Quick links: Tasveer Ghar - Ektara India - Khayal Darpan - Muslim Devotional Art - Campus Rising - 'A Feast in Rampur' documentary - Cinema Qawwali Archive
Some Documentary Films and Videos
(roughly chronological order):
• Medicine's New Visions: Series of 3 documentary films on medical imaging devices such as CT-scan, MRI etc. for UGC, 1990.
• Turning Point: Co-directed and edited about 45 episodes of this Science series for Doordarshan TV channel (via Times Television) 1991-1994. See a report.
• Boojh Sakay To Boojh: A 4 part documentary series on the contemporary image of 13-century poet Amir Khusrau. (With Iffat Fatima) 4x30 min. (Jan.1997).
• Inside Ladakh: (with Iffat Fatima) A series of 5 documentary films that study the concept of change in 5 ethnic regions of Ladakh. 5x30 min. (June 1997-Doordarshan). Featured at MIFF 1998, Mumbai.
• Muharram: A short film that portrays the colourful and highly passionate observance of Muharram in north India’s Amroha town. 15 mins, 1998. Participated in MIFF 2000, Mumbai.
• Basant: A short film about how a primarily Hindu festival of spring called Basant is celebrated by some Muslims in North India. 12 mins. Betacam (Oct.1997). Screened at Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF'98), and the 6th International Short Film Festival, Dhaka (Bangladesh) 1999. Watch on Youtube.
• Apni Masti: An audio CD featuring songs in the voice of Hamsar Hayat and his qawwal team. Originally released in 2002 under Ektara India, but now marketed by Navras Records.
• EFBS – A Safer Pest Control: A training film for farmers on reducing the use of harmful chemical pesticides while growing vegetables such as eggplant. Dubbed in 5 Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati and Khasi. DV/Betacam, AVRDC-Taiwan, 2004.
• Yashpal – A Life in Science: A biographical film about India’s senior scientist Prof.Yashpal, exploring over half a century of his career in particle physics, satellite communication, and science education. 40 mins, 2004, DVCAM/Betacam, UGC.
• Kesar Saga: Co-camerawork and production for this documentary directed by Iffat Fatima, about the life of the folk tale Kesar Saga in the region of Ladakh. See on youtube: part 1, 2, & 3.
• Agriculture and the Small Farmer in India: A Bollywood Perspective: 23 mins, DV, a video presentation exploring the developments in Indian agriculture and economy as depicted in Hindi cinema over the years. Produced by Bibek Debroy and Amir U.Khan.
• Jannat Ki Rail (The Train to Heaven): A 7-minutes experimental music video celebrating the spirit of India's popular Islam, illustrated by popular devotional art and music. 2006. Featured at many film fests. See this report: "Positive negatives" in The Hindu.
• Khayal Darpan (A Mirror of Imagination): A feature-length film exploring the development of classical music in Pakistan post-1947, featuring many famous Khayal singers of Pakistan. 100 mins. DVCAM. Screened at Hong Kong Int. Film Festival 2007, Film South Asia Kathmandu 2007, Lyon Asian Film Fest 2007, and many academic venues such as Univ. of Austin, Texas, Concordia Univ., Canada, and other locations. Also a part of Remembering Partition Festival in Mumbai (a report). Reference to the film.
• Aqeedat Ke Rang (Colours of Devotion): A video compilation of various performative traditions of Indian Muslims from different regions, 55 mins, IGNCA, 2008.
• A Dry Run: A compilation of clips from popular Hindi cinema depicting the theme of water in India, telling the story of water and livelihood. (26 mins) 2009.
• Tasveer-e Aqeedat: A short video on the popular visual culture around the Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin in New Delhi. 15 mins. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University, Germany, 2010.
• Qasba Sanskriti: Bilgram, Amroha: Two films documenting the ethnographic diversity and cultural traditions of two towns in north India. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, 2011. The Amroha film participated in Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2012.
• The Making of the Taj: Short film about the making of the world-famous Mughal monument in Agra (produced for Sahapedia/ Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi), 29 mins, 2013. Watch on Youtube.
• Khusrau Darya Prem Ka: A film about poet Amir Khusrau in a dramatic storytelling style. Produced for Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2014.
• Campus Rising: A film about recent students' unrest in Indian universities. 73 mins, 2017.
• The Ganita Story: A documentary exploring the history of mathematics in India and the world. Produced by Newsclick.in, 2018. (Nominated at the National Science Film Festival, Mohali/ Chandigarh, 2019, and given the (1) Special Jury Award and (2) Special Award for Technical Excellence - Research).
• Dilli - Yadon ki Mehfil: An oral history-based film on the past culture of Dilli or Shahjahanabad. This 53-mins film is part of a larger project called Indo-Muslim Heritage of Delhi comprising a series of 20 interviews. Produced for Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, 2014-17.
• Short videos for Ektara magazine - please see the youtube channel.
• Dastarkhwan-e Rampur (A Feast in Rampur): A documentary exploring the culinary history of the nawabi Rampur town in north India. 60 mins, Sheffield University project. 2022-23.
Some Published Works (including non-academic articles):
• The joyous rites of spring, in Speaking Tree, The Times of India, Mumbai, 4 Feb. 1998. Also another version at Chowk.com (6 Feb 1998).
• Walking the Mystic Alleys, Amir Khusrau Website, 1998.
• Aaj rachyo hai Basant Nijam ghar آج رچو ہے بسنت نجام گھر (Today, the spring blossoms in Nizam's house), Qaumi Awaz (Urdu daily), Haftawar zameema (weekend supplement), New Delhi, February 15, 1998, pp. 1-4.
• A Wedding with the Divine, Chowk.com, June 04, 1998 (a version of this appeared in the Times of India with the title "In Celebration of Death" in January 2000).
• Can't we too break the wall?, Chowk.com, June 23, 1998.
• Photo editor for several publications of Encyclopedia Britannica (India), such as Students' Britannica, Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema, and others (1999-2001).
• Musical Noise in Arab ki Sarai, a review of Muzaffar Ali's Jahan-e Khusrau, March 2001 (Amir Khusrau website).
• What kind of India shall we give to our children? A help-book in English, Urdu, and Hindi, enlisting some practical suggestions on reducing communal prejudice in the society, self-published after 2002’s communal violence in Gujarat. New Delhi, June 2002. This book being used by Hindi-Urdu students at University of Texas, Austin.
• A Proposal to Resolve the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid Tussle, 2002.
• An Image Bazaar for the Devotee, in ISIM Review 17, Leiden, 2006, International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• Khusrau's Hindvi Poetry, An Academic Riddle? Essay in Hu, the Sufi Journal of the Rumi Foundation, May 2007, Delhi (also at the Amir Khusrau website - www.alif-india.com)
• Classical Music in Pakistan: The Impact of Partition, in Biblio, July-Aug. 2007, Delhi.
• This is what they look like - Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema, a virtual gallery visual essay at Tasveer Ghar (http://tasveerghar.net)
• Media Circus of Terrorist Encounter at Batla House, Delhi (Sept 2007) Outlook India.
• Mecca versus the Local Shrine: The Dilemma of Orientation in the Popular Religious Art of Indian Muslims, in Jyotindra Jain (ed.) 'India’s Popular Culture - Iconic Spaces and Fluid Images', a Marg book, 2007, Mumbai. See this article in Economic Times.
