Land of Lime

There is something different to be in the company of historians at AHA, even for those of us who live our lives among historians. Everywhere on the streets of downtown Philadelphia, at the convention center, in cafes, restaurants and hotels, they were conspicous by their sombre mood, unsmiling visage and the burden of carrying the past on their shoulders. What’s with historians and the present? They all look lost. My favorite characterization of historians is from Bernard Cohn’s witty and brilliant essay ‘Historyland and Anthropologyland’, but AHA shatters even that image.

There is something that AHA brings out, I suspect. Sepoy and I contemplated running a ’spot a historian’ contest for Philadelphians but then rejected that idea immediately realizing how easily they would have taken our money. Given the lines on foreheads and the degree of sombreness, one could easily identify different classes of historians:

- young, desperate job seekers, mostly advanced graduate students, running from interview to interview, if they had been lucky enough to be invited.

- young scholars at their first jobs seeking to impress and move up and onwards towards a better job.

- young scholars, with a finished manuscript.

- young scholars with their first book out.

The list could go on. Inspite of being a returning (non-regisgtered) participant, I must admit that I am surprised at how professionally driven AHA meetings are compared to many other conferences that I attend.

Yesterday evening, I posted myself near an elevator at the Marriott, desperately waiting for a smiling historian, as all the participants eagerly headed towards the bar. I risked presenting a pathetic sight, with a notepad in hand waiting to gather data, consoling myself that I felt like an Impressionist painter waiting for the perfect subject to materialise. None did, compelling me to continue my quest to understand AHA historians from a different source: the program book.

So here are some results, based on a preliminary study of the index:

- Smith is the most popular name among (the AHA) historians, with Millers and Andersons running a close second.

- There were fewer Chatterjees and Banerjees than one would have expected.

- There are only one of these: Ahmed, Graizbord, Mausbach, Kwak, Lintvedt …..

- A quick glance at the panels threw up some nice themes and titles. A panel entitled Colonial Desires had the following paper titles: Doubling Colonial Desires; Missionary Positions; and The Global Erotic. If we had reached Philadelphia in time, I would have attended this panel without fail.

Finally, a brief comment on the draconian measures adopted to exclude commoners from these professional meetings. Usually, victims of such exclusion at such events are poor graduate students, who can not often afford (even the nominal) registration fees and hence are driven away by overeager security types when they venture near the book exhibition and other such events. While I appreciate the need to keep the event under some control, if the security types were puzzled by three brown men walking all over pretending to be Manan Ahmed, then don’t blame the poor souls. They are just poor and / or can find better use for the little money they make.