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AJEI Workshop – Call for applications – States, Religions, and Bodies : Current issue in South Asian Medical Social Sciences

The Association Jeunes Études Indiennes (AJEI), in collaboration with the Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), is organizing a doctoral workshop in South Asian Studies on the theme “States, Religion, and Bodies : Current issue in South Asian Medical Social Sciences.” The event will take place on January 20–21, 2026, at Campus Condorcet (Paris–Aubervilliers).

Organiser : Marwan Attalah (UCLouvain/UQAM) and Daphné Reguiessé.

While we can rely on a substantial body of classical works—such as the volume edited by Charles Leslie, Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study (1977), Francis Zimmermann’s work on Ayurvedic knowledge and bone-setters (1978), David Hardiman’s work on the role of Christian missions in healthcare (2006), Lawrence Cohen study on how Alzheimer has been perceived and managed in India (1998), Sarah Hodges work on the way colonial agendas, markets and local social dynamics shaped the circulation of birth control in South India (2017) and Veena Das’s writings on suffering and health (2015)— it is clear that social science research on health and medicine in South Asia has grown considerably in recent years.

This growing body of scholarship draws on a wide range of approaches and perspectives, including ethnographic, economic, sociological, and historical. This field includes detailed ethnographies conducted in hospitals (Jullien et al., 2019), morgues and maternal care centres (Jullien, 2019 ; Provost, 2018), as well as studies on issues such as mental health care (Bayetti et al., 2019), public health governance, hospital accreditation procedures (Lefebvre, 2019), religious exorcisms (Bindi et Giménez Béliveau, 2022) and the fight against rabies (Nadal, 2020). Researchers have approached these themes through various disciplines and theoretical perspectives, including feminist and decolonial analyses. At the same time, critical attention has been paid to the political, historical, and institutional processes through which local medical systems, such as Ayurveda (Berger, 2013 ; Khalikova, 2017), have been reconstituted, standardised, and legitimised within state-funded structures, while others, such as indigenous systems, remain marginalised or continue to struggle for official recognition (Albert, 2014 ; Županov et Guenzi, 2021). In these complex and pluralistic therapeutic landscapes, a multitude of actors, including healers, shamans, priests, gurus and herbalists, yogi actively participate, shaping the dynamic interaction between diverse epistemologies, cosmologies and healing practices (Joshi, 2012 ; Naraindas et al., 2014 ; Voix, 2020). Building on these issues—as well as on your own research interests and analytical perspectives—this workshop will provide a space to deepen collective reflection on the social, political, and cultural dimensions of health and medicine in South Asia.

This workshop is open to Master and PhD students from all disciplines within the social sciences who are engaged in South Asian studies. It aims to offer participants a valuable opportunity to engage with fellow researchers in a collegial setting and also meet seniors scholars.

This two-day workshop will begin with participants’ presentations and collective discussions, offering a space to share ongoing research, receive feedback, and engage in comparative reflection across disciplines and field sites. The second day will take the form of roundtable discussions focusing on the practical and theoretical dimensions of fieldwork, including challenges related to data collection, interpretation, and ethical considerations in medical and social research

Application process: To apply, students must send a document that includes their institutional affiliation, the title of their thesis and the name of their supervisor, the title of their paper, and a 250-word abstract. Applications should be e-mailed to ajei.office@gmail.com by December 19, 2025.

Participants must be available to attend in person.

Organizers will notify all applicants by December 24. Successful applicants are expected to become members of the AJEI.

Selected bibliography :

Albert, S. (2014). Medical Pluralism among the Indigenous Peoples of Meghalaya, Northeast India – Implications for Health Policy [Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), University of London]. https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1856013/.

Bayetti, C., Jadhav, S. et Jain, S. (2019). Mapping Mental Well-Being in India. Initial Reflections on the Role of Psychiatric Spaces. Dans C. Jullien, B. Lefebvre et F. Provost (dir.), L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin (p. 133‑177). Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsehess.23476

Berger, R. (2013). Ayurveda Made Modern: Political Histories of Indigenous Medicine in North India, 1900-1955 (2013e édition). Palgrave Macmillan.

Bindi, S. et Giménez Béliveau, V. (2022). Exorcisms, extraction of unwanted entities, and other spiritual struggles around the body: A comparative perspective Exorcismes, extractions d’entités indésirées et autres combats spirituels autour du corps: une perspective comparative. Social Compass, 69(4), 443‑480. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686221147797

Cohen, L. (1998). No aging in India: Alzheimer’s, the bad family, and other modern things. Univ of California Press.

Das, V. (2015). Affliction: Health, Disease, Poverty. Fordham University Press.
Hardiman, D. (2006). Christian therapy : medical missionaries and the adivasis of western India, 1880-1930 (p. 137‑167). Rodopi. http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2102140~S15

Hodges, S. (2017). Contraception, colonialism and commerce: birth control in South India, 1920–1940. Routledge.
Joshi, V. (2012). A Matter of Belief: Christian Conversion and Healing in North-East India (1er édition). Berghahn Books.

Jullien, C. (2019). Du bidonville à l’hôpital : Nouveaux enjeux de la maternité au Rajasthan. Du bidonville à l’hôpital : Nouveaux enjeux de la maternité au Rajasthan. Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme. https://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/18401

Jullien, C., Lefebvre, B. et Provost, F. (dir.). (2019). L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin. L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin. Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

Khalikova, V. R. (2017). The Ayurveda of Baba Ramdev: Biomoral Consumerism, National Duty and the Biopolitics of ‘Homegrown’ Medicine in India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 40(1), 105‑122. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2017.1266987

Lefebvre, B. (2019). L’accréditation hospitalière et la qualité des soins en Inde : Entre logiques commerciales et objectifs de santé publique. Dans C. Jullien et F. Provost (dir.), L’hôpital en Asie du Sud : Politiques de santé, pratiques de soin (p. 31‑56). Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsehess.23446

Leslie, C. M. (1977). Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study. University of California Press.

Nadal, D. (2020). Rabies in the Streets: Interspecies Camaraderie in Urban India. Penn State University Press.

Naraindas, H., Quack, J. et Sax, W. S. (2014). Asymmetrical Conversations: Contestations, Circumventions, and the Blurring of Therapeutic Boundaries (1er édition). Berghahn Books.

Provost, F. (2018). Écrire « la cause sans la manière » de la mort ? Un regard anthropologique sur la rédaction des rapports d’expertise médico-légale en Inde. Sciences sociales et santé, 36(4), 15‑39. https://doi.org/10.1684/sss.2018.0123

Voix, R. (2020). Hindu ascetics and the political in contemporary India. Dans Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (p. 146‑155). Routledge.

Zimmermann, F. (1978). From classic texts to learned practice: Methodological remarks on the study of Indian medicine. Social Science & Medicine. Part B: Medical Anthropology, 12, 97‑103. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7987(78)90016-9

Županov, I. G. et Guenzi, C. (dir.). (2021). Divins remèdes: Médecine et religion en Asie du Sud. Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

India Matters in Comparative Perspective: Politicization of Space

Organiser : Johan Krieg (LESC) and Daphné Reguiessé.

Since 2022, the seminar “India Matters in Comparative Perspective: Politicization of Space” has been organized by Johan Krieg and Daphné Reguiessé. It takes place both remotely and at the IrAsia laboratory at Aix-Marseille University. By combining historical, anthropological, geographical, and political approaches, the seminar examines the dialectical relationships between space (places and geographical environments), society (individuals and groups), and politics in India. Through monthly sessions, the subject is explored from various perspectives, including the spatial dimension of political and social movements, practices of public space in India (urban policies, appropriation of public space as a venue for political expressions), the fight against socio-spatial inequalities, the claim for territorial rights (challenging the appropriation of space), and the examination of the articulation and coordination of different scales of mobilization: local, national, and international. This seminar serves as a discussion space bringing together specialists in Asian studies from various disciplines.

12 January 2022

Julien Levesque (Ashoka University)
Title: Understanding Caste among Muslims: Classic Debates and New Scholarly Developments

Summary:
From colonial census administrators to social scientists, scholars have long debated whether Muslims in South Asia can be said to have castes. In recent decades, the issue also entered the political arena through the debate over reservations. This talk retraced key moments of these debates and highlighted contemporary scholarship that opens new avenues for research.


