Ritu Tyagi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
News by Ritu Tyagi
This conference follows up on the seminar ‘Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation’ that was h... more This conference follows up on the seminar ‘Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation’ that was held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (Sept 2019), and on the symposium ‘Diaspora and Gender across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans’ that was hosted by the University of Pondicherry (Feb 2020). It also seeks to build on the publications that emerged from these two academic events (Kala Pani Crossings: Revisiting 19th century Migrations from India’s Perspective, Routledge 2021; Kala Pani Crossings, Gender and Diaspora: Indian Perspectives, Routledge, forthcoming 2023).
Over one million Indians were transported between 1834 and 1917 to sugar colonies under the system of indentured labour in order to meet the demand for cheap, unskilled labour after the abolition of Atlantic slavery in 1833. Substantial work has been produced over the past 30 years by scholars in the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius and Reunion Island, gradually gaining more visibility. Yet, it is a chapter that has long struggled to be included within the framework of Indian history.
Kala pani Crossings #1 had meant to interrogate the relative absence from the historiography of those 19th century migrations from India to Fiji, Mauritius, Reunion and the Caribbean, from the perspective of India, suggesting new understandings of the relationship between India and its post-indenture diaspora. Kala pani Crossings #2 had been particularly interested in exploring the intersections of diaspora and gender within the diasporic and Indian imagination.
Kala pani Crossings #3 intends to widen the scope in space and time, and include East and South Africa, Malaysia or Indonesia, as well as other kinds of labour recruitment and organisations such as the kangani system in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It also seems just as crucial to include the more recent migrations towards the Gulf countries.
The focus will also be placed on the literary and artistic creations that emerged from the post-indentureship period to the 21st century, to analyse how those creations echo and intersect across oceans and generations, and create the conditions of a reinvention of self not only in the diaspora but also in India, among the descendants.
As the trans-oceanic labour migrations morph into many different avatars in the 21st century, this conference seeks to raise the question of the legacy of indentureship and of its historiography, and to explore similarities and divergences between these displacements to understand connections and continuities with 19th century indentureship and the evolving socio-cultural organisations of diaspora populations.
This conference will offer a platform for discussions on how artists, musicians, writers, film makers, playwrights etc. particularly from the ‘old diaspora’ assert and negotiate multiple ideas of home, the nation and the self through their aesthetic creations, spaces where normative practices can be challenged. The conference will also focus on multiple creative strategies that engender dynamic connections between India and its ‘old diaspora’ today.
More details on the website:
This symposium follows up on the seminar 'Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation' that was he... more This symposium follows up on the seminar 'Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation' that was held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (September 23-25, 2019). Kala pani Crossings #1 had meant to throw more light on the 19 th century migrations from India to Fiji, Mauritius, the Caribbean and Africa, and to revisit the history from the perspective of India. Over one million Indians were transported between 1834 and 1917 to sugar colonies under the system of indentured labour in order to meet the demand for cheap, unskilled labour after the abolition of Atlantic slavery in 1833. Yet, it is a chapter that has been excluded from Indian history. Kala pani Crossings #2 intends to focus more precisely on the gender dimension in the migrations and in the historiography. Initially, the recruits were predominantly male with very few females. Historians such as Brij V Lal (1984) and Gillion (1962) have recorded an unequal sex ration (3.3:1 for Mauritius and 2.2: 1 for Natal) that lead to numerous problems as the indentured labourers settled in the colonies. As a result, eventually, efforts were made to enforce more recruitment of women in the ratio of around 40 women per 100 men (Tinker 1974). Women, therefore, came to constitute an important section of the migrant indentured population that was transported from India. Colonial history as well as migrant discourse, however, tend to omit references to women migrants and their experiences. Women have been homogenised within the largely androcentric master narratives of their male counterparts. It is the feminist scholarship and its specific interest in diaspora and migration studies that has excavated the feminine narrative and emphasised the fact that the gendered dimension of migrant experience cannot be overlooked or downplayed. This symposium is particularly interested in exploring the intersections of diaspora and gender within the diasporic and Indian imagination in order to investigate the ways in which race, class, caste, gender, and sexuality intersect with concepts of home, belonging, displacement and the reinvention of self. Its aim is to comprehend-if diasporic locations/positions marginalise women by alienating them from their home, or empower them as they emerge from nationalistic narrative to a transnational experience, allowing women to problematize/rethink home-host dichotomy;-the possibilities of negotiation or resistance, and how those possibilities are determined by race, class, caste, or ethnicity;
Papers by Ritu Tyagi
Dans Paradis blues, Shenaz Patel, la romancière mauricienne déjà connue pour Le Silence des Chago... more Dans Paradis blues, Shenaz Patel, la romancière mauricienne déjà connue pour Le Silence des Chagos 1 , raconte à la première personne l'itinéraire de Mylène, une jolie jeune fille qui cache en son coeur des rêves simples de bonheur. Ce récit, écrit initialement pour être représenté au théâtre et créé au Festival des Francophonies de Limoges en 2009, est un texte qui dépasse toute notion de genre « en alliant avec habileté théâtre, chanson, prose et poésie » 2. Pour brouiller la narration et perturber le cours du récit, l'auteure use de différentes insertions. Par conséquent, le texte est fragmenté, morcelé et disloqué et c'est le lecteur qui doit construire/reconstruire l'histoire en suivant les bribes de récit dans le texte. L'au-teure se sert de l'insertion de lettres, de monologues, de passages sur l'écriture, de l'intertextualité qui contribuent à déconcerter le lecteur et à mettre en évidence l'aspect hétéroclite et hybride du roman. Comment ...
