Events
Unity or Partition: Mahatma Gandhi’s Last Stand, 1945-1948 by Prof Sugata Bose
| Date | : | 06 May 2015 |
| Time | : | 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm |
| Venue | : | Asia Research Institute Seminar Room |
| Contact Person | : | TAY, Minghua |
CHAIRPERSON
Prof Prasenjit Duara, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
“The way to work for unity I have pointed out,” Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Sarat Chandra Bose on June 21, 1947, “when the geographical is broken.” This lecture analyzes Gandhi’s quest for unity among India’s religious communities before and after the announcement of Mountbatten’s Partition Plan on June 3, 1947. It follows Gandhi’s trail in Noakhali, Bihar, Calcutta and Delhi as he struggled to restore peace in rural areas and cities being torn apart by violence. Special attention is paid to the Gandhi’s invocation of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his movement in Southeast Asia. In so doing, the lecture offers fresh insights into the complex relationship between religion and politics at the transformative moment in modern India’s political history.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. Bose has served as Director of Graduate Studies in History at Harvard and as the Founding Director of Harvard’s South Asia Institute. Bose was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the University of Cambridge. Bose’s many books include A Hundred Horizons: the Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (with Ayesha Jalal, 3rd edition, London and New York: Routledge, 2011) and His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire (Cambridge, MA: the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press and New Delhi: Allen Lane, Penguin, 2011). His scholarship has contributed to a deeper understanding of colonial and post-colonial political economy, the relation between rural and urban domains, inter-regional arenas of travel, trade and imagination across the Indian Ocean, and Indian ethical discourses, political philosophy and economic thought. He is currently a Member of Parliament in India and Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
REGISTRATION
Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP to Ms Tay Minghua via email: minghua.tay@nus.edu.sg.