Angomcha Bimol Akoijam delivered a lecture on ‘Archipelagic Memory: Unpacking a Nationalist Script’. It was chaired by Ravikant.
As the Indian Republic marks the 75th Year of its independence, the Government of India decides to rename ‘Mt Harriet’ in the Andamans as ‘Mt Manipur’ to ‘honour’ the ‘freedom fighters’ from an erstwhile kingdom in the cusp between South Asia and South East Asia. This memorialization is rooted in recrafting history as nationalist script to reinforce territoriality and constitute nationalist subjects. The present paper unpacks this script in the light of a complex terrain in the past, involving an interplay between memories and histories with manifest political entanglements in the ‘unintegrated border’ of the post-colonial Indian State.
Angomcha Bimol Akoijam teaches at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Earlier, he was with the University of Delhi and the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. Besides being a scholar-activist, he is also a filmmaker and theatre enthusiast.
Ravikant is Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Wednesday, 13 April 2022, 4 pm, Zoom https://bit.ly/3KdN4Bu