• Remembering Amir Khusrau, Kashmir Monitor, Srinagar, July 13, 2008.
• Some notes on the controversy regarding artist M.F.Hussain (blog), Aug. 2008.
• The Debate on Amir Khusrau’s "Inventions" in Hindustani Music, 'The Journal of Indian Musicological Society', Vol. 39, 2008, Mumbai.
• An unequal music, The Friday Times, Lahore, Sept.26-Oct 2, 2008 (Report on 2-day workshop on Partition and Classical Music at Delhi).
• Fled is that Music, in Ira Pande (ed.): 'The Great Divide, India and Pakistan', (India International Centre Quarterly) New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2009, pp. 238-249).
• ख्यालों की सरहद नहीं (हिंदी लेख), जसम फिल्मोत्सव 2009 brochure, लखनऊ: जन संस्कृति मंच, September 2009, p 19-22, 26.
• Muslim Exotica of Hindi Filmdom, a review on the book “Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema” by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen, Tulika Books, Delhi, 2009, published in The Book Review, Aug-Sept.2009 (South Asia Special – XIV), New Delhi, pp 23-24.
• Our New Minarets of Identity, a short article about Swiss ban on minarets and prefab minarets of south Asia, Himal Southasian Magazine, web special, 4 December, 2009. Also a different version (with Christiane Brosius) on tasveerghar.net
• Postcards from Lahore, Sarhad Mitra, July-Sept. 2010, Newsletter of Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, Pune.
Fellowships/Grants:
• SARAI Fellow 2004: A short research fellowship entitled Syncretism in the popular art of Muslim religious posters in north India, awarded by the Centre for Studies in the Developing Societies, SARAI, New Delhi.
• Asia Fellow 2005: to conduct a documentation project on Amir Khusrau’s living musical traditions in Pakistan, awarded by Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok. The project concluded with a research paper and two documentary films: Khayal Darpan (100 mins) and Khusrau in Pakistan (15 mins).
• Visiting fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. It involved 3 presentations of films and other audio visual material at three venues in Paris, May 2006.
• Visiting fellow of Boston University, Boston, to visit many institutions in the United States to present films and talk about India’s plural culture (September to October 2006). Lectured and screened films at universities such as Harvard, Boston, Tufts, Texas (Austin), Columbia, (New York), Brown (Providence), and Chicago, besides MIT (AKPIA).
• Collaborative Work Grant from Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) to organize an international workshop and related activities on “The Impact of 1947 Partition on South Asia’s Classical Music” February-September 2008.
• Margaret Beveridge Senior Research Fellow at J.B. Media Resource Centre, Jamia Millia, New Delhi, to work on "Moving Pictures Moving Faith - Muslim Piety in Hindi Cinema, Popular VCDs, and 21st Century TV".
• Fellow of the The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows" at Heidelberg University, for a project on popular Islamic visuality under the Satellite of Networks (2009-11).
• OVP travel grant from Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) to visit Washington D.C. for symposium at Smithsonian Institute, 2012-13. See event details on Indian embassy's India Review (pg. 13).
Some Published Works (including non-academic articles):
• The joyous rites of spring, in Speaking Tree, The Times of India, Mumbai, 4 Feb. 1998. Also another version at Chowk.com (6 Feb 1998).
• Walking the Mystic Alleys, Amir Khusrau Website, 1998.
• Aaj rachyo hai Basant Nijam ghar آج رچو ہے بسنت نجام گھر (Today, the spring blossoms in Nizam's house), Qaumi Awaz (Urdu daily), Haftawar zameema (weekend supplement), New Delhi, February 15, 1998, pp. 1-4.
• A Wedding with the Divine, Chowk.com, June 04, 1998 (a version of this appeared in the Times of India with the title "In Celebration of Death" in January 2000).
• Can't we too break the wall?, Chowk.com, June 23, 1998.
• Photo editor for several publications of Encyclopedia Britannica (India), such as Students' Britannica, Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema, and others (1999-2001).
• Musical Noise in Arab ki Sarai, a review of Muzaffar Ali's Jahan-e Khusrau, March 2001 (Amir Khusrau website).
• What kind of India shall we give to our children? A help-book in English, Urdu, and Hindi, enlisting some practical suggestions on reducing communal prejudice in the society, self-published after 2002’s communal violence in Gujarat. New Delhi, June 2002. This book being used by Hindi-Urdu students at University of Texas, Austin.
• A Proposal to Resolve the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid Tussle, 2002.
• A letter to Lanka Shri (an anecdote), Sarai Readers List, July 2004.
• Khamosh Pani Crosses the Border Noisily, Chowk.com, December 14, 2004 (Review on the film Khamosh Pani). Also a version in Tehelka.com
• A man for all faiths (article about Gwalior's folk orator Dhole Bua Maharaj), Tehelka, New Delhi, 12 February, 2005, p. 30.
• Popular Art Bridges Divide, in 'The Times of India', New Delhi, Feb. 18, 2006.
• The house of music, Time Out Delhi, 2006 (an article on Dilli gharana)
• Breaking Boundaries: Devotional Iconography in Popular Muslim Posters in India, in Manushi magazine, No.157, Nov-Dec. 2006. pp. 12-15.• Khamosh Pani Crosses the Border Noisily, Chowk.com, December 14, 2004 (Review on the film Khamosh Pani). Also a version in Tehelka.com
• A man for all faiths (article about Gwalior's folk orator Dhole Bua Maharaj), Tehelka, New Delhi, 12 February, 2005, p. 30.
• Popular Art Bridges Divide, in 'The Times of India', New Delhi, Feb. 18, 2006.
• The house of music, Time Out Delhi, 2006 (an article on Dilli gharana)
• An Image Bazaar for the Devotee, in ISIM Review 17, Leiden, 2006, International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• Khusrau's Hindvi Poetry, An Academic Riddle? Essay in Hu, the Sufi Journal of the Rumi Foundation, May 2007, Delhi (also at the Amir Khusrau website - www.alif-india.com)
• Classical Music in Pakistan: The Impact of Partition, in Biblio, July-Aug. 2007, Delhi.
• This is what they look like - Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema, a virtual gallery visual essay at Tasveer Ghar (http://tasveerghar.net)
• Media Circus of Terrorist Encounter at Batla House, Delhi (Sept 2007) Outlook India.
• Mecca versus the Local Shrine: The Dilemma of Orientation in the Popular Religious Art of Indian Muslims, in Jyotindra Jain (ed.) 'India’s Popular Culture - Iconic Spaces and Fluid Images', a Marg book, 2007, Mumbai. See this article in Economic Times.
• Remembering Amir Khusrau, Kashmir Monitor, Srinagar, July 13, 2008.
• Some notes on the controversy regarding artist M.F.Hussain (blog), Aug. 2008.
• The Debate on Amir Khusrau’s "Inventions" in Hindustani Music, 'The Journal of Indian Musicological Society', Vol. 39, 2008, Mumbai.
• An unequal music, The Friday Times, Lahore, Sept.26-Oct 2, 2008 (Report on 2-day workshop on Partition and Classical Music at Delhi).
