SWEDISH
SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK
Newsletter 62:
24 May 2006
| SASNET News | Community News |
| Educational news | Winter schools |
| Conferences and workshops | Important lectures and seminars |
| Cultural activities | New items on the web site |
• Kunal
Sen visited Lund to discuss the ANERI project
The European Commission
has decided to launch an Academic Network for European Research related
to India (ANERI).
The project aims to strengthen the ties between the European Union
and India, and seeks to promote funding for specific types of India-focused
research within the field of contemporary social science. It might
result in the setting up of a European Centre for Indian Studies. The
project is prepared by a team consisting of Dr Willem van der Geest,
European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) in Brussels (team leader),
Dr Kunal Sen, University of East Anglia, UK (as economic analyst),
and Dr Lawrence Saez, London School of Economics, UK (as political
analyst). They currently visit institutions and meet researchers all
over Europe in order to work out a strategy for the network. On Wednesday
3 May 2006 Dr. Kunal Sen (photo above) came to Lund for a
fruitful meeting with SASNET’s
Staffan Lindberg and Lars Eklund. Together they discussed the role
SASNET and Swedish researchers could possibly play in the further development
of ANERI. More
details about the ANERI project.
During the first week of May 2006 Tejaswini
Niranjana, Director for the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society
in Bangalore, India, visited Roskilde University in Denmark
• Kolkata
journalists visited SASNET’s root node office
Kusum Jain and Geetesh
Sharma (photo
to the right),
journalists, poets as well as social activists from Kolkata, India,
visited SASNET’s
root node office in Lund on Monday 8 May 2006. They have a
long-standing relation to Sweden, being partly involved in the Indo-Swedish
translation project. In 1995 they also published a book titled ”Double
Fantasy” in collaboration with the Swedish writer Tomas
Andersson. The main purpose of their current visit to Sweden is to
participate in a conference with the Green Party of Sweden to be held
in Borås, but they will also among other things visit Indian
associations in Göteborg and Oslo, Norway. Mr. Sharma has recently
published a book titled ”Whither Secularism” (Dialogue
Society 2006), about how a crisis ridden Indian society may overcome
its problems. Ms. Jain is President of the organsiation Women’s
Sahayog, based in Kolkata.
• Swedish
support to research projects related to Sexual and Reproductive Health
in India
In March 2005 the Swedish Government decided on a new country
strategy for India for the period 2005-2009.
The strategy implies a new kind of co-operation between Sweden in India
mainly focusing on technical assistance and building partnerships of
mutual interests between Swedish and Indian actors. The focus areas
are: Respect for democracy and human rights; Environmental protection
that will benefit the poor; and Scientific cooperation in selected
areas that will benefit the poor. In light of the comparative advantage
that Sweden has in Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights, Children's
Rights and HIV/AIDS, the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency, Sida, now therefore supports and allocates funds to a number
of projects and partnerships involving Swedish universities.
The
Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, and the Department
of Health Sciences and Nature, Skövde University get substantial
support for their collaboration project with Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences
in Loni. The project is titled ”Developing a multi-sectoral approach
model to sustainable health and development through institutional collaboration
between India and Sweden”. It was formally launced on 13 March 2006
when Maria Norrfalk, Director General of Sida, visited the project run in India
(see photo from Ms. Norrfalk’s visit) (more
information about the project).
International
Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Department of Women’s and Children’s
Health, Uppsala University, is involved in two major projects; ”Integrating
social support for reproductive and child health and rights, Phase
II” (more information);
and ”Increasing Access to Comprehensive Abortion Care
Services in India” (more
information); and the Division for Reproductive
and Perinatal Health, Department of Woman and Child Health,
Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm, is involved
in another Sida funded project titled ”Developing inter-institutional
collaboration between institutions in India and Sweden for improving
midwifery and emergency obstetric care services in India” (more
information).
•
Prof. Sujata Patel holds the keynote lecture at the 19th ECMSAS
conference in Leiden
The 19th European Conference on Modern
South Asian Studies (ECMSAS) will be held 27–30
June 2006 in Leiden, the Netherlands.
A list of the 49 panels approved for the conference is also
available – go
for the panels list. The keynote lecture, titled ”Is
there a South Asia? Beyond Colonial Modernity and its Binaries” will
be given by Prof. Sujata Patel of the Sociology Department
of the University of Pune, India.
On one of the conference days a special roundtable will be held in the framework
of the newly established research programme ”Illegal but Licit: Transnational
Flows and Permissive Polities in Asia”. The roundtable is organized by
Prof. Willem van Schendel (University of Amsterdam and International Institute
for Social History) and Dr Sikko Visscher (University of Amsterdam/Asian Studies
in Amsterdam). The conference will be held in Leiden University’s Lipsius
Building at Cleveringaplaats 1.