This conference follows up on the seminar ‘Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation’ that was h... more This conference follows up on the seminar ‘Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation’ that was held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (Sept 2019), and on the symposium ‘Diaspora and Gender across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans’ that was hosted by the University of Pondicherry (Feb 2020). It also seeks to build on the publications that emerged from these two academic events (Kala Pani Crossings: Revisiting 19th century Migrations from India’s Perspective, Routledge 2021; Kala Pani Crossings, Gender and Diaspora: Indian Perspectives, Routledge, forthcoming 2023).
Over one million Indians were transported between 1834 and 1917 to sugar colonies under the system of indentured labour in order to meet the demand for cheap, unskilled labour after the abolition of Atlantic slavery in 1833. Substantial work has been produced over the past 30 years by scholars in the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius and Reunion Island, gradually gaining more visibility. Yet, it is a chapter that has long struggled to be included within the framework of Indian history.
Kala pani Crossings #1 had meant to interrogate the relative absence from the historiography of those 19th century migrations from India to Fiji, Mauritius, Reunion and the Caribbean, from the perspective of India, suggesting new understandings of the relationship between India and its post-indenture diaspora. Kala pani Crossings #2 had been particularly interested in exploring the intersections of diaspora and gender within the diasporic and Indian imagination.
Kala pani Crossings #3 intends to widen the scope in space and time, and include East and South Africa, Malaysia or Indonesia, as well as other kinds of labour recruitment and organisations such as the kangani system in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It also seems just as crucial to include the more recent migrations towards the Gulf countries.
The focus will also be placed on the literary and artistic creations that emerged from the post-indentureship period to the 21st century, to analyse how those creations echo and intersect across oceans and generations, and create the conditions of a reinvention of self not only in the diaspora but also in India, among the descendants.
As the trans-oceanic labour migrations morph into many different avatars in the 21st century, this conference seeks to raise the question of the legacy of indentureship and of its historiography, and to explore similarities and divergences between these displacements to understand connections and continuities with 19th century indentureship and the evolving socio-cultural organisations of diaspora populations.
This conference will offer a platform for discussions on how artists, musicians, writers, film makers, playwrights etc. particularly from the ‘old diaspora’ assert and negotiate multiple ideas of home, the nation and the self through their aesthetic creations, spaces where normative practices can be challenged. The conference will also focus on multiple creative strategies that engender dynamic connections between India and its ‘old diaspora’ today.
More details on the website:
This symposium follows up on the seminar 'Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation' that was he... more This symposium follows up on the seminar 'Kala pani Crossings: India in Conversation' that was held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (September 23-25, 2019). Kala pani Crossings #1 had meant to throw more light on the 19 th century migrations from India to Fiji, Mauritius, the Caribbean and Africa, and to revisit the history from the perspective of India. Over one million Indians were transported between 1834 and 1917 to sugar colonies under the system of indentured labour in order to meet the demand for cheap, unskilled labour after the abolition of Atlantic slavery in 1833. Yet, it is a chapter that has been excluded from Indian history. Kala pani Crossings #2 intends to focus more precisely on the gender dimension in the migrations and in the historiography. Initially, the recruits were predominantly male with very few females. Historians such as Brij V Lal (1984) and Gillion (1962) have recorded an unequal sex ration (3.3:1 for Mauritius and 2.2: 1 for Natal) that lead to numerous problems as the indentured labourers settled in the colonies. As a result, eventually, efforts were made to enforce more recruitment of women in the ratio of around 40 women per 100 men (Tinker 1974). Women, therefore, came to constitute an important section of the migrant indentured population that was transported from India. Colonial history as well as migrant discourse, however, tend to omit references to women migrants and their experiences. Women have been homogenised within the largely androcentric master narratives of their male counterparts. It is the feminist scholarship and its specific interest in diaspora and migration studies that has excavated the feminine narrative and emphasised the fact that the gendered dimension of migrant experience cannot be overlooked or downplayed. This symposium is particularly interested in exploring the intersections of diaspora and gender within the diasporic and Indian imagination in order to investigate the ways in which race, class, caste, gender, and sexuality intersect with concepts of home, belonging, displacement and the reinvention of self. Its aim is to comprehend-if diasporic locations/positions marginalise women by alienating them from their home, or empower them as they emerge from nationalistic narrative to a transnational experience, allowing women to problematize/rethink home-host dichotomy;-the possibilities of negotiation or resistance, and how those possibilities are determined by race, class, caste, or ethnicity;
Dans Paradis blues, Shenaz Patel, la romancière mauricienne déjà connue pour Le Silence des Chago... more Dans Paradis blues, Shenaz Patel, la romancière mauricienne déjà connue pour Le Silence des Chagos 1 , raconte à la première personne l'itinéraire de Mylène, une jolie jeune fille qui cache en son coeur des rêves simples de bonheur. Ce récit, écrit initialement pour être représenté au théâtre et créé au Festival des Francophonies de Limoges en 2009, est un texte qui dépasse toute notion de genre « en alliant avec habileté théâtre, chanson, prose et poésie » 2. Pour brouiller la narration et perturber le cours du récit, l'auteure use de différentes insertions. Par conséquent, le texte est fragmenté, morcelé et disloqué et c'est le lecteur qui doit construire/reconstruire l'histoire en suivant les bribes de récit dans le texte. L'au-teure se sert de l'insertion de lettres, de monologues, de passages sur l'écriture, de l'intertextualité qui contribuent à déconcerter le lecteur et à mettre en évidence l'aspect hétéroclite et hybride du roman. Comment ...