Royal Asiatic Society

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Lydia Walker - Beyond States-in-Waiting: Rights, Recognition, and Sovereignty in South Asia and the World
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Lydia Walker - Beyond States-in-Waiting: Rights, Recognition, and Sovereignty in South Asia and the World

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””] About the Lecture What does it mean to claim rights without recognition? And what happens to sovereignty when statehood remains perpetually deferred? States in Waiting traced how political movements in South Asia and beyond navigated a twentieth‑century international order in which external recognition, rather than territorial control alone, determined access to statehood. Highlighting Northeast India—a region characterized by porous borders, insurgent movements, and overlapping claims to authority—the book showed how nationalist movements collaborated with advocacy networks to articulate claims to rights, autonomy, and self‑determination. In doing so, these struggles reveal a persistent tension between aspirations towards universal rights and an international system that privileges recognized sovereignty. This lecture moves beyond that framework by returning to the unresolved questions at the heart of the book’s conclusion. If recognition remains uneven, delayed, or denied, what alternative forms of political belonging emerge? If sovereignty can be suspended, fragmented, or deferred, how should we understand the temporalities of the international order itself?

Wed 17 Jun19:30Royal Asiatic Society
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Dr Avishek Ray - Epistemology of Roma Origins: India and the Question of Academic Authority
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Dr Avishek Ray - Epistemology of Roma Origins: India and the Question of Academic Authority

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]This talk critically examines the widely circulated claim that European Roma populations originate from India—a thesis often treated as settled within academic discourse, yet not unequivocally endorsed by Roma communities themselves. It asks what is at stake epistemologically when such origin narratives become institutionalized: how they shape knowledge production, authority, and the politics of representation, and how they may contribute to the social reproduction of dominant academic voices within academia. About the Author Dr Avishek Ray teaches at the National Institute of Technology Silchar. His research examines mobility, marginality, and cultural historiography. He is author of The Vagabond in the South Asian Imagination (2022). He co-authored Digital Expressions of the Selfie (2024) and Temporal Spaces in Calcutta (2026). He edited Decolonial Travel (2025). His work appears in journals including South Asia, Contemporary South Asia, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Mobilities, and Race & Class. He has held fellowships at University of Edinburgh,  University of Minnesota, Mahidol University, Pavia University, IFK Vienna and Purdue University, and received the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2021). To join online, register here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Thu 25 Jun19:30Royal Asiatic Society
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