L’Inde à l’épreuve du multiculturalisme

Cet article se propose d’approfondir la question du multiculturalisme dans le contexte indien en exposant tout d’abord, les trajectoires politiques et discursives, à travers les choix constitutionnels, les questions de la laïcité (secularism) et du statut des minorités. Nous aborderons ensuite la question du fédéralisme comme solution politique de gestion de la diversité interne à la jeune nation et, en dernier lieu, nous confronterons les politiques de reconnaissance des différences aux processus d’assignation qui marginalisent les minorités dans l’espace social et public indien.First of all, this article aims to deepen the understanding of multiculturalism in the Indian context white describing political and discursive trajectories of this intellectual current and focussing on such issues including constitutional choices, secularism and minority status. Secondly I propose to define federalism as a political tool to manage internal diversity and thirdly, to confront politics of recognition with processes of assignation that marginalize minorities bath in social space and public space

Monsutti Alessandro, Naef Silvia, Sabahi Farian (eds),The Other Shiites, From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, Bern, Peter Lang, 2007, 266 p.

Cet ouvrage collectif est constitué par les actes d’une conférence internationale qui s’est tenue à l’université de Genève en 2002, « Images, representations and perceptions of the Shia world ». Il s’agit d’offrir un point de vue général sur la diversité et la multiplicité du chiisme en dehors de l’Iran au cours des deux derniers siècles. À signaler également qu’un autre ouvrage, édité et publié en 2007 par Sabrina Mervin, Les mondes chiites et l’Iran, offre une complémentarité de points de v..

Graphic Representations of the Sabarimala Pilgrimage (Kerala)

Pondy Papers in Social Sciences, n°31Taking the map as a common thread of this study, but also as an expedient for describing certain structures of the pilgrimage, we shall begin by citing a number of original graphic descriptions of the event from the popular literature. The next stage consists in retracing the major methodological steps in the compilation of a database on the pilgrimage that we have been able to establish by combining the results of a survey by questionnaire with the georeferenced SIFP database. We will then be in a better position to present the initial results of a new cartography of the major routes of religious movement between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This should, in conclusion, lead us to a redefinition, on the one hand, of certain migratory logics structuring the mobility of pilgrims through an array of preferential itineraries and, on the other hand, to the integration of this study in a historical geography of the flow and the networks of circulation in Tamil Nadu, as well as in South India

Fellowships: Popular Images and Media in Muslim Religious Spheres

Short-term Fellowships of “The Cluster of Excellence – Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, Transcultural Image Database Project “Satellite of Networks” The Circulation of Popular Images and Media in Muslim Religious Spheres   "In the summer of 2010, Tasveerghar invited proposals for short term fellowships from scholars, researchers and practitioners of popular arts and culture for multi-disciplinary and multi-media projects of research and documentation on the topic of popular visual cult..

From Fieldwork to Research Theory on an Indian Pilgrimage

Using as the example of the pilgrimage to Sabarimala (Kerala, South India), I propose here to explore the links existing between sources, research hypothesis and research theory in social sciences. The choice of research materials in the process of investigation, sources of knowledge about the studied object, is not mere random sampling; it is processed in accordance with the questions of the researcher. It inevitably assumes a selective dimension. After a critical reading of the sources used by Indian studies, I will highlight on the connections between the sources and the methodological tools on the one hand, and the major research hypothesis about pilgrimage on the other. The links between the data taken from the field and the legitimacy of scientific discourse on India will be examined at the end before providing some keys for the interpretation of Sabarimala phenomenon in South India during the contemporary period

Workshop on Sehwan, 27 January 2009, CEIAS-EHESS

Plurality of sources and interdisciplinary approach: A case study of Sehwan Sharif in Sindh Maison de l'Asie, Grand Salon (1st floor), 22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75016 Paris As part of activity of the research team “History and Sufism in the Indus Valley” (CEIAS), led by Michel Boivin, a workshop will be held on 27 January 2009 at the EHESS in Paris. Several members of this team will focus on how to integrate the plurality of sources in comparison with the interdisciplinary approach of ..

Book: Territory, Soil and Society in South Asia

Daniela Berti & Gilles Tarabout (dir.), 2009, Territory, Soil and Society in South Asia, New Delhi, Manohar, 379 p. A pluridisciplinary team of researchers has raised the question of territory in this book, which is the revised and English version of a previous publication in Italian. Beginning with the study of territorial representations in the Vedic texts to end up with a contribution about the mobilization of territorial categories by the Hindu nationalists during political processions, t..

Le pèlerinage à Sabarimala en Inde du Sud. Circulation religieuse et redéfinition des frontières de l’identité géographique

Afin d’alimenter la problématique générale des rapports entre circulation et processus de changement social dans l’Inde contemporaine, cet article étudie le rôle du pèlerinage dans la structuration de l’identité géographique. Le cas de Sabarimala est à cet égard un objet de recherche particulièrement intéressant, pour plusieurs raisons. Avec une audience limitée aux quatre principaux groupes culturo–linguistiques du sud de l’Inde, ce rassemblement religieux de masse a contribué en quelques décennies à poser le Kerala comme nouveau centre de gravité religieux dans l’Inde du Sud contemporaine. C’est bien la circulation pèlerine comme facteur d’émergences territoriales qui retient alors l’attention, en s’appliquant à décrire tout d’abord les principales étapes de la formation du pèlerinage et son organisation territoriale à l’échelon régional. Nous sommes ainsi amenés à voir également de quelle façon le pèlerinage en tant que processus circulatoire contribue dans la période contemporaine à redéfinir les frontières géographiques internes et externes de l’Inde du Sud.To feed the general debate on the existing relations between geographic circulation and the process of social change in contemporary India, this article focuses on the role of the pilgrimage in structuring geographical identity. In this regard, the case study of the Sabarimala pilgrimage is particularly relevant for several reasons. With an audience limited to the four main linguistic groups in South India, this religious mass–gathering has contributed over the last decades to place Kerala as an emerging centre of religious activity in contemporary South India. In this contribution, attention is paid to religious circulation as a factor of territorial emergences, while first describing the main stages of the formation of the pilgrimage and its territorial organization at the regional scale. We try also to understand how the pilgrimage as a circulatory process contributes, in the contemporary period to redefining the internal and external frontiers of South India

Balochistan Archives now online

"The Balochistan Archives has an impressive collection of the official records, rare books, and rare photographs of the British period. The Directorate has catalogued 27,000 files for research purposes in addition to 29,000 files of defunct Commissioners' Office. Our collections include the Agent to the Governor General (AGG) Balochistan's Records (1831-1947), Revenue Commissioner's Records (1855-1955), Chief Commissioner's Records (1910-1937), and Balochistan Secretariat Records (1903-1954)...