In commemoration of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations at the University of Hyderabad, an Institution of Eminence, the School of Social Sciences is organising the Golden Jubilee Distinguished Lecture Series in its 2nd edition from July to October 2024, which includes riveting expert lectures in various fields of study. As part of this series, Dr. Bhrigupati Singh, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University and Visiting Associate professor of Psychiatry, Brown University delivered a lecture on 16th August on the topic ‘APASMARA (The Negation of Memory): Ethnographic Recollections of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The lecture begun with the introduction of the speaker by Prof. M Romesh Singh, Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad. Some of his publications include Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India (2015) which Professor Romesh says represents “how an ethnography needs to be written in the modern times”. Other publications include several articles on health, media, popular culture in the journals of Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Transcultural Psychiatry, Contributions to Indian Sociology and many more. He was awarded with the Joseph Elder prize in the Indian social sciences by the American institute of Indian studies and an Excellency Award by the American Academy of religion in the study of Religion. He was also the finalist for the prestigious Clifford Geertz Book Prize.
The lecture begun with the introduction and explanation of the word APASMARA, meaning anti-memory or ignorance. Following this, Dr Singh talked about his ongoing research ‘Waxing and Waning Life: Investigations at the Threshold of Mental Illness and Health’, in collaboration with AIIMS, Delhi focusing on the effects of COVID-19 in urban slums of Trilokpuri and Sundarnagri in Delhi, India through ethnographic studies. The study aims at examining the relation of psychic life to human interactions with pandemics or epidemics. India being top in the Stringency Index with the strictest lockdown and people experiencing such terrible conditions, Dr. Singh wanted to understand the nature of memory lapse which consisted in four stages focusing on Vitality, Experiments with Vitality, Skepticism and Religion. These four stages provide us insights into how an Incident can be catastrophic at a certain point and how it lapses with time although be traumatic, conditioning with various socio-economic and political circumstances.
Since India had the largest forced migration during COVID since independence, the speaker also wanted to examine how Catastrophic was this pandemic, with a reference of Jayati Ghosh’s The Making of a Catastrophe (2022) and how was it interpreted by the people and how would it be remembered in the coming times or would the memories just fade away.
Supplementing the theory, ethnographic data reveals that the effect of covid on the urban slum dwellers was precarious in nature because, they were subjected to many grievances involving health and financial crisis, forced migration and distress. Besides, Trilokpuri being called a “riot laboratory” is known to have experienced intense riots, tensions and violence too making lives even more miserable. After being able to survive through these circumstances, most people tend to choose to forget things rather than remember them.
With the reference of David Arnold’s work and many other works on the COVID pandemic, Dr. Singh explained how APASMARA unveils in time, fading away a phase of catastrophe. This was explained with respect to the “America’s Forgotten Pandemic” of Spanish flu where this influenza pandemic lapsed away in time despite creating a devastating havoc.
Aligning with this, the speaker finished the lecture asserting that he is in the midst becoming acquainted with how the aspect of moral injury works and how violence has a stronger impact on the memory of the people creating epilepsy, than a pandemic which is way more destructive and devastating and how APASMARA comes in.
The keen evening came to an end with an engaging Q & A session exploring the aspects of impact of media ecology on APASMARA, and the methodological and ethnological usage in the reconciliation of APASMARA, making it an enthusiastic session of contemporary ethnographical discourse. The event came to an end with a delivery of vote of thanks by Dr Alok Kumar Pandey followed by high tea, photographs and conversations.
Contributed by Kolepaka Srija, Masters Student, Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences