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.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
ajeioffice (October 17, 2025). India Matters in Comparative Perspective: Politicization of Space. AJEI - Association Jeunes Études Indiennes. Retrieved December 8, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/w81r