8 February 2022

Daphné Reguiessé (PhD, Iuav University of Venice)
Discussant: Andrea Drocco (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Title: Trails of an Indian Community in Padova: Chasing the Invisible Migration of Indian Students (Re)Shaping Spaces in This Italian Medium City

Summary:
This presentation examined the link between migration and urban transformation in Padova, Italy, through the case of Indian student-migrants. Combining sociological and spatial approaches, it explored how student mobility reshapes the city’s policies and everyday practices, revealing invisible dynamics of urban multiculturalism.


8 March 2022

Vibhushan Subba (Independent Researcher)
Discussant: Wafa Amid (Lady Shri Ram College for Women – Delhi University)
Title: Mediated Ecologies of Feeling

Summary:
Media technologies have become the connective tissue of everyday life, shaping emotions, memory, and belonging. This talk explored the digital micro-archives and online communities of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, tracing how local digital practices produce emotional and historical narratives amid legacies of colonialism and contested belonging.


12 April 2022

Damien Carrière (École Supérieure des Professions Immobilières – ESPI)
Discussant: Edna Peza (CESSMA – Université Paris Cité)
Title: Environment and Security in India

Summary:
Security is analysed as an infra-structuring process composed of material, discursive, and normative elements regulating urban rhythms. Drawing on Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, the presentation showed how surveillance infrastructures in Indian cities filter, synchronize, and shape the metabolic functioning of urban life.


7 June 2022

Cécile Mouchel (CEMAAA – Université Paris Cité)
Discussant: Frédéric Landy (Université Paris Nanterre – UMR LAVUE-Mosaïques)
Title: The Use of Social Networks in Rural South India

Summary:
Based on research in Tamil Nadu combining Social Network Analysis, statistics, and interviews before and after the COVID-19 lockdown, this study examined how kinship and caste ties continued to serve as vital economic resources. It revealed both the resilience and the re-emergence of hierarchical dependencies in times of crisis.


21 October 2022

Nolwen Vouillier (EHESS – Université de Liège)
Discussant: Philippe Ramirez (Centre d’Études Himalayennes – IrAsia)
Title: From the “Attila of the Jungle” to the “Big Cat” of the Zoo: A Century of Representations and Reactions around Bengal Tigers (North India and South-West Nepal)

Summary:
Tracing a century of human-tiger relations, this talk explored changing representations of the Bengal tiger—from feared predator to protected heritage and, more recently, to a contested problem. Drawing on long-term fieldwork around Bardiya National Park, it highlighted ambivalent perceptions and adaptive strategies among local communities confronting conservation policies.


18 November 2022

Pauline Baudens (LAM – UMR 5115)
Title: Women’s Commuting Strategies and Digital Adoption: Desk Workers in Pune’s IT Sector

Summary:
Through qualitative interviews with fifteen female IT employees in Pune, this research examined how digital tools and teleworking transformed mobility practices after COVID-19. It revealed diverse (im)mobility strategies shaped by comfort, gender, and class privilege, showing how telework redefines women’s spatial and temporal experiences of urban life.


27 January 2023

Raffaello de Leon-Jones Diani (EHESS)
Title: There Be Sufis: Fatehpur Sikri and the Building of Hindustan

Summary:
Revisiting Akbar’s capital Fatehpur Sikri, this talk analysed its architectural hybridity—often described as a fusion of Hindu, Muslim, and Jain traditions—through a Sanskrit text, Padmasāgara’s Jagadgurukāvya. It argued that the city served as a material and symbolic locus for Akbar’s project of imperial synthesis and religious pluralism.


3 March 2023

Julie Ucendo (ED 395 – LAVUE)
Discussant: Jean-Marc de Grave (IrAsia)
Title: Ecofeminism and Ecological Nationalism in Contemporary India

Summary:
Focusing on gender equality and environmental justice (SDG-5), this presentation examined how ecofeminist discourses in India intersect with nationalist ideologies. It analysed the risk of ecological nationalism—where gender and environment become tools of cultural politics—while reflecting on ecofeminism’s potential for redefining sustainable development through inclusivity and equality.


