Disasters in the Making of Modern South Asia: Histories of Relief and Reconstruction

Disasters were cataclysmic events which brought destruction, displacement and death to colonial South Asia. Wars, famines and earthquakes brutally reshaped landscapes and imprinted themselves on the memories of survivors and witnesses. Yet, disasters were also accelerators of change: spawning scientific inventions, galvanizing political movements, driving rural reforms and the redesigning of urban areas.
Join the event to hear the speakers share their research on the history of disaster relief and reconstruction and discuss the role of disasters in the history of modern South Asia on the one hand, and South Asian practices of relief in the global history of humanitarianism on the other.