The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

cordially invites you to The Seminar

at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, 27 August 2012

in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building

on

‘Stability in an era of Political Fragmentation’

by

Mr. Jai Mrug, Independent Scholar, Mumbai

Abstract:

Far from instability assembly elections in the previous decade have produced simple majorities, or often more, for a single party or coalitions. Not all, but a significant number of these mandates were often planned for or engineered to leverage the vagaries of the first past the post system or explore mobilization of social groups or geographical regions hitherto not aligned to the respective parties. These tactical realignments have helped the party surge ahead in the first past the post system without significant vote base accretion on the ground. Small but uniform swings help achieve single party or coalition mandates often with a disproportionate seat tally. A combination of conventional indicators such as the Index of Opposition Unity (IOU) and other statistical indicators provides a rare insight into how these mandates are actually configured. A review of key election results since 2003 provides rich insights into how the first past the post system drives mobilization and often inadvertently leads to stable governments in spite of an increasing fragmentation of our polity.

Speaker:

An Independent researcher with fourteen years of experience in observing Indian elections and analyzing them for the media. Mr.Jai Murg is a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology,Mumbai, in Mechanical Engineering  .

All are welcome.
Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at:
nmmldirector@gmail.com

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

cordially invites you to The Public Lecture

at 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 28 August 2012

in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building

on

‘Recovering the individual subject: Affection, emotion and obligation in the transmission of peasant property in Garhwal, 1890-1950’

by

Dr.Rashmi Pant, Indraprastha College, University of Delhi

Abstract:

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, British-Indian jurisprudence developed a co-parcenary framework of property rights at the expense of the individual. Social theorists, jurists and administrators converged in support of collective rights of lineage and community. Specifically, “the will” was said not to exist, either in Hindu Mitakshara or in any form of Customary Law applicable to North India.  Basing myself on the study of intestate property transfers by male and female peasants in Garhwal between 1890 and 1950 I will argue against this notion. I will show that peasants in the Garhwal region of North India often transferred property to a designated individual rather than allowing the holding to lapse to the co-parcenary collective. Moreover such transfers were most frequently made to, or through, close female kin, bypassing momentarily, the rule of patrilineal devolution of property.

The exercise of individual freedom was only partly dependant on juridical provisions for sale and partition that were introduced by the colonial government to develop the land market in India. I have found that local customs were in fact relied upon to facilitate such transfers. A local practice that was widely used for example, allowed land to be given in exchange for old age maintenance and performance of funeral rites. Such maintenance agreements originated outside the official realm, although it later became necessary to get such a document registered before a public official. 

My analysis criticizes the notion of Custom as a rigid set of unchanging cultural practices that was put into use by officials, lawyers and magistrates in the colonial period. I propose the alternative that custom be seen as a way of mediating and negotiating with structure, than structure itself.

Customary practices could thus be deployed by individuals to indirectly endow kinswomen to whom they owed love, affection and care. They also allowed individuals to set-up or enforce care-giving for their old age in ways that are characteristic of Contract, another phenomenon that Henry Maine famously held, was fundamentally alien to Indian society.

Speaker:

Rashmi Pant teaches History at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Her work critiques the construction of caste, family, village community, and property rights in the colonial period.

All are welcome.
Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at:
nmmldirector@gmail.com

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

cordially invites you to a Public Lecture

at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, 31 August 2012

in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building

on

‘The Future of our Past: Architectural & Urban Conservation in India’

by

Prof. Abha Narain Lambah,

Conservation Architect, Mumbai

Abstract:

The urban fabric of Indian cities is held together by the tenuous warp and weft of historic buildings and modern in fills, strained with the overlay of the needs and aspirations of its millions, virtually bursting at the seams. In its bustling metropolitan cities where the historic fabric is often the centre of the downtown business districts, the pressures of urbanization constantly influence the fundamental equation between the old and the new, threatening to change the delicate balance between conservation and development. This dichotomy of the past and present is an unavoidable reality and yet, it is this interface between the historic and the modern, that makes for the intriguing dynamics within a city. 

                The lecture explores the issues facing the conservation of India’s architectural heritage. It looks at the challenges that face the country’s historic stock. It takes stock of the existing framework for heritage preservation, the pressures of urbanization and development and suggests avenues that may at some future date, offer a direction for the establishment of future policy in the area of urban and rural conservation. It also explores through the architect’s own practice, a range of conservation projects from urban signage in a Mumbai’s Victorian streetscape, to projects in the rural hinterland, conservation and adaptive reuse of public buildings and models of public participation in the conservation of historic sites.

Speaker :

Prof. Abha Narain Lambah is a practicing conservation architect based in Mumbai. She graduated with a Masters in Architecture from the School of Planning & Architecture New Delhi and was the recipient of the Sanskriti Award 2003, Eisenhower Fellowship 2001 and Charles Wallace Fellowship 1998. Her architectural practice covers a range of projects across India, from a 15th  Century Maitreya Buddha Temple in Ladakh to a 15th Century temple in Hampi and palace museums in Hyderabad and Gwalior, winning 7 UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for Conservation. She has prepared management plans for sites such as Ajanta Caves, Sisupalgarh Fort Orissa, Viceregal Lodge Shimla and Santiniketan as well as the UNESCO nomination dossier for the Qutb Shahi Monuments of  Hyderabad.

       Abha’s work in Mumbai covers a range of colonial buildings including the Convocation Hall, Tata Palace, Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Prince of Wales Museum and the Municipal Head Offices. She has co-edited a range of books including Architecture of the Indian Sultanates and the forthcoming Custodians of India’s Heritage: 150 years of the Archaeological Survey of India for Marg and has been a columnist for Indian Express and Hindustan Times.

All are welcome.Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at: nmmldirector@gmail.com