Dear friends,

Dr Aroon Tikekar Centre for Advanced Studies takes pleasure in inviting you and your friends to the annual programme of the Centre to award the Tikekar Memorial Fellowship and join us to listen to the chief guest and keynote speaker Dr. Prachi Deshpande.

The programme will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 5:30 PM in the Durbar Hall of The Asiatic Society of Mumbai.

Dr. Prachi Deshpande, is a historian and, Professor in History at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. She is a recipient of prestigious awards and recognitions, including the Infosys Prize 2020, an annual award by Infosys Science Foundation. Her book ‘Creative Past’ was published in Y2007 and ‘Scripts of Power: Writing, Language, Practices, and Cultural History in Western India’ was published in Y2023.

Title of her Talk: “’Script’ing the History of Language.”
 

ABSTRACT: Usually, we think of language history in two ways: a chronological story of its literature from the earliest text to the present, or the way it evolved within a language family over centuries. Scripts are usually seen as technical instruments for writing language, or as symbols of identity. Can a focus on the relationship between scripts, language, and writing, give us insights into how, where, and by whom a language was used, and how people thought about language in different ways? In this talk she will focus on the cursive Modi script, which was used to write business documents in Marathi for several centuries, to chart a history of Marathi usage and users over the last few hundred years. Through the example of Modi and Marathi, she will talk about changing attitudes and practices of language in Maharashtra and beyond, such as literacy and orality, documentation and archiving, multilinguality, and linguistic identity. 

In keeping with the tradition of the annual programme of the Centre, the seventh Tikekar Memorial Fellow 2025, Mr. Aslam Saiyad, co-founder of Hallu Hallu, documentary photographer and environmentalist, will present a synopsis of his work done. It will be followed by Mr. Elloit Cardozo briefly introducing the work he proposes to do as a Fellow 2026.

You are requested to join us for tea at 5 PM at the venue.  

- Mr. Vilas Dhavale, Chairperson, Dr. Aroon Tikekar Centre for Advanced Studies, ASM
- Prof. Mangala Sirdeshpande, Hon. Secretary, The Asiatic Society of Mumbai