• Fled is that Music, in Ira Pande (ed.): 'The Great Divide, India and Pakistan', (India International Centre Quarterly) New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2009, pp. 238-249).
• ख्यालों की सरहद नहीं (हिंदी लेख), जसम फिल्मोत्सव 2009 brochure, लखनऊ: जन संस्कृति मंच, September 2009, p 19-22, 26.
• Muslim Exotica of Hindi Filmdom, a review on the book “Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema” by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen, Tulika Books, Delhi, 2009, published in The Book Review, Aug-Sept.2009 (South Asia Special – XIV), New Delhi, pp 23-24.
• Our New Minarets of Identity, a short article about Swiss ban on minarets and prefab minarets of south Asia, Himal Southasian Magazine, web special, 4 December, 2009. Also a different version (with Christiane Brosius) on tasveerghar.net
• Postcards from Lahore, Sarhad Mitra, July-Sept. 2010, Newsletter of Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, Pune.
• Kya Jamia Nagar phatne wala hai? (Urdu) Jadeed Mail, January 7, 2011 (and 8 January) New Delhi (Series of articles about the urban decay and social crisis at Jamia Nagar, New Delhi)
• Jugalbandi: Divided scores, Himal Southasian, February 2011, Kathmandu.
• Let some fresh air in (article about Jamia Millia's 'minority status'), The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, February 27, 2011. Also see its longer version, and its Urdu version published in Jadeed Mail.
• Eid Mubarak: Cross-cultural Image Exchange in Muslim South Asia, Tasveer Ghar, March 2011, New Delhi. Also to appear in Houseful! The Best of Tasveer Ghar to be published from Yoda Press.
• Muslim Devotional Art in India, a book surveying the history of Muslim visual culture in India using the contemporary variety of popular poster and calendar art). Routledge, 2012, Delhi.
• 'The Figural Image in Islamic Devotional Art of the Indian Subcontinent', in Gruber, Christiane (ed.), The Image Debate: Figural representation in Islamic lands and across the world, Gingko Library, 2019, pp. 156-71.
• 'Qawwali', entry in Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century, edited by Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Peter Ronald deSouza, Bloomberg (forthcoming).
• South Asia's Islamic Popular Art (a full-colour illustrated booklet featuring 40 religious posters), Singapore: Kitaab, 2019.
• 'Images for a Pilgrim: Poster Art of Sufi Shrines in India', in Bhattacharya, Nandini and Nayeem Anis (eds.), Sufism: A Peregrination through Manuscripts and Popular Culture, New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2019, pp. 217-34.
• Review of the book by Jamal J. Elias, Alef is for Allah: Childhood, Emotion, and Visual Culture in Islamic Societies (University of California Press, 2018). Review published at Reading Religion, a web publication of the American Academy of Religion.
• 'Lions of Islam: Symbols of Masculine Power in the Devotional Art of India and Pakistan', Tasveer Ghar, 25 Nov. 2019, http://tasveergharindia.net/essay/lions-islam-manly-sufis
• Partitioning Bazaar Art: Popular Visual Culture of India and Pakistan around 1947, Seagull Books and University of Chicago Press, 2023.
• 'South Asia as a Production Hub for Popular Islamic Images', in Qaisra Khan and Nahla Nassar (eds.), The Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage, Essays in Honour of Nasser David Khalili, Gingko, 2024.
• Jugalbandi: Divided scores, Himal Southasian, February 2011, Kathmandu.
• Let some fresh air in (article about Jamia Millia's 'minority status'), The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, February 27, 2011. Also see its longer version, and its Urdu version published in Jadeed Mail.
• Eid Mubarak: Cross-cultural Image Exchange in Muslim South Asia, Tasveer Ghar, March 2011, New Delhi. Also to appear in Houseful! The Best of Tasveer Ghar to be published from Yoda Press.
• Setting gender roles in Early Indian Print Advertisements, Marg Magazine (Issue titled 'Framing Women: Gender in Colonial Archive'), Vol. 62, No. 4, June 2011, Mumbai, pp. 84-91.
• Nizamuddin Shrine’s Built Heritage and Delhi’s Urban Face-lift, Visual Pilgrim. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University.
• Windows of Pilgrimage: Announcement Posters of Religious Ceremonies, Visual Pilgrim. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University.
• Nizamuddin Shrine’s Built Heritage and Delhi’s Urban Face-lift, Visual Pilgrim. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University.
• Windows of Pilgrimage: Announcement Posters of Religious Ceremonies, Visual Pilgrim. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University.
• Whose music is it anyway, Avantika magazine, Vol.1, issue 2, Feb.2012, Kolkata, pp. 88-90.
• From Inclusive to Exclusive: Changing Ingredients of Muslim Identity in Bombay Cinema, in Robinson, Rowena (ed.), Minority Studies in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• How to start a riot out of Facebook, Kafila, August 13, 2012.
• Jannat ki Rail: Images of Paradise in India’s Muslim Popular Culture in Mumtaz Currim (Ed.), Jannat: Paradise In Islamic Art, Mumbai: Marg Foundation, 2012. A review in TimeOut Mumbai.
• Struggling as a Documentary Filmmaker, a short blog, 2013.
• Depicting the Saintly Miraculous Powers in Islamic Poster Art of South Asia, in Gopa Gupta et al (eds.), Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Subcontinent (Seminar publication), Kolkata: Bethune College, 2012, 29-34.
• Struggling as a Documentary Filmmaker, a short blog, 2013.
• Depicting the Saintly Miraculous Powers in Islamic Poster Art of South Asia, in Gopa Gupta et al (eds.), Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Subcontinent (Seminar publication), Kolkata: Bethune College, 2012, 29-34.
• Poster piety, Himal Southasian, Vol 26, No.1, January 2013, Kathmandu, p. 202-09.
• The Enigma of Amir Khusrau’s Contribution to Indian Music, Aalam-e Khusrau, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, New Delhi. 2013.
• The Enigma of Amir Khusrau’s Contribution to Indian Music, Aalam-e Khusrau, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, New Delhi. 2013.
• Qawwali and Sufi Sama in Awadh, in M. Ali (ed.), A Leaf Turns Yellow, the Sufis of Awadh, New Delhi: Bloomsbury India, 2013.
• Writing an Art History of the Bazaar, Review of Glocal Studies, Vol.1, issue 1, Monsoon 2013, Saharanpur: Glocal University Press, 58-64.
• Ishtihar Tasveeren: Visual Culture of Early Urdu Magazines, Art Connect, Bangalore: India Foundation for the Arts, 2014.
• Eid ul Fitr: A Muslim Festival in India, introductory article on a module of Sahapedia archive.
• Visual Homes, Image Worlds (Essays from Tasveer Ghar), New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2015. (Designed and co-edited this book; also author of one of the essays). Purchase the book at amazon.in.
• Ancient Indian Science: Dissecting Myth and Reality (etihas.in) A list of resources.• 'Visual Pastiche as a Symbol of Religious Pluralism in South Asian
Muslim Popular Art', in Gerritsen, Roos and Stephen Inglis (eds.), Street Art: Popular Expression in Urban India, Chennai: DakshinaChitra, 2016, pp. 26-35.
