Kajri Jain - Gods in the Time of Democracy

Keynote address at the 11th annual ADI conference, University of Copenhagen

Dr. Kajri Jain, Associate Professor, Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto, will give a keynote address entitled: "Gods in the Time of Democracy", as part of the 11th annual ADI Conference held at University of Copenhagen.

Every day the news reminds us that religion is part and parcel of modern societies all over the world. Yet we are only just beginning to come to grips with the ways in which religion is not simply an atavistic, anachronistic throwback that somehow “persists” alongside modernity, but can be seen as modernity’s constitutive outside, that both responds to and informs developments in society, politics, and economy. This talk describes these exchanges in relation to India, drawing on material from a forthcoming book on the monumental statues, many of them religious icons, that have emerged as a political weapon in India since the 1990s – that is, in tandem with economic liberalization. What might these massive, immobile figures tell us about the dynamism of religion?

All are welcome

The lecture is part of the 11th annual ADI Conference. You can read more about the conference here.