With the inaugural session chaired by Dr. Dolly Phukon, the three day (12th, 13th, 14th February, 2020) international conference on Land, Labour and Nation in Contemporary South Asia: Claims and Contestations organised by Department of Political Science in collaboration with OKD Institute of Social Change and Developmentwas inaugurated by the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor (in-charge) Prof. L K Nath. Dr. Borun Dey from the department gave the welcome speech, Dr. Kaustubh Deka deliberated the rationale of the conference and Prof. Joydeep Baruah graced the occasion with his guest of honour speech. Dr. Melanie Vandanhelsken, University of Vienna delivered the Key Note address on the occasion. The inaugural session was followed by a two paper technical session on Land Labour and Nation in South Asia with papers by Mirza Zulfiqur Rehman, Institute of Chinese Studies, new Delhi and by Bhaskar Gautam, North South Collective, Nepal.
The second day of the conference was enriched by four technical sessions one each one, i) Ecological Politics in South Asia, ii) Politics of Migration in South Asia-1, iii) Politics of Migration in South Asia-2 and, iv) Sexualities of Labour inSouth Asia with three papers each in each session. Participants from across the country from Mizoram University, Jamia Milia Islamia, IIT Gandhinagar, OP Jindal Global University, IIT Dhanbad, TISS Guwahati, Govt. T Romana College, Aizwal, SB Deorah College, Guwahati, Ashoka University, CUSAT Kerala, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Dibrugarh University presented their papers and actively participated in the deliberations of the conference. This was followed, on the 14th of February, by a technical session on the Politics of Labour in South Asia. The conference concluded with a valedictory panel discussion on the broad theme of the conference, moderated by Padmashree Urvashi Butalia. The speakers for the session were Professor Bhupen Sharma, OKDISCD, Dr Melanie Vandanhelsken, University of Vienna and Dr. Sanjay (Xonzoi) Barbora, TISS Guwahati.
