THE 13TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MODERN SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES. 8-11 September, 1994 Toulouse, France The conference is, as usual, open to all researchers on subjects concerning South Asia, and aims at the integration and the advancement of South Asian Studies throughout Europe. These conferences have taken place biennally since 1967 and have played an important part in creating a European community of scholars working on South Asia. The organizers of the 1994 conference believe such assem- blies have two important functions. The importance of the conferences in maintaining and extending existing networks, and in creating new contacts between scholars, should not be underestimated. This function is perhaps most important for those researchers who work in a setting where South Asian studies are relatively weak; many of us work most of the year with colleagues who have no particular interest in our region.The conferences serve an important function by bringing such scholars into contact with their colleagues working in the important centres of South Asian Studies. To be really successful, however, conferences should not only serve as meeting-places. Ideally, each one of us should leave the conference with a feeling of inspiration, of having gained new ideas and new perspectives. This goal, which ultimate- ly amounts to using the conference as a tool for promoting the quality of European research on South Asia in general, is, of course, more difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, it should remain the ambition of the organizers to arrange sessions in such a way as to stimulate new debate as well as to provide a forum for established themes. At the general meeting in Berlin, at the close of the last conference, there was a widely felt wish to avoid sessions that simply assemble contributions under general themes. While such sessions provide a forum for presentation of research, they leave little room for real debate. The solution proposed by most of the participants was to have more but smaller sessions, organized around closely-defined themes of research; in this way, the convener is freer to allow debate, and the participants may be assumed to take a more active part in the discussion. It is the view of the present organizers that, while a large number of small specialized sessions may prove useful to the participants of each such group, there is a concomitant danger of breaking up the conference, leaving too little room for cross-disciplinary debate and for new perspectives While conference participants may be satisfied with the debate within their own group, they may find other groups too specialized for their interest. In short, there is the danger of providing for the first of the two fuctions of the conference that we have mentioned, at the cost of the second. Implicitly, by giving such scholars the opportunity to associate with their colleagues this carries a danger of organizing a conference that provides for the integration of isolated scholars into the mainstream of research, but does not cater for the interest that will attract established scholars to the conference. We believe that this is one factor which explains why recent conferences have sometimes failed to attract some of the foremost South Asia scholars in Europe. This has led us to choose, to adopt a dual approach. We will not, of course, prevent any groups of scholars from assembling under the aegis of the conference to continue an existing debate on an established theme. But at the same time, we would like to include, a limited number of sessions expressly designed to provoke cross-discipli- nary debate and generate new debates. Such sessions should be convened by scholars of standing who are thought capable of integrating a wide range of viewpoints into a common discourse. In the following section we have grouped some such sessions, under the heading of "cross-disciplinary themes", while other proposals, most of them made at the Berlin meeting, are grouped under "specialized sessions". In some cases, conveners have already proposed making their sessions into "work groups", providing for pre-conference sessions, after which the conference will serve to present results of a certain common enterprise. Within this dual framework, the organizers intend to allow the conveners maximum freedom to organize their sessions within an allocated framework of time and space. The goal of each session should still be to achieve a publishable form. Thus, while cross-disciplinary sessions should aim at presenting to the potential reader a theme of interest to outsiders, specialized sessions should aim at a level of professionalization which makes publication feasible. In each case, therefore, the convener must aim expressly to achieve an improvement on the existing "state of the art". We propose to group the specialized sessions to run parallel on one day of the conference, and to reserve two days for the interdisciplinary sessions. If practicable, such an organization will make it possible for participants to pursue their special interest as well as to enjoy the interdisciplinary debate. SESSIONS PROPOSED AT THIS STAGE. INTERDISCIPLINARY SESSIONS. THE FOREST. Proposed and directed by Charles Malamoud. This sessions may include such themes as: the symbolic