how this fresh and unusual voice makes the text an epoch-making one in tradition, representative of the end of an era, the juncture in history when ‘past’ ends and ‘future’ begins.

Speaker:  Kanad Sinha, Research Scholar, CHS, SSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 31st August 2013 (Saturday), 4:30 pm

Interdisciplinary Approach: How to get Yourself Involved

Aim: The goal of the seminar is to familiarize about the notion ‘necessity of interdisciplinary knowledge for smoothing, enriching learning experience with wider touch to domain specific knowledge and enhancing understanding of oneself as well as one's own subject through mutual learning'.

Objective: This seminar will provide a great opportunity to interact all of the students and faculties of JNU from various disciplines. It would help to enrich the knowledge and a greater understanding not only of its own discipline and the inter-linkages of different dimension of knowledge.

What shall we do in the seminar?

            We will have some lectures by eminent faculties and others to help to understand the relevance/importance of interdisciplinary approach through mutual learning in the world of academia.

What to achieve?

            Motivate people who can venture into learning and understanding of different subjects and eventually are more effective in making understanding of subject from different aspects and also may be able to deliver the same to the society in efficient manner.

            The forum may receive more attention, volunteers and can gain the momentum so that it can work more efficiently and prove more fruitful to the JNU community.

Date: 5th April 2013 

Time: 9.30 am - 5 pm

Venue: SSS-I Committee Room, School Of Social Sciences, 

Jawaharlal Nehru University

For the programme schedule click here

Celluloid Cinephilia: Film Society Cultures in India

Abstract

 This paper intends to narrate the unexplored history of the film society movement in India. It is an attempt to revisit a moment of organized cinephilia that was primarily centered on the appreciation of International and Indian art cinemas as well as the Indian New Wave movement. The period from the early 1960s through the 1970s is referred to as the high moment of such cultural activity marked by debates on the art and craft of cinema, institutional support from the government combined with increasing success in terms of screenings and memberships, which eventually waned out by the mid 1980s.  By examining the inception histories of significant film societies of the movement, specifically from Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay, Patna and Bangalore, this paper will map the collaborations and networks through which films were accessed, circulated and viewed as an alternative to the prevalent mainstream cinemas. Looking at stories and memories of film society members, this paper argues that the circulation of the celluloid film object and peoples’ experiences around it were as crucial to the momentum of the film society movement as the content of the alternative cinemas that was preferred. Therefore, this paper uses the prism of cinephilia to generate the variant film cultures engendered by film societies as they endeavored to make meaning of cinema and its relationship to modern society.

     Speaker:  

Abhija Ghosh, Research Scholar, Cinema Studies, SAA, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 22^nd March 2013 (Friday), 4:30 pm