The National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), had
organized a talk on “Scientifying the Orient: Race, Gender and Sex in the
Colonial Tropics” by Samiparna Samanta. She’s an eminent historian who is an Assistant Professor of History at
Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, USA. The
talk was scheduled in NIAS on July 19, 2013. Students and other professionals
from different colleges and universities were invited. The postgraduate students
of the Department of Sociology of Christ University attended the talk along
with some of their faculty member.
The talk was based on the “Oriental” East. The focus
was on constructivism as a historical approach. The other main arguments of the
lecture were the Colonial Construction of race, sex and gender with respect to
India, Africa and West Indies. The abstract for the talk is given below:
Abstract: Over the past decade or so, a growing number of
scholars have argued that science is a social construct much like art or music.
In light of this new development, concepts of race, gender, sexuality, and
identity formation have undergone massive transformations as historical
categories. Using this larger historiographical framework, my paper
demonstrates how an ‘Orient’ came to be perceived and pictured in European
imagination in the nineteenth century through the lens of ‘science.’ By drawing
examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America, I show the varied ways in which
the West often employed the legitimizing power of ‘science’ to romanticize,
eroticize and at times demonize colonial cultures. But more importantly, I
examine how nineteenth century colonial constructions of ‘race’ and ‘sexuality’
were used to project the relative backwardness of non-European cultures and
societies and thus activate the tension between the “modern” and the “archaic.”
The paper thus attempts to problematize the construction of colonial knowledge
around ‘thuggee,’ ‘criminal communities,’ ‘prostitute,’ Hottentot Venus, among
others to show the power of nineteenth century race science. An exploration of
the multiple portrayals of ‘Orient’ also manifests within itself a larger, crucial
theme ---- the power of representations, and the way that can form a dominant
trope for subjugation of a colonized people. In the course of this meandering
trajectory however, I conclude that the colonized were not passive recipients
of Western cultural intrusion. Rather, my own research on nineteenth and
twentieth century dietary discourses in Bengal demonstrates how the colonized
populations (for instance, twentieth century Bengali literati) in their
understanding of diet, disease and germs, at times translated Western notions
of science, sanitation, and medicine and imagined it in their own cultural
contexts.
A key argument was on the social construction of
science and its basis as being affected by culture and the social context of a
society. It’s not a value-free knowledge.
The talk was interesting as it was based on
fundamental ideas of how the Westerners have constantly ignored the East. As a
result the non-westerners do not have an identity, a history and an existence
of their own. Nineteen Century “Imperialism” was discussed in details and also
the universalization of Europe. The essence of the paper lies in the statement by
Karl Marx, “Asia fell asleep in history.”
The lecture covered important ideas of science as a
dominant paradigm, imperialism, the Westerners as dictators, notions of race,
gender and sex. A couple of questions and arguments followed the talk. Ideas
were exchanged between the speaker and other students and scholar who raised
important issues related to the topic.
On behalf of the students of Christ University I
would like to convey my thanks to the Department of Sociology for giving us the
opportunity for being a part of such an intellectual event.
by
Chandni Sarda
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