LST New Publication Series – “පුරවැසි සංවාද”

We are pleased to inform you that LST has initiated a new publication series that covers the ongoing issues in Sri Lanka. The publication will be published from Sinhala and Tamil languages.  
 
Please click HERE to download the full publication or download the attached PDF file.

Online Museum of Memory and Coexistence

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies is pleased to launch its online Museum of Memory and Coexistence.  The museum will seek to celebrate diversity, coexistence, resilience and solidarity, while archiving social exclusion, loss, and personal trauma. 

​​It​ is part of a larger ICES initiative to explore the use of arts, and physical and digital spaces, to facilitate social healing, archive narratives of the past, and build creative spaces for talking about a shared future and non-recurrence.

“‘I thought I was a bad son’: the emotional distance between migrants and their children” by Guy Gunaratne

In 1951, Guy Gunaratne’s Sri Lankan father learned English by reading in a London bookshop. Almost 70 years later, the same shop sells his son’s novel.Guy Gunaratne considers their very different journeys.

To read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/02/story-father-immigrant-experience-guy-gunaratne?CMP=share_btn_fb

Source: The Guardian

“Culture persane et médecine ayurvédique an Asie du Sud” Fabrizio Speziale

Résumé. Cet ouvrage traite des interactions entre l’Ayurveda et la culture médicale persane en Asie du Sud. Il présente, pour la première fois, une étude du mouvement de traduction en persan des sources ayurvédiques qui a eu lieu à partir du XIVe siècle. L’image de la culture ayurvédique reflétée par les traités persans offre un nouvel éclairage sur l’histoire de l’Ayurveda à l’époque de l’hégémonie politique musulmane en Asie du Sud. Les traités persans appliquent de nouvelles catégories à l’analyse des matériaux traduits et ils transforment les modalités de présentation du savoir ayurvédique. En parallèle, l’ouvrage de Fabrizio Speziale aborde le phénomène symétrique de persanisation de l’univers intellectuel des médecins hindous qui, à travers l’apprentissage du persan, s’approprient des connaissances médicales de la culture musulmane.

English abstract. This book looks at the interactions between Āyurveda and Persian medical culture in South Asia. It presents, for the first time, a study of the translation movement of Ayurvedic sources into Persian, which took place from the 14th century onwards. The image of Ayurvedic culture emerging from Persian texts provides a new insight into the history of Āyurveda under Muslim political hegemony in South Asia. Persian treatises apply new categories to the analysis of translated materials and transform the way Ayurvedic knowledge is presented. At the same time, Fabrizio Speziale’s book deals with the symmetric phenomenon of Persanization of the Hindu physicians who, through the learning of Persian language, appropriated medical knowledge of Muslim culture.

 
À propos de l’auteur :

Fabrizio Speziale est Directeur d’études à l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, Paris. Il a largement publié sur l’histoire de la médecine ayurvédique dans le monde indien et est le directeur de Perso-Indica. An Analytical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Traditions (www.perso-indica.net).

Fabrizio Speziale is Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Center for South Asian Studies, Paris. He has published extensively on the history of medicine in the Indo-Persianate world and is the chief editor of Perso-Indica. An Analytical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Traditions (www.perso-indica.net).
 

Google books preview:

https://books.google.fr/books?id=HntTDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false  

https://brill.com/abstract/title/35649

“Caste in the United States: A Survey of Caste among South Asian Americans” by Equality Lab

“This report came out of a community driven survey conducted in 2016 and has now emerged as a crucial document that both presents the first evidence of Caste discrimination in the US and helps to map the internal hegemonies within our communities. It also provides insight into how the South Asian community balances the experiences of living under white supremacy while replicating Caste, anti-Dalitness, and anti-Blackness.

