Entangled Hierarchies: Of Varna-Jati, Casta and Slaves in historic South Asia - 2022 Lecture in the History of Slavery

Professor Chatterjee's lecture will grapple with the implicit problems of Global intellectual projects that elide the histories of slavery and caste in South Asia. These projects ignore both the Anglophone historians who have proposed alternate histories of slave-uses in South Asian pasts as well as those historians of jati-varna (often translated as caste) groups that mutated in place, time and across religious sects and groups. The lecture will suggest that such projects are rooted in the singularly racialized Iberian casta model that permeated European thought on blood-based descent and social-economic hierarchy since the sixteenth century. It will offer an alternate rehistoricisation of the past by offering a frame of multiple hierarchies, rather than a single system called caste, which allows historians of both the Asian and non-Asian landmasses to distinguish the transformations of each over time.

This lecture is free and open to all. It will take place on Teams, please register at the link to receive further information.

Part a series of events organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Global History. 

Professor Indrani Chatterjee 

Indrani Chatterjee is a Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of 'Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India' (Oxford University Press, 2002), 'Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages, Memories of Northeast India' (Oxford University Press, 2013), 'Unfamiliar Relations: Family and History in South Asia' (Rutgers University Press, 2004) and 'Slavery in South Asian History' with Richard M. Eaton (Indiana University Press, 2006).

Workshop

The Edinburgh Centre for Global History are delighted to announce a  workshop with Professor Indrani Chatterjee on global histories of slavery. The workshop will provide a supportive space for PhD students, and those who have recently submitted their PhDs, to present and receive feedback on chapters or detailed dissertation research proposals relating to any aspect of the theme of global histories of slavery. Up to 5 students will be selected to share a piece of writing of up to 8,000 words for intensive discussion and feedback from Professor Chatterjee and other workshop participants. 

Global Histories of Slavery - A Workshop with Indrani Chatterjee