One of the avowed aims of the ‘Centre for India Studies’ is to put India and the Indian thought, culture, civilization and contemporary issues on the ‘global stage’ for the benefit of the international community of students and faculty that are genuinely interested and passionate about discovering the ‘soul’ of India. As a logical corollary, the second is, therefore, to develop the resources and expertise for ‘studying India’, such that these can be offered as structured programs, either in the form of content and/or experiential learning.
The third is to provide a window to the larger community (both national and international) of students, faculty, researchers, educational institutions and the public forums to access the educational content and participate in these experiential programs.
The goals of the Centre for India Studies (CiS) are to engage in policy relevant research focused on the challenges facing contemporary India; to nurture student’s interest in contemporary India through interactions with scholars and opportunities to intern (on unpaid basis) and conduct research in India; to act as a public forum on contemporary India by hosting seminars, workshops and conferences.
To understand ‘contemporary India’, one has to delve deep to understand the diverse perspectives on all the issues facing the nation-State and civil society. It is therefore both complex and a humongous task. So instead, it can be divided thematically as Economy, Society and Politics. Under each of the said categories, one can address a wide range of topics to inter-alia include poverty, social structure, social change, social movements, functioning of democracy, party system and its dynamics, parliamentary system, nationalism, federalism, decentralization and Panchayati raj, public administration etc.
Set up against this background, the purpose of the CiS is to encourage students from across all countries, backgrounds, cultures and academic disciplines to visit India and experience the diversity & rich culture.
Broadly, CiS will offer:
The areas include India centric themes such as Public /Private governance; PPP successful stories; Urbanization and Social change; Rural – Urban migration; Socially Marginalized groups; Politics ; Environment; Society and Culture etc.
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These programs will be bespoke in nature to suit the specific interests, needs and requirements of the participants and will cover a huge spectrum of India centric themes anchored in Indian History, Indian Literature, Hindi, Sanskrit, Music, Classical dance, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mythology, Cinema & culture, Yoga, Great Epics of India- Ramayana and Mahabharata.
