South Asia and the Himalayas in images and debate" cycle 2022-2023

4 October 2023

  • Asia and the Pacific

  • Culture

  • Campus life

Inalco's South Asia and Himalayas department and the CESSMA laboratory are organizing a series of film and documentary events to shed light on current events in the region through images and debate. These events are aimed at both academics and the wider public. Specialists will address issues as varied as peasant movements, labor migration, environmental change, social discrimination and demographic policies in India, Tibet and Nepal. The free screenings are open to all, with no need to book, and there will be plenty of opportunity for discussion afterwards.
Un jeune Tibétain porte une caméra
Tournage de film au Tibet, 2017 © Françoise Robin‎

Find the program for the 2023-2024 cycle on this page.

Program of the 2022-2023 cycle

The cycle "L'actualité de l'Asie du Sud et de l'Himalaya en images et en débats" is linked to the exhibition "Chemins himalayens" presented at Inalco from October 4 to October 19, 2022 in the auditorium gallery (PLC, Paris 13e).

Contact : Ornella Puschiasis - ornella.puschiasis@inalco.fr

Each session will be preceded or followed by a convivial snack.

Session 1 - India in images and debate

  • The Damned Rain by Satish Manwar, India l 2009 l 95 mn l VOSTA

Wednesday, October 5, 2022 - 5:30-8pm - Auditorium - Maison de la recherche (2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris)

Topic: The peasant movement in India

Summary: Peasants pray to heaven for rain in the Maharastra region of India. The film's starting point is the suicide of a peasant who hangs himself from a tree in his field. This social phenomenon is the common thread running through the plot, which is haunted by the plague, but focuses on portraying characters struggling and determined to overcome adversity.

Current events: In September 2020, three agricultural laws passed by the Indian Parliament triggered unprecedented peasant uprisings. Why is this protest movement unprecedented? To what extent have these rallies at the gates of the Indian capital, New-Delhi, brought the government to its knees? What is the current state of Indian agriculture? What weight do peasants retain in a society in the throes of upheaval?

Debate with Frédéric Landy (Professor of geography, Université Paris Nanterre, specialist in agricultural issues) and Madhuresh Kumar (Indian activist specialist in social movements, research associate at the Resistance Studies Initiative department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst).

Session 2 - Nepal in images and debate

  • The Riyalists by Kesang Tseten, inédit l Nepal l 2021 l 70 min l VOSTA

Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - 5:30pm-8pm - Auditorium - Maison de la recherche (2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris)

Topic: The soccer World Cup in Qatar and Nepalese migrants in the Gulf countries

Summary:Kesang Tseten's groundbreaking film "The Riyalists" is a raw, unflinching portrait of the journey of four young Nepalese traveling to the Gulf countries to work. We meet up with Dhanbir, Bhoj, Prem BK and Nabin, already featured in a previous documentary by the same author, In Search of the Riyal (2009). The film presents the lives of these migrants with nuance, recounting the beginning of their journey, their initial hopes and their lives as time-worn adults. These four trajectories shed nuanced light on the massive phenomenon of Nepalese migration, which involves almost half of all men under the age of forty, with their remittances accounting for around 30% of Nepal's GDP.

Current events: In December 2022 Qatar will host the soccer World Cup. Controversy abounds over the workers from South and East Asia who are working in indignities to enable this grand celebration of globalized sport.

Debate with Tristan Bruslé (geographer, CNRS, Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes, specialist in migration issues) and Frédéric Lecloux (photographer and writer, author of a work on the Nepalese in Qatar) and in the presence of director Kesang Tseten.

To complement the screening, the publication of the book Au désert. Migrations Népal-Qatar by Frédéric Lecloux (texts and photographs), afterword by Ashmita Sapkota (Amnesty Nepal)
Editions Le Bec en l'air, November 2022, 48 pages, 25 euros.

Session 3 - India in images and debate

  • Sangharsh, the time of struggle by Nicolas Jaoul, France l 2018 l 105 mn l VOSTF

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 6:30pm-9:30pm - Auditorium - PLC (65 rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris)

Topic: L'actualité des "intouchables" en Inde : discriminations et revendications

Summary:Nicholas Jaoul's film takes us back into the world of Dalit Panthers activists, India's Black Panthers, in the late 1990s. Using footage shot by the director at the time, the viewer is taken on board by three activists who spread the message of emancipation through the slums and villages of an effervescent region, to the rhythm of a vast consciousness-raising movement. Their words and gestures, as well as the expectations and annoyances they arouse by addressing their own, reveal the delicate struggle of Dalits for their right to live with dignity, while humiliation, exploitation and caste violence remain omnipresent.

Debate with Nicolas Jaoul (Anthropologist, CNRS, EHESS, specialist in Dalit populations and filmmaker) and Alexandra de Heering (University of Namur/Belgium, specialist in Indian social and visual history).

Session 4 - L'Inde/L'outremer en images et en débats

  • Histoires d'engagisme by Joy Banerjee, India l 2021 l 52 mn l VO (French)

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 6pm-9pm - Auditorium - PLC (65 rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris)

Topic: The Indian diaspora: between the quest for identity and contemporary strategies

Summary:From 1815, sugarcane planters, supported by the French administration, gradually replaced slaves with a new workforce known as "engagés". Immigration to Reunion and the French West Indies intensified after the abolition of slavery in 1848. Many Indians, poor and illiterate, signed 5-year contracts and embarked for unknown lands, where they were often treated like slaves.

Histoires d'engagisme gives a voice to descendants of Indian engagés in Réunion and Guadeloupe who want to keep alive the memory of their ancestors. Historians shed light on this dark and little-known period of French colonization.

Debate with Joy Banerjee (Journalist and director), Anne Viguier (Lecturer in history at Inalco, specialist in modern and contemporary Indian history) and Ingrid Therwath (Journalist, India specialist)

Session 5 - Tibet in images and debate

  • Balloon by Pema Tseden, Tibet-China l 2019 l 98 mn l VOSTF

Event postponed to Wednesday April 5, 2023 - 6pm-9pm - Auditorium PLC (65 rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris)

Proposed screening on the occasion of International Women's Rights Day

Topic: Birth control policy

Current events: After 35 years of strict birth control, the Chinese government reversed course in 2015 and now encourages multiple births. In August 2022, it announced its intention to limit abortions. What are the reasons and effects of this reversal? How are these policies applied among "minority ethnic groups" such as the Tibetans? The film "Balloon" paints a portrait of a woman caught between the birth control policies imposed by the People's Republic of China, and the traditional Buddhist values that hold all life sacred.

Debate with Renyou Hou (ATER in anthropology, Université Paris Nanterre) and Françoise Robin (Professor of Tibetan language and literature at Inalco, specialist in Tibetan cinema)