As the South Asian American community, we are uniquely situated to redeem the errors of history as well as set the tone for a progressive conversation around Caste, both here and in countries of origin.”

via: https://www.equalitylabs.org/caste-survey-2018

To download directly the report: https://nofile.io/f/OXRXwaHU0dG/Caste+Survey+2018+Full.pdf

“Friday et Friday” de Antonythasan Jesuthasan alias Shobasakthi, en librairie à partir du 5 avril 2018

 

“Friday et Friday” de Antonythasan Jesuthasan alias Shobasakthi.

Nouvelles traduites du tamoul (Sri Lanka) par Faustine Imbert-Vier,

Élisabeth Sethupathy, et Farhaan Wahab

Une enfance à Allaipiddy, au nord de Sri Lanka, la guérilla tamoule, l’errance, l’exil en France… Autant de motifs et de personnages qui habitent l’œuvre d’Antonythasan Jesuthasan : Diana la Ronde, pétrifiée par le bruit des bombes, qui remue ciel et terre pour obtenir son abri ; Pratheeban, le demandeur d’asile, floué pour une poignée de kilomètres ; les 37 Mouvements de rébellion, bien décidés à se tailler la part du lion ; Layla, la petite dame du numéro 7, que son nom de code – Oiseau jaune – finit par trahir, ou encore le chevalier de Kandi, condamné à devenir un coq en pâte aux frais du Comité central.
À travers tous ces portraits, c’est aussi celui du narrateur qui se dessine, tout en humour et en finesse – le roman d’une vie, le miroir d’une âme et d’un peuple qui sait que c’est parfois en perdant de vue le rivage que le cœur se remet à flot.

A propos de l’auteur

Si l’on connaît son visage grâce au superbe Dheepan de Jacques Audiard (Palme d’or à Cannes en 2015) dont il est l’acteur principal, Antonythasan Jesuthasan est surtout écrivain reconnu – auteur de quatre romans, plusieurs recueils de nouvelles et de nombreux essais, pièces de théâtre et scénarios.

Antonythasan Jesuthasan – alias Shobasakthi – est né en 1967 à Allaipiddy, un village à l’extrême nord de Sri Lanka. Ancien enfant soldat du Mouvement de libération des Tigres tamouls, il arrive en France en 1993 où il obtient l’asile politique. Il vit désormais à Paris.

Son œuvre est traduite pour la première fois en français. L’adaptation cinématographique de la magnifique nouvelle Friday, qui se déroule dans la communauté tamoule du quartier de la Chapelle, à Paris, est en cours de réalisation.

Le dossier de presse du livre est accessible à travers ce lien : dossier_presse-572162dp-mars-18pdf

Une première revue du livre a été rédigé par Véronique-Atasi et peut-être lu sur son blog atasi.over-blog.com

Pour plus d’information, vous pouvez consulter le site de la maison d’édition Zulma qui a publié Friday and Friday.

New articles on religiosity among Tamil Hindu youths in Norway by Valen Kleive

Hildegunn Valen Kleive has recently published two articles (one in English and another in Norwegian) looking at religiosity among young Tamil Hindus in rural Norway.

The first (in English), ‘Belonging and Discomfort: Young Hindu Religiosity in Rural Norway’ is published in the Nordic Journal of Religion and Society and may be accessed here.

The second ‘Mestring og balanse. Trekk ved ung hindureligiøsitet’ is published in Prismet and may be accessed here. An English translation will follow at a later date.

“Respectable Gentlemen and Street-Savvy Men: HIV Vulnerability in Sri Lanka” by Sandya Hewamanne in Medical Anthropology

We are glad to provide a link for e prints for Sandya Hewamanne’s new article in Medical Anthropology on HIV vulnerability and migrant workers in Sri Lanka.
In this article, the author investigates how particular discourses surrounding class specific understandings of sexual behavior and female morality shape awareness and views of the disease and personal vulnerability. Although both groups belong to the working class, those employed by the transportation board consider themselves government servants and, therefore, “respectable gentlemen.” Construction workers identify easily with their class position, recognizing and sometimes trying to live up to the stereotypes of free sexuality. These different perceptions directly affect their concern and awareness of risk factors for sexually transmissible infections and safe-sex practices. While the “respectable gentlemen” consider themselves invulnerable, the “street-savvy men” learned about risks and took precautions to prevent STIs.

