Nation, Neighbours & Humanity: Destroyed & Recovered in War & Violence

Venue: Basement Theatre 117, Melbourne School of Design

Presenters: Professor Yasmin Saikia

How does love for home/nation become the site for intolerance and provoke violence against neighbours deemed 'betrayers' and Other? What precipitates the expression of this hate? Is shared humanity possible among erstwhile perpetrators and victims? What do we have to gain by engaging a different grammar of humanity in South Asia? Through the method of oral history, Professor Saikia probes the memories of violence of soldiers and civilians, men and women, perpetrators and victims of the 1971 war. A common and shared memory of this variety was the humbling experience of participating in a destructive war for nation-building/breaking. Particularly, perpetrators’ private memories open the space for situating the divergent desires that clashed with one another for and against the national imagination. Today, the nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh refuse to acknowledge the 'disastrous' memories of 1971 because it unsettles state histories. For perpetrators, however, the memories of violence are critical for understanding the meaning of sacrifice for nation, as well raising for some the question of ethical responsibility to victims.

In this talk, Professor Yasmin Saikia explores the possibilities for remembering the traumatic events of 1971 war differently, and the ways in which such remembering might signal the way forward to new ways of imagining the subcontinental human condition

Professor Yasmin Saikia is Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and a Professor of History in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/6811-nation-neighbours-humanity-destroyed-recovered-in-war