Activities in Lund


Programme for Fall 2013 lunch seminar series at Lunds konsthall

  Winnie Bothe   Håkan Wallander Helle Rydström

SASNET’s Thursday lunch time seminar series, aimed at presenting and disseminating the eminent South Asia related research carried out at Lund University, was launched in 2011. Since last year the seminar series is organised in collaboration with Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and Lunds Konsthall. The seminars, open for all interested, are held once a month on Thursdays at 12.30 inside the public art gallery (Lunds konsthall) at Mårtenstorget 3 in central Lund. The programme for the fall 2013 has now been finalised:
Thursday 26 September 2013:
      Dr. Winnie Bothe, Department of Political Science
          ”Local Governance in Sikkim and Bhutan:
           Two models of State Formation – Different Citizenship Roles?”
Thursday 17 October 2013:
      Professor Håkan Wallander, Microbial Ecology, Department of Biology
          ”Soil – the basis of our existence.
            Examples from Nepal, America and Amazonas”
Thursday 14 November 2013:
      Associate Professor Helle Rydström, Department of Gender Studies 
      ”Jeopardizing the Security of Women and Children:
        Gendered Violence in Public and Private Spaces in India and Beyond”
More information on the SASNET/ABF Thursday Lunch Seminars


SASNET/Lund University seminar on Indian Cultures and Diasporas

Gurinder Singh Mann, Amit Kumar Mishra and Gibb Scheffler.

An open seminar on ”Indian Cultures and Diasporas” was held at Lund University on Monday 17 June 2013, 15.00–19.30. It was jointly organized by SASNET, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI), and Lund University’s Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (CTR). Venue: CTR, Room 118, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund. See the workshop programme.
Invited guest speakers were Professor Gurinder Singh Mann from the Center for Sikh and Punjab Studies at University of Californa, Santa Barbara, USA, who spoke about "The Sikh Panth: From Kartarpur to Anandpur (1500-1700)”; Dr. Amit Kumar Mishra from the Centre for the Study of Indian Diaspora at University of Hyderabad, India, who gave a lecture on ”Indians in Diaspora: A Social-Cultural Continuum?”; and Dr. Gibb Schreffler from Pomona College in Claremont, California, USA, who spoke about ”The Punjab Dhol (Drum) Tradition and its Modernization in Post-Indenpendence Indian Punjab”. The seminar also included a screening of the documentary film “The Sikhs of Kabul: A Forgotten Community” directed by Mr. Bobby Singh Bansal in 2012. The film is about Afghan Sikhs who have been a part of the culture and heritage of Afghanistan since the seventeenth century and how they have been caught in political crossfire since the rise of the Taliban regime to power in 1992.
The seminar is arranged in connection with the conference ”Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Identity, Tradition and Authority” held in Lund 18–19 June 2013 at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University. Participation by invitation only. Full information about the conference.


K R G and Ratnam Nair visited SASNET and Lund University

K.R.G. Nair, formerly Professor of Business Economics at University of Delhi, India, visited SASNET and Lund University 10-12 June 2013, along with his wife Ratnam, Sanskrit scholar from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi.
They came to Scandinavia mainly to attend the Asian Dynamics Initiative conference in Copenhagen on 13-14 June, but also took the chance to visit Joensuu University in Finland, and to fulllfill a personal desire to visit SASNET in Lund. This because of an admiration for the work done by SASNET. Prof. Nair informed that he, in the role of being Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities at Delhi University, for many years had been fascinated by SASNET’s multi-disciplinary research efforts, and its newsletters. This conviction got further strengthened when Prof. Nair for over a decade functioned as the  founder Director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Delhi University.
He is now retired, but is still active as Honorary Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, and recently he published the book ”Road Not Taken: Memoirs of a University Teacher in the Newly Emerging Second World” (more information).
During their stay in Lund, K.R.G. and Ratnam Nair had fruitful meetings with SASNET representatives Anna Lindberg and Lars Eklund, and also with Prof. Neelambar Hatti from the Dept. of Economic History.