20 September 2023

Pinar Temocin (Independent Researcher)
Discussant: Rémi de Bercegol (CNRS – UMR 8586)**
Title: Environment by, with and for the Citizens: Collective Identity in Community-Driven Solid Waste Management in Kerala

Summary:
Focusing on Kozhikode, this talk explored how community engagement in waste management in Kerala transformed an environmental issue into a social value. Through participatory approaches and collective identity, local actors have developed decentralized and sustainable models of waste autonomy rooted in cooperation, literacy, and environmental ethics.


22 January 2024

Aastha Mishra (Independent Researcher)
Title: No More Injured and Wounded? Positioning Belongingness within the Contours of Sex Work

Summary:
This presentation re-examined the lived experiences of female sex workers in India, moving beyond narratives of injury and marginalization toward notions of belonging and collective identity. Drawing on feminist philosophy, it analysed how sex-workers’ collectives re-appropriate stigmatized identities to construct new, emancipatory forms of social selfhood.

Uses and Representations of the Environment in Contemporary India.

The Association des Jeunes Études Indiennes (AJEI) will be organizing its annual autumn workshop on October 9th in Pondichéry. This year, we have chosen to center our discussions around the theme: « Uses and Representations of the Environment in Contemporary India ». Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé, Marwan Attalah, Lalitha Muthu, Julie Rocton, and Delia Visan are particularly pleased to be collaborating with the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) for this edition. As a result, the workshop will be integrated into their Social Sciences Winter School (SSWSP),offering an enriching interdisciplinary platform for discussions and exchanges.The event is generously funded by GIS Asie and the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) in Delhi.

From the ‘Attila of the jungle’ to the ‘big cat’ of the Zoo: a study of a century of representations and reactions around Bengal tigers (North India and South-West Nepal)

Nolwen Vouiller (EHESS – ULiège) gave lectures on “From the ‘Attila of the jungle’ to the ‘big cat’ of the Zoo: a study of a century of representations and reactions around Bengal tigers (North India and South-West Nepal).
Abstract :
“If we had no tiger, what could you wrote?”, said Jagat on the 31st of July 2019, during my first three-month field trip to Nepal, during the monsoon season, on the border of Bardiya National Park, in the southwest of the country. This guide, like so many others, is passionate about the famous Panthera tigris tigris and does not hide it. However, seeing the tiger as a force of nature, as a king or as a big brother, is not unanimous. Over the decades and in different places, the Bengal tiger has been subjected to various human representations and has undergone direct (elimination, confinement, rescue, etc.) or indirect (actions on the environment, on its prey, etc.) treatments. I propose to focus this presentation on a part of my research, on this species specifically in its encounters with humans, by going through a century of history and politics where the tiger has gone from being a sought-after prey to a precious heritage to be saved and now, more and more, to a dangerous problem. The surroundings of Bardiya National Park, which have been my field for the past three years, will be my main focus, but I will not omit to base my presentation on the available literature concerning the tiger in the Tarai of Nepal more generally and in Northern India. I will do my best to highlight the ambivalence and opposing points of view among the populations during the major hypothetical phases mentioned above. The challenge is to understand how humans have organized and adapted, individually and collectively, until today, in the face of this impressive “cute killer”.
Philippe Ramirez (Centre d’études himalayennes – IrAsia) was the discussant for this session. The seminar was held on 21st October at 1:00 pm CET/ 5:30 pm IST at Aix-Marseille University in the Maison de la Recherche (room 2.44).

Workshop “Knowledge production, ethics and reflexivity”

Organiser : Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé, Spoorthi Gangadikar, Shajeem Muhammed Fazal and Pratiti Roy.

