About the Lecture

Bhagat Singh was a remarkably well read young person. He brought a sharp and informed mind to his political activism. This talk will proceed through a look at some of his writings and use them to explore what nationalism meant to him. The differences between his “revolutionary nationalism” and some other commonly held interpretations of nationalism will be highlighted. The talk will examine how Bhagat Singh is commonly portrayed in the Indian education system and argue for a fresh look at the message he was trying to convey.

About the Speaker

A Social Anthropologist by training, Prof Amman Madan is known for his work on the relation between education and society. Prof Madan's research interests are currently in social stratification and education, social theory and the politics of identity in education. Amman did his M.Sc. in Anthropology with Divyadarshi Kapoor from Panjab University, Chandigarh and then did his M.Phil and Ph.D. with Avijit Pathak at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems at JNU. 

A keen student of History, Prof Madan is interested in various forms of Indian nationalism both as a social theorist and as a citizen. An active researcher, he has several publications, both in English and Hindi. His latest book is entitled "Shiksha aur adhunikta" (2018), whose English version "Education and modernity" is forthcoming.