By Aashique Iqbal and Radha Kapuria (conference organisers)
2017 marks the 70th anniversary of perhaps the most important year of South Asia’s 20th century. The year saw the end of the British rule in India and the creation of the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. As was pointed out for another equally turbulent time, 1947 was a year in which “decades happened.” The passing of nearly two centuries of colonial rule was accompanied by mass violence, the movement of populations, the establishment of new institutions and the reconfiguration of South Asian polities oriented towards new centralising nationalisms. The Partition of British India between India and Pakistan has come to mark a watershed in histories of the period due to its immense scale, and its often tragic consequences for millions of people in both the newly independent states. 1947 was also significant for a bevy of other reasons such as the transformation of colonial subjects into citizens, the integration of the princely states, the consolidation of constituent assemblies, the militarisation of South Asia, and the entry onto the world stage of two states representing nearly a fourth of humanity, to name a few. Seven decades give us sufficient distance to consider the consequential year of 1947 from a broader, extra-Partition
Our one-day long workshop, taking place at the IHR (University of London Senate House) on 12th June 2017, aims to explore the consequences of 1947 for South Asian history seventy
years on. We invite paper proposals that throw new light on the Partition of British India. We are also
especially keen to encourage proposals dealing with other aspects of 1947, which include but are not
*Decolonisation in South Asia
*Warfare and conflict
*The Princely States
*Reconfigurations of intra/inter-South Asian territorial boundaries
*Art and Culture
*Historiographies of 1947
*India and/or Pakistan, and the world
*The experience of groups and/or regions outside/contesting ‘mainstream’ Indian and Pakistani
Paper Proposals of no more than 300 words along with a one-page CV should be emailed to
firstname.lastname@example.org. Panel proposals for groups of three or four speakers are also welcome. These should in addition to individual CVs and abstracts, also include a panel proposal of no more than 500 words.
The University of Oxford’s Dr. Yasmin Khan has been confirmed as keynote speaker.
The deadline for submissions is 15 April 2017. There will be no registration fees. Unfortunately we
may not be able to provide any support for travel and accommodation.