The McMaster Air India Conference 2016

Overview

Family members of those who perished in the Air India bombings continue to note the absence of any deep cultural engagement with the tragedy, aside from the occasional government-sponsored event or academic symposia, which fail to engage communities. In response to this absence, Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty and her graduate students–Jessie Forsyth, Nisha Eswaran, Sharifa Patel and Sarah Wahab–organized the “History, Memory, Grief: A 30th Air India Anniversary Conference” on May 6-7, 2016 at McMaster University.

Free and open to the public, the 30th-anniversary conference was the first of its kind, bringing together family members of those who died in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, artists, scholars from around the globe, and Canadian artists working on the remembrance of the bombings, and members of the public. It offered a venue to engage in a conversation about this hazily remembered event in Canadian history.

Air India Conference at McMaster University poster

Conference Videos

The conference featured keynote addresses, research panels and roundtables, creative performances and artists’ talks, some of which are available below.

An Opening Forum, featuring Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty (conference organizer), Dr. Patrick Deane (McMaster University President), Dr. Bal Gupta (AIVFA) and Dr. Amber Dean (McMaster U). Keynote addresses by Dr. Stef Craps (University of Ghent), Mr. Susheel Gupta (Air India family member), and Dr. Sherene Razack (University of Toronto). A roundtable discussion with Air India family members, featuring Anita Dhanjal, Rajiv Kalsi, Rob Alexander and Anant Anantaraman.

Keynote Presentations from 30th Air India Anniversary Conference

Keynote # 1 by Stef Craps Watch

Travelling Trauma

Keynote #2 by Susheel Gupta Watch

Families’ Voices, Communities’ Grief: Victims of Air India

Keynote #3 by Sherene Razack Watch

Anti-Brown Racism Today

Roundtable Discussion

Air India Family Perspectives Watch

A Conversation with Anita Dhanjal, Rajiv Kalsi, and Rob Alexander

Video Presentations by Artists

Presentation by Eisha Marjara (filmmaker, photographer, novelist and Air India family member).

Presentation by acclaimed dancer, choreographer and Air India family member Lata Pada.

An artist/scholar conversation between Renée Sarojini Saklikar and Dr. Angela Failler.

Research Panels

A research panel on Padma Viswanathan’s Air India novel, featuring Shamika Shabnam (McMaster University) and Joel Guillemette (McMaster University) with Padma Viswanathan as respondent.

A research panel on Canadian history and creative remembrance, featuring Dr. Tera Hubel (Huron University College) and Dr. Ruth Maxey (University of Nottingham).

A research panel on mourning and public memory, featuring Farah Moosa (Vancouver Island University), Raji Singh Soni (Virginia Tech University) and Jessica Young (University of Illionois Urbana-Chanpaign).

Conference Program

Day 1: Friday, May 6

1:30 – 2:15pm: Registration Desk Open for Badge and Conference Program Pick Up

2:15 – 3:15pm: Opening Forum

Conference Welcome
- Chandrima Chakraborty (McMaster University)
Opening Remarks
- Patrick Deane, President (McMaster University)
- Bal Gupta (Air India Victims’ Families Association)
- Amber Dean (McMaster University)

3:15 – 4:30pm: Keynote Address and Discussion, Introduction by Sarah Wahab (McMaster University)

Stef Craps (Ghent University), “Travelling Trauma”

4:30 – 4:45pm: Break

4:45 – 6:00pm: Artist Readings and Q & A, Moderator: Malissa Phung (McMaster University)

Farzana Doctor, Eisha Marjara, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Padma Viswanathan

6:00 – 7:30pm: Dinner

Day 2: Saturday, May 7

8:30 – 9:00am: Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15am: Welcoming Remarks

Mary O’Connor, Chair, Department of English & Cultural Studies (McMaster University)

9:15 – 10:15am: Keynote Address and Discussion, Introduction by Daniel Coleman (McMaster University)

Susheel Gupta (Air India Victims’ Families Association),“Families’ Voices, Communities’ Grief: Victims of Air India”