Farewell function for Anthony D’Costa before leaving for Melbourne

On Friday 7 June SASNET deputy director Lars Ekund visited Copenhagen to attend a farewell party for Anthony D’Costa, Professor of Indian Studies, and Research Director for the Asia Research Centre at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Prof. D’Costa is leaving CBS after five years, and moves to Australia, where he has accepted a similar position at the University of Melbourne, to promote the study of contemporary India.
He came to CBS in April 2008, from an appointment as Professor at University of Washington, Tacoma-Seattle, USA where he was employed for 18 years. His position as Professor of Indian Studies at CBS has been financed by he A.P. Møller – Maersk Group, a global company employing about 120,000 people in around 130 countries. The purpose of establishing the Indian Studies professorship was to develop the study of Indian economics, organization and management at CBS and in Denmark.
The Asia Research Centre at CBS was the first Nordic institution to host an ICCR Visiting Indian Professor already in 2009, and the initiative came from Professor D'Costa. This inspired SASNET to make a similar initiative in Sweden, which led to the ongoing scheme of ICCR Visiting Professors also at Lund University from 2010, and recently at University of Gothenburg as well (soon also at Uppsala University).
SASNET has had a close relation to the Asia Research Centre and Prof. D’Costa, who has been frequently invited to lecture at Lund University.


Lars Eklund visited Chalmers University of Technology

On Wednesday 5 June 2013, SASNET deputy director Lars Eklund visited Gothenburg and more specifically two important departments at Chalmers University of Technology involved in South Asia related research activities.
He first visited the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and met Professor Devdatt Dubhashi.
CSE is actually jointly organised by Chalmers and University of Gothenburg. Professor Devdatt Dubhashi and his colleague Associate Professor K. V. S. Prasad have both strong Indian connections since long time back, with an extensive network of contacts in major institutions, universities and industry research centres in India. Another researcher who recently joined the department is Dr. Chien-Chung Huang, who has a long-term collaboration relationship with India, especially with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai.
Since 2007, the department collaborates on a major project related to Linguistics and Computation with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. The project involves several faculty members, PhD and Masters students at Chalmers as well as at IIT Bombay, and on 4 June 2013 – a day before Lars’ visit – a workshop was held to discuss the results of the joint research project. It coincided with the dissertation of Shafqat Mumtaz Virk, Pakistani PhD candidate who defended a thesis elucidating the development of computational grammars for six Indo-Iranian languages: Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Persian, Sindhi, and Nepali.
Lars proceeded to the Division of Physical Resource Theory, Department of Energy and Environment where he met Dr. Eskil Mattsson, who recently moved to Chalmers after defending his PhD on an India related thesis at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg. He also met Dr. Matilda Palm who also has done the same move. Both of them are partners in a major research programme entitled ”Land use and forests within international climate policy – global and local possibilities and risks”, led by Associate Professor Madelene Ostwald. This project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency (STEM) and is carried out as a collaboration between the Division of Physical Resource Theory and a number of other research units in Gothenburg, Linköping (CSPR), Ås in Norway, Bangalore (IISc) and Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka. As part of the major programme, Eskil Mattsson is involved in a post-doc research project investigating the locally accepted land use system of ‘homegardens’ in in southern part of Sri Lanka, and its potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, increase productivity of the lands, and provide food security.
Read Lars Eklund’s June 2013 report from Chalmers University of Technology.


Helarius Beck visited SASNET’s office

On Thursday 23 May 2013, Professor Helarius Beck, Dean at the School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, India, visited SASNET ’s office at Lund University and met its deputy director Lars Eklund. Prof. Beck had come to Lund as a TISS representative in planning for the new Linnaeus Palme exchange programme between his school at TISS and the School of Social Work at Lund University (more information).
During a week-long stay at Lund University, Prof. Beck participated in a one-day seminar day focused on Internatinal studies and international assignments for Social Work students, but he also took part in teaching activities.
In his research, Helarius Beck focuses on the still prevailing practice of manual scavenging in India. In 2005, he published an article entitled ”Socioeconomic status of scavengers engaged in the practice of manual scavenging in Maharashtra” together with TISS researcher colleague Shaileshkumar Darokar. They identified the numbers of scavengers, their socio-economic status, and assess training needs and alternative avenues of employment. A 'manual scavenger' is a person engaged in manually removing human excreta. In 1993 legislation was passed in India to ban manual scavenging, but has not been widely implemented. Since allocation of labour on the basis of caste is one of the fundamental tenets of the Hindu caste system, Dalits have been assigned to carry out this which is deemed ritually polluting by other caste communities.


