As researchers in social sciences, we are constantly confronting categories. While categorization is an inevitable process, the division and classification of the social world is not neutral. It entails choices and has implications. Some of these choices may be determined by institutions, others informally emerge within society, and still others are made by researchers for analytical purposes. In any case, categorisation can leave a lasting imprint on social and political structures, as in the South Asian context.

Presentation

As researchers in social sciences, we are constantly confronting categories. While categorization is an inevitable process, the division and classification of the social world is not neutral. It entails choices and has implications. Some of these choices may be determined by institutions, others informally emerge within society, and still others are made by researchers for analytical purposes. In any case, categorisation can leave a lasting imprint on social and political structures, as in the South Asian context.

This workshop invites social scientists who are engaging with categories in their research to reflect on the manners in which they use them. In their research, they may trace the origin and evolution of categories. They may also use existing categories and develop a critical stand, or develop new ones as analytical tools.

Therefore, different sets of questions arise from the encounter of researchers with categories or categorisation in their field:

• How do categories emerge? How are they institutionalised, mobilised, appropriated, and by whom? What are the implications or effects of categories in terms of resources, boundaries, representations or power relationships?
• When we researchers use categories as analytical or methodological tools: what are the benefits and/or limits of using categories in our analysis? What are the normative implications of using categories as researchers in social sciences? What theoretical frameworks inform the process of categorisation?

The workshop is organised by the AJEI (Association de Jeunes Études Indiennes / Youth Association for Indian Studies), a network of students, young researchers and scholars involved in the field of Indian studies which activelypromotes dialogue between French and Indian academics:

Master and PhD Students will discuss categories and categorisation through empirical observations and case studies, elaborating on methodological and theoretical reflections. Each panel will be followed by 35-40 minutes of discussions animated by senior researchers.

For any enquiry, feel free to contact us by email: ajeiworkshop2022@gmail.com

Practical informations

This workshop is supported by CEIAS (Center for Indian and South Asian Studies), CPR (Center for Policy Research), CSH (Center of Social Sciences and Humanities), EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences), GIS Asie and IFP (French Institute of Pondicherry).

The event will be held in hybrid mode in:

• New Delhi at the CPR office: 21, Dharam Marg, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi 110021. See on the map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/UqQLGKwN7iQBVHQg8
• Paris on the CEIAS-EHESS Campus Condorcet: room 0.015 (ground floor), Bâtiment Recherche Sud, 5 cours des Humanités, Aubervilliers (Métro 12, station Front Populaire).See this interactive map: https://www.campus-condorcet.fr/cartographie
• Online, using Avaya.

Please use this link to register for the workshop

The Avaya Link to attend the workshop online will be sent a few days before to the registered participants.

Please note that the room capacity is limited.

Programm

21.04.22

10 :00 am (Paris) | 01 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 1. Regulation and control: how do categories emerge in public and legal frameworks ?

Discussant : Dr. Dipa Sinha, Ambedkar University

• Sharanya Menon (Deakin University, Australia) & Joyeeta Dey Tracing mobilisations: « Out-of-School Children » as a global and national category
• Swapnil Singh (Jawaharlal Nehru University,Delhi) Seduction as a Legal and Political Category - A Study of Inter-caste & Inter- faith Love in India

12 :00 pm (Paris) | 03 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 2. Categorisation and social identities

Discussant : Dr. Dhivya Janarthanan, University of Delhi

• Abinash Rai (English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) Four terms of People-hood in contemporary Darjeeling : Cultural, Social and Political Implications
• Durga Chandrabhan Hole (TISS, Mumbai) ‘Hope and Anxiety’ : Narratives from ‘Lower Caste women’ in Indian prisons
• Sanjay Sharma (NUS, Singapore) Categorising the Uncategorised : Understanding the Diversity and Marginality of Gurkha Women

22.04.22

10 :00 am (Paris) | 01 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 3. Dichotomic categories : what are their sources and implications ?

Discussant : Dr. Amélie Blom, Sciences Po Lyon

• Isha Mangurkar (University of Edinburgh) Asking and Talking about ‘north/south Indians’
• Priyanka E. Hutschenreiter (SOAS, London) Categorising the Religious : the potentials of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ as analytical devices for Dhaka’s middle and upper classes (and what this has meant for me)
• Raffaello De Leon-Jones Diani (CEIAS-EHESS, Paris) Hindu, Muslim and Yogi : Categories of South Asian Identity

12 :00 pm (Paris) | 03 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 4. Mobilization of categories : how do they evolve to fit larger agendas ?

Discussant : Dr. Tiziana Leucci, CNRS-CEIAS

• Amrita Mukherjee (Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg) Emergence of ‘Classical’ as Recognitional Category in Indian Cultural Practices
• Julie Jacquet (University of Paris-Nanterre) From Coarse Grains to Nutricereals : a critical analysis of the millet renewal in South India
• Vyoma Dhar Sharma (University of Oxford, UK) World Population Conferences (1927-1994) and the unmaking of women’s health in India

23.04.22

10 :00 am (Paris) | 01 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 5. Categorisation and gender

Discussant : Dr. Sneha Banerjee, University of Hyderabad

• Shruti Sharma (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) Interrogating the Category of the Frail : Gendered Rules of Play in the Game of Cricket
• Shailja Tandon (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) Interrogating the ‘men’ in the state-sponsored category ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) in the City of Tehzeeb, Lucknow
• Leena Sharma (University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar) Asli Hijra kaun ? Categorization Inscribed with Identity Politics amongst Hijra Gharanas

12 :00 pm (Paris) | 03 :30 pm (Delhi)

Panel 6. Categorisation and ecology

Discussant : Prof. Vibha Arora, IIT Delhi

• Marine Frantz (Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne) What’s a village without its farmland : reconsidering rural definition ?
• Ritu Priya (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) What is water ? Different water paradigms of the state, academia and media- Case study of Kishanganga Dispute over Indus waters
• Bharat Hun (IIT, Delhi) The State and the Swarm : An Ethnographic Study of Locust control Operations in the ‘Desert Region’ of the Thar Borderland

Organising Committee

• Kiran BHATTY, Senior visiting fellow CPR (Delhi) & PhD scholar, Political Science, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)
• Roma CASAMITJANA, PhD scholar, Political Science, University of Milan
• Lola CINDRIC, PhD scholar, Social Anthropology & Ethnology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)
• José EGAS, PhD scholar, Anthropology & Sociology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)
• Cansu GURKAYA, PhD scholar, Sociology, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)
• Hugo RIBADEAU DUMAS, PhD scholar, Urban Studies, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris) & CSH-CNRS (Delhi)
• Vishnu TANDON, PhD scholar, Political Science, EHESS-CEIAS (Paris)