10:15 – 10:30am: Break

10:30 – 11:45am: Concurrent Panels

Room 1AB: “Canadian History and Creative Remembrance” Chair: Ralph Callebert (Virginia Tech)
- Nandi Bhatia (Western University), “Chance and Coincidence in Anita Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?”
- Teresa Hubel (Huron University College), “Classifying Ethnicity for a Multicultural Nation: Representing the Air India Tragedy”
- Ruth Maxey (University of Nottingham), “‘Prosthetic’ Memorialization: Revisiting Bharati Mukherjee’s Literary Responses to the Air India Flight 182 Bombing”
Room 1CD: “State Violence and Citizenship” Chair: Danielle Wong (McMaster University)
- Constantine Gidaris (McMaster University), “Precrime and Preemption: ‘The Minority Report’ in Bill C-51”
- Maya Seshia (University of Alberta), “A Critical Examination of Governmental and Public Responses to the Bombing of Air India Flight 182”
- Milan Singh (Simon Fraser University), “Acts of Citizenship: A Critique of the Air India Inquiry”
Room 2: “Memory, Memorialization, Imagining Community” Chair: Emma McKenna (McMaster University)
- Paul Barrett (McMaster University) and Asha Varadharajan (Queen’s University), “Remembrance of Things Past: The Air India Saga and the (Un)Making of Identity and Community”
- Lopamudra Basu (University of Wisconson-Stout), “Oak Creek Tragedy: The Limits of Memorialization and Community Activism”
- Manjeet Ridon (University of Nottingham), “No Place Like Home in Srinivas Krishna’s Masala”

11:45 – 12:00pm: Break

12:00 – 1:15pm: Air India Family Perspectives: A Conversation, Moderator: Amber Dean (McMaster University)

Rob Alexander, Anita Dhanjal, Rajiv Kalsi

1:15 – 2:15pm: Lunch

2:15 – 3:30pm: Keynote Address and Discussion, Introduction by Sharifa Patel (McMaster University)

Sherene Razack (University of Toronto), “Anti-Brown Racism Today”

3:30 – 3:45pm: Break

3:45 – 5:00pm: Concurrent Panels

Room 1AB: “Care and Loss in The Ever After of Ashwin Rao” Chair: Nisha Eswaran (McMaster University)
- Joel Guillemette (McMaster University), “‘Infantilism by Loss’: The Ghostly Child, Loss, and Embodied Witnessing in The Ever After of Ashwin Rao”
- Shamika Shabnam (McMaster University), “Food, Palatability and Socio-Political Discourses around the 1985 Air India Tragedy in The Ever After of Ashwin Rao”
- Respondent: Padma Viswanathan, author of The Ever After of Ashwin Rao
Room 1CD: “Mourning and Public Memory” Chair: Kasim Husain (McMaster University)
- Farah Moosa (Vancouver Island University), “‘Another version of this moment exists’: Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s children of air india and the Air India Saga”
- Raji Singh Soni (Virginia Tech), “Grieving States, Mourning Time: Sikh Memory and Post-National Justice”
- Jessica Young (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), “‘Tell the World How 329 Innocent Lives Were Lost and How the Rest of us are Slowly Dying’: The Transnational Legacy of 1985 Air India Tragedy”
Room 2: “Trauma, Pedagogy, and Critical Publics” Chair: Elysée Nouvet (McMaster University)
- Deborah Bowen (Redeemer University College), “Teaching Bharati Mukherjee’s ‘The Management of Grief’: The Recuperative Power of Fiction”
- Zarah Khan (McMaster University) and Alexandra Marcaccio (McMaster University), “Re-membering the Air India Bombings: Towards a Creative Approach”
- Veronica Thompson (Athabasca University), “‘Kanishka’s Souls’: Air India and Farzana Doctor’s All Inclusive”

5:00 – 5:15pm: Break

5:15 – 6:15pm: Artistic Remembrances, Chair: Terri Tomsky (University of Alberta)

Eisha Marjara (filmmaker), “Remember me Nought: Fixing Memory on Frames of Film”
Angela Failler (University of Winnipeg) and Renée Sarojini Saklikar (Simon Fraser University), “Creative Remembrance: Poet and Critic in Conversation”

6:15 – 7:45pm: Dinner

7:45 – 8:45pm: Dance and Grief of the Air India Tragedy, Introduction by Rama Singh (McMaster University)