Beyond Partition Logic? The Bangladesh Kaleidoscope

Prof. Willem van Schendel's presentation on Bangladesh contributes to transcending approaches to South Asian Studies that privilege the relationship between India and Pakistan over all other issues. Prof. Van Schendel will examine narratives of decolonization, phases of nationalism, shifting cultural orientations, elite formation and state institutions to illustrate how Bangladesh has produced a society with a distinctive ‘post-Partition’ spirit and a critical attitude towards both India and Pakistan. Identifying Bangladesh as a useful vantage point from where to launch comparisons embracing other societies of South Asia, this talk explores the tendency of identities to reconfigure in unpredictable ways, creating kaleidoscopic patterns and a pervasive sense of restless anticipation.

Willem van Schendel is Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History. He has previously taught at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam as Professor of Comparative History. His research interests include society and borderland in contemporary Bangladesh and the social consequences of the movement of people and goods in South Asia. Prof. van Schendel is the author of a number of works including The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia (2005) and A History of Bangladesh (2009).

Free Entrance, Reception Afterwards