25th to 27th Nov. 2009, University of Delhi.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to promote discussion of the economic and political significance of regions in the subcontinent. Arguably, contemporary South Asia cannot be fully understood without considering the contradictions of regional social formations and wider structural processes. It can be held that, on the one hand, relationships between different regions are important to study. On the other hand, the internal constitution of a region and the various relationships that underlie it must be appreciated. Today, many important debates in the subcontinent are framed by reference to what might be termed a 'region question'. The region, as it were, manifests itself in (discussions of) everyday practices, as well as forms of consciousness. Given such ubiquity – and yet specificity – theoretical review of 'the region' and the actually existing regional situations of South Asia is overdue.
The conference focuses upon two important observations of contemporary South Asia. The first is that relations of production, exchange and 'kinship' (including those of caste, tribe and gender) continue to have significant spatial variation. Given the many combinations of social relations in the subcontinent, an examination is necessary of the structural processes permitting reproduction of distinctive regional formations. However, the aim is not to simply counterpoise meta-processes, or abstract 'necessary' relations, to place-bound contingencies. Rather, empirically-informed studies are sought of how South Asian livelihoods have become intricately connected to the reproduction of exploitative structures and circuits. Concrete analysis of the different relationships, processes and nodal points of the subcontinent will help scholar-activists to better assess the current struggles and strategies of (pan-) regional social movements.
The second observation is that asymmetry exists between region boundaries and the superimposition of administrative units. The conference is interested in the peculiarities of how regions and state administrative units relate, given the perpetuation of regions and highly geographically uneven development throughout South Asia. Since regional identities have proved so tenacious and important, the relations and processes that facilitate their development and reproduction require discussion. Correctly understanding the different social movements throughout South Asia demanding greater regional autonomy/independence is, arguably, most important. In this respect, the conference seeks to facilitate the development of a historical materialist theory of the formation and persistence of regions that will enable scholar-activists to understand identity and regional movements from a perspective other than from within the limits of rights-based discourses.
The conference is necessarily situated at the confluence of several disciplines. Historical-environmental study skills will be invaluable to unravelling long-term processes that constitute a region, especially the layering of different identities and modes of production over time. However, importantly, a region is not just a space. On the contrary, there is a dynamic of space and society that accords the peoples inhabiting a region with a sense of place. Sociological and literary expertise will thus be required to identify and analyze the cultural material practices that constitute regional spaces into geo-cultural places. Furthermore, the presence of the region in politics has long been a field of inquiry in political science – especially with regard to debates over the constitution of individual states and questions of self-determination.
Vist www.arts.yorku.ca/neoliberalism for more details