Conference on

Alternative Modernities

December 16-19, 1997
India International Center, New Delhi, India
Sponsors: India International Center
and The Center For Transcultural Studies

This conference will examine how the encounter with modernity is experienced and articulated differently at different "cultural" sites. Among other things, we expect that the papers presented at the conference will explore how the impact of structural and institutional transformations that accompany modernity in the techno-scientific and economic-administrative sphere are mediated (both in terms of resistance and assimilation) by the indigenous politico-cultural traditions, habits, and practices.

Participants Not Based in India:

Arjun Appadurai (Anthropology, University of Chicago)
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Michael Hanchard (Political Science, Northwestern Unversity)
Leo Lee (East Asian Languages and Literature, Harvard University)
Lydia Liu (Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley)
Ping-hui Liao (National Tsinghua University, Taiwan)
Liisa Malkki (Anthropology, University of California, Irvine)
Thomas McCarthy (Philosophy, Northwestern University)
Mahmood Mamdani (Political Science, University of Cape Town)
Ayse Oncu (Sociology, Bogazici University, Turkey)
Charles Taylor (Philosophy, McGill University)
Kamala Viswesaran (Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin)

Participants Based in India:

Imtiaz Ahmed, Political Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Javeed Alam, Center for Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
Rajeev Bhargava, Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Urvashi Butalia, Writer and Publisher, New Delhi
Veena Das, Social Anthropology, University of Delhi
Dipanker Gupta, Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Gita Kapur, Art Critic, New Delhi
Ashis Nandy, Center for Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
D.R. Nagraj, Kannada Drama, Banglore University, Banglore
M.S.S. Pandian, MIDS, Madras
Kumkum Sangari, Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi

Schedule

December 16, 1997

Chair: Dilip Gaonkar

2:30 PM

Charles Taylor, McGill
Two Theories of Modernity

Thomas McCarthy, Northwestern
On Reconciling Cosmopolitan Unity with National Diversity

3:30-5:00 PM

Discussion

December 17, 1998

Session I

Chair: Gita Kapur

9:30-11:00

Kamala Vishweshwaran, Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
Is There a Hindu Modernity?

Veena Das, Social Anthropology, University of Delhi
Science and State at the Advent of Modernity

D.R. Nagaraj-Kannada Drama, Bangalore University, Bangalore
A Story of the Road Not Taken

11:00-12:00 PM

Discussion

Session II

Chair: Kumkum Sangari

12:00-1:00 PM

Ayse Oncu, Sociology, Bogazici University, Turkey
The Construction of a Muslim Consumer: Cultural Politics and Advertising on Turkish Television

Lydia Liu, Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley
Legislating a Family of Nations: Missionary Translations of International Law in East Asia

1:00-2:30 PM

Lunch

2:30-3:30 PM

Discussion

Session III

Chair: Imtiaz Ahmad

3:30-4:30 PM

Michael Hanchard, Political Science, Northwestern University
Afro-Modernity: Race, the African Diaspora, and Transnational Identity

Liisa Malkki, Anthropology, University of California at Irvine
Envisioning African Futures: Dystopia and the Social Imagination of Political Disorder

4:30-5:00 PM

Discussion

6:30 PM

Public Symposium: Alternative Modernities I

Conference Room I

Chair: Rajeev Bhargava

Speakers: Veena Das, Charles Taylor, Leo Ou-fan Lee

December 18, 1997

Session I

Chair: Mahmood Mamdani

9:30-10:30

Imtiaz Ahmed, Political Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Making and Unmaking of Law in India's Modernist Urge

Kumkum Sangari, Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi
The Conditions of Domestic Labour: Transitions to Modernity

10:30-11:30

Discussion

Session II

Chair: Rajeev Bhargava

11:30-1:00 PM

Arjun Appadurai, Anthropology, University of Chicago
Violent Modernities

Urvashi Butalia, writer and publisher, New Delhi
The Invisible Other: Marginalised Identities During Partition

Mahmood Mamdani, Political Science, University of Cape Town
Between Reconciliation and Justice: Reflections on Rwanda and South Africa

1:00-2:30 PM

Lunch

2:30-3:30 PM

Discussion

Session III

Chair: Urvashi Butalia

3:30-5:30 PM

Leo Ou-fan Lee, East Asian Languages and Literature, Harvard University
Shanghai Modernity

Ping-hui Liao, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan
Alternative Modernity and Post-Identity Politics in Taiwan

Gita Kapur, art critic, New Delhi
Modernism in the Expanded Field Discussion

6:30 PM

Public Symposium: Alternative Modernities II

Conference Room I

Chair: Dilip Gaonkar

Speakers: Arjun Appadurai, Liisa Malkki, Mahmood Mamdani

December 19, 1997

Session I

Chair: Alok Rai

9:30-11:00

Javeed Alam, CSDS, New Delhi
Modernity: A View from India

Dipankar Gupta, JNU, New Delhi
Mobility without Modernity: Caste and Politics in Contemporary India

M.S.S. Pandian, MIDS, Chennai
Resisting Modernity: Two Stories, One Colonial, Another Postcolonial

11:00-12:00 PM

Discussion

Session II

Chair: Arjun Appadurai

12:00-1:00 PM

General Discussion

1:00-1:30 PM

Concluding Remarks: Rajeev Bhargava and Dilip Gaonkar

1:30-2:30 PM

Lunch