Nehru Memorial
Museum and Library
cordially invites you to a Conference
at
9.00 a.m. on Friday-Saturday, 7-8 March 2014
in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building
on
‘Vernaculars Underground:
Histories, politics, aesthetics’
in association with
Brinda
Bose
and
Prasanta Chakravarty,
Marg Humanities and University
of Delhi, Delhi
Concept Note:
Is it possible to create something
of a larger platform for humanities studies by stepping outside of academia to
think about it more rigorously, clearly, reflexively? Can we think about arts
and literature through ways and means that are calm and raw, capricious and
angry, and yet deeply analytical and sensual? Can we ponder and underline
afresh the visceral and expansive political core that the humanities
bequeath us along with an edgy sense of aesthetics, in these times of
grandstanding, networking and spinning fashions? Is it at all possible to talk
about literary movements in times of globalization, or are people who are
passionate about the humanities destined to remain independent, sectarian and
fractious? There are remainders and reminders around us. We just choose
not to see them. Or we may be unaware of them, but certain people do exist in
our part of the world—those who have been able to keep out of circuits of power
and influence and be invested in local causes and commitments, and given their
lives to full blooded love of literature. Not naively, but sometimes with a
detached zeal, and sometimes with a sense
of immediacy and urgency. They have
paid a price for their convictions. Our academia and our festivals have been
successfully able to keep them out of important venues and podiums. Political
parties have been mostly wary of their ways and methods. They have sometimes been
persecuted and ostracised. Often they have lived strange lives—suspended. But
indomitable souls that they are, they have been able to channel their endless
energy into creative pursuits, in ventures hitherto un-thought of. Their silent
commitment to the humanities is easily revealed when they wield pens to create
poems touched by magic, when they talk and walk, when they come together to
write a collective manifesto. They still believe in humour and tragedy. They
meet personal and social conflict and antagonism headlong. They detest
civility. They affirm life, above all. Therefore we shall shun all forms of
goodness. And eschew the podium and arc-light culture on March 7th
and 8th at the NMML. We shall expend our energies instead on thrashing out
some difficult questions about the world of little magazines, blogs and other
minimal literary practices in contemporary South Asia.
And drawing upon those debates, try and find entry points into larger questions
of and about the humanities. We will have two days of literary and political
adda —on the very nature and idea of underground literature in India
and its prospects.
We hope to provide a platform where we can exchange notes and tactics for future directions in the humanities, where we can have a serious give and take about our craft and job, but by looking outside of institutionalized academia for our concerns. We shall de-academize academia as we know it and as most of us practice it. We shall have editors, writers and bloggers from Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala, Delhi and Bangladesh at ‘Vernaculars Underground: Histories, Politics, Aesthetics’ on March 7 and 8, 2014.
We hope to provide a platform where we can exchange notes and tactics for future directions in the humanities, where we can have a serious give and take about our craft and job, but by looking outside of institutionalized academia for our concerns. We shall de-academize academia as we know it and as most of us practice it. We shall have editors, writers and bloggers from Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala, Delhi and Bangladesh at ‘Vernaculars Underground: Histories, Politics, Aesthetics’ on March 7 and 8, 2014.
Programme
Schedule: Friday,
7 March 2014
9.00 a.m. – 9.05
a.m.
Introduction
|
Handover of the
‘PAHAL’ Archive to NMML sent by Mr. Gyanranjan, Editor of Pahal, to NMML,
facilitated by MargHumanities’
|
9.05 a.m.- 9.15
a.m.
Opening Remarks:
|
Prasanta
Chakravarty
and
Brinda
Bose,
MargHumanities, University of Delhi,
Delhi
|
9.15 a.m.- 11.00
a.m.
|
Session I:
|
Chair
and Discussant:
|
Himanshu Pandya,
Academic, Writer (Hindi),
Rajasthan
|
Speakers:
|
Anil
Yadav,
Journalist, Writer,
Lucknow
‘Sinews of the
Political in the Hindi Underground’
Ashok
Pande,
Editor, Writer, Kabadkhana blog (Hindi),
Haldwani, Uttaranchal
‘The Simple Joys of Rag-Picking’
|
11.00 a.m.-11.15 a.m.
