Beginning of every new semester is eventful at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). Countless activities are organized across departments and centres. It is also a high time for seminars, talks, screenings and discussions. Recently, Prof. Sudipta Kaviraj visited UoH and interacted with the campus community. He gave two lectures, the first one was at the Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences where he spoke on “Marxism and Post-Colonial Thinking” and, later he spoke at the Centre for Comparative Literature, School of Humanities and interacted with the students and faculty.
During both the lectures, discussion covered diverse areas like Marxism in Western and Indian contexts, colonial representations, post-colonialism and the need of endogenous theories. Apart from these, interesting areas like language debate, religion and community, caste and contexts were also discussed.
Prof. Kaviraj also gave lectures at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad and met many of his old students based in the city.
Sudipta Kaviraj is a senior professor at the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS), Columbia University, USA. Prior to joining Columbia University, he taught at the Department of Political Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. He had also taught Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India and was an Agatha Harrison Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, UK. He received his Ph.D. from JNU and studied at the Presidency College, University of Calcutta.
He is a specialist on intellectual history and Indian politics. He has worked on Indian social and political thought, modern Indian literature and cultural production. His other fields of interest and research include the historical sociology of the Indian states and some aspects of western social theories. Prof. Kaviraj’s books include The Imaginary Institution of India (2010), Civil Society: History and Possibilities, co-edited with Sunil Khilnani (2001), Politics in India (edited) (1999), and The Unhappy Consciousness: Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and the Formation of Nationalist Discourse in India (1995).
One of the lectures can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZs-6Wkx3jQ&feature=youtu.be.
(http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/faculty/directory/kaviraj.html)