Guest Lecture Incarceration Camps of the Pacific War: Civilian Internment in India - Omissions and Exceptions
- Date
- Monday 22 April 2024
- Time
- Address
- Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311BD Leiden - Room
- 0.19
About the Event
Did you know that there were internment camps in India during World War II? Have you wondered who was incarcerated there? Why do we know so little about their experiences? This presentation explores civilian internment in India through a small cast of characters unwittingly drawn into and implicated in the imperial conflict. They include a Thai artist and a Buddhist novice, incarcerated with ‘Japanese internees’ at the Purana Qila, New Delhi and later at Deoli; a German bikkhu (Buddhist monk) sent to Dehradun camp from Ceylon and an Italian bikkhu who passed through numerous camps. Addressing themes of mobility, displacement and incarceration of individuals with natal or adopted Buddhist identity it uncovers neglected Asian realities and postcolonial sentiments pertaining to internment in ‘British’ India. It expands on a previous study of incarceration camps around the Pacific Basin, published with Lynne Horiuchi in The Architecture of Confinement: incarceration camps of the Pacific War (2022).
About the Speaker
Anoma Pieris is a Professor of Architecture at the Melbourne School of Design. She is an architectural historian and geographer interested in issues of postcolonial citizenship and sovereignty.
About the Organiser
This event is organised by SSEALS. SSEALS stands for the South and Southeast Asia Leiden Series.
SSEALS is a new colloquium initiative stitching together three core concerns that animate scholars and researchers in the humanities and social science: space/detours, time/absence and people/encounters. The colloquium hosts external guest speakers alongside scholars from within the Leiden University community whose works deliberate on and within these themes.
We assemble thrice a semester in a variety of formats; these include lectures followed by Q&A sessions, invited panels and roundtable discussions. We conclude with drinks and snacks for attendees.
Email SSEALS@hum.leidenuniv.nl for more information!
Registration
It is possible to register by clicking here.
