This virtual seminar series titled Navigating Political Concepts and Ideals: The Discourse of the Past and Present delves into the evolving discourse on political concepts and ideals by exploring sovereignty, bureaucracy, the ideal society, freedom, secularism, and citizenship, all of which have been shaped by historical and contemporary debates. It will critically examine the tensions and synergies among these concepts, providing a platform for in-depth discussion on their relevance in today's world. The speakers will engage with the past and present to deepen our understanding of these political concepts and ideals.
ABOUT THE TALK
Late colonial juridical practice in India was prone to bureaucratic errors and shared with the police a basic disinterest in the liberty of ordinary persons. This paper tells the politically marginal but highly revealing story of a series of errors during the arrest, and subsequent detention of an elderly man called Peter Budge – an innocent bystander in a situation of heightened communal tensions – led to a momentary scandal in the United Provinces administration in the year 1947-48. Peter’s case disappeared between the cracks of bad record-keeping leading to his lengthy and unlawful detention. It raises important questions about the complementary relation between law and violence and the fictitious nature of public-order laws. In contrast to the scholarship that has discussed the spectacular violence of the state, this paper looks at the ‘other’ acts of violence of the state and argues that the everyday reality of public-order enforcement is key to understanding the nature and operations of the late colonial state (and the postcolonial state).
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Javed Iqbal Wani is an Assistant Professor at the School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, Ambedkar University Delhi. He has a PhD from the Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London. Dr Wani has been academically interested in issues of public order. He has published papers on the theme in journals such as Economic and Political Weekly of India (EPW), Labour History, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, History and Sociology of South Asia, and Journal of Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge University Press published his monograph Sovereign Anxiety: Public Order and the Politics of Control in India, 1915-55 in 2023.
