21st International Congress of Historical Sciences
The next congress of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) will be held in Amsterdam in 2010, from 22 – 28 August.
The Congress is jointly organized by four organizations:
the Netherlands National Committee: Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap (KNHG)
Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB)
International Institute of Social History, (IISH)
The International Congress of Historical Sciences takes place every five years. This Congress provides an ideal venue for extensive reports, papers, debates, exchanges, and meetings reflecting historical research in action. It is the meeting place for the global community of historians.
For further details please see the conference home page: http://www.ichs2010.org/home.asp or the attached PDF: call for papers cish pdf
Terror: The Aftermath by Anand Patwardhan
The Hindustan Times, December 09, 2008
The attack on Mumbai is over. Nearly 200 dead. And now, after heart-rending stories of bereavement, come the repercussions, the blame game and the “solutions”. Loud voices, amplified by saturation TV demanding: Why don’t we amend our Constitution and create new anti-terror laws? Why don’t we arm our police with AK 47s? Why don’t we do what Israel did after Munich or the USA did after 9/11 and hit terror camps across the border?
Solutions that can only lead us further into the abyss. For terror is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It thrives on reaction, polarization and militarization. The only thing that can undermine it is that which least occurs to those thirsting for revenge.
To read full article: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=1a4e229d-e36b-4950-977d-0b513089d0d7
Punjab’s migrants take less home By Geeta Pandey, BBC
BBC News, Jalandhar, Punjab state
Pyara Singh is on his annual visit home from Hamburg, Germany, where he works as a cook in a pizzeria.
He has been away for 14 years, but his parents, wife and two children live in Giljian, a village in the Jalandhar district of India’s northern state of Punjab.
“I have two acres of land, but that isn’t enough to support the whole family. So I migrated to Germany. As a cook, I make six euros ($8) an hour,” he says.
Pyara Singh now only gets four or five hours of work a day
Mr Singh lives cheaply – he shares a small apartment with several other workers from Punjab and eats frugally, which allows him to save most of his earnings.
His annual visits are eagerly looked forward to by his family – when he comes, he brings his year’s savings, which help the family live more comfortably for the rest of the year.
His savings have helped the family build a new two-storey house where he sits and chats now. With several bedrooms, a drawing room, a lounge and a courtyard, the house is spacious and accommodating.
But Mr Singh is a worried man now – the economic recession in Germany has made the going tough for him.
To read the full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7780040.stm
India’s 9/11? Not Exactly By AMITAV GHOSH
Published: December 2, 2008
SINCE the terrorist assaults began in Mumbai last week, the metaphor of the World Trade Center attacks has been repeatedly invoked. From New Delhi to New York, pundits and TV commentators have insisted that “this is India’s 9/11” and should be treated as such. Nearly every newspaper in India has put “9/11” into its post-massacre headlines. The secretary general of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading Hindu nationalist political faction, has not only likened the Mumbai attack to those on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but has insisted that “our response must be close to what the American response was.”
To read the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/opinion/03ghosh.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
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BA-AHRC-ESRC Visiting Fellowships for South Asia and Middle East
The British Academy (BA), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) are now inviting applications under the third round of their Visiting Fellowships scheme for South Asia and the Middle East.
The Scheme aims to attract early career researchers in any branch of the humanities or social sciences to collaborate on research and develop ideas likely to lead to a joint research proposal in the near future. Researchers, in conjunction with a UK host academic, can apply to spend two to six months undertaking a clearly specified research project in the United Kingdom.
Further details are available on the following: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/VisitingFellowships.aspx
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Research Associate to support the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme
Applications are invited for a Research Associate to support the £12.3m AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, and to work closely with its Director, Professor Linda Woodhead. The post is until December 2012. The post will be based at Lancaster University.
The RA will have a PhD completed or near completion (or be of postdoctoral standing), with research experience in some aspect of religion and society. The role will involve monitoring findings from the 70-80 research projects in the Programme, working with the Director to identify cross-cutting themes, presenting these in written form, assisting researchers on the Programme to communicate their results effectively, writing for publication, editing for publication. Applicants should have the requisite intellectual skills, effective written communication skills, a high level of personal organisation and administrative efficiency, good inter-personal skills, and an ability to prioritise and take initiatives.
The job description contains further particulars.
