IU hosts conference on India studies programs

IU-Bloomington played host to the first-ever two-day India studies conference on the state of India Studies in the United States Wednesday and Thursday. \nThe program was held in the Maple Room of the Indiana Memorial Union and saw some of the leading American and Indian academics and scholars.\nThe conference was held to allow scholars and academics, both in India and the U.S., to get to know the state of India studies in this country. Sumit Ganguly, director of the India Studies Program and organizer of the conference, said the aspects that were brought to the table included a discussion of the top universities working on India studies, who made up the principle scholars and what their research agenda included.\n"There is a growing interest in India about the state of India studies, and the Observer Research Foundation, which is a major think-tank in New Delhi, gave us the resources to hold this conference. IU was chosen after careful consideration of other places which also have major centers focused on India and South Asia because we are the only degree-granting India studies program in the country," he said. \nIndia and the U.S. share a close relationship in a number of fields, including economics and military and strategic interests. But there is a long way to go to translate that into a close relationship or into a much stronger presence of Indian studies and Indian courses on campus, said John Adams, a visiting scholar from the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia.\nAdams predicted a surge of interest and much greater awareness of India within a few years. With a large and growing number of Indian students, second generation Indians, Americans with an interest in travel in Asia and India, and troops who will return from Iraq, there will be a surge in interest in the Middle East, Pakistan and India, Adams said. \n"This was seen after the Vietnam War, where the youngsters said 'What was all that about' and we saw a number of studies on Vietnam," he said.\nS. D. Muni, director and researcher of the ORF and former Indian ambassador in Laos, said in the interest of better Indo-U.S. relations, India studies has to grow. \n"Not necessarily in the interest of the Indian community, which might be playing a role, but without the two countries' understanding each other better, I don't think the two countries can really gel. And that is where India studies plays a significant role," he said\nThe purpose of the seminar, Muni said, was to understand what the problem was, identify it and then plan a strategy to improve or enrich Indian studies. \n"There are still a lot of biases lingering about India," he said. \nThese are remnants of the Cold War, where India was not seen as a close ally of the U.S., Muni said. He emphasized that this has to change.\n"If the U.S. does not recognize (India), let it not recognize. That is not a problem. I know what is being recognized in the world today. It is capacity and power. So it's a separate issue. India studies is not because India wants to be recognized," he said. "It is because we want Indo-U.S. relations. which have warmed up to become stronger. That's the idea."\nA final seminar on how to improve India studies will be held in 2005. The venue of the seminar is not yet decided, Muni said.\n-- Contact staff writer Hina Alam at halam@indiana.edu.