Kavita Datla received her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1997. She then pursued her master’s degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and completed her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. Unfortunately, Datla passed away in July 2017 after a hard-fought battle with a rare form of cancer. At the time of her death, she was an associate professor at Mount Holyoke College and was promoted to full professor posthumously.
In her honor, the University of Michigan Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) hosts an annual lecture series to honor Kavita’s work and her passion for research in India, enabled by a generous donation from the Datla family and friends.
"Kavita was a remarkable scholar, which her essays and book attest to," said Farina Mir, U-M history professor and CSAS faculty associate. "What is more difficult to gauge, however, is that she was also a remarkable person and friend. One who relished conversation and laughter."
This year, the Datla lecture featured speaker was David Lelyveld, author of Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India. Lelyveld's publications deal with Urdu's social and political history and its differentiation from Hindi. He has held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Minnesota, Columbia, and Cornell. He retired as a professor of history at William Paterson University.
Lelyveld's lecture, entitled Criss-Crossing Narratives Of Empire: Sir Syed At Versailles And The French Conquest Of Algeria, shared art of the time and discussed how, in 1869, Sayyid Ahmad Khan (“Sir Syed”) stopped briefly in Paris on his way to a life-transforming journey to Britain.
At Versailles, Sir Syed was shocked and upset when confronted by a large, almost panoramic painting, La prise de smala d’Abd el-Kader, for its brutal depiction of the humiliation of the Algerians. For the French, this was a triumphal celebration of a turning point in their conquest of Algeria a quarter century earlier. Sayyid Ahmad’s encounter with the painting summons up a challenge for historical exposition, weaving together histories of nineteenth-century French and British imperialism with respect to North Africa and India and the lives of two prominent contemporary leaders, Amir Abd al-Qadir and Sayyid Ahmad Khan.
Professor Lelyveld also discussed his relationship with Kavita Datla.
"Fortunately, Kavita used to come frequently into New York, and we almost always had lunch and had these great conversations," said Lelyveld. "She was determined to get me into this full stream of what people are doing now, and the new generations, and the new methods of communication that people had."
