[CSH Workshop] Against the Fetishisation of Plural Time. Rethinking Ways of Doing a Social History of Time (N. Sinha)
The Centre de Sciences Humaines is pleased to invite you to the CSH Seminar
by
Dr. Nitin Sinha
(Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient-Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin)
on
Against the Fetishisation of Plural Time
Rethinking Ways of Doing a Social History of Time
Followed by a discussion with Dr. Pankaj Jha
On
Monday, 30 March 2026, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm IST
At
Centre de Sciences Humaines
IFI-CSH conference room (ground floor)
2 Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi – 110011
Registration TBA
Abstract:
From the viewpoint of social history, is time itself a plural entity or are there multiple forms of engagement in and with it? Pivoted around this question, Sinha attempts to rethink the current theory and practice of history writing by pointing the pitfalls of the growing fetishisation of plurality and the ‘plural time’ framework. Engaging a range of studies in History, Anthropology, and Sociology, Sinha provides a critical assessment of some of the leading frameworks on time studies, questions their foundational premises, highlights their limitations, and proposes an alternative framework that is attuned to privileging the approach of social history. The purposes of the latter, the book argues, is best served when time’s irreversible character is not diluted under the weight of plurality. Plurality in time is an outcome of practices and their historicisation; plurality of time can become an empty statement. Rather than defining what time is, the book casts that inquiry into the historical mould to explore how time, as a contestatory resource, becomes part of social relationships and what it does to them when scripts of power align themselves with the control of time.
Speaker:
Dr. Nitin Sinha is a Senior Research Fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin. He was the principal investigator of a three-year project (2015–18) entitled, ‘Domestic Servants in Colonial South Asia’, funded by the European Research Council (ERC). A regular contributor to the Wire and various journals, he has written Communication and Colonialism in Eastern India: Bihar, 1760s–1880s and co-edited two volumes of Servants’ Pasts on the history of domestic servants in India. He has taught at the universities of Humboldt and York, among other institutions. He recently won the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for his project on a social history of time in South Asia.
For more info contact:
co[dot]lefevre[at]csh-delhi[dot]com
CSH Workshop is in hybrid mode. Please pre-register for offline and online registration before Monday, 30 March, 2:00 p.m. IST.
To attend at the venue: Please note the room capacity is limited. Seats will be reserved on a first-come first-served basis. Kindly bring ID proof to be granted access to the venue.