• 'Sufi Literature in North India: Focus on Chishtiyah and Related Orders', Sahapedia.org, 2016. (See other features in this module curated by me: Timeline of South Asian Sufis; Samples of Sufi Literature and Lyrics; Select Bibliography on Sufi Literature; Select Internet Links.
• 'A murder of imagination', Mid-Day, Mumbai, 26 June 2016, p. 19. (An article on the murder of Amjad Sabri qawwal) See web version. Download the PDF of the print version (6.7 MB).
• 'Communal profiling of Muslims on trains is not a new phenomenon', The Hindustan Times, July 16, 2017.
• 'Chishti Sufi Portraits: Image-Making from Central Asian Visual Culture to the XX Century Poster Art in India', in Doraiswamy, Rashmi (ed.), Central Asia and South Asia, Economic, Developmental, and Socio-Cultural Linkages, New Delhi: Manak Publications, 2017, pp 460-75.
• Motorcycles without silencer must be stopped: Campaign against traffic noise in India (change.org)
• Popular Art of the 'Two Nations' in the Mid-Twentieth Century, The Idea of Nationalism, Conference proceedings 2016, Calcutta: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2017, pp. 118-36.
• Campaign: Justice for Ankit Saxena, Sabrang, Feb. 24, 2018.
• .ہندوستانی موسیقی کو امیر خسرو کی دین : ایک معما, خسرو درپن ، کلکتہ ٢٠١٨
Hindustani mauseeqi ko Amir Khusrau ki dain: ek mu’amma (in
Urdu, translated by F.S. Ejaz), in Khusrau Darpan, a special volume of Insha
Monthly, Kolkata: Insha Publications, February 2018, pp. 201-06.• 'The Figural Image in Islamic Devotional Art of the Indian Subcontinent', in Gruber, Christiane (ed.), The Image Debate: Figural representation in Islamic lands and across the world, Gingko Library, 2019, pp. 156-71.
• 'Qawwali', entry in Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century, edited by Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Peter Ronald deSouza, Bloomberg (forthcoming).
• South Asia's Islamic Popular Art (a full-colour illustrated booklet featuring 40 religious posters), Singapore: Kitaab, 2019.
• 'Images for a Pilgrim: Poster Art of Sufi Shrines in India', in Bhattacharya, Nandini and Nayeem Anis (eds.), Sufism: A Peregrination through Manuscripts and Popular Culture, New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2019, pp. 217-34.
• Review of the book by Jamal J. Elias, Alef is for Allah: Childhood, Emotion, and Visual Culture in Islamic Societies (University of California Press, 2018). Review published at Reading Religion, a web publication of the American Academy of Religion.
• 'Lions of Islam: Symbols of Masculine Power in the Devotional Art of India and Pakistan', Tasveer Ghar, 25 Nov. 2019, http://tasveergharindia.net/essay/lions-islam-manly-sufis
• 'Legal handbook for the artist community in India (Urdu)', UNESCO, 2022, Urdu translation by Yousuf Saeed. See original English version.
• 'The Cult of YouTube Mushairas in India's Small Towns', in Zaidi, Nishat and Sean Pue (eds.), Literary Cultures and Digital Humanities in India, New Delhi: Routledge, 2022.• Partitioning Bazaar Art: Popular Visual Culture of India and Pakistan around 1947, Seagull Books and University of Chicago Press, 2023.
• 'South Asia as a Production Hub for Popular Islamic Images', in Qaisra Khan and Nahla Nassar (eds.), The Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage, Essays in Honour of Nasser David Khalili, Gingko, 2024.
• 'Archiving Popular Visual Culture in South Asia: Celebrating Open Access Week with Tasveer Ghar', Arcade, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, Oct 22, 2024.
• 'Taking History to Masses: Films, Digital Media Are The Answer', NewsClick.in, 22 Nov 2024.
• 'Taking History to Masses: Films, Digital Media Are The Answer', NewsClick.in, 22 Nov 2024.
Fellowships/Grants:
• SARAI Fellow 2004: A short research fellowship entitled Syncretism in the popular art of Muslim religious posters in north India, awarded by the Centre for Studies in the Developing Societies, SARAI, New Delhi.
• Asia Fellow 2005: to conduct a documentation project on Amir Khusrau’s living musical traditions in Pakistan, awarded by Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok. The project concluded with a research paper and two documentary films: Khayal Darpan (100 mins) and Khusrau in Pakistan (15 mins).
• Visiting fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. It involved 3 presentations of films and other audio visual material at three venues in Paris, May 2006.
• Visiting fellow of Boston University, Boston, to visit many institutions in the United States to present films and talk about India’s plural culture (September to October 2006). Lectured and screened films at universities such as Harvard, Boston, Tufts, Texas (Austin), Columbia, (New York), Brown (Providence), and Chicago, besides MIT (AKPIA).
• Collaborative Work Grant from Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) to organize an international workshop and related activities on “The Impact of 1947 Partition on South Asia’s Classical Music” February-September 2008.
• Margaret Beveridge Senior Research Fellow at J.B. Media Resource Centre, Jamia Millia, New Delhi, to work on "Moving Pictures Moving Faith - Muslim Piety in Hindi Cinema, Popular VCDs, and 21st Century TV".
• Fellow of the The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows" at Heidelberg University, for a project on popular Islamic visuality under the Satellite of Networks (2009-11).
• OVP travel grant from Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) to visit Washington D.C. for symposium at Smithsonian Institute, 2012-13. See event details on Indian embassy's India Review (pg. 13).
• Art Research Documentation grant from India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore to 'Document cultural plurality and progressive mainstream in the visual print culture of early 20th-century Urdu in north India' for 2013.
• Grant from IFA Bangalore to organize a conference on Popular Culture of Urdu, held in September 2017.
• Grant from IFA Bangalore to document Cinema qawwali. Led to the creation of an online Cinema Qawwali Archive https://www.cineqawwali.in
• International visiting scholar at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, California (October 2024)
Talks/Conferences organised/attended:
• Presented two multimedia lectures in September 2004, to the students at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi: (1) Cross-cultural Interactions in Indian Music - Amir Khusrau’s Contribution, and (2) Finding Syncretic Symbolism in the Religious Art of Muslims.
• Presented the paper Contemporary Challenges to Pluralism in the Popular Devotional Art of South Asian Muslims at the workshop “InVisible Histories: The Politics of Placing the Past”, held at Amsterdam, organized by International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity (ISIM), Leiden, Sept. 2005.
• Presented the paper Pluralism in the popular devotional art of Indian Muslims at the Second International Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilisation, 17-20 December 2005, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.
• Presentations on Syncretic Symbolism in Muslim Popular Art at the Gallery Alternatives, Gurgaon, Haryana (26 Nov.2005), and at Miranda House, Delhi University (13 Dec.2005).
• Presented the paper Telling Devotional Stories in the Muslim Popular Art of India: Images in the Ritual of a Pilgrimage, at the workshop “Building a scientific database for visual and audiovisual media” at University of Heidelberg, Germany, May 2006.
• Presented the paper Amir Khusrau and Indo-Muslim Identity among the Art Music Traditions of Pakistan at the 6th Annual Asia Fellows Conference at Bangkok, July 2006.
