CFP: Ideas of India in Britain 1857-1947

This one has a definite museum studies application:

Call for Papers
Workshop at the University of Cambridge: Ideas of India in Britain 1857-1947

Date: 14-15 May 2010

Keynotes: Dr. Tapan Raychaudhuri, Emeritus Fellow, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford and Professor Peter van der Veer, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen

This workshop aims to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of ideas of India in Britain between 1857 and 1947, by bringing together early-career researchers and more senior academics from different disciplines working on this crucial aspect of British intellectual history. This was not only a transformational period for British colonial attitudes to India as an imperial subject – from the trauma of ‘the Mutiny’ to the political and emotional severance of Indian independence – but it was also a period in which ideas of India more generally played a defining role in the intellectual and cultural life of Britain. Particular aspects of the theme which we hope participants’ papers will discuss include ideas of India in professional Indology, (for instance, the popularisation of Indological knowledge, and the role of Indology in the justification of imperialism); the idea of India in ‘esoteric’ spiritual movements such as Theosophy, and the struggle between Theosophists and Indologists over the authenticity of knowledge relating to India; India in British missionary thought; Indians in Britain (e.g. Syed Ahmad Khan, Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Mohandas Gandhi); the idea of India in literary, intellectual and popular culture; and comparative studies of conceptions of India on the continent and the USA.

Papers should not exceed 30 minutes and will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion. To apply please send abstracts of not more than 500 words to the addresses given below.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is the 15th of February 2010.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide financial support towards travel or staying arrangements, however we will do our best to provide you with adequate details of how to get here and reasonable places to stay.

Please send abstracts and direct any enquiries to:
Mishka Sinha: mishka.sinha@gmail.com
Tom Green: tg245@cam.ac.uk

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