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South Asian Studies Institute

Speakers List

Ghadar Centennial Conference 1913
Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past

Fall 2013, October 17, 2013

Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, F125

 

AMAN DUA

Paper Title:"The Inheritance of Mutiny: The Conception and Catharsis of Gadar"

Bio: Aman has done Master of Philosophy and Master of English literature from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She has been felicitated with various awards in the field of Public Speaking, including the Panjab University Color and Roll of Honor. She has taught in a college for five years.

AMANDIP SIDHU:

Paper Title:"A Comparison of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Writings and the Writings of the Ghadar Party"

Bio: Possessing a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Amandip works in private industry as a management professional. Over the years, he has developed an interest in researching the works of the Sikh Guru’s and their application to modern personal and professional life.

GURPREET SINGH:

Paper Title: "Analysis of the Genesis of the Ghadar Movement Using the Ghadar Narrative"

RISHMA JOHAL:

Paper Title: "A Revolutionary Diaspora : The Ghadar Movement in Canada and South Asian Women"

Bio: Rishma Johal is an MA student at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Department. She completed her BA at SFU in 2011 with a major in History and minor in Political Science. She has been involved within the South Asian community as a volunteer for various initiatives from her time as an undergraduate student until now. These experiences, as well as her participation in the Punjabi media as a radio and television show host, exposed her to vital issues within this community. She became interested in how this group depicts femininity and their conceptions of gender. Thus, her research work adopts an anti-racist feminist framework to conduct an historical analysis of South Asian Women’s citizenship experience in Canada. Rishma will be completing a number of oral histories for this project as well. Moreover, she has attended several conferences over the past year, including the Congress in Victoria. One of her papers also received the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for the Best Graduate Essay. Currently, Rishma is focusing on publishing some of her work and looking forward to presenting at more conferences.

INDER SINGH:

Paper Title: "Ghadar Movement and the Role of Irish Americans"

Bio: Inder Singh has started and built several Indian/Asian community organizations in the last 40 years. He has served the Indian American community at local, national (US wide) and international level.  He has actively participated in the socio-political activities of the Asian and American communities in leadership capacity. Mr. Singh’s initiative and relentless pursuit for centennial commemoration of Gadar Movement started by NRIs to liberate India from British slavery, has resulted in the release of commemorative stamp by the Prime MInister at PBD in Kochi and announcement to upgrade the Gadar Memorial Hall in San Francisco to a functional library and museum. Mr. Singh, in an attempt to create more awareness, has co-authored The Gadar Heroics – a book on Gadar Movement and Gadarites, published in June 2013.

KHUSHVIR SINGH SAINI:

Paper Title: "The Ghadar Movement: Revisiting its Genesis & Exploring Prospects of Another Ghadar movement in Contemporary India

Bio: Khushvir Singh Saini is pursuing Ph.D. in Geography of Food Security at Panjab University, Chandigarh (India). He completed his Masters in Geography (2012) and Bachelor of Arts (2010) in Geography, History and Fine Arts from the same University. His research interests include Food and Nutritional Security Issues in India, Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Modern Indian History. He is also associated with a joint research project of University of the Fraser Valley and Panjab University on developing Sustainable Settlements in India. Under this project, he has assisted several Canadian student interns working in India.  

TEGINDER KUMAR:

Paper Title: "The Ghadar Ethos: The Radical Turn in Indian History"

Bio: Teginder received his PhD in Political Science on the topic titled ‘The Role of Regional Political Parties in National Politics’. His research papers have been published in reputed journals like Man & Development (India) and Journal of Punjab Studies (USA).  Presently, he is working as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at University College, Ghanaur (Punjabi University, Patiala).  Besides academics, he has been engaged in social and political work at the grassroots level for the last two decades.

JASBIR SINGH MANN:

Paper Title: "Reevaluating the Origin and Inspiration of ‘Sikh Gadar 1907-1918"

Bio: Dr. Jasbir Singh Mann is an orthopedic surgeon, practicing since 1980, and a scholar and writer on Sikh issues. His articles have appeared in a range of journals, including Nishaan, The Sikh Review, and Abstracts of Sikh Studies, and in several books. He has co-edited four books on Sikhism and arranged many international Sikh Studies conferences including in 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000,2004, 2012 and 2013. A recipient in 2001 of a D.Lit. (Honoris causa) from Punjabi University, Patiala for his contributions to Sikh studies.He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the American College of International Physicians. 

PAUL ENGLESBERG:

Paper Title: "The 1907 Anti-Punjabi Hostilities in Washington State: Prelude to the Ghadar Movement"

MOHAMMED AYUB KHAN:

Paper Title: "The Revolutionary Faith of Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi"

Mohammed Ayub Khan is a PhD.  candidate in the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. He has a special interest in studying the ideas of Muslim revolutionaries of the Indian freedom movement.

JOHN PRICE:

Paper Title: "Challenging White Supremacy: The Panama Maru Incident of 1913"

John Price was born in Vancouver and after completing high school went to Japan in 1968. He spent four years in the Kansai area before returning to Canada. He completed his Ph.D. at UBC in 1994. His graduate research focused on the labour movement and economic development in postwar Japan and his dissertation was published by Cornell University Press under the title Japan Works: Power and Paradox in Postwar Industrial Relations. Fifteen years ago he began to broaden his research interests to Canada and the Transpacific and this culminated in the publication of his recent book Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2011). He is currently working on a biography (with his collaborator in China, Ningping YU) of Victoria Chung, the first Chinese Canadian to graduate from University of Toronto Medical School, one of the longest-serving medical missionaries to China. He is also working on the story of Darshan Singh Sangha as part of a research program focusing on the life stories of fifteen people with transpacific ties. Most recently he worked with his graduate seminar to document the Panama Maru incident of 1913.