The Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities (CSACH) at the University of Toronto promotes greater understanding of South Asia through vibrant and informed conversations of the region’s politics, cultures, histories, languages, religions and peoples.

Prior to 2023, we were known as the Centre for South Asian Civilizations. We changed our name to Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities to reflect our programmatic direction and the focus of our faculty and students.

With faculty expertise in the fields of art history, languages, history, political science and the history of religions, CSACH provides resources for the study of South Asian pasts and their contemporary relevance. The Centre supports a wide range of activities related to the countries of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh including colloquia, public lectures, creative performances, and research affiliations.

Upcoming Events | Winter 2024


Ali Riaz

Crossing the Rubicon: How Bangladesh is Becoming a One-party State  

February 13, 2024
Collaborative Digital Research Space | CDRS/MN 3230
3-5 pm
 

Supriya Gandhi

Munshis and their "Successors": The Fraught Genealogies of Modern Hindu Thought
2024 Aziz Ahmad Memorial Lecture
 
February 23, 2024
Online on Zoom
1- 2:30 pm
 
This event is hosted in partnership with the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at University of Toronto.

P. Sainath

Agrarian Crisis in India's Age of Inequality
 
March 5, 2024 
Collaborative Digital Research Space | CDRS/MN 3230
3-5 pm

Isabel Alonso

Workshop on the use of Urdu-Hindi aural archives
 
March 21, 2024
MN 4207 
3-5 pm

T.M. Krishna

Lecture Demonstration
 
April 4, 2024
MiST Theatre
4PM
 

T.M. Krishna

Vocal Music Recital
 
April 5, 2024
Venue TBA
6.30 pm
 
Our community partner for the T.M. Krishna events is Bharathi Kala Manram.

Announcements

Noni Kaur seated on a stool with her art installation behind her at a gallary

CSACH’s Winter 2024 Artist-in-Residence is Noni Kaur, a multi-disciplinary artist and educator. Noni's bold and sensuous canvases and ground sculptures stem from her heritage as a Singaporean woman of Punjabi heritage. Her immersive, ephemeral installations, body prints and mixed media paintings are living pieces that knit together the rich fluidity of gendered domestic rituals, culture, and the human and non-human world. Noni will be with us from Feb 1-April 30th.

Book cover of journal issue called Marxist Thought in South Asia

A special issue of Political Power and Social Theory entitled Marxist Thought in South Asia is now available. This issue emerged from a working group that started during the pandemic as a way for CSACH faculty and graduate students with an interest in politics in South Asia to maintain social and professional connections. This special issue features two doctoral students, Priyansh and Umaima Miraj, and others who have been involved in CSACH and its events in the past including Salman Haider (a past Artist-in-Residence at CSACH), Ahilan Kadirgamar, Ayyaz Mallick, and Himani Bannerji. 

The articles in the issue recover local traditions of Marxist theorizing from South Asia, thus revealing South Asia’s unique contributions to Marxist theory. The issue also features a selection of heretofore untranslated poetry by Salman Haider, who chose a selection of his poems that speak to the scholarly themes of the issue. 

Link to the issue 

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