Feb 11,2020

We would like to cordially welcome you to an event in the memory of MSS Pandian. Pandian (1958-2014), a historian deeply invested in subaltern studies and Dravidian politics, was a faculty of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta from 1987-1989. Though his stay at CSSSC was brief, it was here that he completed a major portion of work for his book The Image Trap (1992), a landmark intervention in film studies which critically looked at the cult of the cine-politician M.G. Ramachandran. Popularly known for his work on the genealogy of the Dravidian movement Brahmin and Non-Brahmin (2007), Pandian also authored several essays on cinema and popular culture, regionalism and nationalism, identity, caste, and democracy, a compilation of which was recently published as The Strangeness of Tamil Nadu (2019). Pandian’s friends and former colleagues brought out an edited volume in his honour, Rethinking Social Justice. Published by Orient BlackSwan in 2020, this volume brings together essays on social history, gender, caste, cinema and political economy. We invite you for a discussion of this volume, remembering the significant contributions of Pandian to the social sciences in India.

Venue: ‘Barun De’ Auditorium, Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre (A unit of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta). 10 Lake Terrace, Kolkata - 700029
Date: 24 February 2020  Time: 4-6 pm

Welcome address:  Rosinka Chaudhuri.

Speakers: Partha Chatterjee, Manabi Majumdar, Rajarshi Ghose, Karthick Ram Manoharan.

Chair: Tapati Guha-Thakurta.