• Presentation on Stereotypes of Indian Muslims in Popular Media, at the Annual Conflict Transformation Workshop at WISCOMP (Dalai Lama Foundation), India International Centre, Delhi, Dec. 2007.
• Presented a paper on Amir Khusrau's Persian Poetry in Contemporary Performance of Sam'a and Hindustani Music, at the Seminar Aqeedat ke Rang, IGNCA, Delhi, April 2008.
• Presented the paper Hindustani Classical Music in Pakistan: A Crisis of Identity and Patronage, at International Conference "India and the World: The Performing Arts", at University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 20-22 Nov, 2008. (with partial screening of the documentary Khayal Darpan).
• Presented The teaching of Hindustani vocal music in Pakistan and the transmission of Qawwali repertoires as performed in Sufi shrines of Delhi and Gwalior in a 2-day workshop on “The Role of Lyrics in the Transmission of Hindustani Music”, supported by École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, and held at Hamdard University, New Delhi, 18-19 February 2009.
• Organized and participated in a workshop on Hindustani Music and Partition, supported by Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) and hosted by Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, on 22-23 August 2008. A report in The Hindu.
• Organized and participated in 2 workshops on Appreciating Sufi Music and Qawwali, for Ektara India, at New Delhi (October, December 2009). See a report here.
• Participated in the Interactive Seminar on Media Asset Management of Doordarshan Archives, New Delhi, 1st to 8th December 2009.
• "Popular Islam and Urban Spaces: The Nizamuddin Shrine in New Delhi", 22nd January, 2010, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhawan, New Delhi (part of Heidelberg University's "Cluster of Excellence - Asia and Europe in Global Context").
• "Understanding Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusrau" - a workshop on appreciating Sufi music and qawwali (Ektara India), 6-14 Feb.2009, St.Mary's School, Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi. More of such workshops by Ektara.
• Media and Minorities – Stereotype Images and Prejudices. Visual presentation followed by a discussion. At Dr. K. R. Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. 20 Feb. 2010.
• Conference on "Narrating the Visual; Visualizing Narrative," North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, March 5-6, 2010.
• Grant from IFA Bangalore to organize a conference on Popular Culture of Urdu, held in September 2017.
• Grant from IFA Bangalore to document Cinema qawwali. Led to the creation of an online Cinema Qawwali Archive https://www.cineqawwali.in
• International visiting scholar at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, California (October 2024)
Talks/Conferences organised/attended:
• Presented two multimedia lectures in September 2004, to the students at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi: (1) Cross-cultural Interactions in Indian Music - Amir Khusrau’s Contribution, and (2) Finding Syncretic Symbolism in the Religious Art of Muslims.
• Presented the paper Contemporary Challenges to Pluralism in the Popular Devotional Art of South Asian Muslims at the workshop “InVisible Histories: The Politics of Placing the Past”, held at Amsterdam, organized by International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity (ISIM), Leiden, Sept. 2005.
• Presented the paper Pluralism in the popular devotional art of Indian Muslims at the Second International Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilisation, 17-20 December 2005, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.
• Presentations on Syncretic Symbolism in Muslim Popular Art at the Gallery Alternatives, Gurgaon, Haryana (26 Nov.2005), and at Miranda House, Delhi University (13 Dec.2005).
• Presented the paper Telling Devotional Stories in the Muslim Popular Art of India: Images in the Ritual of a Pilgrimage, at the workshop “Building a scientific database for visual and audiovisual media” at University of Heidelberg, Germany, May 2006.
• Presented the paper Amir Khusrau and Indo-Muslim Identity among the Art Music Traditions of Pakistan at the 6th Annual Asia Fellows Conference at Bangkok, July 2006.
• Presentation on Stereotypes of Indian Muslims in Popular Media, at the Annual Conflict Transformation Workshop at WISCOMP (Dalai Lama Foundation), India International Centre, Delhi, Dec. 2007.
• Presented a paper on Amir Khusrau's Persian Poetry in Contemporary Performance of Sam'a and Hindustani Music, at the Seminar Aqeedat ke Rang, IGNCA, Delhi, April 2008.
• Presented the paper Hindustani Classical Music in Pakistan: A Crisis of Identity and Patronage, at International Conference "India and the World: The Performing Arts", at University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 20-22 Nov, 2008. (with partial screening of the documentary Khayal Darpan).
• Presented The teaching of Hindustani vocal music in Pakistan and the transmission of Qawwali repertoires as performed in Sufi shrines of Delhi and Gwalior in a 2-day workshop on “The Role of Lyrics in the Transmission of Hindustani Music”, supported by École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, and held at Hamdard University, New Delhi, 18-19 February 2009.
• Organized and participated in a workshop on Hindustani Music and Partition, supported by Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) and hosted by Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, on 22-23 August 2008. A report in The Hindu.
• Organized and participated in 2 workshops on Appreciating Sufi Music and Qawwali, for Ektara India, at New Delhi (October, December 2009). See a report here.
• Participated in the Interactive Seminar on Media Asset Management of Doordarshan Archives, New Delhi, 1st to 8th December 2009.
• "Popular Islam and Urban Spaces: The Nizamuddin Shrine in New Delhi", 22nd January, 2010, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhawan, New Delhi (part of Heidelberg University's "Cluster of Excellence - Asia and Europe in Global Context").
• "Understanding Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusrau" - a workshop on appreciating Sufi music and qawwali (Ektara India), 6-14 Feb.2009, St.Mary's School, Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi. More of such workshops by Ektara.
• Media and Minorities – Stereotype Images and Prejudices. Visual presentation followed by a discussion. At Dr. K. R. Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. 20 Feb. 2010.
• Conference on "Narrating the Visual; Visualizing Narrative," North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, March 5-6, 2010.
• "Sacred Spaces/Sacred Sounds", 2009-10 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 23-24 April 2010. See abstracts.
• Presented: (1) Nizamuddin’s Heritage Buildings and Delhi’s Urban Face-lift and (2) Posters Advertising the Pilgrimage Ceremonies at North Indian Sufi Shrine, at the workshop 'Changing Popular Visual Cultures of Muslim Shrines: Transcultural Flows and Urban Spaces', at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows", Heidelberg, Germany, June 4-5, 2010.
• Participated in UGC-sponsored National Seminar on “Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent”, Bethune College
• Participated in “Urban visualities: Sites and Sights of Street Art” An international seminar, artist workshop and exhibition, organised by DakshinChitra, Chennai, January 28-30, 2011. See a report.
• Participated in the conference "Visual Culture and Identity Narratives in the Making of Modern India", at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. (United States), April 29-30, 2011.
• Participated in a workshop on "Curating Indian Visual Culture: Theory and Practice", at Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (Organised by ACUA): 12-17 Sept. 2011.
• "Indo-Muslim Popular Arts and Culture": A series of lectures and film shows at Department of Fine Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad: 19-20th September 2011.
• "Moral Nurturing via Religious Calendar Art and Devotional Videos in Muslim South Asia", paper presented at the conference THINKING EUROPE/THINKING INDIA, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, 23-25th November 2011.
• "Muslim Devotional Art in India", a discussion on the release of the book, with Prof. Patricia Oberoi as discussant. 12 December, 2011. India International Centre, New Delhi.