Author information

Sandya Hewamanne

Sandya Hewamanne is the author of Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone: Gender and Politics in Sri Lanka (2008) and Sri Lanka’s Global Factory Workers: (Un) Disciplined Desires and Sexual Struggles in a Post-colonial Society (2016). She teaches anthropology at the University of Essex, United Kingdom.

“Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History” Edited by Zoltan Biedermann and Alan Strathern

UCL Press has announced the publication of Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History, edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. Note that in addition to the hardback and paperback editions, the book is available at no cost as a pdf file.

For more information, go to http://www.ucl.ac.uk/…/sri-lanka-at-the-crossroads-of-histo…

“Kadir’s Daughter Launches His Biography Today On 10th Death Anniversary” by Colombo Telegraph

‘The Cake that was Baked at Home’ attempts to unveil lesser known aspects Kadirgamar’s life. Told through Ajita’s memories, stories and recollections by those who knew him, extracts of published media and tributes composed specifically for the book, she endeavours to shed light on facets of a brilliant and complex man. Kadirgamar spent the last ten years of his life in the harsh and sometimes unforgiving public spotlight, adored by some, declared a traitor by others, all the while knowing he was constantly being targeted by the LTTE.

The 440 page book is also the author’s personal journey of healing and discovery where she poses the question, ‘Do we ever really know a person, even one’s own parent?’ Ajita admits in the concluding chapter, ‘People will certainly ask what kind of a daughter I am, that I can be so critical and judgmental about this much loved and respected man. They will see me as tarnishing a hero’s image. Well, I’m the kind of daughter who tells it like it is, and more so with advancing age. The fact remains that his greatness came at a price. We paid the price. We paid the price for his single minded ambition, drive and brilliance that led him to the highest echelons of public office. We stood in the wings helplessly as, first a woman and then a whole nation hijacked him as their own.’

see: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/kadirs-daughter-launches-his-biography-today-on-10th-death-anniversary/

“Ayya’s Accounts: A Ledger of Hope in Modern India” by Anand Pandian and M.P. Mariappan

We would like to signal the publication of an interesting book of Anand Pandian and M.P. Mariappan “Ayya’s Accounts: A Ledger of Hope in Modern India”

M1-COVER.qxd

Abstract: 

Ayya’s Accounts explores the life of an ordinary man—orphan, refugee, shopkeeper, and grandfather—during a century of tremendous hope and upheaval. Born in colonial India into a despised caste of former tree climbers, Ayya lost his mother as a child and came of age in a small town in lowland Burma. Forced to flee at the outbreak of World War II, he made a treacherous 1,700-mile journey by foot, boat, bullock cart, and rail back to southern India. Becoming a successful fruit merchant, Ayya educated and eventually settled many of his descendants in the United States. Luck, nerve, subterfuge, and sorrow all have their place along the precarious route of his advancement. Emerging out of tales told to his American grandson, Ayya’s Accounts embodies a simple faith—that the story of a place as large and complex as modern India can be told through the life of a single individual.

You could read an insightful interview with the author on the book: IndiaAbroadS

For more informations: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_6118_6161&products_id=807225

About the Authors

Anand Pandian is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. He is author of Crooked Stalks: Cultivating Virtue in South India, co-editor of Ethical Life in South Asia (IUP, 2011) and Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference, and a contributor toEveryday Life in South Asia (IUP, 2010).

M. P. Mariappan (1919-2014) was a retired fruit merchant living in the south Indian city of Madurai at the time he co-authored Ayya’s Accounts.

