Zubaan: A Cultures Of Peace Event

10 AM: Introduction
 

Urvashi Butalia (Director, Zubaan)
Axel Harneit-Sievers (Director, Heinrich Böll Stiftung India)

10.30 AM: Nation, State, Republic – Debating Citizenship, Caste and Gender (Lecture) by V Geetha
 

11.30 AM: Tea

12 PM: Partition and Borders in the ‘Northeast’
 

The long-term impact of the Partition of India in 1947 is visible everywhere in the Northeast, whether it is in debates on citizenship and belonging, or on identity, on resources, or indeed on migration. Although mainstream (‘mainland’) scholarship on Partition tends to focus mainly on Bengal and Punjab, scholars in Northeastern states have explored, and provide in this panel, counterpoints in the effects of Partition on these borders and histories.

-Binayak Dutta (Professor, NEHU)
-Faith Elwin (Research Scholar, NEHU)
-Sukalpa Bhattacharjee (Author, Professor, NEHU)
-Udayon Misra, Moderator (Author; Institute of Advanced Study)

1.30 PM: Lunch

2.30 PM: Queer Identities and Organising
 

In regions dominated by discussions on cultural, political and community identities, what does it mean to organize at a different level, to focus on sexualities and sexual identities? How do activists look at not only the binaries but also the fluidity of identities? How have the state, the market, the church and society have dealt with these new articulations? This panel, which brings together queer activists and writers from Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Karnataka will debate this subject.

-Akashitora Dutta (Author, Psychiatrist) + Agomonee Chetia (translator)
-A Revathi (Author, Trans* Activist)
-Santa Khurai (Trans* Activist)
-Gwyneth Alicia Mawlong (Queer Activist)
-Rafiul Alom Rahman, Moderator (Queer Activist)

4 PM: New Art and Writing, on Work
 

Across the Northeastern region—indeed, as across the country, the world—women hold up more than half the sky through their work, whether it is in running markets, in hawking, in brewing beer, or weaving, or in telling stories and keeping myth and legend alive. This panel, made up of writers and artists from different Northeastern states, will examine the relationship between women and work through art, writing and music.

-Haripriya Soibam (Author, Professor, TISS Guwahati)
-Shreya Debi (Graphic Artist)
-Aheli Moitra (Journalist, The Morung Express)
-Gertrude Lamare (Professor, Delhi University)
-Aungamakhai Chak (Photographer)
-Parismita Singh, moderator (Author; Graphic Novelist)

5.30 PM: Tea

Time:14th October, 2017
Venue: Asian Confluence, Shillong
 

Information:

Chok Tsering
Program Co-ordinator, Democracy & Dialogue Programme
E: chok.tsering@in.boell.org