RECEPTIONS OF THE RAMAYANA IN DIASPORA

Special Thanks to our sponsor,
The Shri Sita Ram Foundation

This symposium will explore the cultural, linguistic, and religious negotiations involved in how the Ramayana is understood among Indian (especially Hindu) communities outside India. How is the multiplicity of recensions and versions of the Ramayana remembered, if at all? What social functions does the Ramayana play when it is staged publicly, produced for television, or represented in films that do not explicitly target Indian audiences? Does it make sense to view these diaspora representations of the Ramayana as overtly “religious” amidst the many other social and cultural roles the text fills in representing an idea of “Indianness” outside India? By bringing together scholars working on diaspora groups in North America and the Caribbean as well as of Hindu textual traditions, the symposium seeks to inspire deeper reflection on what the Ramayana represents and does for diaspora Hindus and Indians more generally.

Friday, October 10, 2014
Room 238 Insperity Building (CBB)

India’s preeminent historian brings Gandhi Before India to Houston

The first in a multiple-volume biography of one of the 20th century’s most influential and controversial men, Gandhi Before India takes us from Gandhi's birth in 1869 through his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. The result, writes The Guardian, is “a work of vivid social history (and) fresh biography.” Winning access to private family papers and secret files kept by the British Empire, Guha captures the social, political, and personal worlds of a man whose legacy resonates in our time – for all time.

“Indian democracy's pre-eminent chronicler” (Time Magazine), Ramachandra Guha has held visiting professorships at Stanford, Yale, and the London School of Economics. He lives in Bangalore.

Monday, April 21st, 2014
6:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
For more information: menil.org
713-525-9400

More information

Movie Screening: Fandry

A story of love and lost innoncence in the face of caste discrimination in an Indian Village

Wednesday, April 23, 2014
6:30 PM
Followed by Q&A with the director
University of Houston, Farish Hall, Kiva Room

For more information contact: indiastudies@uh.edu

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Dhrupad, Ancient Classical Music from India

Payton MacDonald
Associate Professor of Music, William Paterson University

In 2013-14, Payton MacDonald was a recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to India, where he studied with the Gundecha brothers. MacDonald’s compositions fuse European and Indian classical music, jazz, and other experimental music.

 “[I]nventive, stylistically omnivorous composer and gifted performer” (The Los Angeles Times)

“Hypnotically beautiful" (The New York Times)

“Dr. Payton MacDonald with his melodious voice spread the beauty of Dhrupad, its subtle finer points and the way he sang seemed to be spiritualistic.” (Hitaveda)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014
10:00 AM
Moores School of Music room 220A