A talk by Sudipta Sen, Professor of History and Middle East/South Asia Studies, UC Davis, on his new book, Ganges: The Many Pasts of an Indian River, a sweeping, interdisciplinary history of the world’s third-largest river, a potent symbol across South Asia and the Hindu diaspora.
Event moderated by Munis D. Faruqui, Director, Institute for South Asia Studies; Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies; Associate Professor, South & South East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley.
About the Book: Originating in the Himalayas and flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges is India’s most important and sacred river. In this unprecedented work, historian Sudipta Sen tells the story of the Ganges, from the communities that arose on its banks to the merchants that navigated its waters, and the way it came to occupy center stage in the history and culture of the subcontinent.
Sen begins his chronicle in prehistoric India, tracing the river’s first settlers, its myths of origin in the Hindu tradition, and its significance during the ascendancy of popular Buddhism. In the following centuries, Indian empires, Central Asian regimes, European merchants, the British Empire, and the Indian nation-state all shaped the identity and ecology of the river. Weaving together geography, environmental politics, and religious history, Sen offers in this lavishly illustrated volume a remarkable portrait of one of the world’s largest and most densely populated river basins.
About the Author:
Sudipta Sen is professor of History and Middle East/South Asia Studies at the University of California, Davis. His work has focused on the early history of British expansion in India, and more recently on the history of climate change and the environment. He is the author of Empire of Free Trade: The English East India Company and the Making of the Colonial Marketplace (1998) and Distant Sovereignty: National Imperialism and the Origins of British India (2002). His most recent book is Ganges: The Many Pasts of an Indian River (2019). He is currently finishing a book on the history of law, crime, and punishment in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century British India titled Lawless Subjects: Crime and Punishment in Early British India. Sen has received the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for research and teaching at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University (2000), and the William Jones Memorial Medal from the Asiatic Society of India (2022) for his lifetime contribution to history and Asian studies. Read more about Sudipta Sen’s research and activities.
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PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that parking is not always easily available in Berkeley. Take public transportation if possible or arrive early to secure your spot.
Event is FREE and OPEN to the public.
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If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Puneeta Kala at pkala@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.
