Lent Term 2019

'South Asia': A Roundtable Discussion 

Thursday, 28 March

Participants: David Arnold (Emeritus Professor in History, University of Warwick), Sarah Ashraf (@SarahAshraf01; Institute for Strategic Dialogue), Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB; Director, South Asia Centre & Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE),  Michael J Hutt (Professor in Nepali and Himalayan Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies),  Moska Najib (@muskanajibullah; Photographer), Avinash Paliwal (@PaliwalAvi; Lecturer in Diplomacy & Public Policy, and Deputy Director, SOAS South Asia Institute) and Naufel Vilcassim (Professor of Marketing, Department of Management, LSE).

Co-Chairs: Taylor C. Sherman (Associate Professor, International History, LSE) and Magnus Marsden (Professor in Social Anthropology, University of Sussex).

Listen to the podcast here.

End of Empire

Monday, 11 March 

Speaker: Alex von Tunzelmann (@alexvtunzelmann) is a historian and author.

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE.

Alex von Tunzelmann considers the interplay of personalities and politics in the events leading up to Britian's exit from Inida.  

This lecture is organised in collaboration with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.

Annual Bacha Khan Lecture 

Experiments with Education for Peace in Pakistan's History 

Saturday, 9 March

Participants: Khadim Hussain (@Khadimhussain4) -  Managing Director of Baacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation (BKTEF) & Rahmat Shah Sayel - prominent Pashto Poet and writer.

Chair: Ziauddin Yousafzai (@ZiauddinY) - United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education and author of Let Her Fly (2018) & Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) - Director, South Asia Centre and author of The Pathan Unarmed (2000). 

Watch the Youtube video here.

Inclusive Development Transformation in India

A critique and a proposal? 

Friday, 8 March

Speaker: Rathin Roy (@EmergingRoy) is Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.

Discussant: Maitreesh Ghatak (@maitreesh) is Professor in the Department of Economics, LSE.

Chair: Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is Director of the South Asia Centre, and Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE.

Listen to the podcast here.

LSE-UC Berkeley Bangladesh Summit 2

Friday, 22 February

The day-long conference included 3 panel discussions on ‘Negotiating Uncertainty: Health, Politics and Environment in Bangladesh’, ‘The Entrepreneurship Model and Women's Empowerment', and ‘Forms of Sovereignty: Art, Cinema and Popular Culture'.

Invited participants included Adnan Hossain (VU Amsterdam), Allan de Souza (UC Berkeley), Isha Ray (UC Berkeley), Jade Benjamin-Chung (UC Berkeley), Juli Huang (@Juli_Q_Huang) (Edinburgh), Lamia Karim (Oregon), Lawrence Cohen (UC Berkeley), Lotte Hoek (Edinburgh), Madhuja Mukherjee (Jadavpur, Kolkata), Munis Faruqui (UC Berkeley), Nilanjan Sarkar (LSE), Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury (Amherst), Raka Ray (UC Berkeley), Sabina Rashid (BRAC, Dhaka), Sanchita Saxena (UC Berkeley) and Shameran Abed (@Shameran) (BRAC, Dhaka) .

David Lewis (LSE) delivered the Keynote Address on ‘Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society Revisited’.

To view the complete programme, click here. 

This event is in collaboration with The Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, UC Berkeley.

DEMOCRACY ON THE ROAD

Ruchir Sharma in conversation with Mukulika Banerjee

Monday, 18 February 

Speaker: Ruchir Sharma works at Morgan Stanley; he has authored one of the international bestsellers The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change of in the Post-Crisis World (2016). 

Chair: Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is Director, South Asia Centre, and Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE.

Watch the Facebook Live video here.

Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Nepal

Wednesday, 13 February 

Speaker: Surya P. Subedi, QC (Hon), OBE  is Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds. 

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE.

In recent years, Nepal has gone through its share of tragedies. It has experimented with liberalism and communism, and adopted an ambitious Constitution designed to usher the country from a Monarchy to a Republic, and from a unitary system to a federal structure. The Constitution enshrines a long list of rights, and the country has ratified most major international human rights treaties. However, the question that arises is: how democratic is this Constitution, and is it robust enough to guarantee basic freedoms such as the freedom of speech?

Watch the Facebook Live video here.

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the complete lecture here.

Dark Hero: Nicholson of Delhi

Monday, 11 February 

Speaker: Stuart Flinders is a BBC Journalist, broadcaster and author of Cult of a Dark Hero: Nicholson of Delhi (2018). 

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE.

In this lecture Stuart Flinders consider the life and reputation of Brigadier General John Nicholson. 

This lecture is organised in collaboration with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

The Great March of India's Democracy

Friday, 1 February 

Speakers: Taylor Sherman, Karamjit Singh, S.Y. Quraishi 

Chair: Mukulika Banerjee

The Election Commission of India celebrates its
70th anniversary in 2019, as it prepares for the 17th Lok Sabha elections. The Great March of Democracy (2019) celebrates seven decades of the Election Commission’s excellence in conducting free and fair elections in the world's largest democracy.

Taylor Sherman is Associate Professor in International History, LSE

Karamjit Singh is a Former Member of the Electoral Commission, UK,

S.Y. Quraishi (@DrSYQuraishi) is Former Chief Election Commissioner

Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is Director of the South Asia Centre, and Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE.

Contributors from the UK include Mukulika Banerjee (LSE), Taylor Sherman (LSE), Meghnad Desai (LSE & House of Lords), Bhikhu Parekh (House of Lords), and Karamjit Singh CBE (Former Member of the Electoral Board, UK).

This event is in collaboration with Bridge India (@BridgeIndiaOrg), National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (@NISAU_UK), Indian Journalists’ Association (@ijaeurope) and Indian Young Professionals Network.

This event was recorded via Facebook live, which can be watched by clicking the links below.  

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Empress: Queen Victoria and India

Monday, 14 January 

Speaker: Miles Taylor - Author & Professor, University of York.

Chair: Nilanjan Sarkar - Deputy Director, South Asia Centre

In this lecture Miles Taylor discusses the impact India had on the Queen and the pivotal role she played. 

This lecture is organised in collaboration with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.