• Participated in the workshop on 'The Oral History and Eco-cultural Mapping Project' at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 23-24 April, 2012. (Organised by Sahapedia and IIAS).
• "Muslim Devotional Art - a visual presentation", at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, 27 July 2012.
• Participation in 'Archives Southasia: Creating, Curating, Connecting', 28-29 July 2012, Bangalore. Organised by the Hri Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange.
• "Images of the Two Nations" Readings and visual presentation from the book Muslim Devotional Art in India, 5 pm, 7th September 2012, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi.
• Participating in "Sufism at Smithsonian Symposium". 22-23 Sept. 2012, Washington D.C.
• Lecturing tour in the US in Fall 2012.
• Two presentations at University of Iowa, Iowa City, Oct.3-4, 2012.
• "Private music archives of Lutfullah Khan and others in Pakistan: ‘Treasuring in’ a nostalgia of the undivided South Asia", at IASA 2012 Annual Conference organized by ARC-AIIS, New Delhi, on 9th Oct. 2012.
• Four films on India's popular Islam, at World Integrity Centre, Dehradun. 13 Oct. 2012. A report in HT Dehradun.
• "Cultural Heritage of Amir Khusrau and Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia", illustrated lecture at Chandigarh Literary Society, Chandigarh, at 6 pm on 9th November, 2012. A news report.
• Screening of "The Heritage of Amir Khusrau" a documentary film, at Sama’a 2012 festival, NCPA, Mumbai. 22nd November 2012, at 5 pm.• "Introducing Amir Khusrau", an illustrated lecture at Wilson College, Mumbai, 23rd Nov.2012.
• "Muslim Devotional Art in India" – An illustrated lecture, at K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai. 23rd November, 2012.
• ‘India’s bazaar art: mixing religion, money and aesthetics in 20th century’ – an illustrated lecture at St.Stephen’s College, New Delhi, 7 Feb. 2013 (Co-organized by Sahapedia as part of a lecture series on Indian art).
• ‘The Self and the Other: Portraying India’s “Muslim community” in early-20th century print culture’ at the conference The Making of Religious Identities: Historical and Contemporary Themes, 14-15 March 2013, organized by the Centre for Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
, at Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh,
28-29 March, 2013. Organized by Chandigarh
Sangaeet Natak
Academy.
• Participated in a workshop on "Curating Indian Visual Culture: Theory and Practice", at Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (Organised by ACUA): 12-17 Sept. 2011.
• "Indo-Muslim Popular Arts and Culture": A series of lectures and film shows at Department of Fine Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad: 19-20th September 2011.
• "Moral Nurturing via Religious Calendar Art and Devotional Videos in Muslim South Asia", paper presented at the conference THINKING EUROPE/THINKING INDIA, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, 23-25th November 2011.
• "Muslim Devotional Art in India", a discussion on the release of the book, with Prof. Patricia Oberoi as discussant. 12 December, 2011. India International Centre, New Delhi.
• "Delhi’s Nizamuddin shrine: Between faith, livelihood and heritage restoration", in the conference: Between Global Aspirations and Local Realities: India’s cities in interdisciplinary perspective, 28 March 2012, School of the Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, Delhi.
• "Print and postal exchange
between Delhi and Lahore
in early 20th century: Readings
from some archived ephemera", a presentation made at the panel on Visual Archives and Cultural Histories, India International Centre, New Delhi, 28 March 2012 (Other panelists: Dr Jyotindra Jain, Dr Malavika Karlekar, and Dr Tapati Guha-Thakurta).• Participated in the workshop on 'The Oral History and Eco-cultural Mapping Project' at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 23-24 April, 2012. (Organised by Sahapedia and IIAS).
• "Muslim Devotional Art - a visual presentation", at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, 27 July 2012.
• Participation in 'Archives Southasia: Creating, Curating, Connecting', 28-29 July 2012, Bangalore. Organised by the Hri Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange.
• "Images of the Two Nations" Readings and visual presentation from the book Muslim Devotional Art in India, 5 pm, 7th September 2012, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi.
• Participating in "Sufism at Smithsonian Symposium". 22-23 Sept. 2012, Washington D.C.
• Lecturing tour in the US in Fall 2012.
• Two presentations at University of Iowa, Iowa City, Oct.3-4, 2012.
• "Private music archives of Lutfullah Khan and others in Pakistan: ‘Treasuring in’ a nostalgia of the undivided South Asia", at IASA 2012 Annual Conference organized by ARC-AIIS, New Delhi, on 9th Oct. 2012.
• Four films on India's popular Islam, at World Integrity Centre, Dehradun. 13 Oct. 2012. A report in HT Dehradun.
• "Cultural Heritage of Amir Khusrau and Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia", illustrated lecture at Chandigarh Literary Society, Chandigarh, at 6 pm on 9th November, 2012. A news report.
• Screening of "The Heritage of Amir Khusrau" a documentary film, at Sama’a 2012 festival, NCPA, Mumbai. 22nd November 2012, at 5 pm.• "Introducing Amir Khusrau", an illustrated lecture at Wilson College, Mumbai, 23rd Nov.2012.
• "Muslim Devotional Art in India" – An illustrated lecture, at K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai. 23rd November, 2012.
• ‘India’s bazaar art: mixing religion, money and aesthetics in 20th century’ – an illustrated lecture at St.Stephen’s College, New Delhi, 7 Feb. 2013 (Co-organized by Sahapedia as part of a lecture series on Indian art).
• ‘The Self and the Other: Portraying India’s “Muslim community” in early-20th century print culture’ at the conference The Making of Religious Identities: Historical and Contemporary Themes, 14-15 March 2013, organized by the Centre for Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
• ‘Chishti Sufi portraits: Image-making from
Central Asian visual culture to the 20th century poster art in India’, at the
conference Central Asia and South Asia: Economic, Developmental and
Socio-Cultural Linkages, 19-20th March 2013, at the Academy of International
Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
• A festival of documentary films by Yousuf Saeed
• 'Trial by Media: Constructing an Image of
the "Extremist" Muslim in India' at the conference Violence,Insurgencies, Deceptions: Conceptualizing Urban Life in South Asia, organized
in Singapore by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
(6-7 May 2013).
• Cultural Heritage of Sufi Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia, and audio-visual presentation at the Lee Kong Chian Gallery at National University of Singapore Museum, Singapore, starting 6:30 pm on 8th May 2013.
• Cultural Heritage of Sufi Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia, and audio-visual presentation at the Lee Kong Chian Gallery at National University of Singapore Museum, Singapore, starting 6:30 pm on 8th May 2013.
• 'Popular Imagery in Urdu Print Culture of Early 20th century India' in the Conference: ARCHIVES OF THE EVERYDAY at Wassenaar, Netherlands. Organized by Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) and Leiden University on October 31st, November 1st & 2nd, 2013.
• An Afternoon with Indian Documentary Maker, Yousuf Saeed: 'India’s Popular Islam: Short Films on Devotional Muslim Culture', at Leiden University on November 4th, 2013. Co-sponsored by the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS).• 'Watching the Cinema of K.A. Abbas as an Artist' presented at the symposium of K.A. Abbas Centenary Celebrations at Raj Bhawan, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 11th May, 2014.
