Preliminary Programme

In colonial India, particularly in the late 19th century, the Hindu widow acquired primacy in the social reformist circuits all over India. The urge to ‘modernize’ Hinduism prevailed throughout the freedom struggle. The ‘Hindu widow’ was discussed and debated passionately. There were two schools of thought - those who were in favour and those in opposition to the widow - remarriage. Interestingly, the widow was articulated and imagined as the ideal self-abnegating ‘mother’, who could keep the nation together like a family. Her suffering was often used as a metaphor for the subjugated nation. By the 1920s, nationalist reformers constructed a new understanding of ‘morality’ and ‘inner strength’ through the icon of the widow. The icon which became popular as Mother India or ‘Bharat Mata’, was essentially a Hindu widow.
This iconography was continued and popularized in the post independence (1947) period by the Bombay filmmakers. The post 1947 period brought new challenges of reconstructing economy as well as the aftermath of Partition. The agrarian household was the primary unit of Indian economy. The attention of the intellectuals and artists turned towards the impoverished peasantry and the question of resettlement of land and resources. The national glory and memory of the freedom struggle was woven together with the reality of poverty and inequality.
In a 1957 movie, called ‘Mother India’, the widow was represented as a peasant woman struggling with the feudal structure (money lender and landlord). This overshadowed the idea of father as bread earner; man of the household. The mother was shown as the only earning member who raised children and whose physical hard labour redefined her ‘feminity’. I shall be exploring various other dimensions of this film – such as, Gandhian idealism, gender and the family relationship. This film caught the imagination of people across India. It was the first Indian film to be nominated for the best film in foreign language at the Oscars.
The young widow was not an unexplored theme. The inspiration came from 19th century reformism. The representation of the question of young widow’s sexuality and morality was best done in the 1970s and 80s in some of the commercial hits such as – ‘Sholay’ (fire balls), Kati Patang (a torn kite), Prem Rog (love struck). More recently, in the movie ‘Water’ (2001) the widow continued to be represented as an ultimate sufferer. (This is a reversal of the strength of the widow projected in ‘Mother India’). This cinema represents certain experiences of widowhood which may be read as a unique cultural experience. Some Indian feminists have critiqued the cinema on young widows as being a titillating experience for the male audience because most of these movies include rape and violence. The widows also emerge as objects of reform, waiting for generous men. I shall also elaborate on the on screen representation of caste and class which add a dimension of complexity to the experience of ‘Hindu widowhood’. (Show less)

In the days of “Teutschlands tiefster Schmach”, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (1786-1868) embarked on the creation of a pantheon called Walhalla. His plan was impressive. Realised in four decades, it embraced a Greek temple filled with the nameplates and busts of 200 ‘Germans’, a slippery concept that Ludwig continuously redefined. The iconography supporting the series of exemplary men (so-called “Walhalla’s Genossen”) was eclectic, too, favouring a Germany at odds with the national movement that was increasingly liberal, Protestant and Prussia-oriented. Hence the question: whose pantheon was the Walhalla?
Recent historiography has elaborated on the concept ‘national monument’ (Mosse 1975; Nipperdey 1968; Völcker 2000) by including many monumental imaginations that were, I argue, more personal than canonical. Indeed, this paper proposes to view early nineteenth-century political symbolism not as a form of political communication between a leader and his people but as a symbolically encoded cultural construction. By means of the Walhalla pantheon (1807-42), it queries the monuments’ national appeal and communicative role. More precisely, the paper argues that the pantheon’s canon of exemplary men, its iconography and location was designed in such a way that it could be decoded by some nationals only.
The paper addresses the role of the Walhalla from four angles: a memorial to the Napoleonic Wars of Liberation, a German national monument, a royal folly and a stage for a Bavarian king to give his Mittelstaat a more prominent position in a Germany increasingly dominated by Prussia and Austria. What men, and women, were included as Genossen? How did the selection relate to the changing political and cultural status quo? How did the iconographical programme develop? Most importantly, how was the pantheon received by the public(s)?
In the Walhalla, the lexis of nation and the temple’s Neoclassical aesthetics concealed a programme of self-aggrandisement intended to enhance the status of Bavaria and the reigning Wittelsbach dynasty, combat the Austrian-Prussian axis of hegemony in Germany, reinstate Europe’s Christian legacy and support the monarchical principle at a time it faced growing opposition. Although ostensibly glorifying the exemplary ‘Other’, it rather consolidated, protected and boasted the commissioner’s immediate social, cultural and religious circle. Ludwig’s historical narrative was neither a national monument nor a form of political communication. Instead, it was a single-handedly constructed and symbolically codified historical imagination. (Show less)

My paper will discuss some features of Finnish national thinking by examining the construction of national identity during the nineteenth century, especially in the first half of the century. In a scholarly discussion Finland has been considered as a non-historic nation which invented its tradition during the nineteenth century. Finland has also been an example of cultural nationalism, in which the role of language, ethnicity and folklore has played a central part. In 1809 Finland became a Grand Duchy of Russia, losing official ties to its old motherland Sweden. This new political situation launched a public, literary debate among the Swedish-speaking educated class, who formed cultural elite in Finland. The task that the cultural elite quite collectively took for themselves was to maintain and strengthen the idea of a Finnish nation with its own distinctive features, for example its language (Finnish), history and "spirit". The paper deals with some cultural aspects of this national discourse, concentrating on a conceptual dimension of Finnish identity-making process. I will examine some key concepts (concepts like "nationality" or "national spirit") used in this national discourse. The contents of these nineteenth century concepts comes quite near to our modern concept of culture. In my presentation I will discuss how was the sphere of "culture" understood in Finland in the nineteenth century. (Show less)