Minoritisation in South Asia: Religion, Caste, Gender

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Minoritisation in South Asia: Religion, Caste, Gender Tickets, Thu 27 Jun 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

The Minoritisation in South Asia conference is bringing together several senior and junior scholars working in the fields of history, politics, anthropology, sociology, economics, geography, gender studies, and development studies from across the globe.

This is an opportunity to think together about the processes of minoritisation in the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka with reference to religion, caste, and gender. One of the main outcomes of the conference is a special edited volume. The conference will also feature the Booker Prize-winning Sri Lankan author, Shehan Karunatilaka.

Welcome: 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Abraham Murad

Opening Remarks:

Faisal Devji

Professor of Indian History

Director of Asian Studies Centre,

St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford

(Tea, coffee, and biscuits for attendees and speakers)

Panel 1: 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM

Chair: Justin Jones (Pembroke College, Oxford)

1. Ruth Harris (All Soul’s College, Oxford) – Why would a Chitapavan Brahmin Convert to Christianity at the end of the 19th century?

2. Abraham Murad (Kellogg College, Oxford) – Imperial Transformation and Caste Marginalisation in Punjab

3. Soheb Niazi (Freie Universität, Berlin) – Minorities within a Minority? The politics of non-Ashrāf Muslim Peshewar birādarīs in colonial North India

Lunch Break: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

For Speakers: The Hub Café, Kellogg College

For Attendees: Lunch available for purchase at venues on North Parade Avenue.

Panel 2: 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM

Chair: TBD

1. Layli Uddin (Queen Mary, London) – ‘Great Muslim Invasion of Assam’: Anti-Migrant/Muslim Politics and its Resistance in Colonial Assam, c. 1920s-1947

2. Yaqoob Khan Bangash (Information Technology University, Lahore, Pakistan) – Minority vs Minority: Muslim majority and Hindu and Christian minorities in Pakistan post-independence

3. Madhurima Sen (Hertford College, Oxford) – Studying Campscapes: Writing/Righting Post-War Displacement of Minorities in Bangladesh

Tea break: Tea, coffee, and biscuits for attendees and speakers 2:30 PM to 2:45 PM

Panel 3: 2:45 PM to 4:15 PM

Chair: Faisal Devji (St. Antony’s College, Oxford)

1. Ghazal Asif (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan) – Caste, religion, and untimely numbers in Pakistan’s national census

2. Uday Chandra and Shikoh Zaidi (Georgetown University in Qatar) – Intersectionality at the Margins: Recasting Social Hierarchies in the Hindu Rashtra

3. Radhika Hettiarachchi (Collective for Historical Dialogues and Memory, Colombo, Sri Lanka) and Ipshita Basu (University of Westminster, London) – The shifting layers of minoritisation: Ethnic conflict, In-group exclusions and Relationality in Colombo’s Slave Island

Tea Break: Tea, coffee, and biscuits for attendees and speakers 4:15 PM to 4:30 PM

Panel 4: 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

Chair: Meera Sabaratnam (New College, Oxford)

1. S Akbar Zaidi (Institute of Business Administration Karachi, Pakistan) – Doing Arithmetic Differently -- Minoritising Majority Elections in Pakistan

2. Thiruni Kelegama (Wolfson College, Oxford) – Spectacular Futures, Development Brokers, and Bankrupt Vistas in Post-war Sri Lanka

3. Madura Rasaratnam (City, University of London) – Nation-states and minorities: temporal and spatial perspectives

Drinks Reception for attendees and speakers 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Maria Misra 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM

Professor of Global History

Keble College, Oxford

In conversation with Shehan Karunatilaka

2022 Winner of the Booker Prize

2012 Winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize (Asia)

2012 Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

2008 Winner Gratiaen Prize

Tea break: Tea, coffee, and biscuits for attendees and speakers 10:30 AM to 10:45 AM

Panel 1: 10:45 AM to 12:35 PM

Chair: Yasmin Khan (Kellogg College, Oxford)

1. Adnan Hossain (University of Glasgow, Scotland) – Re-understanding the hijras in South Asia: pleasure, power, and masculinities in Dhaka

2. Afiya S Zia (Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA) – Conversion, consent, and collusion; minority and majoritarian patriarchies in cases of forced and self-arranged marriages in Pakistan

3. Daanish Mustafa (King’s College London) – Catalytic Violence and Transgender Bodies in Pakistan

4. Julian Kuttig (Ghent University, Belgium) – Gender(wash)ing Struggle: Female Leadership in Bangladesh's Student Politics

Lunch Break: 12:35 PM to 1:30 PM

Speakers: The Hub Café, Kellogg College

Attendees: Lunch available for purchase at venues on North Parade Avenue.

Panel 2: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM

Chair: TBD

1. Brahma Prakash (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) – Epics at the End: Fear and Freedom of Cultural Justice in India

2. Timothy Cooper (King’s College, Cambridge) – One Candle Lights Another: Twelver Shi‘i Videography in Pakistani Punjab

3. Mukesh Kumar (University of Zurich, Switzerland) – A Suitable Minority: From Religious Cosmopolitanism to Othering in Mangalore

Tea break: Tea, coffee, and biscuits for attendees and speakers 3:00 PM to 3:15 PM

Panel 3: 3:15 PM to 4:45 PM

Chair: TBD

1. Mathilde Maitrot and Joe Devine (University of Bath) – Marginalised silences: the lived experience of ethnic minorities in Bangladesh

2. Arif Naveed (University of Bath) – Confronting social closure or enduring dominance? Power relations, educational strategies, and post-schooling trajectories in rural Punjab

3. Ajmal Khan AT (Shiv Nadar University, India) – Climate Change, Caste and Minorites in India

Drinks Reception for attendees and speakers 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Should you have any further queries, or are unable to attend after booking, please contact [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Kellogg College, 60-62 Banbury Road, Oxford, United Kingdom