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SUMMARY:Parallel publics: an Indian history of democracy - Dr Ramnarayan R
 awat\, Smuts Visiting Fellow and University of Delaware
DTSTART:20150521T160000Z
DTEND:20150521T190000Z
UID:TALK58731@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Barbara Roe
DESCRIPTION:Dalit (former untouchable) groups in early twentieth century N
 orth India gave democracy an Indic genealogy by drawing from existing devo
 tional and collective forms of practice to fashion a set of new ideologica
 l and spatial interventions. Through print and public activism\, Dalit act
 ivists utilized the fifteenth century saints Raidas and Kabir\, key figure
 s of the heterodox Nirgun Bhakti tradition\, as spokespersons for ‘human
  equality’\, offering a spiritual critique of caste inequality. These in
 itiatives enabled Dalit activists to engage creatively with liberal ideolo
 gies of representation to create novel forms of political practice at the 
 turn of the twentieth century. Counter-demonstrations by Dalit groups from
  1922 onwards sought to intervene in debates on democracy by parading with
  untouchable bodies and capturing public spaces in prominent towns of Nort
 h India. The term ‘parallel publics’ registers the absence of evidence
  of these struggles and narratives within dominant Indian archives and aca
 demic discourse and recognizes the continued circulation of these historie
 s\, discursive forms\, and practices within Dalit neighbourhoods.
LOCATION:The Old Combination Room\, Trinity College\, Cambridge
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