Neeti Nair Book Talk, “Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia”

Please join us to discuss Dr. Neeti Nair’s Book Talk, “Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia”. Book purchase will be available on site, and the talk will be followed by a reception to request book signs.

About the Book:

An insightful history of censorship, hate speech, and majoritarianism in post-partition South Asia.

At the time of the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, it was widely expected that India would be secular, home to members of different religious traditions and communities, whereas Pakistan would be a homeland for Muslims and an Islamic state. Seventy-five years later, India is on the precipice of declaring itself a Hindu state, and Pakistan has drawn ever narrower interpretations of what it means to be an Islamic republic. Bangladesh, the former eastern wing of Pakistan, has swung between professing secularism and Islam.

Neeti Nair assesses landmark debates since partition—debates over the constitutional status of religious minorities and the meanings of secularism and Islam that have evolved to meet the demands of populist electoral majorities. She crosses political and territorial boundaries to bring together cases of censorship in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, each involving claims of “hurt sentiments” on the part of individuals and religious communities. Such cases, while debated in the subcontinent’s courts and parliaments, are increasingly decided on its streets in acts of vigilantism.

Hurt Sentiments offers historical context to illuminate how claims of hurt religious sentiments have been weaponized by majorities. Disputes over hate speech and censorship, Nair argues, have materially influenced questions of minority representation and belonging that partition was supposed to have resolved. Meanwhile, growing legal recognition and political solicitation of religious sentiments have fueled a secular resistance.

About the Author: Educated in India and the US, Neeti Nair is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Virginia and currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

She is the author of Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India (Harvard University Press, 2011) and, most recently, Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia (Harvard University Press, 2023). She is also the co-editor of Ghosts from the Past? Assessing Recent Developments in Religious Freedom in South Asia (Routledge, 2021) and editor of Citizenship, Belonging, and the Partition of India (Routledge, 2024). Her articles have appeared in scholarly journals such as Modern Asian Studies, Indian Economic and Social History Review, Current History, and the Economic and Political Weekly, as well as in media outlets such as Indian Express, The Hindu, The Print, Newslaundry. Her research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Please RSVP to ensure an accurate headcount for catering. To request accommodations due to a disability, contact Christina Prinssen at christina.prinssen@georgetown.edu no later than 10/24/2024. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill all requests made after this date. Please contact Laura with any other inquiries regarding this event.