Busuttil Prize Winner Lecture & Event Recordings
As November draws to a close and we welcome the final month of 2025, the Society is gently winding down its event programme ahead of the holiday break. But before we pause for the season, we’re delighted to announce a special highlight: a prize winner lecture on Thursday, 4 December, delivered by Dr Sandhya Fuchs, co-winner of the inaugural James J. Busuttil Medal and Prize for Human Rights.
Dr Fuchs’s book, Fragile Hope: Seeking Justice for Hate Crimes in India, explores a critical chapter in modern human rights history in India. Drawing on long-term fieldwork with Dalit survivors of caste atrocities and other sections of the Indian society, Dr Fuchs unveils the interaction between the Dalit communities and India’s only hate crime law. Her book is a poignant reflection on the ways legal processes intersect with politics and society – creating new controversies, exposing inequalities, and nurturing fragile yet vital hopes for oppressed communities.
In addition to the Busuttil prize awarded by the Society, the book has been honoured with the 2025 APLA Book Prize in Critical Anthropology, sponsored by the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology. You can find out more information about the book and read an excerpt here: https://www.sup.org/books/anthropology/fragile-hope
We hope to see many of you to join us in celebrating Dr Fuchs’s achievements and engaging in this important conversation about human right. If you would like to join online, please email mb@royalasiaticsociety.org to reserve a place.
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In other news, we’re pleased to share that recordings of several Society events since October are now available on our YouTube channel. If you weren’t able to join us live, this is a great opportunity to catch up and enjoy the talks at your own pace. You’ll find the links to the recordings below:
Prof Tirthankar Roy – Building a state in late-18th century India
Dr Elizabeth Driver – Elphinstone, Malcolm and the Wellesleys
Dr Jochen Sokoly – Textiles of the Early Islamic Caliphates
Prof Peter Clift – Societal Development in Asia and its links to Evolving Climate and Rivers
Dr Vayu Naidu – The Living Legend: Ramayana Tales from Far and Near
Among these events, we had a particularly enthusiastic online attendance for Dr Vayu Naidu’s lecture last week, which explored fresh retellings of the Indian epic Ramayana, the legend of Prince Rama. For more than three decades, Dr Naidu has been pioneering innovative ways of engaging listeners and theatre audiences with oral traditions. Her most recent publication The Living Legend – Ramayana tales from far and near sheds light on a largely unexplored aspect of this widely told Hindu tale – the forest. Dr Naidu’s honed storytelling underscores the contemporary relevance of Ramayana, and reveals the profound relationship between humans and nature woven into the tale.
We hope you’d enjoy revisiting these events. Speak soon!
James Liu