The AJEI is happy to announce that the 23nd edition of the AJEI International Workshop took place from Tuesday, March 5, 2024, to Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Bhopal.The Association of Young Indian Studies (AJEI) is pleased to have co-organized a three-day workshop on Humanities and Social Sciences in collaboration with the Alliancehttps://bhopal.afindia.org/events/workshop-knowledge-production-ethics-and-reflexivity/ Française de Bhopal and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IISER Bhopal, with support from the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH Delhi) and GIS Asie. As suggested by the title Knowledge Production, Ethics, and Reflexivity in South Asia, the workshop investigated methodological aspects applied in social sciences research, which included (but were not limited to) knowledge production, ethical concerns, fieldwork, and the researcher’s reflexive approach to dealing with fieldwork, writing, and the crises that emerged from fieldwork and writing.
The workshop was chaired by Drs. Renny Thomas and Anuparna Mukherjee (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Bhopal) in collaboration with Dr. Ingrid Le Gargasson (Director, AF Bhopal). It was organized by AJEI (Johan Krieg, Daphné Reguiessé & & Spoorthi Gangadikar)and IISER Ph.D. scholars (Shajeem Muhammed Fazal & Pratiti Roy).

Programme en ligne : https://bhopal.afindia.org/events/workshop-knowledge-production-ethics-and-reflexivity/

AJEI Webinars (2022) : « India Matters »

Organiser : Johan Krieg (LESC), Khaliq Parkar (CESSMA) and Victor Alembik (Unimi)

📑​ Download the program “India Matters 2022-2023

12/01/2022 :Understanding Caste among Muslims: Classic Debates and New Scholarly Developments” by Julien Levesque (Ashoka University)Summary : From colonial census administrators to social scientists, scholars have debated whether Muslims in the subcontinent can be said to have castes. In recent decades, the discussion also entered the political arena over the issue of reservations in India. This presentation will first sum up the key historical moments of the scholarly debates on Muslim caste since colonial times. Julien Levesque will then turn to more contemporary scholarship to highlight its contribution and the avenues it opens for further research.

08/02/2022 :
Trails of an Indian Community in Padova: Chasing the invisible migration of Indian students (re)shaping spaces in this Italian medium city” by Daphné Reguiessé (PhD, Iuav University of Venice) ; discutant : Andrea Drocco (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice).
Summary: Chasing the invisible migration of Indian students (re)shaping spaces in this Italian medium city». The purpose of this presentation is to show the link between migration and urban transformation in terms of urban policies and social practices within a specific local territory: the city of Padova (North East Italy). Daphné Reguiessé will particularly focus on the question of Indian students-migrants in Padova through different angles -generally difficult to tie- while keeping a strong sociological base.

08/03/2022 :Mediated Ecologies of Feeling” by Vibhushan Subba  (Independent Researcher ) ; discutant : Wafa Amid (Lady Shri Ram College For Women–Delhi University).
Summary : Media technologies have increasingly become the connective tissue that shape and structure our everyday lives, rhythms, experiences and memories. From love to death; compassion to fear, hate and anxiety; through the intersection of the public and the private, the historical and the lyrical it organizes our bodies, emotions and objects. This talk navigates the digital landscape of micro archives and online communities of the Darjeeling and Kalimpong Hills in India to offer vignettes of the emotional landscape of a people caught in the eddy of multiple histories, legacies of colonialism and uncertainties of belonging. Tracing these local digital interventions, the talk engages with the questions of home, belonging, identity, digital memories and alternative histories from the Darjeeling Himalayas.

12/04/2022 : “Environment and Security in India” by Damien Carrière (École Supérieure des Professions Immobilières-ESPI) ; discutant : Edna Peza (CESSMA-Université Paris Cité).
Summary : Damien Carrière will examine security as an infra-structuring process comprising of material elements, discursive techniques, norms and regulations that create orders over the rhythms of the city. These infrastructures form a networked grid that filters the dense temporality and rhythms of people across spaces while maintaining and synchronizing the metabolic functioning of the city (Tripathy and Carriere, 2020).This order is more or less functional, decentralized at different scales, disjointed and heterogeneous, it is neither harmonized nor centralized. Security cameras may not be connected, and the surveillance monitor is most often just playing in an empty room. Drawing on Lefebvre, we employ rhythmanalysis to explain how security infrastructures mediate, filter and regulate multiple rhythms in the city.

