Exhumation – The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra (Leena Dhingra)
Leena Dhingra
Leena Dhingra’s powerful book about her great uncle’s historic act – and her family’s
displacement by Partition – is now available
Exhumation – The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra
The interview is available till 18 September at the link below:
Obituary: Dr. Darshan Tatla
It is with a very heavy heart that I share the sad news that Dr. Darshan Tatla passed away on the morning of 4th July 2021 in Birmingham.
If I had to name one person whose thoughts, feelings, dreams, excitements and disappointments were all linked to Punjab Studies, it was Darshan. With the exception of economics, there is no field of Punjab Studies – politics, history, literature, religion, diaspora etc., etc. – to which he did not make a contribution. He was a walking encyclopedia on the subject. No one studying the Punjab in any corner of the world escaped his attention. He was a great scholar, and a saintly man with a smile on his face even in adversity. His health had not been good for over two decades, but it deteriorated sharply in the last few months. He will be missed very, very sorely.
The members of the Punjab Research Group (PRG) had decided before the outbreak of Covid-19 to honour him with a Lifetime Achievement award for his distinguished contributions. We had hoped to present this award to him in person at one of the PRG conferences once the pandemic was over and he had recovered. This award will now, unfortunately, have to be awarded posthumously.
Darshan’s vision was the prime mover behind the founding of the PRG in April 1984. From its beginnings as a small group of like-minded PhD students in April 1984, the PRG has expanded and become the most well-respected regional study group from South Asia, where established scholars as well as young researchers come together to share their research in a mutually supportive research environment. The PRG’s work contributed to the organisation of the First International Conference on Punjabi Identity in 1994 at Coventry University, at which the first issue of the International Journal of Punjab Studies was also launched. The journal has continued since (as the Journal of Punjab Studies and more recently as the Journal of Sikh and Punjab Studies). The papers presented at the conference were brought together in a book; Punjabi Identity in a Global Context edited by Pritam Singh and Shinder Thandi and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. In 2016, the PRG launched the Best Doctoral Student Presentation Award, consisting of a cash award as well as a certificate, which is given to a doctoral student whose paper is judged to be the best presented at the PRG conference. To date, seven such awards have been given. The PRG will forever remain as a memorial to Darshan’s contribution to its founding and subsequent multi-dimensional development in the early years.
Prof. Pritam Singh
Director, Punjab Research Group
Obituary: Roger Ballard passes away
For those interested in South Asian, diaspora, human rights, anti-racism and Punjab studies, it is a sad news (learnt only a few hours ago) to share that Roger Ballard, an anthropologist, died two days ago. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s for the last few years. Roger gave a keynote address at the first international conference on Punjabi Identity I had convened on behalf of the Association of Punjab Studies (UK) in 1994 at Coventry University. The development of his address into a paper was published as the opening article in the book Punjabi Identity in a Global Context (OUP, 1999, Second Reprint 2015) I co-edited with Shinder Thandi. That paper ‘Panth, Kismet, Dharm te Qaum: Continuity and Change in Four Dimensions of Punjabi Religion’ remains a seminal paper in the field of religious/Punjab Studies. Roger also spoke at the launch of the book at the British parliament (House of Commons). He was an active participant in the development of the Punjab Research Group in its initial years in the 1980s and 1990s. His book Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain remains a seminal work in the field. He was a very friendly and caring person too. When I was editing the Punjabi Identity book, he wrote to me along with sending the final version of his article: don’t work too hard, do take some rest during the Christmas break. I pay tribute to his many dimensional contributions and will share, if I get, more information about funeral/memorial meeting. We would certainly think of honoring and remembering him at the Punjab Research Group.
Prof. Pritam Singh (Wolfson College, University of Oxford)
Director Punjab Research Group
The Sikh Next Door – An identity in Transition by Manpreet J Singh
The Sikh Next Door – An identity in Transition by Manpreet J Singh was published by Bloomsbury, India (Academic) last month.
It traces the community’s transition into its heterogeneous, mutating, urban identities within India and outside. In doing so it moves out of the agricultural and martial tropes and analyzes Sikhs in their real -life contexts in urban lives. It brings into frame the trader/professional classes, those changed through interaction with other cultures, the Dalit Sikhs, to see how the changing contexts are re-shaping the community dynamics. It also creates a focus on Sikh women to trace their growth into contemporary urban structures.
