Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2026
1725 to 2025: Historical & Contemporary Links Between Scotland and South Asia
Symposium date: 14 April 2026
Organisers: Dr Sheelalipi Sahana, Dr Fatima Z. Naveed
Symposium venue: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2 Hope Park Square, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW
"The Scottish connection with India really began in and around 1725…It is only from the 1720s that a remarkable number of Scots begin to appear abroad as servants of the East India Company.” (McGilvary 2011)
In the last 300 years, the connection between Scotland and the geographic region known as South Asia (before, during, and after colonialism) has only strengthened. Scholarship engaging with questions of migration, cultural exchanges, and historical interventions in the study of Scotland’s role in imperialism have led to an intellectual reckoning. On the occasion of this centenary as identified by McGilvary in his article, our proposed symposium will investigate this historical framework of Scottish imperialism in the British Raj, to highlight its contemporary significance for South Asians in Scotland today. Drawing on academic works such as the AHRC-funded South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories and the South Asian influences highlighted by the University of Strathclyde and Royal Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow project A Hidden Migration History: South Asian Medical Professionals in Scotland 1872-2022 on Scotland’s scientific and community heritage, we propose to revisit South Asia’s historical origins in Scotland through alternative routes, including art, architecture, media, and activism that point to a complex relationship between the two regions, when approached through the lens of transhistorical exchange. Our updated framework will endeavour to reconstitute this connection between the Crown and the Colony, by presenting it as an evolving nexus of cultural assimilation, exchange, and dissonance through to post-colonial nationhood.
As part of the schedule, we have planned talks by Professor Roger Jeffery, Professor Bashabi Fraser and Dr Ole Birk Laursen; film screening and Q&A with director Sana Bilgrami; engagement with Networking Key Services research exhibition; and a walking tour of South Asian heritage landmarks within Edinburgh city centre.
Early career scholars, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, Global South connections and a history of research interests centring on the wider South Asia region are invited to approach the ‘Scottish-Indian question’ from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including:
- Diaspora, travel and migration
- Cultural identity and assimilation
- Architecture and infrastructure of oppression
- Indentured labour, slavery and exile
- Radicalism, anarchy and activism
- Roots/routes and human geographies
- Religion across borders
- European connections with South Asia with Scotland as a historically significant meeting point
- Contemporary South Asian links with Scotland: economic; artistic (media, film, literary representations, etc.); political
- Statues, monuments and the identification of new heritage sites
- European colonialism and Scotland’s role in maintaining Empire beyond British colonialism.
We particularly encourage scholars whose focus lies outside the typical South Asian representations of India and Pakistan, and welcome interventions in area studies focusing on countries such as Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, including SAARC countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
Guidelines
ECRs (up to 5 years post-PhD) and current PhD students interested in the above topic and its related themes are invited to submit abstracts of 250-300 words as well as a short biographical note of no more than 200 words. Thanks to the Susan Manning Fund at IASH, we will be able to provide financial assistance for travel for up to 3 panellists, amounting to a maximum of £75 each. In case we choose to extend the panels to more than 3 participants, colleagues will have the option of presenting online, as this is a hybrid symposium and all panels will be streamed online via Zoom. Please indicate in your submission if you would like to present online or be considered for the in-person financial assistance. All abstracts must be emailed to both ssahana@ed.ac.uk and v1fnavee@ed.ac.uk.
Key dates
- Submissions open: 1 January 2026
- Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2026
- Selected papers contacted by: 15 February 2026
- Symposium date: 14 April 2026