|
Tea and Coffee
|
11.15 a.m.–1.00 p.m.
|
Session
II:
|
Chair
and Discussant:
|
Jitendra
Kumar,
Freelance Journalist (Hindi),
New
Delhi
|
Speakers:
|
Amit
Sengupta,
Journalist, Academic, IIMC,
New
Delhi
‘Parallel Cinema
of the Media Industry:
The
difficult and stimulating narrative of small is beautiful’
Shawon
Akand
Artist, Activist (Bengali and English),
Bangladesh
‘Beyond
the Colonial Hangover:
Alternative
art and politics in Bangladesh’
|
1.00 p.m.– 2.00 pm.
|
Lunch
|
2.00 pm.- 4.00 p.m.
|
Session III:
|
Chair and Discussant:
|
Rajarshi
Dasgupta,
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New
Delhi
|
Speakers:
|
Anil
Acharya
Editor, Writer, Anustup (Bengali),
Kolkata
‘The Dynamics of Change in Bengali Periodicals’
Devabrata
Sharma
Editor, Academic (Assamese),
Jorhat
‘Vernaculars
versus Vernaculars:
Assamese,
Bengali and tribal languages
Avik
Banerjee
Editor, Proprietor, Dhyanbindu (Bengali),
Kolkata
‘Like a
Spider’s Web’
|
|
Saturday, March 8, 2014
|
9.00 a.m. -10.40 a.m.
|
Session IV
|
Chair and Discussant:
|
Anil
Yadav,
Journalist, Writer,
Lucknow
|
Speakers:
|
Probodh
Parikh,
Writer (Gujarati and English), and Faculty,
Whistling Woods, Mumbai
‘Literature as
Politics:
Little
magazines in post-Gandhi Gujarat
Satish
Kalsekar,
Poet and Editor (Marathi),
Raigad, Maharashtra
‘Marathi
Little Magazines and the Dalit Question’
|
10.40 a.m. -11.00 a.m.
|
Tea and Coffee
|
11.00 a.m. – 12.45 p.m.
|
Session V
|
Chair and Discussant:
|
Mihir
Pandya,
Writer, Editor, Blogger (Hindi),
New
Delhi
|
Speakers:
|
Jayaprakash,
Editor, Writer (Malayalam),
Mumbai
‘Calls from Posterity:
Voices of little magazines addressing the future
Moushumi
Bhowmik,
Singer, Song writer, Music
Researcher,
Kolkata
‘Lessons
in Listening:
The
story of The Travelling Archive’
|
12.45 p.m.– 1.45 p.m.
|
Lunch
|
1.45p.m. – 3.30 p.m.
|
Session VI
|
Chair and Discussant:
|
Reyazul-Haque
Editor,
New
Delhi
|
Speakers:
|
Giriraj
Kiradoo
Writer, Editor, Academic (Hindi/English/Rajasthani),
Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan
‘The
Art of Self-deception in the Real Estate of Colonizing Angels’
Varun
Grover,
Lyricist, Lead Writer, Jay Hind (Hindi),
Mumbai
‘Undo
Your Buckles (‘Andubaksai’ in Kanpur)’
|
3.30 p.m. – 3.45 p.m.
|
Tea
and Coffee
|
3.45 p.m.- 4.30 p.m.
|
Closing
Discussion
Pallav,
Reyazul Haque, Himanshu Pandya, Rajarshi Dasgupta, Avik Banerjee
|
|
Vote
of Thanks
|
PAHAL (meaning ‘a
beginning’ in Hindi) is one of the most influential literary magazines in Hindi
that has seen uninterrupted publication since the early 1970s. Published from Jabalpur by Mr. Gyanranjan,
noted Hindi novelist and short-story writer, the magazine publishes poetry,
fiction, non-fiction, critique and essays concentrating on issues of
contemporary interest. Although the publication does not have a declared
periodicity, three to four issues are normally brought out every year. Over
nearly 35 years of publication, 85 issues have been published.
PAHAL
has
never been archived as a complete collection in its 35 years of existence.
MargHumanities is delighted to facilitate the handover of the PAHAL collection
by Mr. Gyanranjan, its editor, to the Director of the NMML for a home in its
library.
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