In Conversation: Collaborative Methods Behind 'Mughal Banaras'

This talk brings together the two curators of the SOAS Gallery exhibition Mughal Banaras: Forgotten Histories, Troubled Present for an in-conversation discussion reflecting on the collaborative methods that shaped the exhibition. Historian Malavika Kasturi and architect and photographer Jateen Lad come from distinct disciplinary backgrounds, yet their long-term collaboration has been central to uncovering and presenting Banaras’s overlooked Mughal past.

Drawing on archival research, ethnography, architectural history and contemporary photographic practice, the exhibition reveals the enduring presence of the descendants of Crown Prince Jahandar Shah and the fragile material and social landscapes they inhabit today. In this conversation, Kasturi and Lad will discuss how their respective approaches to history, space, visual documentation and fieldwork informed one another, and how collaboration enabled new ways of seeing the city beyond dominant narratives of sacred geography.

The talk will reflect on the practical and intellectual challenges of working across disciplines, particularly in a politically charged environment where Mughal heritage is frequently marginalised or contested. It will also consider the possibilities of collaborative curatorial practice as a means of producing more nuanced, ethically grounded accounts of urban histories.

This event offers insight into the processes behind the exhibition and will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners working across history, architecture, visual culture and curatorial studies.

Jateen Lad is an architect working on the frontlines of our ever-widening social, economic and spatial inequalities and the fragile environments they create. His multi-disciplinary practice was established in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in Pondicherry, India, and is now based in Manchester. His local and global projects seek to dignify and strengthen marginalised communities and are entirely built by local people, who he trains on-the-job, enhancing their skills, confidence and livelihoods. His award-winning buildings are described as 'a force for social change' and have been widely published and exhibited. For more information, visit Jateen Lad's personal website.

Malavika Kasturi is Associate Professor at the Department of History at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she teaches South Asian history. Her research focuses on Banaras’s urban history, public memory, the history of households, and the relationship between religion and Hindu nationalism on which she has published extensively. Since 2010, she has conducted extensive archival and ethnographic research in Banaras, on the history of the Mughal descendants of Crown Prince Jahandar Shah, from which this exhibition draws. Her next book is Mughal Banaras: Jahandar Shah, the ‘Later’ Mughals and Public Memory.

Mughal Banaras: Forgotten Histories, Troubled Present is a photography exhibition exploring Banaras’s overlooked Mughal past and present. On view from 15th January to 21st March, it brings together archival research and contemporary photography to reveal hidden sites, communities and fragile histories beyond the city’s sacred image.

Visit the exhibition web page

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Host or Publisher Brunei Gallery, SOAS