This two-day workshop at the Indiana University India Gateway Office will imagine a new range of interdisciplinary interpretations for passive resistance. While the concept has been conceived narrowly as a strategy of civil disobedience, we’ll consider a spectrum of other possibilities, grounded in philosophy, literary studies, art, performance, political theory, and history. Passive resistance might emerge then as a reading strategy, an approach to thinking about subjectivity, a way of inhabiting a given identity or place in the social structure, or an element of language. We’ll have keynote speeches by Ashis Nandy and Jonathan Gil Harris, and four panels with the following themes: “Gandhian Principles,” “Habits of Resistance,” “Silence and Power,” and “Grammar and Composition.” Each of our distinguished panelists will introduce us, through a reading or artifact, to a new approach to interpreting passive resistance.

Aditya Nigam, Center for the Study of Developing Societies; Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University; Eric Arnesen, George Washington University; Eyal Peretz, Indiana University; Jacob Emery, Indiana University; Judith Brown, Indiana University; Jyoti Atwal, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Madhavi Menon, Ashoka University; Nivedita Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Parul Dave Mukherji, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Pradeep Jeganathan, Shiv Nadar University; Ranu Samantrai, Indiana University; Rustom Homi Bharucha, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Soumyabrata Choudhury, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Tamar Abramov, Koç University, Istanbul; Tanika Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Bindu Puri, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Katie Silvester, Indiana University.

This workshop is made possible through the generous support of the Dhar India Studies Program, the College Arts and Humanities Institute, the Office of the Vice-Provost for International Affairs, and the Mellon Innovating International Teaching, Research and Collaboration Program.

For more information please e-mail Professor Judith Brown at jcb@indiana.edu.