• 'Print and postal exchange between Delhi and Lahore in early 20th century: Readings from some archived ephemera', lecture at the Centre for Community Knowledge, Ambedkar University Delhi, 15 October 2014.
• 'Tasveer-e Urdu: popular Urdu print culture in early 20th century' presented at the Lucknow Literary Festival, 13 Feb.2015, Lucknow. Supported by IFA.
• 'Celebrating Cultural Diversity in Education', a presentation at the monthly Education Adda, New Delhi, 14 March 2015.
• Baat Cheet with Yousuf Saeed on Qasba Sanskriti – The Small Town Stories. Screening of films Amroha and Bilgram (22 April 2015 @ Anhad)
• Hum Sab Nizamuddin (A Neighbourhood Museum), 25th April, 2015: Presentation 'Nizamuddin and the Visual Media'.
• Presentation at the conference ‘Vision 2025 for an Inclusive India’, 29 April 2015, India International Centre, New Delhi.
• Presentation on the state of culture in India in the last one year's BJP rule at 'Idea of India Conclave' at Constitution Club, New Delhi, 17 May 2015.
• Presentation: Urdu print culture in early 20th century (IFA showcase), Lamakaan, Hyderabad, June 13, 2015.
• Book reading: Visual Homes, Image Worlds: Essays from Tasveer Ghar, at World Integrity Centre, Dehradun, June 20, 2015.
• Screening of Khayal Darpan at Moving Images, Prasad's Preview lab, Hyderabad, Oct.4, 2015.
• Workshop on Appreciating Sufi Music and Literature, at Lamakaan, Hyderabad, Oct.4, 2015.
• Illustrated lecture - 'Visual Homes, Image Worlds - India's popular visual culture' at English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Oct. 5, 2015.
• Illustrated lecture - 'Nizamuddin Shrine’s Built Heritage and Delhi’s Urban Face-lift' at Study India Programme, University of Hyderabad. Oct. 5, 2015.
• Presented 'Religious Urdu Periodicals in Early 20th Century: Promoting a Syncretic Piety in South Asia' at the Conference on Religion and Social Diversity in South Asia, 12-14 October 2015, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
• Screening of film 'Khusrau Darya Prem ka' (40 mins) at India International Centre, New Delhi, 02 December, 2015.
• Participation at the Hindu LitFest, Chennai, 14-16 January, 2016.
• 'Popular Art of the Two Nations' and 'Khayal Darpan - excerpts' - presentation at: The Idea of Nationalism, An International Conference on Teaching History, Kolkata, organized by Seagull Foundation, 10-12 November 2016.
• Presented paper: Jadooi ilaj: medical and magical advertisements in early Urdu magazines, in 3-days international conference on the Popular Culture of Urdu Language, at Centre for Indian Languages, JNU, New Delhi, 10 September 2017. Supported by IFA, Bangalore.
• Participated in Conference: 'Rethinking the Dynamics of Music and Nationalism' at University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 26-29 September 2017.
• Excerpts from the film Campus Rising at the festival Creating Justice: A Celebration of Art in People’s Movements, April 20, 2019, 1 – 8 p.m., Oakton Community College, Des Plaines, IL.
• Lecture: 'Popular Islam in South Asian Visual Culture' at University of Chicago (South Asia), April 22, 2019.
• 'Celebrating India’s Shared Culture and Religious Traditions: Short films by Yousuf Saeed', 305, Emerson, Harvard University (South Asia center), April 26, 2019.
• Participated in Tasveer Ghar workshop: Representations of Maleness in South Asian Popular Visual Practice, at Duke University, Durham (USA), May 3-4, 2019.
• Participated in Revisiting the Discovery of India, at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 15th November 2019 (Discussion on TV series 'Bharat Ek Khoj'), with Prof.Y.S. Alone and others.
Curation of Exhibits, Events and Online Resources:
• Amir Khusrau's Garden of Cultural Plurality (website, started in May 1998)
• Basant Festival 2002: A day-long cultural event celebrating Sufi Basant near the shrine of Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi, involving heritage walk, qawwali concert, film screenings and poetry sessions, via Communicator’s Cooperative (Feb 2002). The same festival was also held in 2003 and 2004 on a larger scale, with help from Sahitya Kala Parishad, Govt. of Delhi. In 2007, this festival (Jashn-e Basant) was held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
• Heritage walks: I have been regularly conducting heritage walks around Delhi’s historical buildings, especially the complex of Nizamuddin shrine, almost 5-8 per year. An example.
• Al-Musavvir: An exhibition of Islamic popular poster art at Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi – Aug. 2004.
• Amir Khusrau – Between the Kings and the Masses: A visual arts installation conceived by Yousuf Saeed and designed by Sanjog Sharan, for India Social Forum at New Delhi, Nov. 2006.
• Aqeedat ke Rang: An exhibit of Muslim devotional poster art, at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. April 2008.
• Colours of Devotion: Exhibition of religious posters at a seminar on Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent, Bethune College, Kolkata. Dec. 2010.
• Visual Pilgrim: a web presentation to map popular visuality and devotional media at Sufi shrines and other Islamic institutions in South Asia (designed and conceptualised by Yousuf Saeed) 2011.
• Aqeedat ka Rang 2012: A festival of films and discussion on India's shared cultural traditions. At Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. 27-30 March 2012.
• Faiz ka Manzoom Safar: A poetic journey of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s life. A poetic journey of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s life, involving recitations, singing, dance and images. (participated to recite Urdu poetry), 19th May, 2012, at India International Centre, New Delhi.
• Cinema Qawwali Archive: An online database of Bombay cinema's qawwali songs. Supported by IFA, Bangalore, 2021-23.
Media reports about Yousuf's works
• Chitra Padmanabhan: The Incredible Weave, Tehelka, New Delhi, 12.10,2005, a short report about Yousuf's collection of poster art.
• Michelle Romano: Indian films show students Asian culture, The Daily Free Press, Boston, MA. 22 Sept. 2006.
• इंडो-एशियन न्यूज सर्विस: पाकिस्तानी संगीत विरासत पर बनी भारतीय फिल्म, Nov 16, 2006.
• Manoj Nair: Cracks in the mirror of imagination, Economic Times, New Delhi, 26 Nov. 2006.
• Shivam Vij: That strain again and its dying fall, Tehelka, New Delhi, Dec. 16, 2006.
• Kumkum Dasgupta: Line of Classical Control, The Hindustan Times, 2006.
• अभय तिवारी: पाकिस्तान में शास्त्रीय संगीत, खयाल दर्पण: एक यात्रा, Cilema, 03.07.2007.
• Rana Siddiqui: Positive Negatives, The Hindu, New Delhi, Feb 09, 2008. About the short film Jannat ki Rail, screened at JDCA festival of arts at Bhubhaneshwar.
• Shruti Ravindran: My Name is Green, Outlook, April 21, 2008.
• Deepti Priya Mehrotra, Songs of connectivity, Infochange India, May 2008. (About the festival 'Aqeedat ke Rang' at IGNCA)
• Manjari Sinha: Divided Pitch, The Hindu (Delhi Compass), 29 Aug. 2008.
• Shruti Chakraborty: Hindustani music and partition, Live Mint, September 1, 2008.
