Reports

Sahmat Seminar on the Legacy and Relevance of the Progressive Cultural Movement

Memories are constantly invoked as metaphors. Sometimes for glory, and sometimes for what is being  missed. In the tradition/modernity debate in India, often posed as binaries, memories of old  traditions and those evolving into the contemporary are used as canons to discuss the present and,  some- times, to provide a roadmap to chart the course of the present. However, in these debates, we  tend to miss those historical junctures where tradition is used to further progress. These are  time-periods in history where tradition and modernity within the periphery of a nation have united,  have shown resistance to conservatism, and have rendered new modes of thinking. And often these  periods are those, especially in South Asia’s context, when a progressive political and cultural  movement has taken shape.