Seminar on Narrating Manipur: Colonial And Postcolonial Histories
Abstract submission deadline : April 25, 2015

UGC Sponsored Seminar
on
NARRATING MANIPUR: COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL HISTORIES
29 & 30 April, 2015

Organised by:
Ideal Girls' College
Akampat, Imphal East - 795001

CALL FOR PAPERS

Manipur as a historical entity evolved over a long period and experienced vicissitudes of life and progressed towards a civilisation of where cultures of South and Southeast Asia meet. Not only the state experienced feudalism under monarchy, she also experienced imperialist rule under the kingdom of Ava intermittently in the 18th and 19th century she was drawn under the vortex of imperialism and colonialism consequent upon her defeat in the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891.

As a consequence, she could not remain isolated and disassociated from the two major events of the 20th century viz., the two world wars. Her engagements in these wars, particularly the 2nd World War have widened the weltanschauung of the Manipuris yet it has pitfalls too as the people were exposed to the forces of monetised economy which they had little experience. The colonial policy of divide et imperia which had been put into full operation during their rule in the state helped in creation of imagined identity of indigenous communities that heightened struggle for hegemony among the people inhabiting Manipur is perceived by many to be the root cause of the problems befalling the state.

The seminar would aim at addressing various issues that form the bases for scripting and narrating Manipur's colonial and postcolonial history. The intellectual, imaginative and socio political strands that have come together to represent the contemporary Manipur makes available a textured discourse that needs to be closely examined and analysed to understand the state better. Also pertinent is the need to examine and evaluate the construction of a totalizing and often homogenous idea of Manipur and the contentious perceptions which question the very idea of Manipur that have come in the recent past.

The idea and identity of Manipur which have come into reality since the 18th century have been increasingly questioned by a growing section of the ethnoses have impacted and affected the lives of the people at large. These disturbing trends needs to be examined in a subjective as well as objective manner and calls for a review of the attendant politics, history and its memory already available in the popular imaginary.

The troubling contexts and circumstances that define and determine critical engagements with its recent history add a significant dimension to the increasing academic, cultural and strategic importance of Manipur in the Northeast in particular and India in general in view of India's much publicised Look East Policy. The thoughts and concerns of the panels of this seminar are ideally intended to be an exercise at writing the emergence of the contemporary Manipur from its usable, if contested, past for a better future. The topic for the seminar hence shall try to make a critical introspection of the subject.

The seminar proposes to deliberate on the following four major themes.

Theme 1: Reliving and revisiting colonial Manipur
History and historiography
Literature, ethnography, anthropology and culture

Theme 2: Tryst with democracy
Popular movements
Celebrating democracy, statehood movement and insurgency

Theme 3: The wounded land
Influx of foreigners - myth or reality
The siege within – Ethnicity, expansion and contraction of ethnic groups
Assertion of identity and conflict

Theme 4: Opportunities and possibilities
Globalisation and Look East.

Key note Address - Professor Lokendra Arambam

Papers are invited from scholars on the above said topic

Format for Abstract:
Font- Times New Roman.
Font Size – 12 pt.:
Line Space- 2.0.:
Word limit - 300.

Abstract submission deadline: April 25, 2015.
Abstract acceptance announcement: April 26, 2015.
Full paper submission deadline : April 27, 2015.
Font – Times New Roman, 12 point.
Line Space- 1.5. Word Limit-5000.

Registration fee for attending the seminar (except students), paper presenter: Rs. 200/-.

Registration at the venue from 9.30 a.m.

For further query please contact –
Dr. K. Ruhinikumar Sharma
Seminar Convenor
e-mail: kruhinikumar(aT)gmail(dot)com
or
igcakampat12(at)gmail(dot)com