Student Seminar

“For a colonised people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread, and above all, dignity”- Frantz Fanon

On 6.05.2023, the Department of History of the Bhawanipur Education Society College had organised its Annual Student Seminar. The theme of the seminar was ‘The Coloniser and the Colonised’. On the occasion of the seminar, students presented their research papers that were symbolic of their early engagement with the realm of academia. The seminar was commenced by inviting words from our senior professors, and formally was chaired with a brief overview of the topic of concern, inviting students to start the programme. The participants were from all semesters and it was heartening to see students of our II and IV semesters participating.

The topics presented ran an entire gamut of arguments from topics ranging on the Anglicist- Orientalist debate on education, Women’s education, the revolt of 1857. Among certain other topics included the economic impact of colonial rule in India, Partition- an analysis of Saadat Hassan Manto’s Tauba Tek Singh, the issue of slavery and racial discrimination in Latin America.
Numbering a total of 15 papers presented, certain other papers included an investigation into the colonial origins of the sport of Cricket, with reference to the evolution of the Ranji trophy, cinema and history- with reference to the Algerian War of Independence, war tactics and machinery used during the course of the Vietnam War, the Homeopathic Wars of Imperialism and lastly the use of songs as a mode of protest in the Peoples’ Movement.

The seminar was also meant to be interactive and after each set of papers, the audience were given the opportunity to question the presenter or to offer feedback and suggestions on the presentations. While some of the papers dealt with the intellectual ‘apparatus of control; namely education, others still marshalled various sources and brought in richer interpretations of history. It felt immensely gratifying to have been facilitators through the length of the seminar and to get to see our students stepping up as young researchers. As professors, we were delighted to see the level of student participation, indeed the success of the seminar was dependent on student initiative and collaboration.

Semester VI students had taken up the mantle of work onto their shoulders and oversaw the papers of their juniors. The seminar concluded with a vote of thanks by senior professors. Formally the event concluded with the distribution of certificates of participation among the student presenters. The posters and certificates of participation had also been designed by our students. The seminar session thus concluded with engaging thoughts, with great gusto, smiles and cheer among all attendees.