KCL Event: South Asia Unbound: Alternative histories of humanitarianism in South Asia

Friday 5 March, 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Online

Conveners: The New International Histories of South Asia (NIHSA) network

Speakers: Maria Framke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin); Ria Kapoor (University of Leeds); Florence Shahabi (SOAS)

Chair: Martin Bayly (LSE)

 

European and international historians have recognized refugees as a crucial political category and recipients of humanitarian aid in the modern world. Meanwhile, South Asianists have written compellingly about forced migration between South Asian states. The videos below globalise South Asian refugeedom, exploring South Asia as a site where alternative definitions of refugees, migration, and humanitarianism emerged, as well as exploring migrant communities that have so far been excluded from histories of international and South Asian (forced) migration.

Speakers

Maria Framke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), “Indian Humanitarianism as Foreign Policy Tool: The Indian National Congress' Relief Work in Southeast and East Asia, 1946-1953”

Often, the success of a humanitarian initiative determines whether it is recorded in history or not. In the history of humanitarianism, however, the Congress Medical Mission, set up by the Indian National Congress to provide relief work in Malaya in 1946, has been forgotten. Most of the well-researched humanitarian histories focus on extensive, long-term, western initiatives. Small-scale, non-western, short-term campaigns are still marginalized in the history of global humanitarianism, irrespective of their successes. Similarly, this mission hardly figures in the research on the transitional period between the end of the Second World War, late colonial rule, and early decolonization in South Asia; nor does it in the standard accounts of Indian nationalism although it is at times mentioned in histories of Malaysia. The humanitarian venture of the Indian National Congress, the anticolonial organisation that would soon turn into the party leading India’s postcolonial government, however, is significant in two ways. First, focussing on this mission extends our understanding of Congress’ imaginations of India’s postcolonial domestic and foreign policy set-up, i.e., its ideas of a united Indian nation and its own role as a unifying force prepared to take on governmental responsibility. It reveals how the Congress imagined the role of India as a regional power and partner for anticolonial movements on a global stage. In analysing these strands, my paper traces discernible contradictions between the discursive framing of Congress’ ambitions and their implementations on the ground. Second, the analysis of the Congress Medical Mission will add new layers of complexity to our understanding of the history of humanitarianism as a truly global phenomenon.

Ria Kapoor (University of Leeds), “‘'The Concern of the International Community': The 1972 Ugandan Asian Refugees and the Internationalisation of a Transnational Imperial Diaspora”

Often, the success of a humanitarian initiative determines whether it is recorded in history or not. In the history of humanitarianism, however, the Congress Medical Mission, set up by the Indian National Congress to provide relief work in Malaya in 1946, has been forgotten. Most of the well-researched humanitarian histories focus on extensive, long-term, western initiatives. Small-scale, non-western, short-term campaigns are still marginalized in the history of global humanitarianism, irrespective of their successes. Similarly, this mission hardly figures in the research on the transitional period between the end of the Second World War, late colonial rule, and early decolonization in South Asia; nor does it in the standard accounts of Indian nationalism although it is at times mentioned in histories of Malaysia. The humanitarian venture of the Indian National Congress, the anticolonial organisation that would soon turn into the party leading India’s postcolonial government, however, is significant in two ways. First, focussing on this mission extends our understanding of Congress’ imaginations of India’s postcolonial domestic and foreign policy set-up, i.e., its ideas of a united Indian nation and its own role as a unifying force prepared to take on governmental responsibility. It reveals how the Congress imagined the role of India as a regional power and partner for anticolonial movements on a global stage. In analysing these strands, my paper traces discernible contradictions between the discursive framing of Congress’ ambitions and their implementations on the ground. Second, the analysis of the Congress Medical Mission will add new layers of complexity to our understanding of the history of humanitarianism as a truly global phenomenon.

Florence Shahabi (SOAS), “Displacement of Kabul's Intellectuals during the Soviet Occupation: The Afghan Information Center as Civil Society in Peshawar”

The Afghan academic Sayyid Bahauddin Majruh (b.1928-d.1988) who was the founder of the Afghan Information Center (AIC) stressed in its mission statement that the Peshawar-based news agency that he created was “an independent and non-partisan organization” and was “not affiliated to any particular resistance group”. By 1980, AIC became a hub for the Afghan intellectuals who had fled the invasion of Soviet forces to neighboring Pakistan. With a small team of former colleagues from Kabul University, Majruh produced monthly news bulletins for the AIC. His reports, starting with his briefs about the uprisings in his home province of Kunar, are a veritable repository of testimonials from commanders, prisoners, and soldiers, and western journalists and academics who could bring eyewitness accounts of Afghanistan back to Peshawar. Despite the Center’s claimed autonomy, it was launched with the financial and logistical support of international NGOs, particularly French and Swedish organizations. Inevitably, the AIC became a site of debate for Afghan intellectuals in exile about the future of their country. In their view, their struggle for national liberation from Soviet occupation necessitated their continued independence from the interests and activities of both Pakistan-backed political parties and international humanitarian groups.

 

Format

Covid19 has forced us to think creatively about how to organise academic events. Each "South Asia Unbound" event will be organised as follows:

  • A week before the event, each panellist will post a short video presentation on this page for the audience to watch and ponder at their leisure;
  • The event itself will take the shape of an extended Q&A session with the audience.

In other words: if you want to attend, make sure not just to register for the panels but also to watch the videos in the week before. You'll receive details on how to attend once you've registered.

For more information, see the main South Asia Unbound Conference Website.

This event series is organised by NIHSA - the New International Histories of South Asia network.

REGISTER HERE