Projit B. Mukharji, Lecture on 'A Taste for Race: Sense, Science & Caste in Mid-20th Century India'
Channel: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Date: 2021-11-25

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
invites you to a lecture

A Taste for Race
Sense, Science and Caste in Mid-Twentieth Century India

by Projit Bihari Mukharji

Priyadarshini Vijaisri will Chair

Tuesday, 12 October 2021, 5.30 pm IST
The lecture will be held on Zoom
Link: https://bit.ly/2ZMb0K2
Meeting ID: 86246686432
Passcode: csdsdelhi

The lecture will describe the mid- twentieth century transformation of colonial raciology into “biometric nationalism” by tracing the evolution of contemporary genomic research from earlier traditions of physical anthropology. It will show how the earlier emphasis on visible racial markers such as skin color and nasal shape were eclipsed by a set of elusive markers, such as the sense of taste, which required much more technological mediation. Bringing together history of science and sensory history, the lecture will therefore map the postcolonial histories of caste and tribe as technocratic objects.

Projit Bihari Mukharji is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, JNU, New Delhi and SOAS, London. His books include Nationalizing the Body (2009) and Doctoring Traditions (2016). His forthcoming book is titled Brown Skins, White Coats: Race Science in India, 1920-66. 

Priyadarshini Vijaisri is Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.