Studying South Asia at the School of International Studies

Abstract

In the years following India’s independence, the South Asian region was characterized by certain unique regional dynamics that created a strong need to study the region. The founders of the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) had five crucial interrelated objectives underlying the establishment of this area studies programme – generation of knowledge, interdisciplinary treatment of issues, training a critical mass of scholars, working with institutions in India and in neighboring countries, and providing options and alternatives for policy formulation to the government. In the triple trajectory of teaching, research and advocacy, CSAS has largely concentrated on seven critical themes, viz., (i) India’s foreign policy, (ii) national security and human security, (iii) ethnicity and conflicts, (iv) governance, constitutional practices and political systems, (v) political economy of regionalism, (vi) water resources, energy and natural resource management and (vii) migration, refugees and borderlands. Large-scale transformations in global alignments, changing geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics, instability and upsurges, new partnerships, and deeper external influences in the region have necessitated unconventional treatment and non-traditional techniques of research. The Centre requires autonomy, empowerment, restructuring and reorientation along with resources for field-based studies, networking and collaborative studies.