Punjabi University, Patiala hosts Punjab Research Group Meeting
A collection of distinguished scholars from the UK, USA and India were present in Patiala on December 19th, courtesy of the Sociology Department of the Punjabi University. The UK based Punjab Research Group held its bi-annual meeting for the first time in Punjab, India. As part of the Group’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, the group of organised a number of special seminars. The first was held in Lahore in February of this year. The meeting in Patiala was attended by many of the leading international scholars of Punjab studies. Professor Gurinder Singh Mann, from the University of Santa Barbara, California, Virinder Kalra from the University of Manchester, Harjant Gill from the University of Washington and Pritpal Virdee, De Montfort University, UK were present. The main themes of the workshop spanned the historic time period from pre-colonial to present times. The aim of the seminar was to look at the Punjab as an area from an inter-disciplinary perspective. A wide range of issues were explored in depth referring to the social and cultural landscape of Punjab. A lively and informed discussion took place that was well appreciated by all the participants.
The programme had the following presentations:
‘Revisiting the Janam Sakhis’ by Gurinder Singh Mann, University of Santa Barbara, Chaired by HS Gill
‘Jangnama and Precolonial Punjabi Consciousness’ by HS Bhatti and Rabinder Powar, Punjabi University, Patiala, Chaired by Gurinder Singh Mann
‘Understanding Popular Sufi Centres in Punjab’ by Yogesh Snehi, Department of History, DAV College, Chaired by Surinder Jodhka
‘From Putt Jattan De to Munde UK De: The Transformation of Masculinities in Punjabi Cinema’ by Harjant Gill, University of Washington, Chaired by Dr Malkiat Kaur
‘Silent Narratives: Women and Partition in West Punjab’ by Pippa Virdee, De Montfort University, Chaired by Dr Birinderpal Singh
‘Mela of Daud Bandegi, Shergarh, West Punjab’ by Virinder Kalra, University of Manchester, Chaired by Dr Harvinder Bhatti
Joint Seminar PRG & Punjabi University, Patiala – 19 Dec 2009
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Punjab Research Group in collaboration with Punjabi University, Patiala, will be organising a joint seminar on 19 December 2009. Prof. Harvinder Bhatti, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology has very kindly offered to host the event and it is a great opportunity to bring together research on Punjab. For this reason we have kept the theme of the seminar open in order to encourage wide participation and it would be good to have a mixture of young researchers, as well as established scholars. If you are interested in attending or presenting a paper please contact us as soon as possible.
Pippa Virdee: pvirdee@dmu.ac.uk
Harvinder Bhatti: hsbhatti@gmail.com
Virinder Kalra: virinder.kalra@manchester.ac.uk
PRG meeting 31 Oct 2009
Punjab Research Group meeting
VENUE: De Montfort University, Leicester, DATE: 31 October 2009
Speakers included:
Kathryn Lum, European University Institute, Florence, Italy ‘A Community at a Crossroads: A case study of the Ravidassia Sangat in Barcelona’ © Presented at the Punjab Research Group, 31 October 2009. Please do not cite without the authors permission K lum PRG paperpt
Navtej Purewal, University of Manchester ‘Articulations of Caste through Religion: Codes of Hegemony and Invisibility in West Punjab’
Meena Dhanda, (University of Wolverhampton), Dave Morland, (University of Teesside) and Steve Taylor, (Northumbria University) ‘Eastern Punjabi Dalits and Religious Conversion: A case study of Wolverhampton’ © Presented at the Punjab Research Group, 31 October 2009. Please do not cite without the authors permission PRG Leicester
Ajay Bhardwaj, Independent film/documentary maker Screening of Kitte Mil Ve Mahi (Where the twain shall meet)
Full programme and abstracts: PRG programme oct 09
PRG Meeting – 31 October 2009
The next Punjab Research Group meeting will take place on 31st October 2009 at De Montfort University, Leicester.
Speakers include:
Kathryn Lum, (European University Institute, Florence) ‘A community at a crossroads: a case study of the Ravidassia Sangat in Barcelona’
Navtej Purewal, (University of Manchester) ‘Articulations of Caste through Religion: Codes of Hegemony and Invisibility in West Punjab’
In the past few months, the issue of caste in Punjab has been making the headlines for a number of reasons. Therefore, it seems that this would be a good opportunity to discuss the issue of caste in contemporary/historical Punjab(s). If you are currently working in this area and would like to share your research findings with the PRG then please contact me. Please could you also circulate this note to anyone else you think might be interested in presenting a paper.
