Further Research Other Research Projects

Project leaders: Dr. Dieter Reinhardt, Professor Hans Harder

Jointly coordinated by Dr. Dieter Reinhardt and Prof. Dr. Hans Harder, this project was conducted in cooperation with the 'Verein zur Förderung der Bildung' (Salzwedel). The project was co-financed by the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund of the European Commission (2020-2022) and dealt with transnational identity networks and diaspora groups, focusing on the Bangladeshi diaspora. The global increase in migration has been accompanied by new forms of self-organization by migrant groups and transnational identity networks, which were based on competing cultural, political, and religious worldviews. Family and friendship structures, private financial transfers, continuous travel, associations, and electronic communication techniques have been constitutive elements of these self-organizations. Using the example of Bangladeshi diaspora groups in Germany and other European countries, the project analyzed the internal socio-cultural and political dynamics of these groups, as well as their perception and assessment of socio-cultural and political developments in their respective host countries. Additionally, the effects of state 'integration policies' on these dynamics were examined. The project took into account the specific migration experiences of diaspora groups that had existed for several decades, newly immigrated migrants with different professional qualifications and entrepreneurial activities, as well as students and politically persecuted persons.

Project members of the Department: Prof. Hans Harder, Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner

Indian Principal Investigators: Prof. Nishat Zaidi, Prof. Saroj Kumar Mahananda (Jamia Millia Islamia)

Duration

May 2019—April 2021 

Funding body:

Funded through SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic Research Cooperation), a programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

Among sociolinguists, language ideologies are understood as sets of assertions and beliefs about a language in a given milieu or society (Buchholtz and Hall). Languages are commonly invested with attributes (authentic, analytical, homely, difficult, soft, melodious, and so on) and set off from other surrounding languages. Speakers distinguish them from their environment by such attributions, often investing the languages with an additional value.

This take on ideology partakes of the general discussion by narrowing down the scope of the term considerably. In general sociology and history and also in common parlance, ideology is a far more comprehensive concept with much more stress on the political aspect. Ideology denotes the interplay of connected notions and assumptions about society in a systemized way. They are usually shared among groups or whole societies and relate to the political and social spheres of life. The critique of ideology, imbibed with the sense of distinguishing true from false consciousness, has sometimes been considered an outdated concept. Disentangled from such normative notions, however, a critical approach to ideologies remains highly relevant. Combining it with an investigation of “language ideologies”, we hope to make it a fruitful approach to our topic.

South Asian regional languages in colonial and postcolonial times, we argue, have come to coexist in a close neighborhood with English. Contact with English and the culture and literature connected with it have stimulated many features of their modernization in the 19th and 20th centuries. Simultaneously, anti-colonialism triggered in some cases a polemical response against the English language, asserting the vernacular as the true and authentic sphere of South Asian cultures. Post-Independence developments have significantly altered this set-up, leading in the direction of what has been called a vernacularization of English.

Such processes are often reflected and ideologically recast on a metalinguistic level. The formation of ideas about particular languages and reflections about their specific nature are arguably enhanced by diversity of languages and hierarchy amongst them. It is the drive to reassure the ground of the language in view of its border with other languages that triggers such reflections. Constellations between vernaculars are also part of this process, but arguably most prominently it is the position vis-à-vis English that calls for definition.

How are particular languages imagined and projected by their speakers and pedagogues? How do language ideologies link them to ethnic and religious belonging? What attributes do they claim? In Bengali, for instance, claims regarding a particular sweetness and melodiousness seem to be stock stereotypes since the nineteenth century. How do language ideologies serve political agitation, as for example in the Dravidian Movement or the Language Movement in erstwhile East Pakistan? And, most importantly, how do they deal with English?

Our project is designed to investigate South Asian language ideologies in colonial and postcolonial times within the framework sketched above. While some constellations, e.g. the so-called Hindi-Urdu Controversy, have been extensively studied, most are little known beyond their immediate environment. The aim of our collaboration is to bring together experts in various South Asian languages, including English, and probe deeper into this field. 

A core team of scholars and students directly participating in the SPARC scheme will work on topics connected with this theme. The languages they concentrate on are Urdu, English, Hindi, Oriya, and Bengali. In an international conference to be held about mid-term of the collaboration, other experts will join the team and contribute work on additional languages. The result will be a jointly published volume on South Asian language ideologies and a jointly written monograph on vernacularity in South Asia.

