Habiba Insaf

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Department of European Ethnology, Graduate Student

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Society and Culture, Research Fellow

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Doctoral candidate at Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage,Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Supervisors: Prof. Sharon Macdonald, Prof. Eva Ehninger

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Papers by Habiba Insaf

Confronting Colonialism: The complexities of addressing the past while decolonising museums

The Caravan, 2020

Given the years of refusal to confront its uncomfortable colonial past, the notion of a museum of... more Given the years of refusal to confront its uncomfortable colonial past, the notion of a museum of British colonialism offers the possibility of the country finally facing the shame of its colonialism. Yet, a museum of British colonialism requires careful consideration of its form, structure and process to act as a catalyst of social and political debate, and to challenge the promotion and sustenance of white cultural hegemony. The idea also raises other concerns about the existing British museums; their role in decolonising histories and their engagement with the thorny question of restitution. The question is no longer what Britain’s colonies would have been without the Empire, but what Britain would have been without the exploitation of its colonies, and how to acknowledge and address this colonial past in its modern-day legacy. These uncomfortable memories of colonialism reside not only in museums born of the Empire but also in museums in the colony, and both need to confront this agonising legacy.

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In Flux: The Making of Indian Museums and Their Audiences

Arts Management Quarterly, 2019

This article explores the reciprocal relationship between museums and its visitors with referen... more This article explores the reciprocal relationship between museums and its visitors with reference to India; how the museum through its institutional regulations, forms of addressal and careful narrativizing shapes the visitor and her experience, and how the visitor actively negotiates, appropriates, and re-defines the museum to change its meaning, function and patterns of usage.

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Indian calendar art_ The popular picture story

Open Democracy, 2012

This article examines the ‘popular calendar art’ of India from the late nineteenth to the early t... more This article examines the ‘popular calendar art’ of India from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. My aim is neither to debate the changing aesthetics, medium and content of the visual-print culture in India, nor to give a chronology of the pictures and construct a cultural history for them. The objective is to study the transformative, democratizing and mass propagandizing effect of these mechanically reproducible arts, and to ask what their impact was on patterns of worship in public and private spaces, in the creation and/or propagation of a collective nationalism, and in the arts itself.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/openindia/indian-calendar-art-popular-picture-story/

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Books by Habiba Insaf

Around India's First Table by Lizzie Collingham

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Government of India , 2016

This volume on the kitchens, dining and entertaining at the Rashtrapati Bhavan is part, the ninth... more This volume on the kitchens, dining and entertaining at the Rashtrapati Bhavan is part, the ninth in the series, of a multi-volume documentation project that seeks to capture and present various facets of life at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The present volume traces the history of dining and entertaining at the Rashtrapati Bhavan since 1931 when it was
first occupied by the British viceroy to the present day, through five chapters interspersed with recent and archival
photographs and signature recipes.

Drafts by Habiba Insaf

Unfinished Indian Art

The paper was submitted in 2012 as a part of my coursework on Indian Art at the School of Arts an... more

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Talks by Habiba Insaf

Dislocation & Indomania. Panel discussion

by Sol Izquierdo de la Viña, Habiba Insaf, and Elija Horn

KuK-Tuesdays: Dislocation, 2023

Since the Romantic period, India has been a source of Orientalist fantasies for German intellectu... more Since the Romantic period, India has been a source of Orientalist fantasies for German intellectuals and artists. Although the German Empire lacked colonial territories in South Asia, the translation of ancient Indian texts and the circulation of images and cultural assets had a profound impact on modern Germany. Similarly, travelogues and human exhibitions at the Völkerschauen reveal a complex imaginary that oscillated between idealising fascination and the racist exoticism inherent in imperialist power imbalances. India served as a catalyst for reform movements seeking alternative everyday practices, but also as a source of racist theories. This roundtable takes a critical look at the phenomenon of Indomania in Germany. It investigates how ancient Indian knowledge and culture have been appropriated with different motivations. It focuses on colonial archives and museum collections to examine modes of display and cultural representation. Our discussion will reflect on how these imperialist histories and legacies from India can be approached today and how counter narratives can be imagined.

With:
Dr Elija Horn( Research associate, Humanistische Hochschule Berlin)
Habiba Insaf (Doctoral Candidate, CARMAH – Centre for Anthropological Research on Museum and Heritage / Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Sajan Mani (Artist and Curator, Berlin)

The evening was conceptualized and will be moderated by Dr Sol Izquierdo de la Viña, Postdoctoral Researcher & Fellow at the Department of Modern Art History at Technische Universität Berlin.

The series of events KuK-Tuesdays: Dislocation 3 are curated by Diệu Ly Hoàng and Freya Schwachenwald.

https://www.tu.berlin/en/kuk/events/event-series/kuk-tuesdays/season-3/dislocation-indomania

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvRmGgoVnkM&ab_channel=KuKTUBerlin

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Confronting Colonialism: The complexities of addressing the past while decolonising museums

The Caravan, 2020

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In Flux: The Making of Indian Museums and Their Audiences

Arts Management Quarterly, 2019

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Indian calendar art_ The popular picture story

Open Democracy, 2012

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Around India's First Table by Lizzie Collingham

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Government of India , 2016