Institute for South Asia Studies

On April 28, ISAS hosted Farhat Hasan, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern South Asian History at the University of Delhi, for a talk on the interplay between state authority and local legal practices in Mughal India.

Professor Hasan explored the many overlapping worlds of law in the Mughal empire, where imperial institutions, community norms, local custom, and everyday negotiation all helped shape juridical life. Law, as the talk made clear, was not simply handed down from above; it was lived, interpreted, contested, and occasionally complicated by the people who encountered it.

Abhishek Kaicker, Associate Professor of History, served as discussant, bringing sharp insight and collegial energy to the conversation.

And because no serious academic gathering is complete without a touch of ceremony, the afternoon concluded with the official bestowal of the ISAS “Tote of Arms” — our most portable and practical form of institutional heraldry — by Munis D. Faruqui, Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies.

Photos below.

TODAY: April 28 at 5 pm
A talk by Farhat Hasan, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern South Asian History at the University of Delhi, on how state and local legal systems worked together in Mughal India. Abhishek Kaicker, Associate Professor of History will serve as discussant. More at https://events.berkeley.edu/csas/event/318850-farhat-hasan-legal-pluralism-in-mughal-india-state-so

On Zoom next week: Tue, Apr 28 at 9 am:
The 5th Maya Mitra Das Annual Lecture on Tagore, by Professor Lala Rukh Selim, a sculptor and Professor at the Department of Sculpture, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sukanya Banerjee (Associate Professor of English, UC Berkeley), Tausif Noor, Curatorial Associate at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and a PhD candidate in History of Art, and Waziuddin Chowdhury (Facilities Director of the South SF Unified School District, and an Architect) will serve as discussants. Register on Zoom at https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KVS1LjtyRbaibnFj7LOp5w #/

More at https://events.berkeley.edu/csas/event/313372-lala-rukh-selim-rabindranath-tagore-art-and-banglades

TODAY: Apr 21 at 5pm
A talk by Jairaj “Jai” Galagali, a California-based technologist and leading archivist of Indian cricket history, that showcases rare rediscovered footage tracing the game’s evolution from its early roots to 1983, highlighting legendary players and the cultural power of preserving this visual heritage. More info at https://events.berkeley.edu/csas/event/316239-jairaj-galagali-the-accidental-archivist-epic-moments

Today: April 17 at 5:00 p.m.
A talk by Atreyee Gupta, Associate Professor of Global Modern Art and South and Southeast Asian Art, on her new book, Non-Aligned: Art, Decolonization, and the Third World Project in India (Yale University Press). Aglaya Glebova, Associate Professor of History of Art and Faculty Director of the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, will serve as discussant.
The talk will take place in person and will also be live-streamed on our page. For more information, head here: https://events.berkeley.edu/.../314321-atreyee-gupta-non...