SASNET will be represented at the conference both by Prof. Staffan Lindberg (chairing
panel No. 32 on ”Post Green Revolution Agrarian Transformation in South
Asia: Ecology and Peasant Life under Globalization”) and by Lars Eklund. More
information on the conference web site.
• Doctoral dissertation
in Oslo about changing consumption in Kerala
Harold
Wilhite, Research Fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment
(SUM), University of Oslo, Norway, will defend his doctoral thesis,
titled
”Why is consumption changing in Kerala? An ethnographic approach”,
on Friday 2 June 2006, 13.15. Before that, at 10.15 he will give his
trial lecture about ”Everyday technologies and the transformation
of life worlds”. The thesis deals with cross-cultural perspectives
from India and Norway on consumption, socio-cultural change and sustainability.
It tries to develop a policy-relevant theory of consumption which takes
due account of the socio-cultural dynamics of change. Indian findings
are compared with Norwegian consumption practices in order to highlight
important socio-cultural determinants of consumption such as comfort,
identity, time use and notions of the "good life". Venue: Auditorium
2, Georg Sverdrups hus, Oslo. More
information.
• Göteborg
seminar in honour of Björn Hettne when he retires
In
June 2006 eminent Swedish South Asia researcher Professor Björn
Hettne, Dept. of Peace and Development Research (PADRIGU), School of
Global Studies, Göteborg University, retires from his position.
Prof. Hettne, who is also Chairman of SASNET’s board, has been
working on International studies since the 1970’s. In his honour,
Göteborg University arranges a seminar (for invited guests only)
at Jonsered Manor 14–15 June 2006. The seminar is titled ”New
Scenes for International Cooperation – Björn Hettne and
Internationalisation of Higher Education”. Professor S.
D. Muni, Centre of South, Central & South East Asian Studies at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, will be one of the keynote
speakers at the seminar.
• Columbia
University multimedia presentation
of Dr. Ambedkar's famous work
The
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) in New
York USA enhances teaching and learning through the purposeful use
of new media. CCNMTL
builds course web sites to develop advanced projects that act as demonstrations
and explorations of pedagogical and curricular possibility. One such
South Asia related project recently published is a multimedia presentation
of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's famous ”The Annihilation of Caste” presentation.
Ambedkar was the first highly educated (Ph.D., Columbia University),
politically prominent member of the Hindu "Untouchable" castes.,
and wrote this paper for the 1936 meeting of a group of liberal Hindu
caste-reformers in Lahore. After reviewing the speech, conference organizers
revoked Dr. Ambedkar's invitation. He then self-published the work,
which became an immediate classic. It is now being edited for classroom
use by Fran Pritchett; with explanatory annotations; and several other
major texts by Dr. Ambedkar. Faculty interview videos have also been
added and a timeline created. Go
for the Ambedkar project.
• Journal
of South Asian Development (JSAD) now fully available online
The
peer-reviewed Journal of South Asian Development (JSAD) is now fully
available online. The biannual magazine is published by Sage India
and distributed worldwide. It is edited by Rajat Ganguly, Senior Lecturer
in Politics & International Studies at the School of Development
Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. The first volume came
out in April 2006, and includes articles by Pranab Bardhan about ”Awakening
Giants, Feet of Clay: A Comparative Assessment of the Rise of China
and India”; by Premachandra Athukorala about ”Outward-oriented
Policy Reforms and Industrialisation: The Sri Lankan Experience”;
Raymond C. Taras about ”Rising Insurgency, Faltering Democratisation
in Nepal”
and Joseph Devine about ”NGOs, Politics and Grassroots Mobilisation:
Evidence from Bangladesh”. More
information.
• Documentary
films about Dalits in India and Nepal shown in Danish TV
During the
period 8 May–14 June 2006, the Danish Radio broadcasts a
documentary series of five TV programmes on Dalits in India and Nepal.
Text (in Danish) plus photos and video clippings from the programmes
also appear on an impressive sub site of the DR web site, http://www.dr.dk/uroerlige/da/forside/.
The first programme is a shocking story about manual scavengers in
India, and other programmes focus on items such as prostitution among
badi women in Nepal, debt slavery, the jogini tradition in South India,
and caste violence in Bihar. Go
for the photo series, and the video
clippings.
• Time
to apply for participation in the 2006 Winter Course on Forced Migration
in Kolkata
The Annual Winter Course on Forced Migration is again held
in Kolkata, India, 1–15 December
2006.
