Shimla: Taking a re-look at a pre-colonial literature of North India, scholars from USA, Europe, Japan and India would be reassessing cultural and artistic contribution of the 1400 – 1800 period at an international conference being held here.
“Starting tomorrow, 39 scholars of international repute would be presenting their papers over four days at the 11th International Conference on the topic ‘Early Modern Literatures in North India,” Ronald de Souza, director of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) let the media know today.
Scholars around the world have a deep engagement with India and this is reflected in the fact of those attending the conference, 18 are from USA, 8 from Europe, 3 from Japan and 10 from India, said de Souza.
The early modern period is a body of literature that is under explored, he added.
Papers discussing the Niranjani Sampraday of Rajasthan, Bhakti movement literature, Urdu as Persian, Muslim Mahakavyas, Gujarati, Maratha and Jain literature and others would be presented at the conference.
Often dismissed in colonial scholarship as a period of gradual decline and stagnation, the early modern period in North India (ca 1400 – 1800 CE) was a time of prolific literary, artistic and cultural production reflecting the political and economic dynamism of the period, an IIAS spokesman stated while giving the context of holding the conference.
The conference hopes to provide a forum where Indian researchers and researchers from abroad can interact extensively, sharing their research and establishing academic contacts and foundations for further scholarly collaboration, he added.
Scholar participating at the international conference include :
1. Prof. Peter Ronald Desouza, Director, IIAS
2. Rajvinder Singh, National Fellow, IIAS
3. Tyler William, Columbian University, New York
4. Neha Baid (Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur)
5. Sudha Ranjani (Jwaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
6. Dr. Devendra (Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur)
7. Arthur Dudney (Columbia University, New York)
8. Luther Obrock (University of California, Berkeley
9. Samuel Wright (University of Chicago)
10. Anshu Malhotra (University of Delhi)
11. Stefania Cavaliere (University of Naples “Orientale”)
12. Hiroko Nagasaki (Osaka University)
13. Winand Callewaert (University of Leuven)
14. Emilia Bachrach (University of Texas, Austin)
15. Anand Misra (University of Heidelberg)
16. Frederick Smith (University of Lowa, Lowa City)
17. Jack Hawely (Barnard College, Columbia University, New York)
18. Rembert Lutjeharms (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, University of Oxford)
19. Kiyokazu Okita (Kyoto/Hamburg Universities)
20. Teiji Sakata (Takushoka University, Tokyo)
21. Shrivatsa Goswami (Sri Caitanya Prema Sansthana, Vrindavan)
22. Swapna Sharma (Yale University, New Haven)
23. Maya Burger (University of Lausanne)
24. Nadia Cattoni (University of Lausanne)
25. John E. Cort (Denison University, Granville)
26. Abir Bazaz (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis)
27. Rakhshanda Jalil (New Delhi)
28. Allison Busch (Columbia University, New York)
29. Vikas Rathee (Arizona State University, Tucson)
30. Shreekant Kumar Chandan (University of Delhi)
31. Dalpat Rajpurohit (Columbia University, New York)
32. Vijay Pich (Wesleyan university, Middletown)
33. Imre Bangha (University of Washington, Seattle)
34. Vasudha Paramasivan (University of Chicago)
35. Rebecca Manring (Indiana University)
36. Neeraja Podar (Columbia University, New York)
37. Raman Prasad Sinha (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
38. Heidi Pauwels (University of Washington, Seattle)
40. Jaroslav Strnad (Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague)
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