07/06/2022 :  “The use of social networks in rural South India” by Cécile Mouchel (Centre d’Etude des Mondes Africains, Asiatiques et Américains-Université Paris Cité)  ; discutant : Frédéric Landy (Université de Paris-Nanterre – UMR LAVUE-Mosaiques).
Summary : How have rural populations in India mobilised their social networks in times of forced “social distancing”? Focusing on a rural region in Tamil Nadu, mixing Social Network Analysis (SNA), descriptive statistics and qualitative interviews conducted before the lockdown, during the lockdown and its aftermath, this presentation shows that kinship ties and caste-based relationships are still used as inescapable economic resources, especially when it comes to survive in this unprecedented worldwide economic and social crisis. The region under study has undergone profound changes in recent decades, combining the disappearance of agrarian forms of dependency and the strengthening of intra-caste interdependence among the lower caste group with a focus on access to credit and self-help to access employment. The crisis put these social networks to the test. Subsidised food, the main pro poor measure of the Indian government, prevented famine, even if it did not prevent severe malnutrition. Although kin and caste solidarity played a key role in helping households to survive, they did not prevent the resurgence of old forms of patronage. 

AJEI Seminar (2023) : « India Matters in Comparative Perspective : Politicization of Space »

Organiser : Johan Krieg (LESC) and Khaliq Parkar (CESSMA)

L’Association Jeunes Études Indiennes organise un séminaire en mode hybride intitulé « India Matters in Comparative Perspective : Politicization of Space ». En croisant approches historiques, anthropologiques, géographiques et politiques, ce séminaire s’emploiera à interroger les relations dialectiques entre espace (lieux et milieux géographiques), société (individus et groupes) et politique en Inde. Cette thématique sera traitée au cours de plusieurs séances organisées à l’Université d’Aix-Marseille, Maison de la recherche (salle 2.44).

21/10/2022 : “From the ‘Attila of the jungle’ to the ‘big cat’ of the Zoo : a study of a century of representations and reactions around Bengal tigers (North India and South-West Nepal)” by Nolwen Vouillier (EHESS-Uliège) ; discutant : Philippe Ramirez (Centre d’études himalayennes – IrAsia).

Summary : “If we had no tiger, what could you wrote?”, said Jagat on the 31st of July 2019, during my first three-month field trip to Nepal, during the monsoon season, on the border of Bardiya National Park, in the southwest of the country. This guide, like so many others, is passionate about the famous Panthera tigris tigris and does not hide it. However, seeing the tiger as a force of nature, as a king or as a big brother, is not unanimous. Over the decades and in different places, the Bengal tiger has been subjected to various human representations and has undergone direct (elimination, confinement, rescue, etc.) or indirect (actions on the environment, on its prey, etc.) treatments. I propose to focus this presentation on a part of my research, on this species specifically in its encounters with humans, by going through a century of history and politics where the tiger has gone from being a sought-after prey to a precious heritage to be saved and now, more and more, to a dangerous problem. The surroundings of Bardiya National Park, which have been my field for the past three years, will be my main focus, but I will not omit to base my presentation on the available literature concerning the tiger in the Tarai of Nepal more generally and in Northern India. I will do my best to highlight the ambivalence and opposing points of view among the populations during the major hypothetical phases mentioned above. The challenge is to understand how humans have organized and adapted, individually and collectively, until today, in the face of this impressive “cute killer”.

18/11/2022 : “Women’s commuting strategy and digital adoption. The case study of employees doing desk work in the IT sector in Pune, India” by Pauline Baudens (Lam – UMR 5115).

Summary : This paper investigates the transformation of commuting practices of highly privileged women doing desk work in a multinational in Pune, India. The digital, accelerated by COVID, is at the origin of new transport strategies, facilitating mobility and making teleworking possible. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 female participants, belonging to a homogeneous social group in appearance. Their (im)mobility strategies were analysed. The results demonstrate that the evolution of commuting practices is closely related to comfort and the adoption of digital solutions. It argues that diverse strategies were adopted within the sample. However, considered as a constraint, commuting seems commonly avoided, privileging teleworking when possible. Therefore, we conclude with the adoption of new (im)mobility strategies that result in teleworking, and in using applications to order transport and commute.