If you would like to attend please email me: pvirdee@dmu.ac.uk
PRG Meeting 27 June 2009, Coventry University
The meeting was very kindly hosted by Shinder Thandi, Coventry University.
Speakers included:
Tahir Mahmood, PhD Candidate, Coventry University, ‘Shahpur District: Collaboration and Control during the First World War’
Waqas Butt, Independent Researcher (formerly Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad), ‘People’s rebellion in Punjab in 1857: Focus on Ahmed Khan Kharal in the areas of Ganji Bar and Neli Bar’
Saleem Khan, PhD Candidate, London Metropolitan University, ‘The Struggle within Pakistani Islam: Shias, Sunnis and Sufis in the Punjab’
Manjit Singh, Professor of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Dr. Steve Taylor, Northumbria University, UK, ‘Bonded Labour and Social Exclusion in Punjab, India’
Virinder Kalra, University of Manchester, Update on their research on common spiritual sites and practices in Punjab
Attached is the full programme: PRG programme jun 09
Punjab Research Group – 25th Anniversary Seminar, GC University, Lahore
The meeting was very Kindly hosted by Dr Tahir Kamran, Chairperson, Department of History, GC University, Lahore.
28th February 2009 Venue: Fazl-i-Hussain Reading Room, GC University, Lahore
Speakers included:
Dr. Tej Purawal (University of Manchester)
Settlement of Refugees in the Sheikhupura District after Partition by Akhtar Sandhu
The Organized Left and Representative Politics in Pre-Partition Punjab by Dr. Shalini Sharma
Contextualizing Art Instruction in the Colonial Punjab by Dr. Nadeem Omar Tarar
Nawae-i-Waqt: Ideologue of Pakistani Nationalism 1940-47 by Mr. Basharat Hussain
The Portrayal of Punjab as a Cultural Entity in Punjabi Cinema by Mr. Umber Bin Ibad
PRG Meeting 25 October 2008
The PRG meeting in October was very kindly hosted by the Royal Geographical Society in London.
The Speakers included:
Kiran Kalsi, London Metropolitan University ‘Self determination – how Faith shapes and informs the business experience of an Asian woman entrepreneur’
Ruth Pearson and Anitha Sundari, University of Leeds and Linda McDowell, University of Oxford ‘The experience of Punjabi women in the West London labour market: The case of the Gate Gourmet workers’
Ilyas Chattha, University of Southampton ‘Perpetrators and Victims of Partition Violence: Case of Gujranwala’
Jasjit Singh, University of Leeds ‘Head First: Young British Sikhs, Hair and the Turban’
Other pictures from the PRG meeting:
PRG Meeting, Coventry University, 28 June 2008
Speakers included:
Kamalroop Singh, University of Birmingham and Shironmani Panth Khalsa Akali Buddha Dal Panjva Takht, ‘A discussion of the scriptures of Guru Gobind Singh in relation to Sikh history and praxis’
Pritam Singh, Oxford Brooks University, ‘Reading Guru Granth Sahib: Some Reflections’
Kamalroop Singh (left) and Pritam Singh (right)
Akhtar Sandhu, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, ‘Voices from the Rural Areas…Muslim-Sikh Relations in the Colonial Punjab, 1940-47′
Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton, ‘Reflections on Caste in Personal Relations’
Akhtar Sandhu (left) and Meena Dhanda (right)
Other participants:
PRG Meeting, University of Manchester, 27 October 2007
Speakers included:
Tej Purewal, University of Manchester, ‘Gender, Caste and Religious Identities in Punjab’
Tahir Mahmood, Coventry University, ‘Comparative Analysis of the Socio-economic Transformation of a Colony Chak and a Propriety Village in Shahpur District, 1890-1925′
Pratima Mitchell, Writer, ‘Bhagat Singh: Memories of a Next Door Neighbour’
Pritam Singh, Oxford Brooks University, ‘Contestation over appropriation of Bhagat Singh’
Pictures from the meeting in Manchester:
PRG meeting, Coventry University, 23 June 2007
Dominic Rai, Mán Melá Theatre Company and Mazhar Tirmazi, Punjabi Poet and writer, ‘Voices of Partition: 1947-2007′
Raja Adnan Razzaq, Visiting Research Fellow, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, ‘All-India Muslim League at grass root level: A case Study of Rawalpindi District 1940-47′
Nukhbah T Langah, School of English, University of Leeds, ‘Resistance in Postcolonial Pakistan through Siraiki Culture’
Federica Ferraris, Visiting Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Sussex, ‘Going rural and urban at once. Reflections from the Roman Sikh context’
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