Head of the research area: Corinne Lefèvre
The research projects in Area 2, though based on diverse corpora and time periods, converge on a shared inquiry into the connections between the production of knowledge, regimes of representation, and modes of governance. Research on Persian-language archives, administrative documents, and genealogies sheds light on the mechanisms through which imperial, zamindari, or colonial powers consolidated their authority by relying on systems of writing and memory. Research on the world of education, secularism, or citizenship during the colonial and postcolonial eras, for its part, analyzes the institutional logics that shape access to educational resources, the construction of minorities, and practices of political representation. Ethnographic studies of religion demonstrate the central role that rituals, sacred figures, and places of worship continue to play today in (re)defining affiliations and legitimizing political orders. Finally, studies on digital technology highlight the contemporary reconfiguration of information ecosystems, demonstrating how platforms, media, and public authorities are redefining the ways in which content circulates, while a survey of artists from various regions of India sheds light on the transformations in the practices of creating and disseminating popular music.
- Knowledge, Power, and Territories in South Asia (16th–20th Century)
The research gathered in this first sub-theme examines the production, circulation, and uses of knowledge—whether genealogies, family archives, inscriptions, Persian manuscripts, or administrative documents—highlighting in many cases the central role of the Persian language and Persianized cultures as vectors of memory or legitimation. Together, these studies shed light on the dynamics of the construction and consolidation of (sub-)state powers—Mughal, zamindari, or colonial—in territories ranging from the capital city of Delhi to the Punjab plains and the Himalayan regions.
- Representations, Governance, and Mobilizations in Colonial and Postcolonial India(s)
The studies gathered in this second sub-theme analyze both the structural inequalities faced by Muslims in public schools, the legal and political obstacles to the diversification of private higher education, and the daily practices of political representatives in both Delhi and the Northeast. They also demonstrate how Muslim student organizations negotiate their mobilization under institutional oversight. Finally, they explore the long history of relations between the secular state and religious minorities since independence.
- Sacred Figures, Ritual Spaces, and Collective Constructions
The research in this third sub-theme explores how religious practices, sacred figures, and ritual spaces contribute to the construction—or reconfiguration—of collective identities. Through detailed ethnographies, it analyzes how ordinary people, religious authorities, and political institutions engage with ceremonies, temples, or images to inscribe social, economic, and national issues within them. In doing so, these projects shed light on several variations of the same process: the politicization of religion and the ritualization of politics, where devotional gestures, protective figures, or national deities serve as mediators for conceptualizing community, legitimizing visions of the collective, and redefining the place of the sacred in societies marked by exile, social mobility, or nationalism.
- Digital Technologies and the Reconfiguration of Informational and Artistic Ecosystems
The research gathered under this sub-theme demonstrates how digital development is profoundly reshaping cultural and informational ecosystems in India. Simran Agarwal analyzes how the state and major platforms are redefining the governance of online information, creating new forms of control and, in response, diverse adaptation strategies on the part of the media. Meanwhile, the study conducted by Sunayana Wadhawan and Nayanjyoti explores the impact of digital technology on popular music, in collaboration with artists from various regions, to understand changes in modes of creation and circulation.
Researchers :
- CSH Members : Joël Cabalion, Roma Casamitjana, and Odile Henry.
- CSH Associate Researchers: Nicolas Belorgey, Kiran Bhatty, Bérénice Girard, Jonathan Koshy Varghese, Satendra Kumar, Gagan Kumar, Nayanjyoti, Soheb Niazi, Deepa Sinha, Stéphanie Tawa Lama and Sunayana Wadhawan.
- Visiting Researchers: Aymeric Vo Quang, Girija Joshi, Prannv Dhawan, and Sahib Singh.
Project 1: PaRChA (Pamphlet Repository for Changing Activism) (Jean-Thomas Martelli).
This project started to answer a simple question: how can one understand Indian activism, its history, and the language it developed in the last decades without having a close look at activists’ everyday writings? Well, it’s impossible. This initiative is therefore progressively setting up a platform for referencing material on different protest movements in the country. This digital library offers full searchable content to scholars and concerned individuals. It includes 72430 items that cover the period 1975-2015 and are indexed according to their author (organisational or institutional) and approximate year of release. The idea behind the project is to collect, enlarge, and offer quantitative and qualitative tools of analysis for this printed material by associating scanned images with their related text: https://www.flickr.com/photos/parchaproject/