The work also analyzes how others respond to the community, particularly in urban spheres. It discusses tropes of otherness reflected in humour, cinematic representations and social attribution in normal times, and violent responses like that of 1984 in India in times of crises. The book rounds off with a broad analysis of how the current generation of Sikhs is engaging with their religious and social identities.
Available from:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-sikh-next-door-9789389165579/
How the Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White became the Images of Partition – Pippa Virdee
When we visualise India’s Partition of 1947, we almost always do so through the images of Margaret Bourke-White. For the past seven decades, her images have saturated the cover of numerous books, newspaper articles, magazine features, documentaries et al related to Partition.
via How the Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White became the Images of Partition. — BAGICHA
Facebook Live Webinar: The caste nexus and women’s liberation (in Punjabi) – by Prof. Dr. Meena Dhanda (Wolverhampton University, UK)
Facebook Live Webinar: The caste nexus and women’s liberation (in Punjabi)
Professor Meena Dhanda will engage in a live discussion with a women activists’ group Wajood (Being) on the link between caste and gender.
Saturday 27 June 2020 (1:30pm BST; 6pm IST)
Caste atrocities have intensified and domestic violence is on the increase during the global crisis caused by the pandemic. It was reported a couple of months ago that the Punjab government has found a 21% increase in calls by women to the domestic violence helpline. Is there any link between the caste nexus and the position of women in Punjabi society?
Dr Meena Dhanda (Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Politics) will explain the complex relation between caste and gender in a Facebook Live Webinar.
The discussion followed by an audience Q&A will be mainly conducted in Meena’s mother tongue Punjabi. The title of the programme in transliterated Punjabi is: Jaat Vyavastha Atay Aurat Mukti. The organisers are a group of energetic social activists. Their group uniquely named Wajood (Being/Existence) is convened by a post-graduate from Oxford University, Nikita Azaad.
Set up during the pandemic, this group has commenced a set of open dialogues on identity, sexuality, relationships and much else.
Tune in to: https://www.facebook.com/punjabandgender/?hc_location=ufi
For further information contact Professor Meena Dhanda by email:M.Dhanda@wlv.ac.uk.
An appeal from award-winning author, Aanchal Malhotra, for Punjabis to get in touch if you’re interested in this project
An appeal from award-winning author, Aanchal Malhotra, for Punjabis to get in touch if you’re interested in this project:
The Punjabis. I have recently been commissioned to work on a history of Punjabi people. The Punjabis are a complex community, no longer bound by geography, but by an unspoken ethos, and are now spread vastly across the subcontinent and in the diaspora of the world. They are a populace constantly evolving, expanding and enduring; a versatile, adaptable, varied community, whose ethos of Punjabiyat extends beyond a fixed geography.
The Punjabis is a study of the peoples that can trace their origins to the land of the five rivers. As an oral historian, I am interested in the personal and familial stories connected to Punjabi history, identity, ethnicity, race, geography, language, religion, community, diaspora, family life and relationships, culture, literature, folklore, mythology, and food.
Aanchal’s email address is aanchal@aanchalmalhotra.com
Here’s a page from Aanchal’s website, where you can see the kinds of things she writes about – https://www.aanchalmalhotra.com/writing/
Remnants of Partition is an oral history archive and the first study of material culture carried across the border during the Partition. It was shortlisted for the British Academy’s 2019 Nayef Al Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, and several other awards in India. Even though the book has been published for a few years now, I am still continuing the research to record stories of objects – however small or large – people carried with them across the border to both sides in 1947.
UKPHA: Virtual Bookclub meetings
A message from UKPHA about their superb webinar series:
As a result of the pandemic restrictions we began to offer the Sikh and Punjabi community a virtual social and cultural opportunity to engage with authors, podcasters, academics and museum curators. We call this a ‘Virtual Bookclub’ and it meets every Monday at 5pm. It provides an opportunity for the community to engage with a heritage expert and discuss their work. It provides an important cultural outlet which is lacking due to social restrictions. Asians are especially affected to COVID19 both medically and as many are living in extended families with older members identified as vulnerable and choose not to leave their homes at all.
Every Monday at 5pm (UK). You can see our forthcoming schedule here : http://www.ukpha.org/bookclub
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