Sankaran Krishna- Comparative Assassinations: Political Killing in South Asia

Spring 2008 Speaker Series

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

“Comparative Assassinations: The Changing Moral Economy of Political Killing in South Asia”

Dr. Sankaran Krishna
Department of Political Science
University of Hawaii at Manoa

What does the changing character of assassinations in South Asia tell us about the state of politics in the region? In this talk, I draw a contrast between an earlier period of moral assassinations, such as the killing of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse in 1948, with that of more recent assassinations such as Rajiv Gandhi (1991) or Benazir Bhutto (2007). While the first type of assassination was embedded in a certain moral and rhetorical economy that emphasized discourse, dialogue, and negotiations about the desired directions of the future, the latter type of assassinations are, arguably, utilitarian, expedient, anonymous and marked by an absence of rhetoric and discourse. If the former type of assassin was a voluble, if also misguided, patriot, the latter is invariably symbolized by the mute suicide-bomber. Using the contrast between these forms of assassinations, I attempt to understand the changes undergone by postcolonial South Asia, and ponder the implications for the future of this space.

Date: Wednesday, April 23rd
Time: 12 pm – 1:20pm
Place: Burns Hall Room 2118

Sponsored by:

The UHM/EWC International Cultural Studies Program
Telephone: 808-944-7593
Fax: 808-944-7070
Office: Burns Hall #2069
Email:culture@hawaii.edu
Website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture

Event Sponsor
International Cultural Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa and East-West Center

More Information
Patty Harris, ICS Program Manager, 944-7593, culture@hawaii.edu, http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture

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