By Kelly Yue
Dr. Yogesh Chandrani joined Colorado College in 2015 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and is now Assistant Professor of Religion and Asian Studies. His academic interests include Modern South Asia, religion and secularism, colonial modernity, nationalism, violence, memory and subjectivity.
- Why did you decide to come to CC?
I have always wanted to teach at a liberal arts college and consider myself fortunate to be here. In 2015, my wife Nadia Guessous was appointed to a tenure track position in Feminist and Gender Studies and I was offered a visiting appointment in the Anthropology Department. As a visiting faculty, I taught courses in Anthropology, Religion and Asian Studies and in Fall 2019, I was offered a joint-tenure track by Asian Studies and Religion.
- What prompted the new South and Southeast Asian tracks in the Asian Studies minor?
South Asia is home to about one quarter of the world’s population and to not have a minor track, especially given the number of faculty with expertise on South Asia at CC, seemed a bit odd. Over the last five or six years, CC has hired several colleagues with expertise in South Asia. When I came here in 2015, Tracy Coleman in Religion and Vibha Kapuria-Foreman in Economics had already been teaching at CC for many years and the college had recently hired Purvi Mehta in History. Since then, Najnin Islam joined the English Department, Pallavi Sriram joined Theatre and Dance; and last year, I joined Asian Studies and Religion. We are a very exciting group of teachers; we cover a broad range of themes and topics in our classes and so we thought it was time to design a new minor track with a focus on South Asia. At the same time, the program also approved a minor track in Southeast Asia. Both tracks are interdisciplinary and not language dependent because we do not have anyone who can teach one of the languages from these two subregions of Asia. Last summer, we offered Elementary Hindi for the first time at CC. It was well received by the students, but the pandemic interrupted our efforts in offering the course this year. Hopefully when the pandemic is over, we will have the resources to make Hindi/Urdu a regular course at CC.
- Are there any changes you wish to see in the Asian Studies Program?
The field is changing. From the very beginning, the field of Asian Studies was an extension of US imperial interests in the region. The knowledges that were produced under the umbrella of Asian Studies were entangled with this global regime of power, with the United States occupying the center. I should also add that this global regime was and is racialized and deeply unequal. In the decades after WW II, when people spoke of Asian Studies, they usually meant the study of China and Japan, the two countries that were central to US strategic calculations after the war. Asia itself was imagined as made up of nation-states, each with their own unique culture, each one homogenous and walled off from neighboring states. The knowledge that was produced in the early part of the 20th century has left us with a mixed legacy. Some of the scholarship from this period can only be described as racist. At the same time, many other scholars wrote empathetically about Asian societies, their work was rigorous, they emphasized inter-Asian connections, and questioned the centrality of the US (and Europe). For example, some of the finest translations and analyses of premodern religious and philosophical texts from India, China and Japan were done in this period.
We are, of course, at a very different historical conjuncture. The Cold War ended thirty years ago and although the US continues to have the world’s largest economy and the most powerful and destructive military in recorded history, it is a power in decline. Asia itself is a very different region today than it was just thirty years ago. Now, Asian Studies scholars are more attuned to the circulation of capital and commodities, globalized production and consumption, migration within and outside of the region, and more attentive to the impact of anthropogenic climate change. The effects of climate change cannot be contained within the borders of any one nation-state; the pain and suffering caused by climate change is global and it is unequally distributed. None of these issues can be studied in “national” terms.
Despite these dramatic changes, the one thing that does persist in the US is anti-Asian racism. At one time there was great hope that the knowledge produced by Asian Studies scholars would act as a counter to the deep vein of anti-Asian racism, but these prejudices are still with us. Global developments are also affecting Asian countries and societies in troubling ways. Ruling elites of Asian societies that had been victims of European colonialism are now embracing racism. For example, in many parts of Asia (India, China, Burma are the most visible), we are seeing the emergence of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is quite distinctive from traditional forms of anti-Muslim prejudice in these societies because it is a racializing discourse about Islam and Muslims; it is grounded in the idea that the Muslim communities of the region are not indigenous. This phenomenon cannot be understood without looking at its connections to the racist logic of the US-led war on terror and to the legacies of colonialism. To me, these examples suggest that our teaching and programming needs to emphasize inter-Asian connections, to think of Asia globally, and to continue the project of decentering the United States and Europe in the study of Asia.
- What is your favorite dish to make?
I have too many! I love to cook. These days, I love cooking Dosa for my daughter. Dosa is a crepe made of a fermented rice and lentil batter.
- Where do you call home? What does home mean to you?
As an Asian immigrant, I still feel a deep connection to South Asia. I also have deep connections to the United States since my immediate family and friends are here. I also have very deep ties in Morocco, where Nadia Guessous is from. It is hard to say where I feel most at home because I am attached to and uncomfortable in all three places.
- How has your racial/ethnic identity impacted you?
When I first came here, I did not think of myself in racial terms and I was ignorant of America’s history of settlement and slavery. Growing up in India, race and racial difference were abstractions that I read about in books on British rule in India. My first encounter with racism was on a college campus in the United States. I can’t remember all of the details, but it was the reason why I enrolled in a class on the history of apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the US soon after. The course and the two professors who taught it affected me profoundly; the class made me realize how trivial my own experience of racism was and it opened up a new way of thinking about questions of solidarity, equality and justice.
- How do you wish to engage with the Asian community on campus?
I have gotten to know some of the Asian students at CC mainly because they have signed up for my classes and I worked with the South Asian students in organizing the event on Kashmir last year. I would love to meet more students and get to know the various student affinity groups better. The pandemic and going remote has not helped on this front, but hopefully we will be back on campus soon and be able to work together.