Fruitful SASNET/NCI meeting on Nordic Studies in India

On Friday 17 May 2013, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) university consortium and the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) jointly organized a fruitful meeting to discuss possible academic collaboration with The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in India, in connection with the university’s plan to launch a new Department of Nordic Studies. The meeting was held at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, and convened by the NCI coordinator Dr. Kristina Myrvold.
The invited participants included Monika Wirkkala from the Swedish Institute (SI); Clemens Cavallin from University of Gothenburg; Jyrki Kalliokoski from University of Helsinki, Anders Mortensen, Centre for Scandinavian Studies at Lund University; and Mattias Nowak from Centre for European Studies, Lund University. SASNET was represented by Anna Lindberg, Lars Eklund and Jonathan Stoltz. Representatives from the universities in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Uppsala and Oslo were also supposed to participate but could not come.
EFLU is a Central University with campuses in Hyderabad, Lucknow, Shillong and Malappuram that offer education and research in a wide range of foreign languages and related subjects. Since autumn 2012, NCI has arranged several meetings with representatives of EFLU to discuss their plans to launch a new Department of Nordic Studies that can provide teaching in Nordic languages and cultures. The meeting on May 17 is arranged to inform about EFLU’s plans for this pioneer project and to identify and receive input from universities and departments who could be interested in being partners with EFLU.
SASNET Assistant webmaster Jonathan Stoltz visited FLU on a visit to Hyderabad, along with Kristina Myrvold, in March 2013. Read his report.
 


Indian Ambassador on hectic visit to Lund University

Indian Ambassador to Sweden, Mrs. Banashri Bose Harrison, visited Lund and Lund University for the second time on Tuesday 7 May 2013. She came to Lund on an invitation from SASNET to attend an academic seminar on EU’s relations with emerging Asia with Dr. Krishnan Srinivasan at the University main building; and a Rabindranath Tagore Nobel Prize Centennary celebration organised by the Association for Indo-Swedish Cultural Exchange (AISCE) at Theatre Sagohuset in the evening.
At both occasions Mrs. Bose Harrison held inspired inaugural speeches.
More information about Krishnan Srinivan’s seminar.
More information about the Tagore evening.
While in Lund, the Ambassador also visited SASNET’s office at Scheelevägen, and the Asia Library – part of Lund University Library, located in the same house. Mrs. Bose Harrison wanted to see its Karl Reinhold Haellquist donation of South Asian literature, part of which consists of  a unique collection of Mahatma Gandhi literature. The librarian Anna Larsson showed the Ambassador around, and discussed possible additions of books for the Asia Library. More information about the Haellquist books donation and the Gandhi collection.
(On photo: Anna Larsson and SASNET’s Lars Eklund studies a volume of Gandhi’s Collected Works).


SASNET seminar on the Gujarat Elections and their nationwide implications

Professor Sebastian Morris from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, India, held a SASNET lecture entitled ”The Gujarat Elections – Implications for the Political and Economic Development in India” on Tuesday 21 May 2013, 15.15–17.00. The seminar was organised in collaboration with the Dept. of Sociology, Lund University.
Prof. Morris is currently Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Chair Professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS). In his presentation, he focused on the third time victory in the Gujarat state elections of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. To most especially the middle-classes the elections were campaigned and won on the dual planks of “development” and “leadership in command”. Full information about the seminar.
During his visit to Lund, Prof. Morris also visited SASNET’s office and had a discussion with its deputy director Lars Eklund. (photo)


SASNET seminar with Krishnan Srinivasan on Europe and Emerging Asia

Dr. Krishnan Srinivasan, Research Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala during the academic year 2012/13, held a SASNET lecture at Lund University on Tuesday 7 May 2013. It was organised in collaboration with the Dept. of Political Science. Venue: Main university building, room 206, Universitetsplatsen, Lund. See the poster.
Former senior Indian diplomat and General Secretary of the Commonwealth Krishnan Srinivasan spoke about ”Europe's engagement with Emerging Asia; reflections on a new roadmap”. The learned presentation was based on a monograph on the future relationship between Europe and the emerging powers of Asia, that he is working on during his stay in Uppsala.
Indian Ambassador to Sweden, Mrs. Banashri Bose Harrison participated in the seminar, and held an introductory speech.
More information about the seminar.

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