27/01/2023 : “There be Sufis ; Fatehpur Sikri and the building of Hindustan” by Raffaello DE LEON-JONES DIANI (Paris – EHESS).

Summary : The curious traveller visiting India is almost bound to gaze upon the glorious remains of one of the most important sites in Indian history, and certainly one of the most beauteous monumental complexes in the world: Fatehpur Sikri, the erstwhile capital of the Mughal padishah Akbar. The beams and rooves of the buildings therein, mimicking the moveable tent capitals typical of the Timurid heritage are now often presented as a mingling of different strands of architecture : Hindu, Muslim and Jain. This popular understanding of the monument serves largely to satisfy a modern narrative that is offered up to the tourist, but echoes a lively debate around the heritage of India. In a day and age where the so-called Muslim heritage of India is by some seen as foreign to her national history, our presentation will look at a Sanskrit description of the city, found in Padmasāgara’s Jagadgurukāvya, and try to highlight the role Fatehpur Sikri had in Akbar’s sedimentation of Empire and rule.

03/03/2023 : “Ecofeminism and ecological nationalism in contemporary India” by Julie Ucendo (ED 395 – LAVUE) ; discutant : Jean-Marc de Grave (IrAsia).

Summary : Environmental crisis has doubtless become the major challenge of the century. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have in response identified spheres of action, but implementation of solutions remains a significant obstacle. This presentation will focus on the SDG-5 related to gender equality from the perspective of both ecofeminism and ecologism in contemporary India. It aims to provide a better understanding of gender inequalities in access to natural resources, but also to draw attention to potential risks of redefinition of ecologism. To do so, we will explore how Indian ecofeminism has contributed to promote a nationalist vision of the relationship between women, men, and nature. We will therefore attempt to propose a definition of what we call “ecological nationalism” through an ecofeminist perspective, while questioning the relevance of this concept itself.

Publication of the Report for the AJEI 22nd International Workshop

On the 21-23rd April 2022, the AJEI organised its 22nd International Workshop in a hybrid format between India and France. Master and PhD Students discussed categories and categorisation through empirical observations and case studies, elaborating on methodological and theoretical reflections.
Please find the report here :
AJEI 22nd International Workshop – Report 

Theme
As researchers in social sciences, we are constantly confronting categories. While categorisation is an inevitable process, the division and classification of the social world is not neutral. It entails choices and has implications. Some of these choices may be determined by institutions, others informally emerge within society, and still others are made by researchers for analytical purposes. In any cases, categorisation can leave a lasting imprint on social and political structures, as in the South Asian context.

This conference invites social scientists who are engaging with categories in their research to reflect on the manners in which they use them. In their research, they may trace the origin and evolution of categories. They may also use existing categories and develop a critical stand, or develop new ones as analytical tools. Therefore, different sets of questions arise from the encounter of researchers with categories or categorisation in their field:

➡ How do categories emerge? How are they institutionalised, mobilised, appropriated, and by whom? What are the implications or effects of categories in terms of resources, boundaries, representations or power relationships?

➡ When we researchers use categories as analytical or methodological tools: what are the benefits and/or limits of using categories in our analysis? What are the normative implications of using categories as researchers in social sciences? What theoretical frameworks inform the process of categorisation?

The Association des Jeunes Etudes Indiennes would like to thank again the Organising Committee for making this 22nd International Workshop possible.

The Organising Committee

  • ●  Kiran BHATTY, Senior visiting fellow CPR (Delhi) & PhD scholar, Political Science, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)

  • ●  Roma CASAMITJANA, PhD scholar, Political Science, University of Milan

  • ●  Lola CINDRIC, PhD scholar, Social Anthropology & Ethnology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)

  • ●  José EGAS, PhD scholar, Anthropology & Sociology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)

  • ●  Cansu GURKAYA, PhD scholar, Sociology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)

  • ●  Hugo RIBADEAU DUMAS, PhD scholar, Urban Studies,EHESS-CEIAS(Paris) & CSH-CNRS (Delhi)