The Programme website is at http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/ and the link to the Lancaster University website is here: http://www.personnel.lancs.ac.uk/vacancydets.aspx?jobid=A128 For informal discussion contact Linda Woodhead l.woodhead@lancaster.ac.uk
Interviews will be held on 26 January 2009
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Inter-University Postcolonial Seminar Series: Spring 2009
Making Britain: South Asian Resistances, 1870–1950
This seminar series has developed from the AHRC-funded project ‘Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870–1950’. Complicating the common perception that a homogeneous British culture only began to diversify after the Second World War, the project examines how an early South Asian diasporic population impacted on Britain’s literary, cultural and political life. ‘Making Britain’ is led by Professor Susheila Nasta (Open University), in collaboration with Professor Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford) and Dr Ruvani Ranasinha (King’s College London), and Research Assistants Dr Sumita Mukherjee (Oxford), Dr Rehana Ahmed (Open) and Dr Florian Stadtler (Open). Please visit the project website for more details and information about other forthcoming workshops and events: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain/
This series of seminars co-ordinated by Dr Sumita Mukherjee and Dr Rehana Ahmed will be addressing various forms of resistance by South Asians in Britain during this period. It forms part of the regular series organised by the Open University Postcolonial Research Group in association with the Institute of English Studies.
Venue: NG15 (North Block, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E)
For further information, please contact Sumita Mukherjee on sumita.mukherjee@ell.ox.ac.uk or Rehana Ahmed on r.s.ahmed@open.ac.uk
All are welcome; booking is not required.
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International Review of Photographs and Text
Whenever people talk about ‘Indian photography’ it obviously leads to a debate and discussion about how appropriate it is to term it as ‘Indian photography’ rather than ‘photography in India’. The question is: to what extent has photography in India been Indianized?
[…] The contributing photographers of this issue have addressed the complex nature of the time and space evolving around the formation of an identity through works that have crucially explored the issues of marginalization and dislocation. [Suvendu Chatterjee]
See further: http://www.privatephotoreview.com/en/index.php
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“Changing Societies – Values, Religions, and Education” June 9-13, 2009
At present societal changes take place in societies worldwide. As a result of this, issues related to value changes surface. Issues related to democracy, to identities, cultures and ethnicity are brought to the fore. Through migration, the patterns of religious activities are also changing. The presence of citizens with more varied religious affiliations, some with new understandings of the role that religions play in society, poses new questions to respond to. Gender relations are another societal area where changes are taking place. The roles of women and men – or girls and boys – and equity between them have become crucial issues and are nowadays complexly interwoven with the others mentioned above.
The societal changes mentioned above strongly influence life in schools and hence have repercussions on teacher education and higher learning institutions, as well as other societal institutions such as churches etc. A common feature of all these changes at the centre of institutions that have to deal with them is the need to handle diversity and difference.
In this conference our purpose is to elucidate these issues by assembling researchers in the field and presenting recent research through internationally renowned speakers. In doing this we hope to contribute to the development of excellence in research. To address the issues, different academic disciplines are needed. For this reason the speakers are from different disciplines and we welcome a multidisciplinary encounter. As the theme indicates, an educational interest is a meeting point. Once again, welcome everybody with a research interest in these issues! Bring you own contribution to this context.
For further details see: http://www.umea-congress.se/changing2009/index.html
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Jassi Khangura website
This website is related to The Babu Joginder Singh Benevolent Trust which has been founded by Shri Jagpal Singh Khangura and his family. The aim of the Trust is to improve the health, education and self-sufficiency of the community in the Qila Raipur Area of Punjab. This will be achieved through the implementation of numerous sustainable development projects, and donations. Some such projects are literacy (a computer-based Gurumukhi learning program), health (provision of medical vans and hygiene education), IT education and training programs for adults and youth, and water supply and sanitation. Qila Raipur constituency Punjab is at higher stage of development than other constituencies in India. Find more about villages, life events, activities, news and rural development in Qila Raipur, Punjab.
The Trust aims to make a significant impact on the lives of the residents of the Qila Raipur Area.
For further information: http://www.qilaraipur.org
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PRGwallas go to the Houses of Parliament
Celebrating the Tercentenary of the Inauguration of the Guru Granth Sahib at the House of Commons. The event was organised by Spirituality Seekers Foundation. If anyone else was there it would be good to have your comments.
Joy Barrow and Eleanor Nesbitt (L) Tirath Virdee, Pippa, Jasjit and Eleanor (R)
Kirtan and speeches at the event.
Punjab Research Group 
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