• Shveta Bhagat, Time for pluralist intervention, Mydigitalfc.com (Financial Chronicle), Sep 23 2009, New Delhi.
• Crazy Mind's Eye: Brahminized Music And De-Brahminizing Music, November 3, 2010.
• Zaira Arslan: A Borderline Case, Indian Express, May 15, 2012.
• Manjusha Madhu: Art of Devotion and A Devotion to Art, The Sunday Guardian, May 20, 2012.
• Manjusha Madhu: Mass and class unite in this digital house of pictures, The Sunday Guardian, June 3, 2012.
• Parinatha Sampath: Khayal Darpan looks at the impact of Partition on music, Time Out Mumbai, July 30 2012.
• Neha Pant: Filming Cultural Bonhomie, The Hindustan Times, Dehradun, September 2012. About a screening of Khayal Darpan at Dehradun.
• Vibhor Mohan: Noted filmmaker Yousuf Saeed to portray Amir Khusrau's life on screen, The Times of India, Chandigarh, Nov.02, 2012.
• Rinky Kumar: Music across borders, Mid-Day, Mumbai, 13 May, 2012.
• Soma Das: Border Music, Mid-Day, Mumbai, 14 May, 2012. Report about a screening of Khayal Darpan at NCPA, Mumbai.
• Joanna Lobo, Putting a mirror to classical music, DNA, 20 May, 2012.
• Pritha Chakrabarti: Islamic religious art hits a popular note, The Times of India, Hyderabad, June 26, 2012.
• Khayal Darpan screening at the Tisch School, NYU, New York. 25 Sept. 2012.
• Oakton Community College: Saints, Poets, and Posters: Indian Popular Art, Des Plaines Patch, Illinois, Sept. 20, 2012. (Report about two talks at Oakton College, Chicago).
• Muslim Societies in South Asia Seminar Series, Harvard University, South Asia Institute. (includes a video recording of the presentation). 27 Sept. 2012.
• Prerna Sharma: Celebratory notes, The Pioneer, 19 February 2013 (about the musical legacy of Amir Khusrau).
• Express Features Service: The Sufi Way, Indian Express, Chandigarh, Mar 27 2013.
• Baishali Adak: Hindustani classical music blurs borders, bonds hearts, Deccan Herald, 26 June 2014.
• Aarefa Johari: Allow Pakistanis to work in Bollywood, filmmakers tell actors' association, Scroll.in, 18 Oct. 2014. [Report on a petition started by some filmmakers to safeguard foreign (esp. Pakistani) artists working in Bollywood].
• Reflections on Documentary Filmmaking in South Asia: A Conversation with Yousuf Saeed, interview by Utsavi Singh, Interventions, Arcade, Stanford University, March 2025
For more details about the recent work, please see www.tasveerghar.net and www.ektara.org
If you can read Urdu, and have nothing better to do right now, check out the کنویں کا مینڈک
Media reports about Yousuf's works
• Chitra Padmanabhan: The Incredible Weave, Tehelka, New Delhi, 12.10,2005, a short report about Yousuf's collection of poster art.
• Michelle Romano: Indian films show students Asian culture, The Daily Free Press, Boston, MA. 22 Sept. 2006.
• इंडो-एशियन न्यूज सर्विस: पाकिस्तानी संगीत विरासत पर बनी भारतीय फिल्म, Nov 16, 2006.
• Manoj Nair: Cracks in the mirror of imagination, Economic Times, New Delhi, 26 Nov. 2006.
• Shivam Vij: That strain again and its dying fall, Tehelka, New Delhi, Dec. 16, 2006.
• Kumkum Dasgupta: Line of Classical Control, The Hindustan Times, 2006.
• अभय तिवारी: पाकिस्तान में शास्त्रीय संगीत, खयाल दर्पण: एक यात्रा, Cilema, 03.07.2007.
• Rana Siddiqui: Positive Negatives, The Hindu, New Delhi, Feb 09, 2008. About the short film Jannat ki Rail, screened at JDCA festival of arts at Bhubhaneshwar.
• Shruti Ravindran: My Name is Green, Outlook, April 21, 2008.
• Deepti Priya Mehrotra, Songs of connectivity, Infochange India, May 2008. (About the festival 'Aqeedat ke Rang' at IGNCA)
• Manjari Sinha: Divided Pitch, The Hindu (Delhi Compass), 29 Aug. 2008.
• Shruti Chakraborty: Hindustani music and partition, Live Mint, September 1, 2008.
• Shveta Bhagat, Time for pluralist intervention, Mydigitalfc.com (Financial Chronicle), Sep 23 2009, New Delhi.
• Crazy Mind's Eye: Brahminized Music And De-Brahminizing Music, November 3, 2010.
• Zaira Arslan: A Borderline Case, Indian Express, May 15, 2012.
• Manjusha Madhu: Art of Devotion and A Devotion to Art, The Sunday Guardian, May 20, 2012.
• Manjusha Madhu: Mass and class unite in this digital house of pictures, The Sunday Guardian, June 3, 2012.
• Parinatha Sampath: Khayal Darpan looks at the impact of Partition on music, Time Out Mumbai, July 30 2012.
• Neha Pant: Filming Cultural Bonhomie, The Hindustan Times, Dehradun, September 2012. About a screening of Khayal Darpan at Dehradun.
• Vibhor Mohan: Noted filmmaker Yousuf Saeed to portray Amir Khusrau's life on screen, The Times of India, Chandigarh, Nov.02, 2012.
• Rinky Kumar: Music across borders, Mid-Day, Mumbai, 13 May, 2012.
• Soma Das: Border Music, Mid-Day, Mumbai, 14 May, 2012. Report about a screening of Khayal Darpan at NCPA, Mumbai.
• Joanna Lobo, Putting a mirror to classical music, DNA, 20 May, 2012.
• Pritha Chakrabarti: Islamic religious art hits a popular note, The Times of India, Hyderabad, June 26, 2012.
• Khayal Darpan screening at the Tisch School, NYU, New York. 25 Sept. 2012.
• Oakton Community College: Saints, Poets, and Posters: Indian Popular Art, Des Plaines Patch, Illinois, Sept. 20, 2012. (Report about two talks at Oakton College, Chicago).
• Muslim Societies in South Asia Seminar Series, Harvard University, South Asia Institute. (includes a video recording of the presentation). 27 Sept. 2012.
• Prerna Sharma: Celebratory notes, The Pioneer, 19 February 2013 (about the musical legacy of Amir Khusrau).
• Express Features Service: The Sufi Way, Indian Express, Chandigarh, Mar 27 2013.
• Baishali Adak: Hindustani classical music blurs borders, bonds hearts, Deccan Herald, 26 June 2014.
• Aarefa Johari: Allow Pakistanis to work in Bollywood, filmmakers tell actors' association, Scroll.in, 18 Oct. 2014. [Report on a petition started by some filmmakers to safeguard foreign (esp. Pakistani) artists working in Bollywood].
• Reflections on Documentary Filmmaking in South Asia: A Conversation with Yousuf Saeed, interview by Utsavi Singh, Interventions, Arcade, Stanford University, March 2025
For more details about the recent work, please see www.tasveerghar.net and www.ektara.org
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