PANAJI
Fundação Oriente in India and the University of Manchester, UK, will hold two-day International Conference, on ‘Global Trade in the Indian Ocean World Commercial Networks, Imperial Development, and Institutional Transformation’ on February 11 and 12 at Fundação Oriente in Panaji.
The conference is organised by Prof Edmond Smith, Dr Mariana Boscariol and Dr Shounak Ghosh of the University of Manchester. The opening address will be delivered by Edmond Smith (University of Manchester) on day one who will chair the first session is ‘Integrating Goa into the Indian Ocean World... and Beyond’. This session includes Nagendra Rao speaking on ‘Business Brahmins in Goa, 1450-1750’, Diogo Pereira on ‘Jesuit Agency in a Global Trading System: Procurators and their Networks in the Indian Ocean World, 1600-1650’ and Mariana Boscariol on ‘The House of Mercy and the Portuguese Administration’.
The second session, ‘Experiences of Cross-Cultural Exchange’ will be chaired by Mariana Boscariol and the participants will be Rohit Prabu speaking on ‘Armenians and the EIC’, Shounak Ghosh elaborating on ‘Imperial Connoisseurship and Diplomatic Exchange: Reconstructing the Merchant-Envoy in Mughal - Safavid Correspondence’ and Santanu Sengupta explaining the ‘Inheritance in Flux: Transition of Armenian Wills in the Mayor's Court of Madras in the Eighteenth Century’.
Session three will be on ‘The Inland Indian Ocean World’ and chaired by Mariana Boscariol. The speakers are Edmond Smith to speak on ‘An Outsider's Perspective’, Pratyay Nath on ‘Horsing ARound Equestrian Trade and the making of the Mughal Empire’ and Murari Jha speaking on ‘The Ganga River and Mughal India: Economy Environment and Empire - C 1500-1800’.
The keynote address will be given by Prof Samira Shaikh on ‘Estuaries of Exchange: Bharuch and the Hidden Cargoes of the Indian Ocean’.
The day two, February 12 will have a keynote address by Prof Lakshmi Subramanian on ‘The 'region' in its myriad avatars: International trade, imperial politics and local capital in Mughal India’.
Session four is on ‘Three Empires in Bengal’, chaired by Shounak Ghosh with participants Radhika Chada (Far from as 'Shadow': Rethinking Empire through Portuguese Bengal, c 1500-1640), Bidisha Sengupta (Bengal-Persianate World) and Byapti Sur (The Mughals on Water: Mughal Subahdars through the Dutch Archives in Seventeenth-century Bengal).
The fifth session will be ‘Claiming the Coastline’, chaired by Mariana Boscariol. Andre Murteira (A 'Hybrid' merchant Fleet? Portuguese Shipping in Asia as seen through the Portuguese Prizes of the Dutch East India Company, 17th c), Aasim Khwaja (Of Bahr-o-Bar: Reflections on Sovereign Claims over SEa in the Western Indian Ocean Region) and Radhika Seshan (Structure and Agency in the Commercial Networks on the Coromandel Coast in the Seventeenth Century) will discuss their topics with closing comments by Edmond Smith.
Admission for the conference is free, but prior registration is suggested via the link: https://forms.gle/RK6nBEU8Ux1NW2jL9 and certificates of attendance will be provided to all the participants.