The course is held by the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG),
popularly known as the Calcutta Research Group (CRG). This is public
policy forum by a group of researchers, trade unionists, feminist thinkers
and women's rights campaigners, academics, journalists, and lawyers,
and CRG has become well known for its research, dialogues, and advocacy
work in India and in the region of South Asia as a whole. The Winter
Course on Forced Migration is an outcome of the ongoing and past work
by the CRG, and other collaborating groups, institutions, scholars,
and human rights and humanitarian activists in the field of refugee
studies and the broad studies on displacement, human rights and humanitarian
work for the victims of forced displacement. The duration of the full
course is three months. A two and a half month long distance education
programme precedes the fifteen-day Kolkata workshop. The programme
is supported by the UNHCR, the Government of Finland, and the Brookings
Institution. Applications reaching before 31 May will be considered
for the course the same year. Applications reaching after that will
be considered for the following year’s
programme. More information.
Educational News
• Indian
government decides to introduce 27 per cent quota for OBC students
On
23 May 2006 the Indian government decided to implement a 27 per cent
quota for other backward classes (OBCs) in
higher educational institutions from the academic year beginning June
2007, while increasing seats for general-category students. A meeting
of the coordination committee of the United Progressive Alliance chose
to enforce the measure by introducing a bill in the monsoon session
of Parliament, which will begin sometime in July. The percentage of
reservation for OBCs will be fixed at 27 per cent, in addition to the
22.5% of college places already "reserved" for Dalits, or
untouchables, who are at the bottom of India's caste hierarchy, and
tribal students. The decision comes amidst large-scale protests from
medical students as well as business leaders and teachers all over
India, who fear that it may lead to a drop in standards. More
information.
• Stockholm
conference about Swedes in India
A one-day conference titled ”Svenskarna
i Indien” (The
Swedes in India) is held in Stockholm on Thursday 17 August 2006, 08.30–17.00.
The conference is organised by Föreningen
Svenskar i Världen (SVIV) in collaboration with, among others,
the Sweden-India Business Council,
the Swedish Trade Council, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the Swedish
Institute, and the Swedish Embassy in India. Eminent lecturers have
been invited to present different aspects of Indian business, trade
and culture of today. Ambassador Örjan Berner, General Secretary
of SVIV, will introduce the conference, and the Indian Ambassaor to
Sweden, Ms. Deepa Wadhwa, will talk about the political situation in
India. Ann-Charlotte Sukhia will talk about ”Cultural Clashes
between Indians and Swedes”, Percy Barnevik about ”Mass
mobilisation of India’s poor – entrepeneurship as en engine
of growth”, and Olle Wästberg about ”Collaboration
on Research and Culture”. Venue: ALMEGA hall, Blasieholmsgatan
5, Stockholm. Register if you like to participate, before 15 July 2006. More
information (as a pdf-file)
• South
Asia related workshops at the 2006 World Water Week in Stockholm
The
2006 World Water Week will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, 20–26
August. The annual World Water Week in Stockholm has become
a valuable meeting point and platform for the world’s water community.
Usually a large number of the delegates for the workshops come from
South Asia.
The overall theme for the 2006 World Water Week is “Beyond
the River – Sharing Benefits and Responsibilities”,
addressing livelihood improvement, land-based activities within a river
basin, and society’s ability to cope with natural disasters. Ms.
Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and Environment, India is one of the
invited speakers for Workshop No. 2 on ”Water and Trade: Matching
International Water Availability and Local Needs” (Tuesday
22 August). Dr. Arif Hasan, Urban Resource Centre, Pakistan, is invited
speaker for Workshop No. 4 on ”Benefits and Responsibilities
of Decentralised and Centralised Approaches for Management of Water and
Wastewater” (Tuesday 22 August). Workshop No. 9 on ”Safe
Water Storage and Regulation During Floods and Droughts” will
be co-chaired by Prof. P. P. Mujumdar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
(Wednesday 23 August).
On Monday 21 August 2006, the Indian-Born scientist Prof. Asit K. Biswas,
President of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico will
receive the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize. He will be given the prize from
the hands of HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the Patron of the Stockholm
Water Prize. His Prize Laureate Lecture is titled ”Challenging
Prevailing Wisdoms”. More
information on the World Water Week web site.
• Stockholm
Conference on Environmental Law and Justice
An
International Conference on Environmental Law and Justice will be held
at Stockholm University, 6–9 September 2006. The
conference is organised by Stockholm
Environmental Law and Policy Centre, Among the invited speakers – scholars,
judges, ambassadors etc. from all over the world – Associate
Professor Bharat Desai, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi, India will speak about ”Environmental
Justice in International Law-making Processes”. Prof. Balakrishnan
Rajagopal (photo to the left), Associate Professor of Law
and Development and Director for the MIT Program on Human Rights and
Justice, will speak about ”Rights-talk versus Justice-Talk in
Environmental Governance”. More
information.
• Competing
Narratives theme for the 21st Pakistan Workshop 2007
The 21st Pakistan Workshop
will take place at Rook How in the Lake District, UK, 11–13 May
2007.
