Concept Note

“The Mapping of the Vernacular”

The term "vernacular" has come to be used to describe the local, regional, or even

indigenous throughout recent decades in contrast to formal/classic. The word has its Latin roots

which means "national" or "domestic”.The culture of the Indian subcontinent other than the

western culture was labeled vernacular as a popular thought of superior western idiom apparent

within the frame of mind of colonizers.

This term has a different connotation in the context of British academics and education

than it does in the context of India since it includes regional languages like Marathi, Tamil,

Telugu, and Bengali, as well as other Indian languages like Urdu, Sanskrit .

During the colonial era, European academic practices found a firm grounding in India;

with this, there was an emergence of a middle class attempting to imitate western lifestyle and

practices. This is most evident in the visual practice of Raja Ravi Varma enabled by his elite

patrons. Western norm of superiority was aspired by Indian society. In the middle-class society

mirroring the west, the Vernacular/regional idiom became the source of resistance against the

colonial empire.

Colloquial modernism developed in the subcontinent flowering in colonial centers first in

Bengal with the artist like Abhinandranath Tagore, and his followers Nandalal Bose and Asit

Kumar Haldar who looked at regional sources of Patas of Bengal and Orissa, Murals of Ajanta

and Rajasthani miniature.

With the demise/decline of colonial philosophy and a change in academic practices in the

field of visual art, artists like KG. Subramanyan, J.Swaminathan, Jyoti Bhatt, Jogen Chaudhury,
Bhupen Khakhar, MF. Hussain, and many others who created modern Indian art incorporated

regional reflections, attempting to articulate the question of Indian Art/ Indian Identity.

Recent architectural academics have concentrated on styles & components, while moving

away from the dinestical approach.They take into account the vernacular constructions that the

colonials overlooked in their research.Scholers like Rajendra Mitra, Ram Raz became the

pioneering Indian scholar to study Indian architecture in relation to indigenous literary sources

and living practices against the colonial superiority. These attempts gave way to recent scholars

like MA.Dhaky & Michel Mister who examined and categorized architecture regionally defining

it as Maha Maru and Maha Gurjara.

Vernacular architecture also includes secular and residential architecture such as

terracotta and Mudbrick practices of Orissa & Bengal, the Havelis of Western India and Wooden

architecture of Kerala are some of the examples of Vernacular architecture.

With the idea of vernacular culture and language, we see the coming up of new states and

India opting for unity with its diverse population. In the contemporary context, the idea of

Vernacular is ever-changing, the meaning changes according to the scenario we place the word

in.

New methods of Archiving and documentation beyond the usual contours of Art history

and other wider areas of writings on humanities are required to reveal the structural problem of

the discipline and also bring forth new research.

 The Department of Art history and Aesthetics, Faculty of Fine Arts, The Maharaja

Sayajirao University, Vadodara is organizing a ‘National Research Conference of Humanities’ in

2023, an offshoot of the ‘National Graduate seminar’ that had been successfully organized

yearly. This event has strived to push the standard of research and discourses in the context of the

prescribed areas of academic involvement and entailed an extensive process of discussion and

selection of abstracts and papers preceding the seminar itself that has aimed at the academic

process of research writing. The National Research Conference in Humanities strives for further

inclusion of students and researchers from Universities across the nation and across disciplines.

We invite papers on the theme of “Mapping the Vernacular” that are based on but not

limited to its conventional understanding. To participate in the Seminar, applicants are required

to submit an abstract of 250 words in PDf format that clearly outlines their area of study and the

inquiry of their proposed paper to ‘nrch2023@gmail.com’ by 5th March 2023. The selected

abstracts will be invited to present at the NRCH conference from 5th April -7th April, 2023. The

subject line of the email must be in the following format: Full Name_Abstract Proposal_Nrch

2023. As it is a student-organized event with a limited budget, traveling and accommodation

expenses will not be provided. Please remember to mention your institutional affiliation, full

name, and phone number in the body of the email.

 We welcome any topic that engages with the broader theme of “The Mapping of the

Vernacular”. Potential subjects might include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

Sub-themes / KeyTerms

1. Indigenous/ Vernacular Visual art language

2. Indian vernacular and Global
3. Oral Histories and vernacular Traditions
4. Narrative tradition
5. Regional adaptation of National Epics and Myths
6. Vernacular as Non- conscious
7. Vernacular and Identity : Regional, Linguistic, Ethnic, National
8. History written in vernacular ( Literature)
9. Marginalization of the Vernacular
10. Effect of Classical on Vernacular
11. Vernacular , new classical
12. Vernacular and Archiving
13. Subjectivity of the Vernacular
14. Contemporary vernacular
15. Contemporary Indian Visual art
16. Vernacular Myths
17. Modern Indian and its vernacular beginnings
18. Post independence and rise of Vernacular
19. Boundaries and Vernacular
20. Ethnicity and Vernacular identity
21. Rise of Nationalism and role of Vernacular/ vernacular Resistance
22. Translation and Indian Vernacular literature
23. Vernacular and Indian Geography