“Life Beyond Survival Social Forms of Coping After the Tsunami in War-affected Eastern Sri Lanka” by Katharina Thurnheer

At the heart of this in-depth ethnographic study lie the daily life situations of tsunami survivors in war-torn, eastern Sri Lanka. Each chapter is built around the empirical themes derived from the stories and recollections of Tamil women and their families during their stay in relief camps, anticipating relocation. The specifics of the socio-cultural context are firmly embedded in the discussions. Ten years after the tsunami, this publication offers a timely contribution to a better understanding of what it means to cope with the combined effects of disaster, war, and international aid in this matri-focal region of the island.

via: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2601-8/life-beyond-survival

 

“Anthropology, Politics, and Place in Sri Lanka: South Asian Reflections from an Island Adrift” by Jonathan Spencer

Abstract

How does the idea of ‘South Asia’ play out in the politics and public culture of Sri Lanka? As an island, long connected by the trade routes of the Indian Ocean, it has always been a place of comings and goings. Yet, paradoxically, this fact seems to often generate efforts to imagine it as necessarily bounded and unattached to the adjacent subcontinent. The problems of place-making that follow from this move, it is suggested, may be a source of Sri Lanka’s success as a producer of extraordinary anthropologists—anthropologists like the late Stanley Tambiah, whose research in Thailand was self-consciously conceived as a way of understanding the peculiar dilemmas of his homeland.

via: http://samaj.revues.org/3812


REVUE SAMAJ n°10 / Ideas of South Asia / Symbolic Representations and Political Uses

SAMAJ is pleased to announce the publication of its tenth thematic issue:

South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal

Ideas of South Asia
Symbolic Representations and Political Uses

edited by Aminah Mohammad-Arif and Blandine Ripert

 

accessible in full at http://samaj.revues.org/3699

Introduction. Imaginations and Constructions of South Asia: An Enchanting Abstraction?
by Aminah Mohammad-Arif

‘India, that is Bharat…’: One Country, Two Names
by Catherine Clémentin-Ojha

India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
by Faisal Devji

A Strange Love of the Land: Identity, Poetry and Politics in the (Un)Making of South Asia
by Sudipta Kaviraj

Poetics and Politics of Borderland Dwelling: Baltis in Kargil
by Radhika Gupta

Impasse and Opportunity: Reframing Postcolonial Territory at the India-Bangladesh Border
by Jason Cons

Anthropology, Politics, and Place in Sri Lanka: South Asian Reflections from an Island Adrift
by Jonathan Spencer

Thinking India in South Africa: Gandhi’s Conundrum
by Claude Markovits

The Construction, Mobilization and Limits of South Asianism in North America
by Anouck Carsignol

From South Asia to Southasianism: A Nepalese Activist’s Perspective. An interview with Kanak Mani Dixit
by Blandine Ripert

Afterword. On Region and Nation
by Sanjay Subrahmanyam

Other recent publications:

Free-Standing Articles

Cosmopolitan Soirées in Eighteenth-Century North India: Reception of early Urdu poetry in Kishangarh
by Heidi Pauwels

Murder in the Andamans: A Colonial Narrative of Sodomy, Jealousy and Violence
by Manju Ludwig

Contesting Consensus. Disputing Inequality: Agonistic Subjectivities in Rural Bihar
by Indrajit Roy

Click here for all free-standing articles

Book Reviews

Judith Pettigrew, Maoists at the Hearth: Everyday Life in Nepal’s Civil War
by Dan V. Hirslund

Tapan K. Ghosh, Bollywood Baddies: Villains, Vamps and Henchmen in Hindi Cinema
by Imke Rajamani

Thinking the Difference: On Feminism and Postcolony [review essay]
by Anne Castaing

Click here for all book reviews

Previous thematic issues:

9 | 2014
Imagining Bangladesh: Contested Narratives
edited by Benjamin Zeitlyn, Manpreet K. Janeja & José Mapril (SAMAJ-EASAS Series)

8 | 2013
Delhi’s Margins
edited by Radhika Govinda (SAMAJ-EASAS Series)

7 | 2013
The Ethics of Self-Making in Postcolonial India
edited by Uday Chandra & Atreyee Majumder

Click here for all thematic issues