BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:The Moynihan Institute’s South Asia Center presents \;Sadia Mahmood from Quaid-i-Azam University\, Pakistan\, who is currently a visi ting scholar of the South Asia Program at Cornell University.This talk tra ces how the category of enemy property migrated from a European imperial w artime technology to a postcolonial mode of governing minorities in South Asia. In this transition\, the category collapsed the distinction between wartime enemies and religious communities deemed politically suspect\, tra nsforming into a powerful tool of minoritization. Focusing on the Thar bor derlands of Sindh in Pakistan\, the talk examines how the ruins of propert ies officially designated as “enemy property” during the 1971 India-Pakist an war serve not only as material remains of conflict but also as enduring markers of dispossession through which local communities continue to navi gate their political and social marginalization in the region. Situating t he postcolonial state’s practices of seizing and reallocating “enemy-owned ” assets within a longer international legal genealogy\, the talk shows ho w mechanisms first normalized during the First and Second World Wars were transplanted into British India and ultimately shaped the wartime bureaucr atic imagination of postcolonial South Asian states.Sadia Mahmood is an as sistant professor at Quaid-i-Azam University\, Pakistan\, and a visiting s cholar in the South Asia Program at Cornell University. Her work examines the making of postcolonial religious minorities and the histories of caste -oppressed communities in Pakistan. Her research draws on extensive fieldw ork in the desert borderlands of Tharparkar and archival work on what was formerly East Pakistan\, now Bangladesh. Her articles have appeared in Sou th Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (2024)\, where she published “The Long Migration: Revisiting the Postcolonial Minority/Refugee Crisis and Go vernance in East Pakistan\,” as well as in The Indian Economic &\; Soci al History Review (2023) and the Journal of Sindhi Studies (2022). She als o has forthcoming work\, including “Historical Lines in the Dunes: Tharpar kar” in the Handbook of Sindhi Studies (Routledge\, 2026). Sadia holds a P h.D. in religious studies from Arizona State University. DTEND:20260210T190000Z DTSTAMP:20260514T211753Z DTSTART:20260210T173000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Governing by Dispossession: Enemy Property and the Afterlives of th e 1971 War in Pakistan UID:RFCALITEM639143758737502654 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Moynihan Institute’s South Asia Center presents \;Sadia Mahmood from Quaid-i-Azam University\, Pakistan\, who is currently a visiting scholar of the South Asia Program at Cornell Univ ersity.

This talk traces how the category of enemy property mig rated from a European imperial wartime technology to a postcolonial mode o f governing minorities in South Asia. In this transition\, the category co llapsed the distinction between wartime enemies and religious communities deemed politically suspect\, transforming into a powerful tool of minoriti zation.

Focusing on the Thar borderlands of Sindh in Pakistan\, the talk examines how the ruins of properties officially designated as “enemy property” during the 1971 India-Pakistan war serve not only as material r emains of conflict but also as enduring markers of dispossession through w hich local communities continue to navigate their political and social mar ginalization in the region.

Situating the postcolonial state’s prac tices of seizing and reallocating “enemy-owned” assets within a longer int ernational legal genealogy\, the talk shows how mechanisms first normalize d during the First and Second World Wars were transplanted into British In dia and ultimately shaped the wartime bureaucratic imagination of postcolo nial South Asian states.

Sa dia Mahmood is an assistant professor at Quaid-i-Azam University\ , Pakistan\, and a visiting scholar in the South Asia Program at Cornell U niversity. Her work examines the making of postcolonial religious minoriti es and the histories of caste-oppressed communities in Pakistan. Her resea rch draws on extensive fieldwork in the desert borderlands of Tharparkar a nd archival work on what was formerly East Pakistan\, now Bangladesh.

Her articles h ave appeared in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (2024) \, where she published “The Long Migration: Revisiting the Postcolonial Mi nority/Refugee Crisis and Governance in East Pakistan\,” as well as in The Indian Economic &\; Social History Review (2023) and the Journal of Sindhi Studies (2022). She also has forthcoming work\, inc luding “Historical Lines in the Dunes: Tharparkar” in the Handbook of Sindhi Studies (Routledge\, 2026). Sadia holds a Ph.D. in religious s tudies from Arizona State University.

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