Guest professor Thomas Blom Hansen
Centre of Global South Asian Studies is currently hosting Thomas Blom Hansen as Guest Professor as part of the research programme Nation in Motion: Globalisation, Governance and Development in New India. https://cgsas.tors.ku.dk/research-programme/
Thomas Blom Hansen is the Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor in South Asian Studies and Professor in Anthropology. He is the author of The Saffron Wave. Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India (1999) which explores the larger phenomenon of Hindu nationalism in the light of the dynamics of India’s democratic experience, and Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay (2001) which explores the historical processes and contemporary conflicts that led to the rise of violent socioreligious conflict and the renaming of the city in 1995. His most recent work is Melancholia of Freedom: Anxiety, Race and Everyday Life in a South African Township (2012) based on his fieldwork in a formerly Indian township in Durban, South Africa.
As part of the research programme, the centre is hosting a number of events including a recently concluded international workshop Spectacle of Globality where some of the leading scholars of contemporary India gathered to explore the currents of globalisation said to be transforming India after the reforms. On 17th September, these conversations on South Asia will continue at the 4th annual workshop Worlds of South Asia where a number of junior scholars will share their ongoing research. The workshop features two keynote addresses by Thomas Blom Hansen on India and Faisal Devji, Oxford University on the idea of Pakistan.