 

Subproject B1 Satire: Cluster of Excellence: “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”

Project leader: Prof. Hans Harder

Duration: Jul 2008—Nov 2011 

This project examined the production of satire in South, East, and West Asian traditions during the peak of European colonialism and imperialism, specifically in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. Satire was analyzed as a communicative tool for assessing cultural asymmetries. The project asserted that the satirical mode of expression was particularly effective in portraying, measuring, and addressing the various disruptions experienced by traditional Asian cultures during their asymmetrical cultural interactions with Europe. As an inherently moralist endeavor, satire inherently contains a (sometimes hidden) statement about how things ought to be. By investigating Asian satire, the project aimed to unearth and highlight textual and visual sources often overlooked or minimized in their respective canons, and to identify central points of identity around which these inverted realities revolved.

 

Team Members: Prof. Hans Harder, Torsten Tschacher

Duration: Aug 2009—Jul 2012

Funding: Cluster of Excellence: “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”

Home to diverse people from Southeast, East, and South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and a node of the circulation of goods, people, ideas, and information between 'East' and 'West', the city of Singapore played an important role in the cultural flows which connected Asia and Europe. Between 1819 and 1942, Singapore grew from a small port to one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the British Empire. The presence of such a diverse population soon forced various communities to talk not only amongst themselves but with each other as well as with the colonial state. The result was the rise of a number of interrelated public spheres, whose relationship with each other was characterized by strong asymmetries. This project traced the engagement of one particularly mobile (spatially and socially) segment of the Singaporean population, Tamil-speaking Muslims from South India, in Singapore's diverse public spheres, and investigated the role played by them in the local translation of international transcultural flows.

Team Members: Prof. Monika Boehm-Tettelbach, Prof. Jörg Gengnagel, Kerstin Sobkowiak

Duration: Jul 2009—Jun 2013

Subproject B5 - Collaborative Research Center 619 “Ritual Dynamics”

This project investigated the court ritual in the princely state of Jaipur (Rajasthan/India), from the 18th century until the dissolution of the state and its accession unto the Dominion of India in 1949, as well as the current performance of the mutated ritual. Its focal point was the function of the ritual as well as the reasons for its change, the characteristics of the change processes and its actors. The research was based on the assumption that the court ritual is a structure-providing part of the ruling system, conveying the legitimateness of ruling and assuring loyalty towards the sovereign.

The project also explored the legitimation of sovereignty in the princely state of Jaipur to include the aspect of external legitimation by researching the design of ceremonies involving foreigners, such as European envoys, Jesuit priests and the British residents in 18th and early 19th century. Furthermore, it examined the yearly celebrations in Jaipur which affirm the royal power (dasahara, vijayadasami) to then analyze the possible transfer of royal rituals from Vijayanagara to Rajasthan. To reflect contemporary times, the project studied specific celebrations activating the court ceremonial and religious rituals and investigated their ritual dynamics. It also documented the voices of the actors who are involved in these dynamics with different interests and views and explored the intended function of the ritual after the dissolution of its initial objective, i.e. the princely state.

Hindi bolo. Hindi für Deutschsprachige. Teil 1.

Project leader: Gautam Liu

Duration: Until October 2010 

This language manual for German-speaking learners, published in autumn 2010. 

 

 

Team leader: Prof. Hans Harder

Funding: Collaborative Research Center 619 “Ritual Dynamics,” Subproject A8

In view of globalization, many scientists have postulated the rise of a “borderless world of flows,” where the notion of identity has outgrown the outdated concepts of national-state models. However, this perspective appears to be Eurocentric. In Asia, Africa, and other regions, the significance of borders and the number of associated rituals have actually increased. This is particularly evident in South Asia. Simultaneously, borders rooted in pre-independence times, as well as those of the “princely states,” have been abolished, leading to the fading or complete disappearance of their associated rituals.

This project’s core question was: “How does the establishment or abolition of borders and their associated rituals affect the reflective process of identity construction among the borderers?” To explore this question, the project compared three ritual systems: (1) the pilgrimages related to Hinglaj Devi, whose temple is located in Balochistan, Pakistan, (2) the temple of Sitakunda in Bangladesh, and (3) a ritual system in the central Himalayas that was experiencing the abolition of long-standing ritual borders.

The first case study focused on the temple of the Hindu goddess Hinglaj, situated in present-day Balochistan. The partition of 1947 made it nearly impossible for Hindu believers to pilgrimage to this temple, especially for those groups for whom the pilgrimage is a “holy duty.” The project investigated how these groups reacted to the closing of the border. The second case study examined Sitakunda, a temple complex in Chittagong dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. This complex is considered one of the most important contemporary Hindu shrines in the predominantly Muslim country of Bangladesh. The third case study was centered on a region in the central Himalayas that is divided into several small territories, each ruled by a god through an oracle. The borders of these “divine kingdoms” were traditionally established through rituals, such as processions and oblations, and were fiercely defended. In the years following independence, these borders became less significant. Today, former archenemies come together to perform “heritage rituals,” arrange strategic marriages, or develop political strategies for elections. This shift has dramatically altered the content and meaning of processions, sacrifices, and other rituals.