The theme for the 2007 workshop will be ”Competing Narratives”,
and is supposed to bring together anthropologists and sociologists
whose research involves Pakistan, Pakistani diaspora and South Asian
Islam. These workshops, organised by the Pakistan
Studies Group, normally also attract scholars and researchers from
a broad range of disciplines including historians, political scientists,
economists and applied social scientists. Due to limited places, an
early registration is needed. More information (as
a pdf-file)
Important lectures and workshops
Rana P.B. Singh, Professor of Cultural Geography,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, will give two guest lectures
at Oslo University College, Norway,
on Tuesday 30 May 2006. The first lecture (10.00-12.00) will focus
on ”Indian Village:
Social (Caste) System, Changes and Challenges in Education”,
and the second (13.00-15.00) deals with ”Kashi & Cosmos:
Sacred Geography of Banaras”.
Venue: Pilestredet 46, Oslo. More information
about Prof. Singh’s tour to Scandinavia May–June 2006.
South Asia related culture in Scandinavia
•
Documentary films about India screened at Göttingen
International Film Festival – and in Bergen
Several documentary films
about India are screened at the 8th Göttingen
International Film Festival in Göttingen, Germany, 24–28
May 2006. As before, the film festival is organized by IWF Knowledge
and Media Institute, and is open to all filmmakers, but especially those
from Anthropology, Sociology, Folklore and neighbouring disciplines.
The India related films to be shown are: Hammer and Flame by
Vaughan Pilikian, on the maritime graveyards of Northern India where
ocean liners are broken down piece by piece in an unending labour using
only the simplest tools (Great Britain 2005); The Age of Reason by
David MacDougall (Australia 2004); July Boys (From the Coding Culture
Series) by Gautam Sonti (India 2006); Final Solution (Part
one) by Rakesh Sharma (scene from the film on photo above),
documenting the changing face of right-wing politics in India through
a study of the 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat (India 2004); and Notes
From the Crematorium by R.P. Amudhan (India 2005). Venue: IWF premises,
Nonnenstieg 72, Göttingen.
Some of these films will also be screened at the Nordic
Anthropological Film Association (NAFA) 26th International Film
Festival, held in Bergen, Norway 8–10 June 2006.
 |
| The Kuttiyattam actress Kapila Nangiar in the centre, surrounded by Bubu Munshi-Eklund, Margareta Larsson from Sagohuset, the Director of Natana Kairali Mr. Gopal Venu, and the drummer Kalamandalam Rajeev. Lund, May 4, 2006. |
•
Web site about Himalayan and Mongolian Buddhist Culture
The Tibetan Museum Society is a recently established
non-profit association, dedicated to advocate museum exhibitions
of Asian, mainly Buddhist, art and culture from ancient
Mongolia and the Greater Himalayan Region (including India, Nepal
and Bhutan). Through a broad range of programs and projects, the
Society's two primary focuses are: 1) to provide financial support
to selected museums that enrich the arts with display of historically
significant representations of Buddhist culture and 2) to protect
sacred, religious shrines, from which Buddhist art is gathered for
public sale or display against removal without consent, artifacts
of any kind.
Delgermaa Dagva-Hatchell is the Executive Director of
the Tibetan Museum Society, based in Alexandra, Virginia, USA. The
web site provides on-line access to photos of museum exhibition items
around the World, books and articles on relevant issues, and even
an Himalayan Internet shop. Go
to the Tibetan Museum Society’s web site.
New and updated items on SASNET web site
Best regards,
Staffan Lindberg Lars Eklund
SASNET/ Swedish South Asian Studies Network
SASNET is a national network
for research, education, and information about South Asia, based at Lund
University. The aim is to encourage and promote an open and dynamic networking
process, in which Swedish researchers co-operate with researchers in South
Asia and globally.
The network is open to all sciences. Priority is given to co-operation
between disciplines and across faculties, as well as institutions in the
Nordic countries and in South Asia. The basic idea is that South Asian
studies will be most fruitfully pursued in co-operation between researchers,
working in different institutions with a solid base in their mother disciplines.
The network is financed by Sida (Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency) and by Lund
University.
Postal address: SASNET – Swedish South Asian Studies Network,
Scheelevägen 15 D, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Visiting address: Ideon Research Park, House Alfa 1 (first floor,
room no. 2040), in the premises of the Centre for East and South East
Asian Studies at Lund University (ACE).
Phone: + 46 46 222 73 40
Fax: + 46 46 222 30 41
E-mail: sasnet@sasnet.lu.se
Web site:
http://www.sasnet.lu.se
Staff: Staffan
Lindberg, director/coordinator & Lars
Eklund, webmaster/deputy director
SASNET - Swedish South Asian Studies Network/Lund
University
Address: Scheelevägen 15 D, SE-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Phone: +46 46 222 73 40
Webmaster: Lars Eklund
Last updated
2011-05-19