conception of the forest in Indian thought at different epochs and from various angles (e.g. the forest as domain of the renouncer); the role of the forest in a sociological and economic sense (e.g. the strategic role of the forest in traditional warfare); present ecological questions; and the relegation of tribal people to forest areas. This session is explicitly open to any contribution which may add to our understanding of the role of the forest in South Asian culture. HUMOUR AND EMOTIONS IN SOUTH ASIAN ARTS AND SCIENCES. We propose to ask Francis Zimmermann to head this session, perhaps in the collaboration with McKim Marriott. These two scholars have contributed greatly to clarifying the central role that indigenous categories play in structuring traditional arts and sciences in the subcontinent. Contributions might, be made from any branch of arts or sciences, but always with a view to expounding the conceptual basis of the subject. Thus semantic themes, studied by linguists, have not yet been brought into contact with this debate; and it should not be forgotten that grammar was perhaps the ultimate science in ancient India. It might be extremely interesting to have input from Islamic or Buddhist traditions to clarify their relationship with classical Hindu ideas. It might, moreover, be interesting to see how far the influence of traditional thought can be traced into the modern context. POWER AND POLITICS IN THE HIERARCHICAL UNIVERSE. Here, we propose Jean-Claude Galey, who has recently contributed to the study of traditional kingship, as well as Alphonse Bernard, representing modern political science, as conveners. Galey's statement that the ideas of kingship retain their importance well after the disappearance of the institution itself,may be taken as a point of departure here. Thus the session should concentrate on the conception of power and politics, but might incude contributions from any period or from any available type of source material; ideas implicit in current politics as well as those found in ancient or mediaeval sources. It may be noted that the alternative nuclei of power provided by merchants and other important urban groups have seldom been brought into this debate. RECONSTRUCTING SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY. We would like to approach Burton Stein and/or Jacques Pouchepa- dass to head this session. Recent studies have been able to make use of sources not previously taken into account for this purpose. These include indigenous historiography and recent archaelogical discoveries; at the same time , traditional sources continue to retain their importance. The question of a critical approach to source materials is more important than ever. Another recent contribution comes from reconstruction by anthropologists or historians inspired by anthropology. Questions raised by scholars in subsidiary subjects or by critiques of "orientalism" may be relevant to the debate. On the whole, there would seem to be a need to consider the role of these recent developments globally. THE VILLAGE REVISTED. We would like to propose Jean-Luc Chambard and Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi to head this session. The great period of anthropological studies of the village is past; some scholars however, have recently re-opened the field. But, at the same time, new perspectives on the village have been coming from other disciplines (see: Ferro-Luzzi's specialized session on the "village in modern South Asian literature"). Historians, too , are taking a greater interest in the village, not least through the study juridical documents. Urbanists have recently explored the other pole of the urban-rural continuum- how do their conclusions reflect on the village? We think the time is ripe to attempt an integrated view of the place of the village in South Asian culture, not only on the sociological or economic, but also the conceptual level- "imagining the village". RITUAL AND THE INDIVIDUAL. We would like to ask Jonathan Parry and Francoise Mallison to head this session. Recent studies of therapeutic cults have underlined the important role of ritual in the symbolic constitu- tion of the individual. Psychologists as well as anthropologists have made a contribution to this debate, which ought, perhaps , to be brought into contact with studies from textual materials, where such themes as bhakti, asceticism, and renunciation deal explicitly with the role of the individual. What is striking is the large number of alternatives offered to the individual in the South Asian setting. Looking at the theme from this angle, we hope to transcend the division between specialists in each of the, sometimes conflicting, religious traditions under study. SPECIALIZED SESSIONS WORK GROUPS. -Ethnohistorical and anthropological approaches to the study of the Himalayan Region (Bouiller, Toffin) -Structure of Tribal Rituals: Fiction and Reality (M.Carrin) -Marriage Presentations (G.Pfeiffer) -Muslim Shrines (H.Basu) -Authority and Power in the Princely States (E.Fasana) PANELS: for the present, we withhold this list, which includes a number of propositions-to be edited and reduced to a manageable number. For further information contact: The Organizers, 13th South Asia Conference c/o Centre d'Anthropolgie des Societes Rurales, 56, Rue du Taur, 31000 Toulouse, France.