Conflicts, Post Conflicts and Peoples’ Memory

 

 

Any crisis in any society leaves behind a huge burden of memory and a general mass of people as the main actors/sufferers during the crisis and survivors of the same have to carry this burden on their mind for a long period of time. This is true of the post Nazi period and survivors of the holocaust in Germany, as is true of the post-Civil War Spain, the post dictatorship Latin America or closer home the aftermath of the partition. Society in general and writers, poets, artists, filmmakers in particular negotiate the situation in a special manner. On the other hand in the post-conflict situation the State/Government sets a different agenda. If the peoples’ endeavor is to resist the forgetting, a democratic State that takes over the state power after the crisis aims at having a calm and quiet atmosphere by using such methods as pact of Silence or of forgiving and forgetting.

 

 

 

The series will include talks, discussions and will also look at texts (fiction/nonfiction), films, paintings and other art production  

 

 

 

The panel discussion on 20 September will focus specifically on Post Dictatorship Latin America and Post Partition and Post 1984 Sikh Riots situation

 

 

 

Series Coordinator: Prof. Vibha Maurya who will give an introduction

 

 

 

Panelists: Vijaya Venkataram, Associate Professor, Hispanic Studies, Delhi University will speak on The Question of Memory and Post Memory in Post Dictatorship Latin America 

 

 

 

Krishnan Unni, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Deshbandhu College will speak on Memory and Time as manifested in Literatures

 

 

 

Balwant Kaur, Assistant Professor, Department of Hindi, Miranda House will speak on Journey through Memory and Post Memory from 1947 to 1984 

 

 

 

(Collaboration: Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi)

 

 

 

Concert 

By Varsovia Piano Trio – Ewa Skardowska on piano; Adam Zarzycki on violin; and Piotr Hausenplas on cello

 

The artists will present music by Polish composers of the 1st half of XX century in a programme of works by Ludomir Ró?ycki, Karol Szymanowski, Andrzej Panufnik, and Grzegorz Fitelberg

 

(Collaboration: Polish Institute, New Delhi)

 

 

Warsaw Uprising (Poland)

(87 min; 2014; dvd; English subtitles)

The film will be introduced by Dr. Pawe? Ukielski

 

Made entirely from original newsreel footage from the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the film has been reconstructed frame by frame. It tells the story of the Uprising through the eyes of a US airman, an escapee from the Nazi camp and two young reporters, witnesses to insurgent fighting. A touching film which shows the Warsaw Uprising with unparalleled realism

 

 

A Phoenix from the Ashes: The Destruction and Reconstruction of Warsaw 1939-1955

The exhibition revisits one of the most critical chapters in the history of Poland, the destruction of the capital city of Warsaw by German troops and the inspiring reconstruction of the city after World War II. World War II and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 in particular, left the city with almost nothing to define its identity. Warsaw, the centre of cultural, political and social life, almost ceased to exist. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Warsaw was rebuilt and gradually brought back to life. This unique and pioneering nature of the reconstruction of the city was given its due recognition when Warsaw’s Old Town was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1980.

 

Inauguration by Dr. Pawe? Ukielski, Deputy Director of the Warsaw Rising Museum on Tuesday, 19th September 2017 at 18:00

 

Following the inauguration there will be a lecture and film screening in the Lecture Room II adjoining the Art Gallery at 18:30

 

Warsaw Rising 1944 – Battle for Freedom

Talk by Dr. Pawe? Ukielski

 

Film – A Brave Bunch. The Uprising Through Children’s Eyes (Fajna Ferajna; Poland) 

(30 min; 2015; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Tomasz Stankiewicz 

 

When the Warsaw Uprising started in 1944, thousands of children were living in the city. A Brave Bunch is about those who survived

 

 

Inside the Bell-Jar Existence, Essence and Exit: Within and Without Eurocentric Modernism (EM)

Speaker: Professor Rajani Kanth, economist, philosopher, and social thinker. Presently an Affiliate at Harvard University, he is Trustee of the World Peace Congress. His most recent books are: Farewell to Modernism (Peter Lang, NY, 2017) and The Post?Human Society (De Gruyter, Warsaw, 2015)

 

Chair: Dr Sudhir Kumar Sopory is an Indian educationist, plant physiologist, scientist and former vice chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

Around the 17th century, post-Renaissance Europe struck upon a brand new model of Societal Being, best described as Eurocentric Modernism. This was first foisted upon itself, and then imposed, largely by force, across the globe that lay within its sphere of influence. It was both a prescriptive ontology and epistemology, i.e., a philosophy, a politics, a societal framework, an economic modus, and a way of living, thinking, and interacting. It is this Paradigm that has brought the entire world today to the brink of various kinds extinctions that we know, or anticipate, so well today: of civility, of legality, of the environment, of the species, and the planet itself. The talk, in broad outline, defines this fateful system, traces its trajectory points to its likely EndGame: and suggests, implicitly, possible salves and escapes

 

 

 

A Day in the Life: Celebrating 50 years of Sgt. Pepper’s 

Presentation by Dipankar De Sarkar

 

Nineteen sixty-seven was a very special year in pop culture, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles stands out as one of its most enduring, loved and visible icons. 

Chair: Prof  PK Datta, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, School of International Studies, JNU
 

 

An exploration of this album by Dipankar De Sarkar – a journalist and amateur musician who writes on politics, music and the politics of music

 

 

Objects: Identities: Meanings

Insider Perspectives on Material Cultures from North East India

 

Exhibition based on a series of field research projects conducted by members of the North East Forum (NEF), Ambedkar University, Delhi between 2012-2014. The research objective used material artefacts to arrive at an insider perspective on how communities from North East India negotiate cultural transformation. Narratives collected describe the processes by which some elements of a culture survive, while others become insignificant. The materials in the exhibition are used by the following communities – Bodos (Assam), Khasi (Meghalaya), Mao Naga (Manipur), Meitei (Manipur), Rongmei Naga (Manipur) and Sumi (Nagaland)

 

Items on display for the exhibition include textile materials, clothing used for different occasions, pottery, photographs and video

 

Inauguration on Friday, 15th September 2017 at 18:30

 

On Monday 18 September 2017 at 18:30 – there will be a presentation by the researchers

 

(Collaboration: Centre for Community Knowledge, Ambedkar University)

 

 

 

 

Buddhist Sculptures of Sanchi

Speaker: Dr. Archana Asthana, Archaeological Survey Of India
Chair: Shri R.C. Agrawal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kalibanga Ka Anveshi

A biographical sketch of linguist and explorer L.P. Tessitori

By Om Thanvi