Germans in India: for converts and trade

Panikos Panayi's talk about the 'Germans in India' taught me something I never knew before. His focus was on German influence during the 18th and 19th centuries - and this really interested me.

Germans travelled for many reasons: some were missionaries while others were merchants or businessmen. The good relations businesses established have helped shape gloablisation today.
 
However Panikos Panayi also emphasised the role of missionaries who spread the teachings of Luther and the Lutheran church through the Basel Mission. Missionaries described their journeys throughout India as they sailed on boats to secure converts. Herman Gundert was an important figure during this time and he went back and forth to India. To do his mission he learnt the local languages such as Hindustani and Bengali.

Herman Gundert

Prof. Panayi's talk made it clear that the German presence in India was very different from the British presence. His talk has made me keen to find out more about this history and explore the different ways in which India as been affected by different European countries - and how those effects are still evident today.

E. Hussain

Scriptwriters Make Movies

Something I've often found as I've grown older is that my movie taste is a little … commercial. I don't watch foreign or independent films and I have a liking for awful horror movies. I've been to the cinema six times since I came back from Christmas, and most of them were what I term "popcorn movies", i.e. popular Hollywood films. I like to be entertained at the cinema but I've often felt like an inadequate intellectual instead of a cultured cinema-goer with my ticket stubs.

Peter Kramer's talk on "Hollywood's Global Imagination" was brilliant for me. He looked at how Hollywood is obsessed with destroying the world, and how it uses alien invasion and world threats to create unity for its audience. He had such energy, talking about global destruction, Hollywood as a global network and how Avatar uses the same ideas that a ton of films have used before.

I won't deny I had geeky moments sitting at the back when Kramer discussed certain blockbusters, mostly in the sci-fi or fantasy genres which I love. All of them point to global threats which bring us together, as we wonder what would have happened if the Nazis had got the Holy Grail, or if Voldermort had decided to think bigger than just Hogwarts.

I think I fitted rather well into the discussion of imagined threats as I sat there in my blue Superman shirt and my Superman-emblazoned socks. There was a clip from Independence Day too, the most patriotic film about the biggest threat of all. What was not to enjoy?


Kelly Lawson