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SUMMARY:Reviving Sati’s corpse: the invocation of the Shakti Pithas in m
 odern and contemporary politics - Imma Ramos\, (MPhil in History\, Univers
 ity of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20150608T150000Z
DTEND:20150608T170000Z
UID:TALK56812@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes
DESCRIPTION:Scattered across India\, Bangladesh\, Pakistan\, Nepal\, Sri L
 anka and Tibet are shrines and temples housing the dismembered body parts 
 of the Hindu goddess Sati. These are known as Shakti Pithas or Seats of Po
 wer. A few of these sites have been the subjects of brief archaeological a
 nd anthropological studies but so far their role as a holistic network in 
 a political context has been neglected. This paper will examine the Shakti
  Pithas in both a colonial and post-colonial context by analysing and deco
 nstructing two visual case studies. The first is a Hindu religio-political
  souvenir print of Sati produced in Calcutta during the late nineteenth ce
 ntury. The second is a new religio-cultural initiative: Prime Minister Nar
 endra Modi’s project to establish a 51-Pitha ‘tour’ in Gujarat\, whi
 ch was inaugurated in February 2014. These two case studies will help to i
 lluminate the very different ways in which the Pithas were harnessed for p
 olitical purposes.
LOCATION:S2 Seminar Room\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Rd.
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