4th IDSC Conference on “Epistemologies of Disability” held at AMU

Aligarh : Furthering the cause of and need for disability sensitization, the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, organised the 4th International IDSC Conference on “Epistemologies of Disability” at the Conference Hall of the Faculty of Social Science, in collaboration with the Indian Disability Studies Collective (IDSC), a unit of the Shivam Sati Memorial Foundation, which aims to bring the Disability discourses under the purview of academic deliberations.

Dedicating the conference to the academic and social worker Dr Tassaduq Hussain, Prof Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, Chairperson, Department of English, AMU, in his welcome address threw light on Dr. Hussain’s versatile personality. “Though he lived all his life as a visually challenged person, he never let his disability become a handicap in living his life to the fullest, thus setting an example for others to draw inspiration and motivation” remarked Prof Siddiqui.

Reflecting on the illustrious history of the Department of English, AMU, he said the Department has kept pace with the development of English Studies as boundaries between the social sciences, literature and language blurred, and the present conference is another step in that direction.

In his opening remarks, Prof Someshwar Sati, Chairperson, IDCS, and Professor, Department of English, Kirori Mal College, Delhi University, said that the greatest tribute we can pay to Dr. Tasadduq Husain is to commit ourselves to promoting the cause of disability and Disability Studies. Urging the need to revisit the perception of disability and normalcy, Prof. Sati said it is a paradox that people who know little about the subject talk a lot about it in a patronizing tone giving long pronouncements of sympathy, and consolations.

Disability Studies, according to him is a form of social activism that negotiates the dehumanizing conception of disability aided with its medical interpretations as a lack of deficiency and focus on celebrating disability as a culture, making the persons with disability (PwD) more visible in the public sphere who are largely discriminated against and looked down upon with contempt in a society that treats disability as a stigma.

Prof. Sati commented that every culture and society evolves its own strategies to empower the disabled, like in the USA it is treated as a minority just like race, and gender. Indian academia also needs to evolve a more indigenous conception of disability and a discourse that resonates with our day-to-day experience. Prof. Sati concluded his talk with a call to join the Disability Studies’ endeavour to make the world a more inclusive space.

Prof Manvendra Kumar Pundhir, Head of the Disability Unit, AMU, enlightened the gathering about Aligarh Muslim University’s efforts to make the campus more disabled friendly, as he briefed about the establishment of the Disability Unit which later got upgraded into a Centre of Disability and Rehabilitation Studies.

He said that AMU is the first to implement the reservation roster for PwD.

In his Presidential address, Prof Abdul Waheed, Department of Sociology, AMU, remarked that it is an age of rights, empowerment, equality, and struggle on one hand and an age of violation of human rights on the other. Tracing the history of the human rights movement in India from 1960-70 onwards, he talked about the new social movements like women’s rights movements. He also expressed his concern regarding the lack of articulation on disability cause and statistical misrepresentations of the dimensions of this problem in India.

Dr. Shilpa Das, Vice-Chair, IDSC delivered the keynote lecture wherein she focused on the marginalisation of women with disability who are treated as a subordinate group within the disability community, as disability studies are more focused on the structural issues that largely affect men. Tracing down the history of the word ‘disability” she said that it has come to be generally associated with being invalid, cripple, and inefficient, in turn leading to being poor and destitute. She said that “disability” is “an identity which is amorphous with porous boundaries.”

Referring to the tendency of disability studies to contest every medical description of disability, she emphasised that medicalisation and medical interventions cannot be altogether eliminated as practical suffering and pain cannot be handled with philosophising and theorizing about the problem. She talked about the feminist scholar’s efforts to reconceptualize the problem in a neo-liberal context.

Prof. Mohammad Gulrez, the Vice Chancellor, AMU, in his message, expressed his pleasure in organizing such a relevant conference and called it a crucial step in promoting inclusivity towards the disabled people.

Mr. Ritwick Bhattacharjee, Treasurer, IDSC, and Assistant Professor, Department of English, SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University presented the report of IDSC.

The Convener, Dr Siddhartha Chakraborti, Assistant Professor, Department of English, AMU proposed a vote of thanks.

A movie dedicated to the memory of Dr. Tassaduq Hussain was also screened.