  • ●  Vishnu TANDON, PhD scholar, Political Science, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)

    AJEI 22nd Workshop – Report

The use of social networks in rural South India – Cécile Mouchel – India Matters Webinar, Tuesday 7th June 1pm CET / 5:30 PM IST

The Association Jeunes Etudes Indiennes (AJEI) is pleased to invite you to its next presentation in the webinar series India Matters
 
Cécile Mouchel (Centre d’Etude des Mondes Africains, Asiatiques et Américains-Université Paris Cité) will examine how rural populations in India have mobilized their social networks in times of forced “social distancing”. Focusing on a rural region in Tamil Nadu, mixing Social Network Analysis (SNA), descriptive statistics and qualitative interviews conducted before the lockdown, during the lockdown and its aftermath, this presentation shows that kinship ties and caste-based relationships are still used as inescapable economic resources, especially when it comes to survive in this unprecedented worldwide economic and social crisis. The region under study has undergone profound changes in recent decades, combining the disappearance of agrarian forms of dependency and the strengthening of intra-caste interdependence among the lower caste group with a focus on access to credit and self-help to access employment. The crisis put these social networks to the test. Subsidized food, the main pro poor measure of the Indian government, prevented famine, even if it did not prevent severe malnutrition. Although kin and caste solidarity played a key role in helping households to survive, they did not prevent the resurgence of old forms of patronage.
The discussant for this session will be Frédéric Landy (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, Institut Français de Pondichéry).

The session will take place on Zoom 7th June, 1:00 pm CET/ 5:30 pm IST.  : https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvcOCvqD8qHtbQg3UZAWApOZC_RR6FxUbL
 
Add our Google Calendar for more information : 
 
 

PhD scholarship & post-doc position in social science – csh, new delhi

The Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi invites applications for a Phd Student Scholarship and a Post-Doc position in social science. Please visit the links below for more details

PhD Student Scholarship in Social Sciences – https://www.csh-delhi.com/news/opportunity-ph-d-student-scholarship-in-social-sciences/

Post-doc position in Social Scienceshttps://www.csh-delhi.com/news/job-offer-post-doc-position-in-social-sciences-2/

workshop: Engaging with categories in south asia-Process, challenges, and implications – 21 to 23 April

The AJEI is happy to announce the 22nd edition of the AJEI International Workshop! This year the Masters-PhD workshop brings together scholars from India and France to engage with Categories in research. The workshop is supported by Centre for Policy Research, CEIAS-EHESS Centre de Sciences Humaines, Institut Français de Pondichéry, and GIS Asie.

Theme
As researchers in social sciences, we are constantly confronting categories. While categorisation is an inevitable process, the division and classification of the social world is not neutral. It entails choices and has implications. Some of these choices may be determined by institutions, others informally emerge within society, and still others are made by researchers for analytical purposes. In any cases, categorisation can leave a lasting imprint on social and political structures, as in the South Asian context.

This conference invites social scientists who are engaging with categories in their research to reflect on the manners in which they use them. In their research, they may trace the origin and evolution of categories. They may also use existing categories and develop a critical stand, or develop new ones as analytical tools. Therefore, different sets of questions arise from the encounter of researchers with categories or categorisation in their field:

➡ How do categories emerge? How are they institutionalised, mobilised, appropriated, and by whom? What are the implications or effects of categories in terms of resources, boundaries, representations or power relationships?

➡ When we researchers use categories as analytical or methodological tools: what are the benefits and/or limits of using categories in our analysis? What are the normative implications of using categories as researchers in social sciences? What theoretical frameworks inform the process of categorisation?

Schedule

 

Format
This year’s workshop is organized in a hybrid format between India and France. Master and PhD Students will discuss categories and categorisation through empirical observations and case studies, elaborating on methodological and theoretical reflections. Each panel will be followed by 35-40 minutes of discussions animated by senior researchers. 

Details

21 to 23 April 2022, 1:30 pm IST (Delhi) / 10:00 am CEST (Paris)

Audience can participate online or in-person (only in Paris). Details will be sent to registered attendees. To register, please fill this form. 
For any queries, please write to ajeiworkshop2022@gmail.com